《Gacha Sovereign》 Chapter -1 - Gacha System Glossary **** SPOILER ALERT **** Author''s Note: This isn''t a chapter. It''s just a list of some important things like Gacha and MC''s Group. Gacha: There are Common(C), Uncommon (UC), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), and Ultra Rare (UR) rank items. The items he got will be based on his current power level. 1. Normal Gacha: Toys vending machine, issuing a random reward in the Gacha Ball. The ball can contain an item such as a stick, feather, or water bottle, tools and equipment, or even some Martial Techniques. 2. Premium Gacha: (Normal Gacha) but having a chance up to Ultra Rare (UR) rank items with a higher probability.Appearance: Like a Vending Machine, but inside have a Gacha Ball instead of a drink or something similar that can be acquired by using Premium Ticket. Note: Can be used with Draw 5x Function to give a special box that holds five Gacha Ball inside with a higher probability. 3. Dart Roulette: A combination of a Roulette and Dart but you can only get it by throwing a dart while the roulette wheel is spinning. Have a far higher chance than the Premium Gacha. 4. Gacha Box: The appearance looked like the ''hits the moles'' game, but it filled with boxes instead of holes for the moles. The box itself was like a treasure chest, but instead of hole key, it was replaced by a card hole. Can only be opened with a Gacha Card. Note: It can be used with Draw ''3+1'' Option. 5. Gacha Coin: A Sloth Machine. There are three spinning wheels which represent Tool, Item, and Technique respectively. Everytime it is used with a coin, the user would get three items at once (One for Each Category). 6. Summoning Gate: Similar to a Gacha Game where you can summon your own units/heroes/servants. (It can be used with Summoning Coin or Summoning Ticket and both have the similarity to Normal Gacha and Premium Gacha.)Gacha Rate: 1% (But boost with repeatable missions in Vol. 2)Note: The repeatable mission is basically, you get a ticket every 100 kills. And can receive 5 tickets every 100 kills if the opponents are at the same level of power. Important Characters of Spirit Nest: Alexander Sirius: Leader of Spirit Nest.Alex''s Contracted Beasts: Sherry: A white fox with pinkish color on the tip of her fur. (Have a fan club apparently.) Kyle: A Phoenix Little Guy. Stina: A Phoenix & Kyle''s Former Wife. Alex''s UR Spirits: Anna (Dark): Dark Butterfly Spirit & Alex''s Wife. Anya (Light): Anna''s Twin, Light Butterfly Spirit, and Alex''s Wife. Jeanne (Thunder): Lightning Spirit, Loli Sadistic Girl. Jean (Water): Water Spirit; Jeanne''s so-called twin, Masochist (Mostly Jeanne''s target) Leoz (Thunder): Thunder Berserker Spirit, Muscle Brain and Powerful Guy. Artur (Light): Heroic Spirit; Has Knight Conduct and Honor as well as Righteous Guy. Nelson (Dark): Shadow Spirit, Spirit Nest''s number one spy and assassin. Greg (Earth): Metal Spirit, Spirit Nest''s most powerful Defense. A full armor guy with two shields as a weapon. Fabio Donatelli (Fire): Ifrit Spirit. Vera''s Husband. Ultimate Tsundere. (Both knowns as an Ultimate Tsun-Tsun Couple) Vera Donatelli (Water): Ice Phoenix Spirit. Fabio''s Wife. Ultimate Tsundere. (Both knowns as an Ultimate Tsun-Tsun Couple) Important Person Lower World: Raymond - Grand Duke (Alicia''s Father) Alicia - Alex''s Wife Firia - Alex''s Wife Marco - Alex''s Teacher Maxwell - Alex''s Master Lea - Alicia''s Eldest Sister Mia - Alicia''s Second Sister Willow Continent: Xiang Bai - Heavenly Sword Sect''s Sect Master Charya - Ninth Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect Song Yu - Alex''s Senior Sister Putri - Alex''s Senior Sister & Alex''s Disciple Evelyn - Thiveapia Kingdom''s Princess & Alex''s Protege Rose - Alex''s Disciple Northern Continent: Song Qiang - Song Yu''s Grandfather Song Lei - Song Yu''s Father Ruben - West Blue Clan Young Master Lucia - Antheream''s Family Young Lady and Ruben''s Fiancee Cultivation Stages: Foundation Stage Martial Master Martial Grandmaster Martial Lord Martial King Martial Emperor Martial Monarch Martial Saint Martial God Weapon Stages: (Sword/Spear ...) Ex: Sword Practitioner - Newbie Sword Master - Have Sword Intent Sword Grandmaster - Condense Sword Domain Sword King - Sword Body Sword Emperor - Original Sword Skill Sword Saint - *Spoiler* Sword God - *Spoiler* Martial/Element Arts Tier: Yellow Tier Profound Tier Earth Tier Heaven Tier XXXXX Chapter -2 - Privilege (/Ch.388) The news is about Privilege. I''ve been notified that there is a new policy for Privilege. It seems they are going to make it a sitewide requirement for contracted. It is not compulsory but it is highly recommended. Also, if you don''t do it, your book will have even less of a chance to be recommended (No exposure). So, I am thinking about making it 2 chapters for 1 coin. That''s it, I am just going to go for the minimum, so I can get some chance for exposure. The reason for this Privilege is because WN has a hard time dealing with piracy even with DMCA, takedown, or whatever it is. They want to use Privilege to fight it since it will be harder to get it. I will try to explain the Privilege thingy. 1. (2 chapters for 1 coin): Privilege allows one to read advance chapters ahead of the mainstream one by paying a premium. In other words, if I put chapter 399 and 400 as privilege chapters. Only those who pay for privilege can read them while those who can''t would only see up to chapter 398. 2. (Pricing): After you buy the privilege with 1 coin, you will still need to pay for the two other chapters (in standard price) with coins as it can''t be unlocked with a fast pass. The one coin thingy is not for gathering money but to curb piracy plus a chance for exposure. P.S: If you buy privilege, you will get the privilege for a month. You can say it is like mini-Patreon on this site. 3. (Why should I buy this?): Honestly, it is up to you. This privilege thing is only for 2 chapters, not something like 20 or even 50 (Max). In fact, I doubt I will increase the amount any time soon. Well, there are two receptions for this privilege. Some authors were praised and blessed with coins by readers, while others were insulted and had people bouncing off. I seem to be the latter, which is why I try to avoid this. 4. (Where is the Chapters?): Oof, I will try to do it within this week since I write 3 chapters a day (Around 6k words), which I need around 12 hours, including the editing. Plus, I need time for study. Basically, I don''t really have that much free time. That was the reason why I held back my release rate for my other novel (If you know about it) for the Mass Release Event not long ago. Of course, I won''t stop the normal production 2chs/day just to make this privilege, so don''t worry. Even if you don''t buy privilege, you will still get your daily 2chs like normal. 5. (Gift Function): Well, there is a gift function where we can donate to the authors¡­ For this, I can''t say anything since it is not very beneficial. Google/Apple, as well as WN, take a significant share in this, while the one that comes to my way is¡­ Ugh, I will just give you one example: I got less than $1 from the total gifts sent last month... Of course, I am very thankful and appreciated for your continuous support. 6. (Personal Opinion): Well, I don''t really like the Privilege System for various reasons such as public dislike, release rate, money, and so on. In truth, my personal reasons are ''it is hard to write'' and ''I prefer normal Mass Release rather than releasing it in Privilege.'' Anyway, that''s the end of this privilege thingy. All in all, I want to apologize for this inconvenience, and thank you for your continuous support. 1 Betrayal Free Cloud High school Alexander Sirius carefully took out a golden necklace from his pocket. He held it in his hands while grinning. "Happy Birthday, Sandra. Here is my present for you" Alex happily said In front of him, was a girl with a ponytail. Her face is slightly beautiful with a graceful body. Looking at her is a sole motivation for Alex, but his happy face suddenly froze after what he heard next. "I''m not going to accept this shitty necklace, I''m breaking up with you" Sandra said Alexander Sirius is a 16 years old boy with poor motivation toward his life. In his house, his parents only sent a cold glare every time he met them, while his younger sister beating him up. His younger sister is a beautiful girl with so many talents. She always gets number one position in the school. That''s one of the reasons why his parents hate him. The big brother is so useless and his sister is having too many talents. In school, he has poor performances, resulting in him at the bottom, he got bullied with his classmates too. So he always went to school with eyes looking like dried fish. Sandra was the only one who treated him indifferently, after 2 years he finally confessed to her and she accepted. That was the happiest day for him, that''s why after he heard what she said, he felt the world seems broken because he never expected to be met by this kind of response. "Why?" Alex asked with no energy in his eyes. "Because you are poor with no potential!" Sandra said. She held up her new necklace and said mockingly, "This is Diamond necklace. I could buy many of this. And I can easily get this and many more goodies as much as I''d Like because my new boyfriend will pay for it! Is that reason good enough ?" True, because of Alex''s poor performance, his parents never give him allowances, to buy golden necklaces he got many part-time jobs. "I never would have taken you for this kind of girl, I thought you are different" Alex said tiredly. "Don''t be silly! This is the reality of life, blame yourself. Your sister and your parents were good but you! You are lucky enough not to be disowned! I will never have a happy life as your wife." "You...." Biting his lips, His tears almost out. Suddenly, a BMW stop next to them. The car door opened, and a guy pulled her into the car and grabbed her thigh. "John Penn!" He never expected Sandra''s new boyfriend to be John. He was Alex''s middle school classmate. Even He was rich, he never treated Alex differently in middle school. In Alex second year, John transfer to Alex''s school, Alex was happy since he saw his former classmate. But that happiness stop, because what he gets only a cold gaze from John. John said mockingly, "You are just a poor loser, but I never thought your girlfriend is this good. It''s a waste to become your girlfriend so I pick her up since you are not qualified to even fight me" He thought a bit. ''yes, I''m just a loser what can I hope from this society''. "I see, you never see me as your friend. It was foolish thinking for me" Alex said to John. "Sandra, Thank you for the hope you give me when you become my girlfriend" Alex said to Sandra. With a little determination in his eyes, he said "If there''s a chance, I will surely have my revenge". "Friend? stop bullshiting. You are just an easy guy to manipulate, I get close to you, so you can become my goofer in middle school" John Said. "Haha Girlfriend, who? me? stop your wishful thinking. I just use you to be my wallet for a while. Because you are never to be equal to me." She said hatefully. "You...."Biting his lip, he is running away from them. ''Why? Why? Why?'' He though it while running until he found a park. He used to play in this park when he is younger. He sat under a tree and saying repeatedly "Why? Why? Why?" until he collapsed. Tomorrow He awake and with a coarse sound, he said "I...., collapsed? wait it''s already 8.50, I need to go to school". It''s true that Alex was a poor loser, but he still has a good quality in him. That was his discipline. Even with his poor performances, he never skipped school or part-time jobs. In Free Cloud High school, in the second-year corridor, you can see four peoples chatting merrily. "What? Do you become John''s girlfriend? I''m Jealous", Ayaka Saya, she is a transfer student from Japan and one of John''s admirers. "Really? What about Alex ?". Maria Fergina is Sandra''s childhood friend. When she knows Sandra becomes Alex''s girlfriend. She worried so much, she repeatedly advised her to rethink her decision. "Please, don''t say any more about him. You also advise me to get away from him, and now here I am." Sandra said. "But, still....., never mind. If that''s your choice I will just support you" Maria Said. "Yes, I am blessed to have beautiful Sandra to be my girlfriend" John Said. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Suddenly someone running to them, when they saw who it is, they shocked. "Alex!" four of them said at the same time. "You guys..." said Alex hatefully. "Hehe Alex, I thought you are running away and never come here anymore," John said. "Yeah, yesterday really embarrassing for you Alex" Looking down on him, Sandra said. "Hey, you two...." Maria trying to stop them. At first, she looked down on Alex because of his poor performance in school, but with his diligence to her childhood friend with his part-time jobs just to buy presents for her, she started to see Alex in a different light. "You two, I will surely have my ....", before Alex completed his sentences. There''s a magic circle suddenly appeared on the floor. After that day, five of them never saw again on earth. 2 Zircodina Kingdom In Zircodina Kingdom Palace Hall, there''s a magic circle in the middle of the hall with five people on it. One of them said "Ugh....., what happened? where is this ?" The King stood up and greet them "Welcome to the four heroes to my kingdom, Zircondina. Wait.... why there''s five of you ?" "What happened? Where is this? What are you going to do? what heroes ?" John said with a hoarse voice "What.....What.....What..... Teleported? Summoned? Please send us back." Sandra said "What do you mean four heroes ?" Maria said while trying hard to calm down. "What are you going to make us do ?" Ayaka said fearfully. Only Alex who doesn''t have a sound. "Let me repeat my greeting, welcome to the four.... five..... well..., welcome to the heroes to my kingdom, Zircodina. I am the current King, my name Faras de Andalla Zircodina. We summoned you because the demons want to destroy the world. Please help us to defeat the demons for the world peace" The king said while feeling very awkward. "What the hell with this mainstream setting" Said four of them. While Alex still silence. "Please King, can we go back to our former world ?" Sandra said "I''m very sorry heroes, we can''t send you back to your former world. Since the magic circle we posses is a one-way trip" Said The king with a guilty voice. "Okay, if you can''t send us back, so what should we do next?" suddenly Alex who silence until now, spoke with an uninterested tone. "Oh... you are very calm.., okay please place your hand on the crystal ball in front of you to get your status card. But before that, let me give you some basic information about this world-first" Surprised with Alex''s reaction, King said. From the king''s explanation. This world Agar world consisted of 3 fractions, they are human, demi-human, and demons. There are 3 kingdoms in human territory, they are Zircodina, Acacia, Holy kingdom. Zircodina was known as a military superpower because many great warriors hail from this kingdom. Acacia Kingdom was the strongest of the three because of its famous academy, Acacia Royal Academy. Many great warriors and magicians hail from this academy including their royal family. While the holy kingdom famous with their church and religion. Demi-human consists of many races, like elf, dwarf, druid, etc with the council as their leader. While the demon had a similar characteristic as demi-human under the banner of the demon king. "Since it''s like that, I will go first" John said excited face. "Very well, please put your hand on the crystal" King said With very excited face John places his hand on the crystal, !pop! A card appeared and the crystal projecting his status. Name: John Penn Job: Hero Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 100 AGI: 100 VIT: 100 DEX: 100 INT: 100 Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "he...he...roes..." Cheers erupted in the hall. " We have hero now" "I am a hero? hmm, not bad" a smug smile appeared in John''s face "Thattt... Status...woooowww..." A few start notice his status. "What with my status ?" John Startled with the comment, he asked nervously "Ahem, Let me explain. A level 1 child usually has 10 status points each while an average level for an adult is 15-20 with 30 status each. So that''s why we are very surprised when seeing your status, as expected hero.."King explain carefully "Hehe, my John really good" Sandra excitedly said while hugging John "Oh...., haha... it seems my status not bad right haha..., yeah your majesty what is this rank all about ?" "Let me explain about status and level first. Each level usually gave you 5 status points. It''s usually rising according to your job. Now for the rank, in this world, rank divided to 9 which is rank 1 to rank 9, rank can be upgraded every 100 levels. Each time you upgrade rank, each of your status will rise 30-50 points, that''s why normally no lower rank can win against higher one excluding you hero, your status points are at normal rank 1 warrior" The king explained to John "hehe... it seems my status was greater than my expectation...it''s me after all. If each 100 rank was 1 rank, then how if I reach level 1000? Will I become rank 10?" John Asked "According to the legend, only one person has reached rank 10 and ascended. Currently, in this world, there''s no rank 9. The last rank 9 appeared 400 years ago. He said when you reach rank 9. Each level will be much harder, it''s not like you need to kill many. But it''s like an invincible barrier preventing you from leveling up." "Alright how about you guys?" John mood plummeted, he then asked the girls "Me, me, me" Sandra said excitedly while placing her hand on the crystal Name: Sandra Elexis Job: Arch-Mage Rank: 0 Level: 1 STR: 50 AGI: 50 VIT: 50 DEX: 75 INT: 100 3 Status "Arch...Archmage.." Cheers erupted once more "Hehe, It seems I''m good too" Sandra said happily "Archmage is a high-level job only a handful of people can get it, in our kingdom we only have 1 archmage and he is currently our head court magician. How about this, you can become his apprentice" King explained "Oh.. sure sure" She didn''t think of anything, she just complied happily. She contents with her job so she didn''t mind anything. she was someone who thinks as long as the result this was good, she didn''t care about the after effect. "Very well, I will inform him after this" "Hehe... John, I am good right?" Sandra happily turn to John "Yeah very good" John said with a smile "Then I am going now" Ayaka competitive spirit soar, she doesn''t want to be outdone with Sandra. she immediately goes in front of the crystal and placed her hand on top of that. Name: Ayaka Saya Job: Sage Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 50 AGI: 50 VIT: 50 DEX: 75 INT: 100 "Woowww... sage.." more deafening cheers heard again. "Hehe...., I''m not going to be outdone with you, Sandra. John is mine" Ayaka said and turn to John, she looked at the audience and from their reaction, it seems her job is the same quality with Sandra so she said to John, "John I''m very good too right" "Yes, you are very good too" John said with a smile "Oh yeah, what about this sage job? Is it on par with archmage ?" Ayaka asked the king "Yes, Sage is stemmed from the same root with archmage which is a magician. But, our kingdom doesn''t have a sage, how about I ask our head court magician to become your teacher too?" "Sure...sure..." she Happily complied. She thought ''since we have the same teacher, that means all of it depend on ourselves so if I''m better than Sandra then John will look me more '' "You can''t beat me" Sandra shrugged her shoulder turning to her childhood friend "How about you next Maria" "How about you Alexander?" Maria looked at Alex. "Just forget about him," Sandra said Alexander just shrugged his shoulder and Maria Placing her hand on the crystal "Okay" Name: Maria Fergina Job: Arch Priest Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 40 AGI: 40 VIT: 75 DEX: 40 INT: 120 Looking at Maria''s Job, everybody cheers once again "Arch Priest....." King immediately stood up and order his guards "Hurry, inform the pope" "Yes" A few soldiers immediately carried his order "Your majesty congratulation" Each minister started to congratulate the king "Haha...." King laughed happily, he thought ''If she can become the priestess. It means my kingdom has a backing of the church'' The ministers know why the king laughing happily since one of the princes have offended one of the church''s archbishop, the relation of the kingdom and the church become awkward. But if she becomes priestess means having a relationship with pope successor. "I''m done now" Said Maria while looking at Alexander Everyone looking Alexander with a great expectation. They thought the other 4 jobs were great, then the last one will be good too Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Hurry Alexander..... not I have an expectation to you though" urged John "Yeah, Alexander hurry up, don''t waste our time" urged Sandra Everyone Perplexed with their comments since they never know about their relationship in the previous world Alex just ignored their comment and place his hand on the crystal Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Commoner ( A person who got dragged to another world ) Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 5 AGI: 5 VIT: 5 DEX: 5 INT: 5 The hall was silent while looking at his status. Suddenly John broke the silence. "Haha.... wow Alexander you are the best" John said sarcastically "You can''t beat a child with that status Alexander" Sandra giving more salt to Alex''s wound Alex only shook his head and sigh. Suddenly the king do something they never thought "Mr. Alexander, I''m very sorry for dragging you to this world." King apologized and bowing Everyone perplexed with the king''s action. Ministers immediately said "Your majesty, please don''t bow to me" while looking Alex hatefully Noticing Everyone''s gaze on him, Alex sigh "Your majesty please don''t bow to me. I''m not worth it with your bow." "Even so, The previous queen mother teaching me, no matter you are a king, commoner or something else. When you are in the wrong you need to apologize" "It may be rude for me saying this. But, I still want to say it. The previous queen was really wise and above all, she seems a very good mother" Alex said tiredly, he has a bit admiration to the previous queen since she seems wise, thinking his previous family he sighs. "Your majesty, may I request something? I''m a bit tired" Sigh Alex King looking at Alex and his status sigh "Very well, we will conclude this event. Servant, please guide our heroes to their room" All the heroes followed the servant to their respective room 4 Scheme and Encounter At night, in John''s room You can see 2 people, a man and a woman chatting with an evil smile. "John, I want to make Alexander exile from this kingdom" Said Sandra with a seducing smile "Hoho, sure. How do you want to do it ?" Asked John "We can just ask the king. Surely he won''t offend both hero and arch mage right for some commoner right? hehe.." Explained Sandra "Sure, let''s do it. You are an evil woman, aren''t you... Hehe... But first.." grabbing Sandra''s thigh "Ara.. aren''t you are the bad guy here" and you know what happened if a wolf gets seduced by a witch Meanwhile in Alex''s room, ''Knock, knock'' Alex surprised about this sudden knock at his door. "Who?" "It''s me, Maria" Alex more surprised about the one who came right now. "Please.. come in" opening his door, Alex said to Maria "Can we talk?" Asked Maria. "Yes, Please sit" Alex invited Marian in and pointing at the chair "I''m sorry for what happened about you and my childhood friend, Sandra." She bowed to Alex "....." shook his head "It''s not even your fault, why you apologized to me? aren''t you hate me becoming Sandra''s boyfriend?" Maria Explained guiltily "Yes, at first I don''t like you becoming Sandra''s boyfriend. But, after I overheard you buying Sandra Golden Necklace with your own hard work. My view of you has changed. But, I never thought Sandra do something like that to you. I''m sorry" Bowing her head once again "It''s alright. With my ability on Earth, it''s already good enough to dream like that. I don''t have any purpose anymore in my life on Earth. Now, in this world I want to restart my life once again" he said with a determination in his eyes "Umm... It''s good then. if you need my help just ask me. I will try to repay you for what my childhood friend did" "It''s not your fault, you don''t need to repay me anything. Besides if what I predicted correct, then you won''t have the chance" said Alex with a low voice "umm.... what do you mean?" Maria confused. "Never mind... All in all, it''s not your fault. Since it''s already late, we better rest" "Okay then... Goodnight Alex...ander" "Yeah good night" After sending Maria off, Alex sit on his bed and sigh "Sigh... If what I predicted correct, then they are going to send me out of the castle soon" Alex wanted to sleep, but a voice can be heard [Initiating good luck gacha system] [1%.....20%.....70%...100%] [Initiating completed] [Greeting Host] "Who?" Alex Surprised with the sudden voice [I''m good luck gacha system host. You can communicate with me in your thought Host] "Who are you?" [I said I''m your Good Luck Gacha System Host] "System.. your name.. are you insulting me ?" [I''m not insulting you, Host. because of your experience and new determination my name is born, Host] "Well system you just like a system that was given to me by someone" [....] "Hmm... judging with your reaction it seems I''m right but not qualified to get the answer just like some novel I read, well never mind then" [Thank you for your consideration Host] "So, what can you do system?" [System is a gacha system Host. So I only have gacha in me] "Oi... I read many systems in the novel were OP, but you..... are pretty useless aren''t you, system?" [There are no useless system, only useless Host] "Oi System you are insulting me aren''t you, system" [It''s only system auto defense host. Protecting the system from your insult] "....., whatever. So what can I get from gacha?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. [I have three types of gacha host, techniques gacha, tools gacha, and material gacha. techniques consist of many manual starting from combat to auxiliary. tools consisted of many pieces of equipment, starting from combat tools such as sword to auxiliary tools such as a hammer. and like its name, material consisted of items like ore, herb, even food] "How can I use the gacha ?" [Host need gacha ticket. They can be gathered with you killing living being Host] "Hmm, system with your explanation. I can get my ticket from killing humans too? [Yes Host. but system won''t recommend it] "Why?" [Host need to have good karma too or my name will be changed to bad luck gacha system host and what happen later you can imagine with my name Host] "..., WTF. Alright alright, I will only kill my enemy, not innocent people." [Thank you Host] "Okay... I remembered, usually, in the novel with a system, they will have a beginner package. Do you have that system" [I want to say no but hatefully I have host] "Oi system..." Meanwhile, somewhere far away. You can see a woman typing her computer and its screen showed [I want to say no but hatefully I have host] She said "It''s really fun teasing you, my fiance fufu" 5 Gacha and Banishmen After calming down, Alex ask "system, I have beginner package right?" confirming once again [Yes Host do you wish to open it?] "Hmm, alright open it" [10x gacha ticket acquired] "So gacha ticket huh... use 4 at tools, another 4 at techniques, and the rest to materials [Spear x1] [Iron sword x2 ] [Shovel x1] [Basic Body Tempering Manual x1] [Basic Cultivation Manual x1] [Fencing Manual x1] [Basic Trap Manual x1] [Water Bottle x2] "why is the last 2 I only get water bottle? aahhh.... never mind, let''s check each item" "I can use a sword later and spear with fencing is a good combination, a shovel... maybe I can use it to make trap? and for basic body tempering and basic cultivation... what is these two, system? I thought I can get stronger with killing monsters in this fantasy world?" [Analyzing] [Within explanation of the king yesterday, it seems in this world when a monster was killed, they release some kind energy, which the killer absorbed that energy thus resulting him leveling up. According to the legend, system speculated why he can''t level up anymore, because the energy released from monsters wasn''t pure enough. System can''t speculate more than this without enough data] "So this body tempering and cultivation manual is the solution?" [Yes Host, the energy absorbed according to the manuals is heaven and earth energy thus containing a pure form of energy] "I''m lucky to have them in my first gacha then. So how can I learn the manual?" [Host just need to think what do you want to extract and say ''extract''] Thinking the name of the two manuals, he said "Extract". Two books appeared in front of him immediately. "Hey system, you don''t have instantaneous learning function? Like in the novels" [No Host you need to learn it manually] "..... you are a useless system" [Host cultivation is a studious process, not a shortcut like what you want] "..... fine fine I Just need to learn it right" He sigh, losing an argument with system. He pickup the two manuals and start reading them. After reading the two manuals, it''s already morning, and he didn'' sleep last night. "System, you have storage/inventory right?" [As long as the items are from the system you can store them in me host. but if not you need to store them yourself] ".... You are really useless" [....] ''Knock, Knock'' "Yes, who is it?" "The king has requested your presence in the hall" Said the soldier "Lead the way" He followed the guard to the hall. In the hall, he saw the king, ministers, and the other four, he surprised with this line-up. Since no one said anything after a while in this heavy atmosphere, he asked "What occasion take place today?" "Impudent" said the ministers "It''s okay it''s okay" King tried to calm down the crowd "Mr. Alexander, after our discussion, we need `o banish you from the castle." With a bit guilty feeling, he declared Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex us` silent, looking at John and Sandra who have a sinister smile on their faces, and Maria looking down. He shaking his head and sigh The king surprised by his reaction and asked "You are not angry ?" "Well... I already predicted this would happen soon, but I surprised for this coming too soon." "I''m sorry Mr. Alexander, I need to banish you" with a bitter smile on his face "You don''t need to say sorry Your Majesty, it may be rude, but can I request you something?" "Impudent" and again with the ministers Ignoring the ministers, "What it is Mr. Alexander? As long as I can" "Can you spare me with some money? So at the least, I can live off a few days?" "Guards" Surprised with his request, He immediately ordered guards to prepare it After that Alex going out of the palace, he strolls the capital a bit, buying equipment such as cloths and the others that needed for survival since he planning to go out of this kingdom, he searched for adventure guild. "Hello, can I help you? Asked the receptionist. "I''m new here, can I register ?" "Yes, do you bring your status card?" Asked the receptionist politely "Yes I have, here it is. What do you need it for?" Giving his card, he asked. "We only need to update your job. If you already have a high-level job, adventure job will become a secondary ob" Looking at his status, she immediately frown "Sir, are you sure you want to become an adventurer with this status? "Yes, I know I have a weak constitution from birth, but I''m planning to travel to many places, and I will search for plant or herbs on the way, my master taught me that. And so I thought I can search for a quest in adventurer guild and here I am."He bullshitting his way "Alright, I will respect your will, but I will remind you once again, Please be careful out there" Advice the receptionist once again Satisfied with the receptionist, he said "Thank you, oh I also need a map, do adventure guild 6 Adventurer "Yes, we sell map in three categories, Standard, detailed, and special. The standard map contained basic information about towns in the kingdoms. A detailed map is a more detailed version from the standard while the special contained only one place each map. It gave you detailed information from each place." "I want the basic one please" Since he doesn''t have much money on him. He immediately chose the basic one "It''s 1 Silver" In this world, there are copper, silver, gold, and royal coins. 100 copper=1 silver, 100=silver1 gold, and 100 gold=1 royal. "Here" he handed one silver coin to the receptionist "This is your map" the receptionist handing the map to him "Alright thank you, and are there any caravan, going to Alisia forest?" Glancing at the map, he pointed out the most nearby forest in the map "You can search many of them at the west gate, they often take off in the morning. Any other question?" "No, thank you very much" Satisfied. He thanked the receptionist once again. "Just doing my job" the receptionist said with a smile After that, he went to an inn, "Can I book the room for tonight ?" "Yes, there are many rooms vacant at the moment, it''s 3 copper for a night ?" "I will take for one night then. Here are 3 coppers. Can I have water to wash my body?" "For cold water, you can get them in the well at the back of our inn, if you need hot water, you need an additional copper for that" "I will take the cold water then" he didn''t mind having cold water he thought. On earth, sometimes he needed to take a bath with cold water if the heater was broken. since his money was limited, he needed to fix it alone and that take too many days since he wasn''t an expert on them. "How about your meal?" "I already ate on the way here" "Your room was on the third floor, the furthest one your left, here is your key" she gave the room''s key to Alex "Thank you" since he didn''t have any luggage, he went to the well first to wash his body. he drew the water in the well. He washed his body and go to his room, the room was simple, only basic furniture in it. He sat on the bed "Hmm, I never have a chance to try this manual on the castle. According to the cultivation manual, there are three-stage. They are body tempering stage, Qi Gathering Stage, and Qi Manipulation Stage. Each consisted of 3 phases which are low, middle and peak phase. The body tempering stage was a preparation stage before cultivating any Qi. Then with body tempering techniques, I can get the optimal result for the body tempering stage. Thank you system, love you" [It''s because my name Host] "Yes yes" He started training his body again for four hours, after that he was too tired and fell asleep. In the morning, Alex woke up, he looked at the window. it seems the sun was about to rise. He never seen a sunrise, he wanted to see it but he remembered. "Hmm, I forgot to check my status last night after training my body for 4 hours" Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Adventurer Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 20 AGI: 15 VIT: 16 DEX: 13 INT: 5 "Hmm... system, isn''t my cultivation too OP?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. [Yes, Host need to thank the system for that] "Yes yes thank you system, love you" his is excited looking the effect for his training [Your welcome Host, but I need to inform you Host, it''s only the beginning you can have this effect, it will be much harder to up your status later on] "....." "*&%$&%*" [Love you too Host] Of course, he forgot to watch the sunrise, and he quarreled again with the system After he eats breakfast, he immediately went to the west gate. He searching for a caravan, he looked at the caravan at the corner, there is ''Alisia Forest'' written in it. When They transported to this world, they seem to get the basic literature in this world, they can speak and read in this world language so Alex didn''t need to learn again. "Excuse me, are you going to Alisia forest ?" Alex asked to a middle-aged guy that seems to be a leader. "Hmm...." he is a bit daze when he looked at Alex. Alex reminded him about his deceased son. "Hello ?" Confused with his expression, Alex asked again "Ah.... yes... you want to go to Alisia Forest right? We will go to White Town, if you really want to go to Alisia Forest you can come with us since that place was along the way." Flustered, the middle-aged guy hurriedly reply "How much is it?" "No no, you don''t need to pay" he hurriedly explained to Alex "Are you sure I don''t need to pay ?" "Yes, you remind me to my son" with a bitter smile he said "Really? It''s really a coincidence" "He already passed away" with a bit tears in his eyes "Ummmm... Sorry" Alex lowered his head Noticing the awkward situation, he replied "It''s alright, we will take off in 5 minutes, you can get in first." "Then I will do just that" Alex really want to get away with that awkward situation 7 Alisia Fores "We are at the entrance of Alisia Forest boy" Said the middle-aged leader "Thank you very much" he got off from the cabin. "It''s alright, please be careful when you get to the woods. Though this forest danger level not that high, still be careful" He advice Alex. "Yes" With that, Alex went inside the forest. "So what''s my plan now?" Thinking for a while "I will try to kill some monster first" He walked for a few minutes until he saw 2 goblins by the river. "I think I can kill one of the goblins out of guard with my spear since they didn''t detect my presence and battle the second goblin with my sword" He immediately ready up his gears. He sneakily runs around the goblins. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He runs to the goblins and thrust his spear to one of the goblins head. Confirming its death, he swung his sword without hesitation to the other goblin, beheading its head. "It''s my first kill but I don''t have any feeling right now" After he killed the two goblins, he searched his surroundings. Noticing it''s safe he sat down and open his system panel [Gacha Ticket x1] "Oooh... I got a ticket. Isn''t it easy to get a ticket system?" [No Host, you are just lucky enough] "Hehe, let me check my status" Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Adventurer Rank : 0 Level: 2 STR: 23 AGI: 16 VIT: 17 DEX: 13 INT: 5 "Oh, I really get 5 points. How about its system? Are there any problem with the energy" [Analyzing] [Yes Host, it''s really not pure enough, so I don''t recommend you to take that energy] "But how ? aren''t my body taking it automatically?" [System can expel the energy host, but Host won''t get any status point for leveling up. Confirm?] Thinking for a while, he decided to expel the energy "Please expel it" [Expelling] Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Adventurer Rank : 0 Level: 2 STR: 20 AGI: 15 VIT: 16 DEX: 13 INT: 5 After training for two weeks at the outer forest "Haha another level" Alex laughed happily [Host even you level up, You won''t gain any status points] "System you don''t want me happy right? Just say it. Don''t always strike me when I''m happy" Sighing, he complained [There''s no such intention. System only remind you] He was tired arguing with his system and open his status. Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Adventurer Rank : 0 Level: 34 STR: 100 AGI: 60 VIT: 75 DEX: 40 INT: 24 "People who saw my status will think of weird aren''t they system?" [According to the norm, yes Host] Contemplating a bit, he decided to go to the inner forest. "I will need more level then. Let''s go to the inner zone of the forest." After an hour of walking, he reached the inner forest. When sound heard, "AUUUUUU....." He immediately raised his guard. Following the sound, while grinning happily "Another EXP" He saw 8 wolves including 1 leader wolf. The wolf has an average level of 35 while the leader was level 45. He calculating the battle plan in his mind "If the leader doesn''t join the battle first then I can wipe them out easily. But if the leader join, I just hope there are no monsters nearby" He Throws one a javelin to one of the wolves. The javelin hit its body. Looking at the wolf died, the king immediately ordered the others to kill Alex "Auuuu.." Alex entered his battle stance immediately, noticing the leader doesn''t join, he happy decided to end the battle fast Two wolves trying jump forward to him, he sliced the two wolf. The remaining wolf started to get anxious looking at Alex''s capability, they hesitated a bit. Alex didn''t let go of this chance. He immediately killed another 2 wolfs. Looking at Alex kill another 2. The remaining three scared. He got his spear on his back and thrust his spear to one of them, and kill the remaining with his sword. When the king Look at his subordinate dead. He angrily looking at Alex. His charged was much faster than his subordinate "Fast" Alex surprised a bit but with enough time he ready his defense. Alex got knock back 2 meters away The wolf king doesn''t let go of this chance, he slammed down Alex to the ground. Alex trying to defense from the wolf fang. But he never knew Alex has a system with him Alex thinking about another sword and said "Extract". Another sword appeared in his other hand, he stabbed the wolf head with it. "Huft... It''s a close fight" 8 Alexs Status After the fight with the wolves. Alex sit down Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "System how many my ticket now ?" [13 Ticket, Host] "Please use 4 tickets at techniques, 2 at tools, and the rest to the material." [Basic Cooking Manual x1] [Basic Archery x2] [Fencing x1] [Spoon x1] [Bow x1] [Iron Ore x1] [Water Bottle x4] [Grass x1] [Mithril x1] "....." "Water....water...Water bottle again! System do you hate me? And what the deal with grass. I can have X99 if I want it.!" he angrily rebuked the system [Calm down Host. Gacha system is random Host, even you angry to me can''t do anything about it] "..Fine" Alex calm down a bit before he asked "How about the bow? Is there any arrows in tools gacha?" the next answer he getting angrier than before [No Host, there are in the material. You can use iron, wood stick, and chicken feather if you got them from material gacha] "*&$%&*$*%&*" He got mad at the system for couple hours until he finally calms down Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Adventurer Rank : 0 Level: 40 STR: 105 AGI: 60 VIT: 75 DEX: 40 INT: 24 Gacha Status Sword x5 Spear x2 Dagger x2 Shovel x3 Hammer x2 Javelin x8 Bow x1 Cooking Set x1 Spoon x4 Fork x2 Basic Cultivation Manual x5 Basic Body Tempering Manual x3 Fencing x5 Basic Sword Arts x1 Basic Spear Arts x3 Throwing Arts x1 Basic Cooking x1 Basic Trap Manual x1 Basic Medicine Manual x1 Water x77 Food x19 Iron Ore x10 Gold Ore x1 Wood Stick x3 Wood Block x4 Grass x1 Mithril x1 After calming down, Alex continuing to kill in the inner forest for one and a half months. Reaching at rank 1 ---- When he got to rank 1, he confused since the king said they will have another boost status but he got nothing. So he asked his system [System speculate, when your rank upgraded, it purifies the impurities in your energy resulting in a boost of status in him/her. with host never taken any energy from monsters you got no impurities so there''s no boost for your status] "....." Alex speechless with the explanation "System how about I take the energy, and after my rank upgraded you expel the remaining impurities" [If Host take too much time having impure energy in your body, it will blend with your energy and it will be impossible to separate them anymore] He sighed."I know you are a useless system" Like system said Host, there''s no useless system, only useless host] "Okay-okay, Let''s go out of the forest. I''m bored watching the trees here" After walking for a few hours, just before he got out of the forest, he immediately raises his guard "There''s a fight there" he peeked at the situation in the main road. He sees knights facing many orcs. There are Orc Leader and Orc Shaman spotted too. He decided to help after looking at the knights protecting a luxurious caravan. He thought ''if I help them, maybe I can get a free ride to the next town'' He immediately closed their distance starting to slash the orc one by one until he gets in the middle of the knight formation. He said "I will help" "Thanks, young man, I can''t get my attention distracted because of the Orc leader and orc shaman. Though I can face the orc leader sine we have the same rank. The Shaman will start pummeling my subordinate if I fight their leader." The middle-aged captain is a rank 3 warrior. His face can''t be seen since he using a helmet "I am close to rank 2, I can distract the shaman while you fighting the orc." Alex reply "Oh, that helps me so much, thank you. Let''s go" before the two started to get to their target. The caravan door opened and a girl came to the outside. The girl looked around 15-16 years old, stunningly beautiful, with long purple hair. Her body curves make the other think perfect. She said "Let me help too" "Please go back inside, princess" The Captain immediately response. The girl''s name is Alicia Van Rizertia. She is the current Acacia Kingdom king''s niece and the current grand duke third daughter. The current grand duke didn''t have any son resulting his brother get to the throne, but the duke was fine with it since he always thought managing kingdom was tiring. "No. Please let me help. Even with this, I''m Still a rank 1 magician I can support us" she rebuked the captain Looking there''s no way to convince the princess. He sighed, "Okay princess, but you need to support us from here and don''t go closer to the battlefield. Besides, I think you need to support this boy. Even he was almost rank 2 but he still not rank 2 while the shaman already past the rank 2" "Okay" Smiling happily, Alicia Complied. Alex just nodding his head and ready his battle stance. Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Body Tempering Stage) Job: Adventurer Rank: 1 Level: 181 STR: 240 AGI: 200 VIT: 190 DEX: 150 INT: 100 9 Battle Charging at the shaman, Alex threw his javelin. The shaman noticed Alex and immediately dodge the javelin. The shaman can''t cast his spell while dodging, resulting in Alex closing his distance. "Amazing" the princess amazed at Alex performance "He seems experienced with battles" The captain comment his performance too while battling the orc leader. When the distance of him and orc shaman remain 2 meters. The orc shaman cast his spell. The fireball appeared in front of the shaman and charged to Alex. Noticing this Alex immediately dodge to the sideways and swinging his sword to the orc shaman. Orc shaman put his staff to block Alex''s sword. "Princess!" Alex shouted "Yes, Ice Spear" Alicia cast her spell to the shaman. Looking at the spell, the shaman casting another spell to block magic. Alex took the chance while the shaman casting his spells. Alex got to the shaman back and slice his sword. The shaman got sliced but still not dead. "Tch, too shallow" The shaman reaction was fast when Alex swing his sword, the shaman fast enough to move away a bit. Alex tried to swing his sword again, but he didn''t notice the orc leader are at his side. The leader kicked him away resulting him to be blown away a few meters and coughing blood. "Bastard" The captain angrily roar to orc leader swinging his broadsword and slicing the orc into two. He immediately throws another strike, killing the orc shaman. After the two leaders dead, the orcs turn to disarray and the soldier easily killed the remaining orc. The knight captain immediately go to Alex checking his injury "I''m alright" wiping his bloodied lips, he assured the captain. "I only need to rest a bit". "Thank you, young man, I don''t know how much our casualties would be if the situation persist. I''m really grateful for your help" "It''s alright knight captain. What are you going to do now?" "We are going to check our casualties first and rest a bit" The princess got closer two them "Are you alright Mr...uhm.." "Alexander... Alexander Sirius, I''m sorry with my manner Princess" "No no no, It''s alright I too don''t really like too many formalities. What are you going to do now Mr. Alexander" She said "Hmm... I''m planning to leave this kingdom and go to the Acacia Kingdom" "That''s great, how about you travel with us. We too want to go home to the Acacia Kingdom after visiting the Zircodina Kingdom." "Princess" The captain worriedly rebuked the princess "It''s alright uncle, he doesn''t seem a bad guy and he helps us too and got injured at the process" She explained. Even though he called the captain ''uncle'' but they don''t have any blood relationship. It''s because the captain always near around the princess and more familiar with each other. "But..." "Say no more uncle, I already decided" The captain can only sigh. Looking at their conversation, Alex said "Then I thank you, Princess" "Don''t call me princess. My name is Alicia Van Rizertia. Just call me Alicia" she smiled. "Rizertia ?" He thought since she is a princess, then her name must have another kingdom name "Ah..., the current king is my uncle and my father is a grand duke. So I follow my House" "Oh I see, then please call me Alex too, since Alexander is a bit too long" "Then, hopefully, a nice journey Mr. Al...ex.." with a bit red on her face "Yes Princess" She frowned "It''s Alicia". "but..." looking at the knight captain who only sighs, he surrendered "Yes Ms. Alicia" The return journey to the Acacia Kingdom was 4 months, at first, Alex and Alicia were unfamiliar with each other, the atmosphere always awkward in the caravan. After one month, they started calling each other with their first name, Alex started to not minding with her status. In the second month, they started quarreling with each other, starting from a small problem like favorite color, etc to a bigger problem, like how he viewed the kingdom. With Alex''s past, he always saw from a negative point of view, while Alicia loves her kingdom very much, so they quarreled. After the third month, Alicia started telling her past. Though her past just like another noble daughter who can''t succeed in their household. When she asked about Alex''s past, Alex''s mood immediately plummeted. Looking at Alex''s expression, she knows there''s something bad about his past so she keeps silent and never asked again. Near the Acacia Kingdom, "Princess, we will see the Acacia Kingdom after climbing this hill." Asmus Inform them. Asmus is the knight captain. "Uncle, what do you think about our agriculture ?" Asked Alicia "I''m not familiar with the topic so I can''t say so much. But I think our agriculture is the best of the three kingdoms" Asmus told her. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "So-so" Alex rebuked Asmus "What do you mean so-so? Don''t you hear what uncle said? We are the best! The best!" Alicia started quarreled again with Alex "Looking at the present situation, The crops were a bit small and the land a bit exhausted." Alex calmly explain "What do you mean by that? Uncle Asmus hurry told him again that we are the best" Looking at Asmus who can only shake his head. He thought ''Haiz, they started again''. After two weeks they started bickering at each other, him and the knights already used to it. "Do you use four-field rotation?" Alex asked "Huh? What is that? Don''t you just plant wheat every time and watered it?" Confused with the new term, She asked. "Let me explain, crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar or different types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons. It is done so that the soil of farms is not used for only one set of nutrients. It helps in reducing soil erosion and increases soil fertility and crop yield" Alex explained. Though Alex has poor performance in the school. Actually, he has many interests in Auxiliary thing such as agriculture, sea, etc, well everything that not connect directly with a school lesson "This.. this.." Alicia shocked by what Alex shocked. Captain Asmus started listening to him too with great interest. "Now for the four-field rotation. The sequence of four crops were wheat, turnips, barley, and clover. Apply the rotation to each field over a four-year cycle. In summer, pigs and sheep can eat the clover. Putting them to pasture here means fertilizer raises the soil quality and in winter, we feed the pigs turnips. This method keeps the fields in use without depleting them and it provides more meat, as well." He explained. Since this world was similar to Earth including the plant and animal, he explains this. "This...this...." Alicia and Asmus were speechless with Alex''s explanation. Even Asmus not familiar with agriculture, he knew if this plan used agriculture in the kingdom will get better. "Alex...Alex...Let''s go... with your plan. Can I Publicize this?" Still flustered, Alicia grabs Alex''s shoulder keeping him for running away. "Up to you" Alex just shrugged his shoulder. "Up to you? What with you. What you just said just know is a brilliant idea, with it we can improve the qualities for our farmer and kingdom and you just casually saying ''up to you'' ..." She started to quarrel angrily with Alex again "Hahaha.... keep it up young man" Satisfied Asmus just running away from the scene while laughing Looking at Asmus, Alex thought ''you traitor'', Alex sigh "Alicia just do what you want with it. Even I''m keeping it with me, I don''t really have any use with it. It''s better for the people to use it" "Hehehehe....." Satisfied with Alex''s response she let go of her hands. After a while, Asmus come again "Princess, Alex we can see the kingdom now. Since it''s already dark we set up the camp and continue tomorrow" "Alright" Shouted the two. 10 Rizertia Household The next morning they continued and arrived at noon. They immediately go to home, which is Rizertia Mansion. Alicia just ordered some maid to take care of Alex "Alex, I''m going to meet my father now. You can rest first." Alicia said "Alright" Following the maid, he arrived at the guest room. Though the room not as big as the room he had at Zircondina Castle, he just got a feeling of home a bit, looking at the room. He doesn''t know if it because he missed his home, or because of Alicia. Well, that''s for the later story. "Maybe I''m a bit tired, even on earth, I never travel for that long" He sat for a while and check his status. Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage) Job: Adventurer Rank: 2 Level: 271 STR: 342 AGI: 286 VIT: 321 DEX: 290 INT: 120 He looked at his Status. "I should start cultivating qi after this." His status already reaching a rank 3 warrior. ''Knock knock'' "Who is it?" "The Grand Duke invite you to dinner. So we came to prepare you." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He opened the door and followed the maid to the bath. After half a year without satisfying his urge to a bath. He enjoys the bath for an hour. "Here is the grand duke previous clothes" The maids started to dress him "Wait-wait what are you doing.." Flustered with the maids he said. Since he never had anyone serve him. Even on Earth, he did everything by himself since his parents ignored him and his sister bullied him. "We are just dressing you" The maid dress him skillfully Since he can''t be rude to the person of the house. He accepted and sigh. "Is it done ?" Looking at the maid slowly walk away, he asked "Yes, please follow us. The grand duke and the rest already waiting at the dining room" Said the maid "Yes please lead the way" he followed the maid to the dining room In the dining room, there are one middle-aged man and four women. The middle-aged man looking like a carefree person and each woman was stunningly beautiful. He recognized one of them. Yes, she is Alicia. The oldest one was her mother, while the rest was her sister. Looking at Alex''s flustered expression. The grand duke offered him a seat next to Alicia. "Please sit... Alexander. I can call you that right?" "Yes...yes.." Alex stiffly go to his sit Looking at Alex''s stiff action, Alicia giggled, she thought ''serve him right''. Alex looking at Alicia who still giggled and planning to get his revenge. "Alexander, I thank you for helping my daughter in her travel." After Alex sat down, The grand duke starts talking. "Yes...No problem, I just passing by at that time, Grand duke" He immediately responded "Oh, I forget I still not introduce myself. I''m Raymond Van Rizertia, the current king brother, she is my wife Vera Kertia, and my daughters Lea and Mia. Since you are like Alicia calling Asmus with uncle. You can call me uncle too." Grand duke introduced his family to Alex "isn''t that inappropriate?" "It''s okay, though I''m a grand duke, I don''t really like formalities too much. It''s tiring." Raymond laughed "Is that so..." "I Already hear about your idea from Alicia''s mouth about our agriculture. If I say it''s a breathtaking idea. I will inform our agriculture minister about your idea. Is there any problem with that?" "No, I''m fine with that" The door opened and the maid serve the foods to them "Since the food already served, let''s eat first" Raymond said When Alex eats the food he thought the food in this world was a bit not satisfactory. The first time he eats was from a food stall in the Zircodina capital after his banishment. He thought since it''s from a food stall then it''s normal. Even in a few cities, they passed along on the travel still not satisfactory. He thought since this is a grand duke house. The chef must be good. But he a little bit disappointed with the food. Well, his tongue already used to it. After they eat, Raymond curious about the result of her daughter travel. "Alicia, how is your travel? And how is the hero?" Asked him "The travel was fun, I''m just surprised you send me a message to visit Zircodina kingdom while I''m at Kachang Town. And for the hero...., he lustful as I see it" she glanced at Alex. When she told about her meeting with the hero, Alex''s mood plummeted, though he didn''t show it in his face. His action was noted by Alicia. She knows there must be a connection between him and the hero. Alex just silent and looking down, not noticing Alicia gaze at him. "Hmm.., do you think he wanted you as his wife and we can make a connection with the hero?" Raymond asked again, forgetting Alex. "I don''t like him, I think he is arrogant because of his status as a hero, so I think he will bound to make a rash action. If I marry him, I will be doomed. I think" Alicia explained with a wry smile. "Hmm.., It''s alright if you don''t want. Though many nobles families always treat their daughter as a tool for a political marriage, at least I''m not. I''m rather become a commoner with a happy life, than looking at my daughter''s sadness in all her life" after he said that, he laughed. Every people in the room surprised with Raymond''s statement. Even Alex admired him a bit. "Well let''s end it with that. I''m noticed you are already a rank 3 warrior young man." He looked at Alex. "Ye..ss" Alex surprised his current strength was seen. "Haha...., even though I''m looking like this, I, myself was a rank 7 magic warrior" Looking Alex''s expression, he laughed "Magic warrior?" "Oh, you don''t know about magic warrior?" the grand duke surprised. Though many don''t know his current rank, everyone knows about him as a magic warrior. "I''m just a commoner from Zircodina kingdom, I don''t know" shaking his head. "Oh.. I see. Then what do you know about rank and its classification?" 11 Element Awakening "I only know 9 rank and warrior and mage" The grand duke only nodded "Then let me explain, a magic warrior was a combination of warrior and mage. I am a warrior who has wind affinity thus called wind magic warrior. Each person who can become a warrior and a mage will become a magic warrior. But there''s an exception, in church, a warrior who has a light affinity called paladin and they usually become knights leader or commander in the Holy kingdom. "How about Element affinity?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Each person has an element affinity from birth. But not everyone can awaken it. Even I only managed to awaken my element when I was 12 years old. If not maybe I''m already a rank 2 mage" explain Alicia. "As what Alicia said, each person has an element affinity, but not everyone can become a magic knight even they can awaken their element. Even when they awaken their element, they need to keep manipulate their element while fighting as a warrior, so many keep fighting only as a warrior or a mage" Raymond said with a smug face while his eyes saying ''praise me''. Everyone knows he is only boasting. Everyone giggled, even Alex stiff expression softened. "Then how about Rank itself?" Alex asked "You already know about 9 ranks right? But there''s a special after you upgraded to rank 4 and rank 7. There will be a qualitative leap with your abilities. For example, if you reach rank 4, then you can start manipulating your element. Not like a magic thrower, you can move your magic manually. And for rank 7, your abilities to manipulate elements go further. You can manipulate the elements around you, that''s why many rank 7 can fly." Raymond Explained "Have you awakened your element?" He then asked Alex "I don''t know how to check it" Alex look down. "Actually it''s easy to check it, usually you can test in adventurer guild. They have mana crystal to check it. If the mana crystal shine, then you already awaken your element. If you don''t then the crystal won''t shine." He calmly explained to Alex "I... will try to check in the adventurer guild soon" "How about you check now? We have mana crystal in the house" Raymond suggested "Is that okay?" "It''s fine, usually nobles family have one standby in their house" "Me me, I want to see it too" Alicia hopes Alex has an ice affinity, the same as her. She can teach Alex about magic and Alex can''t disobey her in that period she thought. "Then we will excuse ourselves" The mother brought her daughters to leave the room. But, "I will stay" the second daughter Mia said. She is curious about the man invited by her younger sister. Even though he is a year younger than her, he is currently stronger than her, even they are in the same rank, she feels she will lose if she fights Alex. Everyone surprised, especially Raymond and Vera. This daughter of them never has any interest in men from small. "Then.. you can watch it too" Still flustered about their daughter, Raymond said while Vera asked the stunned eldest daughter away from the room. The four of them go to Raymond''s study room. In the study room, Raymond brought a pure round crystal to Alex. "This is a mana crystal. Place your hand on the crystal" Raymond said Alex wondering what is his element already awaken or not. Alicia hoping Alexander has the same element as her. While Mia only silent, gazing at Alex Alex places his hand on the mana crystal. The mana crystal started dyed with red color. "This is fire elem... Wait" before Raymond finish his speech the crystal glowing with bright red color "Pu...re... Pure Fire Element..." Raymond Flustered with the color shown on the crystal. A normal element will have dyed the crystal with dull colors not glowing. Only a pure element will have a glowing color. Looking at her father, Alicia puzzled. She thought ''it''s only a fire element why you exaggerated so much''. She didn''t hear her father said pure fire element because her mood already plummeted when she sees Alex''s element wasn''t the same with her. Different from Alicia, Mia''s eyes open wide and her jaw dropped. Pure element, even in their world history, there are only 2 people with pure elements. One already ascended and one become the founder of their kingdom, Acacia. And now the third appeared in front of her. "I witness the birth of pure element." Still flustered with the result. He glanced at Alex "It''s lucky you tested it in this mansion, if you tested this in the adventurer guild, we don''t know what kind big scenes appeared." "Are there any problems with my element ?" He confused, why they get so flustered. He thought ''it''s only a fire element'' "Problems? What do you mean by problems? your element is the purest form of the element, A Pure Fire Element, in the legend A pure element has another name, it''s absolute! You have an absolute fire, do you know what it''s mean absolute? Normal can''t win against Absolute! So do you know what kind of big problem you caused?" Raymond hurriedly explained to Alex "Ummm... I''m sorry" Alex looking down "Hey Alex, how about my daughter? Aren''t they pretty? Aren''t you traveling so long with Alicia? How do you feel about her? Do you like her?" Raymond suddenly forgets about his policy about his daughter starting to become a matchmaker for his daughter. "Umm... what do you mean? I and Alicia were just a travel companion." He is still ignorant. On earth, he never has a nice relationship. Even when he started to love Sandra, Sandra broke him. So unconsciously he viewed other women only as a friend and doesn''t want to step any further as he was afraid they will break him again. "Fa..ther... What are you talking about? I Don''t love Alex. He is only my travel companion" blushed covered her face "Yes..yes.." He casually answered Alicia with ''I understand'' look. He also noticed what Alicia just said, she said ''doesn''t love him'' then she must have a certain degree of like. "I will inform brother about this. Alex try don''t show your fire in front of a fire mage. Even though, the other element won''t show much difference in front of you Absolute fire. It''s different if normal fire element in front of your fire, well whatever, try not to use your element in front of a fire." He continued "Since Mia have a fire element, how about you train about the basic of fire element from her tomorrow" Raymond then glanced at Mia Mia nodded her head repeatedly with a little blush on her face. Looking at her sister and father. Alicia suddenly got an uneasy feeling at her heart. "I''m going to rest" She then immediately leave the room. Raymond looking at his daughter''s action, he smirked. Though the others didn''t noticed his smirk. "I will inform my brother now, Alex and Mia can rest. Mia since Alexander not familiar with the house, you guide him to his previous room" Mia only nodded 12 Royal Academy After Raymond sees the two off, he immediately went to the castle. In the king chamber, "Brother... brother, I have very good news for you" Excited, he informs the king. Carollus Van Zelle Acacia is the king''s name. He was a good-looking middle-aged man with long red hair on his back. "What is this news about for you become this excited" Intrigued by his brother, he asked. "Hehe... If you know what I want to say, you will become like me too brother." Teased Raymond. Even one becomes a king and one becomes a grand duke. Their bond still as good as ever. "Alright alright, don''t tease me" "Haha... alright, You know my youngest daughter just come back today right?" "umu.." He nodded "My daughter brought a man home. She said he become her travel companion because he saved her when her group got ambushed by orcs" "Alright alright don''t beat around the bush" It''s already night, so the king wanted to rest. "Fine. I used a mana crystal to test his element. And the crystal glowing with a bright red color" Raymond Explain "Glo...wing...?" flustered with his brother news, he asked him and get a nod "Pure... element... haha... our kingdom have the second pure element... haha" Joys filled the king immediately "After our founder, we have another pure element haha... another potential to become god, brother we have a pure element" he grabbed Raymond''s shoulder and shaking him "Brother, please calm down" Looking at the excited king, he shook his head After a few minutes, the king started to calm down "Haha... Raymond... Where the lad? I will visit him now" "Now? How about tomorrow brother, he already rested now. Since he traveled a few months with my daughter" He advice the king "Ah.. yes yes, I was too excited just then. I will visit him tomorrow. Ah... Heaven blesses my Acacia, heaven blesses me, to think we now have another pure element. Zircodina have hero, Holy Kingdom have priestess, and now my Acacia have pure element" The king said gratified "You said your daughter right? How about marrying your daughter to him? I know about your principle, but there will be always an exception right?" The king then glanced at Raymond "Haha... There are seems a connection with my daughter since they traveled for long. I thought since Zircodina has a hero. My daughter would be interested, never I thought she disgust him. Well whatever since now my daughter took a liking at Alex. And also Alex doesn''t seem like nobles too much, so I think it''s better for you not to visit him." then he laughed. "Alex?" "Ah.. the boy''s name is Alex. Alexander Sirius" "Haiz, I envy you, brother, you have three daughters while I only have a son. If I have a daughter I will engage her to him right now" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Haha... I too envy you, brother, If I have a son, then he can inherit the house, and now my eldest daughter will be the one to inherit my position" "Oh.. not the boy?" "He... likely not. Even though he is a worthy successor when I looked at him. He looked like someone who loved freedom. He won''t be caught up with the nobles system." Raymond''s observation was close enough. Alex just got new freedom and a new determination so he doesn''t really like to be bounded for now "It''s fine, just make sure your daughter grips him close enough. If others hear about this, they will start to approach him Raymond nod with a solemn face. "Then what should we do now with him, brother ?" "How about we place him at our Royal Academy and make the Dean take him as his student since the dean himself was a rank 8 fire mage." The king suggested. "I don''t know if he wanted to enter our academy. I will try to persuade him. If he doesn''t want, we need a different plan" The king then nodded his head. "I will go back home then brother" Raymond said "Haiz.... you Raymond, do you know the news you bring, will make me can''t sleep tonight" "I can''t sleep too, brother. So, I don''t want to be alone who suffered, so I shared this with you" "You..." The two laughed happily. ---- Tomorrow. ''knock knock'' "Who is it?" Alex reaching his room''s door. He saw two maids in front of him. "Grand duke call you Mr. Alexander. We came to guide you" Said one of the maids "Alright, I''m going to prepare myself a bit" Alex trying to fix his appearance "Let us help you, Mr Alexander" "no need" Said Alex, he still not used to have a maid to do it like yesterday so he refused. The maids start to begged him especially because grand duke himself ordered them to make sure to satisfy all his demands. And again Alex surrendered after countless times the maid begged him. After they got out of the room, the maids guide him to the previous study room. In there, he saw grand duke, Mia, and Alicia. "Please sit Alex" He pointed at the spot beside Alicia. After Alex sat down, the grand duke starts talking. "How do you see the Royal Academy ?" He asked in a roundabout way "Royal academy? I''m sorry I don''t know much, as you can see I''m just a commoner from Zircodina kingdom" a bit ashamed, Alex answered "Then, do you want to enter the academy? there''s going to be an enrollment a month later" Alex thinking a bit, he answered "I''d love to, thank you, sir". Alex thanked him "Then it''s decided since you don''t have any previous grade, you will enroll as a first-year. The same as Alicia. And call me uncle" Hearing that, Alicia smiled. "Yes..." "Then as yesterday planned, Let''s Mia teaching you basic fire magic" Grand duke look at Mia, who nodded "Then Please take care of me" Alex said 13 Training After his meeting with the grand duke. He followed Mia to the back garden. Alicia following him too. At the garden, Mia started to explain about fire magic. But her explanation... "If you want to use fire magic, you just need to chant the spell, and done" Mia explained "Eh..." Alex speechless with Mia''s explanation. "I know, this will become like this. Sister was always like this when teaching someone. I will teach Alex the basic first, sister" Alicia who follow them along started speaking and then she glanced at Alex "Let me explain how to manipulate the mana inside your body first. Try feeling the mana in your body, they are like a warm gas flowing inside your body. Try to move them to your right hand first" She explained Following her words, Alex started feeling a warm gas flowing in his body. He started moving them his right hand like water flowing at the river. Alicia shocked seeing Alex''s success at his first try. "Th...en... Try to move them again to your left hand, right foot, then left foot, and your heart. After that tried to disperse them to all your body." She immediately calms down and explained again. Alex followed her words. After he distributed his mana to all his body, he feels refreshed Alicia scared, she used 3 days to make her mana flow like Alex. Even her sister Mia used an entire day. But Alex did it in his first try. "Is this the pure element in the legend?" She muttered slowly. "Now, if you want to use magic. When saying fire magic spell, try to channel your mana into your chant." After looking at Alex''s focused face, she didn''t want to disturb him. So she continued her explanation. "Now, sister. Please tell him about fire magic spell" Alicia glanced at Mia "Alright then, Please follow what I say. The fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest your self as a ball to burn my enemy" after Mia finished her chant. A fireball appeared in front of them. "....." Alex still silent, he just opened his eyes and looked at them "Why aren''t you saying anything?" Alicia confused Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Isn''t it embarrassing, saying that aloud ?" Alex said with a wry smile. "Why are you thinking about embarrassing? It''s a pride of a mage if you success chanting your spell. Now hurry up and chant" Alicia angrily reprimand Alex, while Mia nod repeatedly. "Fi...ne.. the fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest your self as a ball to burn my enemy" He chanted embarrassedly. But nothing happened. "Hmm... Nothing happened. It''s fine, it''s normal to fail at the first time" Alicia said. She relieved Alex can fail too. "I forgot to imbued my mana in my chant. Because it''s embarrassing" Alex looking down with a tinge red in his face. "....." Alicia and Mia reprimand Alex again, about the pride of a mage. After full thirty minutes, Alex surrendered "It''s fine right as long as I success..." Alex started focused his attention on his mana. He chanted again, "The fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest yourself as a ball to burn my enemy" This time a fireball appeared in front of them. Looking at his success, Alicia and Mia smiled. "How is it? How do you feel now?" Alicia asked with a smug smile "It''s really embarrassing," He said. Well, of course, another thirty minutes course about mage''s pride from Alicia and Mia. After Alicia and Mia exhausted for talking too long, he asked. "Is there any special meaning about the chant we use?" "Of course there are. The chant we used now was formed by experiment after experiment. The chant used in the past wasn''t like this. And their output wasn''t bigger than right now" Alicia said "Hmm...." Alex pondered, ''Can science combined with chant?''. Let''s try it. "What are you thinking Alex?" Alicia looking at his confused face. Ignoring Alicia, Alex started chanting again "Take in Oxygen and burn" A big fire appeared in front of him. Alex thought ''it''s a success'' while the other two shocked, their jaw almost dropped to the ground. They looked at Alex as looking at Monster. "Wh...at... was that? What... chant is that?" They shake Alex up and down. "Ca..lm...do...wn....lad..ies..." He tried to calm down the two sisters. The two sisters still shaking him a few more minutes before calming down "Then.... what with that chant Alex..?" even Mia who doesn''t talk too much, asking him. To suddenly saying a new chant, well don''t know how big the reaction if this accident was known. "It''s science" Alex said "Science ?" Alicia and Mia confused "Well, If I''m going to explain science, it will be too long. And even I don''t know much about it. So let''s focus on the fire just now. Do you know how fire formed? You take in the oxygen and combust it" Alex explained "Oxygen?" The sisters don''t know about these new terms. "Well, how do I put it... Anyway, there''s a substance you can''t see in the air called oxygen." Alex also puzzled how to explain oxygen to them. He thought this world science, was too way behind. "Then how do you know about this knowledge?" Alicia asked. "This....." Alex only looks down. "You are related with hero summoning right?" Alicia continued. While Alex only looking down with a bitter face. Looking at Alex''s bitter face, she sighed. "It''s fine if you don''t want to say it, I will wait until you want to tell your story. But promise to tell me in the future ok?" She touched his face and said with a smile. "Umm...ok" touched with her action Alex then said "I was summoned with the hero. But I''m just a person got dragged to this world, that''s all I can say now. Sorry" Hearing Alex''s story a bit, it''s mean Alex trust her a bit. Alicia grinning happily. While Mia feels forgotten by them. "Actually you can use magic without chanting" Since she is happy, Alicia inform him "Really?" Alex asked "You can chant in your mind, and imagined forming your magic at the same time. Actually, my sister can do it too" Alicia said and pointing at Mia "Only the basic spells" Mia nodded "Just that?" Alex asked again. He never thought it was that simple to hide away his embarrassment. "It''s hard you know. Since you need dual tasking, a normal mage can not do it, even they managed to do it, it''s taking a toll to your mind" Alicia explained more 14 King Visi "I want to try" Alex determined to try it in order to destroy this embarrassment "Fine" she pouted. She thought ''I already explained to you how hard it is. Don''t come back to me crying if you failed'' Alex started to focus once again. He started chanting in his mind while imagining the previous scene where magic formed with his new chant. A bit of fire formed in front of him but soon dispersed. "It''s really hard and tiring" He sighed. But he determined to master these techniques. ''Monster'' Alicia and Mia shocked again. In his first try, he almost succeeds. Alex looking at the sisters, confused. "Hello guys, why are you looking at me like that ?" "You... do you know what are you doing?" Alicia got in front of him looking very angry "I failed" He sigh "You... Ah.... this guy. I want to punch him" Mia suddenly shout. Her pride as a genius just got crushed by him, and this is his first training with her. She thought ''I don''t want to teach him anymore if not...sigh''. She knew her being a genius, but if she compared herself with him. She at best was mediocre. "Alicia, you do the rest" after she said that, she pouted and go inside. "....." "What happened to her?" Alex confused with Mia reaction "My sister was a renown genius in the kingdom. Now you crushed her pride" Alicia glanced angrily at Alex "This... I will back to training" Alex continued his training for one hour before grand duke summoned him. Alex and Alicia walk side by side to the meeting room. ''knock knock'' Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Come in" Grand duke said After they got in, Alex realized, the grand duke wasn''t alone. There''s a middle-aged man with a similar face with the grand duke. While Alicia tackled the middle-aged guy, "Uncle" Yes, the middle-aged man was the king. Alicia was very pampered with this uncle. "Hoho, my dear Alicia. How are you?" The middle-aged man smiled. "Hehe, I''m fine uncle,.... only a bit disheartened" Alicia a bit looking down. "What? Who makes you disheartened? I will flatten him" The middle-aged man mad. Alicia pointed her finger at Alex. After the king saw Alex, he glanced at the grand duke, who nodded. "So, you are Alexander. Let me introduce myself I''m Carollus Zelle Van Acacia. The current king of Acacia Kingdom. Nice to meet you" The king introduced himself ''The king!'' Alex froze. When he is about to kneel. The king held him "You don''t need to kneel. This is just a private meeting. Since you call Raymond with uncle. Then you must call me uncle too" "This..." Alex glanced at Grand duke Raymond who nodded his head. "Un...cle..." "Good good good" The king laughed. While the king laughed happily. Alicia tell what just happened in the garden to Grand duke "Father, do you know sister Mia who known as a genius, just got her pride crushed by him at the garden" Alicia whispered to Grand duke "What happened?" Grand duke curious about what happened "How do I say this... Alex can control mana flow in his body the first time he tried. Then he succeeds in his first spell also in his first tried. Then he chants with a new chant he created himself, not only the chant was shorter but also the power output was greater than fireball spell". Alicia explained "This... are you lying to me ?" The grand duke shocked after hearing Alicia''s story. "Father, I''m not lying to you. Not even a bit. If you don''t believe me, you can ask sister then. Though she will hate you if you asked her now." Alicia giggled. "....." If what Alicia told was true then..... he glanced at Alex like he was a national treasure He then got in front of Alex, grabbing his shoulder and scanning him up and down. Even the king who laughed happily, puzzled with his action. "Raymond, what are you doing" King asked "I''m checking him brother." Raymond said "Check..ing ?" The king becomes more puzzled "Yes.. whether this boy a monster in human clothing" Raymond continued. "Monster? What are you saying, Raymond?" "Don''t you know brother. He can control mana flow in his body the first time he tried. Then he succeeds in his first spell also in his first tried. Then he chants with a new chant he created himself, not only the chant was shorter but also the power output was greater than fireball spell" Raymond repeated the story told by Alicia. "This... You serious?" The king didn''t believe what just he heard. The grand duke only nodded. "This..." The king shocked. And started doing what grand duke did just now. He grabbed Alex and scanning him up and down. "....." Alex froze. After scanning Alex, The king and grand duke suddenly make a conversation with only themselves in the corner "Raymond... this Alex... His potential is limitless. I think he has more potential than our founder." The king said "You mean... He might become a god? even our founder can''t become a god. Don''t you exaggerated a bit much brother?" Raymond said "No.. I''m not exaggerating a bit. In truth, I think we still underestimated his potential" King confirmed what he said. "If this was true then... our kingdom will have a god in a few decades. After the first ascended who ascend 5000 years ago, there''s no one who has the potential to become a god anymore except our founder. But even he failed to become a god" "Umu.. so what should we do now? First, we need to bind him to our kingdom" "Yes... what should we do..." Grand duke recalled a bit "Brother, didn''t Alicia said Alex make her disheartened" "Ah... Nice one brother" And the two suddenly laughed. Alicia confused with his father and uncle, while Alex got a chill. 15 Engagemen After Grand duke and King got a plan, the king arrived in front of Alicia and Alex. "Alicia, didn''t you said. You got a bit disheartened?" Asked the king "Ah..... no....." And that earns her a glared from her uncle. "Hii..... Yes" Alicia immediately correct herself "So, who is it? I will flatten him now" King continued with a nasty smile Alicia can only looking down and pointed at Alex. Alex froze. "So... you are the one who makes my niece sad..." King throw an angry looked at Alex "Let me.... explain...." Alex flustered. "What explain.. since you make my niece sad, I don''t care about your explanation." King continued "This.... this..." He glanced at Alicia still looking down and he glanced at Grand duke. "Brother, please calm down a bit" Grand duke broke his silence. The king looked like he calms down a bit. "Fine, but since he made my niece sad, he must take responsibility" the king put out a condition. "Responsibility?" Alicia shocked. "What responsibility" Alex scared. "You must marry Alicia!" The king said his condition "Marry?" Alicia and Alex shocked with the condition "Uncle, what are you saying!" Alicia''s face immediately becomes red. "Yes, you marry him. What? You don''t want to marry him?" The king said with a little scary face. "I...I..." She can only look at her father for help. But even her father betrayed her. "You don''t need to marry him now. How about becoming engaged first." Her father said "Engaged?" True, She interested in Alex and liking him a bit. This feeling was forged from 4 months traveling with Alex. But her feeling still not at the point of love and marriage. "Engaged? Fine.. you two can be engaged first. What you don''t want to engage with him, Alicia? If you don''t really like him a bit and don''t want to engage with him, it''s fine. I will ask your sister after this" King said "Uncle... you... You two bullied me. Hwaa!" She immediately runs away from the room. After Alicia left. The king glanced at Alex "What? You don''t want to marry her?" King throw a scary glare at him "This...this... we still small and can''t talk about marriage, besides I''m just a commoner" Alex explained his reasoning. "So.. You just want to play my niece? You courting death boy" "This... no" He shook his head and thought ''Played your niece? Played your ass! When I played her...'' he can only scream about this in his mind, but can''t say them aloud. "Then you engaged with her. Alright, that''s it, I don''t want to have any complaint later. You are dismissed" King said "This..." He can only look down and got out of the room Just after he left, he hears the grand duke and the king laughed happily. And he knew he was played by them. If there''s an Oscar, then the king would win. If he knew the plan was from Grand duke. He will be speechless, since their first conversation with grand duke at the dining room, he thought the grand duke was someone who not sacrificed his daughter just to make her married. ---- At night, ''knock knock'' "Who is it?" Alex said "It''s me" Alicia''s voice heard. Alex slowly got up from his bed and opened the door. He saw Alicia with a super red face wearing a nightgown. "Alicia... What are you doing here?" Alex startled "Can.. we talk?" Said Alicia with a low voice "Plea..se.. com in" Alicia got in and sit on the sofa. "What do you want to talk about?" Alex asked "What.. do you think about our engagement?" Alicia carefully asked Alex "This..." Alex doesn''t know how to explain. "I will be honest here. I think I''d like you a bit... but it''s not to the point of love." A bit embarrassed with her statement, she looked down. "I...I.." "I know uncle and father want to marry me to you, especially because of you as a pure element master" She explained "This..." Alex sigh. "Let me tell you a story. There''s a boy. The boy was your average child, his parents love him. Many may think they are a joyous family. But it stops after his younger sister shows her talents, at twelve her sister already enroll at high school, many said she a genius that comes every 100 years. Not long after that. In his home, his parents started looking at him like looking at trash, and his previous loving sister only coldly glared at him. But even with that, he still thinking ''if my sister was a genius in academics, then I will learn otherwise.'' The boy started learning about agriculture, husbandry, business, etc. But, what he got was the scorn of everyone around him. Even his parents said ''why are you such useless trash. We are regret to give birth to you''. Then the boy started to regret being born himself." Alex told his story while looking at the window Before continuing his story. He sighed and glanced at Alicia. He saw Alicia crying so hard Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Al..icia.." He startled "Hiks..hiks... then? What... hiks... happened to the boy?" She asked while crying "Why are you crying... I can''t be bothered with the story anymore. If the king knows about this, he will butcher me on the spot. So please stop crying" Alex sit beside her, wiping her tears Hearing him, she giggled a bit while her tears still streaming down "Alex... we can be engaged first. If after we graduated from the academy, and don''t want to be married. We will call our marriage. If we agreed to marry, then after we graduated we will hold our marriage. It''s mean three years agreement for us. How do you say?" Wiping her tears, she leans her head to his shoulder "This... Ok, let''s do as you say" he agreed. But he realized Alicia was sleeping on his shoulder. He froze. He started to recall his childhood. He has a happy family. Caring parents and lovely younger sister. He doesn''t know why everything changed. His parents started looking at him like trash. His lovely sister started giving him a cold shoulder. Without him knowing, his own tears started to fall down on his face. After crying a bit, he too started to become sleepy and eventually fall asleep. 16 Agreemen Tomorrow morning in Alicia''s room, ''knock knock'' "Princess Alicia" There''s no response after she knocked on the door a few times so she called in. Because there''s still no response from inside. The maid informed the senior maid in the mansion. ''knock knock'' "Princess Alicia" The senior maid called Alicia but also doesn''t get any response, so she barged in "Princess Alicia, I''m coming in" The senior maid barged into the room. After searching for a while, she doesn''t find Alicia inside her room. She panicked. Every day, Alicia won''t go out of the room, before the maid dressed her up. So seeing that Alicia not in the room, The senior maid panicked. "Princess Alicia, Princess Alicia" The senior maid immediately reported there''s no Alicia in her room. The head maid panicked hearing the report, so she immediately ordered the maids to searched Alicia, while she informed what happened to the grand duke. After hearing Alicia missing. The grand duke panicked too. He immediately searched around ''Alicia Alicia, where are you? Are you really against the marriage with Alex?'' the grand duke searched his mansion while thinking about this. "Husband, what happened?" noticing the situation, The house lady, grand duke wife asked. "Alicia was missing" uttered grand duke. "What?! Why ? where?" She throws many questions to the grand duke. "I...I..." Thinking about yesterday when he and his brother want Alicia to marry Alex but there''s no way he can explain this to his wife. "You know something right? So you did something... Explain!!!" The lady angrily grabbed grand duke demanding an explanation "Yesterday. I and brother asked Alicia to marry Alex. That''s right. Alex!" he searched the garden, all the room in the mansion except Alex''s room "That''s right Alex''s room!" He immediately set off to Alex''s room "Alex, I''m coming in" without bothering to knock, he barged into the room. But what he never expected what he saw. On the sofa, there''s one man and woman sitting side-by-side, Leaning to each other, because of the curtain that was not closed yesterday, the sunlight illuminated them, and of course still sleeping. Looking at the scene, you can see a harmonized couple sleeping so lovingly. ''Perfect'' grand duke was mesmerized by the scene "Husband! Do you see Alicia" After the lady catches up with her husband, and saw the scene. She too was mesmerized by the scene. They looked at each other. "Let''s go out?" They asked each other. But before they have time to went out of the room, Alicia woke up "mmm..... already morning?" Alicia yawned But after she looked what in front of her, she confused why her father and mother in her bedroom "Father, mother what are you doing here?" She asked but soon she froze. She noticed this room wasn''t her room. She recalled what happened last night. Alex and she were discussing their engagement, and because she was sleepy. She dozed off. "Fa...ther...Mot...her... this.. is not what you think" She immediately want to explain to her parents. Her face gets red so much like a tomato. "It''s was alright daughter. You don''t need to explain. Please enjoy your sleep" Grand duke with ''I understand'' face "Yes, Alicia, we understand. Your dad here already explained to me too" though she doesn''t know why grand duke wants to marry her youngest daughter with her daughter. She knows it''s for her daughter''s happiness, she trusted him. "Nooo...." Alicia shout. Alex started to wake up. "mmm..." Alex opened his eyes and froze. "Grand duke, madam." He greeted them as nothing happen. But after he realized that Alicia was beside him. He immediately recalled what happened last night "Let me... expl..." Before Alex completed his sentence. Grand duke places his hand to Alex''s shoulder with ''I understand'' face "You don''t need to explain. You can start calling me father" "My husband is right, you can call me with ''mother'' too" "This... this..." Alex speechless "Father... Mother...!" Alicia shout and run away with a red face "I...I..." Alex wanted to explain but no words come out from his mouth "As I said, you need to start calling me father" "Yes. Call me mother too" They grabbed Alex like a ferocious wolf, not letting Alex off before they completed their objective. Looking at them, Alex doesn''t know what to do. He surrendered "Fat..her... Mo...ther..." Alex called them with an awkward voice. He forgot when the last time he said this word. "Good..good son" satisfied with Alex, they got out of the room. Alex can only sigh. Not long after, the situation around the mansion calms down. Alex and Alicia got called by the grand duke After the incident in the morning, the grand duke explained to his wife what happened yesterday. After knowing the reasons, she satisfied with her husband''s choice and considered Alex as her son-in-law. "Alex, Alicia. Since you two don''t have any problem with your marriage then it''s decided." Grand duke said happily. "Father... We.. we...Alex Explain!" Alicia wants to explain but no words come to her mind so she ordered Alex to explain "This..." Alex calming himself down he started explaining "Alicia and Alex decided to keep the engagement for now. We decided to test the relationship. After graduation from the academy, we will decide if we want to marry each other or not. If not we want to annul the engagement" "Annulled ?" Grand duke catch this word from Alex explanation, he looked at Alex and started releasing his aura "Father! We already decided this" Noticing his aura Alex scared, Alicia immediately explained firmly. Looking at his daughter''s reaction, he calms down a bit. "We decided to wait and see first until graduation. It means three years. You and uncle want us to engage. But respect us too" Alicia shout to the grand duke Grand duke surprised with his daughter. "But.. daughter you know you will become 19 years old by then.. if you two not...." before grand duke complete his sentences, "Father!" Alicia shout, releasing an imposing manner. Looking at her, he can only sigh and compromised. "Grand duke, we need to keep secret about this agreement" Alex looked at Alicia, then the grand duke. "Fine, I agreed to it. But I need to add a condition" "What is it?" Alex and Alicia asked at the same time. "You need to call me father" he looked at Alex. "I..I.. agree... Fat.her.." Satisfied with Alex''s response, he smiled while Alicia blushed. After reaching the compromised. They have lunch together and grand duke decided to announce their engagement. "Haha... I''m announcing a piece of good news for you all. Alex and Alicia now engaged." "...." Everybody shocked by the news. While Alex and Alicia''s face darkened, ''aren''t we agreed to keep this secret'' they thought. "Ufufu... now I have a son. Now call me mother Alex" The lady urged Alex. "...." Alex speechless. While the sisters congratulate Alicia. "Alicia congratulation, now I have brother-in-law" the first daughter, Lea said. "Alicia congratulation" Mia said, ''with this, I can get closer to him to get stronger''. Well, you can see this girl was what you called a muscle-brain. "Sisters!" Alicia flushed. ---- After lunch, the grand duke went to the castle to inform the king about the agreement. "This agreement.." King said while thinking something. "We need to plan something else. We need to make sure they are together". Grand duke nodded his head "How about we let them got to the same room in the academy dormitory? There are many nobles who have their maid accompany them in the room aren''t they." The king explained his plan. "We can do that. Same room, same class, sit next to each other, any school activities they need to do must be together." Grand duke added. The king agreed with the plan. He wrote two letters, one to Alex as a recommendation, and the other to the school about Alex''s arrangement. --- Tomorrow "Alex, this is your recommendation letter for the academy, since normally the academy needs to test your ability. With your ability, you will needlessly pass. But, we need to keep your power secret." Grand duke give the letter to Alex "Thank you Gran.." Before Alex completed, grand duke, releasing his aura "Thank you, Father!" Noticing this, Alex immediately corrected himself. Satisfied with Alex response, he continued "The enrollment will start next week. So you can familiarize yourself with this royal capital. Asked Alicia to take you to stroll around the city" "Yes..father" after that he got out of the room. For the next week, Alex asked Alicia to bring him around. Of course Alicia happy to do that. They strolled around the city and of course shopping. On the last day, she brought Alex to the academy. "This is Acacia Royal Academy, the best academy in this world" Alicia proudly introduced the academy to Alex. "..." Used to exaggerated pride for her kingdom, Alex only ignored her and looked at the entrance. She started bombarded him with how great this academy is. After an hour, she started to pant "Tired? Let''s lunch first" looking at the time, it''s perfect to have lunch, so he suggested. "Yes, let''s go to Phoenix Restaurant. Sisters said their food was great and cheap, so many students eat there" She pointed at the restaurant in front of the academy. "Alright, let''s go" He agreed and walked to the restaurant They searched for an empty table at the corner and sit there. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "What''s your order, sir and miss?" Asked the waiter "Let''s go with today special for both of us." Alicia ordered their food "Tomorrow is the enrollment day right?" Alex asked Alicia. "Yes.. we will set off in the morning" "This is your orders" The waiter plated the table with the foods. Alex and Alicia started eating. 17 Incident at The Restauran After the waiter put their food on the table. They start eating. The food was good and with the current prices, he knows why many students eat in this restaurant. "How is it?" Alicia asked about Alex''s opinion. "It''s good, with the current pricing, I know why many students chose this place to eat." "Right" Alicia smiled "Now we have finished eating, what should we do next?" "Hmm... I think we already visited too many places these past weeks, should we went home and prepares for tomorrow?" "How about we stroll a bit and go home after that, there''s no need to visit any place, just walking on the street?" He thought a bit and there''s no problem with Alicia so he nodded. "Exercise a bit after eating, so you don''t get fat" Suddenly, a dark aura appears from Alicia''s body. She now looked like a demon. "I''m not fat" She stated, refusing any other option "I never said you are fa.." Alex tried to argued but Alicia just smiled at Alex. Many looking at Alicia smiled and mesmerized by her beautiful smile while Alex can only saw her smile was scary. "I...I..." Alex scared. But suddenly there''s a young man approached them "My..my... isn''t this princess Alicia." The young man said. Alex just looked at the young man. The young man just looks like your typical noble and rather handsome. "You are?" Alicia looked at the young man. "I''m Nito Pondria. The second son of marquis Pondria. Please, nice to meet you, princess Alicia." Nito introduced himself. "Good day to you Mr. Nito Pondria" Alicia returned the greeting. Nito sent a glare at Alex. "May I know who this gentleman is?" Nito said while looking down at Alex "This gentleman is Alexander Sirius" Alicia introduced Alex to Nito "Sirius? I never know any family or house with the name Sirius" Before Alicia speak, Alex interrupted "Because I''m a commoner" "A commoner? Based on your status, you don''t have the right to sit with princess Alicia. Break one of your arm and scram now" After hearing Alex was a commoner, he looked Alex with disdain. He then looked at Alicia "Princess Alicia with your status, why are you sitting with this lowly commoner?. Rather than sitting with him, how about you stroll around with me?" Nito was jealous, envy, and hate Alex. Not only Alex can sit with Alicia, but he also received her smile. After looking at Alicia''s smile, Nito was mesmerized by her smile. Alicia was stunned with the development. "You..." Before Alicia has a chance, Nito continued "Guards, break this lowly commoner limbs and throw him away." Nito ordered his guard with contempt. Looking at the guards who approached Alex to start attacking Alex, Alicia shout "You, who do you think you are. Who I want to meet with, I want to eat with. It''s not your concern. And this guards what do you think you are doing" Nito surprised by Alicia''s response. He jealous Alex and glared at him angrily wanting to kill him. "Do it, don''t just break his limbs. Take his lowly life" he shouts. The guards who stopped after Alicia shout, hearing their owner order, they started attacking Alex once again. "You... Stop" Alicia shout again The guards didn''t pay any heed now, with Nito''s order they want to grabbed Alex and kill him outside. "rank 1..." looking at the guards'' strength, Alex shaking his head Looking at the guards approaching him. Alex just snorted. He effortlessly evades the guards. Alex punched the two guards in front of him. After receiving Alex''s punch, the guard was sent flying a few meters. Luckily there is no spectacle like tables, Alex too doesn''t want to break anything in this shop. Normally, nobles guard was a rank 1 or rank 2. While the captain usually rank 3 or rank 4. So these two rank 1 guards want to kill Alex who was a rank 3 then it was their doom. Alex then glared at Nito, "You...." Nito shocked by Alex''s strength. Alex says nothing and slowly approached him. "Don''t you know who I am" Nito shocked "Yes yes, some marquis second son" Alex replied nonchalantly "You.. who do you think you are... I''m Nito Pondria. My father is a marquis. You dare to hit Pondria''s house guard. You better prepared, you lowly commoner" "...." Alex ignored him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You...don''t come.." After Alex got in front of him. Alex slapped him. "You... dare to hit me. You finished. You will die." Alex wanted to hit him once more, but suddenly Alicia grabbed Alex''s hand. Alex looked at Alicia, she shook her head. "Let''s go home" Alex nodded. Looking at the couple who want to leave, Nito shout. "You.. you can''t leave. I will kill you now, you commoner life are on the hand of nobles. So your life in my hand. Get here now, kowtow to me, and I will leave your body intact" Hearing this, Alicia frowned, many others on the scene to frowned. Not only commoner looking at Nito angrily but also nobles. "You..., commoner life was on themself, not nobles. We nobles got the power to serve the kingdom and helping the commoner." Alicia shout angrily "And also Alexander was the guest of my father. Are Pondria house planning to challenge our Rizertia house" "I...I... don''t dare" but Nito once again pointed his hand at Alex "But he hit me, a lowly commoner hit me and what right this lowly commoner become the guest of your house!" "once more you pointed your hand at him, I will take it as the challenge to my Rizertia house, and who do you think you are to questioning my father, the grand duke decision" then she looked at Alex "Alex, let''s just go home" After they left, many commoners look at Nito angrily. While noble looked at him with disdain. The guards standing up and approach Nito to escape the scene. "That lowly commoner... that lowly commoner, I will kill him" Nito roared. While Alex and Alicia walking home. Their atmosphere was awkward. "Alex... what he said wasn''t the view of nobles of this kingdom. So..." Alicia tried to explain. Even when she explained to Alex, she still said the Acacia kingdom. This shows her pride and love for the Acacia kingdom. Other kingdoms can be seen bad, but her kingdom cannot. "....." Alex only maintain his silent "Alex..." She tugged his arm. Alex just shakes his head "I don''t really care about that princess. I''m only a commoner. Even if we see my nationality, then I am Zircodia kingdom commoner, not this kingdom." Hearing what Alex said, her heart shattered. He first started to call her with ''princess'' once again. And he said he is ''Zircodina''s commoner''. "Alex... Listen to me..." Alicia wanted to explain to Alex. Alex shook his head. He recalled when he was summoned. The ministers and nobles present at the hall were admired him and the other as heroes, but when they looked at his weak strength and potential, they looked at him with disdain. "I just remembered, without status and strength. The other will look at you with contempt." Alicia and Alex recalled when the first time they meet. Alex shows his strength, saving them from the orcs. It''s only a special Nobles like Rizertia that didn''t mind about Alex as Commoner. But if others see Alex a commoner talk with Alicia who is a princess, they can only say ''Rude'' "Alex...Let me explain..." Alicia still tried to explain to Alex, while Alex only maintaining his silent. When they arrived home. "Well, then Princess. I will excuse myself" Alex politely said to Alicia. "Alex...." Looking at Alex''s back becoming further and further away, she bites her lips. She went to report today incident to her father. -- "Father!" "Oh.. you are back my darling daughter. How is your date with Alex? Why are you like this" Seeing Alicia stressed grand duke asked. She calms herself down and started to tell what happened at the restaurant and Alex start distancing himself "This... what is marquis Pondria teaching his son! Damn!" The grand duke was angry. Meanwhile at Alex''s room, Alex sat on the sofa in lotus pose, he then calms himself and starts focus. He started his qi training according to basic cultivation manual that he got from the system After 4 hours of cultivation, there''s a sound on the outside. ''knock knock'' "Sir Alexander, it''s time for dinner" the maid outside said. Alex stopped his cultivating a bit, he opened the door and saw the maids. "Please tell the duke, I''m sorry, I still in the middle practicing. Please proceed without me" Looking at Alex who apologized, the maids don''t know what to do. But after Alex closed his door again, the maids have no choice but to report. After Alex close the door, he sat on the sofa once again. "System, you there?" [Yes Host] "If I''m going to the academy, then how can I get a ticket ?" [Host can dismantle your items. There will be a chance for tickets will appear] "... Why you never talk about this system?" [System judged it wasn''t the time yet Host. System wanted to inform Host about this after Host used more than 500 tickets] "How many tickets I already used?" [493 Tickets] "...." he sigh "I want to dismantle" [Please choose your items to dismantle] "Hmm.. what should I dismantle? I think I only need one manual each, so any manuals that more than 1, dismantle it." [Process] [Ticket 12x] "Then dismantle any tools that I have more than 5" [Process] [Ticket 19x] "Then dismantle water bottles. I don''t think I will need that much" [Process] [Ticket 1x] "...., why only 1?! I dismantle 134 water bottles and only got one ticket?!" Alex snapped at system [Water bottle was the lowest of the lowest items in the system, you can call it junk host. host already lucky to still get 1 ticket] "...." "But you are the one who give me that much!" Alex angry to system. [Host, system is gacha system. it''s your luck that matter, not system] "&%*$&%" 18 Incident at Nigh After calming down a bit, "System, use 10 tickets in Techniques, and the rest at Materials. I don''t need any tools for the moment" [Piano Manual 1x] [Fencing 2x] [Sword Art Manual 2x] [Basic Forging Manual 1x] [Spear Art Manual 2x] [Basic Medicine Manual 1x] [Basic Acupuncture Manual 1x] [Water Bottle 15x] [Iron ore 2x] [Mithril 3x] [Iron nail 1x] [Chicken Feather 1x] "Forging!" Alex surprised "At last, I got a forging manual. I already have Alchemy Manual but I don''t have any cauldron to use. I searched everywhere but never found alchemy cauldron. It seems like now I can make my own cauldron." He jumped around happily. Ignoring that many water bottles he just gots. After a while, he started calming down. "System, dismantle the item like before" [Process] [Ticket 2x] "2 tickets... Let''s save them for now" While Alex still grinning happily, he doesn''t know the mood in the dining hall. In the dining hall, the atmosphere was gloomy, the one who makes this was grand duke and Alicia. The rest was confused, why grand duke and Alicia was like this. So the wife asked grand duke "What happened husband?" Just as he was about to explain, the maids get in. "Master, Sir Alexander said he was in the middle practice and he doesn''t need a meal" "Aah....." grand duke''s face darkened "Alright, you go out" The maids looking at grand duke, they scared and immediately left. "Husband, what happened to you? Alicia? And Alexander?" The wife confused. "This..." he calming himself down and started explaining what happened at the restaurant. And about Alex started distancing himself from Alicia After hearing the whole story, the atmosphere becomes more gloomy than before. After eating, they just went back to their own room. At night, Alex got back to cultivate when he finished opening his gacha. After cultivating for 2 hours, he opened his eyes. "Hmm... summing up from before, 6 hours I can get 5 points status with one point each status. It''s almost midnight, so he prepared to sleep. ''knock knock'' Hearing the sound knocking door, Alex immediately opened the door. He surprised as he found Alicia was the one who came. "Princess.." "Alex..." The atmosphere around them was awkward. "Princess, what business do you have? It''s almost midnight now. It will damage your reputation if you were seen when coming to a man''s room at midnight" Alex broke the silence. "Alex.., please... don''t call me Princess, just call me Alicia like you always do" Alicia bites her lips. Looking Alex become so polite when talking to her, tears start forming at the corner of her eyes "Princess, if only this matter. Please go back to your room to rest for tomorrow." "Alex..." she looked down, dejected. When Alex wants to close his door and Alicia was about to left. They heard the windows shattered. Alex immediately readied his battle stance, since he recognized the sound coming from his back. It''s mean the windows that just got shattered was his room. "Assassin" Alicia shout. The assassin without further ado closed his distances with Alex and swing his dagger to Alex''s neck. Alex immediately blocked the assassin''s hand and kicked him. The assassin surprised by Alex''s reaction. He immediately put his other hand to block Alex''s kick. But Alex''s kick still blows him away. ''Strong'' both of them immediately thought. Recognizing each other power was the same. The assassin immediately changed his target to Alicia that was behind Alex. Noticing the assassin''s intent, Alex immediately grabbed Alicia to his bosom and dodged. Alex doesn''t dodge thoughtlessly. He dodged to the side of his bed, where he placed his sword. He grabbed his sword. Alicia froze when Alex pulled her to his bosom, she blushed. "Alex... I will help" when looking Alex grabbed his sword, she started to calm down. Looking at Alex having the same strength, The assassin wants to escape. "You want to leave?" Alex immediately swung his sword to the assassin, making him can''t escape. Suddenly the duke voice was heard. "Where is the assassin!" The duke roared. When the assassin heard the sound of the grand duke. He knows he can''t escape right now. Noticing this, Alex wanted to interrogate him. "Who are you? Who sent you?" "You won''t have any information from me" "We will see...stop" The assassin snorted and commit suicide. Confirming the assassin dead, he looked at Alicia "Princess.. you okay?" Alicia nodded. "Princess, you should inform the grand duke" "Alex..." Even after this incident, Alex seems to become more distanced from her. She bites her lips and left. She doesn''t know why Alex become so distanced from her so suddenly. In reality, when the incident in the restaurant. His past trauma resurfaced. When he was a kid, his parents loving him, but soon after he was useless comparing with her sister, they hated him. When he has a friend in the middle school who treated him indifferently when he has a girlfriend who treated him so nice. And when they betrayed him together, become his trauma. He thought, now Alicia, grand duke, and king treating him nicely because of his talent, when he thought ''what if I don''t have this talent anymore will they betray him?'' This thought of him keep surfacing in his mind. That''s why he started to distance himself from her. Not long after Alicia left, she came back with the grand duke. "Alex... Let me do the rest, you rest in the room next door." Grand duke said after checking Alex if there are any wounds. Alex nodded and left. While grand duke only shakes his head and blame that bastard Nito. In the new bedroom, Alex just decided to sleep. In the morning, Alex opened his eyes, he immediately dresses up. ''knock knock'' Alex opened his door when the maids looked at Alex already dressed, they surprised. "Sir, we come to.." "I have prepared, lead the way please" Alex interrupted. The maids then lead the way to the garden. In the garden there''s a carriage waiting, that was the previous carriage used when Alicia traveled. Beside the carriage, there are the grand duke and head butler waiting. Alex approached them "Grand Duke, Head butler" Alex greeted them, but the tone he used was more polite. The grand duke''s face darkened. "Alex... How are you?" "I''m fine. Thanks for the grand duke''s concern" Hearing Alex''s response, he gritted his teeth "The assassin was a rank 3, he doesn''t belong to any organization nor family. I heard from Alicia, you got attacked by the son of marquis. So, what happened yesterday may be linked to them. After you set off, I will immediately go to Pondria''s house to demands an explanation." Alex nodded "Thank you, grand duke" Grand duke sighed. After a while, Alicia got out. She wears a white dress, matching it with Alex''s white cloth. "Father" She greeted grand duke when she turned to Alex "Alex...." she greeted Alex awkwardly. "Good morning princess Alicia" Alex greeted her politely. Noticing the awkwardness, "Since the two of you here, let''s go" the grand duke said The four of them got in the carriage, the travel doesn''t take too much time, only ten minutes. "Then you two have a nice day" the grand duke said Alicia and Alex nodded and walk to the academy, while the grand duke and his butler going to Pondria''s house. They walked to the crowd forming in line in front of the academy. Alex and Alicia joined the queue. "Rank 0, warrior, no element, 18 years old. Failed!" "Rank 1, Warrior, no element, 16 years old. Passed!" "Rank 0, Mage, Fire element, 17 years old. Passed!" The old man assessed the recruits, some failed and some passed. "Alex, you have the recommendation letter from the king, you don''t need to wait here" Alicia whispered to Alex "I will wait for you first Princess" "Rank 1, Mage, Fire element, 16 Years old. Passed!" the old man surprised. "We have a genius this year" the other teacher who standby also joined. "Yeah, A rank 1 fire element mage, and he is still 16 years old. He is a genius" The recruitment for these years was for 16 years old to 19 years old. A rank 1 warrior usually was around 18 years old. While rank 1 mage was rarer than rank 1 warrior. So a 16 years old rank 1 mage was abnormal. "What is your name?" The old man asked politely. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "My name is Rio Maroria, First son of earl Maroria." He said with a smug smile. He already expected this result since he already tested in his house. Many people already claimed he was a genius. "So, it''s sir Rio Maroria. I heard so much about you." The old man politely said Rio and Alicia just silent watching this scene. After Rio''s assessment, many wannabe students envy and jealous of his talents. Rio stood by the side, watching the other assessment while grinning. After a while, it''s time for Alicia''s assessment. "Rank 1, Mage, Ice Element, 16 years old. Passed!" the old man surprised once more. The truth is Alicia was almost rank 2. After traveling with Alex for four months. Alex likes going out alone to kill monsters, but Alicia often followed him. So Alicia who was a new rank 1 mage when they first met now almost a rank 2 mage. "This... a genius appeared again!" the crowd shocked. "it''s.. not water element. But ice element!" ice element was more advanced element than water element, so ice element was even rarer than fire and water element. Rio shocked. He not only shocked by Alicia''s talent but also her beauty. He immediately decided he will get this woman. So he walked to Alicia. "Oh my, This is Princess Alicia. A pleasure to meet you, princess. My name is Rio Maroria. The first sone of earl Maroria. Since the princess already passed the assessment, why don''t we got in together" "Greeting to you, sir Rio Maroria. I will wait for him first" she looked at Alex. When Alicia looked at Alex, Rio sent a cold gaze to Alex "You can scram from here. You don''t need to be assessed. You failed!" Rio commanded. Alex ignored Rio and give his letter to the old man. "Sir, this is my recommendation letter" Alex politely gave his letter to the old man. Each noble will have one recommendation letter for their house. They usually used it for their children who have no talent. Looking at Alex''s recommendation letter. Rio thought Alex must be a poor talent since he needed a recommendation letter. So he looked at Alex with contempt. "Huh, recommendation letter. Your talent was so bad you need to use a recommendation letter. You don''t have the right for Alicia to wait for you. Just scram from here." "Sir Rio Maroria. We are not familiar with each other. So don''t call me by my name. And also it''s not your business who I waiting for" Alicia said. "You..." seeing Alicia reprimanded him, he hated Alex more then he looked at the old man and other teachers "I don''t want him in the academy, he has no talent and only relying upon recommendation letter." "You... please leave, the academy doesn''t welcome you" The old man said, giving Alex''s letter back. "You... Why did you act like this! You will regret this" Alicia glared at the old man and Rio. Rio only snorted, he jealous of seeing Alicia with Alex. He already considered Alicia to be his woman. So he wanted to chase Alex away. While the old man saw Alex relying on a recommendation letter, he already decided it''s better to get on Rio''s good side than Alex. Alex surprised by this action. He shaking his head and sighed. When he just about to leave. "Wait!" 19 Dean "Wait!" The sound coming from an old man who flying toward them. "De...an, Dean what occasion you have here?" the old man stood up "You are the head examiner this time?" the dean gave a cold gaze to him. "Yes..yes" the old man stuttered. The dean snorted then he turned to Alex "Are you the one mentioned by the king? Alexander Sirius?" Alex nodded. The others were shocked. ''was the dean know this young man?'' they thought Confirming It''s was Alexander, then he looked at the letter on Alex''s hand "Is that the king''s recommendation letter?" He asked Alex nodded again. All people excluding Alicia were shocked hearing Alex response. The letter Alex has wasn''t a normal nobles recommendation letter but ''The King'' recommendation letter. What makes the king give his recommendation letter to him, many people thought of this at the moment. "Can I see it?" Alex nodded and gave the letter to the king. The dean opened his letter carefully like opening a treasure. Looking at the content he was shocked. "Ah... ah... King, you want me to get a heart attack." He then looked at Alex "You... know the king mentioned about you. He said you will give me a big surprise with the letter you hold, aih..." The dean took a while to calm down, then he asked Alex. "Do you want to be my student?" The dean asked. "I am not welcomed to be a student in the academy" Alex shook his head. "What... Who? Who said that?! I will butcher him" The dean roared. Alex pointed at the Old man and Rio. "You.... you are not qualified to be the head of the examiner this year. You are already too old and still a rank 6, you can retire now" the dean immediately dismissed the old man with just one finger from Alex. ''what is the content of the letter?'' ''is he an illegitimate son of the king?'' "De...an, dean I already contributed so much for the academy" "Then choose, whether you sacrificed yourself or he can leave the academy. Even you sacrificed yourself he won''t be this academy student this year" The dean pointed at Rio Of course, he chose to sacrifice Rio. He himself was the elder from earl house too. So he wasn''t afraid of Rio. "You..." Rio shouted The dean ignored them and he turned to Alex, the dean asked Alex once more, "Do you want to be my student?" After thinking for a while Alex shake his head "It''s enough for me to be a student in the academy" All the people including Alicia shocked by Alex''s response. The dean was a rank 8 fire mage and doesn''t have any student. Many people want to be the dean student, it''s mean to become a successor of rank 8 fire mage. But Alex rejected him. When the dean read Alex''s letter. The content was Alex''s talents. He was shocked by Alex''s talents. So he desperately asked Alex to be his successor. "You.. sure? How about you think again. Look at me, I still don''t have any successor. So..so.. how to make you be my student?" the dean still shocked with Alex, never he thought Alex will reject him. When Alex was just about to shake his head. Alicia whispered something to his ear "Alex... are you stupid? The dean was one of the 10 rank 8 of the kingdom. A rank 8 fire mage. He can teach you better about fire elements, spells, and others. It''s much much better than my elder sister. Hurry accepted to be his student!" Alex looked at Alicia for a while, he nodded. Then he turned to the dean and bowed to him "Please take care of me, teacher" Looking at Alex agreed to be his student, the dean was in cloud nine. A rank 3 warrior who has pure fire element, if Alex''s talent was noticed by the other kingdom, then there will be a war to have Alex. "Sure sure sure. Let''s go, my student, we will immediately finish your arrangement. Let''s go inside" He give a thumb up to Alicia. Hearing the dean invitation, Alex looked at Alicia. He wanted to ask the dean to bring her too but Alicia just nodded. "Go in first, I will meet you later" she smiled. Alex nodded, the dean and Alex fled to the inside. In the dean office, Alex and Dean sited on the sofa, "Haiz... the king really give me a big present this time. You know when the king mentioned you. He just said you will give me a big surprise. When you give me his letter, I almost got a heart attack you know. You want to know the content?" Alex nodded. "The content was about your talent. Haiz, a 17 years old, rank 3 warrior, pure fire element. If these words heard by another kingdom. We will have a war to have you. So make sure you don''t tell others about your talents" The dean concealed a latter part of the letter. The latter part was for him to have the same room with Alicia. It''s mentioned about his engagement with Alicia too. He shocked about Alex''s talents so he wanted to pay back his student. He must be shocked if he gets the same room with Alicia. "I will remember teacher words" with a solemn expression "Good good good" Satisfied with Alex response The dean then explained the rule and environment in the academy. There''s three grade student in the academy, for the freshman to advance to the second grade, they will need to pass a certain requirement. If they not passed after a year then they need to leave from the academy. The same with the advancement to third grade. That''s why the second-grade student only had 200 students while the third grade has 30 students. It''s mean whoever graduate from this academy whether they are commoner or nobles will have a boundless prospect. Because they are the elite of the elite. Noticing it''s already evening, he stop explaining. "It''s already this late, here is your key. The dormitory was behind this building. The room number is already shown in your key." He gave Alex a golden key, with number 401 on it. "Then, I will excuse myself teacher" Alex left. Alex went to the dormitory. Alex saw a lady in her mid-thirties wearing teacher uniforms at the entrance of the dormitory. So Alex decided to greet her. "Greeting teacher" "You are a new student?" "Yes. I just got here" She nodded. "Since you are a new student then you must stay in this dormitory. What is your name? I will check any room remaining" "My name is Alexander Sirius. Actually, I already have the room key" He shown the key that dean gives him. "Let me see" She take the key and saw number 401 on it, she nodded "Your room number is 401. It''s the furthest room on the fourth floor." "Thank you teacher" Alex then left. "Hmm. 401. I think that room already occupied with a lady just now. Whatever" Seeing Alex already left, she doesn''t care anymore. Alex didn''t know when he got accepted as a successor of the dean, it''s become big news for the kingdom immediately. -- In Pondria House, There are two middle-aged men chatting, they are the grand duke and marquis Pondria. "I heard my son was hit by your guest, grand duke Raymond. May I ask what this means?" Marquis Pondria said with a menacing tone. "but I heard another story about that" Grand duke said in a carefree manner. "Oh.. please tell me" "Your son wanted to cripple my guest in front of my daughter. And another story was about your son, flaunt his title as nobility and humiliate commoners" "Why I never heard of that. You must be joking with me grand duke Raymond" Marquis Pondria surprised. "Haha.. how about you asked your son" "Butler Ji, call Nito here" He ordered his butler. After a while, Nito Pondria got in the room "What happened yesterday?" Marquis looked at his son. "Father you must get me justice. He hit our guards, and he even slapped my face" Nito pleaded. "Oh. That''s what happened Grand duke, I demand your explanation grand duke!. If anyone can hit my son''s face, won''t my Pondria don''t have any face anymore" Marquis turned to Grand duke. "Then, why was your son hit?" grand duke still continue his carefree manner. "He... he was rude to me. He ignored me when I talked to him" Nito said. "That was the reason grand duke Raymond. Are you satisfied? Now I need an explanation" "Then, let me tell you the story I heard. My daughter accompanying my guest to the restaurant. But my guest was told to scram in front of my daughter. Not only he was told to scram but also need to break his arm. Because of that he just ignored him. Then your son ordered his guard to crippled him. My guest only fights back, is there any wrong about it?" "But, my son still got hit." The marquis keep pressing this matter. "You..." The duke''s face starts to become solemn. But suddenly ''knock knock'' "Come in" Marquis said. His butler then comes inside the room. "Master, we got news. The dean of Royal Academy got a successor" butler inform him. "What? The dean got a successor? Who is it? Male or female? Is he single?" This news was shocking the marquis to that extent. While grand duke only sipped his tea, but if they focus on him, you can see there is a slight smile on his face. "His name is Alexander Sirius." "So his name was Alexander. Aren''t my daughter in the Academy? Make her try to get closer with him" "Yes, the young miss was second grade in the academy" then the marquis turned to the grand duke "I''m sorry grand duke for the interruption. Now we should go back to the matter beforehand" After hearing Alex''s name and what his father makes his sister to do, Nito got insane, he hated Alex so much "It''s him, father. He was the one who hit me" "What? It''s him." He turned to the grand duke, trying to confirm his guest "Oh. My guest''s name was Alexander Sirius." "You bastard!" The marquis slapped his son immediately, Nito blown away by the slap. He then turned to grand duke and said with a solemn face "Locked him in his room, I will deal with him later" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I will give you an explanation of this matter." "Haha. Then I remembered I have something to do, Marquis. I will excuse myself" after achieving his objective the grand duke wants to immediately leave. "Oh. I recalled my guest almost got assassinated yesterday night. I''m still investigating it though. Haha I will excuse myself" Hearing the last words of the grand duke, marquis''s face darkened. "Butler Ji, send the guest out" Though Grand duke wants an explanation from the marquis. He doesn''t want the relationship to become ''you die or I perished". So he still gives the marquis way out. -- In Maroria''s house. "Father, you must get me justice" Rio pleaded. "What happened?" "Your son was humiliated in front of crowds by some commoner. I was banned for this year enrollment while the commoner succeed" "what? Some commoner dares to do that to my son. I will get you justice. I know the dean, I sometimes chatted with him. I will make him expel that commoner. And make you got into the academy. My son was a genius I''m sure he will choose my son than that commoner. Son, you are tired, why don''t you rest first." The Earl said. If the earl knows the student he wants to expelled was the dean successor. Let you imagine yourself. . 20 S-Class Alex got into the room. The room almost the same as the guest room he has in Rizertia''s house. There''s one bed, one sofa, and the necessity for studies like table and chair. The different was there is a bathroom in the room. Alex remembered he didn''t take a bath yesterday. So he decided to take a bath first. After a while, there''s someone opened the door. She scanned the whole room. "Is this a single room? I thought in the academy will need to have a room for two" She heard someone in the bathroom still showering. "Hmm. So it''s true, I''m not alone. Well, the bed was big enough for two, so we can sleep together in the bed. Fufu, well I will wait for her finish first" She then sat on the sofa, "Alex..." Yes. She is Alicia. She recalling Alex distancing himself from her "I need to know the reason why he distances himself" determination filled her eyes. Not long after she heard, the sound in the bathroom gone. ''oh, she finished. Let''s greet her'' She got in front of the bathroom. When the door opened. "Hi, My name Alicia. Nice to meet you." She smiled. "Alicia?" When she heard this voice she froze. "A..Alex" Her face was red. "Princess, what are you doing in my room?" "Your room? But this is my room" "Your room? Really?" Alex surprised. Suddenly their brain clicked with each other ''King and Grand duke!'' ''Father and Uncle'' Alicia blushed. "I will go back to the dean, to discuss this princess. I will go out." When Alex wanted to go out, Alicia grabbed his hand. "Alex.. why don''t we shared this room? I don''t mind. Please" She pleaded Alex. "This..., Alright" looking at Alicia pleading gaze he decided to tell his teacher about this arrangement tomorrow She smiled, after a while, she blushed. '' a man and woman in a room'' her face was red like a tomato. Her imagination went wild "Then Princess can take the bed. I will take the sofa" "Ah.." "I will practice then" Alex then go to the sofa, sit in lotus pose. "Alex..! why do you call me princess? Please call me Alicia like always" Alex who just closed his eyes opened again. "I just realized you are a princess. I will need to call you Princess. If not your reputation will be damaged" "But I don''t mind" "But I mind, princess. It''s for your own good. I''m sure people will mind it too. There''s no way a commoner like me dare to call you by your name" "But...but.." "If it''s just that matter, I will practice now" Alex then Ignored his surroundings and focused to cultivate. "Alex...Alex..." Alicia tried to call him but to no avail. She doesn''t dare to move Alex. After 4 hours of cultivation, he then opened his eyes. He realizes it''s already time for his sleep. When he just about to stand up, he felt there''s something on his lap. He looked down, he saw Alicia sleeping, using his lap as her pillow. He shook his head and sighed. He carried Alicia in a princess carry, he put her in the bed and cover her with a quilt. After that, he got backed to the sofa and sleep. In the morning, Alicia woke up. She saw Alex swinging his sword. She rubbed her eyes, checking if she was awake or not. Then she started to recall the matter last night. She tried to call him but to no avail, then she observed him from the side until unknowingly fall asleep in his lap. She blushed. Noticing Alicia wake up, Alex stopped. "Princess, did I wake you up?" Alex asked. "No..no.. you don''t make a sound when swinging too, so I don''t hear any sound." She still blushed. "I see. I already bring you breakfast on the table over there." He pointed at the table. The only table was for study. Usually, this room was for one special student. So the furniture was for one person. "Um... Thank you Alex" Alex just nodded. She then went to the table, eating her breakfast. "Alex do you have breakfast already?" She turned to Alex. Alex nodded. the reality Alex still doesn''t have breakfast. When he asked for breakfast, they need to show their room key. But since this room was a one-person room. He was given for one person''s breakfast. So he lied. "That''s good then" she smiled. After finishing her breakfast, she changed to a uniform in the bathroom. The uniform was white-colored with a white jacket, and white miniskirt for women and white trousers pants. "Alex, Let''s go to the registration office" "Registration office?" Alex confused "You don''t know?" Alex shook his head "Teacher doesn''t inform me" "We need to go to the registration office first to see which class we are" Alex nodded and followed Alicia, the one in charge of the registration office was a woman in her thirties. "You..are from yesterday" the teacher in charge said. "Greeting to you teacher." Alex said. The teacher in charge was the woman teacher Alex saw yesterday in front of the dormitory entrance. "I see. If I''m not wrong your name was Alexander Sirius right?" He nodded. "Your class is on S-class. The room was the furthest room on the first floor in the main building. I have high expectation on you young man" "S-class?" Alex confused "You don''t know?" She surprised. then she explained "for first grade in this school, we have 6 class, they are S, A, B, C, D, E-classes. The student was put on the ranking from E to S. Which means in the S class was the student that has the most potential. And do you hear about our dean got a successor this year, do you know who is he?" Alex sweat dropped "I will try my best" Satisfied with Alex''s response she nodded. then she turned to Alicia "You are?" "My name is Alicia Van Rizertia" "Rizertia.." She stood up "I''m sorry for my negligence Princess Alicia, your highness class was S-class too" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Thank you" "No no... it''s my job" "Then we will excuse ourselves" "Yes, a good day for you your highness" when she saw Alicia and Alex left. She thought who is the man who stands beside the princess, sweatdropped. She shook his head Alex and Alicia go to their classroom when they arrived. The classroom was half full with 10 people including them. That means this class will have 20 students. When they arrived some people noticed Alicia. Many come to greet her. Alex avoids this, he went to the table on the back next to the window. The table was big enough for multiple people. Alex sits on the side, he doesn''t want to get unnecessary attention. Suddenly there''s someone sitting on his side, he turned his head, he saw a female, she has red hair hanging to her waist, a big-breasted, and slender body. You can call her a fiery seductress. "You are the dean student aren''t you?" She asked. "You know me?" "I saw you at the test yesterday." Alex then nodded. "What your name?" "Alexander Sirius" "My name is Firia Merona, first daughter of Marquis Merona. Nice to meet you." Alex nodded "Nice to meet you" "Have you awaken your element?" Alex thought a while then he nodded. "Really? What is your element?" she grabbed Alex hand "Fire" still no change with Alex''s expression. Even though she was so sexy, Alex just consider her as some female chatted with him, he doesn''t care about her sexiness, he already hated about the relationship with women because his ex-girlfriend, only Alicia was a bit more special to him. "Really? I have a fire element too. Let''s train together since we have the same Element" Alex only nodded. Alicia noticed that Alex sit on the back. She wanted to go to Alex and sit beside him when she saw someone already sit beside Alex, she wants to hurry to go to him. But she froze when she saw the woman chatting with Alex got closer and closer and now she holds his hands ''bi*ch'' Alicia cursed. She immediately went to them ''cough cough'' "Princess" "Ara..ara..Isn''t this Princess Alicia, greeting to your highness princess." "Yes, nice to meet you. If I''m not wrong you are Marquis Merona daughter, your name is Firia Merona" "I''m honored for your highness princess remembered me." "Yes, then can you move to the side. I want to sit here" she glare at Firia. "But, I already have this sit for myself. Alexander do you mind I''m sitting beside you?" Alex only shook his head. He really doesn''t care whoever sits beside him. He only wanted to study. But it''s different for Alicia. Seeing Alex have no problem with it, she thought Alex was already seduced by Firia. ''bit*h'' she thought. Firia Merona was one of the top beauty in the capital. She was known as a seductress in the capital. Alicia gritted her teeth, she sat next to Firia to make sure she doesn''t seduce Alex. Looking at the commotion because of Alicia and Firia fighting for Alex. Everybody started whispered, of course, the target was Alex. Alex can only sigh. Not long after the teacher comes to the class. The class was about the general introduction to this world. Firia was bored and started to flirt with Alex, but Alicia always stopped her. After the class ended. "Alex...you don''t mind calling you Alex right?" Firia asked. Alex just nodded. "Let''s go to the cafeteria together." Firia asked Alex. When Alex just about to nod, Alicia suddenly interrupted "Alex will go together with me" Alicia said and Alex nodded. Seeing Alex nod, Alicia smiled smugly to Firia. Firia gritted her teeth. Then Alex and Alicia go to the cafeteria, she saw Firia following them "Why are you following us?" Alicia asked. "I just want to go to cafeteria" Firia snorted. She keeps following them. In the cafeteria, three of them having lunch at the same table, the foods weren''t that good. Firia keeps following them with so many excuses. "Alex, I want to go to the bathroom a bit" Alicia said. Alex nodded When Alicia go to the bathroom, she heard two boys talking about breakfast. "The breakfast was too small, I can''t eat to the full in the morning." "Yes, I think so too. We can only get two breakfast since our room was for two people" "Yeah, we need to show our key first before they gave us breakfast." 21 Space Element? Hearing what they said, Alicia thought, was their room, a two-person room or a one-person room? she decided to ask Alex later. When Alicia got back, she saw Firia flirted with Alex, she furious and immediately stopped her. They got back to the classroom, the classroom only lasted for an hour. Before the teacher left, he informed "There will be a practical test next week for class rankings, and survival test next month for grade rankings so be prepared" and he left. Everybody got excited. They are very proud of their strength. Suddenly a student comes to Alex. He was somehow good-looking. "Hey you, you are the dean student right. I''m curious why the dean chooses a commoner like you. I want to duel you" His arrogance through the roof. Alex looked at him without any interest, then shaking his head and sigh. "You... do you know who I am. I am Joshua Fergusa, the first son of Marquis Fergusa. I challenge you a commoner is your honor" he was arrogant with his ability ever since he was a kid. That''s why he wanted to look good in front of everyone. Alex was his choice, he grabbed all the attention he might get as the dean student. If he as the dean student lose to him, then everybody looked up to him he thought. ...What a complex. "You..." Alicia sent cold glaze to Joshua Alex keeps shaking his head. "Do you afraid? The dean student was only this much." Alex stood up. Even though the dean just became his teacher for one day, but hearing he was insulted because of him, Alex can''t accept it. He sent a cold gaze to Joshua "Tomorrow" "Fine. Tomorrow after classes in the arena" Joshua then left. Alicia glaring at Joshua until he not seen anymore, then she turned to Alex. "Alex, why don''t we go back?" Alex shook his head "I need to see Teacher", then he left to see the dean "Oh..okay" She looked down -- In the dean office, "Teacher" Alex greeted his teacher. "Alex, you have come. How are your classes today?" "It''s an alright teacher. I have a request for teacher" "Oh. What it is?" "I want to go out" "Go out? For what?" "I want to learn forging" "forging? Haha... Alex, we really have fate for each other. I''m not only a rank 8 fire mage, but I was a master forging too. If you want to learn about forging I will teach you. I have the workshop in there" He then pointed to one of the doors in his office. Alex''s eyes turn bright. He never expected the dean was familiar with forging too "I need to buy other material" "if you want to buy material for forging I will supply you so you don''t need to go out" Alex shook his head "I need to buy other material. To tell the truth, I want to buy herbs" "Herbs?" The dean shocked. "I know about medicine" "You know about medicine ?" The dean even more shocked. "Then the reason you want to learn about forging?" "To make the necessary tool to make medicine" "You brat... you don''t need to think about that. I will make your tool." "I thank the teacher. But I still want to learn forging" "Fine fine, I will teach you about forging" the dean then thought ''and I will make sure you love forging more than medicine.'' "But what tool you want to make?" the dean curious about this student of his. "I want to make, hm.. a bowl-shaped tool that can withstand heat." "a bowl-shaped tool that can withstand heat? Hmm.. how about you draw it?" Alex then draws the cauldron for Alchemy. "This... isn''t this cauldron?" The dean shocked Alex shocked "Teacher know ?" When he traveled he never saw or any information about cauldron. So he surprised to see his teacher know. "I saw this tool when browsing a book about ascender. You know there was someone from this world who ascended. He has a pure fire element, the same as you. The legend said he can make pills that can heal wounds, poison, and many others. And the tools he used to make those pills were this cauldron. Are you?" he looked at Alex seriously "When I traveled I got a book talking about Alchemy." "Alchemy...Yes, Alchemist. He is an alchemist. You got his book?" Alex just nodded. he lied, he got an alchemist book from system, but he can''t tell his teacher about system. "Haha... good. I will make the cauldron for you. For heat resistance, I will need to use Adamantium. Hmm, I think I will need to borrow it from some friend, well whatever." He intended to exchange his favor for adamantium. "Teacher.." Alex was moved "Is adamantium was this metal?" A piece of metal appeared on Alex''s hand. The dean jaw dropped. "Is... that space element?" "Space element?" Alex confused, he too forgot using his system inventory in front of his teacher. "Let''s check your element again" He brought mana crystal to Alex. Alex then placed his hand on the mana crystal. The mana crystal glowing bright red. But the dean who was a rank 8 mage can see. The color wasn''t just red, but there''s a trace of pink color in it. This color almost goes unnoticed since this color was blinded by pure bright red. But the dean saw this. "Pink... Space.. Space element. To think my student wasn''t just a pure fire element, but also space element. Haha heaven bless me, heaven bless Acacia kingdom." The dean grinning happily. "Remember to keep this element in secret from other!" the dean continued "Haha, the king wanted to make me surprised with Alex, now If I inform him about Alex''s space element, I can payback at him. Hahaha..." "..." Alex keeps silent, waiting for his teacher to calm down. [I''m sorry host, this must be because of system] "System? Is this because of yours?" [All gacha you got as well as gacha inventory is manipulating a special space to give and to store. Ever since Host starts using me more and more often. This will become more apparent] ".... You are useless aren''t you system? You can''t even cover your own track. How can I keep you a secret..." [It''s all because Host use me so much] ".... You can''t blame me for this. This is your fault...." [....] "And you even ignoring me..." Alex can''t explain this misunderstanding, so he let this misunderstanding go on. After a while, looking at his teacher started to calm down. "Teacher is this adamantium you talk about?" He presents his teacher with the metal. Looking at the metal in Alex''s hand, the dean nodded "Yes, that''s the metal, where do you get this? Whatever with this metal, I will make the cauldron for you. When do you need it?" "The sooner the better" "Come and get it the day after tomorrow." Alex nodded. "Take this, if you want to go in and out of the academy, just show this token. They will think you run an errand for me" "Thanks, teacher" "Alright, for now, I will teach you about basic fire magic" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The dean started to lecture Alex. But he shocked by what Alex do, Alex explained the whole story about his practice in the duke house. When he using a new chant and magic. Alex tried to use chantless magic, the one he tried on the mansion but failed. The dean jaw dropped looking at Alex who looked like a monster. He then started to teach Alex the basics of Mana manipulation to improve Alex''s understanding of chantless magic. After two hours Alex succeeds using chantless magic. Though only for one second. "It''s already late, you can go back" Alex nodded and left. He keeps reviewing Mana manipulation on his way back. Alex eats his dinner in the cafeteria and went to his room. Alex opened his room, Alicia sitting on the sofa reading a book. When Alex opened the room, she stood up. "Alex, you back" She smiled. "Yes, princess." Unsatisfied with Alex response she pouted "You have your dinner?" Alex nodded. "You have a fighting tomorrow, are you okay?" "There should be no problem." He nodded. "That''s good then" She smiled Alex sat on the sofa on the lotus pose once again. Looking at Alex focusing more on training than her, she pouted. "You want to train again?" Alex nodded. "Fine" She pouted. Even in the mansion, Alex only wakes up, train, eat, train again, and back to sleep. If not she insisted on going out with Alex. Alex will hold upon his room. She sigh, she observed Alex a bit more and continue to read the book again. In the night, after Alex finished cultivating. He saw Alicia once again fall asleep in his lap. He shook his head and sigh. He carried her again to bed and covers her with quilt then he sleeps. In the morning, Alicia wakes up seeing Alex practicing his sword again. "You wake up Princess, your breakfast on the table" Alex said. She then eats her breakfast. "Alex, tell me the truth. When you go to the cafeteria to get breakfast. How many do you get?" "What do you mean princess?" "You know what I mean. We got breakfast depending on which room we have. If we have a two-person room then we got two breakfasts. If we have a one-person room then we only get one breakfast. So tell me the truth" "This..." "So it''s really like I guessed. I don''t want to have breakfast tomorrow." Looking at Alex, she knows. "Princess, you need breakfast." "I don''t want!" She pouted "This.." Alex doesn''t know what to do. "As long as you don''t have breakfast. Then I don''t want to have breakfast" she snorted "This... I will cook my breakfast then. So please have breakfast princess" "You can cook?" Alicia surprised. She never saw Alex cooking. "A bit" Alex who living without the care of his family. He studies cooking a bit. Now he also has a cooking manual. So he doesn''t know what the result of his cooking now. "But please eat" "Then alright" she reluctantly eats. After she finished "let''s go to class" Alex nodded and followed her. 22 Duel When they arrived at the class. They saw Firia already arrived, and she sits in the center of yesterday''s table. Looking at this, Alicia grabbed Alex. "Alex, let''s go to look for another table" "But, it''s impolite to the others" "that''s right, It''s impolite to the others, Princess Alicia" Firia joined. "You..." Alicia angered. "Good morning Alex, do you have a nice sleep yesterday?" Firia ignored Alicia, she turned to Alex. Alex nodded. "Then do you dreaming about me?" Firia tried to flirt with Alex. Looking at this Alicia gritted her teeth. Not only Alicia but also Joshua was gritted her teeth. He approached them and sent an angry glare to Alex "Don''t you dare to run away". Then he left. "What with him" Alicia angry. Alex only shook his head and go to his seat. Looking at Alex situated beside Firia, she snorted. The morning classes were over, "Alex let''s go to cafeteria" Firia grabbed Alex''s hand. Alicia immediately chopped her hand. Of course, Firia dodged, she immediately released Alex''s hand. "Alex let''s go to the cafeteria" Alicia said. Alex sigh, and go to the cafeteria with them, they eat together again. "Alex, are you okay with the fight later?" Firia asked. Alex nodded. "You sure? I got information, Joshua was level 2 earth mage" Firia worried. Alex nodded once again "Hmph, level 2 mage, compared to my Alex. He just trash" Alicia snorted. "Who is your Alex" Firia snapped. "My Alex is My Alex. So you better not get close with my Alex" "You..." Firia glared at Alicia. Alex only shook his head and sigh. He stood up and left. "Alex wait" they snapped. Alex ignored them and keep walking away. The afternoon class was an hour lecture. After the lecture ended, Joshua stood up and turned his head to Alex "Don''t you run away" He shouted and left. Alicia and Firia glaring at him. "Alex, It''s fine if you ignored him" Firia still worriedly advice Alex. "Thank you" He thanked sincerely Firia who worried about him. Then he left for the arena. -- On the arena, Joshua already waiting for him, Joshua wear his mage robe and held his staff. He stood there proudly. This duel was known by many. So the arena was almost full. Suddenly, there''s someone flying to the arena, when he landed everyone noticed, the one who comes was the academy''s dean, Alex''s Teacher. "Well well, isn''t this Dean Marco." The one who talked was an old man in his eighties. He is one of the elders in the academy, he was the headteacher for the first grade. When he noticed Joshua''s talents, he immediately approached Joshua to make him his student. "I never thought he got a duel on his second day in the academy" Alex''s teacher''s name is Marco Glither. Many people call him ''dean'' only a handful teacher who dared to call his name. One of them was Joshua''s teacher. He was peak rank 7 earth mage, just one step away from rank 8. "You can make your student surrender first, least he embarrassed himself in the arena." The dean sigh "You are the one who needed to advise your student. Least his pride crushed, Taiga" Taiga Erudita was the name of Joshua''s teacher. He snorted. "You might not know my student was only 17 years old and he already achieved rank 2 a month before the test" "17 years old rank 2 earth mage" the dean nodded "Good" "Of course, he is my student after all. You need to make sure your student not embarrassed himself in the arena" He said smugly. If he knows Alex was already mid-rank 3, he will go insane. "I believe in my student. You want to bet?" The dean asked. "Haha... I''m sure my student will win. What do you want to bet" "One magic weapon" Taiga shocked with the bet "you sure? Haha, since you want to give me magic weapon then I accept" "Hey, what is your bet" "Why do I need to bet. I already know my student will win" "Bet!" The dean glared at him. "Fine fine, I will place two spiritual liquid. It''s equal to your magic weapon" "Sure" The dean smirked. Not long after, Alex shows up in the arena. "Heh.. you not escaped. I thought you already run away" Joshua taunted Alex. Alex just ignored him and looked at the referee. "Please start" "You..." He angry at Alex. ''how dare you ignored me'' After looking at the two contestants then the referee announced "The duel finished if one of the side surrender. No killing allowed." "The duel start" Alex readied his sword, while Joshua held his staff up and chant. The distance between him and Alex was about 100 meters. "The earth below, hear my command. Got up and strike of my enemy. EARTH SPIKE" immediately, many earth spikes shot up to Alex. Looking at many spikes coming to him, Alex dodged them easily. Joshua surprised, he immediately chants another magic. "The earth below, hear my command. Awaken and fight your enemy. EARTH GOLEM". Two human-like golems got up from the arena and charged to Alex. The spectator was shocked "What... He can call two golems already." "He must be a rank 2 earth mage." "17 years old rank 2 mage. he is a genius" Hearing the comments, Joshua grinned. Alex looked at the two golems. He realized their battle efficiency wasn''t that great. So he dodged them easily. Looking Alex still dodging his golems, he gritted his teeth. "The earth below, hear my command. Awaken and eat your enemy. EARTH SNAKE" Another two snake-like golems got up from the arena and charged to Alex. The spectators bewildered. "What.. two golems weren''t his limit. He can summon two more golems" "A rank 2 earth mage, summoning 4 golems" "A genius who appeared once in a hundred year appeared" "He might be a rival of the hero from Zircodina Kingdom or the priestess of Holy Kingdom" "Congratulation Teacher Taiga, your student is a genius" Many other teachers started to congratulate Taiga. Taiga looked at the dean smugly. The dean only snorted. If he knew Alex''s talents, his intestines will be detached. After Joshua summoning two snakes, Alex started two parried the golems attack. "Haha.. how is that? I''m a genius, you are only lucky enough to be picked up by our dean" "What is he saying?" Alicia was angry, this was the reason all along? Firia snorted. "Annoying Complex" The dean can''t stand anymore as he watched many disregards his student. he stood up and shout "Alex, don''t play anymore, finished him. I still need to make ''that''". Alex recognized the sound. It was from his teacher, he then looked at his teacher and nodded. "Since the teacher already commanded me, then it''s time." Alex who dodging silently, spoked. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex then got above one of the human-like golems, he jumped to Joshua''s direction. Leaving the golem he steps shattered. Alex''s speed was fast, he almost arrived in front of Joshua with a single jump. "What" Joshua shocked. "Earth from below, hear my command. Rise and....." before Joshua finished his chant, Alex''s sword already in his neck. The crowd was immediately silent. Alex looked at the referee. Noticing Alex''s gaze he immediately announced "Alexander win" The crowd shocked. The almighty Joshua was lost in an instant. "Haha... I will take these spiritual liquids" The dean laughed happily. Alex got back and want to left. "No no no, there''s must be something wrong. He cheated, I won''t believe this. Earth from below, hear my command. Awaken and bite your Enemy. EARTH WOLF" four wolves immediately appeared at the arena and charged at Alex. Alex shook his head and sighed. Then he raises his left hand, ''Oxygen burn yourself, appeared at my front become my arrow'' then he imagined, a ball of flame appeared in his hand. A ball of flame appeared on his left hand. And Alex right hand pinched the ball and stretched it to the back like using a bow. Then he releases his hand. The ball immediately flew off, in the air the ball split into four, charging at the four wolves and destroyed them. The ball pierced the wolves and touched the arena''s wall and exploded. Joshua was pushed to the floor because of the shock wave from the explosion. Joshua''s teacher Taiga enraged. "Impudent" Taiga charged at Alex. Alex becomes solemn. A shield of flame made to protect Alex. "Taiga, you old bastard. What do you think you are doing to my student" The dean got in front of Alex, enraged. "He Injured my student. So ruthless to his friend, I''m teaching him now!" "Injure your student? why can''t I see it? Your student only got pushed off by the shock wave, he not even injured. And your student broke the rule. He already lost but still attack my student" "My student still young. He still rash, but he is a genius that appeared once in a hundred years. Anybody can be hurt but not my student" "You old bastard" The power of rank 8 pinnacles erupted. Everybody scared off including Taiga. "This... there must be a misunderstanding" Taiga scared. He only a rank 7 pinnacle while the dean a rank 8 pinnacle. What a thick skin, just before he was mad and now a misunderstanding. "What misunderstanding. Your student broke the rule, after the duel was over he still attacked my student" "There''s must be a misunderstanding. My student was still young and rash. But he still a rank 2 earth mage with only 17 years old and can control four golems, the same number as rank 3 earth mage" "So what. Your student was only trash compared to my student" "You...." " ''you'' what! Your student born with a silver spoon on him, he still only become rank 2 earth mage. my student too still only 17 years old, he already reached mid-rank 3. But he only depends on ''HIMSELF'', if you still insisted your student was a genius. But to me, your student was ''TRASH''" "You..." Taiga speechless with the revelation. 23 Spiritual Liquid "What?" "A 17 years old rank 3?" "and he can also use chantless fire magic" "and without the support of noble resources" "Ge..genius!" all the people in the arena shocked Alex walked to the dean and whispered, "Teacher, why are you babbling about my power? Aren''t we supposed to keep it secret?" "Ah...I got carried away. sorry sorry. Well, I still keep your pure fire element and space element" The dean ashamed. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "But.." "I will explain to the king about this" he then left. ''But, I don''t want to get unnecessary attention'' he wants to say that aloud to his teacher. But he already left. Alex shook his head, sigh, and left the arena. There are two people waiting for him. "Alex, are you okay?" Firia worriedly asked Alex. "Of course he is okay, he is my Alex after all" She proudly puffed her chest. "Who is your Alex" Firia snorted. She then turned to Alex "But, your battle just now was amazing." "Thank you" The two chatterings away while leaving the arena. Alicia and Firia go back to dormitory, Alex go to his teacher "Hoho, just your second day in the academy. You already got into a fight." The dean teased Alex "I''m sorry, teacher" Alex sincerely apologize "Well, It''s alright in the end. But if you get into a fight, make sure you tell me first" "Yes, Thank you for teacher''s concern" Alex was moved. The dean secretly thought''so I can prepare a betting beforehand''. if Alex knew what his teacher thinks, he might spurt blood and charge at his teacher. The dean then gives him 2 bottles. Inside the bottle was a blue-colored liquid. Alex confused what is this liquid. Looking at Alex confusion, the dean explained, "This is spiritual liquid, it''s good for your magic, it can improve the amount of your mana. If you consume to of them, you might have a rank 4 mana while you only a rank 3" "This...is too valuable teacher. Why don''t you just used it, teacher." "It''s a bet from Joshua''s Teacher Taiga. Even I used it, it won''t have any major effect on me. It''s more beneficial for you to use this liquid" "Thank you, teacher" Alex''s heart got warmth. "You just have a fight, so today just go back and rest." "Yes teacher, I will excuse myself" Alex then left the room. ''system'' [Yes Host] ''Can I use this liquid?" [Analyzing] [Spiritual Liquid Polluted A liquid from mixed monster blood and herbs Use: Increase mana supply (low), have a side effect] ''Polluted ?'' [This Liquid Come From Monster Blood, Monster Blood Carried Polluted Energy, Like When Host Leveling Up, So System Doesn''t Recommend Host To Use It] ''Should I give this to Alicia? But it''s polluted and has a side effect'' [Host can purify the liquid with your flame because Host flame was a pure element. The purification will erase the remaining polluted energy from monster blood and erasing the side effect] ''If I can purify the polluted energy, then why I can''t used it?" [The energy Host absorb was heaven and earth energy. While the energy from monster blood was worldly energy] ''ain''t them the same?'' [Heaven and earth energy mean the energy wasn''t from this word but from the universe. This world absorbed the energy from the universe and infused with the world''s law, that is worldly energy while heaven and earth energy was the purest form of energy] ''Then I will try to purify them and give them to Alicia'' Alex got back to his room. Alicia was on the sofa reading book, like yesterday. "Alex, you got back" She smiled. Alex nodded. "You will practice again?" She asked, a bit sad. Thinking for a while, Alex shook his head. Alicia''s eyes brightened. "Then what will you do?" "I will go to the town, I need supply to make breakfast too." "...." Alicia was a bit awkward since that request was from her. She still worried "You can go out? I thought the first year don''t have the privilege to go out" "I got teacher''s token. If I show it to the guards, then I can go out." "Can I follow you?", Alex thought for a bit, he shook his head. Alicia was sad. "I am only going to shopping for a while, does Princess need me to buy something" Alicia''s eyes brightened, she thinks for a while and shakes her head. "We also don''t have kitchenware" Alex noticed about this too, he nodded "I will buy them too" "But where are you going to cook it?" Alicia scanned the room there''s no space for cooking. "I will only buy the kitchenware, I can use my flame to cook it so I won''t need much space. I can also train my flame control while I''m at it" Alicia''s eyes widened "That works too." "Then I''m going now" "Yes, please be careful" Alex nodded and left. He bought kitchenware and necessary items. He also went to a medical shop to buy herbs for Alchemy. When he got back, it''s almost midnight. He saw Alicia fall asleep on the sofa. He shook his head "why is she like to fall asleep on the sofa so much?" then he carried Alicia to bed. He soon sleeps too. In the morning, he awoke. He went to the cafeteria and brought breakfast for Alicia. Then he cooked for himself. "what should I make" "It''s only for breakfast I will go with egg" "Why is this egg having such a nice smell?" Alicia smelled the scent, she wakes up. "Alex..?" she rubbed her eyes "Princess, your breakfast is on the table" "I will wait for you" noticing the scent was from Alex cooking she approached Alex. "What did you make?" "I make an omelette" he finished his cooking "I finished princess, let''s eat" On the table, she looked at the omelet that Alex made. She noticed the aroma and drooled. Noticing her gaze on his omelet, he then gave it to Alicia. "Ah... no no, I don''t want it" she wiped her drool on her face. "If princess wants it, please eat it. I will just take this breakfast from cafeteria" Alex smiled "Then..." Alicia slowly scoops the omelet. When the omelette brought inside her mouth. Her eyes widened "Del...icious" Without caring about the manner, she continuously eats the omelet. When Alex only eats a few bites, he noticed Alicia has already finished. After a while, she noticed Alex''s gaze. "Ah..ah... Alex, It was good" She embarrassedly put down the spoon. Alex smiled, "Glad you like it". "I never saw you cook, with this food you can even become a royal chef" Hearing her, Alex was a bit sad. He recalled, in the previous world he only cook for himself. Even his foods were good, but he never tasted anything. Even his foods too hot, he never feels the warmth. He just too lonely. "Ah.. if you don''t like to cook, then don''t mind what I say" He shakes his head "Since Princess like it, I will cook for you every day" Alicia''s eyes brightened, she grabbed Alex''s hand "Really?" with a star on her eyes. But soon, she embarrassed. "Ah..." awkwardly release her hand. Alex nodded with a smile. For him who lonely, cooking and eating like this was a blessing for him. Even with Firia bothering him on every single occasion, he felt the warmth on his heart. Already over ten years, he felt this kind of warmth. For these past ten years on Earth, every people he encountered see him with prejudiced. Though he won''t show it in his face. "I will cook the meals" "For breakfast?" With a star on her eyes. Alex nodded. "For lunch?" Alex nodded again. "For dinner?" Alex thought a while. "I will try" Hearing Alex''s response she is a bit sad, then she thought she was greedy. "It''s fine, whenever you want to cook. I don''t want to take your time" Alex just smiled. "Let''s get going. Even I want to cook, there are no ingredients left. So maybe tomorrow" he decided to buy many ingredients tonight. "Umm" She smiled. When Alex and Alicia arrived at the classroom. Many students glared angrily to Alex. Since Alex was an unknown commoner, he defeats the number one genius of nobles in this class by a large margin. Means many people will look down on nobles. So they hated Alex. Though a few don''t really care about that. Especially Firia. Noticing Alex arrived she immediately went to Alex. "You are very good Alex. You even can use chantless magic. You promise me to train together right? When are you going to fulfill your promise?" "You promise her?" Alicia was jealous. Alex awkwardly nodded. "Next week?" He then asked Firia. "Alright" She smiled. Alicia pouted. Classroom started 24 Alchemy After the classroom ended, Alex, as usual, went to his teacher. Today was the promised day, his teacher finished his cauldron. "Teacher" Alex greeted him. "I have finished your cauldron, your cauldron was in my workshop" He pointed at his workshop door. "Thank you teacher" "I want to see Alchemy too, can I?" "Very welcomed" Alex smiled. They come inside the workshop. The workshop was spacious, there''s a big rusty anvil there. It''s must be his teacher''s anvil. Beside the anvil was a red cauldron. Alex carried the cauldron to the other side of the room. He recalled the ingredients used for the grade 1 pill regeneration pill, according to the Pill manual this pill was the most perfect for newbie practice. He put the ingredients inside the cauldron. He tried to channel his mana out, the mana started forming a palm-size flame. The flame gently burns the ingredients, Alex tried to slowly increase his mana output to raise the flame''s temperature. But suddenly he stopped. The dean surprised. "Why are you stopping?" "I forgot I need to burn them at different temperatures. If I use my flame just then, won''t they be burnt if I raise the temperature to the maximum" "..." The dean then asked "You can''t separate your flame? I thought you can separate them in the arena yesterday?" Alex shook his head, "I can''t. Yesterday I can split the flame ball because I only programmed them with A single command. But for this, I need to control my flame continuously." "How about you burn them one by one?" The dean advice. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I will try" Alex nod, he put the ingredient one by one according to their specification. This time he burns the first ingredient, Mea Leaf. He carefully burns the ingredient with a specific temperature. After Mea leaf was done, he does the second, third, and fourth. "I already prepared them, now I will mix them together" The dean nod. Alex continued to burn the ingredients with high temperature, melt them to liquid form. Then he mixed all the ingredients and forming the pill. This time was success. The pill formed successfully, the pill was a blue colored, but there are many black spots on the pill''s surface. "Is this the pill?" The dean was curious. Alex nodded "But according to the manual, the pill should only have blue colored. But this pill has many black spots in it." He looked at the Dean. "Then It''s failed?" Alex thought for a while then shake his head. "It''s should be a success. How about the teacher try too?" "Sure I want to try too" The dean repeats what Alex has done, until performing pill. The pill was almost the same as Alex''s, but the black spot was fewer than Alex''s pill. "This pill has fewer black spots than your pill" Looking at the pill, Alex speculated "It seems my control of flame was the problem. How about teacher make another one, but this time teacher prepared each ingredient at the same time? Can teacher do this?" "Can I do this? Hey brat, you underestimated me too much. With my control, preparing them together was easy" he snorted and make another one. After the pill was formed. True, the black spots were much fewer than before. "Now, it doesn''t have many black spots" "It seems, the ingredients must be prepared at the same time for a better result" Alex nodded. "let us summary, in short, you need to prepare the ingredients at the same time. This required a great control of our own flame, that means we need to improve our control in magic" The dean sum up. "The process must consider each ingredient characteristic" Alex added. "That means you brat must learn to control your magic. Well, it''s only a few weeks after you awaken your element. To tell the truth I really envied your talent." The dean sigh. Alex still silent looking at his teacher. "But, is Alchemy in the legend this easy?" the dean curious. "Of course not. According to the manual, the pill just now was the easiest pill to make. Its purpose was to heal a minor wound by amplified the body''s metabolism. But even the effect was not that significant. That why this pill generally for newbie training. If you can make the pill without black spot which means without impurities, then you qualified to become alchemist" Alex explained. "Impurities?" "Yes, the black spot was the impurities. Impurities in the pill consist of techniques, ingredients, and control. For alchemy, the hardest wasn''t to make a pill, but to take a pill without impurities. For pills that have above 40% purity called low-grade pill, for pills that have above 60% purity called mid-grade, for those above 90% called top grade pills, and for no impurities called peak grade pill." "Hoho, this alchemy was intriguing." The dean was excited. "But, I need to improved my mana control first."Alex a bit down-cast. "Haha. Don''t mind, how about you learn mana control first, I will search for the ingredients" The dean suggested After thinking a while Alex nodded "I will write a few recipes, then I will send it to teacher tomorrow" "Good. With my fortune, there should be no problem to buy in massive quantities." "Then I will excuse myself" "Sure, don''t forget to practice!" Alex nodded and left. The night spent, as usual, he buys many food ingredients, he went back and practice a bit, then he sleeps. The week went by like that. Practice, classes, practice, and sleep. Alex''s mana control improved greatly, now he can even cook with only his mana control. Next week come, today was the day for class ranking. Everybody from class E to S stood in the arena. The dean got in front of the podium, he gives his speech. "for these three days, we will hold a class ranking tournament. The rules were simple, each class will have a one-on-one to choose rank 1 to rank 10 each respective class. The selected 10 can challenge the higher class. That means if you are from the selected 10, you can challenge those from top 10 from other classes" "If you manage to defeat other classes, you can move to that class. Please remember, the class you are in after this tournament will determine the resources you can get. Naturally, those from S-class was had the best resources from the academy, while those from the E-class get limited resources. ''My talent should be placed in a better class, you, teachers are wrong placing me in this class'' If you have this kind of thought, If you are not satisfied with your current classes. Please make us know we are wrong placing you in your current class. Show your talent, show your might. My student" Then the dean ends his speech. The cheer erupted. The students feel their blood boil hearing the dean speech. ''I will make sure to get to the higher class'' they are determined. One teacher got to the podium. "With this, This Year challenge ranking tournament, officially start!" The cheers erupted once more. The academy''s great arena this time replaced with 10 mini arenas within to conduct the battle faster. The battle started from E-class to S-class. In the E-class, all students still yet to reach rank 1. In the D-class there is one student who reaches rank 1. While C and B-class have many ranks 1 in their class. The surprised came from the battle of A-class. Surprisingly this class has one rank 3. Many people flabbergasted. When the person in question went up to the arena. "Munta, Rank 1 Warrior, please to meet you" "Hmm, Commoner with a power of rank 1 warrior. You are not my match, just scram from here." Munta was angered, "The matched started" As soon as the match start, Munta charges at him. But that person blows him away with his greatsword, leaving Munta seriously injured. "What rank 3?" Many teachers surprised by the student''s strength. Even the dean asked, "Why is he not in S-class?" "His name is Garu Tekuis, the son of count Tekuis. He has rank 3 even though barely, but he almost 20 years old. Adding he still not awaken his element, so we put him in A-class. The dean nod after hearing the report. The current class was distributed from their potential. So Garu''s potential was so-so since he almost 20 years old. The battle continued, with Garu become number one in A-class. Now the battle for S-class started. "Igu Vs Joshua". Igu was a 17 years old rank 1 warrior, while he has awakened his element, he still can''t use it. While Joshua was a rank 2 earth mage. "You better surrender" Joshua look down on Igu. "I will try my best, Please guide me" Igu shook his head. "Don''t say I didn''t warn you" Joshua enraged, this Igu was also a commoner. Alex who was a commoner become Igu''s inspiration. So he at least wants to stand up against the nobles too like Alex. "Earth below me, hear my command. Awaken and bite my enemy. EARTH SNAKE". 4 snake golems come charging at Igu. Igu tries to dodge and parried the snake attack. But Igu didn''t have many experiences in a fight. So Igu can only fight the golems just barely. Suddenly one of the snakes succeed to attack his hand, Igu flesh was splattered because of the bite. "Aaargh..." Igu Screamed. The other golems use this chance to attack Igu again. Igu''s blood and flesh were splattered on the arena. Igu fainted. Looking at this, The referee immediately stops the match with Joshua win. "I already give you a chance to surrendered but not taking it, fools" Joshua snorted Alex frowned. It seems after losing to him, Joshua becomes more ruthless. He looked at Alicia''s pale face, "Princess" He worried. "Ah..Alex" She gasped, her face was pale. Though she often followed Alex to kill monsters. She used to see blood and flesh. But the one she sees now was human flesh and blood. Though when the other class fighting, there will be wound and blood on their bodies. But what Joshua did was different, he was cruel and merciless. "Alex.." She turned to Alex grabbed his hand, not wanting to see the arena. She buried her face in Alex''s hand, trembling. Looking at Alicia, Alex wanted to console her but don''t know what to say. So he just maintains his silence. Firia was looking at Alicia and Alex too. She wondering if she should copy what Alicia did. Eventually, she rejected the idea. Not long after, Firia''s turn comes. She said goodbye to Alex. "Firia Vs Lina" Lina Elrifa, the first daughter of baron Elrifa. She is 1 year older than Firia who is 17 years old. Both have awakened the same element which is fire element. "The fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest your self as a ball to burn my enemy" As soon as the match start, the two of them chant the same spell. "FIREBALL" soon 2 fireballs crashed, but Faria''s fireball was stronger. Lina was caught off guard when she sees Firia''s fireball still charged at her. She underestimated Firia. She pushed herself to the side, barely dodging the fireball. "The fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest yourself as my spear and strike my enemy. FIRE SPEAR" not giving her opponent chance, Firia immediately chants another magic. Before the fire spear hit Lina. The referee got in front of her and erected a shield. He then announced. "Firia Win" Firia got in front of Lina, she helps her up. "Nice Match" She smiled. "Thank you" Lina took her hand. The cheers erupted. Firia as one of the capital goddess has many fans. Many fans of her started cheering ''My goddess'' ''beautiful'' and many others. After Firia''s match, now it''s Alicia''s turn. "Alex, it is my turn" "Please be careful Princess" "Yes!" Hearing Alex response, she left while grinning happily 25 Battling Joshua Again Not long after Alicia left, Firia comeback. "Alex, how is my performance?" "Good" "ehehe.. so when we are training together? You promised me" "after classes for one hour." Alex replied. "Just one hour?" she pouted. "I need to go to see my teacher" "Fine!" She can''t keep her nagging when Alex mentioned the dean. The referee announced again "Alicia Vs Sigma". Alicia was called without her honorific make Alex surprised. "He didn''t call Alicia Princess?" Alex asked Firia. "The academy was a special place, the dean made policies to treat nobles and commoner with equal. Even the king approved it. So even the crown prince comes, he will still be called by his name" Alex nodded. Sigma was 17 years old rank 1 pinnacle earth mage while Alicia was 16 years old rank 1 ice mage. Alicia was disadvantaged. "Princess" He bows to Alicia politely. "Please have a nice match" She smiled. "Match Start" "Earth below, hear my command. Got up and strike my enemy. EARTH SPIKE" "Ice, hear my command. Freeze the water and shield me. ICE SHIELD" The earth spike charged at Alicia, while Alicia made her ice shield. The earth spike almost pierced Alicia''s shield, many holes formed because of spikes and the shield destroyed. "Ice, hear my command. Freeze the water and strike my enemy. ICE SPEAR" "Earth below, hear my command. Got up and shield me. EARTH WALL" Now Alicia turns to Attack him. But the ice spear was immediately broken. "Princess, please surrender. Although Ice is a rare element, it can''t win earth element in toughness" pleased with his power, he arrogantly said. Alicia was infuriated. "Water in the air decreased your temperature and freeze my enemies." As she chants, the air around her starting colder. Noticing this, the referee immediately went to Sigma and escape outside the arena. After she finished her chant, she freezes half of the arena. That means she froze everything in a 10-meter radius, including Sigma''s earth wall. If the referee didn''t save him, he will be frozen too. Looking at Alicia''s magic, everyone draws a cold breath. But a few teachers and students realized, they never heard about this chant. If not because of her insufficient magic, this will have the power of an intermediate magic spell. The one who realized can''t help but utter, "What is this magic?" "I never heard this magic" "This magic, is it an intermediate magic spell?" Hearing many comments, everybody shuddered. ''16 years old, rare element ice mage, using her own new chant and her chant have the power of intermediate magic spell?'' "Genius" Everybody started to cheer. "Alicia wins" The referee announced after calming a bit. Alicia still panted in the arena, hearing the cheer she looked up and grinning. ''beautiful'' many thought of this when they see her. The smile Alicia gave just now, was like a snow lotus, pure and untouched. Make everybody want to protect her and her smile. She left the arena. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. When Alicia come back, she jumped happily to Alex "How is it Alex?" she is grinning "mmm, good" Alex nod. "Alicia, what is that magic just now?" After a week, even both of them fighting each other for Alex. Their relationship still grow. They called each other names directly. "Alex teach me" She smiling happily with a peace hand sign. "What? Alex?" Firia glanced at Alex, she surprised. "Alex teach me the meaning behind the chant and he teaches me about Ice concept" "Meaning behind the chant? Ice concept?" Firia was curious. "The current chant we know have a meaning you know and Ice concept means like how the ice formed, that is temperature. Combining the two of them, formed the magic I used just now" "What?" Firia was surprised by the statement. "Since Alex was the one who teaches you, that means Alex has too? "Of course, Alex makes a new chant just after he learned magic from me and my sister" she forgets to keep this secret since she still on cloud nine. "...." Firia speechless. She looked at Alex like a wolf want to prey a big fat sheep "Alex.. you promised to practice together right? You promised to teach me right?" with a seducing tone, Firia clings to Alex. Alex felt two heavenly mountain in his hand. As expected of a fiery goddess, he thought. When Alicia saw this, she immediately realizes she has done something wrong. She regretted saying it immediately. "What are you doing! Don''t you dare to seduce him!" Alicia angered. "He.. but Alex already promised to teach me, I need to pay him" "What, you want to pay him with your body? No way, if you want to pay him, you can pay him with money. Now go away" Alicia tried to separate them. "But, I don''t have money now. The first-grade student can''t go out unless there is a special event from the academy, so I can''t get my money, that means I only have my body." She keeps clinging to Alex. "You can pay him later, so now go away" Alicia infuriated at her, ''he is my fiance. You dare to seduce my future husband in front of me! Bit*h'' of course she can''t say that aloud. Fortunately, they sat at a bit farther with the crowd, so their attention still on the arena. Alex sigh, "Princess, Miss Firia. now is my turn. So please excuse me" Alex escaped. Both of them snorted "Hmph" Alex''s opponent is Mira, a quiet girl in the class. When she saw Alex was her opponent she surrenders. The battle was continued, on the semifinal. Firia Vs Alicia while Alex Vs Joshua. Alicia wins from Firia, Alicia grinning happily since she beat her. While Firia angrily left. "You can win only because of Alex. Hmph" Before Alicia can get her praise, or before Firia can get her consolation from Alex. Alex already silently go to the arena. Now, Alex Vs Joshua. The rematch from a week ago. Everyone excited about this battle. "Hmph, you can win just because I underestimated you. But you are still trash", Alex still maintain his silence "Match Start" "Earth below, hear my command. Awaken and strike my enemy. EARTH GOLEM" four golems charged at Alex. Alex still dodging easily the golems easily "Earth, obey my command. Earth becomes a bolt, one bolt becomes another, got up and pierce my enemies. EARTH BOLT" more than a hundred bolt surround Alex and charging at him. Everyone surprised. Just then is Alicia, and now Joshua used an intermediate magic spell. "Die!" Alex surrounded by earth bolts and was still pinned by the golems. He searched his surroundings searching for a way out. Just about the bolts reach him, he jumped out to the air. The golems were destroyed by the bolts. Alex still in the air, Joshua chant his spell once again. "Earth, obey my command. Earth becomes a bolt, one bolt becomes another, got up and pierce my enemies. EARTH BOLT. DIE!" Now, Alex doesn''t have a way out. The dean angered. "Impudent" "Wait, Dean Marco. This is the battle of the student. We old man just need to sit here and watching them" He coldly glares at dean "Taiga. What did you teach to your student, did you teach him to kill his classmate!" the dean roared at him. "The sword and magic don''t have eyes. Wound and injury was normal when battling each other" But when everyone thought Alex was finished. Alex raised his hands. He compressed the air with his mana and burn a bit. He throws one to the ground to make the explosion. The explosion blows away the bolts. Alex didn''t forget to throw another one to Joshua''s direction. When Joshua saw the explosion ball coming toward him, he wanted to escape. The ball exploded not far from him the referee tried to save Joshua, he makes a shield with his magic. The shock wave blew Joshua away from the arena. Even the referee''s hand was scorched a bit. "Impudent" Taiga was angry. "Wait, Teacher Taiga. This is the battle of the student. We old man just need to sit here and watching them" The dean stopped Taiga. "Marco. What did you teach your student, did you teach him to kill his classmate!" "The sword and magic don''t have eyes. Wound and injury was normal when battling each other" Taiga was angry. This is just what he said to the dean. And now it comes back to him. "You ruthlessly hurt your classmate, do you want to kill him?! You are disqualified" the referee said. Of course, the referee already bought off by Taiga, so he supports Joshua. "..." Alex only looking at him coldly. He knows this referee must targeting him Alex sigh, "Everybody can say what happened, they can decide themselves. I don''t have any interest in this competition anyway" then he left. He never wanted to be number 1 anyway, the reason he keeps winning just because his teacher told him so, he never likes much attention so he rejected his teacher. But the dean keeps nagging him to win, so he sighed and said he will do his best to him. But since the referee disqualified him. Then he has an excuse for his teacher now. So he happily leaves the arena. While Alex happily leaving the arena, Alicia and Firia were infuriated. They cursed the referee for being unfair. The dean was busy keeping Taiga in check, so he didn''t hear the referee disqualified Alex. If he knows he will skin this referee alive. When Alex came back, Alicia and Firia complained. "Why are you just accept what that person said?" "Yeah, why are you disqualified. Joshua wanted to kill you, but the referee didn''t even help you. But when Joshua injured a bit, he disqualified you." "Since when you two don''t oppose each other?" Alex surprised, usually these two girls always opposing each other. "We..." Alicia and Firia looking at each other. "Don''t change the topic. We are talking about you now!" Alicia was angry. "Yeah, we are talking about you now!" Firia follow the suit. 26 Purifying Spiritual Liquid Alex sigh, he explained why he agreed. He never wanted to participate in the ranking, but since his teacher compelled him to win, he reluctantly accepts. "...." They was speechless, every student wanted to become a winner, not only they get the academic point to exchange warrior skill or magic skill. And also glory. But Alex answer only, "Glory? Why I need it if I become famous it will become troublesome for me. And for skill... Can''t I just get it from teacher?" When thinking about Alex''s answer. True Alex can get his skill from the dean. As for glory, Firia doesn''t get why Alex said it will become trouble for him since she pursued Alex if Alex becomes famous it can be a legal reason for her to pursue Alex if her family question her. Though Alicia knew, especially she knew about Alex''s relationship with hero and friends from Zircodina kingdom. Alex harbored a hatred to them, and the same with the opposite party. If Alex becomes too famous, Zircodina kingdom will hear about him too. If the news reaches the hero''s ears, he might be pushed Alex to the corner with his prestige in Zircodina kingdom. Though the dean and royal family may shelter him, what if the opposite party use assassin again, like the other night. Thinking about this makes Alicia shuddered. "Yeah, why we need glory. Your safety is my happiness" Alicia said "Princess, aren''t you going to compete for the final?" "Ah.. is it my time already?" Alicia realized she is one of the finalists. "Yes" "Then I will go first" but when she was about to leave. "Princess" Alex shouted. Hearing Alex calling her she turn back "Please be careful, even if you lose it''s alright" Alicia was angry when she about scolded Alex, she heard Alex continue "Your safety is my happiness" She was immediately full of joy "Yes" she went to the arena smiling happily. Firia on the side was jealous. But Alex relieved when the referee announce Joshua can''t participate because of his injury. So Alicia becomes the number of S-class. "Tomorrow will be the last day. For tomorrow number one to number ten from each class can challenge each other." Alicia went back to Alex and Firia. After chatting a bit, Alicia and Firia went back while Alex go to his teacher "I just look at the participant''s name for tomorrow. I want to ask you, why are your names not on the list?" The dean mad. "Does teacher not see what happened in the arena?" Alex confused since the dean didn''t do anything when he was disqualified, he thought he agreed. "I occupied to keep Taiga in-check" Alex told him what happened in the arena. "What. He dared to disqualify you?. I will go to him now" The dean was angry. "Teacher, today training?" "You go back now, just practice your mana control" Just before Alex went back to his room. He suddenly recalls "I still have the spiritual liquid, since I have improved my control. I think this is the best time to give the liquids to her. "System, how can I remove the impurities from this liquid?" [Host just need to burn the liquid directly at low temperatures to make sure the liquid doesn''t evaporate for a period of time. Your flame will burn the impurities bit by bit.] "I see" Alex then tried to purify the first liquid. After half an hour of burning the liquid, he succeeds. "System is this the pure liquid?" [Yes Host] "Can you scan them?" [Analyzing] [Spiritual Liquid A Liquid From A Mixed Monster Blood And Herbs Use: Increase Mana Supply (High)] "Oh.. it''s really not polluted any more." He noticed something different "System, wasn''t the use last time was Increase mana supply (low)? Why now it become (High)?" [Just like pills, impurities not only make a side effect, it can make the main effect lower] "Oh, I understand" He then purifies the other one. He then confused. "Should I give all of them to Princess, or I give Princess and Miss Firia each?" After thinking a bit he decided "I will just give all of them to Princess, me and miss Firia only know for one week, she may thought I have an ulterior motive. Since Princess also get the championship, I should congratulate her" He went back to the room. Alicia surprised when she saw Alex came back early. "Did something happened? Is it because the tournament" Alicia worried. Alex nod, he started told her what happened with his teacher. Alicia laughed, "That bastard must regretted his choice" "Princess, your word" Alex reprimand her "Umm, sorry" She looked down. The atmosphere becomes awkward. "Princess, since you become the champion from S-class. I want to give you a present" "Present? The best present for me now is for you call me Alicia again like in the past" Alicia teased. She was frustrated, Alex never called her with her name again after the incident at the restaurant. "Ugh..." Alex looked down. "Fine, I will wait for you to call me by my name again. But don''t make waiting for too long" She pouted. "Yes" Alex sigh. "So what is this present all about?" Alex gave the spiritual liquids to her. "Are..aren''t this teacher taiga''s spiritual liquid?" Alicia surprised by Alex''s present. "Where are you got this?" "Teacher got this after betting. Then he gives these to me." "This.. you are the one who needs to use these liquids, they are too valuable to gift me" Alicia rejected. Alex shook his head "These liquids won''t bring me benefit. Especially because of my pure element. So Princess should be the one to use it" "This... Thank you, Alex" Alicia doesn''t know much about Alex''s pure element. So when Alex mentioned about his element, she thought that must be the case. "How about you use it right now?" "Okay" Alicia sat on the sofa, she drinks one of the bottles. She felt her magic increase, but she surprised by the effect. "This liquid... Its effect was even higher than top-grade spiritual liquid" Alicia looked at Alex "Alex...This bottle was too precious" "Are Princess have drunk this liquid?" "When I was 12 years old, father bought me this liquid. We sisters got one each. He gives three of us three top-grade spiritual liquid. But your..your liquid''s effect was even higher than the top grade spiritual liquid" "This..." Alicia keeps staring at Alex. Alex sigh "I purified this liquid from the impurities. The impurities can hinder the liquid''s effect and also give a side effect." "Side effect? I remember people usually don''t drink this too much. Since they have a chance to struck with magic deficiency disease. Do you mean...?" "I guess what Princess think was correct, when I purified this liquid, I removed the impurities resulting in the side effect to vanished." "Then even when I drink many of this, I won''t have a chance to get magic deficiency disease" "Yes princess" "But how you purified this?" "Did princess forget my element?" " ''pure'' fire element" Her eyes brightened. Alex nodded. "This.. was even more precious. Alex... you are the better choice to use this liquid" "I already said princess, this is my present for you get the championship." "But... That''s right sister Mia also in the school. I will give it to her the last bottle." "But Princess, this is my present" Alex look down "I...I will drink it then" Alicia thought she was unfair to Alex since he already gives this to her with great effort, she shouldn''t waste it. She drank the second bottle. Her mana now was comparable to mid-rank 3 mage even when she was a rank 1 mage. She excited about this, she unconsciously hugs Alex. "Alex, Thank you". Alex froze. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After Alicia calms down a bit, she too becomes a frozen statue. She embarrassedly released her hug. "Alex...this.." her face was red like a tomato. "This... I will go to cook now." Alex awkwardly escape. he runs away like a robot. Even Alicia who in the midst embarrassment giggled when looking at Alex, forgetting her embarrassment a bit. After Alex dinner, Alex started to practice. ''mana control, Princess can increase her mana with external help. The liquid that contains mana got inside her body, and then she absorbed the mana. What if I try to manipulate the mana around my body to go inside my body?'' Alex tried to manipulate the mana around him to his body. The effect was surprised by him. After a few hours. He realized. ''this method, makes my progress three times faster. With this, I will break through to rank 4 prowess as well as a breakthrough to the qi gathering stage within this month. Alex overjoyed with this newfound method. After the excitement he realized, it''s time for sleep. He calms down his heart and sleep. In the morning, "Princess, please wake up" "mmmm" She fuzzily woke up. She rubbed her eyes "Alex.. you seem happy?" "I..can breakthrough to rank 4 within this month" "What? Breakthrough to rank 4? This month? But where you got the experience from?" "I...I..." Alex knows he doomed. "I leveling not with experience but from taking the mana from the air...you can also say I''m cultivating the mana" "This..."She surprised by Alex''s statement. "Can everyone become like you?" "can not. When you leveling you got energy from the monster that called experience. But that energy contains impurities within it. the energy already assimilated with your body. And what I''m taking was the energy from heaven and earth, which means the purest form of energy. If you start to take this energy, the energy will clash with the energy from your body resulting in you become crippled." She sighed, she thought if she can get stronger with this, she can help Alex and also she can train together with Alex. "I''m sorry" Alex apologized. Alicia shook her head "It''s not your fault. Right, how about the baby?" Alex shook his head "The baby will get contaminated with the energy from their parent''s body. Even if you try to dilute it with level 1, I don''t know how many generations it takes to make their body pure." "But..you" Alicia want to ask Alex but her eyes brightened, she thought of something "Yes. As princess already knows, I am from another world. That means my body still not contaminated from the energy of this world." "sigh" Alicia can only sigh, she was a bit disappointed she can''t get stronger to help Alex. Noticing this Alex tried to change the topic "Princess today is a big day, you may get challenged, so let''s eat first" She and Alex have breakfast and go to the arena. 27 Accident on Arena In the arena, there are ten students from each class. The representative of each class. Of course Alex not in the line. "The class challenge started now. We will give the students from E-class to choose their target. Cheers erupt from the audience, signing the challenge started. "Student Arwin, please choose your opponent". Arwin is the number 10 of class E. "I choose student Caroline from D-class". Caroline is the number 9 of class D. When everyone saw Arwin choose Caroline to be his opponent, everyone booing him. Both of them have the same power that is rank 1 warrior. "Wuuuu..." "Challenging a woman, be a man!" "A sissy" Arwin shamelessly walks to the arena like he never heard the audience booing him. "Please go easy on me" Caroline said politely. "...." Arwin keep his silence "Match start" Arwin immediately charged at Caroline as he swung his sword. Caroline was caught off guard, she dodged. But her left hand still got a slash injury. "Wuuu..." "You don''t have any chivalry. You can only use sneak attack" Arwin ignored them and slash his sword to Caroline. Caroline guarded his slash, after the previous attack, Caroline raises his guard to the maximum. She immediately counter-attacks ignoring her pain in her hand. Now, it''s Arwin who got shocked. He thought a woman like her, when she got injured can''t withstand the pain. So he immediately slashes at her to end the match. But he never thought not only she doesn''t scream but also counter-attack at him. Caroline saw a little bit shocked in Arwin''s face, she took the chance and swing her sword at his center of gravity. Arwin parried the attack but lose his balance. He fell to the floor. Caroline doesn''t miss the opportunity, she immediately pointed her sword at Arwin''s throat. "End of the match. Caroline Win!" Cheers erupt from the audience, especially when they saw the shameless Arwin loss. Arwin upon realizing this, his face pale. He won''t have a place anymore in this academy. "Caroline!!" "You got what you sow Shameless!" "Bas..." Caroline left the arena to tend her injury. Even Alex commend her, "She got many experiences in battle" Alicia and Firia shocked when Alex commends her. They thought ''I won''t lose''. Firia who lost in round 2 still participated in the challenge. Since the S-class only have 20 peoples, as long as they win one time. They still in the top 10. "Next match, class E please choose your opponent" The challenge continued. The winning rate of lower-class fighting the upper class was thirty percent. The challenge from the A-class start, of course, their target would be S-class. "I Choose Miss Firia as my opponent". The one who said this was an 18 years old young man, though he not handsome, he is above average. He fancied Firia a lot, so he used this chance to show her his excellence. "Alex, I''m going" Firia say goodbye to Alex. "mmm...Be careful" Alex nodded. Hearing Alex''s response Alicia jealous, she pouted. Contrary to Alicia, Firia got fired up hearing him. She thought ''I will win this'' "Please, go easy on me" Firia said politely. "We can have the time, to practice together miss Firia. Of course in S-class, I will guide you ''thoroughly'' " He gulped down when he saw Firia''s fiery figure. Firia disdain him, ''What ''thoroughly'' you bastard, I will make sure you won''t have the chance to enter S-class'' "Match Start" "The fire in my body, hear my command. Manifest your self as a ball to burn my enemy" the two chant at the same time. "FIREBALL". The reason he says he wanted to guide Firia because he was confident in his Fire element. But the result not as he planned to be. He releases three fireballs, while Firia releases four fireballs. As they are not the same number, one of Firia''s fireball blasts him. Firia only showed three fireballs in yesterday''s match. So he thought he can win since he can use three fireballs too. Never in his mind, Firia actually concealing her strength. He regretted underestimating her, he thought he can beat her with his firepower. "Firia Win" the audience cheers, of course, many of them was Firia''s fan. Firia only ignored them came back to her seat. "How is it, Alex?" "As long as you not injured" He nodded. She gives Alex a bright smile. While Alicia pouting. The challenge continued. After the eighth challenge, this time Joshua was chosen. Since the one who already challenged can''t be chosen again. That means only Joshua and Alicia that was still not chosen. Joshua challenger was a rank 1 pinnacle warrior. The warrior wanted to imitate how Alex wins from Joshua. But since Alex was a rank 3 while he is rank 1 warrior. He lost. Now it is the last match. That means Garu Tekuis, A rank 3 warrior vs Alicia. "Princess." "What is it?" "Be careful. I prefer to see you lose than you got hurt" Alex said worriedly. He worried since her opponent was a rank 3 warrior, the same as him. He himself knows the best how strong he is. But he never thought Alicia will be strong because two bottles of spiritual liquids he gave yesterday. Alicia smiled "Fine, I will be careful" After she ingested the magic power from spiritual liquid, she now has the same magic power as a rank 3 mage. "Princess, I advise you to surrender now as to not get hurt." Garu arrogantly said rank 1 and rank 3 have a big difference in their power. "I will need to try as to not disappoint him" She glanced at Alex. "Him?" He glanced at Alex "If he is the one I fight today, I might lose to him. But since I fight you, even you have a rare ice element, eventually, you are still a rank 1 mage. so I will win" "We can only see the result after the match" "Match start" "ICE SPEAR" Alicia immediately release her magic. Many surprised since Alicia not using the chant. Even Alex was surprised. Since Alex''s first magic training. She shocked by Alex''s talent. After that, she trained hard. She doesn''t want to be outdone by Alex. Looking at her now, Alex gives a faint smile. Four ice spear charged at Garu. Garu dodged them while closing his distance with Alicia. When the spear missed, they immediately disappeared. Alicia makes another ice spear and charged to Garu. Garu dodging them continuously. His distance with Alicia only a few meters left. Alex worried about seeing this. When Garu arrived at her front, He slashes. Alicia tried to parry his slash with her wand. But she still was blown away. But before she was blown away, she cast magic between them. "ICE SPHERE". An ice sphere appeared and exploded. Since Alicia was blown away by Garu''s strength, she doesn''t get Ice shock wave from the sphere. Whilst Garu was blown away by her ice sphere. Alicia immediately cast again. "ICE SPEAR". Yes, this is the advantage of using magic without chant. They can use spell continuously, as long as they can form them. if they use chant, as long as the chant disrupted, the magic failed. Four spear fly to Garu, two to his body, and another two were on his neck. Garu was immobilized. "Alicia Win" Cheers erupt. A rank 1 mage defeat a rank 3 warrior. This was shocking news. When everybody cheered at Alicia, Alex frowned. ''the gap of rank 1 and rank 3 is big. But she can win, Garu looked inexperienced too.'' Alex pondering for a while ''Power leveling? Garu did not hunt the monster by himself but the other hunt them and he killed them? this is the mos explainable answer at the moment'' It took a moment when Garu realized he loses. ''me, a rank 3 lose to rank 1? Impossible'' Garu stood up, "Impossible, it''s impossible I, a rank 3 warrior lose to her" Alex frowned, he stood up. He read many stories, this kind of narrow-minded people, will charge to Alicia while saying ''die'' wanting to kill her without thinking about the consequences. Alex formed a hand size flame ball, he pinched to the back like drawing an arrow. "Alex?" Firia noticed Alex''s movement. She confused. "Die!", Garu charged at Alicia with killing intent. It''s really happened like the stories Alex read. The referee doesn''t have time to react. "Impudent" Many teachers got angry. But they also don''t have time to react. Alex released the ball. The ball fly to the space between Alicia and Garu. Of course, it''s closer to Garu since Alex doesn''t want to injure Alicia. The ball exploded when touched the arena. The shock wave has blown Garu away and knocked him out... After a while, they realized what happened. They suddenly looked at the direction that the ball flown. They looked at Alex who still in his pose. The teachers immediately go to the arena to melt the situation. A middle-aged man comes to Garu, checking his condition. He immediately got angry. "You bastard!" He charged at Alex. He threw a fist to Alex. Alex reacted to this. He makes a shield of flame to block the attack. even so, the fist still blew him away and injured him. The dean got angry. "Impudent!" The dean charged at Him and severely injured him and then he went to Alex. "You okay Alex?" "I''m fine teacher, just a minor internal injury" The dean nodded, he relieved. "You...you.. what have you injured me?" the middle-aged glared at the dean. "What do you think you are doing, injuring my student. Do you think I''m just a side-kick" The dean still angry "But, he injured my nephew. He, not even a participant!". The middle-aged man is Garu''s uncle, David Tekuis "He dared to charge at Princess with killing intent even though he already loses in front of everyone" Alex broke his silence. "You... But it''s not your turn to teach him. There''s still the referee in the arena" "If he can react before anything happened, then I won''t release my magic. But he doesn''t have a chance to react" "You...He has a chance to react, he is a rank 6 warrior, he must have a chance to react to Garu charged. So you must be punished" The referee comes to them. "Look the referee is here. You have the chance to stop Garu right?". He gives a threatening glare at him. He heard the referee target Alex yesterday and succeed in disqualified him. So he is sure this referee will help him. Never in his mind, this referee already changed. The previous referee got injured because the dean beat him hard yesterday. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But because David did not attend yesterday competition, he doesn''t know the referee already replaced. "I don''t have the chance to stop him" He ashamed. He never thought Garu dare to kill Alicia. "If this young man doesn''t release his magic, I don''t want to imagine what will happen" He pointed at Alex. "You..you.." "I will report this with his majesty with everyone as the witness. It seems the count wanted to rebel" 28 Celebration "No..no... we can discuss this again" David paled. "And also the one who recommended Alex to the academy is the king himself!" the dean casually said. Hearing this, David''s face turned to dark. ''Damn you, bastard Nephew! Do you want to destroy Tekuis house'' he can only curse Garu, the source of the problem secretly in front of the people Originally he planned Alex to take all the blame. If the referee said he can block Garu''s attack, then he can blame Alex for it. the king was known as impartial and just, so he sure even Alex will be punished even he is the dean student. Never he thought the king was also the one who recommend Alex to the academy. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Wanting to kill a princess can result in the extermination of family, especially Princess Alicia. The king only has a son that is the crown prince. But his brother, the current grand duke of Rizertia house have three daughters. The first daughter was aloof and proud, the second daughter was genius but clumsy and doesn''t talk a lot and the third daughter was cheerful and easy to get along, so he dotes on Alicia so much, even though he was impartial, the only exception was the matter concerning to crown prince and Alicia. Now, not only Garu charged at the Princess that the king dote on most, but he also planned the one who the king recommends, in addition, he also the dean only successor. "We..we can discuss again" David pleaded. "hmph, I will let his majesty decide on this matter" "Young..young master Alexander, we.." David started pleading to Alex. Alex ignored him, he left to see Alicia. Firia followed him too. "Hehe... Alex thank you for helping me back then." Alicia''s heart was now sweet, even he distances himself from her. Alex still cared for her, though she disappointed about him calling her princess. She recalled in their journey, Alex loved to go out to kill monsters and she often sneaked out to follow Alex. There''s one time when she got surrounded by dozens of star wolves and the wolf leader is a rank 3, she thought she will die at that moment, in her last moment Alex come. He killed all the star wolves and battling hard with the wolf leader, and eventually killed it while he himself severely injured. She remembered at that time, "Alex, I''m sorry this is my fault. If..if I not.." "Alicia, this time it''s really your fault for sneak out" Hearing this Alicia cried "So, next time you need to tell me first if you want to follow me. So next time It won''t be your fault anymore" Alex smiled at her. "I...I..." She cried "Hehe...your tears got in my cloth, so you need to reimburse me. 10 gold coins for this cloth" Alex teased her. "What 10 gold coins, this cloth only worth 10 copper coins and you want ten thousand times for it" She angry. After that, they quarreled for an hour but the atmosphere not sad anymore but cheerful. -- Back to present, "As long as princess alright" "Hehe... How is it Firia? Do you see my power just now?" Alicia said smugly "you....hmph" Firia snorted "There there... since the match ended how about we celebrated it?" Alex tried to change the topic, he was uncomfortable in this kind of situation. "I''m in!" Alicia happily agreed. She continued "I want my favorite and extra portion" "Yes yes.. since I didn''t go out yesterday, we will have all the meat stored in the box." Alicia cheered. Firia confused. "Meat in the box? Aren''t we celebrate this in the cafeteria?". The room never has any cooking utensils so the food only comes from the cafeteria. "Alex can cook you know, and they are very delicious" Alicia bragged about Alex''s cooking "But we don''t have any cooking utensils on our room" "Alex bought them, alright we can''t waste our time anymore. Alex let''s go" Alicia can''t wait to devour her favorite food. She forgets she and Alex was a roommate. They come back to their room. "Wow... Alicia, this is your room? Your room was a special single room? I''m envious" Firia claimed. "No, this is also Alex''s room" She casually said. Hearing this Alex darkened, Firia froze. After a while looking at the two, Alicia realized what just she said. She blushed. "This..I..." Alex sigh. "You two are roommates? Alicia how about we change place?" Firia was envious. In this world, you need strength if you don''t want to be controlled. Even Alex''s face was a bit above average but Alex''s advantage is his strength, Alex is very strong. So if she joined with Alex, there is no one who will complain to her. To boost it, Alex is kind. So she knew if they get together Alex must care for her a lot, so she is envious to Alicia. Now she knew, the royal family and grand duke want to tie Alex with marriage. But she puzzled, what makes them want to tie Alex with Alicia. Alex strength as a rank 3, high nobles family can make them easily if needed. ''is it because he is the dean successor?'' she thought, she still wanted to think about this but, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alicia shouted. "I can give you many benefits as long as we can exchange place" "NOO!" Alicia''s eyes now like a mother wolf protecting her child. Firia turned to Alex "Then how about you Alex to move in with.." Before Firia finished her sentences, Alex run away "I will start cooking now" He hurriedly replied and run away. Alicia and Firia now glare at each other. Alex cooked many dishes. When cooking his sweat continued raining down on his back. Alicia and Firia still glaring at each other, not even speaking anything, just glare. The atmosphere was tense. Suddenly, a nice fragrant scent filled the room. "mmm, what is this aroma? So seducing" Firia immersed with the aroma "Alex, you are done?" Alicia hurriedly asked. "A bit more, princess" Alex replied. "Hurry up hurry up" Alicia was impatient because the aroma just now was the aroma of Alicia''s favorite food, Karaage. Alex deliberately cooks these dishes last, so Alicia won''t make a scene. After a while, Alex has done with the cooking. He brings the dishes to the table. Alicia was trying to snatch one of the karaage, but her hand was slapped by Alex. She looked at Alex angrily. "Wash your hand first" Alex said. "Fine..." She looked like she was wronged. Alicia went to wash her hand, while Firia still immersed in the aroma. "Miss Firia too" Firia snapped, "Ah..umm, I will go then" She awkwardly get up and wash her hand. When they come back, they have a star in their eyes. Can''t wait to eat, they looked at Alex expectantly. Alex sigh "Please eat" Alicia immediately attacked the karaage. Since karaage was Alicia''s favorite, then Firia wanted to try it too. Firia was nervous, what kind of food that Alex made to have this kind of seducing aroma. She bites a little, her eyes immediately widened. ''Delicious''. Now, Firia becomes like Alicia, a hungry wolf that not eating a few days. Alex looked at Firia, he secretly thought ''Is she going to be another foodie?'' The foodie in his word absolutely is Alicia. Usually, Alex never snatches Alicia''s food, especially karaage. But now, Firia also eating the karaage, Alicia and Firia start competing with each other. Alex watching this scene only smiled. He then brings their drink, but just as he placed them on the table, he noticed all the food already gone, eaten by these two. Alicia expression is blissful, while Firia is in ecstasy, Firia now likes a natural seductress. If a normal person was in front of her just now, they will push her down immediately. Unfortunately, the one who sees her is Alex. Alex still has his trauma with Sandra, so when Alex saw her, Alex only moved a bit, but that thought immediately disappeared. "This is the drink" The two snapped. They both were embarrassed. They realized Alex still have not eaten. "Alex...This" "Alex..." Seeing Alicia and Firia expression, he smiled "I''m glad you like it. I can make it again later". Alex now in the Qi gathering stage, so even he didn''t eat for a day, he won''t get hungry. He eats just to make Alicia not worry. "I will wash the dishes" "I will help" Firia asked. "I will too" Alicia didn''t want to be outdone. "It''s alright, you two can drink first and chat a bit" He smiled. Alicia and Firia always treat like a princess, so even in their home, they never wash the dishes especially Alicia. Alicia has tried to wash two dishes but the result, is not clean and the other is broken. Alex secretly worried the plate will break again and he needs to buy them again in town. So he turned them down. After a while, Alex comes back. The atmosphere around the two become tense again as they started glaring at each other once more. Noticing Alex come, Firia asked, "Alex, you really can cook... then how about become my chef? You can get a big salary, 3 meals a day and a beautiful wife" Firia teased him. Alex and Alicia stunned. But before he replied, Alicia cut in. "NOO! Alex is mine!" "Alex is yours? I don''t see any tag symbolizing he is yours?" Firia glared at her. "You..." Alicia glared at her, ''he is my fiance!'' she wanted to shout this, but of course she can''t, she already agreed to keep this secret. "If miss Firia wants, I can cook it on another occasion" Alex tried to smooth the atmosphere. "Alright. How about your promise?" "We can practice for an hour after class, after that, I need to see my teacher" After that, they are chatting for a while, and Firia left. "Alex... don''t be seduced by that seductress alright?" Alicia gave him threatening glare. "I..." Alex doesn''t know what to reply so he just nodded. Alicia grinning happily seeing Alex''s response, Alex just sighed and cultivating again. Tomorrow, after class. "Let''s go to the dean office, I will borrow his courtyard to practice magic," Alex said. "We... can we really use the dean''s courtyard?" Firia asked timidly. The dean was her idol, he is a rank 8 fire mage. they have the same element so Firia chose him as her role model. 29 Alchemis They arrived at Dean''s office. ''Knock knock'' "Alex huh... Come in" "Teacher, I''m sorry for not coming yesterday" Alex didn''t come to see him yesterday because of Alicia, so he apologized. "Hehe...The girl was more important than me after all" The dean gave a teasing gaze at Alicia. "Uncle!" Alicia blushed red. The dean relationship with the king and grand duke was close. so Alicia calling her uncle was appropriate. "haha..."The dean laughed then he turned to Firia "And this is..." "She is Firia, Firia Merona. Umm...My friend" Alex introduced Firia. "I...I''m...Firia Merona" She is so nervous, this is the first time seeing her idol so close to her. "Well, as you know my name, I am Marco Glither. The dean of this academy and also his teacher. Just relax Firia girl" Seeing her so nervous, he tried to smooth the thing. "Ye...yes" Alicia giggled looking at her, this is the first time for this seductress acting like this. "Then what do you come for?" He surprised Alex was coming with Alicia and Firia today. "I want to borrow teacher''s courtyard, to practice" The dean astonished, he gave a teasing glance at the three "Sure" then he recalled something "Oh.. in the competition, I remembered Alicia, this girl using new magic?" "Ah.. Alex is the one to come up with the magic" "Hoo.." He turned to Alex "It seems you have many secrets ain''t you lad", the dean now looks like an old fox that planning something. "I...only give her a bit of knowledge and advice. Princess is the one who created the magic" Alex said. "Let leave it at that. I will join too. Let''s go" the dean lead them to his courtyard. "There are three factors to make a fire. First is fire source, second is fuel and the last is oxygen." Alex explained "Oxygen?" The dean and Firia were dumbfounded, Alicia already knows a bit about oxygen from Alex. "mmm.. how do I explain this? You can say it''s like a super small substance in the air" Alex confused how to explain oxygen to them. Science in this world was not that advance "We can use fire chant as the source, and mana as our fuel to use fire magic. The fuel taking in Oxygen and combust them with the chant" Alex continued "Oh... I remembered when you first using a new chant back then, you said ''Take in Oxygen and burn''. I and sister were surprised because of that. You even use a new magic chant in your first-day training" Alicia added. Firia and the dean shocked, they looked at Alex like he is a monster. Alex scratched his head. "How about miss Firia try?" "I..." she calming down a bit then she nodded. She tried Alex chant just now "Take in Oxygen and burn". A fireball as big as a head appeared in front of her. She was dumbfounded. "Al...Alex, I really can use it" She becomes too happy and hugged Alex. Alex froze, he felt two big mountain pressing him. Even with Sandra his ex-girlfriend, he never even holding hands, let alone a hug. So this is his first experience. Seeing Firia hugging Alex, Alicia''s jealousy soar. She immediately got in between them and separated them. She glared angrily at Firia. "Ah..." Firia just realized what she did at the moment, she blushed. The dean still silent, he is processing what happened just now. "Ah... this is interesting indeed, maybe I will researching this, what do you think Alex?" "I will leave it to teacher" "Haha..." The dean laughed happily. He wanted to leave but he remembered something "Alex, yesterday minister of agriculture give me a letter praising you. He said your idea was brilliant and he wanted to try it. if the result was good, you will be rewarded." "Thank you, teacher" Alex didn''t really care about that, since the one who invented the four-rotation crop not him, he only used his knowledge on Earth to here. He didn''t even know how to make electricity that help the world so much because he never study about it, so his knowledge is limited. "I want to make ''that'' again later, I think my control was sufficient" Alex continued. "Sure, just come as usual. Though I already succeed two days ago" The dean smugly said and left. ''comparing a few decades mage with a few week mage'' Alex sigh. He tutored Firia for an hour and come to the dean''s workshop, he didn''t see the dean anywhere. So he thought, maybe the dean is researching magic. He grabbed a set of the herb for the regeneration pill. He put them in the cauldron, before he only can burn them one by one, after practicing magic control he now can prepare them together. The herbs have been prepared, then he turned them into liquid and mix them together. The last step is to solidify them. ''Success'' A blue-colored pill formed, this pill didn''t have any black spot. "Now, I can try to make other pills" He turned around, he saw a few papers with a few pill names on it, like ''body tempering pill, rank 1 restoration pill, skin-refining pill, and muscle refining pill'' and a few sets of herbs below each paper. Alex gave the dean a few recipes, of course, the recipe he gave him is the one he needed now. They are beneficial to him. He thinking a while which pill to choose first, and he chose the body tempering pill. He grabbed a set of medicine for the body tempering pill. He tried to make the pill according to the manual. ''failed'' The pill failed to formed, he summarized the experience and try again. ''second time...failed'' ''third time...failed'' ''fourth time...failed'' Alex confused. Why he failed so much. He didn''t have any teacher to teach him about alchemist, so he can only try it step by step. ''fifth time...failed'' ''sixth time...failed'' ''seventh time...success'' Seeing the pill successfully formed, Alex happy. He examined the pill, ''mid-grade body tempering pill''. It''s also above 75% purity. He tried to look with the system [Mid-Grade Body Tempering Pill (75%) Use: Str+3 Limit: 7] There''s a new term ''limit''. "System what is this limit all about?" [It is the limit of how many Host can take the pill. After the limit become zero, even Host take it again, it won''t have any effect] "..." Alex thought something ''if mid-grade can add strength by 3 points, what if I make a top-grade or peak grade?'' Alex eager to try again. But before he tried again he summarized his experience for a while. ''eighth time success'' ''ninth time failed'' ''tenth time success'' ''eleventh time failed'' ''...'' ''fifteenth time success'' He stopped at the fifteenth time because there are no more ingredients for body tempering pill anymore. Alex now has 6 body tempering pills, 1 of them is low grade, 3 mid-grade, 1 top-grade, and 1-peak grade. He successfully made a peak-grade pill by luck. [Low-Grade Body Tempering Pill (50%) Use: STR+1 Limit: 7] [Top-Grade Body Tempering Pill (92%) Use: STR+7 Limit: 7] [Peak-Grade Body Tempering Pill (100%) Use: STR+10 Limit: 7] He shocked by the effect, with seven top-grade body tempering pills. He can get 70 points of strength. He can have a rank 4 warrior strength if he had this pill now. "Alchemist is really overpowered" Pill effect is overpowered, but the higher the grade of the pill, the higher the rarity of ingredients. So many can''t use them to the limit. The process of making body tempering pills not too long. Alex still has an hour before he usually comes back to his room. He decided to make the restoration pill. The ingredients used in the restoration pill didn''t have much difference with the regeneration pill, he only needs to change one herb and adding one herb. ''first time...Failed'' ''second time...failed'' ''third time...success'' ''fourth time...'' ''eleventh time... failed'' The process making restoration pill didn''t have much difference with the regeneration pill. He succeeds in making six pills from eleven set herbs. There are 1 low-grade, 3 mid-grade, and 2 top-grade. This time he didn''t succeed making a peak-grade pill. [Low-Grade Restoration Pill (54%) Use: healing a minor wound Limit: -] [Mid-Grade Restoration Pill (70%) Use: healing a minor wound Limit: -] [Top-Grade Restoration Pill (94%) Use: healing a minor wound Limit: -] He noticed something "System, why they have the same effect?" [Restoration pill used to heal a minor wound. The different of grade will differ the healing speed] "And they have no limit?" [Yes Host] He pondering something, he didn''t notice the dean already comeback. "You still here Alex?" "Ah.. Teacher. I making pills and I use all the herbs for Body tempering pill and restoration pill" He scratched his cheek. "Oh.. I will re-supplied them tomorrow. How many pills did you make?" "I make six body tempering pills from fifteen sets of ingredients and six restoration pills from eleven sets of ingredients" "..." The dean astonished with Alex''s result. Even he tried them for two days he only has twenty percent success for body tempering pill and forty percent for restoration pills. While Alex surpasses him on his first day. He is ashamed. "Then...what grade those pills?" he didn''t want to admit his loss so he wanted to challenge him again with pill grade. He successfully makes two top-grade body tempering pills yesterday. "one low grade, three mid-grade, one top-grade, and one peak-grade for body tempering pill. And one low, three mid-grade and two top-grade for restoration pill. Unfortunately, I didn''t succeed to make a peak-grade restoration pill" Alex sighed. ''what do you mean ''didn''t succeed to make peak-grade restoration pill''. Even I failed to make them with so many tries and you succeed with only twenty-one try.'' The dean can''t help but cursed secretly. ''ah..forget it, if you compare yourself with this monster...'' he sigh. "Did teacher has tried to eat the body tempering pill?" "Yes, I tried. The low-grade adds your strength one point, mid-grade five points, and top-grade is seven points" The dean answered. "The peak-grade is ten-points" Alex add. "and the limit using this pill is seven pills, more than that the pill won''t have any effect" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Really? How do you know about this?" the dean asked. "I..." He can''t say he knows from system, "That right, The manual said that." "Oh.." The dean nodded, he never read the manual so he trusts what Alex said. He pondering something. 30 Refining Pill "Teacher?" "ah..what is it?" "No no, your face was scary just then" "I''m thinking if we can use this pill to give the army" Alex surprised, he never thought his teacher have an aim to the army. Alex pondered something. "Peak-grade is almost impossible since they are really hard to make. For top-grade, we can give them to the high ranking person in the army, though a bit hard but feasible. Mid-grade is the main pills we can give. As for low-grade... I don''t know, they are basically a junk pill" The dean astonished, how is Alex brain work. He just gives a bit topic, he almost gave him a perfect answer. "We will wait and see first, we will try to make the pills first and plan how to distribute them later. I will buy many set ingredients tomorrow." "Yes, I will follow teacher arrangement" "By the way, Alex, you usually already went back an hour ago. So it''s surprised me to see you here when I came back just now" "Ah... Teacher, I will go back now" Alex forget, he usually comes back an hour ago to cook for Alicia. He is too immersed in Alchemy he forgot about her. -- "Is Alex forget me? Already an hour pass since the time he usually came back. I still haven''t eaten" Alicia rubbed her stomach. "Or something happened to him?". When she thinks about this, she rushed to the door to search Alex. When she opened the door she saw Alex who about to open the door too. "Alex!" Alicia shout with joy "Princess...I''m sorry" he felt a little guilty to her. "Is something happen?" looking at Alex, she worriedly asked. "No.. nothing happened, I was too immersed with training" He ashamed. "So..nothing happen" She relieved but suddenly there a sound ''rumble..'', hearing the sound Alicia blushed. "Ah...I will immediately cook something" After eating, "Princess, I think I will be back a bit later for a few days" "Really? Don''t mind about me. I can still eat in the cafeteria. Just be careful" She still worried. Alex moved, even though Alex said about ''training'' with dean which basically safe, she still worried about him. "Yes Princess" Alex smiled, he decided to give her a few peak-grade body tempering pills to enhance her strength. "Umm... Princess" "What is it?" she smiled. "What is the test for grade ranking next month?" "Oh.. I never explain about this, We need to kill monsters in Night Forest for two weeks. The whole process will be monitored by the teachers, so It won''t be too dangerous. The grading will be determined by how many monsters we kill. This is a joint event with the second-grade student and third-grade student" She continued, "The monsters in Night Forest is relatively low level, even the forest king is a rank six ape residing in the core area." "Core Area?" "Night forest divided into three areas. Outer, inner, and core area. Outer area monsters are only rank 0 to rank 1, First-grade students usually hunt in this area. Next is the inner area, the monster resides in here is rank 2 to rank 3 monsters. And second-grade student and third-grade student hunt in here. And for the core area, the monster consists of rank 4 and rank 5 with rank 6 ape as the forest king. A genius of the genius of third-grader hunt in here" "Rank 4 and rank 5..." Alex muttered. "I can try in the inner area, if possible I want to try in the core area" "What is it?" Alicia heard Alex muttering something, she warned "You can hunt in the inner area since you have rank 3 power but don''t go to the core area, do you hear me?" Considering Alex''s past action, she almost sure Alex wanted to go to the core area. "I..." Alex surprised by Alicia''s reaction. "Promise me you won''t go to core area" Alicia give a threatening glare to Alex. "I have confidence in having a rank 4 prowess before the event start." Alex didn''t back down. "You..." She sighed, "Fine... but be careful, If you meet a strong monster run away okay?" "I...Yes". "I will now explain other events for the first-grade student. After grade ranking, we will have a vacation for two months. After that, we will have a normal class for three months. The next event would be killing the monsters in the Dungeon for a month." "Dungeon? There is a dungeon in this world?" "There are 9 dungeons in this world. there are 4 of them in the human territories. 1 of them in Geisha Town in Zircodina Kingdom, 1 of them in Holy kingdom, we Acacia have 1 of them too, it is in Maka town only one day away from the capital city, and the last still in our territory, but the previous king decided to make that town under Hunter guild Jurisdiction" "Hunter guild?" "You are an adventurer right?" Alex nod. "Adventurer have many types of mission such as scouting, guarding, and killing. But for Hunter, they specialize in killing the monster in the dungeon. They can sell monster part in hunter guild." "I see... Then where is the rest of the dungeon?" "2 of them in the demi-human territory and the rest in demon territory." Alicia remembered something "I almost forget about this. There are three classifications for the dungeon, low-class dungeon, middle-class dungeon, and high-level dungeon. The classification was based on the monster''s level. The high-level dungeon even has a rank 9 monster." "Rank 9..." Alex muttered. ''system, if I want to kill a rank 9 monster, I don''t think basic sword arts or basic spear art will be enough'' [Host Doesn''t Need To Worry, System Have Intermediate Skill Too] ''oh... you are really a great system'' [But Host Need To Upgrade System First] ''...'' Alex speechless.'' and the condition is?'' [For First System Upgrade, Host Need To Accumulated Two Thousand Tickets] ''two thousand... I can''t make it in grade ranking in the night forest. Well, I''m not in rush, I will accomplish it in the dungeon. But system after this upgrade can you cover your own track?'' [System can....probably] ''Oiii...'' Alex snapped on his mind "Alex...Alex..!" "Ah..."Alex just snapped from his conversation with the system "What is it?" "Are you listening?" "I''m sorry, I will listen now" "I just said, you can''t be reckless in the dungeon. This dungeon event has a high mortality rate, not only commoner but nobles might die too in the dungeon. This event usually make forty percent of student quit from academy whether they are dead, disabled, or coward" "I will be careful. That''s right, what class the dungeon in Maka Town?" "Middle Class" "I see. Is there any event after that?" "Only ranking competition for class ranking in grade promotion exam. This will determine your ranking when we become second grade" Alex pondered for his plan after this. "It''s already late, let''s sleep" Alicia yawned. Alex just noticed now it is almost midnight. "Yes, Let''s sleep" Alicia nodded and go to bed, "Alex how about..." she hesitated. she wanted to go together with Alex in Night Forest "What is it, princess?" "Never mind" she decided not to be a burden to Alex. Alicia and Alex went asleep. Tomorrow, they just do as usual. After practicing with Firia, Alex went to Dean''s workshop again. "Alex... you have come. I make another stove yesterday. The new one is for you" Alex noticed, there are two cauldrons now. "I already purchased a thousand set medicine for each pill, they will arrive next week. For now, I managed to get a hundred set for each pill." Alex nod, "I will refine body tempering pill first" Alex went to his new cauldron, He examined the cauldron. The cauldron seems better than the previous one. Seeing the dean give this better cauldron to him. Alex''s heart move. "Thank you, teacher" He thanked him. "What is this thank you all about. You are my student and the only successor, If I get too old later who will take care of me if not you" The dean said jokingly, though he said like it was a joke, Alex still perceive the seriousness in it. the dean treated him like a family. There are a few tears in the corner of Alex''s eyes, this is the feeling he had forgotten, ''Family''. He now treated him as his family. Alex calms down a bit, then he focused on the cauldron in front of him. He grabbed a set of ingredients then refine them. After four hours of refining body tempering pills, he managed to make forty-two pills out of sixty set ingredients. That means five minutes for one set of ingredients. Now he felt his mana already empty. So he tiredly lay down. After a bit, he looked at the pills he refined. Out of forty-two pills, four of them are junk, eighteen is mid-grade pills, fourteen is top-grade pills, and the rest is peak-grade. The dean refined the rest forty set ingredients. He managed to make two peak-grade pills. He looked at Alex''s six peak-grade pills, he sighed. This must be the effect of Alex''s talent and Pure fire element. But he secretly happy with Alex''s achievement. "Good work" The dean give him water. "Thank you teacher" he gulped down the water in an instant. "What are you going to do with the pills?" The dean asked. "For peak-grade, I will eat it myself. After eating them I will have rank 4 prowess. As for the rest, I will leave it to teacher" "Oh... you didn''t plan to give the pills to that lass?" He teased Alex. "I will refine them later after the next batches ingredients come." "From the look of it, you planning to give to a few people" "Yes, I''m planning to give Grand duke, madam, Alicia, and her sisters, Firia, The king and crown prince, I think. That makes fifty-six pills. With my current percentage for peak-grade pill, that more than enough to refine for them." The dean astonished, Alex plans to give so much. But he also feels gratified, Alex remembers the kindness shown to him. "Well, It''s up to you. If the ingredients are not enough I can buy them again" Hearing this, Alex heart warmth "Thanks teacher" "Just eat the pills now, and immediately go back. It''s already late." "Yes" Alex eats the pills one by one. After eating the pills he feels refreshed, he noticed his strength now equal to rank 4 warrior. After eating the pills, Alex immediately said goodbye to the dean and left. When he went back, Alicia already asleep in bed. So he cultivates until tomorrow. Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage) Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary) Rank: 2 Level: 271 STR: 435 AGI: 319 VIT: 364 DEX: 320 INT: 190 Alex''s status has a significant increase from last time, especially his STR. While his level still stagnant, so as his rank since he never kills a monster when arrived at the city. He needed to increase all his status to 400 to make a breakthrough to Qi gathering Stage. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 31 Muscle Refining Pill The next day was the same, but this time, Alex started to refine muscle refining pills. "Alex you have come" "Yes teacher" "Then today we refine restoration pill" Alex shook his head "I want to refine muscle refining pill first". Alex wondering, if his strength becomes too strong for the body to handle, he will get hurt from the inside, like his bone or muscle. Since he from modern earth, he learned this in biology class. So he decided to make a muscle refining pill first. The dean didn''t ask why Alex choose to refine that. But the king already told him, Alex is from another world. so he thought maybe he chose that because of his knowledge from another world. Alex grabbed a set of muscle refining pill ingredients. He started to refine them according to the recipe. ''first time...failed'' ''second time...failed'' ''fifth time...failed'' ''tenth time...succeed'' ''fifteenth time...succeed'' He stopped after the fifteenth time. He only managed to make 3 out of 15 sets. The success a bit low, but he still satisfied, because he managed to make a top-grade one [Low-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (53%) Use: refine the muscle in the body (bronze) Limit: 1] [Mid-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (78%) Use: refine the muscle in the body (silver) Limit: 1] [Top-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (96%) Use: refine the muscle in the body (gold) Limit: 1] According to the recipe, a low-grade pill muscle refining pill will make your muscle strength like a bronze, while mid-grade become silver, top-grade become gold, and for peak grade, it will become diamond. The better the grade of this pill, the higher your muscle efficiency to channel strength. "Hmm... I will refine the peak-grade one then" He refined another fifteen set ingredients, this time he managed to make 5 out of 15 sets. But he leaped out of joy because he managed to make one peak-grade pill. [Peak-Grade Muscle Refining Pill (100%) Use: refine the muscle in the body (diamond) Limit: 1] He immediately ate the pill. Suddenly a pain came from all over his body. "Aahh.....!" He screamed. The dean shocked, he immediately came over to Alex. "Alex...Alex... What happened to you?" "Aahhh...Wait..a...bit...tea...cher" Alex tried to endure the pain from the inside of his body. "Aahhh!" Alex continued to scream in pain "I..." He wanted to help but, looking at Alex who had a determined eye he stopped. It pained him seeing Alex like this. After a while, the pain subsided. "Ha....ha..." Alex laid down tiredly. "I am fine now teacher". After he gave a confirmation to his teacher, He immediately saw his status Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage) Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary) Rank: 2 Level: 271 STR: 435 AGI: 378 VIT: 401 DEX: 394 INT: 190 So this is what it means muscle refining. His whole body was sore, but he noticed, he has better control from his body. Muscle refining pill didn''t increase his STR and INT but increase his DEX and AGI greatly, even his VIT manage to break 400 points. This is the effect of the peak-grade muscle refining pill. "Alex...you okay?" "I''m fine, teacher. I just eat a peak-grade muscle refining pill. Just now I manage to refine my muscle" "I see, as long as you are fine." Then he asked, "What is the effect?" "The effect increase your DEX and AGI greatly, and also VIT. But didn''t add any STR and INT" The dean nod. "AGI, VIT, and DEX are related to muscle. I remember when I trained my muscles, those three are the ones that increased." "But, The pain like what teacher just saw" "Though the pain was great. If you look from the greater view, your muscles will be refined to... I can''t say to its peak, but close to it. while you only need to endure the pain. You don''t need to do any bothersome and time-consuming training. This is really good, though it is the effect of peak-grade one, the lesser grade still gave a big advantage." The dean nod again. "So now you have genuine rank 4 prowess?" Alex nodded. "Ahaha.. a 17 years old rank 4" The dean laughed. "Well, how about you rest for today?" Alex thought for a while, he nodded. he went back to his room. "Ah..Alex" Alicia who sat on the sofa reading book. Noticing Alex came back she welcome him "I come back princess" Alex walk like a drunken man, he can''t walk steadily because of his muscle still sore. "What happened to you? Why are you walking like this?" looking at Alex, she worried. "I''m fine, I refine my muscle just now. So It''s still sore. I will be fine after a bit rest" "That''s good then" she relieved, then she jokingly said "What now? Maybe you will have a rank 4 prowess like you said" "Yes" Alex said. "That''s no way right, I''m just joking wit..." she realized what just Alex said, "You now have a rank 4 prowess?" She astonished by this development. Alex nod. She leaped with joy, just like she was the one who breakthrough. "Congratulation Alex" "Thank you, Princess" "What did you do to refine your muscle? I remember when I was 14 years old my father, make me run a few kilometers with stone. After that, I can''t walk for a few days" "I..." He hesitated a bit to tell her about alchemy. But he decided to tell her "Do Princess know about alchemist?" "Alchemist? Isn''t that a legendary job? The one who ascended to godhood?" "I''m studying in Alchemy too." "You...you study too? That means you are Alchemist?" "Yes, as my secondary job" "You..." She speechless, because she was too shocked with the revelation just now. She unconsciously hugged Alex "That great, congratulation Alex" Alex froze, he feels the soft two mount pressing his chest. though it was smaller from Firia. But somehow, it made him happier. Alicia hugging him was better than Firia hugging him. He wonders why is that. After a while, Alicia just realized. She blushed. "Al...Alex... This..." "Umm.." The atmosphere becomes awkward. Alicia tried to break the awkwardness, "Then you late for the past few days because making pill?" "Yes... I''m planning to give princess and the others too. I''m still waiting for the ingredients to come" "Thank you Alex" she didn''t know what pill will he gave but she knows, it must be a very good pill. But she noticed "Others?" "Yes, I''m planning to give grand duke, madam, Princess Lea, Princess Mia, Firia, The king and crown prince" Alicia surprised, the one Alex choose was the one who closes to him directly or indirectly. She feels gratified when looking at Alex. "On behalf of them, I thank you" She bowed. "Ah..Princess, you don''t need to..." He tried to help her up. "I just want to repay them for their care to me" "Alex since your muscle is sore, how about you sleep in the bed tonight" Alex froze, after a while, Alicia froze too, she blushed. What just she said invite many misunderstandings. "This... Since the bed was big we can sleep together." And she added many more misunderstandings. "Ah..I mean we just sleep, only ''sleep'' there were no other meanings behind it" She tried so hard to explain. "It''s alright princess, sleeping on the sofa didn''t affect me a bit" "Ah...Okay then" She didn''t know why she felt a bit disappointed. For two days, he managed to make three more peak-grade muscle refining pills with the remaining ingredients. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. This time he wanted to make the skin-refining pill. As usual, he grabbed a set of ingredients for the skin-refining pill. ''first time... failed'' ''second time...failed'' ''third time...failed'' "fiftieth time... peak grade pill, succeed'' After his fiftieth time, he managed to make a peak-grade skin-refining pill. The skin-refining pill was even harder than the muscle refining pill. [Peak-Grade Skin Refining Pill (100%) Use: refine body skin Limit: 1] Even in the pill manual, it said the use of this pill is the same with his system ''refine body skin'' there are no other explanations. He braced himself, the pain from muscle refining pill still etched in his mind. He ate the pill. This time he didn''t have any pain. He opened his status. Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Body Tempering Stage) Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary) Rank: 2 Level: 271 STR : 435 AGI: 378 VIT: 413 DEX: 394 INT: 205 The effect only gave a few points of VIT, so he confused. This pill was hard to make but the effect was so insignificant. After a while, he suddenly felt his skin a bit itchy, he tried to scratch the place. When he scratch, he didn''t notice his skin peeled off and the new skin becomes so smooth. Alex astonished but he immediately felt every inch of his body become itchy, he immediately stood up "Teacher I will go back to my room" he ran away. Even his teacher shocked, he wondering why Alex like that. He shrugged his shoulder and continue refining restoration pills. 32 Training When Alex came back, Alicia shocked. Alex came back while scratching continuously. "Alex, what happened?" She asked worriedly. "I...I will take a bath first" he hurriedly went to the bath. Alicia dumbfounded, she still worried about Alex. So she waited anxiously. After a while Alex finished, When he went out, Alicia shocked by Alex''s change. Though his skin didn''t look any different, the change still to be seen. Alicia worried, she examined Alex. But when she touched Alex''s hand, she immediately noticed. His skin becomes so smooth like a baby, even her own skin loses to Alex''s in terms of smoothness. "Alex, why your skin become like this?" "I eat another pill" "Another pill? What pill?" Alicia''s eyes brightened. "Skin refining pill" Alex answered casually. Now, there are stars in her eyes. She looked at Alex. "I want!" "This pill didn''t have much effect on the status and to boost it, this pill hard to make" he confused why Alicia so eager to ask this pill from him "I only manage to make one of the highest grade pills today" "Highest grade pill? Then there must be a slightly lower grade one right?" she now looked at Alex like he is her prey. "Yes... I manage to make them" "Then give it to me" She raised her hand like ''give it to me right now'' gesture. "But.. the effect will be lower too. I think I can manage to make another one tomorrow" "I..." She hesitated, this kind of pill will make many women crazy, even she becomes like this. After she saw the effect of this pill on Alex, she immediately demands it from him. Which woman who didn''t want very smooth skin. "I still want it" "And the pill can only consume once. More than that, won''t have any effect" Alex dropped another bomb. "I..." She pondered a bit "I..will wait for tomorrow. But you must take it to me as soon as the pill is made" she reluctantly said this. Alex nodded again and again. He was scared by Alicia''s reaction just now. He almost devoured alive by her. The next day, in the class Firia noticed Alex''s difference but she didn''t know where is the change. She looked at Alex confusedly. "Try touch his skin" Alicia give him a hint. Firia tried to touch his skin. When she touched his skin, his skin feels so smooth. "Ah!" She shocked. The class looking at her after the shout. Firia was embarrassed. She looked at Alicia wanting an explanation. "He just has medicine to make his skin like that" Alicia explain "Really? Is there any divine medicine like that?" "There is. Look, he is an example. He said he will give me one today" She proudly said. "Ah... I want it too" Firia was envious. "Hehe...You need to obedient to me first. Maybe I can plead to Alex to give you one" "Right, I will obedient" The allure for this pill was too much. Even a seductress like her can be tamed with it. But after a while, she realized she was schemed by Alicia. Why does she need to obedient to Alicia? Can''t she just ask Alex for it? she thought. She glared at Alicia who still grinning. She then turned to Alex. "Alex...That medicine to make your skin this smooth. I want it too" she tried to seduce Alex. "Ah...yes I will give you too" Alex said. Alicia noticed, she immediately got between them. "I... you give it to me first right? Right?" Alicia desperately asked Alex while keep shaking him. "Uugh... Yes, I already promise Princess to give first." Alex turned to Firia "I''m sorry miss Firia" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "That''s my Alex" Alicia''s attitude turned around. Now, she smiled happily. "Uhh.." Firia jealous, she sighed "As long as I get one. Thank you". The class proceeds as usual when the dean saw him. He shocked. "Alex, is this because of the skin-refining pill?" he touched his arm, face, and leg. Alex''s skin became smooth. "Yes" "This skin-refining pill will make all women crazy. This a big business potential!" The Dean laughed. "..." Alex speechless, his teacher before was a rank 8 mage and manage education in this academy. As soon as body tempering was made he aiming at the military, and now he wanted to be a businessman. Alex shook his head and sighed. He continued walking to his cauldron. Before he started refining again, he looked at his teacher who still laughing with his business plan. "Teacher, This is the rank 2 pill recipes" he handed a few papers to him. "Ah..." the dean snapped from his daze. He grabbed the pill recipes, he looked a few names. ''blood and marrow pill'', ''rank 2 restoration pill'', ''bone refining pill'', ''blood replenishing pill'', ''antidote pill'', ''qi gathering pill'', and ''qi replenishing pill''. "Oh.. this much? You give me only 4 recipes for grade one pill. Why you give me 7 recipes for this rank 2 pills?" "There are a few more for rank one pill. But I choose what is most useful from them, and those four were chosen." The dean nodded. he didn''t really care about the alchemist, he was already old enough so his achievement in alchemy won''t be great. So he leaves it to Alex, and support him. "There are a few rare ingredients for these recipes like ten years old ginseng for blood and marrow pill, bone mushroom for bone refining pill, and this white snake gland for antidote pill. For the ginseng I have a few old friends who have many of this I can buy it from them, as for bone mushroom and white snake gland, I can only try from adventurer guild and hunter guild" "no need to rush so much teacher, we haven''t refined the next batch ingredients for grade one pills." "Yes, you are right. I will try to buy these ingredients, with our refining speed we can finish all the ingredients this month" "Yes" Alex start refining again. This time Alex manage to make 40 skin-refining pills out of 100 sets of ingredients. But what makes Alex happy is he manage to make 4 peak grade of the skin-refining pill. He planned to give this to Alicia and Firia, as for the other two, he will keep it for now. He went back, it''s almost midnight. He surprised seeing Alicia still not asleep. "Princess" He greeted her. Alicia didn''t say anything she just gave her hand to Alex. Her eyes saying ''give it to me''. Alex tried to explain "This is a skin-refining pill, Princess''s skin might be itchy after eating this pill. It''s to force old skin out so the new skin can come out. So I recommend princess take a bath after eating this pill." "Pill!" She gave Alex threatening glare. Alex took out the refining pill, the pill was immediately snatched by her. She immediately ate the pill and went to the bathroom. Alex shook his head and sigh. He sat on the sofa and cultivates again. After half an hour, Alicia comes out. Her skin now becomes glossy. She happily went to Alex. "Thank you, Alex" Alex opened his eyes, he sighed "As long as princess like it". "Hehe..." She leaped to bed and immediately fall asleep. She looked tired, as usually she already asleep one hour before Alex came back. Her face looked tired, but a big smile still planted on her face. She looked like that she will have a nice dream tonight. The next day, they came to the class. Firia already waiting for them. When Firia looks at Alicia skin becomes glossy. She was jealous. She put her hand to Alex like Alicia yesterday. Alex tried to explain "This is skin-refining medicine, Miss Firia skin might be itchy after eating this medicine. It''s to force old skin out so the new skin can come out. So I recommend miss Firia take a bath after eating this medicine. So I think I will give this after practice later." Hearing Alex''s reasoning, she hesitated. After thinking about the pros and cons. She pouted and reluctantly accept and sit down again. Alex gave a relieved sigh, he relieved she didn''t become the second Alicia. When practicing together, Alex noticed Firia seems distracted. He knew the reason for it, so he stopped the practice early and give the skin refining pill to her. She leaped out of joy after receiving the pill. But suddenly she realized something. "Alex...I heard in the legend, the one who made a pill like this is Alchemist. Are...You?" Alex nodded. "I hope miss Firia keep this secret for now" "Yes! I will make sure this secret guarded to death" "There is no need to guard this secret to death" Alex said, but she already left without hearing Alex. She was already impatient to use this pill. Alex shook his head. After saying goodbye to Alicia, he went to the dean''s office as usual. "Alex, we already used all of the ingredients. The batch will be delivered the day after tomorrow. So for today how about you relax a bit" "Yes. But teacher may I request something?" before Alex went back to his room he asked. "Oh.. what is it?" "I want to request a few more cauldron" The dean surprised with his request, "For what?" "For rank 3 pill or above there is a chance for the cauldron to explode when refining goes wrong. As for rank 1 and 2 pill the chance to explode almost zero because it is a pill for newbies. so this is for preparation" "Alright, I will make it more" Alicia surprised seeing Alex came back not long after she came back. "Alex, what happened? You rarely come back this early" "Nothing. The ingredients to make pills already used up so I will practice in here" "How about we have a bout?" Alex thinking for a while and nod. "But we don''t use any magic" She added. Alex surprised with this, he looked at Alicia "I''m thinking, if the warrior gets a close range to us mage, we will be defeated. So I think I want to practice melee combat." Thinking this reason, he nodded. "Alright" He made a space a bit in this room. Alicia took her wand, Alex only using a stick. "Are you ready, princess?" Alex asked. "Yes, go on" Hearing the confirmation, Alex started to make a move. Alex put up his stick and swing it down. Alicia tried to parry it with her wand, but suddenly Alex''s leg tripped her. She fell down. "Even your opponent raised his weapon, they might not be attacking you with their weapon." "Ughh.." She let out a groan. But soon she back up again, she looked at Alex with determination. "Again!". Alex smiled, he continued training her a few hours. After a few hours, she got many bruises. Alex was merciless when he trained her. She can only lay down on the floor, her whole body was sore. but she still smiled, this might be the one thing he didn''t hold back when he was with her, though he is merciless. "We will end it here" Alex put down his stick, he came to her and gave her a pill "Princess, please eat this". She eats them, she surprised seeing the bruises get better in naked eyes. She shocked by the effect just now. Though her muscles still sore. "Alex... this..." She looked at Alex. "This is peak-grade rank 1 restoration pill. It is the best for minor wounds like bruises. I''m sorry princess, I''m that hard to you" She shook his head "It''s fine. I got many lessons from this training. But what is this peak-grade thing?" "for pill, they have four gradings, they are low-grade, mid-grade, top-grade, peak-grade. The higher the grade, the higher the efficiency of the pill and also the harder it is to make." "Then that skin-refining pill you gave ?" "Yes, it was a peak-grade skin-refining pill." "Umm...Thank you, Alex" Her heart becomes warmth. Alex gave her something like that to her easily. She is thankful to Alex. "Don''t mind it Princess" Alex smiled. "Then can we practice like this again?" "The next batch of the ingredients will be delivered the day after tomorrow. So tomorrow we can practice like this again." "Okay" She smiled happily. "Princess, how about you take a bath first." "Ah..." She just noticed, she sweated so much. She wanted to stand up but her muscle was sore, she let out a weak groan "Uuu..." Looking at this, Alex felt a bit guilty and he helped her up. 33 Back to Rizertia House The next day, Firia came with her newly fresh skin. When she came, many students noticed her changed. They were mesmerized by her. "Thank you very much Alex" She ignored them and went to thank Alex. "don''t mind it miss Firia since we are....friend" Alex smiled awkwardly, he a bit confused with their current relationship and classified it as a friend. Hearing this, Firia smiled joyfully. The class ended, as usual, he trained together with Firia and Alicia. Today the dean said he doesn''t need to see him. So after saying goodbye to Firia, he went back with Alicia. Alicia asked Alex to train again and Alex accept. After a few hours, Alicia laid down on the floor and covered with bruises like yesterday. Alex gave her a peak-grade restoration pill which Alicia thank him again. The next day, the ingredients for rank 1 pills arrived. "Alex, you refine the body tempering pill, half of muscle refining pill, and all skin-refining pill. Since your refining speed was faster than mine, I will only take all restoration pill and half of muscle refining pill." The dean said. He didn''t choose to refine the body tempering pill, because Alex wanted to give away many peak-grade body tempering pills, so he didn''t want to ruin the ingredients since Alex''s probability to make peak-grade pill was much higher than him. He just secretly cursed that pure fire element that makes this difference huge. -- Three weeks went by like usual. Alex managed to make 121 peak-grade body tempering pills, 40 peak-grade muscle refining pill, and 15 peak-grade refining pill from all the ingredients. But for skin refining pill he only has refined half of the ingredients. As for low-grade, mid-grade, and top-grade pills. He just gave it to the dean. "Alex, next will be a grade ranking. You will be sent to the night forest to gain experience. The teachers will supervise everyone, so this event won''t be dangerous. Just give you best, and kill many monsters." "Yes, Princess already inform me about it" "Well, that''s good. And also for all the pills you give to me, I manage a good connection with the military with your body tempering pill, even generals and war minister have a high interest in this pill so they thank you for it. as for restoration pill, I sell half of them to the military, and half of them to adventurer guild to raise fund, since the adventurer has a higher demand for that kind of medicine, rather than military, since we are not in war. As for muscle refining, I still don''t know where to sell them, but I think the military would have an interest for it, and for skin refining pill, many nobles lady will have crazy for this" "I will leave it to teacher", he didn''t listen when his teacher said ''we are not in war''. if he hears it, he might ask something like ''aren''t we fighting the demon''. "and also because of this, many know me becoming an alchemist, and of course you as my student too. Though you as an alchemist greater than me was only a few higher up know that, so you won''t be targeted. Haiz... too great talent become a source of calamity" "Thank you teacher" "and five days from now, you will get two days off to prepare for grade ranking, you can use this chance to visit your home. Well, you can go back now. It''s already late" "Yes." Alex went back. Alicia as usual reading book regarding ice magic. "Princess. I want to give you something" "What is it ?" Alex took out seven body tempering pills. "This is..." "This is peak-grade body tempering pills, when you eat this you will get ten points STR each pill. And the limit using this is seven pills" "Ah..." She surprised Alex gave these precious pills, as she knows if she eats all of them. she will get seventy points STR, which equals more than half points needed to rank upgrade. "This was too precious" She wanted to reject it. Alex shook his head "I already made many of them, I am still planning to give them to the grand duke, madam, princess Lea, Princess Mia, Firia, The king, and crown prince when we have days off later. I want to thank them for taking care of me." She surprised Alex want to give many of these precious pills away. Alex has said this to her last time, she thinks he will just give one pill for each of them. she was moved with Alex''s sincerity, even people that indirectly involve with Alex like her sister or crown prince will get them. "I thank you on behalf of them." She bowed "No no, I should be the one to thank you for taking care of me" Alex helped her up. The two smiled at each other. "And also..." Alex hesitated. Noticing Alex hesitation, she said "It''s okay just said it" "I''m planning this pill too" he took out muscle refining pill and skin refining pill. "as Princess already knows, this is the skin-refining pill. And for this pill... this pill is the muscle refining pill. As the name said, it''s to refine the muscle. Because of this pill, I managed to become rank 4 faster. But for this pill, it will give you much pain when this pill refines your muscle. So..." "I want to take it" Alicia said with determination. "but the pain is..." before Alex replied he was stopped. "I want to take it, I want to get stronger. Seeing you getting too far ahead from me, pain me. I can''t help you If I am weak, so I want to become stronger" "I..." He was moved by her determination for him, so he gives a muscle refining pill to her. "How about princess takes the body tempering pills first, and take the muscle refining pill later. I will guard you" "Alright" She nod. She eats body tempering pills one by one. She felt her strength greatly increase, now her strength alone was like rank 2 warriors even she was a rank 1 mage. The alchemist in the legend was this overpowered she thought. After eating body tempering pills, she grabbed the muscle refining pill, she looked at Alex. Alex nodded his head. She prepared herself for the pain and eat this pill. "Ah...." as soon as she eats the pill, she screamed. Even she already prepared for the pain, she didn''t know the pain it gave was above her imagination. "Ah... Alex" she screaming in pain Alex worried, he gets closer to her. Suddenly he was hugged by her. "Ah..." She screaming withstanding the pain as she hugged Alex. She unconsciously scratches Alex back when she hugs him. Alex back bleeds. Even when it''s bleed Alex didn''t have any sound, fearing she will get distract. He withstands the pain. After half an hour, the pain subsided. Alicia laid down on the floor, she can''t even move an inch of her finger. Her body was sore all over. "A..lex" She tiredly called Alex. She recalled she wounded Alex''s back with her nail. "Princess just rests first, I''m alright" Alex reassured her. After a while, Alex carried her with the princess carry. Alicia blushed. "A..lex.." even though Alex often carry her like this, but it''s when she asleep. So this is her first-time experience when she awake. He carried her to bed, "Rest first, princess, tomorrow your body will get better" "umm..." She muttered like a mosquito, her face was red like a tomato. After putting her down, Alex pondering in his mind is he ready to take another relationship?. He didn''t know his action just now makes Alicia only can sleep a few hours later. Sometimes she smiled, sometimes she blushed for a few hours. She didn''t get a good sleep tonight. When Alex look at her in the morning, he shocked. There was a bag under her eyes. --- He continued to refine the remaining skin-refining pills for the rest four days "tomorrow you get the days off. And now with all the ingredients already used up, I will re-supply them after the event. Now you go back early to prepare for tomorrow." "Yes, teacher" Alex brings 49 peak-grade body tempering pills, 10 peak-grade muscle refining pills, and 10 peak-grade skin-refining pills. As for the rest, he gives them to the dean. For the last day, Alex and Alicia said goodbye to Firia. Alex gives her 7 body tempering pills and 1 muscle refining pill and 2 skin-refining pills, to her younger sister and her mother. Firia shocked, Alex, give her so many pills, she thanked him by hugging him. But immediately separated by Alicia. After class, they didn''t do any practice anymore but soon get out of the academy. In front of the academy, Grand duke and his butler already wait for them. "Father" Alicia hugged grand duke. "Haha... How is the academy? I miss you" he hugged back. "I miss you too" Then grand duke turned to Alex, "How is the academy?" Alex nod, "The academy is good, Teacher is nice too" Grand duke nod, he knows ''teacher'' in Alex''s word is the dean. "Let''s go back first" Four of them go back to home, Alicia told them what happened in the academy. She also told them she will give a big surprise later in the house. After they come back to the house, the madam, Lea, and Mia already waiting for them. the three of them noticing Alicia''s skin become smoother. Even grand duke didn''t notice. Well, maybe because they are a woman. Alex greeted all of them. when they arrived at the house, it''s already time for dinner. So they come to the dining room. After eating, the grand duke asked Alicia what is this big surprise she talked about. "I have the strength the same with rank 2 warrior" Alicia said. Everyone astonished "but aren''t you a mage?" Alicia continued, "And I have mana equal to rank 3 mage", ''this is because body tempering pill and spiritual liquid that Alex give'' she secretly said in her mind. She dropped another bomb. Everyone was too shocked. "is..this..true?" grand duke stuttered. "Yes" Alicia smile. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "ahaha... this is very good. This is really a big surprise" Grand duke laughed. Everyone was happy with this development. But she suddenly said, "But... this is only a surprise, not a big surprise" Everyone gasped. They wait impatiently what this big surprise was. Alicia looked at Alex, everyone followed her gaze and landed to Alex. "I..." Alex took out the pills he had. "this is body tempering pills, muscle refining pill, and skin refining pill" "You..." Grand duke shocked, even the three ladies shocked. They heard the dean make a connection with the military with this body refining pill, and as for skin refining pill. This pill was very famous for noble ladies. They shocked since the dean become an alchemist now. But only grand duke know, Alex is even a more formidable alchemist than the dean. There was a night, when the king suddenly visited him. He told the dean to become an alchemist, he told him about these two pills too. He was too happy with this news. But when he heard Alex is a more formidable alchemist than the dean, he can''t get a good sleep for a few days. The king too didn''t get a good night''s sleep for a few days. The dean suddenly informed him that he becomes an alchemist, those pills and Alex. So the king didn''t want to suffer alone, so he visited grand duke to make him suffer the same as him. "Yes, this body tempering pills can give 10 points of STR and the limit is seven pills. As for skin refining pills, everyone might already know. As for the example is me and Princess Alicia. And for this muscle refining pills, as the name suggest. It will refine your muscle, as for the specific effect. Princess Alicia will explain that." "10 points?" Grand duke shocked, "I think even the commander only gets 7 points each pill?" "That is a top-grade body tempering pill. As for this is peak-grade pills" Alex explain "Top-grade? Peak-grade" Everyone confused. "There are four grades for a pill. They are low-grade, mid-grade, top-grade, and peak-grade. The low-grade body tempering pill can give 1 point of STR, for low-grade pills they are basically a junk pill. As for mid-grade pill, they give 5 points of STR, and top-grade give 7 points, while peak-grade is the highest grade and give 10 points" This time, Alicia was the one who explained. Alex already explained this to her. So she wanted to brag her new knowledge. "Then, what brother said as you are a better alchemist than your teacher is true?" Grand duke was too shocked about this. "That''s only because of my element" He modestly said. "This skin-refining pill and muscle refining pill is also peak-grade." Alicia continued, "I myself also eat this" Now is the time the three ladies shocked. The skin-refining pill will make your skin much better. After listening to Alicia''s explanation, they know the higher the grade of this pill the higher its effect. So this skin-refining skill must be much better. At first, they confused, seeing grand duke warning them not to buy the pill for now. Even madam put a fight with the grand duke because of it. after that, they reluctantly agree to it. and now they know why grand duke warning them. because Alex will give them a better pill. "For this skin-refining pill and muscle refining pill, people can only take one each. Taking anymore won''t give you any effect again. And also take a precaution for this muscle refining pill, though the effect was great, the pain needs to endure was great too. After eating this pill I manage to get 40 points of DEX and AGI as well as 20 points in VIT" Alicia explained. The three ladies sweat dropped hearing this. They relieved they listening to the grand duke that day. Alicia gives 7 body tempering pills, one muscle refining pill, one skin-refining pill. Alicia just now was like a wife bragging her husband''s possession. But when grand duke looked at her, he smiled. He happy with this development seems like Alicia accepts heartily becoming Alex fiancee. He looked at Alex, he gratified. Even madam whispering something to the grand duke. Though many can''t hear it, Alex can. "I''m sorry for what happened before, I should trust you, not fight you. So I will reward you tonight" Alex speechless, he just pretended never hear it. but for the grand duke, he looked at Alex who looked like a savior for him. Alicia explained, how to use for each pill to them, and they are retired for the day. Tonight many screams come from the mansion. Grand duke, madam, Mia, and Lea. Because they take muscle refining pill. 34 Danger The next morning, four of them walking like a robot. This scene was funny, but the servants didn''t dare to laugh. Only Alicia was laughing non-stop. Mia thanking Alex for the pill. Grand duke and madam, thank him too. Though Alex keeps saying he just wanted to thank everyone for taking care of him. But what is shocking the most, was the eldest daughter. She hugged Alex while thanking him. Everyone froze looking at this. Alicia didn''t know why her heart pained seeing this. ''she is my sister, she is my sister...'' she thought this again and again. As for the eldest daughter, Lea, doing something this bold because she was the one who received the most. She managed to break through to rank 6 prowess so when she reach rank 6 or level 600 her prowess will be much higher. Originally Lea already stuck at rank 5 for 2 years. Rank 5 monster or above was hard to kill, as for below rank 5 monster didn''t give much exp for leveling up. So with this new power, she can easily challenge rank 5 or even rank 6 monsters to leveling up. Lea graduated from the academy two years ago. She was a rank 5 warrior at that time, renowned as a genius of genius. She was proud and aloof. After graduating from the academy she wanted to enlist to the military. But her progress stagnated in rank 5. Because of this, the house makes a celebration. After dinner, grand duke accompanies Alex, Alicia, and Mia to the academy. Mia is a second-grade student in the academy. For second grade students, they have a more relaxed schedule, so she already went back to the house a few days earlier. "Be careful when you are going to Night forest." He warned them. "Yes father, we are going now" Alicia and Mia said. Alex took out a few more pills and give them to the grand duke. "This is the pill for his majesty and ....your highness crown prince." When grand duke receiving this pill. He looked at Alex more and more pleasing to the eyes. This son-in-law is the best son-in-law he can get, he thought. They come back to their own room. Alex said he wanted to explore the night forest alone. So Mia invited Alicia to join her since she already has that capability to follow her. Alex went back to cultivate. Even his strength equal to rank 4, he still didn''t manage to break through to the Qi Gathering Stage. The next day, every student from the academy gather on the arena. The dean giving his speech, "Today will be the start for grade ranking, the event will be held for two weeks, you need to kill monsters in the night forest, the number of monsters you manage to kill will determine your ranking. The teachers will be the ones who supervised you." "After this speech end, we will go to the night forest. Do my best my student! and remember today is the first day for grade ranking" The dean got off the podium. A few students manage to get the hidden message in the dean''s speech. Alex managed to get the hidden message too. The dean likes to make a different system for many years in this event. "Princess we might need to pick up a pace later."Alex said. True enough, he immediately saw Mia come to them. "Alicia" "Sister Mia" "Let''s go" Mia grab Alicia''s hand. "Sister, what happened?" Alicia worried. "I will explain it later. Now we need to move faster. He noticed it too" Mia said while looking at Alex. Alex nod to her. "Please go on Princess" Alex said to Alicia. Alicia then left with Mia, while Alex too, starting his own journey to Night Forest. Night Forest is a forest close to the capital city. They can arrive with only a day of walking. Academy has thirty third-grade students, two hundred second grade students, and one thousand first grade students. All of these people set off toward the night forest. With so many people marching toward the night forest. this event was well known by the citizen in the capital city. Many come out from their house, watching them and cheering for them. But Alex didn''t care about this, he escaped from the mass rushing toward night forest, after a few hours running. True enough, there are a few ten students who reached this forest first. they all manage to get the hidden message from dean speech. Of course, there are already a few rank 6 teachers above standing by outside the forest. they smiled at the students because they know about the dean''s arrangement. The student who managed to get the hidden message mainly third-grade students. A few second-grade students. Only Alex and Alicia who was brought along with Mia are the first-year students. Alex went inside the forest. The forest was similar to a rain-forest in his hometown on Earth. He didn''t care about this, he keeps rushing to the inner forest. While he rushing to the inner forest, he has slain many rank 0 to rank 1 monster. With Alex''s capability, this monster gets killed in an instant with Alex. He runs for another two hours as he managed to reach the inner forest. he raised his guard. He noticed a big red snake, with 12-meter length and 1 meter wide. This monster is rank 3 snake. He praised his luck. The first monster he sees in the inner forest is a rank 3 snake. The snake is fast with his big body. But after all this snake only rank 3 snake, Alex still killed it easily. He searched around for a few hours. He managed to kill ten rank 2 monsters and 4 rank 3 monsters. He decided to rest for the day. He didn''t make a campfire. He just climbs a tree and sleeps on there. Since he awakens his element, he never bothered with cold. On the second day, he managed to kill a few times more than yesterday. On the third day, when he searched around he got surrounded by twenty rank 3 wolves, but what shocked him the most, their leader is a rank 4 wolf. He recalled what Alicia said, in the inner forest. the monster should only rank 2 or rank 3 monsters. He frowned. This time he took out his spears from the system. He now has a spear in each hand. Before the wolf leader ordered to attack, Alex throws his spears. He managed to kill two wolves with that. "Auuuu" The leader immediately ordered them to attack. seventeen wolves immediately charged at Alex. Alex still has a few meter distance from them, he takes out another two spear and throws them. He killed another two wolves. But this time the wolves manage to get close to him, so he took out his sword. Taking many rank 3 wolves, this is the first time for him. To boost it, these wolves were fast. One wolf charge to him from the front. He swings his sword. His sword managed to kill the wolf. But, "Ah...." he screamed. His left arm was bitten from the back. Noticing this, All wolves charge at him together. Alex immediately kicked the wolf that bites him. Fortunately his left hand still usable. He called another sword to his left hand. He charged to the direction where the wolves were fewer to make a breakthrough. In this direction only have two wolves charging at him, so he effortlessly slashes them. with that, he managed to breakthrough. The wolf that got kicked by Alex, can''t get up. Alex''s strength was equal to rank 4, so that kick managed to immobilize the wolf. Now only thirteen wolves left That charging at him. He used this chance to throw his sword from his left hand which managed to kill another wolf. He now took out his spear from his left hand. Sword in the right hand, Spear in the left hand. He runs around them. the wolves not charging at him from one direction. there are seven wolves in his back, three wolves at his side and two wolves in his front. The wolves were smart, but unfortunately, their opponent is Alex. He instantly killed the wolves in his front. He then charged at the wolves in his side. He managed to kill two wolves in his side, but when he just about to kill the third one. There is a shadow from his other side. He instinctively used his sword to guard. He was blown away. he shocked, the wolf leader decided to join. His right hand was numb. But fortunately, because he was blown away, that manage to give him and the wolves a distance. He managed to throw three spears before the wolves close their distance. Now there are only 5 wolves left excluding the leader. But the battle now was harder, since his right hand still hasn''t recovered. He used his left hand to use spear so he can make a distance with them. The leader charged at him, but now he already prepared. Just when the leader was about to bite him, Alex kicked him. He blew him away. The wolves saw this, they start to fear Alex. But Alex didn''t let this chance pass. He throws his spear with his left hand. A fireball appeared in front of him. He pinched the ball like an arrow and release it, Alex decided to use his magic. the ball fly to the wolves, the ball split to four targeting each wolf. Since the wolves were scared, they didn''t manage to dodge it. the balls manage to pierce them and killing all of them. This time the leader manages to recover, he looked at Alex hatefully. All his subordinate was killed by him. Now the leader was berserk, He angrily charged at Alex. Alex formed a fire spear in his front, the spear fly to the leader. The wolf leader shocked, he managed to retain a bit of his rationality. He barely dodges Alex''s flame spear. But Alex didn''t let this go, he charged at the wolf, he slash him. After the wolf leader died, Alex leaned to a tree. He tired, he took out a restoration pill. The numbness on his right hand was disappeared, the bitten wound to close with a speed visible with naked eyes. He decided to stop his hunt for today. Alex frowned. "Why does a rank 4 wolf come to the inner forest?" he keeps pondering this. The next day, he killed a few rank 3 monsters. He didn''t see any rank 4 monsters for now. But what happened was a shock to him. Because this time is not a rank 4 monsters coming. This time is a rank 5 monsters coming. He got scared. A rank 5 bear coming to him. He got his guard to the maximum. He wanted to run away but it is not possible. This bear is fast even though his body was big. He charged at Alex. Alex dodge to the side ''fast'' he was shocked with the bear speed. He just managed barely dodge the bear''s charged. He took out his spear and threw it to the bear. The spear didn''t even manage to scratch the bear but the spear capable to make the bear angry. The bear angrily charged at him, but this time he not charged blindly. When Alex managed to dodge his charge, he immediately threw a paw to him. Alex parried this. ''strong!'' Alex had blown away. he crashed to a big tree, he spurted blood. He checked at his wound. Aside from his inner injury, his left hand was incapacitated. He makes a fireball and pinched it like usual. He aimed at the bear. The ball fly to the bear, the bear raised his hands to guard. When the ball touches the bear, it exploded. "Did I manage to kill it?" When the fog cleared. He saw the bear wasn''t even wounded. This time he got scared. With that attack, many rank 3 will be killed easily, even rank 4 monsters won''t escape unscathed. But this attack didn''t even wound the bear in his front. "Is this a rank 5 power?" The bear charged at him again, the bear paw manage to land to Alex. Alex blown away again. He crashed to a nearby rock. This time a few of his ribs broken. He fuzzily looked at the bear. "Is this my end?" He thinks he will be killed by this bear. But suddenly, a warm feeling enters his body. "This is..." he surprised with this sudden feeling. He tried to absorb this warm feeling to his body. "What is this?" "Is this Qi?" He tried to absorb as many as possible in these few seconds. ''broke through. Qi Gathering Stage'' "So this is qi. System my stat" Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary) Rank : 3 Level: 361 STR: 440 AGI: 410 VIT: 421 DEX: 430 INT: 401 "I broke through" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The bears charged at him once again. After he reaches the Qi gathering stage. He managed to control the Qi/mana in his body easily. He infused the qi to his foot, this time he managed to dodge the bear completely. "Ah..." He screamed in pain. The pain for a broken hand and a few broken ribs. Enduring this pain, he moves a few meters away from the bear. He raised his sword. He tried to infuse his sword with his fire. The sword now was on fire. Seeing that is successful, he tried to infuse it as many as possible. After he thinks he can''t infuse it anymore he swings his sword down. Alex''s sword broke, as a Flame sword wave flies to the bear. The bear shocked looking at this, the bear put two of his hands to guard this. While Alex used this chance to run away. "I will be back to kill you" Alex said with determination. If Alex looked back, he can see the one of the bear hands was cut by his sword wave. 35 Rematch Outside of the forest. the dean was the one who in charge of supervising him. When Alex managed to kill many rank 2 to rank 3 monsters, he smiles satisfied. He dismissed other teachers watching Alex. He managed to make Alex so-called ''space element'' not be seen by others. He suddenly worried when Alex was surrounded by twenty wolves, and one of them is rank 4 wolf. Though Alex has a rank 4 prowess, Alex still new to rank 4. He restrains himself watching Alex was bitten and blown away by the wolf. He relieved when Alex manage to kill all of them. When he look a rank 5 bear coming to him, he wanted to charge at that bear and killed it. but he managed to restrain himself, because if he comes to Alex rescue just now. Alex will be out of this grade ranking immediately. He didn''t want to ruin Alex''s chance. He saw Alex''s hand was incapacitated, he wanted to whack that bear to death. "Alex... run away" he muttered. When the bear broke Alex''s rib. His heart feels broken. He already treats Alex like his son. He doesn''t have any family in this world. so when Alex come as his student, he was happy. After knowing Alex for a month, he feels gratified. From then he treated him like family. So watching Alex like this broke his heart. "Alex.. just run away" A few tears formed on the corner of his eyes. Just as he wants to rush over there to interfere. He surprised seeing Alex stand up and manage to dodge the bear''s charge completely. He even more shocked when Alex fused his sword with magic. He looked at that tyrannical Flame sword wave, he felt the element in his body got suppressed a little. "This must be the power of pure fire element... no Absolute Flame" He knows now, why the legend said the other name of the pure fire element, is Absolute Flame. Seeing Alex manage to do this in his condition. This must be the so-called ''turning misfortune to blessing'' he thought. He gave a relieved sigh. -- In the forest, Alex managed to get a safe spot for him. This limestone cave wasn''t big but was enough for him since the most priority to him was a safe place. He immediately took out the restoration pills. He eats one pill, after a few hours. His body managed to recover a little, so he took another pill. He did this again and again. When the dean refining restoration pills. He managed to make 120 peak-grade pills. He gave a third to Alex. Alex give 15 pills to Alicia and 5 to Firia. He just managed to recover after a week. Rank 1 restoration pills don''t have many effects in his condition so he need 1 week to recover. "There are still two days before this end." He used one day to adjust and familiarize himself with his new stage. The next day arrived, this is the last day for grade ranking. He got out of the cave. He searched looking at the previous bear. After a few hours, he didn''t manage to see the bear. So he tried his luck, inside the core forest, after a few more hours searching he found it. "Found him" He went in front of the bear. "Hehe... a week ago you give me a beating. I will have my revenge now" "Roar..!" The bear now only has one hand, as Alex managed to cut his hand a week ago. Alex tried to recreate what he did a week ago. He channels his mana to his sword and he slashes them. A flame sword wave flying to the bear. The bear raised his hand to guard it. ''boom'' the flame sword wave exploded when it reached the bear. After the fog cleared away, Alex saw the bear didn''t have any wound. Though Alex didn''t put the whole of his qi in that attack. he thinks it is still enough to injure that bear. But what he didn''t know is after fighting Alex, the bear managed to breakthrough his strength. The bear charged at him, Alex dodge completely. But the bear didn''t stop, he immediately changes his direction to Alex and charges him again. Alex didn''t manage to dodge this time. The bear paw almost reached him. So he put his hand to guard the bear''s attack. Alex was blown away, destroying a few trees in his path. He crashed on the big tree. He spurted blood. He immediately examined his body. "The hand still usable, only internal injury" He wiped the blood in his mouth. He channels the mana to his sword again. This time he channels more qi. ''Flame Sword Wave'' This time, the wave managed to wound the bear. But the wound was too swallow. "Tch... Too swallow" He underestimated this bear. After fighting for an hour, his stamina almost empty. He looked at the bear who also exhausted. The bear release another attack. Alex has blown once again because of this attack. this time his left hand was incapacitated. "I...Will I lose again to him?" Alex muttered. "No!" He raised his sword, the bear charged at him once again. He closed his eyes. "With my sword in my hand. If I don''t want to cut, even the most fragile leaf won''t be cut. If I want to cut something, even heaven and earth won''t be spared" He swings down his sword. "Die!" This time the bear was cut to two. He managed to kill the bear, he leaned to the tree. He let out a long sigh. This time he almost died because he underestimated his opponent. This lesson was heavy for him. He tried to comprehend what just he did. The dean outside the forest was too shocked seeing the scene. He was shocked when he sees Alex manage to kill that bear, but what shocked him the most is the method Alex used. He was familiar with that. ''sword intent'' There are many people proficient in the way of the sword. But the elite of the elite, but among them have something in common. That was their job become Sword Saint. And the minimum requirement for this job is ''Sword Intent''. He decided to inform the king, he wanted to make him go another few days without good sleep. One thing the dean missed, if he looked at the sky he will notice a small cut appeared in the sky. This was never happen from the previous sword saint. Only a rank 7 or above can notice this small cut. But there was no one who saw this. Because the one who monitored Alex was only the dean. A few more hours after this scene, one hour before the sunset, the grade ranking ended. "The grade ranking was over!" The dean announced, with his power as a rank 8 channeling his mana to his voice. Every student heard this. Many students started to go out of the forest. Alex too, goes out from the forest. Outside the forest, there is space to list the participant. Around 50 percent of the student didn''t even manage to kill the monster but already rescued by the teachers. So this student will be expelled. "Name?" the administrative teacher asked the student name. "Muga" The teacher nod, "twenty rank 0 monsters and one rank 1 monster, total 22 points" This student result was a bit low from the average last year. "Joshua" this time Joshua from first grade S-class. He arrogantly said. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Fifty rank 0, one hundred fifty-three rank 1 and forty rank 2, and three rank 3 monsters, total 540 points" "Woah..." The crowd was astonished. "Hmph" He arrogantly left. The score for rank 0 monster is 1 point, for rank 1 is 2 points, for rank 2 is 4 points, for rank 3 is 8, for rank 4 is 20 and for rank 5 is 100. Even grade 3 students, a rank 5 among them was genius among genius like Princess Mea manage to kill rank 5 monsters. The scoring was continued. Alex went out of the forest, he tried to search for Alicia. Suddenly he heard a sound from his back. "Alex" He turned back seeing Alicia coming to him. "Princess" "How do you do?" She worried. Alex states just now like a worn-out beggar. His appearance was in a sorry state. "I''m fine Princess, just a bit exhausted. I will fine again after resting" he assured her. "That''s good then" she relieved. Suddenly someone comes, the one who comes was a young man. His face was somewhat handsome, but the most noticeable Alex can be seen was this person is arrogant. "So, you are Alex. The one in princess Alicia mouth. You are only so-so, just scram from here". Alex confused, he never offended him but he comes to him and scrams him away. he frowned. This young man is Cornel Jiavika, a son of marquis. He formed a party with Alicia and Mia in the forest. they make a group of five. Originally he was pursuing Princess Mia, but every time he got close to her, he only get a cold glaze from her. When she sees Alicia, he was astonished by her beauty. And after he sees her performance, he was mesmerized by her so he gives up on pursuing Mia and he thought to pursue Alicia right now. He was known as a genius comparable to Princess Mia. He is now a rank 3 but in this year he might become a rank 4 and for the last year he has the potential to become a rank 5. This is what makes him arrogant, and seeing Alicia was gentle with Alex he hates Alex. When he tried to approach Alicia in the forest. Alicia only gives him a cold shoulder. Alex knows after this, he realized since Cornel mentioned Alicia in his mouth. That means he was captivated by her. "Who do you think you are" Alicia shouted, She glare at Cornel hatefully. "Princess, you need to maintain your image. As noble as you princess, can''t be together with a commoner like him. But I am marquis Jiavika first son, soon enough I will become a marquis after succeeding my father position." "Scram" She shouted. "Princ..." Cornel shocked. "Scram!" She shouted again. "I..." Cornel turned to Alex "You commoner won''t have a good result. I will beat you in the ranking. So princess Alicia will know you are just cannon fodder and look at me" "..." Alex only silent. "Alex..." The atmosphere around them become awkward once again. The incident come once again, where Alex was belittled because he was a commoner. Alex sigh, he looked at Alicia and shook his head. "Let''s go to register our name" Hearing Alex''s response, she relieved. She followed Alex. They waited for a while. This time is Cornel''s turn. Before he going he glared hatefully to Alex. "Look my result, and you will know. You are not qualified to stand beside princess Alicia" "Cornel Jiavika" "Rank 0 thirty, rank 1 one hundred one, rank 2 two hundred twenty-four, rank 3 forty, and rank 4 two. Total points are 1488 points" "Woah..." The crowds were astonished by these points. Even the teacher who announced it was surprised too. "Hmph" He turned to Alex. "Look at that, you are not qualified." Alex only shake his head, "Princess, it''s your turn" Alicia nod, "Alicia" "Rank 0 fifty-three, rank 1 one hundred twenty, rank 2 two hundred twenty, rank 3 seventeen. Total points are 1309 points" "Woah.." The crowd was even more astonished. They know Alicia is a princess, but what shocked them is Alicia now is the First-grade student. But what they didn''t know. If she didn''t receive Alex pills and spiritual liquids. She won''t be able to receive this kind of result. She was thankful to Alex. "Congratulations to you Princess Alicia" The teacher said politely. "Thank you" She smiled. And she left. This time was Alex. Alicia looked at him worriedly. Cornel looked at him with contempt, he snorted. "Alexander" "Rank 0 thirty, rank 1 fifty, rank 2 two hundred eleven, rank 3 one hundred thirty-three, rank 4 one, rank.." before he finished announce Alex point, he was shocked. He immediately stood up wanting a confirmation. But the dean comes in. "That is true, I''m the one personally saw him kill it." The dean confirmed and left. "Ra..nk 5 one" "What?" The crowd shocked. Even Alicia jaw dropped so much. Only Cornel was pale, he never wanted to believe this kind result. "To..tal points.. are ..2158 points" There is only silence when they hear Alex''s score. They are speechless with this score. Since Alex was the last student the ranking was announced. 36 Duel Alex now is ranked at 11 in grade ranking, he saw Cornel''s ranking is 25, while Alicia in 101. He also saw Princess Mia''s name, she was rank 9, two ranks above Alex. And the last is Firia who in rank 279. When Alex inside the forest, he was like a killing machine. If not because he was injured and forced to heal his wound for a week. Maybe he can come up as rank 1. "That''s impossible" Someone shouted. When they saw the one who shouted. Yes, it''s Cornel. "You only a commoner and also a first-grade student. There''s no way you can kill a rank 5 monster. That''s right you must be cheated." Alex frowned, he said coldly"You can eat anything, but you can''t say any word without proof" "Proof? I don''t need proof. My word is proof. That''s right if you want proof, I challenge you to a duel. I will defeat you and everyone will know you cheated in this ranking" "You.." Alicia glared at him "Princess... why can''t you see he is cheating. He was a commoner so he resorted to cheating. He is really not worthy of you princess Alicia" "In two days at the arena" Alex coldly said and he left. "Look he is escaping, he doesn''t want to embarrass himself". "You...." She glared at Cornel and left following Alex. She saw him in their room. "Alex..." She worried about Alex. "I''m fine, princess. You don''t need to worry about me. All in all, I benefit a lot in the night forest. So I can''t be bothered by him" "That''s good then" She relieved. ''system how many tickets I get?'' [273 Tickets, Host] ''how many that I have accumulated?'' [766 Tickets, Host] ''I see'' The next day, he sees the dean. "Teacher" "Alex, you have come. The ingredients for rank 2 pill already come" "Yes" Alex hearing this, was eager to refine them. "But you can''t refine them today." Alex''s mood went down. The dean explained "You better rest for today. And also I want to talk another matter with you" "What is it teacher?" "I saw you make a flame wave using a sword. I want to forbid you using that move again." "Why?" Alex confused, why he forbid him using this move. "When you use that skill. The feeling of my fire in my body was suppressed. So if you use where other people present. They will know your pure element" "I see" Alex nod. "And also, I observe you use sword intent when you killed the bear." "Oh..." Alex just nod. He still confused with that energy, he knows now that energy called sword intent. "There are many great people in the way of the sword. They have a common job called Sword Saint. And the minimum requirement to get that job is Sword intent. Try to check your status, there must be sword saint in your job" Alex nod, he spoke in his mind ''system'' The dean didn''t shock with this. Because he knows, the status card was imprinted in his body. He can will it to appear and will it to disappear. All people have this card in their bodies. This card really miraculous. And you can see your status in your mind. But what he didn''t know Alex see his status with system. Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job: Adventurer(Primary), Alchemist(Secondary), Sword Saint(Secondary) Rank : 3 Level: 386 STR: 440 AGI: 410 VIT: 421 DEX: 430 INT: 401 True, He now had sword saint as a job. "Yes, I get sword saint as my secondary job" he nod. "Secondary?" The dean confused, sword saint is one of the high-level jobs. Usually, people who have a sword saint as his job will become their primary job. "And your primary job is?" "Adventurer" Alex said casually. Hearing this, the dean almost vomited blood. He angry, "What are you doing? Why are you keeping such a useless job as your primary job? Don''t tell me you don''t know how to change your job?" "I can change them?" Alex innocently asked. Dean''s face was darkened. He tried to calm down for a while, he forgets he is from another world. so he is ignorant about this. He sighs "You can change them with your mind" "Let me try" he closed his eyes. He tried to change his job within his mind Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job: Sword Saint(Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Alchemist(Secondary), Rank : 3 Level: 386 STR: 440 AGI: 410 VIT: 421 DEX: 430 INT: 401 "Oh it''s a success" but Alex confused "Why I need to change the adventurer job to secondary?" "Don''t tell me, you didn''t know about the benefit of the primary job?" Alex can only shake his head. "Primary job has a boosting effect according to the job. Take your sword saint as an example. If you use sword saint as your primary job, though it won''t boost you in attack power. But your comprehension speed in the sword will be increased. Another example is your Alchemist job, this job will boost your comprehension speed for alchemy. But it will only have an effect after you put that job as your primary job. Now do you understand?" he angrily explained. "Uh...I understand" he didn''t know about this. If he knows he already makes his job changed. Especially when he refined pills. "If other people want to look at your card. You can hide your secondary job. So when you let them see your card put your adventurer job as primary and hidden your secondary job." The dean continued, "Well whatever. I heard you will going to battle with second-grade students tomorrow?" "Yes" "Haiz, it will just become bullying for you. We will start refining the pill tomorrow after your battle. You can go back" "Yes." Alex went back to his room. As usual, Alicia was waiting for him. She asked him for the usual training. And of course, after a few hours, you can only see Alicia laid down tiredly on the floor. She never landed a hit on Alex. But this training gives her a big benefit. Especially, when she fighting with the monster at night forest. even she was surrounded she can still fight with her staff. The next day, after class he trained together with Firia as usual. But Firia keeps nagging him that it''s already time to head to the arena. After half an hour nagging, Alex surrender. He decided to go to the arena. In the arena, the audience was full even though now is a holiday for them. they are curious about this second-grade genius facing with first-grade super genius. And The dean was also in the audience. On the arena, Cornel already waiting for him for a half-hour. "Heh... it seems your student didn''t have any courage," an old man said. This old man is Cornel''s teacher. This old man is a rank 7 swordsman The dean hearing this, he shakes his head. "It''s better he didn''t come. If not, your student''s pride will be crushed by him. It will just become plain bullying" "You.. you can only say that because he didn''t come." He sneered. "Haha..." The dean simply laughed away. "Seems he doesn''t have the courage to get here. He knows his cheat already blown away. so he doesn''t have face to meet all people her." He sneered. "That''s right, he scared of sir Cornel" one of Cornel''s lackey said. But suddenly the audience cheered. Alex has come. Alex slowly walked to the arena. "You finally come. I thought you get scared since your cheating had already blown away by me. You really not deserve princess Alicia" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex ignored him, he only looked at the referee and said, "Please Start" "You..." Cornel angry when he is ignored by him. The referee checks them once again. "The match start" "Die!" Cornel immediately charged at him with his sword. Alex didn''t even bother using his sword, he just dodges him effortlessly again and again. The match went by like that for a few minutes, Cornel was infuriated. "Don''t escape if you have the guts" "..." Alex only keeps his silence while dodging. "You can only escape. What right do you have to be standing beside her? Don''t worry, after I kill you here I will take good care of her" He grinned evilly. Hearing this Alex frowned, he was fine if he was insulted but he didn''t want Alicia to get brought in it. he already decided to end this match. He grabbed his sword on his waist, he swings it to Cornel weapon, Alex targets his weapon specially. ''clang'' Cornel weapon was flown away. then he kicked Cornel''s abdomen to vent his anger. He jumped in his direction and put his sword on Cornel''s neck. "Match ended. Alexander Win" Alex nod, he sheathes his sword and turned back, he didn''t want to be bothered by him. Just when he was walking away from the arena. "No.. This is impossible. You cheat, you don''t have any chivalry or it''s impossible that I lose" Cornel grab his sword once again. He charged to Alex "Die!" Alex frowned. He closed his eyes "With my sword in my hand. If I don''t want to cut, even the most fragile leaf won''t be cut. If I want to cut something, even heaven and earth won''t be spared" ''sword intent'' When the two swords clash. Cornel''s weapon didn''t have a stand. It immediately broke away. Yes, Cornel''s sword was split into two. Cornel was shocked by this. "Sword Intent" a few teachers stood up when looking at this. Even Cornel''s teacher was shocked too. He too was a sword practitioner, but he still doesn''t have to congeal a sword intent. But this 17 years old youth, already have a sword intent. Of course, Cornel didn''t notice any of this, he went berserk. "No no this is impossible. My sword is rank 4 mithril sword. You must be cheating. There''s no way your puny iron sword can cut my sword. That''s right, your teacher is the dean''s right. He is a master forging, so he must give you this sword. Right, you only win because of this sword. It''s not your ability" Alex simply looked at the referee and give his sword. "This is only a normal iron sword" The referee announced and give back the sword. "No this is impossible. How can you cut my weapon" he felt his face slapped a few times on the arena. Alex looked at the referee, "He already broke away many rules, so this is only self-defense." Alex kicked Cornel''s abdomen, but this time with his full power, he really wanted to vent his frustration from Cornel''s blabbering. Cornel was blown away and crashed to the wall outside the arena and passed out. This injury will leave him a few months to heal. "Bastard!" Of course, Cornel''s teacher was angry. He sent a sword wave to Alex wanting to kill him. ''sword intent'' Alex tried to cut this sword wave with his sword intent. He was pushed back by this sword wave. "Ha..." Alex roared. He put all his power into his sword. He managed to cut this powerful sword wave made by a rank 7 swordsman, but this leaves him with many internal injuries, he coughed blood. "Alex" Alicia and Firia shouted they will immediately run to Alex. 37 Journey to Maka Town The dean was angry. "Patrick, You bastard!" The tyrannical heat coming from his body, many fires shaped like spear, ball, and many things formed and charging at Patrick. Yes, Patrick in his mouth is Cornel''s teacher. "Ah...." Patrick screamed. He was pinned down with this many fires. The dean burned Patrick''s hand. He was angry at him. How could a senior like him make a move to a junior like his student, especially since already treat Alex like his own son. "Argh..." Patrick screamed in pain. "You.. you burned my hand" Hand for swordsman is their life. So, Patrick whose main hand was burned, can''t become a swordsman anymore. "I won''t let you off" Patrick glare hatefully. "Hmph, since you won''t let me off, then I will just kill you here to avoid future problems" Now he burned Patrick. "Ahh....no no don''t kill me" He pleaded. But the dean ignored him. Patrick was burned to ash. ''Overbearing!'' Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The dean was overbearing. He wanted to kill someone, he kills. Even though Patrick was a rank 7 swordsman as well as a teacher in the academy. There is no one who dared to give a voice of discontent. Not even the teacher. If not they will trigger the dean anger to themselves. They just practically asked him to kill themselves. "Alex you okay?" he comes to Alex. "Yes teacher, only a few internal injuries." "Let''s go to my office. I will try to refine the restoration pill for you." The dean took Alex, Alicia, and Firia away. Before he refined the restoration pills, "I still have 4 restoration pills with me" Alicia said. "I also still have 1 restoration pill" Firia said. "Since they still have, you take it first" the dean said. "Thank you" Alex take the pills, after a few hour recuperation. He went back to full health. "Teacher, I want to make a request" "Oh... say it" "I want to dive into the dungeon." "..." He not too shocked with this request from Alex. He thought after Alex received that sword wave from Patrick, he suddenly has the drive to get stronger. So he wanted to go to the dungeon. He managed to speculate half the truth. Alex wanted to get stronger, and the way for it is to upgrade the gacha system. And for that, he wanted to search gacha tickets. The dungeon was the best place to get them. beside he can''t get stronger with leveling up. He was realized, the only way to protect is to become strongest. That''s the only way to protect his family and friends. "Up to you then, since you all have two months of holiday. But only for one month" Alex confused. Why he can only dive for one month. The holiday is for two months and... "Look at this pile of ingredients. Are you going to work me to death, refining this many ingredients" The dean continued. "Ah..." He just remembered, he originally wanted to refine rank 2 pills. But this desire make him forget about this matter. "Yes, I will only dive for one month" He was ashamed. "Alright, just rest for today." The dean dismissed them. The trio left the office. "Alex, I want to follow you to the dungeon," Alicia said. "Me too" Firia added in. Alex shook his head. "I will go to the dungeon alone" "But" The two were reluctant. But Alex determined to go alone. "Just this time. I will refine a pill for you two after I''m done" The two pouted. This pill was a big temptation for them. all the pill Alex give to them was a top-notch pill. They reluctantly agreed. "Be careful" "Yes. You two too enjoy your holiday." Even though Alex said ''holiday'', The two already decided in their hearts. They will use this time to get stronger, as they didn''t want to be outdone by Alex. The next day, Alex searching for a caravan to Maka Town. He decided to dive into the dungeon nearby which is a dungeon in Maka town. He found one caravan to go there. The leader is a middle-aged fat merchant. He paid for him. The merchant already makes a request for protection from the adventurer guild. The protectors were a five-person group. they are a group called black spider. They have an average rank 2 strength with a rank 3 leader. The journey wasn''t long, only two days away and the roads weren''t dangerous. So the merchant didn''t request for high strength party. The first day went well they didn''t encounter any monster or bandit. On the second day, Alex chatting with the merchant. But suddenly he frowned. Because he saw a pack of wolves. The merchant saw Alex suddenly frown, he confused. "Wolves pack" he points at the merchant''s back. The merchant looking at the direction he pointed. His face immediately becomes pale. "Wolves" He screamed. He scared because the wolves pack contain around a hundred wolves. A small group like him would be collapse if they attack. Alex scanned the power of these wolves. The wolves mainly a rank 0 monster, and a few rank 1. He relieved. The five adventurers were pale. Though they have killed a pack of wolves before. But it''s only twenty wolves and they fought a hard battle with them. but this time the pack was more than five times size than the previous wolves pack. They want to run away. but Alex immediately said, "Stop! Look carefully, the wolves pack look like they are migrating. And if you observe them carefully they are thin and exhausted" They stopped. They carefully observe the wolves pack. What Alex said was true. "That''s right, the wolves are exhausted. They should be easy to kill" the party leader said. They went to the battle position. Alex observed them. "Two vanguards, one archer, one mage, and one scout. A balanced team." He muttered. The wolves pack noticed their group. They sent a few wolves. Within a few minutes, the wolves were killed. This time all the pack charges at them. The adventurers have a pale face. They underestimated the wolves. Though the wolves are exhausted, they forgot these wolves were hungry. Because of this hunger, their ferocity was multiple times more. ''brak!'' One of the vanguards dropped his shield. "No. This is impossible. We will die here." Alex frowned seeing this. He went to the top of the carriage. "Mr. Alex?" The merchant was confused. ''is he going to escape?'' he thought. Alex draws his sword. He infuses it with mana. He swings his sword horizontally. ''Flame sword wave'' A beautiful horizontal flame sword wave was fly to the pack. Before it managed to land to the ground. The sword wave managed to pass a few ten wolves. The wolves that were passed by the sword wave were split into two. ''boom!'' When the sword wave landed on the ground, it exploded. After the fog was cleared away. the wolves were scared to him. The adventurers and the merchant was shocked. Because this attack alone managed to wipe half of the pack. "Scram!" Alex shouted. The mana from his body was out. This is a difference of one big realm between the body tempering stage and the qi gathering stage. "Aoooo!" the leader roared. The pack retreat. The leader makes his pack leave, if not, seeing Alex he determined if they still charging at them. Alex will wipe them out. Alex didn''t want to wipe them out. After all, even they are a monster, they still were living beings. Their condition wasn''t good, they are thin. They must be didn''t eat a few days. So he decided to spare them. "Sir Alex. Thank you very much for helping" the fat merchant said. Even his tone becomes polite. If you notice, before he called him with mister but now he called him with Sir!. Alex shook his head, "I am also a member of this caravan. If the group was attacked, it''s natural to help each other." "Thank...thank you sir Alex. Without you we will be killed." The party leader said politely. "As I said, it''s natural to help each other. Let''s go, if not we might not arrive before night come" "Ye...yes" the group starts to move again. The group starts picking up the pace. They manage to arrive at Maka Town just before the sunset. Alex said goodbye to the group. The merchant wants to give the fee back to Alex as thanks but was reject by Alex. Alex went to the inn a bit far away from the dungeon because all inn near the dungeon was full. "Hello, do you want to stay at our inn?" a 15 years old young woman. Though this young woman was plain, her body still great. The curvature was placed in the right place, many wills claimed this woman has a sexy body. "Yes, I want to stay for a month" "One day is thirty copper coin. So for a month nine hundred copper or nine silver." Alex was astonished, the price was three times the inn in the capital city with the same quality. "This price is reasonable. If you go to the inn near dungeon the price will be much higher." She often with this kind of person. So when she looked at Alex''s astonished face, she knows Alex never go to a kind of dungeon town. "Ah... I will rent of course" Alex snapped from his daze. He still has a few gold coins left from Zircodina''s king. He never spends so much. Especially for a weapon since he got all of them from the system. He secretly thankful to the system. [Your welcome Host] ''.....How can you know the system'' [I''m part of you Host, of course I know] ''then do you observe me like 24/7'' [Of course, nothing escape from me] the system brag. ''..... No no no, give me my privacy back'' [Can''t do Host. After I linked with you, this bound to happen] ''&*%*&%'' he cursed. [Love you too Host] Back to the room somewhere far away, the woman still continues typing something. She sigh, "Hurry up get stronger and come to meet me. Darling, I really miss you" -- Back to present, "One month is it, that nine silver coin. How about your meals? It''s five coins a day" "No need. I will rarely come back to the inn as I will stay mainly in the dungeon." "Oh... Have you registered in hunter guild?" "No, I haven''t" "Then you should register there first before going inside the dungeon. There is a special service for the one who wanted to go inside" she advice. She often with this kind of people, newbie to the dungeon. Many of this newbie, ignorant of the danger inside the dungeon. They were arrogantly confident with their strength. "Thank you for your advice" He thanked her. "This is your room key, the room is on the second floor. The number was written in your key." She was surprised, Alex didn''t seem that ignorant. "Thank you" Alex went up "Hope you can safely come back" She muttered. People like Alex was rare. Alex went to his room. The room was simple, one bed, one wardrobe, one table, and one chair. Alex didn''t care though, he will rarely come back to here. So this place just enough for his sleep. 38 Hunter The next morning, Alex immediately go to hunter guild. He didn''t bother with having breakfast. After he reach Qi gathering stage. The natural heaven and earth energy became his nutrient so he never hungry. He walked to the hunter guild. He also observing the town. Though this town have a small size. But inside the town was brimming with people. When he walk in the town, he actually forgot. He didn''t know which way to the hunter guild. He just following the dungeon direction. since the dungeon was the tallest tower in the town, he can easily find it. He went near to dungeon. The dungeon entrance was crowded. Many people want to get inside the dungeon. Now he want to ask someone the way to hunter guild. "Kya..!" someone fell in front of him. The one who fell was a young girl, she look like in her twenties with short hair reaching her shoulder. She was wearing some kind uniform. "Are you okay?" Alex help her up. "Yes" "My name is Alex" "I''m Yuna. Thank you for helping me" "No no, I''m just wanting to ask someone hunter guild direction" he scratched himself, he was embarrassed. "Ah.. You want to go to hunter guild? That''s great how about I lead you the way, I''m working as a receptionist in there" "Then I need to bother you miss Yuna" "Don''t worry, It is my job after all" she then start walking "This way Mr. Alex" Alex followed her. After a while they arrived at the guild. The building was huge. They went to inside, the inside was too spacious but still crowded by people. "Mr. Alex, what do you want to do in hunter guild ?" "I want to register here" "Oh you are new. Let me get to my desk, I will help you with your register. This way please" she lead Alex to her counter. Alex follow her. There are a few counter, each counter have around three receptionists. When he arrived at the counter, he look at Yuna''s colleague. She have two colleague, the first is a woman, she looked like in her thirties, and the other was so young, seems like she have the same age with him. "Ara.. Yuna, this is your boyfriend?" The older one teased her. "No no, he want to register here. So I help him. Sis Tina" she anxiously said. "fufufu... I''m just joking with you. You are really fun to tease." "Hmph, Sis Tina. You always like this." She pouted and turned to Alex. "I will help you register. Can you lend me your status card for register." Alex nod, he recalled when he was registered to Adventurer guild. The receptionist ask for his status card too. So he understood the process must be similar. So he give his card. But there is one miscalculation here. When Yuna look at his status card. Name : Alexander Sirius Job : Sword Saint Rank : 3 Level : 386 She dropped the card. "Ah... I''m sorry. Please forgive me to drop your card Sir" she anxiously said. Alex puzzled. Why she give this much reaction. Suddenly he remembered he forgot to change his job. The sword saint job still on display. "I will immediately registered you, Sir Sword Saint" She immediately registered him. The other two was curious. They was shocked, when Yuna said ''Sword Saint''. This is one of the highest level job in the world. The young one was scared. The older one was sweating. "Sir, Yuna is still young. She make a mistake previously, I hope sir forgive her. If you want to punish someone, please punish me. After all I''m her senior". Before Alex said something, Yuna already come back. "Sir Sword Saint. This is your card, Sir already registered as one of Hunter." Her hand was shacking. She also give a bronze badge. Alex give them an awkward smile. "It''s alright. I don''t really mind. Just at ease with me and please keep this a secret" "Ye...yes" they nodded their head anxiously. The three was relieved, this young and already a sword saint. Usually people like this will become arrogant and petty. But this young man was magnanimous. Alex didn''t bothered by this. "is there anything I need to know as a hunter?" "There are four ranked in hunter. Bronze rank Hunter, Silver rank hunter, gold rank hunter, and platinum rank hunter. Bronze rank hunter are a hunter who usually hunt rank 0 to rank 2 monster. For silver rank you need to hunt rank 3 or 4 monster, for gold rank hunter you need to hunt rank 5 or rank 6 monster. And as for platinum you need to hunt rank 7 or above monster. Even in the hunter guild they are rare." "As for their privilege. When you want to sell monster core, a bronze rank hunter need to keep in line like that" she point at the nearby counter. "That is the counter for selling your monster core. While this counter was for registering new hunter. As for silver rank hunter, you will get special treatment." This time, she pointed at the shorter line. She then explained "Most hunter was bronze rank hunter, so when you become silver rank hunter, you will get a line specialize for silver rank hunter. And as for gold rank hunter. You don''t even need to line up. You can just approach any of us receptionist and said you want to sell monster core. They will immediately handle your business. Even us from registering counter will immediately help them sell their core if they come." "and as for the last, for Platinum rank hunter, they treated like as a guest elder or special guest in this hunter guild" "I understand. By the way what is this monster core?". Alex was intrigued by this monster core. Because he have read in alchemy manual, a few pill on them have monster core as ingredients. But when he kill monster either in Alisia Forest or Night Forest. they didn''t have any so called core. This is also why he didn''t give any recipe that have monster core as it ingredients to dean. "Monster core is a kind of crystal that you got from monster in the dungeon. You can get them from inside of their body. The different of monster rank will give you a different crystal. To put it simply, the higher of the rank of that monster, the higher energy contained in the core." "I see" He now understood. This monster core was the ingredients for a few recipes for his pill. In his pill recipe, it say beast core. But their characteristic is the same. So maybe just the name is different. "By the way, what is the use of this core?" "We mostly use it as fuel for lamp in the street or any magic equipment" He was too shocked. This monster core was very useful for Alchemist. If there are any alchemist know this. They will immediately sue them. well, in this world only he and his teacher is the alchemist though. "Thank you" "No no, this is just my job" He left. He went to dungeon. Outside the dungeon was crowded. "Need a party, vanguard with rank 1 power" "Anyone need a porter?" And many more. Alex just go to the counter beside the dungeon entrance. Seeing Alex have a bronze badge and he is also young. He disdainfully said, "You can go in. You are a hunter so if you die inside. The hunter won''t have any responsibilities for anything happen inside" Alex didn''t bothered with this. He already got used to it. many people look down on him, not only in this world but also in Earth. He got in. The room was spacious. Around one kilometer length and one kilometer width there are around fifty people inside this room. He also look at few monster, the monster strength only have a rank 0. He continue to deeper floor. Alex speed was fast. Even there are any monsters blocking him. They was immediately killed by him. After a few days. he manage to get to floor thirty five. Alex notice, from floor one to floor ten the monster only have rank 0, as for those in floor eleven to twenty is rank 1 monsters. Following this he need to reach floor forty or more. What Alex surprised is when he killed a monster, the monster was absorbed and disappear, only leaving it''s core. He recalled Alicia said, he can collect monster''s part in the dungeon. Maybe the monster''s part she said is this core, he thought. And also there are seems floor without monster people call this safe zone. According to them, there are safe floor every ten floor starting from the fifth floor. And they treat this safe zone become a place to re-supply. Alex now in the safe floor. He start to plan what he is going to do. He also notice, the deeper it is the fewer the people in it. Before he killed a few monsters to get deeper. But now he need to kill a few ten monster to get past a floor. But he become a bit disappointed, when he notice that this monster have lower chance to drop gacha ticket. But he still can accept it. even though the chance is lower, the speed he get still faster than hunting on the surface. He manage to get 30 tickets after killing a few hundreds monster. On the surface, he may get at least one hundred ticket from five hundreds monster. But he need more time to search for the monster. But in this dungeon he didn''t need to search, because there are too many monster in the dungeon. As long as he can keep killing, the rate will become faster. He also want to raise his level. So he won''t be underestimated, of course he can''t power up because level. He decided to make floor forty five his base. He will mainly kill in forties floor. If there are chance he will go to fifties floor. He start to move again. In 36th floor to 39th floor. Alex kill monsters with average number a hundred each floor. This time is boss''s floor, 40th floor. This boss is a rank 4 turtle monster. Every floor boss is one ranking higher than the normal monster. The people said it''s to make you used with their strength and prepared you to fight the same rank monster but with more number in higher floor. This is the first time Alex fighting a turtle. The turtle didn''t charge at him. He only guarding the stairs to go down. This turtle was so big, with ten meter wide and five meter height. He blocked the entrance to the stairs. Alex tried to test the water. He throw his spear to it''s head. ''break'' The spear head was broken when touching it''s head. It didn''t give any scratch. The turtle skin was too hard. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He do it again. Now with his flame sword wave. ''Flame sword wave'' He swing his sword vertically. A beautiful flame sword wave appear. If there are spectator in here, they will see this flame sword wave is beautiful. But in turtle eyes. This tyrannical sword wave might injure him. He pull out his head back to it''s shell. ''boom'' the flame sword wave landed on this monster. "Did I manage to cut him?" Alex tried to see what happen inside the fog. After the fog cleared away, the turtle shell was completely fine. There are not even scratch on it. "It''s really hard" Alex frowned. This is the first time Alex fight with a defensive type monster. Seeing this didn''t put any scratch on him, Alex decided to use his sword intent this time. Alex close his distance with the turtle. ''roar'', this turtle tried to attack Alex with his head. Alex jumped high. He jump toward top of it''s shell. ''sword intent'' he tried to use sword intent to damage it''s shell, before no creature can''t be cut with his sword intent. He thrust his sword. ''clang'' Alex sword break. Alex surprised, not only he didn''t put any scratch, but also break his sword. But he suddenly feel something move on his left. He turned his head, the turtle swing his tail to him. Alex immediately put out his guard. Alex was blown away. though he didn''t suffer any injuries, but the momentum make him crash to dungeon wall. But what even more shocking is the turtle manage to bend it''s shell. Making a ball shape like form and roll to him. He was shocked with this. He never meet any turtle in this world, even in earth. There are no turtle can bend it shell. If this was in earth, this turtle might become one of guinness record, as an elastic turtle. 39 Turtle But he can''t be shocked this time, because the turtle already on his way toward him. He pull out a big shield from system. He blocked this charged. ''strong'' the charged was too strong. Alex was pinned down to the wall. Suddenly he thought something. Because this turtle become a ball like shaped. He can just let it roll away. but, since the turtle rolling at him, he can only direct it to the wall. He stuck his shield to the ground and also to the wall. Making it like a slope. The turtle climb on the wall because of it. but because the turtle weight, the shield was broken. He look at the turtle still floating above him. ''Sh*t'', he look the turtle was almost to fall. He immediately move away. ''boom'' the floor was quaking. The turtle was too heavy, it manage to quake the ground. But thanks to it''s charge, the path to the next floor is open. Alex immediately go to the stairs, and the turtle seeing this, immediately rolling to Alex. Alex use his fastest speed to run. ''haha, success'' Alex manage to get to the stairs, he want to look at the turtle. But he was surprised, the turtle didn''t follow him. "I will kill you next time" He shouted. ''Roar'' the turtle roar to Alex. He didn''t know turtle language so he didn''t bother. He continued to the next floor. If Alex know turtle language then he must heard this turtle mocking him. ''you can''t even put a scratch on me. But you thought about killing me'' or something like that. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Of course Alex didn''t know, he just continued to 41th floor. On the 41th floor, he meet many rank 4 monster, starting from a snake, lizard, lion, tiger, to wolf. But all this monsters didn''t have that much power like previous turtle, even though they have the same rank. He continued to 42th floor. There are a party was surrounded by monsters. Alex want to ignored them, since he didn''t want to steal kill from them. but, "Help!" one of the man shout. Alex observed the party now. The party actually in a desperate fight. He notice one of them already wounded heavily. So he decided to help. The monsters surrounded them is rank 4 ogre. There are seven ogre in total. While the party only have 5 people around them. The ogre still didn''t notice him, so he stealthily get close to them. He jumped to the back of the ogre. This ogre look so muscular, but Alex manage to see their neck seems so thin. So he slash it''s neck. The ogre was killed with a single slash. The ogre beside him shocked, he turned to Alex. But Alex didn''t let this chance go. He thrust his sword to it''s neck. And once again killed them. The ogre now only 5 left. Their number was even with the adventurer. Two of the ogres, come to Alex. While three keep the party occupied. The ogres that come to Alex swing their cub angrily. Alex dodge them completely, but he surprised. He manage to observe the ogres strength. So if he didn''t dodge just now, his hand might be broken if he parried it. but the ogre''s speed not so fast. So Alex take advantage of this. He went around them a few time, and he manage to trip one of them. when that ogre fall, Alex immediately pierced it''s neck and killed it. now there is only one left, this time he surppressed it with his speed. Alex manage to kill him in a few minutes. He turned toward the party. That party manage to kill one of the ogre and one heavily injured. Alex turned toward the uninjured ogre and ambush him. He killed the ogre instantly. When the other ogre notice this, he turned to his fallen comrade to look. But the hunter take this chance to kill the last ogre. Alex sheath his sword, he want to search for the monster core. But suddenly, "Stop!" Alex looked at the source of the voice. It is the same person who shouted help. "This is our prey, are you going to steal our hard earned monster core." He shamelessly said. "I help you just now" Alex frowned, he coldly said. "What help, I just shout help to distract the ogres but they didn''t even bothered you. Useless. This is our monster. Or are you going to rob them from us, you think you can fight with five of us?" He give a cold gaze to Alex. Alex just shake his head for this shameless person, he glance at his comrade, but all of them was the same, they just give Alex a murderous glare. he turned away and left, "Hope you can stay alive" He keep killing rank 4 monsters in this floor. But the monsters was killed brutally. This show Alex''s anger. He can only vent his anger to this monsters. Because he was from Earth, He still have a spot to ''killing human'' in his heart. After a few hours venti-, I mean killing monsters, he saw them once again. They was surrounded once again. This time the monsters surrounded them is lion. "Help!" noticing there are person nearby, one of them shouted. "..." Alex ignored them. "Help! Please help us" the guy keep shouting. But this time he saw, the one who pass by just now, was the previous person they cheated, Alex. "You.. you are..." "I''m not going to rob you from your monsters" Alex said and left. "No no, this time we really need help. Please help us, we..." But Alex just ignored them, he turned around and left to the next floor. "No...NO... HELP" the guy face become pale, when Alex ignored them. "Young man help us" even the other people in their party can''t have but shouted. But they plead never enter Alex''s ear. From this day forward, there are no more news about this party. Many claimed this people already dead. The people they previously cheated was happy, they even throw private party. ''Serve them right!'' Of course, Alex didn''t know about this party stories. He just continue to the lower floor. He continue to kill rank 4 monsters in the lower floor. Though the rate he kill rank 4 monster was slower than he kill rank 3 monsters, but the rate where gacha ticket drop was higher. Alex continue his killing until he reach safe zone in 45th floor. He doesn''t sleep. Though a higher rank people basically, can go on without sleeping for a few days. But Alex can go on without sleep, If he exhausted, he just need to stop for a while and recharge his energy. This cultivation really a cheat he thought. Especially in this kind of environment, where people can''t see the time. Well Alex can though, he still have his watch from Earth. He is thankful because this world and Earth didn''t have time difference. Alex manage to reach 45th floor, after 2 weeks. "This is 45th floor" Alex search his surrounding. Though this floor is safe, it''s only safe from monsters. As long as there are people, that means there is a certain variable. This time, this floor only have a few people. Even in 35th floor, there are still a few tens people. He didn''t want to bother with this people. If there are any conflict it will become much problem, or if they harbor any thought to him. He sat on a tree want to check his status. Name : Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job : Sword Saint(Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Alchemist(Secondary), Hunter(Secondary) Rank : 4 Level : 437 STR : 450 AGI : 416 VIT : 425 DEX : 432 INT : 405 He look at his status, he manage to get 50 levels from killing. But since he didn''t get any status from leveling up, his strength only progress very little. He planned to reach rank 5 within this two week. So sixty three level left to go. "System, how many ticket I got in dungeon?" [219 Ticket Host] "And the accumulation?" [985 Ticket Host] "Still one thousand more to upgrade" [Thank you for your effort Host] "I will keep the ticket for now. Maybe I can get many benefit for mass using it after the upgrade" He jumped off from the tree and start to kill again in lower floor. After a week, killing rank 4 monsters, he become accustomed to killing monster of this rank. So he decided to try at fifties floor. He already have kill a rank 5 monster before, though barely. he decided to go to 50th floor. The floor boss is a rank 5 snake. This snake was red-colored, the snake body is 2 meter wide, with 15 meter long. He as usual using his fire sword wave to try the water. ''Flame sword wave'' A flame sword wave, flying toward the snake. But the snake nimbly dodge this and charged toward Alex. This snake was as fast as Alex, but more importantly this snake was too agile. 40 Fighting The Boss Seeing the snake moving toward him. He call a spear from system and throw it to the snake Face. But the snake merely opened it''s mouth and spit something to the spear. The spear was melted. Alex frowned. ''This poison is dangerous'' he thought. The snake already close it''s distance with Alex. Alex imbued his sword with mana, and Slash it to snake''s head. ''This snake really hard.'' The snake was move it''s tail, to blow Alex away. Alex call a shield and parry it. Mana is sure useful, even a normal shield when coat with mana, the sturdiness was level up many times. Alex make a small fire ball and pinched it. he aimed at the snake eyes and release it. the ball release at high speed. ''Fire Snipe''. This is the usual move Alex used, like in the fight with Joshua or when saving Alicia from Garu. The snake move it''s head away, but the ball still manage to land on it''s body. The ball exploded. The ball only leave a little burn mark on the snake body. With this Alex realized, this is not a skin. Alex observed, this snake''s body was covered more like with a scale. ''Sshhaa'' The snake was angered. It spit another poison. Alex pull out his shield and throw it to the poison. He didn''t dare to use shield in his hand to block the poison. He scared if the poison manage to pierce through his shield. Then his hand will be the first target. The shield was immediately melt when meet with the poison. Luckily, there are no poison get through. The shield manage to completely block the poison. He move to the snake back. The snake tail move again to him. He parried this snake tail, and spun on the air toward snake''s back. ''Sword Intent'' He slash the snake body. He manage to wound the snake, but it''s too shallow. The tail already on it''s way toward Alex, Alex dodge. But surprisingly, the snake tail landed on the wound Alex created earlier. ''Ssshhhhaaaa!'' the snake screamed in pain. Alex eyes brightened, he created another sword wave toward the wound. The sword wave exploded when it reach the wound. ''Ssshhhhaaaa!'' the snake screamed in pain again. Alex look at the wound, he realised. Though the snake scale was hard, if he manage to pierce it. the rest would be easy to cut. He want to aimed at the wound again, but suddenly he was blown away with the snake''s head. He crashed to nearby wall. The snake spit the poison on him. He immediately throw another shield to it. the tail immediately move toward him behind the poison. ''Not good'', he was surprised with the snake''s tail. He use the sword intent to block this tail. The two was equal in power. When he feel he almost can cut this tail, the snake head charged at him and blown him away. Alex immediately stabilize his body in the air, and send a flame sword wave to the snake. This time the sword wave manage to reach it''s tail. This sword wave manage to make a small wound on the snake''s tail. Now Alex can rest a bit easy, if the snake want to use it''s tail to attack him. He can target the wound on it. When Alex almost crash to the wall, he already stabilize his position. He use the wall to give him a momentum. He step on the wall and jump toward the snake. But not to it''s tail but to another wound on the snake''s back. The snake noticed his movement, it immediately move it''s head toward the wound to guard it. he infused his mana to his fist, making the fist flame covered his whole fist. He punch the snake''s head. ''Boom'' When the punch landed on the snake''s head, it exploded. Because of this explosion, the head was blown away, this make him have a time to strike the wound once again. He slashed the wound once again with his sword. ''Sshhhaa!'' The snake screamed in pain, just as Alex want to throw another strike. The tail already block it way. But this move was foolish. If he can''t strike the back''s wound, he can still strike at the tail''s wound. He use this chance to slash at the tail''s wound with sword intent. The wound become deeper, makin the snake''s tail split to two with one meter deep. ''Sshhhaa!'' the head was spitting another poison. Alex just easily blocked it with throwing a shield. He continue to strike at the wound. He throw another fist with fire. ''Absolute Blast'' Another explosion blowing away the tail. He move toward the wound on it''s back. He throw another fist. This time the fist pierce to inside the snake stomach, and exploded inside. The head already move toward him again and blown him away. but to Alex, this snake is doing it''s last struggle. Alex make a few arrow shaped like flame. He was inspired from Alicia when she make many ice spear in the fight with Garu Tekuis. He make the flame arrow specially target the back''s wound. ''boom, boom, boom!'' A series of explosion come out. After each arrow explode Alex immediately make another flame arrow and sent it to the same spot. The snake using all it''s body to protect it''s wound but, because it organ was already burned out because Alex earlier Absolute blast, the snake almost didn''t have enough energy to deal with this arrow that coming like a machine gun. After a few ten arrows explode, the snake was killed. The snake body only have two wound visible, but if this snake was cut and see it''s inside. All the inside already burned out by Alex. Soon enough, the body start to disappear. What left is a head size red colored monster core. The energy contained it was higher than rank 4 monster''s core. As expected from rank 5 monster, Alex thought. "Using that much arrow really take to much mana from my body" he leaned to the wall. He was exhausted. Using that arrow continuously, make him feel like his mana being suck out from his body. After this fight, Alex realized. He didn''t have much skill in his persona. Even he can use magic and manipulate it with his mind. But that take too much time and probabilities to failure. He programmed two skill in this fight, that is Absolute Blast and Fire arrow. Beside this he only use his Fire snipe, Flame sword wave, and Sword intent. He really need to make a few skill, so he can make a variation combination attack. In the academy, he always fight with a person below his power so he didn''t notice this. But this time, with this snake he realized this problem. "System, use 50 tickets in Tool Gacha. I use too many weapon and shield in this fight" [Processing] [Sword X4] [Shield X1] [Spear 1X] [Hammer 3X] [Iron Nail 4X] [Iron Toothpick 2X] [Music Disc 3X] [Special Toothpick 1X] [Great Sword 3X] [Bastard Sword 6X] [Halberd 4X] [Javelin 3X] [Knife 4X] [Dagger 5X] [Katar 3X] [Needle 4X] "..." "System, I can understand with this iron toothpick. I have got it back then from you and quarreled about it with you too. What with the special toothpick right now?" Alex was angry. [There is something special in that toothpick Host, that''s why it is called Special Toothpick] "And that is?" He tried to contain his anger. There might be something really special with this toothpick. [This toothpick...can easily remove the stain between your teeth like a magnet] "And why do you think I need that!" Alex snapped. If there is still the snake body here, this body will be beyond recognition. Alex really want to vent this anger. [System can''t decided what it give, Host. System can only give you random item from gacha] Alex continued blame his system, while the system innocently defense itself for a while. Alex decided not to go to above fifties where so many rank 5 monster reside in there. He keep killing in 49th floor and watching the boss in 50th floor to respawn. In this week he manage to kill fourteen rank 5 monster, of course all of them is the boss monster in 50th floor. The monster respawn twice a day. The boss monster changed every respawn, start from snake, bear even a tree summoned as the boss monster. But he realized something, in this week there are no hunter pass this floor, From upper floor. He first thought was because the scarcity of gold rank or above hunter. That why There''s no one passing here. Of course he didn''t really mind though. Since there are no one bothering his killing spree. When Alex ini dungeon he really like a killing machine. Beside killing monsters, he make a few programmed techniques. He made 3 techniques, they are Boost Step, Flame Armor, and Fire claw. Boost Step is a techniques to make a small explosion below his speed, so when he jumped, this techniques can give him a boost for his speed. Flame armor is like it''s name implied, his fire to make an armor like shape like chain mail or shield. As for fire claw is literally what the name said, a Fire Claw. He never good with naming anyway, so he just give the techniques this plain name. Fortunately, he was also a cultivator. If not he can''t make or manipulate his flame this easily and make a techniques for it. and now he didn''t become a mainstream like mage. His techniques is specially made by himself to give him a boost in his fighting. "System what all my count for gacha ticket?" [Host have accumulated a total 1539 Tickets, Host have 413 usable ticket. Host also already used a total of 1126 ticket, consist of 683 ticket at tools gacha, 204 ticket for techniques gacha, and 239 of Material gacha] "461 tickets before system upgrade huh... I can only upgrade it in the next event in the academy, since the event will be held here. I will just practice alchemy then for 4 months in the academy. And also I almost forget to ask teacher to teach me about forging. Alright let''s do just that, It''s already time to head back." He went back to the surface, but when he pass the 40th floor. This damned turtle still here. That means no one kill it. he was surprised with this. "You damned turtle, we finally meet again" "ROAR!" ''Flame Sword Wave'' Seeing this same techniques, the turtle only come in to it''s shell. But with this move, Alex already come up with a plan. He make a few fire arrow and send them toward the hole. The fire arrow flying to six hole. One for head, four for it''s leg and the last to it''s tail. And explode. "ROAR!" The turtle screamed in pain. He immediately become a ball like shape and roll toward Alex. Last time Alex can''t do anything when the turtle in this form. Alex only smirk a little. Alex make a position like he want to receive in volley ball. He coated the fist using Absolute Blast. When the turtle reach him, Alex was pushed back. "It''s really strong" Alex said. He immediately use boost step on his feet and the back of his body to pushed back the momentum. And using it again below his hand. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. An explosion come out from below his hand. This explosion manage to make the turtle pulled up a bit. Alex didn''t let go of this chance, he immediately blow up his Absolute Blast. ''BOOM!'' because of the explosion, the turtle blown to the top. Alex succeed his plan, but he suddenly paled. He look at the turtle that going to fall down, ''Oh Sh*t'' he thought. He immediately run from that spot. He recalled when he use shield like this, he act like this too. The turtle landed down and make a little quake in the floor. But Alex immediately make another fire arrow before the turtle come out. It Exploded. "ROAR!", The turtle roared in pain. But this turtle simply have much energy. 41 Back to The Surface Alex thought his next plan. He make another flame sword wave, of course the turtle immediately got inside again. Alex too, make a few fire arrow again. But this time he also closing in together with his fire arrow. When his fire arrow exploded, as he expected. The turtle was also come out. He immediately swing his sword to it''s head with sword intent. He manage to sever the turtle''s head with this. He sighed relieved, he never fight with a defensive monster. This is a good experience with him. "Why I don''t do this from the first time?" He said puzzledly. If there are people watching him, suddenly heard what he said. They will immediately snapped,''You want to payback what the turtle did to you'' they said. He shake his head and check his status. Name : Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job : Sword Saint(Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Alchemist(Secondary), Hunter(Secondary) Rank : 5 Level : 501 STR : 462 AGI : 422 VIT : 428 DEX : 446 INT : 410 He already manage to rank 5 in this month. Though his strength still the same as those of the rank 4. Well he still can bluff with this level. He grabbed the turtle core. He a bit disappointed when seeing the turtle body was gone. If he can take the shell back, he can make a shield from it. He reluctantly went back, but before he reach the stairs he notice a few people coming down. They and Alex look at each other. "Hi..." Alex decided to greet them. there are five people in this group, most of them was in their forties. "Hi..." The leader greet Alex back. "Young man, do you see the turtle boss in this room?" He look at the room but there are no turtle. So he asked Alex. "It''s already gone, I killed it" he innocently said. "You killed it?" he was shocked. "You really killed it?" He want to confirm it once again. "Yes" Alex nod. This was a shocking news to him, "Are you a rank 6 hunter?". He didn''t want to believe it, this young man under twenty killed that turtle. "No... Look I''m still a bronze rank hunter". He point at his badge. "Then..then how do you co..." He want to say come here first, since bronze rank usually in the upper floor. But this is not the problem. Because, "Young man, are you really kill it?" "Yes, look this is the core" he pulled out the blueish core. "..." This middle-aged and his team gasped "I''m sorry, We are a gold rank party from hunter guild. This monster boss already killed many rank 4 hunter. The hunter guild already send one rank 5 team to kill this monster, but they never come back. So we are the one who was sent next" "..." Alex speechless, if he know this is the case. Then he might lie about this, just say an expert come and kill it. So, he as well tell the truth "I blow him from the inside" "Blow him from the inside?" "Yes, when the turtle went back to it''s shell. I kill him since at that time it is vulnerable." Alex make an excuse. But there are still half the truth of his words. If not for his tyrannical Pure Fire, no normal hunter can manage to kill the turtle like that. The hunters pondering for a while and nod, the plan is feasible. "Then are you going back to the surface?" the middle-aged man asked. "Yes, you all can go back first. I still need to manage my backpack first" He pointed at the big backpack, the backpack was a few times bigger from Alex, and filled with monster''s core he killed during this month. "Alright, We also only plan to kill this turtle not to dive into the dungeon. So we will go back first and report to the hunter guild." He said. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Tony, this is Kain, Buta, Giro, and Mash. We are gold rank party called Dungeon Hitter" He introduce the team. "Alright, we will go first. Hope we can meet again" after saying that, the group went back. "I''m Alex" Alex nod. Alex grabbed his big size backpack and went back too. This kind of backpack was normal for hunter. They need it if they want to dive to dungeon for a long time. Alex already used to fighting rank 4 or rank 5 monsters, so when fighting with lower ranking monster, He insta-kill them. After a few hours walking he have reached the surface. He miss the sunlight. He go to the hunter guild with his backpack. The hunter guild is the same like one month ago. He immediately line up, he planned to sell the monster core he got from the dungeon. Of course he already keep a few of them for his use. There are a few people like him, bringing this super-size backpack. They are the porter of hunter. After a while, this time is his turn. He give his backpack to the receptionist. He disdainfully look at Alex. He already saw Alex badge is bronze, so he thought he must be a porter, and with this super-size bag, this bag must be filled with rank 0 monster core. Alex already arrange his backpack. The upper was filled with monster core from rank 0 to rank 2. "Judging from your backpack size, since it''s filled with under rank 2 monster''s core. So I will give you fifteen gold coin" the receptionist often deal with this kind people. So he disdain to count it manually. Especially since he is young. Alex frowned, looking at this arrogant receptionist. "Sir, Please count it!" He coldly said. "Why do I need to count it? your back must be filled with rank 0 or rank 1 monsters looking at your age. With the size of your backpack. I give you fifteen coin is already too much" The receptionist coldly said. "Please count it!" Alex only said this. "Why I need to count it? Listen to me, I often deal with young people like you. If you don''t want to sell then you can scram from here" He angrily shouted. This make a commotion inside the hall. "Ah, Sir Alexander" Yuna surprised. This is the sword saint from a month ago. "Hi, miss Yuna. I want to sell monster''s core but, this man didn''t count my monster core and immediately give a price. I don''t think the price is acceptable but he told me to scram" "This..." Yuna don''t know what to do, she turned to the receptionist. "Sir, I think you need to count it" "Hmph... you are just a newbie in this guild, and also from registering counter. How I do the thing didn''t need you to teach me. I already work in here for 10 years, I will inform you to guild master, just you wait" he coldly said to her. On the stairs, there are two middle-aged man coming down. If Alex see one of them, he will recognize him. He is Tony, the one he meet in 40th floor. This two man was happily chatting. But suddenly they noticed the commotion. The two of them displeased. They immediately approach the source of this commotion. The middle-aged man went to the receptionist, "What happen in here?" he said coldly. "This two brat want to make a ruckus in here" The receptionist pointed at Alex and Yuna. Tony didn''t go to the receptionist, but he go to the young man. He recognized this young man, "Haha, Young Alex. You have finally come back" "Ah.. Mr. Tony" Alex surprised. "Tony, do you know him?" The middle aged-man surprised. "Bernard, This is Alex, the one I talk about" Tony said. "What! This is the one?" Bernard shocked. He just talked about a young man killing the turtle that even rank 5 hunter can''t kill, but he displeased when they are chatting, there is a commotion. Then Tony turned to Alex "Alex, this is Bernard, he is this hunter guild branch head" "Greeting to you, Branch Head Bernard" Alex greet him. "Haha... no need to polite with me. Treat me like Tony here" He said. "And also what happen in here?" "I want to sell my monster core, but he didn''t count how many inside, and just give 15 gold coins at the price" "What!" he heard from tony, If Alex manage to kill that turtle. That means Alex can kill most of rank 4 monsters. If in the bag there are many rank 4 monster, the price would be multiple times from that. Alex is Silver rank or even above, but he also still so young. Alex potential is limitless, but this receptionist offend him. He coldly look at the receptionist. "You are dismissed." "What?" The receptionist shocked. "guild master, why you dismissed me? I already work here for 10 years" "Alex, you are from lower floor right?" Tony chat with Alex in low voice. "Yes" Alex nod. "How many rank 4 monster you kill?" He asked. "Hmm, I didn''t count them. But there are ten rank 5 monster core in the bag" Alex said. "What! You have killed ten rank 5 monsters?" He unconsciously shouted, he was too shocked with Alex. Just when the guild master want to angry to this receptionist, he heard Tony shouted about Alex killing ten rank 5 monsters. He was shocked. The receptionist hearing this, his face become pale. This mean he just offending the soon-to-be Gold Rank Hunter. He already worked in this guild for 10 years, but he still polite when dealing with silver ranked hunter, but when dealing with gold rank hunter, he didn''t dare to make them displeased. But Alex manage to kill rank 5 monsters, this mean he is edible to become gold rank hunter. "Young Sir.. I..I... Please forgive me" he pleaded. Alex ignored him, and look at Bernard. "The Hunter Guild have it''s own rule." He didn''t know about this hunter guild rule. But even he hate this receptionist, he still have to give face to the guild master. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The guild master look at the receptionist "According to the rule of the guild, a Gold ranked Hunter can get a special treatment. But you disregard everything, so you are dismissed". ''soon to be though'' he add inwardly "Sir.. Sir.. I have worked for this guild for 10 years. Please.." All of them already ignoring his plead. The guild master turned to Alex, "Haha, young man let''s go to my room. I will count them myself" "This...I will trouble the guild master" He said awkwardly, before that he turned to Yuna "Thanks miss Yuna for standing up for me" "No no... I just do what I need to do" She shake her head. "Oh, you know her?" Bernard said. "Yes, she is the one who register me here. She is a good employee, she is honest and diligent." Alex said. "Oh, Young miss your name?" "Yuna greet guild master" "Yuna huh... How about you become my secretary? Since young Alex said you are capable, then it''s perfect." "guild master...I..." She turned to Alex who nod his head. "I Accept, I Thank guild master for this chance" "Haha.. It''s because your capability. Let''s follow me to my office as well" "Haha... Nice to you Bernard. I will go home now, you all can chat away." Tony said. "Tony, Let me treat you for a drink next time" Bernard said. "Sure, I will looked forward to it" Tony said and left. Alex and Yuna follow Bernard to his office. "Since you want to exchange the core, let''s count them first" Alex nod, "How to count it?" "Just pour all of them here" He pointed at the floor. Alex surprised, "Really?" He asked again for confirmation. "Yep, just pour them all to the floor" He said. 42 Surprise Alex follow what he said, He pour all the core inside his bag to the floor. Soon many round shaped like gem rolling to every corner in the room. "Ah...!" Yuna was surprised, she never see this many core together. "But guild master, how do we count this?" He scratched his head looking at this mess. But the guild master only said, "It''s easy." The guild master surround this room with mana. "It''s 121 rank 0 core, 165 rank 1 core, 286 rank 2 core, 780 rank 3 core, 1014 rank 4 core, and 10 rank 5 core. As for the price, for rank 0 core we give 3 copper each, rank 1 core 10 copper each, rank 2 core for 50 copper each, rank 3 for 2 silver each, rank 4 for 30 silver each, and for rank 5 is 1 gold each. And for the total are ...." the guild master calculating "331 gold coins, 43 silvers, 13 copper" Yuna suddenly said. "Ah.. I''m sorry for stepping out of my bound" The guild master surprised and stopped her. He said it''s fine, he tried to calculate himself. After a few minutes, "It''s true, 331 gold coins, 43 silvers, 13 cooper" Alex nod, he tried to do mental arithmetic and the number come up the same. "How do you know?" Guild master asked Yuna "I... From I''m kid, I''m good with number and I can remember faster" Yuna said embarrassedly. Alex and Bernard astonished, Alex said "Congratulation Guild master, you got a capable secretary" "Haha, if not you, young Alex introduced me to her. I won''t even notice" Bernard said happily. "No no, even I didn''t do anything, with her capabilities. I''m sure she will be noticed soon enough" Yuna was so embarrassed, she was praised by two people, one is her hunter guild master, and the other is a Sword Saint and also a gold-rank hunter (Not yet though). "Young Alex, are you going to make a base in here and continue becoming a hunter?" "No, I still need to go back to Academy" "Academy? You are a student?" Bernard was surprised, seeing Alex who nod, he asked again "I heard, the dean of Acacia Royal Academy got a successor, and he is called Alexander. Do you..." he just notice, Alexander and Alex. Aren''t they just a full name and called name. "Yes..." He scratched his cheek embarrassedly. "Haha...no wonder you are so capable. Alright, since you need to go back to the academy, I won''t delay you" he turned to Yuna "Yuna... I will call you this okay? Please get the money for young Alex and also a golden badge" "Yes" Yuna immediately get them. "When are you going back?" "Possibly, tomorrow morning." "I see, how about we drink tonight?" Alex shook his head, "I don''t drink.... for now" "That a bit waste, well I remember the academy always hold an event in dungeon every year. I will welcome you again at that time" "Thank you" Soon enough, Yuna come back. "This is the money, and also this is the badge, Sir Alex" She handed the money and golden badge. "Thank you" He received them. he also asked, "If I want to bought herb, where should I go?" "You can try them in the market, the opposite direction of this guild from dungeon. It''s only half hour walk" "I see, thank you. I will go back now." Alex said. "Sure, I will see you off" Guild master said. The three of them go back to the first floor. As soon as, they coming down from stairs. "Alex!" there are three people coming to him. Alex look to the side, but she suddenly tackled. He fell down. He recognized the three of them. Alicia, Firia, and grand duke butler, butler Ji. Of course the one tackled him was Alicia, he look down, he saw Alicia hugging him, but her hand was shacking. "Why are you not coming back? It''s already a month two days ago" Alicia teared up. Alex didn''t know what to do, "I...I thought one month is only the time in dungeon. Not accounting with the time on the road" "It''s obvious you need to count them!. you... I think something happened to you, IDIOT!" she cried. Alex tried to search for help. He look at Firia, Butler Ji, Bernard, and Yuna. "I''m just accompany her." Firia said. "I''m just protecting her highness" Butler Ji said. "This is personal business, not hunter guild" Bernard said. "I...I.. I''m just a insignificant person" Yuna look down. They all betrayed him. He didn''t know what to do in this situation, he can only apologize sincerely "I''m sorry Princess" "Alicia" "eh...?" Alex confused. "I will forgive you if you start calling me Alicia again" Alex speechless, "Umm... I''m sorry Ali..cia..." "Hehe.." She laughed a bit while wiping her tears. Alex only froze, but suddenly butler Ji give a threatening aura. Alex look at him, he look at Butler Ji''s eyes saying ''this is the time you wipe her tears'' "....", Alex tried to wipe her tears with his finger awkwardly. "Hehe.." Alicia give a big smile, The world seems brightened with her smile. Alex was suddenly froze, he was mesmerized with her smile. "I''m really sorry for worrying you Prin...Alicia". he almost said princess out of habit. "mmm.." She just realized, she make a big scene in here. She blushed and look down embarrassedly. "All of you get away get away!" Bernard drive away the crowd. "Al..Alex, let''s go" She was still embarrassed, She want to dig a hole to hide herself. "Sure, Let''s go Alicia" All of them go outside the guild. "Then good day to you, Princess Alicia, Raji...no... Butler Ji now right, Young Alex, and miss Firia. And give my regard to grand duke." Bernard said and Yuna want to kneel after hearing the woman who hugged Alex just now is a princess, but suddenly she was stopped by Bernard. Bernard know, she didn''t like the formalities too much. "You know each other?" Alex looked at Butler Ji and Bernard. "Hoho.. We met in dungeon and become friend after that and also with master." "Oh..." Alex astonished, they are old friend. And apparently, the grand duke too. "Goodbye uncle Bernard" Alicia said, she seems also know this guild master. After they said their goodbye, "Alex let''s go back home now" Alicia said. "Alicia, Aren''t we a bit late?" Alex said. She realised, the sun was almost set. "then we go to inn first, we will come back tomorrow" "umm...Then.." Alex nod, he just remembered, he book an inn for a month, but only used it one time. He want to go to inn immediately, but Alicia immediately grab his collar. "Alex, where are you going now?" She smiled beautifully, other may see this smile beautiful but Alex only felt a chill with this smile. This is the first time he see Alicia like this. "I...I just remembered I book a room at some inn last month. So I want to go there, to give the room''s key back and also I want to search for some herbs in the market" "Then we can go together" Alicia said happily. "This..." Alex look at butler Ji. "Sure, Sir Alexander. But please bring her highness back, the knight already book a room in Silveria Inn, it''s behind this building" He pointed at the building at his side. "O..okay" Alex said. Alicia already dragged him, when she see butler Ji give confirmation. The two immediately went on their own way. Suddenly butler Ji turned to Firia, "Miss Firia, you don''t want to go together with them?" he asked. Firia sigh and shake her head, "When I see Alicia like that in the hunter guild, I feel I can''t beat her feeling to him. I will give up for today" Butler Ji didn''t say anything more. they went back to the inn. While Alex and Alicia go to Trican Inn. "Ah... you are the one from last month" someone suddenly said. "Yes, I just remembered this is my last day so I am planning to give the room''s key" Alex said. "Eh...Actually, When you didn''t come back for 3 weeks, we thought you are dead, so your room already rented to another hunter." She guiltily said. "What! How can you do that" Alicia was angry. "This...this..." The girl said, this girl is the same girl Alex meet went to rent a room in this inn. Alex sigh, and make Alicia stop. "It''s only a room, I don''t leave any item in there anyway" "I will give the money back" The girl said. Alex shake his head. "it''s alright", he persuade Alicia to leave. But before he can leave, someone come. "I see a beautiful girl in here. Hey girl, come service me." The guy vulgarly said to Alicia. Alex frowned, Alicia was mad, "You... I will kill you", Alicia make an ice spear and the spear went toward him. But the guy use his sword to destroy the spear, "Hehe.. a mage huh and chantless to boost it, with your body it''s perfect to become my woman and service me everynight. Just throw away that kid, I am a silver rank hunter, and I''m still 25 years old, I have the potential to become a platinum rank hunter, this is your honor to become my woman. "You..." Alicia mad, she want to make another magic but Alex stopped her. "Haha...Even your man doesn''t want to offend me" "Alicia, what is the punishment for the charge to a Princess?" "Umm..." She suddenly become timid. She forgot when she want to kill that guy a moment ago. "De...death. but Alex let''s just forget it" Alex ignored her and use a mini boost step, he instantly arrived in front of the guy. "You" The guy was surprised, but Alex already kicked him. That guy crashed to the inn wall. "You bastard, I am a silver rank hunter. Are you going to challenge the hunter guild? The hunter guild won''t let you off" "Hunter guild..." Alex took out his badge, the badge was golden. "You mean this?" "Gold....gold rank...,no it''s impossible, there are no gold rank as young as you." But he suddenly recalled some scene in the hunter guild before. "You... you are the new gold rank hunter, the guild master was even personally give you the badge. You....Aahhhh!" "You just insult Princess Alicia with your vulgar word", he killed him. And bring Alicia away from the inn. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "What happened?" A middle-aged man come and shouted. This middle-aged man is the inn owner. "There are 20 gold coins in here, that should be enough to compensated the damage. That guy just insult Princess Alicia" He didn''t forget to throw a purse to the inn owner. He coldly said. The guy was passed out, the girl face is pale. The inn get 20 gold coins, this is a revenue of one year. This is more than enough to compensated the wall. But she know, Alex will never come back here anymore. If she can choose between Gold rank hunter or 20 gold coins. She immediately choose gold rank hunter. This can become a good advertisement for the inn. And the benefit she got will be higher than some 20 gold coins. "Alex... aren''t you a bit too extreme?" She said with a low voice. "Hehe..who said she want to kill that guy first?" Alex teased. "you...you...don''t tease me. I will ignore you, hmph" She pouted, her face was red. "Well the kingdom rule already determined his live. I will say it to butler Ji later."He righteously said The two went to the herb store in the market. Alex manage to buy the herbs he needed. He planned to make rank 2 pill, body foundation pill. He got 30 sets ingredients, but the price is also high. He bought them for 200 gold coins. He didn''t know whether it''s normal or because the herb is rare. If this is normal then his teacher must be so rich. Since he is the one who supply all the ingredients usually. 43 Eating Pill The two didn''t take too long, after they went to Silveria Inn. They rest for tonight, Alex inform butler Ji what happened earlier, and Butler Ji immediately go to settle it. Alex go to his room and cultivate. While in Alicia room, Alicia face was red. When she got back, she keep recalling all the embarrassing thing she do today. Originally, she was worried sick when Alex didn''t come back two days ago. So she immediately go to here. After she got to this town, she immediately went to hunter guild. Since Alex want to dive the dungeon, then he must be a hunter. Before she asked someone, she saw Alex. She immediately relieved. ''What if Alex didn''t come back forever, what if he die?'' she keep thinking this in her journey, her heart was in pain. When she saw Alex, she relieved. She unconsciously went to Alex and hugged him and accidentally tackled him. She didn''t want to let him go, afraid he will go if she release him now. Maybe because she is tired, she fall asleep. She didn''t get enough sleep this two days. Tomorrow, All of them went back to Capital City. The journey take two days, but went safely. Firia go back to her house, Alicia too. At first she asked Alex to come back together but Alex declined, he said he want to see his teacher first. Then they said goodbye to each other. Alex come back to his room in dormitory and cultivated. Since they arrived at Capital City at night. Alex didn''t want to bother his teacher this late, so he will come tomorrow. Sure, when tomorrow come. He immediately go to dean''s workshop. "You brat, are you going to make me work to death here. Look at that pile ingredients" The dean didn''t talk anything about Alex two days late. Though he is relieved that Alex was safe and sound. "Ye..yes.. I will immediately refine them" He refined many pills in this month. He manage to make 32 peak-grade ''blood and marrow pill'', 20 peak-grade ''bone refining pill'', 10 peak-grade''blood replenishing pill'', 15 peak-grade ''antidote pill'', 11 peak-grade ''qi gathering pill'', and 5 peak-grade''qi replenishing pill''. Since this month is a vacation, there are no classes. So he continued to refine from morning to night. If he exhaust his mana, he simply rest for a while to replenish his mana and start refining again. He is like a pill refining machine, even his teacher always remind him to take a rest and enjoy his holiday. But Alex shook his head, he said because he went to dungeon, thing become like this. [Peak-grade Blood and Marrow Pill (100%) Use: Washing the impurities in the body Limit: 1] [Peak-grade Bone Refining Pill(100%) Use: Refine The Bone in the Body (Diamond) Limit: 1] [Peak-grade Blood Replenishing Pill (100%) Use: Rush Metabolism to Produce Blood Limit: -] [Peak-grade Rank 2 Antidote Pill (100%) Use: Cure Any Poison from Rank 2 Monster Limit: -] [Peak-grade Qi Gathering Pill (100%) Use: Helping The User to gather Qi around Him (2H) Limit: 10] [Peak-grade Qi Replenishing Pill (100%) Use: Replenish Qi Limit: -] In this last day of holiday, Since he already refine all the ingredients. He want to try refining rank 2 pill, Body foundation pill. He grabbed the ingredients he bought from Maka Town. He tried to refine the first set, Alex bought around 30 sets ingredients. ''First time....Failed'' ''Second time....Failed'' ''Fifth time...Failed'' ''Tenth time...succeed'' He look at the palm size pill. He surprised, this is the first time a pill become like this. So he tried to check it with system. [Body Foundation Pill (FAILED) Use: Helping one to open the meridians in the body (Take with Bath) Limit: -] "System, what is this ball size pill and it''s said failed." [The pill was Oversize Host] "...." Alex pondering a bit, he thought something. "Need I to split them for a few pill? Alex tried once again. ''Eleventh time....Failed'' ''Fifteenth time.....Failed'' At the eighteenth time, Alex almost succeed. He saw a palm size ball want to form a shaped. But he use his mana to split them. he split them to twenty of them. ''Eighteenth time....succeed'' Alex overjoyed, he immediately check with the system. [Body Foundation Pill Use: Helping one to open the meridians in the body (Take with Bath) Limit: 10] This time there are no Failed word in it. but he notice something. "System, there are no grade for this pill?" [Host Will Know Later] "... . Aren''t you my system, I demand the answer now" [Host Will Know Later] "..." He was speechless, "Then, When is that ''later'' ?" [After host Reach Master Alchemist Realm] "I''m just manage to reach Rank 2 Alchemist, and you said it is MASTER ALCHEMIST, the one above rank 9 alchemist!" he angrily snapped. [Host, What is the system Name?] "Good-Luck" He answered [That''s right Host, Good Luck] "&$*%&*$" He just realized he was played. [Love you too Host] He took a while to calm down because of this. After he calm down, he refine the rest of the ingredients. He manage to make another forty from it. "Alex, it''s already the last day of the holiday. Tomorrow the class will start, rest for today." "Yes teacher, I will go back." Before he go back he turned to dean "Teacher, I want to learn forging from you" He surprised with Alex request, "Alright, just come by tomorrow. But don''t make it hinder your alchemy practice" "Yes" Alex went back satisfied. After he went back, this time Alicia already in the room. She puffed her cheek "You didn''t come back to house this month" she complain. "I''m sorry Princess" Alex said. "And you go back with ''Princess'', I told you to call me Alicia" "Ugh...I''m sorry princess" "Call me Alicia" she once again said "No can do Princess, We are now in academy, not in Maka town. In this academy, many nobles will see me disrespect you if I call you with your name" Alex explained. "You....Hmph" She look angrily to Alex, but seems she really can''t persuade Alex in this matter. He look at Princess who angry at him on the bed. Alex sigh and shook his head. He go to his sofa. Now he is wondering, which pill he need to take now. He decided to take bone refining pill first. He ate the pill, at first he didn''t fill anything. But suddenly, there are cracks sound. This is the sound of his bones cracking. There is only one word in his mind ''pain'' "Aahhh!" Alex screamed in pain. "Alex!" Alicia who was angry, suddenly turned to worried. She never see Alex in pain like this. "Aahhh!", now she was closer to Alex. She heard cracking sound from inside Alex''s body. She become pale, "Alex! Alex!" tears start streaming from her eyes. "Alex!, you can call me anything. I won''t mind it anymore. Don''t be like this, don''t punish yourself, please!" She misunderstand. "I...am...fine..Aahh!...prin....cess" Alex tried to explain while still in pain. After half hour the pain start to subside, this half hour was really hurt. Not only Alex whose body is hurt, Alicia heart was hurt too. Looking at Alex start to calming down, she said while crying "Alex, I''m sorry. I won''t demand you anymore. Just please, don''t hurt yourself. I will agree whatever you want as long as you are well." Alex moved even though this is misunderstanding. He tried to sweep her tears even though his body still hurt after refining his bone. "Thank you" But he decided to clear the misunderstanding, if not she will felt guilty about this. "But I only take the bone refining pill. The pill refine my bones, the process just like before. Breaking and healing again and again to make the bone sturdier." "And the reason you take the pill is because I angry right?" She asked timidly. "No... I already decided to take this pill today" "Eh... this is not because of me angry to you?" She awkwardly said. "No princess" She froze, ''so this is only my misunderstanding'' she thought. She was embarrassed and unconsciusly hit Alex on the chest with her full power. "Garh...! my body still hurt" Alex collapse with the Alicia fist. Though Alicia punch not that hurt for him to take, but his body still hurt all over. "Hmph, Serve you right. How dare you deceive me" She angrily go to bed. Alex can only thought ''When I even deceive you'' he want to cry but no tears. After a while, he decided to take blood and marrow pill. He sat on the sofa once again and eat the pill. The process take a few minutes, and without pain. But he suddenly smell unpleasant scent. He opened his eyes and look at his body. All his body was blacked all over, and the smell was even worse than cow dungs. "Alex! What is this stinky smell" Alicia immediately looked at Alex because of this smell, but she surprised because she saw ''Black'' Alex. but she still can''t stand with the smell. "Alex you stink!" "I... I will go to bath" He ran off to bath hurriedly. "Haha... Serve you right. How dare you deceive me" She didn''t know what happen to Alex. but seeing Alex misfortune she was happy. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex took a while bathing, in that time Alicia continue to spout many nonsense. After Alex went out of the bath. She was shocked, her jaw dropped to the ground. Because what she saw really unbelievable. What she saw now is the new Alex. Alex didn''t have his previous skin color, his previous pale and unhealthy skin, now was replace with pure white fresh skin. Before his face because of his unhealthy skin, didn''t have an attractiveness, but now he become handsome with his new fresh skin. Alex really transformed, like worm become a butterfly. Before was a bit ugly and now become beautiful. "Princess? Princess? Hello... Princess?" He tried to wake her up but to no avail. He keep it for a few minutes and succeed. "Ah...Alex.. what..happen...to...you?" she stuttered. She still can''t believe what just happen. Alex beforehand was like your average warrior, but now he become prince charming. "I just eat a pill to expel impurities within my body." Alex still confused, he didn''t know what change from his body. "Where are the pill? Hurry up take it!" She ordered like a tigress. "I..." Alex scared, he immediately went to grabbed his pill and give it to her. "This is blood and marrow pill, it will..." She didn''t care about Alex explanation, she hurriedly snatched the pill and eat it. she forget what happen with Alex after he take the pill. After a few minutes she become like Alex, ''black and stinky'' Alicia was created. Alex wish to have his smartphone to photograph her, maybe blackmail her with it, or not. Just kidding. She realized she become like Alex and also stink. She immediately go to Bathroom to wash herself without saying anything. Alex can only scratched his cheek because of this. 44 Practice Alex sat again on the sofa and wait for Alicia. He realized, the amount of the impurities purged out from Alicia was much fewer than him. After pondering for a while, he conclude this was because his previous environment in earth. Since earth was polluted and the food he eat was another factor of it. He wait for Alicia, She wasn''t like him. She take half an hour to wash herself. After she out of the bathroom. Alex look at her and captivated. If Alicia before was a fairy, now she become a goddess. Beautiful Face, purple colored hair reaching to her waist, snow white skin, and graceful figure. Alex was captivated to her. She noticed Alex gaze at her and saw his expression. She become proud. So she went to Alex and brag. "Alex...Alex!" She wake him up "Ah.. Princess, Sorry" He said embarrassedly. "Hehe... how do I look?" She teased. "Yes...yes.. you are very beautiful." Alex said timidly. "Hehe...thanks, then how do I compare with me from before?" "Ugh..." Hearing this question, he didn''t want to Answer. But Alicia grabbed him, seems like she didn''t want to release him before getting the answer. "Before...Princess is a fairy, But now is a goddess" Alex said embarrassedly. "Really?....hehe.." She grinned happily. Upon this, the world seems become warmer. Alex also captivated by this. But somehow Alex also felt a chill, he felt from this day many problem will come. She satisfied with Alex''s response, she go to bed, "Good Night Alex" "Good night Princess" The princess fall asleep, the smile still didn''t disappeared from her face. It''s seems she will have a nice dream today. Back to Alex, he didn''t know what to do. Should he eat another pill or he cultivated as usual. Blood replenishing pill, antidote pill, and qi replenishing pill are not possible for the moment. There are still qi gathering pill and body foundation pill. He want to take qi gathering pill but he wondering if he should take a bath with body foundation pill first. He hesitated, he didn''t know about any relation with two of them. he decided to wait first until he finished body foundation pill. The limit for both of them is ten, so he will wait for ten days to make foundation for his body first. The morning come, the start of the class again. When Alex and Alicia come to the class. Everyone was shocked. Alicia become so much beautiful while average looking Alex become prince charming. Firia was the one who was too shocked with this. One month ago, She saw Alex and Alicia. But this time she saw them, she look them like they are ghost. She wondering what happened with this month. She come up with two possibilities, first is Alex and the second is the Dean. She exclude the grand duke, because he is in capital while there are no big ruckus in capital. Alicia was surrounded at first, everyone wondering what happen. What make her and Alex become like this, the boys was captivated by her and the girls want to know her secret. She only glance to Alex, passing it to him. Alex was immediately surrounded by the girls, Alicia now regret what she have done.Alex can''t handle them and he put all the blame to his teacher. That make them a bit disappointed, but also tried to secretly make plan for Alex since he is his student. After a while, they start calming down. Alex and Alicia go to their seat. "It is you right? Not my idol (His teacher). Is it a pill again? I want it too" Firia whispered to Alex. Firia was spot on. Alex can only admit it. "Sigh...I will give it later after practice." The classes was ended like usual. Firia was more fired up than usual, maybe since she will get the pill. After the practice Alex give her blood and marrow pill "This is blood and marrow pill. It will purge impurities from your body, so prepared to take a bath after eating this pill" Alex said. "Yeah, you really need to take a bath after eating this pill. If not you will become like this ''black and stinky'' Alex." Alicia add "Eh.. really?" Firia started become nervous "It basically make all the impurities in your body out." Alex said. "Then Alicia become like that too?" She asked Alex. "There is now way I become like that. I already prepared the bath so I am not like that." Before Alex said anything, Alicia immediately cut in. Her face was red. "Fufu...Alright, thank you Alex. see you tomorrow" Firia said with ''I understand'' look and left. "You..." Alicia want to shout but Firia already run away. As usual, after he said goodbye to Alicia. He immediately went to dean''s office. Today he will learn with forging. "Teacher" "Oh..Alex, you have come. Come here, you want to learn forging right?" "Yes teacher, Thank you for your guidance" "Actually, for normal forging is easy. You melt the ingot, when they become liquefied you pour them to the mold. If there are any excess you hammer them until it completely fitted with the mold. And then you just wait them to cool down. Then you sharpen them. the step was completed." Alex was surprised. Is this really forging he thought. "The different from normal forging is magic forging. This is to make magic weapon. What I will teach you is forging a magic weapon. The two main problem is to mixed many kind of metals and harmonized them, the other problem is purging the impurities within each metal. This is also problem in normal forging. You need to make the metal without impurities if you want a good quality weapon. But the different is when we use normal forge we only use one metal while the former we use many kind metals." "I will teach you how to remove the impurities from metal first." He lead Alex to his workshop. He showed a gray metal. "This is iron ingot. We will heat it first, after we heat them we hammer them. Look at this technique, this was called Metal Hammer techniques. I was lucky, some elder dwarf teach me this technique. This hammering techniques contain a total of 200 hammering." After he said that, he hammer the iron ingot 200 times, Alex see it, at first the hammering was slow, then fast and slow again. This hammering techniques was using mana when hammering, the purpose is to force the impurities out with mana. But there are something in common all 200 hammering. That is they use the same strength each time hammering. The dean was finished hammering the ingot. The iron ingot become a metallic gray color. This show the iron was purified. "This is the purified iron. You try this hammering techniques first. I will guide you step by step" Alex tried to imitate the dean, he tried to hammer the ingot. "Wrong, you didn''t put enough strength.." "Wrong, you are not fast enough" "Wrong, this time you didn''t put the same strength" Alex train his hammering techniques with the dean, he always come back so late. And Alicia already sleep every time he come back. For the first ten days, Alex learning speed become faster and faster. This is enough scaring the dean. But what he didn''t know Alex take body foundation pill each day. Every time he take this pill while bathing, he feel refreshed. He was surprised at first, when he put the pill to the water, the pill was melted into the water. But when he got inside the water, he felt his meridian in the body start to opened up. He also felt he can use mana better and better. He didn''t take the qi gathering pill yet. Alex still train in his hammer techniques. After a month, he manage to completely grasped the techniques. The dean was scared still. "Alex, you succeed in the techniques... You know how long I manage to grasp this technique?" "I...don''t know" Alex look down, he thought his talent was not up to standard as he take this long to grasp this technique. "It''s two years! Two years! You here me? This make me claimed to have the same talent with the dwarfs. And the elder dwarfs was usually manage to grasped this technique between half a year to one year. But you are only need one month to master this technique." "Oh..." Alex relieved, he thought his talent wasn''t enough. "But don''t be too proud, or you will get the consequences" The dean said, he didn''t say the consequences. "I won''t teacher" Alex said, he didn''t become proud. Because what he relied is basic forging manual from system. The forging manual have a set of a thousand times hammering techniques. The two hundred times hammering techniques from dwarfs was similar with this technique, so he think maybe this is the down grade from the techniques in basic forging manual. "Sigh...Since you already finished we will resume the training tomorrow for harmonizing techniques" The dean said. "Yes!" Alex left. Now he is wondering, since he is early. What he should do. He recalled he still haven''t eat the qi gathering pill. He come back. He saw Alicia trying to make palm size ice ball, she tried to make a few simple shape, like cube or tube. This was Alex suggestion to improve her control. She started doing this everyday since holiday. Alex never saw her practicing like this. Maybe because he was always come back late. She was already finished her practice. Alicia was surprised Alex come back early. "Alex!" the ice immediately disappear. She blushed "You..come back early" "I''m sorry for interrupting your practice, Princess." This is the first time he saw Alicia practice alone. "I...I don''t want to always stand behind you. I want to stand beside you" She said, even though she was embarrassed but determination still full her eyes. "Princess.." Alex heart moved. ''system, can I take the cultivation manual to her?'' [You can Host] ''Then I will give it to her'' [But, there won''t won''t be any effect for her to cultivate Host] ''.....Why?'' [The energy from her body was already imprinted with this World''s law. if she start cultivate heaven and earth energy. the world''s law will devoured that energy] ''I really can''t give it to her?'' he was disappointed. ''Then how about for people that haven''t even level up?'' [It is the same Host. System can say, the only one who didn''t have his/her energy imprinted with the world''s law is Host. Because Host never absorb any energy when killing the monsters. Even the heroes now already imprinted by this world''s law] ''Wasn''t I take them back then ?'' he remembered when killing a few first monster in Alisia Forest. [Host Indeed taken them before. but before the world''s law infused fully with your body, Host already decided to expel them] ''Sigh...but is there really no way for her to cultivate?'' [Yes Host] Alex was disappointed, he sighed. [But there are possibilities, to make her half cultivate] ''You mean?'' Alex held a glimmer of hope Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. [She can tried to absorb the mana in air like cultivation. Host can call this forced absorbtion. though the effect will be small as the absorbtion speed was slow, Host can boost them with your pills, like Qi gathering Pill. This take a principle like when tthey train their body to get a few points status related to body such as STR, AGI, VIT, or even Dex. This practice can make a new mana reservoir within the body since this is a different practice. For example, a rank 3 mage and he was cultivate his new mana reservoir to rank 3. That''s mean if in the fight, he was like two rank 3 mage] ''That''s it, Teacher said there are no method to increase mana. So with a few special potion like spiritual liquid was the only way to increase one''s mana.'' Alex smiled happily "Alex?" She confused, looking at Alex who silent for a while suddenly smiled. "Princess..." Alex hesitated. He gritted his teeth "I actually have a practice method to increase mana...but..." Alicia eyes widened, if this was true. This practice method would make people go crazy. "What is it?" "This is practice still not tested to other people. So there are no way to tell what happen later" Alex said. "Other people? Then, you already tested it yourself?" Alicia asked. "Yes... Aren''t princess curious why I can still progress in here without killing monster?" "Well, everyone have their own secret. But seeing you get stronger make me joy" She scratched her cheek and blushed. Alex smiled gently. "Then, is Princess want to..." Alex hesitated. 45 Lesson "I want to try" She grabbed Alex''s hand. "But.. I still don''t know what will happ..." Alex want to warn her again. Before he finished, she interrupt him. "I still want to try. It is hurting me, when I see you try too hard to get stronger. While I can''t do anything" She said, she was determined. "Alicia..." his heart moved, He unconsciously said her name. Alicia hearing this, her eyes brightened. "You call me Alicia just now" She smiled happily. "I... you must heard it wrong princess" Alex embarrassed. "Hehe, I will make you admit it and call me Alicia. For sure" She smiled, her smile was full of joy. "We...better start practice now" Alex said. He tried to change the topic. "Fine... What I need to do for this?" "Try sit first on the sofa." Alex said. Alicia follow his word, she sit on the sofa. Alex continue his explanation "Princess, try to feel the mana around you" "Yes. I''m feeling them now" She feel the mana in air easily. "Then try your mana to forced the mana in air to go inside your body." "Alex, this is the practice? People have tried this before but to no avail" She said. Alex ignored her, he continued "Try to refine them to become your own mana. Starting from the head, to your heart. From your heart to the whole body. Like blood flow from heart to your whole body. Continue refining them while moving them through your body." She follow Alex word. She tried to do what he said. After a few minutes she was succeed. "It''s a success" Joy surge in her heart. But she was a bit disappointed "But, the amount can be refined was too little. If I do this a few hours a day for one years, I can have a mana reserve like a rank 1 mage, two years more for rank 2 mage. 4 years for rank 3 mage mana reserve. As for the rest I don''t know. I only have rank 3 mana reserve now. So I can''t speculate the higher rank" "It''s still useful princess." Alex said. "But this is too little. I can''t catch your back if it like this" She sighed. "It''s alright" Alex assured her. "But..." she recalled, if this techniques really like that. This was very useful for other. She become a bit guilty because of her greediness. She disregard Alex''s effort. She tried to explain "It''s okay..I''m satis.." "Princess" Alex put his finger on her mouth, he continued "Do you forget what is my occupation?" He take out Qi Gathering Pill and body foundation pill. Alicia eyes brightened. Alex then continue to explain his pill "This pill called, Qi Gathering Pill. It can improve your absorption rate. And this is Body Foundation Pill, it can help your body, it also increase your absorption rate. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. You should take this body foundation pill first. It will improve your body qualities, then take this Qi Gathering pill. As for how they used, this body foundation pill limit are ten times, each time you use them, you mix it with bath water and bathing in it. As for this Qi gathering pill, the effect is 2 hours after you eat this pill" "Thank you" Alicia heart was warm, she sincerely thanks Alex. "What is this thank you about princess" Alex smiled gently to her. Alicia didn''t say anything more, she just smiled back to him. They practice together for a few hours. But suddenly he noticed something. She doze off. Alex realized the time was almost midnight, and Alicia already sleep at this time usually. He shook his head, he carried her to the bed. And continue to cultivate again. In the morning, Alicia was embarrassed. She didn''t know when she fall asleep. Alex just pretend that didn''t happened. As Firia already purge them impurities in her body. She transform just like Alicia. Today is the day for Alex learn about harmonizing. After classes he go to his teacher. "Alex, today I''m going to teach you about Harmonizing. When a normal forging mix a few metal. They will achieve harmony if the composition is right. If not, they will become unbalanced and the product become weaker than a normal one. But when we forge magic weapon. We need metal that contain or can contain mana. The mana in each metal will have it''s own characteristic. So we need to make the mana in each metal harmonize with each other. As for how to do it, we will use our flame. The process was almost the same with alchemy, we melt each energy from the metals to fuse them together like when we melt each herbs to liquid and fuse them together. Since you are already familiar with this process, this won''t take you too long. As long as you take the characteristic with the metal, you can easily fuse them. many call this affinity with metal and the one who have a natural affinity like this is a demi-human, dwarf race. Alright, let have you try it. Try to fuse the energy of this two metal. This two called Zingi Metal and Lore Metal, this Zingi Metal have a torrential energy while the latter have hard energy. Use the gentle approach to them, first try to control the torrential energy and smooth it, then softening the hard energy of this Lore Metal and try to fuse them" "..." Alex still didn''t do anything, he just stared at the metal solemnly. "You are not trying?" The dean asked. Alex shook his head, "I don''t know how to do it. when I liquefied the herb, I only burn them enough with my flame. But what is this gentle approach?" "...." the dean speechless, he forgot about this. Originally he never teach anything to Alex, they always occupied with making pills. "Gentle approach is a flame control techniques, you know when we make a flame, we can make it hotter as long as we infuse mana in it right?" To this question Alex nodded, the dean continued "Actually it is the same principle. But the limit how much you can make the flame temperature is directly correspond to your strength or your rank. That mean the higher your rank the higher you hotter your flame is. But this gentle approach is different, we use our flame to burn it at a low temperature, and slowly melt and refine the energy. As for the softening approach is the same as the gentle approach, the different is how hot the flame you use, we need a higher temperature when we use softening approach. But not immediately high temperature flame, but we need to make a low temperature flame and slowly rise the temperature. When facing a metal with torrential energy, you need to use gentle approach. But when facing hard energy metal, you use softening approach. Well since it is like this, I will teach you all the basic approach for flame in forging. There are four type treatment, they are gentle approach, softening, bursting, and scorching approach. Gentle and softening are like what I said earlier. As for the bursting approach, is the almost the same as softening approach, the different was when we use bursting approach, we didn''t slowly raise the temperature but we immediately raise the temperature. The time we raise it was when the energy start to refined, at that time we will raise the temperature suddenly and make the energy become disordered. We use this techniques to deal with metal that have overbearing energy. And for the last, scorching approach is the simplest, we use it on metal that have a gentle energy. The energy from the metal won''t fight other metal energy, so we just burned that metal along with it energy. But, if this type of metal is one of the ingredients, this type of metal would be the last to refined." "Teacher, what is this energy about? I can vaguely recognized the energy between two of them is different. But I can''t tell what is the difference" Alex pointed the two metal The dean didn''t answer him immediately, but went to his table and grabbed another two metal. He gesture to Alex to get closer. "Try touch each of them with your mana" As Alex tried to touch the Zingi Metal with mana, he feel energy come approaching his hand, the dean explain, "This is torrential energy, when you use mana to touch it. The energy from metal will try to approach you. That''s why we need a gentle approach, we slowly fuse and harmonize the energy. Try to the second one" Alex now touch the second metal, Lore Metal, that have a hard energy, but this time he was perplexed. There are no reaction to this energy, Alex look at the dean confusedly. Looking at Alex, he didn''t hurriedly answer. "Try to disturb the energy with your mana." Alex do what he said, but this time the energy also didn''t have any reaction. But the dean continued "Try to disturb the energy from Zingi Metal" This time Alex approach the Zingi Metal and disturb it''s energy flow. This time, the energy become disrupted. The energy before seems become scared from Alex and try to move away. "When you disturbed torrential energy, it will become scared of your mana and moved away (Paper Tiger?), so we use gentle approach for this. as for the Hard energy, even if you try to disturb it. It will only ignored you and stay still. That''s why, we use this softening approach, to slowly refined the energy. Hmm... many people called this technique as retreat to advance approach..... or not. Well whatever, it''s just a name" "..." Alex pondering what he just learned. The dean continued he give Alex the third metal "This is called Gend Metal, this metal have an overbearing energy. Try to touch it" Alex touched the third metal with his hand. True, as soon as he touch it. Gend Metal Energy immediately fight with his mana. Alex surprised with this. "You felt the energy fighting back right? That''s why we name it overbearing energy. So we use this bursting approach. When the energy start to be refined by our flame, we burst the flame''s temperature, making the energy contained in the metal become disorder. This way, refining this type of metal become easier. And this is the last metal" He give the last metal. Alex tried to touch it, but the energy immediately went away. unlike the first metal, this metal already scared before Alex disturb the energy flow. "Haha... Even the metal didn''t like you." The dean laughed. "...." Alex was speechless. "Sorry sorry, haha... My teacher tease me like this when I learned it from him. I don''t know any metal energy like you so I was down when he said that. Haha..." He laughed happily for a while. After a while he calm down a bit and start to explain "This is the last type metal''s energy. It is like a paranoid, so just forcefully refined them and merge with the other." Alex nodded, he understand what his teacher said. "What do you think with all of this approach?" Alex pondering a bit and give an unexpected answer with a flat expression "It''s like love approach" "..." This time, He is the one who speechless. 46 Star Blaze Sword "...." The dean was speechless, this is the first time he heard Alex make a joke. Suddenly the dean laughed "Haha... you brat, before you are formal and stiff when you are with me. But now you can make a joke like this" "I''m sorry" "I''m really glad you have become like this. This mean you become more cheerful around me. I''m glad. I''m really like you this way, I never have a family so talking like this to you feel like talking to my son." He said happily. "I..." Alex didn''t know what to do. But have felt warmth on his heart. After a while, they come back to the lesson. "Let''s try with the first harmonizing of this two metal" He handed Zingi and Lore metal. Alex received this two metal. He make two low temperature flame, one for each of them. The energy from Zingi metal as well as Lore metal start to be refined. "Raise the temperature for Lore metal slowly" The dean said. Alex try to infuse a bit mana continuously to raise the flame''s temperature slowly. Zingi metal''s energy start to become mellow this is the sign, Zingi metal energy can be fused. As for the Lore metal, it was almost complete. Alex manage to refined the energy bit by bit. But he notice something, the energy contained in Lore Metal, become a bit disarray for a while and soon become mellow. The two energy ready to fuse. He use his flame as the medium to fuse this two energy. Alex feel the energy start to fuse with each other, but he also notice the energy become a bit disarray like before and soon fused. "After the energy fuse, you start refine the metal. Heat them with your flame and fused them with your hammer" Alex follow what he said. He raised the temperature, the metal start to melt. Then he pick the Lore metal and place it on top of Zingi Metal. He start hammering them. this two metal start to fused with each other. After fifteen minutes hammering. The two metal become one. But Alex feel it, the energy after the two metal fused become disarray. When the metal cooldown, he can see this metal doesn''t mixed completely, there are a few yellow spot that is the original color of Zingi metal while the main color is greenish blue, while blue is the color of Lore Metal. Alex frowned. "This is a failure. If the two metal fused completely, the color will become one. In this case the color should become this color" He pointed at the greenish blue color. He then asked "Where do you think you make a mistake?" Alex pondering a bit. He feel the Zingi metal he refined didn''t have any problem within it. but when he refine Lore metal he feel the energy become disarray for a while and then refined. "Lore metal?" "Yes, you are right. The problem is in Lore metal. And what do you think the mistake is?" Alex didn''t know, he tried to summarize his experience when refine them. He recalled, his teacher only said slowly but he didn''t know how slow it is. "the mistake is from my speed when heating up?" "Yes. You need to be slower when heating it up. Comparing with your speed just now, it should be two-third of your speed." Alex nodded, but he confused, why his teacher didn''t mention it from the beginning. Noticing the confusion in Alex face, he know what he thinking "If you want to ask why I didn''t explain it from the beginning. That because make you feel it first and correct it will be faster. For the heating up process, you need to feel it yourself. I can''t give you an exact number for the speed." Alex nodded with his explanation, but he secretly thought ''it was nice to have a digital thermometer. I can see the temperature easily''. "Alright, This is the two metal. Try to fuse them again" He handed Zingi metal and Lore metal again to Alex. Alex try to recreate the process just now. But this time, he carefully infuse his mana to Lore metal, to make the speed become two-third from before. After a while, he start to melt and fused them. This time Alex didn''t feel the energy become disarray. After the metal is cooling down, the greenish color of metal come up without any yellow spot. Looking at this Alex relieved, this mean he was succeed. The dean nod, "You succeed for this two metal. Today we will try a few combination of energy like torrential energy with overbearing energy, etc. But first we will have experience the other two energy first" he take out Gend metal and other metal. "As you know, this is Gend metal which have overbearing energy while the other is Sliv Metal which have gentle energy. Alex grabbed the two metal, he use low temperature flame for Gend metal and high temperature flame to Sliv Metal. The Sliv metal immediately start to be refined. As for the Gend metal energy start attacking his flame. "Continue with the low temperature flame, don''t bothered with Gend metal''s energy attacking you" The dean said. Alex continue after hearing that. He continue for a few minutes. That true, the energy from Gend metal that attacking him slowly stop it''s attack. after a few minutes the energy start to be refined. "It''s time, raise the temperature" Alex infuse his mana immediately. The flame suddenly become a scorching flame. It burn the energy and the metal at the same time. The energy from Gend metal become disorder. "The energy already disordered. Try to refine them, after you refine them then fused it with Sliv metal." Alex refine it carefully. The disordered energy starting to become mellow. While Sliv metal already ready to be refined from the start. After all of the energy from Gend metal refined. Alex put Sliv metal above Gend metal and start hammering them. After a few minutes hammering, he is succeed refining them. The purple colored metal cooled down. There are no different color spotted on the metal surface, so he sure this is a success. "You are succeed for this metal" The dean nod his head. Alex look at the two metal he succeed. He asked "Can I fuse them together?" "No. They are already cooled down. So the energies that already fused with the metal is a mixing of the two metals. If you fuse them as one process than you can" "But, ain''t this a bit waste?" he look at his teacher. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Haha, I already planned it before. This two new metals can be made to rank 4 magic weapons. But for today, you will try many combination first like Zingi with Gend metal or Lore with Sliv metal or combination of three metals. though the feeling will be the same, you need to familiarize about them first." Alex nodded, he try many combination for the rest of the day. Since the process didn''t take too long, Alex have tried all the combination that suggested by the dean. He come back to his room exhausted. Though he was exhausted, he didn''t put it on his face as to not make Alicia worried. Tomorrow, the activities went as usual. "Teacher can I make the weapon now?" The dean thinking about it a bit and nodded, "This is the metals, there are four metals for this weapon recipe. This will make a fire type weapon. First you fuse Zingi metal and Fire stone, after that fuse Star metal and the last you use Sliv metal." Alex looked at this two new material, his teacher already explain about weapon. The ingredients might not be a metal but a stone. But the process and feeling are the same. He tried to feel the fire stone and star metal. This two were a fire attribute material. But surprisingly, when Alex touched them, the fire attribute energy become submissive. "Teacher, why are they become like this?" he asked. ''they'' in his mouth obviously are fire stone and star metal. The dean too was surprised with this. But he already have the answer, "Do you forget what your element is? Pure Fire element, it is the king of fire." Alex forgot about this. He try to feel the metal again, it seems they are ready to be processed immediately. Alex tried to fuse Zingi and Fire stone. The process went without any problem, the fire stone didn''t need any special treatment and he do it with scorching approach immediately. When he fuse star metal, the process was the same. This two fire attribute metals become like a Sliv metal, only need to fuse them together. Since he didn''t need to Purify the metal, this process only take half an hour for him to finished. "but teacher, why do we need to use so many metal? Can''t we just forge a weapon from one metal?" Alex asked. "You can" The dean nodded. "Then why we need so many metals?" "Sure you can, if you want to make a fire attribute weapon. You might only need to use Star metal or Fire stone, or any fire attribute metals. but the product will be the same rank as your metal. Look at your Fire stone, this is rank 3 fire attribute material. If you only use this, then the weapon will only become a rank 3 weapon. Or you use this rank 4 star metal, then you will only get a rank 4 weapon. But because a high rank materials are hard to get. Many people research about combination type materials. With lower rank materials, we can make a higher rank weapon. Take example with this four metals, we only have rank 4 star metal and as for the rest are rank 3 material. But if you manage to combine all of them, you can make a rank 5 fire attribute weapon. Of course, you can''t mix them blindly. This is the product of two thousand years research. Though this can be said as complicated, but the product is worthwhile. But if you manage to get a high rank material, just use them completely. There are still no progress in rank 7 above materials combination. I have a rank 7 fire attribute staff. And I only make it from rank 7 Sten Blaze Metal. The only rank 6 weapon research are consist of two rank 5 and three rank 4 materials. That''s how rare are high rank materials." "Then teacher, we can make a rank 5 weapon from this?" Alex pointed at the metal he just fused. "You can. I will guide you when making the weapon now. First...." Alex followed each order, he heat the metal and shape it with his hammer. His teacher guide him where to hammered. He continued refine it for a few hours. When outside was almost midnight. The sword shape have been made. A red colored sword blade was on top of the anvil. "Ha....ha..." Alex was exhausted. This is the first time he make a sword, on top of it he make it for a few hours. It take tolls in his body. But he still smiled satisfiedly. The dean examined the sword blade, he satisfied. The sword blade is a rank 5 weapon. "You have succeed. Go back first, we will continue tomorrow to make the handle and scabbard." "Yes, Thank you teacher" Tomorrow, He come back once again. The dean already prepared the material for the blade''s handle and scabbard. The blade handle was from rank 5 tree called Mista Tree, while the scabbard was a combination of a few metals. Of course he need to refined them first like the sword blade. He fused all the metal for scabbard, and start shaping it. after two hours he manage to do it. after the scabbard has been made. He continued to the blade, he start to sharpen the sword blade he made yesterday. This process take another two hours, after this is the last process. He unite the handle and the sword, decorated it a bit according to his teacher guidance. Rank 5 fire attribute sword was born, the sword is red colored, having a thin body, 6 centimeters wide, with the length is 120 centimeters including the handle. "Now, you need to name your sword" The dean said. He was guiding Alex from start to finish. Alex pondering for a while, and he said "Star Blaze. This sword''s name will be Star Blaze" "Star Blaze....it''s a good name" Alex smiled satisfiedly, "But teacher, can forging a sword was this easy?" "Of course not, shaping the sword is easy but the hard part is when you purify the metal and merge their energy. You only fuse a few energies from low rank metals. If you try to handle high rank materials, you will know the difficulty." "But, the high rank materials didn''t need to be merge from a few metals, if there is only one metal as the ingredient, so what is the difficulty?" "Their energy, especially rank 7 or above material. Each of their energy was unique, when you tried hammering them, you will get a reaction from the metal itself, like they have a consciousness. Each metal would need a specific treatment, and the higher the rank, the harder to deal with the energy." Alex just nod, he didn''t really understand because he never see high rank material. "Let''s take the example the sword you just made, when you merge the sword and when you merge the materials for scabbard, do you feel any different?" Alex ponder this question a bit, "I feel a bit different when the energy was merged" "That''s right, since the materials used and the process from both aren''t that much different, the difference won''t be big. If you make a water attribute sword, you will feel a big different when handling them. the biggest difference was your mana control. As for how is the difference, we will start tomorrow. I will imparted you a few combination recipes for many attributes. But for now, you rest first" "Yes, thank you teacher" 47 Dungeon Even Alex come back to his room. Alicia was surprised with his new sword. "This is?" "My new sword, and also my first creation. It''s name is Star Blaze Sword" Alicia looking at his sword. She noticed the energy coming from it. "Is this magic weapon?" "Yes." "You can make magic weapon?" Alicia shocked. "Yes" Alex scratched his cheek embarrassedly "I want it too." She muttered in very low voice. Other might not hear it, but Alex can. "I will make one for princess too." Alex smiled. "No... you don''t need to" Alicia shook her head. Alex only smiled at her, Alicia asked "What is the rank of this sword?" "Rank 5" Alex answered. "When are you start practicing?" "Around a month ago" "..."She froze after hearing what Alex just said. She give dumbfounded look to Alex. "You know Alex... there are crazy people in the legend" She suddenly said. Alex surprised, what is this topic... why she talk about it now... "That person is Forging master" Alicia continued, "He killed a rank 6 monster when he was a rank 4" Alex shocked. This is a surprised, rank 4 killed a rank 6 monster, this is a heaven defying. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "He wasn''t a genius, or high ranker. He just a forger. But his forging skill make many people ashamed. He killed a rank 6 when he was a rank 4, do you know what he do?" Alex shook his head, even he barely kill a rank 5 monster. "Because he made a rank 7 spear. He killed the monster easily with higher ranking weapon. His motto is ''If I can''t kill my opponent because I am weaker, than I only need to make a weapon that can kill him/her'' that what his motto said." Alex dumbfounded, what is this logic. Alex start pondering about pros and cons for this. Though you can kill your opponent with your absolute weapon, but the difference between your power and your opponent mustn''t be too far. If not, your opponent will skillfully dodge and killed you and get your own weapon. Alex might consider this for last desperate act. True, in battle of person. When you and your enemy even in power, then the auxiliary thing like weapon will be the deciding factor. If the power difference was too far, even a farmer can''t kill a rank 4 warrior even he have rank 5 weapon. That farmer might also be targeted because of his weapon. "The weapon is good, but weapon that was too good, might become the source of own downfall." Alex said. Alicia pondering about this saying. After a while, she nod. Alex keep practicing in forging all the time. He make many other weapons. Sometime he failed, sometime succeed. After three months, he manage to make a few rank 5 weapon. Of course on his and his teacher expense. The money from selling pills was enough to support him for a while, since the pills was so rare, the price was high. Especially for skin refining pill and blood and marrow pill. This two pill was in high demand especially from woman but no product. That''s why the price was high. Alex make a rank 5 magic weapon for Alicia and Firia. Ice attribute staff for Alicia and Fire attribute staff for Firia. Since he have a few rank 5 weapon now, after he give the last sword for Princess Mia. Alex give the rest to his teacher to raise a fund again. though Alex didn''t succeed for making a rank 6 weapon because of the difficulty. Alex almost reach rank 5 prowess in this few months, though in his status card already rank 5. One week later, dungeon event will be held. The student was given a few days off, before going to the dungeon in Maka Town. "After this week, we will be holding dungeon event for first grader. The event will be held at the dungeon in Maka Town. You will be given days off after this meeting, you may set off immediately to steal the start, or you may rest with your family back home first or you even can choose to not participate in this event. The choice is yours and of course, the consequence too. But I will explain the rule first, After you kill monster, please keep their monster core. We will give you score depending on the monster cores you bought. The scores will be give the same points as the Grade ranking in Night forest. Beware, in this event. You might die from monster, because the teachers only supervise you on the surface not in the dungeon. The event will be ended after the end of next month. There are already a few teachers in Maka Town if you want to start now, just don''t forget to become a hunter first in hunter guild. I will end this now, hope you all become successful in this event." The teacher ended his speech. "Alex, how about we team up?" Alicia said. "Yes, that is a good idea." Firia add in. "Ugh..." Alex hesitated. "Are you going alone?" Alicia said worriedly. Alex nod, "I planned to dive to the lower floor to mainly kill rank 4 or rank 5 monsters. So..." "Sigh...Fine, I and Firia will search for another party" Alicia sighed, she become a bit disappointed, because she can''t dive with Alex. Firia was also disappointed. Suddenly someone cut in, "How about Princess Alicia and miss Firia come with us?" The trio look at the one who spoke in. There are three people, two man and one girl. The man was handsome and the girl was beautiful. Alex, Alicia, and Firia recognized them, since they are classmates. Alex frowned, he tried to recall this three character in classes. The girl name is Viola, she is a discipline girl in the class, sort of role model in the class. As for the first guy, his name is Locko body was big, a typical muscle brain guy. His character also good. As for the last guy and the one who spoke just now. His name is Rery and This guy was a bit problematic with his character. Though he somewhat trouble-maker, other than that he is still acceptable. Alicia and Firia look at Alex for confirmation. Alex sighed a bit and nod. "Then we will under your care." Alicia said. "Don''t worry, I am also a bronze rank hunter. I am already experienced diving in dungeon." Rery said arrogantly. "When are you going to Maka Town?" Firia asked. "We will set off the day after tomorrow. Since the journey take two days. We can have three days before start." Alicia nod, then turned to Alex. "You will set off with us right?" Alex nod immediately. This is the least he need to do after turning them down. Alicia smiled. All of them said goodbye and back to home. Of course Alex go with Alicia. For this two days, Alex was put in awkward position. Since he can''t go together with Alicia, he didn''t know how to act with the others in the house. Grand duke can only sigh and understanding Alex, he told him not to worry about it. Princess Lea and Mia weren''t at home, he said they was stationed in the border of Death Forest. The event for second year is at the border of Death forest. so Mia need to go there and Lea accompanied her. Two days later, they meet at the west gate and set off. The journey didn''t have any accident, they safely arrived at the second night and decided to rest at the inn first and register tomorrow. Tomorrow, All six of them arrived at the hunter guild. They go to registering counter. The counter was brimming of student that want to register. "You guys can register first, I will wait all of you" Rery said. All of them know, since Rery was already hunter so they get in line. But Alex suddenly asked the rest, "How about we register first?" "We can?" all of them surprised. "You can''t, even silver hunter also need to get in line" Rery cut in. Alex ignored him, he gesture to them to cut the line. Alicia and Firia have absolute trust in him so they followed him immediately, the other two hesitated a bit at first, but since even the princess already followed him. So they followed him. "Oi... You guys can''t cut the line, are you going to make a trouble at the guild!" Rery shouted. Because of his shouted, all people who want to register looked at them. "That''s right, how can you cut in!" "Please get in line!" Many student roared at Alex. Alex ignored at them, he just go to the counter. There are three girl at the counter, one of them seems a new one, as for the other two, he know them. they are the one who he meet back then, Yuna colleague. "Ah...Sir you can''t cut the line?" the older one said to Alex. "That''s right!" "You can''t cut the line" The people in line roared at him. "I am also a registered hunter, can I trouble you to register them?" Alex said with a smile. "Please Sir, you can''t. Only rank gold or above has that privilege" She still said politely to him. "Haha... do you think you are gold rank hunter, you are just a student like us" "If you want to flaunt in front of girls, you need ability to do that" They keep roaring at Alex. "Hehe...It''s been a few months I come to here, you already forget about me miss Tina, hmm... if I recall the way miss Yuna call you is... That''s right, Sis Tina isn''t it? How is miss Yuna doing?" Alex said. Tina was frowned, she start recalled the thing from a few months ago. She suddenly recalled, a young man come to register with Yuna. Though he was different, but his style was similar, like his hair or body build. "Are...are you sir Alex?" Alex only smiled "It..it''s really true, I will registered them immediately" She said hurriedly. "Then I need to trouble you" Alex said. "No no, this is my job" "Hey you can''t do this, if other employee know about this, do you know what is the consequences. Even though you two are an acquaintance, you still can''t do this." Rery broke his silence, he afraid with the rule of hunter guild. They was given a freedom to enforce the rule from the kingdom. "This...this sir was our gold rank hunter" Tina introduced Alex. "...." Rery immediately tongue tied. Alicia and Firia giggled, while Alex turned to Tina "Can you register them, I don''t want to make a commotion" "I will immediately register them" Tina immediately ran off. 48 Live or Die? Not long after, Tina come back giving Alicia and the rest the badge. "Then Princess and miss Firia. This is the time, I need to go" Alex said. "Please be careful Alex" both of them said. "Yes, you two must be careful too" Then he turned to the other teammates "I will leave Princess and miss Firia to all of you" "Yes yes yes, we will protect them" Rery said hurriedly, after seeing Alex golden badge, his face was pale. He didn''t dare to bother him again. The rest of the two also nodded repeatedly. Alex then said goodbye, and went to the dungeon. He went to 40th floor immediately, since this from this floor onward was a rank 4 monster space. He will mainly kill in the 40th to 49th floor. After a week, he decided to go to 50th floor''s boss. He planned to get to 51st floor. The floor that he didn''t step in a few month ago. The boss on the 50th floor was a rank 5 Fire Lion. The fire was covered all of its body. Not only that, it''s speed was fast, even a gold rank party will find it''s hard to kill. But sadly, his opponent now is Alex. ''Roar!'' The lion spit a fire. Alex make an armor with his fire. The special thing was when the lion''s fire touch Alex fire armor, it immediately become submissive and absorbed. Alex sent his flame sword wave, since he have an elemental advantage, he can suppress the lion with his absolute flame, this is also the first time he use flame sword wave with his new sword, he surprised with this sword wave, seems like the sword boost it''s power. The lion scared with this sword wave, he can feel the elemental suppression coming from Alex''s flame. So the lion dodged to the side, but it''s movement was sluggish and Alex take this chance. ''Fire Snipe'' A small fire ball move toward the lion like a bullet. The fire on the lion body can''t protect it''s body because elemental advantage, so the small fire ball pierce it''s body. "ROAR!" The lion look like screamed in pain. Alex sent a few fire arrow. Several of them manage to hit the lion, resulting a series of explosions. The lion was severely wounded. Alex use his boost step, making him appear beside the lion immediately, he use his sword to behead the lion''s head. The lion can''t struggle anymore and died. Alex pick it''s core, and go to the stairs. "From this point onwards will be filled with rank 5 monster." Alex prepared his heart and step on it. He walk several meters and he was greeted by 4 rank 5 lizards, this is his first time, taking a few rank 5 monsters at the same time. He can easily take a rank 5 monster but if they banded together this will become another matter. After he saw them, he intend to separated them first and taking them one by one. He want to fight one vs one, four times than one vs four, one times. So he make nine fire arrows, each monster get targeted by three of the arrows. After a series of explosions, three of the lizard''s movement was hindered. As one of them didn''t get targeted, it already closing it''s distance with Alex. Alex want to take it down with surprise, so he use his boost step, his movement become so fast and reach the lizard''s side, Alex tried to chop it head in one go, but the sword didn''t penetrated enough. "Tch, too shallow", Alex sword only penetrated a few inch to it''s body. Alex want to attack it once again, but the rest of the lizard already moved toward him. "Fire Claw", this is another skill that Alex created when he was in dungeon last time. A big claw made from fire, the claw grabbed the lizard in front of him. Alex take an aim, he throw the lizard to it''s companion. Luckily, the lizard''s companion not banded together. Two of them together and the last was alone. So Alex throw the injured lizard to the lizards that together and send a few fire arrows. He planned to take on the lizard that alone. This time, Alex want to try another strategy to kill it. The lizard was already close enough to him and went to bite him, Alex let himself to be bitten. But of course, he make a flame armor around his arm. When the lizard bite him, it''s teeth didn''t manage to penetrate his flame armor. Alex went kick the lizard body, he add a boost step to make his kick become more powerful. The lizard was blown and crashed to the wall. Alex immediately stab his sword to the lizard''s head. It manage to penetrate better than last time, but still too shallow to kill it. Alex didn''t stop at this, he make a flame armor around his hand, he punch the sword handle like hammering a nail. This time, the sword manage to kill the lizard and hang the lizard on the wall. "Scree!" Alex look at his side, the rest of the lizard already beside him. He didn''t realize of this, and the lizard already went toward him and want to bite him. Alex immediately cover his body with Flame armor. He manage to block the bite, but sadly one of them manage to bite him on his left arm. The other two was try to bite his legs so Alex immediately focused his flame armor on his legs. It will be bad if he was immobilize because of this. But because of this, his arm was biten, since he didn''t have enough focus to guard it. Alex bear the pain, he immediately take his sword from the wall. He stab to the lizard that bite his right leg. This lizard was the one he previously wounded, Alex aim at the previous wound. This time he manage to pierce the lizard head and killed it. Alex make a fire covered his fist and punch the lizard that bite his arm. As soon as the fist landed on the lizard''s body, it exploded and blown the lizard away. Alex grabbed his sword and slash toward the lizard on his left leg with a sword intent. The slash wound was quite deep, but still not succeed killing it. he kicked the lizard away. the wound was quite deep so he focused to the other lizard. Alex grabbed the lizard mouth and sent a few fire arrow in and make it exploded from inside. After confirming it''s death, Alex charged at the last wounded lizard. He slash toward the last lizard with his flame sword wave. Because the lizard was severely wounded, it didn''t manage to dodge and split to two with Alex''s sword wave. "Huff..." Alex breathed of relieved, this fight alone take a toll on his body and mana. He take restoration pill and recover his mana for a while. "If the monsters onwards was like this, I won''t have the chance to try the power of rank 6 monster on 60th floor." Alex muttered. If other people was hearing this, they will shouted ''Are you Crazy?'' to him. After Alex recovered, he continued. This time he found three kobold this time, all of them have axe as their weapon. This axe seems from adventurer equipment. Maybe the kobold manage to kill adventurer or the axe was dropped because the adventurer killed by another monster and this kobold somehow grabbed it. Whatever the reason, Alex need to kill them to advance. Alex take out his spear from system. And throw it to the kobold on the right. The kobold blown it away with it''s axe. The Axe seems good, a rank 3 normal weapon. The weapon from system was only a normal iron sword or spear. So of course it''s useless. Alex decided to make a spear after this dungeon event. Alex wave his sword, making a sword wave. All of the kobolds, sense a tyrannical flame from the sword wave, one of them want to block it with the axe and the other two want to flee. The one who block Alex''s sword wave, was injured deeply on it''s chest and also it''s weapon was destroyed. Since the distance was still far, Alex make a fire ball in his hand. "Fire Snipe!" The fire ball fly like a bullet toward the injured kobold''s heart and manage to pierce it''s heart. The other kobold, immediately charged at him when they saw their companion was killed. Alex didn''t give them a chance to get closer. He sent ten fire arrow to each kobold to bombard them. but the sword seems didn''t care with his fire arrow. They become like a berserk beast, charging at him without thinking any consequence. After get hit by Alex''s fire arrow. Their injured bodies still charged toward Alex. they raise their axe and chopped at Alex. Alex parried this with his sword, but he felt something. ''Heavy!'' This kobold strength was abnormally strong. He was pinned down to the floor because of this chop. This kobold didn''t have any defend but it''s offend was something else. This is Alex observation, so he decided to take a distance from it. "Boost step" He use boost step to slip from pinned down situation. He use boost step in his body and feet, making him like a rocket launcher. But with this, Alex manage to get away. Alex sent another sword wave, he thought since this kobolds want to charged at him like before, they won''t dodged this sword wave then. But what surprised him was the kobolds dodge his sword wave. Alex frowned, he use his boost step to get behind them. when the kobold saw him move at high speed, they still can react. They swing their axe to Alex but Alex use another boost step to dodge in air. The swing miss, but one of the swing didn''t stop and landed on it''s partner body and killed his partner. Alex didn''t let this chance go, he slash his sword to the remaining kobold and split him to two. Alex leaned to the wall. "System, how is my ticket situation now?" [Host have accumulated a total 1701 Tickets, Hos have 575 Usable tickets] "Another 300 huh, with the pace I have while killing rank 5 monsters was not enough. I will kill rank 5 monster for a week and back to 40th floor to search for the tickets" Alex killing in 51st floor for a week, he didn''t want to step further to 52nd floor, in case something go wrong since he wasn''t strong enough to kill rank 5 monsters that banded together easily. After a week, he manage to kill 113 rank 5 monsters in this floor. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After that he took another week and a half, for killing in 41st to 49 th floor. He was like killing machine in this floor. Summing up from the first week, he almost killed a thousand rank 4 monsters. He now facing four rank 4 mammoth. He only make his flame sword wave to split all of them to half. This time Alex didn''t bothered with their core. He was too happy because, [Gacha Ticket 1x acquired] [Congratulation Host for accumulating 2000 tickets, system update will commence now] "..." The system updating on it''s own pace without Alex input. Alex then pick the mammoths core. Rather than waiting for system update finished, he decided to go back to surface and open the gacha ticket he already accumulated. He then bring his oversized bag and start went back to surface. ... In the 31st floor, There are five people fighting ten rank 3 minotaur. Yes they are Alicia and the rest. "Alicia, let''s aim at their feet first" Firia said. Alicia nodded, she immediately use her magic "Ice spear" "Fire spear" Firia followed. Ten spear of Fire and Ice make their way to minotaur''s leg. A few of them manage to land hit, while some of them missed their target. The one that hitted was immobilize. There are still four of them that manage to dodged the spears made it''s way to the party. They swing their big bodies. "Locko block them!" Rery shouted Locko with his huge shield tried to block minotaurs charged, but two of them manage to past his guard. Rery and Viola move their body to block the rest of minotaurs. "Ice Spear" "Fire Spear" Dozen magic spears charge toward the four minotaur and pierce their body thus killing them. Now, there are only 6 minotaurs remaining. The rest minotaurs charged at them. the party strategies was the same. Locko block 2 minotaurs, while Rery and Viola blocked the other two. As for the rest, Alicia manage to keep one, since Alex trained her close combat, she can keep one rank 3 minotaur with her rank 2 strength. The problem was Firia. "Fire .. Gahh!" Firia didn''t manage to finished her magic, the minotaur already launch it''s fist to her abdomen. She was blown away and crash to the wall. She spurted blood. "FIRIA!" Alicia shouted. The minotaur went to Firia, the minotaur raise his big sword wanting to stab Firia''s body. "Is this my ending?" Firia muttered weakly, she close her eyes, accepting her death. But the sensation never come. So she opened her eyes and shocked with what she seen. she saw Alicia in front of her. Alicia protect her, she was the one who got stabbed on the stomach. "Ice sphere" Alicia use her last effort. The ice sphere exploded and blown the minotaur away. "ALICIA!" Firia shouted. "PRINCESS" The rest of them also shouted. 49 Lover Alex still happily climbed up the stairs. But, when he past on 31st floor. He saw an unbelievable scene. Alicia lying body in pond of blood. Firia crying weakly. Alex keep his distance to her, wanting to protect her image from others eye. But, when he saw this scene, it made him realize how irreplaceable Alicia was. She always there, he can build relationship slowly with her. It felt so normal that it never occurred to him. ''What if she couldn''t stay with him?''. "ALICIA!" Alex roared, he use his fastest speed to arrive at them. he killed six rank 3 minotaurs in the span of three second. "ALICIA!" Alex went to her side and hold her head gently. "Alex... you finally call me with my name again" Alicia said weakly. Her pace was white, avoid any color. "Don''t...don''t say anything. I will heal you right now" Alex took out rank 2 restoration pills and blood replenishing pill. He immediately place them inside her mouth. After a she took a bit of it. her face regain some color and the wound start to close but it''s still not enough. The bleeding still doesn''t stop. "Alex... Please call me by my name for the last time" Alicia said weakly. "I won''t give up!" Alex said while crying. Suddenly, the ray of hope come. [System Update Finished. Good Luck Gacha System V2 Commenced] ''That''s right, the only way to heal her was rank 3 healing pill.'' "System! I want to use gacha do you have any cauldron and rank 3 healing pill material?!" [The new system have it Host, But It''s rare] "I don''t care. Hurry to use tool gacha one by one until get the cauldron" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. [PROCESSING] [NAILS X1] [BLADE X1] ..... ..... [LOW-LEVEL CAULDRON X1] After around two hundred ticket he manage to get a cauldron. All of this gacha processed at a span of five second. "Now use the rest of ticket in Material Gacha! Hurry!" [PROCESSING] [WATER BOTTLE X74] [STICK X3] ... He didn''t care about this much water bottle now and he didn''t use the gacha one by one. He only care at a few items. [ENTI GRASS X1] [MAGIC POWDER X1] [ALOE LEAF X1] [REJUVENATING FRUIT X1] [LIKA BERRY X1] This all are rank 3 healing pill ingredients. But, "Still missing one ingredients. Recycle all my items except healing pill ingredients! And put them for gacha" [RECYCLING] [Gacha Ticket 79x Acquired] [PROCESSING] [WATER BOTTLE 23X] [CHICKEN FEATHER 1X] ... ... [TULIA SEED X1] [RIVER GRASS X1] ... ... ''That''s it'' after getting Tulia seed as the last ingredients. Alex ignored the rest of them and immediately take all the ingredients out with the cauldron. He also make Alicia eat a few blood replenishing pill and rank 2 restoration pill, to slow down the wound. Alex refined all of them simultaneously, he use his fire to refined each of the ingredients skillfully. But, he still not experience refining a rank 3 pill yet. After a few minutes refining, he almost succeed. But, The cauldron have a sign of exploding. "Wait, you can''t be explode. Haaahh!" Alex use all of his power and mind to prevent it explode and continue refining the pill. He vomited blood. Doing all of this taking toll on his body and mind. But Alex still determined to complete his pill. The pill aroma start to fill the space. "Forming" Alex start to form the pill. Not long after, the pill was formed. "BOOM!" The cauldron exploded. A few debris from the cauldron reach his body and stab his body. Alex didn''t care with the pain. He immediately grabbed the pill and went to Alicia weakly. He handed the pill to her mouth. His hand was shaking. The wound because of exploding injured him greatly. "Alex..." Alicia said weakly, her tears streaming down. Alex put the pill inside her mouth. Her wound was closed up with speed visible at naked eyes. After almost a minute, her wound was closed. Though her wound closed, she still weak. "Alex..." "I''m fine" Alex smiled weakly. He turned to Firia "Please take care of her" Firia nodded anxiously. After confirming Alicia was safe, Alex eat restoration pill while pull out the splinters on his body. Enduring the pain, he pull out the debris one by one. After a few minutes, all his wound closed up. His body was still weak. He recover his mana a bit and went to Alicia. "Please keep my identity as an Alchemist a secret" Alex said solemnly. All of them nodded repeatedly. "Let''s go back" Alex said. "Alex..." Alicia want to say something. Alex shook his head, and carried her on his back. Though he still weak, but it still enough to carry her to the surface. "We will talk on the surface" The group went back to the surface, since the monsters only rank 2 or below. Alex can kill them easily while carrying Alicia. Alicia only crying in his embrace, lamenting her uselessness. After the group reach the surface, Alex went to the inn along with Firia. They will meet them again tomorrow. In the room, Alex laid down Alicia to the bed. "Alex... I''m sorry" Alicia muttered in low voice. "Why are your group coming down to rank 3 monster floor?" "I..." Alicia cried "It was my fault. I''m the one who want to go there. I''m scared, if I am not strong enough, you will leave me for someone else. I know I am greedy, Even though a man can have many wives, yet I want you for myself." "You..!" Alex want to angry and scold her but there are no words come to his mind. He sighed "You are capable enough, you also was a genius among your peers. This time luckily I come at the right moment. You can get stronger, but don''t get obsessed for gaining power, it will get your own life" "I''m sorry" She hugged Alex while crying. Alex patted her back, "Promise me, don''t get obsessed for gaining power. I really fear you are going to die back then" "I...promised" Alicia said in low voice. "I will still told the grand duke the whole story though" Alex said. "Nooo! Don''t tell father!" Alicia begged him, she scared. If her father know this, he will scold her to no end. Alex keep determined to told the whole story to grand duke while Alicia keep begging him to not told him. "At least, I will also accompany you. As your lover, Alicia" Alex said embarrassedly. "Alex! You..." Alicia was shocked about what she heard just now. "We...we..." "That if you want..." Alex''s face was red. Alicia hugged him. Tears streaming down on her face, but this time was a happy tears "I want! I am your lover" Alex gently smiled, he stroke her hair gently. Today he confirmed his relationship with her and become her boyfriend. After a while, he realized. Alicia seems to fall asleep. He then put her down to the bed gently, not wanting to wake her up. He want to pull back, but somehow he can''t get away from her. She embrace him, not wanting to let him away even in sleep. Originally, Alex want to go back to his room and cultivate again after scolding her for a while. He sighed, he looked at Alicia who asleep. She was really beautiful, he want to wipe her tears on her face, he use his finger to wipe them gently. Somehow this kind change of pace make him so happy and comfortable. He didn''t know before, embracing the woman you love would be this happy and warm. He keep enjoying this feeling, this moment and unknowingly fell asleep. ... Tomorrow, Alicia woke up. She was shocked, because as soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Alex''s sleeping face in front of her. She want to push him away instinctively, but her hand actually hugging Alex strongly. though Alex embracing her, but that was gently, if she want to shoo away his hand, she can do it easily. Wouldn''t this meant she wasn''t the one who didn''t let him go?. Upon thinking this, her face become red like a tomato. But she still enjoying this feeling, the feeling of his warmth was really comfortable. She didn''t want to let this feeling go. "I...What will Alex thinking about this... Will he think I am a cheap woman?" She muttered in a low voice, but she still enjoying his embrace.. "mmm.." Since Alex''s perception was great, he heard a bit noise but can''t hear what she said. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Alicia face only a few centimeters away from him. He was surprised, he immediately jumped away instinctively, but Alicia grip still strong. Because he didn''t controlled his strength, Alicia was also pulled. ''Bang''. The two of them fell down from the bed. Alicia was on top of him, and their position was really inviting many misunderstanding. Luckily there is no one who come, like caught him cheating kind of plot. "A...Alex are you alright?" Alicia asked worriedly. She didn''t realize their own position. "I..I''m fine" He said embarrassedly. "That''s good" She relieved. But now, she seems realize what kind of position she in. She release her hand and get away from Alex embarrassedly. The atmosphere become awkward. "What are you going to do after this? Are you still going to the dungeon?" Alicia asked. Alex pondering a bit. He didn''t care about level since it won''t help him increase his strength. The only purpose he dive to the dungeon was to update his system. "I don''t know. At least I don''t planning go inside for three days after this." He want a relaxation for a while, he felt this urgency to get stronger was a bit tiring him, so he want to relax a bit. "That was great!" Alicia said happily. "What was great?" Alex confused. "Ah..." She said that out of reflex, she embarrassedly said "Can we enjoy a few days together like back then?" "....How about we asked your teammates first? Are they going to the dungeon again after this?" Alex asked. "Ah!" She forgot about that. "We will meet them in the afternoon. We can ask them then" Alex nodded, "How about your injury?" 50 Assessmen "I''m already fine" Alicia smiled. "That''s good then" Alex relieved. In the afternoon, the six of them meet together again. "Mr Alex, this is our token of gratitude for saving all of us yesterday" Rery give him all the core they got yesterday, not only the rank 3 minotaurs core but also the core they got when going back to surface. Even though Alex was weak, killing two hundred rank 2 or below monster was a piece of cake for him. "No, Since Alicia was the one who want to go to 31st floor, I am the one who should apologize to you all. I''m sorry" Alex apologized, he decline all the core. "Yesterday was my fault to endanger everyone. I''m sorry" Alicia was also apologized "No, Princess and Mr Alex. If we decline to go to 31st floor, we might not get to that kind situation. This show our arrogance that almost resulting to death. We also apologize" Rery and the rest apologize. "Since we all at fault, we will drop this matter at here." Alex said. "That for the best" Rery nodded. "Are you all going to the dungeon again?" Alex asked. Rery and the rest discussed a bit, "We decided that was enough for us, we won''t go to the dungeon again and enjoy the rest of this last week" "I see" Alex took out 50 rank 4 cores "Please take this cores, this is my thanks for taking care Alicia this few weeks" "This... we can''t accept this" Rery want declined. "Please don''t reject this" Alex keep adamant to give them this core. On the side, Firia was jealous. From the start to finished, it''s all about Alicia in Alex''s mouth. Is she become this insignificant? She thought. After a while persuaded by Alex, They accepted. "Since, we are not going to the dungeon anymore. How about we go to hunter guild to submit our core?" Rery suggested. Alex look at Alicia, she nodded "Sure" With Alicia confirmation, they go to hunter guild. "Alex" "What is it miss Firia?" "Can...can we talk after this?" Alex look at her face, she seems serious so he nodded, "Sure" Firia nodded. After a while, they arrived at the hunter guild. Alex went to registration counter, since he was a gold rank hunter, he can exchange the core with all employee in every counter. So he go to the registration counter, since they are the one that he most familiar with. Upon noticing Alex came by, Tina immediately greeted him. "Good Afternoon Sir Alex" "Good afternoon" Alex greeted her back. "Are you going to exchange cores?" "Yes" "The guild master have an instruction, if you are going to exchange cores, we need to guide you to his room." "This...But I am coming with them" Alex pointed at the rest of his member. "Yes, please also come along" "Then I need to trouble you then" "This is my job, Please this way" she guide them. The guild master was doing paperwork with Yuna his secretary. ''Knock Knock'' "Who is it?" the guild master said. "This is Tina Sir, Sir Alex have come" "Oh please come in, Yuna, open the door" She opened the door, "Please" "Miss Yuna, how have you been?" Alex smiled. "I''m good thanks to you" Yuna smiled. "Young Alex, you have come. Come here quickly" Guild master said. "Guild master, we have met again" Alex smiled. "Oh you come with Princess Alicia, and young miss Firia." "Hello Uncle Bernard" Alicia smiled "Greeting guild master" Firia greet him. Guild master Bernard nodded, then he turned to the rest of them. "This is.." "I am Rery Sir, Rery Siluart. This is my companion, Viola Acabart and Locko Macfian" Rery hurriedly introduced he and the rest. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I see, young Rery, Young Viola, and Young Locko huh. Good day to you, and don''t need to be nervous around me" Bernard smiled. "Yuna, please make us tea" "Yes guild master" Yuna left to prepare tea "Uncle, my Father send a regard to you. He miss when he was diving the dungeon with you" "Haha... it''s almost ten years from the last time we dive together" "Guild master, why are you give that kind instruction" Alex suddenly asked. "That Instruction?... Oh that, I am just worrying that I need to dismissed my employee again if you come." "...." Alex was speechless. Alicia and Firia giggled, while the rest was confused. "You are going to exchange the core right?" Bernard asked. Alex nodded. "Tina, Please call the teacher who in charge for today assessment" "Yes" Tina left to call the teacher, not long after the teacher come in. Alex surprised, because the teacher who was in charge was the woman teacher which Alex often encounter. The teacher was also surprised seeing Alex again. "You again?" "Teacher, we meet again" Alex smiled. They meet a few times, at their first encounter, Alex was seems like nobody. The next encounter was when he with Alicia. This shocked her, since he was standing beside a Princess then this mean his status was unordinary. She searched for his name and found him as the dean student. She was speechless with what she found. This time, She meet him again and surprised once again. Normally for a student, she will accompanied them at the core counter to exchange their cores and she recorded them for assessment. But this time, the assessment was in the guild master office, this is a special treatment. And Alex was the one who targeted with this special treatment. "Haiz, everytime I meet you. You will give me a surprise. I''m going to prepare my heart first so I won''t get shocked again later" "Haha, then let''s get going. Who is going first? Alex was last alright?" Bernard said. Alex nodded, he turned to the group. "I''m first then" Locko was the first one. "Sure, please put all of them in the basket over there" Bernard pointed at a slightly large basket since he look at Locko bag wasn''t that big. Locko put all his core in the basket. A few ten monster cores get inside the basket. "30 rank 0 cores, 41 rank 1 cores, 23 rank 2 cores, 2 rank 3 cores, and ... 10 rank 4 cores." He looked at Alex who nodded. "Their price was 32,050 copper coin" then he turned to Alex, "Though I already familiar with this event from academy since they always doing it each year. Giving cores to other student wasn''t prohibited, many student have tried to bought them from another student or hunter for their own score Though it''s not prohibited, but I really won''t recommend it as it might give a negative impact for the student. Of course, student didn''t really want to sell it to another student, unless they certain they won''t pass this examination. And also if they want to buy monster cores from hunter, many hunter still rejected it as we hunter guild will record how many monster the hunter already hunted. If they sell them away to student, their achievement won''t recorded in hunter guild. But of course, there are few hunter that agreed to sell though with an exorbitant price. That''s why you guys, don''t be big headed if you get the cores without your own strength" "Yes" All of them said. Guild master then turned to the woman teacher, "Teacher Farida, please" The woman teacher name was Farida, She nodded "The points for those core are 420, summing up from your previous score, the total was 1380 points." It''s seems, Alicia and the rest was coming back periodically. Not like Alex who was a maniac, staying over a month in the dungeon. "Thank you teacher" Locko was happy. Alex whispered something to Alicia, "Alicia, how much the point we need to pass?" "800 points" Alicia answered. Alex nodded. "Who is next?" Guild master asked. This time Viola presented her cores "42 rank 0 cores, 53 rank 1 cores, 29 rank 2 cores, 2 rank 3 cores, and 15 rank 4 cores, the total was 47,506 copper" "The points are 580. And the total was 1640 points" Farida said "Thank you teacher" She thanked her politely. "Next is me then" Rery bring all his cores. "59 rank 0 cores, 67 rank 1 cores, 35 rank 2 cores, 3 rank 3 cores, and 25 rank 4 cores, the total was 78,197 copper" "The points are 857, for a total of 1923 points" "Thank you teacher" Alex perplexed about something so he asked Alicia, "Alicia, what is exactly their relationship?" "The rumor said, Acabart family engaged their daugther with Siluart family. They are Rery Siluart and Viola Acabart." The relationship about this two seems wasn''t that bad. So Alex nodded, "As for Locko Macfian, Macfian family was a vassal of Siluart Family" "I see" "Then next is... who want to go first? Miss Firia or Princess Alicia?" Bernard asked. "I''m next then" Firia said and give all her cores. "56 rank 0 cores, 62 rank 1 cores, 27 rank 2 cores, 3 rank 3 cores, and 40 rank 4 cores, the total was 122,738 copper" "The points are 1112 points, for a total of 2001 points" The rank 4 monster cores was personally given by Alex. At first she was mad, because There seems only Alicia in his mind after going back to the surface so she rejected. But under his insistence, she reluctantly take it. "Thank you teacher" "Then next is me" Alicia said. "59 rank 0 cores, 65 rank 1 cores, 25 rank 2 cores, and ... 100 rank 4 cores, the total was 302,077 copper" Of course, the rank 4 cores was given by Alex. Firia bit her lips, Alex seems dote on Alicia the most, she was jealous. "The points are 2289 points, for a total of 2907 points" "Young Alex, this time it''s your turn" Guild master said with a headache, he look at his oversized bag. Teacher Farida was also look at him with a headache, what is the surprise she will get now. Alex rolled his bag down, many core rolling on the ground. But what shocking thing was there are no rank 3 or below core. That means, all the cores in Alex bag was rank 4 or rank 5 cores. Alex didn''t bother to pick rank 3 or below core in the dungeon. 51 Firias Hear Everybody was shocked to the cores not with the cores.... The guild master calming down a bit and spread his mana around. "1151 rank 4 cores and 139 rank 5 cores. The total is ..... Yuna help me" Bernard said, this was too big number for him. "Yes guild master, the total is 4,843,000 copper or 484 gold coin and 30 silver" "That''s my Yuna, you really good with number" Bernard praise her. Yuna was embarrassed. "And the score..." Alex turned to teacher Farida who was shocked to the cores...or shocked with the cores...or maybe both...whatever. well the rest was the same though. Since Bernard and Yuna already saw an exaggerated thing come from Alex, they can calm down faster. Alex tried to awake her. After a while Teacher Farida recovered embarrassedly. "Ahem... the points are 36,920 points. Since you haven''t submitted any cores previously so that is your total score. This....this score..." She took a long breath "This score will become a highest score from academy was built. The previous highest score was only around eight thousand points and he become the strongest academy''s dean back then, but you..." "Thank you teacher" Alex scratched his head. After a while, Firia and the rest start to recover. They noticed Alex rank 4 cores, and Alex already give his cores to them. that means his total rank 4 cores was above 1300 cores. ''What a Monster'' ''What a Freak'' This was what on their mind. Bernard was sweeping Alex''s cores silently. He also thought this little monster Alex and sigh. It seems his good friend, grand duke get a super son-in-law. "I still want to go to dungeon after three days" Alex dropped a bomb. "Please Not!" Teacher Farida snapped. "..." Alex was speechless, "But teacher, the examination still proceed." ''No no no, that''s not the point here'' Everyone snapped on their mind. "..." The room was silent "Sigh, since we are done here. Let''s clean up, do you all have any other need?" Everybody shook their head, and left. After they went out, Rery and the rest bid goodbye to them. "Alex" Firia tugged his arm. Alex look at her, then he turned to Alicia, "I''m sorry Alicia, can you go ahead?" Alicia looked at Alex then at Firia, she nodded. "Alex" Firia said. "Yes" "Do you hate me?" "No" "Do you hate me? Is it because of me that Alicia was injured" "No, it''s not your fault" "Why...why..." Alex sighed, he thought for a while and decided to tell the truth "I was engaged with Alicia" Firia heart now in pain, tears start forming on her eyes "Why... It is an arranged marriage right? Why ?" "..." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Firia bited her lips, she beat Alex chest "Do you love me?" "I thought of you as a friend" Firia tears streaming down, "Why...Why..." she keep saying ''why'' Alex sighed again, "There was a boy, a silly boy, the boy have a girlfriend. He work hard to get what she want. There was a time, she want something expensive so the boy work really really hard. Even when he was sicked, he endured the pain and continue working just to get money to buy her a present. When her birthday come, the boy come with his ''expensive'' present. But that also a fated day as well. On that day, his girlfriend betrayed him with his best friend. He thought the world is already over for him. But the heaven still give him a chance. The boy want to change his life so he work hard to get stronger. There is a time, when the boy somehow meet a girl. He save her. After that, they journey together, fighting together, as well as quarreled with each other. The girl didn''t care with the boy status nor with her own status even her family not. They started to get closer, the boy want to overcome his trauma so he want to slowly developed a relationship with the girl. But an accident happened and the girl life was undetermined. That was the turning point of him. He want to slowly developed his relationship, but what if the girl wasn''t there anymore..." Firia was still crying as Alex tell her his story. "That girl is Alicia and the boy is you right?" "..." Alex keep his silence. Even with his silence, she already knew the answer. "I really envy her, why is she was the one who meet you earlier" "..." "I now think, I really can''t beat her in your heart." "I''m sorry" Alex said. "You are the person who seems only want to marry when there is love" "..." Firia continued "Is there a possibilities for me in your heart" "..." Firia bited her lips, "Polygamy is normal in this world, and with a capable person like you, having a multiple wives is common, so I won''t give up. Even I can''t beat her and become number one. I''m fine with number two, knowing your personality, you will divided your love equally" "I..." Firia hugged Alex. "..." Alex froze "Please let me like this for a while longer" Alex look at her, he keep still and didn''t pushed her away. After a while, She asked "Can we still keep being friend?" "Yes" "Can we still keep acting as usual, not be awkward after this?" "Yes" "You promise?" "I will try my best" "I won''t give up. You hear it!" "..." After a long while, Firia released Alex, she seems calming down a lot. She asked "Shall we go back?" "Yes, Let''s go back" Alex nodded. but Alex add "About the story...please keep it a secret, especially to Alicia" "Alicia didn''t know this?" Alex nodded Firia become a bit happy, "Then I''m the first who know this right? Don''t worry, I won''t tell anybody. But I never thought you have this kind story..." Alex sighed. "Well, never mind. Let''s go back. Though I want to say, That woman must regret her decision" She said. He recalled Sandra personalities, he shook his head. He didn''t want to recall her in his mind. "Let''s head back" He secretly hoped Firia''s feeling will diluted as time pass, he still hold monogamy from Earth in his heart as the norm. ... After they arrived at the inn, Alicia come to him. "Alex... how about we strolling around the town tomorrow" She asked embarrassedly. Alex gently smiled at her, "Sure" Firia cut in, "I want too" Alicia pouted in, She look at Alex desperately. "How about we all go together the day after tomorrow?" Alex asked. "Fine, you two can go together first" Firia pouted. Alicia blushed and Alex scratched his cheek. ... After Alex go to his room, he go straight to his system "System, I want to recycle all my items, except my cauldron" Since all of his items was recycle before when he want to save Alicia. Now his inventory was only a bit left. [Processing] [Gacha Ticket x5 Acquired] "5 huh..." "What is the new thing after your update?" [For Tools gacha, Host might get any rank 3 or below weapon if host lucky enough or something like low level cauldron that host get. As for techniques gacha you might get any intermediate skill/art, and as for material, you might get high rank material] "hmm...Then I might as well use it on techniques gacha. System put all them in techniques gacha" [Processing] [Basic Sword Art x1] [Guitar Skill x1] [Sanguin Sword Art x1] [Weaving Art x1] [Basic Spear Art x1] "..." "Guitar skill? I don''t even heard there is any guitar in this world, why am I even get that kind of skill. Just like a Piano skill back then...! Look! There is even a Weaving art... are you going to make me weave a sandal or a shoes?" [Host, the system basically give you a random thing. Even System can''t control what is out from the gacha. Look Host, you got an Intermediate sword art] "Hmm... you are right, seems my luck was good this time" [No host, the one who have a good luck is System] "... what good luck!. You are a system, can you even have a good luck. Obviously I am the one who have a good luck" [Host, my name is Good Luck gacha system. It literally cheering you by saying ''Good Luck'' but another mean is I am a gacha system with a Good Luck. If you read it] "...." What with this logic all about. "No, I was the one who lucky this time." [Host...] "No, I don''t care with what you system said. I am the one who was lucky and that''s the end" [...] "Hehe...Love you system" "Alright, Let me check this Sword art first" He take out the Sanguin Sword Art. "Sanguin Sword Art, a sword art focusing on slashing movement, for that the user need speed. There are a total 15 slash that producing a sword wave. That means 15 sword wave. The more sword wave I produced within a single movement, the stronger it is. That means I need speed for this movement. But I can''t try it here. I will try it when I dive to the dungeon again. I might as well try to get gacha ticket again, I might get another intermediate art again" [You just lucky this time host] "... Can''t I hope for something!" Alex sighed, "I can try practice this sword art with 50th floor boss. Since only one rank 5 monster spawned at that floor, it will give me a good practice partner" 52 Date Alex woke up from his cultivation. Today was the promised date with Alicia. Alex prepared himself as usual. On the contrary, in Alicia''s room. She was very busy, the bed was filled with many clothes, while Alicia was running back and forth in the room. "Firia what should I wear for today?" "You can wear anything, you are beautiful with all of them" Firia smiled. "But..but I didn''t bring any good clothes from home. I didn''t know I will have a day like this with Alex" Alicia blushed. "Like I said..." "I also didn''t bring any make up" Alicia cut in. "You are already beau..." "I... I...What will Alex think about me, I''m not dress enough or even put any make up." She cutted in again. "Like I said, Just casual is enough, You are already beautiful, even without fancy clothes and make up" Firia snapped "But...but..I" "and also you are in Maka Town not Capital City, you might make Alex uncomfortable if you dress up too much in this town" "...Then what should I wear today?" "How about wear this?" ... Alex wait for her on the inn''s entrance at the promised time. Two girls come down from the stair, one of them wear a casual red shirt and a long skirt, her red hair give an accent to her beautiful appearance. Obviously, she was Firia. The other girl with a purple hair to her waist, wearing a white colored shirt, plus a pale purple colored jacket, with a black miniskirt with white colored stripe. Making her more and more beautiful. Alex was secretly relieved, when Firia was acting the same when she was with Alicia. He worried because yesterday affair, she will start distancing herself. Then he turned to Alicia, he was stunned with her appearance, she was really beautiful. "Alex!" The two girl walk to Alex, and Alicia called him. Alex was still not recovered. Alicia smiled and called him again "Alex" "Ah.. Alicia" Alex snapped from his daze. "Ara..Alex, how is it? I''m the one who choose her clothes you know" Firia teased him. "Yes... She is very beautiful" Alex said anxiously. Alicia blushed. "Then I won''t bothered you two today, have a nice day" She smiled. Now even Alex was blushed a little. "Shall we go Alicia?" Alex asked. "Sure" She smiled. Firia watched the two went away, though she wave her hand and put her smile. Her heart was bitter. ... "Alex, where we should go?" "We should...." They strolled around the town, eat in restaurant and shopping for a few hours. But the two still didn''t look exhausted. Contrary, they still brimming with energy. The sun was almost set. Alex already used up all his ideas. "What are we going to do next?" Alicia asked with smile, she was very happy today. "Ugh...Actually I already used up all of my ideas" Alex said ashamedly. The situation become awkward, Alicia immediately thought of something, "How about we go to watch the sunset. We can see it from up there" She pointed at the top of the dungeon tower. "How we go there?" Alex asked. "We can go from the tower, there a special passage to go there. That place was popular for tourist of this town. Actually I want to abandon this idea since all of them was under hunter guild jurisdiction. So even nobles need to make a reservation. But since you are hunter guild gold rank hunter, they will give a special treatment and let us in" "Sure, let''s go" When the two arrived at the bottom of the tower, Alicia guide him to the back of the dungeon''s entrance, there was another entrance that lead up the way to the top of the tower. "Halt! Do you have reservation?" Alex smiled, he took out his golden badge "Is this okay?" After seeing a golden badge from Alex, the guard immediately give a way "This way, Sir Gold rank Hunter" Alex and Alicia going inside of the tower, the tower interior was only a stair that lead to the top. The tower seem have 10 floor with a few room on each floor. Alex looked at them with great interest as they climbed up to the top. "The door was still mysterious, even a few thousand year trying. There is still no one that manage to unlock the door. There are people who good at lock, but still didn''t manage to opened it, there are even a few attempt to destroy the door. Even back then, there was a rank 8 warrior want to blast this door. But to no avail, it didn''t even give a scratch on the door. This door was very mysterious, many still want to try opened the door occasionally. But since only the top that was opened, this spot become a popular tourist spot" Looking at the confusion in Alex''s face, she explained. "I see, this is very mysterious" After a while, they reached the top. There weren''t many people, only a few people. And of course, these people that come was a couple. Alex just hope to enjoy the sunset with Alicia so he didn''t bothered with this. Alex and Alicia reached this floor at perfect time, the sun was almost set and the scene it made was really beautiful. Alicia was immediately go to the fence joyfully, looking at the sunset that was so beautiful, she turned back to Alex. "Alex Alex, look" She joyfully said. Alex smiled and arrived beside of her watching the sunset together. Both of them feel this day was the best day. Especially for Alex, the difference between Alicia and Sandra, his previous girlfriend was like heaven and earth. "Alex, this was the happiest day in my life." Alex turned his head to her, the wind blowing her hair meekly, coupled with the orange light from the sun, Alex was captivated. "This is my lover...yes she is...Alicia is my lover now" Alex recalled his time with Sandra. She only act normally to him, but never closed enough. They even still haven''t hold hand. Alex realized, that all the time with Sandra was only his puppy love. She really never loved him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex closed his eyes, every scene with Sandra was shattered in his mind. When Sandra betrayed him, he thought the world already gone. But this time, he got a lover that she can''t be compared. Now, he seems to not have any hatred toward Sandra. If he still have any hatred to her, there still a bit of feeling from him to her. But now he didn''t care, he now didn''t have any hatred nor feeling to her. He regard her as stranger, if Sandra stand in his path, he will get rid of her. As he still close his eyes, his heart and mind seem refreshed. "Alex?" Alicia called Alex confusedly. She look confusedly at Alex who look at her but with closed eyes. Alex slowly opened his eyes, Alicia was in front of him. With wind blowing her hair making her look more beautiful. ''Yes..This is my lover. I will protect her with my life'' Alex swear in his heart. "Alex, what happened?" Alicia tilted her head. Alex shook his head. "Nothing" "I see" Alicia relieved. "I haven''t said this to you" Alex slowly said, "Alicia...I love you" Alicia was surprised, but soon her face filled with a big smiled the world seems brightened. Coupled with the wind and the light from the sunset. She appeared really beautiful, just like a fairy. "I love you too" ... After the night come, they decided to go back to the inn after dinner. When they got back, Firia was already waiting for them. "Hehe...This couple seem still remembered to come back" Firia teased. Alicia was blushed and Alex scratched his head embarrassedly. "Have you eat?" Alex said. "Yes, I already have my dinner" Firia smiled. Soon after, they went to their respective room after chatting a bit. ... In night, ''Knock Knock'' "Alicia it''s me" Alicia opened the door, she saw Firia outside. "Can I come inside?" "Firia, come...come in" Alicia said hurriedly. Firia sit on the chair while Alicia was on the bed. The situation become awkward. After a while, Firia sighed. "Alicia...I really envy you" Firia said. "Firia?" Alicia was surprised with this. "When I see you with Alex, my heart was in pain. Back then in academy, I just curious at the new student of my Idol, Dean Marco. So I tried to approach him. Later on, I get that he really a caring person, he also a powerful person. I thought, he might be the helper that I waiting all this time. Noble Family''s daughter fate was to married and expand the house connection. Unlike your special royal family who get married to the one you want. I really envious. So I tried to get closer and closer to him, as he not only powerful but also an alchemist, to boost it he was a caring person, but when I get closer and closer, I don''t know when this start, I can''t help but start to love him. I want to trusted my life to him rather than some unknown noble''s son. But after seeing you become a lover, my heart was really in pain. It pain so much. He cared so much about you, he..." She bited her lips. "Firia..." Alicia was shocked and a bit pained at her heart. Firia was already become her best friend, after this few months in academy. But today, she.... "I already talk to Alex, I still won''t give him up." She talked with a great determination in her eyes. Alicia was shocked. "I...I..." Alicia bited her lips, ''Is my determination lower than her?'' She secretly thought. ''No! For Alex I can give up my life. I won''t lose to her'' Alicia swear on her heart with determination. "I already talked to Alex about this, and do you know what I get?" Firia asked 53 To The Dungeon Again "In his heart... I am only his friend, there are no special feeling between us" Firia said bitterly. She continued "That''s why I said, I won''t give him up. I look at him, powerful person like him having many wives was normal with his personalities, I know He will love them equally. But he seem prefer to having only you. So I want to asked you, I still want to pursue him until I give up. I want to asked you, please let me have the chance to pursue him, I won''t rob you first position, I contend to have the second." "..." Alicia was silent. "I...When Alex asked me to become his lover, I was overjoyed at that time. But, because of it, I overlooked that my best friend was in pain. Alex, only want to have a woman he have feeling with. I also have thought about Alex having a multiple wives. Alex is strong and capable, normally people like that will have multiple wives. But in my heart, I really didn''t want it Father said back then, when there are happiness, there might a sadness for other people that come along with it. and this might be what he said. In my happiness with Alex, my best friend was in so much pain. At first, when I saw you get closer at Alex I was jealous. I don''t have a good figure like you. So I thought you will snatch my Alex from me. I hate you at that time, but time from time in the academy. I also notice, the difficulty in your heart. When I know it, we already become a friend. I do jealous if Alex have another wife beside me. But seeing my best friend in this much pain, I was also sad. So I will make a step back, as a good lover for him, like what you said, he will love equally even he have many lover. So I won''t give you difficulty and let you pursue him. But I will tell you this, Don''t use any scheme to him, or I will make you pay with your life even you are my best friend" Firia was shocked with Alicia generosity, "Yes, I won''t use any scheme or purposely seduce him. I will try to approach his heart from the front until I give up" "And also, we need to make sure that no girl approach him more." Alicia add Firia eyes brightened "Yes, We need to do that" The two chatting a bit more that night, of course about Alex. In the morning, Alex went to the inn''s entrance, since he promise to take them walking around. Firia and Alicia come down, they walk around the town, like the date yesterday. But Alex notice that Alicia and Firia relationship now seem more friendly and intimate. This make Alex relieved, he was worried at first how their relationship will be like because the matter two days ago. Alex now planning to get into the dungeon again tomorrow, Alicia and Firia want to followed him but rejected by him. Tomorrow, Alex go to the dungeon, He immediately went to 50th floor. He killed all the monster on his way. He killed the boss pretty easy. "Since the boss already killed, it will respawn in half a day, so I will use this floor as my training space, even I somehow destroy this place, it will restored again. Hehe...Smart me" Alex take out the sanguin sword art again. He look at the first three movement. "Hmm... Sanguin Sword art consist of 15 movements, they was divided to 5 section, each of them consist three slashing movement." Alex tried to copy the first three movements "Sanguin Sword Art, First Slash" "Second Slash" "Third Slash" A crescent sword wave flying toward the wall. "Boom!" He use three slash in one movement. Alex was surprised with the power contain in that slash. The power of the slash was at rank 3 warrior. Now he went to the next step. "First Slash" "Second Slash" "Third Slash" "Fourth..." He failed at the Fourth Slash. "I still haven''t grasp the movement yet it seem. I need to try again and again for this." After an hour or so. "Sanguin Sword Art, Fourth Slash" A crescent sword wave flying once again toward the wall. "Boom" "..." Alex now in shock, this time the power of the sword wave was equal to that rank 4. "If...if my..prediction is correct, each slash represent one rank. But...what if I manage to go to tenth slash?" Alex shuddered when he thought about this. "This sword art... aren''t this too much overpower?" [That''s the system power Host, How about it] "....Yes, you are good system. But this is only a intermediate sword art. If with this sword art I can overcome rank 9 warrior in the legend, that means there are still someone stronger like rank 10 or above?" [Host need to search for the answer by yourself] "But...This is only intermediate skill, what will become for the higher grade skill?" [Host need to search for the answer by yourself] "If I update you again, I will get more better skill right?" [Yes Host, you will get better skill] "Then, How can I upgrade you again?" [The requirement still not clear] "..." "What is the requirement?" [Host need to search for the answer by yourself] "..." "System aren''t you a bit lazy today? You already used that answer 3 times now" [System only give you the best answer Host] "Whatever, I only want to know what is above rank 9?" [Host.... Curiosity kill the cat] "But I''m not the cat, I''m human" [...] [Host only need to know, there is the time when you know all of it. Host only need to keep getting stronger and eventually know it all] "....Fine" He took another few hours to familiarize with the fourth slash. "I already familiar with the fourth slash now, I should start with the fifth slash" He repeat the same movement and, "Fifth Slash" "Pow....!" Only a weak wind that come out from the slash. He failed. ".... again!" He tried again and again without thinking about time. He was curious why he can''t succeed the fifth slash. "Once More!" First Slash. Second Slash. Third Slash. Fourth Slash. "Fifth....ah!" He was tripped this time and fell down to the floor. "Ouch...I''m not hurt...Saying ''Ouch'' out of reflex" He embarrassedly muttered. When he want to get up, suddenly "Crack!" Alex look up and found out a huge Alligator with 2 meter wide and 5 meter height. The alligator was also looking down at Alex direction. "Roar!" The alligator wave his claw toward him "Oh shit!" He rolled again and again one the floor to get away from the alligator. He forgot to take his sword when he rolled away. he looked at his sword which under the alligator''s foot and thinking how to get it back. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He use boost step to arrive in front of the alligator and trying to kick him. But the alligator dodge his kick nimbly and counter attack with his tail. Alex immediately put his guard. The alligator blown Alex away, Alex use his fire snipe, when the fireball flown away oward the alligator, the alligator run away to the side. Looking at this chance, Alex used his boos step again toward his sword as he pick up his sword that on the ground. "This is my chance to try my new Sanguin Sword Art" He readied his sword and start to use the sword art. "Sanguin Sword Art" A sword wave consisted of four slash flying toward the alligator. The alligator use his hand to counter the sword wave and manage to repel the sword wave, but it give him a cut wound on it''s hand. "Strong!" Alex now was surprised with this sword art power. Though the power of the sword wave was equal to rank 4, it still managed to make a wound on rank 5 monster. The alligator charged toward him once again. "Should I try the fifth slash?" Alex prepared himself, he really want to do the fifth slash. Looking at the alligator already arrived at his front, Alex do the Sanguin sword Art. He created four slash at one movement and want to use the fifth slash. Alex put all his arm strength to do the fifth slash "Fifth Slash!" "Fwoosh!" The sword wave become a wind again, that means Alex failed to do his fifth slash. Because he failed the fifth slash, the sword wave didn''t do any damage to the alligator. Taking this chance, the alligator use it''s foot to kick Alex. "Boom!" Alex was crashed to the wall. "I really can''t make it huh... I think I will need to seal this first, if not there might be an accident when I go to the lower floor. It is fortunate I only have one monster in front of me. If not..." Alex decided to seal it first and practice it again back home. Alex closed his eyes, he start focused again. The alligator saw Alex crashed to the wall, went it''s way to Alex. Seeing Alex like that, the alligator underestimated him. When the alligator almost reach him, Alex opened his eyes. "Sword intent" Seeing the dangerous sword intent, the alligator instinctively dodge. But it''s hand still can''t escape. Alex''s sword cut the alligator''s right hand. He use boost step once again and arrive in front of the alligator and cut the alligator to two. Alex slightly disappointed since he can''t succeed the fifth slash. "Well that''s right, the overpower sword art... there''s no way I can master it in a flash" Alex shook his head and abandon the sword art first. He need to acquired many gacha ticket. With this new system update, he might get something unexpected. He continued to the 49th floor. He keep killing in 49th floor, since for the present, killing in the 49th floor was the fastest way to get tickets. A few days later have passed. Today is the last day of the dungeon event. Alex manage to kill another three hundred rank 4 monsters. Because of sanguin sword art, the efficiency to kill rank 4 monster was higher. With his current prowess in sanguin sword art. Every time he killed a rank 4 monster, the mana consumption was lower than usual, like when he use sword intent or his element. This is another advantage when having a sword art. He was eager to have another sword art, but soon he shook his head. "I can''t become too greedy." "System how many ticket I get this few days?" [Host acquired 49 tickets] "Thank you" After thanking the system, he went back to the surface. As he reached the surface, he look back to the dungeon. "That''s right system, I recalled you can scan object right?" He recalled when the system can scan spiritual liquids, pills, etc. [Yes Host] "Can you Scan this dungeon?" [Scanning...] 54 Cooking? [Mid-Level Dungeon Description : This is your Game-like Dungeon!] "..." Alex face darkened when seeing this. "What the heck with this!" He shouted. The crowd looking at him who suddenly shouted like that. "Ah... I''m sorry" Alex apologize, he immediately use his boost step to went away from that place to hide his embarrassment. Alex took a while to calm his red face. "System, what the hell with that description." [I just scan it Host] "Then, what is the description was like that? Are you playing with me?" [That''s really the scan result] "..." Alex want to snapped but the words stuck on his throat. He sighed "I know you are useless" [System is not useless Host, that''s really the description written in the item. Why are you blaming system with the result of other items] "Fine fine, that was the fault of the dungeon not yours" He said nonchalantly. Alex then went to hunter guild to submit his cores. The first floor was full with people, especially student. Since this is the last day, many student submit their cores while other student who didn''t get so little core decided to sell them to other student who paid more. Since they know if they failed this exam, they will need to drop out from school so they decided to make more money. Alex didn''t care with all this. He goes straight to the guild master office, since it was the request from him. ''Knock'' "Who is it?" "This is Alex" "Oh Alex come in" Yuna opened the door for him. "Good afternoon sir Alex" Alex nodded, "Good afternoon miss Yuna" "Haha... Alex, today is the last day for your examination. Then today, you..." "Yes... I want to submit the remaining core I get from these few days" "I see..." Then he turned to Yuna "Yuna" "Yes guild master, I will inform the teacher" The guild master nodded and Yuna left. After seeing Yuna walk out the room, "Guild master... How is Alicia and Firia?" "They are good, since this is the last day, they know you will come back so they went to the inn to ''prepared'' they said" The guild master give Alex a meaningful look. "Prepared?" Alex tilted his head confusedly. Yuna come back "Guild master, the teacher is here" Alex and guild master turned to look at the teacher, it was teacher Farida again. "Teacher" Alex greeted her. "You won''t surprise me anymore. After seeing your previous mess... Sighed" "..." Alex was speechless. "Alex just do as usual" the guild master said. Alex nodded, He rolled the bag as usual. This time the bag wasn''t that big since he only get around three hundred cores. The cores was rolling away on the floor. The guild master nodded, "The total was 303 rank 4 cores and 8 rank 5 cores" The rank 5 cores was from bosses in 50th floor. "The total are 959.000 coins, Yuna" Yuna nodded, she went and grabbed 95 gold and 90 silver coins. "Thanks" Alex smiled to her as he take the coins, then he turned to teacher Farida. "....Your score are 6560 for a total of 43,480 points. You....you... you even passed the 40,000 points" The teacher still gasping. Alex''s score was more than five times higher than the previous high score. "Thank you teacher" Now Alex wondering, what he will do with this money. He shook his head, he will just keep it first. Maybe he will need this money later. "Alex, why don''t you go back first? ''They'' are waiting for you" the guild master said, of course ''they'' in his mouth was Alicia and Firia "Then, Guild master, Teacher, and Miss Yuna. I will leave first" Alex said goodbye to them. Alex went back to the inn, he went to his room. As soon as he opened the door. "Alex!" When he saw Alicia and Firia was in his room, he was shocked. Sure, before he went to the dungeon again few days ago, he give his room key to Alicia. But he didn''t expect of this. "Alicia and Firia" Alex greeted them back. "You must be tired right, how about you sit down first" Alicia said Alex obediently sat down. He still confused about all this. "We want to do something for you and here we are" Firia said. "Yes, we tried our best to cook for you" Alicia add in. "Cook?" Alex sweatdropped. He scared, they are upper class noble ladies, can they really cook? "Here you go" Alicia and Firia bring out the dishes. Every dishes appearance was normal whether the meat or bread, looking at this Alex sighed, he relieved. "Then I will eat them" Alex pick up the bread. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. His face suddenly become blue. ... "I think around this time Alex arrived at the inn. He must try their cooking" Bernard said. He recalled when the two girls want to borrow his kitchen to prepare dishes for Alex. He was moved by their determination so he lend his kitchen. He went out for a few minutes, but when he back. He was shocked. He was shocked, when he saw all the mess Alicia and Firia created in just a few minutes. All his stuff was charred, his utensils or cooking material. He paled, he was angry at that time. He reprimand them, and eventually teach them a bit with cooking. After they first success, he tried the food. The food appearance was normal like Alex saw, but when he taste the food. He was passed out. He also want to Alex taste the dishes as paid back to his suffering. ... What Alex taste just now, he can''t describe it. All he know was this dish was disgusting. "How are them? are they delicious?" Alicia and Firia ask him with an expectant look. Alex was tongue-tied, how is this going to be... "I know it, they weren''t very good, were they?" Both of them said with a sad look. Looking at them, Alex brave himself. He gulped down all the dishes in the table fastly. "Nom, nom.. nom...!" "Thank you for the food" The two was surprised seeing Alex ate all he dishes. "They had a unique flavor, but it was pretty good" Alex said "They had the most important ingredient." Alex forced a smile "They had love" "But you two may have gone wrong somewhere with your cooking" Alex continued, "Why don''t you two try making it again?" "mmm" Both of them nodded again and again. "Then, since I already full. I will wash the dishes" Alex said. "No no.. We are the one who is going to wash them" Both of them reject Alex and went to wash the dishes. After seeing both of them went away, he fell down. He tiredly leaned on his bad, his legs went limp and his body was full of sweat. "System, what exactly I ate just now?" [Food] "I know they are food, but why are they taste like that" [System didn''t know Host, according system scan, they can make an average guy passed out once they took a bite, But since Host, have pure fire Element. The element protect you and keep your consciousness] "That''s a torture! Damn, I will give my element away. If I passed out I will immediately pass the torture time" Alex then look at his bed. "Should I sleep? Maybe if I sleep, they won''t give me any strange thing again?" Alex recalled what he just ate, he shivered. He decided to sleep, to run away from Alicia and Firia. After a while, both Alicia and Firia break all plates they brought. If Alex know about this, he will secretly thankful, since they won''t cook anymore. "What...what we should do with this..." Alicia asked. "..." Firia also didn''t know what to do. She think for a moment "How about you use your ice element to freeze them, then we pick them to a bag and I will incinerate them, leaving no traces of them?" Alicia nodded, "Let''s go with that plan" They clean up the room. When they pass Alex''s bed, they saw Alex asleep. Alex look really tired. Both of them was tempted. Alicia try to climb Alex''s bed, but was held back by Firia. "Hey, what are you doing?" Alicia said with low voice, she scarred to wake Alex up. "You too, what are you doing?" "I''m doing my job as his lover" "And what is the job?" "To sleep beside him" Alicia said righteously. "There is no job like that" Firia snapped. The two look at each other angrily. Alex was woken up because of the noise, he slowly opened his eyes tiredly. "Alicia? Firia?" "Alex" Both of them call him. "What are you two doing?" "I..." Firia hesitated. "I want to sleep too" Alicia righteously said. "Then sleep" Alex nodded casually. Alicia proceed to Alex bed, though her face was really red. "..." Alex look at her. "Are you going to sleep here?" Alicia nodded embarrassedly. Alex nodded, "Then I will sleep in other place" Alicia was shocked, Firia throw a sarcastic look at her. Seeing Alex want to go away, she hold him "I...I''m not sleeping here. You can sleep here" "..." She then stood up and dragged Firia from the room. Looking at Alex drowsy and tired state, her heart was in pain. Firia want to struggle when Alicia dragged her, but when she saw a solemn angry look on Alicia''s face, she stopped. Alex didn''t know what just happened. When he was sleep, he really felt his body was really tired. The hunt for power make his mind tired. He was tired both his mind and body. He forgot when the last time he was sleep, was it in the academy? Was it in the dungeon? He shook his head, he never sleep there. He can go on days or months without sleep as he cultivate, but fighting monster, wanting to get stronger, this action of his make his body and mind break apart unconsciously, normally he suppress this tiredness with his willpower, but this time, when he was asleep just now. He realized his body state so Alex fall asleep once again. 55 Alex Outside, "Firia..." Alicia look at Firia solemnly. Firia gulped down. "What exactly we think Alex is....?" Alicia asked with a sad face. "I...I...think..." Firia can''t think any words to describe Alex now. "The first time I meet Alex, My group was attacked with a great number of orcs, Alex save me and my group. At that time he was only a rank 1 warrior. Now that I think about it, I already know Alex for 1 year. For 1 year, he was struggled from rank 1 warrior to rank 5. I really didn''t notice this. Alex really went a great great great effort this year" Firia was tongue-tied, she was shocked with Alex power, he reached this state of him with just a year. What..what is he experienced this year... "To...to ranking up... we need to level up...and to level up we need to kill many monsters" Firia said bitterly "Yes... I didn''t realize just now, How much Alex went to life and death battle with monsters, he...he..." Alicia start to cried up. Firia hugged him and also shedding tears. "I didn''t realize, I seem only using him. What exactly I did for him? I realize just now when seeing him in that state, I really didn''t do anything for him. He was the one who did everything. He protect me...he give me many pills...he.." Alicia''s tears streaming down. Firia bite her lips, "I too, when I first meet him. I approaching him with an intent. I never look at him properly, even with our shallow friendship he still give many precious pills, but I...I..." Firia''s tears also start coming down. In their mind, Alex not a machine, a robot, or some gods that can give them all they need. He was a human being like them, who can tired, work hard, and sick. He bear all kind of their uselessness without saying anything. But...What are they do for him? Are they helping him? The answer is no, they have no power to protect him, they have no power to make pills like him, they also know their cooking just now was horrible. Alex didn''t even complain and eat them like they are delicious. Alex give up so much for them, but...what can they do for him? After a while crying out, they look at each other. "Firia" "Alicia" Both of them call each other name at the same time. "You go first Alicia" "I want to be useful for Alex, I don''t want to be protected all the time. I don''t want to be a burden for him, I don''t want to always walk behind him as he protect me, I want to walk beside him, share his burden, endure the world with him" Alicia said with determination in her eyes. Firia nodded, "I also want to do it too" "How about we...." They continued with their plan to help Alex. ... The next day Alex woke up. His mind feel refreshed, He for sure was really tired yesterday. "Clack!" The door opened, Alicia and Firia came in. Alex was surprised. "Good morning" Alex greeted them. "Good morning Alex" Both of them said. "Let''s go back home" Alicia urged him. "What is this all about? I thought of relaxing with you two today" Alicia and Firia was tempted, but they shook their head. "Let''s go back home first" Alicia urged him again Alex was surprised with this, the usual Alicia and Firia would accept this. He looked at them curiously, looking if they are possessed. "Let''s go home" Firia also urged him. Alex sighed, then he smiled "Sure, let''s go home" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alicia and Firia already packed up and Alex didn''t have many luggage, so they are ready to go back anytime. He want to said goodbye to guild master Bernard first, but the two urged him. He sighed and follow them. They searched for caravan heading to capital city and found it easily. They set off right away. The journey only take two days. Firia went to Merona house, while Alex and Alicia went back to Rizertia House. "Father, Mother" Alicia happily hugged them. "Welcome back Alicia" They hugged back. Then turned to Alex. "Un...uncle...Auntie..." Alex greeted them awkwardly. They smiled, it seems there are many improvement, before Alex still call them with ''Grand Duke'' or ''Madam''. But now he called them with more intimate way. "Welcome back Alex" "Haha..." Grand duke laughed. "how is your examination, dear?" Madam asked Alicia. "I got 2907 points" Alicia said "What... that much?" Both of them shocked "I remembered the academy history, the previous score was around eight thousand. But back then, the points was doubled from now. It means you almost get six thousand points" Grand duke said with astonishment on his face. "Our Alicia was really good. Even your eldest sister Lea who hailed as a genius among genius from academy only get 3200 points, that means she have around six thousand." "But mother, I stay in the town for the last week." Alicia smiled. "..." The parent was shocked with this. If she stayed in the town for a week, that means she can get a few hundred more points. That means she can surpass Lea. If they know Alicia cheated, because Alex give her cores, she must be punished. "But...My points was only too small if you compare them with Alex" "Too small?" They seem didn''t hear right, she said "Too Small" not "Smaller". That means the points difference was really great. They look at Alex. "I...I...got 43,480 points" Alex said embarrassedly. Their jaw dropped to the ground. Even Alicia''s jaw also dropped. She knew Alex previous score that around thirty six thousand. But just a few days, it become that much. "43,480...if doubled that means...86,960...That was more than ten times from the high score" Grand duke stuttered. The madam still not recovered from her shock. Alicia recovered soon, with more determination filled in her eyes. "Let us...come in first, let''s talk inside...no since it''s already late, you all must be tired from your travel, we can talk tomorrow" Grand duke said, he want to hear the experience in the dungeon, but he hesitated and decided to prepare his heart first tonight. They then went to their respective room. "System I have 49 tickets right?" [Yes host] "Please put all of them in techniques" [Processing] [Fencing x1] [Basic Sword Art x3] ... [Spear Throwing Art x1] ... [Electronic Fan Making Manual x1] He didn''t get any different manual from 49 tickets. Only spear throwing art and Electronic Fan making manual. But as soon as he saw this manual he snapped. "What is this electronic fan making manual! I don''t even know how to generate an electricity and this world also didn''t know. Are you going to make lightning attribute mage to become electricity source! If not, even I make them It was useless, Oi..System Answer me!" [Host, system can only generate the gacha randomly] Even he get this kind of useless thing, he still can''t get used to it, even he try to maintain his calm. It was useless, he still snapped in the end He took a deep breath a few times to calm his heart. He shook his head, "Let see the new spear throwing Art first" [This is an intermediate spear art Host] "I see" Alex take out the spear throwing art and surprised, this time the art was in scroll. He make a few try to open the scroll since he was unfamiliar with this kind of scroll. After a while, he manage to open the scroll The first sentence of the scroll was "As long as the speed was enough, even a tiny peeble can make a crater" Alex was astonished with this sentence, he immediately think about meteorites that come down to earth, even a small meteorite have a possibilities to make a tsunami if it fall on the sea, or crater on the surface. He look at the rest. The throwing spear art was consist of two types of movement. Power throwing and spin throwing. The power throwing was to emphasize on the power of the thrower to give speed for spear. It include how the stance, hand positioning and etc. For spin throwing, like it''s name it emphasize the power of spin when throwing to give a piercing power to the spear. He look at the stance and finger positioning. He need to spin his hand a bit and his finger need to be agile when he throw, if not the spin wouldn''t be great and bring much effect. Alex want to study them first, but he still have his sanguin sword art. He want to reach the fifth slash first, before studying this art. After planning what to do, he continue to cultivated until tomorrow. In the next morning, he was at the back garden. He was practicing his sanguin sword art. "Fifth Slash!" ''Swoosh'' The sword wave become a weak wind once again, that means Alex failed again. He was trying to figure out, why he can''t success the fifth slash. Alex keep training and training this slash. Meanwhile grand duke was watching his training, he was looking at Alex''s peculiar sword art. But he felt something wrong in it. "Alex" "Un..cle" "I watching you training for a while on there" He pointed at the place he stood earlier. "I watching your sword Art, this is a peculiar sword art. But I felt something wrong in it when you trained" "I also felt something wrong, but I can''t pointed that out." Alex said confusedly. "Well, this is my observation earlier. I watch this sword art was giving a powerful sword wave, but somehow this power didn''t come from your strength, but from your...." Grand duke pondering. "..." Alex also thinking about something. "Speed?" Both of them said at the same time. They look at each other "That''s right, it''s speed" Grand duke said Alex nodded, "Power come from speed" "The power come from speed, and your movement was also a bit rough, I think you need to smooth your movement too" Alex pondering for a moment, "I will try again" ''If the power come from speed, then I must be wrong this whole time. I use my strength up to fourth slash...But what if I use all my speed from the first slash?'' Alex thought. He relaxed his body, he start to move. "First Slash" This time, he make a slash that come from his speed. He didn''t forcefully using his strength to make a sword wave. "Second Slash" "Third Slash" He use his peak rank 4 speed, and reaction speed to each slash. "Fourth Slash" He stopped at the fourth slash. A powerful sword wave come after the movement. Alex look at the sword wave and surprised with the power contained within. The power was at peak rank 4. But what made he most surprised was his movement. "I...Did I just do the slash easily?" The grand duke nodded, "It seems our speculation was right" "Thank you uncle" Alex thank him. If not for grand duke, he won''t notice this problem anytime soon. "Haha...It''s alright, you will overcome this problem soon enough even without me" 56 Spar "I.." Before Alex speak, the grand duke asked. "How about a spar?" Alex was surprised, he consider this offer seriously and nodded "Thank you for your guidance" Alex and grand duke was separated for a few meters. But before they started, suddenly someone called, "Father" Both of them look at the voice source. "Can we talk?" "Alicia?" Grand duke surprised. Yes, the owner of the voice was Alicia. "Sure" "Father, I want to go to the dungeon again" Grand duke and Alex was shocked. Their eyes widened. "Alicia?" Alex was stunned. "Alicia, Are you serious?" Grand duke asked. "Yes" Alicia nodded. "Why?" Grand duke asked again. "Because of him" Alicia pointed at Alex. Grand duke immediately sent an angry glare at him. "Alex is strong, but I''m too weak to help him, I don''t want to be protected all the time, I don''t want to stand behind him all the time. I want to stand beside him, always beside him. Even the whole world see him as an enemy, I want to stay beside him, I want to help him. So when the time come, I can proudly said I am his woman." "Alicia" Alex''s heart was moved. "Then I will follow you to the dungeon" "No! You can''t follow! Everybody can, except you. If not, you will only protect me again and again." Grand duke was shocked, his playful daughter was grown up. He want to reject this idea at first, but seeing the determination in Alicia''s eyes, the word stuck in his throat. "Sigh...It''s time the girl in the house to grown up and soar to the sky" "Your sister Mia also want to the dungeon, how about you follow her?" "Can Firia also joined?" "Yes, She only have three people in her group, so with you two make it five, it perfect then. You talk to her about it" "Yes Father" Alicia smiled and left to find her sister. After Alicia left, the grand duke give a sharp glance at Alex. "Now, Our time to spar" The grand duke smiled evilly. Even though he already approved and engage him with Alicia, but seeing Alicia grown up and leaving him like this still hurt him a bit, he want to vent all this to Alex. Alex was shivered, he want to reject but can''t reject, he want to cry but have no tears and reluctantly accept. Alex and Grand duke readied their stance. "Your stance...." grand duke astonished. "I never learn sword art before, I only practice some basic sword movement such as Slashing, stabbing, or parrying. This stance was the result from fighting with many monsters" Alex explained. The duke nodded solemnly, Alex reaching this point alone in his age was really surprising. Even hunter or adventurer who dealt with monsters daily might not reach this if they are in Alex''s age. Alex right hand hold the sword and his left hand hold his spear. He rarely use his spear and sword simultaneously when fighting monsters. He only use them together when he had a hard fight, of course, the spear was provided by system. His right leg was in front his left leg by one step away and his body turned a bit to left. Grand duke observed this stance a bit, He thought this stance have weakness from Alex''s right side since his body turned a bit to left, that might be a blind spot he thought. But seeing Alex''s left hand that held a spear, he shook his head inwardly. The spear''s length make it a bit impossible, Alex can cover his right side. "Let''s start, you can make your move first" Grand duke said. Alex nodded, he use his boost step right of the bat, he hope this speed can make the duke a bit shocked and give him opportunity. The duke was astonished with Alex speed, he noticed the little bit explosion under Alex speed that might be the reason for Alex''s speed change but he soon recovered. He wave his sword toward Alex. Alex parried it, ''Strong'' He thought. He was overpowered by grand duke raw strength. He use a couple boost step on his hand. He manage to repel grand duke''s sword. Grand duke was astonished with this. It''s seems this peculiar techniques not only can be use for his speed, bu also for his power depending how he use it. The grand duke move a few meters away from Alex. "How versatile that techniques of yours, that techniques can give you speed or power depending how you use it. It might give you another boost on another area, from my observation, you can use this techniques on all your body part" Alex shocked, the duke was spot on with his speculation. "Well...try to use all your techniques, though my element was wind, I might can give you some advice from my own experience" "Thank you for your guidance" Alex said. As soon as he said that, Alex use another boost step toward grand duke. "I said to use all your techniques, using the same movement in a fight continuously might give your opponent a chance" Alex only smiled. He use his boost step to stop his advance two meters away from grand duke. He thrust his spear to duke''s head. "It might be dangerous if your spear was at high rank, but this is only a normal spear." He parried the spear thrust easily. Alex and the duke was exchanging blow and blow. They clashed for around two hundred blow, series of clashing between Alex''s sword and spear with duke''s sword was heard around the mansion. Alicia who was still packing up her clothes, opened her windows and watching this. The madam who was in her study room also got out from her room and watching this scene. Servant that went pass by also stopped for a while to watch the spar between Alex and grand duke. "Fire Arrow" Alex sent around twenty fire arrow to grand duke. "Boom Boom!" Series of explosion was heard in there. "Oi, Are you going to destroy this garden?" Grand duke teased. "Ummm, Sorry" Alex apologize, he didn''t have any intention to do that, he was just caught up with the fight. Grand duke saw many people come to watch this, there are his wife, Alicia, Mia, butler Ji and Some servants. "Let''s finished this with one sword strike, I will just use my Wind Strike" This wind strike was similar to Alex''s flame sword wave, The duke already showed it to him during this spar. But Alex still haven''t show his Flame Sword Wave. Alex nodded, He raise his sword, pouring his mana to his sword. The duke saw this shocked, he grinned, "Good good. This techniques of yours was really good, it was similar to my Wind Strike. What is the name of this techniques?" Alex swing his sword while shouting "Flame Sword Wave" A tyrannical and beautiful red colored sword wave move toward the duke. Mia who watching this scene felt oppressed. Because her element was also fire element, the fire element inside of her body was suppressed by Alex absolute Flame, this ''Flame Sword Wave'' was a techniques that utilize Alex''s absolute flame. "Good, I can''t lose can I? This is my Wind Strike" A wind crescent sword wave fly toward Alex. "Crap, I use too much power" Grand duke said. "Alex Dodge it" But grand duke was too late, Alex''s Flame sword wave and his Wind Strike Already clashed with each other, because the difference in power, Alex''s Flame sword wave was destroyed. Though Alex''s Flame sword wave manage to fight a bit but soon destroyed. "Alex!" Alicia shouted. Alex didn''t manage to dodge this strike. "BOOM!" The duke''s wind strike reach Alex. The fog was soon cleared away, Alicia already tear up. But she soon saw Alex figure standing between the smoke. Alex using all of his mana to use ''Flame Armor'' to make a shield made of flame on his right hand to guard The wind strike. Alex head was fuzzy, his body was hurt all of her. Because of this strike he got internal injuries, he need around a week to recover. "Alex!" Alicia relieved when she saw Alex was fine. All people who watching this was also relieved. Especially grand duke who release his wind strike. He scared, is he going to personally kill this son-in-law by his own hand... Alex spurted blood and collapse to the ground. "Alex!" Alicia immediately ran out from the window and went to Alex. Grand duke immediately arrived at Alex and support him, not letting he fall to the ground. The closest was madam. "How is he?" Madam asked with much concern. "He is fine, he only passed out." Grand duke assured her. "Sigh" The madam was relieved, but soon become angry "But you should control your own strength, look at what you done. You almost kill him, are you going to make Alicia become a widow" Grand duke was sweatdropped. "Alex!" Alicia already arrived at the back garden. Alicia check his condition. "Don''t worry, he only passed out" Grand duke said apologetically. Alicia relieved when she heard Alex was fine, but soon throw an angry look at her father, "Father, why are you doing this, you are a rank 7 while Alex only rank 4. Are you out of your mind father?" Grand duke was sweatdropped again. His back was full of cold sweat. He secretly sighed, ''His son-in-law already fully snatched his daughter. Now, she can scold her father because of him.'' "Don''t worry, he will be fine" Grand duke can only said that awkwardly. They carried Alex to his room. ... At night, Alex woke up, he slowly opened his eyes. He saw a familiar ceiling. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "This is my room?" Alex recognized this room. He check his body condition, though there are no physical injuries, only a sore body. But he get some internal injuries, even with rank 2 restoration pill he need around three days to recover, but he didn''t have any stock for restoration pills now. He might need to rest for a week. He want to raise his left hand, but he felt like his hand was hold by something. He look at his hand, he saw Alicia sat on the floor beside his bed holding his hand while sleeping. Alex smiled gently, his heart was filled with warmth. Alex try to get up slowly. He manage to get to the sitting position. Alex gently smiled to Alicia, he raised his right hand weakly to reach Alicia''s head. He slowly patted her head and stroke her hair. Alicia awoke because of this. "mmm" Alicia slowly opened her eyes, she felt comfortable when Alex patted her head and want to sleep again with that feeling. But she forced her eyes open. She look at Alex. "You woke up" Alex gently smiled. "Alex!" She hugged Alex strongly. Alex closed his eyes, and slowly stroke her back. "I''m sorry for making you worried" He said gently on her ear. "Wa!" Alicia realized, she was impulsive just now. She slowly released him awkwardly. She was embarrassed, her face become so red like a tomato. Alex look at her face that become so cute, Alex said with a low voice "Thank you" Alicia who heard this was surprised, her red face that was so cute was filled with a very big smile. 57 Training Room Alex was captivated by her once again. His lover was really gorgeous, cute, pretty, etc. He can''t describe them all. "Alicia" He calls her name gently. "mmm?" Alicia''s face was still full of smile. "Are you really going to the dungeon with Firia?" Alex said worriedly. Soon Alicia''s face that was full of smile turned to solemn and determined face. "Yes" "...." Alex look at her for a moment "I won''t stop you" "Alex?" She surprised by Alex''s response, she feared Alex will stop her from doing this. "I won''t say anything about this. I am respecting you, even if you want to destroy another kingdom I will also approve and back you up." "No no no, I don''t want to destroy another kingdom" Alicia hurriedly said. Alex gently smiled "I know, I just want to say this. Don''t worry about what you want to do, I will always support you with your decision. This is what I learned from my hometown, A relationship was formed between two people who respect, trust, love and believe in each other. So I''m not going to say anything." Alicia was surprised, tears start formed in her eyes. Alex learned about this when Sandra betrayed him, He knows understood what it means a relationship formed with two people, not one. "I''m going to wait for you here, waiting for you to come back here, and when the time you come back. Let me say "Welcome Back" for you" Alex slowly said. Alicia''s tears started streaming down, but this was not sad tears but rather truly happy tears. In this period, A woman or a wife in a noble''s house often suppressed by their man or husband. They need to follow their command as a woman, because in this world still held a principle that woman was not equal with man. But Alex was different, he trust her, he let her do what she wants, he respects her as an equal. Alex really loved her. "Yes, Alex". ... In the morning, Alex and grand duke accompany Alicia and Mia. Alex also saw Firia. "Be careful" Alex said. "Yes" Firia smiled. Alex then turned to Alicia but he didn''t say anything, he just smiled at her. Alicia who understood also smiled at Alex. They soon set off, Alex and grand duke watching the carriage until it was gone and went back. ... Alex was rest for a whole week. In this whole week, he summarizes all of his experiences. He has a few fire magic, they are Flame sword wave, Fire Arrow, Flame Armor, Boost Step, and Fire Claw. He only focused on learning about spear and sword. He has basic art for them each and Sanguin sword art for sword and Spear Throwing Art for his spear. He can condense sword intent for his sword but seem can''t condense any spear intent for his spear, at first he thought of abandoning his spear and focused on his sword but he planned to wait and see first. After a week his injuries were healed. He continues training with his Sanguin Sword Art. He really wants to do the fifth slash successfully. During two weeks he never succeeded in doing the fifth slash, but he felt closer to passing that stage. "Alex" someone called. Alex turned to look who called him. "Uncle" These few weeks, Alex already used to call grand duke with ''Uncle''. The duke nodded, "I got some news for you" "What is it?" Alex asked. "It seems Hero''s party will come to the academy as a student. they want to look at our academy" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex frowned with this news. "They will come after first-grade student''s holiday so it was next month" The duke said. Alex pondering for a moment. Looking at Alex, the duke also said, "Don''t worry about it, Actually the one who informed me was my brother. They have a hero but we have you and we also didn''t fear them, If they want war we can let them see why our Acacia kingdom was the strongest between the three kingdoms." Alex was moved, He smiled "Thank you" "Well they say the hero and his party already reach rank 3 with just a year and the hero himself can fight with rank 4, so he might want to show off his power in front of us. But we have you since you are the same age. The hero was nothing in front of you" Grand duke smiled and waved his hand as he left. Alex looked at the sky, "John and the others huh... come, I will get my revenge this time. I''m not the same as the weak-looking boy back then" Alex now considering to take his Qi Gathering Pill which he saves back then to increase his power. He came back to his room, there are ten Qi Gathering Pills in front of him. Alex took one of the pills in front of him. The pill burst melt in his mouth. He felt a surging of mana coming inside his body. He immediately sat on lotus pose and start cultivating He immersed in this feeling, unconsciously 2 hours have passed. He opened his eyes, "With these pills, I can break through to the next level." He picks up the second pill and continues to his cultivation. The night passed by, Alex already finished 5 pills tonight. He wants to finish the other five but he needs to go out of his room. Alex can Breakthrough tonight with the pills. In the day, Alex practices his Sanguin Sword Art. Alex pondering, he always something off in his fifth slash but he didn''t know what it is. "I thought I already focused on my speed for the slash... that was the problem right?" "Alex" Alex turned to look at the voice, "Uncle" "How is your progress?" Alex shook his head, "I still failed" "Well...Just practice more, you will eventually succeed" Alex nodded, "Uncle, How do you use your wind strike?" Alex asking about this because, whenever Alex failed in his fifth slash, the sword wave always becomes a wind. "Hmm... When I use my wind strike, I use my mana just like your...What it is...Flame Sword wave.." "Mana huh..." Alex sighed, but suddenly his eyes brightened. "Mana! That''s right" Alex readied his stance once again. "First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth...." Alex used all his slash possible, but this time with more care. He observed the mana fluctuation in each slash. This time he noticed. When he used the fourth slash the mana seems to be disrupted. His eyes brightened, this was the reason he can''t do the fifth slash. The problem wasn''t in the fifth slash but the fourth slash. "In the First, second, and third Slash. The mana seems to be stable. But when I do the fourth, the mana become unstable so when I use the fifth, it failed" Alex''s eyes brightened Alex do the movement again, "First, Second, Third Slash" but this time when he did the fourth, He imbued his mana "Fourth Slash" He stopped at the fourth. After he did the fourth Slash, a crescent sword wave flew. This time, the sword wave felt more stable than before. Alex was happy with this development. "The energy becomes more stable now" Grand duke said. Alex nodded, he wants to do another one but this time to the fifth slash. "First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth Slash" A crescent sword wave was formed. Grand duke was surprised by its power. the power was equal to that of a rank 5. But then his face suddenly darkened. Why? Because Alex''s sword wave destroyed the house wall. "Boom!" The sword wave was contacted with the stone fence and destroyed it. Luckily, the sword wave exploded, if not it might hurt someone in its path. "I...I..." Alex''s face becomes pale. He looked at the duke apologetically. The duke sighed, "Fortunately the sword wave exploded. If it continues, it might kill someone on its way." Alex''s face becomes paler. "I will compensate the wall" The duke shook his head "Don''t worry about the wall, Look you have succeeded in the fifth slash. You already practice this move again and again in these few weeks" Alex wants to leap at joy with his success this time, but he seems to not have any energy to do it. "Dear, What happen?" The madam came to the garden because of this incident. "Nothing, Alex only practice his sword art and that happened" Grand duke explained. "Oh... Don''t worry about it" Madam assured him. "Seeing the sword art to do this much damage, how about you practice in the basement?" Grand duke said. "Basement?" Alex confused The duke nodded, "We have a practice ground in the basement of our mansion. The purpose was to practice some skills or arts that have too much damage so it won''t be dangerous. look at that chimney on the ground there." The duke pointed out a chimney that stuck on the ground. The chimney was not a regular one because it was planted in the ground. Alex looks at the big stone hole, he was speechless "... That wasn''t well?" he always thinks that hole was a well. That was because he never knew there is a basement like that in this mansion "..." This time was the turn for grand duke and madam to be speechless. "It''s not, it was a chimney. The purpose was to ventilate the training ground in the basement" The atmosphere becomes awkward. "How about we go there? I will show you around" Grand duke said. Alex nodded, if he wants to practice this sword art, he might break another wall again. After bidding goodbye with the madam, The duke led Alex to the basement. The door was in the Library room, with some weird mechanism to open the door, they got in. They got down with stairs, it seems the basement was around ten to fifteen meters below the ground. When they reached the place, Alex was astonished. The room made from compact stone, though there are some cuts, explosions, or some marks on the wall, the wall seems still sturdy. Alex feels even the wall got slashed by him, it still won''t destroy the wall. "This wall has sturdier material than our city wall. It can defend from a rank 7 attack. We want to make this stone to build city wall but there are several problems like wall supply, money, and many others" He sighed Alex nodded, this place might have a big cost to build, he felt. 58 Meeting "Why don''t you test them with that move?" Grand duke smiled Alex nodded, He goes to the center of the room. He planned to use his Sanguin Sword Art''s Fifth Slash again. "First, Second, Third, Fourth" Alex uses the same move, he also uses his mana to make the mana in the air not to be disturbed. "Fifth Slash" "Swoosh!" The sword wave becomes a weak wind once again, this means Alex has failed. The atmosphere becomes awkward. "Well...You can practice all you want in here. Ah...I remembered I have an appointment after this, then I will leave first" The duke run away. "..." Alex was speechless, he then shook his head. "The first one might be a fluke, but the chance is there, I just need to practice more" Alex trained the sword art for another two weeks. He sometimes succeeds and sometimes failed when doing the fifth slash, it takes him two weeks to completely mastered the fifth slash. Now he wants to learn about Spear throwing art. "Power throwing and spin throwing. Power throwing was relying on brute force while the latter was technique. Let''s try the power throwing first" Alex followed the instruction from the scroll, hand positioning, which muscle to use, etc. At first, he was unfamiliar with the process, so the throwing was weaker than his usual throw without this art. But soon, the power becomes stronger and stronger. After a week he mastered this power throwing "Power throwing" A spear flies toward the training wall at super-speed leaving a shockwave. "Boom!" The spear broke when it hit the wall. But the power was there to see. Alex nods satisfied, "The power was really good, to boost it, this is only with a normal spear, this alone might kill a rank 4 monster. What if I throw a good spear, won''t the power will be much stronger" After mastering the power throwing, Alex learned the spin throwing. But suddenly someone came to the training room. "Alex, The spear batch has come just now." "Uncle, sorry to trouble you for this" "Haha, Don''t worry about it" Actually, the grand duke was happy Alex was still in the house, that''s why he likes to visit him. His eldest daughter was at the border, he worried about her. His second and third daughter was in the dungeon and he also worried about them. He was lonely, his daughter all traveled. Fortunately Alex still in the house, so talking like this with him make him happy, since from the start all he had was daughters, Talking with Alex like this, he felt like talking with his own son. "There are still three weeks before your holiday was over, Are you going to use all three weeks to train?" Alex pondered for a moment, then he nodded. "I see. Oh yeah, I remembered, Yesterday, the minister of agriculture already reported to the king for your ''Four crop rotation system'' the result was three times higher than usual. He suggests implementing this system to all farmland in our territory. My brother was really happy about this, he wants to give you a title" "This..." Alex didn''t really want to involved with kingdom management. "Don''t worry about it, even though he gives you the title, you won''t need to do things like a noble''s house nor its obligation. This title was giving you an easy pass, so when you want to travel, just know the kingdom will back you up" Alex was surprised by this treatment, "Aren''t they..." Grand duke only smiled and patted his shoulder. "Though there is only one thing you need promise" Alex frowned, "What is it?" "If the kingdom was in peril, you promised to help" Alex''s eyes widened, he relieved "Yes, I will" "That''s all about it, I know you wouldn''t like any formal ceremony like that, so we will give you the title in private with a few ministers present. It will take place in the castle tomorrow" "Umm..." Alex hesitated. "What? Are you shy with only a few people? Or do you want a grand ceremony for that?" "No no no" Alex shook his head furiously, "It just... I don''t have any formal attire, all my clothes were all like this" He pointed at his current cloth. "A....ahahaha!" Grand duke laughed happily, he thought Alex have some kind problem with that arrangement, but he never thought the problem he had was this. "Don''t worry about it, you can use my cloth for that" Alex was embarrassed. "Well, meet me tomorrow morning" Grand duke said that and left. Alex go to the garden to inspect the spears, because of the incident in the dungeon, all his spear stock in the system was busted, and he now still focused on techniques gacha. So he can only get spear supply from outside for his training since he broke many spears for this training. "What should I do now..." Alex pondered for a moment, suddenly he remembered something "I haven''t finished the other five of my qi gathering pills" Alex stops his training and decided to take qi gathering pills for the rest of the day. In his room, Alex started taking the pills. After finishing his first pill, Alex felt so close to broke through. He eats another pill, but still can''t breakthrough. "One more", Alex immediately fed himself another pill. This time, after an hour, "Breakthrough" Alex smirked, "I reach rank 5". Alex leaped out of joy. He reached rank 5 now, He inspects his new prowess. "With this, I think I won''t need too much time to kill rank 5 monsters. Should I go to dungeon again?" He shook his head, "I will finish all these pills first". Alex went back to cultivate. Tomorrow morning Alex meets the duke in his study room. "They are the formal attire I have in my young days. The size should be the as you so pick what you like" There are a few clothes lined up. He looks at them one by one, though there are none that manage to catch Alex''s interest. Alex just wants to choose some random clothing but suddenly someone comes in. "Master, this is your favorite clothes back then" Alex turned to the voice, He saw butler Ji bringing a white-colored attire. "Oh" The duke stood up and take the white-colored clothes, he turned to Alex. "Look, How about these clothes? I think this one suits you the most?" Alex only nodded, he grabbed the clothes and change to it. When Alex out of the room, The white-colored formal attire makes him anew. He looks more gallant and handsome in these clothes. "Hmm, My choice was really the best. You look as handsome as me when I was young" Grand duke said. Alex scratched his cheek. "Haha, Let''s go" Alex nodded and followed him. At the house''s entrance, a carriage was waiting there along with Butler Ji and Madam. "Ara...Alex, you look more handsome than my husband when he was young" The madam was surprised by Alex''s transformation, so she said. She secretly thought a waste that her daughter, Alicia wasn''t here. "Oi! He was ''as handsome as'' me when I was young" Grand duke corrected her Alex can only maintain his silence, and look at butler Ji "Sir Alexander, Please" Butler Ji giggled a little looking at the couple. Then he opened the carriage door and invite Alex in. Alex nodded, "Thank You" The couple looks at Alex who already in the carriage, they lost motivation to quarrel. The madam looks at the duke, she smiled. The duke nodded, "I''m going" "Have a nice day" The duke got into the carriage and butler Ji start to drive it. Alex looks tense in the carriage. "Don''t be nervous, you already met him before" Grand duke said. "No no no" Alex shook his head furiously. This was the first formal meeting he had in his life. The duke only giggled, but suddenly he dropped a bomb "Don''t be misled by some old fox there alright!" Alex froze, he confused "Old Fox?" The duke nodded solemnly, he didn''t say anything about it and just said "Just remember that" Alex still confused about what he said but he nodded. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They have arrived in front of the castle. The guards already knew about this carriage and they let them pass. Since the duke and the king was blood brother and their relationship was still really good, so grand duke often back and forth from the mansion to castle. Alex followed the duke since this is only a private meeting, the duke led him to the back of the throne room. But they stopped when they heard some complain. "What? The wheat flour still not finish being processed yet?" "I''m Afraid, yes sir" Alex and the grand duke turned to the voice. There are three old men and a young man busy discussing something "Because of the war between humans and demon, we need more men to prepare for the war even though we won''t participate in this war but we might get involved in this war. Especially since Zircodina and Holy kingdom have an alliance, this is why the flour still not processed. Since basically there is a shortage of human resources" An old man said. "Haiz, why are Zircodina even start a war" another old man said. "Well, the one that was still unprocessed was the extra yield" Another old man. "Extra yield huh...Yes, today''s event was to meet the young man who proposes that idea right? Haiz, you got this easy Rindo, I really hope I also got some idea to make a better living environment for this kingdom" The old man sigh. "You can go". The old man dismissed the young servant. Grand duke was going to join them. seeing the duke was approaching them, Alex followed him. "Haha... Sir Rindo, Sir Leyfon, and Sir Gilian. How is your health" The three old man look at the man who called them "Oh, Young Raymond. You have come, come here" The old man called Rindo invite him in, then he notices the young man that following him. "Is this..." "This is today star" The duke said. Rindo''s eyes brightened, "Haha, You must be Alexander, I will call you Young Alex. Is that alright?" Alex nodded. "Haha, Young Alex, your idea was brilliant. We got excess for our food. This way, many people won''t die in hunger. Haiz, Every year, over ten thousand people die in hunger. Our population was only around a few million lives, and look! With your idea, we can minimize that" Rindo was excited. "Glad...glad you like it" Alex was embarrassed, he looks at grand duke. "Haha, I will introduced them to you. The old man in front of you was our agriculture minister, you can call him old Rindo or sir Rindo." The duke introduces him, then he continued "The one in my right was our War minister, Sir Leyfon. And he was our Civil Minister, Sir Gilian" "I...I am Alexander Sirius, It was my honor to meet you ministers" Alex politely greeted them. "Haha... We didn''t really bother with that much formalities, You can rest easy around us" Rindo said. "Haiz, Rindo. Even if your yield was better, if they are unprocessed, we can''t feed our hungry citizen" Gilian sighed. "Well, I need many men to prepare for war. Sorry for that. I really hope we won''t get involved" 59 Suspicion Alex looks at them confusedly. Looking at Alex''s confused face, the grand duke whispered something to him. "Fortunately there are no power struggle in our kingdom and my brother picks the minister himself. So, our current minister was the one who strives for a better kingdom and focused on how to make it. But now, the situation between humans and demons was starting to heat up. Especially since Zircodina manages to ally with Holy kingdom. We might get dragged into the war. Though some small scale war already happening in a few places, a big war still hasn''t broken out. Because at first, Zircodina can''t fight alone with the demon and suffered some defeat. That''s why they summoned a hero" Alex pondered something about what he heard. He especially focused on Zircodina and Holy kingdom alliance. He thought about someone, ''Is it Maria?'' But he also a bit relieved there is no power struggle here or he might get dragged into it. Alex suddenly frowned and muttered in low voice "Unprocessed?" Though Alex''s volume wasn''t big, The ministers still heard it. Especially the civil minister. "Yes, The extra yield still unprocessed because the man still needs to prepare for war. Do you have some idea young Alex?" Alex pondered for a moment, he shook his head. All the technologies he had seen on Earth were too far to reach. The civil minister was dejected seeing Alex shook his head. He sighed. The mood becomes depressing "Alright, let''s go to the meeting room" The duke suggested. Alex nodded, but when he was just about to leave, he recalled something. He unconsciously shouted "Water Wheel!" The duke and ministers turned to Alex confusedly. Alex noticed the stare from them, he scratched his head embarrassed. "What is waterwheel?" The duke asked. "Water wheel was literally like its name. The function was to change some energy created by water to another. It can transfer some force from water to some mechanism for flour processing. In my journey, I often see some rivers with good water flow. This can become the foundation" All of them were interested in it. Especially, the civil minister. His eyes glimmering in hope. "How is that work?" "We need to make two round shape wheels, between them we make some wood plates to catch the water flow. So when the water passes the wheel, because of these plates, the wheel will rotate. Then We use this rotation to move the mechanism to grind the flour." Alex explained. All of them were surprised by his idea, especially the civil minister. "This...this might work" Gilian grabbed Alex, "Let''s go to my house, we can discuss this further in my house. Oh right, My daughter was coming back from her vacation, since you two are the same age, I''m sure you two can get along well. She was smart and competent, she..." "Cough!" The duke coughing loudly. He gives a glare at him that shout ''He is my people, how can you do it like that'' But Gilian only gives him some sly glance ''Your people? No one know about it'' A spark fly between two of them. "Alright, We need to go to the meeting first" Rindo tries to stop them. "Hmph" The duke and Gilian snorted and start walking. All of them followed, but suddenly there is a palm grabbing Alex''s shoulder. Alex surprised, when he saw the hand''s owner, he saw the war minister, Leyfon. "Cough cough...Young Alex...Do you have any idea for our military department?" he asked. "Hey, Leyfon stop! You, military was already supplied with a bunch of pills from him, are you unsatisfied!" Rindo stopped him. "I only asked him" He righteously said. Alex makes a weird smile, he pondered for a moment and shake his head. "I''m sorry, I don''t have any" Leyfon sighed. They continued to the meeting room. There are three people in the room. Alex immediately recognized the one in the middle, he was the king. Alex bowed "Your Majesty" "You finally come huh... and with you guys together" The king sighed. "These three people were the one who takes up our time thus making us late" The duke said. "Oi oi, Young Raymond, you can''t blame us for this. Especially since his idea just now was really brilliant" Gilian said. "Oh, another idea?" The king astonished. "Yes, your majesty, after hearing his explanation, the use of it might really give our kingdom a big help" Gilian said. "Hoho..." "Wait!" the old man beside the king suddenly said. All of them looking at him. He glares at Alex. "I got information that you were also the hero''s companion. You are their spy right!" Alex was surprised by this. "Higa, what are you saying!" The king shouted. "I''m sorry your majesty, But I need to do this. He might be a spy from Zircodina kingdom since he was hero''s companion if he got to high ranking in this kingdom. It was the same as we let them pointed their knife in our own throat" "Sir Higa, What are you saying!" The duke was angry. Though Alex was surprised, what more surprising was Alex''s calm face. Alex only smiled, "Yes, I am one of the summoned people" "Alex" The duke looked at him worriedly. He knows about him being a summoned person from Alicia but he didn''t really care about it. He only knows Alicia and him were close so he believed, Alex won''t do something like that. "Sir Higa...right? What do you want to ask about me?" Alex said calmly. Higa was surprised by Alex''s reaction, "What are you doing in our country?" "Me? I was wondering after the king banished me from the castle and somehow meet with Alicia and got here" Alex smiled a little. "Banished?" All the people present were shocked, Higa was also shocked. In his information, there is nothing that leads to Alex''s banishment. "Yes, there are only four people that summoned, and I was the extra. Four of them was a hero, archmage, sage, and archpriest. While myself, was the person who somehow gets dragged to the summoning thing, and I am the worst of them, my status was even weaker than a kid" "And your relationship with them?" Alex hesitated a bit, he didn''t really want to talk about this. "Alex" Grand duke looks at him worriedly. Looking at the duke''s concern, Alex smiled gently. "The hero was my former best friend, the archmage was my ex-lover, the sage was my classmate and also the hero''s admirer. As for the archpriest was the archmage childhood friend" All the present was shocked once again. "Former best friend? Ex-lover?" The duke muttered. He didn''t know about this, he only knows Alex was somehow connected to the hero''s and his companion. "I''m sure you already know about their name. John Penn, the hero was my best friend at school, while Sandra Elexis, the archmage was my lover back then. But someday she has an affair in front of my eyes and the other person was John Penn. The next day, we were summoned to this world. They plotted for me to be banished and here I am." The duke''s heart was a bit in pain, he already considers Alex as his own, but he never knew Alex''s previous story, after he heard this story, he somewhat hurt and angry. "Then If the kingdom wants you to kill them?" Higa asked. "They are now a stranger for me, though I''m sure to get my revenge to them, but for the other two... If they offend me, they will have to pay the price" Alex said with a determined tone. Minister Higa was observing Alex''s expression all the time. Judging by Alex''s expression, he can''t see Alex spout any lies here, He was a Finance minister. He often interrogated someone corrupt and somehow can judge them from their expression. But he didn''t saw any lies in Alex''s word and expression. But he still can''t be so sure about it, especially since Alex was the Hero''s companion. Then he took a bluish gem. "Sir Higa!" The duke was angry. "Hold this gem and swear you didn''t lie" Higa give the gem to Alex. Alex took the bluish gem and said, "I swear what I told just now was the truth" The bluish gem didn''t shine. The duke was relieved, pained, and angry. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But suddenly, the scene they saw was shocking. "Your Majesty, I apologize for this. I''m ready for any punishment" Higa kneeling in front of the king. The king only sighed, "Haiz, I already told you. You should apologize to him first" Higa then turned to Alex, "I''m very sorry for my offense. If you hate me, you can punch me or kick me as you like" Alex was shocked, but he suddenly realized from his conversation with the king just now. He hurriedly helps him up. "Don''t be, Sir Higa. It was normal, I also won''t even let some suspicious person enter my house" "Brother?" The duke look at the king. The king can only sigh. "I''m sorry young Raymond, it was me who want to do all this. If you hate me you can punch or kick me as you like" "Sir Higa" The duke was shocked. ... Before the meeting, "Your Majesty" "Minister Higa, Do you have any business with me?" "Allowed me to accompany you to the meeting, I beg of you" The king was surprised, "Why do you want to follow me?" "From my information this person was Zircodina''s hero companion, he might be a spy" The king didn''t have any change of expression. "Your majesty, you already knew?" "Yes. I already knew about it and I can attest you he was a trustworthy person" Higa shook his head, and look at him with determination. "Your majesty, please let me interrogate him. I will bear any punishment for this if he wasn''t a spy. I will even personally apologize to him" "Sigh...I know you really love this kingdom, you already served this kingdom when my father was in throne" "Yes, The previous king saved my life. This is the only way to repay him" "Oi, don''t say it like he already died. He still lives in that place" ... This all was only a test for Alex. "Alright, let''s go back to the topic for our meeting today" The king said, he then turned to Alex and introduced the person beside him. "He is our Finance Minister Higa Bruhman and the other beside me was our Education Minister, Adrian Miltes. And those three, well you already know them" "Please sit first" Alex and the rest found their own sit. "Today''s meeting was to grant you a title for your achievement in agriculture. Though Raymond already informs me that you didn''t like nobilities, I will still grant you this title. Don''t worry, This title was just in name if you don''t really like this, It won''t impose you any responsibilities. All I ask, was to help this kingdom when this kingdom in peril" "Yes, I promised your majesty" Then the king''s expression becomes solemn, "Alexander Sirius, With your achievement. I grant you Baron Title" "I accept" 60 Back The king nodded, and his expression becomes carefree again, "Well, the purpose was done. Now, I heard that you call Raymond with ''Uncle''. Why you didn''t call me that too?" "..." Alex was speechless. "Un...cle..." "Haha..." The king laughed happily. "Your majesty, you can''t be like this. I just planned to introduce him to my daughter back home" Gilian protested. "Hehe...let put aside that matter for now. What is this new idea you talk about?" Gilian wants to protest again but, the duke cut in. "It was called ''Water Wheel" "Oh...What is that?" The king and the rest were interested in it. "This is a paper" Suddenly the education minister who was in silent all the time, spoke and give Alex a paper. Alex was astonished by this person. He was thoughtful and seem can really support someone really well. Alex then focused on the paper, he tried to draw a water wheel. "This is a water wheel, we connect this two-wheel with plates, so when the water stream flow in. It will rotate the wheel. If we connect the wheel with some mechanism, we can grind the flour automatically, I can''t draw this mechanism now, I can somehow make a rough drawing for that in a week I think" "Yes, you can take your time for that. I see this water wheel was really practical, it can be used in other areas" The king said. Alex nodded, "Yes, but I can only think this one at the moment" "Alexander... How is your view about education?" Suddenly, Adrian, the Education minister asked. "Education..." Alex pondered for a moment, "How about making a school for learning to write and read first for commoners? If the citizen was smarter then many people will start to think and be creative. With that, many inventions can start to appear. Civilization will progress faster" Adrian nodded, he also think about this, seeing Alex was said about this, he secretly happy. The king thought a bit, "Sure, let''s do that. I will leave the detail for you Adrian" "Yes your Majesty, I won''t disappoint you" Then the king turned to Alex solemnly, "Alex" Alex looks at the king''s solemn face. "I heard about the hero that will come in the next few weeks. Remember this, the kingdom will back you up. If they want to start a war, we will let them know why we are the strongest between the three kingdoms" The king said. Alex was moved with this, He smiled and sincerely said "Thank you" "Alright, The meeting for today was over" The king dismissed all of them. All of them left. But Alex was grabbed by Gilian "Young Alex, Let''s visit my home first. We can talk about our cooperation there" "Stop! Sir Gilian, you can''t snatch people like this. Are you going to kidnap him?" The duke intervened. "Tch" Gilian then smiled "What do you mean about that? Kidnap him? Have your ears already become like that, you are still young, Raymond. I am inviting him" "Then I turned you down on behalf of him" "Can you really represent him?" "Sir...Sir Gilian, I will visit your house next time. I still need to train myself" Alex rejected him Gilian now dejected. Seeing Alex reject him, he then went home dejectedly. While the duke smiling smugly. Alex and the duke went back. After saying goodbye, Alex goes back to his room and laid on his bed. "I somehow manage to master the power throwing. But I can only use this technique on some spare spear, When I throw my spear, it means I am abandoning my spear. It will be dangerous if I abandon my weapon in the battle. I also need a melee combat spear technique, and maybe some movement techniques." Alex sighed, "I can''t be too greedy. One step at a time" "I will start training my spin throwing tomorrow. And also need to spare some time to design the waterwheel. Well since there still time before night come, I should try to design the waterwheel" He gets up to his desk and takes out some papers, in a few hours he manages to make two waterwheel''s concepts. The two were the stream and undershot water wheel. The stream water wheel was used in a river with a strong flow. As for the undershot water wheel was good in a river''s slope, utilizing the difference of height to make the river''s water to flow. Alex wants to make a water wheel that utilizes the waterfall but he never saw any waterfall so he will design it later. But the problem was the mechanism to utilize the energy from water wheel. He contemplated, he tried to connect some gears but he still can''t make the design worked. Alex scratched his head, he looks at outside and just noticed the time, it was almost midnight. He decided to stop and cultivate again. He does this process for a week, in the morning he woke up and practice his spin throwing until evening then went back to his room to come up with some ideas for the mechanism. "Alex" "Uncle, what happened?" Alex asked. he noticed that the duke seems to be in a hurry. "I got a report that the hero will reach this city in a week." "I see" Alex only nodded. "And also, Alicia and the rest already on their way, they will arrive tomorrow night." Alex''s eyes brightened. "I will inform you when they have arrived" "Thank you" Alex then went back to his training. ... The next day, Alex practice until evening and didn''t make some designs anymore. He waits patiently for Alicia. In the evening, Alex, Duke, and Madam wait for them in the house''s entrance. Soon there was a carriage that coming to them, the carriage stopped in front of them. the door was opened and Alicia, as well as Mia, get down from the carriage. "Father-Mother" Alicia cheerfully hugged them. Mia also hugged them. "Alex" Alicia grinned and make a ''V'' sign with her hand. "I Reach rank 3" "Haha, good! This trip was really bountiful for you I guess" The duke happy that his daughters finally come home. Different from the duke, Alex noticed that Alicia seems a bit maturer so he comes closer to her and gently smiled, "You have worked hard... and Welcome back" Alicia surprised, but soon a big smile appeared on her face, "I''m Home" "How is your progress, Mia?" The duke asked "I almost reach rank 4" Mia nodded and said in low voice. "Good, It seems you will follow your sister, Lea, to graduate as a rank 5. There are still more than one year to reach rank 5, keep working hard" Mia nodded. "Let''s talk about it later, come in first and take a bath then we can talk after dinner" Madam said. All of them then went in. After dinner, "You girls have really worked hard this one and a half months." The duke said. "Hehe..." Alicia embarrassed, while Mia only nodding her head. "That''s right, there are two news about the hero. First, he will reach this city in a week and the second is he will join our academy as a special student" "That lecher?" Alicia shocked, she recalled when she meets the hero a year ago, he didn''t bother to conceal his lust in his eyes, so she was displeased with the hero. But she soon looks at Alex. Alex still calms so Alicia relieved. After chatting a bit, they went back to their own room. When Alex come back to his room, he sits on his desk and continued his designing. His mind seems refreshed after seeing Alicia but he didn''t know why. And soon, he completed his design. "Completed" Alex stretched his hands. This week hard work now bears the fruit. ''Knock knock'' Alex frowned, who will come to his room this late. He reaches the door and opened them. He surprised seeing Alicia. "Alicia" "Can I come in?" Alicia asked. "Sure" Alex smiled. He let her in. She sat on the sofa. "What happened? Is something bothering you?" Alex asked "No, I just want to check you" Alicia shook her head "Me? Why do you want to check on me?" Alex was perplexed. "I mean, the hero and his companion will come here, right? So I was worried about you, since you..." Alex only smiled at her, "Don''t worry about it. It was the past, I''m not saying that I don''t want to revenge, I''m sure I will do it. Actually, in the past, I really want to kill them." "Then..." Before Alicia said another word, Alex stops her. "I will kill them, but it will be bad if I kill them here. This kingdom will get dragged into it. But I will make them not having a nice stay in the academy" Alex said calmly. Alicia observed his expression, Alex seems so calm so she was relieved. Alicia then looks at his table, there seems some paper. Even in the dormitory, Alex never uses the table. So she stood up and went to his table. "Alicia?" Alex was confused about why she suddenly stood up and get closer to his desk. "What are you drawing here?" Alicia was confused with the drawing on Alex''s desk. "Oh, this?" Alicia went back to the sofa and place the paper on the table. She looking at Alex curiously. "This is waterwheel" "Water wheel?" "Yes, when we traveled back then, I noticed that in this territory have some rivers with strong flow. So this one will work I thought. The principle was to use the water current to rotate this wheel and this rod will transfer the rotation to this equipment. Then this equipments will move automatically. I only design this for flour''s processing though, since the minister has this problem." "Hmm..." Alicia makes a thoughtful look. Then suddenly, "I don''t really understand this device but I am sure there are many benefits for this even though I can''t point that out" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex shook his head, He smiled. "Alicia" "mmm...?" Alicia looks at him with a confused face. Alex hesitated "... Nevermind" "What is it? Alex, what is it?" Alicia looks at him with a curious face "How about you tell me your experiences in the dungeon" he wants to change the topic "Oh, you want to hear it? Alright, I will tell you. First...." Alicia told the whole story from the first day they got inside the dungeon. After she finished her story, Alex looks at her gently, "You have worked hard" Alicia look at him, surprised. Soon a big smile appeared on her face, "Then I want my reward." "Reward?" Alex was surprised by this, he also didn''t prepare anything for her. But suddenly she laid down on the sofa, placing her head on top of Alex''s lap. "Firia said, She always happy when she does this with her mother. Her mother will always stroke her head and she always likes the feeling" Alex sweatdropped, He screamed inwardly "She did it with her mom! And I am a man" Alicia looks at Alex with an expectant look. Alex soon resigned and start stroking her head gently. Feeling Alex''s hand, Alicia was happy. "She doesn''t lie about this feeling." She muttered in low voice. She continued savoring this feeling, and after a few minutes, she slowly falls asleep. "Huu..." Alex looks at her, from her story. Alicia seems to experience a lot and become maturer. He slowly lifts her up and carried her to his bed. He covered her with a quilt. Looking at her sleeping face, he can''t resist to bend down and kiss her forehead. Alex was a bit surprised with his boldness but soon he shook his head, "Goodnight, my princess" 61 History Alicia wakes up in the early morning. She slowly opened her eyes looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. She starts to remember what happened yesterday. Yesterday, She went to Alex''s room and somehow sleep on his lap. She suddenly stood up, she scanned the room but didn''t see Alex. Leaving the bed with her pajama, she opened the door and want to go back to her own room. But soon after she opened the door, she froze. "Alicia?" There was someone who passes by. "Mo...mother" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. That''s right, the one who passed by was her mother. "Why are you here?" The madam asked. "Mother, Where is Alex?" Alicia ignored her words and asked. "Alex...He was already gone to the training room. The one in our basement" The madam said. "I see" "Back to the topic, why are you coming out from Alex''s room?" Alicia''s face becomes dead red. "I...I..., Mother you bully me" She ran away. The madam looks at her running with a bit astonished face. She secretly thought, leaving them in the same room in the academy seems didn''t go in vain. She shook her head helplessly and continue to walk. Meanwhile, Alex in the training room practicing his spin throwing. He holds the spear according to scroll way, but as soon as he throws the spear. The spear flies at high speed toward the wall and broke again. Suddenly, "Argh...!" Alex grabbed his right hand. The pain comes suddenly to his hand. He speculates the pain came from the throwing. "I think I need to master this technique first, if not I might get hurt like this again. The pain was coming from my muscle, luckily I already refine my muscle with muscle refining pill. Alex now pondering what he will do now. With this hand, he can''t practice the throwing techniques. He wondering if he should endure the pain or stop his training. He decided to endure the pain, though he won''t practice his throwing with a spear. But mimicking the movement should do the training for now. It will increase his understanding of this throwing technique. Just as he wants to continue, there are footsteps heard from the stairs. He looks at the door Since the duke often comes here to chat with him, so he thought the duke will come again today. But he soon surprised, because it wasn''t the duke that coming, rather it was Alicia who coming down here. "Alex "Alicia, why are you coming here?" "I...I''m just checking you. Because you always train and train and train more." She complained, but suddenly she noticed the injury in Alex''s hand. "Look! This is what I mean. Look at your arm injured like this." She looks at Alex''s right hand worriedly, Alex can only smile bitterly. "Don''t worry, it only a small injury" "You..." Looking at her angry face, he smiled. "Alicia" "mmm?" "No, nevermind" "This again. You..." Alex only shrugged his shoulder and laugh. But in his heart, he swears to protect her. But this war worrying him. "Alex. Actually, I want to ask you this. What are you planning to do with the hero? Are you going to kill him?" "Hmm, I want to kill him. But I won''t kill him when he was in our kingdom. If I did that, The kingdom will take a brunt for its reputation. Other kingdoms, especially Holy kingdom will think our kingdom too overbearing and might start a war again us together with Zircodina. Actually, how is the relationship of our kingdom with other races?" "Other races?" Alicia was shocked with Alex''s question, she pondered a bit and said, "Two years ago, even though we from Acacia kingdom, didn''t have any good relationship with demon race. You can say that we are neutral with them. neither enemy nor ally. As for the demi-human... Uncle Marco has a somewhat good relationship with the dwarf and elf. He was saved by a dwarf and before he comes back to this kingdom, he saves an elf that has some high rank. Though there are still some factions in demi-human that still hate us. It was all the fault of the slave trader" "Slave trader? I never saw any slaves in this kingdom" Alex confused. He never saw any slaves in this kingdom. From the start after entering Acacia kingdom territory until he reached here. "It was absolutely from Zircodina. Even the Holy kingdom has a few slave traders there. We abolished the slavery system three hundred years ago. Other kingdoms weren''t" Alex was shocked, "Then that time, the kingdoms must meet many oppositions" "Of course" Alicia becomes a bit down. "According to our history, at that time, our kingdom was very strong. We can suppress three other kingdoms" "Three? Aren''t there only two other kingdoms? Zircodina and Holy Kingdom?" "The third was Mizalia Kingdom. That kingdom was destroyed when they want to imitate us for abolishing the slavery system." Alex frowned, this event must make some big impact to this kingdom. "At that time, we have around 50 rank 8 in this kingdom. Twenty more than the sum of rank 8 in other kingdoms. That time, if I''m not wrong Zircodina has 11, Holy kingdom has 13, and Mizalia has 8 since they are only a small kingdom Because our kingdom abolished slavery. Many slave traders turn to us, even backed by other kingdoms. They use many schemes to kill many of our rank 8 fighters. Fortunately, Mizalia kingdom didn''t join to attack us. At that time we make war with Zircodina, Holy Kingdom, and Slave Traders. We are too late knowing the alliance between those three, if not we can suppress them easily Even we win in that war, we lose most of our rank 8 fighters. Look at us now, We only have 10 rank 8 fighters in our kingdom." Alicia explained, in the last part, Alex noticed a bit of hatred in Alicia''s voice. "Then how about Zircodina and Holy kingdom?" "Now, Zircodina has three and Holy kingdom has five. They weren''t in the better state since that fight. But, even though we have more than them now. We still can''t suppress them. Even If we manage to win, we won''t win unscathed." Alicia sighed. "How about Mizalia Kingdom?" Alex asked. "They? After that war, all the parties participated in it leave a deep scar on them. Mizalia Kingdom thinks this was the opportunity to get rid of the slave traders. Even though Zircodina, Acacia, and Holy kingdom didn''t join in this event. That time one of the slave traders sacrifice themselves. They kidnap the elven princess and the demon prince and bought them to Mizalia Kingdom. The kingdom was razed to the ground with the two races alliance." "Fortunately, they didn''t do that tactic to this kingdom" Alex said. "It''s not they didn''t do it. They dared to do it, but our fighter manages to make them failed all the time. Sometimes it was a trap, and make our rank 8 fall" she said hatefully Alex looks at her solemnly. Alicia really loves this kingdom. Noticing Alex''s gaze, she turned to him. "What is it?" Alex shook his head, "No, I just realize, you seem very knowledgable in history" "Only this kingdom" She pouted, then she puffed her chest proudly "I love this kingdom and its subjects. I will destroy anyone that wants to destroy my kingdom" Alex smiled and teased her a bit "And what if I am the one who destroys it?" Though he said this jokingly. In his heart, he was serious about it. "What! Don''t Joke about this" Alicia pouted. Alex only laughed and stood up. He makes it a bit mysterious "Let''s go back for lunch" "Sure" Alicia stood up and followed him. But her mind keeps pondering Alex''s words just now and she seems to realize something. "Alex" She called him. Alex turned back, looking at her. "Whatever you do I will support you. Even the whole world becomes your enemy I will stand beside you. Trust me, I won''t ever leave you." She said to him, looking at his face seriously. She realized what Alex worried about. If Alex hurt the hero or kill him. Zircodina and Holy Kingdom might target him. Even though Acacia was strong, it won''t leave unscathed, Alex might be afraid, if his action will make Acacia kingdom in peril and might be destroyed. If Alex leaves this kingdom or this kingdom abandon him. Then... Upon thinking about this Alicia come to a new resolution. Alex was shocked by her statement just now. He didn''t see any lies, or rather, all her words were filled with determination and sincerity. Alex was moved about this, he thought it was really nice to be loved. Unconsciously, he let a tear formed on the corner of his eyes. Alex smiled at her. Alicia was shocked if she didn''t see it wrong. There seems a tear formed on the corner of his eyes. Alicia turned to a playful mood, she wants to lessen the mood so she teased him "Alex, are you crying?" "No" Alex was embarrassed because he unconsciously did that "You must saw it wrong" "I saw it just now" "It must be a sweat" "But I didn''t see you sweating this whole time" "That was..." Alicia continued to tease him until they reach the dining room. ... In the dining room, everybody shocked by Alex''s injured hand. Though it was only bruised on the surface. Alex reassured them, he said it will be better soon. The following weeks he continued to train his spin throwing and somehow manage to master it before the holiday is over. The day before the class start, Alicia and Alex already arrived in their room. Alex immediately goes to his teacher. He searched, the dean is not in his office, so he goes to his courtyard. "Teacher" "Oh Alex, you finally remember me" "I always think about you, teacher. How are you, teacher?" "I''m good. Teacher just lazying around here. That''s right how about you? Do you want to make pills or forging again?" Alex pondered for a moment, "I want to make rank 3 pills". Then he took out a paper and write the ingredients. After he finished, he gives the paper to the dean. When the dean looks at the ingredients, he was shocked. He even dropped the paper. 62 Shocking When the dean looks at the ingredients, he was shocked. He even dropped the paper. "Teacher?" Alex looks at him confusedly. "Ah", The dean snapped and pick the paper. "You sure this is a rank 3 pill ingredients?" "Yes I''m sure" He looks at his teacher, confused. "Hai..." the dean sighed. "Why teacher? Is there something wrong?" Alex asked "Well... How do I put this...The ingredients that you write just now, they were classified as high-rank materials, I mean rank 7 or above materials. Look at this ingredient, this ''Mecalia Herb'' is the lowest rank material and it is still classified as a rank 6 material." "Eh? How can that be?" "Now, it seems my hypothesis was correct. Each rank of your pill was too different. Your rank 1 pills, all of them have ingredients between rank 3 or below. As for your rank 2 pills, most of their ingredients rank are between rank 4 to rank 6. And now you give me this rank 3 pill recipe, all of the ingredients was rank 7 or above except this Mecalia herb. But this herb was also close to rank 7" Alex was shocked by the dean revelation. He never thought his pills ingredients were that rare. He never knew about this since all the ingredients were purchased from his teacher. "I...I...never know about this" Alex said, a bit down. "Let me check the ingredients list first, maybe I can get it through my friend" The dean then left, leaving Alex stupified. "System, why are the pills from that manual like this?" He asked his system in his mind. [Host, have you found it familiar, each rank of your pill are the same as your cultivation stage?] "My cultivation stage?" Now the system has mentioned it, he realizes. Its seems his stage, like body tempering stage, was equal to rank 1 to rank 3 (Low, Middle, Peak Phase), Qi gathering stage was equal to rank 4 to rank 6. If he put it according to the trend, that means, Qi Manipulation stage was equal to rank 7 and above. It seems his cultivation holds some secret behind it, there might be a stage above Qi manipulation, which means rank 10 or above. "System, what is the truth about this cultivation?" [Host need to find the answer yourself] "Oi...Can''t you give me the answer, don''t keep me like this" [Host need to find the answer yourself] "..." He was speechless, "System, who are you exactly. The way you talk wasn''t like an A.I. Like those back in Earth" [Host will know all of it when the time has arrived] "..." "Then, do you know the answer to my cultivation?" [Yes] "..." The system knows the answer, he pondered for a moment "A bit clue?" [Host, have experience making a rank 3 pill back in the dungeon. If not host pure fire element, host will 100% failed to make that pill. Because of your pure fire element, the heat come from it was greater than those of a normal one. Didn''t host notice that the higher the pill rank the higher the temperature needed to make them?] Alex now noticed that, when he makes rank 1 pills, the temperature of the flame he uses wasn''t that high and when he makes rank 2 pills, the temperature was indeed higher. "..." Alex pondered, it seems his system was held many secrets behind it. [Yes Host. But Host need to slowly unravel them] "..." He also forgets that the system can know what his thought. "System, Privacy Please" [Impossible Host] He sighed, "You are so mysterious system. If you have a tangible body I might want to dissect you" [Host, According to your memory, there was a phrase ''The man was more charming when he was mysterious] "No no no, there are none. It''s just a proverb. It wasn''t real, the more mysterious he is, the more people around him thought him as a terrorist. And also are you a man? You seem don''t have any gender right?" [I''m woman Host] "..." Alex was speechless, the system has a gender when it doesn''t have a tangible body? [I have a body Host] "Then show it to me" [When the time is right Host] "Hoax, you don''t have any proof for that, so it wasn''t real" [...] "Now you ignoring me" Alex sighed, "I will surely unravel all your secret" [I am looking forward to it Host] "Sighed" His teacher comes back. "Why are you sighing?" "No...There is nothing. I''m just thinking, it was hard to gather rank 3 pills, and even I get the ingredients, I might not succeed in making them" "have you try to make a rank 3 pill?" "Yes, one time. It was pure luck that I manage to succeed. Even then, I get some internal injuries and my mana reserves were empty." "..." The dean pondered a bit, "Well, let''s wait for you to rank up first" "Yes" "Then, what do you want to do next" Alex thought for a while, but he can''t come up with something. But something comes to his mind, "Teacher, Tomorrow, the he..." He hesitated. "He..?" Seeing Alex hesitated, he pondered with ''The he...". suddenly his eyes brightened. He smiled to Alex gently "Don''t worry Alex, Whatever you do I will always support you" Alex was surprised, "Thank you teacher" "Go back first" "Yes" Alex left. The Dean frowned, he also know the concerning matter between Alex and The hero. His heart was pained when he heard of this from the king. Alex was a quiet person, but behind his silence, There is an inferiority complex. He didn''t know what happened in Alex''s past, but he sure, there is some connection of it with the hero. He wants to make him become more confient, but Alex can only do this alone, if not he will become more reliant and reliant. So the only thing he can do was to silently support him. ... When Alex comes back to his room, he saw Firia chatting with Alicia in the room. Her relationship with Alicia seems better. "Firia?" Alex was surprised seeing her in his room. "Alex" She stood up and greet him. Alex smiled at her. "You have worked hard in the dungeon" "Hehe" Firia was happy as well as embarrassed. Alicia pouted. "I''m just want to greet you. Now, I''m done. I will go back, See you soon" Firia said. "I will see you off" Alex said. "It''s alright" But Firia shrugged, She looks at Alicia. "I will see you off then" Alicia smiled, then she went with Firia. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Actually, Firia seems concerned with Alex because of the hero. But after, hearing the story from Alicia. She decided to keep it herself. Alex can only stand there stupified, then he shook his head and sat on his beloved sofa and cultivate again. ... In the morning, Alex, as usual, woke Alicia up and meet up with Firia, then go to class. But because Alex felt something wrong, he brings his sword and Alicia bring her staff. But somehow, the class was empty. The three of them were surprised. But suddenly, Viola comes to them from outside the class. "Ah" The three of them look at the voice. They saw Viola. "Miss Viola, why is the class empty?" "Just now, The hero and his companion place in our class. But then from the start, he starts provoked everyone in the class, Joshua can''t stand it and challenge him. Now all the people here went to the arena. And also the dean wants you to meet him." Viola said to Alex. Alex pondered a bit, he nodded. "I will meet him now" "Alex" Alex looks at Alicia who called him. "We will go to the arena. We can''t let them do things like this" Alex was surprised. He sighed, "Alright" Then Alicia and Firia along with Viola went to the arena, while Alex goes to his teacher. "Teacher" "Haiz, Alex. What are those things from Zircodina doing. Just the first day and in the morning as well, they already pick on our academy" The dean was so angry, they don''t consider those troublesome hero and his companion as a human. "Teacher" Alex was surprised by his reaction "Are there no teachers who stop them?" "Even the teacher comes, they will be stopped by the hero guardian." He sighed, "To think they even send a rank 8 fighter as a guardian" "Then teacher going to stop them?" "No" Alex was shocked, considering his earlier reaction, Alex thought he will stop them, but he knows very soon the dean spoke his next words. "I won''t be the one who stopped them. I will only stop their guardian. You are the one who will stop them, of course, you are free to humiliate them. Well, it will be a bit bad if you kill them here. They will join up forces with the Holy kingdom and attack us. Even though We can win them, we won''t escape unscathed If that time the demon start launch attack on us. We humans will be wiped out. Well if you really want to kill them, that''s also fine with me. Whatever your choice, your teacher will support you" "Don''t worry teacher, I won''t be that impatient. Even if I killed them, if that resulting in our human race in peril then I don''t want that. We also didn''t have any hatred that runs through generations. So waiting a bit is also fine." The dean nodded, "But make sure they were humiliated this time. If they humiliated, they will come back to their home sooner, and it will be better since I don''t need to deal with them anymore here" Alex nodded, "Teacher, is there any other rank 8 beside you in our academy?" "There is, he is our principal. But he went to the demi-human territory, this is his second year. He said he will be back after he finished his third year there" "Actually, where are all of our rank 8 fighter teacher?" Alex was curious about this. "Rank 8? I and principal here in the academy. Yours soon to be grandfather-in-law was also a rank 8 too, but he lives in seclusion and only went out if the kingdom in peril or some important situation. We also have four dukes. West, east, north, and south dukes, each of them was rank 8 fighters. The other is our Mashall and his vice general. And the last is the captain of the royal guard" Alex nodded, "Then..." But before he finished his sentence, the door was opened. "Bam!" "It''s terrible, Alicia was fighting the archmage, the sage, and Zircodina Princess on the arena" 63 Fight! "Bam!" "It''s terrible, Alicia was fighting the archmage, the sage, and Zircodina Princess on the arena" Alex and the dean turned to the person who opened the door. They saw Firia full of sweat, she seems to rush at her full speed to here. "What happened?" "That...that bastard coveting Alicia''s beauty. Alicia was disgusted by him and kick him. Then the hero companion challenges her in the arena. Now she was fighting three of them. Alex... Alicia... was..." Before Firia finished, Alex looks at his teacher hurriedly. "Teacher" The dean nodded, "I will stop their rank 8, you can do your own job" The dean and Alex were rushed to the arena. ... Some time ago, Alicia, Firia, and Viola were coming to the arena. On the arena, they saw Joshua fighting unknown man. Alicia recognized him, he was the hero he meets a year ago in Zircodina. Joshua bleeding all over, he looks he will collapse at the moment. They anxiously searching for his teacher. But they spotted that his teacher was stopped by an unknown old man and seems can''t move. Alicia can''t stand this, even if Joshua fought with Alex, he still her classmate and also a person of Acacia. She rushed to the arena. "Stop!" The hero looks at the source of the voice and he was captivated. The one who stopped him was a woman. And her beauty was easily surpassed by Sandra and Ayaka. Even Zircodina Princess, Rieze de Andalla Zircodina. His lust takes over him. "Hooo... Lady, I like you. Come with me as we conquer the demon, you will become me, the hero, wives." Alicia looks at him with disgusted. "It seems even after a year, your disgusting personalities still there, o hero" "One year ago?" He seems recalled, "You...aren''t you the one who visits the castle as an ambassador from this kingdom? I see, it seems I miss a beauty like you that day. Now I will invite you officially, and you will become my wives" "You? You are not qualified, I already have my man and he was better in every aspect than you" Alicia spat on him. Her relationship with Alex was known by everyone, even though there is still no official announcement, they already treat them as one. But now Alicia confirmed her relationship with Alex in front of many people. "He? Who is it dares to go against me the hero? I will meet him right now, He will surely give you to me" "Are you even a hero? All can I see you are only a disgusting person" Alicia said. This time, his companion, Sandra, Ayaka, and Rieze were angry. But even Alicia was shocked, how can they like this to some garbage. "You whore, don''t think just because you are a princess, we are afraid of you" This time Zircodina''s princess, Rieze was the one who spoke. "That''s right" Sandra and Ayaka nodded. "I will challenge you to duel" The proud princess of Zircodina challenge Alicia into the duel. According to the information, this princess was older than her by three years, she was at the same age as her eldest sister, Lea. But her power will always be overshadowed by Her sister, Lea. This is also one of the reasons she was so flared up. She now almost reached rank 4 while Lea already a rank 6 because of Alex''s pill. "You? The one who can''t even win my eldest sister? You are not qualified to fight me alone. You should ask your companion to join" While Alicia saying that, she looked down upon the other two girls, Sandra and Ayaka. "You" Sandra and Ayaka were provoked, they went to the stage as well. "Since you want to be ruined then so be it. Even we only rank 2, we can fight a rank 3 respectively. You will regret your own choice today" "Sluts" Alicia look at them angrily, but then she turned to the hero, John "I''m wondering, what is the purpose of Zircodina''s hero to come to our academy?" "Haha" John laughed, He arrogantly said "We got information that you have a legendary job, what is the name...right, it was alchemist if I''m not wrong. I was going to reluctantly invite him since he was a man. But meeting you here, I want you to have you as my wives. I don''t need that kind of trash, well maybe I can have him as my slave to make me some pill" "You bastard" Alicia was really angry this time because the alchemist in his mouth was her lover, Alex. "Stop. Do you think we are not here?" Rieze stops her. "Oh, judging with your reaction, your relationship with him seems close. Then I don''t need him, I will kill him and make you one of my wives" "You!" Alicia was really angry this time, she wants to kill this garbage. "Fine, I will beat all of you first" Firia, after seeing this kind of situation. If before, she will flare up and join Alicia to fight them. but after experiencing more than one month inside the dungeon, she starts mature up. She cooled down, even Joshua''s teacher can''t stop them. that means the unknown old man was stronger than him even possible that the old man was a rank 8. The one who can stop him was her idol, the academy''s dean, Alex''s teacher. So she silently and rushing toward the dean office, she also didn''t bring her staff like Alicia, so even she joined she might become a burden. She rushed off toward the dean at her full speed. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ... Alicia looks at the trio. The strongest was Zircodina Princess, Rieze. She almost reached rank 4, her battle efficiency might on par those in rank 4. The other two said they can battle rank 3 like her. "Fireball!" "Wind Slash" "Sword Strike" Alicia looks at the three incoming strikes, she wasn''t that surprised seeing them can unleash chantless magic since they are an archmage and a sage respectively. While Zircodina Princess seems can only use her sword. Shee looks at the fireball and the wind strike. "Ice Spear" Two spear appear above her head and immediately flies toward that two magic, while she parried the sword strike from Zircodina princess with her staff. Since her staff was a rank 5 staff that Alex made. This staff can easily repel Rieze''s strike. "I''m not done yet" "Fire Net!" Sandra cast her magic. Net-Like magic formed by fire appears in the middle of the stage. "I will assist you, Rieze!" Ayaka called Rieze. After hearing her, Rieze immediately pulls back. Then Ayaka cast her magic "Wind Storm" A tornado made by the wind started formed in the center of the stage, the wind gradually become bigger and bigger. After the wind touches Sandra''s Fire net. The net seems to start warped the wind and assimilate with it. The Wind tornado becomes a fire tornado. Alicia looks at this, a bit surprised. If it was two months ago, she might panic looking at this attack, after this two months experience, she can easily calm down. She cast her magic. "Ice Field" This is the intermediate magic that she learned in the dungeon. After reaching rank 3, with two spiritual liquids and Alex''s pill, she can easily use intermediate magic. After she uses this magic, the temperature around the arena dropped. The people in the arena feel the coldness, There some a thumb size ice crystal appears on the stage. Alicia''s Ice Field seems to want to freeze the fire tornado. The fire in that tornado seems to get smaller and smaller and somehow it froze and broke. The huge frozen tornado shattered, leaving much small ice crystal to fall down like a droplet. Alicia''s appearance becomes aloof in that ice field, after the small ice fragment to fall down like a droplet, she look like a snow fairy wandering in the snowy land. Many people were mesmerized by this display. The hero looking at Alicia was captivated. He will surely has her as one of his wives. "Hmph" Alicia snorted. "Don''t be complacent!" Rieze immediately jumps off to get closer to Alicia. She seems to want to defeat her by close combat since she was a mage. She swings her sword toward Alicia. Alicia looking at this, she smiled. She parried it with her staff, she can handle a rank 3 melee combat. Even though she specializes in magic, she also polishing her melee combat. When her sword blocked, Rieze was surprised. She looks at Alicia who suddenly raises her staff, wanting to hit her. She also raise her sword wanting to block it but suddenly she was tripped by Alicia''s leg. "Ah" Rieze fell down. "Hehe, even your opponent raise their weapon, they might not attack you with their weapon. Alex was really tricky" Alicia giggled. If Alex heard about this, he immediately corrected her. He might also said, "it is not a trick. It also the basic of the basic in melee combat" Rieze glared at Alicia "Fight me square and fair" "Fight you square and fair? There are no enemies that will move like what you want, they would only care for winning. What uses square and fair if you lose your life because of it. I also already give you a handicap by fighting all three of you" Alicia snorted. "You" Rieze was angry. "Fire spear" "Wind Spear" There are three spears in each element. "Ice wall" A Big Ice wall appeared from the ground, blocking the magic spear''s charge. But, Alicia miscalculated, because one of the spears manage to pierce her ice wall. She surprised but she still manages to dodge. "Boom!" Alicia manages to dodge it even though barely, she was blown away because of the shockwave made by the explosion, even though she didn''t get any injuries, she still can''t get her balance back in the air because she was blown away. Meanwhile, Rieze already got back on her feet after that cover by Sandra and Ayaka. Rieze looks at them, She nodded. Noticing her intention in her gaze, Ayaka and Sandra also nodded. "Wind Spear" "Flame Spear" "Sword Wave" The trio attack Alicia who was in the air together once again. Alicia looking at this, she become a bit panic, When she reach the stage''s floor, she rolled down. She get up hurriedly. "Ice..." She looks at the attack that almost reaches her. She thought "I won''t make it" "Boom!" 64 Alexs Fight 1 "I won''t make it" Alicia thought. "NOOO!" John shouted "Boom!" A big fog covered the explosion. Everyone in the arena thought that Acacia kingdom Princess was done for. After a moment, the fog start cleared away. They look a shadow standing inside the fog. If they focus on it, they will notice there is not one shadow, but two shadows in the fog. After the fog cleared, there was a man covered in fire standing in front of Alicia. "Alex!" Alicia called him. Yes, That man is Alex using his flame armor protecting her. Alex turned his back, looking at her. He smiled gently, "I''m sorry I was late Alicia" Alicia stood up and hugged Alex, she didn''t care about people in this arena. Alex only stood silently, he wants to hug back, but he needs to stay vigilant. He only patted her back a few times and separate with her, He looks at her face "Let me finish this" "Ummm" A big smile appeared on her face, captivating all people. Before, she was like a snow fairy Aloof and looking down on the world. But now, she seems like a sunflower brightening the world. The three girls were shocked to see there is a man that was more handsome than John come protecting her. While John also shocks when he saw this man protecting Alicia but soon his face full of hatred. John jumped in the arena. He sneered "So you are her man, You can kill yourself. I decided to take her as one of my wives" Alex ignored him, he searches for his teacher in the arena. He found his teacher already arrived in front of the rank 8 fighter from Zircodina Kingdom. "It has been a while...no, it has been a year... right, John, Sandra? As well as Ayaka" Alex was surprising everyone with his speech. He seems to know those three, but if anyone noticed, he calls Ayaka like she was a side-kick. "A year? Who are you? I don''t know you" John said hatefully. He hates Alex who has a more handsome face than him as well as he was Alicia woman. "Haha..." Alex giggled, Alex small laughed seems to mock John. "You..." He glared at Alex with full of hate. But other than John, The three girls behind him were mesmerized with Alex''s smile. "Who...Who are you?" Sandra asked, her face was red. "It was only one year ago when you make Zircodina''s King banish me from the castle and you already forgot about me, my Ex-? No, you weren''t my ex-lover since you, yourself never thought of me as your lover, right Sandra?" Alex smiled mockingly. "You...you... No, it was impossible. That time you go to Alisia Forest, that person was so weak so he will die there. No, it was impossible you are..." Sandra desperately denied it. Noticing his conversation with Sandra, Rieze immediately picks something. "You...you are the fifth" "Oh, you know me? I thought we never met before?" Alex turned to Rieze. "No, you don''t know me. I wasn''t present back then. I am Zircodina''s First Princess Rieze de Andalla Zircodina. So you are Alexander, you are the student of this academy''s dean. We already informed this academy''s dean found a successor with the name of Alexander. We thought it was similar since the report about you, conclude that you are trash" Rieze shocked with Alex''s identity. "Hehe..." Alex giggled, "I was thankful, you all didn''t finish me off after banishing from the castle, no... you see me like an ant that can be crushed whenever you want to. But you never knew that the ant become like this" "It seems we are wrong at you back then. How about you coming back to us?" Rieze invited him back. Alex was this academy dean student, that means he was valued greatly, to boost it he was an alchemist like his teacher. So roping him back will get Zircodina to support them fighting the demon too. "Alex" Alicia muttered in low voice worriedly, but Alex still hears her voice. Alex smirked a little "Hehe... If I come back with you after you banishing me, where can I put my face after this? Also, I already have a new home here, and somehow become a baron" "Baron?" She thought this move making Alex a baron was a good move to rope him in, but she never thought, this kingdom was never made that move to rope him in, instead they make him engaged with Alicia since that move was more effective. "If you come back, We can grant you more than a baron, we can grant you an earl title or even more" If other nobles in Zircodina hear her words, they will protest again her, granting an unknown young man an earl title. This was a big problem. But on another hand, she thought it will be a beneficial move after all Alex was an alchemist, The dean''s Student, and Alicia''s man. This alone makes him one of the young pillars in this kingdom. "Earl? You thought highly of me" "Yes, your value was this much. I can fight for you, maybe we can grant you a marquis title. This is our sincerity" "Hoo...Your offer was interesting" Alex said. He seems to be convinced if others looking at him, but he himself only acting this whole time "Alex!" Alicia shouted his name behind his back. Alex was smirked, he turned to Alicia "Let me finish first Alicia. They already make a big offer this time, If I don''t at least act a bit interested in it, it will be rude to them right?" Alicia was surprised by hearing Alex''s response. She soon giggled. Alex turned back to Rieze "If it was the naive me from a year ago, I might accept your offer princess. But Now... I can''t even see any seriousness in your promise. You might banish me again after using me" "No...There''s no way..." Rieze wants to deny all his words. But before she can, John Cut in. "You all, Ignoring me all the time" John stepped in, His face full of hatred, he glared at Rieze "Why are you even invite that trash back. As long as there is me, everything will be solved!. Attack him!" Rieze looks at John sadly. Even though she was one of John''s woman, she never touched by him because her father still protects her. She looks at John''s behavior, she was wondering if he was a hero, because she never saw any hero behaviors from him except his status and job. She also never know why his father starts a war with the demon and summoned a hero. She only knew that she suddenly called back and forced to become one of the hero women. She looked at Alex who determined to reject her she sighed, she raised her sword. "Sword Strike" Ayaka and Sandra also followed the suit. "Fire Spear" "Wind Spear" Alex looking at this attack, shook his head. "You can''t hurt me with this attack" Alex then raises his hand and makes a grabbing motion. Soon a big claw made of fire emerged. "Fire Claw" This is one of Alex''s magic, the big claw grabbed all the magic that comes to him. The claw squeezes them and destroys the magic. They shocked, even John was in shock with Alex''s capability. Alex has destroyed all the attacks from those three girls easily. "You can fight me together like what you did with Alicia" ... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Meanwhile, in the arena seat. There are two old men facing each other faces in silence. "It has been a long time we have met right, Zircodina''s previous marshall, Brandon" "I just following them, to ensure my pupil is alright. Marco, you seem to become an old man like me" "Hmph, I just waiting for you to die. You are already so old, far older than me so I think you should prepare your own coffin after you come back from here" "Hmph" Yes, That two old man, was the dean and the previous unknown old man. The unknown old man turned out to be Zircodina''s previous Marshall. Brandon observing Alex''s movement. He didn''t know why but from Alex''s movement. His instinct screaming at him, this Alex was powerful and dangerous. But After seeing Alex''s capability. Brandon was shocked so much. The power he used when he made a big fire claw seems really powerful. "Rank 5?" He was shocked after analyzing Alex''s power. "Hehe... Your hero was only so-so" Brandon wants to step in the fight but dean Marco didn''t let him. "You... If something happened to my pupil. I want to see if you have the capability to stop my rampage! This academy''s principal can, but you might be not even if you can I can still manage to drag many people to the grave with me" "Brandon, are you going to attack Acacia? Do you think Zircodina can stand our onslaught if you do that!" "I don''t care, I only care about my disciple" Seeing this old madness, Marco thought for sure, this Brandon will do rampage in here if something happened to his pupil, he sighed. If the principal was here, together with him, they can suppress this old marshall completely, unfortunately, the principal wasn''t here, So he can''t be careless. If they fought, he can be sure that the other rank 8 will come immediately, but that will be too late. This old marshall will already kill many students in here when they arrived "Well, you said ''pupil'' right? That means only one, I was curious why you don''t pick the hero as your pupil too? He is using the sword too right..." Dean Marco probed. "Only a brat with a bit potential. With his character, I''m sure that his achievement will be limited in later years. I even wondered why the king even engaged her as one of his fiancees. In this old age, I don''t really want to fight in another war. I just want to watch my pupil grown up. She is really a nice kid. She only thought for her kingdom." Brandon Snorted then sighed. He vexed about Rieze becoming that hero''s woman. He can only shake his head helplessly, after all, he was her teacher, while the latter is her father. Brandon only wants to watch Rieze grown up. Brandon was ready to rampage after hearing her engagement with the hero. He has seen the hero, but his personalities were trash. He was unsure if that guy was really the hero. "Well you can''t blame him, if she resist too much, it will be bound to have some minor injuries" Marco look at him solemnly, then he turned to Alex. He shouted"Alex!" ... Back to Alex and the rest. "You can fight me together like what you did with Alicia" As soon as he said that, Alex heard his teacher shouting his name. He looks at him but surprised. Because when he looked at him, his teacher pointed his finger to someone, and that someone is the Zircodina''s Princess. "You can do whatever you want to them, just make sure you go easy on her" Alex frowned, he didn''t know why his teacher like that but he must have his own reason. He thought for a reason, but he can only come up with the mysterious old man in front of his teacher. If it like that, then the hero wasn''t valued greatly by him or the kingdom, or there is a special relationship between the old man and Rieze. He nodded, he also didn''t have any feud with the current princess he thought. He decided to knock her out and move her away. Alex looked at the hero''s face that full of hatred for him. "My teacher said to go easy on him, but I can do whatever I want with you" "You think you are great just because you can repel their attack" John snorted. Alex ignored him and smiled, "Come!" 65 Alexs Fight 2 "Look this is my sword strike. Hero Strike!" A crescent sword wave coming toward Alex. Alex look at this sword wave, it was basically the same as Rieze''s sword wave, only a bit stronger. But Alex looks at John weirdly, he never knew John has this kind of hobby. "Never thought you have this kind of hobby, what were the people called you back in the earth...cuni? no...Chuuni?... Whatever" Alex pulled out his sword, he muttered in low voice "Fourth slash is enough right?" "Fourth Slash" Alex use his sanguin sword art up to the fourth slash. A beautiful crescent sword wave coming from Alex''s sword. The two sword wave contact with each other. Sadly, John''s sword wave was immediately engulfed by Alex''s sword wave. After Alex''s sword wave destroyed John''s sword wave, it continued to move toward John. John panicked, "Wha!" A shadow appeared between the sword wave and John. Alex''s eyes immediately brightened. "Sword Strike" Another sword strike clashing with Alex''s sword wave. The two sword wave destroying each other. Yes, the shadow was the princess. She uses her sword strike to defend Alex''s sword wave. After clashing with John''s sword wave, Alex''s sword wave already weakened. So even her sword wave was weaker than John''s Sword wave, she somehow manages to repel Alex''s sword wave. Contrary to her, Alex was a bit astonished. Thought it was sure that Rieze''s sword wave was weaker than John. Alex felt something behind it, he felt her foundation was really good. Not because of her level, but because of her swordsmanship. But soon he shook his head and back focused for this opportunity. "Boost Step" Alex uses his boost step and instantly arrived beside the princess. "Wha!" Rieze was shocked with Alex''s speed, she can''t react from this. Soon, Her consciousness becomes fuzzy and she passed out. After Alex arrived beside Rieze, he uses his hand to chop behind her neck to knock her out. He wants to punch her stomach, but it will not going to be ''Going Easy'' on her. So he chopped her neck to knock her out. Alex grabbed her and use another boost step to arrive at the edge of the arena and put her down outside the stage. Then he uses another boost step and arrived at his previous position. ... Back to the two old men. "Look, he already went easy on her. Make sure to not go rampage, I didn''t get scared by you, I just didn''t want any needless casualty." Dean Marco sarcastically said. "Hmph" Brandon immediately went to Rieze and pick her up and arrive in front of Dean Marco again with Rieze on his hand. He put her down gently. "I won''t as long as you didn''t kill them, if you kill them, even if I want to stop it, there will be a war for sure" The Dean laughed, "Haha, There''s no need for you to worry about that, My Alex wasn''t like your kingdom''s hero" "Aren''t you guys afraid I will tell his majesty about his power?" "Sure, you can do that. You think we are afraid of you even if you make an alliance with Holy Kingdom" The dean snorted. ... "Now, there are only you guys left" Alex looked at John''s panicked face, Sandra''s hateful face, and Ayaka''s fearful face. "You... Don''t push your luck" John madly charged toward Alex. he swings his sword to his head wanting to chopped him to pieces. Alex easily parried John''s attack. They sword clashing with each other for a hundred rounds. Alex was always on the defensive. So John becomes arrogant. "Haha... After all your boasting, you can only defend yourself against me" John laughed like a mad. Brandon from the audience seat looking at the hero with a pitiful look, "Too young, naive, and pathetic." John was like a powerful man but can''t use his power properly. On the other hand, Alex looks calm, like a deep black pitch sea wanting to swallow the object above. When John was training, he always killed monsters with the girls but he, Brandon personally knew, the monster they killed was already weakened because of his knight. If not they can''t really beat those monsters. Unfortunately, John was never noticed any of that. Instead, he always flaunts his prowess and status. He secretly thought if the hero was swapped. According to his observation, Alex was the one who fit to be a hero. He looked up to the sky and muttered with a sad tone "Are the heaven going to play our Zircodina?" In the process of summoning, he wasn''t present to see it, he received a report that the kingdom has managed to summon a hero with an extraordinary status when he was level 1. He also received a report of trash that has a status weaker than a child got dragged and got summoned along with the hero and banished from the castle. When he received the report, he pities Alex even he doesn''t know him. After all, that was their fault in the first place. He surprised to knowing Alex, a weak ant, now become a soaring dragon. Status, Power, Experience, He has all of them. He sighed. Meanwhile, John Who attacking Alex flaunting his own power. Sandra and Ayaka also recovered and looked down at Alex once again. They thought Alex already become powerful, they scared a bit because of that. But seeing John suppressing him, They relieved. Especially Sandra, "I''m choosing the right choice, right? "Haha...This is my power, not like trash like you. Because I''m the hero" Alex smirked, He jumped off to distance himself from John. He looked at John with pity. All the image of his best friend back in middle school was shattered. Noticing the distance, John arrogantly charged at Alex again. But he suddenly, His abdomen was hurt and he was blown away to the edge of the stage and passed out. Alex was surprised by this, he thought John as a hero had a big endurance to become a punching bag for a while since he wants to vent out his frustration on him. "Gah!" It took a while for Sandra and Ayaka to realize what happened. Alex kicked John''s abdomen and send him away to the edge of the arena. Seeing John was in pain, crouching while touching his abdomen. They immediately go to his side to help him. "You two better start now if not this will only become bullying" Alex mocked them. "You!" Sandra looked at Alex hatefully. "Fireball" "Gust" A swirling wind enveloped by fire was charging toward Alex. Alex only sighed, he raised his palm like he wanted to stop someone. "Boom" "Did we do it?" Sandra focused her eyes on the fog. But, it was soon feared her. Because she saw Alex standing like nothing happened when the smoke cleared away. Alex himself never feared Sandra''s fire because he has pure fire element, no fire can hurt him. As for Ayaka''s wind, it can''t hurt his rank 5 body. Alex starts walking toward them. Sandra and Ayaka tried to use many magic but to no avail. Alex was still unfazed by their magic. When Alex arrived in front of them, Sandra and Ayaka look at him fearfully. Alex first looked at Ayaka, he never has any feud with her. She only mocks him and also one of John''s admirers. She never did something like betraying him or the like. But somehow it was still pissing him off. "Y-you! Don''t come..." Ayaka scared by his strength. Alex''s fist suddenly landed on her abdomen. "Gah!" She vomited some blood and blown away. she stops flying after she crashed to the wall and knock out. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex broke a few of her ribs, it will make her stay still for a few months. Alex already calculated. When he traveled to this kingdom, it takes four months just to arrive here from the closest forest from Zircodina''s capital city. These injuries will take her a few months. So when she arrived at Zircodina capital city, her injuries were already healed, even if she went back now "Aiya!" The Dean shook his head looking at him. But he secretly thumbs up to Alex. He then turned to Brandon and smirked. "You won''t blame him for that right?" "Hmph, even though she has a sage as her job, but her attitude was like a slut and she likes to look down on people. She deserved it" Brandon snorted. "This brat was really sly. That kind of injury will be healed up in a few months. Even we rush our journey it will still take 3 months and that injuries would already be healed. There will be no proof to the king" "Hehe..." ... Back to Alex, who already went his way toward Sandra, his ex-girlfriend. "Hiii...!" Sandra looked at Alex fearfully, after she saw what Alex did to Ayaka, then she imagined what will happen to her. "Do-don''t hurt me..." Sandra started to teared up. "I-I was your ex-girlfriend, right? Considering our past relationship, please don-don''t hit me" Alex looked at his ex-girlfriend pitiful state. Full of tears and snotted, she looks really ugly. Alex looked at her without any emotion. "Alex...Please" She begged. Alex looked at her coldly, as he said "How can I fall in love with you back then...?" Sandra''s eyes brightened, he still remembered about their relationship back then, when she still his girlfriend(?). that''s mean she still has a chance to persuade him. "Right? You still love me and care about me right?" Alex smirked a little, as he asked coldly "You think so?" "Hiii...!" She scared by Alex''s gaze. If their relationship was not good. Then the last thing she can think was to flaunt about her job. "You...! you do know I was an archmage right? Are you sure you can escape unscathed if you hit me? I''m an archmage that was very important to Zircodina kingdom. Do you think..." "Shut up!" Alex shouted "Hiii...!" "Goodbye" as he said that, Alex make a round kick to Sandra''s face. Alex really ruthless, if he does that, Sandra''s face might be disfigured. Alex didn''t have any intention like that, he still controlled his strength. It might bruise her face a few months. He never any feud from generations with her after all. Because of her betrayer, he starts matured up. Sandra rolled again and again on the ground as she passed out because of Alex''s kick. Alex looked at her knock out, he sighed. One burden of his mind started to lift up. Alex then turned to John. When he arrived in front of John. The arena becomes silent that even wind can be heard easily. Everybody gulped down. They wondering what will Alex do to the hero. ''Will he killed the hero?'' ''Will he spared the hero?'' ''Will he dared to do anything to him as he did to the other girls?'' Many thoughts were present in this situation. Alex raised his sword and swing it toward John. "Kya--!" Screamed was echoed in the arena, mostly from the girls, while the boys were gulped down. Alicia used her hands to cover her up but still peeked between the gap in her hand. The Dean facepalmed and shook his head. Though he secretly put a big thumb up to him. Brandon frowned. 66 Conclusion "Kya--!" Screamed was echoed in the arena, mostly from the girls, while the boys were gulped down. Alicia used her hands to cover her up but still peeked between the gap in her hand. The Dean facepalmed and shook his head. Though he secretly put a big thumb up to him. Brandon frowned. Everyone was shocked by what they see. Because Alex beheaded John''s ''little brother''. "I won''t kill you now since it will be bad for this kingdom but I still need to do this. Hehe... A eunuch. You are a hero but also a eunuch. If we make a story about this, back in the Earth, that might be a trending story" Alex said to the unconscious John. Though not many people heard since Alex only said it in a low voice, but a high-rank people heard what Alex said just now, they want to laugh hard but can not. The Dean tried really hard not to laugh, then he turned to Brandon. "He didn''t kill him...pfft!" "Hmph" Brandon then started to move to gather John, Sandra, and Ayaka. Though, he also secretly relieved, that his pupil won''t be ruined by that bastard. Though he personally wanted to give Alex a thumb up, he also felt conflicted, because Alex has ruined his kingdom. So he put his unemotional face. Brandon was shocked by Alex''s power now, but what most shocking was Alex''s growth. Alex only used one year to become an experienced rank 5 warrior and to boost it, Alex was also an alchemist. If he knew about Alex was an alchemist greater than the Dean, He might immediately report it to the king. That was only Alex''s identity as an alchemist. If he also knew about Alex''s pure fire element, his forging skill, and his real prowess. He might die on the spot because of the shock or he might need to kill Alex whatever the consequences. Fortunately, Alex didn''t show his power too much. If not the situation will become grim. Alex only used his sword, sanguin sword art up to fourth slash and a bit of his fire element and he also didn''t use his spear. If Alex really used his fire element all out, This previous marshall would notice it. Dean Marco looked at Alex worriedly, after Alex relieve his own burden this time, what change will bring it to him. Would Alex become a better individual?. The Dean shook his head, for better or worse, he already decided to support Alex with his all. Alex standing on the stage in thought. All his mind was refreshed after relieving this burden of his. He thought if this continue, the hero would be insane because of this. Then the one who will be the first to bear his madness would be Sandra and Ayaka. Alex at first thought the princess would also be the one to bear John''s madness but he rejected that idea after looking at the old marshall. Because of Sandra betraying him, his heart was really in pain. The world seems to be broken, he keeps thinking about suicide back then, but he fought that idea. Alex closed his eyes. He wanted Sandra to experience what is hurt like his heart back then. Sometimes, living would seem worse than dying. When he deep in thought, Alicia already arrived in front of him and hugged him. Alex was surprised, he opened his eyes hurriedly and saw Alicia hugging him. He only closed his eyes again and enjoyed the feeling. But, Something heard in his mind. [Congratulations Host, you have fixed one of the biggest problems in your life. Now, the system will be updating... Calculation time: 8H30m] Alex suddenly frowned, he caught something from the system announcement. ''One of the biggest problems in my life?'' since he never has any big problem in this world, he thought about his family back on Earth, ''Is that the problem? But if I want to solve them, how?'' Alex shook his head, he stopped thinking about it. But he never thought that the ''problem'' his system said was his future problem. "Alex?" Alicia looked at him confusedly, she confused why Alex suddenly shook his head. "Alicia, was I merciless just now?" Alex looked at her. Though he didn''t have any emotion in his face when he asked about that. Alicia felt something wrong in Alex''s voice, she felt Alex was unsure and uneasy. "You are doing what you thought is correct, even if you kill them I would still beside you" She smiled gently to him When he heard Alicia''s response, he smiled. "Thank you" ... When the dean wanted to go to Alex. suddenly there are two people running toward him and Brandon. He recognized one of them because one of them was his assistant. When he saw the other guys hurriedly went to Brandon. He knew. Turned out the other guy was Brandon Informant. His assistant whispered something to him. After hearing what he said, the dean was surprised. "You sure?" "Yes" He looked at Brandon. Who also in shock. "Are you sure about this?" Brandon asked. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Yes, Milord" Brandon then turned to Dean Marco. They looked at each other, they seem to have the same news. "Your student was really lucky this time huh...Marco" "Hehe..." The dean smirked. "We will immediately go back to the kingdom. Prepare the carriage" Brandon said to his assistant. "Y-yes milord, I will prepare it immediately" ... Back to Alex, Alex separated with Alicia and leave the arena. They saw Firia waiting for them. Firia only smiled at them. but her smile full of meaning. Alex and Alicia were embarrassed. "Thank you, Firia" Alex thanked her. "Thank you Firia" Alicia also thanked her "Hmph, I just did what I need to do" The trio then went away. Because of this incident, the classes were suspended for tomorrow. Alex was summoned to Dean''s office. Alex opened the door, he saw his teacher sitting in luxury, relaxing. "Teacher, what do you need me for?" Alex decided to broke the silent "Hehe...I can''t call you if I don''t have a need?" The dean teased. "No-no, You can call me all the time" Alex denied it hurriedly. The Dean laughed, then his face turned to solemn, "Well, I have something for you" "First, there is a piece of good news for you. The hero and his companion already went back to their kingdom" Alex was shocked by this news. His eyes widened. He thought this is only the first day for John and the rest in the academy. But they already went back now. "Are you think this was too fast?" Alex nodded. "This is the other news, the war almost started, whatever the reason, Zircodina needed the hero to boost their morale even he is weak." Alex frowned, "Why?" "A small friction happened in the battlefield, one of the rank 6 captains of Zircodina was slain by the demon" Alex''s eyes widened, "Are the war going to start soon?" "Yes, there will be many small conflicts like this. I predict the big war will come in two to three months from now." "Teacher, Exactly what is the reason for this war?" Alex was curious about this. The Dean shook his head. "We also didn''t know the reason. We tried to search the reason in Zircodina and Holy Kingdom but to no avail. But there is one thing that for sure, the war was started because of Zircodina attacking the demon first" Alex was shocked by what he just heard. He recalled when he was summoned in Zircodina. His first impression for Zircodina''s king was a wise king, but after hearing his teacher said the reason for this war was because Zircodina attacking the demon first, he contemplated. Why Zircodina attack the demon first? What is the reason? Zircodina king, was he really a wise king? Or he... "Teacher, I want to go to the battlefield" This time was the dean turned to be shocked. "NO!" "I...I want to know the truth of this war, please let me go, teacher" "NO! You think your power was already so great. Your power was only a feeble thing on the battlefield. Even a rank 8 mage like me might die on the battlefield." "But, I..." "No means No!" Alex depressed, his teacher was adamant to not let him go. He sighed. "Then can I at least know where the battlefield took place?" The dean sighed, "Well I can let you know. The battlefield might take place in one of the neural territories, Wilow Plain" "Wilow plain?" Alex recalled something. "The wilow plain beside the Sagur Forest? the forest that has a volcano?" "Yes, That''s the one" "But, aren''t they a bit far for Zircodina and the demon?" Alex asked. "Don''t forget, This wasn''t a war between The demon and Zircodina alone, The holy kingdom also participated" Alex''s eyes brightened, He forgot about it "I see" "Then Teacher what do you want me to do?" "Nothing, Just continue studying in the academy. We can make some more pills if you want" Alex now in silence, at the first he wanted to study alchemy was because it was useful. Now, he already ate most of the pills, there are some rare pills that he hasn''t bring out but one of the ingredients was a rank 6 monster core. He wanted to solve it himself but since he can''t go out, he can only ask his teacher "Teacher, This is a rank 2 pill recipe" Alex grabbed a paper and write a few materials on it. The dean nodded and grabbed the paper. He was surprised "Rank 6 monster core?" This is the first time he saw a monster core as an ingredient. He asked confusedly "Aren''t the use of monster core was to supply energy to lamps or the like?" "Yes, but didn''t the teacher realize the energy between pills was different? Actually, there are some pill recipes with the monster core as one of their ingredients. I don''t take it out because I was unsure what is the monster core because when I killed monsters they didn''t had any core. After I went to the dungeon I realize that the monster there had monster core within their body" Actually, Alex hides another reason of his. The pill made by a monster core was tightly bound to cultivation, he didn''t know if those pills had any effect on others. "I see, what is the pill effect?" "I didn''t really understand, it was said this pill can make explosive energy so the one who ate it can absorb that energy to their body" "..." The dean was in thought, "Whatever, The herb needed was a bit rare so we can''t really mass produce this pill. I will inform you when I have found all the ingredients, you can go back first" "Thank you teacher" Alex then left the office, he went back to his room. After he went back, he [Ding!] [Good-Luck Gacha System V.3 Commenced] [Updating the new function, Please wait] 67 New Functions [Ding!] [Good-Luck Gacha System V.3 Commenced] "Oh...here its come" [Hello Host] "What is the new function after this update, system?" [System has a few new functions, The first one was Premium Gacha] "Hoo..." Alex recalled, the gacha in the game often has two types of gacha, the first type was a common gacha where you can buy with the game points such as friendship points or the like. And the other one was a premium gacha where you need a rare gem/ruby or you can also buy them with money. [It was like what host expected] Yep, the system knew his thought again. He was already tired to argue with her(?), hmm... just call her with ''system''. [The premium gacha has a rating system. All the items you got from this premium gacha were classified with a rating. The rating was common(C), uncommon(UC), Rare(R), Super Rare (SR), Ultra Rare(UR)] "Hmm... the problem is how hard to get the ticket" [There are a few ways to get the premium ticket. The one you have unlocked this time was the second new function, Mission Function] "Oh! Let me see it" Soon, there is a panel of mission functions open and a few listed missions there. But, Alex''s face darkened. "System, all of them are hidden ain''t they?" Alex''s face darkened because what he saw was, [Mission 1 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 2 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 3 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x10] "What the use if I have missions if I don''t even know how to complete them" [Host only unlocked the mission function, not the mission itself] Alex''s face become unbearable, But before Alex snapped, The system continued [Just Kidding, The one you see was the special mission. This is the repeatable mission that you can finish to get premium ticket] Alex soon recovered, he saw a few mission. [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 2000 rank 4 monsters and donate all the cores to the system Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 500 rank 5 monsters and donate all the cores to the system Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Objective: Kill 100 rank 6 monsters and donate all the cores to the system Reward: Premium Ticket x2] Alex''s face became pale, "System, killing 2000 rank 4? Killing 500 rank 5? They took at least a half month''s continuous killing even in the dungeon and just for one ticket... Are you torturing me? And what is this rank 6, I haven''t even killed any of them yet" [The mission as such, but don''t worry host. The possible reward on this premium gacha was worth it. They''re also a hidden way to acquire the ticket, but If I tell you now then it won''t be hidden anymore] "Oh...How can they compare with my current Sanguin Sword Art and Spear Throwing Art?" Alex decided to ignore the system''s last sentence as it was useless so he asked about the reward. [Sanguin Sword Art and Spear Throwing Art were classified SR and R and also the common gacha can''t get any UR item.] "Can''t you let me see the premium gacha first?" Soon, he saw a panel for premium gacha. The panel has a picture of a box containing a gacha ball. Below the picture, there are two options panels. "So, I can choose whether I want to use each of my tickets or use them together?" [Yes Host, there is two option, you can use one ticket draw or you can use five of them together.] The two option that Alex see just now was like, [Draw x1 (1 Premium Ticket)] [Draw x5 (5 Premium Ticket)] [But if you use the Five draw option, there will be at least one Rare grade item you can get as a guarantee] "Hmm... The same rank item with my Spear Throwing Technique" But, Alex felt something wrong or missing, He tried to observe all the system and noticed, "System, why are there no options for choosing what gacha type I want? Like before you had three types of gacha such as Techniques, Tools, and Materials" [This is a normal Premium Gacha Host if you want there will be another gacha function in the future, of course, all that function was all in the next system update...probably] "... You don''t even know it... Sigh" Alex can only sigh, he want to rebuked but don''t have the energy to do so. [Don''t worry host, for this update. System has a freebie for you] [Ding!] [5 Premium Tickets Acquired] [Since this update introducing host for two new functions. System giving you this five premium tickets] "Since that''s the case" Alex then use his hand to tap the ''Draw x5'' This time, unlike the usual bland animation gacha that will only give him a list of the material he gets. Using the ''Draw x5'' The panel surrounded by light and was shaped like a box. The box wasn''t that big, its size was similar to the box that used to envelop your usual laptop. "Poof!" The light was disappeared and leaving the white-colored box in front of Alex. He carefully opened the box. Inside the box he saw five white and yellow colored gacha balls with ''G'' character in the middle, releasing a red and blue aura. The ball size was similar to the tennis ball and the five ball arranged like ''5'' in dice (The ball in the cover) "System how do I use them?" Alex asked the system, he was unsure how to open them. [Host just need to touch the ''G'' character on the ball] After hearing the system, Alex tried to touch the first ball on the top left corner. He wanted to look at how is this new function run. When Alex touch the ''G'' Character, the ball shined it floated a bit above the box. The ball opened up slowly when it was opened a herb appeared from within. The ball soon disappeared to the air and system notification ringed. [Ley Herb (UC) Acquired] Alex was surprised, "System, your update... it was amazing animation if I say." [Of course, it was premium after all] "But, I wondering how exactly this herb can fit inside the ball" [Don''t mind the small detail Host] "..." Alex observed the ball again, "Well fine, let''s continue" Alex then opened the second ball on the bottom of the first one. The ball opened and disappeared to the air. [Mithril Sword (C) Acquired] This time was a mithril sword, he takes out the mithril sword. This was a good normal sword that was stronger than the one Cornel used back then. Alex had got a mithril sword when he used the normal gacha but it still weaker than this one, but the point is he only got one mithril sword when he used normal gacha so he thought it was rare. But this premium gacha give it easily and it was ranked as a common rank item. The system''s word has proven to be true, the reward was really worth it if you looked at this kind of mithril sword but only classified as a common rank item. He now anticipated what he will get next. He then opened the gacha ball on the right top. He will leave the middle ball as the last, looking at the arrangement position it seems the ball was special. The third ball opened and a book appeared from within the ball. [Mesanti Herb (UC) Acquired] "Oh!" Alex was surprised by what he got. Because this herb was one of the ingredients for Quenching Fire Pill. The Quenching Fire Pill was classified as a rank 2 pill and with this pill, Alex might breakthrough to rank 6. As the name implies, this pill quenches the fire element in the user body making it helped the user to breakthrough using the user fire element. Alex suddenly contemplated, "This is only one of the ingredients. Maybe I will ask teacher for the other ingredients?" Alex decided to leave it at that. He then proceeded to the next ball. This time, a spear comes from within. Alex was really surprised by this. "System, can I opened them manually? I really want to feel how the small gacha ball brought out a long spear. I am really curious about this" [Host...Please don''t mind the detail. You can classified them as the system Mightiness] "..." Alex was speechless, "I''m recalling you mentioned something about a special space for the gacha? Something like that?" [Yes Host. That was like that, so Host didn''t need to mind the small detail] If the system was in a humanoid body, he/she will nod furiously and tried to convince Alex not to be curious about this. Alex then shook his head as he sighed. He can only discover the secret later, he then looked at the announcement. [Rank 3 Piercing Sky Spear (R) Acquired] "Rank 3 spear?" Alex was shocked by this new spear as he frowned. Because his sword alone was a rank 5 magic weapon and this spear was only a rank 3 but it was only classified as a rank 3 spear. "System, how can this spear classified as a rare item as the spear rank was only a rank 3 spear. My rank 5 sword was higher than it, will it be an Ultra Rare item then?" [Host, Please inspect the spear first] Alex frowned, then he took out the spear from system inventory. Though it wasn''t that convenient since the system inventory can only store what he had from the system. A silver-colored spear appeared between him, the spear was really beautiful and eye-catching, its body surrounded by a white aura, his eyes widened. Not because he was surprised with the spear beauty but from its aura. Alexander noticed this spear aura was even stronger than his sword. If his teacher was in front of him, he will be shocked because the spear aura was even stronger than his rank 7 weapon. This spear was a rank 8 spear according to this world classification. Alex inspected the spear body, he really thought it was worth it with the current price. He recalled the time consuming repeatable mission, he thought that time-consuming mission was really not worth it and was only a scam from the system, but now he thought if he had another opportunity opening the premium gacha like this again, then that mission was normal. Then he thought, there is still a ball left that still unopened, he turned to looked at the ball. ''What will he got from this last ball?'' he thought. As he thought, his hand unconsciously went toward the ''G'' character on the ball. As the finger touched the character. The ball opened and an item pops out from the ball. 68 Last Gacha A book appeared from the ball. [Sky Movement (SR) Acquired] "Super Rare!" Alex was joyful when he saw the announcement. Though these five times draw guarantee at least a rare item, he never thought he can get an SR item in the first try because back on Earth he never got lucky using this kind of gacha. Poor him. He took out the book from the inventory. ''Sky Movement'' was written on the cover. He then proceeded to the first page. "There are 5 types of steps for this sky movement, they are Immovable Step, Fleeting Step, Flash Step, Heavy Step, and Sky Step. Immovable step and Fleeting Step, these two-steps was focusing on two opposite purposes. The immovable step was to channel the power in your step to give you more power or bind you to the ground. In conclusion, as the name implies the immovable step was a kind of step that makes you be immovable. In contrast to the immovable step, this fleeting step was focusing on unpredictable movement to dodge the opponent. The same as the two, Flash Step and Heavy Step were the opposite of each other. Flash step make the user moving like a feather, without weight. This will make the user speed faster up to four times if mastered completely. As for the heavy step, it makes the user gains the weight of a mountain if mastered at the highest stage. As for the last sky step... after mastering the four steps before, the user will be able to move whether in the sky or in the water like moving on the ground. The user might fly in the sky or the user might swim in the sea, with sky step the user will felt moving in the sky or in the sea become those moving on the ground thus making a better maneuver and movement. All in all every step have 5 stages" "..." Alex was a little confused in this round about explanation. "Well to summarize, Immovable step makes you stood still, Fleeting step makes you unpredictable, Flash Step makes you lighter, Heavy Step makes you heavier, and Sky Step make you feel like you are on the ground in every terrain..." Alex contemplated. "Where exactly the ''Sky'' in this all five-step..." "Maybe... the one who wrote this just want a cool name..." Alex shook his head, "Whatever, Let''s try this sky movement tomorrow. I will borrow teacher courtyard to train this movement technique" Alex went back to cultivate. Tomorrow, After the class Alex borrow the dean courtyard, the dean was surprised. He thought Alex would like to do some alchemy or forging again. Turned out Alex want to practice his movement technique. Of course, he gives his courtyard without hesitation. But before he went to the courtyard, he passes a rank 2 pill recipe, Quenching Fire Pill. "I can somehow buy all the ingredients with my connection except this Fire Miletonia Herb. I don''t know if any of my connections have this herb. Don''t worry, I will inform you if I get all of the ingredients" "Thank you, teacher" Alex thanked him and left. Alex then decided to practice the first step of the sky movement, The immovable step. "Converting the step to power. It boost the user defense or offense depending on how you use it. the first stage was to use the mana to power the body to hold the step power..." Every time he recalled this, he always confused. He just can''t understand the meaning. Currently, he only understands this immovable step was like his boost step except he can use it without his fire magic. He can only follow the instruction from the book. Since this immovable step was similar with his boost step, he enters the first stage of immovable step with just a day. He also noticed the power of this immovable step, it only extorted one times of his power, unlike his boost step that can amplify his power a few times with momentum. But in the long run, his boost step will be more useless. The reason was simple, he can use an explosion to boost his momentum. But if he get stronger and stronger, doesn''t that mean he needs a bigger and bigger explosion to get the speed. What will happen if his pure speed alone has reached the speed of sound? Thought it sound absurd, he still thought about this, ...maybe he needed an explosion as big as a nuclear missile? With this immovable step, it will evolve along with the raise of his power. That means this technique was related to his foundation, not an external force like his boost step. He continue to practice this immovable step for a week and finally moved to the second stage and grant him 1,5 times of his pure power. He decided to stop practicing the immovable step for a while, he continued to the second step, Fleeting Step. Alex looked at the footwork drawn in the book. At first, Alicia and Firia sometime laughed at him. The reason was that when he practiced this step. He often tripped or bumped to the wall. This was a rare sight for them, they never saw the powerful and cool headed Alex tripped or bumped like this. But soon, they started to stop laughing even when Alex tripped, etc. They suddenly become ashamed. They realize they still not bringing their best effort practicing. After looking at Alex training over and over, they only see the gallant Alex who was powerful in their eyes and the other eyes. They never saw how much Alex practice to become like that. They only see the result, not the process itself. They soon a hard working person. Even after Alex advise them to take a break or went back to their room. They still practice until late, they always went back together with Alex now. Of course, sometimes Alex also needed to carry them back to their room if the practice they did was truly tough. After another week, Alex succeeds in reaching the first stage of the fleeting step. Alex''s movement more and more become liquid, his movement become more nimble and agile. But there is one significant different, when Alicia and Firia have a spar with him, they can''t hit him or rather they were confused with Alex''s movement. It is true that they can''t hit him, with just the difference with their and his speed alone, they really can''t hit him. Adding this complicated and unpredictable movement, before they realized they were already on the ground. Alex decided to reach the first stage first for all his steps before continuing to the second stage. But since the immovable step was something that he familiar with, it was already advanced to the second stage. "The third step, Flash Step. It made the user lighter, thus resulting in a faster movement. The same principle when you run with 100kg weight and 200kg weight, obviously when you run with 100kg weight, it will be faster than when you run with 200kg weight. A very simple explanation" Alex nodded then start to practice this movement and it took him another week to reach the first stage When he used this technique, his body felt lighter. Alex''s movement when dodging becomes like a feather who easily dodge because of the wind pressure before it was hit. Every time he used this technique, he felt his body become twice lighter. "According to the book, If I reach the first stage, it will make me twice lighter thus boosting my speed. If I reach the second stage, it will make me four times lighter. Then in the final stage, my body will be as light as a feather." "The fourth step, Heavy Step. This step was the opposite of the third step, Flash Step. This step made the user heavier. While it restricting the movement, it will give the power of mountains if mastered up to the five stages." Alex reached the first stage with just a week. The average speed for him reaching the first stage was one week. But the problem is when he practicing this heavy step, he broke many floor and there are still a few crack on the ground in his teacher courtyard. His teacher can only sigh as he called someone to repair it, so Alex can brea- cough, used it again. And now he reached for the last step of all. The requirement of this step was mastering the first four steps. That means, if Alex wanted to reach the first stage of this step, he needed to be at least reaching the first stage of the other four steps first. This time Alex took two weeks to reach the first stage. Alex now can step in the air like he was on the ground, though he can only use it briefly, it was really useful. Alex has tried to stand in the air, he tries it on a half meter above ground. Alicia and Firia were shocked by this, they thought Alex can fly. But soon, he fell to the ground, exhausted. To held himself in the air took a toll on his mana. If he only needed to step for maneuver, it might not take him that much mana. But this time, he used it to float. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alicia and Firia thought Alex was already so powerful because the basic requirements to fly are at least rank 7 and adept in mana. Alex explained to them, all of this was achieved by his movement technique. They want to learn this movement technique which Alex gave them. Alicia and Firia start to practice this particular movement technique. Alex sometimes instructs them with his own shallow experiences, but it was still useful than nothing. After Alex reached the first stage of this sky step. He wanted to continue to the second stage. But this time, the dean called him to his office. "Teacher" Alex was in a joyful mood since he reached the first stage of his sky step. "I have gathered all the ingredients for your Quenching Fire Pill. Except for the Fire Miletonia Herb that I previously said." "I see" Alex was a bit disappointed that the last herb was still not found. But he already thankful enough for his teacher that already gathered all these herbs. "But..." Alex looked at his teacher that still hasn''t finished his sentences. "I found the Fire Miletonia Herb whereabout" "Then!" Alex was hopeful for this herb now, his previous disappointment vanished to the air. "Actually I wanted to collect the herb itself, but I refrain from doing that. I will give a test for you, go collect this herb yourself. This herb was spotted beside a waterfall in Celestial Forest. This forest doesn''t possess that much danger. The king of this forest was only a rank 6 monster. The same with our night forest. The one guarding this herb was only a rank 5 fox according to the report. Oh, I almost forgot. There are fifty rank 2 restoration pills that I made these past months in this bag. Bring this with you. And be careful" The dean handed him a small pouch for him. "Teacher" Alex was really moved by this. "Now go back to prepare, you will go tomorrow and also don''t take too long outside. In one month, there will be a test for grade promotion. Though the test only checked your rank, the passing grade was only rank 2. Since you already reached that long ago you won''t have any issue with that. You only need to go along with the formalities. After the test, there will be a ranking competition with your fellow students. The purpose was to rank the new second-grade student and I know you won''t care about that...sigh" "I will go back in one month" Alex nodded and left. But there is one miscalculation the dean made this time. 69 Encounter "Alicia, I will go to Celestial Forest for a month" Alicia was shocked by Alex''s revelation. "Can I go with you?" Alex shook his head. "Alright then, be careful" Alicia sighed and told him. This time was Alex''s turn to be surprised. Usually, Alicia will nag him to bring her with him but eventually persuaded by him to not. But now, Alicia didn''t nag or argued with him. She only asked once and agreed with his decision. Seeing Alex''s astonished face, she pouted. "What?" "No...nothing. Usually...you will..." Alex hesitated. "What? Are you going to say I usually persisted on wanting to follow you?" Alex gulped down, he didn''t know whether to nod or not. "Well, you are right. Before I usually did that. Don''t worry, now I won''t be like that again. I will support you with what you want to do. I might hinder you if I recklessly follow you" The Alicia now, already matured. It might be a good experience for her to went inside the dungeon with Mia that day. "It just, you must definitely come back here" She said in a low voice. Alex was surprised but soon turned to smile, "Yes, Definitely" ... The next day, Alicia woke up but didn''t find Alex in the room. Only a plate of breakfast on the table. She looked at the note beside the plate. "I''m going, Alicia. Sorry if I didn''t say goodbye to you, I scared that I might reluctant to go if I did that. This is breakfast, maybe from tomorrow onward for a month, I can''t make you more breakfast and you might need to get them in the cafeteria. Also, please tell Firia about this. -Love You, Alex" ... Alex already went on his way toward Celestial Forest. He already knew the way to the celestial forest. He didn''t bother to search for a caravan group to get there since his speed was much faster than them. He only has a month for this, So going with caravan might be a bad thing for this. With his current speed, he can reach Celestial Forest within 2 days. On the third day, Alex has arrived in front of the celestial forest. He inspected the forest surrounding, he found it similar to the terrain of Night Forest. This should be easy if it was similar, he thought. Alex then has his way inside of the forest. He moves toward the volcano in the center of this forest. Since the information said the herb was beside the volcano. On the way, he killed many monsters. But their rank was only rank 2 or below. When he entered the Volcano zone, the monsters that started to appear was between rank 3 to rank 5. Alex easily killed them though. After he searched the herb for two days. He finally found it. But he really surprised by what he saw. It was just a red rose. From the description of this herb. He knows this herb was the herb he searched about, the Fire Miletonia Herb. The difference of this herb and red rose on Earth was this herb giving heat to its surrounding "Why they don''t call this rose?" Alex was curious. But he somehow knows the answer. He never saw any flower with ''Rose'' name on it. He sighed, he almost forgot he wasn''t on Earth. Different world, different naming sense. He should be content that there still somethings that had any similarities with Earth, whether its name, appearance, etc. "According to the information, there is a rank 5 monster guarding this herb?" After he said that, he heard a sound. "Crack" Alex immediately put his guard up. He already pulled out his sword. A Fox covered in Fire appeared in front of Alex looking at him angrily. The fox roared as he charged toward Alex. "Fire?" Alex smiled. When the Fox bites him, Alex covered his body with his flame armor. The Fire that surrounded the Fox was somehow become submissive and was absorbed by Alex flame armor. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The Fox was surprised by Alex''s element, he felt suppression in all of his body in front of Alex''s flame. But he also felt a sense of familiar feeling in front of Alex''s flame. He jumped back a bit and looked toward Alex vigilantly. Alex was surprised by this, he frowned. He used his flame once again in front of the fox. The fox was scared by his flame. "I won''t kill you, just go" Alex said to the fox. "Wuu" The fox responded to his word, but the fox didn''t run away. Alex frowned, he didn''t know what the fox said. He then pointed at the Fire Miletonia Herb, since this herb was protected by him, Alex thought that it was relating to this herb. So he asked, "Do you need this herb?" "Wuu" The fox shook his head furiously. Now Alex was sure, The Fox was intelligent enough to understand him. But he frowned when he saw the Fox didn''t need this herb. "Then why aren''t you go? Are you expecting me to kill you?" Alex was somehow didn''t want to kill this fox. Even though this fox was a monster, it was rare to encounter monsters with this much intelligent. Most of the monsters he encountered would only think about killing him. "Wuu" The fox shook his head again scaredly. "Then what do you want?" Alex asked. "Wuu" The fox hesitated but he ultimately started to move closer to Alex. Though the fox walking toward him scaredly it still arrived in front of Alex. Alex frowned, he readied his battle stance, in case this fox suddenly started to attack him. But he soon surprised with what he saw next. "Wuu" The fox started to lick his feet gently. Alex was confused. Was this fox want to try his leg first before eating it? "What are you doing?" "Wuu" The fox suddenly becomes terrified. Alex looked at the fox, this Fox seems didn''t want to attack him. He then stretches his hand, trying to stroke the fox. The fox lowered its head and let Alex stroke him. Then he started to lick Alex''s hand. Alex''s eyes then brightened. "Are you want to follow me?" Alex asked. "Wuu Wuu" The fox nodded hurriedly. Turned out the fox only wanted to follow him. Alex sighed, he never thought from all the reason he thinks in his head, none of it matches the fox intention. Tasting him? Eating him? He was stronger, why exactly he thought about that. "Why do you want to follow me?" "Wuu" The fox didn''t answer him Alex sighed, it might be nice to keep this fox as a pet. He can also give this fox to Alicia, this fox can protect her after all this fox was a rank 5 monster. "Alright, you can follow me." "Wuu" The fox wagging his tail happily. "Let''s name you first since you want to follow me it won''t be nice if I need to call you fox every time ain''t it? "Wuu" The Fox looked at Alex in anticipation. "... I forgot to ask you, are you a male?" "Wuu" The fox shook its head. "Then you are a female?" "Wuu" This time the fox nodded. Turned out the fox was a female. Alex thought this fox would be a male since h-she was aggressive. The fox somehow felt Alex though something rude "Wuu" Alex then thought of a female name. He wanted to call it pochi like the anime back on earth but he refrains from doing that. He thought a bit "Sherry... it will be your name" "Wuu" The fox joyfully accepted the name. Maybe the fox also joyful that Alex didn''t name her with some weird name. "Well, glad you like it. Nice to meet you, Sherry. I''m Alex" "Wuu Wuu" After Sherry leaped around in joy, she suddenly turned to Alex. "Wuu Wuu" Alex stroke her head, "What is it?" "Wuu" She then gestured like she wants to eat. "You want to eat?" Alex asked. Sherry nodded its head. "What do you want to eat? Don''t tell me this herb?" Alex then asked her with a surprised face. This fox approached him just so Alex will give the herb back to her? "Wuu" The fox shook her head. Then suddenly the flame burst from its body and covered her body. "Wuu" "Flame? You want to eat flame?" Alex asked about that, but soon his eyes widened. "You want to eat my flame?" "Wuu" The fox nodded furiously. "..." Alex was speechless, turned out this fox aim was his pure fire. Well, he didn''t really mind feeding her with his flame, as it won''t get him any bad from doing that. Alex then put out his fire. A small fireball appeared on Alex''s palm. The fox gets closer to Alex''s palm and eats the fireball. She finished eating the fireball in a minute "Wuu" She seems didn''t get enough and asked for more. Alex only sighed and shook his head as he pours out more fire for the fox to eat. After half an hour, the fox was laid down, satisfied. "Glutton" Alex cursed out jokingly. This fox eats too much, he spent around a third of his mana to feed the fox. But he was suddenly surprised because the fire from within the fox seems suddenly spurted out from its body. "Wuu" The fox look like in pain. Alex wanted to help her but he didn''t know what to do. But soon, he was surprised. Because this fox''s red-colored flame started to become pink. Alex stopped for trying to help her, This fox might try to evolve. Alex then watched the fox carefully. The process was a half day. The fire started beccome tranquil and back to the fox''s body. The fox slowly opened its eyes. She looked at Alex then jumped to him joyfully and licking his cheek "Wuu" Alex was taken by surprise, he then fell to the ground. Alex observe carefully this fox. Its body was almost a meter in height. The fur was orange with a pink color here and there as that was her body surrounded by pink flame. "Can you hide your flame? it might be dangerous with it when we walked around" "Wuu" The flame that was surrounding the fox was slowly getting smaller and smaller until it was disappeared. Alex nodded seeing the flame nowhere to be seen now. Alex then pondering for the next plan, His eyes suddenly brightened, but he hesitated. He then turned to Sherry. "I''m going to a dangerous place, so please stay here. I don''t want something happened to you" "Wuu" Sherry looks like she was wronged. Alex was hesitated, but seeing her, he sighed. "Fine, you can follow me. If something happened I won''t care about it" "Wuu" the fox wagged her tail. 70 To The Battlefield Alex with the Fox went to the Sagur Forest. A forest beside Wilow Plain, the plain which the war takes place. Since he comes with Sherry, the journey took about 2 days running from the Celestial forest. He chose Sagur Forest since the forest was close enough for him to observed the Wilow plain. He can watch the war there. Alex had never seen any real war before, so he was really curious about it. This was the reason Alex wanted to go to the battlefield. Alex reached the forest perimeter. He chose one of the big trees to sat on it. He can see there are two big camps, on his left side, he saw a big tent in white surrounded by many smaller tents. He saw two flags, one flag has golden-colored four pairs of wing pattern. And the other was a big Z covered with five pairs of claws. "That must be the human camp, The flag with wings pattern must be the holy kingdom and the one with a big Z on it must be Zircodina kingdom." He tried to speculate the number of human soldiers there. He speculated there will be around two hundred thousand soldiers there. Well, this was the first time he saw a war, let alone speculating the number of troops. After He saw five big catapults, he contemplated. "Will there any use for them?" Alex shrugged his shoulder. Whatever the case, he will get the answer once the war started. He then turned to his right. There was also a big tent surrounded by many smaller tents. But the tent''s color was red and yellow. On top of the tents, there are flags with a black dragon head in it. but on this site, there is no big weapon that Alex can spot from here. But suddenly Alex was in serious thought. "I might need to go a bit farther, I was almost outside of the forest. It will be bad if either side discovered me. Though it will be a bit harder to see the battlefield, it will be safer. After all, there are many high ranking people in there." Alex nodded, then he got a bit more inside in the forest. With this, the forest will camouflage him. The fox was sat beside him without much interest on the battlefield. The fox eventually falls asleep. Alex can only shake his head because of this. Since they had arrived in the evening. Night soon come, so there weren''t any activities in the plain. Alex went to sleep and wait for tomorrow. Since he and his fox weren''t bothered with the cold, they didn''t make any campfire. So they didn''t make any suspicion from the forest. The next day, Alex woke up. He waited until noon but the war never started. He was bored, he then goes deeper into the forest to kill some monsters to release his boredom. When the night comes, he came back to the previous tree. The fox didn''t follow him when he hunts some monsters. When Alex came back, the fox immediately approached him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Wuu" With a gesture that she wanted to eat. Alex flicked the fox head. "Glutton" Alex shook his head, this fox was really lazy. Her activities were only sleeping and eating. "Wuu" The fox felt wronged. Alex sighed and giving him his fire to eat. The next day was the same. He waited until noon but the war never started. When he about to leave to search some monsters like yesterday. He heard some voice inside the woods. "YOU BASTARD!" Alex immediately turned to the voice. "Should I go there?" After pondering for a moment, Alex decided to go there. The source of the voice wasn''t that far. Alex arrived there in no time. Alex saw two humans seem to want to kill someone. "You Bastard! Die!" He saw the one who was attacked. He had brownish skin, his face was so-so, the remarkable was his temperament, he looked a gallant person. He was covered with many wounds and bleeding all over. But what shock Alex the most, was this person has two big horns on his head. "Demon?" Alex muttered. When the humans arrived in front of him, they swung their sword. "HellFlame!" a big tyrannical purple flame appeared in front of the demon. The swords never reach the demon, because the sword was melted including the one who launched the attack. After that attack, Alex saw the two humans died and the demon was panting. Alex frowned because he soon saw the demon collapsed to the ground. "Should I go there?" Alex was in thought. If there are any more people there, he might be exposed if he goes there now. He searched the surroundings first. After confirming there are no more human or demon in the perimeter. He then arrived in front of the fallen demon. He checked the demon. This demon seems still alive but was badly injured, he seems fighting for a few hours non-stop. Looking at his capability, this demon was around rank 5, the same as him. "..." Alex looked at the demon in thought. "Should I save him? This guy was likely a spy" Alex hesitated. Soon he heard the fox sound. "Wuu" Alex looked at the fox, she seems to ask Alex to save this demon. Alex hesitated once again. After a moment, he decided to save him. "Well, we can gather some information from him too. His rank was the same as me, so he can''t defeat me(?). Well, he injured now. So I''m sure he can''t defeat me in that condition" He looked at Sherry, he muttered in low voice"Sometimes, a human was more dangerous than other creatures, can this fox look at the person''s nature? Whatever I''m a human too so we are equally dangerous" He then carried the demon to some cave in a deeper zone. It will be bad if they were founded out. Alex used his restoration pill on him. The bleeding was stopped and the wound started to close. After Alex saw he was stabilized, he then ordered the fox to watched the demon. After that Alex went out from the cave and kill some more monsters. ... The next day, The demon slowly opened his eyes. "Ugh... Where am I?" He noticed that he was in some cave. But he doesn''t know his exact location. He checked his wound that was already closed up. He was shocked. Because he himself knows what kind of wounds he received. The wound he received yesterday was enough to make him laid on the bed for at least a month, he also already prepared to die in that place yesterday. But now, not only he can somehow move his body, but the wounds also already closed. "Who was the one that healed me?" He was too shocked by his own recovery. He then searched his surroundings. There he saw a fox who asleep now, slowly opened its eyes. He immediately put his guard up. Yup, the fox was sherry keeping watch to the demon. "Are you the one who healed me?" The demon asked "Wuu" The fox shook her head. "Wuu Wuu" It seems telling that her master was the one who healed him. The demon somehow understood the fox. "So your master was the one who healed me. I am thankful to him. Where is your master? I wanted to thank him" He secretly thought, ''It might be good if I can make a relationship with this fox''s master. After all, he/she can heal that kind of wounds in no time'' "Though my mana still not recovered. But my physical wound was already fine. If I can bear the pain, I can move like usual." The demon sighed, "This master was special. Does he/she come from the demi-human? The demon didn''t have any conflict with the demi-human at the moment. If we can be friends that will be good" Of course, never in his mind. The one who saved him was Alex, a human. The reason was simple, they are currently at war with each other. If he was spotted by a human. They will kill him immediately considering his wound, they won''t torture him for information since he will die before they had any chance to do that, let alone helping him. So He immediately thought that he was a demi-human that help to heal his wound. "Wuu" "Alright, I won''t move too much. Thank you" The demon leaned toward the wall. He sighed. He looked at the fox "Haiz... You know, That damned father. He just gave me the throne, like he never cares about it. He gives me the position of a demon lord just because he didn''t care about it. He said, "It was too much problem and he was too lazy to care about it. since you are my son, I will let you inherit it immediately" and then he has gone and passed me the throne just like that" Turned out the demon that Alex had saved wasn''t some ordinary/common demon or spies. He was the current demon lord. If Alex here, he won''t believe it. the demon lord was the king of the demons, they have the biggest authority in the demon territories. This weak and pitiful rank 5 demon was the current demon lord? Don''t joke with me. And the reason he became a demon lord was that his father was too lazy to care about it?. heck with that. Are his father was someone like ''I want a holiday for six months... Twice a year"? is he really a demon lord? Is he really a demon lord? That will be the question. The demon laughed bitterly. "The demon was infuriated with my father. My father was a genius, but he somehow fed up with the fighting so he becomes like that. Sigh... If not for my grandfather and his loyal retainer backing me up. The demon would lose control." The demon was talkative. Well, since he talking with a fox, the fox can''t even speak so there won''t be any information they will lose. "Wuu" The fox consoled him. Even though he didn''t know what the fox says. He knows that the fox seems consoling him, he stroke the fox "Thank you" But suddenly the fox looked at the cave entrance. "Wuu" Yes, Soon enough a figure appeared from the outside and walking toward them. The demon was shocked by the figure he saw, "Human?" He immediately went hostile. He poured all the mana he had at this moment. He then launched his fist, hoping the human die with his surprise attack. "Die!" The demon approached the figure. "What?" The human was surprised that he suddenly got attacked. His instinct takes over, he dodges the strike easily. And kicked the demon abdomen. "Gah!" The demon spurted blood and blown away. He crashed to the cave wall and knock out again. "Oops, It was not intentional. My instinct takes over just now" He then looked at the knocked out demon on the wall. He then healed him again. 71 Demon "Wuu" The fox greeted him. "He sleeps once again, its a shame" The human sighed. ''You are the one who knocked him again'' If the fox can speak, this might be the one that she said. "Wuu" Yep, the human was Alex. Alex picked the demon once again and laid him down. After a few hours. The demon finally wakes up. He slowly opened his eyes. After recalling what just happened. "Is this heaven?" "Wuu" He heard the sound of the fox. He turned to the fox. "are you also killed with me? I''m sorry" "Wuu" Noticing the demon movement. Alex looked at him. He giggled when he heard this kind of conversation. "Right you are already dead, Now let me guide your soul to the reincarnation" Alex said, he tried to make his voice a bit ethereal. The demon still didn''t saw Alex. so he believed this voice. "I see, I have already died. Are you a demon god? If I will reincarnate, please let this fox accompany me. It was my fault that he died" "I''m sorry, I can''t granted your wish, since the fox still alive" "He is still alive? That''s great" The demon was relieved. "Do you have any wish before you reincarnate?" "Wish?" The demon thought for a moment, "I want to know the name of the human that killed me" "Oh him? Sure I will grant your wish." "Thank you very much" The demon thanked him. "His name is..." The voice seems stopped. The demon gulped down, he waited for a while before he shocked with what he heard next. "is...me. pfft!" Alex laughed. The demon shocked, he froze. He then looked at the voice, his eyes widened. The human back then laughing in front of him. He realized, he was still alive. He was tricked all this time. He was angry "You" He tried to punch him again. "Aiyo... Why are you attacking me? I healed you just now and you attacked me. Haiz... Well, I have my fun just now though. Haha..." Alex grabbed the demon fist. "You...You tricked me all this time." Seeing his fist was grabbed by the human, he launched another strike with his other hand. "Haiz... Sherry immobilizes him" Alex said. The fox immediately jumped toward the demon''s back, pinning the demon to the ground. "Now we can talk. Oh right, before I forget. This fox was a female, not a male. Her name is Sherry" Alex said. "You" The demon still looked at Alex hatefully. "Oi... Don''t glare at me like that, after all, I''m the one who saved you" The demon now realized, it seems Alex was really the one who healed him. There are no demi-human in here. "You... Why did you heal me? If you are going after the information you better killed me now because there won''t be any information from my mouth" "No, I am here now because I am curious about the war. Since my kingdom not planning to join the war" The demon suddenly snapped. "Not planning to join the war? You human was the one who attacked us first. For the so-called resources, you killed so many of my brethren " Alex was shocked. He already knows that Zircodina was the one who attacked the demon first. The reason was the resources? What kind of resources is this? And this demon unconsciously spurted all of that information. "Resources? What kind of resources is that?" Alex asked again. The demon suddenly realized that he just spurted the information. He glared at Alex hatefully in silence. The demon seems to regain his calm. Alex shook his head. "Well, we can talk. According to your tone and talk, you seem to be one of the high-status demons" The demon was surprised. The human in front of him almost saw his identity. He saw Alex hatefully "You better killed me, I won''t give you any information again" "Well... Let me introduce myself first. My name is Alexander Sirius. I''m from the Acacia Kingdom. Let me make clear for you first, the one in the battlefield was from Zircodina kingdom and Holy Kingdom. The Acacia kingdom never planning to join the war The reason I''m here because I''m rather curious about the war and I want to stop this war. But I need information. Sigh..." The demon looked at Alex, he didn''t feel any lies in Alex''s word. But he still angry "What do you mean you never planning to join this war. Because of your greed, you attacked us." "Greed? Now I rather curious as how is this ''greed'' involved in this war? Well In my point of view, it''s true, one of the common reasons for war is greed. The other might because of supremacy, anger, beauty, etc. Since this war caused especially because of greed. Can you tell me this ''greed'' in your mouth?" Alex asked "Hmph, I know that the opponent was only two kingdoms at the moment. But, If I told you the reason, I will just incite your greed. There is no guarantee you didn''t report it and joined this war. You can just kill me here" The demon snorted. "It was really hard to talk to you. Well, we are currently at war after all. No enemies will give away their information to their enemy." Alex sighed. "If this war not stopped, Acacia kingdom might get dragged to this war by the other two kingdoms. What should I do..." Alex was in thought, and after a moment he decided. "You can go then" The demon''s eyes widened. "What!" He was shocked. Who will let their enemies get away? "Are you sure to let me go? I will surely report you when I''m back, you know?" Alex looked at him, he shook his head "Sure, I was planning to go back after this. I haven''t planned to stay for a long time here. I''m just curious after all. Why are you suddenly want to die? You basically want me to kill you..." "You... Foolish Human" the demon slowly walks away. Alex shook his head and stroke sherry''s head, "it''s really hard to do some good thing(?). He didn''t even know how to say thanks" ''He is your enemy!'' Sadly, the fox can''t talk. Alex watched the demon who slowly walked away. but his eyes suddenly went wide, he shouted, "STOP!" The demon halted his step and turned back to Alex, "Right, now you regret your choice and take back your promise. As expected of hu..." "Just shut the fuck up and come back here" "Hah, If you think you can order me as you like, then you are wrong" The demon sneered "Fool! Hurry, come back here. It''s coming!" Alex shouted. "Hah, I won''t. You need to drag me back if you want me to com..." The demon didn''t finish his words when he heard there are cracking sounds behind him. "Crack! Boom!" The demon immediately turned back, he saw a giant bear destroying a part of the entrance. The bear looked at the demon in front of it, he launched his claw to the demon. The demon''s face becomes pale. There was only one thought in his mind "I can''t dodge this" A shadow appeared in front of the demon. Using its sword, the shadow blocked the bear strike. Its Alex who appeared. While it managed to block the strike. the strike still blew Alex away. Alex immediately grabbed the demon and fly away together with him. After a few meters, they landed. "You..." The demon was shocked. Alex was the one who protected him. The bear runs toward them and throws another strike to them. "Tch!" Alex clicked his teeth because the bear target was the demon. "Immovable Step" Alex got between them and use his immovable step. He grabbed the bear paws. "Strong!" Alex was shocked by this bear power. "Rank 6?" "Boost step" Alex used his boost step behind his hand to give him more power boost. Because of this momentum, Alex managed to push the bear away. "Rank 6 bear was really strong. This is the first time I meet rank 6 monsters, I really need to go all out ain''t I?" "Sanguin Sword Art, Fifth Slash" A crescent sword wave moves toward the bear at a high speed. But, seeing the sword wave, the bear only used its paw to destroy Alex''s sword wave. After he destroyed Alex''s sword wave, the paw was pushed back because of the shockwave that comes from the sword wave. "Seriously?" Alex was surprised by this bear power. But suddenly "Wuu" A pink colored flame tornado crashed toward the bear. "Boom!" "Fifth Sword Slash" Without saying anything Alex throws another strike to it. Alex then turned to Sherry who released the attack. "Nice Job Sherry" "Wuu" "Roar!" The smoke was cleared away. Alex then shocked. The bear was unscathed. "This might be bad. Maybe, only the six slashes can injure this bear. But the problem was that I haven''t mastered it yet" "..." The bear started running toward Alex again. "Oi... You demon, how about you hide first" The stunned demon finally back. Alex had already saved him thrice. The first was when he almost died, Alex healed him. The second was when the bear comes, and the third was the last charged of the bear. "Tch" The demon was still not moving. Alex grabbed the demon and use his flash step to barely dodge the bear. "You...you don''t need to save me. You can escape if you leave me away. why are you helping me a demon?" "As I said, I never had any prejudice for any races. The one who does a bad thing will have bad karma, no matter what his race is" Alex said, while he secretly added in his mind ''If not, my system might become a bad-luck gacha system'' "..." The demon become silence when he heard that. "Hide yourself." After Alex said that, he used his boost step to arrive in front of the bear and kicked him. Sadly, Alex didn''t managed to kick the bear because the bear was like a boulder. The bear launched its counter-attack by attacking Alex with his claw. Alex immediately put his guard up but the impact still blew him away. Alex looked at the bear, "Did I need to use my flame?" After launching its counter-attack, the bear immediately charged at Alex. while Alex thinking about that. Suddenly another fire tornado crashed toward the bear. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 72 Talk "Boom!" The fire tornado clashed with the bear and exploded "Nice work, Sherry" Alex said, "Maybe I should try to use the sixth slash" Alex focused his mind. "...Fourth, Fifth slash" "Sixth Slash" The sword wave becomes a wind. This mark the sixth slash was a failure. "I need more speed" After the smoke was cleared. Alex immediately tried another sixth slash before the bear comes to his way. But eventually, he failed once again. The bear noticed the gust of the wind from Alex''s failure. He moved toward Alex again. "Flash Step" Alex used his flash step to moved around. Suddenly he recalled something. "I still had my spear don''t I?" Alex hesitated a bit about whether to use it or not. After all, his weapon was one of his highest secrets, A high-rank weapon. And the demon was still here. Alex shook his head, "I still need to do it" Alex jumped off to get some range between the bear. Alex then took out his Piercing sky spear. A beautiful silver colored spear comes out from the system to Alex''s hand. Alex sheathed his sword and focused on his spear. Alex looked at the bear who already on its way toward him. ''Fleeting Step'' Alex dodged the bear easily with an unpredictable movement. While he dodging the bear''s attack, he also thrust his spear to the bear. Surprisingly, the spear was able to pierce the bear easily. Alex was surprised. He recalled when Alicia told him the story about a man who overcame the difference in rank with a weapon. Though he denied it at that time. He now becomes one of the examples of the story. Alex shook his head, this is not the time for thinking about that. Alex focused on the bear. He had already stabbed the bear a few times, making a few holes in the bear''s body. The bear''s movement started to become sluggish. After a half-hour stabbing and dodging with fleeting steps. Alex finally took down the bear. The bear body was full of holes and he died because of the continuous blood loss. "Pant pant!" Alex was exhausted because he used the fleeting step continuously, using this technique continuously really taking tolls in his mind. Not only he needed to keep dodging, but he also needs to go to the offensive by stabbing the bear with his spear. Alex used his spear to help him stand up. "Wuu" The fox looking at Alex, full of concern. Alex stroke Sherry''s head, "Don''t worry" Then he turned to the demon, "Oi, the bear had already died. You can go now" The demon then comes up, all this time, he keeps observing Alex. Looking at Alex who saved him and helps him again and again, he decided. "I want to ask you something" "What is it?" "You are from the Acacia Kingdom right?" Alex nodded for his question. "Are you sure you are able to stop this war?" Alex thought for a moment then shook his head. "Stopping this war? I can not do that. The only thing I can do was to prevent the Acacia Kingdom from going to the war. But..." "But?" The demon frowned. "If the war went bad and the human was pressured to losing, Acacia might be dragged to the war. After all, we are talking about the survival of the whole race. If the two kingdoms lose, Acacia alone... sigh, though I hate to say this, Acacia alone can''t protect the whole human race. If we had our strength like the past, then we might can. But now...sigh" Then Alex continued, "That''s why I want to stop this war. Aside from that, who wants to keep fighting every now and then... where your subject can''t even get a good sleep because they were anxious when their home might get attacked at that moment." After hearing Alex''s answer. The demon hesitated, but he decided "My name is Zhar Dias Volmion 77th. I am the current demon lord" Alex''s eyes widened. He was speechless. What is happening right now? The random demon suddenly become the demon lord "I...I''m sorry for kicking you too hard. Eh, wait. If I am not wrong, I only kicked your abdomen right? But where is this brain problem coming from? Is it because you crashed to the wall after I kicked you? Ugh...I''m very sorry about that. You can go, no- Please go now" Alex said hurriedly. "Oi...! It''s the truth" The demon started to angry. "Um okay" Alex nodded. "..." The demon was speechless, "You now accept it suddenly" "Nothing... I just want to say that line just now" Alex laughed. "You...!" He once again got tricked by Alex. But suddenly Alex became solemn, "Then, Current Demon Lord what are you going to do with the war?" "If you were I, what will you do?" Alex was surprised. "If I were you? First, I won''t ask my enemies as you did just now. Because they might think me stupid" Now was the demon turned to be surprised. "You..." "Haha... I''m joking" Then Alex continued "If I were you, I will make the war stagnant for a long time. If the war comes big, then the hatred will become bigger and bigger and the war involving the whole race will happen. Not only the soldier, even a weak subject of your race needed to take the weapon and participated in this war. At that time, Stopping the war would be impossible" Zhar was also agreed with Alex''s word. He nodded. "By the way, I want to ask you, what is the objective of Zircodina in this war?" Zhar thought for a moment, "Well you Acacia might already have this kind of resource so I might also tell you. After all, I doubt that you alone can swallow these resources." "Hoo..." Alex was astonished. What kind of resources he talked about. "It was a mineral mine. If Zircodina had it, they might become on par of Acacia in a few decades. Acacia already had this kind of mine though" Alex''s eyes brightened. Now he knows the reason for this war. "Zircodina..." He recalled when he was summoned to this world. He thought that the king was a wise king and he summoned him and the others because he wanted to protect the human race. But now... Now, Alex knows everything. Behind his wise mask, There is greed that can''t be contained. He wanted the resources so he attacked the demon, but when the situation had gone wrong. He called the hero to save him from this situation. But everything changes when Maria was involved. If Maria becomes a ''Priestess'', the holy kingdom will undoubtedly be involved. Alex sighed. "Well, how are we going to do this now..." "I see you worthy of my trust. That''s why I said this much. Haiz... If you are a demon, I might want to be a brother of you" Alex was surprised. Alex looked at him weirdly "Well, I''m surprised, why our relationship becomes like this. At first, you wanted to kill me but powerless to do so. Then you become like this" "Cough...cough... That was normal if you consider our situation. But, as I said after I observed you. You are worthy of my trust" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex shook his head, "Whatever" Zhar sighed, "What do you think we should do, from a human perspective" Alex and Zhar were in thought. After a while, Alex suddenly said "Demi-human" Zhar was surprised by what Alex said, "You mean to involve the demi-human as a third party to stop this war?" Alex nodded. "Well, that might be possible but... demi-human alone might not be able to stop this war" Zhar said sadly. "How about if our Acacia also involved?" Zhar''s eyes brightened. "That''s right. If you two joined, the war can be stopped" Alex smiled, but he frowned when he saw Zhar suddenly frowned. "But..." Zhar was in thought. "There is still one problem that you missed. It might be not possible to convince the demi-human." "What do you mean?" Alex frowned. "The demi-human was facing their biggest trouble at this moment. That''s why when the human and the demon fight like this. There won''t be any response from the demi-human." "Biggest trouble?" "Their world tree is dying. And there is still no solution for that" Alex''s eyes widened. World Tree was the symbol of the demi-human. It was the most important thing for a demi-human. If the tree died, he can''t imagine what will happen to the demi-human. "How long?" Alex muttered "3 years left" Understood his question, Zhar answered. Alex sighed, "If it''s like that... Before Alex finished his words "Boom!" The cave entrance crashed once again. Alex and Zhar immediately turned to the direction. They saw a large centipede chewing the bear that Alex killed a few hours ago. "Can''t we have any peace for a moment" Alex sighed, he took out his spear again. But before he charged, he frowned. Zhar also noticed the feeling, he grabbed Alex shoulder "Be careful" Alex nodded. "After this, I want to drink with you. But be careful, I felt something wrong in this centipede. I will try to support you with all I have. Though it won''t be much, its better than nothing. After this long rest, my strength has recovered a bit." Alex nodded again, he grabbed his spear and use his flash step to approach the centipede. He arrived in front of the centipede in a flash. He then thrust his spear to its body. The spear managed to pierce the body but, "Too swallow" Alex was shocked. Even a rank 6 bear can easily be pierced by this spear but this centipede. The spear only managed to pierce the body a bit. The centipede noticed Alex attacked, the centipede turned its focus to Alex. "Scree!" it roared to Alex, then launched its head to attack Alex. Alex was surprised, "Too Fast" He barely guarded the attack, but the attack blew him away. "Sky Step" Alex used his sky step to stabilize himself in the air. Then he charged toward the centipede once again. Alex tried to employ the same strategy as when he fought the bear. "Fleeting Step" Alex dodged the attacks from the centipede. But only barely, Alex can''t even let out an attack because of the continuous attack from the centipede. The centipede can use its body nimbly, releasing attacks from its body. That''s why even with Alex''s fleeting step, he can only barely dodging all these attacks. 73 Struggle "Alexander" Alex who was called immediately pulled back. He turned to Zhar who called him. "I will release my strongest attack with all I have, If I''m done, I will give you the signal. You dodge to the side. Back then this power can severely injure a rank 6, even this rank 7 won''t leave unscathed." Zhar said. Alex nodded and he charged to the centipede once again. Alex used his fleeting step to keep this centipede busy. While Zhar preparing his magic. After a few minutes, Zhar finished his magic. "Alexander!" Alex immediately used his boost step, jumping to the side as fast as possible. Sherry spurted flames toward the centipede to stop it for a moment. "Take this. Burn to Ash, Hell Dragon Flame!" After releasing the magic, Zhar''s legs become limp. He didn''t have any energy left in his body. Even moving his finger was not possible at the moment. Releasing this magic was really hard in his current injured body. A big purplish-black flame appeared in front of Zhar. It shot out toward the centipede. In its way, the flame becomes a dragon shape. "Roar!" The dragon-shaped flame looked alive at this moment, seem wanting to swallow the centipede alive. Alex was really surprised by the power of the flame. "Boom!" The flame hit the centipede. A flame residue was spread around the centipede. Alex, Zhar, and Sherry looked anxiously toward the centipede that was surrounded by smoke. "Did we do it?" All of them held a single thought. "Scree!" The centipede let out a sound. The smoke that covering the centipede immediately blown away. they looked toward the spot that hit by Zhar''s flame. The spot was burned and turned to black. But that''s all, there is no more damage that can be seen. "Its really no good?" Zhar said bitterly Alex frowned, he thought about something, then he asks the system "System, can I store the item that was far away from me?" [No Host, that feature only possible after the next update] "Tch... I really can''t. This is going to be very awful" Alex''s plan was to throw his spear using the Throwing Spear Art. Then retrieve the spear using system storage. But after hearing the system response. That plan was crumbled, now their situation was truly dire. But suddenly his eyes brightened. He remembered something, he then turned to Sherry. "Sherry, after I throw the spear. You grabbed the spear and give it back to me, you understand?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded its head. Alex''s plan now changed, since the system was not possible. Than Sherry become its substitute. With Sherry speed, she can retrieve his spear easily after it pierced the centipede. Alex never thought that the centipede will die after just one spear. So he makes Sherry grabbed his spear while he defended himself with his sword for a moment. That was the most doable plan for the moment. Actually, Alex wanted to run away. but the centipede was around the entrance, even if he managed to run, Zhar won''t be able to. It will give a bad taste in his mouth if he did that. Now, He grabbed his spear. Alex aims the spear toward the centipede''s head and throws his spear "Spin Throwing" He chose the spin throwing first to judge the hardness of the centipede''s carapace. If he uses the power throwing, he can''t imagine what will happen if he did that. Will the centipede blasted away or his spear failed to blow the centipede. If the latter, then Alex will have no more weapons other than his sword. The spear flew toward the centipede head at a very fast speed. The centipede moves its head to dodge the spear. But its body was still hit. Because of the centipede big and long body. Even the head was missed, there still a chance the spear will hit the body part behind it. Alex''s spear managed to hit the centipede body. The spear pierced the centipede body pretty easily since it was a rank 8 spear, to boost it Alex also used his spin throwing that boosting its piercing power. But there is one miscalculation that Alex made. The spear was strong and the problem is that the spear was really strong, in fact, it was too strong. With Alex''s current position where he needs to aim at the centipede''s head means that Alex needs to throw a bit upward. After the spear pierced the centipede''s body, it continued to pierce the cave top wall then continued to fly to the sky. Yup, in this dire situation, Alex forgot to control his strength in throwing the spear just now. After seeing all of this, Alex realized he didn''t control the strength well enough. Though Alex used spear-throwing art every now and then, all of his spears were only a normal iron spear. But this time, Alex threw a rank 8 spear. Its sharpness and power were entirely on a different level. This was the matter that Alex forget and regret at this moment. "Tch" Alex clicked his tongue. "Sherry!" Sherry immediately moved around the centipede and chased the spear outside. Meanwhile, Alex pulled out his sword. "In the meantime, I will wait for Sherry to come back while keeping this thing busy" ... Outside, There is someone who flying around outside, this someone seems to be searching for someone. Suddenly this person saw a spear flying to the sky and dropped to the ground. He flying toward the spear. "Wuu" He saw a fox grabbed the spear with its mouth. Now he saw the spear close up, he noticed the power contained in the spear. This spear was undoubtedly a rank 8 spear. "Oh a fox wanting this kind of spear... but, there seems a battle inside that cave." "Wuu" The fox glared at this person. "Hmph" He grabbed the spear from the fox''s mouth easily. And then he grabbed the fox along with him. "You can be my pet or young lord pet later. Its already a rank 5 even though this fox was only a few years old" The fox didn''t have any chance to retaliated. This person was truly powerful. Now this guy, carrying the spear and the fox moved toward the cave ... Back to the cave, "Fifth Sword Slash" After wounding the centipede. The centipede movement started to become slower. This makes Alex had the chance to attack it. But this sword wave was immediately repelled just after the sword wave makes a contact with the body. Alex recalled something "Flame" He raised his sword and swing it down "Flame sword wave" A beautiful flame sword wave moves toward the centipede. It hit the centipede and give the centipede a cut in its head with a bit burn in its carapace. Zhar who saw this felt the flame on his body desperately struggling to fight the aura comes from Alex''s flame. But he can''t be bothered to think all of this. He looked at Alex worriedly. After, a few tens of rounds with the centipede. Alex started to struggling with the centipede. His mana was almost empty because of the continuous fight. After fighting the bear, he needs to fight this centipede again. His mind started to lose its focus. Suddenly, the centipede attacked Alex with its head. Alex dodges the attack, barely. But he didn''t notice that the second attack almost reached him. Suddenly he felt a big force toward his chest. "Shit" Alex saw the centipede''s tail moving toward his chest. He immediately used his sword to block it. When the sword clashed with the centipede''s tail, it broke. The tail continues toward Alex''s chest. "Pah!" Alex spurted much blood. His mind becomes fuzzy after that attack, ''How much ribs that attack broke just now?'' ''Is this my end?'' He thought. He held his consciousness for a few seconds, then collapsed to the ground "Alexander!" Zhar shouted, he felt powerless. Seeing Alexander collapse, he didn''t know why but something feels missing in his heart. Even though their meeting was brief. He felt some fondness for Alex. He felt, it was great if Alex becomes his brother. After Alex saved him from the bear, He already regarded Alex as his friend. And now seeing Alex who fought hard with the centipede, he regraded this Alex as his brother. Because of his shout, The centipede stopped from finishing Alex. The centipede now noticing Zhar. The centipede changed its direction and now moving toward Zhar. ... Meantime, In Acacia kingdom Royal academy. There are two women practicing their magic in a courtyard. One was practicing her ice, and the other was practicing her flame. Yes, they are Alicia and Firia. Not long after, An old man came to the courtyard. "How do you do?" "Ah, Uncle Marco" "Dean Marco" The one who called him uncle was obviously Alicia, while Firia calling him with ''Dean''. "Haha... I just wanted to check you guys. Alex would come back soon. Here is your drink" The dean gave them some drinks, while he drinking a cup of tea. "Yes, we are good. We can show Alex our progress after he comes back" Alicia said enthusiastically. Firia also nodded with Alicia''s statement. She herself also makes some progress this month. She wanted to show Alex her progress. "Haha...Good!" The Dean laughed. But suddenly, he felt something loss in his heart and unconsciously dropped his cup to the floor. "Ha..." The dean shocked with what just he felt, he muttered"What is that?" He then looked to Alicia and Firia with a surprised face. "Uncle..." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Dean Marco..." "You two...Do you feel it too?" The two nodded their heads. "What happened just now?" "Is that a magic just now?" "No, I don''t feel any change in the mana surrounding. Nor any magic activated in here." The dean immediately denied. "I...My heart...somehow felt pained" Alicia said while touching her chest. After Alicia said that, All of them suddenly remembered someone. That someone was obviously Alex. All of them looked at each other. They seem to remember the same person. "There''s no way right?" But no one can answer that question. "I will try to ask the guard in Lumid Town about Alex. Since he was going to the Celestial Forest, he must visit that town first since that town was the nearest with the forest." Alicia and Firia can only nod. 74 Going Back In the cave, The centipede was charging toward Zhar who can even move after he released his magic. Zhar looking at his condition, he sighed. He looked at Alex. "Alexander, if there is a next life. I want to be your brother...I''m going first" As he said that, Zhar slowly closed his eyes. But suddenly he heard someone shouted his name. "Young Lord Zhar!" The voice was heard from the entrance of the cave. Zhar immediately opened his eyes again, He remembered this voice. He shouted "Uncle Tius" The one who shouted just now was the person that Sherry met on the outside. The demon was called Tius, the attendance of Zhar. After hearing Zhar''s voice, Tius was very happy "Young Lord Zhar" But he saw a centipede was charging toward his young lord. He immediately let go of Sherry and the spear and blocked the centipede. The centipede''s charge was easily stop with Tius''s strength alone. "Young Lord Zhar, I''m glad you are fine" Zhar nodded, "Killed this monster first" "Understood" Tius immediately kicked the centipede away. He pulled his sword and charged toward the flying centipede. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Raging Strike" A continuous strike was unleashed, From the head to the tail. Tius releasing strike after strike toward the centipede, like he was on a rampage. The centipede can''t even fight back. Not only because Tius''s strength was higher than him, but its combo also makes the centipede can''t move away. After numerous strikes, the centipede laid lifelessly on the ground, with its body contained many cut wounds that still bleeding. After the centipede died, Tius immediately go to Zhar and kneeled in front of him. "Young Lord, I''m glad you are fine. We searched for you for days." "Thank you for your hard work" "No...It is our job to do so" "Young Lord, what happened to you these few days?" "I was ambushed when I go to this forest. Luckily, their strength wasn''t that much higher than me. I somehow managed to kill them all. But I was injured at that time" "Wha!" Tius''s eyes widened, then he becomes angry "Those human bastards" Tius spotted Alex who still underground, unconscious. Tius immediately got in front of Alex and raised his sword "This human bastard, I will kill him" Sherry immediately got in front of Tius. She glared at him angrily. "Wuu" She glared not only to Tius but also to Zhar. She somehow hated Zhar who indirectly involved in this. How dare the subordinate of him to kill Alex who saved his lord. Sherry glared hatefully toward two of them. "Oh, this is the fox just now. Don''t worry, this human won''t control you anymore after I kill him" "Wuu" But, Just when he about to thrust his sword toward Alex, Zhar immediately Shouted. "STOP!" Tius immediately stopped, he looked toward Zhar with a confused look. "Young Lord?" "Are you going to kill my benefactor? The one who saved my life" He also felt the gaze of Sherry who seems to hate him now. "Benefactor? This human? young lord, you..." "It was true that humans ambushed me and I almost got killed. But Alexander saved me despite our race difference. He didn''t wish for a war, he wants to stop it. and also he didn''t come from those two kingdoms, he comes from the third kingdom" "Third kingdom? Acacia kingdom?" Zhar nodded, "Pulled back your sword right now!" "Ye-yes!" But as he wanted to ask what is happening just now, Zhar continued. "I regarded him as my brother, though our meeting was short I feel he was trustworthy. He not only saved and healed me. He also protected me from those two monsters" Zhar pointed at the centipede corpse and the bear half corpse, since the portion of the bear''s corpse already eaten by the centipede. "Young lord" Sherry silently grabbed Alex''s spear and placed it beside Alex. She licked Alex face sadly "Wuu" Her eyes seem telling ''I already finished the task, please wake up master" "Wuu" Looking at this scene, Zhar felt pained inside. He then turned to Tius "Uncle Tius, can you help him?" Tius who heard this, hesitated. Then he sighed and shook his head "I''m sorry young lord, this subordinate was incompetent. I also didn''t bring any medicine" Zhar bitterly bites his lips. "Then, we can move him to our camp and get treated there" Tius shook his head, "I''m sure that won''t going to happen, young lord. Before that going to happen, he will long be killed by other demons, even if you are the current demon lord. There are still some fanatic who will kill other race without thinking" "There is nothing we can do?" Zhar looked at Alex sadly. "His vital, though weak but steady. He just fainted because of this attack in his chest and his exhaustion. The least we can do is to gather the demons that now searching for you and open up a route for him to go and treated in the human camp" Tius said bitterly. "I..." Zhar looked toward Alex. Sherry suddenly used her flame. She got covered by fire. The fire started to seep into Alex''s sword. "Wuu" Tius''s eyes suddenly widened. "This...this fox must be a celestial fox" "Celestial Fox?" Zhar confused. "Celestial Fox. fifty years ago, there is a celestial fox in human territories that reside in a forest. That fox was a rank 8 monster. Their specialty was their sensitivity to fire. They can recognize the fire from hundreds of miles away. This fox must be its offspring. From what I see, this fox''s flame was fused with the flame inside the fox. The fox will recognize where the other flame sources were. The flame made that made this sword was special, it feels very pure. This type of flame was very scarce so the possible reason, the other flame sources were in this human home." "You mean?" Zhar eyes brightened. "Yes, This fox will know where his home, bring him and treated him there. Since his condition was stable, he should be fine with all of that" "But... isn''t it faster if he goes to the human camp?" Tius pondered for a moment then shook his head. "He is from the third kingdom" Zhar eyes suddenly brightened, then he sighed. "The only way for me to help you were to pull back and make way for you, brother. I''m sorry that I can only do this" "Sherry... I''m counting on you. Bring my brother and save him" "Wuu" Sherry snuck under Alex''s body and stand up. Alex was laid unconscious on Sherry back. Luckily, her size was just enough for Alex. Then Sherry bites Alex spear to carry it in her mouth. "Uncle Tius" Zhar said sadly. Tius nodded his head and grabbed Zhar. "We will pull back" ... After a while, Sherry started to move. Carrying Alex on her back, she traveled to the outside. She traced the fire aura inside of the sword. Alex''s fire that builds this sword. She found the direction of the other fire sources. She journeyed toward the direction for days. Whether in the day or night, she keeps walking. With Alex on her back, she can''t run. So she can only keep walking and walking. She killed all the monsters in her way. Fortunately, there are no high-rank monsters, only rank 3 or below. Even so, she was exhausted from all of that. In the day, she carrying Alex. in the night, She didn''t even stop walking but continuing the journey, hoping to arrive a few seconds faster, a few minutes, a few hours faster, a few days faster. She traveled through forest, plain, and swamp continuously without stop. In the celestial forest, she was alone for many years. After she was born, she didn''t even know her parents. There is only an empty fire cave when she opened her eyes for the first time. She fought with many beasts in that forest. Sometimes she killed other monsters easily, sometimes she got injured severely. When she met Alex, she attacked Alex because she thought he was a theft that wanted to grab her treasure. But after seeing Alex''s flame, she felt the superiority in Alex''s flame. She thought Alex will kill her but it is not. Alex not only didn''t kill her but also give her a chance to evolve. Even when she journey with Alex, she was protected by Alex all this time. This was the first experience for her who always surviving alone in that cave. She found some fondness toward Alex. Even if others saw what Alex did was only a normal act. But it was entirely different for her. She found happiness with Alex. This was her drive for walking this long. Before, she was ready to live and die with Alex when facing that centipede but somehow survive the ordeal. So this time, she wants to make sure Alex is safe. After a week, she saw a big city wall. She felt many of Alex''s flame sources gather in this city. She was exhausted. When she arrived near the city gate. "Wha...monster!" Many travelers got surprised by the appearance of Sherry. The guard also moves fast, "What happened? Where is the monster?" After seeing the guards, she let down the spear on her mouth, "Wuu" She let out a sound weakly because she was very exhausted. She collapsed with Alex on her back. The guard surrounds her with caution but seeing this monster carrying a human. the guard looked toward the human, but he felt something familiar with him. "Where did I saw his face? I thought I had seen him somewhere" The captain frowned. "Cap...captain" suddenly one of his subordinates talked. "Isn''t he the one we searched?" After hearing it, the captain eyes brightened "Yes, his face was the same with the portrait" Then he immediately stood up "Inform the king that we found him, hurry up bring him inside. And call the doctor" "Yes, This subordinate understand" ... The king was in the middle of the meeting with many ministers and nobles "Bang!" "Your...your majesty" Many nobles and ministers frowned. They are in the middle of the meeting but suddenly a guard came in. "We are in the middle of the meeting!" One of the nobles shouted toward the guard angrily. The guard''s face becomes pale. But suddenly the king stopped him, "What is it? for you to be so rushed" "We...We found him" "Him? Who..." But before he completed his word, he was enlightened. He immediately stood up "Where is he?" "He... he is in our medical barrack" "What! What happened to him?" "We...We don''t know, your majesty. He was severely injured and unconscious right now" "Imm...immediately call the royal doctors. Called the academy''s dean too. And take me to him" 75 Zircodina 1 Meanwhile, in the Zircodina Kingdom. One of the soldiers gives their reports on the battlefield. "Your Majesty, we failed to assassinate the current demon lord" "Current demon lord? What are you thinking you fool? If you managed to finish that demon first we can finish this war fastly" "We...We thought he was some normal demon spy. So we only let some rank 5 to chase him." "You... How can you make a blunder like that, guard I don''t want to see this person here" The king said, frustrated. After the soldier left the palace hall, the king turned to the side "How is the hero?" "He...he..." The minister didn''t know what to say "Sigh...The hero becomes so useless for us now. Luckily, that old man still protect my daughter" After he had been beaten by Alex, the hero become mentally unstable. When he woke up the first time and know what happened. He made a ruckus in the journey. He has often beaten the archmage and the sage, Sandra and Ayaka. The princess was also almost beaten by him but he was hindered by the old marshall, which is the princess teacher. At first, he, the king, engaged his daughter to control the hero. Ever since he noticed the lustful personalities in this hero, he thought using this, he can easily manipulate the hero. And of course, when the princess was summoned back, the old marshall who always accompanying her also followed her back. When the princess comes back to the castle, she who was even prettier than the archmage and the sage become the target of the hero. Since the king knows about it, he made an engagement between them. but he made a few conditions. First, the hero can''t touch her before they married. Second, the marriage will be held as soon as they win the war. The princess was disgusted with the hero at first. But seeing him become stronger at a fast speed, she reluctantly agreed for her kingdom. Luckily, her father already made an arrangement where he can''t touch her at the moment. Or she can''t imagine what will happen to her next. The hero raised his power at a fast speed. All of it because he got a big status at the start. His leveling up was the effort from the soldiers who helped him. The soldiers fight the monsters first then the hero will finish them. thus giving the hero a massive amount of experience to level up. The hero was trained by the captain of the royal guard. Except for his high status, the captain was disappointed, whether in his fighting skill, character, etc. especially his lust and his love for boasting. Well, the captain continued to train him as the order of the king, the hero seems easy to manipulate. If he can reach rank 8 or even rank 9, it will be a very big boost to the kingdom. And he who manipulates him will rip the best reward. But everything was crumbled when Alexander beat him. Alexander, who he thinks so useless back then, he even personally agreed with the hero to expel Alexander who was a burden and banished him from the castle. He thought, Alexander would be useless and die somewhere with his status, so when Alex asked for a few gold coins for survival he agree to it easily, he thought even Alexander have a few gold coins, what can he do alone with that status. The best possible outcome was for him to become a merchant. If he was somewhat useful, he can control Alexander with the power of the kingdom. It will be two bird in one stone if that happens. He just gives Alexander a few gold coins, and he becomes a merchant with a big profit. If that happened and he controls Alex with his power, then it becomes the best. He didn''t know what kind of knowledge in the Earth. He thought with Alex''s calm personality he can become a good merchant since it was practically impossible to become a warrior with his current status points. A merchant needs a calm personality which Alex had. But he never thought that Alex chose the impossible in his thought. Not only Alex becomes strong, even stronger than the hero, he also becomes one of the most important young people in the Acacia Kingdom, the dean''s student. The dean won''t accept him if Alex didn''t have any potential or strength, so he sure Alex was ''Strong enough'' before he becomes the dean''s student. He started to regret that he personally banished Alex away from here. The status card only gives you the current status points, not their personalities, not their skill, nor their potential. He regretted that he accepts the hero wishes to expel Alex. if Alex was groomed by him, of course, he will have an attachment to this kingdom and he can slowly manipulate Alex since with Alex''s personalities he might need more time. But all of it will be worth it. "How about that person?" He then asked the minister. ''That Person'' in his mouth was obviously Alex. He asked for all the reports about Alex that he can get. "Ha! This the report of Alexander Sirius" "Alexander Sirius was summoned here a year ago. He was banished from here in the next day. He then registered as an adventurer in the adventurer guild in this city. He then went to Alisia Forest. The report said he was in the forest for two months. Then he went toward the Acacia kingdom. He got inside the duke, Rizertia, house after he arrived at the kingdom and lived there. According to the report, it said that Alex met The third princess of Acacia Kingdom, Princess Alicia when she went back after she comes here. In the current situation, his relationship with Princess Alicia was very close. He also got close to another female from an earl house. He becomes the acacia royal academy''s dean student as soon as he got there. He was crowned as the strongest of the first-year students when he got there. Then when the first academy event, he got the first place from all of the first-year students, and number 9 from the whole academy. According to our spy, he killed a rank 5 monster in that event, how he did that was unclear. " "Unclear huh..." The king sighed, "Continue" "Ha! At the second event of the academy that having their student to dive inside the dungeon. He placed at number one, apparently, he was also a gold rank hunter" "Gold Rank!" King unconsciously released his aura. The minister face''s become pale. Alex as a gold rank hunter means so much after all. If Alex was a gold rank hunter, that means Alex had killed a rank 5 monsters in the dungeon. Whether he did it alone or in a group, he surely killed a rank 5 monster. Even he killed it with a group, what can a group of first-year students do to a rank 5 monster. To add it, Alex was the strongest of the first-year students, that means even in a group, Alex was the one who contributed the most. "Continue" The king said hoarsely. "Ha! After that event, we didn''t detect any big movement from him. The latest was when he bea... defeat our hero" After the minister said that, the king''s expression turned to dark. That day, after Alex defeated the hero. He becomes the center of attention. They can get away from humiliation if they admitted that the hero only trained for a year after all. But the foolish thing that happened back then was when the hero made a ruckus in the arena. Even the archmage and the sage follow the suit. He blatantly showed his lust in front of many people. Many people were disgusted by this hero. And Zircodina who summoned and groom him also get their reputation destroyed. Since he also engaged his daughter to him. But that is not the worst thing. The worst thing was when they know the relationship between Alex and the hero along with his companions. The hero was Alex''s former best friend. While the worst thing was Sandra who was his ex-lover(?). everybody thinks that was foolish of her since he chose the hero instead of Alex. After all the difference was very huge, whether in personalities and power. After Alex defeat them and even cut ''that part'' of the hero. The Zircodina become a laughing stock, The hero reached rank 3 within a year. But Alex reached rank 5 at the same time. And he, the king personally banished him. Now the hero called by many names, though there is no one in the kingdom dares to tell it face to face, but the name was still around. The names were ''The eunuch'', ''Hero Saving a eunuch'', ''Saving beauty in distress? For what?'' and many others. While he himself was called ''Foolish King'' because of this incident. He wanted to personally head toward Acacia Kingdom with an army demanding Alex. But he was occupied with the war, he can''t. He was stressed by this matter so much. "Your Majesty... What should we do?" The king put his finger in his forehead. He pondered for a moment "We were occupied with this war. I thought of sending assassins but, If the assassination failed and he along with Acacia Kingdom know that we are the one who sends them. Our relation would become the worst. If he becomes stronger in the future, then he might destroy this kingdom. After all this incident, I''m sure Acacia Kingdom will protect him unless they are a fool. Our relation was still repairable. Hmm... Are there any noble daughters that currently studying at Acacia Royal Academy?" "Yes, a few of them" The minister answered. "Make them have contacts with him. It will be best if one or two of them managed to seduce him." "But...won''t Acacia kingdom thought of that too?" "Just do it, it won''t do any wrong if they failed. Acacia kingdom can''t blame the girls. After all, Alexander currently in the spotlight." "Ha! I will notify all of them" The king nodded. but suddenly, "BANG!" The hall''s door was opened. A soldier came in rush. He kneeled in front of the king. "Your Majesty, there is a news" The king frowned, "Say it" "Ha! Our spy just sends back a piece of information. It seems Alexander was gravely injured and his current situation still unknown." The king frowned, "Good work, you can return" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "What should we do your majesty?" The minister asked. "Even if we send our doctor there. They need a long time to get there, even a rank 7 need more than a week flying toward there. We will wait and see first if Acacia kingdom can''t handle the situation, they will surely ask for help. When that time comes, we can send our doctors. At that time, our relationship will mend to be better. We can also send that ''priestess'' to heal him." "Understood" The priestess in his mouth was obviously Maria Fergina, Sandra''s childhood friend. 76 Zircodina 2 WARNING! WARNING! There are some repulsive contents in this chapter. "Understood" The minister bow to the king, then he asked, "Then, What should we do with the hero?" "..." after pondering for a moment, he answered without any expression in his face. "The current him would be useless for us. But we also can''t annul the engagement between him and my daughter for now. Hmm... For now, we can use him first, after the war finished. We killed him, and make my daughter engaged with Alexander to show him our sincerity. After all, my daughter will still a virgin at that time." The minister gulped down, "Understood" If He also knows Alex''s pure fire element and all of his achievements, he won''t do all of this. He might immediately kill the hero and engaged her daughter. Or he might need to eliminate Alex immediately. The king nodded. "Then what the situation on the battlefield?" "The current situation was very strange" "Strange?" The king frowned, he was confused. "Yes, the demon didn''t attack us aggressively, so the situation becomes stagnant for now." "Hmm..." Those two continued their planning. ... In the military training ground. There were two men fighting in there, the first one appeared with a gallant armor. The other one appeared with a normal soldier armor. The first one obviously was John. On the side, there are three women. Two of them held a few bruises all over their bodies. Those two were obviously Sandra and Ayaka. They put a sad face. Sandra seems contemplating her choice, was she wrong to choose John than Alex?. this kind of thought keeps appeared in her mind. While there is a hatred in Ayaka''s eyes. Even last night... ... Last night, John visit the two girls'' bedroom. He first visited Ayaka''s bedroom. "Bang!" John forcefully opened the door. "Hii!" After several beating in the journey, Ayaka seems to be traumatized. "You slut come here" John shouted. "No...no...don''t come" Ayaka was scared. "You bitch looked at this" He pointed toward his crotch area, "Before, you beg me to do it. and now, you become like this. You bitch, you must be happy with my current situation right" "Noo...no...please" Full of tears, she begged. "You bitch...you slut..." without further ado, John started to beat her mercilessly. He was like a madman. He was insane, not only That useless Alex beat him, he even cut his little brother and made him a eunuch. Everybody looked toward him with pity and looked down on him. After he finishes beating Ayaka, he went toward Sandra''s room. "Bang!" John forcefully opened the door. "Hii!" The same with Ayaka, Sandra also traumatized. "Because of you slut" John shouted. "You slut was his ex right... because of you, this all happened to me... Bang...Bang...!" "Please...stop...please...stop...Ahh..." This scene was often seen in their journey. In some morning, Ayaka and Sandra suddenly seem to be beaten up. After a few rounds of beating, John finally out of the room. "Hiks!" She cried up. She got up with so much pain and started to sweep all the blood in her body. While sweeping her blood, she cried "Is this karma? Hiks... Alex, Maria" After Alex beat John and even cut his little brother. John''s personalities become cruel and merciless. They often beat them in the inns in their journey and also in this castle. No low ranking person would dare to stop him, while those who had a high rank can''t be bothered to that. John almost beat Princess Rieze too, but unfortunately, he was stopped by her teacher, the previous old marshall. In the field, John was fighting with a soldier. But soon enough, the soldier was beaten up with bruises and blood spread all over his body. After all the average normal soldier was only a rank 3 or lower. They can''t possibly fight John who has the power of rank 4. After John beat the soldier mercilessly, he then turned toward the other soldiers and said coldly "Next!" The soldiers were scared. They will be beaten if they go. But if they not, the worst will come. Finally, one of the soldiers reluctantly steps up. The soldier bows toward the hero, "Sir Eu...Hero, please" He almost slipped ''Eunuch'' in his word. But John still catches this up, He becomes insane once again. "Gah!" The soldier was kicked by the hero in his abdomen. After John kicked him, he immediately charged toward the flying soldier and throw a punch toward his face. "What...! What...just you want to say? What do you call me?" Punch after punch raining down toward the soldier. The soldier''s face started bruised and bleed. Teeth started to flying out from his mouth. "I...Bak!...I''m...Bak!...Sor...BAK!" The soldier was punched by John continuously, he can''t even talk. "What do you call me?" After a while beating the soldier, John stood up. The soldier''s face was disfigured, and black, blue, and red color fill his face. "I''m sorry...I won''t do it again" John pulled out his sword "Of course you won''t do it again. Since a dead man can''t do it again" "Aahhh!" John first cut his d*ck. And he laughed like a madman "Haha, now you are a eunuch" "Ahhh!...I''m sorry... Ahhh!" John then cut the soldier''s body part, starting from his right leg to his left leg, then to his arms. Then lastly he beheaded his head. After he beheaded him, he kicked the soldier head toward the side. The scene was gruesome No one dared to say or approach this mad hero. They were scared. All the soldiers face become pale, Ayaka and Sandra shivered in fear, they keep recalling what John always did. Until Princess Rieze suddenly rushed in. "You...you are the hero, why are you doing this toward your comrades and soldiers?" Rieze was angry toward John''s cruelty. "What? Do you want to change with them? Sure! You bitch, I can''t touch you because of your teacher. Now he is not here. I can beat you up. They can''t do anything to me even if I beat you up, after all, I am a hero" John sneered. "You!" Rieze pulled out her sword from her waist. She got closer to John slowly. "Hmph!" John suddenly jumped out toward her. "Sword Strike" "Hero Strike" The two sword strike clashing with each other. But the outcome was clear, The current Rieze''s sword strike was not enough to stop John''s Strike. Rieze was pushed back because of the strike. While John keeps charging toward her recklessly. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. When John almost reached her, he swung his sword toward her. Rieze seeing John move recklessly, her eyes brightened. "Zircodina sword style, Second Style, Migan" She ducked in and throw a few slashes as she moved past John. "Aaahhh!" John screamed in pain. After a while John realized, there are two cuts in his body. "You...you bitch, you now even dare to hurt me. Now you have done it, I won''t stop beating you even if you beg me" John used all of his strength. "Hero Step!" He instantly arrived in front of Rieze and swung his sword. But on the contrary, Rieze able to see his movement. She used her sword to parried his sword. John''s hero step was similar to Alex''s boost step, but John''s hero step was nowhere at Alex''s speed. After experiencing Alex''s movement, she somehow can see John''s fast movement. "Zircodina sword style, First style, Licht" The sword in Rieze''s hand started to glow as she swung her sword. "Hero Aura" An aura made by mana appeared from within the hero''s body. The aura suppressed the glow in Rieze''s hand. He didn''t stop there. "Hero Strike" "Sword Strike" Rieze''s sword strike lose and she was blown away. "Kyya!!" The shockwave made a few cuts in her body. Blood started gushing from her wound. "You... you are not a hero" "I am the hero, I can get everything. Even on Earth, I can get everything. Women and money were my playthings. That bitch dares to reject me and that bastard, Alex dares to do this to me. I will kill him. And that bitch, I will ruin her. I will disfigure her, Giving her wounds all over her body, and throw her to a brothel for free services" Everyone was disgusted by his words. "Haaa!" Rieze was angry and started to attack John again, Even though Alicia was a princess from another kingdom. What John said just now was not only that. He looked down toward women including her. She can''t accept it. Rounds after rounds clashing their sword, Rieze started to out of breath. After all, she was only a rank 3, though John also a rank 3, but he had the power of rank 4 because of his big status at the start. So Rieze started to be suppressed by John. "Pant...pant!" "Haha! You can''t beat me and now you almost lost. Prepare yourself" John laughed. "You" Rieze glared at him. They started clashing again, a few shallow wounds started to appear on Rieze''s body. Rieze was very exhausted. Her consciousness started to become fuzzy. "It should be my last attack" "Zircodina sword style, fourth style, Viper Strike" A sword wave flying toward John, but... "Hero Strike" This strike was also weaker than John''s strike and got destroyed. "Ha...ha..." Rieze almost collapsed to the ground. "Prepare yourself" John laughed, then he charged toward her. When John charged toward her, she passed out. She already prepared herself to be tortured by that mad-hero or even killed by him. But before she completely consciousness, a shadow appeared in front of her. She called weakly "teacher..." That''s right, her teacher, the previous marshall arrived at the scene. He immediately helped her as to not let her fall to the ground. Then he glared toward the hero hatefully "You BASTARD!" He kicked the hero and leaving a few ribs broken by that kick alone. With that kind of kick, the hero should be bedridden for a few months. Then he helped his pupil, Rieze, with a pain in his heart. After a few months, the hero was healed. In a night, there are two people in a dark alley. "I want you to kill a person" "Don''t worry, I have a legendary poison. This poison was incurable after inflicted by it" "That person''s name is Alexander." "The one from the Acacia Kingdom?" "Yes, do you have any capability to kill him?" "For now it will be difficult, but since he is a student. They will need to go out for some event from the academy. At that time I can kill him" "Sure, make sure he is dead" ... This incident becomes one of Alex''s biggest regret. 77 Wake Up Back to the Acacia Kingdom. "Where is he? What is the situation" The king rushed in toward the medical barrack. "Our military doctor said he was exhausted. Especially his mana was basically empty. For now, His condition was stable and there is no other solution than waiting for him to wake up" After hearing that the king was relieved. "What should we do with the fox, your majesty?" "Fox? What fox?" "The fox that brought Sir Alexander back here. The fox was exhausted and collapsed when it got here carrying Sir Alexander. We assume that the fox carried Sir Alexander from far away and it never stops walking or rests" The king contemplated a bit, "Whatever the reason, the fox was saving him by bringing him here. Judging with the fox action, most likely they have some relationship in this journey. That''s why the fox bringing him. Treat the fox first, we can do what we want after Alexander woke up" "Ha!" Not long after, the dean, Grand duke, Alicia, etc. came. All of them had many reactions, but Alicia was the most unstable. She refused to left Alex''s side. Many tried to persuade her but to no avail. At first, she doesn''t even want to eat, after continuous persuasion, she finally eats. But she won''t leave Alexander Side. Day after day, night after night. The dean, grand duke, Firia, etc. come to visit Alexander. The final exam for first-year come to end and the ranking competition for the second-grade student will be held. The requirement to advance to second-grade was for the student to reach rank 2. The dean personally registered Alex and Alicia as second-grade students. Normally they need to register themselves, but the current situation not allowed them to do so. The ranking competition comes. Alex and Alicia didn''t participate in it, Firia also didn''t participate, she didn''t have the mood to do so. Because of that, Joshua becomes the number one ranking for this year''s new second-grade students ranking. A week passed after the ranking competition, in the morning. Alex slowly opened his eyes, he looked toward the unfamiliar ceiling. He tried to get up but no avail. He then checked his body condition. There are no physical wounds in his body, but there is no mana in his body. His mana reserve was empty. He tried to revolve his cultivation technique, there is no change. "System, what happened to my body?" He asked the system in his mind. [Host mana was exhausted. Because of it, the mana reserve can''t produce the mana at this moment.] "How do I fix this?" [Host can revolve your cultivation technique slowly and it will be back to normal after a week. Or Host can use some Qi Replenishing Pill to induce the mana reserve to produce mana.] "Hmm... I will leave it at that for a moment, I want to learn my current situation first" "Wuu" Alex heard this familiar sound, he turned to the side and saw Sherry in his bed. Sherry seems to notice that Alex has woken up so she wakes up. He stroke Sherry, "Sherry" Sherry licked his cheeks. She was happy now that Alex has woke up. "Wuu" The door was opened, Firia came in. She was surprised that Alex had woken up, she let out a bit tears "Alex, you finally wake up" "Firia" Alex was astonished to see Firia come in. "Where is this?" "You are in the medical barrack in the Acacia Kingdom. The soldiers found you unconscious outside the gate" "What?" Alex recalled that he seemed to fall unconscious in the cave at Sagur Forest. Firia sighed, "You have been unconscious for more than a week. You need to thank this Fox. This fox brings you here. The doctor said that this Fox collapse as soon as he reached the gate while bringing you on his back." "What?!" Alex was astonished. The turned to Sherry, "Wuu" Alex hugged Sherry tightly. "Thank you Sherry" "Wuu" "Sherry?" Firia was surprised with this girly name. "Yes, This is a female fox, her name is Sherry" "Oh...So we are wrong all this time." Firia shook her head and continued, "When This fo- Sherry wakes up after exhaustion, she immediately wanted to go to your side. They said the soldiers took a great deal to stop her you know. After the dean come, he was very shocked by Sherry''s race. Then he let her go to your side." "Sherry" Alex was moved by Sherry''s action. "Well, you also need to thank one more person." "One more person? Who?" "..." Firia giggled "You didn''t notice?" After she said that, she looked down toward Alex''s side. Alex followed her gaze and found the quilt on his side bulging abnormally. He then opened the quilt. He was shocked to see Alicia inside of it. "Alicia?!" "mmm..." After the quilt opened, Alicia shows a sign of wake up. She slowly opened her eyes while rubbing it. She looked toward her front and found Alex already woke up. "Ya...Alicia..." Alex didn''t know what to say, that''s all the words he managed to think at this moment. "aaa..." Alicia started tearing up when she saw Alex. "Wait wait wait... why are you crying" Alex was startled seeing Alicia suddenly crying. "Idiot idiot idiot" She beat Alex''s head and chest. Then suddenly she hugged him. "You finally wake up...waaa!" Alex was shocked by her action, he then turned to Firia for an explanation. "She never left your side this past week." With just that sentence Alex knows. He felt guilty. Then he started to hug her back "I''m sorry to make you worried" "No...that''s not what I want to hear" Alicia hugged him tighter while crying. "Wha!..." Alex was surprised, he then thought a bit "Um...I''m sorry for becoming like this" "No...!" "Ugh...Sorry, I will make you some pills for compensation" "No...!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex didn''t know what to say anymore, he looked toward Firia who shakes her head. But suddenly he was enlightened. He then bitterly smiled "I''m back Alicia" "Welcome Back" She smiled. Even though her face still full of tears. She smiled beautifully- no, because of her tears, this smile of her brighten the world. After a while hugging Alex. she released him. "You finally finished." Firia teased. "Fi-firia, since when you are here?" Alicia startled. "I''m here this whole time you know, do you really not realize my existence here?" Firia pouted. "Wha!" She looked toward her then to Alex who smiled weirdly as he nods giving her a confirmation. She was embarrassed "Fi-firia, this..." She wanted to explain but Firia continued to tease her, "Then, are you finished?" She nodded with her red face. After she nodded, she was shocked. Firia suddenly hug Alex. "Welcome Back" Alex also surprised with her action but soon he smiled gently, "I''m back" "Wuu...Wuu" Sherry suddenly come in. She seems to be angry because everyone ignored her. Alex then said apologetically as he hugs her too "Thank you Sherry" "Wuu" The door opened again. They saw the dean coming in. "Teacher" Alex greeted him. "Oh, you finally wake up" The dean laughed. Alex then said "I''m sorry for making you worry, teacher" "It is fine, as long as you are fine now" The dean was relieved. "How is your body condition?" "I am fine, I can recover in a week. Though it will be faster if I use Qi Replenishing Pill" "What! Why don''t you say earlier? I might let you eat those pills in your sleep... no, I will force you to eat those pills. Maybe it can let you wake up faster that way" Alex giggled, "Teacher, don''t ask for the impossible. How can I even talk in that state" "Well, you are fine now so it''s fine. I will bring you the pills later" The dean shrugged "Well, where did you go last month that makes you like this?" "This...I..." Alex felt guilty, eventually, he decided to tell him the stories. At first, he really went to the Celestial Forest. He found the herb and Sherry and somehow Sherry wanted to follow him. After that, he decided to go toward the Sagur Forest because he was curious about the war. Upon reaching this point, the dean was very angry. Alex didn''t heed his warning and all of this happened. He reprimands Alex for an hour, but it didn''t stop there because Alicia and Firia joined in and the lecture becomes two hours. Alex apologized and promised not to that again and they reluctantly let him go for now. Alex then continued, He got information about the reason for Zircodina to start this war, it was practically for resources. Of course, he excluded the part of what kind of resources that thing. He thought it will be better to keep the truth for himself as to not let this kind of thing incite greed. The dean nodded, he seems already know about this information so Alex didn''t continue. He then said that he fought with a rank 7 monster and he didn''t know why he can be alive now. Everyone immediately assured him, so he didn''t continue. The dean suddenly asked this question. "Alex, do you know this fox''s race?" "Sherry''s?" Alex shook his head. "This is Celestial Fox. Do you know why the forest called Celestial Forest? it was basically a few decades ago. That this celestial Fox was spotted there. At that time, the celestial Fox was at rank 8. The fox was specialized in Fire, especially their sensitivity in Fire. But at that time, there is a rank 8 wyvern flying above the forest. The celestial Fox didn''t like that and attack the wyvern. With the fight of two rank 8 monsters, of course, many people know of it. We dispatch a few rank 8 to control the situation, including the monster outbreak because of this fight. The outcome was the two monsters killed each other in that battle. That''s why the forest now didn''t have any high-rank monsters anymore. Some of them killed by us and the others were died because of the fight." "I see..." Alex nodded, then he turned to Sherry who seems to be a bit down when she heard about her parents but Alex felt something wrong with it. "But teacher, I think Sherry was only a few years old" After hearing this point from Alex, he then contemplated. "True, the celestial fox usually has a bigger body. And also the age didn''t match. The fight happened a few decades ago and the celestial fox died. Even this fox was that fox descendant, their age didn''t match" "Well, doesn''t matter. The fox seemed to be very attached to you" "Oh right, before I forgot. You are already a second-grade student. You have your first classes in two weeks. Well, the number one for second-grade students was Joshua. Since you, Young Alicia, and Young Firia didn''t participate in it. Especially, this lass, she refused to leave your side this whole time" The dean said and teased Alicia. Alicia blushed. "Uncle!" "Haha! Since you are alright, its time for me to leave. I will bring you the pills later" The dean prepared to leave, but before he leaves the room he added, "Take the top in the ranking tournament, Alex" Alex was astonished, then soon he giggled "Yes Teacher" The dean left the room leaving Alex, Alicia, and Firia in the room. Of course, don''t forget about Sherry. 78 Gacha Draw Alex went recover in three days with the help of Qi Replenishing Pill. Now he planned to make the Quenching Fire Pill. But before that, He opened the system, he checked the mission progress. [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 2000 rank 4 monsters and donate all the cores to the system(472/2000) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 500 rank 5 monsters and donate all the cores to the system(89/500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 100 rank 6 monsters and donate all the cores to the system (1/100) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] "Hmm, the process was good enough. I can finish the first and second missions when the ranking competition in Night Forest held. Probably..." [System, recommend you to open the Special Mission Panel] After Alex heard that, he was astonished at first. Then he followed the system suggestion and opened the special mission panel. [Mission 1 (Completed) Objective: Learn the truth behind the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5 (Claim)] [Mission 2 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 3 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x10] "Oh...! I already finished the quest" He then touched the claim button. [Ding!] Five premium ticket was added in his inventory. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After he claimed the reward the mission was updated and become like this, [Mission 1.2 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 2 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 3 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x10] "Hmm... The mission was updated? Since the previous mission was about the war. Then it might be related to the war...maybe something like stopping the war. Haha... I know your trick system" The system didn''t comment on his words. Seeing the system went silent, Alex then shrugged his shoulder and continue, "System, how many of the normal tickets I have now?" [Gacha Ticket 149x Premium Ticket 5x] "Wow...It even has the panel for that." "Hmm...let me open the premium tickets first". As he said that, he opened the premium gacha and tap the (5xDraw) The lovely package comes again. Alex was eager to open them. "I already have a spear, This time please have a sword at least in one of them" He clapped his hand as he wished for that. "The First Ball, Let this almighty finger show its prowess" He used his right index finger to touch the ball. [Mithril Sword (C) Acquired] "..." Alex''s eyes widened. "What the... It is true, that I wished for a sword. I mean for a sword at the level of my current spear, not this one..." He wanted to protest to the system but the system will deny it for sure. [I''m glad that Host finally learned] "Oi! Again with this privacy" He then vented his anger toward the second ball. He let out a middle finger toward the sword. "Fuck you" Then he used the same finger to open the second ball. This time a book pop out from the ball, but what makes Alex speechless was the notification that he heard next, [Intermediate Alchemy Technique (SR) Acquired] "..." He was speechless, he just cursed the item and used that cursed finger to open the ball. But what he got was out of his expectation. His eyes widened. He didn''t want to comment for now so his luck did not go away, he then used the same cursed finger to open the third one. [Piano (C) Acquired] "..." He becomes speechless once again, then he snapped "Like hell this finger was the one who did the luck!" He sighed then he casually opened the fourth ball, [Safety Shoes (R) Acquired] "..." He wanted to act normal but the reward from the gacha balls didn''t let him so. Everything was out of his mind. Facepalmed, he forced his head to calm down. After a while, he then looked toward the last ball. He saved the ball in the middle for the last. Since the ball was the special reward that guaranteed by the system, he gulped down as he slowly used his finger to open it. [Flaming Dragon Cauldron (SR) Acquired] "YES!" He leaped out of joy instinctively. ''Another SR'' But today gacha seems related to Alchemy. Well, he was very thankful for that though since he is going to make Fire Quenching Pill. He then inspects the other things he gets just now. Of course, he immediately passed from the mithril sword and piano. His eyes then stopped at the safety shoes. [Safety Shoes (R) Description: The same type of safety shoes Host had on Earth. But the performance was better.] Facepalmed! "System, I know it is you who wrote this description. Please use the normal description please" [Are you sure Host?] "Yes. It will be better" [Description: There was once a person who tread the lonely night, the blazing day, and the bitter winter to get stronger. Every step he treads will be protected by a pair of shoes, and that is... "Stop! Stop! System forgives me, I''m wrong. Please use your explanation" After hearing the description, he regretted and immediately apologize to the system. [I already warned you Host] "Yes yes, I''m sorry..." Alex said apologetically. But... "Is there really no explanation" [Description: Safety Shoes(Earth) ++. That''s the original description Host] "..." Alex sighed, "Please use your explanation next time...But, if that the original description... what about the previous dramatic description?" [I made it up] "*$#%&$*" [Love you too Host] Alex suddenly felt his hand itchy, he wanted to hit but nothing to hit. He took a while to calm down. Alex sighed as he took out the shoes from the system. When he tries to wear the shoes, there is a panel in front of him. [Equip Safety Shoes? Yes/No] Alex was astonished after seeing this. He never thought that using these shoes need this kind of function. Then he tapped the ''Yes'' button. The shoes started to glow and the light moves toward Alex''s feet. In a span of seconds, the glow started to fade and the shoes were disappeared. "System?" Alex didn''t know what just happened so he asked his system. [The shoes already equipped, Host. They fused with your feet. Even if you can''t saw them, they will protect you. Why don''t you try to hit your feet?] Alex followed the system''s suggestion out of his curiosity. He then threw a punch toward his right foot. "Argh!" Alex screamed in pain, not because he injured his right foot but because he injured his fist. The foot felt like metal. "System, why are you not warn me first about this?" He complained. [It''s the power of a rare rank item from the system, of course, its ability was great] "Worry about your master first!" He snapped. He then sighed, "Whatever, let me use the normal tickets first" He contemplated for a moment "Well, I don''t need a technique for the moment. After all, I already had many techniques at the moment and I still haven''t mastered them except for Spear Throwing Art. As for materials...no, I don''t need them too for now. That left the weapon gacha. Well, I might need a few expendable spears. I can snipe my enemies from afar with my Spear Throwing Art. Since my Piercing Sky Spear still very precious to use it as an expendable item." "System use all my tickets for tools gacha" [Processing!] [Sword x2] [Spear x4] [Javelin x3] ... ... He only focused on the one he wanted the most which are spears. He can Spear Throwing Art for Javelin too since they are similar. But there is one other thing that caught his eyes. [Pilox x1] "..." Upon this item caught his eyes. He can only think about the graffiti on the wall. But there is another idea flashed in his mind. "Maybe I can use it for a surprise attack? I can catch them off guard if I use this to their eyes. Ehehe..." He felt satisfied with this current rewards. "Well, it is better to learn the intermediate alchemist manual first. I don''t know what written inside the book but I''m sure it will benefit me." He took out the book from the system. He read the whole book. The point of this book was about flame control, many approaches for many types of materials, many pill recipes, and ingredients characteristic. Almost all of the ingredients listed in this book were never heard in this world. he thought there must be some secret or another world besides this world. After all, he already experienced it, the world travel that is. So maybe...just maybe, he can go to another world. but the problem is how to do it? He thought about coming back to Earth. But he rejected the idea, he lost all attachment from the Earth. And also he hates the politics on Earth. His sister? His parents? Upon thinking at this point, he shook his head. Well, traveling between worlds might be interesting. Different people, different cultures, different civilizations, technologies, etc. Whatever happened, he needs to know how to do it first. But he knew, the first step was for him to get stronger. He used a day to finish all the content of the book. He tried to use the method in the book to control his flame. After a week practicing, he feels his flame control was greatly increased. He now was a hundred percent sure that he will succeed in making the Quenching Fire Pill. 79 Quenching Fire Pill 1 After a week, he then prepared the ingredients used in Quenching Fire Pill. Of course, he asked his teacher since the one who gathered them all was his teacher. He only has the last ingredient for the pill. "Teacher" He went to the dean''s office to ask them. "What is it? do you want to make the pill now?" Alex nodded, Then the dean pointed out to a box "The ingredients were in there" Alex''s eyes widened, His teacher seems expecting he come and ask for them. "Thank you Teacher" As he said that, he grabbed the ingredients and went toward the courtyard. The dean was confused by this. After all, Alex usually used his workshop to make pills. But this time Alex went toward his courtyard. "This cauldron..." The dean was astonished after noticing Alex''s new cauldron. The cauldron was red in color, with a blazing aura surrounding it and there is a dragon pattern on its body. "Teacher...this cauldron is..." Alex forget about this. Will his teacher suspect this new cauldron of his? After all, usually he was the one who made the cauldron for Alex and his use. "This cauldron is very good" The dean finished his words and nodded. Alex becomes awkward, as he prepared himself to told him, he was stopped. "Teacher, this cauldron..." The dean stopped him, "It''s alright, you don''t need to explain. I only need to know that this cauldron belonged to you, MY STUDENT. That''s all" "Teacher..." Alex was moved. The dean has complete trust in Alex. "Let''s continue" The dean said. Alex nodded, he brought all the ingredients together. There are a total of 8 ingredients including his Fire Miletonia Herb. Alex closed his eyes and focused his mind on this moment. A pure red-colored flame appeared surrounding his body. The flame gushing out from his body continuously and brighten up the courtyard. This is a new technique that he learned from the Intermediate Alchemy Technique. Alex slowly opened his eyes. His expression was serious as he eyed the rising red flame. Due to the quality of his new cauldron, Flaming Dragon Cauldron. It seems that his flame was enchanted by the cauldron and start rising. Though Alex was surprised by this, he can''t be bothered by this at this moment. This is the power of the Super Rank item from the system. He started warming up the cauldron, this initial step required only for a few seconds. This was caused by the power of the Flaming Dragon Cauldron, as soon as Alex''s flame make a contact with the cauldron, the cauldron enhanced Alex''s flame. Seeing the Cauldron warmed enough. Alex waved his hand at the few medicinal ingredients on the ground in front of him. Alex used his mana to grabbed the ingredients. Immediately, the red-colored ''Fire Miletonia Herb'' slowly flew up and was finally thrown into the medicinal cauldron. The moment the ''Fire Miletonia Herb'' entered the medicinal cauldron, the dense red-colored flame, and the medicinal cauldron swallow it like a hungry wolf...no, a hungry dragon. After all, the name of the medicinal cauldron is Flaming Dragon Cauldron. Now, he saw the dragon pattern facing the top of the cauldron. It was like a dragon that swallowing the medicinal cauldron. Coupled with the fire enhancement of this medicinal cauldron. Maybe that''s why this medicinal cauldron named with Flaming Dragon Cauldron. After the ''Fire Miletonia Herb'' got inside of the cauldron. In an instant, the herb began to swiftly wither. The dean''s eyes stared intently at the process. This was a new process for him. He also never saw Alex did this before. His thinking was true after all these techniques that Alex used now were from the Intermediate Alchemy Technique. He stared intently at the interior of the medicinal cauldron. Although the flame within the cauldron was blazing, with his power he was able to sense that the temperature of the flame had been controlled fully by Alex. Therefore, this tyrannical flame may have appeared like a blazing dragon that engulfing everything with its blazing flame, but it didn''t incinerate the ''Fire Miletonia Herb'' until it turned into ashes. Instead, the Fire Miletonia Herb slowly turned into red colored liquid droplets. "This..." The dean was very astonished until he can''t even speak. He continued to quietly watch Alex. He usually completely burned the medicinal ingredients when he was refining medicinal ingredients. This could not be attributed to the ferocity of the flame. it could only be said that his degree of control of the flame had yet to truly reach the pinnacle. But he was confused, he practiced his control of flame for a few decades. But was it really surpassed by Alex with only a year of training? Is this really not contributed to the ferocity of the flame but its control? What he didn''t know was Alex completely trained in a different way of control from him. The Alchemy guide about flame control was a totally different way. The alchemy guide from the system was very easy to train. The alchemy guide can be described as a teacher that teaching with an ''easy to understand'' way. While the dean practicing the way of ''1+1=3''. It''s not even correct, that''s why the progress was so-so and Alex can beat him for only a year of practice. Though the flame was also a factor, the most important factor was flame control. Alex''s way was a straight line and the dean''s way was straight, curve, turn, slope, etc but it''s not definitely lead you to the finish. A red-colored liquid droplet was stored inside of the blazing medicinal cauldron. The energy contained within the liquid was so large that it left one speechless. This is the true medicinal refining. No loss in energy when refining. If Alex used his previous flame control, this rank 5 herb energy might only retain half of its previous energy. After refining the Fire Miletonia Herb into liquid. Alex started to add a bit of mana. As soon as he added the mana, there is a light gray vapor that started to leave the liquid. This light gray vapor was the impurities. Alex used to expel the impurities but not in this way. Usually, he expelled them using his element, but this time, he expelled the impurities using his flame control. Merging with his element, the process went very smoothly. The light gray vapor gradually left the liquid. Soon enough the vapor was nowhere to be seen, the expelling impurities process had ended. This process took a few minutes. After seeing the complete liquid. Alex covered the liquid droplet using his fire and let it float near his body as he prepared to refine the second ingredients. After Alex saw the complete liquid of Fire Miletonia Herb, he secretly relaxed. That means his new technique is a success. He then refined the second medicinal ingredient. He tossed ''Celestial Wood'' to the cauldron. The refinement of the Celestial Wood was not any easier than that of the Fire Miletonia Herb or even higher. Due to the previous refinement, the time needed to refine this Celestial Wood was longer. As soon as the refinement of Celestial Wood finished, he immediately tossed the third ingredient, Star Root. The process took almost the same time as Celestial Wood. Without stopping, Alex continued the refinement of the fourth, fifth, six, and seven. The process took over an hour. Now is the last ingredients, Rank 6 Monster Core. Alex tossed the rank 6 monster core. The energy from the monster was the highest from the rest of the medicinal ingredients. Unlike the other medicinal ingredients, Alex didn''t need to expel the impurities in this core. This refinement took the longest time, even though Alex didn''t need to expel the impurities. For this refinement, he needed to assimilate the energy within the core to the rest of the ingredients. He tossed all of the ingredients into the cauldron. The energy within the core gradually assimilated with the rest of the ingredients. After about half an hour, all of the ingredients started to merge. The merging process not as usual. This time, the merging process was very slow. The ingredients slowly fusing with each other and the pill started to form. When the pill started to form, the pill size was around a tennis ball, Alex then separated them into two. But he felt this size was still too big. He then cut them again into two. Now, there are four pills that started to form. Soon the energy started to fluctuate, the pill almost finished. A bright glow was emitted from within it as the light gradually dimmed down and disappear. Success! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex sighed in relieve. This is a new experience for him. Though the process took longer than his usual way but using this technique, he increased the success rate. This is the most important thing after all. Fast refining? Peak Grade? What uses all of that if he didn''t even succeed in making the pill. Especially, the higher the rank, the higher the rarity of the medicinal ingredients. Alex checked the pills with the system. [Updating] Alex was surprised to see this notification. He never thought that the system will update at this moment. The update took only a few seconds. [Update Complete] [Congratulations Host for learning the true way of Alchemy. This was only a content update] [Peak Quality Quenching Fire Pill (Rank 2) Use: Refining the fire element in the user body Limit: 1] "Peak Quality? Rank 2? I know what rank 2 means but what is this peak quality? Isn''t it peak grade?" [Quality is the same with Grade. But the one that universally used was ''Quality''. Host didn''t need to worry about it, only the naming was different not the meaning] "Then, why is the previous one using ''Grade'' ?" [It''s only for a newbie. After all, Host only learned the basics of alchemy and recklessly forming the pill. But the Intermediate Alchemy Technique teaches Host the detailed way of Alchemy. If Host used the previous technique in high-rank material. The success rate will be very low] "... I will continue practicing this technique" The he looked toward the stupified dean. He now confused about how to explain all of this. He sighed, "Whatever, I will just explain all of it" "And now, there are four pills. I will take one, then I will give the rest. The question is who will be the one...hmm... I will give the pill to Firia, teacher, and... Oh right, Elder Sister Mia needs it too. Yep, I will give it to her" Alex nodded. After he becomes Alicia''s boyfriend, the relationship with the rest of the family also becomes better. He called Mia with ''Elder Sister''. But there is one miscalculation. He forgot about Sherry. 80 Quenching Fire Pill 2 The dean who was watching him all of this time, stood there stupified. He saw the new refining process that Alex used. It was very different than the usual way. He thought Alex only need a few minutes to a half-hour to finish the pill. But now, he took over two hours. When he watched Alex refining the ingredients one by one. He thought that Alex was going to waste the ingredients. After all, usually, they refined all of the ingredients at the same time. But when he saw the light gray vapor, he knew what that is. After all, he had seen that thing, that was the impurities. But he never saw that much impurities. He thought that the ingredients might be special so the impurities were a bit too high. But when he saw the other ingredients impurities, he was stupified. The process was the same. Now he questioned himself, its seem that the impurities that he used to expel were nowhere enough. That''s why it was rare he managed to make a peak-grade pill. He understood all of it when Alex used his flame to cover the complete refined ingredients. He also thought of another factor, that is Alex''s flame. because of its pure element, the rate of the peak-grade pill was also higher. Well, he is true about that. Now he wondering what the use of the rank 6 monster core. After all, he never saw Alex give pill recipes with a monster core as an ingredient. When he saw Alex started the refinement of the monster core. He stared intently on the process. He was very surprised when Alex tossed the other ingredients and refined them together. The monster core seems to be a catalyst to merge all of the ingredients. True, soon enough all of the ingredients started to merge with each other. He frowned when there is fluctuation of energy and the soon-to-be pill started glowing. He never saw this phenomenon when Alex or he refined pills. The phenomena were not long, but his jaw dropped when the pill formed to a big size. Even when his jaw dropped like this, he had no way to eat that big pill. He thought that Alex wanted to kill himself if he eats a pill with that size. But he understood when Alex separated the pill to four. The soon-to-be pills now have the same size as a regular pill that they used to make. He relieved, all of his thought proven to be wrong. But even though he was relieved, he just can''t close his dropped jaw. This whole process was very shocking to him. He looked toward Alex stupified. ... Back to Alex, After confirming the pill, he scratched his cheek when he looked at his teacher''s state. He then stood up and walked to his teacher. "Teacher" "Ah...ah... cough...Alex, what is it?" the dean took a while to get his bearing back. "Let me explained to you the new refining process that I just learned" The dean wanted to say ''No need'' but he instinctively nodded his head. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Well, the refinement was as such. You refined the ingredients. You can refine them together or separately. I don''t have enough confidence to go through that arduous process together yet so I refined them separately. Then I used my flame to cover the finished ingredients to keep it from contamination. If you don''t have the complete ingredients, you can refine the ingredient first and keep it in the jade bottle though you need to coat the jade battle with your flame, though this is a risky move, after all, if the bottle break, all of your effort will go to waste. The second process was removing the impurities in the refinement process. The amount we expelled before was nowhere enough. That''s why we rarely can produce a peak-grade pill. This time, the expelling process used flame control, not the flame types, this might be the reason why I can produce more peak-grade pill. That also means I and teacher can have the same result if our flame control was at the same level. Of course, a special flame can also make the process easier. The next step was using the monster core as one of the ingredients. There a few pill recipes that needed a monster core as one of its ingredients. The higher the rank, the more pills will need monster core as its ingredients. At first, I don''t know what is this monster core, after all, when I killed the monster there is no core or whatsoever. I thought it did not exist. But when I killed the monster in the dungeon. I know, the crystal that dropped when I killed the monster must be the monster core. We used the monster core as a catalyst to assimilate the energies from each ingredient. After that, the ingredients will start to merge and form a pill. Oh right, when I used a monster core as an ingredient, the pill size always big. That was a failure, so I separated them into a few pills with the regular size, this Quenching Fire Pill was the example." The dean took a while to process all of the information that Alex just revealed. But there is one thing that caught his attention the most. "Flame Control?" "Oh... I practiced this technique to train my flame control. The process..." Alex explained the technique in detail. The dean tried all what Alex just explain, he was too shocked. "Haiz... I thought my Flame control was at a very high level. But after I listen to your technique, I just noticed that I did not even go in the right way. Thank you" "Eh... No..." Alex was flustered when the dean said ''Thank you''. "Wuu" Alex wanted to explain but can''t explain. At that time, Sherry noticed the energy fluctuation, especially since Alex used his flame so she followed the direction and found Alex. "Sherry" Alex stroke Sherry''s fur, but he didn''t notice that Sherry''s eyes remained on the pills in his other hand. He felt Sherry''s move her head. But before he knows it, Sherry already ate one of the Quenching Fire Pill. "Eh...The pill" Alex was shocked. "The pill was for Firia, Teacher, and princess Mi..." before Alex completed his sentence, the dense fire started to rushed out from withing Sherry''s body and engulfing her body. Alex was too shocked by this. "a...aaahhh... forget what I said" He immediately jumped back. The dense pinkish flame seems burning Sherry''s body and its surroundings. It was like all of the flames within Sherry''s body was out at this moment. The dean was very shocked when he watched this phenomenon. Because he can feel the flame in his body was suppressed with this pinkish flame. "Alex...this..." "Umm..." Alex knew what happened, after all, he is the cause. He embarrassedly scratched his cheek and said "Sherry evolved when she ate my flame back then. Her flame become like this after that" "..." the dean facepalmed. He then saw Sherry''s process. The tyrannical flame that gushed out from Sherry''s body was very blazing. It burned the ground within 5 meters from Sherry. This fiery flame gradually becomes smaller and smaller. "Wuu!" Sherry screamed in pain. From when the flame shrinking, Sherry started to scream in pain. Alex wanted to help her but he held himself. This is the refining process of the pill. He waited for the flame gradually come back to her body. When the surrounding flame got back inside of her body. Sherry stop screaming, Alex relieved. But he suddenly shocked once again. The flame suddenly got out from her body once again. This time, the flame was even more tyrannical. Because of this, Alex immediately regained his bearing. This means the process was successful. He felt Sherry''s fire become stronger. But what shocked him the most is that he felt Sherry''s strength rise sharply. He felt Sherry''s strength become the bear at that time. The rank 6 Bear. This might mean that Sherry completely becomes rank 6 monster. Soon enough, Sherry opened her eyes. "Wuu" She leaped joyfully toward Alex. The tyrannical flame in the surrounding had been retracted by Sherry leaving a few black spots on the ground. "Wuu" Alex stroke her head, "Good, you got stronger now." "Wuu Wuu" Its seems saying ''It''s because of Master'' After enjoying this joyful moment a bit, Alex stood up and awkwardly looked toward the dean. "Teacher, your courtyard..." "Don''t mind about this, I can easily fix them" Then he continued, "You can give the other two pills to that lass Firia and that quiet girl Mia. I don''t need them, even if I wanted them I can make them. after all, I''m the same as you, an alchemist, I''m fine with the thought alone. Alright, its time for me to go back. Tell those lasses if they wanted to eat the pill they can use this courtyard. I will fix the courtyard when all of you finished taking the pill. Alright, then it decided. I will go back first and practiced this flame control technique. Oh yeah, that lass Alicia will jealous you know" The dean heard when Alex said who he will give those pills. He was happy when he heard Alex will give him the pill. But after Sherry ate one of the pills. He already decided about that. After all the future was for the youngster. Even he gets stronger, it won''t be too much. If Alex can strengthen them from a young age, they will achieve much greater from him. That''s why he decided about this. "Teacher" Alex was moved by the dean, he then gave a pill recipe to him "This is the recipe for Crystal Pill" Alex already predicted this, he knew Alicia will get jealous if he didn''t give anything to her. Alex already prepared the recipe which similar to his Quenching Fire Pill. It also boosts the power of Ice in the user body. Though, for this, he was wrong. After the previous accident. Alicia already didn''t care about that, as long as she can be with him, that''s enough for her. The dean took the recipe and nodded, "Alright, I will inform you when the ingredients arrived" As he said that, he walked away and left the courtyard. 81 Quenching Fire Pill 3 After the dean left the courtyard, Alex looked toward Sherry intently. Now she was already a rank 6, he can''t lose to her. "Sherry, let''s change. I''m going to eat the pill now" He said as he walked to Sherry "Wuu" Sherry left her spot and went toward Alex''s previous spot, they exchanged spot Alex sat down as he prepared himself. After a moment, He eats the Quenching Fire Pill. The pill melted in his mouth. As soon as the pill melted inside his mouth. A Dense of energies burst out from within, the dense energy started to flow to all over his bodies. Soon enough, the energy trying to fuse with Alex''s flame. The fusing took a few seconds, what shocking the most is when the energy fused completely. It burst out with his flame outside. "Boom!" Alex flame gushing out from his body. The red-colored flame kept rising, reaching almost ten meters high. After the flame can''t rise any longer. It started to spread toward its surroundings. 1 Meter...3 meters...5 meters... the fire stopped when it reached the length of 15 meters, the length was three times higher from Sherry. With a red-colored tyrannical fire that rises up to ten meters high and 15 meters in diameter, although people can''t see the bright flame from outside because of the wall, the bright red light that brought by the flame caused this courtyard very noticeable from the surrounding area. Many people looked toward the bright red light that brightens up the academy. People in the city were very astonished by the sudden red glow from the academy. From a whisper to a shout was heard. "What is that?" "Is the academy planning something? Will there be an event?" "I don''t remember there is something like this last year?" "Then, Are they going to hold a new event?" "I don''t know, after all the academy still on holiday right?" "Yes. Maybe, there will be some event in the next enrollment? It will be held in a few days after all. There are already so many people gathered in this city. They wanted to enroll in this academy" "Yes, my daughter also registered for the enrollment" "Eh...wait the light started to shrink" ... The dean watching this scene, facepalmed. He knows what kind of commotion this phenomenon made. He also can''t stop Alex from this process, After all, Sherry was also like this. He started to think of an excuse for this phenomenon Alex felt his flame that gushing out from his body was very free. The flame was like eating a stimulant after fusing with the pill energy. They jumped out from one spot to another within 15 meters radius Soon, the pill''s energy compressed the flame. "Ugh" Alex started to clench his teeth in pain. When the flame started shrinking, he felt pain all over his body. The flame was a part of his body so when they are compressed, he felt like his organ was pressed with an invisible force. the process was very painful. This is also why Sherry screaming in pain when she reached this process. "Agh!" Alex refused to let out a scream, he continues to clench his teeth in pain. The shrinking speed was slower than Sherry, After all, their flame attribute was not on the same level. Not only that, his flame was spread three times longer than Sherry. An hour... The flame keeps shrinking, while Alex still in silence. After this one hour, Alex started to get used to the pain. Though the pain that the process gives not become lesser. Alex can easily withstand the pain. Another hour, Alex flame almost disappeared, only the flame that covers his body that still remained. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, all of the flames were nowhere to be seen. Reaching this stage, Alex started to feel comfortable. The pain was stopped and the warm feeling started to fill him. He checked the flame inside of his body. The dense red-colored flame becomes a translucent red flame. though it becomes like that, Alex felt this newly translucent flame was even more tyrannical than his previous flame. The newly compressed flame wanted to release all of its power to show the world its prowess. It started to run through every inch of his body and gushing out at the same time. "Boom!" Exploded. Alex flame gushed out from his body. The more tyrannical flame brighten the academy once again. This time the people can clearly saw the form of the bright red glow because the flame rises to one and a half of its previous height. It now rises to fifteen meters with a radius of 20 meters. The citizens can see this translucent red flame. they were captivated by its appearance, the flame beautifully blazed in the middle of the academy, like an immortal flame. It shines the academy with its translucent color. Contrary to the citizens, the mage, especially those who had a fire element, wanted to kneel in front of this flame. this was an element suppression. All of them were shocked by this, especially for the new students who have a fire element and wanted to register in the academy. This feeling of suppression makes them looked at the academy with a fiery feeling. ''This is the Acacia Kingdom Royal Academy'' Because of this incident, the Acacia Kingdom Royal Academy''s reputation went through the roof and reaching a new height. ... Alex who still sitting on the ground was completely ignorant of what kind of scene he made. After all of the flame exits his body, his mind feels refreshed. He enjoys this new feeling for a while. He then slowly opened his eyes. Surprised with his own flame, he immediately tried to retract the flame. the flame gradually dimmed down. Alex then sighed with relieved. He looked toward his surroundings, he burned half of his teacher courtyard. The previous beautiful courtyard ground, become pitch black. He felt guilty inside. He asked Sherry to follow him. Then he went to dean''s office, "Teacher" "Sigh... You really love to make a commotion, aren''t you?" "Ugh" He wanted to deny it but the word stuck in his throat. Not because he loves to make a commotion, he just somehow made it even though he didn''t like to be the center of attention. "Don''t worry, I will just release some announcement to cover all of this incident." "Announcement?" Alex was surprised. The dean nodded, "Yep, Announcement. Just say that we make some research on fire magic. Though the power was powerful, it was a failure because there are many setbacks and not possible to use it practically. Though the suspicion would be cleared. I''m sure, the other kingdoms will send some spies to confirm it, as long as you did not use it for a while. They will give up soon enough" Alex thought for a bit, though the reason was a bit rough, he confirmed that the reason was pretty useful. He nodded, "Thank you Teacher" "Well if you are done, get the other two to eat the pill as soon as possible so I can repair my courtyard as soon as possible" The dean said. "Yes, I will inform them now" Alex left the room. "System how strong am I now?" Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job: Alchemist (Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Sword Saint (Secondary), Hunter(Secondary), Flame Ruler (Secondary), Forger (Secondary) Rank: 5 Level: 587 STR: 632 AGI: 617 VIT: 674 DEX: 604 INT: 610 Alex was shocked by his new status. It''s already a long time that he checked his status. The change was very big. The last time he checked his status when he was Early Qi Gathering Stage. Now he already passed two-stage. But what shocked him the most is his Job. He got two new jobs, one is Flame Ruler and the other is a forger. He knows what forger mean, after all, he learned it from his teacher. But for this Flame Ruler... "System, what is this Flame Ruler?" [The same with your ''Sword Saint'' job, the requirement is your pure element Host. After you use the pill just now, you got the job] "The same with my ''Sword Saint'' job? You mean, it gives me a boost to comprehend about flame?" [Yes] "Hmm... I''m curious. Last time, I asked teacher what is the function of the ''Sword Saint'' job. He just said it will give me a boost to comprehend the way of the sword. But is that really it? I mean, if that only the effect, wasn''t the gap between normal jobs and high-level jobs was pretty insignificant?" [Ask your teacher, not me] "..." "System, are your mood down at the moment? What happened? " The system ignored him. "Oi... System" Alex tried to call the system again and again but to no avail. He then sighed and continued walking. He went to Rizertia''s house after all the academy is still on holiday. It seems that Firia was visiting the house. Alicia invited him in. "Alex, do you know what happened just now?" Alicia asked "Just now?" Alex was confused. "A big flame appeared and when the second flame appeared, I felt my flame become submissive" Firia said Alex facepalmed. This was his doing. "ugh..." "Alex, you know what happened right?" Alicia asked worriedly. "Sigh... It was a pill. The pill made my fire stronger, but...for the detail, you can observe it later" Alex answered. He then took out a pill and give it to Firia "This is Quenching Fire Pill. It will make your fire stronger, but the process was painful. So I''m asking you whether you wanted to..." Before Alex finished his concern, Firia already took the pill from Alex''s hand and answered him determinedly. "I will" Seeing the determination in Firia''s eyes, Alex nodded and turned to Alicia. "This last pill was for Elder Sister Mia, I wanted to ask you to call her to Teacher''s courtyard. Because I don''t know where is she..." He hesitated, "I will search for her and give it to her myself" He somehow felt guilty to Alicia, he didn''t give anything and he even wanted to ask her to find someone... Noticing the hesitation, Alicia smiled gently as she took the pill from Alex''s hand. "It''s alright. I will search give it to her now since she was in the garden now." Alicia took the pill and left. "Alicia" Alicia halts her step. Alex then continued, "Umm... I still gathering the ingredients, when they ready I will give you a pill for an ice element user since this pill was only for a fire element user." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alicia smiled, "Don''t worry, I''m not the old me. As long as I''m with you, I don''t care about that." As she said that, she left. Alex was somehow dumbfounded hearing that. Firia''s expression somehow become complex. ... After Alicia gave the pill to Mia, Four of them went toward the dean''s courtyard. The girls were very shocked when they looked at the pitch-black ground. Alex can only scratch his cheek embarrassedly. The first who took the pill is Firia. The process went the same as Sherry and Alex. But the flame gushed out from Firia was not comparable to Alex or Sherry. The flame was spread around two meters from her body. Alex also noticed that the pain was various for each people. That might be because of the flame ferocity. The process didn''t take too long, only about fifteen minutes. After Firia finished, Mia''s turn comes up. Her process was similar to Firia. After they finished, Alex told the dean and they went back to Rizertia''s house. 82 Academy Alex officially reached rank 6 prowess (1 Stage=1 Rank). After the incident, the academy spread the announcement the next day. It was said that the incident was when the dean experimented with new magic. Though the power was very great as everyone already saw it. It made the dean need to rest for a month, so the magic classified as a failure. To make it more believable the dean won''t appear in the academy for this one month. The dean did something like this was to protect Alex. so he put all the attention into him. Alex protested to him about this. After all, it was because of him that something like this happened, but the dean only shrugged his shoulder. Though Alex felt guilty, he also felt thankful. It was really good who will have your back, the support of a parental figure. After the incident, Alex focused his training in Sanguin Sword Art. Since he became a rank 6, it didn''t take too long for him to master the Sixth Slash of the ''Sanguin Sword Art''. This ''rank 6'' alone put him to advantage. After a day of practice, he mastered the technique. If he met with the bear last time, he might only need a few moves to defeat it, there is no need for him to use his spear. This week he keeps practicing the Sanguin Sword Art, he is not able to use the Seventh Slash yet. The started of a new class. Alicia and Alex were coming to the academy from Rizertia''s house. When they arrived at the academy''s entrance. The entrance was bustling with people. It seems that the new students who wanted to register were twice the number of the previous year. Well, whether if they were accepted or not is another matter. Alex and Alicia along with Sherry walking toward the crowd. The crowd noticed them. With Alex''s handsome face, he was somehow noticed by the crowd. But most of them noticed Alicia who beside Alex, the ice princess. With both look and power, she was idolized by many, especially men. "Look...the ice princess is very beautiful" "She is beautiful and powerful. If I can become her man even for a day, I will be satisfied" "Shut up you monkey, she is not for you to sully" "Shut up you monkey" "Shut up you monkey" and somehow this phrase becomes a trend to shut Alicia''s admirer up. Well, most of them were male. ... On the other hand, the females were focused on Alex. "The male god arrived" "Yes, the fire prince is my idol. I came to this academy for him" "Fire god, let me bear your child" "Fire god?" "He is the Fire prince and also the male god of this academy, so he is Fire God" "He defeated the hero''s party easily" "I heard he also a gold rank hunter" "That means he can defeat a rank 5 monster?" "Fire god, let me bear your child. I can take care of the house and warm the bed for you" "Shut up, you dinosaur" "Lose your weight first you pig" The females were hysterics. Alicia who heard all of this immediately linked her hand with Alex and waved toward the crowd. The male was crying, "No...Our princess..." "Kya..." "A perfect match" "Fire god, I don''t mind become your mistress" Alex heard that sweatdropped. Alicia still waved toward the crowd, but her other hand that linked with Alex pinching his arm. "Look, the fox seems to follow them" "The fox is very cute, looked at that pure white fur. Adding the pinkish fur at the tip, it makes the fox very cute" "But, can we bring the pet to the academy?" "You fool, Sherry was different. At that time, I looked at her exhausted state carrying the injured male god. I was moved to tears." "The friendship between human and monster... Is it possible?" "Of course it is possible, look at our male god and Sherry. A perfect combination" "Sherry" "Sherry" After this enrollment test, ''Sherry Fan Club'' was established. ... When Alex and Alicia passed the crowd. They saw a few teachers handling the enrollment process. They saw a very familiar face in there. "Teacher Farida" "You two, can you not bring trouble here...sigh..." "I''m sorry teacher, I wouldn''t do this again...no...I don''t even know why this happened" "Sigh...You are actually not aware of your own reputation?" Her face was very tired when she said that. Even Alicia giggled. "After you defeat that hero and his companions, your reputation went through roof. They said ''Zircodina might have a hero, but we have Alexander'' or something like that. Well, since you are here, you might as well give a little speech" "This..." Alex was surprised. "Why not" Alicia said and looked at Alex expectantly. Alex can only sigh. He looked toward the crowd. "Look, the male god will make a speech" "What is talent?" Alex started his speech with this question. The crowd was silent as they looked at him. "Talent... This word actually gives me a concept of a limit. Your talent is low so you are useless, your talent is high so you are a genius, you should aim high...rank 7? Rank 8?. I keep wondering why... you might be a genius here, but in other places... you might be not the only genius or maybe you are only a mediocre in that place. Peerless Talent is numerous. But the talent that can take you to the top? There are none. You can only thread it with hard work, determination, and blood. For those of you who not passed this year, challenge it again next year, prove it to them who judge you who only have a poor talent that they are wrong. And for those of you who passed this year. Never look down on others, there might be a time for those who you look down to become someone that is higher than you. Keep striving, keep challenging, Show your might. Show it to the world that you deserved your position. Not because you bully the weak and fear the strong. But because you challenge the strong and an example for the weak to keep striving." All of them were astonished, they were shocked. Alex''s speech made their blood boil. The ones who already passed secretly swear in their hearts. ''I will keep striving, I''m not giving you my place because I deserved it''. those who not passed, ''I might not pass this year, I will keep striving. Next year, I might be the number one genius for the new students'' "Fire Prince" "I love you" The crowd keeps cheering, Alicia giggled. The teachers can only shake their heads. ''Like teacher, like student''. Alex, Sherry, and Alicia slowly walked away from the crowd and got inside the academy. The school starts tomorrow so they walking toward their room first. They were surprised to see Firia waiting for them at the dorm entrance. "Ara... Our Fire Prince has finally arrived" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex stumbled. "What... what fire prince...who is that..." "Oh right, I''m sorry then. Please forgive me, Male god" "Gah. Like I said, who is that person" Alex keeps denying it in both his mouth and his heart. He never like that kind of thing. "Fine... I won''t call you that... Well, what is it...that new nickname? Fire God?" "Who...who is it that gave me that nickname, I will beat them" Alicia and Firia giggled, even Sherry jumping around in joy. They kept chatting around for a while until Alex asked a question. "What is the schedule for the second year? Is the schedule be like last year?" Alicia and Firia were astonished, they forgot that Alex wasn''t their native, so he didn''t know about it. "No. Actually, it''s only first-year students that have classes. We, second year, only have free practice all year. There are only two events for the second year. The first was four-month from now, We will go to Bawon Fortress, in there we need to kill monsters in the Death Forest. This is the biggest Forest of the continent, because of its size and the number of monsters reside within it, the forest named as such. The second event was the same as the first year. It will be held in the Maka Town''s dungeon. Our requirement was only for us to reach rank 3, within those two events. The first-year events were purposed for the student to get used to battles as much as possible and reach rank 2. Now for the second year, we need to keep training our technique, that''s why we got free time all year round. We need to polish the power we got in the first year. As for the third year, they will be visiting many places with a mission from the academy. The requirement for a graduate was for them to reach rank 4, though there are many that graduated as a rank 5. Most of our graduates will reach rank 7 and few of them will become a teacher in this academy" Alicia explained. "Than...that means, for this year, I can keep practice for year-round without a need to go to classes?" Alex''s eyes brightened. Alicia and Firia facepalmed. "This is your conclusion?" "Wuu Wuu" Sherry looked toward him, she seems to say ''Don''t forget about me Master'' "Oh right, don''t forget the ranking competition one month for now. But for you, it will be easy ain''t they" Firia added. Alex nodded. They chatted for a while and said goodbye. The next day, Alex practicing his Sanguin Sword Art. He wanted to succeed in the Seventh Slash first before he practices the second stage of Sky Movement. One month later, Alex still hasn''t succeeded in the seventh slash. This past month, he keeps practicing this technique. Because there are no classes for second-year. He used all the time to practice. He sometimes practicing together with Firia and Alicia and sometimes Sherry asked him to spar and chatting with the dean. He also spent some time to help the dean to make pills. But most of his time was used to practice this technique. He practiced the technique in the dean courtyard. The pitch-black burned ground in the courtyard was nowhere to be seen. It seems the dean fix them in only a few days and finished before the school started. He also reinforced his courtyard wall. Now Alex keeps getting stronger and stronger, there might be a time that Alex might break his courtyard. So he used this time to reinforce them. Now a month pass, the ranking competition comes once again. 83 Visiting The Night Forest Once Again Now a month pass, the ranking competition comes once again. The students from all grades gathered in the arena. From the first years, second years, and the third years totaling 1498 students from all grades. The dean giving a speech to them. For this event, Alex can''t bring Sherry along with him, so she watches the house. She comes back to Rizertia House since the academy will be empty, though reluctantly. "Today will be the start for grade ranking, the event will be held for two weeks, you need to kill monsters in the night forest, the number of monsters you manage to kill will determine your ranking. The teachers will be the ones who supervised you." "After this speech end, we will go to the night forest together. Do my best my student! We will start ''Tomorrow''" He seems to emphasize this ''Tomorrow'' word, Alex''s eyes brightened but he suddenly frowned. "This time, he wanted us to hunt from midnight? After all past midnight is the ''tomorrow'' he talking about... Or maybe we can sneak in at midnight to set a camp. That way, we can immediately hunt the monster as soon as the day comes? Yep, It seems the case for now" "Oh right, I forgot to ask teacher about the ''Job'' function" After the speech ended, they started to march toward the night forest. Of course, the same as last year, many citizens watching the students marching in the town. Everyone cheered for them. They soon leave the city gate, the cheering voice gradually smaller and smaller as they are farther and farther away from the city. The teacher maintained the pace since there are many first-year who still rank 0. The journey took a day, they arrived at the night forest after the sun just set. Many make a group to hunt together in this forest while there are some students who alone like Alex. Of course, the one who alone mostly second-year or above. After they arrived, he then took the chance to visit his teacher. "Alex, do you have a matter?" "Yes, I want to ask you about the ''Job'' function. Last time, you explained that the ''Sword Saint'' job can make me understood the sword better. But is that really all of the function?" The dean was surprised, he thought what kind of matter that can bother him, but he never thought the problem was this. "Sigh...The other function of the job is the increase in status at each level. I thought you will realize it with your observation so I didn''t talk about it back then" Alex sweatdropped ''Of course I can''t realize it, My status not increased because of levels!" Of course, he can''t say all of it. he can only lie about it "Oh...Now teacher mentioned about it, I realized" "The Job normally had a boost for understanding the way of ''something'' according to the job. The other function was the status points you will get from each level. For example, the hero will get around 1,5-2x normal status when he leveled up. The archmage and sage were also the same, but their points attributed to the ''INT'' status." "I see. Thank you, teacher, I will prepare for tomorrow" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Sure" Alex left, when he came back, Alicia and Firia come to him. "Alex" Alex smiled "What is it? is something matter?" "Well... we decided to pair up. Let''s have a bet who will have the bigger points for this event. You or we two. If we win, you can''t practice for a week" Alex looked at them, "If I win?" "There will be a surprise for you if you win that is" after they said that, they left. Alex shook his head, looking at these two girls. "What kind of surprise is that huh..." "Wait, don''t tell me something like kiss?" "..." He is fine if Alicia gives a kiss to him, but Firia... He didn''t know why, but the monogamy from the Earth was stuck tightly in his flesh and bone. He just can''t muster a feeling for Firia. He already regarded Firia as a special person. But it was only at the limit of a friend. He just can''t see her as a lover. He felt very guilty about this. He just hopes that someone will come and take Firia soon. It might be unfair for her but, he really seems can''t give the happiness that she deserves. At that time, in Maka Town. She also said ''Until She Give Up on Him'' Ain''t she? Alex sighed for a long time. ... The next day, as the sun started to rise, Alex immediately rushed in toward the forest. Last night, there are a few people that already went inside the forest. but the numbers were not over 10. Even Alex decided not to go at night. When he got inside the forest. "Hehe...System, I will complete that repeatable mission" But something unexpected happens when he said that. [Host, System suggest you open the mission panel again] "What do you mean?" Alex was confused, as he follows the system suggestion. [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1500 rank 5 monsters (89/1500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 400 rank 6 monsters (1/400) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 30 rank 7 monsters (0/30) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] [Mission 4 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1 rank 8 monsters (0/1) Reward: Premium Ticket x3] Alex almost spurted blood when he saw this. "System, where is the mission to kill rank 4 monsters?" [Since Host already a rank 6, you should ashamed to search for that kind of low-rank monsters. So the system Judged that won''t be needed. When Host reaches the rank 7, the mission for rank 5 monsters will also be deleted] Alex stumbled and fell to the ground when he heard that. "System, Just said it if you hate me. If you don''t want to give me the premium ticket from the repeatable mission just said...no, why did you even bothered to make those missions? You are the one who should be ashamed" [...] The system ignored him. Alex wanted to cry but have no tears. He started to hate this system, but he remembered, this system was the one who gave him all the strength that he had now. Alex can only sigh. "That means, I can hold out the rank for now. That means, if I reached the rank 6 peak, I will stop the progress and search for many rank 5 or rank 6 monsters as much as possible. Since at that stage, killing those monsters would be easy for me." Alex then moved forward with a heavy step. For a few days, the monsters in this forest would get Alex''s anger. After all, he can only vent his anger to those monsters. He walked at a very fast speed. He encountered monsters as he walked toward the core forest. after all, this outer and inner zone doesn''t hold any importance to him. His only challenge was from the forest king, the rank 6 ape. These low-rank monsters were killed instantly when Alex passed them. The dean becomes his observer once again. He arrived at the core zone within an hour. He then went searching for the forest king. After all, they both are rank 6. Alex can''t wait to challenge him. This will be the second rank 6 monster that he encountered...no, the third if he counts Sherry. Nah, he won''t. Sherry is his partner, not some random monsters. The first day, he keeps searching for the rank 6 ape but to no avail, he confused. He seems already searched the entire forest but the rank 6 ape was nowhere to be seen. "Did I missed some spot?" Alex frowned. ''Tick'' ''Tick'' Water droplets hit him from above. He looked toward the dark and gloomy sky. "The rain will come soon" Alex searched for some cave but he can''t find one, the rain started going harder. So he decided to stop at a big tree beside the hill. The tree completely blocked the rain so he satisfied with this tree. He rests for a while, waiting for the rain to stop. But the rain seems only going harder. The rain only stopped at night. He sat on a branch, seeing the bright moon behind the dark cloud started to come up and brighten the world. He sighed, "Let''s search for the ape tomorrow" He decided to sleep for today. ... The next day, Alex slowly woke up. When he stood up he felt some shake in his feet. He frowned and look down. The branch almost snapped. He immediately jumped up. "That was dangerous" The branch then broke and fell down to the ground, because of its size, it fell toward the cliff near it. "Bang!" the branch crashed to the ground. "..." Alex sweatdropped. He gulped down and swear "Next time, I will just sleep on the ground" But what he heard next was more shocking to him. "Roar" A big roar seems to be heard from the cave at the bottom of the valley. "A roar? Whose roar? Maybe the ape? I didn''t notice there''s a cave there" The cave was concealed with a dense number of trees. It was normal that Alex didn''t manage to find it. "So how to get down?" Alex''s eyes suddenly widened. "That''s right, I have Sky step" He then jumped down, he then stepped the air like he going down with stairs. Soon enough he reached the ground. He looked toward the big cave entrance. "The sky step was sure handy. Now, what should I do? Should I wait for the ape here or go inside?" Suddenly, he recalled something. Then, a few fire arrows appeared around him "That''s right, I had these fire arrows, I can just send them ahead to see what kind of monster reside in this cave" He pointed out toward the dark cave, "Go" Those fire arrows immediately flies toward the cave. The fire arrows glowing brightly within the darkness of the cave. The fire arrows flew for a few seconds until it reached the end... "Boom" "Roar!" A big roar was heard from the cave. Alex was smiled bitterly, it seems his fire arrows didn''t hit the cave wall, but the rank 6 ape back. Sure, soon enough. A big ape with a height almost seven meters appeared from within. Alex then pulled out his sword. "Come!" "Roar!" 84 Fighting a Rank 6 Ape "Come!" "Roar!" Red furs were covering its body, but there is a black spot. That spot was the place that Alex''s fire arrows exploded. Because of Alex''s tyrannical flame, the normal fire arrows have a big might. The roaring Ape started moving its huge body toward Alex. Alex already took out his sword, as he wanted to test the power of Sanguin Sword Art Sixth Slash. He was shocked, the ape was already in front of him and swung his big hand toward him. "Not good" Alex immediately duck in. "Boom! Crash!" with a swing of its hand, a few trees were fallen down. "This Ape, not only had power with its huge size, but it also had speed" "Flash Step" Alex used Flash Step to disappear from the Ape vision using his big hand as a cover. The next he appeared, he was already behind the huge Ape. Alex smirked. He clenched his sword and aimed toward the Ape''s neck, he tried to finish this in one blow. "Sanguin Sword Art, Sixth Slash!" The instant Alex disappeared, the Ape''s instinct sensed something. He swung his other arm toward his back as his body twisted strangely toward the left. His strike collided with the Ape''s arm, giving the Ape a big cut wound in its left arm. The red-colored blood started gushing out from the wound. "Roar!" Although his first attack failed, there is no change to Alex''s expression. He sent another sword wave flying toward the Ape''s neck. But sadly, The Ape''s eyes already locked onto him, the Ape twisted its body into a weird shape to dodge Alex''s sword wave. Alex finally had a chance to kill the ape. When he just about to send another sword strike. The Ape swung his right hand toward him at a very fast speed. Alex who saw this hand was shocked. With the Ape current weird position, He predicted there will be no incoming fast attack from the Ape. "Not good" Because he planned to throw a sword strike, he was in no position to handle the incoming attack. "Flame Armor" A Translucent Crystal red-colored flame appeared in his arm. The flame appeared in the form of a shield connecting to Alex''s arm. The power contained in the flame can make others dread. But to this insane Ape who already reduced to such a state, there will be nothing that scared the Ape. The Ape pounded the flame-made shield without considering its consequences. Because of this attack, Alex was blown away. With his current position, Alex crashed into the wall just beside the cave''s entrance. "Cough" Bright red blood flow from his mouth. The blow just now, get him a minor internal injury. He wiped the blood in his mouth, He looked toward the Ape. The Ape was not better, the surface of the fist that pounded Alex away was burned, leaving a big pitch-black burned wound in the shape of shield at the skin. Alex refraining the use of his fire in this forest. Beside him was a numerous number of trees. If his fire got into a tree, one tree becomes two, two become four and soon enough it will burn the whole forest. His fire was too tyrannical. He can use the fire arrows since he was aiming at the cave. But in this open field surrounded by trees, using his fire would have more harm. He can only fight with Sanguin Sword Art since he used a sword. He also can take out his spear but he left it as his trump card. The Ape stabilized its form and went toward Alex madly. After the wounds he got from Alex. The Ape berserk. It threw punches after punches at Alex. Although Alex can dodge all this punch, he just can''t find the chance to attack the Ape. After the Ape went to berserk state, its power and speed were doubled. The speed was similar to the rank 7 centipede that Alex had fought back then. ''As expected of the Forest King. Its power and speed were top notch. This speed alone was very similar to the centipede back then. Even though this Ape was very fast. It is like converting its power to speed and converting its speed to power and the problem is he didn''t convert them separately but simultaneously, fusing those two power and giving birth to a stronger force within each atta...'' Alex''s eyes brightened, he muttered. "Converting power to speed, converting speed to power. These two were the first two principles of Sanguin Sword Art. When I used the strike up to the Third Slash, it used the former, and when I used, the Fourth to Sixth Slash. Don''t tell me... the Sanguin Sword Art divided each three slash with a different principle? And the Seventh Slash was using the other principle? That means I was wrong all this time. If it like that, then..." He looked toward the Ape who still threw punches toward him. He observed each strike that the Ape throw. This strike might be the one he needed to successfully used the Seventh Slash. Alex used his ''Flash Step'' to the limit, so he can have more time to observe the Ape''s strike. Even though the time difference was very small, for him, it was enough. Strike after strike, Alex keeps observing. After a few minutes, suddenly the Ape stopped. "ROAR!" It was enraged. The reason might because all of his strikes were missed, or other reasons. But because of this Alex saw a big chance. "Flash Step" With ''Flash Step'', he distanced himself with the Ape. He took a long breath as he looked toward the frenzied Ape. "It worth to try" "Fuu..." Converting the power in my hand for the sword''s speed. Simultaneously, converting my hand speed to give the sword power. Similar but not the same, with fusing the two principles, giving birth to a new kind of prowess. At the tip of the sword started glowing, The blue colored light started covering the sword''s blade from its tip. Alex raised his sword and swung it down. "Sanguin Sword Art, Seventh Slash!" The blue-colored glow on the sword transformed into a beautiful but tyrannical blue-colored sword wave. This crescent sword wave might make other creatures dread but to the frenzied rank 6 Ape... The beautiful sword wave flies toward the Ape. It cut all obstacles in its way. The frenzied Ape tried to guard this sword wave with its arms, crossing the two arms in front of his chest. Alex who released this sword wave was both stunned and astonished. He was shocked by the power contained in the sword wave. With his eyes widened, a wild smirked appeared on his face. He was excited with the sword wave power, the power contained in it was very different than that of the ''Sixth Slash''. He looked toward the Ape who crossed its arms to block his strike. He shook his head, "The current you, can''t block this sword wave" When the Sword wave clashed with the Ape''s arms, the sword wave continued to fly through the Ape, Cutting the Ape into two. The sword wave passed through the Ape like its cut a pudding. The sword wave continue flying toward the cave wall. "Boom" With the collision of the sword wave and the cave wall. It gave a big explosion noise. Both students and teachers were alarmed by this, but because all of them not present, they can only imagine what kind of scene happened. Most of the Students scared, while the teachers alarmed. All rank 7 or above teachers immediately flew toward the scene. When they saw a big cut on the wall, they were stunned and astonished. After all, there are no monsters that can use a sword in this forest. That means it was made by a human. But they never saw any cut like this in the previous year. When they moved their view toward the ground, they saw a big Ape was split to two on the ground. They were too shocked, after all, they know what is this Ape. This Ape was the king of this forest, the rank 6 Ape. On the other side, they spotted a student, with a sword in his hand as he sheathed the sword back. He looked toward the Ape without saying anything. With the current situation, that means this student had killed a rank 6 monster. This was unprecedented in the academy''s history. There might be some genius that managed to reach rank 5 before graduation, or there might be unparalleled genius that even managed to reach rank 6. But all of them reach that level just before graduation or at least in the third year. They knew who is the student on the ground. He is Alexander, the dean''s student, a second-year student. The dean slowly walked to the crowd of teachers. Some of the teachers noticed the dean coming, so they looked toward him. Some of the teachers didn''t notice the dean coming because of the scene, so when they saw their colleague turned their look to another direction, they followed and see the dean coming up. The atmosphere becomes tense after all, the scene that just happened was too great. The dean silent for a while then he sighed. "Sigh...If he practiced that technique in my courtyard, the courtyard wall would be destroyed by him" "..." Every one of them were speechless with what they heard. ''That''s your problem?'' They cursed in their minds. "Dean Marco, you got an unparalleled genius as your student. Congratulations!" Suddenly one of them started to congratulate him. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Yes, The Hero was just trash if compared to him. Congratulations!" One by one started to follow. "Dean Marco, since your wall might be destroyed. Then he can practice in my courtyard, even he destroyed my walls. It''s fine" One of the teachers said. "What? Don''t think to poach him from me, you would never succeed on it" The dean snorted. "Then, he can practice in the student field. That way he can also teach other students" "If something like that happened, most of the students would have their heart pummeled by him. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. If my students did that, their heart would unconsciously think him as a limit. ''there is no use to train, you won''t be the best as long as you are in the same generation with him, or something like that''. Are you going to destroy the students'' future?" "..." "Let nature take its course. All right, dispersed. There will be a problem if all of you were here for a long time. The students might be in dangers while you are here" "Yes" All of them then fly toward their previous spot, albeit reluctantly. 85 Score Alex who didn''t notice what kind of scene he created still looking toward the Ape. He is not thinking about the Ape or looking at the gruesome scene in front of him. He was in the process to comprehend what he just did. The new power by fusing power and speed. After an hour he slowly opened his eyes. He let out a long sigh. He finished. When he looked at the gruesome scene in front of him. He pulled out a shovel and buried the Ape. After all, he was thankful to this Ape. The Ape helped him comprehend the Seventh Slash. After burying the Ape, Alex continues killing monsters in the perimeter. He mainly focused on the rank 5 monsters, but because the rank 5 monsters was a bit scarce, they were wiped out by Alex in a week. Then Alex continues by killing rank 4 monsters. Even though he can''t get any mission points from that, he did it for gacha tickets. He didn''t care about the ranking competition, after all, it didn''t give him any benefit. Two weeks have passed, the ranking competition ended. The students started to leave the forest. The scoring teacher started to announce each score that the students got and ranked them. A female student comes to the teacher and said her name. "Mili Ficta" The teacher nodded, "23 rank 0 monsters and 7 rank 1 monsters, your points are 37" The points were the same as the previous year. Rank 0 is 1 point, rank 1 is 2 points, rank 2 is 4 points, rank 3 is 8 points, rank 4 is 20 points, and rank 5 is 100 points Mili was satisfied with her performance so she smiled smugly. The next students come in and shattered her smug. "Mira" "40 rank 0 monsters and 12 rank 1 monsters, your points are 64" ... The scoring continued for a while. Alex finally arrived. Alex who just got out from the forest was very shocked when he saw Joshua who was defeated by him, standing in front of him. What a coincidence. Joshua looked at Alex with a complex expression, The situation becomes awkward. "Alexander" Alex was surprised when Joshua called him, "Joshua" "I don''t know why but somehow I need to tell you this. When I lost to you that day, The ''Me'' inside my heart was broken. Sigh...The me in the past was too proud, Everyone looks up to me and praise me. I don''t know when it started. My reason was clouded by my pride, I become arrogant and prideful. That day when I lost to you, I was very desperate. I become ruthless and cruel. This one year, I learned a lot. I apologized to the students that I hurt back then. Sigh... I make too many messes" Alex was very shocked that Joshua was like this. He didn''t know what to say so he just patted his shoulder. "I wanted to say this, I''m glad I lost to you that day. I will keep striving and I will take your throne, right...Fire Prince" "Cough...cough" Alex''s eyes widened when he heard that. Joshua''s serious expression turned to a teasing one. "Haha...I get you one for that. So... since you lost, can I make a request?" Alex looked at him, Joshua seems already changed, so he said "What is it?" "Can...can we become a friend?" Alex''s eyes widened, but soon he recovered, he smiled "We are already a classmate for a year. Why do you need to ask that? We are already a friend" Joshua listened to that, smiled. "Then, Can I call you Alex?" "Sure. I will also call you Joshua" "There is no change to the previous one. I mean I called you Alex from Alexander, but you..." "Haha...your name was like that, what do you expect me?" Alex grinned. They laughed. Alicia and Firia who was just out from the forest, saw Alex and Joshua laughing together. Alicia looked at Firia with a confused expression, while Firia looking at Alicia with a weird look. They thought the same thing. ''Since when those two like that?'' Alicia nodded at Firia and Firia nodded back. They approached them. "Alex" "Alicia, Firia" Before they say anything, Joshua bowed toward Alicia and Firia. "I''m sorry Princess Alicia, I was rude to you back then. You can punish me as you fit" Alicia was bewildered, she looked toward Alex weirdly. Alex knew why she becomes like that, after all, he was like that too just a few minutes ago. He then nodded giving confirmation to her. Seeing Alex nodded, she then looked toward Joshua "Don''t worry about it, I don''t really like royalty''s formalities anyway. Even though I am a princess, I don''t want to exert my status that much. I rather going hand to hand with my subjects. You have changed Joshua and I never hold a grudge from back then. So please rise, I''m waiting for you to make this kingdom to be better" Joshua was surprised by what he heard. He clenched his fist and put it in his chest and looked at her with determination "Yes, definitely" This is the reason why Alici seems never exert her status when someone disrespected her. All of them are her precious subjects. Alex and Firia smiled from the side. But suddenly they heard a commotion. A male student walking toward the teacher. While he walking, he heard many praised toward this person. "Edward Maelstorm" Alex confused, he then asked the three "Who is him?" Alicia and Firia facepalmed, while Joshua was confused. Alicia sighed and answered "He is Edward Maelstorm, I heard he was a son of Marquis. He is a first-year and a rank 3 warrior, he was placed in class A and defeated the number one in class S but the problem is his age. He is almost 20, that means, he was in the last acceptable year." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Oh... but I didn''t saw him in last year enrollment" Alex said confusedly. "Yes, he must wait for this moment. He must be planning to enroll in his last year so he can grab all the attention away. Though his potential was so-so, his ''Current'' power was real" "Oh...like that guy huh...who is it again?...ga...gebu...gatu..." Alex tried to recall the name "Its Garu, Garu Tekuis. He was unlucky because he is in the same year with the three abnormal" Joshua corrected him. "Three abnormal?" Alex''s eyes widened. "Me, Alicia, and Joshua" Firia said. "Oh..." Alex nodded. "You are not classified as abnormal, you are freak" Joshua added. Alex stumbled when he heard that. "What?" They laughed. Meanwhile, in the scoring place still bustling with people. "Wooo" "Rank 0 thirty, rank 1 one hundred one, rank 2 two hundred twenty-four, rank 3 seventy, and rank 4 four. Total points are 1768 points" "Wooo" "That''s right, Edward is our pride, our first years'' pride" "Keh, he is too old for that" Some of them praised him and some of them sneered at him. After all, It''s true that Edward already too old. If you think his age and his achievement, they were only mediocre. Alex and the rest walked toward the scoring place. The crowd noticed four of them. "Look, they have come" "The first ranker of second-year, Joshua Fergusa" "The twin beauty of the academy, Princess Alicia and Firia Merona" But when he reached Alex, cheers erupted. Especially from the female students "Kya..." "Male God" "Fire Prince please look this way" Edward who was looking at this scene was angry. When those four come here, his previous glory was forgotten. Even the female students that cheered for him immediately cheered at Alex and forgot about him. His stomach become awful. He then walked closer to the group and glared at Alex hatefully. "Senior Alexander, I heard you are the pride of the academy, I wanted to compare the score with you. But...would Senior Alexander grace his time for this lowly me." Firia and Alicia were tired of this kind of scene. They just facepalmed, and pray for this foolish one. Joshua suddenly comes beside Alex and patted his shoulder. Alex looked at him. "Let me go first. He seems didn''t know that your score last year was above two thousand" "Sure" Alex nodded. Joshua walked toward the teacher, as he walked he said this to Edward "Don''t be too complacent, I was like you last year. Those pride of your might crushed you and lead you to your death" "You! You are just a loser, you can''t be a first rank in second-year if he participated in the ranking." Edward shouted Joshua sighed and shook his head, "Well, that''s true. I''m still not giving up for that, I''m just trying to advise you" Joshua then looked toward the teacher "Joshua" "Rank 0 Forty-three, rank 1 one hundred seventy, rank 2 two hundred, rank 3 ninety, and rank 4 twelve. Total points are 2143 points" "Hiss" Joshua''s score was far above Edward. Edward felt his cheek slapped hard. He then sneered "You...you are a second year, so it''s normal. I can beat you in my second year" Joshua who heard that shook his head bitterly, this Edward was really... He looked toward Alex and the rest. "Princess Alicia, Miss Firia. How about you two come first? This guy might bring trouble if he went first, we might not be able to report if he went first." Alex was dumbfounded. Alicia and Firia giggled, "Sure" "Who are the first?" Alicia asked "I''m first" Firia said. "Firia" The teacher nodded, "Rank 0 sixty, rank 1 one hundred fifty, rank 2 two hundred twenty, rank 3 eighty-five, and rank 4 twenty. Total points are 2320 points" "You next Alicia" Alicia nodded and walked to the teacher "Alicia" "Greeting Princess" The teacher greeted her and announced her score "Rank 0 sixty-one, rank 1 one hundred forty-nine, rank 2 two hundred twenty, rank 3 eighty-six and rank 4 twenty. Total points are 2327 points" Since she hunted together with Firia. They split the monster equally, so their points didn''t have much difference Alicia and Firia smiled and went toward Alex. "You promised if our scores were above you, you need to take a break for a week" Alex giggled then gently smiled "Talk after you win" "Kyaa!" "Male God" "My Fire Prince" Alex walked toward the teacher and smiled "Alexander" The teacher pulled out a memo and said without expression. "Your points are Zero" "..." 86 Alexs score "Your points are Zero" "Eh?" Alex''s eyes widened ... Every person present got their eyes widened and their jaw dropped. They were dumbfounded. Silence filled the entire field. Even though the students that were gathered here were numerous, there was no sound. Even Wind was louder than them. It took a while for everyone to return. "What?" Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded. After a while, they recovered. They looked toward each other weirdly. And said at the same time "We won right?" "Hahahaha!" The laughter was very loud. All of them looked at the person who laughed so hard. It was Edward, Edward laughed so hard and said sarcastically "Hahaha! Zero Points, as expected of the legendary Student. You don''t need to kill the monster for this exam. Ha...I learned Senior" "No...My Prince" "Why?" "Teacher you must have it wrong" The students, especially the female students complained to the teacher. The teacher put his hand forward to stop them and said "Because of the scene he created, we decided to retract all his points. The dean already gave his approval. That was written in the memo. Look" He let them take a look at the memo. It was true that the memo said Alexander points were retracted by the academy "Pfft" "No...My fire prince. Please..." "The academy must be wrong" "My Prince, let me console your heart" Many of them laughing and many of them hysteric because of this. Alex dumbfoundedly got back. He looked at Joshua weirdly. Joshua also looked at him weirdly, he then finally said "Don''t mind" Alicia and Firia looked at him giggled, "Whatever the reason, we won right? You must abide by your promise" Alex sighed and nodded "Sure" "Wait!" The teacher who announced his score shouted. Alex turned back and looked at the teacher weirdly. The teacher took out a second memo. "The dean said that after I announced the first memo. I need to take a look at the second memo" The teacher looked at the second memo weirdly. He giggled when he read the second memo. The crowd looking at the teacher who giggled, weirdly. They all shouted in their minds ''What is it? don''t keep us suspense'' "The memo said that the previous memo was just a joke. It said it was a payback for the scene you created. Your real score is..." Everyone gulped down. This teacher really likes to give them suspense. He finally continued "You killed ten Rank 0 monsters, eleven rank 1 monster, five rank 2 monsters, and twenty rank 3 monsters" "Pfft...Hahaha" the crowd laughed, Edward laughter was especially loud "As expected of the legendary Student" "Ssshhh, the teacher seems not finished yet" The crowd started to silent. "You wiped half of the population of rank 4 monsters, you killed a total of 733 rank 4 monsters. With this achievement, we reward you with 1000 points" "Hiss..." The crowd was silent. Their eyes widened and their jaw dropped to the ground. ''Wiped half of the rank 4 monsters population?''. They looked at the teacher who still not finished. They gulped down very hard. "You wiped out all of the rank 5 monsters in the forest. You killed a total of 51 rank 5 monsters. The academy reward you again with 1000 points" After hearing this statement, all of them stunned. The female students who cheered him all the time have the words stuck on their throat. The students who laughed at him, their faces become pale. Especially Edward, who mocked him this entire time, his face was blue, his intestine was green, he will collapse at any moment. Before they can recover, the teacher dropped the last nuke bomb. "You personally killed the Forest king, A rank 6 Ape. For this achievement, the academy rewards you with 2000 points. Your score is 24,972 points, Because of this scene, the dean made the previous memo for a payback. That''s all" "Hiss" The crowd took the nuke head on. Especially Edward who collapsed on the spot with bubbles in his mouth. A minute...two minutes...Five minutes...the crowd recovered with the announcement. "Woooo" "Kyaa!" "Male God" "Fire Prince" "Fire Prince, look at me, I can warm your bed" "Male God, Please let me bear your child" "Who is it? who is the one who dared to laugh at my Male God" "Who is your Male god, he is mine" "Where is the one who mocked him previously?" "Look, Edward who insulted him collapsed on the ground with bubbles in his mouth" "Serve him right" Alex who was in the center of this very embarrassed, he scratched his cheek with his finger and looked at the collapsed Edward. He somehow felt pity for his future and lose all his drive to slap him back for his insult. He silently went toward Alicia and Firia. He gave a meaningful smile to them. They who saw the smile on Alex''s face knew. They pouted. Seeing their pout, he giggled and whispered to them, "Let''s get out from here first" They nodded. Alex grabbed them and used his ''Sky Step''. They disappeared from the scene. Of course, if they looked toward the sky a bit, they will see Alexander carrying Alicia and Firia running in the sky at a fast speed. "Wait where is he?" "Where did my prince go?" "No...My prince..." The crowds were searching for Alex who was nowhere to be seen. In the ranking, there is a big name. "1. Alexander Sirius, 24,972 points" Joshua who was in the crowd, shake his head. "As expected of him" ... Meanwhile, Alex and the rest arrived in front of the school. "I want to complain to Teacher a bit. You guys can go first" Alicia and Firia giggled. "Sure" Alex went toward the dean''s office and forcefully opened the door. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Bang!" The dean who was sipping his tea. Choked. "Cough...cough... What are you doing!" "Teacher, what is that first note!" "Hmph, that was my payback. You make a big scene back then." "Can''t you conceal a bit of my scores. I can''t go out because of this score after this." Alex sighed. "Hehe... serve you right." "..." Alex was speechless. After a moment then the dean sighed. "Well, I managed to gather the ingredients for Crystal Pill. Come here tomorrow to take the ingredients" Alex''s eyes brightened. "Thank you, teacher. You are the best" "Hehe... You rest first for today" "Yes" Alex left. ... Alex went back to his room. Alicia already waiting for him in the room. Firia seems went back since he can''t find her here. "Alicia. I got good news for you" "Mmm?" Alicia looked at him, blushed. "I will make a pill for you tomorrow" "I already told you that I didn''t mind it" "Then, it was my selfish wish" Suddenly Alicia stood up and kiss him on the lips. This caught him off guard. His eyes widened. He was too shocked by Alicia''s sudden action. The two lips touched each other. The sweet cherry lips were planted on his lips. The kiss was like opening up your soul, tasting feeling and seeing every color of the rainbow. The softness, the sweetness of her lips. The feeling that can''t be described by words. He felt both of them levitating in the air like nothing exist in the world except He and Alicia. A sweet cherry lips founded in the spring, like a fireworks glowing and brightening the dark sky. Alex slowly closed his eyes, enjoying this feeling of happiness. His hand slowly moved toward her back, hugging her. Alicia felt Alex''s hand on her back and hugged him back. The two went into their own world. they were intoxicated. After a few minutes, their lips separated. They slowly opened their eyes in satisfaction. Alicia''s face becomes the reddest red. She said in a very low voice. "That...that...is...the...promised...surprise" Alex took a long breath, his face was also very red. "Umm..." The two went into silence. The situation becomes very awkward. A minute...two minutes...three minutes...Five minutes... "Umm, Alicia" Alex broke the silence. "What...what is it?" Alicia flustered. "I love you" Alicia''s eyes widened, then she let out a big smile "I love you too" And with that, they become silent again and the situation becomes awkward once again. "Is...is she..." Alex hesitated. Alicia knew the ''she'' Alex talking about, "Firia also will do it" "But...are you really okay with that?" "I will respect your decision" "..." Alex looked at her "Even if I reject her?" Alicia''s eyes widened. "What do you mean?" "Even...even after this long time, I still can''t..." Alex finally confessed. In the end, he started to stutter. Alicia suddenly stopped him, she hugged him. The tears started to fall down. "It''s okay, you don''t need to force yourself" Alicia looked at Alex, "We...we will tell her. Whatever happens, we...we will face it together" Alex nodded weakly, "She can beat me or punch me as she likes" ... Never they know that Firia was in front of their room. Listening in silence. She sighed, she took a long breath. Her eyes filled with determination. She opened the door. "Fi-Firia" Alex and Alicia were shocked. Firia without saying anything walked toward Alex and chopped his head. "Ouch!" Alex was shocked by Firia''s actions. "I will wait for you" "Eh?" Alex was dumbfounded "I said, I will wait for you. This promised surprise, I will owe it to you for now. At that time, when you finally love me back, then I will give this surprise with a bonus" Firia said that with a blush. Alex can only look at her with his mouth open, then he smiled. "Yes, Definitely" 87 Normal Day The next day, Alex, Alicia, and Firia were ''enjoying'' themselves in the city. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Alex who was always training ultimately chose to enjoy his holiday after the grade ranking competition. Alex recalled that he made a bet with Alicia and Firia, though the points he got in the night forest was far higher than them, he made up an excuse. There is also the ''kiss'' incident from Alicia and the incident with Firia. He got a bit guilty with both of them, so he decided to do this. ... "Alicia, Firia" Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded, That ''Alex'' actually visited them in his training time.'' Looking at Alicia and Firia reaction he made a weird expression, "What with you two?" Alicia and Firia recovered, they stood up and went to him. Alicia looking at him from top to bottom in his front, while Firia looking at him at his back. "You two?" "Nothing. We just want to check if you are real" Firia said. Alex''s expression darkened "What with that!" "The Alex I know won''t leave his practice and meet us at his practice time. That''s why we need to check you, we don''t know you are the real Alex or not" Alex snapped, "What with you two girls. Fine, I will be back. I thought inviting you to walk around the city. Hmph, I will ''Practice'' again" He said that and turned back. Alicia and Firia grabbed his arms respectively. Alicia anxiously apologize "Wait, Alex, we are wrong" "We have all the time you want if you want to do that" Firia desperately said. Alex halted his step and sighed. After all, this is his plan all along They visited many places, from shops to restaurants to shops again. At first, they followed Alex wherever he goes, later, they were the ones who dragged him to ''Shop'' again and again. The restaurant was his helping hand to rest for a while. In the restaurant, after they eat. They finally asked him, "Alex, why do you suddenly want to go like this?" Alicia asked. "Yes, especially when there is no special occasion like this" Alex''s expression darkened. "If you don''t want to talk, it is fine" "Yes, it is fine" Alex looked at them "Sigh... There is one special occasion" "Occasion?" Both of them were surprised. They didn''t remember any special occasion for today. "Remember about our bet for grade ranking competition?" Both of them nodded, "Yes, we are betting who will get the higher points" "Yes, but our points was far lower than you" "Remember the first time the teacher announce my score. How many is it?" "But he was kidding" Alicia said "Yes, he was just kidding" Firia said, but suddenly her eyes brightened, "You mean?" Alicia was confused with Firia expression. There seems another meaning in Alex''s words. She thought about it for a bit, her eyes become widened "Alex, you..." "Yes. Though the teacher said it was a joke, but I still lose to you guys. Though I win later on. So I was thinking if I should stop training and enjoy a bit with you two, at least for today" Alex said embarrassedly "Hehe, I never thought you have this kind of cute side" Alicia giggled. "Yes yes, maybe we should make another bet again, Alicia. That way, we can have a day like this again or even more" Firia giggled. "Yes, you are right Firia" "But first, we need to make sure enjoy this hard-to-come-by day to the fullest" Firia said with an evil smile while looking at Alex "Of course, I''m planning to do that all along" Alicia, of course, do the same. Alex started regretting to said all of this. ... Alicia, Firia, and Alex finally come back to the academy. In the room, Alicia lied down tiredly on the bed, she was satisfied with all the thing happened today, Firia surely enjoyed all of that too. Contrary to them, Today was very exhausting, mentally for Alex. Alex sat on his beloved sofa. For what kind of experience he got today...he doesn''t want to recall that. "I haven''t checked the gacha tickets I got from Night Forest. Let me see" He opened the System panel. He saw, [Gacha Ticket 241x Premium Ticket 0x] "System, Why do I feel the normal tickets were so useless compared to Premium tickets?" [One is normal, the other is Premium. Host, you asked a stupid question] Alex was speechless, his expression becomes dark. "Then, As I got stronger, the normal tickets would be more useless than right now ain''t it?" [Don''t worry Host. When Host becomes stronger later. There might be an update for the normal gacha. The item level will be much higher than now] "Seriously?" [Yes Host] "Hoho...I''m looking forward to it" [And there is another news for you Host] Alex frowned "News? System, all of the news from you was a trap for me. I don''t want to hear it" [Are you sure Host?] "Yes, I''m very sure" Alex crossed his arms and nodded. [Even the news was concerning the exchange of Normal Gacha Ticket to the Premium Gacha Ticket?] "Let me hear about it" Alex''s attitude changed 180 degrees. [...] [Host, you are shameless] "The Shameless win all" He smugly said that [I have learned Host] "Hmm hmm, you are very good, System" Alex nodded repeatedly. [I should also be a Shameless System] "Shameless System?" Alex felt something bad, he gulped down. [I can alter the system gacha and give Host the Common items every time you use Gacha] "System, I was joking" Alex wanted to kneel immediately to the system but there is Alicia in the room so he refrained himself from doing that. [I was joking too Host] "It was a joke?" Alex''s eyes widened. He was already sweatdropped when the system said that, all the tone he heard from the system wasn''t a joke, at least that is what he thinks. He gulped down. [Of course, I can''t alter the gacha from the Syste- I mean, I am the system itself. How can I alter myself? For an easier example, how can a human alter his own organ by operating his body by himself. Of course, he can''t] "What! Y-you, **** you" All the previous anxieties he had before vanished [Eh, But I don''t have a physical body for now. How can you **** me] The system casually said. Alex was speechless, he snapped "I was cursing at you" [Of course, I know that Host. As I said before, I have learned, ain''t I? (The Shameless Way) that is] "*&%$*%^" Alex cursed. [Love you too, Host <3] Oh wow, there is a symbol there. The system was upgrading its content. Alex took a long while before calming himself. Fortunately, Alicia seems didn''t notice his fuming this whole time. "Sigh, Back to the topic. What is the news?" [The first one, in the next update. There will be one or two more types for premium gacha] "Hoh... what are those types?" [The First one is you need to find it yourself later. The second one, you don''t need to know it for now. The second one is still a probability and might be canceled later] "What the heck! You even know that it might get canceled later. Where is the one who updates you, I will immediately demand the second one from him/her" [You can''t meet her Host. Just know, she does it for you] "Ugh...Who is she?" [Host remember that the system talked about my physical body?] "Yes" [Actually, the system didn''t have the physical body. But the one who controlled the system has] "Who is she? Why she did all this thing? Why me?" The ''Why me'' in his word felt so heavy. [I don''t know Host, there is only one way for you to know all of it. That is to get stronger and stronger and stronger. At that time, you might know the answer] "Sigh..." Alex took a while to calm down from all of that information, "Is that all for the next update? [In the next update there are also two new things, First, The item from normal gacha would level up. As for how high the level up, Host needs to find it later when the system finished its upgrade. This level up also applied to the Premium Gacha. And the second, Host can exchange the normal ticket to the premium ones. The exchange rate was 200 to 1] "I see, The current normal gacha drops weren''t that great. But if there will be a level up later, then it nice" [Oh yeah, Because of the level up. The maximum rank for normal gacha drops to Rare (R)] "Here it comes. I know you won''t give me good news without the bad news. You ''Useless'' System" [Host, My name is Good Luck Gacha System. If I give you an omnipotent skill or reward, I can not say ''Good Luck'' to you] The system seems to pout. Alex was speechless with this reasoning. This system was very... "Then what if your name becomes ''Bad Luck''?" [System drops will be very bad and System will say ''Serve you right''] "Forget my last question!" 88 Crystal Pill A week went by after Alex asked Alicia and Firia a date. He continued his practice all this time. After a week, he was summoned by his teacher "You finally come back huh... I thought you are going to practice more even I call you here" "Umm, I''m sorry Teacher" "Whatever, The ingredients for the Crystal Pill is in there" Alex nodded, "Thank you teacher" "Sure, Is there any pill that you want to create again?" Alex contemplated a bit and shook his head "Not for a while, there are still some rank 1 or rank 2 pills. But there is no usage for them. I mean, their usage was ''Increasing nose length'' or ''Increasing Hair length..." "Now teacher mention it, maybe we can make some of these beauty pills. There are three of them, Hair Maker Pill, Smoothing Pill, and Conserving Skin Pill. Their usage respectively was to increase the hair length, increase the hair smoothness, and conserving the smoothness of your skin. I know the ingredients for Alchemy weren''t cheap, these three pills can give us some money. These three pills ingredients also have monster core in it. With the monster core as an ingredient, the pills usually formed larger. That way, we can make a few pills with one set of ingredients. That will lower the cost." Alex explained. "Hoho... Interesting. Let''s do that" "Let me write the recipes first. Oh yeah, there is another one. The berserk pill" "Berserk pill?" the dean frowned. "Yes, the pill will make one tap his latent potential, boosting his/her strength twice for a few minutes. But after that, the user would be significantly weaker" The dean''s eyes widened. "Th-that pill would be very precious in the battle" "With this pill, one can overturn the situation" Alex nodded, "There are three ranks of this pill, which is 1 to 3. Rank one pill was useful for those in rank 3 or lower. Rank 2 pill was useful for those in rank 6 or lower and rank 3 pill was useful for those in rank 9. But there is a caution for this pill. If you are a rank 3 warrior and use the rank 2 Berserk Pill. His body would be exploded because of pill energy." "Fumu" The dean nodded. "Let me write all of the recipes first" Alex picked up a few papers and start writing. After a while, he checked all of them once again before handing it to his teacher. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "This is the recipes" The dean looked at them one by one. "These three beauty pills'' ingredients weren''t that rare, I can find all of them in a week. This berserk pill, as expected. The ingredients for rank 1 and rank 2 berserk pills weren''t that hard to find. But this rank 3 Berserk Pill was a bit troublesome. I will try to find it first" Alex nodded, "Then, I will take these ingredients with me and refined the Crystal Pill first" The dean nodded. Alex grabbed the ingredients and went to the courtyard. He found Alicia and Firia practicing together. Sherry was lying on a couch, sleeping. When Alex came, she immediately opened her eyes and jump off the couch. "Wuu Wuu" She looked at Alex with a star on her eyes. It was telling Alex that she wants to eat Alex looked at Sherry and shook his head "Let me make a pill first, I will give you the flame after I finished" "Wuu" She reluctantly agreed. She went back to the couch. Noticing Sherry''s sound. Alicia and Firia who were practicing stopped. Alicia immediately run toward Alex and asked, "Are you going to practice again?" Alex smiled and shook his head "No, I will make your pill now" Firia nodded, "Should we left the courtyard?" "No, though I need to ask you to leave the field. You can stay here with Sherry a bit" "We can watch you?" Alicia asked. "If you want" Alex nodded. This is the first time they watch Alex making a pill. Usually, Alex made them in the dean''s workshop. But because of his new technique, he decided not to make the pill there again. In case he destroyed the workshop since it really needs a more complicated process. "Wuu Wuu Wuu" Sherry let out a sound while pointing her paw toward an empty space beside her. It seems telling them ''Stay there, don''t get too close, Master Flame is so blazing. And also be quiet as to not disturb him'' Alicia and Firia make a weird look in their faces. They somehow managed to perceive what Sherry said. They slowly walked over to the spot that Sherry''s pointed at. Alex already set up all his ingredients. After checking all of the ingredients once again, he looked toward Alicia, Firia, and Sherry once again. "Wuu Wuu" Noticing Alex gaze, Sherry immediately raised her paw, Alex know what it means. Sherry tell him ''Good Luck, Master'' Alicia and Firia also understand what she said. They immediately shouted, not wanting to be outdone by her, "Good Luck Alex" Watching at their interaction, Alex giggled a bit. He then closed his eyes to focus his mind. After a while, he slowly opened his eyes. He raised the cauldron with mana to below his chest level. A dense of translucent red flame flared up from the inside of the cauldron. Because of the previous Quenching Fire Pill. Alex flame intensity went up a notch. The bright red flame raised from the cauldron. Because of the dragon pattern looking toward the sky. The dragon looks like breathing flame. Alex continues doing this for a while. The cauldron started to warm up. After the temperature is enough, Alex waved his hand. The first ingredient, ''Ice Fruit'' flew up and was finally thrown into the cauldron. The instant the ''Ice Fruit'' went inside, there is a spark of temperature. With Alex flame temperature. There is a sudden drop in temperature. The Ice Fruit fought back. It released its cold attribute. The situation was only a flash. Alex immediately raise his flame once more and completely suppressed it. Though Alex raised his flame, he was very careful in his control as to not damage the medicinal herb. He raised his flame temperature to a precise degree. Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded with this scene. This is the first time they watched Alex make a pill. When there is a sudden drop in temperature, their jaw dropped. They know, the cause was the fruit in front of them. They also noticed that Alex immediately suppressed it. Alicia felt a little dread in that clash. The energy that released from the fruit was far stronger than her own ice energy. Alicia didn''t know that the Ice Fruit in front of them is a rank 6 medicinal herb. The ice energy released from it was enormous. Contrary to her, Firia was shocked by the other thing. She was shocked by Alex''s suppression. When Alex raised his flame, she felt an elemental suppression from Alex''s flame, it was like a commoner looking at the king. She already knows that Alex flame was unordinary. But not to this extent. She thought that the gap was closed when she took the Quenching Fire Pill. She felt that her fire become much stronger after she took the pill. But, not only the gap wasn''t closer, it was even wider. "Firia, do you notice his flame control?" Alicia asked after observing Alex closely. Because of the elemental difference. Alicia didn''t feel much suppression from the flame. Though she felt the flame was very tyrannical, but that''s all to it. So after she carefully observing him, she knows that Alex controlled his flame temperature to the precise degree. Because of this, she decided to ask Firia who have the same element. Firia eyes widened when she heard Alicia''s question. Now that she asked about it, She realized that Alex flame''s control was very precise. She asked herself ''What if I am the one in there? Can I control that sudden spark of ice energy?''. the answer is no. She shook her head bitterly, "My control was very far from him" "Don''t worry, you will feel better if you regard him as an abnormal" Looking at Firia who bitterly shook her head, she decided to console her. "Wuu Wuu" Hearing the noise they made, Sherry immediately warned them. ''Keep it down'' They were dumbfounded. They looked at each other with a weird smile and bitterly shook their heads. Sherry was more careful than them. If they knew what Sherry''s actual thought was, they will cough blood. Sherry actual thought was like this, ''If master failed, he will be in a bad mood. If he is in a bad mood, there will be no food for her'' Alex who completely ignored his surrounding moved to the next step. The fruit started to meltdown into a blue droplet leaving the blue fruit wither. He threw the wither blue fruit and continue refining the blue droplet He raised his flame once again and soon, a light gray vapor started to raise from the droplet. He slowly expelled the impurities within the blue droplet. The process only took around ten minutes. Because of the Quenching Fire Pill. He can expel these impurities faster. After finishing the first medicinal herb, he covered the liquid with his flame and immediately refined the second medicinal herb. He continuously refined the medicinal herbs without rest for two hours. Before he refined the last ingredients which are the monster core. Alicia looking at him continuously refining, worried. She asked Firia again "Firia, Is he not exhausted his mana for continuously using his flame?" Firia shook her head "No, he only used a bit of his mana at a time. His control enabled him to continuously used the existing flame to continue" "Maybe... we should practice our control more?" "Yes we might need to practice our control more" after looking at Alex''s efficient way, she arrived at that conclusion. "Wuu Wuu" Sherry once again reprimanded them. They scratched their cheek embarrassedly. The refinement of the monster core didn''t take too long. The energies from all ingredients assimilating perfectly while circling around Alex. In other eyes, the ingredients look like dancing with Alex as the center. After the assimilating is done, they flew into the cauldron and started to merge with each other. Alex keeps his flame while waiting for this process. After a while, the pill embryo started to form, as usual, the size was bigger than the normal pill. Alex separated them into three. "Pill Formed" 89 Crystal Pill 2 Three light blue colored pills were formed. Alex took those pill and relieved. The pills are finally done. He looked at the dumbfounded Alicia and Firia and the lazy Sherry who is currently lying on the couch. He walked toward them, "Wuu Wuu" Sherry greeted him "Wuu Wuu Wuu, Wuu" Alex giggled, he perceived her intention. She seems telling him that Alicia and Firia were loud and might disturb him. He smiled and stroke Sherry. "Yes yes, My Sherry is the greatest" "Wuu" Sherry put her paw on her...chest(?) It was very cute watching her like this. "Oh right, This is the food" Alex pours out his flame to her. Sherry eats the flame happily, Alex''s pure fire is nourishment for her. After He confirmed that Sherry is full, he turned to Alicia and Firia. They still not moving after this whole time. "Oi...Oi...you two?" Alex tried to wake up the dumbfounded duo. "Ah, Alex. You finally finished" Alicia embarrassedly said, she can''t think anything other than those sloppy words. She still hadn''t fully recovered with the shocking scene she saw just now. She finally knows what Alex means in the alchemy. She never knows that Alchemy was such an arduous process, to make pills like this took too many hours. She recalled when Alex gave her pills like this or when he brought those many pills to her family. She felt a bit pained in her heart. Each pill that he gave away needed this kind of arduous process. Contrary to her, beside her, Firia lamented her own uselessness. It seems that she still not put too much effort. If this continues, the gap between her and Alex will further and further away. At that time, she will become his burden. If it is like that, will he treat her the same? If there are women that more powerful and more beautiful than her. Will she take Alex away? "This is the Crystal Pill. It can boost your ice element" He gave the pill to Alicia. "Why don''t you eat it? Ah, but move to the field first okay? When you eat the pill, we don''t know what will happen. It might create a scene like last time" Alicia nodded, she clenched the pill in her hand. She walked to the field and resolutely eat the pill. When she took the pill. The pill melted on her mouth. The process was almost the same as The Quenching Fire Pill, the pill''s energy started to spread around her body. The temperature around the field started to drop. Ice crystal started to form around her body. Alex frowned a bit, he immediately makes a shield from mana to cover him, Firia and Sherry from the freezing temperature. Unlike the usual, he didn''t infuse his element to the shield. He was afraid that his flame might disrupt the ice energy from Alicia. After all, his element is pure fire element. If because of his carelessness, she failed or even injured. He can''t forgive himself for that. Alex felt the surrounding temperature was around minus twenties degree. Sherry would be fine with this but Firia won''t. Firia still in rank 3, while Sherry is rank 6. The difference was too big. With her current power, she can''t resist this cold. She might be fine if she releases her fire element. But it might disturb Alicia. So, Alex covering them with his mana was the best solution for now. Alex continues observing Alicia. The blue-colored crystal ice formed in her surrounding become bigger and bigger. Unknowingly, the ice spread in a radius of 3 meters. After around fifteen minutes, the surrounding ice started to shrink. She will feel the pain as the ice keeps shrinking. "Ah!" Yep, that right, She started screaming in pain. Alex already explained this kind of thing to her, so she had prepared for this pain. But even though she is prepared, she can''t help but scream when facing this kind of pain. Though the coldness, numb her sense of pain a bit. But the attack from the cold really makes her in pain, as you jump into the lake water covered with ice in the winter. You felt cold, but the most important thing, you felt the pain because of the coldness. ''This might be the same process as I took the Quenching Fire Pill" Alex looked at her worriedly, after all, who can watch his own girlfriend calmly when he looked at her in pain. But even so, he can''t do anything. If he did anything at this time, the consequences would be more severe than the pain. The shrinking process took a full 10 minutes. Alicia didn''t feel any more pain after that. She felt comfortable with the feel of her new ice. The ice breakthrough from her body once again. The blue-colored ice becomes a cyan-colored ice. But Alex, Firia, even Sherry also felt. This ice was far stronger than the previous Ice. But when they looked at this new ice, they relieved. Because the appearance of this ice means that Alicia succeeded. Two minutes after the ice appearance, Alicia finally opened her eyes. She felt this new power reside within her body. She felt more intimate with her element. She felt she can control the ice far better now. Though not as much as Alex. She looked toward Alex who gives her all of this. Not only to her but also to her family. Alex tirelessly made pills for them. She let out tears unconsciously. Alex was dumbfounded when he saw the tears on Alicia''s eyes. At first, he was happy when she opened her eyes. But when the tears rolled down from her eyes, he was shocked. He immediately runs toward her and asked anxiously, "What happened? Why are you crying?" Alicia shook her head. She raised her hands and hug him "Alicia? What happened?" He was too shocked by Alicia''s action. "Alex...Thank you. Really, thank you very much" When the words out from her mouth. All the words in his stomach stuck on his throat. He slowly raised his hand and hug her back. On the side, Firia looked at them with a smile. "Wuu Wuu" Sherry complained in jealously. She said, "I Won''t Lose" Firia turned to her and smiled, "Yes. We can''t lose to her" ... Meanwhile, in Zircodina Kingdom. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Bang" The door was opened forcefully. A soldier came in, the soldier seems very rushed. "Your Majesty, Emergency news" Yes, this was in the palace grand hall. Sitting in the throne was the king of Zircodina Kingdom, on his left is his trusted minister, his right-hand man, the one who usually helps him with all of his work. "What is this emergency?" The king frowned. "We got information from our spy in Acacia Kingdom. They...they said..." "What is it? Explain it fully" The king said with a stern voice. "They said that Alexander Sirius who was in our top observation list. Become rank 1 in grade ranking competition in the academy" The king frowned, he was displeased. "I know, with his power, it was possible for him to do that. You don''t need to report this kind of news to me" "But his score...his score is 24,972 points" When the guard said that. The king immediately stood up, flustered. "What did you say. His score is...is 24,972 points?" "Ye-yes, the report said that. He killed the forest king, a rank 6 ape. He also wiped out all of the rank 5 monsters in the forest and killed half of rank 4 monsters population, resulting in that score" "What...what..." The king stumbled. Even the minister beside him dumbfounded. After a moment, the minister recovered. "Your Majesty" With the wake-up call from the minister beside him, The king recovered and immediately said, "Make my daughter immediately go to Acacia Kingdom. We will make an engagement between her and him" "Your Majesty, How about the hero?" The minister asked him, after all, The princess, Rieze, still engaged to him. "Why do you even care about that trash? That Archmage and That Sage had already escaped from here. Although we managed to find them. The Archmage must take asylum to the Holy Kingdom. After all, that priestess was her childhood friend. While the Sage is still missing. We won''t know what will happen sooner or later to her after the hero went mad. It is better for my daughter to get engaged with him than stay here. She will be more useful that way. Now, with his women gone, the hero only thought was revenge, he needs power to do that. We can still use him for now, if he wants power, he can level up while killing those damned demons. With that, our soldiers'' morale would be increased." Because of Alex''s abnormal performance, the king immediately decided for an engagement for her daughter and Alex. Acacia Kingdom also used that too, the difference is that Alicia and Alex already become a friend first before they employed this kind of technique. Make it more convenient. "As expected of your majesty. The Wise King" "Make sure to keep her engagement with ''him'' a secret" The minister nodded "I will immediately inform her" --- (Side) Sandra escaped with Ayaka together. They can''t take John''s beating anymore after he becomes a eunuch John becomes a demon. Cruel and Merciless, he beat them again and again. Because of this, they wanted to get an asylum from Maria who is in the Holy Kingdom, but they somehow separated on their journey. Sandra managed to reach Maria in the Holy Kingdom, and of course, with their previous relationship, Maria took her in happily. When they escaped, they were pursued by some bandits. They were separated because of that. After months of journey, Sandra arrived in the Holy Kingdom. When she told the whole story to Maria. Maria was enraged. Her image of John has crumbled away. "Maria, was I wrong this whole time?" Sandra cried to Maria. "Was I wrong when I did that to Alex?" Looking at the distressed Sandra, she can''t mutter any words to console her. Though, she felt very angry when she knows that her childhood friend betrayed her boyfriend, Alex. She is still her childhood friend. She can''t say anything to her and only hugged her back. 90 Frozen World A week has passed after Alex made Crystal Pill. Alex continued practicing his skill at this time. Suddenly Firia came in, "Alex" Alex looked at her solemn face. "I...I want to learn alchemy like you. I know this request was very absurd since the alchemy was a long lost technique but, Please teach me" She bowed. Alex immediately went to her and help her up. "If you wanted to learn, just asked. You don''t need to be like this, I will teach you" "But, I want to ask you this first. Why do you suddenly want to learn this?" "I...I felt powerless when I saw you making pills a week ago. I thought that I already had it hard and already give my best effort. But when I saw you make those pills, I know, I know that my effort was not nearly enough. With the way I am now, I can''t help you with anything other than burden you down. If I learn about Alchemy, I might be able to help you even if that was only a minuscule" Alex was dumbfounded with her words. But he also felt moved with her action. Unknowingly from him, the locked door in his heart was unlocked. From now on, Firia will slowly opened the door and went inside his heart. "Alright, I will help you. But, learning in alchemy is very hard you know. Don''t expect me to go easy on you" "Don''t worry, I am not that easy to break. I will make you astonished with my effort and result. I might put you on shame with that, ''Teacher''." "Wha-what are you saying. Don''t call me ''Teacher'', just call me Alex like usual or I won''t teach you" At first he smiled at her determination, but when she called him with ''Teacher'' He can''t help but retort. "Hehe...Yes" She giggled. Alex can only shake his head "Okay, For now, you need to practice flame control first. I will teach you a bit now. You might want to make a note for that" "Don''t worry, I am prepared for that" She suddenly took out a few blank papers and showed them to him. Alex shook his head, "You really came prepared huh..." "Alright. Flame control is..." Alex stopped his training and teach her about Flame control. He taught her more slowly compared to the dean. After all, Firia experience was nowhere near the dean, so he patiently taught her. Firia absorbed all the knowledge from Alex at a very fast speed. They said that important information from an important person was absorbed and remembered at a very fast speed. Like how you remembered your girlfriend/boyfriend phone number for the very first time. You can somehow remember them at one go. After teaching Firia about Alchemy, He continues with his own training. After a week, He found that Firia flame control was enough for her to try making some rank 1 pills. So he invited her to see the dean. After all, the one who has the ingredients is him. "Teacher" "What do you want? Where is the other lass?" The dean was a bit confused. Usually, when the time he came to him, it was either he was alone or the other two accompany him together. But seeing Alex only with Firia this time. He was surprised. "Well, do you have any rank 1 pills that we used to make?" "Of course I have, the demand still quite high especially from the military. Unlike rank 2 pills. These rank 1 pills were easy to get and not cost that much." "I see" "Why do you ask about them?" "Mmm, Firia wanted to learn about alchemy, so I teach her about flame control. Now, a week has passed, I think her flame control was enough for her to start making pills" The dean then looked at Firia. "I want to learn about alchemy, with the way I am now, I have no power to help him. So I thought, with this alchemy, I can at least help him no matter how little it is. Please help me" She bowed. The dean was surprised but his surprised immediately become appreciation. When one has a connection, they usually relied on their connection too much. Especially if the connection they had was something like Alex. But this Firia, not only she not relying on Alex so much she also bowing down to him. That means, she also prepared to be rejected by him. Since she was his ''woman'', if she wished for it, Alex surely gives it to her. But Firia didn''t want to take it as granted, Woman like this will be strong. He looked toward Firia with appreciation then nodded. he pointed out at his workshop "Sure, you can use them. They are in there, you can ask Alex how to use them. If you want to practice more, just come by. You don''t need to come with him together" Firia was surprised, she was very happy as she let out a bit of tear in her eyes. She bowed once again "Thank you very much" The dean looked at her nodded. Then he turned to Alex who was in silence this whole time. His eyes telling him ''You do your Job now!'' Alex nodded, he let out a gentle smile "Firia, Let''s go. I will explain how to use the ingredients now" Alex led her to the workshop. Inside the workshop, there is a pile of ingredients there. The ingredients sorted out meticulously. Alex hasn''t been here for a few months. He looked at the nostalgic pill names. ''Body Tempering Pill'', ''Muscle Refining Pill'', etc. "Alright, let me explain to you all of this pill. First is this restoration pill. This is for those who just start learning alchemy, so I want you to make this pill after I finished explaining all of the pills in this room. The process to make this pill..." He continued explaining the pills for Firia. He took a day for explaining and guiding Firia to make her first pill. Firia also seriously making the Restoration Pill. She managed to make a few peak-quality Restoration Pills today. Her new fire after she took the Quenching Fire Pill help her so much. She makes pills like Alex when he just started to learn about alchemy. But Alex didn''t have any teacher at that time. All in all, her result is very satisfying. "Alright, Let stop here today. Like Teacher said, you can use these ingredients all you want. If you have any question you can ask Teacher or me. I will be in my usual training place." "Thank you very much" She said satisfied, She weeps out the sweat on her forehead with her hand. Alex immediately hands her a towel after he saw this. They finally got out of the workshop. "How is your progress?" The dean who was sitting in his chair asked them. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "She was very good. She even makes many peak-quality pills on her first day" "This is all thanks to Alex''s guidance. If I try to make them alone, I don''t know what will happen" Firia modestly said "It is very nostalgic remembering that day. We didn''t know the way on how to make the right pill, we continuously research that." The dean said. "Yes, it was very satisfying to see the first Pill without impurities on it" Alex said. "Yes, it was very satisfying. Alright, since you are done. You should go back. Alicia already come here to ask about you two" Alex and Firia were surprised that Alicia searched for them. "Oh right, where is Sherry?" "She was still in the field. She usually comes back here in an hour" Sherry usually stayed in the Dean''s courtyard, after all, it was big. If she stays with Alex and Alicia, she might be spotted by the other students and that will make a big scene for that. So he advised her to sleep in the Dean Courtyard and the dean also approved of it. "Then we will go back. Thank you very much, Teacher" Alex and Firia left. They bid farewell in front of Firia dormitory. Alex then went toward his room. On his way, Alex decided. "System, can I took out arts/techniques from the system and Let it out for others to read?" [You can''t Host] "I really can''t?" Alex bitterly asked. [Yes, you can''t] Alex sighed. [But Host can take out the arts/technique from the system and copy it yourself] Alex''s eyes brightened when he heard that. [But, system needs to warn you Host. Although you can copy the technique. You also need to see the compatibility between the Art and the user. And also Art like cultivation manual was no go. It was not like the system banned you like that. As I said previously, the mana in this world was imprinted by the world''s will. If they cultivated it, the energy gathered by cultivation would only be engulfed by the world''s will, and it will be useless.] He sighed. He decided, "System, I still have unused gacha tickets right?" [Yes, there are 241 in total, Host] "Use all of them in Technique Gacha" [Are you sure Host?] "Yes" [Processing] [Basic Sword Art x2] [Fencing x3] ... [Archery Manual] ... Alex looked at the technique he got. Now the variation was very big. He saw many new techniques, such as ''Split Step'', ''Shadow Strike'', ''Wind Sword'', etc. But there is one thing that caught his eyes the most. [Frozen Manual] He immediately took it out. "System, this frozen manual..." [It was Rare rank item host] Alex''s eyes flashed. He went silent for a minute and sincerely said "Thank you System" He didn''t know why, but he always gots something that he wanted at the right time if he excluded the numerous junk item. That''s why he sincerely thanked the system. [Your Welcome Host] After he got the manual, he stopped his track and copied immediately before going back to his room. He copied the Frozen manual. He also copied the ''Sky Movement''. Though the ''Immovable Step'' or ''Heavy Step'' not very useful to Alicia or Firia. But the ''Flash Step'' or ''Fleeting Step'' was very useful for them. they can use them as they bombard the enemy with magic. He wanted to make ''Sanguin Sword Art'' or ''Spear Throwing Art'' a copy but refrain it for a while. Even he makes a copy for them, there are no one around him who can use them. He swiftly copied the two arts. When he finished copying the two manuals, it was almost midnight. He hurriedly going back to his room. 91 Another Day When he arrived in front of his room. He silently opened the door since Alicia might already sleep at this time. But he was shocked. When he opened the door, Alicia still practicing with her magic. She still hasn''t noticed him. She tried to improve her control over her ice magic. Sometimes the ice burst out, sometimes its melts, sometimes the ice not even formed. She tries it again and again. Alex who on the side was smiling bitterly. He was happy and moved by her action but at the same time, he felt bitter for not noticing this faster. He admitted when he trained Firia in Alchemy, he somehow neglected her at that time. He walked toward her. Hearing the footsteps, Alicia turned to her head to the side. Alex was approaching her, she said embarrassedly while scratching her cheek "Al-Alex, this...this is... I just don''t want to be outdone. When I know that Firia practicing the Alchemy, I don''t want to be outdone by her. I don''t know what I can do, I can''t practice Alchemy like her because of my element. The only thing I can think of is improving my magic" "I''m sorry" "Why..." Before Alicia finished her words, he hugged her. Alicia who was still in shock with the sudden hug, can''t think for anything. After a moment, she recovered and hug him back. After hugging for a while, they were separated. Alex then took out two books and give them it Alicia. "This is?" Alicia took the two books from Alex. The title for the first book is ''Frozen World'' and the second is ''Sky Movement''. When she looked at the second book, she knows this must be some kind of movement art. But the first one with the title of ''Frozen World'', she confused. Is this some kind of storybook for Ice users? She thought "This is a storybook?" Alex eyes widened, he was shocked, how can she arrived at that conclusion. He hurriedly retorted her "No!" Alicia giggled, "Of course it is not. I''m just joking" Alex sighed, "This is an Ice Art, You can try to look at the content, your element is Ice so I thought this art will suit you very well. While the other is a movement technique. It was my current movement technique. There are five types of steps in that book, they are Immovable Step, Fleeting Step, Heavy Step, Flash Step, and Sky Step. Though the Immovable Step and Heavy Step won''t be that much useful for you. The Fleeting Step and Flash Step might be very useful since they are used for dodging and speed respectively especially the Flash Step, it can boost your speed a few times when mastered. You can bombard your enemy when doing that if you are used to that. And the last is Sky step, you can step on the air or in the water like stepping on the ground." Alicia was very shocked by Alex''s explanation, she never heard this kind of overpowered technique. This kind of technique might very well become a national treasure level. Then she picked the second one, the ''Frozen World''. She browse it quickly. She was shocked by the technique if what is written is true. It was basically a step by step guide improvement for Ice mage along with its magic. In the last section, they even can unleash the power of ice like those in high rank (7-9) while in the middle rank (4-6). Of course, She needs to master this technique first. After she finished browse it, she looked at Alex with an astonished face. "Do you like it?" Alex smiled. "Are you sure giving me these two techniques?" "Yes, is there any problem with that?" Alex was still clueless about what she implied. "Do you not know what kind of outrageous techniques these two books are?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. But he suddenly looked down, a bit sad "Why? Is there something wrong with the content of these two books?" "Something wrong with the content you say?" Alicia''s face becomes dark. Alex was surprised by Alicia''s exaggerated reaction. He now starts doubting the books. He looks down. "These two techniques were very powerful. They might be regarded as a national treasure level techniques... no, even the palace didn''t have this kind of overpowered techniques, and you give it to me just like that." "Oh!" He now relieved, he thought there would be some mistake in the contents. After all, the techniques were originally from the system, not this world (?), probably. But the problems all this time were something insignificant like that. "I don''t mind about it, If the book can help you reach what you want, I am satisfied with that. Even If I get something more powerful than those two books, I will also give it to you if they can help you with your goal" Alicia''s eyes widened, she blushed. She muttered in low voice because of the embarrassment "Thank you" "That''s right, how about you rest first. You can try to learn them tomorrow" "Okay. Don''t worry about the techniques, I will defend its secret with my life" She said that as she walked toward the bed. "Oi! It''s fine to let out the secret if it can save your life" "Yes Yes" She casually said, she didn''t pay attention to Alex''s last remark. She laid down on her bed while still hugging the two books that Alex gave just now with a big smile on her face. Alex can only shook his head and sat on the sofa again. "Oh right, I haven''t checked all the techniques I got from System. I was too focused on ''Frozen World''. Let me check it first. System, Any logs for the reward before?" The system didn''t say anything. It was only showed him a list of the techniques he got before. [Basic Sword Art x2] [Fencing x3] ... [Archery Manual] The techniques were numerous. But there is one thing that caught his eyes. [Luminous Spear Techinque] Now he got a close-ranged spear technique. He already had a long-ranged spear technique which is the ''Spear Throwing Art'' but he still needs a close-ranged one. After all, what use the spear in his hand if he doesn''t use it and only wait to throw it. the enemy won''t let you do that. With this Luminous Spear Technique, he got a balance for combat. There are techniques for other elements, like ''Gushing Wind Art'' or ''Shadow Drive''. But he didn''t care about them, after all, for what use are those techniques. There are no people around him with Wind or Shadow element. Wait... The grand duke has wind element. When he remembered that, he shook his head. The grand duke must have a greater technique. He arrived at that conclusion because the system said that this technique was only a Common Rank Technique. After looking at the list for the last time. Alex then took out the ''Luminous Spear Technique''. This ''Luminous Spear Technique'' was emphasized with its speed. Contrary to his Sanguin Sword Art that focused on power. This spear technique target is to catch the enemy off guard with its speed and movement. He put off the book for a bit. He checked at Alicia, he sat down at the edge of the bed. He looked at Alicia who sleeping while hugging the two books he gave earlier. He let out a little smile. He looked at her cute sleeping face for a moment. When he wanted to go back to cultivate, he hesitated. ''Maybe a little longer'' He looked at Alicia''s cute face, he can''t be bored with this cute tranquil face. "Mmm, Alex... I will get stronger, I want to stay together with you, Firia, and Sherry to the end of time" Maybe because she noticed Alex presence, she muttered that. Alex looked at her with a surprised look. He senses that Alicia was still sleeping. He smiled gently. "Yes, I promised" He continued looking at her and unknowingly fell asleep too. ... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. In the next morning, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He still fuzzy about what happened yesterday. He seems to doze off when watching Alicia. His eyes immediately went wide. He looked around him, he was on the bed. After confirming he was on the bed, he immediately stood up. But he failed, there is a hand holding him back. He looked at the owner of the hand. Of course, he saw Alicia still sleeping beside him. But because of his movement, she wakes up. The moment their eyes meet, her brain froze. She saw Alex on the bed and she still hugging him. Her face becomes red immediately. Alex too used all his brainpower to think up an excuse. never in his thought that Alicia actually misunderstand here. Alicia thought that she invited him in her sleep. She somehow recalled a bit of her dream yesterday. In her dream, she was in her first-night marriage with Alex. in the scene, she hugs him on the bed as she said ''Alex... I will get stronger, I want to stay together with you, Firia, and Sherry to the end of time''. In reality, she didn''t finish her words. In her dream, she was hugging him in their marriage chamber. She looked at Alex who wears a tuxedo. This was the happiest day of her life. When they looked at each other, she said. "Alex, I will get stronger, I want to stay together with you, Firia, and Sherry to the end of time. We will be together, teaching our kids, watching them growing up." Alex smiled at her, she slowly closed her eyes and they kissed. The kissed become another, and those led a passionate night. At that time she woke up and found that she embraced him. At this moment, she was too embarrassed. Her face becomes redder than a tomato as she immediately turned her head to the side, afraid of eye contact with him. On contrary to her, What Alex perceived from her action was an earthquake. He thought that She must hate him for doing this. Looked at her red face, that must be a pent up anger. He braced himself. "Alicia, This... I''m sorry" After all the thinking he did. He can only let out a sorry from his mouth When Alex opened his mouth, she was too shocked. She thought that Alex must think her as an indecent woman, she instinctively said "No, I''m also very sorry...for that dream" She muttered at a very low voice at the end. But Alex still heard what she said. "Eh? Dream?" 92 Bawon Fortress "Eh? Dream?" "No, You must hear it wrong" She immediately retorted Alex''s brain went to high speed and arrived at one conclusion. ''They were not on the same page'' He wanted to confirm it first, "What dream?" "No-Nothing!" Alicia was too embarrassed. She tried to push away Alex with her hand instinctively. But... "Ouch!" But, the one her hand met was Alex''s strong body. With Alex''s strong body, She felt like pushing a wall with her hand but with too much momentum, and the result is her hand is hurt. Alex looked at her, dumbfounded. Alicia holds her hand in pain. Alex worried about her, "Alicia, Let me take a look at your hand" "Yo-you, Idiot!" She ran away toward the bath. Alex was amused. She was pretty unreasonable. First, she tried to push him away, then now she was the one who ran away. After a while, Alicia got out of the bathroom and they left the room and went toward the dean''s courtyard as usual. On the way, Alicia''s face was very red all the time and refused to talk to him. Alex only shook his head in silence. When they arrived, as usual, Alex checked Firia progress in alchemy. Alicia tried to practice the ''Frozen World'' that Alex gave her yesterday. ... Two months passed by like that. Alicia practicing her ''Frozen World'' and ''Sky Movement''. Firia practicing her ''Alchemy'' and ''Sky Movement'' while Alex practicing his ''Sanguin Sword Art'', ''Luminous Spear Technique'' and ''Sky Movement''. Alex reached the second stage of the Sky Movement. He mastered all the steps up to the second stage and with the Luminous Spear Technique, his handle of the spear wasn''t that rough anymore, it has become more refined. Before, when he used a sword in right hand and spear in his left hand. His handle on the spear was still a bit rough on the edge. Now with this ''Luminous Spear Technique'', his dual-wielding style become balanced. Unfortunately, with all of his rapid progress, there is still no result in his ''Sanguin Sword Art''. His Seventh Slash already stabilized and mastered perfectly, but he is still nowhere to reach the Eight Slash. In these two months, Firia reached the first stage on ''Flash Step'' and ''Fleeting Step'' of the ''Sky Movement''. But the most satisfying result is that Firia already started to try making rank 2 pills. Though her success was still very low it was only a matter of time, after all, she only a rank 3 mage, to make a rank 2 pills usually needed rank 4 or above mage. She also already familiar with the rank 1 pills and can make them with ease. The dean even praised her for her efforts. He secretly thanked her because she helped him supplying the pills demand from the military or the markets. With her taking over rank 1 pills demand, he can focus on rank 2 pills. Not only Firia, Alicia''s progress also very rapid. She already mastered all of the first stages of the ''Sky Movement'' excluding the ''Sky Step''. But the remarkable result is her ''Frozen World''. after these two months, she can fight with rank 4 monsters with ease, which made Alex felt relieved. And the last one is Sherry. She lazying around as always. Once a day, she came to Alex for her ''Nourishment'', of course, he didn''t mind about it and gave his flame straight away and leaving Sherry Satisfied. But, the problem is that she always lazying around. So he asked Sherry for sparring. He thought that Sherry was only lazying all days, but after the sparring, this thought was diminished. He found out that Sherry also has practiced in her way. So, after that sparring, he didn''t bother with her anymore and let her do what she wants. Fortunately, In these two months, Zircodina Princess, Rieze, still hasn''t arrived at the academy. She was estimated to arrive at about half a month later. But, Alex and the rest already gone away for the ''Event''. The time has come. The two months of normal days had passed. The second Academy''s event for Second-year Students. The competition in Death Forest. They needed to march out to Bawon Fortress and kill monsters in the Death Forest. The dean summoned the four of them. Alex and the rest arrived at his office, the dean was busy with documents as he looked at them. "Sigh, the time has come. Tomorrow you all will go to the Bawon Fortress" The dean said "Bawon Fortress? You mean..." Alicia and the rest surprised. These two months passed instantly, maybe because they have so much to do, they didn''t realize that two months have passed. "Yes, the second academy''s event for you, Second-year students. Tomorrow, you will set off toward Bawon Fortress and kill those monsters in Death Forest for two months. You don''t need to worried about how many monsters you have killed, because there are no points for that. Because there are no scores, you can do what you want, whether to kill monsters in that forest or lazying around the fortress." "Eh? Do what we want?" Alex was surprised. "What do you mean about that, Teacher?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Literally. You can do what you want. Whether you wanted to kill monsters in that forest or lazying around the fortress" "But, won''t the other students will just lazying around if it''s like that?" "Hehe, they can if they want. But Alex, have you forget about the requirement to advance to the third year?" "Yes, you need to reach rank 3. You don''t mean..." "Yes, almost all of the second-year Students now are in rank 2 if you exclude the abnormal you. Though you three can rest if you wanted. If they wanted to reach rank 3. They will need to rank up in this event. After all, there is no event for the second year anymore. The rest of the year was only self-studying in Academy. That''s why, the one who failed to reach rank 3 in this event, will be expelled!" Alex and the rest were astonished. Though Alicia and Firia already know about the event, they didn''t know about the reason behind it. Now that they thought about it, it is true that there is no more academy event after this event. "There is another reason for this too" The dean continued. "You know that we only graduate an elite right?" Alex and the rest nodded. "The graduation requirement is only rank 4. But if that alone, you can''t be called elite. You also need great techniques and skills. That''s why, after this event, there are no more events for the students. Now the ones that have passed this event must at least rank 3. We wanted the students to master their techniques. And for the third year'', we let them experienced missions in various places to train their extra skill to handle people and boost their connection. With that, when they arrived at the graduation as a rank 4. They have all of the requirements to be called elite. They have power, techniques, connections, and experiences" Alex and the rest were very shocked. "So, that is the reason behind the academy''s schedule" "Yep, We taught the ability to adapt in the first year, then techniques for the second year and lastly connections and experiences for the third year" Alex nodded in astonishment, "But, we will keep hunting monsters for these two months. After all, it is a good experience for us. But, I can only decide for myself" He glanced toward Firia and Alicia. "Of course, we can''t lazying around just like that. If we slacked, this guy will throw us in the dust" Alicia said, Firia also nodded in agreement. The dean nodded satisfied. "Good luck to you four then" "Thank you Teacher/Dean" They said. But Alex noticed something, he looked at the dean, surprised. "Four of us?" "Yes, since there will be no points, you can bring Sherry with you" Alex''s eyes widened, then he turned to Sherry in a smile as he stroked her "Isn''t it good Sherry ?" "Wuu Wuu (I will protect Master)" she puffed her chest proudly. Looking at these two, Alicia and Firia looked at each other, smiled. "Oh right, Teacher. Can you give us information about this Bawon Fortress and Death Forest?" "Hmm, Actually, you already met the current owner of the Bawon Fortress" "Eh? I already met?" "He is our current war minister, Leyfon Rimbawon. You already met him at the castle right, the duke already informed me about it. he was in the joy that you now become a second-year and will be visiting his place soon." "Ugh!" He recalled Leyfon''s old figure. Where his eyes glistening when he talked about pills or ideas. But, he caught something off "Rimbawon?" "Oh, you figure it out? The Fortress name is ''Bawon''. It was named after their family surname, ''Rimbawon''. Because the Death Forest was the place where the legend ascended. Because of it, many monsters reside in that forest. Rimbawon''s family was given the task to keep the forest in check from generation to generation. The fortress was built for the sake of keeping the forest in check." "I see" "Actually, most of our pills have been sent there. After all, there are more than one rank 8 monsters in there. Though they won''t easily leave their nest." Alex nodded. "All right, that''s all. Oh right, I almost forgot about it, for this event, you four better team up together. Though I''m not worried about you, I''m worried about the other two" He glanced at Firia and Alicia. Alex was shocked by what he heard, he frowned. His teacher never told him like that. That means the danger level for this event was even higher than the previous one. "We can protect ourselves" "We won''t hold him down" Alicia and Firia immediately said. "No, I think it is better that we grouped up together this time" On the contrary, Alex has decided after looking at his teacher''s serious expression and advice. Alicia and Firia was dumbfounded. Usually, Alex would prefer to go alone than with them. Seeing Alex decided to group up with them, they were happy about it. but, the thought of holding him down, weight on their mind. "We can protect ourselves, we don''t want to hold you down" "No, Alex is right. It''s better that you go together" The dean interrupted them. "Yes, Since there are no points for this. I will follow you two. You guys will be the ones to lead. I and Sherry will follow you" Alex said his decision "What?" "So you don''t want me to accompany you two?" Alex said with a sad tone. "No no, how can we not want?" Alicia hurriedly denied "Yes, how can we not want?" Firia also followed her. "All right, the matter settled as such. You guys will go together" The dean said with a stern tone. Alex and the rest can only nod in front of that. "You can rest first and prepare for tomorrow" 93 Bawon Fortress 2 Alex and the rest decided not to train for today. They prepared for tomorrow. The next day, the second-year students were gathered in the arena. The first-year students also in the arena, but they were in the audience seats. Alex looked around and found all the first year present. When they arrived, Alex immediately put a deaf ear to the ''Kya kya'' thing from the other students. He turned to Firia, "The first year actually know about this?" "Yes. Actually, you are the only one who wasn''t present last year. You are a ''Training Maniac'' after all" Firia teased. Alex was surprised but, "What do you mean by ''Training Maniac''?" "You only train and train, if you are not the dean''s student. You can''t train like that you know" "Ugh, I need to thank Teacher for that" Alicia and Firia giggled. The dean entered the arena, "Students! Now, the time has come. You will get to train on the battlefield. Today you all will set off to Bawon Fortress. The estimated time for this journey was fifteen days. Summing up with the home journey. You will get a month to kill those monsters over there. But there is good news for you. After this event, you only need to self-study in the academy for the rest of the years" Upon receiving this good news, the students were overjoyed especially the second year. who doesn''t want an easy schedule like that?. The first-year students looked at them with envy. "But...because this is also the last event for you, second-year students" The dean stopped a bit and said with a very serious tone"That also means, the one who failed to reach rank 3 as a requirement for advancing to the third year, will immediately be expelled." The students immediately went quiet. All of them gulped down. Once failed, they will be expelled. Though a few already reach rank 3, they still can be counted with fingers. That means, from almost 400 second-years students, the one who already reach rank 3 wasn''t even ten. The second-year students'' face became pale. The first year turned their head to the side. They didn''t envy them anymore. After all, if they failed this event, that means expulsion. After the dean gave his speech, the students immediately went off to the caravan. More than fifty caravan line up in front of the academy. They had been paid to bring the students to the Bawon Fortress. The caravan took seven students each along with their luggage. There is no guard on this journey. The academy left it up to the students. Especially since there is Alex in their ranks, though there are some monsters attacked the group. There are no bandits or robbers who attacked them. The academy''s symbol was printed on the caravan and since this event was held every year. No one was stupid enough to attack this group. Unless they are a big group. But, the students didn''t realize that there are a few teachers disguised as a member of the caravan. This was to ensure there are no big group with powerful men attacked them, the teacher won''t make a move if there are none. Fortunately, there is no accident in this journey. All the students have arrived at the Bawon Fortress. On their front, there is a fortress wall that stood tall from generation to generation. Though there are some renovation on the wall. The foundation was still solid. With almost thirty meters high, the wall looked almighty in front of them. On their left, they saw numerous big trees. The trees were around twenty meters or more. No wonder the fortress wall was that high. These big trees covered all the light that goes to the ground, making the inside looked dark. The creepy feeling gushed out from within. All students gulped down in front of this scene. They arrived at the bottom of the Fortress Wall. The leader of the caravan gave the letter from the academy to the guard and the guard let them in. Alex observed the guard carefully. Even the normal guards were around rank 2 warriors. He was astonished by this. But what is more shocking is that all of these guards have an aura, he can see that all of the guards were constantly battling with the monsters of this forest. "Is they this year batch?" One of the guards whispered to his colleague. "How many of them will survive this time?" "They are just like a newborn chick. They don''t know what kind of thing in this battlefield" "Hmph" Though they whispered to each other. Other students might not hear it but Alex who was a rank 6 can hear them clearly. He frowned. It seems the situation here wasn''t that great, he thought that it is the right decision to group up with Alicia and Firia. He recalled when Alicia almost died at the dungeon one year ago. He shuddered when he recalled that. All in all, He will follow them so he will make sure something like that won''t happen again. Not long after they passed the gate, they have arrived at their destination. The destination was a kind of barrack that usually used by soldiers. There are a few soldiers standing by in front of the barracks. "Welcome Students. Welcome to the student barrack. This barrack will be the place you will stay for one month. We have clean this barrack up. You can use them as you fit. We will divide you into two groups by gender. Male will go to barrack A, B, C, and D. While the female will go to barrack E, F, and G. Which bed you choose is up to you as long as it within those barracks. We are the ones who will prevent you from doing something ''BAD'' in these barracks. You are free for today, Please gather again here in the morning for further instruction" the leader seems to emphasize this ''Bad''. Let''s change the topic, there are ''A'', ''B'', ''C'',... at the top of the barracks to make it easy to differentiate. Alex decided to go to barrack ''C'' because this barrack seems unpopular. It is convenient for him. Before he goes, he made sure to check Alicia and Firia first. Of course, Sherry will go with him. "Alex, let''s meet up after this. We can enjoy a bit today" Alicia said "Sure" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They went to their respective barrack. Alex found that each barrack can accommodate up to sixty people. But this barrack only got around half of it while the other barracks were full. Well, he didn''t care about it though. He took a bed a bit further than most people since it was more convenient for him if he needs to cultivate or something. Sherry also took the bed beside him. After putting his luggage away, Alex and Sherry then go out and wait for Alicia and Firia. After a while, Alicia and Firia got out. They have changed their clothes, after all, they were going to ''Date'' in here, how can they not prepare. Alicia wore a blue shirt with a skirt to her knees, she tied her hair into twin tails making her look lovely. Firia wore a white shirt with a leather jacket and tied her hair into a ponytail. It makes her look youthful with full spirit "Alex, do you wait long?" Before Alex answered. Sherry interrupted him "Wuu! (Very Long)" Alex became awkward and Alicia along with Firia can only let out a weird smile. "Well, let''s go" The four of them walked around the Fortress. The atmosphere was like the capital city, lively and brimmed with people, especially merchants and adventurers. They are going to one shop to another and trying some delicacies But, Alex felt something off. He was feeling they were being watched all this time, he already felt like this when they are still in the barracks. But it seems only Alex felt this so he keeps quiet with this. Yes, there is one ''Coincidence'' that going to happen. When they walked around, there is an old man walking toward them. "Hoho, young Alex. What a coincidence meeting you here" "Sir Leyfon?" Alicia was surprised. Yes, the identity of the old man was Acacia Kingdom Current War Minister, Leyfon Rimbawon. Alicia was very surprised seeing this old man appeared in front of them, it was really a coincidence to meet him here. "I am Firia Merona from Merona House. Please Nice to meet you, Sir Leyfon" Firia raised her skirt a bit and introduced herself like a noble lady, oh no, she is a noble lady. "Hoho, I know you, young lass from Merona House. No need for formalities, I didn''t really like them either" Then he turned to Alicia "Young Princess Alicia, it''s good to see you here. The cute princess back then turned to be a beautiful young lady." "Thank you Sir Leyfon, Father send his regards for you" "Oh, Young Raymond did? Haha, I have visited your home two months ago. But all of you were in the academy. Well since you are going here anyway, that''s fine though. Welcome to Bawon Fortress" "Thank you Sir Leyfon" Then the last, he turned to Alex. "Young Alex. It was almost a year from that meeting. It was a coincidence we met here" Alex almost vomited blood when he heard that, he cursed in his mind ''Coincidence my ass, you are watching us all this time. Do you think I didn''t feel your presence all this time?'' Of course, he can''t say all of that. He replied "Cough. Yes, Sir Leyfon, It''s been almost a year since that meeting. It was really a coincidence meeting you here" "Yes yes, it is really a coincidence. It seems that our meeting here was brought by fate" ''Shameless! This old fox, what is he planning?'' Alex smiled, "Yes" "Since our meeting here was brought by fate" As he said that, his expression turned to be serious. "I have a request. Would you-" ''Is there some problem?'' Alex frowned. Alicia and Firia also listening seriously. What kind of trouble can the war minister had? Would it be regarding monsters? After all, they are in front of the Death Forest. After a moment of pause, he continued "Would you eat dinner in my home?" Everyone stumbled, they didn''t expect this at all, "EEHHH?" 94 Bawon Fortress 3 "Eehhh?!" Alex and the rest were stumbled, they didn''t expect this kind of request. "Well, since you are here I wanted to thank you for the pills you have contributed to the military" "This... The pills were mainly made by Teacher. I don''t deserve this thanks" "No, If there are no you. There are no pills like this. So, I, as the war minister. Thank you on behalf of this country and its soldiers" The minister bowed his head. "Sir Leyfon, if the pills were useful, then it''s great enough" Alex scratched his head embarrassedly. "So please, let me thank you in my house" "This...alright" "That''s good, let me lead you toward my house. My grand daugh- cough, I mean my wife already ordered many delicacies for dinner" ''You almost say ''Grand Daughter'' ain''t you? As expected, that''s what your plan all along. And you even already ordered many delicacies. You already planning this day right?'' Alex cursed secretly in his heart, He looked at Alicia and Firia who were in silence. But contrary to them, Sherry immediately went to the front. "Wuu Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu" She looked at Leyfon hatefully. She seems telling him ''Master won''t go with you to meet your daughter. I am enough for him'' or something along the lines. Alicia and Firia seems already understand her enough. They immediately pulled Sherry to the side. They whispered something to her. "Sherry, don''t worry. Alex won''t be seduced by the like of her" Alicia said "Yes, He already has us. Believe in him." Firia added. ''Oi you girls, we can hear you from here'' Alex screamed in his mind. Meanwhile, The minister almost spurted blood, not only Firia, even Alicia was like that. After Alicia and Firia finished. Sherry eyes glistened, she looked at Alex with a star on her eyes. "Wuu I''m sorry Master" Then she walked in front of them again. She looked at the minister and said proudly as she raised her paw "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu (Master won''t be seduced. So your plan is useless.) " Alex scratched his head embarrassedly. The minister was also somehow able to understand her ''Wuu Wuu''. His face darkened. He spits out "You don''t know that YET" The bystanders were dumbfounded. The minister, Leyfon who was usually very strict, was even argued with a fox. But their interaction was somewhat cute, especially the fox. Alex looked at the surroundings and shouted inwardly ''Crap! What a mess'' Alex and the rest ultimately followed Leyfon to his mansion. The mansion size was similar to Rizertia''s house back in the capital city. Well, it was normal, after all, he was a minister and a duke at the same time. They waited inside the guest room first. There is still an hour before dinner time. "Wuu Wuu (Master I believe you)" Sherry once again looked at Alex with a star on her eyes. Alex was scratching his cheek with a weird smile. While Alicia and Firia giggling on the side. Watching these two somewhat funny interactions. One hour passed, "Knock Knock" "Princess Alicia, Sir Alexander, Young Lady Firia. The duke is waiting for you" "Sure, Please lead the way" "Sherry want to come?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded, though she didn''t need to eat a human food since she has Alex''s ''Nourishment''. It''s still better than leaving her here alone. Four of them follow the maid into the dining room. The minister already waited for them here with three other, on his left is an old woman with white hair, though the age makes her looked frail but they can still see she is brimming with spirit and energy. On his right is a middle-aged man with a weird beard on his face, his beard was shaped like a ''WW''. His stern face making him look like a strict man, while beside him is a middle-aged woman, the woman has short hair, but there is a noticeable trait on her face. There is a noticeable wound on her cheek, the wound wasn''t that big but it made her looked more brave and gallant. Even she was in her dress, it wasn''t enough to hide her gallant aura. Alex somehow guessed who are they, there won''t be anyone except his(The Minister) wife, his son, and daughter, though he didn''t know which one is the blood related one. "Oh, we are waiting for you. Please Sit" The minister said. "Thank you for your hospitality. I''m sorry Sir Leyfon, I also brought Sherry here" "Oh, it is alright" Then he turned to the maid "Bring us more food" "No no, She already ate. Her food is somewhat special so I feed her first. Now, She just accompanying us here" Seeing Leyfon ordered food for Sherry, he explained hurriedly. "Is that the case?" Alex nodded. "I see. Please sit first. Let us wait a bit for my granddaughters and my grandson first. While we wait, Let me introduce you, this is my wife, Lisa Vorbes. This is my son, Andreas Rimbawon and his wife Lidia Milfa" Alex and the rest greeted them and sat down. Alex was in the middle while Alicia on his right and Firia on his left. While Sherry comfortably lying on the floor behind Alex. They waited for a while and suddenly the door opened. "Grand Father" A girl figure appeared. The girl was around 11 years old. With blonder hair tied into twin tails along with her childlike face that full of vigor. People will find an urge to protect this smile from her. Unfortunately, Alex didn''t find that kind of urge. On the contrary, He felt a mixed feeling at this moment. ''This move...'' He already expected this kind of move, he prepared for it since all his focus was in Firia and Alicia. But he never expected that the minister play this move. ''Isn''t this a child. I already have Alicia and Firia, I don''t plan to accept another one...no no no, this is not a problem. The problem is I''m NOT A LOLICON" He screamed on his mind. Alicia and Firia looked at him with a dangerous glint. He knew what they mean with that look. "Oh, Daisy. Come here, let your grandfather hug you" Of course, the girl immediately leaped toward him. "Let me introduce you, this is my granddaughter, Daisy Rimbawon" "Waa, a cute animal" She didn''t pay attention to her grandfather''s word when she found Sherry. She immediately went toward Sherry. "A...ahaha..." Leyfon made a weird smile. Noticing someone approached her, she immediately raised her body. She knew that she can''t attack anyone in this place, so the only option is run. "Wait for me" Seeing Sherry run away from her, Daisy immediately shouted anxiously. The two circled around the dinner table. Leyfon immediately grabbed Daisy, "This is a bad manner you know. And also we have guests here" "UU..." After reprimanded by her Grandfather, she pouted. "Sherry come back here. You can''t run like that in here, Apologize to them" Alex said. "Wuu" Sherry apologized to them though reluctantly. "Look, Daisy, apologize to them too" "UU... I''m sorry" She looked down and apologized. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Don''t worry about it" Alex gently smiled. "I''m Alexander, nice to meet you" Daisy timidly nodded, "Nice to meet you. I''m Daisy" "This is Alicia and Firia and Sherry" "Nice to meet you, Daisy" Both Alicia and Firia said "Wuu" Sherry also greeted her Another two people coming. The first one is a youthful young man, With a blonde hair to his shoulder, coupled with his warrior aura, there is another charm on it. The other is a beautiful woman, she seems to be the same age as Alex. her hair tied into a ponytail reaching into her waist. Big breast and a full endowed body proportion. But she still can''t be compared to Firia or Alicia. "Greetings Princess Alicia and Lady Firia" She greeted them, but when she looked at Alex, "Hmph!" "Greeting Princess and Lady Firia" The young man greeted them, he almost can be considered as a middle-aged one, Alex thought. His age seems older than Alicia''s Eldest Sister, Lea, by a few years. But he seems glaring at Alex. Alex frowned. Alex paid them no heed. Firia also discontented by their action, while Alicia sarcastically said "What a greeting you have, Sir Leyfon" Leyfon''s face darkened, "Princess, they are still young. Please forgive them. I will punish them after this" He was somewhat disappointed by his granddaughter''s and grandson''s actions. His son and daughter. His son also frowned, while his wife worried. The atmosphere became tense. Alex patted Alicia''s shoulder and shook his head. "It''s fine, no need to raise a ruckus" Alex then turned to Leyfon, "I''m very sorry Sir Leyfon, it seems that we are not really invited to here. So we will excuse ourselves" Alex started walking toward the door, Alicia and the rest also followed him. "Ah!" Daisy who was still looking at Sherry was disappointed. "Hmph" The young woman snorted. While the young man snorted. "A toad wanted to eat a swan. Snort" Alicia and Firia can''t take it anymore. There is a sudden drop and rise in temperature. On his right, There is a rise in temperature and of course, the cause is Firia. While Alicia on his left let out a chilling aura and the temperature started dropping. At this time, Leyfon was thoroughly disappointed by these two grandchildren. Did he spoiled them too much? "Stop you two bastard" Leyfon slapped his granddaughter and his grandson. Alex also chopped Alicia and Firia head. "Alright you two calm down first" He didn''t put any strength for that chop, he just wanted to make them focus their attention on him. "Alex, don''t stop me. I need to make him apologize" Alicia said hatefully "Yes" Firia nodded. Alex sighed, "What are you two going to do if your enemy used my name like that or said something vulgar? Will you lose your rationality like this again? That just going to be a suicide, cool your head a bit." "But..." Alicia and Firia frustrated. Alex smiled gently and patted their head. "It''s okay to keep that blazing feeling in your heart. But don''t show it outside. Your enemy might get frustrated if their psychological attack not working and you can control the battle situation. Or you can do the otherwise. Putting up an angry front while keeping your heart cool and take you enemy off guard" Alicia and Firia looked down. Leyfon was very shocked by Alex''s words. All of his words are true and profound. He always keep his cool when the enemy spouted some ''nonsense'' to him. But he never thought about the latter, with Alex words, he learned that he really can catch his enemy off guard if he put an angry front as Alex said. He was shocked by Alex''s wisdom. He looked at Alex and sighed, he felt more and more disappointed at his two grandchildren, he thought he can make Alex get closer with his grandchildren but these two... "I''m sorry Sir Leyfon. We need to prepare for tomorrow. So we will excuse ourselves" Alex seems a bit adamant to leave this place. Yes, there is a reason why Alex seems rushed leaving this place. It was because... "Bang!" The door opened, a soldier came in. "Sir, There is a monsters outbreak. They will reach in about an hour. There is an injured soldier who reported this to us. When they are patrolling, there is a group of monsters marching here. His group was attacked and He is the sole survivor. Their number was about a few thousand. According to the report, he saw a few rank 6 monsters. So we can assume that there might be a rank 7 monster in their rank" 95 Bawon Fortress 4 Alex frowned. Leyfon''s face darkened. "Andreas, immediately gather our soldiers and inform the citizens" "Yes, Father" Andreas immediately set off along with the soldiers. "Young Alex, it is like what you said. We might need to end this meeting" Alex nodded, "I will go back first to grab my weapons. Let me help you" "We will also help" Alicia and Firia said at the same time. "Princess, you may not" "Sir Leyfon, it''s okay. I might not look like it but I''m equal to a rank 4 mage you know" "I can''t hold the responsibility if anything happens to you. Unlike the assignment from the academy. The battle of this time was far more dangerous than that. Especially because now is a night. Our vision would be limited." Firia also holds the same opinion as Alicia. She looked at Alex expectantly. Alex still hesitated about it but suddenly Sherry went into the front. "Wuu Wuu" Sherry said. "As expected of our Sherry" Alicia smiled to her. Firia also nodded in understanding. Sherry said she will protect them. Alex sighed, "Only this time" "Young Alex, are you sure?" "Well, Sherry said she will help me to protect them too. She might look cute and harmless but she is bonafide rank 6 monster, you know? If Sir Leyfon, still not convinced. You can send us rank 7 warrior though but it will reduce our force. we will stay on the wall, not the frontline." Leyfon frowned, He finally relented, "But all of you need to stay beside me. Meet me at the west gate half an hour from now" Alicia and Firia nodded. After receiving an ''OK'' from Leyfon, they left to prepare themselves. They went to their barrack hurriedly. The students also informed by the soldiers, there are some students who will participate in this battle and some who won''t. After all, the academy''s event would only start from tomorrow onward. Alex and the rest met up again in front of the barrack. Alex bought out a new rank 5 spear. He made this spear back in the academy, after all, he can''t let out that ''Spear'' in front of many people, he might incite ''something'' if he carelessly used them. He can use it back in the Night Forest was because he was away from people so they won''t notice him, but this time is different. With a rank 5 sword in his right and a rank 5 spear in his left, he was ready to go. On the other hand, Alicia brought her wand with her. Firia also brought her wand and a few small pouches. "Each pouch contained twenty rank 1 restoration pills and five rank 2 restoration pills. Please bring them with you" Alex and Alicia were surprised by her. Firia seems to be a very detailed person, she is perfect for a secretary job. She seems very reliable in this kind of situation. "Thank you Firia" Alex and Alicia thanked her. After that, they went to the west gate. The west gate is the main gate if you wanted to go to the forest. So, Leyfon chose this place. They found him talking to the soldiers while the two ''problem'' children following him. Leyfon also noticed them coming to him. "You guys have come, wait for me a bit, after that, we will go up there" Alex and the rest nodded. The two ''problem'' child glaring at Alex. Alicia and Firia felt offended by Alex patted their shoulder and shake his head. After a while, Leyfon came back and lead them to the top. Since it was night, obviously it is dark. It is hard to see the bottom like this. Though Alex can somehow see the ground because of his high rank, Alicia and Firia can''t. He was also sure that the soldier can''t see in this dark night. Now he wondering how the minister will fight in this dark battlefield. Not long after, the sound of a trumpet was heard. The soldiers raised their weapon and the atmosphere became tense. It seems the enemies have come. "Light it up" Leyfon shouted. After he said that, many soldiers shoot arrows into the ground. There are many light started glowing on the ground. Those were the lamps fueled by Monster core. The arrows just now activated them. This glowing light brighten the battlefield. Many people were taken aback, this is the first time they saw something like this. While those soldiers didn''t have any exaggerated reaction. They used to it. on the contrary, they started clenching their weapons. Leyfon came to Alex and the rest. Of course, the ''problem'' child also followed him. "How is it young Alex?" "It is pretty" Alicia said. Firia also nodded. The young man seems proud and happy when Alicia said that. While the young girl harrumphed. "Let me introduce you since I haven''t introduced them to you. They are my grandchild. Franky, a rank 5 warrior, and the other one is Sila, a rank 3 warrior. You two greeted them" "Hmph" Sila snorted. "You better don''t hold us back" Franky glared at Alex. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "You two bastard. Do you still not learned your lesson?" Leyfon started to flare up. Alex stopped him. "It''s alright. Are there any flying monsters?" Now Alex understands where is that arrogant attitude came from. Now the problem is... why did they act like that in front of him? He can only list 3 possible problems. First, Leyfon wanted to engage him with Sila and they rejected thus they acted like that. Second, Alex''s fame was even more than him(the big brother). Considering his age, reaching rank 5 means he is very talented, but with Alex''s appearance, all of that was diminished. The third one is very troublesome, he was captivated by Alicia or Firia and see him as an eyesore. Well, he can''t keep thinking about this for now. He needed to focus on the battle. After all, they are currently in ''their'' home, so he can''t act recklessly, and above all, there is Leyfon, the war minister. If Leyfon recklessly attacked him without considering the consequences just because he injured his grandson. It might not be good. "Not for the moment. From my point of view, there will be none in this battle" Alex nodded but suddenly he frowned, he sensed the monsters have arrived. Leyfon also noticed them. He and Alex immediately turned their head. "They have come" Alex observed the monsters that started coming out of the forest. The majority was still rank or below. Behind them are many rank 5 monsters and even a few rank 6 monsters are present. Around fifty rank 5 monsters and ten rank 6 monsters are present. There is still no rank 7 monsters present. Seeing the monsters didn''t insanely charge at them, that means, there is something controlled them. the only thing that can control them must be a higher rank monster. That means a rank 7 or above. But a rank 8 monster in this horde, it is very unlikely. The most possible one is a rank 8 monster. Alex frowned, "Sir Leyfon, What is your usual distance before you start attacking them?" "Hmph, what do you know" Franky snorted. Alex ignored him and keep looking at Leyfon seriously. "From there" Leyfon finally answered as he pointed out with his finger. "Can I attack them now?" "You attack them? from here? don''t joke" Franky once again retorted him. "Shut up" Alex gave him a cold gaze, he starting to be fed up by him. "You-" "Shut up" This time Leyfon ordered him to shut up. He immediately shut his mouth. "Why do you want to attack them now?" "With this darkness, I can somehow snipe them without them noticing. That way we can get an advantage in this battle. Of course, my targets were those rank 5 or 6 monsters." "What? Are you sure? Can you attack them from here?" Alex nodded. "Though, I need some spears for that" Leyfon considered it a bit and finally nodded. "Men, bring our reserve spears here" After a while, the soldiers brought out around fifty iron spears. Alex grabbed one of the spears, he nodded to Leyfon. Leyfon also nodded back and shouted "Prepare your weapon" The soldiers and the helper raised their weapon. The atmosphere on the wall became tense. Alex closed his eyes and focus his mind. He slowly opened his eyes and looked toward those high-rank monsters. His first target would be those rank 6 monsters, if he failed then he won''t target those monsters again, they will be wary of him after that attack after all. Alex''s expression becomes serious. He first aimed at the rank 6 monster on the left side, it was a rank 6 werewolf. Franky and Sila who was on the side threw a mocking smile. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing" Strength. Speed. Technique. All of it combines when Alex threw his spear. The spear flew at a very high speed. With the natural darkness conceal the spear. It suddenly appears between the darkness and reach the werewolf. Alex target its head, the spear arrived in front of the werewolf. Because of the darkness and its speed. The werewolf didn''t had any chance to react. The spear pierced the monster''s head. Unfortunately, because the spear was just a normal spear. It broke after it pierced the werewolf strong body. No, you can say, because Alex''s ''Spear Throwing Art'', that lousy spear can somehow penetrate that monster. It took a while before the monsters beside him started noticing that one of their leaders died. Leyfon was very shocked by Alex''s particular spear-throwing technique. It combines power, speed, and technique in a particular way. It gave the perfect way to throw the spear. that''s why he can penetrate a rank 6 monster with a normal spear. if he was asked if he can do it. the answer is no. The secret itself is on the spin. The spin increased the penetrating effect from the spear. Well, it is not called ''Spin Throwing'' for nothing. If he can kill a few rank 5 or 6 monsters, he can minimize the casualty for this battle. He looked more and more disappointed with his grandchildren. On the side, Franky and Sila were dumbfounded. After all the thing they did, whether it is mocking or something. All of it came back to slap their face at this very moment. Especially, Franky, he mocked Alex the most. Now he can''t even speak due to the shock, he almost reached 30 years old. But he can''t say that he can kill a rank 6 monster instantly like that, though it is true, the darkness can conceal the spear, and make it perfect for an assassination, but Alex''s power is real, he can''t refute that. Actually, he falls in love with Alicia''s elder sister, Mia, when she visited this fortress last year. But she can''t even be bothered with him. That''s why He thought by oppressing Alex in front of Alicia, she might think him cool or something. With that, she might put a good word about him to Mia. Unfortunately, if he knows that actually, he mocked Alex in front of his own girlfriends, especially if one of them is his fiancee. And if he knows that the king, also back him up. Don''t know what will happen then. If Alex backer is only the dean, he might be able to escape as his grandfather, the war minister, is also a rank 8 warrior. But if he knows all of that, he can not even kill himself as his grandfather will personally kill him before anyone else. Contrary to him, Sila looked down. At first, when her grandfather speaking Alex''s name. He was very happy and always ordered her to get closer to him. Of course, she hates that. What kind of person is that Alex? he is just lucky to get a dean as his teacher, he is lucky enough to think about some ideas. All of it came from his luck and his teacher, not himself. That was her thought every day and that was the reason she hates Alex. She keeps fighting the monsters in here, while he does nothing other than sitting nicely in the academy. he is not worthy of her. But everything changed when Alex killed a rank 6 monster with a single lousy spear. If Alex now all their thought, he might say ''Action is the best way to shut them up''. Unfortunately, he can''t afford to focus on something like that at this moment. Of course, he can''t be bothered with that as His focus is on the battlefield now. "Huu. One down" Alex relieved after he confirmed its death, He then grabbed another spear. 96 Bawon Fortress 5 Alex grabbed another spear. After killing the first one, he can''t waste time. It needs a while for the whole monsters group noticed a rank 6 monster died in their ranks. He aimed toward the second rank 6 monsters. This time is a rank 6 fox but unlike Sherry. This fox didn''t have any cuteness at all, on the contrary, this fox was totally ugly and ferocious, with a huge body, it let out its tongue and some sticky mucus flow out from its mouth. Alex felt slightly annoyed. "No cuteness like Sherry, ugh, so ugly. -100000 points. That guarantees you, death" As he said that in his mind, he threw the spear in his hand. "Spin Throwing" On the side, suddenly Sherry jumped around in joy. "Wuu Wuu" She didn''t know why, but he got this feeling in her body and need to let it out. "Sherry?" Alicia and Firia were confused as to why Sherry suddenly act like that. If Alex looked at Sherry at this moment, He might embarrassedly scratch his cheek or he retorted her. Unfortunately, he can''t be bothered with that for a moment. The spear appeared in front of the fox''s head and penetrate it skull thus killing it instantly. The spear also broke this time after it pierced the fox. Another rank 6 monster died. Leyfon was too shocked as to how easy Alex killed this rank 6 monsters. Sila looked down embarrassedly. She was very ashamed of acting like before. While Franky didn''t have any face to look at Alex anymore, he just wanted to find a hole and hide. That way Alex can''t look at him and he didn''t need to embarrass himself anymore. Actually, he can just jump out of the wall. That way, he didn''t need to face the embarrassment and completely hidden in the dark. Alicia and Firia were also astonished by Alex''s power. But that''s all. They didn''t get any shock from it. If you were together with Alex for a long time. You can somehow get used to his abnormality. While Sherry jumping around in joy while saying "As expected of my Master". And of course, nobody can understand her. Alex grabbed another spear, as soon as he threw the previous one. This time, the monster is a rank 6 wolf. As he threw the spear. another monster died. But after this third monster. Alex seems to notice something. "Sir Leyfon" "What is it? do you feel tired? After using that marvelous technique continuously, you must be tired. You can rest first, you helped us enough" He somehow recovered from his shock after Alex called him. "No no, I''m still fine. But, I just noticed this after killing the third monster. Ain''t their race similar? Looked, first I killed a werewolf, the second is a fox, the third is a wolf and another fox beside them, and-" "Oh right, now you mention it. they were similar... Don''t tell me..." "Sir Leyfon, you know something?" "I think their leader is a rank 7 rock wolf" "Rock Wolf?" "Yes, like its name. Its characteristic was very similar to that of a wolf. But its body made of rock. It was very hard to kill them after all their body was very strong and hard. It was hard for a warrior to beat them with their weapon, as its body was stronger than your average weapon. Though we can wear it out somehow, so you don''t need to worry. Leave the leader to me" Alex nodded. As he wanted to grab another spear. A high pitch sound was heard. "Auuuu" The sound was heard from the left. Where Alex concentrated at. Alex immediately sees what is happening. "The monsters have noticed me" Leyfon also knew that. He shouted. "The monsters will charge at us now. Ready your weapon. Archer starts charging your bow. "Aoooo" "Auuuu" "Aoooo" A series of howling echoed on the battlefield. it is like a trumpet sound on the battlefield to signal the start of the battle. And true. As soon as that series of howl. The monsters started charging toward the wall. The people on the wall were taken aback. Though they knew that the monsters will attack them at this moment, it was still very surprising to see this kind of scene where a monster horde attack you. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Don''t fear. We have our proud wall that continues standing even after continuous attacks from those beasts. Make sure to kill all of them" Leyfon rallying a battle cry. "I will continue to snipe them with my spear" Alex said to Leyfon "I leave it to you" Leyfon nodded. But before Alex continues. He went to Sherry first. "Sherry, are you okay? After all, they are your kind..." "Wuu Wuu Wuu" Sherry said anxiously. Alex understood her, she seems telling him ''Don''t lump me together with them, I only need master" Alex smiled a bit, he stroke her a bit. Then immediately went to his position once again without saying anything. Alex threw another spear to a rank 6 wolf. But because it is already prepared. The spear failed to kill it. But fortunately, it still blow one of its leg away. its battle efficiency will be decreased. Alex then aimed toward it once again. Because of its injured leg, the wolf can''t dodge Alex''s second spear and killed on the spot. "Huh... I really hope the system has some recall function. With a few high-rank spear and recall function, won''t I become a sniper with my ''Spin Throwing'' or like an RPG with my ''Power Throwing'' ?" A shout come from his left. "FIRE!" Many arrows immediately flew into the air. The voice came from Leyfon. The monsters already come inside the range. The arrows raining into the ground. Many monsters started to die because of the arrows. But it''s only managed to kill a low-rank monster, rank 2 or lower. For rank 3 monsters, some injured, some dodge. As for rank 4 monster? Yep, none of them was hit. If you wondering about the rank 5 monsters or above, they still lazying around the back. While lower rank monsters charged first. But it is convenient for Alex. They can just stand there, as he snipes them one by one with his spear. Alex threw another spear to a rank 6 monster. But sadly, the monster already prepared enough and dodge his spear completely. Unlike, the rank 6 wolf from before where Alex needs to throw two spears to kill it. It was basically pointless to aim them for the second time for this uninjured and prepared monster. Thus He changed the target, he aimed toward another rank 6 monster but failed again and another monster again but to no avail. From the look of it, it was hard to target the rank 6 monsters after they had prepared for his spear with this distance. "Sir Leyfon, I think it will be hard to hit those rank 6 monsters since now they had prepared for my spear. I will try to change my target to rank 5 monsters." "Sure, You already help us greatly by killing a few rank 6 monsters" Alex nodded, "I will target the rank 5 monsters for now. If the rank 6 monsters come closer, I will target them back. We will see if my spear is faster or their speed is faster." As he said that, Alex grabbed another spear and target the rank 5 monster. This time, even though the monster already prepared for his spear. It didn''t manage to dodge Alex spear. Alex continued throwing a few more spears. By then, the monster reaches the wall. Though the monsters were butchered when they reach the wall since they have the height advantage, but the monsters ferociously charged toward the gate "Archer, target those at the wall gate. Don''t let them breakthrough." Leyfon shouted. "Andreas, take a garrison to prepare for a charge. Charge toward the outside, we will have the earth mages to make a temporary gate. I will join you after that" If you wondering why the monsters only target one gate, the reason is simple, it was because the earth mages make out an earth wall to make a temporary wall that looks like (\__/), with this, the monsters focused on one gate without bothering to go around for another gate. "Yes, Father" Andreas immediately carry out his order. But surprisingly, Franky also followed him. It seems that he wanted to leave this place. He can''t bear this embarrassment. No one cares about it though. "Aoooo!" A high pitch howl suddenly heard on the battlefield. The monsters suddenly stopped for a while and charged at them once again with more ferocity. "It''s have come" Leyfon looked at the darkness. "Come? You mean¡­" Alex was surprised. "Yes, the rank 7 monster, Rock Wolf" Alex then tried to see the darkness where the howl was heard. He can''t see anything because of the dark. Soon enough, there is a shadow between the darkness. The shadow become bigger and bigger. The shadow then took a shape. With five meters height and a huge body, make the shadow really scary. Soon, the body was uncovered. A brownish rock skin with a few rock spikes on the top of its body. Ferocious eyes and sharp fangs. It let out a howl once again. "Aoooo!" Suddenly a few rank 5 wolves under its command immediately charged toward the gate. With much faster speed than the previous monster. The monster reached the wall in a few seconds. Alex was surprised by the emerging rank 7 monster, that''s why he was unprepared when the rank 5 wolves charged toward the wall. What is more surprising is that the wolves suddenly went into a strange formation. Six wolves surrounded by many wolves charged toward the wall. Suddenly, the six wolves jumped from the ground. "Fool, they think our wall was short and they can pass it with just a jump?" A soldier near him mocked the wolf. But the mocking becomes a shock. The three wolves suddenly leap once again with the support of the other three wolves. They jumped and sacrifice its comrade body. And their target is¡­ "Alex, Be careful" Leyfon who was caught off guard, shouted to Alex. 97 Bawon Fortress 6 "Alex, Be careful" Alex frowned. Those three wolves'' target was Alex. The one who killed many high-rank monsters in their midst. It seems the rank 7 monster, Rock Wolf was very intelligent. It was intelligent enough to know Alex''s threat. With one howl, he ordered the wolves to do something unexpected and attacked Alex. Unfortunately¡­ "Frozen World. Ice Prison" "Fire Spear" "Wuu" An Ice, a fire, and a paw strike the three wolves that going to attack Alex. Even though the power wasn''t enough to kill them. But they are enough to stop them in their attack and let them fall to the ground. Once they reached the ground, they should be injured because of the height. Alicia, Firia, and Sherry circling around Alex. "Are you okay Alex?" "Yeah, Thank you" Alex smiled "Hehe¡­" Both Alicia and Firia giggling. "Wuu Wuu (I have protected Master too)" Sherry didn''t want to be outdone. "Yeah, Thank you Sherry" Alex patted her head. "Wuu Wuu" Alex looked at the ''Rock Wolf''. This monster intelligent¡­ He picked up another spear and aimed it toward this monster. "Spin Throwing" The spear flew at a very high speed to the wolf head. The wolf didn''t even bother with it. It took the spear head-on. The spear clashed with the wolf''s head. But, the spear didn''t even manage to make a dent in that wolf head and just broke like that. Alex already expect this outcome. But still, watching your attack get destroyed just like that was pretty bitter in your heart. Alex rank 8 spear might be able to penetrate the wolf body¡­but, he wanted to leave it as a trump card. He took another spear and aimed at it again. "Sir Alex? You are doing that again? But the previous one-" Alex frowned because the one who talked just now is Sila. He was confused as to why she comes to him and tried to talk to him. But he ignored her as he took a long breath and threw the spear. "Power Throwing" This time Alex change the ''Spin Throwing'' with ''Power Throwing''. Like its name, ''Power'', that means the spear that Alex had thrown just now brought out destruction with it. True, When the spear reached the Rock Wolf. This time, the Rock Wolf didn''t dare to take it head-on, it used its paw to clash with Alex''s spear. Alex''s plan was for him to use power to destroy the ''hardness'' of the wolf body. "Boom!" "Did you kill it?" Sila was very shocked by the spear might. The spear just now contained a mighty power. Before, Alex spear didn''t even put a dent on the wolf''s body. But this time, not only the wolf didn''t dare to take it head-on, it also used its paw to block it. ''No'' He replied in his mind. He somehow didn''t want to have any contact with her. At first, she hated him very much and mocked him. But this time, she came to him and even tried to talk to him. ''Unreasonable''. So He completely ignored her. He looked at the dust created by the clash of his spear with the wolf''s paw. When the smoke cleared away, the Rock Wolf stood still like nothing happened. Alex''s spear didn''t even put an injury at the wolf. "Tch, not even fazed with that huh¡­ Well, what can you expect from a normal spear¡­sigh¡­ what a defense. That sh*tty rock." Alex turned to Leyfon "Sir Leyfon. I will leave the Rock Wolf to you" "Sure, you helping us like this have reduced our casualty so much." Alex nodded and turned back to his spot. He grabbed another spear and threw it to a rank 5 monster and killed it on the spot. [Gacha Ticket x1 Acquired] "Oh, finally, my first ticket." After he acquired the first ticket. He up his tempo a bit more. Though he wanted to target those lower monsters. After all, they are in a defensive battle. Not for himself but also for the others in the fortress. He decided to pace up a bit so he can massacre those lower monsters sooner. He continuously threw the spears, killing the rank 5 monster one by one. When their population reduced to half. The Rock Wolf let out a howl. "Aoooo!" The Rank 5 and rank 6 monsters started charging toward the wall. It seems, because of Alex killing them off one by one led to that decision. Sadly, with the intelligent of a monster, they were too late. After all, Alex had killed half of them. The previous 10 rank 6 monsters reduced to 6. While fifty rank 5 monsters reduced to twenty or so. Alex managed to get a few more rank 5 monsters before they reached the gate. Leyfon already took out his sword and ready for the battle. "Bang!" The gate was breached. Even with many rank 4 or lower monsters, they still can''t breach the door. But with the addition rank 5 monsters or even rank 6 monsters. The gate collapsed. "Charge!" The garrison led by Andreas who already stationed themselves behind the gate immediately moved to intercept the monster. With Andreas as a leader, the monsters were suppressed. The garrison finally went outside. There is no monster that manage to pass them and rampage on the town. As soon as the garrison out. The earth mages do their job. "Earth Sprites, Hear my Word. Bless the earth so they can protect. Lend us your protection. Earth Wall" Around eleven intermediate earth mages used the same magic. They decided to seal the gate with intermediate magic, Earth Wall. With the power, eleven intermediate earth mages reinforced the gate. Even those in rank 6 can''t easily destroy this gate. Unless, that rank 7 monster, Rock Wolf, tried to destroy this gate. But there is one disadvantage to this technique. The earth mages need to input their mana continuously. If not, the earth wall will be destroyed. From the look of it, they can hold on for two hours. That is enough for the rest of the battle, at least that is what they thought. "Young Alex, I will distract the Rock Wolf. Even though my rank was above him. The Rock Wolf defense can''t be underestimated. That''s why I will wear him out first. In the meantime, please kill the rest" He was a bit ashamed to get help from others let alone a youngster but, if it is Alex. He didn''t really mind, after all, his power, calmness, and decision made him sure for making that decision. He can let this youngster protect the gate. Alex was that abnormal in his opinion. "I will do my best" Alex nodded. "Please protect my granddaughter too" Alex glance at Sila a bit and sighed, "I will try my best" This time Alex didn''t say ''Do my best'' but ''try my best''. Leyfon caught Alex meaning, he can only sigh. The impression of his granddaughter in Alex''s eyes already turned worse. What can he expect? He shook his head and flew to the Rock Wolf. When you reached rank 7 seven, you can fly. For Leyfon who was a rank 8, flying was a piece of cake of him. Alex looked at the flying Leyfon. He is a bit envious about it. If he also can fly, the strategy he can use would be wider and variate. He can fly and shoot the spear from above or bombard the enemy with magic from the sky, Assumed the enemy can''t fly. Alex threw spear after spear. The garrison killed most of the monsters at the bottom of the wall. Firia and Alicia didn''t participate in the battle so much. They just let out a few magic from the top of the wall to the monsters on the ground. Because their power was limited, they can only kill monsters in rank 2 or below. After all, with their distance, the power contained in the magic decreased on the way. Sherry didn''t kill any monster. Just as she said previously, she will protect Alicia and Firia and of course, Alex. But that''s all she gonna do. She didn''t help with anything other than that. Somehow Alex wondering if Sherry was lazy or just gonna do what she said. Whatever, She is Sherry after all. It was alright to let her do anything she wanted. "Boom" Alex turned his head. The clash between the Rock Wolf and Leyfon seems didn''t have any easier. Leyfon tried to slash the rock wolf but because of its abnormal defense, his sword didn''t manage to injure it. On the contrary, The Rock Wolf attacked him ferociously. But it seems, it was Leyfon Plan all along. If the wolf attacked him like that continuously, it will be the one who will lose after expending all of its stamina. After that, they can bombard the wolf continuously until it dies. It was a clever way to deal with a monster with an unpenetrable defense. Though Alex''s rank 8 spear combined with his Spin Throwing might be able to injure it. But who was foolish enough, if he really threw it, he might as good as abandoning it. In the battlefield, such action proved to be fatal. Clash after clash, Leyfon still casually handling the Rock Wolf. While Other monsters were butchered on the battlefield. The monsters would be wipe out in a few minutes, after that, they can help Leyfon to kill the Rock Wolf. Alex killed the majority of rank 5 and rank 6 monsters. After wiping out the monsters. The garrison immediately marched forward toward the Rock Wolf. Alex frowned. "Charge" "Fool. It is still not the time" Leyfon screamed. True, the moment the garrison entered the Rock Wolf''s area. "Aooo" The Rock Wolf changed his target to the garrison. Because of their difference in rank. The soldiers were killed by Rock Wolf instantly. "Power Throwing" A spear was thrown to the Rock Wolf. It used its palm to counter it. But as soon as the rock wolf counter it. Another spear already on its way to him. A series of spears continued raining down on the Rock Wolf. Leyfon also caught the meaning behind those spears. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Nice assist, young Alex" He looked toward the garrison "Retreat first" 98 Bawon Fortress 7 "Retreat" The soldiers moved back to a safe position while watching Leyfon fighting the Rock Wolf alone. As soon as the soldiers retreat to the safe spot. Andreas immediately went to help Leyfon. With this, the Rock Wolf can be defeated faster. Alex observed that battle. Leyfon and Andreas seem used to fight together. Their combination was perfect. The time when they switch their offensive time, or the spot they targeted. All of them were perfect. After clashing for about thirty minutes, the Rock Wolf''s movement started to be sluggish. Its movement becomes slower and slower. Andreas once again shouted. "Charge" Now with the soldiers circling around them. It only took ten minutes before the Rock Wolf collapsed to the ground. It died. Alex relieved after confirming the Rock Wolf died. Then he went toward Alicia, Firia, and Sherry. "Are you guys alright?" "Of course, we didn''t participate that much except bombarding them with magic" Alicia said. Firia nodded and sighed "Well, the pills become useless" "No No, why are you saying that? If I don''t have the pills as my assurance, I can''t rest assured to fight with all my might" Alex comforted her hurriedly. "Yes yes, what are you saying Firia" Firia suddenly giggled. Alex and Alicia realized that she teased them. "Cough. Sherry, how are you?" "Wuu" "Well, she didn''t do anything after all" Alicia giggled. "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu" Sherry felt wronged. She seems to justify herself with something like her job or something. Alex and the rest laughed. Not long after, Leyfon seems back from the battlefield. He soon visited Alex and the rest. "Young Alex. Thank you for your hard work in this battle." "No, I have said I would help. I''m glad that I helped you enough" Alex smiled. Leyfon nodded. "Without your help. We didn''t know how many will our casualty be. With you killing most rank 5 and rank 6 monsters. We can reduce our casualty greatly. Thank You Very Much" "It''s fine Sir Leyfon. Since the battle already finished. I will go back with the rest" "No, how about following me to my mansion? I wanted to thank you" Alex shook his head "It''s alright sir Leyfon. I''m not the only one that participated in this battle. So I can''t get that special treatment" Alex rejected him. The reason was because he didn''t want to get into an awkward situation again with his grandchildren, especially that Franky and Sila. He wanted to stay away from them, he didn''t want any trouble. Leyfon wasn''t that stupid to not catch Alex''s reason. Seeing he can''t persuade Alex.he sighed "Alright then" Alex nodded. "Let''s go back" "Sure" "Sure" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Wuu" They went back to the barrack. There is another reason why he didn''t want to go to the mansion. He can''t shake this feeling. He felt his every movement was observed by someone. He felt something wrong with this feeling, like something bad, would happen. He shook his head. He got stronger to reassure himself for something like that. At least there are Sherry and Him who currently at rank 6. So even they got into fight with rank 7, he can still fight back while retreating. After reassuring himself. They have arrived at the barrack. After saying goodbye to Alicia and Firia. Alex also went back to his own barrack. He checked his mission along with his status. [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1500 rank 5 monsters (120/1500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 400 rank 6 monsters (9/400) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 30 rank 7 monsters (0/30) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] [Mission 4 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1 rank 8 monsters (0/1) Reward: Premium Ticket x3] Though there aren''t that much different since the monsters that attacking them weren''t really that many. So he was fine with it since at least there is progress for that. And now his status¡­ Name: Alexander Sirius (Peak Phase Qi Gathering Stage) Job: Alchemist (Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Sword Saint (Secondary), Hunter(Secondary), Flame Ruler (Secondary), Forger (Secondary) Rank: 6 Level: 601 STR: 652 AGI: 632 VIT: 676 DEX: 627 INT: 635 He finally reached rank 6. After killing many monsters his level increased from 587 to 601 and officially reached rank 6. The next day, they met up again at the previous place. They went toward the Forest. He looked at the big trees around them. This was a bit unusual, he thought. Even the shortest tree he spotted, was around ten meters long. But there is something special in this forest. He felt some connection in the forest and the connection come from inside. He didn''t know what kind of connection is this so he didn''t really bother with this. They met their first monster after entering the forest. Alex eyes widened, He spoke bitterly, "What kind of luck to meet a rank 4 monster as our first monster. Are the academy want to kill us off?" "This is just a special occasion I think, According to my information. The outer zone of this forest was only filled with rank 3 monsters or lower. Maybe because of yesterday''s occasion. This happened" Alicia explained "Maybe" Alex nodded. "Alright, how about you two tried to fight the monster. I would help you guys if you two can not handle him" The monster is a rank 4 monkey. He thought Alicia and Firia were enough for this kind of rank 4. After all, Alicia alone was equal to rank 4 mage and she also polished her melee range combat. Firia was a bit troublesome. If she wanted to use her fire might prove to be difficult. After all, they are in a dense forest. If she randomly throwing her fire, her fire might burn the forest¡­No, now that he thought about it. This event was held by the academy every year and the participant is always the second-year student. That means the participants were at least rank 3. And there must be many fire mage in those students. The forest never burned, so he thought it would be fine even if Firia threw her fire magic. After all, she was experienced. Like when she hunts in the Night Forest. Alex shook his head and apologized to her in his mind. "Firia, you first" Firia nodded. "Fire Spear" Four spears made from fire appeared beside her. The spears immediately flew toward the monkey. The monkey was startled but that''s all. The monkey dodged Firia''s fire spear effortlessly. As expected of rank 4 monsters. "Frozen World. Ice Prison" "Kikii" The monkey felt danger when Alicia used her ''Frozen World''. It immediately jumped to the side. Sure, soon enough. A cage made from ice appeared. If the monkey didn''t immediately go to the side, surely it will be trapped in the ice cage. "Kikii" The monkey was enraged. He felt he was toyed by these two girls. It charged toward Alicia. Alicia already prepared herself. She clashed with the monkey, this is also why she polished her melee combat skill. If a mage was engaged like this. He/she won''t hold for long. Well, they were fine if there are some warrior in their rank but that can''t happen every time. "Fire blaze" Two fire pillar rose beside Firia. They moved like a snake and went toward the monkey. The monkey who was busy enough fighting Alicia can''t dodge this magic. "Boom" Not letting this chance go, Alicia immediately followed up with her magic. "Frozen World. Frozen" Like its name, it froze anything around her. Even the smoke from Firia''s fire magic was frozen and turned to ice particles. But¡­ "Won''t it be bad if you hit someone with that?" Alex asked. "Actually, I can freeze anything with this magic. But I don''t have enough control to choose which one I will freeze" "¡­Well, you can be better with enough training" He looked at the frozen monkey. He felt pity for this monkey. Not only he got burned, he also got frozen. It really hurt when you suddenly got hotter when you are freezing. After killing this monster, they continued their journey. Along the way, they didn''t meet with rank 4 monster again. So Alex concluded that the meeting with the monkey was special. Alicia and Firia killed all those monsters easily. "Alex, can we go to the inner zone?" Alicia asked Alex frowned, he looked at Firia who seems also wanted to go to the inner zone. He felt insecure to let them go to the inner zone. After all, many intermediate rank monsters filled that zone. But he also can''t shake the feeling of the connection he felt inside this forest. Especially when this feeling got stronger and stronger when he got closer and closer. He pondered for a moment. "Alright. But if there is something we can''t handle. We will immediately leave the area" Alicia and Firia nodded happily. They finally entered the inner zone. The atmosphere didn''t change very much. But the monster itself changed greatly. For example¡­ "As expected from the inner zone. We got a rank 5 monster as our first monster" Firia was astonished. "Sherry will be the vanguard. Alicia and Firia will support her with magic" Alex decided for Sherry to enter the battle. They might be fine for rank 4 monster, but for a rank 5 monster¡­ He can''t be assured. With Sherry as their vanguard, the fight would be easier. Even Alicia and Firia can''t complain about it. "Wuu" Sherry immediately went in front of Alicia and Firia. Their opponent was a rank 5 ogre. As usual, Alicia and Firia used their magic first. "Fire blaze" Firia used her fire blaze to guide him somewhere. But the ogre took Firia''s fire magic lightly. It brushed off her magic like nothing. "Frozen World. Ice Prison" Alicia followed up after seeing Firia''s failure. Originally, they wanted to move the ogre to a spot and sealed him off with her ''Ice Prison'' but after her magic failed. Their plan crumbled. The ogre completely dodged Alicia Ice Prison. After that, it charged toward them. Sherry immediately moved to intercept him. "Wuu" Sherry released her flame. The flame that rose from her body become four concentrated fireball and immediately flew toward the ogre. The ogre can''t dodge them all. Two fireballs hit the ogre body. "Wuu" Alicia understood what happened. She nodded "Frozen World. Ice Prison" A cage made of ice appeared and locked the ogre inside. Because of Sherry''s fire, the ogre can''t dodge this technique and trapped in those eyes. It tried to destroy the ice cage but sadly he can''t. "Firia. Hit him off" Firia nodded. The frustration pent up on her when the ogre didn''t even take her seriously. She released it at this moment. "Fire Spear" "Fire Blaze" "Fire Arrow" "Fire Bolt" She released her magic consecutively. Alex and the rest could see the frustration inside them. Alex shook his head. The ogre was scorched to death by Firia''s magic. But for some reason, he felt nothing for this ogre. Maybe because of Firia? Whatever¡­after killing the ogre, they continued their journey a bit more. They met a few rank 5 monsters but haven''t found any rank 6 monsters. But that was good since it was easier and safer that way. The sun was about set anyway and it is the best time to go back. He already confirmed there is some kind of connection in that forest anyway. He can visit it again later. Alone, of course. He can''t bring Alicia and Firia in this dangerous forest. "Let''s go back" Alicia and Firia nodded. "Sure" They started going back to the fortress. But on the way, four people standing in front of them. They can''t see who are they since they used hood to mask themselves. Alex frowned. 99 Bawon Fortress 8 Alex frowned. He felt danger when facing these four. He recalled his feeling in the fortress. "So, the feeling I got in the fortress was from you four" "Hehe¡­ as expected of an abnormal genius. Even your perception was that high. Even those in rank 8 still find it difficult to notice our present" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He felt he was observed by the other. At first, because of Leyfon appearance, he knew he was the one who spied on him. But the feeling still continued even after Leyfon appeared. But¡­ "Assassin?" "Well, genius. You might easily kill rank 6 monsters. But sadly, we are rank 7 assassins. And there will be a big difference where you fought with a monster and with human" He made two mistakes. First, he already felt something like them in the fortress and made preparation but still underestimated them. Judging from their aura alone, they are roughly rank 7. His second mistake lies in Alicia and Firia. Because he chose to accompany them they got dragged inside this mess. Their target must be him, after all, Alicia is a princess, there is no one fool enough to make an enemy with Acacia Kingdom. Firia¡­she is also a marquis daughter, but she is not noticeable enough to get some assassin to hunt her. The assassin drew their blade. Alex frowned and immediately shouted. "Are you sure? She is one of Acacia Kingdom Princess you know? Do you think you can afford to kill her?" "If all of you die here. We can just throw your body into the deeper zone of this forest. People might think you all died because of the monster" This might be bad, he thought. They target was him at first. But because the others were with him, he confirmed his speculation after that conversation. They really became the target along with him. "I''m sorry guys" "What are you saying Alex? I have sworn that day to go life and death with you" "Yes. I already swore too" "Sherry. Bring those two to the fortress" "Wuu" Sherry immediately grabbed Alicia and Firia on top of her. Unlike Alicia and Firia. Sherry thought otherwise. She thought bringing these two first would be the best solution. "Go" Sherry immediately charged forward. But suddenly, an assassin got in her way. Seeing the situation Alex tried to help her out. He immediately ran toward the enemy. But before he can help her, an assassin also appeared in front of him. "Move! Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" A tyrannical sword wave appeared from Alex''s sword. But sadly¡­ "Hehe¡­ This is really a strong sword strike. It can easily kill a rank 6 monster or heavily injured a rank 7 monster. Unfortunately, you are facing a human. This is the difference between monsters and us, humans. They moved with instinct while we move with brain" The assassin immediately flew away from Alex''s sword wave. Just when he thought he can go straight to Sherry. He immediately turned back with his sword. "Clang" The two swords clashed with each other. Another assassin appeared behind him. "Yes, this is another reason. We have a combination" Meanwhile, on the Sherry side. She also fought two assassins like Alex. "Wuu" Sherry released her flame from her body and released a flame paw toward the assassins. The dodge Sherry''s attack completely. And another assassin disappeared. The moment she noticed. The other assassin already appeared behind her and kicked her away. "Wuu" Alicia and Firia fell down because of the kick. The previous assassin who was in front of her immediately moved toward Alicia and Firia. "Hehe¡­ Princess Alicia and this young lady. I will be your opponent. I will play with you all along so you can watch your man killed by us" "You¡­you¡­insane" Firia desperately shouted. "Do you think our Acacia will let you off" "Hehe, it was useless to say all of that. The reason was the same. They will only know you were killed by monsters inside the forest" "You-" Sherry got up and went toward them hurriedly. But the assassin who kicked her appeared in front of her. "I will be the one who plays with you" "Wuu" Sherry was angered. Present fight: Alex vs Assassin A and assassin B, Alicia and Firia vs assassin C, and Sherry vs Assassin D Alex calmed himself down. This situation turned to worse. If he was alone, he might be able to run from them, but now, there are Alicia, Firia, and even Sherry. Alex decided to finish his fight as soon as possible. "Sky Movement. Flash Step. Plus, Boost Step" Alex disappeared after using those two techniques. The moment he appeared, it was behind assassin B. Assassin B was startled with Alex speed. Alex slashed his sword at him hoping to finish him in one blow. Suddenly, another sword appeared between them. The sword belonged to the other assassin. "Hehe¡­ Taking him on surprise with your speed might be possible if he was alone. But sadly, he was with me. I am also proud of my speed" "If speed was useless then strength. Sky Movement. Immovable Step. Plus, Boost Step." He used the Immovable Step to increase his power and Boost Step to increase the momentum from his arm. He then punched the assassin who was proud of his speed. But the one who caught his strike was the other assassin. "Well, If he is speed, then I am Strength" Alex took a step backward. Seeing his fist didn''t even put a scratch on them. He knew, this situation¡­ "Sky Movement. Fleeting Step" This time, he planned to use his unpredictable Fleeting Step to confuse them. He moved closer to the assassins and tried to cut them. A series of clashing was heard. The assassins who were joking all this time became serious. Alex put them on the defensive with his Fleeting Step. This unpredictable footwork made the situation troublesome. Alex suddenly raised his spear. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing" He threw his spear toward the ''Strength'' Assassin. The assassin dodged it completely. "Hehe¡­ If I haven''t seen this technique. That move just now might kill me-" The assassin suddenly felt something wrong. He turned back and shouted "Johan, Dodge!" Alex''s target wasn''t him. His target was the assassin behind him. He moved toward the spot where they were lined up so he could target the assassin behind his back. Johan, the assassin who was in charge of Alicia and Firia was startled. He saw the incoming spear and dodge it. He barely dodged it and fell down because he lost his balance. Alicia and Firia didn''t let this chance go. "Ice Prison" "Flame Spear" They released their magic toward the assassin. After he got hit from Firia''s flame spear. It was prisoned by Alicia''s Ice prison. They immediately took this chance to run. But¡­ "Bang!" Alicia''s Ice Prison broke. "If you think you can hinder me with this technique, you might be wrong. I admit this technique is powerful. But the user itself wasn''t powerful. Our difference was that big" Alex immediately used another move, "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" The sword wave went toward the ''Strength'' Assassin who was turning his head. Seeing the ''Strength'' assassin can''t dodge this move, The ''Speed'' assassin was the one who intercepted his move. The assassin used his full strength to block this attack. "Boom" Now, we can see that the assassin who blocked Alex''s attack, got his left arm bruised all over. "Hehe, Now we are understood. Your power was even more abnormal than the report. Luckily I sacrificed my hand before the clash. Look, my left hand was useless now. If I used my dominant hand to block that. I would be useless to fight you now" The ''Strength'' assassin already recovered. It immediately threw a punch to Alex. Alex dodged this punch easily. Alex once again used his Fleeting Step. "Oi, you guys. Change of the plan. Finished them off first, we two weren''t his opponent. Holding his off is all we can do" "I can''t. I also can only hold this fox back" The one who said that was the assassin that stopping Sherry. Like what happened with Alex. Sherry also strong enough to suppress her opponent. From their battle, Sherry''s flame was unordinary. After all, she was evolved after eating Alex''s flame and evolved once again after eating Quenching Fire Pill. Her flame purity alone was close to Absolute Level or Pure Level. Sherry released her flame in a very unique way. The flame rose from her body and charged toward the assassin like a snake. Even though the assassin took it hard. Sherry also didn''t find any gap to go to Alicia and Firia. Every time she thought she can pass him and went to them. She would be stopped by him. On the contrary, the assassin in front of Alicia and Firia really took it easy. All of Alicia and Firia attacks were neutralized by him easily. Their gap was that big. Their attack was useless in front of him. "So that means, I am the one. It really a shame to kill these two goddesses but, I need to be professional in this job. Goodbye" "Wuu" Sherry rose her flame even further and bombard the one in front of her. Alex also shouted hurriedly "Don''t you dare" He immediately took out his rank 8 spear from the system. From other perspectives, he took out a spear from out of nowhere. "Where you got the spear?" Alex used another fleeting Step and fought back insanely. He went toward the injured assassin. He made a stabbing motion. The assassin immediately used his sword to parry it. Unfortunately, this spear was far stronger than Alex''s previous spear. "What? That spear" The assassin was startled with the spear power. At first, he was startled when Alex pulled out this spear out of nowhere. But since Alex was a genius. Having a few trump cards like that was normal, he then calmed himself down. But he was very surprised when he experienced this spear''s power. It broke his sword. The spear continued went forward and pierced his dominant hand. Now, his two hands were useless. Alex kicked him to the side and went toward Alicia and Firia but only found himself stopped by the other assassin. "Moved" "Johan, hurry up." The useless assassin shouted. This is also the reason. If they can''t hold Alex with only two of them. They will kill the other swiftly and circled him with four of them. Johan who was on the side was startled when one of his teammates already lost. He immediately raised his sword. "Wuu" "Sorry you need to pass me first if you wanted to help them" "Wuu Wuu" Alex''s side was the same. "Move!" The assassin suddenly ducked and grabbed him. Alex can''t escape from his grasp. It took an instant for him to calm himself. Alex raised his sword and behead him. "I won''t make it. My spear also won''t make it. Heck with that." "Spin Throwing" To kill Alicia or Firia, he only needs an instant. He raised his sword, appeared in front of her and stabbed Firia on the stomach. Blood started gushing out from her body. Her face became pale. Alex''s spear has yet arrived. After He stabbed Firia. The spear finally reached him and pierced him. ''it was damn too late'' "Firia!" 100 Bawon Fortress 9 "Firia!" After seeing this scene, Alex felt the same feeling when he watched Alicia on the brink of death back in the dungeon. Firia already become an irreplaceable person in Alex''s life. It took a really long time for him to realize that. Her existence was already imprinted on his heart. But why was the time he realized this was the time where they are on the brink of death? He started to regret all of this. If only, he accepted them before all of this, what would happen? But he didn''t have time to think all of this. He really didn''t have time to regret all of his decision. His top priority now is¡­ Because he attacked Firia. He didn''t have any time to react to Alex''s attack. Alex spear immediately pierced his head, thus killing him on the spot. Firia fell down with her pale face. Alicia held her in pain. She looked at Alex who was approaching them, she smiled while in tears. There would be hope if Alex come "Alex" But sadly, her smile becomes stiff. She let Firia down and immediately ran toward him. Alex was surprised why she suddenly did that. ''maybe she felt danger?'' he thought. But when Alicia reached him, she didn''t stop and immediately went toward his back. The assassin that almost killed by Alex already can''t use his hands. But he grabbed another dagger with his mouth. The dagger''s blade seems to be coated by some kind of liquid. In this case, this liquid would be a poison. He silently went toward Alex. Even though Alex already crippled his two hands. He still has his legs. He proud of his speed, and he can use his mouth to hold a dagger like this. Alex felt something amiss when Alicia suddenly went toward his back. He turned his head and saw her¡­ "Stab" The dagger pierced Alicia, the assassin was startled when Alicia suddenly got between them. His initial target was Alex. Their mission already failed since Alex already killed two of them and crippled him. That''s why at least he would bring Alex down with him. Since it was their original mission. But never in his thought that Princess Alicia suddenly got between them and shielded him from this ''poisonous'' dagger. "Alicia!" Alex immediately went toward her and kicked the assassin. He held her tightly. "Look at Firia first, her injuries were worse than me" After she said that, she passed out Alex didn''t say anything, he carries her up. He then moved toward Firia and placed Alicia down beside her. Alex took out all of the Restoration Pill and shoved them to their mouths. Alicia and Firia wounds closed up at a visible rate. Firia pale''s face also started to regain some color. After noticing she is okay. Alicia¡­Firia¡­recalling what happened, Alex went insane. Every mana in his body flared up, all the fire in his body started gushing out. "Ahhh!" Alex went berserk and his fire also went berserk, his fire got outside, it enveloped his surroundings with flame, the forest started burning, the ground started to melt, but there is no speck of hotness to Alicia and the rest. The ''Alex'' now only fight with his instinct. The assassin was shocked by this. The flame also engulfed him and burned him to death. Because of his berserk, the power from the fire was multiple times over. On the contrary, Sherry felt something in Alex. She felt his sadness, disappointment on himself, anger, and much more. "Wuu" She let out her flame too. Sherry''s pink flame was instantly engulfed by Alex''s flame. But even her flame was swallowed by his flame. There is still her emotion, bond, and feeling within it. It seeped into Alex. Suddenly, a circle appeared both in Sherry''s forehead and Alex''s forehead. In the middle of the circle, there is a fox head pattern. The circle symbolizing their connection, bond, emotion, feeling, and existence. The circle went inside her head. At the same time, the circle also went inside his head. But it didn''t stop there, on his back, inside his clothes. A mark suddenly appeared. A mark becomes two, two become four, and so on. After a while, it stopped, and a fox tattoo was completed on his back. The mark suddenly shining brightly after it completed. It calming down Alex. Sherry poured all her mana to calm Alex down. Alex''s rampaging fire started to slow down¡­slow down, before finally stopped. Alex slowly gained consciousness. After he regained his consciousness, Sherry finally relieved. She walked to Alex. "Wuu (I''m glad you are back, Master)" After she said that, she fell down, unconscious. She started shrinking. From her original one meter height become only forty-centimeter height. Alex immediately checked her condition. Sherry is fine for now, she only exhausted all of her mana, he was confused with the shrinking but at least her condition was stable. He can''t afford any time for that kind of thought for now. "Thank you, Sherry" After that blazing fire from Alex disappeared. Rain suddenly started pouring down and started to put out the remaining fire that burning the trees. Alex didn''t care about it and immediately went toward the useless assassin. Sherry is fine, Firia also stabilized. And the problem is¡­ "Haha" The assassin laughed happily, unlike usual people who were in their death door. This assassin instead feeling very happy. "Where is the antidote?" Alex said in a cold tone. "Hehe¡­ I really like your expression just now" the assassin feeling very joyful looking at Alex''s expression. There is one word to describe this guy. ''Sicko'' "Puah!" He spurted blood. Alex kicked him in his abdomen, "Give me the antidote!" "Haha, We specially prepared that poison for you but I never thought that the princess would sacrifice herself for y- Puah" Alex kicked him again. "Give me the antidote now" "Since you loved her that much. I will give you the answer. There is no antidote. This is the legendary poison, its name is Green Devil Poison. Even after a few millenniums passed there is no antidote behind this poison. It was said that this poison can even kill a god. Haha¡­ the only outcome after inflicted by this poison is death. So say goodbye to your lovely princess. Cough cough" Alex can''t stand this guy no more. There would be no answer will he get from this man''s mouth. He raised his sword. "Wait. I know you will kill me. But I will tell you who was the mastermind behind this¡­ who was the one actually sent us out¡­" "the one who sent us out is the Hero from Zircodina Kingdom. Haha¡­ He wanted to kill you very much. Our top priority was to kill you, we know you are abnormal, so we specially prepared that poison for you. But never I thought she really protected you. Oh right, the Hero wanted to ruin her personally. But I think, I already ruined her on his behalf. Haha..." He decided to give him the information after seeing that ''scene''. He knew Alex was abnormal but after seeing that scene, he realized that he underestimated him, Alex was a monster. Thus he thought. Since he was going to die anyway, how about giving all of the information?. The Monster from Acacia vs The Hero from Zircodina. Ain''t that wonderful? Why he accepted the job? Money? No, He accepted the job because he wanted to see the humans fighting each other. With one dead led to another and another one and so on. He wanted to see the world in chaos. With Alex as the center, if he killed him. Zircodina would be attacked by Acacia Kingdom. If Zircodina destroyed and Acacia wounded. The Demon will win the war between the Holy Kingdom. And the world will turn to chaos. Alex kicked him again. "This is your last chance, give me the antidote" "Like I said, there is no antidote for that poison. It was useless to ask m-" "You are mad! " Alex roared as he killed him. There will be no answer for his mouth anyway. "Alexander" A shout from the rear. Alex looked toward it. He found Leyfon and Andreas flying to him. After the fire in his body engulfed and started burning the forest. Leyfon and Andreas noticed this disturbance and went to check it. They were surprised to see Alex standing in the middle of that. They found Alicia, Firia, and Sherry collapsed on the ground along with four corpses. Alex immediately went toward Leyfon desperately. "Sir Leyfon. Please help Alicia" "What¡­what happened?" "Please Help Alicia" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Alright alright. I will check her immediately. Andreas, try to check the other" Leyfon looked at Alicia. With blood on her clothes. He immediately noticed the stab wound. But the stab wound itself already closed with the pill. Her condition at least already stable. "She was fine for the moment" "She was inflicted by poison. From the assassin mouth, it was Green Devil Poison" "Green Devil Poison?" Leyfon perplexed. "I think I heard them somewhere¡­" Soon he remembered. He was flustered "Green Devil Poison!" "Sir Leyfon. You know the poison? Please help her if you know" "Andreas. Change of plan. We will bring them to the capital immediately" Leyfon was full of sweat. "What happened Father?" "Shut up. And immediately go" "Y-yes" "Sir Leyfon. What happened?" Alex asked him desperately. Leyfon was the current hope for him. Leyfon didn''t have any choice he suddenly punched Alex in the abdomen and knocked him unconscious. Alex state of mind is in mess, it is better to knock him out first. Leyfon grabbed Alicia and Alex while Andreas grabbed Firia and Sherry. They flew toward the capital city. As soon as they reached the capital. They immediately let all of the doctors checked their condition, especially Alicia''s condition. ¡­ The king and his retainers were still in their meeting when suddenly¡­ "Bang!" "Your Majesty. Emergency¡­ Princess Alicia¡­ Princess Alicia¡­" Before he finished his words. The king immediately stood up "The meeting finished now" All of his retainers immediately left the palace. Princess Alicia was always his soft spot. They already knew about it. Now there was an emergency about her, the result was obvious. They immediately left this place, they didn''t want to suffer his wrath at the moment. "What happened to my niece?" "She¡­ According to the doctor. She was poisoned" "What! Immediately led me to her" The king immediately went to her. There are Alex, Firia, Sherry, and Alicia lying on bed. Leyfon and Andreas watching on the side. The dean also called to here. The king looked at all the doctors present. "How is her condition? Tell me now!" One of the doctors said "Her condition was stabilized for now. Please calm down first Your Majesty. The rest only exhausted, rest for a while they will wake up" The king finally relieved when the doctor said her condition was stable. Suddenly the Dean walked to him and said with a bitter tone. "She was poisoned. According to Leyfon. Alex said she was poisoned by the legendary Green Devil Poison. So we tried to confirm her condition as that poison as the base. Unfortunately, from the symptom, it is positive. Princess Alicia got poisoned by Green Devil Poison" "What did you say! You say ''Green Devil Poison''?" his leg went limp. He fell down. "Your Majesty" "Your Majesty" The others trying to help the king. The dean continued "Your Majesty. I have stumbled upon an ancient book in our library. There is actually one record that the one who got inflicted by Green Devil Poison got cured." "What? What is the cure? Tell me, I will immediately move all the power I had to search it" The dean bitterly shook his head. "The record was from five thousand years ago" "You mean¡­" "Yes, the one who cured it was the ascender" The king fell down once again. "Who¡­who the one that poisoned her?" "I will explain what I saw back then Your Majesty" Leyfon step forward. "I didn''t get much time before. After Alex said about Green Devil Poison. I immediately flew to here. So I will give you a report about what I saw in that short moment. First, according to the number of corpses, there are four assassins. All of them are rank 7 assassins. They seem to engaged for quite a while. Ultimately, All of them died. I suspected that Alex or Sherry was the one who killed them. That''s all. For now, we don''t know who sent them" "Investigate immediately" "Ha!" 101 Back Two days have passed after the incident, Alex and the rest have woke up. Except¡­Alicia who still lay on her bed. Alex locked up himself, saying it is all his fault. Firia also saddened by this and accompany Alicia. Sherry already stayed by Alex''s side. An old man stopped in front of Alex''s room. "Knock Knock" he knocked the door There is no sound from the other side. "Knock Knock" he knocked it again Still no sound from inside. "Sigh¡­Alex, it''s me" "¡­." One minute¡­ two minutes¡­. Five minutes¡­ "Alex¡­" "Te¡­teacher¡­." Finally, there is a weak sound from the inside. "Am¡­I¡­Wrong¡­" "Sigh¡­ Open the door first. I wanted to talk about you about that" One minute later¡­ "Clack" The door was opened. The dean entered his room and looking at the weak Alex. Sherry also in the room watching her master like this, pained her heart. She looked at the dean hopefully. She hopes that the dean able to help her master. "Am¡­I¡­wrong¡­Teacher¡­" "Yes, you are wrong" "I¡­" "Bam!" He threw Alex to the wall. "Let me list your wrong. First, What are you doing? Holing up like this won''t make your wrong become right, won''t erase your mistake. Second, You holing up here, what do you think about the other who cared about you? You are just hurting them. Third, who are you? You are Alicia''s man, but what are you doing? Did you help her in time like this? You just sit here, nice and comfy thinking that you are the only one hurt? No! you are not the only one hurt Alex, there are others. But what are you doing? And what are they doing? They are searching for a solution while you? You only sitting here" "But¡­" The dean looked at him seriously, "Your biggest mistake... When you fought the assassins. Did you use your flame?" "I¡­" "No, right?" The dean sighed a little, "I know you didn''t use it. If you used it, I might be surprised. The reason is simple, I¡­ or maybe other people also said the same thing. Don''t use your flame in front of others." The dean looked at Alex bitterly, He always watching Alex grew up. And he knew, despite his brilliance, there is actually a shadow¡­ a big shadow in his heart. He always wanted to break this shadow of his but there is no chance for it. After all, to destroy this shadow, he needs a setback. But never in his thought, that the price of this setback was¡­Alicia. "Ha¡­ I don''t know what kind of environment you lived in before you become my student. ''I will get hurt if I don''t obey'', ''I will obey'', or the like. You must have experienced something like that continuously from childhood. I know, it was imprinted inside you. That is your shadow. It was like a brainwashed whether you did it yourself or someone did it. It becomes your own doctrine. Just because I said you can''t show it to others. You didn''t show it. On the contrary, if you fought the assassins along with your fire. You might be able to finish them easily. Actually, In that situation, it was the perfect time to unleash it. This is why I said that was your biggest mistake" "Without a wrong, we didn''t know what is right. Without a mistake, we didn''t know what is wrong. Without a fear, we didn''t know what we need to fight at. Without a setback, we didn''t know what we lack. If you didn''t do anything, we didn''t know if it is possible or not. We will do our best first so we will accept the result without regret" "But¡­it was the legendary poison. There is no one who can cure it" The Dean shook his head, "No, there is one man that managed to cure it." Alex''s eyes brightened a bit. "He was the ascender. We will try to search for his record about it. After he ascended himself in the Death Forest. Many already tried to search for his inheritance, but sadly there is no one that managed to do it." Alex''s eyes brightened once more when he heard ''Death Forest''. Back then, he felt some kind of connection within the forest, but the dean said that many people already tried to search it but to no avail. Then¡­what is that connection? What is the difference between him and them? One word came on his mind ''Pure Fire''. That''s right, both of them have the same element, they both have Pure Fire Element''. The reason they can''t find it because they don''t have the same element. The possibility is slim but not zero. "Well, that''s all. I only wanted to say that to you. Rather than holing up here, better to use it for something else. Alright, I will go back first. I still need to investigate who is the mastermind" "Teacher. Actually¡­" With his teacher encouragement, he finally told the whole story about what happened back in the forest. From when they appeared until the last talk. "Hmm¡­ If what he said was true. We won''t let off Zircodina and its hero." "Teacher, can you leave him to me. I wanted to kill him myself" The dean looked at him and nodded, "Alright. We will conduct the investigation with the hero as its base. We don''t know whether the assassin saying the truth or not. He might also want to make us fighting with each other" "Yes" The dean left the room. Alex planned for his next move. "System, can you cure the Green Devil Poison?" The system didn''t answer him. that means, the only possible way was in that Death Forest. Alex had decided to search that ascender palace. He took out his sword and spear. "Wuu" He looked at Sherry. After that depression, he didn''t look at her enough. Sherry''s body shrank by much. Before, she had a height of one meter. But this time, it was only around thirty centimeters. But the Sherry now was absolutely cuter than before. Alex caressed her a bit. "What happened with your body?" "Wuu Wuu Wuu. Wuu Wuu" "What? You can grow back like before?" "Wuu Wuu" Sherry nodded. She then started growing and growing until she reached one-meter height like her previous body. "I See. You really can transform back" "Wuu Wuu" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "That mini form was a convenient form?" "Wuu" Sherry shrank back. She suddenly jumped to the top of Alex''s head. "Wuu Wuu (I can also like this in this form. Together with master hehe¡­" Alex smiled a bit, he patted her head, "Yes yes, as long as you like it" "Wuu" Sherry joyfully accepted that. "But, I need to go to a dangerous place first. I think I can''t bring you. I didn''t want you to-" "Plak!" Sherry hit Alex''s head with her paw. "Wuu Wuu" She reprimanded her, She said she wanted to live and die together with her master. As long as they are together, that was fine for her. "Wuu Wuu" "What? You can be what?" Suddenly Sherry disappeared from Alex''s head. Alex was shocked, he tried to search around but he didn''t see Sherry in the room. "Sherry? Sherry? Where are you?" "Wuu" Suddenly Alexander''s back glowing. Sherry suddenly came out from the tattoo on his back. Alex was flustered when suddenly there is a tattoo on his back. "Sherry? What did just happen? How are you suddenly disappeared and appeared like that? And why is there a tattoo in my back?" "Wuu" Sherry also didn''t know why, but there is one thing She knew. She can go in and out from that tattoo. "¡­It seems that we will research about that too" "Wuu(then, can I follow you)?" Alex contemplated a bit then nodded. "But, you need to go inside of me, alright? We will go now" "Wuu" Sherry nodded happily. She went inside of him once again. After Sherry got inside of him. he didn''t feel any difference in his feeling or body, so he didn''t really mind about it. He opened his door and slowly walked toward Alicia''s room. He opened the door and saw Alicia laying on the bed and Firia who seems asleep after nursing her. Alex slowly walked toward them, he didn''t want to wake them up. Alex patted Firia head a bit and said in a very low voice. "Sorry for worrying you. I''m fine now. Wait for me alright" Alex then turned to Alicia. He stroke her purple hair tenderly. "Wait for me alright. I will definitely cure you" "Alex?" Alex turned back and saw Firia woke up. Firia tear up a bit and hugged him "I''m glad you are alright" Alex''s heart in pain. He hugged her back "I''m sorry for worrying you" Suddenly Firia realized. Alex brought his weapon. She started to worry again "Where are you going?" "¡­" Alex hesitated. After contemplating a bit, he answered "Death Forest" "What? Why are you going there again? Don''t tell me-" Alex placed his finger on her mouth. He shook his head, "No. Teacher said that there is a case where Green Devil Poison was cured. And the one who cured it was the ascender." "Then, do you want to¡­ But even after 5000 years passed. There is nothing there" Alex shook his head. "The chance is slim but not zero. I also felt the connection there. I assumed there is a connection with my Pure Fire Element. After all, both of us were Pure Fire Element" Firia''s eyes widened. She was surprised by that. "If Teacher searching for me. Please tell him that I went there. Please also tell him about the ''Connection''. And also, please don''t stop trying to search for cures. I will also do my best on my end" "Alex¡­" Firia looked at him. Alex patted her head again, "Don''t worry. I will come back, definitely. For myself, for Teacher, for Alicia, for you, for everyone else. I will come back" "I¡­" Firia looked at him with worry. She wanted to tell him that she wanted to follow him but after that incident, there won''t be any situation like that if he was alone. So, this time she decided. "Alex! May Fortune be with you" Alex was surprised but soon the surprise turned to a smile. "Yes! See you soon" Alex opened the window and used his sky step and went toward the Death Forest once again. ¡­ Unprior to him, in a room there is someone who still rolling herself on the bed. "That Poison! That F*cking Poison. Argh!" 102 Crocodiles? With Alex''s speed alone. He already reached the Death Forest with just a day of running. Alex looked at the big trees surrounding it. He felt determined than ever. He didn''t waste any time and went inside the forest. Unlike when he was with Alicia and Firia. This time he went straight toward the inner forest. It didn''t take him that many times before reaching the inner forest. Alex looked at a direction where he felt the connection stronger. Up to here, he killed many monsters but only those rank 5 or lower which he can insta-kill. Alex continued marching forward. It was in the center of the forest that he finally felt the connection intensified by much. But on the other hand, because of the intensity, he can''t pinpoint where is the center of this feeling. Alex frowned, "it seems I can only search it slowly" He was already careful enough to not encounter any high-rank monsters when he got closer to the center. But now, there is a monster in front of him. The monster is a beetle. Judging from its aura, this monster was only a rank 7 monster. But he still needs to be careful. Alex pulled out his sword. This beetle seems to have a good defense. The monster that good on offense was dangerous, but the monster that good on defense was troublesome. They were very hard to kill. Alex took out the rank 8 spear from the system. He will go all out from the start to finish the battle as short as possible. "Flash Step" Alex disappeared from the scene. The beetle seems can''t follow his movement which is convenient for him. The moment he appeared. Alex already got behind the beetle and thrust his spear. The beetle didn''t have any chance to react. Alex''s spear already touched his back. The beetle was flying because of the momentum after he got trusted by Alex''s spear. Alex looked at the beetle. His spear just now didn''t manage to pierce the beetle. As expected from rank 7 defensive monster. He really needs to find his weak point if he wanted to kill it easily. Alex didn''t stop there. He made a few fire arrows. the fire arrows already started flying toward the beetle. The beetle opened its wing and flew to dodge the fire arrows. but Alex''s fire arrows which supposed to miss suddenly flew upward and chasing the beetle. Even Alex was shocked by what just happened. Alex confused with what just happened. Was there any connection between this and the connection he felt? He thought. But that thought was disappeared when he suddenly heard Sherry''s voice. "Wuu Wuu Wuu" "Sherry?" Alex was surprised. "What? You can control my fire?" "Wuu Wuu" "I see. This way, we can fight together without revealing your form. This way, you can control the fire to attack the opponent and I will be the one in charge of weapon" "Wuu Wuu" "Alright. I will leave it to you" Now, with Sherry in charge of his element. He can focus on his weapon. This way, his opponent was like fighting two people. They will get a hard time. Another few fire arrows appeared again. These fire arrows got together with the previous fire arrows and flew toward the beetle together like a homing missile. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Boom" "Boom" "Boom" A series of explosion was heard. Sherry finally managed to hit the beetle. Because of that many fire arrows. the beetle finally fell down to the ground again. Alex was a bit shocked by his flame. After looking at those fire arrows. He felt his flame got even stronger than before. He didn''t feel any difference when he released the fire arrows but when he finally saw the result, he confirmed that his fire was stronger than ever. Was it because Sherry? Or was there anything he missed? Did he forget any flame improvement he made or tried? But he can''t be bothered by this thought, for now, he was still in the battle. He can research it after he got back later. "Flash Step" Alex arrived in front of the beetle. He thrust his spear once again. Even though it''s still didn''t manage to pierce the beetle. This time, Alex adjusted his aim. He didn''t make the beetle flew again like before. He made the beetle pinned to the ground. Because of that. Now the beetle was pinned on the ground. "Boost Step" Alex used his Boost Step on his spear and finally managed to pierce the beetle''s carapace. Though it was very shallow. The beetle seems to mock him because he will fail to kill him if he continued this way. But Alex also smirked a little. Behind his Boost Step, he also prepared for another move. "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" This Seventh Slash target wasn''t the beetle but the spear. Alex wanted to use the powerful force from the Seventh Slash to boost his spear, like a nail and a hammer, and finally, the beetle was pierced like a wood. Now with that wound as the base. Alex continued to wound the beetle again and again. After a short while, he finally killed the beetle. [Gacha Ticket Acquired] Alex pulled out his spear and continue onward. He didn''t have any time to bother with the Ticket for now. He met a few rank 7 monsters on his way. Though they were a bit troublesome. Alex managed to kill them without getting any injuries. After resting for a while, he managed to restore his expended energy and mana. When he walking inside the forest, searching for ''that''. He suddenly stopped. "The feeling was intensified around here" Alex searched for his surroundings. He felt the answer he seeks was around here. But where exactly the entrance? Alex continued for a while but still no sign of ''that'' place. "Sherry, do you feel anything?" "Wuu Wuu Wuu (Master, I got the same feeling as you. But if I wanted to choose, I would love to move there)" Alex felt some direction inside his heart, it must be the place Sherry''s pointed at. He also felt that he can understand Sherry better. He followed the direction in his heart. He found some kind of small mountain. It wasn''t that big, only around ten meters height, but a bit huge in width. It was covered completely from the forests. If others flew to search this rock, they won''t see it from above. But when they were on the ground and they would only saw this weird looking stone mountain but they won''t feel anything different from this stone mountain. But Alex was different, he felt this is the place. This is the place that he was searching for. When he just about to enter the mountain he suddenly found two monsters there. The monsters were crocodiles. But the difference from the earth crocodiles, these crocodiles can walk in their feet. As expected of the fantasy world. Even the crocodiles can walk in two feet. But what made him hesitated, because he clearly felt the difference in their power. These two crocodiles were rank 8 monsters. Now he was contemplating. He really needs to go there and search for ''it''. But he needs to kill these two first, if not he can''t search ''it'' without getting attacked from these two. Alex thought for a plan for a moment. How can he defeat them? Should he go back and get reinforcement? He immediately shook his head, He didn''t have any time for that, he needs to get the cure for Alicia as soon as possible. The only way for him to win is¡­ Alex sighed a long breath, preparing himself for the upcoming battle. "Sherry. Use my fire to hold the crocodile on the right back. I will use that time to kill the other crocodile." "Wuu" After Sherry ''OK''. He finally stepped forward. He silently approached the crocodiles, when he got close enough, He aimed his rank 8 spear to the crocodile on his left. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing" He wanted to take this chance to make a surprise attack, hopefully, one of the crocodiles killed by his spear. As soon as he threw the spear, he also jumped forward. He needed to grab the spear back. "Roar" The crocodiles noticed the spear, as well as Alex. The crocodiles on the left, was startled because the spear aimed to him. "Boom" The crocodile barely dodged the spear. But it still takes his right hand. Alex continued and arrived in front of the two crocodiles. Sherry made a few fire arrows and threw it to the ground. The purpose was simple, it was to make a smokescreen for Alex to grab his spear. Alex who got his spear back immediately leaped forward and thrust his spear toward the injured crocodile. The injured crocodile already prepared now. It dodged Alex''s thrust completely. It whipped its tail to Alex. "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" The tail and the sword wave clashed. But Alex didn''t stop only there. "Flame Sword Wave" Alex finally used his Flame Sword Wave again. After he got the Sanguin Sword Art and his other techniques, he seems forgotten about this move or maybe because he refused to use his flame, this move got forgotten. This was one of the most powerful moves in Alex''s repertoire, with a sudden move like that. Alex got his tail. The crocodile now had his hand and tail cut. With powerful monsters as his enemies, this is a good chance to release it again. "Roar!" The other crocodile roared. The smokescreen also has been cleared away. With that, Alex immediately retreated a few steps from them. This time, the two crocodiles fully prepared for Alex''s attacks. But with the clashed just now, Alex managed to get a hand and a tail from a rank 8 monster. It was already got him an advantage. "Sherry" Sherry also started doing her job. Sherry used Alex''s flame arrow. The fire arrows flew toward the other crocodile while Alex focused on the injured one according to the plan. "Fleeting Step" This time, since the crocodile already prepared. He used his fleeting step to confront the crocodile head-on. Alex slowly and unpredictably walking closer to the crocodile. The crocodile sense the danger, it immediately charged at him, hoping to break Alex''s movement. Alex already predicted this. When the crocodile almost reached him, Alex raised his sword again. "Flame Sword Wave" The crocodile was startled by Alex''s sudden move. It suddenly ducked and walked with its fou- I mean, Three feet to dodge the Flame Sword Wave and got closer to Alex. 103 Finally On the other side, Sherry who was inside of Alex was using her own mana to use Alex''s fire arrows and give Alex time to fight with the injured one. Sherry skillfully controls the fire arrows. Her control in the Fire Arrows was like a barrage of a machine gun. It continued making another one after it exploded. It continued raining down to the crocodile. The crocodile was also skillfully dodged the Fire Arrows. unlike the one that Alex fought, this crocodile was uninjured. It still has a full fighting capacity. Even though Sherry can''t win like this, it was fine. After all, her job was to buy time for Alex to finish the other off. The crocodile dodging the Fire Arrows continuously. It seems scared of Fire Arrows, or not¡­ it seems the one he scared at wasn''t the Fire Arrows, instead it scared from the Fire itself. Alex''s fire was on a different level than the previous one. Its ferocity was very strong. The crocodile might be roasted if it continued taking this fire. That''s why the crocodile dodge the Fire Arrows. but because of that, the crocodile can''t help the other one because Sherry''s skillfully controlled the Fire Arrows to not let it happen. ¡­ Back to Alex side, The crocodile reached him, he got Alex startled when he suddenly moved with its three feet. It suddenly jumped again with its mouth open. He seems wanted to swallow the whole of him "Flame Armor" The flame started to cover him, especially on his chest. The flame concentrated on his chest plate. The crocodile didn''t manage to penetrate the concentrated flame armor. But from the momentum alone, Alex was blown away. "Fire Claw" Alex didn''t forget to use his Fire Claw. A big claw made of fire formed from his right hand, It suddenly grabbed the crocodile and threw it to the direction where Alex got blown away. This way, the crocodile can become his cushion. The crocodile who was in the air can''t dodge this ''Fire Claw''. It grabbed him and threw him just like that. Alex and the crocodile were flying together. But Alex got the upper position. The crocodile crashed with a big tree first. Alex tried to thrust his spear again. He planned to use the momentum he got to pierce the crocodile. "Stab" Alex managed to pierce the crocodile, it now nailed him to the trees. But suddenly, "Wuu" Sherry said ''Left''. Alex turned his head to the left instinctively, The other crocodile charging toward him. It took Sherry''s numerous Fire Arrows head-on and charged at Alex. He seems wanted to help the crocodile Alex currently facing. Because the crocodile got hit by Sherry''s Fire Arrows. Its body was charred, but without thinking about the consequences, it charged to Alex. Alex was startled since Sherry suddenly warned him. "Flame Armor" Alex used half of his power in the Flame Armor to cover his body once again and concentrated the rest to make a shield. He can''t make it in time to intercept the charge so he can only make an emergency Flame Shield to guard this attack. "Boom!" Alex was blown away because of that. The spear still piercing the other crocodile so there is nothing in Alex''s left hand. Only a sword in his right. Alex made a counter-attack to the crocodile. Since the crocodile still nailed to the trees. He still has the chance. "Flame Sword Wave" The Flame Sword Wave flew toward the two crocodiles. The crocodile immediately pulled out the spear from its friend and free him. They immediately ducked in to dodge this Flame Sword Wave. Even though they managed to barely dodge it in time. Alex and Sherry didn''t stop there. Alex and Sherry made numerous Fire Arrows. Before, only Sherry made the Fire Arrows. but this time, both of them made the Fire Arrows together. The number was doubled. The Fire Arrows immediately flew toward the crocodiles. The crocodiles also retreated backward and dodge this Fire Arrows. But as the plan goes, Alex''s Fire Arrows targeted to his main focus while Sherry also the same. Those numerous Fire Arrows charged toward each respective target. Alex grabbed his spear again which dropped after the crocodile pulled it out. Now the situation was looking good for Alex and Sherry. They both weren''t injured or something, only depleted some mana and energy. Instead, the two crocodiles have it worse. One of them heavily injured, while the other was charred. If they continued fighting like this, defeating those two crocodiles was a matter in time. Alex moved closer again to the injured one. While Sherry pinned the other one with her Fire Arrows again. "Fleeting Step" With its condition, the crocodile won''t be the match with Alex''s Fleeting Step. Alex arrived in front of it with his unpredictable footwork and Stab the crocodile. Clash after clash in a few minutes, they exchanged more than two hundreds blow, the crocodile can only dodging Alex''s attack, it didn''t have any energy left to counter-attack. Alex''s also managed to stab the crocodile a few times. If Alex can wear the crocodile out like this. The crocodile will die because of excessive blood loss. On the other hand, Alex still had so many energies to spare. But the situation changed when he heard¡­ Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "ROAR!" There is a roared in front. It was not from the crocodiles. It was from something else. But ''that'' something was close enough to this place. If that something was also a rank 8 monster. The situation would be changed greatly. He won''t know what kind of development would it be, but it must be troublesome. He needs to finish this fight faster. Alex started to desperate. He attacked the crocodile faster. The crocodiles heard that roar. They thought, since there are other monsters nearby, they can get help. But Sherry and Alex keep pinned them down here. "Roar!" The other crocodiles in front of Sherry also roared. Alex knew when the crocodile roared. Their situation would change drastically. In this desperate moment, Alex thought for something absurd. "Can I combine my Sword Skill like Sanguin Sword Art with my element? Our situation would only get worse from now on. It''s now or never" Alex concentrated his Fire Element in his right hand. The Fire Element moved to his sword from his right hand. The sword started covered with Fire. After the sword covered with Fire, it started glowing a bluish light. Alex raised his sword. The crocodile who saw this felt dread in front of Alex''s sword. It immediately wanted to run away. But sadly. "Boom Boom" Sherry spare her two Fire Arrows. those two Fire Arrows exploded and sealed the crocodile fate. Not only Alex who can understand Sherry better. The otherwise was also true, Sherry can understand Alex. Not only she can understand him, though it wasn''t at the level shared or linked thought or something, she at least knew what his intentions are. This led her to summon back two Fire Arrows and assisted him. "Great Sherry" Alex was thankful with Sherry cover. With this, the crocodile can''t dodge the technique he would use now. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Seventh Slash" This was the combination of Alex''s fire and his Sanguin Sword Art. Or you can also say his ''Flame Sword Wave'' but with more profound sword skill. With that, the power was multiplied a few times higher. "Slash!" With that sword wave, Alex cut the crocodile''s upper body. He got the crocodile remaining hand and half of its chest and a bit of stomach. But Alex still see live on its eyes. He knew after he saw that, the crocodile still somehow alive. "Not Yet" Alex did a round spin and tried to cut the crocodile once again. "Sword Intent" This is one of his melee range technique. It can''t fly like his sword wave, and he can only cover his sword with this sword intent to sharpen it. But it was enough to kill the half-dead crocodile. Alex cut the crocodile head and thus killing it. "Hah..." Alex brought to his knees after killing the crocodile. "Using that technique was taking too much toll for my body. I can''t use that move easily" "Roar!" Suddenly a roar came from his right. Alex immediately turned his head. The other crocodile was frenzied and charged at him after he killed his friend. It also took Sherry''s Fire Arrows once again. Alex put another Flame Shield on his hand. But this time, his back suddenly glowing. "Wuu" Sherry came out from inside of him. Sherry intercepted the crocodile, the previous time, She didn''t do this because she was startled that the crocodile suddenly charged at Alex, but this time, She already prepared for all kind of things to happen, so when the crocodile charged at Alex again, she went out from Alex''s body and stopped him. Alex was surprised by the sudden appearance from Sherry but, that thought immediately changed. "That''s right. It''s not over yet" Alex immediately stood up and raised his sword again. He disappeared "Flash Step" The moment he appeared, he was beside the crocodile. He swung his sword, "Sword Intent" The crocodile was startled, after Sherry pinned him down, and combined with Alex''s sudden attack. It moved its body recklessly to dodge this attack. It also didn''t forget to put out his hand, the crocodile tried to block Alex''s attack but sadly, Alex sword covered with his Sword Intent. It wasn''t a simple swing. The crocodile lost its hand with that swing. It rolled on the ground to distance himself from Alex and Sherry. Of course, Both Alex and Sherry can''t let that happen. Sherry used the Fire Arrows to block its path of retreat. Alex jumped off to the air and thrust his spear at the crocodile. "Roar!" The crocodile roared in pain. "Flame Sword Wave" Alex didn''t use his newfound Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. This time he only use his Flame Sword Wave to finish the crocodile off. Since it was enough and he needed to think about the new ''threat'' from the forest. So using only Flame Sword Wave saved much of his energy. "Sigh¡­ Finally, we beat two rank 8 monsters, though we succeed after we had surprise attacks on them. Good Job Sherry" "Wuu" "Roar" The sound finally arrived in this area. The roar was from a rank 8 eleph- no, it was a rank 8 mammoth. "Another Rank 8? Sherry, it seems that we need to fight once again" "Wuu Wuu (I will accompany you, Master)" But before they fought again, a magic circle but not a magic circle suddenly appeared at their position. The circle shining brightly, Alex and Sherry closed their eyes because of the light. When the light was gone, Alex and Sherry disappeared. 104 Truth Alex and Sherry slowly opened their eyes after the light seems dimmed down. They were shocked by what just happened. They were suddenly in an unknown place after that circle appeared. ''Is this another world once again?'' Alex who experienced such a past once immediately had this kind of thought. Well, no one can blame him for that. Instead, Alex immediately ordered Sherry. "Sherry, go inside my body again" "Wuu" But before Sherry went inside Alex''s body. Suddenly, a voice was heard. Along with the voice, A middle-aged man appeared. The man was looked like he was in his early thirties. With red long hair fluttering, and a kind of cosplay like costume on earth that made him appearance look gallant. He appeared and stopped Sherry. "Stop. You don''t need to." Alex raised his sword. "Who are you?" "Alright alright, you don''t need to point your sword at me, young man. Haiz, five thousand years passed and finally another one with the same element appeared" Alex frowned, but a thought flashed on his mind, "You are the Ascender?" "Hmm, Ascender huh¡­ what a nostalgic name. Yes, it is true. I am the Ascender. My name is Maxwell. Would you like to be my disciple?" "Eh? EH? EEEEEHHHHH?" Alex was too shocked by this kind of development. Suddenly a middle-aged man or the so-called ascender, extends his hand and wanted him to be his student? "What with your expression. It was already 5000 years after I ascended, and you were like this when I wanted you to be my student" Maxwell pouted. "No no, it just¡­shock me" Maxwell nodded, "mmm, I forgive you. Then, what is your answer? Would you like to be my student?" Alex contemplated a bit but shook his head. "I''m sorry I won''t" "What? I heard it wrong right?" Alex shook his head, "I''m very sorry. But I already have a teacher" "But I can give you more than him you know. You can ascend like me" Alex keeps shaking his head, "I''m very sorry. But I will stick with my teacher I feel like I betraying him if I accept. I am here only for my wife" "Wife?" "Yes. She got inflicted by poison. It was called Green Devil Poison" "Green Devil Poison?" Maxwell was startled. He now looked at Alex with a pity. "I''m sorry. If you wanted to cure her. Then it was impossible. Even at my current level, I can''t cure her nor know the antidote. Especially, in here I''m just an astral body left by me from five thousand years ago. Though the soul steal connected with my main body" "What? There is no cure?" Alex suddenly kneeled, "Please. You are my last hope. It was because of me¡­ it was because of me¡­" Maxwell looked at him frowned. "Sigh¡­ Young man, though there is no cure. There is a temporary one." Maxwell looked at the sky, he sighed. "Green Devil Poison. What a curse. Back then, I also only could temporarily cure her after she got inflicted by that poison. She passed away after around 6 months if my memory serves me right." "Her?" "Yes. She is my wife" "Is?" Alex was surprised, he used present, not past. "Yes. She is my current wife. Let me told you a story. Back in the days. An old man reincarnated after he died because he failed his ascension to godhood. That old man was reincarnated in this world. From the young day, the young man was claimed to be a genius. With the memory of his past life. That was to be expected. But even with that, he felt empty and lonely. And that time come. As long as you live with others, there would always envy, jealousy, and greed. The assassins came to assassinate the young man. The young man barely escaped from those men. He collapsed on the ground near a village. There was a girl who accidentally pass by and found the young man. She silently carried him to her home, their village don''t accept an outsider. That girl was an orphan, despite living in poverty. She still helped that young man, She used her all what she had, to cure the young man. But because she brought this unknown young man, the young man finally woke up, but because he had no energy, he can''t open his eyes nor even move. The village somehow knew about it. It wanted to expel the young man. But the girl rejected it. Those two finally exiled from the village. The young girl carried the young man outside. She even apologized to the ''unconscious'' him. The young man was moved beyond reason. The emptiness in his heart was filled with love. Even though he can''t move or open his eyes. Tears still flowing on his face. After that, she continuously took care of the young man until he finally wakes up. They got closer and closer and finally she became his wife, they lived happily in secret. But their happiness also not for long. The previous party found him, and this time, he targeted his wife not him. The wife was inflicted by Green Devil Poison in that incident. After he annihilated his enemy. He cured her and spent six months with her before she passed away. He promised to find her once again. And the fate play its might. After traveling to many worlds for two thousand years, he finally found her. But the new her didn''t have any memories between them, but the young man didn''t give up. After countless efforts, the new her slowly loved him and also slowly got her previous life memories back. and they live happily ever after." "This story¡­" "Yes. That is my love story. My wife accompanies me here and I live happily with her now. Now the one who I wanted to be my student got inflicted by that poison. What a work of fate. But everything becomes the past, the issue now is what is your answer?" "I¡­" Alex hesitated. He recalled the time he had with Alicia. Her smile, the time with her, every precious memories with her flashed on his mind. If he didn''t meet Alicia, will he become what he now? But two thousand years¡­ "You are luckier than me. Look beside you, She is an Elemental Beast. Unlike a normal beast that possessed elements in their body. They were not qualified to be called an Elemental Beast. The Elemental Beast is the king of the element, only under Pure Element like us. The example was her, she was the Fire Elemental Beast. The other example was Water Elemental Beast, I got lucky to meet him back then. He was a shark, and just like I said, he is the king of water. Beside of them as the king of element. The chance for them to become a divine beast was also higher. Even after my 5000 years journey. I only met one which is that Shark. There are some rumors about them too, like an almighty thunderbird or the others. So I believe, you will find her faster than me" Alex looked at Sherry who puffed her chest. He smiled a bit, he decided. "I will choose the same path as you" "A wise choice." Maxwell smiled. "Oh right, my offer still the same. How about you become my disciple?" "As I said, I already have a teacher" "Is that your only reason?" Alex contemplated a bit and nodded. "Let me confirm something first. You have a Teacher and you are a student? So Teacher and Student relationship?" Alex nodded. "Then, it is easy. I will become your master and you will become my disciple. So our relationship is Master and Disciple relationship." "¡­" Alex was speechless. "Aren''t they the same?" "No! They are not the same. They are¡­" Maxwell explained for about thirty minutes. And closed it with one thing. "If you accept, I will give you the temporary cure" "Please accept me as your disciple" Actually, Maxwell didn''t need to explain that long to him, he only need that last sentence. Even though it was pretty shameless. "Good Good" Maxwell nodded. "Ah, you didn''t need to kneel. This is only a wisp of my will. It will disappear sooner or later. Save it for later after you meet my main body. If you didn''t want to do it, it is also fine for me. After traveling to many worlds. I learned about many cultures. Many kinds of master-disciple relationships. So personally, I didn''t care about it much. As long as in your heart, I am your master, then it''s enough" "Master" "Alright, since you are going on the same path as me. Let''s talk about it first" Maxwell saw the impatient look on Alex''s face. He smiled, "Don''t worry. After she got inflicted by that poison. She at least have around one month left. So, it''s fine for now" Alex relieved a bit. From that incident happen till now. It still took less than a week. "Alright. Let''s move on. First, I will talk about the condition to ascend. Cultivation. Though I see that you are on the right path. But the cultivation shouldn''t be present in this world? Even if the other wanted to learn this path. The energy from cultivation would only be engulfed inside their bodies. Are you perhaps a reincarnated person like me?" "Reincarnated person?" Alex shook his head. "I''m not" "Not? Then how can you enter this world? I tried to enter this world again but got stopped by this world will. It rejected an outsider like us." "But I got transported to this world along with four other" Alex was surprised. Entering this world from outside was impossible. Then how can He and the other four? Maxwell contemplated a bit. "Wait. Don''t tell me, do you from that place? You said you were summoned to this world right?" "That place?" "The exiled world" "The exiled world?" Alex was confused. "Yes. How is that world now?" "Hmm¡­ My world¡­ The civilization was advancing rapidly. We can send people to the moon¡­ We might be able to send people to another planet soon¡­maybe. Oh right, there are no other races, only human live there" "Have you wondering, if you actually living alone in there? Have you see any being other than you. Or any other races?" Alex thought for a moment. Alien? There are some rumors about it but no concrete proof existed, like their body or something else. "No, I think" "Sigh¡­ you really come from that place" "What is that place Master? What do you mean by the Exiled World?" "This is going to be a little long and this is a taboo story, well since you are from there I will tell you about it, but don''t spread it¡­ It was from¡­" 105 Teaching "I don''t really know much too, so I will only tell you what I know. It was around four thousand or five thousand years ago. Back then, I heard there is a world that wanted to rule this universe. Of course, many gods took it as an offense. But that world also fought back against the gods. And that happened. The war between that world and the gods. In that war, many gods died in battle. But eventually, the gods were victorious which led the ruling kingdom in that world declined and eventually destroyed. After that victory, because of that dangerous ambition, the gods destroyed all things related to this universe and that battle. So they can''t have any ambition or any power to come back from that. After that, the gods decided to exile that world into the ''trash bin'' or you can say, it was a place where the world exiled and let them extinct naturally. That''s why there are no other beings you can find there. Even if you managed to find them, they are either the new exiled one or a new being birth in there, which means their civilization restarted from zero. In that place, there might be some worlds that might be able to sustain living beings, but there is no living being in that place. A place to let the worlds destroyed by themselves, a place where living beings extinct naturally. It was called ''trash bin'' but the nicer word would be ''Worlds Graveyard''. That''s all I know" Alex was too shocked. Is that really Earth? He said ''Kingdom'' right? Four thousand or five thousand years ago? Around two thousand or three thousand B.C. ''Hmm¡­ I''m not good with world history like that. But, I think a ''Kingdom'' around that time¡­ I only know two, Mesopotamian and Ancient Egyptian Kingdom. Maybe there are some more, I don''t know¡­Well, I finally here. So there is no point in going back to that place again, after all, there are no attachments left in that place.'' He pushed that thought in mind. He considered it as one of world history and that''s all. He had no intention to go back. Looking at Alex''s expression, Maxwell also knew. Alex seems to not have any attachment to that world. He won''t blabber or take revenge for that world. So he relieved. Since it was like that, He better to change the topic "Alright, Let''s leave it at that. Let''s go back to our discussion. Oh, wait, how exactly you can speak the common language if you are from there?" "Common Language? I used my usual language all this time (?)" "¡­" Maxwell looked at Alex astonished. "What a useful technique you have there. Let me test it" Maxwell wrote something on the ground. It was written like this, ''????'' "Is this your language?" Alex shook his head, he looked at the character. He didn''t recognize which character is those. But he knew, no, he actually understands that word. It means ''Maxwell'' "Master, is that your name?" "As expected. What a convenient ability" Maxwell''s expression turned to serious. "Let me warned you first. Since you can understand the language then there is no problem. But never laugh at someone''s name. There is someone whose name written like this, ''§À§Ý''. What do you think about this name?" "Gay?" Alex confused, it was a very weird name. "That''s right. It was gay. Then, what is ''gay'' mean? You know that right. But in his world, that name means brave and gallant. So this is the caution. No matter what kind of weird name you met later on. Never laugh at them." Alex nodded. If someone who got a weird name like that was very powerful and he laughed at him/her, the consequences might be serious. "Alright, since you got it. The second is, you are already at Peak Qi Gathering Stage. I will help you advance to Qi Manipulation Stage." "Thank you Master" Maxwell nodded. "This is the second matter. What do you think about the next stage after Qi Manipulation Stage?" Alex confused, He knew there is a stage after Qi Manipulation Stage. But for what it is, He still didn''t know that" "It was the Martial Master Stage. Actually, the beforehand stage whether it was Body Tempering Stage, Qi Gathering Stage, or even Qi Manipulation Stage. It was only a foundation stage. For example, each stage was like teaching you the basic of the basic. For example, it was like when you are Qi Gathering Stage, for the Early Phase, you learned how to punch. for Middle Phase, you learned how to kick. For Peak Phase, you learned how to use them effectively. That''s why it was hard to fight someone whose rank was higher than you. That''s why, after you reached the Martial Master Stage, it was the first step where the true cultivation started. There are six other stages above Martial Master Stage. They are Martial Grandmaster Stage, Martial Lord Stage, Martial King Stage, Martial Monarch Stage, Martial Emperor Stage, and Martial Saint Stage. Along with the Martial Master Stage. This is the true seven stages of cultivation. Each Stage consists of ten stars. You can fill it later after you reached that stage. There is a difference between each star. But unlike the foundation stage, it was possible to defeat a higher star practitioner if you have a good technique/skill" "The true Seven Stages of Cultivation¡­" Alex was astonished. "Then, Master, what rank are you?" "Ara, would you feel disappointed if I only a low rank?" "No no, that''s not what I mean, I only curious. It''s alright if Master didn''t want to answer" "Haha¡­I''m just joking with you. I am above them, after a saint, your body will transform from a mortal body and become a god. You can consider me as a god but as for my specific rank. I won''t say it to you for now. It is for your own good." Alex was surprised. His ''Master'' was a proclaimed ''God (?)''. Whether it is true or not, He will know it later. "Alright. Let''s change the topic. What do you think about the requirement for ascending?" Alex contemplated a bit. "Martial Master Stage?" "You are half correct" "¡­" Alex was confused. What is the requirement? "Rank 10?" "Wrong" "Ugh, Master please don''t tease me" "Alright alright, It was the dungeon" "Dungeon?" Alex was shocked, suddenly the dungeon comes into his mind. What kind of secret the dungeon hold. Why his master suddenly mentioned it? "Yes. Do you feel any difference between the dungeon and the world?" Alex was in thought. But suddenly something came into his mind. "The Monster?" "That''s right. Then, what is their difference?" "Monster core" "You are right. I will tell you the secret with that dungeon. Actually, the dungeons in this world was some kind of a test for us. Why do the monsters in the dungeon different than the monsters on the surface? The answer is simple, the monsters in the dungeon didn''t originate from this world." "What?" This Master of him give him many surprised. "Yes, the monster was originally from the upper world. It was transported from the upper world to this world." Alex surely astonished by this fact. But there is something bothering him, "But, Master said, that ''outsider'' can''t enter this world? Then how can they transported to this world?" "Haha¡­ At first, I was also confused about that. The reason is because of that god, He was known as the Dungeon God. In the record, He was one of the highest rank gods." "Was?" "Yes. He died in that ''battle" "I see" "From the record, He was one of the highest rank gods. But his personality was weird. He made those dungeons to satisfy his desire. I don''t know what kind of desire it is but just know he was weird. We derailed a bit. Let''s go back to the topic. If you managed to reach the hundred level of the dungeon. You will see an array. It was the one who transported all those monsters from the upper world to the dungeon. It was set up so the monsters can''t leave this dungeon. After we kill them, the monster would drop the monster core but no other parts right?" Alex nodded to that question. "According to my research, the other parts were for nourishment. So the array would continuously work. That means, the monsters that were killed, would always be replaced with another monster." "I see" "From what Master said. Then, there are two requirements to ascend to the upper world. First, we need to reach the 100th floor and go to that array. The second is that we need at least reached the Martial Master Stage to activate the array" "Yes. That''s right. Those two were the requirements to ascend" "Then there are nine dungeons in this world. Why is there a difference between them?" Alex thought a bit, "According to Master. If the monsters were transported from the upper world. Assuming that they originate from the same world. That means the place where they were kidnapped in is the difference" This time, Maxwell was the one who got astonished. With that little information, Alex can conclude all that right "Haha, you are right. Then, which one will you choose if you are going to the upper world?" "Hmm¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "I don''t know. How about Master?" "I don''t have any recommendation. It''s up to you" "I see, then I will choose the one closest to me. Since all of them led to the same world." "Yes. Well, all of them were a lower level place after all, so it''s all the same" Maxwell nodded. "Alright. Next is¡­" "Wuu" Sherry who was in silence suddenly let out a sound. "Ah, I''m sorry Sherry" "Oh right. I felt you two have signed a contract. What kind of contract is it?" "Contract? What is that?" "Eh? You don''t know about it even though you already set it up?" Alex shook his head confusedly. "Then, let me check" As he said that, Suddenly there is a kind of magic circle, but it seems not a magic circle appeared. When it appeared, Alex felt his back starting to get hot. Sherry also felt the same. Not long after, a fox tattoo in Alex back resurfaced. And the Fox head emblem also resurfaced from Sherry. Maxwell was astonished by what he saw just now "What? Life and Death Contract" "Life and Death Contract?" "Life and Death Contract. As its name implies, your life and her life were shared together. But, it was only applied to her. That means, if you died, then she will die too. But if she died, you won''t die. Only the beast that can set this up. After all, this contract means that the beast laid all its life to its owner. That means, she gave her life to your hand" "What? Sherry, how can you do that" "Wuu Wuu (That''s fine, that means I can be together with Master forever)" "Sherry¡­" Alex was moved with Sherry. From back when she carried him from that forest to Acacia Kingdom or like this one. "But, since when?" "Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu Wuu (I think when Master wives got hurt, That time Master got out of control. I just wanted to calm Master. Master won''t throw me out, right?" She looked at Alex with a star on her eyes. "Of course I won''t. I will kill whoever dares to hurt you" "Wuu" "Haha¡­ Alright, we reached the place." "Where is this Master" In front of them, there is a giant gate. "This is my treasury" Maxwell said as he opened the gate. When the gate opened. Alex saw everything inside. Many high-rank raw materials inside and treasures inside. Maxwell waved his hand. Suddenly, a herb and a book flew. Alex grabbed them. He heard Maxwell saying, "This book is the one thing I really wanted you to learn" Alex looked at the book. ''Fire Phoenix Art'' was written on it. "Master, what is this?" "This is a fire art. Well, though the Pure Fire or Absolute Flame might be great. They will also come with danger. Though many factions wanted to have you if they know you have a Pure Element. There are also some who think of you as a pest. This Fire Phoenix Art will camouflage your Fire Element. After you got the Fire Phoenix Seed according to this Art. No one can realize that your Fire is a Pure Fire. Though you can''t get any elemental advantage. Our fire''s power alone can minimize that effect." 106 Teaching 2 "You are going to make the Fire Phoenix Seed as the foundation for this art. And this herb helps you to condense that seed." "But Master, how long is this gonna take?" "Haha, I know I know. Don''t worry, it won''t take too long, only a day at most. I will help you with that. But since the process will be faster, you will experience the pain more. Are you ready for that?. Actually, the real reason I wanted this was because your element was awakened" "Awakened?" Alex was taken aback. "Yes" "When?" "I don''t know" "Understood. Please, Master" Since thinking about it now was pointless. It is better to proceed now. Maxwell nodded, His expression turned to be serious, "Sure. Let''s proceed" "Feel your Fire inside your body. Concentrate them to this spot" Maxwell started guiding Alex, He pointed at the spot right behind Alex''s heart. Alex immediately followed his word, he slowly moved his fire from his finger, his hand, his leg to the spot Maxwell pointed at. It took him an hour to do so. This is the first time Alex did something like that. He once move his element from one spot to another. But this is the first time to move all his elements to one spot. After feeling the element gathered in one spot, Maxwell continued. "Now, eat that herb, and stay focus. Don''t let the fire out from that spot" Alex ate the herb. After he ate that, Suddenly, there is a sudden impulse from his fire. The fire that concentrated right beside his heart suddenly wanted to go back and burst out. "Argh!" "Alex, stay focus. Don''t let the fire out. Keep them in that spot" "Ahhh!" Alex endured the pain as he followed what his Master said. He continued to keep the fire on the same spot. After enduring for one hour, Alex finally got used to the pain. Seeing that Alex is ready. "Alex, now I''m going to proceed. Because of it, The pain will intensify a few times. But you will need to endure that. I will also help you to control them in that spot." "Yes. Please Proceed Master" Maxwell proceeds with the process. Alex screamed "Aaahhh!" The pain in his body immediately multiplied a few times. All his fire wanted to go out from that spot. If the fire break free from that spot. Alex might die on the spot. That''s why Maxwell also helped him in that process. If Alex didn''t have any help. He might fail. Maxwell keeps maintaining his Focus on Alex. One Hour¡­ Two Hours¡­ Four Hours¡­ After a half-day, Alex finally got used to the pain. Maxwell relieved. After confirming there won''t be a problem. He turned to Sherry as he waved his hand again. This time, Another herb also flew. "This is for you. If you wanted to help him, I think you might need this herb" "Wuu?" Sherry looked at the herb carefully. After confirming that the herb is fine. She ate the herb. Not long after, She fell asleep. This is the same process when she evolved in that cave after she ate Alex''s flame. The room quiets down after Alex got used to the pain. Finally, after a full torturous day, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He checked the Fire inside his body especially the spot right beside his heart where he concentrates all his fire is. It was really a seed. But he felt, all his Pure Fire was inside that seed. But his Pure Fire didn''t breakthrough from that seed. Instead, the seed seems to tuned it down and let a downgrade version from his Pure Fire out and swarm his body. But he felt there is more to it. "Oh, you finally awake. How is it?" "I felt something different. I noticed that the seed seems toned my Pure Fire down a bit and let out the downgrade one to my body. But¡­" "You feel that you can control the seed and break it open temporarily and let your Pure Fire out?" "Yes" "Well, it''s true. That''s why it was only a camouflage. Your Pure Fire was in that seed. You can let it out as long as you will it. It can be your trump card" Alex nodded. "Thank you, Master" "You didn''t feel it?" "what is it, Master?" "Try checking your cultivation" Alex followed his words and checked his cultivation. He was soon astonished. "I reached the Qi Manipulation Stage?" Maxwell nodded. "Thank you very much, Master" "Alright. I am the one who talked all this time. How about you? Do you want to ask something?" "Master, what happened to Sherry?" "I gave her a herb. I''m sure she will wake up soon. And as soon as she wakes up. She will at least reach Qi Manipulation Stage. Unlike us, She can''t cultivate, but instead, feeding her many medicinal herbs or pills will let her evolve faster" Alex thought for a moment. "Master, you are an alchemist right?" "Alchemist huh¡­ Actually, I picked Alchemy just because I got the Pure Fire Element. If not, I won''t bother with that. Actually, I am an Array Master. That is my job in my previous life. That''s why in this life, I got a double job. I am an Array Master as well as an Alchemist. I will tell you about the secondary job in the upper world. In the upper world, the main profession usually something that you excel at. if you excel at sword, you are a swordmaster. If you excel at blade, then you are a blade master. Their classification was almost the same. There are seven ranks in their ranking, take an example from the sword. They are Sword Practitioner, Sword Master, Sword Grandmaster, Sword King, Sword Emperor, Sword Saint, and Sword God. I will tell you about the first three, Sword Practitioner, someone who only use sword as their main weapon. If you condense a sword intent, then you can be considered as a Sword Master. If you can control your sword intent to make a domain, then you can be considered a Sword Grandmaster and so on. Alright, let''s talk about the secondary job now. There are three big Secondary jobs, but mostly they said Auxiliary Job rather than Secondary Job. So I will also use the ''Auxiliary'' job. There are three Auxiliary Job. Alchemist, Forging Master, and Array Master. You might already know about it, Alchemists make pill, Forging Masters makes Weapon, and Array Masters makes Array. There are eight ranks in those jobs. Rank 1 to rank 8, in simple terms, they were the same with Seven Cultivation stages plus the foundation stage. Alchemist can make pills to boost cultivation, Forging Master can make weapons to boost your firepower, but Array Master was the most respected and also the most scarce. "Why is that Master?" "To become an Array Master was the hardest of all. They can make an Illusion Array or some Cultivation Gathering Array, that can boost the absorption rate. But unlike the alchemist, this array can be used by multiple people. You can also make an offensive type array to increase your firepower. That''s why this is the hardest. Do you want to be an Array Master? After all, you are my disciple" "But I am an Alchemist now" "Don''t worry. I am also an Alchemist" Alex looked at Maxwell''s expression, his expression was the same when he wanted him to be his disciple. If he refuses him, he would do ''that'' again. Besides, he thought that becoming an Array Master was also good for him. He can use Array practically. Trapping his enemy in illusion or something more than that. "Please teach me, Master" "Alright. But let check your element first. You really need a Space element if you really want to be an Array Master. It was only for my disciple. Other masters wouldn''t have that kind of requirement" "Eh? Why is that?" "Well, because they weren''t a god. After I reached Godhood, I finally learned, having a space element might make the process of learning to be an Array Master faster and more convenient" "I don''t really understand" "You don''t need to understand it now" Maxwell grabbed Mana Crystal "Alright. Let''s check it" "I think, I don''t have the space element" Even though he said that he still placed his hand to the mana crystal. Like usual, there is a pure bright red since he has a Pure Fire Element. But, like when he checked with the dean, there is also a pink color. But this time it was more obvious. Alex was astonished. "Oh, you have it. Why did you say you don''t have it?" Alex immediately screamed on his mind, "System!" [Sorry Host. As System said previously, System manipulated a special space. But it seems that it also influenced you. Like the previous time when Host tested it with your Teacher. The system continuously influenced you. It seems that because of that, you somehow got a space element. Within Host memories, there is one word appropriate for this kind of thing. Host is like a mutant.] "¡­" Alex was speechless, but¡­"Thank you, System. Sometimes, your uselessness brought me an unexpected blessing¡­ What is that phrase again¡­ That''s right, Turning misfortune to a blessing" [I don''t know if Host insulted me or praised me. But, Thank you Host. Love you] "Love you too, System" "Alex?" "Ah, I''m sorry Master. But, what if I don''t have a space element?" "Don''t worry about it. I will also teach you. You might need to search for some old men''s inheritance to get the space element. So don''t mind about it. But since you have the space element, it will become easier. I will teach you this for two weeks. You can go back after that" "Thank you Master" "Sure, Let''s start, First¡­" Maxwell taught him the basics to become an Array Master. It seems that there are two big types of Array. The first one that we can plant to something and use it continuously. The other is the one-time use array, it used the Qi/mana to draw an array in the air. It was an offensive or defensive array usually. Something like illusion array or gathering array can only be used if there is some medium. Since they will be used for a period of time. Maxwell taught him about many symbols in Array. The center symbol, The weak point, technique on how to use an array, etc. He taught him all of it to him in the span of two weeks. Alex also absorbed all of them. After a week, Sherry also awakes from her sleep, she also reached the Qi Manipulation Stage (If according to the present world, it was equal to rank 7). Sherry was overjoyed with that, she didn''t want to be outdone by her master. After all, she will be the one who protects him. Alex was really thankful to Sherry. He will be sure to fulfill her wish. If she wanted to eat something, he will try hard to get that something. Two weeks have passed. Maxwell finally finished his teaching. In the end, he gave a book to Alex. The book contained many different types of array. Alex was very moved, even though he can''t use it at present, but at least he understood the contains. It was really tailored for him, the array inside the book was his Master accumulation. The book covered all arrays ranging from Rank 1 to Rank 8 Array. "Thank you very much, Master" "Haha, don''t mind it. After all, I''m your Master" Alex smiled. Sherry also expressed her thanks to him "Wuu" "Oh right. Take this, I somehow able to find a space stone and transformed it into this ring. I stored all my items in this ring. You can make another space ring if you found any space stone again. But I doubt you can. I already tried to search for another space stone but failed to find them. I also already stored the cure inside that ring. The cure was the demi-human race divine tree seed. You grind it to powder and purified it with your Pure Fire. Let her drink that, she will be fine for six months" "This¡­" "Don''t worry, just accept it. There is no use to keep them here from now. Since I got you as my disciple. But I have some request for you" "What is it, Master? I will fulfill it" "In that ring, there is a bucket of water. It was filled with Life Water. That time, I saved the demi-human race from extinction. The king at that time gave me that water as a thanks. Since I can''t refuse it, I stored them in here. I speculated that after this long time, The divine tree will start to exhaust its life. This water can prolong its life for a few thousand more. After ten thousand years, It will start growing another seed and finally make another Divine Tree. I hope that you can bring that water to them. After all, that time, I took the divine tree seed to cure her." "I will Master. It is also convenient for me" "What do you mean?" "Actually, there is a war between the human and the demon. I want to stop it" "I see, I understand your intent. I support you on that" "Thank you Master" "And another thing. After you cure her, please bring your wife here. I wanted to see who is able to charm you like that." "She is the one who pulled me from that darkness. I love her" Alex smiled. "I see. Please bring her to see me. I would love to see who is my daughter-in-law. This wisp of soul of mine can appear one more time before it disappeared" "Yes" "Oh right. If you wanted to search. I suggest you have your own factions or take over a faction. That way, you can search in a wider range." "Faction huh¡­ Yes, I will think about it" Unbeknownst to him, that desire alone managed to bring him a fortune. Because, unknown to him, there is a notification from the system. [Confirming Host Will. Because of Host will, Two new functions will be unlocked] [Faction Unlocked] [Summoning Gacha Unlocked] Though Alex didn''t realize this for a while longer. "Alright. I won''t take your time any longer. Go my Disciple" "Then Master, I will excuse myself." ¡­ Maxwell saw Alex who finally disappeared. He sighed, "Haiz, That poison. I didn''t really research the cure for that poison since it was pointless back then. And this is my karma. Sigh, If I had that item, I might be able to stop her time and search for the cure, I might be able to find the cure in a few years. But, that item still in that person possesion, well it was to be expected since she is his daughter, the daughter of the former Time God." 107 Finally Back Alex finally back to the real world. The nostalgic forest. The previous mammoth seems to control this area. Maybe, because the two previous rank 8 crocodiles died. This mammoth has the chance to control this area. "Roar!" Alex shook his head, "Sherry, leave it to me" "Wuu" "Flash Step" Alex disappeared. As soon as he appeared, he was beside the mammoth. This mammoth was surely fast. But sadly, Now Alex finally reach rank 7. An attack type monster like this won''t challenge him. "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" "Roar!" The mammoth was startled and because of it, the mammoth lost its life. Alex Elemental Sanguin Sword Art split him to half. After killing the mammoth, Alex turned to Sherry. "Sherry, Let''s go back" "Wuu" Sherry nodded. After finally reaching rank 7. They finally can fly. They flew toward the sky and continue to Acacia Kingdom''s direction. Seeing Sherry seems to be walking in the sky instead of flying. An image flashed on his mind. That image was deers that pulling the Santa Claus carriage. He immediately shook his head. How can he bear Sherry pulling that carriage? They continued flying for a while. With flying, they finally arrived at the capital city of the Acacia Kingdom. Though it was already night when they arrived. Alex immediately went to the castle. The castle guards have recognized him, so they let him in. Alex silently approached Alicia''s room. He opened the door silently. He saw Alicia still laying on that bed. It seems that she was taken care of nicely. He also saw Firia who was asleep beside her. He walked to them. Firia seems to notice someone approaching and immediately opened her eyes. "Who?" Alex walked slowly to her. He smiled to her "Ya, Firia" When she saw Alex''s face appeared in front of her again. She can''t bear it. She stood up and hugged him while crying "Alex, you finally¡­you finally¡­ I believe in you¡­ all this time¡­Alex, welcome home" Alex hugged her back, "Yes, I''m back" "Alex¡­sob¡­If you finally back here, did you finally¡­" "Yes. Though what I got was only temporary" "Temporary?" Alex explained all those things related to the cure to her. He also told her about his master. And he told her about his course of action. "Sure, I will also try to ascend like you. I will also search for her." "Thank you" Alex released Firia from his embrace. "Let me proceed with the cure first" Alex took out the Divine Tree Seed. He grinds it to powder and purified it with his Pure Fire. Firia brought the glass for him. Alex took out a water bottle from the system. At this time, he now felt that the water bottle seems didn''t really that hateful. After he put out the powder into the water, Alex feeds it to Alicia. But he failed. Alicia didn''t have any strength to drink that. Firia who was beside him thought an idea, "Alex, she didn''t have any strength to drink. How about you help her drink? Right, you help her mouth to mouth" "Cough¡­cough¡­Firia?" Alex was surprised by Firia''s idea. "Hurry up. I don''t want to feed her. And the only person who is in this room except me is you. So you will be the one who helps her" "Ugh¡­" Alex seems can''t convince her, he sighed. He drank the medicine and pour it out to Alicia, of course, mouth to mouth. After finishing the medicine, Alicia finally opened her eyes slowly. "Alicia" "Alicia" "Al¡­ex¡­ Fi¡­ria" Alicia slowly opened her mouth. "Alicia, just rest. Don''t bother to talk now, just recover first" "Yes, that''s right" After a while, Alicia opened her mouth again. "Alex, please find me again alright? Please make me fall in love with you again alright" "Alicia, you¡­" "Even though I am sleeping, it wasn''t like I was unconscious. I still hear everything happened. Alex, Firia, Sorry for worrying you, and you two have worked hard." Without saying anything, Alex hugged her. Alicia also know, even without a word from his mouth. She felt his emotion and feeling. Tears formed in Firia''s eyes. "I''m glad¡­ I''m glad¡­ Don''t worry, I will also search you" "Firia, Please let help me to keep an eye for him. He didn''t know but he was a magnet for women. Be sure there are no vixen got close to him" "Of course, I will" "Alex, you hear me right. I don''t mind if you have another wife but make sure, they are not a homewrecker or a gold digger." Alex didn''t answer her, She confused "Alex?" "Wuu" Sherry told Firia to check him. Sherry already knew what happened since she felt his thought. So She told Firia to check him. "He¡­He asleep" Tears formed again in her eyes. Alicia also let out a bit of tears. "You have really worked hard, Alex. Rest well" The next day, Alex woke up. "Ugh¡­ Where am I?" "Wuu Wuu(Master, you fell asleep)" "I see" He gathered his thought for a while, "Sherry, Would you mind to help me check Alicia a bit?" "Wuu (leave it to me)" Sherry nodded and left the room. "System, let me see my status" Name: Alexander Sirius (Early Phase Qi Manipulation Stage) Job: Alchemist (Primary), Adventurer(Secondary), Sword Saint (Secondary), Hunter(Secondary), Flame Ruler (Secondary), Forger (Secondary), Array Master (Secondary) Rank: 6 Level: 601 STR: 734 AGI: 750 VIT: 776 DEX: 710 INT: 740 He still in rank 6 since the rank will only reach rank 7 if he managed to reach level 700 but they are pointless to him. So he didn''t bother with it, but there is a big leap for his status. He also got an Array Master as his job. [Host, There is some news for you. First, Please check the Normal Mission] Alex followed the system and opened the Normal Mission. [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1500 rank 5 monsters (1610/1500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 400 rank 6 monsters (120/400) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 30 rank 7 monsters (23/30) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] [Mission 4 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1 rank 8 monsters (3/1) Reward: Premium Ticket x3] There are two missions that he cleared. [Please claim it first, Host] Alex claimed the first mission one time and the fourth mission three times since he finished it three times. Alex finally got 10 Premium Tickets. After he claimed the finished mission¡­ [Updating] [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1500 rank 6 monsters (120/1500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 400 rank 7 monsters (23/400) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 30 rank 8 monsters (0/30) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] [Mission 4 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1 rank 9 monsters (0/1) Reward: Premium Ticket x3] The system finally update it to his current rank. Well, Alex was satisfied. After all, he got 10 premium tickets. [Then the second one. Please open the Special Mission] [Mission 1 (Completed) Objective: Learn the truth behind the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5 (Claim)] [Mission 2 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 3 Objective: Hidden Reward: Premium Ticket x10] "It''s still the same. System?" [It''s in the bottom] Alex confused, he searched for it and finally found it. [Hidden Mission Objective: Learned the truth. You finally learned the existence of a different world. Continue your hard work, Host Reward: Dart Roulette, Dart x5] "What is this Dart Roulette?" [It''s a Dart Roulette, Host] "¡­" [Please claimed it if you wanted to learn about it] Alex claimed it and used it. He suddenly teleported to another space. He searched his surroundings. [Welcome Host] Alex turned to the voice. There is a mini robot here and welcome him. [Host, please don''t stare at me. I''m just an AI according to your memory] "¡­" Alex sighed, "Then, what am I going to do here? I think I used the Dart Roulette?" [Yes Host, That is the Dart Roulette] The robot pointed in another direction. Alex followed his direction, there is really a dart. But unlike the usual dart. It was the items separated like a roulette. There is seven reward, at the top, it was glistened by rainbow color as its background, according to his knowledge, this must be the UR. The item was a box, there is nothing unusual on the image. He checked another one, this time, it was a golden color. It must be the SR. The item was a sword. He checked the other five, one rare, two Uncommon, and two common. "What is that box System?" [Ah, that is the time box. It can seal an item inside, the sealed item can''t be disturbed by the flow of time. That means the time for that item would be frozen. It can also seal a human inside] Alex was shocked, "What did you say?" [It can seal an item inside] "I mean, the last one" [It can also seal a human inside] "It can seal a human inside? If I seal ''her'' and search for the cure. Is it possible?" [Yes, Host. It is possible] "I can¡­" Tears started forming at the corner of his eyes. There is hope for Alicia. She can be cured. If he sealed her inside and search for the cure¡­ Alex determined, he will get that box. Definitely. "System, how will I do this?" [Host, please stand on that red box] Alex immediately followed the system word. He stands on the red box eagerly. [The roulette will be spinning and Host needs to throw this dart. Host will get anything the dart pierced] "I understand. Start please" Alex grabbed a dart. [Alright. Spin] The roulette started spinning, though it was still in Alex''s capability to discern the rewards. He focused on the UR one. Alex raised the dart and finally threw it. The dart flew to the roulette. Alex anticipated it eagerly. From the look of it, it will surely pierce the UR. "Please get it" When the dart reached the roulette. It bounced out. Because of the spin, the dart didn''t pierce the roulette and bounced out. "What?" "System, what is happening?" [This is the difficulty Host. Because the reward from this Dart Roulette would always be good and easy to get. This kind of difficulty was to be expected] "Ugh" He saw the remaining four dart. "That''s right, I still have my Spear Throwing Art. They were similar" Alex grabbed another dart. This time he planned to throw it with his Spear Throwing Art. He took a breath, "Spin Throwing Art. Dart Version" The dart flew at a fast speed. It pierced the UR column. Alex was overjoyed. "Haha, finally I got it. System, hurry up with the reward." [Host, looked closely at your dart. Where is it?] Alex got a bad feeling for it, "It pierced the UR column, right?" [Host, look at the dart. It pierced the wall. The UR column was thrown off after you break it and the dart pierced the wall instead of it] "What? No, I pierced the UR Column!" Alex started to be desperate. [Please try again, Host] "What? No, I don''t want. I pierced the UR column!" [Host, Please try it again, if not, System might force you out from here] "Ugh¡­" This time Alex can''t fight back. After all, this UR item was very important to him Alex grabbed another dart reluctantly. He still has another card if the Spin Throwing was useless. There is his Power Throwing. It won''t be like the previous one. He will control it carefully to make the roulette intact. "Power Throwing. Dart Version" Alex threw another one with his Power Throwing. "Boom!" This time, the dart didn''t pierce the roulette like before. The roulette becomes like a crater on the ground but still intact and the dart still pierces the UR column. "Haha, this time!" Alex was overjoyed. [Host, how can you break that roulette wheel. Haven''t you learned from the previous one? It was invalid. Please don''t break the roulette wheel. Or system might force you out from here] "What? No no, please not" Alex grabbed another dart. "Look this time, I won''t do that again" The system changes the roulette wheel again. Alex didn''t use any technique again. This time he carefully adjusts his power to a very precise one. He threw the dart. This time, the dart finally pierced the roulette wheel but he missed. He pierced the SR one. "What? System I don''t want this, just give me the box" [Then, please work hard for it] "Ugh¡­" Alex grabbed another one, this is his final chance. If he missed this one¡­ he didn''t want to think about it. He took a very long breath. He threw it. Alex was overjoyed, because this time, finally, he got the UR piece. Alex started crying. "Finally, I got it this time. System, I got it right?" [Yes, Host. Congratulation] ¡­ In somewhere far away, there is a woman who a bit saddened. She looked at the sky and sighed, "I can only help you with that. Darling" 108 Joy [Box of Time Acquired] Alex immediately took it out. He scanned it with the system. [Box of Time (UR) Description: A Life treasure of the former Time God. It can seal the time of something inside, whether it is a human, animal, or item] Alex felt overjoyed when he saw the treasure in his hand. He immediately stored it again, afraid of breaking it. He then checked another item he got from the dark- I mean, dart roulette. Darn, that gacha type cheated him three darts. If the roulette wheel hear what Alex thought, It sure will reply to him with "You are the one who was too dumb" [Gintu Sword Description: A Martial Grandmaster rank sword] Alex was surprised, but it was to be expected. The UR itself was that OP, the SR one must be the same. He got a Grandmaster rank Sword. That was a very powerful boost for the current him and it was from the system. He took out the sword from System''s inventory. Though he can feel that the sword sharpness and the power within it, He really can''t understand this sword. It might be because his present level was too low. He stored it again in the inventory. Finally, after a while, his joyful moment has passed. He got out of his bed and left the room. He will visit Alicia. But there is somewhere that he wanted to go first. "Bang!" "Alex?" "Teacher, I miss you" The dean stood up from his chair and hugged him. "I''m glad that you are alright. Don''t you know how worried I am when you are missing? If not that lass telling me that. I will search for you at the end of the world." "Teacher¡­" Alex''s heart got warmth, "Teacher, I''m sorry. I¡­I¡­got a Master" "Master?" "Yes, actually it started from there¡­" Alex told him the whole story. How he becomes the ascender disciple... "I see. Then, it was a joyous occasion" The dean smiled "Teacher is okay with me got a new one beside you?" "Why would I be angry? There is no problem with that. As long as I know he is good to you. I am satisfied with that" "Teacher¡­" "Haha¡­ alright, why don''t you visit that lass? She is going to happy if you visit her" "Actually Teacher. I have temporarily cured her. Master gave me a treasure to stop her time. Within that time, I can search for her cure." Alex didn''t tell him the whole truth. How can he tell him he got a Box of Time from the system. "I see, I am happy for you" "Thank you, Teacher" Alex thanked him. After that, he hesitated, "Teacher¡­ Actually, I am here for two matters" "Oh, what is it?" "First, I wanted to drop out of this academy" "Haiz¡­ it finally comes." "Teacher?" Alex was confused, is he expecting this? "A week ago, that lass, Firia also have the same idea with you. She wanted to drop out of this academy. I can''t persuade her back then. I am sure if young lass Alicia also got up. She will drop out too. But now you also come to me." Alex looks down. "Actually, there is another course that you can choose." Alex looked at him. "How about graduating? Since you already reached rank 6, I am sure others would also love to see you graduate from the academy and they don''t mind if you take your graduation earlier. "I see, I will ask about it from Alicia and Firia first Since I can''t spend much time with them." "Alright, though I''m sure that they will also agree with this" Alex nodded, "Oh, right Teacher. It was rank 7, not 6" "What? You become rank 7?" Alex nodded embarrassedly. "Haha, you will be surpassing me soon. All the reason to get your graduation" The dean laughed happily. "Alright, you can ask their opinion first. What is the second matter?" "The second matter¡­Actually, I wanted to borrow your workshop" "Oh, sure. But for what?" "I wanted to make that¡­" Alex was embarrassed "ding¡­rings" Though Alex spoke in a very low voice, The dean knew what he means, "Haha¡­ Sure sure, Use them as you fit. Even if that place destroyed, as long as you succeed in making them, It would be fine" Alex was very embarrassed. "Haha¡­ I will go to young Raymond and young Carollus place. I am not a petty man, I will share this joyous occasion with them" he said that and left. Alex was speechless. But even more, he was embarrassed. He went inside the workshop hurriedly. He already got the metal from his master. There are many raw materials in his treasury. Alex took out one of the metal. According to his knowledge. This metal was called Queen Jade Metal. Though it was not a high-rank material, it was very rare. It might be rarer than some high-rank metal. But there is one particular thing why he chose this metal. It was because this metal was very beautiful. It was more beautiful than a diamond. Alex then proceeds to make the ring. Though he wasn''t really a forger. He can make something this simple. Though it took him a couple hours to finish it. He satisfied with the result he got. He saw the two beautiful rings, with a blue shiny colored ring coupled with a bright blue rose-shaped as the eyes of the rings. It was very beautiful to see, it makes the one who sees it captivated. But there is one more thing, it filled with his love. Alex brought the two rings and finally left the workshop. His destination was obvious. Alex opened the door and saw Alicia and Firia chatting happily and Sherry lazying around. It was a beautiful sight to behold. "Alex" Alicia noticed him. She smiled at him. "There are a few matters that I wanted to talk with you guys" Alex scratched his cheek. "What is it?" "Actually, I wanted to drop out of the academy. I heard Firia already did that. But Teacher wanted me to graduate from there. He said he won''t mind to let me graduate earlier. But I wanted to ask your opinion first. After all¡­" Alex hesitated to tell them. Alicia and Firia looked at each other eyes. They smiled and said at the same time to him "Why not?" "That means, you two agreed for me to graduate?" Alicia and Firia nodded. "I see. Then the second matter is¡­" Alex took out two beautiful rings that he made just now. Alicia and Firia were captivated by the sight of these two rings. "Alex, this¡­" "This¡­" "Yes. Alicia, Firia, Would you two marry me?" Alicia and Firia started crying, not because they were sad, but because they were too happy at this moment. They both said at the same time "Yes" Alex knew the custom. It seems this world custom about marriage was similar to western marriage customs. He grabbed Alicia''s left hand and put the ring on her ring finger. He also did the same to Firia. "Wuu Wuu" Sherry jealous. She was the only one who didn''t get a ring. "Eh? Sherry too?" Alex looked at Alicia and Firia with a weird smile. But Alicia and Firia gave him a nod. "Then I will make Sherry one too. But it might be better to give you a necklace than a ring. I am sure it''s hard to wear it" "Wuu Wuu" Sherry was content. As long as she also received it, the shape didn''t matter. "And another matter is that I found a solution for you, Alicia. I have a box of time, I can seal you for a while in that box. When you got sealed inside that box, your time would be stopped. Within that time, I can search for your cure" "What?" "Is that true Alex?" "Yes," Alex nodded. Alicia and Firia hugged each other. "That''s great" "Well, since it was like that. I wanted to hold a wedding in two months? How about it?" "No objection" Alicia and Firia said at the same time. They were still overjoyed with the situation. "How about you guys prepare for our wedding?" Alicia and Firia nodded. "How about you, Alex?" "In those two months, I wanted to solve the war." "What?" Alicia and Firia now shocked. "How?" "But before that¡­ I wanted you two meet Master" Alicia and Firia looked at each other and smiled "Sure" Suddenly, the door was opened. There are a few people fell down because of it. "Your Majesty? Uncle? Teacher? And Even Madame and Elder Sister Mia. What are you all doing here?" "Iya¡­ I heard the joyous news. Why you still call me with ''Your Majesty''? Call me Uncle!" "That''s right. How can you still call me ''Uncle''. Call me Father!" "mmm, You also need to call me ''Mother''!" "Sister-in-law" "Ugh¡­" Alex was embarrassed, even Firia and Alicia too. "Uncle-in-law, Father-in-law, Mother-in-law, and Sister-in-law" "Haha¡­Good Good Good" "Oh right, I heard about it. How do you planning to stop this war?" The dean who was the calmest. "Oh, that? The emergence of the third party" "The emergence of the third party?" Everybody in the room was surprised. The dean thought something, "Demi-human?" Alex nodded, "Yes" "But, how can you make them help us?" "Teacher, what is the current problem that the entire demi-human race facing?" "Divine Tree" The dean enlightened. "Do you mean that you can help them? We sent our Royal Academy Principal who was an expert in that area to there so he might be able to help them. But still no progress" "Master gave me something to help them" "I see" The dean was enlightened. "Do you need any help?" "I think no. With my current strength, even I can''t win. I can still run away. Sherry also with me" The dean nodded in understanding. "Then, I will write a letter first. You can bring them to the principal. He might help you to meet the royal family there" "Thank you, Teacher" "Alright. How about you bring these two to meet your Master. After you send them back here, they might be busy to prepare for your wedding." Alex, Firia, and Alicia was embarrassed. The dean teased them again. "Haha¡­ Hurry up. We will be busy from now on" The king and grand duke said. Alex then brought Alicia and Firia away from the castle. Of course, Sherry followed them too. 109 Alexs Identity? Alex brought Alicia and Firia away. Sherry also followed them. They flew for quite a while. Since Alex brought Alicia and Firia. His flying speed decreased. After they got inside the forest, there are some flying monsters intercepted them. Sherry immediately went forward and killed those monsters easily. After they reached the previous spot. It seems there is no monster guarding it. "This is the place" "Really?" Alicia and Firia didn''t believe him. After all, there is only a small hill on the center with trees surround them Alex didn''t say anything and do his job. After He got a lesson from Maxwell, he understand the arrangement of this spot. He channels the mana to the array. The array started glowing and engulfed them. Alicia and Firia was startled when they suddenly got into a new place "Eh? Where are we?" Alicia asked Alex confusedly "Aren''t we just..." "Wuu Wuu" Sherry seems to call Maxwell. And soon after, a shadow appeared in front of them. The shadow becomes a middle-aged man with red hair. "You finally come" "Master" Maxwell nodded to him. But after he saw two beautiful women, he was startled. "Hey boy. Which one is your wife?" "Both" Maxwell''s expression becomes serious, "This is going to be troublesome" "Why is that Master?" Alex was startled and confused. What kind of trouble is that? "Actually, there is a serious problem. It was almost impossible to reach rank 10 according to this world power. If you didn''t have any cultivation. Especially after they reached rank 9. In the past, I had asked some rank 9 warriors. They said after they reached level 900. Each level up was very hard. They said each level, they need to kill more than a hundred rank 9 monsters to level up. And the higher their level, the more they need to kill" "What?" "Actually, back then, when I realized that. I thought that fate playing his own part. Because, even after I reached this level, I still can''t figure out how to help the people in this world to ascend, unlike someone like us, they can''t cultivate. Even if they cultivate it was for naught. Thanks to her death, I didn''t need to search for a way to help her ascend. Since the former ''Weird'' god put his hand on that world too deep." "But, Teacher, is there really no way to help her? Or at least help her cultivate like us? That way, it will be easier for her to ascend" "Well, there is only one way to help her remove this world influence. But¡­" "But? What is it, Master?" "You can only help one, and the requirement was for her to have a fire element." "Fire Element?" Maxwell nodded. "After I found my wife. I am glad that she has a fire element. I felt it back then after my flame awakened. I felt that I can transfer my flame to her." "Transfer?" "The special privilege that only those who have an awakened pure element had. ''The Sacrificial Element''. For us who have a Pure Fire Element. You can transfer them, and become the Sacrificial Fire Element. If you have a pure water element. Then, it will become a sacrificial water element. Even though I said ''transfer'', it basically made a copy of your element and planted it to another. This is also one of the reasons why I want you to hide your pure fire. There might be someone who wants you to use that method to get the fire very close to pure fire. Those who have the sacrificial element will have their bodies reformed. Their talent become second only to pure element. Unless you have a big background. People will hunt you for your sacrificial element." "Firia has fire element" "Firia?" "Ah, let me introduce you first. The one with the red hair is Firia. While the other one is Alicia, she is also the one who got inflicted by the poison" "¡­" Maxwell was also a bit sad about it. After all, parting was very hurt. Even after he found his wife, remembering the parting they had, make their heart in pain. "I see, then do you plan to use your sacrificial element to her?" Alex nodded. "Of course" Maxwell closed his eyes. He muttered. "How about the other one? But, since she was inflicted on that poison¡­" "Teacher¡­ Actually, I got an item, called Box of Time. I can seal her in there for a while and search for the cure" "What did you say? Box of Time? Seal her time? How can you have that item? You¡­you¡­" Maxwell was startled that Alex has Box of Time, after all, it was impossible. The only one who possessed that item was¡­ But when he wanted to ask Alex about that¡­ Someone coming to him. The last ''You'' in his mouth wasn''t Alex, but that person. ¡­ Somewhere far away. Maxwell got startled when he heard Alex possessed that item, but suddenly, a more startling sight appeared in front of them. Suddenly, a woman who possessed otherworldly beauty appeared in front of him. He didn''t get shocked by her beauty, but her identity. "You¡­You¡­" Maxwell flustered but soon recovered, "Rank 2 God, Fire God, Greet Rank 1 Goddess, Nature Goddess" "Don''t worry about the formalities. I see you are the newly appointed Fire God. Don''t ask him where he got that item, I am the one who gave him that" "What? Isn''t that item¡­" The goddess shook her head. "If I need to choose ''him'' or that item, I will choose him without question." "Him? What is the relation between my disciple and you?" The goddess smiled, the world was brightened and the nature dancing in joy with that smile. "Aren''t you digging my information, you should know why I did that" Maxwell flustered, the goddess in front of him know that he searching for her information. He sighed since he was found out, he then told her the truth. "Yes. I wanted to borrow that item from you to help him. But I still can''t discern the relationship between you two." "You still haven''t figured it out? Fine, I will tell you. He is my fiance" "Fiance?" Maxwell was confused. He pondered deeply, but suddenly he caught something, "Sword and Spear¡­ Don''t tell me?" The goddess nodded her head. "What fate¡­" Maxwell suddenly got enlightened. "It''s been a few thousand years. If that ''war'' a few thousand years ago didn''t happen. This universe will still have the strength to fight that being. But, because of that war. Many gods and goddesses fell in that battle, that''s why my Fiance need to sacrifice his life to seal that being. I keep searching for him for a few thousand years. Now I finally found him again. I will do my best to support him. Since you become his master. I should also greet you ain''t I?" "This¡­" Maxwell was overwhelmed, But there is something bothering him. "But, how you can give that item to him? I can''t even sneak in an item to that world." "I met an unknown power. It was called system. I try to modify it to my own use and somehow succeed in it. But the strangest part of that, that power controlled a very special space element. It was the reason why I can give ''that'' to him. Well, what I wanted to talk to you is about his future." "His future?" "I''m sure, with the current condition. He will give his sacrificial fire element to Firia. And Alicia will be frozen inside Box of Time. Can you find a cure within that time?" Maxwell was surprised with it, but his expression became serious, he was in deep thought. "I never tried to search for this poison antidote. But with my current power, I think I can find it in a few years." The goddess nodded, "Then, I will tell you this. With Firia get his sacrificial Fire. She will also be able to cultivate and ascend from that lower world. That''s why I wanted her to take the box of time when she ascends. After that, I will use my power to open that upper world barrier. Then, you grabbed her along with Alicia. I want your wife to take Firia as her disciple since they have the same element which is Sacrificial Fire Element and I will train Alicia after you cured her." "If you try to open the upper world barrier. You will¡­" "Don''t worry, it will only be a few years. Within that time, I want you to cure Alicia." "I will do my best. But, do you accept him together with them?" "Compared to a few thousand years of loneliness, This is a cheap price to pay, besides, I will also get two sisters that hold Alex dearly like me." She said. Maxwell also saw the deep loneliness inside of her when he said that. "You don''t want me to grab him too?" The goddess shook her head. "He is my fianc¨¦, He will need to become stronger like that. Experiencing many things. He needs to get stronger, even far stronger than before. I am afraid that ''seal'' was weakening and this universe will soon be plunged into chaos." "Are you sure?" The goddess nodded. "Besides, This is also my selfish wish. This way, I can get closer to him within that time" ''So you do feel jealous'' He thought. He then nodded. "I will do my best" "Thank you. I leave it to you" ¡­ "Master! Master!" Maxwell snapped, "Ah, right. Box of Time. Since you have Box of Time. You can seal her inside of that. I will search for the cure." "Master will search for the cure?" "Yes. I will search for the cure. Since you will give your Sacrificial Fire to Firia. She will also be able to cultivate. There is something I wanted to talk to you about it. How about you call them first" Alex nodded and called Alicia and Firia. "Hello, I am Maxwell, Alex''s Master" "Greeting¡­" "Just call me ''uncle''. I am fine with that" "My name is Alicia, Uncle" "I am Firia" Maxwell nodded. "Alicia and Firia, I will call you this. No problem right?. Alright, Cut to the chase. Firia, Alex wanted to transfer his fire to you" "Eh? But¡­" Firia was shocked. But she was more worried than shocked. Maxwell also understands this kind of reaction. "Don''t worry, even though I said ''Transfer''. It basically makes a copy of Alex''s fire and planted them to you. That way, you will receive another type of power other than leveling up. That way, you can ascend much faster. Alex already agreed with that. And I want you to take my Wife as your master. I also transfer my fire to her." Then he turned to Alicia. "Since you will be sealed in Box of Time. I will also search for the cure. I''m sure that I can find it in a few years." "Alex, actually this is the plan. If Firia received your Sacrificial Fire and Alicia sealed in Box of Time. I wanted Firia to be the one who brings the box when she ascends. Someone will help me so I can bring her to my side. They will train with my wife." Alex pondered for a moment. "Alex, what is this all about?" Firia asked. She was very worried about this ''Sacrificial Fire''. "Firia. Please accept it." Alex smiled, that smile contained something. Firia closed her eyes, she pondered and finally, "I accept" "Alicia won''t mind right?" Alicia shook her head. "Sorry, Alex. I can''t bring you with them. After all, I can only bring one person. Since Alicia was a special case. So I can bring them together" Maxwell apologized to him. Though he lied. He can bring Alex with him. But because he can''t think of any reason to not bring him without revealing the ''truth''. He can only lie about it. "I won''t mind Master. Since I know they are in your hand, I know they will be in great hands. Don''t worry, I will also get stronger. So I can meet them again." Alex smiled. "Master, I want to talk with them first" Alex grabbed Alicia and Firia. He persuaded them for a while. Though they argued a bit. They finally agreed. Firia finally agreed to receive Alex''s Sacrificial Fire. Alicia also accepted, her only plan was for her to be cured and get stronger as soon as possible so she can help him. Though this matter came somewhat rushed, even if they had time, they will also accept it. 110 Propose The plan is such. Alicia will be sealed in Box of Time, Six months from now. With the cure, She has Six months before separated with Alex. Firia agreed to accept Alex''s Fire and when she ascends later, She will bring Alicia, after that, Maxwell will bring them together and train them. After Alicia sealed, Firia told Alex to ascend as soon as possible, she didn''t want him to wait for her. Though Alex seems a bit reluctant After Maxwell said that if Alex can get stronger as soon as possible. Then, he can meet them again sooner. So Alex accepted albeit reluctantly. So Alex planned to resolve all of the problems in this world so he can be relieved if he going to leave Firia and Alicia behind. "Sherry, You will be the one who protects him. Especially from homewrecker" Alicia said, Firia also agreed with her. "Wuu" Sherry nodded. Alex looked at them weirdly. "Cough¡­ Alright. Since we have finished." Maxwell waved his hand and an item flew to Firia hand "Firia, take this with you. After you ascend, break this. I will have the induction. I will then bring you together with me" Firia nodded and accepted the item. The item was a stone with a weird looking pattern. But Alex knows, it was an array. "Alright. It''s time!" "For what, Master?" "Did you forget? To transfer your fire to her of course" "Oh right" Alex nodded, "Then, how can I do that?" "It''s simple. You remembered when you condense the Fire Phoenix Seed?" Alex nodded. "You let your fire inside of her and guide them to the same spot and keep them a while in that spot. I will make the array to complete the process. After the array does its job. Firia will get her new sacrificial element. After that, the sacrificial fire seed will start reproducing your fire. And that fire will start engulfing all of her previous element. But¡­ that process will be a bit¡­agonizing and she will also need to restart her status. Though with cultivation, she will get stronger from her current strength in no time. Are you ready Firia?" Firia nodded. "Alright, I will make the array. Alex, give me the space ring" Alex nodded and give it to him. Maxwell took out a few materials from the space ring. "Though I don''t have all the materials in this world, there are some materials that we can use to replace them. But, because of that. The process will be slower than usual. So Firia need to bear a bit more" "Master!" Alex looked at her worriedly. Firia smiled at him, "Don''t worry. I will endure it" "But¡­" Alex still unconvinced. "Alex, Please believe in me" Firia said. "I¡­" "Alex, you didn''t believe in us?" Alicia came in. "No, how can I?" "Then, there is no problem" Alicia said, Firia also nodded in agreement. "Alright, Alex lets proceed" Maxwell finished making the array. "I¡­Fine" "Go inside the array" Alex and Firia went inside the array. They looked at each other. "Are you sure?" "What are you saying? Didn''t you the one who want me to accept? What, do you want me to refuse at this point?" Firia giggled. Alex closed his eyes. It seems that he had been rude. He steeled his heart. "Place your hand on her head and let your fire go inside of her" Alex followed his words. He placed his hand on Firia''s head. The Fire inside of his body started flowing to her. The moment his fire entered her body. The array immediately glowing. Alex concentrates all the fire to the spot right beside her heart for a few minutes. After that, Firia suddenly let out a sound. "Ah!" Firia screamed in pain. The first process where he planted his sacrificial fire seed inside her was a success. The array helps him to make a Sacrificial seed inside of her. After the seed was formed, He felt his life force was transferred inside that seed. He also felt something wrong. If he needs to do this again, he felt that he can''t. This must be the reason why his master said that he can only transfer this sacrificial fire to one person. He looked at Firia who was in pain. He was very worried. But he can only believe in her at this point. The array was glowing continuously. After an hour, The array slowly dimmed down. Firia too, the pain slowly diminished. She felt warm slowly spread on her body. She slowly opened her eyes. "The process is complete" "Firia, are you alright?" "I am fine. I felt very good. But, I think my strength restarted from Rank 0." "Both of you, Why don''t you try to use your fire at the same time?" Firia and Alex was confused but still followed his words. As soon as they let out their flame together. The flame seems entangled with each other in harmony. Alex and Firia felt very close at this very moment. They seem to understand why Maxwell tells them to use their fire simultaneously. Maxwell also whispered something to Alicia and that makes her blushed, her face becomes very red. "Alright. Since we have finished. I think its time for me to go." Maxwell said. "Thank you very much, Master" Alex thanked him, Alicia and Firia also bowed together as they expressed their thanks. "Oh, right. I almost forget. Is there any history about the Dark Master?" "Dark Master?" Alex didn''t know this name. He looked at Alicia and Firia. But they seem to not know about this so-called ''Dark Master'' too since they shook their head. "Hmm¡­ Well, it''s not hurt to tell you about it. He is the one who poisoned my wife. Though I didn''t manage to confirm his death, I still heavily injured him back then to the point we can be assured he is dead. But He might also like me, leaving an inheritance like this." "Inheritance?" "Yes. He is an evil person. He sacrificed many innocent life to boost his power. He reached rank 9 with almost the same age as me back then." "Ugh¡­Master. I felt because you tell us about him, his successor would also appear later" Alex said with a weird face. "Ahaha¡­" Maxwell laughed awkwardly. He suddenly remembered when he was in the upper world. Someone tell him something like that and it''s true, that thing really happened. He gave an emblem to Alex. "Well, Alex. This is the proof you are my disciple. This emblem contained one of my skills. The world will block since it already recognizes my soul. So you can only use this once. If you are in an impossible fight, you can use this once to kill them all. This emblem also has another use. You can bring this emblem to an old man known as Drunken Fire. He will help you solve your problem. This is the least I can do for you." "Alicia, I don''t really have anything to you. But here, This was my wife''s favorite necklace. You can consider this as a dowry too" "This¡­" Alicia hesitated, but eventually, she accepted since it was rude to not accept it "Thank you very much" "How about you ask him to put it on you?" Alicia smiled and nodded. She went to Alex and asked him to put it on her neck. Maxwell then turned to Firia. "Sorry, I don''t have anything more for you" "No no, This fire alone was enough for me" "Well, I can''t make you go with nothing. So I will tell you this." Maxwell whispered something to her, "My wife said that she will train you for a few years before she sends you back to the upper world to get experiences. That means within 5 to 10 years she will send you to his world. That''s why, the stronger you are, the more you can help him when she sends you again" "Is that true?" Maxwell nodded. "But you need to keep this a secret for him first alright. I will be the one to inform him" Firia nodded. In her heart, she swears that she will get as strong as she can. So when the time has come, She will have the strength to help him. Maxwell nodded when looking at the determination in her eyes. Alex got good women by his side, though they need to separate for a while. "This is the cultivation manual that I used. With this, you can meet the requirement to ascend in two or three years. As for how to ascend, you can ask Alex about it" "Thank you very much" After receiving the manual from Maxwell, She thanked him. "How about you join them?" Firia nodded and went toward them. Now, the last is Sherry. "Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu Wuu (I don''t need anything. As long as I am with Master. It''s enough)" "Are you sure? I just about to give you a manual on how to utilize your contract with him. It can help you and him" "Wuu" Sherry''s eyes suddenly become a star. "Haha, go inside this array. This is an illusion array, you will learn the manual in here. Though it wasn''t much, but learning it will be pretty difficult" "Wuu" Sherry immediately went inside the array. After a few minutes, Alex and the rest finished their business. "Master, what Sherry doing inside there?" "I taught her how to utilize the contract. How much she can learn was up to her. She will wake up soon" True enough, After a few more minutes, Sherry finally wake up. Maxwell then said, "Alright. Time for me to go. Its really sad I didn''t see your wedding" "Actually, our wedding still hasn''t been held. It will be held two months from now" "Oh, but, I still can''t see your wedding" Maxwell said, "Anyway, I give you my blessing. Have fun. Oh right, I almost forget about this. When you reached the Martial Master Stage, each big stage, you will need to withstand the lightning tribulation, Well, it could be said that the lightning tribulation will strengthen your body if you succeed" Alex nodded, He already knows about it from his Cultivation Manual. So he only nodded. Firia looked at Alex who was completely calm, relieved. "Alright. I will send you off before I disappeared" "See you later, Master" Alex said, the girls also thanked him once again. Maxwell nodded, he waved his hand and an array appeared on their feet and teleported them outside. Looking at the empty room, He suddenly recalled. "I seem to forget something? What is it¡­ Well, since I forget about it, it might not be pretty important" ¡­ After Alex and the rest got outside, He grabbed Alicia and Firia again and flew toward the capital city with Sherry in the front. But this time, there is no flying monster get on their way. But, weirdly, Alex asked Sherry to kill a few rank 7 monsters in the forest. After that, Alex dismantle them and take their skin and blood. They arrived in Capital City at night. Alex brought Alicia to the castle. Before Alex brought Firia back to Merona''s house, they stopped for a while in the academy. Alex took out the monster''s skin and blood. "Alex, what are you doing?" "There is another battle that I need to fight. So I make preparation for it" "Another battle?" Firia was surprised, but more importantly, she was confused. What kind of battle is that? Alex nodded. He draws an array with the monster''s blood on the monster''s skin. He failed many times when making the symbol, though he already got Maxwell''s special lesson, this kind of thing, he needs experiences. But since they brought a quite sum for the monster''s skin and blood. He succeeds in making seven of them. "What are they?" "They are an array" "Array?" "You remember when we went inside Master place right? That is an array and these ones, Each of them can block an attack from rank 8 once." Firia nodded. Though she was surprised by the effect, she was more curious about what kind of battle that he needs all of this "Then, what kind of battle you need these?" "I need this for the battle¡­" Alex paused a bit. Firia gulped down, Alex continued with a little blush on his face "The battle with your parents" "Eh?" Firia shocked, but suddenly a thought flashed on her mind, She blushed. Since he finished, he stood up. He grabbed Firia hand once again. "Let''s go" "mmm" Firia can only nod, she still hasn''t recovered from his words. They flew toward the Merona''s house. 111 Graduation When they arrived, obviously, Firia took the charge. She led him inside. "Let''s go, Alex" Though her face still red, she already recovered. "Young Lady Firia" A butler comes toward them and bowed. "Ah, Butler Simon. Where are Father and Mother?" "Master is in his study room, while madam was in the garden. She was waiting for you all these days. She was very worried when she heard you drop out of the academy" "Ugh¡­" Firia looks down, she was a bit guilty about it. But she didn''t regret her choice. "And who is this?" "I am Alexander Sirius. I''m very sorry. The matter about her wanted to drop out is related to me¡­" "No, it was my choice" She immediately denied him, She then said. "Butler Simon, can you call mother and father. There is something important that I wanted to discuss with them" Simon looked at her, then he looked at Alex for quite a while before he nodded. "I will call master and madame" "Thank you" then she grabbed Alex again, "Let''s go" She brought him to the meeting room. Soon enough, Her father and mother came in. Her mother immediately went toward Firia and hugged her. "I really miss you. What happened? Do you feel uncomfortable in the academy? Is that the reason you wanted to drop out?" "Mother" Firia smiled. Her mother was the one who cared for her the most. She hugged her back. "Cough¡­ and what do we have here? Do you come back here with a man?" "Father!" Firia glared at him. But before she continues, Alex stood up. "My name is Alexander Sirius. Uncle Marcus, Aunt Linda, I am here for Firia''s hand on marriage" Firia already told him about their name so he called them with uncle and aunt. "Alexander Sirius?" they were shocked. They looked at him in unbelieve. "Mother, It''s really him" Firia whispered to her. Linda looked at her daughter for a while. Then she turned to Alex, she walked slowly to him, "Do you really love her?" "I love her" Alex looked at her eyes. Linda frowned, There is no lie in his eyes. Her daughter seems also fell in love with him. She pondered for a moment and finally "Fine. I will leave Firia to you. She was unworthy for you but please care about her." ''That''s it?'' Alex''s eyes widened, he was a bit shocked. He already prepared for a few reasons if they asked for something from him. "Well, since she loves you and you love her, I don''t really mind. I only care about her happiness. If you are her choice, then I will support her. That''s why, if you dare to hurt her, whoever you are, I will make sure you will pay for that" "I can''t promise you anything about the future since I don''t know what kind of thing will happen in the future. I can only swear this. I will love her and that won''t change no matter how long time has passed. I will try my best to make her happy and If someone wanted her life, They can only get it after my dead body" "Alex¡­" She looked at him, she recalled Alicia''s matter. He still feels guilty about that matter. That''s why he said that. "Not the best, but acceptable. But since Firia chose you, I will leave her happiness in your hand" Linda nodded. "Though my husband there, already searching for her spouse. Luckily that I still haven''t agreed to it. They can''t be compared to you. Even if they meet me, they will only throw flowery words and empty promises" "Father did?" Firia glared at her father. Though from the start she already knows that her fate as a noble daughter. But she still hates it. She was more than fortunate to meet Alex. "You don''t mind, right? Husband" Linda glared at Marcus. Marcus immediately shook his head. "No" Alex looked at them, it seems in this household, the one in charge is the madame. Firia also noticed Alex''s expression, she came to him and whispered. "You know our household was a merchant before we become a noble, right?" Alex recalled that he heard this from somewhere, so he nodded. "Mother business talent was overwhelming. That''s why my mother is the one in charge in this house." "Ah, so that''s how it is" "Uncle Marcus, Aunt Linda. This is a little from me, please accept it" Alex took out the array that he laid out on the monster skin. "You didn''t need to do that. I only want you to promise her happiness" Alex smiled. "Please accept them. Each of them can block a full-frontal attack from a rank 8." "Mother, please accept it." Firia said while blushing. Linda took a glance at Firia a bit. "Alright, I will accept it. Then, when are you going to marry her?" "We are planning to hold the marriage in two months" "Two months? But aren''t you still a student?" "Actually, I am planning to hold my graduation earlier." "Earlier? Are you sure you can? I never heard someone graduate earlier in the academy?" "Mother, the situation¡­" Firia whispered the situation to her. "I see, Then, we will prepare the wedding" Linda nodded. "Alright, how about you stay for the night?" "This¡­ actually, I want to meet Teache- I mean, the dean after this so I can hold the graduation tomorrow or the day after." "Hmm, fine then" "I will see him off" Firia holds her mother''s hand joyfully. Linda nodded. Firia immediately grabbed Alex''s hand and left, the process went smoothly so now, it''s better to retreat in triumph as to not make it more complicated. When they arrived outside, She finally said. "I will explain the matter about Alicia to them" "I''m sorry to make you do that" "It''s alright, if not the matter will be more complicated." It''s like what she said. If Alex was the one who said something like that, this whole marriage thing will become more complicated. If Firia told them after Alex left, the matter will be much smoother. She sure that she can persuade them in these two months "When are you leaving for the demi-human territory?" "After the graduation" "Then, go. I will watch your graduation" "See you later" "See you later" Alex left. He flew toward the academy. He immediately went to his teacher''s courtyard after he arrived at the academy. "Teacher" "Oh" The dean nodded, "Since you come to me like this. Is it about your graduation?" "Yes. I''m planning to leave soon" "I see, how about the day after tomorrow." "I will leave it to Teacher" "Alright. I need to remind you. In the graduation, you need to fight a teacher. This is also the tradition for the graduate. Well, they will only fight rank 6 or rank 7." Alex nodded, "I will leave it to Teacher" "Alright, come again tomorrow to handle the formality" "Then, I will excuse myself" The next day, he come again to meet him. After completing the formalities, he didn''t go to Alicia or Firia. Instead, he went back to his room in the dorm. He recalled something. "System, I still have 10 premium tickets right?" [Yes, Host] He forgot about this since he was overjoyed when he got the Box of Time. Now, that the situation is already calmer, he finally remembered these tickets. "Use the 5x draws two times" [Processing] Soon enough, two boxes arrived in front of him. He opened the first one. The nostalgic five gacha balls. He opened them one by one. The first one is a pill. He felt the energy from it. he scanned it with the system. [Foundation Building Pill (R) Use: Increase one small stage in Foundation Stage Limit: 1] "Eh? This pill¡­ I can break through to the middle-phase Qi Manipulation stage with this pill. Or should I give it to Firia? But, I know the recipe, I can make it again for her later. Before, I thought that I can''t make this pill since the ingredients were very rare. But Master has all of them. So I can make them again. And also¡­no, nevermind. Let''s check the second one" He opened the second ball. This time, it was a bow, judging from the look of it. It was weaker than his spear. [Trans Bow (UC) Acquired] "Ah, so it was a UC one. No wonder. It was useless for me since I don''t use a bow. Well, I will just store it for a while" As he said that, he opened the third one. This time, it was a jar. Alex scanned it again [Rainbow Wine Jar (SR) Acquired] "¡­" Alex facepalmed. "A wine¡­ and it even classified as an SR? Well, I will store it for now. I never have any wine since I am a minor on earth. And also I don''t have any money to spare for them." "Alright, next" He opened the next last two balls. It was a spear and a card. [Spear of Aria (R) Acquired] [Blackwade Card (SR) Acquired] "I got a spear and a card¡­?" He checked the spear first. The spear seems to be the same rank as his current spear. He didn''t have any qualms to it. He can throw one of them and equipped with the other one. It basically a spare for him. But¡­he turned to the card. He looked at it from top to bottom, front to back. There are no noticeable things besides the writing of ''Blackwade'' on it. "What should I do with this card? But¡­ this is classified as an SR¡­Ugh¡­ I will store it for now" He stores them in the inventory. Then he opened the second box. [Safety gloves (R) Acquired] [Unbreakable Helmet (SR) Acquired] [Foundation Building Pill (R) Acquired] [Guitar Manual (C) Acquired] [Spirit Eyes Manual (UR) Acquired] "What? UR?" Alex stood up. He immediately took out the item. He looks through it briefly. "Training my eyes to the level of the spirit? It can see through the flow of energy? I will practice this later, rather than fighting with a new technique in mind. It''s better to fight without it since the fight is tomorrow" Suddenly Sherry pop out from his body, Alex was startled a bit, Sherry was in his body all this time, She decided to go back to his body after they reached the capital city. Suddenly go out like this make him startled. "Wuu Wuu Wuu" "You wanted the pill from before? The Foundation Building Pill?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded "Well, I have two anyway. I can make another one for Firia later. So here for you" Alex took out the Foundation Building Pills from the inventory. Sherry immediately ate one of the pills and fell asleep. "Eat and sleep, it was really an enjoyment to live like that" Alex shook his head. "Well, I will also take one too" He equips himself with the Safety Gloves and the Unbreakable Helmet. Like when he equipped his Safety Shoes the gear didn''t show themselves but still protect his hand and head, then he ate the pill. At first, he wanted to take it after he reached the Middle-phase Qi Manipulation Stage so he can instantly reach the Peak-phase. But he thought since he was going to the demi-human alone, It''s still better to take it now since there is no rank 9 in this world. That means he was safer if he goes as a rank 8. As soon as he takes it, the pill melted in his mouth and the energy contained within it burst out and flowing to every inch of his body. Alex closed his eyes and use his cultivation technique to refine all of those energies. When he finally finished refining all of them, He opened his eyes and the sky already bright. It took him a whole night to refine them. He checked his body. He confirmed that he break through to Middle-phase Qi Manipulation Stage or rank 8 according to this world standard. He looked at Sherry who still sleeping. She seems still hasn''t finished refining them. He then got out of the bed and left the room. "Teacher" He met the dean first. "You finally come¡­ I thought you forget about it" "I''m sorry" "Alright, since you have come. Go to the arena first" Alex nodded. When he reached the arena. There is already a teacher stand by. "You finally come" "Yes. Is teacher my opponent today?" The teacher shook his head. "Me? No way. I will only embarrass myself there. Today, I will only be the referee. Let''s go to the arena" Alex nodded and followed him to the arena. As soon as he arrived. A burst of cheers rumbling in the arena. "Kyaaa!" "Our Prince" "Good Luck, my prince" "It''s so sad to see our prince graduate so early. We can''t see him anymore" Now that he looked at it. The arena was full of audiences. Not only the academy students. There seem to be some middle-aged and even some old men. But when he saw the duke and the king in the audiences, he knew. All of them were nobles. Alex also found Alicia and Firia beside them. He smiled at them. "Kya!" "My prince just smiled at me" "No way. He just smiled at me" "Shut up" Alicia and Firia looked at each other with a weird smile. They giggled. Finally, the teacher finally let out a sound. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Today, we will have the graduation for our student, Alexander Sirius. According to our tradition. Every graduate will fight a teacher on their graduation day. We hope every graduate will fight their earnest. Of course, for today, We hope that Alexander does his best. Please give him a round of applause." ''Clap clap'' "My prince" "Good Luck" "How about waving back at them?" The teacher advises him. Alex nodded and waved back. "Kya!" "Now, the teacher who will fight him will show himself to us. Let''s welcome him with a round of applause" ''Clap Clap'' As they applauded, they also anticipate who will be Alex''s opponent today? A male teacher¡­ suddenly come inside the arena. The cheers immediately erupted once more. "What?" Alex was shocked when he saw who was his opponent today. 112 Student vs Teacher "Teacher!" Alex was surprised, His teacher said normally, the student will only fight with rank 6 or rank 7 teachers. But this time, his opponent is¡­ "Hoho, I''m your opponent today. I wanted to see how much you grow up to this day. Though, I feel my choice to be your opponent is correct since you are even stronger than yesterday" The dean smiled at him. "But, Teacher, You said that the opponent¡­" "I said ''normally''. How can I consider you as normal" "Ugh" He didn''t know how to take his words. Should he accept it as praise or¡­ "Anyway, I will be your opponent. Be sure you not pulling your punch, since I won''t" The dean said. Alex took a long breath and nodded "Please guide me" The dean nodded, he looked at the referee, "Please Start" The referee nodded to him After he checked Alex who already pulled his sword and spear. Alex used his usual rank 8 spear and rank 5 sword. He didn''t use the new SR sword that he got from the system since it might be an overkill "Student Alexander Sirius, special graduation. Start" The dean let out his mana. The mana of rank 8 magician was really numerous. Everyone in the arena especially the students filled with dread against this amount of mana. Alex also let out his mana from his body. Surprisingly the amount of mana he let out was the same with the dean. "You¡­" The dean was surprised. Not only him, Every high ranking people in the audience was also shocked by this. By the amount of mana alone, they can conclude, Alex was at the same level as the dean. Alex smiled at him. "Heh¡­Let''s begin" The dean smiled too. "Flame Sprites, Hear my words and rise" There are a few flame pillars that rose from the grounds. The flame pillars charged toward Alex like a snake bouncing on the ground. "Teacher, are you sure you are going to use Fire to fight me?" "Heh, you think I don''t know about that" Alex smirked. "Fire Arrow" Alex made Fire Arrows with the same number as the dean''s flame pillars. Alex''s fire was different this time. After condensing the Fire Phoenix Seed, Though it wasn''t on the level of absolute flame, it was still at a very high level. But, the elemental suppression he had was gone. Alex''s Fire Arrows clashed with the dean''s Flame Pillars. "Boom!" The clashed produced smoke covering the arena. The crowds were anticipating, which one won that clash just now? "Sky Movement. Flash Step. Plus Boost Step" After a moment, the smoke finally cleared away. Alex disappeared from their vision. Leaving the dean alone in the arena. "Did our prince just lost?" "Well, it was to be expected, our dean is a rank 8 magician" All those rumblings were from the students. For those who have a higher power, they realized. Alex moves at a very high speed. The moment he appeared. He was behind the dean. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" After this long time after he got the Luminous Spear Technique, he finally able to use this move. Alex spear started glowing. When the light white covered the spear. Alex thrust his spear. The light immediately flew like a laser beam. The dean barely realized Alex appeared behind him. He dodges to the side, albeit barely. The light missed the dean and crashed to the arena''s wall and leaving a hole in that wall. "You brat, Are you going to kill your teacher?" The dean smirked. "Teacher said I didn''t need to hold back right?" Alex also smirked. "You don''t say" Alex immediately follows up with a round kick to the dean head. "Don''t underestimate me, you brat." The dean raised his staff to block this kick. "I never underestimate you, Teacher" Alex smiled, "Sky Movement. Immovable Step" With the Immovable Step, though he can''t move except that kick, it boosts his kick power greatly. It blew the dean away. After he blew him away, He disappeared again. The dean immediately regained his bearing and searched Alex''s position. He looked up. Alex appeared and sent another dropkick at him. The dean also raised his staff again to block that attack. "Heh, if you think you can catch me off guard with this, you must be joking" "Of course not" Alex smiled. "Sky Movement. Heavy Step" The dean noticed something off. He channels his mana to boost his arms strength. When he received Alex''s dropkick. It pushed him to the ground and leaving a crater. "Heavy!" "Nice Kick. But, Flame Sprites, Rise!" A spark of flame that soon becomes a giant flame tornado appeared on the ground and its target is Alex. Noticing that flame spark, Alex used the dean''s staff as his stepping stone. He jumped up and dodge the dean''s magic. "Now, you are in the air. You can''t dodge this one even if you can fly" The dean used another magic. "Flame Sprites, rise and pierce my enemy" A few firebirds rose from the ground and flew toward Alex. They circling around Alex at a high speed making him can''t escape. "Take that" "Boom" "No!" The crowds were worried when Alex got hit by that magic. But unfortunately, he didn''t get hit by that. In that instant, He didn''t fly as a rank 7 or above does. Instead, "Sky Movement. Sky Step" He used his Sky Step which allows him to step on the air like those on the ground. With that, he got a good maneuver which allowed him to escape from that magic. He used another Sky Step and jumped toward the dean. He swung his sword. The dean was surprised when he saw Alex''s movement, he never saw Alex practice so this move startled him. But since he is also an experienced old man, he was sure Alex holds some kind of trump card like that. He parried the sword with his staff. Alex immediately thrust his spear at him. The dean dodged this completely. This showing them that even though he was a rank 8 magician. That didn''t mean, he wasn''t good at close combat battle. They continue to clash. In a minute, they clashed for around fifty rounds. The dean shows him an unexpected close combat battle. Alex tried to overpower him with close combat. But there is no gap to exploit. "Hehe, do you think I will lose to you in close combat? Do you think you can overpower me in close combat? Don''t underestimate me, you need a few more years to do that" Alex smirked, "Then, I will take this seriously" "Sky Step. Fleeting Step" "What?" Alex suddenly changed his style. This time, he confused him with an unpredictable footwork. With this new style, the dean gets suppressed little by little. "What?" "Our dean?" "He can only in defensive against a student?" "Student? He is not a normal student, he is his student" The ones who got startled the most wasn''t the students, but the teachers. They knew exactly how strong the dean. After all, he was only second to the principal. But because he has an elemental advantage from the principal who has a wood element. It can be said they were equal. But the student, and a second-year to boost. Suppressing the dean little by little. The king and the duke were also shocked by Alex''s performances. They looked at Alicia and Firia. "mmm? Alex still holding back" Alicia said. Firia also nodded, backing up Alicia''s claim "Still holding back?" Alicia nodded, "I''m sure, not only Alex but Uncle Marco too." "What? I haven''t seen my father fighting seriously before as a rank 8 too. But I, a rank 7 magic warrior can''t hold a few minutes if they fight like that and you said they still holding back?" Grand duke desperately said. The king also nodded, He also hasn''t seen his-no, their father fighting as a rank 8. "That means Alex is a rank 8?" "I don''t really know. But I know, he is a rank 7 or above" Alicia then looked at Firia who shakes her head "¡­" The grand duke and the king were speechless. "But look, even though they are fighting, they seem to have fun." The king and The duke looked at each other and nodded. "Indeed" ¡­ The dean retreats a few steps back. "Flame Sprites, Trap my enemy. Fire Net" Suddenly a giant net appeared and went on its way toward Alex. Alex frowned a little. He raised his sword. His sword started glowing again. He swung it down. "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" A powerful sword wave flew toward the net. When the sword wave met the net. It tried to cut down the net. But the net wasn''t cut by the sword wave, instead, it expanded itself and received the sword wave. The sword wave still flying and trying to cut it down. The clash took a few seconds before the sword wave finally succeed in cutting down the net. But after it cut the net, the sword wave disappeared. It seems to have no more power to continue flying forward. The net fully exhausts the sword wave power. "Haha, I haven''t fought like this in a while. It seems taking the position as the dean of this academy rust my skill a little. Now, I have grabbed it back. Let us fight more seriously, I''m sure you still not fully use your power right" All the people present were shocked, they almost spat out blood. ''Still holding back? Screw you. You two fight like that but still not serious?'' was the thought of all the people present. "Teacher¡­" Alex made a weird smile. "As expected of you, Teacher. Do you want to bully your student so much? You are an experienced rank 8 magician, close to rank 9. But I''m only a student and a junior" "Ptui. You are a student? A junior? You need to lose badly to me first if you are going to claim something like that. Well, no enemy will think you as a junior. I''m sure you already experienced that too" Alex smiled a bit, but there is a trace of sadness in that smile. He recalled something. He looked at the dean with a meaningful look. "Please" The real battle was about to start. They disappeared at the same time. 113 Student vs Teacher 2 They disappeared at the same time. The dean used his fire element like Alex boost step to increase his speed, but he used it more skillfully, as expected of an old man. Alex used his boost step to the limit. He also used his Flash Step to bridge the gap of their experiences. The moment they appeared, they were already in the middle of the arena. Alex swung his sword. He didn''t forget to coat the sword with sword intent. "Sword Intent" The dean also swung his staff, he countered Alex''s sword intent with the gap of their weapon rank and a large amount of mana. When the sword and staff clashed. The powerful shockwave because of their clash was felt in the arena. The clash between sword intent and mana outburst. ''Not good'' This was the thought of the teachers and all of the high ranking people in the audience seat. They immediately went to the arena wall. They repelled the shockwave before they reached the students. Only those in rank 7 have enough time to react from this. "Those two¡­" The king shook his head repeatedly. He then shouted, "All people, rank 6 or above immediately circle the arena and protect the student from the shockwave" After the king ordered. More and more people stand on the arena wall. Meanwhile, Alex and the dean retreat a few steps. They forget themselves at that moment that they are still in the arena. Alex and the dean looked at each other and nodded. They turned to the audience and bowed their heads and said at the same time. "We are very sorry" The king shouted, "To assure the fight. All people rank 6 and above will protect the students from this fight. You two can be assured and fight to your heart content for today" "Thank you, Your Majesty" "You can continue" After thanking him once more. Alex and the dean looked at each other. They nodded their heads, signaling the match started again. "Sky Movement. Flash Step plus Fleeting Step" They disappeared once again, and soon, another powerful shockwave was felt and a crater suddenly appeared on the stage. That was the spot where they clashed just now. The students can''t see what just happened but the people on the wall can. The dean used his fire element to boost his movement to the limit while Alex used his weird technique to do the same. A series of shockwave was felt on the arena. They continue to clash. "O''flame, Pierce. Fire Bullet" A fire appeared on the dean staff, It immediately flew toward Alex like a beam. Alex also didn''t want to lose. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" The two beams clashed and destroyed each other. The dean immediately used another magic. "Fire Sprites, Heed my words, heed my commands, blessed me with your rain to kill my enemy. Fire Rain" A cloud suddenly appeared fifteen meters above the arena. Suddenly the cloud pouring a fire rain. Alex frowned, he looked at the dean who already covered himself with his fire. Alex raised his right hand. "Fire Claw" A big claw appeared from his hand like the extension of his hand. It shields him from the rain like an umbrella, Alex completely defend that move. Now, the stage was in fire because of that magic. Alex frowned, his teacher won''t use a move like this. He himself knows. A big move like this won''t be any use in the fight between two experts. It seems that his teacher aimed for something. "Hehe, you seem to know that I have a hidden intention for that move. Well, Enjoy my present. Rise!" Suddenly, a fire that made because of that rain rise from the ground again. Numerous fire suddenly shaped like a ball and flew toward Alex. "Not good" Alex immediately reacted, "Flame Armor" He used his flame armor in a nick time to cover all his body. "Boom" The balls exploded. Because of the series explosion, the students covered their ears because of the loud sound produced by the explosions. But they looked at the arena covered by the smoke. Will Alex prevail in this move? Suddenly, a sound of spear knocking the ground was heard. Alex knocked the ground with his spear and raised his sword. He swung his sword and blew the smoke away. When everyone sees what is inside the smoke. They see Alex covered in fire like an armor. The way he looked just now was like a knight in full armor. The female students fell in love in his gallant back which seems very reliable. "Kya!" Alex moved once again before their ''gya-gya''. It was a bit annoying in this kind of situation to hear their ''gya-gya''. "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" "It''s no use. Flame Sprites, Trap my enemy. Fire Net" Another clash between Alex''s Seventh Slash with the dean''s Flame Net. Alex didn''t stop there. He used another move, the move that he got from Maxwell''s Fire Phoenix Art. Maxwell''s Fire Phoenix Art was a powerful offensive art. It consists of five-stages, Alex managed to learn the first stages when he was learning with Maxwell. "Fire Phoenix Art. First Stage. Phoenix Summon" Alex raised his right hand, two of his finger rise. A red-colored light started glowing on those two fingers. He swung his hand horizontally and a Phoenix fully made by fire appeared from his finger and flew toward the dean at a very high speed. "What?" The dean was startled by this new move. Because he can see how powerful this move. This phoenix seems to want to engulf everything on its way. "Flame Sprites, Trap my enemy. Fire Net" He used another Flame Net, hoping to trap this phoenix. But it betrayed his expectation. The fire phoenix engulfed this flame net almost instantly. He immediately flew to the air. But what more shocking, suddenly the fire phoenix turned and fly upward. Alex still holds the control of this phoenix. The dean continuously dodge this phoenix. "Hehe, if you wanted to hit me, you need a faster one" Alex smirked. I don''t need that. Suddenly a numerous fire arrows appeared on the air. Like when Alex was trapped in all directions by the firebirds from the dean. This time, Alex''s fire arrows also trapped the dean. It flew toward him to restrict his movement. "Boom" "Boom" A series of explosions from the Fire Arrows was heard. The dean made a ball from fire to shield him from that Arrows. The ball shielded him completely from the fire arrows. But there is still one more to go. The fire phoenix comes on its way toward him. When it reached the ball, it immediately engulfed the ball and exploded. "Not good" The dean panicked a little. "Boom!" When the smoke cleared away, The dean was nowhere to see. Alex immediately looked toward the ground. And right, soon enough the dean appeared on the ground. Alex has seen all of it. First, the dean made a hole on his shield ball. He escaped from there at the very last second before his fire phoenix engulf his teacher shield. "You brat, do you really want to kill me?" The dean sulking a little. "Well, we need to finish it soon. We can''t trouble them any longer. Let finish this fight with one last move. Use your strongest move or combination attacks" Alex nodded. He dropped his spear to the ground. And raised his sword with his two hands. He swung it down diagonally. "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Seventh Slash" A very powerful flame sword wave flew toward the dean. The dean was shocked when he saw the power contained in that move. It was far stronger than the sword wave from before or even from the fire phoenix. "Flame Sprites, Trap my enemy. Fire Net" "O''Flame, Pierce. Fire Bullet" "Flame Shield" At first, he planned to use his Fire Bullet and cover it with Fire Net to make it stronger. But after he saw the power contained from Alex''s sword wave. He changes his plan immediately, He can''t beat that move, He immediately went on the defensive. When the flame sword wave clashed with Fire Net. It immediately split the Fire Net to half. The next one is Fire Bullet. It clashed for a little while. It was a battle between the piercing power and slashing power. But the sword wave immediately split the Fire Bullet. It continued to fly toward the dean. This is the dean''s last defense magic. The clashed between the flame shield and the flame sword wave went for almost ten seconds before The sword wave cut the shield too. The dean immediately raised his rank 7 staff to block this attack. "Haa!" "Not good" The dean noticed that his staff started to crack. Even at the last moment, he seems still underestimated the power of Alex''s flame sword wave. "Crack!" The staff broke. The flame sword wave continue flying toward the dean. "TEACHER!" "Don''t underestimate me! Haa!" The dean raised his mana to the limit to block this sword wave with his body. "Haa! Haa!" "Boom!" The clashed ended and the flame sword wave exploded. "TEACHER!" Alex worried, he started to regret using that move. But he immediately heard the dean voice. "Don''t underestimate me, you brat!" Alex immediately smiling, "Teacher!" When the smoke cleared away, all of them saw the dean with a slash wound on his body. The blood gushing out from his body. "Haha¡­ You have surpassed me. This is my complete loss" "Teacher, don''t say anything. Let me heal you first" "No need" The dean immediately took a few pills. Alex also recognizes those pills. "Haiz, I prepared these pills before the battle. I thought you are the one who need these pills. But it seems I am wrong. I am the one who needs these pills. Haha¡­" The dean laughed happily before taking the pills. The wound on his body closed at a speed that can be seen by naked eyes. After his wound closed, he walked to Alex. "You have surpassed me. I don''t have any qualms if you wanted to go to the demi-human territory. Just do what you want to do from now on" He smiled at him while patting his shoulder. Then he turned to the referee. "The battle has finished. Please announce the result" "Ah!" The referee was finally recovered from the shocking scene that he saw just now. The dean''s words immediately snapped him from his daze. He immediately announced the result even though he still flustered. "Alexander Sirius, Special Graduation. Alexander Win!" With the referee words just now, The people in the audience seat or on the wall started recovering from their daze one by one. This result was very unbelievable. But they need to believe what just happened in front of their eyes. Student vs Teacher, Alexander win, or in other words, the student win! The silence suddenly replaced with cheers. From one person to another. They cheered as hard as they can until even the people in the city can hear these cheers. Even Alicia and Firia hugging each other with tears. ¡­ There are two people that didn''t smile, let alone cheering for him. One of them a female, her appearance was like royalty. She is Rieze, the princess of Zircodina Kingdom. Just a few months ago, she was the hero''s fianc¨¦e. But, she suddenly sent here to become Alex''s fianc¨¦e, of course, Acacia Kingdom didn''t let her see Alex. Especially after Alicia''s incident. They become really adamant to let her see him, let alone to become his fianc¨¦e. The other one is her teacher. The previous marshall from Zircodina Kingdom. He looked at Rieze. "Teacher¡­" "Sigh, With the archmage, escaped to the Holy Kingdom and the sage missing. The lustful hero and him. We should go back to our kingdom. I''m afraid there will be a big change in this war. And I think he will be the one who make that big change¡­" "Why do you say that, Teacher?" "That last attack¡­ If I am the one who received it, I will lose my life. It''s really lucky that his opponent is that dean, a rank 8 magician. A rank 8 warrior like me, didn''t have that much mana to block that attack" She was surprised but she was even sadder. A person like that, her kingdom, her father exiled him. "Let''s go back, Teacher" Her Teacher nodded. ¡­ The dean nodded. "Alright. Now, I need to leave. You are the star for today. So enjoy yourself for the moment" as he said that, he walked away from the arena "Teacher" Alex called him before he left. He suddenly does a perfect 90 degrees bow to him. "Thank you very much" 114 Journey Begin "What a surprise, to think that the dean lose" "He intentionally loses to him" "There is no way for the dean to lose" "Yes, he is his student after all." "What a fool. If you watch the match closely, they are going all out" There are many comments from the crowds. Alex still clueless about it but even he knows it, he will just ignore it. Alex walked away from the arena. He met with Alicia and the rest. "Alex, you¡­I can''t believe it" "I also can''t believe it. Teacher is very strong" He turned to Firia. "With you winning today, I can convince them more easily" Firia said. "Is that so? Sorry for that" "Don''t mind it, it is my choice" "Then, are you going to the demi-human territory after this?" "Yes" Alex nodded, "Oh right, where are Father-in-law and Uncle-in-law?" "They left just now without saying a word" "Is that so?" They chatted for a while before Alex went back to check on Sherry. When he opened the door, he saw Sherry sat on the bed. When Sherry saw him, she immediately jumps off the bed and tackled him. Even though Sherry was in her small form. But she still bonafide a rank 8 monster. Alex fell down to the floor. "Haha, have you finished refining the pill?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded. Then she let out her mana to let Alex see. "Yep, you have a breakthrough." Alex patted her head for a while. "I wanted to see my teacher first, do you want to follow me?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded, then she turned to a stream of light and went inside of Alex. Alex then walked to the dean''s courtyard. "Teacher" "Oh, you finished your matter?" "Yes. How about your wound?" "It''s fine. The wound already closed. You are going to the demi-human territory, right? When is it?" "Tomorrow" "I see. Then do you know the way?" "I have a map" "Which one?" "The general one" "¡­" The dean facepalmed. "Wait here a bit" The dean left. After a while, he comes back with a big scroll in his hand. "This is the detailed map. Well, this one is a national level. You won''t get it from anywhere" He opened the map. He started explaining the territories. "This is the demi-human territories. Although our relationship with them is good enough for us to send our principal to help them. There are still a few races that didn''t accept us. Do you know the ''Council'' right?" "The ''Council'', the one who controlled the entire demi-human race, in other words, their leader. They consist of five races, Elves, dwarf, centaur, titan, and druid." "That''s right. We have a good relationship with three of them. They are elves, dwarf, and druid. We have a neutral relationship with the titan. They only protect the divine tree, they didn''t want to intervene in the worldly matter. But the problem is the centaur race. They love to fight. Especially with the other races like us or the demon. If there is any war, they will be the ones who take the front. This is the centaur territory, this is the elves, dwarf, titan, and druid. This last one is their divine city where the divine tree resides, and also the place of their council headquarters." The dean circling a few areas on the map. The closest ones from human territory are Centaur, Druid, and elves. While dwarf and titan was relatively closer to the demon territory. "Even though they don''t have any same purpose, they just wanted to protect their territory. But there is one time they banded together, the thing they were most concerned about." "The divine tree" "That''s right. That''s your plan, right? If you wanted to help the divine tree, you need to go to the divine city where the tree resides. So, if you wanted to go there, you need to go to this Forest first" "Dakan Forest?" "Yes. This is a neutral forest. After that, you go to the divine city through the druid territory." "Druid? Not the elves?" Alex was surprised, according to the map, he will arrive faster if he goes through the elf''s territory. He looked at the dean, confused. "Though we have a good relationship with the elves. But they didn''t want any other races to trespass their territory" "Teacher, how exactly that good relationship was built in the first place?" "Hmm, the dwarf was the longest. It was around one hundred years ago where one of our students become a friend with one of their elders. He becomes his student and later become his close confidant when he became one of the council members, my teacher in forging is a dwarf too. I often drink with him, they love wine after all. As for the elves, around twenty years ago. We helped them releasing many elf slaves that got caught by the slave traders from the other kingdoms. You know the reason why elves were sought after, right?" "Natural beauty and affinity with magic along with their long life span?" "That''s right. The males are handsome and the females are beautiful. They were only about a level down from you in terms of handsomeness." "Teacher!" "Hoho, I don''t want my students to lose to them even in terms of handsomeness, but what I say is true." The dean said happily, Alex glared at him. "Cough, I stray from the topic. Alright, besides their natural beauty. Their affinity with magic was also top-notch. Along with their natural long life span, oh, they were also very versed with knowledge. That is the reason why the elves sought after. Even now, there still many slave traders trying to kidnap the elves. That''s why they didn''t let anyone to trespass into their territory." Alex nodded. "As for the druid. They were the most recent ones. And our principal was the one who established the relationship. You know his element, right? He solved one of their major problems when he is younger, I forgot what the problem is. Anyway, That''s why we sent him there to help the divine tree. The druid was the most versed about the wood element, they were the one in charge of taking care of the divine tree while the titan protects it." "I see. Let me confirm it once again. First, I will go to this Dakan Forest. Then I will pass the druid territory and finally reach the divine city" "That''s right. Here is the letter to the principal. He should know why you came and will help you. And when you arrived at Dakan Forest. You can''t fly from that place up to the Divine City, or they will see you as an enemy. It''s their custom." "Thank you, Teacher" Alex nodded "I wanted their help to stop the war. Combined with our kingdom. I think we can finally stop the war" The dean nodded. "I will try to coordinate the people from this kingdom. You will do your job." "Then I will excuse myself" Alex nodded, he walked away. "Wait, Alex. One more thing. The thing you said about Hero Involvement in ''that'' incident. We have confirmed it. It is really him who instigated the event. We will pay him back. But I''m sure you are the one who wanted to do it. So we will leave him to you. After we gather enough people, we will immediately march to the battlefield." Even though Alex has defeated him. He still worried about him. Alex turned back and bowed, without saying anything he left. ¡­ The next day. It''s time for Alex to go. He didn''t meet his teacher. Instead, he said goodbye to Alicia and Firia. "I''m going then" "Don''t worry about the wedding. I and Firia will prepare for all of them. When you go back, we need to hold our wedding immediately, that''s why you can''t go back wounded, you hear me?" "Yes, Ma''am" "Good" Alicia nodded. But she suddenly hugged him. Alex was surprised a bit but he hugged her back. After a while, she released him. Then he turned to Firia. "Don''t worry about my parents. Do you have any requests for our wedding?" "request?" Alex thought a bit and shake his head. "I will leave it to you" Suddenly, he kissed her lips. Firia was taken aback from this sudden kiss. She slowly closed her eyes. The two lips touched each other. The sweet cherry lips were planted on his lips. The kiss was like opening up your soul, tasting feeling and seeing every color of the rainbow. The softness, the sweetness of her lips. The feeling that can''t be described by words. He felt both of them levitating in the air like nothing exist in the world except He and her. A sweet cherry lips founded in the spring, like a fireworks glowing and brightening the dark sky. For Firia, she was finally received her first kiss from him. The long-awaited kiss. She savors this new feeling, she felt his emotion, his feeling¡­his love in this kiss, at this moment, she didn''t want to let him go, she didn''t want to be separated from him. This happiness¡­''Alex, I love you" Alicia on the side nodded her head repeatedly. ''Finally'' she thought. After a long kiss, they finally separated, Firia slowly opened her eyes. Looking at Alex''s handsome face. She presented her most beautiful smile to him. Alex was captivated by her at this moment. He blushed, "Well, I still owe you a kiss, right? I''m sorry for making you wait this long" Tears started coming down from her eyes, she hugged him very tightly. She felt this whole thing was worth, every effort she made to get closer to him was worth it. She is his. ''He remembered. The promised kiss from back then.'' They hugged for quite a while, Suddenly Firia released her hugged and turned to Alicia. "Alicia" She urged Alicia to hug him together. Alicia smiled and joined her in. ¡­ Alex finally ready to go, "See you soon" Alex flew to the sky and his journey to the demi-human territory start. But after he flies for a few seconds, Sherry suddenly appeared on top of his head. "Sherry?" "Wuu Wuu" Tapping his head a few times with her paw. She seems pouting. Alex smiled. He stroked her head for a bit. Which left her satisfied. But she seems didn''t want to go back. "Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu (It''s boring inside. It''s better like this)" "Are you sure?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded her head furiously. "Well, I don''t really mind though. As long as you like it" "Wuu" He continued flying with Sherry on top of his head. 115 Dakan Fores After two days flying at high speed. Alex finally arrived at the Dakan Forest. He spent all his time flying, that''s why he can arrive so fast. He only stops for a while to recover his mana. As soon as he recovered, he immediately started flying again. "Hmm, This is Dakan Forest? The tree was even higher than the ones in the Death Forest. If the trees in the territories after this was even higher. Then, I know why if I fly in here, they will consider me as an enemy." "Whatever, Let''s go" "Wuu" All this time, Sherry lazying around on his head. Alex didn''t mind it though. The human and fox duo continue their journey to the forest. Of course, Alex didn''t fly anymore. He continues on the ground. He running for about two hours. But something is bugging him. "Sherry. We haven''t found any monster, right?" "Wuu" Sherry also nodded. "Usually, a neutral area like this. There will be many monsters reside in it. Though I''m thankful that I didn''t need to fight any monster. But, I also can''t get any gacha tickets" "Wuu Wuu?" She didn''t know what is gacha tickets in Alex''s mouth, but she still consoled him. "That''s right, our purpose this time is the Divine City. Not that" Alex starts running, but when he just about to run. Suddenly Sherry taps his head. "Sherry?" "Wuu Wuu(Master, That way)" She pointed out a direction. "Why? Aren''t we supposed to go that way?" Alex pointed out another direction. "Wuu Wuu" Sherry seems to be adamant about this. "Wuu Wuu" "Alright alright. Let us check" "Wuu" Sherry nodded happily. He runs for a few minutes before he heard a voice. ¡­ In the dense forest. Two beautiful women are running away desperately. One of them has black hair, a beautiful face coupled with a nice body. The other one is also a beauty with a nice body. Her hair is silver, but the most noticeable thing that can be seen from her is her long pointed ears. The one with black hair is injured. Behind them, there are five men. They are chasing the two women. "Hehe, The human with black hair is very beautiful. But the silver-haired elf was on another level. Her face, her body¡­ If it''s not a job. I really want to play with them" One of the men said with a vulgar smile. "O''Wind Sprites, Heed my command and blow my enemy away" The elf chanted wind magic. A tornado charged toward the men. But the men dodged it easily. "O''Wind Sprites, Heed my command and blow my enemy away" The black-haired girl also chanted the same magic. But the same as her, she can''t hit any men. "Haha, You can''t hit us with that puny magic. We are at least a rank 5 warrior while you two only a puny rank 3 magician. Just give up. You two will be big money. Oh, no, The black-haired one won''t become money. Since she will be played by me." "You¡­Vulgar" "Princess, Don''t listen to him. Princess, Please go and leave me behind. Without you, I will die at that night, because you help me that night, I can still alive this well. Let me help you" The black-haired woman said. "No, How can you say that. I won''t accept it¡­Ayaka" "Hehe, so this one is an elven princess. But the other one is Ayaka. What a weird name, I have heard that the hero companion, the sage also called Ayaka. She is still missing. Don''t tell me you are here? Haha, What a haul. One is an elven princess and one is a sage. You can''t escape. Our men already surrounded this place" "What?" The princess was surprised. She saw another five men approached them from the front. They were surrounded. "Hehe, now you can''t escape. Just be obedient" One of the men who seem to be their leader approached the two women. "Now that I see you. You are really that elven princess. If I recall, your name is Lilia." "Don''t call my name with that vulgar mouth" The elven princess glared at him hatefully. "Oh, it seems I am right" The man approached the elven princess. Ayaka immediately went between them. "No, don''t you dare to touch her" Ayaka cast another magic. "O''Wind Sprites, Heed my voice and obliterate my enemy. Wind Chaser" A few tridents made by pure wind condensed. It immediately flew toward the man. But the man dodges it skillfully and arrived in front of Ayaka and punch her on her face. "Ayaka" Ayaka was blown away, her face was bruised. Blood flowing on her mouth. "Oi Boss, Don''t hurt her face. It will ruin our fun later" "Haha, Sorry sorry. I feel that she won''t go down unless I did that. Grab her" One of the men went forward and grabbed Ayaka. Ayaka also revolted but to no avail. Their physical difference was too big. "Don''t touch me. Princess, hurry up and run." "Haha, It''s futile. You can''t go anywhere. Can''t you realize your situation?" "Ayaka, I''m sorry. I was curious about the outside world, you warned me but I didn''t listen to you. Sorry to implicate you in this" "No, This is my own will" The boss approached the princess. When he just about to grab her, Suddenly something heavy pinned him to the ground. ¡­ Alex who followed Sherry''s lead, keep running until he heard. "Can''t you realize your situation?" He frowned. He approached the sound silently. He saw two beautiful women surrounded by ten men. He was surprised to see a silver-haired beauty with long pointed ears. But the most surprising is the other woman, black hair to her waist, the familiar face that makes him nostalgic. It was Ayaka Saya, The Sage. He confused, why is she here in this forest? Especially, why is she with an elf? He continued observing the situation. "Three rank 6 warriors and seven rank 5 warriors" Should he help? Should he not? "Wuu Wuu (Let''s help them, Master)" Alex pondered for a moment. "Alright. They are slave traders anyway. I don''t really like them" "Sherry, you see that guy? The one in front of the silver-haired girl, Pinned him down. I think he is the boss. We might be able to get information from him. I will kill the rest" "Wuu" Sherry nodded, she jumps off from Alex''s head. And suddenly, her body grown. She grew until she reached one meter high. This is the same form as when she met Alex. It seems that this form is her battle form(?) "Alright. Now!" They jumped off at the same time. ¡­ "No, don''t you dare to touch Princess" Ayaka struggled. The boss approached the princess. When he just about to grab her, Suddenly something heavy pinned him to the ground. It was a fox. "What?" Everyone in the scene were shocked. The boss tried to get up but to no avail. Sherry pinned him down. "You Monster" The man who grabs Ayaka startled. "You call my partner a monster, you need to die" Alex beheaded his head. He then used his hand to force Ayaka''s mouth open and force a pill into her mouth. When the pill got inside her mouth, it immediately melted and the pain on her face suddenly disappeared. Ayaka saw the face who save her. She was shocked beyond belief. "You¡­" Alex ignored her, this wasn''t the time for that. "You brat! How dare you kill my comrade. A brat trying to become a hero. You are not qualified. Men, kill him" Alex was a bit annoyed. "Sherry, shut him up" "Wuu" Sherry nodded. She pushed her palm to the boss''s head to the ground, making him kissed the ground. The other men charged toward Alex. Alex disappeared. "Eight left" "Where is he?" The slave traders flustered when they saw Alex disappeared. The moment he appeared, another head flying. "Seven left" "What? Kill him, hurry" Alex disappeared again, He utilizes his speed, Boost Step, and Flast Step. His speed now wasn''t visible by a mere rank 5 warrior, even a rank 6 warrior can only barely see his shadow. Another head flying once again. "Six left" "Kill this fox first. I can move after that" The other men followed his order and went toward Sherry. "Spin Throwing" "Sanguin Sword Art. Seventh Slash" Two attacks came from Alex. One of the slave traders got their head pierced with Alex''s spear and another one was split to half. "Wuu" Sherry raised her paws. She imitates Alex''s Fire Claw. A big paw made by fire appeared as an extension of her hand. It immediately pushed two of the slave traders to the ground and crushed them to death. "What?" The last two were startled at how easy their comrades were killed. Alex took this chance to kill the last two. "Done" He then walked toward the boss. At this time, the princess was finally snapped from her daze. She immediately went toward Ayaka. "Ayaka, are you alright?" "Yes, Princess." The bruise in her face was no more. The princess was relieved to see that. Alex on the other hand still focuses on the boss. "You seem to be their boss. Alright, as usual, give me information before I start torturing you" "You won''t ever receive any information from my mouth. Ptui" He spit on Alex''s face. Sherry was furious. She pushed his head to the ground with her paw. Alex used his fire to burn the spit. He immediately channels his fire to the boss''s hand. "Just give me the information. Who do you work for? How many are you? Or anything" Alex didn''t have any motivation to extract any information from this guy. Since this wasn''t his primary purpose. If he gets them then it''s okay, if not¡­can''t be helped then. "As I said, you won''t get any information from me" "can''t be helped then" Alex placed his hand on top of the boss''s head. Suddenly a few symbols appeared on his head. "You like to play with women right? I will let you" "Wha-" The boss was startled before he went to silence. In a minute, foam suddenly appeared on his mouth, it becomes bigger and bigger. Until he died. No one present except Alex knows what he did or how he kills the boss. But judging from the situation, it seems the boss got a painful death. "Well, I''m done. Sherry, Let''s continue our journey" "Wuu" Sherry nodded, she shrank again to her small form and sat on Alex''s head again. Suddenly a voice can be heard from his back. "Wait, you¡­you¡­are Alexander, right?" 116 Principal "You¡­are Alexander, right?" "Ayaka? You know him?" Alexander halted his step and sighed. He turned back. "That face, that''s right. You are really Alexander. If not because of you¡­" Before Ayaka finished her words. The princess cut her in. "What? Because of him? You, you are the one who hurt her" The princess suddenly got mad. Alex frowned, ''What is this unreasonable woman?'' Sherry immediately leaped from his head and kick the princess. Though she didn''t put the strength strong enough to injure him, but it still enough to blow her away. The princess was blown away a few meters back from that kick. "Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu Wuu (What an unreasonable woman. Master has saved you but you mad at him)" Sherry become angry. "Wait, Alexander. I''m sorry for her rudeness. But she also a princess. Please forgive her. It was me that invite the misunderstanding" Ayaka sweatdropped. The ones chasing them are rank 5 and rank 6. But Alex and the fox killed them easily. That means, their strength was far stronger than them. Rank 7? Or even rank 8? Ayaka immediately helps the princess. "Princess, It was a misunderstanding. The one who hurt me is the hero. Not him." "Eh?" The princess startled. It was her misunderstanding all along. "I¡­I''m very sorry" "Wuu Wuu (Bad woman, now you finally realize your rudeness)" Sherry reprimanded her "Wuu Wuu" "Alexander, Thank you for saving us" Ayaka bowed. "If you want to thank someone. Thank her, she was the one who wanted to help you" Alex pointed at Sherry. "Is that so?" Ayaka felt a bit weird when she wanted to thank the fox. But she still thank her. "Thank you" "Wuu" Sherry raised her paw and telling her to not mind it. "Why do you come here?" Alex asked. He wanted to add ''didn''t you love the hero? Why are you here?'' But it seems it was a bit inappropriate so he held back a bit. Ayaka seems to be a bit down, "Well, might as well tell you. Actually, after you cut his¡­little brother. He becomes an insane person. He often beat me and Sandra. After we arrived at the castle, he still continued beating us. And no one dares to tell him off. After two weeks, we can''t stand him anymore. So we escaped from that place, we plan to go to the holy kingdom. Of course, there were many pursuers. I heard Sandra managed to arrive at the Holy Kingdom and Maria accepted her. But I got caught by the pursuers. I struggled and somehow managed to escape from their clutch, but in the escape, I fell to the river and Princess Lilia save me" River? To the demi-human? Only one thing comes to his mind. The river that connected to all races. "Mieze River?" "Yes" Alex silent for a while. "Well, sorry about that. I am indirectly involved in that" "No, though I hate you at that moment. I somehow felt thankful too. Because of that, I managed to learn about human true nature, and also meet Princess Lilia. I met a¡­true friend" After receiving those experiences, the childish personality of her seems to disappear. She seems to mellow and mature a bit. But the most appreciating thing is that she didn''t develop any trauma. "Ayaka¡­" Lilia recalled when he wanted to look at the river because she bored. She found Ayaka float on the river, unconscious. She helped her until she finally got her strength back. After that, they seem to click off and become best friends. "But, I thought that the elven territory didn''t accept any other races inside their territory?" "Well¡­" Lilia looks down. "Sigh, well, in their territory. My status is a slave. But don''t misunderstand. They didn''t treat me badly, and I''m fine with that. As long as I can be with her. I can say that I finally find true happiness with a true friend here" "I see, what are you going to do now?" "We will go back now, I think¡­" Ayaka looked at Lilia who nodded her head timidly. "Well, I can help you" Alex turned to Sherry, "Sherry, how about you carry one of them?" "Wuu" Sherry shook her head. She leaps to his head once again. "It''s alright. We can go back ourselves" "Well, I don''t really mind." He felt a little bad in his heart. Because of his action that day, she got beaten up like that. Though he remembered that she didn''t like him. But she didn''t really have anything to do with him and not deserve to be treated like that by John. So he thought that he can help her this one time. Alex suddenly princess carry her with one of his hands. Ayaka was startled. "Alexander?" Then, he grabbed Princess Lilia with his other hand, but this time, she was treated like baggage. "Wha-" With Sherry on top of him, they finally disappeared. After an hour. They finally reached the elven territory. He already saw their wooden gate. So he stopped a bit farther from that gate. He put down Lilia like baggage. "Wha- Ouch" and finally put Ayaka down. "I think, this is the farthest I can go." "You treat this Princess like baggage. You-" Sherry patted her forehead a few times with her paw. "Thank you. Princess Lilia, how about you thank him too? After all, he saved us" "Uuu¡­" Lilia hesitated a bit, but she still thanked him. "What are you going to do here?" Ayaka asked. "I need to do something here to stop the war between Humans and Demons" "Stop the war?" Ayaka didn''t find an answer to stop the war. "Do you need my help?" "I think I am good" "I see, where are you going next? The elf territory?" Alex shook his head. "Divine City" "Then, I can help you pass my territory and go to Divine City. Consider it as thanks for helping us" Lilia said. "It''s alright. I didn''t want any unnecessary trouble. I will pass through the druid territory" "What? Druid Territory? Gu¡­" Lilia was rumbling. "I see. Well, if you need my help just say it, I will help you as long as I can" "Then, goodbye" Alex nodded. Then he disappeared. "I can let you through the elven territory. You don''t need to pass that druid territory." Lilia finally finished her rumbling and said. "Princess Lilia, He has gone you know" "Wha-" ¡­ Alex continues his journey to the druid territory. "Wuu? (Is that your friend Master?)" "Hmm, I don''t know. Well, Sherry hasn''t met them, right? Well, as you might already know. I''m not from this world. And they are my last kinds in this world. And she seems received her finale" "Wuu? (Finale?)" "Just consider it as her happy ending. Helping her a bit like that won''t hurt after all" "Wuu" ¡­ After a day running. They finally arrived at the druid territory. Unlike the elves, the druid seems to make their wall with some kind of Tree formation. Alex approached it slowly. "A human?" An old druid appeared in front of him. His appearance is similar to a human. Alex was surprised to see that the one who appeared before him was a rank 7. "Human, what do you want here?" "I wanted to go to Divine City. So I wanted to pass through here. I have a letter for a person in there" The old druid frowned. "I''m sorry. I can''t decide on this matter. Let me confirm this first. Which kingdom you hail from?" "Acacia Kingdom, Royal Academy graduate" "Acacia Kingdom¡­If possible, Can I receive the letter?" Alex pondered for a moment. The dean passed this letter to the principal. And the principal was the one who established the relationship between them. Maybe, giving this letter will help him? He decided to give him the letter. The old druid open the letter and read it a bit. But suddenly he was shocked by the content. He glanced at Alex repeatedly. He was flustered. "I will immediately inform our elder. Please wait a bit" Alex nodded. ''The letter seems to help me, right?'' After almost ten minutes, finally, the previous druid come. This time, he came with another old druid. "My name is Dwen, I am an elder druid. Are the letter is true?" "I am Alexander Sirius. I don''t know what inside the letter. My teacher asked me to give it to our royal academy''s principal." "You don''t know? I will change my question. Are you sure that you can heal our Divine Tree?" Alex nodded, "I can" "What a claim, Young man, there is a limit to how much you can brag. What qualification do you have that you can think you can heal our Divine Tree?" The druid suddenly let out his mana. A rank 8 mana suddenly filled the atmosphere. Alex frowned, He let out his mana too. The mana between two rank 8 clashed with each other. "Wuu" Sherry suddenly let out a sound. She also released her rank 8 mana albeit lazily. The druid mana suddenly got suppressed by the addition of Sherry. "What?" The druid was shocked that Alex has the same amount of mana as him, he also startled when the fox above him released its mana too. In front of him, there are two rank 8 in front of him. Currently, there is only a rank 8 in the druid territory, and it is him. The other rank 8 druid was in the Divine City to see the Divine Tree. But¡­"How old are you?" "18, almost 19" The druid sweatdropped. 18 years old rank 8? What kind of monster that the human have? And he even has a rank 8 fox as his pet? The whole demi-human race has 17 rank 8 from all races, each big races have 3 rank 8 and the last two hailed from the small races. The human has 18 rank 8 consists of three kingdoms. But now, if he added these two in front of him. They have 20, especially the Acacia Kingdom, in addition to them, that''s 12 and especially him, an 18 years old rank 8, when he reached 20 years old, what height will he get? 30 years old? 40?. The druid frowned and finally decided. He will let the council decided his fate."Come with me, I will let you see the ''Principal'' you talking about." Alex nodded. "Thank you" The druid starts flying, but he suddenly stopped and looked at Alex. "What is it? Please follow me" "We can fly?" "Oh¡­ As long as you are with me. We can" Alex followed him. The Divine City was a bit further. He needs a whole day flying to reach the Divine City. There is one thing that most noticeable in this city. The tree that pierces the sky. The Divine Tree. But¡­ When Alex looked at the tree, he felt this tree life force was really exhausted, its stem starting to rod, he can''t see the leaves since its above the cloud. But considering the situation in the stem, He was pretty sure that the leaves also the same. Suddenly he heard the druid talked, "This is the Divine Tree. Do you really can recover our Divine Tree?" Alex nodded. The druid silent for a while. They continued flying all this time. After a while, they seem reached their destination. It was a house. "Please come in" Alex followed him. The druid guides him to a room. There is nothing strange in this room. But he didn''t let his guard off, after all, this is still foreign territory. "Please wait here, while I call him" Alex nodded. He waited for almost an hour before an old man suddenly come to the room. The old man was the same as you usual old man, but the most noticeable thing from him is that he can feel the nature in him. He seems like by nature. "Are you that old man''s student?" ''That old man?... Ah, He must mean Teacher'' Alex immediately stood up and greeted him. "Alexander Sirius, Dean Marco''s Student. Greet the Principal." "You forget your fresh graduate status" "Ah¡­" Alex scratched his head. "I have read the letter. You wanted to stop the war with the help of the demi-human by helping the Divine Tree?" "Yes" "Can you?" "I think I can" "You think? The Divine Tree was really exhausted its lifespan. We tried to search for another replacement for its lifespan but to no avail. But can you?" "Life Water" The old man suddenly become startled. "What did you say?" "Life Water. One bucket" "You¡­You¡­" The old man grabbed him. "You really have the Life Water? And that much?" It''s normal for him to react that way. It was very unbelievable after all. "Do you know the origin of Life Water?" "The Divine Tree according to the record is 20000 years. After that, the tree will exhaust its lifespan. But it also produced a new Divine Tree Seed. The old Divine Tree, after exhausting its lifespan will melt its body. The liquid name is Life Water. The old Divine Tree will produce about four to five buckets, its purpose was to nurture the New Divine Tree. And the cycle will go on." It was the knowledge imparted by Maxwell. "That''s right. But are you sure that is the Life Water? And where it is?" Alex took out the Life Water from his space ring. "Wha- Space?"The Principal was startled since he didn''t know anything about the space ring. "it seems that old man received an unbelievable little monster" He checked the Life Water. He confirmed that it is really the Life Water. Considering the amount of wood element in it. Since he is a wood element magician especially since he is blessed by nature, he can feel that huge amount of wood element, no, it was a nature element. "This amount can extend its lifespan for about 5000 years. The Divine Tree will produce a new seed within that time" "I See. Store it first. I will meet ''them'' first. I will inform you later" The principal left in a hurry. "Ah wait¡­" But the principal already left. Alex didn''t know what to do and more importantly, "I still don''t know your name¡­ Teacher didn''t say anything" 117 Five Leaders Alex waited for him for a few hours. Finally, the principal finally comes back. His appearance was a mess. It seems He rushed himself to here. "Let''s go to the council" The Principal grabbed his hand. Alex was silent. "What?" Alex scratched his cheek embarrassedly. "It is embarrassing for me to ask this. But, Principal, I still didn''t know your name... Teacher never tell me" "¡­" The principal was dumbfounded. "That old man sure has a weird disciple. Whatever, I haven''t introduced myself too, even though you have come all the way here. I am Florest McDave" "Florest?" "Don''t mind it¡­" The principal pulled Alex hurriedly. He also embarrassed by his name. He can''t tell him that he was born in a hut in the middle of the forest. His parents wanted to name him ''Forest'' but it was confusing if he is in the forest. That''s why they throw an ''L'' and his name become ''Florest''. He pulled him to the council. The building wasn''t that far from where he stays. Now that he almost arrived at the bottom of the Divine Tree. He finally can see that the Divine Tree was surrounded by a building. It seems this place is the council headquarter. Alex asked Sherry to conceal herself inside him. They enter the building. Inside of it was the same as the castle. It was like a labyrinth. He followed the Principal since he knows the way. Until they finally reached a place. The place was grand like the meeting hall in the castle back in Capital City. But, the throne isn''t one, instead, there are five thrones. It must because of five big races. And he is right, on the five thrones. Five big races leader sat on it. From the left, they are Centaur, Druid, Elf, Dwarf, and Titan. The most bothering is Titan, with its giant body reaching ten meters in height alone, it made his throne enormous. Alex looked at them. The centaur is the same as the description on Earth. A human with a horse body, but Alex can perceive, in his body, there is boundless fighting intent. Yep, it seems the centaur as a race that loves fighting is true. Strong body and Brave look. Alex didn''t want any trouble with this guy. The Druid was identical to the old druid he met back in Druid Territory. He wondering if they are related? In the middle is an elven queen it seems, mature look, sexy body, and that peerless beauty, especially that Silver hair, she reminded him to the elf beside Ayaka. She was on par with Alicia and Firia in terms of look. The Dwarf has a small body and beard as your typical dwarf. And lastly the Titan. "Welcome, young human, Alexander" The elven queen greeted him. Alex put his hand on his chest and bowed, like a nobleman greeting. Alex didn''t say anything. He didn''t need to introduce himself since they already know his name. "I heard you have the Life Water. I wonder where it is?" Alex looked at the Principal who nodded his head. Alex took out the Life Water from his space ring. "Space?" The elven queen who was known to be the most knowledgable stood up. On the other hand, the druid also stood up but for a different matter. He focused his eyes on the Life Water. He confirmed that it is really a Life Water. "Life Water! It is really the Life Water. Our Divine Tree can finally be saved" "I see. Since Old Druid, Rain, have confirmed it, Then it must be true. Then, young human, Alexander, what do you want to exchange from this Life Water?" "The whole demi-human races assistance to stop the war." "Ho¡­" The Centaur frowned. As a fight loving race, if there is no problem with their Divine Tree, he really wanted to join the war. "You want our assistance to stop the war?" "Yes" "Why do you want to stop the war?" "I love peace, at least the people won''t have any fear when they sleep at night, thinking their land will be taken or when the enemy will come and kill you" "Hmm, but I feel that you are more threatening than the war itself¡­ 18 years old rank 8. What if you become 20? 30? Or even 40? When you reached a much higher level, our races would be threatened. And since you presented the Life Water for us by yourself. We can just kill you here and take that Life Water." They were informed by the old druid that guided Alex to here about Alex''s Strength. The Queen released her mana. The other leaders also released their mana. Alex frowned. Principal Florest immediately went in front of him and released his mana to protect Alex. But still suppressed by the five leaders rank 8 mana. "Your Majesty Elven Queen. What do you mean by that? And the rest of you leaders. He is a threat? Do you think that the one who stops the war and even comes all the way to here will do that?" "We don''t know about the future. He might only want to stop this war for now so he can build his strength. After he got the strength, he will be a threat to our races. So I think it''s better to kill him here. If you wanted to prevent us from that, We might also need to kill you" "Killing us here would only start a new war. Did you consider our relationship? We did many favors to your races but this is what we get?" "If you compared that favors with him. We think that he is more important. And can the Human also bear the attack from the demi-human together with the demons?" Alex suddenly patted the Principal Shoulder. He stores the Life Water inside his space ring once again. "Now, Life Water is gone. Your Divine Tree will die. Even if you kill me here, you won''t get the Life Water back. But it is truly laughable¡­" "Laughable?" The queen frowned. "It''s nothing. I heard from my Master. Back then, Five thousand years ago, when the whole demi-human races facing its extinction, my Master who was a human saved the whole races. I think he is more threatening than I am now. But not only the whole race think him as an enemy. They even presented the Life Water for him. Isn''t it basically telling him, that the whole race indebted to him and entrusted him with the fate of their whole race? My master gave me this Life Water, he still hopes to help this race. But the new generation of demi-humans seems didn''t inherit their honesty and pride. That''s why I find it laughable." "You-" Suddenly the door behind Alex and the Principal opened. "Mother" "Lilia?" Alex looked back, he found the elven princess that he saved before. Alex frowned, In this kind situation, let''s check how much she''s worth. Alex immediately disappeared. "Not good" The moment he appeared, he already arrived in front of Lilia. "You are- Gah" Lilia was surprised. Alex immediately put his hand on her neck. One movement from him enough to kill the rank 3 elven princess. "Wait!" "You, what are you doing?" Lilia looked at Alex desperately. At first, she wanted to inform his mother. That a human save her when she was outside. And he wanted to go to the Divine City, But she never thought that Alex already reached this place and they meet again in this kind of situation. "Nothing, I just want to see your worth. But it seems it was better than my expectation" Alex said coldly. "Wha- You¡­" Lilia looked at him in disbelieve. "Sigh, Elven Queen. I already told you that I object to this. Look at the condition now, no Life Water, your successor becomes his hostage, and I heard that he also has a rank 8 monster beside him. If you really wanted to do this path. If you fail to kill him now, Our races would be wiped out by him. Our Titan race was the most neutral and abstain from worldly matters. But we know our gratitude and favors. Sigh, If come down to that, I think I will side with him. Since even I know his identity. I''m sure you also known since you are the most knowledgable from all of us. his identity and his ''Master'' Identity." The titan leader suddenly let out a sound after this whole time. "Our dwarf will do the same. Considering our relationship from more than a hundred years ago. I agreed with the Titan Leader. But I still wondering, how can you be a disciple of a man from 5000 years ago? Are you sure you are his disciple?" Alex knew that from those two speeches, it seems they will back him up. And the princess in front of him seems worth more than his expectation. As for the last question from the dwarf leader. Alex only smiled. He didn''t want to explain it. The principal looked at the old druid. The old druid finally sighed. Since the two leaders have back Alex''s up. Killing him is impossible for now. If he comes back for revenge, it won''t be good for their entire race. He gave up. "Since, Florest also did us a big favor to our druid. We agreed to it" That''s three if this situation handled by Voting, then Alex would already win. But it seems that wasn''t the case. He looked at the Principal. Florest knew what his thought, He whispered the reason to him. Alex was a bit surprised to hear the reason. It seems that he needed the agreement from all races leaders before they finally decided to help him. For now, The Titan, the Dwarf, and the Druid supported him. Two more to go. "Let my daughter go first" Alex frowned. But the Titan leader and the Dwarf leader immediately persuaded him. "Young human, Alexander. Please let her go first. No matter what happened, I swear on my Titan race, we will back you up as long as our Divine Tree recovered" "Our Dwarf race also swore to back you up" Alex pondered for a moment before he let her go. Lilia immediately went to her mother after she was released by Alex. She whispered something to her. There is a shocked face plant on the Elven Queen''s face. She rumbling with herself for a quite while before she finally agreed. "Fine. Our race will help you if our Divine Tree recovered." Then all of them turned their heads to the last leader, The Centaur leader. "Our Centaur race respect the strong. If you wanted to convince me, then convince me through your strength" The dwarf, the titan, and the druid facepalmed. It seems they know this will happen. "Centaur Leader!" "As I already said, Our centaur race respect the strong. Since you claimed yourself as the legendary ascender disciple who was once saved our entire races. You need to have the strength to back up that claim." The fighting spirit that he released was very overwhelming "Young human, Alexander. You don''t need to agree to him. I''m sure we can convince him" The titan leader said. "That''s right. We will convince him" The dwarf nodded. Alex remembered what his teacher said. He said that he will immediately go to the battlefield. So he wanted the people here also rushed. But convincing this centaur leader might be a tough job. Seeing the fighting spirit in the centaur leader. They might need more time to convince him. "I think, it will be faster if I do it" "What? Young human, Alexander, Are you sure?" The titan and the dwarf leaders were surprised. "Bahaha¡­ This human understands it better than you two." The centaur leader laughed happily. While the other leaders facepalmed. The centaur leader immediately leaped from his seat. "Let''s fight" "Wait. Do you wanted to destroy this place?" The elven queen immediately stopped him. "Haha, I don''t really mind though. We can build it again later" "How about one move to decide? that way, you won''t destroy this place" The druid gave his suggestion. "Hmm¡­" The centaur leader pondered for a moment. "One move was too little. But, alright. We will decide this in one move. Show me your best move." Alex frowned. "What? Are you scared?" The centaur provoked him. Alex shook his head. He recalled when he used ''that'' move when fighting the dean."No. I just scared if I will accidentally kill you" "What?" The centaur was angered. "Show me then. I will destroy that move easily. I might accidentally destroy your pride" Alex looked at the other leaders who can only sigh and nod their heads. Alex looked at the principal who also nodded his head. Alex sighed. The centaur pulled out his sword. He released his mana fully. Alex looked at the centaur leader. His mana can''t be compared to his teacher, his technique or his weapon... he didn''t know about it. He really wondered if this centaur leader can block ''that'' move. Alex also pulled out his sword from the sheath. He raised it with his both hand. He clad the sword with his mana. The sword started glowing with a bright red color. "Oh, a sword wave huh¡­ Fine by me. I am also adept in that move." The centaur also raised his sword. His sword started glowing. He seems going to use the same move as Alex, a sword wave. But suddenly he frowned when he looked at Alex''s sword. He felt dread from the tyrannical pressure emitted from the sword. But he can''t back down from this. "Centaur Secret Skill. Mountain Cleaving" "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Seventh Slash" 118 Array They swung their sword at the same time. Two sword waves immediately flying in the air. The other leaders looking at these two sword waves. They have seen the centaur leader sword wave so they weren''t very shocked with its power. But when they saw Alex''s sword wave. They only felt one thing, it is dread. At that time, All of them know. Alex''s sword wave was far stronger than their expectation, no, they underestimated his power too much. A young rank 8¡­ if he didn''t have this kind of move. How can he reached rank 8 at such a young age. ''Not Good'' The other leaders immediately thought that when the two sword waves clashed with each other. And their thought was proved when Alex''s sword wave split the centaur leader''s sword wave easily. His sword wave immediately flew to the centaur leader. The centaur leader was startled as to how easy his sword wave was destroyed. He really underestimated the young human before him. He knew at this moment, he was doomed. He clad all of his mana in his sword to block this move for his last struggle. "Haa!" The clashed was only for a split second before Alex''s sword wave broke his sword. The centaur leader closed his eyes "Good move" "Boom" The moment the smoke was cleared. Alex can see. There is an addition of the dwarf leader, the druid leader, and the elven queen. The dwarf leader took out his big shield but still cleaved by Alex''s sword wave. The druid leader made a wood wall from the ground, if he looked at it closely, it was coated with an enormous amount of mana. Alex''s sword wave almost cut it down though. And the elven queen erected a barrier to repel the shockwave. The titan leader didn''t participate in it and sighed, he already predicted this would happen when he saw the power contained from Alex''s sword wave. If they really trying to kill him, can they really kill him? Even if they can, how much the casualty they would get? Assuming he is alone. But at present, there is still Principal Florest and another factor (Sherry) who wasn''t ''present'' in here. He just hopes that this wouldn''t escalate to the problem level since they have agreed to help him. He thought that it will be better to befriend with this human instead of having him as their enemy. "Hahaha¡­" Suddenly, the centaur leader laughed. He wasn''t like a person that almost got himself killed. "It was a very good move. I really wanted to fight you truly. But¡­ a promise is a promise. I lose. The centaur also agreed to it." "What a powerful move. Even my prided shield get cleaved by it" "I used more than half of my mana to block the leftover" The principal finally relieved. Alex still looking at them without any expressions. "All five leaders have agreed to help you. Please give us Life Water" "You can''t expect me to hand it to you after ''that'' incident, right? What if you take back your promise? I think it still better for you to guide me to the Divine Tree. At that time, I will finally take it out" "You-" The elven queen was angered at this point. "Sigh, I think he is right. It was also our fault that the situation escalated like this." The titan leader said. The elven queen started to calm down. Since the one who talked just now is the Titan leader who was in charge of protecting the Tree. Their five races were chosen for their roles. The Titan is in charge of protecting the Divine Tree, while the druid purpose is to maintain the Divine Tree, The dwarf is for their equipment, the Centaur is their shield and sword if the war coming, and she herself was to govern the entire races. "Fine. Since the titan leader said so. But only you! He can''t" The elven queen finally agreed, but only Alex can go in, while Florest needs to wait here. But Florest seems fine with it, maybe because he had been inside a few times? After all, he needs to help with the Divine Tree¡­Right? But, since it can only be like that, Alex agreed. Sherry also still inside him though, Even if they wanted to surround him once again, Sherry can help him too. After he agrees, All races leader suddenly walked toward their own thrones once again. They released their own mana. Suddenly, the ground surrounding the thrones were glowing. Alex narrowed his eyes. "Array?" "Crack!" Alex then turned to the sound. There seems to be a giant hidden door behind the elven queen throne. "Lilia, you stay too" Lilia wanted to protest but after glared by her mother, She can only accept it reluctantly. The principal take her and leave the room. "This way, young human" The Titan said. Alex nodded. Six of them walked to the giant door. Alex looked at the giant door, he felt another invisible barrier blocking the way. The druid leader noticed Alex''s expression. "Haha, this is an invisible barrier that the ascender bestowed us, it was called ''Five Elements Defensive Array''. It can block many attacks from rank 9, whether they are warriors or magicians type. I''m sure you already know it since he is your ''Master''. We can open the barrier with the Elven Queen Staff as the key." The druid leader still doubting if the ascender really Alex''s Master. Well, it was to be expected since he is a figure from five thousand years ago. Alex walked closer to the invisible barrier. "It''s really from Master". Alex thought inwardly. This is one of the array types he excels the most. When the first time Maxwell taught him about Arrays. He asked Alex what type of Array that he wanted to learn first. Alex immediately gave him the answer. Illusion type, Barrier Type, and Defensive Type. Alex felt those three are the most practical for him at the moment. Without a doubt, Illusion Array was the most versatile. He can use it for a distraction or ''something'' else. As for Barrier Type, he thought that if he can make a Barrier Type Array that can trap people inside and prevented any contact from the outside world. He can burn all the oxygen inside and let them choke out to death. As for the last type, Defensive Type. The thing Alex needed for the moment is defense. After killing numerous monsters, Alex concludes that the Offensive Type monsters are dangerous while the Defensive Type monsters are the most troublesome. He haven''t met many monster type, maybe he will meet some illusion type of monster or something else. Alex looked at the Array closely. He examined the array carefully. He felt many rank 9 materials supporting this array. That''s why this array can hold many attacks from numerous rank 9 warriors/magicians. But¡­ "This array¡­" Alex muttered. Of course, all the leaders still heard him. They frowned, did he¡­ "Also exhausted like the Divine Tree. The materials needed to form this array were numerous. Because of it, it can hold so many attacks for 5000 years." Alex continued. All the leaders present were shocked, their eyes widened. What he said is true. They also felt the invisible barrier weakened. But, because they didn''t have any knowledge about this, they were helpless. But in front of them, a single youth managed to identify the problem with just touching it? At this moment, All of them were literally convinced. Alex is really the disciple of the Ascender. "Young human, Alexander. Can you repair this barrier?" The Titan leader suddenly asked. Alex pondered for a moment. This is a pinnacle of rank 1 defensive array. At present, he can''t make it from scratch, but repairing it should be possible. He just needs to search the weakened part and exchange the material and reconnect some part of the arrays. But¡­ "If I have the materials. Repairing it should pose no problem. But¡­" "But¡­" Not only the Titan Leader. The other leaders also gulped down. This barrier was one of the most important parts to protect the tree. Not only the Titan leader who was in charge of protecting the Divine Tree find this barrier is important. The other leaders also felt this barrier very important. They also can use the barrier in another way. They can make this place their last refuge place since the barrier can hold all attacks and only the five leaders can open this barrier. "Why should I?" "Young Human, Alexander. Please help us repairing this barrier. We are eternally grateful." The druid asked him. "Eternally grateful? Just before, you all wanted to kill me. You said you are eternally grateful? What a joke. You are eternally grateful, it might be the same as your ancestor from five thousand years ago. But, your later descendant might become like you earlier." "It was because¡­" The Elven Queen wanted to explain it to him. But Alex stopped her, "Because of what? Because you still don''t know I am his disciple? If I recall, when I present the ''Life Water''. I''m sure that the Titan leader already knew I am his disciple, at least that is written in his words. I am sure that the most knowledgable Elven Queen must also know it, right?" "I¡­" The Elven Queen was tongue-tied. She already predicted that Alex really is the ascender. According to the ancestors'' words written in their archives. ''The remaining life of the Divine Tree is in the hands of our entire races savior. We beg him for that. He said that he will save keep it for now because our races aren''t stable for the moment and the one chosen by him will take the ''Life Water'' back to this race''. That means because Alex brought the ''Life Water'' with him to here. She already knew that Alex is ''his'' disciple. But, she didn''t know what to do. She was confused because of the words after it. ''The one chosen by him will give the prosperity''. That''s right. The ''Prosperity'', it was a good thing if he brought prosperity. But the problem is who will be given that ''Prosperity''? The one in front of her is human youth. Will he give the ''Prosperity'' to them? Or will he give the ''Prosperity'' to humans? After all, they are from the same race. If he gives it to the humans and the humans prospered, what will happen to them? Will they also prosper along with them? Or will they be destroyed because the humans prospered? She can''t risk it all as the leader of the entire race, it will be good if he hailed from one of their own races, but the problem is he not. That''s why she wanted to kill him. But¡­not only that the youth in front of her was far stronger from her expectation. He said that he can also repair their last line of defense? She clenched her teeth. He only wanted them to help him to stop the war. If only their leaders come with him to stop the war. There won''t be any casualty. If they accepted that at first and she didn''t choose to do ''that'' to him. Will he repair the barrier like when he saved her successor even though she was just a stranger to him? She bite her lower lips. First, they can''t kill him here, even if they somehow killed him, how about the ''Life Water''? Second, If he really can repair the array. That was a very good thing to them, After all, the Divine Tree and the Array were their biggest problem. But the problem is that Alex didn''t want to do it. She resigned herself. She heard human love abduct elves because of their beauty, she live for their race. if with her sacrifice the race will prosper¡­ With that in thought, She decided. Well, because she saw there is no lust in his eyes when he looked at her, he won''t treat her that badly, right? Anyway, she has prepared for the worst thing. "Young Alexander. Please help us" The titan leader also asked him. "What can we do for you to help us?" The dwarf is bolder than the titan leader. Alex shook his head. "It''s not a matter of what you can do. I just don''t want to do it" "This¡­" "Please¡­" The Centaur leader never let out a sound from his mouth. He might be realized that he is a muscle brain, he might make the situation worse if he said anything inappropriate But suddenly, a shocking scene appeared in there. The Elven Queen walk closer to him slowly and suddenly kneeled in front of him. 119 Divine Tree The Elven Queen suddenly kneeled in front of him. "Elven Queen?" The leaders were shocked. "I apologize for my rude behavior. Not only we disrespect our race benefactor, we also rude to his disciple. I, as the Current Elf Queen, Shelfia, Apologize for all the rude actions we have done. Please help our race, please help our Divine Tree, please help our barrier. Our entire race will eternally grateful to you. Our ancestors said that the one chosen by our Benefactor will give prosperity. But, I don''t know for whom that ''prosperity'' is. That''s why I¡­I¡­ If you wanted to punish someone, you can punish me however you wanted. I will also put my entire life and become your slave. You can treat me however you wanted, whether to become your meat shield or even your¡­Sex Slave" "Elven Queen, you¡­" The leaders were dumbfounded. What did she say? They wanted to convince her not to do that. After all, it wasn''t entirely her fault. "This is all my fault. I will be the one redeemed it. I''m sure my late husband also forgives me." But before they convince her, she shook her head. Her head touch the ground. "Please help us. I can become your meat shield or your sex slave. But, please limit it to only this slave, the other didn''t have any connection to this. I will be eternally grateful." All of them were dumbfounded. Even Alex was speechless. How can this situation escalate to this? He scratched his head and sighed. "Fine. I will repair the Barrier. But even if I wanted to do it. I don''t have any materials to fix it. From the look of it, I need at least more than 10 rank 9 materials." He thought inwardly, ''Maybe, I am still too soft. I even help the one who wanted my life earlier, Consider it as the last time I did this, sigh'' "Our treasury has many of rank 9 materials" The Elven Queen replied hurriedly Alex was a bit surprised. His teacher said that rank 9 materials were scarce. Well, if you put the entire races to search it, it was to be expected, right?. Fortunately that Lilia wasn''t here. If not, that unreasonable girl will make this situation more complicated. "I need to check which materials needed first. That''s why you don''t need to become my slave. If you really wanted to do something, just help Acacia in the time they need it and don''t do ''that'' again." He only agrees to it because of the Elven Queen. She is the current elves leader and more so, a leader like that wants to become his slave just for that. Well, he didn''t want to make this situation become more complicated. Why the situation changed so suddenly, Alex really wondering about that. First, they are hostile to him, then they neutral and will help him as long as he saved the Divine Tree. Now, Even the Elven Queen, suddenly kneeled in front of him. "But first. Let''s check the Divine Tree first. Since this is what I''m coming for" The Elven Queen stared on him in shock. She already prepared to give her life and live as a slave. She thought that she can convince Alex and with her sacrifice, maybe Alex also will give their entire race prosperity. She was confident in her body and look. After living with a beauty like her continuously even as her sex slave, he will also listen to her, even slightly also fine with her. But, hearing him rejected her. She somehow hurt, is he not interested in used good like her? Maybe he wanted the youthful one? Maybe she needs to offer her daughter to him? Just when she was about to say that. Alex was already gone. But, if she knows that Alex would ascend soon, maybe she won''t do that. He walked to the invisible barrier again. He touched the barrier with his right hand. Suddenly, all the fingers in his right hand started glowing. Alex drew a few symbols on the invisible barrier. Suddenly, there is an opening on the barrier. "What? He opened it? Even without the key?" "I''m going first then" Alex looked at them. Alex really wanted to run away from that situation. The other leaders helped the Elven Queen up before started chasing him. They were pretty shocked when the Elven Queen suddenly offered herself to him. Before their meeting, she was pretty hostile toward him, not completely though. They didn''t know what is the thought inside the Elven Queen''s head. Alex was a bit surprised. It was pretty dense, but not because of trees, but because roots which spread out of the ground, the roots of the Divine Tree. It looked like he was in the forest. Fortunately, he knows the way. Why do you ask? It''s simple, he just needed to follow the direction of the big body of the Divine Tree. Alex slowly gets closer and closer to the tree. But the closer he got, the denser it is. He finally reached the bottom of the tree. Surprisingly, there are no roots that stick out from the ground. There is only a big trunk that pierce the clouds. He looked back, it seems that the roots started sticking out of the ground after more than ten meters from its body. While the center is an empty field. After a while, the leaders finally caught up to him. Alex looked at them, "What should I do?" "There is a mark there, put the bucket on there" The Elven Queen pointed out a mark on the ground. Alex took out the ''Life Water'' and placed it on the mark. Alex was dumbfounded when he saw the Divine Tree really alive. A root suddenly appeared from the ground. It stretches out to the bucket and they can see that the ''Life Water'' in the bucket slowly decreased. After a few minutes, the ''Life Water'' in the bucket was completely gone. Alex checked the condition of its trunk, the rotting spot slowly rot out and peeled out from the main body before falling to the ground. When the rotten skin fell down, The root suddenly moves above him, protecting him from the rotten skin. The Elven Queen raised her barrier to protect the leaders from the rotten skin. After protecting him, It slowly moves downward and sticking to Alex''s cheek. Now the root like a dog that licking his cheek to show its thanks. Alex smiled and stroked the roots a few times. It didn''t stop there. Suddenly a stem fell down in front of him, the stem size was around two meter in diameter and ten meter in width. The roots grabbed the stem that fallen to the ground and presented it to Alex, it seems that it wanted Alex to accept. The Divine Tree wanted to give this stem to him as a thank for giving the ''Life Water''. The leaders were dumbfounded. This is the first time they saw the Divine Tree move, well it was to be expected. Even the ones with the longest lifespan, the elf, can only live up to one thousand years. And the moment they saw the Divine Tree move, it was very intimate with Alex. They were shocked, especially the Druid Leader. He, who was a master in wood element, can feel the emotion in the Divine Tree. "You wanted me to accept them?" Alex slowly received the stem. He felt the overbearing life force within it. He felt the energy from the stem and surprised when he saw the energy flowing in it which was even higher than all of the rank 9 materials that he had seen in Maxwell''s treasury but now in his space ring though. After Alex received the big stem, The roots stroke Alex''s cheek a few times before slowly went back to the ground. Alex stored the big trunk on his space ring, it was a very precious material. Alex turned to the dumbfounded leaders on the side. "I think it''s done" "Oi¡­" The leader was still in a dazed state. Alex calling them again and again before they wake up. The first to wake up is the Elven Queen. After that scene, she now thinking about roping him in. The beauty of female elves was higher than human girls. She was sure that they can charm him. If she succeeds roping him in, then, he will become one of them. When that happened, Their race will surely¡­ "Haha, young Alexander. The Divine Tree now safe because of you" "I will check the Array now" Alex immediately went to the outside perimeter to see the array. The array was circling the Divine Tree. This ''Five Elements Defensive Array'' was built from numerous small elemental arrays judging from the size, it was combined from thirty small elemental defensive arrays. Fire, Water, Wood, Earth, and Metal. There are six small array for each element. Those thirty arrays were connection and made into a giant formation. Each small array contained twenty symbols. According to his master''s word, the symbol needed to be placed in the right place, if not, they won''t be able to function properly. Even Alex needed to open the arrays book from Maxwell to check this array, The original ''Five Elements Defensive Array only consisted of five small array. But, because of the size of the Divine Tree, his Master needed to make the additional five for each element. He goes to the first spot. In the first spot, The material contained a fire attribute, judging from its condition, it needs to be replaced. There are no problems within the array itself. As long as he changed this rank 9 fire material, there is no need to change it with the same material. He only needed to ensure they are the same element. He noted it down for now and went to the next spot. The next material is water attribute material. Alex checked the condition of the array. It was a bit broken and the material was completely exhausted. He checked the symbols that build the small array. Some of the symbols were broken. But he still can repair it. The third material is the wood attribute. It''s condition still good enough. There is no need to do anything in this array so he skips this one. The next one is the problem. The arrays were almost completely destroyed and the earth elemental material was completely exhausted. He needs to be careful to remake this array. This is the first time he makes this array. As long as he follows the instruction from the Array Book. He surely can complete the array. The next material is the Metal attribute material. It has the same problem with the first one, he just needs to replace the material and the array will function like normal. He continued checking the array one by one. There are some that needing some repair on the symbols, changing material and so on. Luckily, the worst one was the Fourth one, he needs to remake it. He speculated the cost and time he needs to repair this giant array. He needs to change 5 fire materials, 3 water materials, 2 wood materials, 4 earth materials, and 4 metal materials, a total of 18 rank 9 materials. He needs two days to completely repair the array. After he finished checking all of them, he came back to the throne room. The five leaders have waited for him for a long time. The Dwarf suddenly become polite. "How about it, Mr. Alexander?" Alex wasn''t bothered by it. "I need to change around 18 rank 9 materials" "Oh, don''t worry. We have those materials, you can choose them in our treasury. How about you rest first. We can go to the treasury tomorrow" Alex just noticed, the night has come. He completely focused on checking the array that he didn''t notice the time. I think it''s better to see the materials first. I still don''t know if they can be the replacements. "Is that so¡­ Then, I will accompany you to our council Treasury. That where we keep high ranking materials. We are united, because of that. If any races have high-rank materials they will keep them in the council treasury." The Elven Queen changed her tone and become so polite that even the other leaders too shocked because of the change. "Are you sure to let me see your treasury? I''m fine with choosing after you presented them. After all, going to your treasury is a bit¡­inappropriate" Alex was confused. Is there really someone who will let a stranger to their treasury? He was fine even if they presented the materials to him and he can choose from them. After all, if they let him to their treasury, not only he know what kind of material they had. He also knows its location. What are they going to do after he knows their treasury? "I''m sure there will be no one who will oppose that" The Elven Queen turned to the rest of the leaders and no one object to her decision. "¡­Fine" After pondering for a moment. Alex finally agreed to it. After all, he also didn''t have much time. "Oh, I have a condition" The dwarf leader suddenly raised a condition. "After this finished, I wanted you to drink with me a bit. In our Dwarf territory" "But, I wanted to stop the war as soon as possible" "Well, we need to gather the soldiers too. Within that time, we can drink a bit. I''m sure a day would be enough for us to gather our soldiers" What Dwarf Leader said is reasonable. They also need time to gather their soldiers. Well, he suddenly came and wants their help to stop the way. They are already rushed enough to gather them in day time. He also has a wine from the system, isn''t he? He heard that the dwarves love wines, so might as well drink it together. "Alright" "Haha, good good" The dwarf laughed happily Because he was carried away by the situation, he even forgot about the time needed for repairing the array. Can''t they just gather the soldiers within that time? He soon regretted promising that. But a promise is a promise. Since he already promised him, he need to fulfill it. The other leaders looked at the dwarf and thought ''How sly'' The Elven Queen guide Alex to the treasury. They stopped before a giant stone gate. The soldiers kneel when the Elven Queen came. Alex saw these two guards power, he was surprised when he saw the guards have at least rank 7 power or more. But, it was to be expected since in front of him lay their entire demi-human race treasure. The guards opened the stone gate with their power. And now another big gate presented itself. But this time, In the giant gate, there is a big keyhole. Alex wondering what is the key that needs a keyhole that big? Suddenly, the Elven Queen raised her staff and put it inside the keyhole. She turned her staff and a ''Clicking'' sound was heard. Turned out the key is the Queen Staff. What a convenient staff, the staff not only for the key for that invisible barrier, it was also for their treasury. If he just stole the staff. Can''t he do anything in their territories? Alex won''t do that though. After the ''Clicking'' sound, the giant gate opened and they go in 120 Repairing the Arrays Alex and the Elven Queen went inside the treasury. Alex was blinking a few times when he saw the inside. The energy was very rich here. "Then, Mr. Alexander, this way please" The Queen guides him to go deeper. On the way, Alex has seen so many high-rank materials, from medicinal herbs to metals. If he has those items, he can do so many things. Making pills for breakthrough or other things. But he held himself back, after all, those are theirs. "This is the deepest zone in our Treasury. There are so many rank 9 materials, Which materials do you need? I will grab it for you" Alex started to search around. He didn''t want to be greedy, so he only grabbed the required items. After he finished. "5 fire materials, 3 water materials, 2 wood materials, 4 earth materials, and 4 metal materials, a total of 18 rank 9 materials and a few bottles of rank 9 monster blood." But suddenly he stopped. He stopped in front of a pink-colored stone with a size a bit bigger from marble. "Mr. Alexander?" "Ah, I''m sorry. Let''s go back" "We didn''t know anything about this stone. But from the energy within it, We know this is a high-rank material. So we put it here. You know about this stone? How about I give you this stone as a thanks from our race?" Alex was a bit tempted. "I''m sorry but I need to decline" He recognized what stone is this. It was precisely a space stone. From the size, he can make three space rings but won''t this consider as a favor? So he better reject it. "Is it because Mr. Alexander still mad because of me? If that so, I am ready if you wanted to punish me. I will agree even if you want me to become your slave" Alex shook his head. "That''s not it. Sigh, let''s just go back. I need to repair it as soon as possible. So I can stop the war. This is just a trade. I gave the ''Life Water'' for your help to stop the war. And you can help the Acacia Kingdom if they needed. Of course, it is if the request within the reason. If the request was to endanger your race you can reject it. I will let it be the payment for the array''s repair. Alex walked away. Leaving a dazed queen behind. He didn''t want anything to do with her, he just about to hold his marriage, if he brought back another beauty back home, what kind of thing will happen. Of course, The Elven Queen immediately followed him. After he got all the materials he needs, he goes to the array hurriedly. He went to the first spot, the one with exhausted Fire Material. In this spot, he only needs to replace the material with the new one. He deactivated the array first. Then he grabbed the exhausted Fire Material and replaced it with the new one. The new material is a rank 9 Fire Fruit. It didn''t matter what kind of material he placed in this array. After all, they are only fuel. The arrays are the ones who hold the defensive function. After replacing the material, he activates the array again before he moves to the next spot. In the second spot, there are two problems in this spot. First, he needs to replace the material inside, and the second, the array itself is a bit broken. There are some symbols that missing a few lines and judging from how dim the array glowing, he was sure that this array was almost unfunctional. For example, there is a symbol that should be like this ''§æ'' but now, it becomes like this ''¦×''. Alex needs to repair the missing lines. He opened one of the bottles that contained the monster''s blood. Each array contained twenty symbols which combined to make a kind of magic circle. In this spot, there is no symbol that completely destroyed. He only needs to fill the missing lines and the array will function like normal. After he repairs the first symbol, he continued to the second symbol and so on. After he finished filling all the missing lines, before he activates the array, he replaced the material first. This time, the previous material is a medicinal herb contained powerful water energy. Alex replaced it with a bucket of rank 9 spiritual water. After that, he stood up and finally activates the array. The array started glowing far brighter than previous. After he has seen the effect, he finally relieved. He was successful in this spot. The Elven Queen who watched him all this time was shocked. She didn''t understand what Alex doing all this time, At the first spot, she was somehow understood. Alex only replaced the material inside with a new one. But, in this spot, Alex used some rank 9 monster blood to make additional lines on the symbol. She didn''t understand why he did that but she keeps her silence, she afraid that her action will disturb him. She is right to do that. Even though Alex has some knowledge about array. He still hasn''t mastered it very well. After all, He only learned from Maxwell for about two weeks. He still needs to experience it himself on how to make an array, etc. If she disturbs him at this moment, Alex will most likely fail. She keeps watching his every movement, every line, every weird symbol. When Alex finally stood up. She immediately worried, is he succeed? Or is he give up? But she immediately gets her answer when she saw the bright glow produced from it. On the other hand, Alex wipes his sweat. He was relieved when he succeeded. This is another reason why he accepts the job to repair this array. This would be a big ''experience'' for him in his understanding of array. ''Experience'', this is the one thing he lacked the most. This is very tiring for him, not physically but mentally. He took a few long breaths and adjust his mind before he goes to the next spot. He skips the next spot with the wood attribute because there is no problem in it for now. The problem is the fourth spot, This is the one with the worst condition. Unlike the second spot, some of the symbols in this array were completely destroyed without any trace. If Alex wants to repair this array, he needs to remake the missing symbols. After pondering for a moment, Alex decided to skip this one too first. He is planning to get experience from other spots first before he comes back to repair this spot. The fifth one has the same problem with the first one, He only needs to replace the material in it and the array will function normally again. He continued repairing the array one by one, after the eight spot, he need to rest first. His mind was very tired at the moment, he sleeps for almost ten hours. After he wakes up, his mind feels refreshed. When he wakes up. He noticed that his head was on the Elven Queen lap all this time. Fortunately, the Elven Queen seems to sleep too. He slowly wakes up from his position, he didn''t want to wake the Elven Queen up, if that happened, the situation will be very awkward, at least for him. He silently writes something on the ground and place a blanket on the Elven Queen before he continue repairing the arrays. When the Elven Queen wakes up from her sleep. She looked at her laps, She remembered that She silently put Alex''s head to her lap but now she wakes up, she didn''t find him anywhere with only a blanket covering her. She smiled a bit. She found Alex''s writing on the ground. "I think, you should prepare the soldiers now, rather than following me here. Don''t worry, I have promised to repair this barrier, I will definitely fulfill it" She was somewhat hurt. At first, she was a bit happy when Alex''s covered her with a blanket. But, after she read Alex''s writing, pain comes to her heart. Did she not have any charm in her? Or is it really because she is a widow? But that thought immediately disappeared when she read the last part. "Thank You. I am back to full energy because of you" The Elven Queen didn''t know why but warmth spread all over her heart. She didn''t know if that comes from the pride of her beauty or something else. After looking at the first part once again. She immediately stood up and left to organize the troops with full spirit. Alex continues repairing the arrays, he found many types of problems. From replacing the material to completely remake a few symbols. At the twenty-third spot, he stopped and sleep once again. It was very tiring for his mind. Even the alchemy wasn''t this tiring. This might be another reason why array masters are scarce. He finally arrived at the last array, the thirtieth spot. There are two symbols he needs to remake and three symbols missing a few lines. Alex easily fixed the missing lines. After he finished. He moves to the next step. He needs to remake two symbols. Alex waved his hand and the monster''s blood comes out from the bottle. It floating in the air. His index finger started glowing. Before his finger touch the ground, the blood suddenly flew to the tip of his finger like coating the tip of the pen with ink. He can use his index finger since this is a thin line. Using his finger makes him more accurate than when using his mana alone to control the drawing process. Now he moves to another part. This time, he controls the blood and make his fingertip like a painting brush. Drawing line after line of smooth array symbol. Alex''s movement was precise but extremely careful, seeming to not be affected by his environment. He is completely absorbed in making the symbol. When he made this symbol, he feels that this symbol was his best performance so far. With the feeling still going inside his heart and mind, he continued to the other symbol. He draws lines after line, his speed becomes faster than the previous one. His movement become more precise and more agile. He finally finished the last symbol. He then moves to the last step. Connect the two symbols to the rest of the symbols. Actually, The two symbols have connected the moment it''s been drawn. The problem is because those new symbols have a new energy, he needs to assimilate them to the rest. This step called harmonizing. Usually, an expert array master can draw array and performed the harmonizing together at the same time. Alex still hasn''t reached that level, he can only draw the array first before he performed the harmonizing. He slowly released his mana from his fingertip. The mana flow like a calm flowing water. It envelops the two energy gently. Like a thread of fate or a marriage thread, the new and the old energy slowly assimilate with each other before finally fused completely. Alex took a long breath. He stood up and try to activate the array. The array glowing brightly, it means he has succeeded. If Maxwell saw his performance just now, He will be very shocked. With very limited time, he has to teach Alex about array. He can achieve enlightenment. This one time will boost his foundation in Array farther. After he confirmed his success. He then sat down and savoring the feeling from before. One minute¡­two minutes¡­ten minutes¡­one hour... After a full three hours, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He didn''t know this is enlightenment, he felt he only closed his eyes for a few seconds, but in reality, here hours have passed. Now, there is an indescribable feeling in his heart, he felt he understand something but he didn''t know what it is. But if he was asked if he can repair the second array now, he would answer if not 100 percent, at least 90 percent assurance. At first, he was a bit doubtful when he saw the second array. Out of 20 symbols, twelve of them are completely destroyed and five of them missing a few lines. He is confident to successfully repair the last spot. After he rests a bit to adjust his state of mind. He finally walks to the last array. When he arrived at the spot he skipped before. He looked at its miserable condition. He makes a plan on how to repair this first. He will finish the missing line first. Before he will make the missing symbols consecutively starting from the left part. After he decided that, he started repairing the last array. 121 Party He fills the missing lines one by one with a very smooth and precise movement. After the previous enlightenment, he felt really confident in this. He felt the previous barrier where he needs to be extremely careful was crumbled. But of course, it doesn''t mean he is not careful. He is still very careful while drawing the missing lines. It just his speed become faster and his movement becomes more precise. In an instant, he filled all the missing lines. He will begin to make twelve destroyed symbols consecutively. After adjusting his breath, his finger starts glowing again. Drawing line after line, a symbol finally complete. Alex didn''t stop here, he immediately drew the second symbol, third, fourth, and so on. Sweat started forming on his forehead when he drew the fifth symbol. He makes the symbols in succession. When he reached the tenth symbol, his body is full of sweat. But his focus still didn''t break. Not only it didn''t break, but it is also even stronger than before. He is surely tired, especially his mind. But even though he is in that state. He seems rather enjoying it. He was like in the zone. "Two more to go" Alex didn''t know why, even though he is very tired. He can''t help but smile. He felt making symbols, making arrays is really fun at this moment. After making so many lines, so many symbols, his movement becomes faster, in less than a minute, he finished the last two symbols. He still holds his focus. He continued to the last step, ''Harmonizing''. He envelops the whole array with his mana, It wasn''t like the previous spot, he needs to reconnect the twelve new symbols at the same time. He uses his mana like a thread sewing a cloth, he stitches the twelve new symbols with the old symbols. After two minutes, he finally finished. Alex relaxed a bit. He replaced the materials inside, then he activates the array. This time, the array wasn''t the only one glowing. Suddenly, all thirty of them glowing simultaneously. The light shoots out to the sky. All the people inside the Divine City noticed the light that pierces the sky, it was like a light pillar. Suddenly, a yellow-colored barrier appeared. The lights that pierce the sky were the light pillars and the barrier was like its net, protecting the tree. Everyone who saw this were shocked. They didn''t know anything about this. But, the five leaders knew about this. After ordering their second in command to organize the troops in their territory, they immediately go back to Divine City. After they saw this spectacular scene, they immediately rushed to Alex''s location. When they arrived, they saw Alex who is leaning on the wall, asleep. His face and body full of sweat, his expression was very tired. But there is a happy smile on his face. After he succeeds, all of his tiredness suddenly come to him. He walked to the wall staggered. He leans on the wall and sat down and before he knew it, he fell asleep. ¡­ The next day, Alex slowly opens his eyes, the sun has almost set, he has slept for a whole day. He checks his condition, there is nothing in particular, no, more exactly, his mind felt refreshed, he somehow can feel his surrounding very perfectly. "Is this what Master said back then?" He remembered when Maxwell taught him about array. He taught him about Mental Energy too. This is the very difference between Array Master with Alchemist or Forging. Alchemist or Forging use their inner energy to refine a pill or a weapon, using their energy to flame their fire. But, Array Master used a different kind of energy which is Mental Energy. They make and control the array with the so-called Mental Energy. The higher, one''s Mental Energy, the easier and stronger when they make an array. Of course, they can''t forget about their inner energy too, After all, it is their fuel to activate the array. Maybe he will need to practice his Mental Energy when he goes back home. His Master leaves a book to practice his mental energy anyway. He stood up and suddenly noticed that his clothes already changed. A white shirt with a green mantle, white long pants. Their pattern was similar to the Elven Queen clothes. "Don''t tell me¡­" Alex shivered. He checks his surroundings. He is still inside the array. So there is no way that happened¡­right? ''Oh right, I was sweating all over my body. That is the reason¡­yes, that''s definitely the reason'' He immediately changes his clothes to his ordinary clothes he stored in his space ring. After he changed his clothes, he looked at the array one more time. Feeling satisfied, he left. When he left the barrier, there is Elven Queen who seems to wait for him for a long time. She bowed, "Thank you very much, Sir Alexander" Alex bewildered, suddenly she changes her way when she addresses him. Now, she called him ''Sir''. He convinces himself inwardly ''It was because I repaired the array. Nothing else. Remember her previous treatment to you'' After calming himself down, He nodded. "Would you like to rest?" "No, I have rest enough" "Would you like me to inform the other leaders? They have also awaited for you" "Sure" The Elven Queen immediately left. Alex makes a weird place. He really didn''t know what the heck is she thinking. First, she threatened him, then she suddenly kneeled and wanted to be his slave, and now she treated him politely. Not long after, the Elven Queen come back along with the other leaders. The dwarf leader immediately thanked him "Haha, Young Alexander. I really thank you for helping us. We can dispatch tomorrow. How about we go to the Dwarf Territory for a drink? Don''t worry, our territory is not that far from here, we can arrive in one hour with our speed" "Well¡­ Fine, I already promised you about that" "Sure, Let''s go, right now" ''How Sly'' all the other leaders thought Alex and Dwarf Leader left. On the way, the dwarf leader makes a weird face. He looked back, "Why do you guys following us?" "We can''t let you have all the fun. We want to thank him too", Elven Queen "That''s right. You are sly even though you are small", Druid Leader "Drinking with the Strong one and our benefactor to boot, It was my honor", Centaur Leader "I am just following them", Titan Leader "You all¡­" After flying for one hour, they finally arrived at the Dwarf Territory. Unlike the wooden gate he had seen in the Druid Territory, The wall in the Dwarf Territory was built with stones. He also traced metals inside them, even in Human territory, their wall was only built from stones. As expected of dwarves, their smithing was really top-notch. All the people inside have the same side as the dwarf leader. The kid was a bit smaller than them though. "Please treat it like your home" Alex looked at his surroundings. It seems that this dwarf leader already prepared for this. And his speculation proved to be true. They saw a big field in the middle of the town, Alex was confused why such a big field was in this place. But when he sees the people bustling in it with many food and jar. He knew the reason. It wasn''t only a drink with the dwarf leader. He seems to want a drinking party. "Haha, Please this way, Young Alexander" All the leaders have the same thought at this moment, ''I know it'' "Look, our leader has come back" "Leader" "Look, there is a human beside him¡­ Don''t tell me, he is the legendary¡­" "Yes, he must be him" "Cough" The dwarf leader coughed, the crowds suddenly quiet down. "Let me introduce you. This is the savior of our Divine Tree. His name is Alexander Sirius. We will always be grateful to him. I announced from today onward, he will be our, dwarf, eternal friend" "Woo" "Long Live Dwarf, Long Live Leader, Long Live Divine Tree, Long Live Alexander Sirius" "And also, I would like to formally apologize to you, Young Alexander, for what I have done in the throne room. But because of your kindness, not only you save our Divine Tree, but you also repaired our barrier. I am very sorry" The dwarf kneeled to him. The Elven Queen followed the suit along with Centaur Leader, for Centaur race, kneeling like this for a prideful race like the is their utter shame but it can mean another thing. It also can be their most sincere apology. The Druid Leader also kneeling in front of him. The Titan Leader is the same. "Sigh, It''s alright. Please stand up" "You can punish us if you want. You can kick me, punch me, or anything. I won''t stand up, This guilt burning me from inside. If you let me go unpunished. I feel like I¡­" On the other hand, Alex makes a weird face. ''Are you an M? but this farce won''t stop if I don''t do something'' Alex pondered for a moment before saying "Fine. I will kick you once, with my full power. But only you. I don''t want to do it anymore" "I''m very grateful" ''Grateful? As expected you are an M. F*ck!'' Alex cursed inwardly. The dwarf leader stands up, Alex prepared himself and finally kick him. The dwarf leader was blown away and crashed to the ground. After that, he came back immediately. "It''s fine, right? Since it is a party. Just start the party" "Folks, you heard him. Now it''s time for the Party" The dwarf handed Alex a glass of wine. It seems to be their tradition, even without saying anything, they raised their glasses. "Party Start. Cheers" "Cheers" All the dwarves immediately drank their wine. Alex followed the suit. This is the first time he drank wine. He drank the wine completely. "Haha, good. That is the way you drink. More, we need more!" A dwarf girl suddenly poured more wine to Alex''s glass. A brownish skin, Cute Face, beautiful hair, flat chested, small body. This is the first time he carefully observed a dwarf beside their leader. "How about it? our dwarven girl is pretty nice, right? My granddaughter is prettier. You will feel a different feeling when you are doing it with a dwarven girl. Even though we are small, we are pretty vigorous, especially in bed? How about it? I think you are pretty match up with my daughter" "Wait!" Centaur Leader suddenly comes in. "If it''s about that. I think my daughter is the most appropriate. We are the most vigorous race, of course, we don''t lose in the bed. I think it''s better for my daughter to be with him rather than your granddaughter" "Shut up, you horseman. You are just a muscle brain." "Shut up, you small man. Like your body, your brain must be small too" "Grrr" Suddenly, the Elven Queen came. But, she is drunk. "Oh, that''s right. We forgot about that" "Yes, We forget we can''t give her the Wine" Dwarf Leader and Centaur Leader who was grumbled with each other suddenly stop and agree with each other. "Sir Alexander. Thank you for helping us. I''m¡­burp¡­Very sorry about the way I treated you back then. As a punishment for that and a reward for helping us, how about I become your slave? Burp¡­ If that''s not enough, how about with my daughter too? Burp¡­Uhehe¡­" Alex''s eyes widened. He pretty sure he didn''t treat her with kindness? Even after she gave him a lap pillow, He was pretty sure to make a neutral treatment. No, If summing up to this point, Ain''t he treat her pretty badly? Compared to the other leaders, he surely treated her badly. But suddenly, she was drunk and blurted that out. He thought that people usually give a truth when they were drunk, but now, He can only in his mind ''What the heck with this woman? I treated her pretty bad right? Is she an M?'' Alex grabbed her head, suddenly a few symbols appeared on her forehead. "Wai¡­ One sheep¡­two sheep¡­three sheep¡­zzzzz" The Elven Queen acting weird after a few symbols appeared and suddenly fell asleep. Alex made an Illusion Array. It makes her saw sheep flying in front of her. It was pretty famous on Earth, saying that counting sheep make one sleep faster. But he never thought it was effective. He was bewildered but, at least he was relieved. The troublesome one has gone. But, it still didn''t stop there, suddenly, the Druid Leader also join along. "That''s right! It''s better for our Druid to take care of him. Our women are prettier than them, they have a mature and sexy body that didn''t lose to the Elven Queen. They are very gentle and mature. I''m sure they will take care of you and will make you happy" "Shut up, you druid love wood, right? just go F*ck the wood, you Druid", Dwarf Leader retorted him. "Shut up you small person. Your small girl will just break after a round" Druid Leader gave it back right through him. "That''s right. It''s better for my Centaur girl to¡­" "You need to shut up too, Horseman." "Do you want to fight?", Centaur Leader "I am not afraid of you", Druid Leader "I will let you see the mightiness of our dwarven people", Dwarf Leader Alex makes a weird smile. He looked at the Titan Leader who was silent in the corner for help. "We, Titan¡­ is a bit too big. It''s a shame that we can''t join" ''So you too'' Alex cursed secretly. "If I can become small, I don''t really mind" Alex almost spurted blood when he heard that. ''Eh, you? What about gender? Not some girl but you? Are you a ***? What the fuck with this whole demi-human race! Please let this party over soon, after they help me, I better not meet them anymore'' "That''s right? How about we ask the person in question?" The three leaders suddenly looked at him. Alex felt a chill. "Young Alexander, which one will you choose?" Dwarf Leader asked him. "You asked that in front of someone who will get married in a month?" Alex sweatdropped. "What? You are going to marry next month?" "That''s right. How about a few more brides?" Alex can''t take it anymore. He took out his SR wine, The Rainbow Wine, he got from gacha. "This is a party, right? How about we drink first?" He pulled out the lid. The wine inside was sparkling in a rainbow color. This might be the reason why its name is Rainbow Wine. Suddenly, a very fragrant wine aroma filled the air. All the leaders stop and looked at wine. Even the other dwarves also smell the wine aroma and dumbfounded. "Young Alexander¡­what is this wine?", of course, the dwarf leader will be the first to ask. "This is Rainbow Wine. It was a good wine" Alex said. While adding in his heart. ''It was an SR wine. Of course, it is good'' The Dwarf Leader immediately took the jar. He poured out the wine for Alex and himself. "You can pour it yourself" The dwarf leader looked at the Druid Leader and the Centaur Leader. They held their anger inside. After all, this wine aroma really captivated them. "You all also pour it for yourself" The Dwarf Leader seems to want to share the wine with his subject too. And he remembers it was Alex wine. He looked at Alex hurriedly. "It''s fine." Alex gave him confirmation. 122 Bad News "It''s fine" After giving his confirmation. Which he regretted it soon. The dwarves pour out the wine to a small cup for each of them. After all of them get their share. They raised their cup once again. "Cheers" All of them drank the wine at the same time. Weirdly, all of them suddenly drunk. Even the dwarf leader also drunk. On the other hand, Alex can''t speak. Not because he was drunk, it was because he felt the energy bursting from the wine he drank. His Fire Phoenix Seed suddenly revolving like crazy. It didn''t produce the fake flame anymore, instead it producing a mass amount of his True Fire. The Fire immediately burned all the wine and refine the energy. Alex immediately sat down and enter the cultivation state. His body fully covered by flame. Sadly, no one watches him. Because all of them are drunk. His fire refines the energy continuously. After a full three hours, he finally woke up from his state. He felt there is a leap in his energy. "Is it because of the wine?" He looked at the wine Jar. He hurriedly walked to the jar. He shakes the jar. There is still a bit of wine in there. He poured it himself once more. The wine was only enough for half of his glass. A bit disappointed, he starts to regret sharing his wine. If he drinks it by himself, he might be able to reach Peak Qi Manipulation Stage or even higher. Well, what''s done is done. He drinks the last bit of wine. He refines the energy and stabilize his cultivation until tomorrow noon. This time, the flame didn''t get out of his body. When he wakes up, it seems that the people already wake up. There is no one in this place except the five leaders. "Oh, you finally wake up." The dwarf leader came to him. "Thank you for the wine yesterday, it was the best wine we had ever taste, even though we immediately passed out after drinking that." Alex nodded. "Where is the other?" "All the soldiers already gathered in the Divine City. We can move out if you want" The Elven Queen said. "Then, how about we go there first?" All of them nodded, They flew to the Divine City. Like yesterday, the journey only took one hour. Outside the wall of the Divine City, many soldiers already waiting in there. "They are the soldiers from Centaur Race, The Elves, and The Dwarves, while the Titan and Druid race will be here to hold the fort. Five of us will be the one leading them, Is there any problem with that, Sir Alexander?" Elven Queen reported the situation to him. "No" They gathered in front of the wall. The soldiers noticed their leaders came. "Your Majesty, the Queen" "Leader" "Champion" Cheers erupted from the soldiers. Of course, they only cheer for their own leaders. The elves cheers for their queen, the dwarves cheer for their leader and the centaur cheer for their strongest, the champion. All five leaders and Alex are present. The Elven Queen stomp her staff to the ground. The soldiers become quiet. "Our Divine Tree that almost exhausts its life was saved. The barrier that protected our almighty Divine Tree has been repaired. All of this can happen because a great person has helped us. Let me present to you, the great person that save our race. Alexander Sirius" "Uwoo" "Long Live Divine Tree, Long Live Alexander Sirius" The soldiers were confused when they saw a human walking beside their leaders. But when they knew that this human save their race. All of that didn''t matter. They only know that he is their race benefactor" When everyone cheering at the moment, A messenger suddenly comes to the stage. "Your Majesty, there is an Emergency" "Speak" "There is a big scene on the battlefield. It said that the force from Acacia kingdom has finally arrived on the scene, they are lead by Royal Academy Dean, Marco, the current Marshall, and their war minister. According to our scout, there is an argument between the three kingdoms and the fight almost breaks out. We didn''t know why but it seems that the force from Acacia Kingdom came with a rush. The reason why they came with a rush still unknown." All leaders frowned, the Elven Queen turned to Alex "Sir Alexander, you¡­" Before she finished her words, Alex was nowhere to be found. The dwarf leader, "When he heard the news just now, he immediately disappeared. It seems he is rushing to the battlefield." ''Even we used our fastest speed, it''s still a day before we arrived on the battlefield" The Elven Queen sweatdropped. She makes a quick decision. "All rank 7 or above will follow us to the battlefield, we will rush to the battlefield and all rank 6 captains will lead the troops to the battlefield" "Yes" All of rank 7 along with the five-race leaders disappeared from the scene, they are rushing to the battlefield. Rank 6 captains immediately control the situation and ordered the soldiers to follow them to the battlefield. Meanwhile, Alex still rushing to the battlefield. On the way, Sherry suddenly come out. "Wuu Wuu?" "Nothing, I''m just rushing toward the battlefield." "Wuu Wuu Wuu" "Yes, you are right. I act a bit rashly. We still need a day before we arrived on the battlefield. When I arrived, I will wait for the other leaders before I presented myself there, I will appear if the situation goes wrong though. But I''m still wondering, why they came in a rush? According to the report, they came in a rush, but what is the reason? Is it because the ''big war'' will start soon?" Alex pondering the reason continuously. He didn''t know why but he felt the ''big war'' is not the reason and he can''t help get an uneasy feeling about this. ¡­ A few days ago, one day after Alex set off to the demi-human territory. In the throne room, there are a few men talking about the war. They are The King Carollus, Grand Duke Raymond, War Minister Leyfon, Marshall Draco, Dean Marco, and one unexpected person, The Previous King, Bryan de Zelle Acacia. Although he is retired from his position as the king, he is still one of the rank 8 from Acacia Kingdom. The reason why he joined this meeting is¡­ "What is the condition on the battlefield?" Bryan asked "There is still no big movement from the other side. Though there are a few small fights, the situation still under control" Carollus answered. "The soldiers are ready. We can set off right now", Draco "I see, I heard that you''ve got a student, Marco?" "Of course, he is my pride" "And you lose to your student, even though he is not over 20. Are you sure you are not pulling your punch since he is your student?" "Haha, of course not. I lost fair and square. I fight him with all my might." He wasn''t ashamed when Alex defeated him, instead, all he got is pride. "I really want to meet him. I heard that he is going to the Demi-human to have their help, is that true?" "Yes" "Don''t you have any fear that he will be classified as a threat from them?" "No! They can try if they want. I don''t want to help him with his problems. I want him to be the strongest. if the demi-human provokes him, just beat them. You can''t be called the strongest if you don''t challenge the whole world, that''s why I didn''t help him if he provoked someone or other provoked him, He will solve the problems himself. You are stronger than a person after you beat him. You call yourself the strongest but you didn''t challenge them all, that was just an empty title." "What a strict teacher you are, of course, in a good way. But, even though he managed to beat you. There is still numerous rank 8 in the demi-human territories. What if they attack him at the same time?" "Let me tell you something, One day before I fight him on his graduation day. I observed his strength, and what do you think his strength? You think he is a rank 8, right? No, at that time, he was only a rank 7. The next day I see him, he was already a rank 8" "What?" "His master is the Ascender. I don''t know if that true but since it was the Ascender, it might be true. After all, he is the only one that managed to ascend in our history." "So, you mean that his strength came from him?" "I don''t know about that. But, I believe that Alex will ascend sooner or later. I just hope that I can see him ascend before I die" "Cough. Father, There is a more important matter¡­" King Carollus broke their conversation. "Alright alright, This is only about two old men chatting with each other. Let''s go back to the topic" Carollus nodded. "Yesterday, we got an unexpected information. All of you must know about the town next to our border with Zircodina Kingdom, right?" "Blue Grass City?" "Yes" Carollus nodded. "According to our information, All of the humans there were brutally killed. Leaving a mountain of bones in the city" "What?" Everybody except Carollus stood up. They can''t believe such thing happen unnoticed "I know. I was like you all yesterday when I received the news. I immediately sent a scout there and confirmed that it''s true" Carollus gulped down before he continues "The scout went to check the neighboring towns too, There are two other towns that were like that. We still don''t know who dare to do such a thing" All of the faces present were darkened. "So, This is my suggestion. We will stop this war as soon as possible. That''s why I want Marshall Draco to lead the soldiers to the battlefield today. With your speed, I''m sure you can arrive within a few days. I got a bad feeling about this, because of that I want to stop this war as soon as possible. If the preparator motive is mass murder. There is a perfect place to do that" "Battlefield" All the people realized that. Draco immediately nodded "I and my soldiers will set off immediately after this meeting" "Let me give you some inputs from myself" Suddenly Bryan spoke. "Marco and Leyfon will accompany Draco to lead the soldiers to the battlefield. Since the battlefield might be in danger. Adding, Marco and Leyfon will make it safer. Carollus and Raymond, you two will be in charge of gathering all of our rank 8, Excluding the three of them and the academy principal who was still in the demi-human territory. There are still five of them left. I wanted them to protect our citizen to make sure to expand their defense range to the limit. If the thing that happened to those three towns happen in our territory again. I wanted to protect the citizen as much as possible." "Yes" "What are you going to do Father?" "I will investigate the thing happen in those three towns" "Father, that was dangerous. We can''t-" Raymond and Carollus sweatdropped. "Stop, We don''t know what happened to those three towns, Though these bones are already old, I still have enough energy for self-preservation" "Father!" Bryan immediately ordered with dignity like back when he was a king. "It''s decided. Draco, Marco, and Leyfon will lead the soldiers and set off today. Raymond and Carollus will gather all of our kingdom rank 8 fighters. I will be investigating that incident. I won''t hear any objections" "Ha!" All of them immediately moved, Bryan called Marco a bit. "I got a bad feeling about this incident. If you arrived on the battlefield, I want you to sneak around to confirm the situation there" "I know. I will search the surrounding" "Marco¡­Be careful" "Haha, Of course, You too. You still need to attend your Granddaughter and Grandson-in-law marriage" "Hoho!" He already knew about Alicia and Alex relationship for a long time. Even though he is retired, he still following the news around the kingdom, especially his families. After reading the information about Alex, he is very satisfied with him. He wanted to meet him for a long time but he thinks it''s still not the time. "I know I know. I am also very eager to meet this grandson-in-law" ¡­ After a day flying tirelessly, Alex finally arrived on the battlefield. There is no movement in the Demon side, but on the human side, there are four men fighting in the air. He recognized one of them, he is Leyfon, The one he fights is an old man with a priest robe. He must be the pope, Alex thought. The other two wearing armors. He didn''t recognize either of them. Of course, Alex hasn''t seen Draco so he didn''t know him. He moves his vision down a bit. He saw his teacher with them. He seems to protect the soldiers. It must be Acacia Kingdom''s soldiers. Then he turned to the other side. There is a middle-aged man with a priest robe too protecting the soldiers. That must be the soldiers from the Holy Kingdom. He saw a familiar face in their crowds. A Familiar figure that once broke his heart and her childhood friend. It was Sandra and Maria. He didn''t have any attachment nor feeling anymore to Sandra. So he skips them. He turned to the last group of soldiers. He remembered the old man guarding the soldiers, it was the old man he met back then, if he is not wrong, he should be the Zircodina Princess''s Teacher. As for his name¡­he forgets about that, he also found Zircodina Princess, Rieze in the crowds. But, Alex''s focus is on another person. He saw that familiar and disgusting figure. "John!" 123 Appearance "John" He wanted to flare up but he holds himself back. He needs to wait for the Demi-human to arrive. If he arrives there by himself, the situation wasn''t going to change. It''s better if he comes together with the Demi-human. It will be more convincing that way. Alex continues observing the situation, it seems that Zircodina King is in the crowds but he can''t be bothered by him, his focus is on those four who are fighting in the air still going at each other greatly. But after he observed them closely. It seems that one of the armored man was helping Leyfon. Alex assumed that he is on the same side. That means, currently Acacia fought Zircodina and Holy Kingdom at the same time. Suddenly, An old man came into the fight. The old man brought another old man by grabbing his head. But the problem is, the old man in his grab was injured all over that he can die at any moment. Alex frowned. Who is he? enemy or friend? ¡­ On the battlefield, The sudden appearance of an old man surprised all of them "Y-you are the Previous King of Zircodina Kingdom, Edmund de Andalla Zircodina." The pope was surprised, he can''t help but blurt the old man''s name. That''s right, the one who came is Zircodina''s previous king. But the people from Acacia wasn''t surprised by his appearance. Their surprised come from the one that brought over by Zircodina''s Previous king. It was Bryan. "Old Bryan" "His Majesty" The one in Zircodina Previous king''s hand is the Acacia Kingdom Previous King, Bryan Zelle Acacia. Leyfon, Draco, and Marco were thoroughly angered. Leyfon immediately disappeared. The moment he appeared, he is in front of Edmund. He swung his sword to his neck. But, Edmund grabbed his sword. Suddenly, his hand was covered by a black colored fire. The sword suddenly started to melt. Leyfon was surprised, he immediately retreated. "Hehe, Try this flame" Edmund pointed at Edward with his index finger. A laser-like flame appeared from his finger. Its target is Leyfon. Leyfon tried to dodge it, but because it was too sudden. It hit his left hand while he dodging. "Argh" Leyfon groaned. He looked at his left hand. The spot the flame hit him suddenly burn. "Argh, what is this. I felt my mana was burned" His left hand was on fire. He tried to suppress the fire with mana but to no avail. He immediately cut his left hand. His left hand fell down to the ground. He didn''t notice that Edmund send another attack to him. The moment he notices it, he didn''t have any time to react. Suddenly, Draco went in front of Leyfon. He blocked the attack with his sword. The sword melted but at least the attack was destroyed by the sacrifice of his sword. He brings Leyfon away from the battlefield. "Long Live Your Majesty. Kill those Acacia Bast*rds" "Marco, what is that flame? I don''t remember him having an element?" "I don''t know" Dean Marco also confused, he remembers that Zircodina Previous King is a warrior. But he just used some weird fire. He looked at Leyfon''s left hand on the ground. Leyfon''s left hand was burned completely, only leaving the bone on the ground, in addition to Bryan. He immediately realized something. "You, you are the one who killed those innocents people" "What are you talking about?" "Enough with your pretense" Marco released his mana. "I will kill you here. Flame Sprites, Rise and kill my enemy" A few flame pillars rose from the grounds and charged toward Edmund. "Kill me? With only you? You are only a rank 8 fire mage, while I''m¡­a rank 9. Die" He burned all Marco''s Fire easily. "Haha, Look at that. This is my power, the power befitted me" "You¡­ You have reached rank 9" "I will erase the Acacia Kingdom, I will erase the other races and make my Zircodina to the top" "You, I won''t let you" Suddenly a spear flying at a fast speed. Its target is Edmund''s left hand. The hand that holding Bryan. Because of this surprise attack, Edmund released Bryan from his grips and melt the spear ''That spear¡­'' He looked at the familiar spear, he knew, the only one who has that spear is¡­"Alex" He immediately grabs Bryan and retreat. ¡­ A few minutes ago, Alex observed the situation carefully. He was surprised to see that Leyfon suddenly lose an arm. At that time, he really wanted to charge there. But this is not the time, From their reaction, it seems that the half-dead old man in his hand was an important person in the Acacia Kingdom. Of course, he didn''t know that he is his Grandfather-in-law. When his teacher was suppressed he raised his spear. The moment he thinks he wins, Alex takes that chance. He aimed at the hand which holding the injured old man. "Spin Throwing Art. Spin Throwing" After that, he immediately disappeared. He needs to make his appearance even if the Demi-humans still haven''t come. ¡­ After Marco grabbed Bryan he retreated to Draco and the others. Marco immediately fed him some healing pills "How are his injuries?" Draco asked. "I don''t know. I fed him some healing pills. Hopefully, he will be fine. But, now we need to¡­" "Teacher" Alex suddenly appeared beside them. "Who is he? I heard you came here in a rush. Why is that?" "Alex huh, nice assist back then. This injured old man is your Grandfather-in-law, Alicia''s Grandfather, The Previous king. That old man in the air is also a previous king but from Zircodina Kingdom, his name is Edmund De''Sh*t. We got a report, there is a mass murderer that murdered all of the citizens from three of our towns. And the one who killed them is that man. previously, he was a rank 8 warrior, but suddenly he becomes a rank 9 and can use that weird flame." Alex frowned, he seems to recall something. The Pope was surprised that there is a sudden youth who appeared among them. He didn''t even notice him approaching them. Sandra and Maria were shocked when they saw Alex suddenly appeared. But, the one who reacts the most is¡­ "You, you Bast*rd. Alexander Sirius. I will kill you" Yes, the hero, John Penn. The deep grudge between him and Alex makes him insane. Back then, after Maria and Sandra escaped he was insane. He used all the soldiers without care to help him boost his strength. Finally, after countless soldiers died, He reached rank 6 in a short time. But it seems that Alex is still stronger than him. "So, you are Alexander Sirius. It is our kingdom''s fault to banish you. That''s why I will give you one more chance. Kneel down and give your full loyalty to Zircodina Kingdom and I will spare your life" Edmund suddenly spoke. ''Ah, it is him. The one that Master told me back then. Master, you really raised a flag for me'' Alex laughed a bit. "Are you still dreaming? Why do you still sleep talking?" "You- you will regret your choice. Even if you can beat your Teacher, I am far stronger than him. I am a rank 9. You won''t have the chance to win." "Is that so? If I kill you here, what will happen to your Kingdom then?" "Haha, You want to kill me? With you alone? What a joke" Edmund laughed. While he laughing, suddenly a gentle voice was heard on the battlefield. "No, he is not alone. Wind Sprites, Wreck my enemy. Storm" "Wood Sprites, Lock my enemy. Wooden Cage" Suddenly, a wooden cage appeared and locked Edmund inside and a wind tornado appeared from the ground and swallow the cage along with Edmund. "Sir Alexander. Sorry, we are a bit late" The Elven Queen and the other leaders along with their rank 7 generals arrived before him. "No, it was my fault that I suddenly rushed here" "What?" "They are the five leaders of the Demi-humans." But the most eye-catching is the Elven Queen. Because of her unparalleled beauty, the soldiers whether they were from Zircodina, Holy Kingdom, or even Acacia were mesmerized by her beauty. "They¡­they seems respectful to that youth" "Young Alexander. It seems that we ave arrived at the right time." "Haha, yeah. But¡­" Alex looked at the wind tornado. He frowned, the leaders also looked at it. Suddenly, a black colored flame appeared on the tornado before it spread and eating the tornado away. "Never thought that the demi-human will help you. Since you have gathered here together, I will kill all of you here" "Be careful of that black flame. If you get hit by it, you will¡­" Alexander explained the black flame but before he finished, Leyfon cut in. "That flame didn''t burn you. But, it corrodes you. It corrodes you so fast that you won''t even believe it. The moment you hit by that flame in your vital area. That''s the end of you" "I will fight him" Alex said "We four will help you. It seems that Titan Leader''s compatibility with this opponent was very poor. If it will corrode him, then it''s better to have him standby" The Elven Queen replied hurriedly. The other leaders also nodded, only the Titan leader seems a bit reluctant, but he can only accept it "All rank 7 generals will stand by" "I will also help you" Dean Marco said hurriedly. "Draco, you help Leyfon protect the soldiers and Old Bryan" Draco nodded. Six of them stood side by side, looking at Edmund. "Haha, no matter how many of you come to me. I won''t be defeated. With this flame, with this special power. I will be the king who governs the entire world" "You are insane. Lightning Sprites. Hear my word and strike my enemy. Thunderstorm" The Elven Queen cast her magic. Sound of thunders were heard in the sky. Suddenly, a thunder strike down to Edmund. "This is my proudest creation, Gigantic Axe." The dwarf cleave his ax down toward Edmund "Wood Hand" Two big hands made of wood appeared from the ground. "Centaur Secret Skill. Mountain Cleaving" "Fire sprites, trap my enemy. Fire Net" "Fire Phoenix Art. First Stage. Phoenix Summon" All of their magic charged toward Edmund. Edmund dodge the Thunderstrike first. He burned the wood hand with his flame. He burned Dean Marco''s Fire net. But because of that, he didn''t have the time to dodge the strike from Dwarf leader and Centaur Leader. But he didn''t panic, instead, he smirked. "I also proud of my sword." He blocked the Dwarf Leader Axe with his sword. He used his flame to the ax and melted it away. Because of the difference of rank, he easily blocks the Dwarf Leader Axe and blew him away. Then he turned to Centaur Leader sword strike. "Zircodina Imperial Sword Style. Omni-Slash" The two sword waves clashed and destroyed each other. Alex''s Phoenix finally arrived. "Boom!" "Did it hit him?" Alex frowned. When the smoke cleared. He saw a broken black ball in the sky. Inside of it is Edmund. "What is that fire, it has the same power with my flame. Impossible. Your fire¡­" "Fire?" Alex was confused. His teacher defeat with a person with this ability back then. But was he defeat him because he is stronger? Or because his fire is stronger? But his current flame is the fake flame produced by Phoenix Fire Seed. He soon comes to a realization. "I see, that was the answer all along" Alex suddenly walked to the front. "I''m sorry. Can you guys leave him to me? I think it is my destiny to kill him" while secretly adding ''thanks to my Master''s raising the flag'' in his heart. "Alex?" "Sir Alexander? No, I won''t let you do that. Our opponent is¡­" Elven Queen seems to desperately denied his idea. "Elven Queen Shelfia" Alex smiled. "Look, even the Dwarf Leader seems can''t join the fight anymore" "Ugh¡­ Ashamed. If I know the enemy is like this. I will bring all my collection here." "You are stronger than me and recognized by our Divine Tree. If that is your will. I will abide by it." The centaur leader suddenly spoke. "Centaur Leader. You-" The Elven Queen wants to retort him. The Centaur Leader only smiled at her. "Teacher" Alex turned to his Teacher. "You- if you die here. I will fight him to death" The dean still grumbling with himself. Alex only smiled at him before turning to Elven Queen. "Fine! Just remember, I will join again if you can''t take it. Remember, you can treat me as your meat shield" ''Why did you say those misunderstanding words right now?'' Alex scratched his cheek. "Thanks" "Ho, you have said your goodbye with them? Do you think you can kill me with you alone? Even if you all fight me together you can''t beat me" "Haha" Alex laughed. "Why are you laughing, you brat?" "No, I just realize that you are dumb" "I am dumb? You are courting death" "That''s right. You are dumb. Can''t you even understand why I want to fight you alone? It''s mean that I alone am enough to fight you. You dumbass" "You Brat. I will kill you!" Alex took out his another spear from his gacha inventory. Then he throws his sword to the ground. "Haha, you want to fight me with only that spear? With the way, I see it you are only courting death. Though you suddenly pulled out something like that means you have a space element that startled me a bit. You will die today" "Haha, no way I fight you with this spear alone" Alex took out another weapon from his inventory. A golden sword suddenly appeared in his hand. It brimmed with very powerful energy which all of the people present never see in their life. It was far stronger than any kind of sword they have seen. Alex clenched the sword tightly. ''As expected of Grandmaster rank Sword. It was really different'' "I see, so that sword is your confidence lie. But it was all useless. I will burn that sword to dust with my Fire" "Is that so? Then how about I give you the reason why I alone am enough to deal with you" Alex smirker "Hmph" "Fire Phoenix Seed. Burst Out." The Fire Phoenix seed inside his body revolving like crazy before bursting out. The Pure Fire that suppressed in there spread out and even gushing out of Alex''s body. The flame makes him look very majestic. That pure bright flame makes all the people present who had a fire element want to kneel in front of him. He was like a Fire Lord that governs over Fire. And finally, he said"PURE FIRE ON!" He raised his sword in his right hand, he clenched his spear on his left hand. "Let''s fight" 124 Alex vs Edmund With the Pure Fire blazing around his body, with a sword in his right hand and with a spear in his left hand. He smiled, "It''s time for round two" "Wha- what is that flame?" Edmund was startled when he saw Alex flame suddenly become fiercer. "Begone. Dark Flame, swallow everything!" A snake shape dark flame charged toward Alex. Alex only smirked. "Dark Flame huh¡­ A flame that corroded the body and swallow their energy. Thus enhancing the user power. That is the reason why you need to kill so many innocent people." "Shut up. They should be proud to become a sacrifice for me, the only rank 9 in the world" Alex shook his head. He raised two of his fingers up to his chest. He swung it horizontally. "Fire Phoenix Art. First Stage. Summon Phoenix" A phoenix comes from his finger, it''s flying toward the black snake. A clashed between Red Phoenix and Black Snake. Sadly, the battle ended in an instant. "What? No way. Is there really no hope to deal with that flame?" Dean Marco looked desperately at the clash. He knows perfectly how powerful a Pure Fire element. But, that flame¡­ The clash between Red Phoenix and Black Snake in the sky, the winner is Black Snake. The Black Snake swallows the Red Phoenix. Although after swallowing the red phoenix, inside the belly of the black snake glowing a bright red light. It becomes dimmer as the time pass before it completely disappears. All people lost hope in Alex''s side lost hope. There is really no way to counter that flame. "Haha, you might startle me a bit with your flame. But your flame can''t defeat my Dark Flame" Alex smirked. "Is that so?" As he said those words, the bright red color suddenly starts glowing again, it becomes brighter and brighter. The snake suddenly is in fire. The fire consumes the black snake bit by bit before it completely disappeared. Back then, he was confused when his teacher told him that he created this technique to be his shield and sword. Finally, right now, he knows the exact reason why his teacher taught him ''Fire Phoenix Art'' and the reason behind his words. It was because this technique was tailor-made for Pure Fire Element. Because his teacher also has a pure fire element. He created this technique. It wasn''t only to conceal his ''Pure Fire Element'' with ''Fire Phoenix Seed''. If the one who uses this technique uses his Pure Fire. Just like its name, Phoenix. "Cry!" A loud phoenix cry was heard on the battlefield. The phoenix that all people thought extinguished, suddenly reborn, like the legend. It extinguished the Black Snake from within and flying toward Edmund. "Pure Fire Element. But others might also call it, Absolute Flame. In front of Absolute Flame, All fire bow down. you want to extinguish an Absolute Flame with your puny flame? You can''t. just like a phoenix that keep reborn continuously. You can''t extinguish the Absolute Flame" Alex said, "Go" "What?" Edmund was shocked. He immediately makes a big ball shield that covers him inside it. "Dark Flame Shield" The Phoenix engulfed the big ball instantly. "Boom!" The crowds were anxious. Especially the Zircodina side, they were really worried at this moment. When the smoke was cleared. They saw Edmund holding his left hand in the air. Although his left hand still usable, it was burned by Alex pretty badly. Edmund was angered, now that he experienced it himself. He knew Alex''s element. It was in the record, the one who defeated the one who holds this power is¡­"You have the same element as him. The one who defeated the previous holder of this Dark Flame and ascend from this world. But! It was because he was weak, even if your flame can fight my Dark Flame, but you are only a rank 8 while I''m a rank 9. If I give you a time to grow, you might become a treat for me. I will kill you here" After he said that, he disappeared. Alex raised his sword. Edmund suddenly appeared in front of him and swung his sword down. "That is¡­Sword intent" Alex forgot about this. There is no way a powerful warrior like him not to have a Sword Intent. He clad his sword with Sword Intent too, "Immovable Step" To counter Edmund''s attack, he needs to use ''Immovable Step''. After all, Edmund is originally a rank 9 warrior. Alex was pinned down to the ground. Edmund take a few steps back and pointed his finger toward Alex. "Pierce" He used the same move as when he pierced Leyfon''s hand. Alex used his spear and make a thrusting movement. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce. Plus Pure Fire" The usual laser beam like spear technique now charging toward Edmund to meet his attack. But, this time Alex covers it with his Pure Fire. Two techniques clashed each other, Alex''s Spear Technique easily destroy Edmund''s attack. It pierced Edmund''s attack and grazed him in his cheek. "I see, I now can see how to deal with you" As he said that, he disappeared again. Alex frowned. "Sky Movement. Flash Step" They appeared at the same time in the sky, They clashed their sword at each other. A powerful shockwave birth from the clash shock the battlefield. The leaders from all factions immediately shield their own soldiers from the shockwave. They clashed each other. The clashed between two sword intent. Alex used his ''Sky Step'' and combined it with the other steps such as ''Immovable Step'' to counter his power, ''Fleeting Step'' to confuse him, ''Flash Step'' to counter his speed, or ''Heavy Step'' to give a power boost if he attacks from above. After clashing for more than fifty rounds, Alex finally understood. The opponent in front of him. Even though his attack looks like a frontal and reckless attacks, the truth is different. Edmund used a soft approach in his sword. He was wary of Alex''s sword. If he didn''t use the soft approach, his sword would be cut to two by Alex''s sword. But¡­as expected of a rank 9 warrior, he still can give a powerful attack using a soft approach. On the ground, Dean Marco and the rest along with the five leaders watch the intense battle. The dean can''t help but smile. "He becomes much stronger again in this short time" "Centaur Leader, are you sure you want to fight him in his full strength?" Dwarf leader asked. He recalled that the Centaur Leader seems to say something like that back in the throne room. "Our Centaur loves to fight a powerful person like that. But, if I really fight him now, I don''t think I will hold for more than fifty moves, he still has his fire to boot" In the Holy Kingdom camp, The pope, Sandra, and Maria along with the soldiers were utterly shocked. "What a shock, a youth less than twenty years old, currently fighting the strongest person, the only rank 9 in the world. And that youth was banished by his own kingdom. What a shame, if that youth come to our Holy Kingdom, it will be a blessing upon us" The pope said as he shook his head. Maria was dumbfounded. Is that really the youth she met back in the castle? Is that really a useless person on Earth? After almost two years not seeing him, The powerless youth who had lifeless eyes back then currently fighting the strongest person in the world. On the other hand, Sandra can''t say anything, she can only look down, her lips trembled, and her eyes burned as she tried to keep her tears at bay. Maria who noticed her current state, hold her tightly. On the other hand, in the Zircodina camp, the Previous Marshall, who knows Alex the most among Zircodina camp, bitterly shakes his head. If their king won, no matter what the others said, whether he was a mass murderer or tyrannical. They would dare to say that. But, if they lose, not only they would be mocked, their entire kingdom will also be in peril. Even though he didn''t agree with the method of the Previous King, he can''t help but hope that they won. If not, their kingdom will¡­ There is another person that angered to the point he was insane. He looked at the youth fighting in the sky. His eyes become bloodshot. ''That ant¡­that ant, on Earth, he is nothing but an ant to me. But¡­but¡­" He was very unwilling to recognize the powerful youth in front of him and he didn''t want to recognize that he is the same ''Ant'' compared to him. Alex continue clashing with Edmund. But, after more than a hundred clashes, Edmund starts pressing him, suddenly a gap present in Alex''s defense. "Sh*t" Edmund took that chance and kick his head with a round kick. "Boom!" Alex crashed to the ground. All the people in Acacia side immediately flew to him, but when they just about to go to him, they suddenly heard a groan. But, it wasn''t from the ground, instead, it came from the sky. They looked at the sky and found that Edmund clutches his foot in pain. They were confused. Wasn''t Alex the one that got kick? Why was Edmund clutches his foot like he is in pain?" Alex who was crushed on the ground didn''t feel pain, he covered his body with mana before he crashed to the ground. But, he was confused. He didn''t feel any pain in his head. "Wuu" Suddenly, he heard Sherry''s voice ringing in his head. With Sherry''s sudden appearance, he remembers, he got an SR item called Unbreakable Helmet. He equipped it, though it wasn''t visible, the effect is still there. Just like when he tried to punch his foot when he equipped the Safety Shoes. Right now, it is the same. He came to a realization. ''That''s right. I didn''t fight alone. I still have the system, and I still have¡­'' Alex regained his focus, he stood up and said. "Sherry, I will leave my Fire control to you. I will fight him in close range. Hit him or restrain him with my Fire" "Wuu Wuu" Alex smiled. before the smoke cleared because of his crash, he already disappeared. He appeared in front of Edmund and swung his sword down. Edmund immediately raised his sword to block it. But because his current position was at disadvantage, He was blown away and crashed to the ground. "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Seventh Slash" After he crashed to the ground, Edmund immediately stood up, "Zircodina Imperial Sword Style. Omni-Slash" Two sword waves clashed, but surprisingly, the two sword waves were at the same power. They both destroy each other. Although Alex surprised, he immediately reacted, "Sherry" A barrage of Fire Arrows raining down to Edmund''s position. When everyone thought that Alex managed to hit him. Edmund counter the Fire Arrows with his fire. "Though, I can''t extinguish your Pure Fire. They can be destroyed as long as they hit a target. I never expected that your head was that hard. But I wonder if all of them was that hard" Edmund charged toward Alex. They both clashed again. This time, Sherry help him in controlling numerous Fire Arrows to restrict Edmund''s movement. Because of that, they come to a standstill. Edmund can''t press Alex again. But there is still a difference in power and stamina for Rank 8 and rank 9. Alex''s movement starts to slow down and Edmund starts pressing him again. "Haha, This is the Difference in rank" "Is that so?" Alex didn''t panic even though he begins to be at the disadvantage again. Instead, he felt great. He didn''t know why but he felt that he get stronger each time they clashed. Alex continue clashing with Edmund, "Stronger, Faster, Stronger, Faster" Even though Alex got suppressed by Edmund and his movement starts to slow down. Alex''s movement becomes more precise. His attack holds weightier each time he attacks. He starts to get familiar with this movement. After that, his movement starts becoming faster and faster. "What?" Edmund was shocked, In this battle, Alex becoming stronger and stronger every time they clashed. In this world where Level is equal to strength. Alex''s improvement was out of his expectation. Theirs becomes a standstill once more. "Stronger, Faster, Stronger, Faster!" That''s all in Alex''s thought. He raised his sword, suddenly, He felt a warm feeling all over his body. "What is that feeling?" But because of that feeling, his focus wandered for an instant. But in that instant, Edmund didn''t let him go. "Argh" Alex was cut all over his body by Edmund. Fortunately, it was only superficial wounds. "Alex!" Dean Marco and the rest wanted to charge toward him, but Alex immediately charged toward Edmund again, he seems to say that he is alright with his action. Alex follows the warm feeling while fighting Edmund. Edmund raised his sword. "This is why Zircodina is known as a superpower. Zircodina Imperial Sword Style. Last Strike. Ultima" A tyrannical sword wave made its way toward Alex. This sword wave was far stronger than the previous. Even Alex''s Elemental Seventh Slash won''t be able to win this sword strike. Alex didn''t panic, on the other hand, he wasn''t bothered by this. In his mind, there is only a thought "Stronger, Faster, STRONGER!" His mana was released from his body. And his Pure Fire gushing out from his body. And in the middle of it, Alex was surprised. It might be because of that wine that he got close to that but finally in this battle, he¡­"Broke through! Peak Qi Manipulation" "FASTER!" "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Eighth Slash" 125 Alex vs Edmund 2 "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Eighth Slash" Alex released another sword wave, and its power is the same as Edmund''s sword strike. Both of the sword strike clashed each other and destroy each other. Because of their clash, another shockwave vibrate the battlefield. This time, even the demon side felt this shockwave. In the demon headquarters. They are in a meeting before suddenly a powerful shockwave vibrates the battlefield. The demons immediately stood up. "What is that?" The demon that Alex met back then stood up and ask. The current demon king, Zhar Dias Volmion 77th "We don''t know, young lord" The one who answered him is the one who saves Alex when he fought a rank 7 centipede. "Immediately send the scout" Not long after, a messenger came in, "Report. There is a big fight in the Human''s camp. It seems they are fighting among themselves" "Good work" Zhar said. The old man beside him suddenly said, "Young lord. Now that there is infighting among the human. It is the best time for us to attack them. We can finish them off in a single sweep" Zhar pondered for a moment, he recalled a youth that saves him back in Sagur Forest. ''It seems that you are too late'' he thought. He stood up, "Alright. Now is the best time for us to finish those humans. We will attack now" "Yes" In three minutes, all the demon soldiers have gathered and ready to fight. "All soldiers, hear me. The humans are fighting among themselves, It''s the best time for us to finish them off in a single sweep. We will destroy the human now. All troops Charge" "Uoooo! Kill the HUMAN!" The demons start marching toward the Humans side. Not long after, they see the human encampment. "Milord, The human encampment is in sight" "All troops, Charge!" "Uooo" But, just when they are about to charge. There are more than twenty figures that suddenly appeared in front of them. The demons were shocked. They should not able to appear here. After all, they face a very big problem. But to see that they suddenly appear in front of them¡­ "Why are you Demi-humans appear in here?" One of the generals of the Demon race suddenly appear in front of them and ask. "We just want to stop this war." The Elven Queen with her peerless beauty suddenly walked gracefully to the front and said. "Hmph. You want to stop this war? What a joke. This is the best time to finish the humans. Move aside!" "Is that so? We can only stop you here" The Elven Queen lead the other four along with their rank 7 commanders to stop the demon. They released their mana signaling they are ready to fight. they are in a standstill. The demon can''t recklessly fight those demi-humans, because they recognize all of the face present. They are the Five Race Leaders. ¡­ In the meantime, Alex continues his clash with Edmund. Now he broke through. He starts to gain the upper hand. "How¡­how can you get stronger?" Edmund was startled with his improvement. He didn''t know that Alex had a breakthrough. But he knows that Alex''s become far stronger. He starting to get suppressed by Alex. He is unwilling. There is only one more way for him. The dark flame suddenly gushed out from his body and enveloped him. ''Is he trying to do something?'' Alex frowned, "I won''t let you! Fire Phoenix Art. First Stage. Phoenix Summon" Alex shot another fire phoenix toward Edmund. "Boom!" The crowds were anxious, especially those from Zircodina. Edmund take those attack head-on When the smoke cleared. They can see a figure standing on the ground. There is no wound in his body. Instead, his appearance has changed. His hands become pitch black, his white eyes become black and his black eyes become bloodshot. His appearance becomes like a devil. "Hahaha! I never thought that I need to use my last resource. After using this technique, I will die. But I will drag all of the people here, along with those demi-humans and demons with me." Edmund walks slowly. "Do you think that I only fed those people in three towns. NO! I already feast another ten towns. Taste this power! Zircodina Imperial Sword Style. Last Strike. Ultima" Alex frowned, he used his previous move to counter this attack. "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Eight Slash!" The two sword waves clashed again and the battlefield vibrates once more. But this time, Alex''s sword wave suddenly got sliced by Edmund''s Strike. The sword strike continue flying toward Alex. "I can''t dodge. Sh*t" Alex can''t dodge this attack. "Flame Armor!" "Wuu! (Flame Armor!)" Sherry adds another layer of Flame Armor. "BOOM!" Everyone can see. After that clash, they saw a big cut wound on Alex''s body. Everyone from Zircodina cheers, especially John, ''Just Die! This is not your era, I will make sure to make your woman die the cruelest death'' "Cough!" Alex spat out blood. He is bleeding. He immediately took out a few pills and swallow it. But the wound still not closed. Dean Marco, Draco, and Leyfon disappeared, they want to help him. But suddenly, The rank 8 from Zircodina and Holy kingdom get in their way. "Move!" Marco was angered. "Over my dead body" They started their fight too. Meanwhile, Alex was in thought. Now that his body experienced it. He can feel the attack. It''s not because its power is stronger than his sword wave that it managed to slice his Elemental Sword Wave. There is another thing that he felt missing from his Sword Wave. It wasn''t an element, power, or speed. Alex came to a realization. "Sword Intent!" "That sword strike just now contained sword intent. Sending a sword intent flying with a sword strike." That''s right, he never thought of combining his sword intent with his sword wave. He will practice his sword intent too after this, but for now, there is an enemy in front of him that he needs to kill first. ''But can I combine it now? No! that''s not it. to kill him, I will combine it now!'' "But how can I hit him with that even if I can combine it? I have used my all" Alex desperately search for a way to defeat Edmund. "Wuu(Master)" Sherry''s voice came to his mind, she called him ''Master'' and because of it, Alex came to a realization, "That''s right, Master! I still have another identity" Alex swallowed a few more pills, but the cut wound still hasn''t closed. Edmund charged toward him "Die!" They begin their clash again. Alex stored his spear and face Edmund with his sword alone. "Haha, you abandon your spear" Edmund thought that Alex has given up. He thought he will win this fight. Alex didn''t fly. He continues fighting Edmund in the ground. It makes Edmund sure that he is only buying time, it is only a matter of time before he exhausted and die. With blood continue seeping out from his wound. Alex occasionally takes a pill. They fought for another hundred rounds before suddenly Alex stop and coughed blood. Edmund also stops, he laughed "Haha, I give you one last chance. I will plant a curse in you and you will give your eternal loyalty to my Zircodina Kingdom. You can marry my granddaughter Rieze if you want" Alex smirked, "Is that so? You need to have the ability to kill me first" "Hmph, you don''t even realize your own condition" "Who is the one who didn''t realize their own situation?" Alex smiled, he raised his hand, "Body Chain Array. Activate!" Suddenly, there is a bright glow from the ground. If they inspect it closely, the glow comes from the Blood that continues seeping out from Alex''s body and splattered on the ground. When Alex swallowed pills occasionally, it wasn''t a healing pill, instead, it was the Blood Replenishing Pill. He continues to replenish his blood. If he used the monster''s blood. Edmund will realize his unusual action, but if he used his own blood. He moved around while fighting Edmund was to draw this array on the ground with his blood. Then he baited him to the center of this array before he takes a few steps back and spat some blood to make him think that he almost died, Edmund will drop his guard if that happens. And now is the best chance to use it. The array was glowing as a few chains appeared from the ground and bind Edmund. Alex covered his sword with his sword intent. He will imbue his sword strike with sword intent. He raised his sword carefully. A tyrannical sword wave starting to fuse with his flame. With that, he knows, this is the best chance he gets. With the sword intent fused with his flame, there seems to be a connection to the sword, because of the sword intent, the sword giving its strength to this attack, It was like a new gate for Alex, he finally grasped how to use this sword properly. Before he just using its sharpness, but now, he used the sword full strength. He swung his sword down. "Sanguin Sword Art. Ninth Slash" A powerful sword wave made its way toward Edmund. "Haha, you think that these chains can hold me down? You are wrong? Even I can''t move from my position, I can still move my hands and feet. Take this! Zircodina Imperial Sword Style. Last Strike. Ultima" The two sword waves clashed again. "That was the purpose of that. I need to make sure that you can''t move from that position. As for your strike¡­ That won''t be necessary anymore" "What do you me¡­" Before he finished his words, He saw his sword strike got cut by Alex''s sword wave. Alex''s sword wave continue flying on his way. He struggled to escape from the chain but to no avail. He raises his sword to block Alex''s sword wave. But sadly, with the addition of his sword intent. His sword immediately split to two and he is too, split into two. Alex didn''t stop, he immediately disappeared. Dean Marco still fighting those guys from the Holy Kingdom and Zircodina, they haven''t realized that Edmund had been killed. Suddenly Alex appeared between them, He swung his sword to the current rank 8 Marshall from Zircodina. "What?" He was startled, instinctively used his sword to block it. But unfortunately, Unlike Edmund, he blocks Alex''s sword in a hard way, because of that, Alex''s sword sliced his sword along with his hand like a tofu. Another rank 8 died, he underestimated Alex and Edmund''s power in that fight. "Alex!" All of them were surprised, but the Dean was very happy at this moment. With his appearance, he immediately confirm Edmund''s death and shouted. "Zircodina Previous King, Edmund had been slain by Alexander Sirius!" "Uooo!" The soldiers from Acacia Kingdom immediately roared. "Let''s stop here!" Alex said Zircodina Previous Marshall along with the pope and his paladin were dumbfounded. The Previous Marshall immediately looked toward Edmund''s direction but only to see a pair of his body on the ground lifelessly. The pope was shocked too, But now they were in cahoots, he sweatdropped. The youth in front of him can kill rank 9 warrior. That means¡­ On the other hand, the paladin beside the pope spoke. "Even though he can kill him, he now severely injured and can''t do another surprise attacks, I will kill him right now!" As he said that he charged toward Alex. But the same as the previous one, he underestimated Alex too much. Alex sliced his sword easily and behead his head. Another rank 8 paladin now died in his hand. Alex pointed his sword to Zircodina Previous Marshall and the Pope. "Who wants to fight me again?" Those two can''t speak at all. Alex continued, "If you think that you can kill me because this wound, then it''s easy" Alex swallowed a few pills, this time it was the healing pills, not Blood Replenishing Pill. His wound started closing with the speed visible with naked eyes. Those two dumbfounded, while there is a sly grin on Dean Marco''s mouth. He immediately went to Alex and took out his pouches. "That''s right! Who wants to fight? Here take this Alex, I still have many pills" The shameless old fox said all his pieces. Alex shook his head and gave those two cold gaze. "Zircodina¡­surrender" "Holy Kingdom surrender" Seeing that Zircodina previous king died and Alex healing his wound, he knew there is no other way beside surrender to him. "But¡­ There is still something I need to do" Alex disappeared. The dean knew what he wanted to do, he also disappeared, he wanted to watch his student finally free from his past from up close. The moment he appeared he already in front of John. Everybody was startled, especially John. "You- You Bastard! You are the one who ruined my future. If you are not here. You are only the one who got dragged to this world. You are just a mob. While I am a Hero!" John was desperate. "Yes. You are a Hero" Alex said nonchalantly, "But your ''Hero'' should be written ''HEro'' instead of ''Hero" "What do¡­You!" Before he finished his words, John suddenly understood his meaning. "Oh, as expected of a lustful ''hero''. You know what I mean" Alex mock him. The dean looked at him with a confused face. His curiosity got the best of him, He can''t help but ask him "What do you mean about ''HEro''?" "Teacher know about me come from a different world, right?" The dean nodded. "In my previous world. There is a meaning if I separate them" "You mean to separate them to ''H'' and ''Ero''?" "Yes" "But, what exactly they mean?" "the former mean perverted things and the latter mean Lewd things" "But, aren''t they the same thing?" The dean was confused. "That''s exactly the reason. ''Lewd+Perverted=Lustful Hero'' that is the meaning" Alex giggled. "Pfft" Dean Marco can''t help but laugh loudly. "Bahaha¡­ HEro, Hahaha¡­ I have learned. Maybe later, we don''t need a ''hero''. What we need is something else. If not, we might need to keep our daughter inside our house" "You!" The hero was angered to death. He raised his sword. Alex kicks his ball. Because of that kick, the hero crutch on the floor in pain. "Hmm, even though it wasn''t there anymore, it still hurt huh¡­" Alex said casually. Alex grabs John''s head. Not long after, many symbols appeared on his face. "You love sex, right? I will give it to you before your death" John suddenly didn''t let out a sound. One minute¡­Two minutes¡­ After three minutes, suddenly foam start appearing from his mouth. Not long after, he died. "Alex, what did you do?" "I just fulfill his wish. Since he loves sex. I give him what he wants before he died" "Ho¡­ That is your mouth spouting a vague reason. The detail, please¡­" The dean said. He was curious about what Alex did just now. 126 Debt and Gratitude "The Detail, please" "Well, I just made an illusion for him. He got raped by countless monsters inside the illusion and he can''t take it and die because of it." The dean shivered, "You are an evil student ain''t you." "As I said previously. I said he loves sex, not to f*ck some women. So I gave him the thing he loved¡­ literally." After he killed John, there seems to be a burden that lifted up from his body. He looked at the sky, he didn''t know why but he felt that the sky become brighter. Then he looked toward Zircodina soldiers. The soldiers immediately shivered, Zircodina Previous Marshall, Brandon immediately appeared in front of them. "Young Alexander. The soldiers didn''t have anything to this" But suddenly, Zircodina Princess, Rieze went to the front. She kneeled in front of him with her head touching the ground "Alexander, Please spare the soldiers, they didn''t have anything to do with this. If you want to kill someone, then kill me. It''s fine to make me your slave, you can do anything to me. Just please spare them" And with that, another Elven Queen born. Alex narrowed his eyes. "Killing all the innocent people from many towns and you think that I will spare the kingdom who did that? If I didn''t manage to kill your previous king. Will he spare Acacia Kingdom? No! That''s why I will¡­" Before he finished, Dean Marco grabs his shoulder. "Alex¡­ don''t be blinded" With those vague words, Dean Marco stopped Alex. Alex took a couple of long breaths. "I''m sorry, Teacher." That''s right, he almost did the same thing as Edmund. He didn''t know where it came from, is that from his hatred toward John? Or because all of it started from Zircodina? From the summoning thing, hero, banishment, etc. His eyes almost got clouded, He adjusted his mind again. He almost makes his system become ''Bad Luck Gacha System''¡­ Just kidding. Marco sees Alex''s expression and nodded satisfied. He then turned to Brandon and Rieze. "Zircodina Kingdom will have 20% of their wealth for the reparation for the town they had ruined" "And the head of their current king!" Alex add another condition "Father? Please, you can do anything to me, please spare him" Rieze was shocked, she begged him desperately. "Do you know why he started the war?" "The reason my father started the war?" "You don''t know, right? If his eyes weren''t blinded by greed, he won''t start a war like this!" Alex said coldly. He looked at Brandon, "It seems that you have known the reason." "Yes. I only know about it two months ago. I investigate it personally" "Then, you know why I wanted your king head, right?" Brandon can''t help but nod. Rieze was confused, "Teacher?" "Ignorant is a bliss" Alex looked at the ignorant princess. "I will tell you later" Brandon said bitterly. He looked at Alex, "If you are not satisfied, I will offer my head too. That way, the kingdom won''t be able to become Acacia Kingdom Threat anymore" "No, we won''t have your head. After this, the situation in your kingdom will become unstable, if you are dead, what will happen to your student? She will become the target, whether she will become a slave, raped or killed. The details will be discussed later" Dean Marco said. "You satisfied with this, right?" Alex nodded. Well, it is true. After this incident, the position of the Royal Family will be unstable, whether the princes will fight for the thrones or the Nobles will rebel. The princess in front of him will be their target or their trophy, and if Brandon died in here. Her fate will be a tragic one. "Do you want to add something more?" Marco asked, "Oi, where are you going?" After that, he didn''t say anything and starts walking again. And his destination is¡­ "Alex¡­" The pope immediately went in front of the two women. "Sir Alexander" "I don''t have any business with you. Scram!" Alex blew him away. Alex looked at Sandra. He took out his sword and pointed it on her. Suddenly, Maria walked in front of her. She grabbed Alex''s sword and pointed it at her heart. "I''m sorry. I can''t do anything for you back then. If you wanted to kill someone, just kill me, please spare her life" "Back when we are on Earth. In that useless and hard life. I continued living before my world suddenly change to be better. From the aimless lifestyle, I got a purpose. Just for a smile that makes my colorless world brighter. I work hard. But all of it just for naught. That day, I thought of committing suicide a few times. And you think I will stop here just because of you? I can pass you easily" Alex coldly said. "She¡­she also have got a rough life in here. John beat her continuously. If you wanted to kill someone, just kill me, this is the last thing I can do for my childhood friend. So please¡­" Maria begged him desperately, tears started falling down from her eyes, she clenched the sword tightly, the tip of the sword pierce her skin, the blood seeped out from the spot. "I know. I heard it from Ayaka" "Ayaka? have you met her? But I think she¡­" "She is in Elven Territory, at the very least I''m sure that she won''t be mistreated and able to lead a happy life there" "You really met her? So, she is alive, I''m glad" Alex looked at her, he clenched her sword before pulling it away and stored it back. "This is not the last thing you can do. You are a kind woman. I''m sure that the one who has you as his wife will be happy" Maria bitterly smiled. "But, I''m satisfied with this. I think I won''t have anyone in my life. I am fed up with ''Relationship'' and I''m sure that I will be happier this way" Alex silently looked at her beautiful face. He walked toward Sandra. Sandra can only look down in his presence with guilt. Alex put his hand on her stomach. "Argh!" She groaned in pain. "Alex, you¡­" Maria was shocked. Not long after, Alex pulls his hand off, Sandra fell down to the ground. He looked toward Maria, "I won''t kill her, but she still needs to pay the price. I have planted a seal on her stomach, she won''t be able to get stronger even if she kills monsters. That is the last thing that I don''t want to budge." "But¡­" When she opened her mouth, Alex holds her mouth a bit and fed her a healing pill before her wound closed because of the pill. "Because of your kindness today and on that night, I will spare her life. I know that I''m not qualified to say this but I wish you happiness. Goodbye" Alex walked toward the Dean. Maria bitterly looks at his fading back and muttered, "I wish that I fall in love with you before I fed up with ''Relationship''. Goodbye¡­I wish you happiness too" while adding ''But please don''t use words that invite misunderstanding like ''That Night'', Alright?'' ¡­ "Teacher, I have finished my business" Marco nodded, "We will chase the five leaders. We will hold three races meeting to stop this war" Alex nodded. Marco leads him to Leyfon and Draco. "This is our Marshall, Draco and you already knew Leyfon, right?" "So this is your student" Draco inspect him up and down. "Young Alex, we met again. Haiz, I really wished that you also become my grandson-in-law" "You jest Sir Leyfon, Please don''t say it to someone who will hold his marriage in a month time" Alex said, he turned to Draco "Alexander Sirius greet Marshall Draco" "Haha, no need to be polite with me. You are far stronger than me. I can''t accept that." Alex scratched his cheek, he turned to the unconscious old man. The old man''s eyes suddenly budge. He opened his eyes slowly. "Your Majesty" "Old Bryan" "What happened? I think I met Zircodina Previous King, Edmund. Didn''t I die?" "Haha, you haven''t died, Alex has defeated Edmund. Alex, greet your grandfather-in-law" "Alexander Sirius greet grandfather-in-law. I am sorry that I haven''t visited you all this time" "So you are Alicia''s¡­I see. you have defeated him. It''s not your fault, I am the one who didn''t want to visit you. Just call me grandfather or grandpa" "Yes, grandfather" Bryan nodded. Marco said, "We will hold the meeting of three races. I will go meet them after this. Old Bryan, just rest first. Draco and Leyfon will give you the details" "Alright", Bryan "Then, I will excuse myself, Grandfather" "Haha, don''t be too stiff" Marco looked at Alex, "are you ready?" "I will change first. After all, if I come like this, It won''t be convincing enough" as he said that he disappeared, not long after, he came back, using new brand clothes. "Teacher" Marco nodded. They went to another battlefield. ¡­ The Five leaders who block the invasion of Demon race. The Centaur Leader currently fighting with a rank 8 demon general. "You have promised to move aside if I won, right?", The demon "Hmph. Say that after you beat me" The Centaur Leader didn''t go on the offensive this whole time. He just buying time for Alexander. When they were about to clash again. Suddenly, a shadow appeared between them. The shadow swings his sword. He blew the Centaur Leader''s sword and the demon general sword. The centaur leader was surprised but when he finally saw who is the shadow that suddenly appeared. He smiled, "Young Alexander" "Sir Alexander" "Young Alexander" The demi-humans knows him. Now that he is the one who appeared here. That means¡­ "Young¡­No, I should call you Sir Alexander now. Sir Alexander, for you to appear in here, that means you have¡­" Alex nodded. "Thank you for giving me time to do that" "No, it was our job" Dean Marco shouted, "We want to hold the three races meeting" "What? You, humans, want to¡­ Scram. We won''t agree to it" "That''s right we will kill all those human bastards" "Demihuman races agree to it" The Elven Queen announced it loudly. Alex gave her a nod. He looked toward the demons and found the familiar-looking demon. If he wasn''t wrong, then he must be the Current Demon Lord. His name should be¡­Zhar whatever 77th. He looked at Zhar. His eyes seem telling him ''What are you going to do?'' Zhar pondered for a moment when he saw Alex. He knew that Alex wants to stop the war. But now the situation is like this, their race gains an upper hand in this war. Stopping like this is a bit¡­ "The Demihuman have agreed to it. What should the decision of you?" Marco said while looking at the old demon that was beside Zhar. Then he turned to Zhar "Or it should be you, the current demon king. What is your decision?" Zhar looked at the old demon beside him. "It''s up to you, Young Lord" After he thought about the pros and cons, he finally decided. "Demon Race also agree to it" "A good choice" Marco said. His tone was like he was looking down on them. The old demon can''t take that tone. He appeared in front of him. "Ho, Even though we have agreed to it. But your tone¡­I don''t like it" "I don''t have any intention to offend you. It just that if you reject it. You race will take the full offensive from the two races" "Do you think they will agree to attack us with you?" "Of course we will" The Elven Queen suddenly appeared beside them. "You¡­" The Elven Queen wasn''t bothered with him. She ignored him and went to Alex. "Sir Alexander. Are you alright?" Alex nodded, "Thank you. If all of you didn''t stop them, the situation might be bad" "No no, this is our job. We are indebted to you" "You see it?" Marco mock the old demon, "Not only you will take the full attacks from us, You will also offend the only Rank 9 in the world" "So, you are saying that the humans have a rank 9?" He didn''t believe it. after all, he knows how hard it is to reach rank 9. "Of course, and He is here" "So, you are the rank 9. I will taste the power of a rank 9 first" "No, I''m not the one" "You are not the one?" The old demon suddenly comes to a realization, he looked at Alex. He didn''t believe the youth in front of him is a rank 9. But he recalled when he appeared and blew away the swords from Centaur Leader and Demon General. But he still can''t believe, a youth less than twenty become the only rank 9 in the world. It was very unbelievable. He went to Alex. "So you are the one. I don''t believe that" "You want to test it?" "Hmph, I will taste the power of the great ''rank 9" Suddenly, Sherry appeared on top of Alex''s head. "Wuu Wuu (Master, Let me)" "You sure?" "Wuu Wuu Wuu, Wuu Wuu. (He was the one who killed the Centipede back then, but he also wanted to kill you back then. He only stopped because ''that person'' stopped him. He stopped him because you save his life. So there is no favor to owe. That''s why I will be the one who fights him) "I see. I don''t mind. But, I really wish that you can talk like me. After all, it was a bit awkward, talking like this" "Wuu (I do my best)" Sherry jumped off from his head. The flame enveloped her and her body turned to her original form "Wuu" 127 Summon Ticke "Sherry, wait a bit. We are going for a peace talk, but suddenly fighting like this is a bit¡­ Let''s just call it off" "Wuu" "Don''t worry. Even if I got injured. The peace talks will still continue, I will see it objectively." The old demon said. Alex looked at the old demon''s eyes for a while. He then turned to the demon lord who nods his head. "But, the one I want to fight is you" "Wuu Wuu (You''re not qualified)" "Shut up. You are the Fox that I see back then, right? You can talk big now?" "Wuu Wuu (If you want to fight Master, you need to take three of my attacks)" Sherry pointed out three fingers on her cute paw. "Hmph, fine!" "Wuu" "Come!" Sherry releases her flame. But because of her contract with Alex and pretty much linked them and Alex forgot to switch off his Pure Fire. Sherry''s Fire now is the same as him, A Pure Fire. She made numerous Fire Arrows. It raining down toward the demon. The old demon who saw this raised his sword. His sword starts glowing. When the first Fire Arrows almost reached him, He slashes it down with his Sword, one by one. "That''s one. Next!" He didn''t notice that there is a little burn on his hand. Sherry raises her paw and swung it down. A big fire Paw comes from her small paw, it going to whack that old demon head. She has copied all of Alex''s flame skills, including the Fire Phoenix Art. This is the skill that she copied from Alex''s Fire Claw. The old demon felt dread in front of this fire. He still didn''t know this is Alex''s Fire. He raises his sword and swung it down. A sword wave flew toward the Fire Paw. "Boom!" The two attacks destroy each other. The first attack has been neutralized. "That''s two. Next!" But suddenly, Sherry shrunk again to her small form. "Haha, you can''t take it anymore? This is still the second attack" "Sherry?" Alex was confused about why she suddenly went back to her small form. "Wuu Wuu (I got accustomed with this form and now it becomes more comfortable to use this form)" "Is that so¡­ what are you going for the third attack?" "Wuu (It''s a surprise)" Sherry looked at him with a big star on her eyes. Alex didn''t know why but he felt something bad about this. He looked at Sherry who raised her two paws above her head. A big fireball appears. its size was three times her original form. Alex on the side looked at the big fireball. He felt something familiar to that. "Don''t tell me¡­" Sherry swung her paws down, the big fireball flew toward the Old Demon before suddenly become a Fire Phoenix. Alex facepalmed. The old demon saw the big fireball suddenly turned to Phoenix. He was shocked, but more importantly, he got scared of the power of the Phoenix. If he got hit by this, he might be a roasted demon instantly. He dodges to the side and the Phoenix passes him. When he thought he is safe, The Fire Phoenix suddenly turned away and chased him again. Sherry controlling the Phoenix skillfully. He runs away from the Phoenix. Sherry continues to control the Phoenix to continuously chase the Old Demon. "Wuu Wuu Wuu (Don''t run away. Didn''t you say you will take my attack? Take this Phoenix)" The chasing game continues for a while. Sherry happily controlling the Phoenix. The Old Demon regret what he said. If he takes this Phoenix head-on. If not die, he will at least severely injured. Alex looked at her playing for a while, shake his head. He walked to her and pat her head. "Alright. You should stop" "Wuu" Sherry seems a bit reluctant to stop. Alex smiled, "We need to go home soon" "Wuu" Sherry nodded. She raised her paw, the Fire Phoenix stopped chasing the Old demon and flew to the sky. After it reached the sky, it exploded. The explosion was bigger than expected. The Old Demon gulped down, he still underestimated the power of that Phoenix. If he hit by that, he will be burned to dust. Not only him, the demons felt dread at this very moment. "Wuu Wuu Wuu" Sherry looked at the old demon, she crosses her arms and shakes her head. The old demon was angered. But the Demon Lord, Zhar glared at the old demon. "Enough" "Yes. Young Lord" Sherry went back to Alex. After patting her head a few times, she goes back. Alex looked at his Teacher. "The meeting will be held tomorrow in this place. Is there any objection?" Marco announced it loudly There is no objection from the other races. The demon went back to their encampment. The five-race leaders come to him. "It seems that we didn''t need soldiers. Now I feel bad to make them rush to here. They are still on the way, right? We should inform them" Alex said "It''s because of Sir Alexander. Your power alone holds more weight than our soldiers" The Elven Queen said. "I will inform our soldiers to go back first" Alex nodded, "Thank you" ¡­ The next day, in the same place. There are three big races come here together. The Demon race''s representative is their Demon Lord, Zhar. The old demon from yesterday accompany him. From the Demihuman side, All five leaders come together. On the Human side, from Zircodina, Rieze will be the representative while the Old Marshall accompanying her. Holy Kingdom representative is the Pope, Maria accompanying him as a priestess. And the last one, from Acacia Kingdom. Their representative is Alex, while Dean Marco and Bryan accompanying him. After consuming many pills, Bryan has restored his health. Zircodina will pay 20% of their wealth because of their aggression, The Holy Kingdom also needs to pay 3 years worth of revenue. The Demon won''t do anything to them for twenty years. Alex and the Five Leaders become the third party that oversees the peace talks. Because there still no big fight, it was pretty easy to solve them. ¡­ After the peace talks, The demon, Zircodina Kingdom, and Holy kingdom retreat to their respective home. Alex saying his goodbye to five leaders. "Thank you for the help" "Please don''t say it. It''s us who need to thank you for saving our Divine Tree and repairing our Array", The Elven Queen said. "You guys are invited to my wedding" "Sure, we will come" The Elven Queen agreed, the other leaders also nodded. "Ah" "What happened Sir Alexander?" Centaur Leader asked. "No, I am just thinking that Titan Leader didn''t need to come. He will take too much place" "What?" The Titan Leader was shocked. "Haha¡­!!!" All of them laughed happily except the Titan leader who is currently sulking. The dwarf leader unusually laughing too loud. "You are too big. You are going to take too much space." Well, they are a contrast, after all, one is too small and one is too big. "Shut up, you are just too small. Stepping on you was like stepping an ant." The titan leader mocks him "Hoo¡­ You want a go?" "Oh, and maybe Elven Queen didn''t need to come too" The Druid Leader said "Wha- why?" Elven Queen desperately asked. "Back in the party. When you are drunk, you said you wanted to be his S*x slave. Since it is a wedding, there must be wine too. You are a very light drinker. if you are drunk in there and suddenly saying that you, the Elven Queen, wanted to become his slave. Wouldn''t you just ruined his marriage?" "What! I don''t" the Elven Queen looked at Alex. "Sir Alexander, I won''t¡­" Alex drops another bomb to her. "Well, you are beautiful. Won''t you become the center of attention if you come?" "Wha" The other leaders laughed except her and Titan leader. "that''s right. You can''t ruin his marriage" "Then, I will send my daughter to represent me. She can also become one of the brides" "NO!" Alex rejected it immediately. "That''s right. You can''t do that. If he needs another bride, then I think our dwarven girls will be the best choice. Even though we, dwarves, have a small body. We are very vigorous, especially in bed" "No, it should be us, druid, that will become his bride. Druid women are good at taking care of others, Lovely and gentle wife in the day and¡­" "Shut up! You just need to love your wood! The woods in your territory are big, right? Just use those woods to relieve yourself" Centaur Leader retorted him before he finished his words. "I start to regret inviting you all to my wedding¡­" All of them froze. Alex laughed, "Just kidding. Please come to my wedding in one month. See you later" Alex disappeared. ¡­ Dean Marco, Leyfon, and Bryan already go back first. Draco need to lead the soldiers back, so he can only arrive at the Capital a few days later. Alex went back home. He didn''t go to the castle, instead, he went to Rizertia House. He opened the familiar door slowly, there seems to be no one in the house¡­ Well, it might be because his teacher and grandfather-in-law have come home, they go to the castle. Alex goes back to his room. Because too much happening in a short time, he didn''t have any time to rest. Alex sits on the bed. He opened his system. He is curious if stopping the war is one of the special missions. But when he opens the special mission, he was surprised that all of them have been cleared. [Mission 1 (Completed) Objective: Learn the truth behind the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5 (Claimed)] [Mission 2 (Completed) Objective: Stop the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5] [Mission 3 (Completed) Objective: Kill the hero Reward: Premium Ticket x10] He was confused about one thing. "Killing the hero was bigger than stopping the war?" "System?" [In the path of cultivation, The hero is like your heart demon that restricting your path in cultivation. While the war is only another matter that will solve sooner or later. That''s why killing the hero is bigger than stopping the war] Alex now recalled that when he killed John, he felt that the burden in his chest lifted up and his mind become very clear at that moment. "I see" Alex nodded, he claims the rewards for those two missions. Now he has 15 premium tickets. [Mission 1 (Completed) Objective: Learn the truth behind the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5 (Claimed)] [Mission 2 (Completed) Objective: Stop the war Reward: Premium Ticket x5 (Claimed)] [Mission 3 (Completed) Objective: Kill the hero Reward: Premium Ticket x10 (Claimed)] "System, now that I have finished all of them. Will I get any mission later?" [Don''t worry about that, Host. You will get it after you go to the upper world] "Then, how about my normal mission?" [Mission 1 #repeatable Objective: Kill 1500 rank 8 monsters (0/1500) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 2 #repeatable Objective: Kill 400 rank 9 monsters (1/400) Reward: Premium Ticket x1] [Mission 3 #repeatable Objective: Kill 30 rank 10 monsters (0/30) Reward: Premium Ticket x2] "Woah, what the heck. I can only kill those monsters in the dungeon. Whatever, I can''t kill them for now" Alex checked his ticket status. [Gacha Ticket 451x Premium Ticket 15x Dart 0x Summon Ticket 0x] Alex was surprised to see a sudden appearance of Summon Ticket in his panel. "What is this summon ticket?" [Back then, when Host wanted to search your wife between the countless worlds. Host had unconsciously thought about making a faction to help you to search for your wife] "Ah!" Now he remembered about it. Back then, he didn''t have Box of Time that could seal Alicia inside. He assumed that he can only let her die helplessly and search for her reincarnation and somehow help her get her memories back. But now, he has Box of Time with him. His path has changed. His Master, Maxwell, will help him taking care of Alicia and Firia. Now that he thinks about it, the appearance of Green Devil Poison was also unusual. His Master claimed to be a god. But he can''t cure Alicia. What kind of powerful poison is that? Even a god can''t cure it¡­ Maybe he will ask his teacher or investigate it himself. But that was the story for later. The problem now is the appearance of Summon Ticket in front of him. 128 Gacha Time "Hmm, Let use my Premium Ticket First. I have 15 tickets. Okay the first 5xDraws." As usual, the delivery box appears in front of him. He opened It and check the five Gacha balls. [Attribute Orb (SR) Acquired] [Silk Boots (UC) Acquired] [Rainbow Robe (R) Acquired] [Metal Gauntlet (UC) Acquired] [Iron Sword (C) Acquired] It seems that his luck, this time is a bit low. He checked the items one by one starting from the lowest grade. He skipped the Iron Sword since it was a normal Iron Sword. He then moves to the Metal Gauntlet. It is your usual Metal Gauntlet that can be equipped in the system. But he already has a rare rank glove equipped on his hands, so he didn''t need this one. The same with Silk Boots, because he already has a rare rank Safety Shoes, he didn''t need it too. As for the Rainbow Robe, it was literally Rainbow colored Robe. But this robe can also be equipped to the System. Alex took out the Rainbow Robe, the red color starts from the left sleeve and end with purple color in the right sleeve. Alex tried it on, the Rainbow Robe make him sparkle. He facepalmed. Alex was too embarrassed about the clothes. He is fortunate to have the equip function in the system. He can put this on without displaying the robe itself. After equipping the robe to the system. The Robe becomes invisible. After that, he looked at the last item. The last item is SR rank item, Attribute Orb. [Attribute Orb (SR) Use: Enhancing Tools with a random element.] Alex was confused. "System, any explanation for this orb?" [Host can enhance tools with It, it can be your sword, spear, cauldron, etc. For example, if you enhance it to your sword, it will generate a random attribute for the sword, if Host gets a water element, then your sword will become a water element sword. If you got a dark element, then it might get a chance to inflict curse to your opponent. This one is a random orb. You can get a Special Attribute Orb such as Fire Attribute Orb or Water Element Orb. The orb attribute had already fixed. Or another thing that you can get is Special Attribute Orb. It has all the elements within it. That means when you enhance it to your sword. It will generate a random attribute every time you attack your opponent. In other words, your first attack might create a fire element attack while your second attack might generate a water or ice element attack. The Enhance Function still locked. It will be unlocked after you reached the upper world.] "I see. What is this element all about? How many elements are there?" [There are six elements in total. Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder, Light, and Dark] "Well, if I get a Fire Attribute Orb and enhance it to my Sword. It can enhance my fire attribute attack with a sword such as my Elemental Sanguin Sword Art." But something is bugging him, "What about this curse?" [If you got a dark attribute, There is a possibility for you to inflict a curse on your opponent. It can be Slowness, Fatigue, Blindness, poison, etc. in other words, you can slow your opponent down, or make their stamina go down faster, and so on, depending on the curse it generates. The light orb is the opposite. It will give the user a certain chance to inflict a status on yourself. It might enhance your strength, speed, etc.] "Hmm, it seems that the Light and Dark orb is the most useful. While Element such as fire might enhance my elemental attack, but compared to the curse or blessing¡­ Let''s not think about that at the moment. This Attribute Orb will give a random element. I still don''t know which attribute it is." "Whatever, I can''t enhance it for now anyway. Even if I can, I need a spare sword if I get an element that I can''t use. So I will hold it for now until I get a good spare. Alright. Next draw" [Raikou Bow (SR) Acquired] [Master Stage Monster Skin (R) Acquired] [Red Lavender (UC) Acquired] [Summon Ticket x10 (UR) Acquired] [Nonu Root (R) Acquired] He was surprised that he got a UR. But¡­ "Summon Ticket?" [Host can''t get the Summon Ticket directly. It also applied to another Special Ticket too except Dart] "So, I can only get Premium Ticket while I need to get a special ticket such as Summon Ticket from the Premium Ticket?" [Yes. But because Host only has Summon Ticket as one of the special tickets, it will only generate those tickets] "That means there will be many gacha variation later?" [Yes. System hope for Host does his best to upgrade me] "¡­Alright. But why I can''t get Dart from Premium Ticket?" [As Host had experienced it. Dart Roulette is the easiest way for Host to get a UR item. That''s why, for Dart Roulette, you can only get them from Hidden Mission. Ah, please don''t ask me about the Hidden Mission, it is called Hidden Mission because it''s Hidden] "¡­" Well, what the system said is true. He can easily get a UR item like Box of Time in Dart Roulette. "Hidden Mission, huh¡­ Can only hope for luck." "Let''s check the other items first. There are two Medicinal Herbs. I didn''t have any use for Red Lavender, but this Nonu Root¡­ It is one of the ingredients for the rank 2 Pill (Martial Master Pill)." After Maxwell clarified him with pill knowledge. He didn''t say any rank 1 restoration or rank 2 restoration pill anymore. Because the actual rank of pills is equal to Cultivation Stage. That means Rank 1 pill equal to Foundation Stage Pill, Rank 2 pill equal to Master Stage Pill, Rank 3 pill equal to Grandmaster Stage Pill and so on. This ranking also applied to array and weapon/armor. Each rank divided into three grades, Low grade, Middle Grade, and High Grade. For Example, Rank 1 restoration pill and rank 2 restoration pill are equal to Low-Grade rank 1 pill and Middle-Grade rank 1 pill respectively. "As for the Master Stage Monster Skin, I can make it into an array plate. I think I will plant a rank 2 array on it. It will be a defensive plate which might prove to be useful for me later. But I still haven''t reached rank 2 Array Master, so I will hold this for now" Then he looked at the SR Raikou Bow [Raikou Bow Description: A rank 3 weapon (Grandmaster Level Weapon)] "Hmm¡­ I don''t use a bow. Maybe I can pawn it off later when I got to Upper World to get a fund for myself. As for the last summoning ticket¡­I will use the remaining Premium Ticket first." [Teleportation Array Plate (SR) Acquired] [Forging Hammer (R) Acquired] [Milky Flower (R) Acquired] [Iron Helmet (C) Acquired] [Reign Impaler (SR) Acquired] Alex was astonished. He didn''t bother with the Iron Helmet and Forging Hammer since he didn''t need them. But this Milky Flower is beneficial to his eyes. He needs to extract it and dripping it to his eyes. It will enhance his eyes. This would be very useful if he wanted to learn about Spirit Eyes Technique that he got from Gacha back then. As for the teleportation array¡­ [Teleportation Array Plate Description: Teleport (200 Meter)] A simple description is the best. Alex took out the Array Plate. It was made from Grandmaster Stage Monster Skin. Maxwell taught him that this array can only be made by an array master who possesses the space element. The power of this array depends on the Monster Skin that used. A Master Stage monster skin can teleport you up to 50 meters, While Grandmaster Stage monster skin can teleport you up to 200 meters. He heard from Maxwell. A Martial Lord Stage monster skin can teleport you up to 100 kilometers. This array is handy. Maxwell said an array plate like this is rare. Array Master is scarce, but Space Element Array Master is scarcer. This Teleportation Array basically equal to another life. Many top powers want an Array Master with a Space element. But his master also warned him not to disclose his identity as a Space Element Array Master until he had the power to protect himself. After all, even though they are distinguished, if a Space Element Array Master didn''t have any strength or status, many top powers will give them some ''curse'' to make them completely obedient and do their bidding. Alex then check the last item. It is an SR rank spear. From the description, it is a Rank 3 Spear, it means a Grandmaster rank Spear. It is the same as his SR sword. Now that he also has the spear. With two SR in his hands, will he fear any Martial Masters? The answer is he doesn''t know. He never meets any of them. So how can he know the answer¡­ "Huft¡­ Finally, I finished them all. Now, it''s time for the Summon Ticket." He opened the Summoning Gacha. There are two choices for the summoning gacha. ''Summon'' and ''Summon 10+1''. He was surprised when he saw there is ''2x drop'' written on them. He wanted to check first. "System, this 2x drop¡­ are there any special events like in the game?" [No Host. Because you didn''t get any tickets for this special gacha. There is a 2x drop for the first summon] "Hmm¡­ I see. And I don''t know why I''m so lucky to get 10 summoning tickets. If I didn''t get them, I might need to wait since it is a one time chance." He immediately used the ''Summon 10+1'' without hesitation. There are ten cards in front of him along with a mysterious card with ''?'' on it. It seems that he needs to tap it first before it revealed what kind of card it is. Alex decided to check the first ten cards. [Exp Card (R) Leoz (UR) Wright (SR) Green Slime (C) Werewolf (UC) Stallion (C) Minotaur (UC) Exp Card (R) Exp Card (UC)] Alex looked at the single UR. He never expected that he got two UR in one day. But he immediately speechless when he opened the last mystery card. [Anna (UR)] Another UR appeared in front of him. He can''t help but excited. It took him a while to calm himself down. "It seems that except the Exp Card, all of them can be summoned." Alex inspects the Exp Card first. [Exp Card (UC): Exp+10000] [Exp Card (R): Exp+100000] "System, what do I need Exp card for? Exp is useless for me." [Please Inspect the unit card first] "Unit Card?" [It is the card that can be summoned. They are called ''Unit Card''] "Hmm¡­" Alex checked the two UR cards. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 1000 ATK: 5 DEF: 5] [Anna (Dark) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 800 ATK: 8 DEF: 3] "So, the Exp cards were for them. But, what is this level all about? Only ten levels? And this Thunder and Dark?" [Thunder and Dark is their element. The system is the same as the Six Elements. Every unit card you got will have one element on it. As for the Level, because of the world''s limit can only hold up to Martial Master Stage. That is the limit. It means Each of their level is equal to one small stage for Cultivation. That means if they reached the max level. They will be similar to a Peak Rank 9 in this world. After you go to the upper world. It will be updated. Level 11 will be equal to 1-Star Martial Master Stage and so on] Alex nodded. He checked the other units. [Wright (Dark) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 700 ATK: 8 DEF: 1] [Green Slime (Earth) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 50 ATK: 1 DEF: 1] [Werewolf (Earth) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 300 ATK: 3 DEF: 1] [Stallion (Fire) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 100 ATK: 1 DEF: 1] [Minotaur (Thunder) Level: 1/10 Exp: 0/1000 HP: 400 ATK: 5 DEF: 0] From his observation, it seems that the higher their rank, the higher their power from their HP, ATK, and DEF. "System, aren''t the one that uses only those SR or above?" [If they are reached Max Level, they will be useful, Host. Don''t worry, there will be another update for Summoning Gacha. It will be the same as Gacha Ticket and Premium Ticket. There will be a normal Summoning Ticket called Honor Ticket. The comparison is the same as Gacha Ticket with Premium Ticket. The maximum rank of Honor Ticket is Rare. If Host can get the same card, you can sacrifice one of them, and the other will increase one level. It is the same no matter how high their level. This is also applied to SR or Above monster] "¡­" Alex was speechless, what a black system. It was like when playing a game, and the company releases the Premium first, so they need to buy before releasing the Free one where P2P player can get. For now, he decided to use SR or UR units first. If he can get many same card for Rare units or below and make their level high enough. He will use them too. After all, A Grandmaster Stage Slime still can kill a Martial Master, right? Since their level equal to Cultivation Stage. But¡­ It really feels weird when you can''t level up. Instead, it was the others around you that can level up. "Alright. System, how can I summon them?" [Host hold the card and say ''Summon''] Alex chose Leoz as his first card. He holds the card and¡­ "Summon" 129 Summon "Summon" A rainbow-colored gate appeared in front of him. The gate opened very slowly. Inside the gate, Alex can only see a white light. Just like a special teleportation, A shadow starts to appear from the white light. A handsome guy in his mid-twenties comes from the gate. With his spiky yellow hair, a bandana on his head, brave eyes, muscular body, and an enormous broadsword in his back. He looked like a brave warrior that ready to go to war. Leoz walks slowly toward Alex. The gate started to disappear. When Leoz arrived in front of him. He kneeled in a single knee. Just like a knight in front of a king. "Leoz greets Master." Alex nodded. "My name is Alexander Sirius. Well, there is one important thing that I need to ask first. How much do you know about all of this summoned thing or about this world?" This is an essential thing for Alex. If they didn''t know anything. He needs to teach them everything from zero, and it''s really troublesome. "We got basic information from Master''s memories." "My memories?" Alex sweatdropped. "Are those memories include the private one?" "No, we only got the basic information about this world from Master''s memories, such as the kingdom, three races, dungeons, and so on." "I see" Alex really glad at this moment. There is one peeping-tom (System) already. If each of his summoned beings got all his memories. He really wanted to commit suicide and left the last note with ''F*cking Privacy'' "Then, what do you know about this summoning thing or about yourself?" "We are spirit race. Every spirit race will have one of the six elements, such as my thunder element. We can level up by killing monsters or practitioners. Just like what Master know in ''Game'' according to your memory. As for ourselves, if according to the system class, all ''UR'' spirit race will have the appearance of a human, and the ''SR'' will have the appearance of a semi-human. In other words, the higher our rank, the closer our appearance to human." "I see" Alex pondering for a moment. They are spirit race¡­ but according to the knowledge Leoz provided, it seems that they are a living being before becoming his summoned being. "Master. Whatever will happen later. Please just know that we will always be by your side. And¡­ we are willing to be your summoned being." "Eh? What do you mean about willing to be my summoned being?" Alex was surprised by his last words. "I''m sorry, Master. I can''t say anything anymore. I can only say, Master will know it if you are strong enough." "¡­" It seems that the system and the ''Spirit Race'' have many secrets. "Alright. I will summon¡­'' Anna'' now¡­Leoz, I can call you that, right?" "Master can call us whatever you like" Leoz replied. Alex scratched his cheek as he put ''Anna'' card on his hand. "Summon" Another rainbow-colored gate appeared once again in front of him. This time, the shadow that emerged from the entrance is a beautiful woman. With black hair tied in a ponytail reaching her waist, a pretty face that makes her look like a beautiful rose that stands alone in a snowy mountain, enchanting purple eyes, two sexy curves on her body, long black robe, tight black shirt, and black mini skirt. Her appearance wasn''t less than Firia or Alicia which equal the beauty of the Elven Queen. She walked slowly with a big scythe on her hand. Every step she made was captivating. If she was a grim reaper, everyman might felt glad that the one who took their lives is a peerless beauty. She put her scythe down and kneeled in one knee like Leoz before. "Anna greet Master" A cold but enchanting voice illuminate the room. "I''m Alexander Sirius, Nice to meet you, Anna¡­ I can call you this, right?" "It is Anna''s pleasure for Master to call me like that." "Well, I already learned about a few things from Leoz. Pleasure to have you with me." "That''s right. I have told Master many things. Don''t be jealous" Leoz chirped. It seems that Leoz was holding back his easy-going personality when he first met Alex. But, it suits Alex better. He also didn''t like that much about stiff Master-Servant relationship. "Shut up, you Muscle Brain. We are in the presence of Master" Cold voice heard from Anna. She stood up and put her scythe on Leoz''s neck. Alex was dumbfounded. What just happen? "Well, I don''t really mind. We are going to be together for a long time. So, if we are too stiff, it will become awkward for me personally. It''s alright to be true to yourself." "Wha-" Anna was taken aback that suddenly she got countered. She pouts, tears formed on her eyes, ready to fall down. "Eh? I''m sorry, Anna. I didn''t mean to support anyone. I just wanted to say that be true to yourself." Alex sweatdropped. Where is the aloof woman just now? "Uuu¡­" Anna nods her head repeatedly. "I''m going to summon another one" He put the Wright card in his hand hurriedly. "Summon" Another gate appeared in front of him, but this time, it wasn''t a rainbow gate. Instead, it was a big diamond gate with a greenish-blue color. The door opened, and a ghost-like creature came from the gate. Wright''s appearance was like a zombie but didn''t have the disgusting appearance than regular zombies had. Even though he looks like a zombie, but his appearance was close to the human. It was a bit hard to see his appearance since he covers his body with some kind of dark layer, you can just say that Wright is a Wraith with an appearance a bit closer to a human. He kneeled again in front of Alex. "Wright¡­greet¡­Master" He can pronounce one word after another, but it seems that he can''t talk too fast. Alex wasn''t scared or disgusted by his appearance, Alex smiled at Wright. "I''m Alexander Sirius. Nice to meet you, Wright." "Yes¡­Master" "Alright. Let''s meet the others too." Alex summoned the Werewolf, Minotaur, Stallion, and Green Slime. But they can''t speak, so Alex only introduced himself to them. "Even though you are ''Summoned Being'' but I see you guys as my partner in my Journey. I swear right now, I won''t sacrifice any of you guys. I will be sad if any of you die. So please lend me your strength." "Yes. Master" "Moo" "Aooo" *Giggle* "And also, don''t call me, Master. It is a bit¡­ how about calling me with ''Al¡­" Before Alex finished. Anna stopped him hurriedly. "We can''t do that, Master." "But calling me with ''Master'' is a bit¡­" "No!" "¡­ How about changing it to another one." "Your Majesty" Alex was taken aback, Anna was very adamant for this. He looked at the rest, but it seems that they also didn''t want that. Alex pondering with all his energy. "How about Young Master? If all of you call me ''Master'' then, it means that I''m the head. If the head is weak, then we will be targeted. If all of you call me ''Young Master''. Our enemy will also need to think twice before they act. Leoz nodded. Anna grumbled a bit before she nodded too albeit reluctantly "Alright. Young Master" "Then, what do I need to know about this summoning thing? What about this card?" Alex pointed out their cards. Even after they were summoned, the card didn''t disappear. "These cards can also become our communication tools. After we are summoned but separated with Master. We can communicate with this card. Please take this card Mast- Young Master" Anna gave him her card. Alex took the card, Anna distanced herself a bit, "Hello, Young Master." As she said that, the card also letting out the sound. It is like a cellphone. "Hello" Alex tried to reply. "Hmm, can I reply with this ?" "Of course, I heard you, Young Master. It transmitted to my mind. If Young Master wants to talk to us. You just need to channel your energy to the card." "I see¡­ what a convenient card¡­Haiz, it is a bit weird." "What is weird, Young Master?" "Nothing" Alex shake his head, he muttered, "In novels with system that have leveling function. They can grow fast. All they need to do is killing. But now that I can''t level up, instead, the others were the ones who can level up¡­is a bit weird." "Young Master?" Anna looked at him, worriedly. "Then, how about this Exp Card? Who am I going to use it for?" "Don''t worry about that, Young Master. Young Master should save it for now. If Young Master going to ascend in a few months. According to your memory, we can level up in the ''Dungeon''. For the first ten levels. I think we can finish it in these few months before Young Master ascended. So don''t worry about it for now. And Young Master also didn''t need to worry about our equipment. If we are stronger, our equipment will even too." "Is that¡­" Before Alex finished his words, he noticed two presence coming to this room. "People are coming, hide somewhere." "Ah, don''t worry, Young Master. We can go back to the card" Anna said. Her body started glowing before the light went toward the card, and she disappeared. The rest also followed her and disappeared. Alex stored the cards in the system. Not long after, His door was opened. Two pretty women come inside. "Alex" Both of them said at the same time as they leaped toward him and hugged him. "You are finally back. Welcome back" Alex smiled gently. "I''m back. Alicia, Firia" They hug for a while. Alex asked, "How about the preparation?" "It''s fine. You don''t need to do anything. You have worked hard all this time. So, leave this to us." "That''s right. It went well. You just need to rest and wait and be ready for next month." "Thank you¡­ for being with me." Alicia and Firia were dumbfounded. Then they smiled. "No. It is us that need to thank you. Alex, Thank you for being with us." Alex spends the rest of the day with them. The next day, he summons all his units. This time, there is no gate anymore when he summoned them. Maybe the gate is only a one-time thing, he thought. "Are all of you going to the dungeon?" "Yes. We are going there so we can catch up with Young Master" Anna said. Leoz didn''t say anything. But deep in his eyes, telling that he is eager for battle. Now he understands why Anna called this Leoz ''Muscle Brain''. "Maybe¡­ I will accompany you guys for a little while" Alex said. Alicia and Firia have said that he didn''t need to do anything. But sitting here and do nothing doesn''t feel right for him. So maybe he can accompany them for a while. "Young Master, you are going to¡­" Anna was surprised. "It is our pleasure to have you with us, Young Master." "Alright. Come back to the cards first." They went inside the card again. Alex meets Alicia and Firia to say goodbye first. "Alicia, Firia" Alicia and Firia, who were busy preparing their wedding, stopped for a while. They approached him. Alex was a bit guilty, "I¡­ I''m going to someplace for a while." Alicia and Firia weren''t surprised by it. No, actually, they have expected something like this. Alex sitting in the house and do nothing¡­ they can''t imagine that. Even though they advise him to rest, they know something like this will happen sooner or later. "Sure. Just be back 1 week before the wedding. We need you to do so preparation after all." Alex was taken aback. He thought they will lecture him for a while before letting him go. But now, they didn''t say anything and just agree to it. "Thank you." "Don''t worry about it" Alicia said. Firia adds, "You will be surprised when you go back." "You don''t want to ask where I go?" "It''s alright. We trust you" Alicia and Firia said at the same time. He chatted with them for a while. After saying goodbye, he went to Maka Town. He arrived in Maka Town in a few minutes. He didn''t go to the Hunter Guild since he doesn''t need to do so. With his strength can dive to the highest floor. But he stopped on the 50th floor. He wanted to check something first. In front of him is the boss on this floor. It is a lizard. "Scree" Alex wasn''t planning to kill this monster. He was planning to bind this Lizard or pinned it to the ground and let the others kill him. He wanted to check if he can do some ''Power Leveling'' 130 Spiri The Lizard charged toward him. Alex only grabbed its head and threw it to the ground. He took out a few spears and pierced it on the lizard body, precisely, it was the lizard''s hands and feet, making the lizard can''t move. Alex then summoned Anna for now. "Summon" Anna appeared in front of him. "Anna, I wanted to try something." "Please just use me however you like, Young Master." Alex felt annoyed and flicked his finger on her forehead. "Don''t say ''Use'' like that. You are not a tool." Anna was surprised, and She let out a bit of tear. Alex was confused at the moment. "Anna?" "Ah, no. My ki¡­ I mean, Young Master" Anna wipe her tears in her eyes. "Let me correct myself, Young Master. What should I do?" "How about you try attacking this lizard?" Alex pointed out his finger toward the lizard that was pinned to the ground. "This Lizard? Understood" She raised her scythe and swung it down. But, when her scythe touched the lizard. It broke into crystals. Anna makes a weird smile and apologizes to Alex hurriedly, "I''m sorry, Young Master. I''m very useless." Alex instinctively pat her head. "Don''t worry about it. How about your scythe? We need to repair it¡­ Ah, I''m sorry. I pat your head instinctively." "No no, For me it''s a reward from Young Master." "Eh?" Alex looked at her weirdly. Her face is a bit red. Anna immediately changed the topic "My scythe is also fine. I just need to call it back and wait for a while, and it will be back to normal." The scythe disappeared. After a while, Anna called it back. The broken scythe suddenly becomes her previous scythe like nothing had happened. Alex nodded. Then he continues his experiment. He killed the lizard and looked at Anna. "How about it?" "Ah, yes. Young Master is very handsome." Alex makes a weird face, "I mean, how about your Exp? Is it increase?" "Oh, that''s what Young Master means. It didn''t increase." Alex was in thought. He took Anna to the lower floor when there are two orcs came to them. Alex incapacitate them. He took out his sword from the inventory and gave it to Anna. "Anna, try to kill him with this sword." Anna nodded carefully. She took Alex''s sword like it was the biggest treasure in her life. She killed the Orc with Alex''s sword. Alex confirmed with her again. "How about now?" "Yes. It increased. I got 125 exp just now." "Hmm¡­ A big exp you got there. Well, it was to be expected, since you killed a rank 5 monster when you are level 1. Then, the next one. You injury it with the sword, and then I will kill it." Anna nodded. She stabs the orc enough to injured him pretty severely while not enough to kill him. Alex then kill the orc. "How about now?" "I still got 125 exp." "Hmm¡­" Alex pondered for a moment, and he makes another plan. He grabbed another monster. This time, he called Leoz first. "Summon" "Young Master" Leoz greets him. Alex nodded. "Then, Anna, please injure it like before." Anna nodded. She stabbed the monster. After that, she pulled out the sword. Seeing the wound, Alex nodded. "Then, give the sword to Leoz. Leoz, I wanted you to kill it with the sword" Alex said. He decided to go with his sword. If not, the accident like Anna scythe will happen again. "What?" Anna was shocked. She looked at Leoz hatefully. She handed the sword to Leoz even though she was very reluctant to do it. Leoz didn''t care about it. As he took the sword, he killed the monster immediately. "How about now? How much you get now, Anna?" "I got 61 exp." "How about you, Leoz?" Alex nodded and asked Leoz "I got 64 exp." "I still need one more to make some conclusions" As he said that, he grabbed another monster. "Now, I wanted you two injure it while I will be the one to kill it." Since the sword still in Leoz''s hand, he was the one who injures the monster. Then he gave the sword to Anna. No, basically, Anna snatched it from his hand. After she took the sword, she stabbed it. After that, Anna gave the sword to Alex. This time, she didn''t give it reluctantly. Instead, she was delighted to do so. Alex killed the monster. "I got 60 exp", Leoz "I got 65 exp", Anna "Hmm, it still the same amount" Alex muttered. It seems that it''s like the party system. While he is in the center while he also outside of the party. He can help them kill the enemy to get exp, but after they injured them. The calculation might be different if they are not on the same level. But too much calculation needed. He just needs a rough conclusion. For now, he was planning to get them to Level 5/6 in this little time. He is sure that the exp would be less when they level up. And he needs to power leveling seven of them. Well, he didn''t have anything to do anyway. So why not, they will also become his strength later. "Alright. We will continue" After he finished his experiments. He continues grabbing monsters and let his Spirits kill them. Alex already expected when Anna level up, the experience they got, become lesser. Alex continues doing that. ¡­ After three weeks. "Anna, kill it." "Yes" She raised her scythe, "Dark Cut." They are currently on floor 74th. Alex''s group killed another monster, which is a rank 7 tiger. All of them now reached level 7. It is equal to rank 6 according to this world power since they started from level 1, not 0. With Alex as the vanguard, they can bombard the monsters easily. At first, Alex was overwhelmed. It is a bit hard to help Stallion or Green Slime level up. They didn''t have a weapon, nor they have a hand to hold his sword. After a while, the slime can extend its body to hold the sword while the stallion used its mouth to hold the sword. Though it took a while, it was worth it. All of them could kill one rank above theirs if they fought together. Of course, after a while, Alex stopped helping them. After three weeks, Alex didn''t need to worry anymore about fighting in this floor. He also learned about their element. From those six elements, Even if their element is Fire, some spirits hold magma power or heat control. Basically, it classified as Fire as long as the Spirit manipulates ''heat''. The same as water, it can also be Ice and so on. While earth means nature, it can be ground, wood, plant, or wind. The simplest is Thunder, it is only Thunder, literally. Light can be a holy attribute or support like a blessing, while dark can also be a curse element. All of those power condensed into six primary elements, which are Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder, Light, and Dark. "Alright. We have been three weeks in here. I''m going to go back after this. What are you going to do after this?" "We will continue killing monsters in here" Anna said "You are not going to attend my wedding?" Alex asked "I''m sorry Young Master." Alex smiled, he patted her head again "Alright alright." After saying goodbye to all of them, Alex disappeared. Leoz looked at Anna. "Are you sure you won''t go to his wedding?" "Yes" Anna bitterly said "So you are jealous. Well, that was to be expected. After all, previously. You and your twin sister are the ones closest to him. Oh, that''s right. There is that goddess too, I''m sure her name is¡­Lin Xingzhi. And that guy, his butler, and his sword, Korzan." "Well, Back then, Master pick us who is only a servant. He raised us with so much care and love. Even though we were very clumsy back then, Master didn''t stop caring about us. He taught us step by step. Back then, when he told us that he wants to marry us. Even though he married sister Xingzhi first, It was still the best day ever for us. Even though at first, we are very hostile to her since she stole our Master. Her kindness eventually melts us, and we become friends. We accept each other. Since there is no first or second if we want to stay beside him, we agreed to it. But, when the day our marriage happened. That cursed being appeared and took all of our happiness. Master used his life to seal that cursed being. We continuously searching for him until two years ago, Sister Xingzhi found him. When we know that he was in that exiled world, we understood the reason why we can''t find him. But, once he comes back to this universe, sister Xingzhi immediately found him. When sister Xingzhi come to us about this plan, Big sister and I are the first ones to agree. If previously we can only accept his kindness, now, we are going to accompany him, protect him, become his shield and his sword. Sadly, you are the one who got picked first." "It was random after all" Leoz said. "Besides, even though you two are twins. You are the opposite of each other. One is Dark, one is Light. One is shy, one is confidence. You can''t convey your honest feeling to him. While your sister might seduce him immediately. But I''m confused. Usually, the dark color was for a seductive succubus, while the white color was for a shy and pure holy maiden. Well, one thing that you twins are the same. You both love him" "I am Dark Butterfly Spirit while Sister Anya is Light Butterfly Spirit. Don''t compare us to the like you, Thunder Berserker" Anna retorted him while blushing. "It is unfortunate that sister Xingzhi can''t go with us like this to accompany him. She said she had something to do. Well, she said she will visit him from time to time, but I didn''t know how she will do it." "Korzan also can''t be with us even though he wants to accompany him. He can''t. He needs to watch over our Spirit World." "Of course, some of our tribe chiefs also need to stay." "Haha¡­ Even if thousands of years have passed, our loyalty will never change." "You don''t need to say that. He will always be our king. And even though he had reincarnated. His habit is still there." "Oh, you mean treating you like a kid?" "What do you mean treating me like a kid! It is his way of showing his love. Do you want to die, Muscle brain?" Anna was immediately angered. "Right right. Showing his love" Leoz laughed. "Even though he didn''t have his previous memory, he still loves patting your head, he is unconscious about it, though. If your sister comes too, I''m sure he will also like that." "Hmph!" "But, are you sure we need to keep this secret?" If Alex was here. He will be shocked. What kind of identity he had? What are they? Are they really his summoned being? Or something more? Was he really reincarnated? Who was he before? And especially, is that a Chinese name? It must be a coincidence, right? After all, there are countless worlds out there. Some similar names might be possible, right? And who is she? How many secrets that the system hold? How many secrets that he wasn''t aware of? "My king will know all of it later as he got stronger and stronger. If we told him about this, what kind of reaction will he have? He will be shocked and can''t believe all of it. Our job is to help him as many as possible, even if we need to sacrifice our lives." "Of course, I know that. But¡­ how mysterious is that power called ''System''. It can convert us like this" "Yes, I was shocked when I saw that power. I wonder where that power came from? Sister Xingzhi also doesn''t know where it came from? Some theories are saying that there might be another place that has people much stronger than the gods and goddesses in this place." "It''s only a possibility. No need to overthink it." "And besides¡­" Anna muttered. "What?" Leoz looked at her "Nothing" Anna shook her head. ''Besides, the way he is now, I''m sure that he won''t accept any woman that he didn''t know for long. I, Sister Anya, and Sister Xingzhi need to get closer to him and get into his heart slowly.'' ¡­ Alex, who still ignorant about all of it, finally arrived in the capital city. When he came, he immediately searched for Alicia and Firia to prepare his wedding. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 7/10 Exp: 430/8000 HP: 2314 ATK: 37 DEF: 37] [Anna (Dark) Level: 7/10 Exp: 871/8000 HP: 1980 ATK: 51 DEF: 29] [Wright (Dark) Level: 7/10 Exp: 0/8000 HP: 1385 ATK: 40 DEF: 21] [Green Slime (Earth) Level: 7/10 Exp: 0/8000 HP: 987 ATK: 15 DEF: 15] [Werewolf (Earth) Level: 7/10 Exp: 0/8000 HP: 1350 ATK: 23 DEF: 14] [Stallion (Fire) Level: 7/10 Exp: 0/8000 HP: 1000 ATK: 17 DEF: 13] [Minotaur (Thunder) Level: 7/10 Exp: 0/8000 HP: 1600 ATK: 25 DEF: 5] Chapter 131 - Wedding He does some last preparation for his wedding, some details and his clothes. And it seems that the five leaders of the demihuman race have arrived. Alex meets them first. The Centaur leader brought his wife and his daughter. His daughter is almost the spitting image of him, a muscle brain. The dwarf leader also brought two women with him. It seems that the one who looked a little old is his wife and the cheerful one is his Daughter. The Druid Leader is the most troublesome, he brought five young druid ladies with him. Alex never expected that all those ladies are his granddaughter. The Titan brought his wife along with him. While the Elven Queen brought Lilia and Ayaka with her. "Welcome. Thank you for coming" "Sir Alexander" All five leaders pay respect to him. After this whole time, even the Dwarf Leader who always calling him with ''Young Alexander'' suddenly called him with ''Sir Alexander'' "Ahaha, you don''t need to call me like that. I''m still too young, and you are elders." "Haha, you are our race benefactor and also this world savior. If you didn''t kill that mad king, I''m sure that our race, demihuman race, demon race, or even the human race might face danger." The dwarf leader said he wanted to pat Alex''s shoulder out of habit but refrain from doing so and one of the reasons for it because of his height. "That''s right. We are still young. Don''t call us elders" The Elven Queen said. When she said that, the other four leaders looked at her with disgust. "What?" The Elven Queen''s face darkened. "You are the oldest of all of us." Dwarf leader said. "That''s right. Even though I''m looking like this. I''m still half of your age." Druid leader agreed "Old Hag" Centaur leader with his simple comment. "If I recall, you are in your late 700s" Titan leader still pondering. "I''m still 769 years old. It is still in the mid 700s." Elven Queen said in anger. All of them make a weird face, including Alex. "Is Sir Alexander think that I''m too young? That''s why you didn''t accept me? Then, how about my Daughter? She still in her 100s. She can live almost 900 years more." Alex almost spat blood. Lilia, who heard that, immediately denied it. "With him. Not a chance. I won''t be together with this hateful person!" "Lilia! What have I said to you back then at home?" Elven Queen suddenly entered a yandere state. "Hii!" Lilia''s lips trembled. Recalling the scene back then. She shuddered. Alex sweatdropped. He screams inwardly. ''It''s because you are troublesome. The same with your daughter! What the heck with you? Before you are an aloof leader, then you become an M, and now a yandere¡­'' "That''s right. Even her daughter is far older than all of my granddaughters" Druid Leader nodded. He looked at Alex. "How about that, young Alex. Look at my granddaughters. How about you pick one of them?" All of his granddaughters suddenly blushed. The Elven Queen, who still in her yandere state retorted him immediately, "Shut up, you druid. Your wood is greater than your morning wood!" "It''s still better elven D*ck, which is too small." "You want to fight?" Elven Queen''s face darkened again. "Fine by me." Alex starts to be annoyed. Especially after the Dwarf leader and the Centaur Leader join in the ''fight''. "That''s right. He didn''t need all of those. All he needs is a unique one like my daughter here." Dwarf Leader said. "Unique? My daughter is also unique. Rather than a dwarf who can''t take the blow. He should have my daughter." "Shut up, who wanted to marry you, horseman." Dwarf leader "It is still better than you, Shorty." Titan Leader keeps his silence. He didn''t want to join this ''fight''. Alex, on the other hand, can''t take this anymore. "Cough cough!" Alex released his mana to the air. The rank 9 mana that makes all of them dread. Alex was angered, he looked at them with murder eyes. "You can''t say all of those words to someone who will hold his marriage in two days, right?" All the leaders except Titan Leader shuddered. "We are sorry." "Then it is good" Alex nodded, "Your accommodation is this way. I will lead you" "Is it your house?" The Elven Queen can''t help but ask. "Of course, NOT!" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at her. His eyes seem telling her not to say anything stupid again. If not, he will send her back home. The Elven Queen didn''t speak anymore after this. After he led them to their accommodation. He continues to do his things. ¡­ Two days have passed. The Grand Wedding, which the whole worlds know. They specially build a big hall to hold this wedding. Every citizen in Capital City also celebrated together. All nobles in the kingdom have been invited, no matter how low their position. Draco used all his soldiers to make this wedding went without a problem. Considering Alex as the only rank 9 in the world is enough for the whole to know about this. There is also his deeds too. They made a parade before Alex entered the building. At first, Alex didn''t want to do this. But because of many urging and begging. He reluctantly agreed to do it. Alex is in the front of the group riding a white horse. Using a military uniform. He looked like a prince on a white horse. In his behind, there is a closed carriage that carrying Alicia and Firia in their wedding dress. Alex still hasn''t seen their appearance. "There it is, my Prince. Kyaa!" "I heard that he save our kingdom." "Yeah, I also heard that he is the only rank 9 in the world." "And he is so young." "Kyaa" "I wish I am the one in that carriage." Finally, they arrived at the building. Alex immediately went to the changing room to change his suit. The bride''s fathers will bring the brides. "The Groom, Alexander Sirius, enter the hall." Alexander, who has changed his suit, now wearing a new white suit suitable for marriage. "So Handsome" "Ah, my Prince" It seems that Bryan will be the one who will lead this marriage. "Are you ready?" Bryan asked him with a smile. "Of course" Alex smiled back. "I will leave Alicia to you. Firia''s parents also said that too." "Yes. I will make them happy for the rest of their life." "Good" Bryan nodded. Not long after, Alicia and Firia arrived. "The Brides, Alicia Van Rizertia, and Firia Merona have arrived." Alicia was accompanied by Grand duke, Raymond. While Firia was accompanied by her father, Marcus. Alex looked over. The guests looked over. "It''s the brides!" "The Brides have appeared!" The deafening cheers filled the venue. Excitement was overflowing. They gasped after they saw the brides "So Beautiful!" "Do they have to be this pretty?" "Do we need to be this pretty to become his bride?" "Mother, your beauty lose to them" Even Lilia can''t help but say to her mother "Pfft!" The other leaders also wanted to laugh. "If I lose, then, your daughters or granddaughters are not even close!" Elven Queen snorted. Everyone present at the wedding was entranced by their beauty. Alex was stunned on the spot. At this moment, Alex thought that he must saved the world in his previous life. If the Nature goddess or even his ''Spirit'' will immediately retort him if they were present. ''You have saved the worlds in your Previous Life for god''s sake Memories flooded through him. The first time he met Alicia in front of Alisia Forest. What kind of fate is there, even their name was similar. The first time he met Firia in the academy. A fated meeting between him with the cheerful but shy Alicia and the bold but never give up Firia. Their existence slowly seeped to his heart. They became lover. They became husband and wife. The brides finally made their way over. They smiled at him. Alex snapped from his daze and smiled back. After the excitement calmed down a bit. Finally, Bryan started the procession. "Repeat after me. I, Alexander Sirius, take you, Alicia Van Rizertia, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." Bryan "I, Alexander Sirius, take you, Alicia Van Rizertia, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." He put the wedding ring on her ring finger. Then Bryan turned to Alicia, "I, Alicia Van Rizertia, take you, Alexander Sirius, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." "I, Alicia Van Rizertia, take you, Alexander Sirius, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." Alicia repeated his words. Bryan now looked at Alex and Firia. Alex also repeated the same lines to her. "I, Alexander Sirius, take you, Firia Merona, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." "I, Firia Merona, take you, Alexander Sirius, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." After Firia finished her vows, She and Alicia put a wedding ring on Alex''s ring finger, hand in hand, together. "You have declared your consent before your parents, the heaven and the earth. May the love will be witnessed to eternity and become the blessings. You may kiss the bride." Alex looked at Alicia, and Alicia looked back. The words that were conveyed not with a mouth but from their hearts and eyes. They kissed. Even though it was a few seconds long, for them, one second became one hour, and a few seconds became eternity. Alex then turned to Firia. Their face slowly get closer, before he finally planted the kiss in her mouth. A kiss that conveyed all his feeling and emotion to Firia. A kiss that conveyed that she, Firia, now is his and won''t change from now on. Deafening cheers filled the air once again. All of the trumpets were blown. The party started, not only for the people in the venue but also for all citizens. ¡­ At night, the moonlight was illuminating serenely. Silver moon Mansion. This is a mansion that Alex bought a week ago. It is not too far from the castle or Rizertia House. A carriage slowly drove into the mansion. When the carriage door opened, Alex got out and helped Alicia and Firia down. They entered the mansion side by side. Inside, there are no maids nor butlers. Alex didn''t want to be disturbed. After they helped clean the house, Alex gave them two weeks of holiday. The first floor''s living room was decorated with white and red everywhere. It really did look like a newlywed''s house. It is, though. Since Alex bought it mainly for this. They slowly walked to the main bedroom. "I never thought that I really married the two of you. I thought this is a dream, if that''s so, I wish to never wake up from this dream." "Alex" Firia smiled. Alicia, "This is not a dream." "Haha¡­Sorry, I just feel it is unreal" Alex said, "Back then, Our engagement was pretty forced. Though there is a feeling, but it wasn''t love. One thing after another, your existence filled my heart. The weak me slowly grow to what I am now." "Alex" Alicia smiled at him. All the memories from that time flooded on her mind from her first meeting with him in front of Alisia Forest up to this moment. "Firia too. I just wanted to say that I''m sorry to make you wait for a long time. You never give up on me, you never leave me. Your love, your emotion, your feeling slowly filled my heart. Until that time, I can finally say this to you. I love you, and that won''t change even after thousands of years passed." "Alex" Firia smiling very brightly. Tears of joy formed on her eyes. At first, she only wanted to escape her fate to become a marriage tool. But, as time passed. Alex filled her heart and unbeknownst to her, she slowly fell in love with him. "Alex" Alicia and Firia said at the same time, "Take Us." With the moonlight illuminating the house that looks like a blessing from the moon itself. A night full of love, emotion, and feeling. For Alex, Alicia, and Firia. The true night is just about to start. Chapter 132 - Honeymoon The next morning. Alex slowly opened his eyes. On his right, Alicia still sleeping while hugging him. On his left, Firia also the same. Yesterday is the happiest day of his life. He is delighted that Alicia and Firia are the ones who will be accompanying him for the rest of his life. After kissing their foreheads, he slowly left the bed, afraid of waking them up. He went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. Since he made the maids and the butlers rest for a while. He will be the one in charge of food. Well, since they are planning to leave this kingdom and traveling for their honeymoon. Alicia still has four months left. So, he planned to use all those four months to create many happy memories with them. After he sealed Alicia. He already agreed with Firia to ascend first. There are a few reasons for that. After he ascended, Firia will also follow him in two or three years, judging from her current speed. And even though they can ascend together, they won''t be in the same place. Since Maxwell will take her away and trained her and cure Alicia. It also isn''t beneficial for him to delay his cultivation for another few years. Alicia and Firia woke up at noon. He ate all of the breakfast and makes meals again. When they finished their food. There are guests in front of their mansion. Alex already sensed them. He went to meet them, Alicia and Firia also follow him. The guests are the five leaders of the demihuman race, It seems they are going to go back today. "We are going back today, Sir Alexander. Congratulation on your marriage" The Elven Queen said. The other leaders also congratulated him. "If you are planning to go to Demihuman territories, please inform us. We will give you a tour there." Elven Queen "Of course. I have planned to visit many places for my honeymoon, including your territories." "Then, we will await your arrival." "Oh, let me introduced them. They are Alicia and Firia" Alex introduced his wives to them. Now that they have become Alex''s wives along with ''Last Night''. Their charm went even further. The Elven Queen lose to their beauty. "Hello, My name is Alicia Van Rizertia." "Hello, My name is Firia Merona." Then he introduced the leaders one by one along with their wife, daughters, or granddaughters. And when he reached Ayaka. "This is Ayaka Saya. She can be considered as my kin." "Kin?" Alicia and Firia were surprised. But they immediately understood his meaning. After all, they knew that Alex from another world. On the contrary, the leaders were confused. They didn''t know Alex was from another world. When they heard that Ayaka is Alex''s kin. What kind of relationship they have? "Ah, I haven''t told you about it, right?" Alex noticed the confusion in their faces. "I came from another world. You know about the hero summoning, right?" All of them nodded. Alex continued, "I am one of them. Though, I was dragged to this world and banished from there." "What a fool." Titan leader "Indeed" Centaur leader nodded in agreement "They choose that worthless hero over Sir Alexander." The Elven Queen grumbled. "I know the exact reason why they started the war." Dwarf leader said in a meaningful way "Yes. Because they are idiots" Druid leader nodded his head. "That''s why please take care of her" Alex said "Of course. In my territory, She won''t be mistreated" Elven Queen assured him. After all, Ayaka currently lives with her daughter in Elves Territory. "Thank you" After chatting for a while more. Elven Queen and the rest finally went back home. Alex, Alicia, and Firia also went inside. Since this house is pretty confidential and not many people know about it. All the marriage gift was sent to Rizertia House and Merona House. They can enjoy another newlywed life in this house one more day. Before they set off for their honeymoon. The next morning. Before they go, Grandduke, along with the others, visited them. "Father, Mother. Even Uncle and Grandfather. Elder Sister Mia and Elder Sister Mea" Alicia looked at her family. Firia too, "Father, Mother." They chatted for a while. Alex was grabbed by Alicia''s father, Raymond and Firia''s father, Marcus. "Please, make our daughter happy" Both of them said at the same time, with a menacing tone. Alex only smiled at them, "Rest assured, Fathers. I will make them happy for the rest of their life." After making sure some other matters concerning their daughters. They finally released him. Since they are going to have a long honeymoon. They have planned to visit many places. And because this world didn''t have planes or cars, they will fly from one place to another. Since the carriage was too slow to visit many places if they included the demihuman human territories. In the night, they enjoyed the second night of newlywed life. ¡­ They finally prepared to go. They are planning to go to every town in the Acacia Kingdom, then move to the Holy Kingdom. They didn''t want to go to Zircodina Kingdom since their situation is unstable at the moment. After that, they are planning to go to the demihuman territories. All of them brought some necessary equipment such as clothes, etc. Alex stored them in his Space Ring. "Are you two ready?" Alex looked at his beautiful wives. "Of course, Husband" They both answered at the same time. Suddenly, Sherry come out too, "Wuu" "Of course. Sherry too" Alicia and Firia replied. Alex holds their waist, and finally, all of them disappeared. ¡­ Four months later. They finally come back to the mansion. In these four months, they have visited all the places they wanted to visit. A small village that has a big lake in the center of it. The lake stretches beautifully. They can feel the beauty of nature in the village. It is a very romantic spot and become one of the best places on their honeymoon. Blue water which make the heart tranquil and the green scenery while slowly paddling a small boat on the lake. They also visited a mountain for hiking. Of course, Alex wasn''t flying. He slowly ascended to the top of the mountain together with Alicia, Firia, and Sherry. Sherry was above Alex''s head all the time, though. The green scenery and fresh air that comes to their nose and ease their hearts as they looked at the green landscape. On the top, Alex makes a campfire and build a big tent for them. Looking at the stars while lying on the ground together with your loved ones. Make the stars look even brighter. They even stayed for a week in this place. They wanted to try living without another person''s existence. They make some small wooden houses here to commemorate they stay here. Another best place for them is Savant Beach, the beach located in the border of Acacia Kingdom and Holy Kingdom. It was their first experience to see the sea, including Alex. Even though he had gone to the beach a few times in his childhood. This is the first time he saw the ocean in this world. Well, it was similar to the Sea back on earth, except some monster that occasionally spotted on the sea. When relaxing in the beach, Alex can''t help but humming a few songs from Earth. Alicia and Firia who was confused with the sound suddenly loved the tone within it. They asked Alex about that tone, Alex said it was a song. In this world, such a thing like a song still unknown to them. All people focus on getting stronger. So, when they heard the song that Alex hummed in his mouth. They asked Alex about it. Alex sang a song for the example. And that made them captivated by the beauty of the song. It made their honeymoon even greater. They sometimes ask Alex to sing a few songs, sometimes they also mimicked him and sang the songs by themselves. Fortunately, Alex had got a guitar and a piano along with their own respective manuals and were stored in the system. Because of the beauty of the manual, he can master the musical instruments at a fast speed. After trial and error, he made a few song scores. He played them with either Guitar and Piano, which made the song even more beautiful. They visited the demihuman territories. In centaur territory. Alex was often asked to a brawl with the leader. Alicia and Firia also seems able to blend in with them. In Titan Territory, they were shocked when they saw a place full of giants. Especially when they ate. The food is bigger than their whole body. Of course, he and Sherry finished most of the food. Alex didn''t have any problem since he is a Cultivator, Alicia was only taking a small bite (According to the sizes of the titan) and full. Surprisingly, Firia also can eat half of the food. Well, it was to be expected since she also has treated in the path of the cultivator. And the last thing that surprised them is when they slept in a single bed together and They can even playing tag on the bed. Of course, the tag game become a *** game later on. After that, Alex and the rest visited the dwarf territory. They looked at the prowess of their smiths. They show off most of their high-rank weapons. While suggesting he brought one of them as a souvenir. But when Alex shows his SR sword. They immediately shut up and went away with their heads looked down. The Dwarf Leader often offering his daughter to him, resulting in Alicia and Firia tweaked his ears or pinched his cheek. The last place is the Elven Territory and their most troublesome Elven Queen (Only for Alex, though). He checked a bit on Ayaka, it seems that she wasn''t mistreated in here, so he was relieved. The past is the past, now she is one of his kin (From earth). The Elven Princess, Lilia, often sought troubles to him, which results in her to get reprimanded by the Elven Queen or get beaten by Sherry. The most troublesome is the Queen. She accompanies him wherever he goes. Of course, Alex didn''t see her that way. The houses in the elven territory were treehouse. It was a fresh experience for them, including Alex. They strolling to a few more places before, a week before the time to seal Alicia. Alicia seems to start exhausted her life force. She often gets tired quickly. So they decided to go home. They just relaxing in the house for the rest of the week. The rest of his Spirits also finally finished maxing their levels. Alex introduced them one by one to Alicia and Firia. They observed each of his spirits very closely. Especially when they saw Anna''s beauty that was on par with them. But, because Anna was so shy and conservative, she didn''t show anything in her expression. They just got the feeling this Anna was kind-hearted and seems to be going one of his...ahem. Finally, Alicia''s last day. Alex already felt her life force, and Alicia also already agreed to be sealed today. All of them gathered in the house. From Rizertia House, Merona House, and Royal Family. Chapter 133 - Last Day On the last day. Alicia already too exhausted to get up. She just sat on the bed all day long. Many people are coming to the room. From Rizertia House, Raymond and his wife, butler Ji, Alicia''s sisters, Lea and Mia. From Merona House, Firia''s father, Marcus, and his wife, Linda. Edmund and his wife also came along with Bryan. The last is Alex, Firia, Marco, and Sherry. Fifteen people in the big bedroom. Alicia sat on the bed and looked at them with a smile on her face. All of them can only hide their worries and smiled back. "Thank you for coming" Alicia said. "Father, Mother. Thank you for taking care of me all this time. I know I am a bit willful and brought you many problems." "No, how can you say that!" Raymond said. He bites his lips. "That''s right. It was a parent joy to see a smile always planted on their daughter''s face." Madame also back him up Alicia smiled, "Father, thank you for always supporting me, for always protecting me from childhood. Mother, thank you for raising me this whole time. I know that you and Father always spared sometime even in your busy day to see sisters and me. I''m sorry that I can''t help and lighten your burden." "No No, this is our job as parents, you three are the greatest blessing in our life" The madame can''t hold her tears. Even Raymond''s eyes become moist, he trying really hard to keep his tears on the bay. The madame hugged her while crying, Alicia also hugged her back as she let out tears on her pretty face. After a while, she finally turned to Marcus and Linda, Firia''s parents. "Uncle Marcus, Aunt Linda. I''m sorry that¡­" Before Alicia finished her words. Linda already hugged her in tears. "You are also my daughter, just like Firia. Don''t you dare to say something like that. Firia is very fortunate to have you as her sister." Marcus nodded repeatedly showing his confirmation to her. "Aunt Linda, Uncle Marcus. Can I call you Father and Mother too?" "Of course, my dear" Linda replied hurriedly. "Father, Mother" "Yes, my dear" Both Linda and Marcus answered at the same time. Firia closed her eyes, she is trying to hold her tears from falling. "Elder Sister Lea, Elder Sister Mia. I''m sure that I had brought you many troubles when I''m small." Alicia looked at the eldest one, Lea. "Elder Sister Lea, do you remember when I was six years old, your favorite clothes suddenly disappeared, I stole that. It was found after a day, though." Lea immediately hugged her. "It is a joy to play with my Little Sister." "When I was seven years old, we are going to a shop. That time, I suddenly disappeared. Because of my curiosity, I suddenly vanished from your sight and strolled around alone. I almost kidnapped back then, Luckily that Big Sister found me and defeated the kidnappers." "It was the duty of Elder Sister to protect her little sister." "Elder Sister Mia, Do you remember when we fought each other because of a toy. We both really wanted the same toy. We fought with each other, and eventually, there is a cold war between us for two days before Father reprimanded us. Back then, even after Father scolded us, there is still a cold war between us. When the next day, Elder Sister suddenly came to me and gave the toy. I always remembered what you said back then, you said, ''I don''t want it anymore, If a toy can break the relationship between us, two sisters, then I didn''t need it''. Ultimately, we shared the toy with each other, I kept it for a day, and the other day, you will keep it. Until you suddenly bored with it and gave it to me completely. It is still in my bedroom back in Rizertia House. It is my precious treasure, after all." Mia also gets closer and hugs her. She didn''t care about Lea, who still hugging her. "Elder Sister Lea, Elder Sister Mia. I''m glad that I am your little sister." "We are also very glad that we become your elder sister. You are our little sister, you are our treasure." The three sisters hugged for quite a while. Undescribed words are flowing within each of them. Their memories of childhood, when they are together. Whether they are fighting or get along. All of them is a precious memory for them that make them even closer as a family. After that, she looked at Acacia''s King, Carollus. But for her¡­"Uncle Carollus. Thank you for taking care of me. You were even very protective of me. You always spoiled me that even Big Brother Crown Prince jealous of me. It is saddening that he can''t come here for the moment." "That brat. He only thinking about getting stronger. How can it even more important than his sister. Let see how I will teach him when he goes home." Carollus was angered. "Hehe¡­ Don''t beat him, I''m sure that he had his reason. But¡­maybe, please hit him once for me, alright?" Alicia giggled a bit. "Of course, I will hit him for you, hard enough to make him flew higher than our city wall." "Hehe¡­ But, the thing that I am most thankful for is When you acting and make some illogical reasons and make me Alex''s fiance¨¦." "What¡­ you knew?" "Of course. That sloppy act. But, I am really thankful for that. If not, I might not be able to stay by his side and made so many happy memories with him and Firia, of course, Sherry too. These four months, each day is the best day ever in my life. Of course, the memories with Uncle, Fathers, Mothers, and Sisters are only second to these memories. Uncle, thank you, thank you, that now I can be his wife." Carollus can''t say anything, he can only hug tightly, he let out all his feeling in this hug. "Sherry" Alicia call Sherry. She walked closer to Alicia. Alicia stroke her fur. Sherry licks her fingers. She is showing her concern for Alicia. "Sherry. From now on, I''m leaving Alex in your hand. Please protect him, alright?" "Wuu" Sherry nodded her head repeatedly. "I''m sorry for you to do this. From the first time, you brought the unconscious him back to here. Looking at your condition at that time, I know that you have carried him for days or even weeks tirelessly. When you finally arrived, your battered body fell to the ground as you fell unconscious. I know that your bond with him far higher. If you are the same as us, I really wanted a sister like you, we will be by his side forever." "Wuu" "I know that you always be on his side and helped him in the time he needed." Alicia suddenly got closer and whispered something on her ears "Alex is a charmer. I''m sure that he will charm many women later. This is my personal request, make sure that no bad woman, homewrecker, thieving cat, or a gold digger approached him. You are the one who will judge if they are worthy or not to be by his side. If they are not, make sure you beat them up, so they don''t dare to approach him." "Wuu" Sherry replied. "Uncle Marco, thank you for taking care of Alex. He can become the way he is now was because of your guidance." "No no, I basically let him solve his problem alone, I only supported him a little on the back. I don''t want him to be dependant on his status. So he can freely soar in the sky like a heavenly dragon, not like some caged dragon. I wanted him to become a sovereign not become someone pet. So even if I''m not beside him. I decided to do that after I saw the darkness deep inside his heart, and now it finally becomes his belief. All the things he achieved at present is from all of his hard work."Marco explained bitterly Alex, on the side, finally knew the reason why his teacher seemed rarely appear when he was in trouble. When someone provoked him when he offended someone. His inferiority personality that seeped into his bones. It is precisely the thing that his teacher wanted to break. If he too dependent on him, he might become ''Useless Young Master'' like those novels he read on Earth, where he flaunted his status, his teacher, etc. He was sure that his teacher also felt pain in his heart, "Teacher¡­" "That is still because of your guidance. I''m sure you also felt pained when you did that. I''m glad that you are Alex''s Teacher" Alicia smiled. "Firia" Alicia looked at Firia, "These four months¡­ for me, these four months are the best in my life. I am really happy that I can become Alex''s wife. And you became his wife too, made me happier. The memories that I made with you, with Alex, with Sherry. I won''t forget about this. I still remembered when the first time we met in the classroom. I was jealous at that time. I never thought that we became sister that will accompany him to the end of time, I can confidently say that I''m grateful that you also beside him. I''m sure that you have so much to do from now on. Please take care of him, and please take care of me." Firia can''t help but cry. The tears that she tried so hard so they won''t fall down, At this moment flowing smoothly on her beautiful face. She hugged Alicia very tightly. "I should be the one who is grateful. If you didn''t give the chance to pursue him, to pursue my happiness at that time. I don''t know what will I become now." Alicia smiled, her tears also flowing on her cheeks, "That might be the best decision I have made in my life. Only second to my decision to be in his side." Firia giggled even though her tears still flowing. Alicia also giggled a little, before she finally said, "I leave him to you." "Yes. Leave it to me" Finally, the last person, her husband, Alex. She looked at him, she presents her most beautiful smile. Even though in his heart, he feels pained, he tries his best to smile. Alicia looked at the rest of the people in the room, "Can I talk to him alone?" The crowds didn''t say anything. They left the room, leaving them alone, even Sherry didn''t go back inside of him but follow the group to leave the room. They looked at each other, holding the sadness in their heart, Memories of the past flooded in their mind, Alicia finally broke the silence. "Husband" Chapter 134 - My Most Precious Treasure "Husband, do you remember when the first time we met?" "Of course, in front of Alisia Forest." "Orcs attacked my group, and you came to help us. It felt like a destined encounter. I can''t forget about that day, the first time we met" She continues, "We traveled back for four months because we took a bit detour, we arrived at a longer time. I sometimes followed you because I''m curious. I have brought you plenty of troubles back then, even when I''m in danger because of that. You didn''t leave me. Even when we are at a disadvantage¡­ without knowing, I started to get close to you, we also quarreled many times back then." "Yes, you often come with a topic, when I gave you my opinion about it, and you didn''t like that opinio. You will always fight back with your own idea." "Hehe¡­ I''m still immature back then." "But, for me, who was deemed to be useless by the society back then met a princess that didn''t care about that. I who was buried in the darkness. A stream of light slowly pulling me away. I got the chance to slowly mature. You continue pestering me in every opportunity, even though it was a bit annoying, It is still thanks to it, that I can become the way I am now." "When the first time, we suddenly become a roommate. It gave us the chance to get closer. When many provoked you. When you become the pride of the academy. When Sherry carried you back here with her tattered body." Alex smiled. "Now, you have become the strongest in this world." "Only in this world" Alex added. "It is really a long journey, isn''t it, Husband?" "What are you saying, this is only the start." "Husband, can¡­I¡­request¡­a song¡­from¡­you?" Alex''s eyes widened, he felt the life force inside her, he held his tears, "Sure." This time, he took out his piano from the system. There is one song that ringing in his heart and mind at this moment. He started playing the piano. A melody that carrying his feeling filled the air. Even those people in the outside, suddenly heard a lovely tune coming from the room was perplexed. (AN: The song is Ichiban no Takaramono (Yui final version), I used the English lyrics that make me loved it dearly. If you wanted to check the melody, I searched it here. youtube.com/watch?v=tm7Xf9818FM.) Firia, who already knew about this, explained to them. They often asked him to play it on their honeymoon, they really loved it, even Sherry showed her confirmation. They stop and listen to this lovely melody that filled the air. Even the maids and butlers, whether they are in the kitchen or in the garden, stop their work for a while. The sound of the piano was very soothing. The melody sounded really lovely too. Finally, Alex''s voice slowly filled the air. His voice carries his emotion, his feeling, his memories. Back when they first met. "If we see each other''s faces, we always fight. "That''s a good memory too. Alicia can''t help but smile. At this moment, unbeknownst to them, they can somehow know what each other thinking, feeling, emotion, and finally communicate with each other without saying anything. "You taught me that; I''m not afraid anymore. "No matter what kind of impairment I may have, I can grasp happiness. That''s why¡­ Alicia: ''Husband, I''m sorry that I can''t be with you.'' Alex: ''You will always be beside me, your presence, memory, your love, I will always feel it no matter I go. That''s why I will hope for the time where I can finally meet you once again, I will make this hope of mine become a reality'' Alex continue singing, he put all of his emotion in this. Let me sing this for you! Alex sang in a high pitched tone. "Even if I''m alone, I''ll go, even if it''s difficult. "I''ll definitely bring the dream I had with you. "I''m glad it was with you, and nobody else. "But when I woke up in the morning, you weren''t there. Tears are flowing on her eyes. Alex''s feeling reached deep in her heart, the song that dedicated to her, without knowing, tears also falling from Alex''s eyes. "I always thought we could play forever. "But I know that''s just what I believed "I don''t regret that I was born anymore. "Like the end of a festival, It''s lonely, but we have to move on. Alicia tears were overflowing, her lips trembled. Anxiety filling her heart. Even if she had prepared for it, she¡­ Alicia: ''Husband, even though I have prepared myself, I''m still afraid of this. I don''t know when I will wake up again. What if I didn''t wake up again? Will you leave me? What will happen later?'' Alex: ''Don''t worry. I know your feeling. So, I will swear once again.'' Alex: ''I love you, even as time goes by'' Alex: ''I love you, even if the world changes'' Alex: ''No one can replace you, even you know that'' Alex: ''I love you forever and ever'' "I''ll go anywhere with the things that I learned here. "I''ll show you that I can make the dream of happiness come true "Even if I''m separated from you, no matter how far away we go "I''ll be reborn in a new morning Alex: ''Don''t worry about it, Dear. You are always in my heart.'' Alex: ''Even if my heart feels like it''s going to stop'' Alex: ''My love for you is still the same'' "Even if I''m alone, I''ll go, even if want to die. "I can hear your voice, saying I shouldn''t die "Even if it''s difficult, even if I cry from loneliness "I can feel warmth from deep inside my heart At this moment, their hearts intertwined, as nothing happened in the world. Firia, Raymond, Marco, all of them, can''t help but cry at this moment. They feel Alex''s pain, they feel Alicia''s anxiety, but most importantly, they feel their boundless love for each other. Alicia: ''Husband'' Alicia: ''Thank you, for loving me.'' Alicia: ''Thank you, for making me laugh'' Alex: ''The words I say not with my eyes, but with my heart Alex: ''I''ll love you forever, even if ten years pass by, Alicia: ''Even if I were to be born again, Both: ''I''ll only love you like this.'' Alex: ''I will Protect this love that''ll become my strength.'' He used all of his energy to finish this song. The last and the most important thing that he wanted to convey. "Going round-and-round and flowing, time is ever-changing "I can''t remember what happened anymore, but "If I try and close my eyes, I can hear someone''s laughing voice "For some reason, now, that is my Most Precious Treasure Alicia: ''Husband. See you later'' Alex: ''Yes. Wait for me'' His face full of tears, his heart full of pain, he used the last bit of his energy as he took the ''Box of Time'' from his inventory. The box of time started glowing brightly as it showing him it is ready. The non-stop tears in his eyes. With his mouth stuttered, his body shivered. His mouth finally said, "Box of Time. Seal!" Chapter 135 - Preparation "Box of Time. Seal" The light from Box of Time enveloped Alicia. It took him a while before he can calm down. He can''t show his weak side anymore. He needs to get stronger as soon as possible. That way, he can meet her again as quickly as possible, the same applies to Firia. After he ascended, his opponents, later on, are far more dangerous than Zircodina Previous King. He let out all his frustration here, in this room. Let his weak side completely remained in this room. So, after he walked out of this room, he doesn''t let out his vulnerable side, he needs to be clever. For his ''dream''. He closed his eyes. He adjusts his state of mind. The moment he opened his eyes again. The eyes that filled with determination, bravery, cleverness, and sincere eyes show its appearance for the first time. This is the first step that Alex took before becoming a sovereign. He opened the door. Outside, all of them still in tears. Even though they didn''t witness the scene with their own eyes, they still clearly feel the emotion within. They were shocked when they see Alex suddenly come out without tears in his eyes. No, to be exact, his previous eyes that filled with sadness and his weak side were no more. They can see in Alex''s eyes now. There is no trace of sorrow. Instead, it is full of determination. There is no shadow in his eyes. Instead, they can only see bright eyes that brimming with energy. They were very sure, the one who hurt the most in here is Alex. But the one they thought will hurt the most, appeared in front of them with pure, clear eyes. If Alex is like that, they can''t show their weak side, right? They wiped their tears. "Firia, can we talk?" Firia wiped her tears as she nodded her head. Then Alex turned to his teacher, "Teacher, I also need to talk with you. Can we talk after this?" "Sure" He answered with hoarse voice. "I will go back to my office. We can talk there Alex nodded. He then looked at Firia, who also nodded her head and then took her away. In a room, Alex and Firia looked at each other faces. "Husband¡­" When she opened her mouth, She found herself can''t speak any words when she saw his eyes. "Husband, I will love you not for what you have done, or what you will become. I will love you because it is you. So¡­ May fortune be with you" Alex was surprised, he never expected that Firia would say this. "Dear, wait for me, I will make the three of us reunite." Firia smiled, "Sherry will be with you. She will monitor you so there will be no homewrecker, thieving cat, or gold digger approach you. I''m sure that''s what Alicia would say." "What!" "You might not realize it, but there is a charm that can''t be described by words in you, Husband. Though we didn''t mind, you get another sister for us. But make sure that you choose the right one." Alex scratched his cheek, "What kind of charm is that¡­" (AN: MC''s Charm, the best and can''t be described charm) "Hehe¡­" Firia giggled. "When are you going to break through to Martial Master Stage?" "As soon as possible, so I think today." "You need to challenge the lightning tribulation, right?" Alex nodded, "Well, it will appear every time we advance a big stage. You will also need to pass the lightning tribulation later. Well, this is one of the things that I want to talk to you. When we are going to ascend, we will leave a big hole in this kingdom. After all, before we ascend, we are ''Rank 9''. That''s why I wanted us to act." "Act?" "Yes. This world believes that the one who ascends will become a god, right?" "Yes. That is the belief. You mean¡­" Alex nodded. "After we passed the tribulation, we will fly above the cloud, like we disappeared and went to the ''Heaven/God Realm''. I had checked that it is possible when I reached the Peak Qi Manipulation Stage. Especially after we passed the tribulation. Our energy/qi will be refined into the true form of energy." "You mean Spiritual Energy?" "That''s right. After we passed the tribulation, our qi will be replaced with Spiritual Energy. It is the true form of energy. That''s the reason why starting from Martial Master Stage, called True Cultivation Stage. That''s why, after we passed the tribulation, I wanted us to ascend to the sky until we can''t be seen, which is above the clouds. Then we will silently go to the dungeon and went to the teleportation array. That way, even if we are not here. Our enemy or our kingdom enemy will think twice. That is the last thing I will do for this kingdom." "I see. I don''t mind about it. Father and Mother live in here too." Firia agreed to it. "Then, where will you challenge your tribulation?" "That is the other matter. I think I will challenge it in Night Forest." "Night Forest?" "Yes. It is close from here since I''m going to use the teleportation array in the dungeon in the Maka Town. The second reason, there is no High-rank monster present in the forest. So, there won''t be any monster that dares to disturb us. Of course, I will make a defensive array to prevent that too. But it is better to be safe." Firia nodded in agreement. "For my plan. I will make a big defensive array to cover a big area to prevent monsters from disturbing us." "Us?" "Yes, inside of that big Array. I will make a pair combination of Qi-Gathering Array and another defensive array. I will use one of them, so when you are going to ascend too, you can use it the other one." Firia eyes widened before she shook her head. She put her hand on his face. "You are such a worrywart." "Of course. You are my wife." Alex smiled. "And one last thing" Alex took out the ''Box of Time'' out of his inventory and handed it to Firia. "Is this¡­" Alex nodded. "Alicia inside. I leave the rest to you" Firia smiled, "Leave it to me." "Then, I''m going, Dear." "Yes" They kissed for a while before Alex walked away. Alex went to Sherry first. "Sherry" He patted her head a few times. "Wuu?" Sherry looked at him confused. "Will you accompany me to the upper world?" Alex asked "Wuu" Sherry looked at him with a star on her eyes "The upper world is far more dangerous, you know. If you follow me, then, we need to fight far stronger than Zircodina Previous King." "Wuu" She puffed her chest, saying that she will protect him. After four months with Alex, Sherry also reached Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage, just one step away from Martial Master Stage, Alex have prepared a few medicinal herbs for her. If she follows him, he will feed her those medicinal herbs, so when they ascend, not only him who reached Martial Master Stage, she will also follow him as soon as she eats those herbs. "You won''t regret it?" Sherry shakes her head furiously. "I see. Then, Let''s go. We will meet Teacher first before we ascend." Sherry nodded and became a stream of light before going inside of Alex''s body. Alex went to his teacher. "Teacher" "Now that you wanted to meet me. When are you going?" "After this" "I see. I just wanted to say sorry. I didn''t help you when you are in the academy. Even though I''m a rank 8. Maybe you hate me for that, why is that me a student whose teacher is respected and one of the ten rank 8 in the kingdom get so many people offended me¡­" "No, I never resent you for that. I''m thankful that you let me have the chance to mature up." Alex bowed to him to show his respect. "Teacher, I wanted to talk to you about this ascending thing¡­" Alex explained the whole ascending thing, from Rank 10, Cultivation, Dungeon, the Upper World, and so on. He also told him his plan with Firia. "That''s why I can''t go back here. But, please keep this as a secret." "I see. Don''t worry about that. We are still the strongest kingdom. You also leave your name in the Demihuman race. So you can go without worries. I know why you wanted me to keep this secret. Don''t worry about that, I won''t blabber something like that, even to your father-in-law." "Thank you, Teacher." "Are you going now?" "Yes" "I see. Let me give you one last piece of advice to you as your teacher. Don''t hesitate, always move forward, don''t entangled with the past. Everything in the past will make you stronger. If someday you feel fear, don''t get scared and overcome it, that fear will make you stronger and kinder more than anyone else." "Yes" "And one last thing. I don''t have any relatives in this world. I don''t have a wife, and I don''t have a son. But after meeting you, I always treat you as my son. So, Whatever you had done in the future or whatever you will become. I will always be proud of you." He can''t face Alex like this. He looked back so he can''t watch his face, his eyes become moist. Alex''s eyes widened, he felt the warmness he lost more than ten years ago. He bowed once again. "Please, accept this last bow from me¡­Father!" The Dean raised his right hand, signaling him to go. Alex didn''t say anything and disappeared. After Alex disappeared, he finally used his hand to wipe his tears. "Go, my Pride. Haiz, I''m too old for this." ¡­ Alex arrived in Night Forest within a few minutes. He searched for the spot he met the Forest King, Rank 6 Ape. He decided to set the array here. He wanted the forest to camouflage the array. He already told Firia the location so Firia can find this place. He started to make a big array. He took out the materials and the rank 9 monster blood that he got from the Demihuman race when he repaired the array. There are still two bottles left, which is enough to make this big array. For Qi-Gathering Array and Defensive Array. He will use rank 9 monster blood from Maxwell treasury. For the big array, he planned to make Turtle Shell Array, this is a Rank 2 array which he toned down because of the ingredients to Rank 1 array. In these four months, he didn''t blindly enjoy his honeymoon. He still practicing all his arsenal. Sanguin Sword Art, Luminous Spear Technique, Sky Movement, Fire Phoenix Art, Spirit Eyes Technique, Alchemy Technique, and even this Array Technique. Unfortunately, he still failed to condense the Spear Intent like his sword. Rank 2 Turtle Shell Array. This is one of the lowest rank 2 arrays. That is the reason why Alex can make it and replaced some ingredients to tone it down to Rank 1 Array. It is like the Five Element Defensive Array that he met in the Demi-human Territory. But this array wasn''t that good when blocking magic. After all, this array''s purpose was to fend the monster away from this area. He makes six smaller arrays as the pillar, like a turtle shell, and linked them to the center, and those links become a pattern just like on the turtle shell surface. After he finished, he killed all the monsters inside the array and burned their remains. It makes this big area clear from monsters. Then, he moved to the center of the Turtle Shell Array. He is planning to make a combination of Qi-Gathering Array and a Defensive Array called Lightning Rod Array. This is a cheat sheet when you are in the test. His Master specially make Rank 1 Lightning Rod Array to Rank 8 Light Rod Array in continuous. Just like its name, it can absorb one wave of lightning tribulation and channel it to the ground. Unfortunately, this array can only be used once, if he used it more than once, the Tribulation''s consciousness will notice this, and send a far scarier tribulation. Its purpose wasn''t to let cultivator pass it and become stronger than anyone else in the same rank. This tribulation purpose was to kill the cultivator. Even if they are still alive somehow after taking this tribulation, there will be no advancement, and they need to redo their tribulation from the start. Chapter 136 - Alexs Tribulation He made the Lightning Rod Array first. This array was easy for him now. He only needs a few minutes before he finished. Then he placed Rank 9 Lightning Materials as the core. He felt pained when using this own material. His master said that actually, the array''s fuel is Spirit Stones, and that is the common currency in the Upper World. But because this world didn''t have any spirit stones, he can only let his pocket burned as he put the material. Well, since these materials won''t have much value later in the upper world. He didn''t really mind about that. After he finished the array, he tried to activate it to check if it functional. The array started glowing as soon as he put his mana, so he succeeded in making this array. He then continues drawing Qi-Gathering Array. It used for concentrating the Qi/Mana in the air to one spot. It is beneficial for him to pass his Lightning Tribulation, where a dense of Qi/Mana concentrated. Usually, this array used when Cultivating, but because this world Qi/Mana is not very satisfying. He thought using Qi-Gathering Array to make the Qi/Mana more dense at this place. Usually, this array was for boosting the absorption speed of Spiritual Energy from the Spirit Stones. But because of the difference in Qi and Spiritual Energy., its original name is Gathering Array. After he made those two arrays, he makes a copy of them not far besides them. These arrays are for Firia when she ascends later. After practicing for another four months, Alex techniques in Alchemy and Array should make him qualified as Rank 2 Array Master. This kind of thing is easy for him. Well, after he was taught about Array from Maxwell, he didn''t have any time to practice those, since many things were going on. After he finished all his preparation, he went inside the array. He sat on lotus position and gathering the Qi/Mana in the air. He also activated the Qi-Gathering Array. The Qi/Mana started gathering in the air. It becomes denser and denser as time goes. Before finally, the dark cloud appeared in the sky above Alex''s position. Even the surrounding sky is starting to get dark. All the cities in the surrounding can see this dark and scary cloud. Especially the Capital City. Just from seeing this cloud make them shiver. An older man in the office looked at the dark sky in his chair. "So, you are going to start. This scene really unexpected even if you already told me. I need to inform the other. I''m sure all the other rank 8 in the kingdom will gather and see what is happening." He disappeared from the chair. There was a confusion in the kingdom. All the other rank 8 immediately gathered on the city gate. "What is happening right now?" "Is this a monster attack?" "Is there really a monster that scary?" "This is the Disaster that might sweep the Capital City." "Sound out the Alarm" "No need to do that" 7 Older men gathered on top of the city gate in panic. Before suddenly another old man appeared with a calm face like nothing happened at the moment. "Marco, why is your face can be so calm at this moment?" Bryan asked hurriedly The others also looked at him in confusion. Marco only smiled at them. "Don''t worry about it. Just say that my Student is going to ascend at any moment." "What?" All of them were shocked, including Bryan. Even though he already Alex will ascend sooner or later. He didn''t expect this would come so soon. "Don''t bother with it for a moment. It will become normal soon." Marco said. All of them looked at each other. They really didn''t know what is happening. Since Marco seems to understand what is happening at the moment, they decided to trust him and continue observing from the city gate. ¡­ Alex opened his eyes. He looked at the dark sky. "Teacher said in Lightning Tribulation, there are ten lightning waves. Each wave will come stronger than the previous one. And the Lightning Rod Array can''t be used to block the last wave. Then, I will use it to block the ninth wave." Alex took a long breath before looking at the dark sky. His expression becomes serious. "Come!" The lightning sound was deafening, The people in the Capital City can clearly hear it, and the world seems to vibrate because of this sound. Suddenly, A lightning strike coming toward the ground. From others'' perspective, the yellow lightning appears to hit the ground on Night Forest. But in Alex''s perspective, it is straight coming toward him. Alex looked at the lightning strike as He took out his sword and spear. He raised it and swung it toward the lightning. He easily destroyed the lightning strike. The second wave appeared, it strikes down more ferociously from the previous one. But for Alex, it still the same, he brushed it off with a swing. He looked at the third wave that is coming afterward. He frowned. He swung his sword toward the lightning. But this time, he can''t destroy it like the previous two. Alex immediately reacted. "Immovable Step" With the immovable step, he boosts his power and finally cut down the lightning strike. But, this is still an easy strike for him. He looked at the next wave, the fourth strike. This time, it was different from the previous three, from the color alone, he can see. The lightning that will strike down will be a blue-colored lightning. He clenches his spear. He pointed his spear toward the blue lightning. His spear tip is glowing a blue light before he makes a thrusting motion. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce!" From others'' respective, it was like a blue-colored light appeared from the ground and shoot toward the blue lightning. When it reached the lightning, they clashed for a few seconds, before the blue light penetrates the lightning. "Fuu¡­" He can feel, there is a qualitative leap in the lightning power. It seems that every time the lightning changes color, there will be a qualitative leap in the lightning power. His teacher said there would be three colors in Tribulation, the first three are in yellow, the next three are in blue, and the rest would be in purple. The Fifth Strike comes down toward him once again. He still uses his spear. But this time, he throws it toward the lightning. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing!" The spear flew toward the lightning. Just like the previous one, The SR rank Spear pierced the lightning easily. The spear obliterated the lightning. After it loses its momentum, The spear started falling to the ground. But the Tribulation Cloud seems to have an intelligence. When the spear was falling, it also sends another lightning strike behind the spear. Alex frowned. He grabbed the spear before it touched the ground. He then swung his sword to destroy the lightning. "Sword Intent" The tyrannical Sword Intent covered his sword and clashed with the lightning. He was sure that he could win this clash, but it takes a long time before his sword manages to cut it down. So he adds another power boost. "Immovable Step" Because of the power boost come from Immovable Step. Alex suddenly pushed back the lightning and finally cut it down. Seeing the last blue lightning was cut down. The flash in the cloud suddenly becomes purple. And true, not long after that, a Purple colored lightning strikes to the ground. And its power was far higher than the blue ones. For this lightning, it seems that he needs to use his fire. He opened the Fire Phoenix Seed in his body. Pure Fire started revolving around his body. Alex raised his finger and swung it horizontally. "First Stage of Fire Phoenix Art. Phoenix Summon" A phoenix flew from his finger toward the purple lightning. The moment the Phoenix clashed with the lightning, it immediately exploded and the remnant fire started burning down the rest of the lightning. ¡­ On the city gate. All the old men that are observing this phenomenon were dumbfounded. Bryan can''t help but ask Marco, "Marco if you are the one who met that lightning, can you destroy it?" "I can, but it might leave me seriously injured. I won''t be able to fight for a long time." Bryan frowned. He had the same answer as him. But, seeing the Fire Phoenix can ''Burn'' a bolt of lightning with that power. He was too shocked at the moment. The same applies to the others. They felt dread when they saw another purple lightning strike again. ¡­ He looked at the eight waves, the second Purple lightning. He looked at it and used the same move. "First Stage of Fire Phoenix Art. Phoenix Summon" The phoenix flew once again to the sky. It burns the lightning. But Alex was surprised when he saw there is still a leftover that still wasn''t consumed by his fire. The remain strike down toward him. He swung his sword. "Sword Intent" Fortunately, the leftover seems to not that powerful, and he can easily cut it down with his sword intent. The ninth wave finally come. He still has the Lightning Rod Array. The Purple Lightning strike toward him. Alex only smiled as he activated the Lightning Rod Array. The Array started glowing. When the lightning comes, there is an invisible layer that appeared a few meters above his head. The invisible layer blocked the lightning strike completely. But when Alex observed it carefully, he can see that the lightning move downward after the Invisible Barrier blocked it. It moved toward the ground. The Lightning Rod Array channeled the lightning toward the ground and dispersed it. And just like that, the ninth wave was easily repelled. ¡­ But, it was only for him who can take it easy. For those old men, especially his Teacher. When they saw the Eight wave that coming toward him didn''t get entirely burned by Alex''s fire. He is worried, He wanted to fly toward him immediately, and when he saw the Ninth Lightning strike completely stroke the ground with the opposition "Dean Marco, is that¡­" Dean Marco was already flying toward Alex. The others also followed him. He didn''t know about Lightning Rod Array. That''s why, when the Lightning stroke the ground, he immediately thought that something happened to Alex. He is flying toward him before he was stopped when another lightning strike appeared. Not only him, but the other old men were also stopped by this sight too. The sudden appearance of golden lightning shocked them. They dread this golden lightning in front of them. If the Seventh Wave can make them severely injured, the Eight Wave can obliterate them, while the ninth wave, they need all of them to combine the strength to stop that strike. But, in front of this lightning. They finally know how small they are, compared to nature. Sadly, they didn''t know about the whole ''Lightning Tribulation'' thing. So, they can only classify this scene as a nature. ¡­ Alex who looked the flash on the cloud, turned to gold color. He frowned. According to his teacher, the last wave is purple color. But, he can''t not believe the thing that happened before his eyes. The golden lightning made its way toward Alex. Its strength was far far stronger than the previous purple ones, no, it can be said that this power can''t be compared even if he summing up all the previous strikes. He didn''t know that even in the Upper World, such thing as this is an anomaly that even they might not know. Alex''s expression becomes solemn, He didn''t panic. Instead, he is very calm at the moment. He raised his sword and coated it with sword intent. He swung it down toward the Golden Lightning. This is the technique that has the biggest advancement from all of his techniques. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Eleventh Slash!" Because of his understanding of Sword Intent and he already can apply it to his Sword Art. It is like a door that has been opened for him so he can tread the path easily. Because of that, in a span of four months, he can reach the Eleventh Slash. This is Alex''s last trump card. The power combined with his Pure Fire. The Tyrannical and powerful sword wave shoots out to the sky. The clash between the Tyrannical Sword Wave with the Almighty Golden Lightning created a powerful shockwave and vibrated the entire Capital City. Chapter 137 - Alexs Tribulation (2) The clash between the Tyrannical Sword Wave with the Almighty Golden Lightning created a powerful shockwave and vibrated the entire Capital City. The powerful shockwave blew eight old men who witnessed this scene. But, they can''t be shocked at this moment. They immediately regained their bearing and formed a defense line to stop this shockwave from reaching the capital. Because all of them are Rank 8, they can somehow block this shockwave. The shockwave completely repelled and didn''t go toward the Capital City. They finally relieved after confirming that. But the most shocking phenomenon they have ever seen is when the Sword Wave cut down the mighty Golden Lightning. The Sword Wave still continue flying upward and slash the cloud. The cloud was split into two, and the dark cloud moves toward the fissure like it was absorbed by it. The Dark cloud slowly vanished, and the previous spark of the Golden Lightning looks like a golden light that illuminates the world. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex on the ground, After clearing his tribulation. His energy was refined into the new form of energy, which is the Spiritual Energy. This is the energy that symbolizes that he finally stepped into the path of true cultivation. Just when he wanted to try this new energy, a big pain is coming into his head. He holds his head and crouched to the ground. "Ah!" "Ah!" A huge pain continue revolving in his head. He felt his head was about to spread open. The pain was revolving for about two minutes before it disappeared. When it disappeared, he slowly stands up. He picked his spear and his sword that he dropped because of the pain on the ground. He first picks the Sword up and stored it into the System. He had used a considerable time. He needs to do some acting now. But when he picked the Spear. He suddenly felt something. He unconsciously swings his spear. "Boom" A few trees fell to the ground like it was cut just now. He was shocked, as he immediately looked at the spear. There is an unknown energy that covering his spear. But he felt this energy is similar to his Sword Intent. He quickly comes to a realization. "This is¡­Spear Intent?" He wanted to explore this ''Spear Intent'' longer, but he didn''t have time to do that. He can explore it on the lowest floor of the dungeon before he finally went to the ''Dangerous'' Upper World. With that thought in mind, he suppressed his curiosity. He makes a big wing made by Fire and a crown above on his head also with Fire. His expression becomes Solemn and Aloof. He looked like a Fire God now. He slowly ascends to the air. Because of all those previous scenes, all eyes that watch those phenomena still have their eyes lock in Alex''s direction. Of course, the one who noticed Alex first is the eight old men since they are the closest to him. They can see Alex''s expression now, Aloof and Majestic. With the addition of the golden lightning spark that still in the sky. It boosts Alex''s appearance. It was like a golden ray from the sky, and a god is born. Five of them unconsciously let out tears, including Bryan. "Ah¡­" "I finally see it" "I never thought I could see something like this" "Now that I have seen something like this. I didn''t mind if I die at any moment." "My Grandson-in-law is god." All those five can''t help but comment. Of course, the one who called him ''Grandson-in-law'' is Bryan. The rest of them was also shocked. The one who is the calmest at the moment is Alex''s Teacher. He looked at him, and his eyes seem telling Alex, ''Go, my student, I''m proud of you. Not only those old men. Because of those shocking scenes, The Citizens'' eyes still locked on his direction, when they finally saw Alex''s appearance. With his Mighty Fire Wing and Majestic Fire Crown. They can feel the suppression feeling inside their hearts. Especially those who have Fire Element. In the academy. Students and Teachers who saw this scene were dumbfounded. They were very shocked by the whole phenomenon. And inside their hearts, they felt reverence and worship. Those who have fire elements got the suppression feeling inside and can''t help but worship on bended knees. "Our Fire Prince become a Fire God" "Fire God" "Fire God" In the street. People are crying in the street, people are dumbfounded, some people also can''t help but worship in bended knees. "Acacia finally has a God." "A God is Born at this moment." "A God with Fire¡­ Fire God" "Long Live Fire God" "Long Live Fire God" The deafening cheers were heard from the capital city. Even the spies that planted in this capital city were dumbfounded at this moment. After this, they need to send a word back to their own kingdom. God was born. This made the people think not just twice, but thrice and more before they wanted to act toward Acacia Kingdom. Boosting Acacia Kingdom''s Prestige even further. Alex slowly ascends to the sky. He looked at those old men, then toward the Capital City. "I will always be watching you." After he said that, He ascended to the golden light and disappeared. It was like a god ascend to Heaven. Not long after, the golden light was starting to dim down before it is completely gone. The people were cheering inside the capital city. Because of this, Every year on this day, there will be a festival to celebrate the ascension of Fire God Alexander Sirius who hailed from Acacia Kingdom. And Firia, Alex''s wife also choose this day to Ascend three years later, which make the kingdom mark this day as the Festival of Ascension. But that story was for later. And every time the story about him always told in the academy and became the role model in the academy. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex continues flying above the cloud. When he was sure there was no one notice him, he descends to the ground. He took out a long robe to cover his face before he went inside the Maka Town. From the atmosphere in the city. It seems that no one still realizes what just happened in front of Capital City. It is convenient for him, though. He went inside the dungeon hurriedly. He easily passed those first ninety floors. From 91st floor onward, he called Anna and Leoz, thus making him passed the later floors faster. Until he reached the Last floor, the 100th floor. In front of him, A big ape standing in front of him. Now that he finally reached Martial Master Stage, he can feel the Ape standing in front of him also in Martial Master Stage. He took out his Spear and his sword. He looked at the Ape solemnly. "Roar" Noticing Alex came in front of him, the Ape roared toward him as he charged toward Alex. Alex smirked, "You will be my Practice target today." The Ape throws his Punch toward him, Alex only smirked as he coated the Spear Intent to his spear. He planted the spear body on the ground as he stepped back. Maybe, because no one appeared in here for a long time, the Ape lost its fighting instinct. The Ape can''t stop its strike and was pierced by Alex''s Spear like tofu. Because the spear still planted on the ground. Alex didn''t need to use his own strength to counter the punch''s power. "I really wanted to do this. I don''t need to counter strength with strength. The sword is too short to be planted on the ground after all." "Roar!" The Ape roared in pain. With the spear still planted on its hand, the ape endures the pain and throws another punch toward Alex. Alex blocked it with his sword. He let go of his spear from his left hand. "Fire Claw" A big fire claw extended from his left hand. It grabbed the ape''s head before tossing it away. The ape was flying away. Alex grabbed his spear. He coated the spear with ''Spear Intent'' once again. "That''s right. How did I do that before? I think it was like this¡­" He recalled the scene back then. He swings his spear toward the ape. Suddenly a stream of light appeared from his spear toward the ape. Alex observed the light, and its shape looks like his Sword Wave. The ape panic and dodged it, but it still cost him one hand. Alex was surprised, "It is like my Sword Wave." He checked His Spear Technique. He tried to coat his spear with Spear Intent, like when he used the Sanguin Sword Art with Sword Intent. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" A blue stream of light flew toward the Ape. Alex purposely missed the target. The stream of light pierced the dungeon wall and made a quite long small hole on the wall. Because of the Spear Intent, the power multiplied by many times. That is the reason why this technique can pierce the dungeon wall. Alex too was surprised. He then used his Throwing Art. "Spear Throwing Art. Power Throwing." "Boom!" The spear crashed to the wall and made a big crater on the wall. Yes, the spear still carried his spear intent thus, the impact was even stronger than the usual. But... he looked at his left hand. "Why do I get the feeling¡­" He turned to his right hand that was holding a sword at the moment. "Why do I get the feeling that I can coat my ''Spear Intent'' to my sword?" He decided to trust his feeling. Thus he tried coating His sword in his right hand with Spear Intent. And...he succeeded. The sword now was covered with Spear Intent, Alex was surprised, he didn''t know why but it feels very natural for him. He decided to do ''That'' He looked at the scared Ape, the Ape''s eyes telling Alex to ''Kill him already''. Alex then pulled his sword as he wanted to make a thrusting motion. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce!" He thrust his sword and used his Luminous Spear Technique with a sword like he is holding a spear. The usual stream of light that usually appeared when he used this technique, finally appeared and flew toward the Ape. It pierced the Ape''s head and killing it. Alex looked at his sword, astonished. He really just coated his Sword with ''Spear Intent'' and used a spear technique, and he even felt this is only natural for him to do so. With his curiosity, he pulled his spear that stuck on the wall. He tried to channel his ''Sword Intent'' to His spear, but¡­ "Ouch" *Clang* He let go of his spear because of the sudden pain when he channeled his ''Sword Intent'' to the spear. He failed to do it. He tried to grab the spear and did it a few times more, but the result still the same. For some reason, he can''t channel his ''Sword Intent'' into his spear. So he abandons that thought for now. Using His Spear Intent alone in his sword was a big boost for him. In the future, he might be able to channel his ''Sword Intent'' into his spear and might be able even to fuse the two intents together. And this is the First Step for him to do so. After that, he finally went toward the door behind the Ape. He opened the giant door. Inside the giant door is a small room with a teleportation array inside. It must be the Teleportation Array to the Upper World, he thought. There is nothing to do for him. After checking his new capability with his new Spear Intent. He went inside the teleportation Array and activated it. The array started glowing and Alex disappeared. He finally went on his way toward the new world, the Upper World that hold bigger opportunities. ¡­ somewhere far away. The Nature Goddess is looking at her screen. Alex finally went on his way toward the Upper World. She frowned. "Golden Lightning Tribulation?" She never knew about this Golden Lightning Tribulation. But there is something that she can confirm from it. "It gave Alex his previous Life memory about ''Spear'' in his unconsciousness. That is the reason why Alex can suddenly use his Spear Intent so naturally. And with that, his advancement in Spear will go unobstructed. But¡­ Is that the only Golden Lightning Tribulation he will get?" She suspected this tribulation came from the Previous Alex. She suddenly recalled the last thing the Previous Alex said, ''Please take care of the future me and please make me in love with you again.'' She came to a realization and stood up, she approached the window, placing her hand on the window, she is missing him, even the shadow of her on the window become Alex. It felt like their palm would be touching if there is no window separating them in the moment "Using Spear like using a sword and using a sword like using a spear. Combining the two intents and make it absolute. That is the Twin Intents that only he can master. Even without me taking care of you. You already made pre-arrangements for yourself. Please get stronger as soon as possible, I really missing you here." "It seems that the Golden Lightning Tribulation will appear every time he advances and challenge his Lightning Tribulation. It seems that it will be carrying a piece of memories to his unconsciousness. It can be his techniques or any others. Haiz¡­ Please make you fall in love with me again? Why just don''t you pass your memories to the future you?" The goddess shake her head, "It is so like you. The past is the past, and the present is the present. It is so like you. I will make sure that you fall in love with me again. After all, I am yours, and you are mine, forever and ever" Chapter 138 - Side Story Back on earth. You can see a fourteen years young girl reading in the library alone. Many books were piled up on her table. But, the book that she is reading right now wasn''t a book about knowledge. Instead, it is her personal diary. Unbeknownst to her, her tears falling in her white cheek while she continues reading her diary. In the diary, written like this¡­ *7 February 2007, I have finished my test and I got perfect marks in all my subjects. My parents praised me, but the one thing that made me happiest today is my brother who also praised me so much. That is the best present I got. *10 February 2008, I skipped a grade, I am getting closer to my brother. If I keep this pace, I will get into the same class with my brother, then I can accompany him all the time *5 February 2009, I skipped a grade once again in another two years I will be Junior High School Student, But I didn''t get happy about this. I didn''t know why, but my parents seem only caring about me and ignored my brother in the home. Why they ignored him? Why? My brother is my idol. But, they didn''t care about him. Brother¡­ *27 February 2009, I finally knew that Brother didn''t have good grades in his school, I sneaked to his room and found his grade report. But why is my Brother didn''t have good grades? Even if he didn''t get good grades, he is always have passing marks for the least. He is always like that in my memory. *1 March 2009, Father and Mother didn''t care about brother anymore, they only gave him a cold gaze when they saw him. Why? *2 March 2009, I sneak into his room once again. I finally learned that brother didn''t have good grades for two years, the reason for that is because he didn''t study the subjects for school. Instead, he studies about Husbandry, Business, and many others that didn''t have any significance in School. He didn''t have any allowances either. Because of that, he works part-time jobs. Why? Why has my idol brother become like this? What should I do? ¡­ I am Milinda Sirius, I am 14 years old. I have graduated from Highschool last year and now, I''m in the library at my college. I am very lonely, the brother I love so much suddenly disappeared one day. But my parents didn''t care about it. So, I asked them about brother, but the most surprising thing that I found is that they didn''t know anything about Brother, no, they didn''t even know about his existence, they only know that I''m a single child. I tried to show them the foto of my brother, but mystically, There is no figure of his in all of the photos. Then, I decided to show my brother''s room. But they were confused why exactly there is an unused room beside her, after all, they only have a daughter. At first, they wanted to remove the room from the house. But because this is the only thing that my brother left behind, I insisted on sleeping in this room, then I move my bed to this room so they can''t remove this room. And thus, my room was the one that got removed from the house. But I didn''t mind that. I searched for his possession, it seems that his possession is still intact, but his existence was erased, not only his photos but also memory about him, and especially his existence. No one knows a single thing about him anymore except me. There is no one knows about this except me, I really like my brother. Back then, when I was six, we were playing in the park, when I met several classmates from school. They didn''t like me because I always interrupted or corrected the teacher if he/she made a mistake. Even though many people call me a genius, many still hate me because of envy. Because of that, when they met me at the park, They wanted to bully me. Suddenly, my brother came and beat those guys, he said to me, ''If they tried to bully you, Just call me. I will beat those guys even if I need to change school or branded as a delinquent. There is nothing more important than my family, especially my sister. Whatever you do or what you will become, brother will always support you''. Just like the story that I love so much, he looks like a prince that saves the princess. I think I fall in love with my brother. Unfortunately, because they failed to bully me in the park, they now trying to bully me in the school, I don''t want to drag my brother in it. They often mocked me and wrecked my desk. I endured all of it, Because I have an important purpose in my mind, that is to get in the same grade with Brother. I study a lot to skip many grades. But when my parents know about all of my deeds, they started focusing on me and ignored Brother. After two years, I found that my brother didn''t get good grades in his school, I searched for the reason and found him to study the things that didn''t involve with School Subjects. Brother, why do you study those things? In this society, you need a good grade in school to get a good job. That''s why I''m confused about why Brother study those things. That day, I wanted to tell him about this. I need to correct him by myself. But when I just about to tell him about it, my mind became blank, and no words were coming to my mind. I can only punch him and kick him to show my feeling. I came to him a few times, but each time I always become like that. There was one time that I had prepared a speech before going in, but it was the same, my mind became blank again and I ended up beating him. Every time, I hate my brain, why they are useless in here? And Back then, I still didn''t know that this became my everlasting regret. Next year, I will be able to attend classes with my brother. In the classes, I will teach him everything so his grade will go up. But, I heard that my brother had a girlfriend, I was furious back then. Why should he have a girlfriend? I should be enough for him, he even added his part-time jobs to get his girlfriend a present. I am so envi- I mean, Did she know that he did it for her? Did she know how much he worked? If she dares to hurt Brother, I will kill her! But, that day never comes. The day when everything vanished. When my Highschool was around the corner, my brother disappeared from the earth. That is the worst day of my life. I felt broken like a vase that''d fallen from the roof. I can''t control my tears from falling down. Brother is my sole motivation for me, even if anyone said a shallow love or a stupid love that birth when childhood. But I''m sure, this feeling will still last for ten years, twenty years, and I will always keep this feeling until death. I delayed my studies for a year in Highschool. Even if my parents scolded me, I didn''t care. I delayed a year for me to have time to investigate my brother''s Disappearance. In school, I searched every nook and corner, I''m sure that I didn''t skip anything. But I still didn''t find even a single clue. From that day, I switched my course into Archeology, I will become an Archeologist. My brother''s disappearance might be connected to mystical things from the past. Like how we didn''t know how the pyramids were built, I also didn''t know how Brother suddenly disappeared without a trace and even his existence was erased. Brother might be somewhere else and now fighting with his life. I need to search for a way faster, so we can reunite, so I can tell him that I regret all the things I had done in the past, like beating him, Now that I have grown, I realized that those things in the past, when I had hit him, was only a child rumbling. I never talk to him face to face. Instead, I make it worse. I wanted to tell him that I regret all of those. I wanted to tell him my feeling that always buried deep inside my heart. I wanted to tell him that ''I love you''. Even if we are blood-related, then I will use my genius brain to make a genetic that so even we are blood-related, there will be nothing wrong! Now, I''m still a college student, I can graduate in two years. I followed my Teacher to go to a historic site sometimes. But I still haven''t found any clue to my brother''s disappearance. Now I''m sitting here, looking at my diary (regrets). My determination to find my brother still hasn''t dimmed even a little bit. I will surely find him. Whatever he had done or what he will become the next time I met him, I will still love him. Even in the end, I might be killed in his hand, I will leave with happiness. After all, I still met him, rather than enduring this loneliness, it is better to die in his hand. I will become a ghost that always followed him wherever he goes until the end of the time, and ascend to heaven or descend to hell together with him. Volume 1. Another World. End (New Project) AN: Haha¡­I have a plan for her. I really wanted to make a fate fan fiction where she coincidently stumbled on Summoning Array and summoned Alex from it. if you are wondering why she can summon him without any artifact about him, isn''t it simple? Her blood alone connected to him. With a wish to reunite with her brother, she pursued the grail. She was clueless that her brother was beside her all along, of course Alex know about it, but didn''t say anything. Alex also didn''t know about his sister''s feelings, but blood thicker than water, they grow closer. And when they finally won the grail, she wished that she wants to meet him, it looks like the grail didn''t fulfill her wish. But when she realized that her wish was already fulfilled all along. And her brother''s time as a servant already finished. A good chat for a while, before she got a new determination before Alex finally disappeared. It might be a good story. But of course, I need to make this novel first until he is strong enough. Chapter 139 - Upper World Alex closes his eyes because of the dazzling light produced by the Array. When he felt he already arrived. Alex slowly opened his eyes. But, when he opened his eyes, he got surrounded by trees. He searched his surroundings for a bit. There is nothing noticeable, at least for now, this place is safe for him. He took two cards out of his inventory. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 10/80 (Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage) Exp: 8999/9000 HP: 3020 ATK: 50 DEF: 50] [Anna (Dark) Level: 10/80 (Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage) Exp: 8999/9000 HP: 2760 ATK: 75 DEF: 46] "Summon" The two cards were glowing before two people appeared in front of him. They bowed to him. "Young Master" At first, back in Acacia, they wanted to kneel, but since it is awkward for him. He didn''t want it, and the same as when they chose how they are addressing him, Anna won''t budge about this. So they agreed to keep it only with a bow. Alex looked at them, "What should we do after this¡­Master only told me in this world called Musee World, there are five continents. Willow Continent, Nilis Continent, Northern Continent, Sacred Continent, and Heavenly Continent. That makes a pentagon that surrounds a big sea in the middle of them. And my destination is the middle island in the middle of that vast ocean that only can be reached by the passage in the Heavenly Continent. According to Master, I will be transported either to Willow Continent or Nilis Continent. They are the weakest continents. If I am in Willow Continent, I can go to Heavenly Continent through Northern Continent. But if I am in Nilis Continent, I need to pass Sacred Continent. Well, I''m still too weak at present. So I need to get stronger first before I can go there." "Young Master, I wanted to ask you something" Anna said solemnly. "Oh¡­What is it?" "Did Young Master want to make an organization or a faction?" "Hmm¡­a good question" Alex pondered for a moment. "I have been pondering about this even before we ascended. I thought about making a mysterious organization. I don''t need it to be big since the member will be all of you. A small and mysterious organization that has many Martial Saints, Fufu¡­isn''t it good?" "That''s still the story for later Young Master." "I know. But since you asked me about faction, maybe I will join a sect or something. That way, I can camouflage the organization and let us have the time to grow. Well, I need to gather information first. After all, Master didn''t tell me about the power level here. Looked the dense of Spiritual Energy in here, If I was in here and cultivating, I''m sure in one year, I can reach Martial Master Stage." "Young Master. I don''t know if you pretend to be a dunce, or you are stupid. But, you are special, especially your Pure Fire. For others, it might take the same amount of time you spend back in the lower world. I don''t mean to be rude. Even if the people in this world cultivate from young. I''m sure they are still in Martial Master Stage or Grand Master Stage if they are in your age, Young Master. So you are at least Average " Anna told him clearly. But she forgot that she mixed some of her memory in that information. Alex was surprised by Anna''s reaction, "Is that so? Anna, why do you know about that?" "Ah!" Anna looked around her desperately only to find Leoz smirked. She was annoyed, but the more pressing matter for her is Alex. "Young¡­Young Master, I can''t tell you. Even if you wanted to punish me, I still can''t tell you. I¡­" Alex patted her head a few times. "It''s fine. All I know is that you are on my side, right?" "Yes. I won''t betray Young Master for the rest of my life." "Hmm, Now that I have set a big goal. Now to set up a few smaller goals. First, I need to get stronger. Second, I need more information. I will set up another goal after I got the information." "Yes, Young Master. you are right" Anna said. "Oh right, Young Master. I just remembered, Have you register your faction in your ''System''?" Leoz said "What do you mean?" Alex was confused. He is not bothered with Leoz knowing the existence of the system since he also came from it. He recalled that back then when he was checking the Summoning Ticket, System mentioned something about Faction. He opened the system and saw ''Faction'' in his panel. He opened it. [Faction Name: Effect: Your subordinate can also obtain Gacha Ticket and it will be transferred to your inventory] [Register] "F*CK!" Alex stood up and shouted. He immediately grabbed Leoz''s shoulder. "Why didn''t you tell me before! It can share the Gacha Ticket¡­ I should be able to get many gacha tickets when you all leveling!" "Don''t blame me, Young Master. I''m just a muscle brain. It is a miracle that I remembered about this. But Anna is different. She should remember about this, but it seems that she is not" Leoz trying to put the blame on Anna since Anna was always the one who will explain something to Alex if he asked. Alex looked at Anna. Anna blushed and looked away. She had indeed forgotten about this, she immediately kneeling in front of him. "I''m sorry, Young Master. I have forgotten about this. Please punished me" She stuttered. Looking at her, Alex didn''t have any energy to scold her and put all the blame onto ''System''. He sighed, and help Anna up. "It is not your fault. It is my fault. I should be more critical." "Rather than that, we need to level up you first. I think I won''t summon Wright and the others for now. I''m not sure whether they are acceptable in this world. Especially Wright¡­ won''t they suspect me as a Necromancer? That''s why I will only call you two for now. You two will be the one who will accompany me the longest. So It''s better to not mind about a small matter like that" "Understood Young Master" Anna was in tears. "Well, that is that. Now, what should we name our Faction? Well, since you two are spirit. Then, the name should be Spirit something." "Young Master, how about Spirit Roses?" Anna suggested. "It''s too feminine. It should be, Spirit Nest" "Hmm, I agree with Leoz. Alright, let''s go with Spirit Nest" He typed ''Spirit Nest'' in the Faction Name. Then he clicked ''Register''. [Faction Name: Spirit Nest Size: 0 Effect: Your subordinate can also obtain Gacha Ticket and it will be transferred to your inventory] "Alright, time to add you two." He added Leoz and Anna. He also added the other spirits [Faction Name: Spirit Nest Size: 7 Effect: Your subordinate can also obtain Gacha Ticket and it will be transferred to your inventory] "Now we are finished. It is Leveling time, I need you two to reach Martial Master Stage" Alex said "Well, we only need one more monster since we have max our exp in the lower world." Leoz said. "Leoz, searched for a monster." "Understood" Leoz immediately went on his way. "Young Master. Have you checked your own status? You have the status card from the lower world, right?" Anna asked him. "Oh, now that you mention it" Alex took out his status card from the Lower World, he is wondering, what kind of status he had after ascending. But it betrayed his expectation Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Error Rank: Error Level: Error STR: Error AGI: Error VIT: Error DEX: Error INT: Error "I know it. I should never expect anything from this card" He unconsciously burned the status card to dust. Well, it was useless for him anyway. Anna keeps her mouth shut. It is better not saying anything in this situation. Not long after, Leoz came back. "Young Master. I spot a few rank 9 monsters." "It is Qi-Manipulation Stage Beast" Anna corrected him. "Ahaha¡­habbit, and it is easier to say it that way." "But, it will lead other people misunderstanding our word." "Alright alright. Let''s go." They went toward the monsters. There are five Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage Tigers in front of them. Alex appeared in front of them. "Roar" The tigers charged toward him. Anna appeared from the right side, and Leoz appeared from the left side. "Dark Cut" "Thunder Fist" The one in the left killed by Leoz''s Thunder Fist and the one in the right killed by Anna''s Dark Cut. This is only a low intelligence beast. So killing them with a surprise attack was easy for them. Alex kicked the other three. Leoz and Anna killed two of them and the last one died in Alex''s hand. [Gacha Ticket 1x Acquired] Anna and Leoz body suddenly enveloped with light. They feel stronger after they were enveloped by this light. Alex looked at their cards. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 11/80 (1-Star Martial Master Stage) Exp: 6/10000 HP: 3600 ATK: 80 DEF: 75] [Anna (Dark) Level: 11/80 (1-Star Martial Master Stage) Exp: 6/10000 HP: 3100 ATK: 90 DEF: 61] There is a qualitative leap for their status. "System, there is no Tribulation for them?" [No Host. It is the point of leveling up. You don''t need to use your standard in Cultivation.] "¡­" Alex''s expression darkened. "System, can I also like them? I wanted to level up." [No Host, you can''t] "Tch" But something also catches his eyes, when he saw [Exp+100] Alex was surprised, System said that he can''t level up, and he got exp just now. "System?" [Host. When you register them in Faction. All of the exp will be shared to all faction members, including you. So if you killed a monster, that exp will be shared to them] Alex immediately took out the rest spirit cards. [Wright (Dark) Level: 11/80 Exp: 16/10000 HP: 2100 ATK: 65 DEF: 35] [Green Slime (Earth) Level: 11/80 Exp: 16/10000 HP: 1300 ATK: 30 DEF: 30] [Werewolf (Earth) Level: 11/80 Exp: 16/10000 HP: 1900 ATK: 45 DEF: 22] [Stallion (Fire) Level: 11/80 Exp: 16/10000 HP: 1500 ATK: 30 DEF: 30] [Minotaur (Thunder) Level: 11/80 Exp: 16/10000 HP: 2300 ATK: 40 DEF: 15] Alex pondered for a moment, he can power leveling them like this. But, if all those exp will be shared with seven of them. It will be hard to let them leveling together. He decided to remove the five, leaving Leoz and Anna alone in the Faction. Even though his heart pained a little, this is the most optimal solution for now. He can power leveling them later when he reached Martial Lord or Martial King. And it will be faster that way. Not long after, the light that was enveloping Leoz and Anna disappeared. "Young Master" "Now that you have reached Martial Master Stage, it''s time for Sherry to advance too. Let''s go search for a safe area." After they reached a cave somewhere. Sherry went out of his body. "Wuu!" Alex took out a few medicinal herbs for Sherry. "Sherry, time for a feast" Sherry finished all of them in an instant. Just like Leoz and Anna, Sherry''s body was enveloped too, but with Fire. After eating the herbs, She fell asleep. It seems that she is not going to pass the tribulation too. Alex was so envious. After waiting for two hours, Sherry still hasn''t wake up. Anna asked, "It seems we will need to wait for a longer time." "Let''s wait for tomorrow. I still wanted to check quiet of things." "Understood. Should we go back to the cards?" Alex pondered for a moment. He didn''t have anything to do anyway. He already confirmed that his spirits can get Gacha Ticket from after putting them in the faction."It should be fine for now." "System, anything new from you?" [Mission: Successfully go to the Upper World (Complete) Reward: Premium Gacha Ticket x5] "Oh, there is something like this?" the system didn''t say anything. Instead, it only opened the special mission panel for him. He claimed the Premium Gacha Tickets. "That''s right. You have said that I can exchange the Normal Ticket with Premium Ticket, is it true?" [Would Host update all the new things?] "Is it going to take long?" [Only 5 minutes, Host] "Then, Update please" [Processing] After five minutes passed. The system suddenly opened a new panel for him. [Exchange] [200 Ticket = 1 Premium Ticket] "I remembered that you said it is 200 tickets to 1, but now that it became a reality. I somehow felt this is too black" [The limit of Normal Ticket is Rare Rank Item, Host] "Well, it is true. But, what is the rare rank item based on this world power?" [Rare Rank Item is equal to your Cultivation Stage Host. In other words, now that you are a Martial Master, Most of the Rare Rank items are rank 2 weapon or equal. SR rank items are those on rank 3 and a small chance to get rank 4 items. And UR has a small chance to get rank 5 items.] Alex was astonished. Rank 5 Items? The one that equals to Martial King? It is sure very attractive for a puny Martial Master like him. But before he goes there. "Is there anything more?" [There is one more, System will give you a special Mission from time to time. Unlike when you are in the lower world. Your action will determine if System will give you the Mission or not] "I somehow can understand that. But, If I got the mission, can I reject the mission you gave me?" [You can Host] "Is there any¡­" Before Alex even finished his words. The System already understood what he is going to ask next. [There are no penalty Host! I am a System, Host. Whose System I am?] "Mine" [Yes. You are the one in control. Not me] "I see. Thanks, System" [Your welcome, Host] Chapter 140 - Gacha Time Alex checked his Tickets. [Gacha Ticket x1036 Premium Ticket x5 Dart x0 Summon Ticket x0] "Hmm, I will exchange the normal tickets to Premium Tickets." [Gacha Ticket x36 Premium Ticket x10] "Haha, Now¡­it''s time for Gacha. My first Gacha in the Upper World" He opened the Premium Draw and chose the Draw x5 two times. Two boxes appeared in front of him. He opened the first box and opened the gacha balls one by one. [Red Halberd (SR) ¨C Rank 3 Weapon] [Space Ring (SR) Use: 50 meter cubic Space Ring] [Agnoi Berry (R) ¨C Rank 2 Medicinal Herb] [Iron Spear (UC) ¨C Rank 1 Spear] [Grandmaster Beast Bone (SR) ¨C Rank 3 Materials] Alex was astonished by the new display. He didn''t need to check them one by one because he already got the system''s simple explanation. "Halberd huh¡­ I can use its tip like a spear. But I think I won''t use much since the blade distracted me a bit. The spear I currently using is Rank 3 Spear too, so I don''t have any reason to use that. For the Space Ring. I will use it since the one I got from Master only have 5 meter cubic space. As for the Iron Spear, just skipped it. For Agnoi Berry, it is another Medicinal Ingredients for Rank 2 Pill, Energy Pill. With another two medicinal herbs and Master Stage Monster Core, I can make that pill. But, the problem is the monster core. This pill will make Martial Master Stage advance a star. But it depends on which Stage the monster core is at If it is a 7-star Master Stage Monster Core. It can only be used for the 7-Star Martial Master Stage or below. And For the Grandmaster Stage Beast Bone¡­I don''t have any use for it at the moment." After that, he went to the second box. [Fire Cloud Cauldron (SR) ¨C Rank 3 Cauldron] [Wooden Bow (C) ¨C Rank 1 Bow] [Box of Spirit Stones (R) ¨C 500 Spirit stones] [Mending Powder (UC) ¨C Rank 1 Medicinal Herb] Just before Alex opened the last one, Anna comes to him. "Master¡­is this the legendary Gacha Ball?" Anna looked at the ball with great interest. "Legendary? You are exaggerating, but yes, this is Gacha Ball. You want to try opening it?" "Can I?" Anna''s eyes brightened. She seems very eager to do it. "Sure" Anna slowly touched the ball. The ball opened. The thing inside it surprised Alex so much that he can''t help but uttered, "Is this the legendary Beginner Luck?" [Sword Mastery (UR) ¨C Passive Skill] He was confused a bit since this is the first time he saw a ''Passive Skill'' in Gacha. But when he checked the effect. He suddenly hugs Anna in joy. "Anna, you are my angel, you are my blessing." "Ma-Master?" Anna froze. Her face becomes red. Alex''s reaction seems a bit exaggerating, but when she saw the effect. She knows the reason why her Master become this happy. [Sword Mastery (UR) ¨C Passive Skill Effect: Greatly Boost Comprehension Speed in Sword (Sword Arts and Sword Intent)] The effect was very practical and it is a Passive Skill. It means that the effect will continuously active in his unconsciousness. After a while, his excitement calmed down. He released Anna. "Anna, I''m sorry. I was too excited, just now." "No Young Master. It is a reward for me." Anna said while blushing. Alex was confused, ''A reward?''. But he didn''t want to delve deeper for now so he immediately changed the topic, "Alright. Let me check the others first. Let see, I need this Rank 3 Cauldron. My previous cauldron is a rank 2 cauldron. Wooden Bow¡­ just throw it away. As for the Mending Powder, it is only for Rank 1 pill so I don''t have any use for it. For the Box of Spirit Stones, there are 500 spirit stones inside. I don''t know about the currency so, I will keep it for now. As for ''Sword Mastery''¡­ System, how do I use this?" The Sword Mastery he got from the system is a Card with ''Sword Mastery'' written on it. So he confused as to how to use it. [Hold the card and say ''Use''] Alex followed System''s word. He holds the card, it seems that it is similar to Summon Card. But this time, he needs to say ''Use'' not ''Summon''. He finally said, "Use" The card started glowing and disappeared. Alex know that he has used it, but he didn''t feel any difference. Well, since it is a passive skill, he thought about his Sanguin Sword Art. He tried to practice his Sanguin Sword Art. Movement after movement. This time, he feel a huge difference, he felt his movement become smoother and more precise. Alex was astonished by the effect. This really makes his progress in this very fast. Maybe in a few days, he really can use the Twelfth Slash. Before he continues practicing his Sanguin Sword Art, he used all of his Normal Tickets. [Water Bottle (C) x10 Silk Grass (C) x1 ¡­ Fire Fruit Seed (UC) x1] There is only one thing that caught his attention the most. [Katana (R) x1], and [Mithril Sword (R)] "Katana? Japanese Katana? Every time I got a very different and noticeable item/skill. It is a big flag from the System itself. Hmm¡­" he decided to ignore it for now and practices his Sanguin Sword Art while waiting for tomorrow. The next day, Sherry still hasn''t wake up. "Young Master, what are we going to do now?" Anna asked "Let''s Move. Leoz, check our surroundings." "Yes" Alex looked at Sherry. He held her in his arm before Sherry became a stream of light and went inside his body. Suddenly, Leoz''s card shine. Alex holds the card, "What is it, Leoz?" "Young Master. I am observing a young man who is fighting a 1-Star Master Stage Beast. The young man only have the cultivation of 1-Star Martial Master, but the young man seems going to lose sooner or later. What should I do, Young Master?" "Wait a bit, I will go there." Alex said as he turned to Anna. "Let''s go" Anna nodded. They went toward Leoz''s direction with the help of Leoz Card. "Leoz" "Young Master" Leoz greeted Alex, then he turned to the young man. "That is the young man I am talking about, Young Master" Alex looked at the young man. The young man seems to be at the same age as him, he has long green hair tied in a ponytail. He didn''t have any fancy equipment, he only has Rank 2 Sword. But his movement seems a bit rigid and he himself has been exhausted, it seems that he had been fighting many monsters. And as Leoz said, he is going to lose sooner or later. "What should we do, Young Master? Should we help him?" Alex pondered for a moment. Alex was thinking about the pros and cons. His master didn''t tell him anything about the influential powerhouse, well, he was in here a few thousand years ago and the top faction might have changed since then. Alex decided to help him, so he can gather some information about this world, and which continent he is in now. From the young man''s appearance, he doesn''t seem to be a young master. So, if he needs to kill, he can kill him. "Let''s help him. We can gather some information from him about this world. But first¡­" He looked at Leoz and Anna. "Leoz, you will accompany me. As for the setting, you are my big brother that is traveling with me, So with that, you are Leoz Sirius." "What? Young Master?" Leoz was shocked. "Then, what about Anna?" suddenly, Anna was clinging to him desperately. One thing that made her like that, that is the family name ''Sirius'' that he put on Leoz''s name. "Anna¡­" Alex pondered for a moment. "Go back in the card" "No no, I don''t want that. Why is that Muscle Brain can accompany you and have your family name but Anna can''t?" "Well, I got the feeling if you are the one who accompanies me, you will bring me many troubles" "Don''t worry, I won''t" Anna replied hurriedly. "Yes, you are not the one who will cause troubles, but Anna is a beautiful girl. What if we meet some ''Nasty Young Master'' that thinking with his D*ck, not his brain and saying ''You and I are a heaven match''. It is going to be troublesome." "No. I still don''t want it." "If you wanted my family name. Just put it, ''Anna Sirius'' is that alright with you?" "Wha! Uhehe¡­Anna Sirius. But¡­" Even though she is happy, she is not down. "Anna is my trump card. Don''t worry, I will summon you when no other people present" Alex dropped another bomb "Anna is Young Master''s trump card? You will summon Anna later¡­ I am like Young Master Secret Mistress. That isn''t bad too¡­uhehe¡­" Drool seeping from her mouth. Alex sweatdropped, he is wondering where he goes wrong. The aloof and cool beauty when they first met become something like this¡­ He immediately took out Anna''s Card. "Recall" He made Anna went back inside the card forcefully. "Then, Leoz, you are going to be my Big brother. Please take care of me, Big Brother" Alex said cheekily. "Young Master!" "It is not ''Young Master''. It''s ''Little Brother" Alex corrected him. "Little Brother" Leoz said embarrassedly. Looking at this ''Muscle Brain'' got embarrassed is a new experience for him. He laughed. "Good enough, I''m counting on you ''Big Brother" Alex observed him a bit longer. After all, if he helped him and he said he doesn''t need it. It will be a troublesome development. But after observing, Alex decided to take back his order. "Leoz, Sorry. But I think you need to go inside the card." Leoz didn''t say anything and went back. ¡­ The young man was slashing his sword toward the beast. The beast he currently facing is a Master Stage Twin Snake. It was named Twin Snake because two heads are coming from one body. The left head went toward the young man from the front, wanting to bite him. "Splitting Sword" The young man didn''t back down. It blocked the snake head butt, but the other head also attacked him from his left side. He let go one of his hand from the sword, he throws a punch toward the other head "Echo Fist" Even though he managed to block it, the momentum still managed to blow him away. He crashed to a nearby tree. The snake charged toward him, and he didn''t have any time to react to this attack. "Is this the end for me?" He remembered, he is a Young Master from an influential family in the town nearby. He cultivates faster than average, but he always felt something wrong when using a weapon or martial arts, he thought that the weapon and the martial arts couldn''t compliment his weapon. He is a bit better when using his bare hand to attack, but it is still the same. He still feels something off. Then, another genius appeared in his family, it is his cousin. Even though they are in the same stage of cultivation, He always loses, because his fighting ability is weaker. That''s why he thought about polishing his Martial Arts even further, but because of that, his cousin reached 2-Star Martial Master Stage while he just barely a 1-Star Martial Master Stage. He is deemed to be useless that the gap between them will only farther and farther away. His Father still supported him even though he was like that and his Mother always cares for him. He didn''t want to disappoint them, that''s why he snuck out and try advancing his Martial Arts in Life and Death battle. But after continuously fighting, he is exhausted. And when he just about to rest, he was ambushed by this snake. And now the situation escalated like this, is he going to die? Is he going to disappoint his parents? Is Father and Mother will cry because of me? Just as he resigned his fate, a person appeared in front of him. The person who appeared before him seems to be the same age as him. Looking at his temperament, he is very likely used to battle. He looked at his cultivation and found that he is the same as him, 1-Star Martial Master. "Be careful, there are two heads." The young man that just appeared only smiled. He took out a sword from his ''Space Ring''. Well, he wasn''t bothered with it, since Space Rings are rather common, he has two in his possession. He looked at the Young Man kicked the snake''s head and slash another head. The sword cut the head very smoothly, and it immediately went toward the other head and cut it too. The young man in front of him killed the snake easily. He was astonished by that. "I''m Alex, what is your name?" "My name¡­" Chapter 141 - What? (AN: Haha, Since Gacha itself is an unusual theme, I''m going to make it unusual and weird till the end) "I''m Alex, what is your name?" "My name is Kenshin, Himura Kenshin." ''Wow, Japanese (Another World Version)'' He can''t help but scream in his head. But, he can''t let that excited feeling got into his face. Still, meeting a Japanese in another world¡­ Whether he is Japanese or not is the problem. Maxwell told him that there are numerous worlds out there, and each of them has its own culture. Especially, this upper world was connected to many lower worlds. As they ascend to this upper world, their culture starts to assimilate with each other here, so having a name that is very familiar to him is a possibility, like this time. He is wondering, what will he see later on? Will he see Chinese (Another World Version) or maybe Another World Russia? He can''t wait to see that. But something is bugging him when he heard his name, he felt that he had heard his name somewhere but he can''t recall where it is. "I am Alexander Sirius. Nice to meet you" "Yes, Thank you, Senior, for helping me." "Don''t mind it. I''m just passing by. I am just searching for sect or something to grow up and somehow arrived here." "Senior, how about I lead you to my House? There will be a competition in my town in a few days, and some sects will have their deacons to choose some people to come to their sect as a disciple. I will explain in detail later, and I wanted to repay Senior for saving my life." Alex is making a gesture like he was in deep thought. "Hmm¡­ Fine. I don''t have any destination for the moment. Pleasure to meet you" "It''s my pleasure, Senior." "Don''t call me ''Senior'', from the look of it, we are at the same age, right? Just call me, Alex." "Yes, Alex. Please also call me Kenshin." "Sure." "This way" Kenshin lead him to the town, they are not that far from the town, so they will arrive in a few minutes. Alex saw the city wall, the city wall itself was close to those Ancient China City Wall. And it seems that the soldiers are respectful to him. Alex started wondering, is he famous in here? But, he didn''t have any fancy clothes, his clothes looked cheap and tattered. Kenshin himself didn''t have any Young Master vibe. Suddenly, a fatty who seems to also have the same age as them running toward them. "Young Master Kenshin. Where are you just now? How can you be like this? Don''t you know Master and Madame panic when they didn''t find you anywhere?" "Fatty, don''t worry I''m fine. I just got back from the Forest." "Is that so¡­" Then he turned to Alex, who was beside him, "Who is this, Young Master?" "He is Alexander, He saved me back in the forest" "What? You said you are fine. And now you said that he saved you. That means you almost die in the forest? I will inform the Master and Madam about this" Just about the fatty walked away, he turned to Alex "Thank you for saving my Young Master." "I''m just passing by" "I''m sorry, but I need to report this to Master and Madam as soon as possible, Young Master needs to be punished for this" he ran away. "Oi, fatty" Kenshin called him but he already disappeared, "I''m sorry about his behavior. His name is Sogo, he is my friend." Alex looked at him, "You are a Young Master?" "Ahaha¡­" Kenshin scratched his cheek, not because he was embarrassed but because he was ashamed. Suddenly, a voice come from their back, "Oh¡­ Isn''t this ''Young Master'' Kenshin." Alex thought after hearing that sarcastic voice, ''Ah, it''s come'' They looked at the source of the voice, they saw a young man with short blue hair, along with his fancy clothes. Beside him is a young girl, short red hair and somewhat pretty, her body is s.e.xy with right curves in the right places. "Himura Soma, Soejima Isano" "What''s with your clothes? Your cheap clothes now become tattered like this. Want me to lend you my clothes? But, I think this tattered clothes fit you better. You are a fallen genius. Even though you can increase your cultivation base, but without any combat abilities, you are only a paper tiger. And our gap will get wider and wider. You won''t be able to catch up with me for the rest of your life. That''s why Soejima''s house annulled your engagement with her and pair her with me. I''m the one who fit her" "That''s right. Young Master Kenshin, You won''t fit me, A dragon like him is the one who fits me. sooner or later, everyone can defeat you" "You!" From this conversation alone, he felt really nostalgic. They are the same as ''John and Penn''. He now somehow wanted to help this ''Kenshin'' to f.u.c.k them up. "Oh, who do we have here?" Soma looked at Alex. Alex still has no expression in his face. "You better leave him, he is sooner or later will become a useless person. I''m sure if you are a smart person, you know what is better." "Soma, don''t implicate him in here. This is only between you and me." then he looked at Isano, "Soejima Isano. Soejima''s house will regret what they have done." He said this to make Alex out of this matter, Alex also know that "Alex, Let''s go." "Haha, ''Young Master'' Kenshin, what do you say? Regret? I will soon become the top 10 in the tournament and go into a top sect." Isano mocked him. Soma pulled Alex out of here. Alex wasn''t bothered with them, only result can slap their face. On the way, Kenshin started to talk, "I''m sorry Alex. Even though I wanted to repay you, but I''m worried that you will be implicated in my matter. I don''t mind if you leave." "So, you say that you wanted me to leave. You said that you wanted to pay me back? Then I won''t leave, there is also a tournament that I''m interested in, you need to explain about the tournament to me, in detail." Kenshin looked at him and smiled a little. He leads him toward his home. "My father is the master of Himura House and I''m the current young master. Even though I can reach Martial Master Stage, my fighting ability is very low. I don''t know why but every time I tried a weapon, it feels something off. I tried sword, spear, ax, and many others. But still have the same feeling." "¡­" Alex thought about something in his head, "Don''t tell me¡­" They finally arrived at Kenshin''s home. The house is very similar to the Japanese house in the Edo Period. There is a middle-aged woman, Long violet hair, gentle and mature expression on her face. She ran toward Kenshin and hugged him. "Kenshin, you worry me so much. Fatty Sogo told me that you almost died" "Mother. I''m sorry for making you worry." After embracing her son a while, she released him and turned to Alex. "Are you Alexander?" Alex nodded. "Thank you for saving my son." "No need for that, Madam. I was just passing by and met your son by chance." "How about coming in for a meal? We wanted to pay you back." "Then, I will take your offer." They went inside. Kenshin''s mother told them, "I''m sorry. I need to prepare for the meal. Kenshin, how about you take Alexander for a tour?" "Sure, Mother. This way Alex." Alex nodded and followed him. Kenshin lead him to his room. The room itself was not really big, even his room back in Acacia was bigger than this. But, something really caught his attention, he looked at the floor. ''This is Tatami'' The floor looked really like a Tatami. Alex concludes that this town have a similar Japanese culture. "So, I will explain about the tournament" "Can I know where is this first?" "Ah!" Kenshin looked at him with a weird face. Alex seems to know Kenshin''s thoughts. So he lied. "Master found me when I was a baby, he raised me in that forest. He only taught me Martial Arts, he didn''t teach me about all this. A few days ago, he disappeared and told me to discover the world myself" "I see." Kenshin suddenly stood up and left. Not long after he came back with a big paper scroll in his hand. He put the scroll on the table and opened it. Alex can see that the scroll just now is a map. "This is Willow Continent Map. There are four top powers in this continent. They are Mount Hua Sect, Rainbow Flower Sect, Buddha Sect, Heavenly Sword Sect. Each sect lead by a Martial King. I will explain one by one, Mount Hua is a paradise for Alchemist and Forging Master" "Alchemist and Forging Master? How about Array Master?" "Array Master? Because of their scarcity, there is no sect for Array Master. But they do have a big guild that place in every town. And Array Master is very respected. Even Mount Hua Sect also wanted Array Master Guild to put their influence inside so they can birth many Array Master." "I see, then how about the rest?" "Rainbow Flower Sect is a sect exclusive for women. Buddha Sect taught about Buddha. While Heavenly Sword Sect taught about weapon. Not only the sword but also many other weapons. Their founder is a Sword King, that''s why it becomes Heavenly Sword Sect, but as time goes by, it becomes more general, they taught spear and so on" Alex pondered for a moment. He didn''t have any intention to join Mount Hua since his Alchemy was only a secondary job for him, and using flame so often might expose his Pure Fire. Rainbow Flower sect is a no go for him. For Buddha Sect¡­ He didn''t want to be a monk. Then, it left him for Heavenly Sword Sect. Well, they also teach spear, right? It might be perfect for the current him. "Alex, why do you ask about Array Master. Are you one of them? Or maybe you are an Alchemist or Forging Master? Which rank?" "No, I''m just curious. I can make some pills¡­but what is this rank about?" Alex asked like he didn''t know about it. "You didn''t know? You need to register yourself as an Alchemist in Alchemist Guild. They will test your current rank and gave you the badge as your identification. So you are a Rank 1 Alchemist but haven''t registered." "I see. Maybe I will visit them later." Alex looked at the map to change the topic. "How about our position?" "We are in here, Limewatch Town, we are under the protection of Hazel Kingdom, there are three other kingdoms, they are Zhou, Thiveapia, and Southern Kingdom." ''A Chinese, I don''t know, and A neutral name. Hmm, very interesting''. Alex continues listening to Kenshin''s explanation. "The kingdoms usually let their young people train in one of the four sects. I will explain about our Town first. In Limewatch town, there are Four families and one city lord. The four families are our Himura House, Soejima House, Itagaki House, and Kusunoki House. Each family has Peak Martial Grandmaster to take the command. In Himura House, he is my Grandfather. The City Lord is 2-Star Martial Lord and my Father is the current head of Himura House That''s why I don''t want to disappoint them. I thought using life and death battle to polish my skill. But it almost takes my life, If you didn''t come. Even though I''m like this, my father still proud of me. My mother still care about me. I¡­" Alex patted his shoulder. "How about a spar with me? Though I''m like this, I''m used to battle. Maybe I can think one or two things" "Are you sure?" "Yes. But after you explained about the tournament" "Sure" Kenshin nodded. "All families will hold a tournament every three years. In this tournament, except for the reward. There will be a deacon from many sects including the top four sects, they will recruit you if your performance are outstanding. But usually, for the four sects, they only took the top 10 in this tournament. Then, I will explain about the reward. The top place will get Rank 3 Nourishing Body Pill, second place will get Rank 2 Nourishing Body Pill and Five Hundred Spirit Stones, Third Place will get Rank 2 Nourishing Body Pill and the rest of the top ten will only get Spirit stones. 142 Information "In a small town like us, this reward is very luxurious. Along with the chance to get into four top sects. Will make it even more." Alex thought for a moment, Nourishing Pill. Its effect is to nourish the body and strengthen it. He didn''t have anybody refining technique, so this Nourishing Pill is a bit tempting for him. And suddenly, a notification from the system locked his fate. [Mission #1: First Place in Tournament and become a disciple of one of the four sects. Reward: Premium Ticket x5] It seems that the reward from the system is a bigger temptation than the reward the tournament gave for Alex. "I got the gist of it. Should we have a spar now?" "Sure" They went into his courtyard. There is no noticeable thing in the yard, only a big garden inside it. But it is suitable for training. Alex took out his sword, but this time, he didn''t use his Rank 3 Sword. Instead, he took out Rank 2 Sword that he just got from normal Gacha. Kenshin also pulled out his sword. "We won''t be using any Martial Arts since I wanted to see your movement. You can attack me if you are ready" Alex said. Kenshin nodded. He charged toward him and raising his sword above his head before he swings it down. Alex parried it with his sword. *Clang* *Clang* They clashed for around a hundred rounds, before Alex said, "Stop. We will end this here." Kenshin retreated a few steps back. He sheathed his sword. "Your movements are rigid." Alex said. "I know about that" Alex pondered for a moment, he tried to confirm the thought that he had previously. He took out the Katana from System Inventory, from Kenshin''s point of view, Alex looks like he took out a weapon from his Space Ring. He looked at the weapon that Alex took out just now. Alex pulled the katana from its sheath. Kenshin looked at this weapon with great interest, he never saw a weapon like this. A moderate curve, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. "This is Katana, it is one of the finest cutting weapons. How about you try this?" Alex sheathed the sword and passed it to Kenshin. Kenshin grabbed the Katana carefully. He unconsciously grabbed the katana in his left hand and used his thumb to unsheathe the blade before pulling it out from the sheath. He was astonished, "This¡­" Alex, on the other hand, got the feeling that he really saw him somewhere¡­''Himura Kenshin''¡­ Suddenly, something flashed in his mind. A guy with an ''X'' in his cheek. He facepalmed. "How about you try it first?" Kenshin nodded. He tried a few swings, unsheathed and sheathed it again. He tried to attack a practice dummy "Splitting Sword" "Boom!" The practice dummy gets obliterated. Alex who saw this screamed on his mind, "Japanese Samurai (Another World Version)! And this is Another World Version of Himura Kenshin, Should I make an ''X'' wound on his cheek and change his green hair to red? No no, I can''t do that. There is still a copyright." To suppress this excitement, he called Kenshin, "Kenshin, how about we try it once more?" "Sure" Alex distanced himself a few meters from Kenshin. They looked at each other and nodded. Kenshin unsheathed his sword and swing it toward Alex. Alex raised his sword again to parry it.\ *Clang* *Clang* Clash after clash, Kenshin''s previous rigid movement starting to flow like a water. His movement becomes faster and more precise. Kenshin started to get used with the Katana. Alex smiled, "How about using that ''Splitting Sword'' of yours. Is it still usable?" Kenshin raised his sword and swung it down. "Splitting Sword" Alex parried it, but he finally realized that this strike is¡­"Heavy" the ground below him started to crack. His feet glued to the ground because of the force. He might be able to cut the snake''s head back in the forest if he used to like this. But, Alex can''t lose. "Immovable Step" He countered the force from Splitting Sword with his Immovable Step. Kenshin retreated a few steps back. Before he charged toward Alex again. "Splitting Sword" "Spirit Eyes" Alex used his spirit eyes. When he used this technique, the world that he sees become slower, He observed Kenshin''s movement and because of Sword Mastery. He felt he understood something from this. "Immovable Step" He countered Kenshin''s Splitting sword again. They continue clashing for a few more rounds. Kenshin''s continue using his Splitting Sword toward Alex. While Alex blocked him every single time. "I think we need to finish it soon." Alex said. "Let finish it with one strike" Kenshin nodded in agreement. Alex said that because of another thing. After saying that, Kenshin charged toward him while raising his sword. Alex also did the same thing as him. And Suddenly, "Splitting Sword" "Splitting Sword. Plus Heavy Step" Alex used the same move as Kenshin. He used his Splitting Sword and arranged it with his Heavy Step. Alex channeled the Heaviness in his lower half to his hand and made the Sword heavier. Because of this, Kenshin started losing in power before he crashed to the ground. "I win" Kenshin was astonished. Not only he loses in power, but also the last move that Alex''s used¡­ it is his Splitting Sword. Was he already know about Splitting Sword? If he not, then did he learned it just now when fighting him? If that so, what kind of genius is he? Kenshin himself didn''t know that he is also a genius. But he just didn''t have the right weapon. After he got the Katana from Alex, the door in his path was opened. Alex reaches out his hand and helps him up. "Alex, that move just now¡­" "Sorry. I just learned it from you" "What? You¡­" Even though he already speculated this, but hearing it now, still shocked him. He calmed himself down, "Alex, this weapon¡­ thank you very much. How much is it? Can I buy it? Please let me buy this" Alex nodded, "Don''t mind about that. There is one more thing that I wanted to test" "What is it? just tell me about it. I will immediately carry it" "This is a bit weird but, how about ending your sentence with ''de gozaru" "De Gozaru?" Alex nodded. "I will tell my mother first about this de gozaru¡­" Kenshin suddenly became pensive. He looked at Alex with an astonished face, "Alex, I didn''t know why but I felt there is ''Clicked'' inside my mind with this ''De Gozaru" Alex smirked a little, "Then, that''s good" "Yeah. I will go with this de gozaru" Kenshin nodded. While Alex was excited deep inside his heart. "According to the plan. Japanese Samurai Plan. Completed" "But, what about the meaning of this ''de gozaru'' Alex?" "Don''t mind about the small detail." "But, I''m really thankful to you Alex. If it is like this, I can¡­ From today onward, your problem is my problem. I consider you as my brother even if you didn''t consider me as one." "Haiz. It is only a small thing" "It might be a small thing for you. But for me, this is my entire life." Kenshin clenched his fist, he was very serious in his words. "But, I''m confused. Why are you helping me Alex? We barely know each other" "You wanted to know?." Alex smirked. Kenshin didn''t ask anymore. Alex let out a breath of relief. He says inwardly. ''How can I say that you have an MC vibe in your story and you also have the same thing as the person that I watched in the past though I forgot most of it.'' ¡­ They went inside, Kenshin''s mother has prepared all the food. They are waiting for his father to come back. Kenshin took a bath first. After that, Alex took a bath. When he finished, Kenshin was nowhere to be seen. Since it might be rude if he wandering alone in this house. He waited for a while. And yes, not long after. Kenshin finally came back. But this time, there is a middle-aged man with black hair and a stern face. Alex can''t perceive his cultivation stage. But since he came with Kenshin, this middle-aged man must be his father. And suddenly, he bowed to Alex. Alex was astounded. "You are Alexander, right? I am really thankful for what you have done to my son. Not only, you saved him, but you also gave him a weapon that suited him. Even I have tried to make him handle so many weapons, but none suits him. I really thank you as his father" "Please get up sir, What I have done is a small thing" Alex said while helping him get up. "To you is a small thing, but for him, it is his entire life, his future. I am really a useless father" "You are not a useless father, Sir. I''m sure about that, you have tried your best for your son. And I''m sure that your son will also think that" Alex said. "That''s right, Father. You are the best father that I can hope off. Even if I''m starting to become useless, You didn''t give up on me. I''m the one who useless, so this time, I will definitely not disappoint you" "You are not useless. You are my pride, your mother''s pride, your grandfather''s pride. You are our pride" "Father¡­" "Alexander, I heard you are going to join the tournament that will be held in a few days, right? I will register your participation. I will protect you to the end." "I''m honored." Alex said. "Let''s eat" Alex nodded. ¡­ After eating, Kenshin leads him to a guest room. At night, when he wanted to cultivate. A sudden knock on his door. When he opened the door, he saw Kenshin''s Father, Himura Takata. "Alexander, do you have time for a talk?" "Sure, please come in." Takata came inside. When Alex closed his door and turned back, he saw Takata bowing his head once again. "Sir Takata?" "I''m very sorry Alexander." "What do you mean Sir?" "I had suspected you as a spy that came from the other families when I received the report about saving my son in the forest. After all, it was a very coincidence. But, I was wrong. You even help him with his problem. As a father, who doesn''t want his son to become a dragon. But I can''t give him a solution that he needs. Inferiority started growing inside his heart, that''s why when I heard from him that you gave him the solution that I never found, I''m really thankful to you" After pausing a bit, "But, why do you give your precious weapon? Isn''t he a stranger to you just a few hours ago?" Alex pondered for a moment, "It is his character." "Character?" "He is trustworthy. I''m sure that you already know about this. It''s better to have an honest friend than having a ''Friend'' that can stab you in your back at any moment, even though they are strong. And I believe he also has a vast potential that buried inside him. He just didn''t find the right way. Sooner or later, even without me, I''m sure that he can overcome that hurdle by himself." Takata was dumbfounded. "Alexander, I heard that you are an alchemist, right? How about I accompany you to register tomorrow?" "Hmm, I will visit them to register before the tournament, having an identity as an alchemist should help me later on" Alex only told him his identity as an Alchemist as a cover to protect him. He didn''t tell him all of his identities including the array master. He still didn''t trust them fully. Kenshin might be different. But his father¡­Alex remembers the Zircodina King, who he thought was respectable, but still overflowing with greed. "Then, which pill you are going to make for practice? I will buy it for you, Of course, it is from my own pocket, this wasn''t to bind you to our Himura House. But it is thanks as Kenshin''s Father." Alex looked at him. It will be rude to him if he rejected this. "Sure. But, I don''t know anything about this registering thing." "Let me explain this to you. For registering or advancing your alchemy rank, you can do it in the Alchemy guild in our town. Do you know about the Alchemist Ranking?" "There are eight rankings, which is rank 1 to rank 8. Each rank is separated into Low, Middle, and High." "That''s right. You need to make one pill for the rank that you wanted to register/advance and another pill with one level lower than that. In other words, if you are going to register a High Rank 1 Alchemist. You need to make a High-Grade Rank 1 Pill and Middle-Grade Rank 1 pill. There is no specific pill that you need to make as long as the rank is right. And the guild will prepare the medicinal ingredients you only need to pay 20 Spirit Stones to register." "I see" 143 Alchemist Tes Alex pondered for a moment. At least, he got information from Kenshin''s Father. He still hasn''t trusted him just yet. Even if Takata tried to attack him, He still can escape. There is still one teleportation array plate in his inventory. He can escape with that. If needed, he can summon Leoz or Anna. If he pursued Leoz, Alex had the chance to run away before he recalls Leoz. He still has three exp cards to use to add more strength to them. What a good plan. After chatting for a while, since Takata wanted to provide him with medicinal herbs from his own pocket as thanks for his son, then he will take advantage of it, he told that he wanted to practice 1st Rank High-Grade Healing Pill and Body Refining Powder. He only wanted to make rank 1 pills, even though he can make 2nd rank High-Grade Pill, he made Takata think that he only had a 1st High-Rank Alchemist, of course, he will take a 2nd High-Rank Alchemist test, this is to protect himself later on. Takata finally left the room. Alex can''t help but said, "Why am I suddenly in the Early story of Cultivation Novel? Useless Young Master, Caring parents, Arrogant and Lustful Rival, Gold-digger fianc¨¦e, the difference was now it was in Japanese Name, and the young master wasn''t really that useless. This is another world¡­sounds fair." The next day, Alex has another spar with Kenshin in the morning. He seems to be swinging his sword all night. Kenshin''s movement become more precise than yesterday. Even Alex thought that he awakes a genius. Kenshin''s Father also came to him, he brought the ingredients for those two pills with him. There are fifty set ingredients for each pill. He looked at the ingredients. Although he can make 2nd Rank High-Grade Pill before he ascended. It wasn''t a real pill, he made those pill in the Illusion Array. He had a thought of this, of course, this kind of thing can''t be done normally even for an array master. But because he had Alchemy knowledge from his manual and his understanding in Illusion Array, he made a simulation room inside the illusion array to practice his alchemy. If he really tested on those guilds, he can be a 2nd Rank Alchemist and 2nd Array Master. But, he plans to reveal only his Alchemist title for now. He didn''t have any plan to get his Array Master identity. He took out a set of ingredients. Even though he already proficient in making these pills, A real practice is really different. He used this practice to adjust his state to make a real pill. Even he successfully made a perfect pill in the ''Simulation Room''. It was different in real life, he needs to consider his environment too. He took out his Fire Cloud Cauldron, the SR rank cauldron. He put the ingredients inside. He is planning to refine all the ingredients simultaneously. Dim Bay Leaf, Belladona Herb, Bindweed, Liam Grass, and Foundation stage monster core, these are the five ingredients that were needed to make 1st Rank Healing Pill. The flame started gushing out of his body, the red-colored flame lift Dim Bay Leaf, Belladona Herb, and Bindweed together. Back then, he can only refine the medicinal ingredients one by one, and now he can refine three of them simultaneously. The three ingredients starting to melt. The Dim Bay Leaf was melted into blue-colored liquid, Belladona Herb was the same, as for the Bindweed, Alex burned it into powder. After refining it, the next step is to separate the impurities. This wasn''t a problem for Alex. Gray vapor started coming out from the three medicinal ingredients, Alex let it out until it has nothing left. After that, he used his fire to keep them in the refined state as he waved his hand and the last two ingredients flew to his hand. He refined them with the same process, but this time, Liam Grass was finished first. Since he needs to use the monster core to harmonize the energy, of course, he deliberately slowed the refining process down. When the core refined, he immediately put all the ingredients inside his cauldron. The energy within the core gradually assimilated with the rest of the ingredients. After about two minutes, all of the ingredients started to merge. When the pill formed, he felt that it was too big so he split it into two. The pill slowly hardened. There is one thing that he felt from this new cauldron, he felt this cauldron using his flame to accelerate the assimilating and merging process. Within less than ten minutes, Alex finished refining 1st Rank High-Grade Healing Pill. He looked at two blue pills and inspected it. This is a perfect quality pill without any impurities within it, so he satisfied. Without rest, He continued to refine the pills. He refined all of the Healing Pill ingredients resulting in him making a hundred 1st Rank Healing Pills. He didn''t fail a single time. No, with his current prowess, if he failed, others might laugh at him. On the second day, he refined all body refining powder medicinal ingredients. The next day, two more days before the tournament. Alex went to the Alchemist Guild. He is planning to register today, he didn''t go tomorrow to adjust his mind for the tournament. He walked to the counter, a young girl with short brown hair asked him politely, "How can I help you?" "I wanted to take register as an Alchemist" "Yes, we can help you with that. Which rank are you going to take, sir?" "High 2nd Rank." The receptionist suddenly frowned, She is considered a beauty in this town and many trying to impress her. High 2nd Rank Alchemist¡­There are only a three High 2nd Rank Alchemist and one Low 3rd Rank Alchemist in this rural town but all of them were old men. But this young man in front of her saying that he wanted to take a test for High 2nd Rank Alchemist. She immediately felt disgusted, this young man is trying to impress her with a fake power. Alex frowned, he saw the disgusted expression in the receptionist face, Though this girl in front of him is a beauty. But she wasn''t a rare beauty. Alex''s face darkened, he thought inwardly, ''Don''t tell me another Receptionist trope that was thinking I only wanted to grab her attention with this? Don''t overestimate yourself, girl!'' "If you are trying to impress me, It''s better for you to return, rather than embarrass yourself in here." Alex sighed but soon his eyes brightened when he saw an older man coming toward them, he thought that this old man must be more reasonable than this narcissist girl. "What happen?" "Nothing, Sir. This is only one of my admirers wanting to impress me. I will chase him out immediately." The old man nodded. Alex''s face darkened. He screams inwardly, ''Oi Old man, you are also unreasonable, it was wrong for me to put my hope on you'' Just when he wanted to scold him, Another young girl appeared. The young girl with pink hair tied in a ponytail to her back, Her appearance seems to be the same age as him. Modest curves, she seems to be a carefree and willful young girl. She is a rare beauty, her beauty far overshadowed the receptionist beauty, she is one level below the elven queen. "What happened here?" "Ah, Young Miss. I will take care of him immediately. He is just one of her admirers" The old man said while pointing at Alex. "Oh, and what he wanted to do?" Asked the Young Miss innocently. "He¡­he said he wanted to take the High 2nd Rank Alchemist test." The Young Miss has a shock expression in her face. Suddenly, she grinned. "Then, since he wanted to take the High 2nd Rank Alchemist test, then let him do so." Alex knows from her sly grin, This girl is planning to embarrass him. She thought that he won''t have the fund to take the test. But it still convenient for him, he was too lazy to explain to this narcissist receptionist. "How much for the test?" Alex asked without any expression. "200 Spirit Stones for the test. We will provide you with the ingredients and the pills are yours if you succeed. You can choose to sell them to the guild after the test. That if you wanted to take the test" The Receptionist made a mocking smile on her face. She thought that he didn''t have the money to do so and planning to embarrass him. Alex opened the Spirit Stones Box that he got from the gacha. Luckily, the box contained 500 Spirit Stones, he didn''t need to pawn off his SR Bow to raise a fund. He took 200 Spirit Stones from Gacha Inventory like taking them out from the Space Ring. "I will take the test" Alex said with a poker face. But inside, he screamed excitedly, ''Shut up and take my money'' The female receptionist was shocked, not only her, but the old man beside her also shocked by the Spirit Stones. He didn''t think that a young man suddenly took out 200 Spirit Stones, it was equal to three years of revenue for Five Big Families. Even the young girl that coming later was also shocked. She followed her grandfather to recruit some disciples in this town after the tournament. It would be better if they had any skill in Alchemy or Forging. Her grandfather is an Elder in Mount Hua Sect, also one of the 10 5th Rank Alchemist in the continent. She is too, already reached Mid 1st Rank at the age of 20 and her grandfather said that she is rarely genius, at least she can reach the same rank as her grandfather if not better. But the young man from a rural town in front of her said that he was better than her? She can''t believe it. The old man looked at the young miss first. The girl harrumphed, "Fine. What are you going to make?" "Fire Spirit Pill and Body Refinement Pill" Alex said. "Hmph, Prepare the medicinal ingredients. I want to see how you are going to fail." "Yes. I will prepare it right away. You need to make those pills in front of three High 2nd Rank Alchemist from our guild. Fortunately, they are currently in the guild." Alex nodded. "Then, please wait for a while" ''Is he really an alchemist?'' The female Receptionist now trembled while looking at Alex. He seems very confident about it. Did I offend an alchemist? Just when Alex about to wait, another old man appeared. "Hoho, an Interesting event." All of them looked at the Old Man. "Greeting Senior" The receptionist immediately recognized him. While the Young Girl quickly leaped toward the old man, "Grandfather!" Alex didn''t know who is he, what he is thinking right now is, ''What the heck with this situation? Is something big going to happen?'' "Young man, are you really going to take the High 2nd Rank Alchemist test?" Alex nodded. "That''s right Grandfather. He is just overestimating himself" "Hoho, Then I''m going to watch too" Alex frowned, is he one of the masters that going to watch him? But from the look of it, it wasn''t like that. Then, who is he? Alex thought. Noticing Alex''s confusion, The old man laughed, "Haha¡­ I''m Su Hua. This is my granddaughter, Su Yue." "Greetings Senior." Alex greeted him politely. "What is your name?" "My name is Alexander Sirius" "Oh, a name that you didn''t find often in this town. The same applies to me though. Hoho" Su Hua said jokingly. Alex looked at the old man, He seems a very high-level people, but there is no trace of strictness in his face. Instead, he is very carefree. And this is the first ''Chinese'' that he had met in this upper world. He can''t wait to see who is next... "Grandfather! He is just a scammer" Su Yue suddenly spoke. "Granddaughter, you need to respect others. No one can tell that he is a scammer before the result proves itself. It is also the same as a cultivator, no one can tell that he will lose because of a weaker cultivation stage unless his head flying. You shouldn''t underestimate people even if they are only an ordinary citizen." Su Hua said while patting Su Yue''s head. Alex looked at the old man, astonished. The old man who was preparing for his test has come back. Maybe, because of Su Hua, he seems very rushed. "Elder, the preparations have finished. He can take the test right now." "Umu" Su Hua nodded. The old man guide Su Hua to the room. Like he was the one who will take the test, not Alex. Alex still followed them, though. 144 Alchemist Test 2 There are six people in the room, Alex, along with the three examiners, Su Hua, and Su Yue. When they first arrived, The Examiners seems very respectful to Su Hua. Alex didn''t know his identity, so he keeps his neutral stance, he is respectful but not too close like someone who wanted to pull a relationship. The three examiners looked at Su Hua who nodded his head. Then turned to Alex "Then, you may begin. There are three tries for each pill. As long as you succeed once each pill, you pass" Alex nodded. He looked at the Six sets of ingredients. He looked at the Body Refining Pill sets of ingredients first. Since this is 2nd Rank Middle-Grade Pill. He is planning to make this pill first. Broadleaf, Brittlebush, Silent Flower, and Master Stage Monster Core. He took out his cauldron. "Oh, a Rank 3 Cauldron¡­" Su Hua looked at Alex, astonished. Bright red flame rushing out from the cauldron. Alex didn''t plan to refine the ingredients simultaneously. Since there is an unknown and powerful old man in front of him. He is planning to refine the medicinal herbs one by one as to not raise suspicion. Unfortunately, Alex still overestimate this world power. Even if he refined them one by one, his foundation alone was astonishing. He waved his hand, and Brittlebush flew to his hand. Alex tossed the Medicinal Herb into the cauldron as the Flame rose from the cauldron and enveloped the ingredient. He melted the Brittlebush into a green liquid. He slowly burned this little liquid, the gray vapor slowly gushed out from the Liquid. The liquid volume also slowly decreased. After a while, Alex finally purge the impurities, leaving Three pure droplets. He stored the Droplet within his flame and let it floating beside him. As he waved his hand and Broadleaf slowly flew to his hand and was finally thrown inside the cauldron. In front of him, Su Hua looking at him, astounded. Alex''s performance up to here was extraordinary. There is nothing he can say about it. It is perfect. Even his granddaughter can''t do it better than him. Alex''s foundation is very solid. Alex continued refining the Broadleaf. The refinement of Broadleaf wasn''t any easier than that of Brittlebush. But for Alex, it was still easy, he only needs some time to refine it. After that, he stored it inside his flame again before moving to Silent Flower. In the middle of the refinement, he used his flame to separate the Essence from its body. A blue liquid droplet slowly rose from the flower and the flower swiftly withered. Alex purged out the impurities within the droplet. Finally, he threw the Monster Core into the cauldron. He slowly refined the energy. After a while, The rest of the ingredients were thrown inside the cauldron. Alex started to assimilate the energy and fuse them. Alex split the pill into three and let them slowly solidify. Not long after, three pills flew from the cauldron. Alex caught the pills and showed them to the examiners. But all he can find was the astounded examiners along with Su Hua and Su Yue. "Good Pills!" Su Hua finally spoke. Because of it, the rest of the examiners and his granddaughter also snapped from their daze. The examiners immediately went toward him and inspected his pills "He made three pills out of one set of ingredients." One of them can''t help but speak. "That is the limit of one set ingredients for Body Refining Pill." "On top of it, there are no impurities in them. In other words, The pills have 100% purity." The examiners were astonished. They are also High 2nd Rank Alchemist. But if they were asked to make this. They can''t! Su Hua looked at Su Yue. "Look, I know you are a genius and can reach 5th Rank Alchemist like me. But, there will always someone better than you. His foundation is very solid¡­no, it was perfect. It was even higher than you. If you are the one who made Body Refining Pill. How many pills can you make from one set of ingredients?" "Two" Su Yue said with a low voice. "With purity around 80%, right?" Su Yue nodded weakly. "Try to learn from him. Observe him carefully" Su Yue nodded repeatedly. Though she didn''t want to admit it. But it''s true, she can''t do something like that. She can only convince herself ''That''s right. He is High 2nd Rank Alchemist, I''m still Middle 2nd Rank Alchemist. He must be planning to make me look bad! Bast*rd'' "Then, do I still need to make Body Refining Pill?" "No, you can proceed to Flame Spirit Pill" They suddenly replied politely. "What about the rest of the ingredients?" Alex asked. He didn''t want to take a loss from his 200 Spirit Stones. ''They said I had three chances, right?'' "Of course, since you had paid. It is yours, you can take it home" One of the examiners said. ''Miser!'' Su Yue cursed Alex on her mind. Alex nodded satisfied. He stored the medicinal herbs in his Space Ring. Then, he went to the Fire Spirit Pill. There are five ingredients to make a Fire Spirit Pill. They are Fire Fruit, Fire Grass Seed, Bay Leaf, Hedine Herb and Master Stage Monster Core. This is the pill that he wanted to make, he trained himself in the ''Simulation Room'' to make this pill. This pill can raise Fire elements Martial Master swiftly, but the limit was only one, but for him, who had Pure Fire, there won''t be any problem even if he ate a few of them. There is another reason why he like this pill. Usually, a set of ingredients can only make a pill. But if he put two sets of ingredients, he can make three pills out of them, and if he put three sets of ingredients, he can make five pills. He started refining each ingredient. No one knows what he thinks so they can only observe him at the moment. Alex also didn''t do anything suspicious. He refined the ingredients one by one. But, when he finished a set of ingredients, he suddenly tossed a medicinal herbs from the second set. Immediately, the examiners were confused. ''What is he thinking?'' Su Hua can''t understand Alex''s intention. ''Tch. I think you are extraordinary. You are just a fool'' Su Yue busy cursing him. They can''t say anything when Alex was refining a pill. This is an unspoken rule for Alchemist. Alex continued nonchalantly. Two sets¡­finally, the third set. When he refined his third set, everyone was taken aback, facepalmed. They thought that Alex abandons his chance. Even though his previous performance was astounding. They can''t let this clown become an Alchemist in the same rank as them. Alex ignored them, he continues his refinement. When the third set finally finished. He threw three Monster Cores inside the cauldron and refine them. Since the treatment is the same, he didn''t need to adjust each flame to suit each ingredient. It looked like that he simultaneously refined three ingredients, but it wasn''t. The rest of the ingredients was finally thrown to the cauldron. He merged them all into a big pill. Then he separates them into five normal size pills. The pill slowly hardens. The flame slowly dimmed down, the cauldron slowly fell down to the ground. "Huft!" Alex let out a breath. "Haha, you fail!" Su Yue laughed happily. "Su Yue!" Su Hua immediately reprimanded her, She pouted. Alex only shakes his head. "What?" Su Yue looked at Alex''s reaction, disappointed. But when she saw he shakes his head like telling her she is an idiot. She can''t take this. "You just fail and you are acting like this. Hmph!" "Who said I failed?" Alex smirked. "It is very obvious you are failed!" One of the examiners was curious about Alex''s word. He can''t help but went toward the cauldron when he saw what is inside. He was dumbfounded. "This¡­This¡­" "What''s with you, Old Lex?" The other examiners looked at him and the cauldron. He suddenly froze when he saw the cauldron. The last one was very curious as to why his two friends become like this. But, when he came, he also froze like a statue. There is three frozen statue in front of him. Alex made a weird expression on his face. Su Hua approached the cauldron and react the same as the first one, Luckily he didn''t freeze too. "Five¡­Five!" "Grandfather?" Su Yue who was angry at Alex can''t help but confuse. She finally took a glance toward the cauldron. She saw five blue Pills inside the cauldron. "No! It''s impossible!" in extreme denial. "Five Fire Spirit Pills, 100% purity to boot" Su Hua exclaimed "Young man, how you do that? Who is your Master? Did he teach you something like this?" "My master? No, he didn''t teach me. I experimented it myself" Alex said innocently out of reflex. But soon he regrets what he said and immediately corrected himself. "Ah, that''s right. It was thanks to my Master. He taught me everything" Su Hua looked at him with a poker face, "It''s too late to correct yourself, Young Man" "Where are you come from? Which influence?" Su Hua continued. "I just come to this town to participate in the tournament. I''m planning to go to Heavenly Sword Sect" Alex said. "What! Heavenly Sword Sect? It is a waste for you to go there. I''m an elder from Mount Hua Sect, I officially recruit you to become one of my Mount Hua Sect disciples. You can also become my disciple, and practice together with my Granddaughter. Since you are at the same age, I''m sure that you two will get along" "What!" Su Yue was shocked that she was sold off. On the other hand, Alex was astonished by the fact that this old man in front of him is an elder from the top four sects. But, Mount Hua Sect¡­ He didn''t have any intention to go there. He can only reject this offer. "I''m sorry Senior. But I need to decline." "What? Are you crazy? Don''t you know who my grandfather is? He is one of the 5th Rank alchemist in this continent!" "Cough cough, you said that you wanted to join the tournament, right? My offer still valid even if you joined the tournament" Su Hua said, He didn''t believe that Alex''s Martial prowess was high. After all, to have high achievement in Alchemy at such a young age as him, he bound to sacrifice his time to improve his Martial Prowess. He thought that if Alex will lose later, then he extends his sincere invitation again, he was sure that Alex will gladly to join Mount Hua Sect. He didn''t know that he will regret this decision about him. "That''s right. I''m still curious about how you make five pills out of three sets of ingredients. Isn''t one set of ingredients can only make one Fire Spirit Pill?" "More than one, less than two" Alex said. Su Hua suddenly fell into a deep thought. But soon, his eyes brightened. He looked at Alex. Alex nodded his head, "Two sets of ingredients can make three pills while three sets of ingredients can make five pills. Sadly, Four sets of ingredients can only make six pills." Su Hua pondered. It is a new knowledge for him. He looked at the Young Man in front of him. Without anyone teaching him, he can reach this stage. He is a prodigy in Alchemy. If he gets proper teaching, Su Hua was sure that Alex would advance leap and bound. "Thank you for the new knowledge. I can''t let you go unrewarded for this knowledge." Su Hua took out a pill from his Space Ring. Alex looked at the green pill on his hand. From the look of it, he was sure that the pill purity also 100%. Su Hua handed the pill to Alex. "This is Energy Pill. It made from 10-Star Martial Master Monster Core" Alex was surprised, "This¡­This is too precious, Senior" "Please accept it. I can make a dozen of them. But I''m sure that you need it more than me. Your knowledge also very precious" "Then, I will gratefully accept it" Su Hua nodded his head. "Then, since we are done here, what are you going to do after this? If you didn''t have anything to do, how about you talk about Alchemy with my Granddaughter? Since you two are the same age, I''m sure exchanging knowledge with each other will make your technique improve." "No! I don''t want!" Su Yue immediately rejected the idea. 145 Last Practice "No! I don''t want it!" Su Yue immediately rejected the idea. Alex''s eyes flashed. He took advantage of that "Since, She doesn''t want. I will respect her wish. Senior, I bade farewell. I need to practice for the tournament two days from now." "I spoiled this girl too much." Alex looked at her and shook his head. ''Besides, If she beside me when I''m refining something, I afraid she will make it fail with her temperament'' "What did you say!" Su Yue''s sixth sense noticed Alex''s disappointment on her. Even though she didn''t know what is that but she still felt irritated Alex ignored her and left hurriedly. "Haiz!" Su Hua looked at his granddaughter. Then turned to the examiners, "Then, prepare the badge for him." "This way, Alexander" One of the examiners nodded. he didn''t see Alex as a junior anymore. After all, they both are Alchemist, and Alex''s rank is the same as him. "Thank You" Alex followed him to get his badge. He brought him to the first floor. He passed the female receptionist earlier. When she saw Alex walking together with one of High 2nd Rank Alchemist in the guild and they seem pretty friendly to boot. Her lips trembled, Her body shivered. From the look of it, it seems that Alex was really an Alchemist. She is only a normal citizen, but he is an Alchemist. What will happen to her after this? She can only lower her head when they passed her. Alex looked at her. She is currently trembling. Fortunately, Alex wasn''t someone who picks on a small problem. "Alexander?" "Ah, nothing. Let''s go, Old Lex" "Sure" Old Lex, his full name is Lexy Stias, He need to make a good relationship with Alex. After watching this, Old Lex investigated the issue. After he found the issue, he immediately dismissed the Narcissist girl and she left with tears streaming on her face. After all, an Old Alchemist with a Young Alchemist in the same rank, who is more important? He was sure everyone knows the answer. He handed a silver badge to Alex. On the badge, there are two gold stars. "Old Lex. Why is his star in bronze?" He looked at a middle-aged man, there are two bronze stars in his badge. So Alex can''t help but ask. "You didn''t know about it?" Alex shakes his head. "You know there are three divisions each rank, right?" Alex nodded, "You mean¡­" "That''s right. Bronze for Low-grade, Silver for Mid-grade, and Gold for High-Grade. The one who you pointed at is currently a Low 2nd Rank Alchemist." "I see. Thank you. Since I have the badge with me. I need to go back." ¡­ Alex went back to Himura''s House. He is wondering if he needs to take the Fire Spirit Pill now. He decided to not after thinking for a while. He decided to eat it after he reached the sect. When he came back, Kenshin greeted him. It seems that he is waiting for him. "Alex, you finally came back. Let''s spar" "Sure" Kenshin didn''t ask him where or what he did. He fully trusts Alex as a sworn brother. Alex nodded. They fought for a bit. "Kenshin. Do you have any more sword art other than this ''Splitting Sword'' or only this?" "I do have another one. It is Low-Level Profound Tier Skill, called Five Strike. This is one of the three highest rank martial arts in our family, the other families also only had Low-Level Profound Tier Skill. Want to read the manual?" Kenshin asked. "Low-Level Profound Tier Skill?" "Ah, you don''t know about that too? There are five tiers for Martial Arts. They are Yellow Tiers, Profound Tier, Earth Tier, Heaven Tier, and Saint Tier. Actually, there is another Tier above Saint Tier. It is called God Tier or Divine Ability. But no one had seen it. Even the top four sects only had Low Earth Tier skill. Each tier has three divisions. Low, Mid, and High" Alex pondered, it seems that his journey still long way to go. "How about you use this ''Five Strike'' thing. I will just learn it from your movement. It won''t be called Giving a Technique to an outsider, right? After all, you just use it and the opponent learns it from that. It was a coincidence." Well, since he even wanted to give him the manual. Alex sure that Kenshin didn''t mind about it. On the other hand, Kenshin looked at him with a smile. He also understood Alex''s intention. "Sure. But this art called Five Strike because it is a continuous Five Strikes. I can only use up to the Third Strike." "I don''t mind about that" Alex nodded. "Then, here I go" Kenshin raised his sword. He charged toward Alex. He swings his sword. "First Strike!" *Clang!* Alex parried it with his sword. Kenshin continued, "Second Strike!" *Clang!* Alex blocked it again. But he can feel the difference between them. The Second Strike was at least twice stronger than the First Strike. "Third Strike!" This time, When Alex tried to block it, He found himself can''t do so. He was losing in power. "Immovable Step" He immediately used his Immovable Step to counter the power. This time, the power was also twice stronger than the previous Strike. There are five strikes, Each strike will get twice the power from the previous strike. That means, in the Five Strikes, it was 16x power. "Alright. Time to get serious. Don''t hold back, Kenshin!" Alex said. They continue their clash. Kenshin started using the Five Strike more often. At first, he wanted to surprise this ''Brother'' of his in the tournament. But since Alex had asked about it, He used it. after an hour, Alex managed to use the Third Strike. Kenshin was a bit hurt when he found Alex doing the same thing as him. Especially after another two hours sparring. Alex managed to use the Fourth Strike. He overpowered Kenshin for a moment. Alex also told him his understanding. And not long after, Kenshin also managed to use the Fourth Strike too. Kenshi''s heart wasn''t hurt anymore. It might also be better to exchange their understanding of Sword Arts. At the Fourth Strike, Alex felt the Fourth Strike have the same power as his Sanguin Sword Art, Eleventh Slash. But it was only a normal Eleventh Slash, he didn''t put any Element or his Sword Intent. If not, this art was never equal to his Sanguin Sword Art. From the look of it, His Sanguin Sword Art seems to be in Profound Tier Martial Skill, it was either in Middle Profound Tier or High Profound Tier. ¡­ "Fourth Strike" "Fourth Strike" *Clang* They repelled each other attack. They have been sparing for a few hours. "Let''s Stop" Alex said. "Yes. I''m sure that mother is preparing our dinner." "I think we will train separately for tomorrow. I wanted to adjust my mind before the tournament." "Sure" They went inside. After taking a bath, Alex joined the dinner, along with Kenshin. It was a warm dinner. At night, Alex took out a Body Refining Pill and ate it. Body Refining Pill can strengthen his body even further. If not, because he can only take three of them. It wasn''t because he only had three at the moment, but it was the limit, another more won''t have any effect on him. It is perfect for his body training for a short amount of time. The refining process was a bit slow, it took him an hour before he finished refining the first one. After that, he took another one. After he finished his second pill, He refined another set of Body Refining Pill before he cultivates once again. The next day, Although he said They are going to practice alone today. Alex visited Kenshin first. "Kenshin" "Alex! I thought you said we are going to practice alone today?" "Yeah. I''m planning to do so. But before that, Take this" Alex took out three blue pills from his Space Ring "What are they?" "Body Refining Pill. Have you eaten them yet?" "No, Father was planning to get this pill for me back then. But he said it is better to wait for a pill without impurities. But it was bought by Soejima''s House from the auction for 200 Spirit Stones back then. So I never had one" "They are Body Refining Pills. I have copied your Low Profound Tier Martial Skill, so I can''t learn it for free, can I? So here they are" "They are really Body Refining Pills?" Alex nodded. "This¡­ I can''t accept this. They are at least 600 Spirit Stones. If they are auctioned one by one, I''m sure it will be higher than that." Alex patted his shoulder "Eat it if you recognize m as ''Your Brother" Alex said that and left. Kenshin looked at him. ''I will always be your brother'' ¡­ "First Strike" "Second Strike" "Third Strike" "Fourth Strike" *Swoosh* Alex is practicing his new Sword Art. He has reached the Twelfth Slash on his Sanguin Sword Art. At least, he needs to take a week to use the Thirteenth Slash. So after he mastered his Twelfth Slash, he is practicing this strikes. There is another reason why he wanted to practice alone, he can''t be seen that he learned Himura''s House Sword Art, can''t he? Especially those himuras. Fortunately, these few days, there is no trouble like he was expecting from CN Novels, where the first antagonist will come to this place and challenge the Protagonist and will take his revenge in the Tournament. "Huft. Tomorrow will be the tournament huh¡­ What kind of tournament will it be? One on One fight? or maybe a battle royal? But surely, I''m waiting for Kenshin to cut that lustful person. Well, he is surely can do it. His movement itself was very fast and precise after using the katana. Though because of its unique shape, he needs to make a custom made weapon if he wants a stronger weapon." He continued his practice and after another two hours, He finally did it. "Fourth Strike" "Fifth Strike" *Swoosh* He finally succeeds in the Fifth Strike. Its power was very strong. It is at the same level as his Sanguin Sword Art, Twelfth Slash using his Fire or with his Sword Intent. But only one of them. This can be his main Sword Art for now. Since he needs to keep his Fire as a secret. Though the Alchemist guy already knew it, he was sure that he won''t blabber about it, since there is no reason for him to do so. And since he is an Alchemist too, He must be thinking that he didn''t have a good Martial Prowess along with excellent handling on Weapons. If he thinks that since Alex wanted to go to Heavenly Sword Sect, he must be somewhat good with a weapon. But he won''t expect that Alex is this good. He keeps practicing the Fifth Strike to get used to it. But when he practiced this Sword Art, he got a strange feeling. And that strange feeling get stronger and stronger as he continues his practice with this Sword Art. Alex felt that he is almost there. He felt that he can get rid of this feeling when he reached there. This is the reason why Alex keeps practicing this Move. Alex continue practicing until night. Then suddenly, *Swoosh* Alex was dumbfounded. The ground cracks because of the wind formed by the slash. Though it was only a small crack, Alex didn''t use his mana to make a sword wave-like attack. He only used his physical body and Art. That means, the wind produced by his Sword Swing alone can crack the ground. Alex looked at his sword, still unbelieve. He continues practicing this move for another hour before he let his body rest for tomorrow. The Strange feeling has gone after he succeeded in using the new move. And He didn''t get any weird feeling anymore after completing the move. Alex thought that it couldn''t be any stronger than this. But this power alone was equal to his Twelfth Slash with his element and Sword Intent. If he wasn''t sure before, now he was sure to make this Art to be his main Sword Art for the moment. Since he still needs to complete the last three slash for Sanguin Sword Art. It seems that Sanguin Sword Art is at the same level as this new technique. They are in Middle Profound Tier Martial Skill. He wasn''t sure why he can master this Art before the Sanguin Sword Art? Maybe because he had a demonstration from Kenshin? Well, even though they are at the same level. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, This ''Fifth Strikes'' can only be accompanied with His Sword Intent, while Sanguin Sword Art can be accompanied with his Sword Intent along with his Element. So, at the last step, Sanguin Sword Art is stronger. When the morning came, Alex opened his eyes. Kenshin is waiting for him outside with his new outfit. Unfortunately, this world didn''t have any Samurai Kimono or Hakama Pants. Alex really wanted to dress Kenshin up with those. "Alex, let''s go" "Sure" The Sword Duo finally on their way to the competition. 146 Tournamen Kenshin guides him to the Tournament. Since Takata already registered him, They went into the registration counter to get the Identification number. On their way, they met with Himura Soma and Soejima Isano again. Alex frowned and complained inwardly, ''What the heck with this coincidence plot?'' "Haha¡­Isn''t this Young Master Kenshin, are you going to participate? Even you are 1-Star Martial Master, I''m still wondering if you can defeat a Peak Foundation Stage?" "It is useless to talk to you here, I will give you the answer in the arena. Just hope you don''t face me or you will regret de gozaru" Kenshin Said "De gozaru? What with that weird speech? You are very embarrassing." Isano mocked Kenshin "I don''t care what other thinking. I only know this is giving me pride!" "Pride? What Pride? There won''t be any pride because you are only a loser" Soma looked at him with disgust. Then he noticed Alex beside Kenshin. "Oh, You are still with him, You are also a fool that didn''t know what is good or bad, I already give you my goodwill and advise you to leave him. A fool. From the look of it, you are the same as him, 1-Star Martial Master, I will give you a beating that you won''t be able to forget for the rest of your life. After all, I''m a 2-Star Martial Master. If I have another month, I will reach 3-Star Martial Master. You fool can only bow down to me, a genius." Before Alex speaks, Kenshin stopped them, "Stop. If you wanted to insult me, then insult me. I won''t tolerate who insult my brother." "Huh¡­I don''t need you to tell me that. This is my mouth, I can insult whoever I¡­" "Amithaba" A sudden appearance of a bald monk stopped his mouth, The monk is around the same age as them. "Itagaki Kyousuke" Soma blurted out his name. "What with you, you become a bald¡­ Ouch!" Isano immediately pinched Soma. She knew from Itagaki Kyousuke appearance as a monk, then he must have been recruited as a Monk for Buddha Sect. Offending him now is a bad move. They still didn''t have any identity as one of the top four sects disciple. Seeing the commotion has stopped, Itagaki Kyousuke, without saying anything, walked away. "Hmph! My mood is down. You are lucky for now, you better not meet me in the arena later" Soma immediately dragged Isano away. "Alex" Kenshin looked at him worriedly. Alex only smiled, "I didn''t say anything. That''s right, do you know what kind of competition will be held later?" "No" Kenshin shook his head. "I don''t know. My Father will come later as Himura House''s head. Let''s go, we need to get our identification number." Alex nodded, they went to the registration counter. Both of them get a tag. Kenshin''s tag has ''131'' written on it. While Alex has ''503'' written on it. The numbers come from their registration numbers. But when Alex flip the Tag. He saw ''C'' written on it. "Kenshin, Try to look the Character behind your number" Alex said "A?" Kenshin looked at him, confused. "What is this Character?" "I don''t know. Mine is ''C" "I will ask about it to them." Alex nodded, not long after, he is back. "Alex, They didn''t say anything. There will be an instruction for it later." "Sure. Let''s go" Alex said. "Oh, I almost forget about this. Who is that monk? It seems that you know him too." Kenshin nodded, "He is Itagaki Kyousuke, the prodigy from Itagaki House. The rumor said Buddha Sect extend their invitation to him before the tournament start. He is a 3-Star Martial Master." "Is there anyone like him too in this tournament?" Alex asked. He needs to make sure first. Since the one who already got recruited by the sect must receive some instruction beforehand. "There is one more, she is Kusunoki Kayo from Kusunoki House. She is the pride of Kusunoki House, Rainbow Flower Sect already invited her to become her disciple." "Hmm, now that you mention it, I still didn''t know anything about the Five Families in this town." "That''s right. I forgot to tell you about this. Then, now we are here. There are Five Families, as you know they are Himura House, Soejima House, Itagaki House, Kusunoki House, and the City Lord, Nakagawa. From Himura House, the representative is Himura Soma. From Soejima House, She is Soejima Isano. Itagaki House is Itagaki Kyousuke. Kusunoki Kayo from Kusunoki House and the last is from Nakagawa House, they have two big representatives, they are Nakagawa Hikotaka and his elder sister, Nakagawa Hiina. You have seen Himura Soma, Soejima Isano and Itagaki Kyousuke just now. I will describe the other three. First, Kusunoki Kayo from Kusunoki House, she is a prodigy from Kusunoki House, 3-Star Martial Master, because of her talent, the Rainbow Flower Sect recruited her a month ago. So, I''m sure that her prowess is stronger from 3-Star Martial Master. As for her appearance, She is 19 years old, Brown sharp eyes, long brown hair reaching her waist, pretty face, and beautiful curves. You should be able to differentiate her even in the crowds" "Ah, you mean her?" Alex pointed out a girl in the crowds. Kenshin followed the direction he pointed at, And he saw a girl that fulfill his description. Brown sharp eyes, long brown hair reaching her waist, and beautiful. She currently wearing a white shirt and a white skirt. Kenshin nodded, what a coincidence¡­"That''s right, it is her" "Then, what about the other two?" "Nakagawa Hikotaka, 17 Years old. He is a playboy who was protected by his Elder Sister and his family. Though his Cultivation is high, he wasn''t that liked. The same with Himura Soma. Their behavior is embarrassing. He had a pretty face even though he is a man, Long silver hair." "You seem didn''t like this person that much¡­" "Of course! He is very perverted" Kenshin nodded furiously. "Let''s continue. The last person is Nakagawa Hiina. She is a big prodigy, even Itagaki Kyousuke and Kusunoki Kayo loss to her talent. She is currently at 4-Star Martial Master. I heard from the rumor that Rainbow Flower Sect had sent their invitation to her but she still hasn''t replied to them. After all, she is currently 18 years old. She has the potential to become a Martial King." "Oh¡­" Alex was astonished. "Her appearance, she is a beauty that prettier than Kusunoki Kayo. With her Long Silver Hair, beautiful curves and edges, Her penetrating silver eyes, and her aloof expression that make her like a snow lotus in the snowy mountain. Beautiful but untouchable. She is¡­" "Oh, you mean them?" Before Kenshin finished his words, Alex pointed out his finger again. "Again?" Kenshin was shocked. Coincidence? ''F*ck you'' He looked at another direction, he saw two people, one male and one female. The male has Long Silver Hair, Carefree expression and eyes that seems looking down on people. The female has Long Silver hair reaching her waist, just like a goddess, She has beautiful curves and edges, aloof expression that telling the world she is different, she is the most beautiful girl that Alex has seen in this town, of course, not on par with Alicia and Firia. They were a matching suit, it seems it was their uniform or something. Black shirt with Black pants for the male and Black Skirt for the female. They contrast with their beautiful silver hair and make it more appealing. "That''s right. It''s them" Kenshin said tiredly. But, maybe because noticing their gaze. The Elder Sister seems looked back at them. She frowned. "Let''s go, Alex. It''s better to not cause trouble for now. It''s bothersome. Alex nodded. A middle-aged man accompanied the Brother-Sister duo. He was curious why the elder Sister frowned when she saw them. "Hiina, what''s wrong?" "Nothing" She shook her head. "I think I see you frowned when you saw the Former Genius of Himura House, Himura Kenshin? What do you think about him? Is he really that weak compared to the current Genius of Himura House, Himura Soma?" "What? Father, why are you asking about it to Elder Sister ?" The younger one, Nakagawa Hikotaka can''t take it anymore. The middle-aged man who accompanied them is their Father, the current City Lord, Nakagawa Otoshi. "He is stronger¡­far stronger" Nakagawa Hiina said. "Sister?" "Hoo¡­" Nakagawa Otoshi, then he recalled something. "If I''m not wrong. There is another young man beside him, they seem to come together. I''m sure that he also a 1-Star Martial Master, what do you think about him?" "Him¡­" She frowned, when she saw Himura Kenshin, she was surprised a bit since from the rumor about him become useless have spread in their town. But when she saw his aura, it seems that the rumor wasn''t true. But, when she saw Alex, she frowned. Since she is a 4-Star Martial Master, she, of course, can see Alex''s cultivation stage which is 1-Star Martial Master. But there is an indescribable feeling creeping inside her. Even though Alex is just a 1-Star Martial Master, she felt that she wouldn''t be able to defeat him. "What''s wrong?" Otoshi was confused with the sudden silence. He didn''t observe Alex so he didn''t know what his daughter thinking, but seeing her frowned like this. He is expecting to meet this young man. "He is equal to me, if not better" Hiina finally said. "Hoo¡­" Otoshi was shocked by this. He never expected his daughter, the number one genius in the town would say something like that. "What?" Not only him, Hikotaka who besides her, is shocked too by the sudden revelation. He suddenly becomes angry. If he met that man in the arena, he would beat him hard to prove that his sister is wrong. ¡­ Alex and Kenshin were still ignorant that they have been targeted by the Nakagawa duo. They went inside the arena. "Look at the back of your tag. The Character symbolize which block you are on. Please follow the staff to your respective room." There is an announcer inside. "It seems we will be separated for a while" Kenshin said. Alex looked at him with disgust. "Your words just now¡­ It sounds like you don''t want to be separated from me. Scram, You sound like a gay." "Wha! You misunderstand me¡­" Kenshin desperately wanted to explain to Alex. Alex sneak out hurriedly. When he noticed that Alex was already gone, he sighed and went to his waiting room. ¡­ Not long after, the announcer finally comes to the stage, "Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the arena. Today we will hold our three years competition. But, because there is a sudden influx of participants. We will make a preliminary round for the first round. But first, let us greet our special guest first. From the four sects. Sir Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect, Sir Dominic Phelan from Buddha Sect, Sir Conn Kindellan from Heavenly Sword Sect, and Miss Amira Austin from Rainbow Flower Sect." *Clap Clap* Four people stood up from their seats. The first one, Alex has seen him, he is the elder from Mount Hua Sect. The second one from the Buddha sect was your typical old monk except his name. Alex felt really weird when he heard his name, well he always heard Cultivation Novel on Earth with only Chinese Name, so not only their name isn''t a Chinese Name, but he also experienced it now, not read it, so it feel weird for him. As for the Heavenly Sword Sect, is also another old man with white hair, but despite his age, he still giving the aura of a warrior. The last one is a Beautiful woman. Alex only classified her as one level below Nakagawa Hiina. "Then let''s move on to our Host, the Five Families Leader. From Nakagawa House, Nakagawa Otoshi. From Himura House, Himura Takata. From Soejima House, Soejima Ujitaka. From Itagaki House, Itagaki Yukiteru. And From Kusunoki House, Kusunoki Rentaro." *Clap Clap* Five people stood up, in the middle, Nakagawa Otoshi, this is the middle-aged man that he saw when he saw the Nakagawa duo. Now that he understood who he is, And it seems that the Silver Hair is their gen. He looks like a Strict but caring Father from Alex''s perspective. On his left, One of them is Kenshin''s Father, and the other one is another middle-aged man. His name is Kusunoki Rentaro. From his carefree look, he seems to be a very doting parent. The opposite of them is another two middle-aged men. The first one has a kind face and the other one has a sly face. If Alex concludes it in one sentence, one of them is a Kind old man and the other is Old Fox. 147 Tournament 2 "Let me explain the rule for you. As you might already know, the competition was only for those who are below 25 years old, Because there are too many participants this year for a total of 1430 Participants. We will have a preliminary round to decrease their numbers. We will decrease the number to 128 participants. We will separate them into four blocks, A, B, C, and D. There will be a battle royal for more than three hundred participants each block. That means we will choose 32 people from each block. Any weapon is free but no killing. You will be disqualified if you kill the other participants. The next round will be one on one fight. You won''t get an opponent from the same block. In other words, if you are from A block, you will fight one participant from B, C, or D block. Let us give a round of applause for the fighter who will compete today." *Applause* "Let''s welcome for A Block 358 Participants." Alex searched for Kenshin. since the Arena was very big, they can hold more than 500 participants, so 358 participants still a bit loose. Soon enough, Alex finally found him holding his katana. Another familiar figure that he found on the arena is the bald monk, he believes his name is¡­Itagaki Kyousuke. From what he saw, the cultivation from the participants is mainly in Early Qi Manipulation Stage to Peak Qi Manipulation Stage. There are only around 50 of them that have the cultivation of Martial Master Stage. And Itagaki Kyousuke seems to be the highest one with his 3-Star Martial Master Cultivation Stage. "A Block Battle Royal. Start!" *Clang* Many sound produced by the clash of blades were heard. The situation becomes very interesting. Kenshin didn''t unsheathe his sword. Two people chased him. "Young Master Kenshin, we need you to lose here" Kenshin frowned, "We didn''t have any enmity. Why are you targeting me?" He looked at his pursuers. Both of them are 1-Star Martial Master. Kenshin immediately came to a realization, "Soejima House!" "That''s right. You are already a useless Young Master. So keep being useless" One of them said. ¡­ On the VIP seat, Himura Takata stood up, "Soejima Ujitaka! How dare you do this!" "Himura Kenshin, Don''t talk without prove. They wanted to frame my Soejima House." "You don''t need to make an excuse. I know that you collude with Himura''s House First Elder, Himura Soma''s Father, to shake my position. If my son loses now, I will also lose my position. Do you think I''m a fool!" "You are framing me too!" "Shut up" Suddenly, the City Lord, Nakagawa Otoshi, spoke with a stern voice. "We are in the presence of Four elders from four Sects. Behave yourself" "City Lord!" Both of them suddenly stopped their bicker. They are a 9-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage, but the City Lord is 2-Star Martial Lord. The difference was big. And there is still the elders from the four sects. Even they wanted to fight, it will only backfire to them. They can only swallow this for now. Especially for Kenshin''s Father, Himura Takata. He clenched his fist. "Soejima Ujitaka. I will make you regret your decision." "Hmph!" ¡­ In the arena, Kenshin is currently fighting with two 1-Star Martial Master. Although he appeared to be in the defensive. Alex can see from the side that Kenshin is playing for now. He seems to want to buy time. If he is chased like this, He didn''t need to fight another fighter. Since many would think that he will lose sooner or later. Kenshin keeps running away from them. Soejima Ujitaka started insulting about Kenshin cowardice since he is continuously running away from them. Of course, he was stopped by the City Lord once again. Kenshin keeps running in the arena. Though he sometimes met some opponent in front of him. They are mainly in Qi Manipulation Stage, he can brush them off quickly. 358¡­ 300¡­ 200¡­ 100¡­ The participants slowly decreasing. Kenshin still running away from his two pursuers. "Brat, don''t run if you dare!" "We will finish you off" His pursuers starting to be Impatient. Kenshin still running around the arena. He keeps looking at the other participants. When there are only 50 participants in the arena. He stopped. "Haha¡­You finally stop" "It''s better for you to get off from the arena on your own rather than let us do it" Kenshin is looking at them like looking at fools. He smirked, "You two really didn''t know what happen all this time. You two have been inside my plan all along." "What did you say?" "He just wanted to confuse us" "I used you two to keep the other participants away. We all are 1-Star Martial Master. I, who was chased by you two will be defeated sooner or later even if they didn''t do anything to me. That means you are my shield for the whole time" Kenshin smiled, "Since we are almost done. It''s time to clear some trash de gozaru" "What!" Kenshin appeared in front of them. He sheate his katana and swings it toward them. "Splitting Sword" All of them using a sword, This Splitting Sword managed to cut the first sword into two and blew the second one, His pursuers were surprised by this. Using this chance, Kenshin kick both of them outside the arena. The Pursuers didn''t expect something like this. They never expected that Kenshin''s combat prowess was this high. After all, according to the information, he was only a useless who had a cultivation base but didn''t have any combat prowess. But now, they are instantly defeated by him. Kenshin immediately focused his eyes toward the other participants. Only around 40 of them left in the arena. That means, there are still 8 Strong Participants that need to leave the battlefield. One of them suddenly appeared in front of him. Without saying anything, He swings his sword toward Kenshin. The way Kenshin now can counter this attack easily. Their swords clashed each other for a while. Before Kenshin used his ''Splitting Sword'' once more and get rid of him from the arena. *Ding Ding Ding* "We have 32 participants from A Block who will compete in the second round!" "Uwooh!" Deafening cheers erupted from the crowds. Even the Family lords and the elders from the top sects also applauded. But two people didn''t follow them and cheers. One of them is Soejima Ujitaka and the other one is, of course, Himura Takata. Soejima Ujitaka is glaring at Himura Takata, he seems very want to kill him at this moment. Himura Takata keeps his sly grin while looking down on Soejima Takata. His eyes telling him, ''I said I would make you regret.'' He, as Kenshin''s Father, was also surprised by the sudden growth of his son, Kenshin. He looked at the youth in the arena, His face is full of pride at the moment. Soejima Ujitaka was also surprised by the sudden growth of Kenshin. But there is one thing that bugging him, is this really a sudden growth? Or he keeps his power as a secret just to unleash it at this moment? If it the former, then it is not bad enough for him since Kenshin still has a chance to lose. But if it the latter, then, it means that Kenshin is very confident in his power. And if it is true, then he is deliberately making the engagement between him and his daughter vanished. With that, after cripple Himura Soma''s power, he will control the Himura House. He started planning once again, If Himura Soma loses, He just needs to have his daughter, Isano, seduce him once again. If his memory serve him right, Kenshin is deeply in love with Isano from childhood. If Alex knows what he is thinking, he will call him ''Fool''. Unless Kenshin is thinking with his d*ck not his brain, he will surely reject her. The next battle royale is for Block B. Alex saw Himura Soma and Soejima Isano on the arena, he frowned. "Both of them in the same block? If I''m not wrong, in the second wrong, there won''t be any fight from the same block. In other words, they won''t fight each other in the second round¡­ Is it coincidence or is it rigged? But judging from the face of Soejima House Head who look like an old fox. It is most likely rigged. Well, I can''t say anything since I don''t have any proof for that" Alex looked at the arena, bored. On the arena, Himura Soma and Soejima Isano teamed up together. "Isano hit him" "Yes!" Isano leaped toward him and sent a kick. They blew away the participants one by one. Soejima Isano is 1-Star Martial Master while Himura Soma is a 2-Star Martial Master. Most of the participants can''t fight them alone. But no one was smart enough to form a small group and eliminate them. After all, Unlike Kenshin who has a bad reputation in the town since he was the so-called ''Former Genius of Himura House'' or ''Fallen Genius'' or ''Useless Young Master''. Himura Soma and Soejima Isano have an excellent reputation in the town. Most participants didn''t dare to offend them. They can''t attack them, while Soma and Isano can beat them. There is someone who dares to fight them but was defeated instantly since he is alone. Alex was bored watching this boring match. He has watched the competitors who most likely go to the second round. Most of them are Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage and some are 1-Star Martial Master. The Quality of the fighters in this block was relatively lower from the previous block. Alex looked at the other competitors. Most Martial Master was almost 25 years old. Only some genius from big families can have a young Martial Master. So, even if they won, they most likely won''t be picked by the four sects. When he is watching the arena, a presence coming toward him. He looked back and saw a beautiful young girl with silver hair. She is the one that he saw when Kenshin introduce the five big families, Nakagawa Hiina. And it seems that she is coming toward him specially. "Woah!" "Who is he?" "Why is our beauty coming toward him?" "He is just a 1-Star Martial Master." "I will beat him in the arena." Alex''s face darkened when he listened to the crowd. It''s really bothersome. She didn''t have any relation with him, but he still needs to take the problem. "Who are you?" Nakagawa Hiina who is in front of him finally asked. "I''m not obligated to answer that, ain''t I?" Alex just casually brushed it off. "You!" This is the first time that she was treated like this. This is the first time she strikes the conversation first with the opposite gender. But, she was brutally rejected. She is very interested in Alex, he is only a 1-Star Martial Master but she didn''t feel like she can win even though she is a 4-Star Martial Master. He never loses in a fight with the same cultivation stage. Her curiosity gets best of her, he can''t help but check the young man up close. (AN: I almost write, ''He has plot armor. That''s why you got that feeling'') "How dare he!" "He is playing hard to get" "I will beat him in the arena!" "I will kill him even if I will be disqualified." "Our Goddess" Alex sighed, he ignored the crowd and continue watching the arena. But the Nakagawa Hiina stand beside him, as he keeps looking at him. "He dares to ignore our Goddess!" "I will kill him right now!" Even Alex starting to get annoyed by this. He is looking at the crowd, when Hiina saw him looking at the crowd, A flash coming to her mind. She glares at the crowd and releases her aura. The crowd shuddered when she started releasing her aura. They know she is pissed. They looked away, not daring to look at them again. Fortunately, there is no arrogance Young Master that is going to come and bothering Alex. "I have chased them away, what is your name?" Hiina looks at him. ''Chased them away? Ptui, you are the one who brings them here'' Alex was annoyed as he ignored her. "Your name!" She started releasing her aura. "Sigh¡­Alexander. Is that enough, then go away" Alex said. "This is not your place, so I can go anywhere I want to go, including here" "As you like" "Hmph!" She pouted, she somehow forgets her original intention which is to observe him and his power, ''How dare he! I''m the prettiest girl in the town. And he dares to ignore me like this! Let see how long you are going to keep your act'' But suddenly, a stream of light coming out from Alex''s body. The light stream started forming a small fox shape. When the light dimmed down, an adorable white fox has come to the stage. (AN: Haha, Sherry the Thot Slayer has come) 148 Tournament 3 "Sherry?" Alex was surprised by the sudden appearance of Sherry. "Wuu" Sherry greeted him. But suddenly she felt an ominous intent from something beside her master. She immediately leaps toward his embrace, of course, Alex instinctively caught her. Yes, her instinct was true, just as she leaped, two hands suddenly appeared at her original position. If she was late, she will be caught by those hands. Alex was surprised to see this, he looks at the original owner of those hands and found that the owner is Nakagawa Hiina. "You¡­that fox¡­ How adorable!" She after all, still a girl. There is no way that she won''t be captivated by Sherry''s cuteness. She still trying to grab Sherry. Alex protected Sherry from those hands. "What are you doing?" She was annoyed. Alex keeps obstructing her to grab Sherry. "Are you her owner?" "Owner? No, I''m her partner" "Hmph, it is the same. I want her!" She becomes unreasonable. Alex keeps obstructing her. While Sherry is sticking out her tongue at her. "How much do you want to let her go?" She glared at him. "She is not a thing. She is my partner. There''s no way I''m letting her go" Alex said. Sherry nods her head in satisfaction. Seeing that She can''t take away Sherry at the moment. She stops for now. Now, she completely forgets her original intention. "I''m sorry for my rudeness." Hiina finally calms down. She looks at him while taking a glance at Sherry now and then. "You are strong. Which sect you are going to join?" "It is none of your business." Alex said while patting Sherry''s head. "You!" "Wuu Wuu" Sherry tug his hand. Alex looks at her. Then she pointed her paw at him then at Nakagawa Hiina and shook her head. "Wuu" She seems telling her it wasn''t going to happen. Alex giggled. Sherry then pointed at Hiina while looking at him and shook her head a few times. She was telling him that this ''Hiina'' beside him is a disappointment. Alex can''t help but laugh a little. But, on the contrary, Hiina was angered because she was looked down upon by a Fox. But the fox is cute¡­ She is grumbling inside her. "Wuu(Master)" Alex looks at her since she called him. "What is it?" "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu" She suddenly started scolding him. Alex understood her meaning, he immediately showed his left ring finger. "I know. Look, this ring won''t come off from my Finger. This ring will always be my reminder" "Wuu" She nodded in satisfaction. Alex can only shake his head, Just as she was about to go back, she suddenly sniffing around his ring. "Wuu!" "Wuu!" She is telling him that she wanted to eat. Alex was confused, is there anything special inside his space ring. But an image appeared in his mind. The image of five blue pills inside his space ring. ''Don''t tell me¡­'' Alex thought as he took out a blue pill from his space ring. Hiina, who was grumbling until now, suddenly stop and look at him. The appearance of a pure blue pill, she noticed there is a trace of fire energy inside the pill, there is only one pill that fulfills all those characteristics, "Fire Spirit Pill! And from the look of it, it is a Fire Spirit Pill with 100% purity" She blurted out those words from her mouth. "Oh, you know about this pill?" Alex looked at her without expression. "This pill is very beneficial to Fire Martial Master. With its 100% purity. If it was auctioned, it can reach more than a thousand Spirit Stones." Sherry casually swallowed the pill. Her eyes blinked, "Wuu! (More!)" Alex took out four more Fire Spirit Pills and Sherry swallowed them once more, "Wuu Wuu (Master, I will sleep again, When I wake up, I will become a 5-Star Martial Master)" "Another four with perfect purity. Five Thousand Spirit Stones¡­" Hiina was too shocked by this. Not to mention her, even her father who is a City Lord, can''t enjoy such treatment. But the fox in front of her just ate them casually. The Four Big Families have 200 Spirit Stones as one-year revenue, but they mostly in Gold, 100 golds can be exchanged to 1 Spirit Stone, but no one wanted to exchange the Spirit Stone. Even for her family, who have 300 Spirit Stones as one-year revenue along with the status of City Lord, it is still quite hard to get spirit stones. If she had unlimited Spirit Stones, she might be able to break through to Martial Grandmaster next year. That''s why when she saw Alex fed his fox with Five Spirit Pills, she is wondering. To be able to feed a Fox with 500 Spirit Stones, his identity must be unordinary, "Who are you!" "A nobody" Alex nonchalantly said, But in his heart, he was bleeding ''Ugh¡­My Fire Spirit Pill, I thought I can take them and boost my Cultivation when I arrived at the sect.'' Sherry ignored them and went back inside him, it seems that she went out just because of this. Although finding the Fire Spirit Pills were a bonus, maybe she can also feel the woman in front of him are stronger than her, she can''t beat her right now. While Alex suddenly becomes positive. If he positively looks at this, She said that one Fire Spirit Pill is equal to a thousand Spirit Stones. Judging from the situation in Alchemist Guild. He got three sets of ingredients and the cost might be around a hundred Spirit Stones. And those equal to Five Thousand Spirit Stones. It''s true, as an Alchemist. For practicing up to this level, and the chance of failure when making the pill will be more than this. But Alex has a very vast knowledge about Alchemy and Medicinal Ingredients because of his Alchemy Manual. And don''t forget he is an Array Master, with the vast knowledge of Medicinal Ingredients, he can recreate them in Illusion Array, thus resulting in his ''Simulation Room''. In his ''Simulation Room'', he can train his alchemy skill and practice refining some pills. He can reduce the cost for practice to minimum and minimize the chance of failure since he can refine pills unlimitedly in the Simulation Room. Of course, this can''t be done for anyone, only Alex who has a vast amount of knowledge about Alchemy and Medicinal Ingredients, along with his identity as an Array Master. But this can be only achieved because he had a Space Element. If he can advance his knowledge about Space Element, he might be able to make a Reality Simulation Room, where he can adjust the environment to his own need, he needs to thank his System to grant him Space Element and his Master who said that Space Element help him to advance as an Array Master, that was the thing that inspired him to make ''Simulation Room'', but for now, the only thing he can think at this moment. ''What a wonderful world.'' "You have a wife?" Hiina wanted to slap this bast*ard who easily threw five thousand Spirit Stones away just like that. But considering his unknown identity, She can''t do that. She remembered something about him showing his ring in his Ring Finger. Her eyes brightened. "Two" Alex blurted out unconsciously. Since he is still in a daze on his positive point of view. "Two? As expected, you men are lecherous. You seem to be only 1 or 2 years older than me. But you have already got two wives." She looks at him like looking at a Lecher. But, she still didn''t throw the possibility to become his¡­ (AN: Sorry Girl, you have been identified as a gold digger by Sherry of the Thot Slayer) "Then, go away. It''s not like your brother''s reputation is any better" Alex said while adding, ''According to Kenshin''s word, though'' in his mind. "You!" She herself knows what kind of man her brother is. But, letting other people said it, is different when she scolder her own brother because of his deed. But, before she releases her Spiritual Energy. There is a sudden announcement. "Block C Participants, please go to the arena." "Ah, we have been called. Time to go" Alex disappeared. "You!" She completely forgot about her original intention when Alex mentioned her brother. "I won''t let you off in the arena." ¡­ In the VIP Seat, nine people are watching the participants walking to the arena. Yeah, they are the elders from the four sects and the Five Big Families head. Su Hua, who was observing the participants, finally found Alex from the crowd. His eyes brightened. He is preparing his plan to recruit Alex. If Alex loses, he can immediately go to the arena and recruit him in front of all these people. It should be sufficient to see how sincere he is. "Battle Royale for Block C, Start!" "Uwoh!" In the arena, three people are suddenly coming toward him. Their cultivation also 1-Star Martial Master. Alex looked at them, he felt that these people intentionally target him. "Haha, you have offended someone you can''t offend. You have offended our Young Master Soma. He asked us to make you fail. If you just leave Young Master Kenshin''s side, maybe Young Master Soma will have mercy on you. But sadly you are a fool" One of them said. Alex only shook his head, he thought inwardly. ''you guys are the fools, no one is stupid enough to tell their enemies who are their boss so they know who they need to find for revenge'' He runs away. He is planning to use the same strategy as Kenshin. Buy time before he finishes them off. "Wait!" They immediately chased him. Alex keeps running, he wasn''t bothered by them. Even the other participants can''t keep him even for a second. "Hey! Hear me out. That guy has offended Young Master Kenshin. Young Master will greatly reward those who can make him fail" Suddenly, one of the pursuers said loudly. When the other participants heard him, they change their focus to Alex. They most likely won''t win, so if they can take a separate reward from Young Master Soma, it was worthwhile, they thought. Alex frowned. Not only him, Su Hua who was in the VIP seat also frowned. "Himura Takata, This ''Young Master Soma'' in their mouth is the current genius of Himura House, Himura Soma, right?" "Ye-yes elder" Takata who didn''t know anything about this was confused. "What is the meaning of Himura House to specially target one person?" He looked at Takata with a scary glare. "No, I didn''t know about this Elder. Because of the rumor about my son, Himura Kenshin. Himura Soma''s reputation is growing. He can act unruly because he got the protection of his father, Himura House First Elder. With his son become the new genius of Himura House, the first elder''s influence was grown. From my speculation, because he is close to my Son, he might be implicated" Takata explains hurriedly, even if he needs to talk about the house matter, he needs to make it clear that they don''t have any relation to him. He noticed that when the participants came out, this Elder focus was on him from the beginning. "Old Su, why are you reacting so strongly when it comes to this Young Man?" Conn Kindellan asked. He took a bit of interest in Himura Kenshin after looking at his performance in the first block along with his unique sword. He thought that this ''Himura Kenshin'' is a bit interesting. Now that Su Hua, this old man suddenly reacts so strongly when it comes to the young man who is close to Himura Kenshin, he is a bit interested too. When he observed Alex, there is something that undescribable within him. He felt that he is far stronger than ''Himura Kenshin''. "Have this young man offend you?" "That''s right. He offends me. He said that he was going to your Heavenly Sword Sect. If you dare to accept him, you are going to offend me" "Hoo¡­" Conn was astonished, but he still didn''t accept, while the other elders and family heads though that this Young Man is finished. "Elder, I''m sure there is a misunderstanding" Since he is close to his son, Takata tried to protect him. "There is no misunderstanding. If any of you guys dare to accept him, You are going to offend me too" Su Hua makes it clear. Offending one of the ten rank 5 alchemists wasn''t a small deal. "To make trouble isn''t my Buddha way. I won''t accept him to my Buddha Sect" Dominic said "Rainbow Flower Sect is a sect exclusive for women. Of course, we won''t accept him" Amira also makes it clear. The only one who didn''t make it clear is Conn, the elder from the Heavenly Sword Sect. "Since he wants to join my Heavenly Sword Sect, I will see his performance first." 149 Tournament 4 "Since he wants to join my Heavenly Sword Sect, I will see his performance first" "Hmph!" Su Hua''s face darkened. It seems that his plan was backfired ''You are the one who I most want to promise this'' Instead of making them promised they won''t take him, he made this Old Conn interested in him. He needs to think of another plan. Meanwhile, Alex who was targeted by many, is thinking about his escape plan. He is planning to reveal only his sword art in this tournament if possible. He didn''t want others to know about his Fire or his Spear for now. Su Hua already knew about it though. But he won''t blabber that out since it wasn''t a good thing for him too. While he is thinking about his plan. Suddenly a presence coming toward him from the crowd. "Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" Alex saw who is coming toward him, and it turns out to be Nakagawa Hiina. There is suddenly five swords identical to the sword that she was holding appeared beside her, Suddenly they flew toward the crowd at a high speed. Of course, Alex activates his Spirit Eyes to slow down the process of her Sword Art. He tried to learn it with his Sword Mastery Skill. "Boom!" A series of explosion was heard. Some were blown away, some were injured, and some were passed out. Because of those explosions, the path between he and Hiina is clear. Hiina suddenly charged toward him. She swing her sword down, while Alex blocked her sword. Alex''s pursuer, whoh was ordered by Himura Soma, took this chance. "He dare to offend the goddess of Limewatch Town. Attack him, help the goddess" "Uwoh!" "Fire Stick" "Thunder Bolt" "Sword Wave" "Tidal Sword" Many attacks were coming toward him, unfortunately, for Alex this is a chance. "Fleeting Step" Alex and Hiina were still clashing their sword before Alex suddenly disappeared. "Boom!" All those attacks clashed at his original position, Hiina also noticed the attacks from her surrounding, After Alex suddenly disappeared, she immediately retreat a few step back. Alex used the smoke produced by the clash of those attacks as his smoke screen. He went away from the crowd leaving Hiina alone in the center of the crowd. Hiina is searching for him but to no avail. Alex used his ''Flash Step to run away and his ''Fleeting Step'' to confuse and hide from them. Since this is a battle royale, he didn''t exactly need to do anything, he only needs to be a Last 32 man standing in this arena. He is planning to conserve his energy for now. On the VIP Seat, Nakagawa Otoshi, Nakagawa Hiina''s father was furious. "How dare he, my daughter seems also targeting him, he must have offended her. Let me catch him, Elder Su Hua. I will teach him for you, Elder Su." "En¡­Don''t hurt him, just catch him, I will be the one who will give him his punishment." Hearing that Su Hua seems didn''t want the City Lord to hurt Alex, Conn''s eyes brightened, he laughs "Haha, that young man use those attacks as his shield to run away from the crowd. And look at those movements. A unique footwork to confuse the enemy. He wants to hide from the crowd while conserving his energy for the next round. He is interesting. I''m wondering how was he ''Offended'' you, Old Su Hua?" "Hmph! You don''t need to know" Su Hua snorted. "Hoho, It''s really getting interesting" Su Hua didn''t want to answer his question. It seems there is more secret about this boy, it is most likely that he didn''t ''offend'' him, instead he was a very talented guy that even he, Su Hua, wanted it this bad. Well, he can only watch him for now. Even the City Lord, Nakagawa Otoshi stopped talking too, it seems there is more secret. He will ask about him first from his daughter. Of course, not only him but the other elders from the four sects also understood along with the other family heads Hiina lost Alex''s track, now she wandered aimlessly to search him and since she is famous, no one dares to attack her. So she can search around safely. Alex carefully hides from her. It is really bothersome. 200¡­ 100¡­ 50¡­ Alex continue hiding among the participants. "Sh*t." "Where is he?" "We need to defeat him, or Young Master Soma will get angry." Alex''s pursuer starts to get angry. Now they are only fifty people left in the arena. They started to be anxious. But suddenly, Alex appeared in front of them. "You!" "You make us like a fool" "I will kill you!" "You are a fool" Alex smirked, His eyes flashed, "Immovable Step" Alex used his Immovable Step to enhance his attack power, then he finally used, "Splitting Sword" *Clang* "Splitting Sword?" Soejima Ujitaka was very familiar with this move. But Alexander isn''t a Himuras. He is confused about why he can use Himura House Splitting Sword. "Himura Takata, I''m sure that he isn''t your Clansman. I''m wondering since when Himura House let outsider learning Himura House Sword Art?" "It was none of your business." Takata only shrugged his shoulder. "You!" Just like Kenshin''s Splitting Sword, but stronger. Alex''s Sword split the trio swords into two. And with the effect of ''Immovable Step'' still active, He kicks those three together outside the arena. And just like that, He did the same thing as Kenshin in the first block. Unfortunately, Unlike Kenshin, who didn''t have any opponent afterward, He still has Nakagawa Hiina, who is still pursuing him. He looked at the incoming Hiina. After he revealed himself and defeated the trio, He felt her presence coming toward him. "Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" "Fleeting Step" He used his unpredictable footwork to dodge all the sword one by one. Just when he is about to run away again from this unreasonable girl. Hiina''s sword started glowing as she blocked his path and swung it toward him. The same as her, his sword started glowing to block her attack. "Don''t run. Hundred Sword, Echo Sword" "Splitting Sword" The two swords clashed. They produced the shockwave that alarm the other participants. Most of the people inside the arena including the audience were shocked. "Who is he?" "He managed to block a frontal attack from Goddess Hiina" "A 1-Star Martial Master easily blocked an attack from 4-Star Martial Master." "Is he really a nameless youth?" "How can he block that attack?" "We don''t have any information about such a genius in this town." Alex and Hiina still clashing with each other. Alex brushed every attack from her. The other participants recovered, They started fighting each other quickly. After all, Alex currently hold the strongest contender in the tournament, so this is their chance. They need to finish this round as soon as possible, afraid if Alex failed to block her, she would come to them. Of course, Alex also observed their expression, even though they are clashing. Alex is in defensive, he is buying his time until the round is over. After a few minutes, The judge finally announced, "Battle Royal of C Block is over!" "Fuu, It''s finally over" Alex breath out. "You are only buying time this whole time" Hiina glared at him. "Oh, you realized it just now?" Alex grinned. "You! Hmph! I will defeat you in the next round" She left as she said that. "Hope you lose before you meet me, so I don''t need to fight an unreasonable girl like you." Alex secretly said. "What should I do with the rest of the tournament? Well, I can watch them and leave with Kenshin later." Alex left the arena after observing the other participants who passed this round. Most of them are in Qi Manipulation Stage or 1-Star Martial Master too. Even though it is like that, he won''t underestimate his opponent. He left and watched the last block. There is nothing worthwhile besides the Disciple of Rainbow Flower Sect, Kusunoki Kayo and the City Lord''s son, Nakagawa Hikotaka. Alex observed their style. Nakagawa Hikotaka used the same Sword Art as his sister so it helps him. Kusunoki Kayo uses a spear. Since he is also a spear user, he observed her carefully. But because he didn''t have the Passive Skill like Sword Mastery for his Spear, he didn''t learn so much. Instead, he felt that without a passive skill like ''Sword Mastery'', he can feel some weakness in her. Alex was confused where this comes from, but he remembered when he had his first tribulation. He suddenly learns how to use a spear intent. He never observes a spear user. Now that she observe her style, his knowledge about spear gets deeper which is beneficial for him. "D Block Battle Royale has finished. We will start the second round tomorrow" After the last block finished, he left and searched for Kenshin. And it seems Kenshin is the same, he is searching for him. "Yo, Kenshin. Good work back then" "Alex, you too. I never thought you are that strong. You can fight with the Goddess of Limewatch Town, Nakagawa Hiina. But, don''t underestimate her, According to the information, she is a Sword Master. So she has condensed her sword intent." Alex nodded, telling that he understood. He also felt that Hiina still hold back at their fight. Even though it is like that, Alex also holds back ''Greatly''. He still has his Sword Intent too, he also has his spear along with the Spear Intent. If he suddenly used his Spear Intent in his Sword, Elder Conn from Heavenly Sword Sect might kidnap him already to his sect. He still has his Fire to boot. Alex is trying to get to the top with only His Sword. Though, he might need to use his Sword Intent too later. "Let''s go back" Kenshin asked him. "Sure" They casually go back to Himura House. But for the other house, it is big news for them. ¡­ In Soejima House, Soejima Ujitaka has gathered all elders along with her daughter present. "Isano, who is this Alex? The one beside your ex-fiance, Himura Kenshin." "I¡­ I don''t know, Father. I only met him twice. It was when Himura Kenshin go back in tattered clothes and in front of Registration Counter. There is nothing noticeable about him." "Nothing noticeable? Are you insane? Have you offended him?" "I¡­I¡­" Although she didn''t directly offend him, she didn''t stop Himura Soma either. "Ugh¡­" Soejima Ujitaka''s expression darkened. "Family Head? What''s wrong?" The elders were confused. "Judging from his mysterious identity, Either his talents are so high or he has a big background. But the latter is most unlikely. After all, Elder Su Hua from Mount Hua sect appreciate him greatly, since he is a Rank 5 Alchemist, I''m sure that it was also related to Alchemy. Alchemist is very rare, even in our family, there is no one qualified as a disciple of Mount Hua Sect. Unfilial Daughter, do you know your wrong?" "I¡­I¡­Know" She can only look down. "No matter what you do, try to get closer to him. Forget about that Himura Soma, he is trash including his personality and his talent is only a bit higher than average." "Under¡­stood" "First Elder, I want you to search for his information." "Understood" This is a sleepless night for Soejima Ujitaka. ¡­ In Itagaki House, It is the same as Soejima House. Itagaki Yukiteru is holding a clan meeting. "I want all the information we have about this Alexander." "We didn''t have much information about him. He seems from outside the town. We can''t track his origin within a short time" "Son, do you know anything about him?" "I''m sorry, Father. I only met him once in the registration place where Himura Kenshin and Himura Soma fight. He didn''t speak anything so I don''t know anything about him" "Try to get the information about him as much as possible. A genius like him who can fight Nakagawa Hiina evenly must not be a nobody." "Yes!" ¡­ In Kusunoki House, Kusunoki House''s Head, Kusunoki Rentaro, also summoned all elders. "Do we have any information about him?" "No, we only know that he somehow appeared a few days ago, it seems that Himura Kenshin brought him to the city and he is also at the same age as him. Anything before that, there is no information about him whatsoever." "Hmm¡­" Kusunoki is in deep thought. The sudden appearance of a Young Man. And Elder Su Hua, a Rank 5 Alchemist, appreciates him greatly that he dare to offend the other sect just to have him. It seems that he wants to make him a disciple of Mount Hua Sect. But judging from Elder Su Hua''s identity as an Alchemist, Alex must have a talent in Alchemy, not forging. Though forging is good, What is the cultivator need the most is Pills. Suddenly, A soft voice come from his side, "Father" Rentaro turned his head and saw his daughter. "What is it, my daughter? We are in the meeting now." "Is it about him?" "Him? You mean that young man?" She nodded. "Yeah, this young man seems to appear out of nowhere and we didn''t have any clue from where he came from." "I¡­I think I have seen him." "You have seen him? Where?" "Two days ago in Alchemist Guild. I wanted to buy a pill, back then. I see Elder Lexy accompany him, and they are pretty friendly¡­ I guess" she said. "Then?" He grabbed his daughter. "Father¡­it''s hurt" "Ah, I''m sorry. I was too excited, Please continue Kayo" "Yes. Then, I saw Elder Lex handing him an Alchemist Badge. And I saw two golden stars on the badge" She said slowly. After hearing that, He stood up in shock. "What? 2 Golden Stars? High 2nd Rank Alchemist? He is only 20 years old, but he is a High 2nd Rank Alchemist? In this town, there are only three High 2nd Rank Alchemist. But, you are saying that this young man is already High 2nd Rank Alchemist?" Kayo nodded. Rentaro was deep in thought again. 20 Years old High 2nd Rank Alchemist¡­ this is a genius in Alchemy. What if ten years later¡­twenty years later¡­He might become Rank 3¡­Rank 4¡­ or even rank 5 Alchemist in the future. This is the reason why Elder Su Hua, a Rank 5 Alchemist wants him. But, he said that Alex wanted to join Heavenly Sword Sect. That means, Alex also confident with his skill. After all, he managed to fight a 4-Star Martial Master, Nakagawa Hiina despite him a 1-Star Martial Master. Not only he Alchemy skill is excellent, but his fighting prowess is a top-notch too. This is a Genius. Even he comes to a sect full of geniuses, he will still shine brighter than them. "Whoever offends him will be punished by Military Law!" He immediately announced. He looked at his daughter. "Daughter, if you meet him again, try to get closer to him" Kayo was confused as to why he wanted that but still nodded obediently. 150 Tournament 5 In City Lord Mansion, Nakagawa House. The same as the other houses, he, Nakagawa Otoshi, holds the clan meeting. Seven elders of Nakagawa House along with Nakagawa Hiina and Nakagawa Hikotaka and a few other disciples of Nakagawa House. "What do you all think about this Alexander? Elder Su Hua appreciated him greatly. At first, I thought that he had offended him, but it seems that wasn''t the case. Do we have any information about him?" "I''m afraid, we don''t have, City Lord" The First Elder said, He is just an ordinary old man that others can''t differentiate his hair is Silver or White. He has a son that also participated in the tournament, but unlike the blessed Nakagawa Hiina and Hikotaka, his son, Nakagawa Yuu, only had a cultivation of 1-Star Martial Master. "How about you Hiina? Why do you target him in the arena "I¡­" Nakagawa Hiina looks down. "Why?" "I don''t know¡­" Alex played him? No, she just wants to escape from her. Maybe she was riled because he insulted her brother? But she insulted him first. Or maybe she was angry because Alex fed his fox with five thousand Spirit Stones? Might be it. "So, what do you know about him, daughter? You clash with him a few rounds, right? Do you feel anything?" "I¡­don''t know. When I clashed with him, I felt that he brushed all of my attacks easily." "Ho¡­ But you still hold back, right? I mean, you didn''t use your sword intent." "I feel that even if I use my Sword Intent, I still have no chance to defeat him. And maybe¡­" "What? Maybe what?" Nakagawa Otoshi started to be impatient. The presence of the unknown is the scariest. So whatever it is, he wanted the information about Alex. "Maybe¡­ he has a big background." "What do you mean, Daughter?" His eyebrows furrowed. "In the waiting room, I approached him in the waiting room to observe him. He had a 1-Star Martial Master Fox as a pet. And the fox is very intelligent. And he¡­" she recalled when Alex fed five thousand Spirit Stones to his fox. "He¡­" "He fed his fox with Fire Spirit Pill, with perfect purity¡­" "Fire Spirit Pill with perfect purity? If it was in the auction, it was sold for more than one thousand Spirit Stones, are you saying that he fed his fox with that?" He didn''t have many precious pills in his life, after all, they are very expensive. Hearing Alex fed his Fox with such a precious pill, his heart was triggered. "Father, I haven''t finished my words¡­" "Um, I''m sorry Daughter. The blood rushed to my head" He apologized to his daughter. The other elders gulped down. "Please continue." "He casually fed his fox with 5 Fire Spirit Pills with Perfect Purity." All of them gasped. If they are talking about Fire Spirit Pill, it was a dream pill for Fire Martial Master. It can improve their cultivation greatly as well as enhancing their fire. But Alex who had the most ferocious Fire, Pure Fire Element and it had been awakened to boot. Unlike the normal Fire Martial Master who can only take one pill, his Fire won''t be enhanced again, but instead, he can eat this pill a few times to increase his cultivation swiftly. But the problem here is Alex fed his Fox with five of them casually, it was Five Thousand Spirit Stones, somehow they wanted to become his pet¡­Aiya, it is wrong. If he casually fed his fox with five Fire Spirit Pills, that means, he can also feed that fox with a better pill later. A person who can easily throw away five Thousand Spirit Stones must be unordinary. But from the look of it, Elder Su Hua still didn''t know about this along with his prowess. So what is the thing that Elder Su Hua saw inside him? Is it his Alchemist talent? What if the Alchemist who made those Fire Spirit Pills was himself? A 20 years old Rank 2 Alchemist, not only his alchemy skill is excellent but he also has his fighting prowess to boot. Someone like this must be from a Big Influence. But he wanted to join Heavenly Sword Sect? that means, he wasn''t from the four sects. A royalty? It is most unlikely, then, what if he comes from a hidden family? Is his family very strong? From his talent, he must be a genius, there''s no way they let him out without protection. But he didn''t feel any his protector, what if his protector was even stronger than him? He sweatdropped. But he still has a backing of the kingdom and his daughter was also invited by the four sects, she just hasn''t replied to them yet. But for this unknown Alex, he thinks it is better to form a friendly relationship rather than a hostile relationship. "Daughter, try to befriend him tomorrow. Since it is only a misunderstanding with you. If you apologize tomorrow, then everything is fine" "Father?" "Father?" The Nakagawa duo, Nakagawa Hiina and Nakagawa Hitokata were confused by the sudden decision of their father. "Father, are you saying that Sister need to befriend with that guy? He is not qualified!" Hitokata roared. "Shut up! This is my final decision! You don''t have any voice in here. If you can erase that lecherous trait of your, you might have a say in here" "Father! That''s enough. I accept alright!" Hiina chose to step in. Haha, what a fool. If Alex in here, he must be happy right now. He, who just ascended to this world without influence or power, others misunderstand his identity. He needs to thank Su Hua for this. ¡­ Back to Himura House. Himura Takata holds his head up in the clan meeting. He told the dissatisfaction of Elder Su Hua about the problem today. Of course, he didn''t call Alex in this meeting, instead, he called Himura Soma. "Himura Soma, because of your act, Elder Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect dissatisfied with us, Are you going to anger a Rank 5 Alchemist? Are you going to destroy the Himura House?" "Family Head, it is normal for a youngster to make a mistake. Since it is only a misunderstanding, Elder Su Hua must have forgiven him. Don''t make a small matter like this big, or are you just make an excuse to attack us? If you have any dissatisfaction with us, please say it to us" The one who said just now is another old man with white hair, but this old man has a very long beard that reaches his stomach. If Alex is stronger than him, he might shave his beard first before killing him. He is the current Himura House First Elder, Himura Soma''s Father, Himura Shunpei. Luckily he didn''t go to the tournament today, if not, he will see Alex performing ''Splitting Sword'' and make trouble for him. "Hmph! Now, if anyone in the family dares to hurt him, he/she offends me too. Don''t blame me for being impolite." Himura Takata didn''t have any strength to confront the First Elder faction directly for now since Elder Su Hua still didn''t act directly. Because of Himura Soma becomes the new genius of Himura House, The First Elder faction is growing too big. ¡­What a useless House Head. Alex is still ignorant of how big the wave that he brings in this town just from one fight in Arena. He is currently closing his eyes while cultivating. Since the next round is one on one battle to the top. That means, he is going to fight around seven times, 128¡­64¡­32¡­16¡­Quarterfinal¡­Semifinal and Final. Since the battle for B Block is rigged, the bracket tomorrow might be rigged too. But he can only do his best tomorrow. The next day, Alex opened his eyes slowly after he felt Kenshin''s presence coming toward him. Not long after, Kenshin went inside. "Alex, It''s time to go" Alex nodded. Both of them went to the arena like yesterday. But fortunately, they didn''t meet anyone like yesterday. ¡­ "Ladies and Gentlemen, The second round of our beloved Tournament finally arrived. We are back here with me, Sakai Michimiro. Let us welcome once again. The elders from the four sects along with the five big family heads." *Applause* "Let me explain the rule once again. For the second round, there will be 128 participants in this tournament that will fight one by one. You won''t get any opponent from the same block. There will be a total of seven fights if you want to take the number one position. I don''t want to take your precious time. So let''s start the first fight. Because the number of fights is a bit too big. We will hold 4 small arenas to speed up the process. Let''s start" Arena A: Mogami Fusamitsu vs Kushizu Katsuhisa Arena B: Nakajima Katsumasa vs Aoyama Takauji Arena C: Himura Soma vs Takaoka Nakasada Arena D: Hasegawa Sadayuki vs Konishi Sadatomo All the participants went to their respective arena. Alex observed their cultivation. Most of them are in Qi Manipulation Stage. Only Himura Soma and Kushizu Katsuhisa who have the cultivation of Martial Master Stage. Alex watched the fight of Himura Soma but it disappoint him, His opponent immediately surrendered. He watched the other Martial Master in the stage, his opponent dares to fight him but he didn''t hold a candle to be his opponent, with only two strikes, he is down. Soon enough, all the matches have finished. The next batch participants have arrived in the arena. All of them are Qi Manipulation Stage. Now that Alex finally observed the Qi Manipulation Stage carefully. He noticed that Even the Peak Qi Manipulation Stage might not be able to win his Teacher back in the Lower World. It is really different when someone from a lower world who polished their power completely because of the limitation of higher-level cultivation then someone from Upper World who rushed their cultivation to a higher level. He himself is the same, in the lower world, he polished his battle skill step by step and killed many monsters. Because of that, his foundation is solid and he capable of fighting someone with a higher cultivation level. But of course, he is a bit special. The fight continue to the third batch, fourth batch and so on. He fought someone in Qi Manipulation Stage. Kenshin fought someone in Qi Manipulation Stage too. Most of the favored one fought Qi Manipulation Stage Practitioner, only Nakagawa Hiina and Itagaki Kyousuke who are unlucky enough to fight a Martial Master. But with their strength, they defeated their opponent pretty easily. Finally, they got into the top 64 fight. But the same as the previous round, This round also pretty boring. There is still no big fight. Though there is some fight between Martial Master, that is still not a big deal. Even Alex who got a 1-Star Martial Master as his opponent defeat him with a few casual strikes. Alex observed the Nakagawa Duo all this time because he feels like he almost can copy their Sword Art. He also observed the elder from Heavenly Sword Sect, Conn Kindellan, and the Mount Hua Sect, Su Hua. From their eyes, he can feel that Conn Kindellan somewhat interested in him, but unlike Su Hua, who is obsessed with obtaining him. He felt that he will let him go and Su Hua will kidnap him to Mount Hua Sect. He needs to let him see his talent a bit. He can just perform Nakagawa House Sword Art. With that, the elder might protect him from Su Hua. Although Alex is an Alchemist, Alex only treated this job as a way to get his pocket money. So there is no way that he wanted to go to Mount Hua Sect. Finally, at the Top 32 Fight, there is one exciting fight for Alex. Arena B: Himura Kenshin vs Soejima Isano Kenshin and Isano slowly entered the arena. Alex looked at Kenshin and smiled. ''This is the time to fight your past.'' ''Make her regret her decision'' Alex thought. And now is still top 32, that means, if she loses, she won''t be able to enter the top ten, since according to Kenshin. The Four Sects only recruit someone in the Top Ten unless they already recruited them before the tournament Start. So if in this fight Soejima Isano loses, that means she also loses the chance to be recruited by the Four Sects. Though She might be able to forge some connection to the inside with her body and look like those female antagonists in CN. But Alex didn''t know what will happen to her. Kenshin looked at Isano without any expression. 151 Tournament 6 Kenshin looked at Isano without any expression. Isano looked at him, "It was good that you can arrive at this stage by luck. But now that you have to meet me here. I will defeat you here so you will lose the qualification to enter the Four Sects." Alex was amused. He thought, ''Girl, that was a flag line for Antagonist that are going to lose.'' Kenshin still looks at her without any expression in his face. "Say something you useless" Isano was angered. Kenshin giggled a little while Isano becomes angrier, "What''s funny!" "Nothing, I just confuse why I can like you back then. I will end that feeling here and now as I will defeat you here de gozaru" Kenshin smiled to her like smiling to a stranger. "Start!" The referee finally started the fight. "Hmph! Soejima House Whip Style, Snake. I will end you here with your weird speech" Soejima Isano''s weapon is a whip, the whip suddenly moves like a snake toward Kenshin. Kenshin dodges this easily but the whip still chased him wherever he goes. But there is one fatal flow for this technique, it was the length of the whip. To use this technique, her whip is made from an elastic material that can stretch the whip up to 10 meters. But that also means that Kenshin only needs to distance himself 10 meters away from her. And Kenshin also seems already know about this weakness, he retreats 10 meters and the whip didn''t reach him. This time, Soejima Isano is the one who moves. She walked closer to Kenshin so her whip can reach him. Kenshin once again inside the 10 meters mark. The whip chases him again but Kenshin didn''t afraid, he dodges the whip without any waste movement and slowly went outside the ten meters mark. He continues playing outside the ten meter mark. "You, don''t run if you are a man!" She starting to get impatient and run toward him to pursue him. It seems that this is Kenshin''s goal, when she increased her speed to chase him, He suddenly leaps toward her at a fast speed. His goal was for her to increase her speed while chasing him so he can close his distance with his speed since they are moving closer toward each other, closing their distance becomes faster. But suddenly, the whip''s body bent and block his path. He tried to cut it the whip with his sword, but when his sword touched the whip, it felt hard, it seems that even though the material is elastic, it still retains the hardness. He observed the whip, it seems that this whip is a Rank 3 Weapon. The Soejima House invested a lot in her. But Kenshin only smirked, ''Since you meet me, I will make you and Soejima House regret'' He jumped toward the whip, he is planning to use it as his stepping stone to stop his momentum. Because of the momentum, if he can''t stop it, he will be trapped inside, and it will be according to Isano''s plan. He leaps backward, but¡­ "Heh, since you are inside my Whip Formation, Don''t hope to go out, I will destroy you here" It is according to her plan. Now that Kenshin is inside, "Soejima Whip Style, Snake Bite" The tip of the whip flew toward him. Kenshin was surprised a bit, but this is still in his expectation. He clenched his sword and smirked. "It''s useless de gozaru." "Splitting Sword" He swings his sword toward the Whip head. And because of his new Katana along with his new combat prowess, His potential that got suppressed all this time finally soar. With a single swing of his sword. The Whip head was blown away. Isano was surprised by his strength. When he blew the whip head, She needs to clench her whip tightly, if not, it might slip her hand because of the momentum. And Kenshin once again back outside the Whip Formation. Isano looks at Kenshin with a shocked face. "You surprised me just now. Never thought you become strong enough to push back my Whip. But, even if you can push back my whip, how do you plan to defeat me if you can''t even reach me!" He looks at Isano, who is in the middle of the formation, like looking at a fool. "You are the one who still hasn''t realized that I am still holding back. I''m only testing your Whip just now. This time, I will defeat you de gozaru." Kenshin charged again with the same speed as the previous charge. Since he is making the same move, Isano has prepared for it. "Soejima Whip Style, Snake" The whip immediately surrounded him. But Alex and Kenshin himself know, Kenshin''s speed still far slower than when they have a spar. Kenshin suddenly disappeared. For Isano, he is like disappeared, but for others, Kenshin move at a far higher speed than before. The moment she noticed, Kenshin is only three meters away from her. She started to panic. "Soejima Whip Style, Illusorus Snake" The whip suddenly makes a few circles and surround him like a cage. If he tried to jump the whip will follow him and push him down. Isano laughs, "Haha, even though you are much faster than before, you still can''t escape my Whip Formation. I will show you the difference between you and me. You are not fit to be my Fiance." On the VIP Seat, Soejima Ujitaka was shocked, he never expected that Kenshin has gotten stronger¡­far stronger, Kenshin didn''t panic, he seems has expected something like this. "You think that this can stop me? Look at this ''Katana'' true power. One of the strongest cutting weapons. I will cut your whip just like this de gozaru." "Splitting Sword" He clenches his Katana tightly and swings it down to the whip cage. He put all his strength in this swing, and break this whip. He let out all of his past memories, love, and grievance. Let he break this whip as he breaks his past, and become the new him. Let this whip become his connection between him and her as he cut this whip as he cut their connection. "Break!" "It''s futile. You won''t be able to cut this whip." "Haaa!" *Crack* "Impossible!" Isano was surprised. *Break* Kenshin finally cut Isano''s whip. The moment it was cut, the latter part immediately go down without any power can be poured to the latter part. With that, Kenshin finally free from the Whip Formation, and rushed toward Isano. He pointed at his sword toward her neck as he turned to the Referee. "Himura Kenshin Win!" "Uwoh!" The crowd burst into an uproar, it was breaking news, the fallen genius of Himura House suddenly regain his talent and defeat the genius of Soejima House, his ex-fiance, Soejima Isano. "He has finally grown up" Takata mutter gratefully. He is also thankful to Alex who give Kenshin this opportunity "What!" Soejima Ujitaka immediately stood up, He never expected that this Kenshin suddenly becomes strong enough to defeat his daughter. He remembered, usually, Kenshin will always lose when he fought his daughter in a few strikes. Now, not only he won, but he also won in a few moves. He used his first move to test the Whip Formation, then he used the second move to escape the formation. And with the last charge, he cut her whip and win. Did he make a mistake when he broke the engagement between them? No! There is still Himura Soma left. Even if his daughter now only has a sliver hope to get picked by the four sects, there is still Himura Kenshin, if he can get inside the four sects, and get noticed by some elders, he is sure that he will bring his daughter along with him. That was what he convinced himself. But unfortunately, that was only his wishful thinking. In the arena, Soejima Isano loses her strength because of the shock that she was defeated, and she was defeated by her ex-fiance to boot. She fell down on her knees. Kenshin looks at her, "You said this earlier. This is the difference between us, and it is not me who doesn''t fit as your fianc¨¦, but you are the one who didn''t fit to be my fianc¨¦e, I''m thankful that you had broken our engagement, if not, I will be the same foolish person like Himura Soma de gozaru" "You!" She was angered but when she looked up, Kenshin has already walked toward the exit. In his heart, he really is thankful to his sword brother, Alex. He brought this chance to him and he swears that he won''t betray him whatever happens in the future. The next round, Arena A: Itagaki Kyousuke vs Itagaki Yuki Arena B: Alexander Sirius vs Nakagawa Yuu Arena C: Kusunoki Kayo vs Asakura Taneteru Arena D: Himura Soma vs Kagae Katayuki The four fights in this round is the most excited one. The crowd erupted in cheers for the upcoming fights. Each battle surely is a great battle to watch. The eight practitioners stepped onto the arena. In Arena A, the battle between the same family. But Itagaki Kyousuke has been recruited as Buddha Sect disciple, so everyone has been convinced who will be the winner. A young bald monk comes to the stage, he looks at his opponent. To fight the same family member in this Tournament is a very rare situation. Itagaki Kyousuke was pretty straight forward, he cupped his hand like a monk and bowed, "Amithaba. I''m looking forward to our fight" "Young Master, that wasn''t necessary. Rather than exhausting Young Master strength, Young Master should reserve your strength for the next round. So¡­I Surrender" Said Itagaki Yuki while smiling. "Itagaki Kyousuke wins." Said the referee for Arena A. "Amithaba" In Arena B, The mysterious Alexander Sirius who has fought the Limewatch Town Goddess equally, and his opponent is the same family as the Limewatch Town Goddess, Nakagawa Yuu. He is the son of the First Elder from Nakagawa House. He is also considered a genius. But because the Goddess, Nakagawa Hiina, outshine him by far, he wasn''t known by many. But, He is still a bonafide 2-Star Martial Master. Even if he and Nakagawa Hikotaka who is also 2-Star Martial Master, no one will be able to predict who will win. Alexander Sirius looks at the Young Man before him, he also had the trait of Nakagawa House, a Silver Hair. His short silver hair and his brave expression along with his aura telling him that he has experienced many battles. Alex nodded at him. On the other hand, Nakagawa Yuu feels the pressure on him. Especially from the gaze of his clansmen. From the elders'' perspective, they are expecting him to show a good fight, not a brutal fight. From the clansmen who are ignorant about yesterday''s clan meeting. They wished for him to win, after all, he is also one the pride of Nakagawa House, if he wasn''t outshined by Nakagawa Hiina, The genius of Nakagawa Family would be him. He is their role model. Nakagawa Yuu also knows about that, but he also knows about Alex''s mysterious identity, since his father, the first elder, invites him to attend the clan meeting. But even so, he will still fight for the win. As for Arena C, Kusunoki Kayo has been recruited as Rainbow Flower Sect, and this tournament was only a formality for her. Her opponent was only a loose cultivator that somehow able to win up to this round with his Strength as 1-Star Martial Master, but today, his opponent is Kusunoki Kayo, a 3-Star Martial Master. Even if there is no hope for him, Even the others have given up on him, he will still fight until the end. As for the last arena, Arena D, Himura Soma, who is the favored one from the Himura House, entered the arena with an arrogant expression. His opponent, Kagae Katayuki is only in Peak Qi-Manipulation Stage. So everyone knows where his confidence come from. Himura Soma was pretty straight forward, without any respect, he said: "You have somehow managed to get to this round, we do not need to fight unnecessary battles, right?" "Since I have managed to get into this round, I, Kagae Katayuki, will always fight until the end. I want to show everyone, even in the disadvantages, they should be brave" Said Kagae Katayuki while shaking his head in refusal. "Hmph, you too, didn''t know which one is wrong and which one is bad. Since you refused to surrender, then don''t blame me for being impolite. I will make sure that you regret that you didn''t surrender just now." "Matches Start!" 152 Tournament 7 In Arena B, Alex looks at his opponent''s solemn face. His opponent didn''t underestimate him, or maybe he is beware of his mysterious identity. But, his purpose remains unchanged, he will become the number one for the reward¡­ the system reward, not the Tournament reward. "Please have a good match" Alex said to him. "Please have a good match" He replied. Both of them have the same weapon which is a sword. Nakagawa Yuu charged first, he immediately goes at full power, even though Nakagawa Hiina didn''t fight him with her full power, he able to block her alone show that he can''t be underestimated. "Hundred Sword, Echo Sword" Alex takes a deep breath, his sword started glowing. "Splitting Sword" Both of them had the same power and retreated a few steps back. But, Nakagawa Yuu didn''t let Alex take a breather, he immediately charged toward him once again. "Echo Sword" "Splitting Sword" When the sword clashed, Nakagawa Yuu know that he can''t push Alex back since their strength is equal. Suddenly he sends a kick toward Alex''s left foot from the side. Alex also noticed this, this is not a movement of some Unexperienced fighter. Alex confirmed it at this moment that his opponent is really experienced in battle. His movement just now not for some Sword User Chivalry. Instead, he did whatever he needs to get the victory before him. This didn''t take Alex in surprise, Alex immediately counters his movement with his left foot too, he also sends a kick toward the incoming foot. But he added something in it. "Immovable Step" The power surge from the Immovable Step gathered in his foot, it blew away Nakagawa''s Yuu foot. Of course, because of this, Nakagawa Yuu was surprised that Alex also very experienced in battle. But Alex takes this small gap to launch his attack. The power that surged from the Immovable Step wasn''t only toward his foot, but toward his entire body, including his hand. With the power surge, Alex pushed Nakagawa Yuu''s Sword down. Nakagawa Yuu''s shocks once again with the sudden power surge in Alex. He used all of his strength to push back his sword. But at that moment, Alex suddenly jump above him and send a round kick at his shoulder. "Heavy Step" Nakagawa Yuu tried to block this kick with his left hand since it didn''t hold the sword. But because Alex strengthens this one with his ''Heavy Step''. The weight in this kick was immense. Nakagawa Yuu was pushed down to his knees, he spat blood. Within 2 seconds, Nakagawa Yuu regains his control over his sword. He swings his sword toward Alex''s foot. Alex rolls his body in the air and send another kick to blow Nakagawa Yuu away. Because of the momentum, Nakagawa Yuu has difficulty in stabilizing himself in the air even though he can fly. He struggled a bit, and when he finally managed to stabilize himself. He immediately raised his sword. "I can''t lose! Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" Five Swords appeared beside him and flew toward Alex. He activated his Spirit Eyes Technique to slow down the process when Nakagawa Yuu used his Sword Art as well as to see the five Swords trajectory in slow motion. "Fleeting Step" He dodged the five Swords one by one and he jumped forward. He looked toward Nakagawa Yuu and raise his sword. Five swords appeared beside him. "If I''m not wrong, it was like this. Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" "What!" All the people present at this moment shocks. Especially those from Nakagawa Family. Nakagawa Yuu who is currently fighting him, Nakagawa Hiina who was intrigued by this Mysterious Young Man, Nakagawa Hikotaka, Nakagawa''s Elders, and especially, Nakagawa Family''s Head, Nakagawa Otoshi. Everyone knows this is ''Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation''. How can Alex suddenly use Nakagawa Sword Style? Who is he exactly? What is his relationship with Nakagawa House? Is there any person who let out their Nakagawa Sword Style to an outsider? "Nakagawa Family Head, Isn''t that your Nakagawa Sword Style? So, he has some relationship with your Nakagawa Family, no wonder he is strong. Is he your secret weapon?" asked Elder Conn Kindellan. "No, I''m afraid He didn''t have any relationship with my Nakagawa House. Is he kill some Nakagawa Family''s disciple and take the sword style? If so I will apprehend him immediately" Said Nakagawa Otoshi. "Haha!" Himura Takata suddenly laughed loudly. Everybody in the VIP seat is looking at him. "What is funny, Himura Takata?" said Nakagawa Otoshi while looking at Takata with a solemn gaze. Takata smirked, "He didn''t do anything like what you think." "Hoo¡­" Conn Kindellan observed the situation a bit. "What do you mean Himura Takata? This is the matter of Nakagawa Family, it is not your Himura House business!" He looks at him with anger. "Haha, As I said, he didn''t have any relationship with your family nor he killed your Nakagawa Family Disciple and stole their technique. He only copied it just now." "Hoo¡­What do you mean about he copied it just now?" Conn Kindellan is astonished. "As I have said, Elder. Elder also knew that he could use my Himura Family, Splitting Sword, right?" "En" Conn nodded. "He copied it when Kenshin used it in their spar. My son didn''t show our Splitting Sword manual, he only used it. From my speculation, his talent in the sword is so big. He can imitate someone Sword Art just by observing them, Not to mention that he has experienced it himself. He must have observed the Nakagawa Sword Style this whole time and he has experienced it two times in this tournament. One from Nakagawa Hiina and another is just now." "Hoo, So this young man has that much talent in the sword. Now, I''m interested in him" Conn nodded in astonishment. Even the other elders and family heads are astonished too. "Wait, he is my Mount Hua Sect disciple" Elder Su Hua gave his stance hurriedly. "But, I didn''t promise you like the others. And also, your Mount Hua Sect is suited for Alchemist and Forger Master, so I think his talent is not suited in your sect" Conn smirked. The elder from Buddha Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect looked away. But that also true, Alex isn''t suited to be a monk and he is a male. "Our Mount Hua Sect also has Sword Art too, he is very suited for my Mount Hua Sect." Su Hua replied desperately. "Hoho¡­from your obsession, it seems that he also has a talent in Alchemy that you didn''t care about his talent in sword and judging from your expression, you also didn''t know about his talent in sword so it is must be his talent in Alchemy. I heard that your granddaughter is in the same age as him, if I''m not wrong, she is currently a Mid 2nd Rank Alchemist. So, seeing you this desperate, he must have the same talent or higher than your granddaughter. So he must be a Mid 2nd Rank Alchemist or even higher" Conn smirked. He is right, Alex talent in Alchemist is also overwhelming. Without any teacher guide him in Alchemy. He can reach High 2nd Rank Alchemist with a very solid foundation. He speculates that this ''Alex'' can reach far higher than him, He might be able to reach Rank 6 Alchemist. This continent only has 5 Low 5th Rank Alchemists as the highest. If Alex can reach Rank 6, it means everything for them. "Hehe, judging from your expression now, it seems my speculation is true" Said coon while smiling. He looked at Alex, though his cultivation is a bit lower, he will wait first. Meanwhile, in the arena, Nakagawa Yuu was too shocked that Alex suddenly used their Nakagawa Sword Style. "No! I can''t think about that for the moment, Nakagawa Sword Style Desolation" "BOOM!" Five vs Five. Each sword clashed with each other. Using the smoke produced by the explosion as a camouflage, Alex jumped forward at high speed toward Nakagawa Yuu. When he arrived in front of Nakagawa Yuu, he swings his sword down. "Splitting Sword" "Echo Sword" Of course, Nakagawa Yuu tries to block this. but blocking this in the air making him lose in the momentum. Alex immediately pushed him to the ground. When he reached the ground, he tried to use the ground as his foundation to block him but, Alex added another move. "Heavy Step" Using the ''Heavy Step'' Alex successfully pinned him down to the ground. Nakagawa Yuu is very stubborn at the moment, he used every ounce of his strength. Although he managed to make their clashed standstill somehow. Alex did it again. "Echo Sword" Alex used one of their Sword Art again and finally, Nakagawa Yuu didn''t have the strength anymore to block this move. "Boom" "Alexander Sirius Wins!" The end result, Nakagawa Yuu lose in power in their last clashed, his sword is on top of his chest while he is laying on the ground powerlessly. Alex pointed his sword at Nakagawa Yuu''s neck resulting in the referee announced the result. The crowd erupted in cheers. It was an uproar. A genius from the Nakagawa family suddenly loses, but because Alex didn''t want any more attention since he already showed too much for this fight. He immediately disappeared from the stage. There are two main reasons as to why he decided to use another family''s move. First, he wants to make the Elder from Heavenly Sword Sect interested in him, if not, Su Hua will kidnap him away and he will be forced to learn Alchemy. The second reason is because of Kenshin''s last night. ¡­ Last night, Kenshin suddenly went into his room. "Alex, don''t you know that Father arranging a clan meeting to discuss your identity?" "Ho¡­and what about it?" "Because of your talent, all the Family heads think that you have a big background and you are a big Young Master." Kenshin said. Su Hua eagerness participated in that misunderstanding though. "Oh, you don''t want to know my identity?" "No need. I only know that I recognized you as my Sword Brother. That''s enough for me" Said Kenshin while making a dumb but sincere face. Alex smirked. ¡­ This is another reason why Alex suddenly decided to show his talent a bit. Since they misunderstand him as some kind of Young Master from a big family. Then, he needs to take the chance to reinforce their misunderstanding by showing them his ''Sword Mastery''. With this kind of misunderstanding, he can camouflage himself as an Unknown but Talented Young Master. As long as they think like that, he can protect himself for a while, if he didn''t do anything extreme to them. After all, they won''t act unless they know about his real identity or the very least they will think twice before planning something toward him, but it''s different if they are desperate. A beast, no matter how weak they are, will still retaliate if they are cornered. That''s why, Alex won''t do anything extreme at the moment since after all, he is alone in this upper world, and his strength is still too weak to protect himself. He needs to be careful for now. "This¡­" Nakagawa Otoshi was speechless, he never thought that this ''Alexander'' is something like this. He is really a genius. But, from where did he come from, this is his main concern for now. If he can''t determine where he comes from, he can''t do anything else for now. And from the look of it, he also has a big talent in Alchemist. No family fool enough to let a genius like this, unprotected. ¡­ In Arena C, Kusunoki Kayo vs Asakura Taneteru. When the match starts, Asakura Taneteru takes the first initiative to attack. He leaped forward and swing his sword. Meanwhile, Kusunoki Kayo took advantage of the difference in their weapon range and overwhelmed him. But the most intriguing in this fight when Kusunoki Kayo used one of Rainbow Sect, Spear Art. "Lightning Rush" The moment she used it, she suddenly moves like lightning and suddenly appeared behind her opponent. She destroyed his sword and finally, he surrendered. The fight ended very fast. But she didn''t leave the arena. Instead, she watched Alex''s battle against Nakagawa Yuu. She was shocked when she suddenly saw that Alexander replicated Nakagawa Sword Art. She was thinking, did Alexander come from Nakagawa Family? On the other hand, in Arena D, Himura Soma with his arrogant face fought a Qi-Manipulation Stage practitioner. His opponent used a spear as his weapon. He charged toward Soma with his spear. "Mystic Spear" "Splitting Sword" Himura Soma blew away his sword pretty easily, because of their difference in strength. The moment he blew away Kagae Katayuki''s spear, Soma suddenly cut Kagae Katayuki''s right hand. "Argh!" Kagae Katayuki screamed in pain while clenching his missing hand. The loss of his dominant hand might make him quit Cultivation. "I said that I''m going to make you regret!" said Soma with his arrogant expression. "Hi¡­Himura Soma Wins!" The referee immediately announced, if not, Himura Soma might make some brutal move once again. As he announced that, he checked Kagae Katayuki''s condition and brought him out of the arena. When he expected some cheers for him, he noticed that the audience didn''t even look at him. Instead, they looked at the Arena B intensely. Because of the exciting match, the match in Arena C or even in his Arena, Arena D, is forgotten. He gnashed his teeth while looking at Alexander hatefully. Alex takes all the spotlight that was mean to him. He became that unreasonable and an attention grabber. Just because he somehow beat Kenshin and became the new Genius from Himura House, make his head so big. He left the arena without watching Alex''s fight while gnashing his teeth. He swears that if Alex meets him in the arena, he will cripple Alex. 153 Tournament 8 After a few more fights, Now the tournament advance to the Top 16. From all prodigies that were favored by their family. Soejima Isano from Soejima House and Nakagawa Yuu from Nakagawa House had been eliminated. There is a break for a while, after reaching Top 16. Because they gonna reconstruct the arena. They destroyed those four small arenas and constructed one big arena. It only took them around half-hour for them to finish that since Earth Element Martial Artists helped them in the reconstruction. For the Top 16, the eight fights were informed at the same time. Nakagawa Hiina Vs Soejima Takagi Himura Soma Vs Himura Kenshin Itagaki Kyousuke Vs Kusunoki Hikotaka Tsutsui Aino Vs Kitajo Kagemochi Soga Tsutsuyo Vs Fujii Haru Kusunoki Kayo Vs Alexander Sirius Jou Yukifusa Vs Himura Tsunehira Endou Saneyasu Vs Ray Adams It seems that the fights were randomly picked. If not, there is no great fight such as Himura Soma Vs Himura Kenshin or Itagaki Kyousuke Vs Kusunoki Hikotaka, or even his fight against Kusunoki Kayo. Not long after, the fight finally start. "Nakagawa Hiina Vs Soejima Takagi" Two fighters came to the stage. Nakagawa Hiina looks at her opponent. Her opponent this time is a Young Man from Soejima House, he is only at Peak Qi Manipulation Stage. Wearing a carefree look, he said "I surrender" "Nakagawa Hiina wins!" Nakagawa Hiina looks at him, this is not a rare occurrence for her. Because of their difference in strength was too great, her opponent often gave up before the fight started. Without further ado, the referee called the next participants. "Himura Soma Vs Himura Kenshin" This is an exciting fight. the fight between the former genius and the current genius from Himura House. Kenshin was walking slowly towards the stage, Himura Soma was already waiting for him there with his arrogant expression. He raised his head and looked at his father worried expression, he smiled a bit. The clear sky, the expectation from the audience, all the pressure welling upon him and he turned it into motivation. "I''ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. I will destroy you here in front of this big stage" Soma is looking down on him. "I know de gozaru." Kenshin nodded his head. "You never had a single hope for victory. You are going to fight me now, even if you had defeated that b*tch, she is too weak. I will show you even if you had a new weapon and have gotten stronger, you are still nothing in front of me." Kenshin just laughed. In front of Soma''s self confidence and pride that fills his body. "Why are you laughing?" "Nothing, It is funny to see you flaunting like that. What is next? Are you going to say that you are peerless under heaven? Or are you going to say that all woman shall bow down to you?" Kenshin said in a teasing tone. "That''s right. My Cultivation will only soar after I go inside the sect. That''s right, the Goddess of Limewatch Town, Nakagawa Hiina, is fit to be my wife" Soma said. Kenshin can only shake his head, ashamed. How can there be such a narcissist in Himura House? The reputation he got only for a few years or so made his head so big. "Match Start!" "Splitting Sword" Kenshin took the initiative for the first attack. He jumped forward and swung his katana toward him. "In this fight, you are only an appetizer for me. I will go to the last stage and fight with Nakagawa Hiina. After that, the City Lord will recognize me and betrothed his daughter to me" Soma raised his sword. "Splitting Sword" *Clang* The blow was equal, Alex said, "There is still Itagaki Kyousuke or Kusunoki Kayo or even my Brother that will fight you de gozaru" "Hmph! I can defeat them. And your brother? He is not even qualified to take a blow from me" "Idiot" Kenshin shook his head. He raised his left hand and punched toward him. "Grand Fist!" He concentrated his Spiritual Energy in his left hand and threw a punch toward Soma. Soma noticed this motion and retreat a few steps back in unbelieve. "Aren''t you going to defeat me? why are you retreating?" Kenshin teased him. "Hmph! I only gave you time so you can perform in front of people. Since you can''t even appreciate that, don''t blame me for being impolite." He jumped toward Kenshin. And the same as him previously, he gathered Spiritual Energy in his fist. "Grand Fist!" "Grand Fist!" Soma used the same technique as Kenshin. Of course, Kenshin used his Grand Fist again. From his knowledge, Himura Soma learned all the techniques he learned. That means all of his techniques are the same as Kenshin. But because Kenshin didn''t feel right when using a weapon other than his newly found Katana, Soma Progress was faster than him. That''s why, in this blow. Himura Soma blew him away. "Haha, This is the difference in our strength. I''m a 2-Star Martial Master while you are only 1-Star Martial Master." Soma laughed. Kenshin didn''t use his sword. Instead, he used his fist and exchange a few more blows with him, of course, Because of their difference in strength. In the VIP Seat, Himura Takata, Kenshin''s father, watching him worriedly. Luckily, because the arena is huge, it seems that they didn''t hear the mad rumbling of Himura Soma. If he was heard, not only the Himura House will get the anger of the City Lord, but their reputation will also get damaged. Takata watching his son beaten up again and again. His heart is pained. On the other hand, the elders beside him seems to notice something. That''s right, not long after. The energy suddenly surges on Kenshin''s body. Kenshin felt this body and become pensive. He stopped on his track, Himura Soma laughed at him. "Haha, have you finally understood the difference in our power" Said Himura Soma while looking at Kenshin. But, seeing that Kenshin didn''t answer him¡­no, he didn''t even move. He thought that Kenshin was scared. He jumped forward and threw a punch toward Kenshin Spiritual Seed. Spiritual Sea is the place inside every cultivator body where they hold the Spiritual Energy and the Spiritual Seed is the center of it. That means, if he destroyed Kenshin''s Spiritual Seed, he will lose all of his Spiritual Energy and will never be able to cultivate again. "I will cripple you here. Grand Fist" "Kenshin!" Takata shouted worriedly. Suddenly, Kenshin raised his fist and threw a punch toward Soma''s Fist. Their fist collide. But surprisingly, It was equal in power. Both of them retreated a few steps back. "Impossible!" Soma was stunned by this. Just now, Kenshin can only be his punching bag, but suddenly their power is equal, what is going on? "The Difference in our power? What and where is that?" Kenshin laughed, he released his Spiritual Energy and shock everyone. "What?" "That is¡­" "2-Star Martial Master?" "Is he hiding his power all along?" All the clan leader was confused. But Elder Conn Kindellan has realized, "No, he didn''t hide his power. He just achieved a breakthrough. I assumed that he is on the verge of a breakthrough. And he borrowed an extra power from that kid to help him breakthrough. What a smart but reckless kid, but I like it. This kid is fit for my taste. Should he get into the top ten, I will recruit him to be Heavenly Sword Sect Disciple. If I''m not wrong, he is Himura Minami''s relative." "To be precise, She is his aunt. Though, he himself considers her as his Elder Sister. They get along very well. Himura Minami''s parent has passed away when she is a kid, I am the one who takes care of her when she is a kid and treats her as my own daughter." Himura Takata said. "So you are the one who takes care of her. I heard of you from her. She becomes my disciple just before I left the sect to this tournament. And since he is her niece, I will take him as my in-name disciple first, he needs to go my trials before he can be my disciple. Do you have any problem with that?" Said Conn while looking at Takata. "It is their great fortune to be chosen by Elder Conn Kindellan." Takata said respectfully. "Congratulations Family Head, Himura Takata" Nakagawa Otoshi is the first one to congratulate him. "Thank you very much, City Lord" Takata said while feeling very flattered at the moment. "Congratulations¡­" "Congratulations¡­" The other family heads also congratulated him, but the one who feel sour at this moment is Soejima House head. He is the one who personally broke the engagement between his daughter and Kenshin and betrothed her to Himura Soma. But, not only this Himura Soma seems going to lose, he will very likely won''t be accepted into the four sects. It was already bad enough when his daughter loses to Kenshin in Top 32 and miss her chance to join the four sects. But if he fails in this Himura Soma too, his family will decline. He needs to come up with another plan. Meanwhile, in the arena. "You¡­ you are 2-Star Martial Master" Soma said in disbelieve. "You are hiding your strength!" Kenshin smirked, Soma didn''t know what happened just now. "You are a fool. I''m not hiding my strength. Since you are not smart enough to recognize what just happened, I will tell you. I only used you as an external force to help me breakthrough." "You!" Soma was angered like crazy at this point. "I will kill you" "First Strike" He finally used the Low-Level Profound Tier Martial Arts from Himura House, the ''Five Strikes''. Of course, Kenshin also used the same move. "First Strike" Both of their swords clashed. They immediately followed up to the second Strike. "Second Strike" "Second Strike" The second strike, twice power. This time, the clash sends a good shockwave. But they didn''t stop here. Kenshin and Soma raised their sword once again and swung it down at the same time. "Third Strike!" Upon the third strike, They poured every ounce of their strength. But suddenly, there is a sudden change. The balance has been broken. Soma starting to get suppressing him in strength. "Kenshin. You have shocked me at first. But, you still haven''t reached me yet. Even though you have become a 2-Star Martial Master like me, but I''m close to 3-Star Martial Master. This is my true power" "What? He is close to 3-Star Martial Master?" "He is a genius on par with the genius from Kusunoki House and Itagaki House" When everyone started to lose hope in Kenshin. Kenshin laughed a bit. "What is funny? You laughed because you lose? As expected of a loser like you" Soma thought that he won. "Lose? No, I''m going to win. If I can''t win you in the Third Strike. How about the Fourth Strike?" Kenshin smirked. "What? No, you won''t be able to learn the Fourth Strike before me" Soma panicked. Kenshin retreated a step and swing his sword once again. "Fourth Strike" "Third Strike" Of course, Soma also didn''t want to lose, He used the ''Third Strike once again''. But never in his thought that Kenshin was able to use the Fourth Strike. "No! No Way! I can''t lose! Not to a loser like you!" Soma desperately used his strength. But sadly, the difference in Strike means a lot. Third Strike can amplify four times of power, while the Fourth Strike can amplify eight times of strength. Kenshin''s Fourth Strike broke his struggle as he used this ''Fourth Strike'' to blow away Soma''s sword. Then he pointed his sword at Soma''s neck. "This is reality. You have lost de gozaru" Kenshin said solemnly. "Himura Kenshin Wins!" The referee announced. "Uwoh!" "The former genius regain his talent!" Kenshin sheathed his Katana, as he walked away from the arena. But suddenly, Soma took out another sword from his and rushed toward Kenshin, "No. I haven''t given up yet. Die!" Kenshin turned back as he furrowed his eyebrows. Just as he wanted to pull his sword. An old man comes toward the stage and blew Himura Soma away. "Boom!" Himura Soma crashed to the wall and passed out, judging from the injury. He might need a year before he can be fully recovered. Then after that, another middle-aged man appeared on the stage. "I''m very sorry, Elder Conn for the disgrace of Himura family" That''s right, the one who appeared is Elder Conn and Himura Takata. "Greetings Elder Conn" Kenshin wasn''t a fool. He immediately greeted him. "En." The elder nodded and went back to his seat. Takata can''t talk much at the moment but he secretly gave a thumbs up to his son and went back to his seat. 154 Tournament 9 The Third Match, Itagaki Kyousuke versus Nakagawa Hikotaka. This is going to be another exciting fight, the battle of Nakagawa Favored one and Itagaki Favored one. The people had a longing in their eyes, not losing to the previous battle. Itagaki walked into the stage with his humble expression while Hikotaka came with his lustful expression, on his way, he still has time to look for some girls in the crowds. "Amithaba. The lust in your eyes is too abundant, clear your mind from the sin, and you shall perceive the greatness." said Itagaki Kyousuke while bowing "Hmph! Defeat me first before you say that" Nakagawa Hikotaka snorted. "Match Start!" Nakagawa Hikotaka charged toward him with his sword. He swings it toward Kyousuke, while Kyousuke only used his palm to block the sword, and surprisingly, they were equal. His hand was like steel, and it didn''t even bleed. After that, Hikotaka retreated a few steps. Kyousuke immediately counter-attack. He pushed his palm to the front. A big Illusory Palm suddenly appeared from Kyousuke''s palm and went toward Hikotaka. "Light Palm!" "Echo Sword" Alex watching at this, he thought. Is the Nakagawa family didn''t have any other techniques? Or is that ''Sword Art'' really that popular? But just when he thought about that, Hikotaka managed to destroy the Big Palm. He raised his sword and swung it down. A sword wave flew toward Kyousuke "Flash Cut" "Light Palm!" Kyousuke sends another ''Light Palm'' , but after clashing for a few seconds, it was destroyed by the sword wave. Kyousuke was a bit surprised, but he immediately followed up. "Mountain Body" "Boom!" The masses are wondering about the result. From their point of view, Kyousuke received the sword wave with his body. But Kyousuke suddenly appeared in front of Hikotaka without any wound on his body. He pushed his fist toward him. "Roaring Ray" Hikotaka tried to block it with his sword, but he was blown away because of the force. "Hmph! Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" Five Illusory Swords appeared and made their way toward Kyousuke, but it was futile. "Mountain Body" "Boom!" All of the five swords exploded on his body, but Itagaki Kyousuke still unscathed. Kyousuke charged toward Hikotaka once again. "Roaring Ray" Hikotaka expression becomes solemn. He raised his sword to block the incoming fist. "I''m planning to use this when I fought with Elder Sister, but you forced me." "Boom!" Everyone thought that Hikotaka has given up on the match. But they were bewildered when they heard a scream... "Argh!" The scream didn''t come from Hikotaka, who they thought received the blow head-on. But the scream came from Itagaki Kyousuke, who is currently holding his fist that presently bleeding. The one who shocked the most is Nakagawa Otoshi, "What? Sword Intent! That brat dare to hide this from me." "It is indeed a sword intent" Conn Kindellan nodded in agreement. "Congratulations, City Lord, both of your Son and Daughter finally condensed their sword intent." Himura Takata congratulated him. The other also followed his lead and congratulated him. In the arena, after revealing his sword intent. Hikotaka began to suppress Kyousuke even though Kyousuke is one level higher in the Cultivation Stage. His close combat now is useless. The Sword Intent rendered his fist useless. Even if he used his ''Light Palm'' and sent an Illusory Palm toward Hikotaka, he can destroy it pretty easily. Kyousuke has tried to use his ''Mountain Body'' but Hikotaka''s Sword still sharper than his body. He made a cut wound on Hikotaka Body. Now that his body is severely injured and there is no other way to turn around this fight. He decided to surrender, "I lost." "Nakagawa Hikotaka Wins!" An old Buddhist monk appeared in front of Kyousuke, "This is the difference bought by an intent. You didn''t have enough time to comprehend better Martial Arts. The fight has been concluded after seeing the Sword Intent. After this tournament, we will go back to our Sect, and you need to train hard. It will be best if you can condense an Intent such as Fist Intent that suited you. But for now, Recover your wound, and there is still a fight to determine the Top 10 since you are in Top 16. Enter the Top 10 later, so we didn''t lose any face." "Yes, Master" Kyousuke bowed to the old monk as he went back to the VIP Seat. ... The next match is Tsutsui Aino versus Kitajo Kagemochi. Tsutsui Aino is a young woman with short blue hair, and she is wearing a blue shirt and a long white skirt. She is your average girl, not too sexy, and not too pretty. Her opponent, Kitajo Kagemochi, is a young man with a Silver Hair, from the look of it, he is also a Nakagawas. Maybe from their branch. It wasn''t unusual that the girl from a big family married to another family and followed their surname. And it seems that he also a disciple from Nakagawa House. Since both of them are Qi Manipulation Stage, this is a pretty dull match, and Kitajo Kagemochi won the fight. They were pretty lucky that they haven''t fought with Martial Master. Well, in this world, luck is a part of the strength. So with that, Kitajo Kagemochi, with his luck, achieved the top 8. Not only him, but there is also the next fight, Soga Tsutsuyo versus Fujii Haru. Both of them is a pretty woman with the cultivation of 1-Star Martial Master. But this was an exciting match, only for a male though. With their ''healthy'' body, The ''Bouncing'' on the right part and ''Jiggle Jiggle'' on the other part filled the fight. All female audiences can only send a murderous glance at the male audiences. Alex wasn''t interested in it since he has Alicia and Firia. Anna, who is currently accompanying him, is also on the same level as them. She still in the Card Form, though. They need to at least at the level of Nakagawa Hiina to...ahem. Soga Tsutsuyo won the match. ... The next fight is another Fight that was anticipated by the people. This time, not only the male but the female also excited for this match, Kusunoki Kayo is one of the top beauty in Limewatch Town. At the same time, Alex''s handsomeness is also outstood the other young master, such as Kenshin or Hikotaka. Alex is also not a local to boot, and it gives another spice to the local female. And especially, they had strength to back them up. Alex entered the stage slowly. He is wearing a white shirt and long black pants. His short black hair and focused eyes make him look like a prince. He just lacks ''Elegant''. If not, it would have been perfect. Kusunoki Kayo has been waiting for him on the stage. She tied her long brown hair to a ponytail. Her sharp eyes are watching Alex walking to the stage. "Kusunoki Kayo" She introduced herself with a low but cute voice. "Alexander Sirius" Alex introduced himself back. He is a bit taken aback when he heard her voice, the memory about his past that he had buried deeply was tugged a bit. Both of them took out their weapons. Kusunoki Kayo uses spear while Alex uses sword. From the difference in their reach alone, Kusunoki Kayo is at an advantage. "Can I ask you?" Kayo suddenly asked. "What is it?" "Who are you, really?" "I think it is better for you not to know who I am. There is a saying, ''Curiosity Kill the cat'' from my hometown." Alex said, mysteriously. It enhanced his mysterious identity. "Do you mean that I''m not qualified to know it?" Kayo asked without any expression. Alex didn''t answer the question. He only sticks his tongue out for this question. After this question, both of their expression becomes solemn. "Match Start!" "Lightning Rush" Kayo is the first one to attack. She didn''t dare to underestimate him after she watched his battle against Nakagawa Yuu. She is very sure that Alex still hasn''t used his all in that battle. The moment she used it, she suddenly moves like lightning and suddenly appeared behind Alex. But surprisingly, Alex didn''t move from his position, but if one observed him carefully, his sword is the one that moves. It repelled Kusunoki Kayo''s spear thrust. Everybody thought that Alex blocked Kusunoki Kayo''s attack easily. But for Alex, himself, he used his Spirit Eyes Technique to slow down his vision so he can block it easily. After all, in the battle, the moment you show your weakness, your enemy will target that. And if your opponent thinks you are strong, their decision speed will decrease. Kusunoki Kayo was astounded that Alex managed to block her attack easily. Before she can think anything, Alex has counter-attack, he arrived in front of her and swung his sword down. She instinctively guards it with her spear. "Splitting Sword" The force from Splitting Sword made her used all her strength just to block this because she was unprepared. Alex rolls his eyes toward her left side. She also noticed Alex''s gaze on her left side, and from his gaze, she felt his intention to attack. And that''s right, Alex sends a kick toward her. She put her guard up immediately. But, Alex blew her away with his kick. "Pu!" She was blown away from Alex''s kick, and she spat blood. She was blown away because Alex''s attack came from her right side, not her left side. "How? I thought that you are going to attack from my left side" Kayo asked him with a surprised look. "You have a good talent in Spear, but you are still too inexperienced." Alex said, calmly. Kayo immediately gets into her stance once more. She thought inwardly, ''This person...no, Alexander is strong.'' The moment she realized that, her focus came back. She looked at Alex carefully, "Penetrating Lance." Her spear is glowing white light. Alex frowned, His sword also started to glow. They jumped forward at the same time. Kusunoki Kayo thrust her spear, and Alex swings his sword. "Splitting Sword" Kayo is trying to break his sword by piercing it while Alex didn''t let her do what she wants. They continued clashing with each other. Alex thought that he needs to break this stalemate. "Fleeting Step" He started using his unpredictable footwork to break the stalemate. The situation shift to his favor. Now with his unpredictable footwork, it is time for Alex to exploit the weakness in her Spear Art. This is what Alex had noted when he observed her. Because of the last golden lightning tribulation back in the lower world. He can understand the spear much better, and it gave him the necessary information about her Spear Art. From it, Alex can see that Kusunoki Kayo Foundation is solid. However, there is still some weakness that can be exploited. This time, Alex completely suppressed her. When she trusted with her right hand, it left her left foot unguarded. Alex took advantage of it and attack her at that spot. Another example is when she tried to block his sword that comes above her. Her lower half becomes unstable. He took that chance and attacked her again. But it seems that Kayo also noticed that Alex''s exploited her weakness one by one. The fight continues for a while. Alex beat her again and again. "Wuu" "Are you a man?" "How dare you attack her like that!" "Shame on you!" Everybody was booing on his action. Alex ignored them completely. Even the elder from Rainbow Flower Sect, who recruited her into Rainbow Flower Sect, can''t take it anymore. She stood up. "How dare he! Is he even a man! I will teach him how to treat a lady! No, I will just kill him right now!" She was angered to see Alex plain bullying. But before she can do anything. Elder Su Hua stopped her, "Calm down. I''m sure he didn''t have that sort of intention." "How can you say he didn''t have that sort of intention, just look at it yourself on the arena. It is plain bullying." "Elder Su Hua is right" Suddenly, Conn Kindellan spoke. "What do you mean? You only defend him because you are interested in him, right?" "No, I''m indeed interested in him. But I feel his intention is different, from my point of view. This is like a Big brother teaching his sister how to fight with a spear." Conn said leisurely. "What do you mean?" Amira Austin frowned. "Just wait after this fight over. You will know the answer. I''m amazed at how good he is in spear. I thought that he only has a sword. But this... I can''t put it in words." "Hey, he is mine!" Su Hua corrected him. Conn ignored him. 155 Tournament 10 Kusunoki Kayo''s Father, Kusunoki Rentaro also make a fuss with this, Himura Takata is busy stopping him. Amira suddenly becomes quiet as she watches the fight. Alex keeps exploiting Kayo''s weakness one by one. Kayo noticed this and slowly improving her stance as she tried to block all of his attacks. Though her body becomes tattered, She still persists...She struggled to prevent his attack. Every attack that Alex made by exploiting her weakness made her movement better. She fixed her flaws one by one under the constant booing from the audiences. Alex ignored them completely. The reason Alex did this is that she reminded him of his sister on Earth. Even though he didn''t want to entangle with his past memory again, he still can''t help but like this. Their height is around the same, she didn''t even reach 5 feet. She is around 150 centimeters even though she is already 19 years old. Their facial feature is similar, and the only difference is her hair color. Well, Kusunoki Kayo didn''t beat him like his sister, though. They continued clashing for a few more minutes. Kayo''s movement becomes better and precise, without any waste movement. She is starting to block his move completely one by one. Alex smiled a bit. She is starting to notice his intention all this time. She didn''t know why, but this is the first time that she felt using spear is good. Unbeknownst to her, a smile forms on her face as she continued blocking Alex''s attacks. After a few minutes, A sudden, shocking scene appeared in the arena. Kusunoki Kayo, who was suppressed, just now suddenly repelled his attack with a full force, and Alex retreated a few steps. She looked at her spear with a surprised face. All elders and family heads suddenly stood up, because they knew what is happening just now. "Spear Intent!" Kusunoki Kayo finally condense a spear intent, and she did it in the arena. "So, this is Spear Intent...my Spear Intent" She looked at Alex gratefully as she said, "I Surrender" to the referee. The referee was shocked by the sudden action of Kusunoki Kayo. However, He immediately announced, "Alexander Sirius Wins!" The crowd was booing on Alex. But, Kayo looks at him with a very sincere face even though her body is tattered at the moment because of him. "Why do you help me?" Alex looks at her eyes without any expression. "Tend your wound first. As for the reason...It''s just my selfishness. You have talent in spear...so work hard on it." As he said that, he turned and walked away from the arena. The audiences were booing on him, but suddenly they were shocked when Kusunoki Kayo bowing her head and said as hard as she can "Thank you very much for your guidance!" The crowds were dumbfounded when she did that. She only raised her head when his figure finally can''t be seen anymore. "Why did she thanks him? he beat her again and again." "But, she said it is guidance." "Maybe, he did something we can''t understand." "Yes, it might be. If not, she won''t thank him like that." "Uwoo!" "Alexander Sirius!" The booing changes into cheers. Kenshin, who was watching him, was astonished, "As expected of you, Alex." Not only Kenshin but also the other participants, including Nakagawa Hiina. She looked at Alex''s back, her eyebrows furrowed. She muttered his name in a low voice. "Alexander Sirius" In the VIP Seat, Himura Takata, who was stopping Kusunoki Rentaro from exploding, become the first one who congratulated him. "Haha, You are lucky that I''m stopping you here. If not, your daughter won''t be able to condense her spear intent. Congratulations!" "Fuu..." He let out a long breath. "That brat, I thought that he was bullying my daughter. But now that I look at it, they are pretty suitable for each other. Who is this Alexander, Clan Head Takata? I think I can betroth her to him." "You won''t be able to." Elder Su Hua snorted. He is planning to get him together with his granddaughter, how can he let him get engaged with Kusunoki Kayo. If Alex was here, he might say, "Why is the father or grandfather love to compete with their daughter or granddaughter and trying to betroth them to me?" (AN: Because you are the MC) "Look, you are lucky that you didn''t immediately burst into the stage just now, right? She is indeed lost the fight. But she got something more precious than a win." The one who said this is Conn Kidellan. He said it toward Rainbow Flower Sect Elder, Amira Austin. "From the look of it, her wound is only some bruises. Her concern now is her stamina. But she can recover with some pills. So, I think you should go to her now." "Hmph!" Amira disappeared. ... The next match is Jou Yukifusa versus Himura Tsunehira. There is nothing that needs to be said in this match. Jou Yukifusa is a Peak Qi Manipulation Stage while Himura Tsunehira is a 1-Star Martial Master since he almost passes the age limit of the tournament, which is 25 years old. Since the tournament was held every three years, Himura Tsunehira has experienced it beforehand. And this is the last time he can participate in it. So, After winning this match, his heart is fulfilled. As for the last match, Endou Saneyasu versus Ray Adams. There is another person from Outside of the town. It was proven by his name, Ray Adams. But for their surprise, this Ray Adams wears a monk attire and cuts all of his hairs. Endou Saneyasu is a loose 1-Star Martial Master while this Ray Adams is also 1-Star Martial Master. In the match, Ray Adams suddenly suppressed his opponent from the get-go and defeated him pretty quickly. From his Martial Arts that he used in the match, he seems has the same Martial Arts as Itagaki Kyousuke. And it''s true, in the VIP Seat. The Buddhist Monk said to the other elders. "He is a traveler from outside the town. I accidentally met him in this town. And yeah, he is a talent that was on par with Itagaki Kyousuke. But I only met him a few days, and I felt that his talent is even higher than him. I''m not saying Itagaki Kyousuke is untalented. He is talented, no, in fact, he is very talented. I''m sure that he will at least reach the elder level. But for this Ray Adams, I felt he could become a Martial King, of course, he needs to work hard for that." The other elders were surprised by it, but Itagaki Yukiteru put a sour face on his face. After all, no father can smile if their son belittled in his presence. Even though The old monk put it in a roundabout way. He still felt bitter in his heart. After the last match, it is time for the Quarter Final. The fights will be as such. Ray Adams vs Himura Tsunehira Alexander Sirius vs Kitajo Kagemochi Nakagawa Hiina vs Soga Tsutsuyo Himura Kenshin vs Nakagawa Hikotaka Those are the four fights for Quarter Final. But before the real fighters fought on the arena. They hold other battles for number 9 and number 10 positions from the loser on the top 16. It was also to give time for the real fighter to recover. After around one hour, Number 9 is Kusunoki Kayo. Because Alex has helped her for her spear movement along with newly found Spear Intent, her fighting ability exploded. She dominated every battle, especially when she fought with Himura Soma, she didn''t even give him a chance to retaliate and immediately defeat him. The last place, number 10, is Itagaki Kyousuke. He fought hard against Kusunoki Kayo, but just like when he fought Nakagawa Hikotaka, he didn''t stand a chance against Kusunoki Kayo''s Spear Intent. Finally, the Quarter Final has started. The first fight is Ray Adams versus Himura Tsunehira. They both entered the arena. Ray Adams bowed to him, "Please have a nice match." "Hmph" Himura Tsunehira snorted. He immediately charged toward him, "Splitting Sword." "Light Palm!" Himura Tsunehira destroyed the Light Palm, but it took him all of his strength to destroy that palm. Ray Adams send a fist toward Himura Tsunehira "Roaring Fist" "Energy Fist" Himura Tsunehira used another Art. This time, he also threw his fist against Ray Adams''s Fist. But sadly, one cultivates the sword, and the other one cultivates the body. It was obvious who is going to win. Just like its name, ''Roaring Fist'', the moment their fist clashed. It sends a loud sound like a roar from a monster. Himura Tsunehira was blown away toward the wall. He crashed and passed out. From the look of it, this ''Roaring Fist'' is his original Martial Arts before he met the old monk. It might be because he only practiced Martial Arts from Buddha Sect for several days. Alex can see that his ''Light Palm'' was weaker than Itagaki''s. But that ''Roaring Fist'' is a bit special. "Ray Adams Wins!" Announce the referee. "Uwoh!" The cheers erupted in the arena. "Is he going to be the same as Alexander Sirius?" "I never thought he is that strong." "He defeats Himura House disciple in two moves." Many comments were heard from the audience. Himura Takata gnashed his teeth while thinking, ''If my Kenshin is the one who fought him, he will win!" "He is indeed unordinary" Conn nodded. "Hmph! As long as I get Alexander, he won''t even matter." Su Hua snorted. "Old Su, why are you so obsessed with this ''Alexander''? You are very suspicious at this moment." Conn looked at him with an observing look. "You don''t need to know." "Is his talent in Alchemy is that high? Is he going to be higher than you, a Low 5th Rank Alchemist? Or he might even become Rank 6 Alchemist in the future?" Conn was trying to pry Alex''s secret. The eyes of other elders and family heads widened. "Hmph! You guys have promised me" Su Hua snorted. "I have not!" Conn smirked. "Are you going to offend me? Are you going to offend Mount Hua Sect!" Su Hua glared at him. "Haha, Of course, I don''t want to offend Mount Hua Sect easily. But, judging from your look...Hmm, A Rank 6 Alchemist is indeed great and worth even if we need to offend Mount Hua Sect...eh, wait. He wanted to join Heavenly Sword Sect in the first place. It is not good to force your idea to a junior, Old Su" Said Conn in a teasing tone. "You!" This old fox Conn was prying all of Alex''s secret out of him. But the most embarrassing is him, he is already old and experienced, how can he still led around by others and let out the secret unintentionally. What an embarrassment. ... Meanwhile, in the Arena, the second fight has begun. Alexander Sirius versus Kitajo Kagemuchi. "Hi, Handsome. You had captured my heart when you taught Kusunoki''s Prodigy, especially her Spear Intent. How about you also teach me, as the payment, this little sister will give you anything you want." ''Shameless'' is what the female audiences thought. ''So Envious'' is what the male audiences thought. ''Little Sister your *ss. You are older than me!'' is what Alex thought. "No need." "Match Start!" As soon as the match start, Alex used his fastest speed and punched her abdomen. She passed out, and he won the fight just like that. "Alex...Alexander Sirius Wins!" After the referee announced the result, Alex turned and walked away. ''Serve you right'' The female audiences mocked her shamelessness while the male audiences facepalmed ''What a waste.'' Not long after, the third match began. The match between Nakagawa Hiina and Soga Tsutsuyo. Both of them entered the stage. This is also an ''Exciting'' match...for males of course. But they were betrayed even before the match start. "I don''t think that we need to fight since the result is obvious. I rather conserve my energy and fight for the 5th Position." She said that to Hiina, then she turned to the referee, "I Surrender." "Nakagawa Hiina Wins!" The referee immediately announced the result. "Boo!" The males are booing toward her. They anticipated an ''Exciting'' match, but it ended before it even started. They were greatly ''Disappointed''...man. Now, the last match is really the one thing that they can''t skip. The match between Himura Kenshin and Nakagawa Hikotaka. Both of them are 2-Star Martial Master and use a sword. Himura''s Prodigy versus Nakagawa''s male prodigy. 156 Tournament 11 Himura Kenshin versus Nakagawa Hikotaka. Kenshin entered the stage. He feel the worry in his father''s gaze, he also feels the pressure from the spectator''s expectation, no one would think that he reached this place not because of luck but because of his abilities. This pressure... he will take this pressure and win this match to make him stronger. Nakagawa Hikotaka entered the stage slowly, Kenshin has waiting for him at the arena. He walked with his arrogant expression. He looks at Kenshin. "I never expected you, the fallen Young Master, will stand here before me. But your luck ends here because you meet me. Even though we have the same cultivation stage, but you didn''t have Sword Intent." "There is nothing impossible. I will beat you here and take this experience to make me stronger de gozaru" Kenshin expression becomes solemn. "You! Since you didn''t understand our difference, then I will teach you personally!" Hikotaka glared at Kenshin hatefully. "Match Start!" "Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation" Hikotaka seems not going to play around, he is going to obliterate Kenshin. Five Swords immediately made their way toward Kenshin one by one. Kenshin raised his sword. "Splitting Sword" Kenshin''s sword started glowing. This is also one of the flaws for ''Nakagawa Sword Style, Desolation''. There will always be a gap between each sword. Kenshin took advantage of it, and cut them one by one with his ''Splitting Sword''. That is also the reason why Alex can easily dodge them with his ''Fleeting Step''. "You cut them" Hikotaka was surprised, though he knows that this is ''Desolation'' flaw, but to cut them one by one needs a high skill. Even him, can only barely cut them all. But seeing that Kenshin managed to cut them pretty easily, he was angered. Isn''t that mean he is better than him? "Echo Sword!" "Splitting Sword" Hikotaka rushed toward Kenshin madly, his pride was hurt just now. Clash after clash... in a span of a few minutes, they have exchanged for more than 200 rounds. But the situation change when Hikotaka finally used his Sword Intent. His blow become more powerful, and he started suppressing him in the arena "First Strike" "Second Strike" "Third Strike" "Fourth Strike" "Fourth Strike" Kenshin is using his ''Fourth Strike'' to block Hikotaka ''Sword Intent'', albeit barely. But continuously using his ''Fourth Strike'' is taking a toll on him. *Pant Pant* He was still blown away each time he used his ''Fourth Strike'' to block Hikotaka Strike. But Kenshin still didn''t give up, each time he was blown away, he stands on his feet again and again. But, unfortunately, this makes Hikotaka gain his pride. "Haha... this is our difference." Kenshin looked at him smiled while wiping the blood on his mouth. "I haven''t lost." "You! I''m just giving you time so you can perform well and impress some elders. Since you don''t appreciate it, I will defeat you in the next strike." "Echo Sword!" "Fourth Strike!" Hikotaka used his ''Echo Sword'' while coating his sword with Sword Intent. But surprisingly, this time, Kenshin wasn''t pushed back. Instead, he surprises everyone by pushing Hikotaka back. And clearly, his sword was also covered by another form of energy. Hikotaka and the people in the VIP Seat understand this energy. "Sword Intent!" Hikotaka was shocked that Kenshin suddenly used his Sword Intent. Did he hide this the whole time? Why he used the Sword Intent now? No, he recalled the fight between Kenshin and Himura Soma, if he had his Sword Intent back then, he would use it. And he recalled another fight. It is the fight between Alexander Sirius and Kusunoki Kayo, where Kusunoki Kayo suddenly acquired a Spear Intent. He remembered that Himura Kenshin used Soma to help him achieve a breakthrough in the arena. And with all of that, he finally realized that he was used by him too. "You...you used me too!" Hikotaka shouted at him. Kenshin only smiled toward him, "I don''t know what you mean. But, since both of the Sword Intent has been present, time for the round two de gozaru." Kenshin took the initiative to attack this time, "Fourth Strike!" "Echo Sword" Previously, Kenshin can only barely blocked his attack while being blown away, but this time, Kenshin is the one who pushed him back. "You!" Hikotaka can''t take this anymore. The battle is slowly turning to Kenshin''s favor. They continue clashing for a few ten rounds. In the stage, Kenshin looked very exhausted while Hikotaka seems still have some energy left, but his own physical condition is the same as Kenshin. If the battle continues like this, Kenshin will undoubtedly lose. Kenshin looked at Hikotaka fiercely. Judging from the situation, He needs to finish this battle right now. He decided to end this in a single strike. He took a breath before he finally charged toward Hikotaka. He swings his sword toward him while Hikotaka is trying to block his sword, but surprisingly before the swords connect, Kenshin leaped. In the air, Kenshin flies downward toward Hikotaka. "Fourth Strike" He took him by surprise, Kenshin is using Alex''s strategy. Where he used his ''Heavy Step'' to press him to the ground. But Kenshin didn''t have Martial Art like that, so he didn''t use his weight to fight Hikotaka. Instead, he used his momentum. That is the reason why he jumped to the air. The clashed took a few seconds before Kenshin finally succeeded in penetrating Hikotaka''s defend. Hikotaka was pinned toward the ground and lose the strength in his grip, finally release the sword in his hand. Kenshin pointed out his sword toward his neck, and the match was finally over. "Himura Kenshin wins!" The crowd turned into an uproar. They never thought Himura Kenshin could win this fight, overcoming many difficulties, he walked step by step and with his exhausted body, he finally defeats his opponent. "Son" Himura Takata was on a high up, after all, it is his son that finally win and advance to the Semi-final. Nakagawa Otoshi sulked in the corner, Kenshin now has been in the Elder Conn''s eyes. But at the very least, his son is in the Top 8, so he can still go to the four sects, unlike a certain someone... There is only Alexander Sirius, Himura Kenshin, Ray Adams, and Nakagawa Hiina, who are most likely to win the tournament. And for the semi-final, the first fight is Nakagawa Hiina versus Ray Adams, and the second fight is Alexander Sirius versus Himura Kenshin. But for now, to let the winner rest. They commence the battle for the loser in the top 8 to decide their actual rank. After a few more fights, the ranking is as such, 5th is Nakagawa Hikotaka, 6th is Himura Tsunehira, 7th Soga Tsutsuyo, and 8th is Kitajo Kagemochi. Finally, the first match of the semi-final, Nakagawa Hiina vs Ray Adams, begins. Nakagawa Hiina, still wearing her aloof expression, walked toward the stage, on the opposite, Ray Adams smiling toward her. "Please have a nice match" Said Ray Adams, and Hiina only nodded her head. She is planning to win this match quickly so she can reserve her strength for the final. At first, she was convinced that ''Alex'' would be the one who will fight her little brother. But she never thought that her brother would lose to Kenshin. Judging from Kenshin''s previous situation, Alex would likely defeat him pretty quickly since Kenshin''s condition isn''t that good, So she is also planning to finish this match as soon as possible so she can reserve her strength to fight Alex. "Desolation" Nakagawa Hiina immediately used her ''Desolation'', five swords appeared beside her and made their way toward Ray Adams. "Roaring Fist" Ray Adams punch the first sword, and when he destroyed the first sword with his punch, the other swords also disappeared. It seems that it wasn''t an ordinary ''Roar''. It also sends a Shockwave, the shockwave vibrate the sword, and made the Illusory Sword think they hit the target. But he still underestimates Nakagawa Hiina too much. For her, this is only a distraction, the moment his fist destroyed the First Sword, it exploded and gave her the necessary Smokescreen to close their distance. Nakagawa Hiina suddenly appeared from the smoke and swung her sword downward. "What!" Ray Adams was shocked by this sudden attack, and He immediately sends another fist. "Roaring Fist!" It is very effective for an ordinary Sword User, but Nakagawa Hiina has Sword Intent. The moment they clashed, Hiina''s Sword Intent penetrate Ray Adams''s Defense. It injures his fist. "Argh!" Ray Adams screamed in pain, the blood gushing out from his fist, and Nakagawa Hiina took this chance to point her sword at his neck. "Na...Nakagawa Hiina wins!" The match ended in an instant. The old monk immediately went to the arena and gave Ray Adams a pill to recover from his injury. Then he took him and left the arena. ... The next match, Alexander Sirius versus Himura Kenshin. The battle between brothers. Alexander slowly walked to the arena, he looked at Kenshin, who is already waiting for him. There is still a trace of exhaustion on his face. "Alex, please have a serious fight with me this time. I don''t want you to fight like our usual sparring. I know you are still concealing your real strength de gozaru." Kenshin said. Alex shakes his head, "You are too exhausted for that." "Even so, I will use my full power from the beginning. Now I have a Sword Intent de gozaru." "Match Start!" "Splitting Sword" "Splitting Sword" They both used the same Sword Art. This is the skill that they used the most when they had sparring. When the swords still clashing, Alex noticed that Kenshin suddenly covered his sword with Sword Intent. Alex immediately deflect his sword. "Alex, fight me seriously!" Kenshin entered his sword stance. Alex knows this stance since he is also using this stance a few times. Kenshin jumped forward while swinging his sword, Alex also jumped forward while swinging his sword. Their movement is exactly the same, but only Himura Takata, who is in the VIP Seat know something different in Alex''s stance. Though it was a small difference, he who is very familiar with this Sword Stance can notice it. Alex lowers his stance a few millimeters down from the usual position. "First Strike" "Second Strike" "Third Strike" "Fourth Strike" Both of them did the exact same movement, But Himura Takata observed Alex carefully, each swing from him is a bit different. He can also notice that the power that comes from it is a little stronger than Kenshin''s. "This is the different me de gozaru!" Kenshin roared, he clad his sword with his Sword Intent and send another swing. With this, he will surpass him. "Fourth Strike" Alex also did the same, but this time, his swing is different. *Clang* The sword clashed, however, to his surprise, the power between them is equal. "Alex" Kenshin was very surprised at this moment because he knows what is the last swing is, even Himura Takata suddenly stood up from his seat and said in surprise, "Fifth Strike!" Kenshin smirked, "As expected of you, Alex. A few days ago, I only used it in a duel a few times. But now, you have surpassed me in that Sword Art. But I still won''t lose." As he said that, he raised his sword and swung it again with his Sword Intent. "Fourth Strike!" Alex smiled a bit, "Then, I will show you something special." Alex suddenly lowered his sword to his left side, and he swings it toward Kenshin''s head, no... to be exact to where their sword will clash. He is targeting Kenshin''s sword. "Sixth Strike" *Clang* The clash ended in an instant. The moment they clashed, Kenshin felt the very powerful force from Alex''s sword, and he immediately loses his grip on his sword as his sword was sent flying and finally planted on the arena wall. Kenshin was taken aback, He looked at Alex in disbelief. "That..." Takata''s jaw suddenly dropped to the ground the moment he saw Alex''s last swing. "That...That...is..." He can''t mutter his sword cleanly, that''s how big the scene Alex''s made just now. "Himura Family Head?" Nakagawa Otoshi noticed the strange Himura Takata. After he called him, the others also noticed him, who currently looked at Alex with his jaw opened as big as possible. "Is that boy do something irregular?" Conn Kindellan "He...He..." Takata was still shocked and can''t speak clearly. He took a while to calm down and finally, "He..." 157 Tournament 12 "He did something unbelievable. He just used my family, Low Profound Tier Skill, ''Five Strikes''. In the last strike, Kenshin used the Fourth Strike. But Alexander...He used something that overcomes the ''Fifth Strike'' just now." He explains his Family Sword Art just like that to the other family heads too. That shows how absurd what Alex did just now. The other family heads also already know about Himura Family Low Profound Tier Skill, ''Five Strikes''. But it was only up to the Fifth Strike. When Takata said Alex used something that overcomes the ''Fifth Strike'', they were shocked. "Low Profound Tier Skill? But from the way I see it, it was higher, at least it is equal to Mid Profound Tier Skill" Elder Conn said. When Elder Conn said that, the other family heads were surprised, ''Mid Profound Tier Skill, among the five big families, there is only one who has Mid Profound Tier Skill, it is Nakagawa House. But, now with Elder Conn statement, it means that Himura House also has it now. But the problem is whether they dare to ask it from Alex or not. Takata continued, "Our Five Strikes run down for generations, but no one can do something like that. If I need to say, it is the Sixth Strike." "Ho...I''m really interested in him now. Well, he is going to join my Heavenly Sword Sect anyway, I can wait a bit more." Conn said leisurely "Wait!" Su Hua immediately interjects him, "He is going to join Mount Hua Sect, not your Heavenly Sword Sect." "Are you going to steal the Heavenly Sword Sect disciple? Your Mount Hua Sect can''t nurture his skill in Sword." Conn said arrogantly. If Takata said that Alex could do something like this in a span of two days, he didn''t see the manual and only copied from Kenshin''s movement. Conn might snatch him and go back to the sect immediately. Meanwhile, in the arena. Kenshin was surprised to see something like that. "What is that?" "I feel that the Five Strikes is incomplete. So, I try here and there and somehow managed to do that last strike, you can say that it is the ''Sixth Strike''. Anyway, It is my win again" Said Alex while turning back and walk away. Kenshin looks at Alex disappearing back and shake his head. "As expected of you, Alex." ... Kenshin rest for a while to recover his stamina a bit. Since he needs to fight Ray Adams first before the final match between Nakagawa Hiina and Alexander Sirius started. It can be said that their fight is only an opening act for Hiina and Alex. Kenshin and Ray Adams fought quite hard. Even though Kenshin was exhausted, he still has his Sword Intent. Ray Adams found it really troublesome, and he can''t confront him head-on with that. They fought for an hour, Kenshin used his Sword Intent to make Ray Adams did many unnecessary movements to wear him out. At first, Kenshin was the only one who exhausted, and then Ray Adams slowly get exhausted. Finally, Kenshin took that chance and finished the match. If Ray Adams took a risk and attacked Kenshin continuously, he will be the winner. Unfortunately, his battle experiences seems a bit shallow. Finally, the final that everyone expecting has come. Because so many flights took place today, the sky has become orange, and the sun was almost set. But it still didn''t lower the spectators'' expectations. The battle between the favored one in her generation with the mysterious person that suddenly comes to their town is just about to begin. Alex entered the arena slowly while basking on the orange sky. He looked at Nakagawa Hiina''s beautiful and aloof expression. "I''m still holding back in the preliminary round. Don''t expect me going easy on you. This time, I will show you that I can defeat you easily" Said Hiina while observing Alex''s expression. "No way. You can''t beat me" Alex smiled at her. "Hmph. Then, Let''s have a bet" She said "A bet?" Alex was surprised. He never thought that she would propose something like this. "Yes. If I defeat you, You need to tell who you are and which family you are from." Hiina said "And if I win?" Alex asked. "If you win..." Hiina is thinking about that at the moment. "Oi oi, you are seriously thinking about that just now..." Alex facepalmed. "It...it''s because I''m going to win." Hiina said with a definite tone. "There''s no way I''m going to agree with the bet even If I know that I will win" Alex sighed, what is the problem with this girl. "Then, If you win, you can ask one thing from me." "One thing?" Alex looked at her face and her body and sighed in disappointment. "Not interested." "You!" She also understands the meaning in Alex''s eyes. Even If she is going to reject that kind of request, at least show her some appreciation instead of giving the look of a disappointment on her body. She also has her pride as the ''Goddess'' of Limewatch Town. "Even if you are that attractive, I''m not going to let my lust take over my head, let my backer settle it for me and get you as my woman." Alex said while thinking inwardly. ''Besides, the reward from the system is more tempting than you.'' "Hmph!" She heard the ''Backer'' in his words, and she thought that it is indeed he has a backer that strong enough to make her become his woman forcefully. She never thought that Alex purposely misled her. "Are you done? I prefer to finish this as soon as possible." Alex said without any expression. "You!" She looked at him hatefully, ''What do you mean by that? Do you mean that I''m not worth your time?'' She then glared at the referee. The referee also know her meaning. "Cough...Match Start!" "Desolation" Because of Alex''s constant provocation, she immediately released her ''Desolation''. "Desolation" Alex also used the same move like her. Each of his illusory swords targets her illusory swords. Seeing that it wasn''t effective on him, she decided to use another move that he has not seen before. "Pentagram Sword" She cut him five times and make a pentagram from it. She starts to cut him from his right foot to his head, then to his left foot, continue toward his right hand, then to his left hand, and back to his right foot, making it a perfect pentagram. In the arena, Alex was seen like she just cut him, but before long, he disappeared. "Afterimage?" She looked at his shadow that soon disappeared. "That''s right." Alex suddenly appeared on her back. Just after she noticed him on her back, she immediately turned back, but before that happen, She felt the force on her back. "Puah!" She spat some blood, Alex kicked her on her back and blown her away. She immediately stabilizes herself. "Desolation" She used another ''Desolation'' to buy her time to stabilize herself. Alex prepared himself, This time he is going to finish this as soon as possible. He is planning to use the ''Five Strikes''...It should be ''Six Strikes'' now, right? Whatever. "First Strike" He cut the first swords, the second sword, the third sword, until the fifth sword, He finally recharged the Strikes. This is the flaw of Five...Six Strikes. He can''t immediately use the Sixth Strike, and he needs to do it from the First Strike. After all, The Sword Art multiplies the strength from the previous strike. Now that he finished his recharge, he just needs to release the Sixth Strike and finished her in one sweep. He jumped forward and, "Sixth Strike." Nakagawa Hiina has stabilized herself. She used another sword art. "Don''t underestimate me!" And surprisingly, Alex was the one who got blown away. He looked at the spark of lightning that surrounds her, especially her sword. "You force me to use this. This is the one and only Mid Profound Tier skill in this town. Now you have seen it, and you can proudly lose" She jumped toward Alex and swing it again. Lightning and Sword Intent started covering her sword as she swings her sword. "Cleaving Edge" "Sixth Strike!" *Clang* Alex was blown away once again this time, he is flying toward the arena wall. But before he crashed on the wall, He steps on the air, thus killing his momentum and stop him. "That was dangerous just now." It seems that he needs to wear her off first. He is planning to use his ''Fleeting Step'' to continuously dodge her and after she is exhausted. He will then counter-attack. But noticing his intent, Nakagawa Hiina didn''t let him do what he wants. "You are going nowhere, Desolation." Five swords appeared and surrounded him to keep him in his position as she used her Lightning element to boost her speed and close their distance. "Tch!" Alex clicked his tongue, it seems that he didn''t have any choice. He raised his sword, "Desolation." The Five swords immediately intercept Hiina''s Desolation. But this time, his swords pierced and destroyed Hiina''s Desolation easily. Then, they made their way toward Hiina. Hiina was too shocked about this, she thought that the swords would destroy each other. But she never thought that her ''Desolation'' would be destroyed easily by his ''Desolation''. And he learned ''Desolation'' from watching her and the other Nakagawas. The swords took her by surprise, She immediately destroyed them. "Cleaving Edge" But, destroying Alex''s Desolation is easier said than done. Because this time, Alex clad them with His Sword Intent. That is the reason why his Desolation managed to crush her Desolation easily. She swings her sword, she thought that Alex''s Desolation would be destroyed easily by her ''Cleaving Edge'' along with her Thunder element and Sword Intent. But it took every ounce of her strength before she finally managed to destroy it. He took this chance to close his gap with Hiina. He swings his sword as he covered it with his Sword Intent. "Sixth Slash" "Cleaving Edge" After destroying his ''Desolation'', Hiina immediately used her ''Cleaving Edge once again to block Alex''s Sixth Slash. But this time, his attack contained his Sword Intent, and she also wasn''t fully prepared for it. "So strong, is this his true power?" Hiina is trying to hold out, but it is futile. She holds out for a few seconds before Alex overpowered her and blew her sword away. "I win" Alex said calmly. "Is that your true power?" Hiina looked at him fiercely. Alex didn''t answer her. Instead, he changed the topic. "Do you relieve that you don''t need to do ''One'' thing for me?" "You! No way! You beast! Lecher! Pervert!" Hiina shouted. "Eh...me? I''m not a beast, I''m human. I''m not lecher, I didn''t even say anything lewd, you are the one thought like that. As for Pervert...only as a husband" Alex corrected all of her curse on him. "You!" Hiina was speechless, It''s as he said, he is not a beast, a lecher, or a pervert... But in her mind right now is only filled all the bad things about him. She grumbled over that as she walked away from the arena. Alex only shrugged his shoulder. When he turned back and starting to walk, an elder appeared in front of him. "I''m welcome you to Heavenly Sword Sect." ... Just a few minutes ago, when Alex revealed his sword intent. Conn Kindellan immediately stood up. "Sword Intent. He hides his Sword Intent all this time, and he can send his Sword Intent flying. He is just one step away before he turned his Sword Intent to a domain, and become a Sword Grandmaster!" There are seven stages of Sword user. Sword Practitioner, Sword Master, Sword Grandmaster, Sword King, Sword Emperor, Sword Saint, and Sword God. Even though their name is close to the cultivation stage, each stage is vastly different. Someone who has condensed their Sword Intent is called a Sword Master. Usually, a new Sword Master can only clad their Sword Intent in their sword, and it might be able to go along with a Close Range Sword Art. But, it was impossible for the newborn Sword Master to fuse their Sword Intent and send them flying, like a Sword Wave or just like the ''Desolation''. It was only for someone close to Sword Grandmaster that can do that. The difference might not be big, but the difficulty of doing it is huge. It usually took many years of experience before they can do that. For example, the founder of Heavenly Sword Sect is only a Sword King, and now there is only Peak Sword Grandmaster left in the Heavenly Sword Sect. Alex is still 20 years old, and he is only one step away from Sword Grandmaster. He will surpass the founder of Heavenly Sword Sect, he might become a Sword Emperor if not Sword Saint. ** AN: There is a suggestion to make a discord, so I made it. You can complain until you satisfied if I''m online :p Discord Link: https://discord.gg/qN48P6 158 Tournament 13 Twenty years old almost a Sword Grandmaster, this is a peerless genius. Conn looks at Alex like a national treasure. If he becomes a Sword King, he will immediately dominate the entire continent. What if he becomes the Sword Emperor or even Sword Saint. It said that even the strongest continent, the Heavenly Continent. The Sword Saint in that continent can still be counted with finger. As for the Sword God, it was only a legend, it is said that a Sword God can cut the world into two with a single swing. But of course, the world wasn''t a big world like this Upper World. A Sword God might be able to cut a small lower world in a single slash. That is the reason why he suddenly becomes obsessed with Alex. As for his cultivation, according to his inquiry from Su Hua. It seems that Alex has a somewhat high skill in Alchemy. That means he must have spent a numerous amount of time in Alchemy. If he didn''t waste his time in Alchemy, he might reach 4-Star Martial Master or even higher. In other words, his cultivation talent is also top-notch. "He is mine!" Conn stated as he disappeared and went to the arena. ... "Heavenly Sword Sect welcome you. It is our honor to have a genius like you" Conn said while smiling. Alex was surprised by the sudden appearance of an old man in front of him. After he saw his face, he knows that this old man is an elder from Heavenly Sword Sect. But suddenly, another old man appeared. Alex knows who is this old man, he is the old man that he met in the Alchemist Guild, Elder Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect. "Wait, I have told you he is Mount Hua Sect Disciple." "But, you also told me that he wanted to join my Heavenly Sword Sect. Don''t steal our disciple." "Hmph, You also still wait and see back then. Young Alexander, this old man would sacrifice you back then if you lose." Su Hua said while pointing at Conn Kindellan. After that, he said proudly, "But, I will recruit you even if you lose in the preliminary round. Look at my Sincerity. Just a nod from you, you will immediately become Mount Hua Sect, Inner Disciple." "You wanna fight me, Old Su?" Conn glared at him hatefully. "I''m not afraid of you." Su Hua glared back while releasing his aura. Because of that, the Elder from Rainbow Flower Sect, Amira Austin, and the monk from Buddha Sect, Dominic Phelan, come and stop them. "Amithaba. If you are going to fight, you will only scare this young man." "But this old man wanted to snatch my Heavenly Sword Sect Disciple!" Conn is pointing his finger toward Su Hua. "I have said that he is mine, first!" "But I haven''t promised you. So he is mine!" "You are insane, he is also talented in Alchemy. So he will follow me to Mount Hua Sect." "You are the insane one. You need to make a pill to fix your own brain!" "Gya Gya Gya~!" They continued bad-mouthing each other. Alex looked at the other elders. Amira smile wryly. "They are fighting like a kid. Can''t they act according to their age? Well, you are just that talented, if you are a girl. I might also snatch you from them." "That''s right, sadly you didn''t have a knack to be a monk. If not, I will also participate in it." Amira said that because she didn''t know Alex still has his Pure Fire and Spear Intent. If she knows, she might snatch him. Even if their sect only recruit a female disciple, they will make the exception just for him. If not, they might entice him with the entire sect. Rainbow Flower Sect become a Harem Sect exclusive for him. Well, he might be killed by System. As for the Buddha Sect...It is still didn''t have a relation with their Buddha Sect, they can only sigh in defeat. The spectators were bewildered, a Young Man that incite a fight between two elders from different sects. Is his talent that big? Those family heads obviously know it. After all, they were also in the same VIP Seat. They know what kind of talent Alex is. All of them are thinking about how about betrothed him with their daughter, all of them except Takata. Well, he is Kenshin''s sworn brother, he didn''t need to do anything. If Alex knows about it, he will question himself, ''Why the adults around me love to make their daughter with me...'' In the arena, Alex can only accept one of them. He has decided. "I''m sorry, Elder Su Hua. Thank you for elder Su Hua appreciation on me, But I still choose to join Heavenly Sword Sect." "Haha, good good good. You choose the right choice." Conn immediately laughed like crazy. "Wait, is there something you don''t like about Mount Hua Sect? or is it because my Granddaughter, I will discipline her and let her serve you in Mount Hua Sect." "Young man, don''t worry. Our Heavenly Sword Sect beauty don''t lose with theirs." Alex shakes his head, "No, there is nothing like that. It just from the start, I''m planning to join Heavenly Sword Sect." "Good good. You will immediately become an Inner Disciple if not Core Disciple" Conn Kindellan nodded his head repeatedly. "May I ask something, Elder Conn?" "What is it?" "If Kenshin joins the Heavenly Sword Sect, which disciple will he become?" Alex asked. "Oh, that Himura brat. He will need to start from the bottom, so he will become Outer Disciple." "I see, I will become Heavenly Sword Sect disciple, but I do have a few conditions, Elder Conn Kindellan." Alex said. "Oh, do tell. I will agree to it" Conn said casually since Alex made sure that he will join his sect. "I hope to start from the bottom, in other words, I also want to start from an Outer Disciple, and I request elder Conn didn''t say anything about my power." "Oh, why is that?" Conn was surprised by Alex''s request. "My master told me, I can''t depend too much from others. He wanted me to become an expert because of my own effort, that is his teaching style. That''s why he leaves me, he will check me once in a while, though." "Oh, where is your Master, then?" "My Master is currently traveling. He didn''t have any influence" Alex said. Conn frowned, who is his master, to teach someone like Alex and leaving him alone. Should he search for his master and ask him to end their Master-Disciple relationship? Alex continued, "Well, even though he didn''t have any influence. He can still easily kill Martial Emperors. He said that he met someone from Heavenly Sword Sect in the past. So he wanted me to join this sect." Half of them are the truth, while the rest is a lie. Maxwell can indeed kill Martial Emperors easily since he is ''God''. But he didn''t have anything to do with Heavenly Sword Sect, he said this so they can keep his talent a secret and help him in the back, it is also for his cover. But for everyone who listens to what Alex said just now, they gasped. To kill Martial Emperors easily, that means he needs to be at least a Martial Saint. Never in their thought that his master is so powerful. No, it can be said that he is really qualified to teach someone like Alex. "And from that, I''m afraid that I can''t have another Master" Alex said while scratching his cheek. Conn frowned, it is a bit troublesome, he said that his Master knows someone from Heavenly Sword Sect, but who is he? Who is the one he met back then? That''s right, they need to bind him to Heavenly Sword Sect. If they bind Alex to their sect, they will also get help from a powerful expert, let''s say. Since he has a master, then how about a teacher? Master and Disciple, while Teacher and Student. "How about a Teac-" Before he finished his words, Alex also said. "Please don''t say about though I have a Master and Disciple relationship there is still a Teacher and Student relationship. My master had already used that trick back then." "Guh!" Conn was defeated. "Fine, I accept that. As for your secret..." He glanced toward the other elders, of course, if what Alex said is true about his master, they don''t want to offend someone like that. "I know, I will keep this a secret, I swear it to the Heaven and Earth if I revealed your secret, may thunder strike me, destroy my cultivation, and extinguish my soul. Haiz, how about you come to Rainbow Flower Sect, we didn''t lose against Heavenly Sword Sect, and our sect filled with beauties to boot." Amira said. "Wait, don''t you dare to seduce him" Conn interrupted her hurriedly. "Or do you want to be a woman and become our Sect Mistress? Elder Su Hua, can you make a pill to change gender." "Haiz, If it''s for a mortal, it is easy. But for a cultivator, it is impossible" Su Hua shakes his head in disappointment. Alex''s face becomes pale. What the heck are these two talking about? Gender Bender? F*ck you! He glad that he didn''t choose to join their sect. "Amithaba. I will keep your identity as a secret, I swear it to the Heaven and Earth if I revealed your secret, may thunder strike me, destroy my cultivation, and extinguish my soul. We, Buddha Sect, didn''t really like trouble." Alex nodded. But, Conn suddenly said. "Wait!" "Old Su, you still haven''t sworn." "Tch." He clicked his tongue, he is busted, "I swear it to the Heaven and Earth if I revealed your secret, may thunder strike me, destroy my cultivation, and extinguish my soul. You too, Old Conn." "I swear it to the Heaven and Earth if I revealed your secret, may thunder strike me, destroy my cultivation, and extinguish my soul." Conn. Now, all of them have sworn. This is the most reasonable way to make others keep their promise. Once they swore in Heaven and Earth, they can''t break their promise. There were some fools that dare to break this, and the world sent the tribulation and extinguished their souls. "When are we leaving?" Alex asked. "Since the sun almost set, so we will leave tomorrow morning." Conn said, "After you received the reward, we will go back to the Himura House, since you are staying on there right now." Alex nodded, telling that he understood. Alex relieved for now. It was like he was blabbering his secret, but it was only a part of them is the truth and part of them is a lie to cover him as a mysterious man. It can protect him in a short time, at the time, his identity was known by many. He already has the strength to protect himself The ranking is out. 1st - Alexander Sirius 2nd - Nakagawa Hiina 3rd - Himura Kenshin 4th - Ray Adams 5th - Nakagawa Hikotaka 6th - Himura Tsunehira 7th - Soga Tsutsuyo 8th - Kitajo Kagemochi 9th - Kusunoki Kayo 10th Itagaki Kyousuke Alex received his reward, Rank 3 Body Nourishing Pill. Well, it is a perfect purity Rank 3 Body Nourishing Pill, he will take it. After receiving the rewards. It seems that the elders are recruiting the winner. Alexander Sirius, Himura Kenshin, and Nakagawa Hikotaka decided to join Heavenly Sword Sect. Nakagawa Hiina and Soga Tsutsuyo join the Rainbow Flower Sect along with Kusunoki Kayo, who already accepted to be their disciple before the tournament. Buddha Sect get Ray Adams and Itagaki Kyousuke. While Mount Hua Sect didn''t get anyone. They just participate in the tournament as a formality. Their primary focus is in the Alchemist Guild. That''s why Alex met Su Hua in the Alchemist Guild. Of course, that doesn''t mean they didn''t accept any practitioner, they hold the recruitment in the sect separately. After giving the prizes for them, Hiina suddenly come to Alex. "What is it?" "In three years, I will challenge you again in Willow Continent Grand Meeting" Hiina said that and walked away. Alex asked Conn, "What is this Willow Continent Grand Meeting?" "It is another tournament like this one. They are holding two separate tournaments. For those who are at Grandmaster Stage, and for those who are at Martial Lord Stage. They were officially held every ten years. So, you might want to take the Grandmaster Stage in three years." "I see" Alex nodded. If Anna were here, she would retort him with, ''You are underestimating Young Master too much.'' After that, Alex meets Kenshin and leads Elder Conn to Himura House. Nakagawa Hikotaka will come to Himura House in the morning. Conn followed them. But, he remembered something. As he recalled that thing, he grinned. "I can''t do Master-Disciple or Teacher-Student trick, but there is one more trick that I can use" 159 Heavenly Sword Sec Himura Takata holds a small party. The participants are only he, his wife, Kenshin, and Conn Kindellan. He invited Alex, but he rejected it and went back to his room. The reason Alex rejected him, because... [Mission #1: First Place in Tournament and become a disciple of one of the four sects. (Completed) Reward: Premium Ticket x5] Finally, he got another ticket. He immediately used it. [Summon Ticket x5 (SR) Acquired] [Grandmaster Monster''s blood (SR) Acquired] [Lizard Blood (UC) Acquired] [Full Throttle (UR) - Active Skill] [Rank 4 Recovery Pill (SR) Acquired] Alex''s jaw dropped to the ground when he looked at the gacha rewards this time. 3 SR and 1 UR, this is insane. This is the luckiest day of his life. "System, pinch me. This is not a dream, right?" [How can I pinch you, Host? But, yeah. This is not a dream] "Ignoring the Lizard Blood, it was the best five draws I''ve ever get." [Host, the blood is from a Lizard that can become a dragon] "What? Is that true?" [Yes] "Then, how can it be a UC? if the Lizard itself can evolve to a dragon." [This is its blood, the Lizard can evolve, but the blood can''t. Remember, the blood is in the bottle, not in the Lizard Body] "..." Alex almost forget this feeling. He hasn''t cursed the system for a long time. And now he feels that he might need to throw another curse. "System..." [Yes?] "F*ck you!" Alex cursed, he wanted to point out his middle finger, but he is thinking as to where he should point his middle finger? The system didn''t have any physical body and currently reside in his mind. Should he point out his middle finger toward his mind, isn''t it the same as cursing himself too? [Love you too, Host] After he calms down, he checked the other things, He will keep the Summon Ticket first, rather than using it one by one, he will spend it together in ''Draw x10+1''. He also stored the Monster blood in the inventory. The last two are Rank 4 Recovery Pill and Full Throttle. [Rank 4 Recovery Pill Use: Fully recover the energy for Martial Grandmaster or below. Recover 20% of energy for Martial Lord] "Hmm... I am only a puny 1-Star Martial Master, so this kind of pill is a kind of second life for me. I will keep this as my last resort. As for the Full Throttle" Alex looked at the scroll with ''Full Throttle'' written on it. He opened half of it and saw a game like description. [Full Throttle (Active) Desc: Exceed the limits of the body by sacrificing your own vitality to strengthen yourself for a short time. Fully recovered energy when cast and increase strength by 20% for 5 minutes. After the skill duration ends, you will become horribly exhausted after the skill''s duration. Decrease strength by 50% for three hours. Limit: 1/day] Alex was deep in thought, the skill is very useful, and he knows why this skill is a UR item. But, there is something that is bugging him, "System, why do I feel you are changing to an RPG System?" [No! System won''t change, System will always be your Gacha System, I won''t be the same as the ''System'' in your memories Host. Gacha will dominate all of those function, and I ensure you Host, Gacha is all you need] "Hmm...To be honest, I don''t mind you become an RPG System, I can level up and grow my strength quicker." Alex said. [I won''t be an RPG System. Try to open the rest of the scroll.] Alex opened the rest of the scroll. In there is an instruction on how to use the ''Full Throttle'' [Hehe, Look Host. This is the difference between me and the ''RPG System''. You need to train according to the instruction if you want to exceed your body limit. There is no instant path, Host. It is not a ''Skill'' in the ''RPG System'', but this is a kind of Body Arts, just like your Sword Art, you need to practice first before you can use it] The System seems very proud on it Alex rolled his eyes. "Can I change you to an RPG System?" [Eh, why?] "Why do you ask? It''s obvious that you are more useless than them." [It''s them, I''m the superior Gacha System] "*&^%^$#" It''s been a long time that he didn''t become like this. Meanwhile, far away, there is a goddess that is currently holding her stomach while laughing. "Hahaha, It''s been a long time I didn''t tease you." Not long after, she stopped her laughing, and she looked at the sky in reminiscence. She really missed the day when she was with him. This teasing is to fill her loneliness for a while. "Just a bit longer before I can meet him again." ... The next morning, Kenshin called him from the outside. "Alex, we will be going in a few minutes." "All right. I''m going out now" Alex opened the door. "Is that Hikotaka guy has arrived?" "Yes, only you left." Kenshin said. "Let''s go" Alex nodded. They went outside the Himura House, they saw Elder Conn and Nakagawa Hikotaka has been waiting for them. "Elder Conn" Both of them greet him. "Is there anything you need before we fly toward the sect?" "Hmm..." Alex pondered for a moment, he rechecked all the things he had and shook his head. "I''m good. I''m in your care Elder Conn." "Good. Let''s go." Elder Conn waved his hand, all of them started floating in the air. Alex expected something like ''Flying Sword'' but his expectation was betrayed. There is no Flying Sword or Flying Ship, it was only Elder Conn controlling his energy to carry them and block the wind pressure from their speed. Such a disappointment, Alex thought. But Kenshin and Hikotaka were mesmerized by the speed, and they eagerly tried to observe their surroundings. What impressed Alex is Elder Conn''speed, not the surroundings. They are currently flying at breakneck speed. If Alex wasn''t carried by him like this, he might not be able to see him even if he flying in front of him. They didn''t have anything to do while flying, so Alex continues his cultivation. When Kenshin and Hikotaka saw Alex cultivating, they calmed down and followed suit. Elder Conn noticed the trio started cultivating, he smiled a bit while continue flying toward the sect. After three days of flying, they finally arrived at the sect perimeter. A big town was on the edge of the sect. It seems that the town was for trading or if you need any servants in the sect to help their daily needs. They can hire them from the town. Alex observed the town size, it was around ten times bigger than the Capital City of Acacia Kingdom. In the city, there is a big gate with ''Heavenly Sword Sect'' written on it. It seems that it is the sect entrance. Behind the gate, he saw a big field, forest, and a few mountain peaks very far away, along with the building as far as he can see. The Heavenly Sword Sect is very vast, he can''t even see the edge from the sky. Noticing Alex''s observing gaze, Conn explained it slightly. "This forest surrounded the whole sect, it is the place for Outer Disciple and Inner Disciple. If you take a close look at a few mansions in the Mountains foot, they are for Inner Disciple. The closer you are to the mountain peaks, the denser the Spiritual Energy is. The mansion on the body of the mountains is for Core Disciples while the summit is for an Elder dwelling. There are twenty mountain peaks...well, it was tiring to remember their name. So they were named with First to Twentieth Mountain Peak. It will also symbolize the name of the Elder. I''m in the seventh Mountain Peak, so I''m the seventh Elder. Twenty mountain surrounding a small island in the center of it, it is the dwelling of Palace Master. You can experience it as you get stronger. Don''t worry about it for the time being." After they entered the town called Heavenly Sword Town, Elder Conn led them to an inn. He reserved three rooms for them each. "You three will need to wait for a week. The recruitment process will be held in a week from now. So, you can walk around the town first. I will be returning to the sect." "What is this recruitment process? Aren''t we have become Heavenly Sword Sect disciple?" Hikotaka asked. His confusion is true, Alex and Kenshin also didn''t know anything about this. After all, isn''t Elder Conn have recruited them? "Of course, you three are already our Heavenly Sword Sect disciples. This recruitment process is to measure your talent. And..." he paused. "And..." The trio gulped down. They waited for him to say the continuation. "A secret for the time being. You will know about it later." "Then, what will we do in the recruitment process?" Alex asked. "The details are a bit hard to explain. Actually, this is a separate recruitment test that the Heavenly Sword Sect holds alone. The requirement is almost the same as the tournament, and the condition is you need to be a Martial Master, and your age can''t be higher than 23 years old." Conn took out three tokens and gave it to them one by one. "With this token, you won''t need to line up to register, you just need to show these tokens and report your name. The test will start in the morning, so don''t be late." "Then, can you explain the details in Heavenly Sword Sect?" Alex asked again. Information is necessary. "The details huh... There are three types of disciples, Outer Disciple, Inner Disciple, and Core Disciple as the highest. All of you will be outer disciples unless you have something special that can have an elder to make an exception and make you an Inner Disciple. If an Outer Disciple wants to become an Inner Disciple, the requirement is they were under 35 years old and at least 1-Star Martial Grandmaster. The same applies to Core Disciple, you need to be at least 1-Star Martial Lord, and under 50 years old. If you are an Alchemist or Forging Master, There is Alchemist Guild and Forging Master Guild. And we have a famous battle simulation room." "Battle simulation room?" Alex frowned. "Yeah. Well, it is a reality type of Illusion Array. We replicate the monsters using their own monster core. You can also absorb their energy and make your cultivation progress faster. You have one chance, as long as you didn''t die, you can continue as long as you want. As for how to enter, it will be better if the one in charge explained it to you later." Conn said. "Well, that''s all, it''s better if you experienced it yourself." After he said that, he disappeared. It seems that he went back to the sect. Alex looked at Kenshin and Hikotaka. "What are we going to do now?" Alex asked. "I''m going to look around" Kenshin said "Hmph! I will look for my cousin. You are lucky that you can defeat my sister and me. But my cousin is different, and he is an inner disciple. If you become my underlings, I don''t mind introducing you to my cousin" Hikotaka said arrogantly. Alex and Kenshin only rolled their eyes before they nodded to each other and walked away. "Let''s go" Alex said to Kenshin while ignoring Hikotaka. "Yeah" Kenshin nodded. "You! you two dare to ignore me, I will make you both regret!" Hikotaka still holds his pride as a Young Master from Nakagawa Family. ... Alex and Kenshin decided to stroll around the town separately. For Alex, the first place he wants to go to is the Alchemist Guild. He wants to buy the medicinal ingredients for Fire Spirit Pill. Sherry ate all of his Fire Spirit Pills in Limewatch Town. So he needs to make more, and he needs to raise some funds. He went inside the Alchemist Guild. A young woman comes to him, "Sir, is this your first time here? how can we help you?" "Yeah, this is my first in here. I want to buy some medicinal ingredients. Here is the list" Alex handed her a list of medicinal ingredients. "Fire Spirit Pill is it..." Since she is working here, she also very experienced in ingredients. Even if she can''t make the actual pill, recognizing a pill recipe is easier. So when Alex gave her the list, she immediately knows what pill he wants. Alex nodded. "How many sets do you want? one set is fifty Spirit Stones." ''So expensive!'' Alex thought. "This is the normal price here. After all, we have a big sect near us after all." 160 Refining Pill Alex nodded. He still has 300 spirit stones, he needs to spare some for his personal use. "I want three sets, please." "Understood. Please wait a bit" She left to get the medicinal herbs. As she went to bring the herb, He noticed another beautiful girl is haggling over a pill with a middle-aged man. She has long blue hair, slender eyebrows, shapely figure, glossy skin. She can be said on par with Nakagawa Hiina, but that wasn''t the thing that caught his eyes. When he looked at her, he can''t help but think she and Kenshin is similar. Well, she didn''t know her, so he can''t be rude, saying that your appearance is similar to my brother or something like that. "One Thousand Spirit Stones, take it or leave it" The middle-aged man said proudly. He can be arrogant since he has a bit of strength to do that. He flaunted his 3 Silver Stars badge on his chest. That''s right, he is a Mid 3rd Rank Alchemist. "This is only a High 2nd Rank, Jade Heart Pill. And it wasn''t a perfect purity, and you dare to sell it one thousand Spirit Stones. You are just robbing me." "I have said, Take it or leave it. I''m afraid that you won''t find anyone that has this Jade Heart Pill at the moment." He said, he looked at her breast, he said lecherously. "But, if you are going to spend a night with me, I don''t mind to give it to you for free." Alex facepalmed, he meets again with this kind of person. "You! I''m an Inner Disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect. Are you going to offend our Heavenly Sword Sect?" "I''m also a Mid 3rd Rank Alchemist. I''m not sure if they are going to offend someone like me for an Inner Disciple" The middle-aged man said while licking his tongue. He thought inwardly, ''You foolish girl. I''m going to another town tomorrow. So, If I bed you tonight, you won''t be able to find me in this city anymore. Even those folks in the sect won''t search for me that far for a mere disciple.'' "You!" She gritted her teeth, she wanted to give this pill to her relative to strengthen her foundation. Jade Heart Pill, it will enhance the heart meridian and improve the foundation. It is the peak 2nd Rank Pill. Alex looked at her without any expression. He wasn''t a hero or a friend of justice. Though, he felt sorry for her. But all of it is her decision. "This is the three set of Fire Spirit Pill ingredients. Do you have any more requests?" Alex gave 150 spirit stones while pondering. After listening about Jade Heart Pill, he somehow wanted to make Jade Heart Pill for himself to improve his foundation. But, the problem is the cost, the cost must be higher than the Fire Spirit Pill. He will ask it first. "How much for one set of medicinal ingredients for Jade Heart Pill?" "One set of ingredients is 80 Spirit Stones." He only has 150 Spirit Stones left after purchasing so he can only buy one set ingredient, which is perfect for him. "I want one." "Understood" She went to grab the ingredients again. It seems that the two beside him heard what he said just now. The middle-aged man come toward him. "Hey, Young Man. Are you going to become a hero saving a damsel in distress? Scram!" "Are you Alchemist?" The blue-haired woman asked. "I''m neither a hero nor a friend of justice. It is for my own personal use. Why should I waste my money to save a person I didn''t know..." Alex said casually. "Hmph, it''s good that you know the limitation." The middle-aged man snorted. "I will pay you 800 Spirit Stones if you can make Jade Heart Pill with the same quality as him" The Lady said. "Around 80% purity..." Alex looked at the bluish pill on the middle-aged man pill. "Young Man, don''t be complacent. I''m a Mid 3rd Rank Alchemist, there won''t be any pill like this here anymore. All of them were only 70% purity and lower. You are still too green to understand the hardness making a peak 2nd Rank Pill. I made this pill after seven tries." The middle-aged man, looking down on Alex. He was convinced that Alex is too young, even he is an Alchemist, he won''t be higher than low 2nd Rank Alchemist. There is no way he can make a Peak 2nd Rank Pill. This is also the reason why the Lady wanted to buy it from him. But he was too shameless. "Sir, This is the medicinal ingredients you''ve requested." The receptionist girl came at the right time. Alex handed the eighty Spirit Stones to her. "Are you going to refine a pill, Sir? Since this is your first time here, there are three types of alchemy rooms. The first one is Low-Grade Alchemy Room, and it cost thirty Spirit Stones a day. The second is Mid-Grade Alchemy Room, and it cost two hundred Spirit Stones a day while the last one is High-Grade Alchemy Room, it cost one thousand Spirit Stones a day." "So expensive" Alex sighed. He is also wondering where he should make the pill. He can refine them in his room back in Himura House, since it was quite remote, and others won''t notice him. But if he refined the pill in the inn, others might feel it. "Can''t be helped...I want to rent the Low-Grade one." He handed another thirty Spirit Stones to the receptionist. After she received the spirit stones, "I will guide you to your room." Alex nodded, just before he walked. The Lady grabbed his hand, "Wait. If you are going to make the Jade Heart Pill, I will buy it from you." "Aiya, Are you crazy, don''t you hear from this ''Gentleman'' here how hard it is to make a Jade Heart Pill. I need to be extremely lucky just to make a Jade Heart Pill. And it was even harder to make a pill with 80% purity. And I only have a set of ingredients with me here." Alex said while releasing the Lady''s hand from his own hand. He finally left. The Lady frowned, even though Alex said it like he wasn''t confident. She felt that Alex is unusual, he wasn''t someone that is relying on fate. "Hehe, just a poor bast*rd. Lady, you heard him. How about it? Only one night and you can save one thousand Spirit Stones" The middle-aged man said vulgarly. "Hmph, I won''t buy it from a shameless old man like you!" She is planning to get her teacher come here and teach this Old Bast*rd a lesson, she is a disciple of an Elder, But her master still hasn''t come back to the sect, so she can''t act recklessly for now. But she decided to wait for Alex first. "You! You will regret it and begged me to bed you later. At that time, I will make sure to destroy you." The middle-aged man said angrily, and then he walked away. ... Meanwhile, Alex has arrived in his room. It wasn''t a spacious room, and It was similar to a 4x5 meter room. But there is a leap in the density of Spiritual Energy, and it seems that they used Spirit Stones to increase the density of Spiritual Energy in this room. That is the reason why it is Expensive. He took out the Fire Spirit Pill ingredients. Fire Fruit, Fire Grass Seed, Bay Leaf, Hedine Herb, and Master Stage Monster Core. He wanted to refine the Fire Spirit Pills first. Now, he didn''t need to hold back his current Alchemy Skill. Back in the Alchemist Test in Limewatch Town, he needs to refine the ingredients one by one and repeat it to the second and third sets. This time, He is planning to refine three Fire Fruits at the same time, then move to the second medicinal herbs, the third, and lastly, the Monster Core. It will shorten his time by much. The flame rose from his Rank 3 Cauldron. He waited for a minute before the Cauldron finally warm enough. He tossed three Fire Fruits inside the cauldron. He burned while pressing the Fire Fruits with his Spiritual Energy. A few droplets drop from the Fire Fruits, it is their essence. After Alex took out the fruit''s essence, the fruit swiftly withered. He purges the impurities within the Fruit essence out before he tossed the withered fruit. He covered the droplets in his flame and waved his hands. Another three ingredients flew toward the cauldron, this time, it is Fire Grass Seed. Alex melted the grass and compressed it to a tiny ball. He went to another ingredient. He skillfully refined each of the medicinal herbs until it is time for the Monster Cores. The refinement wasn''t long before he tossed the rest of the ingredients inside the cauldron. He merged all of them into a single big pill before split them into five normal size pills. He still burned it until the pills hardened enough. And Just like that, He has another Five Fire Spirit Pills. This time, he would be the one to use it, not Sherry. Now that he thinks about it, Feeding Sherry is easy but Expensive. He can just feed her Fire Spirit Pills until she becomes a Grandmaster Stage Beast. Then he will change to another Fire Elemental Pill until she reaches Lord Stage Beast, and so on. But he is also an Array Master that can minimize the cost. For Alex, pills are a low-cost product with high returns. Well, she has swallowed five Fire Spirit Pills at the moment. She needs more time to refine their energy. He will raise his funds in the meantime. But for now, He still needs to refine the Jade Heart Pill. The difficulty in this pill was on its energy. He needs to assimilate three different elements and assimilated them together. The three different elements are Gold, Wood, and Water. The gold elemental medicinal herb, Futu Ribwort. Water element Siliweed along with Bollean Wood. The Gold will strengthen the heart, the Wood will enhance the meridian while the Water will improve the blood circulation. Since the heart is the live for a living human, it has a significant effect in Cultivation Foundation if it enhanced. Another three medicinal herbs are Solid Grass, Mian Grass, and Hofian Tree Seed. There is no monster core as its ingredients. Because, if the monster core added into the ingredients, rather than help to assimilate the energy, it will make those three elemental energy go berserk. Why does Alex know about this? It is easy, in the ''Simulation Room'', Alex had tried fusing it with Monster Core. But the energy exploded and killed him in the Simulation Room. He tossed ''Futu Ribwort'' into the cauldron. He didn''t dare to refine those three elemental ingredients simultaneously. He burned the ingredients. The process is a bit slow since he needs to refine this medicinal ingredient slowly. The same applies to the other after he finished the refinement of ''Futu Ribwort'', he processes the ''Siliweed'' and ''Bollean Wood''. But for Solid Grass, Mian Grass, and Hofian Tree Seed. He dares to refine them boldly. He easily refined these three medicinal ingredients. Finally, he tossed all of the ingredients into the cauldron for the last process. He is cautious and slow at this process. But, he suddenly feels the fluctuation of energy. It came from the ingredients. He knows that it will go berserk. "Sh*t" He opened his Fire Phoenix Speed and changed his flame to Pure Fire. "Kneel!" Once Pure Fire out, the rampaging energy slowly got suppressed and become harmonized. "Fuse!" The ingredients were revolving like crazy. It merges and fuse and finally forming a pill. Alex looked at the Greenish pill inside the cauldron, he sighed. "Only 95% Purity." The reason is because of the first berserk. It disrupted the flow of energy and made its purity decrease. Alex''s success rate when making Jade Heart Pill is 100%. But that was when he used his Pure Fire. His success rate when he didn''t use it was rather low. But that was when he was at Qi Manipulation Stage. He thought that he will succeed since he is now a Martial Master. It is unfortunate for him since the end is like this. He let out a long sighed and sealed his Pure Fire inside the Fire Phoenix Seed again. Alex finally went out of the room. 161 Who Tricked Who Alex is currently thinking about what he will do with this Jade Heart Pill. After all, this is a Jade Heart Pill. He can choose to eat it himself. Unfortunately, it is only a 95% purity pill. He refrains himself from eating pills that didn''t have perfect purity. After all, it might hurt his foundation. He wanted to go back to the inn first to think about the next plan. Unbeknownst to him, while he is walking. The lady from before still waiting for him. When she finally saw his figure, she came to him. "How is it? Are you succeeded in making a Heart Jade Pill." Alex wanted to say no to hide his Heart Jade Pill, but an evil plan flashed in his mind. He grinned inwardly, ''Time to racking up some cash.'' "Yes, I have succeeded" Alex nodded. "What about purity?" She asked. "Why do you ask? Are you going to rob me?" Alex suddenly acts like he scared. Well, he is just a puny Martial Master, and the one in front of him is an Inner Disciple, she must be at least a Martial Grandmaster. It was proven since he can''t see her cultivation stage. That must mean that her cultivation is far stronger than him. "I wanted to buy it from you if your pill purity is 80% or above." "But, I...I wanted to eat it myself. I never got this lucky" "If your pill had 80% purity, I will buy it from you for eight hundred Spirit Stones. If you had 90% purity, I would buy it from you for one thousand Spirit Stones." "What about...95%?" Alex asked, innocently. "You...you made Jade Heart Pill with 95% purity?" She was shocked. It was tough for even 3rd Rank Alchemist to make this High 2nd Rank Pill. Usually, only 4th Rank Alchemists can make this pill with such high purity. But, they were rather not to make this pill since it wasn''t worth their time. "But...I want to eat it myself" Alex said weakly. Now, he looks like an honest child. "How about this, I will buy it from you for a thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones. You can still buy fifteen sets of ingredients with it" She said while smiling. "But, I don''t know if I can get so lucky anymore" Alex said while looking like he is pondering something. "Since you are lucky today, you might be able to make it again. How about this, I will give you one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones along with three sets of Jade Heart Pill medicinal ingredients for you. The way you are now, you might be able to make it again today" Since he is only a 1-Star Martial Master and he seems very innocent, she decided to trick him. Though the Jade Heart Pill with 95% purity is around one thousand and five hundred Spirit Stones, their stock is very rare. So rarely they get this pill and increase their foundation. Even she can only get Jade Heart Pill with 90% purity when she was a Martial Master. She thought evilly, ''Come come, agree to it. Although I don''t want to bully a little Martial Master. I will teach you that you can''t trust others so easily in this cultivation world. Though the price is your Jade Heart Pill'' Unbeknownst to her, Alex also plotted against her too. He is grinning in his heart, but he can''t let out his emotion out now, he needs to keep his innocent and poker face. "Is that so? Can I really make it again?" "Of course" She said while smiling. Inwardly, she grinned evilly. "All right. I agree to sell it to you. Elder Sister, you are very generous" Alex said innocently while smiling. Inwardly, he scratched his neck continuously. Speaking like this make his throat itchy. "Miss, please give us three more sets of Jade Heart Pill." The young lady smiled. The earlier receptionist that served Alex immediately left she sighed. An innocent young man just got tricked. (AN: He is 20 years old, all right...) Not long after, she came back with the ingredients. The young lady paid the two hundred forty Spirit Stones to her. "Here is the ingredients. I will wait for you to finish these three sets of ingredients first. After that, I will give you one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones, and you will give me the pill in your hand no matter what the result. Is that fine with you?" "Yes. Thank you very much, older sister. You are very generous." Alex said, innocently. He then walked toward his previous Alchemy room. The young lady is waving her hand at him while inwardly, she made a huge smile. ''According to the plan!'' Alex went inside his room and closed the door. He laughed a bit. "Haha, A Jade Heart Pill with 95% purity can bring me another three pills plus one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones. I''m a genius." He let out his Pure Fire and started refining the pills. After around two hours, he finally finished all of the pills. In front of him are three green pills, they were Jade Heart Pills with perfect purity. He is thinking about how to spend all these three, he can''t sell it in here after all, or they will be conspicuous. Well, he will eat one, and another one he will give it to Kenshin. As for the last...Hikotaka? No way, in fact, he didn''t like this Hikotaka. Sherry? He wasn''t sure if Sherry will need this pill. He decided to save the last for now. Alex waited for a bit more to make her think that he was struggling to make the pill. After another hour, he finally went out of the room while putting a sad face. Looking at Alex''s sad face, the young lady knows what the result is. She smiled and came to him. "How about it?" "I didn''t succeed a single time." Alex said with a sad tone. "There there. Here is one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones." She presents the Spirit Stones in front of Alex. "Where is the pill?" "The pill..." Alex look hesitated to hand the pill since he failed. "I''m sure you can make it again. You can buy another fifteen sets with this Spirit Stones. But, you can''t break a promise you made. If not, you won''t be able to reach high." She said while smiling. Though it looks like a sister teaching a younger brother, she still didn''t know that all of it was within Alex''s plan. "Yes. What Elder Sister said is right. I shouldn''t break my promise. I''m wrong Elder Sister. This is the pill" Alex said while giving her the pill. "Good, since you are a Martial Master, are you going to join Heavenly Sword Sect a week from now?" She asked. "Yes." Alex nodded. "What is your name? Since I''m an Inner Disciple. If we met again inside the Sect, I would take care of you." She thought since the young man in front of her made a Jade Heart Pill with 95% purity. Even though she didn''t know his alchemist rank, But his skill alone is very noteworthy. He is as skilled as a 3rd Rank Alchemist. If she can be a good elder sister figure in front of him and monopolize his Alchemy skill, then it will be a good thing for her. "Is that right, Elder Sister? I''m Franklin." Alex introduced himself with a fake name. "I''m Elisa. Nice to meet you, Franklin" she said. It seems that it wasn''t her true name either. "It''s my pleasure to have met a kind Elder Sister before I even become a disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect." Alex smiled. "That''s good. Elder sister needs to go back now. See you later inside the Sect." "Yes. See you later, Elder Sister" Alex waves his hand. The receptionist girl earlier facepalmed. She can''t be rude to an Alchemist like him, she can only think in her heart. ''Haiz, you are too innocent. How about I''m the one who teaches you? I can even teach you in bed and make you a man.'' After saying goodbye to Elisa, Alex also left the Alchemist Guild. His heart was full of joy at the moment. ''Haha, Just as planned...who tricked who! You give three sets of ingredients along with one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones to me. And all of it was only from my eighty Spirit Stones that I used to buy a single set of ingredients. I really love this job.'' "What am I going to do now..." Alex is pondering while looking at the bright orange sky. The sun almost set. He took too long when making those pills. He chose to familiarize himself with the town first. There seems to be Alchemist Guild and Forging Master Guild in this town. And even the rare Array Master Guild was present in this town. Since this town is beside the Heavenly Sword Sect, it is natural for them to set a guild here. He didn''t have any plan to get an identity as an Array Master for the time being. He might register when he reached Grandmaster stage, if not Martial Lord stage. That way, he can at least protect himself. When the night comes, Alex decided to go back to the inn. When he opened his door. Kenshin seems to hear the clicking sound. He went out of his room. "Alex, where have you been?" "Who are you? You are not my mom. It is disgusting when you are acting like my girlfriend" Alex said in disgust. "No no, that wasn''t what I mean. I just worried that you get into trouble since we didn''t know anyone in this town de gozaru." Kenshin said while scratching his cheek. Alex shook his head, helplessly. He took out the Jade Heart Pill from his Space ring and tossed it to Kenshin. Kenshin grabbed the green pill, he was confused. "What is this pill, Alex?" "Jade Heart Pill" "Is that so? This is too much for me" Kenshin wanted to reject him, but Alex stopped him. "It''s fine. You can say that it is my investment in you." "I will pay you back in the future. Thank you very much, Alex" Kenshin bowed to him. "You are not going to ask me about purity? you are going to hurt your foundation if I give you a bad pill, you know." "No need. I trust you completely de gozaru" Kenshin said sincerely Alex sighed helplessly. "It''s perfect purity, Jade Heart Pill." After hearing what Alex said, His hand started shaking. He was too surprised to hear that. "Can I take back what I said?" "Which one?" "I don''t want it anymore. How can you give such a precious pill to me." Kenshin said with his shocked face. "Don''t worry, just take it" while whispering, "I have another one." "But still..." "I''m wondering why do you think it is a precious pill?" Alex asked. "Ah... I forget that you are pretty ignorant with something like this" Kenshin shook his head in defeat. "This is a perfect pill for strengthening a foundation of Martial Master. The demand is high, but the product is scarce. Though the cost to buy the pill was still lower than 3rd Rank Pill. It was very rare to see a perfect purity pill like this in the market. My sister sends a letter back then, and she said that she ate Jade Heart Pill with 90% Purity. It cost her one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones, but it also because she uses her connection to buy it so it should be more." "What?" Alex was shocked, it is the same price as the one he sold, but he has 95% purity. He realized that the woman tricked him. "What about the one with 95% purity?" "I don''t really know much, but it should be around one thousand Spirit Stones. But if I need to say it. It might be around one thousand and five hundred Spirit Stones, and if you need it immediately, it usually went higher than that. And this pill you just gave me, it must be more than two thousand Spirit Stones. Even so, it usually wasn''t in the market. Since this is the Hardest 2nd Rank Pill, according to Elder Sister''s words." ''As expected, I was tricked by that woman. How dare she, I will teach her a lesson when we met again'' Alex gritted his teeth. Fortunately, he didn''t get tricked too much. It was still in his tolerance level. 162 Mission "I see. Thanks, Kenshin. If there is no other matter, I will rest in my room" Alex said. "No no, I should be the one who thanks you. Thank you for the pill, Alex. I will refine it now. See you tomorrow." Kenshin said. "See you tomorrow" Alex nodded as he came inside his room. He sat on the bed. He was just tricked by a woman, but...he still gets another six thousand Spirit Stones along with her one thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones. All those Spirit Stones came from a mere eighty Spirit Stones. Those thoughts soothe his mind. Alex swallowed the Jade Heart Pill. It melts as soon as it got inside his mouth. All the energy from within the pill immediately moves toward his heart. He suddenly clenched his heart in pain. "Argh!" The pain was intense. He felt his heart was clenched by the energy. After a few more minutes, the pain started to disappear. When he finally finished refining the pill efficacy. He felt his heart got stronger. When he takes a breath, the blood in his body flows more smoothly and naturally. His breathing becomes more stable, and each time he breathes, he felt the energy coming to him is higher. He felt that after taking this pill, his cultivation speed become faster. He was satisfied with this. He then suddenly took out an array plate and activated it. It was only a three-meter barrier, but the array plate itself can be maintained for a few minutes. He took out two cards out of his inventory. "Summon" Two figures appeared from the card and kneeling with one knee in front of him. "Young Master" "Aiya, why do you like this again... Anna, Leoz" Alex smiled wryly. "What is our order, Young Master?" Anna asked. "Well, stand up first. We can chat casually here for a few minutes before this sound insulation array plate broken." Alex said. Anna took a seat beside him while Leoz chose to keep standing in front of him. Alex pondered for a moment before he gave Leoz card to Anna. "Young Master?" Both of them were confused by his actions. "Anna, can you recall Leoz back to the card?" Alex asked. "I don''t know. Is this the reason why Young Master gave me his card?" Anna asked for his confirmation. Alex nodded. "Understood, I will try." Anna holds Leoz''s card and "Recall." Leoz turned to a stream of light and went back inside his card. Alex said again, "How about summoning him?" Anna nodded to him, "Summon." Leoz appeared again in front of them. Leoz was confused, why the Young Master did this experiment. "Young Master?" Upon seeing, she can summon and recall Leoz. Alex has decided on his plan. "Leoz, I wanted to ask you something...this is a request, not an order." "Please say it, Young Master." "If I want you to go around the continent and trying to search for information on this continent. While trying to continuously kill monsters and bring Exp not only to yourself but also to Anna or another possible member of Factions, will you accept this request?" Alex asked him sincerely. After all, this is an absurd request coming from him. Alex is fine, even if Leoz rejected it. "Your request is my command" Leoz kneeling in one knee once again like a knight after receiving the king''s order. "Are you sure about this?" Alex worried about this. I mean, he is going to act separately. "Yes, Young Master. In fact, something like this more suited me" Leoz smiled to assure him. "But..." "But what? If you have any requests, just say it." "But, I''m more to fight...according to Young Master memories. It is ''Farming''. I am better at killing monsters and gathering monster is not really my forte. I didn''t know how much information I can collect. If that man is here, it will be the best. Since ''he'' is number one espionage in Spirit Race." "He?" "He was known as ''Shadow''. His name is Khalil. If you had any task about gathering information or assassination, he is the best man to ask. But unfortunately, he wasn''t summoned yet." Alex frowned, "Why do you know him, and how do you know he can be summoned?" "If Young Master is wondering why I know that. Young Master will get the answer by opening the Summoning Panel. There is a list of us." Alex was surprised, he immediately opened the summoning panel. And it''s true, there is an ''i'' Symbol in it, he didn''t notice it previously. There are a hundred Spirits in the list ranging from Common to UR. For UR spirits, there are only ten of them. Another ten for SR, fifteen for rare, twenty five for UC, and the rest is common. He focused on the UR one. Leoz is right, there is ''Khalil'' name in it. Alex is pondering for a moment. "All right. I want you to gather information as much as you can and report it to the card until Khalil or someone can help your job. But your main objective is to get stronger. So it means that you are going to kill many monsters." "Understood Young Master" "That''s why, I decided to use these two cards to you" Alex took out two exp cards from his Inventory and used it on Leoz. After he used it, the two cards become a stream of light and surround Leoz. Alex checked Leoz card. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 16/80 (6-Star Martial Master Stage) Exp: 50006/60000 HP: 3600 ATK: 80 DEF: 75] "You''ve only become 6-Star Martial Master..." Alex was a bit disappointed. He can''t give his best to Leoz since he was going for a dangerous mission. While he is sitting safely in the sect. "This is enough for me, Young Master. After all, fighting is my specialty" Leoz said. "I see. I''m counting on you, Leoz." Alex said. "Young Master. I noticed something" Anna suddenly spoke. "What is it?" "If I''m not wrong. The experience increase in a straight line. If I remembered, Leoz''s previous Exp is 6/10000, and he is level 11. Now with the increase of two hundred thousand experiences, he becomes level 16, and his experiences become 50006/60000. If it goes with a straight line, then it makes sense." Anna said. After Anna said that, Alex immediately do another calculation in his mind. And it seems that she is right. It means that for level 12, he needs twenty thousand experience points. For level 13, he needs thirty thousand experience points, and so on. Now that he is level 16, if he becomes level 17. He must need seventy thousand experience points. The problem is when he reached level 21 or Grandmaster Stage. Will it increase for another ten thousand points, or will it change. If it still an increase for ten thousand points each level, the system must be lazy to think about that. That wasn''t a problem for him, though. In fact, it makes the calculation easier. "You will be going tomorrow since it might be suspicious if you are going at night." "Understood" Leoz nodded. "Then, what will Anna do?" She was ignored all the time. She felt left out. "Anna..." Alex is pondering for a moment. He also has a plan for her, but it will come to the condition he will get inside the sect. "Well, it depends. If I get a private room inside the sect, I will summon Anna and let you watch the home when I''m away. Leoz will report to you, and you will summarize the information and tell it to me. Since I might not have all the time to monitor Leoz''s card. I want Anna to monitor it for me, If Leoz was in danger. I want you to recall him back to the card." "It is like becoming Young Master Secretary." "Secretary?" Alex was surprised to hear that term, "Where do you learn it?" "It is necessary information. So Anna also learned it from System." Anna said proudly. Alex facepalmed. Anna continued, "Then, I will wait for Young Master in his room. After Young Master came back exhausted, Anna will comfort Young Master. That''s right, If I''m not wrong it was called s*xcretary, Anna..." Alex immediately closed her mouth with his hand. Alex looked at her with a murderous glance, "Don''t continue on that topic." Anna nodded repeatedly. Her body shivered, she didn''t dare to speak. She let out tears from her beautiful eyes. Noticing the tears, Alex immediately released his hand from her, is he that harsh just now? When Alex released his hand, Anna put her hand on her cheek to wipe the tears, "But, If that what Young Master want...Anna doesn''t mind." She said that while wiping her tears, Alex was dazed for a bit. ''Cuteness+1000'' He immediately closed his eyes to calm down. Leoz seems to be very tactful, he already went back to his card. Alex let out a long relieved sigh, ''I almost get my desire take over my rationality.'' From the start, Anna was very pretty as a woman, and if you count on her perfect body. It will be troublesome if some ''Young Master'' saying you are the only one in my heart, or we are the couple matched by heaven. Or something along the line. That is the reason why Alex didn''t let her go with Leoz to level up since it is more convenient to become his...secretary. After the Sound Insulation barrier vanished, Alex recalls Anna back to the card. The next day, Alex went to the Alchemist Guild once again. He only bought Fire Spirit Pill ingredients to stock since he needs to feed himself and Sherry. Alex brought around fifteen set to stock. Using the Spirit Stones that he got yesterday, He only has five hundred twenty Spirit Stones, including his original seventy Spirit Stones. He met the receptionist from yesterday, and she even lectured him not to be tricked like yesterday. Well, he also tricked that lady too, he only shrugged his shoulder off. Alex made another twenty five Fire Spirit Pills from fifteen sets of ingredients, and finally went back to the inn. Alex had already summoned Leoz in an alley, and no one see him yet. Since they still have a few days left, Alex decided to pour all his time for cultivation. He has two choices for cultivation, he can make Gathering Array and supply it with his Spirit Stones so he can cultivate faster, or using his Fire Spirit Pill. He didn''t know how long the time he needs to refine the energy from Fire Spirit Pill after all. He decided to use the Fire Spirit Pill. The reason is that if he makes Gathering Array, it might be spotted by others since this is an inn. He also needs that Spirit Stones to change it with Medicinal Ingredients. "Summon" Anna appeared in front of him. "Anna, I want you to protect when I refine the pill efficacy. I wanted you to wake me up one day before the recruitment if I haven''t finished refining the pill." "Yes, Young Master" Anna nodded while smiling. He sat on the lotus pose before swallowing a Fire Spirit Pill. The pill burst out an intense fire energy in his mouth, it immediately went to his heart, then to his entire body. The fire energy seems to want to refine Alex''s original Fire Energy, but there is a rejection from his original energy. It repels the intent of the new energy. Those energies clashed with each other, Alex was in immense pain. But suddenly, his Fire Phoenix Seed was opened, and his Pure Fire regulated to his entire body. The moment Pure Fire out, the Intense Fire Energy from the pill got scared, it suddenly becomes obedient. The Fire energy let the Pure Fire to refine its energy willingly. That was to be expected from a Pure Fire, the moment Pure Fire out, all flame must obey. The pain was gone, it was replaced by the new kind of warmth in his body, it is full of energy. ''Breakthrough'' Alex advance to 2-Star Martial Master with the pill. He didn''t rejoice, for the time being. There is still remaining energy from the pill, and he continued refining those energies. After Alex completely refined those energies. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Anna staring at his face very closely. Anna was shocked when he saw Alex suddenly opened his eyes. She immediately jumped backward, she wanted to explain, but no words come to her mind. "Young...Young Master, this..." 163 Behind The Scene "Young Master..." The words stuck on her throat. She can''t say that she took the chance when Young Master refining the energy to feast her eyes with Young Master calm face, and she wasn''t bored at all after watching him for a few days. "En!" Alex only nodded his head. He chose not to say anything and make the atmosphere more awkward. "How many days I took to refine this pill?" "You are two days away from recruitment." Anna answered him, her face is still blushing madly. Fortunately, she didn''t stutter. "I see, there are still two days..." Alex looks at the dark sky. That means tomorrow is the last day. But now he didn''t know what to do since even if he wanted to eat another Fire Spirit Pill, he would only waste it. "How about Leoz''s condition?" "Leoz main focus is to level up for now, he said. He wanted to reach Grandmaster Stage as soon as possible first before he started gathering information. He is currently killing monsters in Forest nearby. He has seen a few Heavenly Sword Sect outer disciple in the forest, but he still wasn''t spotted by them." Alex pondered for a moment, "Hmm, tell him that I will leave it to his discretion. After that, I wanted him to enter towns, if possible, enter a capital city. According to Kenshin''s Map that he has shown me in Himura House. This area is closer to Thiveapia Kingdom than to Limewatch Town''s protector, Hazel Kingdom. Try to infiltrate there and learn about their power level. If there is something bad happen to him, immediately recall him to the card." "Understood" Anna nodded. Then she asked, "What are you going to do now, Young Master." "Hmm... we still have one and a half days after all. I will try to cultivate with Spirit Stones. I don''t know how fast my absorbing speed, so I better test it now." Alex said."That''s right. Have you rest, Anna?" "Me? No, I don''t need rest" She replied hurriedly. But she soon regretted, ''Why I didn''t say I haven''t had any rest. That way, I can lay in the Young Master bed...Uhehe...'' (AN: She wasn''t shy, but she is a ''closet'') Alex was obviously didn''t know what hers thought, "You should rest for a bit. I will try refining the energy from Spirit Stones." Anna''s eyes brightened, "Then excuse me." Alex sat on the edge of the bed while Anna took the rest. She looked at her Young Master back, smiling. Alex took out a Spirit Stones from his Space Ring. He felt the energy inside of it, he tried to absorb the energy. The absorption is a bit too slow. He used an hour just to absorb ten Spirit Stones. He used a total of a hundred and twenty Spirit Stones or twelve hours long to absorb their energy. Though he didn''t advance a star again, he felt that if he continues consuming the Spirit Stones, he will have a breakthrough again. But he still needs to be careful of his expense. Alex looked at the outside. There is a very long line of people on the outside, Alex was confused about what that line for. But he remembered that Elder Conn said with the recruitment. Since we are going to test and with that many people. There''s no way to handle the registration on the same day. And the token let them skip this long line. After he realized what the disturbance is, He didn''t have the mood to continue. He used the rest of his day to practice his ''Sanguin Sword Art''. This is the only art he has but still hasn''t mastered it yet. ... A few days ago, In Heavenly Sword Sect, Seventh Peak. Elder Conn just came back from his journey. He searched for his student in her mansion, but she was nowhere to be seen. He decided to report to the Sect Master about Alex''s existence for now. He went to the small island in the center of Peaks formation. The sect master is an Old man with short silver hair that hangs over his aging but cheerful face. A scar stretching from the bottom of his right cheek, first running toward his thin lips and ending above his right eyes, leaves an impression of a brave. There''s something intriguing about him, perhaps it''s his warmth, or perhaps it''s his aura. But nonetheless, people feel to try and support him. "Conn huh... You are the third one to come back from the expedition. How is the result? Did you find any good seedling?" "Yes, Sect Master. I recruited three disciples for the sect this time. The first one is...good enough. The second one talent is very high, and he even used his opponent to help him breakthrough and become 2-Star Martial Master in match." "Oh..." Sect Master got interested in it. "Yes. In the next match, he used his opponent again and condensed his sword intent and become a Sword Master." "How old is he?" "He is twenty years old." "But, isn''t it normal for a twenty years old youth to be like that. Though it might be a bit abnormal to become a Sword Master, it is normal for him to become a 2-Star Martial Master." "That is the exact reason that confused me. I felt that he is an enigma. I tried to search for his information about him for a bit. I found that he used a new kind of sword called ''Katana''. After that, he advances by leap and bound. Before that, he was considered useless. Even he becomes 1-Star Martial Master, according to the information, he was defeated pretty easily by a few people in Qi Manipulation Stage, and he achieved it for only a few days. That''s why, I''m afraid, after getting to this sect, he will advance by leap and bound, and his achievement will be boundless." Conn said. The sect master suddenly frowned, "Hmm, what are you going to do?" "I''m planning to take him as my disciple first" Conn said in a meaningful way. The sect master seems to notice his intent. "All right. I will try to observe him. If he becomes Martial Grandmaster and his talent is as you say. I will try to make him as my disciple." "This one thank Sect Master on behalf of him" Conn thanked him, there is another reason why Conn explains Kenshin in an exaggerated way. It is because of his connection with Alex. "How about the third one?" The sect master asked. Since the second one is very talented, the third one must be a genius too, according to his way of speaking. "The third one..." Conn a bit hesitated to say it. "Why? Is there any problem with the third one?" He frowned. "I can''t say much due to the Heavenly Oath. I can only say that he is a peerless genius, and his identity is a bit troublesome" Conn said. "What do you mean? Heavenly Oath?" He was very confused as to why Conn made a Heavenly Oath, and it is for a young disciple. "I can only say that the one in his back can wipe Heavenly Sword Sect clean easily." The sect master eyebrows furrowed. "Then, why does he join the Heavenly Sword Sect?" "He said that the one in his back knows someone from our sect. Then he leaves him on our care so he can grow step by step. He also said that he didn''t need a Master or a Teacher." "Someone? who?" "I don''t know" Conn shakes his head helplessly. "..." There is not enough information for the time being. Even he, the sect master, was clueless for this. "What are you going to do with the boy?" "Since he is also our sect disciple. I''m going to partner him up with my disciple according to our tradition." "Oh, so that''s what you are planning. It is indeed not a master nor a teacher. It''s a mentor. According to our tradition, Inner disciple can become a mentor for two outer disciples. Though it was not obligatory, its purpose was to speed up the process of talented outer disciple to become stronger and become another inner disciple." "Well, it will be best if he can fall in love with her since they will be going to be in the same place for quite a while." Conn grinned slyly. "Oh, that''s what you mean." The sect master understood his attention. If Alex can also marry the people of the sect, the sect might even get the help of such an expert "But are you sure that he has such a backer?" "I don''t know about it, So I request Sect Master to try searching for his information. After all, if I''m the one who searches his information. I''m afraid that he will know about it" Conn said. "Umu" The sect master nodded. "But, even if he didn''t have any backer like that. His talent alone is enough to cover that." "What about his talent?" "I can''t say" Conn shook his head. "Heavenly Oath?" asked the sect master while looking at Conn, who nodded his head. "I see, I will check him in the test. For now, you can proceed with your plan. You can protect him from the shadow for the time being" "Understood. Then, I will excuse myself" Conn left the room. Though his plan seems perfect. There is still a miscalculation on his side...not in Alex but on his disciple side. ... Conn went back to his dwelling and found that his disciple has come back. He decided to visit her. She has long blue hair, slender eyebrows, shapely figure, glossy skin. This is the woman that Alex met back in the Alchemist Guild. "Master! You have finally come back, I really miss you." "Haha, Have you been mischievous these days?" "No way! That''s right. Master should be recruiting new disciples from my town, right?" "That''s right. And the one you called Younger Brother, Himura Kenshin, is it? I also brought him here" Conn said. "What? Is that so? I thought that I need to send the pill I bought today to him, but since he is in the town. I will visit him and give him the pill myself." "Pill?" "That''s right, I bought a Jade Heart Pill with 95% of purity. I bought it for a thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones. But since I am nice, I also added three sets of Jade Heart Pill ingredients to him" "Aiya, you silly girl. Who is the one you tricked this time? A Jade Heart Pill with such purity usually didn''t appear in the market. And you only bought it with A thousand and two hundred Spirit Stones." "I didn''t trick him. I only teach him how to survive in this world. I even added three sets of ingredients, so his losses weren''t that big. I''m very generous." "He...who is the one made the pill? Is it an elder from Alchemist Guild?" "No. He is around twenty years old. He seems very innocent and ignorant, even at that age. He said that he wanted to join our Heavenly Sword Sect. I am going to invite him to come under my tutelage along with my Younger Brother." She said. "Indeed, to be able to make Jade Heart Pill with 95% purity in his twenty was indeed amazing. He is a peerless talent in Alchemy. If that Old Su Hua knows about him, I''m sure he will snatch it from us. But since he will join our Heavenly Sword Sect. Haha, we managed to catch the new heart of Mount Hua Sect." "Haha, I''m a genius" She said proudly. "That''s right. I met a peerless genius in Sword. He is also going to join our Heavenly Sword Sect" Conn said, his expression became solemn as he looks toward his disciple. "That''s why I wanted you to be his mentor." The lady was very surprised by this sudden revelation. "But, I have my Younger Brother and that boy." "No matter what, You need to have that genius under your tutelage. I don''t care if you want to sacrifice your younger brother or that boy. But You must have him under your tutelage. That is an order, and I don''t take no for an answer." Conn said solemnly. "But..." When she looked at her teacher, who was glaring at her. She was scared. "Fi...ne, I will...take him and my younger brother." She finally agreed, albeit reluctantly. But it is different from Conn, as long as she agreed. He didn''t mind who will be the one replaced. Well, the boy in her mouth also seems a genius in Alchemy. So he will check it too, but that''s for later. For now, his plan is full of Alex. He is hoping for love to bloom between them after spending time together. This is one of the biggest miscalculations in his life. She won''t love Alex, because she holds a very big secret, she is... 164 Recruitmen The next day, the lady went out to the town. Since her master said that he also brought her Younger Brother here. That means, her brother is in the town. She strolled around in search of her brother. "Master, I''m going to search for my brother" She said. "Eh wait, if you also found him. Tell him your intention to have him under your tutelage." "He doesn''t even know me, and I also don''t know anything about him." "Don''t say that. According to the information I had. He was the reason why your Brother can become Heavenly Sword Sect disciple this year." "What? Is that true?" "Yes. They might be strolling the town together today." "Then I will go right now" She was too eager to meet her younger brother. She didn''t care anything about this young man, even if he is a peerless genius. "His name is Alexander Sirius and don''t try to pry his identity." Conn said seriously. "Why?" She was confused, why is her teacher this mysterious when it concerns that ''Young Man''. "Don''t ask. Just remember that!" "Fine. I''m going" She pouted and flew away. After a few more hours, her effort wasn''t gone waste. She passed a young man, with his green long hair sweep around by the wind. His familiar face still embedded in her mind deeply. It seems that the Young Man also noticed someone staring at him. He looked at the gaze''s direction and found a familiar figure in his life. "Elder Sister" The Young Man immediately disappeared. The instant he appeared, he hugs his Elder Sister. He missed her too much. "Are you missing me, Kenshin?" She said. That''s right, the young man is Kenshin. That means, the young lady''s identity is his ''Aunt'', Himura Minami. They were only three years apart, that why Kenshin called her sister...It was also the ordered from Himura Minami, though. ''Aunt'' is a bit too old and doesn''t fit her too much, and especially it wasn''t intimate enough for her. "Of course. It''s been almost five years Elder Sister went to Heavenly Sword Sect de gozaru" Kenshin said. She was recruited by the Sect when she was eighteen years old. "De gozaru? what''s that?" She was confused, after a few years, her brother''s speech becomes weird. "I don''t know, but I feel comfortable when speaking this way de gozaru" Kenshin said "Whatever, you miss me, right? I have sent letters to the family, though, and I even sent a separate letter for you." She said with a smile. "That''s right. I bought an exceptional pill for you." "Elder Sister is the best." She took out a green pill from her Space ring and placed it on Kenshin''s palm. Kenshin looked at the familiar green pill on his hand, found it pretty similar to what Alex gave him yesterday. He asked his sister to confirm his suspiciousness since his knowledge about pills is pretty shallow. "Sister, what is this pill?" "This is Jade Heart Pill, and with 95% purity to boot. It will strengthen your heart meridian and improve your foundation. You are fortunate since I just got it from yesterday. Even I only ate a Jade Heart Pill with 90% purity." "Elder Sister..." Kenshin moved by her sister''s action, he smiled. "I''m sorry, Elder Sister. But I already ate one myself." "Eh?" She was shocked. From her memory, she was pretty sure that in Limewatch Town, he wouldn''t be able to acquire a Jade Heart Pill. "Is Uncle bought it for you?" "No no, it is my brother, Alex." "What? How can you eat a random pill just like that? You will hurt your foundation! Is he really your brother? I will ask him to do account" She was angered. After all, her pill is one of the top in the market. She believes that what Alex gave her younger brother is only a secondary good. It is impossible to be as good as the one she gave just now. It will only ruin Kenshin''s Foundation. Even if he is the one who help Kenshin become Heavenly Sword Sect disciple, she can''t tolerate this. "Elder Sister. He gave the pill with good intention. He is my brother. Please don''t say it like that de gozaru! " Kenshin retorted her hurriedly. "Wha!" She was stunned, she never expected her obedient brother suddenly mad at her just for this new ''Brother'' of him. She asks while shedding tears, "How can you angry to Elder Sister, is Elder Sister already become unimportant to you?" "No no, I don''t mean that. I always love elder sister as your younger brother de gozaru." "Younger Brother..." She almost spurted blood, the ''as your younger brother'' stab her hard on her heart. "But, I owe many things to him. He is the one who solves my problem with my weapon, He even gave a Jade Heart Pill with perfect purity to me yesterday de gozaru." "What?" Her jaw dropped, what did she hear just now? Jade Heart Pill with perfect purity? It was very hard to make a Jade Heart Pill with perfect purity. And high rank Alchemist didn''t want to be bothered making a Rank 2 pill unless to their relatives and friends. But this ''Alex'' gave her brother a pill like that? "Did he ask you to pay?" "No, He just gave it casually to me. Though I swear to pay him back in the future de gozaru." Kenshin said. "Who is he?" She asked. Even though her master told her not to pry on his secret, she can''t help but curious about it. "Alexander Sirius" "Not his name, I mean like his background or something" She asked. There is no way for someone who can give a Jade Heart Pill with perfect purity like that was ordinary. "I don''t know. I met him in the woods. He saved my life back then, and then he helps me so much that I can''t count de gozaru." "He might have any ulterior motive when he saved you. Did you never think him that way?" "No, I trust him completely." Kenshin said with an honest face. He really trusted him completely. "Then let me see him" She said. She needs to confirm it with her own eyes what kind of person that bewitched her younger brother. "But, he told me that he is going to cultivate. So I think it wasn''t good to disturb him for the time being de gozaru" Kenshin said "Fine. He is going to be a disciple too anyway. I can meet him in a few days to say my ''thanks'' for taking care of my younger brother" She said it normally, but Kenshin notice the difference of intent in the ''thanks'' word. "Elder Sister, if you are going to bully him. I''m going to hate you" Kenshin threatened her. "Wha!" She was astounded, she never thought that her cute brother becomes a rascal. Is this what it means a rebellion phase...But to think that this ''Alex'' made her younger brother this way, she can''t forgive him. She gritted her teeth while suppressing her anger. "Alright. I won''t bully him." This is the reason why Alex won''t love her. The one and only problem. She is a hardcore bro-con. If Conn was critical about this matter, he would ask himself. Why would she choose over her younger brother than a peerless Alchemist? Even if she can''t become his tutor, she still can meet him and take care of him. If she chose the Alchemist boy, she could strengthen her force that way. Unfortunately, Conn didn''t notice this. Conn didn''t know that his Disciple is actually a hardcore and hopeless bro-con. ... The present. Alex and Kenshin walked toward the sect entrance. They saw a big group of people waiting around there. Alex searched where he needs to show their token and found booth around the sect entrance. There are two people currently giving their token to an old man. Alex can''t perceive his cultivation level, he thought that this old man is only a normal servant. But he can''t see through him, that means there is another possible mean, this old man is an expert. That is the reason why he can''t see his Cultivation Stage. The ones who are currently handling their token are two young women. The older one has black long wavy hair, smart brown eyes. Her alluring body seducing man to take action, but her fierce aura stop all of them. Her cold and aloof disposition makes them think she is different for normal people. The younger one has the same black hair, her hair is only a shoulder length and with innocent brown eyes. Small cute nose and Small cherry lips along with a cute butterfly hairpin on her head. Her tiny and petite figure, along with the aura of innocence, makes the people wanted to protect her even with the cost of their life. They gave their token. The older one said, "Lena de Viona Thiveapia and Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia." Though the tone itself neutral, It still didn''t hide the trace of her pride in it. The old man seems didn''t care about that. He checks the name in the book. "I see, you two are from Thiveapia Royal Family. A nineteen years old 6-Star Martial Master and fourteen years old 1-Star Martial Master. Take this token and wait there, the test will start in a bit." "What? They are the legendary Thiveapia Royal Family?" "Especially the younger one! She is the number one genius in Thiveapia Royal Family!" "Both of them are very pretty." "If I can become their boyfriend, even just one night. I can die in peace." Alex was astonished. Never thought there is a fourteen years old 1-Star Martial Master in here, she is really a genius. Alex heard the comments from the others. They are sisters from Thiveapia Royal Family. It seems that asking Leoz to infiltrate to the kingdom is the right choice. But the moment Alex heard the last comment. Footsteps ringing on his ears, he instinctively turned back but no one to be seen. "Alex?" Even Kenshin was confused by Alex''s sudden action. He tried to look at his back, but there is no one. "Don''t mind about me! I have seen memes too much" Alex let out a long sigh of relieved. "memes?" "Nothing!" Alex shook his head, Kenshin was confused but eventually looked toward the sisters again. Alex screamed in his heart, ''What do you mean become their boyfriend? Do you include the younger one too? I need to call the police! But there is no police here. Eh, but a fourteen years old pregnant is normal in this kind of world, right? Ah d*mn, all of this getting in my head. Calm down...calm down.'' Alex finally calmed down and ignored the comments. "Kenshin, let''s go. We need to register too." "Good" Kenshin nodded. They both approached the elder. "Good Morning, Elder. This is our token. I am Alexander Sirius, and this is Himura Kenshin" Alex said politely while giving him his and Kenshin token. The elder noticed Alex earlier gaze on him, he knew that Alex seems trying to pry him. "Good, I rarely saw a polite young man." The sisters also looked at the next disciples that come in, which is Alex and Kenshin. When the elder praised his politeness, she snorted. She has checked the elder cultivation, and he was only a mortal. She didn''t need to show him respect. "Umu, Both of you are twenty years old. One is 2-Star Martial Master, and the other is 1-Star..." When he just about to say 1-Star Martial Master, he noticed that Alex cultivation is also 2-Star Martial Master. He immediately corrected himself. "Both also 2-Star Martial Master." After hearing that both of them are 2-Star Martial Master, Lena, the older one, snorted. They were weak, did they want to impress her with that kind performance. Fat chance! If Alex knows hers thought, he must be wondering. ''Why did he easily meet this kind of girl...'' But comparing to meet an ''Arrogant Young Master'', it is still better. At least they are pretty and nice to see. They waited for another hour, and there are many disciples that have been recruited separately from yesterday''s long line. The disciples that come after him are ranging from 2-Star Martial Master to 5-Star Martial Master. The registration finally closed. The old man who was registering them, stood up and flying on the air. "The registration is closed. We will proceed to the examination site. Follow me" Everybody was astonished except Alex. When they checked this old man''s cultivation, and They can only see that this old man didn''t have any cultivation. So they arrogantly introduce themself, except Alex and...Kenshin? Whatever. All of them don''t have enough time to think since the old man is already flying away from them. Since all of them are Martial Master, they immediately fly and follow him. 165 First Tes They flew toward the west of the mountain peaks. After flying for quite a while. They finally arrived. They have arrived in front of a cave entrance. Alex can''t see what inside because it was pitch black. He saw Three people guarding the entrance, and Alex can''t see their cultivation. From the look of it, they are a peak Martial Master if not Grandmaster Stage. "Welcome, Third Elder" said the one who is looking like the leader of the three. When everyone listened to what the leader called the old man in front of them, they were bewildered. ''Third Elder?'' "Hoho, Let me introduce myself. I''m the Third Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect, Dolf Kolk. I am the one in charge of this year recruitment" The old man finally introduced himself and turned out he is an elder from Heavenly Sword Sect. Most people face starting to get pale. They were rude to the third elder earlier. Will he make things hard for them, or will he expel them right here and now? Even Kenshin was surprised by this revelation. He looked at Alex, did Alex know about his identity since he is very polite to him? Alex ignored him and still trying to see what inside the cave. Alex also felt two other people gaze on him. The first one is from the Third Elder, and the second one is from Thiveapia Princess, Lena de Viona Thiveapia. She gritted her teeth, Alex polite action indirectly slapped her face since he came after her, but Alex never had any intention to do that. It was all of her selfish feelings and imagination. She promises to herself to defeat him in the test. "There will be three tests. This is the first test. In this test, you only need to walk forward. Since you are going to be a disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect, I''m sure all of you have a weapon that matches you the most. We will test your talent in weapon inside." Alex and the rest were confused with the test. Only need to walk forward? Are there any traps inside the dark cave? "Don''t worry, there won''t be anything like what you are thinking right now. You only need to walk forward, and there will be no obstacle in the way. The cave only a half-mile long" The third elder said while smiling warmly like it easy. (0.5 mile = 800 meter) "The test started! Please go inside." Since the test has started, the people started going inside the cave. Alex also followed the rest and went inside the cave. He noticed that the focus of Thiveapia Princess still in him. Alex walked carefully inside the cave. Alex tried to see what kind of thing inside the cave, that''s why he activated his Spirit Eyes Technique. This technique not only can see slowly, but also can see the flow of energy, But Alex hasn''t mastered half of it. When he activated the Spirit Eyes, he can see there is a kind of energy lingering inside the cave but not a Spiritual Energy. But because Alex''s level is too low in this technique, he can''t see the quantity or quality of the energy nor know what it is. He only knows there is an energy lingering here, that''s all. They had walked for around 50 meters before someone suddenly dropped on the ground, fully exhausted. *Pant Pant* Alex frowned, who is that? Why is he collapsed to the ground? From his sound, it seems that he is exhausted...why? They are Martial Masters, no way a Martial Master tired just because they walked for around 50 meters. Then another person also dropped to the ground. More and more people started dropping to the ground tiredly. When they passed a hundred meters mark, around ten percent of the group have fallen. Alex speculated ''that'' energy is what made them exhausted. He didn''t feel anything for the time being. He looked at Kenshin, who seems the same. Alex continued walking through the cave. The people started falling to the ground one by one. There are around twenty percent of the group have fallen at two hundred meter mark. 300 meter... 400 meter... When Alex reached five hundred meter mark, Suddenly he stopped. The Sword Intent inside him going rampage and came out from his body. He looked at Kenshin, whose Sword Intent also came out. Then he looked toward the other disciples, there are only around thirty people left from more than a thousand people. Several of them have exhausted, and seems can''t continue any longer. For the two sisters, yep, they are still fine. Only twenty five people who continue to walk. Out of them, ten people have Sword Intent. Alex can feel that the princess gaze on him in this dark cave. A troublesome situation, indeed. When his sword intent is present, he finally felt the ''energy'' he saw in the beginning. It was close to an Intent, but it wasn''t an Intent. He didn''t know about this energy, so He didn''t bother it for the time being since his task is to walk through this dark cave. After reaching six hundred meter mark, only around ten people left. But when they reached the last one hundred mark, the only ones left are only him and Kenshin along with the two royal sisters. The older one starting to pant, Alex noticed it from her breathing. But, the younger one still didn''t find anything wrong. She looks like Kenshin, unbothered. When Alex stepped on the last one hundred mark, he suddenly stopped and let out a groan. "Alex?" Kenshin, who was beside him all this time, suddenly worried. He was confused with the point of the test, and he didn''t know why the people were exhausted and fallen to the ground. He didn''t know the reason his Sword Intent suddenly appeared on the five hundred meter mark, He thought that Alex might know the answer, but since this is still the test. He holds the urge to ask him so they can focus on this test. But when Alex suddenly let out a groan, he becomes worried. Will Alex also fall like them? There is still another intent in his body, it is his Spear Intent. When he reached the seven hundred mark, he suddenly felt his Spear Intent also go rampage like when in the five hundred mark where his Sword Intent was gushing out from his body. He can''t let his Spear Intent out at this moment. He needs to hold it back in his body. He stopped and took a long breath. He suppressed the Spear Intent with his Sword Intent. He needs a minute to stabilize himself from that before he started walking again Kenshin didn''t say any words since he believes in him, the moment he started walking again, Kenshin immediately followed him. On the other hand, Lena smirking while panting. She is happy when she saw Alex seems can''t go on. She can beat him and slap his face after this. "Elder Sister, Are you okay?" The younger one, Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia, in short, Evelyn Thiveapia, worried about her sister. "Don''t worry" She smiled to her sister in this dark cave, and obviously she can''t see her. But when she felt Alex and Kenshin started walking again. She hurriedly walks again. But, the pressure on her starting to get heavy and take a toll on her body. "Elder Sister!" Evelyn was very worried about her at this moment. "Evelyn, you can continue to the finish first. I will take a rest in here a bit." "But I don''t want to leave Elder Sister" She timidly said. "Don''t worry about me. This is Elder Sister''s request." She said. She can''t let those two unknown people beat her since she also represents the Thiveapia Royal Family here. She gritted her teeth. "But..." "No buts, go now." "Y-yes" Evelyn immediately walked toward the finish again. Unlike her sister, she didn''t feel any wrong inside the cave this whole time. So continuing like this is a piece of cake for her. ... A few minutes later, they finally reached the end of the cave. Just about Alex wanted to observe his surrounding, Kenshin can''t hold back his urge to ask him his question. "Alex, what is that cave? Why do those people start falling to the ground? Is there anything strange inside the cave to make them fall like that? Do you feel anything? Why you suddenly stopped back then? I am very worried about you" His eyes glistened while popping one question after another. Alex grabbed his face and pushed him. "Too many questions, and you are too close. I''m not gay." "Umm... Can I also know the reason?" Suddenly, a timid voice come from next to them. When they saw who is it, they saw a cute but timid loli, her small face blushed while she is very shy when she said that. "Oh, you are from Thiveapia Royal Family if I''m not wrong" Kenshin said. "Ye-yes. I''m the eleventh princess, Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia. Can...Can I know the reason too? Why are the people exhausted?" She asked shyly, she is worried about her sister since her sister also like those people. Alex sighed. He answered them according to his observation. "There seems to be a different energy that was suppressing them. It was close to an Intent, but that''s not it." "Heh...You seem very knowledgable" Suddenly another sound coming from the cave. A female figure appeared from the cave exit. She looks tired and full of sweat. "Ah, Elder Sister! I''m worried about you" After she saw her Elder Sister, she immediately running toward her and hug her. "Haha, you little. Elder Sister is not that weak" She pats Evelyn''s head a few times before she looks at Alex and Kenshin again. "If I''m not heard it wrong on the registration. You are Alexander, and the one beside you is Himura." "I''m honored that Princess remembered me" Kenshin politely said while Alex didn''t say anything. He is complaining in his heart. ''What the deal with this arrogant princess? She was glaring at me this whole time.'' "Ohoho, it seems we have an excellent seedlings this year." The Third Elder, Dolf Kolk, appeared in front of them. ... 30 minutes ago, Dolf Kolk is observing each student in the cave. The two sisters are different else, the one he appreciated the most is Alex, the only one who was polite to him in the registration. He wasn''t really well known, so he tried to pretend to be a servant from Heavenly Sword Sect to see the new disciples. And suddenly, two old men appeared beside him. He looked at who they are and surprised. "Sect Master!" "En!" The Sect Master nodded. "How is the new batch of disciples?" "It seems that we have few good seedlings this year" He said, he was confused. The Sect Master was never interested in the new Disciples examination. How can he suddenly come to here? "I will also watch this time. Is that a problem, Third Elder?" "No, it is not a problem, but I''m confused, why Sect Master suddenly got interested in this new batch disciple? Who caught your eyes that make you even come to here along with Seventh Elder." "Well, it will only bring the opposite effect if I don''t talk it clear enough, that''s why I will tell you the reason. Do you know a new disciple called Alexander Sirius?" "Yes, I''m a bit interested in him." "Ho, Is this Young Man do something unordinary?" "Not ordinary, but it seems that his perception is higher than anybody else in this batch" He said. "En!" The sect master nodded. "His identity is a bit special. And according to Seventh Elder, his talent is also very extraordinary." The third elder immediately understood the intention of the sect master. For the Sect Master who didn''t have any successor, and mentioned him at this kind of time. There is no other meaning besides ''that''. He nodded, "Don''t worry, Sect Master. I understood" Unfortunately, he misunderstood his meaning, and the Sect Master can''t be bothered to clear the misunderstanding. After all, it is also pretty convenient for him that way since Alex''s identity still not clear. "Don''t worry. I will watch from a distance. You can treat me like I''m not present and continue the test as usual." The Sect Master said, "And... Don''t tell anyone about this" "Understood" The third elder nodded. The Sect Master and Seventh Elder went away. And the Third Elder places his focus on Alex. 166 Second Tes Back to the present, "Ohoho, it seems we have an excellent seedlings this year." The Third Elder, Dolf Kolk, appeared in front of Alex and the rest. "Third Elder" All of them greeted him hurriedly. Since his identity is clear, even Lena needs to give respect to him. "En. It is indeed as this Young Man said. The different energy in his word is weapon energy. As you might already know, the weapon also has its own energy. And we placed many weapons inside the cave. We filled it with swords, whips, axes, spears, and so on. We also placed a few rank 5 weapons inside. Usually, a high-rank weapon has its own consciousness to choose its owner. We used the principle and let them control the energy to see the talent of someone in weapon. If one has very high talent in weapon like you four, they will be able to pass this trial." "Thank you, Third Elder, for your guidance." "Hoho, I will need to help the others inside the cave and bring them to the next test. You got thirty minutes rest before I pick you up here." "Yes." The four of them bowed to him, and the Third Elder finally left. After elder Dolf left, Lena glared at Alex once again. Evelyn was confused as to why her sister is glaring to this person the whole time. She keeps quiet about it, but this time she can''t. She finally asked her innocently. "Elder Sister, why are you looking at this big brother the whole time?" "He...He...Hmph!" She obviously can''t say anything. After all, Alex didn''t do anything; all of it only comes from her extreme imagination and pride. She harrumphed and went away. "Emm, Big Brother. I''m sorry for my Elder Sister Behavior. She is a good person, so there must be some understanding." Evelyn apologized timidly. An unreasonable and prideful but ''good'' Elder Sister, and the timid and shy but reliable at the right time Young Sister. Alex sighed. "It''s alright." "Can I know big brother''s name?" Evelyn asked. Alex was hesitated to answer, and Kenshin is the one who answered it, "I''m Himura Kenshin. This one is Alexander Sirius. Nice to meet you, Princess de gozaru." "Umm, nice to meet you. But...can big brother just call me Evelyn? Back in the home, all of them call me Eleventh Princess. I felt lonely, and I felt that my name would eventually be forgotten, and they will only know I am Eleventh Princess, not Evelyn." She said with a sad tone in the last part. Such an innocent...Alex still has no expression in his face. But Kenshin has gone away. Hopefully, he didn''t go ''that'' way. "Nice to meet you, Evelyn. de gozaru." "Yes. Nice to meet you, big brother Kenshin." She smiled brightly. Her smile soothes the heart. "Wait, Evelyn. It is their honor just to see our presence. Don''t let them carried away to call you with their name. They are not qualified." Lena suddenly come back and correct her. Alex only ignored this unreasonable woman. But she keeps provoking him, "Look, he has no manner. He should bow his head when he sees us. This is why commoners are..." "Nice to meet you, Eleventh Princess and whatever number Princess" Alex said cheekily. Though Alex didn''t want to invite unnecessary problems, he felt this is still necessary. No one felt happy when they are looked down upon by others. Especially Alex, who decided to grow up after leaving Firia and Alicia. "You! I will make you regret." She released the aura of 6-Star Martial Master "You can try and see who will regret it." Alex also released his Spiritual Energy. "Elder Sister!" Evelyn can''t take it anymore and shouted. She glared at her elder sister. "Evelyn, you..." She was surprised that the timid Evelyn suddenly stand up for someone else for the first time, but she stands up for a stranger. Lena looked at Alex hatefully, "I will defeat you in the rest of the test, and I will continue to defeat you in the rankings." "Rankings?" Alex looked at Kenshin. "According to my sister, there are two rankings in the sect. They are outer disciple ranking and Inner disciple ranking. As for the core disciple, since they are at least a Martial Lord, their rankings are based on the Continent Ranking." "I see. By the way, you have a sister, Kenshin? I thought you are the only child" Alex looked at him. "Yes. To be precise, she is my aunt. But because we are only three years apart, She wants me to call her with ''Sister''. I don''t know the exact reason why she wants me to call her ''sister''. Since she is one of the closest to me, I agree to it" Kenshin said. "She must be not want to look old." Alex muttered in a low voice. "What is it?" "Nothing" Alex shrugged his shoulder. Lena is frustrated. Alex didn''t even know about ranking, and he ignored just like that. Before she can speak another word, The Third Elder is flying in the sky. The other disciples who didn''t manage to pass the cave already followed him. Since Alex and the rest noticed his presence, he didn''t come down instead told them to follow him too. Alex observed the number of people. From more than a thousand, it was only around six hundred left. Of course, all of them are from the ones who line up yesterday, not the one that gets the invitation from an elder. "Evelyn. Let''s go" Infuriated by Alex, she wants to get away as soon as possible. Now that the third elder has come, she immediately grabs her younger sister and follows him. "Alex, let''s go" Kenshin looked at the flying princess and then turned to Alex. Alex nodded. They also fly away. Not long after, they have reached their destination. It was a bamboo field. "This is the second test. You see that platform over there." Elder Dolf pointed out a big stone platform fifty meters away across the bamboo field. "Your second test is to go to that platform. You can walk, or you can run, it''s up to you as long as you can reach the platform. But no flying." Alex frowned, he immediately activated his Spirit Eyes Technique again. And yeah, he saw another energy again. But it wasn''t the same energy from before, nor it is Spiritual Energy. It was close to... The others thought this test would be the same as before, and they will use their fastest speed to pass this bamboo field and reach the platform. "Haha, I can just use my fastest speed to go there. If it is like the previous test, my momentum will make me pass this fifty-meter field." Suddenly, A person goes to the front and sprint with his full speed. When he reached the center of the bamboo field, he suddenly fell down to the ground. Others were bewildered by this. "What happened to him?" "Is this like the previous test?" "Will we be able to pass?" Many uncertainties made them hesitated. Suddenly, Lena come forward, "Hmph" She arrogantly walked forward. When she reached the middle of the bamboo field. She sat on the lotus pose. Everyone gulped down, this time, the princess didn''t fall down like the previous guy. They play wait and see first. After a few minutes, she suddenly gets up and walks through the rest of the bamboo field and arrived at the platform. "What?" "Did she succeed?" "What happened inside?" "Did the elder want us to perceive something inside?" "Let''s go and try." The rest of the people also go, leaving only Alex, Kenshin, and Evelyn. Alex saw Princess Lena is glaring on him from the platform. Evelyn didn''t notice this, she looks at Kenshin and Alex. "Big brothers, we are the only ones left. Let''s go together." She said innocently without any motive. "Sure, let''s go de gozaru," Kenshin said to her. "Big brother Alexander?" She looked at Alex with full of hope. "Alex?" Kenshin looked at him, and his eyes are telling him. ''Don''t make a kid sad.'' Alex shook his head, helplessly. "Let''s go." "Un!" She smiled and nodded. The three finally went to the bamboo field. Alex was cautious since he knows there is another energy lingering in this bamboo field. Suddenly, Kenshin and Evelyn sit down. Alex also felt the energy went inside his mind. He also sits down to see what kind of energy it is. The background suddenly changes. He is now in a garden and in front of him is a small wooden house. He immediately knows that he is under the illusion. After all, Lena wasn''t teleported to another place and went back up again. He immediately wanted to break off the illusion. In the real world, Lena and the third elder focus are on Alex. Both of them have different reasons. The third elder observes Alex because of the sect master. But Lena is because of her pride. If Alex breaks off the illusion faster than her, it means her loss. Suddenly, Alex''s finger twitched. Both Lena and the third elder noticed that, but Alex still didn''t wake up. ''Is he...no, he didn''t wake up'' The Third Elder give all his attention to Alex. While Lena let out a breath of relief. Alex just sits down, and his finger already twitched. She thought that he would wake up, but seeing he didn''t wake up after that make her relieved. (In the Illusion) When Alex just about to break the illusion. Alicia and Firia went out of the house. "Alex" Alex was surprised by it. He laughed, "I see, is this the legendary heart demon? I understand why it is dangerous." Even though it is like that, he still has control over himself. He can break off the illusion anytime. But suddenly, they come to him and grabs his hand. They pulled him to the house. "Alex, let''s go to the house first. We have cooked some food for you." Alex shivered, their cooking...He recalled when the first time he ate their cooking, and he almost went to the next life. Well, he decided to enjoy this for the time being, even though this is only an illusion. In the table, Alex saw a few plates full of food. The appearance is very tempting, but the bad food he tastes back then still lingering in his mind. But looking at their expectant look, Alex decided to eat it. He started from the beef stew. He took a bite on the meat. "..." He was speechless, he looks at the two. His eyes were telling them something unbelievable just happened. "It''s good." "That''s good. Try the others too" Alicia smiled. He tried the vegetable. The sweetness lingers in his mouth, and before he knows it, Alex has finished all the food. After talking a few more minutes, he finally stood up. "I think its time for me to go." "Alex" Both of them grabs his hand and looks at him expectantly. "Please don''t go." Alex hugged both of them for a while. "It''s alright. I''m sure we can reunite again. It''s only a few more years, so please wait for me, my love. Don''t worry, you two are always in my heart." After hugging both of them, his heart also satisfied even though this is only an illusion. He walked toward the door. Just before he left, he turned to see Alicia and Firia while smiling brightly. "Thank you for the food. It was delicious. And thank you for satisfying my heart. I don''t know you are only my imagination or my inner demon, if you want to trap me in here. You should make it more realistic, Unlike this one. There is no way Alicia and Firia food was delicious. It was something unbelievable." "Screw you, Bast*rd" Both of them immediately shouted at him. Alex left the illusion while smiling. In the lower world, you can see a peerless beauty sitting on the lotus pose on the bed. She has long red hair tied in a ponytail, and perfect curves and edges. She emitted an extraordinary aura, and the red flame is dancing in her side. She is Firia in cultivation. She opened her eyes slowly, stopped her cultivation, and got off the bed. She walked toward the window as she looks at the bright sky. She didn''t know why, but she had this feeling, she suddenly remembered Alex''s face and had this urge. She can''t hold it more, as she finally screamed. "Screw You, Bast*rd" After letting out that feeling, she finally went back to her bed and started cultivating again. 167 Third Tes After a few minutes, Kenshin and Evelyn wake up at the same time. They looked at each other and then turned to Alex. But, since Alex hasn''t wake up. They decided to wait for him on the platform. Ten minutes... Twenty minutes... The third Elder starts to frown. Is Sect Master choose the wrong person? Is this Alex has a weak spirit? He misunderstood Alex unknowingly. How can he know that Alex is actually enjoying his time in the illusion? The same applies to Lena. Seeing Alex didn''t wake up after twenty minutes, her pride goes through the roof. She is proud after defeating Alex with a large margin. She harrumphed, she is foolish to think that this person is a competitor for her. Kenshin believed in him, there is no way Alex would be defeated by something like this, even Evelyn looked at him with worry but still believed that he would break the illusion. Finally, after half an hour, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He let out a smile. The smile isn''t big but can present his feeling. It is his gentle and sincere smile, but others who are currently looking at him can see not only a joy but also a sadness in that smile. ''He smiled?'' This is their thoughts upon seeing him smiling after breaking the illusion. The Third Elder was confused, why he smiled? He thought at first he smiled because he breaks out of the illusion, but it wasn''t the case. There is another meaning in his smile, but he didn''t know what it is. On the other hand, When Lena saw Alex smiled, she was wondering why he smiled. She was convinced that he must be smiled because he managed to break off the illusion, but when she observed Alex''s smile, it wasn''t that. At this moment, she didn''t know why, but she can feel Alex''s genuine smile. It complements Alex''s handsome face and makes it more attractive, she unknowingly blushed. As for Kenshin and Evelyn, they didn''t have any thoughts like that. They were just relieved that Alex finally opened his eyes. Alex slowly got up and walked toward the platform. Lena snorted, she threw away the previous feeling. This man is hateful, she convinced herself with that. "Hmph!" Of course, Alex ignored her. He talks with Kenshin and Evelyn to pass the time since the test isn''t over. He also observes the wannabe disciples. There is someone who is dancing like he is crazy, or someone running like chasing something. They were completely lost in the illusion and immediately got caught by the disciple who help the third Elder in the test. They brought them outside, and of course, they are failed. After another hour, Elder Dolf finally stopped the test. "It''s time." Elder Dolf announced. Some people are still sitting and trying to break off the illusion. But since the time is up, they have also failed the test. Out of the remaining six hundred, there are barely over two hundred. This test cut more than a third of the group. And there is still the third test. Alex and the rest were brought to another field near the platform. There is a big stage in the area and a big monument in the center of it. When they are gulping down about the third test and thinking how many more will fail in this test, the third Elder dropped a bomb for them. "This is the third test. For the third test, you will try to comprehend the sword art in the Monument. It is the main sword art of Heavenly Sword Sect Founder. It is the High-Grade Earth Tier sword art. I will say this to the rest of you that managed to reach the third test. Congratulations! You''ve officially become Heavenly Sword Sect disciple." The new disciples obviously cheer. Such a big opportunity, they would be glad to fight for such a generous sect. There were a few reasons why the Heavenly Sword Sect let the new disciples to learn from their founder Sword Art. First, it wasn''t a High-Grade Earth Tier, It actual rank is Heaven Tier Skill. But because of the passing time, it regresses because no one can fully comprehend the essence of the sword art. Doing this, they hope that someone in the future would be able to learn the foundation of this Sword Art. It is also opened for the disciple to learn, but there is a separate system for that. The second reason is also to test their talent and comprehension ability. And the third is the same exact reason why those disciples are cheering. The third Elder finally said. "The Sword Art name is Seven Stars Cut, The Monument will also help you a boost in your understanding of the sword art, and the time limit is three days. I hope you all the best. Although it sounds a bit unfair to other disciples who not use a sword. We will let you choose your weapon art too" Elder Dolf took out many Martial Art books from his space ring. Axes, Sword, Spear, bow, etc. There are many varieties of those weapons. "There are many weapon art books here. They are ranging on Low Profound Tier Skill to High Earth Tier Skill. Since you didn''t have any boost in your comprehension, we let you choose a lower weapon arts since you might fail to comprehend anything in three days, especially the one who learns from the Monument. If you choose to learn from the Monument, you can''t select other sword art, in case you are failing in this test. Of course, if you didn''t dare to attempt to learn from the Monument, you are free to choose the sword art among these manuals. For those who wish to try on learning the sword art from the monument step forward." Out of two hundreds of people, around half of them using a sword. But when they heard the caution, half of them didn''t dare to attempt. That means, only fifty disciples will learn the sword art. Of course, among the fifty people, there are Alex, Kenshin, Evelyn, and Lena. "Good. The test will start now. Those who wish to learn from the Monument gather around the Monument and try to channel your spiritual energy to the Monument, you will learn from that. And the rest of you follow me to choose your own art." Suddenly, Evelyn came to Alex. "Big Brother Alex." Alex looks at her, confused. "I want to bet with you. If I can beat you in here, can¡­can you call me by my name?" She asked. After all, four of them including her sister are the only one passed the cave in the first test. She thought Alex and Kenshin are different. Kenshin didn''t mind about this, but Alex still didn''t call her by her name for an unknown reason. Alex looks at her earnest expression can''t help but smile. "Sure, if you can beat me" "Un! I will work hard" She happily nodded and walked away. ''This girl'' Alex shook his head helplessly. Alex and the rest sit down and close their eyes as they channel their Spiritual Energy toward the Monument. The moment they did that, there is a manual inside of their own consciousness. No, to be exact, it is their consciousness that entered the Monument. Many of them didn''t really understand the manual, this is also the reason why fifty of them choose to give up and search for their own Sword Art. After all, it is pretty hard to learn a high tier Martial Art. Seven Star Cut is an offensive martial art that focuses on creating seven cuts simultaneously by focusing all your energy into that attack. The biggest strength of Seven Star Cut is the way you are utilizing the pressure points of yourself to add the weight in your sword, thus increasing the force of your sword. Alex continues reading the manual. And with his Sword Mastery, he didn''t have any challenge to learn it. Since his consciousness is inside the Monument, Alex started practicing sword art. By a day, Alex can use up to the fourth cut. "Ha!" Alex made a sword wave according to the manual. Though it looks like a single Sword Wave. In fact, it is made up of four sword waves. ''Creating seven cuts simultaneously''. It was written in the manual, and it becomes the direction for him. He tried to make five cuts simultaneously, but he always failed. It seems that his cultivation isn''t high enough. Then he decided to comprehend the rest for the time being so when he reached the cultivation requirement. ... On the outside, the third Elder observing all the new disciples, whether they are near the Monument or the other group that practicing their own weapon art. From the look of it, there are several talented disciples in the other group. He can know it since they are openly practicing. Upon the second day, the sect master suddenly visited him. "Third Elder, how are the new disciples?" "Sect Master" The third Elder greeted him, before he started to explain as he points his finger toward the group. "There are several talented disciples in there." "Hmm, Indeed. There are several talented disciples. Is there anyone you fancy, Third Elder?" "I''m sorry, Sect Master. I won''t have another disciple in this life" He said in a sad tone. "Haiz" The sect master can only shake his head as he looks the third Elder. The third Elder had one disciple, he trained him and spoiled him a lot, but that disciple has betrayed him to the point he almost killed him. Out of rage, the third Elder killed him, and now he refused to accept another disciple. "Though it is a shame for a man at your caliber, not going to accept a disciple. I''m not going to force you." "Thank you for your understanding, Sect Master" Third Elder only shook his head. He changed back the topic. "As for the ones around the Monument, as usual. We need to wait until they are finished on the third day to see the result." "Indeed, on the third day. Inner disciples also will come" "Yes, well, we can only..." He stopped because there is a shocking scene in front of him. Even the sect master had his jaw dropped to the ground upon seeing this sight. It was to be expected when they suddenly saw something that never happened. "The...the stone...monument...glowing" Sect Master was too shocked upon this point. Nothing like this has happened in the past. The sect master and Elder Dolf immediately thought one thing. ''Is there someone who finally understands the essence of the founder''s Sword Art?'' The sect master locked his eyes into someone, the only one that might be able to make this bizarre thing according to the seventh Elder''s words. "Call...call Seventh Elder here, now!" Not long after, the Seventh Elder flew to here hurriedly. Upon seeing the Monument lit up, he bewildered until the Sect Master wakes him up. "Seventh Elder, is this what you mean?" He understood the Sect Master''s words, he looked at Alex and then turned back to Sect Master. "I don''t really know. But, let me told you the whole story about that kid. First, in the tournament, he managed to copy a few sword arts by just watching and experiencing them. Second, I heard that he managed to master Himura''s Family...A small family inside the town I''m in charge, their Low Profound Tier Skill, and he even managed to bring the skill to an unprecedented level and make that skill become Mid Profound Tier Skill. And he didn''t even look at the manual, and he just copied from the brat over there." He pointed his finger toward Kenshin. "What? Is that true, Seventh Elder?" The one who shocked the most is the third Elder since he didn''t know anything about Alex. The Sect Master already knows that he is extraordinary but still shocked by the fact but didn''t exaggerate it like the third Elder. "Yes. And from what I heard, he did it in a span of two to three days." Elder Conn dropped another bomb. Now, even the Sect Master was tongue-tied. He was too shocked. It was to be expected, Mastering Low Profound Tier Skill in a mere two or three days is already made him a super genius. But he even made it become Mid Profound Tier Skill. On top of that, he didn''t learn it from the manual. Instead, he copied it from others. "Elder Conn, aren''t you exaggerating him a bit?" Third Elder, with great difficulty, said that. "No, in fact, I feel that I still underestimate him" Conn shook his head. "Screw you, Seventh Elder. Are you going to make this old man''s heart burst out!" Sect Master scolded him for no apparent reason. "Congratulations, Sect Master, for getting an unparalleled genius as your disciple." The Third Elder congratulate him, he didn''t know it was only his misunderstanding. "No, he is not my disciple" Sect Master shakes his head. "What do you mean?" The Third Elder was clueless. "His identity is a bit special. He won''t have a Master because of his identity. I can''t say much about his identity, but Seventh Elder decided to make his disciple to sedu...ahem, I mean to have him under her tutelage" Sect Master corrected his words. 168 Ghost? "What?" The Third Elder shocked by that. His identity is special... but It''s true, there is no way a peerless genius like that would be a loose cultivator. Someone would already get him first. "He was entrusted by someone to here. We can''t get him a master or a teacher. So from Seventh Elder''s suggestion, we decided to let him have a mentor. It would be best if love will bloom between them" The Sect Master explained it in a roundabout way. The Third Elder Elder understood his meaning. It seems that this ''someone'' is very strong or something and the Sect Master wants to rope Alex in for that. "I see. But isn''t it a bit of waste? How about letting him under the tutelage of a Core Disciple? Let me see, If you are searching for someone beautiful and strong, there are two of them. First Elder''s Disciple Cemile and Ninth Elder''s Disciple, Song Yu." "Hmm, The First Elder... he is a traditional old fox. I''m afraid that he won''t let his disciple, Cemile, to accept him. So I think it''s a no go for him. As for Ninth Elder...It might be possible. The Ninth Elder itself is gentle and caring while her disciple is energetic and cheerful. There is a vast choice." Sect Master said in a meaningful way. "Oh! I have learned. As expected of you, Sect Master." The Third Elder bowed like a sly fox. "Haha, I''m not that great" They didn''t know Alex''s taste, so with the Ninth Elder and her disciple, there is two opposite choice. At least, there might be one of them as Alex''s preferences. It can also be said one is Gentle and Caring older woman, and the other one is youth. Indeed, an excellent observation from the Sect Master. (AN: Summon Sherry!) "Hey, you don''t need to do that. I''m sure my disciple can do it!" Conn can''t take it anymore, it seems that his existence was forgotten. Her disciple beauty is not losing against them, but... "Is she really can? I''m not sure, I heard the rumor that your disciple always talks about her younger brother..." The Third Elder said meaningfully. "Oh, I also heard about that" The Sect Master nodded in agreement. "What!" It is indeed like what they said, even he also knows the rumor about that. But he still believes that his disciple wasn''t someone like that. She is just proud of her younger brother. And now, it is questioned by them. He needs to find some problems. "That''s right, The Ninth Elder disciple still hasn''t come back from her mission." "Hmm, it is as he said. She will come back here approximately a month from now" The Third Elder said. Since he didn''t want to have another disciple. He often keeps a tab on the disciples inside the sect. "This is a problem" The Sect Master is in deep thought. "How about letting my disciple take him in first" Conn immediately took this chance. The Sect Master looked at him mysteriously. "Fine, we will let your disciple have him first. Then, after the Ninth Elder''s Disciple, Song Yu, has come back. We will transfer him to her. I will talk about this with the Ninth Elder." The Sect Master said it sternly, it seems that he is stubborn about this matter. Conn was starting to regret talking about Alex. He can only grit his teeth and agree to it. ... Back to Alex. When he found that he is restricted from producing five cut in an instant because of his cultivation, he decided to comprehend the rest of it. Understanding it might be easy, but practicing and using it is the obstacle. For Alex, it took him an hour to comprehend the rest. And at this time, Alex was wondering about the description of Seven Stars Cut. ''Creating Seven Cuts simultaneously... but by focusing all my energy into that attack''. From the first sentence, he doubts about it. Why does it become a single attack, previously it said ''Creating Seven Cuts Simultaneously'' from Seven Attacks to One Attack... It was the first direction of him. He made a sword wave from four cuts. Though it looks like a single sword wave, in fact, it was made up of four sword waves. Alex is thinking, what if it is really a single sword wave, And only one. It wasn''t four sword waves or whatsoever. Do I need to fuse the sword waves? But how? Alex pondered deeply. He then recalls the next part. ''The biggest strength of Seven Star Cut is the way you are utilizing the pressure points of yourself to add the weight in your sword, thus increasing the force of your sword.'' And it also didn''t make sense to what he is thinking... He is in a dead-end. But, because of his thought about this. On the outside, the Stone Monument lit up. Alex was ignorant about this, He noticed there is a wooden doll in human shape using a sword. Alex frowned and instinctively took out his sword. But this is only his consciousness. There is no way that he can bring a sword in here. Three words suddenly appeared above the wooden doll. ''Imagine the Sword''. Alex didn''t understand what it is, but he tried to imagine a Sword. And yeah, an illusory sword appeared in his right hand. The moment the sword appears in his hand, The wooden doll raised its sword and swung it down. A sword wave is flying toward him. Alex is wondering what happens. He observed that it is the sword wave from Seven Stars Cut. But it was only formed by a single sword wave. He also used the same move to cancel it. After destroying the first attack, the wooden doll raised its sword again. This time Alex has prepared for it, the moment another sword wave is flying toward him. He also used the same move, and this time, he used two sword waves. But surprisingly, his two sword wave is broken in an instant the moment it touched. "Splitting Sword" Alex used his Splitting Sword to counter the sword wave, but he was blown away by that. He was too shocked by that. Because the moment his sword and the sword wave touched. He can feel one thing, "Sword Intent." He looked at the wooden doll with a startled expression. Now that he observes this wooden doll, he realized that it has the same cultivation as him, which is 2-Star Martial Master. He is wondering why exactly his ''Seven Stars Cut'' with two waves lose by a single wave? Next, he also used the same move with two waves. But this time, he fused it with his Sword Intent. But the same as before, His Sword Wave still lose. For the fourth time, Alex tried to use another move. "Sanguin Sword Art, Thirteenth Slash" His Thirteenth Slash, along with his sword intent, managed to destroy the attack from the wooden doll. Suddenly, the energy within the wooden doll rose. 3-Star Martial Master. 4-Star Martial Master. 5-Star Martial Master. And it finally stopped at 6-Star Martial Master. It sends another sword wave, but this time, it was stronger than the previous one. "Sanguin Sword Art, Thirteenth Slash" The result is his Thirteenth Slash swipe off by it easily. He immediately recharged the Himura House Art. And swing it toward the Sword Wave. "Sixth Slash!" Alex managed to destroy it, but the momentum make him retreat a few steps back. The wooden suddenly jumped forward and engaged Alex in close combat. Alex was confused as to why this wooden doll become like this. After all, just before it only testing him with ''Seven Stars Cut''. He tried to block the first attack. But because of the difference of cultivation, he felt the power from the swing just now. He immediately activated his ''Immovable Step'' to help him gather the strength he needs. After he blocked it, Alex swings his sword toward its neck, and surprisingly, it prevented his attack effortlessly. It becomes a real fight right now. They continued clashing for a while. In Alex''s head, filled with this question. ''Why my Seven Stars Cut with two waves defeated by a single wave with or without a sword intent.'' It is not the fault of the Sword Intent, and he is sure about it. Then, the problem must be within the Seven Stars Cut. An idea flashed in his mind. What if the real instruction wasn''t to make seven attacks into a single attack. Instead, it makes a single attack worth seven attacks? By utilizing the pressure points, I can make a stronger force... Alex can''t say for sure, but it''s worth to observe. The wooden doll didn''t have any other skills instead of the Seven Stars Cut. Alex imagined a spear on his left hand. Blocking all of the attacks from the wooden doll is taking all of him. He decided to reveal his spear to help him have a better time to observe the wooden doll. Alex used both of his Sword Intent and Spear Intent at the moment, and he is finally starting to push back the wooden doll. He retreated a few steps back to create the distance, from his observation, the wooden doll will use another ''Seven Stars Cut'' at this moment. And, yeah. He is right. The wooden doll raised its sword. Alex pointed out his spear against it. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" The spear released a beam of light charging toward the wooden doll. When the wooden doll just made the Sword Wave, the beam reached it and surprisingly destroyed it easily and pierce the left hand of the doll. Alex was surprised to see that because he is thinking of using that technique to lessen the force behind the sword wave a bit. But he never expected that it destroyed the sword wave along with the wooden doll left arm. He thought that must be the weakness and the secret for this ''Seven Stars Cut''. He let the wooden doll used it again while activating his Spirit Eyes Technique. He vaguely saw three similar energy along with a Sword Intent. He now wished that he level up this Spirit Eyes Technique, this technique is convenient. He decided to level it up when the opportunity arrived since it was pretty hard to train his eyes technique. It is required to enhance the eyes and obviously needs resources to do that. He continues observing the ''Seven Star Cut''. The three similar energy suddenly fused with the Sword Intent and became one. "Flash Step" Alex dodged the sword wave. He decided to look at another one to confirm his guest. When the wooden doll used it again, and it is the same. Alex has concluded his hypothesis. It is really like what he guessed. ''Seven Star Cut'', it does not make seventh sword wave but looks like one. Instead, it made seven sword waves in a single swing and fused all of them by using the Sword Intent as the medium. In other words, It''s not making seven attacks look one. But it is making an attack worth of seven attacks... ''What a bizarre explanation'' Alex thought, he somehow wanted to pounce the creator of this sword technique. He tried to replicate the move. Utilizing his pressure points, he raised his sword and swung it down. Two sword wave along with a Sword Intent flying toward the wooden doll. He decided to used two waves first since he didn''t know whether he will succeed or not. As he predicted, it failed. It didn''t even fuse. The Sword Wave destroyed by the wooden doll''s Seven Stars Cut. "Flash Step" He dodged it completely using ''Flash Step''. He decided to throw another strike, and this time, the Sword Intent along with the sword wave starting to fuse, but the fusion is taking too long. Unlike the wooden doll that managed to fuse them together in a split second, His sword wave only fused a quarter of the energy when both of their sword waves clashed. Alex now knows the direction to progress. He only needs time to practice energy flow and control. After another half-day, Alex finally. "Seven Stars Cut" Alex has mastered this technique up to the second sword wave. He found a problem when he tried to fuse the third wave. He didn''t have enough Spiritual Energy to fuse the three sword waves together, thus resulting in the energy become unstable and destroyed itself. And the wooden doll itself also needs to boost its cultivation to 6-Star Martial Master before using it. So, he decided to hold it off for a while until his cultivation enough. "Sanguin Sword Art, Thirteenth Slash" Alex didn''t use his spear anymore. After using the ''Thirteenth Slash'', he covered his sword with his Spear Intent. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce!" He used his usual Spear Technique but using his sword. The moment the Sword Waves canceled each other, the light beam shoot toward the wooden doll and finally pierced its head. The wooden doll becomes broken and falls down lifelessly...It didn''t have any life to begin with... "Haiz, It took a long time for me to figure out the meaning by the Sword Art. Who is the one that made the ''Seven Stars Cut''? Can''t he use a more appropriate word so it can make me understand it easier? I''m not sure if others can understand the meaning behind it." Alex complained When he complained, there is suddenly a shadow appeared from the wooden doll. It takes the form of an old man with many scars on his face and his body. It made him look very scary at this moment. Alex, who saw it have his jaw dropped to the ground, he can''t help but scream. "Gho...gho...GHOST!" 169 End "GHOST!" Alex screams at the top of his lungs. "Hoho, Never thought that I finally see someone who managed to understand the meaning of my words." The ghost spoke. The way he spoke just now wasn''t like someone scary. Instead, it was like someone easy going. But for Alex, it is still a ghost. "It...It Spoke" Alex pointed out his sword toward the ghost. "Hey brat, you are pretty rude, aren''t you? This is a will that I leave behind before I died. I sealed it inside the monument, which I stored my technique. I''m a bonafide, the founder of Heavenly Sword Sect, Azat." The ghost said proudly. "Eh?" Alex was surprised by the ghost''s words. "Founder?" "You finally listen to me. That''s right, I''m the founder of Heavenly Sword Sect, Azat. I am the one who made this ''Seven Stars Cut'' technique. It''s true, I never good at explaining. And only you who managed to understand it after a thousand years." "Don''t say it like that. You made me like I''m the same as you. At least, I can explain it in a better way!" Alex immediately replies. "Hoho, I''m just too happy to see someone managed to understand me." Azat laughed. "Why don''t you appear like this to other people, then teach them step by step?" "I''m afraid it wasn''t possible. I made this wooden doll appeared when someone finally made its way toward the essence of this Sword Art. It''s proven when it appeared just after you think about a different way, and fortunately, it is also the right way. I will be out of the wooden doll after you defeat the doll. If you actually defeated it right after. I will appear and teach you the true essence. But it seems that I didn''t need to do that troublesome thing. Haha, you brat. You really save me from trouble" He said jokingly. Vein popped out on Alex''s forehead. What did he mean just now? It is like Alex just did something pointless, he can just destroy the wooden doll and learn it easily from him. He swings his sword toward the ghost and split it into two. Azat obviously startled by it. "You brat! I didn''t say it earlier. But you are pretty rude. I will be dead if I''m still alive." He said cheekily. Alex raised his sword again and swung it toward him again. But he dodges it easily. He continues slashing him, but Azat dodges them one by one. "Hehe, you brat. You can''t hit me. Look at this, Ghost Spin. Ghost Maneuver" He mocks Alex while dodging his attack one by one. After a while, his expression becomes solemn, "All right. Let''s get back serious." "Fine, you finally act according to your age" Alex said, frustrated. "This is only a wisp of soul that I sealed when I''m in my death door. I didn''t have much time left. When I sealed this soul, it can have the cultivation of Peak Martial Lord. But after a thousand years, It only has the strength of 6-Star Martial Master." Alex was surprised by it. According to his master, Maxwell. For someone who is in death door to seal its own soul and escape from the cycle of reincarnation is a taboo. The moment the soul lost all of its energy, it will be extinguished and won''t be able to enter the cycle of reincarnation. "I made this Heavenly Sword Sect along with my friends in Journey. We used to be a mercenary, taking jobs here and there. Finally, we felt tired and decided to make a place to spend our time. That is Heavenly Sword Sect. This is like our home and also our kid. And I decided to do this. Finally, without much time left, I can meet a kid with boundless talent. Comprehension Speed, Sword Intent, Spear Intent, and you can even use Spear Intent in your sword. I want you to inherit the sect master position, but this position will only waste your talent. So I won''t do that. I won''t question your motive joining this sect. This is only a selfish request of mine. If the Heavenly Sword Sect is in peril, I would like you to give a helping hand. For the payment, I will use this remaining soul. You can absorb this soul remaining energy, and because this is only your consciousness, it will be very beneficial to your Mental Energy. Please" Azat bowed his head. Alex didn''t know what to do. "As you said, I won''t be in here for the whole time. This is not my final destination. I''m afraid that I will also make many enemies and won''t have any time to come back here. But if you don''t mind all of that. I will go back when I have the time, and if at that time there is some trouble in the sect. I will help them. How about that?" "I''m fine with it." Azat said solemnly. "Please take care of this sect in the future" Alex didn''t say anything, he just nodded his head. Azat started glowing before finally disappeared. "I wish you luck on your journey." "This Junior, Alexander Sirius, See Senior off" Alex bowed. When Azat disappeared, all of his energy condensed to a single pill. It falls on Alex''s hand. The Sect Founder has gone, his soul is extinguished. But in his last moment, he found some peace. Alex didn''t know any tradition to the deceased in this world. He just bowed to him to show his respect toward Azat. After that, he swallowed the pill and refined it on his body. The next day, Alex opened his eyes. He felt that his consciousness get stronger, along with his senses. He needs to get used to his senses. Alex took all the time he needs to get used to it before the space slowly crumbled, and he is back to reality. The fifty people who are challenging the sword monument started to wake up one by one. After they woke up, the test finally ended. "The third test finally finished. There is the last thing you need to do. You need to use the art you learned in these three days. As you might already know, we let an inner or core disciple to have a promising disciple under their tutelage. It is also to let you grow even faster. Let us welcome the inner and core disciples" Elder Dolf said. There are around thirty people that suddenly appeared. Three of them suddenly come toward them. One of them is a blonde young man, his face is kind and full of gentleness, but there is something behind that gentle face. The other one is a silver-haired man. His face is filled with a fierceness that even others might feel it easily. The last is a pretty female. She has long blue hair, slender eyebrows, shapely figure, glossy skin. "Ah, Brother!" "Cousin" "Elder Sister!" Evelyn and Lena approached the blonde man. Nakagawa Hikotaka approached the fierce man, Alex is surprised to see him here. He forgot about his existence this whole time. When Alex just about to see the last one. Kenshin grabs his hand and drags him forward. "Kenshin, you are very good. As expected of my brother" She said with a smile. "Hehe, That''s right, Elder Sister. This is my brother that I told you last time" Kenshin introduced Alex. When they saw each other, they were shocked and can''t help but blurt out. "Franklin!" "Elisa!" "Franklin? Elisa? What are you saying? This is my elder sister, Himura Minami. And this is my sword brother, Alexander Sirius" Kenshin was still clueless, he innocently introduced each other. "What is Franklin. How dare you trick me!" Himura Minami is angry. "What about you? Elisa? Heh...You dare to trick me for my pill" Alex snorted. "I thought you are innocent. It seems you dare to trick me about that too!" "It''s better than someone who ordered her nephew to call her with ''Elder Sister''. Let me guess, the reason for it because it might make you look old, heh...''Elder Sister." "You want a bout? I will take you on." She said while looking down on him "Not like I scared of you!" Alex snorted "Grr!" "Oh, right. Since you are a new recruit. Then be grateful, since I will let you under my tutelage. You can give me some pills to help my cultivation from time to time as a thanks." "I don''t need that! I can train by myself." "It''s not your choice. The Seventh Elder and even the Sect Master has already agreed to it. You can''t refuse. They told me the reason, well I don''t understand it. They said you couldn''t have a Teacher or a Master. But you still can have a mentor." She said cheekily. "What! That old fox!" Alex finally found the conspiracy. "What Old Fox? Don''t be rude to your elder!" She was angry. "That''s right. I can''t be rude toward the elder. I''m sorry, Aunt Himura" Alex mock her in the form of apologies. "I''m going to teach you manners. You brat!" A vein popped on her head, she was thoroughly angered by Alex. "Hoh, you show me your old age when you call me a brat" Alex said cheekily. "You!" She gritted her teeth. "Ahem! I''m glad that you have known about each other. But please be mindful of others" The third elder finally step in. Since the third elder step in, they can only let it go for now. Both of them snorted. "Hmph!" Kenshin didn''t know what to do except scratching his cheek, embarrassed. "Let''s go with the last part of the test. You can show your progress to others. Who wants to start first?" Elder Dolf asked. "Hikotaka, since I''m going to take you in. Show them your progress, don''t let me lose face." The Fierce man said. "Yes, Cousin" Nakagawa Hikotaka nodded. He stepped forward. "I''m first." Hikotaka looked at the disciples that challenged the Stone Monument. He smiled confidently. He raised his hand and used ''Seven Stars Cut''. A sword wave flying toward the nearby boulder and crashed it to piece. The others observed the sword wave, Nakagawa Ryuu, Hikotaka cousin nodded satisfied, and Elder Dolf announced the result. "Umu, You have managed to form two layers Seven Stars Cut. You got big potential." (AN: I will use ''7 layers'' than ''7 sword waves'' to make it easier. After all, the move itself is a sword wave. Ah, I love sword wave) "Thank you, Third Elder." Even though he is thanking him, others still can see the complacent and smug tone in his voice. "He is only managed to form two layers and already so smug. He should be ashamed." Himura Minami snorted. "Himura Minami, watch your mouth. You know exactly how much talent for those who managed to use two layers ''Seven Stars Cut'' in this beginning. Even you too only managed to form two layers at the beginning" Nakagawa Ryuu retorted her. "I have said. My younger brother is far superior to me. Comparing him against your brother, it is an insult." She said proudly. Whenever the talk about Kenshin appeared, she will be the one who rectifies and glorifies him. "Then, I really want to see how much he can form. Since you said he is more talented than my brother, so I''m sure that at least he can form two layers, right?" Nakagawa Ryuu said with a mocking tone. "Of course, two layers are too easy for him." She snorted. She looked at Kenshin. "Go, younger brother. Slap his face for me." "Elder Sister... Don''t put much hope to me" Kenshin smiled wryly. He sighed...Disappointing her is not an option at this point. Since she believes in him. He also needs to perform to his best. "Look, your younger brother is not confident. He is only a talent in your mouth. In reality, he is nothing more than an untalented person." Ryuu mocked her. Kenshin ignored and closed his eyes. He focuses all of his attention toward his sword as his sword started glowing. ''Seven Stars Cut'' Another Sword Wave flew toward another rock. This time, this Sword Wave shocked everyone. Because they can see in this Sword wave, it was formed by four layers. The impact is far more powerful than Hikotaka''s. Kenshin is panting after using this move. He can do something like this inside the monument. If not because of the limitation cultivation stage, he is sure that he can use five layers Seven Stars Cut. His talent is becoming more apparent after he got a Katana. Alex looked at him mysteriously, it seems that he is planning to do something. 170 True Seven Stars Cu "What? Four Layers? There are only two people in the sect that managed to do it at the beginning. They both are already a core disciple." "Yes, most probably, he will also become our Core Disciple." "Haha, look at Ryuu''s face." "Oh right, He just wanted to be slapped." "It seems that Himura Minami boasting is not an empty fact." The Inner and Core disciples continue discussing Kenshin. Nakagawa Ryuu''s face darkened. He was slapped hard by Kenshin. Himura Minami looks at him smugly, her eyes are openly mocking him. Nakagawa Ryuu dragged Nakagawa Hikotaka away. "I''m sorry, Third Elder. I remember I had something to do." "Sure, go on." The Third Elder only shrugged his shoulder. Something like this often happens in the sect. Even the Thiveapia royal family was utterly shocked. Lena and the Second Prince, Timothy de Gran Thiveapia, were shocked while Evelyn looked at him with admiration. Alex approached Kenshin and grab his shoulder. He is a bit hesitant about this, but... "Alex?" Kenshin is confused by Alex''s actions. Alex sighed. He decided to give him that name. Seeing his talent become more apparent, it seems that his identity is clear enough for Alex. "Kenshin, from now, you are Hitokiri Battousai." When the words of ''Hitokiri Battousai'' ringing in his ear. He suddenly perceived a very nostalgic feeling, and his heart started to ache. "Alex, what is the meaning of ''Hitokiri Battousai''? Why I felt it is really nostalgic and dear, but it also makes my heart ache?" "You don''t need to know the meaning of that." Alex shook his head. How can he say ''Hitokiri Battousai'' is a nickname for a cold-blooded killer when killing their enemy? "Why?" "You only need to know this. Katana is a mean to kill, and your will is the one who kills. It makes sense, right? After all, sword is a weapon. The user is the one who learns to kill with it. No matter how you put it, it is the truth." Alex said solemnly to Kenshin. "Alex?" Kenshin shuddered when Alex said all of those words. He felt those words shook his entire existence. His aura becomes unstable. The others, including the third elder and Himura Minami, become worried, especially Himura Minami, she is almost burst out. But before she did anything, Alex continues. "But don''t forget about this. Your will is the one who decided that. If you will it to kill, then it will kill. But! If you will it to protect, then it will protect. It will protect who you want to protect, your sister, your parents, your loved one. Remember it Kenshin! You are the one who chooses your sword path." Alex said while clenching Kenshin''s shoulder. "Protect... Sword isn''t a tool to kill but to protect... Sword that protects" Kenshin''s aura suddenly become mellow and stable. But the third elder can see it. It is not only that, he felt Kenshin''s aura become stronger and clear like flowing water. "Alex...How about you?" Kenshin slowly said while looking at him. "Me?" Alex has expected that he will ask about this too. His mind filled with that particular ''scene''. Because of his weakness, John able to hire an assassin and made Alicia like that. If he didn''t give mercy on that day in the academy when he fought John. Will that tragedy happen? No, they will still accompany him at this moment. With that, his answer is obvious. "I kill to protect." He went away while ignoring Himura Minami''s murderous glare. He only shrugged his shoulder. And the third elder seems becoming more and more interested in him. He looked at the other disciples who were clueless, whether they are the new outer disciples, or inner disciples. For Core Disciples, they knew what happened at that moment somehow. They looked at Alex mysteriously. The second prince, Timothy, put away his shocked face and said. He didn''t know exactly what happened to Kenshin at that moment, so he chooses to ignore it for the time being. "How about you two also perform? Who will go first?" Lena looked at her younger sister. Since Evelyn''s talent in sword is better, she decided not to embarrass herself. She will go first so she won''t be compared with her sister. "I will go first." "En." Timothy nodded. Lena goes to the front. After she steps forward, all of their attention goes back to her from Kenshin. Kenshin didn''t look at her. Instead, he looks at Alex. When he said his path, he was a bit unsure about it, but surely, he felt Alex''s regret at that moment. He chose not to say anything about it, he just swore that he would get stronger to help Alex''s burden. ''Seven Stars Cut'' Lena performs her understanding in ''Seven Stars Cut''. She managed to form three layers Seven Stars Cut. Although it wasn''t that shocking because of Kenshin''s performances. Her talent is indeed top-notch. "Wow, She managed to form three layers." "As expected of Thiveapia Royal Family." "Even though it isn''t that shocking because of the previous performance. She is also one of the best." After she used the Seven Stars Cut, she looked at Evelyn. "Evelyn, it''s your turn." Evelyn nodded timidly. She went to the front, and it seems that many already know her identity. "Is she..." "Yes, she is the rumored one in a thousand years genius, The eleventh Princess." ''Seven Stars Cut'' When she used the ''Seven Stars Cut''. It stunned everyone once again. Because, she produced four layers in her sword wave, the same as Kenshin. "Four Layers" "As expected of the rumored genius." "Yeah. What is shocking is that there is another genius on the same level as her" "If you ignored his cultivation and only looked at his sword achievement. He is indeed a genius on the same level as her." "How is it?" Evelyn came back to Lena and Timothy and asked. "It is very good. As expected of you, Evelyn." Timothy praised her. Lena nodded proudly like she is the one who did it. She then looked at Alex and pointed her finger at him. "You are next." "I''m not your friend, nor I''m your servant. I don''t have any obligation to do what you want" Alex shrugged his shoulder and went away. "You!" She is angry. It seems that Alex especially wants to pick a fight with her. "Lena. Let me do it, It seems that there is someone who didn''t put Thiveapia Royal Family in his eyes. I will tea..." Timothy suddenly stopped. He looked at the third elder with a shocked face. "Brother?" Confused, Lena asked. "Nothing. Don''t bother with him for now" Timothy corrected himself. Alex looked at the Timothy, who suddenly looked at Elder Dolf, and it seems that Elder Dolf said something to him, which stopped him. Four words stopped Timothy. The third elder only transmitted these four words, ''Sect Master protected him.'' Even he knew what kind of person is the Sect Master of Heavenly Sword Sect. He is the living legend, one of the few Martial Kings in the continent. It is evident if he wanted to make trouble for Alex, it would reach his ears. And it won''t be beneficial for him and his kingdom. Well, Alex also didn''t offend them excessively. It is like what Alex said. He is not her friend or her servant. She can''t order him. Timothy can only convince himself with that thought. "Don''t be like that, Sister. It is truly like he said, You can''t order someone like that. We need to be respectful to other people and become a model for them." "Brother?" She becomes aghast. She looked at her brother, like looking at a ghost. "Don''t pick a fight with him. Try to befriend him, he will surely consider your words" Timothy said. Since the third elder is the one who said that. Alexander might have a relationship with Sect Master, he suspected that the sect master wanted to receive him as his disciple. After all, his friend, Himura Kenshin, managed to form four layers Seven Stars Cut. Alexander himself must be unordinary. "Brother, you...Hmph!" She gritted her teeth while looking at Alex hatefully. The performing continued. From sword to spear to bow and so on. The new disciples perform their best to show the senior disciples on what they can do. The senior disciples picked several of them, and it seems there is also a senior disciple that chose a woman without that many talents in her. The rest can be imagined. The one who still didn''t perform anything is only Alex. Lena pointed at him again. "You are the last" Alex ignored her and straight looked at Elder Dolf. "Third Elder. May this junior exempt from this?" "Hoho, It is a bit impolite to your peers who already performed their best, right? It is also impolite to the senior disciples who spare their time to come here" Elder Dolf said lightly. In fact, he is interested as to how high his achievement be. "Hmph, just say that you are scared since you didn''t manage to learn anything" Lena mocked him. "Sister" Timothy and Evelyn immediately stopped her. It is like what she said. Most of the disciples who decided to challenge the stone monument failed to form even a single layer. From fifty people, there are only eleven people managed to use ''Seven Stars Cut''. Kenshin, Lena, Evelyn, and Hikotaka already included in that eleven. That means there are only seven people that managed to do it, and all of them only managed to form a single layer Seven Stars Cut. Alex sighed, it seems that he can''t go away with this. He casually used ''Seven Stars Cut''. And from the look of it, he only managed to form a single layer. "Boom!" A giant boulder destroyed by the attack. It shocks everyone. It shouldn''t be possible to do that with one layer Seven Stars Cut. They look at Alex with their shocked face. Lena, who also shocked by it, decided to ignore it and pick on Alex. "Hehe, Now I know why you didn''t want to show everyone. You must be embarrassed since your friend can use four layers Seven Stars Cut while you only managed to form a single layer. You must be...oomph!" Timothy suddenly uses his hands to plug Lena''s mouth so she can''t spout any more words. He decided to do this because he looks at the Third Elder''s shocked expression. At first, he had the same thought as Lena, but it seems that wasn''t the case. He concludes from the Third Elder''s expression, and the power contained from that sword wave, Alex is must be extraordinary. After all, it is impossible to destroy a giant boulder with only a single layer Seven Stars Cut even if that Martial Art is Earth Tier Skill. Elder Dolf, who saw Alex''s sword wave, has his jaw dropped to the ground. He thought that Alex only managed to form a single layer Seven Stars Cut. But when it destroyed the giant boulder, he shocked, but he decided to observe the sword wave and bewildered by what he found. "Sword Intent" ''To fuse the Sword Intent and to make it flying. It can only be done by Sword Master that very close to Sword Grandmaster. His understanding in sword is already that much? he is only twenty years old.'' Elder Dolf was shocked by the fact, but there is another thing he noticed. It is still impossible to smash that giant boulder even with his Sword Intent. But he recalled when the Stone Monument lit up, he thought it lit up because of the two genius, Kenshin and Evelyn. But it seems that if they are a genius, then Alex must be a Monster. ''He...he really comprehend the true essence of Seven Stars Cut. Before long, the true Seven Stars Cut will emerge the world.'' He remembered that Alex seems to have a great background that even the Sect Master is afraid of it. The Sect Master said that he couldn''t have a teacher or a master, so the Sect Master decided to make a relation with him in another way, which is to put him under the care of Ninth Elder''s disciple, Song Yu. It seems that it is the best choice for the time being. After Timothy conclude what is happening just now, he decided to warn his sisters. "Lena, Evelyn." Both of them looked at him with a confused face. Timothy continued solemnly. "Try to form a good relationship with him. There''s seems something big behind him. It might also be the reason why he didn''t fear the Thiveapia Kingdom." 171 New Home "Try to form a good relationship with him. There''s seems something big behind him. It might also be the reason why he didn''t fear the Thiveapia Kingdom." "Brother?" The one who was shocked the most by those words is Lena. After all, she was infuriated by Alex. To be told to put it off and try to befriend him. She can''t accept that. On the contrary, Evelyn didn''t mind about it. It can also mean that he can play with him since he didn''t put her royal title in his eyes, in other words, all his actions are genuinely from his heart, not because of his fear of her status. She nodded happily, "Un!" She suddenly coming toward Alex, "Big Brother, I win. Can¡­can you call me by my name?" Normal people can''t see the truth behind his sword wave. From all of the people present, only the Third Elder can see the truth behind his Seven Stars Cut. In fact, he is the winner. But Alex actually didn''t mind after seeing the earnest expectation in her eyes. Alex smiled a bit. "Sure, Nice to meet you. Evelyn." "Un!" Evelyn nodded innocently. "Then, I will also call you, Big Brother Alex" "Sure, I don''t mind" "Evelyn!" Lena can''t accept this. "Good, Evelyn" Timothy nodded satisfied. He looked at Lena, who can''t be convinced for the time being. He can only slowly advise her and make sure that she won''t do something excessive to Alex. From a lie and misunderstanding of Elder Conn seems to make a perfect cover for Alex, who is alone in this world. It is an ideal start for him. "Ahem! The test has ended. Those who have gotten their tutor, your tutor will bring you and explain everything to you. Those who weren''t lucky enough, please follow me. And also, this is your disciple token" The third elder gave each student a wooden token. "Thank you for your hard work, Third Elder" The senior disciples salute to him one more time before they left with or without their disciple. Alex also bowed to him showing his thanks. Himura Minami grabs Alex and Kenshin and flying toward her own residence. Alex asked with a poker face, "Why do you drag me too?" "Hmph! This is my Master''s order. You are lucky enough to be picked by me. So, you need to make pills for me." "Fine, I can make pills for you." Alex said Himura Minami shocked by it. She thought when this brat suddenly become generous? But she becomes frustrated again once she heard Alex''s next words. "I will sell it to you with 50% more of the market price." "You!" Himura Minami decided to teach him a lesson when they''ve arrived. "Hmph!" Alex snorted. ... Not long after, they finally reached their destination. The mansion is in the foot of a mountain peak. From the outside, this house looks cozy. It has been built with bricks covered in render and has white wooden decorations. Large, octagon windows add to the overall style of the house and have been added to the house in a very asymmetric way. The house is fully surrounded by overhanging wooden panels. The building is rectangular shaped divided into four separate courtyards. Each courtyard is surrounded by a modest garden, covered mostly in grass, a few flower patches, and a small pond. Its purpose seems to make the dweller comfortable and creating a perfect and calm environment for the disciples. Himura Minami finally explained. "This is the seventh peak, it means, Master, The Seventh Elder''s peak. Master''s house is at the top, and we can''t go there. If he wants to teach us, he will descend and go to our home. If not, there is a training field on the other side. He usually used it when he taught us, the disciple of Seventh Peak together. But most of the time, the field is used for Arena. As for this house, there are four courtyards in the house. Inner disciple or Core Disciple can only take two disciples under their tutelage. Each of you will get one courtyard. And the last courtyard is for a meeting room. Kenshin, you take the one beside me. And this brat will take the one beside you." "All right. I also don''t want to take the courtyard beside you. Aunty" Alex said mockingly. "You! That''s right. Since you are under my tutelage. It''s time for practice. This talented me will grace you a lesson." "Ptui, you are not qualified to teach me." "You!" "And you better not enter my courtyard. If you ruin the atmosphere there, especially when I am refining a pill. I''m going to charge you ten times the prices. If you are not going to pay it, the debt will go to Kenshin automatically." Alex said. "Hmph! Who wants to enter your filthy room." "Don''t fight. We should look at the room, first" Kenshin finally stopped them. "That''s right. How can I forget about that. I lowered myself to this brat level. Let''s go Kenshin, I will show you your room." She dragged Kenshin away. "Bro-con!" Alex snorted. Then, He went to his own courtyard. The room itself is very spacious. He can do many things inside this room. There are four rooms in total. A living room, two bedrooms, and a storage room along with the yard itself. Alex is wondering what to do with all those rooms. And what is confused him the most is...Why are there two bedrooms? Alex shakes his head. "Living room...I will leave it for now. As for the two bedrooms, I will use one for my bedroom. As for the other one...I will change it to my training room. I will draw a Gathering Array inside. Because I was restricted by the cultivation stage. I can''t make any Rank 3 Array, I need to improve my cultivation faster. At least, I need to be at least 7-Star Martial Master to master the Rank 3 Array completely. I can also make a simulation room for 3rd Rank Pill since to make 3rd Rank Pill''s ingredients need a Rank 3 Simulation Room. That means I will put the ''Simulation Room'' in the storage room. And lastly, the yard is for training." Alex opened the second bedroom. He took out Master Stage Monster Blood. He used the Spiritual Energy to draw the symbol pattern. Each movement is swift and precise. Alex is familiar with this. There is no obstacle for him to make any Rank 2 Array. If his cultivation has reached 7-Star Martial Master stage. The first thing he will master is the Rank 3 ''Simulation Room.'' He will make two Simulation Room. One is for his Array practice, and the other one is for his Alchemy Practice. After he succeeded in making Spiritual Energy Array, he decided to test it first. The moment he activated it, the Array started to absorbing the Spiritual Energy from its surroundings. All of it began to concentrated inside the Array. Alex stops it after he makes sure that it is functional. After all, If he continued, others might be noticed the change in the Spiritual Energy in the air, and his identity as an Array Master will be busted. He decided to use its other function, which is to increase the absorption rate from the Spirit Stones. And to sustain all of that, he will go to the town again to make pills, but this time he will cover his face and so on. He will make his identity mysterious. Though it was for later. For now, he will absorb the Fire Spirit Pills first. "Summon" He took out Anna''s card and summoned her. "Young Master" "I finally have a private space. This is our new home. I wanted you to follow the Leoz''s progress along with the information, I want you to compile it into a book. If they are a particular place, note the monster''s power along with its description. If it''s a town, the same as before, all the power inside the city, if possible, with their description. Tell Leoz, don''t push himself too hard." Alex said. "Yes, Young Master. That''s right, Young Master. Please check your Mission." "My Mission?" Alex perplexed. He checked his Mission panel. And she is right, there is a completed mission. [Hidden Mission: Do something unprecedented (Complete) Reward: 3x Dart] The moment he saw the mission, he knew what he did to complete the mission. He learned the essence of Seven Stars Cut. But he thought at the moment, He also learned both of Spear Intent and Sword Intent. It seems that he wasn''t the first one. After all, it was pretty rare for someone to master two different weapons. He can understand if both of them are sword or spear. But, he uses a spear and a sword at the same time. It was very taxing to practice both of them at the same time. (AN: Your Previous life is the first one lol) But because of the reward, he didn''t care about it. After all, he finally gets darts. This is the most convenient method to get an UR item. He immediately claimed it and used it. He was brought to the previous white space where he used his first five darts. The darts, along with its assistant, has been waiting for him. There are three common, two uncommon, two rare, two SR, and one UR, a total of ten rewards. Alex skipped all of them and only looked at the SR and UR ones. After all, he only has three darts, and it fits perfectly with the number of prizes. The UR has a bow drawn on it while Spear and a...face? He was unsure, whatever it is, he will still get it since it is an SR item. He throws the darts one by one. He didn''t want to repeat the same mistake like when he throws it for the first time, he adjusts his strength carefully. He remembered the first time he played this one, he destroyed the roulette plate. [Bow Mastery (UR) - Passive Skill] [Lonely Skiver (SR) - Rank 3 Spear] [Faceless Mask (SR)] Alex was a bit disappointed to get Bow Mastery since he didn''t use a bow. He thought about something, "System, can I use it to other people?" [Yes Host] ''As expected''. He thought of giving this to other people, but the problem is who... maybe he will get a disciple later. But who knows, he decided to store it first in his Inventory. He looks at the next item, Lonely Skiver. Almost two meters width of unique crimson-colored handle. It seems that the handle made by a particular type of metal. The top end has a fairly long and wide compared to the standard spear. The sharp blade makes the weapon not only can stab, but it can also slice the enemy. But, Alex is thinking another matter. Now that he has another spear. He is planning to enhance one of the two spears with Elemental Orb that he got in the lower world. Alex checked the next item, Faceless Mask. Only this one that he needs to check the information from the system. [Faceless Mask Effect: Blur your aura and hide your cultivation (Can only fool Martial Lord or below)] His jaw dropped unknowingly. It is the perfect item that he needs for now. Although it is only useful for Martial Lord or below. From the start, there are not many Martial Kings on this continent. So this is the perfect item in this continent and very useful for his plan. Since there are four kingdoms, he thinks if there is a war between the two kingdoms. He wanted to become a mercenary. There are many benefits to it. First, he can get paid by a kingdom. Second, He can farm EXP and Gacha Tickets while killing those soldiers. Since they are indirectly become his enemy, it won''t make his karma bad. Third, He can make his ''Spirit Nest'' famous. And with this mask, he can openly show himself with just his spear. This is another reason why he chooses not to use his Spear Intent openly. Others won''t doubt him who uses a sword when he used his spear and his Spear Intent. After checking once more and there seems no other missions has completed, he asked Anna. "Is there anything more, Anna?" "There...is another one" Anna seems a bit hesitant to tell him. "What is it? Just tell me about it." "I''ve leveled up since yesterday. It means I''m now equal to 2-Star Martial Master." Alex wants to smile but can''t make himself to do it. "I...I am very jealous right now. Can I just level up like you? If I have the ability to level up, I can just hole myself in someplace and kill those monsters, and finally go out when I''m strong enough. I''m very sure that I can raise my cultivation faster." After a while, Kenshin suddenly knocked on his door. "Alex. The Seventh Elder wants us to meet him in the fourth courtyard. It seems that he is going to explain everything about Heavenly Sword Sect." "Yeah, you can go first. I will catch up in a moment." 172 Heavenly Sword Sec Alex finally arrived at the fourth courtyard. The Seventh Elder has waited for him along with Kenshin and Himura Minami. The room has a big table with four chairs beside it. Of course, The Seventh Elder took one, While Himura Minami obviously trying to separate Kenshin with Alex. Alex ignored all of that and greeted Elder Conn. "Seventh Elder" "En! Please Sit" Elder Conn nodded while Alex takes a sit. "I''m going to explain all the things you need to remember inside the sect. I assumed all of you have known about the Willow Continent Grand Tournament, right?" Of course, all of them nodded their heads. Alex first heard about that term from Nakagawa Hiina''s mouth. The tournament between all of the forces within the Wilow Continent. "Because of this Grand Tournament. Our sect has decided to hold two other tournaments inside the sect. The purpose of these two tournaments is for preparing the disciple for the ''Wilow Continent Grand Tournament''. I will explain the details. There will be two tournaments, the first one is ''Outer Disciple Competition'', and the other one is ''Inner Disciple Competition''. In the Grand Tournament, there will be two sections of them. First, for those who are in Martial Grandmaster, and the second one is for those who are in Martial Lord. To anticipate that, we also will centralize the resources for Outer and Inner Disciples. That is the reason why we will hold the Outer Disciple Competition and Inner Disciple Competition. We will centralize the resources for the winning disciples." "Seventh Elder. I''m sorry to interrupt you, It seems that the sect wants to win in this Grand Tournament. What is the merit for the sect and also for the disciple? I don''t see any reason for it." Alex asked. "Umu, I will explain for the sect first since it is already known by many. There is a colossal Spirit Stone Mine. Of course, Since a cultivator alone needs a massive amount of Spirit Stones, let alone a Sect. To provide the reward and so on, the sect needs a massive Spirit Stones. And this Spirit Stone Mine is the solution. So every influence has decided to split it according to the position of their disciple in this Grand Tournament. The Martial Lord Tournament will get sixty percent of the share. This sixty percent will be divided again according to the ranking. The first rank will get twenty-five percent. Second will get twenty percent while the third will get fifteen percent. Usually, the participants are Core Disciple and Elders from the sect. The Martial Grandmaster Tournament will get the rest forty percent. The same as before, The first rank will get fifteen percent. The second rank will get ten percent, and the last place will get five percent. The last five percent will be split into those who didn''t win. As for this one, the participants are Inner Disciple. Then I will explain the reward for the disciple. There will be two separate rewards. The first one is from the Grand Tournament reward itself, and you will also get a separate reward from the sect. Judging from the previous tournament, you won''t be disappointed." Alex nodded. But this nod wasn''t because he understood the elder meaning. But because he received the mission from the system. [Mission: Reach Martial Grandmaster Realm Reward: Premium Gacha Tickets 5x & Optimizing The Mission System] [Mission: Reach Martial Lord Realm Reward: Premium Gacha Ticket 10x & Box Gacha] [Mission: First Rank in Martial Lord Tournament Reward: Premium Gacha Tickets 20x & Super Exp Card] [Mission: First Rank in Martial Grandmaster Tournament Reward: UR Spirit Card x1 Note: If Host participates in the Martial Lord Tournament, you will automatically complete this mission.] Alex was amazed by the sudden appearance of the four missions. It seems that the system is very generous at the moment. Not only the reward is abundant. There will also another Gacha when he reached the Martial Lord realm. ''What is this Optimizing all about?'' [The repeatable mission will always posted by the system. Unlike the previous one that will upgrade every time you advance a small realm. It will always be there, and the number you need to kill is fixed. The change is when you advance a star, the reward will be reduced. After all, if Host focused on killing the monster that far weaker than Host. They will be extinct before you know it.] ''It''s true. There is no point in killing monsters far weaker than me. Even the spirits will level up faster if I kill monsters far stronger than me. Then, what about the Box Gacha?'' [System can''t give an explanation about ''Box Gacha''. It is better Host experienced it yourself after you unlocked the system.] ''Then how about the UR Exp Card?'' [It will immediately give your Spirit ten levels. In other words, it will improve your Spirit a whole big realm.] ''All right, thank you, System.'' He is shocked by that card. [Your Welcome Host] Alex decided to participate in the tournament, not because of the reward from the sect, but he decided to join was because of the reward from the system. Not very often, the system is this generous. He is fired up. "Is there any question about the reward, Alexander?" Elder Conn asked. "No. Thank you for your explanation Seventh Elder" Alex shakes his head. "Good, I will continue then. We will hold the Outer Disciple Competition in a year from now, so the new Outer Disciples have the possibility to join the ranking. And the Inner Disciple Competition will be a year from that." Conn said while eyeing on Alex. He hopes that Alex can become a peak Grandmaster realm and dominated the Grandmaster Tournament. He never thought that Alex didn''t want to join the Grandmaster Tournament. Instead, the one he wants to join is the Martial Lord Tournament because the reward (from System) is very tempting. "Then, how can we advance our cultivation to respond to the incoming tournaments?" Alex asked again. "Of course. You don''t need to worry about that. There are four main things to advance your cultivation in our sect. And they are very famous." Conn said Minami immediately gives the answer. "Battle Tower in the East, Cultivation Pavilion in the north, Martial Arts Pavilion in the west, and Exchange Pavilion in the south." "Umu, I will explain each of them. First is Battle Tower, It is related to the ranking of the disciples. Of course, it is separated for Outer Ranking and Inner Ranking. It is the place to hone your battle skills. You can fight many monsters there, and the energy there is very abundant. I won''t explain the detail here. You can get the details when you reached there. One last thing, you need to get Sect Point to enter the battle power. It cost three hundred Sect Points, and you can only enter once every three months." "Sect Point?" Alex and Kenshin were confused by the new term. Alex suddenly recalled something as he took out his disciple token. He looks at the number on the back of the token. At first, he was confused as to what this number is. He asked Elder Conn while holding the Disciple Token with a big ''0'' on it. "Is this the point?" "Yeah. That is your Sect Point. I will explain it later" Elder Conn nodded. "Next is the Martial Arts Pavilion. As the name implies, it is the house for Martial Arts, you can search many Martial Arts there, ranging from Yellow Tier Skill to Earth Grade Skill. It is also the same as the Battle Tower. You can only enter once every three months, and you need sect points to borrow the books from there. The cost of every book is ranging from ten sect points to one thousand sect points." "The third is Cultivation Pavilion. Unlike the two beforehand. This pavilion didn''t need Sect Point if you want to enter. As long as you have Spirit Stones, you can enter. You can rent a room inside the pavilion, and each room is installed a Gathering Array. Of course, the more you pay, the better room you will get." "The last one is Exchange Pavilion. Inside, you can get Pills or Weapons there. Of course, you can also sell your pills or weapons or even metals and medicinal ingredients there and exchange it with Sect Points. You can also receive a mission there. The reward is mostly Spirit Stones. You can choose whether to exchange the reward with Sect Points or take the Spirit Stones for yourself. Of course, you can only exchange the Spirit Stones from the reward, not from your own pocket. This prevented cheating from those who are rich and ensure fairness for the disciples. That''s all. If you have any friction with other sect members, you can settle it in the arena, whether it is a normal arena or Life and Death Arena. I won''t explain any further since the name itself already explained it. Is there any question?" Alex looks at Kenshin, who shakes his head. Both of them said, "No. Thank you for your explanation Seventh Elder(Master)" It seems that Kenshin has been accepted as a disciple of Seventh Elder. Well, good for you. Now your ''sister'' will get you busy 24/7. "All right. All of you are free to go." Elder Conn said. Alex immediately stood up and gave his thanks again before he went to his room. Now he knows all of this, he needs to adjust his plan. He didn''t want to have any trouble inside the sect. Especially if he meets the disciples that thinking with his lust active. For that, he will take the mission and search for sect point. He can exchange the sect points for Martial Arts. He didn''t need Pills or weapons since he can make the pills himself and get weapons from his system. Now for the Battle Tower. This is his main concern. From the look of it, since he can fight so many monsters. It is very unlikely to meet a real monster inside the tower. Then, there is another possible reason besides that. The monsters inside the Battle Tower comes from the illusion. But the problem is...whether the monsters come from pure illusion or from their monster core. Judging from Elder Conn''s words, The battle tower has abundant Spiritual Energy. If it''s like that, it means the monsters come from the monster core. It must be supported by the Rank 5 Illusion Array. It was recorded in his Master''s book. "System, Can I absorb the energy within the battle tower?" [You can Host. But you can''t absorb too much since it might ruin your foundation. There is another function in the battle tower that might make you interested] "Oh, What is it?" Alex is curious about it, what kind of thing will make him interested? [If you kill the monsters inside the Battle Tower. You can get EXP for your Spirits. Because you are not the one who killed them in the first place. You will get the exp from them because they were made from their own monster core] Alex shocked about that. He never thought that he could really get EXP from those monsters. If that happened, he could absorb energy in the battle tower while he also farms EXP for the spirits. Such a convenient tower. "Then, I will need to get the Sect Points first. I will get them from missions. I will get them after I used my remaining Fire Spirit Pills." The moment he entered the room. He summoned Anna. "Anna, I''m sure you already know my plan. I want you to stand by here and observe Leoz''s condition. After all, you can''t check his condition if you went back to your card. Don''t worry. I would summon you if I reached my destination." "Understood" Alex nodded and came inside his bedroom. He took a Fire Spirit Pill. He used another three days to refine the energy inside the pill. And finally, advance another star. His Cultivation speed is very swift if he was given a peaceful time. But, many ''events'' come to him and make his progress halt for a while. He is already half step to advance to 3-Star Martial Master, and by taking the Fire Spirit Pill, he advanced. Alex took another Fire Spirit Pill. But, the moment it came inside his mouth, the energy suddenly got repelled by his Pure Fire. Alex was confused about why is that and the system immediately answered his doubt. [You can''t absorb another Fire Spirit Pill, Host. Don''t misunderstand me, You can continuously eat Fire Spirit Pill, which a normal Cultivator can''t. But if you continue to absorb the Fire Spirit Pill continuously. Your foundation will be unstable. That''s why your Pure Fire immediately rejected the energy. From the look of it, you can only eat two Fire Spirit Pills each month, if you want your foundation solid] "Haiz, I should expect something like this. There is no way something this good like Fire Spirit Pill can boost my cultivation continuously. Then what about Sherry? She is taking so many Fire Spirit Pills at once" Alex asked worriedly, he remembered Sherry took five Fire Spirit Pills at once back in the tournament. [Sherry is a Spirit Beast, Host. She can even eat thirty of those. She only needs to sleep to refine pill efficacy. But of course, when she is sleeping, she will be in a vulnerable state.] "I see. Although I''m jealous of her since she only needs to eat and sleep to get stronger. The sleeping process is a troublesome one." Alex is thinking about the pros and cons of that. After all, it is only her cultivation that gets stronger. Unlike Alex, who also learns many Martial Arts so he can fight someone with a higher cultivation stage. Sherry''s weapon is her flame, and Alex is her best encounter. 173 Mission After refining the Fire Spirit Pill and advance to 3-Star Martial Master, Alex decided to go to the Exchange Pavilion to get some missions. After leaving the room, Alex saw Anna, who is currently cleaning the living room. Anna finally noticed his presence. "Ah, Young Master. You have finally come out. Since the previous time, you need three days to absorb the Fire Spirit Pill''s efficacy. I thought you are going to come out sooner or later." Anna said with a smile. "Sorry to neglect you these days. Are you bored?" Alex asked. "No way. As long as I can be with Young Master, I won''t be bored" Anna smiled brightly. "Is there anything you need? I will buy it for you." "No, I don''t need anything at the moment." Anna shook her head. "When will Young Master depart?" "Right now." "Then, I will wait for Young Master reaches the destination and summons me" She said lightly. "Sorry to trouble you all this time." "No, it is my pleasure to do so." "Then, I''m going." "Yes, please be careful." Alex flies from the yard toward the south. Not long after, he sees a huge tower in front of him. He decided to descend and walk there. Now that he sees it up close. It is awe-inspiring. From the outside, this pavilion looks impressive. It was built by white bricks and had blue stone decorations. Small triangular windows add to the overall style of the pavilion. He looks around a bit and finally found the entrance. He comes inside. There are ten floors inside the pavilion. Alex tried to search for the information board and found it around the entrance. According to the information board, there are ten floors inside the pavilion. The first floor is where you can get the mission, and after you received the mission, turn it to the elder in front of the entrance, he will record your mission. After you complete the mission, you can receive the reward on the second floor. The third to sixth floor is for Alchemist, There are also a few Alchemist inside the tower, and most of them come from the Alchemy Guild. You can request a specific pill from them at an extra price. The rest of the floor is for the weapon store. Alex strolled around while searching the mission for him. Mission: Kill Storm Bandits near Alagala Stronghold Requirement: 8-Star Martial Grandmaster Reward: 10000 Spirit Stones/ 1000 Sect Points. Mission: Gather 10 Mialose Herbs Requirement: 1-Star Martial Master (Repeatable) Reward: 50 Spirit Stones/5 Sect Points. Mission: Kill 10 Savage Bison and take its tongue (Repeatable) Requirement: 5-Star Martial Master Reward: 100 Spirit Stones/ 10 Sect Points. There are many varieties of missions, from gathering medicinal ingredients to killing monsters or humans. And from the look of it, the exchange reward of Spirit Stones and Sect Points is 10:1. Now he is wondering how many points that he needs to use Martial Pavilion or Battle Tower. Since he was unsure of how many he needed. After all, the Battle Tower alone cost three hundred Sect Points, and the Martial Arts Pavilion cost ten to a thousand Sect Points. If he was an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, he can take the Storm Bandits quest and filled his sect points already. But he is only a puny 3-Star Martial Master now. For the time being, he takes the Savage Bison quest since it is repeatable. The Savage Bison tongue is one of the ingredients of Energy Raising Pill. It is beneficial for Martial Master cultivators. It has the same effect as Gathering Array, only a bit downgrade. Since he already has his own Gathering Array, he didn''t need it and will take this request to rack some points. Alex took a few more quests, mainly the repeatable one and at the same place or nearby. Mission: Kill a Twin Snake and retrieve its poison sac (Repeatable) Requirement: 2-Star Martial Master Reward: 20 Spirit Stones/ 2 Sect Points Mission: Collect ten Ofty Grass (Repeatable) Requirement: 1-Star Martial Master Reward: 100 Spirit Stones/ 10 Sect Points. Mission: Collect five Reen Wood Log (Repeatable) Requirement: 2-Star Martial Master Reward: 50 Spirit Stones/ 5 Sect Points. Savage Bison is a bigger size of Bison. These Bison are usually in 3-Star Master Stage or 4-Star Master Stage. That alone didn''t possess a challenge for him. But the problem is that these Bison are usually wandering around in a group. As for the Twin Snake, it is the same snake that Alex kills when he save Kenshin. There is nothing to worry about this one. As for Ofty Grass, it is a common and tall grass and can be found in most forests. And the Reen Wood Log comes from Reen Tree, and its habitat is at the higher ground. It usually found in a hill and the like. Alex took out those four requests. He only needs to go to a place called Zunde Field. This field contains all the missions he has right now. He went toward the elder near the entrance. "Excuse me, Elder. I want to take these quests" Said Alex politely while giving the Elder those four quest papers. "You took many missions. Are you sure you can complete all these requests?" The Elder asked Alex while examining him. "Yes. I''m going to go outside for a while, after all." Alex smiled. "Well, whatever. All of these missions are easy. After you memorized the missions about, give those papers to me. After you finished the quest. You can turn it on the second floor. You don''t need the quest papers since repeatable quests like this won''t be put down in a long time. I will need to put the papers back so others also can know about it." Alex surely understood that. But he noticed there is a loophole in this kind of quest. "I''m sorry, Elder. Can I ask you something?" "En? Just say it." "If a disciple from a big influence receives a quest like this from the Sect. Can''t they complete the quest with the help of their family? Or since it is an ingredient for Alchemy. Can''t they bought it from the Alchemist Guild and exchanged it here." "Are you a new disciple?" "Yes" Alex nodded. "I will only say this. Your background is also a part of your power. It is only another way to utilize your background. But remember this, even those people who are completely relying on their background can become stronger. They won''t be an expert" The Elder said solemnly. Alex understood the meaning within his words. It''s true. Those people will only be dependent on their family and become good for nothing people. "Thank you, Elder. I''m going now." "En" The Elder only wave his hand. Alex didn''t immediately go toward the Zunde Field. He stopped at the town outside the Sect First. He put on a long black robe and put his mask as he made his way toward the Alchemist Guild. The one who serves was also the same female when he had come here for the first time. "Hello, How may I help you?" She politely asked. "I want to sell my Fire Spirit Pills." "I will call Mr. Moby. He will be the one who inspects your pill. Please wait a bit." Not long after, she comes back with an old man wearing glasses. Old Moby looked at Alex''s long black robe and mask. He didn''t sense any Spiritual Energy from this guy, but since he comes here to sell his pills, he must also be an Alchemist. "Let me inspect your pill." Alex took out a bottle that contained ten Fire Spirit Pills. His purpose was to raise a fund to buy more ingredients. This is one of his plans for later after he finished his mission. First, Moby tried to smell the Pill aroma. He was surprised, ''Such a pure aroma.'' He inspected it more closely and found all of them are perfect purity. That means in the bottle, there are ten Perfect Purity Fire Spirit Pills. There is no shortage of Pills in the Alchemist Guild. But most of them weren''t in perfect purity. They are mostly around eighty to ninety five percent purity. But this man in front of him brought ten perfect purity Fire Spirit Pill, this would be very beneficial for Fire Element Martial Artist. "May I know your name, Sir?" "How much" Alex ignored him and only said coldly. Knowing that it is impossible to know such an Alchemist. "Since all of the pills are perfect purity. Usually, a perfect purity Fire Spirit Pill will be bought for a thousand Spirit Stones. But, because Sir sell a batch. I will increase the price by ten percent. So we will buy them for eleven thousand Spirit Stones. How about it, Sir?" "Then, I will sell another one." Alex took out another bottle that contained another ten Fire Spirit Pills. Moby was shocked, he immediately inspected them again and found them also have perfect purity. "All of them would be twenty twwwo thousand Spirit Stones, Sir. Is there any other thing I can help you with?" "Then, I want thirty sets of ingredients for Fire Spirit Pills and Twenty sets of ingredients for Jade Heart Pill." Alex said. "Yes. We will immediately prepare them." Moby looks at the female receptionist. "Prepare the ingredients for the Sir." "Ye-Yes!" The Female receptionist immediately went on her way. "All of that would be three thousand and one hundred Spirit Stones. So, this is eighteen thousand nine hundred Spirit Stones." Alex took the Spirit Stones. Not long after, the female receptionist has come back along with the ingredients. Moby asked again, "How about using our Alchemy Room, Sir?" "No need" Alex took the ingredients and left. When he got outside, he walked toward the town gate. He didn''t say anything. In fact, his heart is racing. ''Fu... It''s tough to pretend to be someone else. I''m not used to doing something like this. But, Well. I got what I need. I can make fifty Fire Spirit Pills and twenty Jade Heart Pill. And later I can...Hehe'' After leaving the town, Alex finally made his way toward the Zunde Field. He is flying for two days before he finally reached the place. There are many woods, hills, and cliffs in Zunde Field.?"Let me see. The Twin Snake and Ofty Grass are in the wood, the Savage Bisons are also in the wood and sometimes in the hill while Reen Wood Tree is in the hill or around the cliff. Where should I go first? Should I go toward the forest first then to the hill? Or the otherwise? Ten Savage Bisons are equal to Ten Ofty Grass or five Twin Snake or Ten Reen Wood Log. This is a difficult choice." After pondering for a while. Alex decided his course of action "Let''s go to the forest first since I can meet either Ofty Grass or Twin Snake or maybe Savage Bisons If I''m lucky." But before that...Alex took out Anna''s Card. He speaks with Anna with her Card like a handphone. "Anna, is there anything wrong there?" "There is nothing abnormal Young Master. I am ready if you want to summon me." "What about Leoz''s card" He suddenly remember Leoz''s Card in Anna''s hand. If he summoned Anna, will that Card drop in his room? What if something happens to Leoz? "Ah, Young Master. You can also recall his Card to your Inventory, you know?" "I can?" Alex''s eyes flashed. He didn''t know about that. He tried to recall Leoz''s Card. And yeah, His Card back to his Inventory. He took his Card out of Inventory. He tried to call him through his Card. "Leoz?" "Young Master? Is there anything you need?" "Nothing. I''m just checking you" Alex replies hurriedly. "What is the condition in your end?" "I''m fine Young Master. I need about two months before I finally reached Martial Grandmaster" Leoz said. "Oh, that''s fine. I also seem to need to stay in the Sect for quite a long time." "I''m currently an 8-Star Martial Master, and Anna is currently at 4-Star Martial Master. From the current EXP, I assume when the time I reached Grandmaster Rank, Anna would be around 8-Star Martial Master because of our difference in level." "What? Anna''s Cultivation has passed me?" Alex was shocked since he forgot to check Anna''s Card. This leveling system for Leoz and Anna is really killing his will. "Yes. Didn''t Anna tell you? Now, I mostly kill Peak Master Stage Monster. According to our leveling system, it is equal to Level 20, while Anna is only level 14. The difference in the level make the EXP that she received far higher." "Yeah. If I''m not wrong, each your level is equal to one small realm of Cultivation." "That''s right Young Master. I''m now level 18 or 8-Star Martial Master. I would need to reach level 21 to be in Martial Grandmaster Stage." "I''m really envious of you guys who can level up. It is so easy to raise your strength" Alex pouted. "Haha, Young Master. If you wholeheartedly increase your Cultivation. I''m sure that this leveling system is no match with your cultivation speed." Leoz laughed a bit. "What are you doing now?" "I''m taking a rest for the time being to restore my strength" "Good. Don''t push yourself too hard. We still have much time to spare." "Of course, Young Master. Thank you for your words." "Then, I won''t bother you anymore. Oh right. Try not to go to danger for a month. Anna and I will be busy, so we can''t check your condition all the time." "Understood" After talking with Leoz, He put Leoz Card inside his Inventory. He took out Anna''s Card and summoned her. "Summon" Anna suddenly disappeared from Alex''s room in the Sect and appeared in front of him. "Young Master" 174 Surprise Attack Alex looks at her silently for quite a while. "Young Master?" Anna was confused about why he didn''t say anything and only stared at her. "Nothing. I just feel this system is very convenient. I can do many things about this Summoning Thing." Alex said, vaguely. "Anna is ready to accept anything if it is the Young Master''s wish. Even If Young Master wants this body, Anna will immediately give this body wholeheartedly. No, in fact, Anna is thrilled to... Ahem." "Oi, You said your true intent just now" Alex said with a poker face. "Young Master must be heard it wrong." Anna said while blushing. "You can''t convince someone with that face." Alex said with a wry smile. "This is not even a month after I seal Alicia and leave Firia in the lower world. So Please wait a bit longer, ok? I also need to prepare my heart before accepting someone again." Alex said that because he knows the intention of Anna. Though Anna looked cold and aloof on the outside, She is actually a...shy? And a clumsy person. He also has introduced her along with the rest of the spirits to Alicia and Firia. And it seems that Alicia and Firia also have some suspicion about her but didn''t say anything. It was like an OK from them and let Alex decided whether to accept her or not. He also felt something familiar and nostalgic, the first time he summoned her. He didn''t notice the feeling because of all the absurd summoning things. Anna is a good woman with an otherworldly beauty. If Alex didn''t have Alicia and Firia. He might like her in an instant. What will Alicia and Firia say in this situation? Alex shook his head while smiling helplessly. They might say Anna is a good sister. Anna''s eyes widened and glazed. An otherworldly smile appeared on her face, and she said, "Yes. I will sedu...wait for Young Master forever." Alex''s expression turned to a poker face. "You always love to destroy the mood, aren''t you? What? Are you going to say you will seduce me in the meantime?" Her face becomes red like a tomato, "No. Young Master must hear it wrong." "Like I said, You can''t convince someone with that red face." Alex sighed helplessly. He patted her head, "All right. Let''s go. We need to search Twin Snake or Ofty Grass." Anna shook her head, furiously to erase her blush. "Yes!" ... Three days later "Splitting Sword" Another snakehead was flying. Alex and Anna have been searching for either Twin Snake or Ofty Grass. They found Ofty Grass relatively easy at first. But after some time, It is becoming harder and harder to search for it. So After three days searching for Ofty Grass. They stopped and now mainly searching for Twin Snake. Like its name, The Twin Snake has one body but two heads. Unfortunately, only one of the two heads has the poison sac. Sometimes it is the right head, and sometimes it is in the left head. Alex didn''t understand the pattern or gender since it wasn''t related to that. So, he can only search it one by one. This is the third twin snake he has encountered. He still needs to kill many of these snakes. After all, this past three days, Alex has amassed a total of one hundred eighty three Ofty Grass. Since the request can only count each ten, he can''t count the last three. That means, he has around one hundred eighty Sect Points. Such a speed can only be done by him. After all, each living being has energy, he remembered the energy from Ofty Grass. Using his Spirit Eyes Technique, it is relatively easy for him to find them. They haven''t met any Savage Bisons. So Alex decided to search in the forest for a week before going to the hill and cliff for another week. He also has a plan for the last week, so he still didn''t know what to do for the third week. For the time being, he intended to kill those Twin Snakes until he fed up with it. After retrieving the poison sac, Alex suddenly felt something wrong. He turned to the direction where he felt something and activate his Spirit Eyes. And his feeling proven to be right, the moment he activates the Spirit Eyes, he can see something carrying a huge amount of energy approaching him. When he finally arrived in front of him, Alex can see it is a big werewolf. Without further ado, The Werewolf suddenly approached him, and his sharp and white claw went on its way toward Alex''s head. Although he already expected something like this from the amount of energy. He still didn''t know. Because of the sudden appearance of a strong oppressive pressure that swept through all four directions, which made it difficult for Anna and Alex to breathe, it made him barely react to this. He never thought that this Werewolf was this fast. In a blink of times, the Werewolf''s claw already in front of his face. Alex quickly pulled out his sword as a gush of blood started streaming out, just before the nail reached his face and made his face a minced meat. Alex retreated a step back and used his sword to create a distance between him and the Werewolf. Thanks to his Spirit Eyes Technique, he can react to this sudden attack, albeit barely. Because of the sudden spike of Spiritual Energy, it installed a fear like thing and made his reaction speed slower. The instant, he realized that, he roared. "Ha!" Anna finally realized what happened in that instant. The intense energy spike made their reaction speed slower. Fortunately, Young Master has the Spirit Eyes Technique. The claw only managed grazed his cheek, and he managed to distance himself using his sword. The moment she realized that, she gritted her teeth, "What a blunder." Now that Alex has come back to a normal state, he saw through the Werewolf. The Werewolf itself is only 8-Star Martial Master, he should be able to put up a good fight even if he can''t defeat it. It seems this Werewolf often used that technique to kill his prey. Alex is wondering why this Werewolf suddenly approached him, he can only speculate that the wolf comes because of the blood from the Twin Snake. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Phoenix Claw" Alex, with his 3-Star Martial Master strength along with the ''Immovable Step'' finally thoroughly unleashed the power of the second stage of Fire Phoenix Art that Maxwell gave him. He managed to use this technique short after he came inside the Himura House. Although he intended to conceal his flame, he never stopped practicing it. The ''Fire Phoenix Claw'' struck forth like lightning as the ground vibrated. The Werewolf also used his claw to counter Alex''s Fire Phoenix Claw. Alex''s fist completely scattered the Spiritual Energy within the werewolf claw while his fire claw burned the Werewolf claw. Alex instinctively using his Fire Phoenix Art that seems very effective toward the Werewolf. The Werewolf''s body trembled slightly. The Werewolf looked at Alex''s hand that harmed him. Anna suddenly and silently appeared behind the wolf as she swings her big scythe. But, it still didn''t fool the Werewolf''s instinct. It suddenly turned behind as his injured hand trying to push Anna away. Anna immediately changed her target from the Werewolf''s back to its injured hand. Alex looks at the flying hand. They will need to deal with this Werewolf that has far higher cultivation from them bit by bit. Alex saw the Werewolf''s motion. ''Not good.'' He saw the Werewolf going to kick Anna. Alex raised his sword as the Spiritual Energy lingering on his sword along with his Sword Intent. The Intense Spiritual Energy suddenly spikes as he swings his sword hard toward the Werewolf''s leg. "Don''t you dare to hurt her. Sanguin Sword Art, Fourteenth Slash" Half step away from a perfect Sanguin Sword Art struck the Werewolf''s leg at point-blank range. Obviously, the strike immediately cut the Werewolf''s leg as the Sword Wave struck the ground and made a deep cut into the ground. Anna took this chance to get away from the Werewolf and regroup with Alex. She is currently smiling. Because, Alex said, ''Don''t you dare to hurt her'' unconsciously. If it is normal people, they will say ''Don''t you dare to forget about my presence'' or something along the line. But Alex said ''Don''t you dare to hurt her''. So that means there is at least some degree of consciousness of her inside his heart. She will at immersed in this joyful moment at a later date, for now, her happy expression becomes solemn, "Young Master. My Dark Element has the power of corrosion. It can erode his energy and make his reaction speed slower. I can''t inject it in the previous attack since the attack separated his hand. I will inject it in the next attack." said Anna while focusing her eyes on every movement of the Werewolf. "Alright. I will hold him then. But you need to hurry, I am not confident enough to hold him for you long enough" Alex disappeared after he said that. He used his ''Flash Step'' to arrive at the same speed as the Werewolf previously did it to him. The moment he arrived in front of the Werewolf, the Werewolf already ready to cut Alex''s head with its sharp claw. "Immovable Step" Power started gathering to his hand as his flame gushed out from both of his hands. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Phoenix Claw" The powerful flame gushed out and formed a claw on each hand. The claws move toward the Werewolf body as its starting to clench and hold the Werewolf down. Even though the flame is still the fake flame, it is still a mighty flame. The Fire Claws is burning the werewolf body like previous. The Werewolf struggled fiercely under the claws. Alex can only do this for two seconds because of the gap between their cultivation. "Anna, Hurry up" Of course, without saying. Anna already made her way toward the Werewolf the moment Alex disappeared. She appeared behind the Werewolf as she swings her scythe horizontally. "Aoo!" The Werewolf broke free from Alex''s clutch. At first, She wanted to split the Werewolf into two. She didn''t have any confidence in this and since the Werewolf already broke free. She changed the target again. This time toward its back. "Tri Xeta" Black Light was covering her scythe. The moment the scythe touched its target, the black light suddenly disappeared without a trace. Alex immediately activates his Spirit Eyes. The energy from her scythe swiftly made its way toward its brain. Since the attack is successful, Anna shouted. "Young Master. This technique can only hinder him for three minutes." "One minute is enough." Alex smirked. As he immediately kicks the Werewolf''s Abdomen and make its spat blood and retreated a few steps. The Werewolf can''t react at Alex''s kick because of the energy. It wanted to run at this moment. "You won''t be able to run away. Sanguin Sword Art. Fourteenth Slash" The Sword wave flew toward the Werewolf. The Werewolf wanted to shrug the Sword Wave with its other hand, but Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art obliterated its last hand. The Werewolf immediately turned its back toward Alex and leaped with its last leg, but Anna suddenly appeared in front of him and struck once again. "Dark Cut" Her target is its leg. The Dark Cut immediately cut its leg, and because the Werewolf losing both of his hands and leg, it lost its balance and fell to the ground. Anna looks at Alex to deliver the finishing blow, "Young Master." Alex jumped toward the air and took out his spear. He is ready to throw it toward the Werewolf, and his target is its head. Now that the Werewolf can''t dodge anymore, this is the perfect time to target him. If Alex throws his spear earlier, it was likely avoided by it. "Spin Throwing!" The spear pierced through the air and made its way toward the Werewolf''s head. It penetrated the Werewolf''s head and planted to the ground. As expected, the penetration power from ''Spear Throwing Art'' is higher than from the ''Luminous Spear Technique'' Alex let out a breath of relief as he took out his spear out of the ground. "Finally, it''s done. I was surprised the Werewolf suddenly want to kill me. I almost died if I didn''t activate my Spirit Eyes back then." 175 Déjà vu The uneasiness really saves him this time. Fortunately, they can beat the Werewolf without injury. If the situation goes wrong, Alex would be forced to recall Leoz. And he also managed to practice his combination with Anna. "Young Master, Are you alright?" Anna asked him. "I''m fine. How about you? Any injuries?" "No, Thanks to Young Master defend me from his kick. I''m fine." "That''s good. We will rest first for a few minutes before going to search the Twin Snake again. But this time, make sure we are fully aware of our surroundings. So we don''t make any blunder as we did just now." Alex said. "Understood" Anna nodded fiercely. "Don''t worry. The previous time was not only your fault. It is also my fault. Don''t beat yourself for something like this." Alex comforted her after looking at her expression. After resting, they are searching Twin Snake again for the rest of the week. In these few days, they didn''t meet any powerful monster like last time and they searched for the reason why there is a sudden appearance of 8-Star Master Stage Werewolf but found no clue so they thought it was only a coincidence. So in the next week, they go toward the Hills. They found the Reen Tree first. Reen Tree is a tall Tree and can be found mostly on the higher ground, such as Hill. It has thick, egg shaped leaves, which are usually light green. It also grows small flowers, which can be light grey, light silver, and light purple. These trees grow in huge numbers, but it''s a bit tricky to identify the Reen Tree because they grow along with Ming Tree, which has the exact same characteristics. The only different thing from both of the trees is the color of the inner stem. The color of the Inner Stem of Reen Tree is Bright Green, while the Ming Tree is bluish. Alex tried to chop those trees down as he activates his Spirit Eyes and sees the energy within it. He found something like this after He used his Spirit Eyes before cutting them down. One of the trees has a mild energy while the other one has a robust energy. After cutting it down and confirming which one is the Reen Tree and which one is the Ming Tree. Alex activates his Spirit Eyes again. He found the one who has mild energy is the Ming Tree, while the one who has a robust energy is the Reen Tree. Now that he confirmed which one is the Reen Tree, he didn''t need to chop the two trees before confirming which one is the Reen Tree. He can immediately know which one is his target. No need to needlessly cutting another tree. After they finished clearing all the Reen Trees, Alex and Anna move toward another area. And they finally found a group of Savage Bisons. Savage Bisons is a very fierce creature that lives in a group. Alex saw a total of twelve Savage Bisons. Their size is bigger than an elephant from earth. They have not only two big horns, but also two big fans pointing downward, which most likely will tear their prey. They have a big body with rough skin covered in thin brown fur. Unlike the bison from the earth, which is Herbivore, they are omnivores with a big but thin mouth, sharp fang and teeth, and short tongue, ideal for eating creatures. They will lunge you altogether the moment they noticed your presence. Luckily, they are creatures that didn''t have high intelligence. As long as you make an excellent plan to hinder them, you can split them into two horizontally from their nose since it is the weakest spot in their body. Alex told his idea to Anna for this group of Savage Bisons. He will be the bait as well as the one who will kill them in one swoop. Though Anna protested a bit, Alex''s plan indeed an efficient plan they could think of for the time being. After reaching an agreement with Anna, She finally disappeared. Alex jumped forward toward the group. One of the Savage Bisons noticed his appearance. "Moo!" With that, the rest of the group have their eyes locked on him. After releasing his killing intent, the bisons finally charged at him. Alex observed the bisons movement. According to the information he had, the bison have great strength and defensive ability. Still, their speed is slower than their peers. If he is careful from the Attack, he can easily kill one or two of them. Alex is suddenly running away from them, and of course, the Savage Bisons enraged and madly charged at him. He led them to another area, it is a flatland. Since fighting them in the wood with their big body is a bit reckless in his point of view. After all, with that big body, they can easily tear down the trees, and those fallen trees might hinder his movement. There are twelve of them to boot. This flatland is only one minute away from their original position. It has a perfect size to hold these twelve Savage Bisons back. The moment he reached the flatland, he stopped. The bisons think that this is the time to kill him before suddenly a female voice heard. "Dark Curtain" A high pitch black wall rose from the ground. The black wall seems can swallow them if they touched it, the wall traps the bisons in the middle. The only way out of this pitch black wall is in Alex''s direction. But they didn''t find Alex in that direction. With their low intelligence, the only thing they can think at the moment is to get away from this pitch black thing. They rushed madly toward the only escape path. Unbeknownst to them, Alex used the split second confusion on them to get to the back of the wall and stand by there. That means Alex didn''t go anywhere and hide behind the wall all this time. When he heard the Bisons rushed toward his direction, Spiritual Energy suddenly spike on his sword. There is also heat transmitted along with the Spiritual Energy. Alex smiled as he predicted how much is their distance. After all of the bisons reached a specific range which Alex absolutely sure can''t dodge his attack. He jumped upward and appeared at escape path at the same level as their nose. He is planning to kill them in one sweep. Alex swings his sword horizontally. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash!" Alex makes his Fourteenth Slash wider. But because he made it wider, the amount in its power also reduced. To compensate that, he decided to infuse his Fire Element. The Fire Element boost his Sword Wave offensive power. Because of the sudden appearance, all of the bisons were bewildered. They wanted to change direction to evade this sword wave. But Alex already considered that point, that is the exact reason why he waited until they reached a certain range and suddenly appeared with a powerful sword wave. The Bisons didn''t have any chance to react, and finally, Alex''s Elemental Fourteenth Slash sweep through the air, and the blood spurted like rain. Alex moves away for a second to avoid the blood. Anna meets him in the meantime. "Young Master. Your plan is indeed working. Why do you think that they won''t rush toward my ''Dark Curtain''?" "With their low intelligence, I doubt they will escape through your ''Dark Curtain''. But if you didn''t make a gap there, I''m sure they will madly rush toward your ''Dark Curtain'' and blasted it into pieces. Making a gap like that will make them think that direction is the way to escape from your Pitch Black Dark Curtain." Alex said. ''Dark Curtain'' is a technique for confusion. It might look like a wall that can swallow everything. But instead, it is only an illusion optic, the wall itself is very brittle. Usually, it is to confuse the enemy. If the ''Dark Curtain'' used wide enough, it might make the enemy lose their sense of direction. Like trapped in a big dark field where you can''t hear or see, and before you know it, you have died. Even if you try to walk in one direction, before you know it, you are already deviating from your path and walk in a circle. The darkness itself makes you lose your balance. It is the perfect field for assassination. Alex took a chance of the gap of confusion from low intelligence monsters to kill them in a single swoop. And he succeeded in it. He took all of their tongue since it is their mission and burned the body to ash. Alex and Anna used this plan to kill the savage bisons continuously, for the rest of the week. They decided to make each flatland to be their base of operation, if they found a group of Savage Bisons but far from a flatland, they would abandon them. Of course, they are still searching for Reen Tree. After all, continuously searching Savage Bisons is pretty stressful, so sometimes they stopped for a few hours or even a day and searched for Reen Trees. On the last day of the second week, they decided to rest and count their possession. They have got 191 Ofty Grass, 72 Twin Snake poison sacs, 50 Reen Wood Log, and 524 Savage Bison Tongues. From the look of it, Alex can exchange them for 904 Sect Points. Alex was wondering when he counted his loots. Was gathering Sect Points this easy? Was it because of Anna''s Help? Was it because the disciples grouped up to take the quest, so they need to share the point with each other? Alex is searching alone after all (Anna is not counted). All of it was because Alex got the support of Anna along with his Extraordinary prowess and his Spirit Eyes that proven to be very handy in this kind of situation. After all, if he split the loots with Anna equally, that means he only got 452 Sect Points. It is only enough for a single chance in Battle Tower and some trashy Martial Arts. Alex chose only to get fifty Reen Wood Log since they took so much place inside his Space Ring. It''s better to fill his Space Ring with the Bison Tongues. Still, even they are taking a tremendous amount of space considering the Bison size itself. Anna is close to level 15 or 5-Star Martial Master because of the massive experience they got from killing many monsters. Of course, it is also included the EXP from Leoz, who is killing somewhere. Now he is thinking about the plan for the third week since he already had an idea for the fourth week. Alex and Anna decided to take a break in a high cliff where they can see the sunset. Of course, Alex has checked the cliff before they take a break there to check if the Cliff solid or not. He didn''t want something like the thing that happened back in the Night Forest to happen again. He remembered that the cliff suddenly collapsed and nearly died because of it. Alex thought about going to search for Twin Snake or Ofty Grass again for the third week. Although they are a bit hard to find, they only take a small amount of space in his Space Ring. But for the time being, since the sun almost set, Anna took a seat beside him to watch the beautiful sunset on the top of the cliff. Unfortunately for them, before they can see the beautiful sunset together. They suddenly heard a cracking sound. They immediately turned back but to see nothing behind them. They were wondering if it was only their misconception. It wasn''t since both of them can hear the sound. Suddenly, the cracking sound continues and becomes more apparent. It continues to the surface of the ground where they stand at the moment. They immediately fly to the air instinctively. The crack continues until suddenly the tip of the cliff, the place they are watching the sunset, fell to the bottom of the cliff and blasted the trees along the area. "What the heck? Is this a curse? Anna, answer me? Did someone curse me? The first thing something like this happened was when I''m in the lower world. It was raining, and I searched for a big tree to shield me from the rain. The next day, the tip of the cliff suddenly fell too like this. If this is not a curse, then what is it?" Alex seems very stressed about this. "Young Master... Look, there is a cave over there" Anna said with a wry smile while pointing at the cave beside the place where it fell. Alex was speechless and can''t help but mutter, "Oh... D¨¦j¨¤ vu" 176 Figh "Oh... D¨¦j¨¤ vu" "Should we go in to check, Master?" Anna asked. "Hmm, I don''t know why, but this feeling kills me. I''m pretty sure there must be a monster inside the cave. But I also feel I need to go in. There is something special there..." Alex pondered for a moment. "This area should be a low danger area. So, I think the monster inside would not be that high." Anna said. "Alright. I will also continuously uses the Spirit Eyes. That way, if there is something big approach us, we will immediately run." Alex said. "Understood" "Follow me." Both of them come inside the cave very slowly and carefully. The cave itself was close to a limestone cave without many lights. It is pretty hard to see something inside the cave. Even they who are Martial Masters barely able to see. Alex scans all the cave interior with his Spirit Eyes. There is nothing suspicious for the time being. They go deeper and deeper inside the cave. Alex suddenly noticed something. There is a tremendous amount of energy inside it. But the energy wasn''t from a living being. "Anna, there is something big not far from here. Judging from the Spirit Eyes. It is not a living being." Alex said. "Something like a treasure?" Anna asked. "I don''t know. My attainment in Spirit Eyes wasn''t that much. I didn''t have the resource to level up my Spirit Eyes." Alex is still unsure. Suddenly, something approached them from the front. It comes from that place, which has a massive amount of energy. "Anna, be ready. There is something approaching us. The energy is around the same level as the Werewolf we met a few days ago." Alex immediately yelled while taking his Sword and Spear. Anna did the same. She quickly took out her scythe. "Here it comes." Alex warned her. "Roar!" With a big roar echoing inside the cave, Alex and Anna finally know what is coming to them. It is a leopard. It has similar features with Earth Leopard, the only difference is the skin of this Leopard is green. "Anna. It is a Wind Leopard. Be careful of its agility. Not only its speed is fast, but the Wind Leopard also has a great maneuver with the boost of his wind element." "Yes" Alex blocked its claw with his sword. But because of the momentum of the Wind Leopard. Alex felt the force from it. "Immovable Step" As soon as he used the Immovable Step, He gets the strength to push the Wind Leopard back. But the Wind Leopard didn''t get push back. Instead, it used Alex''s power to do another jump, and his real target is actually Anna. "No, you won''t!" Alex immediately do the follow-up. He thrust his spear toward the Leopard. And a powerful beam of light pierced through the air and made its way toward the Leopard. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce!" The Leopard rolled around in the air and avoided Alex''s attack. Anna immediately ready her scythe to block the incoming attack. But Alex suddenly shouted, "Anna, get ready." Anna thrust his word more than anything. Because the Leopard dodged his spear, Alex doesn''t have the time to be shocked, he immediately does another follow up. He thrust his sword as another beam of light flew toward the Leopard. "Luminous Spear Technique (Sword Version). Pierce!" The Wind Leopard was surprised by it, rolling a bit more in the air, he barely avoided Alex''s technique. But Anna in front of the Wild Leopard has prepared to attack because of her absolute trust in Alex, Black energy started covering her scythe as she swings her scythe. "Dark Cut" *Fwoosh* Anna and Alex heard the sound of the wind. They thought the Leopard would be finished by Anna''s Dark Cut since it has no more way to dodge her attack. Unfortunately, they found the Leopard safe and sound because of the sound of the wind is actually the element from the Leopard. The Wind Leopard used its element to make him have another chance to do the last movement and dodge Anna''s attack. Alex immediately goes in front of Anna and becomes the vanguard as usual. Anna felt something wrong, "Young Master. Don''t you feel it''s strange? Normally, a Wind Leopard was only around 5-Star Master Stage. But this Wind Leopard is at 8-Star Master Stage." "You are right." Alex nodded in agreement while looking at the end of the cave. "I suspect something great is in there. But for now, we need to kill this Wind Leopard first. I will try to distract it with my ''Fleeting Step'' and ''Flash Step''. Search for an opening and strike him. I can''t hit this Leopard with my Fire Phoenix Art since the Leopard is swift, he will dodge it before I have the chance to attack it like the Werewolf before who only has speed." "Understood. Please be careful Young Master" Anna nodded. "Sure. I''m going then" As he said that, he disappeared. Soon, many clashing sounds echoing inside the cave. Alex didn''t do any flashy movement since he didn''t know the condition of the cave, the cave might collapse if he used something like ''Power Throwing'' or ''Sanguin Sword Art''. He didn''t mind using something like ''Luminous Spear Technique'', since its destructive power is not that great. Anna tried a few times to attack the Wind Leopard but to no avail. The Wind Leopard always avoided her attack with its Wind Element. Alex is thinking about a new plan since if it continues like this. They are the ones who will be exhausted first since the Wind Leopard is an 8-Star Master Stage Monster. While clashing with the Wind Leopard, Alex is thinking another plan desperately. Until suddenly, a reckless idea comes to his mind. "Sixth Strike!" Alex pushed the Wind Leopard back. Since it is a close-range technique, it is safe to use it continuously inside this dark cave. The moment he has some leeway, "Anna!" Alex shouted, "Search for a safe place for you and use your Black Curtain to cover this place. Try to make it as big as possible. I will kill this Leopard." "But, Young Master..." She hesitates. This Dark Curtain is a double-edged sword. Even she can''t see anything inside the Dark Curtain. But Alex suddenly wanted her to put the Dark Curtain up? It is a very reckless idea. Unlike the previous Dark Curtain when they hunted the Savage Bison. This time, even Alex also trapped inside it. "Just do it." She gritted her teeth. She thought if Young Master died, she would immediately follow him. "Dark Curtain." The cave, which is already dark enough for them to see suddenly become pitch black, the moment the Dark Curtain is up, Alex immediately put on his mask. His aura suddenly concealed with the mask, and his presence has vanished inside the darkness. Of course, the Wind Leopard suddenly confused with the sudden change. With that much confusion, he remembered Alex''s position then plunged to it. Alex was actually waiting for something like this. The moment he put the mask, Alex also activate his Spirit Eyes. He locked the energy ball that symbolizing the Wind Leopard. Even though he can''t see anything inside this Dark Curtain. He definitely can see the Wind Leopard. Since it is perilous to move recklessly inside an uneven ground such as the one in this cave. Alex waits for the Wind Leopard to make a move first. Alex can see the Wind Leopard move toward him. He silently took a step to the left and raised his sword. The Wind Leopard charging at him in this darkness is the same as throwing his life away. When the Leopard reached his position, it didn''t feel anything in front of him. That means Alex has moved somewhere, he needs to make some move to trace Alex after he reached the ground. Unfortunately, before he has the chance to reach the ground. Alex has swung his Sword down. "Sixth Strike" He beheaded the Wind Leopard''s head. He looks the Leopard with his Spirit Eyes. The energy was starting to dim down before it completely vanished. The Wind Leopard is dead. "Anna, the Wind Leopard has died. You can undo the Dark Curtain." Soon after, Anna put off her Dark Curtain and immediately reprimanded him, "Young Master. That was a reckless idea. How can you do something like that?" "Everything is alright. Isn''t that fine?" Alex said. "Young Master! Are you starting to get crazy? Or that muscle brain virus finally got inside your head? Something like that might be fine for that muscle head..." At first, she reprimanded him before her voice become low, and she suddenly hugs him and speaks while crying, "What...what if you die? It''s better if I''m the one who dies." He thought that he already has Alicia and Firia. Even though he is close to Anna, he still acts within the boundary. After all, it is not right to suddenly get a woman after he just leaves his wives behind. It is only around a month to boot. But when Anna suddenly acts like this. He didn''t know why, but his heart is pained so much. Each word from her stab his chest fiercely. What is this pain? He thought. The pain didn''t stop only at his heart, his brain starting to ache and unbeknownst to him, the tears have been falling from his eyes. The strength seep from his body. Even so, he struggled to hug her back and said, "I...I''m sorry. I will be more careful later." He didn''t know why, but doing something like this suddenly soothe his heart. What is exactly happening? Did he already fall in love with Anna? He didn''t bother with this thought for the time being. They hugged for a while before Anna released her hand from him. "I''m sorry Young Master. I was rude." He didn''t know what to say to her at the moment, he just uses his finger to wipe her tears. After they calm down their emotions, they started to walk again. Soon enough, they suddenly saw a light. They thought it was an exit, but when they arrived there. They saw a huge light crystal glowing at the top of the cave. And under the crystal, a big cave lake. But strangely, there''s a blazing flame on top of the water. Alex can feel the surging of the Fire Element. He felt that he could absorb this Fire Element before suddenly the System warned him. [Host. Don''t absorb the Fire Energy yet] "What do you mean?" Alex frowned. [It''s more beneficial for Host if you absorb it when you are in Martial Grandmaster Stage] "Why is that?" [Host. Haven''t you noticed that you had advanced two stars from 1-Star Martial Master to 3-Star Martial Master within a week? System speculate because of continuous advancement, Host will most likely ruin your foundation if it continues. Even I will warn you the moment Host''s foundation starting to crack, which more likely to happen after Host reached 5-Star Martial Master. Judging by the amount of the Fire Spiritual Energy inside this pond, System has speculated, Host most likely able to reach peak Martial Master in a short time. Unfortunately, it will ruin you. It will make your later advancement become harder and harder. If Host is still planning to become a god, then System advises you not to absorb it for the time being. System will take an example from Host memory on Earth. Each realm in the true cultivation is a kind of a big box containing ten gas tubes. Just like gas, Spiritual Energy will fill the tubes, Host will need to fill the tubes with gas until full. When is it full? Like a gas tube, You can continuously put gas inside the tubes until the maximum pressure that the tube can withstand before bursting. It is the same as your body. Host can still fill the energy. In other words, the tubes in your First, second, and third star in Martial Master stage can still be filled with more Spiritual Energy and become more solid. Since Host didn''t use an excessive amount of Pill or Spiritual Energy, this kind of problem won''t happen in your Foundation Stage. But because of your continued usage of Fire Spirit Pills and Spirit Stones, this problem becomes apparent.] "Then what can I do to solve this problem?" Alex asked, hurriedly. After all, he just knows something like this, he never thought he had this kind of problem since there is nothing like this written in his Cultivation Manual. 177 Incoming Trouble [Host need to absorb Spiritual Energy. But this time, you can''t rely on Gathering Array or Pills. Host needs to rely on your natural absorption speed according to your Cultivation Manual.] "But, my Cultivation Manual is only the basic one. It is the one I got from the first time I met you, System] [There is another trick of your Cultivation Manual, Host. It is indeed a basic Cultivation Manual. But that manual can help you with your current predicament. Not many know about this Host. This is the reason why many cultivators in this continent can''t go beyond Martial King. Because of the thin Spiritual Energy in the air in this continent. The people started using Spiritual Stones, Pill, and Gathering Array to boost their cultivation speed. They didn''t know that is the exact reason why their process started slowing down when they reached Martial Lord Stage and finally stopped when they reached Martial King Stage even for a genius. In fact, the people here also can become a Martial Saint if they were born in the Heavenly Continent, where the Spiritual Energy is dense there. The people over there tend to Cultivate with only their Cultivation Technique. Since it is not necessary enough to use Spirit Stones, etc. in the beginning. So, for Host, who is currently in this continent. The solution is to stop relying on the Spirit Stones and pills to advance your Cultivation. Initially, System will warn you when you reach 5-Star Martial Master and once again when you are a 10-Star Martial Master. Since it will be quicker if you divided the process into two than to do it each time you advance a star. But, do remember Host. According to System analysis. 5-Star is the max for you right now. If you somehow advance to 6-Star before compressing your strength, Don''t say that System didn''t warn you] "..." Alex grabs his head, "Too much information in one go!" "So...basically, I need to stop advancing my Cultivation after I reached 5-Star Martial Master, then I will cultivating using my Cultivation Technique to the limit before I advance to 6-Star. Then I will do it again when I reached 10-Star Martial Master." Alex said in two sentences. [Yes. Basically, that''s it all about. I''m just good enough to explain to you about the detail Host] "Well, I appreciate that" Alex said. "Then, what about this blazing Pond? Can''t I just take the energy until I reach 5-Star, then I will stop." [I''m afraid you can''t. The Fire energy from the Pond will stimulate your Pure Fire, and your Pure Fire will take the energy from the Pond like crazy. You won''t be able to stop your Pure Fire from absorbing those energies] "...It is indeed a dangerous situation" Alex nodded. "Then, when can I absorb this pond energy?" [When you have become a Martial Grandmaster. System recommended Host to take this pond energy when Host at 1-Star or 2-Star Martial Grandmaster. You might be able to advance two if not three stars] "... What a crazy pond. What the heck is this Pond?" [Blazing Pond Description: A pond full of Fire energy that even becomes a fire above the water surface. It is very beneficial for Fire Element Martial Artist. It can enhance the Body, the Element, and Purify Spiritual Energy. (Caution: Minimal Cultivation at Martial Lord)] Alex massage his eyes a few times. "System. I just saw something absurd." [What is it, Host?] "I think I just saw something like I need to be a Martial Lord before using this pond" Said Alex while His eyes still closed. [You are right, Host. Before you complain. System ask you, What is your Element?] "Pure Fire" [That is the answer, Host] "...I can''t believe I was convinced by that. I wanted to refute it, but somehow I can''t" He said while shaking his head helplessly. [Although you can''t take the energy. You can use this Pond to refine your body. I assumed you had read the description. It can enhance the body, the Fire Element, and purify your Spiritual Energy. They are two separate steps for that. If you want only to enhance your Fire Element and Spiritual Energy, you can take it the Pond''s energy. If you wanted to enhance your body, you need to dive inside the Pond] "So for now. I can refine my body. But, won''t the Fire element stimulate my Pure Fire if I go inside?" [Since there is a Fire Phoenix Seed inside your body. You can revolve the Fire Phoenix seed and make your Pure Fire stay still inside it] Alex tried revolving his Fire Phoenix Seed to seal his Pure Fire deeply. But suddenly, the Fire produced by the Fire Phoenix Seed concentrate on the seed and seal off the Fire Phoenix Seed. When Alex wanted to ask a question, the System has answered it. [Your Fire needed to seal your Pure Fire inside the seed so It won''t be stimulated by the Fire Element from the Pond. In other words, Host will need to bath inside the Pond with your mortal body. Don''t worry, Host. Because your flesh and blood already enhanced by Pure Fire before. Taking a bath inside there won''t kill you...only will hurt a lot, probably. I''m sure that Host has experienced it a few times while refining your body such as your muscle, etc.] "...I don''t mind about the pain. What I''m wondering right now is whether I will advance another star if I dive inside." The System didn''t say anything more like telling Alex to hurry up. Alex sighed and decided to trust his System. He starts to take off his clothes since he doesn''t want it to be wet. Because of too many conversations with the System, he forgets about Anna still standing next to him. "Yo...Young Master" Anna, who is beside him, shocks by his sudden action. Her face becomes redder. "Ah, I forget you are here. Come back to the card first" Alex said with a wry smile as he took out Anna''s card from his inventory. "Young Master. Don''t call me back. We are not sure if other people will come here when you are refining your body. I will protect you and watch you." Anna said hurriedly. Alex thought for a moment. It is like she said. He would be vulnerable when he refines his body inside the Pond. "Alright. I leave it to you." Alex gets inside the Pond, starting from his right foot. The moment his right foot get inside the water. He feels the water burn his foot inside. All of his skin want to escape from its place, and his muscle is crying. "Argh!" [Host, please continue] He steeled his heart once again and finally dived inside the pond. The Pond refines his body. The pain spread all over his body. He screamed in pain inside the water. Of course, his voice was blocked by the water. "Argh!" After a day of torture, Alex starting to get used to the pain. But, what he feared the most that he got used to this kind of pain. He won''t become a Maschosit...would he? Anna was continuously watching him in the pond while he is screaming in pain. Watching her loved one screaming in pain like that, her heart is pained as well. She can''t help him since this struggle is for him. Anna can only watch him on the side while gritting her teeth. On the third day, Alex already fine with the pain. He didn''t scream anymore. Instead, he is focusing on refining his body. And suddenly he has a breakthrough. He opens his eyes slowly "System, what to do about this breakthrough?" [It is because of you refining your body potential. This breakthrough comes from that. This is another reason why I wanted you to refine your body now. If you are in 4-Star or even 5-Star Martial Master. System won''t advise you to do that] "I see. Thanks" Alex closed his eyes again after he got the answer. Now he is already a 4-Star Martial Master. It is only a month after he joins the sect. Another day has passed. After the fourth day, he didn''t feel any pain anymore. All he feels is the warm energy inside the pond. It seems this is it. He opened his eyes and slowly come out from the water. He feels refreshed after going out of the water. He checked his body, it seems that his body is getting stronger. But he can''t describe how much stronger he became, he also felt his natural cultivation speed also become faster. Now that he thought about it. He didn''t have a body refining technique. He indeed had Body Tempering Manual back then. But it was no longer used. Now he didn''t know the parameter to measure the body strength. He felt he need to get a body refining technique from the sect. [Mission: Rank First in Outer Disciple Competition Reward: Undying Fire Body Manual] "..." Speechless, just as he thought something about obtaining a Body Refining Technique. The System suddenly become generous. "What is this Undying Fire Body mean, System?" [System can''t say anything. Anyway, Congratulations Host. With this, you only need around three months to fill up the rest of your empty space] "Three months?" Alex was surprised by it, he didn''t expect it took so long to fill them. [Yes. If you are in an area with a dense Natural Spiritual Energy not from the Spirit Stones, you can progress faster] "Alright. The Outer Disciple Competition is still a year from now. Half a year is a long time, I can advance a few more stars after I finished filling my body." ... Somewhere far away, "Of course. I can''t tell you. It is an unsurpassed Divine Body Refining Technique. It is from your previous life friend, the former Fire God. It is the reason why he can become one of the godkings and keep up with your progress back then. He needs a few hundred years to refine his body according to the manual. I''m sure that you can master it within a hundred years. As for your divine skill, you will get it from yourself when you reached that place." A peerless beauty, lying on a couch as she stared at the screen as she sighed. "I don''t know if giving you this technique is good or bad to the present you. After all, this technique is related to your willpower, will you be swallowed from the Refining Technique, or will you succeed in mastering that technique, I believe in you. I will need to prepare something for that then." As she said that, she disappeared. ... Alex is still clueless since the System didn''t answer him. No matter how curious he is, he can only learn it after he gets the technique. He only wants to know the measurement for body strength. "Young Master. I felt a presence outside. He is stronger than the Wind Leopard we face in this cave" Anna suddenly reports something. Alex immediately activates his Spirit Eyes. And indeed, judging from the energy inside him, he is indeed stronger than the Wind Leopard but not too much. If the Wind Leopard is an 8-Star, then he must be a 9-Star Martial Master. "Haha, What is this cave! I discovered this place after I found a giant boulder at the entrance. But I feel a big energy in front of me. This should be my Fateful Encounter." Echoing in the cave. Alex facepalmed. Because he worried about the danger in the cave. He didn''t cover the entrance since it was their escape route if something happened. He has completely forgotten to cover the entrance before refining his body. What''s done is done, he can only meet this person head-on. Judging from the voice, it is a male. Alex decided to recall Anna first to avoid him lusting for her beauty. He thought after he becomes a 4-Star Martial Master. He should be able to fight a normal 9-Star Martial Master. He found that he can summon Anna from a distance as long as it is within 10 meters from him. He decided to make her his trump card for the moment. He can summon Anna, and she will make a surprise attack if needed. Alex stood up with his clothes on. Finally, he saw the appearance of the one who entered this cave. Gray and oily hair, Overweight body, small eyes that were covered by his fat, fancy clothing giving him the impression of his fortunate upbringing. Alex was sure that this person comes from a rich family. 178 Hard Figh The Fatty suddenly came inside the room and saw a big blazing pond. He felt a very dense Spiritual Energy on the Pond. But suddenly he noticed Alex, who is standing beside the Pond and looking at him. He looks at Alex, who is younger than him a few years, and his cultivation is only 4-Star Martial Master. He was immediately looking down on him. "So you are the one who found this cave. Since I''m in a good mood today. I will kill you, painlessly." ''What the heck with this Fatty. He came and wanted to kill me? It seems he is that type of man. If Anna were here, he would be lusting in her and say something vulgar'' Alex''s expression darkened. It seems that a fight is necessary. "How dare you ignore me. Don''t you know who I am! I am the great Xian Hui, the third young master of Xian Family, one of the most prominent families in the Zhou Kingdom. It''s your honor to die in my blade. I even offered to kill you painlessly. But since you, a puny 4-Star Martial Master didn''t know what is good for you. I will kill you in a very painful way." The Fatty said as he pulled out his sword and charged at Alex with that oversized body. Alex sighed inwardly, this Fatty is so unreasonable, he bet this fatty always takes everything for granted. "Xian Family? I never heard of them. Since you want to kill me, then don''t blame for otherwise" "You! I will torture you first before I kill you. I will let you know, granting you death is a relief for you." Alex took out his Spear and Sword. When the Fatty gets in front of him and swing his sword. He also used his sword to block it. But the moment he takes the blow, "Heavy!" It''s not because of the fatty strength. Instead, the heaviness comes from his body weight. It seems the Fatty used his body weight to power up his strength. "Immovable Step" with the addition of power coming from his technique. Alex managed to make the clash become standstill. But the Fatty immediately released his spiritual energy, which makes his strength grow even more. Alex was starting to get push back again. Alex''s spear started glowing. He thrust his spear to fatty Xian''s face. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" Xian Hui felt something wrong on Alex''s spear. The moment Alex thrust his spear to his head. He avoided it. He retreated a few step backs. "Not only you use a sword, but you also use a spear. I change my mind. I don''t mind having you as my underling." "Dream on Fatty. I don''t mind chopping you into pieces. I''m sure your body can feed many a small family for a week if they don''t mind cannibalism." "You. How dare you say that to me. I''m the great third young master of Xian Family. I''m so generous to offer you to become my underling. But you didn''t appreciate that. I''m going to torture you first before I kill you." "You already said that before. It seems all the nutrients go to your body, not your brain. Be more creative, Fatty." "You! Don''t regret it" the Fatty thoroughly angered by Alex. His sword also started glowing. "Sword Serpent" Suddenly a massive snake appeared from his sword. It''s moving toward Alex. Alex raised his spear to test out what kind of Martial Arts is this. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" The stream of light flew toward the snake, but the snake suddenly open its mouth and swallow the light without any problem. Alex frowned. The moment the snake wants to swallow him. He suddenly disappeared. The fatty thought Alex was swallowed by his snake. Alex appeared above the snake. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fourteenth Slash" He used his Sanguin Sword Art at point blank range, and surprisingly, Alex managed to cut the snake. The Illusory snake soon disappeared. That means the snake is your ordinary Sword Art. "Desolation" He didn''t stop there. As soon as the snake disappeared. Five illusory sword appeared beside him and flew toward the Fatty. "Hmph! You want to fight me with this weak Martial Arts. Dream on." the Fatty only snorted upon seeing Alex''s meager Sword Art. It''s not even a Profound Tier Sword Art. "This is a Profound Tier Flame Arts. Eagle Authority" Soon, Five eagles made up by flame appeared and destroyed Alex''s Desolation. After destroying his desolation, they made their way toward him. Alex smirked, he thought, ''I can say that too. You want to fight me with this weak Fire Arts? Dream on'' "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix" He swung his hand horizontally. A big Fire Phoenix suddenly appeared from his hand. Just like a king, the Phoenix swallow those puny fire eagles. The scene surprise the Fatty, "What! How can your fire be stronger than mine? The Pond must be the reason. That''s right. I will kill you and take everything from the Pond. You are really not worthy of taking the Pond." The fatty suddenly appeared in front of him. This time, it was Alex''s turn to get surprised. Despite his big body, this fatty sure can move very fast. The moment he appeared, He is trying to punch Alex in the face. "Tiger Bone Fist" Although he was surprised by his speed. Alex immediately throw another fist to counter his fist. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Phoenix Claw" *Bang* The two fists collided. Alex was blown away by the force of Fatty Xian''s fist while Alex burned his arm. Alex crashed on the wall and spat out some blood. When he looked at the Fatty''s burned arm along with the smoke coming from his body because of his flame. He smirked. "Now you are roasted pork." "You. How dare you did this to me. I''m the Great Third Young Master of Xian Family. My Xian Family won''t let you off." "Yeah yeah. I heard you. You are the one who wanted to kill me from the beginning. I just retaliated. Now that even if I didn''t kill you, you would use your family to kill me. Then, the only option I have is to kill you right here." Alex said casually. He is planning to make the fatty angered to death. People with full anger tend to make a rash decision. Although the best option is to have Anna fight together with him, He didn''t like this Fatty lusting over her. After all, she is his...woman? Not yet. Whatever. Alex raised his sword. He needs to kill him as soon as possible. No way such a pampered person who is relying on his identity would go here without protection. ''Sanguin Sword Art? Might not be enough to kill him. Or do I need to release my Pure Fire?'' ''I will try to use my Sanguin Sword Art first with my current Fire'' Alex decided his course of action. He swung it down as a tyrannical Flame Sword Wave flew from his sword toward Fatty Xian. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash!" "Don''t underestimate me." Suddenly, the Fatty took another sword from his Space Ring. Alex frowned upon seeing his sword. The Fatty immediately swings his sword. "Ruby Sword Stone" With that swing, Alex''s Sword wave instantly destroyed. "Haha, this is a Rank 4 Sword. Something like this is impossible for poor people like you. Never thought I need this sword and my Sword Intent. That feeling just now, I never thought you could send your Sword Intent flying even though you are merely at 4-Star Martial Master. I will give you your last chance. Kneel to me and acknowledge me as your master under the Heavenly Oath. I will let this go." Heavenly Oath...This is the name of the most powerful promise under Heaven. Conn and other Elders from the sect also used this Oath when promising Alex to keep his identity a secret. Because the Heaven itself witnessing the Oath, the moment you break the promise, the Heaven will send its might to pulverize you. This isn''t an option, especially for Alex. Alex only looks at him like looking at a fool. "It seems you didn''t know what is right and what is wrong. Then, I will kill you right now" Xian Hui know the meaning of Alex''s gaze, he instantly angered. "Eagle Authority" Now that the fatty is serious, Alex decided to use everything in him. There are two eagles this time, unlike the previous time, these eagles are big. It seems he sacrifice the number to build up the quality. He also can see the Fatty behind those eagles with His Spirit Eyes, "Pure Fire ON." The Fire Phoenix Seed inside his body broke open, and his Pure Fire started gushing out from his body. The moment Pure Fire out, the other fires need to bow down. Alex stares at the two eagles and sends his Fire Energy. The eagles immediately pulverized. "What!" The fatty obviously surprised by it. "What is that flame. How can your flame stronger than mine! I can''t accept this. I will kill you." The Fatty madly using all of his power in this swing. "Ruby Sword Stone" "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash!" The Fatty using his Sword Art to split Alex in two. While Alex using his Elemental Sanguin Sword Art at point blank range. He also used his Pure Fire to boot. The power was very extraordinary. "Boom!" Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art is obviously the stronger one. It flew toward the ceiling and exploded. Unfortunately, it didn''t take Xian Hui''s life. At the last moment, Xian Hui managed to avoid Alex''s Sword wave, but it still cost him his entire left hand. "Argh! You! My Xian Family won''t let you off." "Shut up. Dead men tell no tales." Alex coldly said as he raised his sword again. "Hii, Don''t kill me. I will give you my Space Ring, so please spare my life." "I can take it after I kill you." Just as he wanted to swing his sword down, a voice echoed from his back. "Third Young Master!" "How dare you!" Two people came, one of them is 1-Star Martial Grandmaster, and the other is 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. The situation turns to worse. One of them charges toward him, and the other one goes toward Xian Hui to save him. Alex immediately turned and swung his sword. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash" He was pushed back by Alex''s Sword Wave. But the other one managed to save Xian Hui. He let Xian Hui down, leaning at the wall. "Kill! Xian Jian, Xian Tao Kill him!" Xian Hui furiously shouted, which make the other one also walked toward Alex, leaving Xian Hui defenseless. "Be careful. Even though he is only 4-Star Martial Master. He managed to defeat Young Master Xian Hui and also pushed me back." The one who took Alex''s blow, Xian Jian, said toward the one who save Xian Hui, Xian Tao. Alex needs to kill the weakest one first which is Xian Hui. In a split second, Alex took out Anna''s Card and summoned her and then throw her card inside the Inventory again. Fortunately, they didn''t take Xian Hui far away. Anna suddenly appeared in front of Xian Hui as she swings her big scythe. "Dark Cut" "You!" Xian Hui didn''t have any chance to react before his head fly. His servants noticed something happen behind their back and saw Xian Hui''s head fly to the air. "Third Young Master!" "Curse you, woman!" They madly rushed to Anna. Anna didn''t panic as she darkness suddenly plunged inside the cave "Dark Curtain." The moment ''Dark Curtain'' is up, Alex immediately recalled her back inside the card. This was his plan when he chose to summon Anna. Unfortunately, there are several flaws in this plan. First, The moment Alex recalled Anna back, the ''Dark Curtain will be undone. Second, He can''t summon Anna immediately in a short time. Like a ''Cooldown'' period inside the game. Alex can''t summon Anna in five minutes. The moment ''Dark Curtain'' is undone. Xian Jian and Xian Tao confused. The woman was nowhere to be seen and in front of them, only the lifeless body of Xian Hui. "Third Young Master has died. What will we do?" "We will be executed even if we go back!" "We can only bring his head and that woman head to pacify Family Lord. Since that woman is very pretty. I''m sure the Family Lord will be satisfied to have her accompany the Young Master." In the meantime, Alex is confirming his second trump card. Upon reaching the agreement, Xian Jian and Xian Tao charged toward Alex once again to claim his life first. At that moment, Alex used his second trump card. 179 Hard Fight 2 In the moment of confusion, Alex took out Leoz''s card out of his inventory. "Leoz. What are you doing right now? I need your help." "You can call me immediately, Young Master." "Can you kill a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster or 1-Star Martial Grandmaster in ambush?" Alex said, hurriedly. The time of their confusion is not long after all. "I''m not confident with the 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. But I''m absolutely sure I can kill a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster instantly in an ambush. I level up to 19 thanks to Young Master effort with Anna these few weeks." "Do you think it is possible for us along with Anna to kill a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster?" "I''m not sure." "How about with the addition of my Array?" Alex asked. But before Leoz answered, Alex saw the two servants of Xian Hui suddenly turned their focus on him. "Be ready, I will summon you next to a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster at any moment." When the two servants suddenly charged toward him. Alex immediately activate Leoz''s card. "Summon!" A muscular with yellow hair suddenly appeared beside Xian Jian while swinging his big sword. "Yellow Thunder Fang" "Xian Jian, beside you!" Xian Tao, who has higher cultivation, noticed the appearance of a new guy beside Xian Jian. Xian Jian turned his head to the side, but that is the last thing he does. Before the thunderous strike passed through his neck and killed him. "You Bastard!" Xian Tao was thoroughly angered. A big snake appeared from his sword, wanting to bit Leoz. "Serpent Sword" "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash" Of course Alex didn''t let him do so. He immediately released a sword wave with his full might and cut the snake. Leoz immediately took the chance to regroup with Alex. "How is it? Can you occupy him with your power alone?" "I''m not too sure about it. But I will try." "I think we need Anna to use ''Dark Curtain''. In that moment of darkness, I will strike him. With my Spirit Eyes, I can still see his position and avoid friendly fire. For now, there are three minutes left before I can summon Anna again. You will take the vanguard. I will support you." "Understood" Leoz nodded. "You! What are you! You are not a normal 4-Star Martial Master. There is no way they have such a powerful attack like that." Xian Tao is pointing his finger at Alex. Someone like him surely from a big influence. But because he killed Xian Hui. Either way, his life would be forfeited by the family because he failed to protect Xian Hui. It''s better to drag Alex too. "But since you killed my Young Master. Even if I go back, I will be killed by them. I better drag you down with me." "Want to kill my Young Master? Over my dead body!" Said Leoz as he started rushing toward Xian Hui, "Thunder Constellation." Suddenly, there is a kind of Star Constellation. But the shape looks like a Pivot Stickfigure. There are thirteen points in the constellation. One in the head, two on each hand and foot, and four in the body. Just like a star, the spots shining brightly before suddenly each of them produced thunder, and their target is Xian Tao. (AN: Pivot Stickfigure=Stickman) "Rank 2 Array. Binding Chain" Alex made an array with his hand. He put back his spear. This is the last way how to make an array besides planting it on the ground or wall for continuous usage and drawing them on Monster Beast Skin so other than an Array Master can use an Array. What Alex doing right now is a direct way of the second way. An Array plate with forty patterns has appeared, and four chains emerged from it. Each of them bind Xian Tao''s hands and feet. "What! You...You are an Array Master" Xian Tao was surprised by Alex''s identity. Offending an Array Master is a very important matter. Even Xian Family won''t offend an Array Master easily. There''s once a big family offending an Array Master. The Array Master was able to escape from his pursuers. Then, when the time he came back for revenge. He made a large Array, and his target is the family''s giant mansion. When the time he activated the array. The array engulfed everything inside it and kills the entire family. Even the strongest person in that family, a peak Martial Lord, was unable to escape and buried along with the rest of his family. Overpowered individual ability, unknown background, and many others. He is very sure that Alex has someone very powerful behind him. But now the thing has escalated this way. He can''t say it is all a misunderstanding and be done with it. He needs to kill Alex to prevent something like the story, happening to the Xian Family. When the chains bind his hands and feet. He immediately released the full might of 3-Star Martial Grandmaster and broke free from the restrain. He quickly punches toward the lightning strike that soon reaches him. "Soaring Fist" As his punch fully launched, a loud sound suddenly echoing in the cave. The thirteen lightning strikes exploded before they can reach Xian Tao. He then appeared in front of Leoz as he throws another punch toward him. Of course, Leoz able to react for that. Thunder has been covering his sword when Xian Tao moves toward him. "Soaring Fist" "Yellow Thunder Fang" This clash shook the cave. Leoz crashed onto the wall and spat some blood. It seems that this ''Xian Tao'' is even stronger with his fist than his sword. After he blew Leoz to the wall, he throws another punch toward Leoz while Leoz can''t break free after planted on the wall. Of course, Alex can''t let him do that. He immediately covered his sword with his Spear Intent. "Luminous Spear Technique. Pierce" The target oh this stream of light is Xian Tao''s fist. Before his fist reaches Leoz''s chest. Alex''s Luminous Spear Technique tries to pierce his fist. "Boom!" The fist landed on the wall an inch away from Leoz. Although Alex can''t pierce Xian Tao''s fist, he managed to deflect it a bit so it won''t hit Leoz. And because of that fist, Leoz broke free from his restraint and went back beside Alex swiftly. "Thank you, Young Master." Alex only nodded to him. Anna''s cooldown finally finished. He took out Anna''s card from his back and summoned her. It''s a bit shame that he can''t summon Anna within five minutes after he summoned her. If not, what kind of attack pattern will that be... he will be matchless. He can summon Leoz after he recalled him was because he summoned him almost a month ago, and the cooldown has finished long ago. Anna appeared behind him. "To think you also have Spear Intent. That is more reason why I need to kill you. And that woman. I will surely make her accompany the Third Young Master in the next life." Xian Tao looked at Alex and the rest hatefully. "Anna, can you use your energy to decrease his reaction speed?" "I''m sorry Young Master. I am afraid I can''t do that because of our difference in strength." "I see. You will be our support for now with me. Leoz will be the vanguard." "Understood" Both of them replied. "Leoz, try to distract him with your ''Thunder Constellation'' again. While he is distracted, I want Anna to raise the ''Dark Curtain'' up." Both of them nodded. Leoz raised his hand. "Thunder Constellation" Thirteen Thunder strike down toward Xian Tao. He casually punches the thunders with his ''Soaring Fist'' while looking at the destroyed lightning, "It''s useless. Although you three possessed a remarkable ability. Our difference is too big." "Dark Curtain" The instant Xian Tao looked upward while destroying the thunders. Anna immediately raised her ''Dark Curtain''. All the cave immediately becomes pitch black without any light to see. Alex uses his Spirit Eyes to see Xian Tao''s position and aiming his attack on there. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fourteenth Slash" "What!" Because of the sudden changes. Xian Tao was bewildered, before he recognized what is happening, Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art has cut one of his hands. Unfortunately, because of his surprise, he moves a little and manages to avoid Alex''s Sword Wave. And Alex''s Sword Wave continue flying toward the end of the Dark Curtain and blasted it. The Dark Curtain crumbled to pieces after it got cut by the sword wave. "Argh!" Xian Tao is clenching his hand painfully. He glared madly toward Alex and the rest. "You are the one who forced me to take this pill." He swallowed a pill, and suddenly, the energy around him sparked, and he becomes 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. Alex frowned, "That is Rank 3 Ferocious Pill. Ferocious Pill focused only on Martial artists in Grandmaster Stage. It makes the user didn''t feel any moment and forcefully advance his cultivation. It is the last struggle pill. After the pill effect ended, he will be weakened." "That''s right. Now I am a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, I will definitely kill you with this pill." "This is bad. What can I do..." Alex immediately used all of his brainpower to think up a solution. And ultimately, he found a solution, but he wasn''t sure if it doable or not. He thought about escaping using his Teleportation Array Plate. But the moment he thought about that, his memory about the Hero and Alicia flashed his mind. The so-called one of the biggest families in the Zhou Kingdom, won''t let their Young Master go with only Grandmaster Stage Martial artists as his protector, won''t they? If he escaped from here and Xian Tao informs their Xian Family. A tragedy like Alicia might happen again. He needs to kill his opponent. If not, they might retaliate against him later. "Anna, Leoz. Can you buy me time for a few...no, one second is enough?" Alex asked. "If we combine our strength. Maybe" Leoz nodded. Anna also nodded. [Host, are you sure about that?] Just like that. The System also knows what his plan is without even explaining. "It''s a gamble, though. I need to be sure that I won''t regret my decision to spare my enemy anymore." Alex said, wryly. The System didn''t say anything more. Alex raised his sword, and suddenly, the Fire Element from the pond go toward his sword using his body as a medium. He spat blood because of that. Using his body as a medium for those energies is a very reckless thing. Anna and Leoz who saw him doing that gritted their teeth. They wanted to complain about their Young Master to do such a reckless thing but they can''t at the moment. Because, if he stopped it, the rebound effect would be higher. They gritted their teeth as they moved forward as Xian Tao also become restless. When he saw Alex''s technique, He felt dread even though he doesn''t know what Alex is going to do. The moment Xian Tao charged toward Alex. Anna and Leoz intercepted him. "Genesis Bind" "Thunder Ring" A black hole appeared on the ground with a few black like tentacles rose from it and bind Xian Tao. Leoz also created four yellow ring, sparking with thunder on Xian Tao''s hands and feet. "Full Throttle!" Alex finally used this technique. ''Full Throttle'' is a technique Alex got from the gacha after he won the Tournament in Limewatch Town. The technique will increase his strength by 20% for five minutes. After five minutes, he will be weakened by 50% for three hours. And he can only use this technique once in a day. He didn''t have any chance to use this technique since he wasn''t desperate enough to use it. But this time is different. If he did not use it at this moment, when will he use it... A second later, Xian Tao released himself from that restraint by force. "Haha, you won''t be able to restrict me with that puny strength." "No. That''s enough, I just need to make sure you can''t dodge my technique." As he said that, Alex swung his sword down. "Seven Stars Cut" He formed three layers Sword Wave and infused them with his Pure Fire. Then, his Sword Intent worked like magic and fused the three layers into one, giving it a more powerful impact in the Sword Wave. After using ''Seven Stars Cut'', Alex spat blood. "You can''t defeat me!" Xian Tao felt dread on this sword wave. This is a different technique from before. But he can''t dodge it, he can only counter it with his fist. "Soaring Fist" 180 Raising Fund "Soaring Fist" Xian Tao''s fist collides with Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. The ground was shaking, and the wall was vibrating. They felt strong winds blowing their body. "Ha!" Xian Tao uses every ounce of his strength. He felt Alex''s Sword Wave was far stronger than any of his previous attacks. He can only bet on his life to block this attack. But the conclusion came suddenly. Alex Sword Wave cut through Xian Tao''s energy which covering his fist. It continues toward his hand, and last split him into half. With Xian Tao''s life, Anna leveled up. Now, Anna is level 15, and Leoz is still level 19, but his exp has increased considerably. When Anna and Leoz overjoyed with the result, "Cough!" Alex suddenly spat out blood and dropped in his knees. Although his ''Full Throttle'' is still in effect, the side effect for using a borrowed power from the pond weakens him. "Young Master!" Anna and Leoz immediately checked him. "It''s okay. Firstly, Anna, Leoz. I want you to cover the entrance and clear the rock, so no one realizes there is something here and won''t bother us for a while." "Understood." Leoz only nodded since it is the best option. If they were bothered again, Alex would inevitably join the fight, and it will only worsen his condition. While they fix the entrance, Alex can relax and recuperate here. "But Young Master..." Anna also has a point. Even though it is the best choice for them. Her heart hurt in leaving Alex in his current condition. "I''m alright for now. I can stabilize myself here. But if there is another fight like this. He/she will wipe us out." Alex comforted Anna and told his reasoning, which Anna has already known. Anna sighed and left his side to do her job, albeit reluctantly. She will fix the entrance swiftly, in order to return to Alex''s side as soon as possible. After Anna and Leoz left, He started recuperating his injuries. And once again, [Congratulations, Host. You just earned another three months to build your foundation after you reached 5-Star Martial Master] "Shut up. Don''t rub salt on my wound" Alex snorted jokingly. He checked his current condition, "I can stabilize myself in four days. Then, I can return to my full strength in a week. I will also raise some funds on my way back home." After a few minutes, Anna and Leoz came back. Alex looked at Leoz, "Leoz, what are you going to do now, and how far your previous location to this Zunde Field?" "Zunde Field..." Leoz suddenly took out a map from his backpack. Now that Alex looked at it. "Leoz, you didn''t have anything like Inventory or Spare Ring?" "Inventory is Master sole possession. As for Space Ring, I''m thinking of exchanging my hunt for Spirit Stones and buy a Space Ring." Facepalmed, Alex sighed. "Sorry, this is my fault. I neglect this part." "No. It wasn''t your fault, Young Master. We are alone in this world without anyone supporting us. Everything we got came from our own hard work." "..." Alex paused a bit before asking again. "What are you going to do now?" "I will wait for Young Master to recuperate first before continuing my mission." "If that so, wait first. I will buy you a Space Ring in a nearby town" Alex said. Leoz wanted to reject, but Alex stopped him. After reaching an agreement with Alex. Leoz explaining his current situation. "This is Zunde Field, and this is Thiveapia Kingdom. I was leveling up in this forest." Leoz pointed out at a forest called Ebony Lizard Woodland. Alex looked at it and thought of a plan. "I will recuperate for a few days. Then go back home. But, Assuming that fatty is a Young Master of a big family. I assume there would be another one waiting for him in the nearest town, which is Springmond Town. Such as I''m planning to go in the opposite direction. That means, I''m going to Shades Town, Finwold City, until I reach the sect. Since we are going in the same direction, I will buy a Space Ring in the Shades Town for you. Then, Anna and I will go back to the sect while you will continue the mission." "Should I change my mission from Thiveapia Kingdom to Zhou Kingdom and observe the situation around Xian Family?" Alex pondered a bit then shook his head. "No, for the time being. They didn''t know their fatty died in our hands. If we suddenly did that, we will only alarm them. So, I want you to continue your mission and search around Thiveapia Kingdom." "Understood" Leoz nodded. After cleaning the dead bodies, Alex recuperate wholeheartedly. Four days have passed. Alex has stabilized his strength. After stabilizing his strength, Alex refined all the pill ingredients he had at the moment. He made fifty Fire Spirit Pills and twenty Jade Heart Pill. But it took him another two days to make all of them. "Leoz, Anna, we are going back now." "Yes, Young Master" Both of them answered. Not long after, they went out of the cave and then fixed the entrance again, so no one will notice there is something inside. The position of this cave was pretty covered by the woods, and if not because of the giant boulder in front of the entrance, Xian Hui and the rest wouldn''t notice them. So, Fixing the entrance to make them natural can blind people who are passing here. After that, all of them started flying toward Shades Town. Fortunately, they didn''t sense anyone powerful searching in the area. When they arrived, Alex recalled Anna and have Leoz to protect him. Alex put his mask on along with his long black robe to conceal his aura and cultivation. Their destination is the Alchemist Guild. For what? Of course, to sell pills. This is Alex''s way of raising a fund. Sell the pills, get Spirit Stones, buy the ingredients, and make pill from those ingredients, and lastly, sell it in another town. Repeating that process, Alex can get money without alarming the power inside that town. Shades'' Town Alchemist Guild wasn''t that luxurious compared to the one in Heavenly Sword Town, but it still grand enough. As expected of Alchemist Guild, they had a deep pocket. Alex walked toward the receptionist. This receptionist is a polite looking middle-aged man, Although there is nothing remarkable in his appearance, he can feel he will be able to serve him well. Alex goes to him since the one beside him currently handling the customers. The two customers are ladies. On the right, she has straight blonde hair reaching to her waist, along with Shining blue eyes set gracefully within their sockets. There is no trace of arrogance in her cheerful expression. Alex can''t see through her cultivation but after activating his Spirit Eyes. He can see boundless energy inside her tiny body. It made Alex overwhelmed upon seeing her energy. He never thought inside that 5 ft body of her has so much energy that far surpassed Xian Tao''s at 5-Star Grandmaster Stage. But even though she is a bit short, she indeed has a good body. The curves and edges indeed perfectly complement her small body. Beside her is another lady with long green hair. Unlike the one beside her, who appears to be cheerful and easygoing, this lady has an elegant aura surrounding her. Her green eyes are giving an aura of politeness. When Alex saw her energy, it seems she is far weaker than the blonde but still stronger than Xian Tao. She has a modest curve and edges. A long dress would be perfect for her. "I need a Jade Heart Pill. Do you have one?" The blonde asked. "We had one yesterday, but Hesna Family already bought it." The receptionist apologized to her. "I see" The blonde said, a bit downcast. "Senior Sister. Why do you suddenly want to buy Jade Heart Pill?" "You know that Master wanted me to take another disciple under me, right?" "Yes. He would be the second after me. But, Master is the one who forced you to do it. I was confused as to why Master suddenly wanted Senior Sister to take another disciple, especially a male." Even though, the green hair was a bit irritated. There is no trace of hate in her tone. "No matter what! He would be your Junior Brother. Since he is a new disciple, he must be a Martial Master. I should give him a meeting for the first meeting." She said cheerfully. Even though her appearance was cheerful and carefree, she was, in fact, a responsible person. "Haiz. It''s really fortunate to be under your tutelage, Senior Sister. Of course, I''m one of them. Master also treated me well." "Ahaha, you make me embarrassed. Well, since there is no Jade Heart Pill in this town. We need to stop at the next town again to see if they have it until we reached the sect." Just as they wanted to go, Alex and Leoz came. They have no knowledge about the two ladies'' need beside them since they just came in. "How can I help you?" The middle-aged man asked Alex and Leoz politely. "I want to sell my pills" Alex said. "Very well. I will call the elder, who is in charge of identifying the pill. If possible, would you please tell me what is your excellency pill and its quantity?" "Fifty Fire Spirit Pills and Twenty Jade Heart Pills" Alex said. When Alex said that, The old man in front of him froze along with the receptionist beside him and the two ladies. "I will immediately call the elder" The old receptionist goes to the back room hurriedly. "Senior Sister?" The green-haired lady was signaling her senior sister. "Wait a bit." She can see Leoz''s cultivation, which is a 9-Star Martial Master. But she can see through Alex''s cultivation. She didn''t feel anything from Alex, in fact. From her experience, usually, if she can''t feel someone''s cultivation. It means he/she was stronger than her. She is wondering who is this person in front of her. From the look of it, the muscular man is the masked man''s disciple. If his cultivation is high, it is possible for this masked man actually a high ranking Alchemist. But why he only sell Rank 2 Pills? She is unable to understand this. Especially, she felt his voice that of a young man. Is he come from... Not long after, the old receptionist came back along with another elderly. Alex took out seven bottles, each of them contained ten pills. "You can check. All of them have the same quality. Give me the price." When he opened the lid, the pill aroma that was confined inside the bottle burst out. The rich aroma coming from ten perfect purity fills the room. The elder, who check them, shocked. "This...this...Perfect Purity Jade Heart Pill" Not only the elder. This also shocks other people besides him. They remembered the words this mysterious man said. Fifty Fire Spirit Pills...Twenty Jade Heart Pills...and they have the same purity? Doesn''t that mean all of them are Perfect Purity Pills? They were somehow able to ignore the Perfect Fire Spirit Pills. But, to make twenty Perfect Jade Heart Pills... Even though Rank 3 Alchemist can make Perfect Jade Heart Pill. The chance to succeed in it is low. To make so many Jade Heart Pill, It is either the Alchemist has a higher rank than Rank 3 Alchemist or he accumulates them. "Sir. We will buy the Fire Spirit Pills for a thousand Spirit Stones each and two thousand Spirit Stones for Jade Heart Pills." The elder said hurriedly. Although their normal price is around one thousand eight hundred Spirit Stones for Perfect Purity Jade Heart Pill. It is different when someone wants to sell it in bulk. They can stock up and preserve the pills for a long time and release them in an Auction. For something that hard to come by appeared. He is sure that the families in this town would offer a better price in the auction. "Sure." Alex nodded. It is the same price as the Alchemist Guild in Heavenly Sword Town. He had prepared himself if the Guild in this town offer a slightly lower price since the price in Heavenly Sword Town was higher. But since he offers the same price. Of course, he would accept it. Then suddenly, a blonde comes to him, "I''m sorry, Sir. Would you able to part one of the Jade Heart pills to me. I will also pay the same price." 181 Battle Tower "I''m sorry, Sir. Would you able to part one of the Jade Heart pills to me. I will also pay the same price." Alex looked at the blonde girl. He casually said, "Oh. Sure" Although it is a bit awkward for them from Alchemist Guild, after all, one of Jade Heart Pills was bought(stolen) just like that. They can only compromise in their heart since the one who sell them was okay with it. At least, there are still nineteen Jade Heart Pills left. After giving two thousand Spirit Stones to Alex, The two ladies said their thanks to him and left. "Senior Sister. Are we going to follow him?" "No. I''m sure you can see the cultivation from the yellow-haired man, right?" "Yes. He was a 9-Star Martial Master." "Indeed. But Even I, unable to see the cultivation of the masked man. I''m sure you know what I mean." "Even Senior Sister? Aren''t Senior Sister a 3-Star Martial Lord" The green-haired girl shocked by the fact. She also knows what it means, after all, she has many experiences about that after following this senior sister of her many times. "Let''s drop this topic. We might not see him again later." "Yes" ... In the Alchemist Guild. "This is sixty eight thousand Spirit Stones, Sir." Alex nodded. Before taking the Spirit Stones, he said. "Do you sell Space Ring here?" "How much space do you need inside, Sir? The biggest one is a fifty meter cubic Space Ring, which cost you twenty thousand Spirit Stones." "Then, I will take that one." Alex said. He then looked at Leoz and back to the receptionist mysteriously. "How many sets of ingredients for Jade Heart Pill and Fire Spirit Pill do you have?" "We have fifty set of Fire Spirit Pill and thirty sets of Jade Heart Pill at the moment" The receptionist and the elder can perceive something when Alex looks at Leoz. They misunderstood, they thought Leoz was Alex''s disciple, and he was thinking how many he would buy to train this disciple of his. "Thirty Fire Spirit Pill and twenty Jade Heart Pill, You can deduct it from the sell." "Understood." The elder especially goes to the back to search the medicinal ingredients by himself. After all, he is also an Alchemist, though not a high rank one. He still needs to respect someone better than him, even though he is older than the one in front of him. Strength and Skill make you the senior one. Not long after, the elder came back with a Space Ring. The elder gave him the Space Ring to Alex. "This is the Space Ring, Sir. I have put the ingredients along with forty five thousand six hundred Spirit Stones inside. Fire Spirit Pills is forty Spirit Stones, and Jade Heart Pills is sixty Spirit Stones along with twenty thousand for the Space Ring. The total is twenty two thousand four hundred Spirit Stones." Alex nodded and accepted the Space Ring then left the guild. After leaving the town, Alex said goodbye to Leoz, who will continue leveling up to Grandmaster Stage before investigating Thiveapia Kingdom. Alex went to the second destination, Finwold City. He repeated the same process a few times, earning him a total of two hundred thousand Spirit Stones. Since there are only three other towns after he visited Finwold City. And he finally arrived at Heavenly Sword Town. It took him almost two weeks to pull that off. His money went from a measly five hundred Spirit Stones to two hundred thousand Spirit Stones. It was a big accomplishment. Of course, all of it can be achieved was because of Alex''s specialty. Unlike normal High 2nd Rank Alchemist, Alex didn''t need to waste any materials since all of that can be achieved in his Simulation Room. It might cut their profit to half with only practicing. Then, they weren''t a hundred percent sure they can make a perfect purity pill, which is another cut on their revenue. He will use those Spirit Stones for cultivation, powering arrays, and many others. At first, he wanted to sell those pills as much as possible. But he decided not to, if he did that, he might destroy the market and his pills would be useless. He thought about buying a few rank 3 pill ingredients. Regrettably, the towns/cities he visited, didn''t have those since most of them didn''t have any Rank 3 Alchemist. He had visited a slightly bigger city that has Rank 3 Alchemists in it. Still, he was disappointed because of the quality of the ingredients, not to his standard. So he thought about buying them in Heavenly Sword Town for later purposes. After all, he might need to do a close cultivation inside the sect for six months to consolidate his foundation. Alex got an unpleasantries surprise after he reached Heavenly Sword Town, specifically Heavenly Sword Town''s Alchemist Guild. He saw a young girl with pink hair tied in a ponytail, modest curves, and that carefree but repugnant expression from Alex''s point of view. The one beside her is a white-haired but familiar face old man, and as usual, there is no trace of strictness in his expression. "Elder Su Hua and Young Miss Su Yue. We have been waiting for you. It''s our honor to have your presence in this guild. As the Guild master, I welcome you" A middle-aged man who appeared to be the Guild Master said to him. Violet hair, fierce-looking eyes, and strict aura. And there is a badge with four silver stars on his chest. Yep, they are Su Hua and Su Yue. "Hoho, Don''t worry, you can do your job as usual, I won''t put my hand in the management. My granddaughter and I will be settling here for quite a while. There is something I need to do for the sect around here, so thank you for your hospitalities." Alex immediately understand. They came here for him. Alex''s face darkened. He ignores their presence and buys several sets of ingredients for rank 3 pills and leave hurriedly before they noticed his presence. Since he is going to cultivate inside the sect for a long time. He thought they would return in disappointment. Hopefully, they aren''t that stubborn. Alex finally returns to the sect after a month of journey. He didn''t go toward his courtyard. Instead, he goes toward the Exchange Pavilion first to turn his mission. On the second floor, he found someone turning his mission and went away. He then turned his own missions. When the elder who was in charge of him saw his bounty, he was surprised. "190 Ofty Grass, 72 Twin Snake poison sacs, 50 Reen Wood Log, and 520 Savage Bison Tongues. You would get 190 points for Ofty Grass, two points for each poison sac, 72 Poison sacs mean you get 144 points, 50 Reen Wood Log equal to 50 points. And lastly, 520 Points for Savage Bison tongues. You get a total of 904 Sect Points. Give me your token." Alex nodded. Each mission earned him a single sect point. But, usually, people ordered them in a bulk of five or ten. So, the mission is like that. He handed him his token, and the elder updates his points for him. His ''0'' points suddenly become ''904''. "Elder, is there another way to earn points besides completing missions?" "Hmm, Judging from your ''0'' points, you must be a new disciple in this sect. There is one more way to earn points. That is the Battle Tower" "Battle Tower?" "Yes. I''m sure you know about two rankings, Outer Disciple Ranking and Inner Disciple Ranking, right?" "Yes" Alex nodded "If you have a ranking, then you will get a certain point each month. If it is your first time in the ranking. There is an achievement. Hmm, I''m not good at explaining, how should I explain this...You would get a certain points if you managed to put your name inside the ranking. Let say if you are rank 500 in Outer Disciple Ranking from no-ranker, you can get around 200 sect points. As for the specific number, the elder in charge of Battle Tower will calculate it for you. This is called an achievement. But if you are already rank 500 but your rank drops to 700, and you rechallenge the tower and go back to your previous rank. You won''t get an achievement. After all, you had reached that in the past. The points usually used for in Martial Arts Pavilion or in here, Exchange Pavilion for weapon or pill." Alex pondered for a moment. He can defeat Xian Hui, a 9-Star Martial Master, together with Anna. Alex''s combat ability alone should be around 9-Star Martial Master. But it is with his Fire and Spear. If he didn''t use them, then he is around 8-Star Martial Master. It is pretty high ranked in Martial Master rank. Of course, Xian Tao wasn''t calculated since he needs to use the power of the pond and many others. And it was only for a single attack with Leoz and Anna binding him down. "I think it''s time to go there. If someone is trying to get me into trouble, I will make that woman busy. She is already a Martial Grandmaster, after all." "Thank you, Elder" Alex thanks him and left. Unbeknownst to him, two people observe him while he turns in his missions. Alex flies toward Battle Tower, and suddenly, he notices two presence coming to him. They block his way. Alex frowned, he sees through their cultivation immediately. In the right is 6-Star Martial Master, and the left one is a 5-Star Martial Master. "Haha, rookie. Judging from your direction, you are going to the Battle Tower, right? But if you want to go there, you need to pay us. I''m very generous, so I will let you off with only eight hundred Sect Points. So, if you are smart, you should know what to do." The 6-Star Martial Master said arrogantly. Alex sighs inwardly, why he encounters something like this the moment he back in the sect. What? Is he going to say he is someone higher subordinate after he defeats him? And judging from their exorbitant but specific demand, it seems they observe him when he is turning his mission. He looked at the two dumb-asses in front of his. "Dream on." "Don''t you know who I am? I am the great Tata, with only three years, I managed to reach rank 625th. So, I will give you a second chance. Give your point to me, or you will regret it." "That''s right. Just do as Senior Brother said, we only want your points." "You are the one who will regret it, not me." Alex said casually. "Hmph, It seems I need to teach some rules to a newbie like you. You are only 4-Star Martial Master, but we are 5-Star and 6-Star Martial Master. Strength is all that matters, and you don''t have the strength to beat us." "I agree with you. Strength is all that matters" Alex took out his sword and disappeared. "Where is he? Be careful, and he has speed." The stronger one suddenly took out his big hammer while the weaker one pulled out his dagger. "Boyan, behind you." "Should solve the easiest problem first." Alex suddenly appeared behind the weaker one, who seems to be called Boyan. Alex sent a round kick to him, "Immovable Step" Without have any chance to react, Alex''s foot already reached his chest. It blew him away and destroying a few trees in his path. It should leave him with a few broken ribs and a few months or a year of recuperation. "You! I will cripple you" Of course, Tata is angry seeing Boyan become like that. The blood comes to his brain until he forgets why Alex can trounce a 5-Star Martial Master. "Earth Hammer" The moment he used that technique, Alex immediately activate his Spirit Eyes and see Spiritual Energy Movement inside the ground, and his target is him. The moment the Spiritual Energy sparked in the ground, Alex immediately jump backward. Three Rock Spikes suddenly rose from the ground, if he didn''t jump backward, those spikes might pierce his hands and feet. ''What a vicious move'' Alex said inwardly. Alex swings his sword. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fourteenth Slash!" "Earth Defender" An earth wall appeared in front of Tata. And surprisingly, it blocked Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art completely, of course, without Sword Intent or Fire Element. Alex appeared behind Tata, trying to beat him. Tata suddenly felt dread with Alex''s power, he completely underestimated Alex. This is not a power of 4-Star Martial Master. "Earth Defender" He suddenly locked himself in a box of Earth wall. He thought since Alex can''t destroy it in his attack. He would be safe, and Alex would lose interest in him. He can''t beg his life to him, so this is a solution for him. Then, after Alex went away. He would leave and get his revenge later. 182 Battle Tower *Clang* Alex tried destroying the earth wall a couple of times. His Sanguin Sword Art was useless without Sword Intent. It seems and sending Sword Intent as a Martial Master would be unusual and eye-catching, also it still not the time to show it yet. Suddenly an idea flashed his mind, there is one more thing he hasn''t done that completely normal. First, he covers his Sword with his Sword Intent. This is considered normal even for a new disciple. He would only be branded as a somewhat genius by others. He struck the wall casually. "First Strike" After hearing the half-ass effort from Alex. It seems that Alex''s would give up soon. "Second Strike" But after the stronger second strike, Tata frowned. He noticed the Sword Intent from outside. ''For a new disciple to have a Sword Intent. Is he also a disciple for an inner or core disciple?'' "Third Strike" Again, the strike gets stronger. Tata tries breaking Alex''s concentration. "New Disciple. It''s better to leave me alone." "Fourth Strike" Alex ignored his words and continued. "Fifth Strike" *Crack* There is a sudden crack sound. Alex has been striking at the same spot for five times. It seems that his effort going to be rewarded soon. On the contrary, Tata sweatdropped. ''Is he really a 4-Star Martial Master?'' "Junior Brother. You should stop now. We can still go on our own way after this and pretend nothing happens. I''m under-" Tata didn''t finish his word before Alex suddenly, "Sixth Strike" *Baam!* Alex finally broke the wall. Tata hurriedly said, "I''m under Jarel Hoy, an inner-" "Don''t care" Alex didn''t let him finish his word and kick him in the chest strong enough to spat some blood. "You want to rob me. Then, I will let you off after I rob you completely. You are lucky since we can''t kill people in the sect. Now hand over your points. If not, you will also meet the same fate as your friend!" "I-I will give you." He sweatdropped. Looking at his friend''s injury, He needs around a year for recuperation. If that also happened to him, he would be abandoned by his tutor. It''s better to give him his point first then reported it to his tutor to take revenge for him. Alex also heard ''Inner'' in his words, that means, his backing is an Inner Disciple. He would just trouble Himura Minami after he participated in the Battle Tower. Giving her one or two pills should be enough to pay her back for that. Tata transfer his points to Alex. In the transfer process, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see what happen but didn''t see anything. He saw his points increased three hundred points. He looked at Tata coldly. "Only 330?" "That''s all I have. Look!" Tata showed him his card with a big zero on it. "I have given my points, so please let me go." "I''m not like you who bully the weak. But since the weak want to bully me, I don''t mind teaching them the ''bullying''. That is the price, if you come again, then the price would be higher." Alex coldly said. It was mean to threaten him, but he was sure that it wouldn''t stop him. After he got his points, he left, forgetting the man he knocked previously. Not long after, Alex saw the figure of the Battle Tower. It was like a big rectangular stone pillar. On the surface, Alex can see around a hundred doors on it divided by twenty floors. The place is bustling with people. Alex searches for the one in charge. After he found him, Alex landed nearby. And to his surprise, there are two familiar figures caught his eyes. With their black hair fluttering, Their beauty is noticeable even in a crowd of people. One of them has a tiny figure, and the other one has a sexy body. "Ah! It''s big brother Alex" The tiny one noticed him and approached him. Of course, the older one focused her eyes on him. They are Evelyn and Lena, the two sisters from Thiveapia Kingdom. Before Alex say anything. *Poof* Like magic, a small white fox suddenly appeared above his head. With the uniqueness of her pinkish tip on her fur. It adds another layer of cuteness in her. Of course, for girls like Lena and Evelyn, they can''t resist this. "Wha! A cute fox" Evelyn eyes turned to stars. Lena didn''t say anything, but she is faster than her sister. She wanted to grab the fox on Alex''s head before Sherry suddenly jumped forward. She thought Sherry must appreciate her and want her hug. Sadly, the moment they almost hug, Sherry suddenly rolls around and kicks her head. Sherry has blown her away and leap back to Alex''s head while pointing at Lena "Wuu Wuu(I notice that girl didn''t like you, so I beat her)" It seems that she is proud of it. Alex can only give a wry smile. "A cute fox! Big brother Alex, is this fox yours? Evelyn asked "Yeah, her name is Sherry." Said Alex while Sherry crosses her hand and nods her head in agreement. "Can I touch her?" Evelyn timidly asked, but even that didn''t hide her eagerness. "Sherry?" Sherry isn''t a pet for him but a partner. Of course, he will ask her first. "Wuu" Sherry leaped from his head to Evelyn''s head and patted her head a few times. Evelyn slowly raises her hands as she grabs her then, finally hugging her. At that time, Lena came back. She was angry as expected. "Evelyn, give me that fox. I will teach that fox manners." Of course, Sherry felt offended by that. She leaped out of Evelyn''s embrace and tried to strike Lena with her small paw. This time, Lena has prepared herself from this attack. She also threw her fist at Sherry. Because of the clash, Alex finally see Sherry''s cultivation. She is currently at 4-Star Master Stage, the same as him. Sadly, Lena herself is at 6-Star Master Stage. Even though Sherry is a beast, she isn''t in her big form. Of course, she would lose this clash. Lena blow Sherry away. And to make it more dramatic, Sherry looks like she is powerless. Not only she loses in her power, but she also leaped toward Alex dramatically. "Wuu" She looks like a pitiful fox. "Wuu Wuu (Master, I was too powerless, I can''t protect you from that witch)" Alex makes a wry smile, not because of her words, but her hidden intention. He felt her real intention, if he not wrong, then her hidden intention was like this, ''Because of that, feed me more so I can get stronger.'' "Elder Sister! How can you bully Sherry!" Evelyn shouted. Alex was surprised by it, ''Don''t tell me, in just an instant, Evelyn fall to Sherry''s charm? And Sherry did this deliberately?'' Alex looked at the fox above his head, who noticed his gaze and disappeared, ''What a sly fox.'' (AN: Literally) "Evelyn!" Lena was also shocked by it. She never thought her lovely sister talk back to her like that. "Ahaha, It''s better to stop now." Alex tried to stop them. Evelyn stopped, she realized her mistakes. "I''m sorry, Elder Sister." "I''m the wrong one. I shouldn''t react that much" "That''s right. Big brother Alex, are you going to challenge the battle tower?" Evelyn asked "Yeah" "Then, I can guide you there. I was there a moment ago. Elder Sister and I challenge the ranking. Sister managed to reach rank 721st. While I can''t even get any rank" She smiled brightly but become downcast when she said she couldn''t get a rank. Lena proudly puffs her chest when she got rank 721. "Hmph, this is my first time entering Battle Tower. In my second chance, I can easily past the 500th mark. "Is that alright with you? I would appreciate that, I don''t know anything about battle tower after all." Alex accepted her offer after looking at her honest face. He thought it was rude to reject her. "Un! Let''s see. Big brother will be transported in a forest and fight many monsters. The monsters are from 1-Star Martial Master to 10-Star Martial Master. You will get one point if you kill a 1-Star Martial Master monster and ten points if you kill a 10-Star Martial Master." Explains Evelyn while walking toward Battle Tower. "I see. But looking at the tower, there are many rooms, are they linked with each other? I mean, will we meet other people from other rooms?" "You didn''t know about this? This great Lena will explain it to you." Lena said proudly. "No. Even though they are side by side, each room is isolated, so big brother won''t meet any other. This is the famous ''Battle Simulation Room'' of Heavenly Sword Sect. Practicing in a fight help simulate our progress. And every monster you kill will make the energy inside the room higher. That way, after you were killed or give up inside the room. You can absorb the energy inside the room and boost your cultivation." Without waiting for Lena, Evelyn has explained all of them to Alex. Of course, Alex listened to her instead of Lena. "I see" Alex pondered for a moment. He thought a plan but didn''t know if he can succeed. Lena was in shock this whole time. She was thinking where is her cute and obedient sister? Not only she has ignored her, she also took her ''job''. She didn''t know why but she wanted to let out her tears at this moment. Evelyn continue leading him to Battle Tower. Now that he looks at it from up close, the tower is really colossal. There are two big stele beside it. One of them is Outer Disciple Ranking, and the other is Inner Disciple Ranking. There are only a hundred names on each stele. But suddenly, at the bottom of the Outer Disciple Ranking glow. ''841st. Abimanyu Asheesh - 131 Points'' And the stele''s display suddenly changed. If before the display was for 1-100th. Then this time, it is for 800-900th. The name of ''Abimanyu Asheesh'' suddenly appeared in the position of 840th and pushed the other below him down. ''Oh, it is like a big Electronic Advertisement Board (Fantasy Version)'' Not long after, It changed back to the ''1-100th'' display. On the 100th, there is Mirko with 359 points. And the top is Emil with 572 Points. "Big brother Alex, it was tough to fight those monsters continuously. Sometimes, the monsters group up to fight us, and sometimes they are alone. I searched for the one who is alone. I only get 52 points, but the energy made me advance to 2-Star Martial Master. But I still can''t be compared with Big brother Alex''s progress." Said Evelyn. Lena suddenly looks at Alex and finally noticed his strength, she was surprised to see Alex become a 4-Star Martial Master. In only a month, Alex managed to become a 4-Star Martial Master from 2-Star Martial Master, how can she not be shocked by this? She grits her teeth, she will cultivate hard after this. "Don''t be like that. I''m just lucky enough. You have talent, Evelyn. So don''t beat yourself too hard" Alex comfort her. "Un!" "Then, I''m going first" Alex said. "Yes. See you later big brother." Evelyn waves her hand. "Are you going to wait?" Alex asked. "Un! I''m curious about big brother''s result" Evelyn nodded earnestly. "Ahaha, you don''t need to wait for me." Said Alex with a wry smile. "We just want to compare our result with you." Lena said. From the look of it, She seems curious too. Alex sighed helplessly as he went to the elder in charge of the register. The elder didn''t say anything. He only sticks out his hand. "Your token." After giving his token, the elder remove 300 points from his token. His point down to 934 from 1234 points. The elder said, "Room 32. It will end after a day or if you are killed. Any other question?" Alex shook his head and took his token back. He searched for his room and leaped to his room since the door was open. He closed the door and scanned the room. It was only an empty room. But he can feel a trace of an Array. He just needs to use his Spiritual Energy to activate it. "System, can this place be spied?" [No! This tower not only supported by illusion arrays but also concealment array. It should be safe for you, Host.] Alex''s eyes brightened. "Sherry, come out." "Summon" Anna and Sherry appear in front of him. "We will farm some EXP here. Hopefully, Anna can level up once more inside. Sherry, I will make 50 Fire Spirit Pills for you after this" "Yes, Young Master" Anna nodded while Sherry seems very enthusiastic in this after she heard 50 Fire Spirit Pills. "Wuu!" "Sure. Let''s go" Alex released his Spiritual Energy to activate the array, and they went inside the array. (AN: I almost made him say ''Link Start'', if you know what I mean lol) 184 Shocking Everyone "Boom!" *Clang* Clashing sound rumbling in the forest sky. Each clash is sending a shockwave and shattering sound. "Sky Step" "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash!" "Sixth Strike!" It is a clash between Alex and the monstrous yellow bird. Although it seems they are equal. In fact, Alex can''t get into the offensive. He was just barely able to block those previous attacks from the yellow bird. Alex used his Sky Step to lighten the gap between them somehow. But it was pretty ineffective. Their power gap is just that big. Before Alex can somehow kill a 9-Star Master Stage Monster, but it was with his ''Full Throttle''. This time, the one in front of him is stronger than that, it is a 10-Star bird. He also can''t use his Full Throttle since there is still another big monster, lurking in the forest. Anna can only support him a bit. Because of the last fight, she consumed most of her Spiritual Energy. As for Sherry...She is out of commission. It is really hard to fight without his Spear, Fire, and Array. But he needs to do this to improve himself. Because of the limitation, People can be more creative and efficient in solving a problem. As the proof, Alex managed to unleash the last slash of Sanguin Sword Art, the Fifteenth Slash in this place. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash!" "Boom!" "Scree!" The Sword Wave hit its wing and made its bleed. Unfortunately, it will only make the bird go frenzy. After that, the bird doesn''t care about Alex''s attacks and continue plunging Alex. Alex was utterly suppressed by it. He can only do his last resort. "Anna! Dark Curtain!" "Dark Curtain" Anna can''t hesitate at this moment. She who can''t fight with him at the moment, can only support him without questions. She made the biggest ''Dark Curtain'' at the moment. A big black sphere suddenly appeared on the air and trapped the bird along with Alex. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes. Now there is no nuisance inside the black sphere. Alex can focus on the bird while the bird can''t see him. This is the only effective move now that he is in the air. If he did this in the forest, All he get was bumping to trees or stumble on the ground. In the sky, he can freely move around without caring about all of that. There is no obstacle in the sky, after all. Alex can see a big lump of energy stop on its track before suddenly flew toward him. Because of his Spirit Eyes, he can see clearly its movement. He moves on top of it, and "Sixth Strike!" Even though he can see a big lump of energy. It was only vaguely shaped like a bird. He wasn''t sure where he struck just now. Because of the confusion, this time, Alex''s attack manages to pierce through its defense.a "Scree!" The bird screams in pain as the bird struggles to break free from Alex. Alex only jumps a bit and send a sword wave right at the same spot. "Fifteenth Slash!" "Scree!" The sword wave hit the target. The wound gets deeper and makes the bird scream in pain before suddenly descend to the ground. Alex didn''t know what happen, he can only see the energy suddenly fall down. The moment it touched the edge of ''Dark Curtain''. The Dark Curtain becomes undone, and Alex finally see the bird fall to the ground lifelessly. The last scream is its final struggle telling that he is not willing to die like this. Alex sees the lifeless bird on the ground and sigh. "I still need Anna to help me in the fight. All in all, my capability alone is at 8-Star Martial Master. I can kill 9-Star Martial Master if I use my ''Full Throttle''. And that 10-Star Martial Master...I can only do it with Anna''s Dark Curtain, which very useful because I have Spirit Eyes Technique. Without Anna''s Dark Curtain'' I doubt I can fight 10-Star Martial Master even if Anna helps me in close combat." He descends to the ground, "Anna, how are you?" "I''m fine Young Master. I can''t fight anymore, and I can only raise one more dark curtain. The moment it broke, I am useless." Alex pondered a bit, "Should we give up or challenge the 10-Star Master Stage wolf?" "I think we should challenge it, Young Master. I mean, it''s not like we will die for real if we were killed here. Also, we might able to kill it. If we were able to kill it, we might advance to the last wave...but I think we should give up the last wave. We would be swarmed by 10-Star Master Stage Monster." "Yes, Indeed" Alex nodded. Each wave, the monster would be stronger and stronger. The previous wave was two 9-Star Master Stage with few 7-Star and 8-Star Master Stage Monsters. In this wave alone, Alex and Anna need to fight two 10-Star Master Stage Monster along a few other 8-Star and 9-Star Master Stage Monsters. Alex and Anna decided to kill them first to avoid their interference. But the result is Anna lost most of her Spiritual Energy. With that, they can possibly speculate what the next wave is, It would be many 9-Star and 10-Star Master Stage monsters. They don''t know if a Grandmaster Stage monster will appear or not. But at the very least, they will be swarmed by those 9-Star and 10-Star Master Stage monsters. It is better to give up. "Alright. We are going with your plan. I don''t think I can hold much longer than this. The moment we encounter the wolf, you will raise the Dark Curtain." "Understood" Alex and Anna wander around the wood. After a few minutes, they finally heard the wolf''s voice, but it comes from their back. "Aoo!" They immediately turned back and saw the wolf twenty meters behind them, Alex said urgently. "Anna, Dark Curtain!" "Dark Curtain" Anna without further ado raise her Dark Curtain. And as usual, Alex activates his Spirit Eyes. The wolf charged toward him. He thought about dealing with it as usual. Unfortunately, Alex made a single miscalculation. The wolf''s ears and nose are sharp. When Alex move, Its ears picked a sudden movement of him. The wolf suddenly turned to another direction. The wolf used his head to headbutt Alex. ''He can see me? No, he should be unable to see me. Then ears? Did he pick a sound when I move just now?'' Alex thinks at breakneck speed as he used his sword to block the wolf''s head. "Fifteenth Slash" He hasn''t recharged the Sixth Strike, thus left him with his Sanguin Sword Art. As for his ''Desolation'' or ''Splitting Sword'', it is too weak to counter this attack. His ''Sanguin Sword Art managed to pierce the wolf''s head, albeit too shallow. The wolf''s momentum blow him away. "Boom!" He crashed to a big tree, not like he can see it though.. "Young Master!" Anna suddenly senses something wrong. Usually, Alex won''t make a big sound and silently kill the monster inside this Dark Curtain. But now, it was clearly something crashing. The possible reason is her Young Master. But because of her scream. The wolf picks her sound on his ears. It didn''t charge at Alex. Instead, it made its way toward Anna. Alex can''t react because of the attack just now. And suddenly, the Dark Curtain was undone, and the light came back to the forest. Anna was nowhere to be seen. There is only one conclusion as to why Anna suddenly disappeared, and her Dark Curtain was undone. The wolf killed Anna. Without any time to waste. The wolf suddenly focused its eyes toward Alex and made its way toward Alex. Alex made a bitter smile, "It''s really frustrating to lose." The wolf bares its fang to Alex. "Full Throttle" "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash!" Alex still struggled. Unfortunately, even with ''Full Throttle'', his power is still not at the level of the wolf yet. The wolf managed to breakthrough, and bite Alex''s abdomen. Alex will die sooner or later with this bite. "Argh!" Alex screams in pain. Although he used to the pain when refining his body. It still hurt to get bitten like this. Alex finally felt what death feel like. It''s painful. His consciousness started to fade. Unbeknownst to him, Don''t know if it his mettle or his instinct. Suddenly, he raised his sword in his half-dead state. He thrust the sword to the wolf''s head. Unlike a normal Sword Intent, There is a trace of Spear Intent in his Sword Intent. Unfortunately, he is unconscious about it and didn''t remember doing something like this. And just like that, the wolf also dies along with him. [EXP+ 3400] [Gacha Ticket x1] His consciousness came back to his body. He searched his surroundings and found Anna and Sherry beside him. They have been waiting for him quite a while, it seems. "I''m back." "Welcome Back, Young Master" "Wuu!" Alex sees around him and notices that Spiritual Energy suddenly becomes denser. All of the monsters he killed in the forest become the nutrient in this room. It can boost his cultivation. Alex sits down and starts absorbing energy. It seems Sherry can absorb it too. So both of them absorb the dense Spiritual Energy while Anna guards them. ... Unknown to him, He makes a big uproar on the outside. There is a sudden change in the Outer Disciple Ranking. The Stele suddenly glows with a name. ''9th Alexander Sirius - 512 Points'' It suddenly changes the ranking from the original Antonio in ninth and Julius in Tenth. Julius dropped from the top ten, and Antonio dropped to tenth. When Alex''s name suddenly appears in ninth. It becomes an uproar. "What?" "There is someone who suddenly appears in the ninth position." "Who is he?" "Who is his mentor?" "From where he come from?" Many questions present at the moment. Alex''s identity is unknown to others since he is only a new outer disciple. Evelyn and Lena looked at each other in disbelief. Alex is only a 4-Star Martial Master. But, not only can he surpass Lena, but he also makes something impossible to happen. He is in the ninth rank. "Elder Sister. Is he...really big brother Alex?" Evelyn asked. "How can I know." Of course, how can she believe someone who has lower cultivation than her suddenly become one of the top ten of Outer Disciple? Suddenly a flash of memory appeared in her mind. That is the memory when her brother, the third prince, asked her to have a good relationship with Alex. ''Is this why big brother wanted us to make a good relationship with him?'' (AN: No, girl. It because the Third Elder''s whispered a devil temptation to him) After around an hour, trying to get Alex''s information. They found out they didn''t know anything about this ''Alex''. And there is one conclusion that comes up. ''A new disciple.'' After they found out Alex''s is a new disciple this year. The crowd becomes frenzied. "Is he really a new disciple?" "To be a ninth rank. This is impossible for a new disciple!" "The top 100 is dominated by 9-Star Martial Master or above, especially in the top ten. All of them are 10-Star Martial Master. Suddenly, a new disciple got into their rank. This..." "Is he cheating?" "Maybe" "There is no way for a new disciple to do that." When something unbelievable happened, most people tend to make a suggestion that can make their hearts feel better. Even if they deceive themself or blame the other party for unreasonable reason, either consciously or unconsciously. The uproar continued for a few hours, Alex currently enjoying his meal inside the room. The uproar didn''t stop around the Battle Tower alone. Many who watch him inform their influence about this news. Including... "Senior Sister!" The blonde girl is currently changing her clothes since she and her junior sister will go around the sect. But suddenly, her junior sister comes back in a rush. "What happen Junior Sister, What can make you rushing like that?" "I found him, I found Alexander Sirius. He is in the sect, and he...he made an uproar in the battle tower!" "Oh, what has he done?" It suddenly piqued her interest. What kind of thing can a new disciple make an uproar in the battle tower? "His...his name suddenly appeared in the Outer Disciple Ranking." "Isn''t that pretty normal." Said the blonde casually. "But, his name appeared in the top ten of Outer Ranking. Specifically, he is in the ninth spot." "What?" Even she would be shocked by that information. Alexander is only a new disciple. Also, if he has a high cultivation base, then how high is it? It won''t be higher than 7-Star. And you are saying he can defeat many experts of 10-Star Martial Masters? "We will need to cancel our plan. I will change first, and then we will go to the battle tower." "Understood" 185 Familiar Face Alex is still clueless as to what kind of impact he has made on the outside. He continues absorbing the Spiritual Energy inside the room. Because of the rich energy inside the room, he finally managed to breakthrough to 5-Star Martial Master. He continues absorbing the energy a little bit more until the System finally stopped him. [Host, I suggest you stop now. It won''t be beneficial past this] "Oh, You finally come out. I thought you wouldn''t stop me." [You still need six months to consolidate your cultivation, from the original three months] "Don''t remind me about that!" Alex finally notices Anna, who is beside him, still watching his face closely. "Anna?" "Ah!" Anna comes back to real life. She blushed and said earnestly. "I''m sorry Young Master. I don''t mind to be rude. It just...looking at your face is a satisfaction for me." Alex wanted to retort her but have no energy to do so. Especially when he saw her earnest face. "Whatever" Alex then turned to Sherry, who was still eating those energies happily. And, to his surprise, Sherry also has a breakthrough. She is currently at 5-Star Master Stage. Her mouth is like a black hole, sucking all those energies in the air. Of course, Alex didn''t mind about it since he has his own share. "How long was my cultivation?" "Four hours." Anna answered Alex nodded to her and turned to Sherry. "Sherry, when will you be full?" "Wuu (In two hours)" "You mean after you completely sucked all of this energy?" Anna suddenly interject her. "Wuu!" Sherry admitted it without shame. "I see. We will wait for you to eat your fill. Will you go to sleep again after this?" Alex can only smile to this fox here. His concern is another thing, though. "Wuu" Sherry shook her head. "Wuu Wuu (This energy is different than Pill energy. This one came from monsters. Monster eating monster, that''s normal)!" Alex frowned, He took out a monster core from his Space Ring. "How about this?" Sherry smell it a bit then shook her head. Now Alex confused. These energies come from Monster Core, which powered by array. If she can eat these, why she can''t eat the monster core? Is there something unusual from the array? Or some condition in the monster core? Alex is trying to think about the reason for another two hours while Sherry eats her fill. Regrettably, he didn''t found any clue. He thought he might know about it in the future. And surprisingly, after another two hours, Sherry made another breakthrough to 6-Star Master Stage. Sherry suddenly came to him. And "Wuu Wuu Wuu" Said Sherry. She also makes punching motion like a boxer. She seems telling him that she has leveled up now, if she reencountered the monsters. She can fight them and protect him. Sadly, Alex''s words made her froze. Just like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. "You can''t eat here again for a while. First, we can only practice here once in three months. Second, I don''t have any intention to enter here before consolidating my foundation. That means we will go here only six months from now." Said Alex. "Wuu!" Sherry gets the most shocking statement in her life. "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu...Wuu Wuu" Sherry complains to him. As for her words, even they are linked, Alex can''t understand or even perceive her intention anymore. He only knows one thing, she is complaining to him. "Alright alright. I will make you Fire Spirit Pill, I still can make 50 of it. Is that okay with you? And if it''s not enough, I will make a Gathering Array, exclusive for you. I still have two hundred thousand Spirit Stones to supply it." "!" Sherry''s eyes flashed. She stopped her complain and forget about the reason why she was angry. Her eyes turned to a star, and drools seep out of her mouth. "Wuu!" Alex shakes his head helplessly. She recalls Anna back to her card, Sherry also goes back to his body. Alex now ready to go out. He opens the door and found the place was even more crowded than yesterday. He was shocked. Is something big currently happening? Of course, he didn''t know the one who makes this is him. Alex found Evelyn and Lena in the crowd and decided to ask them about this. *Whisper* *Whisper* "Big Brother Alex!" Evelyn comes to him. "Yeah. Is something big happening? Why this place become so crowded? And why do I feel they are talking to me?" Asked Alex. "Is Big Brother a fool?" Evelyn asked innocently, and soon enough, she realized her bad words. "I mean, Is Big Brother didn''t realize what you did?" "What I did?" Alex tilted his head. He didn''t know what she''s talking about. "Big Brother, what are you doing inside the room?" Alex perplexed why she asked this. He just answers with, "I kill monsters." "Then, what level were those monsters?" "Hmm, various. The last thing I remember I killed one or two 10-Star Master Stage monster, is that something wrong with it?" Alex asked innocently, and suddenly, he facepalmed. His bad habit resurfaced, he blurted all of that blindly. "Oh no, my exposure." Although he wanted to change, It''s really hard to change, and sometimes his bad habit will come out unconsciously. It is only after lengthy rehabilitation, one can recover from that. He decided not to show his weakness when Alicia was sealed. And now is only a month or so from that day. "What?" "He really is..." "He can kill 10-Star Monster with his 5-Star Martial Master power?" "No way. It must be a fluke." Alex is now thinking about his plan to escape from here. Since he will hole up in the mansion for six months, it''s enough for them to forget about him and to lower his exposure at the same time. "Big brother Alex?" Evelyn is wondering what he is thinking now. "Ah!" Alex snapped from his mind. And at the same time, A big laugh comes from the crowd. Alex saw a bald man with a weird mustache and beard. With his vulgar eyes, he didn''t wear any shirt. Instead, he wore a leather jacket along with brown pants. And judging from his energy, he was most likely a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster. "So, you are the one who beat my subordinate. One of them needs to heal himself a year. I will give you a choice, become my subordinate, or I will break all of your limbs." Alex spotted Tata on his back. He finally knew, this bandit looking man must be the inner disciple in Tata''s mouth back then. He thought using Himura Minami to solve this problem. But he miscalculated the time he needed inside the tower. At first, he was planning to kill as many as possible for a few hours and escaped from here. After he got back to the mansion, he will buy Himura Minami out for a few pills to solve this problem. But because the monsters come in waves, Alex had forgotten about it. "He is an Inner Disciple!" "Yeah, If I''m not wrong, he is Alvaro, a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster." "He beat his subordinate? that must be the injured person behind him." "It''s perfectly reasonable. He can defeat 10-Star Master Stage Monster while the other is only a 6-Star Martial Master." "Yeah" "But Unlucky him to meet Alvaro at this moment." "Indeed, he has killed a few disciples in the life and death arena." Suddenly, Evelyn comes to his front while pointing his sword toward Alvaro. "You can''t hurt Big Brother Alex." Alvaro narrows his eyes. "I see. I thought you are a little familiar. You must be the rumored genius from Thiveapia Kingdom. But this is not Thiveapia Kingdom and your brother not with you right now, so he can''t protect you. Even if he here, I''m not afraid of him" Alex sees the tiny figure of Evelyn, trying to protect him. He smiles a little. He pats her head a few times and then looks at Alvaro. ''How can he let this 14-years old girl protect him? He went in front of her and said fearlessly to Alvaro. "I never thought a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster wants to bully a puny 5-Star Martial Master." "Hmph! In the face of the enemy, who cares for their cultivation stage. As long as you are an enemy, you are the target. Fine, since we are in the sect. I will let you go if you can withstand three attacks from me." Suddenly a bright and cheerful sound fills the day. And two figure appears before him. The blonde one laughed. "I just heard something funny but right. Yes, in the face of the enemy, who cares about their opponent''s cultivation. Since it is like that. I will also let you go if you can withstand three attacks from me." "Who are y..." Before Alvaro finished his words. He finally recognized the two people in front of him. One of them has straight blonde hair reaching to her waist, along with Shining blue eyes set gracefully within their sockets. There is no trace of arrogance in her cheerful expression. But even though she is a bit short, she indeed has a good body. The curves and edges indeed perfectly complement her small frame. She wears a white shirt and a blue skirt. Beside her is another lady with long green hair. Unlike the one beside her, who appears to be cheerful and easygoing, this lady has an elegant aura surrounding her. Her green eyes are giving an aura of politeness. She also wears a white shirt but with a red skirt. Alex also recognized these two people. These two people are the ones he met at the Alchemist Guild in Shades Town. They are the ones who bought a Jade Heart Pill from him. Are they protecting him? But he didn''t know them. Why would they protect him? Or maybe they are just a friend of justice? All of these questions make him confused. "You...You..." Alvaro recognized them. "You are Song Yu, a core disciple, and the one beside you is Putri Wulan, an inner disciple." "Oh, you finally recognize us." Song Yu said, "Since you love bullying. Then, I don''t mind bullying you too." The crowd burst out. "What? Senior Sister Song Yu and Senior Sister Putri Wulan?" "They are gorgeous." "I really like Senior Sister Song Yu''s cheerful personality." "No no, You can''t say so after you look at our elegant Senior Sister Putri Wulan." "But, it seems they are protecting that new disciple." "Who the heck is he, to even make two Senior Sisters protect him?" "Is he under their tutelage?" "If so, then him being a ninth rank, is acceptable." "Senior, There must be a misunderstanding. I-" "What misunderstanding. If I''m not here. What will happen to him?" Song Yu snorted. "I..." "I''m not a brute like you, but you still need to receive a punishment. Putri, would you mind giving him three blows?" Song Yu asked. "Sure, Senior Sister" The green-haired woman, Putri, took out her spear. The spear is made in a unique way to enhance her elegance, it can be said that the spear was tailored made for her. The handle is made out of silver colored metal as jades planted on the body as decoration. The tip isn''t that thin nor wide. With 10 inches blade on the tip. It seems the spear not just made for thrusting but also for slashing. "As per Senior Sister''s order, I will deliver three blows to you. Prepare yourself" Looking at the scene, he knows that he didn''t have any way out. Alvaro finally took out his giant axe. At least it is better for him to take Putri Wulan''s strikes. After all, she is currently at 7-Star Martial Grandmaster while he is a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster. It''s better than taking three strikes from 4-Star Martial Lord. After all, he didn''t have any protection from a Core Disciple. Putri elegantly raised her spear as she thrust her spear toward Alvaro. "Quick Silver" The tip of her spear suddenly glowing white light. When she thrust her spear, the glowing like flew in an arrow shape toward Alvaro. "Berserker Axe!" Alvaro is trying to break the small arrow shape like with his axe. But it is easier said than done. He released her axe''s intent and finally managed to destroy it. *Pant Pant* Of course, he needs to use all of his strength to block it. "My second move" Putri said without any expression. She swings her spear as the wind around the blade, starting to get distorted. "Jewel Wind" 186 Another Home? "Jewel Wind" The wind movement can be seen by naked eyes. The air was sucked by the pressure and generate more wind as time goes by. The wind moves toward Alvaro. There is something hidden in the wind. Alex felt the sharpness within the wind. "Berserker Axe" Alvaro once again swings his giant axe to destroy the wind by disrupting its flow. But it seems his effort was futile. When Alvaro thought he had destroyed the wind. The wind generated again and passed him. Like having sharp blades inside the wind. After it passed through Alvaro, Alvaro started bleeding all over. A few grazes on his face, hands, body, feet suddenly appeared as the blood begins to gush out of the wounds. "Argh!" Alex furrows his eyebrows. He can''t see any Spear Intent inside the technique. And judging from what he saw with his Spirit Eyes. It is purely Spear Art. How can she do that? To generate the pressure to form a sharp wind like that is a very particular art. At the very least, he can''t do it. Noticing Alex''s confusion. Song Yu suddenly broke her silence. "It is her family art. Her family is famous for their Spear Art. And the one who has Wind Element was more favored in her family. After all, most of their strongest Spear Art is based on Wind Element like the one she used just now." Alex looks at her mysteriously. "What is it?" Confused, she asked. She observes his eyes. She often saw lustful eyes wandering on her or her junior sister. It can be said, she can distinguish a person''s eyes. But for the time being, she didn''t see it in Alex. So, her ''purifying plan'' on him is on hold. He doesn''t want to ask this, but this curiosity is killing him. After all, their timing is perfect just now. And their action seems to protect him. So he still asked, even she will think he is over himself, "Are you two protecting me?" "Umu, That''s right!" She blatantly confirmed it. "Why?" "Eh, why, you say?" She looked at him confusedly. "Don''t tell me you don''t know about it?" "Don''t know about what?" "Ah! So you still in the dark" Facepalmed, She sighed helplessly. "Let see. In short, you are sold by the sect master." "Sold by the sect master?" Alex is confused by this. What is the relation between him with Sect Master? Is it the Third Elder, after all, he managed to use the real Seven Stars Cut? Maybe the Third Elder inform him about that to the sect master? That must be it. "Ahem, Let me explain this to you. My Master, Ninth Elder, told me to become your tutor. And it was the order of the sect master. He said you are a genius. Then when my Master asked him why he didn''t take you as his disciple. Then his answer was, ''He can''t have a teacher nor a master. So, he can only have a tutor in this sect''. Even though my Master was confused by that answer, she, regardless, accepted the order." The moment she said that he immediately gets his answer, only one name can tell him that. ''Conn Kidellan''. The culprit is the Seventh Elder. Conn can''t say anything about his talents. But if he vaguely hints the sect master about it. It might pique the interest of the sect master. Then, the Sword Monument and Third Elder sealed his fate. No master and no teacher. It is indeed what he said. If he knows, there is something like a tutor and protege. He might add that condition too. He can only curse his lack of knowledge and Conn Kindellan. Now he is thinking, should he reject that? But the condition is a bit tempting even for him. After all, if he holed up in a Core Disciple house, he will be safe for the moment. There won''t be anyone questioning him, except an elder from twenty peaks and the sect master. But he is sure they won''t be that bored. The one who might be bored is the disciples. Maybe, just say one in a hundred chance a Core Disciple suddenly come to Himura Minami''s house. He is very sure that she will abandon him. As for a reason, to make her home become her love nest with Kenshin. But Alex can''t accept this offer just like that. "But, I still have a tutor, she is..." "Himura Minami" Song Yu said her name before Alex did. "I know. In fact, She is only a substitute. According to my Master''s words. Sect Master wants me to be your tutor. But, because the Seventh Elder said that I was in the mission back then. The Sect Master can only relent about it and let Himura Minami become your tutor for a month." Now he understood the whole situation. Of course, he didn''t forget to curse the sly Seventh Elder. "So, we will go to my mansion and meet my Master after this. Oh, that''s right, you need to claim your reward first. But I should say you are pretty interesting. I never thought a 4-Star Martial Master could place in ninth" When she said about reward. Alex can understand another meaning behind that sentence. How can they know he still hasn''t received his reward? They can only know if they watch from the beginning. After all, the most reasonable thing to do after you accomplished something in this battle tower is to receive the reward. "Then, what do I need to call you?" "Just call me Senior Sister. You also don''t need to mind about formality. I particularly don''t mind about that. Especially, my Master, she hates formality. As long as you didn''t say anything inappropriate, that''s enough" "Then, Senior Sister. I want to ask you something." "Sure, ask me anything." "You have watched me from the start, right? I mean, from I got outside that room." "Of course" She admits it blatantly. She then pats Evelyn''s head. "If you didn''t step forward and let this little girl protect you. I will let that Alvaro to teach you a lesson before I appear! Haha!" "That''s not funny, Senior Sister. But certainly. Letting her protect me like that. Give a bad taste in my mouth" Alex said. "Umm, will Senior Sister hurt big brother Alex?" Evelyn suddenly asked. Song Yu looks at her gently. "Of course not. This Senior Sister won''t hurt him." "Un!" Just with those words, Evelyn nodded happily. Alex and Song Yu looked at her and thought, ''What an innocent girl.'' Then Evelyn looks at Alex. "Big brother Alex, can I ask you something?" "Sure" "I want to ask about the Seven Stars Cut. Back then, I felt something...fundamentally different from big brother Seven Stars Cut." Alex suddenly froze, and Song Yu astonished as she looked at Alex. It seems she also in full ears. This topic piqued her interest as she is also a sword user. Of course, Lena, who seems to be forgotten by others, gets closer as she fixes her hair around her ears. "If big brother Alex doesn''t want to answer. Then it''s alright." Alex makes a wry smile. He suddenly pulls his mouth closer to Evelyn''s ear and whispers something to her. "If you want to know the secret. Come back to me after you can send your Sword Intent flying. That''s the requirement. It is futile to know about it now. Don''t tell anyone, including your brother and sister, about this before you reach the requirement, alright? I won''t tell you the secret if you tell the other about the requirement." Evelyn was surprised by Alex''s words. The requirement is very high. But she happily agreed to it. "Un!" Song Yu is curious about it, "What is the secret of Seven Stars Cut Junior Brother? Don''t tell me, you know the truth about Seven Stars Cut, or you have comprehended the true Seven Stars Cut?" Alex is a bit surprised by it. People who have high cultivation seems to have more pride. They tend not to believe what a weakling said even if it reasonable. They will just say you are still inexperienced. But it seems, Song Yu is different. She can lower herself down to match her talking partner with her cheerful personality. Alex only shook his head to her. And to his surprise, Song Yu only crossed her arms and pouted cutely. "Meanie!" Although she acts like this, in truth, she felt something odd about him. She felt his voice is pretty similar to the masked person she met in Shades Town. She was born with great ears. Her ears'' ability is far higher than average. She sometimes can tell the person lying just with their breathing and voice. But because of the mask tweaking his voice a little, she needs a bit more time to confirm it. "..." Alex thought she would pursue this matter. But it seems she won''t. Either she respects him, or she didn''t believe him. Whatever the reason, Alex only wants to test her personality. On the side, Lena grits her teeth while looking at him. She thought she could know something after asking her sister. But Evelyn seems adamant not to tell her. When she asked about it just now to Evelyn, Evelyn only answered with, ''Ehehe, Even Elder Sister and Elder Brother ask me about it. I won''t give you the answer. This is what I promised to big brother Alex'' "Bam!" With that loud sound, Alex''s attention goes back to the green haired woman, it seems he has skipped the last strike. He sees Alvaro lying on the floor, unconscious. Of course, he is bleeding all over. The green haired lady only said. "Take that person away. He is only unconscious, he won''t die like that." Then she comes to Song Yu. "Senior Sister. I have finished the task." "Good!" Song Yu nodded. Then she introduced Alex and Putri. "This is Alexander Sirius, hmm... a fine young man. She is Putri Wulan, She is also under my tutelage before my Master takes her as a disciple. But it seems she is very attached to me." Alex nodded, "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you" She greets back elegantly. That elegance seems has become her flesh and bone. Not that he cares, though. "Then, we will go to my house after you collected your reward." "Umm, Senior Sister. Can we postpone it?" "Why?" "I need to fetch my baggage in my room first. Then I also want to get a Martial Arts" Alex said. While adding, ''I also need to erase my array in my room.'' in his mind. "Oh, Sure. Then after you collected your reward. I will bring you to Himura Minami''s house then to Martial Arts Pavilion. The Seventh Peak is along the way, after all. I can carry you since it is faster that way. Or should I personally teach you my Sword Art? I''m a sword user too, you know." Alex is thinking about it, It is indeed beneficial that way. With the sect that has twenty peaks in the center, the sect sure is vast. It cost a lot of time to go from a place to another. Second, he can also have her become her shield when choosing a Martial Arts. "Sure" "Then, collect your reward first." Alex nodded. He went to the previous elder. "You are a good young man. I never thought a 4-Star Martial Master could get into the top ten. You have opened my eyes. The reward is 991 points. With that, I want to reward you another 500 points because you came here with the strength of 4-Star Martial Master, where usually people in there is 9-Star or 10-Star Martial Master. But don''t be too proud Young Man. Keep striving forward. Don''t make this achievement get into your head and hinder your path. But judging from your look, it seems the ninth position still hasn''t satisfied you. Good. I''m looking forward to the next time you are here again." "Thank you. Elder" Alex gets a total of 1491 points and with his original 904 points. His points are 2395. After receiving his points, he comes back to Song Yu and the rest. "See you later, Big brother Alex" Evelyn waves her hand while Lena pouted like a squirrel. "Yeah. See you later. Don''t forget about our promise" Alex said. "Huhu, You can come and visit us in my mansion on the Ninth Peak. A cute girl like you is more than welcome." Song Yu said while patting Evelyn''s head. Putri Wulan didn''t say anything but still give a slight nod. "Un!" After saying their goodbye. Alex and the rest finally flew away. 187 Friend Their first destination is the house in the foot of the Seventh Peak. It seems that Song Yu and Putri Wulan won''t come in. They will wait for him on the outside. Alex didn''t have much baggage. His primary objective for coming back here is just to erase his Array. After all, for now, no one can know about him being an Array Master. After finishing his work, Alex immediately prepares to leave the mansion. And in the hallway, He meets Kenshin and, of course, Himura Minami following him. "So, you are finally leaving this house." "Alex, are you really going to leave this house?" Alex ignored Himura Minami and nodded to Kenshin''s question. He thought Himura Minami would flare up, but to his surprise, she didn''t even batting an eye, let alone flare up. She is very joyful at the moment. Finally, this house becomes her love nest with her brother. Kenshin is sad because of Alex, leaving the house. But Alex has prepared the foundation of his. His future achievement will always come from his own hand. There is no way Alex going to feed him in the whole life. "Why are you leaving?" Kenshin asked. It seems he still didn''t know about it. Even Alex only knows about it today. "You can ask the person behind you or Seventh Elder." Alex said. "Listen. I''m sure that you know about this, but you need to tread the path of your cultivation by yourself. I have laid the foundation for you. So, the rest is up to you. And also, I have compiled my experience on ''Six Strikes." Alex said that. Although it seems it was a bit cruel to him like he wants to sever their relationship. It is also for his foundation; he hopes Kenshin can take these words on his head and turn it to a new determination. Their bond? Their brotherhood? In fact, their brotherhood is only Kenshin''s own promise. Their friendship is only because of Alex''s need for information, and their friendship is only formed for less than a month, excluding the previous month since Alex was in a mission. Alex saved his life, and then he gave his future by introducing Katana to him. Kenshin gave him information about the continent. Alex even gave him a few pills, including a perfect Jade Heart Pill along with the new ''Six Strikes''. On the contrary, Kenshin can''t pay him back. He only swore to be his sworn brother and will repay him back in the future, but can he? They say talent is only 1% chance of success, while 99% is hard work. But it is not entirely right. This kind of saying can only be applied to people who have a similar kind of talent. Of course, people are very talented but didn''t do any work, are excluded. But, if one is very hardworking despite not being talented and the other one is also very hardworking despite him being very talented. Their gap will only get wider and wider as time goes by unless he/she has a lucky encounter. It might sound cold, but Alex is not a hero nor a friend of justice. Alex has repaid him a few times over. After all, his aim is to get stronger as soon as possible so he can reunite with his two wives. Alex doesn''t value friendship? No, in fact, severing their friendship is needed for someone who genuinely values friendship. Alex''s aim is ascending to godhood. In this continent which only have Martial Kings. It is better to sever his relationship before its too late. He might need to fight Martial Emperor, Martial Monarch, or even Martial Saint. They might become targeted by those people. Of course, Alex doesn''t know how strong they are, but at least they are far stronger than Martial King. When that happens, it''s too late to regret. He has established his mysterious identity inside the sect higher up, which can be useful for him. Then, now he got the protection of a Martial Lord. At least, he can peacefully cultivate for the time being. For him, who is alone in this world. One wrong step might cost his life. That''s why he needs to be careful. He will pick up the pace from now on...after six months of consolidating, though. Alex walked toward the exit door. While waving his hand once again and put the widest smile he can. "Bye" Kenshin didn''t feel any peace in that smile of his. Instead, it was like a forced smile because of circumstances. Suddenly, he felt pressure all around him. Now that he looks at it, He didn''t know anything about Alex. He also never repay anything to him. He only gave him some information and did some demonstration for low level Martial Arts. He bit his lips until it bleeds. Now he realizes he had never tried to understand him. All of it was only his own promise as his sworn brother, all of his only empty promises. He thought he could repay him somehow when they are inside the sect. But he didn''t even realize when Alex suddenly go on a mission one month ago. What he is thinking is only around him. It is only ''Should I give this to Alex?'' not ''What Alex''s needed for the moment?''. At this moment, he finally asked himself, ''Am I too self-centered?'' But the moment he realizes this, Alex has gone. He clenches his hands and bite his lips. Alex finally step outside the house. Alex comes to Song Yu and Putri. Alex smiled at them and said. "Sorry, I made you wait too long." Normal people won''t know about this, but Song Yu noticed a slight change in Alex''s voice. She asked him, "Are you alright? Do you need a bit more time?" "No, I''m fine. Let''s go, I still need to pick a Martial Arts." "He is your friend?" "You can..." Alex wanted to say a half-ass response like ''You can say so'' but the words stuck on his throat. ''Friend...'' Now that he looked back. He never had any friend... did he? In the lower world, he only has two wives along with their relatives, and a loving teacher. As for the demihumans...no, they are just a bunch of weirdos. There is one guy that appeared on his mind, it was Joshua. Although, he said they are a friend. It is not like they are a real friend. They barely talked with each other. As for the people on Earth...Nah, all he can see is darkness in there. Now that he looks at it, he never has any friends. Kenshin is the one who can make him feel like he has a friend. After a bit of reflection in his mind. He corrects himself. He says while smiling, "Yes, he is my friend. Trust me, I''m alright, Senior Sister." "If you said so" Song Yu is also helpless in this. "Well, I can only say this. It''s really lonely when you didn''t have someone who supports you. I know how it feels." Alex didn''t say anything. He only closed his eyes for a moment, and his lips tweak a bit. Alex looks at Song Yu''s back, it seems this new Senior Sister of his has some kind of backstory. The journey took a few minutes. The sect is really big. When they arrived, Alex finally saw the third building of the famous pillar of Heavenly Sword Sect. It is a giant building, he says. It close to a public library on Earth, the big one. The entrance is open. From it, Alex can see the inside a bit. Of course, it is full of racks of books. "Junior Brother, is this your first time here?" Asked Song Yu. "Yes" "Then, I will explain about this Martial Arts Pavilion to you. I''m afraid the elder inside won''t bother to explain the details to you." Song Yu said. "Please" "There are four sections inside the pavilion. The first section is filled with Yellow Tier Martial Arts, then the second one is for Profound Tier Martial Arts while the third, you might already guess it, it is exclusive for Earth Tier Martial Arts." She paused a bit for the fourth section. "As for the fourth, They are only exclusive for Core Disciple or above such as elders or Sect Master." "But you are only a Martial Master, so I think you should pick a Profound Tier Martial Arts for your first pick. Their price is reasonable, ranging from a hundred sect points to three hundred sect points." "But, I still have many points that I can use" Alex said. "There are a few reasons why I said this. First, you might need your points for Pills and Weapons, which you can exchange from Exchange Pavilion. Second, you are still in Martial Master, so you might be unable to understand a high Tier Martial Arts because of the lack of knowledge. Third, it''s hard to get points before you are a peak Martial Grandmaster or Martial Lord, you know." Alex is thinking about those three reasons. For the first point, he can get pills since he is an alchemist, as for the weapon, System is all he needs. So the first point is a no for him. Then move to the second point, it is indeed as she said. But, the thing is, she didn''t know about Alex''s Sword Mastery or his understanding of Spear. He can comprehend them pretty easily unless the case is like Seven Stars Cut, which requires a cultivation base. As for the third point, this is the point he didn''t agree the most. After all, he just got 1491 points before pretty easily. "Is it really that hard? I mean, I just got 1491 points from Battle Tower" Alex asked. "You are a bit special. Normally, others can only increase their rank step by step. They won''t get any big sum of points like you and also your reward bonus. And mostly, they used it for pills to increase their cultivation. So, Unlike you, it''s hard to save up. That''s why I''m saying this so you can save up your points. Or should I choose a Sword Art for you? I am also a sword user." Song Yu no Alex is a sword user since Evelyn asked about Seven Stars Cut. After all, it is a Sword Art. Alex thought about it for a moment then shook his head. "I appreciate Senior Sister''s concern. But I think, I will choose my Martial Arts myself." "Is that so? Even though I''m your tutor, I also want you to learn by yourself. After all, you can''t be too dependent as a cultivator. Or should Putri accompany you inside? I will wait outside, though." Song Yu said while looking at Putri. "If you want, I can teach you. After all, this is your first time picking a Martial Arts inside." Said Putri, although she rarely spoke...Nah, That''s just because Song Yu has too much energy, so she is the one who keeps talking to him. Putri is starting to accept this Alexander Sirius as her Junior Brother. After following Song Yu for a long time, she often saw the lustful gaze on her Senior Sister, of course, she was too. But, at least there is nothing like that in Alex''s eyes at the moment. Of course, it still needs more observation. But at least, she isn''t opposed to having him as her Junior Brother. Alex obviously won''t have that eyes. If he has that kind of eyes, his wives'' representative, Sherry, will stab his eyes with her paws. Alex also feel their good intention. But he needs to reject them for various reasons. "I appreciate Senior Sisters'' concern, but I need to decline." Almost no one will reject their invitation inside the sect. They are one of the top ten flowers in the sect, after all. It can be said, this is the first time they were rejected by a man. But, Song Yu and Putri didn''t feel offended by Alex''s rejection. Song Yu only give a smile to him and says, "Alright. I won''t press on. If you have any problem with your Sword Art, you can ask Putri or me about it. We will try our best to answer you. Or you can ask our Master if she visited us. This is also a good way to judge how good your eye in discerning things is. The limit of entry is two hours, the tutor can accompany their protege inside, but we will wait for you outside." "Thank you, Senior Sisters. I will go first," Alex bid goodbye then he enters the Martial Arts Pavilion. What Martial Arts will he choose? 189 A Satisfying Laugh Evil Smile appeared on Alex''s face. Since they only need proof, then how about making that proof now? Alex took out Anna''s card without anyone notice him. He asked her concern first. "Anna, would you mind?" "Of course not, Young Master. I''m yours, I will follow your every order. But I can feel they are sincere to you, Young Master. That''s why I don''t mind doing that for them." Anna said in her card. "I''m sorry to make you do this." "Don''t be, Young Master. That kind of bast*rd needs to be punished. Since this is the most possible and most satisfying way to punish him. Why not?" Alex smiled apologetically. He set the summon to the place where no one would notice her. "Summon!" Putri looked at him, "Did you say something, Junior Brother?" "No." Alex shook his head, "You can call me Alex, Senior Sister. I''m sure it is easier that way. But it''s up to you, though" Putri only nodded at him. But suddenly, a loud noise shattered the surrounding silence. "Bam!" It was a clash between Song Yu and Izak. Alex saw the two people in the air. "Junior Sister Song Yu, just give up. You can''t defeat me." "Hmph, it is only for a moment. The moment I surpass you are not long. Then I will make sure you can''t have any descendant after that so you won''t destroy any flower again." "Don''t say that. I''m the one who loves you the most. My heart is for you alone. Why are you never appreciate this feeling? Many women want to be my woman, but I rejected them because in my heart only has you." He said like he was wronged by her words. Suddenly another uproar appeared on the side. Both of them looked at the direction of the uproar. They saw a lady with peerless beauty walking slowly. Long black hair tied in a ponytail reaching her waist. A pretty face that makes her look like a beautiful rose that stands alone in a snowy mountain, enchanting purple eyes. Two sexy curves on her body, long black robe with purple and blue pattern, tight black shirt, and black mini skirt. Her clothes made her peerless body go beyond. It can be said, her beauty alone surpass Song Yu and Putri. She just like a night butterfly which flying on their beautiful dream. "Who is she?" "She must be a goddess." "I wish to embrace the goddess." "I don''t mind dying if I could do that." Of course, in the air. Izak''s lust went through the roof. He has never seen a beauty like this, it can be said Song Yu is a bit pale for comparison. He looked at Song Yu, "Song Yu, since you have never appreciated my feeling. Don''t blame me for leaving you." Song Yu immediately knew what he was thinking. Before she could stop him, he had arrived in front of the black haired lady. "Hi, Beauty. I feel the Heaven has sent you to me. How about a dinner after this? I know a perfect location for our dinner. Oh, that''s right. I''m rude. Let me introduce myself, I''m Izak Qinde, the son of Heavenly Sword Sect''s thirteenth Elder. I''m the number one talent in Heavenly Sword Sect, and I will be the sect leader in the future. How about it? We can talk about ourselves in detail later." "I''m sorry. I need to decline your intention" With her soothing voice. It embraces their heart dearly. It makes Izak wanted to possess her more and more. He looked at the 6-Star Martial Master Cultivation Stage of Anna. He was no longer polite to her. "Lady, I''m a Martial Grandmaster while you are only a 6-Star Martial Master. It''s better to accept my invitation if you know what is good for you? It''s your good fortune for you to make me like this. If it''s not because of your beauty, do you think anyone wants to pick your puny 6-Star Martial Master strength? Beauties would line up for me if I wanted them. But I can reject all of them for you" Izak become so rude after knowing her cultivation. He can''t be this rude when facing Song Yu, who has the same cultivation. But for this 6-Star Martial Master, he can grasp her anytime he wants. "So, what you mean, I should accept this invitation?" "Of course!" "Then, let me ask you. If that female rejected all of her suitors just for you. Will you accept her?" Anna pointed out the ugliest woman in the area. She pointed at a blue haired girl with long bangs and an ugly face. She looks like a ghost. She didn''t have any grudge against her, that''s why she didn''t say anything about her look but just pointed at her. "Of course. I will reject her." "According to you. You can reject any woman...but why can''t the woman reject you?. You are just persistent. You can reject any woman for me, but that doesn''t mean I need to accept you because of that. Heaven send me to you? You are only daydreaming. It''s your lust who talked just now. As long as the woman pretty enough, you will just abandon the previous one like what you did just now to the woman in the air. You forced people to your own ideal. If there is another woman prettier than me, I''m sure you will abandon me too." Said Anna as she disappeared into thin air, just like an illusion. Never thought a beauty like that was only an illusion. All of it like unreal, but the effect was real. Every word she said just now was like a slap on his face. It was as she said, it was only his lust that talking. He can reject many women for her. Is that mean the woman also needed to accept him only because of that? And that last sentence, he will surely abandon her if he finds another woman who was prettier than her. It was a big and hard slap. Never thought, the one who said that was only an illusion. He just flirted with Song Yu, but when Anna appeared, he suddenly abandoned her. Now that Anna also ''abandoned'' him. He had completely lost his face here. His face became pale, "Who? Who used that illusion? Come here, you bast*rd. I will kill you!" The one who satisfied the most was obviously Song Yu. "Haha, It''s truly as she said. I don''t know who made her, but I truly need to thank him/her. I can see your true nature, no, it is not just me, it''s everyone here can see that" "Song...Song Yu, listen to my explanation." "What explanation? Isn''t that enough? What? Do you want to say that illusion seduce you? No, the illusion didn''t seduce you, but it''s your lust take over. Just like she said, you will abandon me if you meet someone prettier than me. You and I are never a match. Scram!" Song Yu shouted so everyone can hear it. "You...you..." He was furious. He spat blood because of his anger. If look can kill, not only the people surrounded him would be killed, this place would be nuked to the ground with his look alone. "Just you wait!" Izak escaped, what can he do after that situation? Nothing, whatever he did, will only worsen the situation. This news would be spread from one person to another until everyone on the sect heard about it. It made Izak didn''t have any face to face others in the sect. Because of his talent, his father made him closed himself inside his home for a few years to save his face instead of disowning him. "Gahahaha!" Song Yu laughed like crazy. Maybe this was the most satisfying laugh she had in her life. Even Putri giggled very much as her elegant posture started breaking, and she tried very hard to maintain her elegant posture. It seems that her elegance really rooted deeply in her flesh. Alex smiled. He also felt happy for them. Well, they have helped him back in the battle tower, and he also will be in their care from now. So helping them like this was not a problem. And he also did it without a trace. So it''s safe! "Alright. It''s already over, So do your own thing, now go!" Song Yu said to the disciples who were on the scene. After hearing her order, they started leaving the area. Song Yu looked at Alex, "Have you picked your Martial Art, Junior Brother?" Alex nodded. Then she landed in front of Alex and looked at him mysteriously. Alex confused by her sudden action, even Putri also confused by this action. "Senior Sister?" "You must be the culprit." "What do you mean, Senior Sister?" Putri asked. Of course, she would be confused, ''why suddenly her Senior Sister said Alex was the culprit?'' Before Alex said anything, Song Yu continued. "Don''t say anything. I know you are the one. Don''t underestimate my hearing." Even though she said she didn''t know who made the illusion, it was a lie. In fact, she already knew the culprit. She was born with exceptional hearing skills. When Alex came outside and spoke with Putri, she already recognized him. Then, when he said ''Summon''. It sealed her speculation. "I don''t know what you mean, Senior Sister" Of course, whatever it is, no matter he is busted or not. He needs to keep his ignorance. Song Yu suddenly came closer to him with a very dangerous eye. As reflect, Alex also took a step backward. Song Yu then took another step closer. While Alex took another step back. They continued doing that for another few steps before suddenly, Alex was stopped by a wall behind him. Then Song Yu immediately slammed her hands to the wall. "Bam!" Alex suddenly realized the situation he currently at and strangely excited about it. After all, this was... ''This...this...this is the legendary Japanese kabedon.'' But he can''t get excited since their position was wrong! He was currently sandwiched by the wall and Song Yu. It should be otherwise! He should be the one who was on the outside. "Senior Sister?" Alex was scared when seeing her dangerous eye. But suddenly, Song Yu lost her dangerous eye then said. "It''s fine if you don''t want to admit it. I don''t know what you do, but I know that one is your doing. I really want to say ''Thank You!''. At this moment, I''m glad I accepted you as my protege. Since your name is Alexander Sirius...calling you with Alexander is a bit too long, how about I call you Alex?" "Sure, I don''t mind" Alex nodded. "Good! Then let''s go back to our house." Song Yu said happily. Her heart will be full of joy for a few days, it seems. They reached the Ninth Peak in a few minutes. They went toward Song Yu''s house. It was the mansion closest to the peak. Of course, the house on the peak is for the Ninth Elder. The house itself was close to a medieval mansion. It was made of brick with a red colored rooftop. The building wasn''t that high. Instead, it was wide as the building itself spread to the side, circling a quarter of the peak. There were a few big stone fields here and there. It seems the house also split into four sections. (AN: For a better visualization, it was close to Tiger''s Nest Monastery in Bhutan. You can visualize four of them side by side.) "This is the house. It is split into four quarters. Mine and Putri''s are on the center, I''m the right one, and Putri take the left one. Since Master usually used the living quarter on the furthest right, So you will be living the furthest one on the left." "Sure. I don''t have any problem with that as long as I get some privacy" Alex said ''privacy'' out of reflex. After the System and his spirits breaching his privacy 24/7. He really wanted some space for himself. "Privacy? Of course, although I don''t know why you said that but we won''t bother you. There is a crystal inside the living quarter. You can inform us that if you have any questions. We will also inform you first before going to your place." Song Yu said. "Umm, thanks" Alex suddenly embarrassed. He really blurted all of it out of reflex. "But today, I think my master wants to talk with you. So after this, I will inform my master first. As for guiding him and explaining things about your living quarter. I will leave it to Putri." "Understood." Putri nodded. Alex also nodded. After that, Song Yu entered her living quarters. Putri looked at him, "Should we?" Alex nodded. Then, Putri guided him to the living quarters on the very left. Before they entered the place, Putri called him. "Alex...I can call you this, right?" "Yeah, It''s fine, Senior Sister." Putri nodded, "I want to thank you for what you do. That Bast*rd is really annoying, I want to help Senior Sister but don''t have the ability to do so. I''m really useless. After she did so much for me, I can''t repay her. That''s why, after seeing her laugh so satisfied like before, really put me at ease. I''m really thankful." Alex smiled a bit, but he still keep being ignorant. After all, there is still no proof of his action. Of course, he knows they won''t betray him...they won''t...probably. Can''t measure it in their first meeting. "I don''t know what you are talking about, Senior Sister." Putri only shook her head helplessly. "Let''s go inside." Alex nodded. 190 Charya They entered the house. The inside was spacious, considering the outer appearance itself was already huge enough. The first thing Alex wanted to ask after entering the house was, "Senior Sister. I''m confused, why do we need a big house like this when it is only one person staying inside?" "Hmm, From a mortal''s point of view. This place is indeed huge. But from a cultivator''s point of view, it''s also big but also not big. I mean, I can reach there in a split second while normal people can reach there after having one minute walk." Putri said. Although he understood the concept, he still did not understand why. After all, there were still many empty space inside here alone. "Rather than thinking about that, I will give you the tour of this place. Well, it is similar to the other living quarters, including mine." Putri said. Putri guided him to every nook and corner of his house. Then finally they had arrived in the last room. Inside the room, there were four crystal balls. A blue one in the front and three green crystals on the back. She explained, "The blue colored crystal is used for a receiver. That means, if someone wants to visit you, this crystal ball will glow. As for the three crystal balls on the back, you can activate it with your Spiritual Energy. The left one is for my house, the one next to it for Senior Sister, and the right one is for the living quarter which Master usually stayed, but you won''t need this one." "Come here and try. Put your hand on the crystal ball and used your Spiritual Energy to activate it." Putri asked him to get closer. Alex came closer to him. He examined the crystal ball, he didn''t know what this crystal is. Nevertheless, he placed his hand on the Crystal Ball and let his Spiritual Energy activated it. The green crystal suddenly glowed. But Alex also felt something, he felt the energy from the crystal. "This is what it means, you want to visit my place. Then the blue crystal on my house will glow. You can turn the blue crystal off with your Spiritual Energy, the step is the same, so I''m sure you won''t have trouble to use it. Then, if I turn the blue crystal off, this green crystal will also stop glowing. If that happens, that means, I have known that you want to visit me and you can visit me anytime soon. And if you can feel it, there is energy from within the crystal. I''m sure you can feel it. You can use your Spiritual Energy to check the energy. So, you don''t need to keep going back and forth from this room." "I see, pretty convenient tool, isn''t it..." Said Alex in astonishment "Indeed. Then that''s all, if you wanted to practice, you could use the big field outside. Is there anything you want to ask?" "No, Senior Sister''s explanation was very clear. Thank you very much." "Alright. After I left, I will turn off the crystal. If you have any ques..." Before she finished her words. A high pitch sound was heard. "Putri! bring that new guy here." Alex was shocked by the sudden voice. Putri only gave him a wry smile. "That is Master. Master usually call us like that, so I''m sure you will get used to it sooner or later. Alright, let''s go. Ah, first, I need to warn you a bit. Don''t mind her appearance, she is actually a very caring Master." "Umm" Alex didn''t understand what she means but still nodded. Then they finally went out. Alex and Putri arrived shortly, and Song Yu has waited for them. "Alex, Master said she wants to talk with you alone." Alex nodded as he came inside alone as Song Yu closed the door for him. The inside was close to a throne room in the castle of a kingdom, but of course, there was no throne inside. In fact, there was nothing inside, only a big empty wooden floor. He saw a black haired woman sitting on the floor in the center of the room with her foot rise rudely. She kept her hair on her back, tying it in a ponytail. There was a scar on her face running from her left cheek to her left eyebrow. With one look, people can know this woman had a great backstory. But the scar itself didn''t ruin her beautiful face. Instead, it gave a unique feeling for the people who see her. She sucked on her tobacco pipe. Her clothes were a bit loose and letting him see a big cleavage...not that he cares, though. Her good body, including big curves and perfect edges, didn''t tempt him at all. But upon seeing her, Alex had his eyes widened. Because it was similar to what he remembered in his memory. It was the legendary female yakuza! What the heck with today. Just now, he got a legendary Kabedon while now he got to see a female Yakuza. No, in fact, what the heck with this group? The teacher was a female Yakuza, then the big Sister was small but cheerful despite being strong. Then the other one was a fully elegant and rich young lady. In fact, their characters were vastly different. (AN: If the Sect Master was here, he can proudly present the unique and big variety of women of the ninth peak.) "Yo, New guy. I don''t understand the reason why the sect master wanted me to keep you here. But for now, I wanted to talk to you first. So please sit, ah you can sit anywhere you like" With a slightly high pitch and cheerful voice, The ninth elder said. Alex nodded and silently took a sit on the floor, not far in front of her. "I wanted to talk to you. After all, the one living here is Song Yu and Putri while you are a man. Mah, don''t be so nervous. I, myself didn''t really like that stiff thing like that." Alex also understood her concern, so he nodded his head, if he can complain, he really wanted to complain about her word, which can invite a misunderstanding! Alex understood what she means. She must be talking about the polite and tradition like that. But, she should be able to reword it better! Then the ninth elder continued, "So which one is your target? Is it Putri? She has a caring personality, she would be a gentle mother later. Oh, don''t tell me you like Song Yu? Although that child is a pretty cheerful and full of energy. She is, in fact, pretty caring and responsible, you know. Or don''t tell me, Me?" His eyebrows twitched. Alex thought madly ''Is she really wanted to talk about this? But she really talked frankly. Is this really her personality? What answer should I give in a situation like this? This is a hard question.'' ''Should he say he didn''t like everyone since it is the truth? But she might tell him that he is a hypocrite. Then, should he say it''s Song Yu? She might be disgusted as considering her petite figure and childlike personality...Then how about Putri? No no no, Although, Putri is indeed the best choice. He can''t say it since it might reach her ear, and it will end his life. Then should he choose the ninth elder? She has a pretty face even though there is a scar on it and also she really has a good body. No, she might say I''m trying to bootlick her.'' Alex had seen so many ''scenes'' like this on Earth. Picking none of them was hypocrite, Picking one of them was not the best choice while picking all three of them, he will be killed by those disgusted faces of them. Alex sweatdropped, he should be think out of the box here. So he thought of an answer that no one had said it yet. Since he was the youngest one here, he answered with, "I''m not into older women." This time, it was the turn of Ninth Elder''s brow to be twitched. She said with a cold voice, "So... You said you don''t like older women, then it means you are into a little girl?" Alex just realized the flaw of his answer. Then, suddenly he heard a voice of footsteps in front of the door, ready to breach the door. Sweatdropped, He turned back to see the door. But of course, nothing coming in. Suddenly, the ninth elder spoke again awkwardly. "New guy. Why do I feel there are footsteps on the outside that ready to come here? You also turned your head, right? Do you know anything?" Alex shook his head furiously. The ninth elder suddenly laughed, "Gahaha, Alright. I know you want to avoid that question. In fact, that question was only a joke. But, to think your answer is like that...I decided, I really like you, new guy. Welcome to the ninth peak." Alex nodded his head. Now that there was no more pressure on his head, he can really think clearly and regretted why he answered the question with those words. Then he stroked the ring on his left ring finger. The Ninth Elder also noticed his action. "I have two wives, and I really love them. That is my answer. I hope it is not disappointing you, Ninth Elder." Alex said with a sincere face. The ninth elder looked at his sincere face and answer, astonished. She found that the answer was really coming from his deepest part. Then she smiled a bit, "Is that so..." Although, Alex added another thing in his heart, ''There is still Anna waiting too. How can he have the time with them?'' "Alright. Let me introduce myself. I''m Charya, just Charya. The previous sect master found me when I''m a kid and raised me here. So nice to meet you..." "Alexander, Alexander Sirius. You can call me Alex since Alexander is a bit too long." "Sure. Nice to meet you, Alex." Charya nodded. "Then, let''s go back to the topic. I heard you are very talented at making the Sect Master make a move personally. But I really don''t understand until now, why he said that you couldn''t have a master or a teacher? If you didn''t want to answer, it''s fine with me. After all, we all have our own personal secret that we can''t let others know." Alex nodded. Then, Charya stood up and suddenly stretching her body. "Let''s go with my tradition. We will fight outside. I will lower my cultivation to match your cultivation. So, I will limit my cultivation to 5-Star Martial Master. Of course, Song Yu and Putri also have a duel like this with me when they came here back then." Astonished, Alex can''t say no at this time...can''t he? Charya walked toward the door and kicked it open. "Gahaha. Girls, we are going to the field!" "Master, are you going to do the usual?" Song Yu asked worriedly. "Of course. It is my personal welcome ceremony." "Are you sure, Master?" "Of course. You and Putri also received this greeting. I can''t let this guy go empty-handed." "I mean, Master. We found him today when he suddenly becomes a top ten in Outer Disciple Ranking." "Oh!" This news makes even Charya in astonishment. She looked at Alex and grinning fiercely. "It seems the new guy here is really unordinary." Alex made a weird smile. He wished to redo the battle tower. He will stop in a rank that not stand out if he can repeat it. They come to the big field outside the palace. Song Yu and Putri came to him for encouragement. "Good Luck, Alex. I''m cheering for you." While Putri only gave him a realistic opinion, "Master...really hate to lose" When Song Yu gave her encouragement, Alex accepted it with a nod. But when Putri said that, he suddenly gulped down. Didn''t that mean, if he fight harder, then she will respond the same? Alex was thinking about pulling his punch and intentionally be defeated by her. But when he stepped on the field. Charya looked at him while grinning. "Alex. I will say this. Don''t you dare to slack off! If you dare to do it, we are going to redo it twice." "!!!" Alex sweatdropped. He is asking in his heart. ''Is this woman have a sixth sense?'' He can only sigh helplessly. Well, he also wanted to try comparing him with an elder in their technique if they had the same level of cultivation. It means, all of it depends on their techniques, skills, and experiences. 191 Charya Vs Alex Two people were standing in a huge field. They were separated by fifty twenty meters. Charya pulled her blue colored sword out. Her sword was a single edged sword, it was close to a katana, but her sword didn''t have any curvature like a katana. Alex also took his sword out. Charya released her Spiritual Energy for everyone to see. Even though it was everyone, there were only two more people nearby, which were Song Yu and Putri Wulan. After she released her Spiritual Energy, she said to Alex. "This should be enough, right? I''m limiting my cultivation to 5-Star Martial Master." Alex nodded his head to her statement. He also released his Spiritual Energy, which was equal to Charya''s. Of course, for Charya, this quantity of Spiritual Energy was only a minuscule from her actual Spiritual Energy. They were ready for the battle, Then Charya looked at Song Yu. Of course, Song Yu knew what it means. She stepped forward and replied. "Then, I will be the signal. Here we go. Match Start!" The pressure came from their Spiritual Energy suddenly vanished as the people in question also disappeared from the field. The moment they appeared, their sword had clashed with each other in the center of the field. Their power was equal before Alex suddenly made the first move. "Immovable Step" The moment he used the ''Immovable Step''. The pressure from his feet transferred to his hand and boosting his strength for a short time. But that was enough to push Charya back. This sudden increase of power left Charya in astonishment. But Alex took this chance as he swung his sword toward her abdomen from her right. Charya blocked Alex''s sword with her sword. But Alex used his ''Immovable Step once more. She lost in strength once again. But this time, She jumped upward to dodge the slash as Alex''s sword continued its path but didn''t cut anything. Alex also jumped to counter that. He sent a kick to pin her down to the ground again. Since her sword still under her body as she hadn''t stabilized her stance yet. She had no choice other than to block Alex''s kick with her other hand. Of course, Alex wasn''t that nice. "Heavy Step" As his body becomes so heavy, Charya found herself didn''t have the strength to block the kick with only one hand. She immediately dropped her sword to the ground and blocked the kick with both of her hands. Her feet had landed on the ground, but because of the force of Alex''s kick. The ground under her feet started to crack. "Oi oi, you are merciless, aren''t you? You didn''t hold back against a woman like me? Or because of this scar, you didn''t see me as a woman?" Charya said as she kicks her sword upward. She grabbed her sword and swung it toward Alex. Alex immediately used his feet to stabilize his center of gravity then took a distance from her. He looked at Charya, "No. It''s not because of your scar. If I need to say it, that scar didn''t make you less pretty. Instead, it gives a special aura unique only to you. In my eyes, you are a pretty woman." "Is that so? Are you going to woo me after this?" "That''s also no. If you say I''m merciless...No, it is my utmost respect for you." "Respect huh..." Alex nodded, "We are a cultivator. So, I believe in gender equality as a fellow cultivator. I don''t agree when they lament for not being born as a man, but also want to have a special treatment when it is convenient for them. Each people have their own quality, the only difference is whether they have utilized their own quality properly or not. I will treat them equally, If they are my enemy, I will kill them without mercy. That''s why, At this battle, I''m going with the intention to win. This is my utmost respect." His words left them speechless in astonishment. That''s right. Sometimes they wanted to be equal to men. They sometimes regretted because their strength was often inferior to men. But when he said about each of them had their own quality, unique only to themself. They started thinking. Charya was thinking about how she often overpowered her enemies with her instinctual fighting, which make her became unpredictable to her opponent. Song Yu was thinking about how her flexibility can do a ridiculous form to attack her opponent and making them in disadvantages. While Putri was thinking about her fast but gentle speed along with her wind element that helped her in most of her battle. Alex''s words woke them up. That''s right, all of them had a unique quality that made them equal to anyone, whether they were male or female. Thinking about all of that, they involuntarily smiled. It seems, this new junior brother(disciple) of them is special. And they were right to accept him here. Charya looked at him with great interest as she readied her stance once again. "That''s right. Then, I will also fight you with the intention to win. Prepare yourself" She raised her sword into the level of her eyes. It made her eyes became more focused on Alex. "Let me see how you handle my Sword Rite." She disappeared. Alex suddenly swung his sword to the side, as the moment he swung his sword to the side, Charya emerged from that direction. She disappeared again while Alex swung his sword down toward his back, and as the scene repeated again. Charya appeared behind him. They repeated the same movement again and again. Alex still in his original position while Charya kept going and going to him in an unpredictable direction Song Yu and Putri are shocked as they watched this. They never thought Alex could follow their master''s movement from the first time. Unlike the people who were in Martial Lord, who had experienced many battles under their blade, Alex was still a 5-Star Martial Master. "He...he really can follow Master''s Sword Rite" Song Yu said with an utter shock planted on her face. "Yeah. When we fought Master back then, and she used this Sword Rite. We are completely overwhelmed by her unpredictable movement." Unbeknownst to them, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to the limit. There are two useful functions in his Spirit Eyes Technique at the moment. First, his vision became slower, which was very useful in combat. Second, he can see the flow of energy. Each energy had a different color, which can be distinguished by the Spirit Eyes. Unfortunately, Alex''s Spirit Eyes still in a lower stage. He can vaguely see the energy flow. He can see there is a sudden movement of the energy, but he can''t clearly see it yet, including their color. Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see the movement of Charya. That way, he can follow her movement while parrying her again and again. Their clash continued for a few minutes. Both of them were equal. Charya kept attacking him in an unpredictable way while Alex kept blocking her again and again. But the battle became more and more interesting. Especially when their fight slowly involving their Sword Intent. Charya continuously changed her attack pattern again and again. It was like she didn''t have any attack patterns, or all of them were her attack patterns. Her varieties of attack patterns forced Alex to use his ''Sky Movement'' to match her movement, especially his ''Fleeting Step'', ''Flash Step'', and ''Immovable Step''. Song Yu and Putri on the side can only silently watch their fight. They thought if they were in Alex''s position, 5-Star Martial Master and his young age. Can they really hold Charya down like Alex? Of course, now that their cultivation had progressed. They can fight her for a long time, especially Song Yu. But suddenly, Charya said shocking words. "Hahaha, great great. I never thought you could keep up with me. Then, It''s time for me to get serious." "Master, are you insane?" Song Yu, as the one who has followed her the longest, immediately know her intention. "Haha, don''t worry. I know when to stop." "You clearly don''t." There was suddenly a spark of lightning move from her sword to her body as the lightning started surrounding her. A part of the lightning surrounding her body slowly went toward her sword. Finally, she disappeared. Alex''s eyes widened as he raised his sword in front of him. Charya suddenly appeared in front of him, and when their sword clashed, Alex was blown away. She became much faster, and his body can barely react to her movement. "Haha, I never thought you could keep up with my movement. I thought about stopping before it reached you, but when I realized that you reacted to my movement. I was shocked. You are a really talented young man. I think, no one able to beat your talent." "Talent...I hope Ninth Elder can keep this a secret" Alex said. "Hoh, why?" Astonished, she asked. "After all, usually people, especially a young man like you love to flaunt your talent." Alex only shook his head and said it once more. "I hope Ninth Elder can keep this a secret." Seeing Alex won''t answer her question, she just brushed it off. "Fine. I will keep this a secret. I''m sure you want Song Yu and Putri to keep this a secret too. Don''t mind about them, I''m sure they know what to do. And one last thing, you don''t need to call me ''Ninth Elder''. I have recognized you, whether your talent and your wisdom. So you can just call me ''Elder Charya" "Understood Elder Charya" "Good, then let''s start again." Alex nodded as he took a long breath. "Full Throttle" Using ''Full Throttle'', Alex can raise his strength, which should be equal to Charya now for five minutes. That means Alex needed to end this fight within five minutes. This surge of power in Alex left Charya in astonishment yet once again. She only smirked before she disappeared once again. Now, Alex can obviously follow Charya''s movement. *Clang* Both of their swords clashed. And to his surprise, Charya slid her sword and made their swings miss. But Charya did it in purpose. The moment her sword touched the ground, her lightning start channeling to the ground. The lightning split into three directions. Left, right, and behind. With Charya on his front, Alex was surrounded by four directions. Something felt wrong when he saw the lightning. There was another color of energy, but he didn''t know what it is. But, his gut told him it was dangerous. And at that moment, he realized each of the lightning was covered by Sword Intent. "Desolation!" Alex immediately reacted to that. Five Illusory Swords appeared on his back. Three of them intercepted the three incoming lightning. Since both of them were covered in Sword Intent. Their power was equal, the moment they clashed, they had mutual destruction. But Alex still had two Illusory swords left. They flew toward Charya, which made her retreat. The swords didn''t stop there. Alex made the sword to pursue her. But it was useless when Charya suddenly destroyed them both pretty easily. There was another distance between them. Charya suddenly stopped. "You are really good. Then how about your maximum power output? I really want to see it now." Charya raised her sword. Alex can see a projection of a giant blade above her, swinging toward him slowly. Alex can dodge this attack easily since it is slow at the moment. But he also can see Charya purposely slowed it down. It was a kind of invitation between power. Alex wouldn''t be a man if he didn''t accept this invitation. Alex also raised his sword and swung it down to accept her invitation. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash!" A clash between a tyrannical blade and an overbearing Sword Wave. And surprisingly, the moment they touched each other. All of them, including Song Yu and Putri, can feel their power was equal. And finally, destroyed each other. Charya became more excited after seeing his power also that good. The move just now was her strongest Sword Art. Although the power was limited to 5-Star Martial Master. It was, after all, still her strongest Sword Art. Both of them clashed for a few more minutes before Alex suddenly started panting. Even though Charya said, she put a limit on her cultivation, it was only on her strength. She had her reserve energy from her Martial Lord cultivation stage, which she unconsciously to resupply her energy. After finally realized what she had done, Charya felt bad about it, especially to Alex. No matter what others said, she had lost in this battle. After all, she was superior in terms of experience, she also had an advantage in the supply of Spiritual Energy, and she even used her elemental advantage. Of course, if Alex had used his fire, maybe he can suppress her, or at least he can fight her equally. This is not a life or death battle anyway, and there is no benefit for him to reveal his fire now. She looked at Song Yu, who was fuming because she cheated. After all, this is not a fair fight. Because of the guilty feeling, she suggested. "It seems you are exhausted now. We will finish this fight with a move. The special Sword Art in Heavenly Sword Sect, ''Seven Stars Cut''. Is there any problem?" Alex shook his head. It was indeed as she said. His Spiritual Energy almost empty, and his ''Full Throttle'' almost wore out. Both of them started raising their sword. And Spiritual Energy started covering their sword. Both of them swung their sword down at the same time. "Seven Stars Cut!" 192 Win "Seven Stars Cut" Charya''s Seven Stars Cut made up of five layers of Sword Wave. Because of the limitation of 5-Star Martial Master, she can only make five layers with that tiny bit of Spiritual Energy. But to her surprise, Alex only made a single layer Seven Stars Cut. This confused her very much. Alex can only make a single layer Seven Stars Cut? Is this a joke? From his previous skills, there was no way that is true. But, the evidence was present. But what happened next made them shocked to the core. Two overbearing Sword Wave finally clashed. Alex''s one layer Seven Stars Cut, easily cut Charya''s five layers Seven Stars Cut. If Charya''s Seven Stars Cut was a kind of five layers of wooden wall. Then, Alex''s Seven Stars Cut was one layer of metal. It was only made by the original three layers of Seven Stars Cut that fused with each other. He can make three layers Seven Stars Cut at 5-Star Martial Master was because he used ''Full Throttle'' to boost his strength by bit. Then, if later Alex can fuse four layers Seven Stars Cut, it maybe became a stronger type of metal or even diamond. And it will continuously evolve until he reached the seven layers. But Charya''s Seven Stars Cut will always be a wooden wall, even if she produced seven layers Seven Stars Cut, it would only be seven layers of wooden walls. That was the comparison between the true Seven Stars Cut, and the Seven Stars Cut that everyone in the sect learned. This was the reason why Alex was a very special person currently in the sect. Alex''s Sword Wave passed through the obstacle like cutting tofu. It continued flying toward Charya. Charya, or even Song Yu and Putri, sweatdropped. "Master!" Both Song Yu and Putri shouted. "Not good" Charya frowned. Boundless Sword Intent suddenly came from within her body. It suddenly surrounded her, making a sphere of energy with ten meters of radius. If one saw this sphere, they will feel how sharp this sphere of energy is. If a Martial Master came unprepared inside that sphere, he/she would be torn to pieces. When Alex''s Seven Stars Cut came inside the sphere. The energy from the sphere started tearing the Sword Wave aggressively. The Sword Wave Energy was starting to vanish step by step. And by the time it reached Charya, the Sword Wave was no more. It was really a spectacle to behold. Song Yu and Putri finally breathed out. Charya laughed happily, "Gahaha, This guy is really good. I never thought someone could finally comprehend the true Seven Stars Cut. I use my lightning and my Sword Rite. I never thought this guy is not only almost reach Sword Grandmaster. He can also comprehend the true Seven Stars Cut. He even forced me to use my Sword Domain." "True Seven Stars Cut?" Song Yu and Putri shocked. Their jaw dropped to the ground. Song Yu, who also used Sword finally gathered her energy to ask, "Master...What do you mean? True Seven Stars Cut?" "It is as I said. This is the knowledge you can know after you become an Elder of one of the twenty peaks. The Seven Stars Cut that popular inside the sect isn''t the true Seven Stars Cut. It is proven by people from three generations above us. But they keep this as a secret. After all, there is no way Heavenly Sword Sect can say that their core Sword Art was a downgrade one at that time. The other sects will laugh at us and probably will attack us. But now the time has passed, even the other Sects have been familiar with our current Seven Stars Cut. So, now even some disciples of an elder might already told by their master about this. Of course, they won''t tell the truth to others. So, I expect the same thing from you two. Haiz, now all of it makes sense. Why Sect Master personally makes a move for him and why he wants you to be his tutor. He sold us off to him." "Sect Master sold us?" Putri looked at Charya, surprised. "!!!" Song Yu immediately understood what she means. "What? Do you have any feeling to him?" Charya teased them while looking at Alex, who strangely still standing on his original spot without moving. "He is my Junior Brother" Song Yu immediately said while Putri nodded her head in agreement without any expression. "Well, we can''t know what happens in the future. But, I can say he is a trustworthy man and respect us. I don''t have any complaints, whether in his skills or his personality. I''m sure he won''t do something excessive like forcing himself on you or something. So, I''m fine if you want to be with him." "That''s impossible" Song Yu said while smiling. Putri only nodded her head again. "Ahaha, I''m just saying that. But that saying might be different in the future" Charya teased again. "Then, why don''t Master take him too? I mean, he said you are also attractive in his eyes." "Haha, well, it seems that he is waiting for us. Let''s go." Charya said while walking toward Alex. Song Yu and Putri followed her. They were surprised by Alex''s appearance when they arrived in front of him. Alex''s eyes were closed while his breathing was slow but steady. All of them immediately knew why Alex didn''t come to them this whole time and only stand here unmoved. This was really shocking to them, Alex fainted while standing this whole time. "Gahaha, This time, We don''t know who are the winner" Charya laughed happily. "It''s obvious he is the winner! You have already used all of your strengths, including your element, you even used your Spiritual Energy as a Martial Lord to resupply your energy. And you even used your Sword Domain to block the last attack." Song Yu immediately retorted her. "Alright alright, I already know that. Oh wait, it seems this little Song Yu has taken a liking on him?" Charya was surprised by the sudden outbreak from her. Song Yu didn''t say anything. She didn''t have any feeling like the one in her teacher''s mouth for Alex at the moment, the only thing she had was gratitude when he saved her from the annoying Izak. She let Alex down, laying on the ground while supporting his head on her arm. "Master, Did he really use the true Seven Stars Cut?" "Yeah. I assure you. His Seven Stars Cut''s essence is different from us." "What is the difference?" "It is useless to ask me. I only got a hint from that attack. How about you ask him yourself? Maybe he will teach you? After all, if the true Seven Stars Cut sees the light once again. The sect will become more prosperous." Charya said. "Master...are you saying to sacrifice my body?" "No. It seems I didn''t make it clear enough. I talked to him alone just now, and I can assure you, he has a good personality. Maybe, he will only ask you to teach him another Sword Art for him." "Another Sword Art? But he just chose a Sword Art inside the Pavilion." "Ah, I forget to tell you this one. Sect Master, no more accurately Seventh Elder, said that his talent in the sword is unparalleled. I don''t really understand what he means by that since he explained it, in a very complex and roundabout way. It seems he is under the Heavenly Oath. So, he can''t say that fully. But, from what I understand, He can use a Sword Art just by looking others used it a few times." "Ah!" Song Yu obviously very shocked to hear that. That was impossible for her. And even in her home, there was no such genius...no such monster like that. In other words, Alex can copy the Sword Art just by looking? She looked at her Junior Brother like looking at a mons...unparalleled genius. Putri was currently tongue tied because of the shock. Song Yu still didn''t believe such a thing. "Are you serious, Master? I mean, you might misinterpret Seventh Elder, you know." "I don''t know. You can just try it with him. I''m sure you know about it soon. I will try to comprehend his Seven Stars Cut from his last attack for the time being. If I really intrigued, I might ask him to trade a Sword Art with me. That if he agreed to it, though. I won''t force him if he doesn''t want. Anyway, we''ve talked too much. Bring him back and let him rest." "Then, I will bring him back. Since I also have a present for him." Song Yu said. "Ho, a present?" Charya smiled slyly. Song Yu only looked at her with a poker face, telling her it is not such a thing. She sighed, "It is a Perfect Jade Heart Pill. I hope he hasn''t taken a Jade Heart Pill, especially the low grade one..." Song Yu suddenly looked at him mysteriously. Now that she mentioned it. She finally remembered. For the first time, she heard his voice in front of Battle Tower. She thought she has heard his voice from somewhere but didn''t remember it. Now that she recalled about Jade Heart Pill. She remembered a figure of Masked Alchemist who sold her this pill. Their voice was really similar. She didn''t recall this earlier because when the Alchemist speaks, his voice turned a bit because he talked behind his mask. Now that she inspected it slowly in her mind. Alex''s voice and the masked Alchemist''s voice were almost the same. "Well, whatever." Charya only shrugged her shoulder then turned to Putri, "How about you? I''m going back to my house after this, though." "Then, I will also go back to my home." Putri nodded "All right. That''s right. Give this to him" Charya took out a token and tossed it to Song Yu. "Explain the use of this token later to him." Song Yu took the token and nodded. After that, Charya finally flew back to her house on the peak. Song Yu carried Alex on her back, then turned to Putri. "Let''s go." Putri nodded. Song Yu took him to her house. Initially, she asked Putri where is his room. Putri obviously doesn''t know about it. So rather than taking him to his house, Song Yu took him to her house first to let him rest. Two hours later, Alex woke up. Seeing an unfamiliar but feeling at home ceiling. He tried hard to open his tired eyes. The memory of the fight started emerging in his mind. "Ah, I passed out after using that technique. I used it as my last attack. Because of the rebound of ''Full Throttle'' coming along my exhausted Spiritual Energy. I passed out. How long have I slept? But judging from my tired body, it seems the ''Full Throttle'' side effect still in there. So I only passed out for less than three hours." Alex checked his surroundings. The room was the same as what he had in his new house when Putri gave him a tour around his house. "Is this my room?" "No, This is my room" Song Yu suddenly came in. It seems she picked a sound in this room and noticed he has waken up. "Senior Sister?" Alex tried to pull his tired body up. Song Yu stopped him from doing so. "Don''t push yourself. It''s fine to rest for a bit longer." "mhmm" "You are really great to win from Master." "Eh? I won?" Alex was surprised by it. After all, he is..."But, I''m passed out in the field." "In the last clash, your Seven Stars Cut force her to use her Sword Domain. After that, she admitted her loss. But we never noticed you have passed out at that time. You were only standing without moving in the field. And when we approached you, we finally realized you have passed out. I was very surprised to see someone passed out while standing" "I see..." Alex didn''t know what to do at the moment. The atmosphere became awkward. Alex came up with something. "What is Sword Domain?" "Sword Domain is the requirement before someone can become a Sword Grandmaster. But, I heard from Master, you can learn anything about Sword Art easily. Does that apply to Sword Intent and the like?" Alex shocked by her statement. The only one who knew that in Heavenly Sword Sect is Conn. "Is that from Seventh Elder?" "...Yes" Alex sighed. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. It seems that old fox Conn had tried really hard to search a loophole in that Heavenly Oath. Alex learned about Heavenly Oath from his master, Maxwell. Maxwell said to him, The best way to bind someone was to make them apply a Heavenly Oath. But, just like a contract, if one not detailed enough, there bound to be some loopholes to exploit. And Conn used it. Since it was like that, it seems he needs to make some prestige before the tournament. "Yes. But, can you tell me what Senior Sister knows about it first?" 193 Gacha Again? "Then, I will explain what I know first. Well, it was what I get from Master, though. She said you were a genius that can learn a Sword Art just by looking at others. And she said we were sold off by the Sect Master to you" Song Yu said the last part to test Alex in this part. Alex surprised a bit by that. There were two things that might incite the sect master to do so. First, his so-called ''Master''. And the second was his Seven Stars Cut. For his Seven Stars Cut, they can just force him to say it to them. That''s why Alex speculated that the Sect Master still wary the presence of his ''Master'' or Conn might not explain it clearly because of the Heavenly Oath, resulting in the birth of misunderstanding. That misunderstanding became another misunderstanding, and so on. Well, it was convenient for him since it might protect him for the time being. The more mysterious he was, the more people will refrain from making trouble for him. He didn''t mind if Outer Disciple or Inner Disciple make trouble to him since he had Putri and Song Yu for now. And maybe the core disciple too. As for the higher up, he didn''t know how far his ''Misunderstanding'' had spread. But the more it spread, the more convenient. On the contrary, Song Yu completely misunderstood his silence. She thought Alex was the same as other males who wanted her because she was pretty and the like. So she said seductively to test him further, "Then, Do you want me to service you?" Alex knew her intention. He knew that she didn''t know about his ''background''. And there was no way a Martial Lord like her, wanted to be like that. Especially after she fought with Izak and let out that satisfying laugh. Alex sighed and said with a poker face. "Senior Sister. Are you teasing me, or are you seducing me? You need to do your job better, you know. Firstly, if you are teasing me, you should giggle since it is the point of teasing. It is to have fun. Second, If you are seducing me, you can''t say it with the awkward seductive tone of yours. Haiz!" Song Yu froze when she heard that. She didn''t know why, but she felt somewhat hurt. Although, she was testing him. She was at least still confident in her charm. It seems that her Master was right. Alex was different. "I''m sorry, Junior Brother. I was testing you just now." Alex nodded, "It''s fine." "Then, for my apology, I will give you this" She took out a green pill from her Space Ring to Alex. Alex obviously recognized the pill. First, he was also an Alchemist. Second, he was the one who made this pill. Third, He sold it to her personally. "Perfect Jade Heart Pill" Should he take it? Or should he not? After all, he already had Perfect Jade Heart Pill a long time ago. Never in his thought, they bought it for him. After all, he was only a stranger who suddenly needs to be picked up by them. Well, rejecting it was rude to her. So he took it. "Thank you, Senior Sister." But when he tried to take the Jade Heart Pill from her hand. Song Yu immediately reached his hand and inspected it. "As expected. You are the masked Alchemist back then." "What do you mean, Senior Sister?" Alex was surprised by it, but he needed to keep his ignorance. "Haha, You don''t need to act. You underestimated my hearing very much. Even though your voice a bit tempered because you spoke behind the mask. After confirming your hand, I finally know you are him." Alex sighed, it seems, feigning ignorance wouldn''t be any use from now on. So he just admitted it. "Then, If I am him, so what?" "Nothing. Don''t worry, I won''t say it to Putri about this. I just really want to clarify it. But well, I''m a bit disappointed since my gift is useless to you. After all, you can sell that much Perfect Purity Jade Heart Pills, there is no way you haven''t eaten one yet." Said Song Yu. "Well, I''m thankful if Senior Sister won''t tell others about it. And I''m also thankful since you even bought something hard to come by like that for a stranger. I mean, you bought it from me around a week ago. If I''m not wrong." "Well, you are going to be my Junior Brother anyway." "What if I am the same person as the one you fought in front of Martial Arts Pavilion? You even tested me just now." "Well, you are still a Martial Master. I will guide you and reform you thoroughly, even if I need to use force." "Then, since I''m an Alchemist. I can also make some poisons to make you obedient, you know." "You will?" Song Yu said like she feared and disgusted Alex. "You don''t need to say it like that, I won''t" Alex said without expression. "I don''t find any benefit for doing that." "What do you mean by that? I''m still a pretty girl you know" She said like she was wronged. "Whatever." Alex only shrugged his shoulder. "Well, joke aside. Since I don''t have any gift for you now. What should I do..." Song Yu was thinking about something. "You don''t need to give me anything." "Well, I can''t. As your Senior Sister. I need to give you something. That''s right. Since you can learn Sword Art easily, how about I do some demonstration for you?" "!!!" Alex thought about this in the beginning, especially when he chose a Spear Art instead of Sword Art in the Martial Arts Pavilion. He can just learn it from others. "Now I remembered, Master has shown you her Sword Rite and Sun Beam to you in that fight. Have you learned it yet?" Alex shook his head. "Her Sword Rite, I can''t copy that. After all, it was fused by her instinct, along with her thunder element to make her attacks hard to predict. As for her Sun Beam...I might be able, but I need to see it a few more times. I am pretty interested in it too." "Hehe, She was thinking to exchange a Sword Art with your True Seven Stars Cut, you know. I never thought you could comprehend the True Seven Stars Cut that nobody can in the last few centuries." "Well, the explanation within the monument is pretty hard to understand." "Haha. Anyway, Master might visit you later. For the time being, she wanted to try to comprehend it by herself according to your last attack. Her Sun Beam is High Earth Tier Sword Art. Since the Seven Stars Cut is a Heaven Tier Sword Art, you might be able to ask another thing from her" Song Yu said. "It''s alright. I can cultivate in here alone already enough." Alex said. Surprised, she thought he would think about it. But she never thought, Alex wasn''t that greedy. But that''s fine for her. After all, greed can kill. "Then, can I learn about it too? I can exchange it too with my Sword Art. Or are you prefer I exchange it with my body?" "Enough with your dirty joke. Senior Sister, you are not suited to say it. Well, I don''t mind with another Sword Art. If I have enough varieties about them, my attack pattern will become wider." "Junior Brother, Do you know what you said is a mocking toward others?" "What do you mean?" Alex was clueless about this. What did she mean about his words can mock others? "I don''t know how fast your learning speed, but judging from your previous words, saying you can learn Master''s Sun Beam if you can look at it a few more times. I can roughly guess how fast it is. And I can confidently say that it is impossible for normal people. For example, I think I need two months to learn Sun Beam from the manual. That is already considered as fast. If you can really learn Sun Beam just from a few looks. I can only say you are a monster. You don''t need to waste your time to learn any Sword Arts and can focus on your cultivation wholeheartedly. That alone can give you a much faster speed than others in terms of cultivation." "Ah!" Alex rolled his eyes away embarrassedly. He forgot about it. Now that he thought about it, it was as she said. Ordinary people needed to spend part of their time to learn Martial Arts while within that time, he can use it for cultivation. He secretly thankful for the Gacha System. If he can get Spear Mastery, it would be perfect. "You can recover first for the time being. After this, we can go outside, and I will give you some demonstration of my Sword Arts...or should I just demonstrate all of them so you can learn them altogether?" "No, learning too much Sword Arts at the moment might make me undecisive at the critical moment, unsure of using which Sword Arts." Now that he thought about it, maybe he would search for A Fire Arts next time he goes to Martial Arts Pavilion. "Oh, that''s right. Senior Sister, is there any measurement about a person''s rough strength?" "A person rough strength? Oh! You must mean Bull and Dragon." "Bull and Dragon?" Alex can''t help but feel this term was very familiar to him...where had he heard it? "Yeah. 10 kilogram is equal to one bull. Then, a thousand bulls are called a dragon." Alex finally knew the measurement. He never knew about this since, usually, he used kilograms. But to blend in, he needed to know this. ''If ten kilogram is equal to one bull, then a dragon is equal to ten tons'' It was almost similar to a big truck. Getting punched by that...Won''t it be the same as sending another person to another world with truck-kun? But this time, the journey was to the afterlife. "Is there any more question?" "How long have I slept?" "Two hours." "Then, I should be able to move normally after another hour." "All right. I will wait for you in the field. Since the house here pretty similar to others. I''m sure you won''t get lost after Putri gave you a tour." Song Yu said. Then suddenly she opened the windows in the room. Then she jumped to the field from it. Forgetting she was wearing a skirt at the moment. Alex nodded while rolling his eyes to the side...''Pink'' Alex didn''t have anything to do at the moment. So he finally checked his Gacha Tickets. [Gacha Ticket x491] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x0] He was surprised by the sudden appearance of ''Summoning Coin''. "System, what is this Summoning Coin?" [Gacha Ticket-Premium Ticket while Summoning Coin-Summoning Ticket] The System didn''t give him any explanation but only gave him an example that was easy to understand. He immediately knew, the newly Summoning Coin was the same as his Gacha Ticket. "So, I can only get any rare summon from the ticket?" [Yes Host. And you can get Summoning Coin from Normal Gacha] "From which category? There are three of them, right?" [You can get it from any of them] "...Seriously?" [Yes] Contemplating, Alex placed his hand on his chin. Material Gacha only contain medicinal ingredients and useless thing, and even if he got medicinal ingredients, he could only get rank 2 medicinal ingredients. As for Technique Gacha, he might be tempted doing that, but he was wondering if there was a useful technique in the normal one, not the premium one. The last thing was Tool Gacha, he can get tools or weapons with a maximum of Rank 2 weapons or tools. But he was thinking from a different point of view. He didn''t use anything other than Spear and Sword. Although he might get a cauldron, but he already had a Rank 3 Cauldron. So it was not useful for him. But getting a few more Rank 2 Spear might be useful for him as something throwable. Since the System can''t recover his spear automatically, this might be the solution for the time being. But there was another option which is to exchange it with Premium Ticket. But he might be able to get them back after leveling up his other Spirits and let them farm Gacha Tickets. With that, he decided to use all of his current tickets in Tools Gacha. "System, Use all of my tickets on Tools Gacha." [Dark Sword (R) x1] [Javelin (C) x1] [Iron Axe (C) x1] ... 194 Blackwade ... [Summoning Coin (R) x5] [Saw (C) x1] [Screwdriver (C) x1] ... ... [Ladder (C) x1] He finally used his 491 Gacha Tickets. He saw Summoning Coins here and there since the notification from the System itself didn''t pop out altogether. Instead, it came one after another, changing the previous one. So, even though the change was fast, it was readable for the current him. He got seventeen rank 2 Spear, which will be useful for him. Along with the other rank 2 weapons which he might pawn it off somewhere. He remembered there was a function to recycle the item he had. But the System told him that the function was erased the moment he came to the upper world for several reasons, but the most important thing, it was better to sell them somewhere or remake them to something useful. Although, Alex seemed a bit reluctant to it, he can do nothing about it. He recalled the gacha on Earth, there was no recycling system there. For his Gacha System, who relied on his memory to evolve, this kind of update bound to happen sooner or later. Alex thought about the other Gachas, Techniques Gacha, and Materials Gacha. They were not very useful to him. He didn''t have any need for Technique Gacha since he can get all the techniques he needs in Martial Arts Pavilion, if not Premium Gacha, who occasionally gave out Martial Arts for him. As for Material Gacha, he only needs materials for Medicinal Ingredients for pills. [Host, the Technique Gacha aside. You will find the usage for Material Gacha after you have high cultivation, which requires a high rank pill. The higher the pill level, the higher the quality of its medicinal materials. Because of that, it will be hard for you to produce them in a large quantity. But it will be solved by using Material Gacha] Alex''s eyes widened. True, the high rank materials would be rarer and rarer from now on. According to the System who said the Normal Gacha would continuously evolve along with him and will give items according to his current cultivation. In other words, if he were a Martial King, he would get Rank 5 Materials from the Gacha. Then if it became higher such as Martial Monarch, he could get Rank 7 Materials from the Normal Gacha. That would be too useful for him. Thus, he agreed to the System. [As for your Technique Gacha, there will be another function in it for your enjoyment. I know you are cultivating to reunite with your wives as soon as possible. But if you work too hard all the time, you will break before you know it. That''s why System will make another enjoyment for you later to help you ease your mind sometimes] "...Thank you, System." [Your welcome, Host] Alex arranged the items he got from the Gacha. He had nineteen rank 2 or above spears. They were the seventeen spears he got just now along with two rank 3 spears he had before. Alex waited for a few more minutes until the rebound from ''Full Throttle'' disappeared. Then, he recuperated a bit before finally got out from the window since it was the shortest route. If others thought it rude, then he can just say his Senior Sister taught him that. He searched his Senior Sister on the field and found her, standing at the edge of the field while watching the scenery outside. She noticed his presence. She turned back and walked toward him. "Have you rest enough? How is your condition, and do you need any more rest? We are not in a hurry, so it is fine if you want to rest more." Alex looked at her mysteriously. There was a trace of reminiscing in her face, along with loneliness when she watched the scenery. She seemed missing her home, "Senior Sister, you..." "What is it?" She asked with a gentle smile. "Nothing" Alex shook his head. He just met them today. He thought it was rude to ask something personal. He smiled back, "I''m fine now, thanks to Senior Sister nursing me." "You exaggerated it a bit. I didn''t do anything." Song Yu said, "Well, Let''s go back to the topic. I''m going to do some demonstration of my Sword Arts." "Are you sure about this Senior Sister? After all, we might be a rival later, you know. If I know all of your Sword Arts, wouldn''t it put me in advantages?" "You sure love joking, Alex. Well, I don''t mind if you really can be my rival later." Said Song Yu, she also muttered something in a low voice. "After all, I still need to go back to my home after the grand tournament. Even if you are a genius, you wouldn''t be able to reach Martial Lord stage in three years." "Is there something bothering you, Senior Sister?" Alex said in confusion. Seeing her loneliness, she seemed like someone not from in this place. "Nothing. I really can''t wait for you to be my rival, eh Junior Brother Alex" Said Song Yu with her usual cheerful smile. "Then, I will show you my four main Sword Arts...maybe three since you already knew about Seven Stars Cut." Alex nodded. She then raised her sword to her chest level and held it with her two hands. The Spiritual Energy started gathering around her sword as her sword started glowing. When she swung her sword, Four light flew from her sword. They were flying from four sides, left, right, top, and bottom. Then, they met again, a few meters from Song Yu. Without stopping, Song Yu then raised her hand on top of her head. More than ten swords appeared surrounding her. The swords flew toward the same spot where the four light met. The swords flew from every direction to the same spot. If there were a person at that spot, he would, without a doubt, torn to pieces. "That''s two. The other one is a Sword Dance. I don''t know if you are interested in it, though. Want to see it first?" Alex pondered a bit then nodded his head. It didn''t do any wrong to see it first before judging it. Song Yu then proceed with her Sword Dance. It can be said, this is a technique exclusive only to her. Every swing and step is beautiful. He thought he could see this for a few hours without bored. But Alex also knew how sharp her movement was. He tried to counter it in his mind. And yeah, the same as Charya''s Sword Rite, Alex had difficulty in countering each of its movements. After she finished the movement, Alex can''t help but applause. It was that beautiful Sword Dance. Song Yu walked toward him, "How was it?" "It was beautiful, Senior Sister." "Thank you. But that''s not what I mean, I''m asking if there is any technique you fancy? If not, there are some Sword Arts that I used back then but not used it anymore now. Well, I will explain it first. The First Sword Art is called Four Directions Slash, the effect you have seen it just now. The second one is called Omnisword. Usually, I used them in close combat. I can use ''Four Directions Slash'' to pressure my opponent. But it also has a fatal flow..." "If other approached you up close where you wouldn''t have any space to use it." "As expected, you can find even though I only used it once. I didn''t believe it before, I didn''t believe you can learn other Sword Arts with just looking at it. But now you can see through a flaw that hard to notice with just a glance, I''m sure of it." Said Song Yu while nodding her head. Then, she continued, "That''s right. To use this ''Four Directions Slash'', you need some space with your opponent, If your opponent locked your sword and you also didn''t have that distance, this technique won''t have any use." "That''s why I''m combining it with the second technique, ''Omnisword''. It is close to the technique you used when fighting Master. The one that summoned five swords. It can be said this technique is the upgrade of your technique. The only restriction is the range, the limit was fifty meters. It can''t be any longer than that. I used this technique to make a distance from my opponent. As for the last one, it was Blackwade Sword Dance. The technique used your flexibility to overpower your enemy. My opponent usually need a long time to get used to this Sword Dance. And it is giving me a perfect opportunity to strike him. That''s right, this is not one of the sect Martial Arts. This is my clan Martial Art." "Eh? Your clan''s Martial Art? But, Are you sure I can practice it? I mean, it''s your clan Martial Arts, and I''m only an outsider" Alex asked. "It''s fine." Song Yu assured him. She can say that because she didn''t believe Alex would be seen by her clan. Alex thought about it. ''Four Directions Slash'' was very practical in close combat. An attack from four directions like that was hard to block. The fatal flaw can be ignored as long as he used ''Desolation'' or that ''Omnisword''. As for the last Sword Dance, Alex felt he heard the name of Blackwade from somewhere. "Blackwade..." Alex muttered in a low voice. But it can''t escape from Song Yu''s ears. "Don''t mind about it, Alex. Well, Putri also knew about this. This Song Yu isn''t my real name. My real name is Isabel Blackwade, but don''t ask any more about it, alright?" Said Song Yu while making a wry smile. Alex nodded solemnly. "We have our own circumstances. I just thought I heard the name of ''Blackwade'' somewhere." "You heard it from somewhere?" Song Yu was surprised by the sudden revelation. Alex tried recalling, where he had heard about that name. After one minute, he finally remembered one thing he got from the Gacha back in the lower world. He took a black card out of his Gacha Inventory. There was nothing noticeable in this black card. There was only a white ''Blackwade'' written on it along with two big golden ''V'' behind it. Then, he showed it to Song Yu. "This...this is my clan VIP Card!" Shocked, Song Yu said in disbelief. She thought there was no way for the people here to know the name of ''Blackwade''. She looked at him with her mouth still wide open. "You...How do you have this card?" "Emm...My master gave it to me" Alex said. He can''t say anything about his system, after all. So he can only blame his Master for this. "Master? You have a master? Who is he/she?" She grabbed his shoulder and asked him, expecting the answer. Her eyes became dangerous, Alex was like prey in her eyes. "Senior Sister, you are scaring me." Alex said to calm her down. "Ah!" Song Yu finally realized what she was doing. She apologized to Alex and calmed down. "I can''t tell you who he is. But yes, I have a Master." Alex said. "Umm, Sorry. I was too excited, just now. Well, do you know what this card is?" "No" Alex shook his head. "My clan is a merchant. We provide anything, you can say it is a gathering of Forging Master Guild and Alchemist Guild. We can provide you the materials or the finished goods. For a VIP card like this, we usually provided them with a twenty to forty percent discount. After all, they are our esteemed customers. I heard there are seven VIP cards out there. All of the one who holds this card have extraordinary power or influence." Alex frowned, He looked at the ordinary black card in his hand. Back in the lower world, he looked down on this ordinary black card. Never thought, this black card was such a luxurious item. The System that gave this to him became more and more mysterious. "But..." Song Yu noticed something on the card. She realized the Black Card had two ''V'' instead of one. "How can there are two ''V''. The usual Blackwade VIP card only has one golden ''V''. I never heard there are Blackwade VIP cards with two ''V'' on it. Is this a fake?" "I don''t know." Alex shrugged his shoulder. "Can I check this card?" Alex nodded and gave her the card. Song Yu took the card from Alex''s hand, and then she took out a white card from her space ring. When the two cards met, they started to glow. "It is real." It surprised her, she looked at Alex. "Since it is real, don''t tell anyone you have this card. After all, this is one of the most wanted things in the outside world." "I don''t understand." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Well, I will explain it to you. First of all, Blackwade clan is..." 195 Training "Blackwade Clan isn''t a clan from this continent. My clan comes from the Northern Continent. At first, I thought since you are from here. You won''t have a chance to cross the continent and will remain here for the rest of your life. That''s why I showed you the Blackwade Sword Dance. But, now it comes to this point. I take back my decision. You can''t learn Blackwade Sword Dance. I''m not telling you for your own safety. Although, it is fine for me. But, if other Blackwade''s clan members know about it, then your life would be in danger. So, please don''t learn about this Sword Dance. I''m asking you" Song Yu said solemnly. Alex nodded. "You have my word. I feel the sword dance is more compatible with females too." "With this Blackwade VIP card as a proof which your master gave you. I''m sure that you will cross this continent and arrive at Willow Continent since your master even gave the card to you. It might be his proof of your talent, he believed you would be able to cross the continent. Never show anyone you have this Blackwade VIP card until you have the power to protect yourself. But if you need to buy something from Blackwade clan, you only need to say these words to the receptionist. ''Blackwade V''. This is the secret code to show you have a Blackwade VIP card. We made this secret code, so if the cardholder didn''t want his identity to be exposed, they could secretly say it, and the receptionist will lead you to the manager of our store. Usually, the manager will tell you about it after you used the VIP card. But since you are in front of me now, I told you this." "I see. Is there anything I need to know other than this?" Song Yu thought for a while. "I think...no. That should be it. I don''t know what is this VIP card with two golden ''V'' but I can assure you it is real. The white card is the exclusive card for Blackwade clan members, which can be used to identify the VIP card as well as our identity as Blackwade Clan member. Maybe I will try to find out after I go back to my family three years later." "You will go back?" Alex was surprised. To think his Senior Sister did not come from this continent .instead, she came from the next continent, which he needs to go before he arrived at the Heavenly Continent. "Yeah, I''m planning to go back after the continent Grand Tournament...family circumstances. That''s why if you reached Northern Continent, I would welcome you in Blackwade Clan." Song Yu said. "Well, I''m planning to go to win Grand Tournament for various reasons..." Alex said, embarrassedly. When others heard it, it would not be a resolution but instead a brag without any proof to back it up. Song Yu''s eyes widened. She wanted to brush it off, but coming from him, she somehow can''t brush it off. She just had a feeling that Alex was dead serious, and he might pull out a miracle. "Well...Good luck" Alex was taken aback. He thought she would retort him, saying it would not be possible. "Alright. We will go back to practice. Have you decided which Sword Arts you want to learn first as my gift?" Alex nodded, "Then, I choose Four Directions Slash." "Sure. I will do some demonstration for you. If you have any questions just ask it. But haiz, this method is really black. I mean, the rule said we couldn''t give our books of Martial Arts to other people, including our protege. But, it was broken by you who can learn it from looking." "Rule?" Alex tilted his head. He didn''t know there was a rule for Martial Arts. "Eh? You don''t know about it? Don''t tell me you haven''t read the rule on a board beside the entrance?" Song Yu asked with a shocked face. Alex innocently shook his head. "Now that I remembered it, there was indeed a board near the entrance." Facepalmed, Song Yu was surprised to see Alex''s lack of common sense. "Well, there are only three rules. First, you can''t let outsiders learn the Sect''s Martial Arts, including your family members. Second, you can''t lend the books to your protege or other sect members. Third, the time limit is two months. After that, you need to bring back the book. If it was stolen or damaged, you need to accept punishment from the sect." Alex nodded. "Alright. Since you broke the system, Let''s start with some demonstrations" Song Yu said. She demonstrated the ''Four Directions Slash'' to Alex ten times. Then she asked Alex what he understood from it. And Alex gave her a shock, Alex had understood part of her Sword Art just from a few glances. Alex convinced her even more that he was a monster. Song Yu continued teaching him the Four Direction Slash. After two hours, Alex''s understanding was at the same level as her. Of course, even though his understanding was on the same level. It didn''t mean he can use it yet. He needs to train sword art. After all, theory and practical was different. Alex can use the ''Four Directions Slash'' perfectly after a day of training. Song Yu can''t be more surprised later after the shock she got today. Although Alex can use the ''Four Directions Slash'' perfectly, he still needs to practice it so his body can get used to it and will be more practical in a battle. But the next day shocked her again. She almost fainted by having her pride crushed down by Alex. Because, in the second day. Alex suddenly used the ''Four Direction Slash'' but not exactly the ''Four Direction Slash''. After all, he produced five streams of light, making a pentagram movement. Alex called it Pentagram Slash since it was easy to understand the name. Song Yu had the worst but also the best time in her life. She can see what was called a genius among genius. It was like he was born just to wield a sword. If she knew about Alex''s spear, she might jump down to the bottom of the mountain just to hide her pride there. Alex shared his experience with her. And Song Yu was grateful to him and absorbed the knowledge like a sponge. And She learned it the next day and somehow able to use it once by a fluke. Alex stayed the night in Song Yu''s place...in her guest room, of course. On the fourth day, before Alex went back to his place. He told her about the talk with Evelyn back in the Battle Tower. "Senior Sister. Are you not curious about the Seven Stars Cut? Especially back in the Battle Tower, you seemed a bit frustrated about it. Do you want to know it?" "I surely want to know it. But, I won''t force you to tell me. After all, you are not obligated to do so. But others might force you to it. Of course, I will try my best to protect you." Said Song yu while smiling. Alex decided to talk about it since it was the Sect''s Sword Art, not a Sword Art from the System. He didn''t mind about it. "Well, what I told her back then was the requirement to use Seven Stars Cut." "Requirement?" "Yeah. To use Seven Stars Cut, you need to be able to send your Sword Intent flying first" Said Alex. "You mean, the last step before reaching Sword Grandmaster?" Asked Song Yu, intrigued. Alex only nodded his head. Song Yu tried to understand Alex''s meaning about the requirement. But she can''t think of anything about it. Alex smiled, "The words inside the stone monument was very confusing. Seven Stars Cut is really a Seven Layers Sword Wave to one. But the one you used now is Seven Layers Sword Wave but look like one Sword Wave." Song Yu pondered for a moment before she understood. "You mean, the true Seven Stars Cut is a fused one from all of the Seven Layers?" "Yeah, That''s all about it. And to fuse it..." "I need to use my Sword Intent." Song Yu''s eyes widened. She never thought the truth was just that. Alex nodded. "Sometimes, we just need to look at it from a different perspective to look for the answer." "So, that''s why you told her the requirement was to have the ability to send her Sword Intent flying?" Alex nodded again. "The fusing part was the hardest part of all, though. You can try it from two layers Seven Stars Cut. Try to fuse those two layers before moving to three layers." Song Yu took a note of it. She listened to Alex''s advice, just like a student listen to their teacher''s words. After that, she said, "I can''t let you go empty handed for this. Even if you are fine with it. I won''t let you. That''s why I will also teach this Omnislash to you." It became like a trade. Or maybe because of her background as a merchant, she unconsciously said that. But, like she said, Alex was fine with it even if she didn''t give anything. Since she had offered this already, it was rude not to accept it. After all, this Omnislash also intrigued him. But because of this incident, Song Yu got all of her pride crushed by Alex again. Alex took another day to learn the Omnislash. While training on it, Alex suddenly came up with a new way that let the Sword reach a hundred meters mark from its original fifty meters mark. In the end, Song Yu listened to Alex''s advice again. Well, it can be said, it was give and take. Song Yu taught him the basics while Alex taught her the advancement. Alex stayed in Song Yu''s house in a week. At first, he wanted to go back to his house since it wasn''t that far. But since they were training till late at night. Song Yu offered him to stay inside her home since there wasn''t any different from Alex''s house, which Alex accepted. Alex trained at the day and consolidated his foundation at night. Martial Master didn''t need to sleep again, since they only need to recover their Spiritual Energy for that. But, sleeping from time to time was good for health to reduce stress because of Cultivation. Just for a change of pace. After a week, Alex finally bid his goodbye to Song Yu, leaving her so much homework. First was her Four...Pentagram Slash. The second one was her Omnislash, and the last one was the Seven Stars Cut. She had room for improvement. But at least she wasn''t repugnant to learn from her own protege. That was a relief. And her eagerness to improve was also very high. Alex finally went back to his house. He summoned Anna first. At Song Yu''s house, Alex needs to make a Sound Insulation Array before summoning her for a period of time or talking about Leoz''s progress. It was a bit restricting for him. Since he was in his home, there was no need to conceal it any longer. "Anna, sorry to make you wait. But this is our new home" Alex said. "That''s fine, Young Master. As long as I''m with you, that would be my home" Anna said innocently. There wasn''t something behind her words, like a seduction, it was genuinely coming from her heart. Alex smiled, then he summoned Sherry. *Poof* "Wuu!" Sherry finally made its appearance. She saluted to him, "Wuu!" But she still can''t stop the drool coming out of her mouth. She really wanted the pills that Alex promised. Alex said, "I haven''t refined them yet and planning to refine it now. You can wait, right?" She nodded repeatedly. Alex refined the thirty sets of ingredients. After succeeding in the first one, he gave the first five pills to Sherry first. Sherry was content with it. She ate the pills happily while waiting for Alex to make the other one. Of course, she needs a long time to refine all of those pills. She might need a few months to refine all of that. After refining all of the ingredients, Alex had forty five Fire Spirit Pills now, excluding the first five he gave to Sherry. Sherry can advance to 9-Star Martial Master after disgesting all of the Fire Spirit Pills. It was really envious to have her ability. It was like ''Eat, and you will get stronger.'' Alex was in a very complicated spot, His pet only needs to eat to get stronger while his Spirits only need to kill monsters to level up and get stronger. While he needs to cultivate tirelessly to get stronger. 196 Time Skip After refining all of the ingredients he had, Sherry went to her slumber to digest the first five pills. Alex told Anna to give her the pills only five each time Sherry woke up. And finally left all the pills to Anna''s custody. Alex then made two Gathering Arrays, one for him and one for Sherry if she had finished all the pills he gave. He can just run this array with Spirit Stones. Alex will need to wait for a long time before he can start learning the rank 3 pills inside his Simulation Room. He needs to be at least 7-Star Martial Master before he can make the Rank 3 Simulation Room, which can contain all of those rank 3 materials. After he prepared all the rooms for its own purpose, Alex was planning to master his Pentagram Slash, Omnislash, Silver Raven, and Bear Sovereign. Before he started consolidating his cultivation, there was another thing he needs to do. He opened the system and checked his current tickets situation. [Gacha Ticket x14] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x51] At first, he was surprised by how easy it was to get the Summoning Coin. Still, considering he spent almost five hundred Gacha Tickets, it was understandable. The Normal Summoning was similar to the case of Special Summoning. There were two options he can choose which [Summon x1] and [Summon x10+1] Since Alex had 51 Summoning Coins, he chose five times [Summon x10+1] and didn''t use the last coin. He would get 55 Spirits with only fifty Summoning Coins, so it was worth it. [Exp Card (R) Stallion (C) Treant (UC) Minotaur (UC) ... .. . Fire Leopard (R)] Alex got many new Spirits, surprisingly he got 21 new spirits. And he also got 8 of the same card with the new spirits or with the old spirits such as Stallion and Minotaur. The rest 26 cards were only EXP cards, but Alex very grateful to the EXP cards. He got 6 Rare EXP cards, 9 Uncommon EXP cards, and the rest were Common Exp Card. Alex was grateful because Rare EXP card will give him a hundred thousand EXPs, which can raise a Spirit from level 1 to level 12 with half of the EXP bar full. Uncommon EXP card will give the Spirit ten thousand EXPs, and as for the common EXP card, which only gave him a thousand EXPs, it wasn''t that useful. As expected of common rank item. Alex got three rare ranked Spirits. Judging from the situation, the common and uncommon Spirits wasn''t that useful, so he didn''t have any plan to use them for the time being. As for the new three rare ranked spirits. He would leave them as it is, he will have them leveled up if the opportunity arose. Alex used all of the Uncommon EXP cards and one Rare EXP card on Anna. All those EXPs made Anna reached the same level as Leoz. Although their EXP bars were not the same, at least he can ask Leoz to kill a few more monsters until Anna leveled up. This way, Alex will have a Grandmaster Stage spy and a Grandmaster Stage bodyguard. As for the last five rare EXP cards, Alex didn''t have any plan to use it for the time being. He was thinking if Leoz in a dangerous situation when he was gathering information. He can use these five EXP cards to raise his level by four. Since judging from the previous situation, the EXP needed for level up was ten thousand more of the prior level. Alex finally finished all the jobs he needs to do at the moment. Then, he started consolidating his cultivation. Because of the denser Spiritual Energy in the house, he had some leeway to put a time to master all of his Martial Arts. If he was in the Himura Minami''s house, he would really need a full six months to consolidate his cultivation. In the first month, Leoz managed to reach level 21 and finally reached the Grandmaster Stage. Alex asked him to push Anna to level 21 first before he started his mission. Leoz agreed to it, and in a span of another three days, Anna finally level up to 21. Leoz then finally made his way toward Thiveapia Kingdom. Alex also had mastered ''Pentagram Slash'' and ''Omnislash''. In the second month, Song Yu asked him a few questions about the Sword Arts. Song Yu stayed at his house for two days. Of course, he recalled Anna at that time since she might notice Anna with her exceptional hearing. And ultimately, Alex mastered the Silver Raven in his second month. Leoz had started his mission. Except for the general situation such as Thiveapia Kingdom had 101 Cities/Towns, he only found there were seven prominent families that help the Thiveapia Kingdom''s royal family. They were situated in the Capital City. As for the cities/towns in their control, all of them were controlled by a city lord. The situation was closed to the Limewatch town. A Martial Lord as the city lord to control the city. Alex asked him to find the strength of each family, including the royal family, if possible. Leoz had warned him about him being not a good spy. So, the progress was a bit slow, but Alex didn''t mind all that. After all, he only laid back in peace in the sect. In fact, Alex felt about it to Leoz. In the third month, Charya suddenly came down. She realized that she didn''t have any progress in Seven Stars Cut. Song Yu managed to use the true Seven Stars Cut even though she only managed to fuse two layers. Charya exchanged her Sun Beam for the guidance of Alex in Seven Stars Cut. Charya stayed in Alex''s house for a week. After she found out that she also can use the Seven Stars Cut, She said to Alex, she wanted to report this to the Sect Master. Alex didn''t really mind about it, though. Now that he had the ninth elder as his backer, along with Song Yu and Putri, who also occasionally visited him to check on his progress. He didn''t fear if others know about the truth. At first, he didn''t want anyone to know about it because he didn''t have enough background. Although the sect master was wary about his mysterious master, if the other elders also heard about it. They might use another method toward him and forced him to spit the secret. He was that unsure when he was in Himura Minami''s house. In the fourth month, Alex finally managed to master the Bear Sovereign, it was really hard to master the Bear Sovereign. It took him two months just to master it. But if others knew about this, they would be astounded and branded him as a monster. This month, there were many things happen. First, Putri suddenly wanted to visit him. He was shocked when Putri said his Himura Friend changed his name to Simon. She also said, he had reached 4-Star Martial Master Stage, almost 5-Star. It seemed he changed because he realized his own mistakes and attitude toward you. From the look of it, he wanted to prove himself, he can repay Alex. Alex was surprised about it, but he also smiled and gratified from the news. There was only one thing to complain about it, he should not change his name or at least change it with another Japanese name. ''Simon'' didn''t fit as a Japanese Samurai. The Second thing was the Ninth Elder, Charya, came again to him. She said the sect master wanted to reward him for the Seven Stars Cut. According to her words, Charya had taught the Sect Master about the true Seven Stars Cut. Of course, Alex had given his permission about this. After using a month to check it, the sect master wanted to reward him. Alex had too many rank 2 swords and spears at the moment. He also had the Energy Pill from Su Hua, which can raise his cultivation by one level. As for the rest of Rank 2 Pills, he can make it himself. And finally, the Sect Master granted him a rank 4 sword. Although, the reward was meager. He also promised to protect him and decided to tell the others about that and about the Seven Stars Cut in Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament, where all the people gathered. There was a hidden intention on that too. That means, Alex in the tournament, can''t have a weak result. If Alex had a bad result, others would laugh at him. To think the one who managed to comprehend the true Seven Stars Cut was weak. Maybe the rumor about him having a high comprehension but weak cultivation will spread. They won''t look about him being a new disciple. After all, that was how high the expectation of a genius. Of course, Alex wouldn''t hold back in that tournament, as he decided to do that. The last thing, he was surprised to see Evelyn and Lena suddenly visited him. They were brought by their older brother to the ninth peak. After meeting with Song Yu, he decided to go home as Song Yu brought Evelyn and Lena to Alex. He was surprised to see Evelyn managed to send her Sword Intent flying. She used all of her time to progress in her sword, resulting in her cultivation stagnated in 2-Star Martial Master. But, her Sword Intent progressed by leaps and bounds. With just four months, she managed to reach this level. Even though she was able to send her Sword Intent flying, it was only barely. It wasn''t enough to use the Seven Stars Cut. There was also a rumor about Seven Stars Cut. The sect master spread the rumor about the true Seven Stars Cut will appear in the Outer Disciple Ranking, this bewildered everyone in the sect. The other elders also asked the sect master about it. Still, he was adamant about keeping it quiet and made them wait until the tournament. He also promised he would open a special class to let the disciples or even elders to learn about it. The sect master would personally teach them for that. Alex clicked his tongue, its purpose was to raise pressure for Alex. He asked Evelyn if she wanted to stay in his house for a while. Since Alex had promised her to teach her about Seven Stars Cut. He decided to train her Sword Intent a bit more before teaching her about the Seven Stars Cut. Evelyn obviously agreed to it, Lena obviously rejected the idea about her sister, staying in a man''s house. But to her surprise, Putri and Song Yu didn''t mind about it. Knowing about his personality these few months, they had known what kind of person Alex was. So they didn''t mind. Finally, Lena also decided to stay to look after Evelyn. She needs to keep her sister out of this wolf''s claw. After all, Alex was still a 5-Star Martial Master. He hadn''t made any progress after their meeting in front of the Battle Tower. Lena reached 7-Star Martial Master at these few months. She would likely reach 8-Star Martial Master if not 9-Star before the tournament began. Lena saw Evelyn''s progress after Alex taught her. She was surprised by the speed. After Alex started teaching her, her progress was like a monster. In a few days, she can easily make her Sword Intent fly. Because of her pride, she can''t ask him to teach her too. She decided to go back to her house to train harder so Alex''s won''t surpass her. She also had confirmed the rumor, Alex was really the person in the rumor. He had comprehended the true Seven Stars Cut. Luckily, Sherry was in her sleep while cultivating. Sherry had reached 7-Star Master Stage. She would pick a fight with Lena if she were awake. In the fifth month, Charya asked him to do a mission with Putri. She believed Alex could complete a high rank mission with Putri, judging from his prowess alone. After Alex taught her about the Seven Stars Cut, she realized, Alex hadn''t used all of his strength in their fight. Alex said that he needs some time to consolidate his foundation. After that, Charya only said he would take a mission with Putri a few months later, it was better after he reached 7-Star Martial Master. Alex was fine with it. If he had a cultivation of 7-Star Martial Master, he should be able to fight a Grandmaster. So, Charya must want him and Putri to take a Grandmaster Stage Quest. In this month, Eveleny also managed to use the Seven Stars Cut, albeit it was only a fluke. Ultimately, Alex managed to master Charya''s Sun Beam. The last month, in the first week, Alex finally consolidated his cultivation. He then used his Gathering Array every night to cultivate so he can catch up with his cultivation. Evelyn finally managed to get used to fusing two layers of Seven Stars Cut. Alex said it was fine if she wanted to teach her sister, Lena, or her brother. But it seemed her brother wasn''t a sword user, so she said she would only teach Lena. She was very thankful to Alex. She said she would help him if he needs her power. She would ask her father, the king, if required. After that, she left Alex''s house. She was planning to catch up for her cultivation after this. Alex nodded and saw her off. Then, Alex told Putri about his current farming. Since they were planning to do a mission together as per Charya''s order. They decided to do it in another three months. He was planning to raise money again for cultivation. In the fifth month, Sherry had finished her Fire Spirit Pills, and Alex was forced to use his Spirit Stones. His pocket was almost empty now. Suddenly, a thought comes to his mind, there was one person he can ask for Spirit Stones. 197 Reward He can ask the Sect Master for his current predicament. Since he was still confused about his reward. Just let this Spiritual Stones as his reward. But he was thinking about how to give his intention to him. The only possible answer he came up with was Charya. He was confused about how to ask Charya, after all, she was up on the top of the mountain. Ultimately, he visited Song Yu. He went to the crystal room. He looked at the four crystals. Since the blue crystal was his house bell, he often went here to deactivate it. After all, he got many visitors. Alex then went to the green crystal in the middle. This was for Song Yu''s house. He activated it, and the crystal started glowing. After that, he went out of the room and to his surprise, just before he closed the door. The green crystal suddenly dimmed down. Song Yu had received his intention, and he can visit her anytime soon. Then with that, Alex prepared himself to go out. Anna was writing something. Alex came to her and asked what she wrote. "This is Leoz''s report. We finally got a full report from him. The report is about the power inside Thiveapia Kingdom. Their royal family and seven prominent families. I will write all of them first, so Young Master can read it" Anna said "I see. I will leave it to you then. And give my thanks to Leoz." "Yes, Young Master." Anna looked at Alex and noticed that he changed his clothes to nicer clothes, "Young Master, are you going out?" "Yeah, I need to visit Senior Sister Song Yu. Sherry ate too much. And most of my Spiritual Stones were swallowed by her. That''s why I need to visit Senior Sister first. If I can''t get Spirit Stones in this way. We would take a mission again and raise the money with the previous one." Alex said. Anna''s eyes brightened. "Well, I personally don''t mind about taking another mission. That means I can date Young Master. But this newlywed life was nice too." "Ahaha" Alex let out a wry smile. After these six months, Anna became bolder and bolder. Well, it can''t be helped. In these few months, she was the one who took care of him. She didn''t have anything to do since Leoz was the one who helped her to level up. That''s why she had time to take care of Alex and the house like a wife. She also fought Alex a few times to keep her fighting skills sharp. "That''s right, how about Sherry''s progress?" Alex asked, trying to change the topic. "She is currently at 7-Star Master Stage, She would reach Grandmaster Stage before the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament start. Judging from the previous situation, she would need to sleep after that. And it would be longer than the previous stage" Anna said. Alex pondered something, "I will try to go to the battle tower after I finished the promised mission with Senior Sister Putri. Tell her about it." "Understood. Though I think she won''t be too happy about it. After all, compared to here. She would need to fight before receiving the reward. Young Master, you have been spoiling her too much. In here, she didn''t need to do anything and just eating those Spiritual Energy this whole time. I''m afraid she will become too lazy." "Ahaha, Don''t mind about it. I will push her if needed. Maybe, by the time I reached 7-Star, she would be in 9-Star. At that time, I don''t know if you can bypass the system in battle tower and help me. That''s why, having her in that tower will help me later. I''m planning to get the first rank the next time I go there...probably. The Sect Master went through much trouble just to raise the pressure on me. But yeah, I think it''s time to set up some prestige, so no stranger will try to bully me." "I can help you in the battle tower...no I will definitely help you" Anna said desperately. "I know." Said Alex while smiling. Then he said, "Alright. It''s time for me to go." Anna nodded. She saw him off at the front gate. Alex didn''t need too much time to reach Song Yu''s house since he only needs to pass through Putri''s house. He saw Song Yu on the field, practicing her Sword Art. Noticing Alex in the air, she stopped. She looked at Alex and said, "Come in." Alex followed her to the inside. He had gotten used to her house since he had stayed over in this house for a week. Song Yu prepared tea for him. "Is there anything you want to ask about your Sword Arts...maybe not. Since your understanding must be higher than mine. Then is there anything bothering you?" "I just wanted to ask something from Elder Charya, but I don''t know how to contact her" Alex said embarrassedly. Song Yu suddenly sweatdropped. She remembered the token her master gave her back then. Because of Alex''s shocking Blackwade VIP card, she had forgotten about the token. She immediately took out a token from her space ring and gave it to Alex. Alex saw the token, it was a wooden token. There was ''9'' character on it. It must mean ''Ninth Elder''. He looked at Song Yu, he didn''t know why she gave this token to him. "This is Master''s token. Its function was the same as the crystal in our house, After notifying Master with this, she would come down from her house. It also for your protection, you would be under the protection of the Ninth Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect." Said Song Yu in an apologetic tone. Alex was surprised there was such a convenient thing. But there was something wrong in his Senior Sister tone, so he looked at her confusedly. "Actually, Master had asked me to give this token to you after your fight with her six months ago. Your Blackwade VIP card gave me a shock, and I forgot about it this whole time. Sorry...Tee-hee" Song Yu said. Alex was astounded. That ''Teehee'' was also in this world. He didn''t know that. But Song Yu didn''t stick out her tongue or knocked her head. She only said the catchphrase. Maybe she didn''t know the motion? "Senior Sister...what is that ''Tee-hee''?" Alex asked her without expression. Song Yu was embarrassed. "Emm, it was just..." She didn''t know how to explain it. Alex then continued, "Try to do it again, but this time, stick your tongue out and punch your head lightly." She didn''t understand why Alex said that. She followed his request since she thought it was her fault to let something like this happen. She stuck her tongue out and punched her head lightly with her right hand, then she said, "Teehee" She suddenly got astonished, it suddenly came toward her naturally. Alex, who saw that thought she was adorable at that moment. With her blonde hair loose on her back, big blue eyes and small nose and finally her cheerful personality. It was coming to him so naturally and made her looked very adorable at that moment. Alex nodded in approval for that. He just made another masterpiece beside samurai in this world. Alex then imagined the scene of his other Senior Sister, Putri. What would she like if she did that? After all, she was a very elegant and beautiful Senior Sister. If that person acted cute like the Senior Sister in front of him. What kind of expression she would have...no, no picture came to his mind. It must be beyond his imagination. Song Yu was confused by Alex''s action. He suddenly nodded his head after she acted according to his instruction. But he suddenly closed his eyes and shook his head a few moments later. She can''t help but ask, "Alex, what are you thinking?" Alex snapped from his thought. He was flustered, "Nothing. Anyway, Senior Sister. I can just use this token, right?" "Yeah. Try to inject your Spiritual Energy." Alex nodded, he injected his Spiritual Energy to the token. The Token glowed like the crystal. Not long after, the light dimmed down and finally vanished. Song Yu saw all that. She suggested, "Master has noticed you, she will come down a few moments later. How about waiting for her here?" Alex agreed to her suggestion. And like she said, Charya''s voice reverberated in his ears. "Oh, It was the token from Alex. Come here" Charya said with a loud voice. She was always like this every time her disciple called her. "Alright. Senior Sister, I''m going. Thank you for the tea, it was good as usual." Alex drank the whole tea before he went out. "Sure. Come again if you need anything" Song Yu said while waving her hands at him. She then cleaned up. And on her way, she looked at the mirror curiously. She stood there a few seconds, before she punched her head lightly and stuck out her tongue, "Teehee." ''Cute'' She was bewildered by herself. What a powerful attack from herself. It was very adorable. She never thought just by adding action like this can improve the cuteness to several levels. At first, she made this ''Teehee'' phrase when she got told off because of her childish personality. She often made a mistake in her childhood, and she used this technique to escape the punishment. Her father always let her go after she said this line. But now it was improved by Alex. She was wondering what Alex''s identity was. Maybe she can ask him for something like this ''teehee'' to him for advice. Alex went to Charya, he met her inside the previous hall where he met her the first time. Charya, as usual, wore loose clothing, tied her hair into a ponytail, and raised one of her feet while sitting on the floor. After Alex came in, She finally asked him first. "Do you have any problem? Have you done consolidating your foundation?" "Yeah, I have consolidated my foundation." Alex nodded, then he continued, "I come here to ask for Elder Charya''s help." "Oh, you want my help? Sure, And don''t ask me with that polite tone, it sounds a bit distant. Just ask me casually. What do you need? Hmm, let me guess, You don''t have enough resources?." Charya said. "Yes" Alex said embarrassedly. "Actually, I was planning to ask it from the Sect Master, But I don''t know how to contact him." "So, you went to me" Charya said. Alex nodded. Charya grinned, "Well, I remembered it now. That old man said he owed you a reward for that Seven Stars Cut. Alright, I''m in. That old man is pretty rich, you know. I will try to ask him as much as possible." Alex was surprised Charya suddenly agreed to his request, and it seemed she was very eager to do it. "Thank you, Elder Charya." "Don''t mind about it. Just wait for my good news tomorrow" Charya said. "You can go no if that''s all. Just don''t forget about the mission. Putri said you two would go in three months later." Alex nodded. Charya then continued, "Well, I will try to search the mission at that time. Make sure you reach 7-Star Martial Master Stage first. I''m planning to have you go for a Grandmaster''s mission, after all. Judging from your abilities, you should be able to fight a Grandmaster if you reached 7-Star Martial Master Stage. Putri will also go with you to protect if something goes wrong." Alex nodded. After he thanked her once more, he left. Alex then came back to his house. Anna gave him the statistic of Thiveapia Kingdom. Alex read the report. The capital city was called Elyheas City. Just like Thiveapia, it was hard to pronounce name. There were seven prominent families inside the capital city of Thiveapia Kingdom. Siqal, Gisbis, Eeste, Zemjun, Hizes, Degil, and Darqas. Each family had around thirteen to sixteen Martial Lord, ranging from 1-Star Martial Lord to 6-Star Martial Lord with their family leader was a 7-Star Martial Lord, except the Darqas family who had an 8-Star Martial Lord. They had more than a hundred of Grandmaster Stage Martial Artists and almost a thousand of Martial Masters. As for the royal family, They had a 9-Star Martial Lord to oversee the kingdom. But the royal family background was deep, so Leoz note there was a possibility of them, had a 10-Star Martial Lord to protect the kingdom. They had a few thousand Martial Master as their soldiers and a few ten thousand normal soldiers in the foundation stage. Alex saw something which piqued his interest greatly in the report. 198 Simulation Room In Leoz''s report, Leoz said there was a movement in the neighboring kingdom, which was the Zhou Kingdom. Because of his capability wasn''t that good as a spy, this was all the thing he can get after these few months. Leoz asked whether he will stay in Thiveapia Kingdom or went to the Zhou Kingdom to observe the situation. Alex pondered a bit, he decided to see the movement in the Zhou Kingdom. So, he asked Anna to tell Leoz about it. He asked Leoz to gather information about Zhou Kingdom, like the information about Thiveapia Kingdom. Alex was wondering what kind of movement was that. Would there be a war soon? That would be good, though. He only needs to take one side and killed the enemy soldiers. He intended to level up the Spirits when that happened. Hopefully, raising them to Grandmaster Level or level 21. The next day, Charya came to his house directly. Since he already knew she would come today. Alex waited for her on the field. Charya came with a Space Ring and then gave it to Alex. "Haha, I''m able to get a four hundred thousand Spirit Stones for you. It was almost the whole saving of that old man. Haha, I''m satisfied by my power" Charya said happily. Alex was surprised, The sect master only had four hundred thousand Spirit Stones? He can get them easily by just selling his pills. He once again, didn''t know how abrupt his ''Simulation Room'' is. For example, A normal alchemist can get around a hundred or two hundred Spirit Stones for a good alchemist from Perfect Fire Spirit Pill. They had to bear the cost of ingredients, and most of their pills won''t be a perfect purity pill. They also need to save up for practicing another pill. That''s why there were only around a hundred or two hundred Spirit Stones for an alchemist. Let alone the sect master who wasn''t an alchemist. But Alex also didn''t know because of his Pure Fire Element, he would need a several times amount of Spirit Stones more than an ordinary Martial Artist to breakthrough from one stage to another. It can be said, his abrupt way of earning balanced his extraordinary spending. Charya left happily after giving the bounty to Alex. After all, she can be this happy because the sect master owed Alex a reward. Alex didn''t know why Charya was happy after emptying the pocket of the sect master. But Alex didn''t care about that as long as he can get the Spirit Stones. He went back to cultivate. With those Spirit Stones, he should be able to cultivate easily for two months, he didn''t need to fear Sherry will eat those Spirit Stones. He didn''t use the Spirit Stones first, he felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough. For this breakthrough, Alex was planning to use his cultivation technique. He had filled those empty spaces in his cultivation from 1-Star Martial Master Stage to 5-Star Martial Master Stage, he only needs some last sprint to breakthrough to 6-Star Martial Master. Finally, after three days, he had broken through to 6-Star. It took him longer than he expected. But all in all, he should be able to breakthrough to 7-Star Martial Master within a month. After three weeks of bitter cultivation inside the Array, Alex finally broke through to 7-Star Martial Master Stage. Although Alex had reached 7-Star Martial Master Stage, he didn''t immediately go to Putri and asked for a mission. He wanted to prepare himself first. He was planning to practice his Array and Alchemy for the rest of his time. He practiced his Array Mastery first. After all, Array was the foundation for his Alchemy''s Simulation Room. He practiced seven arrays for a month. The first Array he practiced was a Rank 3 Illusion Array, called Silk Dream Array. It was also the foundation of his Simulation Room. And the other reason why he chose an illusion Array was so he can experience it himself. He needs to get used to illusion if he wanted to break free from an illusion. He needs to know in and out of the illusion Array. The second Array he practiced was a defense type barrier Array, called Tortoise Shell Array. The array can erect a barrier strong enough to defend a Martial Grandmaster. But because of his low cultivation, this array can only block a full attack from 1-Star Martial Grandmaster, but that was enough for him at the moment. There were also some practical use depending on how he used it, but that was for later. The Third Array, he practiced a Binding Array, called Wistful Shackle Array. When he used this array, a few whips like light rose from the array. Although it looked like a weak whip, it was not. When he tried the strength of the whip, he knew the whip was far stronger than the binding chain array he used at the battle with Xian Tao, where Alex supported Leoz with his Array. The Fourth Array was Rank 3 Gathering Array, He practiced this at fourth was because Sherry kept nagging him to make a stronger Gathering Array. Alex agreed and made it for her and for himself for later use. Since they were going to a mission, Alex needs to prepare as much as possible, Sherry was included in it. The Fifth Array was his original Simulation Room. It was based on Silk Dream Illusion Array, but after some tweaking with his Space Element. He can make Rank 3 Simulation Room. It can make an illusion of Rank 3 Medicinal Ingredients according to his knowledge. There is another reason why he practiced this array on fifth. The last two arrays were Attack Type Arrays. He can''t practice it in an open space since others might notice it, especially Song Yu, who had an exceptional hearing. Alex used a month to practice these five arrays. Others might doubt it because the speed of his learning was too fast. But it was only possible because of Maxwell''s book. In his book, there were many arrays for rank 3 Arrays. He also wrote about his personal opinion along with his experiences, it made Alex''s progress very fast. In his book, only Rank 8 Arrays were a bit vague. From the look of it, Maxwell was a pinnacle Rank 8 Array Masters before he died. He wrote all of his knowledge in this book before he restarted his journey and reached godhood. All of the arrays he had used were from this book, except his original Simulation Room. After he made the Simulation Room, he immediately entered the Array. He practiced two attack type Arrays. One was a Fire based type attack array, it can channel his own Fire to use this array. It was called Fire Strings. It can make numerous threads, the threads itself were already strong, and with his Fire, it became even stronger. The second attack type was sound based attack. It created a high pitch sound that had the power to disrupt the flow of Spiritual Energy. It was useful for breaking an Enemy''s Strong Attack. Even in Maxwell''s book, he wrote this array as a must learn array. Alex was surprised to see that, so because it piqued his interest, he learned it. He took another three weeks just to get used to those seven arrays. He only got two weeks or so time left before the promised time. He finally moved to improve his Alchemy. He was pondering which pills he needs to practice first. He had four options for his first pills. Hard Bone Pill, Tempered Muscle Pill, Soul Refining Pill, and Rank 3 Detoxification Pill. Hard Bone Pill was the same as his Bone Refining Pill he made back in Acacia Kingdom, but the effect can''t be compared to Hard Bone Pill, it was very effective. Tempered Muscle Pill was the same as Muscle Refining Pill but higher. Refining his muscle and giving a hundred bulls strength. One person can eat two in their whole life. As for Soul Refining Pill, it can refine one''s soul and increased their mental energy, for normal Martial Artists, it can also strengthen their soul so they can fend an illusion faster. It was a must for Alchemist or Array Master to take this pill. And as for the last, like its name, it can detoxify Grandmaster Stage poison or below. Detoxification Pill was a mid 3rd Rank Pill, along with Hard Bone Pill. As for Tempered Muscle Pill and Soul Refining Pill were low 3rd Rank Pill. Because of their effect, Alex thought of refining Soul Refining Pill first for his own use. After that, he will refine the Tempered Muscle Pill since it should be popular in the market. He entered the Simulation Room, he saw six medicinal ingredients along with his furnace in front of him. A red fruit close to an apple, and one purple fruit close to a grape just slightly bigger. They were Ivory Fruit and Swift Fruit, respectively. The third ingredient was the root called Melody Root, which stemmed from Melody Tree. The fourth and fifth Ingredients were Jade Grass and Mandala Flower. As for the last ingredients was Grandmaster Stage monster core. Since this was only an illusion and for practice purposes, he let out his Pure Fire to understand each of the ingredients better before moving to his normal Fire. He warmed his Alchemy Furnace. After the furnace gathered enough heat, Alex waved his hands, and surprisingly, five ingredients flew to the cauldron. After receiving the mental energy from the Heavenly Sword Sect''s soul, Alex''s mental energy became far higher than his previous one. This time, he can refine five ingredients simultaneously, maybe after he ate Soul Refining Pill, he can refine six ingredients simultaneously. The Ivory Fruit and Swift Fruit was burned by a Pure Fire, but there was nothing visible to see before suddenly a drop of liquid seeped out from the fruit. It was two colorless liquid. Those droplets were the essence of Ivory Fruit and Swift Fruit. After Alex took its essence, those two fruits quickly withered away. Alex tossed the fruits away and continued purging the impurities from the droplets. At the same time, he refined the other three ingredients. There was no visible change that can be seen from the surface for Jade Grass and Melody Root. As for Mandala Flower, Alex took its petals, the flower had five petals, After he took the petals and tossed the rest of the flower away, he immediately raised his flame. The petals were burned by a dense flame, those petals slowly became charred. Black spots appeared here and there before each petals became black like charcoal. Alex then let his Spiritual Energy to crack those black petals. As it started to crack, the petals'' body suddenly turned to dust, leaving only a very small droplet. Alex combined all the droplets from each petal to one, making a bigger droplet. After purging the impurities from each ingredient and finished the refinement. Alex finally moved to the next step, the monster core. Alex stored each of the refined ingredients inside his flame and tossed the monster core inside the furnace. Alex used his flame to smooth the energy from the monster core so it can help the fusing process. He felt the energy fought back against his flame, it was like a ferocious beast, trying to kill him. Alex raised his flame even further to fight the beast back. After a few more minutes, Alex finally finished refining the monster''s core. He let out a breath of relief. Then he tossed all of the refined ingredients inside the cauldron and let them fuse. The process went smoothly before he felt something wrong in the process. Suddenly, the energy went out of control. Alex frowned, he raised the flame even more to suppress the berserk energy. But suddenly he felt something dangerous, he felt something was trying to bite him. He was bewildered by the sudden attack. It seems, he hadn''t finished in killing the whole energy or the consciousness of the beast inside the monster core. He thought he had refined it all, but never thought it was hiding from him until the last moment. The energy became uncontrollable before suddenly, the furnace exploded in front of him. He failed. He was bailed out of the illusion. He opened his eyes as he was back in the real world. There were six medicinal ingredients along with an Alchemy Furnace. They were precisely the ingredients that he recreated inside the array. That exploded furnace might injure him in the real world, but luckily he was inside the Simulation Room. He filled the array with the Spirit Stones again. Reflecting on his mistakes, he activated the array again and came inside the Simulation Room. Because all of it happened inside the simulation room, he can''t tire his body inside an illusion. As long as he had the willpower to continue, he can try again and again tirelessly without suffering the consequences such as the cost of medicinal ingredients, injury, etc. His Simulation Room was that OP. At his second try, he managed to suppress the monster''s energy completely. Still, because the berserk came once more, he only made a low purity Soul Refining Pill. It can be said, it was also a failure. Alex tried it again and again like a robot. He can be reckless inside the Simulation Room, experimenting one thing after another so he can make a perfect purity Soul Refining Pill. Finally after ten days, "Formed!" A purple pill slowly formed inside the furnace. After it successfully formed, Alex took out the purple pill without any blemish. "Haha, finally, I only failed once in thirty tries. And I failed to make two perfect purity pills, but they still have a purity above ninety percent. It should be enough for now. I should master the Tempered Muscle Pill before leaving." 199 Mission After that, Alex used all the time he had to master the Tempered Muscle Pill. The difficulty of this pill was lower than Soul Refining Pill. He noticed it after he refined the actual pill. It took him a week before he completely mastered the refining of Tempered Muscle Pill, using his normal Fire, not his Pure Fire. Using his Pure Fire was like a normal difficulty game while using his normal Fire was a hard difficulty game. At least, the fire ferocity between his Phoenix Flame and his Pure Fire flame wasn''t that different, if not, he might need to take a longer time to master those two pills. After mastering those two pills, Alex made the real pills with the medicinal ingredients he bought in the Alchemist Guild in Heavenly Sword Town. He made the Tempered Muscle Pill first. He can make three Tempered Muscle Pill from one set of ingredients. But for Soul Refining Pill, Alex can only make one pill per set of ingredients. At first, he thought he could make more because usually, if there was a Monster Core as one of the ingredients. Alex can make more than one pill from each set of ingredients. But he was mistaken. Soul Refining Pill was a special pill. Unlike the normal monster core, the monster core in the Soul Refining Pills ingredients was a ferocious beast monster core. That was the reason why Alex failed on his first time. Refining Tempered Muscle Pill took around half an hour. He didn''t eat it first. Instead, he refined the Soul Refining Pill. Finally, one purple and three orange pills were in front of him. He swallowed the Soul Refining Pill first. After recalling the Muscle Refining Pill back then, he decided to eat the one without pain first. The Soul Refining Pill got inside his mouth, It slowly melted inside his mouth. Alex felt the efficacy of the pill as he felt his awareness expanded bit by bit. He also felt something that can''t be described, but he knew it was beneficial to him. After refining the pill efficacy for an hour, Alex slowly opened his eyes. His awareness expanded, his sense became sharper, etc. After checking the change inside his body, Alex finally swallowed the Tempered Muscle Pills one by one. When he swallowed the first one, he had prepared for the pain. And to his surprise, the pain he had waited, was nowhere to be seen. The process went smoothly without any pain, and he also felt his strength became stronger. He took another one and refined the efficacy. He didn''t know how strong he was since he never measured it. Maybe, after this, he should ask his Senior Sister about how to measure one strength. Alex finally finished his business. And just like that, Alex used his nine months inside the sect. There was only two months more before the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament. It was time for him to gather some more experiences, trying to get used to his Martial Arts by using it in battles. This was also the reason why he agreed to the mission, arranged by Charya. Alex then came to Sherry''s room. Inside the room, as expected, Sherry still laid down lazily while sucking those Spiritual Energy from Spirit Stones. His Gathering Array helped her in devouring the Spiritual Energy. Alex shook his head, helplessly. "Sherry, time to go." "!!!" Sherry''s eyes widened after she heard her Master suddenly called her. She looked at Alex and knew her leisure time would be gone for the time being. "Wuu!" Without saying anything, or actually, she didn''t dare to complain. If not, Alex will confiscate her food. She got up and came inside Alex''s body. Alex was astonished, he thought Sherry would complain...based on her activity this whole time. Alex did not bother with it anymore, as long as she came with him, everything was alright. Then, he went to Anna. "Young Master, should I go with you?" Alex shook his head, "It should be fine. After all, Senior Sister Putri was a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. Well, I will call you if needed to be, so Don''t worry." "Alright" Anna said, a bit lonely. Alex comforted her a bit, before going to the Crystal Room and notified his Senior Sister that he was ready. After half an hour, the Crystal dimmed down, and Alex finally went to Putri''s house. Putri was waiting for him on the field. She was ready to go at any moment. Alex landed and greeted her, "Senior Sister." Putri nodded, "Let''s go to Master''s house, I have notified her, so she should come down soon enough." Alex nodded. They flew to the usual meeting place with Charya. But surprisingly, Charya was nowhere to be seen. They had waited for her for three hours, and finally, she came. To their surprise, Charya didn''t come from her house on top of the mountain. She was coming from the south. It seems, she rushed to here. "I got three missions for you. You can choose one of them. Don''t worry, they are still fresh. After all, I just grabbed it a few moments ago" Charya said. Alex and Putri immediately knew the reason why they waited for her a few hours. She was choosing the mission personally for them. They can''t help but smile, this elder of them truly cared for them. At least, Alex won''t be able to receive such treatment if he stayed in Himura Minami''s mansion. Then they saw the missions. Mission: Kill Ultrans Bandits Requirement: 1-Star Martial Grandmaster Reward: 5000Spirit Stones/ 500 Sect Points Description: The last report, the boss of the bandits was 10-Star Martial Master. They made their base in Moonlit Forest. Mission: Kill Choedon (Bounty) Requirement: 2-Star Martial Grandmaster Reward: 6000 Spirit Stones/ 600 Sect Points Description: A Criminal who had massacred an entire village. He was last spotted in Chasm Town. The current position is unknown. Mission: Evil Sect (Scouting) Requirement: 1-Star Martial Grandmaster Reward: 3000 Spirit Stones/ 300 Sect Points Description: A new evil sect was spotted in the Nugget Village. Alex looked at them carefully, then he looked at Putri. Since she was going to go with him, He thought he should ask her opinion first. "Senior Sister, what do you think about these missions?" Putri only shook her head and smiled. She said, "You can choose any mission you want. I''m here only to accompany you. You are the head, so don''t mind about me." Seeing she didn''t have any opinion, Alex pondered for a bit. Then he chose the Evil Sect. "I choose this" Charya was astonished a little bit. She looked carefully at Alex''s face and asked, "Why you chose that mission?" "Because it was the clearest mission. For the first mission, the bandits have built a base, that means their own stronghold. If we weren''t careful when we entered their territory. I''m afraid, the mission would be even more dangerous. Sometimes, quantity can beat quality. Of course, I don''t say, Senior Sister will lose. But since the missions were for me. I need to consider my own strength." Alex explained. Charya nodded in approval, then she asked, "How about the other one?" "The other one wasn''t an option in the beginning. First of all, his current position is unknown. Searching for him without any clue will take too much time. If we are fated, I meet him, then beat him and turn him to the sect, thus claiming the bounty. So, the third was my only option. Since they are a new evil sect, their foundation should be that deep, and this mission only requires us to scout them." This time, Putri also nodded along with Charya. "Then It''s decided. When will you two go?" Alex looked at Putri. Putri only smiled to him, "I''m fine whenever you are ready." Alex nodded, "Then now. There are only two months left before the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament. So I think finishing this mission as soon as possible would be better for me." "Good. I wish you luck" Charya said. After bidding their goodbye with Charya, Alex and Putri flew toward Chasm Town. Because of the distance, they would need three days before they arrived in Chasm Town. In the meantime, Alex asked many things to Putri, including how to measure his strength. According to Putri, there was a stone that can measure one''s strength. They can measure up to one dragon. Each elder inside the sect should have one. In Charya''s case, she put it in her house at Song Yu''s house, not her house on the top of the mountain. She said she could guide him after they had done the mission, which Alex agreed. The journey inside went smoothly, Alex also found out that Putri was from Hazel Kingdom. As for her family, she didn''t say anything about it. Judging from her expression, Alex can find his old self in her. But he didn''t say anything about it. After three days, they decided to take a rest first in a nearby city to recuperate their energy as well as gathering information. According to the people, the evil cult had massacred the people in Nugget Village. The Lord of the city had dispatched the soldiers to check the situation. At first, when they dispatched the soldiers in the day, they didn''t find anything. So, the Lord sent the soldiers to patrol at night. But surprisingly, they never came back. He tried to send the soldiers in the day again, and as expected, they came back with nothing. So, the Lord made a decision to send a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster to check at night. But he also didn''t come back. The Lord was going to make a move personally to check the situation. He had sent a new post about the mission to Heavenly Sword Sect with a higher requirement. Unfortunately, they had arrived before the new mission posted. Alex asked his Senior Sister since she was the strongest fighter. They decided to scout for now with Putri as the head. After all, the mission should be higher. To kill a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster, they should be careful since Alex was still 7-Star Martial Master. Although Alex can also kill 1-Star Martial Grandmaster, this time it was an unknown enemy, they should be cautious in this. So they decided to visit the city lord first. At first, the City Lord was a bit doubtful on Alex since he can see Alex was only a 7-Star Martial Master. But after seeing, Putri, who was stronger than him. He said no more. They were currently talking about the incident. The City Lord was a middle-aged man, but even though he was a middle-aged man, his hair had turned white like an old man, his name was Dennis Davidsen. According to him, there was a purple light around Nugget Village at night. At first, he had personally scouted the spot, but the sudden appearance of the purple light made him dread. Unknowingly, his hair turned white overnight. He didn''t know why his hair turned to white, either. Alex was unsure what of that purple light was. But after listening to that, he felt his cultivation got suppressed by the appearance of purple light. Alex immediately thought of something. It was an array. Alex asked, "City Lord, Do you have awaken any element?" Dennis didn''t understand why Alex asked this, but nonetheless, he answered. "Yes, my element is earth." Alex finally understood the reason. Putri was confused by Alex''s action. "Junior Brother, do you know something?" "I think, I know what the purple light was" Alex said. "Is that true?" City Lord immediately asked. After all, he was the one who had experienced it personally. Putri furrowed her eyebrows. "It was an Array, specifically it was a Rank 4 Array called Elemental Suppressing Array. It can suppress everyone who have an element inside their body. But that was only effective for Martial Grandmaster or below. And the other weakness was the array can only be activated at night. I''m certain that was the reason why the people at night never came back. I assumed the evil cult killed them using the array. City Lord, I want to ask if there was any Array Master who had resided in that place?" Putri and the City Lord were astonished by Alex''s wisdom. Putri was curious about why Alex knew such knowledge, was he an array master? On the contrary, City Lord wasn''t bothered to that. He suddenly recalled some records about it. "I think I have the record about it. But I need to ascertain it again in my study room." Putri nodded. "We will follow you to see it too." City Lord nodded and guided them to his study room. 200 Gathering Information On the way to the City Lord''s study room. Putri asked Alex, "Junior Brother. I don''t know you have such knowledge. Are you an Array Master?" Alex chose to be ignorant as he spouted nonsense, "No. My master only imparted me with some basic knowledge about Arrays. He taught me how to deal with Rank 3 Array or below. But for this Rank 4 Array, I should be able to do some tweaking in it and inactivate the array. Since this array can only be activated at night, I''m sure the evil cult didn''t have a high cultivation stage. If not, they won''t resort to this and might take over this city. So, in the days, we won''t face the enemy. We will retreat before night comes. We can do this for a few days. Or should we call some help from Senior Sister Song Yu?" Putri pondered a bit, then shook her head. "It should be like you said. We will try to see if we can do something about it in the day. If we can''t resolve it in three days, we will ask for help." "Alright" Alex nodded. Not long after, they arrived at the City Lord''s study room. The city lord opened a book and browsed it. "I found it. This is the record." Alex and Putri came closer and read the record. "Around one and half century ago, there was an array master. He was famous for his Array ability, especially his Elemental Suppression Array, it is indeed as you said. With that, he made many crimes and resided in Nugget Village. Back then, it was called Memorial Village, and he was a Martial Grandmaster. The record said he was besieged by many peak Martial Grandmaster, and surprisingly he was victorious. Finally, the kingdom sent a few Martial Lords, and they succeeded in killing him, but they never found the array." Dennis said. Finally, Alex and Putri got a clue about this incident. Putri asked, "Junior Brother, how confident are you in solving this array?" "I don''t know. Even though I have some prior knowledge, I need to browse my old knowledge first. I should be able to come up for an answer tonight." Alex said. "Alright, we will try to scout the location tomorrow morning. If we can''t do it, we will ask for help. Until the help arrives, we can try scouting the perimeter" Putri said. "Understood" "Please, Please help this town. I have sent a new request to Heavenly Sword Sect, but the requirement was only 6-Star Grandmaster. Since I thought it was enough. But if it was like the record said, I''m afraid it was not enough. I..." "Don''t worry, City Lord. It was almost night, so we will try to come up with a solution tomorrow. Since we are going in the day, we would be fine. If we can''t come up with a solution. I will personally ask the sect for reinforcement" Putri assured him. "Thank...thank you. Let me host you in this humble house." the City Lord said. Alex and Putri looked at each other and nodded. Putri said, "Then, we will trouble you, City Lord." The City Lord ordered the maids to clean up two guest rooms. Alex took out Maxwell''s book after he got inside the room. According to Maxwell''s book. This Elemental Suppression Array was one of the powerful array. Although it can only be used at night, its power was very powerful. It can be built by a Martial Grandmaster pretty easily. That was the strong point of the array. This array can''t be activated by the Spiritual Energy alone, it also needs some elemental Materials to use the array to its full potential. The more materials the array used, the more powerful the suppression was. Alex continued researching about the array. On the last page about this array, there was a strong note left by Maxwell. Alex frowned. ''The array forces the element inside the material to its full potential. But the materials can also be changed with humans, whether they were alive or not. It will simulate the element inside their body, whether they have awakened their element or not. For the dead, it was unrespectful, and there was a possibility to destroy the soul of death and make them can''t reincarnate. As for the living, it was a living hell for them. Even if they were alive after they became materials for this array. Ending their life should be the most respectful thing to do for them. That''s why, If you, my disciple, read this note. Please make sure you do the right thing and use this array carefully. Master believes in you.'' Alex drew a cold breath. He was too shocked. He tried to compile the weakness of the array. He can destroy the array by destroying its core. Alex memorized the core. It was a tiny array. The array would remain active if he didn''t destroy the core. So it would be his primary target. He drew the core in a piece of paper. At night, Putri came to his room to discuss their strategy. Alex explained his strategy and gave her the picture of the core, he drew earlier. Putri nodded. As long as they can destroy the core, it should be easy to fight the evil cult''s members. Or at least, they should be weaker than the city lord. Alex would love to see the purple light. But the evil cult didn''t use it tonight. It was a shame, he thought he could gather some information from it. They waited for the morning to arrive. Alex and Putri flew toward Nugget Village. It wasn''t that far from the city, it was only a few minutes flying. Upon entering the village, they can only see wrecked houses everywhere. Blood on the wall of the house and the ground symbolized there was killing spree inside the village. They can''t see anything beside it. They tried to stick together since this is the first time they entered the village. They searched for two hours, inspecting every nook and corner of the houses. But the array was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, Alex stopped. "Alex?" Putri was confused. They were in the center of the village. Alex actually found someone in the woods. Since this village was a bit small, he can see the woods from the village. He saw them because he activated his Spirit Eyes. There were two people in the woods, they were watching Alex and Putri. They hide pretty well, it can foul even his senior sister. But it can''t fool his Spirit Eyes. Because what he saw was their energy. Alex tried to look like a fool, looking at his surroundings. He said to Putri while giving her a wry smile, "No, that must be my imagination." Putri relieved, she thought there was something wrong. But suddenly, Alex moved a few steps from his place. He positioned himself behind his Senior Sister. So, those two people in the woods can''t see any of his expressions or Putri''s expressions. "Alex?" Putri was confused by this sudden action. Alex only said, "Senior Sister. Whatever I said, act naturally. Can you do that?" Putri became tense, she calmed down herself for a bit and nodded to him. "I warn you first. Don''t turn your back. There are two people, possibly only two 10-Star Martial Master Stage. It should be easy for Senior Sister to kill them. But since we are in an unknown place. I want to be careful. Those two were in the woods precisely on your back. That''s why I positioned myself like this. It was so they can''t read mine or your''s expression. We will try to interrogate them. But for now, I want Senior Sister to act naturally like before. Then, after we got off their vision, we will ambush them with our fastest speed." Alex explained. "Understood" Putri didn''t nod. Instead, she said it with her mouth. After all, they might be able to understand her gesture. Finally, they acted naturally like they were searching for a clue. After they disappeared from the scouts vision, Putri, who had the fastest speed among them, immediately disappeared. Alex followed suit. But the moment he arrived, He saw Putri grabbing her spear in front of two lifeless corpses. Putri said, "The moment I arrived in front of them. They immediately committed suicide. I''m sorry I can''t get any information from them." Alex sighed. Their only clue to lead to this was disappeared. Alex and Putri were pondering for their next step. After checking the surrounding was safe. They decided to split up to search for a clue. Putri searched the woods while Alex searched the village again. ... There were only two hours before the sun set. Putri said she would come back in another half hour. Alex was pondering all the clues he had at the moment. He only found two scouts in the woods. Two scouts... ''Wait! What if they were not a scout?'' Alex tried to view it from another respective. He immediately went to the previous spot he found the two people. He searched the surrounding with his Spirit Eyes. But the Spiritual Energy was flowing like normal in his surroundings. Did he miss something? An absurd idea flashed in his mind. It was unrealistic for him to do it since it was unbelievable. It was the thing to do for someone who overcautious. But for Alex, who didn''t have any clue, he decided to try it. He plugged his ears using Spiritual Energy. He drew an array with his Spiritual Energy. The symbols appeared one after another in front of his hand. When the array finished, he flicked his finger. ''Death Song Array'' With the flicker of his finger, the sound was amplified as the ringing will come to everyone''s ears. It can disrupt the Spiritual Energy for those who heard it. But since Alex had plugged his ears with Spiritual Energy first, he was fine. He immediately activated his Spirit Eyes. And to his surprise, there was a disruption of energy around him. But there was one spot very noticeable. He immediately understood the reason, ''Concealment Array.'' He immediately checked the spot and found an entrance to the underground. It was either the array was in the underground or the evil cult base was in it. But it should be the former, he felt the Spiritual Energy came from the array. People would be disturbed if they made this place their base. Alex slowly descended to the ground. He needs to be very careful around here. After he reached the floor. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found five mass of energy. It was humans, probably the cult members. Alex also saw a ball of energy, which he felt weird. Alex felt it was coming from humans but not a single person. He decided to focus on the possible threat, which was the five people. They are currently separated, two in a room on his right and three in the room in front. Alex decided to ambush the two people in his right first. According to the energy he saw from them. These two people were only 10-Star Martial Master. Alex was planning to summon Sherry to take care of one of them while he killed the other. As for the people in his front, there was a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster along with two 9-Star Martial Master. Sherry should be able to take on a 1-Star Martial Grandmaster with her overbearing flame. So, it should be fine if he didn''t summon Anna first. He could summon her if the situation were bad enough. But hopefully, it won''t. "Pentagram Slash" Suddenly, five streams of light flew toward one of the Martial Master. They were wearing a black creepy long robe. Alex sent his attack to one of them. Since they were a 10-Star Martial Master, they were able to react, especially Alex''s target. He was able to pull his sword and destroyed Alex''s attack. "Bitter Slash" As expected of 10-Star Martial Master. His sword was glowing, and in an instant, all of his attacks were destroyed. It left a ring in front of the black robe person. The black robe person suddenly made the yellow ring flew toward Alex. The other one also closed his distance and trying to attack him with his spear. "Haha, Do you think you can kill us with an ambush. Don''t push your luck! A mere 7-Star Martial Master like you won''t be able to. I don''t know how you can find this place, but this is the place you are going to die." Alex glanced at the spear user, "Sherry." Suddenly Sherry came out in her battle form, in other words, her big form. Alex raised his sword and swung it down. "Seven Stars Cut" 201 Kill Sherry intercepted the person with spear. That person was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Sherry. But He was able to react, albeit barely. He blocked Sherry''s fangs with his spear. Sherry didn''t stop there, she threw her paw to one of his hands, specifically his left hand. He used both of his hands to grab his spear so he can block Sherry''s fangs, in other words, both of his hands were vulnerable at this time. As you had expected from a Spirit Beast, Sherry''s strength alone was very strong. The moment her paw touched his hands, it broke his bone. The spear user retreated a few steps back and checked his hand, not only his bone was broken, but his hand was charred too. In other words, Sherry also channeled her fire energy in that paw attacks. He looked at Sherry hatefully but carefully. He knew at this moment, ''This beast is strong.'' In the meantime, Alex''s Seven Stars Cut made its way toward the sword user. The sword user clenched his sword and swung it. Suddenly, a sword projectile made its way to intercept his Seven Stars Cut. "Haha, Do you think this puny sword wave can kill me? Take my attack. This is my High Profound Tier Arts, Sword Interception" The sword user laughed. Alex only shook his head, "Fool." High Profound Tier Arts was good, but can it stand in the way of Heaven Tier Arts? They were separated by Earth Tier. Even though Alex''s Seven Stars Cut hadn''t revealed its full potential, but to destroy this High Profound Tier Arts, it was enough. The moment the Sword Arts clashed, the sword user expected his sword to penetrate Alex''s sword wave and continued flying toward Alex. But what happened was otherwise, Alex''s Sword Wave cut his sword projectile and made its way toward him. The speed was fast, he tried to dodge the attack. Unfortunately, because of him, underestimating Alex, this clash took his entire left hand. He just barely saved his life. "Flash Step" Alex didn''t stop there, he needs to kill these people quickly, if not, the others might notice. If they were surrounded by five of them, he would be put under a bad situation and will be forced to call Anna. Back to Sherry, she charged toward the spear user in front of her using her big body. From the spear user''s point of view, what she did was reckless. The spear user thrust his spear at Sherry. "Cursed Slash" The spear suddenly let out a dark and creepy aura. The spear looked like it was thrusting Sherry. "Haha, this Cursed Slash will curse you and make you won''t be able to use the Spiritual Energy. This is the power of our Cult. Taste its power." But suddenly, the moment Sherry almost got thrust by the spear. Her body shrunk to her usual small and cute form. The spear user was taken aback by this sudden transformation. He didn''t know Sherry can do this, after all, the moment she appeared, she was already in her big form. After the big target disappeared, leaving a small target to thrust. His spear completely missed her. Sherry flew toward him and trying to kick him. Flame appeared in her foot. Sherry kicked it on his left cheek. It was like slapped with a hot iron pan. His cheek was burned by the flame, and Sherry''s kick also blew him away. Sherry''s fire suddenly spread to all of his face. "Argh!" He screamed in pain. His face was charred black by the flame in a span of a few seconds. "You...you damn beast." Sherry looked at his face and got scared by it. "Wuu(Disgusting)" She raised her paw, and many firebirds appeared above her. Bombarding the spear user with fire, and finally, he was burned to death. Sherry crossed her arms and nodded satisfied, "Wuu (Mission Accomplished)" ... Alex appeared in front of the sword user and swung his sword toward him. "Immovable Step" He used this move to gather the strength enough to kill him, he also applied the sword intent in his sword. The sword user was blown by Alex, and he crashed to the wall. His sword was broken by the clash just now. Alex appeared again, not letting him had a chance to recover, Alex thrust his sword to the sword user''s heart. He spat blood. "Curse you. I''m only buying time all this time. You... ill... be... killed... by... them" And as he said that, the other three Alex had seen when he entered this place with his Spirit Eyes came in. Upon seeing their comrades were killed by Alex and Sherry, they were enraged and pulled their weapon. "You Bastard" Alex only gave them a glance before turning back to the sword user and pulled his sword out. He swung his sword once to throw away the blood on his sword. Sherry regrouped with him. Alex only said, "Sherry, we won''t use the same tactic, you kill those two 9-Star Martial Master. As for the 1-Star Grandmaster, leave him to me." "Wuu (Understood)" Alex raised his hand, and fifteen swords appeared behind him. He was using the Sword Art that he learned from Song Yu, Omnislash. But a normal Omnislash can only release ten swords, but Alex released fifteen swords. The other five swords were from Desolation. Sherry also did the same. She raised her paw, and twenty firebirds appeared above her. Alex and Sherry pointed their hand toward the cult members at the same time. Without further ado, all of those attacks immediately plunged toward those three people. Alex''s fifteen swords were targeting the 1-Star Grandmaster Stage while Sherry''s firebirds split up to two. Each person will get plunged by ten firebirds. They had seen the charred person, lying lifelessly on the floor. Since Sherry was the only one who used fire, that means it was her deed. They can''t let the fire touched them. If not, the consequences would be the same as their comrade. They retreated a bit to get their distance from the firebirds. But they didn''t realize they were also targeted by the swords, and the firebirds suddenly changed their direction. Alex''s Desolation was weaker than his Omnislash. That''s why Alex made his Desolation in front, as their vanguard. The Grandmaster rank suddenly raised his giant ax and swung it to the ground. "Grand Earth Slam" Suddenly a few Earth Walls rose from the ground in succession. It was trying to block the swords and let it be destroyed by the wall. It took three swords, but all of it came from his Desolation, so no big deal. Alex''s target wasn''t him, after all. This move was only helping him to go to his real target. Ten swords suddenly changed their direction, leaving only two ''Desolation'' swords charging to the 1-Star Martial Grandmaster. The rest were coming to the other two people. When they took their distance from Sherry''s firebirds, those two had completely forgotten about Alex''s existence. Because of his 7-Star Martial Master cultivation stage that looked meager in front of 1-Star Martial Grandmaster. They completely focused on Sherry''s attacks. "Ice Wall" "Curse Perfection" Both of them were using their Arts to block those firebirds. The first one used his ice element to build a gigantic wall to block it. The other one using cult art to enhance the ice wall. The Ice Wall suddenly covered by a dark aura. It felt like it would melt the firebirds if they came to it. But to their surprise, there was no sign about the firebirds. They suddenly saw the firebirds changed its direction. And their target was the Martial Grandmaster. Unfortunately, they didn''t only see the firebirds, changing its direction, but they also saw Alex''s swords almost reached them. "Ice..." "Curse..." They hadn''t finished using their technique before Alex''s sword plunged them to death. It was a bit brutal, considering each of them had five swords stabbed them. Alex had said they were not going to have the same tactic. When they first fought with the first two, Alex and Sherry fought their respective opponent. But because they won''t have the same tactic, that means, when Alex said Sherry need to fight with those two 9-Star Martial Master and Alex fought with the Martial Grandmaster. It was the opposite. Their bond was far from that. They can understand what each other''s thinking just from a slight use of words. Ultimately, Alex''s swords plunged those two 9-Star Martial Masters to death while Sherry made an ambush to the Martial Grandmaster. But Martial Grandmaster was more than that. After he destroyed Alex''s Desolation. He immediately noticed something wrong. He looked back and saw his comrades died, and the firebirds were coming to him. He immediately used the same technique. "Grand Earth Slam" Walls appeared in front of the firebirds and managed to destroy a few firebirds. The firebirds suddenly changed its direction and targeted the wall between the Grandmaster and Alex. "Boom!" A series of explosion was heard as the firebirds were crashing to the wall like a suicide bomber. It managed to destroy all the walls that separated him from Alex. Alex immediately charged toward the Grandmaster. The Grandmaster wasn''t a fool to think such an ambush can surprise him. He turned back and focused on Alex. Alex suddenly swung his sword down even though he hadn''t reached him. "Pentagram Slash" Five streams of light were coming toward the Grandmaster. And with that, he finally realized who Alex was. "That is Four Direction Slash from Heavenly Sword Sect. You bastard from Heavenly Sword Sect, I will kill you." He had fought with Heavenly Sword Sect disciple and utterly lost. He remembered this was the Sword Art that almost killed him back then. He practiced hard to destroy this Sword Art. Finally, he sent an attack and managed to destroy all four slashes. That''s right. It was indeed ''Four Direction Slash'' from Heavenly Sword Sect. It was true before Alex met them. This Four Direction Slash wasn''t the same as before. It sent one more slash as its name became ''Pentagram Slash'', According to Alex''s naming ability. The last stream of light took the Grandmaster by surprise. "What the fifth one?" The last slash managed to cut his right foot. He used his giant ax to balance his body while looking at Alex hatefully. "You...who are you? That was certainly Heavenly Sword Sect''s Four Direction Slash. I have trained very hard just to break that technique. What is the last slash." Alex didn''t say anything. He swung his sword again, and another five slashes were charging at the Grandmaster. If he hadn''t lost one of his feet. He might be able to block this attack completely. Unfortunately, He had lost his right foot, and because of his giant ax, it threw his balance off. Finally, Alex''s Pentagram Slash managed to cut his left hand. "Seven Stars Cut" Without giving him any chance. Alex sent his three layers Seven Stars Cut to kill the Grandmaster. Alex didn''t really like gore torture, he was fine by trapping them inside his illusion array and torture them to death. But it was impossible to use it at this moment since he might fight back. Alex then decided to kill him as soon as possible. After all, playing too much and leaving those blood splattered everywhere left a bad taste in his mouth. But to his surprise, suddenly, the Grandmaster tossed his giant ax upward as he raised his hand. "Blood Sacrifice, Blood Pill" Suddenly screams were echoing the room. Alex was taken aback by the sudden screams, it was humans scream, he didn''t understand what happened. He immediately activated his Spirit Eyes. There was massive blood and Spiritual Energy coming to the Grandmaster''s Hand. Alex traced where it came from, and to his surprise, the energy came from the big lump of energy he saw the first time he entered this place. That big chunk of energy was actually a human. But it wasn''t from one human, it was from many. Alex immediately understood what this guy had done. He was enraged. When the blood pill congealed on his hand, the Grandmaster immediately swallowed the blood pill, and Spiritual Energy sparked from his body, and his appearance turned like a demon. Bloodshot eyes, long nails, and sharp fang. He blocked the Sword Wave with his giant ax. "Gigant Stomp" The ax was sparkling with red energy. It seemed coming from the blood pill he had swallowed just now. He destroyed Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. Alex sent another Seven Stars Cut. But this time, the Grandmaster stomped his ax to the ground. "Grand Earth Slam" This time, the walls that rose from the ground were covered with blood red colored energy. It completely blocked Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. "You forced me to use this move. I will die after using this pill. So, I will bring you to hell with me. You won''t be able to gain the upper hand after this. Because I have become far stronger." His flame suddenly appeared and dancing around his body before it slowly moved to his sword and covering his sword perfectly. Alex swung his sword down. "Sanguin Sword Art. Elemental Fifteen Slash" After he swung his sword down. Others might think that was all. But Alex still not finished with it. Alex swung his sword once again. "Elemental Seven Stars Cut" Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art showed its prestige. It cut the wall one by one, and finally, it exploded at the last wall. All the wall crumbled down with its might. "What?" His Seven Stars Cut flew through the air. Now that the obstacles were obliterated by the Sanguin Sword Art, there was only the Grandmaster on its way. He tried to block the Sword Wave with his giant ax but because of his lousy ax and Alex''s overbearing Sword Wave along with his Sword Intent. The Seven Stars Cut flew through him and crashed to the wall behind him. 202 Running Out of Time The Seven Stars Cut killed the Grandmaster with its prestige. Alex looked hatefully on the lifeless body on the ground. Sherry came back to him. Alex thanked Sherry once before he went to the energy chunk. He came to a very big room, from the size alone, it was close to a football field. There were many Array''s Symbols inside the room. On the ground, on the wall, or even on the ceiling. But, for the time being, his focus wasn''t in here. He arrived at a small mountain of humans. Alex was bewildered. Although he had already used to something like this after killing many monsters. But the one in front of him was humans, or in other words, his kins. Even though he won''t throw up at something like this, at least he will be in a bad mood for quite a while. He saw a mountain of body. Judging from his Spirit Eyes. There were some people that still alive. But, they were only skin and bone. Their eyes didn''t have any light. Alex remembered the words in his Master''s book. They were the livestock of this evil cult. The best thing he can do was to relieve them from this pain. Alex searched all the people who were alive, and all of them had lost the light in their eyes. He gritted his teeth. "You can hate me for this. But this is the best thing I can do for you. May you live in happiness in your next life." Alex gave them a quick death. Alex closed his eyes to calm his mind. After confirming all of them had died. Alex burned all their corpses and stored their ash. He was planning to get them a gravestone after this. It was to give respect for the deceased and sowing good karma. After he took care of them, he then moved to the giant array. There were too many symbols, and the room itself was too big. Alex frowned. He needs to search for a small symbol core to destroy this gigantic array. Now he was confused about how to do that. He was trying to come up with a suggestion. At first, he thought he could destroy this room. But it seems he can''t. If he destroyed this room. The array might not be destroyed, and he will be buried alive in here. Alex ordered Sherry to come out. He gave a drawing of the core to her. Alex was planning to search the core with the help of Sherry. Even so, he wasn''t sure if he can do that in this giant room. But Alex can only think that plan at the moment. He started searching for the core in this big room with Sherry. Of course, He kept thinking about the solution, trying to search for a new plan. He kept searching for an hour and realized that his time was running low. But there was something he understood after looking at the giant array. Most of the symbols were fake. Their purposes were only to hide the core. It seems if Alex also blew this place to dust. He would be buried to death, and the array will still be able to activate. What a nasty planning. Starting to get desperate, Alex raised his pace on searching it. His sweat started dropping to the ground. He used his full awareness and mental energy so he won''t overlook any small detail. He started thinking about retreating for the days and come back tomorrow. But that wasn''t possible. After alarming this place, he was sure the other members of the cult would come to check them later. If they knew this place had been infiltrated, they might retreat to somewhere, and it will be hard to locate them. And there might be another mountain of body like the previous one. Just thinking about it made him clicked his tongue. ... On the surface, one hour earlier. Putri came back to the village. After searching for the clue in the woods. She didn''t find any evidence regardless of how hard she searched. When she came back to the village, Alex was nowhere to be seen. She thought since Alex only searched the clue inside the village, the danger level would be low. After all, they had searched the whole village together once and confirmed there wasn''t any danger. She thought Alex might be searching in the nearby area. If she started searching for him while he was also searching for her. They might not be able to meet and just confused each other. So she decided to take a rest and waited for him at the center of the village, where they promised to meet. But after waiting for an hour, Alex still hadn''t come back. She started frowning and worried. Her duty was to keep Alex safe. But because of the mission started changing to unknown, she decided to take charge. But the sudden disappearance of Alex confused her. ''Has Alex come back to the town?'' She thought. But Alex wasn''t that kind of person. She had ascertained that back in the sect. She started searching around the village for Alex. But she still can''t find him. She had received a special mission from her Master. It was to ensure Alex''s safety at all costs. She didn''t understand why her Master asked her that, but she assured her she would keep Alex safe. Now that Alex was nowhere to be seen, She started sweating. She had some principles in her life. One of them was to keep her promise. But for Alex, it wasn''t only a promise. He was also her junior brother, and she already accepted it on her heart. She thought about retreating since the dark started enveloping the from the north. (AN: Don''t say anything about the direction. It''s another world. Thanks) But thinking about Alex hadn''t come back. She decided to stay. Suddenly, a bad picture came to her mind. Alex was captured by the evil cult. She tried to shake the picture off her mind, but it was clinging on her mind. She kept pictured about it again and again. "Junior Brother, where are you? Let''s go back, it''s almost dark." She shouted. She can''t go back without him, at least her principle held her back. She was thinking, if her junior brother was captured or even killed by the evil cult. She was the one to blame, no matter what everyone says. It was her responsibility, after all. Her Master can rest assured after sending Alex in a hard mission like this, was because she was coming with him. But now, Alex hadn''t come back, and the situation turned to bad. If the picture on her mind came to reality, she would go rampage without thinking about the consequences. Her thought was extreme. But for her, it was normal. Because of family circumstances, she would often practice alone. The only support in her family was her parents. She kept practicing so she can make her parents proud, but her parents didn''t have much time to accompany her. That''s why she felt lonely and hide her loneliness in her elegance. Having Charya as her Master, she considered her like her mother. Even though Charya''s attitude was easygoing and her actions were like that. Charya still took great care of them, trained them, and fostered them. Having Song Yu as her Senior Sister, she considered her like her sister. It was true Song Yu''s childish personality didn''t make others think she was a good elder sister. But if they knew her deep enough, they will know Song Yu was responsible and had an elder sister figure inside her small body. Even though her body was a bit small compared to ordinary cultivators, the responsibility in her was far more significant than that. Alex had entered her life as her Junior Brother. Even though she only knew him for nine months, that was enough for her to accept him. She treated him as his younger brother, she sometimes thought if she had a little brother, it would be like him. She will protect him when he was weak. He will then protect her when he was stronger enough. At that time, she can be proud as he was her younger brother. But now Alex had disappeared. She decided to kill those evil cult members thoroughly. She chose to stay in the village and confronted them head on. If she can''t even protect her junior brother, what right she had to become his senior sister or his elder sister. It would just break the family in her mind apart. She took out the spear from her space ring. She waited in the village as the darkness slowly invaded from the north. One minute... ten minutes... half an hour... one hour... After one hour of waiting, numerous dark clothed people surrounded her. Her eyes turned to sharp as the killing intent started gushing out from her. One person with a cultivation of 4-Star Martial Grandmaster approached her. "Oh, I never thought a beauty would come here. Since you are here, that must mean you wanted to serve us" He said vulgarly. Lustful eyes, bald head, a scar running from his cheek to his left eyebrows. Wearing a long black robe, it made his appearance creepy. "You are the leader of this evil cult?" She looked at him hatefully. "Oh, you are scary. But yes, I''m the leader. Haha, let me introduce myself, so you will know who you will please later. I''m Gardon Tombosia. Nice to meet you, Beauty" He said as his eyes were planted on Putri''s chest. "Trash" Putri snorted. She looked at the bastard leader. "Where is my Junior Brother?" "Your Junior Brother? Who?" He asked. For him, he was truly didn''t know who her junior brother was. But for Putri, in her current state, can only see that the bastard in front of her was playing ignorant. "You. I will kill you." "Hey hey, beauty. I don''t know who is your junior brother. Well, I have killed so many people. How can I remember some men? If it was about the female who was the best for the enjoyment. I can list their name, oh maybe I can''t. Because all of their name might disappear since you have come." Putri gritted her teeth. "How dare you kill a disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect. I will make sure to kill all of you, brutally." "Oh, Heavenly Sword Sect. Even the Heavenly Sword Sect come here, they won''t be able to do anything here. Since we have our own weapon to kill the people who stand in our way." "If you are thinking about the Elemental Suppression Array. Then, you didn''t need to think about it. It won''t be able to stop a Martial Lord" Putri snorted. "What? You...how do you know?" "Hmph. Prepare to forfeit your life" Putri said as she took her spear and charged at him. "Then, let see if you can break that Elemental whatever array." Suddenly, a purple light came to light. It was like a demon light illuminate the darkness. Putri suddenly felt a very great suppression on her body. She fell to the ground, "Argh!" She clenched her chest. Her heart was hurt at this moment. The wind element inside her body was suppressed by the purple light, and her body lost its power. "Haha, I think since you know about it. You did anything about it. But it seems it was still functioning." Putri only looked at him hatefully, but she can''t do anything because her body had become powerless. She tried uttering the strength inside her body but to no avail. She bit her lips, why did she split up with her junior brother. Unbeknownst to her, in front of her death door. She didn''t feel or think anything. She just regretted her decision. Now, Alex died, and she will also die. "I''m the disciple of ninth elder. I''m sure my Master will avenge me." She looked at the person in front of her. She muttered, "Junior Brother, though I didn''t know you so much, and even though we only knew each other for a few months. I have regarded you as my family. I will go with you right now. I''m sorry, Senior Sister. I''m sorry, Master." She took out Charya''s token and tried to activate it. But because of their distance, the leader managed to react. He kicked the token out of her hands before she managed to activate it. Putri was astounded and started to fall to despair. "I almost screwed up. B*tch. I will make sure to enjoy your body thoroughly. And I will let my subordinates played you to death." The leader said hatefully as he tried to placed his hand on her chest. "Boss, you are the best." "Leader!" Cheers erupted upon seeing they will also get a turn to play with such a beauty. They were drooling this whole time after seeing the beauty of Putri. Her beauty was top-notch, after all. 203 Another Problem? Putri fell to despair. This was a nightmare. The bastard''s hand almost touched her chest before suddenly, the purple light vanished. Darkness enveloped the world once again. All of the people were bewildered by the sudden disappearance of their ''weapon''. Putri also shocked by this. Her strength slowly returned to her body. And not long after, there was suddenly a rain of swords. Specifically, it was ten swords. There were seventeen members at present, including the leader. The moment the swords appeared, it killed ten members, in other words, one sword for one member. When Putri saw the swords and realized, it was the technique of their sect, ''Omnislash''. Song Yu had practiced this too. With this timing, there was only one possibility. It was from Alex. Her eyes brightened, Alex still alive. Now that her strength had come back to her. She thrust her spear as strong as she can. She let out all the anger and hate in her heart. She completely blew both of the hands of the leader. Both she and Alex used the current confusion to attack. "Argh!" The leaders screamed in pain. Without him knowing it, and because of the confusion, he suddenly lost both of his hands. He looked at Putri in disbelief. He shouted. "Kill...kill her!" The last six of the members immediately moved as ordered. The second wave of the swords was coming. The last six members, three of them had 1-Star Grandmaster stage cultivation, two in 2-Star Grandmaster, and the last one had 3-Star Grandmaster stage cultivation. When the swords were raining down, three of them managed to react, but those who were in 1-Star Martial Grandmaster can''t escape from Alex''s swords. Putri suddenly disappeared and used her fastest speed to kill the 3-Star Grandmaster Stage. Because of Alex''s diversion, she managed to kill 3-Star Grandmaster Stage in one shot. After that, she destroyed the rest of the members. Alex had used the darkness and their confusion to kill their weakest members with an ambush. Of course, Putri''s presence was also played a big part in it. After killing those people, there was only the leader left. Putri glared at him angrily. She released the full might of 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. Inside the array suppression, she might be powerless. But now it was gone, there was no one capable of stopping her rage. The leaders knew that he was doomed. "You... no no, don''t kill me. Please. I will do anything." Putri didn''t say anything. She only kept her cold gaze focused on him as she raised her spear. "AAHHHH!" Alex, in the darkness, chose to look away for the time being. After confirming, the scream had died out. Alex finally appeared in front of Putri. He looked at Putri with blood sprayed on her clothes and some on her beautiful face. Alex rather not see the corpse under her. It was...rather...brutal. Behind, her elegant and reliable Senior Sister side, there was a devil. Alex swore he wouldn''t piss her off too much. Judging from the scream from far. Alex knew she had some unpleasant things just now. When Alex appeared in front of her, she was relieved. She released the spear in her hand and grabbed his shoulder, checking him up and down. After experiencing that unpleasant thing, her focus was still on him. "You are alright...That''s good. Where have you been this whole time? Did you do something with the array?" "Well..." Alex started explaining his story. A few minutes ago, he felt his time had run out. He still hadn''t checked all the symbols inside the room. He thought Putri must have retreated to the town since the time running late. He can defeat someone weaker than the city lord, or in other words, 4-Star Martial Grandmaster or below with the help of Anna or maybe along with Leoz. He thought he could camp out here for a while until he found the core. But to his surprise, the array suddenly got activated. The might of the suppression showed its prestige. Even his Phoenix Fire was suppressed by it. He saw Sherry also got suppressed, but she was still fine, considering her fire was almost at the Pure Fire level. Suddenly, Alex felt the Fire Phoenix Seed inside his body revolved crazily. The pure fire started gushing out from his body, fighting the might of the suppression. The moment the pure fire was out, the suppression was gone. This was the true fire that called as ''Absolute Flame''. Want the absolute to bow down? Dream on. Without the suppression, Alex can move clearly. When the array got activated, the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy filled the room. Alex immediately activated his spirit eyes. Before, he can''t see anything since there was nothing to see. But this time, when he tried to see his surroundings, he noticed there was a Spiritual Energy concentrated in one spot. When he saw that spot, it was the exact same as the picture of the core. Alex took out his spear and threw it there. "Spear Throwing Art. Power Throwing" With the power came from the Power Throwing. The Core, along with its surrounding symbol, got destroyed. It made a small crater on the ground. The light suddenly dimmed down, and the array was deactivated. Alex immediately pondered why the array got activated. After all, if his senior sister had retreated, they won''t activate the array. He immediately thought of Putri, "Senior Sister? She didn''t retreat?" Alex immediately used his fastest speed to go to the village. After all, the room itself was directly below the village''s center. Alex saw Putri slowly regaining her strength while surrounded by seventeen men. He can''t see her expression because of the darkness. However, he still can feel the killing intent originated from her body. He immediately used Omnislash to cover her. ... "That is the story. I''m sorry, Senior Sister. It seems my actions have put you in an unpleasant situation. I..." Before Alex completed his words. Putri only hugged him, the tears formed on the corner of her eyes but didn''t fall down. "It''s alright. As long as you are fine. You might not know about it, but I had long treated you as my younger brother. Senior Sister Song Yu like elder sister and Master like a mother." Alex was surprised by it. Although he only had known then for nine months, he at least felt they were his comrades. But it seems he still underestimated how others felt about him. Or maybe this senior sister of his was a bit special? He didn''t know it, though. He was standing until she satisfied. Not long after, Putri released him. "I''m sorry. I let my emotion took over me just now" Putri said while trying so hard to get back to her elder sister like figure. "It''s fine. Is this all the people of the evil cult? I also have killed five of them in the underground base." "Yeah, I think we have killed all of them. We should go back now and let the city lord clean up this place" Putri said. "I still have another thing to do. It won''t be long, only a few minutes" Alex said. "Sure, what are you going to do?" "Making a grave. Ah, not for these evil people, but for the people who had been sacrificed by them. Inside the basement was even more hazardous than here." Alex said while rolling his eyes. Putri nodded. Alex then made a grave for them and put the gravestone on it. Putri closed her eyes and said. "Amsaya" "Amsaya?" Alex tilted his head. "It means farewell. It was to bid goodbye for the deceased." Putri explained. "Oh." Alex nodded and also said, "Amsaya" After that, Alex and Putri went to the city lord again and reported the case. The City Lord offered them to stay in his house for a night since it was night. Alex and Putri didn''t mind and accepted his offer. After all, Putri also needs to take care of the blood on her body. "What should we do, Junior Brother? Should we go back to the sect?" "Hmm, I just don''t feel like it. I really wanted something to soothe my mind a little. Especially after watching that scene. I might not be able to cultivate in peace for a while" Alex said. "Indeed. Just after hearing your story, I too felt like that. And you are the one who saw the scene. So, I think we can slow down first. Oh, that''s right, back then, Senior Sister and I visited a restaurant in a slightly bigger city than this, it was only a few more cities from here, and it was in line to our home. The restaurant was famous for its wine. So how about it?" Alex nodded, "Yeah, maybe we should" Alex felt since opening up and said all the pieces that needed to be said, Putri''s tone became a bit brighter and friendly in his ears. "What is the city''s name?" "Green Star City" Alex nodded. The next day, they went to check the site to make sure they didn''t leave a single thing and completed their mission. Of course, the city lord had brought his soldiers along with him to clean up the mess. The mission was only to scout the evil cult in this region. But things happened, and they had solved it. They had completely forgotten about it because the scale suddenly increased. If they went back to the sect and reported it, the evil cult might have become an evil sect and had taken root here. If the sect mobilized the disciples to attack here, the loss would be massive, considering they had Elemental Suppression Array. Fortunately, Alex was also an array master. Putri only knew that he had some knowledge and not an actual array master, though. The soldiers found the dead body in the underground. They thought that Putri was the one who killed them as they were stronger than Alex. Alex and Putri didn''t go to the underground as Alex had destroyed the array. The soldiers only need to clean up the symbol and it was done. After confirming, they had finished their mission with flying color. Alex and Putri finally flew toward the Green Star City. They didn''t know their action last night was monitored by someone. Alex had checked with his Spirit Eyes. There were no other suspicious people in the day. But he didn''t check it at night. After Putri confirmed, the evil cult members were only them with a total of twenty two people. If Alex had checked it again with his Spirit Eyes, he would be able to see that there was someone hidden in the woods, watching them. After confirming the cult had been destroyed by Alex and Putri, he immediately went away and reported it to his superior. ... Somewhere far away, "Are you sure?" A middle-aged man asked. This middle-aged man had purple short spiky hair. Piercing on his nose, and a dragon tattoo on his neck. He wore a yellow suit with black pants. He looked at the guy in front of him, reporting. "Yes, I have watched it in my eyes. That night was supposed to be the night to exchange our goods. Two Heavenly Sword Sect''s disciples had killed all the members, and I can''t proceed with the transaction." He said. Because he was covered with full black clothes to mask himself in the darkness, there was no noticeable trait that can be seen except his blue eyes. "How dare they stand in our way! This is the chance that our family has been waiting to raise. But two snotty disciples have ruined our chance. I can''t forgive them. I don''t care if they are Heavenly Sword Sect''s disciples or some elders disciple. I wanted them dead!" He was enraged. He had maintained the transaction for a few months. And the goods managed to make their family''s power far stronger. They can raise to be a prominent family if not because Alex and Putri. "Describe their appearance." "The first one is a girl with a cultivation of 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. She has long green hair and a pretty face. Even fiancee''s of Young Lord might lose by far. If I''m not wrong, her name must be Putri Wulan. She is the disciple of the ninth elder. The second one is a male, he only has 7-Star Martial Master Cultivation, but it seems he was the one who contributed the most in destroying them. The noticeable thing from him is his golden hair and black eyes. I don''t know his identity. But family head, the female is the ninth elder''s disciple, are you sure we will kill them?" "WE WILL KILL THEM! I have said. No matter who they are, I will kill them! We can ambush them or something and not leaving any trace of it. Besides, we have two 10-Star Martial Grandmaster, three 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, five 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, and still many Martial Grandmaster stages martial artists in our family, thanks to the goods delivered by them. If not because of them, we can become a prominent family in the capital city, not in this sh*tty city!" He was enraged. He said with a stern tone, not giving the chance to reject. "Understood. I will try to locate them" 204 What Is The Problem With This Cliche? Alex and Putri arrived at Green Star City at night, so they searched for an inn before going to rest for a while. The next day, they went to the restaurant, the name of the restaurant was Joyful Reunion. It was a pretty small restaurant, but the business was brimming with people. Putri asked for a table of two, and they were led to the second floor. For today, she covered her face with a veil. She didn''t put a veil back when she was in the mission. And he recalled when he met her with Song Yu in Shades City, she also didn''t cover her face with a veil. She only said to avoid trouble. It seems, she didn''t put her veil when she traveled with Song Yu, no one will bother her since Song Yu was a 4-Star Martial Lord. But now that she was traveling with Alex, who was only a 7-Star Martial Master. It was a bit troublesome. She said the one who controlled this city was a Martial Lord. She said it was troublesome if some idiot Young Master bothered her with this small problem, thinking they ruled the ''world'' which actually only a small city/cage. If it was the city where the city lord was a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, she could just beat the parents to shut them up. Unfortunately, this city had a higher cultivation, she wasn''t confident if she can beat their parents. So, it would be better to avoid the problem. Although the identity as Heavenly Sword Sect was useful, if they faced a madman, they will be killed without caring about the consequences. She said there were some cases like that. After they were killed by mad parents like that, their master or senior also took revenge for him/her. But even so, their life had gone. Alex also nodded in agreement. They came inside the restaurant, and a waitress came to them. When Putri asked about what he wanted to eat, Alex only put his hands up and said, "I leave it to Senior Sister." Putri ordered some food and wine. Although they didn''t need to eat, for a change of pace, sometimes it was proven to be effective. Especially to adjust their state of mine. The wine was very soothing, from the aroma alone can soothe his heart. When he sipped the wine, he can''t help but recall the honeymoon he had with Firia and Alicia. He knew why this restaurant was called Joyful Reunion. He and Putri relaxed a bit. He thought they could have some peaceful days before suddenly someone came to the restaurant. The one who came was a Young Man with long yellow hair, he let his clothes loose, it showed his well built body. Arrogant expression and fancy clothes. There were two old men behind him. "Welcome Young Master Archie Bell" the managed immediately came out to greet him, the moment he entered the restaurant. Alex frowned and sighed as he looked at Putri, His eyes telling her, ''What the heck with this situation.'' ''Don''t ask me.'' Alex looked at Putri''s annoyed expression. It seems she was also thinking the same as him. Both of their eyes locked, and surprisingly, they understood each other intention. They nodded. ''Let''s leave.'' "I want this whole floor. I will pay for their bill. Make them leave." Alex and Putri stood up, and they were leaving like others. Before suddenly, "Wait!" The so called Archie Bell shouted, "You the woman with a green hair. You can''t leave, you will need to drink with me." Alex and Putri''s face darkened. They thought the same thing, ''Why do people like this exist...'' Putri looked at Archie Bell, she looked down on him. "You are not qualified." "You!" Archie Bell was enraged, this was the first time he was told by a woman like that. Many women had come to him and wanted to serve him. But this woman just told him, he wasn''t qualified. "Don''t you know who I am? I am Archie Bell, the second Young Master of Bell Family. My family will be a prominent family in the capital city soon. It was your good fortune to have me taken a liking on you." Archie Bell said like that. But it was a different feeling to one of the old men behind him, he recognized the woman in green. It was ''her'' and when she looked at the young man beside her, he confirmed it was really them. He knew it was them because he was the spy. "Bell Family? can they be compared to Heavenly Sword Sect?" She snorted. The spy said to Archie Bell. "Young Master, She is the disciple of the Ninth Elder in Heavenly Sword Sect. It would be better for you to apologize now." "What?" Archie was shocked, but to the old man''s surprise, he said back to him. "That''s good. If I''m not wrong, she was one of the flowers inside the Heavenly Sword Sect. She would be a perfect fit for me. Our family will rise from now to a scale that even the Heavenly Sword Sect can''t compare." The old man wanted to slap this Archie. He thought by apologizing here and now. They can make Putri and Alex''s guard down. Then, after he reported to the family head. They can ambush and kill them since they unknowingly ruined their plan. Of course, Archie didn''t know about it. He blurted all of that. Now they looked like they were looking down on Heavenly Sword Sect. Putri released her 7-Star Martial Grandmaster Spiritual Energy. She narrowed her eyes as her killing intent was released. "It seems, there is someone who looks down on Heavenly Sword Sect. Good, I will report this to the sect. We will see if you can say it again after that." "Hmph, Capture her! I will play her tonight, we will see if you can say it again after that" Archie didn''t care about that. He was really an idiot. He ordered the two old men to capture her. He even used the same words as her. And just like that, he completely enraged Putri. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes. The old men behind Archie were 6-Star and 7-Star Martial Grandmaster, respectively. But there was something bothering him, he sensed a tinge red of energy inside them. He felt it familiar from somewhere. He finally remembered where he saw an energy like that. It was coming from the blood pill that the evil cult. But he felt something wrong, the previous energy from the evil cult, it was some blood red energy that made the user Spiritual Energy spike and let them had a stronger power. However, the energy in these two old men''s body, it was mellowed a bit. It nurtured their power and slowly made them stronger. Alex frowned. The old man who acted as a spy immediately slapped Archie. He looked at Putri and Alex. "I''m very sorry about this disturbance. He was too young and too spoiled, so he said these disturbing words. I assured you. We, Bell Family, didn''t dare to look down on Heavenly Sword Sect. To apologize, we can offer you some compensation. So, we would like to invite you to our mansion so we can formally apologize." "You!" Archie was obviously dumbfounded. He was taught by the family that the family will rise and can even surpass the Heavenly Sword Sect. He had enjoyed it for a few months. So when he was slapped like that. All the blood rushed to his head. Alex immediately warned his Senior Sister. "Senior Sister, it''s better not to accept their invitation. Back when I fought with a Grandmaster from the evil cult. I saw a blood pill that can make one stronger. It was forcefully taken from a living human. And I saw that energy in their body. I''m afraid the scale of this mission has been to a greater scale than we can imagine." Putri didn''t understand why he said that, but she trusted him. "No need. Break his arms and legs, I will forget about this" With that, Archie Bell was completely enraged. He ate a blood pill. His energy sparked, and he suddenly released the aura of 2-Star Martial Grandmaster. His eyes became bloodshot, and Alex immediately knew at this point. It was the same appearance as the person who ate a blood like pill back then in the underground. "You! How dare you look down on me." Alex immediately said, "Senior Sister. It really the same. They have the same appearance. If the whole family had used those pills. I''m afraid we need to retreat first and report it to the sect." Putri nodded at him. "Evil Creature, you look like a demon." As she said that, she suddenly thrust her spear to his abdomen and crippled him. She destroyed his cultivation like she was a friend of justice. Not everyone has left the restaurant, many still stayed. After they saw the appearance of Archie Bell, who was like a devil. They were completely bewildered, he really looked like an evil cultivator. They had the urge to do the same as Putri. So, Putri, doing this was completely normal. The Spiritual Energy slowly gushed out from his body until his body didn''t have any Spiritual Energy anymore, and he passed out. Putri looked at the two old men, "I wonder if Bell Family knows about this?" The two old men sweatdropped. "We absolutely never know about this. Our family never thought of having an evil cultivator in our family. We will immediately report this to our family head and expel him from our family. How about, Young Lady, come to our family so we can thank you for revealing there was an evil cultivator like this in our family?" And with that, Putri immediately knew Alexander didn''t lie. Seeing they desperately asked them to come to their family, it must be a trap. She will reject them and report the whole incident to the sect. After all, judging from the two old men in front of her. They had a cultivation of 7-Star Martial Grandmaster, this wasn''t a scale she can handle at the moment. "We..." The old man was tongue tied. He changed his plan. He immediately grabbed Archie Bell and left the restaurant. He was planning to report the incident. Putri and Alex left the restaurant not long after that. She looked at Alex, "How did you know?" Alex understood what she asked about. He only asked her back, "Senior Sister, Do you know about Senior Sister Song Yu''s special ability?" Putri immediately understood what he was talking about, "Her ear?" Alex nodded. But this nod had told her everything. She sighed, "So yours is eye. Now, I''m the only one who didn''t have something special like that." "Seeing too much or Hearing too much sometimes also become a curse. Seeing something we don''t want to see or Hearing something we don''t want to hear. So don''t be down like that, Senior Sister, "Alex said while adding something in his heart, ''I can activate or deactivate my eyes at will, though.'' She smiled at him. "Let''s go back to the sect. We need to report the incident. Judging from the scale, it seems several core disciples or even an elder need to move to fix this" Alex nodded. They flew from the place. In Bell''s Family hall, the old spy kneeled down with Archie Bell beside him, lying unconsciously. The Bell family''s head stood up and released his energy. "So this was done by them again? Curse them. Know they also knew about our plan. The more reason we can''t let them alive. Immediately gather the 4-Star Grandmaster and above in our family. We need to kill them at all cost if not, our family would be ruined." "Yes." Not long after, there were thirty three people. Two 10-Star Martial Grandmaster, three 9-Star, five 8-Star, and the rest were ranging from 4-Star to 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. The family head, who was also one of the two 10-Star Martial Grandmasters, said. "We will kill those two wretches from Heavenly Sword Sect at all cost. They knew about our plan. So if we didn''t kill them, our family would be destroyed by Heavenly Sword Sect. Let''s go." As he said that, all of the people nodded their heads, and all of them disappeared from the scene. Alex and Putri were flying in their sect''s direction. Putri slowed down a bit to match Alex''s speed. After all, the difference between them was one whole big realm. After half an hour flying, they were flying above the woods, they had entered Whelan Forest. It was a relatively safe forest since there was no monster above Martial Master resided in here. But Alex and Putri felt something wrong. They can''t shake this feeling off. Alex tried to search the surrounding sky with his Spirit Eyes. He suddenly saw thirty three sign of energy. All of them were 4-Star Martial Grandmaster or above. He immediately felt something wrong. He said, "Senior Sister. Pursuers on our back. Thirty three people, 4-Star Martial Grandmaster or above. I don''t know fully about their cultivation, but at least some of them stronger than you." 205 Death Song Array Putri drew a cold breath. She immediately activated Charya''s token. Alas, it was too late, even if she knew about it. She would be too late to reach this place. Putri said to Alex, "Can you raise your speed?" Alex nodded. He immediately used his Sky Step and his fire to boost his speed to the maximum. This wasn''t the time to hold back his power. Putri also didn''t ask about the sudden appearance of his element. As expected, the moment they increased their speed, the pursuers also increased their speed. Alex was thinking about calling Anna and Leoz. Unfortunately, even if he called them, they can''t do anything in front of the pursuers. Even Alex raised Leoz''s or Anna''s cultivation to 4-Star Martial Grandmaster. They can''t fight that many people. At this pace, the pursuers would be able to catch up to them. Alex called Sherry. Sherry appeared above his head. Putri was shocked by the sudden appearance of Sherry and also her cuteness. But this was not the time for that. Alex said, "Sherry. Use your flame to hold them back." "Wuu!" Sherry nodded. She sat on Alex''s head while looking on the pursuer on his back. She raised her paw. Many firebirds appeared above her. She can only summon twenty firebirds at the time. Suddenly Alex also raised his hands. Another twenty firebirds also appeared above them. Now the firebirds numbered forty. "I will also help you with their summoning. You will control them and shake them off." Putri and Alex can''t fight while running at them at their full speed. But for Alex, he can let Sherry controlled his fire and attacked them while he only needs to summon the firebirds. Sherry became pumped up, she pointed her paw at the pursuers. "Wuu (Charge)" Forty firebirds suddenly flew toward the pursuers. Sherry tried to target every one of them. So, each of them would have one or two firebirds. But the pursuers were 4-Star Grandmaster or above. That would not be effective. As a result, there was no one who cared about those tiny firebirds. Sherry and Alex summoned the firebirds again. But this time, Alex said, "Try to attack one of them at the time. Attack the weakest one first." "Wuu (Understood)" Sherry targeted a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster with forty firebirds. And yeah, the strategy seemed successful. 4-Star Grandmaster was burned to death by a few firebirds'' explosion. With this wave of attack, Sherry managed to kill seven pursuers. The pursuers were shocked about that, but they didn''t stop. They were chasing them at the same speed. They would be able to catch up with them in three minutes. The distance between them with Alex and Putri was only about one kilometers. A normal Martial Grandmaster can cover that in a few seconds. But, Alex and Putri were also moving. Catching them with their distance...they can only catch them up little by little. The next wave of firebirds came again. But to their surprise, they started to group up and erected a barrier. This time, they managed to escape unscathed from the firebirds. "Wuu" "..." Alex was pondering something. He looked at Putri, who was really worried about him. She also had used her wind element to help his speed. She felt bad because she can''t fight back at this moment since the pursuers might catch up if they stopped just a bit. She can only give a portion of her wind to help Alex in his speed. Alex didn''t hesitate anymore. He said inwardly. "Pure Fire On" The Fire Phoenix Seed immediately revolved like crazy and broke. The Pure Fire inside him gushed out and hovering around him. Putri was shocked by the intense heat Alex''s fire generated. Fortunately, she didn''t have a Fire Element. If not, she would get an elemental suppression since she was beside him. For the time being, she just realized that Alex''s flame was strong. She didn''t know that Alex''s fire was actually Pure Fire. "Fire Phoenix Art, Fire Stage. Phoenix" A mighty Fire Phoenix entered the sky. Sherry immediately followed what Alex did. She also summoned her Phoenix. Two phoenix was flying in the sky. Sherry controlled them. Upon seeing the fire phoenix, the pursuers felt dread about it. They made a group of five and erected a barrier. Unfortunately for them, Alex had completely released his Pure Fire. Even Sherry''s fire was enhanced with that. There were two Fire Phoenix made by Pure Fire in the sky. They charged at the group. This time, Sherry let each Phoenix had their share. The moment the Phoenix clashed with the barrier. It immediately burned the barrier and swallowed the people inside it. Sherry had killed another ten pursuers. The original thirty three pursuers were now only sixteen pursuers. Sherry killed seven of them in the first wave and ten of them in the second wave. Unfortunately, she can only kill the weakest one. Even if Alex''s fire was a Pure Fire. Killing an opponent with a very big difference in their cultivation was still not possible. It was also the pressure to catch Alex and Putri that made them unable to defend or dodge them fully. If it were one on one, even Alex wouldn''t be able to kill them like that easily. In other words, there were still sixteen strong pursuers, including their two 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. When their distance was only three hundred meters away, the pursuers started attacking them. There were three incoming attacks. The first one was a big wind tornado, the second was a dragon made by thunder, and the third one was numerous icicles. To that attack, Both Alex and Sherry summoned their Phoenix and firebirds. The first Phoenix clashed with the thunder dragon. But to their surprise, the thunder dragon was burned by the Phoenix until it disappeared, the same applied to the wind. Although Wind Element had an elemental advantage against fire. It was rendered to be useless in front of Pure Fire. The fire burned every bit of wind and destroyed the tornado. As for the icicles, they were intercepted by the firebirds. Their distance now was only half a minute away. They suddenly send a giant stone boulder to them. Alex was surprised. Putri immediately said, "It is an artifact, they are the same as weapons but in a unique shape. But for the one that big, I''m afraid it is a rank 4 Artifact. If it is only a rank 3 artifact, I should be able to blow it away with my wind. But I can''t blow a rank 4 artifact. I shall stop them here. You will go to the sect and report the incident. You have a bigger talent than mine, and you are also my Junior Brother. Let this Senior Sister sacrifice herself so you can forge your own path." Alex frowned. "Senior Sister, how about I infuse my Fire Element to your wind element. I''m sure it can strengthen your wind element." Putri pondered a bit, but looking at the Giant Boulder flew toward them, she didn''t have time to consider and accepted it immediately, "We will try." Putri pointed her hand to the giant boulder. She didn''t need to target it specifically. After all, it was a big target. She still flying at her fastest speed. "Eclipse Wind" A small tornado appeared on her left palm. It suddenly expanded and became a fierce tornado. It clashed with the giant boulder, but as expected, it can''t push the boulder back. Alex then stretched out his hand. He held her hand and started infusing his fire element. That overbearing fire element started invading the wind element in Putri''s hand. "Ah!" Putri felt the intense heat from Alex''s Fire element. Looking at Putri, Alex started to hesitate, but Putri said at Alex seriously, "Don''t pull back. I will be fine." After looking at her expression, Alex''s expression became solemn. He continued channeling his Fire Element. A spark of fire appeared on the tornado before it flared up and started enveloping the tornado. The wind tornado became a blazing fire tornado. And its power was extraordinary. It pushed back the giant boulder back to its caster. It came toward a group. Obviously, they can''t dodge it and, ultimately, crushed to death. There were only ten people left. Unfortunately, they had caught up with them. Alex and Putri looked at their surroundings. In Alex''s left, there were three 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. In Putri''s right, There were two 8-Star Martial Grandmaster and one 9-Star Grandmaster. In their back, there were two 9-Star and two 10-Star Grandmaster. Putri said, "Alex, this is an order from your Senior Sister. You go back alone, I will hold them back." Alex obviously can''t obey that. It wasn''t his style to abandon someone like this. He desperately activated his Spirit Eyes to see if there is any chance to escape or maybe a powerful monster he can utilize to help them break this situation. "You two wretches, this is as far as you go. I never thought with just the two of you. You can kill many of Bell''s Family Grandmaster." The one who said that was obviously the Bell''s Family patriarch, Jake Bell. "Do you want to kill us because I crippled that whatever young master of yours? If so, let my Junior Brother go. It was me who did that, not him." Putri said. "Haha, you are ignorant. You think I cared about that useless son of mine? You are completely wrong. I don''t give a damn about him" "Let my Junior Brother go, you can do anything to me." "I don''t care about that. I need the two of you to die here." "Why!" Putri shouted. "Why you said? You have ruined our plan by killing those bastards. If not because of you, our family can become a prominent family. But because of you two. Our path has been cut. This anger can be settled with your two lives." "You should know who I am! Heavenly Sword Sect won''t let you off." "That''s why we will kill you in these woods. Although, this forest was a low level forest. As long as we can cover our trace. They won''t be able to know it was us who killed you. Hahahaha" Alex finally saw a big cave not far from them. In his Spirit Eyes'' vision. One hundred meters beneath the cave. There was a place filled with energy. But to his surprise, the energy didn''t go up and fill the cave. It can also be said, Spiritual Energy was like gases. They filled the room. But there was no energy leaked to the cave. Instead, it filled to another place underground, and because of the distance, Alex can''t thoroughly look at it. Alex gulped down, he can''t help but smile. It was a gamble. He said to his Senior Sister. "Senior Sister, do you trust me? This is a gamble between life and death, though." Putri looked at his solemn face. Her expression became serious, and she said with all her heart, "I trust you, I trust my life to you at this moment. We will die anyway if we don''t do anything." Alex nodded. It was fortunate that the Bell''s family hadn''t attacked them even though they had surrounded them. Alex said to her, "You see the big cave in front of us?" "Yeah" Putri nodded. "We will go inside. Trust me" Alex said. Putri didn''t ask anything more, fully knew that they couldn''t escape in a cave as it might only trap them inside. Putri thought Alex wanted to make the Bell''s family buried along with them. Putri nodded at him. They stopped because the Bell family had surrounded them completely. The Bell family immediately used their Martial Arts ready to attack them. "Haha, You talked too much. You even told you wanted to kill both of us and your relationship with the evil cult." Alex shouted to taunt them. "Hmph, A brat like you can say that. I only gave the reason for a dead person, so you won''t haunt me and also Dead men tell no tales" Jake Bell snorted. "Attack!" Putri was releasing all of her energy, she would sacrifice her life to block this attack for Alex. Suddenly, Alex grabbed her hand as he raised his other hand and shouted. "Senior Sister, cover your ears." Hearing that, Sherry was the first one who covered her ears with her paws. Looking at Sherry, Putri also did the same. Alex plugged his ears with Spiritual Energy as a hundred symbols suddenly appeared in front of his hands. Everyone was shocked to see this. Alex was actually an Array Master. Jake Bell immediately shouted, "Cover your ears" Trying to make the same move as Alex had instructed Putri, but sadly, they were too late. Without giving them a chance to cover their eyes. Alex flicked his finger. "Death Song Array" 206 Mine "Death Sound Array" A high pitch sound resounded in everyone''s ears. Their Spiritual Energy was disrupted by the sound. Every Martial Art was undone at this moment. They covered their eyes that were still ringing because of the sound. "Go!" Alex shouted. Alex and Putri went inside the cave. Of course, the pursuers still followed them inside the cave. In a few seconds, they finally stopped at the dead end. There was no place for them to escape. Jake Bell snorted, "Hmph, you just chose the stupidest move you can choose. It proved your inexperience." Alex only smiled at him. "Is that so? You think so? Well, I have chosen the best option I have at the moment, which is to kill you along with me. Sherry" "Wuu" Alex and Sherry made forty firebirds and let them exploded on the cave''s ceiling. The Bell family immediately realized, they wanted them to be buried alive with them. Jake Bell immediately shouted. "Retreat, they want us to be buried alive with them. Haha, stupid, you are the one who will be trapped by your own foolishness." Sherry went back inside him. Because their focuses was on escaping, the Bell family didn''t realize what Alex did. Alex reached Putri''s waist with his hand and pulled her into his embrace. Putri was shocked to say anything. She was thinking, at least dying in a person''s embrace might not be a sad thing. Although he wasn''t her loved one, at least she had considered him as her Younger Brother, a.k.a her family. She was suddenly shocked when Alex took out a monster skin from his inventory. On the monster''s skin, there were too many symbols planted on it. It was actually an Array Plate. Alex activated it before the ceiling started raining on them. The Array Plate started glowing as suddenly an Array appeared on his feet, and finally, they disappeared. Bell''s family didn''t know that Alex and Putri had disappeared before the ceiling fell and crushed them to death. They appeared a hundred meters beneath them previously. Alex can''t see the space inside the ground and only saw the energy. Because of that, he miscalculated the room beneath the ground. It was spacious enough and after they teleported to this place. They still fell down and, "Boom!" They felt into the water. It was an underground lake. Unlike the lake inside a cave that he found back in Zunde Field, the lake was only an ordinary water lake. Outside, the Bell family saw what happened to the cave. They gasped. If they were inside the cave, they would undoubtedly die, crushed by those giant rocks. They might destroy a few rocks with their Martial Arts. But the cave was inside a tall cliff. The cliff collapsed after Alex blew it up. They were convinced that the two must be torn to pieces with those many rocks fell on them. Finally, Jake Bell ordered a retreat. Although they lost a lot, at least they won''t be pursued by Heavenly Sword Sect. If they found their dead body under those rocks, he was sure it was like a natural case. If they dug down their body, the Heavenly Sword Sect must suspect something from it. Back to the cave, Alex and Putri fell into the water. They instinctively jumped out of the water. Putri then grabbed his shoulder. She held back too much before this. She really wanted to ask him and vented her curiosity. "You...you have a Fire Element, and a very strong one at that? And not only that, you are an Array Master too? You said that you just knew some knowledge about it. But actually, you are an Array Master. And that fox, although it was only a Master Stage fox, it has high intelligent. You... Just how high is your talent? you..." Alex smiled wryly. He said, "Senior Sister. It''s better to change your clothes first." With the clothes absorbing the water and became wet. It wrapped very tightly to the body. Alex can clearly see how good the shape of Putri''s body. Her very curves and edges. It was indeed a very good body, it was almost... C... Putri finally calmed down a bit after he said that. She blushed. Fortunately, she still maintained some degree of rationality. She didn''t scream and slap him unreasonably. She said, "Um, then we should face in the opposite direction and change our clothes, your clothes also needed to be changed. Don''t peek, Junior Brother. I trust you." That ''Trust'' word seems very heavy on his ears. Of course, Alex didn''t have any intention to do that. He made a distance from each other and let their back facing each other. Not long after, Alex and Putri had changed their clothing, Putri was drying her hair with her wind element. This time, she had calmed down and waved at him, "Come here. I will also dry your hair." Alex didn''t say anything and come to her. She looked at Alex, "Why did you keep your talent a secret?" Alex looked at her, "Too much talent might bring a calamity for themself." Putri suddenly became pensive. She then said, "Yeah, you might be right. You have unparalleled talent in the sword, then you have a very strong fire. You also have a pet that highly intelligent. And to much surprise, you are an Array Master. No, your identity as an Array Master alone makes all the sect want to possess you. If they know you have all of your talent. There would be only two possible reasons. The other sects will try to invite you to join, and if you reject them, they will still maintain a good relationship with you. And the other thing will happen, they will hunt you and make sure you die. So, the Heavenly Sword Sect won''t be able to sit on top of them." "That''s why I hope Senior Sister to keep this a secret from others" Alex said. Fortunately, she still didn''t know his identity as an Alchemist and his talent in Spear. His talent in Spear might also crush her and break her down. To his surprise, Putri suddenly said. "With the Heaven and Earth as the witness, I promise that I won''t tell anyone about your talents and I will keep this secret till my death or until you revealed it on your own" "Senior Sister?" Alex was dumbfounded. He thought he was fine if Putri only promised it with a verbal promise, but he never thought she would bind herself with Heavenly Oath. "I talked with my action" She only said that. Alex''s heart got warmth. He thought, ''Yeah, maybe I can really trust my back to her.'' "Thank you." After that, they finally aware of their surroundings. In their eyes, there were only Spirit Stones. "Is this..." Alex hesitated. "A spirit stone mine" Putri gave him a confirmation. Both of them gasped on the truth. But suddenly, they stopped at the sight of a skeleton in front of them with a big mountain of Spirit Stones beside him. They saw a note under its hand and read it. "I''m Ungus Skewes. It was an unusual family name. I was a custodian of the Skewes family. There was an order for Skewes Family Extermination, and we were besieged by the royal family of Tulip Kingdom, they were after our secret art. All of us tried to escape, but because of the pursuers were very powerful, we decided to split up. I desperately escaped from them, and finally, I found some cave entrance behind a waterfall. Since you have come here, I''m sure you know what I''m talking about. Yeah, it was the entrance of this cave. I don''t know who you are who managed to found this place, but I beg you. If you find any Skewes Family member, please help them. In my Space Ring, there is a technique called Spatial Door Technique. This is our family inheritance. At first, I thought of giving it to the bloodline of the Skewes Family. But before I had the chance to give this to them. The royal family had caught up, so we need to split up. There are still many other treasures inside my Space Ring. I had calculated the number of the Spirit Stones inside this mine. I hadn''t mine them all, and all the stone I had mine, I left it beside me. I was poisoned deeply and will die in a few days. So, I mine this Spirit Stones to the best of my ability. There were three hundred thousand Spirit Stones inside the mine. I had mine two hundred thousand of them. The mine was a soft mine, so you can mine them pretty easily. There was no danger or whatever inside this mine. So I''m sure you can extract the rest in a few days. Including, the fifty thousand Spirit Stones inside my space ring. I beg you. If you found any Skewes Family remain. Please help them. If they have been completely exterminated. Please, remember, there was once a Skewes Family." After reading the note, Both of their eyes locked. Alex broke his silence. "What is soft mine?" "Soft mine is only a classification for Spirit Stones Mine. It was a name to classify that the mine was easy to extract. There were also hard mine. A Spirit Stones mine will be called Hard mine if the Spirit Stones inside the mine was hard or stuck on the wall or the ground. And even after we excavated them, they were still some substances stuck at them, and we need to clean it before the Spirit Stones can be used. But in this soft mine, there was no chance it would happen. We can just pluck it like we pluck a fruit from a normal tree." "I see" Alex nodded. "What should we do?" "Well, we might want to bury this person on the surface. And according to his words, this mine was covered by a waterfall. That must be the reason why this mine has not been discovered yet." "Alright" Alex nodded. Putri stored the skeleton inside her space ring. She gave the Space Ring to Alex. Alex checked it, there were many treasures as she said. She said, "You keep the space ring. I will also help you to mine them all. You should be the one who has them" Upon hearing that, Alex frowned. "Senior Sister. What do you mean by that!" "I feel bad if you didn''t accept it. You have used a Teleportation Array Plate just now. It was a priceless treasure. Or are you the one who made that?" "No. It was not me" Alex shook his head. After all, it was from the system. "Then, it was really a priceless treasure. I can''t let you have a deficit since you have saved my life." Putri said. "No, I can''t accept that. We have been through life and death together. At least, we need to keep them equally. No, you are my Senior Sister, you should take more." "No!" Alex and Putri kept bickering with each other for a while. Ultimately, they decided to split the treasure inside the ring 70-30. Alex kept seventy percent while Putri kept the thirty, of course for the family treasured book, Alex was the one who held it. Alex also will get two hundred thousand Spirit Stones, and Putri will get one hundred fifty thousand Spirit Stones. They didn''t split it to 70-30. Alex insisted on that. They didn''t need to share or report this to their sect since there were no rules about that. This was called a blessing in disguise. They used four days to mine the rest of the spirit stones. If this were a hard mine, they would need to do it for a few months. Finishing all the Spirit Stones inside. They finally left the mine. Surprisingly, the room next to them was a hot room. There were magma below them. The heat from the magma was intense. Putri can''t stand it, even if she can pass this room, she would be heavily injured by the extreme heat. It seems this room wasn''t like this before. If not, the person inside the mine wouldn''t be able to enter. Alex immediately erected a barrier with his Fire Element to hold back the heat. "Senior Sister, are you okay?" Alex asked. "Yeah, after you erected a barrier. I didn''t feel the heat anymore. Thank you" Alex nodded. He looked at the magma, he felt something was calling him inside the magma. Alex frowned. "Senior Sister, I will help you to cross this room first. I just felt something was calling me inside the magma." "Calling you? But that is a magma, you know. Are you sure you can handle that?" "I can." "Then, go. I will wait for you here." Putri said. She didn''t want to cross the room first. She also indirectly told him, ''If you die inside. I will also die.'' Alex can''t help but smile. "Alright. I will be back shortly." He called Sherry to accompany Putri since Sherry might know what happened to him inside the magma. With their Life and Death contact. They can feel something was going on. "Wuu!" Sherry understood. Alex said to Putri, "This is Sherry. She is my partner, not my pet." "Oh" Putri was surprised. She then nodded, "Nice to meet you, Sherry." "Wuu" Sherry nodded and raised her paw like telling her ''Nice to meet you too.'' Alex looked at Putri, who didn''t flinch at Sherry''s cuteness. It seems the elegance inside her was better than Sherry''s cuteness. "Then I''m going" Alex said as he jumped toward the magma. Although his body can handle the magma. Just to be safe, Alex covered his body with his Pure Fire first. 207 Back When he entered the magma, obviously, he can only see red magma everywhere. For this, he activated his Spirit Eyes. He can finally see a different world. Alex saw at the bottom of the magma, there was some kind of different energy. "It must be the one who called me here." At the bottom of the magma pond, Alex can see a red flower, growing in the middle of the magma. Suddenly, the system spoke. [Host, it is Magma Star Flower] "Magma Star Flower?" Alex was confused. Suddenly, he recalled that name somewhere from his Alchemy Book. It was a flower that can turn a water pool to a magma pool. From the information, it was very useful for Body Cultivation. But normally, it would be used at the intermediate stage, where the water will start boiling and can''t be used anymore after the water turned into magma. People usually pulled the flower and changed it to a new water pool. Only a Martial King can do that, according to the book. After all, a Martial Lord will still be unable to change it because they were strong enough. Should he pluck the flower? [Host didn''t need to do that. You can just bath in here for a while. It will refine your body. Since Host has Pure Fire, you didn''t need to fear this, and I assure you the effect would be more effective. Yeah, just suck it to dry] "System, why do I feel you are frustrated?" [It must be your imagination] "Whatever" Alex shrugged his shoulder. He then released his Pure Fire shield. Unfortunately, he forgot to store his clothes first. The magma burned his clothes to nothing. His body refining started now. It took him three days for this. At the top, Sherry was lazily lying on Putri''s lap. "Is he alright? He still has not come up after three days" Putri asked Sherry while stroking her. After three days, Putri finally knew how high Sherry''s intelligence was. She was startled by it at first, but after a while, she got used to it. "Wuu (Master is enjoying something inside the magma)" Sherry said. At first, Putri was bewildered that even though Sherry only said, ''Wuu Wuu''. Putri was somehow able to understand her meaning completely, just like now when Sherry said, ''Master is enjoying something inside the magma''. For the first time in her life, Putri pinched her cheek to see if she was insane or not. And the result, she wasn''t. She thanked Sherry for her assistance when they were pursued. Sherry puffed her chest back then. She tried talking about how she and Alex met, and so on. Sherry was very eager to let her know that her master was the best. Especially about how he can feed her anytime. Sherry unknowingly said because her master was an Alchemist, she can get so many Spirit Stones or Pills as her food. Putri froze when she knew Alex was also an Alchemist. She still didn''t know that Alex was the masked Alchemist that she met in Shades Town, though. Since she had known his talent about Array and the others first. She didn''t pass out and break down, unable to accept the reality. Putri did another Heavenly Oath for that. After that, Sherry finally realized that she had blabber too much. She told Putri to not say it to her master about her telling another person his identity as an alchemist. If not, she might not have any food from now on. Putri was convinced by her cuteness. She said it was fine. Putri swore in her heart that she wouldn''t be shocked anymore if Alex did another extraordinary thing. Not long after, in the magma pool. Alex opened his eyes. The energy from the flower was gone. He felt his strength got stronger. For the comparison, it was equal to four Tempered Muscle Pill. Alex erected a barrier. He then put new clothes on him. He didn''t want to go up there naked. Finally, Alex jumped out of the magma. He felt the intense heat of the magma was gone. It had become an ordinary magma, and after this, it would become colder and colder as time went by and eventually became a water pool again. "Wuu (Master)" Sherry leaped to Alex''s embrace like she was missing him. Alex caught her and stroked her. "You miss me?" "Wuu" She nodded repeatedly. "Haha, let''s go home. We will go to the Battle Tower after this and clear all the monsters inside. I''m sure the energy will be much higher than in our previous trials." "Wuu" Sherry nodded furiously. She was very eager to do it. Then she looked at Putri and blinked her eyes a few times. She was telling her to keep her promise not to tell him about ''that''. Putri chuckled, she nodded to her and Sherry finally went back to Alex''s body, relieved. Confused, Alex asked, "What are you talking about, Senior Sister?" "Fufu, nothing." Alex only shrugged his shoulder. He erected a barrier to ward the heat. Putri then crossed the room with him. They proceed carefully. The path was a bit long, and because they proceed cautiously, they need a few hours before finally, they found the exit. It was really behind a waterfall. After checking their position in the sky, Putri knew their position. They were in Mei Rain Forest. It was the next forest they need to pass before they reached the sect. Alex also confirmed it, since he found this forest familiar. They continued their journey to the sect. Unfortunately, because too much happened, Putri forgot to do one thing. ... A few days ago, After getting a signal from Putri. Charya immediately set off from the sect. Getting a signal when her disciple wasn''t in the sect. There would be only one possible thing. Her disciple had encountered a very big problem. She tried to go toward the direction where the signal was sent. She only found a forest without anyone to see it. She kept searching for her and Alex and found a big pile of rubble. She immediately searched for them in there. But after clearing up all the debris, she didn''t find them. She kept searching for them for days. ... One and a half days later, Alex and Putri finally arrived at Heavenly Sword Town. When they were flying toward the sect''s entrance. An old man came in front of them. White hair, aged face, a kind face with unpleasantly familiar face. He wore a white robe, and there were some stains in his white robe. From it, Alex and Putri can smell the aroma of Medicinal Ingredients. Alex''s expression turned to dark. "Hoho, I was thinking about taking a breather outside and look what I found" The old man said, looking at Alex. Alex clicked his tongue and cursed his bad luck. He just turned a misfortune to a blessing, but now his luck turned bad again. He tried to make the best smile he can make at the moment. "Good Evening, Elder Su Hua" Yes, the one in front of him was Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect. He had met him months ago in Alchemist Guild in this town. He thought Su Hua only visited here for a short time. But he never thought he was so persistent and waited for nine months! "Good good. You still remember me" Su Hua nodded satisfied. Putri was astounded. The one in front of them was Elder Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect, it was the famous Su Hua in Willow Continent. He was one of ten 5th Rank Alchemist in the continent. And he seemed to know Alex. She thought, ''What is their relationship?'' "It''s been ten months from the tournament. How are you doing? Have you been mistreated by Heavenly Sword Sect? How about coming to Mount Hua Sect?" Su Hua said. As expected, his purpose here was to get him. Alex said, "Thank you for Elder Su Hua''s concern, but they have not mistreated me." Su Hua then turned to Putri, "Oh, isn''t this the second miss of Makmur Family? If I''m not wrong, you are Putri Wulan?" Putri then greeted him, "Putri Wulan Makmur greets Elder Su Hua. I''m honored to have Elder Su Hua remember me." Putri immediately knew when Su Hua said all of that to Alex. It seems he had also recognized Alex''s talent. But whether he knew all of his talent or not, it was still a mystery. "So, what are you doing here? Are you going back to the sect?" "Yes, Elder. Junior Brother and I have completed the mission and will report to the sect" Putri said. She empathized with the word ''Junior Brother''. It told Su Hua, Alex''s identity. He was one of the members of Heavenly Sword Sect, especially the Ninth Peak. Su Hua frowned, he remembered that Alex had said he wouldn''t take any teacher or master. But, Putri said he was her Junior Brother. If his memory served him right, Putri should be a disciple of the ninth elder in Heavenly Sword Sect. Was Alex said a lie back then? But he suddenly recalled the special system in Heavenly Sword Sect, it was Mentor System. He immediately understood. ''So that is their move.'' Su Hua clicked his tongue again. He had made the same move as Conn. He tried really hard to tell the Sect Master in Mount Hua Sect. Albeit, the Sect Master didn''t believe him that much. As such, he went all the way here by himself. He never found Alex in these few months, so he thought about giving up after a year if he still hadn''t found him. Since the Sect Master himself didn''t believe Alex''s talent. He can''t blame him if Alex''s talent bloomed but wasn''t in Mount Hua sect. Su Hua remembered what he said at that time. "Even if he is a somehow talented person. He threads a different path than ours. Who cares about him, we have many disciples better in him." Because of the Heavenly Oath, he can only vaguely hint him about Alex''s talent. But, the Sect Master didn''t understand him and looked down on Alex. "Young Alex, how about coming to the Alchemist Guild? That lass Su Yue has been eager to learn Alchemy. She has become high 2nd Rank Alchemist, maybe you two can discuss your experience?" Su Hua said. "I''m sorry, Elder Su Hua. But there is another concerning matter that we need to report. And it might concern a Martial Lord" Putri said, cutting all the path of Su Hua. If it only a matter, Su Hua might still be able to persuade Alex to stay. But after Putri said it might concern Martial Lord, its scale must be enormous. Even in the Mount Hua Sect, if it involved a Martial Lord, they usually dispatched a few core disciples or even some elders to deal with it. Judging from Putri''s expression, Su Hua can know that was the case. Su Hua can only step back on this. After all, if the sect carelessly proceeded or even just one Martial Lord from the sect had died, its loss was immense. The four sects'' relation was neutral, but if Su Hua delayed an essential matter like that. The Heavenly Sword Sect might bear its fang to Mount Hua Sect. Although Mount Hua Sect wasn''t scared, a war between two sects was absolutely something he didn''t want to see. "If the matter is that important. I''m afraid I need to step back for now. I hope Young Alex will consider my offer to chat with me in Alchemist Guild at a later date." "I would love to if I have time, Elder Su Hua." Alex said politely. Su Hua only sighed, He knew the hidden intent in his words. Alex didn''t want to meet him. Maybe he should pack his baggage sooner or later. He sighed, ''Sect Master, I have tried. It is you who let a talented disciple go to a stray path.'' Alex and Putri went back to the sect. Song Yu was clueless as to what happened. Putri suddenly remembered she activated her token and forgot to activate it again to update their location. She immediately activated her token. And One day later, Charya came back. Looking at the situation, After activating the token a few days ago, Putri forgot to activate it again so she can track their location and told they were safe. The situation was like she tried to play her master. But instead of blaming Putri, Charya only had worries as soon as she came back. "Putri? What happened? Are you fine now? What about Alex? I should choose an easier mission." 208 Lack of Clue Charya came with just a self-blame. There was one reason why she was like that. A report came to her, two days after Putri and Alex went out. The new mission was posted with a requirement of 6-Star Martial Grandmaster, there was also a note that the evil cult had some weapon that can render a Martial Grandmaster to be useless. She became worried. But since it was only a mission to scout, She was sure that Putri and Alex would retreat. That was her thought until Putri activated her token. Charya immediately set off from her house. Even Song Yu didn''t know about it. Putri and Alex explained the situation to her. Originally, there went to the scene just to scout. And from one thing to another, they involved themself too deep and somehow solved the whole issue. They said, there was an Array called Elemental Suppression Array. Because there was a record about it, they can somehow dismantle it. After that, they solved the whole Evil Cult in there. Putri didn''t say anything that can lead them to know Alex was an Array Master. Because of that, she said there was a record about the array, and they somehow able to dismantle it. After hearing the array can suppress Martial Grandmaster, who had awakened their element, she was bewildered. Explaining about the array, Alex suddenly noticed something odd. The people he fought had awakened their element. Still, they guarded the array, won''t they be suppressed by the array if they activated it? Alex only found one possible reason, it was that energy coming from living humans'' blood. Alex didn''t know anything about that blood like energy. And maybe this incident might deeper than he can imagine, he didn''t plan to involve deeply in this. But now that he unknowingly involved, Alex can only prepare by advancing his cultivation. Continuing their explanation, it had reached the point about Bell Family. Charya was enraged, even Song Yu released her killing intent while hearing the report. After hearing the graveness of the situation. Charya mobilized the entire ninth peak. Including Charya, who was an 8-Star Martial Lord, there were two others who were a Martial Lord. One of them was Song Yu, who was a 4-Star Martial Lord. The other one was another female. Light blue hair, pure crystal blue eyes, her body proportion was close to Charya, she wore a purple embroidered flower dress. She was another beauty. Her cultivation was stronger than Song Yu, she was a 5-Star Martial Lord. But she wasn''t Charya''s disciple. But she still in Charya care. Her name was Jane Barnett. Besides them, there were still around seventy disciples who were in the Martial Grandmaster stage in the Ninth Peak. Now Alex finally realized, all of the disciples inside the Ninth Peak were females. He was the only male in this peak. His position was a dream position of ordinary disciples. But he didn''t care about that. Charya asked Alex and Putri to participate in solving the Bell Family. After all, Alex and Putri knew the situation the most, especially Alex, with his unique eyes that can see through which one who had used those evil techniques. Charya had sent out a notice along with the report of Alex and Putri along with the report of the City Lord in charge of Nugget Village to Hazel Kingdom since the Bell family was in their jurisdiction, but they were only a small family. So Hazel Kingdom said they didn''t care about that. Charya then proceeded in the purging of the Bell Family. A few days later, the Bell family was surrounded by the whole forces. They said they were inside the Hazel Kingdom and said the Heavenly Sword Sect was too overbearing and disregarded the Hazel Kingdom. After Charya put out the notice of Hazel Kingdom about Bell Family. Jake Bell can''t say anything. He saw Putri and Alex, still alive. He was shocked by that, because of this sudden turn of event took him by surprise. He tried to fight back. But because Alex and Sherry had killed all of the Grandmaster in 4-Star to 7-Star. And with Charya, Song Yu, and Jane killed the high ranking person. The rest of the members of Bell Family only had 3-Star Grandmaster or below. The ninth peak Grandmaster can kill them off easily. Ultimately, on this day, the Bell Family had been exterminated. The ninth peak of Heavenly Sword Sect had shown what it means to be terrifying. Unfortunately, they were just a pawn that didn''t know anything. All the clues led to the Evil Sect, but they also had been exterminated. So, they can''t do anything for the moment except trying to investigate it. The disciples did not participate just because of Charya''s order. They were also curious about the rumor of the first male disciple inside the ninth peak. Alex had golden hair and a handsome face. If he also behaved like a gentleman, not someone who pretended to be a gentleman, he will be the feast for their eyes. But since Song Yu was his mentor, Alex was off limit from them. When they came back to the sect. Alex finally regained his peaceful moment. Charya came to his house to explain about the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament. "Since you are the number eleven in Outer Disciple Ranking, you have become a participant of Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament, I thought I should tell you about this" Alex was surprised, he was just about to ask on how to participate in the tournament. After all, the reward from the system was luxurious. Charya explained about the tournament. "The top one thousand disciples inside the stone stele on the Battle Tower will be able to participate. Since you are in eleventh place, you would need to participate. The tournament was one versus one competition. The base reward for the top ten is three month ticket cultivating inside Cultivation Pavilion and one chance in choosing a Martial Art. As for the number one''s reward, he can get ten pills that he wanted from Exchange Pavilion along with fifty thousand Spirit Stones." Charya only said the reward for the first position because she was confident in Alex, and that showed how high her expectations in him. On the contrary, Alex sighed in disappointment. First, he had no intention to go to Cultivation Pavilion since he had his own gathering array. He might want to choose a Martial Art later, though. But for ten pills, he didn''t know if he can get a Perfect Purity Pill, considering their rareness. He refrained himself from taking a non perfect purity pill. Now that he thought about it, maybe he can strike a deal with Song Yu about pills. He will make Perfect Purity Pills in a large quantity, and then he will sell them to her as a Merchant. He is a ''VIP'' in her Blackwade clan, after all. However, because his Blackwade came from another continent and there was not any Blackwade Clan here. He was thinking of having her, acting as his agent. Maybe he can make pills in massive quality, then she will sell them. Since she was a Martial Lord and also a young miss from a merchant family, she won''t be cheated, right? Alex had five hundred thousand Spirit Stones. It consisted of three hundred thousand Spirit Stones from the sect master and two hundred Spirit Stones from the mine. He might need a hundred thousand Spirit Stones just to advance one small realm. This is only him in Martial Master. As for Sherry...it was a disaster. It was true that her ability, which can advance with just eating, was enviable. She needs more resources than Alex, who had a Pure Fire Element. Alex really needs to search for some income. Fortunately, the spirits like Anna or Leoz didn''t need any Spirit Stones since they can level up just by killing. The only solution, for the time being, was to sell the pill. He can easily make five hundred thousand Spirit Stones in around a month when he can make Rank 2 Pill. But now, he can make Rank 3 Pill, only the low level ones, though. Still, the revenue should be higher. But if he was the one who struck a deal with the Alchemist Guild, he needs to deal with Su Hua. If that happens, it would be troublesome. Alex still didn''t know Su Hua will soon go back to his sect. His only thought was If Song Yu can become his agent, that would be a great help for him. Maybe he will ask about it to her later. Alex asked, "Should I take the number one in Battle Tower first?" "Oh, you just asked a very sensitive question that I tried to evade this whole time. But it''s up to you. I will give you input from my own point of view. First, the impact you made when you suddenly appeared in ninth place was great. But not many people have seen your appearance. They thought you were a ghost or something. You might not know about this. But many people call you coward in the sect, you know. Especially the previous tenth rank, Tristan. When you haven''t appeared inside the ranking, he was in tenth. But he was kicked out of his position, and he was out of the top ten. I heard he tried to challenge you, but because you are holing up here this whole time. He started to spread the rumor about you afraid of his challenge. Song Yu and Putri sometimes went around to spread another rumor about you as the secret weapon of our ninth peak. The impact was not that great, but at least, our disciple from the ninth peak won''t view you like that." Alex was surprised, he never thought about any of that. He didn''t know the impact he made that day was that big. He never knew Song Yu and Putri had done so much for him. He was grateful to them. Charya continued, "There are many people trying to search for your information, but they can not find anything and leave with empty handed. There were also many who tried to make a ruckus. You know about the field at the foot of each mountain peak, where the disciples can have a spar, right?" Alex nodded. "Many people in Outer Disciple Ranking made their subordinate to cause a ruckus in our field. They said they wanted to challenge you. Of course, most of them had been beaten by our disciple. But because you never came out, even some of our disciples were a bit dissatisfied with you. Song Yu and Putri have been clarifying that you will appear in the tournament." Alex made a wry smile. He shook his head, helplessly. They just raised the hurdle. "I don''t know if you notice about it. At the time, we exterminated the Bell Family. You might see some disciples look at you curiously, and some of them didn''t bother to hide their dissatisfaction expression. Now that he remembered, it was indeed the case. Although the majority seems very curious about him, there were some who made a displeased face. Alex didn''t know about it at that time, and maybe something made them like that. He never thought it was him. "Well, I''m planning to go to the battle tower anyway. Maybe a week before the tournament. I will just shut them up at that time." Alex said. "Oh, although I know you are extraordinary, and I really hope you can take the first position for us. The disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect is still top notch you know. Never underestimate them. Especially, there were some disciples from the ninth peak who was in 10-Star Martial Master. I know you can defeat a grandmaster in a fight, but they also can do the same. Especially, the people in the top ten rankings, they can defeat 1-Star or 2-Star Martial Grandmaster." "I will look forward to it" Alex nodded. "That''s right, Elder Charya. I heard you have a stone that can measure one person strength, can I use it? I want to measure my strength." "Oh, sure. Follow me" She led him to the fourth house in Song Yu''s place. In the usual meeting hall where they usually met, Charya opened one of the doors. It led to another room, which was precisely the same as the meeting hall. But this time, in this room, Alex saw a giant stone. He felt the aura of the stone. He immediately activated his Spirit Eyes but surprised that he didn''t see anything. It was a normal but also a unique stone. Alex felt he couldn''t break this stone. On the stone, there was a number, it was ''zero''. "This is Strength Measuring Stone. You can just punch this stone. The limit of this stone is ten dragons. But even I only have ten dragon strength. Just come closer and punch as you like." ''Four Dragon Strength is equal to forty tons. If he was on Earth and didn''t know about cultivation. He can kill John in one punch back then.'' He came closer and punched it with all of his might. 209 Strength The fist contained a pure strength of Alex''s body. Although he didn''t use his Spiritual Energy or his Immovable Step, it was still very powerful. "400" When Charya saw the number, she was dumbfounded. Back then, when she fought Alex, the number should not this. Alex''s strength was far weaker. It should be around a hundred bull strength. And he didn''t use his Spiritual Energy too. Before Charya recovered from her shock, Alex tried it once again. But this time, he added his Spiritual Energy. "500" With his Spiritual Energy, he can add another one hundred bull strength or a thousand kilograms on the weight of his fist. He was unsatisfied with this. He tried it once again, but this time he added his ''Immovable Step''. The strength that came from Immovable Step gave him another boost equal to his current power. "900" He thought the number would be one thousand. But according to the stone, the strength came from the Immovable Step was came from his raw strength. If he added his Full Throttle, maybe he can reach one dragon strength. Charya can not contain her shock, her jaw dropped as far as allowed. She just saw one of the most shocking things in her life. Alex rolled his eyes and said with a poker face, "Elder Charya, your jaw will be dislocated, you know." Charya finally snapped, "Whose fault do you think it is!" "Even if my jaw dislocated, I can fix it in no time, so no problem. Even the bone is broken, it only needs a few days to a month recuperation, so no problem If I have a pill, it can recover faster. The problem is you" Charya continued. Alex was surprised, not because of the recovery rate, but because of her reply. Her response...how could he say this... she just played a straight guy, right? But even so, it was still a bit too much. Saying ''if the bone is broken, it only needs a few days to a month...'' ''Never mind'' Alex chose to ignore it. "I am the problem?" "Yeah. Don''t you know how absurd is your strength is?" Alex shook his head, innocently. This was the first time he measured his strength. How can he know? "Argh! This guy just shakes his head like nothing. I really want to punch this guy." Charya scratched her head in frustration. Alex even became more confused. Finally, Charya looked at him and explained. "Listen, a normal 7-Star Martial Master has a strength around fifty to a hundred bulls. I heard the fifth Elder has a disciple, he is an 8-Star Martial Master, however, he is a Body Cultivator. So, even though he is an 8-Star Martial Master, his focus in his body, not his Spiritual Energy. Because there is no name to classify for body cultivators. They adopted the same classification as us who cultivate Spiritual Energy. And his current strength is 321 bull strength. The fifth Elder has fed him all the pills he needs, including the Perfect Purity Tempered Muscle Pill. He used all of his connections to procure that. Now, you are not even a body cultivator, and your strength is even stronger than him. You are even stronger in your Sword Arts. Now, do you know how absurd your strength is?" Alex was surprised. Now he knew why Charya had such an exaggerated reaction. No, in fact, her reaction is justified. It is completely normal. Alex tried to calculate how much his original strength before. He remembered he took two Tempered Muscle Pill. It should give him a hundred bull strength. Then, he refined his body with the Magma Flower. He felt the effect was twice stronger than two Tempered Muscle Pill, so the Magma Flower was two hundred bull strength. Then, there was the blazing pond. He didn''t know how much it gave him, but it should be less than a Tempered Muscle Pill. So, his strength should be around fifty to a hundred bulls strength. Now, he finally got an example of how talent can be acquired by a fateful encounter. If he didn''t meet the blazing pool inside the cave, or if he was not an Alchemist that can make Tempered Muscle Pills, or even if he didn''t meet Magma Flower. His raw strength would be the same as a normal cultivator. But the most fateful encounter he had met was the meeting between him and the System back in Zircodina Kingdom. [That''s right, you should thank me, Host] Alex''s eyebrows twitched, Out of reflex, he said, "Stop invading my thought." Charya continued, "I am afraid that you are going to kill someone if you carelessly use your strength." "So, I should lower my strength in the tournament?" "Nah, I don''t say that. You can use your strength. Just make sure you don''t kill them or cripple their cultivation. If it only broken bones, I still can openly protect you and say that the people who want to revenge them is shameless, including their master or teacher. After all, some injuries or broken bones are still within the bound in the tournament. Well, you will know the rules for the tournament later. But even if you accidentally killed them, I will still protect you, so don''t mind it too much." Alex was surprised. He knew that Charya would protect him, but saying their master or teacher ''shameless'', after he broke their disciple''s bones... it was really a spectacle in his imagination. "Do you want to try again?" Alex shook his head. Then Charya nodded and said. "Just don''t forget about the tournament. Your strength alone is qualified to be the number one in outer disciple ranking. But there will be many strong opponents inside the sect. So, don''t be careless and lose in the tournament." Alex nodded. ''It is for the ticke...people who believed in him like Song Yu and Putri'' Alex then went back to his house. He was planning to get his rank just before the tournament. Possible, a week before the tournament. If he got in now, he would be challenged again without him knowing. It would be troublesome. Then, for the time being, there were two options for him. First, cultivated again. The other option was to practice the other pills inside his Simulation Room. There were still Rank 3 Detoxification Pill and Hard Bone Pill. Ultimately, he chose the second option. Alex used his time to master the two pills, because those two pills were a Mid 3rd Rank Pill, it took him longer than he expected. Alex used the Hard Bone Pill since the Detoxification Pill was no use for him. The Hard Bone pill didn''t increase his strength but it increased the bone''s hardness. His bone would not be broken easily. There were only four days before the tournament. Alex then came to Sherry''s room. And as usual, Sherry still lazily laid down while sucking the Spiritual Energy. She had become 10-Star Master Stage Spirit Beast. Alex called her, "Sherry. Let''s go to the battle tower. Show me your power." Upon hearing Alex''s voice, Sherry stood up. She leaped toward him and disappeared. Alex then went to Anna. Anna, as usual, doing her job inside the house. When Alex came to her, Anna said, "Young Master. Leoz said that because of the Zhou Kingdom tightened their kingdom, he can not search the information carelessly. So, he needs more time. He also said the Zhou Kingdom was planning something big. But he was still unsure about what it is." "Sure, take all the time he needs, it is better to be safe than sorry." Anna nodded. "Then, are you going now?" Alex nodded. Anna hesitated, "Can I also go with you." Alex thought a bit, then he shook his head. "Sherry is with me." Anna looked down, she was disappointed. Alex looked at her and shook his head helplessly. He came closer to her and gave a peck on her forehead. He then stroked her hair a bit. He had been with Anna for a year in this house. Anna was a peerless beauty. Although Alex didn''t care about that, his heart slowly melted as they spent their time together, and Anna''s presence slowly grew in his heart. He gave her a kiss on her forehead. He felt she at least deserve this. Alex still can''t cross the line, he didn''t kiss her on the lips. But at least, this action of his, showed Anna that her effort hadn''t gone waste. Alex smiled at her, "Then, I''m going" Anna was surprised by Alex''s action. Even though it was only a kiss on the forehead, but for her, it was worth it. She gave him the most beautiful smile she can give, "Yes." After leaving the house, Alex flew to the Battle Tower. As expected, the Battle Tower was still brimming with people. Alex landed nearby and walked to the Battle Tower. This time he didn''t meet anyone he knew. Alex then went to the Elder, who was in charge of the registration. "Elder, I would like to challenge the Battle Tower." "Again? Haiz, you still need to wait for a few people. I will register you first." Alex was surprised, the last time he didn''t need to wait. "Is the battle tower that busy? The last time I was here, I still see some empty room." "It is the fault of the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament. Because the requirement in participating in the tournament is they need to get to the top one thousand ranking. A lot of people challenged this tower to test their luck. Why are you asking me this? Are not you like those people?" Alex was surprised, now that he thought about it, it was indeed the case. He didn''t come here to test his luck, though. Alex didn''t mind to wait, so he waited on the side. The ranking was ever changing. He saw Himu... Ahem, Simon, he abandoned that name already. Simon''s rank was 498th. Alex also saw Lena''s rank, surprisingly, she was 246th. But the most shocking he can see in this stone stele was Evelyn''s ranking because he saw her name inside the top hundred ranking. Her rank was 99th. Alex was surprised to see her in that ranking. He recalled back then Evelyn was in 4-Star Martial Master after she broke through twice when she was practicing with him. She didn''t achieve any breakthrough when she practiced the sword alone. But after coming to Alex''s house to learn about Seven Stars Cut. The potential that she didn''t use or maybe even she suppressed, burst out of her body. She broke through twice within that short time. Alex taught her the Seven Stars Cut. It had been a few months, Alex was wondering how high her prowess now. Not long after, while he was waiting for his turn. There was suddenly a change of name in the stone stele ranking. ''24th - Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia'' Alex''s mouth became an ''o'' shape. He was really astonished. It seems, the practice that she had with him, released her full potential. The crowd turned to an uproar. "What?" "Look, her highness Evelyn has reached 24th position." "Yeah, she should be only 15 years old, but she was this talented." "I heard her saying her progress was thanks to someone, but she didn''t say who it is." "You are not up to date, I heard she said it was also another disciple like us." "Who is he/she?" "Yeah, I want to call him brother or sister. If I also get something like that, I can become the top one hundred disciples." "Don''t daydream. If she is a female. She would think you are a pervert." "That''s right. It must be a male, If I found him, I could seduce him." "Shut up, you pig. Lost your weight first." "What''s wrong with it? There is another charm in this body of mine." Alex facepalmed. Not long after, Evelyn came out. Alex saw her cultivation with his Spirit Eyes. To his surprise, she was a 7-Star Martial Master. Alex thought he had a very high pace, but it seems it was not the case. He saw the girl with the black hair slowly came out from the room. Her shoulder length black hair had grown a bit longer. Now her hair had reached her back, and she tied it with a butterfly ribbon so it won''t hinder her. Her innocent brown eyes were slowly giving an aura of maturity. Her petite body slowly grew some curves. She didn''t know Alex was in the crowd. She just flew away from the battle tower. The achievement reward in this place was not that great anyway. Alex waited for his turn for a while longer. The Elder then called his name, and he went to him, then gave his token. He entered the room and called Sherry out. After that, he activated the array, and finally, they were back to the world inside the array. 210 Battle Tower After activating the Array, Alex finally came back to a familiar green scenery. He was inside this forest once again. This time, he was here with Sherry alone. Alex looked at Sherry. The insane idea they came up in their first time. Alex thought the perfect time to unleash it was now. Alex didn''t mind to use his fire at this time. Since now, he felt a bit dissatisfied with monsters below 9-Star Master stage. That''s why to reserve their stamina and energy to fight the later monsters. Alex decided to kill them with his and Sherry''s fire. "Sherry, put the forest in fire. Since we didn''t have any trouble with the fire, we can kill the monsters easily with that. We can also conserve our stamina for that." "Wuu!" Sherry seems very eager to do it. After Alex''s rejected the idea that time, she was dying to do it. She immediately summoned her twenty firebirds and released them. Alex helped her in doing that. From an explosion, turn to a burning tree, then it slowly spread. Of course, Alex flew around with his ''Omnislash''. He was going to obliterate the monsters perfectly. He won''t leave a single monster alive. Since the monsters were still a low stage monster, he can easily kill them with a single sword from Omnislash. Fortunately, it was only an illusion. If the trees were real, he would make too much pollution. [EXP+ 500] [EXP+ 600] [Gacha Ticket x1] [EXP+ 500] ... After several hours, they finally met the wave with two 9-Star monsters. Alex and Sherry had waited for this for too long. Alex decided to put out the fire. Sherry did the same. They wanted to test their might with 9-Star Master stage monster in a full fight. Back in the mission of Evil Cult, Alex and Sherry had fought with 9-Star and 10-Star Martial Master or even a 1-Star Grandmaster. Even though the ambush was a failure. They were not prepared for a fight. That''s why Alex and Sherry can kill them pretty quickly. Then, they also killed a few mid rank Grandmaster. At that time, they were pursuing Putri and Alex in a rush. Because of that speed, they need to give up some level of defense for their speed to chase them. Thus, Sherry was able to kill them pretty easily. This time, the monsters had prepared for their battle. So, Alex and Sherry expected some real fight in here. Alex and Sherry chose their respective opponent. Alex chose a 9-Star Master Stage Black Beetle. From the look of it, its defense was pretty high. Sherry chose a 9-Star Master Stage Dark Dream Butterfly as her opponent. Alex made the first move. He wanted to test his power without his Sword Intent, he was wondering if his Sword Art alone can defeat this hard defense monster. It was a 5 meter dark bettle, and its wide alone was twice its height. And its length was even more than twenty meters. "Pentagram Slash" Alex used his Pentagram Slash as the first move. Five streams of light flew toward the beetle at a very fast speed. To his surprise, the beetle didn''t dodge this attack. It stood there without moving. And finally, when the light crashed to the giant beetle''s body. It didn''t even manage to put a scratch on it. Alex was surprised. Although the Pentagram Slash didn''t have that much power in attack as its speed was its strongest strength. But, it was still an Earth Tier Sword Art. To think it didn''t even manage to put a scratch on it. This giant beetle had an extraordinary defense. After that attack, the beetle was trying to pinch Alex with its giant mouth. Although he activated his Spirit Eyes, the giant beetle movement was pretty slow. Even without his Spirit Eyes, he would have all the time he needs to dodge this. Judging from its movement, The beetle seemed to sacrifice its speed for defense. Alex leaped to the air as his sword was glowing. He swung his sword down as a Sword Wave flew from his sword toward the giant beetle. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash" The Sword Wave was flying to the beetle back, Alex didn''t know where to hit this beetle. This time, the sword wave still didn''t manage to make a scratch. But yeah, without his Sword Intent or his fire Infused in it. To make a wound on this extraordinary hard beetle...well, he might be able to do it, if he continuously attacked the same spot over and over again. Alex thought the beetle would fly. Even though the beetle didn''t have a wing, with its Spiritual Energy alone, the beetle should be able to fly. It was the beetle provocation, Alex can''t even put a dent even the beetle didn''t move. Alex summoned ten swords above him. It was his ''Omnislash''. The swords flew toward the same spot as Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art. Finally, two of his swords managed to pierce the beetle''s hard carapace. But it was only a very shallow one. Alex pondered. It seems, the Sword Intent was really a foundation in his sword. Alex had checked all he needs to check. Then he switched his sword with his spear. He had mastered two Spear Arts these past few months, ''Silver Raven'' and ''Bear Sovereign''. But he hadn''t found a chance to use it. So, training in here might be useful for him. Each wave of the monster came every three hours. After killing the rest of the monsters and leaving only two 9-Star Master stage monster. There wouldn''t be any nuisance if he used this beetle as his practice partner since Sherry blocked the other monster. Alex also considered the beetle''s movement. Since the beetle was slow. It was practically the same as a practice dummy. Only a hard practice dummy that can''t be destroyed easily, which was perfect as a target. Considering all of those aspects, Alex decided to use his spear. They were in illusion, so there won''t be anyone able to see him, using a spear. A spear appeared on his hand, the spear had a white metallic handle, and the spear blade had half the length of his sword, which around 30 centimeters. This was his usual spear. Alex released his Spear Intent. Alex ducked down a bit as he clenched his spear. After noticing Alex''s spear intent. The beetle felt something wrong. The beetle felt dread. It tried to pinch Alex to death with its mouth, but suddenly, Alex disappeared. "Boom" Suddenly a loud voice was heard, and the beetle suddenly lost its balance. Not long after, the beetle had finally noticed that it lost one of its feet. Alex suddenly appeared fifty meters away from the beetle. He finally realized how powerful the move he used just now. Alex used his ''Silver Raven'' which supposed to be an extremely offensive Spear Art. It was using his own strength and momentum to add the power in his thrust. He tried using his ''Flash Step'' to help on the momentum, and the effect was marvelous. He also felt that even though this thrusting was powerful. If he continued this movement for a while in an experienced opponent. His opponent would be able to grasp his movement sooner or later. Alex was planning to use this Silver Raven with his ''Fleeting Step'' which should be unpredictable. He wanted to use it in a real fight to see if that was the case. But for this beetle who had a slow speed. He can only test its power, and he was satisfied with the power. Then he changed his Spear Art. This time he used his other spear art, Bear Sovereign. Bear Sovereign was partially offensive and defensive type Spear Art. Alex came closer to the beetle''s leg. Spiritual Energy spike from his spear as the spear''s sharpness suddenly increased to an unusual extent. Alex tried to cut the beetle''s leg with its sharpness. Ultimately, it managed to cut the leg. Although he used his ''Immovable Step'' to raise his strength, so he was able to cut the leg. The sharpness alone was worth it. Alex can also make the spear duller as it would be like using a stick. He can use it to pin his enemy down. This spear art also taught him how to continually change his center of gravity when engaging in close combat. It was useful because the opponent would not be able to narrow down their attack. It was the defensive engagement that can turn the defensive to the offensive. Losing half of its legs, the giant beetle can''t stand up. Finally, by using its Spiritual Energy, it managed to float in the air. But because of its enormous body, it can only float two meters above the ground. Alex leaped to the top of the beetle. Spear intent started covering his spear as he threw the spear toward the beetle''s small wound that Alex made by using his swords. "Spear Throwing Art. Power Throwing" Whether it was because of the crack on the hard carapace or because of his powerful Spear Intent. After crashing toward the carapace. It destroyed that black carapace. Then beetle fell to the ground and made a crater on the ground like the one on his back. It screamed out of pain. He didn''t stop there. As he thrust his spear toward the beetle''s head. He used the air as his footing, obviously using his ''Sky Step''. He was like an arrow crashing down to the ground. The spear planted on the beetle''s head, thus killing it. Alex saw Sherry had finished her opponent too. Looking at the dead butterfly with half of its wing had been burned. He can expect what happened to the butterfly. Unlike the giant beetle, the butterfly can freely fly its body in the air. The fight must be a dog fight in the air. Sherry must surround her with her fire to stop the butterfly from flying away. Then, because of her overbearing fire. It was burned to death. Alex and Sherry rest for a while before the next wave came. This time, most of the monsters were in 8-Star or 9-Star Master Stage monster with two 10-Star Master Stage monsters as the bosses. The two bosses were a blue wolf and a white fox. Because Sherry felt their character was overlapped. She chose the fox as her opponent while Alex got the wolf as his opponent. Alex hadn''t changed his weapon. He was still using his spear. He used his Silver Raven to charge to the wolf like an arrow. But the wolf was able to react. It dodged Alex charged completely. Alex''s speed while using his ''Flash Step'' was surprisingly equal to the wolf''s fastest speed. The fight became like a game of tag. Alex continuously chased the wolf for quite a while. He tried to attack it with several different approaches, but only one that managed to injure the wolf. Although the wolf was quite big as its height alone was two meters high, it didn''t lose its balance or speed. It can move freely inside this forest. Alex was a bit annoyed by this situation. "Omnislash" Ten swords appeared beside him as they flew to the wolf. Their purpose was to surround the wolf so Alex can hit it. If others what Alex did just now, they would be shocked to the core. Alex can use his Sword Art with his spear, not his sword. In fact, Alex practiced hard for this in his six months of consolidation. After receiving that golden lightning, he can use his Spear Intent, and to his surprise, his Spear Intent can be used on his sword. He was also able to use his Spear Art with his sword. That''s why he thought it was possible to do the opposite. After practicing it continuously, he finally was able to use it. He was still unable to condense a spear domain or a sword domain, though. He felt some kind of barrier that prevented him from doing so. The swords were covered by Alex''s Spear Intent. The wolf was avoiding the swords one by one. If one of the swords just hit the wolf, it would injure the wolf heavily. After pinning the wolf down for one minute, Alex finally saw the chance. "Flash Step" He used his fastest speed as he used his Silver Raven. He flew in the wolf direction like an arrow. Alex blew the wolf''s entire stomach, and the wolf finally fell down lifelessly. Alex then turned to Sherry. He saw her sitting on top of a black fox. Alex was surprised as he remembered that the fox was originally white...Sherry was ruthless. 211 Battle Tower 2 The previous fox was a white fox with its size similar to Sherry. Unlike Sherry, the fox didn''t have pink color in the tip of its fur. But, they had a similarity around seventy percent. Sherry might find the fox overlapped with her characters and to avoid Alex, taking another fox. She made sure to burn the fox to death. Sherry was sitting on the top of a black fox... poor fox. They rested for an hour or so before the last wave finally showed up. Sherry and Alex split up. Alex spotted twenty five monsters in the last wave. There were at least fifteen 10-Star Master Stage monsters in his vision along with the 9-Star monsters. Alex and Sherry decided to eliminate them one by one starting from the 9-Star monsters. Alex and Sherry eliminated all of the 9-Star Master Stage monsters in an hour. They proceeded carefully, so the time was a bit too long. Even so, the result was great since they didn''t need to deplete their energy needlessly. Fighting a monster might take five percent of their power, but fighting two monsters might not take only ten percent. It might take fifteen percent or even more, after all, you need to be conscious of the two positions and their attack or even their combination attack. Alex met his first 10-Star monster in this wave. His opponent was an elephant. Alex took out his sword and his spear. Alex remembered the first time he was here. He didn''t want to use his spear or his flame. He was too dependent on them. Since he didn''t plan to reveal it to them anytime soon. Alex decided to get used to his sword only. Now, Alex had gotten used to his sword. He also got Spear Arts. Not using it was a waste. Alex had used his Spear Arts to confirm their power previously. Now, he was thinking of using both of his spear and his sword. After all, his full power was using both of his spear and sword together. Alex wanted to see now that he got power up in both his spear and sword. How about combining both? He looked at the elephant as he clenched his sword in his right hand and his spear in his left hand. Alex suddenly disappeared. "Flash Step" The moment he appeared, he was behind the elephant. Alex just used his ''Silver Raven''. Blood gushed out from one of the elephant''s feet. Although Alex''s attack might be successful. The truth was different. The wound on the elephant''s leg didn''t come from his spear. Instead, it was from his sword. The moment he disappeared. The elephant moved its leg to the inside. It went away from his spear range. Alex immediately switched out from his spear to his sword to injure it as his right hand was closer to the elephant''s leg. The elephant was five meters high. Its leg alone was two meters high. Despite the big body, the elephant was fast. If not, Alex might be able to destroy its leg in that move. The elephant suddenly turned around and swung its giant trunk. Alex used both his spear and his sword to block it along with his ''Heavy Step'' to plant himself on the ground. Despite that, the elephant''s trunk still managed to blow him away. Alex undid his ''Heavy Step'' when he realized he would be blown away. After all, he didn''t want only his top body blown, but his body still planted on the ground. He rather released his ''Heavy Step'' so he can adjust his body better. Alex swung his sword as a sword wave flew from his sword. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash" The elephant didn''t bother to dodge the sword wave. It used its giant trunk and destroyed it. Alex was surprised to see his Sanguin Sword Art brushed by the elephant just like that. "Omnislash" He immediately followed up with his Omnislash. The swords flew to the elephant, and surprisingly, the elephant stomped the ground. It created a powerful shockwave that managed to destroy the ten illusory swords. Alex was surprised. He never thought the elephant could do such a thing. The elephant almost reached him. Alex suddenly stepped on the air and jumped upward. Like a fighter jet maneuver, with a single leap. Alex let the elephant passed him as he landed at the elephant''s back. "Silver Raven" Now that he was in the elephant''s blind spot. Alex used his Silver Raven once again, and finally, he succeeded in landing a hit on its leg. A hole appeared on the elephant''s leg as Alex appeared in front of the elephant once again. But this time, the elephant suddenly fell down. With that hole, the elephant lost one of its legs. It tried to swing its giant trunk again to Alex from his right. It was met by his sword. Alex didn''t use his sword art. Instead, Alex used his spear art, Bear Sovereign, on his sword. It was a success. The sharpness on his sword suddenly increased by many times. When he swung his sword, it was too strong for the elephant to handle. Alex sliced its giant trunk, and the elephant screamed in pain. Alex didn''t want to put the elephant in misery for too long. He swung his spear as three sword waves appeared. The three sword waves fused together, making an overbearing sword wave. The sword wave killed the elephant. Alex confirmed that he could use his Spear Art with his sword and vice versa. Alex thought that he could only use it like that in a low level Sword or Spear Art. But it seems, that was not the case. Alex was relieved after confirming that. After killing the elephant, he continued to use both of his sword and his spear so he can get used to them. Alex killed the 10-Star Master Stage monster one by one. Ultimately, he killed nine 10-Star monsters while Sherry killed six. They managed to clear the battle tower. With no more monsters to be summoned, Alex and Sherry were transported back to the real world. Finally, they made a ruckus that reverberated through the whole sect. ''1st Alexander Sirius - 800 Points'' His name shined in a golden light. The people around there finally alarmed. The shock turned to an uproar. "What?" "A new first rank?" "Look at that point, he managed to get 800 points." "I heard the maximum points you can get is 800 points." "Don''t tell me... he managed to kill all the monsters inside?" "There is no way, right?" "Yeah, there are too many 10-Star Monsters in the last wave." "It might be easy for a Grandmaster to kill them all. But this Outer Disciple Battle Tower, it is impossible to do that even if you are a 10-Star Martial Master." "I will report this to my Senior Sister." "Yeah, I will also report this to my Senior Brother." There was also some disciple from the ninth peak. They immediately went and reported the situation. The rumor and dissatisfaction against Alex were overwritten in a single night with the result. Charya sipped her wine as she heard the situation from Song Yu, "Gahaha, How many people will get slapped by the result? Song Yu, how many people tried to challenge him in the arena these past few months?" "There were seventeen people. But I assume they are only a subordinate, the people behind them should be an inner disciple or the top outer disciples." "I remembered. When you heard those rumors, you wanted to beat those people along with their leaders at that time. Putri stopped you, though." "Yeah, I indeed wanted to that." Song Yu nodded. "If not because Putri stopped me, even if I can beat those people, the rumor might worsen. Even if Alex didn''t care about it, there would be some trouble arise from that" "Well, it is good now. Since he solved it with flying color. And he really chose the right timing. With this timing, if those people tried to challenge him again. The people might think they wanted to scout his power, considering the Outer Disciple Ranking is only a few days away." "Yeah, Indeed" Song Yu nodded with a smile. ... Alex looked at his room full of Spiritual Energy. He and Sherry started absorbing them. He didn''t care about the ruckus that he made outside. After all, he will reveal a certain degree of his power in the tournament. The Spiritual Energy was surely abundant. Alex broke through to 8-Star Martial Master, and Sherry also broke through to 10-Star Master Stage. He felt that he could break through to 9-Star Martial Master with all of this energy. If he can do that, Alex will eat the Energy Pill that made by a 10-Star Master Stage monster core. If he absorbed the pill efficacy, he would be able to advance a rank from 9-Star to 10-Star. But, the Spiritual Energy slowly decreased. When it was nearly empty, Alex can clearly feel the black hole beside him that sucked all of the energy away. He can feel that he only absorbed a fourth of the energy, and the rest had been sucked dry by Sherry. He should be able to advance if he can have another hour in absorbing the energy, but it was gone. Sherry had sucked it dry. After sucking it to dry, Sherry stroked her stomach. Her expression was very blissful. She looked at Alex, "Wuu (Master, I''m full. With this, I can break through to Grandmaster Stage. But I need to sleep in the process." After she said that, She immediately fell asleep. Alex was dumbfounded. She just sucked it to dry and went to sleep. Alex missed his breakthrough because of that. And she just went to sleep. Alex twitched his eyebrows, he almost spat blood because of her. He looked at her, especially her blissful expression. He clenched his right hand like he wanted to hit her...no, he really wanted to hit her. But his left hand like an angel grabbed the fist and held it down. Alex sighed, he ran around the room, so he didn''t break the Battle Tower as his venting target. Can''t break public facilities! After calming down, Alex carried her in his arms as he sent her back. He had absorbed the energy for a few hours. He opened the door. When he was outside, he was met by many curious gazes. Alex had prepared for this, he looked at his name and surprised to see his name coated in a golden color. It might be because of the perfect score. "Is it him?" "Yeah, I''m sure. I had met him once when he got the ninth position." "What is his strength?" "Did he cheat?" "He is handsome." "He is my idol from now on." "Yeah, he is handsome, and his strength is powerful. He is also my idol from now on." "He might cheat inside the battle tower since we can''t know what was happening inside." "There is no way a handsome guy like him would cheat." "Yeah, that''s right. He is so handsome. He should be one of our prince inside the sect." They didn''t know if they looked at Sherry, they will immediately make a fan club for Alex and Sherry duo and become a die-hard fan. Even though most people were curious about him. With so many people around, there bound to be someone who was foolish among them. That''s right. Suddenly, a big guy appeared in front of him. Short brown hair with a fierce and bandit like face. "He is Adam Fehlmann, he is an 8-Star Martial Master, and his rank should be 287th." "Now that I look at his cultivation. This Alex also only has the cultivation of 8-Star Martial Master." "Then, he must be cheated inside the tower." "Yeah, that''s right. I remember, he got his ninth position when he was a 5-Star Martial Master." "Then, don''t tell me, he advanced four stages in just a year?" "He...But, there is also Thiveapia Kingdom''s number one genius, Princess Evelyn, she advanced three ranks in a few months." "Yeah, that''s right. Princess Evelyn also managed to get to 24th position with her cultivation." "Do you mean he is a genius that surpassed her?" "We can only say that after this fight. Since Adam Fehlmann will challenge him, we can see whether it is true or not" The tension became tense. Alex looked at Adam Fehlmann in front of him. "I think you are cheating, you have the same cultivation as me, but I know how hard to fight with those monsters inside. That''s why I was sure that you are cheating" Adam said. Alex looked at him, mysteriously. Since he can''t advance to 9-Star because of Sherry, he might vent his frustration to him. 212 Hidden Scheme? Alex frowned, there seems to be more than to it. Even though the one in front of him was like a fool, there must be something going on. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw many 10-Star Martial Master energy. This adam seemed to be someone''s subordinate. He wanted to try to understand his power. Alex smiled a bit. If they wanted to see his power, then, let them ''See''. "Even so, I don''t have a reason to prove it to you. It is also only your thinking, so you don''t know whether if I cheat or not" Alex said. "So what. I''m sure that everyone here also feels you are cheating." "feels...think... you should give me the proof first before you said that. It feels like you have a hidden intention for that. I wonder what that is..." Alex narrowed his eyes. *Whisper* "You! I don''t have any hidden intention. You should achieve this ranking honestly, not resorting to cheating. You are the one who didn''t respect others who tried so hard to achieve their ranking." "If I want to prove it, I can just show it in the tournament. It is only a few days before the tournament start." "You...you should give the explanation to the disciple here now. Don''t change my word to your own convenience. If you show it in the ranking, it would be too late. Your rank should be stripped so another disciple can give a try in the ranking" Adam said desperately. "Ho, then who will replace me? If I''m not wrong, the last place in the Outer Disciple Ranking should be in 5-Star Martial Master. Then, someone who is going to replace me should be 5-Star Martial Master. I don''t underestimate them, but I wonder who wants to try?" Alex narrowed his eyes. The power of 8-Star Martial Master started to seep out from his body. The disciple below 6-Star Martial Master retreated a step back. They can see Alex''s aura, if they fought him, they would lose anyway. No one fool enough to challenge a person they knew they couldn''t defeat. "You! You are too shameless. You want to challenge the people three stars below you. Shame on you" Adam said desperately. "Shame on me? Then how about you? With the tournament around the corner, you challenge me like this to see my power. I am wondering who makes you have the guts to do so." Alex said. *Whisper* Of course, with a little thinking, they should know Adam''s intention. They were whispering with each other. Adam was enraged. All the thing he said was backfired to him. He charged at him with his giant hammer on his hand. "Shut up. Take this hammer of mine." Adam''s purpose became more apparent to others the moment he charged, as Alex said, it was to discover Alex''s strength. What a shameless move. Alex only casually looked at the hammer. "Flash Step" As Adam swung his hammer, Alex disappeared. His hammer passed through the air and hit the ground. It made a crater on the ground. Alex suddenly appeared behind him. Adam also felt Alex''s presence on his back. He immediately turned around, but it was too late. Alex''s foot had reached his chest. The power of four hundred bull kicked Adam''s chest. Adam immediately spat blood as he failed to block it. He felt some of his ribs were broken. Alex''s kick blew him for about a hundred meters. The disciples around him were too shocked. They saw the unconscious Adam on the ground. With just a kick, he managed to defeat him. This can only be achieved by the top fifty in the ranking. His power as the new number one was justified. Alex looked at the unconscious Adam and then at his surroundings. Seeing the situation, he decided to leave the area. Before suddenly, a high pitch sound was heard. "Stop!" Alex stopped on his track, he recalled the scene that he had read back on Earth from some ''entertainment''. He said inwardly ''This should be legendary, beat the subordinate, and the big boss come and say he was ruthless to his fellow disciple and put some righteous words'' Alex turned around and looked at the new young man appeared. With his fancy robe giving an aura to his presence, along with his violet hair. His ''familiar'' villain face made Alex sure about what will happen. "Look, that is Abram Jalagonia. Number fifth in Outer Disciple Ranking." "That''s right. I just remembered, I often saw him with Adam. It seems that Adam is his subordinate." "Then, do you mean he wants to see Alexander''s power just before the tournament." "He resorts with that underhanded move." "Hush! Don''t say it loudly. You don''t want to be beaten, don''t you?" "Yeah, that''s right. He is known to be ruthless." Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at this ''Abram Jalagonia''. Abram finally said, "You are too ruthless to your fellow disciple. He just wanted to have a spar with you, but you make him can''t participate in the tournament. I should punish you on behalf of others." Alex rolled his eyes. ''Ah, it''s really come. Now what? Should the ''disciplinary squad'' come here and punish me according to the script? But I never heard about the ''disciplinary squad''. Only him, is it?'' "It''s time to stop, Abram Jalagonia." A mellow voice reverberated the place As a pretty young lady came to the scene. Her scarlet hair was fluttering because of the wind. Red eyes, small nose, and seducing lips. Along with her alluring body. She came to the scene. Alex saw this person, he didn''t know who she was. However, he didn''t know why, but he felt some similarity from her and his Senior Sister, Putri, especially that this young lady was looking very hard to look like an elegant young lady. "You are Nina from the ninth peak. What? Do you want to protect him? He has beaten one of my sixth peak disciples. Do you think he can get away after that?" "It is very clear for everyone to see the truth. It is you who ordered him to make trouble to my ninth peak disciple. Do you think my ninth peak is easy to bully?" The pretty lady who came just now, Nina, said. Alex finally knew her identity. She was one of the ninth peak disciples. But after he saw the stone stele, he saw Abram and Nina''s name on it. They precisely the sixth and seventh in the list. After all, Alex just pushed them down a rank. He was wondering ''why she suddenly comes now, why she help him?'' But that was different from other disciples'' points of view. They turned into an uproar. "What? One of the ninth peak disciples?" "The rumor must be true." "He is really the prince of the ninth peak." "I''m really envious. He is the only male in the ninth peak." "I want to exchange place with him." They had heard about the rumor about him inside the ninth peak. But because he never showed up in the field after being challenged by many. The rumor stayed as a rumor. They wanted to believe it was not true, especially men. However, Nina gave the confirmation about it. All men gazes suddenly turned to Alex with envy, jealousy, or even hate. "You!" Abram looked at Alex and Nina hatefully. "I will pay you back in the tournament." He said that and left the scene. Alex looked at him with uninterested eyes. His only thought was, ''Why do people force their thinking to their own convenience.'' After seeing Abram had left, Nina turned to Alex. "Senior Sister Putri is my idol. Since you are her junior brother, I need to help you." With that, she also left. Alex muttered, "Oh, come on. Why I didn''t have an RPG system. I can just kill monsters and level up. I don''t need to keep engaging with problematic people." Well, he had prepared for this the moment he wanted to take the first position in the Battle Tower. After all, he himself knew what kind of anxiety when facing an unknown. And from their point of view, he was ''Unknown''. They didn''t know his ability and whatsoever. He only came to the sect a year ago. He never made an appearance to the public. Alex also left the arena, back to his house. Not far from the crowd, there were three people discussing what they saw. The first one was a guy with white hair, with his grey colored eyes, cool expression, and handsome face. He wore a white shirt and a brown jacket. He was pondering something. "What do you guys think about him?" He asked the other two. One male and female. "He has good strength. He must be the same type as me. Haha, Of course, I am better than him in terms of body cultivator. I, Gunzo Rockman, will defeat him if we meet in the tournament" The male said. He had spiky orange hair, fierce looking eyes. He wore something similar to a taekwondo suit. "His speed is very fast. If we are not careful. We might lose to him. What about you, Ignazio Benitez? Are you not angry? He has taken your spot" The female said. She had light blue long hair, reaching her waist. She wore a veil, so there was nothing noticeable on her face other than her crystal blue eyes. But it can be assumed there was a beautiful face beneath the veil. She wore a long white robe, but it still can''t mask her explosive body. "What are you saying, Tasha Lockheart. I just let him take the spot for a while. I will show it to him in the tournament." "Are you also think that he was cheating inside the battle tower?" Tasha asked. "Yeah. Even if he didn''t, there must be another trick or loopholes that he used to get that. You also know how hard to beat the last waves. Even though you can beat the 10-Star Master Stage one by one. You need to finish each of them swiftly. If not, another 10-Star monster might come and fight you together." "Whatever. Because I''m planning to get the first place in this tournament." If Alex was here, he could see those three were precisely the former first rank, second rank, and eight rank. ... The uproar was not only around the Battle Tower. Far away, in another continent, Nilis Continent. In a palace hall inside a castle from a kingdom. "Your Majesty. We have bad news. Our scout said that our diversion had been destroyed by Heavenly Sword Sect. But they still didn''t know about our operation. The Heavenly Sword Sect also exterminated the family they had contracted with" One of the ministers said, kneeling in front of the king. He had long white hair and an aged face. Despite all of that, the aura he released from his body showed him the power that far surpassed those of Charya''s, he was a Martial King. The king was a middle-aged man with black hair. His black eyes showed a fierceness like a ferocious beast. He looked at the minister with uninterested eyes. "Hmph, they are only a pawn for us. Even that family was useless. I thought they could make an uproar inside one kingdom. But I never believed in them, so there is no change in our plan." "Your Majesty. I am wondering why we didn''t attack them now? After all, our kingdom has nine Martial Kings. While their kingdom only has four Martial Kings. We will have the upper hand." "Hmph. Now they were too scattered. If we attack them one by one. The others might notice and flee. It would be troublesome if they fled to the Northern Continent. If they have a genius that noticed by those Martial Emperors resided in that continent while he or she fled from us, and finally, came back for revenge. It will be troublesome for us. We will attack them two years from now. In their own continent tournament. We will launch a surprise attack in that event where the genius and their high ranking people gathered. That way, there wouldn''t be anyone that can stop us. With the resources from another continent, we will be able to rise and also dominated this continent. I have paid a high price for those people from the Blood sect. I need to use it carefully." "As expected of you, Your Majesty." "We still have the card on that continent. We will let those people from Zhou Kingdom raised their cultivation with our resources and blood pills. With that, they will cause a ruckus in that continent and weakened them. What about their condition?" "They currently have two Martial Kings, if we waited for two more years. They might acquire two more Martial Kings. As expected of the blood pills. They are convenient." "Hmph. I paid a high price from those people in the blood sect. I need to fulfill my ambition." 213 First Day Alex went back to his house. He trained as usual. He was one step away from a breakthrough. However, he didn''t plan to use these few days for his breakthrough. First, even if he used his Gathering Array for a few days, he doubted he would be able to achieve a breakthrough. Second, if he used his Fire Spirit Pills at this time, to refine the pill''s efficacy will need some time. He would need to skip one or two days in the tournament, which not possible. He was practicing as usual and planning to breakthrough after the tournament. That was the ideal situation for him. At least, he managed to deceive most of the people. Since he didn''t use anything like his Sword Art or the others. People might think he was a body cultivator. After all, Charya had said his strength was as strong as body cultivator. As long as his opponent thought like that. He can use that thinking at his convenience. A few days passed. The tournament finally came. Song Yu and Putri came to his house so they can go together. The tournament was held in the north near the Cultivation Pavilion. Alex registered his name. Because he was a bit unknown to others, most disciples still didn''t know him. The people coming here were in Martial Master, and some of them were in Martial Grandmaster. Because the number of the fight, today, they only need to fight once. And tomorrow they will fight twice for the top hundred positions. The next day, they will fight three times for the top ten positions, and finally, the last day was the climax for the top position. The referee came to the stage and announced, "The battle will start now. I have put the bracket here. I will still call the participants. Those who are called, please come to the stage immediately. No crippling or killing in the arena. I will stop the battle if necessary. That''s all. The match starts! First, Rank 934th, Garuma versus Rank 999th, Milda." The crowd looked at the bracket, and many got surprised. Although there was not any exciting match on the first day, they saw a thrilling match on the second day. Alex and the rest sat a bit far from others since the presence of Song Yu and Putri might incite the crowd. Alex saw Evelyn and Lena on the crowd. It seems they also noticed him and went to him. Not long after, Evelyn and Lena came. For this tournament, Lena wore a shirt and a short so that they won''t restrict her movement. Evelyn wore a green flower embroidered dress. Evelyn was the one who greeted him first as usual. "Big Brother Alex" "Little girl. You come again." Song Yu sometimes watched her progress when Alex taught Evelyn. So, besides Alex, she would be the closest one to Evelyn. Alex nodded to her. He tried to search for another person in the crowd. He didn''t see Himu... Simon, since it was his name now. It was a bit hard to get used to ''his'' new name. He finally saw him, but to Alex''s surprise, he was only a 5-Star Martial Master. He was shocked. He thought Simon could reach at least the same as Evelyn since their potential was similar. But it seems after Alex went away. He can''t keep the progress. Alex shook his head, a bit disappointed and lonely. Evelyn also noticed his expression. She tried to cheer him up. "Big Brother Alex, You got a perfect score in Battle Tower. That is awesome." Alex looked at her, he knew her intention. He patted her head. Evelyn''s age was only a year older than his real sister. If his sister was cheerful, maybe she will become like her... and perhaps he can also keep fighting for himself in that world. Well, it was in the past. "That''s right. Big Brother Alex, I will defeat you this time. I have practiced for this moment" Evelyn said. "Sure, I''m looking forward to it" Alex said. "Big sister also practiced very hard to beat Big Brother Al... oof." "Evelyn!" Lena shouted and closed her mouth with her hand. She looked at Alex, "I... I didn''t practice for you. I just practiced, so I didn''t disappoint the royal family." "That is what my sister said to convince herself. She just can''t be honest" Evelyn escaped from Lena''s clutch and corrected her. "Ah, I know it, she must be that type of girl" Song Yu said cheekily to Evelyn with ''I understand'' face. Putri only smiled at her back. "Evelyn! You little brat." Lena shouted as she was too embarrassed. She tried to grab Evelyn, but this time, she failed because Evelyn avoided her clutch and hid behind Alex. Alex can see, Evelyn was a 7-Star Martial Master, even so, he saw Evelyn''s ranking in 24th. On the other hand, Lena was an 8-Star Martial Master. Evelyn and Song Yu joined hand to tease Lena. Luckily, the crowd didn''t notice them, especially Alex. To get surrounded by four stunning women, so enviable...No no no, one of them was still an underage kid... Not long after, Lena got called to the arena to fight. "Rank 246th, Lena de Viona Thiveapia versus Rank 224th, Marlin Xiver." Lena went to the arena. Evelyn still didn''t forget to tease her once more. "Big Sister, you can''t beat big brother Alex if you lose." Lena stumbled on her step. All of them chuckled. Alex looked at Evelyn and thought, ''Is this brat in her rebellious phase? Back then, she was so timid, but not she can tease her elder sister again and again.'' Alex shook his head. Lena''s opponent was a young man with short green hair. Their cultivation was the same, but as expected, those from Royal Family, her basic was top-notch. As soon as the battle started, Lena defeated her opponent with five moves. Then, the next one was Simon''s turn. His opponent was a male with the cultivation of a 7-Star Martial Master. After a hard fight, Simon defeated him. Not long after, Evelyn''s turn came. When Evelyn walked to the stage, one whisper to another until it made a loud sound. Can''t be blamed for that. After all, Evelyn was the youngest one that participated in this tournament. Her opponent was a 5-Star Martial Master, who surrendered as soon as he came to the arena. Evelyn came back without a problem. After a few more fights. Finally, "Rank 1st, Alexander Sirius versus Rank 301st, David." Alexander walked to the stage, and as one should expect, he became the entire arena''s focus. After all, Outer Disciple''s first rank was gotten by an unknown disciple that only came to the sect for a year. "He is an 8-Star Martial Master." "Did he really conquered the battle tower with that strength?" "Yeah, It is really unrealistic." "That''s right. But he is handsome." "Yeah, if his strength is also a real deal. I might be charmed." "Tch. I''m so envious." Alex came to the arena and looked at his opponent. His opponent was a male with long black hair. He was a 7-Star Martial Master. When Alex arrived at the stage, David said. "I heard you had beaten an 8-Star Martial Master in a single kick. But you just lucky because he underestimated you at that time. This time, I didn''t underestimate you and will fight the match with my full strength." Alex only looked at him, not saying anything. "Tch" David clicked his tongue, "Why don''t you say anything, do you think my rank is too low for you to say anything. Don''t underestimate me." He released all of his Spiritual Energy. The cultivation of 7-Star Martial Master was apparent on the stage. Alex took out his sword as he looked at the referee. The referee wore a long black robe and covered his face, so he didn''t know who he was. But, from his cultivation alone, he was a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. "Match Start" Alex didn''t release his Spiritual Energy, but David was not surprised by that. After all, according to the rumor, Alex was a body cultivator. Of course, what he didn''t know, Alex had planned that so people misunderstood his strength. With that, he can take them by surprise. But for this ''David'', his pure strength alone was enough. David took out his sword and charged at Alex. He raised his sword and swung it down. Alex also raised his sword and swung it to block it. David''s sword started glowing. Alex immediately channeled a bit of his Spiritual Energy to his sword. Alex didn''t use the rank 4 Sword that the sect master had given him as his reward for Seven Stars Cut. He used his usual rank 3 sword. Although, David''s sword was only a rank 2 sword. Alex still needs to channel his Spiritual Energy a bit so there won''t be any scratch on his blade. After all, it was bothersome to repair them. "Sword Petal. Rose Thorn" The sword suddenly glowed red, and a big thorn rose from the sword like the stem of rose, full of thorns. Alex saw two of the thorns were growing in his direction. He retreated a step back to distance himself from the thorn. David smiled as he thought he was succeeded in his attack. He immediately swung his sword once again to Alex. Unfortunately, this time, Alex took another step back and swung his sword. Alex''s aim wasn''t David''s sword. Instead, Alex aimed at the thorns that were in his direction. With a single normal cut from 400 bull strength because he didn''t use his Spiritual Energy in his arm to add another a hundred bull in his strength. It destroyed the thorns. David was surprised by it. He saw Alex didn''t stop there. Alex swung his sword once more. He didn''t want to lose, he also used his full power and Spiritual Energy in this swing. Regrettably, their difference in power was too far. Alex''s sword suddenly felt so heavy in his hand. At first, when they sword clashed, he thought he could match Alex''s swing. Until he felt something wrong, he felt Alex''s swing suddenly got stronger and stronger. Alex didn''t release his Spiritual Energy, he didn''t even do something special. He only released a single swing. He didn''t know if his eyes were deceiving him, but he saw Alex''s was so huge at this moment. His strength or even his presence was so huge. He kept channeling his Spiritual Energy to block this slash. He used every ounce of his strength on his feet too. He felt if he didn''t do that, he would be on his knees. Suddenly, the arena started to crack. This completely blew everyone''s mind. They clearly saw Alex didn''t do anything special. But suddenly, the ground under David''s feet cracked. They were wondering what David''s feeling at that moment was. David gritted his teeth. Everybody could see how he was struggling in the arena. After the ground cracked, David slowly bent his knees. He had used both of his hands at this time just to block this swing. But it didn''t stop there, the swing still continued until David pinned to the ground. "Alexander Sirius Wins!" Alex nodded to the referee and left the arena. The curiosity that had been buried until now, burst out. *Cheers* "He is really a body cultivator." "But why did he use a sword?" "Is he underestimating him?" "Ah, but from the way he won the match just now. It was so charming." "That''s right. He was so charming in the arena. The way he overpowered his opponent with a single swing. If he came in when I''m in trouble and saved me like that. He is really a prince charming." "I will support him in this tournament." "That''s right. I will also support him." "Prince Alexander" "Prince Alexander" Evelyn and the rest looked at the crowd, giggled. Evelyn said, "Look, Big Brother Alex suddenly become a prince." "Hehe, I might use this to tease him later" Song Yu said while grinning. Putri looked at these two, helplessly shook her head. And Lena pouted. Not long after, Alex came back. Song Yu tried to tease him, but Alex seems like he used to it. Considering his life back in Acacia Kingdom, he had gotten used to this kind of situation. He was unfazed to Song Yu''s teasing. After that, Evelyn and Lena said goodbye since there won''t be any matches again for them today. Alex, Putri, and Song Yu also went back to their house. Alex had seen the bracket, and for tomorrow, he might need to prepare himself a bit. 214 Lose Alex and the rest met up with Evelyn and Lena again the next day. Surprisingly, the audience was twice the number. And to their surprise, there were Third Elder, Fifth Elder, Seven Elder, Ninth Elder, and Tenth Elder as the spectator. Many Inner disciples also came to watch one particular match as they might become a rival one day. After meeting up with Evelyn and Lena, they went to their previous spot. Luckily, the spot was the same as yesterday, unbothered by other disciples even though the number of disciples that came to this place increased. Alex was the one who was called first to the arena. He came to the arena and saw a lady with dark blue hair, she wore a long white dress. Her dark blue eyes looked at him curiously. Alex saw her cultivation, she was a 7-Star Martial Master. The same as his opponent yesterday. On the VIP seat, Five elders were chatting. Especially with the appearance of Alex. Everyone was curious. Even the Seventh Elder, Elder Conn, and the Third Elder, Elder Dolf, were curious about it. When Alex was grabbed by the Ninth Peak, he sulked for a while. After all, he knew himself, Alex had talents that can surprise everyone. And the third elder knew that Alex managed to lite the Stone Monolith, in other words, Alex can use the true Seven Stars Cut. The sect master kept his promise, he didn''t tell anyone about the true Seven Stars Cut even though he had understood it. He truly intended to announce it in this tournament. But the one that bothered by Alex the most was the Fifth Elder. After all, according to the bracket, Alex will fight his Disciple, Gunzo Rockman. The fifth elder had similar appearances as the third elder, except he was bulkier. He wore a long white robe, but it can''t hide the muscle underneath it. If he took off the robe, everyone would be able to see his huge and perfect muscle. As expected from a Body Cultivator''s Master, he was also one of the body cultivators in the sect. As for the tenth elder, she had long light brown hair, she braided her hair. Unlike Charya''s aggressiveness, her expression was kind and gentle. But, her body was on par with Charya''s. Her appearance alone would make one think that she would be a perfect mother. The fifth elder finally opened his mouth, "Ninth Elder, I heard that your disciple was a body cultivator too." "He is not my disciple. Song Yu is his mentor. I don''t dare to be his Master. As for him being a body cultivator, you can see it later...probably." Charya said. The other elders started listening to their conversation tentatively. "Not your disciple?" The tenth elder shocked by that statement. "What about it, Miska?" Charya glanced at her. Charya was a bit special, she didn''t bother to call other elders with their title, whether it was first, second, and so on. She called other elders with their name, and the tenth elder name was Miska White. Of course, the other elders were a bit bothered by that. Still, because of Charya''s personality that unable to change, they just categorized her as a unique individual and didn''t bother with it anymore. "He is a very talented young man. The ninth peak is full of women, and he is the only man in there. I thought you took him to have him as your disciple. After all, he is a very talented young man. That''s why when you said he was not your disciple. I am a bit shocked by that." Miska said. "Oh, If I''m not wrong, you wanted to take that lass Evelyn as your disciple, but you were rejected by her. Well, she indeed has a status that makes her able to reject you." Charya said frankly. "Ahaha" Miska made a wry smile upon Charya''s frankness. "And that lass managed to advance by leaps and bounds after Alex taught her. I am wondering if you can do the same." Charya looked at her with a teasing gaze. "I can!" Miska said with confidence. "Really? She is a 7-Star Martial Master. And I heard that she also could send her Sword Intent flying." Charya said. Evelyn was not a member of Ninth Peak like Alex. She didn''t mind to give all those information away. "What? She can do that?" All of them stood up in surprise. "Of course, I saw it myself. Miska, can you really teach her like that in a year?" Charya asked her with a smug face. Conn sweatdropped as he thought. He looked at Charya and shook his head. ''He is really a genius among genius. Haiz, what a shame.'' "Oi Old man Conn, you just thought something rude to me, aren''t you?" Charya narrowed her eyes. "I don''t know what you mean" Conn was unfazed. He answered her normally. ''As expected of the one who managed to lite the stone monument. Luckily, this kind of genius is in our Heavenly Sword Sect'' Elder Dolf nodded his head. If that was true, then it was a blessing to the sect. "I...I can..." Miska said, she was even doubtful about her own statement. Raising Evelyn''s cultivation to 7-Star Martial Master in a year. That should be possible for her. But, if Evelyn really can send her Sword Intent flying, that would be terrifying. Even she was not sure if she can do that. After all, if Evelyn can do that, that would mean Evelyn was close to Sword Grandmaster. The fifth elder was thinking out of the box. He didn''t really care about Evelyn for the moment. After all, his disciple will fight Alex today. He noticed something odd, "Ninth Elder, do you mean that ''Alexander'' is not a body cultivator but a normal one?" "Gahaha. You can see it later, Nelson. Even I can''t see the depth of his talent" Charya just gave a vague answer. As she said, she was unsure about Alex''s full talents. But, if she said that she lost to him when they fought. Even if at that time she limits her cultivation, losing to him would be embarrassing to say it to these people. Conn, who had a bit more knowledge from the rest, can understand her statement. Elder Dolf only nodded satisfied. He was satisfied that Alex was in their sect, not in other sects. Nelson Bass, the fifth elder, frowned. He looked at Alexander. He tried to scan him. If Alex were not a body cultivator, that would be troublesome. According to Charya''s words, Alex taught Evelyn and made her able to send her Sword Intent flying. Alex should be able to do that too. A Sword Master close to a Sword Grandmaster, and he had the same ''cultivation'' level with his disciple along with that strength. He sweatdropped by thinking about that. He was unsure if his disciple can beat someone like that. So, he tried to search for his weakness in this fight. Sadly, his expectation was betrayed. ... In the arena, Alex looked at the female in front of him. "I had seen your fight yesterday. I am afraid that I won''t have the chance to defeat you. As a fellow disciple from Ninth Peak. It is better for me to surrender in this fight. I hope that your strength is equal to your ranking. I hope that you defeat Gunzo Rockman, on behalf of Ninth Peak." His opponent turned out to be his fellow disciple. Alex nodded to her. She looked at the referee, "I surrender." "Alexander Sirius wins!" The crowd was disappointed by the result. They can not see the new ''first'' disciple. But this also showed their anxiety about him. If they didn''t know anything about him and fought him, that would be too dangerous. Especially for the top outer disciples. Including the former rank eight, Gunzo Rockman, who would need to fight him later. Alex came back. Lena turn came up, but considering her opponent was a 6-Star Martial Master. She should be fine. Evelyn''s opponent was Rank 349th, Rizak, which lost to her pretty easily. Finally, the first fight for every disciple had ended. They moved to the second round. This fight would determine if they able to enter the top hundred disciples. Although there were some disciples that got lucky enough to enter this round because their opponents were weak. But for this round, the competition was very fierce. In this second round, Evelyn came first. She fought with another 7-Star Martial Master. But, as expected of her, she able to defeat her opponent pretty quickly. A fight suddenly grabbed Alex''s attention. "Rank 498th, Simon versus Rank 191st, Albert." Alex watched this fight seriously. He looked at Albert''s cultivation. He was an 8-Star Martial Master while Simon was only a 5-Star Martial Master. On the first day, Simon defeated a 7-Star Martial Master after a hard fight. This time, he met an 8-Star Martial Master. Can he really win? Even though breaking through three stars in a year can be considered as a genius. It was only an ordinary genius. Alex can only sigh about that. After leaving him, Himu...Simon can''t break that barrier. He thought his decision was correct. Leaving him earlier so he won''t be targeted by his enemies in his future journey seems to be the right choice. "Match Start!" Albert was a spear user. He raised his spear as he thrust it to empty air. A light suddenly flew like an arrow from the tip of his spear. "Quick Silver" Alex was familiar with this move. It was the same move that Putri had used back in their first meeting. Alex watched this with his full attention, hoping that he able to recreate it. After all, this move was similar to his ''Luminous Spear Technique'' but had more power and speed. Sadly, even though his achievement in spear was high. Unlike his sword, he didn''t have a Spear Mastery. Alex wished that he can really get a Spear Mastery soon. Simon looked at the arrow shape light, he struck it with his sword. "First Strike" The impact alone was enough to make him retreat a few steps. But he didn''t back down. Of course, Albert also didn''t stop with one. He thrust his spear a few more times. "Quick Silver" A few more arrow shapes came charging at Simon. This was like an opportunity for Simon, "Second Strike" "Third Strike" ... "Sixth Strike" Simon used this opportunity to charge his ''Sixth Strike''. This was the technique that Alex had written back in their separation. He practiced it continuously and finally able to use it to its full potential. The sound of the clash became louder and louder. The Quick Silver stopped pushing him back after he reached the ''Sixth Strike'' Suddenly, Albert didn''t use his ''Quick Silver'' anymore. He made a stance that Alex found it very familiar. This was the stance of ''Silver Raven'' He clenched his fist. This move was powerful as he had used it himself. ''Careful'' "Silver Raven" Albert suddenly charged with a breakneck speed that can''t be dodged. "Sixth Strike" Simon used his Sixth Strike to counter it. Regrettably, his ''Sixth Strike'' was only a Profound Tier Sword Art, but this ''Silver Raven'' was an Earth Tier Spear Art, and it was one of the most powerful Spear Arts in power. In this clash, Both Simon and Albert used their own intent. With Albert 7-Star Cultivation, the result was as expected. Simon crashed to the wall. "Boom!" Simonspat blood, He immediately stabilized his form and swung his sword. "Seven Stars Cut" Four layers of Seven Stars Cut flew toward Albert. Albert saw this without an expression. He had gotten used to this technique, considering most disciples that used a sword can use this Sword Art. If it was a true Seven Stars Cut, even with only three layers, he might feel dread for it. Sadly, it was only a normal Four Layers of Seven Stars Cut. Alex can immediately know, Silver Raven, although it was a bit predictable to an experienced opponent. Its power was still top notch, and not many can stop it. The tip of Albert''s spear started glowing. Albert didn''t want to let this chance go. This was the chance to win. He charged directly to the Seven Stars Cut. He thrust his spear to the Seven Stars Cut. His spear broke the four layers one by one. Just like the previous example, the True Seven Stars Cut was not that brittle even if it was only a single Sword Wave. But the normal Seven Stars Cut, unless you covered it with Sword Intent. It was not hard enough, as Albert''s pierced it with his ''Silver Raven'' and Spear Intent. After breaking the Seven Stars Cut, his charge continued to Simon''s direction. "Boom" Everyone can see that Albert''s spear didn''t pierce Simon. But they knew that he did that intentionally as the referee finally announced. "Albert Wins!" 215 Disciple "Albert Wins!" *Cheers* Alex closed his eyes. Evelyn and the rest noticed him. They knew the relationship between them. Watching his friend lost was pretty disturbing. "Big Brother Alex, Big Brother Simon just didn''t have enough time to cultivate. If he had another two or three years, he should be able to defeat him easily." Trying to comfort him, Evelyn said. Alex patted her head and spoke, "I am fine. I am sure that he is not the one that can''t fight with that challenge." Evelyn and the rest were relieved after he said that. Not long after this fight, Lena came to the stage. Her opponent was a 9-Star Martial Master. Lena''s rank in the Battle Tower was 246th, and her opponent was 179th. He can be considered as one of the weakest 9-Star Martial Master as his rank was at the bottom from all the outer disciples that had 9-Star cultivation. Lena looked at her opponent. He used a metal gauntlet as his weapon. He wore a white bandana, and he wore a black set of clothes that close to Tai Chi Uniform. "Match Starts!" Both of them immediately released their Spiritual Energy. Surprisingly, the amount of their Spiritual Energy didn''t differ so much. Lena was close to 9-Star Martial Master as her opponent was a new 9-Star Martial Master. Lena''s opponent, Hendra, released his element on his fist. A flame rose from his hand and covered his hand. His gauntlet was designed specifically to resist his fire. He made the first move. He punched forward. The fire on his fist suddenly flared up. Like a flamethrower on Earth. The flame burst out toward Lena. "Raging Waves" Lena only raised her sword and swung it horizontally. Alex didn''t manage to see her element, so he finally found out that her element was water. Alex knew Evelyn''s element in their training. She had the same element as him, a Fire Element. A projectile of Ocean Waves suddenly swept the arena. The blazing fire suddenly vanished as the Ocean Waves put it down instantly. "Guardian!" Hendra suddenly stomped the ground as he crossed his hands in front of him. A shield suddenly appeared in front of him. The shield broke the ocean waves and shielded him from the water. With the waves as her curtain, Lena disappeared. When the waves were over, She suddenly appeared and approached Hendra from his back. As expected from a 9-Star Martial Master, Hendra was not that easy to be fooled. He realized that Lena was approaching from his rear. He immediately turned back and raised his stances, he was ready for close combat. Surprisingly, Lena suddenly opened her palm. Suddenly a blue light appeared on her palm, the blue light slowly became a sword shape. She gripped the light and threw it to her opponent. "Sword Energy Bomb, Fly" The light flew toward the Hendra. He was taken aback by this sudden move. Flame rose again in his hand as he punched the light with his gauntlet. "Hexagonic Smash" The fist clashed with the sword, but surprisingly, the light contained Lena''s element. The water element inside the sword suddenly suppressed the fire. And it pushed Hendra''s fist back. It threw off his balance, Lena tried to cut him down with this move. Unfortunately, a disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect was not that easy. He threw his other fist to block Lena''s sword and jumped back to stabilize his form. Alex saw the peculiar Sword Art. He furrowed his eyebrows. Evelyn came to him, She knew Alex''s talent in sword since he taught her. But she never saw the depth of his talent in sword, so she wanted to test it with this, "Big Brother Alex, how about that Sword Art? That is our royal family Sword Art, it is called Sword Energy Bomb." "It is a handy Sword Art. It can be infused by the Martial Artist''s element. If he or she had a Fire Element like you, that can increase the force and make an explosion. If it was infused by a plant user, it might be able to grow a plant or a vine and restricted the opponent''s movement." Alex said casually. At first, he was a bit interested in this Sword Art. But, judging from his observation, he can only use it from his palm. If he used both of his sword and his spear in his hands, he can''t use this Sword Art. So, this Sword Art was not that useful for him in the long run. That''s why he lost his motivation to copy this Sword Art. On the contrary, Evelyn was shocked. She had heard about him being able to copy a Sword Art just from looking, of course, Song Yu was the source of that. She never experienced him doing that, so she was curious. To grab some vital information just by looking at the Sword Art, she was convinced. Alex was really able to copy a Sword Art just by looking. She thought she had not repaid him yet for his teaching, so she said, "If Big Brother Alex wants to learn it, Evelyn can show it to you. Or even other Sword Arts that big brother fancied." "No, I''m not interested in learning Sword Arts for now. Too many Sword Arts might hinder my decision on which one I should use. That''s why I am fine with a few core Sword Arts." Alex said. Evelyn then said, "Then, how about Spirit Stones? I have fifty thousand Spirit Stones with me from my family. I remembered that I had not paid Big Brother Alex''s teaching yet. So..." Alex patted her head before she finished, "It''s fine. You should use your Spirit Stones well." Of course, if she knew that Alex had more than four hundred thousand Spirit Stones, she might get shocked by that. For her kingdom, it was only a part of their revenue. After all, as one of the biggest kingdoms in the Willow Continent. Her kingdom amassed a few million Spirit Stones annually. But that also for nurturing their future generation. Evelyn had a hundred thousand Spirit Stones initially. She had used half of it to help her cultivate. A hundred thousand Spirit Stones for a single Martial Master, it was colossal. But for a genius like Evelyn, it was worth it. But, if she knew that Sherry had used a few times worth of her, it might blow her mind. Alex was also planning to strike a deal with Song Yu after this tournament. With his current pocket, Sherry and He would be able to finish them in two or three months, considering Sherry will be a Grandmaster Stage. After rejected by Alex, she became a bit downcast. "Then, is there anything Big Brother wants?" "It''s fine. I just want to win this tournament for the moment." Alex said. Noticing her expression, she reminded him of Simon. He flicked her forehead. "Maybe, in the future, I might need from you. So, I will hold this for now." Evelyn looked at him, and she smiled, "Un! It''s a promise." Back to the arena, Lena hadn''t defeated Hendra''s yet. They continued to clash for a few more minutes. But, the tide slowly turned to Lena''s favor. Before suddenly, "Raging Waves" Ocean Waves swept the arena. Like his previous solution, Hendra stomped the ground with his right foot as he put his hands in his front. A shield appeared in front of him and blocked the waves in front of him. Finally, Lena made another sword on her hands and threw it to Hendra. "Sword Energy Bomb" It exploded and broke the shield. The waves swept him around and finally. "Seven Stars Cut" Four layers of Seven Stars Cut made its way to Hendra. Without any balance because of the waves. He can''t block this attack. The referee suddenly appeared in front of him and raised a shield to stop the attack. "Lena de Viona Thiveapia Wins!" He announced. Lena finally won the match. She became one of the top hundreds in Outer Disciple. Well, most of its because of luck. She didn''t get any opponent from the top hundreds in the stone monument from the Battle Tower. If her opponent was one of them, it might be a bit troublesome, and whether she can win or not, no one would be able to know. Lena finally came back. She looked at Evelyn. Whether it was fate or not. She would fight with Evelyn after another two matches. Unfortunately, it was not possible. After all, tomorrow, she would need to fight the rank ninth in the ranking. ... In the elders'' place, they continued chatting. The fifth elder got disappointed when he can not see Alex''s prowess. He thought he could see his weakness if Alex used his power there. Sadly, his expectation was betrayed when his opponent surrendered. When the fight between Hendra and Lena started. The battles began to become interesting. It was true, especially for the tenth elder, Miska. After all, her element with her was a match, both of them had a water element. "She has the same element as you, Miska. I heard that this princess was overshadowed by her own little sister. But it seems, that was not the case. Especially after you watched this fight. She is the same as her sister. One that continued to train despite their difference of talents. Even so, from my eyes, she also has a very high aptitude. Instead of that lass, Evelyn. I feel that this girl is more suitable to be your disciple." Charya said, giving her honest opinion about Lena. Miska became pensive. She was pondering Charya''s words. Her words were true. In fact, from others'' points of view. Lena''s aptitude was also top notch. Because of Evelyn, she usually went unnoticed. And the water element that Lena''s had shown in the arena. She didn''t say anything, she was still in deep thought. The fights on the arena continued. Some of the matches were interesting, and some were not. The disciple used their strength to show their presence. Especially today, since there were five elders that were watching them. Maybe, if they got lucky, they would get in one of the elders'' eyes and take them as one of their disciples. But for the time being, none of the elders were interested in that. Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of them. She had braided brown hair. Alex didn''t see the elders in their special seats. So, he didn''t know she was an elder. But it was different for Evelyn, Putri, and Song Yu. "Tenth Elder" They greeted her. Alex and Lena also followed suit and greeted her. Miska nodded to them, she came to Lena. "You are the sixth princess from Thiveapia Kingdom, right?" Lena nodded. She was unsure why she asked that. Miska continued, "I have seen your performance just now, and we also have the same element. Do you want to be my disciple?" Lena was surprised. Not only her, even Song Yu, Putri, and Alex were shocked by that. Evelyn was taken aback. She remembered this person, she was the one who met her privately and wanted to be her Master. But she rejected her back then because Alex wanted to teach her about the true Seven Stars Cut. She didn''t reject her, though. She only said to give her time to think it over. Lena immediately agreed, "Please let me become your disciple." "Good, take this token, and I will take you to move to the house on the tenth peak later. I will teach you my skills in there." "I''m sorry Master. With all due respect, Master, I can not move from my house." "Ho, why?" Miska didn''t feel offended for that. After all, one always had circumstances. She thought she needs to know the reason first before she got offended by that. "I am currently living in my bro... Thiveapia Kingdom third prince''s house with my sister. I can''t move at the moment, leaving my sister there. I''m sure Master also knows about the royal family''s relation." "En!" She nodded then said again, "How about you take your sister along with you and live in that house? the house is pretty big, so it should be fine." "Or Evelyn can stay with us. We don''t mind." Song Yu also gave her opinion. Miska looked at Song Yu mysteriously. This Song Yu ruined her plan. She thought if she can invite Evelyn by bringing Lena to that house. Eventually, Evelyn might accept her as her Master. Two birds in one stone. Then, everyone gazes turned to Evelyn. 216 Alex vs Gunzo Evelyn looked at her sister. They were from the same mother, and she always accompanied her since childhood. She was the closest one to her. Sadly, she heard the rumor that came around the castle. Because of her talent, She unconsciously overshadowed her sister, Lena. Lena was often being told as her stepping stone later. In this world, you need strength and talent. But, because the comparison was too big. Obviously, someone will prejudice to her sister. That someone became two, two became four, and so on. She was saddened by the fact that her existence brought disaster to her own sister that loved her so much. But, Lena said she didn''t mind all of that. Not only that, in the royal family, although their relationship was neutral. Each of them was surely targeted each other for the throne. And she, as the one, who was a genius among genius. Obviously was targeted too. In this world, marrying another family member was normal to increase their blood purity as well as their talent. That''s why Lena asked her to come with her to Heavenly Sword Sect. The third prince can''t do something to her since the only one who was in here was him. If something happened to Evelyn, he would be the first suspect. That''s why, for the time being, they were safe. But the situation would be different if they were separated. If the naive Evelyn were in the same house with the third prince alone, it would be too late if anything happened to her. The third prince will have many moves that he can use for her. If they were separated now, she can''t imagine what will happen. Evelyn obviously knew about that too. Even if she was naive. At least, she can understand the situation she was in. She knew that her sister couldn''t do that because of her. Even though her sister was a bit aggressive toward other people, it was for her sake. But, Evelyn also knew. If they were always together, her sister would always be judged by other people. That was something she didn''t want. She wanted her sister, Lena, also grabbed her dream. If Evelyn also came with her to that house. Lena will always be on a circle. Evelyn wanted her to break free from that circle and became a powerhouse. Evelyn looked at Lena, she smiled. She turned to Song Yu, "Can Evelyn come to Big Sister Song Yu''s house? I can pay with Spirit Stones." "Haha, don''t mind about the Spirit Stones. You can come to my house. I would gladly accept you. It is also easier if you want Alex to teach you." "No, I would refuse that for the moment. I have some plan to do for a few months, so I asked you not to disturb me after this tournament" Alex said his stance. Song Yu was surprised, but knowing his identity as an Alchemist, she nodded. "Well, that''s too bad. Then, if Lena didn''t mind for Evelyn to stay at my house. Then, that''s fine." Lena was a bit reluctant about it. Although Evelyn also had stayed in Alex''s house for a few months, she was still unsure about it. Evelyn then came to her as she smiled. "Elder Sister, I know you care about me very much. But just like you, I also care about Elder Sister. I also want to see you become a powerhouse that I won''t lose to. That''s why I will stay in Big Sister Song Yu''s house for the time being. Please pursue your dream, I know you want to be a powerhouse that can decide your own fate. So, please be selfish. Evelyn has grown up now" Lena looked at her silently, she didn''t know why but she wanted to let out tears at this moment. She held back this feeling as she smiled at her. "I won''t lose to you." Alex sighed mysteriously, he also had his own thinking. But at this moment, he can''t help but smile. Lena then turned to Miska, "That''s the situation, Master. I hope that Master didn''t mind about that." "Sure, be ready for my training after the tournament is over." "Yes" Lena thanked her once more. Then, Miska finally went back to her seat and enjoyed the fights again. Lena came to Song Yu, "I apologize to Senior Sister Song Yu. Evelyn might make a problem for you. If Senior Sister didn''t mind, please have this Spirit Stones." "You are underestimating me too much. I don''t need those Spirit Stones. Anyway, the house is pretty big and living there alone is pretty lonely, you know. So, I don''t mind about a bit of company. Even Putri agrees with me." Song Yu said, and Putri nodded her head. Not long after, Alex was called. "Rank 1st, Alexander Sirius versus Rank 9th, Gunzo Rockman." The cheers turned to an uproar. This was the most exciting match today. They had waited for too long for this match. The mysterious rookie and the only body cultivator in the top ten rankings. Alex and Gunzo came to the stage. Alex looked at his opponent. A spiky orange hair, fierce looking eyes, and that taekwondo suit. It seems that he was very eager to fight Alex. "Hehe, you are going to be my opponent. Even though we are a fellow body cultivator. I will beat you today." Alex wasn''t bothered by his talk. Alex glanced at the referee. "Match Starts!" Gunzo suddenly came forward as he tried to punch Alex with raw strength. Alex also threw a fist against his fist. Both of their fists collided. And the result was astounding. Gunzo was pushed back by Alex''s fist. And their difference was clearly visible. Gunzo didn''t use his Spiritual Energy to enhance his body, so he had around 280 bulls strength. Obviously, it can''t stand in front of Alex''s 400 bulls strength. Alex immediately sent a kick after he pushed Gunzo back. Gunzo used his hand to guard his body. Alex blew him away to the wall. Fortunately, he was a Body Cultivator. If not, there might be some injury. ... In the special seat, the fifth elder stood up, "What!" "Nelson, just relax a bit. Your disciple will be defeated sooner or later. So, you can just enjoy the fight, rather than watch the match like that." Everyone rolled their eyes. They cursed Charya in their mind. Nelson snorted. "I won''t put my hand in there as long as he is not ruthless in the arena." "Don''t worry, he knows what to do" Charya only laughed at that. Nelson took a deep breath. Talking with Charya might raise his blood pressure. It was even more taxing than watching the fight. He calmed down and watched the match silently. ... Back to the arena. After crashing to the wall, surprisingly, Gunzo was not injured. But, Gunzo had used his Spiritual Energy just to block that kick. If not, he might not escape unscathed from that kick. The difference of 120 bulls was huge. Gunzo bounced back from the wall. He looked at Alex while laughing, "Haha, this is it. This is the fight that I am waiting for." Suddenly from his fist, gushed out a dreadful aura. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes, and he saw the color of an Intent. He knew about it because his Sword Intent and his Spear Intent had the same color. So, he thought it was the same for the other intents. Alex took out his sword. "Just throw that sword. For a body cultivator, we don''t need a sword." Alex twitched his eyebrows. His plan amazingly went well. Since one of the top Outer Disciples said that. The others also might know about him as a body cultivator. As long as they misunderstood his power, he will have some chances to exploit them. Judging from the situation, he might need to utilize it now. Although it was a shame that he couldn''t hide it a bit more, he still needs to use it now. Fighting a disciple that had an intent was a bit troublesome. If he didn''t take it seriously, he might lose. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes as Gunzo took out his knuckle. Gunzo charged at him again with his fist full of ''Fist Intent''. Punch after punch came to Alex. Alex dodged it again and again with his amazing footwork. Gunzo also didn''t lose in that aspect. He can follow Alex''s movement perfectly. Suddenly Alex disappeared. Gunzo immediately turned around and put crossed his hand in front of him. Alex suddenly appeared in that direction, and his foot had almost reached his hands. "Steel Body!" Gunzo''s body suddenly became steel. Even though there was no change in his skin color. Alex can feel the hardness in it. Gunzo''s element turned out to be Metal Element. Alex''s kick bounced back. Gunzo immediately threw a punch at him, of course, with a Fist Intent. Even though Alex''s foot was still in the air, He still had his sword. He covered his sword with his Sword Intent, he also used his Spiritual Energy, and his strength became 500 bulls strength. His sword collided with Gunzo''s knuckle, Gunzo used his all to punch Alex''s 500 bulls strength. His Steel Body also increased his strength. Along with his Fist Intent, their power was equal. Alex didn''t stop there. "Immovable Step" Suddenly, there was a surge of strength from Alex. With his ''Immovable Step''. Even though he can''t move at the moment, his power was doubled. This swing held a thousand bulls strength, in other words, one dragon strength. Like a baseball, Alex''s sword was like a bat as Alex swung it. He blew Gunzo away. He didn''t stop there. Swinging his sword once again, A sword wave appeared from his sword. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash" The sword wave was chasing at Gunzo. When he crashed to the wall, Gunzo immediately activated his ''Steel Body'' once again. But because he was a bit unprepared for it. "Boom!" The smoke raised the curtain. When everyone finally able to see what happened. In Gunzo''s hands, there was a swallow cut wound. Alex didn''t use his Sword Intent on this attack. It would be too surprising for others if he used that. But his sword intent was clearly present in that clash just now. "He has a Sword Intent." "So, that means he is not a Body Cultivator?" "Or he has that much strength despite using a sword?" "Damn, he is more monstrous than I imagined." "Kya! So Strong" "Good Luck, my prince!" Gunzo raised once again. This time he was even more fired up. Alex twitched his eyebrows. Gunzo laughed loudly. "This is really good. come, as expected of my opponent." Alex felt that he needs to finish the match soon. He can''t be bothered by this person. "You are nothing like the rumor. You are not a coward, a weak, a cheater. Your strength is a real deal" Gunzo said. "Do you know who spread the rumor?" Alex asked without an expression. "Yeah, I know. If you want to know, you need to beat me first." Gunzo raised his fist. A shadow appeared behind his back. It shaped like Gunzo but bigger. It rose from the ground, making a huge doll behind Gunzo. The doll was only a half body, it closed to Gunzo''s top body, his stomach to his head. Its height was around ten meters. "Steel Authority. This is my fighting doll. It can produce 700 bulls strength. So prepare yourself." Gunzo said as he charged at Alex again. The fighting doll also followed him like it was his shadow. It had the same speed as him. "Fleeting Step" "That is Gunzo''s trump card. Troublesome move. Let''s see how that ''Alexander'' can fight this one. What do you think, Tasha Lockheart?" Ignazio Benitez said. He was watching from the arena too. "He still hasn''t used his all" Tasha only said that. Ignazio frowned. A fist mark appeared here and there in the arena. Alex still dodged Gunzo''s attack completely. And finally, Alex made a counterattack. "Flash Step" With a single step, Alex closed his distance with Gunzo. He tried to slash him with his sword. Suddenly, the giant doll''s hand appeared on his front. Its two arms were protecting Gunzo from his slash. And surprisingly, this doll was only an extension of Gunzo''s body. It was proved when Alex''s Sword Intent bounced back when it met the arms. Alex can see clearly the presence of Fist Intent. If the body was not an extension of his body, he should be unable to cover it with Intent. After all, he was not at the level where he can send an Intent flying. The arms suddenly opened up and threw Alex to the air. The fist suddenly came toward him. Alex looked at it mysteriously. 217 Another Figh Alex was thrown to the air as one of the fists came to his way. A cultivator can fly but to adjust their balance after this and dodged the fist. It was impossible for them even if they can fly. But Alex was different. He suddenly stepped on the air as he stepped on the ground. With that, he forcefully regained his bearing and dodged the fist. Alex used ''Sky Step'' a few times and finally got back to his attack stance. Alex raised his sword. Their distance was around ten meters. Alex swung his sword down before suddenly, a huge sword appeared as the extension of his sword. "Sun Beam" It was the move he copied from Charya. And because this move was only an extension of his sword. He didn''t mind to cover it with his Sword Intent. The giant sword came down from the sky to cut the giant doll. With Fist Intent covered it, the battle doll raised its hand to hold that sword directly. Alex''s 500 bulls strength, obviously didn''t manage to fight the doll''s 700 bulls strength. Although Alex can use his Immovable Step, with that two 700 bulls strength arms and the ground. He might still be able to block it. That''s why Alex used another approach. He was in the air. There was another approach he can use. Although he seldom used this move. It was because the chance to use it perfectly not came so often. But now there was a height difference for them. He can finally use it. "Heavy Step" Everything about him suddenly increased in weight. It also transferred to his sword. Alex used this move a few times and managed to overpower his opponent. But to get to a situation where he can use it, it was a bit hard. That''s why he often used ''Immovable Step'' which more flexible. But in terms of heaviness alone, this ''Heavy Step'' was even more powerful than ''Immovable Step'' Along with Alex''s Sword Intent and the full force of his heaviness. It surpassed his one dragon strength like when he used his Immovable Step. And Gunzo felt that heaviness. The ground started to crack. From a meter in diameter, until it became a ten meter crack. At that point, Gunzo''s doll lost its strength, and the doll was finally broken. The blade still continued on its path. The referee hadn''t stopped this because Gunzo still hadn''t given up yet. But he was ready to make his move at any moment. Gunzo raised his hands to block this move. "Steel Body" Although he was strong and his dolls able to block a portion of its strength. It still didn''t stop the sword. Gunzo fell to his knees before he was pinned down to the ground. At that time, Alex stopped his sword and recalled it as the result was clear for the referee to see. "Alexander Sirius Wins!" Gunzo laid down on the ground, powerlessly as blood flowed from his mouth. Now that he was lying on the ground. His eyes stared at the blue sky up there. He knew. He had lost. But he was convinced about this defeat. Alex came to him and looked at him silently. Gunzo knew what he wanted to know. "You have met him back then. It is Abram. I am not lying." Alex nodded and left. The referee helped Gunzo up. Finally, the cheers burst out from the audience. It took them a while to know what just happened in the arena. "He wins..." "Yeah, it is unbelievable, but he really wins." "Kya. My prince" "He is my idol from now." Alex came back. Song Yu and the rest congratulated him. After saying goodbye to Lena and Evelyn. Alex and the rest came back to their house. Evelyn said she would come tomorrow. Lena also will move out tomorrow. Alex had the name that spread such a rumor. Although he was not bothered by the rumor. At least, it had some impacts on his surroundings. So, Alex decided to get back to that person, Abram. Luckily, he will meet him in the second fight tomorrow, in the fight for the top ten. As that fight will be the last battle, he didn''t mind in fighting him ''seriously''. The next day, Alex came with Putri and Song Yu again. But today, Alex asked something from them. "Senior Sister, my second opponent today...is that Abram something has a teacher?" Song Yu was clueless since she didn''t keep track of it. Especially since she was a Martial Lord, she didn''t care about the matter in Martial Master. But Putri was different, she kept track everything, not everyone but at least those from the top ten and popular enough. She kept track of their information. "No, his behavior is a problem, so no elders want to take him in. I heard that he also didn''t have any mentor. Why do you ask?" Putri explained. "Nothing. Just wanted some payback" Alex said casually Putri''s eyes brightened. "Oh, so he is the one. Sure, beat him hard. It is hard for us to explain it to our Junior Sister too." At first, Song Yu was clueless. But after hearing that, she immediately enlightened. She grinned. "Beat him hard. His background is not that much, and he didn''t have any backer inside the sect. You can not cripple or kill him. But beating him black and blue is legal." "Good enough" Alex nodded. Evelyn and Lena finally came. All of them were in the top 100. With another three fights...Alex got into a special bracket this time, so he only needs to fight twice. While Evelyn and Lena need to fight thrice. Alex watched the fights from the side. Today, there were another three elders watched the tournament. There were eight out of twenty elders who were watching the arena. Some of the participants started to get nervous. In the fight, some of them can''t put their all in the fight because of that. Obviously, for those people, the elders immediately ignored them. If they can''t even bring out their full potential in a fight that did not have too much pressure like this. How can they bring their full potential in a life and death battle? Lena''s first opponent was a 10-Star Martial Master. But after a hard fight, Lena somehow managed to defeat him. But, from her condition, she might need to take a rest. Or, in other words, surrender. But it seems she still wanted to fight till the last drop. In her exhaustion state, her determination didn''t decrease. After yesterday''s incident, the true soul of a warrior that had been buried inside her heart might have broken free from that darkness. On the other hand, Evelyn fought a 9-Star Martial Master. With her capability, it was not that much fight for her. In the second round, Alex''s name finally called by the referee. His opponent was rank 30th, Suzaku. But, after looking at yesterday''s fight with Gunzo. Alex had beaten him pretty easy, even though Suzoku had 10-Star Master Stage Cultivation. Because of yesterday''s match, Alex had revealed his ''Sky Movement'' and his ''Sun Beam'' as well as his strength. He had more ways to defeat his opponent without revealing another Martial Art because he needs to save it for his next opponent. Evelyn had beaten her opponent again, and judging from the condition, she should be able to defeat her next opponent. With that, she finally became the top ten contenders. As for Lena, Alex had expected it, she lost to her opponent. She had fought with everything she had but still unreachable. The third round had come. Alex''s turn came first at this round. Alex didn''t mind though, no, he was very eager to do this. He came to the stage and looked at the violet hair young man that had been waiting for him on the stage. "Hmph, although you managed to win yesterday''s fight. It doesn''t mean you are great. In a battle, everything might not be resolved by strength. You also need brain." ... "Senior Sister Putri, who is exactly this ''Abram''? Did he really the one who spread the rumor?" Evelyn asked. "I don''t know if he is the one who spread the rumor, and I don''t know where Alex gets that information about that. But, judging from the personalities that he had shown all this time. It is most likely he is the one who spread the information. There is another rumor about his identity. I heard he is a former Young Master. He can''t succeed in his house. With that frustration, his personality becomes problematic. He becomes cruel and ruthless, resorting to many underhanded tricks." Putri explained to her what she knew. "Then, will Big Brother Alex fine?" Evelyn started to worry. Putri looked at the arena, "He should be fine. Even if I don''t say all of this, he is holding back too much. And, we might not have our opponent information sometime. This is also a lesson for him. But, I am sure he can overcome this." Putri strangely had absolute confidence in Alex. Even Song Yu was dumbfounded by it. While Evelyn and Lena looked at her in confusion. Only Putri had known Alex''s talent. Alex had not used his ''Pentagram Slash'' and ''Omnislash''. The same as Evelyn, he had not used his Sword Intent to its full strength. Putri also knew Alex still had his powerful flame. Although at that time, their pursuers were pressurized by the situation to chase them, it didn''t stop the fact that his fire can kill them easily. They were a Martial Grandmaster to boot. As for his identity as an Array Master, Alex would not reveal it at this tournament, she was pretty sure in that. ... "Brain huh..." Alex looked at Abram without any expression. Suddenly he spoke, "Like spreading rumor?" "Hmph! It is not a rumor, it is a fact. You are too coward to face them." Abram snorted. Although he didn''t admit it directly, Alex knew that what Gonzu said was true. Abram was the culprit. "If I need to fight every challenger, won''t I be too busy to cultivate? Or is that what you want?" "Hmph. You dare to slander me! I will show you the power of a real top disciple!" Abram took out his spear. "Match Starts!" As soon as the referee said that, Abram immediately shoot out his spear. Normally, other people will wait for their opponent to take their weapon out, but Abram immediately released his attack without doing that. Unfortunately, Alex was familiar with his type. Alex recognized his attacks, it was ''Quick Silver''. With many arrows shaped light coming toward him, Alex only activated his Spirit Eyes. He immediately the flow of energy of the arrow, flying toward him at a slower speed. It was not the skills that got slower, it just his vision that can see slower. There was seven light that coming to him. With so much slower vision, Alex can see where they will hit him. He moved his body slightly, and the seven attacks passed through him. "What just happened?" "I think all the attacks passed through him?" "But, he moved a bit. He must dodge it at that time." The audiences were dumbfounded and confused by that. Even the elders also narrowed their eyes. It was a quick attack, and it should take him by surprise. But, Alex dodged them with a very minimal movement. "Gahaha" Charya only laughed. After all, she had experienced it herself. Her attack in her ''Sword Rite'' along with her ''Lightning'' was at the same speed. Even though they were at the same speed, Alex was troubled with the unpredictable move from her. If he was asked, ''Which one harder to dodge''. Alex will answer, ''it is her attacks that are harder to dodge. He was at 5-Star Martial Master at that time. And now he was an 8-Star Martial Master. She would be confused if he was hit by that. Alex took that chance to take out his sword. "Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash" Although Abram''s move was a bit unhonorable, his skills were a real deal. It was proven by the fact he can launch seven ''Quick Silver''. Alex can see that Abram sacrificed the power of ''Quick Silver'' and emphasized the speed. For a surprise attack, it might be effective, but if it was in a prepared fight. There won''t be any opponent who will fall for that. Abram dodged ''Sanguin Sword Art''. Now Alex was sure. Abram was specialized in speed. He might need to be careful since he didn''t know his element yet. If his element can boost his speed, it will be troublesome. 218 Incoming Trouble After dodging Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art, he jumped forward toward Alex and thrust his spear to Alex''s head. Although it was looked like he targeted Alex''s head. Suddenly, he took out a leather bag, it was only a small bag at the size of a palm. Like an average person, Alex''s reaction to Abram''s thrust was dodging. But, when he saw the leather bag. He immediately frowned. He felt something bad. And he was right at that. Abram opened the leather bag, and some kind of sands got to his eyes. Alex felt his eyes suddenly hurt so much. He closed his eyes, and he felt that he could not open it anytime soon. "NO!" Song Yu and the rest suddenly reacted. "It is an underhanded trick." "No, my prince. How can this be." "I can''t look at this!" Seeing his successful underhanded trick, Abram smiled and said arrogantly. "Haha, How is the taste of Green Jade Powder? Your eyes hurt, and you feel you can not open it at the moment, right? Haha. Do you think it is unfair? Only a loser will say that. I am just teaching you that in a life and death battle, there is nothing wrong with using a trick as long as you survive. You are lucky since we are in the tournament, I can not kill you or cripple you." Song Yu clenched her fist, "How dare he! I will beat him right now!" Even the elders also stood up as they frowned. But Abram didn''t break the rule. The referee was ready to make his move at any moment. With his eyes still closed, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes. It was true that he can not open his eyes at the moment. But, Alex can and use his eyes. He activated his Spirit Eyes. Back when he was with Putri, Alex can see the energy from fifty meters underground. If he can do that, what can his eyelid do? It obviously can''t block his vision while using his Spirit Eyes. The moment Alex activated his Spirit Eyes. He saw two human shape energy in front of him. The bigger one was from the referee. Alex also can see the energy from his spear. Abram''s spear was a rank 3 Spear, and thanks to it, Alex can see the shape of it. If it was a normal spear without any energy, Alex might not be able to see it. But he was glad it was not. Abram charged with his spear as the referee started to get anxious and ready himself. Abram thrust his spear on Alex''s shoulder. He was planning to torture him a bit. Alex suddenly smiled. He used his sword to deflect the spear. He sent a kick toward Abram. Abram was too shocked that Alex managed to deflect his spear, with that he was not ready enough to block Alex''s kick. He spat blood and was sent flying. But Alex didn''t stop there. There was suddenly a sword rain. Abram looked at the ten swords that were coming to him. He desperately rolled his body on the floor to dodge the incoming swords. Unfortunately, one of the swords managed to stab his hand. "Argh!" He screamed out of pain. Fortunate to him, it was not his dominant hand that got stabbed by the swords. With his eyes still closed, Alex spoke, "I truly agree with you. As long as you survive, it doesn''t matter what trick you use. But, you still underestimate me too much. To defeat you, I don''t need to open my eyes." "Kya!" "MY PRINCE" "You are too cool!" "Do you need a girl to warm your bed? I will do it for you." Alex didn''t lie. He said he didn''t need to open his eyes. Indeed, he didn''t open his eyes, but he still used his eyes to see the battlefield. Abram enraged. "You! I will kill you!" "Silver Raven!" With that single thrust, he produced a speed that was faster than an average thrust. Sadly, Alex can see that. He dodged it completely. ... On the special seat, all elders frowned. Even Charya was also silent, different from her usual characters. That underhanded trick surprised them, but what even more shocking was when Alex acted like everything''s fine. They thought, ''What kind of monster is this disciple?'' If Alex was a Sword Grandmaster, they might be convinced. After all, a domain was a kind of sphere of awareness that contained your intent. You can feel everything inside your domain. The ground, the grass, or even a falling leaf that suddenly dropped and got inside your domain. But Alex was not. What kind of technique did Alex use just now? They wanted to know. "Don''t touch him, you folks! This is the order from the sect master. If you touch him, even our Sect might not be survived from the consequences" Charya suddenly said. It was a special message from the Sect Master to her when he handed Alex to her. All of the elders suddenly looked at her. The one who realized what she said was Conn. After all, he was the one who reported it to the sect master. He asked once more for confirmation, "Elder Charya, did the sect master inform you about that?" "Yes. That is an absolute order from the sect master." Charya didn''t know what the reason, though. She only knew that the sect master seemed to wary about Alex''s identity when he spoke to her, but he was still unsure about it. She didn''t know about the detail. Conn misunderstood her. He thought that the sect master had confirmed Alex''s Master, and he gave that order. A Master that can kill Martial Emperors easily? He needs to be at least a Martial Monarch. What kind of an existence of a Martial Lord to him? He gulped down. He sat down, trying to calm himself down. "Seventh Elder? What happened?" The fifth elder asked. Conn shook his head. "Just obey the sect master. Don''t use any trick on him, I can only say his identity is terrifying. Connecting with his talents just now, I''m sure you can guess what is bad and what is wrong. One wrong move, Heavenly Sword Sect, might cease to exist." Seeing Conn acted like that, they gulped down. What kind of terrifying identity Alex had? They were too shocked. ''One wrong move and Heavenly Sword Sect might cease to exist?''. Hearing that from others might offend them, but after looking at Conn''s reaction. They gulped down. It might be as he said. The thought about wanting to know his trick immediately vanished from their thought. They will just classify anything extraordinary from him as a genius''s skill. They will ask the sect master about this. ... Back to the arena, Alex and Abram continued their clash. Alex was playing Abram. This was Alex''s way of torture. He suppressed him from everywhere. Alex didn''t let Abram had any opportunity to admit defeat. Bruises and wounds were all over his body. Every time he wanted to admit defeat, Alex kicked him. Of course, not strong enough to make him unable to continue the fight. With that, the referee also didn''t stop him. As he didn''t have any backer in the sect, Alex can do this without anyone stopping him. Finally, he thought it was enough. He sent the last kick and sent him to the arena wall. Alex then turned his head to the referee, with his eyes still closed. "Alexander Sirius Wins!" The referee finally announced. "Hahaha, look at that guy. Serve him right!" "Yeah, he had bullied me a few times. Seeing him like that, I am satisfied." "I will cheers for him at this tournament!" After so many bad things he had done. All of it came back at this moment. Abram''s subordinates pity him but didn''t dare to protect him in front of these enraged disciples. Alex nodded and left the arena. Evelyn shuddered, it raised a dark memory of her. Song Yu and Putri made a wry smile. Lena was confused by that. Seeing Abram fell to the ground helplessly, she remembered she had experienced it herself. When they trained together, Alex was really merciless. Just like Alicia back then, he always pushed her to the limit, and she often can only look at the sky from the ground. She can''t move after all. Song Yu and Putri knew why she shuddered like that. When they checked up on Evelyn, they often saw her lied down on the ground helplessly. They tried to advise him about that, but Alex only said that she could go home if she didn''t want to. Evelyn obviously can''t do that. She still needs to learn from him. Song Yu and Putri can only admit defeat. She sometimes said that she couldn''t do it anymore. And surprisingly, Alex gave her leeway. He said, ''Alright, just do another ten swings'' She thought Alex must be happy that day. After she had done her ten swings, she was happy at that moment. Then, Alex said, ''Look, you said you couldn''t do anymore. But you still can do that ten swings. Why do you think it is your limit? There is still more potential in you that you are not aware of. Do another a hundred swings!'' Evelyn wanted to cry, but she still swung her swords. After another forty swings, she finally out of energy. She really can''t move anymore. After that, Alex finally released her and let her rest. He made her did that continuously. Surprisingly, after a while, she finally noticed her change. She felt that her limit continuously improved, and she felt her cultivation speed also increased. That was one of the reasons why she can raise her cultivation from 3-Star Martial Master to 7-Star Martial Master in less than four months. For the previous her, it was impossible. After she went back from Alex''s house, she felt so happy like she had training from the satan himself. To her surprise, she kept challenging her limit after she came back to her own house. (AN: Hopefully, she does not become an ''M'') ... Alex came back. Song Yu patted his shoulder. "Good, you beat him black and blue. You don''t need to mind if his family dare to come, leave them to me." Alex nodded and thanked her. After that, they waited for Evelyn finished her last match. Then, before they said goodbye, the tenth elder, Miska, came to them. She looked at Alex mysteriously and sighed. Alex and the rest were confused with her action. But she turned to Lena, "Are you ready?" "Yes, Master" Lena nodded to her. Then, she turned to Song Yu, "Senior Sister Song Yu, I''m sorry to trouble you with Evelyn." "Sure. Leave her to me. If I can''t handle her, Alex can" Song Yu said. She gave a teasing gaze to Evelyn. Evelyn shuddered and nodded her head furiously. After that, Miska brought her away. Alex and the rest went back. Evelyn will sleep in Song Yu''s house. Suddenly when Alex came back, Anna greeted him with a slightly troubled expression. "Anna? Did something happen?" Alex asked. "I don''t really know. I just got an information from Leoz, but he said he wanted to talk to you directly" Anna said. Alex nodded, "All right. Give me his card." Anna gave him Leoz''s card. Alex called him, "Leoz." "Young Master, you are back, finally. I got a piece of bothersome information." "What is it?" "Let me explain to you the power level of this kingdom first." "All right." "Excluding their royal family, There are seven prominent families in the capital city. From what I found, their power was the same as those families in the Thiveapia Kingdom. Well, judging from it alone, their power was stronger than Thiveapia Kingdom. But, two weeks ago, I noticed there was some miscalculation. It is purely a coincidence that I met something like that. But this is the most troublesome thing..." Alex frowned, "Continue" "Yes, I saw someone breaking through to Martial King level." Leoz said. "I didn''t see his figure, but I felt he went to the capital city. I can assume that he is a member from Zhou Kingdom. Luckily, he didn''t found me out at that time." Alex was deep in thought after that. Only the top four sects had a Martial King. As for the kingdoms like Thiveapia, Hazel, Southern, or Zhou Kingdom should not have any Martial King. But according to Leoz''s report, a Martial King finally appeared in the Zhou Kingdom. The situation became troublesome. 219 Evelyn vs Nina Anna stood beside Alex, so she heard it too. That must be the reason why Leoz wanted to report it directly to Alex. Alex asked, "Is that all?" "I am afraid it is not." Leoz took a deep breath before he said, "I finally went to a more in-depth investigation, I found that two families have a significant increase in their power. They are Xian Family and Muzhak Family. I don''t know the extent of their power, but there must something fishy in this kingdom. And I have found that there are some movements from the kingdom, it seems they might make aggression. Judging from the condition, it will be the Southern Kingdom or Thiveapia Kingdom. I''m sorry, if Nelson is here, I''m sure he can find all the information you need." Nelson was another ''UR Spirit''. He was the perfect ''spy'' that Anna and Leoz told him. Alex said, "It''s fine. You have done your job." Alex muttered, "A birth of a Martial King, but the kingdom didn''t announce it. The sudden rise of power. A war might happen soon. But is that all? If there is a sudden rise in power, there might be another Martial King, and since they didn''t announce it and nobody aware of it. They might get confidence from that. Will the sect care about a war between kingdoms? If yes, then I am sure that the kingdom won''t go to war. After all, even if they got a Martial King, the sect would meddle in that. After that, a war between a new Martial King and a few decades Martial King. It is obvious who will win. Although I heard about the Martial King in this continent is only a low level Martial King. It does not change the fact that they are Martial Kings. But, if the kingdom has two Martial Kings, it will be a different case. If the sect won''t care about the war, then the situation at least is not that bad. After all, with a Martial King in hand, they would gain big morale. That''s why they are not afraid to make war." "Young Master, what should we do?" Leoz asked. "Hmm, try to observe them for another month. If there is nothing change. Go to a nearby place to level up. With so many unknown factors, raising our power is the best solution. Try to go back to the capital city once in a while to check what they are up to" Alex said. "Yes." Alex also needs to increase his cultivation swiftly. He felt something terrible going to happen soon. He felt another bad thing would happen again in his life. He didn''t know why, but he can''t shake it off. He will absolutely get stronger to shake this feeling off. He checked their cards. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 80483/110000 HP: 10800 ATK: 310 DEF: 300] [Anna (Dark) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 70690/110000 HP: 3100 ATK: 390 DEF: 287] The next day, Alex and the rest came again to the arena, but surprisingly, Lena didn''t come. Everyone thought that she must have some ''Training'' with her teacher, so they were not bothered by it. But it seems they were wrong. She finally came with her new Master. And to their surprise, twenty elders suddenly came together with their sect master. "What happens?" "Twenty elders come together, the sect master also comes." "I don''t know." "Maybe this competition is really that important." Suddenly, the thing that shocked them the most was when the third elder came to the stage. "Ahem, I will be the referee for today. You might confuse why all of us suddenly come to here. I will explain it to you, Sect Master wants to tell all of us something. This is very important to our sect." There was indeed an announcement at the end of the battle. They said the sect master wanted to announce something. Alex and the rest were unaware of this since they went back first. Now they looked at it, the disciples who watched the tournament also increased significantly. Even core disciples also came to this tournament. They can see the ninth elder, Charya, also came, and Jane Barnett, another core disciple aside of Song Yu in the ninth peak, accompanied her. Song Yu sent a thought transmission to Charya. This was a technique that only for those in Martial Lord or above. "Master, what happens?" "Seven Stars Cut" Surprisingly, Charya didn''t say anything unnecessary. She answered her with only those three words. It was enough for Song Yu. Song Yu then glanced at Alex. Alex was surprised, but above all, he understood what happened. He almost forgot about this. Charya said that the sect master would announce the ''Seven Stars Cut'' in the tournament. So this must be the case. Alex finally saw the figure of Heavenly Sword Sect''s sect master. Long white hair and aged face, but his eyes were still sharp as ever. There was a sharp aura around his body. He stood up, "Today is the last day for Outer Disciple Competition. There is joyous news that I bring today, and I want to share it with all of you. I want the disciples who will fight today to bring out their true ability. Because there are only ten people today, All of them must want to get to the top four. After everyone fought, there still five. That''s why I will choose the lowest disciples to get out. That''s why please entertain me with your power. Let us start today''s Competition." *Cheers* Elder Dolf nodded, he announced the name, "Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia versus Nina Rinsa." Evelyn looked at Alex and the rest, "Then I''m going" Alex saw her opponent, it was the disciple that stopped Abram back then. He remembered her scarlet hair pretty well. "To fight the rumored genius of Thiveapia Kingdom, I am honored." Nina said. "Nice to meet you, Senior Sister." Evelyn nodded. "I heard he had taught you in some way. To teach a genius such as you, I wonder what he taught you?" Nina said. "It is the thing that might shock you, Senior Sister" Evelyn said that. "I am looking forward to it." "Match Starts!" Both of them took out their sword and jumped forward. In the special seat, the elders were eager to see this genius princess fight. Sect Master asked, "I heard that Tenth Elder was rejected by this girl?" "Indeed, but I found a more suitable disciple for me. She is her sister, though" Miska said embarrassedly. "Haha, Tenth Elder, you don''t need to be embarrassed. Although it is a shame that she is not somebody disciple. Judging from her talent at this time, I think she is really a genius among genius." Second Elder said. The second elder was a female elder. She was a gorgeous lady with short orange hair and an alluring body. She was one of the elders that didn''t use a sword. In fact, nine out of twenty didn''t use a sword. Beside her, there was an old man asking for a tea from his disciple. He had black hair tied into a bun. Although he put a kind face, it still didn''t manage to hide his strictness reflecting in his eyes. His disciple had a dark blue long hair, reaching to her waist. With ocean blue eyes, she was nice to look at. There was a mole around her lips, and surprisingly, it didn''t ruin her pretty face. Instead, it gave a new kind of charm on her face. After pouring the tea to her master, she stood back on behind him. After sipping out the hot and satisfying tea, the old man finally looked at the sect master. "Sect Master, I am wondering why you asked all of us to gather here? Are you going to take a disciple? But I think you don''t need to gather us like this for that." "No, I''m not going to take a disciple. But I''m sure that this announcement will make you think it is worth it to come here, First Elder" Sect Master said while looking at First Elder. "I am looking forward to it" First Elder looked at him mysteriously. ... Back to the arena, "Sword Energy Bomb" Evelyn threw sword energy toward Nina. "Unlimited Phyton Sword" Nina also used one of her techniques. A snake suddenly came out from her sword. It was a big snake. Two meters in diameter and twenty meters in length. It suddenly appeared from her sword and circling around her. It ate the ''Sword Energy Bomb'' The ''Sword Energy Bomb'' that had been enhanced by Evelyn''s element, exploded inside the snake. Surprisingly, the snake was fine. Smoke came out from its mouth. After that, the snake charged toward Evelyn with its huge body. That giant snake was trying to eat Evelyn. Evelyn dodged its charge every time until she felt something odd. She turned her head at Nina and saw her building up energy to her sword. The moment she finished charging her sword, she suddenly charged at Evelyn. From her left, the snake wanted to eat her, and from her right, Nina was trying to attack her. Everyone thought she was doomed. Even the elders also thought like that. "Haiz, the genius princess has fought well." "Indeed. Her opponent today is just too strong." "You can''t say it like that. You need to be proud that our disciples are strong." "Yeah, you are right." The elders sighed while looking at Evelyn''s situation. The third elder was ready to stop the match at any moment. Suddenly, the thing that happened next blew their mind. Evelyn was rolling her body continuously. A yellow ring appeared circling around her. No, to be exact, the ring appeared from the tip of her sword. "Circular Blade Method, Killing Ring!" The yellow ring was expanding. It was like a sword wave but in the shape of a ring. Nina, who was shocked by the sudden attack, was forced to swing her sword to stop that ring. The snake also used its head to stop the ring from expanding. But the ring was stronger than expected. The ring cut the snake''s head and blew Nina away. The elders immediately stood up, they were shocked by what just happened on the stage. "Sword Intent" "Yeah. Don''t tell me, she can send her Sword Intent flying?" "Are you kidding me? It is even hard for a Martial Grandmaster to reach that level. She is only a 7-Star Martial Master." "But, just now, she did precisely that." The elders were bewildered. Suddenly Charya laughed and made their attention focused on her. "Gahaha. You old folks just shut up a bit. I''m sure she will give you more surprises later." "Ninth Elder, do you know something?" "Yeah, is she really has reached that level?" "Just shut up. You will be able to see it in this fight. I have watched her progress, and that girl, Nina, is also my Ninth Peak disciple. Although I can''t notice every disciple in my peak. I, at least, noticed the outstanding one. If my prediction is right, she will ask about our tradition as a Sword User. If you become crazy with just this, You will become insane after what you see next." The sect master only smiled a bit and shook his head helplessly. Heavenly Sword Sect Tradition as a sword user, it has to be that. The last exchange with ''Seven Stars Cut''. The disciple can initiate it. But the opponent can also reject it. But according to Charya. Evelyn will most likely accept. The True Seven Stars Cut will see the light once again after being buried for a few centuries. Unfortunately, the one who used it first was not the one who managed to open that secret. He looked at Alexander helplessly. Well, if Alexander will also use that move later...probably. If he really used that move, then he can proudly announce, and it will protect him. He never found his master identity, but he didn''t mind about that anymore. After all, leaving that genius in their sect alone was a blessing for them. In the arena, As Charya had predicted. After the attack blew her away. Nina came back while weeping the blood on her mouth. After fighting for so long, she was exhausted. Evelyn was panting too, exhausted. Nina looked at Evelyn, "Junior Sister. You are truly great. I never know that you have reached that level. As expected of the famous genius." "Senior Sister is strong. If big brother Alex didn''t teach me, I would have no chance" Evelyn said. "So, it is him. Maybe, I should ask him to teach me too." Nina said helplessly. Judging from Evelyn''s expression, it seems she didn''t lie. It was really Alex. Suddenly Evelyn shuddered. "No. I think it''s better not to do that." "Oh? Why?" Nina was confused. ''Is it because of my status as an outer disciple? But she is also an outer disciple...she is a princess... yeah, it must be because of our status. Senior Sister Song Yu is his mentor while I am only a nameless Outer Disciple...sigh.'' "Ugh... I just want to say that his training is hell. I can''t even lift up a finger after those training, and he makes you do it every single time. It''s like dying, revive, dying again, and revive again. I cried after I finished the training. I can only say that I don''t want to do it again. It might become a trauma if not." Evelyn said. "Is it really that bad? I might as well train as usual." Nina said, "Well, does Junior Sister know about our tradition as a sword user?" "Seven Stars Cut?" Nina nodded. "Since Junior Sister knows about it. I want to ask you for our last exchange" Evelyn thought for a bit, then nodded. Both of them raised their sword as the energy started gathering in the sword. They swung their sword down. "Seven Stars Cut" 220 Seven Stars Cu "Seven Stars Cut" Nina released five layers Seven Stars Cut. But because she can''t send her Sword Intent flying, this five layers Seven Stars Cut was only a normal one. But to the crowd surprise, Evelyn only released a single layer Seven Stars Cut. Everyone was disappointed by it. But, if any of them looked at the Seven Stars Cut carefully. They will realize that the Seven Stars Cut was not your typical Seven Stars Cut. It was a three layers Seven Stars Cut. But all of those layers fused with each other by Evelyn''s Sword Intent. They fused into a single but terrifying Sword Wave. Both sword waves clashed, and surprisingly when Evelyn''s Seven Stars Cut touched Nina''s Seven Stars Cut. Evelyn''s sword wave immediately cut through it. The sword wave continued flying toward Nina. Nina was shocked. She thought at least she had more experiences in her when she released that five layers Seven Stars Cut. Even though it might not win a Seven Stars Cut covered by Sword Intent. It can still fight for a while. Unfortunately, her Seven Stars Cut was cut that easily like cutting tofu. The third elder immediately came in front of Nina and erected a barrier. A barrier made by a Martial Lord. "Boom!" The Sword Wave clashed with the barrier for two seconds before exploding. The dust raised and covered the arena. Everyone was shocked by the battle. Especially with Evelyn''s Seven Stars Cut. They can see clearly it was a single layer Seven Stars Cut. To their surprise, a single layer Seven Stars Cut can easily cut a five layers Seven Stars Cut. That made them bewildered. For the disciples who hadn''t reached that level yet, they thought to send their Intent in their Martial Arts was insane. It enhanced the strength by far. But for those who were on that level or even Sword Grandmaster. They were perplexed by the situation. They felt it was impossible to do that. After all, the difference between a single layer Seven Stars Cut and five layers Seven Stars Cut was miles away. Even if they fused it with their Sword Intent. At best, it might make them destroy each other. But, Evelyn''s Seven Stars Cut can destroy it easily. This made them astounded. They watched the dust to settle down and let them see what happened to Elder Dolf. Those few seconds felt like an eternity. They were dying to see what had happened in the field. Finally, the dust had settled down as the smoke disappeared. They can finally see what happens and when they saw it, their jaw dropped as far as it was allowed. All of the elders stood up and became like that. Even the first elder dropped his tea and looked at the scene with his mouth wide open. All elders, except Charya and the sect master. They had expected something like this. After all, they can use the true Seven Stars Cut too, thanks to Alex. Song Yu teased Alex, who was watching the scene, "Hehe. This is all thanks to this ''Big Brother Alex''. Fufu, maybe you will be called ''Big Brother Alex'' later by many disciples." "..." Alex only rolled his eyes. After the smoke disappeared, they can see that there is a small crack in Elder Dolf''s barrier. To think that Sword Wave can even make a crack in that barrier. It became an uproar. Even though the third elder was not specialized in the barrier as that barrier was only made by Spiritual Energy. It was still a barrier made by a 9-Star Martial Lord. That was how insane the power of the true Seven Stars Cut. As expected of a Heaven Tier Sword Art. Although Evelyn had not used it to its full potential. The power was still visible. The third elder was shocked by the crack. But more than that, he was even more shocked by the power contained in the Seven Stars Cut. But from what he knew, the one who managed to learn it was that ''Alexander''. He was wondering why the rumored genius princess can use it too? Or everything was only his misconception. The genius princess was the one who managed to learn the true Seven Stars Cut, not him. And suddenly he thought about that ''Alexander'' taught this princess in front of him the genuine Seven Stars Cut. It suddenly clicked on his mind. His heart suddenly filled with immense joy. If it can be imparted to someone, then it can be imparted to any disciples. If that really happened, The Heavenly Sword Sect might rise once again and dominate the other sect. His heart was very eager to see that happening. For him who never wanted to take a disciple again, his sect was the one thing he put in his heart, of course, with all of the disciples in it. "Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia Wins!" With that wake up call, the crowd finally snapped. It became an uproar. "Sect Master, what is this all about?" The first elder became the most impatient. "That is the thing I wanted to announce after this tournament is over." "You can just announce it on your own before this tournament. It is a very important thing for us." "Yeah, it is true. I have been trying to understand the Seven Stars Cut. But, I only managed to fuse two layers. While that lass managed to use three layers Seven Stars Cut." "Two layers? Three layers?" The first elder was confused. The other elders looked, and the sect master and gulped down. "You all know with seven sword waves that look like one sword wave, right?" "Isn''t it the Seven Stars Cut?" "Indeed. But, the true Seven Stars Cut is not seven sword waves that look like one. Instead, it is seven sword waves that fused into one. I can fuse two sword waves together perfectly and barely managed to fuse the third one." "..." They were too shocked. They tried to comprehend his words. "I have come to the same conclusion. I also think it is seven sword waves that fuse together. But I never succeed in that. I tried many times to fuse them, but they won''t. I tried to use my Sword Intent or my element. But everything is useless." "The key is the Sword Intent." the sect master answered. "As I said, I have tried. I tried in many ways, but not a single time, I succeed in it!" The first elder became more and more impatient. "Then, how do you use the normal Seven Stars Cut? How many swings do you make?" "It is seven, obviously. There''s no need to ask this. It is a dumb question." "That is the mistake." the sect master suddenly stood up and looked at Charya, "Ninth Elder, do you mind?" Charya nodded and stood up. "Sure, come." "Before that." The sect master looked at the third elder in the arena and sent a thought transmission. ''Third Elder. Proceed with the battle, I will personally announce this at the end of the tournament.'' Elder Dolf in the arena was shocked that the sect master suddenly sent a thought transmission. He calmed himself down first before finally announced. "QUIET!" Upon his voice, every disciple suddenly stopped talking. They looked at the third elder. Finally, the third elder spoke, "This is what our Sect Master wanted to convey to you at the end of the tournament. It is indeed the matter concerning the ''Seven Stars Cut''. If you are not interested in it, you can go home now. For those who are interested, be quiet and wait until the tournament is over." Finally, everyone calmed down. But surprisingly, not a single disciple went back. Even if they were a spear user, ax user, or anything, they stayed. After all, this is a very crucial matter. After that, he nodded gravely and spoke. "Good. Then we will continue the battle. Ignazio Benitez versus Qiu Yi." After seeing the crowd calmed down, the sect master finally turned back to the curious elders. "I will give you a demonstration. First, I will use the usual Seven Stars Cut. Look at this" The sect master looked at Charya, who nodded her head, telling that she was ready for it. The sect master took out his sword and swung it seven times at a fast speed. The sword waves were flying together and looked like they were a single Sword Waves. It flew toward Charya. Of course, the sect master didn''t use his full strength and his Sword Intent on the sword waves. Charya covered her sword with Sword Intent and broke the sword wave easily in a single swing. "That is the normal Seven Stars Cut, I assume everyone already knows about this, right?" After using it, he looked at the elders'' expectant gazes. All of them nodded. "Then, I will use the basics of the true Seven Stars Cut this time, look carefully" The sect master said. "Seven Stars Cut" The sect master finally swung his sword. But this time, he didn''t swing it seven times. Instead, he only let out a single swing. From that single swing, it birthed seven sword waves like the previous demonstration. Charya broke the sword waves again. Without any real power and Sword Intent. It was still easy to destroy. "How about that? If you look carefully, you will see I only let out a single swing, right?" The elders nodded. He continued, "That is the difference. The genuine Seven Stars Cut uses a single swing to produce seven sword waves. There is a slight but crucial difference in that swing that makes it able to produce seven sword waves. I am planning to make a class to teach this Seven Stars Cut, then I will demonstrate the last one. I will use my Sword Intent to fuse them together. I will start with two layers first." But before he swung his sword, he spoke, "I hope all of you to erect a barrier around here, so we don''t startle everyone." Every elder erected their own barrier and covered the whole room. If the thing in the arena happened again in this room. The disciples will be startled. They did not have the mood to joke around, so they immediately put the barrier on. After that, the sect master finally swung his sword. This time, they can see two sword waves were flying toward Charya. They carefully looked at the sword waves and the sword intent. Suddenly, the Sword Intent worked like magic and slowly fused the two Sword Waves into one. For this attack, Charya needs to release a bit of her Spiritual Energy and destroyed the Seven Stars Cut. "I''m sure you have seen it. That is the real Seven Stars Cut. If you carefully inspect it, the strength is far more powerful than your normal Seven Stars Cut. I can only say, as expected of a Heaven Tier Martial Art. I will summarize what I have learned. First, you need to produce more than one sword waves in a single swing. I will teach this in that special class. The elders should attend this, especially for those who use sword. I am not underestimating those who are not. But, our Heavenly Sword Sect has many Earth Tier Martial Arts from low level to high level Earth Tier Martial Arts, whether they are a sword, spear, bow, or anything. But this is concerning our only Heaven Tier Martial Arts. Although people might think this Heaven Tier Martial art is not worthy of its title and regress to Earth Tier. Now that the authentic Heaven Tier Martial Arts has seen the light once again. This is our chance to rise, specifically at the Continent Grand Tournament. Mine is very important to us, and I''m sure that all of you know how important it is. Now I will tell you the second thing I have learned. You will need Sword Intent to fuse the Sword Waves. That''s why I want those who reached this step and Sword Grandmaster to be prioritized. But, we will still teach all our disciples about this. After all, they are also the future for our sect. We will only prioritize it for two years until the Grand Tournament. After that, everyone can learn it. Third, the difficulty after this stage is how fast you can fuse the sword intent. I slow it down intentionally so all of you can look at it. I can merge them at the moment it comes out from my sword. But I only managed to do it on two sword waves. That is for the mastery, do you have any questions?" 221 Mysterious Identity? The elders tried to comprehend all of those words first. Before finally, the first elder was the first one to speak, "Let us see it first." The sect master knew his intention and nodded. "Look at this, if you are very careful, you might notice the process. But if you never look at this, you won''t know it is a fused sword wave." "Sect Master, are you going to make me your practice dummy? Why don''t I be the one who shows them and let you take it." Finally, Charya broke the tense atmosphere. "You just want to hit me, aren''t you?" "Gahaha, Old Xiang. It is already unfair to me. I have taken three hits while you only need to take one" Charya laughed. She called the sect master with his name, Xiang Bai. "Fine, but make sure you control your strength. We can''t let the disciple notice this" The sect master finally agreed. Considering the previous sect master was the one who brought her here and raised her. He took great care of this Junior Sister of his. "I know, I know." Charya swung her sword down. The elders looked at the sword seriously. They didn''t want to miss a single detail. Like what the sect master had said, they noticed there were two sword waves in the beginning, and they merged together in a split second. If no one had too much time and looked at every single detail, they won''t notice this. The sect master destroyed the Sword Wave again. It had the same power as his previous sword wave. Even though his previous Seven Stars Cut didn''t immediately fuse. The end''s power was the same. That''s why Xiang Zheng, the sect master, explained again. "I''m sure you noticed that my Seven Stars Cut and Ninth Elder''s Seven Stars Cut have the same power even though our fused time is different. That is the difficulty in this sword art. If they didn''t fuse, they are like a wooden wall. They are too brittle, and we can destroy them easily. The usual Seven Stars Cut only make seven wooden walls. Even though we reinforce it with our Sword Intent. It is not much different. But the true Seven Stars Cut will fuse. A single layer Seven Stars Cut might only be a wooden wall. But if you fused two of them, it might become a stone wall, if you fused three of them, it might become a metal wall and so on. I''m sure you know the difference from this example. We need to fuse them immediately after the sword waves left our sword. If they are fused any later than that, our enemy might be able to destroy it easily. So I call this one is the mastery for the Seven Stars Cut. I''m sure in two years, all of you will be able to fuse all seven. I want all elders and core disciples to learn this. This will raise our chance to win the Grand Tournament for Martial Lord. Regrettably, I can''t participate in it. As for the Martial Grandmaster Tournament... with the Outer Disciple Tournament ended today and the Inner Disciple Tournament next year. It is very convenient for us to exploit it. Like the genius princess that we have seen in the field, there bound to be someone that stands out from the rest. With that, we can focus our cultivation resources for them so they can catch up and might boost our power in the Martial Grandmaster Tournament. That is also included for the Inner Disciple Tournament. We can see after a year which disciple is proficient with the Seven Stars Cut or someone who is strong. We will prepare them within a year to fight those Martial Grandmaster from other influences." "It is like fate for us. When we need it the most, fate sends the genius princess to make our Heaven Tier Martial Art see the light once again. Has anyone received her as a disciple yet? If not, I might receive her after this" The first elder said. "I almost forget to mention it. It is not her who managed to uncover the true Seven Stars Cut." "Not her?" The first elder was confused. Every elder also looked at him with narrowed eyes. "That''s right. A senior has left him in our care, and he managed to unravel the secret of Seven Stars Cut." "A senior? Who is this Senior?" "I can''t talk about that ''Senior'', but I can tell you that he can make our Heavenly Sword Sect disappeared in a single night. For him, it is easy to do so, like flipping a hand. So, make sure you don''t do anything that endangers the sect, and we will also protect that Senior''s disciple. Even with him alone, that is a blessing for us since he brought back our Heaven Tier Martial Art. I''m sure, he will rise and become strong like that senior" The sect master said this purposely. Although he was unsure by the existence of the ''Master'' in Alex''s mouth. Alex alone was worth it. He said this so he can protect Alex. Seeing the seriousness in the sect master''s expression. It seems it is not a lie. They nodded gravely, "Yes." The sect master nodded, "I have left him in Ninth Elder''s care." They didn''t know why but all of their minds click at the same time. They immediately knew why. The Ninth Peak only had female disciples. Now with this ''disciple'' came to that peak, there was only one thing that came to their mind. They immediately cursed the person in front of them. ''Old Sly Fox!'' He sacrificed the whole ninth peak for that. But this made their misunderstanding went deeper. They thought to go such length, the ''Senior'' part must be true. ... Back to the arena, it was the fourth battle between Berto and Evarado. "Berto Wins!" Berto was the rank tenth in the ranking in the Battle Tower while his opponent, Evarado, was the fifteenth. Both of them fought for quite a while, so both of them were pretty exhausted. After a hard fight, Berto finally won. Finally, the last match for the first round came. Elder Dolf announced it loudly, "Alexander Sirius Versus Reid David." Upon hearing his name, Alex went to the stage. He looked at the familiar Elder Dolf, who nodded at him. Alex can perceive his happy intention, but he didn''t know why he was happy in the first place. Alex looked at his opponent and astounded to see what he found. He looked at his opponent''s hair. With both sides of the head were shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the center. His abstract drawing black shirt along with that black leather jacket. "What?" Seeing Alex''s surprised gaze, he looked at him hatefully. Many laughed at him because of his appearance, but for him, it was the style that matched him the most. As for those who had laughed at him, he shut them up with his power. "Nothing, A unique style you have" Alex said. This time, it was his turn to be surprised. This was the first time someone said that to him. Even his parents criticized his style. He said, "You got a good taste. Even so, I will fight with the intention to win. You are strong, and I won''t underestimate you." "Match Starts" Reid took out his sword from his space ring. Blue colored appeared in front of him as he clenched it with two hands. He raised his sword as the sword started glowing. Alex knew this stance. It was the stance where he used ''Pentagram Slash'' "Four Direction Slash" "Pentagram Slash" Alex made the same move. But because his Sword Mastery gave him the power to modify the ''Four Direction Slash'' to ''Pentagram Slash'', the winner was obvious. From Reid Slash, there was four light came from his sword, they were flying to the sides, up and down. Making a parabolic movement and charged toward Alex. Unfortunately, Alex''s made five slashes with a single move. Four of them destroyed the ''Four Direction Slash'' from Reid, leaving only one slash left. The last slash flew toward Reid. With a shocked face, Reid tried to dodge the attack but to no avail. Everyone was bewildered by what happened, Alex and Reid were obviously using the same move. But, why suddenly there was another slash from Alex? When everyone realized, there was already a cut wound on Reid''s body. From his bottom left abdomen to his right shoulder. The blood started gushing out from that wound. His black clothes became blacker and wet by his blood. He also didn''t know what happened. The third elder was dumbfounded on the arena. He was a Martial Lord, he can see it clearly as to what happened. ''Four Direction Slash'', as its name implied, it was a Sword Art that sent four slashes to the enemy from four directions. Up, down, left, and right. But Alex''s Four Direction Slash was not like that. There was an additional slash in Alex''s Four Direction Slash. In other words, it was the fifth slash. The fifth slash from ''Four Direction Slash''. It was unprecedented. ''Four Direction Slash'' was one of popular Sword Art in the sect, so many disciples chose to learn it. But no one managed to change it or make the fifth cut like what Alex did just now. Not only him that was surprised by the sudden fifth slash, but also the elders. The moment they saw what happened, they were shocked and stood up. Even the sect master surprised by it. Only Charya who didn''t leave her seat. She had known about it from Song Yu. She also knew the fact that he can increase the range of ''Omnislash'' from the original fifty meters to a hundred meters. Seeing it by her own eyes might surprise her, but it won''t shock her. She had prepared for it. Looking at the shocked face of these old elders, her heart satisfied. She laughed, "Gahaha, that is his improved ''Four Direction Slash''. It sends five slashes toward the enemy. I think he called it with ''Pentagram Slash''. All of your expression was really satisfying." The elders looked at her then to the sect master. They though their Sect Martial Arts was perfect and flawless with no room for improvement. But it was wrong, and it was proven by Alex. Alex, on the arena, looked at the third elder after he made that strike. Reid said that he wouldn''t underestimate him, but in the end, Alex was beyond his imagination. Or it can be said, he still underestimated him. "Alex..." "Wait! I can still fight" Before the third elder announced the result. Reid suddenly stopped him. One of his hands was in his chest while the other hand still clenching his sword. His eyes still didn''t lose its determination as he looked at Alex. "You...you are still holding back after all of this fight. I request for the last exchange with Seven Stars Cut." When Reid said that, the spectators were startled. ''Alex is still holding back?'' Remembering the fight with Gunzo and Abrams, it was unlikely as Alex had shown them how strong he was at that time. But, hearing that he was still holding back... ''Are you freaking kidding me?'' After all, Alex was only an 8-Star Martial Master. If Alex was a 10-Star Martial Master, they might accept it. But he was not. Alex had heard about the exchange for ''Seven Stars Cut''. But for him, it was not the time to use it, so he shook his head. He rejected the idea. Reid can''t accept it, he still raised his sword as the last bit of his Spiritual Energy sparked on his sword. Reid swung his sword down as five sword waves came out from his sword. Seeing the sword waves flew to him. Alex raised his sword a bit to his chest level and swung it horizontally. "Sanguin Sword Art, Fifteen Slash" Alex sent a sword wave to break that ''Seven Stars Cut''. Of course, in this sword wave, there was Alex''s Sword Intent fused with it. The ''Seven Stars Cut'' fought quite well in the clash. Unfortunately, after three seconds, the Seven Stars Cut broke, and Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art flew toward Reid. With that, Dolf Kolk immediately stopped the match. He took out his Sword to cut Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art. After experiencing Evelyn''s Seven Stars Cut with her Sword Intent. Elder Dolf didn''t want to repeat the same mistake. So, he used his sword to destroy the attack certainly. Reid finally passed out. Elder Dolf caught him and announced, "Alexander Sirius Wins!" *Cheers* As his usual cheers with an extra ruckus after hearing Reid''s words. After all, no one thought Alex was still holding back. 222 Semifinals "He...he also has reached that level? What''s wrong with this year''s disciples? The first one is that genius princess and this one too. But why do I feel that his Sword Intent was stronger than the princess." The first elder said with a shocked face. The sect master facepalmed, "He is the one" "Do you mean who managed to learn the true Seven Stars Cut?" "But if you think about it. He can uncover the true Seven Stars Cut, and that ''Pentagram Slash'' he did earlier was the same. I...I don''t know why, but I feel it is normal for him able to do so." "..." The other elders didn''t know why, but they agree to those words. They looked at each other while thinking, ''If he is the one, should I make a good relationship with him?'' Fortunately, the thirteenth elder didn''t know Alex made him locked his own son because he was too embarrassed about him. Smearing his name and his own family name, Thirteenth Elder had no choice other than locking him up until the rumor died. If he knew that he was the one who made him did that. What will he do? Now that the last match had ended, the sect master finally announced the disciple that need to stop at this stage. "We have seen our top disciples displaying their ability. So, I will announce the disciples for the next match. The first match will be between Ignazio Benitez with Tasha Lockheart. The second match will be between Alexander Sirius and Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia." Nicolas was disappointed that he was not chosen. He was the fifth contender, and he was ranked 13th in the Battle Tower. Alexander, Ignazio, and Tasha obviously became the chosen one. After all, they were the first, second, and third in the Battle Tower, respectively. Evelyn''s position was 99th, but considering her ''Seven Stars Cut''. She was chosen by him. The sect master specifically matched them like that, so Evelyn and Alex can fight. According to Charya, Alex was Evelyn''s... teacher. Seeing the teacher and student fought, this would be a great match. He also considered the fact that the two of them managed to use the genuine Seven Stars Cut. After he announced that, the third elder announced, "Ignazio Benitez vs Tasha Lockheart." Evelyn immediately came to him the moment he came back. "Hehe, Big Brother Alex, I will not lose this time. I practiced very hard to beat you." Alex flicked her forehead, and surprisingly, Evelyn had prepared for it. In their training, he often flicked her forehead. She put her hand to block his finger from reaching her forehead. Alex was surprised. Evelyn grinned, "I have practiced to beat you, Big Brother Alex, so you better prepare yourself." "Have you fixed your flaws that I have shown you?" Shaking his head because of her action, Alex finally asked. Evelyn froze, "...I have fixed them." "What''s with that pause?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Hmph!" Evelyn pouted. They continued watching the match. In the arena, Ignazio said, "I never thought I am going to fight you in this tournament now, not in the final. Anyway, I am going to retake my first place. So, I am going to win this match." "Are you underestimating me?" "I am not underestimating me. I am just stating the fact that I am stronger than you." "Even if you can win, you won''t be able to win because you are not at that level yet where you can send your Sword Intent flying. But I am afraid that you can not win this match." Tasha said. She released her Spiritual Energy while taking out her sword. Just like her light blue colored hair, her sword also light blue. It was decorated by ocean blue jade that made the sword became more beautiful. "Hmph, then let me prove it to you" Ignazio also released his Spiritual Energy. Because both of them were 10-Star Martial Master. Their Spiritual Energy was the same. Ignazio was a spear user. "Match Starts!" As soon as Elder Dolf announced the start of the match, the Spiritual Energy suddenly vanished, and both Ignazio and Tasha disappeared from their position. They appeared again in the middle arena with their weapon clashing with each other. Ignazio thrust his white spear toward her. With the matching color of his hair and his white shirt. He looked very dazzling in the eyes of females. Just like him, Tasha also parried his spear and directed it to the side. She was like a fairy dancing in the arena. They tried to test each other first as they only used a normal attack. None of them used their Martial Arts yet. After clashing for a minute, Ignazio finally made the first move. The spear blade started glowing in white light. "White Eagle Gaze, Pierce" After he thrust his spear, his spear shot out a white light from its tip. It was like a laser beam. From the appearance alone, it was close to Alex''s Luminous Spear Technique. But, unlike Alex''s Luminous Spear Technique. The light was spinning. Although it was not too visible with naked eyes because of the white light. It was pretty obvious for high level Martial Artists. They can see the spin inside the white light. The secret was probably in Ignazio''s thrust. When he trusted his spear, he spun the spear. The spin gave a greater piercing power for that light. Unfortunately, Tasha had yet to panic, she released her Sword Intent and met the light head on. She swung her sword toward the light. "One Strike Sword Style. Split" When her sword met the white light. Surprisingly, it split the white light into two. Coming from the front, Tasha split it into two, and the light went to her right and left and passed them without hitting her. Ignazio didn''t stop there, he suddenly hit the ground hard enough with the back of his spear. "Earth Box" Suddenly a series of big earth walls rose from the ground. When it reached Tasha, it suddenly spread to all directions and the earth wall connected to each other and then closed the top. It looked like a box. It trapped Tasha in it. Ignazio thrust his spear once again, "White Eagle Gaze, Pierce." The light flew again toward the box, to be exact, to Tasha''s position. But suddenly, there was a drop in temperature. It became colder and colder. "Ice Crystal. Bitter Prison." Suddenly the ground froze, and the arena suddenly became cold. The box started freezing, and when the white light touched the frozen wall, it also became frozen. With the sudden drop in temperature, most Martial artists would have some shock and make their thinking delayed a bit. "Hmph. Do you think I do not know your Ice Element? This jacket was made from Fire Lion''s fur. It holds the Fire Energy inside it and can warm me in this cold." Suddenly, a cut appeared in one of the sides of the earth box. One of the sides suddenly fell down after got split into two. Tasha came out of the box from there as the box crumbled. Tasha didn''t say anything regarding his remark. "Frozen Mark, Release." A frozen blue crystal appeared on her hand. The crystal suddenly shot a blue light toward Ignazio. Seeing the incoming attack, Ignazio immediately thrust his spear. "White Eagle Gaze, Pierce" Blue light from ''Frozen Mark'' and white light from ''White Eagle Gaze'' clashed. Judging from the power alone, the white light was in the upper hand. The piercing power of ''White Eagle Gaze'' was extraordinary. When everyone thought that the blue light would be pierced soon, suddenly, the blue light suddenly invaded the white light. No, to be exact, It froze the blue light slowly. The white light got covered by ice elements from the blue light. Seeing the incoming freezing power, Ignazio immediately leaped to the side. After losing the power from Ignazio, the white light was obliterated, and the blue light continued its path toward the wall and froze it. Ignazio sweatdropped, he never knew Tasha''s power was this strong. He always considered her weaker than him. "I never know you are this strong" "You never know anything. You never know how hard I practice and now because you are too conceited." "Hmph, talk after you win" Ignazio snorted. "That''s what I will do" Tasha said as she jumped forward. "One Strike Sword Style. Split" "Earth Great Body" Ignazio''s body suddenly glowed bright green, it was like he fused his body with the earth element, strengthening it with the ground underneath his feet. He parried the strike from Tasha. Tasha didn''t stop there, she attacked him continuously to make an opening. Unfortunately, Ignazio also was not that easy. He parried every attack that came to his way. On the stand, Alex watched the match with great interest as one of them will become his enemy in the final. He didn''t underestimate Evelyn, though. He will fight her with all of his power, and he won''t let his guard down before hearing he won. Looking at the clashes on the arena, Alex can see that Tasha slowly got the upper hand. Obviously, Ignazio didn''t know that Tasha was that strong. He started struggling to defend her attacks. Looking at his position, Ignazio let out a roar as a few spikes rose from the ground. They rose from beneath Tasha''s feet, so Tasha didn''t have any choice except distancing herself from him. After many clashes, Tasha only managed to give him a shallow wound on his shoulder. Had this continued, she wouldn''t be able to fight in the final. She decided to finish this battle as soon as possible. For that, she needs to make an opening. The only way for that, she needs to sacrifice herself a little bit. Looking at Tasha trying to distance herself from him, Ignazio didn''t let this go. He jumped and stomped the ground with his spear. "Rising Earth" "!!!" Spikes started rising from the ground to her way. Looking at this, Tasha immediately got the chance she wanted. She froze the arena as a big ice. But, her target was not the spikes. Instead, it was Ignazio. She froze Ignazio''s feet, so he can''t escape for a bit. Then, she raised her sword and covered it with her Sword Intent. "Nghh!" Her left shoulder was stabbed by a spike. She clenched her sword even more and swung it down. "Seven Stars Cut" Breaking the spikes in its way, Five Layers Seven Stars Cut flew toward Ignazio. The third elder was the first to realize the difference in her Sword Wave. He immediately thought, "Not good!" Ignazio didn''t realize the power behind the Seven Stars Cut. When his feet froze by the ice, he panicked a bit. He thought why she would go such a length even to let the spike stabbed her left shoulder. But, seeing her move was Seven Stars Cut. To tell the truth, he was disappointed. "Haha, I panicked a bit when you froze my feet, I can''t break this immediately. To think you sacrificed yourself just for Seven Stars Cut. I am disappointed." Ignazio said, "Earth Great Body." "Break" He thrust his spear toward the sword wave with his Spear Intent. In a second, he immediately realized the true power of Tasha''s Seven Stars Cut. It was beyond his imagination. He clenched his spear even more. He tried to break the sword wave but to no avail. Finally, he realized what''s wrong with the Sword Wave. He realized the Sword Intent contained inside it. He was shocked. To think that Tasha can reach this level before him. He was shocked. In that split second confusion, Ignazio lost his grip on his spear. The sword wave immediately blew his spear away the moment he lost his grip. Seeing the Sword Wave were flying toward him, he knew he was doomed. A shadow appeared in front of him and destroyed the Sword Wave with his sword. He announced, "Tasha Lockheart Wins!" Elder Dolf saved him. After realizing Tasha''s sword wave, he immediately went on his way toward Ignazio to stop the fight if needed. After hearing the announcement, Tasha took out a pill from her Space Ring and swallowed it. She then came toward Ignazio, who was still confused about him losing. "As I said before, you are too conceited about yourself." She said that and left the arena. Ignazio snapped back to the reality. Obviously, he was angered to that statement. "You!" Unfortunately, Tasha was nowhere to be seen as she already left the arena. Ignazio gritted his teeth in defeat. 223 Semifinals 2 They restored the arena first for the next match, especially the frozen area. The ice covered more than half of the arena. While fixing the arena, the elders turned to a discussion. Seeing Tasha''s performance, of course, they would be shocked. "What was that? If I didn''t see it wrong, it should be Sword Intent." "Are you saying there are three people who managed to do that this year?" "They are basically Outer Disciples. It is very rare for Outer Disciples to do that." "Yeah. Normally, our sect''s disciples or even most of us here can only do that after entering Martial Grandmaster realm. Only Sect Master, First Elder, Second Elder, Third Elder, Ninth Elder, and Fifteenth Elder managed to do that." "That''s right, who is her Master?" "Ahem, that would be me." All of the elders looked at the source of the voice. It was the first elder who said that. "First Elder, what did you say?" Unsure if he heard it right, One of the elders asked. "You didn''t hear it wrong. Even if you ask that girl, she will say it is me. I met that girl a year ago and found her style quite similar to Cemile, my disciple. So, I asked her if she wanted to be my disciple, and she accepted. She requests that she wanted to keep it a secret so that she can make an impact in the tournament. She didn''t disappoint me, and her talent was very high. That''s why I agreed to her request." First Elder explained. All of them were dumbfounded, they never thought the First Elder accepted another disciple. This disciple of his managed to create such an impact in the tournament. The atmosphere became silent once again. "Ho, but can she really win this tournament?" Charya suddenly spoke. Breaking the silence, she immediately picked a fight with the first elder. "Ninth Elder, please act according to your age and position. You are always picking up a fight like this. If the old Master is here, I''m sure he will reprimand you or even punish you." First Elder looked at Charya, said, and sighed helplessly. "If he did that, I will also fight him" Charya laughed. All of the elders sighed, they had gotten used to this character of her. "Well, what is your answer, Old Dan? Will your disciple able to defeat my Alex?" "You are so sure that he is going to win that genius princess. I know that he taught her, but their power should be equal." "Have you become too old that you can''t see that he hasn''t used his full power!" "Hmph!" It seems that he had known the answer, but he didn''t want to answer. Of course, he knew Alex hadn''t given his all. But, how can he say his disciple was inferior to him? He snorted, "What if he gives up. Since he taught her, maybe he will pull his punch. With that, my disciple doesn''t need to fight him." Charya looked at him with a poker face. With absolute belief, she stated the fact, "That is impossible. I just hope he won''t bully Evelyn in the arena." Looking at Charya''s expression, they were bewildered. They didn''t know what to say. ... After fixing the arena, the third elder finally called Evelyn and Alex to the arena, "Alexander Sirius versus Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia." Well, since they were in the same place. Alex and Evelyn went to the arena together. They greeted the third elder first and finally distanced themself from each other. Fighting Evelyn, Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes before the fight started. "Big Brother Alex, I will fight you with everything I got" Evelyn didn''t have any ill intent in those words. Sadly, it was different in everyone''s ears. "What? She called him ''Big Brother Alex''? I didn''t hear it wrong, right?" "Yeah, I''m sure she called him that. I am so envious." "But how can she call him that? She is the famous genius from Thiveapia Kingdom, do they know about this? Then who exactly is he? To make the princess call him with ''big brother''. I''m so env...curious." "Just say you are envious. I also want her to call me Big Brother. That would make my life worth it" "Kyaaa! Big Brother Alex!" "Big Brother Alex!" The boys were jealous of him while the girls were hysteric, especially for those Alex fan club members. Luckily, Sherry fan club had yet to be born. Alex only rolled his eyes away upon this cheering and smiled at Evelyn. He might ''tease'' her a bit in this fight. Evelyn didn''t know why, but she felt a chill. The freezing arena had been replaced, and the ice element should have been erased too. But, feeling a chill like this. She was bewildered. Seeing Alex''s expression, she froze. She took her sword out and gulped down. Looking at Alex''s expression, she knew that Alex was a bit pissed. She clenched her sword tightly. "Match Starts!" Upon hearing that, Evelyn immediately opened up her palm as a light appeared on her palm. She threw it. "Sword Energy Bomb!" She tried to make a diversion with this Sword Energy Bomb. She charged at Alex behind the sword energy. Alex can see all of that with his Spirit Eyes. He can see that Evelyn concentrated her energy on her palm before the match start so she can use it immediately. Unfortunately, Alex had prepared for this. Ten swords suddenly appeared on his surroundings, and one of them flew to intercept her ''Sword Energy Bomb''. Evelyn had infused her fire element to the Sword Energy. It raised smoke after it exploded. She intended to use it for a smokescreen. Sadly for her, Alex can see her figure with his Spirit Eyes. Alex also used the smoke as camouflage. When she passed through the smoke and trying to ambush him, Alex was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, she felt a chill from her back. "Sanguin Sword Art, Fifteenth Slash" She turned around and saw a sword wave flew toward her. "Seven Stars-" She didn''t have enough time to use ''Seven Stars Cut''. Before she managed to release it, Alex''s Sanguin Sword Art reached her. She can only cover her sword with Sword Intent and released her Spiritual Energy to the fullest. Even so, she was flying to the wall because of the sword wave. She also saw nine swords that also came toward her. Using the momentum from the sword wave. She crashed to the wall and used the wall as her stepping to avoid Alex''s nine swords. With her quick thinking, she managed to dodge Alex''s swords. She remembered Alex had pinned her on the wall with those swords. After dodging the attack, she met a big sword on her away. She can''t dodge this. This was Alex''s Sun Beam. She suddenly remembered the scene where she needs to swing again and again. Back then, Alex said, "Swing your sword for everything. Attacking, parrying, blocking, stabilizing your form, anything. When you think you are doomed and can''t do anything anymore. Maybe, the goal was only a step away from you, you just can''t see it. Maybe, with another swing, you can escape from your doom and overturn the situation." She smiled, she raised her sword and swung it down toward the giant blade. But, she didn''t intend to block this giant black. She approached it from above it. With that swing, she elevated herself and dodged the giant sword. She rolled on the air and swung her sword again. "Seven Stars Cut" A sword wave flew from her sword to Alex. With his Spirit Eyes and distance, Alex had seen this coming. He smiled, he can see Evelyn''s effort. That''s right, it was only a single swing. Alex removed his Sun Beam and used it again from upward. He combined this swing with Sword Intent and Heavy Step. To everyone''s surprise, he managed to change the direction of Seven Stars Cut. The sword wave exploded upon crashing to the ground a few meters in front of him. Evelyn didn''t stop there. Using that sword wave, she managed to stabilize her form and used the wall as she jumped toward Alex. Trying to use the momentum, she swung her sword toward him. "Immovable Step" Alex countered her momentum with raw strength. A dragon strength struck forth. Just like a baseball with Evelyn as the ball and Alex as the batter. Alex''s strength managed to blow her away straight to the wall. Crashing to the wall didn''t let her determination waver. She immediately got back to her feet and charged on him again. They clashed continuously for a while. Seeing the match, everyone in the crowd was mesmerized. It was a great match. Everyone except Song Yu and Putri. It was different in Song Yu''s and Putri''s eyes, it was plain bullying. They sighed helplessly. The elders also started realizing Charya''s words about bullying. They finally realized why she said that. If Charya didn''t say that, they might think it is also a great match. After hearing Charya''s words, they observed the match very carefully, and they noticed something odd. Alex blocked Evelyn''s attack from all directions. He turned his body again and again and sent her back. But if they looked at it carefully, even though he turned his body, he never moved from his original position. They finally saw the ''bullying'' in Charya''s mouth. That means, in this match, Alex had yet moved from his place, in other words, he can beat her like this, it was terrifying. Especially for First Elder, Dan Besseman. He gritted his teeth. Clash after clash was heard in the arena. Evelyn lost her stamina and energy bit by bit. Eventually, she was exhausted. Panting on the arena, Evelyn''s body was covered with some bruises after Alex pounced her to the wall again and again. She looked at Alex seriously, "I really can''t reach you in this fight. Big Brother Alex, can we finish this with Seven Stars Cut?" Alex thought for a bit, he looked at the elders. Noticing Alex''s gaze, Charya shrugged her shoulder. It seems that all of them had known about it. Alex finally answered, "Sure." They both raised their sword. "Seven Stars Cut" Two single layer Seven Stars Cuts immediately formed and clashed with each other. Alex didn''t see any element in Evelyn''s sword wave, and he was confused about it. In her exhausted state, if she infused her fire element to her sword wave, it will boost her firepower. Alex''s sword wave managed to cut her sword wave pretty easily. She was exhausted, and her Sword Intent was not as deep as him. With that, the third elder finally interfered and announced the match. "Alexander Wins!" *Cheers* She finally fell down to the floor and sighed, satisfied. "I still can''t beat Big Brother Alex." He flicked her forehead, "If you can beat me, you might as well call me little brother. I am confused about this, why didn''t you use your element in the Seven Stars Cut?" "I can''t. Although I can infuse it to the sword energy, I really can''t to Seven Stars Cut. That is the reason why I seldom use my Fire. I never intended to hide this, but I thought it was unnecessary." He sighed, He looked at Evelyn and helped her up. "You really need to improve your element after this. I will write a few things and let Senior Sister Song Yu know about it since you are staying in her place after this" "Ahaha" she can only let out a helpless laugh. She just hoped the training menu he wrote not too hellish. "After two hours rest, we will hold the final match for this Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament." The third elder announced. Alex and Evelyn nodded to him and came back to Song Yu and Putri. When they came back, Song Yu immediately leaped toward Evelyn and hugged her. "Little Sister Evelyn, it must be hard for you. This cruel guy bullied you again and again." Song Yu said while looking at Alex like a monster in man clothing Alex only shook his head. "You should rest first." Putri said to him. Alex only nodded to her and sat down to recover his Spiritual Energy. The elders'' reaction was not that much now they knew Alex. They had expected that Alex also could use the genuine Seven Stars Cut. No, in fact, they finally convinced by the fact that Alex was the one who unraveled the real Seven Stars Cut. 224 Final After two hours, the third elder came back to the stage. "Final Match, Alexander Sirius versus Tasha Lockheart" It was a very interesting match. From the unknown Alexander Sirius to the uprising Tasha Lockheart. They originally expected that Ignazio Benitez would be the one who will fight him in the final. But, Tasha defeated him. Tasha looked at Alex carefully, she spoke, "At first, I thought Ignazio Benitez would be my rival in this tournament. I never thought you, a new disciple, suddenly come and stand in this stage. Without much information about you, this makes you look more dangerous in my eyes." Alex looked at her face that covered by a veil, and answered with unexpected words "Both of us are Heavenly Sword Sect''s disciple, Is not that enough?" Elder Dolf was surprised by the words, but he immediately gratified in his heart. He nodded again and again. Tasha nodded her head too. He might be a problem if he was another sect''s disciple. "I am wondering why is your and the genius princess'' Seven Stars Cut stronger than ours?" This time, it was not Alex who answered her. It was the third elder, "Sect Master will announce that after this fight, so you don''t need to think about it now and focus on the fight." If Alex was the one who said it, she might become confused, and it might distract her from the match. For that reason, the third elder explained it to her. Seeing the third elder explained that to her, Tasha drew a long breath. She released her Spiritual Energy, telling the third elder to start the match. Alex didn''t release his Spiritual Energy. He only gave a nod to Dolf Kolk. After looking at them once again, Elder Dolf finally announced, "Final Match between Alexander Sirius and Tasha Lockheart. Match Starts!" *Cheers* As the cheers burst out, the Spiritual Energy from Tasha also vanished. But, it did not vanish because she took it back. It was because she unleashed her first attack. "Freeze" The temperature dropped again as soon as the match started. The field started freezing. Within a few seconds, the field immediately covered with ice. Alex looked at the ice on his feet, trying to freeze him. He just broke free from the ice with shear strength. Tasha looked at him, her ice didn''t seem to affect him. "Seeing my ice doesn''t affect you. Do you have Ice element? After all, it might be the element that can make you resist this cold. Now, I am wondering why you have not used your ice element?" She didn''t say about Fire Element, which also can resist this cold. There was another reason why she didn''t say that. If Alex had a fire element, he would need to use it and covered his body with it to resist this cold. The only reason was that his own element was an ice element, that''s why he can resist this cold. Unfortunately, she didn''t know Alex''s had pure fire element. Alex''s body had been reinforced by the Pure Fire Element. So, without using fire to cover his body, Alex was fine with this cold. But how can she know that Alex''s had the priceless Pure Fire Element. Alex didn''t bother to say that to her, obviously. He didn''t need to keep his Sword Intent again. "Omnislash" Ten swords appeared beside him, and they had been covered by Sword Intent. All of them flew toward Tasha. A giant ice wall rose from the freezing floor. Seeing the giant ice wall, Alex immediately changed the direction of his swords. He made the swords went around the ice wall and charged toward Tasha again. The ice wall blocked his vision, but for him, it was not a problem because he had Spirit Eyes. He can see Tasha''s figure behind the ice perfectly. Tasha was surprised about this. She thought about using the ice wall to break some of the swords, then she can destroy the rest of the swords. Or even Alex made the swords went around, he should not be able to see her when she was behind this gigantic ice block. Judging from the swords'' movement, she immediately knew that was not the case. She didn''t know how, but Alex can see her perfectly. The swords charged at her again and again, even if she changed her position. "Four Direction Slash" Four slashes suddenly flew from her swords. Of course, she enhanced them with her sword intents. She can''t destroy Alex''s Omnislash with his Sword Intent in it if she only used her Four Direction Slash. The swords will just destroy her slashes easily. She also needs to cover it with her Sword Intent. *Clang* She managed to destroy four of the swords for the time being. She almost reached the arena''s wall. She immediately placed her hand on the wall as soon as she reached it. An ice pillar rose from the wall and broke the swords. She thought about using another ''Four Direction Slash'' to destroy the rest. But Alex also didn''t just stand there without doing anything. From behind the ice, Tasha also can''t see Alex''s position. Behind the ice, Alex slashed the air. "Pentagram Slash" Five Streams of light suddenly flew out from behind the giant ice wall. They went toward Tasha. Tasha tried to search a way out. She was currently chased by the swords and the slashes. There was only one way she can escape. She stepped on the ground and jumped forward to the ice wall. With that, she escaped the pursuit of the swords on her back and managed to break through from ''Pentagram Slash''. Those slashes came toward her like a pentagon. They locked her so she can''t go upward or sideward while the remaining of ''Omnislash'' locked her back. The only way for her to escape was the front. Of course, Alex had predicted that movement. Even if he didn''t anticipate this, he could simply look at it from his Spirit Eyes. He raised his sword to his chest level and swung it horizontally. "Seven Stars Cut" With that single sword wave, it immediately cut through the giant ice wall like tofu. It continued on its path toward Tasha. Looking at this, Tasha was surrounded from all directions. If she used her ''Four Direction Slash'' on the remaining of Alex''s Omnislash back then, the ''Pentagram Slash'' would defeat her. Now that she escaped the ''Pentagram Slash'', she can''t change her direction easily. So, the only thing she can do right now was to confront the sword wave head on. "Seven Stars Cut" She also let out her own version of Seven Stars Cut. She covered all of those five layers of Seven Stars Cut with her Sword Intent. She also infused her ice element to it. The sword waves clashed. Because Tasha had infused her ice element inside her Seven Stars Cut. She froze a bit of Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. Sadly, the difference in power was too big. She only managed to weaken a portion of Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. It still continued flying toward her. She raised her sword again and swung it down toward the sword wave. "One Strike Sword Style. Split!" She didn''t give up. Sadly, because her momentum was too great. The impact was too much for her. It was like riding a bike in fifty kilometers per hour and suddenly was forced to stop. She didn''t have anything to support the sudden break of momentum. She only had both her hands as support. She immediately chose to abandon her left hand so she can still fight with her dominant hand. She used every ounce of her strength on her left hand to support her in this. "Haaa!" "Boom!" She managed to destroy the sword wave. But it gave her a shock wave that managed to blow her away. Obviously, the direction was backward. As Alex''s Omnislash was on her way. She immediately let out a single piece of ice crystal. "Burst!" The ice crystal suddenly exploded and blew the remaining swords away. The mist from the ice covered the area. When the mist disappeared, they can see Tasha covered with bruises as she coughed blood. They finally managed to see her face that always covered by a veil and shocked to see the beauty behind it. With her blue crystal eyes, small nose, and cherry lips along with her alluring body. They finally able to find the otherworldly beauty. She was on par with all those ''flowers'' from the sect. Regrettably, her body state was not in a good state. Her left arm was useless now, bruises were all over her body, and blood came out from her cherry lips. She didn''t underestimate Alex. Sadly, she never knew that Alex could see through that thick block of ice. The ice was a meter thick and was not transparent. It was her only but biggest miscalculation that led her to this pathetic state. In that state, her eyes still looked at him with focus. Looking at the determination in her eyes, Alex knew that she had not given up on this match. Since it was like that, the third elder didn''t say anything. They continued to clash for a while. Sadly, it became a one sided fight. Alex continuously suppressed her in every movement. Tasha fought quite well, but Alex was still unreachable. The crowd was booing him for bullying her, mostly male. Well, considering her appearance, it should be given. *Pant Pant* "You are very strong, my strength has not reached you yet, and you are still an 8-Star Martial Master." Tasha was very exhausted, with just a little push, she might pass out. "Peak 8-Star" Alex corrected her. A smile appeared on that tired face. Tasha chuckled a little. A little sigh as her consciousness started to disappear. "I...lost..." She muttered as she passed out and collapsed to the floor. Of course, Alex caught her before she fell down to the ground. Many female disciples clicked their tongues, and the male disciples started booing again. Saying he was a lucky bastard or after that treatment, he can still embrace the beauty. "Alexander Wins!" Alex didn''t care about the booing. He carried her up and gave her to Elder Dolf. Suddenly, three people appeared in the arena. In front of him was an unknown old man. Beside him was Charya. "Give her to him, Alex. This old man is her master" Charya said. Alex looked at Charya and nodded. He gently let the old man carried her as he put a pill on her mouth. The old man almost charged at Alex when he looked at his disciple''s appearance. Although he agreed to keep it a secret, it didn''t mean that there was no movement on his heart when he saw her tattered appearance. Charya explained his personality to him with a great deal. She said Alex also treated them the same. Whether she, Song Yu, Putri, or even Evelyn. Finally, the first elder managed to calm down a bit. "This old man is the first elder. Just look at his stern appearance. Haiz, you know, this old man can''t have a woman in his life because of his stern face." Charya complained. The first elder was dumbfounded and immediately glared at her. Looking at the first elder''s expression, the sect master came, "Ahem, Ninth Elder. Please mind the place and occasion. If you want to talk about him, please talk where he can''t hear you." "You should look at yourself first. With your personality, I doubt man will find you interesting" The first elder snorted. "Hehe, and with your strictness, I doubt your disciples will find a man in their life." "Enough!" The sect master finally stopped them with a shout. Not only them, but all of the disciples also stopped talking. "We will give the reward first. For those in the top ten, come to the arena." One by one came to the arena. Starting from those from 5th to 10th. Each of them got a bronze token with ''Outer'' written on it. "With that token, you will have a one month free cultivation in Cultivation Pavilion and another chance in Martial Arts Pavilion." The disciples thanked him. The sect master nodded, then he gave a silver token to Evelyn and Ignazio. "You can get a month free cultivation and another chance in Martial Arts Pavilion as well as ten thousand Spirit Stones, you might redeem it in Exchange Pavilion. And you will get a ten percent discount if you exchange something from Exchange Pavilion." Both of them thanked him. Finally, it was Tasha''s turn. But since she was unconscious. The sect master gave it to the first elder. "I will leave it to you First Elder since you are her Master. I''m sure you know the reward, right?" The first elder nodded. The sect master then turned to Alex as he gave a green token made by jade. Alex received it. "You can get three months free cultivation and a Martial Art from Martial Arts Pavilion. You can also redeem fifty thousand Spirit Stones in Exchange Pavilion. You also get a thirty percent discount on Exchange Pavilion." Alex thanked him. 225 Announcemen "I assume all of you have seen something odd about Seven Stars Cut. Regarding that, I will explain that to all of you." The sect master paused a bit, but even so, no one dared to speak a single word. They were not scared, but because they were very curious about it and dying to know something about it. They gulped down. "But first, I want to give a big thanks for Alexander Sirius, who managed to unravel the secret of Seven Stars Cut" He said. Then he turned to Alexander Sirius, "On behalf of the entire Heavenly Sword Sect, thank you." Before Alex open his mouth, He continued. "You might have speculated this the moment you saw the power difference between a single layer Seven Stars Cut and multiple layers Seven Stars Cut. Let''s take a look at the first exchange about these two Seven Stars Cuts. When Disciple Evelyn used a single layer Seven Stars Cut but managed to cut Disciple Nina five layers Seven Stars Cut. The truth is, we, including myself, never know that the Seven Stars Cut we used in our daily life is not the real Seven Stars Cut. That might be the reason why our Seven Stars Cut became only an Earth Tier Martial Arts. Thanks to this little friend Alex. The genuine Seven Stars Cut finally sees the light again. That''s why, on this occasion, I want to announce to you. The true and only Heaven Tier Martial Art finally come back to our sect. With this Special Occasion, I will elevate the status of Alexander Sirius to Special Core Disciple. He will receive the benefit of Core Disciple while he doesn''t need to do the duty of Core Disciple. We have decided to give him this special status to thank him for his contribution. And also take this as a warning. The sect will protect him. Whether you are this sect disciples or not. If you try anything funny toward him, then don''t blame this Sect Master to be impolite." He let out a killing intent, and everyone can see that the sect master was dead serious. They gulped down. Everyone except one person. That''s right, it was Abram. After getting trashed by Alex, he was dying to pay back. Even though he was a former young master because his uncle stole the position of his father as the lord of Jalagonia Family, one of the prominent families in Zhou Kingdom. He might not be able to touch him in the sect. But, he can kill him outside the sect. As long as he did not leave any trace about it, the sect master will not know about it. "As long as you get it, you can rest assured. Now, I also can use the real Seven Stars Cut. On this joyous occasion, I want to tell you that I will make a special class concerning this Seven Stars Cut. So, if you want to learn the genuine Seven Stars Cut, you can come to the special field beside Cultivation Pavilion. I will personally teach that class. So, whether you are Outer Disciple, Inner Disciple, Core Disciple, or even Elders. If you want to learn this powerful Heaven Tier Sword Art, please come to the field." *Cheers* Everybody cheered, especially for those who were a sword user. After all, to learn the only Heaven Tier Sword Art in the sect and the sect master himself will personally teach them. It was a perfect chance for them to learn a Heaven Tier Martial Arts and impress the sect master with their skill. If they managed to impress the sect master, they might be able to become his disciple. "Unfortunately..." The sect master said with a bit sad tone. The disciples suddenly quiet down. They looked at the sect master seriously. "There is a requirement for this Heaven Tier Sword Art. The requirement for this Seven Stars Cut is you need to reach the level where you can send your Sword Intent flying. So, for this class, we will only accept those who managed to do that." With that requirement, most of the disciples suddenly became quiet and disappointed. All of the outer disciples immediately disappointed, and most of Inner Disciple too. There were three classifications for Inner Disciple. Those who were a low rank Martial Grandmaster, usually can not do that. Most of the High Rank Martial Grandmaster can do that. They were the true Inner Disciple. And the last classification was for those who were the genius among genius. They had reached a Weapon Grandmaster realm, whether they were a Sword Grandmaster or Spear Grandmaster, all of them can make a Domain with their intent. All of them were the peak of Inner Disciple. But, they regained their composure after they heard what the sect master said next. "Of course, this is not permanent. After all, with this new system, we do not have enough people to understand the principle of this Seven Stars Cut. We also have the target in the Continent Grand Tournament. With that in mind, we will focus on teaching and cultivating those than can use Seven Stars Cut. After the tournament, this class will remain, and those who have not reached the requirement can spend their point in exchange for this class. I''m sure you will be able to improve by leaps and bounds in this class." *Cheers* Two years were not long for Cultivator. They could understand with the rush for Continent Grand Tournament as it was a very crucial tournament for the sect. "Long Live Sect Master" "Long Live Heavenly Sword Sect" "Long Live Sect Master!" "Long Live Alexander Sirius" "Kyaa!" "Long Live Big Brother Alex!" "Big Brother Alex" "Big Brother Alex, please teach me." "Big Brother Alex, I can warm your bed if you personally teach me." Charya grabbed Alex and Evelyn and disappeared. There was nothing to do here anymore since they had received their reward. Seeing their master left, Song Yu and Putri left to meet her. Tenth Elder also grabbed Lena and brought her to Tenth Peak. "Hehe, Big Brother Alex has become popular" Song Yu teased him again. "Hihi, Big Brother Alex" Evelyn giggled. "Gahaha, joke aside, you two have won the tournament. You two need to get the reward." Charya looked at Evelyn and Alex and said. "Why don''t Song Yu and Putri accompany you two exchange the reward?" Charya said again. "I don''t mind, though" Song Yu said while Putri nodded her head. "I...Can I check my elder sister first?" Evelyn asked. All of them looked at her. Charya pondered a bit and nodded. "Sure, Putri, you will go with her. Just present them my token." Putri nodded, then to Evelyn, "Let''s go." "Un" Evelyn nodded and waved her hands to Alex and Song Yu, "Big Brother Alex, Big Sister Song Yu, see you later." After that, Charya decided to go back, saying she was tired and leaving Song Yu and Alex here. They looked at each other and sighed as they accustomed to this personality of her. She always did everything at her own pace. "So, what are you going to do? If you want to exchange the reward, I can go with you." "I will go to Martial Arts Pavilion first." Alex decided to exchange his reward. He didn''t reject Song Yu because he wanted to discuss business with Song Yu. After all, it was not wrong to make money in case he needs it. He also wanted to test Song Yu as the daughter form a merchant family. According to Song Yu. In her continent, the alchemist guild didn''t sell the raw materials. Only in this continent, the alchemist guild did that. It was because of Mount Hua Sect. He didn''t know the detail about it, though. But, on other continents, you can sell pills through them, but you can''t buy materials from them as they didn''t have that service. Merchant Family was the one who usually gave that service. Alchemist and Forging Master bought the necessary material from them. If Alex had gotten used to making transactions with Song Yu, it would be beneficial for himself when he went there. At least, he would be familiar with the Blackwade family''s style of transaction. With that, they went to the Martial Arts Pavilion. Just like the previous time he went here, Song Yu decided to wait for him outside. She will not interfere with his decision in his Sword Art. After all, ability wise, his skill alone was enough to beat her. Alex entered the Martial Arts Pavilion again. He didn''t enter this place again after he got ''Bear Sovereign'' from this place. He gave the jade token to the elder in front. He looked at the unfamiliar elder. It seems that the elder had changed. When the elder saw the token, he was shocked. He immediately looked at the owner and found that the holder was an 8-Star Martial Master. He was confused. He knew that this Jade Token was for the winner of the competition that ended today. To think that the winner was only an 8-Star Martial Master, he was bewildered. He was thinking, ''Is our sect''s strength has regressed? To think that the winner only an 8-Star Martial Master'' He sighed, but the token was absolute. He said to Alex, "you can get a Martial inside. The time limit is two hours." Alex nodded. He entered immediately to the Earth Tier section. Since today was the tournament day with the Sect Master hog all the attention of the disciples. He only saw a single disciple inside the Martial Arts Pavilion. He chose to ignore him. Alex didn''t need a Spear Art or a Sword Art. But Alex had something in his mind. He wanted Fire Art. He had thought about it, he had many Spear Arts, he also had many Sword Arts. But the only Fire Art he had was his ''Fire Phoenix Art'' that Maxwell gave him. He usually used his Firebirds with only a flame manipulation. He took advantage of his Pure Fire Element''s prowess for that. If he encountered another Fire Element that equal or a bit lower than his level. Those firebirds will be obliterated by their fire art. He had consulted this to Maxwell back then. But because his main focus was his Spear and Sword. He neglected this side for a while. Maxwell portrayed Fire Elements as the kingdom. Pure Fire element was the king of the kingdom, he said. But, just like the ranks for nobility. There were many types of flames that equal to Grand Duke to Baron. He took Sacrificial Flame in Firia as the example, it was a Prince while the Spirit Beast that rule the fire, like Sherry, was a Grand Duke. Although the king, or the absolute flame, was the ruler. The Grand Duke, Duke, or even Marquis ranked flame might have the power of rebellion and usurp the throne. In other words, at certain conditions, the Pure Fire Element might lose to them. That''s why Alex decided to get a Fire Art now that he had a nice line up for his Sword or his Spear Arts. Alex saw several names for Earth Tier Flame Arts, such as, ''Sunlight Wing'' or ''Ember of the Ocean'' and so on. But suddenly, he noticed something odd. There was a single rack that contained only a single book that had been covered with dust. He looked at the title. ''Space Plate'' "!!!" He was alarmed. He noticed the arrangement of the racks in here. After looking for a while, he knew that the books had been arranged by their element. He was shocked to see Space Element Art. He checked it first since this place only had three people in it. Him, one other disciple, and the elders that guarded the front. No one will see him. ''What is space? Space is our surroundings. They are called space. But, the real space is hidden between our reality. Normal people can only perceive the real world. But the one who holds a Space Element can see, go through, or even controlled the space within space, the world behind the reality. This art called Space Plate. We make a hard plate within that illusory world, the example is a space ring. How a space element Array Master make a space ring? They make an illusory world by using the ring as the medium. Of course, the ring must be forged by a Spatial Stone. They used the array and drew it on the ring as the portal connecting this imaginary world to the real world. That is the actual process of making a space ring. A hundred thousand years ago, many Space Element Array Master used this opportunity to amass money. That''s why, in our present world, we never have a difficulty to get a Space Ring.'' 227 A Deal Alex nodded. Then the only problem was Su Hua. If he purchased a large number of Medicinal Ingredients and sold a large number of pills. Su Hua obviously will see something wrong. Even if he put his mask, Su Hua might make a move personally, and that will be troublesome. If Song Yu can be his agent, there will not be any problems. After all, she was a Core Disciple. Even if he suspected something from her, he could not do anything to her. Even if he knew that the pills were coming from him. Alex was still in the sect, and Su Hua will not be able to take him away. Alex also can forge a relationship with Song Yu. Of course, as trading partners, not man and woman relationship. Although it did not have any use since the Blackwade clan was a clan from Northern Continent. It might become helpful if he came to the next continent. Now that he decided to make a deal with Song Yu. All that left was the price. He was considering the price. She said that she would only take ten percent for the commission. "Senior Sister, how much is the price for Soul Refining Pill? The perfect purity one." "Soul Refining Pill? You are a Rank 3 Alchemist?" Song Yu was surprised. To see a young Rank 3 Alchemist in this continent. It was really surprising. Alex only smiled at her. "Ahem, a Soul Refining Pill is three thousand Spirit Stones." "Then how about Tempered Muscle Pill?" "Tempered Muscle Pill? This pill has a big demand. Not only from a body cultivator, but normal cultivators also need this pill too. Well, to increase fifty bull strength with a single pill and a hundred with two pills as the limit. It gives the cultivator a considerable boost in their strength. The price is four thousand Spirit Stones. Even though it is only a low 3rd rank pill. The price is the same as mid 3rd Rank pill." Song Yu said. Alex contemplated, he asked another pill. He was planning to make these pills in huge numbers, as Sherry''s food. But he might need to ask Sherry which one was more effective. Flamming Sun Pill or rank 3 Array. "How about Flamming Sun Pill?" "Flamming Sun Pill... This is the rank 3 version of Flamming Spirit Pill. It is a mid 3rd rank pill, but the price is lower than Tempered Muscle Pill. It is three thousand Spirit Stones for one Flamming Spirit Stones" Song Yu said. Alex pondered for a moment, and then he finally asked for the last pill. "Then how about Rank 3 Energy Pill?" "Hmm, this pill is unique. The same as Rank 2 Energy Pill that can increase one''s cultivation by one star depending on the core used as the ingredients. It is the most popular pill. The price is ranging from the lowest three thousand Spirit Stones to a few ten thousand Spirit Stones if you auction it somewhere. Of course, to reach such price, you need 10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core." Alex asked this as a consideration for the future. He can not make this pill at the moment, especially for the peak Energy Pill. After all, to make the energy pill, he needs a fresh Monster Core. That means the monster will inside the core was still at the strongest. He needs to take on that monster head on. With his meager cultivation, he can not do that for the time being. So he decided to make Tempered Muscle Pill. "How much for a set of Tempered Muscle Pill''s ingredients?" Alex asked. "Hmm, if I''m not wrong. It is two hundred Spirit Stones" Maybe because of habits from the clan. Song Yu had researched all the prices of those pills. Four thousand Spirit Stones for a perfect purity Tempered Muscle Pill. It might be lower if the pill did not have perfect purity. With Song Yu''s original commission, which was twenty percent and the cost in case of failure along with the practice cost. It might be hard for an Alchemist to get a thousand Spirit Stones from a pill. Of course, Alex was an exception. The only cost he had to pay was Song Yu''s commission, which she lowered from twenty percent to ten percent and the cost of the ingredients. With his one hundred percent chance to produce a perfect purity Tempered Muscle Pill. That means, he can get three thousand four hundred Spirit Stones. Well, he might need to consider the Spirit Stones he used in gathering array to recover his strength. After all, making a rank 3 pill need a massive amount of Spiritual Energy. But this cost might not be the problem, and he can ignore it as it might not reach a hundred spirit stones for each pill. Obviously, Song Yu might regret reducing the commission from twenty percent to ten percent in the future. It made her lost millions. After all, Alex was one of the people that broke the system. "Then, I will sell the Tempered Muscle Pill for the time being." Alex said. "Then, I will buy the ingredients. You can make the pill and sell it to me." Actually, Song Yu did not care about this. She just wanted to help Alex as his Senior Sister. Of course, in the future, Alex was a money making machine. She thought that Alex might only make a few tens pills later since he also needs to cultivate. "All right. I will leave it to Senior Sister." Song Yu nodded, "How many ingredients do you need?" Alex pondered a bit and raised three fingers. Song Yu nodded, "All right. I will cover the cost first since it is only six thousand Spirit Stones." Alex coughed a bit. He gave a wry smile. "I mean three hundred sets of ingredients." Song Yu was dumbfounded. She looked at him weirdly, she had some cultivation resources from her family before she came to this continent. On this continent, she also had made some money. But, using sixty thousand at once, she needs to rethink a bit. Alex gave her a space ring. He transferred thirty thousand Spirit Stones from his main Space ring into it. "Here is seventy thousand Spirit Stones." Because she was pondering, she received Alex''s space ring with dumb looking face. She looked at the space ring with an empty gaze. Not long after, she finally realized what happened. She realized that Alex just gave her seventy thousand Spirit Stones in one go, and he even did it without batting an eye. Her main thought was from where Alex had such resources. No, how rich was Alex all this time. Although she can fork out that money, she needs to think about it first as it might affect her plan in the future. She had researched Alex''s background, but she did not find anything about him. Even though she did not have her clan backing in this continent. A merchant''s weapon was information. If a merchant did not want to lose money, they need to research their opponent first before confronting them. Alex''s identity remained a mystery. She tried recalling his identity when she was back in the Northern Continent. She never heard about Sirius Family too. Unfortunately, Alex did not have any family in this word. Even his master was not in this world. All those Spirit Stones was his hard earned money from his pills and Spirit Stones Mine. He was thankful to the Spirit Stone box that he got from the system. Even though it contained only five hundred Spirit Stones, it was helpful for him at that moment. "Junior Brother, I am wondering if you are a wealthy Young Master." Song Yu said while grinning. Alex only shrugged his shoulder. "I also need ingredients for Flamming Sun Pill. Senior Sister can take the rest if you want." "Sure. Leave it to me. I will save the rest of the Spirit Stones for the next use." Alex nodded. Well, there was another reason why Alex chose Tempered Muscle Pill instead of Hard Bone Pill, which was a mid 3rd rank pill. Both of them should be useful for the body. But there was a distinctive difference between them. Alex can only make one pill per set of ingredients for Hard Bone Pill. But Alex can make three pills from one set of Tempered Muscle Pill''s ingredients. (Ch. 199). With three hundred sets of ingredients, he can make nine hundred Tempered Muscle pill. If he sold all of them, it could amass three million and six hundred thousand Spirit Stones with the price of four thousand Spirit Stones per pill. He just needs to pay Song Yu''s commission, which was ten percent, that means three hundred sixty thousand Spirit Stones. And three hundred set ingredients, which only a total of sixty thousand Spirit Stones. With those, he can get almost three million and two hundred Spirit Stones. He should be fine for a few months. With his Pure Fire, to advance in Martial Master, he needs around fifty thousand Spirit Stones while Sherry needs twice the number he needed. But, now that he was about to advance to Martial Grandmaster along with Sherry. He can not guarantee how much he needed to advance a star. After all, it was not an increase of small realm but leaping a whole big realm. He should prepare as much as he can and save a few for his personal need. Even so, making those nine hundred pills need a lot of time, from a few weeks to a month. Alex might be too busy for that. "Is there anything you need again?" Song Yu asked. Alex pondered a bit then shook his head. He got all he needs for the time being. "Then, let''s go back." "Sure" Alex nodded. Both of them then flew toward the house. Song Yu said she would deliver the ingredients tomorrow. Alex then went back to the house, satisfied. But on the way, he suddenly recalled that he got Core Disciple identity. If he got a mansion exclusive to himself, then should he move from here or not. Unfortunately, judging from the situation, the sect master will not give him a mansion. The reason was obvious. "Young Master." Anna greeted him as usual. Alex nodded. Alex smiled a bit and said, "You must be lonely. You can only stay in this house this whole time." "No! As long as I stay in this house. I don''t mind about that. Waiting here and make the house stay safe and clean is my job as your wif...I mean as your Spirit." She said cheekily. "Oi" Alex rolled his eyes. He shook his head while smiling. He suddenly pulled her to his embrace and hugged her. "Anyway, this peaceful situation is nice. Considering Leoz''s report, this peaceful peace might not last very long." She was surprised that suddenly her Young Master pulled her to his embrace. But she still hugged him back tightly as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling. "I do not mind if I never have a date with Young Master in a town. It might cause trouble for you. I prefer having a date in a forest or maybe a sea where we can be together without any interference. Looking at the scenery in your embrace, I only wish something like that." Anna said slowly while imagining the scene in her mouth. "Sure." Alex stroked her black hair. Anna always accompanied him in this world. She stayed behind him and supported him from the back. He thought about it, it was really nice to have Anna around. Granting her wish, might not be too bad in his opinion. Surely, Alicia and Firia will not mind. "All right. I will try to breakthrough after this." Alex said. "That''s right. Young Master, you should check your mission first" Anna said. As a spirit from the system, she also received some notification concerning the system. Alex remembered the mission that he got inside the cave. The mission was for him to be a champion in the Outer Disciple Ranking Tournament. He opened the system in the mission. [Mission: Rank First in Outer Disciple Competition Reward: Undying Fire Body Manual] He immediately claimed the reward. It was a body cultivation manual. Alex was curious about the effect, so he immediately took out the book. Looking at the black book, he eagerly opened it up. The first sentence made him dumbfounded. ''Turning the body to fire. Pure Fire can never be extinguished, thus creating Undying Fire Body.'' 228 Undying Fire Body "Turning my body into fire? Can I be called a human again after that?" That was the first question that Alex had in his mind. Well, considering his Spirits like the wraith or others. He also knew that there might be another humanoid creature he might meet in the future. Sherry might even turn to a human in the future...probably. Even so, leaving his original race just for strength was a matter that he needs to rethink again and again. Even with a cool dragon or phoenix like race, he still needs to think about it before he decides. [You do not need to worry about that, Host. It will not change your race or something. Your body and race still that of humans, but you can change your fleshly body to fire for a period of time. Take the heart, for example. If someone stabs you at your core. You can change the shape of your heart for a bit by turning it to a fire, and it will return to its original shape after a while. With that, you can avoid death] "Well, it is surely effective. But I still need to think about it. Just give me a day to ponder it over." Alex said. [Sure, take your time, Host] Alex went back to his room and read the rest of the book. The refining process started from Heart, Meridians, Blood Vessels, Tendons, Bones, Flesh, and finally skin. In total, there were seven refinements. Unfortunately, he needs to refine a herb before he can start the refining process. First, he needs to refine Magma Flower first, which he had before refining his heart. Second, he needs Blaze Tree Seed. Then, Flamming Heat Lotus, Star Fruit, Fire Grass, Undying Blaze Root, and Red God Crystal. Surprisingly, He had Magma Flower and can start refining his heart. It was such a coincidence that even made him wonder what''s going on. [It is your... luck, Host. You do not need to mind about it] (AN: I was thinking about using the word ''plot *****'' but it might break the fun? not sure about it) Even though it said ''turning his body into fire''. The first five stages only refined his internal body. Before, he refined his flesh and his skin. He pondered over and over again, not wanting to choose his life plan recklessly. After thinking for a whole day, Alex finally decided to refine his body. The system also kept advising him. Saying that his body will still be a human, and the function will still be like a human. Maybe because of this thought. Alex forgot about the promised ingredients from Song Yu. He forgot to wait for Song Yu before refining his body. He sat down on his bed. According to the manual, he needs to stimulate his Pure Fire into his heart. After that, the Pure Fire will work like magic and do the rest for him. He just needs to resist from turning to a Mascho... Ahem, a guy that aroused with the pain. Opening the Fire Phoenix Seed, the Pure Fire immediately covered all over his body. He channeled his Pure Fire and concentrated it in his heart, according to the manual. Upon reaching the heart, his Pure Fire immediately flared up inside his heart. This sent him a massive pain that he can not help but scream as loud as possible. Some of the fire also broke out from his body. The fire was dancing beside his body. "Argh!" Although Alex had prepared himself from the pain, the pain was still beyond his imagination. He screamed very loud that even his scream reverberated on the nearby house, which was Putri and Song Yu''s house. Song Yu immediately picked up that loud scream with her exceptional hearing and realized that it was Alex''s voice. She suddenly stood up. She just went to purchase the ingredients and wanted to send it to him. Hearing this scream, She knew that the scream was really painful. That means Alex was in immense pain. When she was about to exit, she met Evelyn. "Big Sister Song Yu, is there something wrong?" Noticing something wrong from Song Yu''s expression, Evelyn asked. "You come too" Song Yu did not tell her anything and grabbed her, and went to Alex''s house. Since Putri''s house was relatively closer to Alex, she also heard about the scream. She anxiously went outside her house. The scream came from Alex''s house direction. Suddenly, Song Yu, who was carrying Evelyn, arrived. They had relatively closer to Alex''s house, Evelyn finally heard the loud scream, ringing on her ear. She can feel the pain contained within the scream and noticed that the pain came from Alex''s direction. Reaching Alex''s house, the scream was even louder. Evelyn gulped down, hearing the scream she can somehow feel the pain inside Alex''s voice. The cool looking guy like Alex screamed like this, he must be in massive pain. She suddenly looked down. She was wondering if this was his practice. She felt the pain and frustration when Alex trained her was nothing if she compared it to this scream. Evelyn and the rest landed on the field and started running anxiously to Alex''s house. Before suddenly, a woman appeared in front of the house. With her long black hair tied into a ponytail, an otherworldly beauty that put Song Yu, Putri, or even Evelyn to shame, appeared and graced them with her presence. She looked at the trio that wanted to come to the house with her enchanting purple eyes. "Please wait." Song Yu and Putri immediately realized who was the one in front of them. It was Alex''s illusion. Evelyn was the only one who did not know who she was. She looked at the pretty lady who was wearing a tight black shirt and a skirt with a single white stripe at the bottom of the skirt. But Evelyn did not have time for trying to know her because the moment she arrived in front of Alex''s house gate. She suddenly felt her heart was clenched by something. She did not know why, but she has this feeling. She really wanted to kneel at this moment. She never felt something like this. "You... you are that illusion girl." Song Yu said with a surprised face. "My name is Anna Sirius. Young Master is in his practice and can not be disturbed. If not, the consequences will be serious. So, I hope three will go back." "Anna Sirius? You... Master said he has wives, do not tell me it is you?" Song Yu asked. She felt her cultivation was 2-Star Martial Grandmaster. She remembered that when the first time she showed up, her cultivation was 6-Star Martial Master. Did she hide her cultivation and how can she disappear like the time in front of Martial Arts Pavilion. "Ah, I really hope for that position. Unless the Young Master has not accepted my yet" Anna shook her head. "Then, are you really an illusion?" Putri also can not help but ask. She also remembered her cultivation. To think that she suddenly became a 2-Star Martial Grandmaster in a short amount of time, it will shock the entire sect. "Of course not. Young Master is fine, so I hope all of you can return" Anna said. They wanted to, but the appearance of Anna really surprised them. Especially, when she said she was not his wife. A peerless beauty that can make them ashamed was not his wife, what exactly was in his mind. If it was other males, they will immediately jump and push her down after seeing this beauty wanted to be their wife. Looking at their expression, Anna also knew what''s on their mind. She chuckled. "Ufufu, Young Master is unique. He will not fall in love with just appearance. Young Master choose to build the relationship first before falling in love. That''s why I am contented with my position, and I know that when he loves me back, it will not be able to change. Fufu, Young Master won''t bed anyone just because they are pretty, is not that great. There will be no homewrecker around him." They looked at her with a weird look. Especially when they heard her last sentence. ''Homewrecker?'' They involuntary twitched their eyebrow. Trying to be his wife while there were another two wives... They didn''t know what to say as they looked at each other weirdly. "Well, since he is training, then we will not bother you." Putri said. Song Yu nodded, then she gave Anna a space ring. "This is what I promised to him, please give this ring to him later." Anna received the ring in confusion, she looked at the inside and surprised to see so many medicinal ingredients inside. She got curious why there were so many ingredients. ''Don''t tell me it is for...'' (AN: Ahem, girl, it is for collaboration...) Anna suddenly looked at Song Yu with curiosity, she scanned her from up and down. ''Is Young Master like this type?'' She looked at Song Yu''s petite figure, she twitched her eyebrows. ''If Young Master like this type, can not he just like the other one?'' Anna looked at Evelyn. She frowned, ''Hmm, Is Young Master choose the future? This little girl might grow up taller and bigger. While this ''Song Yu'' is not going to be like that...'' If Alex was here, he might smack her head. Suddenly, Anna felt something wrong. She noticed Evelyn was sweating profusely. She narrowed her eyes. Looking at Anna''s expression, they immediately turned to Evelyn. They were surprised to see that Evelyn, who was silent this whole time, was covered with sweat. "Evelyn, what happens to you?" "Are you alright?" Evelyn gasped as she turned her head to Song Yu and Putri while smiling. "I am alright Big Sisters. I do not know why, but I somehow want to kneel in here." Song Yu and Putri were bewildered. They looked at each other in confusion. But Anna immediately knew the reason. She can greet Evelyn and the rest calmly even after Alex started screaming, was because she had prior knowledge about Undying Fire Body. When refining the body, the flame will also gush out from Alex''s body. Even though they were not too closed, as expected of Pure Fire Element, the king of fire. It was very obvious why Evelyn wanted to kneel. If Alex did not release his fire, then Evelyn will not have any problem, but now that he was refining his body and released his flame. Evelyn, who was close to him, immediately got suppressed. Anna said, "It might be because of Young Master''s training. You will be fine if you get some distance from here." Song Yu looked at her and nodded. She said, "Then, we will go back first." Anna nodded. "Then, please take care. I will keep waiting here and protect while he is training." Song Yu and Putri nodded. Song Yu grabbed Evelyn, and all of them flew away. After seeing them off, Anna returned to the house. She was not bothered a bit by the scream. She was sure in her heart that Alex would be able to succeed in this. She also knew the previous holder of this Undying Fire Body. How can she not know when the previous holder of this Undying Fire Body was Alex''s best friend. The best friend that can keep up with him because of this manual. Alex kept screaming for many days and nights without stopping. Luckily, he was a cultivator. If he were an ordinary mortal, he would be too exhausted and died in hunger and thirst. Alex kept screaming for two weeks before calming down. Putri, who heard his screaming all this time plugged her ears with Spiritual Energy. Song Yu''s condition was the same. With her exceptional hearing, Alex''s scream was a bit bothering. She plugged her ears too. After two weeks, suddenly, Alex felt the pain had disappeared mysteriously from his heart. All that left was the warm feeling from the remaining fire. Alex tried changing his heart in Fire Form. There was suddenly a hole on his heart covered with fire. He tried to change the heart''s shape for a bit. And surprisingly, the heart suddenly changed shape. "Argh!" Of course, changing the shape of his heart felt like something twisted his heart. It was very painful and weird. He thought that he might be able to be invincible with this technique with nobody can touch him because he was the fire itself like a certain character. But it seems it was not the case. This technique itself had flaws such as it was excruciating. According to the manual, he might also die if he overused it. He shuddered and stopped picturing that ''character''. 229 Prowess Alex tried a few times more, and the pain in his heart felt excruciating. He felt that he could not do that for a while. He confirmed the limit to do that was three times. Alex cleaned his body that full of sweat. He realized that Undying Fire Body was not an omnipotent technique, but it was useful at critical times. After he cleaned himself up, he felt that his heart was pumping very stable. But every time it pumped and circulated the blood, he got far more energy than normal. He tried to throw a punch to the air. He was shocked by what he found. Before, Alex can punch with a power of 500 bulls with the help of his Spiritual Energy. Then, he can throw a dragon strength punch if he used his ''Immovable Step''. Surprisingly, after refining this body, he can throw a dragon strength punch with just the help of his Spiritual Energy. If he added his ''Immovable Step'' which should be able to give two times of his power. That meant he had two dragons strength. Just this thinking alone excited him. He did not know if the ''Sky Movement'', especially ''Immovable Step'' had a limit. If his ''Sky Movement'' did not have any limit, that would be terrifying. If he had ten dragon strength, with his ''Immovable Step'', it would become twenty dragon strength. He did not compare it with ''Heavy Step'' which was the most powerful among the ''Sky Movement'' because it had too many restrictions. Alex threw another punch to confirm it. The punch was also contained a dragon strength. Alex leaped out of joy. He remembered that Charya had ten dragon strength. Of course, there was nothing like ''Immovable Step''. So, Alex tried to take his pure raw strength, one dragon strength, as the comparison. He should be around mid Martial Grandmaster stage...probably. Since the strength from each star in Martial Lord Stage should increase exponentially. Alex was not good with this, so he left it just like that. He thought it was better to see the comparison with another person. Alex then came out of his room to see Anna, who seemed to know that he will go out at any moment. "Young Master" Alex nodded, "How many days I used this time?" "Two weeks." Alex nodded again. The torture that he felt like an eternity was actually two weeks. If Anna answered with ''two days'', he might snap. Suddenly Anna gave a Space Ring to him. "That Song Yu gave this to me since you are training." Alex was surprised. "Does not that mean you have met with Senior Sister Song Yu?" Anna nodded, "When you refined your heart with ''Undying Fire Body Manual''. Young Master screamed loudly, and the others noticed it, so I stop them." Alex nodded. Maybe he should make a sound insulation array first before he started the next refining. Song Yu and Putri had met Anna back in the Martial Arts Pavilion. After all, Alex did not really mind about that. After receiving the Space Ring, Alex checked the inside. There were three hundred sets of Tempered Muscle Pill ingredients and twenty Flamming Sun Pill materials. Alex nodded, satisfied. "Young Master, are you going to break through after this?" "Yeah, After eating Fire Spirit Pills, I should be able to breakthrough to 9-Star Martial Master. Then, I will eat the Energy Pill that elder Su Hua gave me back in Limewatch Town. With that, I can break through to 10-Star Martial Master." Alex answered. "Young Master should try to check your cultivation speed first. Now that you have refined your heart. Your cultivation speed should become a bit abnormal." Alex frowned, he tried to check it immediately in front of her. When he gathered the Spiritual Energy in his surroundings, he finally found that his cultivation speed became twice...no thrice times faster than previously. Suddenly he felt something wrong, he noticed that the Spiritual Energy was racing to get inside his body. With the sudden influx, he felt very uncomfortable before finally. "Cough Cough..." He coughed and broke his Cultivating posture. "Now that you have refined your heart. Your heart should be like your Pure Fire. It would suck and refine the Spiritual Energy around you like crazy. If it was only a small increase in speed. Then, I''m sure that Young Master will be alright. But, because the difference is big. I suggest, after taking the Fire Spirit Pills and advancing to 9-Star. Young Master should adjust your body first to get accustomed to your current Cultivation Speed. I''m sure that because of the change, Young Master felt uncomfortable when you absorbed the Spiritual Energy earlier." Alex was surprised when he listened to her. Alex said, "You seem to be familiar with this Undying Fire Body Manual." "... I will continue my explanation." Anna flustered a bit but chose not to answer his question. Seeing that he would not get the answer, Alex also did not press her. He continued listening to her. "Heart, Meridians, Blood Vessels. This three purpose was to change your internal life flow to a fire flow. You will get a significant boost in your inner energy, such as your cultivation speed. Then the next would be your Tendons and Bones, it will significantly boost your body overall strength and controlling your inner bodies such as power and energy. The flesh refining and Skin would be the last refining, it will boost your strength to an unprecedented height. If you reached flesh refining, you could regenerate your limbs and organs except for heart and brain." Alex was astonished. Hearing such an explanation, how can he not? There would be a bloodbath to get this Body Refining Technique if others knew about this. The system granted it to him just like that. Searching for the ingredients might be a hassle, but the reward was worth it. Alex then said goodbye to her and said that they would be going out when he wanted to breakthrough. After all, there was still a matter about the Blazing Pond inside that cave. Maybe he will just reach the peak until he can not hold it, then went around that cave and finally breakthrough. He might want to make some distance from the cave to avoid ruining it. In this hype, he can not wait to break through to Grandmaster Stage. He took out two Fire Spirit Pills from his Space Ring and swallowed them. The last time he used two Fire Spirit Pills was a few months ago. Back then, he used almost a week of time to refine the two pills, causing him to change his approach with Spirit Stones. He wanted to try it again after entering 8-Star Martial Master stage, and with his refined heart, will there be any difference? Hypothetically, there should be a difference. Alex swallowed the pill as the fire energy inside the pill burst out. Alex''s enhanced heart finally played its might. Revolving like crazy, the heart refined the energy at such speed he had ever seen before. Alex continued refining it and unknowingly, a feeling that he can not hold anymore as Spiritual Energy sparked. ''9-Star'' Alex did not open his eyes. Instead, he continued refining the pill and absorbed all of the energy from within the pill. He felt that it was only a few hours after he started absorbing the pill''s efficacy. Happy with the result, Alex pumped his fist. After reaching 9-Star Martial Master, Alex did not forget about Anna''s advice. He tried absorbing the Spiritual Energy around him. Just like before, he felt that something clogged up and made him very uncomfortable. He coughed again. He did not give up. He tried it again and again. On the first day, he could see his progress from a few seconds to a few minutes. On the second day, he managed to cultivate for an hour. On the third day, he could do it for a whole day. Then, on the fourth day, he tried to go for three days straight. If he can do that, he will stop and eat the Energy Pill. Fortunately, he was able to do that. On the last day, he opened his eyes and took out the Energy Pill from his Space Ring. If he absorbed this pill, he would be able to breakthrough to 10-Star Martial Master. Before eating the pill, Alex frowned as though he was weighing something in his mind. In fact, Alex was thinking about his progress. If he really went all out for cultivating, he should be a Grandmaster at this point. He made a breakthrough to 8-Star Martial Master a few days before the tournament, around a month ago. Then, broke through to 9-Star. Not long after this, he will be able to breakthrough to 10-Star Martial Master. After consolidating his foundation, he will advance to the Grandmaster stage. Well, he was not complaining about it, but his speed was really astonishing. Looking at the people around him, he felt a bit more confident in himself. Putri had not broken through to 8-Star Martial Grandmaster or Song Yu also still in 4-Star Martial Lord. But of course, considering that they were at a far higher level than him, he did not know their difficulty. According to his system, his speed came from his Pure Fire Element and his way of earning Spirit Stones. Alex finally swallowed the pill. The energy started gushing out from the pill as the pill slowly melted on his mouth. He was shocked by the amount of energy contained inside that single tiny pill. Having that much energy that needed to be refined, Alex was smiling. After three days, Alex finally opened his eyes as he finished absorbing all of the energy. Surprisingly, he did not manage to advance to 10-Star Martial Master. The energy was not enough. Alex checked his body with a dumbfounded but agitated look. He never expected this. All he knew about the pill that he will breakthrough after he ate the pill. Sadly, it did not happen. Alex was disappointed. "System, why I did not break through to 10-Star after eating the pill?" [Host, the amount of Spiritual Energy you need to advance even a single star was far more than regular people. From the look of it, you need around three times. All of it comes from your Pure Fire Element. Although Pure Fire Element needs a few times more, it also gave you a big strength and some occasional benefits like unlimited use of Fire Spirit Pill. Of course, it might only work when your cultivation stage was not that high along with the limit each month. That was the reason why Host did not use Fire Spirit Pills anymore] "..." Alex looked down, seeming to ponder something. "How about Energy Pill?" [You can only use one for that. But, considering the amount of energy. It should fill more than half of your energy. For this rank 2 energy pill, you just need to fill the rest with your Spirit Stones. With Host''s current speed, it will not take a long time] Alex sighed. He went to his Spirit Gathering Array. Pouring ten thousand Spirit Stones to the array. His record was when he broke through to 7-Star Martial Master. In a month, he managed to use a hundred thousand Spirit Stones. In other words, he managed to absorb ten thousand Spirit Stones per three days. If other people needed a hundred thousand Spirit Stones just to breakthrough, it would take them forever. Not to say their absorption speed was far slower than Alex. They also did not have enough resources to do that. Took Evelyn as an example, if she needed that many resources, she will not be the famous genius princess. The kingdom might choose to cultivate others since they will be more useful. Alex started cultivating again. He managed to break through to 10-Star Martial Master after absorbing thirty thousand Spirit Stones. At first, he was shocked when he managed to use ten thousand Spirit Stones in a single day. He was thankful to Undying Fire Body. He had cultivated for a month already. According to the System, with his current cultivating speed, he can consolidate his foundation with only a month. After hearing that, Alex did not immediately fully consolidate his cultivation. Instead, he left some spare time to refine Tempered Muscle Pill. Of course, for his own cultivation resources. He never expected anything from the sect. He remembered that the sect gave that jade token as resources for him. And that was not enough. Although that three month free cultivation might be useful for him. He did not know the rank of the Spirit Gathering Array inside that place. If it was rank 3 Spirit Gathering Array. Then he already had one in front of him. 230 Back to Zunde Field Alex took another two months to consolidate his cultivation while making pills. He decided to do that because he thought about the future. If he consolidated his cultivation alone without caring about Spirit Stones. With his two or three hundred thousand Spirit Stones left, after reaching the Martial Grandmaster stage, he would not have enough resources to advance. Of course, he had researched Flaming Sun Pills and mastered it. He also tried learning about Space Plate and Spatial Doors. Although it was complicated, Alex somehow managed to learn Spatial Doors. Unfortunately, he did not manage to get a good grasp of Spatial Doors. In these two months, Alex thought about selling the cultivation chance in Cultivation Pavilion for Spirit Stones. But it might arouse suspicion from the others, so he refrained himself. At least, the promised fifty thousand Spirit Stones as his reward came to him. In Alex''s bedroom. Alex was in a lotus pose while his eyes were closed. When absorbing Spiritual Energy, Alex finally felt that something started clogging up in his body. He felt something like this before he had a breakthrough into Martial Master. At that time, since he was on his honeymoon. He chose to stop his cultivation for a while and enjoyed his time with Alicia and Firia. Alex opened his eyes as he got outside his bed and came out of the room. He looked at Anna, who was sweeping the floor with a broom. "Young Master" Anna greeted him, and she realized. "Are you going to breakthrough?" "Yes" Alex nodded. According to the card, Anna and Leoz had reached 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. He can not lose to them. Considering he was their master, it would be too embarrassing. "Then, I will prepare myself and follow you." Alex had told her about his plan for this breakthrough. He was unsure whether that golden lightning that appeared in his tribulation for Martial Master would appear again or not. But if the golden lightning appeared once again, it would become troublesome. So, he chose the area around the Blazing Pond. Of course, he would need to ask Anna to protect him in case something happened. "Yes. Oh, right, before that. Please give this to Senior Sister Song Yu first." Alex gave her a Space Ring. It took him a long time to refine all of them. If he had not refined his heart. It might take him another month to complete the refinement of three hundred sets of Tempered Muscle Pill. After all, the heart gave him a breakneck speed to recover his Spiritual Energy. Previously, Alex needed two days to reach Zunde Field, where the Blazing Pond was. Now, he might need only one day to reach there...probably. Within that time, Anna can give the pills to Song Yu. After all, Song Yu and the rest had met her. So, there was no point in hiding it again. If Anna was the one who came to Song Yu, then Alex can make his way to Zunde Field. He did not need to waste time to wait for Song Yu''s reply. Anna nodded to him and went to the crystal room to lit the crystal for Song Yu''s house. "Then, I will go first. As soon as you finish, just inform me, and I will summon you." "Yes, Young Master" Alex nodded and flew away. Alex went to Zunde Field directly. An hour later, the crystal for Song Yu''s house had dimmed down. Anna immediately set off toward Song Yu''s home. Seeing Anna come to her, she was surprised. Anna was not bothered by it since she had expected that Song Yu would be surprised by her presence. "If I''m not wrong, you are Anna, right?" Anna nodded. "I come here on behalf of Young Master to give this to you." Anna was not that polite to others. In fact, she was only polite to Alex. No matter how high or how low other people''s cultivation, she did have any attention to be polite. Especially with Song Yu. Because of her misunderstanding that thinking Song Yu became another candidate as Young Master''s wife, she became a bit more hostile. If Song Yu were polite with her, even after that, she would accept her. Well, considering the age, Anna was the senior here. "Oh, Alright, thanks. I will sell it. By the way, where is Alex? I thought he would be the one who comes here." Song Yu asked while receiving the Space Ring. "Young Master is currently seeking the opportunity to break through to Martial Grandmaster stage outside the sect. Now that I have given the Space Ring to you, I will now go and accompany him." Anna said. "I see." Song Yu nodded. She was a bit surprised to see that Alex was going to break through to Martial Grandmaster. Considering three months ago, he was just an 8-Star Martial Master. But she remembered when Alex was stuck in 5-Star Martial Master for around six months. Then suddenly, he broke through a few levels after that pretty easily. Well, he had Charya''s token in him, so she did not worry that much. Anna nodded to her and contacted Alex. "Young Master, I have given her the goods." "Understood. Then I will summon you here." "Yes." Anna then turned to Song Yu, "Then now my job has been completed. I need to go to him" Anna said that as she started to disappear because Alex''s recall her back to the card to summon her again on his side. Song Yu was checking the Space Ring before she was shocked. There were nine hundred Tempered Muscle Pills inside the Space Ring. According to her memory, she just gave Alex''s three hundred sets of ingredients. She also knew that the limit for a set of Tempered Muscle Pill could give birth to three pills. Seeing the nine hundred Tempered Muscle Pills inside the Space Ring. How can she not be shocked? That meant Alex managed to make three pills from each set perfectly. And after she checked the quality of the pill, her jaw dropped as her legs started giving out. All of the pills had perfect purity. Song Yu fell on her knees while thinking, ''What kind of monster Alex is?'' Evelyn came out of the house after seeing Song Yu fell to her knees. At first, she did not dare to go out. Seeing Song Yu spoke to Anna, she did not want to disturb them. She just observed from a distance. After seeing Song Yu fall to her knees, she can not help but come to her. "Big Sister, what happens?" Evelyn asked while checking her condition. "Err... Nothing." Song Yu tried to regain her composure. Alex will become a millionaire. But all of that came from Rank 3 pills. Then, what would happen when he made rank 4 pills or higher. Surpassing the wealth of an entire sect or kingdom might be possible. And when he came to the Northern Continent where her family was, he might as well surpass the wealth of her family. She suddenly remembered Alex''s VIP card. There were two ''V'' on it. Alex might be a higher level of VIP on her Blackwade''s clan. She gulped down. Maybe she should treat him differently after now? Of course, all of this can''t be told to others. If they knew that Alex was like that, they might enslave him to make money if not kill him. She stored the Space Ring carefully. She did not dare to think about her ten percent commission that she had lowered from twenty percent. She only sighed as she turned to Evelyn, "There is nothing. Let''s go back." "Un." Evelyn was confused. However, she still nodded her head. ... Back to Alex, After recalling Anna to the card, he finally summoned her back. Alex stopped a bit to summon her. Both of them then continued flying since their journey was still long. They talked with each other throughout the entire journey. Anna considered this as a date while watching the scenery. Although they were moving fast, a trip with Alex still considered a date for Anna. Alex, of course, did not mind that. In fact, he was happy with Anna''s presence. After a day, they finally arrived at Zunde Field. They immediately went to the cave where the Blazing Pond was. After confirming the pond was still there, untouched, with his Spirit Eyes. Alex finally started searching the surrounding for a perfect place for his breakthrough. After searching around for a few minutes, he finally found a rather big field without any trees. Considering the cave was surrounded by forest. Finding this kind of field was pretty miraculous. It was only around two hundred meters away from the cave. Because it was surrounded by big trees, it did not really stand out. "Anna, could you check our surroundings to make sure there are no cultivators or Spirit Beast around us?" Alex asked. "Understand." Upon hearing Alex''s order, Anna immediately accepted and searched around. Alex also did not waste any time. Without further ado, Alex took out Grandmaster Stage monster blood. Alex still had blood supply from his system. As he never used it because his level was too low. Alex used it on this occasion. He might need to buy the beast''s blood again. He wanted to collect it himself. But, since the amount he will store later was massive. He did not want to waste time by extracting the blood from the monsters one by one. With that, he started making the array for him. There were three arrays that he was going to make. First, it was Rank 3 Spirit Gathering Array. Breaking through in a place dense of Spiritual Energy will benefit him. Second, it was rank 2 Lightning Rod array. He had made this array back when he underwent the lightning tribulation back in the lower world. It was his cheat sheet. There will be ten lightning strikes for the tribulation. Previously, he used this Lightning Rod Array for the ninth since he can''t use it on the last one. He was planning to do that again. Lastly, he made Rank 3 Array Tortoise Shell Array. He learned how to make this array in his fifth month when consolidating his cultivation. He did not need to practice Rank 2 Lightning Rod Array because of the similarity it had with the Rank 1 Lightning Rod Array. With some little tweaking, he made the Rank 2 Lightning Rod Array. After finishing the array, he made the last check to ensure the array was working. After that, he started cultivating again. He was about to breakthrough. According to his speculation, he should trigger the lightning tribulation in two hours. After an hour, Anna came back to his side. She thoroughly checked the area in one hundred kilometers radius. She might be exaggerated a bit, but all of it was for Alex. So, she did not exaggerate, at least that was what she thought. "Young Master, everything is fine. There are no high rank monsters or cultivators around. But something is not right." "What is it?" "I noticed there is an increase in the number of monsters around this area. Although their strength is not that high. I felt there is something wrong here. I suggest Young Master call Leoz, that muscle brain, here. Although this Tortoise Shell Array might stop them. If some high rank appeared, it might be a bad one." Anna said with a serious expression. Alex frowned. Although he felt Anna exaggerated a bit much. Alex still regarded her warning seriously. "Alright, let''s call him." Alex took out Leoz''s card. Since he recalled Anna after she gave the Space Ring to Song Yu, Leoz''s card was in his possession. "Leoz, what are you doing right now?" ... In the forest next to Zhou Kingdom''s capital city, A yellow haired guy finally split a big snake into half. His sword was still covered by yellow lightning, because there were other monsters in front of him other than the big snake that he had cut. After hearing, Alex''s voice rang on his head. He immediately looked at the monsters in front of him and ran away. "Killing monsters, as usual. Is there anything you need from me?" "I want to call you here to assist me as I want to undergo my lightning tribulation." "Understood. You can summon me anytime." Leoz said. "All right, I will summon you here now." Alex said. After that, Leoz disappeared from the forest. "Summon" Leoz was covered by red colored liquid. Anna and Alex can recognize it. It was blood. Leoz greeted him. "Young Master." Alex nodded. Seeing his blood covered body, "You can rest first." Leoz nodded. 231 Lightning Tribulation 1 After another hour, the sky turned dark as the sound of thunder started echoing through the sky. Such a phenomenon was not that rare, especially in Heavenly Sword Sect. Alex himself often saw such occurrences. When he was in the sect, the dark sky often appeared in the north. Alex assumed that it came from Cultivation Pavilion. After all, breaking through in Gathering Array was useful. The disciples must utilize the Cultivation Pavilion as the place for the breakthrough. If, at this time, he did not meet the golden lightning, he would undergo the lightning tribulation for Martial Lord in the sect. With the sky turned to dark, Alex''s body also started feeling it. "Tortoise Shell Array, Activate" A yellow barrier suddenly rose from the ground. Even a mid rank Martial Grandmaster should not be able to break this barrier. If not because Alex''s cultivation was low, this barrier can block a peak Grandmaster. "Gathering Array, Activate" Back in the lower world, Alex only relied on the natural Spiritual Energy that somehow gathered in there. But this time, Alex had many Spirit Stones. He did not hesitate to pour everything. At this time, Sherry suddenly came out of his body. "Wuu" The white fox that everyone thought was sleeping, suddenly came out. Alex was surprised, but he did not have time to react. Sherry also understood that. She just stood there with Anna and Leoz. Alex nodded to Sherry. In this tribulation, even though there was Anna, Leoz, and Sherry beside him. They can''t help him in this tribulation. If not, his tribulation will fail. He looked at the sky and saw the dark cloud was a few kilometers wide. It was far bigger than the one he saw back in the lower world. He took a long breath before saying, "Come." Like it was provoked by Alex, it immediately sent the first lightning strike. Alex narrowed his eyes a bit, but this lightning strike was not that strong. Spiritual Energy started sparking on his right fist. He punched the lightning strike with his one dragon strength. The lightning strike immediately broke. As expected of the first wave of the lightning tribulation. The yellow lightning can''t hold the candle against his strength. ... The nearest town from Alex''s position was Shades Town. With dark clouds that big, they were wondering what happened in Zunde Field. Many people came to the city wall, looking at the dark cloud. Many family leaders, along with the city lord, also arrived at the city wall. "What is that? Lightning Tribulation?" "It should be, but how can a Lightning Tribulation become that big?" "Is it a beast that is undergoing an evolution?" Someone muttered. Upon hearing that, many family leaders immediately said, "Send a few elders to go there. The most vulnerable time of a beast was when they are undergoing an evolution. Our family will be the one who will get that beast." "Wait! Don''t go!" Upon hearing that, the city lord immediately shouted. Everybody immediately looked at him. "City Lord, don''t tell me you are going to and hog the beast for your own?" "That''s right. It is not fair." "No! I have seen something like this. It was from a senior, and he was undergoing his Lightning Tribulation to Martial Lord. If it is like that, then we can not hold the anger of that Senior." The City Lord said. Shades Town was one of low level town. The City Lord was only a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. If they angered a soon to be Martial Lord, then the only thing they would get was annihilation. But even the City Lord was unsure about it. The one he saw back then was a bit bigger than this. Every family head suddenly hesitated. Everyone, except one. The old man had 5-Star Martial Grandmaster cultivation. With his aged but arrogant face, he looked at the City Lord hatefully. He secretly sent a message to his subordinate to gather a few elders and go there. Because he had never seen such a thing, the City Lord might also make it up to secretly hog the reward by himself. That''s why he wanted to exploit it himself. High risk, high return. If he did not take a risk, how can he get a high reward? If it was indeed a beast, then he can rise, and he, Cody Quinto, the head of Quinto Family, will become the City Lord himself. Truly, greed can ruin one''s family. If it turned out to be a Martial Lord, he could just say that the elders were acting on their own. Especially if he was a male, he could just give treasures and women to him. Since there were many beautiful women in the family, he might fancy one of them. ... The second tribulation came, Alex had prepared for it. As usual, he felt the yellow lightning became stronger. Surprisingly, this time, when he punched the lightning. There was a big resistance from the lightning. He frowned. Even so, he threw a full strike and destroyed the lightning. After destroying the lightning, smoke rose from his fist. Although, as the Pure Fire Element''s holder, he did not feel the heat, it was still surprising. Alex clenched his fist again. When the third yellow lightning struck him, the flame had covered his fist. He threw a punch toward the lightning. The flame on his fist tried to burn the lightning. Surprisingly, the lightning fought back. Then struck felt very heavy. Alex can''t lose to this. "Immovable Step" As the strength from his feet started moving to his fist. The initial strength of a dragon strength became two dragons strength punch. With that double power, the lightning was obviously lost. Alex let out a sigh. After this, the lightning would turn blue as the blue thunder started gathering on the cloud. Alex can see the mighty thunder that was going to strike him with his Spirit Eyes. But there was another sound coming from another direction. Anna, Leoz, and Sherry immediately frowned as they looked toward the sound''s direction. Alex can hear the howling music too, but choose to believe Anna and the rest. Not long after, many monster beasts suddenly came charging toward their position. Anna, Leoz, and Sherry immediately went to the front. Of course, they were still behind Alex''s Tortoise Shell Array. Upon seeing Anna and the rest, the monsters immediately rushed toward them, trying to kill them. Sadly, they crashed on Alex''s Tortoise Shell. Anna and the rest prepared for everything to happen. They looked at the variety of monsters here. Wolves, orcs, lions, and so on. They started looking at the monsters'' cultivation. All of them were Foundation Stage and Master Stage monsters. They were sure that the monsters could not break this array. Even so, they did not lower their guard. After all, Alex''s tribulation was still in the fourth wave. They can''t kill the monsters too, as the barrier also prevented them from doing so. Upon crashing the barrier, the monsters started going around the barrier to surround it. Anna and Leoz immediately frowned, as Anna immediately ordered. "Leoz will go cover that direction, and Sherry will go there." Anna pointed out two directions, making the protection of a triangle shape. "Pay attention to an incoming Grandmaster Stage beast." Anna frowned, she did not know why the monsters started charging at them while Alex was undergoing his tribulation. Normally, they won''t. She speculated two reasons for that. One, the monsters had a leader. After seeing the variety of monsters that were charging them. Anna thought about the possibility of the monsters'' leader. After all, the monsters that were charging them did not have anything in common. Second, Alex''s lightning tribulation might hold something deeper, something that can''t be seen with naked eyes. And that uniqueness might be the one that attracted the beast. The fourth lightning came and struck Alex''s down. The fire that was covering his fist started forming another shape. The new shape turned out to be a claw. Alex struck forth the lightning with his fire claw. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Phoenix Claw" The overbearing heat that came from the claw was not losing to the heat coming from the lightning. On Earth, the heat of a lightning strike that struck the ground was said to be higher than the sun temperature. But it turned out that was not the case. Or it might be because this lightning tribulation was man made. It did not hold that much heat. If it was, there might not be any cultivators at all. The fire tried to burn the lightning and managed to do so. But the momentum of it still managed to push Alex''s back. The ground beneath his feet started cracking. "Immovable Step" With Immovable Step, he pushed back the lightning completely, leaving a small crater in the ground. After destroying the fourth lightning, Alex looked at the sky. He can''t use his raw strength to fight the lightning from now. Well, he was reserving his strength this whole time as there might be some factors that might happen. Looking at the monsters that were surrounding him, it made his speculation became clearer. The fifth lightning charged at him. Alex saw the incoming blue lightning. He waved his hand as suddenly a giant Fire Phoenix appeared from the tip of his finger and charged toward the lightning. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Fire Phoenix Summoning" In the sky, the clash between the lightning and the Fire Phoenix was apparent. The blue color filled the dark sky, and the bright red color glowed brightly on the opposite side. On the city wall of Shades Town, the people gulped down when the clash happened. For those who had Fire Element, they can''t help but kneel in front of the fire phoenix. "Hey, what happened to you?" "Oi, why are you kneeling?" "Stand up!" "I can''t!" "My body won''t do so." "Believe me. I''m trying." It made confusion among the people on the city wall. There was even a family leader that was kneeling when he saw the Fire Phoenix. Quinto Family''s head immediately furrowed his eyebrows. He was going to go back to his family. He sent a few elders from his family. With the power of that ''Senior'', the elders might be annihilated. Even so, he was not sad or mad about it. Instead, he was pleased about that. After all, the elders that he sent were the one that opposed him. They were planning to usurp his position as a Family Head. He kept looking like he was ignorant about their plan. The elders must have received his order and gone out. "Where are you going, Quinto Family Head?" Suddenly the City Lord asked. Seeing the phenomenon just now. I''m afraid in my family, there will be an uproar in my family. I will go back to quell the panic." Of course, he already had his alibi. In fact, he was planning to arrange some virgins from his family and maybe some slave girls that had a pretty appearance to congratulate the ''Senior''. Even if those elders that he sent told the ''Senior'' about him, who was the ones who sent them out. He can just keep his ignorance as the opposition in his family had gone. He came back to his family to make sure that the alibi will be accepted by the Senior. He will make sure that the family members will not spout some nonsense. Such a perfect plan, he thought. ... Back to the scene, The phoenix finally exploded, and the remaining fire burned the lightning completely. The fire even struck forth to the cloud and burned some parts of the cloud. Even so, it did not affect the lightning tribulation. In fact, the lightning tribulation got angrier. Alex looked at the sixth lightning that became far stronger than he expected. He frowned. It was such a coincidence that his Fire Phoenix suddenly burned some parts of the enormous cloud. Alex finally took out two spears on his right hand and left hand. Using a close combat Martial Arts like Silver Raven or Bear Sovereign might be a bit dangerous at this point. He clenched the spears in his hands. He threw the first spear. "Spear Throwing Art. Power Throwing" After that, he also threw the second spear. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing" Alex had his reason why he chose to throw his spear. And why he threw with Power Throwing first before throwing with spin. He wanted the Power Throwing to break the power and the momentum from the lightning. After that, the second spear will pierce through the lightning and destroy it. Of course, he had covered both spears with his Spear Intent. He felt that it wouldn''t be enough if he didn''t do that. 232 Lightning Tribulation 2 The first spear charged furiously toward the lightning. From others'' points of view. There was nothing that can be seen from this spear. It was only a normal thrown spear. But, the moment it clashed with the lightning. It was not blown away. The spear continued its charge without even stopping. The long lightning body suddenly clogged up at its tip where it met the spear. The lightning''s tip started inflating. And finally, the spear lost its momentum and fell to the ground. At that time, Alex had thrown his second spear. This time, the spear had a very mighty penetrating power with its spin. When met with this spear, the inflated lightning burst out like a balloon. As soon as the spear burst it out, it continued and pierced through the entire lightning body. The spear managed to pierce and destroy the lightning, so Alex did not take out his sword. Judging from the result, this strategy seemed to be useful. Alex was thinking of using the strategy again for the seventh wave. Suddenly, he heard the sound of someone''s shout. "I found flying monsters along with Grandmaster Stage Monsters." Alex looked in the direction where the sound came, turned out it was Leoz''s voice. Sherry also reported it, "Wuu." It was the same in her direction. There were a couple of flying monsters with Grandmaster Stage monsters. All of those monsters were charging at him. Alex frowned. He thought about speeding up the process of this tribulation. But, something even more ridiculous came to him. "Young Master, a group of people came to us." Anna shouted at him. Alex floated above the trees and saw the group of people that were coming toward him. According to his Spirit Eyes, there were twenty Martial Masters and ten Martial Grandmasters. The grandmasters were around 1-Star to 4-Star, but there was a single 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. He should be the leader. He knew the trouble that the monsters would give him. But, those people will be the ones that will become troublesome for him. Before he could continue observing them, the lightning tribulation sent its seventh wave. Alex''s eyebrows twitched, he was a bit annoyed at this current predicament. "Seven Stars Cut!" This time, Alex didn''t hold back. He used his Seven Stars Cut with his Sword Intent. Alex managed to use four layers Seven Stars Cut. His cultivation allowed him to do so. Before, he couldn''t use it because his cultivation was not enough. After reaching the 9-Star Martial Master, he was able to unleash it. Four layers of Sword Wave immediately fused. The sword intent became the catalyst to fuse them. After all the sword waves fused, the sword intent continued covering them. The tyrannical that far surpassed his three layers Seven Stars Cut flew toward the lightning. The result was obvious. With an attack that strong, came to its way. The lightning was pushed back to the cloud. It destroyed the lightning immediately and gave him a bit more time to reorganize their position. Alex immediately looked at the monsters. He focused on the Grandmaster stage ones since the Master stage ones might not give him much trouble. The monsters were trying to attack his barrier, but it should be able to hold for a bit longer. Then he turned his head toward the group of people. They were rather brave. To think they still came toward him when the monsters were here. They sneaked around the monsters and passed through them. They appeared from the direction where there were no monsters. Although some monsters were coming their way, they were only low level monsters, and they killed the monsters easily. Alex said, "Leoz, Sherry, go to Anna." "Understand" "Wuu" Anna narrowed her eyes. Her eyes became dangerous as she came in front of them. Of course, she was still behind the barrier. "What are you doing here? Are you the one who calls the monsters here?" Anna looked at the 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. It was a very old man. Obviously, the group was astonished by Anna''s beauty. They never saw any lady whose beauty was close to her. Leoz and Sherry finally came. Anna was a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Upon seeing Leoz, who was also a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster, they were a bit surprised. When Sherry came, they were not that surprised since Sherry''s strength was only 1-Star Grandmaster. Unfortunately, as one should expect. Upon seeing Anna''s beauty, no normal young man can resist. "Grandpa, I want her." A young man suddenly shouted. The young man had bluish hair. He wore a fancy robe like a young master. Sadly, his face was rather...ugly. Upon hearing that, Anna, Leoz, and Sherry immediately frowned. Alex, who was on the distance, also narrowed his eyes as killing intent started seeping out from him. He did not know why, but Alex suddenly wanted to kill that man. Well, he had considered Anna as him, so this reaction might be reasonable. The old man looked at the yellow barrier. He might be able to destroy the barrier if he used his full strength. But he might become too exhausted after he destroyed the barrier. He looked at Alex, who seemed to be the one who was behind this phenomenon. When he saw Alex''s cultivation, he seemed to be only a 10-Star Martial Master. He knew that this lightning tribulation was for him to advance to Grandmaster Stage. So, he started looking down on them. He looked at his grandson, who was captivated by Anna''s beauty. "Young Lady, how about releasing this barrier. I can help you out of this predicament. The barrier seems a bit strong. But, sooner or later, the monsters will be able to break this barrier and swarm all of you. If you agree to be my grandson''s wife, I will help you." The rest of the group looked at the old man. He was the previous Family Head of the Quinto Family. When they were about to set off, this old man suddenly came to them, saying he was curious. Because of his strength, they did not dare to reject him. And he seemed to be confident in protecting his grandson. Anna snorted, "Old Man, you should castrate your grandson before he ruined your entire family because of his lust. I give you one more chance, scram from here." "Hmph, with your puny 3-Star Grandmaster strength, you think you can fight all of the monsters and us here. Hmph, I also know that you don''t have any identity. I have remembered all the geniuses from all four kingdoms and four sects." "Then, you can try. My master is the special Core Disciple from Heavenly Sword Sect." Anna said, while looking at Alex. "What special Core Disciple. Core disciple in Heavenly Sword Sect only for those who are in Martial Lord. He is not a Martial Grandmaster, yet you claim he is a Core Disciple? Hmph, who do you think you are trying to fool? I will give you one more chance. Make a Heavenly Oath and swear to be my grandson''s wife, and I will spare you." "Sigh. Ugliness can be fixed, but idiocy can''t" Anna looked at them with disgust. "You. After the monsters destroy this barrier, I will cripple you, and my grandson will play you through your life." This time, Alex was really pissed. He took out Leoz''s card and checked it. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 23/80 (3-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 101384/130000 HP: 5800 ATK: 290 DEF: 285] Before he could talk, The eighth wave had come toward him. The fire started hovering on his sword. They danced together with the Sword Intent. He raised his sword and swung it toward the lightning. "Elemental Sanguin Sword Art. Fifteenth Slash" The red colored sword wave made its way toward the lightning. When they clashed, the power was equal. But the flame element in the sword wave threw off balance between them. The flame element started spreading on the lightning and burned the lightning bit by bit. After ensuring the lightning had died. Alex finally had the chance to talk. He talked to Leoz with his card so that the others won''t notice it. Alex said with a cold tone, "Leoz, I will make the lightning rod array explode. It should send some sparks toward the monsters on the ground. Coming from my ninth wave of lightning tribulation. All Foundation Stage Monsters should be killed along with most of Master Stage monsters. I doubt the flying ones and Grandmaster Stage ones. But I think you can destroy them. The exploding lightning will make its way and roast all of my arrays. At that time, the barrier will break, so make sure your timing is right. As soon as the array breaks, I will use the exp cards and elevate your level. Make sure you kill them. Well, leave some of them alive, I will interrogate them myself. And one more thing, make sure that ''young man'' is alive. I want to kill him myself." "Understood." Leoz nodded as he grinned dangerously. He looked at the old man and the rest, like looking at foolish people. "Haha, you guys have pissed someone you should not piss the most. None of you can leave this place alive." "You are talking big." The old man snorted. Anna immediately realized what Leoz meant. She looked at Alex as a sweet feeling filled her heart. Slowly but surely, Alex had opened his heart to her. Just a bit more, she can become his once again. "I suggest you run away now. No, it will be better if you kill yourself-" "Crack!" Before Leoz finished his sentence, a cracking sound was heard. He looked at it and saw the barrier started cracking. The monsters managed to crack the barrier, and it will be destroyed sooner or later. "Hmph, you forget your own position." The old man harrumphed when he saw the crack on the barrier. "Beauty, how is it? It is better to be my wife. I will ask my grandfather to save you." The young man finally said. But before Anna said anything, the monsters managed to destroy the barrier and started entering the barrier through that gap. At the same time, the cloud sent the ninth lightning tribulation. Alex immediately activated the Lightning Rod Array. Upon seeing the activation, the old man instantly realized there was another Array inside this barrier. He thought that the barrier was made by other people, and the young man who was undergoing the tribulation just managed to find it and take advantage of it. It turned out that it was not the case. The young man in front of him was the Array Master that made all of this array. He actually offended an Array Master. He sweatdropped. ''I offend an Array Master? What should I do? Kill my own grandson and apologize to save my life and the entire family? No, he might not want to accept my apologies. Then, I should kill him, even if he is an Array Master, he is only a Martial Master. I should kill him before he managed to breakthrough to Grandmaster Stage. Sh*t, it will be better if you are not an Array Master!'' The old man thought. He realized that Alex was the array master because of the Lightning Rod Array. Every cultivator should recognize what kind of existence of the Lightning Rod Array. In this world, there was no pill that can boost one chance in breakthrough, especially when Lightning Tribulation came in their way. The only one that can raise the chance was Lightning Rod Array. This was the first reason why Array Masters were prestigious. They were the only ones who can make a Lightning Rod Array to boost their chance to breakthrough. If the Lightning Rod Array was built by someone, that person will fight and protect him. Seeing there was no such thing. That meant the only possible reason was the young man that was undergoing his tribulation was the one who made the array. This young man can not be left alive was what he thought. After activating the array, the lightning obviously struck the Lightning Rod Array. But before the Lightning Rod Array dispersed the lightning. Alex made it unstable. When the Lightning Rod Array became unstable. The lightning inside it went berserk. It will rampage on the ground for a while before naturally dispersed by the ground. Alex immediately floated a bit higher. Leoz, Anna, and Sherry, along with those people, were in the safe height, so they did not move. They still did not know about Alex''s plan, though, except Leoz. The rampaging lightning started sparking on the ground. They were like a snake, spreading while killing everything on its way. 234 Escape Alex started cultivating. Unknown to him, people from many forces were on their way to him. Even if he wanted to hurry, he can''t. The golden lightning made him can''t do so. The only way to escape was to advance first as quickly as possible then finally escaped. Leoz and the others were killing the monsters without leaving an opportunity for the monsters passed through them and made their way to Alex. They thought the monster might not have any leader, the way Anna had speculated. They were attracted to Alex''s Lightning Tribulation. That was their instinct as a Monster Beast. With that, Anna did not have anything to bother her for a while and continued killing the monsters. Her killing rate also increased. Of course, it did not mind that she let her guard down. Alex had this feeling once again. His cultivation started raising from 10-Star Martial Master Peak to 1-Star Grandmaster. But, he also had a feeling that he understood something. This was the feeling where he suddenly understood his Spear Intent. After a while, his Sword Intent suddenly started gathering outside his body. They scattered while dancing all around his body. The most surprising thing was where the Sword Intent suddenly looked like it got compressed. It slowly came inside his body. When the Sword Intent fully absorbed in Alex''s body. It suddenly came out again. But this time, it came with Harmony. It made a sphere like Sword Intent. When the sphere of Sword Intent came out. It started expanding, from a small ball, becoming one meter radius, and it expanded continuously until it reached five meters sphere in radius. If others looked at it, they would be able to recognize it. Because the sphere of Sword Intent that surrounded Alex was a Sword Domain. That meant, Alex finally broke through a Sword Grandmaster. If others knew that he, despite being a new Grandmaster, had become a Sword Grandmaster. It might shake the entire mainland. But, blessing also came in disguise. Even though the expansion of Sword Domain had over, there was still another thing he had. With the opening of Sword Grandmaster Realm. Unknowingly, Alex also somehow understood another thing. It was like a door opened to him. Behind the Sword Domain, there was suddenly an appearance of Spear Intent. When the gate had opened, the rest will follow. Alex''s Spear Intent also went through the same process. First, they scattered and danced around him before they got absorbed by Alex. The moment they came out of his body, they made a sphere of Spear Intent, from a small sphere to a big sphere. Expanding again and again. Unfortunately, unlike his Sword Intent. Alex only managed to expand the Spear Domain to three meters in radius. Even so, it was already an unprecedented achievement. A new Martial Grandmaster but also a Sword Grandmaster and a Spear Grandmaster. It was big news as well as a disaster for Alex. Looking at the condition, the Golden Lightning seemed to enhance only his Sword. But using that indescribable knowledge, Alex managed to open his way to Spear Grandmaster. Using the spur of the moment, Alex tried to fuse his Sword Intent and Spear Intent together. Like a meeting between two parties, the Sword Intent and the Spear Intent greeted each other. They were dancing together between those three meters to five meters radius layer. Alex continued to do that, but like his relationship, it was not that easy. It was not like falling in love at first sight. The overbearing Sword Intent and the sharp Spear Intent. As the Sword Intent slowly shrunk, it looked like it wanted to merge. Unfortunately, when the two Domains collided. They suddenly broke into pieces like glass. Both domains became undone, and it did not stop there as Alex suddenly spat blood. With that, he finally came back from his breakthrough. Alex checked his injuries. Luckily, it did not do much damage. He can just recover with a bit of rest. He opened his eyes to see Leoz kill the last monster standing. Anna and Sherry seemed to have finished their portions too. Alex was grateful to them. When they noticed Alex had woken up. They immediately approached him. "Thank you, gu-"Before Alex can thank them, the system immediately interrupted. [Host, hurry up, run away from here. There is someone strong approaching y-] The same as Alex, before Alex can finish reading the notification, he felt the overbearing pressure ten meters in front of him. Leoz and Anna also immediately picked up their weapon again. Looking at the one who dared to come to them at this moment, hostility. The one who came was another old man with long green hair and an aged face. His eyes were full of strictness. He wore a green lace long white robe with some grassy pattern. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes and was surprised by what he saw. He saw tremendous energy inside the old man''s body. It was stronger than the one in Charya''s. But there was something that piqued him. He saw the stream of blood red energy, spreading the entire Spiritual Energy. ''Did he come to take revenge?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you the one who made that phenomenon?" The old man said with his stern but aged voice. "No." Alex said, trying to test the water. "Young Man, I warn you, don''t lie to me. If you lie to me again, I will punish you." He said while releasing his Spiritual Energy. Sherry perceived Alex''s intention. She acted like she was scared and got behind Alex. She looked like she was scared and hid behind Alex since she didn''t dare even to show herself to the old man. In reality, after she got behind him, she immediately entered Alex''s body. ''If you already know, then why did you even ask!'' Alex cursed in his mind. "Yes." "Then you have two choices, submit to the Zhou Kingdom and be loyal to us. We will nurture you." Alex narrowed his eyes. The Zhou Kingdom again, he thought. Alex asked first, "Are you a Martial King?" "Hmph, it seems that your eyes are also good. That''s right! Now submit to us." "I don''t remember that the Zhou Kingdom has a Martial King" Alex tried to get some information. This old man was looking down at him. He thought that Alex wouldn''t be able to escape from his clutch. "Hmph, you don''t know anything about us. We will dominate the continent, that''s why we submit to us now. And you will also get the glory." Alex frowned, the tone of this old man was too big to swallow. Alex asked, "Then what is the second option?" "Death" The old man only let out a single word. Alex looked for an opportunity to escape. He suddenly looked down like he was weighing something. "Don''t think. There are only two choices for you as you can''t escape from me." Then the old man suddenly looked at Leoz and Anna. "If you try something funny, I will kill both of them." Alex looked at Anna and Leoz and secretly gave them a signal. Anna and Leoz also understood his intention. Alex still wanted to escape. Anna, who knew him the most, immediately recognized his plan. He tried to use his Space Door to escape from here. So, she will be a distraction. But first, they will play along. "No, Young Master. You can''t." Anna said dramatically. "That''s right, Young Master. You can''t. Remember, you are our Sirius Family Young Master. You can''t submit." Leoz said dramatically. The old man released his Spiritual Energy to shut them up. He looked at Alex, "Choose now. Submit or die. If you die, look at this young girl. I will make her serve the soldiers as s*x worker." "Fine. I will choose!" Alex shouted. He was gritting his teeth. How dare he¡­ "Good, you make the right choice." "Young Master!" Both Leoz and Anna shouted. They played along excellently. "I have made my decision, say no more. It is as he said. It is the right choice." Alex said. The old man started grinning, thinking that he had won. Alex suddenly said. "Yeah, it is really the right choice. And my choice is¡­ Anna!" As soon as he said that, Anna immediately used her techniques. "Dark Curtain" She made a massive black sphere, trying to surround the old man. The old man can only see darkness from the inside. But, that split second confusion, let Alex escape. Alex had been planning to escape after killing the monster. If not because of the effect of golden lightning that prevented him from doing so, he would escape immediately after he killed the monster. The moment the Dark Curtain was raised. Alex immediately made a Space Door. He made a Space Door toward the direction of the Blazing Pond''s cave. The distance itself was not that much, so with his current expertise, he should be able to make it. A circle gate appeared in front of him. Inside the gate, there was only a blue colored layer. It was kind of like a water surface as the blue layer was volatile. Alex immediately entered the gate and entered that blue colored realm. The old man was trapped by the Dark Curtain. Because of the sudden change, he was shocked. But, he immediately expanded his Spiritual Energy and tried to attack anywhere. His attacks were flying in many directions until an attack grazed the Dark Curtain. The darkness slowly crumbled as he soon can see the outside world once again. When he looked at Alex''s direction. He can only see a circle gate that soon closed. He immediately realized that they fooled him. Alex took advantage of his confusion. But, the biggest miscalculation he had made was underestimating him. He can clearly recognize that gate, and it was a Space Element ability. Only a Space Element can have such a strange technique. But, if he escaped from there, he can''t bring his friends. If he made his friends as hostages, Alex would come sooner or later. Especially with that otherworld beauty ''Anna'', Alex won''t be able to abandon her. Upon realizing that, he immediately looked at Anna and Leoz to take them as hostages. It became his miscalculation too. As soon as Alex entered the gate, he recalled Anna and Leoz back to the cards. When he looked at them, he saw they disappeared like an illusion. He couldn''t sense them anymore. He thought that those two ''friends'' were an illusion. He wanted to spat blood. To think a newborn Martial Grandmaster could fool and escape from him, a Martial King. ¡­ When Alex entered the gate, He finally came inside a blue realm. According to Spatial Plate or Space Door. This realm was called Void World, or others might say a space within space. In this realm, Alex can only see blue colored layers that look like water. Now he had some understanding about space, he can somehow see what the blue layer was. He had experienced it quite a bit when he practiced the Spatial Door and Space Plate back in the sect. When he practiced it, he could only use Spatial Door while his mastery in Space Plate was not deep enough to use it. Thinking about it, Alex was a bit grateful that he managed to learn the Spatial Door first. He can escape with this technique. Back in the sect, he tried a few times about this blue layer. When he made another gate in this layer, it will lead him to another place near him. Sometimes he suddenly appeared in the bedroom, sometimes he appeared in front of Anna and made her startled, and sometimes he appeared anywhere else. Luckily, if he tried to make a gate in an object. It will fail. If not, Alex might suddenly appear and fuse with an object, or he might appear inside the wall that was full of materials. He ran quite a bit. He finally saw the Blazing Pond. He tried to see the room for Blazing Pond. Then he opened the gate and entered it. He finally arrived in the cave. With the natural looking wall in the cave entrance, there should be no problem with him being found out here. Sherry came out of the cave as Alex took out two cards. "Summon" Anna and Leoz appeared in front of him in relief. Leoz hadn''t seen Alex for quite a while, so he did not know Alex''s ability that much. But Anna had observed him from day one. She knew Alex''s Spatial Door and recognized his plan. Leoz only played along with her. After getting to the system, he can somehow understand the intention of other spirits, whether they were serious or not. Anna was not serious when telling him, ''he can''t''. So, Leoz immediately played along. He thought that the Young Master must have a plan. Luckily, their plan succeeded. They managed to escape and left that old man behind. They made sure to remember the ''Zhou Kingdom'' about this. 235 Quinto Family Back to the old man, as soon as he realized that he was tricked by Alex and co. He went on a rampage. Finally, at that time, he realized there were a few people there with their cultivation crippled. Some of them were alive while most of them were dead. Judging from the corpses, they seemed not to be killed by monsters. Instead, it was from a human. He arrived at that conclusion after he saw the sword wound on their body. He looked at the people who were still alive, looking at their empty and shocked faces. He slapped them, trying to wake them up. "Bastard, wake up!" The first one that managed to wake up was the old head of the Quinto Family. When he snapped from his daze, he finally realized there was a person in front of him. When he checked his cultivation, he realized that he had been crippled. He tried recalling what happened. He remembered that when the golden lightning struck and made the sky turn to golden color. They were in a daze like they were in illusion. After seeing that golden color, they felt that someone that looked like Alex appeared in their mind. That person locked them inside that illusion. He had tried to break free a few times before giving up. But, after receiving a slap from the old man in front of him. He finally managed to break free from that illusory prison. The old man in front of him suddenly realized that the Quinto Family''s old head had come back from his daze. He immediately released his tyrannical Spiritual Energy. From a cripple''s point of view, this Spiritual Energy was enough to choke them to death. Even if he didn''t direct it to kill them, just by near him, it was enough. "Se-Seni¡­or" The old man tried to speak. "Speak! Who are you to that Young Man!" He retracted his Spiritual Energy a bit. "Thank¡­thank you¡­Senior" The old man spoke, but his lung was still hurt because of the previous Spiritual Energy. "Hurry Up and Speak! I will kill you!" "Ye-ye-yes! I am the former head of Quinto Family from Shades Town, the town near this place. Thank you for saving my life. Our Quinto Family will be eternally grateful to you." "Shut Up! I don''t want to hear that. I only want to know anything about that young man" The Martial King let his Spiritual Energy to pierce one of Quinto Old head''s legs. "Argh!" Jonas Quinto screamed out of pain. "Ye-yes! I¡­I only know that person is undergoing his tribulation for Martial Grandmaster. At first, when we saw this, we thought it was a Monster Beast that was trying to evolve. Considering it attracted many monster beasts around the area. We proceeded carefully. But, when we arrived, we found out that it was not a monster beast. Instead, it was him." "Who is he?" The Martial King asked coldly. He felt that other forces would arrive in a minute. So, he became a bit impatient. "We¡­we don''t know. I¡­I can have my family to search for his information, Senior." "So you don''t know anything. You think your family can compare with the Zhou Kingdom. Hmph, since you waste my time, then die." "No, Senior plea-!" Before he finished speaking, the Martial King had killed him. He didn''t forget to kill the survivor too. He won''t let the other forces know any information. At least, he was in a better situation than them who knew nothing. He will mobilize the Zhou Kingdom to search for his information. But to suddenly do a full search about Alex, it can make the other forces become suspicious. He went to Shades Town. When he arrived, he saw many people standing on the top of the city wall. He released his Spiritual Energy to make them fear him. "Martial Lord¡­" "Martial Lord¡­" Because of their misunderstanding and lack of knowledge, they thought the old man that came to them was a Martial Lord instead of Martial king. "Where is the Quinto Family?!" He asked coldly. The Quinto Family''s head immediately covered with sweat. He didn''t dare to show himself after hearing the cold tone from him. "If no one showed up, I will destroy the entire town." All of the people started sweating, the City Lord immediately went up to the sky and talked to him, "Senior, Congratulations for your breakthrough. I am the City Lord of this town. I can guide you to the Quinto Family." "Good, lead me." "Ye-yes!" The City Lord spoke hurriedly. But before leading him to Quinto Family, he found the Quinto Family''s head in the crowd. "Senior, that person is the current family head of Quinto Family." The City Lord said while pointing his finger. Knowing that he was found out, his legs started shaking. He went up to the sky, "Se-Senior, I am the Current Head of Quinto Family. Congratulations on your breakthrough. How about coming to my family for a celebration? We have prepared a banquet just for you." "Lead me to the house." "Ye-yes!" He misunderstood the Martial King''s intention. He started smiling that he thought he had won. He led the Martial King to the house immediately. The others were shocked by that. All of them had the same thought, ''Did the Quinto Family know something about this guy?" They started chasing them to the Quinto Family. But suddenly, an explosion sound was echoing. They looked at the rising black smoke in the air. After arriving at the scene, they gasped. They could see many corpses lying on the floor lifelessly. Finally, they managed to see a familiar corpse in the entrance. It was the corpse of Quinto Family''s head. They can''t find the senior anywhere, but they can see the end of Quinto Family. All of the Quinto Family members had died. Looking at the gruesome scene, they immediately shuddered. They were wondering why such a thing happened to the Quinto Family. Later they found out that the Quinto Family sent out a few men to ambush the ''Senior'', and this was his retaliation. ... At the previous place. From all influences, Heavenly Sword Sect came first because their location was not that far. The first elder, accompanied by another three elders, arrived at the scene. They were astounded when they saw the scene. The ground had been dyed red, and many monster corpses were in the field. Considering the danger level in the area. They didn''t find any Martial Lord rank monster. They also found human bodies. They were the people of the Quinto Family. Checking from their wound, the elders were sure that the wound didn''t come from the monsters. It was done by a human. They speculated that it was the one who made the phenomenon did this. Not long after, people from other influences started to come. First, from the Rainbow Flower Sect, then Mount Hua sect, along with Buddha Sect and finally the three kingdoms. They didn''t come at the same time. When the elders from the Heavenly Sword Sect came, they split up to search the area because they didn''t find the one who was behind all of this. It was the same from the people from the other sects and kingdoms. When the elders from other influences met with each other, they mocked each other per usual. Even so, they didn''t stop searching for any clue until they became frustrated and met each other at the center of the accident. They immediately looked at each other with hostility. Although the relationship between each influence was neutral. They by no means had a good relationship either. They can, at any time, make war between influences. "It seems that Heavenly Sword Sect comes here first. Wouldn''t you want to explain to us what you have found?" The grand elder from Rainbow Flower Sect asked. She was a granny with long white hair. She held her wand with her old hand. Even though she was like that, the sharp tongue of her was still the same. Hearing that, the people from the other influences started looking at the people from Heavenly Sword Sect too. The first elder narrowed his eyes. He cursed the old hag. He had known this old hag for a long time, and her tongue was sharp as ever. He alone didn''t find anything from here. Even if he found something, why would he want to share it with these people? Suddenly he found out something odd. There were no people from the Zhou Kingdom here. He immediately directed the hostility from himself to the Zhou Kingdom. "Ho... rather than asking that question to me. Don''t you guys realize that there are no people from the Zhou Kingdom here?" "!!!" All of them immediately looked at each other. They found out that it was true. There were no people from the Zhou Kingdom came. For such a phenomenon, there was no way the Zhou Kingdom would miss it. But before they spoke, three people came. All of them were the people from the Zhou Kingdom. They were the backup people that the Zhou Kingdom sent. It was to avoid suspicion from others. After all, if they didn''t present such an important thing, the other influences will suspect them, and their deep plan might be found out by them. That was the last thing they wanted. ... After the Martial King destroyed the Quinto Family, he went straight to the Zhou Kingdom with his full speed. When he came back, the others were surprised. He came alone. "Hmph, that brat ran so fast. Give me a paper, I will draw his face." Before the others spoke, he said his piece. "Elder, what do you find? Is that person a genius?" "Hmph. He used his Space Element to escape from me." "Space Element?" All of them were shocked. It was one of the rarest elements. The Space Element was the most mysterious element, and there were not many of their Elemental Art. "Give Elder Orlando a paper." The king said. His name was Zhou Xia. Although he was the king of the Zhou Kingdom. In reality, he was only a figurehead. The people behind him were the ones who secretly controlled the kingdom. Then he turned to a minister beside him. "Take two subordinates to go to the scene." Judging from how fast Orlando came back, he figured out that the other influences hadn''t found him. If they weren''t present at that place, the other influences might suspect them. That''s why he asked other people to come to that place. The war minister obviously complied with the order. He immediately rushed toward the scene. Because the elders from other influences came and searched the area first. They had enough time to rush, albeit barely. The servant gave a paper to Orlando. Orlando tried his best on the drawing. After finishing the drawing, he checked it once more, and it resembled Alex''s face. He waved his hand, and the drawing flew to the king''s hand. When the king saw Alex''s face, he frowned. It was an unfamiliar face. He gave it to the others too, hoping that one of them knew him. Unfortunately, none of them knew Alex. Orlando said, "Make the people search about his information." "But, elder Orlando, if we started searching for his information. Others might suspect us." The king asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "You don''t need to worry about that. At the scene, there was a family that sent their people to investigate. All of them had been incapacitated by him. I managed to know their family, and I massacred their entire family. You can use this excuse for the search." He massacred the entire Quinto Family for this reason. If he could blame that brat with this, they would have a valid reason for searching his information. They can just say that this family managed a small business for them. But Alex killed them and didn''t show respect on their face. With that, they can avoid suspicion from others. "Elder Orlando, Do you have any other information?" The king asked politely. "That brat just broke through to Martial Grandmaster. He has Space Element and strange power. That''s right, he has a pet, a white fox with a pink color on the tip of its fur." Orlando didn''t say any detail about Leoz and Anna since he wasn''t sure what kind of existence was theirs. In his eyes, they were like an illusion, that what he meant by a strange power. "Understood. We will try to search for his information." The king said politely. Orlando nodded and left. The king ordered his ministers to search for Alex''s information. After all, each prominent family had its own people as officials in the kingdom. Using those families, they could search for Alex''s information faster. 236 Gacha After he got inside the cave, Alex summoned Anna and Leoz while Sherry also came out. All of them let out a sigh of relief. Their plan was successful. Alex didn''t activate Charya''s token because she wasn''t needed for the monsters. As for the Martial King, calling her there was the same as killing her. Alex had confidence in his plan too. Even if the plan failed, Alex had prepared a backup plan. Alex had his Master''s token. According to his Master, the token held his will. He can summon his Master to this world once. After summoning him once, the world had recognized his Master''s presence. This world can''t contain God, so after remembering his Master''s presence. Even if he tried to summon him again, it was useless. He was relieved when his plan succeeded. That means he can still hold the token for another use. He suddenly remembered Leoz''s report. He turned to Leoz, "Leoz, is that person the one you mentioned back then?" "I didn''t see the Martial King back then. But, judging from the pressure I felt from him and the one we saw just now. I feel they are different people." Leoz said. Alex closed his eyes. He was weighing something in his mind. If what Leoz said was true, then the Zhou Kingdom would have two Martial King. It was unprecedented. Even each sect only had one Martial King. If the Zhou Kingdom tried to make war... It would be troublesome unless the sect united with each other. But the matter that troubling him the most was the blood red colored energy inside the Martial King''s body. It was precisely the energy that came from the evil cult as well as the Bell family. He remembered the matter about the Bell family. After that extermination, he asked Putri about the power level in that town. According to Putri, the town had a Martial Lord as a City Lord. It was pretty similar to Limewatch Town. She also said it was bothering her. The power of the Bell Family was strange. They should not have that much Martial Grandmaster. They both agreed that the problem must be the red colored energy that Alex had seen. It might have the function of boosting their cultivation. But, since the family had been exterminated. They thought it was over after doing the report. Because of that, this matter became a headache for him. To think that the Zhou Kingdom had at least two Martial Kings, it was a big problem. He might need to report it to Charya. This matter of the evil cult had escalated to an unprecedented height. It involved multiple Martial Kings and the entire Zhou Kingdom. Alex took a deep breath. Thinking about a problem like this needed a cool head. He can''t lose his cool at this moment. He opened his eyes and looked at the Blazing Pond in front of him. Sherry''s mouth had been watering this whole time. Alex can see her intention while Leoz and Anna were pondering something. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a few traces of energy. From the shape of the energy, it was human. Luckily, they didn''t find this entrance as Anna and Leoz had covered it perfectly. From the outside, it was only a natural wall at the bottom of the cliff. With that, he decided. "Anna, Leoz, I will absorb the energy from Blazing Pond first. After that, we will go out." Alex said. If they got outside at this time, they might find out about him. "Yes!" Anna and Leoz nodded. When Alex was just about to absorb the pond, Sherry immediately leaped toward him, "Wuu Wuu Wuu Wuu!" Sherry also wanted to absorb the energy inside the pond. Alex hesitated a bit. He remembered the system said that only Martial Lord or above could absorb this pond. He was fine because he had a Pure Fire Element. But Sherry... [It''s fine, Host. Sherry has reached the Pure Fire Element level after continuously taking your Pure Fire. She has evolved] His system immediately answered it for him. He then nodded. "Good. You can absorb it too." "Wuu." Sherry''s eyes brightened. She immediately opened her mouth, trying to suck the energy. Seeing Sherry had started. He also started absorbing energy. If Alex hadn''t refined his heart, absorbing this energy might take a long time. But, he also noticed how great Sherry''s sucking force was. Even though he had refined his heart, he felt that Sherry''s sucking force was even higher than him. But he also felt that their absorption speed difference wasn''t that far. He was very comfortable when absorbing energy. After around three days, Sherry had a breakthrough. Alex also managed to advance to 2-Star Martial Grandmaster a few hours later. They were going to suck this pond dry. The fire that was blazing on the pond surface started becoming smaller. After another three days, Sherry had another breakthrough to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Feeling it, Alex also didn''t want to lose. He also felt the pond energy that was abundant at the start had been decreasing at breakneck speed. But, he felt that the energy was enough for him to breakthrough. Yeah, it was enough for him to breakthrough... Only if Sherry didn''t continue sucking the energy. Alex continued absorbing the energy. He felt that at this pace, he would be able to breakthrough in a few hours. Yeah...in a few hours. When he felt that his energy started to pile up, preparing for a breakthrough, he had this comfortable feeling in his heart as the sign for a breakthrough. Suddenly the comfortable feeling disappeared, as Alex immediately noticed that the energy from the Blazing Pond was no more. He immediately opened his eyes. It was certainly annoying when you felt like you were in the zone, and something stopped you from continuing. It stopped your momentum and broke your concentration. Next to him, he saw Sherry suddenly laid down while scrubbing her stomach with her paw. "Wuu!" Her face was full of bliss. Alex twitched his eyebrows. He knew that the reason he couldn''t breakthrough was because of Sherry. It was the same case when Sherry absorbed the energy inside the Battle Tower and prevented him from advancing to 9-Star Martial Master. Looking at this blissful face, Alex can''t hold himself back. At the side, Anna and Leoz also saw him waking up. They kept track of Alex''s progress. He was on the verge of a breakthrough. If he continued absorbing the energy for a few hours, he would be able to advance. Sadly, the pond had dried up and became an ordinary pond. Alex missed his chance to breakthrough. The reason was obvious. It was Sherry. Sherry had a higher absorption rate from Alex. After reaching 3-Star Grandmaster, Sherry didn''t stop. She continued absorbing the energy. Because of that, Alex failed to breakthrough. If Sherry stopped after she reached 3-Star Grandmaster, Alex would be able to breakthrough too. Sadly, he can''t. Alex reached out his hand to Sherry. Seeing this hand, Sherry thought that Alex wanted to pat her head. So, she happily accepted it. Suddenly, she felt something wrong. When Alex''s hand was on her head, he didn''t do anything. Instead, his grip slowly tightened. At that time, she felt Alex was not like himself. "Wuu!" Alex''s action startled her. Alex gripped her head tightly as Sherry tried to break free from it. Alex then stood up. "Young Master." Anna and Leoz greeted Alex. Anna said, "We have been compiling the report from Leoz this whole time." "Yeah, I will read it later. But first, I need to do something for this fox. I failed to have a breakthrough again because of her. So, I need to tease her a bit." Alex said while smiling. Yeah, his mouth was smiling, but his eyes were not. "!!!" After hearing that, Sherry immediately realized why Alex became like this. She gulped down as she tried harder on breaking free from his grip. Unfortunately, she can''t do it. Alex''s strength was a dragon strength that came from many things. Even though Sherry was a Spirit Beast that should have a higher strength from a normal cultivator. Alex was not normal, so Sherry can only accept her fate. She tried to look at Anna and Leoz for help, but they looked away. Alex brought her to somewhere a bit far inside the cave. (After a few minutes of tor- Ahem, technical problem) Alex came back with Sherry on his hand. Anna and Leoz looked at Sherry''s state... Alex must have vented all his problems on her, starting from her lazy behavior to this problem. Pitiful Sherry. When Sherry saw Anna and Leoz, she immediately raised her head and saluted with her paw. "Wuu Wuu (Master Personal Bodyguard, reporting)!" Anna and Leoz can imagine what kind of punishment Alex gave. They shook their head and chose to ignore it. Anna asked, "Will Young Master check the report first or open the gacha first?" "Gacha?" Alex was startled when Anna suddenly mentioned Gacha. He suddenly remembered that he had broken through to Martial Grandmaster. If his memory served him right, the reward should be 5 Premium Gacha Tickets and optimizing the Mission System. He opened the mission panel. [Mission: Reach Martial Grandmaster Realm (Complete) Reward: Premium Gacha Tickets 5x & Optimizing The Mission System] Alex pumped his fist. He was dying to get Premium Gacha Tickets. He checked his Ticket status. [Gacha Ticket x352] [Premium Ticket x5] [Dart x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x1] Before using the gacha, he checked his mission. Now that it had been optimized, he wanted to see the new appearance. [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Master Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x5] [Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Master Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x5] [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Grandmaster Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x10] [Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Grandmaster Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x10] [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Lord Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x25] ... The normal mission had been optimized. There were two missions for each stage of cultivation, starting from Master Stage Monster to Martial Saint Monster. Alex was dumbfounded. ... [Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Monarch Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x1000] [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Saint Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x5000] [Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Saint Stage Monster (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x5000] Was he supposed to kill 100 Saint Stage Monster? Alex couldn''t believe it. The reward was five thousand Gacha Tickets, or in other words, it was twenty five Premium Tickets. [Host, If you become a Martial Lord. The mission will update the mission once again. But the update will only be the reward. For two whole realm below your cultivation, the mission will only give you one gacha ticket. For one realm below your cultivation, it will give you five tickets. For the same realm, Host can get ten tickets. One above you will give you twenty tickets and so on. Of course, if you made a breakthrough to Martial Lord. The reward for the Saint Stage monster will be replaced with the reward for the Monarch Stage monster, which is 1000 tickets. The same applies to Monarch Stage mission, and it will be replaced by Emperor Stage Reward and so on] Alex pondered for a moment. He thought about a possible loophole. "System, can the spirits help with the mission?" [Of course] "Then, if I didn''t cultivate for a while and had my spirits level up to Martial Saint. Then I can reap the best benefit." Alex said. What he thought was indeed tempting. If he stopped his cultivation at Martial Grandmaster while his Spirits had become Martial Saints. Alex could get a high reward. [I''m your power, Host. How you want to use me is up to you. I give you missions and many others to help you in your path. Even if there is a suicide mission, you are the one who will choose whether to accept it or not. There won''t be any time limit or any other conditions that will force you to complete the mission. All of it comes from your will. You can get the reward like that, but the longer you stay, the longer you will meet with your loved one] "No no no, I''m just kidding." Alex didn''t know why, but he sweatdropped. He felt that the system reprimanded him. Of course, Alex didn''t forget about Alicia and Firia. The system was definitely angry at him, with different intentions, though. After all, the one behind it was already dying to see him again. 237 Summon Alex didn''t get anymore reply from the system. He sighed as he opened the Gacha. Luckily, the system didn''t get locked. Alex used the ''Draw 5x'' option. He opened the box with five balls within it. Alex opened the first gacha ball. [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5] Alex was astonished to see the Summoning Ticket at the very first gacha. It was the one thing that he wanted the most. After all, he was going to use ''Summon 10+1''. Looking at the ball, Sherry came toward him with a star on her eyes. "Wuu Wuu (Master, can I try?)" Alex was not sure. He looked at her eyes. Alex pondered in his mind. ''Is it her instinct for the ball? No no no, she is a fox¡­'' Well, he had punished her a few moments ago. Alex let her try once. "Sure, just once." "Wuu!" Sherry seemed to be happy with it. She imitated Alex when opening it. She placed her paw on the ''G'' character on the ball. The ball opened, and Alex can see a card appeared from within. He had seen a card like this, twice to be exact. Alex immediately took the card and looked at the drawing on the card. It was a spear. After taking it, he got a notification. [Spear Mastery (UR) x1] He was genuinely astonished. He can''t help but mutter, "Is this the legendary beginner luck?" He remembered the first time Anna opened a gacha ball. She got a Sword Mastery (UR) too. That''s why he was wondering if this was the legendary beginner''s luck. Alex immediately hugged Sherry. "Sherry, you must be an angel. I am sorry to beat you just now. I will feed you as much as you want after we get back." Alex said while patting Sherry''s head. Well, he surely can feed Sherry. When he got back to the sect, Song Yu must have exchanged it with Spirit Stones, which should be more than three million Spirit Stones. "Wuu!" Of course. After hearing that, Sherry immediately filled with joy. Alex then remembered that there was Leoz here. Leoz had yet to try the gacha ball. Alex thought that beginner luck might work like magic once again. "Le-"When he wanted to call Leoz, the word stuck on his throat. He remembered that he also had a Summoning Ticket. He suddenly wanted to use his summoning first before opening the third gacha ball. He opened the Summoning panel. He used the ''Summon 10+1''. As soon as he used that, eleven cards appeared in front of him. [Salijan (SR) x1] [Angrixon (R) x1] [EXP Card (SR) x1] [Sapas (UC) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Nelson (UR) x1] [Asan (C) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Rafik (UC)] [Fabio Donatelli (UR) x1] Alex looked at the cards with his dumbfounded face. He was surely astonished to see that he got two UR once again in this summoning. Back when he got Anna and Leoz, he remembered that they came together too. Alex can''t help but leap out of joy. He was sure happy when he saw this. Anna and Leoz can imagine what kind of spirits he got. Anna came to him, smiling. "Young Master, who did you get?" "I got two UR Spirits. One of them is Nelson. If I''m not wrong, he is the one who you recommended me back then, right?" Anna was surprised too. He really came at the right time. When the situation got like this, Nelson saved the day with his very useful information. Leoz was happy with it too. After all, he didn''t need to do any spy thing since they were so complicated. He was bothered by that this whole time. After all, his place was on the battlefield. [Nelson (Dark) Level: 1/80 (No Cultivation) Exp: 0/1000 HP: 600 ATK: 10 DEF: 2] Alex immediately summoned Nelson. As it was the first summoning. The gate appeared in front of him. A male figure appeared from within the gate, walking toward Alex. He had long black hair that tied into a ponytail. He wore a blue shirt that got covered with a blue jacket. When Alex looked at his pants, he was familiar with that. It was jeans. "Young Master." Nelson kneeled in one knee and greeted him without expression. He should be one of those guys, the quiet yet reliable guy. Alex was dumbstruck when he saw that. He never thought that there were jeans out there. In this world, there were many types of clothes. From ancient Chinese clothes to European clothes as one would expect from another world that got connected with multiple lower worlds. Their culture had mixed up. Alex wore a stylish blue T-shirt and long black cotton pants. He just wore clothes that were easy to move. Alex didn''t really bother with the style as long as it was useful. Leoz only used a leather jacket and long cotton pants. Anna was a bit to details, though. She wore a white colored shoulder tie up top with flower pattern and a black mini skirt with a single golden stripe at the bottom. She appeared gorgeous. When Alex saw Nelson''s stylish clothes, he felt something a bit off. After seeing Alex''s troubled look, as expected of the spy, Nelson immediately understood Alex''s thinking. "Young Master, I am not a ninja. So, please refrain from thinking like that. As a spy, I need to use many clothes for the sake of camouflage. It is not only for blending in the dark but also in the daylight." "Cough." Alex opened his eyes wide when he heard that. He turned his head away, embarrassed. Yeah, Alex was thinking about that. Thinking about a person that used full black clothes from up to down, leaving only their eyes open. "Ahem, I am glad you joined our rank at this period." "Understood. I will investigate the Zhou Kingdom per Young Master''s memory." Nelson said. He had basic information about Alex and his current situation. So he immediately knew what to do. "Yes, I leave it to you." Alex nodded. "Young Master. May I ask whether Young Master has summoned my subordinates?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Subordinates?" "Yes, from the gacha summon just now. From your memory, you didn''t manage to summon any of my subordinates. So, may I ask who else you have summoned this time?" Nelson asked. Alex frowned. He didn''t know that there was such a thing. Alex looked at the card. "I got Salijan, Angrixon, Sapas, Asan, Rafik, and another UR spirit." Nelson shook his head. From his expression, Alex could know that Nelson''s subordinate wasn''t on that list. Nelson then said, "Then, I need to apologize to Young Master first." "Apologize? For what?" Alex was bewildered when Nelson suddenly apologized to him. They just met after all. Nelson said, "I can only cover the Zhou Kingdom for the time being. If I have two subordinates, I might be able to cover the whole continent." Alex was dumbfounded when he heard that. What the f***. He just thought about the information in the Zhou Kingdom. But, Nelson wanted to cover the whole continent? That was pretty insane. "Ahem, you can get the information about the Zhou Kingdom first since they are the one who is the most suspicious." "Understood." Nelson nodded. "By the way. Who are your subordinates?" "I have a total of ten subordinates in the system. Three of them are classified as SR Spirit, and the rest are Rare ranked spirits. As for who they are¡­ Young Master can immediately recognize them. All of their names start with N." After hearing that, he immediately checked the summoning list. There were indeed three SR spirits and seven Rare ranked spirits inside the list. To be exact, they were the only one name that started with N. "I see." Alex found something odd. Although he can''t see their figure or something, he remembered that the SR Spirits was not a complete humanoid while the Rare spirits or below were basically a beast. Alex couldn''t understand this. "Young Master, please rest assured. I have trained them. As long as you don''t mind their appearance, they are perfect subordinates. I have trained them personally." Nelson said after he saw Alex''s perplexed expression. He then continued. "We are specialized in Information and Assassination. So, if Young Master wants to assassinate someone, please leave it to us, we won''t disappoint you." "En." Alex only nodded. Seeing that their conversation was over. Anna came to him and asked. "Young Master, you said that you got another UR rank Spirits. Who is he/she?" "I got Fabio Donatelli." Upon hearing the name, Anna and Leoz were dumbstruck as their jaw dropped. Even Nelson, who had a poker face until now, showed an amused expression. Not long after that, Anna suddenly showed an expression of disgust. Leoz also followed suit. Nelson closed his eyes. He seemed didn''t want to be bothered by it. Alex obviously didn''t understand their behavior. He was confused by their reaction. "Why? Is there something wrong with this person? Should I not summon him?" "Well, he has the same element as you, a fire, a pretty strong one at that. His power is also top notch as he can rival Leoz in fighting power. He is also more reasonable and smarter than muscle brain Leoz." Anna said. Alex showed a confused expression. From what he heard from Anna, this ''Fabio Donatelli'' seemed to be a nice spirit. In fact, this kind of praise made Anna''s, and the rest'' expression became more puzzling. He asked, "Isn''t he a nice guy?" Leoz and Nelson immediately rolled their eyes. Anna didn''t know how to explain. She tried to explain it to Alex. "Well, he is indeed a nice guy, but¡­" "But¡­" Alex gulped down. He thought, ''Is there something wrong with this guy? Don''t tell me he is gay?'' "Hmm, Young Master should be able to see another ''Donatelli'' name in the summoning list." Anna said. Alex opened the list once again. He saw there was indeed a UR spirit with Donatelli''s name. The name appeared to be a female. Her name was Vera Donatelli. Alex then nodded at her. "Yes, her name is Vera Donatelli." "Well, they are a married couple." Anna said. "Isn''t it good?" Alex tilted his head. At least he was not gay like what he thought. "Argh¡­ How do I explain this¡­" Anna became a bit frustrated. She looked at Leoz and Nelson, who immediately turned their head away. Anna sighed, "How about Young Master summon him first?" Alex puzzled with their reaction. He took Fabio''s card and said, "Summon." A gate appeared once again as a handsome man appeared. He had long red fiery hair as his right eye was covered by his red hair. He wore a red shirt with a black jacket and long black pants. This guy seemed to be able to charm many women out there. "Fabio Donatelli, greet your highness." He came in front of Alex and greeted him on his knees. Alex nodded. "Yeah, nice to meet you. But please don''t call me with Your Highness thing, you can just call me Young Master since it is more beneficial in our situation. And you can stand up." Alex looked at Anna and the rest. He didn''t find anything wrong with him. Fabio looked like a loyal and cool knight for him. Alex was wondering why they presented a disgusted expression on their face. His doubt would be answered soon as he heard what next. "Yes, Young Master¡­" Fabio stood up and looked at Alex mysteriously. Alex was perplexed with this. He started doubting it again whether Fabio was gay or not. But, considering he had married so it should be fine. "What is it?" "¡­It is not like I really want to call you, Young Master, alright. It is just because of your order." Said Fabio while trying to look away, embarrassed. Alex''s eyes widened. Anna and the rest had this disgusted expression as they shuddered when they heard that. Anna immediately snapped, "That''s it. This is why! According to Young Master''s memory. This guy is an incurable Max Level tsundere." Because she was frustrated, Anna spouted so many terms at once. Alex made a weird smile, "Well, isn''t it fine. We won''t be too bored if all of us have our own personality." "He acts like this all the time. You will find it annoying after some time." Anna said. "Well, it is not like we will be together the whole time." Alex said. "Young Master, you remember about him having a wife, right?" Anna asked. "Yes, I remember it." Alex nodded. Anna then said, "His wife is¡­" 238 Urgent News "His wife is the same as him. She also has this tsundere act all the time." Anna said. "Just imagine this. If he said something like this, ''It''s not like I married you because I want to be with you the whole life, you know.'' And the other one said, ''It''s not like I accept your proposal because I love you, I just feel both of us is a match.'' That idiotic Tsun-Tsun couple. They acted like that the whole time. You might find it funny at first, but after some time, you will find it very annoying." Anna said. They had met on numerous occasions since they had been loyal to Alex and followed him from time to time in the previous life. The previous Alex also found it annoying, but he didn''t say anything about it and just let it go. Sadly, The current Alex had yet to see the real terror of the tsun-tsun couple. Hearing Anna''s complain Fabio said, "Anna, you are very compatible with Young Master." Anna was shocked when she heard that. She suddenly blushed red. Sadly, she was annoyed once again after she listened to the next word. "It''s not like I said it because you are very compatible, alright. I just said-" Before he finished his sentences. Anna immediately stopped him, "Alright. I don''t need to hear the rest." Alex made a weird smile. Well, he just considered Fabio as a special case for the time being. "Alright, let us finish these gacha balls first. Okay?" Alex pointed at the three gacha balls in the box. Alex believed in beginner luck because of Sherry and Anna. After all, both of them managed to draw UR items. Anna drew a Sword Mastery while Sherry drew a Spear Mastery for him. He was hoping to see another three UR items for these three draws. "Leoz, Nelson, and Fabio will open each of them." Alex handed them the balls one by one. Of course, he was careful to avoid touching the ''G'' on the ball. He didn''t want to open it himself. They opened it at the same time, and the item that they got, starting from Leoz was, [Attribute Orb (SR) Use: Enhance a tool with a random element.] [Poisonous Needle (SR) Use: Contain a poison that can kill a 5-Star or below Martial Lord instantly (One time use)] [Full Body Armor ¨C Master Rank Armor (R)] Alex was dumbfounded when he saw that. He didn''t get another UR. When he saw Leoz only got an SR, he didn''t have any exaggerating reaction. After all, the chance to get a UR item was small. Even though he expected something from the beginner luck, he was only expecting one of them got that somehow. When he saw Nelson got a poison needle, he twitched his eyebrows. But he managed to refrain himself. At least, it was an SR item. A needle like that might be useful for assassination, so he would give it to him after this. Unfortunately, when he saw what Fabio had gotten. He started doubting it once again whether the beginner''s luck was real or not. Sherry and Anna could get it both for the first time. Why did they can''t? Alex thought about it, and suddenly a weird idea came to his mind. Sherry and Anna were female, while Leoz and the rest were males. Alex narrowed his eyes and said, "You men are suck." When Leoz and the other heard about it, they were dumbfounded. Anna suddenly laughed loudly. "Hahahaha! Young Master is the best. That''s right, tell them!" "Wuu Wuu." Sherry also nodded while giggling. They rolled their eyes away. They wanted to rebuke but rather not do it, in case they would want to be laughed at again. "Ahem, alright. Let''s stop it here." Alex said. "What are we going to do after this? We still have Fabio and Nelson who are new here. They are still level 1." "Young Master, rather than thinking about us, what about you? Where will you go after this? We don''t know whether the people are still searching for you or not. But, just so you know, I don''t ask you because I am worried about you, alright." Fabio said along with that annoying line. Alex pondered for a moment. He remembered that he got an SR EXP card. [EXP Card (SR) +1,000,000] Alex opened his eyes wide. The Rare EXP card gave you a hundred thousand. But, this one million EXP. It might be able to boost Leoz to Martial Lord. But, he should consider other things, especially Nelson. After all, information might play a crucial part in this unstable period. Alex needed to choose whether to use this EXP card to Leoz so he could reach Martial Lord or used it on Nelson and boosted him to Martial Grandmaster. "Young Master, I feel you should give it to Nelson. My job is grinding after all. But Nelson''s job is important to us." Leoz suddenly said to him. Alex was surprised to hear that. Fabio also added. "Yes, Young Master. You should give it to Nelson. It is not like my ability below him, just so you know." Alex''s eyebrows started to twitch after hearing that. Alex sighed. He took out the EXP card and used it on Nelson. [Nelson (Dark) Level: 23/80 (3-Star Martial Grandmaster) Exp: 45000/140000 HP: 6000 ATK: 600 DEF: 310] With that EXP card alone, Nelson managed to become a Martial Grandmaster. It was such an enviable thing, especially for Cultivators. As soon as he leveled up, Nelson immediately said. "Then, I shall immediately go to work. I will try to see the situation out there. I will try to see which way Young Master can take to go back." Alex looked at him, dumbfounded. But, he still nodded his head. "Sure, I will leave it to you. But can you leave?" "Easy peasy." Nelson nodded with confidence. Alex was worrying since Alex entered here with the Spatial Door. But, Nelson also had his confidence as a spy. After assuring Alex, he immediately went toward the exit. "Young Master, what about those people?" Leoz suddenly asked. Alex knew what he was talking about. He referred to those people from the Quinto Family. Alex pondered for a moment. He took out Nelson''s card. "Nelson, try to check for the people that attacked me too." "Yes." Alex took out another two cards from him. It was the rare exp cards. Alex was thinking about using it on Fabio. After that, he can also join Leoz to grind EXP. Anna will keep her job as his secretary. With those people in the right job, Alex can cultivate with ease. He would still have information, and his influences will be strong without anyone knowing it. When Fabio could join Leoz in grinding EXP, Alex wanted to add the SR Spirits to his ''Spirit Nest''. He had ''Wright'' and ''Salijan'', which he had gotten just now. If they were able to help Leoz and Fabio in grinding, Alex might be able to put the Rare rank Spirits inside the ''Spirit Nest''. He didn''t know whether he could get the Uncommon and Common Spirits with this system. He didn''t bother about it for the time being. After all, this plan needed the SR spirits to succeed first before he could continue. Alex used two rare EXP cards on Fabio. With two hundred thousand EXPs, Fabio''s level became, [Fabio Donatelli (Fire) Level: 16/80 (6-Star Martial Master) Exp: 5000/60000 HP: 3000 ATK: 150 DEF: 90] Alex was pretty satisfied with the result. Leoz started his grinding below this level. Since Anna said, Fabio''s skill was comparable to Leoz. Then, Alex was sure that Fabio could grind level with this level. Leoz''s grinding would also help him since the EXP would be shared. After a few hours, Nelson reported to Alex. "Young Master. The situation is pretty bad. There are still a few Martial Lords standing by around the place. Judging from the situation and their movement. I can lead you outside of this. I also have investigated the matter about the people that attacked you. They are from the Quinto Family, one of the big families inside Shades Town. All of the people that attacked you have been killed along with the rest of their family. They were killed by a single person. He was the old man that attacked you back then. The people seemed to mistook him to be a Martial Lord. Your identity is safe for the time being. But, I''m sure that the Zhou Kingdom will try something in the dark. I will investigate it thoroughly, so please rest assured. I will go back now and lead you outside this situation." "Alright. Thank you." Alex said. Then he turned to Fabio. "You will go with Leoz and search for a place where you can grind EXP for others. Fabio nodded. Luckily he didn''t say anything, lest he would say something like, ''It is not like I bla bla bla¡­" "Leoz, I will leave him to you. Well, he is still a 6-Star Martial Master¡­ or maybe he can practice at the place where you grind your level previously?" Alex asked. Leoz pondered for a moment. He nodded, "Sure. Let''s do it that way." He nodded. Then he turned his head to Anna. "Anna, where is the report book?" "Ah!" Anna was taken aback to hear she was called so suddenly. Anna immediately took it out and gave it to him. She didn''t forget to advise him, "Young Master. I think you don''t need this book since it is pretty horrible. We can just wait for Nelson. This information will only take him a week in there, and he might be more detailed than this." Hearing Anna''s words, Alex shrugged his shoulder. "Then, we can give this book to Nelson. He can use this book as his base information and have him searched for a detailed one." Anna nodded, "Yes. We should do that." Not long after, Nelson came back. "Young Master, shall we go?" Alex nodded. He recalled Anna, Leoz, and Fabio back to the card. Sherry also came back to his body. Since the Blazing Pond was no more. Alex destroyed the entrance. Even if this case was found by someone, there was nothing inside. He had checked it with his Spirit Eyes, so it must be the case. Nelson led him in the opposite direction of Shades Town since that town was heavily guarded. They sometimes made weird turns. At first, he was confused by it. But, after checking with his Spirit Eyes, he could see cultivators around them. Alex was astonished by Nelson''s ability. It seemed to have him at an early stage would be an advantage for him. They finally reached a town called Onsul Town. Alex and Nelson spent almost a day reaching this town. After all, they needed to pass without alerting anyone. They passed two cities before this, which they went around them and passed without getting inside. Nelson didn''t immediately make his way toward the Zhou Kingdom. Instead, he went around this town to ensure they were safe. Alex was thinking about using his Spatial Door. But, Nelson advised him not to. Alex''s Spatial Door surely can go through them. But, because there were numerous Martial Lord. There might be some spatial distortion with that amount of energy around him. Alex just barely learnt the basics of Spatial Door. He should master it first before recklessly using it. Alex also understood his meaning. Even he managed to open the Spatial Door. The tunnel or the world itself might be unstable because his mastery of space was not enough to keep it stable. It was a part of mastery for the Spatial Door technique. After reaching Onsul Town. Alex was wondering if he should put his mask on. Alex would wait for Nelson''s investigation first. If it was a bit dangerous, he would put on his mask. If not, he wouldn''t use it. ¡­ Unknown to them, there was a bit of a troublesome situation. Inside the City Lord''s mansion. The door of the city lord suddenly opened by one of his soldiers. The city lord obviously was annoyed to see suddenly he was interrupted when he worked. "City Lord. Urgent News. We just got information, there is a monster outbreak. They are currently moving toward us and will reach here in five hours. We believe their number is close to ten thousand." "What!" The City Lord was taken aback. He suddenly stood up, "Sound the alarm immediately." The City Lord thought whether to evacuate or fight in this city. Ten thousand monsters¡­ He was a 2-Star Martial Lord, and he needed to make sure whether there would be any Lord stage monsters. If there were not any Lord stage monsters, they should fight. But, this also might come with many casualties. Ten thousand was not a small number. Suddenly his eyes flashed. He thought about using the townsfolk to repel the monster. If he just presented on the city wall while leading those people. His family can just fake his fight to reduce his family casualty. When the other families got many casualties, his family would still be fine, and he can suppress those families'' businesses and take over their wealth slowly. 240 Clash Anna and the rest nodded their heads. "Understood." After another thirty minutes, Alex could see many people were coming out of the town. He also saw a few old men that seemed to be discussing something on the top of the city wall. They seemed to be the important people, Alex thought. After another few minutes, Alex finally saw a few flying beasts. After he found the flying monsters, he activated his Spirit Eyes. He could see numerous signs of energy. Alex took a deep breath. Alex only found Foundation Stage Monsters and Master Stage monsters at front. "Nelson, how is it in your end?" Alex asked before the battle started. "I haven''t found the leader. But, I have a general idea about where the leader is. I will proceed carefully since I feel the monster should be a Grandmaster Stage monster. I hope Young Master forgives me." "Just take as long as you need. Just be careful since we might be too busy to recall you when something happened." Alex said. "Understood." Alex took out his mask. Song Yu had found out his identity with this mask, while Putri and Evelyn knew about Anna. Fortunately, they were the only one that knew it was him. Alex looked at Anna''s and the rest''s expression. They looked at him seriously, signaling him they were ready. Alex looked at the people in front of the wall. The monsters finally reached the town. When the people of the town saw the number of the monsters, They gulped down and started clenching their weapon. They managed to gather around a thousand fighters from the town. Their cultivations were similar to the monsters, mostly in Foundation Stage and Master Stage. Fortunately, the Master Stage was more than the Foundation Stage. Alex could see everything from the cliff. The flying monster, the tense face of people from Onsul Town, The charging beast. Alex could see it all. When the beast almost reached the town. Alex raised his eyebrows as he was confused. The town seemed to be only defending from a direction. If it was like that, the beast might surround them from the other side. It was a foolish strategy, he thought. Alex could get his answer not long after his doubt. He could see two groups of people suddenly positioned themselves on a certain angle. As soon as they raised their hands, the ground started to rise and make a tall wall. Alex could see two tall and wide walls rose from the ground. Alex''s eyes brightened as he thought of something. The wall made the shape of ''V'' with the town as the center. Its purpose was to direct the monsters to charge toward only a single direction. He had seen this strategy back in the lower world. As long as they rid the flying beast, there won''t be any land monsters that will surround the city except head on. Alex had forgotten about the fact that the beast actually was not that smart. Sherry was an exception. The land monsters followed the direction of the wall without destroying it. After they saw humans in their way, they immediately charged at them madly. Because of the wall, their instinct told them to follow it and charged toward the humans in front of them. Luckily, the wall didn''t block his vision. With this, his plan was rendered to be useless as the monster wouldn''t come to his direction. After the monsters started charging toward the people from Onsul Town. Around a hundred people suddenly flew toward them. They were bombarding them from the sky. There were another two hundred people that also released their element from behind. It was the first clash. Alex immediately pointed out at the city wall. Seeing their plan had become useless. He immediately came up with another plan. He was planning to join the battle from the city wall. "We are moving to the city wall. Let''s go." Alex stated while putting on his mask. Anna covered her face with a veil. Leoz and Fabio nodded their heads while Sherry sat to Anna''s head. They flew toward the city wall. When they reached the city wall, the people immediately noticed them. They pointed out at them, especially when they found Sherry''s on Anna''s head. "Monster!" "Who are you?" Alex took out a Core Disciple Token. It was given to him since the sect master had raised his status to a Core Disciple. Charya gave it to him a week after the tournament. "You are a Core Disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect!" They immediately recognized the token. With Alex''s mask, they couldn''t see Alex''s cultivation. They could only see and the others. All of them were Martial Grandmasters, except Fabio. Since they couldn''t see Alex''s cultivation, they thought he was indeed a Martial Lord, befitting a Core Disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect. But, it was different for the City Lord, who was also a Martial Lord. He couldn''t see Alex''s cultivation. He suddenly sweatdropped when he couldn''t even see through Alex. They immediately rejoiced when they saw a Core Disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect with them. "I am here to help. Seeing the monsters want to rampage on one of our towns, how can I not help..." Alex said with a sentiment like he was a righteous person. When the high ranking people heard that, they rejoiced. Since they would get another help from a Martial Lord, their chance in killing all these monsters had increased. The people on the city wall were Patriarchs or elders from a family. Whatever their schemes, it wouldn''t be good if they got destroyed in this battle. An aged man suddenly came to the front. He had spiky white hair, and his eyes seemed to hold many schemes. But Alex also noticed there was a trace of fear inside his eyes. It appeared the Core Disciple Token that he accepted without thinking, brought him yet another situation that he could take advantage of. "I am the City Lord of this Onsul Town. My name is Albus. We are honored if a Core Disciple will help us in this ordeal. On behalf of Onsul Town, I would like to say thank you for your help, Sire. This might be presumptuous, but may I ask Sire''s name?" "Sure, I will help as much as possible. As for my name... you don''t need to know." Alex nodded his head. Inside, he was cursing at this old fox. ''What the heck, you sly old man. You don''t even send a messenger or something to request some help from another town, and you are thanking me? Ptui, after I killed them and took my Gacha Tickets and EXPs, I will just go!'' "How about Sire took the leadership? I''m sure it will increase morale. with a Heavenly Sword Sect''s Core Disciple take the lead, I am sure they will be energized." The City Lord said. Alex''s eyebrows twitched behind his mask. He was fuming with rage from dealing with this kind of person. Alex turned his head and looked at the fully armored man that seemed to be the leader for this operation. Alex shook his head. "I''m just a disciple from Heavenly Sword Sect. I can kill, but I can''t lead many people. I''m sure City Lord has entrusted your people to the right person over there. He should be able to lead the people and minimize the loss." Alex rejected him. "I and the others will help you as a special team. So, you don''t need to worry about us." The City Lord looked at him, mysteriously. He said, "Then, if Sire needs anything, just call any of us here." Alex nodded and made a distance from them. His Spirits and Sherry kept their silence. Alex looked at the battlefield. The humans killed the monsters pretty quickly. They managed to kill around a thousand in a few minutes. Well, considering the monsters were only Foundation Stage or Master Stage. They should be able to deal with it pretty easily. The battle would become harder and harder from now on. According to Nelson, there would be around two thousand Grandmaster Stage Monsters. He wondered what kind of plan they had to be this confident. Most people had yet to move because the monsters had yet reached them as the bombardment was effective. "Leoz, Anna, and Sherry will go when those people started charging toward those monsters. Fabio will stay here from the time being." Alex said. "Understood (Wuu)." All of them answered. Alex took out his spear. Looking at the spear, he finally came up with Fabio''s role. "Fabio, I will kill them with my Spear Throwing. Later, you will go to the battlefield and kill those monsters while recovering my spear." Fabio nodded. Alex expected Fabio to reach Martial Grandmaster in this battle. After another two minutes, it seemed the bombardment had stopped. Those people started recovering their energy on the rear. At that time, the captain, who was in his body armor, shouted. "People of Onsul Town, Charge!" "Kill!" The clash between monsters and humans had started. Alex raised his spear and threw it. He didn''t forget to add his strength with ''Immovable Step''. With his raw strength now, it would become a significant impact on them. It was for the sake of first impression. "Spear Throwing Art. Power Throwing." To kill more effectively, he used Power Throwing. The moment his spear reached its target, it immediately destroyed the monster. It was powerful and managed to create a strong shock wave, capable of killing a few others. [EXP+ 1000] [EXP+ 500] [EXP+ 300] [Gacha Ticket x1] ... Alex threw his spear to an area without any people. Alex considered a few reasons for that. First, the people from Onsul Town might mistake his spear and grab it for themself. Second, Anna and the rest can start from there. With no people there, they could maximize their killing rate, thus gathering his EXPs and Gacha Tickets. "Go." The rest knew where they needed to go even without him saying where to go. All of them immediately flew toward that place, including Fabio. Alex had around twenty rank 2 spears. The high ranking people on the side were shocked by him. With a single spear from this far, Alex could kill more than ten monsters. ''They couldn''t do it'', that was their thought when they saw the spear. It was practically true for the City Lord, who was a Martial Lord. Although the monsters were indeed not very strong, to think Alex could send an attack from this far and the power was still strong. At least, he couldn''t do it. Of course, half of it was contributed in his raw strength that far from normal and his Spear Throwing Art. ... Leoz was the first one that arrived on the scene. He threw himself in the center of the monsters and started killing. Monsters there immediately noticed him and started charging toward him. "Haha, come at me!" Despite being surrounded by monsters, Leoz was grinning happily. As expected from a muscle brain. Even so, around fifty monsters ignored him and continued charging toward the town. They were situated in front so they might not notice him, or they really ignored him. Unfortunately, in their front, Anna and co had arrived. Anna shook her head and criticized, "This is why I hate Muscle Brain. Can''t he see that there are still monsters here? Luckily, I am here." "Wuu!" Sherry nodded her head in agreement. Then, she raised her paws as thirty firebirds appeared above her head. Now that she had become a Grandmaster Stage Spirit Beast, she could summon thirty firebirds at once from her original twenty. The firebirds killed the monsters in front of them. "Boom! Boom!" There were still a few left that managed to escape from those explosions. Anna also raised her hand to the front. A black ball suddenly appeared on her hand. The ball suddenly formed a big scythe. It was her weapon. She started killing the rest. Fabio also made his way to Alex''s spear. With the monsters had been distracted by Leoz and the rest of the monsters had been killed by Anna and Sherry, Fabio had room to move. He grabbed Alex''s spear and carried it on his back. He took out his glaive as he noticed another spear was coming toward the monsters. "15." A voice rang on his head, saying a certain number. He recognized the voice as it was Alex''s voice. He looked at Alex and nodded. He understood the meaning of the number. Alex wanted him to come back every fifteen spear and gave it back to him. Within that time, he could go on a rampage and kill. 241 EXP "Boom Boom Boom!" Explosions sound were continuously heard on the battlefield. The ground that had been dyed red, whether from humans or monsters. Shriekings of the dying and painful howlings that were echoing on the battlefield. Even if one wanted to look away, the sound of the battlefield would ring on their head. Seeing the dying monsters, seeing the dying comrades... If they didn''t hold the monsters in here, many people behind their backs would die. Alex continued throwing his spear this entire time, and he glanced at those high ranking people who had yet to move. They had killed around five thousand monsters, while two hundred of their comrades had been killed. If not because of Alex''s and the rest''s presence on the battlefield, the casualties would be much more. Alex''s group alone had killed half of the number. It was insane to do that with only five people. But Alex''s group had done it. Alex also preserved his strength in this battle. He had yet to unleash his Spear Intent. If not, his spear would have more impact than this one. He only used his raw strength and Immovable Step. Leoz also did the same. Although he looked like he was recklessly charged toward the monster, he didn''t really use his Spiritual Energy that much. Anna and Fabio were also the same, especially Fabio. Because he needed to come back once in a while to give those spears back to Alex. He didn''t really fight that much. Alex found out one thing about their leveling system after observing Fabio. Fabio had leveled up thrice in this battlefield. He became level 19 or 9-Star Martial Master. Alex could see that after leveling up, he became energetic again. It seemed the system recovered their energy each time they leveled up. Of course, Alex wouldn''t know after they leveled up, they just got their previous power that had been converted by the time they became a Spirits exclusive from the system. With that much power stored in their repertoire, not only they got a power up after each level up, but they also replenished their energy. Alex didn''t know about this. He only understood that this system was perfect for him since they could continuously fight. He felt a bit bad for them, though, to the extent he would go to fight with them. He couldn''t do that because he was wary about the high ranking on the city wall. If Alex went there and killed those monsters by himself, his power would be depleted, and others might know his real strength. He did this not because he was afraid of trouble, but because he wanted to protect his Spirits. From here, Alex also could check their status card and call them back if necessary. And the most important thing, he preserved his strength for the next battle with the monster leader. He didn''t know what kind of monster he would meet later. His worry was justified. This entire time, the high ranking people on the city wall also glanced at him from time to time. They wanted to measure his power. Alex''s spear prowess was, no doubt, a top notch one. But, they hadn''t seen his Spear Intent. A core disciple of Heavenly Sword Intent but didn''t have an intent even just a normal intent? It was a joke, and it wasn''t even funny. That meant Alex had been holding back this whole time. Alex suddenly received a call from Nelson. "Young Master. I have found the leader. The leader is a 10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster. But the monster is a phoenix. It would be a bit hard to fight it." Nelson said. "A phoenix? Is there such a monster?" Alex was astonished to hear that. "Although people in this world call them monsters, they, in fact, were Spirit Beasts like Sherry. A phoenix was indeed rare, and the one in front of us was only a child. Even so, it should not be underestimated." Nelson said. Alex pondered for a moment as he murmured. "A phoenix..." "It is a kind of firebird, right? Should it be fine with my fire? We can restrain it that way." "Young Master''s fire is indeed effective. But a phoenix was known for its regeneration, and our attacks wouldn''t be that effective unless Young Master restrain it with your Pure Fire. That meant we couldn''t drag the battle too much." "Then, the problem is?" Alex asked. "The fire from a phoenix is considered as a high level flame. Its rank is not far from Young Master Pure Fire, so Young Master couldn''t suppress it that much. That means, you need Spiritual Energy to enhance your suppression, in other words, you need to take a full brunt of Spiritual Energy from a peak Grandmaster Stage monster with your 2-Star Martial Grandmaster strength. It would drain your Spiritual Energy immediately. From my speculation, you can only restrain the phoenix for a minute. In the meantime, the rest of us need to kill the phoenix. But, the phoenix will fight back too. I am only a 3-Star Grandmaster, or even Leoz, who was the highest one amongst us, was only a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster." Alex contemplated for a while. He was trying to come up with a plan. "If Leoz can reach 8-Star Martial Grandmaster or more, how is our chance?" "It will become significantly higher, If Leoz reached 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, as long as we hold the phoenix down for a moment, I''m sure Leoz will be able to deal the killing blow." Nelson said. "Oh, that''s right. This mythical creature can be useful for you, Young Master. You can try to absorb the fire energy contained in its blood, and I''m sure you can breakthrough to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster." "Absorb?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He felt it was very similar to the EXP case in the lower world. Alex was pondering whether it was the same or not. "System, can I really absorb it?" [Yes, Host. Phoenix''s fire level is high enough to let your Pure Fire refine it without any setback. Usually, a phoenix is enslaved by people. They can nurture the phoenix until the phoenix is powerful enough before killing it. They will kill it and absorb the energy contained inside the phoenix blood. When the phoenix was killed, they will be back to their egg form as a sign of rebirth. They won''t hold their previous memory, and their strength will restart from the bottom. So, the people nurture it once again before killing it. That process will repeat again and again] Alex suddenly twitched his eyebrows. After all, hearing that kind of thing was a bit disturbing. [Of course, the people in this world don''t have a belief like that. They believe absorbing the egg form of a phoenix will boost their strength even further. I believe Host won''t do such a thing either. After all, it might affect your karma along with this Gacha System] Alex''s expression became a bit soft. At least, in this world, it will become their true end after they got killed in this world. It was better than to be enslaved through their entire life. Even if they didn''t retain their memory, it was still pitiful for him. A part of him that came from earth might make him think like that. But Alex didn''t mind. Alex nodded, he would just kill the phoenix and absorb it entirely. He won''t enslave the phoenix just to exploit it. [Are you going to kill it, Host?] "Yes." [Mission: Kill the Phoenix Reward: 5x Premium Ticket] Alex checked his system. [Gacha Ticket x517 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x1] He almost got two hundred gacha tickets in this battle. He might get many EXP Card (R) with this many tickets. Not that many, but it has to be more than five. "Use all my tickets!" Alex decided to use all his tickets. He should use every opportunity to get stronger. He would be able to get the tickets back sooner or later. But, an opportunity like this was rare. Even if he came back to the sect, he would need to do some bitter cultivation once more. [Processing] [Unbending Sword (R) x1] [Summoning Coin (C) x1] [Brick (C) x1] [Metal Toothpick (UC) x1] ..... .... ... [Umbrella (C) x1] Alex couldn''t check everything this time. He would check it after he got back. Alex only looked at the EXP Cards, which he needed. He got nine EXP Cards (R) and twenty EXP Cards (UC). He didn''t bother with the EXP Cards (C) since it couldn''t bring him much EXPs. Twenty EXP cards (UC) was equal to two EXP cards (R). Alex checked Leoz''s card. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 27/80 (7-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 11353/170000 HP: 8400 ATK: 450 DEF: 445] He tried to let him level up with his EXP cards (R) to get him to a Martial Lord. Alex couldn''t believe that he managed to level up Leoz to Martial Lord. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 28647/210000 HP: 10600 ATK: 610 DEF: 595] Well, he might only be able to use this method for a low level. Judging from the number of EXPs that increased ten thousand for each level. He could see that Martial Lord Stage had a base EXP of two hundred thousand, then the Martial King had three hundred base EXP and continued to Martial Emperor, and so on. If he wanted to level him up with EXP cards, it would take a big amount of EXP cards. Well, he can worry about it in the future. Leoz had reached Martial Lord Stage so that the phoenix wouldn''t become their opponent again. Alex took out every EXP Cards (UC) from here and used it on Fabio. [Fabio Donatelli (Fire) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5039/110000 HP: 5500 ATK: 310 DEF: 270] Luckily, he had managed to level up Fabio to Grandmaster Stage. He had two EXP Cards (R) left in his possession. Anna and Nelson had yet to level up. Considering Anna would only become his secretary for the time being and Nelson would need to investigate the dangerous Zhou Kingdom, Alex chose to use it on Nelson. [Nelson (Dark) Level: 25/80 (5-Star Martial Grandmaster) Exp: 49151/16000 HP: 6300 ATK: 650 DEF: 330] Alex was satisfied with this result. "Nelson, If Leoz fights with the phoenix alone, what is the result?" "It will be a hard fight. After all, the phoenix had a special characteristic, which is their regeneration, and the phoenix itself is a peak Grandmaster Stage. Leoz can fight with 2-Star or even 3-Star Martial Lord, but it is different if his opponent is a phoenix. As like when your opponent needs to fight you, your Pure Fire might let you fight a few levels above you. The phoenix is also the same. You and the phoenix have a uniqueness, respectively. That''s why it will be a hard fight." "Then, I shall go with him to suppress the phoenix flame. As soon as we kill the phoenix, Leoz will go back to the battlefield and continue to kill the monsters." "!!!" Nelson understood his meaning, "Then, Young Master, you should bring someone to protect you if you are going to absorb the phoenix." "All right. I will bring Sherry with me. I will recall you here to be the guide." Alex said. He was planning to test Sherry. Back in the lower world, he and Sherry often fought hand in hand. Maybe, after entering this world, she became too comfortable with her current lifestyle. So he was planning to bring her and test her at the same time. "Yes." "Summon!" Alex summoned Nelson back to his side. The other high ranking people on the city wall obviously saw this. With the sudden appearance of Nelson, they were shocked. They didn''t even sense his presence before suddenly he appeared out of nowhere. If he decided to kill them, they wouldn''t even know they had died. "Young Master." Nelson greeted him as usual. Then he suddenly raised his hand and opened his palm. A black ball... No, it was like his shadow, the ball turned to a bird shape. "Young Master, you can take this small bird with you. It will become your guide. I will help others while you are away." Alex''s eyes widened. As expected from a reliable guy. Nelson impressed him once again. Alex nodded. "Sure." As soon as Alex nodded his head, Nelson immediately disappeared as he moved toward the battlefield. Alex took out Leoz''s card this time and called him, "Leoz, come back to the wall. We are going to the boss." "Understood." Leoz immediately went back to the city wall upon hearing Alex''s voice. 242 Phoenix Leoz came back to the wall, and Nelson had reached the battlefield to substitute him. "Follow me." Alex said. He then went to those high ranking people. "I have found the source of the problem. I will solve it. When I''m gone, my friends will still fight in here, so you don''t need to worry." Those people were shocked. Not because Alex found the source of the problem, it was because they saw Leoz''s strength. He was only a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster just now, and not long after, he became a 1-Star Martial Lord. They were astounded, thinking Leoz had held back his strength. Then they looked at Alex, who seemed to be the most important and strongest, they gulped down, wondering Alex''s strength. If Alex tried to do anything funny to them, they could only accept their fate. It was beyond their comprehension. Before it was Nelson, and with the sudden appearance of Leoz as a 1-Star Martial Lord, they started thinking about having a connection with him. Maybe, after this, they could make a banquet as thanks. That way, they could also send some beauties to him. Maybe, he might fancy one of their daughters. "Yes, Sire. Thank you for your help. We will also join the battle after this, so Sire doesn''t need to mind about the safety of your friend. We will protect them." The City Lord spoke first as the others were still shocked in their mind. Alex only nodded without waiting for anyone else to speak. He said in a casual tone. "Let''s go, Leoz." "Yes." Alex went to the battlefield to pick Sherry up. "Sherry, come with me." Hearing her Master''s voice, she immediately turned back. She looked at Alex, perplexed. Alex only said, "We have a job. Come with me." "Wuu!" After hearing that, she immediately leaped toward him. Alex then released the shadow bird that Nelson gave to him. The bird started flying toward the northeast direction. There were a few flying monsters in their way. Alex said with a cold tone, "Sherry, kill them." "Wuu!" She immediately summoned her firebirds and shot them toward those flying monsters. Just like planes that had been shot by missiles, the flying monsters died upon getting hit by firebirds. They fell down and crashed to the ground. The monsters were only Master Stage or below. They had yet to see a Grandmaster Stage flying monsters. After flying around a minute, Nelson''s shadow bird suddenly dived down. They found a cave. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw great energy inside the cave. Alex immediately thought it must be the phoenix. Sherry felt a chill from the cave. She narrowed her eyes. It might be her instinct as another holder of high level fire. She could sense something from inside the cave. That something was challenging her. Alex didn''t notice any change from Sherry. He looked around him with his Spirit Eyes. Although there were some monsters around, the highest level was only a 1-Star Grandmaster Stage monster, so it will be fine, he thought. He then spoke, "Let''s go." Leoz nodded. He immediately moved in front of Alex, ready to protect him anytime. As they got closer to the target, they could feel the heat from the phoenix. When they found the phoenix, they could see a giant ball of fire. Alex could see it. It wasn''t a ball. The ball slowly opened, and a phoenix figure finally appeared. That''s right. It wasn''t a ball. It was a phoenix that curled up like a ball. The phoenix''s appearance was like he had known. Red colored feathers with flame covered every inch of its body. Its appearance was majestic. "Cry!" The phoenix let out a cry, echoing through the entire cave. Sherry''s widened her eyes. She could see that this phoenix had a similar level of her previous flame before she met Alex. Her fire was close to the Pure Fire level after being enhanced by Alex''s fire and evolved. But, her instinct was still there. She couldn''t help but leap in front of Alex as her body started to grow into her big form. Sherry glared at the phoenix with dangerous eyes. She didn''t want to lose and let out a howl. Everyone in the cave could feel the anger within that howl. Alex narrowed his eyes as Leoz also moved in front of them and released his lightning. The phoenix flapped its wing and sent out another cry. The phoenix glared at Alex and co with killing intent. The phoenix''s mouth started glowing. Leoz also raised his palm toward the phoenix. "Spark." Leoz said with a severe tone. A giant lightning ball suddenly shot out of his palm and charged toward the phoenix. The phoenix also let out the flame from its mouth. It was also a giant fireball. The lightning ball and the fireball clashed, and surprisingly, their power was equal. They destroyed each other. Leoz wasn''t serious in his attack earlier. He immediately followed up, he stabbed the ground with his sword. When his sword reached the ground, it suddenly sent out a few lightning sparks. The lightning moved on the ground surface and moved toward the phoenix. Those lightning sparks suddenly shot out from the ground when they reached the destination. It was trying to strike the phoenix. The phoenix was unfazed by this attack. A few phoenix feathers suddenly fell from its wing. It fell toward the lightning strikes and neutralized it. "Young Master." Leoz signaled him to get ready. Alex nodded, the Fire Phoenix Seed inside his body had been revolving like crazy after reaching this cave. He opened the seed and let his Pure Fire flowed outside his body. "Pure Fire" Alex was engrossed by the feeling of the Pure Fire Element. It seemed there was a change when he refined his heart. He just didn''t notice it until now. Alex''s Pure Fire suddenly let out an overbearing pressure. The Pure Fire wanted to show who was the boss. As soon as the Pure Fire was out, the phoenix felt oppression inside its body. It felt like Alex''s fire wanted him to submit. Of course, as a phoenix, it wouldn''t easily go that way. The phoenix immediately fought back with its powerful Spiritual Energy. This was the hardest part for him. He suddenly felt that overbearing pressure. He was still a 2-Star Martial Grandmaster, to bear the full brunt from a 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. He finally understood why Nelson said he only could restrain the phoenix for a minute. Taking this Spiritual Energy head on was really taxing for him. He started to sweat the moment he took it. "One minute." Alex told Leoz the time limit. Leoz understood he didn''t have much time. He might need a long fight to bring this phoenix down if he didn''t have Alex''s Pure Fire restraint. "Lightning!" Leoz pointed out his giant sword toward the phoenix. It suddenly shot out yellow colored lightning like a gun. The lightning suddenly split up and became five thunder strike. Each of these ''thunder strikes'' was powerful. At least, Alex could only think about dodging it if he met with this attack. Sadly, the phoenix also had the power of a Peak Grandmaster. The phoenix flapped its wings. It sent out an attack with the same number of Leoz''s. The phoenix''s attack was indeed powerful. But Alex was restraining it, thus weakening the power of its fire. Two of the thunder strikes managed to pass through and made their way toward the phoenix. Looking at the attack, the phoenix knew that this attack couldn''t be avoided. It tried to protect its body with his wing. Alex was observing this phoenix''s movement from the start. It seemed that the phoenix was relying on its wing. If he restricted its movement, especially its wing, Leoz would be able to deal a finishing blow. Alex confirmed it when he saw the next attack from the phoenix. It suddenly flapped its wing once again. It sent out flame waves from its clap. Leoz was ready to put up a defense. "30 Seconds." Alex felt half of his Spiritual Energy had been emptied. Seeing that he couldn''t do anything other than this, he gritted his teeth. He really wanted to help at this fight. Unfortunately, the feeling of suppression from Spiritual Energy took a toll on him. He couldn''t assist him with this pressure. At a time like this, Alex couldn''t believe that he felt Sherry''s flame around him. He glanced at Sherry and found her releasing her flame to the maximum. The phoenix suddenly felt the suppression for Sherry too. Alex''s eyes widened. He could see that it was also hard for Sherry from her anguished expression. Sherry took some pressure on his shoulder, and it gave him some room to breathe. He immediately narrowed his eyes to think up a plan. After feeling the suppression was lifted up a bit. Alex immediately said with a cold tone as he glared at the phoenix. "Leoz, don''t bother to defend, just attack it with your full might. And also cover your ears." Alex raised both of his hands. On his right hand, a green colored array was formed. On his left hand, another array was also formed, but this array was a blue colored array. Hearing that, not only Leoz but Sherry also covered her ears with Spiritual Energy. Leoz also immediately followed his order. He raised his sword and swung it down. "Thunder Slash!" Seeing Leoz sent out his attack, Alex flicked his right finger. "Death Sound Array." A deafening and disturbing sound echoed. With that sound, it disrupted the phoenix''s flow of Spiritual Energy and broke the attack. Leoz''s attack flew toward the phoenix undisturbed. The phoenix saw Leoz''s attack. It had two choices, to avoid it or to take it head on with another attack from him. Unfortunately, neither the choices can be used. Alex sent out his second array on his left hand. "Wistful Shackle Array." The array on his hand glowed brightly as a few blue colored whips rose from the array. It immediately chained the phoenix. Of course, the phoenix immediately retaliated. It was trying to break free. If not, it will be cut by Leoz''s attack. Feeling that struggle, Alex felt his finger might break. Even so, he maintained the array as long as possible until finally, Leoz''s attack reached the phoenix. "Cry!" It let out the last cry as loud as possible. When Leoz''s strike arrived, it immediately split the phoenix into two. Alex immediately let go of his Wistful Shackle Array. His left hand felt excruciating, especially its fingers. Alex only had a fourth of his original Spiritual Energy. It was very taxing to hold the phoenix down. Sherry was in better shape. She only lost a third of her Spiritual Energy. Alex looked at the phoenix''s corpse on the ground. Even though it had died, the flame was still covering its body. Alex felt his Pure Fire became restless. It wanted this energy. Alex refrained it a bit and glanced at Sherry. "Sherry, do you want it?" Sherry immediately shook her head. After getting a beating from Alex, she reflected on her action. She was too comfortable this whole time. She remembered the time they spent when they were in the lower world. "Wuu Wuu (Master should absorb it. I am content with Spirit Stones.)" Alex was surprised to hear that from Sherry. It seemed his worry was unnecessary. He smiled a bit. Although he didn''t really mind sharing with Sherry, it was a bit stressful to share everything, and he only took a smaller portion. Especially if that thing was rare. "You can try absorbing it too after I breakthrough." Alex said, smiling softly at her. Then, he looked at Leoz, "You will go to the battlefield, try to kill as much as possible, and protect the rest. Sherry will be here and protect me." Leoz nodded and left the cave. Alex started absorbing the phoenix power. Even though Nelson said he could absorb his blood, in fact, it was the phoenix''s fire energy inside the blood. Sherry also made a bit of distance from Alex. Her ears suddenly picked up footsteps from outside. With her hearing, she could realize that it was not one or two. It was numerous. And they were moving toward this cave. Sherry suddenly realized, the last cry from the phoenix, it was not because the phoenix was unwilling. It was because the phoenix was trying to call as many monsters as possible from the surrounding. Sherry immediately moved toward the entrance of the cave. Alex didn''t notice her. He felt his Pure Fire started refining the energy from the phoenix so he could absorb it. 243 Comfor Alex broke through to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster not long after. Because his eyes were closed, he didn''t see the phoenix''s corpse slowly burned to ash. The remaining fire energy started forming a fireball. It was the phoenix''s egg in Nelson''s mouth. Alex absorbed it until he felt something wrong. Usually, there would be another Suction Force, in other words, Sherry. But this time, there wasn''t such a thing. He stopped his cultivation. At this time, he had reached mid 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Maybe, he could breakthrough to 4-Star Martial Grandmaster not long after. But because of this feeling, he stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes. The phoenix was still in its egg form. He remembered that he also gave a pass for Sherry. She could also absorb it after he broke through. Noticing it, he immediately opened his eyes and found the cave was empty. Sherry was nowhere to be found. Alex immediately activated his spirit eyes while moving toward the cave''s entrance. Of course, while bringing the phoenix egg. He finally saw Sherry''s figure with his Spirit Eyes. But what shocked him the most was when he saw many figures that surrounded her, and Sherry''s sign of energy was a bit small. Alex knew it was a sign of exhaustion. Sherry must have used most of her Spiritual Energy, if not all. When Alex arrived, he saw Sherry''s bloodied body along with many monster corpses at the cave entrance. Sherry was guarding this entrance the whole time. He didn''t know why but the image of the last cry from the phoenix flashed in his mind. With that, he somehow understood that the last cry was not the phoenix''s last struggle. Instead, it was trying to call as many monsters as possible from the surroundings. That meant when he absorbed the energy by himself, and Sherry fended off all the monsters that wanted to approach him. He was dumbstruck when he realized that. His heart started to ache, feeling hurt because he didn''t know that. Especially when he saw the monsters were mostly Grandmaster Stage monsters. ... Sherry glared at those monsters. Blood had flown from all over her body. Even so, she was still fighting here, unfazed. She had been fending these monsters with her physic alone. After all, her energy was nearly empty. Another monster charged toward her. She was going to respond to it before realizing a yellow barrier appeared in front of her, separating her and the monsters in front of the cave. "Tortoise Shell Array." A familiar voice that she had been waiting for was ringing in her ears. She turned around to see Alex''s had finally finished his cultivation and managed to break through to 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. "Wuu." The barrier should be able to hold for some time. She then walked toward Alex, trying to make a happy appearance about his coming. "Wuu Wuu (Master, You have come out.)" Alex saw Sherry''s appearance. His heart was crushed by pain. Alex kneeled down and hugged her as she was in her big form. He was still managing his ''Tortoise Shell Array'' to make sure no monster could break through this barrier. "Why... you should wake me up, and we can fight together." Alex asked while clenching his fist. "Wuu Wuu Wuu (Master, I am wrong this whole time. Because our situation has become more comfortable, I was slacking too much. When you beat me back then, I remember our meeting back then. At that time, I was only a fox that was defeated by you. You spared my life and accepted me as your comrade. It was a blessing that I managed to evolve back then. After that, we went to a battlefield, fighting life and death battles everyday hand in hand. When you praised me, it felt like everything was worth it. We were not as strong as we are now. But, I felt like our bond at that time was more solid than what we have now. It took me too long to realize it. We didn''t have Anna and others back then. Only you and me, we relied on each other. I realized that I became too lazy. That''s why, this time, I want to restart back. Without me realizing, I have become a leech on your side. Only taking advantage of you without helping you with anything. Even when you called me to help you, the job was pretty easy without needing much effort. I will become stronger and stronger for you and my sake. That''s why, Master, I''m sorry.)" When he heard that, the pain in his heart became excruciating. His hand started bleeding because he clenched it too much. Alex took a long breath. "You don''t need to apologize. For now, you should go back and recover first. Let me handle the rest." "Wuu." She let out a little groan and came back to his body. Alex closed his eyes, trying to control his emotions. After that, he stood up and glared at the monsters that were trying to break his barrier along with the monsters behind them. His eyes were filled with killing intent. He took out his sword and spear. Sherry was exhausted. Judging from her state, she alone had to fight with a few hundred monsters in that state. She had spent a third of her energy when fighting the phoenix. If he was the one that fought with these monsters. Then, he wouldn''t end up like Sherry. After all, he had far higher fighting prowess than her. At this moment, he didn''t care whether someone saw him like this. With his sword in his right hand and spear in his left hand, Alex released both domains. The first one was obviously his Spear Intent, then continued to a larger domain, which was his Sword Intent. It became a two layer domain. He clenched his sword and his spear tightly, eager to butcher these monsters. Reacting to his killing intent, his Pure Fire also started seeping out from his body. He deactivated his Tortoise Shell Array and started his killing spree. The land would soon become red as corpses will build a mountain. ... At the battlefield, Leoz had come back and started helping the other spirits. He also didn''t see any people on the wall either. It seemed they had joined the battle. The new monsters started coming with their higher strength, and before long, Grandmaster Stage monsters started coming. This didn''t become a problem for Alex''s group. After all, they had Leoz, who had become a Martial Lord. Anna coordinated all these men for Alex, trying to sweep the monsters clear effectively. When they were fighting, Nelson suddenly felt something wrong. He stopped and flew upward, trying to see the situation from above. "Nelson, don''t break from position!" Anna was overseeing their movement, so when Nelson suddenly flew and broke their position. It became a bit troublesome. "Something is wrong." Nelson tried to look at the battlefield''s situation. Before long, he suddenly realized what was wrong. "The monsters... that''s right. Their number is not correct." Upon realizing that, Nelson summoned a few shadow birds and sent them out in all directions. He finally saw many monsters were charging toward that particular cave. "Not good, Young Master is surrounded by monsters." Nelson shouted. Hearing that, Leoz immediately said. "I will go there." But, Nelson immediately rejected him. "No! Anna, you should go there." Nelson had seen a troubling scene, that''s why he wanted Anna, who was the most suited in that kind of situation. Anna was perplexed, but she still nodded her head after hearing Nelson''s words. Nelson immediately let his Shadow Bird guide her. Anna grabbed the shadow bird and flew at full speed. Leoz complained as he was confused about why Nelson rejected him. Nelson only said, "Anna and Anya can only be the one there. Since Anya is not here, then only Anna can be there." Leoz widened his eyes and shut his mouth. He started increasing his pace to finish this farce as soon as possible. Fabio also heard that and immediately understood. After all, he had a wife. He could understand what Nelson was trying to say. He also increased his pace. With this many monsters, he had leveled up once more and became a 2-Star Martial Grandmaster while Anna also reached 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. ... Anna flew toward the cave. She was shocked by what she found when she arrived there. She saw red ground with blood flowing like a river at a certain spot. There was a masked man, standing with his sword and spear, unmoving. Sadness started filling her heart, and she landed on the ground. Seeing the corpses and blood, even so, with her experience alone, she had gotten used to this kind of environment. She walked toward Alex and hugged him. Alex had yet to speak. Because of the mask, Anna couldn''t see his expression. She touched Alex''s left hand gently while saying with a soft tone, "You are doing great, Young Master. You have killed them all, now please try to release this sword from your hand." Alex slowly released his sword. Anna then moved toward his left hand and again tried to release his spear. "Young Master, you are not wrong. It is always an X factor that suddenly appears out of nowhere. We can talk with this after you put your spear down." Anna patiently guided him to release his spear. Not long after, Alex also dropped his spear slowly. Anna then smiled at him. "So, why do you act this way, Young Master?" Anna could understand his heart. Alex also had this temperament even in his previous life. This only occurred when it concerned about the life of his friend or family. She remembered, back then, sister Xingzhi was the one who calmed him down. She had known him long before he became a god, and they started loving each other. Every time his friend or his family was hurt, it broke his heart. Killing was the only thing he could soothe his heart before Xingzhi came to his life. Even though Anna and Anya met Alex sooner than her, they didn''t possess such a thing to calm him down. Maybe they were too childish at that time. At a time like this, what he needed was a woman that understood him and accepted him. Because she wasn''t here, Anna was the only one who could do that. Now that she really did this, she finally realized what she felt back then. The pain in her heart was excruciating. To see the one they love became like this, it was truly unbearable. ''I''m not that childish girl like back then. I will be a woman that he can trust his back.'' Anna said in her heart. Remembering Alex would always become stronger every time he encountered a problem. He might choose a foolish choice sometime, but all of his decisions came after he thought about it. It was always some factors that ruined it for him. After all, no one can predict the thought of a living being, whether it was humans or spirits like them. As long as a feeling was involved inside their mind, they became irrational. Anna and Anya were like that too and often became his burden because of that. Even their sister Xingzhi was the same. Nobody was perfect. Every time they fell, they could only stand up, again and again. ''As long as it doesn''t kill you, it will make you stronger''. Taking the experience of today, he would come back stronger the next day. "I almost made Sherry die." Alex said with a hoarse voice. "If... If I bring others with me, she won''t become like that. "I''m sure you made the right choice. Young Master, you are always thinking about us first before you make your choice. This is why we love and follow you. You can ask any of us. You can ask me, you can ask Leoz, you can ask Sherry, you can ask Fabio or even Nelson. You can ask whether we are willing to follow you or not. Everyone will say, we follow you because of you. We are ready to lay our life to open you a path. If your path is blocked, we shall be the one that opens that path for you. You didn''t make a wrong choice. Sherry was willing to protect you with her life, as you also think you will protect her with your life. So, please don''t take this feeling from us. You want to protect us with your life, but we also want the same. We want to protect you with our life. So please let us protect you too." Anna said while taking off his mask. He didn''t cry or anything, his expression was just tired. He was blaming himself for all this. She buried his face in her chest and let him rest while stroking his hair gently. 246 Preparing "Young Master." Anna greeted him. "Just call me, Alex," Alex said to her with a smile. Anna was taken aback. Tears wanted to flow out of her eyes, but she held it. She was thrilled at this moment, "Yes, Alex." "Should I go to that place?" Alex asked. Anna understood his concern. After all, a place called ''Death Forest'' gave him many sad memories. Even so, he was different from back then. He wasn''t a naive young man like the past. "Yo-Alex, I think you should go. You are not the one like before who didn''t think about his powerful Fire Element. You also didn''t have us back then. "But now, it is different. You are far stronger from back then. You also have us," Anna smiled at him. Alex pondered for a bit. "Yeah, you might be right. I should get chances to breakthrough as many as possible. After all, my endpoint is not here, and I don''t want to be stuck here for a long time. "Alright, I will go. There are still two months to prepare. I might get enough tickets to pull EXP cards from Normal Gacha. It might be enough to get you to a Peak Martial Grandmaster at that time. "As for Leoz, since only Martial Grandmaster can go inside this place. Leoz might not be able to come even if I summoned it with the cards. Fabio, Greg, Wright, and Salijan will continue their grinding. The same applies to Nelson. He will search for information. "That means I will go with you, Sherry and Kyle. I don''t know how much Kyle can reach, but I hope it is enough for him to reach Grandmaster since we do not lack Spirit Stones. Of course, I will call Fabio and the others if necessary." Alex said his plan. Sherry then came out of his body. She was in her small form. They could see a few wounds on her body. Although the wound had closed, the marks still could be seen. "Sherry, are you alright?" Alex immediately hugged her. He was a bit guilty to Sherry in that incident. "Wuu (I am fine now)," Sherry comforted him. The phoenix also came out of his body. It became a small bird with red fur. There was no trace of the flame too. "Wuu (I have taught him)," Sherry appealed her efforts. Alex was astonished. He was wondering what kind of world inside his body. "All right. I will build another Spirit Gathering Array in your room so that you can teach Kyle." "!!!" Sherry opened her eyes wide. She wanted to protest, but the way she asked was not the same. "Wuu Wuu (Master, can I not have the same room? I mean, I am a girl, and he is a boy)." Alex was taken aback when he heard that. If he heard it from a teenage girl, it might be easy to accept. However, hearing it from Sherry, it might be a bit... Alex immediately granted her wish, though. "Sure. Sorry, I forget about that. I will make it in another room. Anna will be the supervisor like always. Is that alright with you, Anna?" "Yes." "All right. Kyle needs to try to reach Martial Grandmaster rank in these two months." "Chirp!" Alex nodded. He thought about buying Kyle an Energy Pill. Well, he could ask Anna or Song Yu for the ingredients as he could make the pill himself. He then gave a room for Kyle the bird and made a Gathering Array. After that, he went to cultivate on his own. Preferably, he wanted to be a 4-Star Martial Grandmaster if not 5-Star Martial Grandmaster before entering the inheritance place. Alex didn''t forget to spare some time to make the pill. He found out that when he made the pill, he could make two pills simultaneously. It seemed that his Mental Energy increased too much. He didn''t know whether it was due to Lightning Tribulation or Heart Refinement. But from the look of it, it was the former. After all, he didn''t feel any effect after he refined his heart. Back then, he started refining Tempered Muscle Pill after refining his heart. Before, he could refine a set of ingredients in twenty minutes, because his mental energy was not enough. The number of ingredients for the Tempered Muscle Pill was seven ingredients. Alex could only refine five ingredients simultaneously. If he could refine those seven ingredients simultaneously, he could make it in ten minutes. But now, he could refine two sets of ingredients within ten minutes. That meant four times faster than his previous speed. He really became a money making machine. He had more than enough time Well, he had another mouth to feed. So, it was fine for him. After half a month, Alex gave the Space Ring to Anna so she could give it to Song Yu. Song Yu was shocked when she saw the pills. The result was the same. It was 900 perfect purity Tempered Muscle Pills. Song Yu was obviously bewildered. Alex could achieve this with just a half month. She was wondering if Alex had time to cultivate. In fact, Alex only spent four to five hours a day to refine the pills. He spent a few hours practicing his Martial Arts such as Space Plate and Sunlight Wing. He practiced his Sunlight Wing first since he had some image in his mind after seeing Kyle''s wing. He then spent the rest of the day to cultivate. He also spent some time together with Anna from time to time. Song Yu came back with the Spirit Stones and ingredients. Of course, the one who received her was Anna. Alex kept sending the pills after he finished refining them. Two months passed in brief. Alex could only sell his pills in bulk three times in these two months. He found out that Su Hua was not in the Alchemist Guild anymore. Song Yu also kept saying that the Alchemist Guild might not have a shortage of Tempered Muscle Pill for a while. Alex had made a big profit, though. Song Yu also got more than a million Spirit Stones with just the commission. Of course, it couldn''t be compared to Alex''s since his profit was more than ten million. Sadly, although Alex had spent around two million in these two months, his cultivation had reached 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. He was starting to consolidate his foundation. If not, he would be able to need more than that. Considering he also got Sherry and Kyle. Alex also had another reason why he only sold the pills to Song Yu three times in these two months. First, Putri also met him to tell him the plan for the Death Forest. Second, he also had dropped Greg, Salijan, and Wright. Salijan was a fire lion that could walk in two feet. The fur around his head and in its tail was burning. It was such a sight when he first met Salijan. And it seemed Salijan was more fluent in speaking than Wright, which also an SR spirit. The last and the most important thing, Alex decided to deepen his relationship with Anna. He broke the last barrier. Unfortunately, he couldn''t hold a marriage for her for the time being. Anna also understood the circumstance, she didn''t really mind about it. At least, she already had a marriage with the previous him. Even though Alex decided that they were different, the memory alone was enough for her. Finally, the two months had abruptly passed. Alex came out of his bedroom. "Anna, how are the others doing?" Alex asked. "Yes. They are doing great. Sherry has reached 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. Kyle also reached 2-Star Martial Grandmaster." Alex nodded. Kyle was cultivating at breakneck speed. He didn''t have any shortage of Spirit Stones anyway. Alex refrained himself from giving him Fire Spirit Pills or Flamming Sun Pills since it won''t let their flame evolve. Sherry and Kyle were better to have Spirit Stones instead of those pills. Alex also added Kyle into Spirit Nest so he could contribute EXP and Gacha Tickets when he killed a monster. "How about you all?" Alex asked again. Anna then gave him every card she had. Her card, Leoz''s card, Fabio''s card, Nelson''s, and the rest. Alex checked each card. [Anna (Dark) Level: 28/80 (8-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 1415/190000 HP: 7000 ATK: 900 DEF: 590] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 168476/220000 HP: 10600 ATK: 610 DEF: 595] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 26/80 (6-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 14965/170000 HP: 6500 ATK: 1005 DEF: 430] [Fabio (Fire) Level: 25/80 (5-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 4362/160000 HP: 7500 ATK: 780 DEF: 750] [Greg (Earth) Level: 23/80 (3-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 10590/140000 HP: 12000 ATK: 400 DEF: 970] [Wright (Dark) Level: 22/80 (2-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 57895/130000 HP: 4300 ATK: 590 DEF: 340] [Salijan (Fire) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 79346/120000 HP: 5000 ATK: 500 DEF: 500] Alex was satisfied with this development. Anna leveled up twice in these two months. Leoz also leveled up once and became a 2-Star Martial Lord. But the most satisfying was Greg. Greg managed to become a Martial Grandmaster, and it was even a 3-Star Grandmaster to boot. Nelson had a level up, and he was also on the verge of a breakthrough. As for Salijan and Wright, they might not be able to fight a monster higher rank than them, but they were still enough to hold their peer. "Because Leoz has been killing many Martial Lord monsters. He produced a ridiculous amount of EXP for the others. With that amount of EXPs, we can level up a few times, more so for the low level ones," Anna explained it to him. Alex could understand that. He said with a hesitant tone. "So... how about leveling up Leoz with more EXP cards and maybe he could reach Martial King and kill King stage monster for us or even more?" Unfortunately for him, before Anna could respond. His Gacha System had responded to him. [If Host did that, you would break the system] "Oh? Is this a loophole? Or is it a kind of genius that could break the system?" Alex asked in astonishment. [Literally] "..." Alex was speechless. Literally? Wouldn''t that mean that his system would be broken if he did that? Wouldn''t he have any system more? [Yes, Host, you are right. The spirit can only get a maximum of one whole realm above you. You are in 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, that means, if you leveled up Leoz, he could only reach 5-Star Martial Lord] "..." [Of course, Host can level up other spirits. If you have two Martial Lord Spirits, it might be useful for you at some points] "... Well, I can''t say I''m not sad. I mean, I can give all resources to Leoz so he can become a Martial King or even Martial Emperor. That way, it will be more useful than an army of Martial Lords. But, If I lost you, doesn''t that mean I will lose the spirits too?" [Definitely] "Sigh. Then, I won''t do it." Alex could only sigh. He didn''t know why, but he remembered the first time he felt the system was disappointing. He would curse the system, and the system would only say ''Love you too.'' He did it frequently After entering this world, he didn''t have that urge anymore. Although he might get disappointed sometime, He also knew how much the system had helped him. If he didn''t have the system, he might not be able to rise again after he got banished from the Zircodina Kingdom. He might have died somewhere, and nobody will know. His previous self might find this unbelievable. He really came a long way from back then. And he still had his long journey. "I see. Thank you." Alex said, "Ten million Spirit Stones, I wonder what kind of things I could buy with that much money." "You can buy many things, but I''m sure a slut from the red light district is not one of those things." Anna immediately answered... No, it wasn''t an answer, it was a threat. Alex only chuckled. Anna became bolder as time goes on. "Yeah, don''t worry about it. I don''t need them anyway." After all, he had Alicia, Firia, and Anna, who was in front of him. Alex couldn''t be more happy to reject something like that. After all, he believed in building a relationship more than falling in love at first sight. Alex then grabbed the cards and spoke, "Guys, Anna and I are going now. I don''t know if I can check your condition, so be careful outside there." "Yes (Understood)" All the spirits answered. "Let''s go." Alex looked at Anna. After Anna nodded her head, Alex took out Anna''s card and recalled her back. Kyle and Sherry entered his body once more. After checking he didn''t forget anything, he came out of his house. 248 A Hidden Scheme? Alex looked at the new man that finally made his appearance. He had short brown hair. From the look of it, he seemed to be another Young Master. He was also another 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. "Eric!" To Alex''s surprise, Putri suddenly shouted his name with a smile on her face. Putri seemed to be happy to meet him here. "Putri, long time no see. You have reached 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, how can you advance that fast?" He said gently while smiling at her. "Hehe, you also have reached a peak Martial Grandmaster." She giggled. "Well, he is just worried about your Junior Brother, so please forgive him." He said, "Fine, if you say so." Putri pouted. "That''s right, let me introduce you to my Junior Brother, he is Alexander Sirius." "Alex, this is my childhood friend as well as my fiance. His name-" Before she finished introducing him, he cut in by introducing himself. "My name is Eric Kasmanan. Nice to meet you, Alexander Sirius." He stretched out his hand for a handshake. Looking at his smile, Alex felt it creepy. After all, he knew that this man was hiding this entire time and appeared at this particular time. There must be something wrong with his head. But, Alex couldn''t blatantly say that, especially after he saw Putri''s expression. Putri must have fallen in love with him. He also got surprised when he finally saw a ''Fiance Card'' appeared here. Well, his relationship with Putri was only a Junior and Senior relationship, not love, so Alex didn''t delve into that topic so much. Alex also stretched out his while smiling. "Nice to meet you. I''m Alexander Sirius." Alex felt the grip on his hand suddenly got tighter, but Eric''s face was still smiling. He understood what was going on. Alex also started clenching his hand. Although he didn''t mind their bickering, if he wanted to bully him like this. Fat Chance. He was not that easy to bully like his depressed self from Earth. Obviously, Eric was surprised to see Alex''s strength. Alex didn''t release his full strength. After becoming a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, his strength became even stronger. He had gotten an additional five hundred bulls strength. That meant his raw strength alone was equal to one and a half dragon strength. If he used his Immovable Step, he would be able to exert three dragon strength. Maybe, by the time he reached 2 or 3-Star Martial Lord, he might have the strength comparable to Charya''s. Alex was only following his fist strength. If he did it deliberately, Alex was afraid it would be too obvious for others to see. They might use it as a reason for aggression on him. Eric was surprised to see that he lost in strength against this 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. But he felt that he didn''t lose that much, so he tried to free his hand from Alex''s grasp. "It is my pleasure to meet you. This is your key, and I''m sure you are tired. Your room is on the second floor, the third room on the right." Eric took out a room key in this inn. Alex then grabbed the key and smiled at him with a provoking smile, "Thank you." Eric twitched his eyebrows. "Yes, Alex, you should rest first. I will go around with Eric first. I will tell you about the Death Forest later," Putri grabbed Eric''s hand. Alex nodded to her and went upstairs. The room was nothing special. Although it was a bit luxurious, it was only the furniture, and that furniture wasn''t useful for him. Alex checked his room with his Spirit Eyes. But it seemed that there was nothing suspicious. At least he would be safe in this room. ... After a few hours, night had arrived. "Knock." He heard the knocking sound from his door. Alex activated his spirit Eyes and recognized the energy. It was Putri, so he stood up and opened the door for her. "Ah, Alex. I am finally free." "Come in first," Alex invited her inn. "I''m sorry, I don''t have anything to serve you since this is an inn." "It''s fine," Putri smiled. Alex nodded. It was a single room, so Alex only had a chair in this room. Alex let Putri sit on the bed while he took the chair. "Alex, I want to say sorry about the treatment you got first, especially from Mega. I hope you don''t mind. Usually, she is not like that, so maybe she has some problems, and it affects her." Alex didn''t say anything. He only nodded his head once to her. "Then, I will try to explain the Death Forest for you. I read it from many sources. Inside of this Death Forest is like a puzzle. No one can crack the puzzle. That''s why no one has gotten the inheritance yet. "They said there was forest inside there. Then another said there was a labyrinth inside there and many others. It seems that the realm is very vast. After that, you might find a white building in the middle of the realm. "This is the most troubling situation. This building doesn''t have any entrance to get inside. Many tried to break in, but no one has succeeded before. So, I''m sure there is another trick, but I don''t know what it is. "There are many monsters inside the realm. Of course, they were limited to Peak Grandmaster. We just need to be careful from a group of peak Grandmaster stage monsters. That is the reason why we should go together with others. "I hope that you can forgive them so we can cooperate together. Master and Senior Sister Song Yu had asked me to take care of you inside," Putri explained. Alex frowned a bit. He was wondering if he should tell her that his fiance seemed to hide something. After all, he didn''t need to hide for a long time before appearing in that kind of situation. He shook his head. It might not be the best choice. After all, he had seen Putri''s happy expression when she was together with him. And his relationship with Putri was not deep enough for him to say something about her fiance in front of her. "Alex?" Putri was confused when he shook his head. "Ah, sorry. What else do I need to know?" "Hmm..." Putri thought a bit before continuing her explanation. "There are six entrances to get inside the realm. We are going to the west entrance. There should not be many people going there. The realm will be open for two weeks or fourteen days. "After we got inside the realm, we will move toward the white building and try to search the entrance. Oh, that''s right, I almost forgot about this. "There were many treasures around the white building. From weapons, pills, and many things. All of them came with a test. "We will pass the test after test, and hopefully, we will crack the clue and go inside the white building. After all, the only clue about that building is the test," Putri explained. "I see." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. In the end, he couldn''t come up with a single plan unless he saw it with his eyes. "Senior Sister, I feel they have some hidden intentions," Alex said, trying to pry her reaction about this. "There''s no way, especially Eric, he loves me very much and wouldn''t plot something against me. We promised to marry after we reached the Martial Lord Stage." Putri said with a happy expression. Alex could only sigh after hearing her response. He thought, ''What will you do when you knew that your so-called fiance was hiding behind the wall previously?'' It was useless to convince a maiden in love like her. Alex sighed. ... In another inn, there were around ten people inside a room. There was a wanted poster in front of them. The person in the drawing was Alex. "He is Alexander Sirius. I saw him in this town, so he must want to get inside the barrier." A blonde young man that looked like the leaders of the group said. He was the second prince of Zhou Kingdom, Zhou Tian. "Yeah, I also saw him too. He came with the Southern Kingdom third princess. Your highness, what should we do?" A fat young man asked. He was the brother of Xian Hui that Alex killed in that ''Blazing Pond'' cave. His brother was killed by someone unknown. He was enraged about that. After investigating for so long, they didn''t find a single clue. Xian Family had given up on it and wouldn''t do another huge scale search, but there was still a small team to search for that. "Hmph, try to see which entrance they will use, and we will follow them. This Alex is a notorious criminal. Initially, we wanted to have a cooperation with the Quinto Family, but this Alex destroyed them. He didn''t put the Zhou Kingdom in his eyes." The second prince said. In fact, he didn''t know the real reason either. He was told by the higher up that he needed to capture this Alex if not killed him. But he looked down on people with his status as a prince. He also had some ideas about the power level of the royal family. They had two Martial Kings, so it was obvious why he could look down on people. He also used those blood pills to increase his strength. He managed to raise his strength to peak Grandmaster stage in a short time. "Try to search for his information first. How is his relationship with the princess? If they are not close or anyone important, then we will just demand him from them." "Understood." A few days later, they managed to find out that Alex was not someone important, nor he had a close relationship with her. They decided to kill Alex when they got inside the realm. Without a relationship, the princess would just give him to them. After all, Alex was only a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, which should be useless inside the realm. ... In Sleeping Inn, the princess''s room. There were two people inside that room. One of them was obviously the pink haired princess. Surprisingly, the other one was Eric Kasmanan, Putri''s fiance. Both of them were naked. "Hehe, Eric, how is your date with your fiance, Putri?" "Hmph, she never let me take advantage of her before marriage. What kind of fiancee is that? If not because of you, I don''t want to do this." "Haha, don''t say that. You are the first young master of the Kasmanan Family. If I win the throne later, you will be the king." "Hmph, that''s right. For that, my Kasmanan family had been cooperating with the first young lady of the Makmur Family. Her position is threatened by Putri''s rising strength. If we could destroy her, then we will also get the support of the Makmur Family." "Haha, what a pity. You are too cunning. Even her parents were acting like they were kind to her." "Yeah. Because of the protection of the ninth elder from Heavenly Sword Sect. We can''t kill her openly, but that doesn''t mean we can''t cripple her. "The first lady seemed to want to make her promise with Heavenly Oath never to hold the spear again if she lost to her in the Inner Disciple Tournament. Of course, the sixteenth elder will arrange the fight for her, considering she is jealous of the ninth elder. "It is not enough to cripple her from her spear. That is the reason why the family suppresses her, and only her parents are the only that kind to her. It was only an act. After she loses, her parents will abandon her, and she will be expelled by her family. With that, her spirit would break, and surely she won''t be able to stand again. "There is also you who is her fake friend. If she knows it is only an act, it will be hilarious." Eric explained. "Haha, there is you too. The fiance that she loves so much is actually a fake." "Of course, my heart only belongs to you, Third Princess." "Fufu, then show it to me." "I will let you see my might," After he said that, he pushed the third princess to the bed while groping her like he used to do this. It became a hot steamy night for them, which Putri didn''t know yet. At a time like that, Putri would know who her friend, who is her family, and who are actually standing by her side no matter what happens. 249 A Figh After a few days, Alex had prepared himself for this. Before that, he checked his tickets. [Gacha Ticket x410 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x0] Gacha Ticket now became so easy to get with so many people killed the monsters around. There were Leoz, Fabio, Greg, Wright, and Salijan. Previously, there was only Leoz. This system proved to be practical. Maybe after some time, he could let the (R) spirits hunt the monster too. But, he needed to consider it first. After all, it might also put another toll on Leoz''s shoulder. And if the number was too high, leveling up will be too hard. Alex put the thought about using the (R) spirits or below on hold. He came out of his room to see Putri also wanted to go down. After meeting up with the others, they flew toward the west entrance. When they were flying toward the west gate, he felt something odd. There was a dark feeling creeping in his heart. He tried to look around with his Spirit Eyes. He frowned when he saw a group of ten followed them. He was bothered by what he saw, because that group that followed him, each of them had that blood red energy inside their body. Alex immediately suspected it was the Zhou Kingdom. He wondered why they followed his group. He was wondering if they had some grudge toward the Southern Kingdom. Alex decided to ask Putri about it, "Senior Sister, what is the relationship between the Southern Kingdom with the Zhou Kingdom?" "Why do you ask?" Putri was confused. "Nothing, I just want to confirm something," Alex said. "Hm... Well, all of them are neutral with each other. Maybe you might relate them with what we were known. The Southern Kingdom is known for its wealth, and the Zhou Kingdom is its military. Hazel Kingdom is known for its good government, while the Thiveapia Kingdom is known for its fairness and neutrality." Putri tried to answer him since it was hard to describe the relation between kingdoms. After all, they were not good but also not bad, nor they were neutral. That''s why she explained that. "You can try to correlate with that, I think." Alex nodded as he murmured, "Wealth..." Alex still couldn''t believe that the Zhou Kingdom would do something against them with just that. After all, their power was equal. If they wanted to kidnap the princess for a ransom, they would bring more people. He suddenly realized something, he realized about himself. He remembered that Zhou Kingdom''s Martial King had seen his face. He started thinking about the possibility of him as their target. He couldn''t say he was one hundred percent sure, but the chance was still high. He frowned while thinking whether to separate with his Senior Sister and the others or not. He didn''t know why, but his mind was telling him to separate. Because if they demanded him from the Southern Kingdom, the princess, and the others wouldn''t fight back for him and might hand him to them. Everyone except his Senior Sister. He couldn''t decide for now. He wanted to see what kind of environment inside the realm before determining this. After flying for a while, they finally reached the entrance. This was the entrance of Death Forest. It was only a plain with no building beside it. But the entrance was brimming with people, judging from this entrance alone, there were enough a few thousand people here. There were many people who came here in, hoping to get some treasures. Their strength was not that high. Alex tried to see the Zhou Kingdom''s group again, but they stopped far away from them. Alex made a mental note about them. Not long after, the entrance finally opened. A big hole appeared on the barrier. "Look, the entrance has appeared." "Go." Many Martial Grandmasters rushed toward the entrance. "What are you doing? We are going too," Mega said. All of them nodded and came inside together. Of course, they were behind than most people. When Alex came inside, he finally could see this special realm. Red sky, red river, chilling atmosphere. Alex could see why this place was known as Death Forest. They were flying a hundred meters above the ground and could have a clear view of the landscape. The realm was really vast. They spotted a white building in the east direction. It should be a huge building, but they could only a small dot with their peak Grandmaster''s eyes. It showed how big the realm was. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see the flow of energy inside the realm. He wanted to do it the moment he got inside this place. After all, he felt that the energy inside this place was so high. "System, what is this energy?" [This is also a Natural Spiritual Energy, Host. You can consolidate your cultivation three times faster here, so you should be able to breakthrough in a month if you reached that building] "Hmm... This realm will be closed in two weeks. I should have enough time... Anyway, I will try to see it with my Spirit Eyes first," Alex said while activating his Spirit Eyes. As expected, he could see a huge amount of energy gathered inside this place. When he saw the white building, he was surprised to see the amount of the energy inside that building. Alex immediately became sure that the white building was the center of this realm. But, Putri said they didn''t know if there was an entrance or not. Because of that, he tried to search the surroundings with his eyes, especially the underground. He was shocked to see there was a snake-like labyrinth inside the ground. He tried to see the entrance and was surprised to see the entrance was beneath their feet. He looked at the ground with his Spirit Eyes and finally saw an array beneath the ground. The array was buried inside the ground, and it was perfectly concealed. The people wouldn''t be able to find it. The entrance was still closed at this time. He tried to check its surroundings. There was no clue whether the entrance would open or not. Alex might be able to get inside it with his Space Door, but he couldn''t be sure if his mastery were enough. There were around six underground labyrinths from all directions, and each maze led them toward the white building. Alex realized that it was the entrance of that white building. The reason why people couldn''t find the entrance was that the entrance was underground. And it was in this place, far from the building. They were too occupied with those tests around that white building. Alex kept his poker face while looking around. From others'' point of view, he was just shocked by the realm. "Hey, are you going to go or not? We don''t have time to dilly dally in this place!" The captain shouted to Alex. "Alex, we should go," Putri also came toward him. Alex looked at them with his innocent expression. He looked at Putri, "Senior Sister, you can go first. I felt I would be able to breakthrough in three days. I should breakthrough first. I will catch up with you later." "Hmph, you should say it from the beginning. Since you want to stay here, then you need to protect yourself. We won''t protect you since we are going to that building," The captain snorted. Putri glared at him and said while gritting her teeth, "I will stay here with him. After all, he is my junior brother." Eric said to Putri, "Why? You should follow us since this place is very dangerous." "I... I can''t. More so in this dangerous place, I can''t leave my Junior Brother behind," She said while clenching her fist. In fact, she was dying to go with her fiance. "I..." Eric hesitated. "Eric Kasmanan, you need to go with us. If not, we will be in trouble," The third princess said. "I''m sorry, Putri. I really want to stay here with you, but I couldn''t." "It''s fine, you should go, we will catch up with you later," She said while trying to smile. "Then, I''m going. I will share the treasure with you later." Finally, Eric and the others had gone. Putri became a bit downcast. Alex tried to search his surroundings again and again, and finally, he found a clue. There was a green line of energy that came from the white building. The energy started moving toward the entrance. But the speed was too slow. Alex predicted that the energy needed a few days to get to this entrance. That meant they needed to wait in this place for a few days. "Alex, are you going to breakthrough?" Alex only smiled at her. He said, "If a Senior Sister wants to go, you should go with them. I''m fine here." "No, Master and Senior Sister have entrusted you to me. I don''t want to repeat that incident from last time." Alex was taken aback. He remembered when they were in the Nugget Village. She kept searching here even though it was dangerous. Alex''s heart got warm. "Hoho, what a touching scene we have here." Alex and Putri heard a voice coming from another direction. They found ten people that were close to them. Putri recognized one of them, "You are the second prince of Zhou Kingdom. Zhou Tian." "Hmph," He became proud after seeing a beauty knew about him. "Good, since you know me, I won''t kill you if you serve me, of course, in bed." Alex immediately said to the system within his mind. "System, use every ticket I have now." [Processing] [Bursting Sword (R) x1] [Laughing Apple (C) x1] ... ... [Summoning Coin (C) x1] "How many Summoning Coins I have?" [103] "Use it immediately." [Processing] [EXP Cards (R) x1] [Stallion (C) x1] ... ... [Green Slime (C) x1] Last time, Alex also did this. After all, Normal Gacha only gave him Summoning Coins. If he wanted the EXP cards, he could only get it from Summoning Gacha. After using all of those Summoning Coins, Alex got a total of 16 (R) Exp cards. Although it wasn''t as much as last time, it was only because the amount of Gacha Ticket he got was lesser. "System, calculate the number I need to level up the others to peak Grandmaster." [Anna needs 4, Nelson needs 8, Fabio needs 9, and Greg needs 12. Do you need me to calculate Wright and Salijan?] "No, it is enough." Alex pondered for a bit. Alex immediately considered using his EXP cards to Anna. He needed to consider whether to use the rest to Nelson and Fabio He thought Nelson might be busy since he was the spy in the Zhou Kingdom while Fabio was grinding EXP. He immediately took Fabio''s card secretly and spoke. "Fabio, ready for battle." "Understood." Fabio didn''t use his usual annoying phrase. Because he immediately understood after hearing Alex''s tone. He was in a grave situation. "System, use my EXP cards to Anna and Fabio. I will keep the rest for now." [Processing] [Completed] "Senior Sister, I saw the blood energy in their body. I fear the Zhou Kingdom is planning something big." Alex said. "What?" Putri was shocked to hear that. She immediately said, "You should call Mega and the others. I will try to hold them here for a while." Alex smiled when Putri came to the front and wanted to sacrifice herself once again. It was like when they were on a mission back then. Alex was sure that Putri was frustrated when she separated from her fiance. However, she still became like this. But this time, Alex was ready for war. Alex tapped her shoulder and asked them the same question as back then to her, "Senior Sister, do you believe me?" Seeing his expression, Putri immediately remembered the question from back then. She said with a serious expression, "I do." Alex smiled and nodded. Then he turned his head toward that group. "I am wondering why all of you chased our group this whole time... But it seems your target is me." "Hmph, since you are so thoughtful, you should kill yourself. I won''t kill her as long as she serves me in bed," The second prince snorted. Alex summoned Anna secretly. He summoned her a bit distance, and Anna immediately hid her presence. Alex started floating toward them and smiled. "You are a fool." "What did you say!" His smug expression immediately changed after he heard what Alex said. To think a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster talks to him like that. Alex smiled as he activated his Spirit Eyes. "Dark Curtain." A black giant sphere appeared in the air as it blocked every vision inside. 250 Kill The moment Anna''s Dark Curtain up, Alex immediately tried to reach his claw on those people. Since they wanted to kill him, they shouldn''t expect mercy from him. "Gah!!" Alex killed the first one. "What happened here? It''s all dark." "I can''t see anything." Alex smiled. The young people in front of him were not that experienced in battle. They relied on their eyes too much. If Alex were in their position, he would immediately activate his Domain in case he didn''t have something like his Spirit Eyes. "Gah!!" Alex killed another one. With this darkness, Alex could move freely with his Spirit Eyes. He could kill an inexperienced peak Grandmaster pretty easily. Of course, in a fair fight, it was not possible. "Domain! use domain!" Someone shouted that. They immediately activated their domain. Only three of them had it, and Alex could see who had a domain. "Gah!!" Alex killed another one. That was three. Finally, the domain touched the edge of the Dark Curtain and broke it. The light started coming back in their eyes, but at least, Alex was able to kill three peak Martial Grandmasters. Their group consisted of Seven 10-Star Martial Grandmaster and three 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, Alex killed three 10-Star Martial Grandmaster since he wasn''t foolish enough to waste his time to kill 9-Star Martial Grandmaster when he could kill those 10-Star Grandmasters. The group immediately noticed what happened. Alex had killed three of them. All of them were enraged when they saw that. A 9-Star Martial Grandmaster immediately charged at him like crazy. "Die!" Alex didn''t even look at the person who charged at him. "You are the one who is going to die!" An angelic voice was heard before him. A black haired woman appeared out of nowhere. Not only was her voice enchanting, but her appearance was also a perfect, pretty face and gorgeous body. She was superior to Putri. She swung her scythe and chopped his head. She stood beside Alex. "What! You woman! How dare you!" Another foolish one came at him after blood filled his head. After the second prince, Zhao Tian saw Anna. He immediately got aroused. Anna pushed every woman in his memory aside, and no one came close to her. "Wait, don''t kill her, capture her." "What!" The man immediately recognized Zhao Tian''s voice. He stopped in confusion a bit. But Alex took that chance. Alex immediately took Fabio''s card. "Recall and... Summon." Fabio appeared beside the man like magic. He said while swinging his sword, "You provoked the wrong person." "Yo-!" Fabio cut his head, thus killing him. "Where are they came from?" The group was confused by the sudden appearance of Anna and Fabio. Of course, it was different from Zhao Tian. Lust had filled his head the moment he saw Anna, "Capture that black haired woman. You can kill the others. Alex narrowed his eyes, and he said, "Anna and Fabio will have one 10-Star Martial Grandmaster as their opponent." "Understood." "Alex, what about me?" Putri asked. She was still shocked by Anna and Fabio. She had seen Anna, but the last time she saw her, Anna was nowhere near Peak Grandmaster. To see Anna was a Peak Grandmaster, she started thinking about other unnecessary things. Alex looked at her and pondered for a moment, "Sherry, Kyle, come out." "Wuu!" "Chirp!" Both of them came out of Alex''s body. They had transformed into their original form. Putri had seen Sherry too, but she hadn''t seen Kyle. Not only her, but the people from the Zhou Kingdom group were also shocked, considering Kyle was a Phoenix. "Pho... pho-phoenix!" "Sherry will hold a 9-Star Martial Master alone. You don''t need to fight it seriously, just make sure you buy enough time. I don''t want you to be hurt again." "Wuu!" "Senior Sister will hold another 9-Star Martial Master down, and Kyle will help you. Although Kyle wasn''t that strong, his fire is good enough to distract his opponent." Putri nodded then asked, "What about you?" Alex pointed his finger toward Zhao Tian. He said while releasing killing intent, "He is mine." "What? But he is a 10-Star Martial Grandmaster, and you are still a 5-Star Mart-" Without hearing Putri''s response, Anna chose her opponent, "He is mine." "Then, I will be his opponent." Fabio chose the brother of Xian Hui. "Anna, Fabio. After finishing your opponent, immediately help Sherry or Senior Sister." "Understood." Putri was dumbfounded to see that they didn''t care about Alex. After all, Alex took a peak Martial Grandmaster to be his opponent, they had a five star gap. "Alright, since you have chosen your opponent, let''s go." Putri was carried away by the situation, and she didn''t know why, but she followed Alex''s direction. Sherry and Putri, along with Kyle, met their respective opponents. Although Sherry was only a 6-Star Martial Grandmaster and her opponent was a 9-Star. She might stand a chance against him, considering the power of her fire and the training with Anna. Alex moved toward Zhou Tian. After seeing Alex was the one who became his opponent, he laughed. "You are going to be my opponent? Hahaha, this is the biggest joke I have ever seen." Alex wasn''t bothered by his taunting. His expression was calm. "If that is your last word, you might regret it." "You! Hmph, I will let you see the difference between us," He said while releasing his Spiritual Energy. But there was another thing that he released beside his Spiritual Energy. He was an Axe user, so he released his domain, which was Axe domain. Alex could feel this Axe domain had a cleaving power. The domain was five meters wide. He charged toward Alex with his ax. "Die!" Alex jumped forward. They passed by each other. Surprisingly, a cut wound appeared on Zhou Tian''s left arm. It was from Alex''s sword. "Impossible," Zhou Tian was shocked. He could see what happened in that split second. Alex also released his Sword Domain. And his domain was even wider than him. After these two months, Alex had practiced his domain too and somehow managed to improve both of his domain by two meters. His Sword Domain had 7 meters while his Spear Domain became 5 meters. Alex used his Sword Domain just now. Zhou Tian never thought that Alex might have a domain. After all, Alex was a nobody. If he was prepared for that, Alex might not be able to hurt him. In other words, he was careless just now. "You!" Zhou Tian charged again. He won''t repeat the same mistake. Alex finally released his Sword Domain completely. When Putri looked at this, she couldn''t help but mutter, "Monster." But before he reached Alex, he threw his ax toward him. The ax started blazing with fire. "Great Emporium Axe." Alex tried to parry it with his sword. He used every ounce of his one and a half dragon strength. Surprisingly, when their weapon clashed, the ax exploded. It gave the ax another force and blew Alex away. Alex wasn''t injured by this, though. Zhou Tian immediately used another attack, he appeared in front of Alex. His fist was on fire, and he was ready to punch Alex with it. Seeing this, Alex smiled a bit. This was another reason why Alex wanted to be his opponent, except he hated him because of his words toward Anna and Putri. He had known his element from his Spirit Eyes. "Fire Phoenix Seed, Open. Pure Fire, On!" Alex''s Pure Fire immediately gushed out of his body and moved toward his left hand. Alex threw his left hand against this fist. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw!" When they clashed, the fire on Alex''s hand immediately suppressed the fire on Zhou Tian''s fist. "Argh!" Zhou Tian screamed while backing out. "Your highness!" The others started worrying him. But they couldn''t help him because they were tied with their respective opponents. Especially those who met Anna and Fabio. They got suppressed by them. He looked at his hand and saw his hand was burned by Alex. He was enraged at this point. "How dare you!" Zhou Tian shot out a few fireballs toward Alex. Alex smiled as fire started covering his body. Alex then waved his hands, and a Fire Phoenix appeared. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning." The phoenix was made by Pure Fire. When it appeared, all of those fireballs that were charging at him stopped. Even Zhou Tian felt the suppression of Pure Fire. "What! Yo-you, how can you suppress my flame? You... don''t tell me, you are a Pure Fire!" Zhou Tian was shocked by that. Even Putri dropped her jaw. To think Alex even had a Pure Fire Element. Putri knew Alex had a strong fire, but she never knew it was this strong. Since he couldn''t hide it anymore and Putri would be the only one who knew about it after this, Alex smirked, "You are right, but the price was only a gate to the underworld." Alex sent his phoenix toward Zhou Tian. To his surprise, the ax came back to his hand after that throw. It seemed that the ax moved like a boomerang. "Hii!" He threw his ax toward the phoenix. The phoenix engulfed the ax but destroyed in the process. Of course, the ax had been burned by the phoenix. Zhou Tian took out another ax from his space ring. After releasing his Pure Fire, the battle shifted to his favor. But as expected from the five stars gap, he couldn''t kill him easily. Alex might need an opening, and he could only do that. Alex looked at Anna and Fabio, who almost finished their opponent. Sherry was still holding on with her opponent, but she was at a disadvantage, while Putri and Kyle were in a standstill. Seeing their condition, Alex shouted, "Be ready!" Alex didn''t drop a hint in his words, but he gave them a hint in his action. A two meters green colored array appeared on his hand. Anna and Fabio already knew about this since they got a portion of his memory. When Putri looked at this familiar green colored array, she immediately recognized it was the same array with the one he used to distract the Bell family. She plugged her ears with her hand. Kyle was a bit clueless but following her example. It was funny to see a Phoenix covered their ears... Sherry changed back to her small form. She was the one who will suffer the most, considering her hearing was better than the others. She closed her ears first, then plugged it with Spiritual Energy, and lastly, she covered them with her paws. "You! you are also an Array Master!" Zhou Tian couldn''t believe it. Alex ignored him as he had used his Spiritual Energy to block his ears. He flicked his finger. "Death Song Array." A disturbing high pitch sound was echoing around this place. There were a few roaring sounds from monsters as they were also victims of Alex''s Death Song Array. The people from the Zhou Kingdom felt like their ears burst when they heard the sound. Anna and the rest attacked their opponent. Alex also tried to kill Zhou Tian. But it seemed that Zhou Tian could move as he avoided his death. Even though he avoided death, Alex still managed to cut his other hand. He lost both hands, one from Alex''s Phoenix claw and the other one from the strike just now. "Argh!" After losing both hands, Zhou Tian was not a threat anymore. Zhou Tian started shouting at him. "You! I don''t want your woman now." Alex kept getting closer. "I will give you many benefits if you spare me." Alex didn''t say anything. "That''s right, in my Space Ring had blood pills, you can have it. You can get stronger easily with those pills." Alex maintained his silence. Although he was interested in blood pills, he can get it from his corpse. Nelson had told him about Zhou Kingdom putting a bounty in his head. So, how can he spare this crappy prince? "You can''t kill me. Don''t you know who my grandfather is? I am Zhou Kingdom''s second prince." Alex had arrived on his front. He finally said something, "If you think two Martial Kings could stop me from killing you. Dream on." Alex finally killed him. He then turned around to see the others'' conditions. Fabio and Anna killed their opponent after Alex''s Death Song Array. Fabio went to Sherry while Anna came to Putri and Kyle. With the addition of them, they managed to finish their battle not long after. He was lucky to have a Fire Element as his opponent. If his opponent had another element, he couldn''t get an elemental advantage, and the battle would be prolonged until Anna and Fabio came to his aid. 251 Ant Nes Alex descended to the ground. "What do you mean about two Martial Kings? Do you mean the Zhou Kingdom secretly has two Martial Kings? And why do they want to kill you?" Putri grabbed his shoulder and asked hurriedly. "..." Alex was confused about which question to answer first. He said, "Calm down first." "Ah!" "Anyway, I have my own network for information. And yeah, they have two Martial Kings. Maybe after this, Senior Sister should inform the sect about it. But maybe because of those two Martial Kings. The sect can''t act openly. "As for other sects, I doubt they will help before confirming there are indeed two Martial Kings in the Zhou Kingdom. As for why they want to kill me... they must have framed me, this is only a guess though." Alex explained. "..." She was surprised to hear such information. Even the sect didn''t have information like that, but Alex had it? She almost forgot about that too. She asked, "You... Do you really have a Pure Fire Element?" "!!!" When Putri asked that question, Anna and Fabio started clenching their weapon. Alex also noticed the anxiety of Anna and Fabio, but he smiled at Putri and said, "Yeah, you are right. Senior Sister wants my Sacrificial Fire?" Putri shook her head immediately, "No, I just want to say sorry. If you really have a Pure Fire Element, I shouldn''t consider you as a monster. It is normal for you to have this kind of progress. And I also should make a Heavenly Oath again. With Heaven and Earth as a witness..." She made another Heavenly Oath again like when she swore to protect his Array Master secret. Anna and Fabio relaxed a bit after hearing that Heavenly Oath. "So, what will you do about the Zhou Kingdom? After killing their second prince, they will try to kill you too." "It''s fine. If they want to come, then come, but they should not expect mercy from me," Alex said with a smile. He added another thing in his heart, ''They didn''t want to let me off anyway because of that golden lightning.'' "Alright, if you say so. If you need help, just ask, I will help you," Putri said. Then she remembered their original intention in staying here, "That''s right. Are you going to breakthrough now?" "Yes," Alex didn''t say anything about the underground passage. Although he could see it, he wasn''t sure that it would be opened. He wanted to stay here after that green energy approached this place. If the entrance didn''t open, Alex would use his Space Gate to go inside or break this whole ground. Alex consolidated his cultivation for a few days. Anna and Fabio cleared the monsters in their surroundings. Sherry, Kyle, and Putri protected him up close. After a few days, Putri started getting anxious. When they reached a week mark, Putri started walking around. They only had a week to go to catch up with the others. Alex opened his eyes for a bit to see the green energy had gotten far closer than before. He speculated that it might need two or three days before it reached the place. A few days later, Putri looked at Alex while tapping her feet. She was dying to go to the white building. She was thinking about going alone since Anna and Fabio even his pets protected him. She shook her head on that idea. She was still responsible for her task, which was to protect Alex. Alex finally opened his eyes. "Alex, have you done?" Putri asked anxiously. "It''s come." Alex only said those words with a mysterious tone. "What''s co-" Before she finished her words, a green array appeared on the ground next to them. She couldn''t help but ask, "What is that?" "You are searching for the entrance, right? There you have it." Alex said while pushing her to the array. Alex also followed from behind. Sherry and Kyle went inside his body while Anna and Fabio came back and entered the array. It was a teleportation array that teleported them twenty meters underground. After entering the array, they were in free fall. Judging from the energy, they will fall for another thirty meters. Of course, with that high, they managed to land safely. "Alex, what is this place? What is that array? What do you mean by the entrance... Don''t tell me..." "Yeah, you are right. It is indeed the array that everyone is searching for." Putri covered her mouth with her hand in astonishment. The entrance to the white building that they dreamed about was actually near the west gate? Alex looked to the front. Many crystals started to light up, and the passage brightened. "I will tell the others." Putri was still thinking about her fake fiance. Well, she didn''t know, so he was still a good fiance in her eyes. Alex grabbed her hand while shaking his head. "You can''t go out now." "Why... why didn''t you tell the others about this?" Putri asked desperately. If Alex had figured this out, why didn''t he say anything? "First, even if I told them about it, will they believe me?" "They..." "Second, If they do believe me, then what? After entering here, what will they do to me? Judging from their attitude toward me, they might kill me after I served my purpose!" "They..." "And you expect me to trust them after they acted like that to me?" "..." Putri couldn''t say anything to his remarks. Even if they didn''t kill Alex, Alex''s share might be small compared to others, saying that he was only a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. Putri sighed. If this passage were indeed the entrance to the white building, she would just share her own reward in this with the others. "How do you know about this passage?" Putri asked. "..." Alex glanced at her before answering her question, "Let me tell you about a story between two men inside a mine. These two men started mining at the same time. "They kept mining for a few days but didn''t get anything yet. Until one day, the first man got a good gem from the mine. After getting that gem, the first man finished his job and got out of the mine. "After the second man looked at the first man who managed to find a gem in his spot, what do you think the second man did?" "He... started mining at the first man''s spot?" Putri said, a bit unsure. "Indeed. The second man started mining in the first man''s spot. He didn''t know that in the first man''s spot, it only had that gem while the rest was only ordinary stones, neither he knew that his spot was actually filled with gems that were bigger and not only one but more." Putri gasped when she heard the story. She asked, "Then do you mean that the people around the white building were like that second person? They were entranced by the small gem and didn''t know there was a bountiful spot beneath them? If they waited here more than a week, would they find the passage and get a far higher reward?" "Something like that," Alex nodded. "Anyway, let''s go." Alex started walking while Putri was still in astonishment before snapping from her daze and chased them. Four of them walked together since Alex didn''t recall Anna and Fabio back to the cards. It was a long passage. Alex had activated his Spirit Eyes from the start, and he didn''t notice anything unusual. The passage was strange, it was like a human-made passage, but it was not a human''s handiwork. Alex suddenly saw a numerous amount of energy approaching them. "They are coming, but I don''t know what they are!" Alex shouted. In Alex''s eyes, he could vaguely see the shape of them. It was close to that creature but far bigger. After all, he couldn''t believe it when he saw their figure, "Ants?" He also saw their strength. The weakest of them was 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. They were on a broader space right now. It had a fifty meter space in diameter. They could see a few tunnels in this room. Alex immediately recognized it, "Ant Nest!" "!!!" Anna and the others were surprised. But before they could react, they heard the sound of Ants. "Cree Cree!" The black colored ants were a meter high with five meters length. They were really ants, but giant ants. He looked at their big mouth. Those bites might hurt very much. The ants started crawling out of tunnels. Alex was wondering if he should call Nelson and Greg. But he refrained from doing it for the time being. If push comes to shove, he would summon them. Since Putri already knew about his Pure Fire, he didn''t hold back anymore. He released his Pure Fire along with his sword. He also released his Sword Domain. Putri did the same. She summoned her spear Domain. Alex had seen this domain in the fight with Zhou Kingdom''s people. "Anna, Fabio, no need to hold back. Kill them all." "Understood." "Sherry, use my fire and burn them all." "Wuu!" After ordering them, he jumped forward to meet those ants. When he came in front of the ants, he thought once again, ''It is really big.'' The ant in front of him tried to bite him. Alex only waved his sword. "Seven Stars Cut!" [EXP+ 8000] [EXP+ 10000] [EXP+ 7500] ... He hadn''t used this move for quite a while. After entering 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, Alex could use five layers Seven Stars Cut. He might be able to use six layers before the Inner Disciple Tournament and seven layers after he reached Martial Lord. Even so, this five layers Seven Stars Cut alone were powerful enough. It cut through every ant that stood on its way. After seeing that power, Alex was thinking about using it horizontally. Since the ant didn''t fly and they were restricted to this room. It was easy to kill multiple ants with that move. Anna and Fabio were rampaging inside the crowd of ants. Putri also killed some, but not as insane as Anna and Fabio. "Boom Boom Boom!" A few explosions appeared after Sherry rained the ants with firebirds. Kyle didn''t participate since he wasn''t strong enough. But with enough time, he would also become stronger. They continued to kill the ants, but the ants continued coming toward them. They had killed around a few hundred ants in an hour. Anna and Fabio didn''t recklessly use their Spiritual Energy as it might be a long fight like the one in Onsul Town. It might be easier if Leoz, Nelson, and Greg were here, but it was only for the last resort. After another hour, Putri was starting to get exhausted from the continuous usage of Spiritual Energy. Alex didn''t use too much Spiritual Energy as much as her since he was relying on his brute strength this entire time while some occasional Sword Arts. But Sherry had stopped bombarding them because she used her Spiritual Energy to summon those firebirds. In fact, it was really useful as she was the one who contributed the most in these two hours. "I see the last ant, only three hundred left," Alex shouted after seeing the last ant with his Spirit Eyes. After hearing that, Anna and Fabio used their Spiritual Energy to the fullest. They finished in almost thirty minutes. Putri fell down to the ground, tired. Well, it can be expected since she might not have experienced fighting many monsters this way. "System, can I invite Senior Sister inside the Spirit Nest?" [You can, but the other party would see the EXPs and Gacha Tickets notification too. You could ask Sherry and Kyle if they got the notification. System is sure that they got it. If you decided to add her, then System would be exposed] "... Let''s just put that on hold." He didn''t mind if she saw his Pure Fire or his spear, but he didn''t want to let her see his Gacha System. After all, it was his biggest secret. "We will recover our Spiritual Energy here," Alex said while making a barrier with his array. Its purpose was to block the smell of blood from the ants. Putri started recovering her Spiritual Energy. She was surprised to see Alex''s battle prowess. Although, in a one-on-one fight, Alex might not be able to win her yet. But in her eyes, it wasn''t that far. After all, in a one-on-one fight, they could easily dodge his attack. Putri thought there was still a few months before the Tournament. Alex might have reached 7 or 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. 252 Cleared After recovering their energy, they continued their way along the tunnels. "Alex, do you see anything in the next room?" "No, it is safe." Alex answered Anna''s question. They were crossing a tunnel that leads to another room where the ants swarmed them. When they reached the room, they found out there were two passages, leading to another place. "Now, which one should we go to? Left or right?" Alex looked at the passage on the left with his Spirit Eyes but couldn''t see anything. He turned to the right passage, but it was the same. He came to a dilemma. "I don''t see anything from both." Alex shook his head. "So, where should we go?" Anna asked. Alex tried to look at Putri and Fabio. They shook their heads, letting Alex choose. Alex pondered for a moment then said, "Left." "Why?" Putri asked. "Well... There is this saying back in my hometown. Although it is often used as a joke, it might be useful at a time like this. It says, ''Woman is always right.'' Since I am a man, I should go to the left." Anna and Putri were dumbfounded when they heard that. But Alex had started walking to the left passage. Fabio only giggled while following Alex. After walking for a few minutes, they finally reached a dead-end. All of them immediately knew it was the wrong passage. Anna immediately grabbed Alex and dragged him. "It is indeed right. We, women, are always right. You should just follow us." ... Ugh, it hurts. Looking at them, Putri chuckled. Beside her, Fabio, sweatdropped. He was relieved that his wife wasn''t here at the moment. They then used the right passage and found it was really the right passage. Anna bragged about this continuously. Unfortunately, they found another room like that, and Anna immediately chose the right passage. But this time, she was wrong as the group chose the wrong passage. This time, Alex was the one who dragged her while saying, "Like I said, it is often used as a joke." Putri was laughing all along. In her eyes, they looked like a lovely couple... It wasn''t ''look like'', This ant nest was really a labyrinth. But Alex thought they were lucky. If this was really a labyrinth or dungeon, there might be traps along the way. They finally arrived after a day of searching. They killed another thousand ants along the way. But when they arrived at their destination, Alex could only see numerous signs of energy. "There are many ants in front of us... their numbers were around two thousand. I''m afraid this fight will be long like yesterday," Alex warned them. "I am ready," Anna said. "An Ant spotted!" Putri suddenly shouted. Alex and the rest turned their head to see a bigger ant than the usual ants. Three meters high and ten meters long, its head was also big. "It... it might be the queen... No, if I''m not wrong, it should be a general ant!" Alex said. Putri didn''t have any knowledge about this, so she was confused, "What is a general ant?" "No time, let''s kill it first," Alex said. "Cree Cree!" As expected, the normal ants were also with him. Fabio immediately charged at the general ant and swung his sword. But surprisingly, the ant was very sturdy. His sword didn''t manage to cut its head. It blew Fabio away, and Alex also did a follow up. "Seven Stars Cut." Even with its sturdy body, it couldn''t stand a chance against Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. "Let''s go." Alex and the rest moved through the tunnel and found the nest. The nest was really huge. It couldn''t even be compared to all the previous rooms they had found. It was more than one kilometer wide with two thousand ants inside. Of course, there were a few general ants too. Alex saw a far bigger ant at the center of the nest. The ant had a pair of wings, and its size was twice that of general ant''s. Alex realized it must be the queen. "Senior Sister, could you make a giant tornado in this nest? I will try to fuse my fire in it. We might be able to reduce their number significantly." Putri nodded. She started controlling her wind energy. "Spirling Wind." A huge whirlwind appeared inside the nest. It alarmed every ant inside the nest. Alex discharged his flame too. But, he used a gentle approach. The flame started spinning around the whirlwind. It continued to expand until it became a huge fire tornado. It wrecked havoc on the entire nest. [Gacha Ticket x1] [EXP+ 8000] [EXP+ 9000] [EXP+ 5000] ... It rained down EXPs and Gacha Tickets. That gust of wind alone managed to kill a few hundred of the ants. Of course, Putri started sweating. To maintain that huge tornado, she used a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. "Senior Sister, rest first. There might be another chance to use it again," Alex said. Putri nodded. She tried to recover her Spiritual Energy as soon as possible to help him. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning." Alex summoned his fire phoenix, and it flew toward the queen. One of the general ants suddenly appeared in front of the queen and blocked the phoenix with its body. The phoenix immediately engulfed the entire general ant''s body. "Cree Cree!" The ants started swarming them. Anna and Fabio immediately moved to intercept those ants. "Sherry," Alex called her to use the phoenix together. "Wuu (Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning.)" Two phoenix appeared and flew toward the queen. Another general appeared to block a phoenix. Another phoenix met a barrier of ants. The normal ants formed a wall to protect the queen. They managed to kill a few tens of ants and one general with this attack. But if they continuously used this technique. They would be exhausted before they finished them all. Alex jumped toward the nest. He summoned another phoenix and made it as he wanted to clear the ants away. "Boom!" He killed another few tens. But the phoenix just now wasn''t for killing. Instead, it was for Alex to get some space to deal with those ants. "Sherry, I leave the bombing to you. Kyle may have tried it too." "Wuu." "Chirp." Alex started cutting the ants one by one. If they saw this scene, they might think it was foolish. After all, the ant was going to swarm him, and he wouldn''t be able to escape from there. But Alex was skillful. It was like he didn''t have any pressure on his shoulder to cut those ants. He never got surrounded by the ants. Alex didn''t fight the ants like he was fighting thousands of ants. Instead, he fought the ant one by one, thousands of times. It was different from a 1-vs-1000 fight with a 1-1 fight but a thousand times. Alex used this strategy to fight his way in this situation. It would be effective as long as Alex could finish it in a single blow and move to another. Alex had been using his ''Fleeting Step'' and his Sword Intent to kill the ant. He also had his absurd brute strength to boot. Alex was a killing machine. He had been experiencing something like this, even in the lower world. He tried to search for the most efficient way of killing a huge number of enemies without exhausting his energy. This was the strategy he came up with as the solution. After an hour, Alex started feeling tired. After all, he alone had killed almost five hundred ants. Alex glanced at Putri while killing the ants. Noticing his glance, Putri nodded to him. "Use it around here," Alex shouted. Putri hesitated a bit but chose to trust him. "Spirling Wing." A whirlwind appeared around his area. Alex immediately flew away while releasing his flame. Another killing tornado appeared inside the nest. Alex and the rest had killed two-third of the ants. His spirits had leveled up at least once. Surprisingly, Anna and Fabio were fine even though they became a Martial Lord. Putri was shocked to see Anna and Fabio suddenly broke through to Martial Lord. "System, this place is only for Martial Grandmasters... right?" Alex asked. [Yes. But, because Anna and Fabio leveled up here, that condition is not valid. After all, it is only applied to the portal to come to this realm. As long as you have come inside the realm. You can breakthrough here. The only exception is for those who have been residing in this place. They are restricted to peak Martial Grandmaster] "..." Coming here is really good. Because of the huge amount of monsters, this place had become his source of EXP. They killed the ants in this place completely. He looked at a giant white door behind the queen. It must be the entrance of the white building. But, even so, he was so tired after fighting this much. Anna and Fabio were in their best shape since they leveled up. "We should rest a bit before entering the place. It is still unknown what kind of thing is behind that door." Anna and the rest nodded. Anna and Fabio didn''t need to rest though so they searched around to see if there was something noticeable. ... On the surface, a group of people consisting of ten women flew around the area. "Senior Sister, why are we flying around like this? We only got a few treasures in this place. We should get back to the white building and complete a few more quests." One of the girls complained. The leader of this group was a gorgeous woman with light blue hair. She had big blue eyes, a small nose, and cherry lips. She wore a pure white dress. "If you guys want to go to the white building again. It''s up to you. But make sure you group up first," she said. The others looked at each other, trying to make a decision with just eye contact. "Then, Senior Sister, we are going back." She was surprised to see eight of them wanted to come back. She thought at least half of them might stay with her. But it seemed that the temptation was too big. She looked at the only one who didn''t leave. She had beautiful purple hair tied into twin tails. She wore a black shirt and a black miniskirt. "Are you not leaving?" The leader asked. She shook her head, "I will follow you, Senior Sister." She nodded. Both of them flew again, and before long, they suddenly smelled blood. "!!!" They looked at each other and decided to descend carefully. They found ten corpses in the area. And they recognized one of them. The corpse had lost one of its hands. Even though it had been more than ten days, cultivator corpses had yet to root. "This... isn''t this the Zhou Kingdom''s second prince?" "Who killed him?" They started searching for their surroundings and found a green array on the ground. They were shocked as there wasn''t any information about this array. "Senior Sister, should we go there?" "..." She also hesitated about this. Eventually, she nodded, "This might be the entrance of the white building. Because it is far away from the building, no one has been able to find it yet. But looking at the corpses, we should be careful. If anything dangerous comes, we will immediately retreat." The purple-haired girl nodded her head. They went inside the array, and suddenly they got teleported to the underground. "Kya!" They were shocked to see they were teleported. Not long after, they reached the bottom of the passage. They gulped down. "Let''s go." The purple-haired nodded anxiously, and she became tense because of the sudden situation. They walked quite a while and found a room full of ant corpses. They were shocked to behold such a sight. "Senior Sister?" "It seems there is another group that finds this entrance. I am assuming they were the ones who killed these ants. Be careful." "Ye-yes." They proceeded carefully, going left and right like Alex''s group. They were shocked when they found the number of ant corpses. If it were their group that encountered such a situation, they might not be able to defeat those ants and be forced to retreat. But they didn''t find any human corpses. So, they thought the group must have survived and continued. They didn''t know about the other passages since the entrance itself wasn''t flashy. She only found the entrance because of the smell of blood and the corpses there. If not, she might not be able to find this passage. She was very lucky. 254 Appearance "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning." Alex didn''t stop there. He immediately used his Tortoise Shell Array to cover the clash. After all, he didn''t want to ruin the botanical garden. It was beneficial if he plucked all of them and used them. He used his Array out of reflex, thinking it was alright as long as the high ranking herbs were fine even though it was not. An ice phoenix was flying toward him, but it met a fire phoenix. Surprisingly, both of them destroyed each other. The ice phoenix froze the fire phoenix while the fire phoenix evaporated the ice phoenix. Alex and the woman were surprised. They never thought that their power was equal. Both of them never found such a case. It was like their element was equal. The only element that can be equal to his Pure Fire Element was another Pure Element. "You... you are a Pure Element user!" Both of them recognized each other''s power. "I... I apologize, I don''t mean to attack you. After finding those many ants'' corpses, I thought you were an enemy, so I attacked without thinking. I am Letizia La Scola from Rainbow Flower Sect. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" After calming down, she realized that Alex might be the human in front of them. In other words, he was the one who killed those numerous ants. If she fought against him, she wouldn''t be able to win. Unfortunately, her friend was a fool. She shouted, "She is the daughter of the current sect master of Rainbow Flower Sect. Whatever you got in here, you should bring it to her." She dared to shout that because she only saw Alex and Putri. Alex was only a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster while Putri was an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. While both of them were 10-Star Martial Grandmasters. "Mina!" Letizia shouted her name. "But we..." "Stop!" Alex suddenly shouted. Letizia and Mina were shocked. But that shout wasn''t targeted at them. Sadly, Mina had misunderstood that shout as a provocation. "You! I will ki-!" "Mina, Stop! Do you not understand our situation?" Letizia shouted. "My lady?" "Cling*" The sound of metal was heard. "What do you want to say, little girl? Let me hear it fully! I will show you the way to the next world!" Another female voice was present. Letizia had realized this a bit earlier than Mina. Sadly it was too late. Fabio''s sword had been pointing at her neck while Anna''s scythe had been surrounding Mina''s neck, ready to kill her. Anna released her killing intent. That''s right, Alex''s shout was for Anna and Fabio. If Alex didn''t stop them, Letizia and Mina might already die. Both of them finally realized, there were two 1-Star Martial Lords here. "Why don''t you say it again, little girl? Let me see if you can escape from here alive?" Anna spoke again. She really wanted to kill them... Saying she wanted to kill Alex was out of question. "We... we are from Rainbow Flower Sect, and she is the only daughter of the sect master. If you killed us, the sect master wouldn''t let you off!" Mina was stubborn. "Hmph, Martial Kings from Zhou Kingdom won''t be able to stop Alex from killing their second prince. Let alone you," Anna skillfully manipulated the course of conversation. "Martial Kings? None of the four kingdoms have a Martial King, let alone more than one Martial King," Letizia was confused. "Hmph, that''s why you little girls are too innocent. Your sect can''t even be compared to us. To think you couldn''t even get that kind of information. Rainbow Flower Sect is mediocre." "You!" Alex was communicating with Anna this entire time. "Good, make sure they believe that the Zhou Kingdom has Martial Kings. Then they might investigate it. Senior Sister Putri will also inform the sect so with these two sects acted together. Zhou Kingdom couldn''t act recklessly. "Since they wanted to kill me, then I will also make trouble for them." "But Young Master, I want to kill these two girls. One of them dared to attack you while the other one was bad-mouthing you!" "They are more useful in this way. If she is really the daughter of the sect master of Rainbow Flower Sect, then, she might be able to convince the sect master and make them move." "But, they also know your power." "Just spare them with a condition. The condition is a Heavenly Oath about my power." "... Alright," Anna wanted to kill it, but indeed, they will be more useful this way. "There must be a misunderstanding around here. I apologize if you were angry because of my attack. If you could spare us, I won''t forget this debt." "And do you think we will let you go after you know about his power," Anna pressed them again. "I... I can make a Heavenly Oath for that. I won''t tell anyone about this place too. If it is not enough, I could trade my Sacrificial Ice. Sadly I''m not awakened yet." "Hmph, you are not useful even if we keep you alive. Oh, you might, but I don''t know if a girl with your appearance is enough to crawl on our Master''s bed." "I would rather die than do that!" Letizia gritted her teeth after she heard that. Of course, Anna wasn''t serious in that request as she was just pressing her. "It''s enough. Just have them make a Heavenly Oath about my power, identity, and this place," Alex said as he gave them mercy. "But..." Anna acted as planned. "I have decided." "... Fine. Starting from you!" Anna chose Letizia first. "I... With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Letizia La Scola, promised not to disclose any information about what happened in this place, including your power, identity, and this place. I promised not to go against you because of this accident as a favor for this incident." "Good! Next!" After Mina also made the same oath with her. Anna and Fabio released their weapon from their neck. "May I know your name?" Before Alex answered her question whether to say his name or not, Alex turned around. Letizia and Mina followed his line of sight and saw a red haired man walking toward them. "Well... what do we have here... Two people also came too? It seems this year has a bit more decent young generation. But, it seems you two came from the same entrance as him. Because you didn''t come together, that means you come after him. "I can feel the entrance gate from here, and the only gate that has been opened is the same gate as the one he opened. I also want to reward you, but you are a bit reckless in your action, so I couldn''t reward you fully. "I feel inside your body has the aura of a Pure Ice Element but has yet to awaken, and made it easier to be spotted. I wanted to awaken your Pure Ice Element, but I won''t do that because you attacked him." "Senior... there must be a misunderstanding," Letizia tried to explain the current situation. After he managed to discover her Pure Ice Element with just a glance, she knew this man must be the original owner. "Yes, Senior, there must be a misunderstanding. My senior sister is-!" Mina also wanted to explain the situation. "Did I let you speak?" Zwaka immediately shut her up. He released a killing intent from his eyes. Mina immediately got scared. As expected from an Old Ghost, even though he was only a ghost, he could still exert such killing intent. "Senior. I apologize for her rude action. We are-" "First, your reckless attack might ruin this garden that I have planted for a long time. Second, you are not an Alchemist, and you are not an Array Master either. This is the biggest reason why you can''t get my inheritance. "What? Are you expecting me to give my inheritance to you when I know you are not compatible with it? For what? For your sect? Nah, if your sect wants it, they should grab it by themself. "If you are an Alchemist, then you might get this garden as part of my inheritance, but you are not. Looking at your action just now, if you fought in this place, many of my medicinal herbs would be ruined. "If you can''t even discern the rank of my medicinal herbs, then you shouldn''t expect me to give it to you. Anyway, most of my possession had been given to those people who completed my quest outside. "Even so, you managed to reach this place even though you just followed the path he had cleared. I will give you two Mid Heaven Tier Ice Element Arts and a Rank 5 Sword to you. As for this rude girl, I will just give her one High Earth Wind Element Art and a rank 4 sword. Is there any problem with my decision?" "We don''t dare." Letizia just accepted it. If she didn''t attack Alex or Mina wasn''t rude. She might get more than this. Sadly, it was too late to regret. She could only accept it or from the killing intent that Zwaka''s released. They might stay forever in this place. Zwaka made an array, and the rewards he had said were there. "This is your reward." Zwaka purposely said that he couldn''t give his inheritance because his inheritance was his Garden and Array. He wanted to make her think that he didn''t have anything other than those. She wouldn''t think about the huge amount of Spirit Stones and high ranking weapons. Letizia and Mina immediately stored their reward inside their space ring. For Letizia, two Mid Heaven Tier Element Arts were insane. Like Heavenly Sword Sect, they didn''t have a Heaven Tier Martial Arts. Of course, on the premise, Alex hadn''t restored Heavenly Sword Sect''s Seven Stars Cut back to Heaven Tier Sword Art. And another thing was a rank 5 Sword. That sword alone could easily get her a few million Spirit Stones. Of course, no one was fool enough to sell a rare rank 5 weapon in the continent. "Anyway, since you have gotten your reward. It''s time to send you back," Zwaka said. He then clapped his hands once. An array appeared on Letizia''s and Mina''s feet. They suddenly got teleported to the outside world, not the outside of the building. They literally got teleported outside the realm. "Sigh..." Letizia was disappointed. "Se-senior Sister... I..." Letizia shook her head. "Remember their face and search for their information. It seems that he will get the inheritance of that ''Senior''. I will convince my mother to maintain a good relationship with him... Medicinal Herbs Garden... Array... "He seems to be a disciple from a sect. But, considering the inheritance, he most likely came from Mount Hua Sect. We will make a good relationship with Mount Hua Sect first while searching for his information. "I am also the fault here from attacking him first. If I met him next time, I would formally apologize again. You also remember not to be rude to others. "But It''s truly surprising that he wasn''t well-known. It seems another Genius will arise from Mount Hua Sect." "Then, Senior Sister, should we go inside again?" Mina asked while looking at the gate. It hadn''t been closed because there was still a time limit. Letizia pondered for a moment. Before she came up with an answer, an abrupt event took place. The gate suddenly got closed, and not long after, people started appearing in the surroundings. "What? What happens?" "I almost completed the quest." "There should be around one or two days left." "The gate is closed." Letizia immediately came up with an answer after looking at this sudden appearance. They were forced to go out like them. And judging from the number, it must be the entire people that came inside the realm, except those people. "We will regroup with the others first and go back to the sect." ... One minute ago, "Hmm... Well, I will close this realm first before any other people enter this place," Zwaka said casually as he clapped his hands once again. It immediately confused the entire realm. Arrays suddenly appeared beneath the people''s feet. Even the Southern Kingdom''s group, they were shocked by the sudden appearance of this Array. They were teleported outside before they knew it. "What happened?" Eric asked with a dumbfounded face. "We don''t know... or don''t tell me, Putri had received the inheritance, and because of that, we are bailed out here?" The princess immediately came up with a possibility. "F*ck. She and that brat must have planned this. I will demand it from them after this!" They just came into the passage before they suddenly got teleported outside along with all the people inside. 255 Space After teleporting all the people outside, there were only Zwaka, Putri, Alex, and his group in this realm. "Well, it seems you haven''t done anything to them because of those two girls. I will help you then, I don''t have anything to do at this time," Zwaka said while shrugging his shoulders. "Thank you, Senior," Alex thanked him "Anyway, this field alone is huge, and we need a special treatment for some Medicinal Ingredients." "I..." Putri wanted to help them too, but she didn''t have that much knowledge about Medicinal Ingredients. If Song Yu was the one here, she might be able to do it. But Putri... She couldn''t. "You should refine the wind gem in the meantime," Zwaka said to Putri. "I... Alright," Putri could only accept his suggestion. Alex then looked at Anna and Fabio. "I''m sorry, Alex. I don''t have that much knowledge about Medicinal Herbs. Only Jean knows about Medicinal Herbs," Anna said while blushing red because of embarrassment. She was thinking about reading a book about Medicinal Herbs after they came back. Of course, Alex''s book. Fabio also shook his head. "Are there any monsters outside other entrances?" Alex murmured. "There are. Their numbers are massive too. Why do you ask?" Zwaka answered Alex''s doubt. Anna and Fabio got enlightened. "We will kill those monsters immediately," Anna became a bit more motivated again. If she couldn''t help Alex in here, then she could just level up and get Gacha Tickets for him. "It''s not like I am not proficient with Medicinal Herbs, alright!" Fabio was on the same page with Anna. Zwaka was confused about why they suddenly got motivated by monsters. He didn''t know about EXPs or Gacha Tickets, so he didn''t know about that joy. He only thought monsters as a hassle. He only took advantage of monsters so he could get Spirit Stones from a natural mine created by his realm. He made a special realm by locking this entire place by Array and Space Element. The array blocked the natural flow of Spiritual Energy and trapped them inside this place. That was the reason why this place was filled by a massive Spiritual Energy. The mine started appearing one after another in the underground. Of course, because of this place, the monsters had a good place to raise their strength. If not because of the limitation he placed on this place, those monsters might reach Martial Lord if not Martial King. But, because they couldn''t the monster population had become high enough to be feared. At least this white building was special as monsters wouldn''t be able to enter this place. Alex could only shake his head helplessly. "Well, Senior, I hope you don''t mind with them killing the monsters outside." "Sure," Zwaka wasn''t sure why they were excited, but at least they seemed happy when they learned about it. So, he just ignored it. "Senior, should we start?" Alex asked politely. "Yeah." ... Three days later, Alex and Zwaka had just finished storing the plant into the Space Ring. Zwaka was really shocked by how huge his field was. At first, he was too bored, so he planted all of those plants. Without him knowing, he had planted more than ten thousand medicinal ingredients. And they stored it one by one. They truly had worked hard for this. "Well, this is the ring. If I remember it right, you seem to want to use that white lotus. You can refine it first. After that, I want you to come again to the previous place and refine the crystal, which has my understanding of Space Element." "...yes," Alex answered him with a bit apologetic sound. Now that he thought about it, he really struck it rich. And he still got helped by him in loading these medicine ingredients to his Space Ring. Zwaka was very understanding too. He decided to fulfill his wish as soon as he had the qualification to erase that ''Devil Blood Sect''. Zwaka then went back, leaving Alex alone in the garden. Seeing Zwaka leave, Alex then sat on the ground as he took out the white flower from his Space Ring. The nectar of this White Lotus was very beneficial to eyes, especially to his Spirit Eyes. Alex dropped the nectar to both his eyes. His eyes felt burning, but it didn''t hurt that much. At least, it wasn''t that hurt compared to the other things he had been through. Alex didn''t let out a single scream or even a groan when refining his eyes. Alex used a week to refine his eyes. When he opened his eyes for the first time, he noticed that his eyes were enhanced a few times. If he focused his eyes to a specific place fifty meters in front of him. He could see every detail in that place. Alex then tried to activate his Spirit Eyes. He was surprised to see the world even more clearly. Before, he could only imagine some vague image. Even the color he could see only consisted of seven colors, which were the rainbow color. After refining his eyes with this White Lotus, he could even discern far more color. Although it wasn''t on the level of normal eyes, it could at least discern more than fifty colors. He also could shape more clearly than last time. Alex tried to find Anna and Fabio with his current eyes. Not long after, he could see Anna and Fabio fighting numerous monsters. Alex could only cheer for them from him since he had more important things to do. He rose from the ground and walked to meet Zwaka. Noticing Alex had finished his cultivation, he was happy. Alex looked at Putri, who was cultivating in front of a green gem. It was the gem in Zwaka''s mouth. "She should be like that for a few more days. Have you finished your business?" Alex nodded. "Then come with me." Alex followed him to another room. In this room, there was a pink crystal hovering on the air. It was glowing and illuminating the room. "I want you to refine the crystal. It holds my understanding of Space. As for how much you could understand from this crystal depends on your ability. This crystal will be destroyed a month after you started refining it. "If you are ready, you could start right away. Just sit in front of it and try to pry it with your Spiritual Energy." But before Alex nodded his head. Sherry and Kyle came out of his body. Zwaka was surprised to see the sudden appearance of two monsters. When he saw Kyle, he was surprised to see a Phoenix came out of Alex''s body. "Phoenix?" But the most shocking thing he could see was Sherry. At first, he was confused. He thought Sherry was just an ordinary fox. But, he couldn''t relate her to any fox species. Not long after, he found a fox species that fit perfectly with her description. But he found it more unbelievable. It was a beast that was even far rarer than a phoenix. "You... you are a Celestial Fox?" "Wuu!" Sherry tilted her head in confusion. She just came out as she wanted to cultivate. She came out to ask him that. After all, this environment was really good. She and Kyle might have made good progress in here. "Wuu!" She remembered that Alex''s Master told her that she was a Celestial Fox. She then nodded her head to Zwaka. Zwaka opened his mouth in astonishment. He thought Celestial Fox was only a legend. He wanted to deny Sherry''s existence, but it couldn''t be any other species except Celestial Fox, according to their description. "Wuu Wuu Wuu!" Sherry said something to Alex. "You want to cultivate here because the density of Spiritual Energy is far higher here? Kyle wants that too?" "Wuu!" Sherry answered. Kyle also nodded his head. "Well, this place is not mine, but..." Alex looked at Zwaka. Zwaka immediately snapped from his shock and tried to regain his composure. "Well, if you want, I could do it. I can make the Spirit Gathering Array too. Sadly, I can only make rank 4 Spirit Gathering Arrays since all high ranking blood I have in my possession has been unusable." "Are you sure, Senior?" Alex asked. "Yeah, it''s fine since... nevermind. You should start first. I will make the gathering arrays after you start." Alex nodded. He sat down on the floor and released his Spiritual Energy. He controlled his Spiritual Energy toward the crystal. As soon as his Spiritual Energy reached the crystal, indescribable knowledge started flowing to his mind. He had experienced it two times as it was similar to his Golden Lightning. But, the difference was in this crystal. The information he received far vaguer than the Golden Lightning. No, it might can''t be called vague anymore. It was like getting one-word information continuously, and Alex needed to compile it in his mind. Alex wasn''t sure how much he could get in a month. He could only try. Seeing Alex had started, Zwaka turned to Sherry and Kyle. "Follow me." Sherry and Kyle nodded. After looking at Alex for the last time, they followed Zwaka to another room. Zwaka easily made rank 4 Gathering Array. He was a rank 6 Array Master, so making this was not a challenge for him. After so many years, the high ranking blood inside his treasury had been coagulated and unusable. He could only make a rank 4 Spirit Gathering Array, and it had been exerting all of his expertise since he made it from Grandmaster Stage monster blood, which should be made from Lord Stage monster. Of course, if the blood weren''t a peak Grandmaster Stage monster, it would be impossible even for him to make that array. ... "Crack!" After a month, Alex had completely finished absorbing the crystal. The crystal started to crack before crumbling to the ground. Alex finally opened his eyes. He felt that this one month was very bountiful. Although he couldn''t describe it, his mastery in Space Element had leveled up several levels. Alex looked around and didn''t find anyone in the room. He activated his Spirit Eyes to search for everyone''s position. Sherry and Kyle seemed fine. In this one month, Sherry became 9-Star Grandmaster Stage Beast while Kyle became 6-Star Grandmaster Stage Phoenix. He also found his Senior Sister, Putri, was talking with Zwaka. He then rose from the floor and went toward them. ... "This place has been surrounded by many people. But don''t worry, the barrier can ho-" Before he finished his word. He felt immense pain in his heart. It was the signal when Alex had finished refining the crystal. He raised his hand and looked at it. His hand started becoming transparent. "Senior, you-!" Putri was shocked to see Zwaka''s hand suddenly get transparent. "I''m fine." Not long after, Alex came and saw Zwaka started becoming transparent. He immediately ran toward him and activated his Spirit Eyes. He saw that his energy changed a lot, and it became weaker. "Senior, are you alright?" "Yeah, I''m fine. It seems you got a good amount of knowledge in Space from the crystal. I''m glad." "It''s all thanks to Senior." "I can only exist for another two months." After hearing that, Alex suddenly realized something. "Senior, don''t tell me that crystal?" "It is the one thing that kept me alive here. Anyway, it''s been so long since my own death. It''s time for me to go but don''t worry, I still have two months. If you want to cultivate here, you only have two months. After two months, I will disappear. This building will collapse, and the barrier for this realm will crumble. After that, the people that surrounded this place will immediately go there. I want to ask you, do you want to cultivate here, or I can teleport you a hundred miles from here." Alex and Putri looked at each other. Putri then said, "I will go back. I need to inform Master and Senior Sister that you are alright. Eric might also worry about me. So, I will go back." "Are you sure, Senior Sister?" Alex asked. "Yes. I didn''t help that much this entire time. If I go with Mega and Eric, the reward can''t be compared to what I got here. You should cultivate here and surprise me at the Inner Disciple Tournament." Putri explained with a smile. Then she turned to Zwaka. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Alright," Zwaka agreed with her request. An Array appeared under her feet. Putri formally thanked Zwaka once again for the opportunity he had given to her. She waved her hand to Alex and disappeared. 256 Plan Alex looked at the teleportation array that Zwaka made just now with his new understanding of space. It looked like his Spatial Door. But she didn''t need to cross the blue colored realm as he experienced previously when escaping from a Martial King. It was like Zwaka shortened the distance in that blue colored realm and made it nonexistence. It gave him the ability to teleport people with zero time difference. It was a skill to make a teleportation array. After Alex learned many things from that crystal, Alex could understand this principle and apply it too. Alex should be able to make a fifty meters teleportation array. Although it was far from Zwaka''s level, at the very least, Alex was in the right direction and could develop his ability with time. Alex thought about enhancing his array mastery. As soon as he could use a Rank 4 Array, he should register in the Array Master guild. After that, he should register as a Rank 4 Alchemist. He should have enough strength to protect himself in this continent, even if his power were seen by others. He should be fine if he had those two identities. Even others tried to surround him, Alex had Anna and the others. If a Martial King wanted to kill him, he could escape to the spatial world or used his Teleportation array, which he would master after he got back. "I have the Space Element guide for Array Master inside this space ring. I have put all my inheritances in this ring," Zwaka gave his Space Ring to Alex. Even though he knew that Zwaka wanted to give his inheritances to him in exchange for his promise, to receive such favor from a former Martial Emperor while he was only a Martial Grandmaster, was overwhelming. "You should check it first," Zwaka advised him. Alex tried to see the inside of the Space Ring. He was overwhelmed with what he saw. ''Many rank 5 and 6 weapons and Medicinal Ingredients, many Heaven Tier Martial Arts (Weapon Arts and Elemental Arts), and Spirit Stones and Gem... "System, what is Spirit Gem?" He just realized that he didn''t know about Spirit Gem. He heard it from Zwaka''s mouth previously, but because he got too much information at once, he forgot about it. [Spirit Gem is something like Spirit Stones but has a higher density. This continent doesn''t have the power to produce the Spirit Gem. It is only thanks to this special realm that the underground manages to produce a Spirit Gem. But even with the support of this realm, it can''t produce that many. Considering the number inside the space ring. Most of them should come from his previous collection.] "Now, I am wondering how a Spirit Stones formed?" [Actually, Spirit Stones are just a normal stone. But after exposed by a high density of Spiritual Energy for a long time. It evolved into a Spirit Stones. If the density was higher, then there Spirit Gem might appear in the mine. One Spirit is equal to a thousand Spirit Stones.] Alex was astonished. In Zwaka''s Space Ring. He had twenty million Spirit Stones and ten thousand Spirit Gems. If he pawned everything he got, such as his Martial Arts and weapon. It should easily reach a hundred million Spirit Stones. He didn''t know if he underestimated their value or not, though. "Thank you very much, Senior." "Haha. Don''t mind it. Just keep your promise in eradicating the Devil Blood Sect." "Yes. This junior engrave it to his heart," Alex suddenly remembered another matter. It was the so-called ''Blood Pill'' in the Zhou Kingdom''s second prince''s mouth. He took out an unknown red colored pill. He presented it to Zwaka. "Senior, this junior just remembered about this pill. It seems this pill is called Blood Pill. I wonder if senior know about this?" "This..." Zwaka was astonished by the pill in Alex''s hand. "This is a downgrade of Devil Blood Pill from Devil Blood Sect. But how can it reach this continent? I am confused. The Devil Blood Sect was residing in the Sacred Continent. Later I found out they had a branch sect in the Nilis Continent with this downgrade pill. But, their sect couldn''t come here. If not, they might make the cultivators in the Northern Continent furious... They shouldn''t reach here by themself. In other words, they should come from a third party." Hearing Zwaka''s explanation, Alex''s eyes widened. Judging from his explanation, it seemed that this Blood Pill thing had escalated to a far larger scale than he could imagine. "Anyway, you should raise your cultivation as soon as possible. If the situation becomes chaotic, you will have the strength to fend off your enemy." "Understood." "I have made a Gathering Array for you." "I''m sorry, Senior. I can''t use the Gathering Array for the time being, because I still need to consolidate my foundation," Alex said in an apologetic tone. Zwaka instantly realized what he was talking about. There was a big difference in Natural Energy on their continent, and this made the local people here couldn''t reach a high level. This ''Alex'' must really have a strong teacher, he thought. His teacher made him like this to prepare the next stage of cultivation. He became more assured to leave his inheritances in Alex''s hand. He was sure Alex would fulfill his promise. "Alright. You should cultivate now." "Yes." Zwaka then left him alone. Alex finally settled down and started cultivating. ... A month later, The Spiritual Energy inside Alex''s body had reached the maximum, and he couldn''t hold it again. The energy finally sparked on his body. ''6-Star Martial Grandmaster!'' After a month of bitter cultivation, Alex finally consolidated his cultivation. He continued absorbing the Spiritual Energy for a while and finally broke through to 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. [Host, you are awake now.] "System?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. It was such a rare occurrence to see the system talk to him first. [You should check Nelson''s card first. He wanted to say something to you since a week ago. You are almost done, so I didn''t want to disturb you.] "!!!" Alex immediately took out Nelson''s card and asked. "Nelson, what happened?" "The situation on the continent is starting to get serious. Zhou Kingdom made aggression toward Southern Kingdom. I later found out that your... Senior Sister... the one with green hair, went back to her kingdom to fight the Zhou Kingdom. "I sent Leoz to check on her condition. What do you want to do, Young Master? Should I call Leoz back?" "No, it''s fine. I will also go there now. I will tell Leoz to protect her... only her. You should keep searching for information in Zhou Kingdom. This problem might be deeper than we thought." Alex said. He remembered how the others treated him, including their third princess. Alex had no obligation toward them, so he didn''t care about them. But, if he needed to choose either Zhou Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. He rather killed Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers than Southern Kingdom''s. They should be his sources of EXPs and Gacha Tickets. "Understood." Alex then told Leoz to protect his Senior Sister in the dark. Of course, his priority was to kill the enemy soldiers. Alex then activated his Spirit Eyes to search Anna and Fabio. He found out that both of them were in the garden. They stopped killing the monsters outside... or they might have killed all of them... Alex went to them. "Alex (Young Master)," Both of them noticed that Alex had finished his cultivation. "We have finished killing them," Anna said proudly. "I just did it because I also wanted to level up, alright! It is not because of Young Master''s order," Fabio said with that annoying line. "Alex, you should check your Gacha Tickets first," Anna said. Alex was astonished to hear they had killed all the monsters here. Well, they had been killing those monsters for a month. Alex then checked his system. [Gacha Ticket x2439 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x1] "Holy Sh*t!" Alex opened his jaw wide. He never saw that many tickets previously. Looking at his shocked expression, Anna and Fabio grinned. Anna said, "Young Master, this place is really a treasure. Sadly, it has been exhausted by us." "How many monsters have you two killed?" Alex couldn''t help but ask this question. "Five thousand," Fabio also answered. "Four thousand for me," Anna answered. She also added, "Well, the monsters on the other entrances were that great in number like the ants." Alex suddenly frowned. The Gacha Ticket didn''t match up with the number they killed. The tickets should be lesser than that. [I have optimized the mission, Host. You forget about that?] The system read his mind once again. "!!!" Alex suddenly realized. He remembered that every a hundred monsters they killed, there should be a few more Gacha Tickets. Along with the monsters they had killed together with Putri, this number should be acceptable. Unfortunately, the numbers were finite. If they had an infinite number, or if they could respawn. It would be amazing. "Alex, what is your plan now? I mean the tickets." Alex thought a bit. With this amount of tickets, he was eager to use it immediately. But, he was wondering if he should use it all in normal or exchange it to Premium. "System, exchange ten Premium Ticket," After a while, he decided to exchange ten Premium Ticket and used the rest in case he wanted EXP cards. [Processing] [Premium Ticket x10 Acquired] [Gacha Ticket x439 Premium Ticket x10 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x1] "Alright. Use all Premium Tickets." [Processing] He was expecting two boxes of Gacha Balls. To his surprise, instead of appearing like usual. A woman appeared as a delivery girl. She had brown hair, otherworldly beauty, small brown eyes, cute nose, and sweet lips. She wore a white dress up to her knees while bringing two boxes. Alex felt uncomfortable the moment he saw her figure. ''This... this is love at first sight? No! It is not. This feeling is not love, but what is it?'' "You... who are you! Why did I get this feeling? Are you also my past life''s acquaintance? I am sorry, but I have chosen to start over," Alex said with a hoarse voice. The girl handed the box first to him. After that, she smiled. Luckily, only Alex, Anna, and Fabio were in this place. If not, her smile might captivate the others. "Didn''t you want to see me? Weren''t you curious about me, Host? In this life, I am always yours." The girl asked him gently. Her voice managed to soothe his uncomfortable feeling. Anna and Fabio were shocked to see this figure. It was Xingzhi. Although she altered her appearance a bit and even though Alex didn''t have his memory, she was still irreplaceable in Alex''s subconsciousness. "You... you are my system?" After hearing her called him ''Host''. He immediately recognized her identity. "I have sent you the boxes. I should go now," she said as her body started to disappear "Don''t..." Alex wanted to say ''Don''t go,'' but the word stuck on his throat. All he could say was, "Thank you." "See you later, Host," she smiled while waving her hand. She then disappeared. It was true that Alex wanted to see his system''s appearance. But after his marriage with Alicia and Firia, he had forgotten about this matter. But, after meeting her like this, he didn''t know what to do. She was indeed a beauty, and in fact, she might be the most beautiful woman he had seen. But, it didn''t matter to him. He felt close to her because of their relationship. He had known about his system being a girl back in the lower world. She was the one who told him so. He was really grateful for all the chance she gave to him as he could stand here to fight his fate. ''See you later...'' Alex murmured. [Yes, Host. I''m back now, and I will appear when delivering your boxes or in the dart. So, if you find yourself falling in love with me and dying to meet me, you should get many more Premium Tickets and use them!] Alex was astonished to hear such a response. The system was watching him as usual. He let out a small smile and said, "If I feel like it." Alex took a deep breath before turning his head to Fabio and Anna. "Well, we are going to Southern Kingdom after this since Zhou Kingdom is attacking them. But first, I will open this Gacha Balls first." 257 Summoning Day Alex opened the first box that contained five Gacha Balls. The Gacha Ball itself seemed to have no difference. It opened as usual and showed him the item. The first item was a bottle of blood. It was a big bottle. [King Stage monster blood (SR) x1 Acquired] He continued opening the gacha balls one by one. [Summoning Ticket (UR) x10 Acquired] [Grandmaster Stage monster skin (R) x1 Acquired] [Rank 3 Spear (R) x1 Acquired] [Rank 4 Shield (SR) x1 Acquired] He was lucky to get another Summoning Ticket. As for the King Stage monster blood, he didn''t have any use for it. He could only use it after he reached rank 5 Array Master. Hopefully, the blood won''t be coagulated before then. He had many Rank 3 spears at the moment, so it just became another collection of his. As for Rank 4 shield, he didn''t use a shield, so he ignored it. The last one would be a Grandmaster Stage monster skin. He would just use it as a practice for his Teleportation Array. He was eager to try it after getting the new knowledge about Space Element. He seemed to grasp an understanding of the Space Plate. But, he should practice it first back in the sect. He opened the second box of gacha balls and opened the balls one by one. [Axe Cleaving Mountain Technique (SR) x1 Acquired] [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5 Acquired] [Rank 3 Bow (R) x1 Acquired] [Aloe Herb (R) x1 Acquired] [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5 Acquired] Alex was astonished to get twenty Summoning Tickets in one day. "Is this a Summoning day?" Alex immediately ignored the bow, Aloe herb, and Axe Cleaving Mountain Technique since he didn''t use any of them. He was interested in the summoning tickets. He got twenty of them. That meant he could summon twenty two cards. He immediately used them. He used the first ten. [Ngina (SR) x1] [Jeanee (UR) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Algas (R) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Bison (C) x1] [EXP Card (UC) x1] [Steren (SR) x1] [Stanimir (R) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Ultimate EXP Card (UR) x1] Alex got another two UR from this summoning alone. Surprisingly, he got the UR EXP card, and it called Ultimate EXP Card. Alex immediately checked this EXP card. [Ultimate EXP Card +1 Realm] Alex was dumbfounded when he saw that. A rare EXP Card could add 100,000 EXPs, and SR EXP Card could add 1,000,000 EXPs. He thought UR EXP Card would give him 10,000,000 EXPs. But maybe it was too absurd? So the system gave him a one realm card. But he found something off. If he used this on Anna, Leoz, or Fabio, wouldn''t they immediately become a Martial King? What about the restriction? The system told him about the restriction of their level. Their power couldn''t be more than a whole realm than him. If they became a Martial King, it was already over a whole realm. [That''s right, Host. Even you use it on them right now. They will be stuck at 6-Star Martial Lord, and the rest of the EXPs will be useless.] "Thank you, System," As usual, his system knew his thought and immediately answered him. [Your welcome, Host] He checked the other cards he got. Surprisingly, out of five UR spirits, the one he got was Jeanne... the ''S''. He just shook his head and took out her card. "!!!" When Anna and Fabio saw the card that Alex pulled out, they felt a chill. Alex didn''t notice their change of expression, so he continued what he was doing. "Summon." A rainbow gate appeared in front of them and a woman... a kid? Nah, from her complexion, Alex could see she wasn''t a kid. But her figure was making it hard to consider her as a woman. She had yellow hair tied into twin tails. Her height was around one hundred fifty centimeters or around 5''. Her body was graceful. Alex just decided to see her as a teenager. She wore a white shirt and a black mini skirt. "Greetings, my Master. Please let me call you ''Master'' as ''Young Master'' is not enough to make me happy," she said while licking her lips. It gave Alex a goosebumps. Alex decided to accept her wish and ignored her licking her lips. "Sure, I''m glad you are with us, Jeanne." "Yes. If you want to make someone suffer, please call me. I will make sure he/she will think dying is better than living." Alex just closed his eyes and nodded to her. "I will go for another Summoning." [Blue Slime (C) x1] [EXP Card (UC) x1] [Bone Horse (UC) x1] [Limao (SR) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Vera Fabotelli (UR) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] [Njomo (R) x1] [EXP Card (SR) x1] [Nicole (SR) x1] "..." Well, he was happy to get another UR unit, but he was more pleased to get two Nelson''s subordinates in this Gachas and another one on the previous gacha. He didn''t know about their skills, but they should be good. But Alex took out Vera''s card first. When Alex took her card out, Anna immediately said, "Geh!" Even Jeanne also made a weird expression while scratching her head. On the other hand, Fabio looked away. His face was red because of blushing. Alex opened his mouth, "Summon." A light blue haired woman appeared from the gate. She wore a pair of ice crystal hairpin on her hair. She carried a blue sword on her waist. It had another Ice Crystal as a decoration. She had big blue eyes and a beautiful smile. "Vera Fabotelli greets Young Master," she said while kneeling on one knee. As a Tsun-Tsun Couple, she also didn''t forget to add, "It''s because of my obligation to greet you, okay. It is not like I''m happy to meet you." Alex only made a wry smile and shook his head helplessly. He thought, ''it is really come.'' "Sure. I am happy to have you with us. You might want to say something to your husband first. I will call the others first." "Yes," Vera said as she rose from the ground and walked to Fabio. "Husband..." Vera muttered while approaching Fabio. "Wife..." Fabio smiled while blushing. "I miss you," Vera said, and she didn''t forget to add, "It''s my obligation to say that, okay. We haven''t met in a few years so, and I should say that. It''s not like I am really missing you or something." "I... It''s not like I am happy to meet you again here. I am just glad we can help Young Master together," Fabio said. "Husband..." "Wife..." Both of them looked at each other like they fell in love again. Anna started gnashing her teeth while Jeanne''s expression turned to dark. Jeanne suddenly said with a dark tone, "Alright. Let''s play with them!" Anna opened her eyes wide, and she immediately grabbed her. "Anna, let me play with them for a while," Jeanne complained. Because her level was still one, she wasn''t strong enough to break free from Anna. Alex just ignored them this whole time. There were four spirits in front of him. Nicole was a succubus. She had pink hair and a voluptuous body. She had a pair of wings and tail on her back. It seemed she could hide her wings and tail and camouflage. Ngina was a lizardman. He practically looked like a lizard that stood on two feet. He had the ability to turn into a small lizard and crawled on the wall. He then could search for information that way. As for Njomo, he was a dog... literally. The same as Ngina, he could turn his body to a small and cute dog or a big ferocious dog. He was a Shadow Dog, which could go inside one''s shadow. He could jump from a shadow to another and search for information that way. As long as their power difference wasn''t too big, they wouldn''t be able to find him inside a shadow. Limao was a birdman. He had a human appearance in front, but he got a pair of white wings on his back. He used a trident as his weapon. Alex was talking with Nelson, "Nelson, I got three of your subordinates." "Yes, Young Master. I felt their existence too. We have a special relationship that could make us share each other information. This is how we operate. What are you going to do with them, Young Master?" "I don''t know. I am thinking about leaving them to you. But, let me see If I can pull enough EXP cards to let them level up." "Understood." Alex nodded and said, "System, use every ticket I have." Alex got nine (R) EXP Cards, including three cards that he didn''t use when leveling up Anna and Fabio and one (SR) EXP cards. But, he had many spirits to level up. Jeanne, Vera, Limao, and this trio. It wasn''t enough for them. He needed six hundred thousand EXPs for them to reach 1-Star Martial Grandmaster. [Processing] [Tea Cup (C) x1] [Wine (R) x1] [Ballista (UC) x1] ... ... ... [Summoning Coin (C) x1] Alex used almost five hundred Gacha Tickets. He got around a hundred fifty five Summoning Coins He got another twenty (R) EXP cards along with a total of forty three (UC) EXP cards. He just ignored the three (UC) EXP cards. In other words, he had thirty two (R) EXP cards and one (SR) EXP card. Alex used the (SR) EXP card on Jeanne. She became a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster in an instant. "Ah, I got an (SR) EXP card from Master. I am blessed." Vera, Limao, and the spy trio got six EXP cards each. As for the last three EXP cards, he used it on Vera and made her a 2-Star Martial Grandmaster. "System, could I check their level and EXP alone. I don''t need their status for now," Alex asked. He wanted to check everyone''s progress, including Leoz. [Anna (Dark) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 125413/230000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 101476/240000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 29/80 (9-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 101/200000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 1994/230000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 28/80 (8-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 14973/190000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 23/80 (3-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 45000/140000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 22/80 (2-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 75000/130000] *** [Wright (Dark) Level: 27/80 (7-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 46874/180000] [Salijan (Fire) Level: 26/80 (6-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 135477/170000] [Nicole (Dark) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5000/120000] [Ngina (Dark) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5000/120000] [Njomo (Dark) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5000/120000] Alex surely had gotten a great line up here. He had gotten twelve spirits that he could trust his back on. "Alright. We are going now. For Tick- Ahem, For Senior Sister! I don''t care about anyone else. But the top priority was Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers. "Anna and Fabio will leave together with me. Jeanne and Vera will go back to the card first, I will call all of you when the fight has started. Oh, I almost forgot. For Anna, Jeanne, and Vera... I think you three should use a veil. Well, you three are... pretty, so..." All of them didn''t say anything. Anna put her usual black veil while Jeanne used a white veil. Even Vera also put a white veil to cover her face. Despite her attitude, she was indeed pretty. "I''m sorry, but Limao might not be able to fight on the battlefield. But, we couldn''t be sure what happened later, so just in case, prepare to fight." "Understood." "Nicole, Ngina, and Njomo will try to search for information inside Southern Kingdom." "Young Master, both Ngina and I should be enough. Please take Njomo with you in your shadow. So if you want to search for urgent information, you can ask him to do so," Nicole advised. "Woof!" Njomo''s tail was wagging left and right. "Alright." After getting an ''OK'' from Alex, Njomo went inside Alex''s shadow. Alex then put all of them inside the card, except Anna and Fabio. They visited Sherry and Kyle. Sherry had become a peak Grandmaster Stage Beast while Kyle was an 8-Star Grandmaster Stage. "Sherry, Kyle, we are going." "Wuu!" "Chirp!" Sherry wasn''t reluctant to leave the comfortable Gathering Array anymore. She taught Kyle to do so too. When Alex called them, they immediately went back to his body. Alex then visited Zwaka. "Senior, I want to leave this place," Alex said. Zwaka was astonished to hear that. "Are you sure? This place can hold for another month, though." "I''m sorry, Senior. But I have another important thing to do." "... Alright. I will use the remaining energy inside this realm and make a teleportation array for you. It should be able to teleport you two hundred miles away from here. Where do you want to go?" "South." "Sure. Anyway, remember your promise," Zwaka wasn''t offended by his request to leave. After all, he only had a month left, so dying here was fine too. Alex nodded with a serious expression. An array then appeared on the ground. "Your master should be a great person, so don''t disappoint your master and get stronger." "This Junior thanks Senior once again. Thank you for your help." Zwaka smiled at them and activated the array. Alex, Anna, and Fabio disappeared from that place. 258 End Zwaka used every ounce of his power left to send Alex and the others as far as possible to the south. He almost used the entire Spiritual Energy left inside the realm. His realm had become a normal realm, and the barrier that was separating his realm and the outside world started cracking. He looked at his translucent hand that began to disappear completely. He knew that his time had finally ended. But, in the last few seconds, he had in his life, he couldn''t help but smile. "I have lived by myself this entire time. My master had taught me many things and changed my life from an unknown kid to a renowned Rank 6 Array Master. "My master told me to get a companion so that I could get stronger together, but women took advantage of me, and men became friends with me because of my prestige. Eventually, I couldn''t trust people anymore. "Even so, I always lived by the light like what my master wanted me to do. I challenged many evils and purged them. But I made too many enemies, including those who walked in the light, and it became my demise. "That kid... When I met that kid for the first time, I could see my past in him. He who had lost his trust in people slowly regained it back. He must have a good master and companions. "If my master was alive when I lost my path, maybe I could become stronger like that kid and regain what I had lost. But all of it didn''t matter anymore. "In my final days, I was able to meet a trustworthy sprout of this era. He will walk in his path and soar through the sky as well as achieve his dreams. Unlike me, he had those potentials. "At last, I go to where my fallen master awaits... Ah, I could even see my master smiling at me too. Lad, I hope you can achieve your dreams." Zwaka smiled while closing his eyes. He finally disappeared. "Crack!" As soon as Zwaka disappeared, every corner of the barrier was cracking before it suddenly broke. The white building also crumbled to the ground. Outside, many influences had been waiting in front of the barrier. Four sects and two kingdoms had been waiting in front of the barrier. After the mysterious teleportation incident, every person immediately informed their influences. The possibility of someone having gotten the inheritances were high. Because of that, every influence wanted to know who it was and, if possible, grasped the inheritances. Another surprising thing that happened in this past month was the alliance between Rainbow Flower Sect and Mount Hua Sect. Only a few people knew about the inheritances. One of them was the daughter of the sect master of Rainbow Flower Sect. Although she couldn''t report about Alex and the others, she could still say the thing she got. And the possibility of someone achieving it was a hundred percent. When her mother asked her who had gotten the inheritances, she couldn''t answer it because of Heavenly Oath. She could only say her deduction according to his power that he must come from Mount Hua Sect. Of course, it was only her misunderstanding. Even though she couldn''t say his ability, she could say that this person would be able to dominate this continent in the future. She had seen Alex''s Pure Fire, Array Mastery, and with the garden, she deduced that Alex was also an Alchemist. With all of that, only Mount Hua sect could nurture such a person. Surprisingly, Alex wasn''t known in the Mount Hua Sect. That''s why she suggested an alliance between two sects. She thought about sacrificing her life for the sect. And finally, Rainbow Flower Sect announced a big thing. They said the only daughter of Rainbow Flower Sect had fallen in love with someone in Mount Hua Sect and wanted to marry him. It was big news, especially for Mount Hua Sect. They immediately searched for who she had fallen in love with. Every young master in the sect was present when she was searching for him. Sadly, she didn''t find Alex. After all, Alex came from Heavenly Sword Sect. Mount Hua Sect''s young masters immediately became dejected and burned with jealousy. She abided with her Heavenly Oath about not going against him in the future. But, her action, unknowingly influenced those young masters. So, it wasn''t her that was going to go against him but them. After all, the beauty of her was well known on the continent. She was one of the top beauty on the continent. Fortunately, the alliance was still intact. Mount Hua Sect kept proposing to her, but they were rejected by Rainbow Flower Sect. They even threatened them with their alliance, but Rainbow Flower Sect was adamant about it. On the other hand, Putri also reported about what happened in the Death Forest to Charya, including the inheritances. After hearing that, she was shocked that Alex was the one who received the inheritances. After considering the pros and cons for a while, Charya decided not to report it to the sect master. Even with Alex''s mysterious master, there was a chance for the sect to grab them by force. After all, Alex''s mysterious master had never shown himself. Even with the prestige of restoring Seven Stars Cut, it wasn''t enough. After all, Putri alone managed to get two Mid Heaven Tier Martial Arts. What could a low Heaven Tier Sword Art like Seven Stars Cut do against them? It was enough to make those elders crazy. Because of that, she decided not to tell them about it. If she met Alex, she would tell him about the inheritances. If he wanted to give it to the sect, then it was fine. But if he didn''t want to, then she wouldn''t tell anyone else about it. The last group of people that knew about it was the group of Southern Kingdom. The second princess and Eric tried to ask Putri about the inheritances nicely. But Putri kept saying she didn''t know anything. She kept fleeing not long after they left her. They wanted to catch up with them, but Putri and Alex were injured so they couldn''t. They were recovering inside a cave the whole time. She didn''t even tell her friend or even her fiance about the truth. After all, she also made a Heavenly Oath without Alex knowing about it. She only took advantage of him if she didn''t make that oath, and that feeling kept burning her heart. After she made that oath, her heart soothed. Although it pained her to lie to her friend and fiance, she needed to. They asked about Alex whereabout, but Putri said he came back to his hometown and will come back to the sect later. After many arguments, they could only go back empty-handed. They thought Alex was the one who kept the inheritances as Putri refused to give an answer about him. So, they secretly planned to deal with Alex. ... In front of the barrier on Death Forest, The moment they saw the barrier cracked, they were alarmed about it. Charya also came to this place. Although Putri said that the owner would teleport them to somewhere far away for safety purposes. Charya wanted to check it herself. If Alex were not in here, she would rest assured when she came back. She hoped that Alex wasn''t here. Not long after, the barrier broke into pieces. "Go!" Many influences started marching inside. After the barrier collapsed, they didn''t have any restrictions anymore. So, even Martial Lord could come inside the Death Forest. But the most devastating thing was when the Zhou Kingdom found the corpse of their second prince. It became huge news. But no one knew who killed him. The Zhou Kingdom put the bounty for whoever killed their second prince, and they even made a large scale investigation. Although the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom didn''t send their officials, they still sent a few men to investigate, especially the Zhou Kingdom as their second prince never came back. And they finally found out that their second prince was killed. "Boom Boom!" Suddenly, they heard a big sound from the center of Death Forest. When they looked at it, it turned out to be the white building. The white building was crumbling to the ground. All of them immediately came toward the white building. It was one of the mysteries that never solved. They were curious about the inside of the white building, but everything had been given to Alex. So, they didn''t find anything other than monster corpses. Even so, they kept searching for everything they could find. ... Two hundred miles away from the Death Forest. Alex appeared in a forest that he never knew. Alex tried to look at his surroundings from the sky. He could only see trees around him. He activated his Spirit Eyes to see whether there was something special in this place but couldn''t find anything. Alex descended to the ground again and asked Anna and Fabio, "What are we going to do? I don''t know where we are." "I don''t bring the map, nor I have remembered it. I''m sorry," Anna apologized. Alex shook his head, he also only remembered the map vaguely. He only knew that the Southern Kingdom was in the south. He said, "I am relying on you too much, so it is also my fault. Now, the problem is what to do with this." "How about asking Nelson. He should know." "Hmm... Let''s do that," Alex nodded. He took out Nelson''s card, "Nelson, do you know the place two hundred miles away from Death Forest?" "Direction?" "South." "That place is called Nemu Forest. It is a high-level forest, and many Lord Stages monsters reside there. I was planning to have Leoz grinding there after he finished his job in this war. Why did Young Master ask about this place?" "Ahem, I am in this Nemu Forest right now," Alex said in an embarrassed tone. "..." Nelson was speechless. "Well, just fly toward the south. The battle between the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom is in the south of that forest. So, you should be able to find it if you go to the south. The battle is near Minks City and behind that city lies the capital city of Southern Kingdom. "But please be careful, it is one of high-level forests. Not many people want to go there because of the high death-rate. With Anna and Fabio there, you should be fine. Or you can travel through the inner space with your Space Gate. "Although it might deplete your Spiritual Energy, it should be safer." "Alright, thank you. I''m going now." "Yes, Young Master." Alex turned to Anna and Fabio, and he said, "This place seems to be Nemu Forest. It is a dangerous forest that has many Lord Stage Monsters. The battlefield is in the south of this forest. So, we will go toward the south." Anna asked, "Are Young Master planning to let others hunt in here?" "... Maybe later, but first, you need to get stronger first. Anyway, let''s go." Anna and Fabio nodded. Because Jeanne''s and the others'' level, Alex didn''t summon them for the time being and flew toward the south. Alex tried to save his strength as he might need it later. After all, he wasn''t sure if his energy was enough to cross the entire forest using his Space Element. He decided to use it if he met any danger. Alex, Anna, and Fabio then moved toward the south. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to search for monsters. They sometimes needed to go around when they found a group of Lord Stage monsters. But they would kill Lord Stage Monsters in their way if their number were only one to three. They needed to kill those monsters as soon as possible so they wouldn''t attract other monsters in their surrounding. They had crossed around fifty miles to the south but had yet to see the edge. After a few more minutes, Alex found a huge amount of dark energy in front of them. He was startled when he saw that. "Anna, Fabio, there is a huge amount of Dark Element in front of us. It is not like Anna''s Dark Element. When I saw the Dark Element, I got the feeling it was ominous. "I tried to check it and found many signs of energy. I found many Lord Stages being inside there. What should we do?" "..." Anna pondered. It seemed that it was like the place they were not long ago. But, in Zwaka''s place, they only met many Grandmaster Rank monsters. But the place Alex said just now, it had numerous Lord Stage monsters. Even though Anna and Fabio were Martial Lord, their strength wasn''t enough. "We should go around for the time being. I''m sure that Young Master wants to explore that place, searching for EXPs and Tickets. But, we need strength first. We could try to scout at that place first before we enter," Anna said. Alex nodded, "I don''t find any barrier energy that will prevent us either. Maybe, I can ask Elder Charya about this later and find some information about this place." "Yes, let''s do that." They then went around the place and continued their way toward the battlefield. 259 A Clash Alex and the others went around the ominous place. It turned out that the place was huge. Alex used his Spirit Eyes to scout inside from afar. He was shocked that he could see numerous Martial Lord inside. All of them had black energy. If he tried to go inside, he didn''t know how many he would need to fight. What made him confused the most was that all Martial Lord inside that place had a human shape. He thought if that place was an evil cult. Unfortunately, he didn''t have much information about that place. He didn''t know whether it was an evil cult or not. After all, the only evil cult he knew was the cult that had been exterminated by him and Putri. All of them had the same characteristic, which was blood red energy inside their body. But this time, he didn''t find anything like that. It was truly a black energy alone. He continued moving around without alarming them. They continued flying at low altitude for a day. Alex decided to rest first. "Leoz, where are you?" "Young Master, I have joined a mercenary camp in the Southern Kingdom." "Mercenary camp?" "Yes, two days ago, Southern Kingdom made a decree to recruit loose cultivators as a special squad called Mercenary Camp. They put a bounty on the enemy soldier heads. They will give five Spirit Stones every normal soldier head, twenty Spirit Stones every captain head, five hundred Spirit Stones for commander head, and ten thousand Spirit Stones for a general head." "Bounty? How about their number?" "Zhou Soldiers numbered fifty thousand, while Southern Armies were eighty thousand." "What? As expected of a kingdom that is known for its wealth. How about their power level?" "I don''t know, and today is the second day of clash. There are only two thousand deaths from each kingdom. But, from my observation, the normal soldiers are peak Martial Master or below. "To hold such a big army, I am afraid they need at least five thousand captains. Their captains are at least Martial Grandmaster. And with that, they have around a thousand commander class soldiers with a power level above 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. "Then, after that, there is a General Class officer. They are in the Martial Lord stage. From my observation, I only found three, but I''m sure there are more so, please be careful. Fighting humans is harder than fighting monsters, especially in a war like this. So please be careful, Young Master." "Understood. What about Senior Sister?" "She is currently fine. She is also one of the commanders in the army. There are many Martial Lords that have yet to move in the capital city. Maybe they are anticipating the enemy reinforcement. "After all, if they want to win this war, a few Martial Lords wouldn''t be enough. So, I thought there might be a reinforcement of elites that will come later. The ones who are fighting us here are bait to wear our energy." "I see. Just make sure she is fine. I am on my way toward the battlefield." "Understood. Oh, that''s right, from my observation, the soldiers from the Zhou Kingdom are stronger than the soldiers from the Southern Kingdom. So having me in the mercenary camp makes the Southern Kingdom happy." Alex frowned when he heard that. He thought about the Blood Pills. Alex shook his head as he decided to see it first before arriving at a conclusion. "Alright. I will try to arrive as soo-" "Who are you three!" Just before he finished talking to Leoz, there was a huge number of people coming toward them. Anna immediately covered her face with a veil while Fabio came toward Alex and whispered something. "I believe their number is two hundred." Alex frowned, it was a huge number. Although it wasn''t as much as the monsters, they encountered in the Death Forest. Their enemies were humans this time. It might not be as easy as killing monsters. Alex turned his head toward them. They were still two hundred meters away from him. "They must be Southern Kingdom''s scouts. We need to kill them." They suddenly took out their weapons. Seeing this, Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Alex looked at them with Spirit Eyes. All of them were Martial Grandmasters. Fortunately, there were no Martial Lord in their ranks According to Leoz, they should have a few thousand Martial Grandmasters. But, it was for arranging their soldiers. They wouldn''t order two hundred Martial Grandmasters altogether. They should split up their forces and add normal soldiers in their ranks. "Elite soldiers from Zhou Kingdom?" "Anna, Fabio, ready to fight! Sherry and Kyle will support them." Anna immediately took out her scythe while Fabio took out his sword. After that, Sherry and Kyle came out of his body. "What? He also has monsters with him. Ready, make sure to kill them. We can''t afford to let the Southern Kingdom know about our plan," the soldiers were ready for a clash. Alex took out Jeanne''s and Vera''s card and summoned them. "Jeanne, Vera, we are going to fight." "Understood," Vera answered "Hehe, playing with them," Jeanne said with a chuckle. "Leader, look at those two beauties. Let''s spare them so we can play with them," one of the soldiers said vulgarly. "Yeah, I''m sure the woman with black hair is a beauty too." Of course, Alex and co didn''t hear it. If not, they, especially Alex and Fabio, would go into a rampage. Alex then took out Greg''s card. "Greg, prepare for battle." "Understood." "Summon!" Another person appeared out of nowhere. The soldiers ignored this after they saw Jeanne and Vera. After all of them had gathered, Sherry and Kyle released numerous firebirds and shot them toward the soldiers. Alex also prepared to call Leoz if needed. "Ready to fight. Destroy those birds first." The one who looked like the leader of the group shouted. The enemy also used their Martial Arts or elements to destroy those firebirds. "Anna, I''m going to release my Pure Fire. You are going to finish the ones who got suppressed by it. And to all of you, kill all of them." "Understood!" Greg held his shields while Vera pulled out her sword from her waist. As for Jeanne, her weapons were dual short swords. The blade was only around thirty centimeters long, which was uncomparable to Alex''s one-meter long blade. "Boom Boom Boom!" The firebirds were destroyed. Anna immediately disappeared. Sherry and Kyle shot out another wave of firebirds. The Tsun-Tsun couple was also ready to make a move. Alex opened the Fire Phoenix Seed inside his body. When his Pure Fire gushed out from his body. Many soldiers suddenly felt a sense of suppression. "Boom Boom Boom!" When they destroyed the second wave of firebirds, many of them suddenly clenched their hearts and fell to the ground. "Argh!" The rest of the soldiers that didn''t feel anything were confused. At that time, Anna had arrived around them. The soldiers that fell to the ground could see Anna approaching them. "You-!" She cut the first soldiers with her scythe. Because of Alex''s elemental suppression, they couldn''t do anything. Alex completely suppressed them. Anna also didn''t take her time to kill them. She tried to kill all of them as soon as possible. When the enemy soldiers finally knew what happened. They immediately tried to help the one who fell to the ground. Unfortunately, before they could rescue their comrades, Fabio and Vera crossed their swords. Fabio held his red sword in his left hand while Vera held her blue sword on her right hand. Both of them swung their swords together. "Twin Elements Slash!" Two sword waves flew toward the enemy soldiers together. Those two sword waves made an ''X'' shape. They were going to kill a few soldiers that were in confusion. Greg suddenly raised his shield. He combined his two giant half-shields together. "Giant Prison, Metal Box!" A huge black metal box suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It sealed Fabio''s and Vera''s sword waves together with many soldiers inside. "Boom!" After the explosion, the giant metal box disappeared. Surprisingly, inside the metal box, a few soldiers were cut into half, a few soldiers were burned, and the rest were frozen. In total, that combination attack managed to kill around thirty people. It seemed that they were going to maximize their attack with a combination. If Greg didn''t enclose that space with a giant Metal Box, Fabio and Vera''s combination attack might only kill around ten soldiers. But, with those enclosed spaces, they managed to kill around thirty soldiers. "What!" The soldiers were shocked by what just happened. They hadn''t processed everything that just happened in their mind. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Argh!" Before they realized that, Sherry and Kyle had sent their third waves. The soldiers were rained by firebirds. "Don''t panic. Attack! Attack them! We can attack them together!" "That''s right. Thunder Strike!" "Mostril Sword Strike." "Spear Edge." "Wind Storm." ... ... Around eighty soldiers regained their composure back. Each of them immediately sent their attack toward Alex and the rest. "Young Master, I will deal with this attack for you. You should get ready to attack," Greg said while walking to the front. Alex narrowed his eyes, "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Alright, I will trust you," Alex said. He then turned to Sherry, "Sherry, let''s go." "Wuu!" Sherry understood what he wanted to do. She raised her paws. Alex also raised his hand. Both of them summoned a big Fire Phoenix. To his surprise, Kyle also summoned his own Fire Phoenix. "Kyle, since when..." "Chirp!" "Anyway, it is good that you can do it too." Greg raised both of his shields. His white colored armor that covered his body suddenly turned to green. "Gargantua Walls" Suddenly, ten green translucent walls appeared in front of him. It blocked all of those attacks from the soldiers. Each wall managed to destroy around ten attacks from them. Greg used every ounce of his strength to block all of these attacks. His walls were destroyed one by one. But he kept holding on. "Boom!" Finally, Greg blocked everything. He was down to the last wall where he put all of his energy. He then used his shield to help him stand. Alex was worried about him, but he didn''t have time to do that. "Anna!" Alex shouted. "Dark Curtain!" "What?" The soldiers were bewildered when they saw their attacks were blocked by a single person. That attack contained almost a hundred attacks, and to see a single person managed to block it. They couldn''t believe it. Unfortunately, Alex and co didn''t stop there. Anna raised her dark curtain to make a dark sphere in the air and trapped all of them inside. "What is this?" "I can''t see." "Do-don''t panic!" "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning. (Wuu.)(Chirp.)" Alex, Sherry, and Kyle released their phoenix toward the dark sphere. It penetrated the Dark Curtain that didn''t have any defensive power. When the soldiers looked at the crack on that dark sphere, they thought they were safe. Unfortunately, three Fire Phoenix came from that crack and plunged toward them. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Gah!" "Argh!" The three phoenixes exploded together, killing many soldiers. After those explosions, the dark curtain was undone. Alex could see there were around sixty soldiers left after those attacks. The leader was angry with their condition. With Alex''s small group, they could kill half of a group of two hundred Martial Grandmasters. "You B*stard, I will ki-" Before he finished his words, his head was cut. Jeanne suddenly appeared and killed their leader. Spark of lightning appeared all over her body as she disappeared once again after killing the leader. "Fufu, it''s time for me to play." "What?" "Kill! Kill her." "Argh!" "Gah!" Jeanne moved at lightning speed and killed the soldiers one by one. "Fufu, I am bored that I need to wait for so long before I could join the fight. I hope you can entertain me." "Die, you b*tch!" One of the soldiers tried to attack her from behind. But before he succeeded in it, he was killed by a spear out of nowhere. When they saw who killed him, it was Alex. Alex just threw his spear to provide a cover for Jeanne from afar. "Ah, Master! You are the best, second only to my Brother!" She said while licking her lips. "Sherry and Kyle will protect Greg. Fabio, Vera, follow me." "Understood." (Fabio and Vera) "Wuu." "Chirp!" Alex flew toward the rest of the soldiers as he clenched his sword on his right hand. He released his Omnislash. Anna also appeared beside him as she had finished killing the people on the ground. After that, Alex sealed his Pure Fire back to the seed as killing the rest of the soldiers didn''t need him to do that. "Go!" 260 War Alex and the others killed the rest of the soldiers. Because they had lost most of their comrades, including their leader, Alex''s group managed to kill them pretty quickly, especially for Anna and Fabio, who were Martial Lords. Alex finally felt the difference between humans and monsters. Luckily, this time they managed to surprise them with their prowess. If the leader knew about their power and approached them carefully, it would be a hard fight even with two Martial Lords in their group. After all, quantity sometimes could win quality. Anna might be able to deal with ten peak Grandmaster simultaneously, and Fabio was also around that number. Of course, all of the soldiers were not a Peak Grandmaster. Most of them were in 3-7 Star Martial Grandmaster. Most of all, because of their number, they recklessly underestimated Alex''s group. Alex took advantage of it and made a series of combination attacks. Of course, the spirits had known and fought together. Alex didn''t need to order everything, and they already knew what they needed to do. "We are moving first," Alex said. "Yes, it is better not to stay in this place. We might encounter a search party for those soldiers, but I suggest to go slowly so we can restore our energy while moving. "Considering their size, they might only be a scouting party. With the scale for this war, I''m afraid there might be another scouting party in front of us. We can also send Njomo and Ngina first to the front," Anna advised. "Hmm... alright. Let''s do that. But I''m wondering. The Southern Kingdom should have a big amount of territories and many cities before their capital city. But, the battle itself is near the capital city..." Alex just thought about it just now Back in the lower world, he hadn''t encountered such a case. But to penetrate the entire territory... It was a bit absurd, especially with numerous Martial Masters and Grandmasters. He took out Nelson''s card. "Nelson, what is the number of Zhou Soldiers?" "One hundred thousand. Five Hundred Martial Lords, Twenty Thousand Martial Grandmasters, and the rest are Martial Masters or below." "!!!" Alex immediately realized something after hearing the number. He murmured, "Two hundred thousand... Leoz said they should have five thousand Martial Grandmasters... !!!" With the difference in number and the detailed power level from Nelson. He knew why they were able to penetrate up to this place. The Zhou Kingdom detached elites to deal with the cities or towns in their way and let their normal soldiers wear Southern Kingdom''s soldiers out. The Southern Kingdom might have realized this, and they recruited loose cultivators as some sort of mercenary to fight with fifty thousand Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers despite having eighty thousand Soldiers. "They detached their elites to deal with the cities. At first, they might think it was just to occupy the cities so their soldiers can penetrate deeper. But now that I think about it. Because the ones they detached were elites. The cities might not be able to hold them, and they conquered the cities. "Supposedly there are ten cities in their way and each city needs around five thousand elites. Their casualties won''t be too much after conquering the cities, considering they are elites of Zhou Kingdom. "After conquering the cities, just take two thousand casualties for each as an example, they regroup and make another special but hidden unit consisting of 40000 elites. If the Southern Kingdom Soldiers exhausted their energy here, then after they got attacked by those elites. It will become a one side slaughter." On the other side, Nelson smiled. "Yeah, that''s right. But most of the Martial Lords are 3-Star or below. In fact, Zhou Kingdom is already abnormal to have so many Martial Lords. I assume it is the work of Blood Pills in question. "Anyway, the Martial Lords inside Zhou Kingdom that are above 5-Star, it is around a hundred. And from my assumption, the sect and other kingdoms have lesser that number. I am currently investigating this Blood Pill, and I found that they are distributing it to Soldiers, Prominent Families, and their royal family. "They are very careful in this operation and even trade it only in an underground passage. No other influences have expected something like this. They must have planned something like this for many years or even decades. "Judging from their speed, there might be a big movement in one or two years. This is only my assumption. I need to investigate so I could make a more certain conclusion. "..." Although Alex had expected that this problem might be a grand problem as well as an involvement from another continent. Alex couldn''t help but shock when hearing those numbers. "Alright. I will just retreat from here if the situation becomes dangerous." "May fortune be with you." Alex stored Nelson''s card again. "We are going to observe the battlefield first. If needed, I might join the Southern Kingdom''s mercenary camp." He summoned Ngina the Lizard while Njomo came out of his shadow. "I want both of you to scout the area in front of us." Both of them nodded and disappeared. Alex and the rest also started moving, but their pace was very slow. Alex didn''t mind about the speed as he didn''t have any intention to join the war right away. He rather saw the condition and formulated the strategy first. If needed, he would summon Leoz. They proceeded carefully for a couple of hours as they managed to get out of the forest. They could see the battlefield from the edge of the woods. Alex decided to move back a little bit, afraid to be spotted. The battlefield was bizarre. Many soldiers fought in the air while flying, and most of them fought on the ground. Alex thought they didn''t need to breach the wall as they could just fly to pass it. Of course, there were many soldiers that were stationed on the wall to prevent that from happening. So, Zhou Soldiers proceeded with close combat first. Because of this bizarre battlefield, there were many soldiers that yet to join the battle. After all, they might get any friendly fire, and from his observation, there were around five thousand people from each side. Alex didn''t need to try to find Leoz. As a Martial Lord and a battle maniac, he sure stood out from the rest. With his yellow hair and lightning spark, he skillfully killed the soldiers one by one. Fortunately, the soldiers were only Martial Masters. He killed them instantly with his Martial Lord strength. From Alex''s memory, Leoz should be able to kill many of them at breakneck speed. Surprisingly, he didn''t. Alex was a bit confused by this. After all, his opponents were just a mere Martial Master. Not long after that, Alex finally realized what he did. Alex realized after he saw the enemy reserve soldiers. Other people might not be able to discern each of their strengths. Fortunately, Alex had his Spirit Eyes. He could discern the opposite strength easily. Alex saw three 3-Star Martial Lords. They were eyeing on Leoz. Alex only saw a 1-Star Martial Lord from Southern Kingdom''s side. In other words, Leoz was the only one capable of bringing down those Martial Lords. If Leoz didn''t conserve his strength, when those Martial Lords decided to kill him in an ambush, he couldn''t do everything. After another hour, Njomo and Ngina came back. "Young Master, in Zhou Kingdom''s side, there are around a thousand people stationed there. From a thousand, three hundred of them are Martial Grandmasters, and the rest are Martial Masters." Alex nodded to Ngina''s report. But when he heard about Njomo''s report. He was speechless. "Woof Woof!" Unlike Sherry and Kyle, he couldn''t understand anything from him. Ngina suddenly interpreted Njomo for him, "No one spotted, he said." "Ahem... Thank you," Alex was wondering why Ngina could understand Njomo... Maybe it was because one of them was a Lizard, and the other was a dog while he was a human. Anyway, he decided to ignore it. He pondered for a moment. Ngina observed Zhou Kingdom''s side of the forest while Njomo observed Southern Kingdom''s side. "A thousand... If all of them are monsters, I don''t mind and will come to them immediately. But they are humans and if I recklessly attacked them. We might be at a disadvantage. Ah, I really hate this. I rather fight ten thousand monsters who rely on their instinct and not humans. But thinking about the possibility of high ranking monsters will unlock their wisdom too and fight them in the future... I can''t really hate this situation as it could become my training in fighting them." Alex calmed himself down first. After a while, he asked, "Do any of you know how to extract Monster Blood for Array?" Anna and the others immediately looked at Jeanne. Jeanne said, "I can, Master. After all, learning something like that is ''essential'' for me." When they heard her saying ''Essential,'' they rolled their eyes as they knew why she said that essential. "Uhm... Alright. Anna will accompany her to gather monster blood. I am planning to make this forest as our base. So, to anticipate Zhou Soldiers. I am going to make many arrays." "Yes," Anna nodded her head. "But Master, we don''t have any bottle to store them," Jeanne said. "Don''t worry, I have many here," Alex took out many bottles from the system and space ring. It was his personal collection. After using all the blood inside the bottle, Alex didn''t know what to do with the bottles, so he stored it inside his System or Space Ring. Alex had at least ten empty big bottles and a few more, but it wasn''t empty. Alex then chose every bottle that stored Master Stage Monster blood or lower and emptied them. After all, he was planning to make rank 3 Array, and for that, he used Grandmaster Stage Monster blood. When Jeanne took the bottles from Alex, she furrowed her eyebrows. "Master, maybe you should buy good quality bottles. Although these bottles might be able to store Grandmaster Stage Blood, I am afraid these bottles won''t be able to store Lord Stage Monster blood." "Is that so?" Alex tilted his head. In fact, he never bought a bottle for this. He only relied on his system, so he didn''t have any knowledge about this. He nodded and said, "Alright, I will do so later." "We are going now. Let''s go, Anna," Jeanne grabbed Anna and left. Anna only waved her hand to Alex for a goodbye. She wanted to shout goodbye to him, but they might be spotted if she did that. "Vera and Greg will observe the battlefield situation. Njomo would go to your previous spot and inform me if something happened. Fabio will protect me when I set my array. Ngina will observe those soldiers to see if there are any movements." "Understood (Woof)." "I almost forgot," Alex suddenly said as he took out Nicole''s card. "Nicole will go to the city alone. If the situation has stabilized, I will send Ngina to you." "Understood," Ngina said. Then her wings and tail disappeared, and her appearance became that of a human. She bowed to Alex once again, then disappeared. "Alright. Let''s go." According to Ngina, Zhou Kingdom''s camp was about a mile from here. Alex only moved toward them for a half-mile. He only had around three bottles of Grandmaster Stage monster blood and one bottle of King Stage monster blood that he got before leaving Zwaka''s place. Alex made a series of Wistful Shackle Arrays and Fire String Arrays. He practiced these two arrays but didn''t have the opportunity to use them. He thought he might never have a chance to use them, but this opportunity came. Wistful Shackle Array was the upgrade version of Binding Chain Array that Alex used in his battle with Xian Tao long ago. As for Fire String Arrays, it will produce very strong strings capable of killing Martial Grandmasters if they hit their vitals. He even can infuse his Fire to those strings. He made it in random order to confuse the enemy. If they went in this direction, some of them would be killed by Fire String Arrays, and some of them will be bound by Wistful Shackle Array. Then, Anna and others will kill them. Because the array needs him to activate it, he will move around to activate them one by one. He was wondering if there was a way to activate it by remote. 261 Observing The preparation for those arrays was long. A few hours after he started making arrays, Jeanne and Anna came back, bringing bottles full of monster blood. He made around a hundred arrays around them. They were in the ground, trees, or anywhere he thought well hidden. Alex was planning to lure those soldiers to this place and kill them. Unfortunately, Ngina informed him that he saw a reinforcement. It was another one thousand soldiers. From the look of it, they became wary about Alex''s existence. It turned out they were another scout group that was sent to check the surrounding. But from their way back, they found the other group that Alex had destroyed. But after a moment of confusion, the group decided not to send any search party. After all, all of those two hundred people were Martial Grandmasters. If they recklessly investigated it, they might be obliterated by whoever that killed that group. They decided to wait for other reinforcement for safety. The next day, the war started again. As expected of Leoz, he killed many people as usual. But, things were starting to get interesting. The three Martial Lords accompanied by a hundred Martial Grandmasters and a thousand soldiers charged toward the battlefield. When Leoz saw that, he couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows. His instinct was telling him that something might happen today. Not long after that, he found out that his instinct was right. "Make sure no others can interrupt us." One of the Martial Lords ordered. "Yes!" The other soldiers moved out to make space for Leoz and three Martial Lords. With so many soldiers charged at the mercenary camp, they started pushing back the mercenary camp. The mercenary camp had another Martial Lord beside Leoz, but he was intercepted by one of the three Martial Lords from Zhou Kingdom. Leoz was surrounded by two Martial Lords. "You are strong. I don''t know why you joined their mercenary camp, but if it was for money. Come and join us, Zhou Kingdom will dominate this kingdom soon. If you joined us now, you could get all the money you wanted. "I could certainly see that your power is not like the other Martial Lord in this camp. Join us, and swear your loyalty to us." Leoz only smiled, "Is that all you want to say for your last word? I don''t care about money, as for my loyalty, Zhou Kingdom is not qualified for that." "You are a fool. I will make you regret rejecting this invitation." The Martial Lord said as he pulled out his spear. He released his Spiritual Energy. When the Southern Kingdom''s armies felt that, they immediately saw a battle between Martial Lords that would soon start. As one of the commanders from the Southern Kingdom, Putri obviously saw Leoz''s figure. She was shocked that she could see him again. He was the guy she met back in Shades Town when she was coming back to the sect with Song Yu. Back then, that yellow haired guy was only a 6-Star Martial Master. But all she could see was that this guy was on the same level as the other Martial Lords. She was shocked by that. She never knew about the identity of the masked Alchemist. Only Song Yu who knew about that mask. If she knew it was Alex, she might only say..."Alright." Alex was classified as a special case in her mind, so after she knew Alex had a Pure Fire Element, she considered everything Alex did is normal. But, in this situation where she didn''t know Leoz''s real identity. To see him again as a Martial Lord, it was truly shocking. She heard that Mercenary camp had gotten two Martial Lords in their ranks, so the kingdom didn''t send their Martial Lords first as they wanted to utilize those two Martial Lords. In other words, there was no Martial Lord in Southern Kingdom''s camp. They had yet to move out of the city. Zhou took advantage of that and attacked Leoz first. They took two days to confirm that the Martial Lords from the Southern Kingdom won''t move. On this particular day, they decided to attack and make irreplaceable damage to them. The Southern Kingdom wanted to reserve their strength and utilize others'' help first, but they didn''t consider the damage that will be done by doing that. At least, they should send out a Martial Lord to oversee the situation. Sadly, Leoz was pincered by two Martial Lords. "Spear Blake." "Silent Darkness." "Thunder Cut." Unfortunately, their clash was unexpected. Leoz was going strong at the moment, and the two were barely able to contain him. He was reserving his power this whole time so he could unleash it at this moment. Sadly, those two Martial Lords obviously surprised with Leoz''s true prowess. In other words, Leoz made them underestimate him. "Thunder Break." Leoz shot out a big lightning bolt toward one of the Martial Lord. He tried to avoid it, but he lost his balance. Leoz swung his sword against him. He tried to block it but to no avail. Although Leoz''s attack was not connected, he was blown away by that attack. "Boom!" He crashed to the ground. The other Martial Lords immediately swung his sword to stop him, so Leoz won''t attack the other guy. "Old Second, help old third and finish that 1-Star Martial Lord as soon as possible and come back here. I will hold him alone in the meantime." He shouted to the man on the ground. "Are you going to use that?" The man that crashed to the ground just now shouted back. "Go now!" He ordered him without answering him. "Do you think you can hold me alone?" Leoz snorted while narrowing his eyes toward the one who blocked him just now. He took out a red pill from his space ring and swallowed it. As soon as he took it, blood came out from his eye socket, down to his cheek. His eyes started becoming red, and the white eyes disappeared and changed to black. His energy started to spike. ''3-Star peak.'' ''4-Star Martial Lord.'' ''5-Star Martial Lord.'' ''5-Star Martial Lord peak.'' He suddenly disappeared. Leoz was surprised to see a sudden increase in his strength. He was also shocked by the change of appearance. Leoz immediately raised his sword. The Martial Lord suddenly appeared in front of Leoz and swung his sword against him. Leoz raised his sword to block it, but the power was tremendous. It was his turn to get blown away and crashed to the ground. Although he didn''t receive any injuries, he was surprised by the sudden rise of strength. If he fought three people like this, it would be too hard for him, and he might even lose. The sudden increase in strength was that abnormal. Lightning started sparking around his body. He wanted to end this fight as soon as possible, possibly before the other fight ended. He raised his hand toward the Martial Lord. "Thunder Ring!" A yellow ring suddenly appeared on his hand. He shot out that ring and before it reached the Martial Lord. The ring suddenly expanded. There was only him and Leoz in that ring area. The ring was like a stage for fighting. After expanding, the circle started glowing, and thunder started sparking to the ground or to the sky, making a cage with the thunder as its bars. Obviously, it was to trap both of them inside so the Martial Lord couldn''t escape. Leoz rose from the ground and jumped toward the Martial Lord with his big sword. Leoz used every ounce of his strength to push him back. Fortunately, he succeeded. He blew the Martial Lord to the cage. "Argh!" He was stung by the lightning on his back. Surprisingly, the lightning was not functioning as cage''s bars, but it also held some offensive effects. Leoz didn''t stop there. He swung his sword once again. "Thunder Cut." A sword wave flew toward the Martial Lord. The Martial Lord immediately dodged to the side with smoke rose from his back. It was the injury after his back got roasted by Leoz''s lightning. They clashed for a few minutes, but Leoz was not able to kill the Martial Lord. At that moment, the other two had come back, but they were blocked by Leoz''s Thunder Ring. "Old Third, let''s attack this together." "Yeah." "Splitting Spear." "Thunderous Claw." An illusory spear and a giant claw formed by lightning flew toward Leoz''s thunder ring. But, to their surprise, they didn''t break the cage. They looked at each other solemnly before nodding their head. Both of them swallowed a red pill. Soon after, their appearance became the same as the Martial Lord inside the cage. "Splitting Spear." "Thunderous Claw." Their cultivation also increased to 5-Star Martial Lord. They sent the same attack to Leoz''s thunder ring. But with their new prowess, Leoz''s thunder ring was not able to hold down these two attacks. The cage broke, and Leoz had yet to kill the other one. "Splitting Spear." "Thunderous Claw." They sent another one to rescue their comrade. His condition was a bit miserable. In this few minutes'' fight, Leoz started getting an advantage on him. Leoz exploited very skillfully and made many wounds on his body. If they didn''t appear for another few minutes, this guy would be dead. Sadly, it didn''t go his way. Leoz clicked his tongue. He would need to fight three 5-Star Martial Lords with his 3-Star Martial Lord cultivation. It was hard even for him. If it was two, Leoz might be able to handle it. But to fight with these three, he wouldn''t be so sure. He was wondering if he would meet other people like these three. The answer was that red pill. If there were many people like this, this war might turn to worse. Unbeknownst to them, Alex was watching them this entire time from the edge of the forest with his Spirit Eyes. He saw that red pill from afar and was truly surprised by the effect. It made the Spiritual Energy inside the Martial Lord''s body become unstable. The pill released the latent potential inside their body and forced them to come out. He observed the fight between Leoz and one of the Martial Lords closely. He observed the red energy inside his body. It made the Spiritual Energy rampage, and Alex was sure he wouldn''t last for another five minutes. The red energy tried to eat the actual Spiritual Energy inside his body. Alex speculated that if it was successful in eating all of the Spiritual Energy. That person will be crippled if not died. After Leoz''s thunder ring broke, Leoz fought with all of them. He was suppressed by those three while trying to make a chance to finish one of them at a time. "Alex, what are you going to do?" Anna came to him and asked. "Are you going to the battlefield?" "... If we showed up on the battlefield, what about the soldiers in this forest? We need to kill those one thousand and two hundred people in this forest. We won''t know what happened if we didn''t do that. "Their number will keep increasing if we didn''t do anything. So, I want to decrease their number before they can join up. We will let Leoz handle everything on the battlefield." "I see. But Leoz is currently in trouble." "Yeah, I know. That''s why I want all of you to get ready in your position to intercept the enemy. I am sure they know the existence of the group in this forest. So, I will show myself and help Leoz from this forest." "Are you going to set up yourself as bait?" "Yeah, so get ready," Alex smiled as he took out two spears and grabbed them on each hand. "Understood." After acknowledging Alex''s plan, Anna immediately disappeared and informed others. Alex took out Leoz''s card and said, "The spear guy." ... On the battlefield, Leoz couldn''t come up with a way to win in a short time. Those three Martial Lords kept charging at him and suppressed him. He was struggling, and no one can help him at the moment. Yeah, no one, until he heard a voice ringing on his head. "The spear guy." It was Alex''s voice. He immediately grinned. These three Martial Lords, if they needed to be identified. The first one would be the sword guy, the second one would be the thunder guy, and the last one was the spear guy. "Why are you grinning?" The thunder guy was frowning when he saw Leoz grinning. "No, you three will die here." "What!" All of them became enraged. On the side, Alex covered both his spear with Spear Intent and Fire to enhance their attack power. He took a deep breath before throwing those spears. "Spear Throwing Art, Spin Throwing!" 263 Joining Alex worked through the night. He made more array than before. Because there were battle marks everywhere. He thought he should make more arrays to trap the enemy because the previous number of the array was not enough anymore. When the next day arrived, Alex stationed Ngina in the forest to check if there would be reinforcement there. He looked at the battlefield. After losing three Martial Lords, the army didn''t collapse because the peak Martial Grandmaster kept them from breaking apart. However, Alex could see their morale had taken a big blow. Because of that, Alex decided to join the battle on the battlefield. He felt he could kill a portion of Zhou Soldiers today, and it would affect the battlefield. ... Leoz didn''t spend his all yesterday because he was worried about Alex. He prepared himself so he would be ready for a battle anytime. But Alex didn''t call him, he didn''t know the enemy number in the forest, so he wasn''t sure if Alex had managed to kill them or not. For today, he would do a safe fight while preserving his strength. ... On Zhou Kingdom''s side, a few peak grandmasters were discussing the tactic for today. "What are we going to do today?" One of them opened the meeting. "Tch, that yellow haired b*stard kill three of our Martial Lords. The soldiers have been demoralized. Although we have been keeping them from breaking down, many soldiers might be killed in today''s battle." Another Martial Grandmaster gave his input while fixing his glasses. "That''s right. What about our reserve? They are really slow. To think they only spared three Martial Lords to lead the army," A brown-haired man said. "They are the main army while we are the reserve. We are here to exhaust Southern Kingdom''s soldiers. Southern Kingdom must know about this too. That''s why they didn''t send any Martial Lords out at the moment. "But, our biggest miscalculation was a Mercenary could kill three Martial Lords yesterday. Tch." "They have sent reinforcement and will arrive tomorrow. There are ten Martial Lords, five hundred Grandmasters, and two thousand Masters. So, all we can do today is to minimize our loss. "The rest will arrive three days later. They should have more than four hundred Martial Lords, twenty thousand Grandmasters, and ten thousand Masters. "Don''t worry, as long as we can endure this period. We will be able to take over the Southern Kingdom. Thanks to the grace of the Royal Family, we can get stronger in a short time. "Just look at our number. Even though we are moving only seventy percent of our total force, we have five hundred Martial Lords. Just look at the Southern Kingdom. They only have three hundred Martial Lords in total. "Our Zhou Kingdom will rule the entire continent. We need to conquer the Southern Kingdom first so we can acquire their wealth, especially their canons. After that, destroying the Hazel Kingdom or the Thiveapia Kingdom should be easy. "After destroying all kingdoms, we will destroy the four sects. Then all people will bow down to us." The glasses man said. He seemed to be the leader from the rest of the Grandmasters here. They knew about it, but hearing it once again here. They became a bit more motivated. They could only grit their teeth and minimize the damage at the moment. "That''s right. We are going to win this battle!" "Uoh!!" "Alright. Prepare the troops and march to the battlefield. Just be careful of the yellow haired Martial Lord that killed three Martial Lords from our side. Move out." The leaders started preparing the troops to fight. Unfortunately, increasing the army''s morale was easier said than done. They could only try their best for that. Not long after, the troops marched toward the battlefield. Every leader looked at Leoz''s figure on the battlefield. Southern Army''s morale, as well as the mercenary camp, were high after Leoz slew three Martial Lords. Even the Southern Kingdom started thinking about recruiting Leoz to their side. The sound of battles was echoing again on the battlefield. As expected, the battle was on Southern Kingdom''s side. Zhou''s Armies fought well, but they started losing their advantage because of the difference of morales. The glasses ordered many people to stand their ground today and tried to minimize their losses. He was accompanied by three adjutants to relay his message. "Send a thousand soldiers to that place." "Reinforce our left side." He kept giving one order after another. He became a bit stressed after a few hours giving one order after another. "Reinf-!" Before he passed his order to his adjutants, he was shocked beyond belief. "Gah!" There was a spear pierced through one of his adjutants'' heads. When the adjutant fell down, he could see a familiar figure from the forest. "That is the guy from yesterday. If not because of him, we wouldn''t be in this state. What the heck with the troops in the forest? Can''t they kill him? Argh. Send a hundred Grandmasters and kill him. Make sure he dies!" The glasses guy was frustrated when he saw Alex''s face. A hundred Grandmasters then flew toward the forest just to kill Alex. When Leoz saw him, he was finally sure that Alex had killed every soldier in that forest. Although he didn''t know their number, at least, he was sure that Alex wouldn''t come out until he wiped them out. Sadly, because of the pressure from the situation, the glasses guy thought that the soldiers in the forest were useless, instead of the possibility of Alex massacring the entire troops. Another factor that made him think so was because it was absurd. There was no way Alex could kill more than a thousand alone. He just sent a hundred Grandmasters to kill Alex, but he thought that number alone was already overkill. When Putri saw Alex''s figure, she was relieved. She didn''t know what happened, but at least, seeing Alex was fine, it was enough. Then, she started frowning when she saw a hundred Grandmasters flying toward Alex. Although she had seen Alex''s ability when fighting the monsters back in Death Forest. It was only monsters, as she herself knew that fighting humans were harder than fighting monsters. And she only saw Alex alone in that direction. But soon, there were another five figures that appeared from the forest. A black haired girl with a unique aura. A blue haired girl with gentle eyes. A petite girl with yellow hair. A full armored guy and the last one was a red haired man. The girls put a veil to cover their faces, and in fact, the red haired man was the only one who didn''t put anything to cover himself. Of course, besides Alex. Putri only knew two of them, the red haired man and black hair girl, which were Fabio and Anna. Alex took out two spears and threw them at the incoming soldiers. When Putri saw that, she didn''t find it strange. She thought it was easy to throw spears. Even for a sword user, it would be pretty easy, so she didn''t suspect Alex being a spear user. ... Back to Alex, After observing the situation of the battlefield for a while, Alex decided to join the battle. Zhou Soldiers'' were pushed back by Southern Kingdom''s soldiers. He wanted to kill some people that looked like an important guy to decrease their morale even further. The one he noticed the most was the glasses guy. Unfortunately, his adjutants were in the way. Alex had no choice to kill the adjutants first. After seeing a hundred soldiers detached, he stopped for a while to deal with the incoming enemies first. After all, there were a hundred grandmasters coming toward him. Alex took out two spears and said, "Come out. We are fighting here." The spirits heard him and showed themself. "They are our first target. I want to see if we can hit one thousand soldiers for today. Anna and Fabio will be the vanguard. Vera will support them. As for Jeanne... you can kill some, but help me recover my spear on the battlefield. Greg will stay with me here for the time being. Sherry and Kyle will also help Vera in supporting them." "Understood." All the spirits immediately went to his position. Jeanne was a bit reluctant, though. Sherry and Kyle also appeared. As soon as Alex threw his spear toward the incoming soldiers, his spirits immediately went to intercept them. This time, he didn''t use his array, so his fighting ability was restricted a bit. Even so, killing with his Spear Throwing was enough. Anna and Fabio immediately showed their prowess as Martial Lords. They killed the ones in front. "What?" "Those two are Martial Lords?" "We... We can''t fight them." "Where the hell those two monsters come from? And... one of them is a phoenix, right?" "Don''t be afraid. There are only eight of them. We can encircle them and fight safely to wear them out. Even Martial Lords will be exhausted if they used too much energy. After that, we can capture that phoenix." "GO!" They tried to surround Anna and Fabio with their number. Sadly, Anna and Fabio dodged their encirclement skillfully with the help of Vera. Anna and Fabio killed the soldiers one by one, and every time the soldiers managed to surround them. Vera immediately prevented them and let both of them escape. "Shit!" "That woman prevented us." "Kill that blue hair woman first." The soldiers split their number to half to kill Vera. Sherry and Kyle immediately released their fire. They shot them with their firebirds. Unfortunately, the humans started flying around to dodge the firebirds. Sherry and Kyle couldn''t kill them easily, even with many firebirds. Alex tried to aim them one by one as his spear was faster than Sherry''s and Kyle''s firebirds. "That guy on the back! Kill him. He must be the leader of this group! As long as we kill him, we can win!" They became frustrated after this series of attacks. They couldn''t kill any of them. Although Alex''s group hadn''t killed many of them, with Anna''s and Fabio''s speed. It was only a matter of time. They tried to attack Alex with their range attack, whether it was their element or Martial Arts. They used it to attack Alex. Looking at the incoming attack, Greg walked to his front leisurely. At least, the number of attacks was not that much compared to before. His armor started turning green as he raised his shields "Gargantua Walls!" Ten green translucent barriers appeared in front of him. It blocked all the attacks completely. In fact, they only managed to break five barriers. Sherry and Kyle immediately released their flame entirely after seeing Alex get attacked. Another reason was that they got frustrated because they couldn''t hit them. Sherry thought it was really different when she killed the Martial Grandmasters from Bell Family back then. Although their cultivations were the same while she also had leveled up from back then. She was wondering why these guys were harder to kill. Because of that, she released her flame''s might to suppress them so she could kill them easily. "What is this?" "My fire goes rampage in my body." "Argh, I can''t control my fire." "Ghhh!" Almost twenty soldiers suddenly clenched their hearts as they felt they couldn''t control their fire. They fell down from the sky. "That must be the phoenix!" "No, the fox too!" "Ugh, all of them are annoying. Kill just kill that phoenix first. We can''t kill their leader without th-!" Before he finished his words, Jeanne had killed him. Jeanne''s figure suddenly appeared on the battlefield. After killing the leader like guy. She descended to the ground while looking at the soldiers who got suppressed. "Hi, you maggots want to kill our master? Then I should send all of you to the afterlife," Jeanne said with a smile. Regrettably, the soldiers could only hear it as a death sentence. "Ahh!" "Gah!" After Jeanne said her pieces, she disappeared, and many screams echoed. 265 Evil Princess "What did you say?" Upon hearing that three of their Martial Lords were killed by a single person, their blood was riled. "Who is that person? What is their cultivation? Didn''t they have the pill exclusive to Martial Lords?" "Ye-yes! They have used it. The opponent was a 3-Star Martial Lord," The glasses guy gulped down. These Martial Lords'' eyes were filled with killing intent. It took his all just to stand in front of them and reported this. "What? Did a single 3-Star Martial Lord kill them? Are you kidding me?" "N-no, I don''t dare." "Useless B*stard. I will kill him myself tomorrow, or people will think our Zhou Kingdom is weak!" "Wait, you can''t do it alone. It is not like I underestimated you or something. Southern Kingdom had yet to send out their Martial Lords or their famous cannons. We shouldn''t give in to our rage and make a reckless decision." One of the Martial Lords said. He continued, "It is better to leave 5 Martial Lords here, and the rest will go to the forest. If needed, we can make a small pincer attack to pay back for today''s damage." "That''s a good idea," another Martial Lord said. "We need to check whether the Southern Kingdom has launched their cannons or not. If not, we will make a pincer attack." Even the raging Martial Lord calmed down and agreed to it. He snorted, "Hmph, I will be here. I don''t like waiting." They continued to discuss their strategy for tomorrow''s battle. ... They were not the only ones who got devastating reports. In the Southern Kingdom''s camp. After hearing the situation from Alex, Putri immediately went to their headquarters. "The situation is not good!" Putri opened the door and came in a rush. Inside the room, there were five people with the third princess as the leader for this campaign. Two of them were her aides, and both of them were Martial Lords. The other two were the Southern Kingdom''s retainer to supervise her action and inform him if needed. "Putri?" The Princess was shocked by the sudden appearance of Putri. She had been entrusted by her royal father in this war, and she wanted to prove that she was the one worthy of the throne in this war. "Third Princess, I got essential information on their number as well as their strength." Putri called her ''Third Princess'' because of the formal situation. If not, she would call her ''Mega'' again. "If it is about numbers, then we have gotten it already. They have a hundred thousand troops. Although our number is lower than them, by no means are we weaker than them. "We have our cannons and mercenary camp. I heard that one of the mercenaries managed to kill three 5-Star Martial Lords even though he was a 3-Star Martial Lord. I have been thinking about recruiting him to our kingdom." One of the king''s aides said. He was Southern Kingdom''s war minister. Although the third princess had been given the opportunity to lead the war, the king sent this man to evaluate her. He had an aged face but eyes full of wisdom. Even though he was old, his body didn''t lose its will to fight. He looked at Putri and sighed. He knew she was the third princess'' friend, so he forgave her action just now. "They... they have..." Putri was surprised to hear that they knew about their number. "We already have their number, so you can go now! Even though you are Princess Mega''s friend. But we are at war. Please act with consideration." One of the princess aides, reprimanded her with scornful eyes. "But... you need to hear this one..." "We are discussing tomorrow''s battle now. Guard, escort her out." He continued to drag Putri away as her information was not important as they had expected the number. After all, it was the only thing Putri wanted to inform them. So, it served no purpose. Two guards outside rushed in and caught Putri in their hands. "Wait, Third Princess, you need to hear me," Putri shouted while the guards tried to drag her outside. Putri struggled and turned to the war minister. "Minister Morgan, please, you need to hear this." The guards didn''t stop and continued to drag her away. Mega looked away bitterly like she should be. But before they dragged Putri out, "Wait-!" The war minister, Morgan, shouted. The guards were dumbfounded. He looked at Putri''s desperate face. They indeed knew about their number. And judging from Putri''s expression, the number was the same as the one in Putri''s mind. But looking at her desperate face even though they had known her information. His instinct took over him, saying there might be some hidden clue. "What do you want to say, Young Lass? Although you are the second miss of the Makmur Family, rushing like this is also inappropriate. You should tell the guards so they can convey it to us. "But, after seeing your expression. I will let you tell us your information." The guards released her after hearing the war minister. "Thank you, Minister Morgan." "No big deal. Although this war is on a big scale, it is not a matter that we can''t solve." Morgan narrowed his eyes. "N-no, this war might decide our kingdom''s fate." "What did you say!" The princess''s aide said again. "Stop!" Finally, the princess stepped in. She decided to stop him after seeing the look in Morgan''s eyes. She also knew that Putri was not a reckless type. At first, she was thinking of having her aides to drag her away. Then after this, she would go to her and apologize as well as ask for the information. With that, Putri will think she is truly a dependable friend and got deeper into the abyss that she created. Then, if it turned out that her information was useful, she could use it to enhance her position in Morgan''s eyes. But, she piqued Morgan''s interest before they managed to drag her away. So, she decided to stop her plan and changed to be a good friend. "Ho! Do you think our army is so weak that we can''t repel them?" "N-No, I don''t dare. Our army is strong." Putri shook her head hurriedly, then she continued, "But, our enemy... they have a hundred thousand soldiers." "We already know that. They split their enemy to conquer our cities. Because they took us by surprise this time, we are not prepared to engage them beside this city. That''s why we sent eighty thousand Soldiers to devastate them. "Even though they managed to conquer the cities, they won''t have that many soldiers left, and our eighty thousand Soldiers will devastate them here. Even if they made a pincer attack." Putri didn''t comment on Morgan''s remark, she continued in saying her pieces, "They have twenty thousand Martial Grandmasters and Five Hundred Martial Lords." "What?" Morgan can''t help but shout after hearing that unreasonable number. All of the people in the room were dumbfounded, including the princess. "Lass, are you joking with me? Even us who''s known for its wealth didn''t have that many Martial Lords. Are you joking with us? Or do you think they are foolish enough to let you know about it? "They won''t let their kingdom unguarded and want to make us panic by letting you know about that number! If you can''t even think like that, you are not qualified on the battlefield. With my authority, you are hereby locked for trying to incite panic. Guards take her away!" Morgan snarled. To think he heard such foolish information. Even with their wealth and cultivation resources, they could only make around three hundred Martial Lords across the country. That was the reason why he was so angry when he heard about Putri''s illogical information. Putri was dragged by the guards and locked away in prison. She struggled with all of her might, but to no avail as the jail was made of special materials that even for her, it was impossible to break. She thought it was also illogical information. But, after hearing it from Alex, she couldn''t think so. From her experience with Alex, he never lied to her. ... A few hours later, Mega came to visit her. "Mega, I..." When she saw Mega visited her, she immediately wanted to explain. "It''s alright. I managed to calm Minister Morgan." "Do you think I lie too?" "No, that''s why I''m here to hear you out. Who gave you the information?" "I... Alex." She hesitated for a bit, but she decided to tell her that she got the information from Alex because of her sincerity for coming here. "He is a trustable person." "!!!" When she heard Alex''s name, she immediately became alarmed. She let out a small evil smile. "Do you trust him that much?" "Yes. He saved my life a few times. And his information is accurate." "Alright. I will try to convince Minister Morgan after here. But, I couldn''t take you out of here at the moment. After all, if minister Morgan sees you later. I''m afraid he will be mad again. I hope you can understand this." She strangely agreed without questioning that much. Because they were forced by the situation, Putri didn''t question her any further. Instead, she was grateful to her that she would listen to her. And more so to Alex. She thought there would be a chance for them to make up with Alex. Considering Alex''s power, he might become a powerhouse. If Mega had become Alex''s friend, it might be good for their kingdom. "It''s alright. I understand your situation. I''m sorry to put you in this situation." "Then, I will go first before Minister Morgan comes here. I will find a way to take you out of here after the situation calmer." "Yes. Be careful." Mega then left. Unbeknownst to Putri, Mega''s fate had been sealed at this moment. After she left, her aides came to her. "Princess, are you sure you want to release her? Isn''t it the perfect time to let her rot there? She has angered Minister Morgan. If he wanted to destroy her, then we can just blame Minister Morgan when Heavenly Sword Sect asked us." "Who says I want to release her? I never mean it. But I just got good information from her. Do you know about the person that I made you search for?" "Do you mean Alexander Sirius?" "Yes. I don''t know how she contacted him. But considering the situation now, he should be close. Do you know anything about it?" "Hmm..." He pondered for a moment before something flashed on his mind. "I don''t know whether this is true or not. But, I heard there is a group that helps us today. They are coming from the forest but refuse to come here. "Their group is led by a man that fits your highness'' description. I think he is the one that your highness is searching for." "Forest..." She let out an evil grin, "Good. Eric managed to convince his family to do a full search for this Alexander by inciting their greed. He also became a criminal in the Zhou Kingdom. It is perfect. "You will lead another two Martial Lords to Eric Family and have them send another five Martial Lords. Your mission is to kill him and search for his belongings. He should have the inheritance of a Martial Emperor in his Space Ring. Then we can send his dead body to the Zhou Kingdom." "Princess, isn''t that a little bit overkill? I mean, three Martial Lords should be enough to kill him. He should only be a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster, according to your highness''s description." "Do you question my judgment?" She narrowed her eyes. "No, this subordinate doesn''t dare. I will immediately execute your order." "Good, then go." He then disappeared as Mega''s eyes were filled with greed. How can she not? This continent only had four Martial Kings. The enticement of a Martial Emperor''s inheritance became so big that even nations would make war for it. She didn''t inform her country so she could grasp it for herself. Although she might give a portion of it to Eric''s family per the agreement, she would still have a very large portion. It was enough for her to ascend the throne with that inheritance. 266 Plan In the forest, the reinforcement from the Zhou Kingdom arrived. Led by five Martial Lords, they came to this forest to see an empty camp that should be filled by their soldiers. They were bewildered when they entered and found an empty base. There should be a few thousand soldiers in this camp. They didn''t know that Alex had massacred them. "Where are the others? Why is this base empty?" "What the heck are they doing?" "Hurry, search for the one in charge. I will kill him for leaving this base empty." The soldiers immediately searched the entire base and their surroundings but found no one. After an hour of searching, they found many corpses. They were bewildered when they saw corpses in the forest. They thought it must be the corpses of their enemy because they were ambushed by the soldiers. But, when they saw the corpses, it was their comrades'' corpses. They continued their search and found more than a thousand corpses of Zhou Soldiers. To their surprise, they didn''t find any corpses of their enemy, nor they found a monster corpse. They were startled and immediately came back to the base to inform the Martial Lords. The Martial Lords were sipping their wine while waiting for the result. "Not good. Bad news! We... We found more than a thousand corpses in the forest. All of them came from our Soldiers. We didn''t find any monster corpses or enemy corpses. We suspect that our soldiers had been massacred by someone." "What!" The five Martial Lords immediately rose from their seats. Some of them even unintentionally spilled their wine. At first, they thought they were careless or were pursuing their enemy. But after they found the corpses and empty base. All of it clicked on their head. ''The enemy massacred them.'' "Immediately gather all soldiers. We are going to investigate this matter." One of the Martial Lords said. "It is better to split our forces into four. Three of us will each lead five hundred soldiers to investigate the case. Then, the last two will hold the fort here with the last five hundred soldiers. "Before, we didn''t have a Martial Lord in this camp. Even if the enemy has the advantage of numbers, the Martial Lord can buy time so the other two can catch up. "It is the same with this base. If they approached this place first, there would be two Martial Lords in their way. We should investigate this night." "But, won''t it be dangerous to send our forces now. I think we should retreat as we don''t know their size. Considering they managed to kill thousands of our soldiers without the people on the battlefield knowing. They should have a big army." Another Martial Lord asked. "After massacring our forces, they shouldn''t know that we have arrived. With that, we can take advantage of them and investigate the area. "If they have outnumbered us. We will retreat until the main reinforcement comes." After debating for a while, they decided to use that strategy. Not long after, two thousand soldiers had been assembled. The three Martial Lords that led the soldiers were two 3-Star Martial Lord and a 4-Star Martial Lord, while the ones who were standing by on the base were both 4-Star Martial Lord. Not long after, they finally moved out. Unbeknownst to them, splitting their force was the most foolish strategy they can think of. "Make sure you don''t leave anything unspotted in this darkness." One of the 3-Star Martial Lords led his group through the woods in darkness. Luckily, it was a full moon, so the forest was not in complete darkness. After around fifteen minutes, he finally smelled blood scent. He thought it must be their fallen comrades. They proceeded even more carefully. They found around two hundred corpses in the area, and surprisingly, all of them were Martial Grandmasters. Because of their number, Alex didn''t have time to dispose of them as he needed the time to make arrays and help the war. He inspected their surroundings after finding the corpses before he felt something off. The blood from the corpses had dried, but he could see fresh blood around them. Because of the corpses, they only made a weird marking. He tried to lift the bodies up and found something unbelievable. "This... this is Array!" They also had an array master in their kingdom, but they only numbered a few ten as this continent didn''t have that many array masters. And even for them, didn''t dare to send their Array Master in this war. As soon as he found the array, the array suddenly started glowing. "Not good!" He rose from his position, but only to see he and his troops had been surrounded by an array. "What is this?" "There is also one beside you." The soldiers started panicking. The 3-Star Martial Lord shouted, "Don''t panic. Immediately leave this place and ready for ba-!" Suddenly he was restricted by numerous white whips that rose from the array. He immediately struggled with all of his might. Luckily, the array was only a rank 3 array. He could break free pretty easily. But it was too late for him. "Dark Curtain." Anna didn''t make a dark sphere to trap the Martial Lord inside. She made a dark plate this time. It was more befitting to her skill''s name, ''Dark Curtain.'' The plates were just above the wood and covered the moonlight just like a curtain. The light didn''t come toward them as their vision immediately filled with darkness. But because of their surroundings, they didn''t lose their vision completely, as they could see their surroundings, albeit barely. The Martial Lord immediately broke free from his restraint, but it was too late. Alex''s arrow, Leoz, had arrived to take his life. Leoz had been moving at high speed and locked him down after Anna used her Dark Curtain. When Leoz arrived in front of him, he was finally able to see Leoz''s figure. "You!" "Thunder Cut." Leoz swung his big sword that had been covered by thunder to cut his head, thus killing him. ... A few minutes earlier, Alex also received another news from Ngina. "Young Master, I spotted a reinforcement. Their number should be two thousand with five Martial Lords in command." Alex frowned after hearing the news, the most important thing was five Martial Lords. "Do you have any idea about their strength?" "I only observe the Martial Lords closely. Two of them are 3-Star, and the rest are 4-Star Martial Lord. It seems they are going to investigate the area. "Two 4-Star Martial Lords will hold the fort with five hundred soldiers. As for the other three, each of them will lead five hundred soldiers to investigate us. My suspicion is they are wary about our force as they misunderstood us as a force from the Southern Kingdom." "..." Alex pondered for a moment. The trouble was 4-Star Martial Lord. Anna and Fabio can indeed fight with a 4-Star Martial Lord. But after seeing Leoz''s opponent yesterday. He became a bit hesitant to make a decision. He remembered those three Martial Lords that Leoz fought, suddenly had an increase in their strength, and became 5-Star Martial Lords from their original 3-Star Martial Lord strength. He was wondering if these new Martial Lords will be able to do the same. After all, that power came from a pill. He tried to consider retreating from this place. But before that, he decided to check his system, specifically his tickets. [Gacha Ticket x412] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] He then checked his spirits'' status [Anna (Dark) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 172084/230000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 187634/240000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 29/80 (9-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 12348/200000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 32497/230000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 28/80 (8-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 62830/190000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 24/80 (4-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 1/140000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 23/80 (3-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 123984/130000] He thought about exchanging his normal tickets to premium tickets. But because of this, he didn''t exchange them. "System, use every ticket as well as every summoning coin I will have." [Processing Tickets] [Sublimation Spear (R) x1] [Summoning Coin (C) x1] [Wooden Fan (C) x1] ... ... ... [Wooden Log (C) x1] After using all 412 tickets, the system immediately used every summoning coin Alex got. [Processing Summoning Coin] [Suon (R) x1] [Metal Slime (C) x1] [EXP Card (UC) x1] ... ... ... [Green Wolf (UC) x1] Alex got only five (R) EXP cards. He sweatdropped when he saw he only got five Rare EXP cards. "System, use four EXP cards on Anna and the last one to Fabio. No, use every (UC) and (C) EXPs card to Fabio too, I want him to level up twice." [Are you sure, Host? Anna can level up two levels with just three EXP cards. While there is Leoz as another option.] Alex was taken aback to hear that. He immediately realized that the pressure in this situation had gotten inside his head that even he couldn''t make a good judgment. Alex took a deep breath. His system just reminded him of his situation. He said in relief, "Thank you, System. The pressure has clouded my eyes from seeing the bigger picture." [Your Welcome, Host.] Alex took out Leoz''s card, "I need your help. I''m going to summon you." "Wait for a few seconds, Young Master. I am surrounded by loose cultivators." Leoz replied as the time ticked in. The Martial Lord had been moving toward their place. After a few seconds, Leoz replied again, "I am ready, Young Master." "Summon." Alex summoned him hurriedly as they didn''t have much time. As soon as Leoz appeared, Alex said, "Follow me, we are going to meet the others." When the other spirits saw Leoz, they were taken aback. They immediately noticed that something happened. "There are three Martial Lords coming to us. Each of them is leading five hundred soldiers. There are another two Martial Lords that hold the fort for them. That''s why I summoned Leoz here. "We are going to target one of them at the time. But, because of their number along with the Martial Lord. I am not going to use the previous strategy. We are going at them in full throttle. "I decided this because I felt something was off in yesterday''s battle. Leoz needed to fight three 3-Star Martial Lords that suddenly became 5-Star Martial Lord. But, when we fought the group. They didn''t have the same condition." Alex explained briefly. "They ate a red pill before their cultivation suddenly increased," Leoz added his experience. Alex nodded, "I assume the red pills are exclusive to Martial Lords. And here is the problem, if they have the pills, then we should consider them as 5-Star or 6-Star Martial Lords, not 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Lord. "Of course, I don''t know how the pill works, but just to be safe, we should assume it that way. So, the problem is how we can kill the Martial Lords before they use the pill. But before that..." Alex immediately used three EXP cards on Anna, one EXP card on Leoz, as for the last one, he put it on hold for the time being. Anna and Leoz were surprised to level up just now. But they decided not to say anything useless for the time being. Instead, Anna immediately asked, "Alex, didn''t you scatter the array in the forest? We can use the Wistful Shackle Array to hold him for a split second." "Yes, I can do the rest." Leoz nodded his head. "I will cover the moonlight for a while with my Dark Curtain. It won''t blind them, but it still makes them lose almost all their vision. Even if they are using the domain to see their surroundings, Leoz can overpower them as long as they didn''t use the pill first." "Yeah, I can do that," Leoz affirmed. "Alright. Our plan is for Leoz to kill the boss first. If that can be taken care of in a jiffy, then my plan is..." 267 True Spirit Body "Here is my plan, Leoz and Anna will go rampage from behind as soon as both of you kill the Martial Lord. Fabio and Vera will go from their right flank. Jeanne and Greg will go from their left flank. I will approach them from the front." "Alex, that is dangerous. Are you telling us to make you a bait?" Anna immediately snapped. Leoz and the others also wanted to say their pieces, but Alex stopped them. He said with a smile to calm them down, "I''m with Sherry and Kyle. And I can manipulate the array that I have placed. So, charging at me is the worst thing they could do at that moment. "I want this battle finished as soon as possible because this battle will attract the other two groups. We will reduce their number with the previous strategy. After reducing their number, I will lead them to all of you." "Alex, this time, I won''t budge. The previous strategy succeeded because they didn''t have Martial Lords. But now they have! At least bring me so I can fend off the Martial Lords when they catch up with you." Anna glared at him. "..." Looking at her expression, Alex sighed and said, "Leoz will come with me. You will lead the others to a designated area. Alright, that''s it. We don''t have time anymore. We are moving!" Alex immediately ran away. Anna wanted to complain because he chose to bring Leoz, not her, but she knew they didn''t have time for that. She could only accept it. At least, Alex brought Leoz with him. They moved toward the farthest group. At least, it would bring them a bit more time before the other groups caught up. All of them moved silently as Alex used his Space Door to move closer. Anna and Leoz followed him to make a surprise attack. They looked at the Martial Lord that was examining the corpses before lifting them up. When he noticed there were arrays in that place, Alex immediately activated it. "Not good!" The Martial Lord rose from his position, but only to see he and his troops had been surrounded by an array. "What is this?" "There is also one beside you." The soldiers started panicking. The 3-Star Martial Lord shouted, "Don''t panic. Immediately leave this place and ready for ba-!" Suddenly he was restricted by numerous white whips that rose from the array. He immediately struggled with all of his might. Luckily, the array was only a rank 3 array. He could break free pretty easily. But it was too late for him. "Dark Curtain." Anna didn''t make a dark sphere to trap the Martial Lord inside. She made a dark plate this time. It was more befitting to her skill''s name, ''Dark Curtain.'' The plate was just above the wood and covered the moonlight, just like a curtain. The light didn''t come toward them as their vision immediately filled with darkness. But because of their surroundings, they didn''t lose their vision completely, as they could see their surroundings, albeit barely. The Martial Lord immediately broke free from his restraint, but it was too late. Alex''s arrow, Leoz, had arrived to take his life. Leoz had been moving at high speed and locked him down after Anna used her Dark Curtain. When Leoz arrived in front of him, he was finally able to see Leoz''s figure. "You!" "Thunder Cut." Leoz swung his big sword that had been covered by thunder to cut his head, thus killing him. "Enemy!" "They killed our general!" "What? the enemies are Martial Lords?" "We are screwed!" "Don''t panic, we have our numbers. As long as we preserve, the other groups will help us!" "Fight!" The soldiers were in disarray. Leoz and Anna immediately moved toward their back while the other spirits also moved to their designated spot. ... In the right flank, Fabio and Vera crossed their swords and made the first move. "Twin Elements Slash!" "Gah!" "Argh!" "Enemies!" "There are only two of them." They killed a dozen soldiers with a single skill. Looking at the soldiers, Fabio went in front of Vera. "I will go, you will cover me. It''s not like I hate to see you hurt, alright. I just need to do my duty as a husband," he said. "Hmph, it''s not like I''m moved just because of that, I just don''t want to hurt your self-esteem as a man, Vera said. They looked at each other and smiled. Fabio then covered his body with flame as he looked at the soldiers menacingly. He then disappeared from his spot to confront numerous soldiers. ... In the left flank, it was also the same. "I will leave my movement to you, Greg! If it fails, I will punish you!" Jeanne said cheekily. "Don''t worry. I am not planning to get that torture." Greg shrugged his shoulder. "It is not a torture, how many times I should say this, it is playing!" "You are the only one who is thinking like that. Anyway, we should do our job." Greg didn''t talk much, so he stopped her and focused on the enemy. "Hmph, I know! If not because I''m too weak, right now. I can kill all of them easily." "Ethereal Thunder Body!" Lightning started covering her body before her body became the lightning itself. She suddenly appeared in front of the enemy''s face. "A kid?" When they saw her figure, they couldn''t help but drop their jaw. Jeanne grinned as her two short swords slashed a soldier''s body to four. But she didn''t stop there, she channeled the lightning to the ground. Her attack was like Charya''s. The lightning that channeled to the ground moved toward the enemy to spark them and immobilize them. If not because her strength was too low, they might die from that spark. "Don''t be fooled by her appearance. She is a Martial Grandmaster! Attack!" "Attack!" The enemy started surrounding her. But that was exactly her plan. "Metal Ground!" Greg also followed her with his own skills. His armor turned into green as he made a thin layer of metal above ground. This layer of metal connected Jeanne with the soldiers. She grinned as she pierced the metal with her two swords. "Ethereal Lightning Body, First Charge. Spark!" The metal was conducting the electricity from Jeanne to the soldiers. But, the electricity was also supposed to go to Greg since he connected with the metal. Greg''s armor changed its color again. It was turning into silver. When Jeanne''s attack came to him, he was unharmed. It seemed the silver metal didn''t have that much conductivity. "Argh!" "Gh!" It was different for the soldiers. They didn''t have anything like that. For Martial Masters, most of them were roasted by electricity. For Martial Grandmasters, some of them were killed, some of them were immobilized, but there were some that managed to block the attack. It was especially true for high ranking Martial Grandmasters. "You B*stard!" "Attack!" The remaining soldiers immediately let out a cry to attack Jeanne. But she moved around them with lightning speed and killed them one by one. Greg also helped her with that. "Why didn''t you fight like this yesterday?" Looking at her rampage, Greg shook his head and asked. "You alone should know why I decided to use this technique. I can only maintain this for a day. After that, I can''t use this technique again for a week. "Our Master wants to be the bait but, I''m sure none of us will let him do that, including you. We didn''t say anything back then because we know he will object to it. But, this is us, we follow him to be his sword and shield. If we can''t even do our job well. How can we face him?" Jeanne said while killing the soldiers. Even Greg smiled behind his armor as she was indeed right. ... On the back where Leoz and Anna headed, the soldiers were confused by their sudden appearance. Even more so with the sudden appearance of butterflies. The butterflies were black colored with blue circles in their wing. They were perfect to be night butterflies. The butterflies flew toward soldiers, and the soldiers were confused by that. Leoz looked at Anna, who was the controller of the butterflies. "Anna, are you sure you are using this?" "Yeah. I need to finish the battle as soon as possible. Why are you not using your true power too? If you use your True Spirit Body, you should be able to kill the entire two thousand easily." "Nah, I felt Jeanne also activated her True Spirit Body, Ethereal Lightning Body, as we have the same element. And according to the situation, between that Tsun-Tsun couple, one of them should also use it. "Although we didn''t voice our concern. We are really worried about him. And you know about the condition for using our True Spirit Body. The time limit is one day, and you can only use it one day per week. "According to Nelson, the number is far beyond this. If I use it now, I am afraid I can''t do anything if something happened later. That''s why I never use it before because the future is scary. After all, I don''t know them. "I''m surprised to see you use it here. Are you sure you can show yourself to him after using your True Spirit Body?" Anna only glanced at him like she heard the most foolish question. "Oh, scary. Well, the way Young Master now, he will only say you are beautiful." Leoz shrugged. "I am afraid that Alex will hate me if I show my wings in our first meeting, and I couldn''t throw that doubt away, thinking that he might only love humans as in this life he is also a human. But now, I am also his woman. I can''t let him bear the burden alone. That''s why I don''t mind if he sees him in this form. After all, I am a Dark Butterfly Spirit." Anna flew above the woods while raising her scythe upward. A moment later, a pair of black butterfly wings appeared. The wings were beautiful. The wings were black, with two circle patterns of yellow and blue as butterfly wings should be. She soared to the sky freely. With her wings wide open, she didn''t look ugly at all. In fact, all of it only enhanced her aura and beauty. She let go of her veil and looked down on the soldiers. "What is that?" "Look, that woman. Who is she?" The soldiers were captivated by her looks as they looked at her dumbfoundedly. "True Spirit Body. Dark Butterfly." Anna looked at her controlled butterflies from earlier and let them stuck on the soldiers. She raised her hand, "Dark Butterfly, First Order. Marionettes!" The butterfly suddenly exploded. Surprisingly, it didn''t do any damage to the soldiers. But if one saw it, they would notice the part where the butterfly exploded was dyed black. It was Anna''s attack. She corroded their spiritual energy and attacked their mind. One of the reasons Anna didn''t use it until now was because it didn''t have any effect on monsters as they moved using their instinct even if she attacked their mind, including the high intelligence monster. But it was different for humans. If the humans moved with their instinct, they might only move with their instinct to mate. Because of that, Anna could easily attack the Human''s mind and control them. The soldiers killed themself in Anna''s control. Leoz only shook his head helplessly. As he knew because of their difference of strength, Anna could easily control them. "Foolish Human. If you didn''t take something that corrodes your energy, even I might not be able to corrode all of you. But, that energy is intriguing. I felt the presence of hundreds of humans inside of that energy. "Don''t tell me the ingredients for that is human''s blood?" Anna suddenly realized something off. 268 End "Don''t tell me, the ingredient for that is human''s blood?" Anna descended to the ground. Leoz looked at her bothered expression and asked, "What happens?" "No, I just realize something stupid. Why I never realized until now. The red pill is the so-called blood pill. The reason for that is because they are literally made from human blood." "Isn''t that obvious?" Leoz was confused. "This is why you are a muscle brain. Why did the Zhou Kingdom split their soldiers and conquer the cities in their way? No, I shouldn''t say conquer, but massacre!" "!!!" After hearing that, even a Muscle Brain like Leoz immediately understood. The reason why the Zhou Kingdom split their soldiers was to massacre the cities in their way. They wanted to use them to make blood pills to increase their power. "We are going back to Alex immediately!" Anna shouted. "Yeah." Leoz nodded, and both of them disappeared. ... On Alex''s side, he continuously used his arrays to trap the soldiers. Kyle and Sherry tried to kill as much as possible in this period. To his surprise, when he killed around fifty soldiers, Leoz and Anna appeared as well as killed the enemy soldiers. But the most surprising thing was a pair of butterfly wings on Anna''s back. On Alex''s eyes, Anna looked like a night butterfly that accompanied him through the night''s darkness. "Alex..." Even though she was ready for this, when she met him again, she couldn''t help but cower. "Anna..." Alex came to her. Anna tried to look away, ashamed to show him this appearance. But Alex said something that startled her. "You are really beautiful." "Alex... I am a Dark Butterfly Spirit, and this appearance is my true appearance. I am sorry to hide this from you this entire time, I-" Alex kissed her on the mouth. It was his answer. He shouldn''t explain his reasoning in this situation. He should explain with his mouth... literally. This kiss soothed Anna''s heart. Leoz didn''t bother them, and he made sure that there were no soldiers that would disturb them. Not long after, Alex released her mouth. Anna had calmed down. She looked at Alex seriously, she decided to tell him. "This is our True Spirit Body. We can only use this once every week. I am afraid that you will hate this appearance, So I didn''t dare to use it until now." She became downcast. Alex patted her head. He smiled and asked, "Is everyone like that too?" "No, only high ranking spirits can have this... I mean, only UR spirits can have this." "So, Leoz and the others too?" "En." Anna nodded. "According to Leoz, Jeanne seems to use it too. As for Fabio and Vera, one of them should use this too. But I don''t know who uses it. We didn''t use it until now because there is no need to do so. But, in this battle, especially my form, as it is not effective on Monsters." "Well, I hope you can explain it to me after this." "En." Not long after, Leoz came back, following him was Fabio and Vera. Fabio''s body was covered by flame, while Vera didn''t have any changes. A few seconds later, Jeanne and Greg came back. Alex looked at them and said, "We can talk later. For now, we shou-!" Before he finished his words, he heard a shout from his right. Many soldiers were approaching them. Alex could see two Martial Lords in their ranks. But when he wanted to say something, Anna grabbed his hands. She smiled at him, "Alex, let us fight this on your behalf. Please watch how we fight." Alex wanted to join, but his heart stopped him from doing so. His heart was telling him to watch them so he could prepare for the next. "I will hold the two Martial Lords, Leoz and Fabio will destroy their formation. Jeanne should kill as many as possible. Vera and Greg will be our support." "Wait, Anna. It is better for me and Fabio to hold the Martial Lords. Your power is more suited to fight many enemies." Leoz rejected her idea. "Are you sure? They should have the blood pills too, you know." "They won''t be able to eat those pills in our watch. And Fabio was in his True Spirit Form too. It should be fine," Leoz said. "..." Anna looked at them for a while before nodding her head. "Alright." When they became closer, they finally realized Anna''s wings. "Look at her, she... she is not a human. What are those wings? Butterfly?" "So, our opponent is not the Southern Kingdom but a monster in this forest." "Humanoid Monster? If I''m not wrong, a humanoid monster is a high ranking monster. But, look at her, she is just a 4-Star Martial Lord. We can capture her with this number!" "Yeah, Just look at the beauty, I am fine with it even though she is a monster!" "You can''t say that. Look at that blue haired beauty. I want to do her." "Just look at the yellow haired girl, I like that type." Unfortunately, because Anna stood out the most, they considered the other spirits as nothing. They only looked at the beauties to boot who had the lowest cultivation. They completely underestimated them. Suddenly a swarm of butterflies came out of nowhere. The butterflies then stick to the soldiers'' hands, shoulders, anywhere as long as the spot was exposed. "Butterfly?" The soldiers were confused by the sudden appearance of butterflies. But, one of the Martial Lords suddenly realized, "Not good. Kill the butterflies!" "Dark Butterfly, First Order. Marionettes!" Sadly, they were too late as Anna had launched her attack. The butterflies exploded. To their surprise, the pain that they expected didn''t come. "Haha, there is no pain!" "This must be an illusion." "Haha..." "She can''t kill us. Att-!" Just when they overjoyed because Anna didn''t do any damage to them. The soldiers that got the butterfly on them suddenly felt something wrong. "I-I can''t control my hand!" "I am too. I ca- Argh!" The soldiers'' hands suddenly lost control of their hands. Their hands then used their weapon to pierce their heart or neck one by one. In just an instant, Anna had killed more than a hundred soldiers. "What!" Many soldiers got startled when many of their comrades suddenly killed themself. The Martial Lords immediately recovered from their shock and looked at Anna. "She must be the one who did this. Attack her first!" "Soldiers att-!" "!!!" Leoz and Fabio suddenly appeared in front of them. Leoz took the 4-Star Martial Lord as his opponent while Fabio took the 3-Star Martial Lord. Both of them blew their opponent away so they could fight one on one. The Martial Lords were startled to see another two Martial Lords. They only focused on the beauties before and didn''t care about the guys. They had underestimated them by not looking at the guys. The soldiers were startled after seeing both of their generals were blown away by them. But in that moment of confusion, Anna used that chance to send another wave of butterflies. It killed dozens of soldiers again. Leoz and Fabio then went to their respective opponents. "Attack! Attack her. Our generals will win. So, we need to focus on our job." One of the peak Martial Grandmasters shouted after regaining his composure. The fight was going hard. Jeanne charged to the front, moving from one spot to another with breakneck speed. She killed the soldiers one by one as Greg will immediately raise his shield in case she couldn''t dodge the enemies'' attack. Vera became a support to make their situation under control. She tried to restrict the soldiers'' movement as Anna used her skills continuously. After around an hour, they finally managed to kill their enemy completely. Leoz and Fabio also came back after killing their respective opponents. They prevented their opponent from taking the blood pill. Alex thought they were going to have a hard fight. It turned out he underestimated his spirits as well. He thought about joining the battles, but after seeing the situation where they obliterated their enemies pretty easily. He decided to watch the fight. Anna came back to him as soon as she finished. Alex couldn''t help but say, "It seems I have underestimated all of you." "We can only do this because of our True Spirit Body." "True Spirit Body..." Alex looked down. He seemed weighing something on his mind. "I want to know the details, but we still have one last fight, so I will refrain myself from asking that question for the time being." The last battle in his mouth was the battle with the last group that was on their base camp. "Master, I feel that you should capture their leaders. We can get some information that way. Those Martial Lords seem enough." Jeanne said as she came back with the others. Alex pondered for a moment before nodding his head. He thought he could use illusion array to torture them first before interogating them. He misunderstood Jeanne''s intention, though. "We are going," Alex said to his spirits. The spirits nodded and followed him to the enemy base. As expected, the battle finished in an instant. Anna used her butterflies to open the battle. Fabio and Leoz then took care of the Martial Lords. The battle strategy was the same as before, but with the addition of Alex. With the help of Sherry and Kyle, Alex dominated the battlefield. Not long after they finished the battle, Leoz and Fabio also came back with the Martial Lords. Judging from their expression, Leoz and Fabio had crippled them. "You... You monsters!" "We are not monsters, we are spirits." Anna snorted as her True Spirit Body became undone. Jeanne and Fabio also did the same. Alex didn''t say anything. He only approached them. "You. What do you want to do!" "I''m just giving you a chance to tell me all the information you have. I can let you die swiftly if you do that," Alex said coldly. "Ptui. Over my dead body." He said after spatting on Alex. Of course, Alex dodged it. He put his hand on the Martial Lord''s head and made a Silk Dream Array on his forehead. It was his rank 3 illusion array. "Argh!" "Gah!" "Kuoh!" The Martial Lord screamed out of his mind. In the illusion, he enjoyed many ways to die, even the dumbest one to destroy his spirit. But surprisingly, his mouth started fuming foam, and he died. Alex was startled. He thought since he was a Martial Lord, he should be able to withstand that. But, not long after entering the illusion array, he died. Alex couldn''t understand. He was far weaker than he expected, or at least in his mind. "Tch tch tch. Master, that is not a good way to get the information, you know. Let me do the other one. I will surely give you the information you need." Jeanne suddenly came to him and asked him. He remembered when Anna said that even Nelson requested Jeanne''s help to interrogate someone. "Alright." Jeanne then grabbed the other one and dragged him to a tent. The other Martial Lord was afraid of Alex when he saw his friend died just like that. He didn''t understand why his friend died. When Jeanne dragged him, he didn''t falter. He kept his strong front, saying, "You are not going to get any information from me" and the like. But not long after he got into the tent, he started screaming like crazy. Alex didn''t know what Jeanne did. "Alex, it is better not to see it. It is... anyway, it''s not even safe for adults." Anna came to him and whispered. He became even more curious when he heard that. When he turned around, he saw Leoz, Fabio, Vera, and Greg looked away. He thought maybe he shouldn''t be curious about it. "Leoz, are you going back after this? I think we are not going to fight tomorrow as the enemy might think we have killed the soldiers here. If they become desperate, we won''t know what they do." He changed the topic. 269 Blood Pill and Berserk Pill "Yes, Young Master. After all, I am still considered as one of the mercenaries. If I am suddenly absent on the next day, they will suspect me. For the time being, I will continue being with them." Leoz answered. "Alright. I will summon you again if I need your help." "Yes." Leoz then disappeared. Alex then turned to Anna. He didn''t get the answer earlier, "Anna." Anna knew that Alex wanted an explanation. She asked Alex to sit since it would be a bit long. "As you know, we are spirits. For high ranking spirits, or you can say UR spirits. We have two forms, which are our humanoid form and our spirit form. "Take me as an example. I am Dark Butterfly Spirit. My spirit form is just like now with the wings. And there is one privilege for high ranking spirits. It is the True Spirit Body. "It is the only skill that could utilize our latent potential and our spirit body. Each high ranking spirit body has their own True Spirit Body." "Like Jeanne and Fabio?" Alex asked. "Yeah," she affirmed. She continued, "Jeanne is Lightning Spirit. Her True Spirit Body is Ethereal Lightning Body. It makes her body become the lightning itself. "As for Fabio, he is the Ifrit Spirit. His True Spirit Body is Myth Fire Body. In that form, his fire would be comparable to a full-grown phoenix. Just say that Kyle''s grown-up form. Kyle''s fire will be more ferocious after he enters the adult phase." "What about the others, like Greg, Vera, or even Leoz?" Alex asked again. "Vera is Ice Phoenix Spirit. Well, you can classify her as an ice version of a phoenix. Her True Spirit Body is Ice Phoenix Form, and she will grow a pair of wings like me. "Greg is Alloy Spirit. He could change his body and armor into one type of metal. His True Spirit Body, Union Body, allows him to combine all metal together, making the hardest metal that could exist. Basically, he will be impregnable. "Leoz is Thunder Berserker Spirit. As a berserker, the moment he activates his True Spirit Body, Berserk, his power will increase beyond your imagination. Now, he is a 4-Star Martial Lord. He could kill 8-Star or even 9-Star Martial Lord in his Berserk Form. "But his True Spirit Body is a bit more special. The longer he uses his Berserk Form, the more he loses his mind. He won''t be able to recognize his friends or foes anymore. That''s why Leoz usually doesn''t use it if not for the last struggle. "As for Nelson, he is a Shadow Spirit. He controls the shadow. As for his power... Just say that if you want to assassinate, or even massacre an entire family in a single night without anyone knowing it. He would be able to do it. But the difference couldn''t be more than 5-Star." Anna explained. "..." Alex thought for a while. Basically, True Spirit Body was their last trump card. They could get a boost of power, but they couldn''t use it in a prolonged battle or a big battle like this where they couldn''t kill their enemies within a day. "How about the rest?" "Anya, my twin sister, is a Light Butterfly Spirit. Jean is Pure Water Spirit that even her sister''s electricity is not effective against him. As for Artur, he is a Heroic Spirit. Just say that he is a righteous bastard that wants to help others in need. Not a Hero that was made up by ''H'' and ''Ero'' like you said back then." Alex made a wry smile when he heard that. He recalled where he called John a Hero that was made up of ''H'' and ''Ero.'' He was right, though. "As for their power, I think you should ask them yourself, or I will explain it to you after you can summon them." "Alright." Alex nodded. Even knowing them now wouldn''t have any use as they weren''t here. "That''s right. I almost forgot. It is about the blood pill." Alex immediately frowned when he heard that. "In my Dark Butterfly Form, I become a mind-based Spirit. When I tried to attack their mind with my butterfly, surprisingly, it could go through smoothly. "At that time, I felt more than a hundred presences in their mind. The presences were thin, and the soldiers might not feel it. But I could feel it. Those presences held resentment against the soldiers and helped my attack. "This is my assumption. The ingredient for the Blood Pill is human blood. After recalling your battle with the evil cult, one of them suddenly makes a blood pill to get stronger, right?" Alex nodded. "I assume there might be two types of Blood Pill. One of them is to enhance their cultivation speed, and the other one is to boost their cultivation for a certain period. Oh, that''s right. We have a Martial Lord here. We should inspect his Space Ring." Anna said that and rose from her seat. She then approached the Martial Lord that Alex killed previously. Alex followed her. She took his Space Ring before she pried open the Space Ring. She took out every single red pill out of the Space Ring. Alex tried to activate his Spirit Eyes. There was a single pill that stood out the most. The red like energy inside the pill was far higher from the rest. Alex grabbed the pill. The pill color was also redder than the others. "This pill has a far higher energy than the rest." Anna then said, "I assume, this pill is the latter pill which increases their cultivation like when they fought Leoz. Other than ''that pill'' is a pill for cultivation purposes." "Yes. There are indeed two pills." Anna nodded. "The pill for their cultivation didn''t have much blood energy." "Anna is right." Suddenly Jeanne joined their conversation. Alex and Anna were startled by her sudden appearance. "You have finished, Jeanne?" Anna asked. "Yep, I have tried my best. He didn''t hold for long before blabbering everything he knows." Jeanne said with a smile. "Care to explain it to us?" "Sure. Firstly, they called these two pills, ''Blood Pill'' and ''Berserk Pill.'' As you might have guessed, the blood pill is for cultivation purposes, and the berserk pill is to raise their strength in a period of time. "Blood Pill might be able to increase their cultivation faster than average. But this comes with a side effect. Because their energy is not pure enough if they consume the blood pill, they are weaker than ordinary cultivators. "To counter this side effect, they increased all of their soldiers'' power levels. After all, quantity could defeat quality in a certain case. That''s what they did. "But, in case quantity couldn''t defeat quality. They have this Berserk Pill. The purpose of this Berserk Pill is to increase their power once again and make them stronger than the average cultivator at the same level for five minutes. "After that, it will depend on their body state before the Berserk Pill''s effect wears off. If their condition is alright, although they will be crippled after taking the pill, they will still be alive. "If their condition is bad, then they will die the moment the pill''s effect wears off. As for how the pill was made, he didn''t know anything about it. So, I couldn''t find anything from him about that. But, I''m sure it is like you expected, Anna." Anna narrowed her eyes, "They are made by blood. But considering the difference between the pills, I assume that the Berserk Pill is a concentrated form of a Blood Pill. Then the purpose of this war..." "!!!" Alex was finally enlightened. Anna looked at Alex''s expression. She nodded. "Yeah. The Southern Kingdom is known for their wealth. But, they can just conquer the capital with that high number of Martial Lords and soldiers. "The reason why they split their troops... I assume they will massacre all people inside those cities and use them to make the pills. After they conquered the Southern Kingdom, they got everything they needed, whether this kingdom''s wealth or pills." "Two birds in one stone." "Alex, what are you going to do?" Anna asked. Alex pondered for a moment. Before coming up with a plan, Alex decided to ask Jeanne first, "Do you find anything from him?" "Oh, it is about the war situation. He said that their main reinforcement would come to this place in three days. He doesn''t know their number, but their powers are far stronger than the soldiers on the battlefield now. I only found that as he didn''t know anything other than that." "Three days..." "Master, you said you are not going to join the battle tomorrow... I mean, it has passed midnight so today. Oh, that''s right. They should have ten Martial Lords, but because of the battlefield''s condition. Five of them need to stay on the battlefield to lead the troops." Jeanne said. "With the addition of five Martial Lords, Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers should be energetic again. If we don''t help them tomorrow, they won''t lose more than five thousand of their soldiers since their purpose is to hold on before the main army comes." Anna advised. "No, it is better to stop for today. If we appear today, they might think that we escape from these two thousand people. But if we appear tomorrow. They will think we have dealt with these soldiers. "I think we will have more impact on them. I am not hoping to kill all of them. But, if they only have around ten thousand soldiers left, they might retreat." Alex said. "Alright. We will do what you said." There were too many factors for consideration. He had informed Putri with what he knew about the enemy troops. He wanted to see what the Southern Kingdom would do with that information. He also wanted to investigate the cities that were conquered by the Zhou Kingdom on their way here. He wanted to know if they had massacred them or not to see if their speculation was right or wrong. He thought about sending Ngina or Njomo to investigate there. But they were crucial for him at the moment. Ngina was watching Zhou Soldier''s side while Njomo was watching the Southern Kingdom''s side. He decided to wait and see first for today. After this war, he thought about informing the sect with this information. Of course, he might not tell them about the blood pill as he didn''t know what they would do with that information. They might even exploit the blood pills. So, after they were starting to suspect the Zhou Kingdom after a series of investigations. Alex would tell them about the blood pill. "For the time being, you two can rest first. Thank you for your hard work." ... When the morning came, Leoz had come back into the mercenary camp. He didn''t do much yesterday as Anna, Fabio, and Jeanne used their True Spirit Body. He had spare energy for today. But surprisingly, he didn''t see Putri everywhere. Before the war, Alex told him to protect her. But she was nowhere to be seen. "Young Master, I don''t see that green hair girl anywhere," Leoz said. Alex was notified by the system that Leoz wanted to talk to him, so he took out Leoz''s card. When he heard that, he didn''t think much, "Yesterday, I told her about the enemy number. She should still be occupied by that information and do her job. You didn''t need to protect her for the time being. And they should have another 5 Martial Lords, so be careful." "Oh, alright." Leoz didn''t have any problem with that. Since he can throw that mission from his mind, for the time being, he could focus on killing the enemy first. Of course, he needed to consider the enemy''s Martial Lords. Not long after that, the fight started again. Unbeknownst to him, there was an old man, looking upon the battlefield curiously. 270 Morgan Unbeknownst to him, there was an old man, looking upon the battlefield curiously. He was Minister Morgan. Even though he locked Putri in prison, he couldn''t shake the uncomfortable feeling from his heart. He felt that she was telling the truth, but his rationality kept telling him it was impossible. For that, he decided to look at the battlefield from the city wall. When the battle started again, he was shocked by what he saw. There were another five Martial Lords in their ranks. From the report, all Martial Lords should have been killed by a yellow-haired man. The most troubling thing was he couldn''t see any reinforcement other than those five. There was no difference in their number. He observed for a little longer before coming back. He went to the prison. When Putri saw him, she immediately greeted him, "Putri greets War Minister, Morgan." "Lass, what do you know about the enemy?" Morgan asked. "I... I have told you everything I know, Minister Morgan." Morgan narrowed his eyes, but Putri seemed not lying to him. He asked again, "Then I will change my question. Where did you get that information?" "I..." "Tell me!" She bit her lips before telling him, "My Junior Brother from the sect." "Your Junior Brother?" Morgan released his Spiritual Energy, and asked her again with a cold tone, "Don''t tell me, you never suspect your Junior Brother as a spy. Why do you believe such stupid information?" "No! He is not the type of person who will lie to me!" "It is because you have been brainwashed by him, so you will think like that." "He... he is lying to me?" Putri began to doubt Alex in her mind. But after recalling Alex''s power, his identity as an Array Master, or even Alchemist, that doubt immediately crumbled. With his power, Alex didn''t need to do such a trick. With how fast he increased his power, He could control the entire Southern Kingdom in one or two decades. Back in Zwaka''s place, he could easily give her five million Spirit Stones. Alex didn''t even consider it as he gave it to her without batting an eye. In other words, Alex should have far more than that. "No, I trust him." Putri shook her head. Even in front of Morgan''s pressure, she didn''t back down as she looked at his eyes with full confidence. "..." Morgan looked at her eyes. "Then where is he? You got the information yesterday. So, I assume he should be near. Is he in this town?" Putri bit her lips but didn''t tell Alex''s location. "Then he must be inside Nemu Forest." "!!!" "I see, he is inside Nemu Forest." At first, he said that to bait her. But, when he said that, there was a change in Putri''s expression. Although it was minuscule, it didn''t escape his eyes. He started walking outside to meet this Junior Brother of her to interrogate him. "Minister Morgan. You can''t touch him. No matter what you do, don''t touch him!" Putri immediately grabbed the jail''s bar and shouted as hard as she could but to no avail. Morgan didn''t stop, nor he listened to her. After he got outside of the prison, he immediately flew toward the forest. Unfortunately, he didn''t escape from Njomo''s observation. Njomo immediately informed Alex about this. Alex took out Njomo''s card, but the report he got was... "Woof Woof! Woof Woof Woof!" "..." Alex couldn''t comprehend what he said. Alex then took Ngina''s card and put his card in front of Njomo''s card. He said, "Tell me again." "Woof Woof! Woof Woof Woof!" He also activated Ngina''s card, so after Njomo finished his word, Alex said, "The Translation, please." "He said there is a Martial Lord that swiftly flew into your position. His power is far stronger than Leoz, but he didn''t know whether his target is you or not." Alex was startled. He immediately rose from the ground and shouted to his spirits, "We are going to hide for a while." The spirits were ready to move after they heard his shout. From his tone alone, they could understand there was something serious. They fled from their base. ... Morgan flew above the woods while searching for anything he could spot. Before meeting Alex, he stopped when he found numerous dead bodies on the ground. He was startled to see many soldiers'' bodies on the ground. There were many signs of battles inside the forest. But because they were pretty deep, they went unnoticed from the battlefield. He also saw many arrays on the ground or trees. He thought those arrays must be the one that killed the soldiers. But to activate the array, there should be a controller around here. Judging from the blood, the battle must have happened not long ago. He continued searching for clues more carefully. He recognized the Wistful Shackle Array. It was a rank 3 array. He checked everything he could find, and the more he could find, the tenser he became. He found numerous Martial Grandmaster corpses as well as Martial Lords. He then found the base that Zhou''s soldiers used to camp. He immediately frightened by the fact that the enemy soldier camped in this place without him knowing. The camp was a bit far from the edge of the forest. Although he had soldiers to investigate the area, the soldiers must haven''t investigated a deeper area like this. He cursed in his mind. He found more than three thousand soldiers in the forest. He was wondering who could kill all of them. But he remembered that Putri got information yesterday from her Junior Brother. He thought about him massacring all of these soldiers. He got a goosebump. He then shook his head, trying to deny it in his mind. It was impossible to fight these many soldiers alone. He should have his own armies, and his troops should be stronger than these Zhou Soldiers. But he couldn''t deny another possibility that he did it alone because he didn''t find any dead bodies beside Zhou''s soldiers. He sweatdropped. Without trying to meet Alex again, he immediately left the forest with his back covered with sweat. He didn''t go back to the city. Instead, he flew toward the capital city. He was planning to report this. Putri''s information kept replaying in his mind. If she was right, then it might be dangerous for them. ... In the throne room where many ministers gathered, "Bang!" Morgan suddenly appeared in the throne room. The king immediately frowned, he asked slowly, "Morgan. Why did you come back? I thought I sent you to observe my daughter?" Morgan looked to the left and the right, he then looked into the king''s eyes, "Your Majesty, I request for everyone to vacant this room." Seeing the seriousness in his eyes, even the king began to doubt something. "Morgan, you!" Many ministers became displeased with his remark. But the king stopped them and said, "I want to talk alone with Minister Morgan." Morgan was one of the old ministers that followed the previous king. He was one of the most trusted retainers that his father gave him. So, after seeing his expression, he decided to vacate the room despite their displeasure. "Your Majesty, I have-!" Before he finished his word, the door was opened once again. They frowned upon hearing the door was opened, they thought who dared to open the room, but that thought vanished the moment they saw who it was. "Royal Father." "Your Majesty." The one who came just now was the previous king, the only 10-Star Martial Lord from the Southern Kingdom. The old man had grey hair as well as a grey beard that was longer than his hair. Maybe because he had retired for quite a while, his complexion was cheerful as he didn''t have any burden on his shoulder anymore. He looked at the blue-haired middle-aged man in front of him, AKA, the current king, and asked, "Hoho, I am wondering what happened since I saw Morgan was rushing to this place when I tried to relax my body. Is it about the war?" As expected from a former king, even though he had retired. His instinct was spotted on. Morgan immediately answered, "Yes, Your Majesty. I assume Your Majesty knows about the second young lady from the Makmur Family, right?" "Yes. We are aware. After all, she will be the next generation that helps this country, and her name should be Putri Wulan." The former and the current king looked at each other and nodded. "Indeed. Yesterday, I got absurd information from her. She said that she got it from her junior brother from Heavenly Sword Sect." "Absurd Information? What kind?" "We are attacked by a hundred thousand soldiers. And she said that the troops consisted of twenty thousand Martial Grandmasters and five hundred Martial Lords." The current and the former king were dumbfounded. They couldn''t believe their ears, "Morgan, say it again, how much the number of Martial Lords?" "Five Hundred, Your Majesty. I thought it was absurd too. But... "When I tried to search for her so-called ''Junior Brother'' that seemed to be in the Nemu Forest. I came across more than Zhou Soldier Corpses. Judging from their condition, the battle should have happened not long ago, it should be around where the war started. "As for their number... there were more than three thousand of them, all of them came from the Zhou Kingdom, I didn''t find any corpses belonging to other influences. There are many arrays around that place too." "Are you saying that this ''Junior Brother'' killed all of those soldiers alone?" The former king narrowed his eyes as he clenched his fist. "No, it is impossible to fight those many soldiers alone. Especially since he is her ''Junior Brother''. His strength should be lower than her." "You mentioned arrays. He might be able to kill them with arrays, right?" Morgan shook his head, "I''m afraid not. Because I found five Martial Lord corpses, and the arrays I found were rank 3 arrays." "What!" Both of them were shocked. It was practically impossible to kill a Martial Lord with a rank 3 array. Alex had used his Wistful Shackle Array and can only hold a Martial Lord for a split second. It was only because of Leoz that they could kill the Martial Lord. "Is there any army inside that forest?" "I assume, yes. I couldn''t find them at the moment. But that was not the most crucial information at the moment. Your Majesty, we are currently at war with the Zhou Kingdom. As long as ''they'' killed the Zhou Soldiers. At least, they are not our enemy at the moment. "What I wanted to press here was about Zhou Soldiers that managed to invade our territory, and we didn''t realize they were there until today." "!!!" They finally realized how dire their situation was. The former king couldn''t help but chuckle as his old body fired up. "So, are you going to take some men to investigate Nemu Forest?" "Yes." Morgan nodded. As expected from an old retainer, he knew his intention by coming back here instead of staying on the battlefield. "Then, you must want to request cannons and some help if the situation turned out to be true." "Yes." "Well, in this situation, we should be able to get at least twenty cannons and a hundred Martial Lords. If there is enough time, we should be able to get another one hundred Martial Lords. But, I have retired, we need to ask the current king first." "Yes. I should be able to get twenty cannons, but if Royal Father helps, we should be able to get thirty cannons. As for the Martial Lords, there should be no problem with the number. I should be able to gather it quickly." "Then, I will also join the war!" The former king said. "Ro-Royal Father (Your Majesty)?" "Haha, this old bone has been sitting for long, I think it should be the time to exercise. Fufu, Five hundred Martial Lords... it is absurd as it won''t go unnoticed from us if that were the truth. "Assuming there will be at least a hundred Martial Lords, there is no way this old bone won''t join the fun," he said. He underestimated the Zhou Kingdom because they had their cannons as he didn''t believe that number too. Even if it turned out to be true according to their original number, their power level shouldn''t be that much. So, the only pressing matter was the soldiers that were in the forest. "Morgan, you said that this ''Putri'' got her information from her ''Junior Brother'' that should be in the Nemu Forest, right? Where is she now?" The current king asked. "I imprison her at the moment. I am afraid she will try to create a panic." Morgan answered with his reasoning. "How about letting her free? With that, this ''Junior Brother'' should contact her again or she will go to the forest to meet him. That way, you can apprehend this ''Junior Brother'' of her. "Anyway, if we gather a hundred Martial Lords, the Makmur Family will also send out their experts. It won''t be good for their image if their second young lady is imprisoned." The current king showed his wisdom. "Yes, Your Majesty. I will immediately do that." "Then, I will go to the battlefield together with the reinforcement." 271 Anger Morgan immediately went back to release Putri from prison. When Morgan opened the jail door for her, she was confused. "I''m sure today you have cool your head, You are useful in the battle, so I hope you don''t do anything foolish again like spreading such absurd information." Putri couldn''t say anything. Yesterday, she left immediately after hearing the information from Alex. She thought about going back to him and asked for the details. That was also Morgan''s plan. He would observe Putri''s movement, and if she indeed went back to the forest to meet Alex. He would follow her silently. Sadly, Alex would need to disappoint both of them because of a certain stupid princess. ... In the forest, Alex and the others had rested enough. Alex also came up with several plans, but he wanted to observe the battle a little more. But he would join tomorrow''s battle. He was relaxing his mind for a while before Njomo contacted him again. But he didn''t forget to put Ngina''s card forward first. "Woof Woof Woof!" "He said there are eight Martial Lords coming toward us. Three 5-Star Martial Lords, three 4-Star Martial Lords, and two 3-Star Martial Lords." Ngina immediately translated it. Alex''s heart skipped a beat after he heard that. He immediately shouted to the other spirits, "We are hiding once again." "Alex, what happened?" "There are eight Martial Lords coming to us from the Southern Kingdom''s side." "I am wondering if they are aware of our group or the Zhou Kingdom..." "Hide first." He then instructed, "Njomo and Ngina will try to find their intention." "Understood (Woof)!" Alex and the others immediately hid again like when Morgan came. ... The Martial Lords wore a full black suit like assassins. They were sent here to kill Alex and take his belongings. They searched for quite a while but didn''t find any trace of Alex''s group being here other than corpses. Although they were startled when they saw numerous corpses. They at least need to search for Alex first. If they didn''t find him, then they could report these corpses. "Shit. What are these corpses? From their clothes, they must be Zhou''s soldiers. We should report this." "We will report this later. I don''t know why, but the princess seems adamant to kill him." "We should split up into four groups to search around the area. According to the information, he should have a group with him. But he was the leader, so I assume his group is only filled with Martial Grandmasters. Even if we split our forces into four, we should be able to take care of them." They ignored the possibility that Alex''s group was the one who killed these many soldiers. They didn''t dare to believe that Alex''s small group could kill these many soldiers. They then split into four groups and searched around. Not long after, Ngina informed him, "Young Master. This group of people want to kill you. What should we do?" "What? They want to kill Alex? I will kill them! He has helped their kingdom this much, but instead of thanking him, they want to kill him?" Anna flared up. Hearing Anna''s furious remark, Ngina said a follow-up, "They are splitting into four groups with two Martial Lords in each group." "Then, it is perfect. I will butcher them one by one!" Anna said while gnashing her teeth. Alex ignored her and took Leoz''s card, "I think I''m going to have your help once again." "Alright. You can summon me anytime you want." Leoz informed. "Summon." Leoz appeared in front of them. He didn''t know what happened, but he had been prepared for another fight. "Alex, there is no need for this guy in this battle. There are only two Martial Lords in a group, I can kill them too." Alex shook his head helplessly. He said while patting Anna''s head, "I am happy with your thought. But, what I want is all of you to be safe." He turned to Leoz and explained the situation, "There seems to be a group consisting of eight Martial Lords coming for my head. They are splitting into four groups." "Ho...!" Leoz''s gaze became fierce too. It seemed he was also pissed. The reason was the same as Anna. "Don''t forget to spare at least a group so I can pla- Ahem, get information from them." Jeanne corrected herself. Of course, her intention was plain to see for others. "We will have you and Anna to confront the Martial Lords while the rest of us will be the support." Alex contemplated for a moment, then continued, "Leoz will group up with me, Jeanne, and Greg. Since Fabio is a Martial Lord too, I want him and Vera to support Anna." "I object. We should exchange the group. I''m going to be with Alex." "..." Alex looked at her and sighed, "I do this because I''m worried about you." "I know. But, the perfect combination will be Leoz and Fabio. They could finish the battle faster and help our group." Alex wanted to retort, but he couldn''t as she was right. Anna and Leoz were on the same level, which was 4-Star Martial Lord. But Leoz''s fighting ability was higher than Anna''s. At first, it might look like Anna''s wanted to be with him. But, she was also considering their power in her plan. It was two birds with one stone. "Greg should be able to block a few moves. Putting Jeanne aside, my Dark Curtain is perfect for you in this situation. Although going for close combat might be reckless, you can just aim him with your spear. "Although I doubt it will kill him, it should be able to injure him with an ambush," Anna explained. "Alright." After that much reasoning, he couldn''t say no, could he? "Mmf Mmf!" Jeanne wanted to protest because Anna put her aside, but Leoz grasped her and covered her mouth with his hand. "That''s the plan. Fabio and Leoz will finish your battle as soon as possible with Vera as the support. "Anna and I will try to injure the other one as much as possible. Greg will protect us if needed. As for Jeanne... try to find a way to distract the opponent." "Understood (Mmf)!" They moved out. They finally found a pair of Martial Lords after a five minutes search. "I will take the left one," Anna said. "Alright, I will take the right one." Leoz shrugged his shoulder. Leoz was the first one to appear in front of the enemy. He blew away his target, leaving the other one alone. He wanted to help his comrade to fight Leoz, but Anna went on his way. "Dark Curtain." Anna didn''t say anything but immediately used her Dark Curtain. Unbeknownst to him, Alex was in the group, holding a spear in both hands. "Spear Throwing Technique, Spin Throwing." When he was shrouded by darkness, he didn''t panic. Instead, he tried to see the bigger picture. He tried to release his domain to see his surroundings before feeling Alex''s spears were on their way toward him. "Spear?" He immediately parried it with his sword. He didn''t forget to add his Sword Intent as he felt the Spear Intent when it came inside his domain. But, Alex''s Spear Intent seemed to be greater than expected. He reacted a little late for the second spear. When he realized the second spear, he felt a chill. "A second spear? Not good." He tried to dodge to the side, but it was too late. "Crack!" The spear pierced through his hand, rendering it useless. After that, the spear pierced through the Dark Curtain and soared to the sky. Anna''s Dark Curtain crumbled after getting pierced by Alex''s spear. But, the Martial Lord lost an arm. If he had his vision, he might be able to dodge it completely. Sadly, the Dark Curtain was Alex''s cheat sheet. Anna and Alex immediately engaged with a full battle. Leoz''s group tried to finish their fight as soon as possible. They wanted to help Anna''s group, but when they arrived, it was pretty much covered. In another few moves, they managed to kill the Martial Lords. They killed the other groups with the same strategy, leaving the last group alive to get interrogated by Jeanne. Alex and the others didn''t want to see what she did, so they waited for her to finish her business. After around half an hour, Jeanne came back. "Jeanne, what do you find?" "Interesting information." She smiled. But it was not her happy or cheerful smile. It was like she wanted to butcher people. "Master, do you remember that sh*tty Princess and sh*tty fiance?" Alex was confused for a while before he understood her meaning, "Do you mean Senior Sister Putri''s friend, Mega, and her fiance''s Eric whatsoever?" "Yeah. They were the ones who sent them. This is the most interesting part. They want to grab the inheritances that you got back in the Death Forest. "Your Senior Sister is currently locked in a prison because of your information. The war minister from this country thought it was impossible, so he locked her. "Then, that sh*tty princess took advantage of the situation and asked where the information came from. Because she was forced by the situation, she said it came from you. "Because we fought openly on the battlefield two days ago. They discovered us and sent them to kill you. "That sh*tty fiance managed to convince his family by controlling their greed on you. So, you can say these eight Martial Lords were the collaboration between the princess and the fiance. "But the difference between them was the decision maker. The princess didn''t represent the royal family. But the fiance represents his family, Kasmanan Family. In other words, it was the will of Kasmanan''s family to kill you." "Ho..." Alex was astonished while his spirits were eager for another fight. "Should we kill the princess and the entire Kasmanan Family? With your order, we will immediately destroy them to the best of our ability," Leoz said. Alex pondered for a moment then shook his head. "First, we are in a war, and second, you guys are not strong enough, assuming there might be many powerful Martial Lords inside that family." "But what are you going to do with them, Young Master?" "For now, I don''t have the power to destroy them. There is another strategy that I can think of, but I need to wait until I reach rank 4 Array Master." Alex came up with an idea in his mind. "A rank 4 barrier-type array might not be able to hold them. But a rank 4 array made by King Stage monster blood instead of Lord Stage monster blood should be sufficient. "Although the preparation is going to be hard since I am only a Martial grandmaster, it should be doable. Though I don''t know if I can hold the barrier long enough to kill them before I used all of my energy." "Alex, are you going to make a rank 4 array? That is reckless." Anna frowned. "Master, there is another solution for that. We can channel our Spiritual Energy to the array since you are going to plant it on the ground. You can sit on the side to prepare for the escape route." Jeanne suddenly gave a suggestion. "That''s right! We can do that." Anna nodded her head furiously. Alex also forgot about that. If he planted it on the ground, he could let the others supply the energy. Although he should be the one who activated it, it didn''t mean he should be the only one who maintained it. He could let others maintain it for him. He smiled a bit. "Alright. Here is my plan. I thought about using a rank 4 barrier type array with King Stage Monster Blood to enhance its defensive ability. If a few Martial Lords help me maintain it, it should be able to block them for an hour or two. "I am going to make a few fire type arrays that could generate a big fire to burn the oxygen around. With the enclosed space, the oxygen will be reduced as they will be poisoned by the carbon dioxide. "That''s why I want the barrier to be able to hold them down for an hour or two. We will do it at night, where people are less active. And we need to have a good hiding spot since the people will try to search for the cause. "It should be fine with my Space Door. There is no way they can search us inside that blue colored realm unless they have another Space Element Array Master." He explained the little thing he knew in basic science. 272 Desolating War "But, Young master, cultivators can hold their breath for a long time," Leoz said. "But the people in this world shouldn''t know they couldn''t take excessive carbon dioxide in their heart. Even for cultivators, the consequences will be serious. If they didn''t die, just take me as sparing them." Alex shrugged his shoulders. "Alright. But now that you have killed these eight Martial Lords, they should know about it sooner or later." "Yeah, that''s why. I want all of you to investigate the cities that the Zhou Kingdom had passed before arriving in this place." Alex said. He saw his spirits frowning when they heard that, so he explained, "I am going with Leoz and join the Mercenary Camp, of course, with my mask. "I will ask Nicole to investigate the Kasmanan Family before I go there. Ngina will help all of you to investigate the cities. While Leoz and I will increase our reputation a little. "Njomo will help me to monitor this forest from the incoming enemies. If our group disappears after this, they should think that we are dead. Then Leoz and I will finish the war in the meantime." Anna wanted to join him, but she knew that she couldn''t. Alex said, "I will be fine." "Umm." Despite being reluctant, Anna nodded her head. After saying goodbye with the spirits, Alex put his mask on. "Young Master, what about your weapon?" Leoz asked. "No, I''m not going to rely on my Fire or Sword. I will only use Spear." Alex looked at the direction of the Southern Kingdom. Although he sympathized with Putri as they were her friend and fiance, Alex needed to do this. After all, sending eight Martial Lords just to kill a puny Martial Grandmaster like him was exaggerated. In other words, they seriously wanted to kill him. If he spared their life after this, he wouldn''t know if they would stop or not, like John back then. In the end, he would need to separate from Alicia. Fortunately, because of some strokes of luck, Alicia didn''t die. He couldn''t spare his enemy, especially since his enemy had an extraordinary background. He glanced at Leoz, "Let''s go." Leoz nodded and led him to the mercenary camp. They were camping outside the city wall, so he didn''t need any process to enter them. But because Leoz was the one who brought him, it was even easier as Leoz was well-known in this camp because of his strength. The next day, the loose cultivators were gathering in the middle of the encampment. It was only a brief meeting, saying they should push the enemy as hard as they can today. Surprisingly, he found Putri on the soldier rank. According to Jeanne, she should be locked by a minister for whatever reason. But because of her identity, she should be fine. Today, Alex just followed Leoz''s lead and killed as many as possible with only his spear. He used his Silver Raven, Bear Sovereign, but not his Spear Throwing Technique. Putri might recognize it if he used it. Although she was forced by the situation, she told her about him to the princess and unconsciously, making him targeted by that vile princess. He didn''t mind using his Spear Intent and Spear Domain, though. The enemy number decreased bit by bit until they only had fifteen thousand left. But the reinforcement should arrive tomorrow. He was cultivating inside Leoz''s tent while thinking about his plan for next. But surprisingly, Leoz came back in a rush, "Young Master. I saw your Senior Sister flying toward the forest." Alex was startled when he heard that before furrowing his eyebrows. He murmured, "Is it because of me?" He took out Njomo''s card and said, "Njomo, can you observe what my Senior Sister did in the forest." "Woof!" "Alright, thanks." Alex cultivated in the meantime. A few hours later... Alex didn''t receive any news from Njomo this entire time. He couldn''t help but feel uneasy. "Njomo, is there something wrong?" "Woof Woof. Woof Woof." Alex forgot he couldn''t understand Njomo. He immediately pulled out Ngina''s card. "Say it again." "Woof Woof. Woof Woof." "He said, your Senior Sister was searching for you. Because she couldn''t find you, she left just now. She was followed by someone who should be the one that we hid from a few days ago, but from the looks of it, she didn''t realize she was being followed." "It seems going out of the forest is the right choice. I''m sure there will be many people searching around the forest. Including that someone. But that person shouldn''t be related by those eight Martial Lords. "But his target was me since he followed Senior Sister silently. He should be related to the one who locked her." "Are you going to meet her?" Alex shook his head, "It should be better not to meet her for a while." The next day, Alex and Leoz got the news that Putri searched for him again in the forest. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, they didn''t meet the reinforcement when they were inside the forest. Their leaders were angry when they could only see corpses in their empty base. In other words, the Southern Kingdom had uncovered their secret base. They had a total of thirty thousand cultivators in the army. Fifteen thousand Martial Grandmaster and 450 Martial Lords while the rest were Martial Master. But the problem was the baiting army only had ten thousand soldiers left and their morale was low. They immediately sent as many people as they could to search the forest. They found and killed many scouts from the Southern Kingdom. The leader of the army convened a meeting. He was a 9-Star Martial Lord. He wore full-body black armor without a helmet. According to his face, he was only a middle-aged man, and it was a bit impossible, considering the people in this continent who had that cultivation must be old. He was one of the first people who had gotten the blood pill. That was the reason why he could reach this cultivation in his age. To repay the country, he led the army to bring the Southern Kingdom down. But, after getting into this situation, he grabbed his brown hair as he looked at a few 8-Star Martial Lords in front of him. "Did the enemy know our plan?" After getting the update on their condition, he immediately convened a meeting. The mood was depressing. "Considering the scouts in this forest. Yes." The vice leader answered. He also wore full-body black armor. He only revealed his face with his long blue hair. "Should we retreat, leader?" One of his subordinates asked. "No, we couldn''t retreat. I have promised his majesty I will win. I will win whatever it takes." "It is impossible, Leader. The Southern Kingdom had around three hundred Martial Lords. Although they are not in the same place, if we push them too much, they would at least have two hundred Martial Lords. "It is not counting on their cannons. If they bring their famous cannons out, it is impossible to win with our number now. We need those weaker soldiers to open up a path for us. But we are down to forty thousand from our original plan of eighty thousand soldiers." "We still have Berserk Pill, you all can use your Berserk Pill." "What? Are you insane, Leader?" "I don''t care. We are going to ambush them like our original plan tomorrow. At least a hundred Martial Lords should be using their pill tomorrow. I don''t care, but I want at least a hundred Martial Lords to use the pill and kill our enemy. We will obliterate the enemy tomorrow!" He said his pieces and left like a rage monster. He didn''t care about anything as long as they succeeded in this situation. The Martial Lords who were at the meeting astounded. He wanted them most of them to charge without consequences, dealing both sides with serious damage. The leader had a good relationship with their king. If they didn''t do as he ordered, they wouldn''t keep their life anymore. At least, they won''t get any more Blood Pills. They could only grit their teeth and follow his order. ... Putri didn''t manage to find Alex today. Because that thought kept recalling inside her mind, she went to the top of the city wall to take a breather. She thought Alex might have gone back after he gave her the information. Because Alex only appeared in a single day, he looked like he only wanted to give information to her and went back. She couldn''t fall asleep and watched the battlefield that was shrouded by darkness until morning. At least, watching like this, gave her a piece of mind. But when she was about to head to the battlefield. He found a few people, arranging their rumored cannons, Mythical Devastation Cannon. She thought it would appear later, but she remembered Morgan suddenly released her from prison. Maybe, her pleas from back then succeeded, and Morgan used his influence to gather these cannons. Another possibility was her friend, Princess Mega, used her identity as the leader for this war to get these cannons. The cannons were made by black metal, which had been strengthened with Arrays. Some of them were also used to enhance their attack power, capable of killing thousands. If a Martial Lord was careless in front of these cannons, they might be heavily injured. She looked at the black cannons with many array marks on its body for the last time before heading to the battlefield. Alex and Leoz didn''t know about the cannon yet, but they definitely knew about the reinforcement in the forest. And with only ten thousand soldiers left on Zhou Kingdom''s side. They would be able to repel the Zhou Kingdom successfully if not win. Alex was not sure whether the Zhou Kingdom would ambush them, but Alex left Njomo to observe them. He would be notified if something happened. "Leoz, depending on the situation, we might flee from this battlefield," Alex said. "Yes. I''m aware." "Let''s go." "Young Master," Leoz called him before heading out. Alex turned his head. Leoz said, "My instinct is telling me there are many strong fighters nearby." Alex was confused. "It must be from their reinforcement, right? That''s why I''m telling you we might flee depending on the situation." "Yeah, maybe you are right." Leoz nodded. His expression was telling him that he was still unconvinced, though. "Njomo, what is the situation on your side?" Seeing Leoz''s expression, Alex took out Njomo''s and Ngina''s card. "Woof Woof!" "They are preparing for an ambush." Ngina immediately translated Njomo''s words. Of course, through the card. "Well, you heard him," Alex said to Leoz. Leoz could only sigh and nod his head. They went out. When they were outside, Alex tried to see inside the forest with his Spirit Eyes. But it seemed that the soldiers were pretty deep inside the forest as he couldn''t see them. On the other hand, Leoz was searching around to satisfy his anxiety. He couldn''t shake the feeling inside his heart. After going through many battles, this instinct often saved his life. When he looked at the city wall, he could see a few cylinders, a bit hidden on the top of the wall. It might be hidden if people looked at it from afar, but Leoz was on the feet of the city wall. He could see those cylinders pretty clearly. There was no cylinder on the top of the wall yesterday. "Young Master, you should try to look at the city wall," Leoz whispered. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He looked at the city wall with his Spirit Eyes but couldn''t see anything. "I mean above." Alex then looked up. He could see a few cylinders on the top of the wall. He was startled. He tried to focus his eyes on it. There were many arrays patterns on those cylinders. "Young Master, I will ask the soldiers about it," Leoz said. Alex didn''t hear Leoz as he was too focused, trying to uncover the cannon. Leoz only shook his head helplessly as he went on his way to ask the soldiers. When Alex snapped from his daze, he couldn''t find Leoz near him. 273 Pressing Matter Leoz was going to the soldier camp to ask about those weapons. After all, they didn''t know anything about the Southern Kingdom''s cannon.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The soldiers immediately recognized him as he had contributed so much on the battlefield. Still, they couldn''t let him pass just because they knew him. Two soldiers came to the front and stopped him. "What business do you have here?" They asked. "I want to ask about those weapons on the wall," Leoz said casually while pointing his finger to the cylinders on the city wall. When Leoz said that, they were surprised to see the sudden appearance of their rumored cannons. But it didn''t shock them as much as Leoz''s ignorance. There should be no one who didn''t know about their famous cannons. This was the most potent war weapon in their kingdom. "Hahaha..." "He didn''t know about our cannons?" "Is he joking?" The soldiers were laughing at him, but Leoz didn''t care about that. He was relieved that he was the one who asked them. If Alex was the one who got laughed at by them, he might have struggled to control himself. Because of the commotion, Putri, who was the closest to the scene, approached them. She was astonished when she saw Leoz came to this camp. "May I know what your business is?" Putri asked Leoz politely. She was aware of Leoz''s contribution, and she had etched his face on her memory. "I am just asking about those weapons on the wall, but the soldiers laughed at me," Leoz said. Putri was taken aback to see there was someone who didn''t know their kingdom. But, her reaction was different. Unlike the soldiers who laughed at Leoz, she only smiled at him and explained patiently. "This is the most potent weapon in our kingdom, Mythical Devastation Cannon. They just came today. There is still no instruction when they will use it. So, at least be careful as they could even kill a Martial Lord like you if you are not careful." "Alright. Since you didn''t laugh at me like the others, I will give you this information. There should be around thirty thousand soldiers in the forest. They are preparing to join today''s battle. Be careful about it." Leoz said casually. Njomo had informed Alex about the arrival of the soldiers and their number to Alex yesterday night. Njomo had updated Alex about their preparation for today''s battle. There should be a high chance they will ambush them today. Putri and the other soldiers were dumbfounded when they heard Leoz. "You, are you serious?" "You can check it yourself." Leoz shrugged his shoulder like it was not a big deal. He then turned back and left. Alex wanted to warn them about that, but he couldn''t figure out how to do it. If he suddenly told them there were thirty thousand soldiers, then they might be suspicious to him. Njomo said that they also had sent spies, so Alex thought they must have known about them. The only miscalculation they had was the Zhou Kingdom had made a full-scale investigation, involving hundreds of Martial Lords to search the entire forest. With those numbers, they managed to get every spy they could spot. So, giving them this kind of information at a time like this should not be a big deal. But it was different for Putri. She didn''t know anything about that. She immediately went to the war meeting again instead of chasing Leoz. From his explanation alone, it didn''t seem he was lying. ... In the meeting room, "I need to go inside." A woman''s voice was heard in front of the room. "You can''t go inside." "You-!" The guard tried to stop her, but Putri managed to get in once again. "Third Princess!" Putri was panting. Inside the room was the usual five people, including Princess Mega and Minister Morgan. "You again?" One of Mega''s aides tried to flare up the situation again, so Mega could do the good friend act. Morgan was frowning. This was the second time Putri rushed in. He had followed her silently these two days but couldn''t find her so-called ''Junior Brother.'' He started suspecting he was not real, but the soldiers also spotted them as he appeared for a day to help them on the battlefield. "If you want to say something, you can just convey it to the guards in front. You can''t keep doing this. Are you taking my kindness for granted?" Morgan snarled. "I... There are thirty thousand soldiers inside the forest that are preparing to ambush us on the battlefield today." Putri didn''t care about courtesy anymore at this point. They were taken aback by the news. But all of them treated it like it was her other gibberish. Yeah, all of them, except Morgan. After he found those many dead bodies inside the forest, he was starting to think if she was telling the truth. Morgan had sent his spies inside the forest. Yesterday night, one of them had come to report. He said they didn''t find anyone inside the forest. "Stop lying. You-!" One of the princess'' aides immediately rebuked her. But before he could finish, Minister Morgan stopped him again. "Stop!" Morgan glared at him and made him scared. He turned to the guards and said, "Call Julius here." The guards immediately did as he ordered, and not long after, a man came to the room. He was covered by black clothes, leaving only his Red eyes and Black hair open. "Check our spies in the forest. I will give you fifteen minutes." Morgan said to the man. Although he didn''t believe Putri too, he couldn''t shake the feeling that she was telling the truth. Julius immediately disappeared from the room. He had sent two groups of spies to check the forest. He indeed got a report last night. But after the spies came back to the forest, they got caught and killed by the Zhou Kingdom. If he waited for tonight''s report, he could only wait forever for it. In the meantime, he looked at Putri fiercely, "I know that this must be your Junior Brother again. Say it, where is he?" "N-no." "Are you very adamant about saying his whereabouts?" Morgan became angrier. "No, the one who told me wasn''t him. He was the only Martial Lord in the mercenary camp." Putri immediately corrected herself. Since she didn''t know Leoz as much as she knew Alex, she exposed him pretty easily. Morgan began to doubt the credibility of the information, thinking about jailing this girl once again. This was the second time she did this. If he did this, he had a big reason to explain it to the Makmur Family. He continued asking her question after question. Putri tried to answer the question as much as possible. Though, she was a bit reluctant to give Alex''s information as she tried to evade the question about him. She only said about Alex''s general information that all people in the Heavenly Sword Sect had known. Mega didn''t come when the sect master announced Alex''s status as a Special Core Disciple because she was on a mission. Of course, she kept hearing about this Special Core Disciple''s existence for a while. She thought about making a connection to him. But it turned out that person was Alex. She forgot to ask Putri about it too since as soon as she came back to the sect, they needed to go to the Death Forest. Sadly, it was too late. She had sent her men to kill Alex. But she didn''t regret that much. Although Alex was a Special Core Disciple, it couldn''t be compared to a Martial Emperor''s inheritance. On the other hand, Morgan was too shocked by the sudden revelation. He had heard about the rumor of the special Core Disciple, but he didn''t know who he was. It turned out he was Putri''s Junior Brother. He was wondering whether to act nice or bad to her after this. After fifteen minutes, Julius came back while sweating. "Milord." "Julius, how is it?" Morgan asked. "It is not good for us. From my observation, all of our men had been killed by Zhou Soldiers. I couldn''t ascertain their number because I felt many Martial Lord''s presence. If I get closer anymore, they will spot me, and I couldn''t go back here." All of them were startled. It turned out to be the truth. Zhou Kingdom''s reinforcement had arrived. Morgan rose from his seat as sweat covered his foreheads. "Julius, you will go to the capital city as fast as possible and tell the reinforcements to rush here." "We have five cannons in this city at the moment. We will try to hold it as much as possible." He then turned to his comrade, the other king''s aid that he sent to check on Mega. "Daniel, you go instruct the soldiers to prepare for the ambush." "Alright. I know what to do." Daniel nodded his head. He immediately left as his purple hair was fluttering because of his speed. Morgan then turned to Putri, "Lead me to that mercenary." Putri nodded her head. But before they left, Morgan turned his head to Princess Mega. "You need to control your subordinates better. Before the master even speaks, your subordinate has talked too much. What is he? A dog that loves to bark?" He glared at her. Because of him inciting the atmosphere around, he almost acted unreasonable again. Morgan said as he planned to report it to the king after they finished this war. (AN: heh... Serve her right.) She was dumbfounded when she saw Morgan scolded her. Morgan indeed had the right to scold her as he was one of the oldest generation retainers that served her grandfather as well as his identity as a war minister. But before she could react, Morgan had left with Putri. She gnashed her teeth as her face became redder because of anger. "Damn, that old man. Just wait after I become the queen." ... Alex waited for a while before Leoz came back to him. "I have asked about the weapons. They are called Mythical Devastation Cannon. According to them, they could kill a Martial Lord like me if I''m not careful. I don''t know if they are boasting or not, but it is best to be careful." Leoz immediately explained why he left just now. After around half an hour, they suddenly got visitors. It was Morgan and Putri. Alex didn''t know anything about Morgan, though. But, when Putri saw Alex (with a mask), she remembered the first time she met Leoz. It was also with this masked person. Leoz immediately went in front of Alex to receive them. Leoz also didn''t know about this old man, but he recognized Putri. After seeing the old man cultivation, which was 9-Star Martial Lord, Leoz looked at them vigilantly. "So you were the one who gave the information. Why do you have that information?" He immediately asked the question. Morgan didn''t care about loose cultivators at all because there was a possibility that Leoz was a spy from the Zhou Kingdom. He might have another agenda to reveal such information. Leoz didn''t like his tone. Morgan then found another person on Leoz''s back. Leoz seemed to protect him, so he immediately changed his target. "Is it you?" Leoz immediately got in front of him, covering Alex with his body. "I am here as a helper. If not, because my master wants to help you, I won''t bother my time helping you. So watch your tone, old man." Leoz also became rude, not afraid of the old man''s 9-Star Lord stage cultivation. "What did you say, young man? You are the one who should watch your tone. Do you think with your 4-Star Martial Lord alone, you are invincible?" Morgan released his Spiritual Energy. Leoz wasn''t scared. He released his Spiritual Energy too. But because his cultivation was weaker than him, he channeled his lightning element to boost his power. Their aura became similar. 274 Nightmare Seeing their aura became equal, Morgan slightly narrowed his eyes. He released his Sword Intent to scare Leoz. A fifty-meter radius invisible sphere, containing Sword Intent appeared on the area. It was his Sword Domain. Leoz released his element even further. It was a bit lacking compared to Morgan''s. He prepared to use his True Spirit Body, but Alex made his move first. Alex released his Spear Domain. His Spear Domain had a fifteen-meter radius. Although it was not too much, it was enough to balance the energy again. Even though Alex had much to do with his cultivation and pill for money, he didn''t forget to practice his sword and spear. His Sword Domain had a twenty-meter radius while his spear had a fifteen-meter radius. Leoz didn''t have a Sword Domain even though he used a sword. As a spirit, he didn''t follow the normal way of Sword Cultivator and the like. They did follow the cultivation stage, but not the weapon one. Each spirit had an overbearing Element so, instead of Weapon Cultivator, they decided to enhance their element. Putri had released her Spear Domain too. The Spear Domain was equal to Alex''s Spear Domain. But Putri''s Spear Domain was not to confront Leoz and Alex. Instead, she moved between them to stop Morgan. "Minister Morgan. We are in a war. If he were a spy, he wouldn''t give that information. He also had killed a few thousand soldiers in this war. He shouldn''t be a spy." Putri took the pressure from both sides when she moved between them. Because of the pressure, she spat some blood. Alex immediately tapped Leoz''s shoulder. With Alex''s hand on his shoulder, Leoz decided to back down. It was not because he was scared of Morgan, Alex decided to back down because he didn''t want to injure Putri. Morgan decided to put off his pressure. "You are lucky. Looking at her face, I will stop right now." He harrumphed and went back, forgetting his original purpose. Putri wiped the blood on her mouth and apologized to them. "I''m sorry. We are in an intense war, and he had so much stuff in his mind. Please forgive him. There is reinforcement coming to this place to confront the enemies in the forest, thanks to your information." "Hmph." Leoz snorted, but Alex tapped his shoulder again. Leoz then said, "You can go back." After she left, Alex said, "You should watch out their ''cannon'' too. If he did something weird, we would leave the battlefield, and I will make sure he will regret their decision." "Alright." Leoz agreed to it. Morgan had yet to cross the last step like Princess Mega or Eric Kasmanan. Not long after, today''s battle finally started. Seeing there were only ten thousand enemies left, the people from the Southern Kingdom''s side were pretty vigorous. The soldiers seemed not to know about the ambush. Daniel only told some important people to be ready for the ambush. He didn''t want to alert his enemy with much preparation. He wanted to end the battle as soon as possible. He could only achieve it by playing a high-risk play like this and kill the Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers. The war started again as soon as the sound of battle trumpets filled the battlefield. Alex and Leoz began to kill the enemy soldiers, but their speed was lower than the previous day. They had been cautious against the cannons on the wall. Alex thought that the cannon wouldn''t be fired before the ambush came to the battlefield. A few minutes after the battle started, the scout from the Zhou Kingdom had come back. "They have started the battle once again." "Good. We will go now, as soon as we enter the battlefield, eat the Berserk Pill, and kill as much as soldiers you can in five minutes." The leader said. Although his subordinates were reluctant to do it, they couldn''t do anything. The units then moved out, they were charging toward the battlefield. ... Not long after, the battlefield was chaotic. Leoz suddenly turned his head to the forest and saw many Martial Lords along with their troops. The sound of trumpets echoed through the battlefield, and all of the people on the battlefield were alarmed. "What... so many enemies coming from Nemu Forest." "Our reinforcement has come. Let''s go. Kill those bastards from the Southern Kingdom." "Ooh!" Their morale raised again after seeing the reinforcement. After all, they all knew their reinforcement was made up of elites. The people from the Southern Kingdom didn''t know how strong the reinforcement was. So their morale was still high. Daniel immediately shouted after seeing the reinforcement. "The enemy from the left. We are going to the left." "We are going to the left." "We are going to the left." Many people started following his command and shouted too. They were the leaders Daniel instructed before the battle. They were supposed to lead fifty thousand soldiers to intercept the ambusher, leaving the other twenty thousand to kill the rest. But sadly, underestimating them was their worst miscalculation. They didn''t believe that the enemy had that many Martial Lords, so they thought they could stop the reinforcement with fifty thousand normal soldiers. There were around a hundred people that suddenly came to the front of Zhou Soldiers. They were the ones who were supposed to eat the Berserk Pill. Before clashing with the detachment, the people ate the berserk pill. They will go all out in these five minutes. Initially, out of 450 Martial Lords from the Zhou Kingdom, most of them were 1-Star to 4-Star. But because a hundred of them ate the Berserk Pill. Their aura became even more ferocious. The other Martial Lords also led their soldiers in the front. Because of that, the soldiers became even more fired up. Especially for the soldiers that were led by the ones who ate the Berserk Pill. Their leaders'' aura became even more ferocious like a demon god. With the demon god leading in front of them, even the soldiers behind them became an army of demon god. Somehow, with just the feeling, they could perform 120% of their might. "Boom!" "Gah." "Kh!" "What are them?" "Argh, help me." As soon as they clashed, the result was apparent. The Zhou soldiers immediately dominated them. This was the full out attack from the Zhou Kingdom. "What?" Even Daniel was shocked by the sudden turn of events. He finally realized that the number was true. Just in this exchange alone, he could see there were more than three hundred Martial Lords. "Not good. Retreat!" It was a nightmare for him and everyone else. They didn''t believe such a number because it was ridiculous, they refused to believe it. Daniel wanted to retreat to the range of the cannons and changed the situation with the cannons. But his soldiers were butchered right and left. He gritted his teeth as he retreated back. When they reached the cannons'' range, he immediately shouted, "Fire!" The soldiers filled the cannons with the ammunition and activated the cannons. The arrays on the cannons immediately glowed before shooting the cannonballs. "Boom Boom Boom!" All cannons immediately shot toward the enemy. A series of explosions filled the arena. "Argh!" "Gah!" The cannon exploded fiercely, stretching its fang to the Zhou''s soldiers. Each explosion caused a hundred casualties, whether they died or heavily injured. "Haha... We have been expecting this. Butcher them with our cannons." Daniel shouted in joy after looking at the explosions that managed to kill many soldiers. But he immediately shut up. The Zhou Soldiers didn''t care about those cannons and continued their charge, especially for those Berserk Martial Lords. They will die anyway, so they will drag the enemies as many as possible. Upon noticing the cannons, those Martial Lords immediately changed their path toward the cannons. At that moment that Daniel knew he f*cked up. The cannonballs worth a fortune, let alone the cannons itself. They couldn''t let the enemies destroy them. "Protect the cannons!" He shouted. The soldiers tried to stop the enemies, but the Zhou Kingdom was too powerful at the moment. There were around twenty Martial Lords on the city wall, including Morgan. When they saw the battlefield, they couldn''t help but say, "What is this nightmare?" Morgan was too shocked to see the number of the Martial Lords. The number was true. He regretted he didn''t believe that information. The Berserk Pill effect was five minutes, but these five minutes were like forever in their eyes. "Protect the cannons," Morgan shouted as all the people on the city wall immediately intercepted the enemies. Sadly, he underestimated them too much, including their morale. Their morale was on the peak at this time. Those Martial Lords immediately surrounded the Martial Lords from the Southern Kingdom. Some even sacrifice his life to die together. Since they were going to die anyway, it was even better to die with the enemy''s Martial Lord. They tried to utilize the cannons as much as possible. In three minutes, the cannons managed to kill around three thousand Soldiers from the Zhou Kingdom. But all of that came with a price, the enemies managed to destroy the cannons, half of their Martial Lords were killed by the enemies, and they had lost twenty thousand in this exchange alone. Alex looked at their situation on the side, furrowing his eyebrows. He had been using his Spirit Eyes this entire time. He could see there were around a hundred Martial Lords that used the berserk pill. He was taken aback when he found that. He was wondering if the Zhou Kingdom was crazy. Those Martial Lords were the same as suicide soldiers. But, if it was like that, then they also should come with a price. From his observation, they should only have around three hundred Martial Lords left in a few minutes. It seemed they were not planning to conquer the Southern Kingdom. Instead, they just wanted to deal a devastating blow to the Southern Kingdom. Of course, he could see high-level Martial Lords like Morgan or Daniel killing Zhou Kingdom''s Martial Lords. Sadly, it was far from enough. Alex turned to the original Zhou troops. Even though they only had less than ten thousand soldiers, their morale was high. And the people from the Southern Kingdom had their morale plummeted. "Kill those bastards from the Southern Kingdom!" "Kill those bastards from the Southern Kingdom!" "Kill those bastards from the Southern Kingdom!" The Zhou Kingdom''s used the last bit of their power to push back. "Leoz," Alex called Leoz in the midst of battle. "Young Master?" "We will leave the battlefield today. So, I think you can use your True Spirit Body." That statement astonished him. He pondered for a moment and nodded. Unlike Jeanne or Fabio, his True Spirit Body was not much different than humans. He will only get two horns on his head. It was normal as Alex''s Flame Art, Sunlight Wing, also made him grow a pair of wings on his back. "The battle shouldn''t be too long. The longer the battle, the more dangerous this battlefield will be, of course, in Zhou''s favor, we will escape if that happens. "If there is a reinforcement that could turn things around, we will then immediately leave as soon as the war settled or if you can not hold on your True Spirit Body." He considered Leoz''s time limit too. He remembered Anna said that the longer Leoz used his True Spirit Body, he would slowly lose his mind. Leoz nodded. He raised his sword before he pierced it to the ground. "Thunder Berserker True Spirit Body. Golden Lightning Body." two horns suddenly grew on his head as his aura raised to the maximum. His previous yellow-colored thunder showed some glint as the yellow color turned into gold. Leoz ran rampant on the battlefield, killing soldiers in one hit. He was astonished by Leoz''s power. At this rate, he might be able to level up in this battle to 5-Star Martial Lord. Alex decided to get serious too. He released his Spear Domain, trying to kill as many as he can in this war. 275 Silver Sovereign The war continued. The people from the Southern Kingdom had the worst nightmare in their life. These five minutes felt like an eternity. The Soldiers were killed one by one by the angry Zhou''s soldiers. Soldiers from the Southern Kingdom tried to fight, but the Zhou Kingdom had the momentum in this battle. But the battle shifted once again when the Martial Lords from the Zhou Kingdom that were rampaging around suddenly died and fell to the ground lifelessly. When they saw the Martial Lords from the Zhou Kingdom died just like that, they were astounded. Morgan didn''t let it go. Even though he also didn''t know what happened, he would take every chance he could use in this desperate situation. "The Zhou Kingdom must use some evil medicine, and that is their retribution. Don''t be afraid, Soldiers. If we can hold on for a little longer, the reinforcement from the Capital City will come." Morgan shouted as hard as he could to inform all of the soldiers from the Southern Kingdom. "Ooh!" The soldiers immediately cheered up once again after that rallying cry. "Look at those Zhou''s bastards! They could only rely on Evil Medicine. Without their medicine, can''t you see they are not as strong as you? Take this chance now, and push back!" Morgan continued his rally cry to hype the soldiers as much as he can. "Ooh!" The soldiers became energetic again. After that rallying cry, they finally realized that the Zhou Soldiers were not as strong as them at the same level. Their power came back to their body in this desperate situation, and they used it to push back. Finally, the charge of Zhou soldiers was stopped by the soldiers. Sadly, the situation was still in Zhou''s favor, albeit slightly because of their number of Martial Lords. At least, the soldiers from the Southern Kingdom were not easy to kill, like when their morale plummeted. Alex tried to keep track of Zhou Kingdom''s Martial Lords to see whether they would act recklessly once again by eating the Berserk Pill. But it seemed they didn''t use it again. Well, they indeed had dealt significant damage to the Southern Kingdom, albeit the cost was really high. In today''s battle, the Southern Kingdom had around seventy thousand Soldiers and ten thousand from Mercenary camp. The Zhou Kingdom had ten thousand soldiers in their main army and thirty thousand soldiers in their reinforcement. But after five minutes of madness, Whether the Southern Kingdom or the Zhou Kingdom took notable damage. The Southern Kingdom had lost more than twenty five thousand Soldiers, several Martial Lords, and five of their cannons in that madness. The Zhou Kingdom lost ten thousand of their army as well as more than a hundred of their Martial Lords. It was truly like a struggle of a cornered animal. They didn''t care about anything happening next and charged the hunter madly. Even if the hunter managed to kill them, they took considerable damage. It was like the previous days'' war was just a lie. They managed to kill that much within just five minutes because they didn''t seem afraid to die and made a full-scale war. In the previous days, they just made a small war to exhaust their enemy. They prioritized keeping their number high, or in other words, their safety. They didn''t have that many casualties for a few days because of that. In fact, this situation will soon change since the Martial Lords have died. The Zhou will soon lose their momentum, and their killing rate will decrease. Although the number of deaths will keep increasing, there won''t be any absurd fight again. In this case, the Southern Kingdom had cornered the Zhou Kingdom, and this was their retaliation. If the Southern Kingdom, especially Morgan, believed the number that Putri provided, their casualties might not be that high. "Don''t mind about them. We still have the advantage." The leader of the Zhou Kingdom shouted to the soldiers. Alex went back to catch up for a bit. The situation of the war had stabilized a bit. Those five minutes even gave him a chill. After the berserk pill ended, Leoz started showing his fighting prowess. He cut down 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Lords one by one. He prioritized their high ranking figure first. He felt that his Spear Arts were a bit lacking. He might need to get another Spear Art from the Martial Arts Pavilion... or from Zwaka''s inheritance. He hadn''t checked Zwaka''s inheritances one by one. Alex didn''t have much time to use his spear in this world. So, a place like this where he could use his spear freely was precious. He trained his Silver Raven and Bear Sovereign in this battle. With the addition of his Spear Mastery, he finally realized another thing from them. Silver Raven was an offensive spear art that focused on converting the energy and momentum to make far stronger power. The movement was simple and predictable, that was the weakness of this spear art. In exchange, Bear Sovereign was a partially offensive and defensive spear art. This spear art was hard to master because of its variety of movements, so it required a good deal of mastery. But the variation itself was the best thing Alex could get in this spear art. After acquiring the Spear Mastery and used this time to use his Spear, Alex finally understood. He found a possibility to fuse these two arts together. If Silver Raven was simple, then he used the Bear Sovereign''s variation of movement to fix its weakness. The Bear Sovereign was a powerful art that was hard to block, but it didn''t deal that much damage to the enemy. He then used the power from Silver Raven. His movement became a synergy with both arts. This chaotic situation where he couldn''t let go of his focus was a good time to perfect this. Although he had discovered this possibility a long time ago, he finally had the chance to realize it. After taking a deep breath, he finally went to the crowd of the enemies once again. "Silver Raven." He thrust his spear and killed a low level Martial Grandmaster. He then noticed another soldier swung his sword toward him. He would use his Sky Movement to dodge this attack or block it with his spear. But this time, he didn''t need it. He changed his center of gravity according to the Bear Sovereign and stabbed the guy''s hand with the back of his spear. But he also included the power from Silvern Raven. It immediately destroyed his hand. Alex then stabbed his heart, thus killing him. He moved to the next soldier over and over again. He was dancing on this battlefield with his combined spear arts. He continued perfecting this movement. His awkward movement from the start slowly disappeared as his movement became precise and deathly. Until after an hour, he looked like he was dancing with his spear, killing the soldiers one by one. It was not like two combination spear arts anymore, it slowly fused and became a single spear art. If Alex needed to name it, he would just put it together, ''Silver Sovereign'' Alex underestimated the power of this Silver Sovereign. At first, by combining the two spear arts, he expected to be like ''1+1=2,'' but it was not. His movement became more fluid and precise while his power became even more refined. Both Silver Raven and Bear Sovereign were Mid Profound Tier Spear Art. But after Alex combined them, he felt that it might become High Profound Tier if not Heaven Tier Spear Art. After all, he got this feeling. If he used this Spear Art to thrust his five layers Seven Stars Cut, he might be able to do it. But Alex only made this move for an hour, if he continued perfecting the move. It might be comparable to seven layers Seven Stars Cut. After fighting that long, of course, he met Putri on the battlefield. Putri was entranced by his Silver Sovereign. She felt that his Silver Sovereign was similar to her sect Spear Art. As another spear user, she could feel the power of that Spear Art. It was truly an amazing spear art. Of course, she didn''t know it was Alex. She followed him unknowingly. Every time he went to kill a soldier, she would also follow him to kill a soldier nearby. Alex didn''t notice her since he was too focused on perfecting this spear art. He was thrilled to perfect this art as he couldn''t hold the feeling inside his heart any longer and turned it into energy. Sadly, when both of them like this, the war kept going on. Even though they lost a hundred Martial Lords, they didn''t lose their momentum and kept pressing on the Southern Kingdom. In an hour, the Southern Kingdom lost another two thousand soldiers while the Zhou Kingdom lost another a thousand soldiers. This one hour was incomparable to the first five minutes. The soldiers regained their rationality and composure, so they fought like usual. They became more careful with their life, so the fight became slower. Not long after that, Morgan finally found the leader who made this f*cking ruckus. He looked at the red-haired 9-Star Martial Lord. When Morgan found him, he immediately activated his Sword Domain and went to him. He waved his sword to attack him. "Purgatory Slash." His sword became like a flamethrower and burst the flame out. Of course, the red hair leader also noticed Morgan. "Wind Barrier." There was a circle made by wind in front of him. After noticing his attack, he immediately put his guard to block Morgan''s attack. Of course, as a war minister from the Southern Kingdom, he was renowned. After he blocked Morgan''s attack, he glared at Morgan while saying spitefully. "You must be Morgan. If I kill you here, I can answer my king. Prepare to die!" He also activated his Spear Domain. Sadly, his Spear Domain was not as powerful as Morgan''s. Because of Blood Pills, he was not as strong as a normal cultivator, including his achievement in Spear. His Spear Domain only had thirty meters radius. Even so, he tried to attack him with his spear. "For my king!" "Three Mountain Spear!" He thrust his spear as he used his Martial Arts. His spear suddenly got extended, reaching Morgan''s neck. "!!!" Morgan moved his body to dodge it. The power was strong as he covered his spear with his Spear Intent. The spear shrank again after it missed its target. He misunderstood Morgan''s action. He thought Morgan avoided his spear because he didn''t expect it. He said arrogantly, "As long as I kill you, I can answer my king. I, Luo Tian, am the one who kills you." "Three Mountain Spear!" The spear extended again, wanting to match the length of three mountains. Morgan didn''t do anything for that attack because he wanted to confirm something. When he looked at the second attack, he snorted. "Hmph, evil creature, I don''t know where you got such power. But you are weaker than a normal cultivator! You think this puny skill can kill me?" Morgan waved his sword to the side with his Sword Intent. He made the spear bent to the right. Eventually, it was only a Spear Art, not his actual Spear''s Body. After getting bent like that, the Spear Art was broken. "What?" He was shocked that Morgan didn''t seriously fight him. Morgan raised his sword. "Purgatory Slash." "Haha, that move again. I can block it as many times I want." Luo Tian laughed as he raised another barrier of wind. "Wind Barrier." He smugly blocked Morgan''s attack before he suddenly noticed something wrong. He was pushed back by Morgan''s attack as his Wind Barrier started breaking. Morgan used this move again, but this time he infused his Sword Intent. On the other hand, Luo Tian had used his Spear Domain to soften the attack and Intent to strengthen the wind barrier because he thought Morgan would have done that too. Sadly, he was mistaken. The wind barrier broke, and he was hit by his Sword Attack. "Boom!" He crashed to the ground with a dumbfounded face. When he recalled what happened, he immediately glared at Morgan. He rose from the ground and tried to attack him again. "Moonstone Spear!" 276 Arrival The blade of Luo Tian''s spear suddenly became black, like it was enhanced by something. He used his spear once again and charged at Morgan. "Die!" Morgan swung his sword, trying to direct his attack again with his Sword Intent. Surprisingly, their power was precisely the same. He failed to parry this attack. Luo Tian also got shocked by it. He tried to thrust his spear again, but Morgan parried it. Clash after clash, Luo Tian started losing his advantage as Morgan got used to his movement. Morgan began to suppress him with his sword, leaving a few shallow cut wounds on his body. But suddenly, Morgan gave a slight opening in his stance. Of course, Luo Tian didn''t miss it. "Found it!" Luo Tian thrust his spear toward Morgan''s opening. As his spear became a drill after he used another Spear Art. "Spear Breaking Moon!" Morgan only snorted. "You brat, you think I let an opening just like that. It is obviously to trap you. You are advancing too fast, so you forgot to focus on your basics." He waved his sword, making an ''X'' in the air before it flew out toward Luo Tian. "Grand Cross." "What!" Luo Tian was shocked. He was too proud of his fast advancement, and he forgot about this. He immediately undid his Spear Art and tried to block Morgan''s attack. The Grand Cross flew toward Morgan. It pushed him back as he tried to block this attack. "Boom!" It continued pushing him even after he crashed to the ground. Luo Tian spat some blood. He was indeed careless just now. This Blood Pill had clouded his eyes. If he were his former self where he used his proud spear to defeat his opponent, he would know Morgan purposely giving his weak point. But as expected of the War Minister of the Southern Kingdom. His reputation was well deserved. He dominated Luo Tian in every aspect, domain, skill, and experience. Luo Tian became desperate to deal a single damage to him but to no avail. Morgan just took advantage of it. He looked at Morgan, dumbfounded. There was a single thought that suddenly came in his mind, "I can''t win." They were at the same level, but because he was using Blood Pills to reach his current level. He was weaker than Morgan. He tried to believe there was not the case as the only who lost like that was useless. He had suppressed a few people at the same level who also used Blood Pills. He gained his confidence from that. He couldn''t accept Morgan overpowering him like this. Morgan will die. He looked at Morgan like he wanted to swallow him alive. He gritted his teeth before taking out a red pill from his space ring. He ate the pill. As soon as he swallowed the pill, blood came out from his eye socket, down to his cheek. His eyes started becoming red, and the white eyes disappeared and changed to black. His aura became fiercer, and his cultivation started raising. "Peak 9-Star Martial Lord." "10-Star Martial Lord." Sadly, it didn''t arrive at Peak 10-Star Martial Lord. It only gave him a single star. Unlike those 3-Star Martial Lords that Leoz fought a few days ago, he had a higher cultivation. The higher his cultivation, the harder to get another star, especially since the blood pill was made in this continent. Berserk Pill enabled him to tap his latent potential in a short period of time by using blood from hundreds of people. The blood gave him a little boost to his current potential and unlocked his latent potential. But in this continent, where Martial King was scarce. The potential boost was also small, especially with his current cultivation. But for him, this 10-Star Martial Lord was enough to kill Morgan. He didn''t have any plan to use a Berserk Pill earlier since even if the 10-Star Martial Lord from the Southern Kingdom came, his subordinates would be the one who used the Berserk Pill and killed him. But, because of this incident, he decided to use it, not caring about the consequences. Like what Jeanne''s explained back then to Alex, the blood pill gave him a big power that was even stronger than a normal cultivator for a short time. Luo Tian immediately leaped toward Morgan, and he thrust his spear. Morgan thought he was going to attack him like before. He parried it again. He was surprised by the sudden change of power. Luo Tian''s appearance had changed too. "10-Star Martial Lord? Not good!" Morgan was blown away. He crashed into the city wall and almost broke it. He spat blood. It made a big scene for all people on the battlefield, friends, and foes. For people from the Southern Kingdom, they were too shocked. The enemy leader managed to blow their War Minister just like that. But for the Zhou Kingdom''s soldiers, they became devastated. After all, they knew that Luo Tian would die after five minutes. Especially his blue-haired vice, who was his advisor in this war. Losing their leader in this war meant failure. If Luo Tian died, he would be the temporary leader and immediately ordered a retreat. This war, whatever one said, it was their loss. Rather than sending the soldiers to their pointless death, it would be better to retreat. After all, with the current Blood Pills they could get after massacring the people from so many cities, they could make a bigger army of elites than this. At least, they managed to fulfill one of the purposes of this war. Morgan immediately leaped toward him, telling the others he was fine to the soldiers. He swung his sword. "Grand Cross." "Moonstone Spear." Luo Tian used his Moonstone Spear again. But after he swallowed a Berserk Pill, the spear didn''t become black. Instead, it became a diamond color. Luo Tian thrust his spear and destroyed Morgan''s Grand Cross. Morgan was surprised to see his Grand Cross broke just like that. Just earlier, he had a hard time resisting him. But he suddenly became so powerful. He was like the earlier Martial Lords that got stronger but died after a few minutes. Upon realizing that, Morgan''s eyes brightened. "You evil creature!" He exchanged blow after blow with Luo Tian. But Luo Tian seemed not serious about fighting against him. Of course, Morgan tried his best. But he really couldn''t hold him. "Gh!" In a minute, they exchanged a hundred blows. "Hahaha! You can''t fight me in this form, Old Man. You are going to die!" Luo Tian laughed crazily. He wasn''t serious this entire time. He wanted to have some satisfaction before he died. He would disgrace the War Minister from the Southern Kingdom first before killing him. Morgan managed to make a few wounds again on Luo Tian in his berserk state. But his condition was also not good. Luo Tian injured him as much as he injured him, including his previous injuries. *Pant Pant* Morgan started getting exhausted. But his eyes were still focusing on Luo Tian. The Zhou soldiers became vigorous as they saw Morgan''s pitiful state. As for the people from the Southern Kingdom, their morale plummeted again. Daniel, on the side, wanted to help Morgan, but a few Martial Lords kept him busy. He gritted his teeth. Alex also felt the impact. He felt that the Zhou Soldiers started becoming harder and harder to kill. Upon realizing this, he finally snapped from his focus on perfecting the Spear Art. He looked around and saw Morgan was played by Luo Tian. He frowned upon seeing this. But he didn''t have the time to think because more and more soldiers started surrounding him. He threw a thrust after thrust, killing numerous soldiers that surrounded him. Even so, he tried to think in this situation. He was wondering if he should let Leoz help him. But Leoz was facing a few high ranking Martial Lords and couldn''t help him. "Should I call Anna and the others?" He was weighing the pros and cons of being busted in here or helping them. He also noticed Putri just now after he snapped from his focus. He thought about the merits he could get by helping the Southern Kingdom in this war. First, he might be able to get recognition, but he didn''t have any use of it, and it might give him trouble instead. Second, he had grudges against their Kasmanan Family and Princess Mega. If he was recognized by them, there might be a chance they targeted him instead of thanking him. After all, the inheritances from the Martial Emperor was far bigger enticement than a friend like Alex, who was only a Martial Grandmaster. Third, Putri might be thankful to him... Which he didn''t have any use. Although he considered her as his Senior Sister, Alex didn''t love her, and she also had a fiance. His attention was full of Alicia, Firia, and Anna. Those were the pros, as for the cons... If Morgan died in this battle, the Southern Kingdom would get a huge blow. Especially on this battlefield, if he died, their situation would become even worse. Although the Zhou Kingdom won''t win this war with their current number if they made another reckless move like before, where they swallowed Berserk Pill. Alex couldn''t imagine what would happen. In the end, because he didn''t see any merits and that Luo Tian will die in a couple minutes, he decided not to help. If the situation turned bad, he could ditch the battle. After all, his original purpose for joining this war was for Gacha Tickets and EXPs. Luo Tian and Morgan clashed continuously. Morgan was suppressed by Luo Tian this entire time. Before finally, "Boom!" Luo Tian pinned the heavily injured Morgan on the wall. He raised his spear and laughed. "Old man, who said I''m weak? You are going to die now. Hahaha... You said I''m not strong enough, but you are going to die in my hand. Pathetic!" Luo Tian was ready to thrust his spear. Morgan''s Soldiers were trying to charge to help Morgan, but they were blocked by thousands of soldiers. Morgan looked at Luo Tian with his exhausted face. He was unwilling. He gritted his teeth while glaring at Luo Tian as Luo Tian''s spear almost reached his neck. But before Luo Tian could kill him, he suddenly felt a presence coming to him. "!!!" Luo Tian noticed a sword coming to his direction, and he immediately used his spear to deflect it. When he turned his head, he was surprised to see such a famous person coming to this battlefield. He was an old man whose grey beard was longer than his grey hair. His face and name were famous throughout the continent. "Yo...ur... Ma... jes... ty." Morgan tried to speak. The one who came just now was the previous king of the Southern Kingdom, the only 10-Star Martial Lord in the kingdom, Bima Indrajaja. This time, he didn''t have his cheerful and easy-going face like when he met Morgan in the throne room a few days ago. His expression turned into a fierce tiger that was very angry. He wanted to swallow this Luo Tian alive. Morgan was one of his retainers, his comrade as well as his friend. That was the reason why he was still entrusted the duty as their War Minister. He knew Morgan''s ability and seeing him almost die like this, thoroughly angered him. "You are the previous king of the Southern Kingdom, Bima Indrajaja." Luo Tian had so many feelings inside him right now. Happy because he met him in this war and wanted to kill him. Anger because he stopped him from killing Morgan. As well as Anxiety because his Berserk Pill only had around a minute. "Sky Punch!" Bima Ignored Luo Tian and threw a fist against him. A giant white fist suddenly appeared from his tiny but aged hand. Appearance aside, the power contained in that fist was far stronger than one could imagine. Luo Tian was not prepared by this sudden attack, and he tried to block this attack with his spear. But he was pushed back by it. Bima intended to separate him from Morgan first. He then immediately ordered one of his subordinates. "Take care of Morgan." "Yes!" He looked at the chaotic battlefield and said, "What an unsightly battle." Bima raised his hand and shouted, "Fire!" 277 End "Fire!" "Boom Boom Boom!" Explosions after explosions filled the battlefield. Bima had come with reinforcement. He looked at the numerous Martial Lords on the battlefield. He also gave a glance at the destroyed cannons. "Half of you will protect the cannons. The rest will go and massacre all those soldiers." He came with more than a hundred Martial Lords as well as five thousand Martial Grandmasters. He had used all of his connections this entire time because he worried about the battlefield. It seemed his worry was justified. There were so many Martial Lords on the battlefield, and he was glad that he gathered as many as he could. The others immediately started their battles. Julius, one of Morgan''s trusted subordinates, suddenly came in a rush to him, requesting reinforcement. When he saw Julius like that, the situation might turn to worse. He then rushed to the battlefield with his army. But when he arrived on the battlefield, he saw Morgan was pinned on the wall, and Luo Tian almost killed him. When he saw that, of course, it flared his heart. He immediately grabbed a sword from someone beside him and threw it toward Luo Tian. He also charged at Luo Tian in anger. Luckily, he came at the right moment. If he was late even a few seconds, he might only get Morgan''s corpse. After ordering his soldiers, he changed back his attention to Luo Tian. Luo Tian was shocked to see the former king of the Southern Kingdom. But he only had a minute left on his time before the effect of Berserk Pill ended. With Morgan being rescued, he couldn''t kill Morgan anymore. But he needed to kill someone. The only option for him at this moment was charging without thinking of life and death so he could kill Bima. He clenched his spear. "Moonstone Spear!" Bima clenched his fist as some aura suddenly covered his fists. When he raised both of them, the aura became a roaring tiger face. "Tiger Echo Fist" The diamond colored spear clashed with a tiger fist. It sent a shockwave toward their surroundings. Bima suddenly felt something wrong. His fist was losing to Luo Tian''s Moonstone Spear. Previously he managed to blow him away because he had not prepared for it. But, in this clash, their respective power was clear enough for everyone to see. Bima was losing in power. He was pushed back by Luo Tian. Luo Tian didn''t care about that small success anymore because his time was limited. He immediately thrust his spear again and again. "Die!" "!!!" Bima tried to block his spear with his fist, but in each exchange, he was losing to Luo Tian. His fist started bleeding because of the spear. He also attacked him, but surprisingly, Luo Tian let him hit him. Luo Tian didn''t care about those puny wounds, because he needed to end this fight as soon as possible. He only had around thirty seconds left. "Die Die Die!" "What''s with this man? He is not scared of death, and what''s with his power? With this much power, how can we don''t know anything about him?" Bima was confused by Luo Tian, whether his identity or his power. After all, Bima didn''t know about the Berserk Pill. He could see that Luo Tian was a 10-Star Martial Lord. But how can someone like him not be famous? He couldn''t comprehend. After all, he only knew another 10-Star Martial Lord that the Zhou Kingdom had was their previous king, the same as him. But to see another 10-Star Martial Lord in this battle, how could he not be shocked by it? To think the Zhou Kingdom sent 10-Star Martial Lord in this war, that only meant one thing. The Zhou Kingdom seriously wanted to conquer them. Realizing the dire situation, Bima started sweating, mainly because he got suppressed by Luo Tian. But there was something wrong in Luo Tian. "Die Die Die!" Luo Tian was like a devil that tried to kill Bima. He appeared to be rushed. Bima didn''t know why, but his instinct told him so. They kept clashing in that few seconds as hard as they could before Luo Tian finally got a final chance. He got an opening from Bima. "Sh*t." It was not the same as Morgan''s case. Morgan was not pressured at that time, so he could pull such a stunt. But this time, Bima was suppressed by Luo Tian''s aggressiveness, and he finally let out an opening. "Die you old bastard!" Luo Tian plunged his spear toward Bima. Suddenly, another attack came from his right. "Thunder Crossbolt!" The yellow lightning looked like a small dragon and suddenly struck on him... No, the thunder was not targeted on him but his spear. "!!!" Luo Tian looked to the side with a shocked expression. When the lightning struck his spear, the spear suddenly curved a bit to the side, missing its target. Bima didn''t know what happened, but he used that chance to recover his pose and struck Luo Tian with his fist. "Tiger Echo Fist!" "Gah!" He struck Luo Tian''s abdomen. Luo Tian was blown away toward the ground as he spat blood because of that strike. "Boom!" He crashed on the ground and as smoke from the dust rose. Surprisingly, Luo Tian didn''t get back up again from the ground. Bima furrowed his eyebrows as he prepared for another attack from Luo Tian. But that attack would never come. The reason would be revealed as soon as the smoke disappeared. Bima could see Luo Tian didn''t move anymore. Although Bima struck Luo Tian as hard as he could, it should not be enough to kill him. But when he saw Luo Tian lying on the ground lifelessly. He was confused. It was like Luo Tian... died... He was unsure, so he tried to approach him. He approached Luo Tian carefully, but Luo Tian didn''t move a single inch. When he saw him up close, he finally realized Luo Tian had died. He couldn''t comprehend why he died. But the result was clear enough. He really killed Luo Tian. After that, he tried to cut off his head to show the battlefield. He didn''t have any doubts that Luo Tian was not the leader because he had 10-Star Martial Lord cultivation.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. There was no way the Zhou Kingdom had someone stronger than him. He rose from the ground with Luo Tian''s head on his hands. "Stop the fight!" He roared. Everyone immediately saw him carrying Luo Tian''s head. People from the Southern Kingdom quickly realized they had won while Soldiers from the Zhou Kingdom knew they had lost. "Your Majesty!" "Long Live Your Majesty!" "Long Live Your Majesty!" "Long Live Southern Kingdom!" They immediately cheered when they realized that their Previous King had come to the battlefield, especially with Luo Tian''s head in his hand. Bima tried to search for a man that helped him in that last moment. If not because of that yellow lightning, his head would be the one presented in this battlefield. But no matter how hard he searched, he couldn''t find anyone that seemed to help him. If there was such a person, they should know who he was. And he was his savior, he will surely receive a huge favor from the Southern Kingdom. Sadly, he couldn''t find such a person because the person in question had fled with another person to the woods. "Leader Luo Tian had died on the battlefield, I will immediately take the lead. Zhou Soldiers, hear my orders. We will retreat accordingly." Luo Tian''s blue-haired assistant immediately shouted to the battlefield. With the overwhelming reinforcement from the Southern Kingdom and Luo Tian''s death, the soldiers knew they had lost, but their fight was not over. They needed to escape from this place. The soldiers clenched their weapon while retreating according to the original plan. "Chase them!" "Kill them!" "Leave no one alive!" Many wanted to kill Zhou Soldiers at this moment, but all of them were the soldiers that Bima brought. "No... Do... not...chase...them!" Morgan suddenly came to the battlefield. He was carried by Julius, who came to help him. "Morgan?" Bima was confused by Morgan''s action. It was the perfect time to kill them, but Morgan wanted otherwise. "Your... Majesty... Please... Don''t... chase them." "Why?" "Please... I''m... sure... all soldiers... in this... place... agree with me!" Morgan tried his best to talk in his far exhausted face. Because he was mortally injured by Luo Tian, he might need a few months if not a year to recover. Bima couldn''t comprehend, but Morgan''s expression didn''t seem to lie. When he tried to see the original soldiers on the battlefield, Even with the constant screaming about chasing and killing the Zhou Soldiers. None of them dared to pursue them. Because no one beside them, who stood on this battlefield, knew what kind of nightmare they saw. If Zhou soldiers pushed to the corner, they might do something like that again and made a nightmare in this land. Bima frowned for a few seconds, weighing something in his mind. He needed to decide fast since the battlefield was chaotic, and the enemy might have escaped before he decided. Bima sighed and shouted something unbelievable, "Stop! We are not chasing them!" "We are not chasing them, Your Majesty?" "This is the best time." Bima''s retainers were asking a similar question, but Bima only glared at them to shut them up. Of course, because of his 10-Star Martial Lord strength, they immediately shut their mouths. "Look at the soldiers, they are exhausted, and even if you asked them to chase those soldiers, they might don''t want to do that." Bima took a deep breath before he turned to Morgan again, he asked, "Morgan, why do the soldiers become like that?" "I...The..." "Your Majesty, let me be the one who explains it to you." Daniel immediately came to him. He wanted to explain the situation because Morgan was not in the condition to talk. "Alright. Morgan, rest well. Thank you for your service here." Bima nodded his head. Then he turned to the soldiers and shouted, "Listen up, Soldiers. We are not going to chase them. "I know you are confused about my decision. But If we cornered them too much, even if we managed to kill all of them, we will also take considerable damage on our side. "Rather than sending my soldiers to death, we will end the war here. All people who can move immediately save the people who can still be saved. We are not going to let any person die again. "But I need to thank you for your service in this war, and I will make sure you need to be rewarded. The last thing I want to say is... "THIS WAR IS OUR VICTORY!" "Ooh!" Everyone cheered. Not long after that, they immediately moved around to see any injured people. They wouldn''t let any single soldier again at this point. "Daniel." He looked at Daniel again, demanding an explanation from him. If he were in his prime, he would be called a fool if he did this. But, the same as Morgan, Daniel was one of his closest retainers. That was the reason why he sent him and Morgan to this battlefield to supervise the war and Princess Mega. But he didn''t notice Princess Mega anywhere. As one of the bravest kings in this wealthy kingdom, he always led his army on the front. Even when he was only a Martial Grandmaster. Seeing Mega was not present, he became a bit concerned. At least, she should observe the war on the wall if she didn''t want to join. She would be considered participating as well because her presence alone might inspire the soldiers. "Daniel, where is she?" "I... Her highness Mega should be in her house. She could make some strategies, and it is proven to be effective. But she seems to be occupied with something in this war. Maybe your majesty could ask her personally about that. "After watching her performances in this war. I can say she is quite talented, only lacking experiences. She should be fine if she gets a few more battles and participates on the frontline." 278 Repor "Alright. I know. Even a Royal Family should go to the frontline if needed in this chaotic world. If we can''t even do that, people will call our kingdom coward. "With our big wealth, raising cultivation should be only a matter of time. If there is another chance where she had become a Martial Lord but didn''t want to participate. "You need to tell me. Because my son is not the only one who evaluates them but also myself. Even my son participated a few times in the front line." Bima nodded to Daniel. "Alright, that''s it. What about the situation? Why I shouldn''t chase them?" Daniel became tense, recalling those first five minutes. It couldn''t be called a war anymore. It was a living hell. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before explaining the situation. "Yes. I will explain from the start. Your Majesty should know about the second young lady of the Makmur Family, right?" "The green-haired girl, right? I heard she is very talented and became a disciple of Ninth Elder from Heavenly Sword Sect. What''s wrong with her? Tell me in detail." Bima answered. "Yes. It happened three days ago where we convened a war meeting. We were discussing the strategies for the battle before she suddenly came inside the room. "We were bewildered at that time. She told us about information about their number, which we already knew. But she also told us absurd information. She told us the enemy had twenty thousand Martial Grandmasters and five hundred Martial Lords." "What!" Bima was dumbfounded. He wanted to rebuke him for an absurd tale, but he couldn''t. He remembered that when he arrived, there should be around three hundred Martial Lords. "Yes. At first, we didn''t believe it. But Morgan took precaution and went to the capital city." Daniel said carefully. "Indeed. He is asking for reinforcement, and I was the one who organized the reinforcement." "Then, Morgan asked her where she got that information. She said it was from her sect Junior Brother. Morgan then found out that her Junior Brother should be in the Nemu Forest. "But when he went there. He didn''t find the so-called Junior Brother. Instead, what he found was even more devastating. He found more than three thousand corpses from Zhou Soldiers, but he didn''t find any trace about force from other influences. "At first, we had scouted the Nemu Forest since they might use it for an ambush, and we didn''t find anything. The Zhou Soldiers chose a peculiar place that was hard to find and make a base on that place. "If Morgan didn''t have those corpses as the lead, he might not be able to find that base." "Three thousand? So, that is the reason why Morgan rushed into the capital and asked for reinforcements?" "Yes." Daniel nodded. "Continue." "Morgan tightened the security inside the Nemu Forest and made them report to him every night. But for three days, in fact, until now, we couldn''t find anything. "Yes. We couldn''t find anything before Putri... I mean, the second Young Lady from the Makmur Family informed us again. This time, she got his information from a yellow-haired guy in the mercenary camp. "She told us that there was an ambush that was ready inside the forest for today''s battle. Morgan didn''t believe her at first because he got the information the situation is fine that night. "Even if they rushed onto this place, they should be exhausted and won''t be able to battle. But, when Morgan asked Julius to investigate, it turned out the information was true. "From the look of it, our spies were killed after they sent the report. We assumed because of the number of Martial Lords, all of our spies got caught and killed. "Luckily, we already have our cannons ready on the city wall. Morgan then sent Julius to inform you. At that time, Morgan immediately took over the war from Princess Mega''s hand." "I see. So, that was the reason. But I haven''t found the core problem yet." "Yes. This is the core problem. The ambush was thirty thousand soldiers. According to Putri''s information, they consisted of four hundred fifty Martial Lords and twenty thousand Martial Grandmasters. The rest of the soldiers were Martial Masters." "What did you say?" Daniel opened his jaw wide. "Yes. Although we might need to confirm their number later, I assume the number should be around that. Suddenly more than a hundred of their Martial Lords used some sort of sorcery and powered up. "At that moment, they were not scared of death. It was a nightmare... no, nightmare might be an understatement, it should be a living hell. "In the span of five minutes, each of those hundred Martial Lords became crazy and killed around a hundred of our soldiers each, as well as five cannons. "At that time, according to my speculation. We lost more than twenty thousand soldiers while they lost a few thousand." Daniel was astounded. Usually, a war strategy was to win the war with minimal cost. What Daniel told him just now was not a war, but instead a madness. Even when he used the most insane way to fight, he would only lose twenty thousand a DAY, not five minutes. Although he might need to confirm it after this, just knowing it made him gasped. "I see. So that was the reason why the original soldiers that were stationed here didn''t want to pursue them?" "Yes. We don''t know if the enemies have more of those pills or not. If they indeed have it and used it at the last moment... I can''t imagine the result." Daniel shook his head helplessly. "Alright. You and Morgan, as well as Julius, had done an excellent job in this war and stopped me from pursuing them. The dead soldiers will be rewarded as well, so don''t mind about them and rest. "But if I could say, it seems... Putri... is it, have a major contribution to this war. If we didn''t have her information, this city might have fallen, and their fangs will reach this place. "We also need to thank her Junior Brother for his contribution. Now I want to meet him, ask someone to investigate Nemu Forest. If he is there, tell him I want to meet him. Also, the last one is that yellow-haired guy who told us about the ambush. He should be in the mercenary camp." Bima tried to search Leoz on the battlefield. Daniel also helped him with that, but they didn''t manage to find him. "Alright. We might find him in the mercenary camp later. We should reward Putri too in the capital city. That''s it. You should rest first, I will take care of the rest." "Yes. Thank you very much, Your Majesty." They later found out that Leoz was not in the mercenary camp anymore. They tried to find him but to no avail. Leoz also didn''t accept his reward, so they couldn''t find him. Morgan also couldn''t find his savior in his battle with Luo Tian. Of course, he didn''t know it was Leoz. ... A minute before Luo Tian died, Alex saw the situation turn to the worst. Leaving Morgan died at the point of time served no purpose. He was not a good or bad person to think about something like this. He was a careful person. He tended to think over pros and cons before deciding. If Morgan died at this time, Luo Tian wouldn''t be a problem for them. In only a minute as well as his current condition, Luo Tian wouldn''t be able to do anything after that. Both armies will lose their leader, and the situation should become standstill. Although the Zhou Kingdom had more Martial Lords, The Southern Kingdom had an advantage in their number. But he was surprised to see a person coming to save Morgan. When he saw his cultivation, he found out that he was a 10-Star Martial Lord. There should be only one 10-Star Martial Lord in the Southern Kingdom since they were not like the Zhou Kingdom. Because of that, Alex immediately realized that he was the most important person in this kingdom. In Morgan''s case, Alex could say Luo Tian only had a minute left. But in this case, Alex couldn''t say that again, he should reword his word to Luo Tian still had a minute left. His prediction was correct. Luo Tian immediately charged at this new person, trying to kill him. If this person died, then the situation won''t be good for him. But if Luo Tian died, the war should be over. Whether the Southern Kingdom will chase them or not, Alex already knew the answer. The soldiers who participated in this battlefield wouldn''t want to chase them after going through that nightmare. If they chased them, they should prepare for retaliation, and it would be another nightmare. Alex sighed a bit before telling Leoz, "Leoz, if push comes to shove, try to help that new old man. Make sure he doesn''t die. After that, we will immediately leave this battlefield." "Are you sure, Young Master?" "Yes." "Alright." And it turned out he was right, Leoz saw Luo Tian had a chance to kill Bima. Alex gave that order to Leoz because he saw that the old man was fighting alone. The old man must be clueless as fighting alone against Luo Tian at this moment might be the worst thing he could do. The reinforcement also focused on suppressing Zhou Soldiers instead of finishing Luo Tian. Leoz then used his lightning once again. He made a circle with his hands. Lightning spark started gathering in his eyes before Leoz suddenly opened his hands wide. The yellow lightning got bigger, and it suddenly shot toward Luo Tian''s spear. The previous lightning ball suddenly turned into a ferocious thunder dragon. It bit Luo Tian lightning and made him miss his target, Bima. After he got saved, Bima immediately made a counterattack. He blew Luo Tian away, and at that time, Luo Tian''s time... specifically, the Berserk Pill''s time had ended. Luo Tian died with a blow that shouldn''t kill him. Leoz then disappeared to meet Alex. Alex nodded at him, "Let''s go." Alex made a Space Gate, and both of them fled using that gate. They appeared again in the Nemu Forest. Alex leaned his back on a tree as he let out a relieved sigh. "Young Master, are you sure we didn''t need to stay on the battlefield anymore?" Leoz only asked him because he was concerned about the Gacha Tickets and EXPs. He already knew that the war had reached its conclusion. "Yeah." "So, what is your plan now?" "Hmm, I will call Anna first." Alex took out Anna''s card, "Anna, what is the situation over there?" "We have checked several cities, but we could only find a guy who was responsible for one city. He told us the others might have gone back. Of course, he told us after Jeanne''s lesson." Alex contemplated. He should have around three months to spare before the inner disciple ranking competition. Alex turned to Leoz. "How long do we need to travel to the sect?" "I''m sorry Young Master. I don''t know the distance, and maybe you should ask Nelson." Leoz said apologetically. "..." Alex only shook his head and took out Nelson''s card. "Nelson, how long do I need to travel to the sect from Nemu Forest?" "Nemu Forest? Hmm, Young Master is with Leoz, right?" "Yeah." "If he carried you, you should be able to reach Heavenly Sword Sect in a week." "A week..." Alex was surprised because he didn''t know it took him that long. "Yeah. The Southern Kingdom was a bit far from Heavenly Sword Sect. You might need to pass Mount Hua Sect''s territory before you could reach Heavenly Sword Sect Territory." "I see, thank you." Alex thanked him. He was wondering if he should go back after this or stay here for his revenge. He needed to decide whether to take his revenge now or wait after the Inner Disciple Ranking Tournament. To do his revenge, he only had to breakthrough to 7-Star Martial Grandmaster and trained two rank 4 Arrays. He might only need around two months for that. 279 Practice Alex thought for a while before deciding to stay for a while inside Nemu Forest. He would need around a month then another month to practice a few arrays. He had time to do that before going back to the sect. Even if he went back to the sect and cultivated there, he would need a total of three weeks to go back there and come back here and go back again. He also wanted to take advantage of this post chaotic war situation. If he killed the Kasmanan family around this time, the Southern Kingdom might think it was them who did it. He had decided on his plan. He was going to call back Anna and the rest here to let them hunt around this area while protecting him. Then he would take two months to prepare for his revenge. After that, he would take the Array Master Test. Maybe he will also take the Alchemist test if he could also practice rank 4 pills around this time. Then he would take revenge before going back to Heavenly Sword Sect. But it might only take him two and a half months, and he might be able to extend it for another two weeks to ensure he could practice his alchemy skill. After that he will challenge the Battle Tower since it might be the requirement he would need to participate in the Tournament. He had decided his plan, so time to tell the other spirits. "Anna, tell everyone that I''m going to summon everyone here." He said to Anna''s card. "Is it for the war?" "No, the war should be over now. The enemy should be on their way back to the Zhou Kingdom." "Do we need to chase them?" "No. It is enough for the time being. We will increase our group strength first." Alex shook his head. After all, in that group, only Anna and Fabio were a Martial Lord. "Alright. We are ready." Anna said. "Summon." All his spirits appeared in front of him, except Nicole and Nelson, as well as Salijan and Wright. "Here is the plan. I''m going to have close door cultivation in this forest so we might need to make a base. All of you might need to hunt around this area for the time being. "I will then have my revenge. I have told you the plan before since I''m going to use arrays to kill them. Then I will take rank 4 Array Master test as well as rank 4 Alchemist take. Hopefully, I have time to do that. "Then we are going to go back. You can choose to hunt here or around the sect. But Anna will follow me back. Ngina will help Nicole to cover this area." "Alex, where are you going to take the test?" Anna asked. Alex just realized it. Hee didn''t know where to take the test. He never knew where he could find an Array Master Guild. He forgot about this. He didn''t know why but he wanted to ask Nelson at this moment. "Nelson, do you know where I can find the Array Master Guild?" He immediately took out Nelson''s card and asked him. Nelson was a reliable man that knew everything in his mind. Maybe he was too dependent on him? "There are only eight Array Master Guilds in this continent. They are situated in every capital city. In other words, each of them was in Capital City or the city in front of four big sects." "..." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. Anna also heard about their conversation. "Alex, if we are going with your plan. It might not be a good idea to take the test in the Southern Kingdom''s capital city." Anna said. Since they were going to destroy the Kasmanan Family, it would be terrible to stand out by taking the test in that place. Alex nodded. According to Nelson, he would need to pass Mount Hua Sect''s territory. Then he had two options. He could take the test in that place or in Heavenly Sword Town. But taking the test in Heavenly Sword Town would possess a certain risk. He might be found out by the people in the sect since the people around that place would be their sect people. He finally decided to take the test in Mount Hua Sect''s territory. He would just take the test briefly and immediately went back. Even if he were found out, he would have long gone from that place before the sect started searching for him. "Alright. I will take the test at Mount Hua Sect''s territory. Since the Alchemist is easy to find, I can just take it everywhere. Even a slightly bigger city should be enough to issue a Rank 4 Alchemist identity." All of them nodded. But before that, since he would stay in this place for a long time, Alex should tell Putri about this. He might as well give some information about Blood Pill and Berserk Pill as well as a bit of Zhou Kingdom''s information. She can be his messenger for the time being to inform the sect. Alex took out an empty book that he got from Maxwell. Maxwell had so many books, but he already filled what he needed to fill. There were still a few blank books, so Alex ripped a few pages of paper. After he finished, he gave it to Njomo. "Njomo, please help me to give this to Senior Sister, okay? Just make sure you are not found out by others." "Woof!" "Then, Young Master, I also should take my leave," Ngina said. After all, Alex and the others will search for a base after this, so he was not needed here. Alex nodded to him. He then looked at the spirits, "Let''s go." After a few hours of searching, they found a perfect spot to be their base. It was a cave a bit deep inside Nemu Forest and was camouflaged well. They were sure the Southern Kingdom couldn''t find this place. The cave was spacious, but the entrance was small. "Sherry, Kyle, come out." "Chirp!" Kyle came out, but surprisingly Sherry didn''t come out. It perplexed him. He tried to make Sherry come out forcefully. But what he found was Sherry in a deep sleep. "Sherry?" "Chirp Chirp!" Kyle wanted to explain something to Alex, but Alex still couldn''t understand him. Alex also knew that Kyle wanted to say something. He activated his Spirit Eyes and took a look at Sherry. Her Spiritual Energy was stable... In fact, there was nothing obvious that could possibly harm her. "Oh, Sherry is going to have a breakthrough to the Martial Lord Stage." Anna appeared out of nowhere. The spirits were supposed to be hunting at the moment. "I come back to tell you about our plan. Since we have three Martial Lords and three Martial Grandmasters. We are going to split up into three groups. Each group will have a Martial Lord and one Martial Grandmaster. "Fabio will pair up with Vera. Leoz is with Greg. And I am with Jeanne. After all, this forest is a bit dangerous for Martial Grandmasters." "Alright. But what do you mean about Sherry? Is she having a breakthrough?" "Yes. Sherry will have a deep slumber when she will break through to another realm. Judging from her look, she didn''t look like she was hurt by something, so I know that she must be in the process of a breakthrough. You can ask Kyle about it, right, Kyle?" "Chirp Chirp!" Kyle nodded his head furiously. "Since she is inside your body this entire time. It doesn''t mean she and Kyle did nothing. They also can cultivate inside your body. Sherry was a peak Grandmaster when we left Zwaka''s place. So, she becomes like this is not strange." "I see." Alex nodded as Sherry disappeared from his hand. He made Sherry go back inside. "Are you going to cultivate after this?" "Yeah, I will cultivate as soon as I make Gathering Arrays for them and me." "How about using your Gacha Tickets first? I think we made a decent amount of tickets in this war. It might not be comparable to Zwaka''s place, though." Anna said. "Hmm..." Alex contemplated a bit, then shook his head. "Nah, I will wait after I finish cultivating." "Alright. Then I''m going." "Yes. Be careful." Alex nodded his head before giving a goodbye kiss. Anna then disappeared. "System, Have I triggered or completed any missions?" [You have triggered two missions, but you have not completed any missions.] [Mission: Promise Description: Destroy Devil Blood Sect Reward: 50 Premium Tickets] [Mission: Inner Disciple Tournament Description: #1 Reward: 10 Premium Tickets or 1 Special Summon Ticket(UR)] "System, this tournament mission... especially the description..." [Don''t sweat the small stuff.] "..." Alex chuckled. "Then tell me about this Special Summon Ticket." [You can summon one UR spirit on your choice.] Alex didn''t know why, but after showing her appearance, his system seemed to be more easygoing. He decided not to think about that. "Alright. It is a bit disappointing. I didn''t complete any missions, but at least I got two new missions." [Yes. I am your system, Host. My purpose is to support you. If Host holds a promise or desire, I will give you a mission. But eventually, I am only your power, and I won''t do anything to endanger you. You will be the one who decides whether to finish the mission or not. Of course, no penalty.] Alex smiled a bit, "Yeah. I know. Thank you for that." [Your Welcome, Host] Alex then made two rank 3 Gathering Array for him and Kyle. After that, he started cultivating. ... The next day, in the Southern Kingdom''s Capital City, Jimu. After the war finished, Putri came back to her house in the capital city, specifically Makmur Family. The king was aware of her contribution to this war. Because of her information, The Southern Kingdom was not destroyed. Instead, they could win the war with the best possible result in such a situation. Her name reverberated throughout the whole kingdom. Each big family sent their present to her, and even the royal family will reward her for her contribution tomorrow. She was exhausted dealing with those people. She sat on a rock while watching the night sky in her courtyard. She sighed. It was not her contribution. She only became something like a messenger for them. All of her information came from Alex and that yellow-haired guy. She didn''t do anything at all. She was feeling guilty to hog all this reward. "Woof Woof!'' Suddenly, she heard a dog barking on her left. She found a black dog, carrying papers on his mouth. It was Njomo. Because of her busy schedule, Njomo couldn''t find the right time to give this information to Putri. He finally got his chance tonight. Putri became alarmed by the sudden appearance of Njomo. She probed Njomo''s cultivation and found him to be a Grandmaster Stage monster. She was surprised as she immediately took his spear. Njomo didn''t do anything. Instead, he just put the papers on the ground and retreated a few meters back. She was confused by this. Njomo seemed to be telling her to get the papers. But seeing Njomo was a Grandmaster Stage monster. She couldn''t let her guard down. She tried to approach the papers slowly while her eyes still focused on Njomo. She grabbed the papers and retreated a few steps. She glanced at the papers a little and found two big words on it. And looked at Njomo again. "From Alex." But when she realized it was from Alex. She couldn''t help but give another glance. But when she changed her view to Njomo again. Njomo had disappeared. She dropped the papers in shock and tried to find the dog in her surroundings but to no avail. She then picked up the papers and started reading it. Just when she began reading it, and without her knowing, her jaw had dropped. A few minutes later, she became a frozen statue. When she finished reading the whole letter, she unconsciously dropped the letter again. 280 Meeting The next day, Putri was invited to the palace to receive her reward as the king will personally reward her for her contribution. Putri wore a white military uniform with a tight white skirt. This was not a soldier uniform, so even though it was called a military uniform, it was only for ceremonial things like this case. Putri put a ceremonial sword on her waist, giving an extra gallant vibe to her. She was alone in the house because all of her family had gone first to receive her in the ceremony in the castle. Of course, there were some other family members, but she didn''t have any good connections with them. After all, she only had a good relationship with her parents as the other family members didn''t even look at her. They only looked at the first young lady of the Makmur Family. But because of all these things, they started to form a good relationship with her. Putri was trying to ignore them, though. She went outside the house and got on a carriage. It was a noble carriage with fancy decorations on it. She never used this carriage as this carriage was her family formal carriage for the younger generation. Only the first young lady had a chance to use this carriage previously. Not long after, she arrived at the castle. As soon as she arrived in front of the castle, Daniel had been waiting for her. He smiled at her and greeted her. "Young Girl, I am sorry that I... no, we didn''t believe you back then. If we believe you back then, we could minimize the damage on our side." Daniel apologized. Putri only shook her head slightly, and she said, "No, Minister Daniel, I don''t dare to accept your apology. All your actions were justified because the information was too absurd. And, I am only a messenger back then. I was not the one who got the information." "We are thankful to your Younger brother as well as the yellow-haired guy. Sadly, we could not find them. But it is also your contribution to give us the information. "At least, without you being adamant about it. Morgan would not take that information a bit seriously and prepared for it. Despite the consequences, you chose to give the information to us bravely." Daniel smiled at her. "That''s right. Minister Daniel. I have gotten another piece of information from my Junior Brother." She said. Alex surely wanted her to tell this information to the kingdom since he told her about all of this information. "Oh... What is this about?" Daniel was astonished that she got another information. He didn''t dare to suspect her information again. Especially if it was coming from her Junior Brother. He didn''t want to repeat the previous mistake. Putri gave him a piece of paper. She compiled Alex''s information and wrote all the essential things in this piece of paper. She didn''t know who she could give this information but seeing Daniel received her in this place. She decided to give the information to him. They were walking toward the throne room, where she would receive the reward. Daniel''s eyes were glued on the paper the entire time. Daniel couldn''t help, but his jaw dropped when he finished reading it. His back was covered with sweat as he couldn''t believe there was such information. Daniel then gave the paper back to her. Putri received it awkwardly, but she noticed that Daniel''s hands were shaking when he handed the paper to her. She didn''t know what to do in this situation. "Young girl. I will inform the king about this. It will be better if you say it yourself. Don''t worry. After all of those things happened in the war, they wouldn''t doubt you anymore, you have my guarantee on this. "There will be a banquet after this ceremony and don''t go home yet after the banquet ends. I''m sure we will have a private meeting with the king after that. Don''t worry. The king would end the banquet early if he knew about your information." Daniel said as low as possible. Putri was taken aback when she heard she was going to meet the king. She started to get cold feet. They arrived in front of the throne room. In a moment, the door would be opened, and they would come in. Not long after, the door was opened as someone suddenly announced. "Ladies and gentlemen. Her contribution has given this kingdom a chance to survive a disastrous war. Without her, we might not be able to hold such a ceremony. Without further ado, let us welcome Putri Wulan from Makmur Family." The room was full of people. Most of them came from prominent families, ministers, as well as guilds. When they arrived at the front, Daniel then left her and joined the crowd. Putri then kneeled on her knees. "Your Majesty." The blue-haired middle-aged man in front of her who sat on his throne finally stood up. The silence immediately filled the room as soon as he stood up. "Young and Talented. It seems that the Makmur Family has two talented younger generations." "Your Majesty overpraised me." "Little girl. Because of your information, this kingdom has escaped from its doom. So, I wanted to ask you, What do you want for your reward?" "This subject didn''t have a wish for the reward. The reward should be given to the soldiers that fought bravely in the war." "Good good. Such achievement but still humble. Truly a good seedling. I heard you are a disciple of the Ninth Elder, right?" "Yes, Your Majesty." "Don''t worry about the soldiers. I will surely reward them well. I will also reward you five million Spirit Stones and a Rank 4 Spear. I hope you can use the reward wisely and make us proud in Heavenly Sword Sect. This is the reward you deserved." The crowd was surprised. They didn''t expect the reward would be so great. The kingdom rewarded her for the greatest cultivation resources. With so much money, she could buy pills and any other resources. The entire kingdom had a revenue of ten million a year, but they just gave her half of it. She couldn''t help believe it. Just a few months ago, she couldn''t say she was poor, but she wasn''t wealthy either. But after coming to Zwaka''s place, she got Rank 5 spear, two Heaven Tier Wind Arts as well as five million Spirit Stones from Alex. Then she got this five million again. "Thank you very much, Your Majesty." "Alright. I shall conclude this ceremony. We will hold a banquet for you after this." ... Not long after, the tables were out, food and drink were presented on the table by the servants. Putri didn''t change a cloth as she was today''s star. The uniform gave her a unique seductive aura on her. Obviously, many Young Masters and Young Ladies tried to approach her, trying to make a connection. She had a fiance, so she didn''t see anything from those Young Masters, and she was fed up by some rich Young Ladies. She knew that they became like this because of her sudden fortune and fame. She just did some formality with them. Princess Mega also came to give her thanks. She wore a one-piece long red dress. She appeared to be beautiful, but sadly her heart was toxic. Mega brought two glasses of wine and gave one of them to Putri. "Putri, you are the hero of the kingdom. As your friend, I am happy to see you like this." "Thank you, Mega." When Putri drank her wine, Mega let out a little evil smile. Sadly, Putri didn''t notice it. Because of the sudden turn of events, Mega couldn''t do anything to Putri. But she also had a deal with the first young lady of the Makmur Family. Her plan might be found out if she decided to back down and get Putri''s support for the throne. The only way for her was to attack her at this time. She put ''something'' on the wine. Not long after, the king also came to the banquet. He talked to a few people before suddenly, Daniel came to him and whispered something in his ears. She saw the king, Billy, suddenly had a shocked face. She knew that Daniel must be talking about that matter. After a while, Billy nodded his head and whispered something to Daniel. After meeting a few more people, he immediately left the banquet. On the other hand, Daniel found Putri. He said, "We will hold a meeting for your information with His Majesty and some ministers... So prepare yourself after this. I will lead you to the meeting room." Putri nodded her head. Daniel then left her alone for a few hours while the king immediately called everyone to participate in a meeting. ... When the banquet ended, Daniel came to Putri again. "Follow me." Putri nodded. She followed Daniel to a room. When Daniel opened the room, it was not a grand room like she imagined. It was only a small room. There was no decoration in the room. Only a big table and chairs. "Your Majesty." Putri then wanted to kneel, but Billy stopped him. "It''s alright. This is an informal meeting. You can sit first and tell us about the information." She then gave the paper to Billy respectfully and sat down. Billy''s face turned to blue, and that made the ministers astounded. "Are you sure this is true?" Billy asked with a dumbfounded face. "He... I mean, My junior brother never lied to me." Billy sweatdropped. One of the ministers couldn''t stop himself from asking, "Your Majesty. What is this all about?" Billy contemplated a bit. He decided to tell them himself rather than giving them the paper. Although it was worth it to see their shocked face, it wasted too much time. "First of all. All of you should know there were two new pills that we had never known earlier, right?" "You mean those red pills, Your Majesty?" "Indeed," Billy affirmed. All ministers present nodded their heads. Billy then continued, "They are called Blood Pill and Berserk Pill. Both of them are sinister pills that should not be taken. And their origin is..." Billy took a deep breath first. Seeing him like that, the ministers gulped down. "Human blood." When they heard that, they gasped. "What is the situation for the cities that were attacked by the Zhou Kingdom?" The minister who was in charge of that matter immediately replied. "Yes, Your Majesty. We have found something unbelievable. All the people inside those cities were found dead." All of them astounded when they heard that. Billy put his palm on his forehead and used his hand to support his body. He took a deep breath to control his emotions. "It seems that the information in this paper is true." "Your Majesty, could you share the information with us?" Billy looked at them before saying, "This conversation must not travel outside the room." "Yes, Your Majesty." All ministers immediately nodded their heads. He told them to do that if the situation was dire. "First, it is about the origin of those two new pills. They are made from Human Blood. In other words, those people who were massacred by the Zhou Kingdom were used by a blood source to make the pills." "What!" "This is ridiculous." "How can they do this?" The ministers became angry when they heard that. But Billy stopped them from their berserk. He also wanted to do that too, but it was not the time for that. "Both pills are inhumane, and it will also lead the user to death. I have confirmed it from the people on the battlefield. They suddenly died not long after taking the pill. "Then, it seems that Zhou Soldiers were using those pills to increase their strength. That''s why they have so many Martial Lords." "Do they not afraid they would be found out by doing so? They will be hunted from all influences. Your Majesty, we should tell other kingdoms and sects about this." "If it is that easy, I''m not worried. Our current evidence is only this piece of information, and even if we sent the blood pills to Mount Hua Sect, we still need to wait after they finish examining them, and they might even suspect us for this, so I need more evidence." He looked at every minister who then looked down, contemplating. Billy then said, "We will make a special investigation team for this matter, and Gillian will take the command." "Yes, Your Majesty. This subordinate shall answer you with the best of my abilities." Gillian, Minister of Information and Espionage, stood up and bowed to him. "This boy is truly brilliant. He wants to convince us, but because of our situation, we could only believe this absurd information where we should not normally. "I will try to convince the leader from other kingdoms and sects, but with information, I can convince them more easily. So, I will leave it to you, Gillian." "Yes, Your Majesty." Billy then looked at Putri. After all, this mysterious junior brother of hers seemed to have only told his information to her. So, even if they wanted to communicate with him, they would need to go through her. "If there is other information. Don''t hesitate to tell us." "Yes, Your Majesty." 281 Energy Pill The Southern Kingdom might have gotten information that could make them busy for a while. But it was the same as the Zhou Kingdom. After getting the news about their loss. The king was angry. They had spent so much on this campaign, but it was a failure. They might be able to make Martial Masters and Martial Grandmasters easily with the blood pills. But they had lost around three hundred Martial Lords in this campaign. It was a big loss, and he was sure that the Southern Kingdom would try to investigate them with their sudden rise of power. He then tightened the security in the area to buy time as long as possible. After all, their grand plan was in the Continent Grand Tournament. He would use this time to enhance their power once more and attacked another kingdom. He couldn''t attack the Southern Kingdom again since they must have prepared for their high number of Martial Lords. ... Not only them, in Nilis Continent, the main preparator also received information. But it was not about the Zhou Kingdom. The king looked at the report and frowned, "A person that could trigger a golden lightning in his Martial Grandmaster tribulation? The sky then brightened in golden color after he finished his tribulation?" This was a piece of important information for them. There was no such a case in their history. This would shake the entire mainland if they knew about this. He clenched his fist. His advisor then replied, "Yes, Your Majesty. It seems this person is a disciple from Heavenly Sword Sect. What should we do, Your Majesty? Should we recruit him, or should we kill him?" "..." He contemplated a bit. "I heard the Zhou Kingdom had started their invasion?" "Yes, you are right, Your Majesty." "Send two Martial Kings as well as fifty high-level Martial Lords to Willow Continent. We will try to invite him first. Should he not accept our good intention, kill him. "Ask the Zhou Kingdom to have one of their Martial King and Martial Lords to help. We can just kill all of their elders and Sect Master. It should be enough to ruin their sect, and the rest of the disciples would need a long time to become strong enough. "Even if they managed to get attention from a Martial King or Martial Emperor, they would be shadowed by this person who got a golden lightning in his tribulation. "At that time, we had conquered the entire continent. We can maintain our status as a hidden backing of the Zhou Kingdom. As long as the Zhou Kingdom didn''t give our information, they shouldn''t know that we come from another continent. "It will also help the process of the war since the other kingdoms might get scared as one of the top sects in that continent is ruined by the Zhou Kingdom. Then our progress will go smoothly after that. "If we incite suspicion from the Northern Continent, we can just blame the Zhou Kingdom for that. Then we can safely retreat. Even the people from the Northern Continent won''t come here. "After all, they might incite anger from the Sacred Continent if it became like that. There will be a continental war. This is what they and we don''t want to see." "Your Majesty is wise." ... A month later, Alex managed to breakthrough to 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. As soon as he breakthrough, he immediately practiced his Array Mastery. What he practiced first was, of course, the rank 4 Illusion Array. Even though he wanted his revenge, he wasn''t blinded by it as the problem was not enough for him to be blinded. Alex chose the rank 4 Illusion Array since it was the foundation of his Array Mastery as it was the key to make a rank 4 Illusion Array, called Pollen Illusion Array. He then practiced rank 4 Simulation Room. But he found something off when he practiced this. After getting Zwaka''s inheritance for Space Element''s Mastery, Alex seemed to have another foundation in making his Simulation Room. Previously, he could only replicate medicinal ingredients or some kind of environment. But with the addition of Space Mastery, he could make a little detail like temperature or condition in his environment. Although it might not be much, it was useful. Surprisingly, his Space Element could affect all of his Arrays. It was good news for him since he was planning for his revenge, to trap the Kasmanan Family inside and let them choke because of the lack of oxygen. Alex would need to practice a rank 4 barrier type Array. He chose to practice an array called Jadeite Mirror Array. The array had a beautiful barrier like jade. Although it looked beautiful, the defensive ability was ridiculously high, especially when he knew that he could infuse his Space Element inside this array. The Space Element became a cushion for someone who attacked this array. His Space Element absorbed a portion of the attack before the attack reached the real array. Surprisingly, when he practiced his array with his Space Element. He finally understood the meaning of the Space Plate. After practicing for a week, he was able to have a good foundation on this Space Plate. He found another use of Space Plate, which complimented his power as an Array Master. He wanted to immerse himself in that, but he chose not to. He had used around a month to master these four Arrays as the fourth array he practiced was Teleportation Array. It had been bugging his mind after he understood Space Element. Because of the time, he could only make a one-kilometer teleportation array. He was not comparable to Zwaka, who can build two hundred kilometers teleportation array, and he did it with his soul, not his mortal body. Alex had a few arrays that he wanted to master. They were rank 4 Gathering Array, and rank 4 binding array called Servant of Silk and Steel... It was a long name. But he only had another month before going back. So, he stopped his practice on the array and then started practicing his Alchemy Skill. He didn''t have a high goal for this. He thought low rank 4 Alchemist was enough for him. After all, he was only in his early twenties. It was already ridiculous to have such a high rank. Alex only mastered two pills in these two weeks. The first pill was called Ocean Mind, a low 4th rank pill. He chose to learn it since its effect was to increase one''s mental energy. And the second pill was a high 3rd rank pill, Energy Pill. He practiced this as it might become his main source of income. He surely didn''t need it at the moment since he had more than thirty million in his pocket, but he might need it in the future. He remembered that the requirement he had for his current Alchemist Rank, which was High Rank 2 Alchemist. He needed to make a mid 2nd Rank pill and one high 2nd Rank Pill. So, if he wanted to take a test for low rank 4 Alchemist, then he would need to make a high 3rd Rank pill and one low 4th Rank Pill. He would make this Energy Pill and Ocean Mind Pill. "Anna, where are you?" "Alex, have you finished your practice?" "No, I just want to start my alchemy training. I am going to practice Energy Pill first. I have all of the ingredients from Zwaka''s place, except the monster core. I think I will make an Energy Pill with a 10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core. Could you get me one?" "Alright. Jeanne and I will try to hunt a peak Grandmaster stage monster." "Thank you." Not long after, Anna came back with a fresh 10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core. The core had a translucent green color. "This is a 10-Star Grandmaster Stage wind leopard. I will also bring a few other Monster Cores like this. After all, making an Energy Pill, you need to fight the monster''s will first. Each monster will have a different will, so it will be best to practice as many as possible." Anna explained. Alex nodded his head. He just wanted to say that, but Anna had beaten him on that. As expected of Anna, what a thoughtful woman. "Thank you." "Then, I''m going again. I will put the monster core beside you." "Yeah. I will just have two monster cores every day. I will tell you later if I need more. Since only a fresh monster core can make an Energy Pill." "I know," Anna assured him. She then left, "I''m going." "Be careful." After seeing Anna''s disappeared, Alex then grabbed the monster core. He could feel the energy of the monster core was still abundant, and there was a rejection from the monster core. The rejection came from the monster''s will. It will disappear in a day, so Alex immediately went to his Simulation Room. He put eight Medicinal Ingredients on his Simulation Room Array before activating it. He finally came back to this alternate world of his. He made an exact copy of his room inside this Simulation Room. After all, he usually made pills inside his room. So, it made him comfortable in using his usual environment. Alex refined the medicinal ingredients one by one. After all, he never refined Energy Pill, so he didn''t know what challenge he could get in refining these ingredients. The first ingredient was a Mantis Log. It was a green-colored wooden log. Alex tossed the ingredients inside his furnace and immediately rose his flame. Unlike his usual refinement, he used his fire to scorch this wooden long. Before long, the Mantis Log became a charcoal. This was Alex''s true goal. The charcoal made from Mantis Log had a special trait that could mellow the will inside a monster core. He stored the charcoal inside his flame before tossing the second ingredients. The ingredient was a Metilous Flower. It was a beautiful white flower. Alex plucked all five petals from the flower and refined it with his fire. After purging the impurities inside it, he stored it in his flame before going to the third ingredient, Chalcedony Herb. It was a yellow circular herb. Because it only grew around a bluish gem called Chalcedony. It was named Chalcedony Herb. Alex refined each ingredient without stopping. From the fourth ingredient Stag Horn to the seventh ingredient red elm leaf. He hadn''t met any difficulties for those seven ingredients. According to the book he had, the difficulties in making Energy Pill lay in Monster Core. This was the last ingredient he had to refine. Alex didn''t immediately toss the monster core inside his furnace. Instead, he already used his flame before throwing it inside his furnace. As soon as the monster core got inside the furnace, Alex suddenly saw a silhouette of a leopard. Alex was startled to see that as it was the first time he saw a shadow appear from a Monster Core. It was the shadow of the 10-Star Grandmaster Stage Wind Leopard. The shadow suddenly attacked him with its claw. Although it didn''t have a physical body anymore, when the claw reached Alex''s hand, he felt so hurt. His energy was disrupted. Alex gritted his teeth while enduring the pain. He tried to grab the shadow with his hand, but the shadow dodged it. The shadow continuously distracted him. Alex finally realized that this was the difficulty in making Energy Pill. He needed to fight while refining the pill, and he needed to fight with a peak Grandmaster Stage beast at that. Refining the pill alone took a high concentration from him. And to fight in this state, he can only try his best. Alex couldn''t use his sword or spear to fight this monster. He could only use his fire. Sadly, if the beast was in this form, his Pure Fire didn''t have any effect on them. In other words, Alex couldn''t suppress them with his fire. He would need to fight them seriously. Flame suddenly gushed out from his hand before covering his hand. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw." Alex decided to use his powerful Fire Phoenix Art. But to focus on one thing, he would let go of the other stuff. He suddenly realized that he f*cked up. He neglected the other ingredients, and that made them unstable. The energy turned to chaos and exploded. "Not Good!" Alex sweatdropped. "Boom!" 282 System "Boom!" His Alchemy Ingredients immediately ruined, and his furnace exploded along with the monster core. He was then transported back again to reality. Alex had gotten surprised by it. He never thought the situation would become like that. Alex took a deep breath to calm his mind before entering the Simulation Room again. Alex failed every single time. The second time he tried, he thought he had enough preparation. But when he tried to kill the Wind Leopard with his Phoenix Claw. The Wind Leopard dodged him and landed a hit. Because of that, his concentration on the rest of his ingredients got disturbed, leading to another explosion. He fought the Wind Leopard again and again before finally succeeded in killing him. But when he tried to merge the rest of his ingredients. The Wind Leopard ruined it again with the last bit of energy from its will. He was practicing this pill like mad. Every single time the furnace exploded and forced him to go out. He immediately tried it again. At first, when he thought he could refine the Energy Pill after succeeding in refining the wind leopard. He failed again on the second monster core. The second monster core was a peak Grandmaster Stage rhino. It was another type of monster core. He needed to solve the monster differently from the first one. And it became another loop of that after Alex managed to refine the rhino. Because he fought with only his Fire, Alex''s options were limited. Each time, Alex would come up with a different way of fighting. Alex didn''t know how long he needed to master this technique if he didn''t have a Simulation Room. If he failed, he could just restart it again with his Simulation Room. But for Alchemists who didn''t have this god-like technique, they might get injured while fighting those monsters. Unfortunately, the monsters didn''t have a physical body. That meant, if they got hit by them, they might get an internal injury, which was more troublesome than a physical injury. He might only master it after a few months, if not years. But it did not matter to him because Alex managed to learn it in a week. After fighting numerous types of monster''s wills, he could feel the distinction from every kind of soul. A wind leopard emphasized speed. When he fought with the same type of will, he could grasp it more easily. After he got familiar with the monsters'' will, he finally asked Anna for more Monster Core as he wanted to try fighting with as many as possible. Alex was able to get a good grasp of each soul characteristic, which gave him a more profound understanding of the monster beast. He might be able to increase his efficiency in killing monsters outside. Nonetheless, he could not afford to spare some time to test that. He would rather practice the next pill, Ocean Mind Pill, than killing monsters. He didn''t have much time left. At first, he wanted to make Crystal Skin Pill that could give him more strength. Considering his Muscle Tempered Pill, this pill should be popular. After all, the pill gave a half-dragon strength. Sadly, each person could only eat this pill once. Alex chose the Ocean Mind Pill because Crystal Skin Pill was a mid 4th rank Pill. He didn''t know whether he could make it or not, especially with the limited time he had. So he chose a safety path but still beneficial, which was Ocean Mind Pill. A few days later, Alex was refining ten Medicinal Ingredients at the same time. From a blue herb, a green wooden stick, an orange fruit to a monster core. All of them were hovering around him while he was refining them. He refined them outside his furnace because he was purging the impurities inside each ingredient. If he did this step inside the furnace, the impurities might combine with each other and disrupt the flow of energy. Alex didn''t use this method previously because the ingredients for each pill was not as many as this pill. At first, he tried to separate them into two and refined the first group of ingredients then refined the second one. But he came up with another possibility, which he refined it outside. Although he was able to do this, it required a great extent of Mental Energy. If he were distracted at this moment, the refinement would become a failure. After a few more minutes, the ingredients didn''t let out impurities anymore. Alex finally moved to the final phase, which was the merging process. He tossed all of the ingredients inside his furnace and started refining it. With a constant flame from him, the pill slowly formed inside the cauldron. "Form!" A Purple Pill came out from his furnace. He took a deep breath and pumped his fist after seeing it was a Perfect Purity Ocean Mind Pill. He was happy because he did it in the real world. He had been refining in the outside world, not in his Simulation Room. The moment he swallowed it, he didn''t know why, but his nose could pick up the salt sea''s scent. There was a deep blue ocean inside his mind. He felt his mind and soul were strengthened by this deep blue ocean. He just enjoyed the feeling while refining the pill inside his body. Alex refined the efficacy for a few hours. The image of the ocean slowly disappeared from his mind as he finally opened his eyes. His Mental Energy, as well as his senses, got enhanced once more. He felt really refreshed. Alex checked Sherry''s and Kyle''s condition. Kyle''s cultivation increased two stars from his original 8-Star Grandmaster cultivation. It seemed he would undergo his breakthrough before the Inner Disciple Tournament. As for Sherry... Alex couldn''t see a change in her. Alex then tried to check his spirits. [Anna (Dark) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 153478/260000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 123498/260000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 137837/220000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 226187/240000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 1345/220000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 28/80 (8-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 16877/190000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 27/80 (7-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 167683/180000] It seemed his spirits had a nice hunt in these few months, especially since all of them reached Martial Lord rank except Jeanne and Vera. He then checked his Gacha Tickets. [Gacha Ticket x1708 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x0] He didn''t expect he got this many tickets. After all, he didn''t kill that much on the battlefield. Only a few thousand soldiers. "System, I want to exchange five Premium Tickets." [Processing] [Premium Ticket x5 Acquired] [Here you go, Host. Since you want to use Premium Tickets. You must miss me.] Alex opened his mouth in surprise as he never expected the system to say that. "You are right," Alex said without thinking. He became startled as he couldn''t believe he said that. [Granting Host''s wish...] [Drawing Five Premium Tickets Automatically...] "Eh, wait, I haven''t said anything about that." Alex wanted to stop it, but it was too late. A brown-haired girl appeared once again. She didn''t use her previous white dress. Instead, he wore a cute white uniform. It complemented her body line that even made him think she was going to seduce him with this uniform. She handed him the box while smiling. Alex shook his head helplessly and sighed. Well, he didn''t complain since he wanted to use the ticket too. "Hehe... Did you miss me, Host?" Alex looked into her brown eyes and said, "Well... Not really." "But you said you miss me." She grinned and teased him. "I just said it without thinking." "Then, what do you think of me?" "Hmm..." Alex contemplated. His system had accompanied him from the start, saving him numerous times. And when he thought about this, he felt that the water bottle''s case and so many times, he still got so many water bottles, though. It was just a joke. Because of his condition, he couldn''t understand it back then. But when he started enjoying his journey like this, he could tell. Until he finally felt something wrong. ''Wait? Even I cursed her or something out of anger back then, System... I mean, She only said ''I Love You.'' Did... Did that count as flirting?" Alex was startled when he thought about that. "Em..." Alex started acting awkward. He tried to regain composure while thinking about Alicia, Firia, and Anna. "Are you..." Alex hesitated in asking whether she was real or not. He had so many questions inside his mind when he became unsure of this. After remembering his question, he decided not to think about it at the moment and just answered her question honestly. "A system, a friend... No, a partner... I think. You became my strength in the time needed. You soothed me when my heart was breaking down after Alicia got contracted by that poison. You were the one who opened this path for me. I am really thankful for what you have done for me." The system girl was astonished when she heard that. She couldn''t help but smile. Her body started to disappear. She waved her hand on Alex while her other hand was on her back, pumping a fist to show her joy. She teased him before she disappeared. "I am glad you think that way. But the way you said it, it was like you are trying to hit me, you know. Not that I mind it, though." Alex was startled. He only honestly said how grateful he was. But she used that to tease him again. He shook his head helplessly as he couldn''t complain to her because she disappeared the moment she finished saying those words. "Not that she minds..." Alex smiled when he thought about that. ''What kind of system is she that could say something like that.'' [I am, of course, a Good Luck Gacha System. Did Host forget about that name?] "Hell no. How can I forget the name of a system that could only give encouragement instead of the actual luck." [Do you want to use your Gacha Ticket?] "Do you think you can change the topic?" Alex said with a poker face. [#Auto message: Do you want to use your Gacha Ticket?] "..." Alex was speechless by the system''s shamelessness. He didn''t know whether the ''Auto Message'' thing was true or not. But if it was true, then the system shamelessly used it to avoid the topic. "Yeah, good enough. You can change the topic that way because I am not that bored to say other things to get another question like that. Yeah, use all my tickets." [Processing] [Kevlar (UC) x1] [Summoning Coin (C) x1] [Water Bottle (C) x1] ... ... ... [A roll of silk (C) x1] "..." Alex looked through his reward. He got a bunch of Common and Uncommon things more than usual. "System, how can I get so many Common and Uncommon things?" [Because you are trying to tease me.] "..." Alex was speechless. This system was trying to test his patient once again. At first, after his character grew up, he didn''t have an urge to get angry easily. But he was almost got triggered again by this system. [Is what I wanted to say, but I don''t have the authorities for that. In other words, it is because your luck sucks at the moment.] "..." After knowing the reason... He said, "I will stick with the first reason." Well, who wanted to know they had bad luck at the moment when they wanted to open a Premium Gacha after this. He immediately opened five Premium Gacha Balls from the box before the system said something again. [Truncheon (R) x1] [Magic Cloak (SR) x1] [Space Arrow Tube (SR) x1] [Sunglasses (C) x1] [Moon Tulip (R) x1] ... 283 Get in [Truncheon (R) x1] [Magic Cloak (SR) x1] [Space Arrow Tube (SR) x1] [Sunglasses (C) x1] [Moon Tulip (R) x1] ... As the system said, his luck was a bit low today. He might be able to get a better thing tomorrow, but he couldn''t do it. The box might disappear by tomorrow. So, there was no difference whether he used it now or later. He checked each item as usual. The truncheon was like a black colored police baton. He was wondering how such a thing could become a Rare Rank item. But after he inspected more carefully, he could feel that it was not your usual police baton. Its material was high enough to be called a Rare rank item. He then checked the second item, Magic Cloak. It was a black cloak without any pattern whatsoever. It was a plain black cloak. [It is the same as your Safety Shoes or Safety Gloves. You can use it to protect your back. It is classified as a rank 5 cloak. It might completely protect you from a rank 3 weapon. But if your opponent has a rank 4 weapon or he/she has enough intent, they can indeed break the protection of this cloak.] The system told him the effect. This was the first time he got something like this after ascending to this world. All equipment he had was from the Lower World. They already lost their use in this world. He immediately wore this robe with his system. Of course, because he wore it with his system, the robe became invisible. No one could see it. Alex checked the third item, Space Arrow Tube. When he took it out, it was truly a regular Arrow Tube. He couldn''t understand where the space thing was. But when he looked inside the arrow tube, he could see an array. It was an array to build a space ring. He was astonished. "This... this arrow tube made by Space Stone?" [Yes, Host. This Arrow Tube also has the effect of a Space Ring. So the user could store many special arrows inside. Although most bowmen prefer making the arrow themself. It was only a normal arrow. If they had this, they could store many special arrows.] "System... isn''t that a waste? I mean, you can just use your Space Ring to store them. Isn''t it more practical?" [Host... You are underestimating a bowman. An Arrow Tube is like their second heart. Without it, they can''t be considered as a bowman.] "..." Alex didn''t know anything about a bowman, so he thought that must be the case. He nodded. "Yeah. You might be right." Of course, if bow cultivators heard this. They will instantly rebuke her. Because he never used a bow, he didn''t think anything about it, so he decided to check the next item, sunglasses... it was the typical sunglasses on earth, so he immediately tossed it away. After that, he checked the last item. Moon Tulip was a rank 3 medicinal ingredient. The tulip bloomed only at midnight, so it was called Moon Tulip. Even though it was a rank 3 medicinal ingredient, it was for a pill called Moonlight Pill. It was a special pill that could boost cultivation speed at night. But Alex didn''t need it since he could make a Gathering Array. After checking all of them, Alex said. "Use all of my Gacha Tickets... No, I think I will open it later." He hesitated after he remembered that his luck was a bit low at the moment. He would just open it after he came back. Alex took out Nicole''s card. "Nicole, what is the situation in the capital city?" "They made a special team because of the Zhou Kingdom after your Senior Sister informed them. I don''t know what the information is, and I''m planning to search for that information." "... It seems it is my information concerning the Blood Pill. You don''t need to search for that." "Understood." "How about the Kasmanan Family?" "They are acting strangely. From your information, it seems the one they sent to kill you back then were elders from the Kasmanan Family. Specifically, they were fifth elder, six elder, eight elder, and two unimportant guys. "They had sent out an investigation because their elder didn''t come back. And found out they died in Nemu Forest. But because they found Zhou Soldiers were in that place too. "They speculated Zhou Soldiers were the culprit, so they didn''t have any suspicion about you. If you want to strike them, I think now is the right time." "I see. What about their security right now?" "After the kingdom got attacked by the Zhou Kingdom, they tightened their security a little bit. But after two months passed, they had lessened. But I still think you should sneak in at night. "As long as you can sneak in, the inside security was not that tight. But... Eric Kasmanan and that princess, along with your Senior Sister, had gone back to the sect a month ago." "Alright, thanks." He put down Nicole''s card. He looked down, weighing something in his mind. He unconsciously murmured before he came up with a plan. "Sneak in... It is not a hard thing to do with my Space Element." He wasn''t that bothered to know that Eric and the Princess had gone back to the sect. If Eric lost his family, what could he do next? As for the princess, he will try to handle her later. He didn''t tell Putri about the assassination because Putri might be filled with guilt if she knew that her friend and fiance were trying to kill him, especially after she told Mega about Alex. Of course, if Mega was able to convince the royal family about this. He might need to tell Putri if the entire kingdom was involved. Of course, he didn''t mind razing a whole kingdom if required. He would need to get stronger first. Surprisingly, Alex didn''t have any guilt from planning on massacring the Kasmanan Family even though it was his Senior Sister''s fiance''s family. Alex thought it must because he never had any good impression on this Eric or maybe there was something else. At first, he thought he would feel a little guilty for doing this. Alex shrugged his shoulder, trying not to think about it again. He then recalled everyone back to the base. "We are going to go now. I will recall all of you back to the card. Leoz, Anna, and Fabio will help me to maintain the array. At the same time, Greg will make another layer as a precaution." "Understood." Alex recalled all of them back inside the card. "Kyle." "Chirp!" Kyle also disappeared. Alex wanted to erase the gathering array before he left. But in the process, he felt his body was burning... No, something inside his body was burning. Soon after, Sherry came out of his body while covered with fire. She had opened her eyes. She floated in front of him and greeted him with her paw. "Master!" Alex was surprised to see that Sherry suddenly spoke a human language. "You... can... speak?" He stuttered because of the shock. "I can." Sherry nodded. "..." "!!!" It took her a few seconds to process Alex''s question. She casually answered Alex with that because she didn''t feel anything. But after a while, she finally realized she could speak. Sherry just got the shock of her life. "Master, I can really speak normally with you now-wuu," Sherry said while hovering in the air. "I''m really happy. Now I can talk with others like this-wuu." "... It seems because you are talking with ''Wuu'' for so long, it has been etched to your talking habit?" "I don''t know-wuu." "Anyway, I''m glad to see you again. Look at you now. You have become a Martial Lord before me." Alex teased. "It is only because of master. If I didn''t meet master back then, I might still be the white fox that no one cares about, or I might have died in that place. But now, I can help master even further!" Sherry said while pumping her paw. Alex smiled, "Well, enough with this talk. We can talk later. I want to go somewhere first to finish some business." "Alright!" She disappeared. Alex flew toward the capital city. He didn''t rush to the capital city to conserve his stamina for later. After a half-day flying, Alex finally saw a tall stone wall. However, he didn''t get inside. Instead, he stopped in a nearby space where people couldn''t see him. "Spatial Gate." A portal to the blue colored realm appeared again in front of him after he used it to escape from a Martial King. Alex went inside the realm. He walked for quite a while before opening the gate once more. When he came out of the portal, he was on the bottom of the wall. Of course, inside the city. He arrived in a dark alley. He tried to examine his surroundings, and he didn''t find anyone. "Luckily, this capital city didn''t have a spatial restriction." Spatial Restriction was a term that described a constraint to a place/thing where they couldn''t be passed with Space ability. Take Zwaka''s barrier as an example. Even a Space Element Array Master like Alex couldn''t get inside with his Spatial Gate because Zwaka''s barrier that surrounded the death forest had a Spatial Restriction. This restriction disturbed the flow of Space Element and became a barrier that blocked it. If Alex used his Spatial Gate to pass the barrier, he would only be stopped by an invisible wall that couldn''t be crossed. Alex then activated his Spirit Eyes as he moved, trying to avoid contact with people before he reached the main road. After walking for quite a while in this dark alley, he finally reached the capital city. The city was crowded with people. Alex might be able to camouflage easily in this place. The overall layout was not that different from Heavenly Sword Town. He strolled around while waiting for the night. He reached the Alchemist Guild in the city and took out Nicole''s card. "I need to meet you." "Where are you, Young Master?" "In front of the Alchemist Guild." "I will go to your place." Not long after, a blonde girl walked to him. She was a gorgeous young lady with a seductive body. She greeted Alex, "Young Master, please follow me." Alex instantly realized it was Nicole. Before she had pink hair, maybe she just changed her identity, including her appearance. "Sure." Nicole grabbed Alex''s hand. Alex became tense for a second before he heard Nicole say, "Let''s go." When he saw her expression, he knew it was just an act. Nicole brought him to Kasmanan Family. Of course, from other perspectives, both Alex and Nicole were like a normal couple. In reality, Nicole was showing Alex the weak spot of the mansion. After Alex looked around the mansion, the first impression he had was... huge. The house was close to a traditional Chinese house. Sadly, they couldn''t peek inside. But as expected of a master spy. Nicole had already made a map for it and will explain it to Alex later. After a while, they finally went inside an inn. They looked like a couple, trying to book a room as the night had arrived. After they got inside the room, Alex immediately put a Sound Insulation Array. "Where is Ngina?" "He is inside the castle," Nicole said. Even Alex was astonished when he heard Ngina was in the castle. But considering Ngina''s ability, he could imagine it happening. "He is spying inside the royal family to see whether they are conspiring against you or not." Alex nodded. Nicole then took out a big paper. It was the detailed information inside the Kasmanan Family, including the map of the house. Nicole started explaining about the house while Alex was trying to come up with his plan. Alex was going to use his Jadeite Mirror Array to enclose the house before he used Fire String Arrays to create fire to burn the oxygen inside. Alex was discussing the location where he should put his Fire String Arrays. 284 Kasmanan Family After another two hours, Alex finally came up with a plan to utilize his Arrays perfectly. Alex used his Spatial Gate again to sneak inside the Kasmanan Family. It took him more than three hours to place a single Jadeite Mirror Array and a hundred Fire Strings Arrays. Allex placed those Fire String Arrays in different locations according to the map: in the garden, the roof, on a pavilion, and many other places. Because of Nicole''s information, Alex didn''t meet any people from the Kasmanan Family as long as he was careful enough. "Njomo." After Alex finished his job, he called Njomo. The dog came out of his shadow. "Go outside the house and inform me if someone is going to find our hiding space." Njomo didn''t bark. He only nodded his head and disappeared. Alex used his Spatial Gate to hide. He moved around to activate his Fire Strings Arrays inside that blue realm. When he arrived at the array, he just opened a little gate to activate the array. He then moved to the second spot. Soon enough, the dark sky suddenly brightened. The soldiers finally realized what was happening. They were shocked when they saw fire inside the mansion they were supposed to protect. They didn''t even realize that there was a fire inside. The guards were panicking due to the sudden fire. They shouted to inform the others inside the house. "Fire!" "Fire!" Even the family leader of the Kasmanan family, who was cultivating inside his room, smelled the burnt scent that was lingering in the air. He opened his eyes and came out of his room. "What happens?" He asked the panicking guard. "The house is on fire." "What? How can the house be on fire? Do you check the cause of the fire?" "We still don''t know the cause." "Useless." He immediately went to check it himself. Alex increased his pace amidst this confusing situation. The fire from Fire String Arrays was spreading fast. In the garden, the fire started burning the trees and grasses around it. In the living quarter, the fire started burning the building and made the people panic. Until finally, "Jadeite Mirror Array. Activate." A huge sphere that enclosed the entire house appeared. Even a fool could realize. It was an attack on the Kasmanan Family. It... was not the entire house, though. Alex made the sphere as small as he could, so his target would be achieved faster. After all, making a bigger sphere was the same as giving the Kasmanan Family more time to think up a plan. In a corner that was hidden pretty well, Alex opened his Spatial Gate and came inside. He called Anna, Leoz, as well as Fabio. "I want you three to maintain the array." All of them nodded as they stretched out their hand to the core of the array. If people looked at it from outside, it was like three hands coming out of a small hole. Alex then summoned Greg. "Greg, I want you to make another barrier." "Yes." Greg nodded his head before raising his shield. "True Spirit Body. Fortress." Greg''s armor turned to green. Alex was a bit interested in what kind of transformation Greg would have. A horn? A wing? Sadly, his expectation was betrayed. After Greg''s armor turned to green like when he was using his move, there was no other change. "You didn''t have any change?" Alex asked. "I am the same as the others, Young Master. I have changed." Greg said. "But I didn''t see any change?" "Alex, do you forget what you see is Greg''s armor?" Anna asked with a weird smile. "!!!" Alex was startled. He indeed had forgotten about it. He had treated Greg and his armor as one thing. He thought there would be a change in Greg(Armor). Inside his armor, Greg''s human skin turned into a black scale. But all of it was covered by his armor so no one could see his appearance. "Fortress Form First Stage, Enhanced Wall." After Greg used his skill, he shook his head, trying to erase his curiosity. Alex then activated his Spirit Eyes to observe the scene, and he indeed saw a green barrier that appeared inside his Jadeite Mirror Array. ... Inside the house, the people were panicking, and the family immediately convened a meeting upon the order of the family head. His name was Willy Kasmanan. He had bright orange hair and a muscular body. After he saw the appearance of a barrier, he knew this was an attack. He immediately told the soldiers to evacuate all members and convened a meeting. When the elders had gathered, he spoke. "This must be an attack. Judging from the appearance of the fire... the enemy should be inside the barrier. And it seems that our enemy is an Array Master. Did any of you offend an Array Master?" He narrowed his eyes while exposing his killing intent. The elders were panicking. After all, no one was foolish enough to pick a fight with an Array master. Of course, they didn''t know that his decision on killing Alex would be the cause. The room was silent because no one thought they had offended an Array Master. "Anyway, we will try to find the one who attacked us first. If he/she is weaker than us, kill him. But if he/she is stronger than us, try to talk about it with him first. "Remember, if I found out that any of you are the one who offended this Array Master. You will be punished by Family Rule, which is death." Willy said because he thought the culprit must be from the Array Master guild inside the city. He never considered the possibility of a stranger because the kingdom had tightened their security. (AN: All of you are guilty because you agreed on killing Alex. Die!) So, the only possibility was the current member from Array Master Guild. "Every elder who had a water element or similar will lead the disciple to put out the fire. The others will search around the house to find this person." "Yes!" All elders immediately disappeared, leaving Willy alone. He put his hand on his head while thinking, ''How can this happen? Did our family offend someone we couldn''t afford to offend?'' Looking at the fire that had started burning the room, he also decided to go out. The elders were leading the disciple around to search for the culprit but to no avail. All the people who got water elements immediately tried to put out the fire. But because the fire had already spread so much, it would take them a long time to put it out. But, it was different in Alex''s eyes. When he saw the people putting out the fire with their water element, he realized he forgot to consider this factor. Killing them with lack of oxygen was indeed a good plan... if he was on Earth. But this was a fantasy world where people had elements. Alex sweatdropped and said, "Leoz, activated your True Spirit Body. We are going inside the barrier to kill those people who are trying to put up the fire." After all, if a portion of the fire was put out, it would give them more time. Alex couldn''t let that happen as his plan might become a failure. Leoz released his hand and rose from the ground. But he didn''t use his True Spirit Body. He looked at Alex silently without moving. "Leoz?" Alex was perplexed with Leoz''s action. "Young Master. Please don''t rely on our True Spirit Body. This is our trump card. If you are always relying on our True Spirit Body, you will make a miscalculation sooner or later." Leoz said sincerely. Alex opened his mouth. After he listened to Leoz, he finally realized. After learning about the True Spirit Body, he seemed to consider this True Spirit Body as a part of his plan, not a part of the worst possible case. It was different. If Alex considered it as a part of his plan, when the situation turned to worse, Alex wouldn''t have another trump card that could overturn their situation. If Alex considered it as the last trump card, he would be fine even if the situation turned to worse. He took a deep breath. He looked at Anna, Fabio, and Greg, who nodded their heads in agreement. "Yeah, you are right. Sorry about that." Alex looked at Leoz, "We are going inside and kill the people who are trying to put the fire out. We will kill who we can kill and don''t take the risk. I can confuse them with my Space Ability but prepare for the worst." Leoz smiled and nodded. "Understood." "Anna, Fabio, and Greg will stay here. If this place is going to be found out, we are going to move to a different spot." "Understood." Alex and Leoz then moved out. Alex saw five Martial Grandmasters trying to put the fire in the garden. "Five Grandmasters," Alex warned Leoz before opening the portal. Leoz nodded and disappeared. He went out of the portal and killed those Martial Grandmasters. "You!" "Argh!" "Gah!" Scream after scream echoed as Leoz killed all of them. After that, he hopped back in. "I heard a scream!" "Over there." "We are moving." When the people heard the screams, they immediately went in that direction. Sadly, they only found five dead bodies on the ground. "Gah!" "Argh!" The screams continued in another direction, but when the people arrived, they only found dead bodies. They continuously chased the screams but to no avail. When they thought it was close, they didn''t find anything except dead bodies. "Shit. They are targeting our water element members. We are going to protect them." Willy Kasmanan immediately ordered when he found Alex''s objective. Sadly, it was too late. They had killed around eighty percent of their water element people, so it would be impossible to put out all of this fire. Alex then made a complete retreat with Leoz. "Who is the one that is trying to destroy my family?" Willy Kasmanan was shaken. At first, he made a hard front, so the rest of the family didn''t panic. But all he got was the enemy killed the family members secretly. "Who are you? Why are you trying to destroy my family? We never offend an Array Master!" He shouted on top of his lung because of his anger. One of the elders came to him and said, "Family head. If we can''t find him, we can just break the barrier and get help from other families. As long as we can prove we are not in the wrong, then the other families will help us. "This is a ruckus, so I''m sure the people outside have realized too." Sadly for him. Alex didn''t forget to make a Sound Insulation Array so the people outside couldn''t hear them. Even if they made a loud sound, the people nearby who were inside the house wouldn''t be able to hear them. Although the soldier outside could see the bright flame, they were too far. After all, to see this, they needed to be in the sky where they could see the city completely. That meant the only ones who saw all of this were the soldiers on the city wall or some soldiers that were patrolling. But their response would be delayed because of that, and even they came. They won''t be able to save them. He gritted his teeth. He realized he was too focused on himself to even forget about that. Because the matter was involving an Array Master, he thought about mending their relationship, especially when he found out that the barrier was a rank 4 barrier-type array. In other words, the one they were facing at the moment was a rank 4 array master. But the thing that made him think he could mend the relationship was because there was no casualty in their side at first, aside from their buildings that were on fire. Because of that, he didn''t think about this. The only problem was Alex killed their water element members. He couldn''t understand Alex''s purpose. 285 Jadeite Mirror Array "He didn''t do actual damage to us except the building and family members that were trying to put the fire out. What is this person''s objective?" "Family head. What is your order?" He gritted his teeth. "Search for him/her first. Since all people this person killed are only Martial Grandmasters. That means, he is afraid of our Martial Lords. Make the elders lead the group and search for this person whereabout. "It is not too late to break the barrier. If we let this person out, we will lose him. How can our Kasmanan Family retain our face, especially with your advice? Other families will just mock us if we request their help!" "Ye-yes!" All people started searching for Alex''s whereabouts for two hours but to no avail. At this point, the people from all families had arrived, including the royal family. Even the Alchemist Guild, Forging Master Guild, and the Array Master Guild had come to this place. They were perplexed as to what happened. Even Bima was forced out of his house to see this scene. All of them instinctively asked this particular question in their mind, ''Did Kasmanan Family offend someone?'' But because of the Jadeite Mirror Array. The first suspect was the Array Master Guild. Bima suddenly came to a big old man. Even though his face had aged, his muscular body didn''t lose its appearance. This old man looked at Alex''s Jadeite Mirror Array in confusion. "Guild Master, Darma, why is your Array Master Guild attacking the Kasmanan Family? We have been cohabiting for a long time, and our relationship is good. Why do your guild attack the Kasmanan Family? Did they offend you?" "Offend me? I don''t even know what is going on, are you expecting me to answer your question?" "You don''t know anything?" Bima narrowed his eyes. "I could guarantee it with my identity as the guild master. I don''t know anything about this." Darma shook his head. He looked at the array, "This array..." "What? Do you know anything about this array? Do you know who did this?" Bima asked loudly. Even the other families also tried prying their conversation. "No, I mean, this array is fascinating. Just look at this, I don''t even know if this array even exists. I feel... I have seen something similar..." "What? Even you, don''t know about this array?" Bima was surprised. Darma was the guild master of Array Master Guild. He was the most knowledgeable person in the Array Master Guild. And to think he didn''t even know this array, Bima was bewildered. "Just look at this barrier... It looks like the barrier is made of jade. The jade looks polished enough to be a mirror." Darma walked closer to the barrier. He said while looking at himself in the barrier. "This translucent barrier... Jade... mirror... Rank 4..." Darma''s eyes brightened. "What? Do you know what this array is?" Darma pondered it for a moment before he was startled by what he found. He took a few steps back in surprise. "This... this array is... the long lost Jadeite Mirror Array." If Alex was here, he might be thinking about Maxwell. ''As expected of God that came to this place a few thousand years ago. Even this array had become the long lost array.'' "Jadeite Mirror Array?" Bima was confused as he didn''t know that name. The other families also perplexed with that name. They started listening to Darma attentively. "Yes... I have found this array inside a book. Inside the book, there is only an explanation about this array''s appearance. ''A barrier made by jade that is polished enough to reflect you like a mirror.'' "This array is supposed to be the strongest rank 4 defensive or barrier-type array," Darma explained. "What? The long lost rank 4 barrier-type array?" Bima was shocked to the extent he dropped his jaw. "I don''t think I know any person that could make such an array," Darma said. "Do you mean it is an outsider? But we have been tightening our defense." "I don''t know. We Array Master always have a way." Darma said proudly. "This is not the time to be proud of your job. We are in crisis. Can you deactivate the array?" "Hmm... I don''t know. There are three ways to deal with this type of array. First, you can break it with raw power. Second, you can search for the array''s core. As long as you destroy the core symbol, then you can destroy the array. "Third, you can understand the array and disturb the flow of the energy. Sadly, the third will take a long time as we didn''t know this array well." Darma said. "Then we will split our force. You will try to search the core, and I will break this array with force." Bima said hurriedly as his fist started burning, and a tiger aura appeared from his fist. "Wait!" Darma suddenly shouted. Bima wanted to criticize him. But before he had the chance to do it, Darma suddenly came to the front of the array. He put his hand on the barrier. Darma''s eyes flashed before he channeled his Spiritual Energy to the array. And suddenly, an invisible barrier broke, and the loud ruckus from inside finally filled the space. "I thought it was weird that we can''t hear anything even though this place has become such a ruckus. So there is a Sound Insulation Array placed in this place." "What?" Bima suddenly realized he forgot about that. He only knew from the soldier the Kasmanan Family was attacked. He came out in a rush to see what happened. He forgot that he couldn''t hear anything even though it was such a ruckus. "That person is inside and afraid of us. He could only kill Martial Grandmasters. As long as we stick together with an elder, we can safely search for him." "That''s right. Kill that person." "Kill!" "..." When Darma, Bima, and the others heard this. They were speechless. Darma was the one who broke the silence. "It seems that the person who did this is inside. So, I assume this must be a personal revenge. But I am wondering who the Kasmanan Family had offended? Judging from this array alone, he must be a rank 4 array master. "You know it yourself. We didn''t have a rank 5 array master in this continent. "Just look at this array. It contained a thousand symbols. It is truly a peak rank 4 array." "A thousand?" Even Bima, who was not an Array Master, had basic knowledge. A rank 1 array only contained ten symbols or less. A peak rank 2 array contained fifty symbols. Peak rank 3 contained a hundred symbols, while the rank 4 had a thousand symbols. Even the array that Darma used only contained around eight hundred to nine hundred symbols. Darma tried to approach the barrier, putting his hand on it. "Just look at this, there is a mysterious force of rejection in this barrier. I don''t think this barrier has an ability like this. "This force seems to reject the incoming harm to this barrier. In other words, If you tried to break this barrier. This mysterious force will weaken your attack''s power before it hit the barrier. "And just look at these symbols. It was made of King Stage Monster Blood to strengthen the barrier. It made the barrier even harder to destroy. "I am really wondering who was offended by the Kasmanan Family. This array master is truly good. I really want to meet this person and exchange our thoughts. "So, what are you going to do, Your Majesty? Are you going to break this barrier? If I could say... this person''s skill might be on par with me." After he explained all of that, he looked at Bima and asked. Bima was startled along with the other families. An array master on par with Darma... All of them were respectful to Darma because they knew Darma''s skill. Even if they wanted to kill Darma, they might need to pay a huge price. And if they offended this person too, what kind of price they will pay? Bima contemplated for a long time, thinking about the pros and cons. Which one he needed to choose, the mysterious array master or the Kasmanan Family. But the Kasmanan family was one of the prominent families in this city. Even Willy Kasmanan, the head of Kasmanan Family, served the current king as a minister. After thinking that he might not even be able to meet this mysterious Array Master even if he massacred the Kasmanan Family. He gritted his teeth and shouted. "We are breaking the barrier." He chose not to cower. After all, they just fought with the Zhou Kingdom a few months ago. If they took another hit like this, they might lose all of their face... "!!!" That thought suddenly enlightened him. "We are helping the Kasmanan Family. The Zhou Kingdom must be the culprit for this because we destroyed their invasion. "Don''t you remember what kind of thing happened a few months ago. To create such madness, do you think the Zhou Kingdom won''t do something like this to us? "If we back down now. What will other kingdoms or sects do when they see us in the future? They will mock us. So we will break this barrier." "Ho..." Even Darma was enlightened by his speech. He also knew about what happened in that war, and he thought it was really a madness. After he heard that, everything clicked on his mind. "I hope the guilds also help us with this." Bima didn''t ask Darma alone. He also asked the guild master of the Alchemist Guild and Forging Master Guild. "We are a neutral party. But we also need to help others in need. As long as we aren''t directly involved in this, we will try to help as much as possible." "Thanks!" As he finished his speech, an explosion sound was heard. "Boom!" They looked at what happened and found that the people from the Kasmanan family tried to destroy the barrier. ... A few minutes ago, the Kasmanan family tried their best to find Alex. Sadly, Alex didn''t leave any trace behind. And their suffering was not over. Not long after that, their family members felt nausea, dizziness, headaches, and vomiting. After another minute, many of them started convulsing. Even Willy also felt nausea and wanted to vomit. They were showing these symptoms were because of carbon dioxides and lack of oxygen. (AN: Correct me if I''m wrong.) "Family head!" One of the elders looked at him. His eyes were telling him to stop their search and started breaking this barrier. Willy didn''t know what happened to lead them in such a case. ''Poison?'' Only that doubt came to his mind. He gritted his teeth. He wanted to find the person who did this, but they needed to be alive to do that. "We are destroying the barrier!" "Yes!" All of them shouted. Willy raised his sword, and the rest followed him, they raised their own weapons. "Attack!" Willy shouted as he made the first move. "Moon Cutting Wave!" "Hell Wind." "Unbreakable Arrow." "Stone Flame." Each of the family members sent their attack to the barrier. But the first barrier they met was Greg''s barrier. "Boom!" ... In the blue colored realm, Greg suddenly fell to his knees. Alex was frightened. "Greg?" "They are attacking the barrier. As expected, with so many attacks and with my current cultivation, I can only handle one more wave." Greg explained. "What will happen to you if the barrier breaks?" Alex worried about his condition. "Nothing. I will only exhaust my Spiritual Energy. I won''t have any internal injuries or whatsoever." Greg tried to assure Alex. "Are you sure? If you will get an injury because of this. It is better to let the Jadeite Mirror Array take the brunt." Alex said. "It is fine, Young Master. You don''t need to worry about that. You can ask the others if you don''t believe me." Alex was hesitating about this, but when he saw Anna nodded her head, he finally believed in Greg. "Alright. Just don''t overdo it." "Yes." 286 Mission Accomplished "Boom!" They launched the attack, but many people started falling to the ground. Those people on the ground were either convulsing or in a coma. It was just a matter of time before they died. When they realized that they didn''t destroy the barrier, people started becoming desperate. Even Willy Kasmanan immediately floated to the air. He looked at the people outside and shouted without care anymore. "Help!" He cried out loud. He couldn''t stand it anymore as his body had been shaking uncontrollably for a minute. When Bima saw this, he immediately ordered everyone around him. "We are going to break the barrier now! All people will help me." "Yes, Your Majesty." "Willy Kasmanan, we will attack at the same time," Bima shouted. "Yes, Your Majesty!" Willy then shouted to his family members who remained standing. Half of his people had been lying on the ground. He didn''t know what was happening. He thought since it was only a fire and no real casualty, he could catch this person as long as he didn''t break the barrier. But because he was taking too long, Alex''s objective had been achieved. The fire had been taking the oxygen inside the barrier continuously, and now it had come back to them. Without the supply of oxygen and full of carbon dioxide, they would die sooner or later. "People of the Kasmanan Family. We are going to attack once again." "Ooh!" They started preparing their attacks. When they were ready, Bima immediately shouted, "Attack!" "Attack!" Willy also shouted. "Tiger Echo Fist!" "Swirling Wind." "Wonderous Fire." "Superior Spear." Every person around the area launched their attack on the barrier. "Boom!" The attacks from outside were intercepted by Jadeite Mirror Array. Before the attacks crashed. The mysterious force suddenly lightened the power of their attacks. It was Alex''s Space Element. Although it couldn''t serve as a shield, it could protect the array as a cushion. Bima and the others were observing the barrier. "Did we do it?" They could see the barrier was cracking. "We did it!" The people shouted in joy. Especially the people from the Kasmanan Family. When they saw their attacks succeeded in cracking the barrier. They were overjoyed. They could see the crack started to spread out, and finally, the entire barrier crumbled. Unfortunately, they met a hard reality. When the barrier crumbled, what they met was only another barrier. Even with the force of around thirty Martial Lords. It was not enough to destroy the barrier. With a peak rank 4 barrier-type array that had been strengthened with Alex''s space element and king stage Monster Blood. The array was beyond their expectation. The ones who maintained the barrier were Anna, Leoz, and Fabio to boot. What they destroyed was only Greg''s Barrier while the Jadeite Mirror Array was still in fact. In fact, there was not even a crack on the barrier. When they saw that, their legs finally gave up. Their body was shaking, and they fell to the ground. Unwillingness was planted on their face. Even Willy Kasmanan couldn''t hold on anymore. After seeing his family members had fallen, he also fell to the ground, shaking. He felt his throat was choked by something, and his heart was pumping crazily. It was excruciating. ''Did everyone feel this too?'' He gritted his teeth while thinking that on the ground. He didn''t even know who was the one who massacred his family. ... When the people outside saw the barrier crumbling. They also shouted in joy before Darma noticed something wrong. They really did see the barrier broke. But it was only the inner barrier. What they attacked was the Jadeite Mirror Array, while the people inside struck Greg''s barrier. "Wait. There are two barriers. We haven''t succeeded in breaking the barrier!" Darma shouted. The people outside alone were not enough to break open the Jadeite Mirror Array. Sadly, it was too late for them to realize it. The moment they heard Darma, they finally saw the Jadeite Mirror Array was intact. They were shocked, especially Bima. He was not only shocked by the barrier but with the Kasmanan Family too. They started falling to the ground and convulsing. Most of them didn''t even move. "Willy Kasmanan? What happened? Don''t we break the barrier?" "I suppose there are two barriers. The one that broke was the inside barrier. That meant the people from the Kasmanan Family were the ones who destroyed the barrier. We didn''t break this Jadeite Mirror Array." "What? Does this Array even have two layers?" "No, I don''t think it has two layers," Darma said while frowning. Even he was confused by this situation. "We don''t have time anymore. Look, the people from the Kasmanan Family had been falling to the ground. Is it poison?" An old man came to the front. His hair was all white, and he wore a long white robe. He narrowed his eyes while looking at the condition inside. He was the Alchemist Guild''s guild master, Pedro. "I don''t know. If it is really a poison, it must be in the air." "Guild Master Pedro, do you think it is bad to remove this barrier? If we destroy the barrier, won''t the poison come out?" Bima said hurriedly. "Hmm... I don''t think so. I don''t know why, but it seems the culprit enclosed the space with the barrier. In other words, the culprit didn''t want to harm anyone besides the Kasmanan Family." "I am asking whether the poison will go out if we break the barrier!" Bima couldn''t wait any longer because of the situation. If it were too late, the people from the Kasmanan Family would die. "Like I said, this person won''t harm other people besides the Kasmanan Family. If we destroy the barrier or the culprit, release the barrier. The poison won''t spread. "If Your Majesty is not convinced. I can take the lead to see whether the poison is still there or not after you break the barrier. Although this old man is not a poison user, after engaging with medicinal herbs and poisonous herbs for so long. I could say I have the necessary knowledge for this." "Fine." Bima immediately agreed without thinking as the time didn''t let him think. Bima shouted, "People, we are going to attack this again until the barrier breaks!" "Yes!" "Attack!" "Tiger Echo Fist!" "Swirling Wind." "Wonderous Fire." "Superior Spear." "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions filled the capital city. Finally, this time, they managed to make a crack on Jadeite Mirror Array. When Bima saw that, he was happy and shouted again. "People. We will attack it once more. We will surely destroy the barrier this time." "Ooh!" Bima turned to Pedro. "I hope Guild Master Pedro will help us whether the poison will go out or not. We can try to stop the flow of the air with our Spiritual Energy for a while." "This old man will try." Pedro nodded. "Attack!" Bima shouted again while attacking. "Tiger Echo Fist!" "Swirling Wind." "Wonderous Fire." "Superior Spear." "Boom Boom Boom!" A series explosion once again filled the entire capital city. Unfortunately, this time, the explosions didn''t occur on the barrier. Instead, their attacks crashed on the ground. Just before their attacks crashed on the barrier, the barrier suddenly disappeared. Their attacks then went through it and exploded on the Kasmanan Family. In other words, what they attacked was not the barrier but the people from the Kasmanan Family. When they finally realized that, they could only see many bodies from the Kasmanan Family had lost body parts because of their attack. Even Willy Kasmanan was not spared from it. He lost his arm... Well, he already lost his life before losing his arm so... Ahem. The burnt scent that had been trapped inside the barrier finally released to the outside. The people started coughing because of the smell. Pedro immediately tried to decipher the smell if there was poison or not inside the air. But, other than the burnt scent, he didn''t find anything. "I don''t find any poison inside." He said to Bima. Bima was astounded. Not because he heard there was no poison, but because he realized they just participated in killing the Kasmanan Family. He instantly rushed toward Willy Kasmanan. He tried to check his condition only to find out that he was already dead. He checked the people in the surrounding, but all of them were dead. The people also checked the bodies on the ground, but the result was the same as Bima. They gulped down. They didn''t know why, but a particular story was playing inside their mind. A story of a family massacred by an Array Master to avenge his grievances. They thought it was only an urban legend, but they realized it was not. Because they just spectated the real thing with their own eyes. An array master massacred the entire Kasmanan Family. "Search around. They said the one who did it was inside. Lockdown the city and search for that person!" Bima ordered out loud. The people started exploring the city. But the culprit had escaped from the city. And not long after, the Southern Kingdom also issued a wanted poster for this person. ... A few minutes ago, When the second wave of attacks arrived. Greg suddenly fell to his knees, exhausted. Even Leoz, Anna, and Fabio shook a bit. "Greg, are you okay? Anna, Leoz, Fabio." Alex looked around. "I am okay, Young Master. But, I have exhausted all of my Spiritual Energy. I request to go back to the card. I''m sorry I can''t help you after this, Young Master." Greg said as his green armor turned to grey. Anna also assured him. "We are alright. Without the Kasmanan Family, we should be able to block another two waves." Alex looked at her, worried. Just because of this revenge thing, did he endanger his spirits? His woman? Alex gritted his teeth, thinking about retreating now. But before he said anything else, the third wave had come. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Kh!" Anna, Leoz, and Fabio gritted their teeth. They almost exhausted their Spiritual Energy too. Even Alex also felt the barrier cracked. After looking at Anna, Leoz, and Fabio. He decided to stop at this. He murmured, "Revenge is good. But if it cost me everything. Then it is not worth it." When he finally decided to stop it, his head cooled down. And he just thought of an ideal plan for this. His eyes brightened and said, "Anna, Leoz, Fabio. You three don''t need to block the attacks again." "Alex (Young Master)?" Of course, the three were confused by his words. "I mean, you can just release the barrier before those attacks hit the barrier. After all, the barrier will break even if you three hold it." Their eyes widened. They quickly realized Alex''s intention. They looked at each other with a serious expression and nodded. And finally, the last wave came, the barrier disappeared, and that barrage of attacks hit the Kasmanan Family. After Alex confirmed the attacks hit Kasmanan Family, Alex said, "Alright. Let''s go back." They nodded. Alex then took out Njomo''s card. "We are going back. Meet me at the base in Nemu Forest." "Woof!" He used his Spatial Gate to cross the city wall and appeared again inside the woods near the capital city. "Alex, you are famous now." Anna suddenly came to tease him. "Famous?" Perplexed with the question, Alex tilted his head. "Yeah, from Heavenly Sword Sect to Mount Hua Sect that Elder Su Hua. Then the Zhou Kingdom and lastly this kingdom. Maybe they will also post a wanted poster for you later." Alex was dumbfounded. After Anna told him about it, he finally realized that. Of course, Alex and the others didn''t know about the ruckus that girl from Rainbow Flower Sect had made. They came back to the base inside Nemu Forest before going to Hua Town, where Alex will take his Alchemist and Array Master test. 287 Alchemist Tes A few minutes later, Alex and the others arrived at their base. It seemed he didn''t need to summon Vera and Jeanne on the mission. Not long after, Njomo also arrived. He did not have any reports, so he instantly went back to Alex''s shadow. All of them gathered after Alex summoned Vera and Jeanne along with Greg. "Anna and I will go back now. How about you guys? Are you going to hunt in this forest or choose another place?" Alex asked. The spirits were looking at each other and immediately got the same thought. "We are going to hunt in this place. It had a good amount of powerful monsters." Leoz pondered for a moment, then he continued. "We can make the team like before until Vera and Jeanne reach Martial Lord stage. Fabio can hunt with Vera, and Greg will help Jeanne. I am fine alone." "Alright. Just be careful." Alex nodded. "I almost forgot. If all of you have reached Martial Lords, can you check the previous place where we need to go around it? I don''t know why, but that place is bugging me." "Yes, we will try." Leoz nodded. "Alright. I''m going then." Alex looked at Anna, "I''m going to recall you back to the card first. You can restore your Spiritual Energy along the way." Anna nodded. Even Leoz, Fabio, and Greg would recover their energy first before hunting in this place. Alex looked at his spirits once more before leaving. His target was Hua Town. It was a town in front of Mount Hua Sect. On his way, he was wondering if he should wear his mask or not. After all, his face was known by Su Hua. Especially if he took the Alchemist test without his mask. Su Hua might tell other people about him. But if he used his mask to take the Alchemist Test. He couldn''t use it again when he took the Array Master test. If he used his mask again, then people will know he (with a mask) was a rank 4 Array Master as well as rank 4 Alchemist. If they knew about it, he might not be able to use his mask again because people will try to invite him to their influences or even kill him. He pondered about it while flying. He finally decided to use his mask in Alchemist Guild and took off his mask in Array Master Guild. Since his face might be recognized in Alchemist Guild and no one knew he was a rank 4 Array Master so that the suspicion would be minimal. He didn''t know whether this was a good choice or not, though. He decided to take both Alchemist and Array Master tests in Hua Town because he might not be able to take it in another town. Array Master aside, if he took Alchemist Test in another town, he didn''t know if they could even test a rank 4 Alchemist. So, with that, he chose to take both tests in a day and immediately departed from that town. It took him around four days to reach Hua Town. Alex landed onto the ground before he reached the town. It was an unwritten rule to enter the town using the town''s gate, not flying above it. The guards checked his identity, but Alex easily passed them after giving his Heavenly Sword Sect Disciple Token. Surprisingly, the town was more crowded than the Southern Kingdom and Heavenly Sword Town. It might be because Mount Hua Sect had everything from Weapons to pills, Alex thought. He didn''t want to be bothered by the people, so he immediately went to the Alchemist Guild as he put his mask on. When he arrived inside the Alchemist Guild, he was mesmerized with the interior. Many racks of pills were on display, and each shelf had its own personnel to serve the guest. He also felt the energy inside this Alchemist Guild was richer than any other Alchemist Guilds he had known. It was truly an impressive sight. But he didn''t have the time to mesmerize by this sight as he needed to register as soon as possible. "I want to take the Alchemist Test." Alex found the place where he could get his test. There were two young girls with the cultivation of 4-Star Martial Masters as the receptionist. With the sudden appearance of a masked person, they were startled. As it was rude, they immediately regained their composure and smiled at him. "Welcome to Hua Town Alchemist Guild. Which rank would you like to test?" The brown-haired receptionist girl asked him. "Low rank 4 Alchemist," Alex said. Both of them were dumbfounded. They knew Alex was a young man from his voice even though they couldn''t see his facial expression. "Very well. For low rank 4 Alchemist, you need to make one high 3rd rank pill and one low 4th rank pill. You need to pay ten thousand Spirit Stones for the test." The brown-haired girl explained. While the other one also started sizing him up. He was a bit surprised by the price, though. Back in Limewatch Town where he took his first Alchemist Test. He only needed two hundred Spirit Stones. He indeed came a long way. Alex handed her ten thousand Spirit Stones, which she respectfully accepted. "Do you have your current badge with you?" Alex nodded and took out his Golden two stars Alchemist badge. When they saw this badge, they were shocked. They didn''t expect Alex was a high rank 2 Alchemist. The other girl already made a disgusted face. She thought that this person was just trying to act cool. Fortunately, the brown-haired didn''t do the same thing. Although she was surprised by Alex''s current badge, she would need to follow the procedure. After all, Alex had paid for the cost. "Filma, this guy surely just wants to act cool." The other girl whispered to the brown-haired girl. "Don''t say that. You can''t judge a book by its cover." The brown-haired girl, Filma, said with a smile. Alex also heard about it and frowned behind his mask while cursing, ''Again?'' "I apologize for my friend''s behavior. I hope sir can forgive her." Alex sighed and nodded. ''Acting cool and composed. If you fail later, I''m wondering if you can still act like that.'' The blue-haired girl cursed in her heart. "I will call the guild master first. In this town, the guild master needs to be present for a rank 4 alchemist test or above." Alex nodded. Filma left while the blue-haired girl tried to ignore him. Not long after, she came back with an old man. This old man was too old as he even needed to use a stick to walk. But when Alex looked into his eyes, he could see a trace of wisdom. "So, you are the one who is going to take the test?" He asked with a smile. Alex nodded. "What do you want to make?" "Energy Pill and Ocean Mind Pill" "I will explain the test a little bit. I, with two other people, will be the judge. If you don''t mind about these two little girls. I hope you can let her go inside to watch. "You can say this is a part of the benefit for those who wanted to work here. They are granted a chance to observe the refining process as well as our comments on your pill. Of course, if you consent. "She is the daughter from one of our elders in this guild, and the other one is the same. Both of them are mid rank 2 Alchemist, so she knows what to do and won''t bother you. If she distracts you, we will compensate you." Alex was astonished to hear that. If he were on Earth, this girl would be called an intern. He didn''t really mind about it since he didn''t find any downside for that. "Sure, I don''t really mind," Alex said. The blue-haired girl snorted in her heart. ''Let see how you embarrass yourself.'' "But I can''t give my consent for her." Alex pointed his finger toward the blue-haired girl. The girl only snorted when she saw that. She didn''t believe Alex was a rank 4 Alchemist. "Of course. You are the one who makes the call for that." The old man nodded. He didn''t know why Alex only let one of them observe him. But looking at how a rank 4 alchemist refined their pill would be a great experience for the younger generation. "You call the second elder and the third elder. Don''t forget to take the ingredients." "Yes." Filma nodded, but before she left, she turned to Alex, "Which level of monster core do you need for your Energy Pill, sir?" She didn''t forget about it. After all, for rank 3 Energy Pill, 7-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core or above was considered a high 3rd rank pill. Even the old man smiled and nodded. "10-Star." "Very well. Please excuse me." Filma left. The old man looked at him and said, "Follow me." Alex followed him to the test area. Along the way, he told Alex about the reason for the so-called intern. It seemed they didn''t want to let them learn Alchemy skills but also learn humility. They needed to learn how to have a student''s mentality. So he asked Alex not to mind about the other one. Of course, Alex didn''t care about that. The old man also didn''t judge the book by its cover, so he didn''t mind. Not long after, Filma came back with two old men. Alex greeted them with a simple nod. "Sir, this is your medicinal ingredient." Filma handed him the medicinal ingredients needed for those two pills. Alex nodded to her, "Thanks." Filma then made a distance before the old man announced. "You can choose which pill you want to make first. The minimum quality of the pill is a mid purity pill. You can start at any moment." Alex nodded. For him, who always made Perfect Purity Pills, passing this test was a simple task. Alex chose to make Energy Pill first. He grabbed the necessary ingredients such as Mantis Log, Chalcedony Herb, and the others. He took out his rank 4 furnace. Alex tossed the ingredients inside his furnace and immediately rose his flame. Like the previous training, he used his fire to scorch this wooden long. Before long, the Mantis Log became a charcoal. He stored the charcoal inside his flame before tossing the second ingredients, Meticulous Flower. Alex plucked all five petals from the flower and refined it with his fire. After purging the impurities inside it, he stored it in his flame before going to the third ingredient, Chalcedony Herb. He refined the ingredients one after another without stopping. The three old men had their own poker face because they knew the difficulty in Energy Pill lay in the monster core. If Alex failed only at this step, he wouldn''t be qualified as a rank 4 Alchemist. It was different for Filma. She took it very seriously. She didn''t know why, but Alex''s refinement style mesmerized her. Just after he finished his refining, he stored it in his flame and let them float around him. They were like dancing around him. Not long after, Alex had finished all ingredients and proceeded to the monster core. When he refined the monster core, a cat''s shadow suddenly appeared. The cat was trying to distract him. The elders were narrowing his eyes when Alex entered this process. Alex dodged the cat pretty again and again. He was like dancing while refining his pill. It was such a sight to behold. Even the elders were also surprised by his performances. Instead of fighting the cat, he just dodged it again and again. They quickly realized Alex''s plan. As experienced Alchemists, they knew. The longer they refined the monster core, the monster would slowly lose its power. But they didn''t dare to do it. They knew they would just get distracted if they did the same. They opened their mouths in shock unconsciously. 288 Array Master Alex continuously dodged the cat until he could get a perfect chance. The fire sparked on his hand, and he tried to grab the shadow. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw." The moment Alex grabbed the shadow, it was scorched by his phoenix claw. The cat immediately disappeared. Not long after, he proceeded in merging the pill. The aroma of the pill started filling the room, and all of them knew it was the time to finish. Alex merged the pill completely and burned it a little bit. He then opened the lid as his fire disappeared. The yellow pill came out of his furnace. From normal people''s perspective, Alex did it easily and flawlessly. But from the experts'' perspective, he was insane. There was no one dared to play along with the monster. One single misstep, the furnace would explode. But Alex did it flawlessly. "Impressive." The guild master was the first one who commented and applauded him. The other two also applauded him while Filma was still dazed. She thought Alex was not refining a pill but dancing as his pill refinement was beautiful. "Perfect Purity rank 3 Energy Pill with 10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core. Impressive." The guild master was one of the rank 5 alchemists in the continent. Although he could easily make this pill, he couldn''t say he dared to confront the monster''s will like what Alex did. What Alex did was the hard but simple one, while the normal path was easier but more complicated and needed a longer time. "I can only say how you treated the ingredients is perfect. I am wondering who taught you?" Alex only shook his head. In his eyes, Alex seemed didn''t want to disclose his master''s identity. But Alex shook his head because no one taught him. He learned Alchemist from books and experimented himself through trials and errors. It was the fruit of his hard work. "Can I continue?" "Of course." The old man smiled. Alex nodded. He refined the ingredients one by one. He didn''t know if refining all of them simultaneously was a norm or not, so just in case, Alex refined them one by one. After around twenty minutes, a blue pill came out of the furnace. It was the perfect purity Ocean Mind Pill. "Great. It is indeed a Perfect Purity Ocean Mind Pill. I am impressed with your skills. Our Alchemist Guild is honored to have a younger generation Alchemist like you." Even though the old man said ''younger generation.'' In reality, he considered Alex as a middle-aged man, but because of cultivation, his aging was slower. He was also too old for this and was not wrong to call a middle-aged man as a younger generation. If he knew Alex''s actual age, he might die in shock. The old man then patted Filma''s shoulder, who was still in a daze. She snapped back to reality after the pats. "Take the low rank 4 alchemist badge for him. After that, you can try to absorb everything you learned in this room. I''m sure no one objected to this result, right?" He asked the other elders who nodded their heads upon hearing the question. "Ye-yes! I will immediately go." Filma left hurriedly. The other elders started approaching him. One of them asked, "Truly a good seedling. What is your name?" Alex thought a little bit but shook his head, refusing to tell his name. "That''s... too bad." The atmosphere became awkward. "How about your pill? Do you want to sell it to us? For both pills, we can give you twenty thousand Spirit Stones. How about it?" "I''m good. I have another use for the pill." "Alright. This old man won''t force you." The guild master said. He then recalled one matter, "I heard your previous rank was high rank 2 Alchemist. Is that true?" The other elders were shocked by his question. After all, it was rare for people to advance a test like that. They usually advanced step by step. They thought Alex was a high rank 3 Alchemist. But it turned out he was not. "Yes. I didn''t have time to take each test. So, I''m sorry if I created any misunderstanding." "No no. Although most Alchemists advanced step by step, there are people who took the same path as you." Alex nodded his head. Not long after, Filma came back with the badge. The badge was a bronze badge with four stars on it. Alex thanked her and said goodbye to the elders before leaving the Alchemist Guild. Filma was going to guide him to send him off, but Alex rejected her. "I almost forgot. Didn''t my daughter with you? Why is my daughter not here? It is such a shame to miss this opportunity as she will learn so much if she saw the refining process. After all, I can''t teach her while I''m refining a pill. I can only explain it after I finish." The third elder asked Filma. "I..." Obviously, Filma didn''t know how to explain this. The guild master agreed with his statement. It was indeed hard to explain while refining. If they had someone like Alex just now, it would be easier for Filma and that girl to learn while they guided them. The guild master immediately explained it to him. "From my perspective, that person seemed didn''t like her because she was rude or something. I think you should ask your daughter about the details." "What?" The third elder immediately flared up. The guild master whispered to Filma. "You better go back first." "Ye-yes." Filma bowed to them and left. ... Not long after, Filma came back to the counter. While the blue-haired girl immediately asked her. "Filma, how is it? How bad does he fail? Tell me." Filma shook her head. "Ryan, I think you are missing something great. He didn''t fail. Instead, he passed it with flying color. Even the Guild Master said his refining was perfect. Ah, I have so much to learn. He might be my idol. I think you better be prepared for later." Judging from her father''s expression, it seemed she will have a full ''Conversation'' with her father, the third elder. ... Alex didn''t care about any of that as he made his way toward the Array Master Guild. It was the time he visited the Array Master Guild. Surprisingly, the guild was not brimming with people. Alex didn''t put his mask on according to his plan earlier. He strolled for a while. He could see so many empty racks here and there. He went to the receptionist. It was a young man with big round glasses. His coconut haircut made his appearance more plain. Alex didn''t have any problem with his appearance, though. He thought if his appearance was like this too back on Earth. "Can I help you?" He asked politely. "Yes. I am wondering if I can take the Array Master test here." "Of course, you can. Which rank do you want to apply for?" The glasses boy smiled as hard as he could. He was happy to see another person who wanted to test. Unlike Alchemist and Forging Master, it was hard to find Array Master around the continent. "Em... Can you explain to me about the requirement first?" "Oh, I forgot about it because I''m too happy. The population of Array Masters is not many to begin with." He said. "I''m new here, so I hope you can explain it in detail," Alex asked. "Of course." He nodded. Then, he started explaining, "Unlike Alchemist and Forging Master, we changed low, mid, or high rank Array Master to the color of the badge: Bronze, Silver, and Golden. "Because of the scarcity of Array Masters and the high demand. We employ the achievement system here rather than classified them with how many symbols they could make. "Everybody who took the test will always start from the bottom. In other words, if you test for rank 2 Array master, then you will start from bronze rank 2 Array Master. "If you wanted to rank up to silver rank 2 Array Master. You need to contribute fifty rank 2 array plates to the guild. As for the golden rank 2 Array Master, you need to contribute two hundred array plates. Although I said ''Contribute,'' it doesn''t mean to give it for free. "You sell it to the guild. You will get eighty percent, and the guild will take twenty percent. However, this also comes with a benefit. Your array plate would be more trusted if you are a golden ranked Array master. In other words, people tend to buy a rank 2 array plate made by golden rank 2 Array Master than buying it from bronze rank 2 Array Master. Because they know the golden rank 2 Array Master has experienced under his/her belt." Alex pondered for a moment. Making an array plate was really hard. Take his Jadeite Mirror Array as an example. It contained a thousand symbols. He could make it in a few hours on the ground. But with the limited space of monster skin. He would need to cram all of those symbols in that little space. Array Master tended to stick a few skins together so they could make a bigger plate. Though they loved to call it ''Array Paper.'' Anyway, with that little space. Alex would need to make a thousand symbols. He would need a longer time and higher concentration. That was the reason why Array Master preferred making the array on the ground than in the array plate. They didn''t need the array plate to boot since they could make the array themself. "But most racks are empty around here. Wouldn''t it be the same whether you are a bronze rank or golden rank Array Master?" "Yes. Indeed. Because of our small number and high demand. They are usually empty. So, to fix that problem. We would take twenty percent from a bronze rank Array master, then fifteen percent from silver rank Array master, and lastly ten percent from golden rank Array Master. "We also sometimes made an auction for golden rank Array Master, so their product could sell more." "I see." Alex finally understood their approach. Then he asked, "What about the test?" "If you want to take rank 2 Array Master test. Then you need to be able to make at least two rank 2 Array. It doesn''t matter which array you can make as long as you can make them. You need to be able to make it with your spiritual energy, then on the ground, as well as on the plate." "So, I need to make three on each array?" "Yes." He pondered for a while. He only had mastered four arrays, which were Jadeite Mirror Array, Pollen Illusion Array, Simulation Room, and Teleportation Array. He thought he would only need to be able to use one rank 4 array and one rank 3 array just like the Alchemist test. Luckily he could still take the test with his Jadeite Mirror Array and Pollen Illusion Array. Alex couldn''t let them see his Simulation Room as it was such an absurd array. The same applied to the Teleportation Array. He couldn''t imagine what kind of expression they would make when they knew he was a Space Element Array Master. "Alright. I will take the test." "Sure. Let me help you with the registration. Which rank do you want to apply for?" He took a paper to write Alex information. "Rank 4," Alex said casually. "..." The glasses guy thought he didn''t hear him right, so he asked again. "I''m sorry, which rank?" "You didn''t hear it wrong. I want to take the rank 4 Array Master test." Alex said. He unconsciously dropped the paper and his pen. He looked at Alex dumbfoundedly. The young man in front of him wanted to take a rank 4 Array Master, it was unbelievable. But he remembered what his Master said to him back then, "Don''t judge the book by its cover. You might regret it later." He tried to regain his composure while getting his paper and pen on the ground. He tried to smile as hard as he could and said, "The fee is twenty thousand Spirit Stones." 289 Tes Alex was surprised a bit by his attitude. He thought he was going to mock him too. At first, he was wondering if he should make a fake beard and put on makeup, so he looked like an old man. Nobody will suspect him. But it seemed, he didn''t need to do such a thing. "Sure." Alex nodded and handed him twenty thousand Spirit Stones. "The fee is for the monster skin and blood that you will use in this test. Do you have any badge previously?" "No. Is there any problem with that?" "No." He shook his head. "Please wait for a while. I will call my master to report this. He will be one of the examiners." "Sure." Not long after, the glasses guy came back with a middle-aged man. He had spiky black hair, and judging from his expression, he seemed to be a strict man. "I am Bazza, the first elder in this guild. Follow me. I have informed the other examiners." Alex nodded his head. "You get the blood and the array paper (monster skin)." "Yes," The glasses guy left. Alex followed Bazza to a huge room. It seemed to be a 100x100 meter room. When he reached the room, he found two other men. "This is our guild''s second elder, Olaf." Bazza pointed at the purple-haired man and then introduced the one beside him, "And he is the fifth elder, Stig." Alex nodded to them. "A young man? Are you sure you can complete the test, or are you just wasting your twenty thousand Spirit Stones?" Stig asked Alex while narrowing his eyes. "I can. Elder don''t need to worry about it. I know what I''m doing." Stig didn''t say anything else but kept his eyes locked on him. Olaf also thought Alex was too young. Even an average rank 3 Array Master was usually a middle-aged man, and rank 4 Array Master was filled with old men. It was only a special person like Bazza who could become a rank 4 Array Master at his age. Especially after they saw Alex''s cultivation was only 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. Although a Martial Grandmaster could make a rank 4 array, they were usually a peak Grandmaster, unlike Alex, who was a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. Not long after, the glasses guy finally came back. He handed Alex a spirit ring, which Alex politely accepted. He looked at the Bazza and the others. "Alright. You can start." "Should I make the Array with Spiritual Energy first, on the ground, or make the array plate?" "You can start with whatever you want," Bazza affirmed. His disciple informed him that he didn''t have a badge, so he was sure that Alex didn''t have any experience in this. Alex nodded his head. He chose the last array he made, Jadeite Mirror Array. He raised his hand to the front while opening his palm. He made symbols one after another. Bazza and the others spectated this to see whether this young man could make a rank 4 Array. 100 symbols... 200 symbols... 500 symbols... 800 symbols... 1000 symbols... Their eyes widened when they saw Alex made a peak rank 4 Array right out the bat. All of those symbols were made in a span of a minute. They didn''t care about the time, though. After all, making an array with this method would take the same amount of time. What shocked them was the peak rank 4 Array that contained a thousand symbols. Their reaction was the same as Darma back in the Southern Kingdom. Although they didn''t exaggerate it because unlike in the Southern Kingdom, Alex didn''t use his Space Element or anything. The array then activated, making a barrier in front of him that could protect him from a good attack. "Did I pass this one?" Alex asked since the elders didn''t say anything. Bazza snapped back. "Y-yes. You are good at this one. You can start with another method." Alex nodded his head, then grabbed the monster blood. It was only a 1-Star Lord stage monster blood. It was enough for him to make it as long as the blood came from a Lord Stage monster. Alex then started painting the ground with the monster blood. He took a portion of blood and shaped them into a symbol with his Spiritual Energy. He put it on the ground like using a stamp. He stamped the blood made by blood to the ground. After he got comfortable with it, Alex made ten symbols at the same time. Alex didn''t know why, but he could use the same approach as he was refining the pill. When he was refining a pill, Alex could split his focus so he could refine many ingredients at once. He also used this method to make the array faster. It seemed that Array and Alchemy were complementing each other. On the other side, Those three elders were shocked beyond doubt. They couldn''t believe the person who most unlikely couldn''t make a rank 4 array suddenly made an array faster than them. Of course, they didn''t know it was because he had gotten used to doing this as an Alchemist. If they were also an Alchemist, they might be able to do this too. After around fifteen minutes, Alex finally finished his array. It was very different from the one he made back to massacre the Kasmanan Family. After all, Alex had to hide from the guards that were patrolling around the family. As soon as he activated the array, the barrier appeared again. After letting them see for a while, Alex then erased the array from the ground before taking the array paper out. It was a 10x10 meter array paper. He made a 50x50 meter Array on the ground, but this time, he would shrink it. This was a bit challenging as he could not make it the same way he did on the ground. Alex needed to concentrate on making the small symbols. It had been a long time for him to make an Array Plate. He took the brush and the blood. He looked at the paper first for a while. He was picturing how big he needed to shrink the symbols. After the picture came to his mind, Alex then started making symbol after symbol. At the same time, he was controlling the blood so the blood would continuously be flowing to his brush, so it didn''t break his concentration. Alex''s method surprised the examiners once again. But after witnessing Alex split his concentration to make ten symbols at a time. They were not that surprised... but rather, they were impressed by his technique. Alex was only a young man, and he was truly able to make a rank 4 Array, it was a peak rank 4 Array to boot. His strokes became faster and precise as he made more symbols. When he made this array, it seemed the outside world didn''t matter to him. His focus was occupied by this array alone. Alex started sweating as he really used his full concentration. Luckily he had leveled up his Mental Energy a few times. If not, he might not be able to make the array this fast. Finally, after a long one hour, Alex finished drawing the Jadeite Mirror Array. Alex took a deep breath to calm himself down. "I have finished. Please check." Bazza and the others walked toward him and his Array Plate. After checking the array plate, they knew there was nothing wrong. They tried to activate it. The barrier seemed to be working just fine. Bazza suddenly grabbed his shoulder. The strictness in his eyes was replaced by a star as he said while shaking his shoulder excitedly. "Young man, who is your master? Can you introduce me to him? I want to be his disciple." Alex was startled when Bazza suddenly did this. Alex didn''t know what to do. "Ehm... My master..." "Yes... yes... What do you want? I can give you everything. I just want to be his disciple." Bazza was mesmerized by Alex''s skill. To teach such a young rank 4 array master, Alex''s master must be a person with high skill. He shouldn''t be from this continent. To have a master like that, it was a good fortune. But what Alex said next broke his anticipation. "My master... is in another world (literally)," Alex said. But it was different in Bazza''s ears. He could only interpret it as Alex''s master had died. Even Alex didn''t know where he was since he was... god. So, Alex could only say that, and luckily others will misunderstand it. Bazza froze for a second before taking his hand off from Alex''s shoulder. He made a step back awkwardly. Even the other two elders didn''t know what to do. "I''m sorry." "It''s fine. Then can I continue?" "Ye-yes. You can continue." Bazza looked at the other elders and decided to retreat to their previous location. They anticipated the next array he would make next. Alex had shown his monstrous skills in front of them. So, this excitement was justified. Alex then made his second array. They immediately recognized this array as they were pretty familiar with it. It was the Pollen Illusion Array. It was an array that contained eight hundred symbols. Alex succeeded in making the array in less than a minute. "It is Pollen Illusion Array." Bazza nodded his head. "By the way, what is the first array you make?" "Jadeite Mirror Array," Alex replied. "Jadeite Mirror Array... I seem to hear this name from somewhere..." The fifth elder said while trying to recall it. "Jadeite Mirror Array!" The fifth elder finally remembered it. "Long lost Jadeite Mirror Array. A peak rank 4 barrier-type array. The barrier was made up by jade that looked polished enough that people can even use it as a mirror! "I encounter it when I am reading an ancient book. But I only found the description of the array. I didn''t know how to make the array. So, I have witnessed the long lost Jadeite Mirror Array. Young Man, I want to buy that Array Plate. "I can give you two hund- no, three hundred thousand Spirit Stones. Please sell it to me." He said excitedly. After all, he could learn how to make it too with the array plate. Bazza and Olaf were confused by his statement as they never heard about this array. According to Stig, it was a long lost array. "!!!" Bazza and Olaf looked at each other, and their brain seemed to click at the same time. "Young Man, just sell it to me. I can give you four hundred thousand Spirit Stones." Olaf said hurriedly. "No no. I can offer you a better price, how about five hundred thousand?" Bazza said. "Long lost?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. He sighed inwardly, ''As expected of Master. After living for a few thousand years, your array is old enough to be a long lost array.'' Looking at these three excited men, Alex shook his head. "I''m sorry, Senior. I can''t sell it to you." "Why? Is it not enough? Then I can give you seven hundred thousand Spirit Stones for this array." Bazza said. "It is not. I can''t say the reason, but I truly couldn''t sell it to other people." Alex said. Since the array was a long lost array, the people from the Southern Kingdom might know about it and realized it was him that massacred the Kasmanan Family. Well, when he was strong enough to topple a kingdom, he might sell them, though. Of course, in the auction, since it might give him a higher price. Looking at Alex''s serious expression, they misunderstood him once again. Maybe it was his memory to his master, so he didn''t want to sell it to them. Although there was an option to snatch it from him, Alex was also a rank 4 Array Master like them, and he was young to boot. It was not a wise decision to offend this person. If he did not die, then it would become their doom. 290 Leaving "Alright. We are not going to force you. You can continue." Bazza said. Alex nodded his head and proceeded in drawing the Pollen Illusion Array on the floor. Alex used the same method to make it. After he finished drawing it, Alex then showed it to them by activating it. Alex''s skill was impeccable in this, and they could only leave praise on his expertise. He then made the Array Plate. He didn''t take a long time before he completed his work. But surprisingly, after he made this array, his body was fully covered in sweat. His mind felt a bit heavy as it seemed he used a considerable amount of Mental Energy to make the Array plate this fast. From Alex''s perspective, he realized he could only make two Array Plate a day. But, he didn''t have any plan in selling the array plates as he thought selling the pills was enough for him. "You are truly good, and we are honored to have you as one of the Array Masters in this guild." Bazza came to the front and stretched his hand for a handshake. Alex also smiled and shook his head. "Elder overpraised me." "I believe the other elders have the same opinions as me," Bazza said while looking at Olaf and Stig, who nodded their heads. "Then, you are officially a bronze rank 4 Array Master. I really wish my disciple could learn something from you." "Ahaha..." Alex only smiled at his praises. "Jonathan. Come here." He called the glasses guy back to the room. "Yes!" Jonathan came hurriedly. "Go get the bronze rank 4 Array Master Badge." Jonathan was surprised to see Alex had passed the test. He couldn''t believe someone this young managed to become a rank 4 Array Master. If he said it to other people, they would brand him as a liar. "Why haven''t you moved yet?" "Ye-yes!" Jonathan ran again hurriedly. He didn''t know whether he was happy or sad about this information. After all, there was such a young rank 4 Array Master. "How about we chat a bit more, err..." "Redna, Redna Xela. You can call me with that name." Alex said with a smile. "Good. Mr. Redna, how about we chat over tea after this?" Bazza asked. He didn''t call Alex without honorifics since both of them were rank 4 Array Master. Although, because of his contribution, he was a Golden Rank 4 Array Master, it was only a matter of time for Alex to reach Golden Rank 4 Array Master or even higher. "I''m sorry. Elder Bazza, I need to go back as soon as possible. Maybe next time." Alex said. Bazza became a bit disappointed. Jonathan came back with a bronze badge and handed it to Alex respectfully. The badge was a pentagram, and there were four stars on it. "This is my student. His name is Jonathan." Bazza realized he never introduced him to Alex. Jonathan became nervous when his master introduced him to Alex. Even though they looked like they had the same age, Alex was far more amazing than him. Alex tapped his shoulder, "A journey ten thousand miles starts with a single step. Persist no matter how long and no matter how hard the path is. I won''t say your hard work will be rewarded or not since I am a nobody to you. But I will say this, as long as you try, the chance is never zero. Just believe in yourself." Jonathan''s eyes brightened after he heard Alex. Bazza said hurriedly, "Why are you not thanking Elder Redna''s teaching?" "Thank you, Elder Redna." Alex was startled when he suddenly became an elder. He was too young to be called Elder... except Elder Brother, of course. "I am just too young to be called Elder. So, you don''t need to call me, Elder." Alex just shrugged his shoulder. "No can do. People with skills are respected, no matter how young he/she is. Only fools are ignorant enough not to respect someone like that." "Well, I think it is time for me to go," Alex said. "Jonathan." "Yes!" Jonathan immediately guided Alex to the door. Alex seemed to make a certain distance from an elder like him. Still, he should not be like that to the same generation, so he let Jonathan accompany Alex. [Host, you need to think more about that name. You can say you are Jack or whatever, but you choose that name. What the heck with Redna Xela. You just make your name backward.] His system teased him. "Shut up. It is only for one-time use." Jonathan led him to the exit, but before they reached the exit. A familiar figure appeared in front of him. The young girl had pink hair tied into a ponytail. Her appearance seems to be the same age as him. Modest curves, she appeared to be a carefree and willful young girl. She came with a young man with long dark blue hair. Just from his expression alone, Alex could see that this man was arrogant. He was unsure whether it was from his ability or his parents, though. "You... You are Alexander!" The pink hair girl shouted in surprise. "Elder Su Hua''s granddaughter," Alex said. To be honest, he forgot her name. "I have my own name, Su Yue. How can you call me like that! What are you doing in Hua Town? You must be regretting your choice and come to beg my grandfather to be his disciple?" Su Yue said with a smug face. ''Is a woman this annoying?'' Alex wondered. But that thought disappeared after he remembered Anna. This Su Yue must be a special case. "Junior Sister Su Yue, do you know this person?" "This is Alexander. Back then, my grandfather is gracious enough to let him be his disciple. But he rejected it. Such a fool. He is nothing compared to Senior Brother." Su Yue said. She then introduced that person to Alex. "Look, he is Grandfather''s new disciple, Senior Brother Toran. He is thirty years old and a low rank 3 Alchemist." "I''m not as talented as Junior Sister Su Yue. You are a twenty-two years old high rank Alchemist. You will overtake me sooner or later." Alex looked at both of them. This Toran seemed to be a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster while Su Yue was a peak 1-Star Martial Grandmaster. He shook his head disappointedly. "Why are you shaking your head?" Su Yue narrowed her eyes while Toran seemed to be offended. Su Yue was still thinking without her grandfather''s support. Alex would still be a high rank 2 Alchemist. "I think you should apologize to Eld-" Jonathan wanted them to apologize to Alex. Although he was confused why they called him Alexander, it was rude to ask Alex about it. So, he wanted to reprimand them for offending a Rank 4 Array Master. But before he could say it. Alex tapped his shoulder again. He said while walking, "Let''s go." "Elder Redna... Why are you-" "It''s fine. It is better to practice your skill rather than bothering yourself with those kinds of talk." Alex said casually. Jonathan didn''t dare to say anything since Alex had spoken so. "You...!" Su Yue was angry. Toran didn''t talk again. He suddenly disappeared from Su Yue''s side and approached Alex. He was going to attack Alex. Of course, Alex felt Toran approaching him. He only turned his body around, uninterestedly. Watching Toran attack him with his fist that was covered by fire. Alex only put his hand forward to block this fist. The fist completely blocked by Alex. Alex didn''t even do anything special. Alex was not bothered with the flame, and his raw strength alone was enough to stop this fist. Toran''s and Su Yue''s eyes widened in shock. Back then, Su Yue could completely say Alex was weaker than her. But this time, Alex could even overpower Toran. "Remember the last sentence your master said?" Jonathan pondered for a moment before his eyes brightened. Alex must mean, ''Only fools are ignorant enough not to respect someone like that.'' Alex shrugged his shoulder while saying, "This is the example. I hope you don''t become something like this." Toran didn''t know what Alex was talking about, but he felt offended by it. After his fist was blocked by Alex, he sent a kick to him. But before that, Alex gripped his fist tightly before spinning him in the air. Alex then sent a normal kick to blow him away. His raw strength alone was high enough to beat this guy. Toran crashed on the receptionist''s table, where he met Jonathan for the first time. Alex gave Jonathan his Pollen Illusion Array plate. "This should be enough to compensate for it. Alright, bye." After Alex gave his gift to Jonathan, he disappeared without giving Su Yue, Toran, and Jonathan a chance to react. He complained in his heart, ''I should just use my mask here and abandon that identity after that. Sadly I can''t use it since the Zhou Kingdom might hunt me without my mask.'' "Who dares to make a ruckus in the Array Master Guild?" Bazza finally came after he heard the breaking table sound. He looked at the broken table and Toran, who was struggling to get up. He also found Su Yue. "Jonathan, what happened?" "Erm..." "I am Su Yue, the granddaughter of Mount Hua''s sect third elder. Just now, the person he brought kicked my Senior bro- I mean, Mount Hua''s sect third elder''s disciple and escape." "How dare he! I will tell Master to kill him," Toran shouted. When he heard about that, his expression turned to dark. He had been treated Alex carefully, so he didn''t have any displeasure with the Array Master Guild. But it had been ruined by these two people. "Only fools are ignorant enough not to respect a person with a high skill." Bazza cursed. "Elder said that too, Master. He also gave me this Array Plate as the compensation. This is not elder Redna''s fault because they are the ones who started first." Jonathan told him Alex''s last message before he left. "You can keep that. It is only a table. Try to learn from that Array Plate." Bazza said to Jonathan. Bazza then released his Spiritual Energy. Su Yue and Toran immediately misunderstood him. They thought Bazza wanted to help them to chase Alex. "I hope Elder Bazza helps us to settle our grievance." But surprisingly, they suddenly floated in the air and couldn''t move their body. Bazza used his 8-Star Martial Lord spiritual energy to restrain them. "Sure, I will settle this grievance," Bazza said. Su Yue and Toran were happy when he said. But Bazza said something unexpected, "By sending you back to the sect." "Jonathan. I''m going to have a chat with their sect master and Elder Su Hua. I leave the reparation to you." "Yes, master." He then flew with these two. "Elder Bazza, why are you bringing us back?" "That person is going to escape. We need to chase them." "You want to kill him? You should pray for your well being first. I have a mountain of scolding for you two, but I will let Old Su do that." He snorted and ignored them. Soon enough, they reached Elder Su Hua house. It was similar to the traditional Japanese house. Because he was well known and familiar with the area. There was no one to bother him by visiting Su Hua. Of course, with such a huge presence, Su Hua immediately noticed it. When he appeared in front of his house, he was surprised to see Bazza come while using his Spiritual Energy to restrain his granddaughter and disciple. "Old Bazza, why are you coming to my house? And why do you restrain my granddaughter and my disciple like that." "It was that Alexander, Grandfather. He beat Senior Brother Toran." Su Yue immediately shouted. "Old Bazza, what is the meaning of this?" Su Hua turned his head in confusion. He was surprised to hear that name again, but this was not the problem. "Well... How do I say this without mixing my anger? Hmm, you can just say these two have offended my guild, rank 4 Array Master. So, I thought about bringing them to you first, so they didn''t need to face my wrath (?)" Bazza said. "What?!" 291 Problem "What?!" Su Hua shouted in disbelief. He remembered back when he saw Alexander. He was only a high rank 2 Alchemist. He even watched his test personally. But why did he suddenly become a rank 4 Array Master? "Are you sure?" He asked Bazza once again. "Absolutely." Even Su Yue and Toran were dumbfounded. It was such an unbelievable thing to hear. Alex was an Alchemist, since when he became an Array Master? "There must be a misunderstanding. That boy should be an Alchemist." Su Hua said. "He is absolutely a rank 4 Array Master. I just personally tested him today. With his skill alone, I could certainly say he will become a golden rank 4 Array Master sooner or later." Su Hua flustered. He was wondering why Bazza could say it so sure. A ridiculous thought came to his mind. ''Did he fake his Alchemist Identity to hide his Array Master identity? Is this the reason why I can''t meet him in the Alchemist Guild back in Heavenly Sword Town because he only comes to the Array Master Guild?'' When that thought flashed in his mind, his forehead was full of sweat. He felt that he had aged a few more years. If Alex was an Alchemist. He thought with his skills, he should be a low rank 3 Alchemist if not mid rank. But it turned out he was even more monstrous than his wildest imagination. He was an Array Master... a job that was even more respected than Alchemist or Forging Master. And he was even a rank 4 Array Master. How can that be a justice? He looked at Su Yue and sighed disappointedly. "You are going to have a closed-door cultivation for five years. You will practice Alchemy and advance your cultivation." "Grandfather?" Su Yue was bewildered. "Mista!" Su Hua shouted. Not long after, a brown-haired man appeared beside him. "Bring her inside. Make sure she can''t do anything funny." "Understood." Seeing that, Bazza immediately released her from his Spiritual Energy, and Mista grabbed her and brought her inside. "Grandfather!" Su Yue tried to call her grandfather but to no avail. Su Hua then looked at Toran. "Master, I..." "Don''t call me Master again. You are not my disciple." "Master, please listen to my explanation." Toran tried to explain, but Bazza and Su Hua ignored him. Bazza even used a Sound Insulation Array to make him silent. "Old Bazza, are you going to meet the sect master?" "That''s my plan." "We will bring him along with us so the sect master can punish him. Haiz... I have been telling the sect master about this boy, but he never cared. Let''s go." Bazza nodded. Both of them flew. On the way, Bazza asked. "Who is he?" "His name is Alexander Sirius, Heavenly Sword Sect''s disciple." "Heavenly Sword Sect''s disciple?" Bazza was startled when he heard that. It was such a waste of talent. If he was in the care of Mount Hua Sect, he might already become the one and only rank 5 Array Master in a few decades. "You also feel it is such a waste, right? I tried, alright. I tried. I thought about matching him with my granddaughter by letting them spend some time together. I even stayed in Heavenly Sword Town''s Alchemist Guild for more than a year for that. But this was what I found..." "Haiz..." Bazza shook his head helplessly. Both of them came to visit the sect master. The sect master had long white hair and a long grey beard. He was surprised to see Su Hua suddenly come to him. Even more so when he brought Bazza too with him and another person that seemed to be muted by Bazza. "What happened?" "Sect Master. Do you remember about the person I told you about?" "The alchemist boy that you thought was a genius?" "Yeah. I came to you to talk about it again." "Why did you even bring that topic back again. Since he is going to abandon his path in Alchemy, then it is up to him. We have Saga in our sect. He is a twenty five years old mid-rank Alchemist. That guy couldn''t be compared to our Saga." He snorted. When Su Hua brought this discussion again, his neutral eyes became hostile again. Su Hua had bothered him for a long time with this Alex. "Listen to me first!" Su Hua couldn''t take it anymore. It was already frustrating for him to know that her granddaughter acted like that and disowned his disciple. His head was in a mess at this time. "Sect Master Antonius. I don''t care about your previous grievance with this Alex. Even though we have been in a mutual relationship with Mount Hua Sect. If you keep talking bad to one of our precious rank 4 Array Masters. Then don''t blame me if I am impolite." Bazza said while glaring at the sect master. Antonius was startled when he heard that. "Your precious rank 4 Array Master?" Su Hua affirmed it, "Yes. I assume Alexander used his identity as an Alchemist as a cover. He used it as a cover to hide his Array Master identity. When I met him back then, he was a high rank 2 Alchemist. So, it is safe to assume that his Alchemist rank is still the same. "I thought with his sword alone, he could be considered as a genius. Along with his Alchemist skill, he was a peerless talent. But I was wrong. He was not a peerless genius. He is a monster. He is not an Alchemist but an Array Master. He is already a rank 4 Array Master to boot." "Array Master? Rank 4?" Antonius was still dumbfounded, trying to process everything in his head. Back then, Su Hua told him that Alex was a sword genius. He could copy another person''s skill just by watching it. Although he had good talent in Alchemist too, he thought he was going to abandon that talent when he chose to go to Heavenly Sword Sect. He really abandoned his Alchemist identity because Alex was going to change his identity as an Array Master, which was more monstrous than Alchemist. Without someone guiding him, Alex could become a rank 4 Array Master. Just looked at his age, not even two years had passed from then. He must be only twenty two or twenty three years old this year. ''What a monster!'' "Where is he now? We can''t let him go back to Heavenly Sword Sect." "He just took his Array Master test today with Elder Bazza." "He already left this town a few hours ago. You won''t be able to catch him." Bazza only snorted. What a fool. "We can just pair him up with... That''s right. We have Samanta. Although she is already over thirty years old, she could be considered as the number one female in the younger generation. Or we can just pair him with your granddaughter, Su Yue." "Sigh... it is already too late for that. And besides, with that person in his tail, I think no other females in our sect will be a match to her." "Her?" Antonius looked at Su Hua in confusion. "Yeah. This is the reason why I came here. Do you remember when Rainbow Flower Sect made an alliance with us because the only daughter of their sect master fell in love with someone from our sect? "She said he is not an alchemist nor a forging master. If she realized that the person is not from Mount Hua Sect but from Heavenly Sword Sect. The first thing they will do is to call off this alliance thing." Letizia La Scola indeed had come to this place. She told them she had fallen in love with someone from the sect. Because she couldn''t say anything about Alex''s identity, including his identity as an Array Master, she could only search him herself. To have the number one beauty in Wilow Continent as well as search for him. There should be no man who would hide from that. But, in reality, she never found that man in Mount Hua Sect. She was convinced Alex was an Array Master because she saw Alex use his Tortoise Shell Array to protect the medicine herbs from their collision. Alex had a Pure Fire element to boot. She immediately thought only the Mount Hua sect could nurture such talent. "But, he is from Mount Hua Sect. She said she had fallen in love from someone in Mount Hua Sect." Su Hua shook his head. "Did she say who he is?" Antonius shook his head. Su Hua knew Alex''s way of solving a problem pretty well. He immediately thought Alex must have made her promise under Heavenly Oath like the one he made him do. "He must haven''t told her about his identity. And from his identity as an Array Master alone could make her think he must come from Mount Hua Sect." "!!!" Everything clicked in his mind. "I tried so many times to convince you about him. I tried." Su Hua made his point first. "Kh!" This time, Antonius didn''t have any word to retort him. "Then we can only kill him. We can''t let Heavenly Sword Sect have him." Suddenly an oppressive atmosphere came from beside them. It was Bazza. "Kill..." Bazza glared at Antonius. "It is already so hard to produce a rank 4 Array Master. And he is still young. If you are trying to take his life..." With just his glare alone, they already knew that Bazza would fight them to protect Alex. Bazza thought it might be a good idea to go to Heavenly Sword Town and manage the Array Master guild there. Even though Alex was a stranger, Alex was still one of their Array Masters. As a veteran in Array Master''s path, he knew how hard it was to produce a single rank 4 Array Master. But Alex had the potential to reach rank 5 Array Master. Although protecting Alex like this was a pointless job, he also had a dream as an Array Master. He wanted to witness the birth of a rank 5 Array Master, even though it was not himself. Even Antonius sweat dropped from this. Bazza was only an 8-Star Martial Lord, while he was a 2-Star Martial King. But if they fought, he would need to pay a huge price to kill him only because of his identity as an Array master. "Cough... We have so many pills here. I''m sure he will need that. We can just give him a few rank 5 pills, and he will come to this place. Then we can have a drunk pill and let him have a steamy night..." Antonius said while looking at Bazza. "Hmph!" Bazza only snorted. As long as they didn''t kill Alex, it didn''t matter to him. He didn''t care where Alex belongs. He only wanted to witness the birth of rank 5 Array Master. The two continued discussing Alex''s matter. They tried to chase Bazza away, but he won''t budge. And it seemed that this Toran was going to be punished to death by the sect rule. ... A few days later, Alex finally one hour away from Heavenly Sword Town. He should have around a week or so to prepare himself for the tournament. He would challenge the Battle Tower a week later. He continued flying to his house as he wanted to learn the rank 4 Gathering Array. In Song Yu house, Three people were arguing. The first one had blonde hair that reached her waist. She was looking at her tea with her blue eyes calmly. It was Song Yu. The other one also had the same facial feature: Blonde hair and blue eyes. But unlike Song Yu''s small figure, her body figure was similar to Putri. The other one was another young lady who had long orange hair. She only closed her eyes calmly as she sat behind the second girl. Her job was to guard the second girl when she came to this place. Song Yu and the second girl were arguing, and the correct choice for her was to keep her mouth shut. "Sister, why didn''t you want to come back with me?" 292 Come Back "Sister, why didn''t you want to come back with me?" "Like I said, I will only go back next year. You don''t need to worry about me. Anyway, why did you even come to this continent?" "Father sent me because of that accident where the sky suddenly turned to golden color." "Oh, that one. What do you know about that incident?" "We don''t know anything except the sky turned to golden color. And many influences also started coming to this continent. We don''t know anything other than that." "Hmm... From this continent, it was clearer to see it was Lightning Tribulation." "Lightning Tribulation?" She was shocked. "Indeed. From what I see, someone in this continent triggered a golden lightning in his/her tribulation. When everyone came to the place, we couldn''t find the person." "Do you think it is a peerless genius that could trigger such a tribulation?" "Hmm, maybe. After all, we never had any record of golden lightning. Song Jia, what are you going to do if you found that person?" Song Yu''s sister was called Song Jia. She came with the lady behind her, Sana, to find the cause of the golden sky. They also had speculated it was a person''s lightning tribulation, but they didn''t have concrete evidence. They sent her to this place so they could investigate it. But Song Jia also came to Heavenly Sword Sect to check on her sister, Song Yu. She worried about her. "We are going to invite him/her to join the Blackwade Clan, of course." "What if it turned out to be a he and he is a peerless genius? Wouldn''t father send you here so you can make some ''relationship'' with him?" "Sister, it is not good to joke like that." Song Jia shouted as her face became red. "Haha..." Song Yu only laughed it off. Well, she also got some information about a certain individual. However, she was still unsure whether it was true or not. "Sister, how about we search for this person together, then we come back to the Northern Continent together?" She tried to change the topic back. "Like I said, I''m going to stay for another year according to my plan. Don''t worry about me. I know how to take care of myself." "But it is still frustrating. You are also a genius. If you are in the Northern Continent, you have already reached Martial King. But because you come to this continent, your strength barely reaches the 6-Star Martial Lord. Father and Mother also miss you." "I also miss Father and Mother. It has been fifteen years, after all. But I have something to do on this continent, and I can''t leave just yet." "What is it? Do you find a man? You can''t fall in love with a man on this continent. You will only be separated after you come back to the Northern Continent because he can''t keep up with you." "I don''t have a man. Well, you can just say I am also gaining some friendship with one of our VIP customers." Song Yu said. "VIP customer? Does this continent have our VIP customer? But I thought we already located all of the VIP card holders." "I also don''t know about this. Well, there is certainly something about his VIP card. Do you know anything about the VIP card that has two ''V'' on the card?" "Two ''V''? Do you mean two golden ''V''? I never heard about that, and our VIP card should only have one ''V'' on the back of the card." "That''s what puzzles me too. I have checked his VIP card, but it is a real VIP card." "Maybe grandfather knows something about it?" "Yeah, you can ask him when you go back." "Who is the one who holds this card, Elder Sister?" "He is my Junior Brother." "Your Junior Brother?" A surprised look planted on her Song Jia''s face. From what she knew, there were only women in this place. Since when they accepted a male disciple? "He is a bit special, you see. I think he even has more talent than me." "Even more talent than you? Are you kidding Elder Sister? You are one of the four peerless geniuses in the Northern Continent. If the situation back then didn''t force you to flee to this continent, you will certainly become the number one." "Haha. You are exaggerating my power. Even I need to learn Sword from him, you know. Back then, he is only a Martial Master." "What?" Song Jia''s eyes opened wide. Even Sana, who calmly waited for Song Yu and Song Jia to finish their conversation, suddenly froze. She knew how talented Song Yu was. But she said she learned Sword from a Martial Master. It was pretty unbelievable. "Is he that good?" Song Jia asked. "Yeah. If I didn''t warn him, he might learn our Blackwade Clan''s sword dance in a day just by watching it." Song Yu said. It was pretty amusing to see Song Jia''s shocked face. She teased her, "How is it? Are you interested in him? Want me to introduce you to him?" "Elder Sister, don''t tease me. I don''t need a man." Song Jia pouted. She certainly got curious after hearing such a person. "Hehe... For a battle maniac like you, you should have a man to pin you down. If not, you will just challenge everyone here and there." Song Yu suddenly picked up something with her ears. "Speak of the devils. This guy finally came back." "Hmph, since my sister has teased me like that. I am going to test him." "Oi, wait." Song Yu was surprised by the sudden mood swing from Song Jia. But before she was able to stop her, she had disappeared. She and Sana immediately chased her. ... Outside Song Yu''s house, Alex was flying toward his house before suddenly, a woman blocked his path. She looked like Song Yu. But unlike Song Yu''s petite figure, she was pretty tall. Suddenly the woman stretched her hand to grab him who was flying toward her. Alex was startled and used his Sky Step to stop his momentum. She was surprised to see Alex managed to react like that. After Alex avoided her grasp, she immediately flew toward Alex, trying to catch him once more. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes. He didn''t see any fluctuation of Spiritual Energy, so it seemed this person didn''t have any intention to hurt him. She was a 4-Star Martial Lord. Alex wanted to stop this woman, but before he could do anything. Anna suddenly came out of her card without summoning. Anna suddenly grabbed her hand with her left hand. She opened her hand, and a scythe appeared. She immediately swung her scythe toward this woman. The woman was surprised by the sudden appearance of Anna, especially since Anna was a 5-Star Martial Lord. She tried to escape from Anna''s grip but to no avail. When Anna swung her scythe, she immediately took out her sword and swung it toward Anna''s scythe. But even with all of that, the collision between scythe and sword never happened. Alex stopped Anna''s scythe with his hand while Song Yu also appeared to stop the other girl''s sword. "You should stop Song Jia." "You can stop, Anna," Alex said while looking at the woman with the orange hair, Sana. He could see the boundless energy inside her body. It was even more powerful than the Martial King that tried to catch him. Anna also could feel it as she released Song Jia''s hand from her grip. She sent a message to Alex with transmission thought. After reaching the Martial Lord stage, they could do something like telepathy with their Spiritual Energy. Anna just didn''t use it that much because the System''s telepathy was even more useful. After all, it could be used anywhere. "I''m sorry, Alex. I summon myself out without your permission." "You are doing it for me, so it is fine." Alex smiled. Song Jia was only doing it because she got curious. She had challenged so many people into battle. At first, she did it because she was a fan of her sister, Song Yu. She wanted to catch up with her, so she challenged so many people. But Song Yu suddenly chose to flee to this continent. She was devastated at that time. She tried to challenge all strong people that she could challenge. It was all so she could bury her feelings deep. But eventually, it became a habit. When she knew Alex could teach her sister swordsmanship, she became curious and wanted to test him. She thought she could grasp him, but Alex managed to dodge her, and eventually, Anna suddenly appeared to stop her. Song Yu then went to the front, "I''m sorry, Alex. My younger sister is very rude to you. She is usually a good girl. She just loves to challenge someone." Song Yu then turned to Song Jia and said, "You should apologize to him." "I''m sorry." Song Jia didn''t know why, but she always listened to her sister. Even though she had tried, she never succeeded. "It''s alright. I can see she didn''t have any intention to hurt me since she didn''t even use her Spiritual Energy." "Well, she comes here from the Northern Continent to visit me. I never thought when I told her about you. She suddenly went to test your strength." "I just want to see why Elder Sister praised you so much. I thought she fell in lo-Gya!" Song Yu chopped Song Jia''s head and said with a poker face, "Now you dare to tease your Elder Sister?" Song Yu looked at Alex and asked, "You should challenge the battle tower soon if you want to participate in the tournament." Alex nodded. He wanted to participate in the tournament because of the reward from his system. He never expected anything from this sect. He was rich, and he had many Martial Arts from Zwaka, as well as making pills himself. "That''s right. I need to tell you something later, so I will visit you later." "Sure." "Alright. I need to take this girl back first." Song Yu said while dragging Song Jia to her home. If they didn''t know Song Yu and Song Jia, they would think Song Jia was the elder one because of Song Yu''s childish figure. "Anna. Let''s go back." "Yes." "We meet this kind of person pretty often lately." "Ugh... Maybe because my luck is still bad?" Alex said unsurely. He remembered that his luck was not that good at the moment. He thought it was only for a day or so. It seemed it was not. He would just sit in his house for the time being. After a few months away, He felt a bit nostalgic in this place. He started practicing again. Not long after, Song Yu came to his house. He invited her in and asked Anna for a tea. "I''m truly sorry for my sister. She is a bit unique." Song Yu apologized. "It''s fine," Alex said. "By the way? What about Evelyn? She is still with her Senior Sister, right?" "Yeah. She is training right now. She has fast progress and reached 3-Star Martial Grandmaster. Her progress can''t be compared with you, though." "Haha... I''m just a little lucky this time." "Alright. Anyway, you are going to have a hard time after this, you know." "What do you mean?" "Well, my sister came to this place to search for this particular person who could make the sky turn to golden color." Song Yu said casually. She was trying to look at Alex''s reaction. Alex was away at that time when that phenomenon appeared. If it were truly a lightning tribulation, then the most suspicious one would be Alex. Anna told her Alex would leave the sect for a while, and that phenomenon appeared. So, it was justified that she suspected Alex was the one they were searching for. Alex''s heart skipped a bit, but he didn''t show it on his face. Alex only nodded his head, "Oh, that phenomenon. I''m wondering what kind of person could make such a phenomenon." Song Yu only smiled a little. Because of her hearing, she noticed Alex''s heart skipped a beat. But since Alex wanted to hide it, she stopped pressing him for that. 293 Cha She decided not to pry that secret just yet. She would only maintain her relationship with Alex like this. Putri often told her about Alex. It was not easy to become Alex''s friend. But if they did, Alex would surely help them. She finally remembered his male friend, that Himura or something. He was Alex''s friend, and Alex had tried to help him. Sadly, it was no use. The only one that could keep up with him was only Evelyn as she had been practicing nonstop after the tournament. Even so, she still couldn''t keep up. Anyway, as long as she maintained her relationship, it would be fine. Alex was her Junior Brother, after all. "What I want to tell you is about Master. She knows that I have been selling those Tempered Muscle Pill. She wanted to ask you to sell it to the sect instead of Alchemist Guild. Of course, the pay will be the same." "Doesn''t the sect have the Exchange Pavilion?" Alex asked. "You have seen the quality in that place with your own eyes. It can not be compared to your Perfect Purity Pill." Song Yu said. "Well, there is also another problem for it. I don''t think I will make Tempered Muscle Pills again." "Oh?" Song Yu was astonished. She thought Alex would stick with it, considering he could make ten million Spirit Stones in around two months. "Then, you are not going to make Pills anymore?" "No, that''s not what I mean. I think I am going to change what pill I will make." "So, which pill do you want to make?" "I want to consult about it with you first. I am still wondering which pill I should make. I am thinking about making either an Ocean Mind Pill or Energy Pill." "Ocean Mind Pill? A rank 4 pill? You... you are already a rank 4 Alchemist?" "Yes." Alex nodded. She gasped. Alex''s progress was really monstrous. Not only was his cultivation speed fast, but his progress in Alchemy was also crazy. It took her awhile to calm down. At this rate, Alex might catch up with her in a few years. She needed to increase her speed. "Ocean Mind Pill is around ten thousand Spirit Stones per pill. As for the Energy Pill, I will need to ask about the quality first." She took a glance at Alex. "10-Star Grandmaster Stage monster core, Perfect Quality," Alex said casually. "Normally, it would be around thirty thousand per pill. You might get more if you put it in an auction. Rank 4 Energy Pill was the most sought after pill. No matter what rank it would be. You could even fetch a million Spirit Stones for a pill in this continent." Alex asked, "Can senior sister tell me about how much it will sell if I sell it in the Northern Continent." "For peak rank 3 Energy Pill, you can buy it with ten thousand Spirit Stones there." Alex was astonished. Buying a rank 3 Energy pill only needed ten thousand Spirit Stones? He thought it might be good if he tried to maximize his profit while on this continent. "How about a low 5th rank pill?" "Rank 5 pill is around a hundred thousand to a few hundred thousand Spirit Stones each pill." "I see." Alex nodded. He needed more and more Spirit Stones to advance a rank. For him alone, it was around two hundred thousand per star if he wanted to boost his cultivation as fast as possible. For Sherry and Kyle, it was even more hazardous. Kyle used almost four hundred thousand Spirit Stones to reach 10-Star Martial Grandmaster from 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. Sherry also had become a Martial Lord, and he was wondering how much she will need this time. At this rate, even his thirty million or something Spirit Stones won''t last long. "I will make the energy pill then." "Well, there is another problem for that." "A problem?" "Yes. The stock for medicinal ingredients was pretty low, especially with the monster core. Well, if you can pay more for the ingredients. You should be able to get plenty of it." "How much for each set?" "Eight thousand for one set, you might only get five cores per day. If you can raise it to ten thousand per set, just for the monster core, you might be able to get twenty monster cores per day." "What about Crystal Skin Pill?" "Crystal Skin Pill... mid 4th rank pill. This is the upgraded version of the Tempered Muscle Pill. You can sell it with twenty thousand Spirit Stones per pill. "As for the ingredient, one set ingredient cost you two thousand Spirit Stones. The reason why it is so high is the same as the Tempered Muscle Pill." When he knew that, he immediately chose the Crystal Skin Pill. According to the book, Alex could make two Crystal Skin Pills from one set of ingredients. Although it was one pill lower than Tempered Muscle Pill since he could make three Tempered Muscle Pills from one set of ingredients. He would make more with Crystal Skin Pills. Sadly, this pill was classified as a mid 4th rank Pill, close to high 4th rank, and he might only be able to make this pill after he became a Martial Lord. But he had more than thirty million Spirit Stones at the moment, so it should be fine if he didn''t make it for a while. If he started making the Crystal Skin Pills, he would make a profit of thirty-eight thousand Spirit Stones per one set of ingredients. If he refined a hundred set ingredients, he would get seven million. He needed to give Song Yu ten percent of it, though. After contemplating for a while, Alex then said to Song Yu, "I will not make pills for a while, at least before I reach the Martial Lord stage. I will make Crystal Skin Pill as soon as I start again." "Noted. Then the other one is I got information from Putri about the Zhou Kingdom. Are you sure about that information? that blood pill and such." Alex nodded. Song Yu took a deep breath. "That blood pill is really evil. Putri had told Master and me for this. But it is a bit troublesome if we are going to move the entire Heavenly Sword Sect to investigate Zhou Kingdom. "After all, we can''t make such a move without inciting other influences. The other influences might think us a bit overbearing as a war between kingdoms is pretty normal. "The sect master and other elders also didn''t take this matter seriously since it is too absurd to be true. Putri tried to convince them, but no one believed her yet. "After all, she is only a single person. Even though she is one of the young ladies of a prominent family, the sect can''t take her word alone." Song Yu said, a bit sad. "I already expected something like this when I told her this information. But I can assure you it is true. Well, I am planning to get stronger as fast as possible. So even no one believes me, I have enough strength to protect myself and my family." Alex shrugged his shoulder. "Don''t worry. We trust you. Master also had fought for you until the sect master finally relented to her and sent a few groups to investigate the Zhou Kingdom. But I think we can''t expect the result." Alex nodded. "Well, I have warned them. If they didn''t believe me, then that''s fine." "Well, I am surprised to see your younger sister on my way back." "Hehe... How is she? She is pretty, right? What do you think about her?" She tried to tease Alex. Alex only shook his head. He said slowly, "Yeah. She is pretty." "She is going to be around for a little longer." Song Yu said. Alex nodded. "Alright. Since my matter is finished, I will go back now. Just tell me if you started making money again. As a daughter from Merchant Family, I can''t miss this opportunity." She cheekily said and left. Alex shook his head helplessly. Alex then started practicing Array Master. Gathering Array was his target before challenging the Battle Tower. But surprisingly, Alex managed to master it within two days. Rank 4 Gathering had more symbols than rank 3 Gathering. But their principle was the same. As long as Alex could make the symbol, he would be good to go. Because it didn''t take him that long to master Gathering Array, he chose to learn the last array in his plan. It was a rank 4 binding array called Servant of Silk and Steel array. From the information, the array will shoot out a few strong threads. It was like silk but made of steel. After another week, Alex finally mastered the array. He had six rank 4 Array in his repertoire: Pollen Illusion Array, Simulation Room, Jadeite Mirror Array, Teleportation Array, and these two new arrays. The inner disciple ranking tournament would start in less than a week. After he managed to make the Gathering Array, the first thing he did was making Gathering Arrays for Sherry and Kyle. From the look of it, Sherry seemed to have a spar with Anna every day in the morning. Kyle did the same but because he was 10-Star Martial Grandmaster and soon will go to sleep like Sherry to undergo his evolution. He didn''t have a spar for a while. Sherry and Kyle were honing their skill so they wouldn''t have a high cultivation but weak strength. Well, it was mainly Sherry who forced Kyle to do it too since she had learned it on the first hand. After he finished his practice, he came to Anna. "Anna, I am going to the Battle Tower now." "Sure. Are you going to get some help?" Alex pondered for a moment then shook his head. "You and Sherry are Martial Lords while Kyle is going to have a breakthrough at any moment. As for the others, I don''t think I will call them since they are too far. I also want to try how strong I am if I am alone." Anna looked at his serious expression and nodded. "Alright. Just be careful." "Sure." Alex nodded. He finally stepped out of his house. He flew to the Battle Tower. This might be his first time challenging this Battle Tower alone. His original plan was to release everything he had. He wanted to see if his Sword, Spear, Array, and Fire, would be able to kill all the monsters there. He landed on the nearby ground as usual and found so many people around the tower. He had expected it since the tournament was around the corner. Alex went to the elder to register him. And because of the number of people here, he would need to wait for a few hours. In the meantime, Alex took a look at the ranking for the inner disciple. 1st - Eric Kasmanan 2nd - Florinda 3rd - Intan Wulan Makmur 4th - Vicky 5th - Yasmin 6th - Anwar Daher 7th - Hanibal 8th - Amazu Agu 9th - Kokonoe Shigure 10th - Elise Alex was surprised to see ''Eric Kasmanan'' as the first rank in Inner Disciple Ranking. This was the first time he saw the Inner Disciple ranking, and he never expected to see that name here. He also found a similar name to his Senior Sister. Intan Wulan Makmur. Alex didn''t know if she was related to his Senior Sister or not. He found Mega''s and Putri''s rank. Putri was on the twenty-three while Mega was on the forty. Well, for the time being, his target would be that Mega and Eric Kasmanan. After a few hours, his turn finally came. The elder deducted his Sect Point, and he went to one of the rooms in Battle Tower. This was the first time he challenged the Battle Tower as a Martial Grandmaster. He remembered when he was a Martial Master, he challenged this tower twice. Well, it didn''t matter. He only wanted to see how far he could go alone. He activated the array, and his consciousness entered the familiar-looking forest. 294 Battle Tower Alex took out his Sword and Spear immediately. After that, he started searching around to find the monsters. The first monster he encountered was a 1-Star Grandmaster Stage Ape. He killed it with a single swing of his sword as he immediately started searching for another monster. Because he was alone, he could count how many monsters he had killed. According to the elder in the front, the point he would get from a monster was equal to the cultivation of the monster. If he killed a 1-Star Grandmaster Stage monster, he would get one point. If he killed a 2-Star Grandmaster Stage monster, he would get two points and so on. In the first wave, Alex killed around fifty 1-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters, twenty 2-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters, and ten 3-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters. He got 120 points in the first wave. He remembered Eric''s point. It was 942 Points. It seemed the maximum points he would get was a thousand. But he might need to check it before arriving at such a conclusion. In the second wave, Alex killed around fifty 1-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters, thirty 2-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters, and ten 3-Star Grandmaster Stage. He only used his Sword and Spear this entire time. It was not the time he used his Fire and Array as the monsters were pretty easy to kill. Alex continued to move around, leaving no monster alive. Alex''s killing speed was fast, giving him time to recover his Spiritual Energy. After all, the principle of these waves was the same as when he was fighting Master Stage monsters. Each wave had an interval of three hours. So, if he managed to kill all the monsters in an hour or two, he could use the rest of his time to recover his energy. Finally, at the fifth wave, he met a 7-Star Grandmaster Stage Centipede. It was a huge ten meters long centipede. Alex jumped forward and swung his sword at the carapace. Sadly, it didn''t even put a scratch on the centipede. "Seven Stars Cut." Alex tried to use his Seven Stars Cut this time. After reaching 7-Star Martial Grandmaster, Alex could release a five layer Seven Stars Cut. The power was incomparable. Unfortunately, he tried it without his Sword Intent. The Seven Stars Cut managed to injure the centipede, but it was too shallow. He felt it was the time to bring his Sword Intent. But since he was not restricted by his sword alone, he simultaneously used his Spear Intent. "Silver Sovereign." This was the move that was inherited from Silver Raven. He pierced the carapace with his spear, and even the centipede screamed in pain. He suddenly felt something wrong. He couldn''t pull his spear back. The centipede immediately turned its head and spat out some kind of fluid. Alex didn''t panic in this situation. If he couldn''t pull his spear, he would just use it in another way. He used his spear as a prop to jump upward and dodged the fluid. When he saw the fluids started burning the ground, he immediately knew it was poison. He never heard a centipede that spat out poison on Earth. As expected of Another World. As soon as he jumped upward, he thrust his sword. "Silver Sovereign." He used the same move again, but this time he used it with his sword. Only Alex could do something like this. Alex used his thrust momentum to pull the spear out of the centipede. After that, he pulled his sword out of it. His attack managed to flip over the centipede. Alex then jumped off from the big centipede body. At the same time, ten swords covered by Sword Intent suddenly rained down toward the centipede. With so many fatal injuries, the centipede finally died. Alex immediately moved toward his next target without looking back. In the next wave, he met five 7-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters as well as five 8-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters. But the problem was the five 7-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters were a group of unicorns. This monster was famous for its strong horn that could break rank 3 weapons. But there was another troublesome characteristic this unicorn had. They loved to live in a group. If Alex wanted to kill them without using much energy, he would need a plan. There was an advantage he could exploit to fight a group like this. Eventually, it was only a group of unicorns. Alex released his fire for the first time. He summoned thirty firebirds. Usually, Sherry always controlled these firebirds for him, but he didn''t bring her with him. After the unicorns noticed his presence, they immediately charged at Alex. Looking at them, Alex controlled his firebirds skillfully. "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions filled the forest. "Roar!" Alex even heard a roar from a distance. It must be another monster, and from the look of it, it was coming to this place. Because of that, Alex would need to kill these unicorns quickly. Alex exploded his firebirds one by one. But he hit none of them. The unicorns charged at him without looking back. As they didn''t even get him by Alex''s firebirds, they increased their speed. Alex then swung his sword horizontally, and a sword wave came flying toward the unicorns. "Seven Stars Cut." Alex used his Seven Stars Cut with his Sword Intent. Because of their speed, they didn''t manage to dodge this Seven Stars Cut. In just a single move, Alex killed all the unicorns. It was all according to his plan. The reason why the firebirds didn''t hit any of them was because Alex wanted them to do so. The real purpose of those firebirds was to guide them into a single line. For that, Alex exploded his firebirds on the side so they would go to the center. He didn''t expect for them to increase their speed, but at least, it worked for his favor as it made his attack more unavoidable. And finally, they died in a single move. But Alex didn''t stop there. He swung his sword once again to his right as a tiger suddenly appeared and tried to bite him. This tiger was the one who let out the earlier roar, and Alex tried to block its teeth with his sword. The tiger wanted to take away Alex''s sword so it could attack Alex, but Alex''s grip was too strong. "Immovable Step." With the sudden increase of strength, Alex immediately flipped the tiger over. He then summoned his Omnislash and let it rain over to kill the tiger. Alex moved around again to kill the rest of the monster. When he reached the sixth wave, he finally realized how much he relied on Anna and the others. Although he could kill 8-Star or 9-Star Grandmaster Stage easily, it was different if he fought in a situation like this. He also had experience in killing thousands of ants. But those ants were only a group of 1-5 Star Grandmaster Stage. In this situation, he got a fight with a group of two 8-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters and two 9-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters. But unlike the unicorns, this group had nothing in common. In his front was an 8-Star Lion, in his right was an 8-Star Wolf, in his behind was a 9-Star Bear, and in the sky, there was a 9-Star Falcon. As soon as he was surrounded, he immediately summoned his firebirds and let them explode around him. He only wanted to use it so he could escape and kill the monsters one by one. But the falcon didn''t let him do that as it suddenly dove from the sky and tried to grab him with its talon. It gave the monsters time to send an attack on him. Alex activated his Sword Domain and Spear Domain. He tried to smooth their attack with his domains. He didn''t forget to send a follow up with his Omnislash and Firebirds to these monsters. He then waved his hand upward, and a fire phoenix suddenly came out of his hand and chased the falcon. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning." He tried to occupy the falcon with his phoenix so that he could focus on the three monsters in front of him. The bear charged at him and threw its paw against him. Alex also covered his right hand that was still holding the sword with fire. He threw his fist against the bear with his ''Immovable Step.'' "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Claw." "Roar!" The bear screamed in pain, not because of Alex''s fist but because of his flame. It literally roasted its entire hand and rendered it to be useless. Alex didn''t stop there. As soon as the bear took back its fist, Alex immediately swung his sword that he was holding the entire time. "Seven Stars Cut." The sword wave immediately cut the bear into half. The wolf and the lion jumped toward him. They tried to bite Alex''s arms. He blocked the lion with his spear, but because he used his sword to kill the bear, he couldn''t block the wolf from biting his hand. Alex twitched his eyebrows while enduring the pain. It was not a big injury for him as the teeth didn''t manage to penetrate his defense completely as it was completely blocked by his new invisible cloak. Alex rotated his body to throw these two monsters. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." He threw his spear to the wolf that bit his hand. It had yet to regain its balance after Alex threw him, so Alex''s spear killed the wolf. Alex jumped toward the lion. The lion had stabilized its posture and charged at him again. But Alex swung his sword from a distance. "Pentagram Slash" Five streams of light immediately flew toward the lion. The lion tried to block it, but Alex used his Pentagram Slash only to distract the lion. He immediately appeared in front of the lion and struck it. "Roar!" "Silver Sovereign." He finally killed the lion. After that, he flew to the sky and looked at the phoenix he summoned earlier was still chasing the falcon. Because of its massive heat, the falcon immediately knew that this phoenix was dangerous. It flew around, trying to lose this phoenix from its tail but to no avail. "Omnislash." He used his Omnislash to bring the falcon down. With the addition of this, the falcon couldn''t dodge anymore. It was first stabbed by those swords before the phoenix hit it. It became a roasted falcon. He let out a long sigh. The reason why he got into such a situation was because he took the fight too long. It let the other monster come to his position and ganged him with the other monsters. Alex rested for a while since he had killed all monsters in the sixth wave. In the next wave, even a 10-Star Grandmaster Stage would appear. It was right. After the ninth wave appeared, Alex met several 9-Star Grandmaster Stage monsters and two 10-Star monsters. Alex struggled a little bit, but he managed to kill all of them. He was forced to use his Servant of Silk and Steel Array to bind the monsters down. If he were an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, this entire Battle Tower thing would be much easier. Alex tried to recover his energy as much as he could. He already got 902 points. Judging from it, Alex thought he would meet eight 10-Star Martial Grandmaster stage monsters and two 9-Star monsters. Then his points would sum up to a great ''1000.'' Just when he thought it was about the time for the last wave to start. A monster whose appearance was close to a yeti suddenly appeared in front of him. The moment it appeared, it immediately threw his fist toward him. "Oh, Shit!" Alex crossed his arm in front of him to block this strike. "Roar!" The white-colored yeti roared as loud as he could, alerting every monster around the area. "Roar Roar Roar!" A series of roars filled the entire forest. "Shit!" It was at this moment that Alex knew he f*cked up. 295 Shocking Everyone Once Again "Shit!" It was at this moment that Alex knew he f*cked up. Alex cursed the yeti in his heart as the fist was pinning him down. "Don''t underestimate me." Alex released his fire. The yeti was surprised to feel the sudden extreme heat. It suddenly took his fist back and opened his mouth. Alex saw a flash of blue light inside the yeti''s mouth. He immediately rolled to the side while summoning his Omnislash. Just like a breath, the yeti shot out a laser-like attack. Alex didn''t know what element the yeti had, but it seemed dangerous. His Omnisword already arrived in front of the yeti, but suddenly another monster came to block his swords. It was a huge snake. Alex looked at the rough snake''s scale that seemed to be hard to penetrate. Even his Omnislash that had been coated by his Sword Intent couldn''t do a thing. It seemed only his Seven Stars Cut or Silver Sovereign that could do damage to this thing. The snake waved its tail toward Alex. It forced Alex to retreat backward. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summoning." Judging from the roars earlier, Alex knew he was surrounded. Alex immediately used his fire to finish this as soon as possible if he didn''t want to be surrounded by the monsters. Alex could not understand why these monsters suddenly became intelligent. He didn''t know it was only the yeti that was smart. The yeti was the one who ordered the monster to attack Alex. The fire phoenix flew toward the snake, trying to engulf the snake. The snake tried to dodge it, but Alex didn''t let the snake do so. "Seven Stars Cut." Alex sent a sword wave to block its path of retreat. The snake only had two choices, roasted by Alex''s flame or killed by his sword wave. The snake dodged Alex''s Seven Stars Cut and took his Fire Phoenix head-on. "Boom!" Surprisingly, the snake was hard enough. Even though Alex didn''t release his Pure Fire for this, his flame was still powerful. But the snake was still able to confront his fire. Alex clicked his tongue. "If I am an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, the snake should die." He thought. He was also wondering if he should activate his Pure Fire or not. Watching the snake was still alive, Alex immediately jumped forward to the snake. He wanted to kill the snake. "Silver Sove- !!!" Just before he managed to pierce the snake. The yeti suddenly appeared above him, trying to protect the snake from his spear. "Immovable Step (+) Phoenix Claw." Since the yeti wanted to die first, then he would fulfill his wish. Their fist collided. It sent a shock wave through the forest. Surprisingly, their power was equal. With the yeti four-meter high body, it was still normal that he could withstand Alex''s power. "Pentagram Slash!" Alex released his attack. The yeti jumped very high to dodge this attack. But this only left Alex a chance to attack the snake. To make his movement more fluid, he continued the next attack with his spear instead of his sword. "Seven Stars Cut." A sword wave flew toward the snake that was trying to escape. But because the snake was seriously injured by Alex''s flame. Its movement was sluggish and didn''t manage to dodge Alex''s sword wave. The sword wave cut through the snake like nothing. From Alex''s perspective, this snake was not a big snake, only one meter in diameter and ten-meter long. Alex had seen a bigger snake than this. But concerning its power, he might need to struggle if he was bound by the snake. When he finally killed the snake. The other eight monsters came to attack him. He wanted to escape from their encirclement, but the monsters didn''t let him from doing so. He looked at the yeti above him. Because the yeti didn''t know Alex''s attack, the yeti jumped a bit higher. At first, it was a miscalculation from the yeti''s part. Still, the yeti used the encirclement of the monsters for his own convenience. The yeti was trying to kill Alex by using the momentum he would get from falling down. Alex also couldn''t find any opening that he could use to escape from this encirclement. Seeing that he couldn''t escape, he then started making an array. When the array finished, and the yeti almost reached him, Alex immediately used it. "Jadeite Mirror Array." Alex didn''t make a big barrier since he was surrounded by monsters. "Boom!" The yeti crashed onto his array, not him. It was the most powerful barrier-type array he could use. But with a big yeti crashed from such a height, even his barrier got cracked all over. With one more attack, it would crumble into pieces. But before he let the monsters do that, he immediately made another array below his feet. He suddenly disappeared from his original position to a few meters away. When the monsters broke the barrier, they were confused since Alex was nowhere to be seen. On the other hand, Alex got his perfect position for the first time. He took a deep breath, trying to concentrate. He didn''t know why, but at this particular time, he suddenly got an inspiration to do it. He swung both his spear and sword simultaneously. "(Double) Seven Stars Cut." Two sword waves flew toward the monster. The monsters suddenly noticed the overbearing pressure came from the two sword waves. They turned around and saw Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. But this was the time where Alex saw something unbelievable. His sword waves suddenly sparked. He activated his Spirit Eyes. What he found was something ridiculous. The two sword waves'' energy was interlinking together. He didn''t know, but the sword waves were trying to fuse with each other. But before it managed to fuse, the sword waves arrived at the monsters. The monsters were trying to escape but because Alex''s used his sword waves at the perfect time. They didn''t manage to do it. Alex killed another two monsters. He only needed to kill five more monsters, and he would get a perfect score. But he indeed felt a bit exhausted after fighting for so long since he was fighting alone this entire time. When he fought with the others, they were helping each other and made the task far more relaxed. The monsters were charging at him again. He also confronted them head-on. He utilized his Silver Sovereign, whether it was the strike or the movement, as much as he could. But the most thing he wanted to try was the phenomenon when his two sword waves suddenly wanted to fuse. He was surely remembered that the Seven Stars Cut that came from his sword was covered by a Sword Intent. But the Seven Stars Cut that came from his spear was covered by his Spear Intent. It was two different intents. He recalled the moment he managed to make his own domain right after he broke through to Martial Grandmaster. At that time, he tried to fuse the intent but failed. This time, he didn''t understand why, but it was exactly a fusion between his Spear Intent and Sword Intent. It fascinated him. He didn''t know what kind of possibility these two might create if he fused them. Still, surely he wanted to try that as he saw the two sword waves suddenly got a tiny increase in power. Alex tried to confront them head-on. Unlike the previous fight where he was ambushed out of nowhere, Alex had prepared for this. He tried to try fusing his intent again with his Seven Stars Cut but to no avail. There was no sign of fusing even if he activated his Spirit Eyes. He was wondering what he should do to merge it. But before he even managed to come up with something, the challenge finished. Alex managed to beat all the monsters he was supposed to kill. He teleported back to the room, and the room started filling with Spiritual Energy. He looked at his spear and sword confusedly. "Sword and spear¡­ What actually happened at that time?" Alex asked himself. He couldn''t understand what was happening. He shook his head and decided to ponder it when he came back. He then started cultivating. Of course, the same as when he took the first place in Outer Disciple ranking, Alex was not aware of how much ruckus he had made. ¡­ Outside the battle tower. The golden word appeared once again. It would only appear when the first rank was taken by someone else. It immediately shocked all the people around the Battle Tower. 1st. Alexander Sirius - 1000 points His name suddenly came out of nowhere and pushed the reigning champion, Eric Kasmanan. Eric became number two with 942 points. When that happened, the air suddenly filled with silence. They immediately noticed the sudden change and dropped their jaw. The situation was like this until someone suddenly dropped his disciple token. "Clang!" It became a wake-up call for everyone there as the silence turned into an uproar. "What the heck?" "What is happening?" "Someone got a thousand points?" "He beat Eric Kasmanan?" "Who is this Alexander Sirius?" They were screaming around, trying to get information about this sudden appearance of Alexander Sirius. "He¡­ isn''t that name familiar?" "He¡­ he must be the winner of the outer disciple ranking tournament." "That''s right. It must be that person. The one who solved the problem of our Seven Stars Cut." "How can he?" "It is only a year after the tournament, how can he be this strong?" The disciples immediately flew back to tell the news. ¡­ In Eric Kasmanan''s house. He was destroying all the decorations he had in his house. He was like a madman. It was normal as not long after Alex massacred the Kasmanan Family, he knew the news about it. He was devastated to hear his Kasmanan Family was gone. The Princess, who became his backing, suddenly looked at him with a cold gaze. She saw him like he was a trash after losing the Kasmanan Family. Just before, they can even have s*x, but after that news, she immediately distanced herself from him. They didn''t know why someone massacred the Kasmanan family. But Eric, who already lost his family, was useless in front of Mega''s eyes. She threw him aside. She dared to do this because Eric didn''t have anything anymore. She threatened him so he couldn''t say anything about her secret. Putri came to comfort him a few times, but she never let him do ''it,'' which made him crazier. Eventually, because the tournament was close, Putri had a close door cultivation. He became alone, and that piece of garbage in his eyes, known as ''Alexander Sirius.'' Suddenly came to take the last thing he had, his number one position. "I will kill him no matter what it takes." He roared. ¡­ In Intan Wulan''s house, there were two women, sitting while having a cup of tea. Both of them were a beauty. One of them had short purple hair while the other one had long green hair. "Senior Sister, do you think it is true?" The purple-haired lady suddenly asked. The green-haired lady used her hand to support her head. She didn''t have any interest when she heard the news. "He just won the tournament last year, and his cultivation is only 8-Star Martial Master. Do you think he can do something like this in a year? Even a peerless genius can''t do it, so he must be cheating." She said. "That''s right. As expected of Senior Sister." "You can go back first." "Understood." Intan Wulan looked at the sky and snorted. "Hmph, this guy seems to be Putri''s junior brother. Well, since he is coming like this. Then I will break him along with Putri." ¡­ In Song Yu''s house, When she heard about this, she laughed very hard. It even made Evelyn stop her training and ask. "Big Sister Song Yu, what happened?" "He did it again." "He?" Evelyn thought a little, and a person came to her mind. She suddenly became excited, "Do you mean big brother Alex?" "Yes. He once again made a scene with a perfect score in the battle tower." "Is that true?" Evelyn asked again with a surprised look. "Of course, it is true. If you don''t believe me, you can go to the battle tower to look at it yourself." Evelyn believed her and shook her head. "As expected of big brother Alex. How can I repay you now?" 296 Inner Disciple Tournamen Alex was clueless again. He just absorbed the Spiritual Energy inside the room. In just three hours, Alex felt that he would be able to breakthrough. But suddenly, he felt the energy had been sucked dry. He opened his eyes in surprise. "..." He was speechless. Usually, there would be Sherry who did that, but he didn''t bring anyone to this place. He sighed. Bringing someone was wrong, but not bringing someone was frustrating. Alex shook his head as he walked toward the door. But, just when he was about to open the door, he suddenly remembered the last time he opened this door when he got a perfect score. Alex froze. If he opened this door, the problem might come again to him. He remembered when Abram tried to make a problem for him. Alex unconsciously retreated a few steps. He took a deep breath and made a pink array. It was the fastest and safest escape route for him. "Teleportation Array." He immediately teleported a few hundred meters away from the battle tower. After that, he just flew toward his house. Alex didn''t care about Sect Points anymore as it had no use to him. The people in front of the battle tower were waiting for him, including those who were curious about him. But they were not able to spot him as he already left that place. After coming back, Alex just cultivated as usual. He also trained his Sword and Spear as he was curious about the thing that happened inside the battle tower. Alex wanted to recreate that but to no avail. He was wondering what thing he had missed. He was a peak 7-Star Martial Grandmaster, and he felt he could have a breakthrough in the tournament. ¡­ A few days later, the tournament finally arrived. Song Yu visited his house with Evelyn and Putri. He looked at Putri, who seemed to be ready to fight even him. He felt her wind element became far stronger than previously. But, he saw something wrong when he saw her with his Spirit Eyes. Alex could see a tiny black spot on her heart. It was never there before, so this sudden appearance for this small black spot confused him. He tried to focus his eye on the black spot, but the other suddenly got shocked by it. In their eyes, Alex was observing Putri''s breast. Putri immediately covered her chest with her hand and called him. "Alex." Song Yu waved her hand in front of his eyes, and finally, Alex snapped back. "Alex, what do you see?" Song Yu narrowed her eyes. "Ah¡­" Alex finally realized what he did before. It was rude of him to stare at Putri''s like that. "Big Brother Alex has been corrupted?" Evelyn said with an expression that looked like she wanted to cry. Alex shook his head. "I am sorry for that. But, Senior Sister, have you done anything weird recently?" Seeing Alex''s serious face, she decided not to say anything about that. Putri then thought for a bit and shook her head. She only used her time to practice these days. "Is there something wrong? I only practiced these days." "Hmm¡­ I am not sure." Alex shook his head. It was the first time he saw something like that. But after he remembered about Zwaka''s, he thought Putri must have this after she practiced a Martial Art or consume that wind whatever gem. He didn''t have any doubt about Zwaka, so he thought this black spot must be something good. "Let''s go." They flew toward the arena. The arena was truly bustling with people. Even the core disciple seemed going to watch them. Well, it was truly different from the outer disciple ranking competition. After all, the winner of this tournament might become their rival sooner or later. Song Yu led them to a fancy room. When they came inside, they could only see one chair and a person that seemed to have been sitting for quite a while. They couldn''t see this person''s face, but they suddenly heard the familiar laughing sound. "Gahaha! All of you finally arrived." Alex, Putri, and even Evelyn immediately recognized that voice. It was Charya. Charya rose from her seat and looked at Putri and Alex. "The tournament will be held for four days. Since there are many interesting disciples, the sect master gives another twenty-four bonus spots for others. "Well, the purpose is just to make the bracket for this tournament easier. You can see the bracket over there." Charya pointed out her finger to the wall on their right. Alex and the others walked to see the brackets. Alex was shocked to see his first opponent''s name. ''Himura Minami.'' He was dumbfounded. He almost forgot about this person. He was wondering how Simon was doing. Although they had not met for almost two years, asking his condition was not a big deal, he thought. Alex then moved to the second round. It was also another familiar name to him. ''Nakagawa Ryuu.'' He forgot about the Ryuu part, but if he talked about Nakagawa. He must come from Limewatch''s town. The city lord family, Nakagawa Family. And from his memory, he only knew one person that could enter this tournament. It was Nakagawa Hikotaka''s cousin. His third opponent was ''Elise.'' He had seen this name in the ranking. If he was not wrong, this person should be the rank 10th of Inner Disciple Ranking. Of course, before he took the 1st. As for the rest, he wouldn''t be able to speculate it anymore. But Alex could see Putri''s name in his group. If Putri continued to win, Alex would face her in the sixth battle. He turned his head to Putri as he wanted to say this. However, Putri''s eyes glued on the bracket, specifically on a particular name. Alex looked at the name that she looked at and found a name that he had seen in the top ten rankings too. ''Intan Wulan Makmur.'' He thought this person might be related to Putri. And after seeing Putri become like this while staring at this name, he knew they were truly related. Alex didn''t know what kind of relationship they had, though. The tournament would be held for four days, according to Charya. From the bracket, they would need to fight three times for the first day. The second day would be the same as the first day. And the third and the fourth day, they would only fight twice. Putri would meet this Intan Wulan Makmur in the third battle, in other words, the first day. He was wondering who would win. This Intan was supposed to be the third rank if he didn''t mess with the ranking. But Putri was only twenty-three. But Putri had the Low Heaven Tier Wind Martial Arts from Zwaka. She should be able to win this match. "How is it, Mr. 1st place?" Charya asked Alex with a teasing tone. Alex shook his head while smiling. "Well, I don''t know about it. But from the look of it, I would fight with this ''Elise.'' So, I can only say I will do my best." "Haha¡­ Do you know that after your appearance in the outer disciple ranking tournament, our ninth peak got an influx of disciple. It seems that all of them are your fans. You are happy to hear that, right?" Song Yu suddenly came to him and said cheekily. "Haha¡­ To be honest, they should not come with that kind of mentality. They should choose their own suited peak because of their fighting style." Alex said. After staying in Heavenly Sword Sect for a long time, Alex learned that the elder some time needed to go down and taught the disciple. So if the disciples had a fighting style that was not suited, they should not come to the ninth peak with just that reason alone. "..." Of course, Alex''s statement made them speechless. But considering Alex''s personality, they should expect something like this. "As expected of you, never betray our expectations. Even this flock of female disciples came to you. You will treat them the same." Song Yu chuckled. Alex shrugged his shoulder. Not long after, the match finally started. Alex wanted to see the match, but he noticed there were another twenty rooms like this one. It seemed the other elders, as well as the sect master, wanted to watch the match. But maybe because the contestants in this tournament had a higher cultivation than outer disciple tournament. One of the elders was not in this special room. Instead, he came to the arena as the referee to prevent anything bad from happening. As expected, it was the third elder, Elder Dolf Kold that once again became the referee. After a while, Putri''s name came up. Her opponent was a young man, slightly older than her. Sadly, his cultivation was only 6-Star Martial Grandmaster. So Putri beat him in a few moves. After an hour, Alex''s turn also came up. Himura Minami had been waiting for him in the arena. Alex looked at her without expression. When he came to the arena, everybody started whispering. They doubted Alex''s credibility. Even though Alex''s name was in the ranking, they never saw Alex go out of the room. They thought Alex must be cheating, or he bribed someone to place his name up there with a perfect score. Alex''s name surely echoed through the entire sect last year. But because he never met other people or anything. His name had been forgotten by many people. But it was different for Himura Minami. She never forgot about this person, Alex, as he was the one who changed Simon. Simon had been crazily practicing by himself this entire time. It was good to get stronger, but he somehow also neglected her. It was unbearable for a bro-con like her. "..." Alex pondered if he should ask her or not. Ultimately, he asked her. "How is he?" "He is good. Thanks to you, he reached 9-Star Martial Master last month. So this year, he should be able to become a Martial Grandmaster." She nodded to him with a casual expression. "But the one I never expected is your progress. When you come to this place, your cultivation is even lower than my brother. But look at you now, you are already a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. "I don''t know if that ''score'' is real or not, but there is something I must say. Although Simon was indebted to you, I am still planning to win this fight." Alex looked at her serious expression and nodded. It was not an empty bluff. Alex could see that Himura Minami had 8-Star Martial Grandmaster cultivation. Both of them looked at Elder Dolf and nodded. Finally, the third elder announced, "Match Starts!" They immediately released their Spiritual Energy. But surprisingly, Himura Minami took out five swords from her Space Ring. Looking at the swords on the ground, Alex didn''t know what she wanted to do. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a connection between her and the swords. The swords suddenly floated and flew toward Alex. "Running Sword." Alex could see it with his Spirit Eyes. Himura Minami was using her Spiritual Energy through this Martial Art to control the swords. This was the move that made Himura Minami famous. She could control these five swords perfectly. Alex dodged the swords one by one. When the swords got behind him, they suddenly turned back and flew back to him. When he turned back, he immediately covered his sword with Sword Intent and used it to parry these swords. "Clang!" a series of clashing filled the arena as the swords kept coming back even though Alex had deflected them. Alex suddenly got an idea. When a sword came toward him, he deflected it again. But this time, he deflected it toward the ground so the sword will pierce the arena''s floor. He then raised his foot and kicked this sword so it would deeply pierce the ground. His kick managed to bury the sword, leaving only the handle on the surface. Himura Minami tried to pull it up with her Martial Art, but she couldn''t. She didn''t panic in this situation as she had expected something like this. As soon as she confirmed that she couldn''t pull the sword out. She immediately took out another sword from her space ring. 297 Inner Disciple Tournament 2 Alex saw the sword come to replace the buried sword. This was an intriguing Sword Art, he thought. After reaching this point, Alex couldn''t use his Sanguin Sword Art anymore as it was already a bit too weak for him to use. Luckily, he had Seven Stars Cut in his repertoire. But it didn''t change the fact that he abandoned one of his Sword Art. He was wondering whether to replace it with another Sword Art or not. But after he found this sword art, he felt this sword art was perfect for replacing his Sanguin Sword Art. This Sword Art was similar to his Desolation, where he summoned five illusory swords. But this Sword Art used real swords, and this made it even stronger than Desolation. Another reason why he felt this sword art was a good replacement was because he had too many swords in his inventory. He never had any chance to use it or sell it. Rather than sitting in his inventory for a long time and being forgotten, he chose to use it with this Sword Art. Since he had this goal in his mind, Alex deliberately prolonged this match so he could copy this Sword Art. It seemed the name of this Sword Art was Running sword. The principle of the Sword Art was not complicated. Alex managed to copy it within five minutes. "Pentagram Slash!" Alex sent five streams of light toward Himura Minami. She immediately recalled the sword back and used them to protect her from Alex''s attack. "Sword Shield Formation." Each sword took one slash from Alex, and just like that, his attack was blocked by her. Unfortunately, Alex only used this move so he could get time to take out his swords from the system. He took out five rank 3 swords and let them fly toward Himura Minami. The entire stadium didn''t get shocked as they thought Alex must have learned this sword art before. But it was different from Charya and the rest. They knew Alex could copy a Sword Art easily. But they almost forgot about it because Alex never did it again for a long time. Seeing this again immediately jogged their memory. They looked at each other, and involuntarily laughed. Alex made the swords fly toward Himura Minami. Her thought was the same as the audiences, she thought Alex had mastered this technique before. She also sent her swords to intercept him. But Alex didn''t stop there. He used his Pentagram Slash once again and hid them behind the swords. So when the sword repelled each other, the slashes appeared from behind the swords and flew toward Himura Minami. "What?" Himura Minami got shocked by it. She quickly took out another sword but only had the time to pull one. She parried three slashes, but the other two managed to wound both of her feet. "Flash Step." Alex used this chance to approach her and pointed out his sword against her. Alex looked at Elder Dolf. "Alexander Sirius Wins!" "..." The crowd was dumbfounded when Alex, who was a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster, could defeat an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster that easily. They finally remembered that Alex won the championship of last year''s tournament when he was only an 8-Star Martial Master. The people finally cheered once again, and Alex''s fans that came to the ninth peak because of him cheered as hard as they could. At first, they were disappointed as they could not meet Alex. And a few days ago, they heard Alex suddenly became the number one. They were cheering for that and immediately went to the battle tower. But they never saw Alex go out of the battle tower. They thought Alex rigged the battle tower to his convenience, and that made them a bit disappointed. But after they saw Alex defeat an 8-Star Martial Master easily with his cultivation, that thought disappeared, and they cheered for him with all their might. On the other hand, Alex did not care about it. After he finished his match, he quickly came back to Charya''s room. Charya and the others congratulated him. After a few more fights, the second round finally arrived. This time, Putri was matched up with a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster while Alex would fight with Nakagawa Ryuu, an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. Evelyn came to tease him about his luck since he might need to fight the former 10th place if he won this time. But Alex only shrugged his shoulder as he was planning to win¡­ for the system reward. Charya told him that he would get the same reward as the previous year, only slightly better. Alex immediately lost his interest. 10 Premium Tickets or whatever that Special Summon Ticket was better than the reward from the sect. After waiting for two hours, Alex''s turn finally came again. He once again saw the familiar muscular, and strict guy. This was the same person that he met back when he took the test on that particular stone monument. This person seemed to have forgotten about Alex. He looked at Alex with that strict eyes like he wanted to beat him as soon as the match started. "You are just a cheater. I don''t know what kind of trick you used to get a perfect score in the battle tower. But I will defeat you here so everyone could know that you cheated." Nakagawa Ryuu snorted. Alex looked at Nakagawa Ryuu weirdly. This person didn''t have a weapon with him, so it left him two possibilities. First, Nakagawa Ryuu was an elemental user. However, after looking at his muscular build, Nakagawa Ryuu seemed to be the latter, which was a body cultivator. Alex was wondering where this person got his confidence. He then looked at Elder Dolf and nodded. "Match Starts!" "Singular Fist!" As soon as the match started, Nakagawa Ryuu jumped forward and threw his fist. Alex could see a huge amount of energy on this particular fist. But Alex was not afraid to take this fist head-on. He covered his fist with Spiritual Energy and punched it toward Nakagawa Ryuu''s fist. A shock wave vibrated the entire arena. They thought Alex was a fool to use his fist to counter a body cultivator, but what they found shocked them the most. The one who got pushed back was not Alex but Nakagawa Ryuu. Alex had two dragon strength while Nakagawa Ryuu was still short five hundred bulls strength to reach two dragon strength. He had destroyed all of his enemies with his body. But in front of Alex, he got pushed back. He couldn''t accept it. Nakagawa Ryuu immediately threw another fist toward Alex. Alex didn''t let him do it. He opened his fist that was still colliding with Nakagawa''s fist and grasped his wrist. "!!!" Nakagawa Ryuu was alarmed by the sudden action. But it was too late. Alex grabbed his wrist and threw his entire body away. "Boom!" He crashed into the wall. Alex immediately used his Omnislash and let them fly toward Nakagawa Ryuu. The reason why he used his Omnislash at this time instead of his new Sword Art, Running sword, was because he felt some similarity between them. After experiencing combining two Spear Arts, Silver Raven, and Bear Sovereign, not only his spear knowledge, Alex''s knowledge about swords also got deeper. He felt these two Sword Arts could be combined by him. Those ten swords flew and plunged to Nakagawa Ryuu. But before his swords managed to do it. Another giant fist appeared and knocked his swords away. He then came out of the wall and looked at Alex fiercely. *Cheers* The crowd cheered them loudly. This match became more interesting. They thought Nakagawa Ryuu would lose easily like Himura Minami. But Nakagawa Ryuu seemed to be able to put up a decent fight. The disciples slowly remembered what kind of person Alex was. He was a person that could easily defeat people with two stars above him. This Nakagawa Ryuu should lose sooner or later. Nakagawa Ryuu charged toward Alex again. He didn''t accept himself losing to someone who had a weaker cultivation than him. This time, he used his Fist Intent fully. "Superior Fist!" He punched to the air in Alex''s direction, and the air suddenly sent a wind pressure toward Alex. Alex could see that this wind pressure contained Nakagawa''s Ryuu fist intent. His expression became serious. To defeat Nakagawa Ryuu that had become serious. He would also need to be serious. Alex raised his sword as an overbearing Sword Intent started hovering on his sword. His Sword Intent was far more ferocious than Nakagawa Ryuu''s Fist Intent. In other words, they were not at the same level. Alex swung his sword down and split this incoming wind pressure into two. It split the wind pressure right in front of him. Alex jumped forward and waved his sword toward Nakagawa Ryuu''s neck. Ryuu immediately parried Alex''s sword. Both of them continued to clash. They clashed for about one hundred rounds in five minutes. There were many wounds on Ryuu''s body. Alex had been suppressing him this entire time. He even used his metal elements to strengthen his body to withstand Alex''s brute strength. But it was not enough as Alex was still able to pierce his defense with his Sword Intent. Although Nakagawa Ryuu could send his fist intent along with his attack and that made him a half-step Fist Grandmaster. But Alex was already a Sword Grandmaster, and his domain was not smaller than any other people who competed in this tournament. It was normal that Alex could break his defense easily. Even so, Nakagawa Ryuu couldn''t accept such an outcome. "Metal Blanket!" He shouted. At the same time, his entire body started turning black like a metal. When Alex saw this, he remembered his spirit, Greg. Nakagawa Ryuu''s transformation was similar to Greg''s transformation. "I might not be able to compete after this if I used this move. But as long as I defeat right now, I don''t care. Because I don''t accept losing to anyone whose cultivation is lower than me!" He said out loud while looking at Alex. Alex finally realized his motivation by fighting him like this. It turned out to be like that. Alex thought he was ordered to fight him like this, but in reality, it was only his pride. Alex shook helplessly. Ryuu misunderstood this. He thought Alex underestimated him. "How dare you!" He disappeared. Alex got his movement with his Spirit Eyes, and he immediately jumped backward. And he was right. As soon as he jumped backward, Ryuu appeared in front of him and had punched the ground. The arena got cracked. If Alex didn''t avoid this, his bone would be the one that got cracked like this¡­ maybe. Ryuu disappeared again to pursue Alex. Alex saw that Ryuu''s energy was depleting so fast. Alex would be able to win sooner or later as long as he dodged every attack from Ryuu. He was a careful person, but he was not a coward. Ryuu''s attack didn''t scare him at all. "Take this attack if you are a man!" Ryuu shouted at him. "You wish!" Alex immediately stopped. "Supreme Fist!" Ryuu grinned when he saw Alex stopped on his track. He immediately threw a fist against him. He thought Alex wouldn''t be able to receive this fist. Although he was surprised to see Alex was able to push him back at their first clash, he was sure Alex wouldn''t be able to do it this time. "Immovable Step!" Alex used his Immovable Step to double his power. His previous two dragon strength became a four dragon strength. Ryuu had increased his strength significantly, but it was far too short to meet Alex''s strength even if he used his fist intent. Their fist finally collided and sent another shock wave that was far bigger than their first clash. And once again, Alex pushed him back entirely. This made the entire arena shocked, especially Ryuu. Alex didn''t let this chance go and grabbed his wrist once again. He didn''t throw Ryuu to the wall again but to the ground. He pinned him to the ground as he summoned his Omnislash and shot them to the ground. Of course, the swords didn''t hit Alex or Ryuu, but the result was clear. After looking at this, the third elder immediately announced, "Alexander Sirius Wins!" 298 Inner Disciple Tournament 3 "Alexander Sirius Wins!" The audience started cheering for him. They thought Alex must surely be a dark horse in this tournament. And most importantly, his next opponent would be the former 10th place in Battle Tower''s ranking, Elise. Alex would face the real challenge after this. If he was able to defeat her, then the score on the Battle Tower must absolutely be true. As soon as the third elder announced his win, Alex immediately left. Judging from Nakagawa Ryuu''s personality, he would be someone that was going to say ''Impossible.'' and charged at him with the intention to kill. Alex would not want to deal with that problematic situation. He came back to Charya''s room. The tournament continued. The disciples often fought to their last drop, but he also saw the disciples surrendered before the fight even started. It usually occurred when their difference was too big. After a few ten fights, the second round ended. They immediately proceeded to the next round. The most interesting fight in this round was Alex versus Elise and Putri versus Intan. People were eager to see what kind of match they would have. After a few hours, "Putri Wulan Makmur versus Intan Wulan Makmur." Elder Dolf announced. Putri clenched her fist and immediately came to the arena. Even Alex and the others didn''t have a chance to say Goodluck to her. She was so focused on her opponent that she also forgot about them. He suddenly became curious why Putri was so obsessed with this person. He took a look at the incoming green-haired woman. She was indeed beautiful, and her appearance was similar to Putri, green hair, and such. "Senior Sister, who is she?" Alex asked to Song Yu. "She is Intan Wulan Makmur. You can say she is the first talent in the younger generation of the Makmur Family. And Putri is the second talent. So, yeah¡­ you know." Song Yu explained. Alex nodded. He knew it must be the family struggle. Alex decided not to stretch his hand on this. ¡­ In the arena, Putri looked at Intan carefully. Intan only took a glance at her and said, "How about we settle it with this fight?" "That''s my plan," Putri said coldly. "Oh, scary. Well, we can''t kill each other in this tournament, so how about we make a Heavenly Oath? The one who loses would not be able to hold a spear for the rest of their life?" Intan asked. Putri suddenly showed a surprised expression in her cold face. Intan kept pressing her, "Do you know that your so-called friend is just taking advantage of you. In fact, she is just your fake friend. Because of the ninth elder influence, I can''t firmly take control of the family. "As long as you are still in the family strong and clear, I can''t take over the family. That''s why your friend wants to destroy you since she can''t kill you." Intan said. Putri immediately knew who she talked about. She only had parents, a fiance, and a friend. And the friend in Intan''s word was Mega. "No, you are lying!" Putri, of course, immediately denied her claim. "Not only your friend. Everything in your life is fake, your friend, your fiance, and even your parents. All of them are set up so it can destroy you!" Intan said, trying to get into her head. Putri didn''t believe her obviously. She knew she was trying to get into her head. She only gritted her teeth. "What I say is true. How about I add a condition where I need to be honest, and you can ask me anything in my Heavenly Oath. You can see whether what I said is true or not." "Hmph. Fine. I will prove everything you said is not true." Putri said righteously. "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, If I lost this match, I won''t be able to use spear again." "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, If I lost this match, I won''t be able to use spear again, and I will tell the truth in every question Putri Wulan Makmur asked." The third elder didn''t stop them from doing so as it was not relevant to him. Putri was the disciple of the ninth elder while Intan was the disciple of the sixteenth elder. So, rather than stopping them, he just let them do it as they like. What he needed to do here was to keep them from killing each other. "Match Starts!" As soon as the match started, Putri and Intan raised their spear. They both thrust their spear toward each other. The tip collided with each other and pushed both of them away. They retreated a few steps back, but while they were at it. They raised their spears again and shot an arrow-like thing. "Quick Silver." "Boom!" Both of their ''Quick Silver'' destroyed each other. Putri and Intan jumped toward each other while activating their Intent and Domain. They clashed with each other furiously. Both of their Spear Domain had 20 meters in radius. At least from others'' perspectives, they were equal. But, it seemed Intan''s spear mastery was greater than Putri. At least, that was what the elders saw. And not long after, the result was apparent. Intan started suppressing Putri with her spear. When Alex and the others saw this, they became worried. They didn''t know what they talked about in the arena, except Song Yu. She told them they were having a Heavenly Oath. Whoever lost in this match could not hold a spear again for the rest of their life. They wanted to stop them, but they were too late as Putri and Intan already made the Heavenly Oath. Alex clenched his fist tightly as he felt something wrong in this match. "Why didn''t Elder Do-, Third Elder, stop them?" Hearing Alex''s question, Charya explained while clenching her fist. "Putri''s opponent is the sixteenth elder''s disciple. We have bad blood as she is jealous of me. She might want to target my disciple like this. Damn that sl*t. "Alex, I heard from Putri that she got two Heaven Tier Wind Element Martial Arts, is that true?" She asked. Alex nodded. "Yeah. It is true. She should also get rank 5 spear." "Haha¡­ If it is true, then that old hag just makes the worst decision in her life. Her disciple will surely lose. You guys need to believe in her too." Song Yu and Evelyn nodded their heads. Alex was still unconvinced as he looked at the match carefully. "Silver Raven." Both of them used Silver Raven at the same time. With that powerful collision, it sent a shock wave on the arena. They were fighting without caring about their surroundings. It made the third elder need to be extremely careful as one misstep might be fatal. Putri and Intan raised their spear once again. This time, the wind started gathering around the spear''s blade, and it made them look distorted. They swung their spear at the same time. "Jewel Wind." The wind pressure immediately flew from their spear. The wind movement could be seen by naked eyes as the air sucked by the pressure and generated more wind. Even from the audience''s seat, they could see the sharpness of the wind. And both of them infused their Spear Intent to boot. The sharpness went up several levels. When both strikes clashed, the wind pressure immediately blew out, and a huge shock wave vibrated the arena. Four Elders suddenly came to the stage''s wall and repelled the shock wave. They were first elder, fifth elder, seventh elder, and tenth elder. When the elders came to the stage to repel the shock wave, the disciples immediately cheered for them. The first elder sighed and complained, "These two girls really didn''t care about their surroundings." "You shouldn''t say that, First Elder. They are only fighting seriously." Tenth Elder said softly. "That''s right. You are like this too, when you are young." Fifth Elder said, and the seventh elder nodded in agreement. "Hmph!" The first snorted. They watched the match again. When both Putri''s and Intan''s Jewel Wind exploded, the shock wave also went toward them. Surprisingly, there was a bleeding on Putri''s beautiful cheek. It seemed the shock wave just now grazed her cheek. It could also be said that Intan was the one who inflicted that wound. Putri immediately wiped the blood on her face with her hand. When Intan saw this, she laughed. "This is our difference." It was true, Putri was a 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, and Intan was 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. If Putri didn''t cultivate at Zwaka''s place, she might only be an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster in this tournament. Intan suddenly stored her spear back to her Space Ring. This action confused Putri. But suddenly, Intan took another spear from her Space Ring. The spear had a red-colored handle with a length of one and a half meters. The spear''s blade had a wavy pattern, but everyone could see how sharp it was. More importantly, they could feel an intense pressure that the weapon gave. "Rank 4 Spear?" The elders immediately recognized the spear. It was a rank 4 spear. Normally, a rank 4 spear was hard to get as they were expensive, and even the Forging Master guild didn''t have that many stocks. Even the rank 4 sword that the sect master bestowed Alex as a reward for solving their Seven Stars Cut was his spare sword as he only had two rank 4 swords in his entire life. Intan looked at Putri''s smugly. "This is the difference between us. The family will only bestow a rank 4 spear to me, not you. Oh, that''s right. After this, you won''t be able to hold a spear anymore, so the family wouldn''t need to buy you a spear." Putri was indeed surprised to see the sudden appearance of rank 4 spear. But when she heard Intan''s mocking. She couldn''t help but smiled. "What''s funny?" Intan frowned as she thought Putri would get surprised by this. At this moment, she was glad that she met Alex and stayed behind in Zwaka''s place. She thought about using it when she became a Martial Lord, so she had enough strength to protect this spear. Sadly, the situation didn''t allow her to keep it as a secret any longer. She also put her spear into her space ring before taking out a blue spear from her space ring. When the spear made its appearance, the people gasped. Its beautiful appearance aside, they could feel the powerful aura from the spear. They immediately knew that this spear was even stronger than Intan''s rank 4 spear. "Is that¡­ a rank 5 spear?" The first elder murmured with a shocked face. "What is that spear?" "I never see a spear with an aura like that?" "How can she have such a strong spear?" "Is that a rank 5 spear?" "Are you kidding me? Rank 5 weapon alone are very rare in this continent. All kingdoms or sects that have such a weapon immediately protected it tightly!" The crowd immediately turned into an uproar. All elders, except Charya, rose from their seat and looked at the spear with a shocked face. "The Makmur family indeed can''t buy me a spear like this. Don''t you think so?" Putri said to Intan while narrowing her eyes. "Impossible. How can you have such a spear! I don''t believe this." Intan said with a stressed voice. She jumped toward Putri and thrust her spear. But Putri only casually thrust her spear to block her attack. Surprisingly, Intan''s attack was easily repelled by Putri. It showed how strong the spear was. "It is truly a rank 5 Spear!" "Where did she get the spear?" "How can such a spear be on the hand of Inner Disciple?" The people were shaken. Putri couldn''t afford to lose this match. A pair of giant wings suddenly appeared on her back. "I can''t lose to you in this match." Putri then flew a few meters above the ground. She flapped the wings on her back, and suddenly five big tornados suddenly appeared in the arena. "Supreme Wind Wing." 299 Inner Disciple Tournament 4 "Supreme Wind Wing." Putri used one of the Heaven Tier Wind Element Martial Arts that Zwaka gave her. This Supreme Wind Wing could make five huge tornadoes that were hard to destroy. And even someone managed to destroy it. She could make it with a single flap. Although she couldn''t master the second one yet, this was enough to win this battle. With this Heaven Tier Martial Arts and her rank 5 spear, Intan won''t be able to defeat her. "What is this Martial Art?" Intan was surprised once again when she saw this Martial Art. She raised her spear and gathered the wind energy on her spear. "Jewel Wind." She threw a Jewel Wind onto the Giant tornado. "Boom!" The Jewel Wind and the giant tornado destroyed each other. But when Putri flapped her wing once again, the tornado got revived. Even the elders were shocked by this Martial Arts. They knew how strong the tornado was, and with that kind of generation, it was a high Earth Tier Wind Elements Art if not Heaven Tier. When they thought that, they immediately gasped. A rank 5 spear alone could make such an uproar. If it came with a Heaven Tier Martial Arts, the situation would become crazy. "You hide all of this? How can you have all of this..." Intan screamed. "I might not have a good situation in the family. But I have a good Junior Brother, Senior Sister, and Master." She said. "No no. I am the one who should have all of this. Not you!" Intan screamed as she tried to break the tornados. Putri sent the tornado toward her and blew her away. Intan crashed into the wall and spat blood. "I win." Putri looked at Intan. The third elder also thought so, but before he announced the result. Intan laughed. They immediately got confused about why she laughed like that. She looked at Putri and said. "You are the one who forced me to use this." She only said, "Black Curse, Activate." And suddenly, Putri spat out black blood in the air. The tornados suddenly disappeared, and Putri fell to the ground as her wings also disappeared. All of the energy inside her body suddenly disappeared. Intan took this chance to arrive in front of her and point her spear on her neck. She looked at the third elder and said, "I win!" Even the third elder didn''t know what happened. But, Putri was indeed lost. He looked at Putri, who was on her knees and gritted his teeth. "Kh! Intan Wulan Makmur Win." He finally announced with great difficulty. Putri was in shock as she didn''t know what happened. She suddenly lost all of her power, and before she knew it, she already lost. The chain of the Heavenly Oath immediately bound her. She felt her hand was burning when she held the spear and unconsciously let her spear go. Intan suddenly came to Putri and whispered something to her for a minute. But suddenly tears fell from Putri''s eyes, and she screamed. "No no no. That is impossible." Intan whispered something to her again. After that, she said while trying to take Putri''s spear and space ring, "Since you can not use spear anymore. So this spear is wasted on you. I will take great care of this spear. And that Martial Arts is suited for me." Putri looked at the princess, who was on the stage. Suddenly she broke down and fainted. "That is not yours." When Intan tried to take Putri''s belongings, suddenly Song Yu slapped her hand away. Alex also appeared and caught Putri, so she didn''t fall to the ground. "She is not able to use a spear anymore, so it is better that I use it. This is a family matter!" Charya and Evelyn also appeared on the stage. Charya was furious. She said while releasing her Spiritual Energy, "Little girl. What did you say? Care to repeat it?" Another woman also appeared in front of Intan. She had short silver hair. Although she looked beautiful, she couldn''t be compared to Charya''s beauty. She blocked Charya''s Spiritual Energy with her own. "This is a battle between juniors, how can an elder like you join? It is like she said, your disciple won''t be able to use a spear anymore. My disciple should take it since they come from the same family." "Even if she can''t use it anymore, it will always be hers. Not you. And Anita, you better not butt in, I can''t control my emotion right now. So you better be prepared if you want to stop me." Charya said. The silver haired woman who came just now was Intan''s master, the sixteenth elder, Anita. She had been continuously jealous of Charya, but Charya never cared about her. But at this time, Charya was furious. She would even kill her if she talked once more. Even Song Yu also showed such emotions. The sect master suddenly appeared in front of them while releasing her Martial King aura. "You two should stop now." The sect master said. He didn''t support anyone in this situation. After all, both of them had agreed with the Heavenly Oath. "Besides, Elder Charya. You should tend your disciple first," he said. Charya and Song Yu immediately turned their heads toward Putri. Alex nodded. At first, he casually observed the match with his Spirit Eyes. He thought after Putri released her rank 5 spear and Heaven Tier Martial Arts, she would win. But suddenly, the black energy that was on her heart burst out. He could see that the black energy suddenly covered Putri''s heart. At the same time, Putri suddenly fell to the ground powerlessly. Alex saw the black energy was slowly spreading inside her body. He didn''t know what this was. He thought it was because of the Martial Arts that Zwaka gave. But it seemed not to be the case. Alex could not think of any possibility at the moment. So, at least, they should retreat now and treat Putri first. Charya and Song Yu gritted their teeth. Alex handed Putri to Song Yu, and they flew back to the ninth peak. But on their way, Song Yu suddenly stopped. She turned to Alex. "You should go back to the arena since you have one more match." Hearing that, Charya finally remembered. Both Putri and him were important, so she couldn''t abandon him too. She agreed with Song Yu. "That''s right. You should go back to the arena." "But, Senior Sist-" "Alex!" Charya shouted. Alex was stunned. This was the first time Charya shouted like this. Charya looked with a sad smile, "We are fine, understand? Finish your fight first, then go back, alright?" Alex wanted to say something, but the word stuck on his throat. He took a deep breath and said, "Understood." He would finish the match as soon as possible and come back. Song Yu turned to Evelyn. "Please watch this guy for us, so he doesn''t do something foolish." Evelyn didn''t say anything and nodded. Although she worried about Putri, she also knew Alex couldn''t skip his match. She tugged Alex''s clothes and tried her best to smile. Even so, her sadness was still apparent on her face. "It is fine, big brother Alex." Alex closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. They flew back to the arena. Seeing them disappeared, Song Yu and Charya continued flying toward the ninth peak. ... On Charya''s room, Alex watched the match impatiently. The tournament continued, but the atmosphere became awkward. Evelyn came to him and said, "Big brother Alex. Everything is going to be fine. Elder Charya and big sister Song Yu are taking care of big sister Putri." Alex clenched his fist and let out a long breath. He was trying to calm his heart down. The tenth elder came to Charya''s room with Lena. "Big sister?" Evelyn was surprised to see her here. Lena hugged Evelyn and said, "It is fine." "Tenth Elder." Alex greeted her. She knew Alex''s heart was in a mess. Well, after that happened, it was normal if Alex became like this. "Don''t worry about it. I don''t know what happened, but it seems there is something inside Putri''s body. I will try to investigate it." Miska said. Although Charya often made fun of her, their overall relationship was good. After looking at this incident, she thought she would need to investigate it. "Thank you, Tenth Elder." Alex thanked her. "I know you are angry because of what happened to your Senior Sister. But you can''t take it on another person." She said. She worried Alex might do something reckless to another person out of rage. "Please don''t worry, Tenth Elder. I know what I am doing." Alex said. Although Alex was furious, he didn''t lose his calm. At least, he knew that the one who did this was that Intan. He didn''t see Intan anywhere when he came back. But he would meet her in tomorrow''s battle. He would destroy her in that battle, not other people. Miska looked at his eyes. At least she didn''t find any trace of rage on his eyes. She nodded, "It seems your eyes are not clouded by rage. I will visit Elder Charya first." "Yes. Thank you for worrying about me." "Fufu, my disciple is the one who kept nagging me to visit you," Miska said while glancing at Lena. "Teacher!" Lena''s face suddenly flushed red. Evelyn was also surprised to hear that. Lena started acting weirdly. She said, "I... I am just worried about my sister. Since she is fine, then I''m going. Master, let''s go." "Fine, fine." It was fun to tease her disciple like this. She thought, maybe this was the feeling that Charya got when she teased her. She was surprised to even think like that. She shook her head and walked toward her disciple. Alex and Evelyn got shocked by Lena''s statement. They looked at each other and chuckled. Before they left, Alex didn''t forget to say, "Thank you." When Lena heard that, she didn''t look back. She only smiled and disappeared with her master. Alex then continued to watch the tournament. But his turn never came up. He became impatient when waiting for his turn. One hour... Two hours... One fight... Twenty fights... As time passed by, he started becoming more and more impatient. Even Evelyn also grumbled when Alex''s turn never came. Until finally, Elder Dolf announced. "Alexander Sirius versus Elise." The audience finally cheered on top of the lungs. This was the most awaited match for today. Elise was the former 10th place in the Battle Tower. But because of Alex''s sudden appearance, she lost her top ten rankings. ''Would she defeat him?'' This was the thought of most people in the arena. After two hours passed, the awkward atmosphere slowly disappeared. And when their turn came, the situation became heated. When Alex heard the third elder called his name, he immediately disappeared and appeared in the arena. Elise also did the same. She was very eager to fight this Alex. "You were only a Martial Master a year ago. But I never thought you are going to reach this stage in a year. I don''t know what kind of trick you use in the battle tower. But I won''t lose to you." Elise said. It was understandable why she said that. Alex''s point was that ridiculous as even a 10-Star Martial Grandmaster like her or Eric Kasmanan could not get it. Let alone him, a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster. Alex looked at this red-colored hair woman. Although she was somewhat beautiful and her strength should be powerful, Alex didn''t have the time to waste at this match. Alex opened his mouth, "I''m sorry. But I need to finish this match as soon as possible." She was dumbfounded. Alex said like he was already convinced that he would win. She thought Alex was looking down on her. "You! How dare you talk big!" Alex ignored her and looked at Elder Dolf. "Please start the match." "You!" Elise looked at Alex hatefully. Elder Dolf only sighed. Since both of them had prepared, he announced. "Match Start!" 300 Inner Disciple Tournament 5-Truth "Match Start!" "I will make you regret saying that," Elise said. She raised her sword and released her Sword Domain. She said, "You are advancing too fast, your sword mastery won''t be able to keep up." "Soaring Sword." She swung her sword and shot out a huge amount of energy from her sword. That energy flew toward Alex at a fast speed. Alex covered his sword with his sword intent and waved his sword. And with this swing, that huge amount of energy was split into half. "What?" Elise was surprised. "You don''t need to worry about my advancement. You should worry about yourself first." Alex said coldly as he released his Sword Domain. All the elders rose from their seats as they looked at this Alex in shock. "Sword Domain! It is a Sword Domain!" "But look at the size!" "Twenty-five meter in radius?" They gasped when they looked at Alex''s Sword Domain. Just one year ago, Alex was only a small Martial Master. Although he was able to fuse his Sword Intent into his Martial Arts, he was not a Sword Grandmaster. They thought Alex might be able to break through to a Sword Grandmaster considering his monstrous talent. But they only thought he would only be able to make a one-meter domain. Unfortunately, Alex let them see something far unbelievable. It was a twenty-five radius Sword Domain. And Alex did all of this in just one year. They looked at Elise''s fifteen meter Sword Domain. It was indeed good, considering her cultivation, but when they saw Alex. They could only classify him as a monster. "It is only a year!" "Are you telling me he reached this stage in just a year?" The elders were shouting. The disciples in the arena also realized what kind of monster Alex was. Especially for Core Disciples. Core Disciples usually had a domain of their own. Their domain ranged from one meter to forty meters. And the elder usually had more than that. Even the sect master only had an eighty meter domain. They were bewildered when they found Alex reached this level in just a year. He was still young. What kind of monstrous beings would he be in a few decades? They could not imagine such a thing as it was beyond their imagination. "What?" Elise was shocked by Alex''s sword domain. His sword domain was even wider than her. "How can yo-" "You don''t need to know," Alex said and jumped forward. He was trying to finish the battle as fast as possible. Alex waved his sword and shot out five slashes. "Pentagram Slash." Elise immediately regained her composure. She tried to avoid the slashes by dodging to the side. But Alex had been waiting for her there. She came into Alex''s sword domain and felt the sharpness of his Sword Domain. Her movement was a bit restricted in this domain. She fought back with her domain, but sadly, it could only protect her from Alex''s domain. Alex didn''t feel anything from her sword domain since her sword domain was not able to reach him. Alex took out ten swords from his space ring and let them float above him. They were confused with Alex''s action. They didn''t know what he was doing. But when he suddenly took another ten swords out of his space ring. Alex shocked everyone again. They didn''t understand the reason why Alex took out twenty swords from his space ring. But Elise could feel a chill when she looked at these swords. Alex wanted to use the principle of Running Sword but increased the number of the swords with his Omnislash. And surprisingly, he could control twenty of them. And unlike Himura Minami, who took out two rank 3 swords and four rank 2 swords during the match with Alex. This time, Alex took out twenty rank 3 swords. The people were bewildered, but Alex paid no heed. He shot the swords to Elise. Alex was controlling twenty rank 3 swords and let them chase Elise. Of course, Alex didn''t forget to coat the swords with his Sword Intent. Elise started panicking as she didn''t know what to do in this situation. This was the first time she saw something like this. "Four Direction Slash!" She tried to attack the sword with Four Direction Slash. But she only managed to stop the sword for a while. She wanted to copy what Alex did to stop Himura Minami''s sword, but this time, there were too many swords. Even the crowd was dumbfounded when they saw this. It looked like plain bullying. They also didn''t know how to deal with this attack. Omnislash was a mid Earth Tier Martial Arts. After Alex combined it with Himura Minami''s Running Sword, it evolved to High Earth Tier Martial Arts, if not Heaven Tier. "Is that Omnislash?" "But he uses real swords. It is like Himura Minami''s ''Running Sword." "Are you kidding me? Running Sword only lets you control five Swords. Not freaking twenty!" "All of you miss the point, look at his swords. All of them are freaking rank 3 swords. Can''t you see that he has twenty rank 3 swords?" The crowd was even confused about whether to be surprised by Alex''s technique or Alex''s wealth. Sadly, Alex got them without spending money. All because he had the Gacha System. In the arena, Elise wanted to cry when she faced an unknown technique like this. The sword kept chasing her, and even she deflected them. Unlike the Omnislash that would get destroyed if she did that, these real freaking swords would only come back to chase her. When she was complaining about that in her mind, Alex found a chance to attack her. He suddenly disappeared from his original position and appeared in front of her. But that was not all. When he appeared in front of Elise, he was ready to swing his sword. "Seven Stars Cut!" Elise tried to avoid it to the side, but Alex controlled his sword and plunged to her side, leaving no opening to exploit. The only thing she could do was to take this Seven Stars Cut head-on. "Seven Stars Cut." She also used the Seven Stars Cut. It turned out the Seven Star Cut was not a hard Martial Arts to master if they had a high attainment in that ''fake'' Seven Stars Cut. She was able to shoot four layers Seven Stars Cut in a year. Sadly, her opponent was Alex. Alex''s Seven Stars Cut had five layers. If Alex were a peak Martial Grandmaster, he would be able to use a six layer Seven Stars Cut. He was just restricted by the cultivation level. Their Seven Stars Cut clashed with each other but as expected with the difference of layer. Alex''s sword wave cut through Elise''s Seven Stars Cut and made its way toward Elise. Sadly, Elise couldn''t dodge Alex''s attack anymore. That forced Elder Dolf to stop the match. He destroyed Alex''s attack with her full power. He didn''t dare to take it easy in this tournament to stop someone attacking as they were already close to peak Martial Grandmasters. "Alexander Sirius Wins!" As soon as he destroyed Alex''s attack. The third elder announced. The crowd was cheering to see such an interesting match. They were convinced that Alex was powerful. Especially people who would be his opponent next, they would need a plan to counter Alex''s Omnislash. Elise looked down for a while. She just talked big before the match, but she just lost to him. After seeing Alex''s power, she was convinced of her loss. "I lost." She looked up and tried to stretch her hand to Alex for a handshake. But when she looked up, Alex was nowhere to be seen... Even his swords were missing. ... A few seconds ago, As soon as the third elder announced the result, Alex immediately stored his swords back and went to Evelyn. "Let''s go back," Alex said. Evelyn nodded, and both of them immediately flew back. Although she was surprised by his power, after knowing him for so long, it took her only a few seconds to regain her composure. Alex searched for Putri and the others'' whereabouts with his Spirit Eyes and found them in Song Yu''s house. Alex immediately went there. Charya and Song Yu didn''t look too good as they stood in the hallway. "What happened? Where is the Senior Sister?" Alex asked. "Ugh..." Both Charya and Song Yu sighed. Song Yu said, "Good news. We have prevented her from suicide and calmed her down a bit." Alex and Evelyn gulped down. They never thought Putri was attempting to suicide. And it was the good news to boot. Evelyn asked with a scared tone, "And the bad news?" "There... are... so much bad news..." Song Yu looked down. Alex took a deep breath to prepare his heart. He asked, "Alright. What is the bad news?" Song Yu looked at him for a while before explaining it to him. "Although she has calmed down, we can''t be sure what she will do next. After all, she can''t use her spear anymore. "And even if she comes to terms with it. The most worrying thing is she has a curse inside her body. That curse will eventually eat all the energy inside her body. "In other words, she would slowly die." Song Yu explained with a depressed tone. "Do you have any way to cure her?" Song Yu shook her head. Even Charya''s expression became gloomier. Alex contemplated for a while before he remembered Anna. Alex said, "I''m going to excuse myself for a bit." He remembered that Anna used something like a curse with her magic. Alex went out and took Anna''s card. "Anna, can you cure a curse?" "Cure curse? No, I can not. I can use a curse, but I can not cure the curse." Anna said casually as she didn''t know what happened. "I see. It is no good." Alex sighed. From that sigh, Anna could tell Alex was anxious. She then asked, "Did anything happen, Alex?" "Well... Remember when they came to our house so we can go together to the arena?" "Yes. I remember." "Back then, I could see a black spot on Senior Sister''s heart. I thought it was because of Zwaka''s Martial Arts. So, I thought it was fine. "It turned out the black spot was a curse. In the arena, the black spot suddenly spread out." "I don''t know how to cure a curse. But I do know who can remove the curse." She said carefully. "What? You know someone who can remove the curse? Tell me. Who is this he/she?" Alex asked eagerly. "She is my twin sister, Anya. We are a twin, but what can we do is exactly the opposite. If I can use a curse or something that can weaken someone, then Anya can use purify a curse or something that can strengthen someone." "Anya?" Alex contemplated a bit. He remembered this name as it was also one of his UR spirits. But Alex had yet to summon Anya. "Well, I can check her condition first if you want." "Of cour-!" [Mission: Inner Disciple Tournament Description: #1 Reward: 10 Premium Tickets or 1 Special Summon Ticket(UR)] Suddenly the system gave him a notification. She even highlighted the ''Special Summon Ticket(UR)'' from the mission panel. [Do you forget about me, Host? I can''t help you that much in Alicia''s case, but I can surely help you in this.] "..." Alex was startled by the system''s sudden appearance. He finally remembered this mission. If he won the tournament, he would be able to summon Anya with that Special Summon Ticket. But he couldn''t help but ask, "System, do you know that this is going to happen?" [No. It is just my intuition that you would need this sooner or later.] "..." Alex was wondering if a system really had an intuition... Anyway, he was really grateful for that. "Love you, System." [Love you too, Host.] Alex didn''t mean that kind of ''love'', though. He was just expressing his gratefulness to his System. Alex then said to Anna, "I will explain to the others first. I will call you later to check her condition." "Alright." Alex went back inside. 301 Inner Disciple Tournament 6-Talk Alex came back to the inside. He looked at Song Yu''s, Charya''s, and Evelyn''s sad face. He said, "Well¡­ good news, I know someone who can cure the curse." "Is that true?" Song Yu raised her head with glimmer hope. Even Charya and Evelyn raised their head. Alex nodded. "Indeed, but I could only do it after the tournament ended. So, I want to ask someone to check her condition first. Is that alright?" "Of course, how can that not alright?" Song Yu replied hurriedly. "I will call her later. Do you find anything about this incident?" Song Yu looked at Charya and Evelyn before turning to Alex. She decided to tell it to Alex. She grabbed Alex''s hand and said, "Come with me." She led him outside so the others couldn''t hear it. "Well, I will only tell this to you since Master and Evelyn should not hear this one." "Evelyn aside, but why should Elder Charya not hear this?" "You are the calmest. Evelyn should not take this information, so it won''t affect her progress. As for Master¡­ You already know her personality, if she knows this, I am afraid she will go rampage." Song Yu said. Alex looked at her serious expression and nodded. "Alright." "Since my hearing is good. I can hear their conversation in that loud arena. And even I could not believe it. First of all, you do know about that Mega, right?" Alex nodded. "She is the mastermind for this incident. She is the one who inflicted Putri with the curse. I don''t know how she can do it, but it seems she is collaborating with that Intan to destroy Putri and expel them from the family." Song Yu said. "Collaborating? Why? If they want to expel Putri from the Makmur Family, they should just do it. No need for something like this." "This is only my speculation, but Putri is the second person of the Makmur Family Younger Generation. And that Intan is the first person in their younger generation. "Before, Putri was a nobody. When she became my junior sister, her talent started to bloom. And when she became Master''s disciple, she progressed with leaps and bounds. "Putri became a thorn in their eyes, so they wanted to erase her. But if they killed Putri, with Master''s temperament, she would even fight the entire family. And if they just expelled Putri from the family, they were afraid Putri would take revenge against them in the future. "Considering her progress, it might be possible in the future. That''s why they wanted to destroy Putri first before expelling Putri from the family." "¡­" Alex contemplated. He didn''t know how complicated the family would be. But what Song Yu said was reasonable. He remembered that Mega and Kasmanan Family wanted to kill him because he had Zwaka''s inheritance. He didn''t know why they could know about it, but the only thing he could come up with was they suspected Putri about it. Since they could not openly fight Putri for it, they targeted him. "But is it truly that princess?" Alex asked. "I''m sure. This is what I heard from Intan. That Intan might not expect, I can hear her when she says something to Putri. After all, the only one who knew about my exceptional hearing was only you, Putri, Master, and Evelyn. "I heard she said Mega only became her friend so they could destroy Putri together and have her expelled from the family. With that, that princess would get the support from the Makmur Family for the throne." Alex frowned. He never thought that Princess was such a person. "Well, she even said that her fiance, Eric, also cheated on her and had a relationship with Mega. But because of the Kasmanan Family suddenly destroyed in a single night. She immediately abandoned him so she won''t be targeted." Song Yu said. Alex frowned, he said, "But, since they want to destroy Senior Sister, she might be lying." Song Yu shook her head. "She even used the Heavenly Oath to tell her she was not lying." "¡­" Song Yu looked at his troubled expression. Alex was starting to get agitated. She was also trying her best to remain calm. "What else?" "Well, she only said that everyone around her was only a fake: her fiance, her only friend, and even her parents. They were set up so they could break her." "I see. Then that is the biggest mistake they could ever make." Alex said coldly. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening it again, and he said, "Can I talk to Senior Sister Putri? There is something I want to convey to her." Looking at Alex''s serious expression, Song Yu couldn''t say no. "I will lead you to her room." "Thanks." Alex nodded. Song Yu led him to a room. Song Yu left him in front of the room. Alex looked at the door and knocked it a few times. ''Knock, Knock'' "Senior Sister, this is Alex. Can I come in? I want to say something to you." Alex said softly. He waited for a while but didn''t receive any answers from Putri. He tried to open the door, and fortunately, it was not locked. He opened the door slowly and tried to find Putri. Putri was lying down with her back facing him. She looked exhausted from crying. Alex slowly walked toward her. He stopped in front of her bed for a while. Putri then suddenly said with a hollow voice. "You must be disappointed with me." "No," Alex replied. "You must be. I am already useless now. Even the curse will kill me sooner or later." "I know someone who can cure you." Her body shook. She replied hurriedly, "Even if I am cured, I cannot use Spear anymore." "I don''t understand what you mean by a spear. That is only a weapon, and you still have your wind element." "I don''t have anything left. My only friend that I always trust, my fiance who cheated behind my back, and even the last family I have, my parents." Alex sat on the floor and leaned his back on the bed. "I also had parents and a little sister. At first, my parents loved me, but after they were obsessed with my little sister''s talent. They started ignoring me, and I started losing everything I had from that point." "Then, do you hate your parents and your little sister?" "I don''t know. My parents aside, I don''t think I hate my little sister. Although she often came and beat me, she just cannot be honest to herself. I felt that she wanted to encourage me but cannot be honest to herself." "But she still beat you. Or do you have that kind of preference?" "No. Anyway, after that, my girlfriend cheated on me with my best friend. In fact, I found our condition was similar. That was the lowest point in my life." "We might be similar, but now, I am crippled since I can''t use my spear. I am at rock bottom." "Rock bottom indeed. Because I reached this point that I can say this with confidence. Because you are at rock bottom, you wouldn''t have any other way other than going up, right?" Putri''s body shook again. Alex continued, "Don''t say something like talent. If you say you don''t have any talent, you can only say it after you give it your all and exhaust all of your energy. I believe all people have the same level of talent. But they just don''t use it in the right place and in the right way." Putri said while gritting her teeth, "But, I have lost that talent. I am not a genius in a sword like you, and I am not an Alchemist or even an Array Master like you. My cultivation progress is not as fast as you. And now, I lose the only thing that can make me stand toe to toe with other people." Alex summoned Anna quietly. Before entering the room, Alex had asked Anna if she could check her without her knowing. Anna said as long as she was nearby, she could check her. Since Alex''s and Putri''s back were facing each other, this would be the perfect time. When she appeared, Anna only sent a black energy inside her. This energy went unnoticed. Alex wanted Anna to check her condition quietly because he didn''t understand her heart''s state. After all, Song Yu and Charya just prevented her from suicide. This talk was to distract her so Anna could check her condition. "I don''t think so," Alex said softly. Anna then nodded at him. "I have finished checking her condition. The curse power is not that strong, but it is hard to be purified. Although it is hard, my sister can purify it, so you don''t need to be worried about her." Anna said in thought transmission. "I see. Thanks, Anna." Alex nodded. Anna also nodded her head, and then Alex recalled her back to the card. "You don''t think so? I have lost everything! My fiance, my only friend, my parents, and even my spear!" Putri shouted while crying. "But, you still have us." "What can it do? I will always be protected from now on. I get stronger so I can protect my family, but not protected by them. It is better to die than being protected for the rest of my life. You go out! Go out right now!" Putri shouted at him. Alex then stood up. He started walking toward the door. He opened it slowly, but before he left the room. He looked at Putri''s back, and said, "Senior Sister¡­ Sixth round, tomorrow''s last battle." Putri''s body shook again. It was already hurting her to shout at Alex like this. Her heart wrenched in pain. She knew Alex just wanted to comfort her, but she shouted him away like this. But when Alex said the sixth round, she knew what he meant. It was his fight with Intan. And she precisely remembered that she wanted to destroy Alex too. She gritted her teeth. "Please watch me. I have something to tell you in that match." Alex said. This was the one that he wanted to convey from the beginning. All the talk until now was only a distraction so Anna could check her condition. Since his objective had been completed, then it would be better to leave her alone so she could calm her mind. After he said that, Alex left the room. Noticing he came out of the room, Song Yu immediately came to him and asked with a worried face. "Have you finished?" Alex calmly smiled and said, "Don''t worry about Senior Sister. She is a strong and talented woman. She only needs a little push. For now, we should give her some time to think." "How about her condition? You know someone who can check her condition, right? We should invite that person right now." Song Yu said hurriedly. "I have checked her. The curse itself is not that strong, so she should be fine for now. But the problem is the curse is hard to be purified." Song Yu''s face became pale when she heard that. Alex only smiled, "Don''t worry. I can guarantee you that the person I know can cure that curse." "Are you sure?" Alex affirmed. Song Yu''s expression finally relaxed a bit. Song Yu said with the first smile she showed after this incident, "I will tell Master about this." "Alright. Tell her I need to go back so I can prepare for tomorrow." "Yes." Alex then came back to his house and summoned Anna. He decided not to practice since his heart was a bit disturbed by the incident. He only sat in front of his house, trying to relax by watching the sky and feeling the calm atmosphere. Of course, Anna took this chance to sit beside him. While relaxing, Alex etched the name of Mega Indrajaja and Intan Wulan on his heart. He might need to spill some blood tomorrow¡­ well, he might be stopped by the third elder, though. 302 Inner Disciple Tournament 7-Little Revenge The next day, Alex went out of his house, and he was surprised to see Charya and Evelyn outside his house. "Big Sister Song Yu asked me to watch over big brother like yesterday," Evelyn said. "I am just watching you so that vixen won''t try anything funny," Charya said. Alex knew that the ''vixen'' in her mouth was the sixteenth elder. She was afraid if the sixteenth elder did something to Alex when she was too occupied on Putri. She asked Song Yu to take care of Putri while she watched over Alex in the arena. Alex didn''t mind about it, though. He had several plans to protect himself, and most of all, he had recalled Anna back to the card. Anna said that she could summon herself without his permission, like what she did when Song Jia tried to grab him. Alex thought the other spirits also could do that, but she said it was her privilege. It was because she had become his woman that she could do that. Anna told him to check his card and surprised to see there was a heart mark on her card. It was the proof. Alex then wanted to take advantage of this feature to bring her to the arena. So when he became a little bit bru-harsh and whatever elder tried to attack him. Anna would appear and protect him. But seeing Charya also came with him, that plan might be unnecessary. But better be safe than sorry. Alex then flew to the arena with Charya and Evelyn. When they arrived in the arena, Charya''s eyes glued into the silver-haired figure with full hatred. Alex looked at the green-haired beauty without an expression. She tried to taunt him by making a sinister smile to make him remember about Putri, but Alex didn''t care about it. Not long after, the tournament started again. This was the fourth round. After 1024 disciples reduced to 512 to 256 and finally to 128 in the third round. This round would let the people see the top 64th disciple in the inner disciple tournament. But as expected, the most exciting match today was Alex versus Intan. After what happened to his Senior Sister, the people were wondering what he would do and what kind of fight he would show them. Just thinking about it could give goosebumps. The third elder finally started the match. Alex''s turn came after another hour. "Alexander Sirius versus Mega Indrajaja." Alex took his time to go to the arena. Of course, he hated this Mega since he was the same as John. Both of them were their best friend, but sadly, all of it was only a fake. Alex considered this Mega as a desert before his fight between Intan. He looked at this Mega and said, "I hate the fake friend to the bone." He suddenly remembered. When Intan whispered something to Putri after she defeated her, Putri denied it. But after looking at a person in the crowd, Putri suddenly broke down. Putri said that she only had Mega as a friend, her fiance, and her family. There was only Eric and Mega as the possibility since her family wouldn''t be able to come here. But he knew, after destroying the Kasmanan Family, Eric would lose his backing and would not do something like that. So the last possibility was the princess. After Putri looked at the princess, she broke down. "You never know the struggle for someone who wants the throne." Mega didn''t deny it any longer. "But I know someone who never wants to have a struggle for the throne despite being a princess," Alex said, remembering Alicia, Mia, and Lea. Alicia just wanted to be with him, and he didn''t really understand Mia. As for Lea, she only wanted to be a proud knight. At the very least, he knew all of them didn''t want to struggle for the throne. Instead, they wanted a peaceful family. "You-!" Mega gritted her teeth. This guy should have died when she sent the assassin. But instead of bringing his head and his space ring, she only found that the men she sent had disappeared mysteriously. But with Alex''s cultivation, there was no way Alex could kill them. And because of the war thing, she suspected that the Zhou Kingdom had hindered her plan. Even so, she looked at him greedily, especially when she looked at his space ring. Alex looked at Elder Dolf and nodded. "Match Start!" As soon as the match started, Mega immediately deployed her sword domain. It was a fifteen-meter sword domain. Even though it was not at Alex''s level, it would protect her for the time being. On the other hand, Alex took out twenty swords again and shot them to Mega. Mega suddenly took out a big metal shield. She used her Sword Domain to weaken the swords and used this shield to block them. She knocked down the sword one by one. Surprisingly, when the shield knocked his sword to the ground, he suddenly lost control of that sword. Seeing her strategy was working, she laughed. "Haha, I paid a huge price for this shield. You won''t be able to win as long as I use this shield." Alex frowned as he activated his Spirit Eyes to take a look on that shield. According to the color of the shield from his Spirit Eyes, the shield had a metal element. When his sword touched the shield, it lost its affinity and made him unable to control it again. He recalled his remaining swords and let them hover around him. Mega managed to knock fourteen swords, so there were only six swords around him. Mega thought she had won when she saw Alex recall his sword. Alex then released the swords from his control. He only smiled at his situation and raised his hand. Ten swords appeared above his head, and he made the swords fly toward Mega''s shield. Obviously, Mega continued blocking his swords one by one. She almost forgot about this. This was his original Omnislash. Luckily her shield was still working. When she blocked his Omnislash, the sword then broke. But Alex just summoned them again and again. He let them fly toward Mega''s shield since losing these swords was nothing to him. After all, they were only illusory swords. Mega suddenly felt something wrong. She could not approach him while using her shield to go toward him. At this rate, she would just become a perfect punching bag. The tip of her sword suddenly shined. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw this. He tried to look at it with his Spirit Eyes. Mega pointed her sword toward him and suddenly shot out a yellow colored ball toward him. The ball flew at him like a bullet, and Alex couldn''t help but used his sword to destroy it by instinct. This was the first time he saw Mega''s element. Her element turned out to be a light element. He realized that this was the first time he fought with a light element user. And that attack just now was like a laser beam. After dodging it, he looked at the wall that was pierced by the light. The light managed to make a one-meter deep hole in the wall. And it had that much speed to boot. This attack was evil. If a person wanted to attack from a distance, she would use her shield to block it. And if they wanted to approach her, she would shoot that attack again. "Light Piercer." She shot it again and again. Alex tried to slash each shot with his sword while dodging some of those attacks. It looked like he was getting suppressed by Mega. And this made Mega even more fired up to shoot him. Unbeknownst to him, there was a green-haired beauty and the beautiful blonde in the farthest seat in the arena. The blonde was watching him with a worried expression while the green-haired beauty clenched her fist. They were Song Yu and Putri. At the time the match started, Putri suddenly came out of her room. Song Yu was shocked to see that. She remembered Alex said Putri was a strong woman, and what she needed at that time was a push. Alex gave her that push. Although she had yet to accept the result, she decided to watch Alex today. When Putri said that, Joy immediately filled Song Yu''s heart. She smiled brightly and said, "Yes. Let''s go." They sneaked into the arena and didn''t tell Charya and Evelyn since Putri requested her not to inform them about this. She just wanted to watch silently from the side. "You are not that weak." Putri murmured when she saw Alex''s situation. In the arena, Alex tried to adjust his Spirit Eyes so he could get used to this Light Piercer speed. It was indeed one of the fastest attacks he had seen. After a minute of adjusting, he finally got used to it. He suddenly stopped parrying the attack and didn''t move from his track. Mega smiled when she saw this. She thought she had won as Alex stopped moving. She attacked him with another few balls. And Alex had no sign of moving. Even the third elder was getting ready to move at any moment. But suddenly all of them, including those elders in their special room, saw something very unbelievable. "Swoosh!" The bullet suddenly passed through Alex and pierced the wall. They dropped their jaws as soon as they saw this. "What is that?" "Did he dodge those balls?" "What just happened at that moment? I didn''t see him move, but those attacks just passed him without hitting him." The people were confused by such an incident. Only the third elder could see what just happened in the arena. From others'' perspectives, Alex might seem as if he didn''t move. But he could clearly see it. Alex had indeed moved his body. But it was only a slight movement that could be ignored. The most surprising thing was because of that slight movement, none of those bullets hit him. ''Did he know their trajectories?'' He couldn''t help but ask himself that question. Mega also didn''t understand what just happened. She looked at Alex with a surprised look and felt a chill when she saw his gaze. "Light Piercer!" She attacked him again. Alex started walking toward Mega. When the second wave of the bullets came to his way, he only turned his head to the side. And he once again passed those bullets. All the people, especially the third elder, suddenly realized that Alex could see that lightning speed bullets. "Light Piercer! Light Piercer! Light Piercer!" She attacked him again in panic. Normally, a person with 7-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage cultivation would not be able to follow the speed of her bullets. But it was different from Alex that could see it with his Spirit Eyes. Alex continued walking like nothing happened while Mega attacked him desperately. Unfortunately, no bullets managed to hit Alex yet, and it seemed that none of the bullets would be able to hit him today. When he was closed enough, he suddenly jumped forward. He waved his sword toward Mega. "Hii!" Mega tried to block his attack with her shield. "Immovable Step." The powerful strength came toward his hand that was holding the sword. With the four dragon strength, Alex swung his sword toward the shield. "Clang!" "Boom!" In just a moment after that metallic clash, they could hear a crashing sound. They looked at the arena and didn''t find Mega in front of Alex. She crashed into the wall with that swing alone. Regrettably, Alex couldn''t destroy the shield. But it was no problem. Alex didn''t intend to stop there. This would be the perfect time to get rough. He disappeared from the arena. "Flash Step." Using the speed of his Flash Step, Alex appeared again in front of Mega with his foot trying to stomp Mega. Mega used her shield again to block him, but Alex didn''t give her mercy. "Immovable Step!" He stomped Mega''s shield with his full strength. "Boom!" Alex''s stomp made a huge crater on the arena floor. And Mega''s scream followed afterward. "Ahhh!" 303 Inner Disciple Tournament 8-Finishing the Little Revenge "Bam!" Alex''s stomp created a huge crater on the ground and followed by Mega''s scream "Ahh!" Even though she managed to block Alex''s stomp, her hand that was holding the shield also got cracked like the ground. Alex took advantage of his extraordinary strength to crush Mega. He looked at Mega, who was on the ground with one of her hands bent in a weird way. Alex then tried to stomp her again, but she let go of her sword and grabbed her shield with her other hand and rolled away. Alex didn''t let her go. He appeared in front of her and kicked her again. Mega put her shield in front of her to block Alex''s kick. But she was blown away by the raw strength of his kick and crashed into the wall. It was pretty brutal from others'' points of view. Mega couldn''t do anything against Alex other than becoming a punching bag for him. At the same time, Alex used both of his Immovable Step or his Heavy Step to do more damage. There was an old man that was looking at Alex with so much hatred. He had spiky white hair and hateful eyes. If a look could kill, Alex would die a few times already. He was the uncle of the princess. He was one generation ahead of the princess and was tasked to protect her. When he saw Alex beating the princess black and blue, his heart had been full of hatred. On the other hand, Charya only casually looked at the princess. She didn''t know why Alex became like that since Song Yu only told the reason to Alex. But she was ready to move at any time because she knew there was a guy that was looking at Alex like he wanted to butcher him. If that guy moved toward him, she would immediately intercept him. ... Alex was continuing his tort- Ahem, his fight. He kicked the princess around the arena. Since the rule said as long, they didn''t admit defeat. They could continue the fight. Alex took advantage of that rule to vent his anger. The atmosphere around the arena became tense. They knew Mega was the princess from the Southern Kingdom. But they didn''t know why Alex beat her like this. They were wondering if Alex was not afraid of Southern Kingdom retaliation. He looked at the battered Mega. There was no trace of pity in his eyes. Alex already decided to beat this princess black and blue even if he could not kill her at this place, she would still have some pain. If she didn''t die, he would kill her himself after this. He was afraid there would be any retaliation from her like using another assassin or whatever. He didn''t know whether the kingdom would do something to him because of this princess. But if they wanted to do it, Nicole and Ngina would inform him. He trusted their ability. "You! How dare you do this to a prin-Aaah!" Before she finished, Alex kicked her again. Mega had been beaten black and blue, and even her eyes started losing its light. Alex jumped toward her again to send another kick. "You Brat!" The princess''s uncle could not take it anymore. Alex needed to die at this moment. He was refraining himself because of Charya''s glare. But it was pretty clear that Alex was torturing the Southern Kingdom''s third princess in front of everyone. This shame should be paid with blood. He released his 7-Star Martial Lord. He was going to strike Alex, who was charging toward the princess. "Lightning Tiger." When he tried to attack Alex, a tiger made by lightning suddenly flew toward him and tried to bite him. He immediately turned around and repelled the lightning attack. The lightning attack came from Charya. She looked down and said coldly. "The match had yet to finish, and you should not intervene with the match." What he was worrying at the moment was not Charya but Mega. Alex''s kick almost hit her, and Mega seemed would not be able to defend this. "Boom!" With that loud sound, the people closed their eyes. They applauded Alex''s braveness to dare to beat the princess like that. After all, what Alex did was the same as challenging the entire Southern Kingdom. But when they thought the princess was over, the third elder stopped that last kick from Alex with his hands. "That is enough. If you attack her anymore, you would be disqualified according to the rule." The third elder said while trying to clench his fist. Although he thought Alex had a powerful strength, he didn''t know it was that strong until he caught his kick himself. Alex looked at the third elder and took a deep breath. He looked at the half death princess. Bruised had covered her body, and her eyes had lost its light. It was not his hatred for her because of Putri alone. His hatred against John also took part in it. When the third elder stopped him, he finally regained back his rationality. "Thank you, Third Elder. I got my ''past anger'' influenced me a little bit." "You should calm your mind when you are cultivating. If you can''t, you won''t be able to reach a great high in this path." "Yes. Thank you for your guidance." "But, will you be alright after this? You just literally beat one of the princesses from the Southern Kingdom like this. I''m sure that it will be troublesome for you, and possibly, they would try to kill you." "They can come if they want. I am not afraid of them." "That''s right, you bastard. We are going to pay this humiliation back." The elderly that stopped by Charya shouted. Alex only shrugged his shoulder. "You can come if you want, but when you do, you better prepare to pay the price. I gave information that could save your entire kingdom, but what I got was this princess wanted to kill my Senior Sister and I became like that." Even the third elder was surprised to hear this. Unfortunately, the sect master that said he wanted to protect Alex was not present since he was only going to come to the arena on the last day. If not, he might also step in to stop this. "You talk big. Then, our Southern Kingdom will declare war with you." They gasped. They knew that this old man was the uncle of the princess who had become this sect''s disciple a few decades ago. So his word was basically true. The third elder shook his head. He thought Alex was too young and reckless. "I am just warning you right now, so you don''t say I didn''t warn you earlier. Should the Southern Kingdom come to me, they won''t get a war from me, but ANNIHILATION." Alex casually shrugged his shoulder like this war thing was not important to him. He went back to Charya''s room. "You talk big. You will regret saying those big words!" He looked at Alex with murderous eyes while taking Mega away. Although Mega''s condition was like this, it was only a physical injury¡­ with a bit of psychological injuries¡­ Anyway, as long as she recovered sometime, she would be fine. But it was different from Putri. Even if Putri recovered, she would never be able to use her spear again. Charya came back to her room. She looked at Alex and said, "You are a bit reckless there. Although the sect master said he would protect you, the opponent this time is an entire kingdom. I don''t know what he will do if this is the case. I will help you, though, even if the sect won''t help you." Alex smiled. He knew that she had prepared for that when she said that. After all, with the thought of having to fight the entire kingdom alone, it was considered as a suicide. Suddenly Evelyn also came to him and said, "Big brother, I will also help you. Even if my family doesn''t help you, I will still help you. I won''t be able to become what I am now without you, so this is the time to repay your favor." Alex smiled as he patted Evelyn''s head. "It is alright. I didn''t lose my head when I declared that. I am happy with that thought alone, but don''t worry. The Southern Kingdom is not qualified to kill me." Even in the audience, Song Yu and Putri looked at the scene while gritting their teeth. "Why did Alex say that? Doesn''t he know that he would be chased by the Southern Kingdom if he did that? I should not tell him the entire story." Song Yu grumbled. Putri let out some tears from her eyes. She knew that Alex did this because of her. After all, he said it himself. She gritted her teeth. If she had her spear, she would fight together with him till the end. She would point her spear to her kingdom, her family, or even her parents. She knew that Alex, Song Yu, and Charya were the closest one she had, and that would never change. She was just frustrated that it was because of her that they did this, and she could do nothing. Song Yu looked at her, thinking whether she should ask her sister for this. She could just ask her to bring him back to the Blackwade Clan to protect him. There were two reasons why she wanted to do that. Firstly it was his identity as the VIP cardholder. And the other reason was Alex''s talent. Alex had a high talent in sword and Alchemy. Considering his progress, he might surpass her if he had enough resources in the future. The tournament continued, and as expected, the situation became tense after Alex''s fight. Fortunately, there was no fight like Alex''s fight. If not, they didn''t know what would happen next. In this tournament, the biggest event was really the fight between Putri and Intan. Because of that fight, Alex beat Mega black and blue, and the situation turned like this. They were wondering if Alex won once again, he would meet Intan today. They became tense, wondering what would happen if they met. And two hours later, The third elder announced, "Alexander Sirius versus Supermart." Alex was surprised to hear that word. He couldn''t help but thought, ''Supermart? You mean there is a grocery store in this world?'' But when Alex arrived at the arena, he saw the shirt that this ''Supermart'' wore, he knew he was wrong. There was his name on his shirt with two lines on it. ''uper'' and ''mart'' with a big S that were supposed to add those two words. He looked at the blue-haired guy in front of him with a weird expression. It seemed that his parents wanted to name him Super Smart, but they thought by making it like this sound cooler, so they did. Obviously, they didn''t know anything about Supermart, AKA grocery store. If they knew they wouldn''t name their son like this. Alex wanted to laugh in his sour mood, but it would be too rude. He indeed remembered Maxwell''s advice for someone''s name. He should not laugh at someone''s name since they had their own naming sense. But what he found next made him shocked. "You should not treat a lady like that. Even you would not want to be treated that way. I will beat you black and blue, so you understand what kind of pain she was going through because of you, so you don''t repeat something like that." He said righteously. Alex twitched his eyebrows. All that ''Super Smart'' thing immediately crumbled inside his mind. He even thought about switching that ''mart'' word with ''illy'' so he could read it Super Silly. As soon as the match started, Alex immediately used his full power to suppress this person. It seemed he was the 15th person in the ranking, but he was wondering if he forgot that he could defeat Elise, who was the former 10th. He was indeed prepared to counter Alex''s style of running sword, but it was futile. The princess solution for his Running Sword was better than this guy, and after a few moves, Alex defeated him. 304 Inner Disciple Tournament 9-Big Revenge After defeating that guy, Alex didn''t have any comment besides changing his name into Superilly or Super Silly since it was more befitting that guy. He didn''t really care about it since he was only a stranger to Alex. He came back to Charya and Evelyn with a smile. He knew that he and the others were a bit obsessed with the next match, but they should not be like that. The more they got obsessed, the more they couldn''t think of a good idea. Especially Charya, who was constantly glaring at the sixteenth elder. "That guy should change his ''mart'' to ''illy'' so we can call him Super Silly." He said to change the atmosphere in the room. Evelyn and Charya looked at him with surprise before laughing a little bit. Charya finally realized his aim. She shook her head helplessly. She took a deep breath to calm his head. "Alex, Do you think you can win?" Charya asked. "Absolutely. This is a match that I need to win no matter what cost." Alex said with a serious expression. "Do you realize that Putri and Song Yu come here to watch?" Charya asked him. After knowing them for so long, she could feel that they were in the arena, watching the tournament. "No." Alex shook his head before adding, "But I know they will watch this match." "Well, I don''t care as long as you can win. If possible, you can beat that b*tch like that princess. I don''t know why you beat that princess like that, but make sure to do that to that b*tch if you can." Alex only smiled, "It is true that I wanted to beat her like that. But in this match, I have something more important. I will do that first before I beat her." "Something Important?" Charya furrowed her eyebrows. "Yes. I want to show something to my Senior Sister. She is strong and talented. I''m sure even with this setback, she would be able to rise again." Charya looked at him in confusion. She didn''t know what kind of thing he wanted to show her, but it seemed very important to him. "Fine. Whatever you do. Just make sure you think carefully. I don''t want to see the same incident again." Charya said. "Of course. I am a careful person. If I did something, I would do it only after careful consideration." Alex assured her. Charya looked at his expression and didn''t speak anymore. Alex continued to watch the match after the match while waiting for his turn to come up. And finally, after another two hours, Elder Dolf announced. "Alexander Sirius versus Intan Wulan Makmur." The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Alex slowly came to the arena. He looked very calm like yesterday''s matter had never happened in the first place. Alex looked at the green-haired beauty and sighed. "Haha... How is it? Is she dead yet? She must commit suicide already. After all, she had lost everything." Intan tried to taunt him to mess with his mind. Alex only chuckled. "She is a strong person and a very talented one at that. In fact, she is far more talented than you." Alex said softly. "Hmph. More talented? Without a spear, what can she do? Without family, what can she do?" Intan snorted. "You already saw it yesterday. Without a spear, she could use a strong Wind Element Martial Art. Without the Makmur Family, she could get a hold of a rank 5 spear. In fact, because of this, she will come back and reach a far greater height than all of you can give her. "And with all of you finally revealed your true color, she could realize who her real friends and family are. And all of it came not too late. With her new family, you would only be filled with regret." He said calmly. "Talk big. You are just talking big like what you did earlier. Do you think you are capable of fighting an entire Kingdom? Hmph!" "Haha¡­ I never thought like that. I only thought whether the Southern Kingdom is capable of fighting me." Alex said. Well, he was confident that later, he and his spirits could even raze the entire Southern Kingdom to the ground with ease. If he couldn''t, he can just use the token that his Master gave him and used it in the middle of the kingdom. He could ask his master, Maxwell, to destroy the entire kingdom. But it would leave a bad taste in his mouth, so he buried it deep inside his heart. He would only resort to doing that if he was forced to do that. "You!" "Don''t believe me? How about we also use the Heavenly Oath like what you suggested yesterday? If you lose, you can''t use a spear anymore." "Hmph, I don''t need to do that because I will definitely win this match. And I don''t see any merits in doing that to you." Intan said. In fact, she was a little scared by Alex''s calm expression. Although she had prepared the countermeasure for Alex''s running sword, she felt Alex was still holding himself back. Because of that, she didn''t dare to accept this bet. "What? You don''t dare? I thought you would definitely win this match? So, why not bet with me? If you lose, you will only lose your ability to wield a spear since I am going to lose my sword if I lose. If that is not enough, hmm¡­ Then, how about if I lose¡­" Alex paused a little bit before saying it with a serious expression, "I will cripple myself and never cultivate again?" All the people in the arena immediately got shocked by Alex''s statement. They were thinking about whether he was daring or just foolish. "Alex!" Charya shouted his name. She never thought Alex would make such a bet. In fact, she knew Alex''s ability was far higher than Putri. If Alex also crippled after this, she could not forgive herself. She wanted to stop Alex, but Alex only smiled at her. Somehow, that smile could stop her. Song Yu also grumbled in the arena. Putri clenched her fist while biting her lips. Intan was astonished by Alex''s statement, but Alex didn''t manage to bait her with that. Alex also understood that from her expression alone. He had expected this, so he suddenly took out a bronze badge with four stars on it. It was clear for everyone to see it was a rank 4 Alchemist badge. They were shocked when Alex took something like this. "If that is not enough¡­ How about if I lose¡­ I, as a rank 4 Alchemist, will become your slave and will do everything to your bidding. I will make pills or whatever you want me to." Alex said. "What?" "He is a rank 4 Alchemist? Is he joking with us?" "He must be joking. I have never seen a rank 4 Alchemist that young!" "If that is true, then it means he is not only a sword genius but also an Alchemist genius!" The crowd was shocked by the sudden revelation. "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, I assure you, I didn''t tell lies." Alex suddenly made an oath that shut the crowd up. They could clearly see that it didn''t do anything to him. In other words, what Alex said was indeed not a lie. He was a genuine rank 4 Alchemist. this immediately shocked them to the point they could speak. Intan was astonished by this revelation and almost took the bait. But she was very wary against Alex''s sword. Alex knew that he only needed a little push to make her agree. He once again stated while taking out a green spear from his inventory, "I am proud to have her to be my Senior Sister. So, that''s why¡­ In this fight, I will only use my ''spear'' and not my sword." "Alex!" Charya, Song Yu, Evelyn, and even Putri shouted his name, wanting to stop her. Alex said his ''spear'' because he was a bit unique. But it was enough to bait her. Intan immediately said without giving a chance for Charya and the others to stop him. "So be it. You will become my slave." "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, If I lost this match, I won''t be able to use spear again." She said. "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, If I lost this match, I will become Intan Wulan Makmur''s slave. And in this match, I can only use my ''Spear,'' not my sword." Alex also made the oath. Everyone wanted to stop him from that reckless decision, but Alex only looked at them with a smile. Especially when he looked at Putri, he said, "Watch me." "Please start the match, Third Elder," Intan said hurriedly. Elder Dolf looked at Alex with a worried expression. He knew Alex was a genius, but he was a sword genius, not a spear genius. Unfortunately, before he managed to stop him, Alex had made the Heavenly Oath. Alex only nodded his head. Elder Dolf gritted his teeth and announced, "Match Start!" Alex and Intan raised their spear and thrust it toward each other. The tip collided with each other and pushed both of them away. They retreated a few steps back, but while they were at it. They raised their spears again and shot an arrow-like thing. "Quick Silver." "Boom!" Both of their ''Quick Silver'' destroyed each other. This was precisely the same as what Putri and Intan did in their fight. But surprisingly, Alex could use a Quick Silver. This made everyone, including Charya and the others, dropped their jaws to the ground. Alex could use the Quick Silver because he copied it since he already got his Spear Mastery card. Intan tried to fight him in close combat because she wanted to let him know first how hard it was to use a spear. But surprisingly, Alex could follow her moves without getting suppressed by her. And eventually, they raised their spear and thrust it again with a far stronger power. "Silver Raven!" The clash was earth-shaking. They never thought Alex could even use Silver Raven. Although it was a relatively but powerful move, Alex was a sword genius, not a spear genius. Seeing him using the Silver Raven gave them goosebumps. After that clash, both of them retreated a few steps back. "I never thought you could use the spear this well. I might need to be wary about you if you use a sword, because with a spear. You can''t do this." Intan said while releasing her twenty meters Spear Domain. Alex smiled calmly at her. He said, "What is a spear? What is a sword? Both of them are weapons. And unlike bow, ax, or even knuckle. Spear and sword are pretty similar, you know. The spear has a shorter blade but longer handle while the sword has a longer blade but a shorter handle. That''s all." Alex said while throwing his spear to the ground. "Snort. No matter what you say, a spear is a spear, and a sword is a sword. Just look at you, you throw your spear to the ground. Are you giving up?" "Haha, why should I give up when I know I will win this match?" Alex asked, and suddenly he took out a sword and grabbed it with his hand. All the people were shocked. ''Why did he hold a sword?'' was the thought of everyone present. They remembered that Alex had made a Heavenly Oath only to use a spear, not a sword in this match. So he should not be able to use a sword. "Like I said, they are just weapons. The spear has a shorter blade but longer handle while the sword has a longer blade but a shorter handle. As long as you bypass that condition, they are the same." Alex smiled while adding, "I already said from the beginning. I will fight you with my ''Spear,'' and this is my spear." Alex suddenly released a twenty meters domain. But this domain contained boundless Spear Intent, not Sword Intent. "Spe¡­Spear¡­ Spear Domain!" 306 Inner Disciple Tournament 11-Thats it? Or is that truly the conclusion? "Intan!" The sixteenth elder immediately rushed to the stage and checked Intan''s condition. Charya also came to the arena to protect Alex in case the sixteenth elder wanted to do something funny to Alex. "Uoh!" The crowd didn''t dare to cheer yet despite watching an extraordinary battle. They didn''t dare to do it because of the tense atmosphere around them. "If you two are going to fight in this place, I will be forced to remove you." The third elder said with killing intent. The sixteenth elder was gnashing her teeth. She had been envious of Charya this entire time. She didn''t have a strong disciple like Song Yu. And when she had Intan, she thought she had won since Charya took Putri as her disciple. But after this match, Intan could not use her spear anymore. She also needed to stop cultivating for a while because of the backlash from the Rage Pill. And with the addition of Alex, she really wanted to kill this Charya. She looked at Alex and gritted her teeth. She was wondering why everything came to Charya but not her. She disappeared from the arena with great difficulty. She etched Alex''s name inside her heart. She could not let Charya have him. Since Alex was not hers, she would kill him. But she could not do it when Alex was in the sect, so she would need to wait after he left the sect. After finishing his match, they came back to Charya''s room. And surprisingly, Putri and Song Yu were there with Evelyn. It seemed since their cover had blown up, it would be better to come to this place. Putri suddenly hugged him when she saw him, she muttered, "Thank you," again and again. The room''s atmosphere turned to joy. They knew that because of him, Putri had regained her bearing. "Hehe¡­ you did an outstanding job. That b*tch Intan can''t use her spear now. And because of the rage pill, she would not be able to cultivate for a while." Song Yu giggled. "But you might be targeted after this with your current exposure. But fret not, this senior sister will protect you. Or I will call someone to protect you." Alex only smiled at her, "Thanks." He was planning to reach peak Martial Grandmaster in this sect before leaving the sect to have his tribulation. But he didn''t know where to take his tribulation, especially after he saw Song Jia, who came to this continent because of him. The other influences might also come to this continent to search for that incident. He didn''t know what they would do if they knew it was him who had the golden lightning tribulation. They might invite him to join their influence, or might enslave him, or even kill him. Alex was wondering what he should do next. But from the time being, he looked at his senior sister in front of him. "I can teach you how to use a sword like using a spear. After all, this technique is a bit tricky and requires a profound understanding. Well, I am planning to stay inside the sect for a few months before visiting a place." But what he saw next shocked him. Not only him but also Charya and the others. Putri suddenly kneeled on the floor and said, "I know I am taking advantage of my status. But, please accept me as your disciple, Master." Alex was dumbfounded. His senior sister that he respected, suddenly kneeled in front of him and asked him to be her master. But surprisingly, Charya and the others didn''t stop her. Alex tried to help her up hurriedly, "Senior Sister, how can you do this?" "No. I am already shameless enough to take advantage of you. This is the only way. Please accept me as your disciple, Master." Alex didn''t know what to do. He looked at Evelyn, Song Yu, and Charya, who was supposed to be her master, for help. But all of them only looked away when their eyes met. Alex was the one who had a unique vision only to have one master and one teacher. The people in this world didn''t find it weird to have two masters or more in their life. Alex was trying to help her up, but she won''t budge. Putri thought If Alex didn''t accept her, she would learn it by herself without any guidance from Alex, and she might never have a chance to do it. But if Alex accepted her, their relationship would be awkward to have his Senior Sister become his disciple. Even so, if she just took his kindness for granted. It might also haunt her in the future. Alex asked for help, but everyone didn''t help him. In his perspective, Putri might do this until he accepted her. "System, what should I do?" He screamed inwardly. [It is your decision.] Alex gritted his teeth and said, "Alright. I will accept you. But don''t call me master or something. And please get up already." "No can do. You are my master, so I need to show my respect too." Putri shook her head. [Hidden Mission: Having a disciple. Description: It is lonely at the top. Have a disciple so you will not be lonely. Reward: Dart 3x] "I am not happy to see that. And what the heck with that explanation. I still have my wives, spirits, and you!" Alex complained in his mind. [It is better to have your Senior Sister to be a disciple rather than accepting a stranger.] "Well, you are true, but it is still wrong." Fortunately, Alex could not see the system girl''s expression. If not, he might fall to the ground because of the shock. The goddess who was behind the system smiled cunningly. She knew in that world, having a love relationship between Master and Disciple was uncommon. So, unless they were a special person, Putri should not have any thought of that. She would say, "According to the plan," with a cunning smile. At least, she tried to prevent another harem member. Even though she accepted Alex''s multiple relationships, she might be a bit jealous if the number became too big. So, she thought by doing this, she could lower the number a little. Well, even after she did this, but they ended up in a relationship, she would just accept it. She kept watching Alex get flustered like this with a smile. Alex finally managed to make her rise from her position. Luckily, they were inside Charya''s room, if not, Alex would be too embarrassed. "Hehe, nice to meet you, Fellow Master," Charya said while patting his shoulder, trying to tease him. Alex twitched his eyebrows when he heard that, but he refused to say something on it. If not, he felt Charya might find another way to tease him. "Hmm¡­ what should I call you, Alex? After all, you are my junior sister''s master." Song Yu asked while trying to come up with a name. "I still can call you big brother Alex, right?" Evelyn asked, unsure whether she could ask that. "Just call me as usual!" Charya and the others laughed. But suddenly, Putri asked him, "Alex, can I borrow your sword for a little bit?" Alex took out his sword with a confused look. He didn''t know what she wanted to do with his sword, but he still gave her the sword. "Don''t tell me, Senior Sister, you want to commit suicide?" Alex said with a weird face, trying to grab his sword back. Of course, he was not serious when he said that. He was just trying to liven up the atmosphere. "You should call me Putri now¡­ Master." She said with a teasing tone, and finally, all of them managed to tease him. She added, "I know you are cheering me up with that. Do not worry about me, I am not going to do that. Thanks to you." She suddenly used Alex''s sword to cut her hair short. That surprised everyone, including Alex. Putri said while grabbing her hair that had been cut by her just now. "With this, I will move on from my past. My name is not Putri Wulan Makmur, but only Putri Wulan." "Eh, big sister cut her hair? Isn''t that a shame? I pretty like your hair." Evelyn said innocently. Putri only smiled while patting her head, "It is fine. It will grow before we know it." Alex looked away. He remembered that on Earth... or maybe in stories, a broken-hearted girl sometimes cut their hair short just to move on from their past. Well, he could not say it was like a tradition that every girl would do it, but watching it with his own eyes was a bit surprising. He also agreed with Evelyn about her hair. When he looked at her with short hair, it seemed a bit weird. And she was indeed pretty good with long hair. "Well, since we have finished. Let''s go back to celebrate it. I have good wine with me." Charya said. Alex remembered that he never got any wine again from his system after that last time where his wine was finished by those dwarves. [Fulfilling Host''s request. Changing the reward for Dart Roulette.] "Wait no!" [Process Complete.] [New Reward: UR Legendary Thousand Flower Wine.] "What the heck is going on?" Alex screamed inwardly. [I''m just fulfilling your request, Host. Since you thought you never got Wine anymore, I just gave it to you.] "Hell no. I don''t need it. Take it back." [By taking it back, you won''t be able to receive a UR item in the next dart season. Yes/No?] Alex became speechless. This system became way too shameless. Alex gritted his teeth and said, "No." He wanted to cry but had no tears. Alex decided not to have any weird thoughts again. Or even if he had weird thoughts, he should think about some OP stuff. Everyone else didn''t have any problem with it, so they went back to Song Yu''s house to celebrate. And even Evelyn seemed pretty eager to sip wine. It seemed a wine in this world had some effect on cultivation, so having something like this would benefit their cultivation. They came back to Song Yu''s house, but before they managed to get in, they were stopped by a single old man. The old man had long green hair, but his facial features seemed a bit similar to Putri. "First Elder," Putri showed a basic courtesy. It turned out that this old man was the first elder from the Makmur Family. "You could not even use a spear anymore, so the family decided to banish you. You shall never use Makmur name again." He suddenly said while presenting a scroll that showed the decree from the Makmur family. All of them were surprised. This old man must not have looked at Intan''s state, so he did something like this. He did not know Intan had also lost the ability to wield a spear. But Putri had something that could overturn her fate, which was Alex. Alex approached him and looked at the scroll. "Who are you?" The old man frowned. "Is this real?" Instead of answering his question, Alex only wanted to know the credibility of this scroll. "Of course, this is real. There is a signature of the patriarch and the seal of the Makmur family, so of course, it is real." Alex then snatched the scroll and gave it to Putri with a smile. "Senior Sister, congratulations." Charya and the others suddenly realized what he was up to. They also started congratulating her. "Hehe, with this, you are completely free. When they regret their decision and want you to come back, just slap their face with this." Alex said with a sly smile. Putri giggled a little. She came to the front and said to the elder, "From now on, my name is only Putri Wulan. And I won''t change it for the rest of my life." The first elder of the Makmur Family looked at them in confusion. He definitely didn''t know what just happened today as he just arrived and immediately gave her the notice that she was expelled by the family. "We are going to have a party, let''s go." Charya immediately dragged them to Song Yu''s house in joy. She didn''t have any trace of hate again in her heart after everything was solved by Alex as she knew it was the best solution that she could get for Putri. 307 Inner Disciple Tournament 12-Wine Charya and the others immediately left the old man and went to Song Yu''s house. They were going to have some drinking party with Charya''s wine. The old man was dumbfounded when he saw that. Later he found out that Putri, who had regained her motivation and a good Junior Brother, could come back as a powerhouse. On the other hand, their main successor, Intan, had been crippled by Alex. She could no longer wield a spear for the rest of her life while Putri later could use a sword but using it like a spear. The old man then left to search for Intan to congratulate her in destroying Putri. Meanwhile, Alex and the others were laughing. Charya said, \"Alright. I am going back to my house first to grab my wine. You guys wait for me here.\" After Charya left, Alex also said, \"I am going to have a breather outside first.\" He left the house into the field and made sure no one followed him. He activated a Sound Insulation Array and called Anna. \"Anna, you can use a curse, right?\" \"Yes. Why do you ask, Alex?\" \"Do you have any curse that has the same effect as what was inflicted to Senior Sister''s body?\" \"Hmm, I do not have that one. Do you mean to put a curse on someone?\" \"Yes. But since you do not have it, I will try another way. Even though I have paid them back for crippling my Senior Sister from using a spear, I still have not paid them back for the curse.\" \"Oh, I assume, you must vent your anger a little bit in the arena.\" \"Hehe¡­ I will not deny that.\" \"Well, just make sure you are not blinded by revenge. But if you want a curse, I have a particular curse that is better than that curse.\" \"Oh?\" Alex was astonished. This was the first time he talked about Anna''s curse ability. Of course, besides the one that she used when he was in Zunde Field. The one that could decrease the opponent''s strength a little bit. \"Well, I called this curse Never Ending Nightmare. Although this curse is not that powerful, that could kill someone¡­ Maybe it can. Anyway, the effect of the curse is to let someone have a nightmare every time they are cultivating deeply. \"It is pretty effective for someone who wounded badly since if they tried to recover their power normally, they would face the biggest nightmare in their life. They will keep recalling it again and again, and it will make them unable to concentrate. \"In severe cases, it can make a hard depression and suicide. Of course, it might take a little bit longer to make them like that. But the special characteristic from this curse is even though it is not that powerful, it is hard to detect unless you are a master of curses.\" \"Hoo¡­\" Alex was surprised by the effect. This curse would be perfect for Intan and Mega. Both of them had severe injuries from him. Mega had a huge physical injury and some physiological injuries after that beating from him. It should haunt her for the time being and, if possible, make her crazy. On the other hand, Intan had severe internal injuries. With this curse, she would not be able to recover in a short time. And after losing the ability to wield a spear, this curse would be more effective. \"Njomo, Anna,\" Alex called him, and Njomo immediately came out of his shadow. Anna also appeared with the summon of his card. \"Woof!\" \"Alex.\" \"Can Anna inflict the curse to both Intan and that princess? You can bring Njomo so you won''t be spotted by them.\" \"Of course, we can.\" Anna smiled. \"Woof!\" Njomo nodded. \"After that, just wait for me in the house. I will come back later.\" Said Alex to Anna. He then turned to Njomo, \"After you finished, try to follow them and check what they are up to. I will respond accordingly.\" \"Alright.\" \"Woof.\" Anna and Njomo left for their mission. Alex opened his mission and used his dart. He once again teleported to the white world, where he used the Dart Roulette. And of course, the system girl had been waiting for him. She came toward him while presenting a board. Alex looked at the board. UR ¨C Legendary Thousand Flower Wine SR ¨C Mythical Safety Shoes SR ¨C 100x100 meter Array Paper R ¨C Lord Stage Safety Gloves R ¨C Thunder Orb R ¨C Grandmaster Stage Monster Blood So, he could get these six items from this roulette. But since he only had three darts, he might only be able to get one UR and two SR. \"Well, I assume you are going by the three highest.\" She said. Alex nodded his head. But looking at the name of the reward¡­\"Mythical Safety Shoes¡­ the name is not that creative.\" \"Host, there are too many items inside the Gacha System. Do you want to remember everything in your head?\" She asked with a smile. Alex looked away and said, \"No.\" \"Then, you should proceed. You should be able to get those three.\" She said. She then clapped her hand, and the wheel started spinning. Alex nodded to her and looked at the spinning roulette. He threw the dart from his hand with a little bit more power, so the dart would stick on the roulette board. [UR ¨C Legendary Thousand Flower Wine] He got the first item he wanted. He continued to get the other two SR. Since they were going to have a party, he thought there should be a good wine there. As for the Mythical Safety Shoes, he would immediately equip it. And the last thing which was the array paper. He thought about cutting it into four 50x50 meter Array Paper and drew four rank 4 Teleportation Array. He wanted to be prepared for anything. Even though he could teleport by using the array himself, he wanted to mask his Space Element by using the Teleportation Array Plate. Well, if push comes to shove, he would just blow his cover. But he hoped there would not be a need to do that for a while. After he finished, he came back to the real world. He searched for his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes and seemed no one around. He then came back to the house. But before he met the others, Putri came to him. She seemed a bit worried about him because he would be targeted by the Southern Kingdom after this. Alex smiled, \"Well, it is perfect. I also want to say something to you. Let''s talk outside.\" Putri nodded and followed him outside. When they were out, Alex activated a Sound Insulation Array, so Song Yu would not be able to hear it. \"I know you are worried about me because of this retaliation thing. But do not worry, I will be fine. I should be the one who worries about you.\" \"You are¡­ my master, after all.\" She said weirdly. Just before, she was his Senior Sister, and not long after that, she became his disciple. \"No, what I want to say is I will not be in this place for a long time. There is something that I need to do out there. So, I am a careful person, but no matter how careful I am, I am targeted by the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. \"And I don''t know about the future. I might be able to fight with the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. But in the future, there are enemies that are far stronger than that. I am afraid that you will be dragged into it. \"I have been careful, so I do not have many friends since they might target my friends in the future. Of course, I am trying very hard to avoid that. But I do not know what will happen in the future. \"So, Senior Sister does not need to be my disciple. We can just be friends, and I will try to teach you like Evelyn.\" Alex explained. Putri looked down. She knew, with Alex''s potential, this place would not be able to tie him down. She knew that she didn''t have any talent to help her. She gritted her teeth but didn''t say anything. She was thinking of how to help him. She remembered Alex told them about his plan. Since he was planning to stay inside the sect for a while before leaving for a breakthrough, she would practice a little bit until she could use a sword like a spear. After that, she will embark on her own journey. She was determined to get stronger and helped him in the future. Since she had separated herself with her family, she thought it would be the best time to embark on a journey. She didn''t accept Alex canceling their Master and Disciple relationship. \"Can I think about it first?\" \"Sure.\" Alex didn''t know what was on her mind, so Alex agreed to give her more time. She just wanted to buy some time since they could not cancel it if she were missing. She might be too ashamed to tell others she was his disciple if she was too weak. Others might say that she only took his kindness for granted. \"Let''s go back,\" Alex said with a nod. Not long after, Charya came back with a huge jar of wine. \"Haha, let''s drink. This is my favorite wine, Pearl Wine. Song Yu, help me pour it.\" Song Yu happily complied as she started pouring the wine for Charya, Alex, Putri, Evelyn, and lastly, for her. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes because he felt the energy inside the wine. He was astonished as the wine contained an energy equal to a pill. \"Cheers!\" \"Cheers!\" Everyone started enjoying the wine while Alex was observing the effect of the wine in his body. The effect was the same as the Energy Pill, but unlike the energy pill, he could drink it again and again. And surprisingly, the effect was surpassing the effect of Gathering Array. He also recognized the smell of many medicinal herbs inside the wine. Unfortunately, he could not recognize which herbs inside the wine. After this, he realized that even though he was an Alchemist. His knowledge about the herbs and medicine itself was not that much. He could only make pills since the recipe was there. But if he thought like this, he might not be able to come up with an original pill no matter how hard he thought. He never bothered by this because his main path was his Spear and Sword, not as an Alchemist or Array Master. He thought he might need to take some time to research that. But if he could not, then he didn''t mind. After enjoying the wine, he opened his eyes. He looked at Evelyn, who had the lowest cultivation. There was a tinge red on her face. Because of her low cultivation, she could not immediately refine the energy inside the wine, and that led the tinge red to appear on her face. Before they knew it, they had finished the entire jar. Well, Charya was the one who drank most of it. \"Oh, the wine has run out. I don''t think I have another Pearl Wine, so if you guys don''t mind, I can bring a lower grade one.\" \"If you don''t mind, we can drink mine,\" Alex said while taking out the Legendary Thousand Flower Wine he just got from the system. He wanted to see the effect of this UR wine, so he thought about sharing it. Everyone was surprised to see Alex also had wine. Looking at the new big jar that had a flower pattern on it. They were curious about what kind of wine Alex had. \"This wine is called Legendary Thousand Flower Wine.\" He said while opening the lid. An intense wine aroma immediately filled the room as soon as he opened the lid. The rich aroma intoxicated everyone, especially Evelyn, whose face quickly became red. Alex looked at his wine with his Spirit Eyes and was surprised to see the energy inside the wine. It surpassed the energy from Charya''s wine by far. If Charya''s wine had those effects, he thought about using small cups. The size of the cups was the same as the Japanese''s sake cup. They couldn''t think about rejecting Alex''s wine after smelling the aroma. They drank the wine together, and as soon as they drank the wine, their energy, including Alex''s, sparked. 308 Inner Disciple Tournament 13-Road to Quarterfinal The wine was intense. As soon as they sipped it, the energy inside the wine immediately sparked and made them intoxicated. Even Song Yu and Charya, who were Martial Lords, tried their best to hold this energy. \"Such an intense wine.\" Both of them said at the same time. Alex also got such a reaction. His Pure Fire was forced out of the Phoenix Spirit Seed and revolved like crazy as they started refining the energy for him. He looked at Charya and the others with great difficulty as he also tried his best to fight this energy that was trying to intoxicate him. Putri''s expression was serious as she could not spare any energy aside from cultivating at this moment. As for Evelyn, she had become a hopeless case. She came to Alex and tried hugging him. She said while sitting on his lap, \"Hehe¡­ big brother Alex, this wine is marvelo-burp. You know what? I think you should treat women more nicel-burp. I am somewhat scared when you make me do this and that. \"But, that might be your uniqueness. Uhh, I can''t help you with the way I am. I thought about having my parents reward you, but with your progress, you don''t need any-burp.\" Alex tried to pat Evelyn''s head and said, \"It is fine. You do not need to worry about it.\" \"But¡­\" She looked at him with her drunk eyes. \"As long as you keep getting stronger, I might need your help in the future. So, just refine the wine''s energy first, and we will talk later.\" \"Aye¡­\" She nodded earnestly. In fact, she did not realize what she just said. She tried to cultivate¡­ Of course, on his lap. Alex shook his head, he moved her out of his lap and tried to refine the wine''s energy. Charya and Song Yu also started to cultivate. And that night, a huge amount of energy sparked in that place. ¡­ The next day, Anna came to this house. She was worried since Alex was never gone back, so she checked him inside this house. Alex was cultivating with the others, and she saw a huge jug of war. With the smell alone, she could realize that this wine was the source of this problem. She looked at Alex carefully as she was hesitating whether to wake him up or not. After all, he would need to participate in the tournament today if he wanted to help Putri with the curse. But suddenly, his energy increased exponentially before suddenly exploding. \"8-Star Martial Grandmaster!\" Alex opened his eyes slowly and saw Anna''s face right out the bat. He was startled and jumped backward. \"Anna, is that you?\" He asked carefully. \"Yes, it is me. This wine should be the reason why you did not come back yesterday.\" Anna said. Alex did not know what to answer. He checked the other people, such as Charya, Song Yu, Putri, and Evelyn. All of them were still cultivating. \"Let''s go out first,\" Alex said while retrieving the wine. Anna nodded and followed him outside. \"I apologize for not being home yesterday since I promised you, I will go back.\" \"It is fine. At least you will not cheat with some sl*t.\" She said with a smile. \"Haha¡­\" Alex just brushed it off with a laugh. He then asked, \"How about the matter I asked you yesterday?\" \"It is done. Njomo said both of them are going back to the Southern Kingdom today.\" Anna said. Alex contemplated a little bit. If they were going back to the Southern Kingdom, Alex would need to prepare something first. He took out Ngina''s and Nicole''s card. He remembered that Ngina was investigating the royal family. \"Ngina, there might be some drama in the royal family a few days later. Keep me informed.\" \"Nicole will investigate the Makmur Family. There will also be drama over there. Be prepared.\" \"Understood.\" Both of them said. \"Alex,\" Anna called him with a worried expression. Alex looked at her, confused. \"You should not let others drink the wine again.\" \"Why?\" \"It will be bad for their path of cultivation. Although unlike raising Energy Pill that can only have once in a limit. There is also an unwritten rule for a wine. \"Take the little girl for example, if she drinks this wine again, her body would not be able to take it anymore. Just look at the wine, it has many rank 6 medicinal ingredients inside. That is the reason why they became like this in the first place. \"And even with your Pure Fire, you can only have two or three small cups. If not, you will ruin the foundation that you have been painstakingly cultivated. \"If they want to drink this wine again. It will be best to do it next month. Until they refined and consolidated their energy.\" \"¡­\" Alex was speechless. He never knew something like this. He thought whether he should deepen his understanding of medicinal ingredients. \"Alright. I will be more careful from now on.\" Alex said and sighed. \"Anyway. Back to the topic about those two bitch*s. That green-haired one aside, if that princess told the royal family about your wealth. They will start targeting you, Alex.\" Alex remembered that she and the Kasmanan Family somehow knew about him receiving Zwaka''s inheritance. A Martial Emperor''s inheritance¡­ It was bound to incite many greedy bastards. No matter how big he helped them, they might come and bite him. When Anna told him about them going back to the Southern Kingdom, he only thought about the reaction of their family because of the beating. But with Mega''s information about his wealth. It might certainly move the royal family. After all, considering the beating he had given to her, she might become crazy enough to tell the truth. \"What do you think we should do?\" Alex asked. \"Kill them? I do not think I can catch up with them. But Leoz and the others might be able to ambush them.\" Anna said. \"Alright. Let''s ask them for it. If the royal family somehow managed to know about it before Leoz and the others killed them. Maybe I should ask Jeanne to hold another season for them before killing them.\" Alex said. \"That is a good idea,\" Anna said while giving Leoz''s card that Alex entrusted to her. Alex shook his head, \"You told them. I almost forgot I need to fight today. See you later.\" Alex then flew toward the arena alone. \"Understood. Please have a nice day.\" ¡­ In the arena, the tournament had been started for quite a while. Fortunately, Alex''s turn never came up. And as soon as he reached the stage, after another fight, Alex was finally called by the third elder. \"Alexander Sirius versus Hannibal.\" Alex came to the arena with his new 8-Star Martial Grandmaster cultivation. He looked at the muscular man who was holding a giant ax. He was constantly glaring at him. *Cheers* When he came to the stage, the disciples were cheering for him. They did not care whether Alex had offended the Southern Kingdom or not. They did not care whether Alex had talked big or not. Because they knew, Alex had that qualification. Alex''s fan base was increasing drastically because of his godlike performance yesterday. He did not care about the cheering very much as he kept hearing the usual thing like: \"I want your baby or something.\" Alex only looked at the muscular guy who was his opponent for this battle and greeted him with a nod. \"You are great. I might not be able to win at this match. But I request you to use your full strength in fighting me.\" Alex narrowed his eyes. He said inwardly, ''Using my full power? Sword and Spear, or do you want me to include my Fire and Array too? It might be a bit overkill.'' Alex shook his head. \"It is better not.\" \"You! Do you think I am not qualified to fight you in an equal ground? Even though my ranking in the battle tower is lower than Intan Wulan Makmur. But my strength is the same as her. You will not be able to fight me if you keep holding back.\" \"I am not holding back. I will seriously fight you with my sword as usual since yesterday''s fight is a bit special.\" Unfortunately, Hannibal misunderstood him. He thought by using his sword, Alex would not be able to fight him. Yesterday''s match made them a little bit obsessed with Alex''s spear, forgetting his real power in Sword. After all, his Spear Domain alone was only a twenty meters domain. In comparison, his Sword Domain was a twenty-five meters domain. Judging by the domain alone, they should know Alex was even more powerful in Sword. \"You are going to regret it.\" Hannibal gritted his teeth. \"Match Start!\" The third elder announced. \"Prison Stomp.\" As soon as the match started, Hannibal immediately stomped the ground with his giant ax. Suddenly the ground around Alex rose. It immediately locked him from all directions, and the only way to escape was by going upward. But Alex knew it must be a trap. He activated his Spirit Eyes, and it was really a trap. He could see Hannibal jumped toward him. He looked at the wall and found out that they had been coated by his Axe Intent. Alex should be able to destroy the wall. And if he did not jump upward, Hannibal would destroy the wall along with him. Alex made a sly smile. He was planning to confront him head-on. He jumped to the air. As soon as he came out of the wall, Hannibal immediately jumped toward him and swung his giant ax. Alex looked at it and smiled. \"Sky Step. As well as, Fleeting Step.\" Alex first used his Sky Step so he could step in the air like he was stepping in the ground. Then he activated his Fleeting Step that was emphasized dodging with its unpredictable step. The moment Hannibal swung his ax, Alex disappeared. And before he knew it, Hannibal felt a strong force from his back. \"Boom!\" He crashed into the ground. After dodging his attack, Alex moved behind him and kicked him hard with his Immovable Step. But Alex did not stop there. He disappeared once again. Hannibal raised his giant ax. And Alex suddenly appeared above him, swinging his sword. Hannibal grinned as he thought he had read Alex''s movement. But Alex only looked at him with a cool face. \"Heavy Step.\" As soon as he activated his Heavy Step, the weight on his blow increased several times. \"Boom!\" Once again, Alex made a huge crater in the arena. Fortunately, it was not hard to fix by an Earth Element cultivator. \"Pah!\" Hannibal spat blood after receiving Alex''s heavy blow. He never thought Alex had this much strength in his body. \"Argh!\" He used every ounce of his strength to push Alex away but to no avail. \"Spiking Ground.\" Alex suddenly saw the energy moved from Hannibal''s body toward the ground. Alex quickly realized it was an attack. He deactivated his Heavy Step and jumped backward. \"!!!\" Hannibal was surprised that Alex already retreated. And by the way, he was retreating, he clearly knew what he wanted to do. He was surprised as normally people would retreat after they saw it. Alex seemed to notice something that normal people could not. But he didn''t think more about it as he used this chance to use his trump card. \"Frenzied Berserker.\" His energy increased, and it seemed his strength also increased. He jumped toward him and swung that big ax. \"Immovable Step.\" Alex received the blow with his sword and Immovable Step, and surprisingly, their power was equal. Alex narrowed his eyes as he locked Hannibal with his Spirit Eyes. He forcefully used all of his Spiritual Energy at the same time, and it gave him a huge boost on his strength. But it also came with a backlash. The energy that was supposed inside his body started leaking outside. And judging from the leaking, he could only maintain this state for another two minutes before exhausting his energy. \"Die!\" Hannibal swung his giant ax again, which Alex received with his Immovable Step. And both powers immediately made a huge crater. \"Boom!\" 309 Inner Disciple Tournament 14-Ninja? They continued to clash around the arena. And every time they clashed, they made a little crater on the ground because of their power. But after a minute, Alex started suppressing Hannibal. The only reason he could start suppressing him was because the more time passed, the more Hannibal lost his power. Even though Alex kept trading blows with Hannibal. He never got serious as he just wanted to let him exhaust himself after a while. After all, this fight was not the same as his fight with Intan. He did not need to prove something. Of course, Hannibal also knew Alex''s intention. From Alex''s blow alone, he knew Alex was not seriously fighting him. He gritted his teeth and shouted, \"Fight me seriously if you are a man.\" \"¡­\" Alex was speechless. He could not understand this guy. After all, he had been seriously fighting him. \"I have been fighting you seriously. The purpose of this battle is to win, so I just do everything I need to win.\" \"You-!\" He wanted to rebuke him, but it was truly as he said. The battle''s original purpose was to win. Yesterday''s matter made him forget about that. Alex continued clashing with Hannibal until the effect of Frenzied Berserker wore off. Alex immediately ended the match by pointing his sword on his neck because after the effect wore off, Hannibal was too tired to move his body. \"Alexander Sirius Wins!\" Alex asked him if he needed help, but Hannibal shook his head and dragged his body down the stage. Alex then came back to Charya''s room. Because the others were still in Song Yu''s house, he was the only one in the room. He did not know what to do, so he just watched the match until his turn came again. He noticed a few disciples that were going to be his opponent later. The first one was Kokonoe Shigure, his next opponent. Alex was surprised to see his fighting style. It was the legendary Japanese Ninja. He threw many hidden weapons while using his Ninja Katana. Unfortunately, the katana did not have any curves. And his concealed weapons were only throwing knives or needles. Alex thought whether he should introduce him to a brand'' new world''¡­ Nah, he was not too bored to do that. The second person he noticed was Vicky, the fifth place in Battle Tower Ranking. The other two were the 2nd and 3rd, Eric Kasmanan and Florinda. Vicky had long yellow hair, and he seemed to glance at Alex from time to time with hatred. Alex did not understand why this guy possessed a hatred toward him, but he marked this man inside his heart. He should be cautious when fighting him later. As for Florinda, she was a beautiful lady, indeed. But Alex could only feel a cold aura from her. He did not know whether this Florinda was trying to be aloof, or it was her personality. The last one was Eric. After losing his family, Eric became cold and brutal. His opponents often got many injuries when he fought him. He wanted to release his hatred, but he did not know who killed his family. He wanted to finish this tournament as soon as possible, so he could get resources to get stronger. The one who massacred his family should be much stronger than him. So, he would destroy anyone who was on his way to receive the reward from winning the tournament. He did not care about Alex or whatsoever. If Alex came to his way, he would defeat him. Alex continued watching the matches. His turn came before he knew it. After all, he had gone through many fights from Himura Minami to Hannibal. And because of Putri''s incident, he forgot that he would fight Kokonoe Shigure in the quarterfinal. In other words, he had been in the top eight. \"Alexander Sirius versus Kokonoe Shigure.\" The third elder announced as the audiences cheered upon hearing Alex''s name. Alex had become the number one disciple in their heart after showing his prowess when fighting Intan. He did not care about it, though. He looked at the ''Ninja'' in front of him. Sadly, he did not wear full black clothes that covered everything except his eyes. Instead, he was wearing stylish clothes that made him cool and handsome. The clothes really suited his handsome face and orange hair. He reminded Alex about Nelson. He somehow got disappointed by his appearance. Luckily, this guy did not speak anything as they just nodded at the third elder so he could announce it. \"Match Start!\" As soon as the match started, Kokonoe Shigure immediately threw his hidden weapons toward him. Of course, after he watched his match, Alex already activated his Spirit Eyes. In his Spirit Eyes, the concealed weapons flew toward him at a pretty low speed. He avoided them and took out twenty real swords from his Space Ring. The swords started chasing the Kokonoe Shigure alone. \"This is the first time I have seen someone who is so powerful even though you are only an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. You are forcing me to use the hidden technique of Shigure Clan, so be prepared.\" Kokonoe Shigure finally spoke. \"What?\" \"There are five Kokonoe Shigure?\" \"No way?\" \"What is this technique?\" \"I never saw anything like this.\" \"There must only be one that is real. But from the aura alone, we won''t know which one is real.\" Alex was furrowing his eyebrows as Kokonoe Shigure suddenly split into five. Alex was surprised to see that. He could not help but comment in his heart, \"It was a clone technique, he must be a ninja. He said about a clan, right? That clan must be a ninja clan. Just use a freaking Kunai and Shuriken, you dumb*ss.\" He looked at clones that were produced by Kokonoe Shigure. Surprisingly, the clone also held a huge amount of energy that made it hard to differentiate. Unfortunately, he was fighting Alex. His Spirit Eyes noticed the difference between each clone. They may have the same appearance and a good amount of energy that made them pretty real. But with Alex''s Spirit Eyes, he could see the difference between each body. Alex could see among these five bodies, there was one that had immeasurable energy. He split his twenty swords and let them chase those five bodies. Alex also raised the sword on his hand and targeted one of the clones. Kokonoe Shigure made a small smile because he knew Alex could not find the difference. Unfortunately, Alex was only faking him. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" Alex swung his sword down. From others'' perspectives, Alex was trying to send his Sword Wave toward Kokonoe Shigure (Clone). But to their surprise, when he swung his sword down, no Sword Wave flew out of his sword. Instead, Alex surprised them with his swing. He swung the sword down, but it did not stop there. He continued to swing it and make a whole circle. And when the sword was swinging on his back, the Seven Stars Cut finally flew out of his sword. The sword wave flew toward another Kokonoe Shigure. \"What?\" Kokonoe Shigure was surprised by Alex''s sudden move. He tried to block it with his sword. \"Haaa!\" He used all power inside his body to block this surprise move but to no avail. \"Boom!\" Because of the force and his unpreparedness, the sword wave blew him to the wall. And after that, the other four ''Kokonoe Shigure'' started to disappear. It turned out the one that Alex struck was the real Kokonoe Shigure. All of them wanted to think Alex was just lucky. But they could not think like that because of Alex''s move. If he struck the one in his front with a Sword Wave and was lucky enough to strike the right one, they might be able to believe. But when Alex attacked him with Seven Stars Cut. He did not release it to Kokonoe''s figure in his front. Instead, he let the sword make a full swing to the bottom and continued swinging it toward his back before releasing the Seven Stars Cut. It was like he knew which one was the real Kokonoe Shigure. Even Kokonoe Shigure was surprised when he took the blow. Alex immediately appeared in front of him and pointed his sword on the surprised Kokonoe Shigure. \"Alexander Sirius Wins!\" \"¡­\" This time, the people did not cheer. In fact, they could not as this was a shocking event. After all, in their perspectives, all those five were real, or at least, that''s what they felt. \"You¡­ How do you know?\" Kokonoe Shigure asked with a dumbfounded look. He forgot he was still stuck in the wall. Alex looked at him. After a little pause, he stored back his sword and said, \"Nothing can escape my eyes.\" He then left the arena, leaving the dumbfounded ''Ninja'' alone stuck there. Since he had finished his fights for today, he decided to go back to his house. But before he reached his sword, Putri came out of Song Yu''s house and met him. Alex looked at her cultivation and was surprised that she had a breakthrough to 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. \"Congratulations on your breakthrough,\" Alex said. \"It is thanks to Master''s wine,\" Putri said humbly. Alex twitched his eyebrows. He was still not used to being called ''Master,'' especially if it was coming from his Senior Sister. He chose to ignore it for the time being since Putri was considering his future matter. He thought she would act normally again after some time. \"Well, I originally intended to enjoy the wine, but was surprised by the wine''s efficacy.\" \"But thanks to it, I broke through to 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. Senior Sister Song Yu and Master Charya would also have a breakthrough. But they might need more time. It was crazy for Evelyn. She managed to advance to 4-Star Martial Grandmaster and will soon have another breakthrough to 5-Star Martial Grandmaster. \"I just came out of the cultivation because I made the breakthrough first, and the energy suddenly got sucked entirely.\" \"Then, that is good. Sadly for Martial Grandmaster, you might not be able to have the wine again or at least for a month. Or there will be a backlash in your body.\" Alex said. \"Disciple does not dare. It is already a blessing to receive such a wine.\" Putri said. \"¡­\" Alex sighed as he truly could not get used to such a situation. He decided to change the topic. \"Give me your rank 5 spear since you would not be able to use them anymore.\" Putri did not know why Alex asked that. But it was as he said, she could not use it anymore. Hence, she immediately took out the spear from her space ring and handed it to Alex. Of course, she used her wind to hand it to Alex since she could not touch it. Alex also understood this. Alex then stored the rank 5 spear before taking out a rank 5 sword. It was a rank 5 blue colored sword. \"Since you can''t use a spear anymore. This rank 5 sword would be the replacement for your rank 5 spear.\" Her eyes widened. She did not mind giving the rank 5 spear to Alex for nothing. After all, she got that spear because Alex knew the way to Zwaka''s palace. Because of that, she received a reward of rank 5 spear. She could not help but move. Alex then took out another two swords to her. It was a rank 3 green colored sword and a rank 4 golden-colored sword. Putri was confused as to why Alex gave her these two swords. \"Well, using a rank 5 sword might be a little bit too eye-catching. So, for the time being, you can use these two swords depending on the occasion and use the rank 5 sword for the trump card.\" Alex said. She was taken aback. To think Alex was doing all this for her. \"I gratefully accept. Master is really good to me.\" \"Do not talk politely like that. Just talk like Elder Charya. It is easier to talk like that. And I am not a good person, I am just careful.\" Alex said. He was a careful person. By giving those two swords to her, she should not attract too much attention. After all, even he also used a rank 3 Sword at the moment. 310 Inner Disciple Tournament 15-Incoming Trouble? After giving her the swords, Alex told her to take care of Charya and the others. Well, she was planning to do that without him asking. Alex nodded and came back to his sword. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, Alex was going to have a big problem very soon. In the Zhou Kingdom''s secret palace. There were a few ten people that were convening a meeting. But there were two people that seemed to be the leader. The first one was an old man with long green hair and an aged face. His eyes were full of strictness. He wore a green lace long white robe with some grassy pattern. He was the old man that Alex met after he finished his lightning tribulation. In front of him was a middle-aged man. He had short white hair without any expression on his face. He was a 4-Star Martial King that was sent to this place from Nilis Continent. He led fifty 8-Star Martial Lords or above along with another 4-Star Martial King like him to this place to acquire Alex. \"We need the person who triggered the golden lightning tribulation.\" The white-haired guy asked. The green-haired old man frowned. He knew the importance of Alex, but it seemed the kingdom that gave them the method of blood pills wanted him alive. He was the one who saw Alex, so he took charge of this as a 1-Star Martial King from the Zhou Kingdom. \"Of course, I have seen his appearance with my own eyes. And this is his portrait.\" He gave Alex''s portrait to him. He then explained, \"He is Alexander Sirius from Heavenly Sword Sect. If we go now, we should be able to arrive in three days.\" \"No need. We can arrive in one day. We have been rushing to this continent with a special flying boat. We can reach Heavenly Sword Sect in a day. You will also gather a few ten people and follow us to Heavenly Sword Sect. \"We need to hurry up and catch this guy. If Heavenly Sword Sect wanted to protect him, we would annihilate the entire Heavenly Sword Sect.\" The white-haired guy said. \"But, if we did that, my Zhou Kingdom would bear the responsibility. Other sects and kingdoms would try to suppress us.\" \"You don''t need to worry. We already expected something like that. After we massacred the entire Heavenly Sword Sect, I and the others will stay in this continent. \"We will wait for another year when our plan will start. Although we have not been ordered to fight all the power in this continent, defending our vassal kingdom should pose no problem.\" He said ''Vassal Kingdom'' because the Zhou Kingdom had sold their soul to the devil and became a vassal kingdom. Of course, after knowing their power, the Zhou Kingdom had no reason to refuse. They started sucking upon them to get more power. After all, if they managed to conquer the entire continent. All those sects and kingdoms would be in their kingdom while they only needed to report to a single kingdom. \"We will attack when they are not expecting us. If we attack them now, not only we can capture him, but we also can annihilate one of the sects in our way. Zhou Kingdom shall keep their mouth shut for the time being. \"If the other influences knew it was the Zhou Kingdom who did it. You can just inform them that one of the disciples from Heavenly Sword Sect offended you. Then, we annihilated them because the Heavenly Sword Sect wanted to protect that guy. \"With those results, they would be wary about you guys. And if they tried to band together, we will start striking the weaker influences first. That should give us some time. \"Initially, we wanted to start our plan in the Wilow Continent Grand Tournament so we could swipe them all at the same time. But because of this person who triggered a golden lightning tribulation that no one managed to do it and there was even no record about such a thing. \"Because of that, we were forced to do this and made some adjustments in our plan. I am sure you know this, but failure is not an option. If we can''t get that person, we will kill him.\" \"Yes. Of course, we know how important this kid is. After all, if this kid managed to go to the Northern Continent. With his talent alone, he might become a powerhouse there. If he decided to go back to this place for revenge, there would only be an annihilation.\" The green-haired old man said. He continued, \"But, there is some information that you should need to know. This kid possesses the rare Space Element. So, our kingdom decided to use one of our treasures that could lock a space element user for a few minutes. \"It is a rank 4 Array Plate. Fortunately, this kid is only a Martial Grandmaster, so even if he could do his space thing. He could not overcome this Array Plate.\" \"Alright. We are going to Heavenly Sword Sect now. If we succeeded in this, you would be rewarded greatly.\" The white-haired guy said. He then stood up and shouted, \"Let''s go.\" Two 4-Star Martial Kings and fifty Martial Lords started walking. And from the Zhou Kingdom''s side, there was one 1-Star Martial King and twenty high-level Martial Lords. This would be enough to destroy the entire sect overnight. After all, although the number of Martial Lords inside the top four sects like Heavenly Sword Sect was numerous. There were not even a hundred. Most sects only had around eighty Martial Lords, with the majority of them being 5-Star Martial Lords or below. In fact, there were only around 10-20 people in the sects who were 7-Star Martial Lords or above, and they were usually the elder. So, if this group of people came to Heavenly Sword Sect, they had more than enough power to annihilate them. Of course, it might be hard if two sects or three sects banded together. But even with that kind of situation, they would certainly hold the Grand Tournament. As long as they could hold long enough, they would ambush them in the Grand Tournament and kill all of them. After that, they would be the winner who got the last laugh. Their Kingdom, Brynhildr Kingdom, had been preparing this plan for a long time. They wanted to dominate this continent to strengthen them. And then, they would come back to Nilis Continent and rule the entire continent with their power. Alex was another card they wanted to acquire. After all, according to them, Alex was a Space Element master. Along with the golden lightning, if they cultivated Alex for a long time, Alex''s strength would be far stronger. They wanted to get Alex so they would have another card if they didn''t manage to dominate the continent or some genius fled to the Northern Kingdom. After all, even if those people who fled came back, they would not be able to defeat Alex. That was the reason they adjusted their well-thought plan. After giving all the orders, they flew outside the city before summoning the ship. After boarding the floating ship, they immediately flew toward Heavenly Sword Sect. Of course, it didn''t escape Nelson''s eyes. Nelson disappeared to go to a safe location before calling Alex. ¡­ Alex just arrived at his home. \"Alex, Nelson wants to talk with you.\" Anna immediately came to him while giving him Nelson''s card. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He grabbed the card and said, \"Do you need something from me, Nelson?\" \"A big trouble is coming to you, Young Master.\" \"What do you mean?\" \"There are around 70-80 people coming toward Heavenly Sword Sect. But I don''t know what these people want from Heavenly Sword Sect. But after seeing the Martial King that you met back in your Tribulation, there is a high chance that their target is you.\" He said. \"What? When will they come?\" Alex asked. He recalled the distance between the Zhou Kingdom and Heavenly Sword Sect. It was a pretty far that needed a few days of flying. After all, he wanted to finish this tournament. Not because of the reward from the sect or recognition, but he wanted the reward from the system. Alex wanted the special summon ticket to summon Anna''s Sister, Anya, to cure Putri''s curse. So, he thought he would have enough time to finish the tournament and escape. But Nelson''s answer broke his plan. \"I don''t know. But they use some special floating ships that travel faster. A normal Martial Lord could reach Heavenly Sword Sect in three days. But with that ship, they might arrive in two if not one.\" Alex sweatdropped. He asked again, \"What is their power?\" \"I don''t know, but they should have three Martial Kings. But the Zhou Kingdom should not have that many Martial Kings, so I assume they must come from another continent. And judging from their aura, they should be 3-Star or above. The rest of them are Martial Lords, possibly High-level Martial Lords, 7-Star or above. Even Anna was surprised by the number, Alex was covered with sweat. If he missed this tournament, Putri might die before he could summon Anya. Even though he couldn''t accept the reality, Putri was his Senior Sister as well as his¡­ Disciple. \"Alex, what should we do? Should we escape?\" Alex contemplated for a few minutes. He was thinking hard about a feasible plan. After finally, he decided. \"You go tell Pu¡­tri to get ready. As soon as they finished their breakthrough, ask them to go to the arena. Then after I finished winning the tournament, we will immediately escape with my Space Element.\" \"You are not going to hide the Space Element? After all, you are an Alchemist. In other words, you would have a fire. And if you used your Space Element. There is no other explanation other than two elements. You might be targeted by many if they knew about it.\" \"This is a matter of life and death. There is no way I am going to hide it anymore. My biggest regret was not using my fire when the assassins attacked me, Alicia and Firia. I definitely don''t want to repeat such a mistake.\" Alex replied hurriedly. He continued, \"Even Teacher said, if I want to become the strongest, I would need to challenge the whole world. Although it is not my original plan, we don''t have a choice.\" \"Alright.\" Anna nodded her head. At first, Alex thought about confronting them after leveling Anna and Leoz a few more with EXP cards. But it was not feasible. Nelson said the Martial Kings would be 3-Star or above. With his current strength, he could only increase their strength to 8-Star Martial Lords. Alex doubted even with their True Spirit Form, Anna, and the others would not be able to beat those Martial Kings. So there was only one way out which was to escape as soon as he finished. He would go all out for the last two battles so he could finish the battle as soon as possible. After that, he would bring Putri and the others away from Heavenly Sword Sect. Alex was thinking about making arrays to protect themselves in the sect. Unfortunately, there was no array in his possession that could fight with Martial Kings. Because of his state, he decided not to prepare for the fight. Instead, he took out his 100x100 meter Array Paper and split them into four. He then made four Rank 4 Teleportation Array Plates. Each of these Teleportation Array Plates could teleport them a few miles away from their current position. Alex wished he could make a rank 5 Teleportation Array Plate that could teleport them up to a hundred miles. Unfortunately, he could not make it yet. After finishing the array plate, Anna went to Song Yu''s house. But before that, he said, \"You should also ask Evelyn to call her sister with her. As for Simon and Himura Minami¡­ not many people know my relationship with them, so they should be fine.\" Anna nodded and left the house while Alex flew toward the arena. 311 Inner Disciple Tournament 16-Just Another Figh There were only three fights left for the tournament. The first fight was Eric versus Florinda. This was also an exciting fight as they were the former number one and number two of Inner Disciple before Alex came. The second fight was Vicky versus Alex. If they needed to choose which fight would be better, then this fight would be selected. There was only a single reason for that. Alex might not know about this, but every Inner Disciple knew. Vicky had been pursuing Intan for many years. Seeing the love in his heart became like that, he could not swallow it. The third elder came as usual, but this time he was accompanied by the sect master. He had been watching Alex''s performance this entire time, even though he was not here. And he was also shocked when he heard about Alex''s ability. He never thought of using a Spear Domain with a sword possible. Although he wanted to see the match yesterday, he was too busy. Unfortunately, he also heard about the problem that Alex would soon encounter. He had beaten the first genius of the Makmur Family as well as the third princess of the Southern Kingdom. With those two alone, the Southern Kingdom might kill him without caring about his protection. Of course, if needed, he would not be scared to pick a fight with the Southern Kingdom. He wanted to see whether Alex was really going to beat another person from the Southern Kingdom. Although Eric Kasmanan had lost his family, he was also a genius from the former Kasmanan Family. If Alex indeed beat him again, then it could be said that he specifically targeted the Southern Kingdom. He did not know about the scheme of Princess Mega with Eric and Intan. So, this was the only conclusion he could come up with. He also sighed when he saw Alex. Alex was surely a peerless genius. If he normally cultivated in the sect, he might be able to become a Martial King. Unfortunately, he was too young and reckless. He wanted to make a war with the entire kingdom with his 8-Star Martial Grandmaster strength. He thought Alex was foolish. He would just wait and see for the time being. The sect master nodded and went to his seat, giving the third elder the opportunity to start the tournament. \"Well, after three long days. We have seen many battles. There are fast battles, long battles, or even some drama. There are another three matches, and we could finally see who is the top Inner Disciple. \"I am not good with some speech, so without further ado. Let''s start the tournament. First match: Eric Kasmanan versus Florinda.\" Soon enough, a brown-haired man appeared on the stage. His expression was cold, and his aura was like a calm storm that contained deep hatred, ready to swallow his prey. On the other side, there was a pretty young lady. She had lavender hair that tied into twin tails. Although she appeared to be cold and aloof, her expression was not fierce like the man''s expression. They were Eric Kasmanan and Florinda. Eric said coldly, \"You better surrender now. The number one place will always be for me, not you.\" \"There is still him.\" She said casually. \"Hmph. He is somewhat okay, but that is all. Although he might be able to breakthrough to 8-Star Martial Grandmaster yesterday, eventually, he is only 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. \"He had a hard fight with that Intan, so he won''t be able to beat me. So, Surrender! If not, then don''t blame me for being impolite.\" Eric said coldly. When people heard him, they thought Eric was too proud. Especially when it reached Florinda''s ear, she could only interpret it as a taunt. \"You talk like you already won.\" \"Hmph.\" \"Match Start!\" The third elder announced. Both of them immediately took out their swords and released their Sword Domain. Both of them had a twenty-meter domain. They jumped forward at the same time and swung their sword. It was only for probing their opponent''s strength. But it seemed their strength was the same as none of them budged even an inch. Florinda made the first move. Her sword slid on Eric''s sword before she waved it toward the ground. \"Four Direction Slash.\" The four slashes immediately flew from him from the sides, below and above him. But Eric was not scared. He took two steps back before swinging his sword. Since the four direction slashes were targeting him, they were going to meet at some point. He took that chance to send it back toward Florinda with his sword. \"Counter Swing.\" When those slashes gathered into one point, he swung his sword and sent it back like hitting a baseball. Florinda was not flustered by this as she had researched Eric''s power for so long to take the first position. She waved her sword lightly and destroyed it. \"Thunder Sword.\" She immediately released her element on her sword as lightning started covering her sword. She struck forward, and the lightning traveled on the ground before rising up again, trying to strike Eric. Eric only stomped the ground once with his feet, and the ground beneath his feet suddenly rose. It blocked Florinda''s lightning attack. \"I am bored, so I will finish this now,\" Eric said coldly. He waved his sword to the ground, and many long spikes suddenly rose from the ground. It continued to appear toward Florinda. She jumped forward to dodge the spike and swung her sword. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" This was her trump card. She was able to fuse her lightning to her Seven Stars Cut. It gave her four layers Seven Stars Cut more power than it was supposed to have. She thought since Eric''s element was Earth, he should not be able to do the same because of element affinity. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" Eric also responded the same. And it was like what she had expected. Eric indeed could not fuse his Earth Element because of Element affinity. But when both Seven Stars Cut clashed, the result suddenly appeared. Eric''s Seven Stars Cut suddenly cut through Florinda''s Seven Stars Cut. It was so shocking for everyone to see that. Florinda''s Seven Stars Cut was indeed covered by her lightning element. Still, sadly, it was only four layers Seven Stars Cut. With that poor control of lightning, Eric, who suddenly made a five layers Seven Stars Cut, quickly cut her sword wave down. This was the problem for high ranking cultivators. Cultivators had three paths, they could become weapon cultivators, mastering in sword, spear, or whatever, or they could master their elements and become Elemental cultivators. The third path was the most arduous path, they thread on both paths. Florinda and Alex were on this path while Eric was on the first path. Unfortunately, unlike Alex, who had his Pure Fire as the firepower, and his control because of his Alchemy practice. It was a bit clear for everyone who threaded on the third path to see that Florinda''s lightning element control was not as powerful as her sword. It was because she somehow neglected the basics of her element mastery. To become a sword Grandmaster at her age, she could be considered as a genius. But because of that, she neglected her element a little bit. Putri and Intan also had threaded this path. Intan can become strong because she had Makmur Family as her backing. Putri also had the ninth elder to help her. But she was not, she was alone. Although she was able to fuse her lightning with Seven Stars Cut, it had yet to reach the same level of Eric''s Seven Stars Cut. Eric''s Seven Stars Cut continued flying toward her and forced the third elder to stop the fight. \"Eric Kasmanan wins!\" He announced. Eric snorted and left the arena. ¡­ After the hype, the third elder finally announced the next fight. \"Alexander Sirius versus Vicky.\" The cheers turned into an uproar. What they wanted to see was how Vicky paid Alex back for what he did to the woman he pursued. Alex obviously did not know something like this. If Putri and the others were here, they would warn him about this. Unfortunately, they were not here, so Alex was clueless when he entered the arena and saw the hatred in Vicky''s eyes. \"I will pay you back for what you have done to Intan. How dare you do that to her!\" Vicky was a handsome guy with short blue hair. He was also a spear user. Back then, he was always defeated by Intan, and because both of them used a spear, he kept challenging Intan. Without him knowing, he had fallen in love with Intan. Intan did not love him, but he never minded it. He kept pursuing Intan like crazy. If she were the first, then he would be the second. If Intan were third, he would always be the fourth. That was what he was aiming for. But Alex made her lose her ability to wield a spear, the reason why he fell in love with Intan. That was the reason why he felt so angry as he wanted to kill Alex as soon as possible. \"You bast*rd, I will kill you even if I need to be disqualified.\" He shouted with full of hatred. Alex was confused as he didn''t understand the reason why he was like that. He looked at the third elder with a weird expression. He asked, \"Is that okay to fight a person like this?\" \"¡­\" The third elder also started to worry about Vicky''s condition. He sighed, \"Don''t worry. I will make sure no life is gone in this battle. Well, from the rumor I have heard, he is pursuing Intan Wulan Makmur.\" Alex opened his mouth in astonishment. He never knew he had a backstory like that. Well, he was wondering if he should destroy him too, as he might possess a threat later¡­ But he might not be able to do it in this match and near in the future. After all, he would escape from the sect as soon as he won. He would just put him under observation. If there were a need to kill him, he would kill him after he came back. He then nodded to the third elder. \"Match Start!\" Vicky was obsessed with Intan, so he even learned every spear art that Intan had learned, except their Makmur Family Martial Arts such as Jewel Wind. But because of that, he had the same fighting spear style as Intan. As soon as the match started, Vicky thrust his spear toward Alex. \"Silver Raven.\" Seeing this, Alex also countered it with his Silver Sovereign. He thrust his sword to his spear. Because of the force, both of them were forced to retreat a few step backs. With the same style as Intan, Vicky immediately raised his spear and shot a few Quick Silver. \"Quick Silver.\" When Alex saw that, he waved his sword. \"Pentagram Slash.\" He cut all those attacks with his Pentagram Slash. He then took out twenty swords from his Inventory and let them soar in the air. \"As expected, you can only use a weapon at a time. This is the reason why you refuse Hannibal to use your full power. Then it is easy for me to defeat you.\" Vicky said with confidence. Alex looked at him like a fool. He refused Hannibal because he wanted to win, not to prove something. It seemed Vicky had misunderstood him. He looked at Vicky, who was ready to charge. \"I don''t care what will happen to me. Since if I die, you will also be disqualified.\" Vicky grinned evilly. He suddenly disappeared. Alex could see him. He was charging at him with a breakneck speed. Alex quickly used his twenty swords, plunged him, but because he didn''t care what would happen to him. The twenty swords missed him. Vicky appeared in front of Alex and thrust his spear. \"!!!\" Alex immediately blocked his spear with his sword, but because of his momentum, Alex was blown away. Vicky blew him toward the wall. But before Alex crashed into the wall, he used his Sky Step to stabilize himself in mid-air and jumped back toward the arena. 312 Inner Tournament Disciple 17-Bai When he came back to the arena, he looked at Vicky like he was looking at a fool. He had misunderstood him. He indeed had shown his ability by using Spear Intent and Spear Domain while holding a sword. Still, no one had proven whether he could only use a spear or a sword, one at a time. But Alex was not complaining about it. Since Vicky thought that way, he would leave a gap to exploit. Alex smiled a little bit. If he wanted to finish this match as soon as possible, he might need to use both of his sword and spear at the same time. Well, considering he would leave the sect for a period of time. He thought it would be fine to show it to them. He recalled Vicky''s last charge. Unlike the others, Vicky''s charge did not consider his well being. In other words, he was recklessly charged toward him. Fortunately, he managed to escape his sword. If Vicky kept fighting that way, he might lose his life in this battle. But it also became a dilemma for Alex. If he accidentally killed Vicky, he might be disqualified from this tournament. He only cared about the reward from the system. But he can only claim it by winning the tournament. He was afraid he would be disqualified from responding to Vicky''s recklessness. Well, Vicky had left him no option. He decided to go all out in this match. Vicky charged at him again like before. Alex instantly took out a spear from his inventory and grabbed it with his left hand. \"!!!\" Everyone realized that Alex was holding a spear and a sword at the same time. But when they were wondering what he would do, they got surprised by Alex. Alex raised his spear and threw it. The throw was very powerful as the power was not coming from his strength alone, but there was also a Martial Art. \"Spear Throwing Art, Spin Throwing.\" The spear pierced through the air and flew toward Vicky. Vicky immediately thrust his spear to repel the spear charge. \"Silver Raven.\" But the conclusion came to a sudden. When Vicky tried to repel Alex''s spear with his spear, he was surprised to see that Alex''s spear had even more power than his Silver Raven. Of course, Spear Throwing Art was only a low-level Martial Art. But even though it was not a powerful Martial Art, it was a versatile Martial Art. The power generated from Spear Throwing Art relates to the power of the user. In other words, if Alex''s brute strength became even stronger. The Spear Throwing Art would also be stronger. It was one of the perfect basic Spear Art that he could get. He did not need to abandon this Martial Art as he did with Sanguin Sword Art as it could not keep up with the power of his Seven Stars Cut or his other Martial Arts. With that much strength, Alex''s Spear Throwing Art pushed Vicky back. Alex then disappeared. The moment he appeared, Alex grabbed his spear back and waved his sword to Vicky. \"Immovable Step.\" With the surge of the strength from Immovable Step, he blew Vicky away. But he did not stop there. He turned around and swung his spear like he was swinging his sword. And suddenly, a sword wave came from the spear''s blade. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" Everyone who watched this baffled. They utterly forgot about this¡­ No, they never thought about this. If Alex could use Spear Arts with his sword, he should also be able to use Sword Arts with his spear. However, even after they realized that. They could not help but draw a cold breath. The sect master was clenching his fist while watching something like this. Of course, as one of the three people who were on the stage. The third elder also got shocked by this. But he could not let his guard down. He bit his lips to snap from his amazement and looked at the battle condition. Because of his reckless charge, Vicky could not regain his balance after Alex blew him away. Because of this condition, the third elder was forced to block Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. \"!!!\" When he received this attack, he was shocked by the sheer power inside it. He had received Alex''s five layers Seven Stars Cut in his fight with Elise. He could feel that this Seven Stars Cut that he made from his spear also contained the same amount of power. Fortunately, Alex had yet to fuse both intents like what he unconsciously did inside the battle tower. If not, he might need to use his full power to block this. Even so, it was still a five layers Seven Stars Cut. Although a few people managed to do it already, it was still rare. Of course, it was not like they were on the same level as Alex. In fact, Alex could use a six layers Seven Stars Cut or even the seven layers Seven Stars Cut. Unfortunately, he was restricted by his cultivation. If he was a peak Martial Grandmaster, he already made such an attack to beat this Vicky. \"Alexander Sirius Wi-!\" When the third elder announced the result, a loud crash sound was heard. \"Boom!\" The culprit was obvious. It was Vicky. Even though the third elder had stopped Alex''s attack, Vicky was still blown away. So, when the third elder announced the result, Vicky finally crashed into the wall. \"Alexander Sir-!!!\" The third elder wanted to announce it again, but he had been stopped once again. Of course, Vicky stopped him. \"I can still fight!\" Vicky immediately charged toward Alex again. Alex was frowning. He clenched his sword tightly, ready to block this attack¡­ maybe sending a kick to him. \"Immovable Step.\" But before he confronted this attack, the third elder appeared above Vicky. He grabbed Vicky''s head and slammed it into the ground. \"Bam!\" It could be said that after losing his disciple, the third elder had been very strict with the rule. He was the exact opposite of Charya, who did not care about the rule. He continued pinning him down until the first elder came to the arena. He knocked Vicky out and dragged him out of the arena. Of course, it was not because he was acquainted with Vicky but because he would be the one who punished him. After all, in terms of strictness, he was above the third elder. He looked at Alex mysteriously before leaving the arena with Vicky. The third elder looked at his surroundings first to confirm that he would not be disturbed again. \"Alexander Sirius Wins!\" He finally announced the winner after confirming it was safe. *Cheers* The people were cheering to see Alex could even defeat Vicky easily. After all, Vicky was only one ranking lower from Intan. He glanced toward Charya''s room and saw Charya''s and the others. Even Lena also came with her Master. \"Anna, is everyone there?\" \"Yes. We even got another baggage with us. This Lena and Miska or something. Are you sure you want to bring all of them? I mean, I can relate for Evelyn, but her¡­\" \"Don''t say that. Although it is not my plan to bring her, she is indeed related to Evelyn. If I didn''t bring her, she might be sad. Well, I thought about whether I should bring Evelyn or not back then.\" \"Hmph. Fine. Well, you are fighting here to get my sister''s card, so make sure you win.\" \"Of course.\" After the cheers ended, The third elder looked at Alex, \"You can rest for two hours before fighting Eric Kasmanan in the final.\" Before the crowd could cheer again, Alex said out loud, \"No. If possible, I want to finish this match as soon as possible.\" He could not afford to wait another two hours. It would just let the people from the Zhou Kingdom come here. He might not be able to escape if those people were here. After all, they had three Martial Kings and numerous Martial Lords. Alex could not afford to fight them even with all of his spirits, and he was not that confident of escaping if they really arrived at this place. After all, he could escape back then was because that old man had not prepared for Anna''s Dark Curtain. Eric suddenly appeared in the arena. Alex''s statement just now was clearly an insult toward Eric. By fighting without a rest, Alex just indirectly said he could defeat Eric in his state. \"You talk big. But I won''t let you do what you want. Even after you rest for two hours, I will still destroy you because the place of number one position for Inner Disciple would always be mine.\" \"¡­\" Alex clicked his tongue. He would need another bait like Intan. He was wondering what he should say to bait him. \"And I will kill the one who massacred my family,\" Eric said with hatred. But when Alex heard that, an idea immediately flashed in his mind. He smiled, \"Then, how about we start our match now? If you defeat me, I can tell you who massacred your family.\" \"What did you say?\" Eric was surprised, but his tone was full of hatred. Alex continued, \"Don''t you know because of my information, the Southern Kingdom can escape death. Because of my information, the Zhou Kingdom didn''t succeed in ambushing them. I currently hold information for the person who destroyed the Kasmanan Family.\" When Eric heard that he immediately shouted, \"Who is he? I will kill him. Say it now!\" Alex kept his calm, \"You can only get it after you beat me.\" \"You are just trying to make me agree with you. You are just bluffing!\" Eric said, not taking Alex''s bait. \"Hmph. You are such a wimpy. If you are like that, then you won''t be able to touch that person in your entire life.\" Alex said. He looked like the villain in the story that was trying to bait the main character by using information. Although he did not want to do it, he must. There was no time for him to think of any other feasible plan. He knew the enemy was coming toward this place. \"What did you say? Care to repeat that!\" Eric walked toward Alex and said in front of his face. \"I said. You are such a wimpy. If you are like that, then you won''t be able to touch that person in your entire life.\" Alex repeated. He was taunting him. \"You!\" Eric was thoroughly angered. But the third elder released his aura with a bit of killing intent. He glared at Alex and Eric. \"Don''t force me to use my hand in this.\" \"Since you are so adamant about it. Then so be it! You would not be able to make any excuse if you lose.\" Eric said out loud. Alex smiled, seeing he had fulfilled his objective. Alex looked at the third elder, asking him to start the match. The third elder wiped the sweat that covered his forehead. This Alex was truly troublesome. He looked at the sect master who nodded his head helplessly. The third elder could only authorize it since both Alex and Eric decided to do this along with the approval of the sect master. He sighed before he announced, \"Alexander Sirius versus Eric Kasmanan.\" \"Match Start!\" Eric took out his sword and released his Sword Domain. \"I will immediately defeat you and know who massacred my family. And I will kill¡­ No, I will torture him first before killing him.\" Alex looked at him coldly. \"That is not possible. As I am planning to win this battle.\" Alex said as he took out both of his sword and spear. He released both domains simultaneously. Everyone was shocked, and even the sect master rose from his seat. They also arrived at the same conclusion as Vicky. They thought Alex could only release the Sword Domain or Spear Domain alone. But reality proved them wrong. Alex could release them at the same time. He was already monstrous by using two domains, one at a time. If he used both domains simultaneously¡­ \"Sword¡­\" \"Spear¡­\" \"¡­ Domain!\" 313 Inner Disciple Tournament 18-Explanation \"Sword¡­\" \"Spear¡­\" \"¡­Domain!\" All people were shocked by what happened. Alex was able to use Sword Domain, and Spear Domain alone was already shocking. But to use it simultaneously. They never heard something like this appeared in history. Maybe because the shock that Alex brought to them was too much that they even forgot about this possibility. Or they simply refused to believe this possibility, consciously or unconsciously. But as soon as Alex released both domains at the same time. They could only believe it. \"What!\" Eric was shocked too. Unfortunately, the match had started, and Alex never planned to pull his punch because his opponent was shocked by him. Alex jumped forward and swung his sword. \"Immovable Step.\" As expected of the furious Eric, even though he was still shocked by Alex. He managed to raise his sword to block Alex''s sword. \"Kh!\" Unfortunately, blocking Alex''s attack was easier said than done. The swing just now managed to make a little crater beneath Eric''s feet. Alex used this chance to thrust his spear toward Eric. \"Quick Silver.\" \"!!!\" Upon seeing that, Eric jumped to the side. He wanted to regain his composure from the shock that Alex gave. So, he made the distance with this. Alex did not let him. He immediately summoned twenty swords and made them fly toward Eric Kasmanan. Eric kept dodging to the side and swung his sword. \"Thundering Bear Charge!\" A giant bear suddenly appeared from his sword and charged toward Alex''s swords. The clash between the bear and Alex''s twenty swords were nerve-wracking. All of them were covered by sword intent, making them even more fierce. \"Roar!\" The bear from Eric''s sword was even capable of roaring. Some swords managed to stop the bear while the others were slapped to the wall or ground by the bear, until one moment when one of the swords managed to pierce the bear''s throat. \"Boom!\" The bear suddenly exploded and blasted away the swords that pierce him. Alex immediately tried to regain control of his swords. But as expected of Eric, he did not let him do so. He suddenly charged toward Alex while swinging his sword. \"Clang!\" Alex received Eric''s sword with his spear. He then swung his sword toward Eric. \"Immovable Step.\" He even boosted his power with the Immovable Step. When Eric saw that, he slid his sword from the spear and blocked it with his sword. Unfortunately, Alex was still too powerful with his Immovable Step. He used every bit of his four dragon strength to blow Eric away. \"Boom!\" Eric crashed to the wall. The smoke appeared from the dust and covered him. Alex did not care about that since he could clearly see Eric''s position with his Spirit Eyes. He controlled his twenty swords once again and plunged them on Eric. But he suddenly got surprised there was a pill with a red energy appearing on Eric''s hand. That red energy was really familiar as he thought he had seen that from somewhere. When an image suddenly flashed on his mind, he immediately narrowed his eyes. He precisely knew what that pill was. Alex would need to win as soon as possible. His swords were flying toward him. Unfortunately, it was too late. \"Thundering Bear Charge!\" The brown bear that was made from Spiritual Energy and Sword Intent once again clashed with his swords. But surprisingly, the bear knocked all the swords away. After knocking Alex''s swords away, the bear then charged toward Alex. \"Tch!\" Alex clicked his tongue, noticing the serious matter. He waved his sword, and a sword wave flew toward the bear. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" With the powerful Seven Stars Cut, it undoubtedly managed to cut the bear. \"Boom!\" Unfortunately, the bear once again exploded, and it blasted the Seven Stars Cut. If it was a normal Thundering Bear Charge, it should not be able to destroy his Seven Stars Cut. He seemed to have underestimated this Berserk Pill. Alex took a look at Eric''s energy carefully. Although the spark on his energy was indeed surprising, he was even more surprised when he saw Eric''s current energy. Although Eric did not break through to Martial Lord, his Spiritual Energy alone was around 2-Star if not 3-Star Martial Lord. Alex started feeling something bad would happen. When Eric appeared back in the arena, his appearance changed. Eric''s appearance looked like a demon. His white eyes turned to black while his black eyes turned to red. There was a reddish color below his eyes. According to Alex''s memory, blood should come out from his eyes, and he wiped it. But the most troublesome thing was that Eric had the same energy as Martial Lord. Alex was frowning as he knew the situation turned bad. Alex looked at Eric''s Spiritual Energy, and surprisingly, the energy was berserk. Still, it was not as much as what happened to Zhou Soldiers. Alex could not understand what happened. The possibility of survival after this would be much higher. \"What?\" Charya rose from her seat. At first, after she advanced to 9-Star Martial Lord, she was surprised to see Anna as she was not familiar with her. But after Song Yu explained it to her, she calmed down and flew toward this place with the others. But after seeing Eric''s Spiritual Energy increased exponentially. She dropped her jaw as she could not understand what just happened. \"His power suddenly rose to Martial Lord level?\" Even Song Yu was shocked by this. \"Alex, that is Berserk Pill.\" Suddenly, a sound transmission came into his head. After seeing that, Anna sweatdropped and sent a thought transmission to Alex. But since he was too occupied to use Anna''s card. He only nodded his head, telling her he knew. A thought flashed in his mind when he heard Anna. Anna said she could control the soldiers because of the blood pills. But Eric did not have any blood pills. He thought there might be some relations in that. The energy was not as rampage as the Zhou Soldiers was because Eric never had any blood pills. Because of that, his energy had yet to be contaminated by that vile red energy. That was his speculation. He took a deep breath. It seemed he panicked for a second. Even though Eric''s energy had increased to the Martial Lord level, it was not like he was a Martial Lord. If Eric became a Martial Lord, he might need to use his Fire and Array to fight him. But this situation did not require him to do that. His expression turned to calm. \"You are going to die in a few minutes. Even if you manage to beat me, you will not be able to have revenge.\" Alex said coldly, trying to mess up with his mind. Of course, Alex was bluffing. According to his Spirit Eyes, Eric should not die from that. He might suffer some severe injury or might be crippled, but he will not die from this. \"Hmph!\" Eric did not care about that as he disappeared again. Alex swung his sword to his front, and suddenly Eric appeared while swinging his sword. \"Clang!\" The sword collided. Alex felt the power within Eric and thought he was going to lose in this exchange. \"Immovable Step.\" He will not let Eric do what he wanted. He immediately used his Immovable Step to fight power with power. And stopped his swing. \"Double Strike!\" Eric also used his Martial Art. He suddenly swung his sword twice on Alex''s sword. \"Boom!\" The moment they realized it, Alex had crashed into the wall. As soon as Eric used the ''Double Strike,'' Alex was blown away. In Charya''s room, Song Yu asked out loud, \"What is that ridiculous power?\" \"It is the power of Berserk Pill.\" Anna suddenly said. \"!!!\" They were confused as they never knew that term. Only Putri knew about this as she said, \"What? Berserk Pill? But that pill is-!\" \"No, it is indeed a Berserk Pill. Just look at his appearance. It is obvious to see. You also experienced that battlefield. You surely knew about their change of appearance¡­ White Eyes turned to black while black eyes turned to red. The one who consumed the berserk pill looked like a demon. Although I can feel the aura from Berserk Pill, it is not enough to confirm it. But Alex also confirmed it, so it must be a Berserk Pill.\" Anna said. \"¡­\" Putri sweatdropped. She knew what kind of terror of that Berserk Pill. \"But, I am wondering where he could get that pill¡­\" Anna said while glancing at Putri. \"¡­\" Putri''s body shook. She could think the reason why Eric had that Berserk Pill. \"You know the reason, aren''t you?\" Anna narrowed her eyes. Putri gulped down before explaining it to her. \"Indeed. After the war was over, the kingdom ordered an investigation about this pill along with the Zhou Kingdom. But rather than explaining what kind of pill, they distributed the pills to eight prominent families so they could grasp a better picture of the pill. \"My¡­ No, the Makmur Family also received the pill. And I believe, the Kasmanan Family also received it. The pill must come to his hand after that.\" \"Damn, that kingdom! Did they trust the other families that much, or were they just a fool? No, they must be out of their mind. How dare they trouble him once more. We truly need to erase the problem to the root. If not, they will come back to haunt us! \"Kasmanan Family is not enough. It is better to raze the entire Southern Kingdom to the ground!\" Anna said out of rage. Song Yu and the others were confused with Anna''s and Putri''s conversation. But Song Yu did not pass the details. \"Kasmanan Family is not enough? Do not tell me the one who massacred the Kasmanan Family was-!\" Anna looked at her and smiled coldly. \"You-!\" Song Yu was surprised beyond belief when she knew Alex was the one who massacred the entire Kasmanan Family. Even Charya would not be able to do it. But the one who shocked the most by the news was Putri. She never thought Alex was the one who massacred Eric''s family. If she heard about this before she knew she was betrayed, she might try to kill him out of rage. She only had one thought in her mind. Even though she did not feel any hatred toward Alex even after knowing this, she still should ask this question. \"Why?\" Anna said, according to her experience and a bit of Alex''s memory, \"Oh. I already expected this. Since you have been betrayed by them, you will not hold any hatred for Alex. Alex had been worrying about this since he did not know how to tell you. Anyway, this is perfect. I will tell you about it. \"This started from back when you and Alex came to Zwaka''s realm. Do you remember when your fiance suddenly appeared and introduced himself to Alex. He was trying to be a good guy. Still, Alex could see that bast*rd had another intention. After all, he had been waiting behind the wall long before you arrived.\" \"!!!\" Putri was shocked. She indeed remembered that scene. But back then, she was still madly in love with Eric. She never thought anything like that back then. Song Yu and Charya frowned. They understood what she meant by Zwaka''s realm. It was the so-called Martial Emperor. They were surprised there was this kind of story that happened back then. It was only Evelyn who was clueless as to who was this ''Zwaka'' that Anna was talking about. Fortunately, after knowing Alex had received the inheritance of the Martial Emperor, they did not have any plan toward Alex. Anna continued, \"Back then. He tried to squeeze Alex''s hand. I did not know what he was up to. But he clearly wanted to challenge Alex. Maybe, he was trying to act cool or whatever. I don''t care. Anyway¡­\" 314 Inner Disciple Tournament 19-Trouble \"Anyway, whatever his reason was, he offended Alex. That was the first. Then, after that, when we came inside Zwaka''s realm. Alex already knew about the underground passage that could lead to the real palace. He chose to stay behind with the reason he wanted to cultivate. \"There were three reasons why he did not tell the others about his discovery. The first reason was that he was sure they would not believe him. The second reason he knew there were people in his tail which turned out to be the Zhou Soldiers. The third reason was because of the treatment he got from that b*tchy princess and that b*stard. You must know what I mean, right?\" Anna said while narrowing her eyes toward Putri. Putri only looked down. \"Anyway. It turned out to be perfect for us. And we finished our mission. Then we came to the Southern Kingdom and helped them with the war. Well, he only did it because of you. He did not care about the Southern Kingdom at all. \"The reason was simple. After helping them in the war with the help of our group as well as crucial information. That princess with the Kasmanan Family tried to kill him. They sent eight Martial Lords to us, and luckily we managed to kill them. \"After knowing about that, we were enraged. Alex decided to massacre the entire Kasmanan Family, so he did. Well, you already know what happened next. And from this story, I am sure you have understood why Alex decided to massacre the entire Kasmanan Family.\" \"¡­\" Putri looked down. She never thought there was such a backstory. She understood why Alex never told her about this. If he told her about this, not only would she not believe him, she might hate him. After all, she had a complete trust in Eric and Mega back then. She clenched her fist, thinking about why she could not notice it sooner. She never knew Alex had carried such a burden this entire time. And all of it was because of her. \"But, I do not understand why that Princess and the Kasmanan Family wanted to kill Alex.\" Song Yu said while pondering something. \"You don''t understand? It is pretty easy to guess, you know. We did not know why but they surely suspected or knew Alex had the inheritances of a Martial Emperor. Luckily, none of you had any greed toward him. Or we might be forced to kill you too.\" Anna said. *Gasped-!* Charya and Song Yu were the ones who shocked the most. They could not understand how Alex could massacre the entire Kasmanan Family. But the proof was there to see. If Alex could kill the whole Kasmanan Family, they might be able to kill them. Charya aside, Song Yu might have the protection of the Blackwade Clan. Although they were away and she was unprotected at the moment. In case Alex tried to kill her because of this and she somehow managed to escape back to her clan. The first thing she would do was to kill him. After all, Alex''s talent was a threat. If Alex managed to rise, their family might share the same fate as the Kasmanan Family. Well, there were three reasons why she never had any greed for him. First, she thought an inheritance of a Martial Emperor was so-so. Considering her family background, she indeed could think that way. Second, Alex was the VIP cardholder. She should not treat him that way, since the family rule stated, Blackwade clan members should not treat their VIP impolitely unless it were self-defense. And the last reason why she never thought that way was simply because she was Alex''s Senior Sister. She knew Alex''s personality well, so she never worried about that. But there was one person who got shocked by the word ''Martial Emperor.'' It was Evelyn. Unlike Charya and Song Yu, she was utterly clueless about this. When she heard Alex got the inheritance of a Martial Emperor, it shocked her to the core. It could undoubtedly incite the greed of every person on the continent. If the other kingdoms or sects knew about this, they might try to kill him to possess the inheritance. From her expression, Anna knew Evelyn must never know about this. She glanced at her, \"So, little girl. If you have any thought about that, then be prepared if the Thiveapia Kingdom was razed to the ground. I am not saying this as an empty threat. \"There was a saying. Unless you are enraged by a tiger, you would not know how ferocious the tiger is, even if you know about it from the information. Alex is good to you, but that does not mean I will be good to you. \"My priority is his safety. The wound in his heart could heal with time, but if he died, then he could not even heal the wound even if there is a time.\" Anna said coldly. Evelyn nodded her head repeatedly. She never thought about that, and even after knowing about it, the thought about telling it to her family never flashed in her mind. She knew what would happen if she told her family about this. \"Good.\" She then looked toward the tenth elder and Evelyn''s sister, who was left out this entire time. She looked at them with a cold glint, \"The same applies to both of you. Do not think to have an 8-Star Martial Lord would be enough to stop us. I am one of his ''subordinates'' before my status as his wife.\" She emphasized the word ''Subordinates'' to them. The purpose was to tell them that she was not alone. There were many others like her as his subordinates. As for their strength, they were completely unknown. They could be stronger than her or weaker than her, but that threat alone was effective. Lena and Miska sweatdropped after hearing her threat. ¡­ In the arena, Alex had been clashing with Eric for a few minutes. Although Alex had been suppressed by Eric this entire time, it was not like he was losing that much. As long as he could wait for a few minutes. The effect of Berserk Pill would end. Although he wanted to finish the battle as soon as possible, he could not do so. After all, he needed to ensure he had enough energy to maintain a Spatial Gate. If he forcefully finished the match as soon as possible, he would not have enough energy to maintain the gate. \"What''s wrong? You are only defending!\" Eric tried to taunt him. Sadly, it never affected Alex, as Alex knew about the duration of the pill. The battle might be a little bit anticlimactic, but Alex never cared about that. He continued to clash with Eric to buy time. Alex had only been using his Silver Sovereign and his Sky Movement. He had spent his energy fighting Vicky, and he chose to fight Eric with such a circumstance. Of course, he could only play it safe. They continued to clash until one moment where Eric suddenly spat blood and fell to his knees. The energy abruptly left his body as Eric could not move from his body anymore. Although he had not died, he had been crippled. He checked his body. After the pill effect wore off, his cultivation slowly decreased to Martial Master, then Foundation rank, until nothing left. \"What happened?\" \"I do not know if I feel it right. But I feel his cultivation suddenly decreased to nothing.\" \"No. You are not wrong. I also feel that way. I can''t see any cultivation that Eric has right now.\" \"What? Did he become a cripple? How?\" Everyone, including the elders, was confused. The third elder checked his body and was shocked by the result. Eric indeed became a cripple as he could not see any trace of cultivation left inside him. \"You¡­ are you alright?\" He tried to ask Eric. When he saw Eric''s sudden transformation, he did not know whether to stop the battle or not. But because the sect master did not order him to stop the match, he let them continue. But he was surprised to see Eric suddenly spat blood and became crippled. Alex pointed his sword to Eric as he did not care about his state. He then looked at the third elder. \"You-!\" The third elder was speechless by Alex''s action. It was clear to see Alex had won. But Alex kept pointing his sword, compelling him to announce it. He gritted his teeth and announced, \"Alexander Sirius Wins!\" Unfortunately, there was no cheer heard in the arena, as all of them were confused about what happened. The third elder remembered when Alex said he would die in a few minutes, and asked him out loud, \"You¡­ do you know what happened to him?\" \"It is his retribution. He swallowed an evil pill, and this is the backlash. He is already lucky enough not to die after swallowing that pill. And that pill''s name is Berserk Pill.\" Alex said casually. \"!!!\" The third elder was alarmed when he heard that. He remembered there was a report about Blood Pill, Berserk Pill, and the Zhou Kingdom. They were ignoring it because it first came from Putri. They knew Putri''s home, the Southern Kingdom, got attacked by the Zhou Kingdom. They suspected that she was planning revenge through them. So, they chose to ignore her. Charya then tried to appeal it to them, but they also decided to turn a blind eye on it. After all, they knew if she could not do it herself, Charya would be glad to help them. They thought she just took advantage of Charya''s personality to convince them. But he never thought he finally witnessed the blood pill. He remembered everything about the report. The report was about the Zhou Kingdom having more than five hundred Martial Lords under their wings because of the effect of Blood Pill. Of course, he knew what kind of evil pills the Blood Pill and the Berserk Pill were from the information. When he thought about that, he could not help but shuddered. Alex looked at Eric coldly. He then checked his system. \"System, how about the mission?\" [Mission: Inner Disciple Tournament (Completed) Description: #1 Reward: 10 Premium Tickets or 1 Special Summon Ticket (UR)] [You have completed it, Host. Which reward will you choose?] \"I want to clarify first. If I choose the Special Summon Ticket, I can immediately summon Anya, right?\" [Yes.] \"Then, I choose the Special Summon Ticket.\" [Processing] [Special Summon Ticket (UR) x1 Acquired] [Now that you received the reward, it is time to go.] \"Yes. I know.\" Alex then appeared in front of Eric and whispered, \"Since we can finish the battle two hours early, I will tell you this. I was the one who killed your entire family. Do you know if burning in an enclosed space, the air would completely burn too? That is the secret. Bye.\" Alex was confused about how to explain something scientific, so he only said that. Well, it was only for the cause and effect. Even though it was only a bait, Alex wanted him to suffer from that information. After all, Eric had been crippled. He then disappeared from the arena. \"Alex!\" He appeared inside Charya''s room, and everyone greeted him. Anna came to him and asked, \"Do you get it?\" Alex nodded. He looked at everyone''s confused expression. It seemed Anna did not explain anything to them. She just brought them here. He looked at them and said, \"I will explain later. But I want all of you to follow me without asking a question.\" They were utterly shocked, but the first one who stepped forward was Putri. She had gone through many life and death situations with Alex, so she knew Alex would not do something bad to them. She had complete trust in him. \"Alright. I will follow your decision, Master.\" \"¡­\" Alex was speechless but also thankful to her. After she said that, the others also snapped from their daze and nodded. Miska and Lena were completely clueless since they did not know Alex that well and thought about rejecting it. However, deep down in their heart, they could not reject him, so they finally nodded their heads. Alex then nodded as he raised his hand to the front. He tried to make a Spatial Gate but to no avail. He frowned as he did not understand why. \"Alex? Are you going to make it?\" Anna asked while furrowing her eyebrows. \"I am trying, but I can''t!\" Alex said. They finally knew there was something wrong when they heard a shout that vibrated the entire sect. \"WHERE IS ALEXANDER SIRIUS?\" 315 Just Do I \"WHERE IS ALEXANDER SIRIUS?\" \"!!!\" That shout immediately startled everyone in Heavenly Sword Sect. Even Charya and the others were surprised to see someone shout Alex''s name. Only Anna and Alex knew what was happening when they heard the shout. \"Not good!\" Alex sweatdropped. He tried as hard as he could to make a Spatial Gate but to no avail. He felt like he could not utilize the Space Element completely. \"Alex?\" Anna looked at him with a worried expression. \"I can''t make it. There is something that prevented me from making it.\" Alex said. \"Gh!\" \"Alex, what happened? Is someone targeting you?\" Charya asked. \"COME OUT ALEXANDER SIRIUS!\" The sect master immediately came out of his room and met the person who shouted Alex''s name. There were around eighty people. \"Who are you? Who dares to trespass my Heavenly Sword Sect?\" The sect master stood in the sky, looking at the trespasser. He suddenly got shocked when he saw them. There were three people who seemed to be the leaders. The green-haired old man, the white-haired middle-aged man, and the other one was a masked man with short blue hair. However, his main concern was their cultivation. He could see those three cultivations were Martial Kings. There were only three other Martial Kings in this continent. But he never knew about these three. He then looked at the rest of the people, and he was startled once again. He never expected there were around 80 7-Star or above Martial Lords in front of him. Even his sect did not have that many Martial Lords. He cursed Alex inwardly. He did not know how Alex offended these people. Especially when he saw two 4-Star Martial Kings. He was only a small 2-Star Martial King, how can he fight with these two Martial Kings. \"I am the sect master of Heavenly Sword Sect, Xiang Bai. May I know why seniors come to this place?\" \"Hmph. I only need a person named Alexander Sirius. Then I will give all of you a quick death.\" The white-haired guy said. \"What?\" The sect master was obviously startled when he heard it. \"What do you mean by quick death, Seniors?\" \"I do not need to explain it to a dead guy like you.\" He snorted. He then looked at the disciples and elders from the sect then shouted, \"Whoever tells me where this ''Alexander Sirius'' is, can live.\" \"What?\" That statement made all people baffled. They had been shocked when they heard their sect master was considered a ''dead guy.'' After all, he was one of the four Martial Kings in the continent. \"I only give you one minute before I massacred the entire sect.\" \"1¡­\" \"Seniors, there must be a misunderstanding. I wonder if our sect made a mistake? We can discuss this.\" The sect master tried to reason this person. \"Your existence alone has been in our way. So we decided to massacre the entire sect.\" He said coldly. When the elders heard that, they could not take it. All elders, except the sixteenth elder who was carrying Intan back to Makmur Family, came out from their room and stood behind the sect master. In Charya''s room, after Charya left, Song Yu came to him and asked, \"Alex. What is happening? Do they want to massacre us? Or are they your personal enemies?\" \"¡­\" Seeing no response from him, she decided to activate her Blackwade Token. If she did this, her little sister would know about it and made a rush to this place. \"I activate my Blackwade Token. My sister will come to this place to help us. I do not know why, but I felt the presence of three Martial Kings outside. Alex, I hope you can explain this.\" Song Yu asked. Alex''s body shook. He never thought of that possibility. He remembered the person that came with Song Yu''s sister. She was a high-level Martial King. She might be able to solve this problem. Alex did not know why he never thought this. It might be because of the pressure since the problem came so suddenly, or Alex did not want to owe them. But he should be able to consider it after all this would be a matter of life and death. Alex gritted his teeth, regretting why he never thought of that. However, it was not the time to regret it. He must solve the business first. He calmed down a little and looked at Song Yu. \"They came from the Zhou Kingdom, and you know about the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill that Putri told you, right?\" Alex explained. Song Yu nodded. \"Because of those two pills, they managed to make Martial Kings.\" \"You mean, all those Martial Kings are from the Zhou Kingdom?\" Song Yu asked again. \"¡­\" Alex looked down a bit before shaking his head. \"No, I don''t think so. They must come from another continent. Blood Pill and Berserk Pill did not originate from this place. Instead, they came from Nilis Continent, so I assume they came from that continent.\" \"What? Do they think they could do everything they want on this continent? Are they not afraid by the retaliation from the Northern Continent?\" Song Yu shouted. Because she came from Northern Continent''s Blackwade clan, she knew how the people from the Northern Continent considered the people in this continent. The Northern Continent and Sacred Continent always had conflicts. But because of their distance with each other, they usually fought in the Heavenly Continent. The opposite of that, the distance between the Northern Continent with the Wilow Continent or Sacred Continent with the Nilis Continent was not that far. So, Northern Continents always considered Wilow Continent as theirs. It was also the same for Sacred Continent. If the people from Nilis Continent wanted to trespass Wilow Continent, they would invite the wrath from the Northern Continent. That was the reason why Song Yu was confused. \"Do not worry. My sister will come to this place as fast as possible. We just need to buy time for them to arri-!\" Before she finished, she heard a loud sound outside. \"Boom!\" They could see a person crashed onto the arena''s ground. When they saw who it was, they were surprised. \"Master!\" It was Charya. Because those people were going to take Alex and massacred the entire sect. With her personality, she was the first person who could take it anymore. They saw Charya got heavily injured by them. There were many wounds on her body as the blood kept coming out from those wounds. Alex and the others immediately came to check her. Because of the room, they could not see those people. However, when Alex saw them, he recognized one of them. It was the old man with green hair. He was the one who tried to capture him after he broke through to Martial Lords. Alex could never forget that face. If the green-haired guy noticed him, he would immediately recognize him. Alex immediately took out his mask and put it on. But before he managed to put it on, there was a sudden shout from his side. \"It is him. He is Alexander Sirius!\" The sudden shout alarmed everyone, including Alex''s group. When they saw the one who shouted, it was Eric Kasmanan. Those Martial Lords immediately looked toward Alex. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He immediately locked eyes with the green-haired old man. \"That''s him.\" Of course, the green-haired old man immediately recognized him as Alex had yet to put his mask because of Eric''s shout. \"So, you are Alexander Sirius!\" The white-haired man looked at him. He then said coldly, \"You have two choices. Submit to us or die!\" He did not care about Alexander, so he did not care whether to talk politely or not. As long he submitted under Heavenly Oath, he did not care anything else. If he chose to die, then he would bury him along with the entire sect. \"You won''t be able to touch him as long as I am here.\" Charya suddenly rose from the ground and appeared in front of Alex with her injured body. Alex was startled to see that. After all, they were facing three Martial Kings. If she fought them because of him, she would likely die. \"Wait!\" But Song Yu suddenly shouted. She then took out a wooden token with ''Blackwade'' written on it. \"I come from the Northern Continent''s Blackwade Clan. He is under our protection. By coming to this continent from Nilis Continent, you have trespassed the continent. If you go back now, I will not report you coming to this continent.\" Song Yu was trying to buy time for her sister, and Sana came to this place. Alex also thought it was a good move. If the Martial Kings could be taken care of, Alex could summon all of his spirits along with their True Spirit Bodies. He could try to level them up as much as possible with the Gacha Tickets in his possession. Leoz and Anna were the strongest. But even with their 5-Star Martial Lords cultivation as well as their True Spirit Bodies, they could not fight a Martial King. Unfortunately, he and Song Yu made a big miscalculation. They thought those people would hesitate after hearing her identity. It might be able to shock everyone from Heavenly Sword Sect as Song Yu''s identity was only known by Charya and Alex. Sadly, her statement only triggered the people from Brynhildr Kingdom. The white-haired man glared at Song Yu and Alex, \"Change of plan. Grasp those two and kill anyone else. We can torture him to make him submit, and that Blackwade Clan girl will be useful to us. \"I heard the Blackwade Clan is a well-known merchant family. Whatever her position, we will grasp her first and negotiate.\" Eighty Martial Lords immediately released their pressure. It came together and made a massive and overbearing pressure. The pressure was so hard for ordinary disciples to bear. But suddenly, the pressure alleviated a little. The sect master and the other elders released their pressure. Although they were less than twenty people, at least they could decrease the pressure that the disciples got for the time being. \"People of Heavenly Sword Sect, hear me out. This is not a problem for one person. But this is the problem of our sect that could lead us to be destroyed. All Outer and Inner Disciples, flee toward the south. All elders and Inner Disciples, please follow this old man to give the younger generation a chance. \"No matter what, this sect had made us like this. I am not ordering you to fight, but I am asking you if you feel it is worth it. Please follow this old man to fight for the sect, because this old man has decided to live and die with the sect.\" The sect master said with his crude words. But everyone could tell he was genuine. He was planning to fight to the last breath to protect this sect. The Inner disciple and Outer disciple started running away in panic. \"The sect has given me this life, so my life and death are with the sect.\" The first elder was the first one to come up. \"I will too.\" \"Long Live Heavenly Sword Sect.\" The other elders, along with Core Disciples, started to shout. They looked angrily toward them. \"Do you think you can run from us!\" The people from Brynhildr Kingdom shouted. \"Alex, you should also run from this place.\" Charya looked at him. Even though she had been heavily injured, she was trying to fight again. \"You have talent. In the future, you will surely be stronger than any of them. At that time, please avenge us.\" Before Charya came toward the sect master and other elders, Alex grabbed her. He gritted his teeth. [Host, it seems you have decided.] \"Yes. Like hell, I will let tragedy happen once again when I can solve it. Even if the spirits can''t, there is still one person who can solve this.\" Alex said while taking out a token from his space ring. He activated the token and said with a disappointed tone, \"I never thought I would use this fast.\" 316 OP Guy Showed Up \"I never thought I would use Master''s token this fast.\" Alex said in a disappointed tone. He was disappointed to himself as it was only two years after he came to the upper world. But Alex could not do anything except asking for help. His Space Element had been sealed and even if he managed to escape, the others would die. He only cared about Charya, Song Yu, and the others. He never cared about other people even though they had the same sect. After all, Alex was not a hero or a good person. He was a careful person. Alex laughed loudly. \"Hahahaha!\" His laugh reverberated on everyone''s ears. They looked at him in confusion. \"What is funny?\" The white haired man looked at him like he was looking a fool. He thought, ''Did this situation make him an idiot?'' \"You are the one who forced me to use it. So¡­ I will leave it to you, Master.\" Alex activated the token that Maxwell gave him. Suddenly a person came out of the token. It was not a token but it was a will. The man looked like he was in his early thirties. With red long hair fluttering, and a kind of cosplay like costume on earth that made his appearance look gallant. \"Hmm¡­\" When Maxwell suddenly appeared, he was still clueless as to what happened. He looked around and saw a few Martial Kings along with many Martial Lords were going to fight. He then looked at Alex and asked, \"What is this about, Alex?\" Everyone was surprised to see the sudden appearance of Maxwell. They did not know anything about this person. But the sect master as well as the elders heard what he said. They asked inwardly, ''Master?'' The person looked so young. But they never thought Alex would call him ''Master''. Even Song Yu tried to see through Maxwell but to no avail. Alex approached him and said, \"Disciple is useless. I can only ask for help from Master.\" \"Hmm?\" Maxwell looked at him in confusion. Then he glanced toward the situation and realized why he said that. \"I see, three Martial Kings and many Martial Lords.\" \"But still. To think you have reached 8-Star Martial Grandmaster in only two years. You are much faster than me.\" Maxwell said. But before Alex could answer, there was suddenly a laugh that filled the air, \"Hahahaha! I thought you wanted to call someone. To think you only call a person''s will. This is so laughable.\" \"¡­\" Maxwell only looked at him without any expression. He then turned to Alex, \"Are they really your enemies?\" \"Yes.\" Alex said, ashamed. \"Anyway. Do you remember about the requirement as an Array Master?\" Alex nodded. \"Since you have been practicing about that. I will show you something interesting.\" Maxwell said casually as he turned to the people from Zhou Kingdom and Brynhildr Kingdom. \"Haha, show something interesting? What kind of interesting thing can you show us?\" The white haired guy was laughing. He did not sense anything from the will. He never saw something like this in his entire life so he was convinced that Maxwell did not have power to oppose them. Or at least, his experience as a Martial King convinced him like that. He had become a Martial King for too long so he started looking down on people. Maxwell snapped his finger before suddenly two Arrays appeared. One of them appeared a bit far from them without anyone around it. And the others appeared around the people from the Zhou Kingdom. \"!!!\" They were startled to see an Array appear around them. Unfortunately, before they managed to react, they suddenly got teleported to the second array. The second array immediately erected a transparent sphere and locked them inside. \"What!\" \"Array Master?\" \"Why did we suddenly get enveloped by an Array? Was not an Array Master could only make an Array around them if it was not made by monster''s blood?\" Many started to panic. \"Attack!\" \"Destroy the barrier!\" \"Boom Boom Boom!\" They started attacking the barrier but to no avail. Maxwell snorted, \"Hmph. You are questioning me? What can I do? I can''t do anything except this. I even hold back against you guys by only making a rank 7 Array. If my main body here, I will make a special array to even lock your soul inside for eternity.\" When they heard that, they gasped. Even the people from Heavenly Sword Sect sucked a cold breath. A rank 7 Array was equal to a Martial Monarch. Alex''s identity was very mysterious. They remembered when the sect master told them about Alex''s protector. He said Alex''s protector could destroy the entire Heavenly Sword Sect easily. They could not believe it until they saw this. Even Song Yu got shocked by this. She thought her identity alone was already crazy. It turned out Alex''s identity was far bigger. Maxwell could easily use rank 7 Array and it was not even his main body. She thought, ''What if his real body came to this place?'' She could not help but gasped, even her clan might not be able to fight with such a being. \"You bastard, let us go!\" \"Do not you know who I am? I am-!\" The people inside the sphere started shouting but because it was too loud. Maxwell made a Sound Insulation Array. \"Alright. The nuisance has gone for the time being.\" Maxwell said casually like dealing with them was not even a problem. He then looked at Alex, \"Do you see what I just did?\" Alex paused for a bit before nodding his head. As soon as Maxwell said he wanted to show him something interesting. Alex did not know why but felt he should use his Spirit Eyes. When he activated his Spirit Eyes, he could see Maxwell used his Space Element. He could see many blocks of condensed space in the spot of the two arrays. It then suddenly dyed with Symbols. And he was shocked to the core when he saw what Maxwell did next. He assembled the space block that contained symbols within it together like playing a puzzle (Jigsaw Puzzle). When he finished assembling them, he then transported the array into the real world and activated it. From others'' perspectives, they could only see there was an Array that suddenly appeared around them. But for Alex, he could see how it was possible. Two Space Element Martial Arts suddenly came to his mind. Spatial Door and Space Plate. He pictured making symbols on the Space Plate and transported them to the real world with his Spatial Door. \"Back then, I had two friends on this continent. I gave them my foundation Space Element Martial Arts: Spatial Door and Space Plate. I forgot to tell you about this back then. My friend''s name was Skewes and Mirtha. I asked them to pass the Martial Arts to my disciple if he came.\" \"!!!\" Alex''s body shook. Although he did not know who Mithra was, he could certainly remember the name of ''Skewes''. After all, from them he got the Spatial Door. And he had learned both Arts. Alex said, \"Master, I have learned both of them.\" \"What?\" This time, it was Maxwell''s turn to be surprised. \"I learned the Space Plate from this sect''s Martial Arts Pavilion. And I found the Spatial Door in a corpse from Skewes Family. But Skewes Family¡­ had long been exterminated.\" Maxwell opened his mouth in surprise. He closed his eyes for a moment before saying, \"Well, I could not be more surprised to hear that. Well, both of them are weird people so I do not need to worry about them too much.\" \"Alright. Since you are an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, I hope you are not slacking on your Alchemy and Array, right?\" \"Yes. But Master, are you sure we can talk about this in here?\" Alex said while glancing at the others. He was worried if the others heard about this. \"Let them hear. I can solve it later.\" \"Master, are you going to¡­\" Alex did not complete his sentence. But everyone was able to understand what he was going to say. They gulped down. \"Nah, do you think I am a person like that? Don''t worry, there won''t be any problem with them.\" He said casually. And suddenly everyone let out a breath of relief. Alex hesitated a bit before taking out two badges from his Space Ring. He showed them to Maxwell, \"Yes, I have not been slacking.\" \"Oh¡­ Rank 4 Alchemist and Rank 4 Array Master. You have certainly surpassed my expectation.\" Maxwell was astonished to see both badges. Alex was different from him. Although Alex was also a reincarnated person, he did not have his previous memory. Unlike him who had his previous memory, Alex would not understand anything about Alchemy and Array since he did not teach him that much. To think Alex had achieved rank 4 for both of them, it certainly surprised him. But, others'' reactions were the opposite of him. They became a bit crazy inside their mind. They knew about Alex''s identity as a rank 4 Alchemist. However, it turned out Alex was also a rank 4 Array Master. If the others knew about it, they might make a war with them just for Alex. They never knew there was such a great person inside their sect this entire time. Even Song Yu who came from the Northern Continent got shocked by this. She knew Alex was an Alchemist, but she did not know anything about Alex being an Array Master. And both of them were rank 4 to boot. Only Putri who was a bit calmer than the others. After all, she was the only one who knew about his identity as an Array Master. \"Well, it seems I don''t need to worry about that. Your goal for the time being is to replicate what I did earlier.\" \"Yes.\" Alex suddenly recalled a matter, he asked, \"Master, how about Alicia and Firia?\" \"Oh, she has not come yet. But do not worry. After what you did, I am sure they would surely be safe.\" \"I see.\" Alex sighed. He missed them. Seeing him like that, Maxwell continued, \"You should worry about yourself. I am sure they will catch up with you in a few years.\" \"Yes, I understand.\" \"Anyway, what should I do with those people?\" Maxwell looked at the people who were inside his barrier. He then looked at the people from Heavenly Sword Sect. \"Hmm, Mirtha was staying here in the past, I guess¡­ Considering the Martial Art that I entrusted to her was in this place. It is a bit of a shame about Skewes family, but I think I will just do something for this sect a little. \"After all, this sect has taken care of my Disciple a little bit. Hmm, what should I do¡­ Well, I will just use those people''s blood.\" Maxwell said while glancing at the people inside the barrier. He snapped his finger again and an Array appeared. It was a big green Array. Suddenly many small swords came out of the array and flew toward his barrier. The people inside started panicking. They had been trying to break the barrier but to no avail. When they saw numerous swords flew toward them, they got scared out of their lives. But before the swords reached the barrier, a big portal appeared in front of them and every sword flew inside the portal. All of them were shocked as they thought there was another person who helped them. Only Alex could see, it was also Maxwell who made the portal. When the people inside the barrier started rejoicing, they did not realize a big portal appeared behind them. The swords then came out of the portal and tore them to shred. The people inside the barrier were screaming but because of the Sound Insulation Array, the people outside could not hear a single thing. But just watching them surely felt painful. He shrugged his shoulder and turned to Alex, he said, \"Yeah, you can also use your power that way. It will depend how imaginative you are when using your power. So¡­ good luck.\" 317 Advice \"So good luck,\" Maxwell said casually as he looked at his sphere that was full of dead bodies. He dried the blood and transported them to him. \"Well. With this much blood, I should be able to make a rank 5 barrier type array. Well, with their combined blood, I should be able to push it to the limit and make a rank 6 barrier type array.\" Maxwell then dispersed the blood toward four directions and shaped them nicely. Of course, they did not know what kind of symbols he made, but by watching him alone, it was enough to mesmerize them. Alex also watched him, but it seemed that he was in the right direction as the way Maxwell made the array was the same as how he made it. Except, he was not strong enough to perform like this. After finishing the array in a few seconds, Maxwell then looked toward the people from Heavenly Sword Sect. His eyes presented a dangerous glint. \"Master?\" Alex looked at Maxwell, a bit worried. He did not know what Maxwell wanted to do. But before Maxwell did anything, he suddenly turned his head to his left. \"Two, why don''t you show yourself to us?\" Maxwell said casually. However, they did not show themselves even though Maxwell already sensed them. Seeing there was no reaction, Maxwell then threatened them, \"If you do not come out now, then do not blame me for forcing you.\" Two people then appeared. They were a familiar figure to Alex and Song Yu but not to anyone else. \"Senior, we-!\" The blonde hair beauty wanted to explain, but Maxwell cut her in with a cold tone, \"Hmm... A Martial Lord and a Peak Martial King. I do not remember there would be a peak Martial King on this continent. So, where do you come from?\" But Song Yu suddenly appeared in front of them as her forehead had been sweating when she saw Song Jia and Sana. \"Senior, These two are my younger sister and her bodyguard. I am asking them to help us to deal with the situation. I never thought Senior would be the one who dealt with them.\" \"And, are you disappointed now since I have solved the problem?\" \"No, This junior does not dare.\" Song Yu said. \"But, if I remember, unless there is a continental war, people from other continents should not come to this continent. So, where do you come from? Northern Continent? Or¡­ Nilis Continent?\" He asked with a trace of killing intent. \"We are from the Northern Continent¡­ Northern Continent''s Blackwade clan. My name is Song Yu, and because of several incidents, I could only flee to this continent for the time being.\" \"Blackwade Clan¡­\" Maxwell murmured. He felt like he had heard this name from somewhere. \"!!!\" He suddenly remembered. When he remembered, he laughed loudly. \"Hahaha¡­ Blackwade Clan¡­ There is certainly a clan like that in the Heavenly Continent, not the Northern Continent. Are you lying to me, girl?\" Maxwell narrowed his eyes. Even Alex was surprised by this. He knew if he wanted to ascend, he would need to come to Heavenly Continent first. It turned out Song Yu''s background was bigger than he thought. \"We¡­\" Song Yu was hesitant about explaining her family. \"You do not need to tell me. But I will tell you something.\" He glanced at Song Yu and Song Jia. \"If you are truly from the Blackwade clan, then you might want to heed my advice. Whatever your family condition or what you need to sacrifice, make sure you follow my disciple to the end even if it means the extermination of your family.\" Song Yu, Song Jia, and Sana dropped their jaws. They obviously could not understand what kind of advice was that. Especially Song Yu, since she was the one who knew Alex the most out of them, she knew Alex was indeed a genius. But even her, might not get that kind of treatment. In fact, her family might choose to sacrifice her rather than letting the family get destroyed. She could not understand the reason why he said that. \"I am not taking advantage of my position as this is only my advice. But when the truth comes to light, you will not regret following this advice.\" Maxwell said mysteriously. \"Truth?\" Song Yu and Song Jia looked at each other, trying to recall if there were any clues for that. But nothing came to their mind. Maxwell then made another array on his hand. And he suddenly frowned, \"Hmm¡­ why can I sense many Martial Kings in this continent?\" Anna immediately sent a thought transmission to him. \"They are searching for Alex. You need to send them back.\" Maxwell was startled when he heard this voice. He looked at a woman figure behind Alex. As a god for more than a thousand years, he knew her existence. And he absolutely knew her relationship with Alex. He only nodded to her. Although he did not know anything about why they were searching for Alex, he thought he should send them back. But before that¡­ Maxwell finally looked at the people from Heavenly Sword Sect. \"Hmm¡­ what should I do about this.\" The people from Heavenly Sword Sect gulped down. They had seen what kind of fate if they opposed him. They never thought Alex had a master like this. After dealing with many things, it was their turn to be judged. Maxwell then looked at the Martial King from Heavenly Sword Sect. \"Since you are the only Martial King, you should be the sect master, right?\" \"Yes. This junior is Xiang Bai.\" \"Hmm¡­ I will pick one more then.\" Maxwell then scanned a few more people and pointed his finger toward an old man whose power was only second to the sect master. \"You.\" It was the first elder. He was shocked to get selected as he did not know what Maxwell would do to them. He flew closer to him and said, \"This junior is the first elder from Heavenly Sword Sect, Alejandro. May I know what Senior want this junior to do?\" Maxwell did not answer him. Instead, he looked at a woman. She was the only one who got injured in this situation as Alex had summoned him before any more casualties. When Maxwell looked at her, Alex immediately came to him. \"Master, I have been in her care ever since I joined this sect.\" When Maxwell heard that, he nodded. He changed his intention to her. He pointed his finger on her, and there seemed to be a stream of light that flew toward her. It came inside her head. Charya suddenly closed her eyes and let out a weak groan. \"Master?\" Alex was confused. Maxwell only said, \"Don''t worry.\" And after a minute, Charya opened her eyes and bowed to him. \"Thank you very much, Senior.\" \"Since you have taken care of my disciple this whole time, I also need to reward you,\" Maxwell said. \"Alright. Since there is no other problem, it is time to seal all of your memory about this incident.\" Everyone was startled when they heard that. \"Master¡­\" Alex called him. He paused a little before saying, \"There is another thing I need to do first.\" \"Oh?\" Maxwell was astonished. \"Go on.\" Alex nodded his head. He took out a spear from his inventory and clenched it tightly. No one knew why Alex suddenly took out a spear. However, when they saw Alex made a throwing motion, they could clearly see which direction he wanted to throw his spear. \"Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing!\" Alex threw his spear. His target was obvious. The only crippled in the arena, Eric Kasmanan. Alex thought about using this situation to kill him and end this problem as soon as possible. After all, Eric might do something again to him, like before, where he alarmed the enemy to show his position. \"Bast-!\" Eric wanted to curse him, but before he managed to do so. The spear had pierced through his head and killed him. \"Is there any problem with that?\" Maxwell asked the people with a cold tone. Of course, no one dared to complain. After all, they knew how powerful Maxwell was, and they knew why Alex wanted to kill him. Maxwell then clapped his hand once before many arrays appeared together at once. They appeared in front of everyone''s head. When the array was activated, the people suddenly had a blank look. Maxwell just sealed their memory with his array. There were only a few people that did not get their memory sealed. They were the sect master, the first elder, Charya, Song Yu, and Song Jia, as well as Sana. Even Putri and Evelyn did not escape from this. Of course, Alex and Anna kept their memory. If not, Maxwell would get beaten by a certain person. \"For those whose memory is not sealed, I want all of you to make a Heavenly Oath to never tell anything about me and my disciple''s identity,\" Maxwell said. When Charya and the others heard that, they were startled. They were wondering why he wanted them to make a Heavenly Oath for that. Maxwell seemed to want to conceal Alex''s background. \"Your teacher had told you the reason why he would not do anything to solve your problem, right?\" Maxwell glanced at Alex. \"Yes.\" Alex nodded. \"I agreed with him. Then, I will ask you this. Which one do you think is stronger, a 5-Star Martial Saint, or a peak Martial Saint?\" Maxwell asked. When Charya and the others heard that, they were confused. After all, the answer was obviously the peak Martial Saint. There was no point in asking that question. However, surprisingly Alex did not answer. He was pondering the question again and again. He felt there was another meaning behind this question. \"Can''t answer?\" Maxwell asked with a smile. Alex nodded, ashamed. The others were surprised to see Alex could not answer a simple question. \"Well¡­ it is absolutely normal if you can''t answer. Even if someone asks me that question, I would not be able to answer.\" Alex looked at him in surprise. \"Then, there is no answer?\" \"Who is stronger? Who is weaker?¡­\" Maxwell paused a little bit then said with a cold tone, \"we will not know the answer until one of their heads goes flying.\" They sucked a cold breath when they heard that. They did not know why, but they got goosebumps. \"What I want to tell you is the same as your teacher. You should challenge the whole world and become the strongest. I rather have you become a 5-Star Martial Saint but an elite amongst the elite than having you a peak Martial Saint but always sheltered by your background or my identity.\" Alex had the urge to say something, but the word stuck on his throat. He could only say, \"Yes, Master.\" \"Do you have rank 5¡­ No, rank 4 weapons should be enough. I need two.\" Alex nodded and took out two rank 4 swords from his space ring. After Alex handed him the sword, Maxwell immediately made an Array in both swords. \"Each sword is the key to activate the barrier array. The array is a sphere with five miles radius. No one could break it unless a peak Martial Emperor or a Martial Monarch came to this place and destroyed the barrier personally.\" He waved his hand, and the sword flew to Xiang Bai''s hand. \"Many thanks to Senior. We can''t thank you enough for what you give to us.\" The sect master then said, \"With Heaven and Earth as the witness, I won''t tell another soul about Alexander Sirius''s identity and what happened in this place. If I break this promise, let Heaven kill me and destroy my soul.\" It was the Heavenly Oath. When the others heard that, they also started making the Heavenly Oath as they forgot to do it because of the talk. Maxwell then gave the other sword to Alex. \"This is also the key but stronger than the other key. So, you can deactivate the array even if the other key chooses to activate the array.\" He said in a meaningful way. He indirectly said he did not trust them as they might use the array he made to attack his disciple. So, he gave the ''master key'' to Alex. He then glanced coldly to the others, \"Is there any problem with my arrangement?\" 318 Bye \"Is there any problem with my arrangement?\" With that cold glance of him, it immediately struck fear deep into their bones. Of course, no one dared to voice up their opinion, whether it was the sect master or the people from Blackwade Clan. Of course, no one from these six people had a thought like that to Alex. But no one would know the future. They might have a change of heart in the future or something, so it was only a precaution from Maxwell. But different from the sect master, the first elder, or Charya. Song Yu and Song Jia were thinking about Maxwell''s advice. They were wondering why he said they would need to protect Alex even if it meant the extermination of their family. Maxwell said in a roundabout way where he said, ''When the truth comes to light, they will not regret it.'' They could not understand anything. Only Song Yu knew about Alex''s golden lightning tribulation, and she thought there must be a relation to that. She decided to protect Alex as much as she could afford for the time being. Of course, it would not be related to her family. After making the key to activate the array, Maxwell came to Alex and made a Sound Insulation Array. He could see that this Blackwade clan was also searching for Alex. And the reason was apparent. Because of a certain goddess that often came to his place, asking about Alicia''s cure. She often bragged everything she saw (From the system) to him. Of course, when Alex endured his golden lightning tribulation, they were surprised. There was a time where she suddenly came in a bad mood. If not because of his wife, he might not be able to escape unscathed. He found out later that Alex was almost grasped by a Martial King because of his golden lightning tribulation. Of course, he did not know that the ''Martial King'' in her mouth was the green-haired old man in the crowd that he had just killed. If he knew it was him, he might need to do ''something'' to him before killing him. He made a Sound Insulation Array to talk with Alex alone this time. After all, this was the only matter he thought he needed to conceal. \"About your golden lightning tribulation¡­ I want to make a special realm for you so you can undergo your lightning tribulation at ease. Unfortunately, I am only a Will. And I cannot make it since I am not in my main body, and there are no ingredients to make a realm. \"So, I have another solution for that. A few thousand years ago, when I roamed in this continent, I made a special realm that could hide your lightning tribulation. No one would be able to feel or see what inside. However, that realm could only handle your tribulation once. \"You can undergo your Martial Lord lightning tribulation there, and the realm would shatter after you finished.\" Alex was surprised. He never expected that Maxwell also made a special realm. He was wondering what kind of realm he made. The only special realm he had seen was Zwaka''s place. But there was a question that was bugging him. \"Master, is it only a Space Element Array Master that could make a special realm?\" Maxwell was astonished to hear that question. He smiled a bit and nodded. \"I am surprised you can notice that. That''s right. Only a Space Element Array Master could make a special realm. In the future, I am sure you can make it too. Of course, you need to deepen your understanding of Space Element. \"A special realm is similar to a barrier type array. But unlike a barrier type array, you need to control the flow of life.\" \"Flow of life?\" \"Yeah. You need to separate between outside and inside but yet, you also need to connect them. I do not know if you can feel it, but when you used a barrier type array, do you feel that you got separated from the world? No flow of energy or whatsoever?\" Alex was astonished as his eyes opened wide. He could certainly remember when he went around inside his Jadeite Mirror Array, he was indeed trapped inside the barrier. In fact, after he erected the barrier, he could see with his Spirit Eyes that no Spiritual Energy from outside came inside the barrier. \"I think I have felt it before. When I made the Jadeite Mirror Array, the Spiritual Energy from outside did not come inside the barrier.\" \"That''s right. A barrier-type array completely isolated between inside and outside. A special realm also isolated between inside and outside. But the flow of life, such as Spiritual Energy, air, and the others that could sustain life, would be able to flow to the outside or the inside. \"Of course, if your attainment in Space Element was high, you could choose to block one of the elements like Spiritual Energy from flowing to inside or outside. My special realm was able to prevent everyone from seeing what was inside the realm. However, the Spiritual Energy was still flowing like normal. \"So, it would be perfect if you chose to breakthrough there since you would be completely hidden,\" Maxwell said. \"Where is that realm, Master?\" Alex asked. \"In the south, I made the realm in the south. It was in the forest, and the forest name is¡­ if the name is still the same, then the name of that forest is Nemu Forest.\" Alex was shocked by him again and again. There were just too many coincidences. When he said that, a picture came to his mind. It was a special place that held a massive dark aura. But he was wondering if his master made such a dark aura. \"Master. I crossed a special place inside Nemu Forest. But that place was full of undead and massive dark energy. Is it your place?\" \"Undead? Dark Energy? No, my realm should be fine, and I think I conceal it pretty well. It might not be my realm. You can check it when you come around that place and activate my token. It should give you a reaction if it is my realm.\" \"Understood.\" Alex nodded. \"Do you want to ask anything more? This might be the last time we would meet before you become a god.\" Alex pondered a little and asked, \"Then, how can I make a special realm?\" \"Hmm¡­ First, you need to be a Space Element Array Master. Second, the array is a rank 6 barrier type Array. It is called Ruby Phantasm, but for us Space Element Array Masters, who usually used this array as the foundation of our special realm, we often called it¡­ Extended World.\" \"Rank 6¡­\" Alex was surprised to hear that. He never expected the requirement would be that high. As a careful person, he thought he could use Maxwell''s realm to advance to the Martial Lord. And when he wanted to advance to Martial King, he could build the special realm himself. Unfortunately, he would not be able to make a rank 6 Array at that time.\" \"I know what you are thinking. You might be worried about your Martial King''s tribulation as I am sure you won''t have any problem in your Martial Emperor''s tribulation since you should be able to make a special realm for yourself. \"Well, this is my advice to you. Since those people from the Nilis Continent have invaded this continent. Why do not you head over there and make a ruckus with your tribulation? Then, you can go back to this continent then continue your journey to the Northern Continent.\" Maxwell said with a sly grin. Alex was dumbfounded. He never thought his master would suggest something like that. Alex thought about the possibility of that. He might not be able to teleport back to Wilow Continent from Nilis Continent. But if the golden lightning tribulation appeared again and forced him to sit down for a while. With Maxwell''s way of building the array, he could hold it for a second and make a teleportation array. The array would teleport him away from that spot. Then he could journey back to the Wilow Continent. His tribulation would bring a big ruckus in that continent. Just like the Northern Continent, the Sacred Continent would immediately search around the Nilis Continent. They would not let such a person go to Wilow Continent. So, the chance of him being found out that he came from the Wilow Continent would be low. The people from Nilis Continent seemed only from one influence. That meant, as long as he killed the one that knew about his information in that influence. He would not be found out. With that, he could make the people in Sacred Continent a bit busy. Of course, what he wanted was the people from Devil Blood Sect to be busy since he had promised Zwaka to exterminate them. If they became busy, he could just leisurely gain strength in the Northern Continent. Maxwell did not know about this, though. He only wanted to make a ruckus since Nilis Continent came to this continent. If they found out it was Alex, then there would be a continental war between Wilow Continent and Nilis Continent, or between the Northern Continent with Sacred Continent. If that happened, Alex might be forced to join. He would then mature, and the need for power would rise inside him. He then would try to gain strength as fast as possible. He never cared about the fate of the Heavenly Sword Sect or Blackwade Clan. Alex nodded his head. \"Yeah. I can do that.\" \"Sure. Is that all you wanted to ask?\" Alex pondered a bit and nodded his head. Maxwell nodded his head and removed the Sound Insulation Array. The people who got their memories sealed were still in a daze as Maxwell had locked their consciousness for a while. He looked at Song Yu and Song Jia. \"People of the Blackwade clan should go back to your own continent.\" Without giving a chance for Song Yu and Song Jia to talk, he then clapped his hands. \"Bam!\" A big array appeared in front of them. Then it was followed by many small arrays around the big array. Maxwell said coldly. \"People that were not from Wilow Continent should not be here. So, go back and don''t come back!\" Of course, the only ones who could hear this were the people he targeted. So, no people from the Zhou Kingdom or the Southern Kingdom or any other influences on this continent would hear it. \"Haiz, I need to use my divine Intent to make this array. Really troublesome.\" Then he clapped his hands once again. After he clapped his hands, the array activated, and many arrays started to appear in a few corners of the Wilow Continent. These people were the ones who came from the Northern Continent to search for Alex. They were surprised by the sudden appearance of an array beside them. And before they knew it, they had come back to the Northern Continent. He didn''t teleport Song Yu, Song Jia, and Sana back since he let them a little bit more time to say goodbye. Then his figure started to disappear. However, before he disappeared, he left a message¡­ or a lie in front of everyone. It was the last thing he could do to protect Alex for a while. \"It is time for me to go back. I have sent all the people from other continents back to their continent. It is good to see you again, and I will surely look forward to where you can arrive in the ''Heavenly Continent.'' \"I am telling you, do not rely on me. But if there was really such a matter again, make sure to call me. After all, my disciple is not good to bully.\" He said in a cold tone as he disappeared. Everyone gulped down when they heard that as they could certainly understand. If they tried to kill Alex and Alex summoned him again, they would only die in front of his majestic master. Alex bowed his head and said, \"Thank you, Master.\" 319 Anya \"Thank you, Master.\" Alex bowed his head to the disappearing Maxwell. Maxwell only smiled as he disappeared. Alex took a deep breath before he came to the sect master. \"Sect Master, I apologize for making this ruckus as those people were searching for me.\" \"Ahaha, no big deal, no big deal. You do not need to worry about it.\" Of course, the sect master immediately assured him. After all, he had gotten so many things from Maxwell, especially that Array, since he could activate it in time needed. \"Then, I will go back first,\" Alex said. \"Sure sure. Let me settle the rest for you.\" The sect master tried to make the warmest smile he could make. Charya and Song Yu also came to him as they were planning to go back to the ninth peak together. Charya took Evelyn and Putri with her while Song Yu took Song Jia and Sana. Looking at Alex''s disappearing back, the sect master then looked at the first elder. He said, \"Southern Kingdom¡­ Tell the Southern Kingdom, if they wanted to do something funny to Alexander Sirius, it would mean a war against us.\" The first elder also understood why he said that. He nodded deeply and said, \"I will tell someone to- No, I will be the one who goes there and warn them.\" The sect master nodded. \"I am counting on you.\" A minute later, all of them snapped from their daze. They were completely clueless as to what happened. The sect master tried his best to quell the unrest without telling them anything. Even Putri and Evelyn did not know what happened. They only remembered that Alex won the tournament, and they did not remember anything past that. Before they knew it, Putri and Evelyn were already carried by Charya to their home. Before he came back, he looked at Anna, who followed him this whole time, and said, \"Go back first. I need to tell Putri something.\" \"Yes.\" Anna nodded. Alex then came to Charya. \"Do you need anything?\" Charya asked. Although she was injured, it was only a physical injury and will heal by tomorrow. Her internal injury had been healed by Maxwell, and she also got something more from him. Evelyn and Putri also looked at him, confused. Charya had not explained a single thing to them or at least settled their emotion. Alex nodded to Charya before looking at Putri. \"Come to my place tomorrow. We will see whether the curse can be cured. After that, we will immediately start the training.\" Putri wanted to say something, but the word stuck on her throat. She could only nod her head. \"Yes.\" Alex nodded to her. \"Then, Elder Charya, I need to go back.\" \"Sure.\" Charya nodded. At the same time, Song Yu and Song Jia were also talking about Alex''s matter. They were debating what they would do to Alex. Because the Sound Insulation Array, even Song Yu, was not able to hear their conversation, especially when Maxwell told him that he could not protect him again. Song Jia and Sana decided to go around the continent a little bit to see whether the other influences got teleported back to the continent. If they were teleported back, they would also come back to the Northern Continent per Maxwell''s request. After all, Maxwell''s word alone was so heavy in their mind. If they stayed more than this, they might incite his wrath. There was another reason why they decided to do this. It was because Maxwell was confused about why they came from the Northern Continent, not from Heavenly Continent. They decided to go back to ask their family about that as well as the matter concerning Alex''s VIP card, which had two ''V'' on his card. Song Yu was pondering if she should go back to the Northern Continent or not. She did not know whether Alex would need her help again after this, such as selling his pills or whatever. After all, in the sect, she was the one who knew him the most. After knowing about Alex''s identity as Rank 4 Alchemist as well as Rank 4 Array Master. Song Yu knew everything about him other than his Pure Fire. She even knew about his golden lightning tribulation. Even though Alex had never affirmed it, with her probing alone, she knew it was Alex. She decided to stay a little bit to see if Alex had any need of her help. If Alex did not help her in selling pills again, she would go back after she said goodbye to Charya. She would cultivate like crazy if she wanted to help him later. She did not know why Maxwell said they would not regret following him. But she felt there was another meaning in his words. She could not shake the feeling that Alex would never make her regret by helping him. ¡­ When Alex arrived at his house, Anna had been waiting for him. \"Alex, are you going to summon my sister?\" \"Yeah.\" Alex nodded his head. \"Then, I want to tell you something before you summoned her.\" He looked at Anna, confused. \"What is it?\" \"You must be careful. And I think you need to level her up a little bit before you summon her.\" \"Careful?\" Alex did not know why she said that. But when he heard about the level up, he asked, \"Is that possible?\" After all, he never leveled his spirit up first before he summoned them. So, he did not know if he could do that. But this time, it was not Anna who answered his question. Instead, the System was the one who answered his question. [Yes, Host. You can. And do not ask me why I never tell you about this. It is simply because you never ask me.] \"¡­\" The system utterly made him speechless with its ''Like a boss'' response. Alex only sighed. \"Alright. How can I use the special summon ticket?\" [You just need to take it out of the system and order it. If you want to choose Anya, you only need to say, ''Change. Anya.'' The card will immediately turn to Anya''s card.] Alex then took out the special summon card. It was the same card as Anna and the others. But instead of a picture of them, it was only a big question mark on the card. \"Change. Anya.\" \"Poof!\" The question mark shone. It then turned into a picture of a pretty woman with golden hair like Alex. There was a cross in her eyes, but that only made her more unique and complimented her golden hair. Her body line was so seductive that even more seductive than Anna''s. But Alex did not know why, after Anna warned him to be more careful, he suddenly felt a chill. \"System, how about my tickets?\" [Gacha Ticket x870 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x0] \"Use every Gacha Ticket I have. And After that, use every Summoning Ticket I get from those tickets.\" [Processing] [Milfon Spear (R) x1 Acquired] [Water Bottle (C) x10 Acquired] [Silk Grass (C) x1 Acquired] ¡­ [Fire Fruit Seed (UC) x1 Acquired] He got around the eighty three Summoning Coin from those Gacha Tickets, and the system immediately used all of them. [Slimy (C) x1 Acquired] [EXP Card (UC) x1 Acquired] ¡­ ¡­ [Blue Bull (UC) x1 Acquired] Alex got around eleven EXP cards this time. \"Use all EXP cards on Anya.\" [Anya (Light) Level: 25/80 (5-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5000/160000] Alex then checked the status of his spirits. [Anna (Dark) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 211065/260000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 224165/260000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 7000/230000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 34/80 (4-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 25736/250000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 214556/220000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 29/80 (9-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 157684/200000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 124321/210000] It seemed Nelson and Fabio leveled up once. Because Anna''s and Leoz''s levels were too high, they did not get that much EXP compared to others. But they should be able to reach the 6-Star Martial Lord stage before going to Nemu Forest again to search for Maxwell''s realm. He hoped Vera and Jeanne would be able to reach Martial Lord too. Of course, Anya was the same. He was ready to summon her as he looked at her card deeply. With her as the addition, he only needed to summon another two to complete all ten UR spirits. \"Summon.\" The usual rainbow gate appeared once again, and the door started opening slowly. But when the door was opened completely, no sign of spirit inside the gate. A shadow appeared within the gate. However, unlike the usual spirit that came out slowly, this spirit was running. \"Aaalllleeeexxxx!\" The shadow turned to be the golden-haired beauty from the card. She suddenly came out from the gate and jumped forward, trying to hug him. Alex suddenly turned around and sent a kick on her. He blew her to the wall and fell to the ground. \"Gah!\" Alex was startled. He did not know why, but he had a sudden urge to kick her at that point. \"I am sorry. I did not mean to kick you.\" Anna facepalmed. \"This is why I said you need to be careful.\" \"What do you mean?\" Alex looked at her in confusion. Anna only pointed her finger to Anya, who was in the ground after his kick. She was hugging herself while pointing her butt on Alex. \"Ah, this is it. I always wait for Alex''s love! I need more!\" Alex was bewildered as he blinked his eyes a few times. He could not comprehend what just happened. \"I am the exact opposite of my sister, whether it is my power or personality. I can curse, she can purify. And she is the one who showed everything with her action or mouth.\" Anna said. Alex involuntarily dropped his jaw. Anya and Anna were indeed the opposite of each other. If Anna was a shy type, then Anya was the proactive type. Unlike Anna, Anya would show how much she loved him openly. Unlike Anna, who would wait for him to open his mind first before accepting her. Anya would openly seduce him. \"Well, we have something in common, though,\" Anna added as she looked away. She recalled the only matter that could make do something in common. And it was Alex. If it was for Alex, they did not mind what they would become. They did not care if they would become a demon or an angel. If Alex were attacked, they would be enraged and struck back. Of course, in the previous life, they were too powerless to help him. But in this life, they had agreed to even destroy the whole world with him. Although she did not know what kind of response Alex would give, she just prayed he could accept her¡­ even if it would be slowly like her. After all, even if they were the exact opposite, their love for Alex was the same. Alex looked at the silly golden-haired girl and shook his head helplessly. He could not say he did not have any feelings on her. He indeed had some feelings on her. But he felt that his feelings were not love but something else. He knew she must be the same as Anna. Alex did not know whether to accept her like Anna. He would leave it to time. [Host, there is an incoming message from Leoz.] \"!!!\" Alex furrowed his eyebrows when the system sent the message. He immediately took out Leoz''s card. \"Alex?\" Anna, who was beside him, was confused about why he suddenly took out Leoz''s card. Even Anya, who was busy savoring Alex''s¡­ kick, stopped, and looked at him with a serious expression. The previous playful expression of her completely vanished without a trace. \"Leoz, what happened?\" \"I am sorry, Young Master. We lost them. They used a special passage to get into the capital city. You can ask Nicole or Ngina for the detail.\" 320 Scheme A few hours ago, Both Intan and Mega were carried by a special boat made by the Zhou Kingdom. It was the boat that Mega used to bring Alex and Putri to Death Forest. With that, they managed to reach the Zhou Kingdom in two days. But after Intan and Mega were inflicted by the curse. They started getting a nightmare every time they tried to heal themselves or sleep. This worried the sixteenth elder who was carrying Intan and Mega''s uncle. They decided to be more careful and used a secret passage that only a few people knew. At first, Mega''s uncle wanted to chase Intan and the sixteenth elder from the boat so they could enter the secret passage. However, the sixteenth elder paid a ''price'' so they could get inside together. Mega''s uncle also had another plan on them. So, he decided to carry them along with him inside the secret passage. When they arrived in the castle, the people were surprised and the king immediately informed. Even Bima, the previous king, also came to check them. \"What happened to them?\" Bima asked Mega''s uncle, Hugh. He was shocked by Mega''s condition. The physical injuries had recovered a little bit, but her internal injury had not. It was because of the curse that Anna inflicted on her that made it hard for her to heal it. He also checked the Intan''s condition. Her internal injuries were much more severe than Mega. It was because the Rage Pill she consumed when she fought Alex. And along with the beating she got from Alex. It worsened her condition. \"Explain to me!\" Bima was enraged. \"It was that Alexander Sirius!\" Hugh said. \"What? Alexander Sirius? Putri Wulan Makmur''s Junior Brother?\" When they heard the name of Putri Wulan Makmur, their expressions were darkened, especially for the first elder of the Makmur Family. Because he did not check Intan''s condition first before expelling Putri from the Makmur Family, he had made the foolish decision of his life. When he found out that Intan could not wield a spear anymore for the rest of her life, he was so enraged that he was going to challenge Charya. After all, before he knew Intan''s condition, he knew Putri already could not use her spear. After debating for so long, he decided to go to convince Putri to go back to the family. Unfortunately, Charya stopped him again and again. They almost clashed with each other, but because he was inside the Heavenly Sword Sect. He did not dare to clash with Charya. He then decided to bring Intan back and discussed the problem with the entire family. After all, they had lost two successors in a day. Intan aside, Putri''s case was really foolish. According to the explanation, he knew that Putri most likely would be able to wield a sword like using a spear. If he brought her back to the family, their family might rise even further as the technique was unique. Although he did not know what kind of technique was that, just by Alex defeating Intan with that technique alone would increase their reputation even further. After teaching Putri that technique, they could just engage her with him. That meant, they would even get a powerful son-in-law. Unfortunately, because he went to Putri first before checking Intan. They lost it all. \"Your Majesty. I am worried about her. So, please let me bring her back first to the family.\" The first elder said to Bima. Bima only nodded his head as he had Hugh here to explain the thing to him. After he saw the first elder of the Makmur Family went back with Intan. Of course, Sixteenth Elder followed them as she had a few deals with them. Bima then asked Hugh, \"Explain everything to me.\" \"Yes. The one who did this was Alexander Sirius. I will explain this from the first day of the tournament, where Intan Wulan Makmur fought Putri Wulan. I did not understand the reason but that Intan managed to bait Putri to make a Heavenly Oath before the fight. \"The condition was for the one who lost would lose their ability to wield spear for the rest of their life. And Putri lost that day. It invited the rage of Putri''s junior brother, who was Alexander Sirius, as well as her master. \"The next day, Mega fought with him first before his fight with Intan. But I did not know why but that bast*rd injured her until she became like this. How dare he! He beat the princess from our Southern Kingdom black and blue, and he did not even put our kingdom in his eyes. \"Even when he fought with Mega, he questioned whether our kingdom was capable of fighting him. Your Majesty, we can''t let him free like this. \"If we did not kill him, everyone would treat us like a joke. We need to mobilize our forces and kill him!\" Bima was frowning deeply. Of course, Hugh did not know the reason why Alex beat Mega to that extent. After all, her scheme was buried deeply as she was afraid she would lose her qualification for the throne if that scheme were known by others. Bima finally understood why Hugh was enraged. He could not maintain his emotions anymore. \"What? Did that bastard do something like that? I am thankful for his help with the information about the Zhou Kingdom. But even if he did that, he could not do something like this to a royal family!\" Hugh wanted to say something, but there was a weak groan from the unconscious Mega. \"Mhmm!\" Mega was sweating. Her sour expression was telling them that she had a nightmare. \"This again.\" Hugh cursed. \"What happened?\" Bima was completely clueless about this. \"It seemed that every time she rested or slept, she always had a nightmare. This only happens after her fight with that Alexander Sirius. So, I assumed she was inflicted with something by him.\" \"What!\" \"Grand¡­father.\" Mega opened her eyes and called Bima. Her voice was so weak. \"What happened, my granddaughter? Why are you like this?\" \"Grandfather¡­ he¡­ he has the inheritance of the Martial Emperor. He was the one who solved the problem of the white building in the Death Forest.\" Mega said. \"What?\" Bima and Hugh were shocked beyond belief. \"We were in the same group. But since we knew about it too, he wanted to kill us. I assumed, the one who massacred the Kasmanan Family was also him. He might use something from the inheritance to kill them. Your granddaughter already tried her best.\" Of course, with her cunning mind, she even managed to come up with such a lie in her current condition. She only had some speculations about Alex having the inheritance of a Martial Emperor. It had been proven by Putri when she took out a rank 5 spear. But she did not know anything else. She was also indeed in the same group with Alex when they came, but they abandoned him. Unfortunately, with her evil mind, she managed to flower her words to have Bima''s sympathy and enraged Bima''s heart. She even used the Kasmanan Family to make it more believable. It was the truth, though. She just did not know it yet. \"Grandfather¡­ you should take the inheritance from him. It was our effort, but he sneaked attack on us and grasped everything. He must use everything he had when he killed the Kasmanan Family. If not, our royal family would also be destroyed by him. This will be the best time, grandfather.\" Mega tried to incite him even further. Bima could not contain his anger anymore. Because of that, he misunderstood the reason why Alex helped them in the war. \"He must be trying to get into our good side so we won''t suspect him from this. Don''t worry granddaughter, I will bring him to justice.\" Bima shouted in anger. In Mega''s tired face, an evil smile appeared. Bima then left in anger as he wanted to discuss it with the others about this. Mega then looked at Hugh. \"Uncle¡­ you must know about the Blood Pill, right? Please¡­ I need those pills. I want to get stronger and take my revenge too!\" Hugh certainly knew about the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill since he was also reported about that. And because of the dramatic story just now, he immediately agreed to let Mega use those sh*tty pills. ¡­ It was also the same in the Makmur Family. The atmosphere was heavy when they realized what happened. The entire family was enraged because they lost their successor since they did not consider Putri as the successor. But it turned out that Intan would be the useless one in the future. The same as Mega, Intan also made a lie while giving them Alex''s information. After knowing Alex''s ability, they were full of greed. If they had Alex''s ability where they could use a sword like using a spear, their family would rise. Intan would also be fine since she could use a sword in the future. And their family might go toe in toe with the royal family in the future. They decided to enslave Alex so they could grasp his technique and his identity as an Alchemist. If they could not do that, they would kill him before he became a threat to them. ¡­ Back to Alex, \"You can ask Nicole or Ngina for the details,\" Leoz said. After hearing that, Alex started frowning. He indeed forgot to ask Ngina or Nicole to intercept them since he thought Leoz and the others would be enough to kill them. Njomo also went back to his shadow after seeing they left the sect. But it turned out they managed to pass through them and get inside the capital city. The situation became a little bit more complicated. Alex then took out Nicole''s and Ngina''s card and asked them. \"Nicole, Ngina, what happened?\" \"The Makmur Family wanted to kill you if they can''t enslave you. They decided that after that Intan told them about your status as a rank 4 Alchemist as well as your talents in Spear and Sword. It seemed after enslaving you, they wanted to grasp your technique about using a sword like using a spear. They did not care about Putri at all. Should I kill her?\" Nicole explained. \"Royal family wanted to kill you because of Zwaka''s inheritance. That sl*t princess even slandered you and incited not only greed but also anger from the royal family. They had posted a bounty in your head. And what the deal with this bounty¡­ they only put ten million Spirit Stones on your head. Even a hundred million would not be enough, how dare they to put a meager bounty like this in your head. Young Master, should I kill her?\" Ngina said. \"¡­\" Alex was speechless. Nicole was a bit reasonable, but Ngina¡­ Alex did not know if he was angry because of Mega or because his bounty was not that high. But from normal cultivators'' perspectives, ten million was a huge sum. \"Young Master, your decision!\" Nicole and Ngina shouted. \"Ufufu¡­ fufu¡­ I just heard something interesting.\" Anya suddenly spoke as her expression became dark. Alex ignored her for the moment. He was also angered by them. He then said, \"Do not kill them first. They should have had Jeanne Session before they died.\" He was planning to torture them first before killing them. But it turned out, it was not enough for Anya. She suddenly added, \"Yeah. You are right. They should ''play'' with Jeanne first. But Alex, although I do not want to help Jeanne. I should break my rule for now and join her when she ''plays'' with them. I can heal them so they won''t die so easily. I will ensure they have the biggest nightmare before they die!\" Alex was flabbergasted when he heard that. He looked at Anna, who made a weird smile. Although she was also angered by that, she was also speechless by her twin sister. \"Well, this is Anya. I am the normal one while she is the extreme one. But this time¡­ I like it.\" She sent a thought transmission to him, and in the end, she even made an evil smile. He was surprised to see Anna made that smile. But he did not stop them. 321 Cured Alex did not stop them because he also felt Intan and Mega deserved that. Alex asked Nicole and Njomo to continue to observe them. He said he wanted to be present for that, and the best time for that was after he advanced to Martial Lord. After all, he needed to go to Nemu Forest to have a breakthrough. Alex then looked at Anya, \"Anya¡­ I can call you this, right?\" \"You can even call me honey or wife. And you do not even need my consent for that.\" Anya said seductively. Unfortunately, it was not effective to Alex as he ignored it completely. He said with a poker face, \"I will call you Anya then. Well, I suppose you have read a little bit of my memory, so I am sure you already knew about this.\" \"Yeah, I can purify the curse. It is easy for me.\" Anya said proudly. \"Then, that''s good.\" Alex nodded. \"Sherry, Kyle.\" He called both of them. They were inside his body this entire time since he thought he would not have enough time to fetch them before the enemies appeared. However, only Sherry who came out of his body. Alex was astonished as he remembered when Sherry did not come out when he called. He asked Sherry, \"Is Kyle undergoing his advancement?\" \"Yes. He is the same as me and probably will sleep for a month or two-wuu.\" Sherry said. Alex then forced Kyle out of his body. He handed the sleeping Kyle to Anna. \"Since I am not going anywhere for the time being, he should stay in his room.\" \"Then, since I do not have a room, I can share a room with you,\" Anya added. Alex felt this talk would become too long if he responded. So, he decided to ignore her and cultivate. ¡­ The next day, Putri came to Alex''s house. As soon as she came, Alex asked Anya to heal her. Of course, she was surprised to see another heavenly beauty suddenly appear in his home. And she did not know why but she felt Anya was very similar to Anna. \"This is Anya, Anna''s twin sister. She will be the one who cures you.\" Alex introduced Anya to Putri. Anya did not say anything to Putri. She just observed Putri this whole time. \"Anya, how is it?\" Anya nodded, \"Yeah, I can cure it. There should be no problem. I can even do it now.\" \"Then, let you use the ro-!\" \"I do not need a room or whatever, it will only take a minute or so,\" Anya said confidently as a light suddenly came out from her hand. It was like a snowflake but made from a yellow light. She then slowly moved her hand toward Putri''s heart¡­ AKA her left chest. When the light came inside her, she felt warm. Alex narrowed his eyes as he activated his Spirit Eyes. The light that came inside Putri''s body absorbed the black energy around her heart. Luckily the spreading was only around the heart, and Anya could solve it in a jiffy. Two minutes later, Alex could see all the black energy in her heart had been absorbed. He was relieved but before he said anything, \"Kya-!\" A super feminine voice suddenly startled him. He obviously looked up and saw Putri with a bright red face. \"Is this a part of the treatment?\" She asked embarrassedly. Her original elegance already disappeared. Or maybe because she was not restrained by the fact she was a Makmur''s. It seemed her normal elegance diminished. However, it changed to a better one as Alex could see that she became a little bit more energetic and cheerful. Alex did not understand her meaning, but when he looked down again, he saw Anya''s hand was grabbing her breast. \"Hmm¡­ Good elasticity, but not enough volume. Even Alicia was bigger than this. If you want to seduce him, you need a little bit more volume, I guess.\" Anya observed like a professional. \"What? Seduce him?\" Putri was bewildered by her comment. She indeed had favorable impressions on Alex. But it was only as a former Senior Sister and the current status as his disciple. There was no other thought than that. \"Umu¡­ If you are a little bit bigger, then we can partner up to sedu-Hogya!\" Before Anya finished spouting her nonsense, Alex chopped her head with his hand. Alex suddenly remembered why Anna suggested to level her up first before summoning her. The first time he met her, he felt the urge to kick her when she wanted to hug him. If he did not level her up before summoning her, she might die from that kick. And this too. The reliable Anna suddenly came. Maybe she felt Alex had chopped Anya''s head. When she came, she immediately dragged her to somewhere else. Luckily, they had a whole realm different. Anna was able to drag her away with ease. Looking both of them disappeared, Alex made a weird smile. \"Sorry about that.\" \"No, no. I am grateful that my curse has gone. I feel more refreshed now.\" Alex nodded. \"Do you want to start the training now?\" Putri did not need to ponder. The sooner she could learn the trick, the quicker she could start her journey to get stronger. She had promised herself to get stronger and not tarnished Alex''s name in the future. \"Yes.\" \"Well, I have something I want to say before the training. It is a matter concerning the Makmur Family and the entire Southern Kingdom.\" \"!!!\" Putri was startled, but when she thought about it, they might¡­ When she realized that, she looked at him with a surprised expression. \"Yeah. They wanted to kill me. As for the reason, the Royal Family wanted Zwaka''s inheritance from me, and the Makmur Family wanted the technique that I will teach you now.\" \"Master¡­ My name is Putri Wulan. And my family is you, Master Charya, Senior Sister Song Yu, and Evelyn. That''s all.\" Putri said slowly. She emphasized her name to show him that she was not related to the Makmur Family anymore. \"I see.\" After seeing her conviction, Alex said no more. \"Let''s go to the training field.\" Putri nodded her head and followed her to the field outside the house. This field was the place where he tortu- Ahem, trained Evelyn last time. Alex started teaching her from the explanation to the basic combat. Of course, in the same way as Evelyn. Luckily, she had a cultivation of 10-Star Martial Grandmaster after she advanced because of Alex''s wine. She did not become the second Evelyn. Alex drank his wine while teaching her. Anna said he could make another breakthrough with the wine. And luckily, it was perfect as he would breakthrough to 9-Star Martial Grandmaster with his wine and to 10-Star Martial Grandmaster with his Energy Pill. Putri was a bit clumsy when holding the sword as she only used a spear as far as she knew it. Alex did not mind about that. He continued teaching her the basics. A week later, Alex advanced to 9-Star Martial Grandmaster. Putri was not bothered by his progress. The only thing she could think after seeing his advancement was a drive to get stronger. Even after Alex''s brutal training, she trained herself until she collapsed to the ground. When she collapsed, Alex carried her inside and let her rest. Of course, the next day, he would do the training as usual. After that, Alex absorbed the Energy Pill and officially advanced to 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. Luckily, it was not the same as the last time when he wanted to advance to 10-Star Martial Master. Although he did not know why, it saved him time. Alex finally started consolidating his foundation. It took him two months just to consolidate his foundation. Since he kept getting stronger, the consolidation took more and more time. But Alex could not skip this part. A few things happened in these two months. First, the Heavenly Sword Sect seemed to have warned the Southern Kingdom for him. Because they got attacked a few months ago by the Zhou Kingdom, the royal family decided to take down Alex''s wanted poster. However, according to Ngina, the royal family had not given up on killing him. They just stopped for a while because they wanted the one who had the most anger to mess up with him first. The one who had the most anger was obviously the Makmur Family. Because of their greed, they never came back to Putri, and they never asked her to come back to the family. They thoroughly abandoned her and planned to get Alex''s secret. Although they knew about the incident where the first elder of Heavenly Sword Sect came to the Southern Kingdom to warn them, they did not stop. Nicole said they decided to kill him the moment he left the sect. But one thing that bothered him the most. Ngina said he lost Mega. Even though he had been searching for her whereabouts, he never found her again. Alex frowned when he heard that and told Ngina to continue to search for her location. The second event was about Sherry''s advancements. With numerous Spirit Stones, Sherry managed to advance to 3-Star Martial Lords. Of course, she often fought Alex, Anna, Putri, and even Anya to sharpen her battle skill. The third was about Putri. Because of her brutal training, she managed to comprehend the basics of using a sword like a spear skill in a month. A month later, she managed to use her Spear Intent and Spear Domain. Although both her Intent and Domain were still unstable. At least, Alex did not need to worry about her in the future. As long as she kept working hard, she should be able to improve even without him. He had done his job. But Alex also remembered the matter about their master and disciple relationship. Alex tried to convince her, but she was too hard-headed. She knew Alex just worried about her, but she also had her conviction. The last thing that happened was Kyle''s advancement. After sleeping for a long time, Kyle finally woke up and officially broke through to 1-Star Martial Lord. Anya was the only one left that was still a Martial Grandmaster as Jeanne and Vera had leveled up to Martial Lord a few weeks ago. She thought she should try to level up herself in the area around. Ultimately, she decided to wait for a while. Since Alex wanted to undergo his tribulation in Nemu Forest, she would start killing monsters there. Alex also tried to replicate the way Maxwell made his array. From his point of view, other people should not be able to pick up that he was using his space element to make his array. They would only be surprised to see him making an array so fast. He could just bluff his way through, and the matter would end. There was another thing that he had learned in these two months. Since he had reached 10-Star Martial Grandmaster, he finally practiced his money-making ability. He started practicing the mid 4th rank pill, Crystal Skin Pill. Back then, he wanted to make this pill, but because he was too weak, Alex put it on hold. Since he had become a peak Martial Grandmaster, he finally managed to make the pill after trial and error. Because of the huge consumption of Spirit Stones for cultivation, Alex''s wealth was down to twenty million Spirit Stones. With this rate, all of it would be gone before he managed to reach 5-Star Martial Lord. He could see from Sherry alone, she needed around a million Spirit Stones per star as she was boosting her cultivation with it. And since Putri also practiced until she collapsed, Alex also used his Spirit Stones to recover her energy. Of course, Putri never knew about that. After settling everything, Alex went out of the house since he wanted to ask her about the special place that he was interested in the Nemu Forest. He might go to that place after he broke through for leveling. 322 Song Yu Before he visited Charya, Alex went to Song Yu''s house first. They were chatting inside Song Yu''s house. \"You are leaving now?\" Song Yu asked. \"Yes.\" \"Then, good luck.\" Song Yu nodded her head. \"How about Putri?\" \"She should be fine without me from now on. I have taught her the basics. She can use her Spear Intent and Spear Domain. Although it was pretty sloppy, she only needs to practice normally.\" Alex explained. \"I see. Do you need anything from me?\" \"Well, since you have known my identity as an Array Master, I want to ask you about it a little bit.\" \"Well, you do not need to hide it any longer from me. You probably want to ask me how profitable it is, right?\" \"Ahaha¡­\" Alex chuckled when he heard that. He nodded, \"That''s right. I need to compare them.\" \"As it will become harder to progress in the future, will you stop learning one of them?\" \"No, I am going to continue both.\" Song Yu looked at Alex''s serious expression. She sighed and answered him honestly, \"To be honest, even I do not know which one is more profitable in your case. You are a monster in Alchemy, as well as in Array. If it is for an ordinary cultivator, Array Master would be more profitable. \"For example, in the future, you will find the medicinal ingredients would be more and more scarce. As for Array Master, your job is still the same. You only need Array Paper made of Monster Skin and Monster blood. \"So, from my perspective, Array Master would be an easier job and more profitable.\" Song Yu explained. But suddenly her eyes became sharp, she said, \"But it will also carry a certain risk as many influences might target you if you are a famous Array Master. After all, they are the most sought after. \"There will be two possible outcomes should you refuse their invitation. First, they will maintain their relationship with you. And the second¡­ they will kill you once and for all, so you will not be a threat for them in the future. So if you want a safer path, then it will be Alchemist.\" Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. He then looked at Song Yu, \"What if I buy the ingredients or the items and sell the finished products to you¡­ secretly?\" Song Yu seemed to have expected this question as there was no change of expression. Alex frowned as Song Yu did not answer him for a while. Suddenly Song Yu made a big smile, \"Of course, you can. You are our VIP. We will keep your secret. But, as caution as we may, others might know about it sooner or later. Or, in another case, they might suspect you, and I have some ''relationship.'' And the rumor would spread¡­\" \"Relationship?\" Alex was startled to hear that from her mouth. \"What? Did this childish body of mine not attractive enough?\" \"No. That''s not what I mean. You are pretty. If I do not have my principle, I might fall in love with you at first sight.\" \"Hehe¡­ is that so.\" Song Yu chuckled. \"I am just kidding about that part.\" She paused a little, pondering something. \"Alex, can you keep this a secret?\" She asked with a serious expression. Alex''s expression also became serious. He nodded. \"This is about the reason why I came to this place in the first place. No¡­ I should not say I came to this place, but I fled to this place.\" Song Yu said. \"!!!\" \"Actually, as your master said before. Our Blackwade clan originated from Heavenly Continent.\" Alex was astonished. He thought it might be a tragic story where they lost their power and were forced to flee to the Northern Continent. And because of Song Yu''s ability, especially her extraordinary healing, she was forced to flee to this continent. That must be it, he thought. Unfortunately, Song Yu''s next sentence immediately gave a twist to his prediction. \"The Blackwade clan is still in the Heavenly Continent and stands strong in the continent. But, back then, my grandfather made a blunder. They sent him to the Northern Continent to spread our Blackwade Clan continent. \"But, the Blackwade clan never made a branch in the Northern Continent or Sacred Continent. As they did not need to make a branch or something. So, sending my grandfather to the Northern Continent was as good as exiled. \"Even so, my grandfather opened many branches and was pretty successful at it. The Blackwade clan also became a big influence in the Northern Continent since we have the backing of the Blackwade clan in Heavenly Continent. \"Unfortunately, when I was born and started showing my extraordinary hearing, many influences started eyeing me. They started to suppress our family, and I was forced to flee to this continent.\" Alex frowned, \"Why didn''t you ask help from Heavenly Continent?\" \"We asked, we asked many times, but no help arrived. I even tried to tell them about my hearing and can help them. Unfortunately, they did not care. My grandfather tried to go back to Heavenly Continent and asked for their help, but he was rejected in the front door.\" \"¡­ They did not care about their face? I mean the Blackwade Clan in Heavenly Continent.\" \"I do not know.\" Song Yu shook her head. She said, \"I am telling you about this, not because I want your sympathy. I am just telling you because I worried about your future. \"If they know about our relationship, they might also target you. So, I want to warn you about this first. Not as a blackwade clan''s member or a merchant, but as your senior sister. I will try my best to help you, but we can''t contact each other frequently. I want to keep our relationship as a secret.\" \"¡­ The way you said it is like we have some kind of illicit relationship that we need to hide no matter what.\" Alex said jokingly. \"Be serious!\" He remembered about him escaping to the Acacia Kingdom so he would not be in Zircodina Kingdom''s radar. In that place, he started maturing and getting stronger. He looked at Song Yu, \"Do you want to change it? I mean, you can start from Sacred Continent to Heavenly Continent. And when you have enough strength, you can come back to the Northern Continent.\" \"I tried. But they seemed to have a spy over there too. So, the only one I can escape to is this continent.\" \"Do you still want to change your fate?\" \"¡­\" Song Yu became silent for a few minutes. \"I wanted to. Back then, I still wanted to change my fate. But at this point, I just resign to my fate. It has been fifteen years since coming to this continent. \"Back then, I did not escape from home just to flee them, but I wanted my family to rise again. If I was gone, they would not suppress our family. So, with me being here this entire time, I have given myself a few years of time to come up with a plan when I come back to the Northern Continent.\" \"¡­ You are coming back after the grand continent, right?\" \"Yeah. I already told you about that.\" Song Yu nodded. \"Well, good luck with that. I will try to help if I can, but the way I am now, I can''t help you with anything.\" Alex said. Of course, he only considered helping her with her problem in the Northern Continent. As for her family problem, he did not intend to intrude any further. After all, he was only her Junior Brother. He was not her man or any other intimate relationship, so Alex only logically helped her as far as he could. He did not know how far he could reach in a few years, so he could not say he would certainly help her. He only said he would try. \"Uhm.\" Song Yu took a deep breath as she tried to change her mood, \"Anyway, do you need me for anything?\" \"Well, I originally wanted to ask you to buy me Crystal Skin Pill ingredients. You said each set of ingredients is 2000 Spirit Stones, so this space ring has 600,000 Spirit Stones inside it. I will start refining again after I come back.\" Alex handed her a space ring. \"And another thing, I want to ask Elder Charya about the special region inside Nemu Forest where many undead around.\" \"Have you asked Putri? She should know about it since she came from the Southern Kingdom?\" Song Yu asked while receiving Alex''s space ring. \"I have asked her. But it is only the basic information. If I want something more, she said I should ask Elder Charya since she had challenged that place in the past.\" Alex said. Song Yu nodded. She indeed had heard about that. \"Then, since we are finished here. You should ask her now.\" \"Yeah.\" Alex nodded and started walking away. But before he left, he turned back. \"Senior Sister, as long as you do not give up, the chance is not zero. No matter how hopeless the situation will be, never give up.\" Song Yu was astonished when she heard that. She smiled, \"Yes. You are right.\" Alex then left. Charya had been waiting for a while. It seemed his talk with Song Yu took a bit longer than expected. \"I am sorry to make you wait, Elder Charya.\" Alex immediately apologized to her. \"Don''t mind it. I do not have anything to do anyway.\" Charya lied. She had received many Lightning Element Martial Arts from Maxwell. Of course, all of them were Heaven Tier Martial Arts or above. So she was pretty eager to learn it. But she did not lie because of the benefit she received from Maxwell as well as Alex''s identity as his disciple. She was always like this, whether Song Yu or Putri came to her. \"I want to ask about the special region in Nemu Forest. I heard you had challenged it in the past.\" \"Oh, that one. Have you asked Putri?\" \"She has told me the general information.\" \"Hmm¡­\" Charya closed her eyes. After a while, she opened her eyes and said, \"I only managed to enter a little bit before fleeing outside. Putri might already tell you about this. But from what I know, that place is not like that in the past. \"Back then, a person was chased by an entire kingdom. Then, that person used a forbidden technique and turned him into an undead. I did not know why, but it seemed he was restrained in that place and could not go out. \"The undead were the fallen warriors that were trying to kill him. Many influences had been trying to get inside, but no one was able to penetrate deeply. After all, there were around a thousand Martial Lords undead inside. And according to the rumor, that person was a Sword King.\" Alex was astonished when he heard that. He never expected that there were that many Martial Lords inside that place. Luckily, he did not come inside back then. He should be able to challenge that place with his current strength. Of course, he would be accompanied by his spirits. \"There is another thing that is not recorded. This is my personal experience. Back then, I felt a sharpness every time I stepped forward. I do not know what it was, but I could surely tell you this. It was dangerous. Are you going to that place?\" \"Yes.\" Charya frowned, \"I think you should become the Martial Lord first before you go there.\" \"I know. That is my plan. Do not worry about me. I won''t be alone.\" Alex said mysteriously. Charya could only nod her head as she thought Maxwell might already tell him something about it. Alex was not a person who would do reckless things¡­ or not. Alex''s plan was using the True Spirit Body if they needed to escape from that place. It would be a perfect place to level up his Spirits. Back then, Leoz tried to enter that place, but he was blocked. When he asked Putri about it, Putri told him that he could only enter that place when it was a full moon. 323 Undead After settling everything, he finally flew toward Nemu Forest. Unbeknownst to him, the moment he left the sect, there were two people that had decided to leave. They were Song Yu and Putri. Putri decided to go on her own journey. She wanted to get stronger so Alex would not be ashamed by having a disciple like her. After all, their master and disciple relationship was her fault. Although Alex did not really mind about that and only worried her well being, Putri could not accept it. She wanted to try her luck in the Northern Continent. It may be foolish for her to go to that place while carrying Alex''s unique sword-spear technique. But there was no written manual for that. As long as she did not tell anyone about it, the technique would be safe. She had prepared for torture if anyone wanted to get this. She would reveal her wind element first before revealing her weapon. Unfortunately, she did not know that Song Yu also decided to go back to the Northern Continent. After strengthening her resolve, she decided to go back. If she waited for another year, Alex might already be out of her reach. It was not funny if she was the one receiving it in just three years after becoming his Senior Sister. And there was also Maxwell''s advice. So, she decided to prepare for it herself. And tried to know the truth about Alex''s VIP card. After she bought the promised medicinal ingredients, she left the sect. Charya, who knew her two disciples had left the sect, could only sigh. ¡­ A few days later, Alex finally reached Nemu Forest. \"Young Master.\" Leoz, Fabio, Vera, Jeanne, and Greg immediately welcomed him. They had been informed that he would arrive, so they stopped hunting and welcomed him. \"Thank you for your hard work.\" Alex smiled at them. He already summoned Anna and Anya as soon as they arrived at Nemu Forest. \"I am sorry, but I want us to spread out and search for the special realm that my master left behind. \"I will soon make a breakthrough to Martial Lord, and I want to use this realm to hide the golden lightning tribulation.\" \"Understood.\" Leoz nodded. He then looked at Anya. \"?!\" Alex was confused. \"Alex, if I may?\" Anya asked him. Even though she had been openly seducing him, she never went over the line. She never stripped and tried to do the deed because she knew Alex would hate her if she did that. She also asked for his permission for this. After all, unlike Anna, she had yet to gain a status in his heart. Alex did not understand but still nodded his head. After the confirmation, Anya''s eyes became sharp. She asked, \"How much have you explored this forest?\" \"Around ten miles in radius,\" Leoz replied. Anya pondered a little. She was picturing the map inside her head. It was not like she did not do anything in these two months. Since all spirit cards were in Anna''s hand, she borrowed Nelson''s card from her. It was to investigate the regions on this continent. As an expert, Nelson was not focused only on the Zhou Kingdom. He also investigated the other regions for at least the basic things about them. Anya knew about this and took advantage of it to learn everything she needed to learn. \"I presume you want to check the undead region, Alex?\" Anya asked. Alex nodded his head. He looked at Anya in confusion. Anya then looked at the rest of the spirits, \"We will make that region as the center since this place is the south of that region. Leoz will use his full speed to cover the north area. Vera and Fabio will cover the west while Jeanne and Greg cover the east. \"After you finished the search in the east and west area, immediately went to the north to assist Leoz. You will try to search the realm in Northeast and Northwest respectively. If we do not find anything, we will move farther to the north. \"Since Alex wants to observe the undead region, Anna and I will accompany him. We also have Sherry and Kyle with us. And Njomo! You cover their previous area of investigation. It might be a little big but you only need to make sure they did not leave anything behind. So, it would be pretty easy.\" Alex was dumbfounded when he heard all of that. And even Njomo, who was in Shadow, suddenly came out and nodded his head repeatedly. Alex was bewildered as he could not comprehend. Anna suddenly came to him and said, \"Her characters aside, she always comes up with the plan for us. Of course, you can stop her if you want.\" Anna did not say Anya was smart since it would indirectly tell him that she was an idiot. After all, they were the exact opposite. She only told him that Anya was a strategist while she was not. It was like what Anna said. After Anya finished instructing the others, she looked at Alex. Alex did not have a problem with the plan, so he nodded his head. If he were given time, he would also come up with the same plan. Anya just came up with that plan a bit faster than him. Anya then looked at the spirits, \"Go!\" They nodded and disappeared. After they disappeared, it was time for them to move too. Alex took out Maxwell''s token. Maxwell said it would react if they were near his realm, so it would be better to carry it so they could find it faster. Although it was a shame that the spirits could not have this token, he did not mind that much. He pictured the special realm would be like Zwaka''s place, so it might be easier to spot for his spirits. Alex then flew toward the undead place. And the worst possible thing he happened. When he arrived in the undead region, the token in his hand suddenly shone. \"¡­\" Anna and Anya were surprised when they saw the token glowed. Alex was speechless. At this point, they knew the special realm that Maxwell made back then was the undead region in front of them. \"Anna, Anya¡­ We are not wrong, are we?\" He asked in disbelief, clenching the token in his hand. \"I believe we are in the right place, Alex.\" Anna nodded. \"We do not need to call everyone right now. Let them search around the area to see no one close to us. After all, we can only enter this place later. We will need to know if it will be a full moon tonight or not.\" Anya immediately said. Alex pondered a little. \"We are going closer to scout the area with my Spirit Eyes. Prepare to fight.\" \"Understood.\" Anna and Anya nodded. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes. Back then, he had not gotten used to his Spirit Eyes after he improved his eyes. The current him could finally see the trace of a big sphere around them. It was pretty concealed that even his Spirit Eyes had a hard time to see it. The sphere was really big. It was around three miles in radius, and judging from the energy sign, the fight would not be easy. After Alex was able to discern the big sphere, he finally noticed that the terrain they saw was not the real terrain. Alex could see a shadow behind that terrain. They needed to go inside first before they knew what kind of place it would be. They could only clearly see the edge, including the undead that was moving around the edge of the sphere. They could not see anything further than that. There was another matter. When he tried to get closer to the special realm, the token started shaking in his hand. It was like a magnet that attracted each other. He then tried to get closer to the barrier. There were two undead around it. Their appearance was close to a zombie but neater. They did not have that disgusting appearance. In fact, their appearance was close to a human. But there were a few noticeable things why Alex thought their appearance was close to a zombie. It was because there were many wounds on their body, but they were still walking just fine. Their eyes were like dead fish, and they did not behave like a human. When Alex arrived in front of the barrier, the undead noticed him. They walked toward him. Surprisingly, they walked toward him without touching the barrier. They stopped just in front of the barrier while gnashing their teeth again and again. According to his Spirit Eyes, these two undead had 1-Star Martial Lord cultivation. Anna took out her scythe while Anya took out her staff. Anya''s staff was a golden color with butterfly wings at the top of the staff. \"Curse¡­ No.\" Anya looked at them. \"It is a kind of forbidden technique that keeps death in this world. The technique forced the soul not to leave their body. But their body function should also stop and their body should start to root. But they did not, so there is only one possibility.\" Anna said as she was versed in this type of thing. \"What is that?\" \"Alex, you can see the massive dark energy, right?\" \"Yes.\" \"The forbidden technique is releasing this energy. From the look of it, the dark energy is keeping their body from rooting. But they could not come out of this barrier as this barrier is the only one that prevented the dark energy from leaking. \"They will lose their body if they have a shortage of this energy. I do not know how they can enter the barrier, but it should not be possible to open it. So, the forbidden technique kept releasing this massive energy until it was saturated. \"At that time, the barrier would leak the energy to the outside world, and the barrier would open for a little bit. And the barrier would open every full moon where the dark energy was on its peak.\" Anna explained. Alex and Anya frowned. Alex raised the token and pointed it on the barrier. Suddenly, a small hole appeared in the barrier. \"Roar!\" The undead also noticed the small hole, and they immediately roared as hard as they could. Alex was startled and took back his token. \"Alex, that¡­\" Anna and Anya were shocked when they saw a small hole appear after Alex pointed his token to the barrier. Alex was also speechless, but everything was clear. Alex affirmed in disbelief, \"Yes. This must be the special realm, and this token is the key to open the barrier.\" \"Then, we should assemble everyone and start clearing this undead.\" Anna said. Anya also agreed with her. Alex nodded his head and took out everyone''s card. \"We are-!\" \"Young Master, there is a group of ten coming toward your place. All of them are women. What should we do?\" Leoz suddenly asked. \"Their power levels?\" \"Most of them are 2-Star Martial Lords or 3-Star Martial Lords. From what I saw, their target was not you but that undead region. And you seem to have met their leader.\" \"I have?\" Alex asked, confused. \"Yes. Since you have recalled me to the card in the war between the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. I got a few more fresh memories about her. She is the daughter of Rainbow Flower Sect sect master.\" \"!!!\" Alex obviously remembered her. \"Alex, should we stop them? If not, they might know about this token, and we don''t want your tribulation to be disturbed by the likes of them.\" Anna asked. Alex nodded. \"You go first, I will follow you after I summoned the others. Since they came from Leoz''s direction, then they should come from the north.\" \"Understood.\" Anna nodded and disappeared. Alex chose Anna because that person had met her. \"Summon.\" After Anna disappeared, Alex summoned all his spirits back. \"I want all of you to conceal yourself first.\" He then flew toward Anna. 324 Warning There were ten females that were coming to challenge the undead. They did not come to actually clear it. According to rumor, the special realm was full of energy and just by cultivating inside, they would be able to breakthrough far faster than normal. Letizia La Scola wanted to cultivate in this place. But she also had another thing in her mind. The rumor said that this realm would provide her with a boost in her Sword Intent. As long as they could enter and cultivate, they could improve dramatically. This was also the reason why Charya even bothered to challenge this place. \"Senior Sister, should we really do this?\" One of the girls asked. \"We will be swarmed by the undead.\" \"Just follow me. I have information from my mot- I mean from Sect Master. We should be fine for a while. At that time, we can improve our cultivation as much as possible.\" Letizia said. \"Fufu, I am afraid it will be impossible.\" Another voice was heard from another direction. Letizia''s group was alarmed, especially Letizia. They looked to the front and saw a female. The female was even prettier than Letizia that was said to be the number one beauty of the Wilow Continent. The female that appeared in front of them had black hair tied into a ponytail. She looked at them with a cold glint. They were surprised by her, especially her 5-Star Martial Lord cultivation. But it was different for Letizia. She knew the person who was standing in front of them. It was one of the Martial Lords that was with Alex back then. She had been searching for him in Mount Hua Sect but to no avail. She never knew Alex''s identity because she never heard about him. But recently, she heard about Alexander Sirius'' wanted poster that was posted in the Southern Kingdom. She wanted to go there. But along the way, she also decided to come to this place since they were close. But the sudden appearance of Anna threw her off. \"Who are you?\" One of the girls asked. \"Who I am is not important, but it will be impossible if you want to come to this place.\" Letizia frowned. \"What did you say!\" The girls were obviously offended by her. \"Stop!\" Letizia immediately stopped her as she started checking their surroundings. It was like this too, when she was in Zwaka''s place. She wanted to see if there was another person in this place. \"Senior Sister?\" the girls were confused by Letizia''s action. \"I am just warning you. I do not want to be overbearing, or anything but you should remember that I can kill all of you here.\" Anna said casually. Even though she said, she did not want to be overbearing, her tone alone was the opposite. \"What?\" \"Senior Sister, she is just alone. Are we going to let her say something like this?\" \"That''s right. We should let her see our power. She may be a 5-Star Martial Lord, but we are ten people.\" \"Do you know we are from Rainbow Flower Sect!\" The girls were obviously angered by Anna. But only Letizia was sweating as she knew what would happen if they continued. But she did not sense anyone near. But before she said anything, Alex and Fabio had arrived at the scene. \"I also thought you all should go back. Because the situation will be chaotic soon. I do not mind killing people, but I prefer to avoid unnecessary killing.\" Alex said casually. He only said that out of his goodwill. After all, Letizia was only a stranger that he happened to meet once. That was all. Alex only killed his enemy, but those people said something like that to Anna and wanted to kill her. Alex did not mind if he should consider them as his enemies. \"You!\" Letizia obviously recognized Alex. Since she had seen his face, Alex did not need to put his mask again. \"Senior Sister, we should-!\" \"Stop!\" Before anyone made any outrageous comment, Letizia stopped them. \"You are from Heavenly Sword Sect? not Mount Hua Sect?\" Letizia asked while looking at Alex. Alex looked at her in confusion. \"Senior Sister? Do you know them?\" The girls were confused. \"Shut up, right now.\" Letizia only shouted at them. \"Do not tell me, Senior Sister, he is the one you are searching for?\" One of the girls suddenly realized something absurd. \"!?\" Alex immediately furrowed his eyebrows when he heard that. This was the first time he heard Letizia had been searching for him. He did not care for anything else except for her purpose. \"What do you mean by searching for me?\" Alex said coldly. \"Do not you know how lucky you are? Our Senior Sister would even make an Alliance with Mount Hua Sect just for you. She even said that she wanted to marry you! How dare you hide from her¡­ But to think you are only a Martial Grandmaster, it is a good thing that you hid!\" Anna''s expression became cold while Alex only looked at them in confusion. He asked Fabio in a low voice, \"I never heard something like this. But, this thing should become a big thing, and Nelson should be able to know about it. But why was I never informed about this?\" \"I assume Nelson did not know that you were the aforementioned one. After all, we spirits would not receive a part of your memory if we did not come back to the card. And Nelson was the only one that was never recalled. So, since he did not know, he only holds the information himself unless you ask.\" \"¡­\" Alex looked down, weighing something. \"Heh! You are ashamed now?\" The girl continued to spout nonsense. Alex only looked at Anna, who was trying hard to keep her anger. She was trying to hold herself back from killing them before Alex asked her to kill them. And because Letizia never told them the full description of Alex, they did not have any clear picture. Alex only sighed. He said to Letizia without any expression, \"You should stop her before it is too late.\" She finally snapped from her daze. She was trying to comprehend his strength, so she forgot to stop the girl beside her. She recalled the terrifying one was Anna, and when she saw Anna''s expression, she shuddered. She slapped the mouth of the girl that did the talking just now and made an ice to seal her mouth. \"I apologize. We will leave this place.\" Letizia said something unbelievable to the others. Alex took out Nelson''s card. \"Nelson, do you know something happened with Mount Hua Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect?\" \"There has been a big movement from them recently. It was about their alliance. They said the only daughter of Rainbow Flower Sect had fallen in love with someone in Mount Hua Sect and wanted to marry him. But because she did not know his name, she was searching for him personally. \"The Mount Hua Sect immediately searched for who she had fallen in love with. Every young master in the sect was present when she was searching for him. Sadly, she didn''t find the aforementioned person. \"It was a big deal back then. Because the so-called number one beauty in the continent was personally searching for someone. Do not tell me the aforementioned person was you?\" \"Yes. It seems to be like that.\" \"I am sorry, I did not report you about this. I never knew about that person, and you were busy with the war, so I thought about keeping it for myself until I have more information.\" Nelson immediately apologized when he knew it was Alex. \"It is fine. You do not know it is me after all.\" \"Do you want me to do something, Young Master?\" \"Nah, she is in front of me right now. I will solve this myself.\" \"Understood.\" After he stored Nelson''s card back, he sighed. \"I never heard about something like that previously since I am a bit too busy. This is truly surprising to hear.\" \"So what is the deal about this? I am surprised to hear something like this.\" He looked at Letizia and said, \"Marry me? Really?\" There was no expression in his face. All people in the continent might be overjoyed if the number one beauty in the continent wanted to marry them. But Alex only felt it was annoying. \"Let me explain¡­\" Letizia said while gritting her teeth. If she was meeting him alone, it might be easier to solve this situation. But she was with another nine people. \"So, what is the purpose of that?\" Alex said coldly. He never liked a relationship for benefit. After all, he had been betrayed by Sandra, who only became his girlfriend for benefit. Alicia never had any thought about that. Firia might think like that at first, but they finally fell in love with each other, and that thought never came again. In fact, Firia never thought about that again after she fell in love with him. But it did not mean that Alex would accept her immediately. They slowly built their relationship, and Alex finally accepted that she was in his heart. If one day he lost everything and could only give them nothing but love. He was sure that Alicia and Firia would still accept him. As for Letizia in front of him, he could not picture that. Especially in this world where he needed strength to survive. Letizia''s approach was the combination of Firia and Alicia but only taking it from the bad part. She was forcing a marriage, but unlike Alex and Alicia, who decided to put that on hold, she did not care about that. If she was trying to make a relationship with him first like a friend or something, it might be acceptable, but she did not. And from the look of it, she might want to sacrifice herself for the sake of benefit. She must know about his identity as an Array Master and Pure Fire along with Zwaka''s inheritance, Alex would be a huge sheep that needed to prey upon. Alex was only annoyed about this but had yet to consider her as an enemy. It would only make him be more careful around her. \"I¡­ I¡­\" Letizia did not know how to explain. \"Alex, what should we do?\" \"Have them leave this place¡­ They had yet to do something to us.\" Alex only shook his head. Even if she tried to do something like what she did to Mount Hua, he doubted Heavenly Sword Sect would consent. They would ask him about it first before they gave their consent to that. After all, with the addition of Maxwell''s array inside the sect, they would not be afraid of Rainbow Flower Sect. \"You-!\" Of course, Letizia aside, when the others heard those words from the likes of Martial Grandmaster, they felt offended. \"Stop. We are leaving now!\" \"But Senior Sis-!\" \"No buts. We are going back to the sect.\" Letizia was already sweating as Anna kept glaring at her. The others were confused but eventually nodded their head. But inside, they were flaming with anger. On the other hand, Letizia knew that she could not fight with Alex because of the Heavenly Oath. It would be hard to explain to Alex. So, she decided to go back first, maybe visit him later in Heavenly Sword Sect. She had forgotten her intention in going inside the undead region. Looking at their disappearing back, Anna asked, \"Alex, are you sure we can let them go like this?\" \"They are not our enemies. But still, Njomo, come out.\" \"Woof!\" \"Follow them. Make sure to report me if they want to do something funny.\" Alex said coldly. Of course, Alex did not trust them, so he sent Njomo. \"Woof!\" At first, Alex wanted to punish them like robbing them if they kept trying to mock him or something. But luckily, Letizia stopped it from happening. Although Alex did not mind killing them, he did not want to make an unnecessary killing as it will go bad for his karma. \"Let''s go back.\" 325 Entering \"Senior Sister, why are we leaving like this?\" \"That''s right. There were only three of them, even if two people were stronger than us, we could catch the weakest.\" \"You all do not know anything.\" Letizia shook her head helplessly. It was very obvious they were questioning her decision. Fabio was a 4-Star Martial Lord while Anna was a 5-Star Martial Lord. They could have two or three of them to hold Fabio for a while and half of them to hold Anna. That way, they can catch Alex, who was only a peak Martial Grandmaster. But there was another concerning matter, they realized the person that she was searching for was only a peak Martial Grandmaster. \"But Senior Sister, why are you so obsessed with him?\" \"That''s right. He does not even appreciate you.\" \"There are many people far better than him in Mount Hua Sect, and they are Alchemist or Forging Master.\" \"You do not even love him.\" \"Like I said, you all never saw that. What is love? If the Rainbow Flower sect is destroyed in the future or I die because I am powerless, love is just worthless. I am just sacrificing myself for the future of Rainbow Flower Sect. This is certainly not my pleasure, but this is absolutely my duty.\" Letizia said while glaring at them. Her speech immediately shut them up. They never thought the reason why Letizia wanted to marry that person was for this. But they still could not understand why she thought that Peak Martial Grandmaster very highly. \"You must think I am crazy. But why do not all of you wonder why he comes to this place, and why his identity is so hidden? \"From our information, the Southern Kingdom had put a bounty on his head. But not long after that, they suddenly took off that bounty. And with the bad blood that even made the Southern Kingdom had to put a bounty on him, why would he come here? \"This place is very close to the Southern Kingdom. The Heavenly Sword Sect must have hidden him for so long. And the reason why the Southern Kingdom took off the bounty of his head must be because he is very valuable. And most likely, he is the hidden weapon, Heavenly Sword Sect. \"I have seen his power and talent, and I am sure that he will reach far higher than the current sect master. When that time comes, are you sure our sect could still live?\" \"¡­\" They could not say anything. Her speech made them speechless. This entire time, they were clueless as to what happened. They never knew what kind of burden Alicia was shouldering. Unfortunately, if Letizia could say that Alex got the inheritance of the Martial Emperor, it would be far easier to shut them up. The reason why Alex came to this place even though the Southern Kingdom had put his head a bounty two months ago¡­ Alex must be confident that the Southern Kingdom did not dare to kill him. He was not afraid of them. They had some doubts about it too. Heavenly Sword Sect would not let him go to this dangerous place without protection. And they thought those two people beside him were not enough. So, Alex must have another few people around this area. When they realized that, they sucked a cold breath. They were too ashamed because they never thought about that. Because of Letizia''s explanation, they could realize that. If they truly clashed with them, their group would be annihilated. ¡­ Alex did not care what they thought. Or at least, he had sent Njomo with them, to see if they would do something funny. He just hoped they did not do something funny or come back and enter this place. Leoz and the others had been preparing themselves to enter. And it seemed there was no sign of undead other than the two Alex met before. \"Are you ready?\" \"Yeah. We are ready.\" Leoz and the others nodded. \"I hope Anya will reach the Martial Lord Stage in this place,\" Alex said as he took the token out of his ring. \"Maybe if you kiss me, I will be more motivated,\" Anya said cheekily. \"Well, let''s enter!\" \"Ignored again.\" Anya pouted. Alex then activated his token in the barrier and opened the barrier a little bit. As soon as he opened the barrier, the undead immediately felt his presence and attacked him. Of course, the two who moved first would be Leoz and Anna. Both of them immediately chopped the two undead''s heads. The others also started walking inside the barrier. Alex then closed the barrier again. When they came inside, they were surprised as the inside was very different. In fact, they were on the foot of a mountain. Although vague as it may, Alex could see an altar at the top of the mountain. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a huge amount of dark elements were produced from that altar. Although it was a dark element, it was not like a black colored energy, it was the same as air. No one would see any dark color inside this place except Alex who activated his Spirit Eyes. \"See the altar on the top of the mountain?\" Alex asked his spirits while pointing at the altar. They could vaguely see it too, so they nodded. \"That is our target. I could see the dark energy was coming from that place.\" \"Well, we need to start sweeping this place first. After all, I could sense many Martial Lords around this place.\" Anna said. \"Yeah. My instinct has been tingling this entire time.\" Leoz nodded. \"This place is spacious, so we need to stick together for the time being,\" Alex said as he checked their surroundings with his Spirit Eyes. \"You can see that hill over there?\" Anya pointed her hand into the nearby hill. It was only around three hundred meter hills. It was nothing in front of the one thousand meter mountain in front of them. But Anya chose that position because it was a good place for them to observe their surroundings. They could fly to observe their surroundings, but if they were engaged with battles, it would be hard to observe while battling in the air. The reason was simple, it was hard for them to make a good maneuver in the air. So it would be better to observe the situation on a cliff nearby. Of course, Alex knew about it as well. They did not have any problem with Anya''s plan, so they immediately flew toward the cliff. As soon as they arrived, Anya and Alex with his Spirit Eyes, immediately covered the entire area. Alex could see many energy signs around them. It was like around a hundred Martial Lords around them. Although they were only around 1-Star to 4-Star Martial Lord. Unlike Fabio, Anna, and Leoz, the others were still around their level. \"Anna and Leoz would be the vanguard. Greg will protect Alex in here while Alex provided us with the support. The support is your Spear Throwing Art. Fabio and Vera will provide Anna and Leoz cover. As for Jeanne, I want you to move around to kill any single undead across the area. \"I want you to prioritize the undead that were going to join the battle. I want you to assassinate all of them. Sherry and Kyle will bombard them with fire.\" Anya immediately explained their strategy. Alex was startled. Despite her characters, Anya could come up with a strategy so fast. He wanted to join the battlefield, but considering their enemies were Martial Lords, he might not help much. Alex also understood that. He decided to support them from here instead of joining them. \"Let me support you first,\" Anya said. \"Ding Ding!\" She tapped the ground with her staff two times. Her staff started glowing with a pure and warm light. Alex''s Spirit Eyes was still active, and he could see there were streams of light that were connected from Anya to them. Alex could feel a warm feeling inside her heart, and he felt his strength increased around ten to twenty percent. \"I will support all of you from here. But as you know, I would not be able to join the fight. So, I leave it to you.\" Anya said with a smile. \"Gahaha¡­ With these many of us powered up, it is even greater than you join us in the battle.\" Leoz brutally said. Anya ignored Leoz''s comment and looked at Alex. \"Alex, there are three ideal spots to start the battle. You can choose one of them.\" Of course, Alex knew the three spots in her mouth. Each spot contained around ten undead with twenty in their surroundings. \"Sherry, Kyle, come out.\" \"Yes (Chirp).\" Kyle had become a Martial Lord Stage beast, but unfortunately, he could not speak yet. But Alex could understand his chirping after he evolved. At least, there were improvements. \"I will throw my spears. I want you two to target whichever undead that did not die from my spear.\" Sherry and Kyle nodded. Alex then moved toward the direction he wanted to start. His spirits already took out their respective weapon. Alex took out his spears. \"Immovable Step.\" Alex did not hold back in fighting these undead. After all, all of them were Martial Lords. He did not dare to look down on them. \"Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing.\" Alex threw both of his spears in succession, \"Boom Boom!\" Of course, as soon as it reached the ground, it made a loud sound and attracted other undead nearby. Fortunately, both spears managed to kill one undead each as Alex targeted their head. \"Roar Roar!\" \"Roar Roar Roar!\" But Alex and Anya made one miscalculation. They miscalculated the roar of the undead. When one undead roared, and it was heard by the other undead, and they roared again and noticed by the other again. It continued until the roars echoed through the whole realm. The undead started charging toward them. And luckily, it seemed the undead could not fly, or they did not have enough intelligence to do that. Since they were pretty close with the realm barrier, they were not surrounded from four directions. Unfortunately, they were still surrounded from three directions: Front, Left, and Right. But it was enough for Alex to come up with the plan. Although Alex and Anya were astonished, they did not panic. Without waiting for Anya, Alex immediately said, \"We are switching the plan. Leoz group will do according to the original plan. But I want Jeanne to move back and protect this cliff as well as Anna. \"Greg. Can you make a huge barrier that can hold the undead for a few seconds?\" \"Two Seconds,\" Greg said. \"Good enough.\" Alex nodded. Alex then continued, \"Greg, I want you to make a barrier that can hold the undead on our right for two seconds. Sherry and Kyle will summon our Phoenix and hit them.\" Even in this chaotic situation, Alex was still thinking about killing the undead. \"What about me?\" Anna asked as she was confused as she did not understand why Alex wanted her back to this cliff. \"Leoz group will hold the undead on our left. As for Anna, I want you to stop them for a few seconds. It seems they are not too intelligent. You can use the Dark Curtain to confuse them first.\" Alex said. \"We are going to teleport from this place with Alex''s array then,\" Anya added. Alex nodded. It was his plan. Anya had realized his plan just from hearing he wanted Anna and Jeanne to pull back.\" \"Jeanne will kill any undead that manages to get close to us. As soon as you heard the explosions from our phoenixes, all of you will come back to this cliff and we will escape together. We have no time, now go!\" Alex said. All of them nodded their heads and disappeared. They both took their positions as Greg also came to the front. 326 Killing the Undead Leoz''s group. \"Ice Wall!\" Vera made a giant ice wall to stop the advance of the undead. Unfortunately, as expected, with so many undead charged toward the ice wall with the power of Martial Lords, her Ice Wall immediately cracked. She tried her best to hold the ice wall, but, \"Boom!\" The undead managed to put a hole in her ice wall. Sadly, Leoz and Fabio were in their way. \"Thunder Cut.\" \"Flame Saber!\" Both of them used their attacks. The attacks were powerful enough to trounce the undead that slipped past the hole. ¡­ Anna was waiting for a little bit. She was waiting for the perfect time to confuse the entire area. \"Dark Curtain.\" She immediately made a huge dark half sphere and covered as many as possible. The undead inside the dark curtain was confused as they could see Alex''s group. At the same time, on the right side, Greg''s armor turned to green as usual as he raised his giant shield. \"Great Wall!\" A ten meter tall green wall rose from the ground. But unlike Vera''s ice wall, Greg was specialized in defense. The undead were stopped and tried to break the solid wall. \"Now!\" Alex did not waste a single second. As soon as the wall erected, he, along with Sherry and Kyle, already prepared. \"Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon!\" Three fire phoenixes immediately flew from the cliff toward the undead that had been stopped by Greg''s wall. \"Boom Boom Boom!\" All of the phoenix exploded, and Alex immediately got an influx of EXP and Gacha Tickets. With those explosions, Greg''s wall collapsed, and he immediately went back to the cliff. It was the same as Anna''s Dark Curtain. Even though she had stopped the undead inside her Dark Curtain, the undead behind them was still charging. The undead charged toward her Dark Curtain and involuntarily destroyed it. In the meantime, Vera''s ice wall had collapsed, and all of them retreated back to the cliff. When Alex saw everyone had come back, he flicked his finger. A pink array appeared below their feet, and they suddenly disappeared. Although the undead could not fly, they were able to jump. As soon as they reached the bottom of the cliff, they could arrive at the top of the cliff with a single jump. Unfortunately, Alex''s group had gone somewhere else with Alex''s teleportation. Alex''s group was not that lucky though. Alex tried to teleport them as far as he could. Unfortunately, the realm was too wide, and when they arrived at the new spots, there were still undead around. So, Alex teleported them again a few times. Alex chose to kill the undead first because he did not want to be disturbed by them. It would be suck if his lightning tribulation were disturbed as his lightning tribulation might attract them like it drew the monsters in. As soon as they reached a safe place, Alex said, \"Here is the plan, we are going back to the cliff.\" \"!!!\" Everyone was startled. Anya immediately realized his intention. \"I see, we might need to stretch our defenses a little bit though.\" Alex nodded. The others were confused as they could not understand what these two were talking about. \"Alex was thinking about wiping them out as fast as possible,\" Anya said. Seeing their confused look, she continued, \"From what we saw, the undead from all directions were moving toward our cliff, and we will use this as our advantage. \"Since they were going to that cliff, we can strike them from the back. So, if they turned back and the other undead recognized our position. They would come to us in the same direction. They would pass the cliff first and become our prey.\" \"!!!\" They finally realized the plan after Anya explained it to them. \"Yeah. That''s why we are going to expand our defense area a little bit. It is better to kill them all here since we only need to worry in one direction, which is our front. \"Greg will help Anna and Leoz as the vanguard. I want Fabio and Vera to support them. As for Sherry and Kyle, both of you, along with me, just need to bombard them. Make sure you kill as many as possible. There might be still a few undead that did not come from the cliff, so I want Jeanne to eliminate them.\" They nodded their heads. Alex did not need to point out Anya''s role since she already knew. \"We are going to fly this time to make sure we kill as many as possible before facing the undead around the cliff,\" Anya said. Alex then closed his eyes. He said in a low voice, \"Pure Fire!\" The phoenix seed inside his body immediately broke open, and his overbearing Pure Fire came out of the seed. Alex slowly opened his eyes and looked at the others, \"Let''s go.\" ¡­ Fortunately, the undead seemed not to have any intelligence. They could ambush them pretty easily. Of course, they were only left out of the undead. When they arrived on the cliff, they could clearly see numerous undead around the cliff, trying to search for them. According to what they could see, their number was around a thousand. In other words, there were around a thousand Martial Lords in this place. Although they were undead, they were still bona fide Martial Lords. If all of them were released outside, there would be a catastrophe. It might be good to lead them to the nearest kingdom, which was the Southern Kingdom. Since Alex had a grudge with them, leading all of the powerful undead in this place to them might destroy them. Sadly, this undead could not leave this place. Because they would not last long outside. It was a shame not to use them so Alex could only turn them to EXP and Gacha Tickets. With so many undead around the cliff, Alex and Anya were wondering whether they should make a different plan. After all, there were around a thousand Martial Lords in front of them. \"Anna, can you try to control them?\" Alex asked. He remembered the skill that Anna used to control the Zhou Soldiers. Anna only shook her head. \"I am sorry to disappoint you. But they are already dead, and as you have said, they do not have any intelligence. I can''t take over something that does not exist.\" \"Alright. Forget about my question then.\" \"We will have Greg, Fabio, and Vera to activate your True Spirit Body,\" Anya said. Alex remembered something, \"Anya, what is your True Spirit Body?\" He did not know Anya''s True Spirit Body since when he asked Anna about it. She told him to ask her himself. Of course, it was not only her, but he also did not know about the hero spirit and Jeanne''s twin. \"I am Light Butterfly Spirit. I am mainly in support as I can increase your power like previous time or provide some healing. But do not expect that much from me in a fight. Although I can somehow fight at the same level, I am far weaker than them. \"If you remember the link from before¡­ Actually, in my True Spirit Body, you can even borrow my element and use some Light Element Martial Arts. Ah, but I can only make ten links.\" Anya explained. \"¡­\" Alex was astonished. He knew they needed her ability, and she was even able to lend her Light Element. It was such a ridiculous power. Alex nodded. \"Alright. Then, why do you want three of them to activate their True Spirit Body?\" \"I want Anna to make the previous Ice Wall. But make it to a ''V'' shape and direct them to the middle. Just make a hole around five meters in the middle.\" Anya explained. Vera only nodded her head. Anya then turned to Greg. \"Greg will make a powerful shield in the middle. Since it does not need to cover a huge area, it should be stronger, right?\" Greg nodded. \"Fabio then will use your firepower together with Alex, Sherry, and Kyle to kill the undead that was stopped by Greg. Since they were pretty concentrated in the middle, they should be pretty easy to kill. \"Anna and Leoz will handle the undead that tried to go around Vera''s ice wall. As for Jeanne, she will protect us from any nearby zombie as our last line of defense.\" Anya explained her plan. \"But¡­ with so many undead, even in my True Spirit Body, my shield can only hold them for around ten seconds. Or there might be a possibility that they will break through Vera''s ice wall.\" \"No, they should not try to break Vera''s ice wall since they do not have intelligence. And even if it is only ten seconds, I am sure our firepower would be able to remove at least half of them at minimal. According to my prediction, we can kill seventy percent of them. \"And I am sure with all of us here, we can kill the other three hundred, right? We can just fight while retreating and let them chase us. It should not be that hard.\" Anya explained. Anya only chose three of them so the others could reserve their strength for any possibility that might come in the future. After all, they still had Leoz who was the strongest out of them. All of them did not have any problem with her plan, so they nodded their heads. The undead had yet to realize their position, so it gave them time to prepare. \"True Spirit Body. Ifrit.\" \"True Spirit Body, Ice Phoenix Spirit.\" \"True Spirit Body. Fortress.\" Fabio was immediately covered by his flame. Even his hair turned into flame. As for Vera, she grew a pair of wings made of ice. She looked like Anna in her True Spirit Body, the only difference was her wing looked like Kyle. As for Greg, as usual, he did not have any change since he was covered by his armor. \"Wait. I will open the battle. Of course, Sherry, Kyle, and Fabio will also do the same. Each of you target one spot that has the highest population of the undead.\" Alex said. All of them nodded and immediately picked one spot while Alex chose the top of the cliff. It had been surrounded by around a hundred undead. He hoped he could kill half of them in this attack alone with his Pure Fire. Because of the barrier, he did not care if he needed to use his Pure Fire or not, since no one would be able to see it. \"Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon.\" \"Ifrit From. Magma Blaze!\" Fabio''s attack was a giant fireball. But he could feel the intense heat inside the ball. It was at the same level as Sherry''s flame. Although Alex did not know whether his flame would get stronger or not, Sherry was the same as Kyle, who was not an adult Spirit Beast. Alex was sure that her flame would get even stronger. \"Go!\" Alex shouted. As soon as he shouted, all of them threw their attacks toward their respective target. \"Boom Boom Boom Boom!\" A series of explosions immediately filled the barrier. The undead finally discovered their position with that blast. \"Roar Roar!\" They charged at them while roaring. Greg and Vera appeared in front of them. \"Ice Phoenix Spirit, Wall!\" Two giant walls that made a ''V'' rose from the ground. Of course, as the original plan, she left a five-meter gap in the middle. When the undead saw it, they suddenly changed their direction toward the gap. It was the time Greg appeared in front of them. He raised his shield. \"Fortress Form First Stage, Enhanced Wall.\" A translucent green wall rose. It immediately blocked the undead charge. Leoz and Anna immediately went to their position while Jeanne was flying around. Anya already increased their strength. Alex and the others did not waste their time. \"Now!\" \"Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon.\" \"Ifrit Form. Magma Blaze!\" \"Boom Boom!\" 327 Tes \"Boom Boom!\" Alex and the others did not stop there. As soon as they finished the first attack, they immediately sent the second one. The realm was filled with explosions. Luckily, the undead did not have intelligence. If they at least had the same intelligence as monsters, Alex and the others would have a hard fight against them. After all, this fight was not the same as the fight in the Ant Nest in Zwaka''s place. The ant over there were around 1-6 Star Martial Grandmasters. While they had two Martial Lords who were Anna and Fabio. However, in this fight, their cultivation was around the undead. So, they needed to be careful. Alex and the others tried to kill as many as possible. And it seemed Anna and Leoz had no opponent this time as all the undead completely trapped in Vera''s ice wall.n 10 seconds¡­ \"!!!\" When Greg''s barrier broke, Alex and the group immediately started moving backward. Fortunately, as Anya''s prediction, they managed to kill around seventy percent of the undead. There were only around three hundred undead left in the area. \"We are going to retreat. Sherry, Kyle, try to hit them with firebirds. And Sherry, you will control my fire too. We are retreating until we decrease their number to a certain level. After that, we will engage them in close combat.\" Alex immediately gave his order. \"Understood.\" Sherry was in her small form, so it was easy to carry her around. But it seemed Kyle decided to go back inside his body and shot from there. Well, Alex did not have any problem with it though. Alex wanted Sherry to control his flame because he had another plan. He constructed a teleportation array. This teleportation array was not for them. But instead, the moment he activated his teleportation array, it appeared beneath the undead feet. He tried to teleport them as high as he could. But sadly, because of the limitation inside the barrier, he could only teleport them around two hundred meters above the ground. The undead fell to the ground. Sadly, Alex did not kill any of them because of their power as Martial Lords. Although they did not have any intelligence or instinct, they still had the body of a Martial Lord, and that short fall just now did not do much damage to them. Alex knew his plan was a failure. He tried to come up with another plan but to no avail. So he switched to his swords. He took out twenty swords and let them fly toward the undead. But when he saw one of his swords stuck on one of the undead bodies, he immediately recalled the other swords. He switched the real swords with illusory swords. He used his Omnislash and let them plunge the undead. He did not mind losing them since he could make more as long as he used Omnislash again. And when there were a hundred undead left, Anya shouted. \"Now! Leoz, Anna will be the vanguard, and we will support them. There is no need for tactics anymore. With three True Spirit Body, we will overpower them. \"Haha¡­ finally!\" Leoz was pretty eager for this. After all, he loved battle. Since he could not fight up till now, he wanted to massacre the undead. Unfortunately, Anna did not share his excitement. She only came to the front because Anya ordered her. One hour later, They finally managed to kill all of them. It took them a little bit longer because Anya wanted Alex and the others to reserve their strength. She was thinking about the existence on the top of the mountain. After all, it was already surprising enough not to see that existence did not come to bother them. Alex was also wondering about that. Every time Anya and Alex made their plan, they were still considering the possibility of that existence joining the fact. That was the reason why Anya did not ask Leoz to use his True Spirit Body yet. Alex checked his Spirits status. They had killed a thousand Martial Lords, so there should be a leap of progress. [Anna (Dark) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 123516/270000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 146234/270000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 13524/240000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 34/80 (4-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 235457/250000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 178696/230000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 135423/220000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 124321/220000] [Anya (Light) Level: 29/80 (5-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 178967/200000] Alex looked at their progress and felt it was a bit disappointing. After all, they just killed a thousand Martial Lords. Especially when he saw Anya was still a Martial Grandmaster. \"No, in fact, how many monsters do you kill on a daily basis?\" Alex asked Leoz and the others. He finally noticed the problem. Their progress was good before coming here. And with the sudden influx of EXP from a thousand Martial Lords. The result was not satisfactory. So, it must be because Leoz and the others killed too many monsters daily that made their progress look disappointing this time. \"Ahem, We kill these many in around a month,\" Leoz said. \"¡­\" Alex facepalmed. It turned out they only needed a month to kill these many Martial Lords. Of course, he knew there were many Martial Lords monsters scattered through the Nemu Forest. But even so, it would be too hard to keep encountering them. There were only Leoz, Fabio, Vera, Jeanne, and Greg. So, if they could kill a thousand Martial Lord Stage monsters in a month, each of them would need to kill two hundred monsters in a month. In other words, they killed around six or seven monsters daily. And the rest of the monster they killed would be Martial Grandmaster stage monsters. He sighed. \"Alright. We are going to recover our energy first around here. After that, we will try to move around and make sure there are no more undead around. After that, we will start climbing the mountain and face the one who spreads this dark element energy.\" \"Then, after everything is finished, you will then start your lightning tribulation,\" Anya added. \"Yeah.\" Alex nodded. They decided to rest for around three hours. Anya took this time to come up with a plan for later. After that, they started to move around the place. Although they could occasionally find undead, there was no more undead group around. So, killing them was pretty easy. Leoz thought about splitting to a few groups but Alex was against the idea. They did not know the existence on the top of the mountain yet, so it would be foolish to split their number. If Alex''s group were the ones who got attacked, then it would be easy since Alex could summon all of them immediately. But if the others were the ones who got attacked¡­ Alex might be able to recall them back, but a slight hesitation might make them regret. Anya also had the same opinion as him. Well, since both bosses had spoken, no one would raise an objection. They continued in a group, so it took them a bit longer to search every nook and corner. After confirming they were safe, they decided to climb the mountain. Alex was wondering why this seeming existence would not descend the mountain. He was thankful though, since he did not need to worry about this opponent. \"Everyone prepare for battle as soon as we reach the peak,\" Anya warned them again before climbing the mountain. Of course, they were flying to the top, not climbing on foot. But when they arrived at the top, they could see a red haired woman, sitting in a big chair made of stone. Her appearance was beautiful, and in fact, she was not losing to that rumored number one beauty of Wilow Continent, Letizia. Alex frowned when he saw this woman because he could see that this woman radiated a massive dark element energy. When she sensed Alex''s arrival, she slowly opened her eyes. \"I¡­ have¡­ been¡­ waiting¡­\" She said slowly. Her voice was soft, but there was something weird on her voice. Alex did not know why, but he felt that this was not her way of speaking. She suddenly pointed her finger to him. When the others saw this, they immediately moved in front of him with their weapon in hand. Of course, Alex did not see any energy coming from her hand, so he knew she did not want to attack him. But from the energy inside her body, he could see that she was also an undead. She then took out a sword. His spirits almost charged at her when she took out her sword. But Alex shouted, \"Wait!\" She then suddenly released her Spiritual Energy as well as her Sword Intent. Alex was startled. Not only her strength but also her Sword Intent and Domain. When she released her strength, Alex could see that the calm energy inside her body suddenly burst out, and surprisingly it reached the point of Martial King. And her Sword Domain was over a hundred meters. Alex was surprised beyond belief. He remembered the biggest Sword Domain he had encountered was Morgan''s Sword Domain. It was only a fifty meters Sword Domain while this woman had twice of that size. Alex suddenly sucked a cold breath. If this woman could go out of this realm along with the other undead, the continent would be chaotic. Alex thought about retreating outside as he did not have any confidence in beating her. But he did not do it because he had his spirits. With Leoz and the others simultaneously using their True Spirit Body, Alex might have a chance to win. \"You¡­ and¡­ me¡­ fight¡­\" The woman said again. Alex frowned. There was no way he could fight with this woman alone. He would just be obliterated by her. \"A¡­ test¡­ No¡­ element¡­ only¡­ weapon¡­\" \"Alex, you should not listen to this undead, This undead just wants to kill you! We will fight with you.\" Anna said. But suddenly the woman threw away her weapon and took a branch. Her cultivation also started decreasing to the level of Peak Martial Grandmaster. It seemed that the woman truly wanted to test him. Alex was not sure about this as a careful person. After all, he considered the pros and cons first. But Alex really wanted this special realm. If he wanted to reach the Martial Lord safely, he needed to go to this realm. He did not know whether the Zhou Kingdom would send people to him again or not. But from the past two months, it seemed the Zhou Kingdom holed up inside their kingdom. Although the Zhou Kingdom tried to hide something, Alex knew one thing. In ten months, they would have a Grand Tournament. And Alex felt something might happen in that tournament. After all, it was the only time that the people around the continent gathered. They could send so many powerful people against him, which meant they had many more of those people. If they wanted to act, then it would be at that particular time. Of course, it was only his feeling. Alex made Nelson investigate the Zhou Kingdom closely. After all, there were also people from the Zhou Kingdom in that group. Or at least, he recognized one of them. Alex did not want any trouble until then, especially with this eye-catching thing that might even make a problem to the Northern Continent. His master had teleported them away from this continent. Of course, he did not want to make them come here again. With many considerations, Alex decided to accept it. After all, the woman had limited her strength to his level, and she only used a wooden stick. She even reduced her Domain to a thirty-meter one. Alex thought he had a chance for this. \"I will take this chance,\" Alex said to his spirits as he walked to the front. 328 Intents Fusion \"I will take that chance.\" The spirits were shocked when they heard Alex said that. Alex did not know why, but this undead had something that he needed. Or at least, she was not planning to do something bad to him. Unlike the normal undead with no intelligence, this female undead had a certain degree of intelligence. And he felt no evil intent from this female undead. Alex chose to take the test. \"Alex (Young Master)!\" Of course, the others did not agree with it. \"I am sorry, but I need to take this one,\" Alex said with a smile. He remembered Anna said that this barrier should not be able to be opened. But this female could open it. He was wondering whether it was luck or whatever, but he might get the answer if he fought with this woman. She even limited her strength to his level. If Alex chose to fight with his spirits, she might revert her strength back. Alex moved to the front and stood a few meters in front of the female undead. If he did not have his Spirit Eyes or any knowledge about the undead in this barrier, he might think that this woman was still alive. After all, there was no wound or whatever on her body, and her long purple dress had no blemish. When the spirits saw him going forward, all of them immediately looked at Anya. With only a word from her, they would charge forward. \"Anya. Wait a little bit.\" Anna suddenly stopped her. Leoz and the others were looking at Anna with a confused expression. Anya also could not believe her ears as Anna, who worried about him the most, stopped her. \"Please. Just this once, I feel¡­ I feel¡­ there must be something in this. Believe in him.\" Anna said. \"You feel? Do you think I can be assured just because of your feelings? Even if you are my twin sister, but this is the matter of Alex. I-\" \"Anya. Please. We both¡­ No, all of us have lost him once. I also do not want to lose him again. But, just this once¡­ just this once¡­\" \"You-!\" Anya looked at Anna''s pitiful expression. She gritted her teeth. She knew both of them had lost their beloved Alex once. They would not repeat the same thing even at the cost of their life. But she could not shake her feelings in Anna''s words. She bit her lips. \"Fine. Just this once.\" She looked at Leoz. \"Activate your True Spirit Body. If there is something wrong, you will immediately save Alex.\" \"Even if it cost my life.\" Leoz nodded as he raised his sword, \"True Spirit Body. Thunder Berserker.\" \"Greg, prepare your shield at any moment.\" Anya turned to Greg. Greg nodded his head. Although Anya said Alex could take the risk, she was still preparing for the worst. In the meantime, Alex was looking at the female undead in front of him. He took out his sword and spear. He released both of his domains. After two months of training, Alex''s sword domain had reached 35 meters radius while his spear domain was only five meters short from it. There was a slight movement on the female undead''s eyebrows. It looked like she was surprised by him. \"!!!\" Of course, Alex noticed that small movement. But because there was no expression whatsoever after that, Alex decided to ignore it for the time being. The female undead suddenly made something unbelievable. She covered the wooden stick with her Sword Intent. Alex was dumbfounded when he saw that. He never did something like that. No, in fact, he could not do that. Even though he could fuse his Sword Intent to his spear and vice versa, that was all he could do. He could not conjure his intent to any other weapons or equipment. \"Fu-!\" Alex let out a deep breath, trying to focus on his opponent instead of shocked by her. Even if he could not do something like her, she also could not do something like him. Their eyes became sharped as they jumped forward at the same time. Alex and the woman swung their swords. It gave a shockwave as both of their sword intent collided. But the shocking thing was when Alex suddenly got pushed by the female undead. Alex was pushed by the woman a few meters back. Alex could not comprehend the strength behind her. He jumped forward again and swung his sword. But like the previous clash, Alex could not win the clash with his strength. He then slid the sword and directed it to the ground. Then he thrust his spear toward her. But surprisingly, she suddenly raised her other hand to meet Alex''s spear. She was planning to meet Alex''s spear that had been covered by his Spear Intent with her hand. Of course, Alex did not have any intention to pull back. He was planning to defeat her by thrusting his spear through her hand. But suddenly, a dense Sword Intent appeared on her hand as she grabbed Alex''s spear with her bare hand. \"!!!\" Alex was astonished to see that. He did not understand why she could use her Sword Intent with her barehand. The stick already slid off his sword and came back toward him. Noticing the wooden stick, Alex immediately pulled back his spear and used its handle to deflect the stick once more. He then swung his sword again but stopped by the wooden stick. Alex knew it would be a hard fight. ¡­ They had been clashing for a few minutes. The female undead did not use any of her Sword Arts. Instead, she was engaging Alex purely with her Sword Intent alone. Alex also did not use any of his Martial Arts as this exchange was really beneficial to him. Even Anna and the others could see that Alex''s movement became more precise as they continued clashing. It was not his sword alone, but his spear also became sharper. He did not want this clash to end so soon, so he purposely did not use his Martial Arts. Alex was also observing the woman''s technique. He felt something different from her sword technique, but he could not tell what it was even with her Sword Mastery. Suddenly she knocked his spear away. \"Kh!\" Alex immediately retreated a few steps back while taking another spear from his inventory. The woman did not chase him. Instead, she was walking toward his spear that planted on the ground. She pulled the spear and pointed it toward Alex. \"Your¡­ heart¡­ empty.\" Alex could not understand what she meant, but when she suddenly used her Sword Intent with her sword, Alex was shocked beyond belief. It was like his technique to use a spear like using a sword. But he felt something different from it. Although she was able to use her Sword Intent with the spear, he felt like that was all. What Alex taught Putri was more than that. He taught her how to treat both the same, and she became capable of using Sword Art too. But unlike Putri, he felt that this woman could not use anything other than her Sword Art because she treated everything as a Sword but not treated them the same. She then jumped forward and clashed with him with a wooden stick as well as his spear. Alex''s expression became serious. They clashed again for a few minutes. But this time, Alex could not get any advantage. In fact, he had been suppressed by her this entire time. \"Haa! Seven Stars Cut.\" Alex was the first one who used a Sword Art. The woman only waved her sword slightly, and his Seven Stars Cut was split to half. Alex sweatdropped as he realized that the situation became a little bit bad. He continued to observe how the woman used her sword. But suddenly the woman stopped. Alex looked at her confusedly. \"There¡­ no¡­ weapon¡­ in¡­ your¡­ heart.\" \"When¡­ you¡­ lose¡­ weapons¡­ you¡­ lose.\" Alex could not understand her. It seemed she was talking, there was no weapon in his heart, and when he lost his weapons, he would lose. Alex could not understand what she meant. He did not know why she said there was no weapon in his heart even though he had. He had his sword and spear. Alex did not really understand her meaning at all. \"Lose my weapon¡­ I will lose.\" Alex murmured. He suddenly took it from a different perspective. He thought, ''Without her weapon, will she lose?'' The answer was no. In fact, she never used her sword this whole time. But if Alex lost his sword and spear, he would surely change into his Fire and Array. But it was different for this woman. If she lost her sword, she would just pick whatever she could find and turn it to a sword. A thought suddenly flashed in his mind. There was a single line that suddenly kept recalling inside his mind. \"Even without my sword in my hand, there is still a sword in my heart. Everything will become my sword as long as my heart will it.\" It kept echoing in his mind. And suddenly there was a trace of sword intent appeared on his heart. With that sudden appearance, his Sword Domain suddenly increased by leaps and bound. His Sword Domain suddenly reached fifty-meter radius. It did not stop there. Alex was also thinking about his spear. \"Even without my spear in my hand, there is still a spear in my heart. Everything will become my spear as long as my heart will it.\" A spear intent also appeared on his heart, and his Spear Domain also reached fifty-meter radius. But because he was a bit occupied by this, he missed a small smile that appeared on her face. Although he was savoring all of this, he tried to keep track of her movement. Fortunately, the woman did not move from her spot. Of course, the spirits were also watching her movement. They were ready to charge at any moment to protect Alex. With this new-found thing, he wanted to face her again, but another thing was bugging him. He recalled that he could not fuse his Sword and Spear because he felt he was missing something. Because his sword and his spear never etched in his heart, he never brought his weapons to its fullest potential. Because he did not put it in his heart, he could not merge both of them. Like a marriage in his perspective, if there were no love, he would not ''become'' one with her. If he did not put both of his weapons in his heart, how could he fuse them into one? Suddenly Sword Intent and Spear Intent appeared simultaneously in his sword. When he was using his sword like a spear, he would immediately remove his Sword Intent and replace it with Spear Intent and vice versa. But this time, he managed to summon both intent altogether. The Sword Intent and the Spear Intent slowly fused with each other. Even the spirits were looking at him with great hope, Anna murmured, \"He comes back.\" On the other hand, there was a trace of astonishment in the woman''s face. When both intents were fused together, creating a whole new intent. Alex swung his sword. \"Seven Stars Cut!\" With his current strength, he could make a six layers Seven Stars Cut. But if it was a normal Seven Stars Cut, he was just doing the same thing as before. Surprisingly, this time, he made a Seven Stars Cut but fused his new intent. An Intent birthed by a combination of Sword Intent and Spear Intent. If Alex needed to call it, he would call it¡­ \"Twin Intent.\" And this new Twin Intent gave birth to a new brand power of Seven Stars Cut. The intent was sharp like it wanted to cut people, but if one stood in front of it, he/she would feel the intent was penetrating their skin. Especially when the woman took the full brunt of this Seven Stars Cut. \"!!!\" She was astonished by the sudden increase in power. 329 Mithra \"!!!\" After noticing the power of Alex''s brand new intent. She immediately released her full power to break this Seven Stars Cut. \"Boom!\" Alex looked at the female undead. After using her full power, she was able to stop his attack completely. But it also attracted the attention of his spirits as Leoz immediately appeared in front of him. Leoz was ready to charge upon her, but the woman suddenly said, \"You¡­ pass¡­\" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. \"Pu-!\" \"Pu?\" Alex and the spirits were confused. They did not know what she meant by ''Pu.'' \"Pu¡­pu hahahaha!\" The female undead suddenly laughed. And surprisingly, she laughed like a human. There was no such a trace like her broken speech from earlier. \"Hahaha¡­ I can''t act like this anymore. It is really hard not to laugh this whole time.\" She said with a normal speech. \"You¡­\" \"Haha¡­ sorry sorry. I just want to see what kind of person I have been waiting for.\" \"You have been waiting for me?\" Alex remembered that she said he had been waiting for him before they fought. \"To think that bastard Maxwell made me wait for this kid that is even more monstrous than he was. This is really a laughing matter.\" \"?!\" Alex was surprised to hear his master name in her mouth. He asked, \"You know my master?\" \"So, he is your master, no wonder. But, did he never introduce me?\" She asked. There was only a confused look on his face. \"Who are you?\" \"I am Mithra. I am his friend, or you can also say I am indebted to him, so I agreed to wait for you and give you the thing he wanted to give you, Space Plate. Unfortunately, because of many events, I lost that technique.\" \"Mithra?\" Alex was startled. It was the name that his master told him. He remembered that his master gave her the Space Plate and gave Skewes the Spatial Door. \"Master has talked about you.\" \"Oh. He did!\" Mithra looked at Alex''s confused look and laughed again. \"Well, seeing your confused look, I shall explain everything from the start. But it will take a bit of time, so I think the people beside you need to chill down first.\" She looked at Anna and the others who were still clenching their weapon. \"How scary. I just want to test him. And he is far more monstrous than that man.\" Alex sighed. He said to his spirits, \"It is fine.\" Anna and the others finally dropped their weapon. Alex finally understood why she could enter the barrier. But he needed to confirm it first, \"You¡­ have master''s token, right?\" \"Oh, you mean this?\" She suddenly took out two tokens. The two tokens were the same as Alex''s token. \"They are my token and Skewes Token. I am sure you also know about Skewes since you have heard my name.\" Alex nodded. \"Then, I will start from the time where Maxwell continued his journey. After we got separated from him, Skewes and I were clueless since we could not follow him because we were too weak. \"So, rather than becoming his burden, Skewes and I chose to stay in this continent. I found out that Skewes chose to settle down with his wife while I was planning to roam through another continent. \"Of course, at my own pace. After that, I started roaming through the Northern Continent and becoming a Martial King as well as a Sword King. Unfortunately, when I became a peak Martial King, I opened a pandora box. \"I was chased by many Martial Kings and even Martial Emperors after that. I could only escape to this place, and luckily, they came to this place. I used a forbidden technique, and it made me like this. \"Nonetheless, I could butcher all those people with the forbidden technique. And finally turned them into undead like the ones you have killed. All of them were former Martial Kings and Martial Emperors, you know. But I could only turn them into undead at Martial Lord level. \"Albeit, it has been a few thousand years for me in this place. Even I got a little bored, so I tested as well as teased you a little bit. Anyway¡­ I could finally see someone that is far more monstrous than him. I am pretty satisfied with that. \"Anyway, here is the reward.\" She took out a green box, but the box seemed to be only a half. Alex received it with good care. He rolled the box around to see what kind of box it was. He even used his Spirit Eyes to look at it. But nothing seemed to stand out. \"Hehe¡­ Because of the pursuit, I broke this one, but I was sure no one from the people who pursued me got it. So, it should still be on this continent.\" \"What is the use of this box?\" Alex asked. \"There is a trial in the Northern Continent. And this box is the key to that trial. The trial will be held every hundred years. As for the specific year¡­ don''t ask me. I have been caged up in this place for so long, so I have lost track of time. \"And the people in this continent do not know how important this box is, so even if you get the other half, you would be fine. But, make sure no one from the Northern Continent knows it, if not¡­ Haiz, you can imagine it yourself.\" Alex nodded his head. There was only one picture he could imagine. And he did not want that. \"Anyway¡­ I am sorry I could not give the Space Plate to you, so think this one as the compensation.\" \"Do not worry, Senior. I have learned Spatial Door and Space Plate.\" Alex said. \"Oh¡­ Then that''s good. It seems you have found them, so I do not have any worry.\" Mithra said. Alex looked at her. He was thinking of how absurd she was. She had been waiting in this goddamn world just to give him this. \"Anyway, before I go, what do you want to do by coming to this place?\" Mithra asked. \"I need to undergo my lightning tribulation in this place. But¡­\" Alex paused a little bit as he looked at her with a hesitant expression. \"But, the barrier might break after I finish my tribulation.\" \"Oh¡­ You are worried about me. Haha, you do not need to mind about me. I have been bored anyway in this place. After meeting you, I have fulfilled my promise. I am Mithra, and I will never break my promise. And since I have fulfilled my promise, it is time for me to go. \"But I will try to stick around to see your tribulation since I am sure it is not a normal tribulation. After all, you won''t go to this place just for your tribulation. The outside world won''t be able to see what is going on inside, so I am sure you want to hide this tribulation of yours very much.\" \"Sure,\" Alex said. He did not mind since she was no stranger, and she won''t tell anyone since she could not go out. \"But before that, I want to teach you something,\" Mithra said. Alex looked at her in confusion. \"I was astonished when I saw you, released two intents at the same time. And surprisingly, both intents were equal, and you even managed to fuse them together. It was insane. \"It seems you already have the Heart of Sword and Heart of Spear. You combined them together and made a brand new intent.\" Alex nodded his head. He indeed did that, and it was thanks to her that he could do something like that. If Alex did not observe how she used her Sword Intent, he might not be able to fuse them together in a short time. Both of his domains also got much stronger. \"Well, what I wanted to teach you is about the next stage. Since you are a Sword and Spear Grandmaster, do you know the difference between a Sword Grandmaster and a Sword King?\" Alex shook his head. He never heard about that. \"A Sword King could treat everything as a Sword.\" She said. Of course, with that sort of explanation, it only confused Alex more. She continued, \"A Sword King could treat everything as a sword because they have the Heart of Sword. \"I never expected you to learn about it in the test. I indeed want to teach you about it in the test. But I only want to pique your interest in it. After I defeat you, I will then teach you about it. But to think you have acquired it first in our battle. \"Anyway, this was my enlightenment phrase that led me to become a Sword King. ''Even if I don''t have a sword, there is still a sword in my heart. With it, I will treat everything as my sword.'' Or something along the line, I am sure you are similar to that.\" Alex nodded. He indeed kept recalling that similar line before he managed to do it. \"Then, what do you think is the reason why I can use my Sword Intent in a wooden stick or my hand?\" \"???\" Alex could not think of any possible reason. \"It is Sword Domain. Don''t you feel the Sword Domain is pretty useless? I mean, they indeed have some use, but that''s all.\" Alex thought about it. He could use his Sword Domain to feel the enemy inside his domain as well as weaken incoming attacks. But that was all. At least, he thought the basic, Sword Intent, was more useful than that. But considering the level of Sword Grandmaster was even higher than Sword Master, the domain should be more useful. \"Yeah. It is pretty confusing about that. But you should train your Domains a little bit. You can try to shape them around. Watch me.\" Mithra then released her Sword Domain. It was the usual sphere domain. Although she released only a few meter domain since she only wanted to show Alex about it, she suddenly shaped the domain into a cross. The former sphere domain suddenly turned into a cross, and then she changed her domain again into a straight line. This made him baffled. Alex was shocked to see the domain could be shaped. \"If you can send your Sword Intent flying is the requirement before you can become a Sword Grandmaster. Then, shaping your Domain as you like is the requirement you need before becoming a Sword King. \"And if you managed to shape it how you like, you can try to condense it as gloves in your hand.\" She said. She then shrunk her domain, and only her hands were covered by the domain that contained her Sword Intent. Alex was watching this in astonishment. Well, he did not have any proper teacher that taught him about technique or such. \"You can condense the domain to your hands or to any other things like the wooden stick I used just now and turn them into a weapon. Well, they could be equal to a Sword or even stronger than your normal sword. \"Of course, ideally, you condense the domain and cover your sword with it. If all Sword Kings only condense it to their hand or any other thing, the Forging Masters will go bankrupt.\" Alex nodded his head. \"That is the requirement to be a Sword King. If you can do just that, then you are a Sword King. I am a peak Sword King, and some rumors even stated the requirement to be a Sword Emperor is to make an original Sword Skill. But unlike a normal Sword Art, this Sword Art could only be used by your Sword Intent. \"In other words, it was a Sword Skill that only you could use. Well, I am a bit unsure about it too. So, do not trust my words that much. Maybe in the future, you will know the real requirement.\" She explained. \"Yes. Thank you very much for your guidance, Senior.\" 330 Lightning Tribulation I \"Well, there is one last thing that you need to know. Although you know you can become a Sword King if you control your Sword Domain well, you might only be able to use it in a full fight after your domain reaches a hundred meters. \"Unlike the Sword Intent that had no bound, the Sword Domain is like your Spiritual Energy. At some point, you will exhaust everything and need to recover. After all, the Sword Intent is only the intention you put in your sword. \"It is only a matter of how deep your understanding of Sword Intent. Of course, it also correlated with your current cultivation. Your Sword Intent will get stronger and stronger as you progress in Sword Path. It will be the same as your spear, so good luck. As for the fusion of both like what you showed me in our fight¡­ \"I can''t say anything about that since this is the first time I saw something like that. Back then, I saw someone that can use two Intents, albeit the other one was a bit shallow. Anyway, he could not fuse it like you did. Albeit, you do not need to worry if others know about it since they only consider it as a Sword Intent or Spear Intent. \"Of course, it is only if you use a single weapon at a time. But, if you use them simultaneously, they might get suspicious about it.\" \"Yes, thank you, Senior.\" Alex nodded. \"Anyway, I am done here. You should start the preparation for your Lightning Tribulation. I will just watch from the side.\" Mithra said. Alex nodded. He looked at Anya. \"Everyone will need to search around once more to make sure you don''t leave anything,\" Anya said. After looking at Mithra one last time, they decided to go back. Alex then started making a few arrays for himself. He only made two of them though. Rank 4 Gathering Array and Rank 4 Lightning Rod Array. Mithra did not get shocked by Alex''s identity as an Array Master even though she did not see Alex use his Teleportation Array. After all, Maxwell also an Alchemist as well as an Array Master. So, she had expected something like this. After finishing both Arrays, Alex started cultivating. After an entire day of cultivating, he finally managed to trigger the lightning tribulation. Alex frowned as he did not know whether this barrier could really mask his Lightning Tribulation or not. After all, when he tried to use his Teleportation Array, he could only teleport them to a certain high. When the lightning tribulation came, Alex was wondering which sky turned to dark. He tried to activate his Spirit Eyes, and it surprised him. Maybe because he finally looked at the barrier carefully from the inside, Alex could finally see the shape of the barrier¡­ No, he should say barriers. He finally realized there were two barriers that protected himself. One of them looked like the sphere. It must be the one that prevented him from teleporting the undead higher. And if Alex looked at it more carefully, there was a barrier outside this sphere that stretched far to the sky. He was shocked by this. Maxwell must use the first barrier to camouflage the entire area, and the sphere was the real wall that separated this place from another world. But something was bugging him. With this spherical barrier, he was wondering if the Lightning Tribulation would hit the barrier or immediately came to him. Of course, that question was answered by Mithra. She threw Maxwell''s token up high until it reached the top of the barrier. The token then opened the barrier but only the roof area to let the Lightning Tribulation come. After all, if the barrier prevented the lightning tribulation, Alex might fail in his tribulation as it will count as ''Cheating.'' From outside, the sky would look like normal. But if they came inside this place, they would see the dark and dangerous cloud in the sky. The glamorous lightning not only echoed through the sky but reverberated the earth. It was far more grandeur than Alex''s previous lightning tribulation. Even Mithra, on the side, could not help but comment, \"Are you sure this is your Martial Lord Tribulation?\" Her or even that Maxwell''s lightning tribulation was not this absurd. She felt that Alex''s tribulation was four times stronger than ordinary people''s, and even two times stronger than Maxwell''s. She just could not believe it. ''What kind of monster that Maxwell brought this time?'' She shuddered. Alex looked at the Lightning Tribulation. He took a deep breath as he took out his Spear and Sword. He even activated his Pure Fire again as he had sealed it in his Phoenix Seed when he was talking with Mithra. Well, if she watched his previous lightning tribulation, she might not be surprised by this. Or at least, if she could just see the sky turned into golden, then she should have expected something like this. Sadly, she was not. The first yellow lightning strike came straight at him. He brushed it off easily with his sword. He never got any challenge in the first strike. Well, if he already got challenged at the very first strike, then it would not be good for him. After all, there was no telling what would happen next. The lightning tribulation did not waste any time as it immediately sent the second lightning strike to him. Alex wanted to brush it off again with his sword. But when the sword clashed with the lightning, he was surprised that the lightning suddenly got far stronger. Or at least, this was not the usual way of the lightning tribulation. In his Master''s and Grandmaster''s lightning tribulation, the second lightning only had one and a half-power from the first one. But this time, the lightning had two times its power. \"Immovable Step.\" He did not waste any time and used his Immovable Step to get another boost of power to destroy this lightning strike. The third lightning strike then struck down. Alex did not dare to underestimate this again¡­ No, he was not underestimating it, he was just reserving his power for the rest of the strike. But at the third lightning, he immediately activated his Sword Intent. He struck the lightning with his sword. Alex destroyed it with ease this time since he used his Sword Intent. The sound of lightning then echoed again in the sky as the yellow lightning turned to blue color. Alex took a deep breath as his expression became more serious. He looked at the fourth strike and swung his sword toward it. \"Immovable Step!\" He needed his Immovable Step and his Sword Intent at the same time to barely block this lightning strike. The fifth strike immediately came toward him the moment he destroyed the fourth strike. Alex threw his spear. \"Immovable Step.\" With that absurd strength of his, coupled with his Spear Intent. Alex managed to destroy the fifth strike. But the sixth lightning strike already appeared and struck his spear. The lightning continued on its path toward Alex. But, despite losing his spear, Alex did not panic. He did not take another spear out. Instead, he waved his hand toward the lightning, and a Fire Phoenix suddenly came out and flew toward the sky. \"Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon.\" The phoenix flew toward the lightning and exploded. The flame immediately burned the lightning bit by bit, and it was gone by the time it reached Alex. When Mithra saw this, she dropped her jaw to the ground. It was already shocking for her to see Alex''s talent in sword, spear, and array. To think Alex even had a Pure Fire Element. It was amazing beyond belief. Because she had accompanied Maxwell in the past, she understood what kind of existence Pure Fire was. And she felt this ferocity from Alex''s fire. She immediately knew Alex''s element was Pure Fire Element. There was no other explanation other than that. After all, she did not observe Alex when he was killing the undead at the bottom. \"Haha¡­ That bast*rd does not bring a genius, he brings a monster.\" Mithra said. There was another thing that came to her head. Maxwell was also an Alchemist. And that made the possibility of Alex already becoming an Alchemist high. The sight in front of her even ignited the passion inside her heart. Sadly, she could not leave this place, and even after she left this place. She would not be able to live for so long because of the forbidden technique. It was such a shame. But she felt very satisfied to see such a monster just before she died. She felt fulfilled. Meanwhile, Alex was facing his Purple Color Lightning Tribulation. When the seventh strike struck forth, Alex did not dare to touch it anymore. It was because the ferocity of the lightning surpassed his imagination. He decided to go all out from this moment. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" He finally used his strongest Martial Art at the moment, Seven Stars Cut. Although he only produced a six layers Seven Stars Cut, it was enough to face this seventh strike. At the very least, even if it did not manage to destroy it, the lightning strike would already lose most of its power. \"Boom!\" Alex looked at the explosion because of the clash between his sword wave and the lightning. Fortunately, the lightning was completely obliterated by his sword wave, so he did not need to do anything after that. He immediately prepared for the eighth strike. The eighth lightning strike was coming down with another boost of power that was far stronger than the seventh strike. When Mithra saw this lightning strike, she was surprised. Because the power contained in this lightning strike was as strong as Maxwell''s last lightning strike when he underwent his tribulation. But for Alex, it was only his eighth lightning strike. She wanted to help Alex, but she knew she couldn''t. If she helped him, he would fail his tribulation. But she also knew that Alex still had a more powerful move. Especially the attack where he combined his Sword Intent and Spear Intent. It was so strong. She even needed to use her full power to block that attack. She cut it down easily when she used her full power though. Alex did not cower in this eighth strike. The blade of his sword as well as his spear started burning with flame. He swung both of them, making an ''X'' sword wave that flew to the sky. \"Seven Stars Cut!\" Both sword waves were burning like crazy as it contained his Pure Fire Element. It clashed with the lightning. The clash this time was far more powerful than the previous one as the moment they clashed, they sent a huge shock wave that could be felt even at the edge of this special realm. Alex kept observing the attacks with his Spirit Eyes. Luckily, their energy was the same. After clashing for a few seconds, both the lightning and Alex''s attack lost all of its energy and destroyed each other. On the side, Mithra was frowning. She knew that this was the right time to use the Lightning Rod Array. But something was ticking her off. She had many experiences with this Lightning Rod Array since Maxwell made this array for her and Skewes when they wanted to advance. So, she knew how strong the Lightning Rod Array was. After seeing Alex''s lightning tribulation, she felt that this Lightning Rod Array could only withstand this lightning strike. The eighth one, not the ninth. If Alex used his Lightning Rod Array at this particular time, there was no way the array could block this. And if the array broke, the lightning tribulation would send another ninth wave to attack Alex. It would be such a waste if it turned out to be like that. When Alex wanted to activate the array, she suddenly shouted, trying to warn him. \"WAIT!\" 331 Lightning Tribulation II \"WAIT!\" Alex was startled to hear Mithra''s shout from the side. He glanced at her while trying to keep his focus on the lightning strike. \"It is not enough. Use your last attack first to weaken the lightning before using the array!\" Mithra shouted. Alex was dumbfounded when he heard her words. He could not understand her as he usually used the Lightning Rod Array to block the ninth wave. But this time, she said the Lightning Rod Array could not block this strike. It truly perplexed him. Alex did not overthink as he tried to trust her in this. There was nothing wrong if he used his attack first to weaken the lightning strike. So, Alex decided to follow her advice. Fire started covering both of his sword and spear again. He swung both of them at the same time, creating a cross Sword Wave. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" The sword wave flew toward the lightning strike. It gave birth to a shockwave that even made Alex frown. Alex was startled to see the lightning strike''s real power despite having seen the energy contained in the lightning strike with his Spirit Eyes. He always used the Lightning Rod Array to block this strike, so he never thought about this strike deeply. But, when he finally confronted it head-on, he finally realized how strong the lightning strike was. But Alex still could not understand why she wanted him to attack it first before using his Lightning Rod Array to block it. After all, the Lightning Rod Array would channel it to the ground and disperse it. It should pose no problem. The clash between his Seven Stars Cut and the lightning strike was still ongoing. Alex could see the energy in his Seven Stars Cut was draining bit by bit. Although the lightning strike also got a little bit damage from his Seven Stars Cut. The sword wave only managed to exhaust around half of its entire power before Alex''s Seven Stars Cut got destroyed by the lightning strike. He immediately activated his Lightning Rod Array the moment his Seven Stars Cut was destroyed. The Lightning Rod Array started accumulating the lightning and dispersed it to the ground. Alex tried to maintain the array as hard as he could. He did not know that the lightning had this much power before receiving it personally with his Seven Stars Cut. He finally realized how much he relied on this Lightning Rod Array. \"Crack-!\" \"!!!\" Alex was startled when he felt that the Lightning Rod Array cracked. It was the first time he saw something like this. In his previous Lightning Tribulation, he used this Lightning Rod Array to store the lightning without channeling it to the ground and make it rampage. With that, he was able to kill many monsters. But this time, he kept channeling the lightning to the ground without storing it. To think the Lightning strike managed to crack it, this made his heart skipped a beat. He remembered Mithra said it was not enough. Although he did not understand the reason earlier, he immediately realized it after watching this. If he did not weaken the lightning with his attack earlier, the array would break, and he would need to redo this strike. And the worst thing was he needed to do it without the help of Lightning Rod Array. It will take him much more energy than he was supposed to. He was truly thankful to Mithra for warning him about this. Although Alex wanted to thank her for this time, after repelling the ninth strike. Sadly, he could not. The sky that was dark just now suddenly turned into golden color. It was not because of the dark cloud becoming golden or whatsoever, it was because the golden lightning had appeared, and it was shining brightly. Mithra, who was watching this for the first time, immediately cursed inwardly. ''Holy Sh*t.'' This was the first time she saw something like golden lightning. She finally understood the real reason why Alex wanted to finish his Lightning Tribulation in this place. If he did this somewhere else and spotted by other people, he would be targeted. Of course, she did not know that Alex had been targeted, and luckily, Maxwell had fended them off. Finishing his tribulation in this place was because he wanted to be more careful, so no other people tried to grasp him for this. ''Monster¡­ No, a monster is an understatement¡­ Ah, what kind of being is he¡­ I can''t even describe him... let just say he is a freak.'' Mithra was complaining inside as she kept recalling there was no trace of golden lightning even in the oldest historical book. Mithra wanted to curse the golden lightning and Alex, but she was also thankful. On the last day of her life, she managed to see something this ridiculous. At least, she did not regret staying here for a few thousand years since she could see something like this. She understood that there was a sky above the sky. There was Alex''s talent above Maxwell''s. Although she wanted to be happy with this, she could not. The problem was still there, and Alex needed to receive this Lightning Strike. She understood how much power that the golden lightning had. Because of that, she was worried. \"Attack with your other attack first and do that intents fusion or whatever,\" Mithra said, trying to give him advice that even she was unsure. After all, she did not know whether that fusion would be able to destroy this lightning strike. Alex''s attack was indeed powerful, but compared to this strike, it still fell short. Sadly, she did not know anything about Alex''s Sword Mastery and Spear Mastery. By using it once, Alex could grasp the true extent of that fusion, albeit barely. But it was enough for him to level it up a little bit. Alex heard about her advice and nodded. \"Immovable Step.\" \"Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing.\" \"Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon.\" \"Boom Boom Boom!\" The lightning was crazily destroying his attack again and again. Alex did not mind about it since he managed to repel around thirty percent of the lightning strike. He covered his sword with Sword Intent and Spear Intent. He fused them in a matter of seconds before covering it with his flame. Although he might be able to come up with a stronger power if he also used his spear, he was still unsure whether he could do it or not. So, he chose to throw his spear to weaken the lightning. After all, even at the battle between him and Mithra, he only did this strike with his sword. Having a Sword Mastery and Spear Mastery did not guarantee him to be able to use it again on the spot, so he decided not to take the risk. He took a deep breath before swinging his sword. \"Seven Stars Cut.\" The sword was blazing at a very high temperature. But it still retained the sharpness of a sword and a spear. They clashed with each other, sending a huge shock wave to the entire realm. Mithra was frowning when she watched this as she did not know which one would win in this exchange. Alex also prepared for another attack once again in case this one failed to destroy it. But he also felt a numb sensation in his hand that was still holding his sword. The numb sensation did not come from the lightning, but it came from his Seven Stars Cut. It seemed after using that Seven Stars Cut, Alex could not use it again for a period of time. He tried to channel his Sword Intent or his Spear Intent to the sword but to no avail. It must be because he had yet to master the fusion technique. So, for the time being, after finishing this tribulation, he would try to use this again but with his spear. At least, it would give him another chance to use this powerful move until he mastered it and could use it again and again. Still, this clash completely blew his mind. He never expected that this sword wave would become more powerful. He only needed to advance to Martial Lord before he could use seven layers Seven Stars Cut. If he could do it, then he could say he had mastered the Seven Stars Cut. He was wondering if he did this with seven layers Seven Stars Cut, how strong would it be. Sadly, he would not be able to do it for the time being since he would need to ask Song Yu about the box that Mithra gave to him. She had warned him about it, but Alex decided to gamble for his future. He wanted to see whether Song Yu would fall to greed or not. If she did not, he would then be assured of leaving his back to her in the future. The other reason was that she would be the only one who could recognize this thing. If she did not know about this, Alex would then ask Nelson and the others to search it through the continent. He did not know what kind of benefit if he used it. Still, considering that Mithra was chased by many Martial Kings and Martial Emperors, it should be something great. \"Boom!\" The clash between them was finally over. Fortunately, both of them destroyed each other. The golden lightning shattered to pieces and burst out to every corner in the realm. It even put a crack on Maxwell''s barrier. The golden sparkle then fell slowly to the ground. And Alex finally got the same feeling where he needed to sit down and received some kind of inheritance. Alex looked at Mithra while trying to hold back the feeling for a little longer. \"I am sorry, Senior. I need to take this first.\" Alex said as he was worried about her after seeing the barrier would crumble soon. \"Don''t worry about me. I am still fine. Just do your best, and I will wait for you.\" She said. She looked at the barrier that started cracking. Not only the outer barrier that was concealing the entire realm, the sphere barrier that separated the inner realm and outside world also started crumbling. Alex was worried about her because of this. But even in this condition, she should still be fine for one day. But truly, she was blessed to see something like this in her life from up close. She was sure that no one was able to see the golden lightning from up close like her. She looked at Alex and smiled. There were only him and Mithra on the top of the mountain since his spirits were patrolling around. They indeed worried about him, especially when they saw all of those lightning strikes. But they also knew that they could not help him because this was the only one that he needed to complete alone. They did not want to ruin his chance because of their worries. They could only believe in him and kept patrolling. They did not dare to slack just one bit until Alex finished his tribulation. Even Anna and Anya were biting their lips this entire time until blood fell from their mouth. It was such an intense exchange, and Alex truly did his best. When Alex finally finished his Lightning Tribulation, they immediately cheered in joy. Even Anna and Anya hugged each other as they flew toward the top. They saw Alex sitting in the ground while trying to comprehend what he got just like the last time. They were wondering what kind of blessing that he got this time. Considering Alex got his spear ability in his first lightning tribulation and his sword ability in his second lightning tribulation, they were eager to see what kind of inheritance Alex got this time. Of course, Mithra did not know about this. She only waited for him without thinking anything. She did not mind it because she had been doing something like this for thousands of years, so waiting a day was like blinking. Mithra and the spirits were waiting for him calmly as they did not feel any fluctuation of energy around him. Yeah, all of it was fine before Alex suddenly screamed. \"AAAHHHH!\" 332 Purification \"AAAHHHH!\" The others immediately opened their eyes wide when they heard Alex''s scream. Alex was rolling left and right on the ground while holding his head like he was in pain. The spirits immediately looked at Anya and Anna since both of them were the authorities here. Sadly, they also did not know anything about this. They looked at Mithra, who looked at them back, before shaking her head. She was also clueless about this. The golden lightning itself never happened in history, so she thought the only ones who knew about it were the people in front of her. But looking at their clueless expression, she also knew they did not know about it. All of them wanted to stop or help him, but if they did anything, they were afraid they would break something like this since they knew Alex would have something new every time he finished his tribulation. \"Wait a bit more. I am sure nothing happens.\" Anna said. She truly hoped that he did not have an accident. On the other hand, Alex felt his brain burned. There was suddenly an influx of knowledge that came inside his brain. Because of that, his brain was overloaded, and it felt like torture to him. But he needed to withstand this and absorbed all knowledge that appeared in his head. The knowledge was about the three big jobs: Alchemist, Forging Master, and Array Master. His Alchemist knowledge contained many things. Medicine such as illness, curse, poison, body constitution, or even medicinal skills like acupuncture and the others. It suddenly crammed into his head at the same time. It also contained the technique for making pills, such as the characteristics of medicinal ingredients, what kind of ingredients would be in good shape or bad shape. With this knowledge, he realized how dumb he was before. If he had knowledge like this, he could realize that the black spot in Putri''s heart back then was a curse. And he would be able to cure it before all of it happened. Fortunately, it was a happy ending since she got something more precious than what she had at that time. She also knew who her enemies were and who her families. As for the Forging Master, he could understand how to make a weapon. The special characteristics of metal and how to treat them. Hammering technique and heating process. Everything he needed to know about Forging. In fact, with this knowledge, he could even become a Forging Master. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. Even though Alex had this knowledge, he did not have any experience in that. Even if Alex became a Forging Master at this point and was able to advance quickly, he did not have that much time. He would just keep this knowledge inside his mind, wondering if it would be useful or not in the future. But at least, he would understand how good the weapon was by looking at them. He might be able to buy something good with this knowledge¡­ probably. After all, Alex still had a system that could grant him those items. As for the last, he learned many symbols in the process. The symbols kept coming inside his brain. From one thousand¡­ ten thousand¡­ a hundred thousand¡­ even millions of new symbols. His head was full of symbols. He could construct a new Lightning Rod that could stand his ninth strike with this knowledge. Although in his mind it was possible, he might need to try it first to check whether it was possible or not. He also understood the technique of making an Array. From this knowledge, at least he knew that the current technique that Maxwell used was the fastest. He would just need to practice a little bit more, and he would be good. It was the same as making the Array Plate or planting it on the ground. Not only symbols and technique, but he also received many complete arrays that he could use at any moment. The arrays were classified as a neutral array or elemental array. In the neutral array, it was like his Death Song Array or Jadeite Mirror Array. As for the elemental array, it was like his Fire Strings Array. Of course, he did not receive only fire type arrays, but also water type arrays, lightning type arrays, and so on. Although Alex could use it himself, he might encounter it in the future. And with this knowledge, he would be able to break the array as soon as possible. After a few hours, Alex started calming down as the pain started subsiding. He continued absorbing the knowledge bit by bit. The spirits and Mithra were relieved when they saw Alex were not in pain anymore. They knew that Alex had succeeded in whatever it was. They kept waiting for him even after the barriers crumbled to the ground. And finally, the mountain was revealed to the world once again. In fact, this entire terrain was the original terrain in the Nemu Forest. But because Maxwell made this barrier, they were never able to see this mountain again. But with the barrier disappearing, the mountain came to the outside world once again. This mountain would shock the world once again, making the people come to this place for a treasure hunt. Sadly, all of it was already gone, and they could only come back with an empty hand. After another half-day, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He saw his Spirits, Anna, Anya, Leoz, and the others. Judging from their expression alone, he must trouble them this time. \"I am fine,\" Alex said with a smile. After hearing his voice, they finally let out a breath of relief. Alex then looked at Mithra. He was startled when he saw her condition¡­ No, her body condition. There were cracks appearing here and there in her body. Her entire body would crumble to pieces in another few hours. Alex did not realize that he took this much time to absorb all of that knowledge. \"Senior, you¡­\" Mithra only shook her head. \"Do not worry. I have lived long enough, and on my last day, I could see a person with a talent like that. If I did not see it with my eyes, I would not believe it. Anyway, I am satisfied. \"Your two intents, the fusion, and even that golden lightning tribulation. It made this long waiting process worth it. Haha¡­ sadly, I was born a few thousand years too early. If not, I might want to become your friend and follow you on a journey. \"Well, even I could do that. I would not be able to keep up with my talent. Anyway, I will say one last thing to you as someone who has lived for thousands of years. If you truly live this long, I am sure there will be encounters and partings. \"However, you need to keep moving forward. I have seen the look in your comrades'' eyes, and they followed you because they wanted it. I don''t know what kind of relationship you share with them, woman, comrade, partner, or whatever. \"Remember this. You need to cherish them. After all, loneliness might make you crazy. I had experienced it after living a few hundred years in solitude. Although I never cared about it later, the feeling was still inside my heart. \"So, be good to your friends and be merciless to your enemies. That is my last advice for you.\" Alex nodded as he bowed his head. \"Thank you for your guidance. Senior.\" \"Haha¡­ Time for me to go. That bastard Maxwell seems to be alive and kicking. But with Skewes''s cultivation, he should be dead already and reincarnate somewhere. Sadly, I could not join them.\" She said while looking at her hand that started crumbling to the ground. Alex frowned when he heard that. \"System, what will happen to her?\" [She has used a forbidden technique, Host. That technique kept her alive this whole time. She should already die and reincarnate, but because of this technique, she did not. Ultimately, her name had been erased in that book (Don''t ask me about this. This is only an analogy), and she would never be able to reincarnate again. In other words, this is truly her last.] The system explained Mithra''s condition briefly. Because the system was also overloaded by the information that Alex got from the golden lightning. So the system wanted to explain everything without giving him any chance to ask a question. Especially with that little note over there. \"¡­\" Alex was startled when he heard that. He remembered that the founder of Heavenly Sword Sect was also like this. He could not reincarnate again as his soul would be extinguished. Alex looked at the pitiful Mithra. He had been receiving from her this entire time, including her advice in his tribulation. He gritted his teeth and said, \"Senior. Please wait.\" \"What is it? Do you want to ask something from me? You should make it brief.\" Mithra asked. He did not answer her, but instead, he said, \"Anya. Could you use your True Spirit Body? I need to borrow your element.\" \"Alex?\" Anya was confused about why he asked that. Alex only said, \"Please.\" Anya could only follow his word even though she could not understand his intention. \"True Spirit Body. Light Butterfly Form.\" She also grew a pair of wings like Anna as her transformation was the same as Anna. The difference was only the color of the wing, as her wing was the contrast of Anna. Her butterfly wing had a yellow, white, and golden pattern. \"Light Butterfly Form, First Form. Life Link.\" An invisible link that only Alex with his Spirit Eyes could see appeared between them. Alex felt the warmth inside his heart, and there was a trace of light that appeared beside his Fire Phoenix Seed. He then raised both of his hands forward. Symbols appear one after another, forming a circle around them, then a big translucent yellow sphere, and many rings that contain numerous symbols on the outer layer. He finally understood that the array was not like a magic circle, as it had many forms. This was one of them. A ring that was circling around Mithra''s body, then a translucent sphere that surrounded her body, as well as three rings that were circling around the sphere. \"I am sorry since this is my first time doing this. And it is only with a rank 4 Array. So, Senior might experience a little bit of pain. But senior, don''t say something like that. I am grateful for your advice, so let this junior do something for you too. It is not your end, but your new beginning. Senior need to go on your own journey in your next life.\" Alex said. When Mithra heard that, she was startled. It even made her tears fall from her eyes because she understood what he wanted to do. Alex was using this rank 4 Array called Purification Array. This array was only useful for the undead that still had their soul intact. He wanted to use it to purify her and forcefully write her name in the ''book of reincarnation.'' That was the reason why Alex said she could go on her own journey in her next life. As she was an adventurous woman, she could only cry when she heard that she could do that again. She might not be able to remember her previous memory, but her soul was overjoyed by only that fact. \"Thank you¡­ Thank you¡­ Truly, Thank you¡­\" Mithra kept thanking him. \"I should be the one who said thank you, Senior,\" Alex said with a smile. He then warned her, \"Senior, I will proceed with it. So please prepare yourself.\" Mithra only nodded while her body was shaking because of the excitement. \"Kh!\" She finally felt the pain after Alex activated his array. But this was nothing compared to her excitement. With that excitement, she could withstand this pain for days, months, or years. But it was not that absurd as Alex only needed a few minutes. Her body restored to her human state. When she realized that, she knew her time was up. She said with a smile, \"See you.\" \"Alexander Sirius, see off Senior,\" Alex said with a smile as her body started to disappear. \"Purification!\" 333 News \"Purification!\" Mithra''s body started vanishing. Although she felt so much pain in this process, the smile did not disappear from her face. \"Thank you¡­\" With these two words, she finally disappeared. Alex closed his eyes for a bit. Well, he had received many things from her. Of course, the spirits were also thankful to her since they could see Alex''s fused his Sword Intent and Spear Intent together. That was what they appreciated the most. Alex then looked at them with a smile. He finally became a Martial Lord, so in their group, only Anya who had yet to become a Martial Lord. \"So, Anya is the only Grandmaster¡­\" Alex tried to tease her, wanting to ease the tension. \"Alex (Young Master)!\" Anna and Anya immediately hugged him. Although he wanted to stop Anya, he refrained himself only for this time. \"Master!\" Suddenly Jeanne came behind him, bringing a space ring and a letter within her hand. \"She must leave this behind.\" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he received the space ring and the letter from Jeanne. Jeanne was wandering around when everyone was worried about him. He looked at the letter first. \"This space ring contains the belongings of the undead you defeated. Although most of them are rusty and unusable, it still has a value. You can pawn them off or anything. \"PS: I am sorry. I need the Spirit Stones to maintain the barrier and myself. There are still around a million Spirit Stones in the stone. Well, if you do not come for another century, all of it will be gone along with me.\" Alex chuckled when he read the letter. Mithra was still herself when she left behind the letter. She should have made this when he was absorbing the knowledge. Alex inspected the Space Ring, and most of the items were rusty or unusable. But there was still the usable thing he could use, such as the Space Ring. He did not mind about the Spirit Stones since he could make that much Spirit Stones in a jiffy. \"Let''s go back.\" After inspecting the space ring, he turned back to his spirits and said. Everyone nodded their head, except Anya, who suddenly came toward him. \"Alex, since we have come to this place, why do not we do it with a bang?\" Alex looked at her in confusion. \"We can spread the rumor about your appearance in this place. Of course, we only need to spread the rumor about it in the Makmur Family. This is the perfect chance to annihilate them.\" \"?!\" Alex was surprised, albeit a bit confused. \"Why is it only the Makmur Family?\" \"Well, we can finish most people from the Makmur Family in this place. And I am sure that Intan would not go out. So, after we kill every single Makmur''s that comes to this place, we will then kill the rest in their turf. \"After losing so many powerhouses in this place, we should be able to finish them easily,\" Anya explained her plan. She knew about the news in the Southern Kingdom from Ngina and Nicole, especially the information on Makmur Family and Royal Family. Royal family immediately took off Alex''s bounty after they got warned by the first elder. But no one knew how the first elder ''threatened'' them. Anyway, he managed to make them take off the bounty on Alex''s head. Of course, it was not like they stopped from trying to kill him. Ngina said the royal family wanted the Makmur Family to weaken Alex''s first. After that, they could just kill the entire Makmur Family to hold the possession of Zwaka''s inheritance from them. So, they kept deceiving the Makmur Family so they could use them. They gave Alex''s information and whatever they could find. The Makmur Family must have thought of them as a trustworthy partner for this. Sadly, because Alex never came out of the sect for the past two months, they could not do anything. So, if they spread Alex''s information at this particular time, they would take the bite. After all, this place was their turf, not Heavenly Sword Sect. Although they were afraid of Heavenly Sword Sect, Nemu Forest was a high ranking forest where so many dangerous monsters appeared here and there. They could just say that Alex died in the forest, and they did not know about it. Of course, they might think about it as a bait to make them go to this place. It was at this time that this place became useful. Because Maxwell''s barrier had disappeared, the mountain made its appearance once again to the outside world. And with this suspicious-looking altar, they could think that this place was so mysterious as well as a treasure trove. After all, this place was known as a special cultivation place, albeit a difficult one because of the undead. And if they knew about it, Alex should be able to incite their greed once more. Anya also wanted to make the royal family out. Still, there was another reason other than the royal family waiting for the Makmur Family to move. Ngina had yet to locate Mega''s location. If they wanted to do it, they needed to do it thoroughly. Even though Ngina had been searching for her in these past months, he never saw her again. It was like she was not in the castle. Anya did not want to take a risk, so she advised him only to get the Makmur Family this time. They would try to kill the royal family after they located Mega. Anya also explained her plan word to word and the reason why she targeted the Makmur Family first. \"So, we want you to stay and cultivate on this altar. If we managed to convince the Makmur Family with rumor, I am sure they will send someone to check it first. If they see you in this place while cultivating, they will bring the words to the family. \"Then, I am sure they will send men from their family to this place. Of course, if it is only you, then we won''t be able to bait many people. So, it won''t be only you. I will have Jeanne, Vera, and Greg with him in this place. \"You three shall pose as his bodyguard, trying to protect him while he cultivates in this place. Alex is a Martial Lord, and with the addition of you three, I am sure we can make the Makmur Family mobilize most of their Martial Lords. \"We will kill them in this place. After that, we will move to their family, kill that Intan, and everyone from Makmur Family to make sure there will be no one that will bite us in the future.\" Anya explained. Alex nodded. \"Then, Nicole will be spreading the rumor. I will leave it to you.\" \"Of course, leave it to me.\" She smiled. ¡­ After getting the order from Anya, Ngina worked very fast. She used her power of a succubus to control the people around her and spread the rumor inside the Makmur Family. Basically, almost every high ranking person in the family knew about it, especially the head of Makmur Family, Agus. When the rumor spread around, he finally convened a meeting. He immediately held a meeting with all elders in the family. The meeting ended like Anya''s prediction. They did not immediately take the bait because the rumor might be false. Although they decided to seal the rumor first and sent some scouts to investigate the area. After all, even though Alex''s bounty had been taken off, they would be sure that Alex did not come to Nemu Forest alone. Of course, what they found was the scenario that Anya had made. When the scouts arrived inside Nemu Forest. They immediately spread out. But what they found was something so unbelievable. The supposed land of undead suddenly turned into a beautiful mountain, and at the top of the mountain, they could see an altar. The scouts did not immediately investigate it, but they carefully made the plan first. When they arrived at the mountain range, they did not find any undead at all. They were surprised. Because the realm had stood there for a few thousand years, they knew that this place was full of undead, and many records even stated there were around a thousand undead in this place. And all of them were Martial Lords. Because of their disappearance, it piqued their attention. As those people started investigating the mountain range. They did not immediately go to the altar, but instead, they made sure there was no undead around. Luckily, Alex and the others had taken care of the corpses so they would not be able to find any dead bodies around. So, after confirming there was no undead around, they finally started climbing the mountain. They approached the altar with caution. Of course, they saw Alex, Vera, Jeanne, and Greg. Although Alex''s group sensed their presence, they acted like they did not know. The scouts finally returned after they confirmed the situation, and Agus immediately convened another meeting. \"I just got information that the mountain in the undead region suddenly appeared,\" Agus said. The elders were immediately shocked when they heard that. \"What?\" \"But it should not be possible. After all, the mountain is there because of the special realm inside. It is the same case as a special realm in the Death Forest.\" The elders were confused as they kept denying the unbelievable fact. But suddenly, an aged voice was heard from behind. \"That''s not right.\" They could see a green-haired old man suddenly come to the room. His aged voice felt like he had been through many things in his life, but there was also a trace of slyness. \"Old Family Head.\" \"Father.\" The elders and even Agus immediately greeted him. He was the previous family head before Agus, Ruben. He also heard about the rumor of Alexander Sirius in the Nemu Forest. Of course, it immediately piqued his interest as he had been informed about what happened to Intan and Putri. \"According to the record, a few thousand years ago, there was truly a mountain at that place. But the mountain suddenly disappeared. And they did not know why but they could only see the mountain again. \"There was a barrier that prevented them from going onward. So, people tried to break in but to no avail. Until one day, undead started appearing around the area. And they could get inside the barrier. \"At that time, they finally could see the mountain again in that area. Of course, most of the people that investigated that region died because of the undead. \"Not long after that, that place became a dangerous zone in the kingdom, and people found out that they could advance much faster in that place. Because of that, they tried to conquer the area. \"Unfortunately, according to the record, there were many resources and people died there. And eventually, the kingdom weakened. It was such a no joke as there were ten thousand Martial Lord level undead inside that place. \"After so many times, trying to reduce their number, we finally managed to reduce it to a thousand. Of course, in the past five centuries, we had lost so much and could not invest in that realm anymore. So, people usually sneaked in and cultivated alone without trying to conquer it. \"Well, I deviate a little bit from the topic. But I assure you, there should be a mountain in the first place. It is concealed inside the barrier this entire time.\" Ruben explained. \"What? So, is it true?\" \"Yeah, since the old family head said that, it must be true.\" \"So, it is a real mountain!\" The people knew that Ruben was a historical freak despite being a sly fox. So, they immediately believed whatever he said about history. Ruben then asked, \"So, what do you mean by the mountain that appeared?\" Agus answered, \"It seems the barrier that prevented us from seeing the inside had collapsed a few days ago.\" \"What!?\" 334 Preparation of Two Sides \"What!?\" Everyone was shocked by Agus''s statement. It was even more so for Ruben. \"What did you say?\" \"I will explain it to you, Father,\" Agus said. \"You must know Alexander Sirius, right?\" \"Indeed.\" Ruben nodded his head. \"According to our information, he is cultivating in the altar, located at the top of the mountain. Judging from the time, it seems he is the one who breaks the barrier.\" \"!!!\" Everyone was dumbstruck. \"How is that possible?\" \"They have confirmed there were four people in that place. One of them is Alexander Sirius, who seemed to be a 1-Star Martial Lord. The other three were 1-Star Martial Lord, while one of them was a 2-Star Martial Lord. \"But judging from their situation, they seem to be protecting this Alexander Sirius,\" Agus explained. \"What?\" \"How can that be?\" \"He should only be a 7-Star Martial Grandmaster two months ago when he defeated Intan. How can he cultivate so fast.\" \"This is bad.\" The elders were panicking this entire time as they could not believe what they heard. Of course, even Agus and Ruben were trying hard to calm down. They were surprised by not only the fact that the barrier had disappeared. They were also shocked by Alex''s cultivation speed. He was sitting around inside Heavenly Sword Sect for two months and suddenly became a Martial Lord. If Alex was given time to mature, he might be able to destroy their family. They were panicking about this. But Ruben felt something wrong. \"Even if he is a Martial Lord, he should not be able to conquer that place. After all, it is full of undead. He should not be able to fight a thousand Martial Lords even with three of his friends.\" Ruben said. Agus also understood this. But he remembered a certain matter. Agus said, \"Father, do you forget about the incident in the Death Forest. He is the one who cleared the puzzle inside that place. The royal family had clarified this. \"So, I am assuming that since he could do something like that. It is possible that he could do the same in the Undead Region.\" Agus said. Although he said ''Royal Family,'' it was only Mega who said that. Even Bima or the current king was in the dark from this information. Because of their cooperation for the throne, Mega obliged to share this kind of information. When they thought about that, they could understand why it was possible for Alex to do the same. \"And the fact that he had conquered that place, he should have gotten many incredible things. After all, no one managed to even get close to the altar in that place because of the undead. It should be the same as the place inside that region, and we should take this opportunity to seize it from him.\" Agus said. They all knew about Putri''s rank 5 spear that she had gotten from Zwaka''s place. And considering Alex was the one who had the full inheritance, he should get better things than Putri. Their greed suddenly took over their heart. But there was something wrong about it. They remembered the case of the Kasmanan Family. \"But, according to Princess Mega, he killed the Kasmanan Family with the inheritance in the Death Forest. If we attack him right now, would we not become the second Kasmanan Family?\" \"No-!\" A woman''s voice suddenly filled the room, and when they saw who it was. It was Intan. \"Princess Mega was lying about that.\" She shouted. They could see how tired she was as they knew every time she tried to cultivate or sleep, she would get a nightmare. Even though they had been trying to cure her, no one knew why she was like that. Intan immediately dragged her body to this room the moment she heard about this meeting. After all, there was only one possible reason for her current situation. She was defeated by Alex before all of this happened, so the only possible culprit was him. She hated Alex to the bone and wanted to kill him very much. But because the Heavenly Sword Sect protected him tightly, she could not do anything even with her master, the sixteenth elder. The sixteenth elder stayed in this place to take care of her as she did not want to come back and saw Charya''s face. \"What do you mean she was lying?\" Ruben asked. \"After the massacre of Kasmanan Family, she told me she did not know about the reason why Kasmanan Family got exterminated. \"When she suspected Putri got the inheritance in the Death Forest, she tried asking about it to Putri so they could share as the one who truly got the inheritance were Alexander Sirius and Putri. \"Although Putri kept denying it, we knew Alexander Sirius had it. We did not bother her for a while after that, as we were planning to get the inheritance from his hand. \"It was at that time the Kasmanan family was exterminated. We were scared at that time, thinking about the possibility that Alexander Sirius was the one who did it. \"Princess Mega then came to Putri again because of the situation. Although Putri denied again, Mega told her that it was okay if she did not want to tell her about the inheritance. But Mega tried to probe whether the inheritance had the possibility to destroy a family. \"Putri said no. And she was even shocked when the Kasmanan Family got exterminated. That''s why I am sure that Alexander Sirius did not have that kind of thing. And we don''t even know such a thing exists. \"So, the possibility of us becoming the second Kasmanan Family is low. And even he had something like that. Just thought about it, what kind of result we found about the extermination of the Kasmanan Family. \"Nothing! No poison or weapon that could kill them. They were killed in such a weird way. And the only we understood was that whatever Array. All of it needs time to prepare. \"But this time, we are the ones who ambush him, so he won''t have the chance to prepare it even if he has something like that. As long as we can kill him, we can seize everything he had. \"It seems the royal family is still in the dark, so this is the perfect time to move,\" Intan explained. There was even a trace of madness on her eyes because she was tormented by the curse. She wanted to kill Alex to end all this suffering. Agus, Ruben, and the elders took a while to comprehend everything she said. It was like she said. With all of the information, they felt this was also the perfect time to move. If Alex did not have a weapon to kill them, then it would be perfect. But if he had something that could kill them, this ambush would not let him have the chance to prepare that. And Alex had yet to be confirmed as the one who exterminated the Kasmanan Family. Alex possessed a unique method and two inheritances. With that alone, he managed to incite their greed. And because Princess Mega was already missing for two months, they did not need to cooperate that deeply with the royal family. They had no obligation to share this information with them. In other words, they were planning to get all of Alex''s possession. \"Inform all Martial Lords in our family. We are moving to Nemu Forest as soon as night comes. We could not raise the suspicion from the royal family.\" Agus said. Ruben also nodded his head, agreeing with his plan. Agus then said to Intan, \"You go back first. We will handle the rest.\" \"Family head. Please let me join this operation. I don''t mind about the share, but I truly want to kill him. He is in the care of my Arch-enemy, the ninth elder. So, please let me join. It is for my personal hatred as well as avenging my disciple.\" The sixteenth elder suddenly said. Agus frowned when he heard about this. She was indeed helpful in this case. After all, in the Makmur Family. With her came along with them, they would have two 8-Star Martial Lords. As well as Ruben, a 9-Star Martial Lords. And another two elders with 6-Star Martial Lords cultivation while the rest were 1-4 Star Martial Lords. They were numbered twenty. This number was already very big, considering each country only had less than a hundred Martial Lords, and all of it was accumulated from many prominent families. Their Makmur Family was considered second only to the royal family, and if they got all the things Alex possessed. They might even beat the royal family and replace them. This was the reason why Alex managed to incite their greed. Agus looked at Ruben, who nodded his head. He finally agreed to bring her along with him. After all, with him and Ruben, she would not be able to do anything if she tried to stab them from the back. The family immediately became busy with this preparation. One hundred and twenty people were gathered in front of their mansion. They flew outside the capital city without anyone noticing¡­ Anyone, except Nicole. \"Young Master. They are coming toward you. Judging from their speed, they will arrive at dawn. Twenty Martial Lords with two 8-Star Martial Lords and one 9-Star Martial Lord. There are also two 6-Star Martial Lords. They also brought a hundred Martial Grandmasters.\" \"Alright. Thank you.\" Alex said. The others also heard about this. Anya immediately said, \"Anna should be able to handle the 9-Star Martial Lord with her True Spirit Body and my support. \"Leoz will hold both 8-Star Martial Lords. Even though you could not use your True Spirit Body, I am sure it will be an easy task for you with my support. If you or Anna finish your fight, immediately cover the other.\" Anna and Leoz nodded their heads. \"Jeanne, you will activate your True Spirit Body and kill the Martial Lords one by one starting from the weakest.\" \"Of course. I am sure it will be fun.\" Jeanne said with a smile. \"Fabio will hold the two 6-Star Martial Lords back with Vera as your support. Greg will cover me while I am supporting them. And lastly, Alex, Sherry, and Kyle will hunt the Grandmasters.\" \"Change it. Jeanne and I will switch our role.\" Alex suddenly said. \"Alex?\" Anna was startled when Alex objected to Anya''s perfect plan. \"Alex¡­ you do know that I made this plan not because I am giving you a special treatment by giving you the least dangerous job, right?\" \"Of course. Since Anna''s technique will be useful in fighting many enemies, but since Anna is occupied with the 9-Star Martial Lord, it leaves me, Sherry, and Kyle to hunt them with our fire.\" \"Then, why?\" Anya frowned. \"I am planning to startle them with my intent. Remembering that even Morgan only had 50 meters Sword Domain. If I show both of my intents to them, I am sure I can take them by surprise. Killing ten of them should be easy in my current state. \"Of course, I am not underestimating Jeanne''s ability, you can even have me and Jeanne hunt together. But it will be hard for Sherry and Kyle to cover a hundred Martial Grandmasters. \"Don''t worry. I am not reckless or whatever. I am going to use my array too. Since we are planning to kill all of them, I don''t really need to hold back. And with your support, I think I am good enough.\" \"¡­\" Anya looked at him with a serious expression. She also understood his point, and after so many considerations inside her head, she finally agreed by letting Alex take Jeanne''s role. Jeanne would fend anyone come near them if they managed to dodge Sherry''s and Kyle''s bombardment. Alex suggested this was because he had another plan. Because of the knowledge he got in his tribulation, he could make an Array much faster than before. So, he was a bit eager to test it in a real fight. 335 Killing Time The enemies arrived exactly as the dawn came. The sun started enveloping the world with light, and Alex knew they were surrounded. Of course, except Jeanne, Vera, and Greg, who were accompanying him, Anna and the others were inside the card. His spirits acted like they were shocked. They say a green-haired old man, the only 9-Star Martial Lord in the enemy rank. "Master. Please wake up, we are surrounded." Jeanne tried to wake Alex up like she was scared of the situation. Of course, she was pretty happy doing this role. Alex woke up because of that, and he suddenly rose from the ground as soon as he saw them. He looked at them and stuttered, "You¡­ What¡­ what do you want?" His act was telling them that he did not prepare anything to ambush them. The green-haired old man snorted, "Hmph. I am giving you a chance. Hand over all your belongings, and I will give you a quick death." "You¡­ Why do you want to kill me?" "You have offended our Makmur Family, As long as I kill you, Intan will not suffer anymore." He said. "What? You are from the Makmur Family? Senior, there must be some misunderstandings," Alex said in a pitiful voice. "There is no misunderstanding. You dare to offend us then prepare for your death!" The old man said with a smug face. He then looked at the sixteenth elder, "Elder, there should be a misunderstanding, right? You are from Heavenly Sword Sect, so please help me to explain it to them." "After what you did to my disciple, you think you will be able to live? Snort, You are also under that b*tch Charya. You can only blame yourself." "What? Sixteenth Elder, you can''t do this! I am the one who solved the Seven Stars Cut. If you do something like this, Heavenly Sword Sect won''t let you off!" "Hmph. If it is in another place, it might be right. But this is Nemu Forest, a place where so many Martial Lord stage monsters are around. We will feed your dead bodies to those monsters, and no one will know." She snorted. "You don''t need to talk again. Everyone, ready to kill him!" The old man said coldly. "No no. There is really a misunderstanding." Alex said. He looked at them as his pale face turned into a cunning smile, "You really misunderstood me. If you want to kill me, you need to bring more people." They were shocked to hear that from his mouth. The green-haired old man suddenly looked around to see whether there was a trap or not. He then snorted, "Hmph. With only four of you, you can''t do anything!" "Yeah. Four¡­ then I will call the other then." Alex said with a smile. He summoned Anna, Leoz, Fabio, Vera, and Anya at the same time. "What?" "Where do they come from?" They were confused to see Anna and the others suddenly appeared around Alex. And their power was far stronger than Alex and the others. But Ruben was still calm as he noticed that the strongest of them were only 6-Star Martial Lords. "Don''t panic! They are still weaker than us!" Ruben shouted. Hearing it, the people started to calm down. Alex then placed his hand on the ground as he channeled his Spiritual Energy to the ground¡­ No, to something below the ground. When the people were confused by his action, a huge barrier suddenly appeared and trapped them inside. The barrier appeared like it was made of jade, polished enough to be a mirror. But for the people from Makmur Family, they could remember this particular array. Especially those who came to Kasmanan Family that night. They could remember this barrier very clearly. "This¡­ this is Jadeite Mirror Array!" "The long lost Jadeite Mirror Array that trapped the Kasmanan Family!" "Don''t tell me, he was the one who massacred the Kasmanan Family?" "We are trapped." "He is an Array Master!" "No no no, I don''t want this anymore!" "Don''t kill me!" The people were scared as soon as they saw this barrier. After all, this barrier only proved him to be the one who massacred the Kasmanan Family. And if he could destroy the Kasmanan Family, he might be able to destroy their family. Upon thinking this, the people from the Makmur Family got scared. "Don''t be afraid!" Ruben shouted, trying to calm the people down. "We still have time. If you remember the Kasmanan Family, they were not immediately killed inside this array. As long as we kill him as soon as possible, the array will be destroyed, and we will go out!" "Kill me?" Alex took out his sword as he suddenly let out his fifty meter Sword Domain. He said coldly, "Do you think you are qualified to kill me?" "What?" "Fif¡­ fifty meters¡­" "Even our old family head only has 45 meters of Spear Domain. Don''t tell me he is already at War Minister Morgan''s level?" Alex tried to make them even more panic so they could not exert their full power. Even Ruben and Agus could not speak anymore. Alex suddenly waved his swords. And when everyone watched this, they gulped down. Alex suddenly flicked his finger as an array suddenly appeared below one of their 4-Star Martial Lord. And before they knew it, the Martial Lord suddenly appeared in front of Alex. Alex finally made a full swing and killed the guy. Before they knew it, Alex just killed a 4-Star Martial Lord. In fact, Alex did not only make them panic, but he was also buying time to make an array using his Space Plate. The moment it was ready, Alex swung his sword while he made the array appear in the real world using his Spatial Door. And surprisingly, he succeeded in it. Although he got the knowledge, it was only theoretical knowledge, not a practical one that could be implemented in an instant. Of course, he was able to teleport a person that stood still. In the latter battle, he might not be able to do it again. "How?" "Our seventh elder suddenly appeared in front of him and got killed by him!" "Spa¡­space¡­ He¡­ he has a space element!" "Space Element Array Master?" "Run!" "Stop, calm down! There are only nine of them." "Ah, I don''t want to die!" The situation became even more chaotic, especially for the Martial Grandmasters. And Even Ruben could not calm them down. Alex smiled when he saw this. He then said to his spirits, "Well, I have set the stage. Now, go!" Alex wanted to reveal his Pure Fire, but it seemed he did not need to since the people already reacted too much. All of it because of the Jadeite Mirror Array that exterminated the Kasmanan Family. "Yes." "True Spirit Body. Dark Butterfly Spirit!" Anna immediately activated her True Spirit Body, revealing her gorgeous butterfly wing. "True Spirit Body. Ethereal Lightning Body." Anna then leaped toward Ruben and swung her scythe. However, as expected from an expert of 9-Star Martial Lord, even if he was still shocked by the situation, he was still able to parry Anna''s attack with his spear. The other spirits also went to their respective opponent. Alex then took out his spear as he also released his spear domain to shock the people again. "Spe¡­ Spear Domain!" "It is also a fifty-meter domain." "He is a monster!" "Kill him! We need to kill him first. We have our advantage in number and strength!" Ruben tried to shout as hard as he could. But because of the chaotic situation, only Martial Lords and a small portion of Martial Grandmasters heard him. Alex then made the last blow. He summoned Sherry and Kyle. When they saw them, the Martial Grandmasters could not take it anymore. They were trying to escape by breaking the barrier but to no avail. Sherry and Kyle immediately made as many firebirds they could and bombard them. "Don''t panic! We can defeat them if we are calm!" Ruben continued his rallying cry, but it didn''t have any effect on the panic grandmasters. Even those people in the Martial Lord stage were on their edge. Alex successfully made them insane, so he could kill the entire Makmur Family easily. Albeit, Alex never expected that Jadeite Mirror Array could make them like this. After all, for normal people, in the face of life and death, they will only think about themselves unless they were people like Anna and the others who will follow him even in the face of death. Sadly, they were not, or maybe the impact of the Kasmanan Family had successfully gone deep inside their mind. Alex then pointed his finger toward the sixteenth elder, "Don''t kill her yet." When his spirits saw this, they were confused. But they did not raise any objection for this because Alex should have a reason. Leoz, who was facing her and Agus, nodded his head. He then looked at her, "You heard him." "Hmph, you are only a 6-Star Martial Lord, and both of us are 8-Star Martial Lord. You are the one who is going to die!" The sixteenth elder snorted. Leoz only shrugged his shoulder as he jumped forward with his big sword to face them. ¡­ Meanwhile, Anna looked at Ruben coldly, "Your family will be the same as that fool family who dared to kill him because of greed." "Talk after you beat me!" Ruben was enraged when he saw his clansmen were killed one after another. He wanted to kill Anna as soon as possible and then moved to save the others. "Sadly, you are too focused on the confusion." "What do you me-!" Before he finished his world, he felt something on his shoulder. When he turned his head around, he saw a big black butterfly was sticking on his shoulder. He immediately tried to kill it as his instinct was telling him it was bad. But before he managed to do it, the butterfly exploded, and he suddenly felt pain all over his shoulder. The dark energy spread from his shoulder and moved toward his mind, trying to take control of him. Anna then appeared in front of him while swinging her scythe. "Tri Xeta!" After all, he was still a 9-Star Martial Lord. When Anna appeared with her scythe, he immediately dodged to the side. He was lucky enough to dodge Anna''s attack as he immediately used his Spiritual Energy to stop the invasion of the black energy inside his mind. "You are a hundred years too early to get me with a surprise attack!" Ruben was laughing after he managed to avoid Anna''s surprise attack. He thought she would not be able to defeat him without a surprise attack. Anna only smiled as she leaped toward him again and swung her scythe. Ruben tried to use his spear to block this scythe. Unfortunately, Anna managed to graze him when she used her ''Tri Xeta.'' This technique had a power of corrosion. It eroded Ruben''s Spiritual Energy and made his reaction speed slower. This was the technique that she used very long back when Alex was in his first mission in Zunde Field. She used this technique because Alex got ambushed by a very fast Werewolf. And this time, it lowered Ruben''s reaction speed. Because of that, before he knew it, Anna already cut one of his hands. Well, it was also thanks to Anya''s support to increase her strength so she could do something like this. "What?!" Ruben was obviously confused. He knew she was going to attack him, but when he reacted that way, she already finished her attack and took one of his hands. Unfortunately, this scene was not witnessed by the people of the Makmur Family. If not, they would break down. "You seem to be the leader, so I will spare your life for now. I will let Alex decide your fate!" Anna said coldly. "You woman! Don''t push your luck!" Ruben tried to attack her with his spear. Just like before, he thrust nothing as Anna suddenly disappeared. He suddenly heard something from his back. "You are the one who is pushing your luck by planning to kill Alex." "Puah!" After those words, he suddenly realized there was a big cut on his chest. He spat blood and fell to the ground. Anna grabbed him with her Spiritual Energy and immediately crippled his cultivation. 336 Revenge Time Leoz was fighting with two 8-Star Martial Lords. Even though they were two stars apart, Leoz was able to fight them on equal ground. And with the addition of Anya''s support, he even got a slight advantage over them. They were fighting for quite a while, and they had no idea that Ruben had been defeated by Anna. Leoz looked at Agus and the sixteenth elder casually. "You have chosen the dumbest choice in your life. And because of it, there will be no Makmur Family tomorrow." "You!" Agus immediately got angry the moment he heard that. After all, he was the current family head of the Makmur Family. "We have the advantage in number and strength. As long as we hold long enough, people will realize and fight back. Especially after my father kills that black-haired sl*t, you all will die!" Agus snorted. "That is not possible." Leoz shook his head. "What? She is only a 6-Star Martial Lord while my father is a 9-Star Martial Lord. My father will be able to kill her, why is it not possible!" "Because I have crippled him." A woman''s voice suddenly reverberated in his left ear. When he tried to turn his head, his head was already flying. "!!!" "How-!" Leoz only said that because he saw Anna coming to him. After she crippled Ruben, Anna immediately came toward him. And Leoz only said something like that to distract them. Although he got a slight advantage, he would need to take more time to kill them. So, he just decided to do it in a faster way. Anna did not care about Agus, so she immediately killed him. She then looked at Leoz, "You take care of the other one. Remember, Alex wants her alive." After she said that, she immediately left to help the others. ¡­ A moment later, They finished killing everyone except Ruben and the sixteenth elder. With Anna going around to kill those people, the battle finished in a jiffy. After they finished, Alex then moved toward the sixteenth elder. Well, according to Song Yu, she had some problems with Charya, and she herself even confirmed that they were arch-enemy. She also had been crippled by Leoz. And Alex only wanted what kind of person that made troubles for Charya. "You¡­ How can you do this to an Elder! Do you think the sect master will let you off? Even if Charya tries to protect you, you will be punished to death by doing this to me. I can act like this never happens as long as you stop this." "¡­" Alex was speechless. He thought this woman was smart to know what would happen to her. The sect master would never kill him because he had seen Maxwell. If he were present in this place, he would even kill her himself. Sadly, she did not know about Maxwell. In fact, only a few people knew about him since he sealed the memory about him. Still, Alex could not believe that this kind of person managed to make trouble for Charya. He even thought Charya was too soft in dealing with this. Well, he would personally finish this for her. Of course, she would need to be ''punished'' first. "I won''t kill you," Alex said. She grinned when she heard that. She thought he must be afraid of the punishment. Alex continued, "I won''t kill you before Jeanne'' play'' with you." "What? Master, you call me? Ara, so this woman will be playing with me. Master is the best, he knows me so well." Jeanne was delighted to hear that as she immediately appeared when Alex said the word ''Play.'' "Take her away," Alex said to Jeanne. "Understood, Master." Jeanne nodded her head. Jeanne then grabbed her hair and dragged her somewhere. "You brat, release me right now. I will make you regret it." She even threatened Jeanne. Sadly, Jeanne did not care about her as she would have a nightmare before she died. Alex then moved toward Ruben. "My lord, there must be some misunderstandings. Please spare my life, and our Makmur Family will follow you." Ruben was smarter than the sixteenth elder as he immediately begged for his life as soon as Alex came. Sadly, Alex never cared about his pleas, "Misunderstanding, huh. Well, at first, I said there is a misunderstanding between us, but you ignored me. Saying those bullsh*ts. It is only an act though." "My lord, I am in the wrong. Please spare my life, I will give you everything in my family. You hate Intan, right? I will make her grovel to you and become your slave. You can do whatever you want to her." Alex twitched his eyebrows. He even sold Intan just to save his life. He was beyond redemption. Alex thought this guy was a smart guy or even might be a sly fox. But he was a disappointment. "Pathetic." "My Lord, I¡ª" Alex did not let him speak anymore as he immediately cut his head. Not long after, Jeanne also came back with a very big smile. She seemed pretty satisfied with it. Jeanne even warned him not to see her corpse since she got a little bit ''excited'' in the process. Alex was wondering if Jeanne should play with him first. But he didn''t know why but he instinctively wanted to cut him down at his pathetic moment. He was wondering why he did that, but nothing came to his mind. He stopped thinking about that since he could not remember why he did that. "Alex, should we strike Makmur Family now?" Anna asked. "Yes. I will use the teleportation array to enter the Makmur Family. We will grab that Intan and kill everyone inside that place. Jeanne can play with her again." "You are the best." Jeanne was thrilled with his statement. "Should we go now?" Anna asked. "Wait a little bit. Because of Anya, I thought up another plan." Alex said. The others were confused about what he wanted to do. They saw Alex took out Nelson''s card, but they did not know what he wanted to do. "Nelson, how many successors the Zhou Kingdom have?" When he asked that question, not only Anya but even the others also realized what he wanted to do. "They have five princes and seven princesses." "I want you to assassinate all of them, can you do that?" Alex asked. "I can, for most of them, but I can''t kill the second prince and the first princess. Because the second prince is in the Mount Hua sect while the first princess is in Rainbow Flower Sect. The other princes and princesses are in the capital city, so killing them should be easy." "Alright. Don''t mind about the two. You can choose the best time to do it." "Understood." "Alex, you are pretty bad, aren''t you?" Anna said, trying to tease him. Alex thought about it himself. He had been killing many people in this world. In the lower world, he remembered every person he killed. The guy from Maka Town, The old king of Zircodina Kingdom, the assassins, and John. After he roamed around in this world, he realized he had killed so many people. He was wondering if he became a bad person¡­ No, he thought he was not. It was not like he was a good person from the start. Back then, he had his inferiority complex and slowly overcame it. He did not kill the people that wanted to kill him because his complex said it was normal for them to hate them like that. However, it led him to his biggest regret, Alicia. When he sealed Alicia, he decided to not leave any possibility for others to have revenge again. Thus, resulting in him being a careful person. And as a careful person, Alex chose to kill to eliminate the future problem. [Host, they are your enemies. But I also need to remind you, you should not kill innocent people. For example, like what you are doing right now, your enemies are Kasmanan Family, Makmur Family, and their Royal Family. You should not kill its citizens and other unrelated people.] "I know. I won''t do that." Alex nodded. After adjusting his thoughts, he looked at Anna and the others. "Let''s go." They nodded and disappeared. ¡­ Alex and the others arrived in the capital city in a few hours. Alex immediately used his teleportation array to enter the capital city from outside before entering the Makmur Family. "I am sure there will be no obstacle again, so I want us to finish this fast and go back to the sect." "Understood." They immediately disappeared. They moved very fast. And with the people from the Makmur Family who were not prepared for this, Alex and the others were able to kill them easily. "Young Master, I have found her and apprehend her." Fabio suddenly sent him a message. "Alright, I will go to your position." When he arrived, he saw Intan kneeling on the floor. Apparently, Fabio had crippled her. "You¡­" Intan was shocked to see Alex in front of her. After all, her family was chasing him, so Alex should not be in this place. "You don''t need to worry about those people. They are already dead." Alex said coldly. Of course, Intan knew what he meant. Her grandfather, her father, and the rest of the family had been killed. "You¡­ Always her. It is always her! Why?" Intan did not beg her life or anything. She only complained about something Alex could not understand. "Even when you were chased by the Bell Family, you are the one who saved her. In the Death Forest, if it was not because of you, how can she get all those things." Intan protested. It seemed she had been following Putri''s matter this entire time. Fortunately, she did not know the method he used. If not, Alex might be in trouble. "You¡­ If you are my Junior Brother, I will even let you have my body or become my husband. Why! This is unfair. If she didn''t receive it by the ninth elder, she would not have all of this." Intan suddenly started crying. "¡­" Alex looked at the pitiful Intan coldly. Nicole had told her how he wanted to kill him and how she managed to convince the Makmur Family to move. He somehow could not have any sympathy for her because of that. If he could sympathize with her even the slightest after she talked like this, he might even let her kill herself or something. But when he remembered how poisonous her mouth and heart were, she just could not raise his sympathy. He decided to ignore her. Not long after, the others also gathered in his position. Alex then looked at Nicole as he took out the half-box from Mithra, "Since the Makmur Family is finished. I want you to search for the other half of this box." "Understood." Alex nodded, and he made a teleportation array to teleport them away. They arrived in the nearby woods. Intan was obviously shocked when she saw what Alex did. "You¡­ you are a Space Element Array Master¡­" "Jeanne, your turn." "Alright." Jeanne smiled as she dragged the shocked Intan away. Of course, Anya also helped her to torment her even further. After ''Jeanne Session,'' Alex burned her corpse. "Young Master, do you sympathize her?" Fabio, who was watching her from the beginning of her rant, asked. Alex shook his head. "If we leave her corpse in this place, the Southern Kingdom will immediately know it was us who exterminated the Makmur Family. Although they will know about it sooner or later, this is only for precaution. "We are finished here. What are you going to do?" Anya suddenly said, "We will continue to train in the Nemu Forest. But people will know about the change in the undead region sooner or later. At that time, we will leave this place. Don''t worry about us, I will take the command." Alex was surprised to see Anya wanted to lead the spirits in this place. Nonetheless, he nodded his head. "I leave it to you. "Anna, I will leave Alex to you," Anya said. She decided to stay in this place because she knew she was not strong enough. Anna nodded her head. Alex then said, "Then, see you guys later." ¡­ The royal family knew that the Makmur Family had been exterminated, and they didn''t even realize it. When they tried to investigate it, they could not find any Martial Lords inside the family. Although they did not find them, judging from the situation inside the Makmur Family, they could imagine what happened to them. Because everyone was killed in their mansion, the royal family also did not know about the undead region. They only found it a few months later after the people started the rumor about the appearance of a mountain in the undead region. When they heard about it, the royal family immediately sent their people to investigate it, but to no avail. They found an altar and Makmur''s family remnant. But they did not find anything else, not even undead. They were bewildered as they did not know something this big happened. The other influences also received this information. Regrettably, they only came back empty-handed. 337 Song Yu and Putri Alex and Anna flew back to the sect, leaving his spirits behind in the Nemu Forest. And since Anya would lead them, they should be fine. He came back to the sect. But when he arrived at the ninth peak, Charya came out together with Evelyn. "Elder Charya?" Alex was obviously confused since he never expected her to come. No, in fact, she never came like this. Alex felt something was wrong by watching her come out with Evelyn. "¡­" Charya came to him but hesitated to talk. She did not know how to say this to Alex. She sighed. "Well, Song Yu and Putri had left the sect a week ago." "???" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he could not understand why she said that. After all, he thought it was normal for them to go out since he also just came back from the outside. But he immediately understood why she said that. "Putri had left for her own journey to get stronger. She said she wanted to get stronger without your help because if she kept relying on you, she would just hinder your progress. She realized it since you took a considerable amount of time when you taught her." "¡­" Alex was dumbfounded when he heard that. He never expected her to take it like that. "Where does she go?" Charya shook her head. "I do not know. She wanted me to say this to you, ''Thank you for taking care of me. I will keep getting stronger so I can proudly say I am your disciple in the future.'' That''s all, and she left. Well, although I missed them, I didn''t want to stop them. After all, it is their life and your journey. As their master, I will wait for them here." "¡­" Alex''s body shook a little bit. He sighed, "Haiz¡­ how about Senior Sister Song Yu?" "Song Yu? She said she wanted to change her fate so she needed to come back to the Northern Continent. Well, she also left this to you." Charya said as she took out a space ring and gave it to Alex. Alex received the space ring and inspected the space ring. There were a thousand sets of ingredients of Crystal Skin Pill inside the ring along with a letter. Alex took out the letter and read it. "This is my present for you, a thousand sets of ingredients since I don''t know how many times you will ask me to buy. But don''t worry, the rest of the ingredients are on me. Considering your talent and cultivation speed, you should be able to get into Martial King in one to three years. "I also could not let you beat me just like that. I am going to train again in my family as well as changing my fate. So, by the time you reach the Northern Continent, I can personally welcome you." "¡­" Alex was astonished to see something like this. He earnestly helped them, but it seemed to be a pressure on their side. They thought they could not keep up with him and took everything he gave for granted. They did not want anything like that, so they embarked on their own journey. Alex''s heart was obviously moved by their incentive. Alex looked at Charya as she would be the one who got hit the most by this. "I am sure they are fine. I mean, they are strong women." "Of course, I know that. I am the one who taught them after all." Charya said smugly. But there was still a trace of loneliness in her tone. Alex then looked at Anna, "Please go back first." Anna nodded and left them alone. "Still¡­ with those two left this place, this peak becomes a little bit lonely." She said while looking at the blue sky, reminiscing the time they were together. "Should we drink?" Alex asked. He remembered that he still had his wine, and he should be able to drink it again. "Sure. I love to. But there is one more thing that I need to tell you about one of the problems we currently face¡­" Charya said with a little pause in the end. She was a bit hesitant in telling this to Alex. "What is it?" "Well, it''s just since there is no Eric or that Intan again¡­ we only have Florinda to compete for the grand tournament. Although they were hateful, their abilities were top notch. And since we have lost them, we need another expert to compete for the winner. "Our disciples are experts, but no matter how strong they are, I am a bit unsure whether they could compete with the disciples from the other sects and kingdoms," Charya said, a bit embarrassed. Alex then looked at Evelyn. "How about her?" "Her¡­" Charya did not know what to say. After all, she was a princess of Thiveapia Kingdom. And her strength was also a bit low for her to compete. "If we don''t have an expert, then we can train her. But it depends on the expert itself¡­" Alex said while looking at Evelyn. He tried to give a solution for them since he was the one who killed Eric and Intan. He thought Putri was able to compete for it, but she had left the sect. Alex did not know when they would meet again. So, the only option for this was Evelyn. After all, Alex had taught her for a few months and was familiar with her. Her ability was top-notch, and Alex thought she would have a fair chance to win the tournament. There was only one problem left. Evelyn knew what he meant. Alex wanted to train her once again to be eligible to take part in the tournament. But the problem was whether she would represent her kingdom or Heavenly Sword Sect. "I will represent the sect in this tournament." Suddenly, Evelyn gave them an answer with a serious expression. Both of them were startled. They thought Evelyn would need a bit more time to think about it but to think she gave them an answer just like that. But judging from her expression, they felt she was honest in this. "My family will never expect me to represent them in this tournament. Even though I have been reporting my progress to them, I am still too far to reach the qualification to join. Besides, I have not paid for everything you have done for me. So, I think this is the best time to do it. Well, I need to rely on big brother Alex for a while so I can repay you¡­ it is pretty weird." Evelyn said with a smile. Charya then glanced at Alex. Alex gave her a nod, "Alright. I will try to train her. Well, I am also planning to participate in the tournament too. But how can I join the tournament?" "I don''t know. The sects and kingdoms were discussing it, and we will know about it in a few months." Charya said. Alex nodded. "Oh, that''s right. I want to ask you about this." Alex took out the half-box that Mithra gave him. He was planning to ask Song Yu, but she had left the sect, so he could only ask Charya about this. Charya looked at the green half-box in Alex''s hand. Although the box did not have any ornament inside, there was a certain trace of arrays on the box. Alex could not read what the array wanted since the box in his hand only contained a few symbols. Even with his new knowledge about Array, he still could not perceive it. If Alex had the other box, he certainly could understand what this box was for. "Ah!" But before Charya answered him, Evelyn suddenly startled them. Alex and Charya immediately looked at Evelyn, confused why she was surprised. "I have seen that box. My family wants me to come back to see them, so they sent a messenger one month ago. The messenger also told me there would be an auction, and he gave me the list of the items. I remember I saw a box that looked like this on the list." "Really?" Alex was surprised. "Yes. I am sure about it." Evelyn nodded her head. "When is the auction, and where?" "He told me two months¡­ so, it should be a month from now. And the place is the capital city of Thiveapia Kingdom, Plabele. If you want to participate in the auction, I can ask help from my family to get the ticket for you. After all, you need a certain amount of Spirit Stones before you can get the ticket." She said. "Only Spirit Stones?" Alex asked. Evelyn nodded her head. "Then, there should be no problem. How much do I need?" "You can enter with a hundred thousand Spirit Stones, and these people usually came from middle class or below families. And if you have more than a million Spirit Stones, you can get a VIP ticket. There is a VVIP Ticket, but usually, most of these people represent the entire sects or kingdoms, or you can get the ticket with ten million Spirit Stones. Of course, you don''t need to buy it, it is only for guarantee." "Don''t mind about the Spirit Stones. I can afford them." Alex nodded. "If big brother Alex wants to go to the auction, I can be your guide," Evelyn said. "¡­" Alex did not immediately agree to her. It was true that bringing her should not be a problem. But he was wondering if she was a problem magnet. Alex did not know whether to agree or not. But having her as his guide, he could familiarize himself with the Thiveapia Kingdom faster since he had yet to plant a spy in the Thiveapia Kingdom. He was also wondering whether he should have a normal ticket or a VVIP ticket. After all, he still had around twenty million Spirit Stones. Of course, there were Spirit gems mixed in them, and he thought the people in this continent would not know something like Spirit Gems, which was equal to a thousand Spirit Stones. But he got a present from Song Yu, a thousand sets of Crystal Skin Pills ingredients. He could get a profit of 38,000 Spirit Stones for each set. And with those thousand sets, he would get 38 million Spirit Stones. (AN: Each set of ingredients costs two thousand Spirit Stones. I forget which chapter.) With that money, he would be able to afford the VVIP. But he did not know whether he should buy it or not. With a normal ticket, Alex would be able to hide his presence and did not get any exposure. But he also did not know the price for the box. If he bought it more than a million or even ten million, the people would suspect him. Or he might even incite their greed. But if Alex got the VVIP ticket, it should not be a problem by buying something more than a million. And with Evelyn as his guide, the people would think twice as they needed to guess from where he came from first. As long as Evelyn did not say anything, they should not make a problem for him. Judging from the pros and cons, he thought bringing Evelyn and getting the VVIP ticket would benefit him the most. All that left was for him to put his mask on so they could not feel his cultivation. Of course, with that much money, they should think twice before making their move, especially to someone as mysterious as him. With that, he decided to bring Evelyn along with him. "Well, I will take up your offer. How many days we need to arrive at the Thiveapia Kingdom?" "Five days," Evelyn said. "Good. I am going to train you hard these three weeks before going to your kingdom, so prepare yourself." Alex said. When she heard that, her body became tense. Even though she knew she would have Alex''s training, she instinctively became tense. It was like her natural reaction to Alex''s training. 338 Father Figure "You prepare first and come to my house tomorrow," Alex said to Evelyn. "Yes." Evelyn nodded her head as she came back to Song Yu''s house. "Well, it is not night yet, but should we drink? We can drink in my house." Charya asked. "Sure." They went together to the fourth house in the mountain. It seemed she had been living there for a while. And from the look of it, it was right after Song Yu and Putri left the sect. And it turned out he was right. When he came to the house, she did not come back to the peak of the mountain to grab a wine. It was because she already had it in this house. Considering both of her disciples had left for their own journey, of course, Charya would be the one who got hit by it the most. "We are going to drink this wine first since yours would be too much, and we can''t enjoy it," Charya said while bringing her favorite wine jar. She poured the wine for him and gave it to him. "Alright." Alex nodded as he received the wine. They toasted with each other and drank the wine before Charya started reminiscing. "You know what, Song Yu was not like that when I met her for the first time. She felt like she was giving up on life and only did something because it was her duty. "She was only a 3-Star Martial Grandmaster back then. But with her age, that talent was really abnormal. I did not know whether it was normal or not on the other continent. But on this continent, it was not normal. "Looking at her was like looking the me back when I was a brat. Back then, the previous sect master had taken me in and taught me how to cultivate. Well, you could say that he was like a father to me¡­ for me, who was only an orphan. "He taught me to get stronger and to get another purpose in my life. He took care of my mess and everything. I think this is what he felt back then. "When I made trouble in some places, he would worry about my well-being. And when I got some achievement, he would be overjoyed. It was true when someone said, ''you never know how important a person is until you lose them.'' "I truly felt it when he died because of old age. I was so devastated at that time and did not know what to do with my life. I realized I had been relying on him, and he¡­ he was my everything. I was wandering around without any direction until I met Song Yu. "At that time, I felt I wanted to be someone like him. I offered Song Yu a place, and she became my disciple. Watching her growth truly made me proud, and whenever she went somewhere for a mission, my heart was full of worry. "I thought it must be that way for my old man. Not long after, the current sect master offered me to become a sect elder. And I accepted since my old man was the previous sect master and he loved the sect so much. So, I thought I should also protect this sect. "Then, one year later, Song Yu brought Putri. Although Putri did not have any noteworthy talent at that time, with Song Yu there, she slowly showed her talent. Finally, at that time, I decided to ask her to become my disciple too. "Long story short, teaching them, and watching them grow up really a good thing. It was a bit sad to see them fly away, but I know I should not impose my will for them and cage them here. This is for the best, and I am sure the old man is smiling too." Alex looked at her. He remembered his teacher back in the lower world. He was sure that his master also felt this way. "I also have a teacher¡­" Alex paused a little bit as he sipped the wine. "I was a very¡­ very rock bottom, my strength aside, my personality is a mess. "I had a family, but¡­ it¡­ was a bad family. Anyway, because of my living condition, I did not have any confidence in myself, and with just a little kindness from others, I became too dependent on them. "At that time, I finally got a teacher who became the father figure that I lost for a long time. He knew that if he took a wrong step, I might become too dependent on him. "So, he did not protect me. He wanted me to deal with the problem I could solve myself. He wanted me to mature and break the cage that trapped me for many years. He must have felt pain when he did that, but for me, he also chose to bear that pain together with me. "Although he did not protect me from the front, he was a father that continuously supported me from the back. He did everything to ensure I could continuously progress without stopping. He used everything he had to support me. "And because he knew he needed an unreasonable amount of money to raise the abnormal me, he worked to the bone to get every single money he needed to raise me. I never thought about it back then, but when I slowly matured up, I knew he did it just for me. "Without him, I might never become the way I am now. I truly could not thank him enough. If I had another chance to meet him again, I want to say how grateful I am and how much I love him." Alex said. He remembered every scene with Dean Marco, his teacher. He knew that his teacher was making pills every day just to get money in case he needed it. "Haha¡­ It seems we are truly indebted to them." Charya said. "Yeah." They continued to talk until night. Having a chat like this might be good from time to time. And when they drank Alex''s wine, Charya did not use her Spiritual Energy to refine the energy. She just let herself drunk through the night. Alex was different though. He did not even need to use his Spiritual Energy to refine it as his Pure Fire immediately came out and refined it themselves. With his current speed and the wine, he should be able to reach 2-Star Martial Lord before going to the Thiveapia Kingdom. He also needed to refine the Crystal Skin Pills to raise some money again. Sherry and Kyle did not want his wine since they thought Alex should be the one who drank it. They were satisfied with Spirit Stones and Alex''s gathering array. He would make a rank 5 Gathering Array as soon as he could. Well, it was still a long way though. Anyway, his target was 2-Star Martial Lord and refined a thousand sets of Crystal Skin Pill. He would not have a shortage of Spirit Stones for a while. After taking care of the drunken Charya, he went back to his house. "Mmm¡­" Charya was dreaming about her disciples. She was dreaming about the scene from a few days ago where Putri told her she wanted to leave. Putri suddenly came to her when she was wondering how her progress. But when Putri came, she said, "Master. I am sorry, but I want to leave the sect and go on my own journey." "¡­" Charya was obviously startled when she heard that. She would never expect that Putri suddenly wanted to leave for her own journey just two months after the incident. "Why do you want to leave?" "I¡­ I basically force Al- I mean, Master Alex, to receive me as his disciple. I took advantage of the situation and his kindness. I will be too ashamed to say or even use the technique he taught me openly. I want to go on my own journey so I can get stronger faster." Charya looked at her serious expression. She knew that she should not prevent her from going. It was time for her to soar in the sky. "Alright. I won''t prevent you from doing so. Just remember, this will always be your home, and I am not going anywhere. So, if you are tired, you can come back to this place to rest." Putri''s eyes glazed a bit as tears slowly appeared on the corner of her eyes. She knew how important Charya and Song Yu were in her heart. She could not bring herself to tell Song Yu about this, so she only told Charya. "Master, I am truly thankful to you¡­ thank you for what you have done for me this whole time." Putri kneeled in front of her. Charya helped her up and hugged her. "It is alright. I know you will be fine. You would easily trust someone before. But now you have matured a bit so I won''t need to worry about you. Take everything you have learned in this place and make your name out there." "Yes." Putri cried in Charya''s embrace. Charya also let out tears in the parting. After saying goodbye to her, Putri finally left. The dream then changed to a few days later when Song Yu came to her. It was the same as Putri. She was also planning to leave. "Master, I want to pass you something." Song Yu came with a space ring in her hand. She gave it to Charya. "What is this?" Charya was obviously confused. "This is the thing I promised Alex a few days ago. I wish Master could give this to Alex when he comes back." "Why? You should be able to give it to him yourself. Why¡­ Don''t tell me you are going too?" "Too?" "Putri left a few days ago for her own journey," Charya said with a bit sadness. "So, you are going too?" "I¡­" Song Yu paused a bit while looking down. After a while, she raised her head and nodded. "Yes. I think I should go back to the Northern Continent. I thought I could make it until the tournament before I left. "This Junior Brother of mine truly surprised me. I decided to go back early so I can make better preparations. And by his talent, I am sure he will go to the Northern Continent in a few years. So, I need to go back earlier than I expected. After all, I will still be his reliable Senior Sister." Charya knew there must be another reason. Song Yu was her first disciple, and they shared almost everything. She knew Song Yu came from a pretty well-known family in the Northern Continent. But in her eyes, she was just a little girl. Charya only closed her eyes, "Go, change your fate. You are not a little brat like back then. I believe you can do what you want." Song Yu smiled as she heard that. "Master, do you remember when we first met? Whether I face a good thing or a sad thing, I should laugh it off. It truly changed me for the better. "I am glad you were the one who I met back then. Thank you¡­ Hehe¡­hehehe¡­hehehu¡­huhuhu¡­" Song Yu tried to laugh it off as she did not want to have a sad goodbye. But she just controlled herself as her tears started coming out. "Idiot. You are really still a little brat." Charya hugged her and stroked her hair. "You can come back to this place whenever you want. Don''t worry about Alex in this continent. I will be sure to watch him. If he comes to the Northern Continent, you will be the one who watches him for me." "Of course, I am his Senior Sister after all." "I don''t know where Putri is, but if she comes to the Northern Continent. Make sure to take care of her for me, okay?" "Yes. I will visit you every now and then after I finish my business." Song Yu said. Charya only closed her eyes and smiled. "Yeah. I will always wait for you." 339 Warning! Trouble Ahead! After taking care of Charya, Alex went back to his house. "Anna, Evelyn will come here and train. Help me take care of her since I might be a little busy." "Of course. Leave her to me." Anna said with a smile. Alex nodded. He then went to his room and entered his Simulation Room. He was planning to practice making the Crystal Skin Pill. But before he arrived at the simulation world again, Alex came to his furnace. He drew an array inside the furnace. The array was called Separation Array. It was basically a barrier type array but with Space and Fire elements involved. It made special small rooms for the ingredients to enter the array and trapped the ingredients there. Alex immediately separated them to the maximum, which was ten small rooms. The room would give the best room condition for Alex to refine the medicinal ingredients, thus decreasing the chance of impurities and increasing the refinement speed. And with ten small rooms inside, he could prepare ten medicinal ingredients at the same time faster. This was the array that he found useful for his current condition from his new knowledge. This was only a rank 4 Array. If he could make a rank 5 Separation Array, he would be able to make twenty small rooms. At that time, his refining speed would become even more absurd. And he only needed to make a slight adjustment with his Spiritual Energy if he needed to refine a different type of material. It was a very handy array. After making the array, he entered his Simulation Room. There were eight medicinal ingredients for the Crystal Skin Pill. But Alex immediately tossed them inside as the medicinal ingredients entered a separate room. When Alex used his fire, the array also activated. Each room provided the best condition that suited the unique characteristics of the medicinal ingredients. And with his new knowledge, he could utilize his fire precisely so he could refine the ingredients faster. At the same time, The array drained the impurity from the ingredients. So, Alex did not need to do this process after refining the pill because the array already drained everything needed to drain. He immediately opened the array and merged them together. And surprisingly, he managed to refine two Crystal Skin Pills with a set of ingredients for his first time. And it also had 80% purity. This never happened every time he practiced. Usually, if he was practicing a few pills that could give birth to a few pills from one set of ingredients. He could only make one of them, and one of them would be ruined. But this time, he finished both of them with the same quality. Alex was still a bit unfamiliar with the knowledge. He had been sorting it every now and then since even if he got the knowledge, he was still clueless which one was useful and which one was not. He needed a bit more time to sort everything inside his head. After finishing the first pill, he immediately tried the second pill, then the third pill, and so on. Before he knew it, he managed to make a perfect Crystal Skin Pill constantly. And it only took him a day. Because he was too immersed in this, he forgot about his appointment with Evelyn. He immediately went out of his Simulation Room and came outside. He saw Evelyn was sparring with Anna. It seemed Anna took care of his job when he was too immersed in the Simulation Room. But when Alex came out, they noticed his presence. They stopped and came to Alex. "Thank you, Anna." "Don''t worry, I can take care of her if you are busy." "Nah, I need to work out a little bit. So¡­" Alex glanced at Evelyn. Her body shook with just her glance as she knew she would experience the demonic training once again. Well, Evelyn was almost a 6-Star Martial Grandmaster, so Alex was thinking about letting her use Gathering Array. It might be able to boost her to 9-Star or 10-Star Martial Grandmaster before the tournament started. Since she knew about Anna, Alex could just say that Anna asked her acquaintance to make an Array for them. Well, if that were not effective, Alex would just ask Charya to lie to her. Since Maxwell did not seal Charya''s memory, she should understand him and convince Evelyn about it. It was true that he killed both Eric and Intan, and they were strong. He understood their strength after he fought him. But he never regretted killing them. Although he did not need to repay the sect for this, he decided to train Evelyn as Putri''s substitute for the Grandmaster Tournament. ¡­ Two weeks had passed, Alex continued to train Evelyn. He made her train her sword technique fiercely. Of course, he made sure her cultivation progressed. She managed to advance to 6-Star Martial Grandmaster in these two weeks. Since she had been on the verge of a breakthrough, it was easy for her to breakthrough to 6-Star Martial Grandmaster, especially with the help of Alex''s rank 4 Gathering Array. Of course, Alex did not spend all his time on her. He drank his wine a few times and managed to have a breakthrough to 2-Star Martial Lord. He also had refined 1400 Crystal Skin Pills. Since each set could make two pills, Alex only had to refine another 300 sets. He was sitting while watching Evelyn progress. Suddenly, Anna informed him. "Alex, Nelson wants to talk with you." Anna came to him and handed Nelson''s card to him. Alex grabbed the card, "Thanks." "Nelson, what do you want to talk with me?" "Since I know that Young Master is the person that the princess of Rainbow Flower Sect searched for. I think I should mention this to you." "What is it? Did they break apart the alliance with Mount Hua Sect?" Alex asked casually. "Yes." "I see." Alex had expected something like this. Especially since there was no point in keeping the alliance because he came from Heavenly Sword Sect. "And I feel, she will come to-!" "Alex, Njomo want to talk with you." Anna came again and gave him Njomo''s card. Alex was startled since both of them wanted to talk at the same time. He grabbed Njomo''s card, and suddenly Njomo spoke, "Woof Woof Woof! Woof Woof!" "¡­" Of course, Alex never understood Njomo''s language. But Nelson suddenly said, "Yes. It seems my prediction is right. Njomo said, ''she is coming toward the Heavenly Sword Sect with the sect master.'' They will arrive in four or five days. "I assume she wants to make an alliance with Heavenly Sword Sect. Of course, their target will be you." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. He certainly was too lazy to meet her and dealt with this kind of thing. And even if she wanted to marry him or something, the sect master of Heavenly Sword Sect, Xiang Bai, would not let her. Or at least, he will ask Alex''s opinion first. After all, the worth of rank 6 Array, Alex, and Maxwell were far higher than the worth of the entire Rainbow Flower Sect. But he might need to meet her for formality, and he did not want it. Alex might need to shift his schedule a little bit. "Anna, you take care of Evelyn. I am going to be busy for these few days." Alex said. "Understood." Anna nodded. She knew Alex was going to avoid her, and since the timing was close to the auction, he got a perfect excuse for that. And as she had expected, Alex was finishing the refinement of Crystal Skin Pills. Even Evelyn was confused when she did not see Alex for a few days. Anna only said to her that he wanted to go to the Thiveapia Kingdom earlier. Evelyn was even more confused when she said that. Nonetheless, she was happy that Alex seemed eager to see her kingdom. Never did she know that Alex only wanted to avoid a certain problem. ¡­ Three days later, Alex came out of the house. "Alex?" Anna and Evelyn came to him since he finally finished refining the Crystal Skin Pills. "I am going out for a while. Evelyn, you should wash yourself first since we will go to the Thiveapia Kingdom today." "Ye-yes!" Anna already told her about the shift on the schedule. So, she immediately came back to Song Yu''s house. "I am going to cash in the pills first in the Alchemist Guild. You wake Sherry and Kyle up. Tell them we are going on a trip." Alex said to Anna. Anna nodded her head. Alex then put his mask on as he went to the Alchemist Guild in the Heavenly Sword Town. When he arrived in the Alchemist Guild, a young girl who seemed to be a receptionist, immediately greeted him. "Can I help you?" Alex did not want to beat around the bush. He immediately took out his rank 4 Alchemist Badge, albeit only a bronze badge. But it was enough to catch the attention of this receptionist. "Esteemed Alchemist, how may I help you?" Even though she was surprised, she immediately acted as polite as possible. "I want to sell pills." "I will inform the elders about this. Please wait a little bit, esteemed Alchemist." She then went somewhere before coming back with an old man. The elder was trying to see through him but to no avail. Since he put his mask on, the elder could not perceive Alex''s cultivation or his face. "I am mid 4th rank alchemist. I will be the one who checks your pill''s condition." Alex took out a bottle that contained twenty perfect purity Crystal Skin Pills and gave it to him. When the elder opened the bottle, he was shocked to see twenty perfect purity mid 4th rank pills. But he heard from the alchemist that he was a low 4th rank Alchemist and to make these pills¡­ His body shook as he knew Alex''s skill was above him. Even he could not make so many perfect purity mid 4th rank pills. "We can buy each pill for 20,000 Spirit Stones. So, it will be a total of 400,000 Spirit Stones for this bottle." He said politely. "I want to sell a hundred bottle, can you take it?" Alex asked. "What? A hundred bottles¡­ A few months ago¡­ we received an influx of Tempered Muscle Pills¡­ Don''t tell me¡­" "I am the one who provided her," Alex said casually. "I only ask if you can take all of it or not? If not, I will go somewhere else." "Of course, we can take all of it. If it was a few months ago, we could not take it since we don''t have enough Spirit Stones. But we get an increase in the budget just for you. So, we can take all of them." He immediately said. He was sweating when Alex pressed an answer. After all, a customer like Alex was precious. He did not care about Alex''s low 4th rank Alchemist anymore. After all, Alex might get it a few years ago, and he had yet to take the rank advancement. When Alex heard that, he nodded. At first, he wanted to sell the pills to Heavenly Sword Sect, but it seemed, selling all of his pills in this place would be better. After all, even this wealthy guild might not be able to buy all of it if they did not get an increase in budget. Well, Alex also thought of another thing. He looked at the elder who was sweating profusely. Having a status was really convenient since he could even do something like this. "Please come this way, I will lead you to the guild master since the scale of the transaction is bigger than my responsibility." Alex nodded his head, and the elder guided him to a room. Inside the room, Alex could see a very old man. He already lost all of his hair, and it seemed it was already hard to open his eyes. "Welcome." He said with a low voice. 340 Time to go! "Welcome." The old man said with a low voice. "Please sit." Alex looked at the old man who was sitting calmly in his chair. "I am sorry for my rudeness, Senior. I have a pressing matter." "Hyo-ho. I am just curious about the person who made us literally run out of money a few months ago¡­ To think you are such a young Alchemist. Since you have another matter, then I will make this short. Just put everything on the floor." Alex nodded. He immediately took out a hundred bottles on the floor. And even from his chair, the old man could smell the pills'' scent. "Truly magnificent. Two thousand Crystal Skin Pills. You will get 20,000 Spirit Stones for each pill. And with these 2000 pills, you will get 40 million Spirit Stones. And since you are such a big customer and supply us with these many pills at once, since I also finally meet the alchemist who made all of this, I will also add another five million Spirit Stones with my authority." Alex only nodded his head. Well, it was a good thing he got another five million Spirit Stones. "Thank you very much." "Then, I should not keep you any longer." The guild master then looked at the elder who guided Alex to this room. "Elder Ren, please prepare the money for him." "Yes." "I am wondering¡­ usually, the little girl who will come to this guild. Why do you suddenly personally come to this guild?" The guild master asked Alex, trying to chat with him while waiting for the money. "She went home." "Oh, I see." "Guild Master, I am back." The elder grabbed the cash with lightning speed. The guild master only asked one question, and he already came back to the room. He handed the space ring that contained 45 million Spirit Stones to Alex. Alex received the Space Ring and looked at the guild master. He said politely, "Then, I will excuse myself." "Sure. You are our precious Alchemist after all. I will be waiting for you next time." Alex then left the room. "Guild Master, are you sure we can give him an additional five million Spirit Stones. I mean, it is such a big sum." Elder Ren asked. "Hyo-ho. The little girl bought the medicinal ingredients a few weeks ago. And he already came back with two thousand perfect purity pills." The elder was startled. Since Song Yu occasionally came to this place for Alex, she already knew about this guild master. Usually, he would be the one who personally finished her business. And with the sudden appearance of Alex, he was just a bit surprised to hear Alex''s voice. It seemed Alex was very young, but it made him appear even more monstrous. "And she also bought only a thousand sets of ingredients." The guild master continued. "A set of ingredients can make two Crystal Skin Pills¡­ a few weeks ago¡­" The elder was shocked to the core when he realized that. Alex could make all of this in a few weeks, and all of them were perfect purity. Even the guild master smiled, "Hyo-ho. It seems he is affiliated with the Heavenly Sword Sect. To think such a monstrous Alchemist affiliated with the Heavenly Sword Sect, not Mount Hua Sect. Those old men in the Mount Hua sect would be crying to hear something like this." "Are you going to tell them, guild master?" "Why should I tell them? I don''t have any obligation for that. Elder Ren, just remember, our partnership with Mount Hua Sect is only limited to medicinal ingredients. Ultimately, we are Alchemist Guild of Heavenly Sword Town, not Mount Hua Sect''s Alchemist guild branch. "Still, such a monstrous young man. I wonder who his master is¡­" He was a wandering Alchemist Guild official. He came to this guild a few months ago, and luckily it was the time when Song Yu started running the errand for Alex. This piqued his interest, so he remained in this place just to see it through. ¡­ Alex went back to the sect to tell him he would go with Evelyn. He just arrived in front of her house, and Charya already shouted, "Come in." Alex only shrugged his shoulder. Since the house owner had given him permission, he then came inside. "Elder, Charya. I am going to go now." "For the auction?" Charya asked. "Yes." Alex nodded his head. "But, aren''t you planning to leave next week? Why do you suddenly want to leave now?" Alex only smiled as he did not know how to explain. After all, if he said he wanted to avoid meeting that Letizia, she might even tease him or something along the line. "Well, there is a pressing matter. So, I need to leave first. Since the timing is right, I will leave together with Evelyn." "???" Charya was completely clueless. But since Alex did not say anything about it, she did not pry any further. Charya said, "Alright. If it is a pressing matter, I will not stop you. But you better be careful out there." "Yes." Alex nodded. "We have not gotten the news about the details of the tournament, and as soon as I know about it, I will let you know," Charya said. "Thank you." Alex then left the house. Evelyn had been waiting for him together with Anna. Alex said to Evelyn while putting his mask on, "I am going to say this to you first." "Yes¡­? Why does big brother use a mask?" "Nothing. I just want to hide my identity. So, you are going to take part in this." "Why do you want to hide your identity?" "It is a bit complicated, but make sure you never told anyone about my identity." "I will." Evelyn did not know why he wanted to do that but still nodded her head. She promised in her heart not to tell anyone. Alex looked at her serious expression and smiled. He patted her head, "Don''t be that tense. It is not like I will do something bad. We will just go with this setting; you are currently guiding an heir from a hidden family." "An heir from a hidden family?" "Yeah. You just need to make sure I appear to be a powerful but mysterious man." "But why do you want to do that?" "Haha, just ask yourself about this. You are a famous princess in your kingdom. And when I suddenly come to your kingdom with you as my guide. What will the others think about me?" "What will others think about big brother¡­ Ah!" Evelyn opened her mouth in surprise. She finally understood why he wanted to conceal his identity, especially masking it to be a powerful but mysterious man. Because she was around Alex and the others for a long time, she forgot about it. She remembered the first time they met in the disciple recruitment. She clearly remembered her own sister''s reaction to Alex. She looked down on him. Although she was already not like that after she matured up, the others from the Thiveapia Kingdom might also react the same as her sister from back then. Although Alex''s reputation was a bit famous, what he had was not a good reputation. He was one of the wanted men in the Southern Kingdom. Although they had taken it down, the hate was still there. She did not know about his relationship with the Zhou Kingdom, but even so, it was still a bad reputation. If she, the rumored genius princess, guided him all the way to the Thiveapia Kingdom, the reaction of the mass would be chaotic. If she tried to explain it, some people might believe her, but it was not all of them. They might even do something to Alex because of that. So, Alex chose to conceal his identity by using a mask. And to protect himself, he wanted her to act like he was powerful and mysterious. That way, people would think twice before acting against him. They would just think the kingdom sent a princess to guide this important person. She thought a bit before nodding her head. She did not mind taking part in that role because she knew Alex did nothing wrong. He did not mind being the enemy of the Southern Kingdom just because Putri was hurt. She knew Alex was a good person, so she decided to agree with him. "Sure. But how shall I call you?" Evelyn asked. "¡­" Alex paused a little bit, thinking up a name. "Redna¡­ You can call me Redna." "Redna¡­ Un¡­ Big brother Redna." Evelyn nodded her head, thinking nothing about the name. But Anna came to them and teased Alex, "You are still going with that name? Fufu¡­ How can you be so creative in creating a plan but suck at naming? You are not going to use Xela again as your family name?" "Shut up." Alex only shrugged it off. Evelyn did not understand what she meant by suck at naming. Noticing her reacting, Anna said with a weird expression, "Don''t tell me you don''t understand the naming?" "???" Evelyn thought a little bit but still shook her head. "See! My naming sense is good." Alex said smugly. "Oh my goodness¡­" Anna shook her head in disbelief. She then said, "He just called his name in reverse." "¡­!" Evelyn finally understood her meaning. Alexander and Redna Xela. She looked down as she was too embarrassed because she could not understand something that simple. "Anyway, I want you to act that way since I am too tired to deal with unnecessary problems. At least, I want to enjoy the auction this time." "Un, I understand, big brother. Don''t worry, I will help you with that. After all, my sister is like that for the first time we met. But how about the ticket? I can ask my family to help you issue a ticket for you." "Nothing. I don''t have any problems with money. I will get the VVIP ticket so no one would bother me." "Well, if you can do that, then it will be easy," Evelyn said. "Sure, time to go." They then flew away. Charya was watching them as they disappeared to the horizon. Charya grabbed her wine and drank until she was drunk. ¡­ Meanwhile, The news about the Rainbow Flower Sect came to the Heavenly Sword Sects immediately reached Xiang Bai''s ears. He was surprised to see the Rainbow Flower Sect suddenly come to this place and wanted to meet them. Of course, the news about Rainbow Flower Sect breaking apart their alliance with Mount Hua Sect had yet to reach his ears, so he was too confused why they wanted to come to this sect. The princess of Rainbow Flower Sect came together with the sect master as well as a few elders. He was a bit troubled with this situation since they came to this place without any prior notice. Still, he decided to welcome them. Of course, he was not afraid of them, especially with the addition of Maxwell''s array. He asked the first elder to accompany him to receive them in Heavenly Sword Town. They saw a few people on the gate of Heavenly Sword Town. All of them were beautiful women, but there were two women whose beauty was able to best the other women. The older one had long light -blue braided hair, and coupled with her gorgeous face, she was a mature beauty. She wore a tight white dress with a blue flower pattern. The younger one also had long light-blue hair. But instead of a mature and calm face, her pretty face filled with youthfulness and energy. Her beautiful eyes filled with wisdom. And people could say that the younger one would become even more beautiful than the older one in a few years. "Sect Master Cecilia La Scola, I welcome you to Heavenly Sword Sect, I wonder what is your business to come to this sect without any notice." Xiang Bai landed and asked. 341 Error 404: Person not found "I wonder, what is your business to come to this sect without any notice?" Xiang Bai asked carefully. "I am sorry for our sudden appearance. After all, my daughter is a bit eager to come to this place." Cecilia said. "Hoo¡­ I wonder why your daughter wants to come to this place? If I am not wrong, your sect is still in alliance with Mount Hua Sect. So, I am curious about what you want from this place." Xiang Bai narrowed his eyes. "Fufu, Sect Master Xiang Bai does not need to be that careful to us. The alliance is only a misunderstanding, and we have canceled the agreement between us. So, you don''t need to be that careful." Cecilia said. "What!" Xiang Bai and the first elder was shocked to hear that. "But, I presume, we should not talk about something like this in this place, am I right?" Xiang Bai looked at her calm face and said, "Please follow me." He led them to the small island in the center of the mountain peaks. He invited them here. "So, could you elaborate it a bit more, Sect Master Cecilia?" Xiang Bai looked at Cecilia with a serious expression. "As I said previously, the alliance is truly a misunderstanding. I am sure that Sect Master Xiang Bai knows about the rumor that my daughter was in love with someone." "Indeed. That is the reason why Rainbow Flower Sect made an alliance with Mount Hua Sect. But If I am not wrong, Rainbow Flower Sect''s princess had yet to find the man." "She has found the man. But it turned out that he was not in Mount Hua Sect. Instead, he came from Heavenly Sword Sect. That''s why I said the alliance is a misunderstanding." She said. "Hoo¡­ Is this not just your excuse to see our sect? You can come to this place and openly investigate my sect with a justified reason. And later, you can say it is also a misunderstanding¡­" Xiang Bai narrowed his eyes. "You!" One of the elders was triggered by his words. After all, Xiang Bai was accusing them of something that was not true. But Xiang Bai only said this with his information. He did not know whether Letizia was truly in love with someone or not. So, he said it might be an excuse for them to check their sect. Xiang Bai also needed to be careful since the grand tournament was around the corner, and even Rainbow Flower Sect might resort to something like this to get as many information as they could. Cecilia immediately stopped them from saying anything. She then looked at Xiang Bai, "I know your concern Sect Master Xiang Bai. I can guarantee you that we don''t have that kind of intention. We truly want to have a sect alliance with marriage. And I truly think both of them are a couple, matched by heaven." "Hoo¡­ But I remember that she never said who he was and even his appearance. She never told anyone about that. Now, I am truly curious why Mount Hua Sect was a misunderstanding, and Heavenly Sword Sect is not. "Or maybe, even our sect is also a misunderstanding later. And you will go to the Buddha Sect." The elders behind Cecilia could hardly calm down. If not because Cecilia stopped them, they might throw another insult on him. Cecilia only smiled, "I can guarantee you that this is true. We truly want to have an alliance with your sect. The reason why she never told his name was because she did not know his name. They were separated before she knew his name. "She only knew about his appearance. But if she described him perfectly, there might be a possibility of an impostor. So, we could only let her search for her own in the Mount Hua Sect. "And a month ago, she finally learned his identity. And it turned out he came from Heavenly Sword Sect, not Mount Hua Sect. So, I, as a sect master, was also forced to cancel the alliance. Before my identity as a sect master, I am also a mother. "Since she also falls in love with him. We can match them together, and our alliance will grow even stronger with this marriage. It is two birds in one stone." Cecilia explained with flowery words. Letizia indeed did not know Alex''s name before Zwaka teleported her back. But even if Zwaka did not teleport her back, she would not know Alex''s name because Alex never had any intention to give her his name. Letizia also did not love him. She decided to sacrifice herself for her sect. Although her mother was a bit concerned about her, she could not persuade her about this. So, she could only make a claim that she was in love with him to make it more believable. And when Letizia knew about Alexander''s identity, she was shocked beyond belief. It turned out he was more powerful than her imagination. From her clash with him in Zwaka''s place, she knew Alex was an Array Master and also the bearer of Pure Element like her. Then, she met Alexander Sirius again in the Nemu Forest. After many rumors and information, she finally understood she still underestimated him. She learned that Alex was an Alchemist, a rank 4 Alchemist to boot. Not only that, but he also could use both sword and spear in an unprecedented way. This also startled the elders and her mother. She could only say that Alexander was still hiding his full ability, and it could blow their mind if she could say it. Unfortunately, because of the Heavenly Oath, she could not. After many debates, she managed to convince them. Cecilia was worried about her. But she kept telling her it was her duty or something and chose to bear it alone. She was even a bit furious when she heard Alexander was staying at a peak full of women. Luckily, they also found out that Alexander did not have any relationship with them. It meant in both a good and a bad way. They knew Alex was not an embodiment of lust. But they also could not take advantage of it. So, the only way for them was to force this marriage between them in the name of the alliance. "But you are still not answering my question. Why could she even misunderstand that he comes from Mount Hua Sect, not Heavenly Sword Sect?" Xiang Bai asked again. "Well, she only knows about a portion of his ability, and that ability is a trademark of Mount Hua Sect. So, she misunderstood and thought he came from Mount Hua Sect. But it turned out he came from Heavenly Sword Sect." "¡­!" Both Xiang Bai and the first elder pondered before realizing who he was. They looked at each other, noticing both of them thought the same person. "It must be him¡­" Xiang Bai said. "Yeah¡­ It must be him." The first elder nodded his head. "Ugh!" Both of them suddenly looked down, feeling a bit down. They knew it must be Alexander Sirius. From all of the disciples in the Heavenly Sword Sect, the only one that could be mistaken to be a Mount Hua Sect Disciple would only be Alexander Sirius. They learned his identity as an Alchemist in his fight with Intan. And they found his other identity, which was Array Master when Maxwell appeared to fend off their enemy. If he did not use his sword or spear, it was normal for her to mistake him as Mount Hua Sect disciple. But this was also a problem for them. After all, they knew they could not just accept this alliance and this marriage thing. They needed to ask Alex about it too, considering his master already gave them a rank 6 Array. Even more so, Alexander''s potential was monstrous. Just from his master alone, they could imagine him being a powerhouse in the future. They remembered when Alex said that his master could even kill Martial Emperors with ease. And when Maxwell truly appeared in front of them, they could imagine that. And a powerhouse of that level would not just take some random guy to be their disciple. In other words, he knew about Alex''s talent in Sword, Spear, Alchemy, and Array. He knew that Alex could reach far above Martial King or Martial Emperor, he might even become a Martial Monarch if not Saint. There were a few possibilities if they decided to take this agreement. First, Alex might be chained down by something like this should he agree to accept Letizia as his wife. Second, Alex might not like it and left the sect. If it were only leaving the sect and never came back, then it would be good since they could profit a rank 6 Array. But if he decided to come back to deal with them, there would not be any Heavenly Sword Sect again in the future. They also could not kill him. It was the most foolish option to think of. If they decided to kill him, they would not even imagine how they could kill him. Alex might not be able to fight them currently, but he could just ask his Master to kill them like he killed the people from the Zhou Kingdom. Killing him was the same as asking Alex to kill them. It was not even an option. Even if they could get the rank 6 Array. Ultimately, it was still Alex that held the control of it. Alex could activate it or deactivate the array whenever he wanted. They were glad there were no other elders in this place. Since their memories had been sealed by Maxwell, they might even try to pressure them to accept this marriage. Looking at their troubled expression, Cecilia said, "Sect Master Xiang Bai. This is my daughter''s biggest secret that no one knows except the high-ranking people in our sect. But this also shows how much we are serious about this matter. My daughter, Letizia, is a Pure Ice Element." "What!" "Pure Ice Element?" They were too shocked to hear that Letizia was a Pure Ice Element. It was a supreme element, and the rarest element a person could get. But to think Letizia had it all the time and no one knew about it. She would also become a powerhouse in the future. And they thought that she indeed had the qualification to be Alex''s wife. But Alex''s element alone was almost at the same as her in the rarity, albeit they did not know about Alex''s space element. They only knew that Alex was an Alchemist, and an Alchemist should only have a Fire Element. They did not know his Space Element yet. Of course, it was the same as Letizia because she never saw Alex''s space element. She only convinced them with his Pure Fire Element. Xiang Bai and the first elder were confused on what to do. They did not know whether to reject them or accept the alliance. "I think we should ask the person in question since this is his life we are talking about. Let me lead you to the ninth peak." Xiang Bai decided to leave it to Alex. Cecilia did not mind about it, but Letizia was a bit worried. She did not know whether Xiang Bai would help them persuade Alex or forced him to accept the marriage. Sadly, when they arrived, Only Charya, who was in the ninth peak. "Elder Charya, do you know where we can find Alexander Sirius?" Xiang Bai asked. Charya was confused by him. She looked at Cecilia and Letizia before turning back to Xiang Bai, "Why do you want to ask him, Old Xiang?" "Nothing. I assume you know about them, right? They are Sect Master Cecilia from Rainbow Flower Sect and her daughter, Letizia La Scola, and it seems she is in love with him. So, we want to ask for his opinion about this." Xiang Bai said. When Charya heard that, she immediately realized why Alex suddenly went ahead of his schedule and went to the Thiveapia Kingdom. He must know that these people were coming and immediately left the sect. "Pu¡­Hahaha¡­" Charya laughed. The people were dumbfounded when they saw her laugh, even Xiang Bai was clueless. Charya said to Letizia. "Girl, I don''t know what you did. But it seems he is avoiding you. He has gone somewhere just before you arrived. Haha¡­" 342 Ticke Alex already escaped from the sect to avoid them. He could come back anytime after they went back to Rainbow Flower Sect. Since Njomo was following them, he could keep track of their movement, so he knew the right time to go back. Alex, Evelyn, and Anna arrived at the capital city of Thiveapia Kingdom, Plabele, after a few days of flying. "Welcome to my kingdom''s capital city, Plabele," Evelyn said with a smile. Alex nodded. "So, what do you want to do? I can show you around if you want." Alex pondered it a little bit. He did not care about the capital city since his purpose in this city was to join the auction and get the box. "I want to get the ticket first¡­ I guess." Alex said. Since he thought he should not get it on the last day. "Alright. We are going to the auction house. It is not far from here, so we will arrive there in a jiffy." Evelyn said with a smile. Alex only nodded his head as he followed her. They arrived at the auction house in a few minutes. Evelyn then led him to the counter, and the receptionist immediately recognized her. They kneeled in front of her. "Your Highness." "Un, does unc- I mean, does the manager in this place?" "Yes. Your Highness, he is in his office." "Then, I will go to his place. I know the place, so I don''t need any guide." Evelyn said. "Yes!" They were also wondering who was behind the princess that seemed to act around the princess casually. But with his mask, he appeared mysterious and that made them unable to question him, especially with Princess Evelyn in front of them. Evelyn led him to the office upstairs. She suddenly opened the door without even trying to knock. "Uncle, I have come back!" She shouted with a happy expression. Inside the room, there was a middle-aged man that seemed to be busy with the paperwork as there were a few mountains of papers in his desk. But when Evelyn came, his stern face completely disappeared as he rose from his seat. "Oh, Evelyn. You finally come back. Come here and hug your uncle. I really miss you." He said with a smile, leaving his work behind. Alex could see that there were two other people in the room. Because of her joy, Evelyn did not notice them, but Alex noticed them. She had long and smooth black hair like Evelyn. But to her surprise, she was very similar to Lena. With her beautiful eyes filled with wisdom, she appeared to be elegant. She should be a royalty, Alex thought. But he did not know why, but Alex felt a bit repulsive to her. The other person was a guy of the same age as him. He had short black hair. But there was this gentle expression in his face that made him appear to be a gentle guy. It felt like he would be a reliable friend. But he did not know why, but he looked like a fool. He felt he was a person that might even forgive someone that tried to kill him. Well, it was only their first meeting, so he did not think about it any longer. Alex then looked at the middle-aged man. He had short black hair, but Alex could spot a few strands of white hair on his head. He also had the same gentle and kind expression as the guy, but his eyes filled with wisdom and experiences. Even so, from Evelyn''s reaction alone, he seemed to be a good uncle. Well, whether it was a farce or not, Alex would not know it. He remembered about the Zircodina''s king. His appearance might be wise, but in fact, he was not as all of it was only a front. Alex did not really care about him since this might be the only time they would meet. But since the situation became like this, Alex decided to recall Anna back to the card. He could just tell her that Anna was running an errand for him to the Alchemist Guild, and she would believe it. "Still, the innocent brat from back then, now has turned into a pretty young girl. I am glad." The middle-aged man said. "Uncle, don''t tease me." Evelyn pouted. "Haha¡­ I might not be able to tease you any longer. But to think you have become a 6-Star Martial Grandmaster in two years. Heavenly Sword Sect is insane." "!!!" When they heard that, the two young people immediately dropped their work and looked at Evelyn. "Hehe¡­ I am just lucky. Well, I can only thank big brother Al- I mean, big brother Redna." "Big brother Redna?" The middle-aged man was surprised. He finally looked at the masked man outside the room. "Big brother Redna is the one who trained me. If not, I might still be in the Martial Master stage." Evelyn said. The others were surprised when they heard that, especially for those two young people. They could look into his face because of that mask. But the thing that troubled them was because they could not sense his cultivation level. But if he was the one who helped Evelyn reach this level in just two years, he should not be a mortal. In other words, he should be stronger than them. But when the middle-aged saw him, he thought there must be a trick in his cultivation. He did not know the trick, but with that trick, Alex could conceal his real cultivation stage. After all, there must be a reason why Alex wanted to conceal his cultivation stage. If he was a truly powerful person, he did not need to use a mask. Of course, Alex had a solution if that happened, but he did not need to use it if not required. But, since he was Evelyn''s uncle, and in fact, one of the closest family to her, he greeted Alex while stretching his hand for a handshake. "Pleasure to meet you. I am Matthew, Evelyn''s uncle." "Redna," Alex could see that he was an 8-Star Martial Lord. He shook Matthew''s hand. "Big brother Redna wants to participate in the auction." "Oh. You want to get into an auction, how about you come with me?" Suddenly, the woman on the side spoke. Alex looked at her. He was a bit surprised with her 3-Star Martial Lord Stage cultivation, but Alex did not know why this woman suddenly talked like that. After all, this was the first time she saw him. Alex looked at them silently, as he did not know who they were. Evelyn then came to him and introduced them, "She is my eldest sister, the first princess, Luna. And this is my second brother, the second prince, Johan." Alex nodded his head as a greeting. "I am thankful for the Princess''s invitation, but I think I will have my own room." "Room?" They were confused, especially Matthew. Alex turned to Matthew and nodded his head. He took out a space ring and gave it to him. When Matthew checked the space ring, he was dumbfounded. After receiving the space ring, he immediately went back to his job as the head of the auction head and formally accepted Alex''s space ring. "Twenty¡­ Ah, I apologize. I see, since esteemed guest wants a VVIP room, let me give you the VVIP ticket for the auction." Alex nodded calmly. He was calm, but the others were not, including Evelyn. They were so shocked as they could understand what Matthew meant by twenty. With the VVIP ticket, they could guess that Alex had more than ten million Spirit Stones. Since Matthew said ''Twenty,'' it meant in that space ring alone, there were twenty million Spirit Stones. And no ordinary person could get all of that. Especially a loose cultivator. In other words, Alex should come from an influence. The prince and princess thought like that. But Evelyn, who was with him this whole time, was confused. She never thought Alex had that much money. She remembered that Alex even let her train inside a rank 4 Gathering Array and even provided her with the Spirit Stones. In the two weeks alone, she used a few thousand Spirit Stones. However, Alex never batted an eye with that kind of money. She finally understood why. Alex simply had too much money, and it might not even be his bottom line. The first princess was truly dumbfounded about this. She was curious about the person who trained Evelyn. He should not be an ordinary person. That was the reason why she invited him to join the auction with her. "That''s right. Where is big sister Anna?" Evelyn asked. "She went to Alchemist Guild for me," Alex said. "Oh!" Evelyn only nodded her head since she knew Alex''s identity as an Alchemist. She thought Anna must be running an errand for him. Alex also said she went to the Alchemist guild to lessen the suspicion to these people, lest they might think he used Evelyn to infiltrate the kingdom. "Your esteemed guest, this is your VVIP ticket. You just need to present it to the guard when you come to the auction house. There will be our people that will guide you to your room." Matthew said as he gave Alex a golden card and his space ring. He continued, "I assume this is your first time here. We will not keep your Space Ring in our custody. As long as we validate you have ten million Spirit Stones, then it is enough for you to be qualified for our VVIP ticket." Alex was surprised. He never thought it was this easy. After all, he might borrow this Space Ring from someone who might already get a VVIP ticket. "Are you sure? I might borrow this money from someone though." "You jest. Usually, we are running for a few validation processes. But since my niece brings you here, I am sure you are trustworthy. You can also treat it as my thanks for training my niece." Matthew said. Alex nodded his head. "You can also present the golden card to the Charmen inn. It is the inn in front of our building. We have a partnership with them. Esteemed guest can wait for the auction to start in your inn." "Alright." Alex then took a glance at his paperwork, before turning his head at him, "Since you are busy, I should not keep you any longer." Noticing Alex wanted to leave, Evelyn chased him while waving her hand to Matthew. "Uncle. Don''t worry. I will accompany big brother Redna until the auction. I will also come back to the family to say hi." Matthew could only shake his head when he saw her. "That girl¡­" The second prince frowned when he saw that while the first princess smiled. No one knew what was in their mind. ¡­ Alex never cared about something like that. When he arrived outside, he immediately went to the inn. He was planning to cultivate to pass the time. Of course, since there was still more than a week, he might even need to make a Gathering Array for Sherry and Kyle. The inn was really high. They had around twenty floors. Alex was surprised to see such a tall building. He was wondering if the architect in this world was that good or the material was that strong, considering he was in the cultivation world. When they came inside, the people immediately recognized Evelyn when they came. They kneeled to her. Alex then showed his golden card, and the inn staff immediately led him to the special room. They said the room was the entire floor. Well, it was good enough for him since Alex could make Gathering Array for Sherry and Kyle. He summoned Anna to supervise Sherry and Kyle. He was not going anywhere, so Alex told Evelyn to come back to her home, so she could visit her family. Evelyn then accepted his offer and would come back on the auction day. After she left, Alex then proceeded to his cultivation. He took out his wine. He might not be able to use it that much again as there was only a third of the jar. Well, it could give him another one or two stars so it should be fine. He then drank the wine. 343 Luna Evelyn came back once in a while. But Alex told her not to do so since Alex felt a few presences the first time she came back. He told her to come only on the auction day. Luckily, they did not try anything funny. If not, Alex might be forced to kill them. Alex already made a Sound Insulation Array so they could not pry his conversation with Anna. So, they could only wait for a silent room for the entire week. Alex did not know who sent them, but it was clearly from the Royal Family. They might come because Evelyn came back to the castle, or they were sent by the prince or princess that he met earlier. But in any case, they could not get anything from him. After the whole week, Evelyn finally came back. "Knock Knock." "Big brother Alex. The auction will start in two hours," Evelyn said from outside. Alex nodded. Anna immediately wore her black veil. Both of them then came out of the room. "Let''s go." "Un." Well, the auction house was in front of them, so they arrived in a jiffy. When the guards saw Evelyn, as usual, they were kneeling on the ground. "Your Highness." "Rise. Who is in charge?" Evelyn asked solemnly. "I am. My name is Felix, your highness." A middle-aged guy walked to her. Evelyn only nodded before turning her head to Alex. "Big brother Redna." Alex knew why she was looking at him. Alex immediately took out his golden card and gave it to her. Evelyn then showed it to the middle-aged guy. "Show us the room." "Golden¡­ Yes yes¡­ Please this way." The middle-aged guy was shocked at first but immediately regained his calm. Evelyn then gave Alex''s golden card back, and they followed Felix inside. "The room is on the top floor. Please." However, just as when they stepped inside the auction house. "Well well well, isn''t this my genius little sister?" A voice suddenly came from another direction. Alex sighed behind his mask as he knew with a line like this, usually, a problem would occur. Alex thought by bringing Evelyn as his guide and made his appearance to be mysterious, he could prevent any problem. Sadly, he did not think it enough. There was this royal family that did not care about that. And when he turned his head, he could see a black-haired guy again. It seemed black hair was the trait of Thiveapia Kingdom''s royal family. Alex was a little bit surprised by his cultivation, he was a 4-Star Martial Lord. There were two people behind him. One of them seemed to have the same age as him with a cultivation of 3-Star Martial Lord. He had long purple hair while wearing a long white robe. The other one was also wearing a long white robe, but he was an old man. He also had long purple hair, but his cultivation was 9-Star Martial Lord. This made him frown. Alex did not know who these two were, but they might also come from the Royal Family. "I will go first." He would just let Evelyn handle this as he sent a thought transmission to Evelyn. He was able to do this since he had reached the Martial Lord stage. Alex then turned his head to Felix, "Lead me to the room." Felix did not know what to do. After all, he knew the person in front of them was the first prince, Cromwell. Evelyn then turned her head to Alex and Felix, she nodded her head. And with that, Felix had no choice other than leading Alex to his room. When the first prince and the two people behind him watched this, they immediately frowned. "Ho¡­ To think there are people that dared to ignore me." Alex only ignored him. Felix was sweating this entire time, as he did not have any choice in this. After all, Alex had a golden card, which meant he brought more than ten million Spirit Stones. And usually, the people who had a golden card were people with status. The room was spacious. It had a few couches and a table facing the stage. The decoration was also luxurious. It seemed this room was truly only for a wealthy person or people with status. And when he tried to look at the stage, he saw a few more rooms downstairs but smaller. It seemed they were the rooms for the VIP tickets. And lastly, there were many chairs at the very bottom. It might feel a bit uncomfortable with so many people around shouting at the same time. He was a bit glad to have this room. "Esteemed guest, do you need our item list for today''s auction?" Felix asked politely. "Sure." Alex nodded. He remembered that he was too focused on the box. It might be good to see other things to see if he needed anything. "Understood. I shall bring you the list immediately. And, do you need any wom-!" Felix could not finish his words as he felt killing intent from Anna. "I don''t need it. Just bring me the list. If I need anything, I will ask Evelyn." Alex said. He also understood what he wanted to say. He might want to send a few women to this place to entertain him. Unfortunately, he did not need this kind of entertainment. Anna was also against it. "Yes." Felix immediately nodded his head and left the room. He also noticed Alex called the eleventh princess with her given name. He never thought there was someone that called her like that, and Evelyn also seemed a bit attached to him. He knew he should not say anything about this matter and immediately brought him the list. Alex then sat on a couch to wait until the auction started. But suddenly Nelson called him. "Young Master. There is a big movement from the Zhou Kingdom. They are marching toward the Thiveapia Kingdom." "¡­" Alex was speechless. He never thought this happened once again. He just left the sect and a problem came again. But it was also the perfect time to gain some EXP for his spirits. "How many?" "A hundred thousand soldiers: Five hundred Martial Lords, twenty thousand Martial Masters, the rest are Martial Grandmasters. Judging from their power level, it seems they get a bountiful reward after attacking the Southern Kingdom. I am afraid they will implement the same tactic as they did when they attacked the Southern Kingdom." Alex contemplated a little bit. He said, "They might also attack the last kingdom, the Hazel Kingdom after this. That way, they will get another batch of Blood Pill. And all of it will come to climax in the Grand Tournament." "Yeah, I also arrived at that conclusion. But we could not be sure until it happened. And there is one more thing. I have killed all of the princes and princesses in the castle. But it seems, they suddenly made a huge move like this because of that." "Alright. Just leave it to me." Alex said as he closed his eyes. It seemed he was also at fault. He then took out Nicole''s card. Alex did not have any jobs for Nicole since the box that he searched for was in this auction. He just got a perfect job for her. "Summon." "Young Master." Nicole kneeled on the ground as she greeted her. "You shall scout the Zhou Soldiers that soon come to this kingdom." Alex decided to help the Thiveapia Kingdom a bit since it was his fault. "Yes." As she said that, she disappeared. Alex was surprised to see her disappear. He remembered she was a succubus, but he had no idea how she could disappear like that. After all, Njomo was a shadow dog and could travel through the shadow. Ngina could become a small reptile. But Nicole¡­ "Fufu¡­ If you ask her, she will only answer you with ''If we could easily be detected by others, we are not qualified to be a spy.'' Well, that is Nelson''s teaching." Anna said with a smile after noticing the confused expression in Alex''s face. Not long after that, "Knock Knock." Alex thought it must be Felix. "Come in." The door was opened, and a woman figure suddenly came in. "Esteemed guest, I have brought the list." But when they thought it was Felix, a woman''s voice filled the room. Anna immediately looked at her as Alex also felt he had heard the voice from somewhere. When he looked at the woman, he instantly recognized her. She was the princess he saw back in Matthew''s room, the one who invited him to join the auction with her. Alex asked coldly, "What do you want?" "Nothing¡­ I am just curious about you. The former wanted person in the Southern Kingdom, a master of Alchemist, Sword, and Spear. How can I not treat you seriously as one of the espionages? I need to know your intention by coming to this kingdom¡­ Alexander Sirius." She said as she put the list on the table, and then she sat on one of the couches. Alex''s expression darkened. He said coldly, "Woman¡­ As a spy, you should also know that you should not be too greedy. After all, curiosity killed the cat." "What do-!" Before she was able to finish her words, she felt a cold metal touching her neck. Alex did not move an inch from his seat, but Anna already appeared behind Luna as her scythe was already on her neck. "I don''t have any other intention. I only come for this auction. I am not afraid of problems, but I don''t want to kill needlessly. So, don''t make me kill you, woman." Alex said coldly. Luna sweatdropped as she could kill his killing intent. Alex was serious. She felt that his reputation was truly deserved as someone who was wanted in the Southern Kingdom. Alex did not mind killing her and became the enemy of Thiveapia Kingdom. "Of course. I have prepared myself if you want to kill me. At first, I wanted to enjoy the auction. But you are more interesting, and I could see why Evelyn became a bit attached to you." "Is that all you wanted to say?" "Well, no. Actually, for VVIP guest, our auction house will always prepare one staff member to help the guest bid or anything. I volunteer myself to be the staff for this room." "I don''t need any staff. I can ask Evelyn for that." "This is troubling me, esteemed guest. I have promised uncl- I mean, the head of the Auction house for this. So, I am afraid I could not leave this room. Before Alex could respond, someone suddenly opened the door. When they turned their heads to see who it was, it was Evelyn. Her face showed a frustrated expression, but when she saw her sister was also in the room with Anna''s scythe on her neck, she was dumbfounded. "Big sister Luna?" "Ara, Evelyn. I assume you have finished your business with the crown prince?" "Hmph." "Evelyn is here. I am sure she can replace your job in this place." Alex suddenly said to Luna. "Also, Anna, come back here." Alex thought Evelyn could convince Luna to go out, so he recalled Anna back since it won''t be nice to see your own sister had a scythe pointed on her neck. It would put Evelyn in a hard situation. Of course, if this Luna was too stubborn, he did not mind making a move himself. "Big sister Luna. I can take care of everything in this place. So, please¡­" Evelyn said to her, she also did not know what to do in this situation. It seemed it was better to ask her to go. "Aiyo, Evelyn. I already promised my uncle to be the waiting staff for this room. I could not certainly go out just like this. Or maybe, I can use my body so he can let me stay." "Big sister! You should not say that." Evelyn blushed when she heard about using her'' body'' to seduce Alex. Alex sighed. He said, "Then, I need to force you." "!!!" 344 Auction "Then, I need to force you." "!!!" All of them immediately looked at Alex. "Big brother Alex, I am sure that big sister Luna is joking." Evelyn suddenly sweatdropped as she looked at Anna, who suddenly picked up her scythe. She even forgot to call him ''Redna.'' She knew Alex was not a person like that. If not, Putri or Song Yu might already become his. But when the situation became tense like this, Alex continued with an unexpected reply. "Zhou Kingdom has started its invasion once again toward this kingdom with a hundred thousand soldiers." "!!!" Alex decided to say it so they could prevent the Zhou Kingdom from getting stronger. It was by no means because of Evelyn or Luna. If the Thiveapia Kingdom could stop the Zhou Kingdom with enough preparation, Alex was sure it could prevent the Zhou Kingdom from getting stronger or attacking the Hazel Kingdom. "Fu¡­Fufu¡­ You are joking, right?" Luna stuttered as she thought Alex only said that because he wanted her to go away. But among the information she had read, she knew the reason why the Southern Kingdom could win the war was thanks to Alex''s information. Alex told Putri, which led her to be rewarded by the king himself because of her contribution. They learned that there were five hundred Martial Lords, and around three hundred of them were killed on the battlefield. It was because of Alex''s information that they could prevent the worst tragedy. But she could not understand why the Southern Kingdom wanted to kill Alex. After all, if it were only Intan and Mega, they would not do something that extreme. But it was not the topic. Alex just said that the Zhou Kingdom started their invasion of Thiveapia Kingdom. If this was true, then they should prepare the countermeasure immediately. "You can even check it yourself for all I care." "Big brother Alex, are you sure about this? This is not a joke to chase away big sister Luna, right?" Evelyn asked as her face became pale. "I have said my piece, whether you believe it or not, it is up to you." Alex only shrugged his shoulder. With every information about Alex, Luna certainly could not let this go. She contemplated a little bit before she rose from her seat. "Fufu¡­ Esteemed guest''s reputation is truly well deserved. I need to excuse myself." She walked toward the door, but before she left, she said, "Esteemed guest, you need to be careful with the first prince. And I am sure Evelyn could explain it to you the reason." She finally left the room. Alex then grabbed the list of the auction. He was looking at it while waiting for Evelyn to say anything. "Big brother Alex¡­ you are not joking about that?" "No. Anyway, what did she mean I should be careful with this crown prince?" "I¡­" Evelyn did not know how to answer. She sighed and decided to tell him honestly. "Well, because his status as the kingdom''s successor is threatened." "And the threat is you," Alex said. "Yes." "¡­" Alex sighed. He could imagine why Evelyn became the thorn for this ''crown prince.'' After all, she was the number one genius of Thiveapia Kingdom. And with him training her, she was even more monstrous. Alex did not know this crown prince. But judging from the cultivation he saw just now, he should also be considered as a genius. But with Evelyn''s existence, he might even lose his position. It was possible as this world was ruled by the strong. You couldn''t do anything with strength. And with the warning from Luna, Alex could ascertain that the crown prince might do something funny to him or her. He sighed as he was a bit tired of dealing with this. "Then, what do you think about this?" "I¡­ I don''t have any intention to become the leader of this kingdom. I rather have training and protecting the country than ruling the kingdom. In fact, I could say that I like the situation in Heavenly Sword Sect. So, if what big brother said about the Zhou Kingdom is right. "I will participate in the war then immediately go back to Heavenly Sword Sect." "Suit yourself," Alex said. Well, he also wanted to participate in the war for EXP. "!!!" Alex just found something unbelievable. It was a rank 5 medicinal herb called Olette Fruit. This medicinal herb was one of the ingredients for rank 5 pill. But Alex never thought about using it as a pill''s ingredient. If he could refine it a little bit and take the essence, he could use it to enhance his Spirit Eyes. That way, the Spirit Eyes would be more completed. He would be immune to illusion. His current Spirit Eyes could discern whether it was an illusion or not. Still, it was not at the level of immunity. If he enhanced this, as long as he did not will it, he would not get trapped inside an illusion. This would be useful if he fought with a higher array master that specialized in illusion. He would not be able to trap him in the slightest. It seemed this flower was one of the main attractions in today''s auction since Alex saw this flower just right before the last item, the box. After he got this flower, he only needed one more medicinal herb for his Spirit Eyes. It was a rank 7 herb, and Alex doubted he could find it anytime soon. It was said that his Spirit Eyes could even see a person''s karma if he enhanced his Spirit Eyes with that herb. Sadly, there was no record of seeing something like someone''s Fate or Life and death. Well, the Spirit Eyes was already OP without that. Well, he alone had more than 55 million Spirit Stones since he got 40 million Spirit Stones from selling pills with around 20 million Spirit Stones he had earlier. But a portion of them were Spirit Gems. At first, Alex had 10 million worth Spirit Gem. But he had used half of them to cultivate. So, Alex had around 55 million Spirit Stones currently. He was wondering if he could buy both items with his current wealth. Alex just hoped he could. Just when he was thinking about it, there was someone knocking on the door. Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Evelyn, tell whoever it is to go away," Alex said. "Un." Evelyn nodded her head as she went to check who it was. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see the second prince, Johan. "Greetings, Prince Johan. How can I help you?" Evelyn asked politely. "I want to talk with him." "I am afraid you can''t." Evelyn looked at him with a serious expression. She was trying to tell him to go away with her eyes. "¡­" Johan did not say anything for a while. "Then, tell him, there is currently an alliance between Mount Hua Sect and the Thiveapia Kingdom, and they are also in the VVIP room a bit farther from yours. So, it is better if you don''t piss them." Evelyn frowned. She remembered the two men behind the crown prince. She finally realized who the young man behind him was. He was the son of the third elder from Mount Hua Sect. And the old man must be the third elder. If Alex messed with them, he might become the enemy of Thiveapia Kingdom as well as Mount Hua Sect. Alex was already the enemy of the Southern Kingdom, and from some rumors, he also was the enemy of the Zhou Kingdom. If Alex got another two opponents¡­ She became worried. She nodded solemnly. She then went back to the room. "Big brother Alex. Do you remember the one that called me before we entered the auction house?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "He is the crown prince. And the young man behind them is Jack. He is the number one genius in Mount Hua Sect. And the old man is the current third elder of Mount Hua Sect, he is also the father of the young man." "So?" Alex could not understand what she wanted to tell him. "They are making an alliance. The alliance between Mount Hua Sect and Thiveapia Kingdom." "Oh¡­" Alex said uninterestedly. In fact, he had been expecting something like this the moment he heard Rainbow Flower Sect broke the alliance with the Mount Hua Sect from Nelson. He thought they might search for another ally. "Why are you not interested in it? I mean, if they are in the auction house, they will surely buy something. Don''t mess with them. I heard big brother is chased by the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. If you make them your enemies again, then you will-!" Before she finished, Alex patted her head. "I am sorry for worrying you. I never make an opponent intentionally unless I need to. I just want to have two items in this auction." Alex said calmly. Well, he did not want to make an opponent intentionally. The Zhou Kingdom wanted to kill him because of his golden lightning. He had killed them, but he was sure they would still send someone to kill him. That was the reason why he wanted Nelson to assassinate their princes and princesses. He just wanted to warn them. As for the Southern Kingdom, it was also unintentional as the princess wanted to kill him first because of greed. And the scale became bigger with Putri''s case. Of course, he just hoped that they would not try to mess with him. If not, he would be forced to kill them. "Un!" Evelyn nodded with a smile. "Ladies and Gentlemen. The time you have been waiting for has come. I am Matthew, and I will be your host for today''s auction. Then, without further ado, we will move to the first item. We have a rank 4 sword named Red Valkyrie. "This sword is made by the great rank 4 Forging Master, Master Barn. We have been entrusted with three weapons from him. And we will gladly present you his first weapon, Red Valkyrie. The starting price is fifty thousand Spirit Stones. And the minimum bet is ten thousand Spirit Stones. Start." "60,000" "70,000" "90,000" ¡­ "310,000!" "Going once." "Going twice." "Sold." Alex was surprised a bit to see the first item alone was sold for more than three hundred thousand Spirit Stones. There were more than thirty items for today''s auction. And the price would become higher and higher. For him, it was a bit bad news since he only had 55 million Spirit Stones. He could afford to spend it all since Alex could make it back in a jiffy. But this would be his first time joining an auction. So, Alex never knew how much he needed to bring. If he knew it was something like this, he should make more money. The second item was a shield. From Alex''s Spirit Eyes, there was red energy inside that shield, which meant that it held Fire Element. "This is Fiery Shield. A rank 4 Fire Element Shield from Master Barn. The starting price is fifty thousand Spirit Stones, and every increase could not be lower than ten thousand Spirit Stones. Start." "60,000" "70,000" "90,000" ¡­ Alex was a bit bored watching the auction, so he started cultivating. He asked Anna to wake him up when the flower was up for the auction. Of course, Evelyn would be the one who called it. Alex would be the one who gave her the instruction. The auction started with rank 4 equipment, to a pill batch, to an array plate, and so on. The price kept increasing from the starting price of fifty thousand Spirit Stones to a hundred or even a million Spirit Stones. And finally, after waiting for so long. They finally presented the flower. "This is a rank 5 medicinal herb called Sacred Silver Flower. It is one of the medicinal ingredients for Celestial Void Pill that could enhance one''s talent. So, I am sure all of you are waiting for this. The starting price is one million, and every bit could not be lower than one hundred thousand. Start!" 345 Warning The flower looked like a yellow tulip. But Alex could see the boundless energy from a rank 5 medicinal herb. Of course, Alex could also see the concentrated energy inside that tulip. It was the essence of the tulip, the one that he wanted the most to enhance his eyes. But, as Matthew''s said, the tulip was also one of the ingredients for the Mid 5th rank Pill, Celestial Void Pill. There were a few ingredients to change the tulip''s effect from enhancing eyes to enhancing one''s talent. However, Alex was a Pure Fire Element cultivator. And as long as one''s born with Pure Element, they already had the best talent humanities could hope for. After all, the Pure Element itself was the biggest cheat they could have. "Start!" "1,100,000!" "1,200,000!" "2,000,000!" Alex was wondering how high the price for this flower would be. "5,000,000 Spirit Stones!" "7,000,000!" Alex was surprised to see a leap of two million Spirit Stones. When Alex tried to see who it was, it turned out to be one of the people in the VVIP room. "Evelyn, how many people have this room other than myself." "There is only one¡­ Don''t tell me, big brother¡­" Evelyn immediately recognized why Alex asked. After all, Alex said he wanted to have two items in this auction. But this item was the second from the last. Alex had yet to bid an item in this auction. In other words, he wanted this flower and the box. But the one in the other VVIP room also wanted it. However, there was only one group that had a VVIP room in this auction beside Alex. It was the Crown Prince''s group. The crown prince came with the people from Mount Hua Sect. So, the one who wanted this flower was the Mount Hua Sect. Evelyn immediately got worried since there would be a clash. Even though she had warned him, it seemed Alex did not care about that, or maybe he simply was not afraid. "Big brother Alex¡­ I¡­ maybe¡­" Evelyn did not know how to explain. After all, if Alex became the enemy of Thiveapia Kingdom, he indirectly put her in a hard situation. She did not know whether she would side with Alex or her kingdom. "I need that one," Alex said sternly. "Fufu¡­ How about we let them take it and kill them somewhere. We can take the flower without spending any money. I should be able to handle that old man. And you can kill the crown prince and the other guy. As long as no one knows, it will be fine. Fufu¡­" Anna said darkly. "!!!" Evelyn felt a chill when Anna said that. "Don''t joke around," Alex said casually. Evelyn was surprised once again. She did not know why, but she felt relieved when she heard Alex say that. She thought Alex wanted to kill them. "We are not thieves. Although I don''t mind killing them, I don''t want to justify stealing. If someone wants to steal my stuff, I will kill them. But it does not mean it is alright if I steal what they got with money. As long as I can buy it through money, I would rather not steal. "If I did not get this flower, then it is simply I am not fated with it. Even though I know it will be such a shame since the effect is really beneficial to me, I won''t steal just because of that. Of course, it will only happen if they have more money than me." Alex said. "Going Once!" "Going Twice!" "8,000,000!" There was suddenly a voice that could stop the crown prince from getting it. It was Alex. The crown prince in the other VVIP room was startled when he heard that. He thought there was no person that wanted to offend him in this kingdom. When he tried to see who it was, it turned out to be the person that Evelyn brought. "9,000,000! Friend, our Mount Hua Sect wants this medicinal herb. Please give us some face." The young man beside the crown prince finally said. Alex ignored him and said, "10,000,000!" The young man was bewildered. To think this person dared to not give them face, and he even said ''Mount Hua Sect'' not his identity alone. Even the elder behind them was startled. "11,000,000!" "12,000,000!" "13,000,000!" The competition was intense. All the people in the auction also knew that the person who wanted this was Mount Hua Sect. As soon as the Mount Hua Sect joined the bid, they did not dare to raise the bet again. But Alex truly dared to raise the bid. "14,000,000!" "20,000,000!" The young man finally said. The old man frowned. Although they did not mind spending this much money, they only brought another twenty million in the auction. If they spent it all on this item, they might not be able to get the last box. And also, the price was already much higher than it was supposed to. Of course, unlike them, Alex never cared about the price. It was for his Spirit Eyes, and he felt as long as the item was beneficial for him, it was worth any amount of money. However, Alex also frowned when it arrived at this step. He was not worried about how much he spent, but he worried about the last item. He feared that he would not have enough money to compete for the last item. Alex immediately thought something. He immediately checked his gacha tickets. [Gacha Ticket x1121 Premium Ticket x0 Dart x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x0] At first, he wanted to exchange his Gacha Tickets to Premium Tickets, but it seemed he could not. "System, use all my Gacha Tickets!" [Processing] [Leve Grass (C) x1] [Sky Stamping Hammer (R) x1] ¡­. ¡­ .. [Summoning Coin (R) x5] Alex used his gacha ticket only for the weapons. Since he was in the Martial Lord stage, he would be able to get many rank 4 weapons. He would scrap them together with the rank 2 and rank 3 weapons he had obtained from the system. If it were not enough, Alex would then sell the relics that Mithra gave him. It was true that when he arrived in this world, he wanted to sell every weapon except his swords and spears. After all, he had no use for bows, hammers, axes, and others. But, if he tried to sell them in bulk, he would stand out, and it might raise some suspicions. Back then, he did not have strength or status to fight back. However, the current him was a Martial Lord, and he also had some status. So, since he needed money today, this would be the perfect time to rid all of them. "Going Once!" "Going Twice!" Jack and the crown prince were smiling since they thought Alex could not win them with their wealth. The old man behind them was also ready to make a move since Alex never gave them any face. So, if Alex raised the bid once again, he would try to scare him. He remembered that the strongest one was the 6-Star Martial Lord woman behind Alex. So, if he released his strength a little bit, they would be scared. "21,000,000!" Alex stopped them from winning once again. Alex immediately poured every weapon except his spear and sword from his inventory to the ground before storing it in a space ring. Evelyn was shocked when she saw all of those weapons. She could see bows, axes, hammers, and so on. She was wondering how many weapons Alex had. "Evelyn, can we postpone the auction for a while?" Alex asked. Since he was not familiar with the auction, he needed to ask first. Back on Earth, he remembered from somewhere that someone with ''a big status'' could postpone the auction for a little bit. "Yes. We can. But only after this item sold." Evelyn nodded. She was sweating this whole time as Alex fearlessly challenged the Mount Hua Sect. She even thought this might be his usual way. "That''s good. Try to postpone as long as you can later." Alex said. Alex tossed two Space Rings to Anna. "Sell all of them in the Forging Master Guild in this city. You can release your strength to speed up the process." Alex said. "Fufu, Alright. You know¡­ you should suddenly bid to 25 million Spirit Stones to shut them up. It even makes you cooler that way." Anna teased him. "I am here to win the item, not to flaunt my wealth," Alex replied. "Fufu¡­ I am just kidding. I will come back as soon as possible." Anna said, then disappeared. But at this time, the old man from the other room was angered. He could not swallow all of this insult. Even though this was an indirect insult, it could be implied that the Mount Hua Sect was easy to bully by a no-name. After all, Alex was still a no-name with his mask on. Evelyn was only stopping them from trying to pry his information. The old man suddenly released a fifty meter Sword Domain. He shouted, "You¡­ Do you think our Mount Hua Sect is good to bully?" "Fifty meters¡­" "As expected of the third elder of Mount Hua Sect." "He was famous throughout the continent. Not only was he one of the peak 4th rank alchemist, and his sword technique was also unparalleled." "Yeah, in fact, I came to this auction to see the senior. Only watching this is truly worth it." The others thought Alex was done for. But suddenly, there was another Sword Domain that appeared in the hall. And the domain was a 55 meters domain. It was five meters wider than the old man''s. The audiences were shocked. "And¡­ just because of your Mount Hua Sect, do you think I am easy to bully? I also want this flower. This is an auction. We compete with money, not strength." Alex said as he released his sword domain. "What!" "55 meters domain?" "Impossible!" "Is he stronger than the third elder of Mount Hua Sect?" "I can''t sense his cultivation. But with this domain alone, I think he is stronger than Elder Oliver!" Finally, the third domain appeared in the hall. It turned out to be Matthew''s Domain. He released his 45 meters Spear Domain to stop both Alex and Elder Oliver. He was leading the auction because of this. He was afraid that both of them tried to do something like this. So, the only one who could stop them was him. "It is as he said. This is an Auction where we compete with our wealth, not our strength. I hope Elder Oliver could understand the rules of our Auction House. It is for both of the Thiveapia Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect." Matthew said. "He was aware of the alliance between their kingdom and Mount Hua Sect. But if he let Oliver do everything he wanted in this auction house. It would appear that their Kingdom feared the Mount Hua Sect, and they wanted to become a vassal of Mount Hua Sect, rather than an Ally. This was humiliating for them. After all, an Ally meant equal. That was the reason why he said it was for both of them. Oliver had no choice other than taking back his domain. He was also startled to see this masked man had a wider domain than him. In other words, he might be stronger than him. He did not know what trick Alex used to his cultivation. But if he knew Alex''s real cultivation, he might even attack him at once. It was the same for Jake and the crown prince. They never thought that this masked man had a wider domain than the third elder. Jack wanted to raise the bid once again. But Oliver stopped him. "Father, are we going to swallow this insult?" "Of course not. Since he is going to buy it for us, then we will gratefully accept it later. Of course, along with his corpse!" Oliver said coldly. 346 Heated Situation "Of course, along with his corpse!" Jack and the crown prince were dumbfounded when they heard Oliver. They smiled evilly. This masked man had offended Elder Oliver, and he would not have a good ending. "Anyway, he would not be able to compete with us in the last item since he has spent 21 million Spirit Stones in this flower alone." Alex finally got the item with 21 million Spirit Stones. He was relieved since he did not need to use more of his money. But he also knew that they might try to steal this flower for him. After all, even if he decided not to do it, it did not mean others would not do it. If they truly came to him, then Alex did not mind in exterminating them. Alex could easily summon Leoz and the others to help him. When the bid for the flower had ended. Evelyn immediately requested for time. "We are going to have a thirty-minute break!" Matthew immediately said. Alex did not do anything other than waiting for Anna to come back. He only had 34 million Spirit Stones left to spend. But he did not know the bottom line of those people. After waiting for quite a while, Anna finally came back. She handed him the Space ring back. "Here is yours. I got around fifty million Spirit Stones from all of them. We could not get that much from those rusty weapons that Mithra gave since almost all of them were unusable. And we came without any deal or preparation, so they did not have money. "I tried to fight as high as possible. Ultimately, they used all of their guild''s savings, thus resulting in this fifty million Spirit Stones." "It is good enough. I never expect them to sell this much." Alex said while nodding his head. Evelyn was surprised that Alex got another fifty million just from those weapons. She never thought Alex had this much money. She was wondering how much money Alex had at this moment. "Big brother Alex¡­ you are really a tycoon. Maybe you should become my sugar daddy." Evelyn said. Alex was dumbfounded when he heard that. He never thought this world also had such a term. He was wondering where Evelyn heard that phrase. "Cough!... Evelyn, why do you know that term?" "Ah! One of the palace''s maids said she was getting money from one of the officials. I heard she only needed to do everything he asked for, and she would get money. I also have done everything Big Brother Alex said like training and so on. I heard that when I came back to the castle a few days ago." Evelyn said innocently. Alex and Anna were facepalmed. To think there was a person who tainted this innocent girl. And she also did not understand the whole thing. He was wondering if it was good or not. But Anna had a different mind, she dragged Evelyn a little bit before whispering something on her ears. "Se-se..S*x¡­ I¡­ with big brother Alex?" Evelyn was shocked when she heard the real meaning of Sugar Daddy from Anna. And when Alex saw that, he rolled his head away. Anna finally corrupted Evelyn''s mind. "I am just teaching her the truth," Anna said. Of course, she knew the term only because of Alex''s memory. "Big brother¡­ I¡­ Evelyn did not say it seriously¡­ I¡­" Evelyn did not know what to explain as she was too embarrassed. She wanted to dig a hole and hid herself there. She never thought that she said something vulgar like that, especially to Alex, who she respected the most. Alex only shook his head. "I know. You are not that kind of person. But, you should be careful of what you hear or what you say." "Un!" Evelyn nodded weakly, trying to hide so he could not find her. Not long after, Matthew came back to the stage as he opened the last item for today''s auction. It was truly the same green box that Alex had. But, this green box had more arrays from the box Alex had. And when Alex saw the array, he could comprehend it with his current knowledge. It was the same as the key that Maxwell gave to him. It was a key to open a barrier array. The only thing he could think of, there must be a special realm on the Northern Continent. He remembered when Mithra said she was chased because of this box. So, this special realm would be powerful or unique that made many people want it. It seemed it was not good to show it when he arrived at the Northern Continent later. "We found this box a few months ago. We have been searching for the usage of this box, but our team could not decipher it. So, our kingdom decided to sell it in this auction." "What?" "If you could not decipher it, why the heck would you sell it?" "This must be a scam." The people were mad when Matthew said they did not know anything about this box. "Of course, I know your concern. But just look at this¡­ this array is so exquisite and unique. One of our array masters said that this array is beyond a rank 4 Array." Matthew said." "What?" "Beyond a rank 4 array?" "Unlike Alchemist or Forging Master. We don''t have any rank 5 array master in this continent. But if we have this box, someone might be able to reach rank 5 Array Master." Many people were shocked once again. Their rage suddenly turned to shock when they knew the truth. "The starting price is 10 million Spirit Stones. And every bid could not be lower than one million Spirit Stones. Start!" "10 million! Our Mount Hua Sect wants it! If anyone wants to participate in it, then prepare for our Mount Hua Sect''s retaliation." Elder Oliver shouted. Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard that. They just wanted to bid it, but to think that Elder Oliver immediately shouted something like that. They did not dare to raise the price. They were scared to be the enemy of Mount Hua Sect. Yeah. Everybody was scared, except for Alex''s group. "15 million!" Oliver immediately looked at Alex again hatefully. This bastard had been trying to get what they wanted. "Father, he should not have more money! We should also try to embarrass him! We will let him see what kind of consequence he would have by offending our Mount Hua Sect." "Hmph, I know!" Oliver snorted. "20 million!" "21 million!" Alex said. He could raise five million at a time because he knew. If he fought them in this item again, it would exceed 20 million. So, Alex decided to skip the bidding process a little bit by raising five million. And when they reached 20 million, Alex would start to slow down since Alex wanted to win, not to flaunt his wealth. "25 million! Hmph." Oliver snorted. "26 million," Alex said casually. "30 million! Hmph, you won''t be able to compete with our Mount Hua Sect''s wealth!" Oliver snorted. But Oliver also got a bit worried, since they only had around 40 million. But, their Mount Hua Sect should be the wealthiest in this continent. Since Alex had spent 21 million just for the flower, he should not have that much money anymore. "31 million!" Alex just said casually. He was not offended or something since he did not need to do so. "3¡­ 33 million!" "34 million! You are not going to bid another five million?" Alex instantly said while trying to trigger Oliver. "You¡­ Don''t push your luck! 35 million! And I request for the auction''s head to check his wealth. I am not sure that he has that much money left and is planning to raise the price with a money that does not exist." Oliver said. "¡­" When everyone heard that, they were dumbfounded. Matthew was also worrying about this. Although he knew Alex had at least 20 million Spirit Stones when he registered in the auction, he did not know exactly how much money he had brought. After all, unlike the Mount Hua Sect, Alex had no background or whatsoever. He only knew that Evelyn brought him to this auction. And Luna also did not tell him anything about the real identity of this masked man. He could only sigh as he went to Alex''s VVIP room personally. "I deeply apologize, esteemed guest. But we truly need to check whether you can afford this many Spirit Stones. I will keep what I see as a secret. With Heaven and Earth as my witness." Matthew said apologetically. He even made a Heavenly Oath for this rude action. Alex threw two Space Rings to him. There were 21 million Spirit Stones inside the first space ring and another fifty million Spirit Stones inside the second one. When Matthew checked that. He was too shocked to see this much money inside his space ring. "But, you can''t just check my personal wealth just because he said so. I also want him to be checked." Alex said in a volume that everyone could hear, especially that Oliver. "¡­Yes." Matthew eventually nodded his head before heading toward Oliver''s room. To think Alex had that much wealth, he could not comprehend what kind of background he had. He tried to ask about his identity from Evelyn a few days ago, but Evelyn did not say anything. After all, the Mount Hua Sect was full of Alchemists and Forging Masters. They had amassed money for so long, so their pocket would be deep. Unfortunately, Oliver could not bring all the wealth from Mount Hua Sect to this place. When Matthew came to Oliver''s place, Oliver handed him the space ring with a snort. Alex had deliberately said so everyone could hear. If they rejected this or tried to make a fuss, they would think that Mount Hua Sect had no credibility or was too overbearing. Matthew also checked there were 40 million Spirit Stones inside Oliver''s space ring. After checking both of their Space Rings, Matthew knew who would win this item. Of course, on the premise, they fought till the end. "I truly apologize for our inconvenience, and I can assure you they have enough money. So, without further ado, we will start again from 34 million Spirit Stones! If Mount Hua Sect decides to stop, this item will immediately go to the other guest." "35 million!" Of course, Oliver had no intention to give up. He had provoked him earlier, and if he lost this round, they would become a laughing stock. "36 million!" Sadly, he would not be able to win Alex since Alex had 84 million to spare to compete for this item. "40 million!" Oliver shouted with great difficulty as he said all of the Spirit Stones they had at the moment. Alex did not say anything first. Judging from that desperate shout, Alex could see that he was near his bottom line, or they might even already be in their bottom line. Oliver thought he had won because of this silence. Sadly, Alex immediately destroyed his imagination, "41 million!" "You¡­ Our Mount Hua Sect will remember this!" Oliver shouted as he felt he truly lost face today. Not only they failed in bringing the medicinal herbs home, but they also failed in buying this item. All of it was because of a masked man. "Elder Oliver, I can lend you my personal wealth first. I have 15 million. We can fight him together." Suddenly the crown prince said. Oliver was surprised. He immediately nodded his head. "Good good good. I will inform the sect master for your contribution if we win this item." The crown prince only nodded his head with a smile. There was also another reason why he decided to lend all of his personal wealth to Oliver. It was because Evelyn brought Alex here. Her talent had been threatening his position this whole time, and if he lost again, he might lose his position as a crown prince. He could not afford that. When Oliver got the money, he immediately shouted as he won. He did not think that Alex could win anymore with this newly acquired wealth. "45 million! Our Mount Hua Sect wants it!" 347 Auction Ended "45 million! Our Mount Hua Sect wants it!" He shouted with confidence. However, Alex also followed him, "46 million." "You¡­" Oliver gritted his teeth as he said, "50 million!" Alex yawned as he raised the bid once again, "51 million." Everyone was already sweating when they heard the money they put in the bid. They even thought that the price was already beyond the box''s price. Of course, all of them did not know what the box was. Alex could somehow understand the array on the box. It was higher than a rank 6 Array. With the key alone being higher than a rank 6 Array, the special realm would even be more amazing. To spend this little money for something like that, it was truly worth it. Oliver was truly at his end. Even with the crown prince''s money, he did not feel that he could win this item. He finally bid all of the money he had at the moment, "55 million!" "56 million." Alex followed him again. But this time, Oliver did not raise the price anymore because he truly did not have any money again. All he had was anger that built up inside him. This was a blatant challenge toward their Mount Hua Sect. It was the same as Jack. He was thoroughly angered by Alex. "Father, what are we going to do with this? We can''t let him just go like this!" Jack said. "I know. We will meet him after this. Since he wants to buy those two items for us, then we will gratefully accept it from his dead body." Oliver said with anger. He looked at the crown prince, "Prince Cromwell, we don''t have enough people to do this. I can take care of the one who had the 55-meter domain, as for that 6-Star Martial Lord woman, I am afraid I can''t as my hand will be full dealing with that masked man." When Prince Cromwell heard that, the rage within his heart vanished without a trace. He was indeed angry because the guy that Evelyn brought managed to win the auction. But when he heard Oliver''s plan, he smiled cunningly. He could use Oliver to remove that masked man as well as Evelyn. That way, no one would be able to threaten his position. In a decade or so, he would become the sovereign of Thiveapia Kingdom. Since he had paid a high price to make an alliance between the Thiveapia Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect, he should utilize it to reinforce his position. "Of course. I will send two 7-Star Martial Lords under my command. Along with me and brother Jack, I am sure we are enough to suppress their group." Cromwell said. Meanwhile, in Alex''s room, Matthew came with both items. At first, he was a bit doubtful whether Alex had the money or not when they passed the 50 million mark. After all, he only knew that Alex had 50 million in his space ring. On the other hand, Oliver''s group still had the crown prince. When he finally received a Space Ring from him, containing 77 million Spirit Stones. He finally felt relief. But he was wondering what kind of background Alex had to fork out 77 million Spirit Stones. And he even gave the space ring that contained those Spirit Stones without batting an eye. In other words, Alex had even more money than this. Of course, if he had more research, he might eventually find Alex''s identity. In fact, as long as he investigated Evelyn, he would know that Evelyn did not have many interactions with others. And Alex said that he was the one who taught her, they could easily erase many possible people. This was also the reason why Luna could find Alex''s identity. After receiving the money, Matthew immediately left the room. Evelyn came to him in shock, "Big brother Alex¡­ you¡­ just bought two items for 77 million Spirit Stones¡­" "And?" Alex did know whether she was shocked because of the Spirit Stones or because of the prices. Well, a person who had those many Spirit Stones and spent it in one go was certainly amazing as Evelyn knew that Alex was not supported by any influence. Or at least, she never saw Alex that. And even if he had influence, there was no influence that could afford his spending. Evelyn wanted to say something, but the word stuck on her throat. She only sighed. Alex only had around 20 million left, and he also had used all of his Gacha Tickets. It could be said that he was a bit broke in this situation. And at that time, the system finally arrived. [Host, you still have Premium Tickets, you know. It''s just you have not claimed it yet.] "I haven''t?... Holy sh*t." Alex finally remembered that. Back when he reached Martial Grandmaster stage, he got Premium Tickets and Mission Optimization. But when he advanced to Martial Lord Stage, he was too focused on the matter of the Makmur Family. "This¡­ is this the legendary ''revenge will cloud your mind?" Alex said inwardly. [It is not. You just forget because you have many things to do.] "But why didn''t you tell me?... Ah, never mind. I almost forgot you are that type of system. Pretend I never ask!" He immediately opened his mission. [Mission: Reach Martial Lord Realm (Complete) Reward: Premium Gacha Ticket 10x \u0026 Box Gacha] He immediately claimed the reward. And it seemed his spirits, especially Anna. He remembered that Anna could know something about the system, and it seemed she had to check it manually too. If not, she would not forget about it. [Gacha Ticket x0 Premium Ticket x10 Dart x0 Gacha Card x0 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x73] Alex facepalmed. He should already have this Box Gacha from a month ago, but because he forgot, he did not. He did not know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that he attended this auction since it triggered the system to remind him. "Anyway, what is this Box Gacha, and how can I get this Gacha Card?" [Every time you use Box Gacha, you will get nine lucky boxes where you need to choose one of them, so it is basically relying on your luck. The price is ranging from Rare to Ultra Rare. To open them, you will just need to insert the card inside the lucky box, and they will open. You can get the Gacha Card from Premium Tickets. But the rarity is higher than Summoning Tickets.] [You can even say that this Gacha Card rarity is between Summoning Ticket that could only get from Premium Ticket and Dart that could only get from Mission.] "I see¡­ So, basically, it is up to luck whether I can get a good item or not, or whether I can get the Gacha Card or not." [Yes, that is what I said. Gacha System is up to your Luck and Karma, Host.] "Anyway, it seems I need to postpone using the Premium Ticket first until I reach the inn," Alex said as he remembered that the system would appear when he used it. Or at least he would wait until he reached the inn. He was planning to wait until the war started, so he might want to make some money. Alex then activated his Spirit Eyes as he looked at the box. It seemed, there would be a reaction if he combined the two half-boxes into one, so Alex decided to wait until he came back to the sect. Alex then looked at the crown prince and the others. He was wondering if they had left or not. If he opened the door and met with them, Alex felt they would just waste his time. But he could not see anyone on the top floor, so Alex thought they must have left. "Anna, can you buy me a thousand sets of Crystal Skin Pill ingredients?" Alex asked while giving his space ring. He was going to make his money back through the pills. He was planning to make pills while waiting for the war to come. He would then sell half of them to the Alchemist Guild in this place and half of them to Heavenly Sword Sect. The Alchemist Guild should be able to fork out 20 million Spirit Stones, but he did not know whether the Heavenly Sword Sect could or not. If they could not, he could just sell it to the Alchemist Guild in Heavenly Sword Town. Anna nodded her head as she received the space ring from Alex. "Oh right, can I still use the inn even after the auction ended?" Alex asked Evelyn. "Yeah. Usually, people would not go back immediately after the auction ended. They usually stayed in this city for a while. That''s why after the auction ended, you could use the inn for a month. You need to pay if you pass it." "Alright." Alex nodded. He turned his head to Anna, "Meet me in the same room later." Anna nodded and disappeared. Alex should ask about this earlier as he already removed the Gathering Array inside the room. But, considering he only knew about the war after he came to this VVIP room, he could not say anything. "That''s right. Big brother Alex, does¡­ The Zhou Kingdom really invaded us?" "Yeah, they are currently marching to this kingdom," Alex said. "¡­Big brother Alex can go back to the sect first. I think I want to help the kingdom with this war. This might take a month, but I won''t complain whatever big brother wants with my training later. I¡­" Alex sighed. "Well, I am planning to join the war too, just a bit later. So, I will be staying in the kingdom for a while. So, you don''t need to worry." Alex was not planning to give the information about the strength of those soldiers to Evelyn. He was afraid that there might be another conspiracy in the royal family, especially from that crown prince. If Alex gave this, Evelyn might become the second Putri. But the difference between them was Evelyn did not have any backing in the sect. Although she had been living in Song Yu''s house, it was not like she was Charya''s disciple or something like that. So, if Charya or the Heavenly Sword Sect made a war over her, the Thiveapia Kingdom might claim that the Heavenly Sword Sect was too overbearing and might even incite the retaliation not only from them, but also from the other sects and kingdoms. It would become too troublesome, so Alex decided not to give her any information so she would not rack up some achievement. Even if she helped with this war, she would only have some meager achievement with her current cultivation. "Then¡­ I¡­ will go back to my family first. Maybe after the war, I will search for big brother again so we can go back to the sect together." "Yes. Be careful." Alex nodded. "Un!" Evelyn nodded her head, then left the room. Alex also wanted to leave this room, but he decided to leave with his Teleportation Array. He did not know whether there would be a person in front of the auction house that would try to do something funny or not. He also had another task to do. Alex flicked his finger as a teleportation array appeared beneath his feet and transported him away. Of course, there was no one that was trying to do something funny in front of the auction house. Especially the crown prince''s group. They were too busy to gather the men for him. Unbeknownst to them, their plan would be hindered by the incoming Zhou Army since the crown prince was appointed as the supreme commander that led the army to clash with the Zhou Kingdom. ¡­ Outside the capital city, in the nearby woods, Alex appeared after he used his teleportation Array. He speculated that the Zhou Kingdom might kill the people in the towns/cities they had passed and used them as the ingredient for the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill. He wanted to prevent them. So, he took out Leoz''s and the others'' cards from the system. "Summon!" 348 Strike the Zhou Kingdom "Anya, I am going to summon all of you," Alex said. "Understood. We are taking a break currently, so you can call us anytime." Anya said. "Summon!" He summoned Leoz and the others. When they arrived, the one who reacted the most was Anya. She immediately leaped toward Alex, trying to hug him. "Alex!" Alex dodged her instinctively to the side, letting her fall to the ground. But even after that, she still said, "Alex is embarrassed to hug me, fufu¡­" Alex could not comprehend why Anya was this optimistic. But he remembered one more thing, he said, "System, can you give me the information about all my SR spirits? I did not check them much." [Wright (Dark) Level: 34/80 (4-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 46874/250000] [Salijan (Fire) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 135477/230000] [Nicole (Dark) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 77213/210000] [Ngina (Dark) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 73783/210000] [Njomo (Dark) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 76564/210000] [Limao (Earth) Level: 28/80 (8-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 123432/190000] He was surprised to see two of them had reached the Martial Lord Stage, and in fact, they were 3-Star and 4-Star Martial Lords. Alex had been neglecting them, but fortunately, they kept leveling up together with the other spirits. So, it finally paid off. Alex suddenly felt something off. Wright and Salijan should not be able to get to pass 3-Star Martial Lord stage if they only relied on the EXP. After all, they were not the same as Fabio, Anna, and the others that got EXP cards, "System, why are Wright and Salijan this powerful?" [They are SR spirits, Host. Because of the difference in their ranking, they get a bigger portion of EXP when a monster is killed. But, please remember that they are not as absurd as the UR Spirits. But they are still a considerable fighting force.] "¡­" Alex contemplated a little bit. "I want Leoz to follow me after this. We are going to participate in this war, but I think there might be some problems from inside the kingdom. I will be dealing with it, and I want you guys to deal with the problem from outside the kingdom." Anya pondered a little bit before she said, "Blood Pill is it?" Alex nodded. "Considering our past experience in the war between the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. The Zhou Kingdom might want to utilize this war to make the blood pills. So, I want you to destroy their plan by killing every person that tried to make the blood pills or berserk pills. You can cooperate with Nicole." "I see, so we are going to go around the Zhou Army and try to sneak from behind. But we won''t attack the army. Instead, we are going to the ones who are responsible for blood pills. And since we have Nicole, we can try to ambush them or whatever. "In fact, you are in trouble. I get the information from your head the instant you recall us. And that old man is no joke. Anna can deal with the old man but you might not only fight the old man alone. But seeing Anna''s strength and your strength, they might come with a high-rank Martial Lord. So, you want to have Leoz by your side." Anya said. Alex nodded his head. "Yeah." "I understand what you want. We will deal with the Zhou Kingdom from behind. We won''t be baited since we will have Nicole. But you are underestimating Nicole a little bit, Alex. She can even cover your group and our group at the same time." Anya said. "Oh." Alex was surprised but nodded his head. He was not planning to get involved that deeply in the war as he only wanted to kill for EXP. Alex wanted to confront the Zhou soldiers from head-on, so Alex did not need Nicole''s assistance for this. "Salijan, Wright, and Nicole. I will summon all of you." Alex then took out Salijan''s and Wright''s as well as Nicole''s card. After getting their okay, Alex then summoned them. "Summon." "I will leave these two guys in your command. Although they could not replace Leoz, they might be able to become temporary substitutes." "Alright. I will leave the planning to you, Anya." Alex said. "Understood." Anya nodded. Nicole then guided the group to bypass the Zhou Soldiers. Alex then looked at Leoz, "We are going too." Leoz nodded. Both of them then entered the city once again. ¡­ A few minutes later, Alex was with Leoz and Anna in the room. Anna had bought what he wanted, and Alex was planning to refine it later. Because he was a bit eager to use his Premium Ticket. "System, use all of my Premium Tickets," Alex said. [Processing] The brown-haired girl appeared again. She smiled at Alex while bringing two boxes. When Anna and Leoz saw her, they immediately left them alone. They knew it was a precious time for her. "Hehe¡­ This is your package." She said while giving the two boxes to Alex with the sincerest smile she could make. Alex nodded his head. He looked at the girl mysteriously. He did not know why, but he felt his heart torn apart when he saw that smile. Even though she gave her sincerest smile, Alex felt there was a trace of sadness in that smile. He did not know why he felt this feeling that telling him she was very important. "You¡­ Are you real?" "I know that you might be troubled with all of this reincarnation thing. But I also know that we are living in the present¡­ not the past, not the future¡­ What you can have might come from your past or your future. But what you will have now is what you decide in the present. You and I know that we live in the present¡­ So, I am waiting for you¡­" She smiled as her eyes glazed a little. She then disappeared. "I¡­" Alex could only watch her disappear. "Living in the present¡­ What I will have is what I decide to have. The future and the past might intertwine with my present life, but if in the present I don''t want to accept, they would not be mine in the present¡­" Alex did not know why, but those words touched the deep of his heart. He looked at the boxes with an empty eye for a while. He took a deep breath before shaking his head. He opened the gacha one by one. [Wind Pollen Technique (R) x1] [Bronze Butcher (SR) x1] [Moon Silver Bow (SR) x1] [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5] [Red Wood (UC) x1] [Bamboo Fan (C) x1] [Lightning Orb (UR) x1] [Thunder Buster (SR) x1] [Gemstone Nail (UC) x1] [100x100 meter Array Paper (R) x1] He checked the item one by one. Wind Pollen Technique was a wind element Martial Art, and it seemed he already had it from the knowledge he got in his tribulation. So, Alex immediately tossed it back into the system''s inventory. As for the Bronze Butcher, it was like a butcher knife called Cleaver. Alex did not use this weapon, so he tossed it again. It was the same as this weapon, he also did not have any use of Moon Silver Bow. As for the Summoning Ticket¡­ it was already inside his inventory before he even tossed it. Red Wood and Gemstone Nail were a useless material that he did not currently. But what he never expected was the bamboo fan. It was a golden bamboo fan with such an artistic ornament. Its appearance was mesmerizing, but sadly, Alex had no use for it since it did not have any power or whatsoever. Thunder Buster was a lightning element Martial Art, which once again tossed aside. As for the Array Paper, Alex remembered that he had four rank 4 Teleportation array plates that he made in his free time. But he never had any use of that, so maybe he would give it to someone since he might be far stronger when he needed it. It would be better if he just made a new one. Alex then looked at the Lightning Orb. He already forgot about this kind of item. He remembered the first time he got an element orb was when he was in the lower world, and it was a random element orb. Alex truly did not know what to do with this orb. He decided to try it since he had many weapons to spare. Alex took out one of his rank 4 sword. Although Alex did not care about his sword that much, he kept changing his swords according to his cultivation. He did not want to rely on the strength of the sword because he felt it was the one that restricted his progress. But he had reached Martial Lord Stage, so he finally started using a rank 4 sword. Of course, if the enemy used a very absurd weapon, Alex would immediately take out a rank 5 or rank 6 sword he had. He did not want to enhance the sword with his Lightning Orb. Instead, he went with the random orb he got from years ago. Alex grabbed the orb with his hand. The orb was a dim black with a question mark in the center of the orb. "System, how do I use this orb?" [Just put the orb on top of your sword and channeled your Spiritual Energy. The orb will slowly assimilate with the weapon.] Alex then followed what the system said. He put the orb on top of his sword and channeled his Spiritual Energy. Surprisingly, the orb suddenly turned to blue. As soon as it started fusing with the sword, the orb started shining brightly. Even Alex had a difficulty to open his eyes because of the brightness. Before he knew it, the orb was already fused with the sword. He examined the sword immediately. He felt a cold energy from the sword. He tried to see it with his Spirit Eyes and saw bluish energy hovering around the sword. "This is¡­ Ice element." Alex said while examining the sword. [Yes, Host. This sword has become an Ice Element Sword. You should check your memory about Forging Master, Host.] When the system said that, he was dumbfounded. He immediately checked his memory about Forging Master and finally found something. Enhancing an element to a weapon. This could be considered as a high-level technique in Forgery. According to the knowledge, the person who could do this was those who were rank 5 or above. According to the memory about Forging, no, there were also some from Alchemy and Array. It seemed after he became a Martial King, there would be a qualitative leap in his cultivation. He would start cultivating his soul. But for those Martial Lords or below, they considered this as Mental Energy. Mental Energy helped them to make pills, weapons, or array. Alex also experienced when he made pills or Arrays. With high enough Mental Energy, Alex could refine ingredients or make symbols simultaneously. And it seemed after he reached Martial King, the mental energy would evolve into a soul. This was what the Founder of Heavenly Sword Sect used to seal himself in the Stone Tower to teach the next generation about Seven Stars Cut. Zwaka also used this to live in this world for a little longer so he could meet Alex in that white castle. But different from the Founder of Heavenly Sword Sect, for Alchemists, Forging Masters, or Array Masters like Zwaka, they could use or fuse a little bit of their soul to their creation. In other words, Alchemists can use their souls to make the refining process much smoother. Forging Master can use their soul to retain the element from a metal and make an elemental sword. Array Master could use their soul to control their Array remotely. And one of the elemental swords was in front of him. Alex tried to touch the blade with his hand, and the blade tried to freeze his hand. Alex''s Fire immediately fought back with the sword. Alex was glad that he only used this when he was a Martial Lord. If he used it when he was a Martial Master and completely clueless about this, he might be targeted by the people who knew about it. 349 Joining After examining the elemental weapon, he stored it back in his inventory. There was a flaw for an elemental weapon. If they did not have the same affinity, they could not use the elemental weapon to the fullest. It was the same for the people who practiced their sword or their element alone. They would not use it to the fullest potential because it required the mastery of both sword and element. Alex had mastered both ways, but the problem was he did not have the Ice element. He thought about selling it on the continent. However, even if he wanted to sell it, he would wait until the Grand Tournament had ended. He did not want to strengthen his future opponent by selling it now. Since he had settled the matter for this weapon, it was the time he fixed these two half-boxes. He took out both of them and saw their appearance. It was like what he saw in the auction. With the other half of the box, he finally saw what the array was. The array was functioning as the key, but he felt something wrong when he looked at these boxes. The array shape was a bit weird. The box that Mithra gave him seemed to be the lower part because there were a few symbols on it. On the other hand, the other half cube was full of arrays. These two half-boxes were not cut or something since he thought he could just put them together. And it turned out he was right. When he put the two half-boxes together, it suddenly stuck together like a magnet. The real box was a cube with a size around his palm. The cube did not have any ornament on it, making it only appear like a normal green box. But when the box finally united together, the array on the half-box that Alex bought earlier suddenly glowed. Symbols after symbols started appearing on the other half. Alex knew the one who made this box must be higher than the Martial King. After all, something like this could only happen if the Array Master used his soul in creating this box. It was the same as Zwaka''s special realm, where it would timely open according to the time Zwaka set. The Array in this box would show its true appearance when the box was completed. It seemed Mithra purposely lost this box a few thousand years ago. She decided to throw the other half, so when the people who chased her managed to get it from her, they would only get half of the box, and they needed to search for the other half again. However, because she managed to kill all her pursuers, the other half only got discovered not long ago. Alex continued looking at the array transformation. The array finished its transformation in a few seconds, and the box was fully covered with a green array. The array continued glowing like a fully active key. When Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see this array, he finally saw the cube was sucking the Spiritual Energy nearby to sustain itself. He examined the full box to see what kind of array it was and was shocked by what he found. "This¡­ is not a rank 6 and not even rank 7¡­ This is a key for rank 8 barrier-type array, Sixth Gate of Aurora. This is one of rank 8 unbreakable barriers as it could prevent any intent and elements." He finally could understand why Mithra was chased by so many people for this box. He did not know the power level in the Northern Continent, but he knew a realm that was made for the rank 8 barrier would be full of treasures. He immediately stored the box inside his space ring. If he came to the Northern Continent, he would be super careful with this box. And he might need to hide this from Song Yu later. After settling everything again, he went to the full Alchemist mode. He started refining the crystal skin pills one by one for a whole week. He already got the hang of his new alchemy technique, so he tried to make it with two furnaces. His mental energy was capable of doing that, and his output would be twice as much after he got used to the technique. ¡­ Five days later, Alex was in the last refining process for the last two sets of Crystal Skin pill ingredients. He was trying to merge the ingredients and formed them into pills. And not long after, "Condense!" Two pink pills came out from both of his furnaces. Alex stored them and let out a deep breath, "Finally finish." After noticing that, Anna immediately came to him. "Alex, what are you going to do now?" "Hmm¡­ I have been refining non-stop for five days. So, tell me all the updates, I guess." Alex said. Anna nodded. "Because the information you gave to that princess, it seems they immediately made a countermeasure for the Zhou Kingdom. They also seemed to have information about the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill, so they wanted to finish the war as soon as possible. "But Zhou Kingdom still managed to massacre a few big cities before the army from Thiveapia Kingdom came. Anya and the others managed to kill eighty percent of the people that tried to make the blood pills. However, as expected of them, the moment they realized that, they tried to put a layer of protection for the people who were responsible for the pill. "At first they put a few Martial Lords to accompany them, but our group managed to kill them pretty easily¡­ until they finally put around twenty Martial Lords to accompany them with a few high-level Martial Lords along with a thousand peak Martial Grandmasters. "It was a bit impossible to kill all of them, so Anya and the others were trying to come up with a plan to take one at a time. But for the time being, they are hiding." Alex pondered it a little. It seemed they had known the existence of Blood Pill and Berserk Pill. The Southern Kingdom must have spread the information to this kingdom, or maybe they only gave the information to Mount Hua Sect so they could research it. And since they established an alliance with the Thiveapia Kingdom. They told this information to the Thiveapia Kingdom. Alex asked, "How many people were responsible for the pills?" "They had fifty people. We have killed forty of them. Should we ask Anya to kill them with True Spirit Body?" Anna asked. But from the look of it, they could only prevent the front soldiers as even if they made a detachment to kill the people that Anya and the groups were targeting. They would not have enough people to do that. So, they could only kill the people in the front first before destroying the people in the back. "I see. Twenty Martial Lords with a thousand peak Martial Grandmasters¡­ with ten of them, we have taken two hundred Martial Lords together with the ten thousand Martial Grandmasters out of this war. "No, Anya and the others don''t need to move. They are already helpful enough just by glaring at the Zhou Kingdom from behind. "Zhou army would only have a few high-level Martial Lords as of now since most of them were in their back. Their grandmaster stage soldiers were also the same. So, the Thiveapia Kingdom should be able to handle the rest of the soldiers. "This is the perfect time for me, you, and Leoz to strike them. We will try to kill as many as possible but we might get a lesser EXP than we expected since most of their peak fighters were in the back. Well, we can just beat the quality with quantity." "Yes. Anya also said that." Anna nodded. "She said we could get more EXP after we destroyed the front army. Since her group was glaring at them, the Zhou soldiers could not go back casually as they might get ambushed by them." "How about the Thiveapia Kingdom? How many soldiers they sent?" "Because of early preparation, they managed to gather around a hundred thousand soldiers to fight the Zhou Kingdom. But because of the blood pill, Thiveapia Kingdom is weaker. Fortunately, Anya is glaring at their back and forcing them to send reinforcement to the back. I could say both armies are currently equal. Alex nodded. "What about Evelyn? How is her condition?" "Evelyn is leading a special group, with a thousand Martial Grandmasters. She was roaming around to make a mess with the Zhou Army. She even got a nickname such as battle princess¡­ fufu¡­ We can tease her with this later." Anna chuckled. "How about the enemy position?" "They are four cities away in the north. It is a big plain and we might not be able to hide around the woods. So, the only option for us is to confront them head-on. And it seems there is no Mercenary camp like the Southern Kingdom, so if we join the battle, we will become something like a third force." "I don''t mind that. We will attack the Zhou Soldiers from afar. I am sure the Zhou Kingdom will make a detachment to kill us. And with our number, they should not send many soldiers to us, maybe around a hundred or two hundred with a few Martial Lords. "It should not be a problem for us with our current cultivation. But there is a possibility that the Thiveapia Kingdom will send their troops to us even though we are clearly killing the Zhou Soldiers. If they really come, we will also kill all of them. Do I need to know anything else?" Anna paused a little bit before saying, "Their Supreme Commander¡­ I mean, Thiveapia Kingdom''s supreme commander for this war is that Crown Prince. And from the look of it, he wanted to do something to us. But because of this war, he could only postpone it for a while. But if we show ourselves in the war, he¡­" Alex frowned when he heard that as this might be a bit troublesome. The crown prince must hate them because he bought those two items. If they truly showed up in the war, it might not be a possibility anymore but a certain matter. The crown prince will send the army to kill him. "If he truly wants to kill us, we will leave no one alive," Alex said coldly. "Understood." "Call Leoz here, we are going right now." "Yes." Anna nodded. Alex immediately set off toward the battlefield. And with their current distance, Alex finally arrived after a few hours of flying. Even though Anna said ''it was only four cities away,'' the distance for each city was no joke. Alex needed more than an hour just to meet the next city. When they arrived, Alex could see the clash between the two armies. It was truly a no joke. After getting crushed by the Southern Kingdom, it seemed the Zhou Kingdom did not split their force to half once again. They marched toward this place and conquered every city they could with that massive army. Because of that, the Thiveapia Kingdom had enough time to make a countermeasure and so on. Alex could also see the Crown Prince that was leading the army. When they arrived near the battlefield, the crown prince and the Zhou Kingdom noticed him. Even though they had different purposes, they sent a hundred two hundred Martial Grandmasters along with two Grandmasters. The Zhou Kingdom was thinking about killing him while the crown prince was thinking about exhausting him so he could kill him. So this troop was only a bait for Alex so the crown prince could justify his action in attacking him. "Rea-!" Before Alex finished, a notification from the system appeared. [Host, Nicole is calling you.] He was startled to see the sudden notification from the system. He immediately took out Nicole''s card. "Young Master. A big problem! Evelyn is in danger!" 350 Finally Arrived "Young Master. A big problem! Evelyn is in danger!" "What?" "They sent Evelyn to intercept a detachment from the Zhou Kingdom. Their number is around three thousand, and all of them were Martial Grandmasters. In contrast, she only had a thousand Martial Grandmasters." "!!!" Alex was startled. If Evelyn clashed with three thousand Martial Grandmasters with her troops. She and her troops would be annihilated. If she were with Anna and the others, she would be fine. Sadly she was not. It was not like he was underestimating the soldiers from Thiveapia Kingdom. It was just Anna and the others being too absurd that could make him think like that. "And they have already clashed!" "Who sent her?" "The crown prince!" Alex frowned. There was a trace of anger in his eyes. "I really hate the royal family, whether it was the Southern Kingdom''s royal family or this kingdom''s royal family. Why can''t they just be nice to each other like Acacia Kingdom''s Royal family?" "What should we do, Alex?" Anna came to him and asked. She also heard his conversation with Nicole. "Nicole, where is she? I am on the battlefield." "If you are facing the Zhou Kingdom from the Thiveapia Kingdom, then it is on your right." When he heard that, his expression darkened. His position was the exact opposite of them. And the only way to get to that place was to break through from the Zhou Army. "Your position is close to Evelyn, right?" Alex asked. "Yes!" "I don''t care about the others, but if needed, you may show yourself and take her out of that place. I will be coming to your place." Alex said. At first, he considered using his Teleportation Array. However, he already got spotted by both sides, so if he used it, he would become even more ''famous'' as there might be many wanted posters for him alone later. Even though he already put on his mask, the people would realize that he was Alexander Sirius as that Princess Luna already knew about his identity. Alex looked at the two incoming armies. "Leoz!" "Yes." "You will be the vanguard. Use your True Spirit Body, and we will go to Evelyn''s position through the Zhou Army." Alex said. He wanted Anna to use her True Spirit Body too, but Anna was specialized in massacring enemies. Not breaking through their formation. For the analogy, Leoz looked like a sharp spear that could pierce anything while Anna was like a sword that slashed and broke an armor but could not cut the body. Leoz nodded as he raised his giant sword. "True Spirit Body. Thunder Berserker Form." Two horns appeared on his head as his body was fully covered by lightning. "Go!" Alex said. The moment he said that, Leoz immediately charged toward the incoming Zhou Soldiers with his giant sword. He raised his giant sword before swinging it down. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" A huge lightning sword wave flew toward the Zhou Soldiers. It shocked both the Zhou Kingdom and the crown prince. The incoming soldiers from Thiveapia Kingdom even halted their advance as they saw that giant sword wave plunged toward the Zhou Soldiers. Noticing the power, they knew they underestimated Leoz''s power. All of them tried to avoid this sword wave, but few of them did not manage to avoid it and died. Leoz did not have time to kill the soldiers that managed to dodge his attack. He immediately led Alex and Anna toward the numerous soldiers of the Zhou Kingdom. "Incoming! From our right!" The people who noticed Alex''s group immediately shouted to inform the rest of the soldiers. Ten lightning balls suddenly appeared in front of Leoz and formed a circle. They were connected by a lightning line. The lightning circle suddenly got bigger and bigger until it made a 30 meters circle. In the center of the circle suddenly glowed brightly. "Not good! Incoming Attack!" "Thunder God Cannon!" The lightning shot out a laser beam. It destroyed everything in front of its way, killing thousands of soldiers. Because of the situation, Leoz decided to use his full power in this state. He would not be able to use this move again. And in fact, he already used more than half of his power. However, Alex and Anna could immediately see a huge line without any soldiers in it. "Young Master!" Leoz shouted. Alex nodded. Leoz came in front of them again and led them through this single line to break through the enemy soldiers. "You bastard!" Just when they started flying again, two 9-Star Martial Lords suddenly came to their way. They were so angry because Leoz just killed many of their soldiers. They also knew that Leoz had used a considerable amount of his power. When they came, Leoz immediately stopped both Martial Lords. The soldiers thought they finally managed to stop the demon that killed many of them, along with the two behind him. But they never expected that Alex and Anna did not bother with them and continued flying past Leoz. "Leoz, I am going first." "Yes, Young Master. Please go ahead." They were dumbfounded when they saw Alex and Anna had abandoned Leoz in this crowd of soldiers. It was basically a death sentence if he was trapped inside here. They thought they were already cruel enough by massacring those people in the cities. But Alex even sacrificed his comrade just like this to make way for him, and more importantly, he was a 6-Star Martial Lord. They did not know for what purpose Alex did this, but they certainly could not let Alex and Anna go away. "Stop them!" One of the 9-Star Martial Lords shouted to the soldiers. The soldiers started gathering around to stop them from passing their ranks. "Anna, make a Dark Curtain that could stretch until we get past these soldiers. But make sure that Leoz is also covered by it." Alex said. Anna was perplexed by his order. She knew that he wanted to break through this place using her Dark Curtain. He was planning to create confusion while flying in a single direction. But she did not understand why he wanted to cover Leoz too. Even though she was confused, she still complied with his order. "Dark Curtain." Suddenly a long giant Dark Sphere appeared. It stretched from Leoz to an empty space on the left of the battlefield. "What is this?" "Be careful! Don''t touch it!" "This might be another attack." Leoz''s attack made a great impact in their heart that even made them afraid of Anna''s harmless Dark Curtain. In the middle of confusion, Alex continued flying. Since they only needed to fly in a single direction, they did not need Spirit Eyes just to see where they wanted to go. Nonetheless, Alex still activated his Spirit Eyes to see if there was a soldier that tried to stop them. Fortunately, there were none. Alex then took out Leoz''s card. "Recall. Summon." He summoned Leoz to his side. And since it was dark inside, Alex immediately grabbed and dragged him away the moment he appeared. This was the purpose why he wanted the Dark Curtain to cover Leoz. If he just summoned him later, it was like he disappeared from the scene. The enemy might even think they were using a Space Element. Even though they were in an emergency situation, Alex had learned from his previous experiences. He did not lose his head and used everything at his convenience but leaving a potential problem. What made him sad was because Leoz did not kill any of the 9-Star Martial Lords. Well, Alex did not tell him his plan since he had no time, so Alex could not complain about that. They continued toward the end of the dark curtain. *Clang!* The sound of the Dark Curtain broke to pieces filled the battlefield as the one who broke it was Alex. He had arrived at the end of the ''tunnel.'' "What? We have been fooled by them. We need to chase-!" But when they tried to chase them, a loud sound came from the front. "Uoh!" The soldiers from the Thiveapia Kingdom were stampeding toward their position. Alex unintentionally made a great diversion for them to push the Zhou Kingdom back. Alex and the others continued toward Evelyn. Of course, it did not escape the crown prince''s eyes. He looked at them before turning his head to Elder Oliver and Jack. Although they volunteered to join the war, they were only planning to watch from the side. They did not have any intention of joining the war. "Elder Oliver, this is the perfect time to ambush them." He said. "Hoho, it seems you are right. Although that lightning attack was surprising, I think that person could not use it again because it took most of his Spiritual Energy. But I think we need a few Martial Lords and a thousand Martial Grandmasters." "I will spare three thousand soldiers." The crown prince nodded. "We are going to show him the price of messing with us." "Indeed, as Elder Oliver said. I am sure that he wanted to save that group. But he also needs to fight with the other soldiers. And with our power, we should be able to kill him." Cromwell nodded his head. The crown prince wanted to bring three thousand soldiers because he knew there must be Zhou soldier''s remnants. Killing Alex and Evelyn as well as racking up this achievement by killing the ambush from Zhou Soldiers, it was killing two birds with one stone. On the other hand, what Oliver thought was the two items Alex got from the auction as well as his personal wealth. Alex should have more money since he raised the bid without batting an eye. If he had those kinds of money, he did not need to worry about anything. ¡­ Meanwhile, in Evelyn''s location, "Princess, we will try to hold them back. Please, even if it is just you, you need to survive." One of the remaining soldiers said to her. Their group was annihilated, and she was already exhausted. Her Spiritual Energy was already empty. Their group fought bravely and even managed to kill 2500 enemy soldiers. Sadly, there were only around ten soldiers left beside her. "No! We can still fight. I just could not leave all of you after this fight." Evelyn said desperately. "Ah!" The Zhou Soldiers killed the remaining soldiers one by one. Evelyn watched them with a sad and tired look. She was standing just with her willpower alone. "Haha! I remember her face. She is the rumored number one genius in the Thiveapia Kingdom. I never thought we would meet the princess here. And she is a beautiful lady too. We can''t kill her. We need to rape her and show the Thiveapia Kingdom our rage!" "Uoh!" The soldiers beside her immediately charged toward the Zhou soldiers. "How dare you! Princess, please hurry and go!" "Hahaha¡­ she can''t escape from us! Grab her!" And finally, all of Evelyn''s soldiers were killed by the Zhou Kingdom. "Grab her!" She gritted her teeth as she knew this was the end. She would rather commit suicide than letting these bastards rape her. She did not know why, but because of the ''rape'' thing, the thought of Alex embracing her in a hot steamy night appeared on her head. "Big brother Alex¡­" She looked at the Zhou Soldiers that were trying to stop her from suicide. But before she managed to kill herself, Evelyn saw the nearest soldiers that were trying to stop her suddenly stopped on their track and fell to the ground. If they looked carefully, there was a needle on their heads. And not long after, a woman suddenly appeared before her eyes. "Little girl, you should not commit suicide as this is not the end for you." The woman said. "Who are you?" Evelyn asked with a low voice. "I don''t care who you are. How dare you to stop us! But since you are also a beauty, you will get a turn with every soldier along with her. Hahahaha!" "You talk too much." The woman said. "Woman, do you think you can fight all of us with your 10-Star Martial Grandmaster cultivation?" "Of course not. I am not your opponent since my job here is done as my king finally appears!" The woman said. "Huh, what d-!" Before he finished, Alex finally appeared along with three fire phoenixes. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." 351 All of You Will Die! A few seconds ago, Alex was flying toward Evelyn''s location, where Nicole said that the Zhou Soldiers were going to rape her. "I will arrive in a few seconds, stall them," Alex said coldly. He forgot that this was the norm in this world, especially for women. Sometimes, even death was better than rape, and Evelyn chose that. Alex wanted to prevent it from happening since he almost arrived. He asked Nicole to make a move just to buy time for a few seconds for him. "Sherry, Kyle. Bombard them with our Fire Phoenix." "Yes." And when he finally arrived, "Of course not. I am not your opponent since my job here is done as my king finally appears!" Nicole said. "Huh, what d-!" Before he finished, Alex finally appeared along with three fire phoenixes. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." The phoenixes immediately flew toward the nearest soldiers. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Ah!" Alex''s appearance was cold even in this intense heat from the phoenixes. "Anna, Leoz, Leave no one alive!" Alex said coldly. "Understood." Leoz and Anna appeared in front of him and started swinging their weapon around. "Big brother Alex¡­" Evelyn called his name with her tired voice, there was even a trace of sobbing in her voice. She had given up her life, but Alex saved her once again. Alex looked at her, "Even your ''brother,'' that whatever Crown Prince, wanted to kill you in this war. We are not going to participate in this war again okay? We are going back to the sect." In her state, she was not capable of rejecting his idea. In fact, she was also a bit tired of this war. She just wanted to protect her kingdom, but it was useless. She almost died in this place, and no one might care. She said, "Yes." "Leave everything to me," Alex said. He did not have any intention to participate in this war any longer since he had lost his interest. He did not care about EXP and gacha tickets anymore. Even If the Thiveapia Kingdom were destroyed in this war, he would not even pity them. But if his spirits were going to continue in this war, he would not object to it. He was the one who lost interest in it, not them. "Yes." The moment she said that, all the tense she had just now finally vanished. Her exhausted state finally kicked in as she finally passed out. Alex caught her before she dropped to the ground. He was thinking about giving her in Nicole''s care for the time being, but when he looked around, he did not see her anywhere. "Nicole?" Alex tried to call her but got no response. [Host, Nicole wants to talk.] He was startled to see this notification. He immediately picked Nicole''s card. "What is it? Where are you?" "I am scouting around the area, Young Master. But more importantly, I saw that crown prince''s group. He is coming to you with three thousand soldiers and they will arrive in a minute. What are you going to do?" "It is obvious. They must come to this place not as a reinforcement but because they want to kill us. Every enemy that wants to kill me, I won''t let them get away whether they are a pitiful person or a beauty." Alex said coldly. Alex immediately took out Anya''s and the others'' cards. "I am going to summon all of you." No one complained when he said that. In fact, they did not have anything to do other than glaring at those Zhou Soldiers that holed up in the cities. They would not even realize if Anya and the others had disappeared. Anya did not try to hug him as usual because she felt he did not have any mood for that judging from his tone. When she saw Evelyn, she immediately checked her condition. "Don''t worry. She just used too much Spiritual Energy. She might be unconscious for a few days, but as long as she rests for a few days, she would be fine. There won''t be any after effect." Anya said. Alex nodded. "Thank you." "I want all of you to go around and ambush the incoming army from behind," Alex said. "Understood. Massacre all of them, right?" Anya said coldly. "Yeah. Oh, there is one person that you need to spare for a little bit longer." Alex nodded. He then looked at Jeanne, "I am sure I will be fighting with that crown prince. After I am done, I will leave him to you." "Ah! Nice." Jeanne smiled brightly. "How about the young man beside him? Jack or whatever it is along with that old man?" Anya asked. "No, I don''t have any interest in that old bone or that person. I am just going with that crown prince. So, Jeanne will only have one person this time. Make sure you do it to the fullest." "Of course." Jeanne nodded furiously. "Now go. They will arrive in this place at any moment." Anya and the others immediately disappeared. Nicole seemed to have noticed their presence too, and immediately guided them so they could go around them without getting spotted. Leoz and Anna also seemed a little bit frustrated. They knew that Alex was a bit fond of Evelyn because she reminded him of his younger sister. So, they made sure they finished all of them as soon as possible and killed that bastard, crown prince. When Alex looked at them, they finally finished killing all of them. "We have finished all of them." "Good. Leoz, how is your condition?" Alex asked. He could see that around 70% of Leoz''s Spiritual Energy was depleted. Most of it was because of the skill he used to open a path for them. "I am good, Young Mas-!" "Hahaha¡­ What do we have here? An exhausted man, unconscious little girl and two other people. But, she is our Kingdom princess, how dare you try to kidnap her?" There was suddenly a voice coming from their rear. They finally came. "If it is for buying time, I can hold the old man for a little bit. Besides, I think I am going to level up soon. I will recover all of my energy when I level up. Maybe a hundred Grandmasters would be enough to level up since our experiences are shared." Leoz said. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "System, give me Leoz''s status. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 266841/270000] Alex was surprised to see he only needed three thousand more EXP to level up. But he said he needed around a hundred Grandmasters just to level up. He knew that if Leoz killed a Grandmasters, he would only get around three to five hundred EXP. And they were distributed to around fifteen spirits. It seemed he had put a big burden upon Leoz. "Alright. We will make sure you can level up as soon as possible." Alex nodded. He then looked at the incoming people with his Spirit Eyes. Other than Oliver, Jack, Cromwell, with two other people being the Martial Lords. The rest of the soldiers were Martial Grandmasters. "It seems, you are determined to kill her in this place," Alex said. "Haha, What do you mean? I am trying to stop you from kidnapping her!" Cromwell laughed as he kept twisting the fact. "Wait wait. Look at the black-haired woman behind him. I can''t see her face since it is covered with a veil. But looking at her body and facial expression, this woman must be a beauty. I am going to have this woman for tonight. We can bring the women back and kill the men." Jack said vulgarly while eyeing on Anna''s figure. That displeased Alex even further. Alex walked to a nearby big rock and put down Evelyn there. "Sherry, Kyle, make sure you protect her," Alex said. Sherry and Kyle suddenly came out from his body and nodded their heads. Cromwell and the others were surprised to see them appear just like that. They never thought Alex had some monsters around him, and they were very intelligent. When Oliver saw Kyle, he was so shocked to see a living phoenix. His eyes became even more greedy. He shouted, "Hand over all of your possession and that phoenix. I will grant you a quick death." Alex walked toward Anna and Leoz. The army was a bit scared of Leoz since they saw what Leoz did on the battlefield. But since the crown prince said he was already exhausted, he should not be able to use that technique again. They were a bit relieved. "Haha¡­ A quick death is it?" Alex said. He took out his sword, and the atmosphere became tense. "Is it something like this?" Alex swung his sword casually and suddenly he flicked his finger. An array appeared below Jack''s feet, and he was teleported in front of Alex. "Eh-?!" Before they realized it, Jack''s head was already flying. Alex wanted to use it on the old man, but he doubted he could kill that old man in a single swing like that. After all, even though this old man was hateful, he seemed to be experienced enough just by looking at his Sword Intent. So, he chose Oliver''s son as an example of his own word. "Space¡­ It is a space element! But he¡­ he is also an Array Master. Don''t tell me, he is a Space Element Array Master?" Cromwell shouted. But Oliver was different. Seeing his son died just like that, he was angered beyond belief. "You bastard. How dare you kill my son!" "You want to kill me and expect me not to kill your son? Are you dumb?" Alex said coldly. He also gave his order to Anna and Leoz, "Anna, kill those two 7-Star Martial Lords. Leoz, stall that old man for a little bit. As soon as you recover your energy, kill him along, and help Anna." "Understood." Both of them nodded. "Soldiers, Don''t panic! Even if he is an Array Master, he is going to kidnap our Princess Evelyn! We can''t let this go. As the soldiers of Thiveapia Kingdom, we will bring whoever tries to kidnap our princess down. Soldiers Ki-!" Cromwell shouted, trying to twist the fact. But before he finished, Alex was the one who shouted first. "Kill them all!" The soldiers suddenly got their momentum stopped. They were ready to charge toward them, but because Alex got the better of him. But Alex''s shout was not aimed at Anna and Leoz. Instead, he was aiming at Anya and the others. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Attack Attack! Our rear is ambushed!" The soldiers started panicking as they never saw this coming. "There is a group of people and monsters attacking us from behind." "Go!" Alex said to Anna and Leoz. "All of you are going to die," Anna said coldly as she swung her scythe to the 7-Star Martial Lords. "Hmph, you won''t be able to defeat me in your exhausted state." As expected of Oliver, he was the one who did not lose in the initiative. He moved at the same time as Leoz. Their swords collided with each other. "All of them said that before they die under my sword," Leoz said coldly. Alex looked at the crown prince as he took off his mask, "You are going to die in this place." "You¡­ You!" Since Alex was already famous because of the wanted poster as well as his Sword and Spear Technique, Cromwell was able to recognize his face immediately. He never thought the masked man was Alex. But when Alex took off his mask, his cultivation was also visible again. "Attack Attack. Even though he is an Array Master, his cultivation is only 2-Star Martial Lord. He won''t be able to win against this many people!" The soldiers gained a little more confidence and rose from their feet and marched toward him. Alex took out his spear and released both of his domains. "What? Fifty meters Spear and Sword Domains¡­" The crown prince gasped. But there was one more thing, both domains suddenly fused with each other and created an even stronger domain. They felt the sharpness of this domain that made them feel chill. Alex narrowed his eyes as he said coldly, "All of you will die." 352 All of You Will Die Part 2 "All of you are going to die," Alex said coldly as he charged at them with his fused domain. "What? Did those two domains fuse together?" The crown prince was startled when he saw Alex''s Sword Domain and Spear Domain fused together, creating a brand new intent. He also could feel the sheer power of that intent, it was far sharper than any Sword or Spear Intent. "You¡­ you monster! Attack! Attack him! We have three thousand, while there are only a few of them!" Cromwell shouted. The soldiers could not reject his order, no, the royal family''s order, even if it meant death. They could only grit their teeth and started charging toward him. Alex then took out twenty swords and let them dance around him. He thought about using his fire too, but he felt he would not be able to control them even if he summoned them. It seemed his mental energy was still not enough. But these swords alone were enough. It was like there were twenty people fighting with the soldiers. He controlled the swords skillfully and killed the closest soldiers one by one. But there was suddenly a notification from the system. [Mission: Kill Cromwell Reward: Inventory Optimization] [Since you are fighting, I will immediately explain this Inventory Optimization for you. It is the function that you have been waiting for. You will be able to store back everything, no matter how far they are, as long as they are coming from this system.] Alex only smiled, "You truly know how to fire me up, don''t you? But I like it." He started marching forward to the soldiers like a god. His Swords were covered by this Twin Intent as they cut the soldiers one by one like nothing. Of course, Alex also managed a considerable distance with the soldiers so he would not get surrounded by them. He wanted to make sure that Leoz and Anna were not disturbed. "Hii!" Seeing Alex come closer, the crown prince started to panic. He saw the soldiers were cut down one by one like nothing. He should bring more Martial Lords if he knew this would happen. The two 7-Star Martial Lords had their hands full because of Anna. Oliver was the same. Even though he had some advantage because Leoz had exhausted his energy, he could not beat Leoz. Looking at their condition, he decided to run away. But in the back, he saw a few people trying to break their formation apart. Although they were only a small number, besides the golden-haired beauty, all of them were Martial Lords. And their fighting power was crazy. But, looking at the golden-haired beauty that looked like she was commanding those people, he knew as long as he killed this woman, everything would go to his way. He immediately flew to the back with his sword. He saw that Cromwell was trying to do something and when he looked at whom he was looking for, Alex saw Anya. When Alex saw this, he immediately let go of the control of his sword. Those twenty swords fell to the ground simultaneously. *Clang Clang Clang! * The soldiers around him were confused, but nonetheless, they started charging toward Alex. "Kill him!" "I don''t know what happens, but this is the time we kill him!" "Save the princess!" Alex shouted, "Kyle will protect Evelyn. Sherry will take over my position and burn all of them!" An array suddenly appeared beneath his feet. That array immediately stopped the soldiers'' advance because they did not know what Alex wanted to do. But before they knew it, Alex suddenly disappeared. Cromwell suddenly felt an overbearing pressure in front of him. Alex''s figure suddenly appeared thirty meters in front of him, holding his sword and spear high. Alex suddenly swung both of them down. "Seven Stars Cut!" Both weapons made a single sword wave, flying toward the crown prince. But because of his speed, the crown prince could not dodge this. When he realized what happened, he felt pain on both of his arms. He looked down only to see both of his hands were missing. "Ah, ah, Aaaargh! My hands!" The crown prince shouted in pain. "Your highness¡­" "His hands¡­" Alex only looked at him coldly, he felt this would be the perfect time to do it. "Pure Fire!" ¡­ Meanwhile, Leoz was trying to beat him but to no avail. He only had around ten percent of his Spiritual Energy left, and he never expected that he had yet to level up after this whole time. Maybe because he fought with the Zhou Soldiers previously, he forgot that because of that blood pill, their average cultivation was higher, bringing him more EXP. This was the reason why he had yet to level up even with Alex and Anya''s group killed more than a hundred. He saw Anna start getting some advantage in her fight against two 7-Star Martial Lords. He shouted, "Oi, Anna. Don''t you think this is the perfect time to use your True Spirit Body? I am sure with these many people, you will be able to level up too. That way, we won''t need to worry even if they have any reinforcement." "Shut up! I will immediately activate my True Spirit Body as soon as I kill these two guys. We are waiting for you to level up." She snorted. "Do you think we are that easy, you woman!" They did not understand what she meant by level up, but they knew she thought lowly about them. Oliver was also mad. He tried to pin this 6-Star Martial Lord down but to no avail. However, suddenly he felt some suppression from behind. The fire inside his body was revolting. It was like they were overjoyed and wanted to meet their king. He even had an urge to kneel, but he held that feeling back. He glanced at the back and found Alex''s surrounded by fire. The fire was so intense that he even felt the heat from his position. Along with the suppression in his body, he was dumbfounded, "He¡­ he¡­ he is a Pure Fire Element user!" "Don''t you dare to ignore me!" Leoz used the shock that Alex made to take Oliver by surprise. But as expected from a 9-Star Martial Lord, even in that shock, he managed to regain his composure at the last second. He raised his sword to block Leoz''s giant sword. But because this took him by surprise, Leoz was able to pin him down. "Not good! He has a Pure Fire Element. Our Sect is full of Fire Element users! I will need to kill him in this place!" Oliver said as he took out a pill from his pocket. It was the Rage Pill, the same pill that Intan ate to fight Alex. Leoz used every bit of his power, creating a giant crater just because he pinned this Oliver to the ground. At least, he wanted to hinder Oliver from eating that pill. Unfortunately, Oliver managed to eat the pill. Leoz felt the surge of power from Oliver as he slowly pushed his sword back until finally, he blew Leoz away. Leoz was blown away to the sky. He looked at Anna, "Oi, Anna. The situation is not good. You should-!" Before he finished, he also felt the surge of power in his body. It felt like all the energy was coming back to him. "Hahaha¡­ I have waited for this for so long!" Leoz laughed as his body was covered by Lightning. He just leveled up to 7-Star Martial Lord. He flew toward Oliver, who was trying to get up and attack Alex and swung his sword down. "!!!" Oliver also felt his presence. And he was surprised Leoz suddenly got powered up. "You¡­ 7-Star Martial Lord!" "Our King is not the like of you can kill!" Leoz said. He even reverted back to the old way as he addressed Alex with ''King.'' "Not good!" Oliver sweatdropped when he felt Leoz''s new power. It was already troublesome to deal with him when he was a 6-Star Martial Lord. And to think he suddenly became a 7-Star Martial Lord with full energy. Even his Rage Pill would not be enough to stop this man. When Anna saw this, she only smiled. "See, you don''t need me to use my True Spirit Body. I better reserve my energy first." ¡­ Back to Alex, The moment he let out his Pure Fire. Around ten percent of the soldiers felt the suppression. It was not like when he fought with Kyle, where Alex needed to concentrate all of his power to suppress Kyle''s flame. Alex was already a Martial Lord, whereas these soldiers were only Martial Grandmasters, and most of them were only mid-level Grandmasters. The moment he released it, he did not need to suppress them as they already felt a certain suppression that made them want to kneel down. "Oi? What happened to you?" "What are you doing?" The soldiers found out that many people around them were clenching their hearts like they were in pain. They did not know what happened to them, but judging from the situation, there was only one possibility, which was Alex. "You¡­!" The crown prince was still in pain after losing both of his arms. Even so, he forgot about his pain in a few seconds when he felt Alex''s fire. He was the closest one to Alex, and the heat was scorching his skin. Luckily, Evelyn was unconscious. If not, it would be a bit problematic. "How can you have two elements?!" The crown prince roared. He never saw anyone who had two elements. His Space element was already surprising enough as it was one of the rarest elements in the world. But to think that his Fire Element was this intense. Although he did not know Alex''s fire was a Pure Fire element, the heat alone could tell him that it was a powerful Fire Element. "You¡­ how can that b*tch get you under her?" He was shouting like he was crazy. Maybe, the fact about Alex had already wrecked his mind. "You call your own sister a b*tch?" His eyebrows twitched when he heard Cromwell called Evelyn with ''B*tch.'' Alex remembered that even though he was beaten by his little sister back on Earth, he never even had that kind of though. He was still his little sister. "What''s wrong with me calling her b*tch. She is just a lowly princess that was born from a concubine. Her blood is not as pure as mine. I am the true successor of this kingdom because I was born from the king and the queen." Cromwell shouted to him in madness. Even his eyes bulged a little when he said that. "Is that really important? Concubine and the like? The more you tried to convince the others you are the true heir, the more you appeared like a fool. Truly pathetic. The fact that a concubine can even birth a monstrous child and the brother wants to kill her because of jealousy. This is why I hate this world." Alex said coldly. The soldiers who heard that were shocked. They never thought the calm crown prince turned out to be like that. They thought this was to protect the princess from the kidnapper. But they never thought that it turned out that the crown prince was jealous of Evelyn. Even if he managed to ''rescue'' her, there might be another story for later. And the fact that Alex had two elements as well as two intents. They were wondering what kind of monster they just offended. Even with the shout from the Crown Prince did not manage to make them move. "Kill, kill him! What are all of you doing? Hurry up and kill him!" Cromwell shouted to those soldiers around him. The soldiers could not move because of the shock. Alex took this chance to suddenly appear beside the crown prince and sent a kick to his face and blew him away. "Boom!" He crashed into a giant rock. The soldiers who saw that became pale. Alex stated once again, "All of you will die." 353 All of You Will Die Part 3 "I will say it again. All of you will die in this place." Alex said as he looked at the soldiers with a cold gaze. Alex raised his hand as a giant phoenix appeared above his hand. "Cry!" The phoenix let out a sound that alarmed every soldier on the battlefield. There were suddenly two pairs of giant wings on Alex''s back. The wings were like Kyle''s but more exquisite. The wings were made up of translucent red feathers. With the phoenix above his head, he was like the incarnation of Phoenix king. "Fire Phoenix Art, Third Stage. Phoenix Wing." Alex then flapped his wings before many feathers flew toward the soldiers. They flew like Alex''s firebirds but more powerful. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Ah!" "Attack him!" "Kill him!" "He had cut both of our crown prince''s arms. Hurry up and kill him." "But, his highness is¡­" "Even if we don''t do anything, he will kill us! We need to kill him before he can kill us." "Attack." Alex made the phoenix fly toward the soldiers and made a huge explosion. Luckily, this huge explosion did not manage to alarm the other battlefield. If not, there would be more coming this way. Alex used this explosion as a diversion. He immediately made a teleportation array and teleported him to his previous position. When he appeared, no one managed to notice him yet as he already retracted his Fire Wings. He looked at one of the Martial Lords that was fighting Anna. He raised his spear. The twin intent started covering the spear with its power, and even his fire suddenly blazed on the spear blade. Alex took a deep breath before throwing it. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing!" The moment he threw the spear, those two Martial Lords immediately noticed it. They felt the sharpness from Alex''s Intent and flame. And the spear was flying toward one of them at a fast speed. The targeted person immediately turned around. "Not good! Hah!" He swung his sword as hard as he could to block or at least to deflect it away from him. Sadly, they never expected Alex to come back to this place. Because of that carelessness, they did not have a chance to use their skill. If not, they could block this spear easily even with Alex''s Twin Intent and Fire. After all, Alex was still a 2-Star Martial Lord, whereas they were 7-Star Martial Lord. The gap was too big. "Hah!" The Martial Lord tried his best to block this spear. And because the spear was spinning, the piercing power was even greater. And the conclusion suddenly arrived where the sword he used suddenly broke. "Not good!" The Martial Lord could only be shocked as the moment the spear broke his sword, it continued flying toward his heart and pierced it like nothing. "Sun!" The other Martial Lord was shocked that his friend died in a single attack that they should be able to block. He shouted, "How dare you ambush us!" At that time, Anna smiled coldly as she swung her scythe toward him. "Dark Cut!" "What, you!" The Martial Lord just forgot about her in a split second because of Alex''s appearance. Anna''s attack already arrived on his neck. It was like Anna and Alex could know what each other was thinking without even saying anything. "Two guys that tried to bully a woman who has a lower cultivation had no right to talk like that," Alex said coldly as he looked at the flying head. He did not rest or talk to Anna as he came toward Leoz. "Ha!" Leoz was engaging Oliver with a high swordsmanship. Their sword was clashing a few hundred rounds in just a minute. But Oliver suddenly felt a pain on his chest¡­ No, it is not on his chest alone, all the fire energy in his body was forcefully suppressed from the outside. When he turned around, he saw Alex using his Fire again to suppress him. He knew the threat of Pure Fire Element, especially to the sect that was full of Fire Element users. He needed to kill Alex in this place. If not, Alex would become the nightmare of Mount Hua Sect. However, he could not picture himself in doing that. Leoz already swung his giant sword. Oliver blocked it with his sword, but suddenly, he dodged to the side and felt pain on his back. It turned out Anna approached him from behind and tried to kill him with her scythe. And Alex also did not realize that Anna already showed her wings. This only meant one thing. Anna had used her True Spirit Body. "This is not fair. How dare you to roach upon this sacred duel!" Oliver said. "¡­" Alex, Anna, and Leoz were dumbfounded when they heard that. "-Said a person that came with three thousand soldiers," Alex said. "Bahahaha!" Anna was laughing so hard. "Should I develop this kind of shamelessness too?" Alex asked Anna and Leoz. "No!" Both of them answered at the same time. Alex paused a little before he shrugged his shoulder. "Good enough. Leoz, Kill him." "Understood!" Leoz charged toward him again and swung his big sword. "Hmph, you only succeeded to wound me because of that sneak attack. Since I already prepared, you won''t be able to make another surprise attack! Even his Pure Fire won''t be able to restrict me!" "Yeah, but that sneak attack is all we need to bring you down." Leoz roared. "What do-!" Before Oliver finished his words, he felt his reaction was a bit sluggish. Anna only smiled as she said, "Tri Xeta." That little wound was all they needed to kill Oliver. With Anna''s Tri Xeta that immediately lowered Oliver''s reaction speed, Leoz shifted his sword a little bit to avoid Oliver''s sword before cutting him down. "Ha!" "Impossible!" Oliver muttered his last word before falling to the ground and died. The people were shocked when they saw Oliver, who was the strongest, died just like that. No, in fact, all of the Martial Lords in their rank had already died, except the crown prince. Unfortunately, even the crown prince was already incapacitated by Alex. So, there were only around less than two thousand soldiers left to defeat these devils. A portion of soldiers had dropped their weapons and fell to their knees. Even though they still had more than a thousand, they already saw their enemies'' power, especially Alex, that struck a deep fear in their hearts. "This is impossible." "How can we defeat all of them?" "We are only Martial Grandmasters." With the people that were suppressed by Alex''s fire as well as the people that already gave up on this fight, it managed to influence many soldiers. When Alex saw that, he realized that almost half of them had given up on this. Sadly, Alex never considered sparing their life. There were two reasons. First was because they tried to kill him. Even though it was the order from the crown prince, the fact that they wanted to kill remained the same. And Alex was not the one who would spare the like of them as it was related to the second reason. He did not want them to tell the tale about his power. Even if they told him they would not tell anyone about his power. There was no guarantee about that. In fact, if they really begged his life like that, he truly could not believe them. If their lives were threatened by others once again, they would immediately tell away his secret. So, these three thousand soldiers already fated to die in this place. Even his System did not say anything about this. After all, they could only be considered innocent people when they did not participate in this, whether directly or indirectly. And they had participated in the banner of the crown prince. Alex looked at Anna, who nodded her head. Suddenly, a flock of butterflies filled the battlefield. There were around a hundred butterflies, and each of them flew toward a soldier. "What is this?" "Butterfly?" "Wait? Why is their wing similar to that woman?" "Don''t tell me¡­" When they realized that, it was already too late as the butterfly exploded and invaded their minds. "Argh!" Screams filled the battlefield as people slowly fell down to the ground while clutching their heads like they were in pain. Anna slowly controlled their mind. And suddenly, the soldiers took out their weapon and pierced their own heart one by one. When the others saw that, they were too shocked. They did not know what just happened. They were thinking about running for their lives, but Alex also knew they might do something like that. He immediately looked at Leoz, "You cover the right side, and I will cover the left side. We can''t let even one of them go." Leoz nodded and disappeared immediately. Because his energy was already back to the full again, Leoz suddenly made the first move that he used to make a way. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" The huge thunder slash immediately alarmed the entire battlefield. The sword wave made a huge and deep line on the ground. Leoz then appeared behind that line and said, "Those who dare to cross this line will die." Alex also did the same. He used his Seven Stars Cut to make a long line. However, he was not like Leoz. If Leoz sent a warning, Alex was not. "Fire Phoenix Art. Phoenix Wing." He immediately used his Fire Phoenix Art and started shooting at people. "Boom Boom Boom!" The army was already surrounded by Anna from the front, Alex and Leoz from the side, as well as Anya''s group from behind. The only thing awaited them was death. "Run! Run for your life!" "Escape. He won''t be able to chase all of us." "Run in all directions!" The soldiers seemed to make their last struggle. Alex was frowning as he was trying to shoot them down one by one. Killing a soldier that was only thinking about running was easy. But killing a few hundred if not thousands that tried running at the same time¡­ He tried to look around to see if he could do something to stall them. Because he did not have time, he could not set up an Array to trap all of them here. He could see that the soldiers were trying to run in his, Leoz''s, and Anna''s direction since there were many people in the back. However, at that particular time, "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions were heard from Anna''s direction. When Alex looked at her direction, he saw Sherry''s in her original form, using her firebirds to help Anna. "Wuu!" "Haha, My Master wants all of you to die. So, no one will be able to see another day!" Coming to his side was Jeanne. It was true that Jeanne would be the one who suited this situation the most. She killed the soldiers at lightning speed. But Leoz had none. Just when he thought about that, Alex could see a pink-haired woman appear beside Leoz. She was gripping a couple of needles in her hands and shot the soldiers one by one. It was Nicole. As a spy, she was scouting the area continuously to make sure they had no reinforcement. But when she saw this situation, she decided to change a job from a spy to an Assassin. And since the soldiers did not have any will to fight, she could kill them easily with her needles. "Fufu, there is no reinforcement that will come to their aid, so we will be fine after we kill all of them," Nicole said. Finally, the stage had been set. Alex''s group kills the soldiers one by one. There were a few soldiers that tried to fight him, but they were down in a single slash. It was not a fight anymore. Instead, it was like an Annihilation. Until finally, a few minutes later¡­ 354 Torture? A few minutes later, Alex had killed all the soldiers and let no one escape. The battlefield was full of corpses and blood. Alex only had one more person to kill. He looked at the unconscious crown prince and called Anna there. "Hmm¡­ he is still alive and only unconscious. Well, he has lost too much blood, but a Martial Lord is not that easy to die. I can heal him for a little bit, so Jeanne can have her time." Anya said. Alex nodded his head, "Sure, heal him first and wake him up." Anya nodded and proceeded with the healing. She stretched his hand toward the crown prince before light glowed around her hands. It then expanded and enveloped the crown prince. Alex could see the wounds on his arms started closing. And not long after that, the crown prince finally opened his eyes. The moment he opened his eyes, he instantly saw Alex, who was the one in front of him. And it seemed after Anya healed him, he got a bit of energy as he instantly shouted at him, "How dare you do this to me? Don''t you know who I am? I am the crown prince of Thiveapia Kingdom. Thiveapia Kingdom won''t let you off!" It seemed he had the energy to talk but not to move around. Alex only ignored his rambling as he turned his head to Jeanne. "Jeanne, even though the others had warned me about this, what kind of play you usually did?" "Eh?" Jeanne was surprised to hear that question from him. Well, Alex only asked her out of curiosity. However, for Jeanne, she would be more glad than explaining it to him until he understood¡­ maybe he would also become the same as her, and they could ''play'' together with someone. Jeanne came to him, who was in front of Cromwell. When she walked toward him, Alex felt something odd as he could see her weapons on her hands. He remembered that she did not hold any weapon until he asked her that question. It meant Jeanne took it out when he was surprised by his question. When she almost arrived in front of him, she suddenly stumbled. "Kya-!" Alex was surprised and tried to help her. But suddenly he heard a scream coming from the person beside him. "Argh!" Alex turned his head and looked at Cromwell. He finally realized that Jeanne purposely looked like she was stumbled upon something and threw her weapon. And the weapon ended up in front Cromwell, cutting his little brother. "Fufu, sorry sorry. I just stumbled. I never thought it would come your way¡­" Jeanne said with a sad but playful tone. Alex twitched his eyebrows. He knew she was just kidding with the apologies. And to think she struck that place the first time she started¡­ Scary. "You¡­ you¡­ How dare you! I will kill you!" Jeanne ignored him and looked at Alex. "Well, after this, I usually start from the finger. I will numb all of their body with my lightning except their finger. It will feel a few times more painful than it supposed to if I do that. "I don''t have any monsters around, so I can''t make them rape him or something. Well, if Anya is coming with me, I can cut them and have Anya to attach them again with her power. Oh yeah, I can also ask Anna to reattach ''that thing'' and get raped by a female monster. We can do it again and aga-Oomph!" Alex immediately used his hand to close her mouth so she would not say anything more. He thought he was already cruel enough by using his Array to torture them. It seemed he was still a newbie in the way of torture. Because he already felt a chill when Jeanne just talked a few sentences. He would just let her do it if he wanted someone to be tortured. And he would not ask any question since he knew ''Justice'' had been served if she was the one in charge of the torture. "Alright. I will leave him to you." Alex said while slowly releasing his hand from Jeanne''s mouth. "I am not going to join you this time." Anya shook her head. This man was unrelated to Alex, to begin with since his target was Evelyn all along. If it were that old man, she would join. Her rule was to join Evelyn''s session if it was about Alex. That was why she joined Jeanne when she tortured Intan. "Fine," Jeanne said, a bit sad. She then dragged Cromwell somewhere, and a series of screams filled their ears. They just tried to ignore it as Alex looked at his spirits. "I am not going to participate in this war anymore. All of you can continue to participate, but I certainly will go back to the sect after this." "Then, you will only bring Anna and Evelyn to the sect, right?" Anya asked. Alex nodded. "Well, since we have got Leoz, we should be fine." Anya nodded her head. "But you should not forget about your pills first." "Ah!" Alex almost forgot about this since he did not sell his pill before going to the war. It seemed he would need to go to the Alchemist Guild first before flying back home. "Anyway, we can take down those groups one by one. It would not be great if we let the Zhou Kingdom increase their power." "Yeah. I am just wondering whether we should destroy either Zhou Kingdom or the Southern Kingdom when one of you reaches Martial King or not. But it seems, it can wait until the Grand Tournament. I mean, most of the strong people will be there, and we can just kill them there. I am sure their number won''t be a problem for all of you, right?" Alex said. "Oh, you mean, killing them in one fell swoop?" "Yeah, something like that." "But it also means that we have time to get stronger. I need to make sure most of us will reach Martial King." "I will leave the details for you since I am going back to the sect," Alex said. "Understood. But we will try leveling up without any EXP cards, so even if you get EXP cards, you can save it for later," Anna said. Alex nodded. "I think that''s all, I will be leaving now." "Ah, goodbye, Master. I truly enjoy him." Suddenly, Jeanne intruded on their conversation. Alex and Anya were surprised by her sudden appearance. Alex only shook his head helplessly. "Alright." Alex then carried Evelyn on his back before saying goodbye to the others. After that, he flew off toward the Thiveapia Kingdom capital city once again. Alex then put down Evelyn on the nearby woods, outside the city. "Anna, take care of her for a little bit while I sell my pills." "Understood. Just leave it to me." Anna nodded. Alex then flew to the city. He just entered the city as usual and immediately went to the Alchemist Guild. Of course, he did not forget to use his mask. He just went to the counter and showed his rank 4 Alchemist badge. "Rank 4 Alchemist?" The receptionist was obviously surprised. "I am going to sell pills, rank 4 pill Crystal Skin Pill," Alex said. At first, he wanted to say, ''I want to meet your guild master or something.'' But they might feel it rude and might waste his time with unnecessary things. So, he decided to act as usual. "Mid 4th rank, Crystal Skin Pill?" It truly surprised him to see a mid 4th rank Alchemist out of nowhere. After all, rank 4th Alchemy was not that easy to meet. Without saying anything more, he immediately said, "I will ask the elders to check your pill, Senior." Alex nodded, and the receptionist guy immediately went somewhere. And not long after, he brought your typical elder that would examine his pills. Alex wanted to skip some process or some talks, so he immediately took out the bottle that contained twenty Crystal Skin Pills. "I have fifty bottles with the same quality," Alex said. The old man frowned when Alex did not show any respect for him. But as soon as he smelled the pill scent, he immediately grabbed the bottle and checked the pills. "Perfect Purity¡­ All of them are Perfect Purity¡­ I will go ask the sect master." Alex already expected this since he knew this old man would not have the authority to conclude a transaction involving 20 million Spirit Stones. Well, Alex also knew about it because of the experience in Heavenly Sword Town. But that surprised shout alone suddenly attracted attention from nearby people. "Look at that mask¡­" "I feel I have seen that mask from somewhere?" "He is the guy that was in the auction." "Ah, you mean the one who challenged Elder Oliver?" Alex tried to ignore them, hoping no one would be foolish enough to approach him. Fortunately, there was no one that dared to approach him. After waiting for a little bit, he saw a brown-haired old man come to him. He was not the elder from earlier. "Hello, I am Chris, a high 4th rank Alchemist, as well as the Alchemist guild master in this town. I heard you want to sell five hundred perfect quality Crystal Skin Pills?" The old man said as he remembered Alex''s mask. He also participated in the auction in the VIP room. He could clearly see this mask from there. Chris knew that Alex was not someone he could offend. Even though the elder, who informed him about Alex said, he only had a low 4th rank Alchemist badge. Just by looking at the quantity and qualities alone, Alex''s level should not be that low. He knew that Alex must have hidden his power this entire time. And with this transaction alone involving 20 million Spirit Stones, he could really picture Alex forking out 77 million Spirit Stones casually. "Indeed." Alex nodded. "Let me lead you to my office, and we can conclude the transaction," Chris said politely. "I have something to do after this, so I hope we can finish this transaction fast," Alex said casually. "Of course." Chris nodded his head and immediately guided him to his room. As soon as they reached the room, Chris then asked, "May I have the pleasure to examine your pills?" Alex then gave him the space ring. It contained fifty bottles of Crystal Skin Pills. It seemed Chris only checked one of the bottles. "You are not going to check the others?" "I am sure a person with your status would not deceive someone in this guild." "¡­" Alex did not say anything as the door suddenly opened. "Guild master, this is 20 million Spirit Stones." It was the elder from earlier. Chris asked him to fetch the Spirit Stones immediately. That was the reason why Chris greeted Alex personally, not him. Alex took the space ring and said, "Then, I will excuse myself." He then left the alchemist guild and searched for a nearby alley where no one was around. He then teleported to his previous location. "Have you finished your business?" Anna asked. Alex nodded his head. He then carried Evelyn before flying again toward Heavenly Sword Sect. Since he did not need to match his flying speed to Evelyn, he went pretty fast and only used almost four days to arrive at Heavenly Sword Town. Surprisingly, Evelyn did not wake up a single time. He tried to check her condition with his Spirit Eyes, but she did not seem to have any problem. Even her Spiritual Energy had stabilized and started recovering. It seemed she would wake up as soon as her Spiritual Energy recovered. When he finally arrived, he brought the unconscious Evelyn to his house. Even though Song Yu was not there anymore, he still did not want just to come inside her house for whatever reason. He put down the unconscious Evelyn on his bed as he activated his Spirit Eyes. And since more than half of her Spiritual Energy had been recovered, Evelyn should be able to wake up tomorrow or the day after. 355 Alex Vs Charya In a big room, a man was hugging a woman with his strong arm. The night was still long, but the woman could only a burning passion that might not even disappear after the long night. The man had golden hair, with a handsome face that could charm many girls. He did not wear any top, showing his perfect body. The woman had long black hair, reaching to her back. Her charming face was red like a tomato as she was too embarrassed to even look into his eyes. She had a graceful body, but she knew she just started growing. And her body would become a seductive sooner or later. The man raised her chin with his hand. Their faces were so close that they almost kissed each other. The woman tried to turn away, but the man did not let her. He put her on the bed gently. She tried to fight back, but in her heart, she also wanted this. The man finally put his face close to her, trying to kiss her. Her heart started beating very fast, she did not know if she was nervous or anticipated this, but she said while trying to get up from the bed. "Big brother Alex¡­ no, we can''t." When she did that, she suddenly woke up in a familiar room. It was her room in Alex''s house. After realizing that she had come back, especially to Alex''s house, she immediately looked around. "Fuu¡­" She swept the sweat on her forehead after she felt relieved when she saw no one in the room. "So, that is only just a dream¡­" She let out a sigh of relief, but when she thought about it again, her face became red like a tomato, "Why did I have a dream like that¡­ Ugh¡­ How can I face big brother Alex, later?" Evelyn put her on her face, trying to hide her red face. She rolled around the bed, trying to forget that dream. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex was visiting Charya. "Elder Charya, I have a thousand Crystal Skin Pills¡­" Alex said without any expression. Charya was sipping her wine when she heard that. "Cough Cough! What?!" "I said, I have a thousand Crystal Skin Pills, can the sect buy it?" Alex repeated his words. "You mean the mid 4th rank Crystal Skin Pills?" Charya asked him again. "Yes. All of them are Perfect Purity Pills." Charya looked at him, dumbfounded. She remembered that she wanted to buy his Tempered Muscle Pill, but Alex decided to stop refining it, so she gave up. But it was just a few months ago, and Alex just said he wanted to sell a thousand Crystal Skin Pills, which had a whole different realm from the Tempered Muscle Pill. She forgot Alex was a monster that should not have been judged by a human standard. Especially when he said all of them were Perfect Purity Pills. She remembered Song Yu said Alex could easily make a Perfect Purity Pill, so all of his pills were like that. It would then cost them higher than they expected. But, on the other hand, the pills were precious. "Wait¡­ If you sell it, then you must have used it yourself. How high is your strength?" Charya asked. Alex pondered a little bit before shaking his head. He did not know his current strength. "If I use everything, I should be able to release 4 dragon strength. But that was when I was in the tournament. I don''t know how strong my strength is right now." "Well, we will talk about that later since I also have something to inform you. But first, about this transaction¡­ I am sure the sect can take it. How about the price?" "20,000 Spirit Stones would be fine since it is the price that the Alchemist Guild gave me." "Sure, I will pass it to the Sect Master." Charya nodded. Alex gave her the space ring. Charya was surprised that Alex just gave it to her easily since she only promised him. It also showed that he trusted her. Charya nodded her head. With these pills, their sect could get stronger overall. "How about we test your strength first?" Alex did not have any objections since he was also curious about his current strength. He followed her to the previous room, where he tested his strength for the first time. He remembered that Charya''s strength was ten dragons. He was wondering how he compared to that. He saw the previous stone where he tested his strength. "You can punch it anytime." Alex nodded his head. But before he punched the stone, he looked at Charya, "Elder Charya, you have ten dragon strength, right?" "Oh, you want to compare your strength with me? My strength was almost nine dragon strength back then, and I have twelve dragon strength right now since each star in Martial Lord Stage could also represent one dragon strength. And I am a 9-Star Martial Lord now." Alex nodded his head. He took a deep breath before striking the stone with his raw strength alone. "Boom!" It had been a while since the last time he used his raw strength alone. He looked at the stone and saw ''6213'' on it. Charya twitched her eyebrows when she saw that. Even though she had expected this, she was still surprised by the number. Alex was still a 2-Star Martial Lord. If he were a 9-Star Martial Lord like her, Alex would have 13 dragon strengths. They only had one dragon different, However, Charya knew Alex did not use his Spiritual Energy in the first strike. After all, her 12 dragon strength was with her Spiritual Energy. "Use your Spiritual Energy." Alex nodded. He released his Spiritual Energy before throwing another strike. ''9438'' Charya sighed. "Your strength alone is already at Song Yu''s level. If you are growing even further, you will have at least 16 dragon strength the moment you reach 9-Star Martial Lord." Charya also added ''At least'' since she knew Alex might not follow the norm. Alex was wondering if his Immovable Step would double his power since he already had 9 dragon strengths. "What? Are you not satisfied with your strength?" Charya said as she saw Alex seemed to ponder something while looking at his fist. She thought he must be not satisfied with his strength. "No." Alex shook his head. "Actually, I can throw a more powerful one, but this stone might break since it can only withstand ten dragon strength¡­" "Well, how about we fight once again? You are going to participate in the Grand Tournament, so I think it is good for you to experience our power earlier." Charya suggested. Alex pondered a little. In the sect, his fighting ability was also a bit restricted until he decided to use all of them together. He could only use his Sword, Spear, and both intents together. He had yet to reveal his Fire Element or Space Element. And there was only a glimmer of people that knew about his Array Master identity. But he also thought it might be the perfect time to learn about the control of his domain. According to Mithra, he could fight normally if he reached a hundred-meter domain. But she never said he could not start practicing with it earlier. He wanted to use this opportunity to learn about it. He just hoped that he could reach Sword King before the tournament started. It would increase his chance of defeating the ''scheme'' that might happen in the tournament. Alex agreed to her suggestion as he was also curious about her real power. After all, when he fought her back then, she limited her power to match his power. "Each sect will have 8 participants for this tournament, totaling 64 people in each tournament. It will be the same whether you are in Grandmaster stage competition or Lord Stage competition. So, the sect decided to make a small competition between the elders since we have already picked the disciples to participate in the Grandmaster stage competition. "Anyway, I need to tell you about the Grand Tournament first. Since you are going to train Evelyn till the Grand Tournament, the elders are sure she will become one of the biggest contenders in the Grand Tournament. She might reach 9-Star Martial Grandmaster before the Grand Tournament started, and with you teaching her, she should be able to fight 10-Star Martial Grandmaster." "How about the other participants besides Evelyn?" Alex asked. "Well, the other Martial Grandmasters that will participate in the Grandmaster stage competition are: Florinda, Yasmin, Anwar Daher, Hanibal, Amazu Agu, Kokonoe Shigure, and Elise." Alex frowned, he remembered one more person that should have participated in the tournament, "How about that Vicky? He is strong, right?" "He does not want to participate because there is no Intan," Charya said. "Oh¡­" Alex only nodded his head, uninterested. "How about the token for Lord Stage competition?" "The sect will hold a small competition for that. The top eight will get the token to participate in the Grand Tournament. The requirement is you need to be a Martial Lord." "Of course, it should be." Alex nodded. "Yeah, but because of that. We would not have many people since most Martial Lords wouldn''t be participating. Even the lowest might have 7-Star Martial Lord cultivation. They will hold the tournament three months before the Grand Tournament. So, are you sure you are going to participate?" Charya asked, a bit worried. After all, she felt Alex had been advancing far too fast. She got a bit worried about his future. Alex also knew she was worried about her expression. He nodded with a smile, "Don''t worry about me. I am not rushing or something." "Well, if you say that, then it is okay." Charya nodded. "How about the tournament, what kind of tournament will we do, or how can I participate?" "I will ask for a quota for you. But if my prediction is correct, the number of people that will participate won''t be more than 30." "I see. That will be assuring." Alex nodded his head. "Anyway, we would not know about it until we got all the participants. I will inform you about it later." Charya said. "I will leave it to you." Alex nodded. "Then, since we have finished our business. Should we fight now?" "Sure, but where?" "Well, we certainly don''t want to let others see our fight. So, we will move a bit farther away. I think the forest beside Heavenly Sword Sect should be good enough. We just need to get a bit deeper." Alex thought a little bit before nodding his head. "I don''t have any problem with it." "Then, let''s go." Alex then left the house with Charya. They did not fly too far since they were going to fight in a forest beside Heavenly Sword Town. And the fight would not be too long. After all, they did not want others to see their fight so they could see their technique. They would be at a disadvantage if it were like that. Alex was separated from Charya around fifty meters. Charya took out her sword and released her sword domain. The edge of her domain was an inch away from Alex. She said, "Don''t need to hold back. Use all of your power." Alex nodded as he took out his Spear and Sword. "I am sorry, but I can only fight with a bit of restriction. After all, I still can''t release everything to the outside world like my Array. However, even though I can only fight you with my sword and spear, I am not planning to lose." Charya knew about Alex''s Array Master since she was one of the people that did not have their memories sealed by Maxwell. She nodded. "Then, show me all you got!" Alex nodded as he released his domains. When he released his domains, Charya could feel the domains. In other words, the domain had reached her position. She looked at the extent of his domains and realized that his domains were both fifty meters. She could not help but smirk as she once again realized how monstrous Alex''s talent was. "Start!" 356 Alex Vs Charya II "Start!" Alex and Charya instantly appeared in the middle of the area as their swords clashed with each other. Alex then thrust his spear against her, while Charya immediately activated her lightning element. Charya immediately disappeared again from his sight. Alex did not panic as he could see her movement with his Spirit Eyes. "Thunderous Claw!" Her hand was covered with purple lightning. Alex only swung his sword to block her hand. "Immovable Step!" He tried to use all of his strength in this swing and pushed Charya''s back. Even Charya got surprised by this sudden strength, "So, this is what you meant earlier. This is around 14 dragon strength. Strong, but with this power alone, you won''t be able to defeat an elder like this." Alex frowned when he heard that. It seemed the effect of his Immovable Step only limited to 5 dragon strength. Alex immediately took out twenty swords from his space ring. All of his swords immediately flew toward Charya. However, it seemed Charya had been waiting for this. She saw these swords and grinned. She suddenly used her lightning to the maximum. "This is a good technique indeed. But there is one flaw for this technique. Even though your Sword Domain is higher than me, the sword has no weight!" Charya said after she knocked Alex''s sword away. "!!!" Alex frowned when he saw Charya blow one of his swords away. When Alex tried to regain control of his sword, the sword was already out of range. He used a sword that came from Zwaka''s place, not his system. If he used the sword from the system, he could store back the sword and take it out again. But, if he used that technique, she might know Alex''s had a space element. Although Alex was sure that she knew he had a fire element, it was only a normal Fire Element since Alex was an Alchemist. However, his Space Element was different. All people who had seen his Space Element had died. "Sword Rite." Charya raised her sword before she disappeared once again. Charya only wanted to confirm that Alex''s swords had that kind of flaw. After she confirmed it, she immediately knocked all of them away. Alex tried to control his sword, but Charya had knocked all of them down. He did not continue to summon another sword since the result would be the same. It was as Charya said. Even though he had covered his Sword with his Sharp Intent, the sword had no weight on it. After all, Alex controlled it with his Spiritual Energy. It might be effective for an opponent that did not have that much strength like when the people he fought in the Inner Disciple Tournament. But for Martial Lords, this technique did not have that much effect. He did not notice this since all his opponents never got the chance to best this technique¡­ No, the people who died or defeated by this technique were Martial Grandmasters. Even in the war, he did not use it to fight the crown prince. He thought he would not be able to use it any longer. Charya then started attacking her with her Sword Rite. Alex had experienced this technique once, but as expected, each blow was heavy. Back then, she limited herself to 5-Star Martial Master, so Alex could barely keep up with her. But Alex also had powered up. He continued to use his Immovable Step to counter her power. It was a kind of strength versus strength. Alex was using his Silver Sovereign to counter her Sword Rite. Not only could the complex movement from Silver Sovereign could counter Charya''s unpredictable movement, but he could also destroy any lightning that came to his way with the power from Silver Sovereign. "Omnislash!" Alex then tried the normal way. In fact, this Martial Art was the base of that flying swords thing. Unlike the previous Martial Art, he could use Omnislash without any limit. After all, he could just summon another Sword if Charya managed to destroy his Omnislash. Well, he just took the concept of the system''s inventory optimization. The swords were barraging Charya. Although Charya used her lightning as well as her sword to fend them off, it was a bit hard since Alex immediately summoned a new sword as soon as Charya destroyed a sword. Charya got a bit annoyed with this situation. She shifted her sword a little bit before her sword projected a giant blade. Alex recognized this Martial Art. It was Charya''s Sun Beam. Although he did not use this Sword Art that much, he knew the power contained in this Sword Art was intense. Charya was going to use this giant blade to destroy all of his Omnislash to gain some advantage. Alex would not let her do so. He also raised his sword. The same giant blade also projected from his sword as Alex swung his sword down. His target was not Charya. Instead, he was targeting Charya''s giant blade. "Sun Beam!" However, when their swords almost clashed, Charya smirked. "Got you!" Her giant sword suddenly disappeared, leaving Alex''s giant sword clashing with air. "!!!" Alex frowned as he realized he had been baited by Charya. "Seven Stars Cut!" She was baiting him with Sun Beam. She knew Alex would try to stop her sword. If Alex decided to attack her when she used Sun Beam, she would dodge it first before destroying Alex''s Omnislash. However, Alex chose to attack her Sword, especially with the same technique. She only needed to undo it before destroying Alex''s Omnislash with her Seven Stars Cut. Charya used six layers Seven Stars Cut, and it seemed, she was only one step away from using the Seven Stars Cut to the fullest. As soon as she destroyed Alex''s Omnislash, she immediately disappeared. "Pentagram Slash!" Alex could see that she was moving toward him at a fast speed. And he would not let her get too close. The five slashes flew toward her, but it exploded just in front of her. Charya was surprised since she thought, Alex tried to attack her with this. She could just overrun it with her speed. But Alex chose to attack the air in front of her. And she had no choice other than jumped upward. Alex had anticipated that move as he immediately appeared above her. "Heavy Step!" As soon as she was caught by Alex''s Heavy Step, she was blown away and crashed into the ground. Alex did not stop there. He raised his spear and threw it. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." "Thunder Charge!" Charya raised her hand and shot out a lightning strike. The lightning strike pushed his spear back. As his spear was stopped by her attack, Alex immediately grabbed it again as he fell down to the ground. "Seven Stars Cut!" Charya immediately pushed him back with Seven Stars Cut. But Alex also had some plan, he stepped into the air and immediately dodged to the side. He then waved his sword once again. "Seven Stars Cut." Charya also saw this. Charya already disappeared when the sword wave just about to reach the ground, leaving a deep cut on the ground. Alex swung his sword to the side. He knew Charya''s position as she could not fool his Spirit Eyes. They then kept clashing with each other. Charya kept engaging him with close combat to restrict his movement. After all, most of his Sword Art was ranged skills. Alex frowned after a minute. He realized that he slowly lost his advantage against her. Charya movement kept getting better and better¡­ No, in fact, his movement was the one that got slower. He realized, Charya was going to exhaust all of his Spiritual Energy. He tried to break through from his position but to no avail. Charya also noticed this slight movement, she said while fighting him. "I don''t see any flaw in your movement. But there is still a barrier for you to overcome if you want to join the tournament. First, your strength is only 2-Star Martial Lord. "Although I can overpower you or maybe restrict you with the difference of our Spiritual Energy, I won''t do it this time. Instead, I am going to exhaust all of your Spiritual Energy in this battle. "We can''t fight too long today. That''s why I am trying to exhaust your strength forcefully. Don''t you realize in these two minutes, you have used half of your Spiritual Energy? "By using the same amount of energy, I have forced you to use the same amount of energy too. But with our cultivation difference, I can keep fighting as my own Spiritual Energy''s reserve is bigger than you. "Of course, I can fight you for a few hours if you want. I might be able to force you to use all of your Spiritual Energy while using 10-20% of my own. "So, if you want to win in this tournament. You need to finish the fight as soon as possible. Or you can try to use something beyond our imagination. "It is the same as your Sword and Spear Technique. That might blow our mind, but since we already know about it, you won''t be able to surprise us again. In fact, I know you can defeat Intan without even showing your Spear. I don''t know about your past, but I think it must be related to that since I know you are a careful person. And not someone who likes to flaunt all of their wealth or technique. "Well, this will be a good practice for you since we won''t fight in the tournament. Since the tournament won''t allow us to fight the elders or core disciples from the same peak. After all, they already know each other''s abilities. "And when we fight with the other sects, we won''t know their ability. So, this is also another preparation for the tournament." Alex finally realized her plan. He remembered that she wanted him to get used to fighting the elder rank so he can be prepared. She truly intended to teach him like this. "Thank you." Alex nodded. It was true that he could defeat Intan without his Spear. However, when he saw Putri become like that, it reminded him about how worthless he was. When he got a proper thought about it, he realized ''feeling and emotions'' really made one logical person become illogical. He suddenly made a few firebirds and let it explode around him. "!!!" Charya was still engaging Alex in close combat even though she was teaching him about all of that. So, Alex was forced to do that. But since she knew about his identity as Alchemist, Alex did not mind revealing this. Of course, not with his Pure Fire, but the fake fire. Charya retreated a few meters. Alex took this chance to release his Sword Domain to the fullest. Of course, Charya tried to attack him again. However, she suddenly saw Alex''s Sword Domain suddenly changed its shape. From a sphere suddenly turned into a Prolate Spheroid, or if one looked from above, Alex''s domain was an ellipse. Alex tried to change the shape of his domain and shrunk it before channeling it to his sword. But Alex felt a numb sensation before his Domain suddenly vanished. Charya took the chance to appear in front of him and ended the match. "What is that?" She asked in confusion. She never saw a domain that suddenly changed its shape. Alex pondered for a bit before shaking his head. Even though Alex knew she wouldn''t say anything about this to other people, he decided not to answer her. Charya looked at him silently before nodding her head. "It''s alright. I am not going to ask and won''t tell anybody about it. You can trust me on that. Well, we won''t have any fights until the small tournament." "Why?" "I am afraid if I know too much of your ability, I will brag to other people. Well, I have said what I wanted to say, so we have finished here. Let''s go back." 357 Situation Charya did not ask anything about what Alex did earlier since Alex did not want to tell her. It was Alex''s first step before becoming a Sword King. But before they came back, she remembered something. "I almost forgot about this, you know the Rainbow Flower Sect will come and you left the sect because of that, right?" Charya asked. Alex was surprised that Charya asked that. "Yes." "Hahaha¡­ you know when they came to the sect and tried to convince the sect master to marry you to that lass, right?" Alex paused a bit before nodding his head. "When did you two meet? Fufu, I don''t care about whatever technique you used earlier since this issue is more interesting." "A long time ago," Alex said. He remembered the first time he met her was in Zwaka''s place. At first, he had a thought in killing her, but because she seemed genuinely sorry about it, he thought it would be fine if she had an oath. He thought she would keep that oath like Putri, but she told around like the seventh elder. At that time, Alex decided not to give a chance anymore whether they made a Heavenly Oath or not. The sect master and the others made a Heavenly Oath, which made Maxwell spared them. But Maxwell knew they would follow it strictly because his existence instilled a deep fear inside them. However, it was different for him. Alex''s potential was surely enormous and could instill a deep fear. But his strength had yet to make them scared. That was the reason why Letizia decided to tell her sect about that. It was also Alex''s miscalculation. So, finally, after the two times, he decided not to give a chance to anyone for the third time. This was the reason why Alex said he would not give anyone a chance, whether they were a person or a beauty. Maybe, only Song Yu, Charya, and Putri will never search a way to bypass the Oath. "Hehe¡­ I am really curious about it. How about some words from you?" Charya asked him in a playful tone. "I am seeking a relationship. A relationship is based on love while Partnership is based on benefit. Of course, there is also another saying for that. It says, ''not every couple destined to be married." Alex added that quote because he did not want her to think he was a beast that will have a relationship as long as they were together or whatever. "Hoho¡­ So, you are saying she is searching for a benefit¡­ Hmm, did she know about all of your talent?" Alex pondered a bit. "My Alchemist identity and Spear are already known by others. The other thing she knows is my Array Master identity." He only said about ''Array Master,'' not Pure Fire. After all, Charya had yet to know about his Pure Fire. "I see. So that is the reason why you said about Partnership. Well, considering your talent, it is a bit normal to make that kind of approach. Maybe, if you are in the other sects, Heavenly Sword Sect might do the same or even kill you. "With your Sword and Spear technique as well as your Alchemist rank in the open, the other sects started investigating your origin. They did not dare to act since our sect master said he would make a war to those who wanted to kill you. "Of course, it does not mean they give up. The example is the Rainbow Flower Sect. This marriage and alliance thing is their approach to having you. The Buddha Sect does not have a sound yet. But we don''t know whether because you are not compatible with their technique or they have another plan. "Buddha Sect might want to wait after the tournament first before they make a move since they thought you wouldn''t pose trouble for them in the grand tournament. My speculation is they decided to give up on the Martial Grandmaster competition to you and are planning to win the Lord Stage competition. "But I wonder what kind of face they would make when they see you in the Lord Stage competition. Although I have faith in you because of your progress speed until now, we won''t know whether you can get the participation token in the upcoming event. "After all, no one knows who is stronger until one of their heads is flying. Anyway, back to the topic. Different from the other sects, Mount Hua Sect is the most problematic as they might make a move before the tournament." Alex frowned. He only had a spy in Rainbow Flower Sect (Njomo), Southern Kingdom (Ngina), Zhou Kingdom (Nelson), and Thiveapia Kingdom (Nicole). So, his information was quite limited. Rainbow Flower Sect already gave their intention. The Southern Kingdom had remained silent for this entire time, and he thought they would not give information about his wealth to the other prominent families in the kingdom. So, after exterminating the royal family, he would leave the kingdom alone. It was different for the Zhou Kingdom. Their soldiers used blood pills, and many things would happen if he left them alone. So, Alex was planning to kill every single person who used the blood pill. He decided to do this in the Tournament because he needed to get stronger first before doing this. If he were stronger, he would instill fear inside them, and they would not retaliate. Of course, Alex decided to get rid of every single soldier as well as prominent families along with their royal family. Basically, this kingdom would be done for. As for Thiveapia Kingdom¡­ The crown prince was the one who did this. And those people in the Southern Kingdom would not know who did it since he already killed every person on ''that'' battlefield. As long as they did not do something excessive to him, he would not do something excessive to them too. He did not know the status of the Hazel Kingdom. He already expected they might have investigated him but still remained neutral like Buddha Sect. "Ah, I am deviating a bit. Anyway, do you know how she reacted when she found out you were avoiding her? It was so hilarious. She was looking down like she knew the reason herself. What did she do to you?" "Nothing. Just be humble to a stranger, overbearing and calculating to your enemy, and caring to your friend." Alex said in a roundabout way. Charya understood what he meant. It seemed the people around her were rude to him. "Hahaha¡­ they left this place after three days in disappointment. But, you can just ignore the others. I mean, she is stunning, you know. She is the top flower in this continent." Charya said in a teasing tone. Alex shook his head. "My reason is the same. I don''t love someone just because they are beautiful. It is just lust, not love. I won''t have an otherworldly beauty as my wife and has her backstabbed me at the time I never expected." Another reason was that she reminded him of Sandra. Sandra only took advantage of him for a while before going out with John. He was so devastated at that time. And Letizia also wanted to ''marry'' him because of his talent so her sect could receive ''benefit.'' Alex immediately blacklisted her. "Alright¡­ Haiz, I just want to tease you, but now I feel I don''t have a chance." Charya pouted. Alex only shook his head helplessly. "Well, how about a concubine? I mean, you are a rich guy, and having her as your mistress seems a bit fine." She said, trying to come up with another way to tease him. "Can we drop this topic already?" Alex asked. He was indeed rich. He had around twenty million after the auction. He got another forty million from selling his pills, and he also took the space ring from those people from Mount Hua Sect. Unfortunately, Alex only got forty million from Oliver''s space ring when he checked it on the way home. At first, he was perplexed why he only had forty million while he raised the price more than that in the Auction. He could only think it was the crown prince that could give them the boost. But, no one foolish enough to step outside their home while carrying forty million Spirit Stones without any real reason. So, Alex did not get the rest. Well, it was such a shame, but he already had a hundred million Spirit Stones after that incident. He thought he would not need to make some money again for the time being and focused on his cultivation. "Fine!" Charya shrugged her shoulder. "I will go back then." "Alright. I will inform you if there is any news about the tournament." Charya said. "Thank you." Alex nodded and left. On the way, he thought about something. "System, do you have something to motivate me for the tournament? I mean, you usually give a mission for a tournament like this." Alex asked. [Need Further Information!] "Further information? You mean until I know what the tournament is all about?" [Yes.] "Well¡­ alright." Alex continued flying toward his house. When he came back to his house, he saw Evelyn practicing her sword. Anna was supervising her. Both of them noticed him. "Alex." "Big brother Alex." Alex nodded to them. He looked at Anna, "We are going to stay here for quite a while, I suppose." "Yeah. Let''s hope there won''t be anyone that tried to do something funny." Anna nodded. He then turned to Evelyn, "How is your condition?" Evelyn looked at his face, and she did not know why she felt an urge to look away. She could not help but remember about the dream she had earlier. She thought by swinging her sword around, she could forget about the dream. But Alex''s appearance made that dream emerge again in her mind. "I¡­ I am fine." Evelyn nodded furiously. However, Alex and Anna could see her face became redder. They were confused. Alex asked, "Are you sure?" He never saw Evelyn become like this. He tried to check her Energy with his Spirit Eyes, but he did not find anything abnormal. "I am sure. I can swing my sword around!" She replied hurriedly. After checking her energy for a while, Alex decided to start their training. Of course, he kept checking Evelyn''s energy in case something happened. Luckily, nothing happened, and she became normal again. Alex then gave her Two months later, Alex had been advancing by leaps and bounds with his wine. Unfortunately, he already drank all of his wine, and his cultivation reached the 4-Star Martial Lord. And his Sword and Spear also progressed well. He could make any shape he wanted with his domains, whether it was a block or prism. However, he still could not compress them. He knew that he would need to compress them smaller before channeling it to his sword or whatever. But because of this alone, he managed to expand his domain to 60 meters, which was enough for the time being. At the same time, Alex also received the news about the war from Nicole. It seemed the war was finished in a month before the Zhou Kingdom retreated. Anya and the others also managed to kill all people who were responsible for the pills. It was because of that, the Zhou Kingdom decided to retreat. With this, Zhou Kingdom should not make war again with the Hazel Kingdom since they would most likely close their door and raise their strength. Although they would get stronger, their progress would not be that absurd since they would not have that much supply for blood pills. The sect master also met him in these two months. He was asking about Alex''s opinion on Letizia''s matter. But after he rejected the idea, the sect master did not come to bother him again. Although Letizia''s had a Pure Ice Element, Alex¡­ No, Alex''s master was more dreadful than her. And at this particular time, Evelyn was summoned by the Thiveapia Kingdom. They asked her to go back to the kingdom, which even made Alex frown. 358 Plans Evelyn suddenly came to him, "Big brother Alex, I need to go home first." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "For what?" "I just got summoned by my royal father. I don''t know for what." Evelyn shook her head. "... Wait a minute here." Alex said as he came to the house and took out Nicole''s card. "Nicole, is there any movement in Thiveapia Kingdom?" "After you killed the crown prince, the soldiers panicked because they thought the crown prince was missing. Not long after that, they found our battlefield. Of course, they did not find anything about us. However, it also meant they did not find the crown prince''s corpse. "However, at that time, many soldiers knew that the crown prince led an army to go there as well as Evelyn. But they did not find the crown prince as well as Evelyn. Later they found out that Evelyn had gone back to the sect. "It raised some suspicions from Thiveapia Kingdom as well as Mount Hua Sect. After all, they found that their elder and their number one genius died in that place. So, with you bringing her back to the sect, they suspected the Heavenly Sword Sect as the culprit. "But I think, Mount Hua Sect wants to use this chance either to kill you or bring you back to their sect. Since, I heard they are trying to pressure Heavenly Sword Sect just for you¡­ "They said ''Because Heavenly Sword Sect killed their number one genius, they need to give you to them. If not, they will go to war with the Heavenly Sword Sect.'' Of course, they also pressured the Thiveapia Kingdom about this. "After all, just when they sent an Elder and their number one genius to the Thiveapia Kingdom, they died. So, they did not have any chance to reject this. After all, just by getting an envoy getting killed in their kingdom, it already smeared their reputation. "That might be the reason why they want Evelyn to come back to Thiveapia Kingdom. I heard they had deployed fifty thousand soldiers around their border, ready to march to Heavenly Sword Sect. "I think it is also the same as Mount Hua Sect. Young Master can try to ask one of the elders from Heavenly Sword Sect. I am sure with their scale, they should also have this information." Alex looked down, weighing something on his mind. "I see, Thiveapia Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect. But, Thiveapia Kingdom is pressured by Mount Hua Sect to do this¡­" "It seems, their deployed troops won''t attack you anytime soon. At least, until Evelyn is safe. After all, since the crown prince is ''missing,'' they only have Evelyn as their successor. So, Evelyn''s safety is their priority I think. Well, it also shows the importance of Evelyn." "You mean Evelyn''s words will weigh a lot in their mind. So, there is another possibility for her to convince them to not attack the Heavenly Sword Sect." Alex said. "Yes. Mistress Anya told me that there will be a possibility of the Southern Kingdom to make a move at this particular time. We might be able to hold the Southern Kingdom alone, but Heavenly Sword Sect would not be able to take the full brunt of two influences. So, if Thiveapia Kingdom did not join the fray, it will worth a lot." Nicole explained. "..." Alex frowned. It was true that Heavenly Sword Sect alone might not be able to take a full brunt of the attack from three influences. They could only activate his Master''s barrier. But there was another problem. Anya forgot about the Zhou Kingdom. Because of the losses they suffered in the last war, Alex was sure that they won''t just stay like that. They would most likely join the fray with whatever reason. [Host, Ngina wants to talk to you.] He felt a bad feeling about this. He took out Ngina''s card and asked, "What happened? Did the Southern Kingdom deploy their troops to their border and ready to attack us?" "Yes. They are going to be ready in a few days. And the one who is leading them is ''that'' princess along with their powerful 10-Star Martial Lord. A few ministers had rejected this idea, but the royal family used their power to move the soldiers. Although the good news is they only managed to bring twenty thousand soldiers. What should we do about this?" Alex''s expression darkened. He knew that this would happen sooner or later, but to think this would happen today. Unfortunately, without giving him a chance to breathe, Anna came to him with Nelson''s card on her hand. "Alex, Nelson said the Zhou Kingdom has stationed their soldiers in the border closest to Heavenly Sword Sect. Although they had suffered in the last war, according to Nelson, they had sent a peace envoy to Thiveapia Kingdom and will attack Heavenly Sword Sect together with them." Anna said. "Can they truly just say they want peace and join the fray?" Alex was dumbfounded. He did not know whether two kingdoms who just had a war suddenly became friends and attacked them. "I think it is because of the pressure of Mount Hua Sect. They want Thiveapia Kingdom to treat them ''as an enemy of your enemy is your friend.'' Since the Zhou Kingdom wants to catch you, they will use this opportunity." "Big brother, I will convince my kingdom." Suddenly they heard Evelyn''s voice from their back. They turned back to see Evelyn shouting at them with tears on her eyes. "I am sorry for eavesdropping, but big brother¡­ This is all my fault. You are in this situation because of the problem of my family. And I even bring the sect down like this." She said as she felt very guilty about this. Even though Evelyn did not watch him killing the crown prince. She already predicted this would happen. And after she heard all of this, she took all the blame in her heart. "I will convince my family to break away from this." As soon as she said that, she left the house and flew away. Alex wanted to chase her but their situation was truly dire. "Nicole¡­ Evelyn will come back to her kingdom. Give me an update on everything." Alex wanted to stop her. But he was sure Evelyn would try to leave. Even if he tried to force it, she would not be able to practice. So, Alex decided to let her go. However, he also knew that the Thiveapia Kingdom might not necessarily agree to her request. They might even imprison her until the time passes. So, Alex asked Nicole to observe her. If the Thiveapia Kingdom decided to do what Alex''s predicted, Alex might ask Nicole to kidnap her as a hosta- Ahem, save her from the kingdom. He was sure that Thiveapia Kingdom would not move carelessly if that happened. Of course, he knew Maxwell''s rank 6 barrier should be impenetrable. So, even if the Thiveapia Kingdom attacked them along with the other influences, they would not be able to save Evelyn. And with time, they would surely be the first one to leave the ''alliance.'' He thought this would be the best for the moment. He then said, "System, use all of my summoning coins." [Processing] [Noah (R) x1] [EXP card (C) x1] ¡­. ¡­ .. [Green Slime (C) x1] Alex got around fifteen rare EXP cards this time. In their condition, even UC EXP cards were not really tempting for him, unless he got many of them. And he only had ten of them currently. However, he also got two other spies: Noah and Noel. Noah was a black raven while Noel was a black cat. They would be useful if they could scout Mount Hua Sect after this, but Alex was planning to summon them later. Because he needed to use his EXP cards first. "System, give me the status of all UR spirits." [Anna (Dark) Level: 37/80 (7-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 12376/280000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 37/80 (7-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 15398/280000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 204135/240000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 22458/260000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 132/240000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 135423/230000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 32/80 (2-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 124321/230000] [Anya (Light) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 198124/210000] He contemplated a bit. "Leoz should be able to fight with the 10-Star Martial Lord from the Southern Kingdom if I level him up to 10-Star Martial Lord, right?" "You are asking a dumb question, Alex. Of course, he can." "I see then, I will use six EXP cards on Noah or Noel to observe the war situation for us. Then nine EXP cards on Leoz to level him up to 10-Star Martial Lord. Maybe I should use the UC EXP cards to Anya so she can become a Martial Lord." "If that is what you want, I think it is better for Noah to get it first." "Alright. System, you already hear me. Use the EXP cards." [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 40/80 (10-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 45398/310000] [Anya (Light) Level: 31/80 (1-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 88124/220000] [Noah (Dark) Level: 21/80 (1-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 5000/120000] He then said to Nelson. "Nelson, I am going to level you up to Martial King. I want you to stop Zhou Kingdom from participating. You may kill their high ranking people or whatever as long as it could stop them from participating in this war." "If I am at Martial King, should I start killing all of the people involved in the blood pills?" "Can you kill all of them in one fell swoop?" "..." Nelson paused a bit before saying, "No. I am afraid I need a few days for that." "That''s why. I want you to stop this war first. And if they decided to move in the Grand Tournament. I want you to kill all the people involved but remain in the kingdom." "Understood. If they truly move in that particular day. I am sure they will at least bring 70 percent of their people. If it is only 30 percent, I should be able to kill all of them in a single day without alerting anyone." Nelson agreed with him. He knew Alex was thinking about the problem if he alerted them. They might change their plan. And Alex would have a headache if he did not know their aim anymore. It was better to end the enemy once and for all, rather than killing them bit by bit. After all, they might scatter around and it would make them hard to find. And he would not always be in this continent. If they decided to raise again and did whatever they wanted when he was not in this continent, it would be bad for the sect. So, Alex asked Leoz just to stop them from participating in this war. They might not pose a problem to him. However, John was also powerless against him, but he used assassins to do something like that. So, Alex decided if he wanted to finish them, he would finish them from the root. "Understood. I will kill all of their Martial Lord. It should be able to stop them from participating. Then with a few months preparation, I can mark all the people I need to kill since there are more than a hundred thousand people. Although most of them are Soldiers, I still need to make sure all the pills are disposed of." "Yeah. I will leave it to you." Alex nodded his head. He finally finished dealing with Zhou Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom. He and his spirits will go to stop the Southern Kingdom by themself. And he was sure the Heavenly Sword Sect could take on the Mount Hua Sect alone. And with this, he finally finished his plan in dealing with this war. 359 Anya "Bring me all the cards. I am going to summon them here." Alex said. Anna nodded. "System, use my UR EXP card to Nelson," Alex said while waiting for Anna to come back. He also had another reason why he chose Nelson over Anna or Leoz. Nelson was stationed in the Zhou Kingdom. And their threat level was far above the other influences. In other words, Nelson was in the most dangerous spot. Nelson had said that he could not do something more because his strength was not enough. By raising his strength, Alex might get more information that would be crucial later. Of course, he could summon him if he needed him to fight later. "By the way, Nelson, can you eliminate the entire Southern Kingdom''s royal family later?" Alex asked. He thought it would be too troublesome if he killed their entire royal family from head-on. After all, many people would try to revenge them later. But if he asked Nelson to assassinate all of them, they would not know who did it. He could then ask Nelson to put a warning, saying something like ''Southern Kingdom has offended someone who they can''t afford to offend. Exterminating Kasmanan Family and Makmur Family is not enough, so ''we'' exterminated the entire Royal Family. Should the Southern Kingdom do it once more, it would be the end of the Southern Kingdom.'' It would be enough to instill a deep fear against them. Of course, with Ngina over there, he should be able to investigate their movement. However, Alex predicted there wouldn''t be anyone that tried to do something funny again. First, they did not know it was him. Second, those prominent families will try to fight for the throne. With that kind of internal strife, they would not have the time to bother him again. It would be perfect. "Yes, I can. But I need to do it within a day. With my True Spirit Body, I can make a few shadows to take over my job in the Zhou Kingdom that could last for a few days. These shadows are useful for scouting but have no strength for fighting. After I summon them, Young Master can call me there with the card. "That way, I can do both my jobs simultaneously. And with my True Spirit Body, I can finish all of them easily." "I see¡­ How about you help me in this war against the Southern Kingdom. After that, I think I can teleport you all the way to the Southern Kingdom. Though with my current power, I need to teleport you a few times. It might be exhausting but still doable." Alex said. Nelson thought a bit. "The Southern Kingdom is not that hard as they did not have any Martial King. So, I think I can finish in a few hours." "Alright. Contact me if you finish your business in the Zhou Kingdom." "Understood." After Anna came back with the other cards, he summoned all of them except the ''spies.'' "I will talk with Elder Charya first. But most likely, we will fight with the Southern Kingdom. So, prepare for it. Anya will take care of the planning, and Noah will do the scouting. Make sure you keep track of their position." As soon as he finished giving his order, he left the house to Charya''s house. She had told him if he wanted to meet her, he could just enter without informing her of the crystal. Alex then made his way toward her house. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to search for her. She was in the meeting hall. But, when he was just about to knock the door, Charya already said, "Come in." It seemed she had noticed his presence. Alex then opened the door and came in. "I thought you would come sooner or later," Charya said. Alex''s eyes widened in astonishment. "The Mount Hua Sect brazenly used this chaotic situation to force us. Basically, I never thought just by having Evelyn suddenly come back to this sect, make them have a reason to bully us. Mount Hua Sect and Thiveapia Kingdom¡­ How is Evelyn''s progress?" Charya asked. "She is coming back to the Thiveapia Kingdom¡­ She said she wants to convince them to stop the war, but¡­" Alex paused a bit before Charya suddenly sighed. "As expected, this is not easy, huh¡­" "Yeah, with their envoy killed in the kingdom. I am sure they are forced by the situation." Alex said. "I know. We could buy time for these two influences, or we can hide inside the sect using your Master''s barrier. But we need to be careful in the Grand Tournament as our influence might be targeted by them." Charya said. Alex never thought about the Grand Tournament when he thought about his plan. Maybe, because Charya did not know about his information and circumstances made her think about the Grand Tournament. "But the problem is¡­ because their target is you. I am sure the Southern Kingdom will be involved in this battle. And if I am not wrong, Zhou Kingdom also tried to kill you or something?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "I am afraid we will be attacked by four influences this time. So, the only way is to hole up inside your Master''s barrier. Old Xiang¡­ I mean, the sect master already sent a notice to the disciple around the continent to come back." Alex was astonished to see the sect master already did this. Because he was in here, he never bothered to use a spy in this sect, so he never knew it. "Well, our sect might already be exterminated a few months ago if not because of you. After all, they did not come solely because of you. So, the sect master decided to seal this news for a bit longer." She said. Alex contemplated a bit before he said, "According to Evelyn, with the disappearance of Thiveapia Kingdom''s crown prince, they only had one worthy successor left, which is Evelyn. So, she wanted to go back to convince them. But assuming it fails, I already have a countermeasure for that. "Since she is that important, as long as we kidn- cough, bring her back to this sect. I am sure they would not attack us that easily. So at least they will halt their advance for a while." Alex said. "What are you trying to say?" Charya looked at him while narrowing her eyes. "What I want to say is that there will be only two influences that will attack us, Mount Hua Sect and the Southern Kingdom. I can take care of the Southern Kingdom on my own, but I am wondering if Heavenly Sword Sect can fight Mount Hua Sect alone?" "What do you mean? Mount Hua Sect and the Southern Kingdom?" Charya was bewildered. They were discussing the attack from four influences. Although Alex said, he could do something for the Thiveapia Kingdom with Evelyn. There was still the Zhou Kingdom. Alex also knew why she was confused. He said, "Don''t mind about the Zhou Kingdom. They won''t be able to attack us. I guarantee you." "Is that so?" Charya frowned as she could not believe it yet. After a few seconds, she thought Alex might be using another help like his master back then, maybe his master''s item or whatever. So, she decided to trust him. "If it is the case, then Heavenly Sword Sect is not afraid of Mount Hua Sect." She was telling him that they could handle Mount Hua Sect alone. "Unlike Kingdoms, which had many towns and cities in their territory, we only have Heavenly Sword Town. It was also the same for the other sects. So, when we are attacked like this, we don''t need to protect many cities. So, if something goes wrong, we can go back to this sect and activate your master''s barrier." Charya said. "Well, that''s it. I just want to tell you that I will be leaving the sect to deal with the Southern Kingdom. But please don''t tell anyone about this¡­ even if you tell the sect master, please make sure he keeps this secret. You will know why I want it later." Alex said. "Are you sure you can fight the Southern Kingdom alone?" Charya asked, worried. "I have good friends." Alex only said that instead of answering her. But it was enough for Charya. If Alex was confident like this, it should be fine to leave him alone. "Alright. The moment Evelyn reaches her kingdom, I think the soldiers will move again, and we will know who attacked us and who did not." Charya said. "Yeah. I just hope there will be only four of them." Alex nodded. "Then, I need to go back first." "Yeah. I will report this to the sect master." Alex then left Charya''s house. As soon as he came inside his house, it seemed most of his spirits were already gone. He only saw Anna, Anya, Jeanne, and Greg. "Where are the others?" "Leoz is going to check the frontline with Noah. Fabio and Vera are going to check their escape route." Anna answered. "I see." Alex nodded. "Then, since the situation is currently standing still for a few days. How about making love, Alex?" Anya suddenly came and grabbed his hand, trying to seduce him by letting him feel her breast. Alex shook his head helplessly. "Sorry. But I still can''t¡­" "Hehe¡­ I know." Anya did not become downhearted when she heard that. Instead, she just brushed it off with a smile. "I am just worried about you. Look, even if I do this, you did not kick me, brush me away, or whatever. This is showing that you are too concerned about this situation. "It is good to be focused, but if you are too focused and act unnaturally, it is guaranteed to be passed down to us. We are concerned about you, so how can we not be affected if you become like this? "If you can''t even joke around in a moment like this. It means you are too focused on this matter. Of course, it will be different if we are in a pinch, but this situation has yet to reach that level." Alex looked at her without saying anything. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do you fall in love with me because of this? I don''t really mind though¡­ you can even push me down right now." Anya tried to tease him again. Alex shook his head helplessly. But this time, there was a trace of a smile on his face. "Thank you. But how long do you plan in this situation?" Anya knew what he was talking about. She was still hugging his hand, trying to bury it inside her cleavage. As soon as she heard that word, she immediately grinned. "Forever¡­ Oh wait, I can''t say forever. You can push me down if I stay like this forever. "Then, how about for a few more minutes? I can tease your body within that time, and then after that, we can enjoy a hot and steamy night¡­ I don''t mind if we continue with Anna tog-gyaaaaa!" Alex used his nine dragon strength to grasp her head while twitching his eyebrows. As soon as she felt the pain, she immediately released his hand and clutched her head in pain. Of course, Alex was not seriously hurting her. "Alright. You can do everything you want in the house since I will be cultivating for a bit." Alex said to Jeanne and Greg. "What? Do you really mean that, Alex? You can''t take it back, you know... Fufu, I can do everything I want¡­ sleeping in Alex''s bed-Hogya!" Anya, who was holding her head in pain, suddenly spoke. And her words¡­ made Alex hit her head. "Anna¡­" Alex looked at Anna with a weird expression. "Ugh... She is smart¡­ but umm, I am sorry." Anna shook her head, ashamed. "Wait, Anna! You should say a good thing about me to Alex! How can you betray me? Uh¡­ the only person that can comfort me is Alex¡­ Uuu.." Anya said in a pitiful tone while glancing at Alex again and again. Alex only ignored her and turned to Jeanne. "You will get that Princess Mega." Jeanne grinned when she heard that. "Master is the best." 360 Nicole A few days later, at night, He was still cultivating on his bed before Anna suddenly came to his room with Nicole''s card in her hand. "Alex, Nicole wants to talk." Alex nodded and took Nicole''s card from her hand. "What is it?" "It is as you expected young master, they tried to imprison her. I have seen their conversation, it seems they were truly forced by the situation. And she still wants to stop the war." "I see. You will kidn- Ahem, I mean, rescue her back to the sect tomorrow." "Understood." Alex then handed back her card to Anna. "Why tomorrow?" "They should be able to inform the other influences to start moving within a day. And when the Thiveapia Kingdom started moving, they will halt their advance as soon as they know Evelyn is missing." "I see." Anna nodded her head. She sat on the bed before lying down on the bed. She used Alex''s lap as her pillow. She asked timidly, "Alex... it is already a month¡­ Um, can we¡­" Alex smiled when he looked at her like this. He stroked his hair as he bent down and kissed on the lips. It was not like they were a sex maniac, so having once or two a month in a situation like this. They did not even do that if Alex was in trouble or did something special like in Zwaka''s place. After kissing her, he said, "Why do you even ask¡­" Both of them smiled and started kissing again before a long burning night. (AN: Your imagination is more OP than mine¡­ Sincerely, your Author.) ¡­ A few hours ago, Evelyn finally arrived at the castle after a long journey. She rushed toward this place, so her face was a bit tired when she arrived. But the determination had yet to leave her eyes. Because the sun was almost set, she knew her father, the king, must still be in the throne room. She immediately barged in. There were a few people inside the room, including her father, who sat on his throne. "Oh, my Evelyn has come back." Her father said with a smile. He had wavy black hair. Black crystal eyes with a short beard fully complemented his gentle expression. He was the current king, as well as Evelyn''s father, Luke. He was still holding a small meeting with a few ministers to discuss their plan in this battle. Even though they did not want to make war like this, they did not have any other option. With the envoys from Mount Hua Sect killed in their territory, Their reputation had taken a full brunt. If they did not solve this situation, not only would they be pressured by Mount Hua Sect, they would also be known as an untrustable kingdom. They were not that afraid of the Mount Hua Sect. However, if they became known as an untrustable kingdom, many people would leave their kingdom. It would greatly impact their economy that would lead to the stability of their kingdom. In other words, their kingdom will decline and might even perish if the other influences tried to attack them. He also speculated that Heavenly Sword Sect might not perish. But he was still worried about his son and daughters in the sect, especially Evelyn. Seeing her arrived at this place had soothed his heart. "Father, I need to talk to you about this war. I want you to not participate in this war. I can guarantee you if you join this war, you will regret it in the future." Evelyn said. However, her words immediately made the ministers frown. Luke sighed and asked the ministers to go back. They wanted to rebuke her, but she was currently the number one genius in this kingdom, as well as the successor of this kingdom since the crown prince was missing or died, so they only followed Luke''s instruction and left the room. "Come here first and hug your father. Even though I saw you a few months ago, I already miss you, little girl." Luke stood up and opened his hands wide. Evelyn hugged him back. "How are you in the sect? No one bullies you, right?" "No, I just trained these few months." Evelyn shook her head. "I see. Then, that''s good. To think you have advanced another star in these two months¡­" "Of course, this is all thanks to big brother Alex." "Yeah yeah. You also said his name last time. I am really curious about him, who has trained my precious daughter to this degree in just two years. Well, he is already famous to a certain degree, but I still want to see him in person." "Big brother is in the sect, so father, please don''t join this war, alright? I am saying this for our kingdom." "Haiz¡­ I am also pressured to make this decision. I truly don''t want to trouble you with the problem in our kingdom. You are like your mother, pure and free. I just wish you to experience the world freely and come back to meet me when you have time. That''s why I made Cromwell as the crown prince who will succeed this throne later." Luke said with a sad smile. "Father¡­ knows that big brother Crown Prince wants to kill me, right?" Evelyn said in a hesitant tone. "I know. I don''t know from when, but Cromwell used to be an honest child. Although he was a bit cunning at a time, it was necessary for him to have that if he wanted to be a sovereign. However, whatever he did, he always thought about his family. "I think this must happen because of his mother''s death, AKA. Your first mother. She is always jealous of your mother even though I loved them equally. Sadly, before I knew it, her influence already changed Cromwell. "Luckily, I managed to send your brother Timothy to Heavenly Sword Sect before her influence got inside him. And when I knew that he was planning to kill you, I immediately sent you to Heavenly Sword Sect. "After all, I can''t choose anyone because I love all of you the same. You also can''t leave the kingdom if Cromwell is not the crown prince. So, I hope you forgive me. I am too useless as your father." Luke sighed. "No no, I know father has worked hard and always thinks about us first. That''s right, how about big sister Lena and big brother Timothy?" "Lena decided to stay there while Timothy is on the way here." "Then, I can just go back to the sect again. This way, you will have a reason why you can''t move the soldiers." "No can do! Without Cromwell, no one is worthy enough to lead the kingdom after I retire. If you come back there, I certainly would not be able to move the soldiers." Luke said. "Then that''s go-!" "But that doesn''t mean the others won''t move," Luke shouted at her for the first time of his life. "Others? You mean the Southern Kingdom and the Zhou Kingdom?" "You know about it?" Luke was surprised. He immediately summoned her back the moment he knew Zhou Kingdom''s participation as well as the movement from the Southern Kingdom. The Zhou Kingdom had sent a peace envoy to them. He and his ministers were enraged since the attacking kingdom suddenly sent a peace envoy. But they did not know why but the Mount Hua Sect also asked their kingdom to accept this peace treaty. And when he knew the Southern Kingdom also moved. He decided to accept the treaty as long as they waited until he summoned back his daughters and his son, which they agreed. Even without their participation, Luke knew Heavenly Sword Sect wouldn''t be able to withstand their attacks. "If you know about it, then don''t go back! Losing Cromwell already tore my heart. And Lena did not want to go back. If you are also inside the sect, do all of you want to kill me?!" Luke said with a heartbreaking tone. Even tears already dropped from his eyes. Evelyn also unconsciously teared up. She knew her father loved his sons and daughters equally. However, she had to protect her father and her kingdom. "Father, how about fighting alongside Heavenly Sword Sect?" "I can''t! Our kingdom is not in a condition to fight three influences even with the help of Heavenly Sword Sect." Evelyn tried to come up with another reason to persuade him but to no avail. Of course, she did not know about the matter concerning Rainbow Flower Sect. Although Alex had abandoned that idea. Evelyn thought she might be able to persuade them with the Thiveapia Kingdom''s reputation. Sadly, she did not know that. She was trying to come up with an idea but to no avail. After seeing there was no chance to persuade her father, she could only go back to the sect empty-handed. At least, she would at least help him even with her alone as well as stopping the movement from her kingdom. "No. I can''t! Even if there is no other option, I will still go back to the sect." "You¡­" Luke was too surprised by her resolve. He immediately grabbed her hands and shouted. "You¡­ I won''t let you go. I will lock you up in your room until this thing passes. "I will just say to others you have been brainwashed by the Heavenly Sword Sect.I don''t care if you hate me for this, all I want is just your safety." He said with tears kept flowing in his eyes. After all, he was a father before a king. It pained his heart by doing this. "Guard!" ¡­ A few minutes later, Evelyn was locked in her room. The door was locked with a few guards standing by in front of the door. There were also a few people outside that were keeping her from going out of the window. She was truly locked in this room. She had promised Alex that she would convince her father so he won''t participate in this battle. She knew her father also had his circumstances, but she was also afraid if he joined this battle, Alex would surely remember this. Although there was some speculation, Evelyn thought the incident in the Southern Kingdom was a bit obvious for the people who knew Alex. Whether it was Kasmanan Family or Makmur Family, she thought it must be Alex who did that. She did not know how Alex could do that, but she knew Alex must have his way. After all, according to what she experienced this entire time, Alex was a peerless genius. He managed to make her tap to her full potential, increasing her cultivation speed by several times. It was absurd, considering Alex was just a few years older than her. But even with all of that hard work, he was still able to beat her cultivation speed. The first time they met, they had the same cultivation stage. But today, Alex was a Martial Lord while she was still a Martial Grandmaster. And with the experience in the auction house¡­ there was no way a normal person could fork out 77 million Spirit Stones without sparing a glance. Alex must have big background. However, she was also useless here. She tried to come out of the room, whether from door or window, but to no avail. She would be stopped by the guards. And most importantly, she could not even give him any information about this. Evelyn sat on her bed, trying to come up with a plan. But with the clock kept ticking and time continued to move forward, and after a day, she began to feel despair. Nothing came to her mind. However, unbeknownst to her, the people that were guarding from the outside were knocked down by a pink-haired woman. She sat on the top of the castle and smiled. "Luckily, the king seems decent enough. So, our king doesn''t need to massacre these people. "With her disappearance, this would make them stop. Hmm¡­ I need to make a letter about this, I think. Let just say that we have Evelyn inside the Heavenly Sword Sect. This will be your last warning. We can bring her out like this is also means we can kill all of you without anyone noticing. "Our win is already guaranteed as those fools are coming to die. Shall you point your sword to us, it will be the start of your eternal doom. From: Spirit Nest. Hm¡­ this is pretty good. Alright, just use this." She smiled as she put the paper inside her space ring. Alex was not a miser anymore, and he would always equip them with a few Space Rings for every spirit. After finishing her business, she finally jumped down before floating in front of Evelyn''s room. She used her Spiritual Energy to open the window and came inside. When Evelyn saw her, she was shocked. She felt she had seen her before. "You¡­ you are the one who saved me back then." Evelyn remembered the pink-haired woman that saved her in the war. Although she only saw her back, her pink hair still stuck in her mind. If she was not wrong, she called Alex her king. "Fufu... Nice to meet you again, little girl. My ki- ahem, my Young Master has predicted this would happen. So, I am here to bring you out of this place." 361 Nelson is... As Alex had predicted, Thiveapia Kingdom immediately informed Mount Hua Sect and the Zhou Kingdom. They were told that the Thiveapia Kingdom had rescued Princess Evelyn from Heavenly Sword Sect. She was still locked down in her room because she was brainwashed by Heavenly Sword Sect. Upon receiving the information, Mount Hua Sect and the Zhou Kingdom immediately marched toward Heavenly Sword Sect. Following them was Thiveapia Kingdom. It was also the same for the Southern Kingdom. The moment they received the news that the three influences had moved, they also started marching toward Heavenly Sword Sect. They only needed around three to four days until they arrived at Heavenly Sword Sect. However, just a day after marching toward the Heavenly Sword Sect. Thiveapia Kingdom suddenly caught the wind on Alex''s scheme. With the message left by Nicole as their sole proof, they immediately halted their movement. ¡­ The moment they found out that the men they had stationed to guard Evelyn were killed, they panicked. They barged inside the meeting room where the king and his ministers held a meeting again. "Bang-!" "Your Majesty, bad news." The people were bewildered. "What is it? Did something happen to Timothy or Lena?" He asked. He did not need to ask about Evelyn since she was under surveillance. "We¡­ we found the men that we stationed on the top of the castle, specifically on top of Princess Evelyn''s room dead." The soldiers said. "What did you say?!" Luke had a scare of his life as he looked at the soldier who brought the news dumbfoundedly. He could not believe his ears. "An-and, Princess Evelyn is missing!" "What?!" Luke rose from his seat. Even the ministers were also startled to hear something like this. All the ministers thought the same thing, the castle that was impenetrable was infiltrated. They never had a case like this in their entire life and even from the previous generation. "Search for her. Search for her immediately!" Luke shouted. "My-my king." The soldier called him again as he did not finish his report. "What? Don''t tell me there is more? How useless are our guards in the palace?" "No¡­ We have gotten piece information left by them. They said, ''this will be your last warning. We can bring her out like this is also means we can kill all of you without anyone noticing. "Our win is already guaranteed as those fools are coming to die. Shall you point your sword to us, it will be the start of your eternal doom. From: Spirit Nest." The soldiers recited Nicole''s message word by word. "Spirit Nest? I never heard of them!" He was so furious. He looked at his ministers who were clueless about this ''Spirit Nest'' thing too. "Immediately investigate them. Use everything we have to locate Evelyn as well as those bastards who kidnapped my daughter." "But, my king¡­ they¡­ they said¡­" "I don''t care. I never heard of Spirit Nest, they only tried to scare us!" Luke shouted. But before the situation became more chaotic, Matthew who also joined this meeting stopped him. "Wait Luke- Ahem, I mean please wait, Your Majesty," Matthew said. "What? What do you want to say, Matthew? You do realize that Evelyn is in danger." Luke shouted. "Just calm down a bit." "How can I calm down!" "Although I don''t know if what I am thinking is right or not, I think I have a clue about this Spirit Nest." "What? Do you know something?" Luke was astonished. Even the ministers in the room showed dumbfounded expressions. "Yes. Evelyn brought a masked man for the auction. He threw 77 million Spirit Stones without batting an eye. And according to Luna, he is the one who taught Evelyn, Alexander Sirius." "What? Is that Alexander Sirius?" Luke heard that name again. It was the name that Evelyn often spoke of. "I think, since they were able to infiltrate this castle, we can safely assume they will manage to bypass our army and arrive at Heavenly Sword Sect. I heard Evelyn want you to stop participating in this battle, what is your decision, Your Majesty?" Matthew asked. "..." Luke could not answer as he gritted his teeth. On the other hand, Alex immediately told Charya to release the news about Evelyn who was on the way to their sect. Charya also knew about it and had informed the sect master. And with Nicole as her guide, they managed to bypass the Thiveapia Army without a hitch. On the second day, the other three influences had no choice but left the Thiveapia Kingdom to their own problem. After all, their agreement was marching together as long as their Princess Evelyn was safe. However, past that point, they did not care anymore. Since they already fulfilled the agreement, even without the Thiveapia Kingdom, their three influences should be enough to attack Heavenly Sword Sect. However, Neither Mount Hua Sect as well as the Southern Kingdom knew about what happened to the Zhou Kingdom on yesterday''s night. Because of their position and agreement, they thought the Zhou Kingdom was still moving toward the Heavenly Sword Sect and continued marching forward. However¡­ ... When the first night came, Zhou Kingdom stopped in a huge plain called Hed Plain. This plain was a vast plain. They only needed to cross this plain before arriving in Heavenly Sword Sect''s territory. In their commander tent, There were 20 Martial Lords drinking wine. Most of them were 8-Star to 9-Star Martial Lords. With two 10-Star Martial Lords. "Hahaha¡­ I think that brat is running with his life. He would just abandon this sect." One of the 10-Star Martial Lords said. The brat he was talking about was Alex. They had been informed about the purpose of this temporary alliance and that was Alex. They were going to kill the entire Heavenly Sword Sect. If Alex was there and they were the ones who managed to grasp him, Alex would be in their possession and they were free to kill him or whatever they wanted. It was the same as Mount Hua Sect, but for them, they would most likely have Alex as their disciple who had made an Oath of Full loyalty to them. However, If Alex was not in the sect. After they destroyed the sect, they would make a full-scale investigation to search Alex''s position. After that, the condition would be the same. Fortunately, Alex was still in Heavenly Sword Sect according to their spy. "He is still in the sect. And Heavenly Sword Sect is not making a huge move nor they are trying to scatter around. I don''t know whether their sect master is a fool or not, but this is convenient for us." The other 10-Star Martial Lord said. "Haha¡­ that''s right. It will be convenient for us. We can destroy them to the root if that is the case. That brat has killed many of our brethren and this time, we are the ones who will kill his fellow disciples. However, what about their sect master? I mean, he is a 2-Star Martial King." The first 10-Star Martial Lord said. "Don''t worry, Mount Hua Sect will handle him. After all, in this campaign, even the Mount Hua Sect''s sect master personally made a move." The second 10-Star Martial Lord said while laughing. Even his messy blue hair became messier. He thought Mount Hua Sect was a fool. "Are you sure about this? Why don''t our Martial Kings also move? We have four of them currently." He narrowed his eyes and asked in confusion. "Idiot. Our Martial Kings are not that easy to move. In fact, they should conceal their presence until the Grand Tournament. At that time, we will also get the back up from the Brynhildr Kingdom and strike all of them to the ground." "That''s right. My instinct has been tingling. I want to see the time where our Zhou Kingdom will rule the entire continent. I almost forgot that with our four Martial Kings, we will be able to be the first influence on this continent. "However, if the four sects make an alliance and strike at us, it will be a problem. Especially the Heavenly Sword Sect who has been sniffing us lately. This is also another reason why the higher up decided to destroy Heavenly Sword Sect first." "Yes. However, there is a disturbing rumor around the court. It seems, the higher up sent a few Martial Kings to Heavenly Sword Sect. However, none of them come back." The blue-haired Martial Lord said. "What do you mean?" "I don''t know. This is just a rumor I have heard. It seems the higher-ups sent us to this place to check if Heavenly Sword Sect has a secret weapon." "What? Don''t tell me, they are sending us to death?" The Martial Lord was dumbfounded. And even the other Martial Lords who heard this suddenly gulped down. This was the first time they heard about it. Well, it was to be expected they concealed this matter. After all, if they believed such a rumor, the situation would be chaotic. Even the blue-haired Martial Lord only heard about it by chance. "I don''t know. I am just lucky enough to hear it by chance. But, I still don''t know whether it is true or not." "That must not be true. After all, according to the higher up, the plan will start at the Grand Tournament." "Yeah, you are right. If the Heavenly Sword Sect really has such a powerful person or weapon, they would immediately strike at us. And even the information would be spread to the other kingdoms or sects. Seeing there is no reaction even from the Heavenly Sword Sect. That rumor must be false." "That''s it. The rumor is wrong." They were trying to convince each other. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to them, their life had been forfeited as a shadow appeared inside the tent. The shadow appeared behind both 10-Star Martial Lords. The shadow then turned into a human. He had long black hair tied into a ponytail. He wore a blue shirt that got covered with a blue jacket paired up with blue jeans. It was Nelson. When he appeared, no soldier could react a single bit as his appearance was too sudden. He was holding a single-edge sword. It had no special appearance but they could feel the cold steel. The sword suddenly covered with a black torrent before he swung his sword. "You-!" And before they managed to react, their heads were already flying. The other Martial Lords immediately rose from their position and took out their weapons. "You bastard!" They released their Spiritual Energy simultaneously. "Who are you!" Nelson remained calm. He raised his hands as suddenly many tentacle-like objects appeared from the ground. They immediately restricted the movement of the Martial Lords. "What is this?!" The Martial Lords tried to break free but to no avail. They could not move away from their position. Nelson appeared in front of one of them with his blade on the top of his head. The blade was covered with a dark torrent once again and Nelson finally swung his blade to one of them. However, even though the black tentacle-like objects could restrict them in their position. They were still able to move their hands. The Martial Lord in front of Nelson immediately raised his giant ax to repel Nelson''s attack. "I am Spirit King''s first assassin," Nelson said as he swung his sword down. "Clang-!" ¡­ In Heavenly Sword Sect, Alex was still cultivating as usual before Anna came back to the room. "Anna?" "Alex, I have got news for you," Anna said. "Oh." Alex nodded his head. But before that, he remembered something. "Anna, You know about my UR EXP card, right?" "Yes." "I use it on Nelson, not Leoz, or you. Are you disappointed?" Alex asked. "Nelson, huh¡­" Anna only sighed. "So, you must be disappointed by my decision. I thought by leveling Nelson up, he will work more efficiently." Alex looked down. "No. I am not disappointed. In fact, you chose the right person. Do you ask him for something so you decide to level him up?" "Nothing, I just ask Nelson to kill people to stop the Zhou Army." Alex asked, "What do you mean about that? I chose the right person?" "Well, if you ask Nelson to assassi- I mean, to kill people. I am sure he would do it at night." "At night?" "Yes. After all, in the night, he¡­" 362 Message "Although I know Nelson is not only a spy but also an assassin. Just from his appearance alone, he is not like someone who will just assassinate someone in the dark." Alex said. "Fufu¡­ It is true that Nelson can kill not only in the dark. But, Alex, you misunderstood Nelson a little bit." "I misunderstood him." Alex looked at her in confusion. "Yes. You should know we are spirit. Like me, who is a Dark Butterfly Spirit, Nelson is also a spirit. And he is a Moon Shadow Spirit." "Moon Shadow Spirit¡­" Alex instinctively repeated what she said before noticing something odd. "Moon?" Anna smiled. "Yes. He is a Moon Shadow Spirit. And in the night, Nelson, he is even stronger than Leoz." ¡­ "I am Spirit King''s first assassin." Nelson swung his sword down. "Clang-!" When he swung his sword down, all of them were surprised. The reason was simple. The Martial Lord that was struck by Nelson was one of their strongest Martial Lord. And he even blocked Nelson with both hands holding his giant ax. However, Nelson also swung his sword with both hands. And the moment both weapons collided, Nelson split the giant ax into two along with the Martial Lord. The people were terrified when Nelson looked at them. They could see that Nelson''s eyes turned to white. Just by looking at him, they felt a chill. "Help!" One of the Martial Lords shouted as hard as he could, trying to alarm the other soldiers outside. When the others saw that, they also tried to shout because they could not move at the moment. "No one will hear you. All of you talked for so long, so I have prepared everything necessary. All of you only need to accept your death." Nelson said coldly. It was like he said. He already infiltrated their rank from the start. And because of that long talk, Nelson managed to set up a few countermeasures. Although he was not an Array Master like Alex, he also could use a barrier type skill. And that barrier had the same function as the Sound Insulation Array. After that, he made a trap to restrict their movement. It took him a long time for this, but all of it was worth it. After all, the moment they got trapped, they would not be able to move anywhere. They might still be able to fight him, but it was useless. Nelson released his 3-Star Martial King Spiritual Energy. "This aura¡­ is Martial King!" "He is a Martial King!" "And¡­ he is a 3-Star Martial King to boot!" "Who is he?" "I don''t know him. There should be no Martial King other than the four sect leaders." Nelson ignored them and started his killing spree. "Argh!" "Argh!" He cut them one by one without anyone noticing. Tonight was a full moon. And Nelson got his power increased because of the moon as a Moon Shadow Spirit. If he had the same cultivation as Leoz, Leoz would not be able to beat him under the full moon. It was the same, even if both of them used their True Spirit Body at the same time. As soon as he killed all the people inside the tent. He took out a wooden sign. He thought a bit before writing, "This is my last warning. Shall you continue marching forward, all thirty thousand soldiers in this place will share the same fate as the Martial Lords in this army." He knew that the Zhou Kingdom only sent thirty thousand Soldiers together with a hundred Martial Lords as this was a joint battle with the Thiveapia Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, and Mount Hua Sect. Although Thiveapia Kingdom did not continue because of some circumstances, with their thirty thousand soldiers together with Southern Kingdom''s twenty thousand soldiers as well as Mount Hua Sect thirty thousand disciples. They believed it was enough for them to destroy Heavenly Sword Sect. However, to stop them, Nelson only needed to kill a hundred Martial Lords silently. It was a simple task, especially since they were not prepared against him. He could kill them one by one with his strength as a Martial King. He took all of their Space Rings and rid all the Blood Pills and Berserk Pills. After finishing the task inside the commander tent, he disappeared. ¡­ At a 7-Star Martial Lord tent, Lord Philip, He was cultivating on a mattress before he suddenly rose to his feet, feeling someone''s presence. "Who is there?" He took out his sword as he looked around his tent. His shout was a little loud, but the soldiers near his tent did not hear his sound. Nelson already used his skill to prevent the sound from getting outside. Philip was looking around, but he did not see anyone. He also did not pick any presence around him, so he lowered his guard down again. "Is it only my feeling?" He stored his sword again. His heart skipped a beat when he felt someone''s presence. However, after noticing it was just a false alarm, he started to calm down. He went back to his mattress and sat down. He took a deep breath before suddenly, he felt another presence on his right. When he turned his head, he saw a young man with long black hair tied into a ponytail. He wore a blue shirt that got covered with a blue jacket paired up with blue jeans. "!!!" He was shocked and instinctively took out his sword again. However, it was futile as Nelson''s sword had arrived on his neck. And before he knew it, his head was already flying. Nelson only looked at his corpse coldly. He took his space ring, disposing his Berserk Pills and Blood Pills before going to the other tents. Nelson''s move was precise and smooth. Not only was he able to bypass all those thirty thousand soldiers, but he also could kill all the Martial Lords without getting found out. Of course, if it would be impossible for him to erase those thirty thousand soldiers in a single day. That was why Alex ordered him to kill after most of the Zhou Soldiers came to the Grand Tournament. He might be able to kill thirty thousand soldiers with his 3-Star Martial King cultivation and True Spirit Body in a single night. However, he would not be able to support Alex later. And Alex''s order was just to stop them as killing all of them here would be too suspicious. The Zhou Kingdom and the Brynhildr Kingdom might change their plan. And should, in any case, they decided to hold back their plan for a while, it would be the same as having a needle in their back. Those people might suddenly restart their plan when Alex left this continent. And it was not what Alex absolutely wanted to see. Nelson only needed around an hour to kill all of the Martial Lords without anyone noticing. It was also because of the full moon that he was able to mask his presence better. After killing all of them, Nelson immediately left. Of course, he did not go back to the Zhou Kingdom immediately. Instead, he would wait a bit to see whether the Zhou Soldiers decided to retreat or not. Since he would be forced to act if they decided to continue. He also needed to make sure no information leaked to the other influences about this. When the morning came, Zhou Soldiers started their morning routine. But, when the soldiers wanted to start marching again, they finally felt something wrong. "Where is our leader?" "I don''t know. We should come to them so we can start moving again." "Oi, someone, try to talk with our leader!" Just like that, one of the soldiers suddenly came to their commander tent. But what he found was dead bodies. He saw twenty fresh corpses. He was shocked beyond belief and unconsciously shouted at the top of his lungs, "Ah!" The soldiers were startled because of that shout. They immediately at the direction of the shout and found a soldier fell on his butt while pointing his finger toward the open tent. His face looked like he just got a scare of his life. "They¡­ they¡­ they¡­" The soldier stuttered but could not let out another word other than ''they.'' "What happened?" One of the soldiers approached him. He tried to help him up, but to no avail, so he tried to look toward the inside commander tent. His jaw dropped to the ground when he saw what was inside. "Oi, oi, what are you two doing?" The soldiers started surrounding the tent. They were perplexed by those two soldiers. When they finally realized what was going on. It became an uproar. "All of our commanders are dead?" "What? How can they die?" "They were still with us yesterday." "Our commanders are peak Martial Lords. Who can kill them, and no one from us knows about it?" "Impossible!" "Wait! Don''t all of you guys feel something is wrong today?" "This is already wrong!" "No. What I mean is¡­ Have you seen any Martial Lords around us?" When they heard that, they immediately looked around them. They finally realized that all of them that gathered here were Martial Grandmasters. "Look there." Suddenly, one of the two soldiers who got shocked first, finally said something. He pointed his finger toward the commander tent¡­ no, inside the commander tent. When the soldiers tried to look at it, they found a wooden sign planted on the ground. And in that sign, they could see, "This is my last warning. Shall you continue marching forward, all thirty thousand soldiers in this place will share the same fate as the Martial Lords in this army." They were dumbfounded with this overbearing message. In fact, Nicole was trained under Nelson. And when he taught her¡­ no, when he taught all of his subordinates, he would always teach them to leave a message if necessary. And that message was something like this. "Check¡­ check the other Martial Lords in our army!" One of the soldiers shouted. When the other soldiers heard that, they quickly dispersed and searched around. "Lord Carson is dead in his tent." "Lord Timmy is dead in his tent." "Lord Ivan¡­ "Lord James¡­ "Lord Philip¡­ The soldiers kept shouting, reporting about each Martial Lord''s status in their army. When all of those shouted finished echoing in their army, they finally realized that all of their Martial Lords were killed in a single night. The soldiers felt a chill the moment they thought about that sign. They came with a hundred Martial Lords as well as thirty thousand Martial Grandmasters. However, all a hundred Martial Lords were assassinated without anyone knowing it. After losing their strongest fighters as well as their commanders, the soldiers fell to their knees, devastated. They looked down like they just lost a big war. No one had a will to continue marching forward because they knew the sign was real. They got devastated for a while before starting to retreat. They did not send any information to Mount Hua Sect since the Thiveapia Kingdom had retreated. So, Mount Hua Sect and the Southern Kingdom were still clueless about this. Even if they tried to send them information, they would be intercepted by Nelson. And with this, there were only the Southern Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect that continued marching forward. Unbeknownst to them, they would get a devastating blow very soon. Meanwhile, Alex also received the information from Anna. It was not about Nelson. Instead, it came from... "Oh, by the way. You said you have information for me." "Yes. We got the information." "Is it from Nelson? Did he finish his job in stopping the Zhou Kingdom?" Anna shook her head. "No. It is not for him?" Alex was surprised. If it was not from him, then... "Is it from Nicole? Did something happen to her? Did Thiveapia Kingdom locate her position together with Evelyn?" Anna shook her head again. "It is from¡­" 363 Gamble "It is from Njomo." "Oh!" Alex was astonished when he heard that. He never expected Njomo to bring him the news at this particular time. In fact, this news made him frown. After all, this news could swing to the bad way and the good way. Seeing Alex frown, Anna only smiled, "Don''t worry, this should be good news for us." "Good news?" "Yeah. Njomo said the Rainbow Flower Sect is coming toward Heavenly Sword Sect to aid us. They are coming with twenty thousand disciples." Anna said. Alex''s eyes widened. He remembered that he had blatantly denied their possibility. But it seemed the other side still tried to approach him. However, he felt something wrong. "Why did they decide to move? Did they know about the Zhou Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom?" Alex asked. "Njomo said no. After knowing Heavenly Sword Sect was under attack, that Letizia immediately persuaded the sect master and the elders. Njomo did not know how she could persuade them, but it seems she managed to persuade them." Anna said. "She should be aware that we are getting attacked by four influences, right? Is she a fool?" Alex grunted. "You should not say that. She must use a great effort to persuade them despite knowing our situation." Anna smiled gently. Alex frowned. What they did not know was Letizia only used one name which was ''Death Forest'' to persuade them. Although she could not say anything more, with just that name, along with Letizia''s obsession with Alex, they could predict what kind of event that happened inside. They also remembered that Letizia brought two Heaven Tier Ice Element Martial Arts to the sect after that place. This was the only way to persuade them. And with the elders thinking about the inheritance of a Martial Emperor, they thought Heavenly Sword Sect would be able to defend the attack from four influences. If they helped them at a time like this, it would show how sincere they are. Of course, they decided to help the Heavenly Sword Sect to a certain degree, and if the situation started turning to bad, they would pull back. But, it was different for Alex and Anna. They did not know what she was thinking. Anna said, "Anya told me that she might only use this chance to make you owe them a favor. After all, Letizia met you inside that white building in Zwaka''s place." "..." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. "What are you going to do, Alex?" Anna asked. "Hmm¡­ Even if they tried to help us, they would only meet Mount Hua Sect. As for trying to make me owe them a favor¡­ It is true that she helps us, but it will depend on their actions too. If they started acting like those greedy people from the Southern Kingdom, even if they help us, I will still kill them. "I don''t mind giving one or two rank 5 weapons since Zwaka''s gave me many of them. I can just give them ax or something since I don''t have a use for them. You can say... They know when the right time to do something like this¡­ well, it is a sort of gamble for them too and just say they win this gamble." Alex said casually. "Well, we won''t encounter them for a while since we are going to finish our business with the entire Southern Kingdom," Anna said with a smile. But that smile dark as Alex could feel a trace of hatred in that smile. Alex understood why she was mad about this Southern Kingdom. He just thought about stopping the Zhou Kingdom because of their grudge. At the same time, he would help his senior sister and her kingdom. At first, Putri told him how grateful they were to him. However, he never knew about Mega''s scheme, involving Putri, Intan, and Eric. Sadly, human''s greed knows no bounds. They literally were asking for death. Luckily, they underestimated him because he was a Martial Grandmaster at that time. They did not pick strong people because his power was still low. Well, at that time, their power was too strong for him. If he did not have Anna, Leoz, and the others, he would die already. And from Ngina''s report, it seemed most of the ministers did not want to attack him. So, Alex decided to spare their kingdom after killing all the people involved in this war. He would trust Nelson for that later. "We will ignore them for the time being and focus on our opponent. The timing is right, so we will leave the sect tomorrow." Alex said. According to Noah, if they came toward them tomorrow, they would meet a good battlefield where Alex and the others could utilize their skill to the maximum. That place also had a perfect distance from any nearby cities or towns. "Understood." Anna nodded her head before leaving him alone. But before she managed to do that, Anya suddenly came to his room. "Alex, Nelson said he had finished his task. You can summon him anytime." She said. "Alright. Thank you. We are going tomorrow, and maybe we will start the fight the day after." Alex nodded. "Yeah. I already told him so." Anya looked at Anna and Alex on the bed, and got jealous a bit. "Since Anna is here too, how about we enjoy this night together? I mean, you will get to do twin sisters for a whole night, Don''t you-!" When she was talking excitedly, Alex disappeared from his bed. Suddenly, she felt Alex''s presence behind her back, thinking Alex wanted to push her down together with Anna. Never in her thought, Alex suddenly raised her up and threw her away outside. "Eh?!" The moment she realized that, Alex had closed the door. "Wait, Alex? I am just kidding. Can you let me in again? I promise I won''t do anything. I just want to stay for a while." Anna said from the other side of the door. When Alex and Anna heard that, they looked at each other. "Alex¡­ Do you hate her?" Anna asked. "No. In fact, I quite like her. It just¡­ I have not sorted my feelings about her yet. Unlike you, we still have not got together for a while. Personality aside, she is a beauty, in fact, if you or her show yourself in front of everyone in the continent, you two will easily become the prettiest women in this continent. But it doesn''t feel right for me. What I want is love, not love." "Well¡­ unlike me, she is going outside so she could help you. Because of that, she does not have that much time to spend with you. While I stay inside this house as far as I remember." "I know that. I really know that. She has been working hard just to catch up with me. However, I just feel it is not right. It just, If I accept her just like that, I feel I just love her because of you or any other circumstances. You also don''t want it to be that way, right?" "Yes." Anna closed her eyes. "It might not be the same, but just like the Elven Queen in the lower world, or maybe Letizia. If I suddenly accept them, would you accept that?" "No." "I am sorry if I hurt you since you are her twin sister, but I still need time to sort out my feelings." "It is alright, I understand," Anna said while hugging him from behind. "I need a bit more time, alright?" "Mmm." ¡­ The next day, Alex went to Charya''s house first to inform her. "Elder Charya¡­" "You are going right now?" Charya asked. She was a bit worried to see Alex go alone to stop the Southern Kingdom. If it were a normal person, they would think Alex just made an excuse so he could flee from the sect. After all, even if he left the sect, no one knew where Alex would go. Sadly, she knew Alex had no reason to do so since he could just stay here and relax while the enemies would not be able to penetrate a rank 6 barrier. If not, they might be able to penetrate Zwaka''s barrier instead of waiting for it to open. "Yes." Alex nodded. "I have dealt with the Thiveapia Kingdom and the Zhou Kingdom. So, Heavenly Sword Sect only needs to deal with Mount Hua Sect while I deal with the Southern Kingdom." Charya nodded. "But, are you sure you can do this? Maybe we can spare some elders and disciples to help you." Alex shook his head. "I have ''friends.'' A lot of friends, and you don''t need to worry about us." Charya looked at him for a while before nodding her head. "Alright. Just be careful." Alex nodded his head before saying, "The Rainbow Flower Sect will come to our aid. Both of you can attack Mount Hua Sect simultaneously." Charya frowned when she heard that. "Are they¡­" "They did not know about Zhou Kingdom''s and Thiveapia Kingdom''s condition yet. Still, whatever they want to do, don''t tell them about me going to fight the Southern Kingdom¡­ In fact, it is also applied to Heavenly Sword Sect. Make sure no one follows me." "Don''t worry, we know. Even the sect master knows what to do. Still, your information network is very fast¡­ don''t you?" "Ahaha¡­" Alex only shrugged it off with a laugh. "Then, I need to get going. Oh, right. Evelyn is on her way to the sect." "Alright. With The Rainbow Flower Sect helping us, we should be able to finish the battle faster. If Mount Hua Sect is smart, they would immediately retreat if they know the Thiveapia Kingdom and the Zhou Kingdom won''t join the war. We will still try to weaken them as much as possible though." "I will leave it to you," Alex said and left the house. He flew toward the south together with his spirits. ¡­ As Alex predicted, they finally met the army just after the sunset. After knowing Nelson''s power, Alex decided to annihilate them tonight. He wanted to make a few arrays first before they started fighting them. He took out Nelson''s card, "We are fighting tonight. Maybe around midnight." "Understood." Their battlefield was a huge plain. There was no tree or whatever that Alex could use to hide. So, Alex needed to do some preparations. After all, twenty thousand was not a small number. "Nelson, how many people do you think you can kill with your True Spirit Body without alarming them?" "All of them," Nelson said. "Oh¡­" Alex was wondering what with this cool guy. "Of course, it took a bit more time. So, I think, killing all of their Martial Lords along with a few thousand soldiers would be enough to make a mess in their rank. After that, if we play a mind game, we should be able to make them move according to our will." Nelson explained. Alex frowned. "I see. If possible, I want to make it three hours before creating chaos." "That''s enough to kill all of their Martial Lords since I used my True Spirit Body along with one or two thousand Martial Grandmasters." Alex contemplated for a while. If he could do that, then it would be nice for him. After that, they could just show those people heads to the rest of the soldiers. They would start panicking. He wanted to make Jadeite Mirror Array in that situation. The soldiers who knew about it would most likely panic. At that time, his other spirits could make confusion and tell them to go south or whatever. He then could make traps around that area, chipping their number bit by bit. However, Alex could not make an array in the midst of the enemy. He could make the Jadeite Mirror Array in the Kasmanan Family because he only needed to make the array at the edge of their mansion. But, with twenty thousand soldiers around, he could not make an array big enough to cover all of them. So, ultimately, he would make an array in the midst of their formation. Alex was contemplating his plan. 364 Misunderstanding Again? Really? After contemplating for a while, Alex came up with one feasible plan. The start would be the same. However, Alex would summon Leoz, and Fabio around them. They would shout something to make the soldiers panic. Vera should be able to make a giant ice wall in their right while Greg erected a barrier in their left. That way, they could only think about escaping from two directions. Anna, Jeanne, and Anya should be able to fight with them from the front. Alex, Fabio, Leoz, and Nelson then started killing them from the center. Without their leader, the soldiers should start running for their life. At that time, they could start chipping their number bit by bit until they killed all of them. Since there was no tree or whatsoever, they did not have any place to hide, so Alex did not need to care about the possibility of missing someone. He might need to summon Wright and Salijan to help Vera and Greg, so they did not go toward any other direction. Of course, Leoz''s 10-Star Martial Lord cultivation stage as well Nelson 3-Star Martial King cultivation stage would be a huge factor in this war. Alex then looked at his spirits, "We are going to attack them in a few hours. Here is my plan¡­" After telling them his plan, everyone started going to their position. Leoz and Fabio were in the card, ready to be summoned anytime. "Nelson. We will start now." "Understood. I will use my True Spirit Body right now." Nelson said. Not long after that, he continued, "I am ready." "Summon." Alex immediately summoned him. He saw Nelson''s True Spirit Body. There was no change in his appearance like a horn or something. Instead, he was wearing a black mask that was covering his mouth and nose. Alex saw his eyes that filled with coldness with two black balls hovering around him. This made him even more like an assassin. "Let''s infiltrate their headquarters," Alex said. "Young Master, if you want to infiltrate their headquarters, let me make some traps first. That way, you can appear casually around them. I will handle the rest." Nelson said. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He did not understand what he meant but still nodded his head. "Alright." Nelson then disappeared. Back then, he was curious how Nicole could disappear just like that, so this time, he used Spirit Eyes to observe Nelson. It turned out Nelson did not disappear. Instead, he went to his own shadow before his own shadow disappeared, leaving the energy behind. Only Alex''s Spirit Eyes or someone far stronger than him that could feel his presence. His curiosity did not disappear even after he saw that. After all, he did not remember Nicole had a skill like that. After thinking for a while, he shrugged it off. Each of them must have a special skill for that. If not, they would not become Nelson''s subordinates. He then waited until Nelson finished his business. However, Nelson only came back an hour later. Alex was startled as it took too long. "Did something happen?" "No, I just made some preparations for the others." Nelson shook his head. Alex nodded. He then made a normal Spatial Door to infiltrate their headquarters. After that, he went inside that blue colored realm again together with Nelson. ¡­ On Southern Kingdom''s headquarters, There were around ten people who were discussing the war since they would fight the Heavenly Sword Sect in two days. If Alex were here, he would recognize three of them. They were Bima, Morgan, and Mega. "We will let the Mount Hua Sect attack them first since we don''t have that many soldiers with us," Bima said. "Yes. We need to strike at the moment they never expected. Although I am feeling bad since the sect has fostered up her highness, we still need to do this. Our reputation has been smeared because we need to take his wanted poster after getting pressured by them. "If I know he helped us just so he could beat her highness, I would catch him immediately in the war. I am sorry, Your Majesty. Of course, they never thought that our princess, who they had abandoned, would become a 4-Star Martial Lord in a short time. They can only regret it when they know this." Morgan apologized. "You jest, Minister Morgan." Mega made an evil smile when she heard that. The royal family had many oppositions when they wanted to attack the Heavenly Sword Sect, so they did not have that many Martial Lords as well as soldiers in their rank. In fact, they only had five thousand Martial Grandmasters and fifteen thousand Martial Masters. It took all of Royal Family influence to get all of them as well as to make sure there would not be civil strife inside the Southern Kingdom. After conquering Heavenly Sword Sect and getting Alex''s entire wealth, no one would be able to fight their royal family in hundreds if not thousands of years. It was worthy of using it all for a Martial Emperor''s inheritance. And Morgan was the only one they managed to convince with their bullsh*ts. It was because he directly participated in the war. Of course, Morgan was also clueless about why Mega could raise her strength. After all, he was in close door cultivation to heal himself, so he never heard any sort of information concerning Blood Pill and Berserk Pill. By the time he recovered, Bima immediately came to him and asked him to join a war with him. After telling the reason for this war, Morgan was enraged. Sadly, none of his subordinates, such as Julius or Daniel, managed to inform him about the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill before he left the kingdom. If not, he might suspect Mega''s advancement. And with this, they just brought Morgan to die together. "After getting beaten like that, I just realize that I have more potential in me. This is what we call turning misfortune into a blessing." Mega humbly said. "Hoho, that-!" Just before Morgan finished his words. A gate suddenly appeared inside the tent along with a voice, "What the heck with that? Turning misfortune into a blessing? Using the evil blood pill that was made by human blood to advance and calling it ''Turning misfortune into a blessing,'' you must be kidding." Mega instantly recognized this voice. She turned her head. "You-!" Bima, Morgan, and the others immediately took out their weapons. They were shocked when they saw the portal. "Space¡­" Two people came out from the gate. They were Nelson and Alex. "You¡­ you are that person!" Morgan was surprised when he saw Alex. Alex was using his mask at the moment. "I never thought you old fart would also join this. I thought with your personality, you won''t participate in this war because of greed or benefit, it seems I was wrong." Alex said while taking off his mask. "You!" This time it was Mega. She hated Alex to the bone. "Greed? What do you mean? I am here to have justice for what you have done to her highness Mega." Morgan roared. But even that roar did not manage to alarm anyone outside because Nelson had used his skill. Alex was astonished to hear that. He was wondering if Morgan did not know about the reason why the Southern Kingdom decided to wage war. However, after seeing Mega, he did not need to think about it anymore as Morgan might be truly clueless about this. "You don''t know about Blood Pill?" "What blood pill? I don''t care about any Blood pills or whatever. I have been recovering this whole time and as soon as I finished recovering, I heard you bastard beat her highness brutally in front of everyone. Since you are here, I will apprehend you right now." Morgan said. "That is if you can." Nelson suddenly spoke as he tweaked his finger. "Moon Shadow Spirit First Skill, Shadow Bind." Many black colored tentacles suddenly appeared from the ground. This was the same move he used when dealing with those people from the Zhou Kingdom. However, he used this move with his True Spirit Body. "What is this?" "I can''t move away from this position, but I can still move my hand just fine." "I have the same condition." "Wait, I feel like my Spiritual Energy got drained a bit." The people started noticing the effect of Nelson''s Shadow Bind. Because he used it with his True Spirit Body, this Shadow Bind also had the effect of sucking their Spiritual Energy. As long as there were no Martial King, no one would be able to break free easily. "All the people outside hear me!" Bima immediately shouted as he wanted to make their position known to others. This way, the soldiers would be able to hinder Alex and Nelson a bit. They would then free themselves within that time. Sadly, Nelson had prepared for this. He already set up a kind of Sound Insulation Array just like before with the Zhou Kingdom. "No one will hear you from this place," Nelson said coldly. "Nelson, kill all of them except those three," Alex ordered. The three people he was talking about were Bima, Morgan, and Mega. "Understood." Nelson nodded his head as he released his Spiritual Energy. "Mar-Martial King!" Of course, Bima, who was the strongest out of them, instantly recognized Nelson''s strength. "You¡­ you are a Martial King!" When the others heard that, they became pale, especially Mega. She never thought Alex would have a Martial King. When she made this plan, she thought Alex was only a normal person with a high talent. He had no background or whatsoever. However, the sixteenth elder should know that Alex had a strong backing when the True Seven Stars Cut were known by others. After all, the sect master warned them about that. However, because of her hate for Charya, she ignored that warning. Of course, before she died, she never said about it to Intan or Mega since it would hinder her plan. And that proved to be effective in this situation. The moment they heard Nelson was a Martial King, they panicked. "I never heard he had a Martial King for a backing! This¡­ Did Heavenly Sword Sect have two Martial Kings?" "We should know about it if they had!" "Look! Even though he has a mask, from his facial features alone, he should be a younger generation!" "Nelson, they are too loud," Alex said coldly. "He-!" Nelson swung his sword around, and before they knew it, they already died. There was no sign of resistance from them because of the shock. Alex was astonished by his performance. He remembered when Anna talked about Nelson''s strength. Even his Spirit Eyes could barely see his movement. He noticed that those two black balls covered his sword with torrential black energy, and it increased his attack power. After killing all of them, Nelson then said, "I have finished the task, Young Master." "Wha-!" Mega was dumbfounded when a Martial King suddenly called Alex with Young Master. "Young Master?" Bima dropped his jaw to the ground because of the shock. Nelson might be a young man judging from his facial features alone. And he was already a Martial King. Even with that powerful strength, he called Alex Young Master. He was too shocked about that. After all, if even a Martial King called him Young Master, Alex must be a scion for such a strong family. And their power was immeasurable. The head of that family or influence might be a peak Martial King or Martial Emperor if not higher. To think they dared to make a move on such a person. The only thing inside Bima''s mind was regret. He realized that for a person like Alex, an inheritance of a Martial Emperor might not bother him that much. He realized that Mega had been lying to him. If Mega befriended such a person, this would mean that their kingdom would rise. However, she took the path of no return¡­ No, not only her, but he also took this path. "Yo-Young Lord, There is a misunderstanding." 365 Changing Decision "Your Excellency, there is a misunderstanding." Bima immediately said. "Ho¡­ Misunderstanding, huh¡­" Alex said with a poker face. "That''s right. My eyes have been clouded by my own granddaughter. I realized I was wrong, and I hope your excellency forgives me." Bima said desperately. Alex did not have any change in his expression. Instead of rebuking his claim that was full of holes, he took out a single space ring. He put the space ring on the table and said, "Here¡­ Look at this, inside of this space ring is the full inheritance of a Martial Emperor. "Don''t you wage this war because of this? Here take this. There are many rank 5 and rank 6 weapons as well as Heaven Tier Martial Arts. Come and take it." Alex said. Bima''s body shook a little when he heard that. However, he did not dare to take it after knowing a bit of Alex''s ''identity.'' In fact, he was scared stiff¡­ he also got restrained by Nelson''s skill though. So, even if he wanted to move, he would not be able to. Sadly, even though Bima said all of that, Morgan could not help but be disappointed. He never thought the king he had served up till now, the king that he adored and served with all of his heart, had fallen to greed. "Your Majesty¡­ you¡­ this war¡­ this war¡­ is not because of Princess Mega? But that ring?" Morgan was devastated when he knew that. He remembered when Alex suddenly barged in. "Your highness¡­ you¡­ you use that cursed pill that devastated our soldiers in that desolating war?" Mega could not say anything as Morgan had realized all of them at this moment. Even if she lied, she would not be able to trick Morgan again. She could only look at Alex with hatred. "Why don''t you take it? I don''t have that much time," Alex said while yawning. "No no, I don''t dare¡­" Bima replied hurriedly. "This is really a misunderstanding. Your excellency, Mega here is the one who tricked all of us. You can do anything to her as long as it can quell your anger." "Haha¡­ misunderstanding¡­ all of it is only a misunderstanding. This is not what you said¡­ Nelson. I have changed my mind." Alex laughed and stated something beyond their imagination. Even Nelson was surprised by his decision. Bima was overjoyed when he heard that. He thought Alex would spare him. "Your excellency. You can do anything to her. No no, In fact, your excellency just needs to state a name that got involved in this, and I will kill that person." Morgan was too shocked when he saw the king he served act like this. He did not know why, but the past memories kept coming inside his head. He adored his king, who was brave and fought anyone. He somehow understood. On a few occasions in the past, Bima chose not to fight. He said there would be a trap or whatever excuse he could get and convinced them with it. And he only fought bravely to the opponent that he could win. Upon realizing that, Morgan fell to despair. Nelson was surprised by Alex''s decision. However, he did not say anything. If Alex wanted it that way, he would only comply. However, even that happiness came short when Alex continued his sentence. "I have changed my mind. He is too pathetic. I think Jeanne will only need to deal with one person, but it seems the number is increased by one." "!!!" Nelson smirked when he heard that. "I see, he will have a nightmare before he dies." "Wha-?! Your-your excellency?" Bima was shocked when he heard the word ''die.'' "Do not babble any further, o former king of the Southern Kingdom. Silently accept that your names shall be etched into history as the foolish." Nelson said with killing intent. "You, you¡­" "Cripple them," Alex said with a cold tone. "You bastard! I will kill you! I will kill you!" There was a sudden outbreak from Mega. She struggled to escape by cutting the black tentacles but to no avail. Every time, she cut them, she still could not move from her spot and got entangled by the black tentacles again. "You-!" As soon as Nelson heard his order, he instantly disappeared and crippled them. Because they were taken by surprise, they could not react to Nelson''s speed. Alex then waved his hands. The blood suddenly started floating toward Alex. He then skillfully controlled the blood to make symbols on the ground. He was planning to make an array for them to hold them inside as they started killing the rest of the soldiers. "Young Master¡­ There is a bit of a problem if we spare this old man so Jeanne can have a round with him." Nelson said in hesitant sound. "I know. We won''t have his head to scare the soldiers. Don''t worry, I still have a clear picture of our big goal. We will burn this tent and have that old man''s head. Even though it won''t be that effective. As long as we could control the soldiers'' good enough, they should be fooled by that." Alex explained while pointing at Morgan. Nelson nodded his head before he disappeared again. Morgan wanted to react, but he did not have his past strength anymore. He just could not react before his head flew to the air. "You bastard, I won''t forgive you!" Mega shouted. "I am the one who can''t forgive you," Alex said. He did not want to hear any words from her again, so he immediately made a sound insulation array. "Nelson. Kill the other Martial Lords now." "Understood." Nelson nodded and disappeared. He roamed around the soldiers and killed the Martial Lords one by one. Alex did not join him in killing the others since Nelson would be faster if he went alone. Alex did not want to disturb his job. He then took out Leoz''s and Fabio''s cards. "Summon." Leoz and Fabio appeared in front of him. If Morgan were still alive, he would immediately recognize this yellow-haired buffy guy. However, for Bima and Mega, their minds could not process it anymore. They did not know how these two people suddenly appeared in this place. But, as a former 10-Star Martial Lord, Morgan could feel the same aura in Leoz. In other words, he knew Leoz was a 10-Star Martial Lord. ¡­ After around two hours, Nelson finally came back. In these two hours, Mega was spouting many hatred words while Bima tried to beg for his life. However, because of Alex''s Sound Insulation Array, they could not hear a single thing. "Leoz, Fabio. We don''t have many cards to create chaos. So, be ready to use your True Spirit Body if needed." "Yes." Both of them nodded. He then looked at Nelson, "Are you ready?" "Yes. I have killed all of their Martial Lords as well as three thousand soldiers in their tent. Of course, those soldiers were Martial Grandmasters. And with the big number of Martial Masters in this army, we should be able to kill all of them before the sunrise." Nelson nodded his head. "Before we start the battle, use your Spiritual Energy to suppress them first. I will also use my Pure Fire Element to restraint them. Leoz and Fabio will hide until the confusion starts." However, before they started, Nelson added. "Young Master. Since we don''t have enough cards to play, I thought I needed to make another play. So, I bring all of the Martial Lord''s heads in this army. If we make some announcement while displaying these heads, we should be able to make them panic." Alex was surprised to hear that. He pondered for a bit before coming up with another plan. He smirked as he took out Anna''s, Greg''s, and Vera''s card. "Greg, Vera, I want both of you to raise the ''wall'' at my notice. Then Anna, as soon as you see the wall appear, you will then start making ruckus from your position." "Understood." Alex then took a deep breath, "Pure Fire." He then looked at Nelson, "Let''s go." Nelson nodded. Alex then used his fire to burn the tent. The soldiers from the outside suddenly smelled a burning scent. And when they realized that the burnt smell came from their leaders'' tent. They were dumbfounded before shouting, "We are under attack!" "The commanders are under attack!" "Protect his majesty!" However, before they managed to do that. They suddenly heard a huge explosion. "Boom-!" They stopped in their tracks after hearing that explosion. They realized that the explosion was not that simple as they could feel an intense heat coming from the sky. The dark sky slowly brightened as they could see two men in the sky as well as a huge fire phoenix that brightened the dark sky around them. And one of them was holding someone''s head. They instantly recognized whose head was that. "War Minister Morgan!" "How dare they kill our War Minister!" Nelson suddenly let out his overbearing Spiritual Energy. At the same time, many people who had a Fire Element started groveling on the ground. They felt an immeasurable pressure inside their body and forced them to grovel on the ground. "Hear me soldiers of the Southern Kingdom. Your leader, the former king of the Southern Kingdom, had run away. All of your Martial Lords have been killed by us. And now, all of you will die in this place as this place has been surrounded by us!" Alex said. "What are you saying?" "How dare you kill our Minister Morgan." "Kill him, avenge our Minister. As long as we hold long enough, our king will save us." Alex looked at Nelson, who nodded his head. "Foolish soldiers. Even you could not recognize all of these heads." Nelson said coldly as he took out each Martial Lord''s head he had killed earlier. The soldiers dropped their jaw when they saw that. "Lord Miran!" "Lord Azul!" "Lord Gerfen!" They recognized all of those heads. And the moment their emotion was at the peak, Alex signaled Vera and Greg. "Raise the wall!" "Gurururu!" They heard a huge sound around them and when they turned their heads to the side. They saw a huge ice wall on their left and a huge metal translucent wall on their right. They were shocked to the core. Before they started panicking, a few soldiers managed to grit their teeth while calming their heads. "Don''t panic!" "Don''t pa-!" "Gah!" However, before they managed to calm the other soldiers, they heard screams coming from the front. "Argh!" "No!" "Don''t kill me!" The screams made the soldiers'' scared as their faces became pale. At that time, Alex immediately let the phoenix crash to the ground. "Boom!" It made a huge explosion in the centre of their army. Alex killed around many soldiers with just that explosion. It was at this time that Leoz and Fabio started their act. "No no no! All of our Martial Lords had been killed by them, and his majesty already abandoned us! We will die here!" Leoz shouted with a scared tone. "I still want to live! Even his majesty already deserted this war, I will also run for my life!" Fabio followed him. "Ah, south south. Our back is still safe. Run for your lives!" Leoz shouted again while grinning. It took the soldiers a few seconds to realize all of those babblings. They noticed that Bima did not come to this place to rescue them because he had deserted the battlefield. And Alex''s phoenix and Nelson''s Spiritual Pressure scared them out of their lives. Alex then made a few firebirds and exploded them in their rank. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Ah!" "Goh!" The soldiers dying screams filled their ears. A few soldiers tried to charge at Alex and Nelson with braveness. However, Nelson appeared in front of them, and with a single swing from his sword, he killed all of them. "Foolish soldiers. All of you will die!" Nelson said. 366 Mission Accomplished "Foolish soldiers. All of you will die!" When they heard that, their face became white. Leoz and Fabio finally made their move. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" "Fire Bomb!" "Boom Boom!" The soldiers noticed that there were other people that attacked them. They finally believed that they were surrounded. Many soldiers started to give up and run away. "No, no! I still want to live!" "Save me!" Even though their rationality was not functioning, their body still remembered the shouts from earlier where Leoz and Fabio told them about the back. Many of them run away toward the back to escape from this. "Nelson, let''s start," Alex said. "Yes." Nelson immediately disappeared as he started cutting the soldiers one by one. At the same time, Alex asked Sherry and Kyle to bombard them together. Sadly, he could not move far away from this place to maintain the barrier that trapped Bima and Mega. However, it was still enough as he only needed to kill the soldiers around him and let his spirits do the rest. "Boom Boom Boom." Alex kept bombarding them for an hour, and the screams and shrieks from the soldiers kept echoing through the night. However, Alex did not care all of that as he kept killing the soldiers. He noticed around a thousand soldiers decided to fight him. But all of them were stopped by Nelson that did not leave his side far. Alex even shook his head helplessly when he saw Nelson. Nelson is a reliable guy, he thought. There was another reason why the soldiers easily lost their motivation to fight. They were gathered after getting many oppositions from the ministers. However, because the royal family used their influence, they were forced to fight. And when they heard Bima had run away, most of them immediately lost their motivation to fight and run for their life. They thought because of their number, Alex and the others would not be enough to kill all of them. So, if they escaped far enough and hid, they would be safe. Sadly, it was just an empty dream for them as they would not be able to hide from Nelson. After around another half hour, Anna caught up to his place together with Jeanne and Anya. Anna had been using her True Spirit Body from the start as their group alone would not be enough to create a big ruckus. It was Anya''s suggestion, she said. However, before they passed him and continued, Alex stopped them. "Jeanne, Anya, look at them." Alex pointed his finger toward a half-burned tent. If one looked closely, they would see a translucent barrier trapping an old man and a young woman. They already fell into despair. They could see Alex looked like a demon god killing all of his soldiers easily. However, they could only think about escaping from this place. "You two will finish both of them. Make sure they experience nightmares before dying. I will take over your job since I am a bit bored in this place." Alex said. When they heard that, they looked at each other first before nodding to each other. Anna said, "Alright. We will handle them." Alex nodded his head before he started moving together with Anna. The moment he moved farther, he lost control of his barrier, and the barrier broke apart. When Mega and Bima saw that, they immediately tried to run. Unfortunately, Nelson had crippled their strength. Even if they tried to run, Jeanne and Anna could stop them easily. "You¡­ you, who are you!" Both of them got scared as they saw Jeanne and Anya coming to their way. "The one who will make you experience a nightmare!" Jeanne said with a cold tone. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex was still killing the soldiers with Anna. Some soldiers to fight back with their lives on the line, sadly, they did not have enough strength to challenge them and got killed immediately. After another two hours, they could not find anyone to kill anymore. Even Leoz and Fabio already came back to regroup with Alex and Anna. Nelson was still flying around to make sure no one was alive. After that, Alex ordered Vera and Greg to regroup to their position by summoning them once again. He then flew toward Jeanne and Anya. However, he just had a scare for his life as he saw the figure of Bima and Mega. It was beyond his imagination. He only closed his eyes for a bit before opening them again. Bima and Mega were already beyond recovery. Although Anya was still healing them, they could not utter or do anything as their brains were already dead. And their bodies¡­ if their bodies are in a movie, they might not be censored anymore. Instead, the movie would be banned instantly. Alex certainly could see that Bima and Mega had gotten what they deserved. Of course, it was only his point of view. After a while, Nelson came back. "Young Master. I have checked all of them, and they are truly dead." "Thank you for your hard work. Well, we are going to the Southern Kingdom now, right?" "Yes." "Ngina is in their kingdom, so if you have any questions, just ask him," Alex said. "Understood." Alex then turned to Anna and the others. "All of you will clean up the battlefield. You can go anywhere after you finish cleaning up the battlefield. Anna would probably go back to the sect, right?" "Yes. I will make sure the house is comfy so you can return anytime." Anna said with confidence. Alex smiled. "I will take the others somewhere and level up. I feel we need to reach Martial King before the Grand Tournament. Well, the one who might reach Martial King before then would be Leoz, Anna, and Fabio. Unless you use EXP cards for the others, including me, we will not be able to reach Martial King." Anya explained. Alex nodded. He knew why Anya did not have any confidence in that. The reason was simple, they just could not find powerful monsters since they had become Martial Lords. It was not as easy when they were in Martial Master or Martial Grandmasters since there were Martial Grandmaster stage monsters around. "For that, I need tickets," Alex said to Anya. "Of course, we will kill tons of monsters to get Gacha Tickets. I will make the plan for that." Anya smiled. "Thank you." "Hehe¡­ how about a kiss as a reward?" Anya teased him again. Alex shook his head, rejecting his idea. However, he said, "Put it on my tab." Anya was dumbfounded when she heard that. She thought her ears were playing with her. She looked at Anna, who suddenly smiled when she heard that. Anya knew she heard it right. Their relationship just progressed by a little bit. She was thrilled with that. Alex shook his head helplessly. He certainly did not make their relationship progress just because of the reward. It just¡­ he felt that Anya''s existence slowly came to his heart; her teasing, her characters, and her personality. Just by looking at her could put his heart at ease sometimes. Alex then looked at Nelson. "Let''s go." Nelson nodded. Alex then made a teleportation array toward the Southern Kingdom. Sadly, he could only make rank 4 teleportation array that could only teleport them around ten kilometers each time. However, it was far faster than flying normally. They arrived in front of the capital city in no time. However, Alex felt his Spiritual Energy almost empty. "Hah¡­ hah¡­!" Alex was panting after continuously making Teleportation Array. However, because of that, they managed to arrive one hour before the sunrise. "Young Master, are you okay?" Nelson asked, a bit worried. Alex smiled and assured him. "Rest assured, I am fine. I just need to recover for a while. Well, my job is done here. So, after recovering my Spiritual Energy, I will immediately come back to the sect." "Yes. After I am done, I will immediately go back to the Zhou Kingdom." "I am counting on you." Alex nodded. Nelson then disappeared. The Southern Kingdom had yet to realize they would experience the biggest hurdle in their life. Because when they just started to run a routine meeting for their kingdom, they realized that all of the royal family members were killed, including the ruler of the kingdom, the current king. The ministers were dumbfounded and immediately made an investigation. And a few days later, they found a battlefield that was filled with blood and dead bodies. They recognized all of them as they were their soldiers. After realizing the royal family had been massacred, the ministers were in a panic and holed up in their house, afraid the people who murdered all of these soldiers and the royal family would come to them. They waited for a month. However, they did not find someone targeting their lives. They immediately felt relieved when they realized that. After that, the storm finally started brewing in the capital city as each of the prominent families in the capital city started moving against each other to claim the throne. They were killing each other and made the greatest event in their kingdom''s history. Although some of them also kept investigating the murderer of the royal family, they did not find anything. And with that, the civil strife became even more chaotic as influences started stretching their hands in this kingdom. After all, the Southern Kingdom was known for its wealth. Sadly, they would get all the wealth from the Previous Royal family as it had been stolen by Nelson, doubling Alex''s wealth to 200 million Spirit Stones. Well, it was a story for later. ¡­ On the other hand, Alex immediately went back after he recovered his Spiritual Energy. Nelson was not worried about his protection since Sherry and Kyle also came with him. Meanwhile, Anna also came back to Heavenly Sword Sect. She then went to Charya''s house, according to Alex''s order. "Alex, huh. Come in!" Charya was waiting in the usual room as she was preparing for the war. She knew the Mount Hua Sect would reach their ground tomorrow. They were not planning to march toward them as it would be a foolish move. Even though Alex said Rainbow Flower Sect came to their aid, they still could not believe it was Rainbow Flower Sect''s intention. So, they decided to fight in front of their sect door. In this case, they would be able to retreat to their sect and erected Maxwell''s barrier if something went wrong. Charya was a bit surprised to feel a Martial Lord presence in front of her door. However, the only Martial Lord around was him. So, she thought Alex wanted to request a backup. But, when the door was opened, she could see a woman figure with long black hair tied into a ponytail. She recognized this woman as she had seen her once. Even so, she had yet to know her relationship with Alex. She knew they were close, as for how close they were, she did not know. "You are his¡­" "I am his wife, we could not hold a marriage though because of a certain matter," Anna said with a smile. Charya furrowed her eyebrows as she asked, "Does¡­ he need help?" "No, he asked me to inform you about the Southern Kingdom. You don''t need to worry about the Southern Kingdom as we have repelled them. However, we could not help you in the fight against Mount Hua Sect." "Haha¡­ is it about that girl?" Charya speculated the reason why they could not fight. And only one thing that came to her mind. It was Letizia. Sadly, she was off the mark. Anna shook her head. "No. We can''t reveal ourselves to others because they think we are still fighting with the Southern Kingdom. So, we want people to think like that for a little longer. After all, they might think it is suspicious if we finish our fight in a day. And I hope you don''t investigate it too. "You can talk about this with... those two old men, that sect master and the other old man whose memory did not get sealed. However, please don''t spread this to anyone other than them." Charya looked at her for a while. It seemed even though Alex had a certain respect to them, this woman did not respect them that much. Well, considering Alex''s background, which was still a bit mysterious to them as they only knew about his master, not his family or whatsoever. She thought Anna must come from his family or something and their family was strong as they could look down on Heavenly Sword Sect. She only shrugged her shoulders and said, "Fine." 367 Mount Hua Sect and Rainbow Flower Sec After Alex came back to the sect, he just leisurely enjoyed his time for training or other things. Evelyn also had yet to arrive, so Alex practically was alone after Charya attacked Mount Hua Sect with other elders and disciples. Alex also let Noah observe the situation for him so he would know the condition of the battlefield. Hopefully, he did not need to help. However, with the addition of Rainbow Flower Sect, they should be fine. And it turned out he was right. As soon as the Mount Hua Sect clashed with Heavenly Sword Sect, the Rainbow Flower Sect made their appearance. But that was not all they needed to fight. It seemed a few Array Masters decided to help them fight Mount Hua Sect. And their leader was none other than the Array Master that was trying to stop Mount Hua Sect in pursuing Alex. Bazza was thinking about helping Alex to escape from them. However, when he saw Heavenly Sword Sect chose to fight like this was not a problem, he decided to join the fray with a group of handful Array masters. Although their group was not that big since it only consisted of a couple of friends and his disciple, they were a force to be reckoned with. Bazza was disappointed to see the sect master of Mount Hua Sect decided to attack Heavenly Sword Sect just for Alex. Even though he had expected something like this would happen sooner or later. It was really a regrettable thing to happen. Mount Hua Sect was on their wits end after getting pincered by two great sects as well as Array Masters. They were confused about why Heavenly Sword Sect came with full force at them. After all, they would still need to deal with the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom even after the Thiveapia Kingdom left this war. They were asking for help from the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. However, when their messengers arrived at the Southern Kingdom camp, they only saw a red battlefield and abandoned camp of Zhou Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom aside, since they looked like they had a hard battle, the Mount Hua Sect was angry toward the Zhou Kingdom because they deserted this war. And because of that, they suffered heavy losses on their side. Even though Mount Hua Sect''s sect master led the elders and disciples bravely, it could not stop after getting attacked by both sect masters from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. They ran away from the battlefield. Sadly, they lost more than half of their elders in this battle and around seventy percent of their disciples since the two sects heavily pursued them. Mount Hua Sect tried to make a peace negotiation with them. However, Heavenly Sword Sect heavily against it. Especially since Mount Hua Sect was coming toward them with three other influences, which were Thiveapia Kingdom, Zhou Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom. After making absurd demands, Heavenly Sword Sect finally stopped chasing them. Sect Master Xiang Bai also did not want to risk it since Mount Hua Sect might fight all their lives to the bitter end. At that time, Heavenly Sword Sect would not feel good either. So, they decided to agree to their peace demand in condition. Mount Hua Sect will give half of their income to both sects with Heavenly Sword Sect receiving thirty percent and Rainbow Flower Sect receiving twenty percent for five years. Secondly, they would need to give them 5 Raise Pill made by either 9-Star or 10-Star Lord stage monster core. And lastly, they would need to give 50 million Spirit Stones for each of them. It was equal to ten years of revenue. After accepting those unreasonable demands, their sect master decided to have a closed-door cultivation. If it were not because he was the only Martial King in their sect, he would already get killed by the elders for this blunder. However, the elders knew they could not do that. After all, only with his reputation as a Martial King could Mount Hua Sect pass this period of darkness. They decided to lock down the entire sect, not letting any disciple go outside. It was a heavy loss that could only be recovered after decades, if not centuries. Their biggest chance to recover this is to win the Grand Tournament. On the other hand, the Heavenly Sword Sect made a party to celebrate their win after this ''dark cloud.'' Even though they lost two of their elders, their overall strength did not decrease that much. Of course, Rainbow Flower Sect also contributed. So, they decided to celebrate together in the sect. At the same time, Evelyn finally came back to the sect with Nicole. However, after delivering Evelyn safely, she suddenly flew back to Thiveapia Kingdom even after Alex tried to persuade her to rest for a while. Alex was invited to celebrate together with fellow disciples as well as Rainbow Flower Sect. After all, after the war ended, the rumor about Alex stopping the Southern Kingdom alone was spread. Although it appeared that Alex was the cause of this war, it was also true that Alex was the one who solved the war, albeit only the higher up that knew about that. Although they did not know how Alex could stop the Zhou Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, they would need to be grateful to Alex because they could get many benefits from Mount Hua Sect because of this war. It was at this time that Charya came to his house. "Yo, Alex! You are not going to celebrate together? There are many beautiful women there though, since we are celebrating together with Rainbow Flower Sect." Charya laughed. Alex shook his head. "I am fine in this place, and the celebration is not really my thing. And secondly, they came here because they want me. So, I think many disciples would hate me after this." "Well, I know that many disciples will hate you, especially the disciples who had their friends killed in battle. However, the fact that you stopped the Southern Kingdom alone made your fan club grow to unprecedented levels. In fact, they would already become your die-hard fan after hearing your exploit. Of course, they did not know about you stopping the Zhou Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom too." "You jest. I don''t do anything special. This was my problem, I should be the one who solved it, yet I trouble the sect about this." "Haha¡­ you don''t need to say something like that since the sect gets so many benefits after defeating Mount Hua Sect." Charya laughed. But, Charya''s expression suddenly became serious, "Well, there is also another matter that you need to deal with." "Rainbow Flower Sect?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. They want to talk with you." "It''s okay. Since they decided to come to our aid even though our situation was hopeless at that time. So, talking with them is fine by me." As he said that, he turned his head to the other side. He could see a few people with his Spirit Eyes. "Fufu¡­ then we shall shamelessly intrude your home." Suddenly a young beautiful mature woman came. Behind her, he could see Letizia and a few elders. Sect Master Xiang Bai and the first elder also came to this place. Alex noticed their presence for a while. They sent Charya just to have his permission. They really got interested in him when they realized all the three kingdoms were stopped by him. Of course, no one told them about this. They realized it when Heavenly Sword Sect decided to attack Mount Hua Sect with their full force. They had known Heavenly Sword Sect for so long, and they were absolutely sure Heavenly Sword Sect would not be able to take the full brunt of the attack from four influences unless they had an unknown factor. They later realized that the Thiveapia Kingdom stopped participating in the war just before they even started. It was the same as the Zhou Kingdom, who suddenly deserted the war. And after knowing Alex stopped the Southern Kingdom by himself, they could conclude that Alex was the unknown factor. "This is the sect master of Rainbow Flower Sect, Cecilia La Scola. She is the mother of Letizia La Scola." Xiang Bai immediately introduced them. "This junior is grateful for Senior help in the war. Even after knowing we are in a hopeless situation after getting attacked by four big influences, Senior still leads Rainbow Flower Sect to help us. This is not much, but this is how grateful I am for senior''s help." Alex said while presenting her with a space ring. When Cecilia saw this, she involuntarily twitched her eyebrows. She cursed inwardly, ''This sly kid. He already wants to finish this in his first conversation? He does not want to owe the favor, so he immediately gives this space ring.'' "Fufu¡­ My daughter is interested in you. So, I obviously need to support her. We are not helping Heavenly Sword Sect because of the benefit. I know there is some kind of misunderstanding between you and my daughter, so I hope you can be good to her." Cecilia said. She was thinking, ''Kid, you are too naive. After knowing you can somehow stop three kingdoms in a short time, how can I receive this reward? I better have you owe us a favor instead of this ring.'' Alex also knew her intention. He said with a smile. "Of course. I don''t have any grudges against her. If my actions in the past can make you interpret it like I dislike or hate her, I hope Senior can forgive me." "Is that so? I thought you hated my daughter since you went away when we came to this sect." "No no, how can I hate such a beautiful woman, I truly had something to do back then that required me to leave the sect," Alex said with a smile. Since they did not want to accept it, Alex needed to do it in a hard way, "I truly could not show myself back then since I already have wives. I am afraid they will misunderstand me." When they heard Alex already had wives, Cecilia, Letizia, as well as the elders that came with them twitched their eyebrows. Cecilia looked at Letizia, who bit her lips but still nodded her head. She sighed inwardly before she said, "Fufu, Truly a hero from youth. Since you already have multiple wives, how about having my daughter too. "After all, it is normal for a powerful person to have multiple wives. She did not mind having to share you with others." Suddenly, they saw a black-haired woman walking toward them from Alex''s house. Her beautiful crystal black eyes, her small nose, and sweet cherry lips. Her glossy long black hair and a body that was not losing Cecilia. They could see youthful energy in her. However, her eyes were filled with wisdom and maturity. Her charm completely put Cecilia and Letizia in shame. Letizia obviously recognized her. She was always beside Alex when she met him. Her existence already etched to her bone. "You¡­" Anna only smiled at them, "Nice to meet you. I am Anna Sirius. Alexander Sirius''s wife." "Fufu¡­ It is my pleasure to meet you, Miss Anna. I can truly understand why Alexander Sirius is so smitten by you. You must be his first wife." Cecilia said with a smile. Even so, she was sweating on the inside. "You jest. We don''t have any number or whatsoever, and even with numbers, I didn''t come first. Each of us comes to his life because there is love between us. We are the ones who are smitten by him. After all, unlike many people, he never lusted for us because of our appearance. Instead, because there is love between us that we become husband and wife. If not, I would not be able to enter his life." Anna explained with a smile as she wanted to tell them Alex never cared about appearance so they would not try forcing it or trying to incite his lust. 368 Phenomenon Anna just said to stop them from trying to force marriage or whatsoever. She stated that Alex would not have anyone he did not love. When they heard that, their expressions were darkened. Letizia already prepared to sacrifice herself for the sect. However, Alex and Anna rejected her before they even came to that topic. "Fufu¡­ How nice is it¡­ The Rainbow Flower Sect was founded because the founder had a terrible experience with that ''lust.'' She founded the sect so the disciples would have a backing if they got troubled with that. Now, I am truly curious about the mysterious but powerful Alexander Sirius. If I am not wrong, you only became a disciple two years ago, and your strength was only a Martial Master at that time." Cecilia said while narrowing her eyes. "Haha¡­ I am just lucky." Alex said casually. He then tried to change the topic, "Well, since the sect master could not accept my gift, I am truly in a hard situation." Alex then moved toward sect master Xiang Bai and presented him the space ring, "Sect Master, this is not much, but I hope you can receive it. It is only a few Heaven Tier Martial Arts as well as two rank 5 weapons." When the people from Rainbow Flower Sect heard that, they froze. Even Xiang Bai was dumbfounded when Alex suddenly did this. "Maybe we can dominate both tournaments¡­" Alex said in a playful tone. "Hahaha¡­ good good. Really a good disciple." Xiang Bai did not reject him or whatever because he knew, with Alex''s Master, Alex would not have any shortage of this kind of thing. So, this was a kind of bonus after helping him a bit. When the elders from Rainbow Flower Sect realized what they just missed, they were eyeing their sect master, Cecilia. However, Cecilia was thinking about something else. It would be bad to suddenly say she wants it. However, since Alex wanted to play that way, she said, "Ahem, since the misunderstanding is solved. How about the two of you have a chat for a while." She thought since Alex could easily give something like that away. It would be even more worth it to keep his favor. Alex''s plan to make her regret her decision a bit instead backfired him. It just made her have more reasons to save that favor for later. Alex cursed in his heart. ''This woman is persistent.'' He thought about doing it, he could incite the elders or even her. That way, he could just throw another weapon and Martial Arts away and be done with this favor thing. As for Xiang Bai, he already prepared the same thing to give him. However, she did not get baited. However, at this particular time, there was a sudden event that shocked the entire world. Alex and the others turned their heads to the sky. They could see the blue sky suddenly shone in golden color. After that, the sky was split by something. When they saw that¡­ no, when Alex saw that, he felt an unbearable pain in his heart. Suddenly, the tears came out of his eyes. Because he not only felt the pain in his heart, he also felt warm. It was not a pain because of suppression or sort. Instead, it was very painful because he was missing them so much. He knew it was his master coming to grab Firia and cured Alicia¡­ he knew it because he felt the reaction of his Pure Fire. It was like the Pure Fire inside him was calling its other half. However, judging from the situation, it seemed the phenomenon came from the Northern Continent. Alex was clenching his heart with his left hand as he stretched his right hand to the horizon. Suddenly, he heard four words. The four words that were dedicated only to him. "Husband, I love you." He teared up at this moment. Even when he felt unbearable pain from his cultivation, he would not let out a single tear. However, these four words were enough to make him tear up. When he closed his eyes, he did not know why, but he felt Firia was in front of him. The fiery red hair, her beautiful eyes, her warm and strong personality, Alex could clearly feel it. It was like Firia was standing in front of him. Coming closer and closer before she hugged him. He hugged her back, smelling her unique scent, even if this was not real, Alex felt very warm. At this moment, he completely forgot the outside world. There were only him and Firia, hugging each other. They both were completely savoring the taste of reunion and soothing each other''s heart from this unbearable loneliness. Firia was also teared up. Her hug was telling him how she missed him. But it also told him, they would be fine¡­ She would get stronger, and Alicia would be recovered. She hugged him strongly, telling him that everything was going to be alright. Alex hugged her even tighter. Sadly, it did not last long as her image suddenly disappeared in his embrace. However, even after she disappeared, Alex did not open his eyes until the sky dimmed down. "It''s alright. I will keep getting stronger until the day we can meet again. I will be alright here, so you take care of yourself too, as well as Alicia." Alex said while slowly opening his eyes. He wiped the tears on his face. He then noticed that all the people were watching him. However, they did not dare to approach him. Anna then came to him, "Is it Firia?" Alex nodded his head. "Don''t worry. They are on the right hand. Alicia will be healed, and Firia will become stronger. So, it is you who need to get stronger now." Anna said. "Yes. I know." Alex nodded again. When they came back, they could see the shocked face of everyone. They would want to check the phenomenon and see who made such a phenomenon and invited them to the sect. However, it was too far from them. And as they expected, it came from the Northern Continent. However, when they saw Alex suddenly rose to the sky, stretching his hand and clenching his heart like he was in pain. They did not know why, but they felt Alex somehow related to it. And finally, when he let out his tears, they felt his emotion. It was sadness and loneliness. It was like he regretted it because he was not strong enough. They were wondering what kind of relationship he had with that phenomenon¡­ no, the one who triggered such a phenomenon. However, for people from Heavenly Sword Sect, especially Charya. They were wondering what kind of burden Alex had this entire time. Their image of Alex was a calm but mysterious guy. They felt Alex could do anything. However, at that very moment, he showed his weakness¡­ maybe the weakness he had been hiding this entire time. It was at that time Alex showed it all. No, it was because that phenomenon triggered the thing he had hidden this entire time. If they were not here at this moment, they would not see him being like this. However, it was different for Letizia. As a bearing of Pure Element, she knew what kind of talent she and Alex had. Their talent was the finest. She always thought that as long as she had enough time, she would be able to become a Martial King or maybe Martial Emperor. As long as she had enough time, she would be able to make her sect proud. However, when she met Alex for the first time and knew his Pure Fire Element. It was for the first time she felt she would not have enough time even if she had every time in the world. She confirmed that guess when she met him the second time in Nemu Forest. After a short time from their first meeting to their second meeting, she managed to get into 3-Star Martial Lord. And with this third meeting, she had become 5-Star Martial Lord. However, all of that won''t matter as she saw Alex''s cultivation stage was already 4-Star Martial Lord. She remembered the first time she met him, he was only a 5-Star Martial Grandmaster while she was a peak Martial Grandmaster. Even though they had the same talent, Alex kept getting closer and closer to her level. If it continued like that, even if she had all the time she needed, she would not be able to make her proud. After all, Alex would shadow her every time. Because of that, she always convinced herself that having a marriage with him would be the best. After all, even if she were shadowed by him, he would not do anything to her mother or her sect. Everything changed today, specifically when she saw Alex became like that. She felt Alex''s pain, sadness, and loneliness. It was like even with that monstrous progress, Alex felt it was nowhere enough. Even though both of their goals were different. She could feel that Alex felt it was not enough. Judging from his expression, the person that triggered such a phenomenon must be his wife. She remembered Anna''s statement. She realized she was nothing compared to his wife. Anna''s appearance was above her, and his wife that triggered such a phenomenon¡­ she would not be able to do something like that. And with Anna''s statement, she could not think anything she had would be able to make Alex love her. She bit her lips while looking at him. "I am sorry for making you see something like that." Alex suddenly spoke to all of them. "No, no. However, may I know what that phenomenon is? Judging from the distance alone, it should be in another continent." Cecilia asked. Xiang Bai and the others were also curious about this. However, they did not dare to ask, especially for the people from Heavenly Sword Sect. After all, they knew it was not something they should ask him. Alex only shook his head. "It is my wife. You might not want to talk about it again. And since it is on another continent, you should not go there¡­ maybe. Even I, can''t meet her. So, I hope all of you don''t ask about it. Well, if you try to do something funny like Mount Hua Sect or other kingdoms, you will pay the price." Alex was also wondering why the phenomenon occurred in the Northern Kingdom. According to his master, no dungeon would lead to the Northern Continent. All nine dungeons in the lower world would only lead them to either Nilis Continent or this continent, Wilow Continent. So he was confused about why it occurred in the Northern Continent, which should have no relation to this. Alex did not have any mood to talk with them anymore when he realized that Firia had come to the upper world. He had the mood to cultivate. "If there is no other matter, I need to excuse myself. I will remember this favor in my heart, and I will repay you later." Alex said without an uninterested tone. Of course, even with this favor, he would maintain the basic logic. After all, they just made a move at the right time. In fact, without them, they could solve the problem. So, if they made such an absurd request, he would not comply. Suddenly, Letizia shouted in surprise, "Ah!" Letizia suddenly remembered something. It was about the golden lightning that struck everyone deeply. If his wife alone could do something like that, then he should be able to do something equal. In other words, he was the one who triggered that golden lightning. They never found anything about the golden lightning. However, at that particular time, she realized that Alex became a wanted person in the Zhou Kingdom. And the reason for that was because he killed the Bell Family in a city nearby. However, the people from the town said it was from an old man. Everything just clicked in her mind. It would be normal that Alex was the one who triggered it, and that old man just made an excuse so they could kill Alex. That was the sole reason why the Zhou Kingdom was targeting Alex. She said with a shocked face, "You¡­ you are the one who triggered the golden sky!" 369 Plane A few minutes ago, In the corner of the Mizbah Forest. This was the forest where Alex appeared as soon as he entered the new world. A figure of a red-haired woman suddenly appeared in this forest. She was carrying a blue box in her hand. The woman looked at the sky, "Husband, I finally came to this place. I¡­ No, I am sure Alicia is also missing you." She looked at the box while clenching her hands. She wanted to meet her husband. However, she also knew that if she met him now, she would become his burden once again. And this time, she was carrying Alicia. Firia could only let out a single tear before she activated the token on her right hand. The token shone brightly. She waited for a while after activating the token. She was wondering since she did not feel anything about it. Firia thought the token was broken. She thought about paving her way first if the token was broken. However, just when she was about to walk, the sky shone brightly and was split into two. Firia was shocked by the sudden occurrence, as this was the first time she saw something like this. She was wondering if this was a normal occurrence in this world. Firia felt pained when she thought Alex would need to fight a being like that continuously in this world. "Alex¡­" However, a middle-aged man appeared. The man looked like he was in his early thirties. With red long hair fluttering, and a kind of cosplay-like costume on Earth that made his appearance look gallant. He appeared in front of her. She was startled by his sudden appearance. However, she instantly recognized him. "You are Uncle Maxwell." "Let''s go, little girl. I can''t stay in this world for so long. So I need to bring you out of this world as soon as possible." Maxwell said as he looked at her as well as the box in her hand. Firia nodded her head. She wanted to meet Alex, but she knew this was not the time. Maxwell also knew she missed Alex. It was like when he missed his wife. "Even though you can''t meet him. I can send your voice to him with my divine intent. Do you want to say something to him?" He said that as he made a teleportation array. The teleportation array was going to take them to the sky above the Northern Continent. This was what he had agreed with Lin Xingzhi. She said she did not want to cause unnecessary trouble for him. So, she decided to split the world barrier right above the Northern Continent. She could open it on other continents like Heavenly Continent or Sacred Continent. However, it was too far. And Maxwell''s power got a bit restricted when he entered this. So, they decided to open it above the Northern Continent. This way, Maxwell only needs to make a single Teleportation Array with his current power. They thought about opening the sky in Nilis Continent, which was the second closest continent from the Wilow Continent. However, opening it in that continent would cause him problems in the near future. Alex would need to undergo his golden lightning tribulation in that place sooner or later. And if this phenomenon appeared there, they would tighten their defense. So, when Alex triggered his golden lightning tribulation, he might be ambushed. Lin Xingzhi wanted him to mature up after experiencing a problem after problem. But she knew there were necessary problems and unnecessary problems that would only lead him to danger. She would not danger her beloved one because of that. After activating the array, they were teleported to the sky above the Northern Continent. They could see many people coming toward them. However, because of the shining sky, they could only see two figures, but did not know who they were or their appearance. He made another array and said, "Little girl, we don''t have much time. You can say your pieces now, it will transmit to him." Well, he was only connecting his token in Alex''s possession to track Alex''s whereabouts and sent it to him there. Firia decided in an instant. She had many things she wanted to talk about with Alex. However, she knew that she did not have enough time for that. And even if she had that time, it would only hinder him. So, instead of giving him unnecessary thought, she said with all the emotions she had, "Husband, I love you." She said that with all her might and unknowingly shed some tears even though she only told him four words. Firia looked at Maxwell and nodded. Maxwell flicked his finger, and they were teleported outside that world, and Maxwell immediately erected a sphere-shaped barrier. When Firia looked around, she was shocked that she could see black skies everywhere. She also found many round shape objects around, including the one in front of her. The round-shaped object was very huge, and she realized how small she was in front of this object. However, at this time, she could see many green and blue color layers in that round object. She looked at it and noticed it was beautiful. "How beautiful¡­" "This is what is known as a Planet. This is a world that you experienced just now." Maxwell said. "Planet¡­" "Yeah. The world you live in. There are five types of world: Lower World, Upper World, Divine World, Abandoned World, and Exiled World. The one you lived in was a lower world. And you can see the planets around you are lower worlds that are connected to this Upper World." "Well, I am sure my cultivation book has explained the entire cultivation stages, right?" Maxwell asked. "Yes. Foundation Stage, Martial Master Stage, Martial Grandmaster Stage, Martial Lord Stage, Martial King Stage, Martial Emperor Stage, Martial Monarch Stage, Martial Saint Stage, And God Stage." Firia replied. "Indeed. Your husband is in the Martial Lord Stage. So, after this, I want my wife to teach you until you become Martial Emperor if not Monarch Stage and send you back to this world. Anyway, back to the topic. This Lower World usually has a smaller size than an Upper World. You can see it from here." Maxwell explained as he pointed out to the planets around them. He then stopped at one particular planet, "That one is your previous world, Agar World. And usually, in the lower world, people would only be able to cultivate until they reached the peak Foundation Stage, which you call rank 9. As soon as you reach rank 10, you will be equal to Martial Master. "In your previous world, you would not be able to cultivate again. And will be forced out of the world soon. And If you don''t immediately go to the upper world, you will be forced out to this vacuum. "If I don''t erect this barrier, your body would not be able to withstand the coldness and any other things. Only if you reach God Stage would your body be strong enough to withstand the condition outside. "However, there are many ways to travel between the world. They usually called it Spaceship. I will be explaining it after I explain about the other worlds. "Anyway, look at that fireball over there! That is called ''Sun.'' And these planets were orbiting around this sun. This entire system is called a Solar System. Usually, each solar system would have one or two Upper Worlds. And this one is a big one since it has one Upper World and more than a hundred Lower Worlds. "Well, you will learn about it later, so I will move on a little bit. The third world is Divine World. Normal Upper World like this one could only have Martial Saint as the peak. Just like the lower world, when they reached God stage, they would need to go out of this world. "However, for Divine World, they could handle the energy from God Stage people. In other words, they can host Gods and Goddesses. Each world has a kind of barrier that prevents people like us from entering." "But, how could Uncle Maxwell enter and grab me?" Firia asked. "Well, I got help from another person, and I would like to introduce you to her. Well, she is going to recover her energy for a while, so I will keep explaining it a bit more clearly." Firia nodded. She was indeed curious about this too. After all, seeing all of these objects around her had blown her mind. She never knew the scenery would be like this outside of her world. "The fourth type is Abandoned World. This world is basically a ruined world where the creatures inside that world destroyed themselves and caused the extinction of the entire population, or whatever. "Basically, you would not meet any living creatures except plants or many things that small. And some worlds even have destroyed their living space. And you would not find any water or whatever, including the blue sky and so on. "The last one is Exiled World. And your husband was born in this type of world." "Exiled world?" Firia was gasping. Even hearing that name alone made her feel chill through her spine. "Yeah. This type of world usually made a big mistake by offending many gods and goddesses, so they decided to exile it to universe junk. It is a place where you won''t meet any living creatures besides you. If gods and goddesses had exiled a world, they wanted the creatures in that exiled world to destroy themselves or to go extinct. "A few thousand years ago, your husband''s previous world had offended many gods and goddesses. In fact, they wanted to conquer the entire universe, which even I could not know how many planets are there. "Because of that ambition, they incited the rage of many gods and goddesses. However, they also had some secret weapons. At that time, there was a big fight that killed many gods and goddesses. I am not there though. "Anyway, after they lost, the remaining gods and goddesses used their power to exile that world, through that place!" He pointed at a black spot far far away from them. Firia looked at the black spot while narrowing her eyes. He could not see anything in that black spot. It had no color other than black. If the people from Earth were here, they would be surprised because that black spot was practically a Black Hole. "So, Husband lived in such a world¡­" Firia looked down, a bit sad. "Well, he was finally brought to your world after that." Firia nodded her head. She felt glad that Alex really came to her world. That way, she could meet him and change her fate. "So, that kind of world is my husband''s hometown." Firia murmured. "... Yes and no." Maxwell said. "Yes and no?" Firia was confused. "It was indeed his hometown. However, if you talked about the other thing, it was also not his only hometown. He also had another hometown." "Another hometown? Do you mean he could travel to many worlds with¡­ a spaceship?" "Nope. Well, this is not my job to explain this. Anyway, we will be meeting that person now. And you can ask about Spaceship to her." Maxwell shrugged his shoulders as he flicked his finger once again. They were then teleported to another side of the planet. Firia saw two people. The first one was a female who had long brown hair. Her beauty exceeded her own. Firia could not help but narrow her eyes when she saw her pale face. The second one was a male with long white hair. He was a middle-aged man wearing a butler suit. "Let''s go back first before we start anything." The woman said to Firia. She then looked at the butler on her side, "Please, Zark." "Understood, my queen." The middle-aged man nodded his head and clapped his hands. At the same time, a big Teleportation Array and teleported all of them away. 370 Family Photo After several teleportations, they finally arrived on a planet. Firia was mesmerized by the scenery. She could see the blue river flowing smoothly, a colorful scenery with a giant waterfall. And the most noticeable thing was the castle that blended perfectly with nature. "Welcome to my¡­ to our home, Eulja." The woman said to Firia. They were then suddenly greeted by a huge muscular middle-aged man. He was also wearing the butler suit, and it complimented his light red hair very well. Even though his face was a bit scary, his expression was the opposite of that. He looked like a gentleman. "Welcome Home, my queen." He bowed gently to the woman. He then turned to Firia, "Welcome, my lady Firia, my name is Korzan. I am honored by your presence." "Ye-yes?" Firia was confused. "Fufu¡­ Let''s go back to the castle first. We can talk there." The woman said. "Understood." Zark clapped his hands once again before teleporting them into the castle. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself first. My name is Lin Xingzhi, I am Alexander Sirius''s wife¡­ Not exactly right. Well, I am his past wife, and will be his future wife. I wanted to call myself Sirius Xingzhi, but it became weird. Even lord husband said it was just a name." Lin Xingzhi finally introduced herself. "Eh?" Firia was dumbfounded when she heard that. "Husband''s wife? Past wife? Future wife?" "I will clear the confusion later together with Alicia since we should save her first. May I have the box back?" Lin Xingzhi said. Firia did not understand, but she still handed the box to her. Suddenly, she felt something wrong, "Have the box back?" "Yep. Don''t worry, I will explain everything to both of you later. And I also want to show something to you that you will absolutely love." She said while giving the box to Maxwell. "It is your time now." "Korzan, we need a room." Lin Xingzhi turned to Korzan. He nodded. "This way, please." Korzan then led them to a room. The room was very beautiful and had a natural feeling inside it. Maxwell then released Alicia from the box. Firia could see Alicia''s pale face and bit her lips. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulders. When she turned her head, she saw Lin Xingzhi smiling. "Don''t worry. She will be alright." Lin Xingzhi said, trying to comfort her. Maxwell then took out a pill from his space ring. Firia was astonished to see the white-colored pill. She knew it must be an Alchemy thing. However, she could feel the boundless energy inside that pill. This pill made by many rank 7 and rank 8 materials, and the pill rank itself was close to a god rank pill. So, even Alex kept Alicia with him, he would need a long time to even fulfill that. Maxwell then put the pill on Alicia''s mouth. When the pill dissolved, Alicia suddenly was in agony. She started sweating all over and made Firia worry. However, before she could look around her, Alicia suddenly stopped and became calm again. Lin Xingzhi looked at Maxwell, who nodded his head. He said, "The energy from the pill has gathered all the poison to her abdomen. All we need to do is to extract that poison from her body and recover her natural energy. She should be fine after that." "Then, that is easy." Lin Xingzhi nodded. She put her hand on Alicia''s abdomen and said, "Be a good boy and come out." She was planting her Spiritual Energy inside Alicia''s body to make a way so the Poison could get out. They then saw a dark green colored liquid start coming out of her pores. She then waved her hand as the green colored liquid flew toward Korzan. Korzan only grabbed it before burning it. After that, Lin Xingzhi enhanced her natural recovery speed. And soon enough, they could see Alicia''s pale face vanished. "Mhm¡­" Alicia groaned a bit before slowly opening her eyes. She looked at the unfamiliar ceiling. "Alicia!" Firia immediately came to her and hugged her. "Firia¡­" "Do you feel anything wrong inside your body?" Lin Xingzhi asked. Alicia looked at the otherworldly beauty beside Firia. "Yes. My body seems very energetic right now." "I see. Then that''s good." She nodded before turning her head to Korzan and Maxwell. Without any words, they already knew her intention. They only nodded and left the room. "Alicia! I''m glad¡­ I''m glad you are alright." Firia hugged her tightly. "Firia?" Alicia was still clueless as to what happened. She then turned to Lin Xingzhi, "Are you the one who cured me? Thank you very much." "Nice to meet you. I am Lin Xingzhi. Alexander Sirius''s past wife and will be his wife again in the near future." She said with a smile. "Eh?" Alicia was startled when she heard that. "You should try to move your body first. If you are alright, then I will explain everything from the start." Alicia did not know what to do, but after seeing Firia nod. She then nodded her head before carefully rising from the bed. She placed her feet on the ground and did not feel any discomfort. "Try to walk around." Alicia nodded and tried to walk around the room. "I am fine. I don''t feel any discomfort." "Then that''s good." Lin Xingzhi nodded her head. "Well, I will explain it to you first. You should know about the reincarnation thing, right?" She asked. Alicia and Firia nodded her head. "Ah, you¡­" "Yes. I am his previous life''s wife." "!!!" Alicia and Firia were astonished. Firia then asked, "Then¡­ this planet¡­ no, this place¡­" "Yes. This world is named Eulja. Or you can call it Spirit World. This is where previous Alexander Sirius was born." Alicia opened her mouth in surprise. However, after getting the knowledge from Maxwell, Firia asked, "He¡­ how was he? I mean, his previous life." Firia was also shocked by the fact that Lin Xingzhi was Alex''s wife. However, after looking at Maxwell and a few years pondering, she had expected something like this might happen. So, she was not that shocked. In fact, she had a deep respect that their relationship extended even after life and death. It was different from Alicia. The last thing she could remember was the parting between her and Alex. She never expected something like this. "Eh? Firia? You¡­" Even though Alicia was okay with Alex having another wife. This sudden thing completely blew her mind. After all, how could she expect that Alex also had a wife from his previous life and suddenly appeared in front of her? She did not know how to react. "I know. You might be confused with this, and I don''t expect you to accept me instantly. However, just know that we¡­ all of us loved the man called Alexander Sirius." Lin Xingzhi only smiled toward their confusion. "But¡­ you should have the same condition¡­ I mean, wouldn''t you accept us suddenly as Alex''s wives?" Firia did not know how to explain. "Fufu, that''s certainly not right. I mean, I have known all of you since a few years ago. In fact, I had known Alicia when Alex helped her group when she was trying to return to the Acacia Kingdom from Zircodina Kingdom. And Firia from the start of the academy." "Eh?" Both Alicia and Firia were startled when they heard that. It was certainly their first time meeting Alex. "How¡­ how do you know?" "That''s what I want to show you. Come with me." Lin Xingzhi guided them to another room. The room was pretty similar to their previous room. However, the lingering scent was similar to the perfume Lin Xingzhi used. "This is my room." Lin Xingzhi said casually. "Eh?" Alicia and Firia became tense after knowing it was Lin Xingzhi''s room. Even though she was Alex''s wife, it was still pretty awkward to come to someone''s room that you just met. But, Firia and Alicia noticed a big frame on the wall. There were four people in the drawing. One of them was the person in front of them, Lin Xingzhi. She was hugging a man from behind. And the other one was the golden-haired man sitting on the ground with a gentle smile. They were dumbfounded when they saw Alex''s picture in here. However, unlike the Alex they knew, Alex in the picture was more mature that gave another charm to his appearance. They immediately understood who was in that picture. It was Alex, no Previous Life Alex. However, they did not know who the other two were. The first one had long black hair tied into a ponytail. Her appearance looked like Alicia, from body and aura. However, unlike Alicia''s playful aura, the woman looked like she was a shy person. They also noticed from her eyes that she tried to take a glance at Alex. Although Alex had introduced his spirits to them back then, Anna was not present as she was dead set in killing the monster to raise her power. The other one was a golden-haired beauty. She was trying to hug Alex but was stopped by Alex''s hand. Her body was a bombshell like Firia. However, her aura felt like Alicia. They looked like they were in a plain that was perfect for a picnic. Alicia and Firia did not know why, but felt a bit jealous. All of them looked very happy. "Ah, this. This is Alex. The shy black-haired little girl there is Anna. And the golden-haired busty girl is Anya. They are twin sisters and also Alex''s wives. This is our previous family back then." Lin Xingzhi explained. "Uhm¡­ Can I know where they are?" Alicia asked. "They are on Alex''s side at the moment." "What?" Alicia and Firia were startled when they heard that. "Yeah. They are on his side, helping me take care of him." Lin Xingzhi smiled. Firia suddenly asked an unexpected question, "Will they recognize us?" Firia remembered that Alex should only be with Alicia if she did not intrude their life. So, she was a bit more skeptical about this. Lin Xingzhi only smiled when she heard Firia''s question. "That is not even a question anymore. He did not have any memories from his previous life. In other words, he was just like a blank paper. "You two are his wives in this life. And we are the ones who intrude on your relationship. Although he doesn''t have memories from his previous life, our existence is still etched in his bones. However, even if it is like that, he is the one who will choose whether he will accept our existence or not." "Are you the main-" Firia wanted to ask but stopped herself. "Haha¡­ You are exaggerating. Even though he does not have a previous life''s memory. I think he also told you about this. There is no number between us as he loves all of us unconditionally. In return, we also love him with our hearts. "All of us are sisters, sisters that could even raze a world down just for him." She said with conviction. Alicia and Firia were startled. However, they instinctively shouted, "We can raze a world down just for him too!" Firia added, "If we have power¡­" "Fufu, don''t worry about that. Both of you will train to get stronger. However, there is a slight problem for Alicia¡­ I can call you this, right?" "Yes." "You can call me Xingzhi." "You can also call me Firia," Firia added. "Sure. Alicia, Firia." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "What is the problem?" Alicia asked. "Well, unlike Firia, who already rebirth through Alex''s Sacrificial Fire. You are still under the influence of your lower world, Agar world. In other words, you can''t cultivate like us. Well, we can ask the Ice Phoenix Spirit Tribe to perform their ritual to make you rebirth, so your talent can be at the same level as Firia. "However, if they perform that ritual. You would not be able to retain your humanity and completely rebirth as a spirit. Well, Ice Phoenix is one of the closest tribes to humans in terms of appearance, so I don''t think there is much problem with that. But I still need to ask you whether you will do it or not." Alicia was surprised by the offer. However, thinking about her helplessness, how she could not help Alex previously, and just became his burden. Alicia decided. "I will help him no matter what the cost. I already promised him that I would stand beside him, not behind him. Please let me have that ritual." 371 Quick Story "Please let me have the chance to help him," Alicia said with a serious expression. "No need to be that tense. Well, since Vera already left her post to help Alex, we should crown you as the new Ice Phoenix Queen. Well, it is for later. For now, I think I should explain about Alex first." Lin Xingzhi said. Alicia and Firia suddenly did not say a single thing. They were very curious about Alexander Sirius in his previous life. "Well, this is about the war a few thousand years ago." "Is that the war with Alex''s current home planet?" Firia suddenly asked. "Oh, it seems, Maxwell has told you about it." Firia shook her head. "Uncle Maxwell just told me about the world type. And we stopped when he told me about the spaceship." "Well, we can start from there. I will just explain it briefly. There are five types of world. The world you lived in previously is Lower World. Alex was currently in the Upper World. This world is a Divine World that could have many gods and goddesses. The other one is an abandoned/ruined world as well as Exiled World." "Divine World¡­ Are you¡­" Firia noticed something off. She remembered that only god or goddess could stand in outer space. And she was standing like normal in outer space. She realized the one in front of her was a goddess. "Yes. I am Nature Goddess. Well, there are rankings for gods and goddesses, which are rank 10 to rank 1 or God King. However, we will talk about it in the future." She said. "Hmm, where should I start¡­ A few thousand years ago, there was this brazen world that challenged the entire universe. And many gods and goddesses were fallen in battle, including my father." "Ah¡­ Sorry." "It''s fine." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Anyway, at that time, our universe that holds countless worlds is in danger. When many gods and goddesses died, a beast suddenly came to this universe. A beast that was stronger than a God King came and rampaged this universe. "Many worlds were destroyed. And because our strength was weakened at that time because almost all of our God Kings died in the battle with that brazen world. There were only a few God Kings left in this universe, and one of them was Alex. "Alex was the absolute king of this world, Spirit King. He governed this entire world¡­ well, not exactly him since he sucks at this. Anyway, the one who helped him in governing this world is the middle-aged man that you saw before. He was Alex''s right hand man as well as his sword. His power is only second to Alex in the Spirit World, and he currently is a rank 2 God." "Anyway, that beast started rampaging in this universe. At first, Alex was not bothered by him. After all, Alex would not care about strangers. However, when his friends or family were hurt, he would become crazy that even made the Death God or the Battle God cower." Lin Xingzhi said while reminiscing the scene in her mind. "Then¡­ did he fight the beast because of¡­" Alicia opened her mouth in surprise. "Yes. At first, two of his best friends tried to pry the beast''s strength. They were Fire God and Strength God. Both of them were cute, especially the Strength God. He loved battle, but every time Alex was in a bad mood, he would hide himself as Alex would beat him to a pulp every time. However, after an unfortunate incident, the beast discovered them and killed both of them." Alicia and Firia gasped. If it were like she said, Alex would immediately¡­ "Yes. Just like what you are thinking. Alex immediately searched the beast''s location. It was at that time he found out the beast was coming toward this place. "That battle was crazy. Even with his power, he could not defeat him. They fought for a month, destroying many worlds around them. However, it was still futile. Although I am a God King right now, back then, I was only a lowly rank 5 God. Even Anna and Anya only a rank 10 God. We¡­ became his weakness." Lin Xingzhi clenched her fist tightly. "Because he knew he would not have an advantage if he fought that beast while protecting us. He tried to evacuate us. However, the beast was able to know about that and destroyed our plan. "It was at that time, Alex had no other choice. To protect this universe¡­ to protect this world¡­ to protect me¡­ to protect us¡­" Lin Xingzhi was shaking. "Alex decided to use his life to seal that beast." Alicia and Firia had goosebumps. They knew how hurt it was to see your loved one die¡­ especially when you were too powerless and became the cause¡­ They did not know why, but the tears came out. "I tried to search for his reincarnation these past few thousand years but to no avail. To think he was a rebirth in that Exiled World¡­ Anyway, it was at that time I found him in your Agar World. I never expected that he somehow got dragged to Agar World by that summoning. "However, I truly thankful that he got dragged to Agar World. It was because of that, I could meet him again. If I was not wrong, the god in charge of that world a few thousand years ago was Dungeon God. "He controlled a very special space element. He was also one of the God Kings that died in the battle with that world a few thousand years ago. I assumed he made a teleportation array before he died there. And that caused Alex to have a chance to teleport to this universe again." "!!!" Alicia and Firia were startled not because of her story. In fact, they were startled on how much she loves Alex. Even after a few thousand years of yearning, it did not make her give up in searching for him and love him again. "Around a thousand years ago, I made a power called Gacha System. I don''t know how it came to this place, but I felt this power did not come from this universe. "I thought since I met Alex again, I should have grabbed him to this place instantly. I¡­ no, We really missed him. However, we knew that it was not the best option. He is not someone who likes that. So, we decided to help him bit by bit instead of cultivating him in this place. "And because of the world barrier that prevented us from being with him, we could only use this system to communicate with him. Well, I am the only one who communicates with him though, since Anna and Anya decided to be converted as one of his spirits and summoned to help him." She then walked toward a computer and let them see the screen. "Well, this is a machine that I found a few thousand years ago. After fusing it with the Gacha System, it became the host of this Gacha System." Alicia and Firia looked at the screen. They could see a black-haired teenage girl. She looked very cute and youthful. They felt this girl had the potential to be a beautiful lady. "This is what Alex sees right now. Well, I always observe him this entire time. And this girl is Evelyn¡­ whatever. I forgot. I should go through the log again later." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Wait! Observe him this entire time¡­" Alicia suddenly felt something off. Lin Xingzhi puffed her fist on her chest. "Ehem. Of course, I also watched you doing that with Alex, and both of you had great vigor back then. At that time, I was so envious." Alicia and Firia immediately blushed. Their face was even redder than a tomato. They never thought she would see that scene. They were too embarrassed. "Haha¡­ You don''t need to mind that much. We will become sisters, and we might even do it together in the future. How about some wifey training with me? I can teach you many things, from the kiss to positions. Anna was so shy to learn it back then, while Anya was so eager to learn everything. Ahem, I taught her everything from teasing to seduction¡­ Fufu, just kidding." Lin Xingzhi teased them. If Alex were here, he would curse in his heart, saying something like, ''So, it is you who corrupt Anna to become troublesome like this.'' Alicia and Firia could not look up anymore. They were too embarrassed to even lift their head at this point. They tried to picture that scene, where they, Lin Xingzhi, along with Anna and Anya do it with Alex together¡­ They became too embarrassed when they thought about that. Although they had done it together with Alex and they had accepted Alex to be together with other than them. However, they never envisioned that scene where all of them gathered in one room. "Fufu¡­ Anyway, both of you will get stronger and stronger. And maybe we can set up a time to occasionally meet in this place, well, I also want to know more about my two new sisters. You can even talk to him through this. But training comes first, I guess. You can leave Alex to me for the time being." Lin Xingzhi said. When Alicia and Firia heard they could talk with Alex through that ''screen,'' they nodded their head furiously. However, they knew they had a more important task. (A/N: Maybe I can make a side story where Lin Xingzhi, Alicia, and Firia talked about every person Alex encountered from the Grand Duke, his teacher, etc. to people he meets in the upper world. It might be hilarious, making their reaction toward those people.) "Don''t worry. Even if you pursue power, you will only pent up stress. So, occasionally meeting me here and talking together with Alex through the system is what you should do." Lin Xingzhi said while shrugging her shoulder. Alicia and Firia looked at each other and nodded their heads. "I almost forgot about this. You talked about Spaceship, right? Well, a spaceship is a ship that could cross in outer space. They are fueled with Spirit Stones and protected by Array so they could withstand the condition in outer space. Well, if you reached God Stage, you would not need to care about that since your body could practically withstand that condition. Anyway, you will slowly learn about the knowledge while increasing your strength. For now, let''s meet both of your respective masters first who will teach you, shall we?" Alicia and Firia nodded. "Korzan, we are going to Ice Phoenix Spirit Tribe, tell the elders there to get ready." She sent a thought transmission to Korzan. "Since Alicia is going to be Ice Phoenix Spirit, I will have the elder in Ice Phoenix Tribe to teach you. Well, I will also occasionally drop by to teach you. However, for Firia, Firia will have Maxwell''s wife to be your master. "I assume she will bring you to another world so she could teach you intensively. Well, I will ask Zark if you want to meet with us. Let''s say we can chat once in one or two months¡­ maybe more. Well, when you start cultivating, your sense of time will get mixed up a little bit." Lin Xingzhi said. Alicia and Firia nodded their heads. They followed Lin Xingzhi to another room, and they could see two people in that room. The first one was Maxwell, and the other one was a silver-haired woman. She had this gentle smile on her face that made her seem approachable. Her appearance was very seductive. However, this smile made people could not say anything vulgar or have a bad thought about her. "Nature Goddess¡­" She stood up and greeted her. Her movement was elegant, and her voice was very soothing. "Aiya, you are still acting so stiff like that. We have been acquainted for a few years already." Lin Xingzhi said. "Hurhur¡­ my habit." She said. "Firia, this is your master who will teach you everything. She is Maxwell''s wife, and her strength is equal to rank 9 God. Her name is¡­" 372 Ice Phoenix Queen "Firia, this is your master who will teach you everything. She is Maxwell Evans''s wife, and her strength is equal to rank 9 God. Her name is Merry Evans, and as you may already know about it, she also has Sacrificial Fire Element. If you want to know about Cultivation or whatever knowledge, you can ask her." Lin Xingzhi introduced Merry. Firia was wondering if there was any tradition from the outside world about this. She bowed her head timidly, "Thank¡­ Thank you for having me¡­ Master¡­" "Hurhur, I grew up in a place where there is no custom about this. So, as long as you acknowledge me, then that is enough." She said after looking at Firia''s troubled look. "Yes." Firia nodded furiously. "Well, I don''t think I will need to send you to your home, right?" Lin Xingzhi looked at her before turning to Maxwell. "Of course. My dear husband will take care of the rest. Right, dear?" She looked at Maxwell with narrow eyes. "Ye-yes. I will take care all of it." Maxwell was startled and replied immediately. But, Alicia and Firia did not miss the tense he felt when he said that. "Hehe¡­ Although Merry''s strength is not more powerful than Maxwell, Maxwell could not hold a candle against her." Lin Xingzhi said in a playful tone. "I am just good enough to handle my dear husband. Why don''t you handle your husband a bit more carefully? I am sure no one will approach him like my Husband. Right, dear?" Merry looked at Maxwell with narrowed eyes. "My heart is always for you," Maxwell said with a tense posture. "No no, I can''t do that. We have different experiences. So, for me, I won''t ask Alex to do something like that. I even thought that if one is not enough, then we will have ten. We will have an army of wives and destroy a planet if they pick a fight with him." Lin Xingzhi said with a proud tone like she had given her the best answer. Alicia and Firia tried to envision that but to no avail. Lin Xingzhi immediately continued, "Well, It is true that I don''t want that much too. I mean, the time will be split more and more. Although it is good to see many sisters around me, it also feels wrong to have so many." In fact, she could think that way because of her previous experience. They were too powerless to handle many things. So, having an army of wives would also be good. However, she also knew that besides the timing thing, his enemy would also try targeting his wives. It could be solved by training them into a powerhouse. But it still took a long time, and their talent would also be varied. Firia was lucky to have Fire Element, so Alex could bestow his Sacrificial Fire to her. Alicia was also the same. With her ice element, she could be reborn into an Ice Phoenix Spirit since Vera had gone to aid Alex and left the position behind. However, if Alex had too much, they might not be able to help all of them. And if they got attacked by chance, it would become troublesome. So, she was thinking about having one or two more would be fine. But more than that might become a bit troublesome. Well, it was different if some goddesses would fall in love with him. She did not need to increase their talent or whatever. After all, they would already have a top talent if they could reach God Stage. Of course, if it were like Sherry, they would not mind since Sherry was one of the closest companions to him, and her talent had evolved after getting stimulated by Alex''s Pure Fire. She already had a talent as a Celestial Wolf, which governed upon fire, and with Alex''s Pure Fire, it was even more overbearing. "Well. Since we have finished here, I will bring Alicia to the Ice Phoenix Spirit Tribe. Do you want to come too?" Lin Xingzhi asked Merry. "Sure. My disciple surely wants to bid goodbye first." Merry nodded. "Oi oi, we have agreed about this. She will have a holiday once in a month or two." "Of course, I don''t forget about that. But, if she is in a critical stage in her cultivation. I want you to not do that." "Hmph, I know." Lin Xingzhi pouted. "Let''s go. We are going to the Ice Phoenix Tribe. Zark!" "Yes, my queen." Zark nodded his head. He teleported them again to the Ice Phoenix Tribe. The tribal area was in a snowy mountain. It was very cold, but after Lin Xingzhi erected a barrier, the cold could not touch them. A group of women suddenly came and greeted them. All the women were pretty. But Alicia and Firia noticed all of them had light blue hair. "We have been waiting for you, Your Highness." One of them stepped forward and kneeled in one knee. The others also followed her and kneeled. "Orba. We are going to make her undergo rebirth and become one of your Ice Phoenix Spirit. Well, Vera''s position is empty, so we will have her undergo the highest ritual." "Of course. That is our plan from the start. We are too indebted to His Majesty, even if it meant our tribe would perish, we would gladly give up our lives as long as we can help our king." The leader, Orba, said. "Haha, that is a funny joke. All the spirits in this place are his family. If they are hurt, he will become a demon and might accidentally destroy a world or two in the process. Well, he already did something like that in the present time. It was on a smaller scale though." Lin Xingzhi said. She remembered he somehow managed to ''cripple'' the Southern Kingdom because of Putri. "True, it is truly like him. That is also the reason why we, the Ice Phoenix Tribe, swore our eternal loyalty to him." Orba smiled. "Well, I will leave her to you." "Yes." Orba nodded. "I almost forgot about this. Maybe I should explain about the general circumstances of Spirit first." Lin Xingzhi turned to Alicia. "Basically, Spirits were divided into six elements, and each spirit will absolutely have one of the six elements. The elements are: Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder, Light, and Dark. "Of course, these elements are just basic elements. Just like the Ice Phoenix Spirit, they are classified as a water spirit. There are many others like that, but if I say all of it, I will need around a day since there are more than a thousand spirit tribes in this world. "As for the ritual, I am sure Orba is more knowledgeable about it." Lin Xingzhi glanced at Orba. "Yes. There are three types of ritual in our tribe. Clansmen Ritual, Elder Class Ritual, and King Class Ritual. Our ritual is very special. For our clansmen, they would enhance their attributes, which is Ice. And for another race, they could even be their race and become one of our clansmen. "This is what we want to do now. However, there is a certain pain Your Highness needs to endure if you want to convert yourself from human to Ice Phoenix Spirit. And as Your Highness will undergo the King Class Ritual, the pain you need to endure will be several times more since the conversion process is like dying and coming back to life a few times. "Even the previous queen, Vera, only managed to complete ninety percent of this ritual," Orba explained while looking at Alicia. Alicia looked at Orba as she gritted her teeth. "Will that pain be even more painful than the time where I needed to say goodbye to my husband? Of course, I will do it." She said with a serious expression. "Very well." "Oh, maybe you should show her your True Spirit Body since Ice Phoenix Spirit is not that different from humans in terms of appearance." "Understood." Orba nodded. "True Spirit Body is our last trump card. We can only use this technique for one day. We need to wait for a month before we can use it again. However, for the king class, it should only be a week before you can use it again." "True Spirit Body, Ice Phoenix Spirit Form." As soon as Orba said that. A pair of ice wings appeared on her back. Aside from that, she did not have any change in her appearance. "This is the power that can be used for the Elder class or above." Alicia observed her transformation. She indeed could not find any different other than her wings. However, having a pair of blue wings like that made Orba become more beautiful. "Oh, that''s right. Alex was a Spirit King, right? Since all spirits have an element, what element did he have back then?" Alicia asked. "Ah! He¡­" Lin Xingzhi looked up before glancing at Orba. Both of them smiled, "Alex had the seventh element." "Seventh element?" Alicia and Firia were confused. "Yes. Seventh Element, no element." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "He did not have an element. At the same time, he also had all the elements." Alicia and Firia were even more confused. "Well, he basically could generate an element and become a normal spirit in a battle. However, he could only generate random elements each time. So, when he was lucky, he might get an element that could help him. And if he was unlucky, he got an element that was completely useless in dealing with his current problem. "However, because of that, he became creative enough to solve every problem with all elements. So, no matter what element he got, he could use it skillfully to solve his problem. At the same time, he also used that setback to get stronger in both Sword and Spear." Lin Xingzhi said. Alicia and Firia nodded. "Then, how about Space Element? Which element it stemmed from?" Firia asked after feeling something wrong about Zark. "Ah, if you are talking about Zark. Alex saved him back when he was young. And he decided to swear eternal loyalty to him too. So, here he is. Right, Zark?" "Yes, my queen. I have sworn my loyalty to him, and that would never change. Even if I die, as long as I have a one in a million chance to recover the memory of my past life, I will follow him again." Zark nodded. "Anyway, we can talk about this in the future. So, we should start the ritual first since Merry might need to go back." Lin Xingzhi said. All of them did not have any problems. "Please, this way." Orba then led them to a small field in this snowy mountain. There was a circle in the center of the field. "Please stand inside the circle." Alicia followed Orba''s word and stood inside the circle. She prepared herself for the pain. "Your Highness, are you ready? Remember, you need to stay conscious." Alicia closed her eyes for a moment before opening it again. Her expression became serious as she looked at Orba. "Please." "*\u0026$(%*^$," Orba said something in their tribal language, and the circle started glowing. (A/N: Don''t ask anything about that language. I want to make it more realistic with symbols, but I can''t because of rules limitations. Sorry.) The snowing suddenly stopped as the snow-covered the circle. It looked like the snow giving their energy to Alicia. But before long, "!!!" Alicia suddenly felt pain all over her body. Even though she had prepared for something like this. The pain exceeded her wildest expectation. "AAAAHHHHH!" Lin Xingzhi and the others also started frowning. She could not help but ask, "Orba, why didn''t you use cold to numb her sense a bit? Couldn''t you reduce her pain that way?" "This is the only way if she wants to finish the entire ritual," Orba said. When she was about to say another word, Alicia suddenly gritted her teeth. Even at that unimaginable pain, she endured it and said, "No problem. I will endure it! Continue!" Lin Xingzhi''s body shook a little. Seeing her expression, Lin Xingzhi murmured, "Husband really chooses the right person to be his wife." Even Orba could not help but smirk from her determination. It was already not normal to endure that kind of pain. After two hours of agony, the sky turned to dark. Orba immediately chanted another spell, "*$^$#\u0026^." A thunder suddenly struck her. Firia wanted to shout, but she was stopped by Lin Xingzhi. She could see that even the lightning was frozen. The snow then covered her, making a giant snowball. It looked like a cocoon. Not long after that, the snowball suddenly burst out. Alicia appeared from within the ''cocoon'' with two pairs of ice wings on her back. When the Ice Phoenix Tribe saw her appearance, they could not help but let out tears as they kneeled and worshipped her. "Ice Phoenix Tribe, greet Her Highness, Ice Phoenix Spirit Queen!" This was the last step that even Vera could not handle. The true Ice Phoenix Spirit Queen, AKA Ice Queen. Lin Xingzhi could not help but have a goosebump. Even she could not predict this. After that unimaginable pain she needed to endure, she finally became the true queen. "Orba¡­ her talent¡­" "Yes. She is equal to the Spirit Beast that governs Ice Element." Orba nodded her head. Alicia looked around. Because of the process, she was naked. However, since almost all of them were women with only Zark and Maxwell that had long been ''finished'' by Merry, it was not a problem. Alicia tried to check her body. She realized she was naked, but she did not feel any cold at all. However, when she realized she was naked, she immediately covered her body with her hands. "Kya-!" Lin Xingzhi immediately appeared in front of her and gave her clothes. Firia looked at Alicia while clenching her fist. Firia could endure something she might not even be able to endure. However, it did not make her lose heart. Instead, it gave her a new motivation. "Alicia¡­ I am not going to lose." Firia said with a smile. "There is no winner or loser. We get stronger because we want to help him, right? Well, I am up to the challenge though." Alicia smirked. Firia nodded before heading toward her master. "You sure you don''t want to talk more?" Merry asked. Firia shook her head. She looked at her with great determination in her eyes. Merry smiled. "We are going then." Firia and Alicia looked at each other for the last time before Firia left. Lin Xingzhi only smiled when she looked at this. She was proud of her two new sisters. 373 Slave "You¡­ you are the one who triggered the golden sky!" When everyone heard that, they instantly realized why she said that. Together with his unparalleled progress and this phenomenon that was caused by his wife. They could somehow picture it in their head. All of them thought the same thing, ''If his wife could do it, he should be able too.'' The people from Heavenly Sword Sect were more convinced that was the case because they had a memory about Alex''s master. Alex''s master was a god-like being, there was no way his disciple would be an average cultivator. Of course, Alex could not just say ''yes. I am the one.'' He tried to lie with a poker face. "I don''t know what you are talking about. I know about the phenomenon, but I don''t know the person who triggered it." They twitched their eyebrows as they cursed inwardly, ''There is no point hiding it anymore!'' "You... you can''t fool us anymore," Letizia shouted. Suddenly, they felt a killing intent from the side along with a woman''s voice, "It''s true that someone said ''Ignorance is bliss.'' Sadly, there is always someone who is foolish enough to poke something they shouldn''t. If you just say it anywhere, you might be able to stay alive. Fufu¡­" They turned their heads only to see Anna grabbing her scythe. When they saw that, the people from Rainbow Flower Sect immediately took out their weapon. However, the people from Heavenly Sword Sect did not. Even if they knew about it, they would not dare to do something against Alex. "What is this? Are you going to fight? Don''t forget we have a Martial King with us?" One of the elders from Rainbow Flower Sect shouted. Her eyes were glancing toward Xiang Bai. "Why don''t we talk about this first? We can settle it with Heavenly Oath." Cecilia said. "Like mother, like daughter. You two immediately go toward Heavenly Oath to settle it." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Even with Heavenly Oath, your daughter could convince you in a roundabout way and led us to this situation. And do you think I will believe it again?" "Alex, Nelson should already finish in killing the entire Royal Family from the Southern Kingdom, right? Call him here and have him kill all of them¡­ No, Leoz should be enough to kill these bunch of people." Anna was telling them that killing them was a piece of cake for them. When they heard that, Cecilia and the others immediately released their Spiritual Energy. "You won''t get away." Alex flicked his finger before an array appeared in front of him. The array immediately erected a spherical barrier and trapped all the people from Rainbow Flower Sect inside. The people were bewildered. They knew how Array Master made an Array. However, Alex just made an array with a flick of his finger. This was insane, and they never knew Alex was also an Array Master. "Silver Cut." Cecilia immediately struck the barrier. Even though Alex had used his Space Element to enhance the barrier. As expected from a Martial King. It could put a big crack on his Jadeite Mirror Array. However, Alex immediately took out Nelson''s card. "Summon." Nelson was surprised he was summoned here. But, he instantly knew why Alex summoned him. "Nelson. I am sorry to trouble you here. But I need all of them to die." Alex said coldly before glancing at Xiang Bai, Charya, and the first elder. As soon as they felt his glance, they knew what to do. Although it was a shame, they would need to do it. Nelson also released his Spiritual Energy. "3-Star Martial King?" Cecilia immediately recognized this energy. It was not from Xiang Bai. Instead, it came from the young man that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She sweatdropped. They would not survive a full barrage from two Martial Kings, especially when she looked at Nelson, who appeared to be a young man. Even though she also appeared to be young, in reality, her age was the same as Xiang Bai. She just luckily ate a medicinal herb to maintain her youthful appearance back in the day. However, it was different from Nelson. If a young man like that was so powerful, what about the old man behind him? "Oi oi¡­ Alexander¡­ No, Young Master Alexander, how about exchanging our favor and let us go this time?" "That favor is nowhere enough to buy your lives. You are just trying to fish in troubled water. In fact, without the Rainbow Flower Sect, I can solve the trouble alone." Alex said coldly. "Young Master Alexander. Can you just please let us go this time? We can cancel the favor, and we will be the one who owes you a big favor instead. My daughter is still young, and we can treat this as a life lesson." "Life lessons are good. Sometimes, it costs you some money. Sometimes, it costs you a fortune. Unfortunately, this time, it cost you your lives." Alex said coldly. Letizia just realized what kind of blunder she unconsciously made. It was never her intention to say it away. She was just too surprised with what she found and unconsciously blurted it out. She suddenly kowtowed. "Alex¡­ No, Master Alex¡­ I will become your Slave. If you want me to die, I will die. If you want my Sacrificial Ice, I will give you. Even if you want to use me at night, you can do whatever you please. But¡­ but¡­ Please, spare my mother and the others. This is all my fault." "Letizia!" Obviously, Cecilia was dumbfounded to see her daughter suddenly did this. She gritted her teeth, "No. If you want to take someone''s life, just take mine. I am the only Martial King in the Rainbow Flower Sect. My life is worth more than the others." Her action made the people from Heavenly Sword Sect hesitate. However, Anna was still unconvinced. "Hmph, your Pure Ice Element is still not awakened yet. Killing you here is better since you cause us endless problems, especially with Rainbow Flower Sect. And do you think you are important just because you are a sect master or Martial King." Cecilia gritted her teeth and shouted, "We are breaking through them. Inform all the other disciples to retreat!" "You won''t go away." With all this time, Nelson managed to secretly make his usual trap. With just a flick of his finger, there was a dark circle beneath their feet. From that circle, the black tentacles appeared and restricted their movement. "Shadow Bind." Nelson''s Shadow Bind restricted all of them from moving a single step. Cecilia might probably break away at any moment. However, at the same time, Nelson came to Alex. "Young Master. I think we should accept her as your slave." "?!" Alex turned to Nelson with a confused look. "I mean, we can nurture her for a while and give her Sacrificial Element to Lady Alicia." Nelson gave a suggestion. Little did he know that Alicia managed to become a true Ice Phoenix Spirit Queen. And because ''the system girl,'' AKA Lin Xingzhi was accompanying Alicia and Firia to go through all of that, she could not inform him. If he knew about it, he would not suggest this and killed all of them here. And when Alex knew about it later, he could not break his promise as he was not someone who could easily break a promise. Alex contemplated a bit. It was indeed a bit tempting to do that, and it would give Alicia a powerful strength. However, Alex knew they had another problem. "What about the others'' memories of this? If they try to spread it, I will be in trouble." "Don''t worry, Young Master. I have the solution for that. I could manipulate their memory a little bit. Although it is not at the level of sealing or erasing memories, it still deviates the memory a little bit. In other words, they will only remember they have a casual talk in this place. But they will never remember they talked about the Golden Lightning." Cecilia broke away from the restrain and tried to help the others. However, at this moment, Nelson disappeared once again. Cecilia tried to stop him with her sword but to no avail. His movement was so fluid and escaped from her pursuit. He appeared again behind Letizia with his sword on her neck. This action froze everyone, including Cecilia. "If you do anything to her, I will fight it out with my life!" Cecilia shouted at Nelson. "Her offer is interesting. Since she is not awakened yet, I will forcefully awaken it. I heard that the easiest way to awaken a Pure Element is to have them experience something remorseful. Let see¡­ how about killing you because of her mistake?" Nelson said coldly as he disappeared. Cecilia raised her sword as Nelson appeared in front of her. Their sword collided with each other, and Cecilia suddenly pushed him back. "All elders, Hurry up and break away from that skill. As soon as you break free, take Letizia and leave! I will stall him here." "You think you can buy enough time for them?" Nelson said coldly. When she heard that, she felt her cheek was hot. She realized that Nelson managed to graze her cheek with his sword at that exchange. "Mother! No¡­ No!" When Letizia saw that, she shouted as tears started forming in her eyes. Just from her speech alone, she was planning to die in this place. Letizia looked at Alex as she kowtowed again and again. "Please¡­ I will do anything¡­ please don''t kill my mother and the others¡­" "Little girl¡­ That''s not the problem here. Your offer is interesting, but I still can''t let them go because they know too much." "We can swear Heavenly Oath¡­ we promise we won''t tell anyone." "You already promise you won''t go against him and won''t tell anyone. In reality, you explained it to them in a roundabout way. Do you think your word, your Oath, your promise, or whatever it is, is credible?" Nelson said coldly. Letizia gritted her teeth. It was like he said. Everything was her fault. If she did not say anything from the start, they would not go to this place and get this trouble. If she could control her emotion, she would not blurt Alex''s Golden Lightning at that very moment. However, she could not do anything other than begging Alex. "Please¡­ Master¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows as he could understand why Nelson did this. Nelson wanted to let Alex be the good guy while Nelson became the bad guy. Alex could only sigh, "Stop. Nelson." Nelson acted like he was surprised by his order. He tried to give his reasoning to Alex, "But Young Master, they still know-!" "Enough. You have a skill that could manipulate a certain memory, right? Use that!" "Yes, after reaching Martial King, this is one of the uses of my soul. But even if I can do it, I can''t let them go. If I change that memory, they will just leave without a price! At least, you need to take her as your Slave! I am sorry if I offended you, but this is my request, Young Master." Nelson said. Alex closed his eyes while furrowing his eyebrows. He looked like he was weighing something. After a while, like he had made a decision, he opened his eyes and looked toward the people from Rainbow Flower Sect. "That depends on the opposite party." "No! If you need a slave, then you can just have me. I am more beautiful than her and a Martial King! I am more useful than her." Cecilia tried to protect her daughter. "Mother!" Letizia shouted. She knew she needed to bring this to an end by her own hands. She had to solve the problem she made. She looked at Alex, "With Heaven and Earth as the witness, I, Letizia La Scola¡­ "Wait, Letizia!" Cecilia shouted, trying to stop her. However, she could not go to her as she was stopped by Nelson. "Letizia La Scola, shall be the slave of Alexander Sirius for the rest of my life as I swore my eternal loyalty to him and all the things I have is his, including my treasure, my body, and my life." 374 Conclusion "I, Letizia La Scola, shall be the slave of Alexander Sirius for the rest of my life as I swore my eternal loyalty to him, and all the things I have is his, including my treasure, my body, and my life." The Oath had been established. Although it was similar to Heavenly Oath, the word ''Eternal Loyalty'' had a big meaning. It was more like a Slave Oath, rather than a Heavenly Oath. Alex also felt something because of this oath. He felt that her life is linked to him. If he wanted her to die, he would just need to think about it, and her life would be over. Alex then narrowed his eyes, asking himself, ''Is this girl a fool or something? I have yet to promise that I will not do something to them. I can still kill all of them and have her as my slave. Fu¡­ This girl is lucky enough to unconsciously win a gamble since I am not someone who will break a promise.'' "Letizia, you!" Cecilia was grieving about the fact Letizia became someone''s slave. "Mother¡­ please¡­" Letizia looked at her helplessly. "Fine. You can do whatever you want with my memories. Even though she is your slave, if I know she is treated badly, I will kill you no matter what kind of price I need to pay!" Cecilia said while glaring at Alex. Nelson looked at the other elders. They gritted their teeth and let him do whatever he wanted with their memories. They had no choice as Cecilia and Letizia already decided to sacrifice themselves. Nelson immediately changed all of their memories, except Letizia''s. After all, if she did not know about this, she would just repeat the same mistake. Nelson planted them a new memory in them. In their new memory, they could only see they had a normal chat with the others. After planting the new memories in their mind, Cecilia and the others still had a blank look. "They will be fine in a few minutes. It is in the process of adjusting to their new memories." Nelson explained before coming back to Alex. "You can do pretty much everything, aren''t you?" Alex looked at this reliable guy. "I am your ''Shadow.'' I will control everything from the dark, so Young Master can rely on me to do anything like Assassinating, Espionage, Manipulating, and the like." Nelson said while bowing his head to Alex. "Heh¡­" Alex looked at Nelson and shook his head helplessly. He then looked at Letizia, who slowly approached him. "This Slave greets Master." Letizia kneeled without an expression. It was like she had given up her life. "I will stay at your place, Master. You can do whatever you want with me." Alex was not sure what to do with this, as he never had any experience like this. If he had accepted the Elven Queen as his slave back then, he might have the same feeling as the one he had now. "Go back to the sect with your mother and those elders. Take this experience as your lesson to make sure you don''t run your mouth easily." Alex gave her a cold gaze. Letizia opened her mouth in surprise as expression came back to her face. She had prepared for anything that will come later, whether if she will be rap*d, or anything. She could only hate herself as she just made a blunder that changed her entire life. However, when she heard she could go home, she was surprised. "Just remember that I can kill you at any time. And nothing escapes my surveillance, so if you try to do something funny, I will know. At that point, it won''t be you, but the entire Rainbow Flower Sect." "Yes, Master." "And drop that slave act, it makes me feel itchy." "Yes, Master." Letizia rose to her feet before bowing to Alex. "Like I said, drop that master thing." Letizia shook her head. "I can''t, because of the Oath." Alex narrowed his eyes and sighed, "Well, whatever. I don''t care if you hate me or whatever, but should you do try to harm me, you will face my wrath." "Yes. I will never forget Master''s benevolence." "Young Master, what should we do about them?" Nelson suddenly spoke while looking at Xiang Bai, Charya, and the first elder. "They should not be foolish enough to say something about that." It was as Alex said. After knowing that he had a Martial King close by, they feared that Alex might have more. And the reason why his Master came out when they were attacked by four Martial Kings was because he did not have many Martial Kings around him at the moment. As someone who experienced the high and low in their life, they were not foolish to disclose this fact to others. When they heard Alex''s and Nelson''s conversation, they immediately nodded their heads. "Then, since everything is settled, I will go back to my house." Alex then turned to Anna, "Anna, let''s go." "Ye-yes!" Anna was wondering why Alex decided to take her since she could not hear what Nelson said to Alex. Nelson bowed to him before he disappeared. Xiang Bai and the others helped Letizia take care of her mother and the elders. "Don''t be sad. He never treated his friends and family badly. Well, although there is some friction with you, thus resulting in this situation. I think he won''t treat you that badly." Charya tried to comfort Letizia. Letizia could only nod. "I¡­ I just want the best for my sect. I never expected that the thing I thought it was the best for my sect, became a nightmare because of me. I hate myself." "Nobody is perfect. And what he wants is companions, not a slave, I think. You are the one who will decide your future." Charya shrugged her shoulders. "..." She did not say anything. Meanwhile, Anna was questioning Alex''s decision. "Alex, why do you let them leave like that? Have you not realized Heavenly Oath is futile? Although Nelson planted a new memory, it was only for those elderly. That girl already made us trouble because of this Heavenly Oath thing, and you still forgive her? Don''t tell me, you..." Anna said with a shocked look, thinking if Alex had fallen in love with her. Alex shook his head. "It is for Alicia." "Alicia?" Anna contemplated a bit before she realized what he meant. "!!!" Looking at her expression, Alex smiled. "Firia already has my Sacrificial Fire, thus it should not be a problem for her talent. But Alicia¡­ Even though Master is helping her, I still doubt she will have a better one than Sacrificial Ice Element." "..." Anna looked down, weighing something. She sighed, "Well, you might be right. I need to make some schedule to educate her as a good slave¡­ Wait, I can''t say that. I will educate her as a good subordinate later." Alex shook his head. If those people came back to their sect, they would be under Njomo''s surveillance. So, Alex thought it would be fine as they would not escape Njomo''s eyes if they were planning something for him. After settling all of it, Alex started cultivating again. He wanted to make sure he had enough strength to fight the elders. ¡­ The following day, Lin Xingzhi finished her business with Alicia and Firia, she learned about the matter regarding Letizia. She did not know what to do regarding this matter. She was a bit skeptical regarding their relationship. After all, even though he accepted her as a slave, she would have more time with Alex in the future. And with how Letizia thought their relationship was because of the benefit, it made her angry. And what made her angrier is the fact that she could not teach her a lesson on how to be Alex''s slave. Although she had sworn eternal loyalty to Alex, her loyalty was still unquestionable, unlike Zark. If she could just open the world barrier again and grab this Letizia, she would train her and maybe train her to be a wife material. She had a Pure Ice Element, and she was also beautiful. With just a little more polishing on her appearance, she should be as beautiful as Anna. However, since she could not do that, she did not tell Alex about Alicia since Alicia would be the one who will tell him later. And she decided to wait for the future whether Letizia would still be Alex''s slave, Alex''s subordinate, Alex''s friend, or Alex''s companion. ... Three months later, Alex was at the peak 5-Star Martial Lord. He needed an entire month to advance a star before he started consolidating his cultivation because he did not have his wine anymore. He felt he could have a breakthrough anytime soon in a few days. He also did not forget to teach Evelyn. Evelyn had become a peak 8-Star Martial Grandmaster under his tutelage. Charya wanted Evelyn to reach 9-Star Martial Grandmaster before the tournament started. Still, from her progress, she would be able to reach 10-Star Martial Grandmaster in the last three months. Evelyn would then dominate the entire Grandmaster stage tournament. At that time, Alex would need to win the tournament so he could get the prize from the system. After all, the price was very tempting. Njomo also kept watching the movement in Rainbow Flower Sect. It seemed they did not say anything because Nelson planted memories. And according to Njomo, after that setback, Letizia progressed by leaps and bounds. She even managed to reach 6-Star Martial Lord within these three months. And with another three months before the Grand Tournament, she might even reach 8-Star or 9-Star Martial Lord. Alex speculated that she had awakened her Pure Ice Element because of her experience in becoming his slave. Fortunately, at the time being, she seemed pretty docile as she was cultivating this entire time, so the next time he might meet her would be in the Grand Tournament. At least, Alex did not need to worry about her for the time being. Charya notified him that she would come later to explain the token tournament for him. So, he decided to stop cultivating and checked everything. [Anna (Dark) Level: 38/80 (8-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 31024/290000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 40/80 (10-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 297665/310000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 44/80 (4-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 3346/350000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 123545/270000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 34/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 213455/250000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 34/80 (4-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 234549/250000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 34/80 (4-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 219956/250000] [Anya (Light) Level: 33/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 165887/240000] His spirits had been working hard these three months. Sadly, because of the scarcity of powerful monsters, Leoz did not progress that much compared to others. Although Nelson, who was already a Martial King, managed to get one level, it was because he was near to level up before. He was sure that Anna, Leoz, Nelson, and Fabio would become a Martial King before the Grand Tournament with his EXP cards. And he might even be able to level up another one to Martial King with the reward he got for the Grand Tournament as he would a UR EXP card, which can level up a whole realm if he won the Lord Stage Tournament. Alex then checked his ticket status for the first time in these three months. [Gacha Ticket x1649] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x0] Alex thought about using all his normal Gacha. He would then get many Rare EXP cards to level up his spirits. This way, he would be able to level up Anna and Leoz to 1-Star Martial King at the minimum. However, just when he was about to say it, the system suddenly said, [Host, I suggest you exchange five Premium Tickets this time.] 375 Alicia [Host, I suggest you exchange five Premium Tickets this time.] "?!" Alex was startled to see the sudden notification from the system. "Why? I need to level up the others, so I think I will use all of my tickets to Normal Gacha." [I can only advise you about this, Host. However, I can guarantee you that you won''t be disappointed to exchange away 1000 Gacha Tickets] Alex was furrowing his eyebrows. He knew he would be the one who made a decision as his system only advised or supported him. He contemplated a little while before gritting his teeth. "Exchange 5 Premium Ticket! And use them!" [Processing] [Gacha Ticket x649] [Premium Ticket x5] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x0] When the system used his Premium Tickets, he already expected that the system girl would appear again. He waited for her. However, when she really appeared, his mouth was wide open. "You¡­ you¡­ you¡­" Alex wanted to call her, but he was in complete shock as he could not even utter her name. A woman appeared while bringing a white box. She had long purple hair, wearing a cute white delivery suit like the usual delivery girl. Her pale face was still fresh in his mind. However, the fact that she suddenly appeared in front of him was real. She said with a cheerful but soothing voice, "Alicia Van Rizertia¡­ No, I should change my name. We never had that tradition back then. Hmm, Alicia Sirius, no Alicia Van Sirius is cooler. Ahem, Alicia Van Sirius brings your package, Husband." Alex immediately ran toward her and hugged her as tight as he could. "You are fine, right? Right?!" "Uhm¡­" Alicia dropped the box to the floor and hugged him back. She hugged him back gently. "Don''t worry about us, Husband. Sister¡­ Ahem, well, we are in the system''s headquarter. Although we can''t talk to you that much, we will appear from time to time. Well, sis¡­ system will take care of you in our hands. So, we can increase our strength at ease." Alex did not say anything as he only hugged her, conveying how he missed her. Alicia looked at her hand that started becoming transparent. "I think it is time for me to go. Husband¡­ Please believe in us." As she said that, Alicia then disappeared. Alex could not say anything to her. Then, a message appeared in front of him. It was Alicia''s message. [We are going to train so we can help you in the future. Don''t slack too much, alright. Ah, don''t ask anything about the system after this, since you will know about it sooner or later. - Alicia] "..." Alex stared at it for a while before closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "I am going to win this." Seeing Alicia and Firia were fine, the burden in his heart had finally gone after he realized Alicia was fine. He did not know why, but he had this feeling like the feeling he got after beating John. Alex closed his eyes a little bit. Suddenly, he felt a surge of Spiritual Energy inside his body. He tried to see what happened but could not find anything. Although he had acquired the knowledge about Meridian, veins, and the like, he could not see any of that inside him. It was like he was completely normal. He also had seen the others, but they were also completely the same as him. Alex was confused as to why he could not find someone that had something like that. He thought this was the norm in this world, and the knowledge was for another world. He did not know about the Earth since he did not have Spirit Eyes or whatever back on Earth, but he could confirm that no one in the Wilow Continent, or at least, no strong people in this continent had one. So, the only possibility of that was because of his Heart Demon. According to his memory, ''Heart Demon is a practitioner''s negative emotions and other mental barriers which hinder their training/cultivation. In some cases, it can even attack the practitioner from the inside, and failure to adequately resist them may result in Qi Deviation.'' He got all of this from Alchemy Knowledge, or it was more like the Path of Medicine. Alex pondered for a moment. He never knew about this thing back then before he reached Martial Lord and got the knowledge. However, absorbing all of that knowledge was easy for him. After all, it was like copying an entire file and pasting it. It was different from sorting, as Alex needed to check the knowledge one by one. And after this long, he finally sorted all of the knowledge that he got from that golden lightning. And this was his conclusion from his knowledge. He remembered in the past, he often took a break when he was not in the mood to cultivate. And he thought he was lucky that he took a break at that time since he might have Qi Deviation. And according to his memory, he would need to take on this Heart Demon in his Martial King Tribulation. After all, it was the birth of his Soul. And thankfully, he already knew that Alicia and Firia were safe, so he should be fine as long as he prepared. However, just when he was finally finished refining the surge of energy, the second surge of energy suddenly came. Alex was surprised why he suddenly had this second surge. His Pure Fire suddenly went out of his Phoenix Seed as it helped him in refining this Spiritual Energy. After a few more minutes, Alex had the sign of a breakthrough. Alex was wondering if he would have some problems if he broke through because of this. However, it seemed that the energy from a Heart Demon was a Pure one as it was absorbing his Pure Energy from his cultivation from time to time. In other words, his cultivation could go even faster since his worry had disappeared. However, it still could not be compared to the joy he felt when he knew Firia was fine, and Alicia had recovered. However, he could not comprehend the reason why there were two surges of energy. The only possibility he could think of was because there were two Heart Demons, one for Firia, and one for Alicia. After thinking about that, Alex decided to savor all the energy. And before long, ''6-Star Martial Lord.'' He finally advanced from 5-Star Martial Lord to 6-Star Martial Lord. He never expected that he could do it with his Heart Demon as he usually consolidated his cultivation normally. He thought he finally changed the misfortune in his blessing. After he broke through, he did not immediately leap out of his bed and jumped in joy. He continued refining the rest of the energy. After a few minutes, Alex opened his eyes and smiled gently. He rose from his bed and went out to the balcony. He just wanted to look at the sky and said, "Firia, Alicia, wait for me. I will go to your place as soon as possible." And at that particular time, Alex suddenly remembered Alicia called the system with ''Sister.'' Although she did not continue with it, that thought was still lingering inside his mind. However, from Alicia''s note, she warned him not to ask about it to the system as he would know about it in the future. He pondered for a while before he decided to ask. However, he did not ask about her identity. Instead, he was asking, "System, I don''t know who you are, but you are also a human, right? At least, this system¡­ what is it?" [System is a mysterious power that even the owner can''t explain, Host.] Alex looked at it dumbfoundedly. It was truly as he expected, the system was really not normal. And the delivery girl or what he called the system girl, it should be the rumored owner. He shook his head because this entire time, he had been chatting with someone, instead of a system. "Anyway, Thank you for taking care of both of them," Alex said. [I am still waiting, Host.] Alex was startled to see that. The system still remembered his intention when they first met. Back then, he wanted to unravel the system. "Yeah. Wait for me. I want to meet what kind of person that helped me this entire time, and I also want to thank you for Alicia and me personally." Alex smiled. Alex then felt a Martial Lord came to his house. It seemed Charya had come. However, before he came to meet her. Alex still had another problem. He looked at the white box that contained five gacha balls and opened the gacha balls one by one. [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5] [Gacha Card (R) x1] [Cleaving Axe Technique (R) x1] [Sky Piercing Bow (UR) x1] [Miltoa Herb (C)] After getting another 5 Summoning Tickets, Alex finally had 10 Summoning Tickets. Although he was curious about the Gacha Card, ten Summoning Tickets was more tempting to him. "System, use 10 Summoning Tickets." [Processing] [Artur (UR) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] ¡­. ¡­ .. [Exp Card (SR) x1] [Nano (SR) x1] Alex was surprised by his luck today. Not only did he meet Alicia, but he also managed to have a breakthrough even though he would need a few more days to consolidate. After that, he got another UR spirit, Artur, and another spy, Nano. According to Anna, Artur was a hero type spirit with Light Attribute. However, he needed to meet him first to make sure of his character. He just hoped that the Hero was not like John, who was a HEro. As for Nano, he actually did not have any mission for him. For the time being, he had covered the basic information of the continent. Maybe, he would send Nano to Mount Hua Sect since they had a direct conflict with them. But, judging from their situation, he did not need to do it as Mount Hua Sect should not pose a problem to them. So, he might send Nano to either Hazel Kingdom or Buddha Sect since they never interfere in this conflict. In fact, he did not like them. It was not because they were a threat to him. It was just because he never knew what they did in this troublesome time. He wanted to make sure they did not pose any threat to him, especially in the Grand Tournament. After all, it was a special event for him. At least, he hoped they did not do something to make the tournament canceled since he wanted the prize from the system. Well, for the time being, he didn''t summon both Artur and Nano since he would meet Charya soon. Alex pondered for a while whether he would use his Box Gacha for the first time or met Charya first. Ultimately, he decided only to use his normal Gacha Tickets first and used the Box Gacha after he met with Charya. "System, use all of my Gacha Tickets," Alex said with anticipation. Since he got lucky today, he was wondering whether he would get many EXP cards from the system. [Water Bottle x1] [Summoning Coin x1] ¡­. ¡­ ¡­ [Scarlet Mace x1] [Wooden Stick x1] [Summoning Coin x1] Alex leaped out of joy when he saw what he got. Normally, he would get around eighty Summoning Coins with six hundred Gacha Tickets, but today, he got a hundred Summoning Coins. He immediately used all of his Summoning Coins. When he realized he got twenty rare EXP cards from a hundred Summoning Coins instead of his usual ten rare EXP cards, Alex could not stop grinning. "I love Alicia. I love Firia. I love you too, System." Alex laughed. These twenty EXP cards were truly huge for him. [Love you too, Host] "Well, sometime, you will have this lucky day that you think everything is going your way. Ah, I really wish I have this luck every day," Alex said. Alex took a deep breath to calm himself down and opened his room as he was planning to meet Charya. 376 A Little Competition When Alex stepped outside his house to meet Charya, Charya suddenly grabbed him and dragged him to the sky. "Wait, wait! Elder Charya, why are you dragging me?" Alex was completely clueless as to what happened. "It is about the Token. The sect master is holding the competition for the token, and he refused to tell us this entire time. And this morning, he said he would hold the competition today, so we need to assemble in front of his house." Charya replied. "Wait. What?!" Alex was dumbfounded when he heard that. "How about the competition? What kind of competition is that?" "I also don''t know. In fact, no one knows except the sect master. That old bastard had sneaked around recently, so he must be planning for something like this." Charya grumbled. She also felt irritated when she learned all of this. "I am bringing you there since you are the only one who knows nothing. Especially since I am the one who takes care of your participation. So, they all just gave me the news and expected me to grab you." "..." Alex was speechless. He was a bit embarrassed since he indeed depended on her for this tournament. However, Alex was wondering what kind of tournament it would be as Alex felt a fight between Martial Lord would be an insane battle. "Is it going to be a tournament like Outer Disciple Tournament and Inner Disciple Tournament?" Alex asked. "Nah, considering how sneaky that old man these past few months. I am sure it won''t be anything like that. In fact, don''t you feel bored to have that kind tournament every year, especially when you will have another tournament in case you get the token today." Charya grunted. "..." Alex could not answer. He thought for a while. The Outer Disciple Tournament and The Inner Disciple Tournament were a classic tournament. It was the oldest way to hold a tournament. "How many people are in this competition?" Alex asked. "Hmm¡­ If I am not wrong, including you and me, we have 23 people." Charya said while looking up, trying to recall the number. "23?" Alex pondered for a moment. As Charya said previously, the number of people would not be more than thirty. However, this competition was far more difficult than the Inner Disciple Tournament. After all, back in the Inner Disciple Tournament, he could see 5-Star Martial Grandmaster still participating in the tournament. However, it was different for this competition. "Every elder is participating, except the sixteenth elder. We have summoned her back to the sect, but we found out that she was killed together with the Makmur Family. So, for now, that elder seat is empty. "Well, since she was in the Makmur Family back then. She might invite someone''s wrath and ended up dying because of that together with the Makmur Family. For example, your wrath." Charya said playfully. Alex twitched his eyebrows because Charya was spot on. He was indeed the one who killed that b*tch. "Haha¡­ Even if it was you who killed her, I am still thankful. I always gave her face since she was one of the elders in this sect. And I loved this sect because of my old man. So, I always refrained myself from killing her. But, since she did not die in my hand, then I did not need to be remorseful." "I was the one who killed her though." Alex shrugged. Charya looked at her for a few seconds and laughed. "Hahaha¡­ Good job then. Well, we have many elders candidates. But it seems the sect master is planning to leave that spot open until we win the Grand Tournament. "Or, maybe you want to be an elder? Well, don''t mind with the number since it does not mean your rank in the sect." "Nah, I am planning to go to the other continents, so I will pass," Alex said with a plain tone. "By the way, who are the participants in this tournament?" "Well, all 19 elders are participating in this tournament, along with you and three other core disciples. The weakest elder in this competition will be the Twelfth Elder with the cultivation of 8-Star Martial Lord. Well, if I did not have your wine back then, I will be one of the weakest. "As for the core disciples, all of them are 7-Star Martial Lord, except you who is a 6-Star Martial Lord. But, considering your performances and your fight against me, I think you would be able to fight the core disciples as well as most of the elders. "However, for 9-Star or 10-Star Martial Lord elders, I am afraid it will be hard. Anyway, I don''t know about the competition, if we just need to fight, I won''t be able to help you since I am also planning to get one of the tokens." "Yes. I won''t lose." Alex said with a small smile. After a while, they finally arrived on the small island inside the twenty peaks. Alex could see many elders out there. It was the same for them. As soon as they arrived, all eyes instantly locked on Alex. Alex had brought them many surprises. First, from the information, Alex was brought to this place almost three years ago. And he was a 2-Star Martial Master back then. In his first year, he made a ruckus in Battle Tower and got first place with a perfect score. He then dominated the Outer Disciple Tournament and shocked them with the true Seven Stars Cut. At that time, he created a new trend where Elders and disciples gathered in one place to learn sword art. In his second year, Charya mobilized the entire ninth peak and destroyed the Bell Family. And not long after that, they were shocked by the sight of the golden sky. Only Charya, Xiang Bai, and the first elder knew about it though. He then made his name in the Southern Kingdom as someone who helped in the war. However, they never thought Alex would suddenly throw that away and offended the entire Southern Kingdom just for his senior sister. He then became the first place in the battle tower for Inner Disciple and defeated Alex''s flawlessly with his Sword and Spear Technique. Although they were curious about it, they did not dare to ask Alex about it because the sect master had warned them. And he finally arrived at this place with his 6-Star Martial Lord cultivation. Of course, this piqued their interest. Alex saw the elders with his Spirit Eyes. There were four 10-Star Martial Lords who were the first elder, the second elder, the third elder, and the fifth elder. Besides them, there were seven 9-Star Martial Lords, including Charya. And lastly, there were eight 8-Star Martial Lords as well as the three Core Disciple beside him. Alex had seen one of the Core Disciple. Of course, he could not forget about her as she was someone who helped him in exterminating the Bell Family. She was one of the Martial Lords in the ninth peak, Nina. Beside her, he also could see another beautiful young lady. When he looked at her, Charya immediately sent a thought transmission, "She is the disciple of the first elder." Alex looked at Charya and nodded. He just had a feeling he would need to fight her in this competition. Well, he never had a feeling like this, so he thought it was just a false alarm. Not long after that, the sect master finally arrived. "I am sure you have been waiting for this. I will explain as we move to our designated location for this competition. We will hold it in the Trul Forest, which is near our sect. So, follow me." Xiang Bai said as he flew toward the west. When they saw that, they started following him. At the same time, Xiang Bai started explaining about the tournament. "There will be eight tokens inside this forest. I hid them personally. The rule is simple. You can go wherever you want in that forest. "The token''s position will be revealed from time to time. As long as you get that token, you will be eligible to join the Grand Tournament. However, if you have the token, you can''t move from that position for 30 minutes. "If someone appeared and challenged you for the token, you are obliged to fight. The fight can be one by one fight, or maybe a battle royal with three or more people. "The rule for the fight is simple. Fight to the fullest, but make sure you don''t hurt your opponent that much. After all, we are going to have the Grand Tournament in three months. If you won the fight and got the token after waiting 30 minutes. Then, you will bring the token to me. "I don''t know what kind of tournament will be held for the Grand Tournament. It might be the plain Old Tournament or a competition like this. So, I am preparing all of you for that since I heard that there would be an envoy from the Northern Continent that will help us in dealing with this tournament. "Anyway, even if you come from the same peak, you are not to ally yourself with him/her. In other words, this competition will be only you and twenty-two participants. I will trust you in this matter, and if I know someone makes an alliance, you will be disqualified. And wear this badge in your chest. As long as the badge gets destroyed, then you are out. You are free to ask me if you have any questions." He explained while heading twenty three small badges to them. No one asked him a question as his explanation was clear enough and they were busy putting on the badge. They flew toward the Trul Forest silently. The sect master led them toward the center of the Forest. When they landed to the ground, the sect master sat on a big rock. "Anyway, you are free to search for the token. But, in the first five minutes, you can''t fight. At the same time, you can''t follow someone or whatever." "Now, go!" When they heard the sect master signaled them to start, they immediately bowed to him and disappeared. Charya came to him first before he left, "If I meet you, I will fight you with all I got." Alex nodded his head, and both of them disappeared in the opposite direction. He did not fly above the woods. Instead, he was running inside the woods to mask his presence. Alex suddenly remembered something. He took out Anna''s card. "Anna, I have something to do. So, I am going for a while." "Is it for the competition?" "Yeah. Oh, that''s right. I haven''t checked Sherry and Kyle in these three months." "Don''t worry about them. Sherry has reached 8-Star Martial Lord, and Kyle has reached 7-Star Martial Lord." Anna said casually. "..." Alex was a bit surprised. He tried to remember their cultivation stage. He was sure that all of them were in the early stage of the Martial Lord not long ago. To think their progress was even more monstrous than him. Well, it was to be expected since they got all the resources they needed to cultivate. He did not check their cultivation back in the war three months ago since they were inside his body the entire time. So, their progress shocked him a bit. He shook his head. "I need to focus on this competition first." After the five minutes up, Alex had yet to find anyone. It was the same for the token. The forest was huge, so he would wait for the sect master to reveal their position. He also did not use his Spirit Eyes since he would be able to locate the others'' position. It might sound foolish, but he did this intentionally. In the Grand Tournament later, he might not be able to avoid a fight. So, he was practicing to fight anyone he would meet. But considering he was lucky today, he should not have a hard opponent. Or so he thought¡­ When Alex tried to move toward another direction, he could feel a presence coming toward his location at high speed. He turned his head and saw a blue-haired beauty. She had ocean blue eyes, but the most noticeable thing in her face was the mole that surprisingly did not ruin her pretty face. Alex recognized her as he took out his weapons, which she also did the same. It was the first elder''s disciple, and this made him start doubting his luck again. "?!" Both of them stared at each other. 377 Battle Royal Alex looked at the blue-haired beauty as he released both of his domains. After these past months, Alex''s domains were both 80 meters. However, in this fight, he did not use it first so he could make a great impact. If he played it right, he could surprise them and made a surprise attack. So, in this fight, Alex only released 40 meters domains. Although it was already ridiculous, it was not that surprising, considering Alex''s progress. Even the blue-haired girl was not surprised that much. Although her sword domain was only 35 meters, she did not need to fear the difference of five meters. "I, Silvia, as the disciple of the first elder, can''t afford to lose this fight!" The blue-haired girl said. Alex did not give a damn about her. He did not know whether it was her pride or her duty as the disciple one of the 10-Star Martial Lord in this sect, but Alex also had his circumstances. He would need to win this fight. Alex jumped forward and swung his sword toward her neck. Silvia raised her sword domain and slid her sword toward Alex''s sword. She tried to deflect the sword, but Alex did not give her a chance. "Immovable Step." Since he had advanced two stars after the fight with Charya and with the addition of 5 dragon strength, Alex''s strength had become 16 dragon strength, which was four more than Charya. He used every ounce of his strength and pushed her back. "!!!" She retreated a few steps because she was surprised to feel Alex''s strength. Alex did not give her a chance as he raised his spear and thrust it to empty air. However, the tip of his spear started glowing before it released a kind of light arrow. "Quick Silver." It was his Spear Art. The moment he shot his ''Quick Silver,'' it forced Silvia to raise a defensive stance to destroy Alex''s attack. However, Alex used that moment to follow his Quick Silver while thrusting his spear. "Boom!" The Quick Silver was destroyed by Silvia''s sword, but she still needed to block Alex''s thrust, especially when she saw the glowing spear. "Silver Sovereign!" Alex was thrusting his spear with the power of Silver Sovereign. "Dual Blade!" Silvia did not cower in front of the powerful Silver Sovereign. She had known this movement since Alex used it on the Inner Disciple Tournament. The moment she used ''Dual Blade,'' Alex could see another shadow beside her. The black shadow transformed into Silvia''s appearance. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes for this. And it turned out the shadow was controlled by Spiritual Energy. In other words, he could partially ignore this shadow while attacking the real Silvia. However, the shadow suddenly made the same movement as Silvia and attacked Alex. "!!!" Alex realized what she was aiming for. She did not aim toward him, but her real objective was to attack his Spear. If she attacked him, Alex could block it with his sword. However, the reason why she attacked his spear was to deflect his spear before finishing him. Alex suddenly stepped on the ground and let him fly above her head. He felt something wrong when he looked at the smile that suddenly appeared on her face. The sword that was aiming for his spear suddenly changed its direction. Alex realized that she did that to bait him. He could not move his spear at the moment, so he was forced to block these two attacks with his sword alone. "Seven Stars Cut." They released the same moves. Unfortunately, Alex could only make one Seven Stars Cut because of his state. In contrast, Silvia made two Seven Stars Cut together with her clone. If not because Silvia''s Seven Stars Cut was only 6-layer, Alex would immediately lose this exchange. The clash between one seven layers Seven Stars Cut with two six layers Seven Stars Cut made a huge shockwave. Little did they know that in the nearby ground, there was an old man that felt that shockwave. He raised from the ground as his white hair fluttered because of the shockwave. He took a deep breath before he disappeared. Alex was blown away because of the shockwave made by Seven Stars Cut. Alex never expected that he would be in this situation. It seemed the elites¡­ no, since she joined this competition, she could also be considered as Elder Class elites. Just as he wanted to release his domains and defeat her with a surprise, they saw an old man appear in the middle of their battlefield while clenching his sword. Alex recognized him as he was the one who brought him to this sect, The seventh elder, Conn Kindellan. "Circular Sword Dance!" The moment he swung his sword, Alex and Silvia saw a ring that was circling around him. However, before they could do anything, they saw the ring suddenly expand toward them. Alex and Silvia immediately swung their sword to destroy this circle. Because both of them attacked it at the same time, they managed to destroy the ring. Although Alex knew Conn in the past, they were still in battle. It was foolish to reminisce about the past, especially with this fight turned into a battle royal. Alex threw his spear toward Conn Kindellan. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." Looking at this, Conn released his Sword Domain and swung his sword. However, Alex felt that he would be able to block his spear with that kind of swing. And when Alex just thought about that, Conn suddenly slid his sword a little bit, and his spear flew toward another person. "!!!" When Silvia saw that, both her and her clone immediately swung their swords simultaneously. Sadly, Alex''s Spin Throwing was not that easy to block. So, rather than blocking it directly, she chose to avoid it. However, Alex finally noticed her weakness. When she was avoiding his spear, both her and her clones jumped in the same direction even though they should have split up a bit. He realized that she could not control the clone if it were far away from her. Alex took out another spear from his Space Ring as well as twenty swords. This would be a rumble between him, Conn Kindellan, and Silvia. Silvia also took a deep breath, even though she managed to get an advantage on Alex just now, she realized Alex was really strong as the same trick would not work on him twice. However, with the addition of Conn Kindellan, who was a 9-Star Martial Lord, their situation was not good. She thought it would be hard to fight Conn Kindellan, and it proved to be useless as this was not a battle for a token. She wanted to retreat after she realized that. However, escaping from this place would be hard since Conn would chase them down. So, the only solution for her was to team up with Alex and run away. Of course, this kind of team-up was not considered a team battle. It was just like ''the enemy of your enemy is your friend.'' Both of them just wanted to fight this ''enemy'' alone but at the same time. When she saw Alex take out his special twenty swords and shifted his attention toward Conn, she knew Alex must be thinking the same thing. With that, she took a deep breath before shifting his attention to Conn. At least, in their mentality, they were teaming up. Alex made his twenty swords charge at Conn Kindellan. However, Alex did not stop there. He raised his spear and swung it down. And the one that came out of his spear was five streams of light. "Pentagram Slash!" "!!!" Conn Kindellan immediately clenched his sword. He already expected something like this since Alex already showed that he could use Sword Art with his sword and his spear. But, it was still surprising to see it with his own eyes. When Conn wanted to blast these swords away, he saw Alex pull his sword to his back. It looked like Alex wanted to launch another attack with his sword if he swung that sword toward him. Unfortunately, Conn needed to handle these many swords first before he could worry about Alex''s attack. And he also needed to be wary about Silvia''s attack as she also almost swung her sword. However, when she was about to swing her sword, she sensed danger from her side, not her front. When she realized that, she instinctively swung her sword toward the side. However, it was too late. The attack had pierced her clone as it continued flying toward her. She did not have enough time to block it with her sword. Luckily the clone had received it first, when she tried to defend it with her Spiritual Energy and Body alone, it did not manage to pierce her skin and do fatal damage. Even though it did not do any fatal damage to her, she was still blown away because of that attack, and she crashed into a big tree. It turned out Alex did not swing his sword. Instead, he thrust it. It was the reason why Alex purposely pulled his sword behind. It was to camouflage his intention. Conn and Silvia thought that he would attack Conn. However, Alex used that thinking to his advantage as he used his Quick Silver toward Silvia. At the same time, the twenty swords that flew toward Conn Kindellan suddenly changed their direction from Conn to Silvia. However, to stop Conn from moving, Alex used his Pentagram Slash. "Singular Blade!" Conn had no choice. He thought he would need to deal with those swords, so he already made his Sword Art. However, he originally intended to blast Alex''s Pentagram Slash as well as his twenty swords simultaneously, but he could only see the swords turned away and plunged Silvia. Alex then appeared in front of Silvia as he swung his sword toward Silvia. She immediately raised her sword to block the incoming attack, but Alex shifted his balance a bit to slide his sword and pass her defense. After he completed his objective, he made a distance again while looking toward Conn. "You-!" Silvia was obviously angry as she found out that Alex had cut her badge. This could only mean one thing. She already lost her right for the token. "Oi oi, I thought I got the vibe that you are going to attack me together¡­" Conn looked at Alex while nodding his head. "Yeah, for a second, I felt like ''enemy of my enemy,'' you know." "You bastard!" Silvia looked at Alex with hatred. She never thought Alex deceived her so he could launch a surprise attack on her. "Silvia, you can''t do that, you know. You can''t participate in this battle anymore since you lost your badge." Silvia could only grit her teeth as she glared at Alex. Conn only shook his head helplessly. He looked at Alex, "Well, you are a bit brutal to women, aren''t you? To think you use that to sneak attack her." "It seems she has forgotten about the rule. This is a battle royal, and the sect master said we couldn''t team-up. Beside¡­" Alex paused a little bit, making Conn and Silvia tense. "I always think women are the same as men. In other words, gender equality. That''s why, if I happened to be a lucky pervert that suddenly came and saw a woman who was bathing in a lake or something and tried to slap me or kill me, I would fight back with all my strength." Alex said in a cool voice. Conn and Silvia were dumbfounded when they heard that. "Well, I learned it in a book¡­ storybook¡­ somewhere, a long time ago." Alex shrugged. It was truly a long time ago. Alex then took this slight hesitation to appear beside Conn. "!!!" As expected of Conn. Although he was surprised by Alex''s speech, he did not drop his guard as both of them swung their swords at the same time. "Seven Stars Cut!" 378 Another Opponen "Seven Stars Cut!" As expected for one of the veterans. Even when Alex sneak attacked him, he was still able to react. Both of them made Seven Stars Cut, and Conn''s Seven Stars Cut also had seven layers. "Boom!" The shock immediately blasted both Alex and Conn away. "Sneak attack, huh¡­ Don''t underestimate me, brat!" Conn said as he released his 50-meter sword domain. Alex''s eyes became sharp as he took a deep breath. He fully released both of his 80-meter domains. "Wha-!" When Conn and Silvia saw that, they were shocked beyond their imagination. Silvia realized that Alex still held back against her, in fact, Alex only released half the size of his domains. Alex jumped forward as he started engaging with Conn in close combat. Alex fully used his powerful strength to fight Conn. He still remembered Charya''s advice, and he could not drag this for too long. When Silvia watched their clashes, she was dumbfounded. She never thought that Alex, who was only a 6-Star Martial Lord, had the strength to contend with a 9-Star Martial Lord. If he was a 7-Star or 8-Star Martial Lord, she could still relate after considering his past performances. After all, Alex always defeated opponents that had 1-Star or 2-Star above him. However, this time, it was 3-Star. In just a span of a minute, they were clashing a hundred rounds. Alex tried to suppress Conn with his Sword and Spear. Coon seemed did not have any problem with Alex''s sword and spear techniques. However, she could see that Conn had a problem with handling Alex''s brute strength. She certainly remembered that Alex''s power was twice as her, AKA 16 dragon strength. However, what made him abnormal was the fact that Alex was only a 6-Star Martial Lord. If this were the case when Alex became 10-Star Martial Lord, he would at least have 20 dragon strength, and he would be unstoppable if he became a Martial King. She would not believe it, but the fact was in front of her eyes. She had her pride as the student of the first elder, and she promised him to win or at least fight a hard battle with the elders. Sadly, she lost to Alex in their first fight. She wanted to regret it, but at least she needed to watch this fight to the end. Although Alex could be said to be suppressing Conn Kindellan, it was just a slight advantage. To defeat Conn, Alex would need a stronger power, especially since Alex had a lower cultivation base. If he dragged too long, he would exhaust his Spiritual Energy and lose to Conn, and it seemed Conn was trying to do that. Alex was thinking about using his fire in this competition as well as in the Grand Tournament. After all, as long as he won this, his name would reverberate through the continent. At least, no one was foolish enough to challenge him and question him about his fire. Well, he also had his Fire Phoenix Seed as camouflage, and his identity as Alchemist was already well-known. In fact, he did not really worry about the tournament. After all, he should be able to reach 7-Star or 8-Star Martial Lord at that time. And with his progress speed, he would be able to reach the Sword King realm before the Grand Tournament. Together with his Spirits reaching Martial Kings, he would not need to be afraid of Martial Kings from other sects. However, Alex indeed had another problem. Charya said there would be an envoy from the Northern Continent that would help establish the Grand Tournament. That was one of the problems as he did not know how much he could show to them. And another problem would be the potential threat from the Zhou Kingdom as well as whatever influence that backed them up. It was too early for him to worry about it. After all, when that time came, he should already be able to handle 10-Star Martial Lord with his 8-Star Martial Lord cultivation alone. However, this time, Alex was still too far from Conn, especially when his Immovable Step had reached its limit of 5 dragon strength. Alex took a deep breath. Since this was not the battle for the token, Alex decided to back away. With this much fight, Conn should not chase him since it would be a foolish move. Unfortunately, when he thought about that, eight pillars of light suddenly rose to the sky. Alex and Conn immediately recognized that light. It was the eight token. But the thing that made him irritated was when he saw one of the tokens was a few meters away from them. It had been concealed pretty neatly. Alex did not have the chance other than fighting Conn here and grabbed that token as soon as possible. Fire started surrounding Alex''s sword and spear. When Conn saw that, he immediately retreated a few meters away from them. "Wait¡­ I forgot you are an Alchemist¡­ As an Alchemist, your control of fire should be powerful. I see, because your Sword and Spear Technique, I¡­ No, all of the people from Heavenly Sword Sect forgot about that. You have been hiding this ability this entire time!" Conn said. Alex did not say anything to him. "To think the disciple that I brought to this place three years ago, became my rival in this battle." Conn shook his head helplessly. "I am grateful to you for bringing me to this place, but I have my circumstances. I am planning to win this and participate in the Grand Tournament." "Then, you need to defeat me first to grab the token. "That''s what I am going to do." Both of their eyes became sharp as they swung their sword at the same time. "Seven Stars Cut!" Both of them released their Seven Stars Cut simultaneously. Although they were at the same level, the winner was already decided the moment Alex released his fire. Conn Kindellan also realized that as he prepared himself to dodge the Seven Stars Cut. But before he could even do that, Alex already surrounded him with his swords. Conn already did what Charya did. He thought by knocking the swords away and planting them in the ground, Alex would not be able to pull them out with technique alone. However, because Charya had shown him that, he already prepared the countermeasure. As long as one of the swords was alright, Alex could control that sword and help the other swords out of the ground. "Tch!" Conn clicked his tongue as he knew he could not avoid this. "Singular Blade!" Alex already saw this technique. Conn''s Singular Blade was similar to his Pentagram Slash. Although it was not as powerful as Pentagram Slash, it could release more slashes. And Conn used it to knock the sword away before facing Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. "Haaa!" Conn was using every ounce of his strength to destroy Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. The clash was brief, but Conn was still staring at Alex. He thought Alex would use this to move around him and strike him. If he did that, he would be able to counter him. However, to his surprise, Alex did not move from his spot. "Boom!" The sword wave exploded as Conn managed to destroy it. He had prepared for Alex''s next attack, but it did not come. He could see Alex was raising his spear. But before Alex swung it down, he felt danger from his left. When he turned his head, he saw a sword flying toward him while rotating around in the air. "!!!" Conn pulled back his head to avoid the sword. It turned out that Alex''s spear was bait so he could launch a surprise attack from the side. But, Alex failed to defeat him with that. He smirked, "You won''t defeat me that easily." Alex only shook his head as he lowered his spear. Conn did not know why Alex shook his head. He wanted to charge toward Alex once again, but stopped when he saw Alex''s right hand pointed at his chest. Suddenly, Conn felt something wrong, he looked down toward his chest and saw his badge was already cut. Conn finally realized what happened. When he tried to remember what Alex did, he could only shake his head in defeat. To think Alex played a mind game against him. Silvia dropped her jaw to the ground when she realized Conn had been defeated by Alex. Since she was on the side, she could clearly see what happened. It was when Conn clashed with Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. At that particular time, Alex raised his spear to shift his focus to his spear. And with the spear length, Alex succeeded in directing his attention to the top. However, Alex suddenly tossed the sword in his right hand as low as possible before controlling it to make a surprise attack for him. Because Conn focused was toward Alex''s spear that was above his head, he would not notice Alex''s sword had gone from his hand and almost reached him. When the Seven Stars Cut broke, Alex made the sword rotate precisely so it would cut Conn''s badge. Alex chose to do this so he would not use his Spiritual Energy more than this. After all, he already spent half of his energy. When Conn realized he had lost, he laughed uncontrollably. "Hahaha¡­ to think he defeated me. Ah, you are really something else. Well, go and take that token. I am sure you will make a bang when you enter the Grand Tournament. I will be cheering for you." Alex nodded. "Thank you." "Anyway, I will go back to the sect master''s position and wait there," Conn said as he turned to Silvia. "Are you going with me or going back to the sect directly?" Silvia sighed. "I will follow you. I have disappointed my master, so I will take the punishment from him later." "Haha, don''t say it like that little lass. I also lost to that guy over there, so I will help you convince that old brick." Conn laughed. Alex looked at them disappear into the woods. He let out a sigh as he felt relief. He then started walking toward the token. The token had a golden color, and a Sword was drawn on the token. However, when Alex was about to grab that token, he froze. "To think I will meet you in this place," Alex said tiredly. "Hoho¡­ This must be fate. In fact, I have been watching your fight from afar." An old man appeared from within the woods. Alex turned around and saw the familiar old man. "Do I really need to fight you in this state, Third Elder?" Alex never expected that he would meet a 10-Star Martial Lord in this competition. If it were another 9-Star Martial Lord, he would be able to defeat them. But, it was different for 10-Star Martial Lord. "Did I use all of my luck earlier?" Alex cursed inwardly. He looked at Elder Dolf Kolk and said, "I can just give this token to you and search for another one." "Do you think I will let you go?" Elder Dolf narrowed his eyes. "Not good, huh¡­" Alex sighed. "Well, escaping is also a no go in my state since you can chase me easily." "Anyway, you are still too young. Considering your progress, I won''t be your opponent if you have another year. Sadly, you don''t have that time." Alex took out his Sword and Spear. "There is only one way for me to finish this." "It is good if you can understand it." Elder Dolf said with a smirk while releasing his 60-meters sword domain. Alex also released both of his domains to the fullest. He was still coming up with the plan to defeat Elder Dolf. And it seemed his fire alone would not be enough. So, the only way to defeat him was to reveal another trump card. Alex took a deep breath to prepare himself for that. The moment he finished, both Alex and Elder Dolf disappeared. 379 Sword King "Boom!" "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." "Seven Stars Cut." It made a huge shockwave when the phoenix collided with the sword wave. Alex had been fighting him for a few minutes. It was an intense clash, but Alex could feel that Elder Dolf was not using his full power. Alex gritted his teeth as he finally steeled his heart. He was wondering which trump card he would reveal to defeat Elder Dolf. He got a few trump cards. First, he could use his array to defeat him. Second, he could fuse both of his intents to make a stronger intent. It should let him fight Dolf Kolk on equal ground. However, it was already weird enough to have two intents, and if he fused it in front of him... When Alex was thinking about that, Elder Dolf spoke. "I don''t mean to stop you on your path. I just want to test you whether you are worthy of being one of the people that will represent our sect in the Grand Tournament or not. "After seeing you like this, you are indeed equal to 9-Star Martial Lord elders if not stronger." Elder Dolf contemplated for a while before he said, "Well, I will give you one challenge. If you can surprise me, I will leave this place and let you get the token." "Surprise you?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. You can surprise me with whatever you got. After all, I still feel you are holding back, and I don''t like it. Even with my strength, I am not one of the top ten in this Grand Tournament. So, with your cultivation speed, you should be able to advance another star which can make us equal in strength. "But, you still could not handle the people that are stronger than me. That''s why show me! Show me the strength that is capable of toppling those people! I know you have that strength, you just don''t want to show it. "I don''t know why you hide that, but I assume you want to win the Grand Tournament, right?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he said, "Yes." "Then, show me! If you are afraid I will blabber this to anyone, then I can assure you I won''t! Even with Heavenly Oath, I can still find a way to tell the others. I, Dolf Kolk, assure you with my deceased parents'' names, I won''t tell anyone about it. I don''t care about Heavenly Oath as I find this is the highest level of promise that I will ever have in my life!" Dolf Kolk said with a serious expression. Alex even felt goosebumps when he heard that. He felt that what he said was true. But Alex was still contemplating as he did not know whether he should do it or not. He could certainly surprise him with his array or his ''Twin Intent.'' but it was too ridiculous. It was already hard enough to reach his level in domains alone. Coupled with his Alchemy Talent, if Alex showed it to him... Alex was gritting his teeth as he remembered that only the sect master and the first elder that knew about his Array. "Domain?" Alex realized something. It was about his domain. He gulped down as he thought about something that was less surprising than the other two, albeit only a little bit. He was planning to change the shape of one of his domains. It should be surprising enough. And with the fact that Alex had an extraordinary talent in the sword, he should not question that much. Elder Dolf would think that it was possible because of him. After all, he also could use Spear Art with his sword. Alex also remembered that the sect also had a Sword King as their founder. There should be any record about this in the sect. And as someone as powerful as him, he should know about it. He was currently half-step to Sword King, so if he showed this, he should be qualified. It was a bit frustrating that he could not do anything other than show him something like this. If only he had more time, he would be able to beat this old man without relying on something like this. He took a deep breath before canceling his Spear Domain. Dolf Kolk was frowning when he saw that. He did not understand why Alex suddenly recalled his Spear Domain. But suddenly, his jaw dropped when he saw Alex domain changed its shape from a sphere to a cube. "Wha-!" He never expected that Alex could change the shape of his domain. "Did I pass?" Alex looked at him while narrowing his eyes. "Ye-!" Just before he said ''yes.'' Dolf Kolk bit his tongue and said, "No!" "What?" This time, it was Alex''s turn to be surprised. He was clearly surprised by his domain, but this old man still said no. "This is not enough to beat those old monsters!" Dolf Kolk roared. Alex''s emotion was already on the edge as he was frustrated about the fact he could not do anything. If it were the past him, he would just think it was normal he could not do anything. But Alex managed to reform himself. Alex wanted to be angry, but it only showed that he did not think it through. He still had many other trump cards, so he could not get work up just because of that. "Not enough? Ha...ha...haha¡­ Are you really clueless as to what I just did?" Alex let out a small laugh as he clenched his sword. Suddenly his domain started shrinking. "!!!" Dolf Kolk was confused by this. He thought Alex must have given up. After all, even though what Alex did surprised him, he really felt it was nowhere enough to defeat the top ten contenders for the Grand Tournament. But he was wondering why Alex said he was clueless. He thought it was only for show and had no meaning but Alex''s word kept lingering in his mind. The domain continued shrinking. 50 meter¡­ 30 meter¡­ 10 meter¡­ 5 meter¡­ When the domain shrank to one meter, it shrank a little bit more before moving toward Alex''s sword like a liquid. Alex gritted his teeth as he felt a numb sensation in his hand, but he still managed to swing his sword once. "Seven Stars Cut!" "!!!" Dolf Kolk was surprised by this sudden move. He thought Alex had given up the moment he recalled his Sword Domain. But he suddenly realized that Alex did not recall his sword domain. Instead, he compressed it. He realized what just happened. He understood the reason why Alex said he was clueless when he showed he could change the shape of his domain. As one of the oldest elders in the sect, he already read many books about swords. And it happened when he read an ancient book. It said, ''He, who does not hold a sword, but still wields a sword, shall cut down all of his enemies with the blessing of the sword. For he, is the King of Sword.'' "Seven Stars Cut." He also used the Seven Stars Cut to destroy Alex''s sword wave. He realized it too late. He never knew what that sentence meant, especially with the part about the blessing of the sword. After watching Alex, he finally realized. The blessing of the sword meant Sword Domain. Dolf Kolk watched the clash between their Seven Stars Cuts, but the result was already clear. Alex''s Seven Stars Cut immediately cut through his sword wave and made its way toward him. He immediately swung his sword to challenge this Sword Wave. "!!!" He felt how strong Alex''s Seven Stars Cut was. He used every ounce of his strength as he roared, "HHaaaa!!!" "Boom!" When Alex watched his Seven Stars Cut explode, his legs finally gave up. He never thought that what Dolf Kolk did, triggered him into using that move. In his practice, he could change his domain, but whenever he compressed it, he could not channel it to his sword. He did not know why, but he clearly succeeded in doing that. With this, he officially became a Sword King. He fell to the ground as he completely used all of his energy. He could not even lift his sword again, let alone have another fight. So, what will happen next, he did not care about it. He looked at the smoke that appeared because of the explosion of his sword wave. He was trying to see through the smoke to see what happened to Elder Dolf. After a few more seconds, the smoke was finally cleared away, and Alex could see Dolf Kolk''s figure with a big wound on his chest. Even his sword was broken. However, his body twitched a bit before he looked at Alex. "Bahaha, I never thought you are really a Sword King." He walked toward the token and looked at it a bit. He then turned to Alex and tossed the token to him. Alex caught the token while looking at him. "Are you not going to participate in the Grand Tournament?" "Don''t joke. There is no way I won''t participate in this kind of event. I will just search for another token after this. Hahaha¡­ To think there is another Sword King in this sect, and he is in front of me!" Dolf was laughing wholeheartedly. "Don''t worry, I won''t say anything about this. In fact, If you just decided to show it in the tournament¡­ Ugh, I am really looking forward to it. Those people will cower as we have a new Sword King after more than a thousand years! Right, don''t worry about the others, I had checked our surroundings before we fought, so there should be no one that will bother you. So, take your time and recover your energy." He then left after he said that. Alex looked at him and shook his head. He was tired after using all of his energy. Sherry and Kyle were also not with him, so he was alone. Alex focused on recovering his energy. At least, after he checked his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes, there was no sign of monsters or people around him, so he should be fine. He was wondering what kind of opponents he would face in the Grand Tournament. Elder Dolf alone was already that strong. Although he had his confidence in beating all of them after a bit more training in these three months, he was still curious. After all, he might need to reveal his power if the opponent was stronger than Elder Dolf even after he reached 7-Star or 8-Star Martial Lord. However, at the very least, he already dealt with the Southern Kingdom. Even if they came to participate in the Grand Tournament, he thought they would not have a single 10-Star Martial Lord since Bima had died. After all, he remembered that each kingdom would only have one 10-Star Martial Lord. Zhou Kingdom aside, Alex did not know whether one of the top ten in Elder Dolf''s mouth was the 10-Star Martial Lord in the kingdoms. And it seemed that he was not the strongest in the sect. Assuming he was the weakest 10-Star Martial Lord and the other sects would have the same number, then there should be more than ten people he needed to wary. Of course, it did not mean he was afraid of them. He just wanted to make sure he knew about them first and made a plan to win. After a while, he decided to go back since he already waited for more than thirty minutes. He needed to go back and show the token, so the sect master approved him. When he reached the initial location, he was surprised as he could see Charya there, and she seemed to have passed the test. When she saw him with his current state, she was surprised. "Say, who did you fight?" Alex pointed at the seventh elder and Silvia. "Eh? But they have been here for a while." "I fought Elder Dolf." Alex sighed as he handed his token to the sect master. "..." Charya was surprised and could not say anymore. Even the sect master, Elder Conn, and Silvia were shocked. "That ruthless old man that doesn''t know how to hold back?!" All of them screamed like they just got the shock of their lives. 380 Situation Two months later, "You need to trick your opponent. Who cares about honesty or whatever it is, as long as you win, then it is good." There were two people training in the field. The first one was a golden-haired man that looked like a devil, and the other one was a black-haired woman that had been covered by bruises. They were Alex and Evelyn. Alex had been training her nonstop, and in these past months, she managed to reach 10-Star Martial Grandmaster. Of course, it was because of Alex''s pocket. With his 200 million Spirit Stones, he could even raise her to Martial Lord easily. However, Alex decided to stop her cultivation and focused on her sword training. They only had one month left before the Grand Tournament, and Alex decided to raise her Sword Domain from 20 meters to 30 meters in this one month. Of course, Alex never slacked off, even with Evelyn''s training. He would soon reach 8-Star Martial Lord. After that, he would be able to make rank 5 Array. Because of that, Alex decided to stop his cultivation as soon as he stepped in 8-Star Martial Lord and started his Array training. Alex''s domains also had reached a hundred mark. Although he had been training his Sword and Spear, as one would expect, it was hard to advance as he reached Sword King. He could use his Domain pretty well, compressing his domain and channeling it to his weapon, he could do that. However, because he was too absorbed by that, his domain was still stagnant at the 100 meters mark. Even so, Alex never cared about it because this Sword King ability was truly useful. Sadly, it was very consuming for him at the moment. So, he could not drag the battle too long if he used this ability. However, the power itself was very powerful, and since he could reach 8-Star Martial Lord sooner or later, he would be able to dominate most of the 10-Star Martial Lords. After fighting for a few minutes, Evelyn fell to the ground, exhausted. She never landed a blow on Alex whenever they had a spar. But Alex was proud of Evelyn''s progress. The young girl that filled pure and innocence had grown into a young lady that was full of wisdom and warrior spirit. "Alright, we will end it here. You are free for today." Alex said. "I still have energy!" Evelyn let out a weak groan as she felt too tired to move her body. "Training is good, but if you overdo it, you might get something you want to avoid. At least, take a break for the rest of the day first as tomorrow we will continue your training." Alex said as he stored his sword into his space ring. However, at this particular time, Anna suddenly came to him, "Nelson wants to talk. It seems the situation has become a little bit complicated." Alex frowned as he took Nelson''s card and came inside. Anna then took care of Evelyn, who could not move on the ground. "Nelson, what happens?" Alex asked. "There is a big movement from the Zhou Kingdom. Young Master, do you know where the Grand Tournament will start?" "No one informs me yet. What kind of big movement?" "I have been observing them for a few days, and it seems they have been sending a few thousand soldiers toward the north. I don''t know about their exact location, but it seems they are going toward Rivulet Forest." "Rivulet Forest? Is there something in that place?" Alex frowned. "No, there is nothing in that place. However, not far from Rivulet Forest, there is a big city called Carageo City. It is a big city but considered a neutral city because the city is located on the border of three kingdoms, Hazel Kingdom, Zhou Kingdom, and Thiveapia Kingdom. "And when I checked that city, it seems they are preparing something big. That''s why I am asking if Young Master knows about the place for the tournament or not. If that city is truly the place where the tournament will be held, then I can be sure that they will march toward there. "Zhou Kingdom is dispatching a few thousand soldiers at the time, so no one would notice them, and after another month, I am afraid they would have at least a hundred thousand soldiers." "..." Alex was shocked when he heard that information. "A hundred thousand, huh¡­ I will check if the tournament will be held in Carageo City or not. Anyway, do you know about their power level?" "I can''t discern this, but I assume, they would have at least 50,000 Martial Masters, 30,000 Martial Grandmasters, and 3,000 Martial Lords." "What? Three thousand Martial Lords?" "Yes. They are new Martial Lords and it appears they just have a breakthrough to the Martial Lord. So, most of them are 1-Star or 2-Star Martial Lords. It seems, because of a few failures, they decided to focus on quantity instead of quality. So, they focus on peak Martial Grandmasters and turn them into Martial Lords." "Indeed, but with their number, it is hard to stop all of them." Alex pondered for a moment but to no avail. He could not come up with a possible plan to engage a hundred thousand soldiers. Although Alex was sure his spirits would be able to deal with that number, they would still need a few days. "Young Master, if that were all we needed to deal with, then it will be pretty easy. But¡­" Nelson paused a little, making Alex frown. "I got information that there will be another kingdom that will come to this continent sneakily from the east port. "From the information, they also come with their soldiers. But the troublesome thing is the fact they will bring a couple of Martial Kings. And since they even know that the Grand Tournament will be held with the help of a Family from the Northern Continent, I assume they will bring a Peak Martial King to make sure they could kill them. "If I am not wrong, there will only be one person that will oversee this Grand Tournament from the Northern Continent. And to stop the four sect masters who are Martial King, it would be enough for them to send a mid-level Martial King. "But that is also the exact problem with this situation. I am afraid this outsider will make sure to kill this person. So, I assume, they will bring many mid-level Martial Kings if not peak Martial King." Alex''s expression became serious. Alex only had two Martial Kings which were Leoz and Nelson. However, he had yet to use his EXP cards because of Anya''s request. So, he still had twenty rare EXP cards. And with the current Gacha Tickets, he might be able to get more EXP cards. But considering that the enemy might have a peak Martial King, Alex was at his wit''s end. He was not sure if he could level up Leoz or Nelson to peak Martial King to contend with them. Alex remembered the mission for this Grand Tournament, but he would only get it if he won the tournament. If they decided to attack before the Grand Tournament ended, Alex would not get that UR EXP card, which could level up his spirit by a whole realm. ''How many will we get if we mobilize the disciples from Heavenly Sword Sect?'' He thought. After all, it was a bit hard for them to deal with those Martial Kings as well as the soldiers alone. So, Alex could only rely on the sect, but Alex also knew the Heavenly Sword Sect would not have a hundred thousand disciples. Alex took out Nano''s card and summoned him. Soon enough, a blonde man appeared in front of him. His face was handsome, and his body was perfect with those abs. However, people could see two long fangs. Nano was a vampire. "I want you to go to the port in the east. I am sure I don''t need to explain to you the detail of your mission, right?" "Indeed. Please be assured, Young Master. I won''t let them escape my nose." Nano nodded as he turned into a bat and disappeared. Alex summoned both Nano and Artur at the same time as soon as he got back from the little competition. Nano aside, the meeting between Artur and him was not that pleasant. Artur also had golden hair like him. But, if Alex needed to describe in one word, he would describe Artur as ''Shiny.'' He was like a knight in shining armor that helped everyone in need. Ultimately, Alex sent him to a nearby forest to level up. Anyway, Alex decided to send Nano to observe the port so he would know how many of them. However, Alex had yet to solve the problem. He did not have enough people to tackle all of those soldiers. However, at this time, Charya came to his house. Of course, because Alex was still in meetings with Nelson, Anna called him first. "I will talk with you about this later," Alex said. "Yes." After he said that, he came out of his house to meet Charya. "Well, I just want to inform you that we have confirmed the place for the Grand Tournament," Charya said. However, before she said the place, Alex suddenly said, "Carageo City." Charya was surprised when she heard that. She asked with a dumbfounded expression, "You know about it?" "No, I just heard the rumor about it. But since Elder Charya has confirmed that is the place. We have a pressing matter." Alex said while frowning. Charya tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?" "Zhou Kingdom secretly made a big move. They are gathering an army of a hundred thousand strong outside that city, specifically in Rivulet Forest." Alex explained. "What? Rivulet Forest?" Charya started sweating when she heard about this. "However, there is a possibility that the number will increase. I assume they will attack us after the tournament." Alex stated. "This¡­" Charya gasped. "Actually, I also want to inform you about the competition together with Evelyn. For our Lord Stage Competition, we will fight another influence as a team, it will be a normal competition, and I will leave the details for later. "However, for our Grandmaster Stage Tournament, it was similar to our elder token competition. They would need to collect a few tokens and the highest number would win." "What do you mean?" Alex was confused as he could not relate these competitions to the matter of Zhou Soldiers. Charya shook her head. "The place for the Grandmaster Stage Tournament is Shawmar Forest." "I couldn''t relate¡­" Alex suddenly pondered something before he realized why she said that. "!!!" Charya nodded. "Carageo City is surrounded by two forests. On the right, they will meet Shawmar Forest, but on their left, they will meet Rivulet Forest. So, the reason why they chose Rivulet Forest is because our focus will be on Shawmar Forest on the opposite side." Alex closed his eyes while furrowing his eyebrows. He could not come up with a single plan. "Elder Charya, if the sect mobilizes the disciples, how many do you think will go? No, can the other sects or kingdoms move together with us?" Charya shook her head. "Other sects and kingdoms won''t be able to move with us, especially with only a month. After all, we just were targeted by many influences, so their trust in us is low at the moment. "And even if they know about this matter, they will try to investigate them first, which will take more time. They won''t move immediately unless they believe in us. So, we can''t hope them to come to aid us in this even if their country is in danger because they have yet to confirm if it is the case. "As for our sect, we might be able to gather ten thousand Martial Grandmasters and twenty Martial masters. Will that be enough?" Alex gritted his teeth. If that all were they needed to deal with, Alex would nod his head with confidence. But with many Martial Kings in the dark, Alex could not nod his head. After hearing those stuff, Anna suddenly came to them from behind. She suddenly said something they never thought. "Couldn''t you just ask the reinforcement from Rainbow Flower Sect? I mean, asking that Letizia directly." 381 Message When they heard Anna, they forgot about her since Alex had dealt with her. Anna could think like this because she really considered Letizia as Alex''s slave or subordinate, and it was his right to order her around. However, Alex and Charya thought that enslavement was her punishment, so they never thought about that. Fortunately, that was what they needed at the moment. "That''s it," Alex said excitedly. "But even if they bring the same number as us, we are still nowhere near their hundred thousand," Charya said. Alex only shook his head. He never considered a hundred thousand soldiers because he knew they would have much more than that number as well as a few Martial Kings. Alex needed their help because it was hard for his spirits to fight more than a hundred thousand soldiers after fighting Martial Kings. So, Alex wanted to have a big number too. It might sound rude, but Alex needed them as cannon fodder. With a number like that, Alex could play a mind game against them, so they could massacre them faster and easier. "Anna, send a message to her. I will try to find a reward if she succeeds, but for now, don''t tell her about the reward." "Understood. I will ask Noah to send it to her." Anna nodded as she came inside the house to prepare the message. "Elder Charya, I want you to inform the sect master about this," Alex said. He thought about concealing about that other kingdom at the moment. After all, if they knew and panicked because of it, they might do something that would ruin their entire plan. Alex did not want them to mess with the plan and made that other kingdom know about this. If they canceled this plan and went back just like that, he would leave a future problem. Although he was planning to make a ruckus there with his Golden Lightning Tribulation, he still did not know whether he could wipe them out or not. So, for the time being, he wanted to make sure all of those people would die in this continent so no one would be able to send a message back to their kingdom. It was the war between him and that influence which brought the blood pill to this continent. The challenge for Alex would be how long he could keep his opponent in the dark. Of course, he was planning to kill the people who were involved in this, including the people from the Zhou Kingdom. Charya nodded. She did not doubt Alex''s information because he never gave any false information to them. And all of his information was crucial. So, she did not ask anything and left. She knew they needed to keep the Zhou Kingdom in the dark so they could ambush them. However, before she left, Alex added another thing, "They would at least have fifty thousand Martial Masters, thirty thousand Martial Grandmasters, and three thousand Martial Lords." "What did you say?! Three thousand Martial Lords?" She was shocked beyond belief when she heard that. "Are you joking with me?" Alex shook his head with a serious expression, telling her he was not joking. "It is the work of blood pills. So, I am going to use this chance to rout all of them to get rid of those cursed pills completely." Charya did not talk anymore as she immediately left his house with a serious expression. Alex then came inside and took Nelson''s card out. "Nelson, I have confirmed it. The place where the Grand Tournament will be held is at Carageo City, and they stationed their soldiers in Rivulet Forest because the competition will only be held inside the city and Shawmar Forest." "Understood. But, how do we fight the soldiers? I mean, we will be facing Martial Kings as well as those soldiers. I am not sure if we can handle a direct clash." Nelson said. "I have a solution for that. I will trap them with my array." "But, with that number, it is not possible¡­ Wait, Young Master, don''t tell me¡­" Nelson finally realized what Alex wanted. "Yes. I am going to make many rank 5 barrier type arrays and then link them together with Chain Connection Array Technique. I will then connect all of those arrays into a single entity and erect a colossal barrier. As for the fuel, I will make a few Gathering Arrays and use my Spirit Stones to fuel them." Alex explained. In fact, he already saw this technique. He remembered Maxwell''s array in the lower world, where he made a barrier to protect the world tree. That giant array was a combination of many arrays, and he connected it to each other. However, he used many materials as fuel because there was no Spirit Stone in the lower world. There was a record for that in Maxwell''s book, but Alex could not learn it from that because the information in the book was too shallow for that technique. And he finally understood this technique from the knowledge he got in his tribulation. "But, Young Master¡­" "No need to say it. I know it will cost me greatly. I have prepared a hundred million Spirit Stones to trap them for a few hours. I will exchange this hundred Spirit Stones for a few hours, so I want all of you to kill as many as possible and turn them into Gacha Tickets and EXP." Alex said with a strong tone. He prepared to bleed for only a few hours. However, he had another mission for Nelson. "You are going to kill the people that remain in the Zhou Kingdom, right?" "Yes." "Make sure you grab their belongings too. And since almost all prominent families are involved in this, you need to grab all of their treasure and Spirit Stones. I am sure I can recover the cost from doing this." Alex explained. "Understood. I will not leave a single Spirit Stone in their treasury." After that, Alex took a breather to see if he missed something. Alex sat on a chair to remember the problem he had as he unconsciously murmured it. "I have three problems. First, I will kill the people from the Zhou Kingdom that participate in the tournament. The second problem would be those hundred thousand soldiers. It will be fine as long as I throw my money on it. And lastly, the people from Nilis Continent. They will be the hardest problem I need to tackle. "That''s right. I also need to make sure their number and the day they will take action. But, Nano is on his way toward the port, so I think I will sit back for a while. It would be great if they make a move after I win the tournament. "That way, I can get the UR EXP cards and make another spirit advance to Martial King. In that case, I will need to prepare myself too." He then stood up as he had decided he would practice his Array Mastery after reaching 8-Star Martial Lord in a few days. He also needed to send a letter to Letizia to let her know about this. ¡­ A few days later, in Rainbow Flower Sect, specifically inside Letizia''s house, Letizia was cultivating peacefully at the moment. Because of that incident where she became Alex''s slave, she made self retrospection. She realized how immature she was back then. After experiencing that setback, she slowly grew calmer and maturer. And one day, she suddenly experienced a blessing. Her Pure Ice Element finally awakened. She knew this might be because of that setback. However, since she had become Alex''s slave, she did not know whether to be grateful or not to him. However, on this calm night, she suddenly felt a presence outside. "Who is it?!" She shouted as she looked toward the window in her room. And suddenly, a black raven slowly descended on her window. Its appearance was like a normal raven, but when she looked at the raven''s eyes, she felt a pearl of profound wisdom in it. However, her focus was not on those eyes. Instead, it was on the letter that was attached to its back. Letizia slowly approached the raven as she did not dare to lower guard down. After all, she did not know about this raven. Of course, Anna did not need to conceal the letter and made it small, like the normal way. After all, this raven itself was not an animal, but a spirit specialized in espionage. When she arrived in front of the raven, she took the letter and opened it. She dropped the letter the moment she saw the content. The content of the letter was: ''In Grand Tournament, Zhou Kingdom and another influence from Nilis Continent will try to do something. ''They probably will massacre us in that place because we won''t bring many disciples for the Grand Tournament. ''Even if we bring disciples, it won''t exceed a thousand disciples. It is nowhere near their a hundred thousand soldiers as well as a few Martial Kings. ''I will deal with their Martial Kings. However, it might be impossible for me to beat those soldiers alone after dealing with their Martial Kings, so I want to ask you to convince the people from Rainbow Flower Sect to mobilize their disciple and help me in dealing with the rest of the soldiers. ''Heavenly Sword Sect might send ten thousand Martial Grandmasters together with twenty thousand Martial Masters. So, as long as I have killed their Martial Kings, we will be able to rout them with our combined force and my Martial Kings. ''However, do note that the very first phase of this battle will be how long we can keep our enemies in the dark. That''s why I suggest you send the disciples in a few waves, in case you can convince them. And because the soldiers are in Rivulet Forest, we need to station our force in the city a few kilometers away from Rivulet Forest, Thine City. ''I know this might be a little hard for you. But, the only one that could participate in this mission is only you and your Rainbow Flower Sect, since no influences trust Heavenly Sword Sect enough for this. And if possible, limit the people that know about this to prevent the information from going out and alarm the enemy. - Alex'' She was so shocked by the content. A letter from Alex alone was already surprising, but when she read about a few Martial Kings might attack them at the tournament. And it was only a month away, so she needed to move quickly. She did not know why, but when Alex said ''he trusts her,'' she could not help but feel happy inside. She looked at the raven in front of her. "Does this truly come from him?" It was just her rambling since she had yet to confirm that it really came from him. However, when she said that, the raven suddenly clapped its wings and nodded. Suddenly the raven descended on the ground and scratched the floor. The raven was writing, ''Do you want to say something to Master?'' She was startled to see this. She could confirm that the raven could not speak. But it was intelligent enough to write. She closed her eyes as she pondered what she wanted to say to him. However, she could not come up with a single word and shook her head. When Noah saw that, he nodded his head and flew away, leaving Letizia alone in the room. Letizia contemplated for a while, thinking about the content of the letter. Alex did not order her since if he ordered her, she would not be able to reject it because of the ''Enslavement.'' Instead, Alex only asked her to help him because he trusted her. After a while, she took a deep breath and came out of her room. She decided to convince her mother and the others about this. 382 Honda Sana A month later, Alex finally finished his training. He could make four rank 5 arrays, which were Gathering Array, Barrier Type Array called Moonstone Barrier, an Illusion Array called Myriad Illusion Array, and the last one was surely his Simulation Room. "System, give me the status of my UR spirits." [Anna (Dark) Level: 45/80 (5-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 12376/360000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 47/80 (7-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 15398/380000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 44/80 (4-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 204135/350000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 45/80 (5-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 22458/360000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 37/80 (3-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 132/280000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 135423/270000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 124321/270000] [Anya (Light) Level: 35/80 (5-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 198124/260000] [Artur (Light) Level: 30/80 (10-Star Martial Grandmaster Stage) Exp: 198124/210000] Because of the situation, his spirits were working nonstop. Luckily, he got many EXP cards to level them up into such a high level. In fact, he was focusing only on Leoz, Anna, and Fabio. Charya already informed them to gather in the Sect Master''s island to go to the Carageo City together. Evelyn was waiting for him at the moment to make sure he did not forget about this. After settling all the issues in the house, he then came out of his house as he saw Evelyn on the field. "Let''s go," Alex said with a smile. He already recalled Anna to the card. As for the other spirits, he would wait until he needed to summon them. "Yes." Evelyn nodded. Both of them then flew toward the center island. It seemed Charya also had arrived there, so there were only Alex and Evelyn, who had yet to come. This past month, the sect also had sent almost all disciples toward the Thine City. Of course, a few elders also came with them to quell the rest of the disciples. After all, Alex had asked them to send the disciples in a few waves, so the enemies won''t know about it. When Evelyn and Alex reached their destination, they could see that only a few elders that participated in the tournament were around. Of course, the sect master also accompanied them. After they arrived, they started flying toward Narageo City. The journey only took three days. When they arrived in front of the city, the first elder suddenly came outside and greeted them. It seemed he was going first to this city so he could secure their accommodation. They could see that because of this tournament, the city was bustling with people. They could see people in every corner, especially the colossal arena in the middle of the city. Many people were trying to sell some merchandise. After the first elder showed them their inn, the sect master said, "All of you are free to go anywhere. The tournament is in two days, so you can cultivate or sightsee as long as you are back after two days." When they heard that, most people decided to stroll around the city, and it was also the same for Alex and Evelyn. "Big brother, are you going to cultivate?" Evelyn came to him and asked. "No, I am going to stroll around and see the arena," Alex said. "Then¡­ then¡­ can I go with you?" Evelyn asked timidly. "Sure." Alex shrugged his shoulder. Before they left, sect master Xiang Bai came to him and whispered, "Tomorrow, Thine City." Alex looked at him for a while and nodded his head, telling him that he understood. He also got information about the enemy. Nano already told him about the enemies. It seemed there were two peak Martial Kings, and two each of 5-Star to 8-Star Martial Kings, totaling ten Martial Kings. They also had a total of fifty thousand soldiers. So, combined with the Zhou Kingdom, they got a hundred thousand Martial Masters, fifty thousand Martial Grandmasters, and five thousand Martial Lords. They had far higher numbers than the combined force of Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. They only got forty thousand Martial Masters, twenty thousand Martial Grandmasters, and three hundred Martial Lords. However, Alex was sure that the Martial Kings would go first and killed as many as possible because he got notified by Nano that those people built a giant array inside this city. So, Alex decided to tour around the city to make sure what kind of array it was. If it were a dangerous one that he could not counter, Alex would just leave this place. After all, who cared about the tournament and the system reward if it would bring him to his death. Well, he decided to bring Evelyn around to camouflage his real objective. "Let''s go." Alex looked at Evelyn. "Un!" Evelyn nodded happily. Both of them started touring around the city. Alex also did not want to go toward the arena immediately. And surely he had a busy schedule over this. Evelyn was enjoying this tour very much. She considered Alex as her brother. Although Alex was a demon when he was training her, she knew it was for her sake. After all, she could not become a 10-Star Martial Grandmaster this soon without his training. Sadly, there was suddenly someone that hindered their fun. In front of them, a woman with a one-piece white long dress appeared out of nowhere. This woman was beautiful, especially her long orange hair. Evelyn looked at her with hostility as she did not know who she was. However, Alex clearly recognized this woman. He remembered her standing behind Song Yu and Song Jia. "You are¡­" "I am from a second rate influence Honda House, and my name is Honda Sana. My family is the vassal of the Blackwade Clan in the Northern Continent." Sane introduced herself politely. Alex frowned when she saw her. He thought, ''Did Senior Sister Song Yu send her here? Then for what?'' "Young Lady Song Yu informed me about this competition. Because she couldn''t participate, she sent me here to help the tournament. Of course, Young Lady did not want to rig the competition. So, she sent me only to help establish the tournament." "I see. So the one who helps with the process is you. May I ask how many people you bring?" Alex asked. He thought with the addition of her and her people, they should have a better chance of killing those people. However¡­ Sana shook her head and said, "I am here just to oversee the tournament so no one would cheat. So, I come here alone." "..." Alex''s expression darkened when he heard that. He looked at Evelyn, "Go to some shops first. I need to talk with her for a while." "..." Evelyn looked at Alex in surprise. She glanced at Sana and pouted. "Fine." "Follow me for a bit," Alex said with a serious expression. Sana was frowning since she did not have any obligation to follow him. However, seeing how high the praise he got from Song Yu, she decided to follow him. They were just walking around as Alex used Thought Transmission to communicate with her. ''There is a pressing matter that might concern the entire continent. Do you remember when Heavenly Sword Sect got attacked by the Zhou Kingdom together with another influence from Nilis Continent?'' ''Yes. Young Lady had told me about it.'' ''They are coming with a big force this time. Both of them are going to attack the tournament with fifteen Martial Kings and a hundred fifty thousand soldiers." Sana was surprised by this, especially with fifteen Martial Kings. ''May I know the details about their power?'' ''A hundred thousand Martial Masters, fifty thousand Martial Grandmasters, five thousand Martial Lords. As for the Martial Kings, five of them stem from the Zhou Kingdom, which I think only about 2-Star or 3-Star Martial Kings. But the problem is with the Martial Kings from another continent.'' Sana was enlightened, ''They have peak Martial Kings?'' ''Yeah. They have two 10-Star Martial Kings and two Martial Kings for each stage ranging from 5-Star to 8-Star Martial Lords.'' Sana gasped. This was indeed troublesome since the only Martial Kings were her and four other Sect Masters. ''We need to go to the Northern Continent. At least, I will bring you there. I am sure Young Lady also wants you to be safe.'' ''No. I need to win the tournament.'' Alex looked at her with determination. ''That¡­ that is foolish!'' She looked at him with fierce eyes. ''I know. That''s why I have another plan.'' Her expression changed from fierce to serious, ''Alright. Let me hear about it first. If you don''t have a plan that could convince me, I will take you to the Northern Continent with force. I am sure Young Lady would do that too and because you are also one of the VIPs in the Blackwade Clan. I am sure Blackwade Clan does not want to let the VIP card fall to the hand of people from Nilis Continent.'' ''If you can deal with the two peak Martial Kings or at least buy enough time, I can say we will definitely win this.'' ''Ho¡­ I am also a peak Martial King, almost a Martial Emperor. I should be able to deal with those two peak Martial Kings. But, if all of those Martial Kings attack me at the same time, I am afraid I will lose.'' ''No, I can deal with the rest of Martial Kings. Let me tell you the plan from the start. I need to make sure whether their soldiers will fight together with them or not, that''s why I am going to check it today. ''I have information telling that they had set up an Array in this city. If I can find it, then I can make sure of their intention. If their intention is to use the array first, I am sure they will send the Martial Kings first. ''I can disarm the array, and we will fight the Martial Kings first. At the same time, I will trap those hundred fifty thousand soldiers. Don''t ask about the method as you will see it later. ''And with the number of the Martial Kings, we can assume that the four sect masters will deal with the Martial Kings from the Zhou Kingdom. Then you and my people will deal with the other Martial Kings. ''After that, I have managed to gather sixty thousand disciples in a neighboring city. That way, with all of our Martial Kings, we will be able to rout all of them by scaring them with the heads of their Martial Kings. ''As for the concrete strategy for that battle, I will tell you later as it will take a long time to explain.'' Alex explained. Sana had many questions inside her mind. First, she wanted to know what kind of Array the enemy made as well as Alex''s method to stop those numerous soldiers. Second, she wanted to know what he meant by his people, and it seemed his people could deal with the Martial Kings. In other words, they were also Martial Kings. Third, she wanted to know the strategy for the battle with those soldiers, but she could ignore that for the time being. ''I see. Although I have many questions, I feel we need to check what kind of array they planted in this city. After that, I can see whether I will need to bring you out of this continent or not.'' ''Yes, and it seems to be planted underground. And the center of that array would be beneath the arena.'' ''Alright. We will go there right now. I will go with you since there might be people guarding it. And it seems you are going with that little brat to camouflage your intention? We can bring her with us,'' Sana said. ''Understood.'' Alex nodded his head. He then turned his head toward Evelyn who was sneakily following them. "Evelyn, come here." 383 Arena? A few minutes earlier, just after Alex met Sana and asked Evelyn to go away. Although Alex asked her to go away for a second, she just kept following him as they were chatting while walking around to look like they were on a date. She looked at the woman with hostile eyes. Evelyn was pouting the whole time. "What is that woman? Big Brother Alex looks like he knows her, but they are not close like big sister Anna. Is she his mistress that he keeps somewhere? But she said she came from the second rate influence from whatever family in the Northern Continent, especially it seems she calls big sister Song Yu with ''Young Lady.'' And what is the deal with second rate influence? "Is she big sister Song Yu''s acquaintance or something? But¡­ Why is she so close to big brother Alex? Even with Big sister Song Yu, he should know her. Just look at that breast! She must be seducing big brother Alex!" She kept complaining as she looked at those two big bouncy mountains. When she looked at her pitiful chest, she immediately got annoyed and threw a few more curses. She kept following them to make sure she did not do anything to him until Alex suddenly called her. It seemed both of them noticed her from the very beginning. She became tense for a little while before coming toward him. "What is it, big brother Alex?" Evelyn asked embarrassedly. When he saw her, doubt came inside his heart again. He then looked at Sana. "Are you sure we are going to be alright if we bring her?" "..." Even Sana became hesitant when she saw Evelyn. She looked at Alex and asked with Transmission thought, ''Where are the Martial Kings?'' ''They are still in Port City. It seems they are going to stay there for a while until the tournament begins. After all, with their powerful aura, the sect masters might feel something odd.'' Alex explained. ''Then, it should pose no problem. I am wearing a special treasure from Blackwade Clan to hide my aura, so they also would not feel my Martial King aura. Don''t worry, as long as there is no Martial King, I should be able to protect her.'' Sana nodded. Alex looked at her for a while before nodding his head. He then said to Evelyn, "Well, we are going to the arena now. Do you want to go together?" "Arena? That big arena in the middle of the city?" Evelyn asked. "Yes." "Un, I want!" Evelyn glanced at Sana first before agreeing to it. All of them finally went toward the arena. Luckily, from Alex''s information network, it seemed no ''danger'' entered the city yet, including the Martial Kings from the Zhou Kingdom. They had been stationed together with the Martial Kings from the Nilis Continent, which was good for him. They thought they had kept the four influences in the dark, but because of that, Alex could take his time preparing a counterattack. The moment they reached the middle of the city, they could see a big arena that looked like a colosseum. The appearance was very majestic, but when Alex saw the arena with his Spirit Eyes, he felt a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. "The wall has been reinforced by an Array to protect the audience from the shockwave produced by the clash of Martial Lords. And I will also be overseeing the tournament so they won''t do something reckless." Sana said. Alex nodded his head. He then looked at the bottom of the arena and saw a few life signs. He was astonished to see them easily. "Does the arena have a basement or something?" "No. According to the construction team, this is the entire arena. There is no basement or something like that." Sana shook her head. "I see. Then, we need to search for the entrance to the basement." Alex said. "It will be a bit hard. If I am not wrong, this arena finished its construction four months ago. After that, the arena is sealed. And if they truly make an underground base or something, searching for the entrance will be hard since they must have prepared for it." Sana said. Alex secretly took out Njomo''s card and summoned him. But, Njomo made it look like he just appeared from Alex''s shadow. It made Sana and Evelyn shocked. They wanted to say something about Njomo, but Alex had already beaten them. "Njomo, Search for the entrance," Alex said. "Woof!" Njomo nodded and disappeared. Sana was astonished because she could not understand how Njomo could disappear. Alex chose Njomo because Njomo is in charge of Rainbow Flower Sect. At the same time, with most disciples of Rainbow Flower Sect already arrived at Thine City, he did not have a job anymore. Alex trusted Njomo could find the entrance without anyone spotting him. Before he came back, Alex communicated with Evelyn with transmission thought so no one would hear it. ''Listen. Don''t shout or even talk, no, try not to make any noise when we are inside.'' Evelyn looked at him with a serious expression and nodded. Not long after that, Njomo appeared once again and led them inside. Because the tournament would start in two days, the arena had been opened for visitors, so Alex and the others could come inside pretty easily without sneaking. Njomo led them to a storage room with many weapons inside. He remembered there were many people trying to sell their products outside or inside the arena, and this weapon storage might also be related to that. They did not know why Njomo led them into this room, but Njomo suddenly came toward the corner of the room. Like a very intelligent shadow dog, Njomo pushed out a big rack for Alex, and at that time, Alex and the others could see a kind of small door behind the rack. It would lead them to a staircase underground. Njomo led them inside. There were a few people inside, and all of them were Martial Lords. At the same time, they felt they were lucky since they had yet to find a high-level Martial Lord, and the highest of all was only a 5-Star Martial Lord. Alex did not kill them since it might alarm the enemy before they completed their objective. When he saw them with his Spirit Eyes, he could see the red energy inside of their body. They would most likely have used the Blood Pill. Seeing that, Alex got a bad premonition with this array. Alex made Njomo lead them without alarming them. It was the same as when Njomo led Anna to inflict a curse on Mega and Intan without alarming everyone. And by the time they reached another level of the basement, All of them were surprised as they could see a giant array. "This¡­" Sana looked around dumbfoundedly while Evelyn closed her mouth tightly, trying to not make any noises. Alex frowned as he felt this Array was familiar. He checked the symbols and finally realized what this array was. "This is an Elemental Suppression Array. But, this is different from the Elemental Suppression Array from two years ago. Back then, this array could only suppress Martial Grandmasters¡­ but judging from this scale and symbols inside of it, I assume it is enough to suppress Martial Lords." Alex explained while he walked around to observe the entire array. Sana frowned when she heard that. "Wait! I know about Elemental Suppression Array. But, if this array could even suppress Martial Lords¡­" Alex said, "The future is clear! They will truly send Martial Kings first to the arena to kill everyone in the arena. And they should also calculate your existence. That is probably the reason why they bring ten Martial Kings, and together with the five Martial Kings from the Zhou Kingdom, it should be enough to bring you and the other four sect masters down. "After that, they will start their invasion with that giant army toward each sect. All the people would still be ignorant about this because they think it must be because of the Grand Tournament. "And with that giant army, they could swallow an entire sect or kingdom in an instant. I assume they won''t split their army to minimize their loss. Even if they try to split them, it will only be two armies with 75,000 soldiers each. "The invasion will be swift to catch all the influence off guard. And ultimately¡­" Alex paused. "They will rule the entire Wilow Continent. And with killing me here, they will have enough time to send their entire force. And if this news is known by those people from Sacred Continent¡­ Damn!" Sana finally realized what they were after. Of course, Alex already made a Sound Insulation Array without anyone noticing. "Big brother, I will inform the people!" Evelyn''s face became pale when she heard all of this. After all, Alex had been hiding this information from her. So, it was normal for her to be shocked. Alex grabbed Evelyn and shook his head. "Don''t worry. Since I know their plan, we can make a strategy for a counterattack." "Indeed, it seems you have made enough preparation for this." Sana looked at Alex. He nodded before feeling something off. "Wait, If I am not wrong, people who are using Blood Pills won''t be affected by this array. If that is the case, the army can also march toward this place. But¡­" Alex suddenly thought of a possibility, "What if the army from another influence does not use the Blood Pill? Considering its evil side effect¡­ it should be possible. I need to check them to make sure." "What will you do? Are you going to break this?" Sana asked. "What will I do?" Alex smiled as he walked toward the core of the array. He then placed his hand on the ground. Sana was frowning, but when she saw the symbols slowly turned into another symbol, it changed into astonishment. "You¡­ you are an Array Master?! No, according to Young Lady, you are only an Alchemist." Alex did not say anything as he only gave her a smile. "I put self-destruct symbols in this array. I am afraid if they know they could not use the array, they will be alarmed and cancel this plan. So, I want to make them think they can use it. That way, all of the people involved in this will be out. At that time, the core will self-destruct, and the array will be nonfunctional. For that, I want to ask you to play along with this farce." Alex explained. "Hmm, I see. After luring all of them out, then we will kill all of them before killing that gigantic army?" "Yes." "But, it will be hard to kill that gigantic army. What if they try to run in all directions? With our number alone, we won''t be able to catch them all." "Don''t worry. I will make a formation to trap all of them." Alex said. "Formation? You mean by linking a few arrays together to create a new whole entity called Array Formation?" "Indeed." "But, if all of them attack at once¡­" "Don''t worry. I have prepared to spend a fortune on this. A hundred million Spirit Stones should be enough to trap all of them for a few hours. In fact, it will be better if they try to attack the array, so when our force comes, they will be exhausted." Alex said with an evil smile. "I see. You are going to open one of the arrays for the entrance. And it should be easy to fight 150,000 soldiers in that case." "Yes. Well, I am going to recover my loss after killing all the people from the Zhou Kingdom that were involved in this situation." "Do you need my help?" Alex shook his head. "Maybe, by the time we finish killing all of them, my subordinate also has finished killing all the people in the Zhou Kingdom." "I see. I will play along with your plan. It seems I don''t need to drag you away from this continent since you have truly convinced me in this." Sana said. Alex nodded. He then looked at Evelyn, "Sorry, Evelyn. I need to go somewhere after this. So, you go back to the inn and don''t tell anyone about this." 384 Nakagawa Hiina and The Thot Slayer "Sorry, Evelyn. I need to go somewhere after this. So, you go back to the inn and don''t tell anyone about this." "No no no!" Evelyn immediately shook her head. She was too shocked this entire time because she never expected they were in a pinch situation. And she only thought to have fun with Alex. "I will not tell a single soul about this, including my family. From what I heard until now, it seems big brother Alex also considers everyone''s safety, so I won''t come out from the inn until the tournament starts." Alex nodded. "Thanks. It will help, since the fewer who know about this, the better." Alex wanted to poison them since it would be far more efficient. But, cultivators did not need something like water or food and even if they had it with them, they would store it inside a Space Ring. And it was not like he could invite them for tea or something. This was also the reason why Putri was cursed, not poisoned. He had thought about using the method he used to massacre the Kasmanan Family. Sadly, it would be impossible since he would make a colossal array with that huge number, and the supply of oxygen inside the barrier would also be huge. If he lit the fire inside the barrier, he would need to distract them first so they would not put out the fire. All in all, Alex decided to throw this idea. Alex had a thought in using a pollen type poison. Still, he did not have the material to make a poison that was potent enough to kill the soldiers. "We are going back to the surface," Alex said. Evelyn and Sana nodded. Alex then ordered Njomo to lead them to the surface. Since he already knew about their plan, it would be pretty easy to come up with another plan to counter that. But it seemed, all of his predictions were correct, and he did not need to change his plan. After this, Alex was planning to go toward the Rivulet Forest and made the array. When they came outside, Sana immediately said, "Then, I will be going first to prepare myself." As soon as Alex nodded his head, Sana then disappeared. "Njomo, scout the Rivulet for me. I want to make sure no one will bother me when I make the arrays. And search for a position that the soldiers won''t search." Njomo nodded and disappeared. Evelyn also wanted to say goodbye to him. But before she had a chance to do it, she heard a sound from Alex''s back. "Ah, You!" Alex and Evelyn turned their head and saw a young woman. With her Long Silver Hair, beautiful curves and edges, Her penetrating silver eyes, and her aloof expression made her like a snow lotus in the snowy mountain. Evelyn twitched her eyebrows when she saw another beauty that seemed to know Alex. She was wondering why there were so many beauties around him. Alex was surprised when he saw a familiar person in this place. "Nakagawa Hiina¡­" Alex indeed had known this beauty. Still, it was not a pleasant one since she was somewhat annoying for him. "Alexander Sirius!" Alex sighed as he felt this would be troublesome. "Who are you? Why do you know, big brother Alex?" Evelyn suddenly came in front of him and asked. "Hmph, I am Nakagawa Hiina. I have sworn that I will defeat him in the Grand Tournament." "Ah¡­" Evelyn opened her mouth in surprise when she heard that. But, she was not astonished or whatever. She just looked at her with a weird face because of another thing. "What?" "No, are you sure you are going to challenge big brother Alex?" Evelyn asked with a weird expression. "Big brother? You are his sister?" "No no¡­ I am¡­" She wanted to say Alex was her mentor. But she suddenly remembered the maid told her about this kind of situation. She clearly remembered what the maid said to solve a situation like this. She suddenly puffed her chest and said proudly, "I am big brother Alex''s woman." "Oi oi, little girl." Alex twitched his eyebrows when he heard that. He did not understand why she could come up with something like this. "Wo-woman?!" Nakagawa Hiina was surprised. She looked at Alex hatefully. "You¡­ I have become a disciple of an elder and trained continuously just to defeat you! And here you are¡­ playing with women. You-!" Alex hit Evelyn''s head in annoyance. "No, Evelyn is my¡­ my¡­ By the way, what are you? My friend...no, then my disciple? Nah, then how about a disciple under my tutelage? But I have never become your mentor." "Uu¡­" Evelyn covered her head with her hands like she was in pain because he hit her. "The maid in the palace told me I should say ''I am your woman'' to shoo an annoying woman." "Wha-?! Annoying woman, you say?" It seemed Nakagawa Hiina still retained her fiery temperament. But he also noticed that she also became more talkative. "Anyway, if you want to challenge me in this tournament, then it is impossible." Alex looked at Nakagawa Hiina. "Heh¡­ serve you right. This must be because you are busy playing with women? So you don''t have enough power to compete in the Grand Tournament." Nakagawa Hiina snorted. She did not even recognize Evelyn because she only used her time for training and training. So, she was a bit ignorant about the outside world. Even their meeting in this place was a fluke. If she did not meet him in this place, she would even forget about him. "Big brother Alex? Are you sure you know about this person? Why does she seem like¡­ a fool?" Evelyn looked at Alex with a weird expression. "You-! You call me a fool again?" Nakagawa Hiina wanted to flare up. "Yes. You are foolish. You need to sense his cultivation first. If you can sense his cultivation, then it is good. If you can''t, why do you think you can''t?" Evelyn snorted. "What did you say-?!" She tried to look at Alex''s cultivation but to no avail. She was surprised she could not see Alex''s cultivation. She remembered what Evelyn said and thought, ''Why?'' "Hmph, you understand it, right? Big brother has enough strength to join the tournament. It just, he won''t be the same as you who join the Grandmaster Stage Competition. He is competing in Lord Stage." Evelyn snorted as she saw Hiina''s cultivation. Her cultivation was 8-Star Martial Grandmasters, and it was truly surprising to see 8-Star Martial Grandmasters as a participant. But it also showed how strong she was. "Martial Lord Stage Competition?" Nakagawa Hiina looked at Alex dumbfoundedly. She shook her head in denial. "No no no. How can this be? I don''t believe it!" "I don''t believe you are a Martial Lord. Back then, you were only a 1-Star Martial Master while I was a 6-Star Martial Master. You must hide your cultivation. Yeah, that must be the reason why I can''t sense your cultivation. I will test your strength right here right now. Take this punch!" Nakagawa Hiina threw a fist toward Alex. Alex frowned when he saw this. Even Evelyn immediately raised her hand to block it. However, before both of them moved, a cute white fox with a pink color on the tip of its fur appeared. The fox tried to kick Nakagawa Hiina. When Nakagawa Hiina saw that, she harrumphed. She raised her hand to block her feet. "Hehe¡­ I am not going to be tricked by this again." Sadly, After the bitter training, Sherry had reached 10-Star Martial Lord and her power¡­ "Bam-!" Nakagawa Hiina could not understand as she looked to the sky. No, she was looking to the front, but her front was the sky. Sherry''s kick blew her away. Of course, she had held back her strength greatly as she might accidentally kill her. So, Sherry lowered her strength to just enough to blow her away. "I have not done my real mission for a while." Sherry harrumphed. She then looked at Alex and said, "Master, One homewrecker has been sent away. I have held back my power so she will only fly away." "Thank you, but go back." Alex forcefully recalled her back to his body. It would be troublesome if these many people saw a fox that could talk. Evelyn had seen Sherry a few times since Sherry and Kyle often had sparrings with Anna, so she was not surprised by the sudden appearance of Sherry. She also understood Alex''s concern since she was also bewildered when she heard Sherry talked. Alex then immediately turned to Evelyn and said, "Go back now. I need to go somewhere. That''s right, bring these two with you." "Eh?" Evelyn was surprised to see Alex suddenly handed her two scrolls. "These two are rank 4 Teleportation Array. I am not sure about this tournament, so if needed, I want you to use that to save yourself." Alex said. "Such precious items¡­ Big brother Alex, I can''t -!" She wanted to reject him, but Alex immediately shook his head. He said, "No, you take it. Our enemy might not be the Zhou Kingdom and that whatever influence from another continent. "Have you forgotten about the matter with the Southern Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect? Or even your Thiveapia Kingdom? So take it." When she heard that, she realized why she wanted her to take it. He speculated that the other influences might attack them in the tournament. Alex had another reason for that. He thought since he never had any use for that, it would be better if he gave it to her rather than letting it dust in his Space Ring. Evelyn nodded her head and left. After that, Alex also left the place, leaving that annoying woman alone. Sherry blew her away to the sky, so the crowd''s attention was on her. But when Nakagawa Hiina came back, she did not find Alex anywhere. Even though she was convinced Alex was a Martial Lord, she just could not accept it. After all, Alex was ''playing'' with women instead of training in her eyes. She gritted her teeth before leaving the place because the stare from the crowd was hurt. They looked at her like she was abandoned by her boyfriend. ... A few minutes later, Alex arrived at Rivulet Forest. And as one would expect, Njomo immediately appeared in front of him the moment he arrived. "Have you scouted the area? Where are the exact positions of the soldiers?" Alex asked. Njomo did not say anything and asked Alex to follow him. When they arrived, Alex could see a big plain that was full of tents. The plain size alone was around 1 square kilometer, and the soldiers took 90% of it. But considering that huge army, it was normal, Alex thought. "I will need to make twenty Moonstone Barrier Arrays and four Gathering Arrays. I will supply each Gathering Array with twenty-five million Spirit Stones. And by enhancing the barrier with Space Element, I could make sure the barrier would be able to stop their attack easily." Njomo nodded his head as he led him around. Alex made his arrays in various places. One of them was in a cave, one of them was in a big tree, and many more unique places. This was to ensure no array would be spotted. He then connected each of them with the Chain Connection Array Technique. And he would connect every five Moonstone Barrier Arrays with a rank 5 Gathering Array. After contemplating for a while, he chose to not fill it with Spirit Stones first since it would be eye-catching. It was already past midnight when he finished making all of them. It took him too many times because he needed to avoid the detection from the soldiers. Of course, Njomo led him skillfully, thus letting him go unspotted. "Njomo, you stay here," Alex asked Njomo to stay so he could keep eyes on them. After settling all the matters, he immediately made his way toward Thine City. 385 His Plan Alex had completed his objective. He already made the array and confirmed that around a third of the soldiers did not have red colored energy inside their body. Of course, he observed them from afar, and because he needed to make Arrays around them, he could see a complete picture with his Spirit Eyes. He assumed those soldiers would be the soldiers from Nilis Continent. He could assume that because of their Martial Kings. They even had peak Martial Kings in their helm, so he thought Nilis Continent should have higher base energy than his Willow Continent. With that level of energy, birthing soldiers equal to the Zhou Kingdom should be easy. Of course, they would also need time to cultivate them, but with how grand the scale of this invasion was. He felt they had enough time to prepare all of it, resulting in those soldiers. At the same time, he was also sure that their plan would be something similar to his speculation. Even if they had another twist in their plan, he should be able to counter that by a slight adjustment. He finally made his way toward Thine City. He would need to arrange the disciples from both sects. Since it was still dark, Alex used this chance to recover his energy first. He was a bit exhausted after making so many arrays and in that tense situation where he constantly needed to be wary. As soon as the dawn came, Alex went toward the army just right outside the Thine City. Of course, even though they were right outside the Thine City, the elders made them camp inside the woods to make sure no one realized their existence. And it seemed they also bribed the officials in Thine City to make sure no one approached their position. The first elder immediately noticed his presence and came out to meet him. "First Elder." Alex nodded. "We have settled down in this place and make sure no one knows about our existence in this place. As for those officials, we have dealt with them, forcing them to shift the attention of all people inside the town to another place. Well, it is easy since the biggest distraction will be the Grand Tournament in Carageo City. I will go to that City after this, and my disciple Silvia will be in charge of these disciples." "Thank you for your hard work. I have made sure of the enemy''s intention and their plan. I think I will need to explain my plan for this." Alex said. "Indeed, I will call Silvia and a few elders." The first elder said. "Oh, by the way, who is in charge of Rainbow Flower Sect right now?" "..." The first elder hesitated a bit before he said a familiar name to Alex, "Letizia La Scola. She should be in the field, making sure the disciples are ready." Alex did not say anything for a few seconds before nodding his head. "I will go to her then." The first elder nodded and left. Alex then started walking toward the Rainbow Flower Sect camp. It was truly a glamorous sight to see females wherever he went. "Master, what are you doing here?" Suddenly, he heard a female voice from the side. And since she called him ''Master,'' Alex could imagine who she was. Alex nodded. "I want to check the condition of our forces for a bit and then explain the enemy plan and my plan." "Understood. I will gather all of them. Where is the meeting place?" Letizia asked. Alex pondered for a moment and said, "In Heavenly Sword Sect camp." Letizia nodded and left to gather the people. Alex then came back to the Heavenly Sword Sect camp, and the first elder led them to a commander tent. There were around eleven people in this tent, including the first elder and Letizia. After noticing everyone was ready, Alex said, "I am sure you are wondering why I don''t want to ruin their plan before all of this started. I could only say that when I am not on this continent anymore. If a giant army comes again, you won''t be able to fend them off. "I don''t want to say whether Heavenly Sword Sect or Rainbow Flower Sect is not good. But let just consider the fact that you don''t realize a giant army with 15 Martial Kings go unnoticed like this. It is the biggest blunder that could change the fate of this continent. "That''s why I want to erase this threat once and for all. And I need all of your power for this. I am sure you also want it that way." All of them nodded. They surely did not want a big threat like this, especially when they knew the army had 15 Martial Kings. They also received the information from him telling the army had a hundred thousand Martial Masters, fifty thousand Martial Grandmasters, and five thousand Martial Lords. With that number alone, none of their sects would be able to withstand their power. "Anyway, from the information I have got this whole time. I am 90% sure the Martial Kings will move first. They have prepared a giant array beneath the arena. You don''t need to worry about it since I have taken care of it. "The array is called Elemental Suppression Array, and they could suppress all Martial Lord or below cultivators. I have experienced it, and I am sure you won''t be able to move your body when you are under the suppression. "So, when the array is activated, we will move the army toward Rivulet Forest. I will stand by in front of the army and let you know my location. After that, we will rout the entire army." Alex explained. "But Master, what about the Martial Kings? And even if we come to fight them, it is practically impossible for our sixty thousand disciples to defeat that giant army. Our power level is also far lower than them." Letizia asked. When they heard Letizia called Alex'' Master''. They were bewildered. After all, Letizia was the daughter of Rainbow Flower Sect sect master. And the way she called him was very formal, like a servant and master relationship rather than master and disciple relationship. When they thought about that, Alex immediately shifted their focus once more. He said hurriedly, "I can deal with the Martial Kings. Since they are moving separately with the army, my subordinates should be able to kill all of them. "And if you are asking about how we can defeat that giant army with our sixty thousand disciples¡­ well, with that number, they can easily surround us and kill us." Alex said. The people furrowed their eyebrows when they heard that. Alex then continued, "But, if we have a wall that could withstand their attacks and that wall will only give us enough space for a frontal assault between thirty thousand of our force as well as their thirty thousand. "At the same time, around ten Martial Kings will lead our forces to defeat them while they have none," Alex explained. "?!" The people were confused as they tried to absorb his strategy. Letizia asked again, "A gap only enough for sixty thousand people¡­ but it still does not change the fact that they outmanned us." "I know." Alex nodded. "That''s why we will split our forces into two with thirty thousand each, let''s just call them the first army and the second army. We won''t be able to rout them in a short time if we fight carefully. So, I want them to fight with full strength, thinking they need to kill the enemy as soon as possible. "After a certain amount of time, we will change the first army with the second army and have them fight with their full strength. Meanwhile, the first army will retreat into the woods and recover their energy. "I have a wall that could let it happen. And with the constant exchange between the first army and second army. The enemy will think they are also under attack by a giant army with the same number as them or higher. "Together with our Martial Kings, I am sure we can rout them in a few hours. So, what I want to say is we won''t fight 150,000 soldiers. Instead, we will fight 30,000 soldiers five times. But with the constant change, we should be able to win this battle." Alex explained. They drew a cold breath when they heard Alex''s plan, especially Letizia. She did not know what kind of wall Alex had. But if he tried to employ this strategy to destroy their Rainbow Flower Sect¡­ She could not imagine what would happen. Luckily or Unluckily, she had become Alex''s slave, and he even asked for her help on this matter. So, the possibility of Alex attacking the Rainbow Flower Sect would be close to zero. When their tension was at the peak, Alex suddenly added with killing intent. "And with the head of their Martial Kings rolling in front of them before the battle even begins, what kind of feeling will they have at that moment? Fear, Anxiety, Panic, and so on. Because all people will always think like this, ''I still have the backing of my sect, or I will still have the backing of Martial Kings.'' But, if they lose their backing, what will happen? Their morale would be so low that even our forces would easily trample them beneath our feet." Gasped-! In fact, They were not shocked by Alex''s plan anymore, they were scared. They imagined if Alex became their enemy instead¡­ They shuddered. Of course, Alex could have a plan like this was because he had enough information, and the enemy had yet to know about his intention. And Alex knew it, so even with this checkmate situation, Alex still did not let his guard down. "Alright, then. Do any of you have an objection to this plan?" Alex asked. All of them immediately shook their heads. "I will stay here for the time being before going back to Carageo City in the evening, so if you have any questions concerning our plan, you can ask me here," Alex said. All of them nodded before leaving the tent. Not long after that, Silvia, the disciple of the first elder, came back. "You are going to be in charge of the disciples here, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. My master has gone toward Carageo City." Silvia nodded. "Do you have any questions about the plan?" Silvia shook her head. "No, it''s just¡­ after hearing your plan, defeating me three months ago is an easy feat for you. Especially since your cultivation is higher than me now. Well, I just want to say that. I will prepare the disciples so they will be ready to move at any time." "Alright, thanks." In the evening, he came out of his tent only to see Letizia in front of the tent. He frowned. "Master, let me accompany you to Carageo City." Alex was astonished to hear that from her mouth. He thought she hated him because she became his slave, and the reason why she accepted his request back then was because of the situation. After all, considering her personality, she should make a move to that since her sect was in danger. "You are going to participate in the Grand Tournament?" Alex asked. He finally realized that she had a cultivation of the 9-Star Martial Lord. "Yes. Of course, if I face Master in the tournament, I will immediately surrender. Even with all my effort, I doubt I can defeat Master. Besides, I am yours, there is no way I can hurt you." She said with a calm expression. Alex looked at her for a while and sighed. This girl became more mature because of the setback, and her personality was starting to be like her mother. She even said that misleading word, saying she was his (woman). He remembered he had an Elemental Sword, and that sword was perfect for her. He did not have any use of it, so it would be better to give her. He took out the Ice Elemental Sword that had been imbued by Elemental Orb and tossed it to her. "This is¡­" She was surprised by the sword as this was the first time she saw a sword that had Ice Element in it. It was like it complimented her element. "You can try to get used to the sword first. It will boost your Ice Element even further." Alex said and left. He did not say if it was a thank for her sticking up with him in this problem or anything. Of course, Alex never treated someone related to him badly, like Evelyn. She looked at Alex''s disappearing back before bowing her head to show her thanks. She never expected something like this. If this was in auction, the price might even reach a hundred million. It just showed how rare this sword was. She immediately stored the sword and followed him to Carageo City. Of course, she maintained the distance between them as she was afraid she would get him into trouble by staying right beside him. She did not want to repeat the same mistake. 386 Scheme Before The Competition "Ladies and Gentlemen, on this joyful day, we will officially start the event that you have been waiting for, ''Willow Continent Grand Tournament!'' First of all, I would like to give the biggest thanks to Honda Family from the Northern Continent for their support to hold this event. Please give a big applause to her excellency Honda Sana." The announcer was the city lord of Carageo City. Because of the scale of the competition, it was his honor to even become the announcer of this event. He was standing in the arena, surrounded by more than ten thousand people. The people immediately applauded as Honda Sana rose from her seat and waved her hand. "We also can''t forget the sect masters from all four big sects. It is a shame that we can''t see the power of a Martial King, but we are not sad because we can see the power of the four big sects. Of course, we can''t forget about the four kingdoms. So, please give another round of applause for all of them." The four sect masters immediately rose from their seats and waved their hands. Of course, all of them had a different room as they were afraid there would be a conflict between sect masters, especially with Mount Hua Sect, Heavenly Sword Sect, and Rainbow Flower Sect. Sadly, they could not see all the rulers from the kingdoms as they were participating in the Lord Stage Competition. "How about we have our host, her excellency Honda Sana to give us an opening speech?" Honda Sana nodded and stood up. She looked at the four sects and kingdoms as well as the crowd. She said with a warrior spirit, "This is a Grand Tournament. Everything that will happen inside this tournament is not related to whatever happens in the outside world. "As long as the Grand Tournament is still not over. If any of unrelated people try to raise their hand against the participant¡­ I will kill them even if they are the sect masters!" The crowd was astonished when they heard she would even kill the sect masters who were Martial Kings. But they thought she could back her word up since she was a peak Martial King. "Hoho¡­ what a powerful speech. I am sure none of you can wait any longer. So, let us start the real competition. The first competition will be the Grandmaster Tournament. Please take a look at this token in my hand." The city lord said while presenting a golden token with ''Tournament'' written on it. "There are 25 tokens like this scattered around the Shawmar Forest. The battle will end as soon as the sun is set. So, because of the timing, we decided to make the arena a bit smaller. It will be a circle with a radius of five kilometers. "Each influence will have their representative to draw a slot to determine their position. After that, all teams will go to their respective position. There is no rule for this competition. As long as you are not coming out of bonds, you are alright. "You can defeat your opponents, cripple your opponents, or even kill them. As Lady Honda said, this is a competition for the right of Spirit Stone Mine. So, I am sure everyone has prepared for something like this. "Many of you may be wondering how we can observe them if they are competing in Shawmar Forest. Fret not as we have memory crystals. There are five Memory Crystals in the sky that will be able to let us watch their fight from above. Of course, we need to give our thanks to Lady Honda for this. "The influence that has the most tokens will win. Alright, without further ado, let us call the representative of each sect to determine their position in this match. Don''t worry. This position has gone through very careful consideration. All positions are surrounded by the token, so there is no such thing as a fair or unfair position. "The token position will be revealed as soon as the match starts. Do note that the competition will only be over when the sun is completely set. In other words, as long as there is time, you can get the token from another team. This will be a battle royal between eight teams¡­ No, eight influences!" The crowd was excited as they could not wait to see the fight between eight influences. Each sect had sent their representatives. For Heavenly Sword Sect, they sent Evelyn while Rainbow Flower Sect sent Nakagawa Hiina. All of them took the paper one by one, and the last one was Buddha Sect. All of them opened the paper and showed their position so the audience could see it. Rainbow Flower Sect - North Heavenly Sword Sect - South Buddha Sect - Northwest Mount Hua Sect - South West Thiveapia Kingdom - East Hazel Kingdom - Northeast Zhou Kingdom - Southeast Southern Kingdom - West When Alex saw this, he cursed inwardly. He never thought Mount Hua Sect''s position would be surrounded by Mount Hua Sect and the Zhou Kingdom. Even the Southern Kingdom was in the west. He was frowning because he knew there was a high possibility that Evelyn''s group would be targeted by them. It seemed giving her his Teleportation Array plate was the right to do. The announcer continued, "We will give each team an hour to prepare their strategy." Evelyn came back to the team as she saw a gloomy expression from her teammates. They were Florinda, Yasmin, Anwar Daher, Hanibal, Amazu Agu, Kokonoe Shigure, and Elise. All of them were 10-Star Martial Grandmasters. But even so, they could not help but gloomy as they knew about the conflict between Alex and the Mount Hua Sect as well as the Zhou Kingdom. With their position, they would be pinched by both influences. And it would be hard for them to fight two influences at the same time. This was the reason why everyone was gloomy. "What''s wrong, everyone? We don''t need to fight them directly." Florinda was the first one to say something. As the disciple of the first elder, she could not show her weakness like this, so she decided to cheer up the rest of them. "That''s right. Remember! Our Seven Stars Cut is a Heaven Tier Martial Arts. And all of us here can at least use a 6-layer Seven Stars Cut. We can fight them!" Evelyn continued, "Besides, my kingdom is in their back, specifically behind the Zhou Kingdom. "If we immediately move to the center and don''t care about the token in our way, we should be able to bypass them. I will convince my kingdom to help us after this. So, we should be able to fight them." When they heard that, energy started coming back to their body. They thought if it was one on one battle, they should have a chance, especially with Florinda and Evelyn. Evelyn suddenly remembered something. "If we can fight slightly in the north. I am sure we can ask Rainbow Flower Sect for help. Since there is no rule in this tournament, then we can surely ally with each other. This way, we should be able to outnumber them." "That''s right! We can do that. Who cares about the token! We can steal or search it later after we beat all of them." Florinda shouted to raise their morale. "Oooh!" Evelyn nodded when she saw they became energized again. She then said, "I will try to convince my kingdom for a bit." All of them nodded. Evelyn then left to meet the team from the Thiveapia Kingdom. When she arrived, all of them immediately kneeled down. She looked at the blonde man who was the leader of this team. "I am sure you might already guess our situation in this tournament. Most likely, Mount Hua Sect and the Zhou Kingdom will make a move against us. "Although Heavenly Sword Sect has defeated Mount Hua Sect, it does not mean the hatred will be gone just like that. I don''t know about the Zhou Kingdom, but since they are targeting big brother Alex, they might attack us together with Mount Hua Sect. "So, my team and I will go toward the center of the arena. We will meet in the center and defeat the Zhou Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect together. I hope all of you will fight together with me." "Yes, your highness. Your safety is our priority." The leader said. "Yes. You must be the first son of the Milian Family, Riolet Milian, right? I am counting on you." She said with a smile to the leader, Riolet Milian. "Yes, your highness." "Then, I will go back to my team first." Evelyn nodded her head. She did not say anything more because she knew Milian Family as they had served them from generation to generation. After Evelyn disappeared, all of them stood up. They immediately looked at Riolet Milian while sweating. Riolet Milian was in a difficult position. He tried to recall the conversation ''they'' had earlier. ¡­ A few minutes ago, The leader of the Mount Hua Sect arrived on their team. He brought the captains from Zhou Kingdom as well as¡­ Hazel Kingdom. When those three people suddenly arrived in front of their team, they were shocked. Riolet immediately greeted them, "Why do three of you come here?" "Of course, we want to talk about our cooperation for this tournament." "!!!" Riolet immediately realized when he saw the captains from Zhou Kingdom and Hazel Kingdom follow the captain from Mount Hua Sect to this place. "Our mission is to ensure the safety of her highness Evelyn. So, it is useless to convince us." Riolet stated. "Of course, we have been expecting something like this, considering your kingdom suddenly stopped your invasion against Heavenly Sword Sect as soon as she was missing. "That''s why I am going to propose another thing to you. Since your team is going to protect her, then we won''t attack her. Well, it will be similar to the condition with Hazel Kingdom. "They will help us in defeating Heavenly Sword Sect. Their reason is simple. Heavenly Sword Sect is strong or might even be the strongest. So, none of us want them to get stronger by getting the right for this Spirit Stone Mine and let them get even stronger. If that happens, they will rule the continent before long. "The second reason, Mount Hua Sect, and Zhou Kingdom have a grudge against the Heavenly Sword Sect. And we will surely kill them. Of course, Hazel Kingdom agrees to us with conditions they won''t kill any of the members from Heavenly Sword Sect. As long as the Heavenly Sword Sect is out, then the conditions will be fulfilled. "Just think about it, can both of your influences withstand the full attacks from three of us? No, I should let you choose whether you want to help Heavenly Sword Sect against three of us or join us. If you don''t join us, we will kill all of you. However, If you join us, we will promise your Princess won''t be touched. "How is it? Isn''t it better to have a four on one fight than a three on two fight? And you will also complete your mission to protect your princess. And If I am not wrong, the Southern Kingdom also has a grudge against them. Think about it¡­ if they join the fray¡­" Riolet gritted his teeth. It was like he said. They might somehow fight them in three on two fight and it would even be better if the disciples from Rainbow Flower Sect come to help, considering the alliance between them and Heavenly Sword Sect. However, if the Southern Kingdom also joins the fray¡­ So, Riolet was thinking If they joined together with Mount Hua Sect, they would be able to protect Evelyn, thus completing their mission without casualty. Even Rainbow Flower Sect wouldn''t be able to save Heavenly Sword Sect. "I will give you time to think about it." The leader of Mount Hua Sect said as he left. The other two captains also followed him. ¡­ Riolet opened his eyes slowly as he remembered the conversation. He looked at his teammates before clenching his fist. It seemed he had decided his course of action. "We are going to¡­" 387 A Betrayal? "Alright, All teams have taken their position. We will start the competition in just a minute. I am sure everyone can''t wait anymore. Let us see each of their positions." There were five screens in front of them. Each screen showed a different position since there were five Memory Crystals scattered around the battlefield. Alex also had some knowledge about this Memory Crystal since it was related to his Forging Memory. The memory crystal was similar to a camera on Earth. But to project it, they would need the Projector Crystal. After tuning both Crystals, they would be able to watch what happened on the battlefield live. "Each team has arrived in their respective positions. So, without further ado, we will start the competition!" As soon as he shouted that, there was a big firework exploding in the sky. Each team had been informed about this big firework as this firework was the start of their competition. And in the sky, they would see twenty five yellow balls floating in the sky. "You can see twenty five yellow balls in the sky. They are symboling the position of each token. In other words, they would be able to find the tokens right below the yellow balls." It was at this time that five teams suddenly made the same move. "Oh wait! What is this? There are five teams that suddenly rushed toward the middle of the battlefield? From their position, they are Heavenly Sword Sect, Mount Hua Sect, Zhou Kingdom, Thiveapia Kingdom, and Hazel Kingdom." Alex clicked his tongue when he saw that. It was like he expected. Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom would target Heavenly Sword Sect. As for Thiveapia Kingdom, Evelyn most likely had convinced them. Since Thiveapia Kingdom knew how important Evelyn was, they should fight together with Heavenly Sword Sect. However, what he could not understand was the fact that Hazel Kingdom joined the fray. He thought the Southern Kingdom would be the one who joined the fray as he had bad blood with the Southern Kingdom. Of course, they already feared his existence, but this was another case. Sana had warned the people not to make any move against the participant. So, Alex feared they would use this chance to attack Heavenly Sword Sect. To his surprise, Southern Kingdom did not move from their spot. It seemed they were searching for the token instead of fighting the Heavenly Sword Sect. He was relieved when he saw that. At the same time, he was perplexed why the Hazel Kingdom also moved toward the center. He thought it must be a coincidence since he never had any conflict with Hazel Kingdom. So, he ignored them first. Alex contemplated for a bit. If it was a two versus two fight, they should be able to win, unless the Zhou Kingdom used their berserk Pill. But, it should be impossible as the other influences would suspect them for that Berserk Pill. So, Alex was sure that Zhou Kingdom would not use their Berserk Pill. This way, Evelyn should be able to kill all of them since he was confident with her power. ¡­ Back to Evelyn''s group, as soon as they saw the firework, they immediately went toward the center of the battlefield. After one hour was up, they were guided by someone to the battlefield. They had a few explanations from him, concerning the battlefield and the firework. The moment they arrived at their position, they saw a yellow line. The guide told them it was the boundary of the battlefield. So, they would be fine as long as they did not cross it. After that, the guide disappeared. Evelyn and the others immediately went toward the center as planned. They wanted to meet up with the Thiveapia Kingdom so they could fight Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. They ignored the token even though it would only take a few seconds if they wanted it. Regrettably, they needed to meet up first so they would not get attacked by two influences. Evelyn was the one who led them through the forest. And she ordered them to run through the woods instead of flying above the trees. She gave that order after considering the fact they would be spotted if they went over. The others also did not have any objections and immediately nodded their head. They arrived in the center before long. When they arrived, Florinda looked at the two yellow balls floating around them. "Since Thiveapia Team has not arrived, we should get these two tokens first. It won''t take too long, considering the distance between our position." Florinda said. The others also agreed with her. But before they went ahead and took the token, they looked at Evelyn. They remembered Evelyn had beaten Florinda back in the sect when their team was formed. Florinda''s strength had increased by leaps and bounds ever since she became the disciple of the first elder. At first, they thought she would be perfect to be the captain of their team. Sadly, all of it changed after they met this person called Evelyn. She had shown her prowess in the Outer Disciple Tournament. Although she did not participate in the Inner Disciple Tournament because of her strength, she was indeed powerful as she was one of the first people who learned the Seven Stars Cut. When they wanted to choose their captain, the first elder said Evelyn should be the leader. All of them, especially Florinda, were unconvinced at that time. Florinda decided to challenge her into a fight, and whoever won would be the leader of this team. They were astonished by Florinda''s strength. She was already a 10-Star Martial Grandmasters even before the Inner Disciple Ranking Tournament, and the first elder already asked her to hold back her cultivation and trained her battle prowess. Sadly, Evelyn also reached 10-Star Martial Grandmaster at that time, and with the powerful strength Alex taught her, she emerged victorious. And with that, all of them thought they would win the tournament with these two prodigies. All of them except Florinda. Ultimately, Florinda was convinced because of Alex instead of Evelyn. She just thought because of Alex, Evelyn could become that strong. So, she gave Evelyn the captain position just because of Alex. Evelyn was not bothered by that. In fact, she was quite happy to see Alex get the recognition he deserved. Since she became the captain of this team, she decided to win so she would not put shame in Alex''s name. With that thought in mind, they looked at Evelyn for a confirmation. Evelyn also understood they were here to win the competition instead of winning the fight. Evelyn nodded her head. "We will split our group into two. The first group will be me, Anwar Daher, Hanibal, and Amazu Agu. We will get the token on our front. "The second group will be Florinda, Yasmin, Kokonoe Shigure, and Elise. They will grab the token on our left. We will meet in this place again in two minutes." She was not shy in front of others anymore as she was able to call them with their name. And she did not need to use ''big brother'' or ''big sister'' again since they could not be compared to Alex or Song Yu. If Alex were here, he would be happy to see her improvement. Of course, the others also did not mind about this. As soon as they heard her order, they immediately nodded their heads and split their force. They were moving in unison to reach the token faster but still carefully. Evelyn took the lead while the other kept observing the surrounding. When they arrived, they found a small golden token tied into a tree branch. All of them immediately recognized the token as this was the token that the Announcer showed them. Evelyn immediately took the token and looked at her teammates, "We are going back-!" "Well, well. I am afraid you can''t do that." Just before they went back, they heard the voice of a young man. When they turned their head, they could see a white-haired young man leading 15 disciples in front of them. The voice must come from the white-haired young man. And behind him, there was a brown-haired young man. Both of them looked very familiar. "Erol from Mount Hua Sect and Nash from Hazel Kingdom!" Evelyn finally recognized them. "Hoho¡­ to think Princess Evelyn knows the two of us. We are really honored." Nash said politely. "Hmph, To think Hazel Kingdom is joining this farce¡­" Evelyn snorted as she never expected Hazel Kingdom would also attack them. Even Alex, who was in the arena, was bewildered when they saw this formation. "After the recent war where the Heavenly Sword Sect became more powerful even after besieged by Mount Hua Sect, Thiveapia Kingdom, Zhou Kingdom, and Southern Kingdom. We thought the Heavenly Sword Sect had become too powerful. So, we could not let you go just like this. "That was the reason why our Hazel Kingdom joined hands with Mount Hua Sect. However, as long as your Heavenly Sword Sect is defeated, we would not kill you. Of course, it might be different from Mount Hua Sect." Nash said. "Don''t joke with me!" Evelyn shouted as she took out her sword and swung it. "Seven Stars Cut!" The sword wave immediately flew toward the people from Mount Hua Sect and Hazel Kingdom. They immediately tried to dodge the Sword Wave. Evelyn immediately shouted, "We are going to regroup with Florinda and the others." They nodded and flew away. "We are going to chase them," Erol said lazily. Nash looked at Evelyn''s and the others'' disappearing back and shook his head. "It is such a pity. Even if they go back, they will find themselves situated between us and¡­" ¡­ Evelyn and the others were rushing toward Florinda. And by the time they reached their destination, they could see Florinda, and the others had wounds on their body. Luckily, it was just superficial wounds. But, when Evelyn saw the people who attacked them, she was shocked beyond belief. "Riolet!" She shouted in anger. She never thought the one she trusted suddenly betrayed her. And they joined hands with the Zhou Kingdom. At first, Florinda met Riolet with his entire team, and they greeted each other since she knew they were allies because of Evelyn. Unfortunately, it was only her thinking when they were suddenly ambushed by the Zhou Kingdom. Riolet and the others even helped the Zhou Kingdom in wounding them. "You! HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME!" Evelyn shouted on top of her lungs. It was because she knew the Milian Family was the most loyal family that served the royal family. And when she saw him betray her like this, she was shocked beyond belief. When she was just about to charge, Florinda caught her hands. "Let me go!" Evelyn struggled, trying to break away from Florinda. Florinda suddenly slapped her hard. Evelyn was shocked when she felt the burning sensation on her cheek. She looked at Florinda in shock. "Look at you! You are pathetic. Does Alexander Sirius never teach you to keep calm no matter what happens? Look at your state right now and look at the people around you? If you can''t keep your calm, our eight people will meet our end here!" Florinda shouted. The other people also gathered around Florinda and Evelyn while guarding them. "I¡­" "Our Hazel Kingdom won''t kill you as long as you forfeit from this competition." Nash and the others also arrived. "Hmph. Even if your Hazel Kingdom won''t, the grudge between Mount Hua Sect with Heavenly Sword Sect could not be washed away with just a competition." Erol snorted. "Her highness, we¡­" Riolet wanted to explain his situation to Evelyn, but¡­ "Shut up! I don''t want to hear anything from you! It is foolish for me to believe in the Milian Family! To think the most loyal family even turned his back on me!" She shouted in anger. 388 Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sec One minute ago, In the arena, Alex was shocked to see the situation. It was more chaotic than he expected. Thiveapia Kingdom aside, he could not understand the reason why Hazel Kingdom attacked them. When it reached this point, he immediately came toward Xiang Bai''s room. As expected, Xiang Bai was almost flared up when he saw his disciples get attacked by four teams. However, Alex immediately tapped his shoulder. "Young Alexander?" "Our situation is in a pinch. But I am sure Evelyn should be able to solve this problem." Alex said. "What do you mean? They are surrounded by four teams!" "I know. But if they can escape from that encirclement, they should be able to regroup with Rainbow Flower Sect. Considering our sect relationship, they should fight together. After all, the Rainbow Flower Sect attacked Mount Hua Sect in the war a few months ago. Without knowing their position, they should be able to ambush them one by one. And in the worse case, they would not be able to win this competition by escaping outside the boundary." "I don''t care about it. But they are the disciples that will make our sect proud, especially Evelyn and Florinda. And I send them to death!" Xiang Bai gritted his teeth. Alex shook his head. "Calm down. We will kill those people who attacked them!" "How can I calm down? So what? Even if we kill those people, our disciples'' lives..." He looked at Honda Sana in anger. He could not do anything because it was all under her supervision. If he acted carelessly, he would be killed by her. At that time, Heavenly Sword Sect would be under suppression from other influences. It would be fine since Alex would be there to protect it. But, he knew Alex would not stay in Heavenly Sword Sect forever. He would leave the sect and ultimately leave the continent. "Calm down. I leave Evelyn a trump card to escape this situation." "Trump card?" "Yes. I leave her¡­" ¡­ At the battlefield, "Shut up! I don''t want to hear anything from you! It is foolish for me to believe in the Milian Family! To think the most loyal family even turned his back on me!" Riolet shuddered. He was really in a difficult situation. He never turned his back on Evelyn or the Royal Family. After careful consideration, he decided to do this so that he could protect Evelyn''s safety. Evelyn might consider the relationship between Rainbow Flower Sect with Heavenly Sword Sect. But she did not consider the relationship between Southern Kingdom and Alex. It was true that the Southern Kingdom had been defeated, and even their royal family had been exterminated. After the new royal family was born, they knew they might attack Heavenly Sword Sect. After all, it was not easy to wash that grudges, just like the grudges between Heavenly Sword Sect and Mount Hua Sect. He thought by finishing Florinda and the others before she arrived, he could then hide and let the other do the rest. They had promised they would not kill Evelyn. So, He just chose the most logical path for Evelyn''s safety. Sadly, when Evelyn already came back to this place and saw him like this. And before he could explain, Evelyn already shut him up. Evelyn was consumed with rage by his ''betrayal'' and her wounded teammates. And with this situation where the Heavenly Sword Sect was surrounded by four teams. Evelyn immediately branded him as a traitor and tried to come up with a plan. She saw the wounded Florinda and gritted her teeth before remembering Alex. With the others also gathered around them, they indeed had a chance to escape from this situation. She let out a chuckle, "To think big brother Alex even saved my ass in this situation. Is this my luck, or could he see the future?" "Evelyn?" Florinda and the others were confused. "We are escaping from this situation," Evelyn said with a serious expression. "Hahaha¡­ escape from us? It is futile because you would not escape from our pursuit." Erol laughed. Evelyn only gave him a cold gaze. She then shouted, "Everyone! Ready to battle!" When they saw Evelyn''s determined gaze, they immediately picked their weapon again. They did not know why Evelyn''s voice could encourage them even in this hopeless situation. Just seeing her determined eyes could lit a fire in their hearts again. They rose once again and were ready to engage these many people in the battles. "Hmph, you won''t be able to escape. As soon as they make a move, kill all of them, except her." Erol said while pointing at Evelyn. Evelyn was surprised to see that, but she did not have time for that. Just when the situation became tense, Evelyn smiled as she took out a huge paper from her space ring. She said, "There is no rule in this competition, so we can use this." When they saw the paper was filled with symbols, they immediately recognized what it was. "Be ready, she is going to use an Array Plate!" Erol shouted and made the people retreat a few meters back. The people became tense and raised their guard. Sadly, it turned out very different than they expected. The Array Plate started glowing, and the array appeared beneath their feet. "Haha! To think you are going to use an Array Plate, you are even more cunning than me." Erol shouted as he examined the array under the Heavenly Sword Sect team. He did not know what array she used, but looking at the fact that the array did not attack them soon enough. It was very obvious it was not an attack type array since it would be useless for a surprise attack that could not be used instantly. "Even if you use a barrier type array to hold us back, you won''t be able to escape from us." Meanwhile, Evelyn smirked when she saw this. She clapped her hands while activating the array plate. "Who says I am going to use a barrier type array? It will only withstand all of your attacks for a while." "Teleportation Array!" The array shined brightly as all the people from Heavenly Sword Sect disappeared. "!!!" They were shocked to see Evelyn used a Teleportation Array. After all, no array like that could be acquired. And she used it just like that. Meanwhile, in the north, There were a few female disciples trying to get the token that was lying on the ground. They were in a peaceful situation before suddenly eight people appeared beside them. Sadly, because no one, even Evelyn, expected something like this, all of them fell to the ground. They immediately rose from the ground and checked their surroundings. They were surprised to see eight female disciples in this place. At the same time, Evelyn recognized one of them. It was Nakagawa Hiina. "You-!" Both of them shouted at the same time. "You are the homewrecker that pestered big brother Alex!" "You are the whore that was being tricked by Alexander Sirius!" "What do you mean by homewrecker?!" "What do you mean by whore?!" Evelyn and Nakagawa Hiina started insulting each other. "Stop!" Florinda suddenly shouted as she looked at the female disciples in front of her. "Rainbow Flower Sect?" "Heavenly Sword Sect?" There was a violet haired female that suddenly came to the front. If Alex were here, he would immediately recognize this woman. After all, she was the one who came to Zwaka''s place with Letizia, Mina Sim. After that incident, she was ordered to have close door cultivation as a punishment. However, she used that time to understand the Martial Art that she got from Zwaka. And because of that, she was able to increase her strength and became one of the disciples that represented the sect. She also became the captain of this team. "Yes. We are from Heavenly Sword Sect." Florinda nodded. "We are ambushed by Mount Hua Sect, Zhou Kingdom, Thiveapia Kingdom, and Hazel Kingdom. We somehow escape from them." "What? You are getting attacked by four influences?" "Yes. Because of the grudge of the war a few months ago. And I am sure, Rainbow Flower Sect will be the same after they dealt with us." Florinda said. "What did you say?!" Nakagawa Hiina glared at Florinda. Mina suddenly stopped her. In fact, after getting punished for more than a year, she had matured a little bit. When they heard this, although she wanted to curse Heavenly Sword Sect, she knew that her sect was also on the list. It was like what they said. They would probably attack them after they defeated the Heavenly Sword Sect. "The elders also want us to go together. We can''t because our position is too far, so we slowly gather the token for us. But now you are here, I think it will be good for an alliance since they are going to come at us after dealing with you." Mina said. "But even with this alliance, they have still outnumbered us," Florinda said. "Indeed. This is a problem. If they just split up or something, we can ambush them." Mina agreed. At this time, Evelyn suddenly said, "Why don''t we hide for the time being? I mean, we still have time. After they get their share of tokens, I am sure they are going to fight it out. At that time, we can ambush them. Don''t worry, they don''t know about our position." "!!!" Florinda and Mina frowned when they heard that. After contemplating for a while, Mina and Florinda nodded. "It is a good option for the time being." "Follow me, our original position is good enough to hide since the trees are pretty dense in that place," Mina said. All of them nodded and followed her. Although the people from Rainbow Flower Sect were reluctant to do this, after listening to their conversation, they could not say anything. And their elder also asked them to befriend Heavenly Sword Sect to the point where they were sucking up on them. After arriving at Rainbow Flower Sect''s original position, the group did not do anything. Florinda and the others that got injured immediately tended their wounds. Evelyn was sitting a bit far from them. She had hidden her emotion for a bit because of their situation. But, when they arrived at a somewhat safe place, the feeling came back so suddenly. She had seen Riolet when she was inside the castle. He was supposed to protect her sister, Lena, in the castle. So, Evelyn often saw him but did not dare to talk to him. That was the reason why she seemed a bit cold to him. However, she knew that he was supposed to be loyal to the Royal Family. It might be because of the pressure of their situation, Evelyn was on edge. So, when she saw the hopeless situation occurred because she placed her trust in the wrong person. She immediately angered. She was not angry because of him. Instead, she was angry toward herself because she made a mistake in trusting him. She almost forgot about the incident where her big brother, the crown prince, wanted to kill her. She could not help but let out tears. Florinda watched her before she decided to come toward her. "It is not your fault." Florinda tried to soothe Evelyn''s heart. "We have underestimated them. To think Hazel Kingdom also joined the fray, we would never expect something like this." "I¡­ I just want to be alone for some time," Evelyn said weakly. Florinda only sighed and left her. But before she left, she added, "I am sure that person does not want to see you like this. Our current problem is not why they joined hands. Instead, it is what we will do now they have joined hands." Evelyn closed her eyes. She knew about it even without her asking and Alex¡­ No, she also did not want him to see her like this. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She needed to gather her resolve and made another plan for this. 389 Plan After a while, Evelyn came back to the others. She eventually could not come up with a single plan for this. After all, they were still under the onslaught of four teams. As long as those teams did not split up or something, defeating would be a pipe dream since she was not like Alex or anything. The others were also the same, even after an hour, they could not think up a single feasible plan. Evelyn remembered she still had another rank 4 Teleportation Array Plate from Alex. With that item, she just thought of an absurd plan. "We have two choices¡­ Escape and abandon this competition or fight until the last drop. I want all of you to choose this first." Evelyn said with a serious expression. Of course, no one could easily choose either of those two options. In fact, they were dumbfounded when Evelyn said that. Evelyn continued, "Our situation is still the same. And I doubt those four teams will separate with each other until they defeat us." "Hehe¡­ Isn''t it because you are betrayed?" Nakagawa Hiina said spitefully. For Evelyn, it was a direct attack on her heart. She suddenly took out her sword and swung it toward Nakagawa Hiina, "You b*tch, care to repeat it again? I don''t mind killing you right here right now." It was normal for her to react like that. To begin with, she was not in the mood for that. Despite that, Nakagawa Hiina still hated Alex, so she still spat those forbidden words. "That''s fine by me! If you can kill me, that is!" Nakagawa Hiina also took out her sword. At the same time, Mina suddenly stood up and roared. "Nakagawa Hiina! I am the captain of this team. And the instruction from our elders is to move together with Heavenly Sword Sect. It is true that you are the disciple of the Fourth Elder, as well as one of our biggest geniuses. "However, if you can only train and make trouble for our sect. Then I will need to cripple your cultivation so you will start cultivating from the bottom again! You can taunt anyone, but you can''t taunt her, or the man called Alexander Sirius. This is the order the sect master gave me before the tournament started! If you understand, then apologize and shut up!" Nakagawa Hiina was startled when she heard that. She never knew that Mina could shout like this, and she could not understand why the name of that person suddenly in her mouth, especially when it concerned the order of the sect master. Mina''s expression showed her that she was serious about it. She did not know how Alexander Sirius knew someone like her sect master and even made their sect master give an order like that. "If you don''t believe me, then you can try to taunt her again and see what will happen after this!" Mina said coldly. "It is also the same for everyone. If you understand, then shut up as we need to discuss our plan!" Evelyn looked at Nakagawa Hiina coldly. She never expected an apology from this self-centered person. Even with this foul mood, she knew she needed to explain her plan to them. She used her sword to draw their position. She drew two squares in the north, and everyone immediately recognized it was them. She then drew four squares, which symbolized the four teams that would attack them. "We should not be hoping for them to split up their force. They should know that we are going to meet with each other, and if they split up their force, it would be a foolish decision. "That''s why I want you to choose whether you will give up this competition or fight till the last drop. In case you choose to fight until the end. Then, we will meet these four teams after this." "But it is impossible for us to fight them." Florinda frowned. The others also agreed with her. "Yeah. It is impossible for us to defeat all four of them simultaneously." Evelyn nodded. Mina was the first one that understood her hidden word. "Do you want to separate them?" "Yes." Everyone was surprised by her decision. But the problem would still remain the same. They were still outnumbered. Evelyn then continued, "Of course, we are still at a disadvantage. That''s why I want us to make the battle become two versus two teams. After we defeat the first two teams, we will then defeat the other group." "!!!" If that was the case, they were sure they could defeat them. But, they could not think about how they could do that. Evelyn suddenly took out an array plate and handed them to Mina. The people from Heavenly Sword Sect were too shocked since they knew what the scroll was. It was another Teleportation Array, and Evelyn gave it to Mina just like that. "This is a Teleportation Array Plate. My plan is to separate them by making us go our separate way. I am sure they will chase both of us with two teams each in our tail. After we get separated by a certain distance, I want Rainbow Flower Sect to use this Teleportation Array Plate and teleport to our position. "That way, we will be able to fight them with equal numbers. I can''t use this once more since they would already be wary about it. Big brother Alex has left this item to me, and with this, we can acquire our victory. So, if you shall become the second Thiveapia Kingdom team, then you won''t deal with me anymore. Instead, you will personally face big brother Alex. I can''t say anything, but he is surely a scary man." Evelyn said while looking at Mina and the others without an expression. Everyone would say she was foolish to give this teleportation array to Rainbow Flower Sect. But, it was not because of this priceless treasure. Instead, they were thinking about how she could give it to them when she just got betrayed by her own people. It was a matter of trust. But what they did not know was she, in fact, did not trust them at all. She had given up trusting someone in this competition. That was the reason why she said they would need to face Alex to do account, not her. In other words, she was gambling her life away in this competition. If they did not use this Teleportation Array Plate, Evelyn and the others would be killed. She did not know whether Alex would do something if that happened, but considering the past event, he might really do it. She did not know why, but maybe because she got betrayed, she dared to gamble her life like this. If Alex was here, she might be slapped hard by him. After all, Alex would never gamble his life like this and would make everything he could to make the situation in his favor. Unfortunately, Evelyn was not Alex, and she thought she would be able to fight like Alex by fighting together with Thiveapia Kingdom. Sadly, they had stabbed her from the back. She had decided that she would kill them after this as they also had endangered her life. Evelyn looked at Mina and the others, waiting for their decision. "For Evelyn to use another priceless treasure like this, I¡­ and the others from Heavenly Sword Sect would surely support the captain until the end." Florinda was the first one to answer. She said while looking at the other teammates who nodded their heads with determination. All of them knew how priceless a Teleportation Array Plate was. Evelyn decided to use two of them in this competition, and the first one was to save them. So, of course, they would join her until the end. Evelyn nodded with a serious expression, she then said, "I will need someone to search their position." When they heard that, Kokonoe Shigure, the ninja that Alex fought in the Inner Disciple Tournament, immediately came to the front and said, "I will investigate their position. Should I give a clue so they could trace our position, captain?" Evelyn shook her head. "We will hold our position as long as possible. The enemy motivation will decrease as time passes since they also sacrificed their time to immediately go to our position earlier. They should not have any tokens right now, so they will start searching for the token. I just want their general position so we can pick a place to fight them. "Understood! I will be back in an hour." Kokonoe Shigure nodded before he disappeared to complete his mission. "Everyone needs to recover your energy first." She looked at the rest of her teammates. At this time, Mina finally said politely, "Since Captain Evelyn has gone through such a length, I will also join you in defeating all of them. I will surely use this Teleportation Array Plate wisely. "And I am sure I can represent my teammates as the captain of the team¡­" Mina then looked at her teammates, who slowly nodded their heads. Even Nakagawa Hiina nodded her head docilely. "To join this battle so we can win this competition." Evelyn looked at Mina for a while before nodding her head. Her plan had finally been established. So, all she needed to do now was to recover their energy as well as searching for an advantageous position. She also needed to calculate their distance and battle time since they would need to defeat two teams before the other two teams came back. Of course, Mina and the others also helped her in this calculation. After an hour, Kokonoe Shigure finally came back. It was like Evelyn expected. They really had a couple of arguments for the token. All of them wanted the token, but the number was limited, thus resulting in an argument. It was especially true because they had four teams. There could only be three winners in this competition. But because they had four, one of them would lose. No one wanted to lose since this competition was solely for the share of Spirit Stone Mine, not for the sake of killing Heavenly Sword Sect. Even Zhou Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect knew that. It was at this time the Thiveapia Kingdom stood out. They just wanted to protect their princess Evelyn, but because everything happened previously, they had become traitors in Evelyn''s eyes. Of course, this made them feel guilty. At first, they thought they could switch sides and fought them in three versus three together with Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. But there was still the Southern Kingdom that had yet to show their fang. As for Buddha Sect, they had yet to know their intention, and they did not know whether the Buddha Sect had been convinced by Mount Hua Sect or not. So, they could only endure and grab as many tokens as possible for now. If it was possible, they were hoping to clear this misunderstanding with the share of the Spirit Stone Mine. Several hours later, all of the tokens in the arena had been taken. Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect only got two tokens each for the time being while the majority was in that alliance. It was only two hours before the time limit, so Evelyn decided this was the right time for them to move. They had agreed on the place and the distance. This was also useful not only for the timing but also for the Teleportation Array. If they did not know their destination or distance, the teleportation array would become useless. And the fact that Heavenly Sword Sect could meet Rainbow Flower Sect with that Teleportation Array completely because of luck. They then revealed their position to the alliance. Of course, they made sure no one would know their position since the plan would be ruined if another team joined this battle. Finally, the final battle would soon start. 390 Superb Ac In the arena, Alex and Xiang Bai were staring at the screen with serious expressions. When the people from four influences started coming toward them, Alex immediately went to Xiang Bai to calm him down since he knew Evelyn still had the Teleportation Array Plate with her. Of course, he never expected that Thiveapia Kingdom would join the fray. In fact, he thought Thiveapia Kingdom would think highly about Evelyn and wanted to ensure her safety. After all, the only one that could become the sovereign of that Kingdom would only be Evelyn. When he saw that on the screen, he felt glad that he left his Teleportation Array to her. He was wondering if two would be enough since he still had another two. After all, there was no rule about that. So, Evelyn would be able to use it. By the time she used the Teleportation Array Plate, it suddenly startled all the people who watched it. Even Honda Sana did not escape from the astonishment. After all, it was one of the rarest treasures in this world after the hunt of Space Element users. In fact, most of the items that held a Space Element in it immediately became a treasure in everyone''s eyes. It included the Teleportation Array Plate in Evelyn''s hand. Unless they had an artifact that could lock the space around, it was impossible to stop Evelyn and the others escaping. This showed how powerful Space Element was. "What did we see just now? Did the Heavenly Sword Sect just teleport?" The announcer shouted. "But that was Array Paper¡­" "Did she just use a Teleportation Array Plate? She just used a priceless treasure!" The people were bewildered, especially those from Thiveapia Kingdom, as they never expected Evelyn had such a thing. After all, they never gave her something like that. They were also perplexed why the Thiveapia team suddenly joined hands with Mount Hua Sect and the others and attacked Heavenly Sword¡­ No, Evelyn. They did not care about Heavenly Sword Sect. The screen could only send the image, but could not transmit the sound. If they heard that Erol said they would kill everyone except Evelyn, they might be a bit relieved. Unfortunately, it could not. Honda Sana also noticed all of these commotions and suddenly released her Spiritual Energy. The moment her Spiritual Energy filled the arena, they were surprised by it. In fact, even the sect masters from the four sects felt ''death'' at that moment. They felt they would not hold a candle against her as she could finish them in an instant. Of course, it was the same for the people from Zhou Kingdom. They felt fear when they felt her strength, but they felt confident even more. After all, they knew there would be a few Martial Kings like them after this, so they thought they would be able to conquer this entire continent. The only problem would be the Teleportation Array Plate. They would need to check whether Evelyn still had more and the one who gave her the Array Plate. Of course, no one had yet to know it was Alex who gave it to her, except Xiang Bai. Xiang Bai remembered Alex''s master. Maxwell could suddenly teleport someone and trap them inside his barrier, which was precisely Space Element. And he was convinced that his master was the one who gave it to Alex. Alex did not care about it as long as no one knew it was him. Of course, he did not know that Evelyn already told them he was the one who gave her the array plate. And as soon as he saw both Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect had met, he got a bit relieved. Of course, if Alex were in Evelyn''s position, he would notice that the people from that alliance did not want to kill her. He would then use it to his advantage by going alone. He was sure that there would be one or two sects that would come to him. At that time, he would conceal the people from the sects to ambush them then kill the other teams. Unfortunately, Evelyn was consumed with rage, so she did not realize she was not targeted. After a few hours of waiting, he saw the people from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect moving. The moment Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect went separate ways with the constant chasing of two teams respectively, Alex immediately realized her plan. It just, he did not know whether Evelyn would use the Array Plate or give it to Rainbow Flower Sect. If it were him, he would give it to them since they would already prepare for the Teleportation Array Plate. And they would never have expected that Evelyn would give such a treasure away. However, it was at this time he got another surprise that could make him grit his teeth. He saw¡­ ¡­ Back to Evelyn, After they decided to move, they approached those four teams. It seemed they had decided that the Zhou Kingdom did not need the reward. Of course, they did not know the Zhou Kingdom did not need it because it would soon become theirs after this tournament. They found all the tokens nearby, and it seemed Buddha Sect had been hiding this entire time. They would tire them out if they searched for them. So, they decided to stay in one place and waited for the competition to be over. They did not need to search for Heavenly Sword Sect Team and Rainbow Flower Sect Team since they would appear in front of them sooner or later if they wanted to win the competition. And it turned out they were right. Evelyn appeared in front of them together with her entire team as well as Rainbow Flower Sect. Evelyn shouted in anger, "Riolet! Come out here!" Thirty two people suddenly appeared in front of them. When they saw them, Mina suddenly looked at Evelyn and said, "Wait? You said there are only three teams? How can they have thirty two people there? "We already agreed to fight together with you since the enemy would only be three teams. We should be able to deal with one of them while you are buying time for us." "I¡­ No¡­" Evelyn looked like she was trying to explain it to her. But Mina suddenly shouted again, "What? It is better to lose this way rather than dying since it is useless to oppose four of them at the same time." "You!" Evelyn was angered once again. Even the people from Mount Hua Sect smirked when they saw these two fools fighting with each other. Mina then looked at Erol and the others, "Mhmm¡­ There is a misunderstanding in this situation. If you want to deal with Heavenly Sword Sect, we won''t interfere." "Hoo¡­ If I am not wrong, the relation between Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect is good. Do you think I will believe you?" Erol snorted. Mina looked at Erol while sweating profusely. "We will leave this place immediately." Mina then started guiding her teammates to leave this place and let the Heavenly Sword Sect deal with the four teams alone. Just when they were about to leave, Erol suddenly shouted. "Wait! I never said you could leave?" "What do you mean?" "Back in the war, Rainbow Flower Sect came to Heavenly Sword Sect and aided them in the war. We were devastated back then. Do you think I will let you leave just like that? Maybe all of you should strip and serve us first." Erol said with an overbearing tone. "Please, don''t joke around." Mina smiled weirdly. "Heh? Do you think I am joking?" Erol looked at them with a cold gaze. "Run!" Mina immediately shouted toward her teammates. When they heard that, they started flying away to escape from them. "Hmph! Hazel Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom will chase them, but don''t kill them. We need to humiliate the Rainbow Flower Sect first in this competition. For example, how about raping all of them together? This will be the payback for what they did to us." Erol said coldly. He then looked at Riolet, "Make sure you do your job." Riolet gritted his teeth as he could not even resolve their misunderstanding. They thought they could fight them at this moment with the addition of Rainbow Flower Sect. But before they could revolt and attack Erol with a surprise attack, the people from Rainbow Flower Sect already ran away. They thought by doing it that way, they would be able to convince Evelyn that they did not betray her. But with Erol''s order to chase Rainbow Flower Sect, the chance disappeared once again. By making the Thiveapia Kingdom chase those people, they would not be able to go to Evelyn''s side. In other words, Evelyn''s life was at the mercy of Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. Because of the situation, Riolet and the others could only follow his command since they would not be able to fight them. After all, Hazel Kingdom was still here, and if they decided to fight, it would be a 3 versus 2 fight. He then nodded his head and led his teammates to chase the Rainbow Flower Sect. Hazel Kingdom also followed them. "Hmph!" Evelyn looked at them while gritting her teeth. "You!" "Hahaha, you think you can deceive them? And because of you, those eight women will be raped in front of you! That''s right, you have females in your team too. Maybe, we will play with them for a few rounds before killing them!" Erol laughed evilly. "Captain, what are we going to do now?" Florinda suddenly asked Evelyn. "We¡­ We are going to run!" Evelyn shouted. When they heard that, Florinda and the others started running away. Erol then shouted, "Chase them!" Evelyn and the others started running in the opposite direction of Rainbow Flower Sect. Everything was according to the plan. She swore that she would kill Riolet after killing the people from Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. They were flying a few minutes before Evelyn suddenly stopped. Evelyn made everyone act like they had used their full power just to run away from them. So, when they suddenly stopped, Florinda and the others started panting. When Erol saw this, he laughed as he gained even more confidence. He looked at Evelyn, "Hahaha¡­ You won''t be able to run away from us! You will see that everyone will be raped right in front of your eyes!" "Do you think so?" Evelyn did not get taunted. Instead, she smirked. "Why do you think we stop in this place? But, I do say that everyone really can act." "!!!" Erol immediately realized what she meant as he remembered about the Teleportation Array Plate from earlier. And when he saw their exhausted face disappear, he knew they got baited into this place. But, they could only use Array Plate once since it would be broken after she used it. He suddenly said, "The second Teleportation Array Plate!" Evelyn smiled evilly. Even Florinda and the others also smiled. "No! It is impossible! The Space Element Array Plate is a priceless treasure! And you said you have two? Even Thiveapia Kingdom did not have anything like that!" Erol shouted. "Hmph. Thiveapia Kingdom? What are they? I don''t know any Thiveapia Kingdom." She snorted as she was still mad because of that betrayal. "But you are right. I really don''t have a Teleportation Array Plate anymore." "That''s right! You are just bluffing. There is no way you have such a treasure like that." Erol shouted as he felt relieved. Evelyn smirked. "I don''t have a Teleportation Array Plate anymore because I already gave it to someone. And that someone¡­" She looked to the side, and eight people suddenly appeared out of nowhere. All of them were ladies, and Erol would immediately recognize them. "Rain-Rainbow Flower Sect!" "Fufu¡­ What did you say earlier? You want to rape us? This time, our number is equal, do you think we are afraid of you?" Mina looked at Erol and the others. "You-!" Just before Erol shouted, all of them turned their heads to another direction. They were shocked by what they saw. "!!!" 391 Southern Kingdom Joins "!!!" Not only Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect, but the people from Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom were also surprised by what they saw. They saw eight people appear near them and they immediately recognized them the moment they saw the blue-haired man. His clear brown eyes looked very calm but cold, like the calm before the storm. He stood out easily among others, despite his delicate frame. It was just like he had experienced something terrifying that made his aura feel horrifying. All of them immediately recognized him. "Theo from the Southern Kingdom!" Evelyn immediately sweatdropped. She never expected that the Southern Kingdom really showed up at this time. She immediately knew their plan would be a failure if this were the case. Different from her, Erol smirked with an evil intention. He had met him before the tournament. ¡­ A few minutes before the tournament, After visiting Hazel Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom, Erol immediately went to Southern Kingdom. He knew they had a deep grudge toward Alex. So, he wanted to incite their rage and made them join his group to kill Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. Although he knew their royal family had been wiped out, they did not know who it was. So, they wanted to take advantage of this and made Alex as the perpetrator. This way, he would get the support of Southern Kingdom. He came together with Nash from Hazel Kingdom. "It has been a while, Theo," Erol said with a friendly tone. He was also surprised by Theo''s transformation. He remembered the last time they met, Theo was one of the waste young masters. They were often hanging out in a brothel every time they met. But when he saw Theo''s cold gaze, he was shocked. Even so, he could not back down to manipulate this competition. This was the mission the sect masters gave them. Because of that war, they had lost too much to Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. So, they were planning to have their revenge the moment they heard the guarantee of Honda Sana. Their sect master and the elders wanted them to destroy Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect thoroughly. Only this way, they could appease their anger. "Erol, it''s been a while since our last meeting." Theo greeted him back without any expression. "I hear your family, Aestas Family, has become the new royal family from Southern Kingdom. I am sorry that because I have been busy with this tournament, I can''t meet you to celebrate this." Erol smiled. Theo only shook his head. "You don''t need to mind it. So, what do you want by coming to this humble place?" "Hoho¡­" Erol was truly surprised by his transformation. Back then, he was always talked for a long time, but This Theo only wanted to end this conversation. Erol did not mind it though, since it was convenient for him. "Well, then I will also cut to the chase. One month ago, I got information about the murderer of the previous royal family." Theo narrowed his eyes when he heard that. Even his teammates were bewildered by that. Erol then continued, "Yes. It is Alexander Sirius from Heavenly Sword Sect." "Alexander Sirius?" Theo looked at Erol coldly as killing intent started filling his eyes. Erol thought he had succeeded in inciting him, he would just need another push. He said, "Yes. I have got information from the sect master. It seems Alexander Sirius is a rank 4 Array Master. They know about it because Alexander Sirius took his advancement test in the town in front of Mount Hua Sect. "That''s why we have confirmed it was really him. Do you remember the massacre of the Kasmanan Family? If yes, then you must know about the Jadeite Mirror Array." "Do you mean¡­" Theo''s eyebrows twitched a little bit. "Yes. When he took his advancement test, he used the Jadeite Mirror Array." Erol nodded. "After some investigation, we had confirmed that he was the murderer of the Makmur Family as well as the royal family." "..." "I know. My Mount Hua Sect also lost too much because of the war. After we investigated it, the reason why Thiveapia Kingdom did not join the war and why Zhou Kingdom retreated, it was because of him." Of course, Erol was lying. He did not know whether Alex was the one who did it or not. He only told Theor the truth about Jadeite Mirror Array, as for the rest of them¡­ he made them up. It was so that he could incite Theo''s anger. And seeing Theo''s eyes filled with killing intent, he thought he had successfully made him angry. "That''s why. In this tournament, I¡­ no, Mount Hua Sect wants to make the Heavenly Sword Sect miserable. I have contacted Zhou Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom, and Nash from Hazel Kingdom also agreed with me in this. "Four of us might already be enough to deal with Heavenly Sword Sect, but since you are my friend, I want to invite you to this operation." Erol smiled evilly. In fact, he asked them this was just to make the Thiveapia Kingdom obedient. After all, he knew if the Southern Kingdom did not join them, Thiveapia Kingdom would defect from their alliance and help Evelyn. That way, they would be fighting them equally. So, to keep manipulating the Thiveapia Kingdom, he decided to invite the Southern Kingdom. Erol remembered that Theo was a fool and was easy to manipulate, so when he heard Theo would be the captain of the Southern Kingdom, he was so surprised beyond belief. But, this also gave him confidence in manipulating the Southern Kingdom. Theo looked at them without saying anything. "I need time to think about it." "Come on. You don''t need to think about it. I mean, you need to pay that Alexander Sirius back for the humiliation that your kingdom gets. And according to my information, Alexander Sirius is the one who teaches Thiveapia Kingdom Princess Evelyn. "Although I have promised Thiveapia Kingdom, we won''t kill Evelyn, but a few injuries should be fine. As long as she does not die, then we have fulfilled the agreement between us." Erol explained. Theo did not say anything about this. Erol was cursing him inside. He never expected he needed so much effort just to make him say yes. He remembered how easy it was to manipulate him back then. With just a single word from him, Theo followed him like his lackey. "Look, it seems that the sect master is planning to kill him in this tournament. Since he is going to participate in this tournament, as soon as he meets my Mount Hua Sect elder, they will kill him. "If you are going to accept this, I can even put a word to the elders on how you want him to die. If you want him to be tortured first before he dies, I can put a word to the elders for this. So, how about it?" Erol said smugly. "I still need time to think." Theo shook his head. Erol was starting to become impatient. He needed another push for him. "That''s right. We also want to attack Rainbow Flower Sect, and I am going to humiliate them. How about we rape them in front of their sect? Those elders from both sects would be able to see it, and I am wondering how much they would suffer just by watching it? "We are talking about Rainbow Flower Sect here. So, I am sure all of them are beautiful. We can enjoy them together like what we usually do." Erol added in his heart, ''Just accept it, you bastard!'' Theo looked at his teammates. All of them looked very unsure. Suddenly one of them came to him and said, "Captain, Princess Evelyn is the successor of Thiveapia Kingdom after they lost their crown prince. So, I assume the Thiveapia Kingdom would not be easily persuaded. I am afraid they might join this alliance as a spy." When Theo heard that, he looked at Erol for an explanation. Erol was cursing that person on the inside, but he could not show it in his face for this alliance. He just smiled and explained it to him. "Of course. This is why I visited Thiveapia Kingdom first. If we have you, we can manipulate Thiveapia Kingdom to act according to our bidding. After all, even if they defect from this alliance and help them, it will only be a 3 versus 4 fight. "As long as we attack Evelyn continuously, those folks from Thiveapia Kingdom would worry and surrender as long as Evelyn is not harmed. This way, we can suppress all of them at once." Theo then asked, "But this way, we would invite the wrath of Alexander Sirius. That person has massacred three great families in our kingdom, including the former Royal Family. If he comes again, then our kingdom and my family will be massacred again." "As I said before, we will take care of Alexander Sirius in this tournament. The reason why he could massacre those three families was that he had made a series of preparations. He made many arrays just to kill them. "But, in this competition, he would not be able to prepare for it since this competition will be observed by a peak Martial King. If you think about this, then this will be the biggest chance to kill him. Are you going to live under the terror of that person? Is the new Royal Family of Southern Kingdom could only live in fear?" Erol tried to taunt his pride. Theo hesitated a little bit. What Erol said might make sense, but it was also this reason he hesitated. "Are you sure you can kill him in this tournament?" "Of course. That Sect Master Xiang Bai would not be able to protect him since he would be killed by that peak Martial King if he makes a move in the tournament." Erol said cunningly. After a series of explanations, Theo finally said, "We are going to help the one that is likely to win. After the greatest setback our kingdom experienced, we need to rely on this Spirit Stone Mines. So, we still have the intention to win." "Of course, of course." Erol nodded. "With Evelyn as our hostage, we can even make Thiveapia Kingdom surrender this Spirit Stone Mines. Then, since you have agreed, I need to go back to my teammates so we can prepare our plan." ¡­ Back to the present, "Haha¡­ all of your plans have gone to smoke now the Southern Kingdom appears in this place. I will surely humiliate all of you. You can only blame that bastard, Alexander Sirius, for making enemies everywhere!" Erol shouted with confidence. Erol snorted as he remembered how Theo answered him in a roundabout way. He just needed to say yes and helped them. But since they had come with this perfect timing, he did not care anymore as he wanted to see the demise of Heavenly Sword Sect and enjoyed the beauties from Rainbow Flower Sect. Evelyn and the others wanted to escape, but at this time, Theo took out his staff and raised it above his head. Evelyn and the others took out their weapons and were ready to escape while under the onslaught. While Erol and the others looked at them smugly. They were convinced that they would win with the addition of Southern Kingdom. Theo''s staff suddenly became longer and longer. It was a Martial Art. Evelyn immediately raised her sword as she wanted to use her Seven Stars Cut to block this attack then escaped with the others. Theo then swung his staff down. Erol was laughing as he shouted, "Haha¡­ Kill the man and rape the woman! We need to humiliate Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect!" Evelyn clenched her sword as she swung it. The overbearing energy that surrounded her sword was ready to shoot out. "Seven Stars-!" But, just before she managed to fully swing her sword, the staff already landed. "Gah!" 392 Kill Erol "Gah!" The scream immediately filled the atmosphere. Evelyn and the others were shocked while Erol and the others had a smug face. They knew one of them was hit by the staff, and his head exploded from the sound alone. But when they saw who it was, it was one of the people from Mount Hua Sect. Evelyn and the others could easily see it since they stood on the opposite side. But for Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom, they needed a while just to realize none of the members from Heavenly Sword Sect or Rainbow Flower Sect had died. When they realized that, they immediately looked at their surroundings and found one of their teammates had just died. "Theo, what did you just do?" Erol immediately shouted at Theo. "You don''t know anything¡­" Theo said slowly as he shook his head. He looked at Erol with a pity. "You think you know anything, but in fact, you don''t know a single thing." "What?! What do you mean by that?!" "You think we don''t know who killed the Kasmanan Family, Makmur Family, as well as the former Royal Family?" Theo said coldly. "Yes. We already knew he was the one who killed them. And so, as a new royal family, we need to maintain our stability so the kingdom won''t decline. That''s why we won''t choose the same path as the previous Royal Family." Erol and the others really did not know. They did not know the true terror of Alexander Sirius. It was when the Ministers started investigating what happened to the royal family. At that time, they got a single message left by Nelson. It told them that it was just a warning, and if they wanted to target him again, their families would not be the only ones, but the entire kingdom would be killed. The ministers realized the timing after they checked the battlefield. They realized that the battle only took a while, and before they knew it, the previous royal family had been massacred. It was very clean but very deadly. That was the reason why Theo asked them if they did not fear the retaliation of Alexander Sirius. Seeing how confident he was, Theo knew that Erol had underestimated the man called Alexander Sirius. Because he had become the new royal family, he knew all of this. His family circumstances were the ones that made him change 180 degrees. Even his father, the king, along with his ministers, decided not to do anything against the man called Alexander Sirius. If Alex died in this competition, it would be good. But if he did not die, then the only thing that would come to their kingdom was demise. Besides, even if they helped them in routing the Heavenly Sword Sect, they did not get anything from it other than a promise to put on his words to the elders on how Alexander Sirius would die. Of course, his father had expected something like this. So, he left his token to Theo. If they truly came, Theo would need to inform him by activating his token once. At that time, his father also activated the token once, which meant they would need to help Heavenly Sword Sect instead of offending them. They could only do it this way since they could not talk with his father or the others. That was why Alex or the elders could not come to Evelyn and the others to advise them on something. And that was also the reason why Erol could walk easily and incite the other teams with his plan. Sadly, his plan immediately failed because he did not know what it meant by living in fear. The moment he killed one of the people from Mount Hua Sect, he shouted, "All people from the Southern Kingdom shall assist Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect." "Understood!" Theo''s teammates immediately nodded their heads as they took out their respective weapons. They released their Spiritual Energy and started engaging them. Evelyn and the others were surprised when they saw this. They never expected the Southern Kingdom would help them. But they could not dilly dally any longer since the situation became like this. Even though she did not know why, Evelyn immediately gave her order, "Kill Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom! I will take Erol''s head." Mina also gave the same order to her teammates. They started engaging Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. Mina and Florinda teamed up to kill the captain from Zhou Kingdom. Evelyn appeared in front of Erol and took out five swords from her space ring. It was Alex''s Martial Art, which let him control twenty swords. Although Evelyn could only control five swords at the moment, it was enough to kill Erol, who was only a Martial Grandmaster. "You are going to die!" Evelyn looked at him coldly. "You! Don''t push your luck!" Erol immediately got angered. He never expected his plan to fail. "Mountain Fire, Spurt!" The flame started covering his right hand as he pointed his hand toward Evelyn. He raised his hand and swung it down like he threw a rope that would entangle Evelyn. The flame suddenly expanded like a whip and tried to grasp Evelyn''s neck. Evelyn looked at the fire whip and just controlled one of the swords to become the decoy. The moment the flame whip touched her sword, it immediately stuck on her sword while trying to melt the metal. She immediately swung her sword as she aimed it toward the fire whip. "Seven Stars Cut(7-Layer)!" The sword wave immediately flew from her sword toward the whip. As one would expect from a Heaven Tier Martial Art, it immediately cut the fire whip like nothing. She then immediately sent those five swords toward them. "Just those weak swords won''t be enough!" Erol snorted. He raised his hands as a translucent red shield appeared in front of him. It was a shield made of his fire. "Ignazam Fire Shield!" The swords pierced the Ignazam Fire Shield but could not break through it. Erol looked at her smugly, but Evelyn had made another move. "Hmph!" Evelyn harrumphed as she swung her sword, "Pentagram Slash!" "You won''t be able to shatter my shield!" Erol shouted as he removed Evelyn''s swords and started repairing the shield. It was his Martial Art, so the repair was easy. But before he finished repairing, Evelyn''s Pentagram Slash already arrived in front of his shield. Alex had imparted them about this, and since it was a Martial Art from the sect that he had somehow remake, he did not mind teaching her that. Erol still looked smug even though he had yet to finish his barrier. After all, he had his confidence in his Martial Art. But unbeknownst to her, if it was Evelyn''s style of training, she might not be able to destroy the shield. Sadly, she had gone through Alex''s devilish training, and Alex always emphasized one thing. ''Control.'' The five streams of light from Pentagram Slash flew into one spot, which was the hole that she made with her swords earlier. Erol might not realize the fact that Evelyn controlled her sword and pierced the shield right in the middle. And all of them went into one spot which made a quite large hole. Using that hole, Evelyn controlled her Pentagram Slash and made them shatter Erol''s shield from the inside. "Bam!" The moment those slashes crashed into Erol''s shield, it immediately destroyed it into pieces. Erol was startled when he saw his shield breaking into pieces. But before he could do anything, he saw a small translucent sword that came through his shattered shield. "What?!" Erol gasped when he saw that. Evelyn only smirked as she raised her hand and made a grasping motion. "Sword Energy Bomb!" "Boom-!" It was the Martial Art from Thiveapia Kingdom. She had used this in the Outer Disciple Tournament. She could create sword energy that contained her Fire Element inside and made it like a flying bomb. "Argh!" Erol took the full explosion right in front of his face. Evelyn could not use her Seven Stars Cut to cut the shield since she just used it to cut the whip, but it did not mean Evelyn could not do anything against it. Evelyn just showed him that even without the most powerful strength, she could still shatter it with just enough control. Of course, it would be a different case if their strength difference was too far. But, both of them were 10-Star Martial Grandmasters. Dealing with Erol did not pose any trouble. When Mina saw this, he asked Florinda, who fought along with her, "With her power, could not we win a 3 versus 2 fight?" Florinda only shook her head. "Her power is indeed something else. But she cares about us. Do you think our teammates or us would be able to fight a few opponents at once?" "I might be able to do it, albeit barely. But the others¡­" Mina did not continue. Florinda smiled helplessly. "She is truly a caring person. We might be able to win, but a few of us will die. But she does not want that, so she tries to win without having any casualties. She is caring¡­ but I also have my concern about how long she could keep doing that. Well, I will just leave her education about that to that man, Alexander Sirius." Mina only nodded. After the smoke because of the explosion cleared, Evelyn could see Erol''s face burned a bit while his upper clothes had completely burned. "You slut! I will kill you!" Erol shouted in anger as he clapped his hands. Soon enough, a big fireball covered his entire body. He then shot out something like a laser toward Evelyn. "Fire Grizzly Gun. Ten Percent!" Evelyn looked at the intense heat radiated from the fire. She frowned a little when she saw his attack. She swung her sword and split the laser attack like nothing. "Hmph." Erol only snorted and shot out another attack, "Fifty Percent!" When Evelyn saw this, she was a bit surprised by his firepower. She immediately released her thirty meters sword domain. The sword domain started chipping the energy from the attack as she used another Pentagram Slash. Those five slashes immediately clashed with the fire. But she was surprised by the power of his fire. As one would expect from Mount Hua Sect''s disciple, his control of fire would only be attained by those who were familiar with Alchemy or Forging. The clash was equal as each attack destroyed each other. "Fire Grizzly Gun. Full Power!" Erol attacked her once more. This time, the power was powerful enough that would render her Pentagram Slash useless. After seeing this attack, Evelyn only took a deep breath as she raised her sword once more. She said, "Fire, huh¡­ I also have that." The fire started hovering around her sword. As a fire user, Alex also trained this power of hers. After all, Alex knew how important to combine Fire and Sword Art. Of course, he did not teach her his Fire Phoenix Art. "Seven Stars Cut!" The powerful sword wave soared once again. But this time, the sword wave was even more powerful as its power had been boosted by Evelyn''s fire. Erol still believed that the sword wave was nothing compared to his attack. Sadly, little did he know that this was the true Seven Stars Cut. Even the spies that had been planted in the sect had yet to know how powerful this sword wave was because they had yet to attain the Seven Layers. The sword wave cut Erol''s attack like a butter. "What?!" And the moment he realized this, he tried to summon another attack. Unfortunately, Evelyn did not let him. The swords that had been knocked off by Erol suddenly flew toward him from beneath him. The swords immediately pierced his hands and feet, rendering him useless. At that moment, Evelyn''s sword wave arrived in front of him and sent his head flying. "Hmph, if I don''t care about my teammates, I can kill you a few hours ago. Your scheme ends here." 393 Ultimate Bondage Technique "Hmph, if I don''t care about my teammates, I can kill you a few hours ago. Your scheme ends here." Evelyn harrumphed as she finally killed Erol. It turned out that Evelyn''s five swords were not knocked off and buried in the ground. Evelyn still controlled them even after they were knocked off by Erol. She just let them stay floating a few meters under Erol and made Erol''s focus on her, not her swords. That way, she managed to make a perfect ambush, thus letting her kill him. Of course, after she killed him, she immediately went to another person and killed the rest of the people from Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom without rest. Luckily, the people from Zhou Kingdom did not have the Berserk Pill with them. In fact, because Alex continuously ruined their plan, they just did not have enough supply of blood for the Blood Pills and Berserk Pills even for their Martial Lords. Alex just unconsciously had helped her in dealing with these Zhou People. After killing them, they searched the tokens they got after this long time. She found four tokens from Erol while Zhou Kingdom''s captain had two tokens. Evelyn then made her teammates rest as she went to the people from the Southern Kingdom. She looked at Theo and said, "Thank you for your help in this situation." Theo only shook his head. "The pleasure is mine. But, this is the limit. We can''t help you after this, so we will immediately retreat after this." "You don''t want the token?" Evelyn was surprised when she heard they were going to leave just like that. After all, they could not be considered as shameless even if they demanded a token or two from them since they had helped them. Theo did not take it as he said, "It is fine. Then, we will retreat after this." Theo did not wait for her to say anything as he immediately retreated with his teammates to somewhere. After all, how could he say he just did this because he... all the top brass within the Southern Kingdom were afraid of Alex? Evelyn looked at him before turning her head toward her teammates. "What should we do with the token?" Evelyn asked. "Since we got six from them, maybe we should just split it equally?" Florinda said while shrugging her shoulder. Evelyn nodded her head as he tossed three tokens to Mina without giving her a chance for objection. After all, Evelyn was the one who worked the most. At this particular time, Kokonoe Shigure suddenly came to her. "Captain." "?!" Evelyn was surprised to see him like this. Kokonoe Shigure was not someone who liked to talk, so to see him taking the initiative to talk, she was surprised. "What is it?" "There should be a few more minutes before the people from Hazel Kingdom and Thiveapia Kingdom arrived. I think we should do something other than recovering." He said. Evelyn tilted her head as she was clueless about what he wanted to do. Florinda came with great interest. He then continued, "I think¡­ we should humiliate them even further." "!!!" Evelyn and Florinda were surprised as they never thought about it. After all, it made them uncomfortable doing something like humiliating the dead, so they shivered a bit when they heard that. "Just think about this, captain. They want to kill us¡­ but us, men, might be spared from many things since we would just die if they kill us. It will be different from women, like Captain or Florinda, or even the disciples from Rainbow Flower Sect. "They will rape you first before killing you. Just think about how much humiliation, pain, and so on that I don''t even want to describe. So, I feel they should have retribution, including the people in their back. I am sure even our sect master also wants to do this." Kokonoe Shigure said. "..." Evelyn and Florinda did not say anything as they knew what he said was right. If they were the loser, rape and humiliation would come before they were killed by them. It will be far far worse than death itself. Even so, Evelyn was still uncomfortable in her heart if she decided to do this. She looked down, weighing something in her mind. Kokonoe Shigure added, "Then, how about this¡­ I am the one who acts without your permission. And I will accept any punishment after the competition ends." "You¡­" Evelyn wanted to complain about it, but seeing his serious eyes, she finally said, "Do what you want. I don''t care!" "Yes. I will show the world the ultimate humiliation technique from our Kokonoe Clan." He said proudly. Evelyn only shook her head, did not want to care about what he would do. ¡­ Even in the arena, Alex facepalmed as soon as he saw what Kokonoe Shigure did through the screen. Xiang Bai only laughed when he saw that. All the frustration inside his heart from the start finally disappeared. He felt delighted and laughed non stop until he finally started coughing because he was laughing too much. He never expected Kokonoe Shigure had such a technique that could make it better than just letting them die like that. He truly humiliated the entire Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. Of course, because of what Kokonoe Shigure did, he would make sure no one killed him because of this. He enjoyed the look of Mount Hua Sect sect master. Mount Hua Sect already got many insults the moment he tried to manipulate half of the teams in this tournament. It would be different from two teams and four teams. If it were the case like Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect, it would be easy to band together just to defeat them. But if half of the teams banded together, they would be undefeated since the rest of them needed to band together to defeat them, which was close to impossible. They never expected that after all of that, their team was killed. If it were not because of that teleportation array, they would win this since their plan was to kill Buddha Sect after they finished the Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. Sadly, not only they got killed, but they were also humiliated. As for the technique¡­ it even made Alex facepalmed. It was bondage. Kokonoe Shigure removed all of their clothes and let the world see their d*cks. After that, he tied them up and made them face the crystal up above. It was at this time that he suddenly raised all of their body and did something unthinkable. He cut all of their d*cks and just let them rot in the open. He was wondering what Jeanne would do to them if she were the one there. He immediately shook his head as he did not want to imagine what would happen since it would surely be far worse than what Kokonoe Shigure did. ¡­ Back to Evelyn, She never expected Kokonoe Shigure would do something like this. She was wondering whether it was a good thing she let him do that or not. But when she saw those things on their crotch, she suddenly remembered the dream she had back then. It was the dream where she was passionately hugged by Alex. She thought if she did not wake up at that moment¡­ she was wondering what would happen next. That thought alone made her flushed red as she forgot that Kokonoe Shigure was still cutting all of them. "He is big brother Alex¡­ he is big brother Alex¡­ he is big brother Alex¡­" She chanted this strange sentence as she tried to calm her mind down. It would need to take a while to calm down. After another two minutes, Evelyn finally calmed down and gave her order. Of course, she was still trying not to look at those things. "They should be arriving in a minute or so according to our calculation. So, rather than sitting here, how about going toward them?" Florinda looked at Evelyn and teased her, "Hehe¡­ Just say you don''t want to see that when battling?" "Wha...wha-what did you say? I never said I am interested in them. I never think about that from big brother Alex." Evelyn immediately denied. "Hehe¡­ I never said anything about Alexander Sirius though¡­ Since you say it like that, I see¡­ So you have been fantasizing him like that. I thought you are only his¡­ disciple or something." Florinda grinned. "I¡­ I never¡­" Evelyn could not fight back against her teasing. "We¡­ we are going to meet those people right now! And I don''t want to fight in this place!" "Fine fine¡­ Fufu, it is really fun to tease you. Well, it is good since our situation is so bad that we couldn''t have fun a while ago." Florinda shrugged. "Hmph!" Evelyn pouted. She shook her head as she started thinking about Riolet, the man who betrayed her. The embarrassment started changing into anger as she thought about the possibility of Florinda and the others dying at that time. "We are going now," Evelyn said. All of them nodded, and they started flying toward Thieveapia Kingdom and Hazel Kingdom. Not long after that, just as they predicted, Thiveapia Kingdom and Hazel Kingdom would help the Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. Sadly, what they met were Evelyn and the others. Nash immediately sweatdropped when he saw them. After all, meeting them here would mean they had killed Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom. This time, it would be their turn to be killed. He knew if they could kill both teams in a short time like that, they would not have any problem in killing them. Nash looked at his teammates and signaled to retreat. They nodded their heads. Unfortunately, this did not escape Mina''s eyes. Mina immediately went around them and cut off their escape path. "Well, well, I am wondering what Captain Nash would do? You just met us again, how about you accompany us for a bit?" Mina said with a cold tone. "It really brings joy to our heart to see many beautiful young ladies," Nash said with a smile. "Ho¡­ Is that true?" Nash gritted his teeth as he said, "Ladies¡­ we never plan to kill you. As long as both of your sects give up the competition, we will immediately leave the alliance. We will give you our token, so please let us leave." "Heh¡­ You never plan to kill us, but because you help them, we will get raped by those vile beasts and killed. So, do you think we should spare you?" Mina looked at him coldly. "Kill!" Every disciple from Rainbow Flower Sect shouted at the same time. "Lady, how about give me some face for this? This Nash will repay you in the future¡­" Nash said while sweating profusely. Mina raised her hand, "Kill them!" "Yes!" When Nash heard that, he gritted his teeth as he said, "Since you are not going to spare us, then we will fight to the death!" The battle between Rainbow Flower Sect and Hazel Kingdom finally started. It was the same for Thiveapia Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect. Evelyn and the others immediately surrounded them. Just by looking at Riolet''s face, Evelyn was filled with rage. She just could not accept the fact that the most loyal family just betrayed her at that timing. "Riolet! You bastard! How dare you betray me!" Evelyn shouted in anger. The others also chose their respective opponent. "Your Highness¡­" Riolet could only grit his teeth. After knowing Mount Hua Sect and Zhou Kingdom had been killed by them, he knew it was time for him to end his life. Riolet did not say anything as he knew he would not be able to explain it to Evelyn. He took out his sword like he was ready to fight with Evelyn. Evelyn also raised the sword in her hand. Both of them released their domains and jumped forward at the same time. They swung their swords at the same time. 394 The Reason and Surprising Conclusion *Stab* Evelyn just pierced Riolet''s heart. She was shocked when she realized she had stabbed him. Their fight just started when they swung their swords at the same time. But before their swords made contact, Riolet let go of his sword and let Evelyn''s sword stab his heart. "Gah!" He spat so much blood because of that. "You¡­ you¡­" "Finally¡­ I am sorry, your highness. Just before you came to us back then, Erol from Mount Hua Sect had met me. It was not him alone¡­ he came with Hazel Kingdom and Zhou Kingdom. "At that time, if there were only three of them, I was sure we could fight them. But he said they also had the backing of the Southern Kingdom. So, if it were at that point, we would be outnumbered. "No¡­ it must be because I had doubted your highness''s prowess. If I knew Your Highness had such a prowess, I would immediately *Spat*... reject them. Your Highness, this Riolet Milian from Milian Family, has wronged you and knows his mistake. "According to the law, I deserved death for this blunder. Your Highness, Please forgive the others as they are acting under my orders just to protect you... "Riolet suddenly took out two tokens from his space ring, "Your Highness, I only have two tokens in this competition. "I should have three, but it is still in Nash''s possession since they are keeping watch on us. I apologize for this blunder. Once again, I just hope your highness will forgive the others as well as my Milian Family. Our family is always loyal to the Royal Family." "You¡­ You¡­" Evelyn was too shocked as she never expected something like this. *Spat* Riolet had lost too much blood. He tiredly looked at his teammates, "After this, Please help her highness on my behalf and eliminate the Hazel Kingdom. Then all of you shall surrender and leave this competition." "Yes. Leader." Riolet''s teammates immediately saluted him. Some of them even could not help but tear up. They knew Riolet, as the first son of the Milian Family, only wanted to protect Evelyn since it was his mission. But because of many twists, Evelyn branded him as a traitor. Even so, in his last breath, he still shouldered everything on his shoulder. After giving his order, Riolet freed himself from Evelyn''s sword as he fell down to the ground while saying, "Your highness¡­ forgive this subordinate¡­" "I¡­" Evelyn was too shocked. She could not comprehend what happened just now. Her feet felt weak, and she slowly dropped to the ground. Before she could comprehend what happened, Riolet''s teammates immediately kneeled on one knee as they shouted in unison. "We shall accept the punishment for our blunder, your highness. Please, let us finish our captain''s last order and eliminate the Hazel Kingdom." After they said that, they disappeared and started engaging the Hazel Kingdom. Because they were outnumbered 3 to 1, Hazel could not make a good fight before they died. When they saw Evelyn just sit down on the ground, they were bewildered. All of their doubts immediately answered when they saw Riolet''s body on the ground as well as the people from Thiveapia Kingdom. It was only a misunderstanding. And because Evelyn was consumed in rage, she refused to hear their explanation. Mina gave Florinda the tokens as they agreed to fight Buddha Sect after this. After all, with all of these tokens, both Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect had seven tokens. Mina did not mind getting second place since she knew Evelyn''s prowess, and the sect master had told her to do so. But, they would need to get the tokens from the buddha sect. With both of them having seven tokens, there were still eleven tokens left. They did not know how many Buddha Sect or Southern Kingdom had at this point. So, they wanted to make their position safe by having the token from Buddha Sect. Unfortunately, they also got another problem. Evelyn still sat on the ground and had no sign of moving. They also realized that the people from Thiveapia Kingdom had left the battlefield. Suddenly, Florinda approached her from behind and placed her hand on Evelyn''s shoulder. "You did not do anything wrong. It was normal to have that kind of reaction. I am sure ''he'' will also say the same." "..." Evelyn did not say anything to her. All of them could see her tears, but they decided not to say anything. Florinda sighed. They did not know what to do in this situation. If Alex was here, he might be able to solve it since he knew Evelyn better than them. After a few more minutes, Evelyn finally said with a hoarse voice. "I am sorry¡­ but, for Buddha Sect, I need you to lead the teams and fight them together with Mina and the others¡­ I¡­ I can''t fight after this." Florinda closed her eyes and sighed helplessly. She said softly, "Alright, we will chase the Buddha Sect right now. But I will leave Elise to guard you, okay?" Evelyn did not say anything. She did not accept, but she also did not reject, so Florinda left Elise to accompany her since both of them were women. Florinda then made the other get ready. Sadly, just before they started chasing the Buddha Sect, they finally noticed that darkness started enveloping the world. In other words, the sun had set, and the match was over. It was at this time they heard an announcement. "The match has officially ended. The first place is Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect with seven tokens. The third place is Buddha Sect with six tokens and the fourth place is Southern Kingdom with five tokens. As for the other influences, they are in the last place without any token. But because there are two influences that get the first place, we will hold another competition between Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect in the next day and push the competition for Martial Lord back a day. The rule will be explained tomorrow." When they heard that, Florinda and Mina glanced at each other while making a weird look. ¡­ In the arena, Alex and Xiang Bai were shocked by the result. It was not because they took the same place with Rainbow Flower Sect, but because of the result of Buddha Sect. They were observing all influences except the Southern Kingdom and Buddha Sect. At a later time, they started paying attention to Southern Kingdom as Heavenly Sword Sect met them. But, Alex was very surprised when they chose to fight together with the Heavenly Sword Sect, considering their past grudges. But all in all, he only cared about the result. At the very least, he would not need to wipe them out from the map. Then he shifted his focus to Thiveapia Kingdom. At the very last breath, it seemed it was only a misunderstanding. And since all of it had finished, he would just leave it to Evelyn. He started thinking about what he should say to Evelyn, whose heart was hurt. As for the Zhou Kingdom, he already planned to kill all of the participants in this tournament, so he did not care about it since nothing changed. The one that changed was Mount Hua Sect, he and Xiang Bai decided to make sure Mount Hua Sect paid for this. Alex was even wondering whether he would kill their sect master or make him help the fight with Zhou Kingdom and that other influence. After so many considerations, he was still shifting in the former. But it was the decision for later. "This is really a surprising result. To think we have two champions that will fight once more tomorrow. I really can''t wait for it." The announcer said excitedly. "But the most surprising thing is Buddha Sect. "We really took our eyes off them this entire time, and before we knew it, they had taken third place with only one token difference. This¡­ I really want to ask what kind of plan Buddha Sect has devised for this competition? I am sure all of you also want to know it. So, without further ado, how about we ask Sect Master Glenn?" The sect master of Buddha Sect was an old man with a bald head like a monk. He wore a yellow Buddhist robe. He raised one of his hands in front of his chest. Even though he was a Martial King, he humbly bowed his head and said, "Amithaba." He then started explaining, "We don''t have any plan for this competition. For the first place, Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect have fought many hard battles. And we even managed to see something inappropriate. "Of course, I don''t mean to question their decision. I just want to say that we are different. We, Buddha Sect, love peace the most. We choose to strengthen ourselves and follow the teaching of God. "Just look at our score, without much hardship and gruesome war, our Buddha Sect has managed to get the third place with only a single token difference from those who fought many wars. "Just take a look at this and imagine the situation on this continent. Kingdoms start a war to expand their territory, or Sects start a war to raise their strength. This is also the same as the battle you just saw. "They had many wars to get the tokens. However, what about the result? Have you thought about it? We only have a single token difference. In other words, we could reach such a high place without any war. "If peace comes to this continent, I am sure every influence will start to prosper, and the people will be happy. If you want to become one of us, please join our Buddha Sect so we can spread this teaching together. "Amitabha." Xiang Bai twitched his eyebrows while cursing, ''This old fox. He even used something like this as a promotion for his Buddha Sect. He hid his real intention with those flowery words, and I can''t retort him since it will make our reputation bad." "Oh! As expected of the sect master of Buddha Sect. Such a speech. I am really looking forward to where there is no more war on this continent." The announcer said, but before he started talking again. He stopped as he got another message from Honda Sana. His expression became serious again as he announced, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly announced to you tomorrow''s competition! "The next competition will be the battle between Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. There will be five battles that are divided into three 1 versus 1 battles, one 2 versus 2 battle, and one 3 versus 3 battle. The details for the competition will be announced tomorrow, including the rules. So, how about we have the sect masters from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect to say something?" Rainbow Flower Sect sect master, Cecilia, stood up as she looked at Alex before turning to Xiang Bai. "Although our sect has an alliance, we will still fight with the intention to win. Will that be alright, sect master Xiang Bai?" Xiang Bai twitched his eyebrows as he glanced at Alex. He knew why she glanced at Alex first before turning to him because she was unsure about it. She threw that question to him since it would be weird if she suddenly asked a disciple for that. Alex only gave a small nod. Xiang Bai then said, "Hmph, fine by me. The disciples of my sect are not weak." The announcer then said, "Oh¡­ what a statement from sect master Xiang Bai. I am sure all of you are also curious about the fight between the two sects. So, please come again tomorrow. We hope the two sect masters decide the position for tomorrow''s battle as each disciple can only fight once. Let us end today with big applause." 395 Strategy Vs Strategy That night, Evelyn came to him while crying. She told him everything from the start. He learned that Hazel Kingdom did not want to kill them, but joining the alliance alone already made them an enemy of his. Of course, it did not mean the entire kingdom was his enemy. And since their entire group had been killed. Alex decided to let this matter go for the time being unless they tried to do something funny again. As for Mount Hua Sect, he really wanted to kill them. He decided if they fought Mount Hua Sect, he would kill all of them. Of course, he was sure Xiang Bai wanted to do that too. As for Zhou Kingdom, he did not need to say anything as their fate had been decided by him a long time ago. And when he heard about Thiveapia Kingdom together with their betrayal, which was only a misunderstanding. He decided to let Evelyn decide what she wanted to do with them. Because of her condition, Alex wanted her to rest first before deciding it since she should make the decision with a cool head. Lastly, it was the Southern Kingdom. He did not know why they suddenly helped Evelyn and the others, but he could roughly imagine the reason. It must be fear as they were afraid their kingdom would be razed to the ground by him next time. After all, having the entire Royal Family die in a single night without anyone knowing was a nightmare. He remembered that the Southern Kingdom locked their kingdom down for two or three months because they were afraid they would be the next. Fortunately, what they expected never came and started the civil strife. All in all, Alex did not need to care about this kingdom anymore since even if they wanted to rise up again, it would be in a long time. The next day, Evelyn had somehow calmed down. Alex was watching her through the night since her emotion was a bit unstable. However, when she came to him the next day, Evelyn seemed to have gained her resolve. "Big brother Alex¡­ I think I am going just to stay away from this political thing??? I won''t become the sovereign of my kingdom. Instead, I will focus on the Martial Path. "Back then, I was really grateful to you for teaching me Seven Stars Cut. You also taught me the basis that somehow made my power strength increase by leaps and bounds. It was the same as these few months'' training. "I really couldn''t thank you enough. I thought I couldn''t do something for you with the help of my kingdom. I realized¡­ no matter if it was about the wealth in the auction, your strength, or this whole war aspect, I really could not help you. Instead, I became the burden you need to help. "That''s why I have decided. I will move forward in my Martial Path without considering the other things. That way, I might be able to help you in the future, no matter how small that is. For now, I will win today''s battle first." "..." Alex looked at her without saying anything. The young girl had finally taken the first step to soar in the sky. He could only say, "I am looking forward to it." "Yes." Evelyn nodded as she started walking toward her teammates, "I am going." ¡­ "Ladies and Gentlemen, we watched something interesting yesterday. To think the competition has so many twists that even I was overwhelmed by the sight of it. "And even today! We will witness the competition between Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. "Let us give a big applause for the participants as we welcome them into the arena!" Evelyn and the others walked into the arena and showed themselves. It was also the same as Mina and the rest. The arena was circular, with around two hundred meters wide. It was a huge arena for a commoner that could hold more than a thousand people. However, it was the limit they could make after considering this would be used by Martial Lords later. But, for today, this was their arena. In this battle, they would decide who would be the winner and who would be the loser. "As I announced yesterday. There will be five battles in total, and the first three will be the winner. "There won''t be any rule too in this tournament. You can kill or cripple your opponent, and as you have expected, our host, Honda Sana, would make sure no one would stretch their hands to the participants. "You can surrender in this competition. Do note that you can''t attack them after they surrender. The first battle will be a 3 versus 3 battle followed by 2 versus 2 battle and lastly finished by three 1 versus 1 battle. "Without further ado, let us start the competition!" "Uoh!" The crowd was cheering for them. The participants did not care with all of this cheering, because they had decided their line up. "Let us see the participant for Rainbow Flower Sect first. Their line up is¡­" ¡­ An hour ago, In the Rainbow Flower Sect''s team, they were busy discussing their line up. The elders had several suggestions for their line up, but Mina suddenly agreed with one of them. "We need something that can catch them off guard. I am sure you already know the biggest threat in this battle, right?" Mina said. "Evelyn." One of them said. "None other." Mina nodded. "That''s why we need to do something to catch her off guard. What do you guys think of the single battle where people have the lowest expectation?" "..." They contemplated for a bit before Nakagawa Hiina said, "The fourth battle¡­" "Yes. We will strike in that spot and win this tournament. For that, We will need to win at least two battles before the fourth battle." "If you want it that way, then I will be in the fifth battle. After all, I am the weakest in this team." Suddenly, a brown-haired woman said. "..." Everyone was surprised when she heard that. She never expected that she would say it before they would suggest it. Mina looked at her before she said, "Thank you very much." The brown-haired woman only shook her head. "This is not a matter of pride, but whether we will win or not." Mina nodded. "I will take our third win in the fourth battle and with our battle plan have been decided. Then, the rest of the line up will be like this¡­" 3v3 - Maya Edwards, Zoe Barnes, Cara Montgomery. 2v2 - Gabriella, Janessa Bass. 1v1 - Nakagawa Hiina 1v1 - Mina Sim 1v1 - Kuria Orengo This line up would surprise everyone. "Oh! What is this? Usually, the captain will be in the last fight, and optimally, the rest of the team would win the battle so the captain will not use his/her hand. But look at this lineup, the captain, Mina Sim, is the fourth battle. "Why do I feel this lineup is so well thought? What a twist from Rainbow Flower Sect¡­ How about we ask Rainbow Flower Sect sect master to explain their strategy for this lineup?" Cecilia chuckled as she said, "We only offered our suggestion to our disciples. As for the strategy, we will trust it in our disciples'' hands. You can just look at their positioning. This is a highly powerful line up to defeat the enemy before they meet their captain. "In our Rainbow Flower Sect, we want our disciples to be a strong and independent woman. So, we only offer our suggestion while you are the one who will decide your own fate. If you want to be stronger and independent, please join our Rainbow Flower Sect." "Oohhh!" The crowd was mesmerized not only by her sect but also with her beauty. "Rainbow Flower Sect!" "Rainbow Flower Sect!" The people started cheering Rainbow Flower Sect. Meanwhile, in Xiang Bai''s room, Xiang Bai was sweating as he never expected that since he was one of the people that followed old tradition. He advised Evelyn to like the way she portrayed. "Not good¡­" Watching this, Alex did not say anything. In fact, he already expected something like this. But the problem was he never suggested anything to Evelyn. It was because of her speech in the morning. So, Alex wanted her to grow up alone. "We need a countermeasure¡­ but how do we counter this? We can''t exactly change our entry." Xiang Bai was trying to come up with a plan but to no avail. Alex only patted his shoulder. "You¡­ Do you tell her anything? You have told her, right? This way, she would have made a countermeasure." Xiang Bai looked at Alex with great hope. Of course, the ''she'' in his mouth was Evelyn. Alex only shook his head as he really never told her anything. When Xiang Bai saw that, his feet felt weak as he dropped to his chair. He sighed. "Well, second place is good too¡­ we can just get the first place in the Lord Competition¡­" "It is alright. I may not tell her anything. But, I have trained her these past few months. And I did not train her so that she could increase her cultivation base easily. I also trained her sword as well as how to be a careful person." "Careful person?" Xiang Bai looked at him in confusion. "Yes. A normal strategist would think which one will be the best move and which one will be a bad move. However, a careful person would not think which one is the best or the worst. We only think about what our opponent will do and how we want to counter it while maintaining our trump card." ¡­ A few minutes ago, Evelyn and the others also started planning for this competition. Evelyn said, "Well, this plan is trash¡­" "Oi oi, you can''t say that, you know. After all, this is the plan from the sect master. I mean, it is good enough if we can win without you fighting." Florinda said. "If big bro¡­ If Alexander Sirius is here, he will beat me up if I go according to this plan." Evelyn said. "This is the oldest but most predictable plan. That''s why I won''t go with this plan. "Why, Captain?" "I need to be careful. And in our dictionary, a bad strategy is a strategy that makes us lose. It will be a good strategy if it can make us win the battle. Just like in a life and death fight, whether it is a dirty move or something, if you can kill your opponent, then it is a good move. Pride won''t protect you from surviving another day. "That''s why I know our weakest link will be in the fourth battle, and they must be wary about my power. So, we will make this fourth battle as our standpoint while Florinda will be our last trump card. "But it will be better if we can win the competition without giving them a chance," Evelyn explained. "I see, then I will be the bait in your plan captain. All in all, I am not really good in a team fight, and my individual prowess is also not comparable to others. That''s why I will be your bait." Elise stood up and said. She then looked at the others with a smile, "So, it''s on you guys." When the others saw her, she knew she must be hurt to sacrifice herself in this. However, it just gave them a new determination for this. They nodded their heads. Evelyn then announced her plan, "We will go with this¡­" The lineup finally revealed for others to see. The moment they looked at that, they dropped their jaw to the ground. If Rainbow Flower Sect''s move was already shocking enough, then this move made one freak out. Evelyn and Alex smirked at the same time as they looked at the lineup. 3v3 - Yasmin, Hanibal, Kokonoe Shigure 2v2 - Anwar Daher, Amazu Agu 1v1 - Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia 1v1 - Elise 1v1 - Florinda 396 Strategy Vs Strategy Part II They gasped the moment they saw it. Evelyn, who they thought would participate in the fifth battle, suddenly participated in the third battle. With Evelyn in that position, the audiences immediately knew that they were going to finish the competition as soon as possible. Alex smirked as he already expected something like this. "This¡­" Xiang Bai was still in shock. He did not know whether this came from Evelyn, who did not follow his plan, or he was just thrilled by the fact they could outwit the Rainbow Flower Sect. "By looking at it, Evelyn must want to end it with only three fights. But the position of Florinda¡­ she truly grew up." Alex shook his head helplessly. He knew she made Florinda participate in the last fight to become their last trump card in case their original plan failed. "What is this? Heavenly Sword Sect has fooled all of us here. To think we can see Heavenly Sword Sect''s captain in the third fight¡­ What a surprise. It seems Heavenly Sword Sect does not want to prolong the fight as they want to finish it in just three battles. What a plan from Heavenly Sword Sect!" Mina looked at Evelyn while sweating. She never expected she would use something like this. She was already informed that Heavenly Sword Sect was an old school. In Rainbow Flower Sect''s room, Cecilia was also gritting her teeth as she never expected that old Xiang Bai would use something like this. "That old bastard¡­ He never used something like this in a few decades¡­ is it just so he can use it now?" Cecilia was cursing Xiang Bai. Beside her, Letizia shook her head. She looked at Alex, who was beside Xiang Bai. She was sure that Xiang Bai would never use something like this. In other words, the one who could make a change like this was someone very influential that could even ignore the order from the sect master. She remembered when they came to Heavenly Sword Sect. Xiang Bai was very reserved in front of Alex. It was plain to see that Alex had that power, and with that, he used it to fight them. "No, Mother¡­ This plan must come from Master," Letizia said. "!!!" Those words immediately jogged her memory. Letizia had informed her about Alexander Sirius''s plan concerning the troops in the Rivulet Forest. And she could clearly see how evil that plan was. She was convinced instantly that the plan was devised by Alexander. She murmured, "What a devil¡­" "Mother¡­ Master is not a devil, he is a genius." Letizia corrected her. Half of it was because of the full loyalty thing, and the other half was because she was already convinced she would never win from this person. "..." Cecilia could not say anything when Letizia corrected her. She just sighed and thought how lucky they were since they had made a kind of alliance with him. She said, "We can only place our hope in our disciples." "Yes." ¡­ In the arena, they could see six people facing each other. Half of them came from Heavenly Sword Sect while the rest hailed from Rainbow Flower Sect. As for the others, they were chilling outside the arena as they prepared for their respective battles. The three disciples from Rainbow Flower Sect were in dire situations. They knew the only way to win the competition was to destroy the Heavenly Sword Sect in 3v3 and 2v2 fights. That way, Mina would get the third win. Obviously, they already lost hope in Nakagawa Hiina as there would be no chance for her to defeat Evelyn. On the other hand, the afro-mentioned person was sitting while focusing on her battle as she had yet to lose hope. She did not care if the others had lost hope from her. As long as there was still a chance to win, she would do her best to grasp it. Maya Edwards, Zoe Barnes, Cara Montgomery looked at their opponent. They had a battle plan ready, but it would depend on how the battle goes. Meanwhile, in Heavenly Sword Sect''s side, Hanibal was acting as the vanguard while Kokonoe Shigure was special as he would only target Cara, who was a bow user. It would be hard if Cara could help her team with her bow. As for Yasmin, she was supporting Hanibal and Shigure with her spear. The match had no referee since killing was legal. So, there was no stopping, and if they killed the surrendered opponent, they would surely die under Honda Sana''s hand. After looking at them, the announcer finally shouted. "First Match! Begin!" Hanibal made the first move. He hit the ground hard with his giant ax. "Prison Stomp!" The ground around the Rainbow Flower Team started shaking before rising and making a box that trapped them inside. This was the same move that he used to fight Alex. The purpose of this technique was to make the people trapped inside jump. At that time, Hanibal would strike them. Alex also acted according to what he wanted. Sadly, Alex''s strength was far more powerful than him at that time, so he lost in that exchange and led him to disadvantages. This time, the Rainbow Flower team did not need to do that. "Single Sword Strike!" "Ten Thousandth Breaker!" They blasted the wall open. At the same time, Cara already pulled her arrow. Her target was Yasmin. "Purging Arrow!" The arrow flew like a bullet. In an instant, the arrow had arrived in front of Yasmin. Yasmin still had no expression on her face, even in the face of this deadly arrow. Because she felt Kokonoe Shigure from her left. He came like a shadow and swung his sword to deflect it to the sky. Ultimately, it was flying toward the audiences and made them panic. It was at this time a transparent barrier suddenly stopped the arrow like nothing. "What a fierce arrow from Cara Montgomery! But don''t worry everyone, as the arena has been constructed with some protections to make sure no one gets hurt." When they heard that, the crowd felt relieved and continued cheering on them. Yasmin raised her spear and thrust it toward them. "Quick Silver!" However, they did not deflect it like Kokonoe Shigure. Instead, Maya and Zoe swung their swords and broke the attack with their combined strength. This showed them that they were stronger. Sadly, that attack was not to show them who was stronger. Because of that attack, no one noticed that Kokonoe Shigure had disappeared from the battlefield. He used his shadow walk to lurk around the shadow and approached the Rainbow Flower team. Hanibal also started moving forward as their vanguard. But surprisingly, Yasmin still had no sign moving. She just stood there while playing with her long blue hair. She looked very bored. Even after all of that, she was showing the Rainbow Flower team that they could defeat them even without her. The Rainbow Flower team furrowed their eyebrows as Maya and Zoe also started marching toward them. They would meet Hanibal first before they could reach Yasmin. "Hmph, you won''t get past me." Hanibal snorted. It was at this time Kokonoe Shigure appeared behind Cara, who was pulling her bow. She wanted to make another shot toward Yasmin. "Shadow Slash!" With his ninja sword covered with dark energy, he swung it toward Cana. "!!!" Cara finally realized they were taunted by Yasmin and forgot about this ninja. She leaped forward to avoid Shigure''s strike. Unfortunately, Kokonoe Shigure never expected he could finish her with this blow, so he never targeted her from the beginning. His true target was her bow. He shifted her sword and cut the bowstring. "Tch!" Seeing her bowstring was cut by him, she clicked her tongue. She immediately changed her stance while trying to stab Kokonoe Shigure with her arrow. Kokonoe Shigure grabbed her hand that held the arrow, but she then used her bow to strike his hand. Sadly, he immediately used his sword to block it. "!!!" They were in a stalemate. It turned out that Cara''s melee combat was not inferior to him. If he could just make some distance and move in the shadow once again. He could win this fight. Unfortunately, Cara grabbed his wrist tight so he would not escape. Meanwhile, Maya and Zoe were surprised by the surprise attack from Kokonoe Shigure. For that, Cara only said, "Leave him to me. You two deal with the rest¡­ No, defeat the spear user first." After that confirmation, Maya and Zoe turned their focus to Yasmin. Of course, Hanibal did not let them so. He appeared in front of them and intervened in their plan. "Axe Cleaver!" He swung his giant ax toward them, but Maya and Zoe avoided it easily. They used that chance to move past him. After getting through him, they could finally see Yasmin. "Maya, you beat her first while I buy you time for this big man," Zoe said. "Alright." After hearing that, Maya nodded her head and leaped toward Yasmin. It was at this time Hanibal shouted. "All of you will lose!" "Boom!" But before he could do anything. They heard an explosion from the other side. When they turned their heads, they could see Cara used her explosion arrow to strike Kokonoe Shigure. Zoe and Maya smirked. "We can do this. We shall take the first win!" Unbeknownst to them, Yasmin made a smile. She murmured, "Never thought, it is really going according to her plan." She shouted, "Hanibal, now!" He smiled as he stomped his feet to the ground. It made a small crater in the arena. "Frenzied Berserker!" This was the special state he used when he fought Alex. With this Special Art, he could enhance his strength for a few minutes. "Prison Stomp!" The ground rose once again and surrounded Zoe and Maya, blocking their line of vision. However, they also had prepared for this. The instant the wall rose, they immediately destroyed it. Sadly, Hanibal used this Prison Stomp not to trap them, but to separate the arena. Their position was such, Cara and Shigure were fighting on the other side of the arena. Hanibal was in the middle of the arena, and Yasmin was on the other corner of the arena while Zoe and Maya were between them. Hanibal used this chance to separate Zoe and Maya from Cara. As for Yasmin, she had been briefed with the plan, so as soon as she saw the ground raised. She immediately slipped through Zoe and Maya from the side and made it to the other side of the arena. It was at this time, she used her spear and thrust it toward Cara, who was busy fighting Kokonoe Shigure. "Silver Raven." "!!!" Cara was surprised by her surprise attack. She immediately shifted her hand to deflect the spear from her. Regrettably, it managed to injure her left hand. "Argh!" When her voice filled the arena, Zoe and Maya realized Heavenly Sword Sect''s plan. Their target was Cara all along. "Not good, we need to help her!" They immediately leaped. "I have been waiting for this." Finally, his normal strategy came to fruition. He appeared in front of them with his powerful strength. "You bastard." Zoe swung her sword toward him. "Hmph. In my Frenzied Berserker, I am strong!" Hanibal swung his ax normally, but when Zoe received it, she was blown away. "Bam!" Because of that overbearing force, she crashed into the wall. "Ten Thousandth Breaker!" Maya immediately struck him with her sword but to no avail. Hanibal effortlessly blocked it. Maya and Zoe needed to come back to help Cara, but this gigantic Buffon would stop them. He said, "Although I can only maintain this state for a few minutes, this would be enough to defeat all of you. So, we will play for a while until my team defeats the bow user." Maya and Zoe gritted their teeth as Cara was under the onslaught of Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin. With both sides'' strategy had come into fruition. The problem would be how long Cara held on or how long Hannibal could hold Maya and Zoe back from coming to help her. 397 Evelyns Strategy *Clang* The clashing sound continued filling the arena. Cara was on her last leg under the constant assault from Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin. At the same time, on the other side of the arena, Maya and Zoe were still trying to get past Hanibal but to no avail. Hanibal had many injuries on his body, but his eyes were still focused on Maya and Zoe as his mission was to hold them down until they defeated Cara. On the other hand, Maya and Zoe were not that much better. Dealing with Hanibal''s great strength was very troublesome. They were a bit exhausted in dealing with him. It was different from Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin. Cara was not as hard as Hanibal, so they slowly beat her up while reserving their strength. So, when they needed to clash with Maya and Zoe, they had enough strength to beat them too. After another minute, "Silver Raven!" Yasmin thrust her spear. "Explosive Arrow!" She released the arrow she used to strike at Shigure earlier. "Boom!" At the same time, Kokonoe Shigure appeared behind her. He struck her with his sword, "Shadow Cut." "!!!" If she were not exhausted like this, she would be able to avoid this attack. Sadly, taking the full brunt from these two took a toll on her body, and at this point, she did not have enough time to react. Finally, after so long, Kokonoe Shigure made a decisive blow on her back. It made a quite deep sword wound on her back. "Pah!" She immediately spat blood, but it did not stop there. Yasmin came out of the smoke from the explosion earlier and sent a kick on her abdomen. "Gah!" It knocked her back to the arena''s wall. Kokonoe Shigure wanted to make a follow-up, but he noticed that they managed to knock her out. Well, most of her injuries were physical wounds, and she could recover from it after a few days, so they could say they held back a little. After defeating her, they immediately helped Hanibal. With the battle becoming a 3v2 fight, after some time, they managed to defeat both Maya and Zoe. "Heavenly Sword Sect Win!" "Uoh!" The crowd was cheering for them. At first, the situation seemed under the control of Rainbow Flower Sect. Sadly, it turned out that Heavenly Sword Sect waited for the right time to launch a counter-attack. If they could choose the MVP in this battle, it would be Hannibal. He had fought bravely against Maya and Zoe while trying to tire them as much as possible. And by the time Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin came to his aid, it practically became a one-sided battle. Alex watched this battle with great interest. He thought this was a good plan. Both teams were trying to take out the support first, which were Cara and Yasmin. In Cara''s case, Shigure did a good job of making them focus on him. That way, Maya and Zoe were forced to defeat Yasmin earlier. But it was at that moment, they were already trapped in the spider web. The moment they delved into the Heavenly Sword Sect side, Hanibal immediately split the arena into two. If Hanibal could not handle Maya and Zoe, or at least letting one of them pass him, their entire plan would crumble. And they would have a much harder battle just to win. Alex did not really care about that since they had already won. He looked at Evelyn, who watched the fight with a great concentration. He could see her mouth moving. It said, "All according to the plan." "That girl¡­" He shook his head helplessly. In the arena, Maya and Zoe immediately helped Cara out and had the other teammates to tend for her wounds. Meanwhile, Yasmin, Kokonoe Shigure, and Hanibal were basking in the light. They were happy they could win this match. At this particular time, Hanibal''s Frenzied Berserker finally wore off. He felt his strength seeping away from his body. He fell to his knees and made the crowd gasp. They thought he might suffer a serious injury. But before letting him fall to the ground, Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin helped him up. They placed his hands on their shoulder and helped him leave the stage. "The MVP should not leave the arena like this," Shigure said. "If you did not hold them back, I might not even be able to stand after we won," Yasmin smirked. "Haha¡­ We won as a team." Hanibal laughed. "That''s right." Yasmin and Shigure nodded while smiling. Hanibal then looked at Evelyn, who was on the side. "Still, that little gi- I mean, Captain is surely a scary one. To think everything was going according to her plan." "Yes. That''s why she is the captain." Shigure shook his head helplessly. Yasmin only walked silently while remembering a certain scene. ¡­ Half an hour ago, Evelyn was explaining their strategy. "We are going to defeat the bow user first. Since we have fought together in the previous round, I am sure all of you have known she will be a bit troublesome." "Indeed. In any case, it is normal to remove their support first." Florinda nodded. "Then, Yasmin and I will become the vanguard while Kokonoe Shigure tries to defeat her," Hanibal suggested. "No!" Evelyn shook her head. Her rejection invited confusion from the others. Kokonoe Shigure frowned as he thought Evelyn did not trust his ability. "Captain, I can finish her off." Kokonoe Shigure said. Evelyn shook her head. She turned her head to Hanibal instead of answering him. "The technique you used back then when you fought big bro¡­ Alexander Sirius, the one that could enhance your strength. If you use it, can you hold back their vanguards?" "!!!" All of them were shocked by her statement. On the other hand, Hanibal pondered it deeply. "I can stop them. But as soon as the effect wears off, I will go down instantly." "A few minutes are enough. Within that tie, Kokonoe Shigure and Yasmin will defeat the bow user. After that, they will help you in dealing with them, thus securing our victory." Evelyn said. "But how do we bait them?" Florinda asked. "Firstly, they have also seen our ability in the previous round. And with that information, they would surely expect Kokonoe Shigure to make a surprise attack on their bow user. "We will use that to our advantage. We will make them think we are going by the book. Kokonoe Shigure will attack her while Hanibal tries to keep the other two out. "With them becoming confident that we are trapped in their plan, Yasmin will try to bait them to the corner. You don''t need to do anything in particular. You just need to stand there while playing with your hair or something. Just make them think you are underestimating them. "With the confidence they have, they would surely try to attack Yasmin first. In other words, Their bow user will hold Kokonoe Shigeru down, while her teammates will try to defeat Yasmin. "At that time, Hanibal will use that power up technique while creating a wall that separates the arena into two. I am sure you are capable of doing this since you had used a similar technique when you fought Alexander Sirius. You just need to scale it up a little bit." Evelyn explained her plan. Hanibal nodded. "Yes, I should be able to do that. Then after we separate them, Yasmin will go to the other side of the arena and help Kokonoe Shigure. At the same time, I will hold the other two until they defeat her." "Yes. This might be a little hard for you since you need to fight two at once." "Haha¡­ I never thought I would be the sacrifice for these two." Hanibal laughed while looking at Yasmin and Kokonoe Shigure. "Although we are usually competing with each other, it is different this time. "After all, we are representing the sect in this tournament. Reluctant I may, we will surely win this as a team. And as soon as we go back, we will be competing as usual." Evelyn nodded and shouted, "Then go!" ¡­ Recalling that scene, Yasmin could only raise her hand in front of her. They came back and saw Evelyn approaching them. She said, "Good work, everyone." "Haha¡­ We won the first one." Hanibal laughed before turning his head to Amazu Agu and Anwar Daher. "You guys need to win alright so our captain can close the battle." They nodded and said at the same time. "Of course." They then heard the voice of the announcer once again. "What a surprise for the first battle. Just when we thought the battle was going in Rainbow Flower Sect''s favor, Heavenly Sword Sect managed to turn it around without suffering heavy casualties. "Is this planned or not? We need to see this again in the next battle. Without further ado, let us call Amazu Agu and Anwar Daher from Heavenly Sword Sect as well as Gabriella, Janessa Bass from Rainbow Flower Sect." "Uoh!" When they heard that, Evelyn said, "Go! May fortune be with you." Anwar and Amazu nodded their head as they walked to the arena. Meanwhile, the atmosphere around Rainbow Flower Sect was heavy. They absolutely needed to win the first and the second battle, since they had given up on Evelyn and the last match. With this defeat, they were in a pinch, and everyone''s morale plummeted. Everyone, except Nakagawa Hiina, who suddenly stood up. "What''s wrong with everyone? We haven''t lost to them yet. As long as we did not give up, the chance of us winning is never zero." "Still¡­ How could we win after this? You need to fight that Evelyn and Kuria need to fight Florinda. They will have three wins, even if they lose the second battle. Their line up is made by careful consideration as even though they are planning to win with the first three matches, they still keep their trump card, Florinda, in the back." One of them sighed. "I am not giving up. All of you might forget about it, but Evelyn only used a rank 3 weapon previously. We had gone through many unfavorable situations, and if she had rank 4 weapon, she should use it in that situation, but she never used it. The reason was simple, she did not have one." Nakagawa Hiina said. "!!!" Those words immediately jogged their memory. She continued, "But Master had given me a rank 4 sword before we came to this place. Even though my winning possibility is slim, the difference in rank for our sword is increasing my winning possibility by a large margin." When they heard that, light started coming to their eyes as they saw hope. They were convinced by her. It was true Evelyn should use it if she had, but she clearly did not use it. Nakagawa Hiina might only be an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, but her prowess was superior to most of them. If they included the rank 4 sword her master had given her, she should have a fairly large chance in winning. "For that, we need to win the second battle, no matter what!" Nakagawa Hiina said. Hearing that, Gabriella and Janessa stood up with great resolve. "We are going to win this and make our sect proud!" "Oh!" "Now, go!" Nakagawa Hiina shouted. They started walking toward the arena. But before that, Janessa stopped Gabriella. "Gabriella, we need to win this fight no matter what." "Yes. That''s why we are going to fight them with all we''ve got." Gabriella nodded. "It is not enough." She shook her head. "You must remember what happened previously, right? Even with a careful plan, we still lost." "..." Gabriella did not say anything as Janessa continued. When she heard what she said next, she was dumbfounded. ¡­ A few seconds later, four people entered the arena. Alex looked at the face of Amazu and Anwar. By the look of it, he was sure Evelyn already told them the plan. But the moment he saw their opponent''s face, Alex frowned as he realized something. 398 120 Percent Strength Alex realized something, and he had yet to teach it to Evelyn. He looked at Evelyn''s confident face and sighed. In the arena, they were exchanging greetings casually before the match started. Amazu was a skinny man. He used a rapier as a weapon. Even though his body looked like it didn''t pack much power, his dexterity had replaced the need for strength. He was specialized in control as he could even change the direction of his sword in the middle of swinging easily. "Ladies, nice to meet you." Beside him, Anwar also took out his sword as he gave a simple greeting. He bowed a little, letting his shoulder-length blue hair to shift a bit and covered his eyes. "Hope we have a great match." "Pleasure to meet you." Janessa smiled at them while politely greeted back. She then took out her blue spear before turning her head to Gabriella. As for Gabriella¡­ She just snorted at them and looked away. She took out her spear and pointed it at Anwar and Amazu. "Match start!" In the instant the match started, Amazu immediately jumped forward while thrusting his rapier. His target was Janessa. "!!!" Janessa parried his attack with her sword. She said, "Even though your weapon is a gentleman''s weapon, it seems you are not a gentleman, aren''t you?" "This is a war, there is no kindness or whatsoever. The only thing that matters is winning." Amazu smiled. Gabriella jumped to save Janessa, but Anwar appeared in front of her while swinging his sword. "!!!" Janessa used her spear to stop her momentum. "I am sorry, lady. I need your time for a little bit." Anwar said. He glanced at Amazu and Janessa. In an instant, their fight suddenly turned into a brawl. Amazu tried to stab her but was always getting blocked by Janessa''s sword. However, together with his speed and dexterity, he kept pressuring Janessa. Amazu was changing his target all the time from her left leg to her right leg, before moving to her body. It was an unpredictable but powerful assault. He kept making small wounds on her body from time to time because she failed to block those continuous attacks. It was their plan. Evelyn''s plan was for Amazu to exhaust Janessa while Anwar kept Gabriella at bay. The moment she reached that point, Anwar would blow Gabriella away and started making his way toward Janessa. That way, they could fight Janessa in a 2v1 fight and defeat her. After that, they would beat Gabriella. It was a different plan from a well-thought plan from before. Since the opponent would be wary of their strategy because of the previous battle. Evelyn wanted to take advantage of that and used an old school plan. In other words, this was a 3v2 fight with Evelyn instead of a 2v2 fight. Sadly, Evelyn had yet to reach one of the important lessons from Alex. She might be able to make a good strategy or play a mind game. But she had yet to master the manipulation of... *Stab* The conclusion came so suddenly. Amazu, who was fighting Janessa, finally managed to make a deep wound on her by stabbing her abdomen. "!!!" Not only the people who were fighting but also the entire arena were shocked by this. They thought Rainbow Flower Sect would lose again because of this. Even Nakagawa Hiina looked at this while clenching her fist. Everyone thought like that except Gabriella and Janessa. It was very painful when she was stabbed deeply with Amazu''s rapier. Still, despite that, she did not back down as she even made his rapier thrust it even further. Half of Amazu''s rapier had pierced through her body, but suddenly instead of screaming, she was smiling. It was at this time Amazu knew she had been waiting for this. He wanted to pull his rapier out of her body, but she gripped his wrist. Because of his lack of strength, he could not pull his wrist from her. Janessa looked at him while smiling. Even though the blood was still seeping from her mouth, that smile was still bringing bad news to Amazu. She raised her left hand before it was covered by a big flame. If Amazu got hit by this attack, he would be heavily injured considering his figure. Anwar immediately knew they were f*cked up if Amazu went down just like this. He raised his sword and swung with all of his might toward Gabriella''s Spear. "Seven Stars Cut." It was a point-blank range Seven Stars Cut. "!!!" For Gabriella, it was a bit hard to take this head-on. She channeled her spear intent but to no avail. She was also a bit surprised by the timing so she could not completely block it and let her spear be destroyed. The remaining force was enough to push her back. Anwar then took that chance to leap toward Janessa as he was trying to save Amagu from her clutch. They thought Anwar would be able to save his teammate, but unknown to him, it was already in Janessa''s plan. She smiled while Gabriella put a serious expression as she slowly approached Anwar from behind. She recalled the scene just before the competition started. A few minutes ago, They were walking toward the arena, but before anyone would be able to see them. Janessa stopped and looked at Gabriella. "Gabriella¡­" "?!" Gabriella stopped on her track and looked at her in confusion. "We are in a pinch right now. And considering how mighty their previous plan, I feel we would be in trouble in this battle too." "Yes. We might lose in this battle, too, but I will not go down without fighting even if I lose. Rainbow Flower Sect had fostered me from when I was a child, so this is the time to repay the sect back." Gabriella said with a serious expression. "Is that so¡­" Janessa looked at her without saying anything. "What? Do you want to say something?" Gabriella was a bit unsure with Janesssa''s expression. She was like someone who wanted to do something reckless but lack of resolve. A few seconds later, Janessa took a deep breath as she made a serious expression. "I am the same. This is the time I pay back my sect. That''s why I have a plan that could make us win this battle. I guarantee it." "A plan that could guarantee our win?" "Yes. If we fight normally, we will lose this battle. That''s why we need to fight recklessly in this fight." Janessa smiled as she had gathered enough resolve. She said, "I am sure the rapier guy would try to fight me in this battle. "If that is the case, then I will let him fight me and wounds for all I care. If, at one moment, I have a chance to stop his movement, I will make a diversion and direct Anwar''s focus on me. I will surely send him back to you, and you will need to take Anwar down at that time." "But how can you do that?" "I will use my body to stop him. Trust me." Janessa said. Gabriella looked at her expression. She finally realized what she wanted to do. Janessa was planning to sacrifice herself for the sake of this battle. She opened her mouth wide because she could not believe what she was planning to do. Gabriella looked at Janessa, who started walking toward the arena again. She took a deep breath and swore they would win this. ¡­ After seeing Janessa would inflict huge damage against Amazu, Anwar came with his sword at the fastest speed. Janessa only smiled when she noticed this. Noticing her smile, Amazu felt a chill all over his body. He realized her target this whole time was not him, but Anwar. He shouted, "No, Don''t come here, Anwar!" Unfortunately, he was too late. Anwar already reached her range. She turned her head and shifted her hand toward Anwar. "Sin Fire Technique, Blast!" Anwar was taken aback by this sudden change. He immediately tried to protect himself with his sword, but it was too late. Her technique exploded right in front of him. "Boom!" He was blown away toward Gabriella. At this time, Gabriella thrust her spear toward his abdomen to inflict the same wound as Janessa, but bigger. She wanted Anwar to have the same pain as her. "Not good!" Anwar wanted to shift his body but to no avail. *Stab* "Gah!" Anwar did not know what happened, but before he knew it, he already had a bit wound on her abdomen. Luckily, he managed to shift his body a bit, so the spear did not hit any vital. But with this big wound, he might not be able to fight again. He tried to grasp Gabriella to stop her but failed. After inflicting that wound to him, Gabriella already made his way toward Amazu. She thrust her spear once again. Amazu could not do anything other than raising his hand to block the spear. "Nghh¡­!" It pierced his right hand and stopped just right in front of his head. Gabriella did not stop there. After piercing her spear on his hand, she threw a powerful kick on his head. Because of that powerful force, Janessa'' lost her grip on his wrist and let him crash on the arena wall. "Bam!" When they saw this, they believed the battle had finished. After all, if they wanted, Gabriella could kill Amazu and Anwar. They knew they could not do it since if they did that, it was the same as challenging Heavenly Sword Sect, and their sect would not back them up with this. If Alex''s wrath suddenly came toward them, then it would be a game over for their Rainbow Flower Sect. If he was cruel enough, he might even order Letizia to kill the entire Rainbow Flower Sect. That was the reason why they could only stop on this as they would be killed by Rainbow Flower Sect first. "Rainbow Flower Sect Win!" "Uoh!" The cheering filled the arena once again. This battle had too much bloodshed but also great respect for Janessa, who could sacrifice herself for the team. Janessa looked at Gabriella and smiled. Gabriella also smiled, but she suddenly saw Janessa fell to the ground. "!!!" She immediately caught her before she reached the ground. "We won," Janessa said weakly. "Yes. We also need to tend your wound first." Gabriella said. The other teammates also came to the arena to help Janessa. The same applied for Heavenly Sword Sect. They immediately tended Amazu''s and Anwar''s wounds. "What?!" Evelyn was dumbfounded when she saw this. She thought they would win the moment they had heavily injured Janessa. But to think Janessa used that to bait them, it was beyond her expectation. When Alex saw this, he sighed. He already expected something like this to happen the moment he saw the eyes on Rainbow Flower Sect disciples. They had prepared themselves for the worst. He knew that he had yet to give her the last lesson. He already told her how to control opponents'' minds as well as some strategies. But he had yet to teach her about emotion. The powerful force that could make one fight with 120 percent strength. He always considered his enemies'' emotion in his plan. He would always control them in a state of fear, where he could kill them easily. However, if he did it excessively, there would be a chance for them to fight with all their might and summoned that 120 percent strength. If he fought thousands of soldiers in that state, he would suffer a huge loss. That was why he always made them in fear and tried to scatter them. He gave a room for escape, so they did not think about fighting back. That way, even with his few spirits, he would be able to defeat thousands of soldiers. He would need to teach her about that after this. 399 Evelyn Vs Nakagawa Hiina Evelyn looked at Amazu and Anwar. "I am sor-!" She wanted to apologize to them as her plan failed. And they were injured like this in the process. However, before she could apologize, Amazu said, "We are sorry, Captain. We have lost one round, and this would affect our plan. We thought we could close the curtain after you won the third battle, but we can''t because of us." "No, this is my mis-!" She was interrupted once again. This time, it was by Anwar. "Captain, you have already made a good plan. We lose because we are not good enough, so please win the next battle captain. Luckily, Florinda is in the last battle, and her opponent is the weakest of their team. So, it is on you, Florinda, as well as Captain." Anwar smiled. They were then taken away to recover their injuries. "..." Evelyn looked at them without saying anything. She knew they just wanted to cheer her up, but a part of her heart refused it because she knew she was in the wrong. She closed her eyes for a bit and swore that she would win the battle. The moment she opened her eyes, she looked a bit bloodthirsty. It was at this time, Florinda suddenly crept up from behind and grabbed her developing breasts. "Wha-!" The moment she felt her hands, she was startled. "Flo- Florinda!" "Haha¡­ Sorry sorry. I thought I needed to loosen you up a bit after seeing your expression." She smiled. "Captain, you need to calm down a little bit. When you act unnaturally antsy like that, it is guaranteed to be passed down onto your teammates as well. Where it will also be picked up by the enemy." "!!!" Evelyn''s body shook a bit after hearing that. "I am sure you know this already. This battle is the most decisive and the most brutal one. If they want to win, they would need to defeat you in this battle. It is also the same for us. For me to fight in the fifth battle, you need to win this battle." Evelyn took a deep breath. She realized she was swayed by emotion after she heard her. "Thanks." "Sure." Florinda nodded. She suddenly added while moving her finger like a creepy old man, "Still¡­ if you want to seduce him, you need a bigger volume, you know¡­" Evelyn was dumbfounded at first, but the moment she realized what she was talking about. Her face flushed red. "Wha¡­ wha-what are you saying?" Florinda only smirked as she watched her action. Evelyn immediately escaped before she tried to tease her again. "I need to go now." Evelyn walked toward the arena, but just before she came up, she glanced at Alex. Alex only smiled at her to cheer. She nodded at him while turning her head to Nakagawa Hiina. Both of them had serious expressions. Before the match started, they were exchanging a greeting. Surprisingly, their greeting was not like the previous two matches. Nakagawa Hiina was the one who started all of it. "You are just his kept woman." Because she got a bit used to it, she was just a bit angry being called like that. Unfortunately, Evelyn did not give the reaction Hiina wanted. Instead, she only smiled and said, "It is better for a woman that could not enter his eyes at all, no matter if it is your power or your beauty." "You!" Nakagawa Hiina gritted her teeth as she took out a rank 4 sword. It was a blue sword that held extraordinary energy within it. "Hmph. You can''t even afford a rank 4 sword¡­ Maybe you should ask him for it... Of course, with your body." Evelyn started frowning when she heard this. "This is why you could never enter his eyes. You could only rely on the sword." She took out her usual rank 3 sword while looking down on Nakagawa Hiina''s rank 4 sword. "So, you think that a good quality sword is bad? You are just challenging the Forging Master, aren''t you?" Evelyn shook her head. "I never said that. Well, it seems you are also an idiot, so I don''t want to bother myself to explain it to you." "You!" Nakagawa Hiina clenched her sword as she released her Sword Domain. Her Sword Domain was a 15 meters domain, which was pretty powerful for an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster. Evelyn only sighed. "This is why I said that." Another Sword Domain also appeared. But this time, the sword domain was a 30 meter domain. It was twice the size of Nakagawa Hiina''s domain. "!!!" Everyone in the arena was shocked. They did not know how big Evelyn''s Sword Domain was, but to think she had one this big¡­ They were dumbfounded. When Letizia saw this, she only closed her eyes and said, "As expected of Master." It somehow became her instinct to say something like this even though it was unnecessary. Even Cecilia was dumbfounded to see her daughter become this way. She looked at Alex and sighed. By the look of it, it might be better to leave her daughter in his hand. On the other hand, Nakagawa Hiina was overwhelmed when she knew Evelyn had a thirty meter domain. She knew Evelyn was strong, but she never expected she was this strong. Evelyn looked at her and said, "Come!" "Match Start!" Evelyn took out five swords from her space ring and let them hover around her. She wanted to replicate what Alex did and became a mobile fortress with these swords. Nakagawa Hiina raised her sword on top of her head. She knew how terrifying those swords were. She would need to keep her distance from her as she tried to knock down the sword one by one. "Sword Breath!" Hiina swung her sword as a few waves flew toward Evelyn. The waves were like ocean waves, and it felt it would swallow Evelyn if she did not dodge it. Sadly, Evelyn was not planning to dodge it or whatsoever. She just raised her sword before a big projection sword appeared above her head. She swung the sword and split the wave into two. "Sun Beam!" Evelyn tried to look down on Hiina to taunt her. For a prideful Nakagawa Hiina, that kind of thing would be able to rile her up. "You!" She leaped toward Evelyn while swinging her sword. She was trying to blast one of her swords to the ground. "Ten Thousandth Breaker!" Unfortunately, Evelyn suddenly pulled her sword back and swung the sword on her hand. Because of that, Nakagawa Hiina was forced to strike the sword in Evelyn''s hand. It was at this time Nakagawa Hiina suddenly smiled. She was proud of her strength as this was the one that let her become a member of this team. "I will let you know that my strength is extraordinary." Hiina grinned. Facing that attack, Evelyn only snorted. "I know a man that was more powerful than you when he was only an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster." Evelyn swung her sword with all of her might and knocked Hiina''s sword back. "!!!" She did not stop there. In the last moment of her swing, there was a trace of light on her sword. And that light was¡­ "Pentagram Slash!" It turned out Evelyn was using her Pentagram Slash in that swing. She was a daring one as she might get injured if she could not knock her back and made a full swing. The five slashes flew toward Nakagawa Hiina''s hands, feet, as well as her cheek. This was also another reason why Alex did not use something like this despite having confidence in his strength. Even if he could use Pentagram Slash at this moment, he would only be able to graze his opponent because of the range of Pentagram Slash. Evelyn also knew that. She looked at those five slashes that flew past her and joined again a few meters behind Hiina. However, her purpose for this was not to injure Nakagawa Hiina. Instead, she wanted to use this attack to taunt her even more. "Hmph. You are not my match. You better surrender now." "You!" Nakagawa Hiina retreated a few steps back. She said, "I have gone through hellish training just for this tournament. I admit you are strong, but I am someone who climbed up through Rainbow Flower Sect just for this. "I am only an 8-Star Martial Grandmaster, and my opponents were stronger than mine. However, I have made it this far by crushing strong people like you one after another!" Nakagawa Hiina struck forth her sword. Evelyn blocked it with both hands as she got pushed back by that strike. The people would think this would be the time for a counter-attack. But when Alex saw this, he shook his head while smiling. The Evelyn he knew was not someone that weak. It looked like she was being pushed back by Nakagawa Hiina. But, in Alex''s eyes, he could only see her taking on all the attacks from head-on. The moment she got used to it, she started shifting her stance a bit and started changing the flow of the battle. "Gh!" Nakagawa Hiina finally started to realize she was the one being pushed back. At first, she could make many offensive attacks. This time, there was no such thing as attacking as she could only barely defend Evelyn''s attacks. "How could this be¡­" She glared at Evelyn. "Why is my strength utterly ineffective? The same strength that has served me through all those battles for this tournament. "Why am I unable to defeat a man who merely hid under the name of someone else like Alexander Sirius?" Evelyn glared back while making a shallow wound on Hiina''s stomach. "If you have faith in your own strength that you have obtained from that hellish training, then I have my pride as someone who was taught by Alexander Sirius. A man who was recognized by all Heavenly Sword Sect as the number one genius!" "You¡­ just what the hell are you?" Nakagawa Hiina retreated a few steps while checking the wound. "Alexander Sirius''s Disciple!" Evelyn said with a serious expression. "..." Alex twitched his eyebrows. He was wondering why she was not embarassed to said that and added inwardly, ''That''s not exactly you, is it?'' After all, Alex only had one disciple at the moment, which was Putri. In fact, he could not understand her at all. At first, she pretended to be his woman, and this time, she said she was his disciple, even though she was not either of them. She even said that with conviction, which made Alex feel weird. "You!" Nakagawa Hiina clenched her sword as hard as possible because she did not want to accept the result. Evelyn had yet to use her five swords, and she was already on the brink of defeat. Although she did not want it, she knew she did not stand a chance in front of her. She felt very frustrated at the moment. "Ha!" Nakagawa Hiina charged at her with all of her might. Evelyn also abandoned her five swords as she was planning to finish it in this one blow. Both of them passed each other. The audiences were clueless as they wanted to know who won. But for stronger people like Xiang Bai, Alex, or even Cecilia. The result was already clear. Hiina fell down to the ground as there was a huge sword wound on her body. Of course, Evelyn held back so she would not get an everlasting wound on her body. After all, she was also a woman, and she also did not want to have such a wound on her body. "If I want to kill you back in Shamwar Forest, I could do it because your blade has yet to reach mine," Evelyn said as she stored back her sword to her space ring. "Heavenly Sword Sect Wins!" "Uoh!" The people were excited because they knew Heavenly Sword Sect only needed to win once more. Sadly, it was very different for the top brass. With Nakagawa Hiina losing the third battle, the situation for Rainbow Flower Sect was not looking good. Alex and the people from Heavenly Sword Sect were overjoyed. On the other hand, the Rainbow Flower Sect knew they had already lost this battle. And they could not say they lost with a slight margin. After all, the result of the last two matches was apparent. Mina let out a long sigh. After watching Evelyn''s strength previously, she knew Hiina''s chance in defeating her was practically nonexistent. Even with her rank 4 sword, it only increased her chance to ten percent. But the moment Evelyn showed her true prowess, the result was already present. 400 Martial Grandmaster Competition Resul There were two more fights left, but the result was already clear for Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower sect. Nakagawa Hiina, who lost hope after losing to Evelyn, said, "I am sorry, Captain. I am not good enough even with a rank 4 Sword. I am overconfident of my ability just because I have won many battles to get the member position in this tournament. If only I could defeat her, we would be able to win." "..." Mina looked at her with pity. Nakagawa Hiina could be said to be the number two in this team despite having 8-Star Martial Grandmaster cultivation. Sadly, whether it be brains or brawn, she was no match to her. Even if she reached 10-Star Martial Grandmaster, she doubted she could even rival her strength. She looked at Nakagawa Hiina before she left to tend her wound. She gritted her teeth as they had been utterly lost in this aspect. If she put Nakagawa Hiina in the first round, they might win the first two. Kuria suddenly came to her. "Captain, even if we are going to lose, we will not go down without a fight. We need to show the world our pride as the disciple of Rainbow Flower Sect." Mina was a bit surprised to hear that. After all, Kuria would need to fight Florinda. Seeing her had yet to lose her motivation, Mina smiled and nodded. "That''s right. We are going to show them what our Rainbow Flower Sect made of. We will fight until the last drop." Having another surge of confidence, Mina slowly made her way to the arena. She looked at Elise, who already waited for her. Elise smiled with confidence. "I am Elise, and my role is similar to your teammate in the fifth round." "Do you think this competition is already over?" Mina said coldly as she took out her sword. "We are not going down without a fight. Your win is not assured as long as we don''t give up." Elise was astonished. She kept smiling as she took out her sword too. It looked like she was also going to fight her. Both of them released their Spiritual Energy as well as Sword Domain. Elise''s sword domain was 5 meters short from Mina''s 25-meter sword domain. But it did not erase the confident smile on her face. The people started cheering for them and they expected a good fight between them. They wanted to see the moment Heavenly Sword Sect won. "Everyone. We have been expecting this moment from the start. Will the Heavenly Sword Sect win after this round or the Rainbow Flower Sect will win and turn around the situation? Let us have the answer in this battle. "Match Start!" Elise and Mina glared at each other. The pressure from Spiritual Energy finally vanished as Mina jumped forward while swinging her sword. Surprisingly, at the same time, Elise recalled her Spiritual Energy and Sword Domain simultaneously. She looked at Mina with a smile, "I surrender." The crowds were dumbfounded when they heard that, even Mina almost stumbled. She never expected Elise would surrender. "What-! You?!" Mina looked at her while gritting her teeth. She did not know why, but having her surrender like this made her frustrated. Elise smiled and left the arena with a smile, leaving all the people dumbfounded. They never expected that after all of these victories, Heavenly Sword Sect just to give up this battle. The moment Elise came down from the arena, she looked at Evelyn and said, "Captain, the stage has been set." Evelyn could not say anything to her as she was the reason why Elise did this. She wanted to rile up the Rainbow Flower Sect a bit more so Florinda would have an easier time against Kuria''s. This was Evelyn''s plan. She wanted to mess with Kuria''s mind with this. She wanted her to think that Kuria was not an opponent in their eyes. That way, she would get too riled to put up a good fight against Florinda. She would not be able to come up with a plan against Florinda as she was too consumed with anger. Elise then turned to Florinda. "It is on you now, Florinda." Florinda nodded her head. She just went ahead without saying anything. She looked up and saw Kuria with rage filling her eyes. With their difference in power, she could slowly execute her plan against Kuria. Kuria said, "If you think you can defeat me easily, then I will make sure you regret underestimating me." "We never underestimate you¡­ the one that underestimates you is yourself. Isn''t it why you participate in this fight? Or do you want to say you are participating in this battle because everyone told you to do so? It is a pity then since all of your teammates truly underestimate you." Florinda smirked. "You-!!" "Match start!" Florinda and Kuria jumped forward at the same time while swinging their swords. "One Sword Strike!" "Mountain Push." *Clang* The swing with full emotion from Kuria finally clashed with Florinda''s powerful swing. Surprisingly, they were equal. The clash sent a shockwave toward the Audience but was repelled by the barrier. They were fighting with their swords only, trying to probe each other''s ability. However, if they tried to observe the battle carefully, they could clearly see Florinda''s upper hand even in these many exchanges. Kuria knew even with emotions, she could not close the gap between her and Florinda. Even though they were both 10-Star Martial Grandmasters, she would not be able to defeat her. "Seven Stars Cut." "Single Sword Strike." Kuria tried to break the Seven Stars Cut. After all, she had experienced this move in the past. It was a general move that most disciples from Heavenly Sword Sect learned. She was confident in destroying this attack. Sadly, what she did not know was the fact this was the true Seven Stars Cut, which was a Heaven Tier Martial Art. It was not a half-assed sword wave like earlier, and Florinda was able to use it, albeit barely. This was all thanks to the First Elder. Ever since he became her master, he fixed all the wrongs, thus making her far stronger than she used to. When Kuria took the blow head-on, she finally realized how powerful the move was. It was nothing compared to that fake in the past. She gritted her teeth and shifted her sword a little. She deflected the sword wave to the sky with all of her strength, albeit it only let the sword wave fly to the crowd. It then got destroyed by the barrier. Kuria suddenly spat blood. It took a toll on her body just to deflect the sword wave. Florinda did not stop there. As soon as she saw an opening, she placed her hand on the ground. "Icy Wind." The temperature went down as the floor around Florinda started to be covered with ice. The ice then slowly spread and made its way toward Kuria. Kuria could not dodge this as she needed a bit more time to move her feet again. In that case, she raised her sword and struck the arena. "Single Sword Strike." The strike made a huge crater on the ground. And forced the ground in front of her to raise. She was planning to use this wall to block the cold wind that soon struck her. If that cold wind struck her, she would get even more internal injuries. Sadly, Florinda was inspired by Alex when she did this. Back then, she used this kind of wall to protect her from Alex''s. At that time, Alex took it as his advantage and defeated her as he could see through the ice wall she made. Although she could not see through the wall like Alex, she made sure Kuria Kuria could not move, so she did not need to see her position like what Alex did. "Seven Stars Cut." Florinda was planning to end the fight with this. Seeing that attack, Mina knew they would lose Kuria, so Mina wanted to end the fight by shouting. "We surrender." Just before the Seven Stars Cut arrived, Honda Sana came and destroyed the sword wave with her bare hand. After that, she immediately came back to her original seat like nothing happened. The announcer was shocked but still continued his job. "Heavenly Sword Sect Wins!" "This competition is really unpredictable. In the first round, we can see an alliance between four influences. They have managed to force Heavenly Sword Sect to use two priceless treasures, Teleportation Array Plate. "After the great purge a few thousand years ago, the Space Element Array Master became very scarce. Even in this continent, we don''t have a noticeable Space Element Array Master. Because of the great purge, they have been hiding their supreme talent. This exactly how priceless these two Teleportation Array Plates are. "Just look how Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect could defeat the alliance between four influences in this limited area. If they have a bigger area, the might of Teleportation Array Plate would be more apparent. To use both of them at this competition, this shows how important this competition is to Heavenly Sword Sect. "In this Grandmaster Stage Competition, we have Heavenly Sword Sect in the first place, Rainbow Flower Sect in the second place, and Buddha Sect in the third place. This is surprising to see no kingdoms in the ranking. "After all, the next competition will be the Lord Stage Competition and judging by the amount of Martial Lords in the kingdoms¡­ it put them to a great disadvantage in this competition. I am sure all of you are wondering how the kingdoms will contend with the four great sects or how the sects compete with each other. "I will use this opportunity to explain the next competition. It will be very similar to today''s competition, each influence would have a one versus one. But in this competition, each influence won''t fight five times like before. Instead, they will fight until the last man standing. Let me elaborate on the competition a little bit. "First, let''s just say we have team A versus team B. Each team would send one of their fighters to have a one on one battle. In case team A won, that person can surrender and let the other person change him to fight the second person from team B. He also can participate again and fight the second person in team B. So, it this competition will depend on your strategy, what time is the perfect time to stop or the perfect time to defeat multiple times. "Let us call each representative from each team to fill the bracket." The announcer explained while showing a competition bracket. It was your usual competition bracket where each team fought from eight to four and to the final. Xiang Bai suddenly looked at Alex if he wanted to get it. Alex did not say anything first. It was true he was a bit curious about this, but he decided to see his luck today first before he nodded. "System, use ten Gacha Tickets." [Processing] [Blue goose liver (R) x1] [Array Paper 100x100 (R) x1] [Summoning Coin (R) x5] [Cleaving Blade Technique (R) x1] [Rank 4 Blue Sky Sword (R) x1] [Aloe Herb(R) x1] [Water Bottle (C) x1] [Silver Arrow (R) x1] [Grappling Technique (R) x1] [Summoning Coin (R) x1] When Alex saw this, he was astonished. He never thought his luck was this good today since he got Rare items 9 out of 10. If it was like this, he should be able to get a good position for the team. Maybe he could meet Zhou Kingdom and obliterate them and such. But when he saw the unlucky item was a water bottle, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. After all, Water bottle was the lowest rank item. In other words, if he accidentally got that 1 out of ten, he would get the unluckiest position possible. He looked at Xiang Bai, who had great hope in his eyes and sighed. "Fine, I will go. My luck is a bit good today." He said it was a bit good because of the water bottle. If he got another thing, he might say his luck was absolute today. Alex slowly descended into the arena. Seeing that, Letizia also came. Cecilia did not stop her. 401 Battle Star Battle 1 - Heavenly Sword Sect Vs Thiveapia Kingdom Battle 2 - Zhou Kingdom Vs Southern Kingdom Battle 3 - Rainbow Flower Sect Vs Mount Hua Sect Battle 4 - Buddha Sect Vs Hazel Kingdom "We have gotten our battles for tomorrow. The first one would be the battle between Heavenly Sword Sect and Thiveapia Kingdom. This is really a surprise considering the story between the two influences in the Martial Grandmaster Competition. "You can see the rest of the battle in this bracket. As expected, the battle that we anticipated very much would be the third battle between Rainbow Flower Sect and Mount Hua Sect. With the bold claim from Erol that he wanted to do something ridiculous toward Rainbow Flower Sect''s disciples. "I am sure there is already hatred between them, and the battle would become a hard battle between two influences." Alex was also surprised by this list. He did not expect he would meet Thiveapia Kingdom in the first round. Although he did not want to kill them anymore, he would kill them if they were going to fight him excessively. But, as expected, the battle he anticipated the most would be the second battle. Between Zhou Kingdom and Southern Kingdom, one of them would win and fight him in the second round. And most likely, it would be Zhou Kingdom. If that happened, he would make sure he killed all of them. [Processing Host''s intention] [Mission: Kill Zhou Kingdom''s Participants (0/8) Reward: Gacha Card x1 Description: Having to be your enemy for so long, it is time for Host to put an end on this matter.] "!!!" Alex was surprised to see this. Not only the mission but also the reward. He had one Gacha Card to open the Gacha Box, but he was waiting for another two Gacha Cards so he could press the ''3+1'' for Gacha Box. After all, according to the system, he would get at least Rare Items from Gacha Box, and the rate for SR and UR was far higher than normal. So, it would be a waste if he used it with a single card. "System, do you want me to fight all of them?" [It is up to you, Host. I am just facilitating your wish. Whether you will accept this or not is decided by you.] "..." Alex contemplated for a bit before nodding his head. "Well, this competition will be until the last man standing. In other words, even if we have won five solo matches, it will still continue until all the participants from another team are dead or surrendered. "At first, I thought about killing them after this tournament is over, but killing them in this tournament would be the same since they will die either way." Before coming back, he looked at Letizia and sent a thought transmission. ''You are going to fight the Mount Hua Sect, what will you do?'' Letizia was a bit startled as she did not expect Alex would contact her. After all, this was only her obligation after seeing her master go to the stage. ''I want to kill all the participants from Mount Hua Sect. But if Master does not want it, I will not do it.'' ''No. You can kill them. In fact, it would be weird if you do not want to kill them after hearing all of those bold claims.'' ''Yes. We need to quell the anger of our sect. In the contract after the war, they already owe us too much. And because of the previous incident, I am planning to weaken them as a whole seriously. Since they have lost many elders, killing another eight will do irreplaceable damage to them. Before long, they will decline and might not become one of the four great sects anymore.'' ''Alright. If you keep winning, we will meet in the final.'' ''Yes. Of course, we will let Master become the final winner.'' Letizia said humbly. ''I know your sect wants to win too, so we will compete with each other without thinking about our relationship¡­ is what I want to say, but it seems we can''t.'' ''What do you mean, Master? Do you have another plan?'' ''I do have a plan, but that would require me to win the tournament.'' Alex said with an unsure tone. Even though she was his servant, her sect was not. So, announcing that he would win before the tournament was a bit rude, he thought. Of course, he wanted to win so he could get the reward from the system. At that time, he would get the last UR spirit as well as the UR EXP card. He would use his UR EXP card to make level up one of his Spirit to Martial King. That way, even if he killed the Mount Hua Sect sect master, it would be fine since his spirit would do the job better than him. Surprisingly, Letizia said, ''As I said, we are ready to lose in this competition. We are content to have the second place. My mother also has told me about that, so Master does not need to feel bad about it. In fact, we are planning to surrender as soon as we meet you.'' ''... Alright, but don''t immediately surrender in the final. I want all of us to fight but not seriously.'' ''?!'' Letizia was confused. ''I will explain it to you the day after tomorrow.'' ''Understood.'' After finishing their conversation, both of them returned to their own group. Letizia immediately told Cecilia about her conversation with Alex. Alex looked at Xiang Bai, "Sect Master." "What? Do you want to go first tomorrow?" Xiang Bai asked. "No. In fact, If I can, I don''t want to fight tomorrow." Alex shook his head. "What? Are you not going to participate in this tournament? But you are already registered as our participant, and we can''t change people in this tournament¡­" Xiang Bai said with a shocked expression. "No. It is only for tomorrow. If possible, I want to abstain from tomorrow''s fight so I can hide my power for the time being." "For the time being? Do you want to do something?" "Yes. I want to kill all participants from Zhou Kingdom since I believe all of them will be 10-Star Martial Lords because of the Blood Pill." Alex explained. Xiang Bai pondered for a moment. He could correlate about the 10-Star Martial Lords thing, but it was very dangerous for Alex to fight all of them. "Are you sure? You are going to fight eight 10-Star Martial Lords you know." "Yes. With the effect of the Blood Pill, they are weaker than the average 10-Star Martial Lords. And I am assuming they won''t use the other pill since they will risk their plan will be discovered." Alex explained. Of course, this was only for the sake of the reward. "I see¡­ Well, as long as you have considered the risk, then I don''t have any objections. If that is your decision, then you don''t need to worry about Thiveapia Kingdom. To put it bluntly, the only person we need to worry about is their previous king, who is a 10-Star Martial Lord. But we have the first elder, second elder, as well as third elder, I am sure all of them can defeat him. So, you don''t need to worry about it and just relax tomorrow." "Thank you." Alex nodded. Alex then disappeared. He wanted to meet Evelyn, but it seemed she was going to have some fun with her teammates for a while. So, he just cultivated through the night. The next day, even though he was not participating, he would still come to observe the fight. He was curious about Heavenly Sword Sect''s strength as well as the other influences. The first fight was given to the one who took care of Alex. After all, it was all about the first impression. By giving Charya the opportunity, it showed Alex that they wanted to give it to Alex if he wanted. Sadly, he decided not to participate for the sake of the next round as he wanted to hide his power before his fight against Zhou Kingdom. Charya did not wear her sloppy clothes anymore. She was wearing a white Taoist shirt. She tied her hair into a ponytail as her usual carefree expression was replaced by a serious expression. She looked like a full-fledged warrior if one did not know the real her. Even Alex was surprised by her transformation. If this were the first time he saw her, he would think she was a brave warrior from a sect or something. "Heavenly Sword Sect sends their ninth elder as the first person, Elder Charya. On the other side, the one representing Thiveapia Kingdom is the minister of finance, the younger brother of the current king, Matthew." Alex had seen this person. He was the one in charge of the auction house and the one who issued him the ticket. He remembered Evelyn called him uncle, and their relationship was good. Sadly, as one would expect from a Kingdom, they could only send an 8-Star Martial Lord as the starter. After all, the kingdoms only had a single 10-Star Martial Lord, four 9-Star Martial Lord, and the rest would be 8-Star Martial Lord. Of course, it was different for the Zhou Kingdom. But for a kingdom like Thiveapia Kingdom, the chance for winning would be slim. Just like the sect master said, the one they needed to worry about would be their 10-Star Martial Lord. If they had defeated them, it would be pretty easy for the others to win. He remembered the third elder said there were at least ten people that were more powerful than him, so he was wondering whether the 10-Star Martial Lord from Thiveapia Kingdom was one of them. Charya walked to the arena. Even though the people could see the wound on her face, they were still mesmerized by her beauty. Despite her character, Charya was indeed beautiful. And by dressing like this, it gave another charm that would show her gorgeous body. "Charya, Ninth Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect." Charya smiled while greeting him politely. Alex was taken aback when he saw this. He could not believe Charya could say something politely after knowing her for these three years. He tried to imagine Charya acted like this the whole time, and the result made him feel chill and a desire to throw up. He felt the usual Charya was good enough since she felt very approachable. "Matthew from Thiveapia Kingdom. It is my honor to clash blades against the famous Thunder Dancer. I wish I could see the famous Sword Rite of Elder Charya." Matthew greeted her back. "Then, I hope Minister Matthew can do his best to force me to use it." Charya looked at him while releasing her battle aura. She looked like a fierce tiger, trying to look for an opening before jumping toward him. "I will explain the rule one more time. Although you can surrender in the battle, your team can''t surrender directly in this match. If you manage to defeat your opponent, you can choose to continue or give up. "Killing is not prohibited. But after seeing the performance of Array Plate from before, we decided to ban the usage of Array Plate. After all, what we want to see here is the strength of the fighters from each influence. "If your opponent has surrendered, you can''t attack him anymore. Of course, deliberately waiting until someone''s sword reaches your neck before surrendering is prohibited. You can''t complain if you die because of that." Charya took out her blue sword while releasing her 60 meter Sword Domain. On the other hand, Matthew took out a silver spear from his spear. Sadly, they were disappointed the moment they saw Matthew releasing 45 meter Spear Domain. They were probing each other''s power before the match started. Although Matthew''s strength seemed lower than Charya, it was not at the point of suppression. He should be able to put up a good fight against Charya. "Match Start!" As soon as they heard that, both of them disappeared. 402 Instinc "Match Start!" Both Charya and Matthew suddenly appeared in the middle of the arena. Matthew thrust his spear toward her. Responding to that, Charya used her sword to deflect it before spinning her body once and cut him. Matthew tried to block her attack with the handle of his spear, but it still managed to graze his body a bit, leaving a wound on his chest. Blood started seeping through the wound, making a red spot on his fancy clothes. Normally, people would frown or make serious expressions after he/she got injured. But Matthew only smiled when he got injured. "!!!" Suddenly, Charya felt something wrong. She felt a bit hot on her cheek before she realized Matthew managed to graze her cheek with his spear. She smirked as she wiped the wound with her finger. She said to Matthew, "Not bad." "Of course." Matthew nodded. "Then, I can take this more seriously," Charya said. She jumped toward him again while swinging her sword. Matthew felt something wrong with this swing. He immediately raised his spear and blocked her sword with both of his hands. "Strong¡­" Matthew finally felt Charya''s power. Although he had expected that she would be a powerful opponent, he never expected Charya''s strength surpassed his imagination. He looked at Charya''s Sword that had been covered by Sword Intent. It looked like she used her full strength in that swing as he could see that his spear bent a little. He then sent a kick toward her. Seeing that, Charya retreated back before she saw Matthew''s spear coming from the left. She deflected the spear with her strength before leaping to the sky. A giant blade then appeared above her. The giant blade moved toward Matthew as Charya swung her sword down. "Sun Beam!" Matthew tapped the ground with his spear twice. As soon as he did that, the spear started glowing brightly. "Spear of Light." Matthew thrust his spear toward the giant blade. Both Martial Arts seemed to be equal, but because Charya had a height advantage, Matthew got a bit suppressed by her sword. Especially when a crater appeared beneath his feet. After clashing for a while, he finally destroyed Charya''s giant sword. He then thrust his spear once again and shot out a laser like attack toward Charya. "Penetrating Light." Seeing that, Charya smiled. She shifted her sword a bit and waved it as a Sword Wave flew from her sword. "Seven Stars Cut." The overbearing Sword Wave also influenced the atmosphere around the arena, making it hard to breathe for ordinary people. If not because of the barrier, they might die just by feeling this pressure radiated by the Sword Wave. The people knew it was the same Seven Stars Cut that the disciples from Heavenly Sword Sect had used, but as one would expect from an Elder. The pressure and energy contained in that Sword Wave alone managed to shake the ground a bit before it clashed. "!!!" Matthew realized that she was baiting him to use that attack. After using that attack, he would not have time to move his body. The Sword Wave started splitting the laser attack into two. Slowly but surely, the Sword Wave made its way toward Matthew, making his heart skip a beat. Just before it reached him, he shifted his spear and let it clash against the Sword Wave. Little did he know the power inside that Sword Wave surpassed his imagination. With that little contact, he was pushed down. He tried to break the powerful sword wave. Sadly, he slowly fell to his knees before the Sword Wave completely pinned him down to the ground. The arena started to crack before making a giant crater because of the strong force emanating from the Sword Wave. Unfortunately, it did not stop there. The Sword Wave kept pushing him down until his bone started breaking because of the sword. He already knew that Heavenly Sword Sect managed to recover their true Heaven Tier Martial Art because Luna had informed him a year ago. He also had watched the disciples using that move. Nonetheless, a disciple would only be a disciple. They could not be compared to an elder. This time, he finally felt that the attack was beyond his imagination. It was especially true since it was Charya who used it. After all, even on 9-Star Martial Lord, beside the elders with 10-Star Martial Lord Cultivation, no one would be able to rival her strength. He finally realized how powerful a Heaven Tier Martial Art was, and for the only influence who had a Heaven Tier Martial Art, Heavenly Sword Sect was really dangerous. "Don''t underestimate me." Matthew used another surge of strength to destroy this Sword Wave. "Bam!" He finally managed to break the Sword Wave, but it cost him greatly. He got a few internal injuries just by blocking that. He stood up again as soon as he broke the Sword Wave, ignoring the pain in his body. He looked at Charya, "As expected of Elder Charya¡­ No, Should I say as expected from a Thunder Princess of Heavenly Sword Sect?" Charya made a frown, hearing that title. It was an old title she got when wandering the continent. She fought many people with her Sword and Lightning. And before she knew it, she was already called Thunder Princess by others. After fighting a powerful person and getting a scar on her face, she finally settled down in the sect, and that name started to disappear from the people''s memory. But to think someone remembered that name, she could not help but feel astonished. She glanced at the crowds that looked confused with that title before turning to Matthew. "I have forgotten that name until you said it again. It really reminds me of the time when I challenged many talented people and killed all of them. Even the one that made this wound on my face had died under my sword. Since you are making me remember that again, then I have no choice other than fighting you earnestly." The moment she said that, she disappeared from his vision, leaving only lightning sparks on the ground. "!!!" He suddenly felt a huge presence on his left and swung his spear to the left out of instinct. Sadly, Charya had used her Lightning Element to boost her speed to an unprecedented level, and it was not like he had something like Alex''s Spirit Eyes. Even so, because of his high cultivation, he was still able to keep up with her speed somehow. She struck Matthew''s spear with all of her strength and momentum. The shock immediately shook Matthew''s body as he felt that powerful strike. The spear was pushed back as the sword even managed to graze his body. He used every ounce of his power just to block this. He could not go down yet. He, Matthew, was the weakest from Thiveapia team. His objective was to show everyone Charya''s strength so they could defeat her easily in the next fight. He was blown away, and his body struck the invisible barrier. Charya''s strike managed to break a few ribs, making him cough blood. Having beaten like this, Matthew could not accept. After all, they only had a single star different. He released all of his Spiritual Energy as he pointed his spear toward Charya. With his current condition, he would be able to only make one more powerful strike, containing all of his power. He tried to become one with his spear before throwing his body toward Charya. Charya took a deep breath before waving her sword. "Seven Stars Cut." The clash between two was enough to shake the ground and send a powerful shock wave to those around them. Luckily, the barrier prevented the shockwave from going to the people. "Ha!" Using every single strength in his body, Matthew only wanted to destroy this Sword Wave. Sadly, spirit alone was not enough to break this technique. Even after all of that, he was pushed back to the wall again. "Puah!" The Sword Wave was destroyed, but Matthew was also knocked out. His vision was blurry as he regretted he could not do more than this. He fell down to the ground, unconscious. "Match End! Heavenly Sword Sect Wins!" "Ooh!" Although the match was brief, the fight was truly breathtaking. "Now, let us ask Elder Charya if she wants to continue or give up?" Charya contemplated a bit. She never thought she would use two full power Seven Stars Cut. She already used a third of her Spiritual Energy in this fight alone. After considering her body condition, she said, "I continue." She was sure she could handle another fight as long as it was not their 10-Star Martial Lord. And it turned out she was right. Her next opponent was an old man with a long grey beard. Even though his face looked kind, Charya could see a deep fierceness inside his eyes. "Oh¡­ for the next challenger, we have Thiveapia Kingdom''s war minister, Minister Elgin. He is a 9-Star Martial Lord with long experience under his belt. According to the information, he even had killed many 9-Star Martial Lords in the past. Let us see whether Elder Charya could defeat the hero of the past or not." "Truly a fearsome Sect. It seems the previous sect master of Heavenly Sword Sect has chosen the right person. With your progress, we would see another Martial King from Heavenly Sword Sect in a few decades. Even this old man is envious of your talent." "You jest. All of this because of luck." She said with a smile. "Hoho¡­ but, this old man would fight you with all I have." The old man took out a sword and released his 55 meter Sword Domain. She nodded. This time, she did not release her Sword Domain. Instead, she immediately covered her body with lightning. Charya chose to do this because she felt danger from this old man. "Match Start!" Charya clenched her sword with both of her hands. She took a deep breath before saying, "Sword Rite." She disappeared once again, leaving only lightning sparks. Unlike Matthew, Elgin could easily follow her movement. He was one of the peak fighters in the Thiveapia Team. He would need to defeat Charya to stop their momentum. He covered his sword with Intent as well as Wind.The moment Charya struck her sword, he could parry it pretty easily. A lightning suddenly flew toward him because of that strike, but it was blown away by the wind on his sword. Seeing this, Charya took another deep breath, trying to sink even further. Sword Rite was her own original Sword Art that emphasized her instinct. She wanted to dive further and further so her instinct would take over. At that time, her movement, her sword, and her lightning would truly be unpredictable. "!!!" The old man realized that she became faster. He released his Sword Domain to the fullest to help him track her movement. Charya kept striking him in an unpredictable way, and every time she struck, there would be a lightning strike as a follow-up. Normal people would not be able to see her at all, as she kept moving around. After a strike, she would try another spot to strike. Alex could see that her movement started getting faster and faster. He was surprised when he realized that her strength was near the third elder. If he was the one in the arena, he might be forced to release his domain to the fullest. He could stop her with his twenty swords though, as long as he played it right. After all, Charya was fighting with her instinct so she would not try to knock his swords down to the ground, making it hard for him to retract them. It was at this time, he suddenly saw something unbelievable. He saw her stopping behind the old man. At that same time, she suddenly swung her sword. "Seven Stars Cut (Lightning Version)." 403 Lightning "Seven Stars Cut." "!!!" Elgin felt an overwhelming pressure from behind. He looked back and saw a blue Sword Wave covered with lightning. The lightning alone felt very dangerous, and it came together with a Sword Wave. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when Charya used Seven Stars Cut. According to his observation, it should not be possible since her instinct should have taken over, and she could only use her Sword Rite at this state. He knew this because he had observed her Sword Rite, trying to copy it. Sadly, he found it unsuitable for him because Sword Rite was mainly relying on Instinct and he lacked a fierce instinct that could surpass his rationality. He tried to observe her energy with his Spirit Eyes but saw nothing wrong with her energy. He then observed her normally and finally realized something was wrong. Seeing her eyes that fierceness was comparable to Monster Beasts, intelligence was still lingering on her eyes. By seeing those eyes, he could understand that despite having taken over by instinct, she still maintained a part of consciousness in her eyes. It then gave her the ability to use that Seven Stars Cut. Back when the Heavenly Sword Sect was attacked by invaders. She was given two things from Maxwell. One of them was this technique where she could slowly control her own instinct like this while retaining her own consciousness in the process. With this technique, she could do higher-level tactics like using Seven Stars Cut. The moment she used Seven Stars Cut, she disappeared again. The Sword Wave continued its path toward Elgin. "Jewel Wind." Elgin waved his sword, and a tornado came out from his sword. The tornado moved like a snake before clashing with the Sword Wave. The clash was shaking the ground nearby and making the atmosphere heavy. Although Heaven Tier Art Seven Stars Cut seemed to have a great advantage, Elgin''s Jewel Wind did not lose. Even if it could not destroy the Sword Wave, it should be able to cancel it. Unfortunately, this was the time where Charya''s lightning started showing its real prowess. The lightning started sparking around and struck forth as the second attack from Charya''s Sword Wave. The lightning started moving from the Seven Stars Cut onto the wind tornado. The lightning felt harmless at first, but the moment it completely fused with the wind, the lightning suddenly exploded. "Wha-!" Seeing the lightning exploded immediately made Elgin worry. The harmless lightning suddenly became the deadly poison to destroy his Wind. The pressure from the Sword Wave emanated the arena once again as it continued its way toward Elgin. Elgin felt he could not avoid this, so he intended to receive it with his Sword. "Heaven Sword Breaker." Elgin was in a dire situation, but he had not given up as he felt confident in destroying this sword wave. He felt that the Sword Wave had been weakened by his Jewel Wind, so with this Heaven Sword Breaker, he would destroy the Sword Wave pretty easily. "Ha!" Using all the force accumulated in his body, Elgin slowly broke apart the Sword Wave. His confidence kept rising as he felt the cut in that Sword Wave. Sadly, because he was too occupied with this, he lost track of Charya''s movement. By the time he destroyed the Sword Wave and gained confidence in defeating Charya, he did not see Charya anywhere in the arena. Suddenly, he felt pain coming from her left waist. He could not realize what happened until the pain was there. He shifted his line of vision to the left and saw Charya on his left, kicking him in the waist. "Gh!" That kick was so painful that it even made his vision blurry. He checked his body a little bit and noticed that the bones in that spot were shattered by that kick. Facing the force and momentum Charya had in that kick, he flew and crashed on the Arena wall. Charya did not leave him any chance and appeared again in front of him while pointing her sword on his neck. "I win... or you die..." Charya was panting. She could not hold back her instinct any longer, so she decided to stop using it just right after she kicked him. Her arms felt a bit weak, but it did not hinder her movement. Having no choice other than admitting it, he said, "I lose¡­" Charya pulled her sword back and nodded. Even though she was panting, it was not like she used all of her Spiritual Energy. In fact, she only used around half of her Spiritual Energy. She was exhausted because she used her mental energy a bit excessively. She knew about this fatal flaw in Maxwell''s technique, no, she could not say it was a fatal flaw. The technique was called Calm Berserker. It was a technique to control your instinct by using your mental energy. Sadly, she was not an Alchemist or anything, so her mental energy was not that high. If she used that technique one more minute, she might pass out. Basically, she was just too weak to use a Mid Heaven Tier Martial Arts, Calm Berserker. After using this, she realized she would need to buy pills to increase her mental energy and might pick up Martial Art that could enhance her mental energy. This way, she might even best the first elder who was the strongest out of all elders in the sect with her 9-Star Martial Lord cultivation. "Heavenly Sword Sect Win!" And just like that, Charya had defeated two contenders from Thiveapia Kingdom. The only problem would be whether she would continue or not. However, considering her condition at the moment, she would most likely give up at this point. "Will Elder Charya give up or continue?" She had "Of course, I will continue," Charya said with a tired voice. Everyone was in a trance, seeing this woman who did not know the word ''give up.'' Even though she was exhausted, she kept challenging to the best of her ability. They were wondering whether she was a fool or a brave. Sadly, they got their answer after seeing her eyes that filled with confidence. Sect Master Xiang Bai and the other elders already sent a thought transmission to make her give up, but Charya ignored all of that. She was the one who knew her condition the best. And she was confident she could defeat another opponent in this tournament before retiring. The people from Heavenly Sword Sect then started telling Alex to convince her. He only shrugged his shoulder as Charya already sent a glare toward him. It was not like he was afraid of her, but seeing her determination like that, he did not have the mood to convince her. He also had confidence in Charya. He knew that even though she looked like a rash person or something, she always did something after full consideration. So, answering that glare, Alex nodded. She would give up if it were too much anyway. The next opponent came a minute later. They sent another 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, but compared to Elgin, this one was a bit lacking. They thought Charya was already exhausted, so sending another 9-Star Martial Grandmaster should be enough. He was an old man, albeit his appearance slightly looked like a middle-aged man. His body was muscular and violent. Charya could see that this person was a newly 9-Star Martial Grandmaster. Even in the face of her own condition, she did not cower. In fact, she smiled the moment she knew her opponent was not their 10-Star Martial Lord. This way, she had some confidence to gain another victory before giving up. "Smith, Marshall of Thiveapia Kingdom. I need to say this before we fight. No matter if you are a woman or in what state, I will use all of my strength to defeat the opponent in front of me." "Just come," Charya said while shrugging her shoulder. She did not care about his conviction or rule at all. "Hmph. I wouldn''t underestimate myself If I were you." Smith narrowed his eyes. "Ho¡­ I also need to say that to you¡­ Nah, too lazy." "You¡­" Smith felt offended in this situation. Although he was only a newly 9-Star Martial Grandmaster, it did not change the fact that he had the same cultivation as Charya. Charya did not say anything as she pointed her sword toward him. That was enough to see Charya was going to fight him. He grabbed two small axes with his hands while releasing the intense aura from his body. He wanted to show her that he was not a pushover. "Match Start!" Charya did not bother using her Sword Rite again since she did not have enough mental energy to spare. So, Charya was planning something else. She tried to engage him in close combat to preserve her Spiritual Energy. Even though her mental energy was exhausted and only half of her total Spiritual Energy left in her body, her offense was still precise and ruthless. She kept trying to target his vital while probing his weak points. On the other hand, Smith answered all of her offensive with the same intent. In close combat alone, they were pretty much equal. Although she also used her lightning in her offense, it was not at the level of her Sword Rite. Seeing that she could not get any advantage, she retreated a few meters before waving her sword. "Seven Stars Cut!" "Hmph." Smith raised both of his axes and swung it down. "Tiger Executioner." He used everything on his body to destroy this Sword Wave. As one would expect, because of Charya''s condition, she could not exert the full power of Seven Stars Cut any more. Smith managed to destroy it pretty easily. Charya then appeared right beside him and swung her sword. "You are just using the same trick in the previous match," Smith said while swinging his left ax to parry this attack. The crowds were shaking their heads as they thought her movement was read by Smith. It was at this time Charya surprised them again. She blew the ax on his hand as it was her target from the beginning. If she was targeting him, her sword might not reach him. Unfortunately, Charya''s target was his ax, and she successfully blew it away. "!!!" Smith''s heart skipped a beat as he swung the second ax. This time, Charya suddenly released the sword on her right hand and grasped his wrist. "Hmph," Charya smirked. The taunting was really effective since she could lower his guard a little bit. It made him fight her in close combat. And with all the effort she had put in the battle, she was able to stop his movement for a second. Lightning started sparking around her left hand. The sound of lightning suddenly reverberated in everyone''s ears. However, the sound did not come from the lightning in Charya''s hand. Instead, they heard it from above. They could see black clouds hovering just right above them. They finally realized that the bright sky suddenly turned gloomy and filled with lightning. When their vision turned back to Charya, they could see a big lightning claw had formed on her left hand. The lightning did not spark only on her hands but also to her surroundings. It even destroyed the ground around her. Charya felt her left hand numb because of the lightning. Even in the best condition, she felt she could only use this technique once. Maybe she could do something better if she used it after reaching Martial King, but it would not happen soon. She made a smile, covering the numbness she felt. The giant claw made its way toward Smith. "!!!" For the first time in his life, he felt dread on a Martial Art. It might be normal if their difference was too far, but both of them had the same cultivation while Charya was also not in her peak state. Even so, the thought ''he will lose'' crept inside his heart the moment he looked at the blue giant lightning claw. He was electrocuted as soon as the claw grasped his body. He suddenly felt something wrong as he did not feel anything other than numbness. To think a Martial Art that could summon black clouds filled with lightning only made him numb, it was ridiculous. "Lightning?" He suddenly realized what was going on and turned his head to see the black cloud. Charya smirked. The lightning in the cloud finally struck forth toward Smith¡­ No, Charya''s left hand. "Thunder Dragon First Move, Heavenly Lightning Claw." 404 Third Elder "Thunder Dragon First Move, Heavenly Lightning Claw." Honda Sana suddenly stood up as she was startled to see this phenomenon in this place. "This¡­ this technique¡­ A technique that could influence nature¡­ Saint Tier Martial Art. No, this must only be a High Tier Heaven Tier Martial Art as this technique did not influence or direct nature but calling it. Even so, to see a Heaven Tier Martial Art that could affect nature, this should be one of the peak Heaven Tier Martial Arts¡­ but how can she possess it? "In this continent where even low Heaven Tier Martial Art was a scarcity, there was no way she could possess a peak Heaven Tier Martial Art! Even my Honda Family only had one. As for the Saint Tier, only first-rate influences such as Blackwade Clan have it." Honda Sana looked at Charya intensely. She remembered Charya was one of the people that did not get their memory erased by Maxwell. In fact, she felt Charya also received something from him when he healed her. "!!!" She finally realized what happened. It was impossible for her to have it because the Martial Art came from a great person. Nilis Continent only knew the existence of Mid Heaven Tier Martial Arts, so if they saw this, they should not know it was a High Heaven Tier Martial Art. As for the people from the Sacred Continent, they would not bother themself to come to this continent. It was also the same for the people from the Northern Continent. After removing them from the continent, Maxwell calculated that they would not come to this continent again unless it were an emergency. In fact, if it were not for the order of Song Yu, she would not come to this place and host this tournament. A desire arose in her heart for this Martial Art, but it soon disappeared when she recalled Maxwell''s strength. Maxwell could make a rank 6 Array without his main body, and he might even use more. He just did not have blood powerful enough to contain a rank 7 Array. And when she thought Maxwell could even make a rank 8 Array with his main body. She shuddered and buried that thought deep inside her mind. Her Honda Family would not offend this kind of person. Even the Song Yu''s clan could not afford to offend this person. Only the main Blackwade Clan would possess enough strength to offend a rank 8 Space Element Array Master. Even so, they would not recklessly challenge someone like that. Because of this, she could not say or ask anything about it to Charya, as well as to¡­ Alex. She tried to keep her mind clear to not be blinded by greed. Honda Sana looked at Alex, who was observing the arena from Xiang Bai''s room since he did not participate in this round. She was wondering whether she could ask about this or not, and after several thoughts, she decided not to ask him. If someone asked about this, it would be Song Yu. Meanwhile in the arena, All the people could see the ''black'' Smith because he had been roasted by lightning. If Charya wanted it, she could kill Smith with just that strike alone, but it seemed she did not have the intention of killing him. That was why she held back at the last moment, leaving him with heavy injuries. Charya looked at him with blurred vision. After using that attack, her Spiritual Energy was almost empty, and the numbness spread from her left hand to the entire body. She then checked her body after using that. She was very thankful to Maxwell for giving her this technique. Although she could only use the first move, it was far beyond her imagination. She remembered that the first time she used it, her left arm was the same as the smith on the ground, roasted by the lightning. Alex even came to her to check on her. He thought it was a Lightning Tribulation, so he decided to see it. After all, if it were a Lightning Tribulation, it would be very surprising since Charya was only a 9-Star Martial Lord as far as he remembered. Even so, having another Martial King in the sect would also benefit him in his grand plan. Sadly, all he found was Charya with a black left hand. She needed to recuperate for a few days to heal her injury before giving him an explanation. When Alex heard that it came from his Master, he just shrugged his shoulder and brushed it off. "Will Elder Charya continue or give up after this round?" The announcer once again asked Charya to see whether she would surpass their imagination again or not. Sadly, the response he and the crowds got was, "No. I will pass." Charya then came back to recover for tomorrow''s fight. Since Alex wanted to completely dominate Zhou Kingdom, she got an extra day to recover, so she did not need to worry about having this injury. This was why she could confidently challenge three people today. After this match, the one that came out was the third elder. They decided to end this once for all after gaining a big momentum from Charya. They wanted to gain an even bigger momentum, and if possible, they wanted to make that 10-Star Martial Lord out of hiding. The third elder alone might not be enough to defeat him, but he could wear him out before finishing it by sending the first elder or the second elder. Sadly, they did not manage to make him out as the third elder''s opponent was only an 8-Star Martial Lord. He was a middle-aged man with long blue hair. There were also many stitches wounds on his face, giving him another kind of pressure. Just by looking at him, normal people could see that he had experienced many things, and with the pressure emanating in his eyes, it sent chills down to one''s spine. Sadly, his opponent was the third elder of Heavenly Sword Sect. His fierceness was on a whole different level. The moment they saw his eyes, they felt like they were in front of a lion. They wanted to escape from the lion, but their feet could not move out of fear. "Hoo¡­ To think there is someone who has this kind of eyes in the Thiveapia Kingdom other than that person and your Marshall." "Captain of the Royal Guard, Ruth Millian." He finally introduced himself. But no one had expected that he was the family head of Milian Family, Riolet''s father. "I apologize for my son''s behavior in the grandmaster stage competition. "He tried to protect her highness''s safety, but it seemed it backfired to him, especially after he was controlled by the situation as well as Mount Hua Sect. And he involuntarily made your disciples in danger." "Ho, you are not angry because your son was killed?" The third elder asked. "As a father, I am not angry but sad. But as Milian Family''s head, that blunder is really a disappointment to my Milian Family. And even if he came back in one piece, I would be the one who kills him no matter how hard it was for a father." Ruth said. "Well, the situation has been resolved, so I don''t want to talk about it. I am sure you are also not comfortable saying something like this." "Yes." Ruth nodded. The third elder then took out his green sword, the same sword he used when he fought Alex. On the contrary, Ruth was using two daggers. "Match Start!" Both of them released their domain as they were trying to probe each other''s abilities. In an instant, Ruth knew their difference in strength. He immediately threw his dagger toward the third elder. "!!!" The third elder was surprised to see this. To think he threw his weapons in the instant the match started, he was wondering if he was a fool or something. If he knocked these two daggers down, he would be able to settle this match pretty easily. He raised his sword, preparing to blow the two daggers away. But, just an inch from his sword range, the daggers stopped in mid-air, which astonished him. With the range so close, he could see a thin string attached to the daggers. Even so, he just needed to take a step forward and swung his sword to knock these two daggers. When most of the people in the arena expected the third elder to do that, the third did not do anything. In fact, he just stood there without moving his sword. Elder Dolf knew this was only a bait from Ruth, so he did not bother knocking these two daggers off. Instead, he only observed his surrounding as well as the string attached to the daggers. The dagger almost fell down, but before it started falling, he could see the string move to his right. Dolf immediately raised his sword and Swung to his right. "Seven Stars Cut!" Everyone was wondering why he did that while observing the Seven Stars Cut. Finally, at the end of the Seven Stars Cut, they could see Ruth receiving the Sword Wave with his daggers. Ruth was made flying by the Sword Wave. He already expected that the third elder would not bite the bait and immediately searched his preposition. Sadly, he did not expect that the third elder would use his string to track his position. He tried to shift his body and leave the path of the Sword Wave by rolling his body a few times. After several attempts, he managed to do it before crashing to the wall. Sadly, the attack from Elder Dolf did not stop there. "Four Direction Slash." Dolf Kolk used the degraded version of Pentagram Slash. Those four slashes made its way toward Ruth, trying to cut him. Of course, as an expert, Ruth immediately dealt with these four slashes. Ultimately, he could only block two of them because he was still rolling in mid-air while the rest managed to make a quite deep wound on his body. As expected from the third elder, he could even injure him like that without making many efforts like Charya. And to think there were another two people stronger than him in the team, the Heavenly Sword Sect''s victory was nothing but assured. Of course, Alex was still underestimated by the others as even though they knew his fame, they did not know his exact power. After all, Alex''s progress was too fast, and even if they kept the report about his power, it would change soon in a month or so. So, no one knew his power and made them wary against him. That was why, the former king of Thievapia Kingdom, the only 10-Star Martial Lord, wanted to see Alex''s strength first before coming out. Sadly, seeing him appear in Xiang Bai''s room, he already knew that he would not participate in this round. He did not know if Alex wanted to hide his strength, or he thought Thiveapia Kingdom was not worthy enough to show his strength or the Heavenly Sword Sect just wanted to protect him. His answer would not be answered soon after seeing that his subordinates were defeated one after another. The damage Charya inflicted on their team was really hurt. Meanwhile, in the arena, Ruth was completely suppressed by the third elder. They could see his body had been covered with wounds, and Ruth would go down sooner or later. "Heaven Breaking Slash!" "Dual Daggers Bash!" Their clash made a great shockwave that reverberated the arena. But everyone could see Ruth was blown away again and crashed onto the wall. "You can keep getting stronger after this, but in this fight, you won''t be able to defeat me. Just surrender." Elder Dolf said. "There is no way I can surrender. Millian Family does not have ''surrender'' in their dictionary." Ruth said with a serious expression. "Then, I can only defeat you." The third Elder started his offensive, and after a few more rounds, Ruth finally went down, unconscious. "Heavenly Sword Sect wins." 405 Dolf Kolk Vs Robert Milian "Heavenly Sword Sect wins." "Next." The third elder yawned. The third elder defeated Ruth pretty easily. He then looked at an old man with spiky silver hair. He had a muscular body and fierce eyes. There was also a scar running from his left cheek to the right cheek, making him appear gallant. "It has been a while, Maira. Why don''t we have a bout here?" Dolf Kolk said. Maira, in his mouth, was the only 10-Star Martial Lord in Thiveapia Kingdom. He tried to challenge him, not because he knew he would win. Instead, he wanted to wear him out. The original plan was to drag him out, and the third elder would exhaust him. After that, the first elder would come out and finish him off. As for the rest of their team, it would be an easy fight for the first elder or the second elder. And there were plenty of 9-Star Martial Lord elders. "Hmph. There is one person that makes me curious, and maybe you should drag him out to the arena first if you want me to come out." The old man, Maira, said. "Hoo¡­ Who is it? You mean our first elder, Arua?" Dolf furrowed his eyebrows. "No way. I know that old bastard is strong, but despite many elders in the sect, there was someone who managed to join this competition despite having 6-Star Martial Lord cultivation back then. "He is the same man that managed to snatch my granddaughter away from the kingdom," Maira said with a cold tone. He remembered the time when Evelyn was kidnapped right under their nose. It was the biggest failure as a royal guard, as well as the royal family. "Hahaha¡­" Dolf recognized who he was with just that explanation. There was only a single person that fit the criteria, and he was one of his opponents in the token competition. "You oldie, you are not qualified to fight him." The people were shocked by that statement. They heard he was only a 6-Star Martial Lord, but to think Elder Dolf declared Maira, a 10-Star Martial Lord, was not qualified to fight him. They could not believe it. Even the people from Heavenly Sword Sect were confused about this. Sadly, only the third elder who faced him in the token competition knew something other people were not aware of. Despite having 6-Star Martial Lord cultivation, he fought him bravely and finally drove him away. Sadly, Alex would not participate in this competition either way since he was planning to destroy the Zhou Kingdom completely tomorrow. "You won''t be able to fight him today no matter what. So, get your ass over here and fight me." Dolf said. "I will defeat you." Suddenly, another old man came to the arena. "You need to pass me first." Dolf looked at the old man whose hair was already gone. His cultivation was 9-Star Martial Lord, but more importantly, he remembered this guy as he was the old man of the guy he had defeated earlier. "Robert Milian¡­" "There is no way for his majesty to act before me. Besides, I need to pay you back for what you have done to my son." "I did something? I just defeated him and did not even heavily injure him." Dolf snorted. "Either way, I will need to defeat you¡­" "Talk big, eh? You need 10-Star Martial Lord Cultivation first before you even challenged me." Dolf shrugged. Robert then took out his personal Sword and looked at Dolf Kolk. He stepped forward and felt a huge pressure on his body. This was the pressure that Ruth had experienced earlier. Just standing in front of this, he felt he was going to be swallowed by Elder Dolf. Sadly, this pressure, it would be effective if he was a 5-Star Martial Lord or below. Feeling this pressure would suppress them a bit as this pressure did not originate from Spiritual Energy alone. It was combined with the experiences he had until now and his killing intent. His expression became serious and pointed his sword toward Elder Dolf as he also released his own aura that would not lose to Elder Dolf''s. They were waiting for the fight to start as the tension began filling the atmosphere. "Match Start!" When both of the pressure in the arena suddenly vanished without a trace. The pressure was replaced by a sudden shock wave that made the ground shake a little bit. In the arena, people could see Elder Dolf and Robert clashing their swords. Elder Dolf shifted his stance a bit. "!!!" Noticing this, Robert tried to pressure him more. He knew he was going to push him back or something, according to the stances. With that, he managed to hold back Elder Dolf''s offensive. Seeing this, Elder Dolf shifted his stance again. By the look of it, he needed to change his strategy a bit. He took a deep breath before channeling his power to his arm. "Heaven Breaking Slash!" "Thorn Sword." Seeing the glow in Dolf''s sword, he knew he should not lose in this. His sword started growing thorns in its blade. When they clashed, the thorns grew bigger and bigger to the point it almost reached Elder Dolf''s neck. Dolf immediately jumped back after seeing the thorns almost hit him. He then waved his Sword, and a Sword Wave flew from his sword toward Robert at a breakneck speed. "Seven Stars Cut." Dolf only wanted to destroy the thorn in that sword that seemed to be alive. He thought of that because he saw the thorn grew like it had intelligence. No, it might be Robert who controlled it. Even so, the thorn was bad news, so he wanted to get rid of it. "Sovereign Slayer!" Robert remembered that it was useless to fight this Seven Stars Cut head one. So, he recalled the way the Rainbow Flower Sect disciples dealt with the Seven Stars Cut. He just focused his Sword Intent as well as his Martial Art to a single point and struck the Sword Wave from below. Just like receiving a volleyball, Robert strengthened his hands and ankles to push the Sword Wave upward. After making the Sword Wave fly upward, he immediately ducked down to avoid the sword wave. Seeing he managed to deflect it, he then jumped forward and struck another strike to Elder Dolf. Surprisingly, he managed to cut him down before noticing what he had slashed was only an afterimage. "!!!" He suddenly felt danger from behind. He just realized he was baited into this position by Elder Dolf. He immediately turned his body and saw Elder Dolf fly toward him at high speed. Both of them swung their swords at the same time. "Heaven Breaking Sword!" "Sovereign Slayer!" Dolf passed him while Robert did not move after that single strike. Suddenly, a sword wound appeared on Dolf''s arm. The blood started seeping through that fresh wound. When the people in the arena saw that, they were utterly dumbfounded. They never expected Robert was the stronger one. Of course, this was the opinion of normal people or the people who had lower cultivation as they could not see what just happened. The people who had 7-Star Martial Lord cultivation or above could clearly see what happened. Elder Dolf was the one who won that exchange. Not long after that, they saw a huge cut on Robert''s chest. The blood that flowed out of his wound could not be compared to Dolf''s as it was a giant wound on his body. "Puah!" Robert spat out blood. He thought, "To think Dolf would let me injure his arm just to inflict more damage on me¡­ This old bastard is really planning to drag his majesty out after this. He looked at Dolf in precaution after this strike. He knew Dolf wanted to finish this battle as soon as possible. He was sure of that when he saw Dolf waving his sword again and shot out a Sword Wave out of his sword. "Seven Stars Cut!" This time, Robert did not try to deflect the Sword Wave. Instead, he struck the Sword Wave from above and used the force from his Sword as well as Dolf''s Sword Wave to throw himself to the air. He thought he would be able to fool Dolf this way. In the sky, he immediately waved his Sword again. "Emperor Three Swords!" Within that slash, he managed to summon three blue swords. The Swords then flew toward Dolf with its own path. Robert was the one who controlled these three swords to make sure no swords missed its target. When Dolf saw this, he simply released his Sword Domain. With that Sword Domain, he could keep track of the swords'' movements easier. He could see the difference of path between each sword, and he immediately realized which one would strike him first. His sword then started glowing before it released an overbearing pressure. He already used his ''Heaven Breaking Sword'' as well as concentrating his Sword Intent there. He stepped forward while swinging his sword to the first illusory sword. The Illusory packed more power than he thought it would, but it still did not pose any trouble to him. He broke the first sword and turned his body to destroy the second sword. After finishing it, he then broke the third Sword. But this time, it was not with a normal swing. Instead... "Seven Stars Cut!" The Seven Stars Cut destroyed the Sword and made its way toward Robert. "!!!" Robert immediately struck it down, but because of the wound on his chest, he could only deflect it. Even so, it broke his posture. It was at this time Dolf suddenly appeared in front of him. He used the time Robert used to deflect his Seven Stars Cut to jump toward him and waved his sword. "!!!" Robert could only take that swing head-on. But because of his posture, he was immediately blown away and crashed to the ground. Robert immediately rose again, but before he could do anything, the third elder seriously engaged him in close combat. Because of his injury, Dolf only needed to wear him out, and he would win. And that was precisely what he wanted to do. He did not think anything else and continuously engaged him. Robert''s movement started becoming sluggish as time passed by. The huge wound on his body started hindering his movement, and the third elder took advantage of that to deal more and more damage against him. In just a few minutes, he was full of wounds. He did this to prepare himself for the fight against Maira. If he used too much Spiritual Energy just to defeat Robert, he would then be too exhausted to put up a great fight against Maira. That was why he let Robert injure his arm once so he could use this strategy. He wanted to make sure to end Maira with just him and the first elder or the second elder. If they could not do that, then the possibility of Thiveapia Kingdom winning this round would be high since Alex did not participate today. Of course, if Alex participated, then he would not need to use this kind of strategy and took two or three Martial Lords like Charya then surrendered. Robert finally fell down to the ground, too exhausted to even move his finger. At the last minute, it was his will power alone to keep fighting. But this time, he really could not move a single finger anymore. "I lose¡­" "Heavenly Sword Sect wins!" Elder Dolf looked at Maira and said, "Come!" "Uoh!" The crowd started cheering. Thiveapia Kingdom had lost five of its combatants while Heavenly Sword Sect only lost Charya. So, the people knew who would win if this continued. Thiveapia Kingdom also knew about it. That was why the moment Elder Dolf said that. Maira immediately came to the field. He took Robert out of the arena before standing in front of Dolf. 406 Self Introspection "Heaven Breaking Sword!" "Berserker Strike!" *Bam!* The arena vibrated just by the clash between the two people, Dolf and Maira. As soon as the match started, they had been going at each other. Dolf did not hold back a single time because he wanted to exhaust Maira. On the other hand, Maira tried to save every bit of the energy that he could save. Because he had faced him like this, then he could not just ask someone to buy time for him as he recovered his Spiritual Energy for the later match. It would break the rule. So, the moment he stood in this place, he was already prepared to fight until the end. So, he wanted to defeat Dolf without spending that much energy. Because of this, Dolf could fight him with all he got from the start. If Maira decided to fully release his power, then he might not be able to defeat the first elder or the second elder. If that were the case, then their fate would be sealed. He was really annoyed with this old bastard, Dolf. He was brazenly using many reckless moves to make him use his energy. "Seven Stars Cut." "Sword Snake." Dolf released the Seven Stars Cut again. Meanwhile, there was a big snake coming out of Maira''s sword. The snake bit the Sword Wave and deflected it to upward, so Maira did not need to face it head-on. Just as Robert, he was aware that the Seven Stars Cut was a Heaven Tier Martial Art. He should not face it head-on as it would only deplete his energy. On Dolf''s body, many superficial wounds covered his body. Maira was also the same. There were many shallow wounds in his body, but the difference between him and Dolf. The energy he used was not much, and these wounds also did not hinder his movement or anything. Alex was watching this match closely from the side. He never expected that Maira was this strong. He was already surprised to see Dolf was this powerful, and the appearance of Maria completely blew his mind. If he fought Maira, he would need to use his Sword and Spear as well as his fire to the limit. He might also need to release his 100 meter Sword and Spear Domains. But it seemed he would need to use his Array or combining the domains together to defeat him. After the training for the past few months, Alex had comprehended the essence of becoming a Sword King. He practiced it every day until he could compress his Sword Domain and make it cover his sword and send it flying. He then used that knowledge to advance to be a Spear King. Of course, his Sword Mastery and his Spear Mastery played a big role in his progress. As expected from a UR Gacha from his system, he could still rely on those two for a long time. Luckily, the Zhou Kingdom that he would fight tomorrow would only be around 9-Star Martial Lord despite having 10-Star Martial Lord cultivation. The usage of blood pills was that serious. However, he would also need to take precautions against their Berserk Pill. Although the possibility of them not using it tomorrow was high, he would still need to be careful. He might even use his trump card in tomorrow''s fight. He had four trump cards. The first trump card would be his Array. Considering he would soon spread his name through the continent as well as using it in the fight against 150,000 soldiers, he might be able to use it in this tournament. However, it came with a certain risk. His enemy might feel something wrong. After all, he was a Rank 4 Alchemist before he was a rank 4 Array Master. He could use a few rank 5 Array though. The enemy might become a bit more cautious if they found him using the array like this. So, he decided to wait and see for this trump card. The second trump card was his Pure Fire. He did not have any plan to reveal it any time soon. After all, even in the Northern Continent, the Pure Fire was still sought after. If it was spread in here, there was a certain risk for it to spread in the Northern Continent as well. They might target him for his Sacrificial Fire, which he gave to Firia. If they knew about it, they might recruit him because of that talent or kill him so they would not leave a future problem. This was also the reason why he changed the array beneath the arena to break after a minute pass. He could just pretend he got suppressed by the array if the enemy used it. This way, they would not realize he was a Pure Fire Element. He did not care about having fame and such as he did not need such self-satisfaction. He just wanted to get stronger and meet his wives again. The third trump card was his Twin Intent. If he combined the two intents, it would create a far stronger intent that he called Twin Intent. This would also bring him troubles as the people would drool upon the sight of this technique. This was different from using a sword and spear simultaneously. If he used two weapons at the same time, the people would think he used his time to learn both weapons and had a talent for them. But if it was the fusion between them, then it was something unprecedented. So, it left him with the fourth trump card, which was his Sword King as well as Spear King realm. Unlike the other three, this would be the most normal trump card. If he showed this to everyone, they would just classify him as a genius or monster. As for the King realm, it seemed there were many Sword King or Spear King in the Northern Continent. So, it would be fine to reveal it. He also felt he could do just fine with this trump card in the tournament without having a need to reveal another one. This Maira also had many interesting techniques as he wondered if he should copy it or something. As for Elder Dolf''s Heaven Breaking Sword, he almost copied it. After all, it did not have the requirement such as Charya''s Sword Rite, which solely relied on instinct. Alex wanted to copy this because he lacked close combat techniques. For his spear, he had Silver Sovereign, Spear Throwing Art, Quick Silver, and Jewel Wind. For his sword, he had Seven Stars Cut, Sun Beam, Pentagram Slash, Omnislash, and Dancing Sword(20-Swords). Just by that list, Alex really did not have close combat techniques besides Silver Sovereign. Even that technique also had a limitation. Silver Sovereign was a Spear Technique, so its real power was in the piercing power that came from Silver Raven. But if he used it with a sword which was basically swinging, then it was a bit lacking. This Heaven Breaking Sword was perfect for him at the moment. He had observed the technique carefully and almost finished copying it. He would just need to practice a few rounds, and he would master it. He could do it this fast because he was no longer like the way he was. He already accumulated many experiences and understanding, thus resulting in him understanding it faster. As for Maira, he already set his eyes on that Berserker Strike as well as his Sword Snake. But because of the need for a close combat technique, he immediately chose that Berserker Strike. He also had a need for Element Arts. He only had his Fire Phoenix Art for his Fire Element. As for the previous boost step and the others, he realized he could not use it anymore. Not because they were useless, but because they did not give him a big boost anymore. It was like his Sky Movement, especially his Immovable Step, which had a limit of five dragon strength. Sooner or later, he would abandon it like his Sanguin Sword Art and the others. Maybe as soon as he reached Martial King, he needed to search for a new Movement Art. He had somehow browsed the technique in Zwaka''s inheritance, but most of it was only a High Earth Tier Art with a few of them being a Heaven Tier Art. Even so, he did not find a Martial Art or Element Art, which he felt compatible with him. So, he might donate it to the sect if he felt they were useless. He might also sell some to raise money, but if he released them simultaneously, the price would fall. So, he decided to sell a few of them to raise around a hundred or two hundred million Spirit Stones then donated the rest to the sect. Well, it was just a thank you for Charya and the others. He still remembered where Charya brought the entire nine peaks just to avenge his grievance against the Bell Family. Even though partly it was because of the Blood Pill, Alex was still gratified. It was also a thank for keeping his secret this long. He had considered selling it in the Northern Continent, but he doubted they would sell at a high price. So, he felt it would be more beneficial if he donated it. Part of it was because he felt he could get good karma from it¡­ probably. Even so, his schedule was already tight, and he could not spend any more time besides training, Sword, Spear, Alchemy, and Array, as well as making money. What he lacked was time. It was just barely three years ever since he came to this world, and in just three years, he had advanced this much, which others might need a few decades to achieve. Because of that, he really needed to schedule his time seriously. If only Firia were here, she would be able to help him in Alchemy. Considering her nature, she should be able to learn many things under him. If he just gave his Simulation Room, it would not be long before she became a money-making machine. That way, he would have more time to practice his Element Art. Of course, all of it was just a wish. His greatest wish was just to see her happy. Anna and the others also helped him on many occasions where he needed to fight many influences at the same time. He never made trouble unless he needed to like Putri''s case. But in her case, it was more like they had been plotting against her for a while, and he was just caught up in the process. When he was introspecting himself, he suddenly heard. "Thiveapia Kingdom win!" "Ooh! Finally, the Thiveapia Kingdom won the match. After many battles, this was the time where Thiveapia Kingdom won the match, not because the opponent gave up. "Will this be the time for the win streak for Thiveapia Kingdom? After all, Heavenly Sword Sect is facing the strongest man in the Thiveapia Kingdom, Maira de Gran Thiveapia." The announcer said. Alex looked at the third elder, who was covered with wounds, sitting on the ground. Alex then turned to Maira and checked it with his Spirit Eyes. He could see that Maira had used around thirty percent of Spiritual Energy. Sadly, the third elder needed to fight two other people. If not, he would be able to exhaust him more than this. Although Maira was stronger than him, it was not like their gap was like Heaven and Earth. The third elder should be able to make him use 50-70 percent of his power if he was in a top condition. But it was already enough for Heavenly Sword Sect, specifically for the first elder, Arua. He came to the stage with a smug smile while the third elder left the arena. "To think the progress of Old Dolf was that much. If I know, I would be able to come up with a plan." "Don''t say anything. All of us want to be the winner in this Tournament, so it is normal to hide your power for the time being." Arua took out his green sword. "So, be it. You and I are always equal in strength. Even with this state, I might not be the loser." "Hmph!" "Match Start!" 407 Arua Vs Maira "Match Start!" The moment the match started, both of them disappeared. However, this time, they did not appear in the middle of the arena. Instead, the people found a shock wave coming from above. They just started fighting in the sky. Although it was not that high as they were still in the Barrier Array range, their fight was still protected so they would not destroy the nearby constructions. But because they were fighting in the sky, many people in the town could see them fighting. "Look, those two are fighting. Looking at their position, they should be right above the arena." "Wow. I could not enter the arena since it is full, so I am wondering what kind of fight inside there, but I will get inside the arena tonight and wait there." "Those are the first Elder of Heavenly Sword Sect and the former king of Thiveapia Kingdom. I come to this place just to see many powerful people fight." One of peak Martial Grandmasters said. In fact, the Carageo City had been filled not only by the disciples of eight influences, merchants, and the original citizens. There were also many loose cultivators that decided to come by so they could witness the battle between them. Little did they know the reason for the fight suddenly in the sky was because of the first elder. Maira knew that Arua was a master in fighting. And that strength came from the difference of height. Arua loved to gain height advantage as he could use it to gain the advantage in fighting. And because of this, Arua could become the strongest person second only to the sect master in the sect. Maira decided to make him not gain any advantage, so he kept climbing and climbing until the limit they could go, which was the barrier. If the barrier stretched to the sky, they might even climb higher than that. Of course, the first elder had another thing so he could gain an advantage with height. It was¡­ "Blessing of the Wind." A pair of wings appeared on Arua''s back. The wing had a wingspan of five meters. This was one of his Supreme Techniques that he always helped him in defeating his enemy. After all, Alex could see that his wing contained a huge amount of Wind Element. The first elder swung his sword to make his combo before finishing him off with his Martial Art. This level of attack was nothing in front of Maira''s eyes. He blocked the attack one after another. But Maira could not catch Arua in the sky. It was because Arua kept using his wing as well as his Wind Element to make an unpredictable but fluid movement. It was like watching a bird fly. However, unlike birds, Arua was equipped with intelligence where he could maneuver as much as he liked and struck him to his advantage. Of course, Maira had yet to be pressured by this. Even though he was under relentless attack from Arua, Arua had yet to get the advantage even with his wings. It was because of the height limit of the barrier, AKA, the barrier roof. Maira only needed to fend these attacks off until he found a weak link on his attack. Arua also knew that. Considering his situation, which restricted his battle prowess, he knew he would finish this fight as soon as possible. And the only way to do it was to descend to the ground. "!!!" Maira was confused to see Arua descending. He thought he would try it for a bit longer, but both of them did not want to drag this battle for too long. He also descended to the ground. He looked at Arua, "Heh. It seems both of us think the same thing. Well, I will be going first." Maira held his sword with both hands. He jumped forward with his sword on his front. Sadly, Arua did not want him to get too close. He immediately waved his sword as a Sword Wave came out of his sword. "Seven Stars Cut." Maira raised his sword and struck the Sword from above. He just wanted to deflect it and charged toward Arua. "Berserker Strike!" The moment he struck the Sword Wave, he pushed his body to the air to jump over the Sword Wave. "!!!" However, when he was in the air, he suddenly felt danger from above. He was shocked to see ten swords had been waiting for him right above him. Without even giving him a chance, the swords immediately rained down on him. Maira was forced to block all of them in mid air. Unfortunately, two swords managed to pass his defense and strike him in the right hand and left waist. Arua then jumped toward him and swung his sword. He did not want to give Maira a chance to stabilize his position. "Grace of the Lion." Maira suddenly let out a loud howl that made most people close their ears. It was especially true for the first elder as everyone could see blood coming out of his ears. However, Maira was not any better. His eardrums also burst, and both of them could not hear a single thing for a while. Maira and Arua knew they were still in a clash. So, they could only endure the pain on their ears rather than covering them. They started clashing their swords again. They did not care about the wounds they had as they only wanted to finish this clash as soon as possible. Maira wished to preserve his power while fighting Arua. However, as expected, even though he could not use his full power, it was still enough to hinder Maira from doing so. He continued pushing Maira to the limit to exhaust him. Both of them got injured all over from their legs to arms to body. Clash after clash, each strike was precise and deathly, but both of them were equal. Until finally, both of them reached the point they were too exhausted. So, Arua decided to end the fight. Maira clicked his tongue as he was a bit unsure whether he could take down the second elder after fighting Arua. The biggest factor of this was the third elder. If the third Elder did not make him use thirty percent of his power, he would already defeat Arua a few minutes ago. Both of them knew this would be the last as they could not endure many clashes after this. The first elder took a deep breath as he was planning to use this as the last clash. He did not know whether he would win or not in this exchange, but considering the stake here, that old Maria would surely challenge his limit. He looked at him with a serious expression, wanting to cut him down with his sword. In this final stage, he did not hear a single thing, such as the loud cheering from the people even after his hearing recovered a little from before. He only wanted to make sure he could win. The same could be said to Maira. His body was covered with wounds, but the light in his eyes was still intense. He was still thinking about winning. He needed to win this round and somehow beat the second elder even if it meant he would go down along with him. With that, their kingdom had the possibility of winning this. After all, the barrier already helped him by restricting the height. If not, he would not be able to defeat Arua in front of him with his current condition. It was because Arua could not use his full power that he was in this state. Both of them had steeled their resolve. They then jumped forward as the tension filled with chilling air. Even the people did not know why they felt a chill just by watching them. However, they somehow knew this would be the last exchange between the two. They opened their eyes wide, making sure they did not leave a single detail. Even Alex concentrated his focus together with his Spirit Eyes. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike!" The single strike decided all and this shocked everyone in the arena. Many people could not understand what happened just now, but the people of Heavenly Sword Sect sighed. There was a big cut on Arua''s chest as he fell down to the ground. It looked like the Heavenly Sword Sect had lost in this match. "Thiveapia Ki-!" Just when he was about to announce the result, he could see a big wound on Maira''s body too. "You old bastard¡­ can''t you just give me the win¡­" Maira fell down to his knees before collapsing on the ground. "Heh¡­ We are going to win this tournament no matter what." Arua said. It turned out Arua did not pass out. He was lying on the ground, exhausted and hurt. It was the same as Maira as he slowly turned over his body and looked at the sky. "Eh, what?" The announcer was completely clueless about this. Alex, with his Spirit Eyes, could see it clearly. In the last exchange, Maira bypassed his limit. From the swing alone, he expanded his limit at the very last moment and focused his attack on that swing. That way, he could avoid the strike from Arua and struck him on the chest. However, Arua was a daredevil. He believed Maira would pass his limit in that attack and let him slash his chest. Because of that, he got enough time to strike a devastating blow to him too. Arua knew he could not use the height to his advantage, so the chance of beating Maira in this tournament had gone away. Because of that, he decided to end it this way as he would go down together with Maira. If it was like this, then there were still five people left excluding Alex in the Heavenly Sword Sect. On the other hand, with the defeat of Maira, Thiveapia Kingdom did not have any chance to win this fight anymore. Seeing the curtain was close, he did not think he would need to watch the rest of the match. Of course, he did not know whether the Thiveapia Kingdom would continue to fight until the last man standing or not. However, after losing Maira in the competition, they decided to stop. It seemed Maira had instructed them in case he could not win, they would surrender. Sadly, they could not surrender as a team. Hence, each of the participants needed to go to the arena and surrendered, giving another kind of humiliation. Unfortunately, they could only swallow it as it was the order from Maira. Meanwhile, Alex started practicing the Heaven Breaking Sword as well as Berserker Strike. He already saw both Martial Arts many times from Dolf Kolk, Arua, and Maira. He only needed to practice it so his body could get used to it, and he would be fine. Of course, he wanted that Sword Snake, but Maira did not use it that much, so he could not successfully copy it. He did not really mind it though, since he had plenty of ranged Sword Art. He practiced inside Xiang Bai''s room so he could observe the next battle. There were two more battles that he intrigued. It was the battle between Zhou Kingdom and Southern Kingdom, as well as Rainbow Flower Sect and Mount Hua Sect. Well, he just wanted to see the massacre of Mount Hua Sect by Rainbow Flower Sect though. As for Buddha Sect versus Hazel Kingdom, he did not really care about it since either influence would be defeated by Rainbow Flower Sect. "Ladies and Gentlemen. The first battle between Heavenly Sword Sect and Thiveapia Kingdom has officially ended with Heavenly Sword Sect as the winner. Let us give a big applause to the two influences as we could witness both prowess." *Applause* *Applause* "However, because of the tight time, we will hold the second battle between Zhou Kingdom and Southern Kingdom. So without further ado, let us welcome the two kingdoms." 408 Eight 10-Star Martial Lords? Zhou Kingdom Vs Southern Kingdom. Alex observed the participants from the Zhou Kingdom with his Spirit Eyes. As he expected, all of them were 10-Star Martial Lords. Even though they might not be as strong as the real 10-Star Martial Lord, the Southern Kingdom still had no hope of winning. After all, Alex had killed the only 10-Star Martial Lord in the Southern Kingdom, Bima. Without the help of Bima, the Zhou Kingdom could fight one or two people from the Southern Kingdom before retiring. Alex had no interest in Southern Kingdom. He would not care whether they would be killed or anything as after finishing his business, they were neither a friend or foe. As for the recent event where the Southern Kingdom helped the sect, he took it as their initiative to draw the conflict between them close. In this battle, he just wanted to see the power of the Zhou Kingdom since he would fight all of them tomorrow. People from the Southern Kingdom also never hoped they would win in this competition anyway, considering their contenders were two 9-Star Martial Lords and six 8-Star Martial Lords. They simply had no chance. The first fighter from the Southern Kingdom was an 8-Star Martial Lord. He was a middle-aged man with long blue hair. He was average as Alex did not find anything outstanding in him. It seemed they were going to fight not for the win but for the honor. On the other hand, Zhou Kingdom sent their 10-Star Martial Lord. He was also a male in his late thirties. Even though he looked like a warrior, his body figure was a bit skinny. However, Alex narrowed his eyes the moment he looked inside his body. He could see a dense blood red energy flowing in his veins. He tried to see the others, but all of them pretty much had the same amount of that red energy. He was wondering how many people they killed just to get Blood Pills enough for a whole kingdom. Luckily, it seemed only the soldiers as well as the big families that were involved with this pill. So, Alex did not need to kill a hundred thousand if not millions of people to erase the existence of Blood Pill from this continent. "Hmm¡­He¡­" Xiang Bai suddenly felt something was wrong from the people of Zhou Kingdom. He did not know what it was, but he felt a sense of rejection the moment he sensed his energy. No, it should be his soul was screaming when he felt that blood red energy. In fact, it was not only him but also the other sect masters. Maybe, because they had become a Martial King, their soul power was condensed, and they could somehow feel the resentment inside their body. They felt the same thing but could not explain what it was. The one who was the most uncomfortable with this was the sect master of Buddha Sect. He wanted to question them, but he could not because of Honda Sana. So, he chose to hold it for a while. "Zhou Kingdom, Rinbo." "Southern Kingdom, Sil." "Match Start!" The middle-aged man from Zhou Kingdom took out his spear while the other one was holding a glaive. "Mythic Dominance." "Spear of Gladiator." Both of them started clashing with each other. The moment their weapon collided, Sil was surprised by the sheer amount of power inside Rinbo''s spear. Rinbo used that confusion to blow Sil away. Sadly, it was not enough to make him crash into the wall as Sil stepped once again in the arena. "10-Star Martial Lord¡­" "To think I would fight a 10-Star Martial Lord, this is truly an honor. But I never heard anything about Zhou Kingdom having another 10-Star Martial Lord." Sil said. "What?!" Not only normal people but people from other influences were shocked by hearing his statement. Of course, no one from Rainbow Flower Sect as well as Heavenly Sword Sect was surprised about this as they were already informed by Alex. They just worried about Alex as he was planning to challenge all of them. "There is another 10-Star Martial Lord?" "Wait, there must be something wrong with this! If not, doesn''t it mean Zhou Kingdom is ahead of any other kingdoms?" The people were busy talking about this. Meanwhile on the arena, "You are just trash. Don''t think you are so special." Rinbo snorted. "What did you say?!" Sil was obviously angered. After all, to have their 10-Star Martial Lord participate first, it was like they were honoring their efforts and wanted to say it to the world that the Southern Kingdom lost to a 10-Star Martial Lord. That way, the Southern Kingdom would still retain their glory even if they lost. Rinbo did not talk any more as he started moving toward Sil. They started clashing with their weapons. It was plain to see that the Southern Kingdom was at a disadvantage. Rinbo continuously inflicted damage to Sil from his feet to his body. Sil was struggling just to block every attack that came to his way, but Rinbo did not care about it. He continuously made wound after wound on his body so he would die because of the blood loss. That was their thoughts. As for the reality, after wounding him enough, Rinbo finally decided to put the fight to close. He grabbed his spear and thrust it toward Sil''s neck. When Sil saw that, he immediately blocked it with his glaive, but it turned out Rinbo''s target was not his neck. The spear slowly descended to Sil''s right hand, and because of the injuries, his movement had become duller. "!!!" The spear pierced Sil''s right hand, but it did not stop there. Sil realized it was his target from the beginning. And with the loss of his right hand, Rinbo''s target would be his¡­ "Bad luck, huh¡­" Sil gritted his teeth as he saw Rinbo''s spear already made its way toward his heart from the right. "Wait, we surrend-!" The people from the Southern Kingdom wanted to surrender so they would not lose Sil, but they were too late to realize that as the Spear already pierced Sil''s heart. "Gah!" Sil spat a fountain of blood before collapsing to the ground. "Gasp-!" The people never thought Rinbo would kill Sil. No, they were just too focused on the last battle between Thiveapia Kingdom and Heavenly Sword Sect to the point they forgot that there was no rule concerning life and death. And Sil''s death reminded them of this fact. "I am going to kill you!" One of the participants from Southern Kingdom was angered thoroughly. He immediately advanced to the arena and took out his Rapier. However, the people were shocked again by Zhou Kingdom. Rinbo only looked at that person without saying anything. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before he said, "I give up." "Hiss¡­" The announcer did not know what to say. Even normal people could see that Rinbo easily defeated Sil. And the same Rinbo should be able to defeat his opponent again considering his condition. However, Rinbo chose to surrender and let someone replace him. Alex was utterly clueless as to what they were planning. He checked Rinbo''s spiritual energy but did not find anything wrong. So, when he suddenly surrendered like that, he felt there must be something wrong. "!!!" Alex just thought something unbelievable. He murmured, "They want to hide their real power? Because of the blood pills, their prowess should only be 9-Star Martial Lord peak despite having 10-Star cultivation. "The next opponent is a 9-Star Martial Lord, and if they fight, he would have a chance to lose against a 9-Star Martial Lord. In that case, they want to hide the fact their power was so-so. "They also want to show they have eight 10-Star Martial Lords to shift other people''s attention. With those two conditions, they should be able to hide their power." Alex pinched his eyebrows a little bit and said, "I see. So that is their plan." He looked at them coldly as he said inwardly, "Then I will destroy that plan too as I will kill all of you tomorrow no matter what you are planning." Alex thought like that because he realized they also wanted to preserve their members. He felt there would be a high probability that the Zhou Kingdom would use one or two berserk pills in the battle against them. After that, they would use a few to win the competition. But this theory was flawed. If they used those berserk pills, their entire plan might be blown out. According to Alex''s speculation, they had 30 percent of using the berserk pill in this tournament, while 70 percent of not using it. After all, it would be theirs even if they did not win this tournament since they would literally destroy all influences with their mighty army. Either way, he would crush them tomorrow. The next person from Zhou Kingdom had entered the arena. He took out his Sword and started fighting the person from the Southern Kingdom. The people were dumbfounded when they found out he was also a 10-Star Martial Lord. They never expected Zhou Kingdom was hiding their strength this entire time. The sect leaders, as well as the kings immediately frowned as they remembered a certain matter. It was the invitation of a joint investigation led by the Southern Kingdom. The purpose of that was to investigate the Zhou Kingdom. Sadly, because the previous king died, no one continued that investigation and completely forgot about it. And the one who suffered from this was the Kingdom that invited them for the investigation. It was such an irony. Not long after the match started, another person from the Southern Kingdom died under the hand of Zhou Kingdom. And as Alex had expected, Zhou Kingdom changed their members once again to hide their power. The Southern Kingdom tried really hard to win a single match but to no avail. It was not because the Southern Kingdom was weak, but because their opponent was too strong. The people had finally realized that all of them were 10-Star Martial Lords and turned into an uproar. After having another two people die in Zhou Kingdom''s hand, the Southern Kingdom decided to surrender. They did not feel any humiliation anymore from the crowd as they were already full of shame. They would never expect that the matter in the past finally haunted them at this moment. They lost two 9-Star Martial Lords and two 8-Star Martial Lords as well as their reputation. Along with the failure of getting a share for the mine, Southern Kingdom fell from grace was all but assured. After today, Southern Kingdom immediately returned to their kingdom to quell the unrest in their citizens because of this. They were afraid because of this failure, there would be another revolt. On the other hand, the arena was filled with cheering. Of course, it was for Zhou Kingdom. "Zhou Kingdom is mighty!" "Eight 10-Star Martial Lords." "No sects even have this many 10-Star Martial Lords." "And tomorrow, Heavenly Sword Sect needs to fight them." "Yeah, their luck sucks to meet them in this tournament." "I thought the four great sects would dominate this tournament, but to think Zhou Kingdom is the underdog in this tournament." The people from other influences immediately suck a cold breath. They were sweating as they did not know how to overcome the Zhou Kingdom who had eight 10-Star Martial Lords. One alone was already troublesome, as for the three 10-Star Martial Lords even made the kingdoms completely suppressed by the sect. And with Zhou Kingdom''s eight 10-Star Martial Lords, their fate was sealed. However, all of them immediately knew the one that was in the most dangerous situation was Heavenly Sword Sect, as they would be their opponent tomorrow. "This is truly unbelievable. We have been fooled by Zhou Kingdom, and tomorrow, they will fight Heavenly Sword Sect. Even I am curious about how Heavenly Sword Sect fights the Zhou Kingdom tomorrow." Cecilia and Letizia furrowed their eyebrows as they glanced at Alex. Suddenly, they opened their eyes in surprise. In this situation, Alex could still smile. 409 Elemental Sword The next match, it was a battle between Rainbow Flower Sect and Mount Hua Sect. This was the battle they had been waiting for. Even Alex was strangely interested in this. It might be because of the difference between point of view. When Alex heard that Erol wanted to rape the people from Rainbow Flower Sect as well as Heavenly Sword Sect, there was strange anger that filled his heart. Even if he was in his situation, he did not think he would do something like rape or something. He might torture then and send them off just like that. If it were about rape, then he would just do it inside their mind, no need for him to do it openly so others could see. Albeit, even if he flowered his thoughts and words, he would still do the same as them, just in a different way. He was not a good guy to begin with; in fact, he was pretty selfish. It might also be the reason why he did not become the Hero in the first place. Of course, he did not mean about the ''HEro'' in the lower world as the system in that world was flawed. As for his Karma, he did not really know. He had killed many peoples, but all of them were his enemy. If the way he did it was considered too, then his karma might be bad. Even so, he did not care about it as he chose the best way to destroy his enemies. He looked at the Rainbow Flower Sect. Their lineup was similar to Heavenly Sword Sect. Instead, there was no 8-Star Martial Lord like him as Letizia herself was a 9-Star Martial Lord. In total, they had three 10-Star Martial Lords and five 9-Star Martial Lords. This was really a magnificent lineup beside the Zhou Kingdom. In front of them, the Mount Hua Sects were frowning. Because of the recent war, they had lost half of their elders, and a few of them were high-level Martial Lords. So, in this competition, they could only bring two 10-Star Martial Lords, one 9-Star Martial Lords, and three 8-Star Martial Lords. They even needed to add two 7-Star Martial Lords who were their core disciples in this battle. Luckily, one of their 10-Star Martial Lord was only in a death door because of that war. After many medications, he finally recovered. Because of that, he was filled with anger against Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. He did not care about it and immediately came to the stage as the first fighter. The people were shocked, especially the Rainbow Flower Sect, as they never expected a 10-Star Martial Lord to come as the first fighter. After all, Mount Hua Sect was not the same as the Zhou Kingdom who had eight 10-Star Martial Lords. In fact, they were barely qualified for this competition as one of the great sects. As for the people from Mount Hua Sect, they did not care about it as they let their second elder do what he wanted. The hatred inside his heart could not be suppressed anymore, and it would be useful to unleash it to their enemy. This way, they might be able to kill two or three people from Rainbow Flower Sect. They just took advantage of this facet of him to weaken the Rainbow Flower Sect. Letizia looked at him for a while before turning to her elders, "Elders, could you please let me fight him?" "Young Lady? But our enemy is that Maahir. I am afraid you will¡­" One of the elders wanted to protest her decision. At the same time, she was also afraid of Maahir as she knew Maahir would kill them if he happened to win just by looking at the amount of killing intent on his eyes. The other elders were also a bit unsure and worried about Letizia. Nonetheless, Letizia had decided to do it. "Elders, please believe in me. Even though I am a 9-Star Martial Master, I have an elemental advantage against Mahiir, who was a rank 5 Alchemist. "His Fire would not stand a chance against my Pure Ice Element, and if we defeat him here, we will get momentum to push through the rest of the match. I don''t know how far I can go after I defeat him, so I want other elders to remember this in your heart. We will need to kill all of them before they could surrender." Letizia explained with a cold tone. The elders gasped. They remembered a few months ago, Letizia was a silent girl. But after a few months, it seemed she started becoming a bit talkative. And this was a good change as she became more mature in a short time and the way she talked was just like her mother. Although they had been watching her, this short time transformation really made them gasp many times just by the sight of it. They looked at her serious expression and nodded their heads. "Understood, we will do as the young lady said. They want to rape our disciples in the previous competition, so we will need to pay them back by killing them." Letizia smiled and nodded. She then took a glance at Alex and saw him nod. She did not know why, but that nod suddenly gave her power in her body. She murmured while walking to the arena, "It must be because of my Full Loyalty Oath. This is only a cheering from my master, not Alexander Sirius." She closed her eyes for a while before opening it to look at Mahiir. She said coldly, "In the war, we failed to kill you. That''s why I shall personally end you today." "Heh! Little Brat from Rainbow Flower Sect. Since the young princess is going to take the stage, I will make sure that today will be marked as a tragedy in Rainbow Flower Sect''s history." "Wha-?! What are the elders doing? Why is Letizia there?" Cecilia was panicking upon seeing her daughter in the arena. Letizia was strong, and she knew it. Still, as her mother, she could not stop panicking because her opponent was Mahiir. She remembered that Mahiir was holding a great hatred against Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect. If not because he would need to recover from his wounds, he might roam around the Rainbow Flower Sect or Heavenly Sword Sect to kill anyone from the sects. He might be one of the rank 5 Alchemists in this continent, but he was also known as the most eccentric person. In fact, she had heard from somewhere that Mahiir was a sociopath. It was when she saw the expression of her daughter, she slightly calmed down. After raising her for many years, she knew Letizia was serious about this. She could worry about her but unable to stop her or save her as she would be killed before she could even save her by Honda Sana. She sighed and leaned on the back of her chair. She could only hope that she would be fine. Meanwhile on the arena, Letizia only had a serious expression on her face. "Tragedy, huh¡­ that is good too. This might be a good day for our sect to celebrate the downfall of Mount Hua Sect." "You¡­! I will kill you¡­ No. I will cut all of your limbs first before I kill you, and the people from Rainbow Flower Sect would witness all of that. Hahaha¡­" Mahiir laughed like crazy. "It is tiring to talk to a sociopath like you. It is better to start the match, so you can see what it means to be the successor of Rainbow Flower Sect. I will also use the treasured sword from my ''Master'' to defeat you." She said and took out her blue sword. This was the sword that Alex gave to her. And she purposely said ''Master'' as in ''Master and Disciple relationship'' instead of ''Master and Servant relationship.'' It was just to hide her status as she knew Alex would not want it exposed, so she decided to cover it up. When Honda Sana saw this, she could not help but feel surprised. "This¡­ this sword is an Elemental Sword. I am sure no one in this continent is a rank 5 Forging Master, but how can she possess this sword? She said, ''Master,'' but who is her master?" She contemplated for a bit before she suddenly realized what was going on. There was nothing like rank 5 Forging Master. There was only an abnormal person that seemed to have anything in his coffers. It was Alexander Sirius. The only thing that confused her was why she said Alex was her master and she was his disciple. She could not understand that as Letizia had a higher cultivation base than him. However, remembering the previous glance from her to Alex, she could not think of anything other than that. She sighed. With that sword, she was confident she would defeat her opponent even though it was only a rank 4 Sword. On the contrary, the appearance of this sword baffled everyone. They could understand if a rank 4 sword released a high amount of Spiritual Energy. What they could not understand was that the thing that was released from the sword was not just Spiritual Energy. Instead, there was also Ice Element from it. Cecilia also rose from her seat upon seeing something like this. She never knew her daughter had something like this since the sect also did not have something like this. She also remembered the things she brought from Zwaka''s place. It was two Mid Heaven Tiers Ice Element Arts as well as rank 5 Sword. However, that rank 5 Sword did not have an aura like this. Of course, no one knew the technique was only possible for a rank 5 Forging Master. Even so, not everyone could use it as it was considered as one of the high ranking techniques. She looked at Alexander Sirius, who seemed to be the perpetrator as her daughter said. She sighed. "This kind of thing might be better. Even if my daughter had become his slave, he did not treat her badly. He even gave her something like this. "Hope he treats her well in the future no matter what her status is¡­" She could say that because she felt that sword could enhance her daughter''s power even further. On the contrary, Xiang Bai kept glancing at him. Alex also felt his stare and said, "I don''t have any use of it. Since the element is perfect and she has helped us in the war against Mount Hua Sect as well as the current war, I just give her as a reward." Xiang Bai could only sigh. He thought Alex finally took the chance to make a move on her heart, but looking at his expression alone, he knew Alex was serious about it as a reward. He thought, ''Poor girl¡­ Well, she has a ton of luck though¡­" ... Despite the crowd''s confusion, Letizia pretended she never heard their confusion. She pointed her sword toward Mahiir. The moment she did that, Mahiir could feel extraordinary cold energy coming from that sword. From the first time, he suddenly felt dread upon seeing a sword alone. "What is that sword?" Mahiir asked while gritting his teeth. He felt his fire was also affected by the cold energy. "This sword is a sword that will kill you. You don''t need to know anything other than that." Letizia said with a cold tone. "You¡­ You little girl. You are still too young to use that kind of sword, but since you have presented it in front of me. I will gratefully take it over your dead body." Mahiir laughed. "You can try, but it will be pointless." She said as she glanced at the announcer to make him start the match. The announcer looked at Mahiir first. The moment he saw Mahiir nod, he then declared. "Match Start!" (A/N: Oof, why is this ''Match Start'' thing always at the end of the chapter?) 410 Letizia Letizia released her Sword Domain. It was only a pitiful 40 meter Sword Domain as her cultivation progress was too fast while her sword could not keep up with that progress. After all, she did not have something like Alex''s Sword Mastery. Still, she did not care about that as in this match, she was planning to suppress the Mount Hua Sect with her element. She was told to keep her element in secret from childhood, and she always kept the promise. In this tournament, she had asked whether she could release her element fully or not, and the answer she got was ''Up to you.'' Hearing this, Letizia did hold it back anymore. The cold energy started filling the arena, and even Mahiir felt a bit numb when the cold air pierced his skin. At this moment, Alex was surprised. Judging from this, she was going to reveal her Pure Ice Element. If others knew about this, they might come for her Sacrificial Ice Element. This could be bad, he thought, as he was still thinking about giving her Sacrificial Ice Element to Alicia. [Don''t worry, Host. Alicia already has something that won''t lose to the like of Sacrificial Ice Element.] His body shook a bit because he was startled by the sudden notification. "Something that won''t lose to Sacrificial Ice Element? What is it?" [You will know about it later when Alicia says it herself, so I won''t give you spoilers.] "..." Alex twitched his eyebrows because he was concerned about this, but seeing the system would not tell him, irritated him a bit. He sighed. "So, I don''t need to worry about Alicia, right?" [Yes. That girl can use her Pure Ice Element however she wants at her own risk. She might get captured for her Sacrificial Element in the future when she steps on the Northern Continent. Begone Thot¡­] [This message was deleted.] In an instant, the last message suddenly changed into a [This message was deleted.]. Still, Alex did not miss that last word. "Do my eyes play me since I feel like I saw you were saying thot?" [Your eyes must be playing you, Host.] "Then, can you show me the message again? I need to check it. I know you must have something like a log or something since I can only see [This message was deleted.] [She has given her full loyalty to you, Host. Because of that oath, she would always prioritize you before making the decision. And each person would have a thought of their own, and with that, she must think this is the best choice even if you think this is not the best choice. She might just want to increase your prestige or something.] "Yeah. I know that. But don''t change the topic!" A few seconds and the system still did not appear. "Oi¡­ Don''t run away. I just want to see that message, and that''s all." Even after calling the system for a while, he did not get any replies. He murmured, "Why do people around me become this troublesome? Even if I try to pretend I don''t know her, I might also get dragged into the mess, right?" He sighed. Well, he could not berate her too since even Anna and Anya often did something like this. He knew it was only for him, and that made him a bit guilty to reprimand them unless it might cause irreplaceable damage. He knew this might be risky, but he did not know whether the information would be carried away to another or not. After all, he just thought, the information might pass from someone in this arena to another continent if they tried to visit them. Maybe from a merchant or something. Or this might only be his wild imagination. As for the only person who came from another continent, Honda Sana, he might just need to warn her by relying on the prestige of his master. At least, it would give her enough time to get a ''roof.'' After thinking of that, he decided to observe the match without thinking about that complicated stuff. "Match Start!" Mahiir immediately charged toward Letizia as he knew this cold energy was dangerous. Even the fire inside of him was getting suppressed a bit. He was an Alchemist, so obviously, his weapon was his fire. If that got suppressed, he would lose this battle even though he had a cultivation stage advantage. Letizia immediately fully released the cold energy in the arena. Even with the barrier completely blocking the chilly atmosphere, the people could feel the bone-chilling cold radiated from the barrier wall. "Deep Frozen Ice Technique. Ice Phoenix." "Soaring Fire, Leguma." Letizia''s first move was the technique she used the first time she met Alex. A big Ice Phoenix suddenly flew toward Mahiir, trying to swallow him as a whole. Seeing this, Mahiir also released his Fire Element Art. His fist was covered with fire, and he made a circle with both of his hands. It was quite a large circle with the diameter of his full wingspan, which was around one and a half meters in diameter. He then punched his fist that was covered with fire through the circle. Just like an amplifier, the moment he punched it, the fire on his fist suddenly burst out, trying to engulf the Ice Phoenix. The Ice Phoenix was burned by the mighty fire¡­ At least that was what they thought. Only Mahiir, who used the fire, suddenly felt something wrong. "!!!" He was sure that the fire was engulfed by his fire, but he did not feel the heat of his fire inside his technique. Instead, what he felt was insanely cold air. It was at this moment, he knew the fire did not do anything against her Ice Phoenix. He immediately canceled his attack and jumped backward. "Hmph!" Letizia harrumphed. There was no way that Mahiir''s puny fire would be able to fight her Ice Element. If Alex was the one who fought him, Alex could completely suppress him with his Pure Fire. In fact, Mahiir might only be able to kneel in front of him. That was why this Pure Element was sought after by all people. Albeit, Letizia was also a bit surprised by her Awakened Pure Ice Element. Because she did not use her Pure Ice that often, she was a bit clueless at the extent of her Pure Ice Element. This was the first time he felt this... The feeling of dread against someone''s element. No, it was not from his heart, but from his element. It was telling him to run. As soon as he retreated, he saw the Phoenix suddenly appear from his flame, leaving the original flame frozen. The phoenix tried to bite him. He immediately escaped to the side, making the phoenix crash to the wall. "Boom!" "!!!" Mahiir looked at the wall and was shocked to see the wall immediately froze. No, the most shocking thing was when he saw his fire got frozen by the phoenix. "What the hell with your Ice?" He gritted his teeth while looking at Letizia. Letizia did not pay any heed to his rumbling and continued to attack him. She raised her sword high before cold energy surrounded her Sword. She wanted to end this fight before Mahiir could figure out her element. "Ice of Infinity." She then swung her sword down, sending the Cold Energy to half of the arena. The floor was frozen, and the air filled with bone-chilling cold. Mahiir looked at her with a complicated expression. He clasped his hands at her before touching the ground with his palms. "Blazing Inferno." The fire started burning the ice around his palm before spreading to the surrounding area. Sadly, it was futile because as soon as it spread, the ice gradually became smaller and smaller before it completely disappeared. Not only that, but Mahiir also felt the fire in his body somehow got restricted by this ice, like blood suddenly clogged up and made it hard for him to channel his Fire Energy to use a Fire Element Art. Letizia used one of the Mid Heaven Tier Ice Element Art. Although this technique did not have any extraordinary damage like Heavenly Sword Sect''s Seven Stars Cut despite having a higher rank, this technique was more like Charya''s Lightning Element Art. The technique would build a domain for the user to restrict his/her opponent with the cold before eventually freezing their entire blood, element, and heart. Letizia was perfect for this Element Art as this technique required a powerful Ice. With her Pure Ice Element, there should be nothing she could not freeze, except Pure Element. Mahiir immediately covered his body with fire, albeit he still felt the coldness piercing his skin. Although it was not effective, at the very least, it was able to slow down the freezing speed. He glared at Letizia, wanting to kill her as soon as possible. ''This woman is dangerous!'' At first, he wanted to make her suffer first before killing her in front of the people. However, because of the sudden turn of events, he was forced to end this fight as soon as possible. He had yet to identify her ice too. As long as he could get close to her, his fire would be able to hurt her heavily. "Haa!" Letizia knew his intention as well. She thrust her sword to the ground. "Iceberg Formation." Many ice walls suddenly rose from the ground. The ice wall was not that big as it was only around three meters high and one meter wide. But it rose in many places, hiding Letizia from Mahiir''s ice. Letizia knew she might not be able to beat him in close combat, so she decided to buy time. She just wanted two or three minutes, so the Element and Blood started freezing. At that time, his movement would also become sluggish, and she could win the fight. "Soaring Fire, Leguma." Mahiir punched again as fire started soaring from his hand, trying to burn the ice walls. But, his fire was not that effective because of this environment as he could only destroy two walls with that attack. Letizia leisurely hid behind one of the walls while waiting for him to be frozen. Seeing that he could not force it through, he immediately avoided the Ice Wall and passed it from above. Letizia smirked. This was according to her plan. She waved her hands a few times before an Ice Tornado slowly grew in the middle of the arena. "Heaven Freezing Tornado." This was the other Mid Heaven Tier Martial Art she got from Zwaka. "Not good!" Mahiir immediately sweatdropped when he saw this tornado. If the tornado hit him, he would be frozen by it, and even his flame could not help him. He stretched his hands to the front, wanting to make an explosion so he could stop his momentum. "Blaze Explosion!" The fire lit up on his hand, but because he was almost hit by the tornado, the flame immediately froze. This was the power of Mid Heaven Tier Ice Element Art with a Pure Ice Element. "!!!" Mahiir lost the last hope to stop from being engulfed by the tornado and went through the tornado without any protection as his flame that covered his body earlier had been frozen. The moment he passed the tornado, he already became a frozen statue. He fell in front of Letizia. Even though he was frozen, his consciousness was still there. It was at this moment he knew he fucked up. Letizia looked at the frozen Mahiir with contempt. "Kill me? You are not qualified." She raised her foot, wanting to stomp him into pieces. Mahiir was scared out of his life. He wanted to say ''Don''t kill me'' but to no avail. Ultimately, Letizia broke the frozen Mahiir''s like breaking a frozen statue, thus killing him. He was shattered everywhere as the people could see his head, arms, body, and so on in many pieces. Luckily, he was frozen, if not, there would be a pool of blood in front of Letizia. "Next!" 411 Letizia Part II "Next!" The arena turned into an uproar when they saw one of the rank 5 Alchemist died just like that. "What happened?" "Her ice was so powerful that it could even freeze the ice." "No way. What kind of Ice Element was that?" "I am getting a goosebump by seeing it." The people had yet to understand the reason why. After all, there were only ten rank 5 Alchemists in the continent, and Letizia killed one of them. They were wondering whether she was daring or just not afraid of the retaliation from Alchemist. With the fact that she could kill him that easily, only the sect masters who were Martial King could defeat her. Luckily, she was still a 9-Star Martial Lord. She would not last long in this tournament. And the people from Mount Hua Sect knew that they needed to kill Letizia in this tournament. If not, their sect might perish the moment she became a Martial King. "What should we do?" Su Hua asked. He was the last 10-Star Martial Lord in the Mount Hua Sect after Mahiir was killed. "We need to kill her. If we don''t kill her, all of us will die the moment she becomes a Martial King." "That''s right. Did the Heavenly Sword Sect know about this and make the alliance?" "But according to our information, she was the one who searched for her ''Love one,'' and it was someone in the Heavenly Sword Sect, not Mount Hua Sect. If the one she searched for were a weakling, then Rainbow Flower Sect would stop her after looking at her talent. "Still, in reality, Rainbow Flower Sect even came to the Heavenly Sword Sect. Although we heard the alliance was a failure, their relationship still continues." Su Hua explained. "Yeah, you are right. Just by looking at the Martial Grandmaster competition, it is easy for us to deduce they have a solid relationship. After all, with the alliance of four teams, they still band together even though we clearly want to eliminate Heavenly Sword Sect." "Who gave the order to attack Heavenly Sword Sect? Our sect will be ruined because of this." "It was the sect master." When they heard that, they were stunned. In fact, they already knew the answer. They just wanted to deny it in their heart, but one of them said it out aloud. "We can only kill her in this tournament. Ultimately, she is only a 9-Star Martial Lord. We can exhaust her again and again until we kill her." Su Hua said. "We also need to be wary of her Ice Element. I don''t know what kind of Ice Element she has, but it is certainly powerful. As Elder Su Hua said, we need to kill her in this tournament. We can lose this tournament, but as long as she dies, there is a chance for our Mount Hua Sect to rise again." "That''s right. However, this strategy requires sacrifices." Su Hua looked at the others. Normally, they were pretty scared, but at this particular moment, all they had was courage. Courage to do something reckless as long as they could kill Letizia. If Alex''s Pure Fire could burn everything, then Letizia''s Pure Ice could freeze everything, even the wind or lightning, let alone fire, which was its natural enemy. "I will go first." One of the 7-Star Martial Lords said. His expression was severe as he had resolved himself to die. "Long Live Mount Hua Sect." "Long Live Mount Hua Sect." The others also shouted while looking at their teammates who had prepared to die. He came to the arena while covering himself with Fire. The domain made by her ''Ice of Infinity'' was still there. The arena was not fixed to boot, so the Ice Wall still stood tall on the arena, albeit around half of them was destroyed because of the tornado earlier. Letizia looked at him from the top of the ice wall. There was nothing to say to the like of him since he was going to die anyway. "Oliver. Remember it as this name is the name who will kill you." He was pretty young as he was one of their core disciples who somehow got chosen because half of their elders died. Letizia did not say anything like he was never in her eyes. She just looked at the announcer so he could start the match. She might be able to buy time until Oliver started freezing, but it used too much time, and she was too tired to do it each time. "Match Start!" Oliver immediately charged toward her. After observing her fight against Mahiir, he could see that Letizia was not good in close combat. Sadly, because of the difference of power, he forgot that she had a 40 meters Sword Domain. It might not be enough for Mahiir, but it was certainly enough for Oliver. She immediately released her Sword Domain. "Fire Chain." Oliver made a chain from fire and threw it toward Letizia, wanting to take her sword away. Letizia wanted to deflect the chain with her Sword, but when it almost touched the sword, the fire flared up. "!!!" It knocked her sword away because she did not use her entire strength to hit the chain. She clenched the sword handle to make sure the sword did not slip from her hand. The chain then circled around the blade. Oliver smiled when he saw this, he just needed to pull the chain, and he would have her sword. Sadly, the Sword in Letizia''s hand was an elemental Sword. Letizia immediately channeled her Ice Element to her Sword, and the sword immediately boosted the Element. She found this after experimenting with the sword after Alex gave her. "Ice of Infinity." She used the same technique as the one that froze the field. But this time, she concentrated it in her sword, not using it around the arena. Because of that, the sword contained an almighty overbearing Ice Element. It immediately froze the fire chain on her sword and the rest of the fire chain, including the chain that Oliver held. "!!!" After seeing that, Oliver immediately threw his chain to the ground, but he was still too late. Because the freezing was too fast, it managed to freeze his entire right hand before letting the chain go. "Argh!" The pain and numbness filled his right hand. He tried to move his hand or fingers, but it was too painful just to move it. He felt his arm might even shatter if Letizia hit it like what she did to Mahiir. Letizia then jumped forward, not giving Oliver any chance to sort of the pain. "Shit!" Oliver raised his hand while covering it with his fire. When Letizia''s sword clashed with his hand, she felt a sense of rejection. She felt his hand was rock solid, like a shield. Letizia narrowed her eyes as she channeled her Ice Element to her sword. The Ice Element started freezing the flame that covered his hand. She then gritted her teeth and pushed out another surge of strength. "Not Good. I surr-!" Before Oliver could finish what he said, Letizia destroyed the frozen hand before cutting Oliver''s head right behind it. "Even that old bastard is not qualified to kill me, let alone you." She then turned to the Mount Hua Sect, "Next." At first, Letizia thought she could only fight two or three people, but after observing her Pure Ice Element as well as the sword that Alex gave. She felt she could fight all of them. It was one of the advantages of an Ice Elemental Sword. The sword did not only boost her Ice Element but also made controlling her ice through the sword easier. After they confirmed Oliver''s death, they immediately sent another 7-Star Martial Lord to the arena. They did not want to give her time to recover her energy. Because of two deaths, the fighter from Mount Hua Sect did not talk anymore. Even so, Letizia could still see the eyes full of killing intent. "Match Start!" The guy immediately raised his two hands. From those hands, stemmed two big fire snakes. He then made those two snakes charge toward Letizia. Seeing this, Letizia only pointed her finger toward the two snakes. "Zeroth Ice Blast." She shot out a laser like attack filled with her Pure Ice Element. The guy from Mount Hua Sect might be full of killing intent. Sadly, it was still not enough for him to challenge absolute power. The moment her attack touched the two snakes, it immediately froze the snakes. This was the difference in power. Unless he were as powerful as Mahiir, he would not stand a chance against Letizia. "It seems all of you have forgotten that I am a Sword User." She swung her to the ground. The sword released three blue balls that flew toward the guy. "!!!" The guy immediately raised his hands as he made a kind of flame shield in front of him. "Ren Flame Shield." "It is futile," Letizia said calmly. The first ball touched the shield and instantly froze it. The second ball then broke open the shield while the third ball pierced his head and froze his brain. "!!!" When Alex saw this, he was a bit astonished. He might have underestimated her too much. Just from these three matches, he might need to go all out to fight her. Of course, he felt his Phoenix Fire should be enough to defeat her, but it would be a bit of a gruesome fight. "Fu¡­" Letizia took a deep breath as she checked her Spiritual Energy. After her fight against Mahiir, she wanted to conserve her Spiritual Energy since the fight with Mahiir took her thirty percent of energy. This was the reason why she did not use any big move in the last two fights as she relied only on her Elemental Advantage. Luckily, Mount Hua Sect was a place full of Alchemists and Forging Masters. She might go down after two or three fights if they had any other element or weapon users. The Mount Hua Sect continued to exhaust her power with the other three 8-Star Martial Masters. They had fought bravely, but it was still futile. At the very least, they managed to exhaust 70 percent of her Spiritual Energy. In other words, she only had thirty percent left to defeat one 9-Star Martial lord and Su Hua. She was wondering whether she should surrender at this point. But she remembered Alex. For him, she needed to surrender as to his greater cause. So, at the very least, she wanted to set up the prestige for Rainbow Flower Sect, so even if they admitted defeat later, they would have enough reputation. That was all just her thinking. As for the other people in the arena, they had been sucking cold breath this entire time. Not because of the cold air, but because they were too shocked by Letizia''s performance. With just her alone, she managed to kill six people from Mount Hua Sect, including Mahiir. If it continued like this, she might be able to defeat Mount Hua Sect by herself. Upon realizing that, a feeling arose in their heart, especially in the heart of a woman. They might have a weaker constitution than men in general, but it did not make them weaker than them. Letizia was the proof of that. "Win¡­ Win Rainbow Flower Sect!" "Rainbow Flower Sect!" "Letizia!" "Letizia!" When a woman started cheering, another followed her. One to two, two to four, and ultimately, it spread to the entire arena. No matter their gender, there existed the hope that Letizia showed them in the arena. Even after getting exhausted by six fights, she continued to hold on. The arena became like an away game from Mount Hua Sect. Even so, it did not hinder their desire to kill her. Her next opponent was the last 9-Star Martial Lord. He came to the arena and said. "I did not participate in the war since I was guarding the sect back then, but now I will surely kill you." "You are not qualified." "Hmph. I wouldn''t underestimate myself if I were you. After all, I am different from them, I am¡­" 412 Letizia Part III "Hmph. I wouldn''t underestimate myself if I were you. After all, I am different from them, I am an Array Master." He said. "I know. Edwin Fernandez, 9-Star Martial Lord, High-rank Array Master." Letizia said. "Heh¡­" He looked smugly after hearing that. "Even so, you are still not my match. If you are a 10-Star Martial Lord, then I might choose to surrender, but you are still a 9-Star Martial Lord." Letizia said coldly. "You!" He glared at Letizia while releasing his Spiritual Energy. Before the match started, Letizia went around and hid behind her Ice Wall. She was not afraid of him. She just wanted to make him confused as to where to target. She did this because she needed to preserve her energy to fight Su Hua later. "Hmph, you are hiding behind those walls?" Edwin snorted. He then felt the temperature in the arena. "I thought the cold was so extreme since all of them who fought you used their Fire Element to cover their body. But this is nothing to me." Letizia did not say anything. This was a Mid Heaven Tier Ice Element Art, it was already powerful to make a domain like that for a long time. And after six fights, the effect started to disappear. She had once thought about recasting it once more, but it would use too much Spiritual Energy. "Match Start!" He immediately raised his hand and made an array. Many chains started appearing from the array. "Chain Binding Hostage." Alex completely focused on this match. It might be the first time he watched an Array Master fight. But what he saw next surprised him. The chains did not go toward Letizia. Instead, they scattered around and went toward Letizia''s Ice walls. The chains that were supposed to bind someone suddenly shattered all the ice walls on the arena. "!!!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise. He never thought Edwin would use a Binding Type array to shatter the ice walls. When he saw this, he immediately had a thought. It was true that to bind someone powerful, the chains alone were powerful, and Edwin destroyed the ice walls with that power. Alex just learned something new. After all, what he got from the Golden Lightning Tribulation was only the knowledge about Array, not someone''s memory or experience. So, this was the first time he experienced something like this. And this was like opening a door for him to a brand new world. He realized he had been using Array by the book, except his Simulation Room. He suddenly thought of many possibilities, such as using a binding array like this or using a barrier array to pin someone down to the ground and so on. He thought of many possibilities that he wanted to discover later. He unconsciously smirked. In the arena, Edwin immediately spotted Letizia after shattering all the ice walls. He then made another array with his right hand. He suddenly made a barrier that surrounded Letizia. "Tortoise Barrier." "Now, you can''t escape." He laughed as he raised his left hand. "Chain Binding Hostage." The chains immediately started charging toward her, trying to bind her. "Look¡­ she is cornered." "No!" "So, this is the power of an Array Master. As expected, they are truly monsters." "Yeah. Even with Letizia''s strength, she would be cornered in an instant." Many people were concerned about Letizia''s situation, and many people were disappointed as well as astonished by the power of an Array Master. Letizia was a bit surprised that her ice walls were shattered just like that. She immediately retreated to avoid the chains that managed to shatter her ice. *Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* The chains managed to catch up, so she immediately used her Sword to deflect them. Even so, she was surprised by the sheer power contained in each chain. She was wondering how to defeat Edwin. First of all, she had been trapped here while running away from chains. She was afraid that her attack would be ineffective against the barrier and just wasted away the little Spiritual Energy she had left. She observed the chains. Even though the power in her ''Ice of Infinity'' had decreased, she thought it should be able to freeze the chain if she went around for a while. After that, she then could try to break the Barrier that trapped her. Sadly, Edwin did not let her do so. He immediately sent another wave of chains. "Chain Binding Hostage." This time, the chains did not come from behind her. Instead, the chains were coming from in front of her as to attack her from two sides. The moment she saw this, she immediately stretched her hand to the front. "Deep Frozen Ice Technique. Ice Phoenix." An Ice Phoenix once again appeared in the arena. It was charging toward the chains in front of her. The moment it touched the phoenix, the chains immediately entangled the phoenix. The phoenix''s body was not that hard compared to the human body, and it was immediately shattered by the chains. Even so, the chains that destroyed Letizia''s phoenix were gone. Seeing this, Letizia turned her body over while trying to shoot another phoenix. Edwin only smiled. He raised his hand once more as he made another array. "Chain Binding Hostage." He made those cursed chains again and let them chase her. "It is futile. Even if you destroy my chains, I will just make it again. In this match, I will make sure to kill you." "!!!" Letizia frowned after she heard that. She immediately turned her body again and just escaped from the chains behind her. She saw another group of chains coming from her front. She gritted her teeth as she had decided what to do. "Heaven Freezing Tornado." She waved her hand, and a big tornado appeared in the middle of the arena. The tornado sucked in those chains by its mighty power, and the chains that came close to it immediately froze. Letizia was panting after using a Heaven Tier Art. She made the tornado move toward the barrier. Edwin was surprised that his barrier started becoming frozen, but that was all. He had noticed this earlier, but this Freezing Tornado did not have any attack power. It only froze its opponent. So as long as it was trapped inside the barrier, it would not do anything to him. He smirked and thought, ''I won.'' If he just maintained the barrier until Letizia exhausted herself, he would then release his barrier and kill her. It was at this time, Letizia suddenly appeared from inside the tornado. Because of her Pure Ice Element, her body was immune to cold energy, so she would not get frozen by her own skill. "You want me to exhaust myself, right? Since you are the one who forced me to use more, then I will end this match as soon as possible." Letizia was clenching her sword as she looked at Edwin. "Don''t you know that something frozen is easier to break?" "!!!" Edwin instantly realized what she meant. "Not good! She wants to break the barrier with her Sword!" He wanted to use another array to prevent her from doing so, but¡­ "Too late!" She swung her Sword twice. "Grand Cross!" A big blue ''X'' appeared in the barrier as it suddenly shattered the brittle frozen Barrier Array. The tornado was still moving toward Edwin before engulfing him and Letizia since nothing stopped it again. The moment the tornado vanished, there was only Letizia standing in the arena as Edwin already became pieces, shattered on the floor. She was panting, too exhausted. She had been using big moves one after another, and she only had ten percent Energy left. She knew it would not be enough for Su Hua and was planning to surrender here. She did not know why, but Alex''s face appeared in her mind. A question suddenly came to her mind, ''If he is the one here, will he surrender?'' She was contemplating that question for a few seconds and arrived at an answer. ''He might. But before he surrendered, he would injure Su Hua as much as possible. Well, if Master is really here, he would not get so beat up like me. After all, Master''s Pure Fire Element is the king of fire, and he could use it to suppress them, unlike me, who needs to clash it against them.'' Thinking about that, resolve gathered in her heart. She would do everything needed before surrendering. She should have enough time to do it before Su Hua reached her. With her current energy, she should be able to use another Heaven Freezing Tornado and Ice Phoenix. And she would still be able to use one Sword Art before completely exhausted her energy. After this time, she finally heard the announcer with his shocked tone. He and the people in the arena had been shocked by her. They thought Letizia would lose in this round and was hoping she would surrender before Edwin killed her. Surprisingly, she shattered all their thoughts. "This¡­ this is such a phenomenon. After fighting seven elites from Mount Hua Sect¡­ after getting into many perilous situations¡­ even with her tattered body¡­ she overcomes all of that with her ice, and finally, there is only one left. There is only Elder Su Hua from Mount Hua Sect! Will she be able to overcome this too and become the queen of Rainbow Flower Sect?" "Ah, goddess!" "She is the Ice Princess from Rainbow Flower Sect." "If she wins, she will become Ice Queen from Rainbow Flower Sect." "Nooo¡­ you have done enough, my queen. Just please surrender, our heart is broken to see you like this¡­" "Ice Queen!" "Ice Queen!" "Ice Queen!" The people were cheering for her. Many of them wanted her to defeat Su Hua, but they knew it was not possible in her state. After all, Su Hua was the strongest from the Mount Hua Sect team, a 10-Star Martial Lord and a 5 Alchemist. However, different from their hope, Letizia still wanted to continue the fight. She said, "Next!" This time, the people from Rainbow Flower Sect were surprised. "Princess¡­ Please give up. We will do the rest." Letizia ignored them as she looked at Su Hua, trying to call him up to the arena. Noticing that, he immediately appeared in the arena. "You are truly a peerless genius from Rainbow Flower Sect. If only, the person you were searching for was in the Mount Hua Sect, it would be great. However, since it has become like this, I really need to kill you as my Mount Hua Sect might perish under your hand." "Say that after you won." "I will not hold back." "Argh, my tears come out. I can''t bear to watch this, but I still need to host this match. Match Start!" "Deep Frozen Ice Technique. Ice Phoenix." Letizia immediately used her Ice Phoenix as soon as the match started. She knew she could not beat Su Hua with just this, so she was planning to injure him as much as possible. Su Hua immediately raised his two hands as a circle of fire appeared in front of him. He punched the ring. "Soaring Fire, Leguma." This was the same technique as the one Mahiir used. It immediately spurted out an overbearing flame. In the first match, the phoenix would be able to freeze the fire, but at this point, it evaporated together with Su Hua''s fire. The people immediately looked away with a sad expression when they watched this. They knew Letizia was not in the condition to use this anymore. After destroying the Ice Phoenix, Su Hua leaped forward while using another Element Art. At this time, Letizia smirked. She waved her hand. "!!!" Su Hua noticed this familiar gesture. Noticing that, he immediately stopped and retreated. "Heaven Freezing Tornado." He was a bit too late as his left hand was frozen by the big tornado. Looking at the big tornado that failed to finish him, she sighed. The result was already clear in her eyes as she smiled and said, "I surrender." 413 Ending "I surrender." Her voice echoed through the arena, and they could not believe what they heard. They were dumbfounded, Alex was astonished while Su Hua dropped his jaw. They never expected that she suddenly gave up after using two skills. The ending was truly anti-climatic. Alex knew why she surrendered as he could see the energy inside her body was only a puny amount. She might even collapse if she used another technique. So, Letizia decided to give up while having that energy as a guarantee if Su Hua still came to her after she surrendered. Even so, he never expected that Letizia was this strong. He remembered the Letizia from back when she had yet to become his slave. She never considered her as a threat. However, after looking at her progress in this tournament, he would eliminate her no matter what cost he needed to pay. Thinking that, he instinctively took out his spear. Su Hua stood in the arena while looking at her in surprise. He thought she would fight a bit more, considering she managed to incapacitate his left hand. He gritted his teeth as he lost the last chance to kill her. He clenched his teeth until blood came out. Meanwhile, the people from Rainbow Flower Sect were also gnashing their teeth. One of their 10-Star Martial Lords said, "All of you, we will stop Su Hua if he dares to attack our young lady." They nodded with a serious expression. "Just look at the Young Lady. She has bravely fought the Mount Hua Sect and killed seven of them. I think I don''t need to remember the thing that the young lady said before going to the stage, right?" She gritted her teeth as she said, "We are going to kill Su Hua in this match." Their eyes were filled with killing intent when they heard that. If their own princess had gone through something like that, how could they not fulfill her wish? They would absolutely kill Su Hua even if they needed to die in the process. When Su Hua looked into these people''s eyes, he frowned. He examined his condition. After having his left hand disabled, he might lose if he fought against a 10-Star Martial Lord. And there was no point in this tournament anymore. "I give up." Su Hua looked into the sky, regretting all the things that happened. First, it was about Alexander Sirius, who he failed to recruit. The fact that he managed to become one of the contestants from Heavenly Sword Sect was already heaven-defying. After all, he only used three years to advance from 1-Star Martial Master to 8-Star Martial Lord. It was an insane cultivation speed. And when he realized Alex was also an Array Master even though he was a master of sword and spear, he was full of regret. His talent might be on par with Letizia''s. No, Letizia had full support from the sect while Alex made his own path by his own hands. As for his second regret, it was about the war a few months ago. If they did not make war, their relationship with Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect would not turn like this. Sadly, it was because they thought they could acquire Alexander Sirius with four influences, they decided to do that. Albeit, it had backfired. And lastly, it was Letizia. With her power, she would be able to destroy Mount Hua Sect. Sadly, no one from Mount Hua Sect had an Ice Element. If not, they would realize the suppression coming from her when they fought. And the arena was also big, so unless she purposely suppressed them with her Elemental Advantage, they would feel it. It was the same as Alex when he used his Pure Fire to suppress the soldiers in the war for Thiveapia Kingdom. Only the nearby soldiers would be instantly affected by his Pure Fire Element. Because he deliberately channeled his power and suppressed them, they could feel it. Letizia was saved by the arena itself, and Alex did not need to worry about this, or so he thought. "Finally, after many gruesome battles, Rainbow Flower Sect won! Only the young princess of Rainbow Flower Sect, Letizia La Scola, fought in this match. In other words, I will declare that Letizia La Scola won against Mount Hua Sect." "Uoh!" "Ice Queen!" "Ice Queen!" "Long Live Rainbow Flower Sect." "Long Live¡­" The people were busy cheering for her. They were not aware that Letizia was in danger. There was a rank 5 Alchemist that had been clenching his fist for a while. He was a 2-Star Martial King. Others might not feel it, but he, as a Martial King and had cultivated his own soul power as well as his Fire Element, could feel how hostile his Fire Element was and how strong Letizia''s Ice was with his soul. He thought he sensed it wrong when he watched her in the first battle against Mahiir. After all, it was the only time she used her Pure Ice Element to the fullest. As for the other matches, she did not use it that much, which made him hesitate. But in the match against Edwin, he could sense it again. Letizia was a Pure Ice Element user. He knew Mount Hua Sect would be destroyed in the future in her hand. If she did not die, then it would really be the end considering their hostile relationship. He looked at Letizia, who was too weak at the moment and knew it was the best chance to kill her. He shattered his arms chair while gritting his teeth. He suddenly came out of his room and leaped toward Letizia. "Pure Ice Element, Die!" He stretched his fist, trying to kill her. Letizia looked at her with surprise as she was expecting Su Hua to come. She clenched her sword, trying to swing it. However, she felt an overbearing pressure from him, and it restricted her movement. Even if she managed to swing her sword, she could not imagine blocking an attack from a Martial King. "!!!" All of them suddenly noticed that. Honda Sanae and Cecilia immediately came out, trying to stop him from killing her. Both of them knew they were too late as they thought it would be Su Hua who would try to kill her. To think the Sect Master of Mount Hua Sect himself would be the one who was trying to kill her. "Not Good! It is too late!" When despair came to their heart, it was then the ''Prince...Ahem, the ''Master'' finally made a move. "Immovable Step." "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." A spear suddenly came out of Xiang Bai''s room, flying. The old man noticed that spear and gritted his teeth. He would be killed by the spear first before he reached her. He raised his hand to block that spear. "Hell Flame Shield." When he felt the power from the spear, he was too shocked. "What is this power? Does this spear contain 20 dragons, the same strength as me? But this piercing power¡­" He gritted his teeth as he was surprised to see someone had the same power as a Martial King. Although a normal 2-Star Martial King would have 30 dragon strength, he was an Alchemist, so he never bothered about this since he fought with his fire and reputation. To think the one thing that he never cared suddenly struck at his life at the very last moment. Even with the piercing power, the spear would still be unable to pierce his shield. However, the sheer amount of momentum was still there. After deflecting the spear with his Flame Shield, he rolled in the air a few times. It was enough for Honda Sana to catch up with him. Hona Sana said, "You bastard. Am I just an air to you?" She swung her sword toward the old man. He tried using his ''Hell Flame Shield again to block her Sword. Sadly, it was futile. Her sword cut through his shield, hands, and head like a butter. Alex was surprised to see that. He thought, "She is really a Sword King." He could see the compressed domain on her sword. If he was not wrong, her Sword Domain was around five hundred meters, the same as Mithra''s Sword Domain. With that huge Sword Domain compressed to a very small size, it would give a huge amount of power. After killing Mount Hua Sect''s sect master, Honda Sana glared at Su Hua while pointing her sword. "Are you going to continue?" "No, Senior. I... no, We will go back to our sect immediately." Su Hua shuddered when she was pointing her sword toward him. He clasped his hands respectfully and bowed to her. "As I said from before, who wants to interfere in this match, shall be cut down with this blade even if you are a sect master." Honda Sanae declared once again. "Uoh!" The arena turned into an uproar. They were surprised to see an unreachable figure, the Sect Master of Mount Hua Sect, one of the four Martial Kings in the continent died just like that. On the other hand, Letizia took Alex''s spear with her, planning to give it back to him after the last battle. She looked at Alex before bowing to him. She even sent a thought transmission. "Thank you, Master." "You have worked hard. To think you managed to defeat the entire Mount Hua Sect¡­" "I am honored to hear that. I wouldn''t be the one I am today if I did not become your slave. My Pure Ice Element also won''t awaken if I did not become your slave. This slave is really grateful to Master." "..." Alex paused a bit. "Well, rest first. You almost used all of your energy." "Yes." Letizia bowed her head again. From others'' perspective, it looked like she was thanking him since if not because of him, she might already die. ... After cleaning up the arena as well as quelling the unrest because of the sect master of Mount Hua Sect. The last battle between Buddha Sect and Hazel Kingdom started. It was not that interesting anymore after watching Letizia''s battles, so the people only watched it casually. Hazel Kingdom had fought with all their honors, but it was still unreachable. They managed to defeat six monks from Buddha Sect before losing the match. Luckily, they did not see any blood in this match as Buddha Sect did not really like bloodshed. As for Hazel Kingdom, they had agreed with the Buddha Sect not to shed any blood in this battle. They did not want to weaken themself after knowing Letizia''s Pure Element. Even with the match going on, their focus was still in Letizia. They were wondering how they could make a relationship with Rainbow Flower Sect. After the match, they were in an uproar after knowing Letizia had a Pure Ice Element. Unfortunately, Letizia had left the arena with her mother to make sure no one tried to kill her. Because of that, they thought they should send one of their successors and marry him to her. But they remembered about her searching for a man, so it was not possible. After this battle, they would want to go to their respective homes and come up with a plan for this. They were sure Rainbow Flower Sect would dominate the continent with her Pure Ice Element. She was pretty young to begin with, so she should be able to reach a higher height from her own mother. And they were thinking how lucky Heavenly Sword Sect was because they became an ally of Rainbow Flower Sect because of the grace of Letizia. Of course, they did not know that Letizia herself was a slave of Alexander Sirius, the one she searched for. If they knew about it, they might think differently. They would start approaching Alex with beautiful ladies, thinking he would be seduced by them. With this, tomorrow''s battles were clear. "We will conclude today''s competition here. With the result of today''s battles, this will be the second round." Heavenly Sword Sect versus Zhou Kingdom Rainbow Flower Sect versus Buddha Sect. Both matches were super interesting. In the first match, they wanted to know how Heavenly Sword Sect challenged the Zhou Kingdom. As for the second match, it would be how Buddha Sect could challenge Rainbow Flower Sect¡­ No, it would be Letizia. 414 Invitation In Tuezuella Inn, Letizia was busy recovering her energy after the match. She had only recovered a quarter of her energy after a few hours. The sun was almost set, and today''s competition had finally ended. Suddenly Letizia sensed a presence in front of her room. She thought it was Alex as she immediately stood up with his spear on her hand. She walked to the door and bowed her head. "Master, To think I made you visit me, I truly apologize¡­" Letizia was planning to meet him and gave his spear back after she recovered, but it was such a blunder to make her Master visit her like this. However, because she looked down while bowing, she saw a long skirt. She thought it would be weird for Alex to wear a skirt, so she immediately realized it was not Alex. She looked up and saw the orange-haired beauty. "You¡­" She was dumbfounded because she never thought it was her. "Se-senior, Do you want something from this Junior?" "..." The ''senior'' in her mouth was naturally, Honda Sana. She also noticed that she had a Pure Ice Element before that accident happened. However, because they were still in the match, she decided not to say anything first, since most people had yet to realize it was a Pure Ice Element. Her miscalculation was the fact she forgot about Mount Hua Sect''s sect master. The other sect masters would not know unless they had Fire Element or Ice Element. So, Xiang Bai would not notice. Well, he already knew about it from Letizia''s mother, Cecilia, the sect master of Rainbow Flower Sect. As for Buddha Sect''s sect master, he did not realize a single thing. It was because of the Mount Hua Sect sect master that everyone knew about it. She thought she could quietly invite her after the tournament was over. But because of this, she decided to come over and invite her as soon as possible. After all, A Pure Element was so rare that everyone would drool over it. She was planning to invite her to her Honda Family if not to Blackwade Clan. They would then rise using her prestige. As for the Sacrificial Ice Element, they could discuss it with her later. If Letizia did not want, then she could kidnap her later and bring her to the Northern Continent. However, when she heard about her saying ''Master'' as in ''Master and Servant Relationship,'' she was too shocked. She never thought a Pure Ice Element would be a slave to someone, and she could feel Letizia had accepted that status from her tone. This was a very weird thing, as normally, a Pure Element user would not become a servant unless he/she was forced and became a slave unwillingly. "Master¡­" She looked at Letizia with a complicated expression. She also saw the spear on her hands, like she was planning to give the spear back. She remembered the spear was Alex as he threw it to protect Letizia a few hours ago. "A Pure Ice Element but already become a slave? You are not worthy of this position as you will go further than this. I will kill your Master, so you are free from your oath." Letizia froze when she heard that. She became a slave because she was forced, but it was because of her foolishness. After that setback, she had pondered many things and became more mature, even her Pure Ice was awakened because of that. If she was asked whether she would hate Alex or not even after the oath disappeared, she might say no. Alex never mistreated her or something. Instead, he trusted her like a comrade. This was especially so when Alex asked her to bring Rainbow Flower Sect disciples to fight together with him against 150,000 enemies. She knew Heavenly Sword Sect alone should be enough to handle them, and with that huge army, they would cover their loss easily in that war. Even with her in Rainbow Flower Sect, Heavenly Sword Sect would be in their golden age with the loot alone. After all, there were several Martial Kings as well as those many peoples. Although they would not bring all of their possession along with them, the items they brought alone would be enough. Alex asked her for this, so they could share the loot with her, and they would have a justified reason for this since they fought together in the war. Little did she know, Alex never cared about the loot in this war as he was more interested in the loot he would get from the Zhou Kingdom. Thinking about that, she had no reason to hate Alex, in fact, she was grateful to him. So, when she heard Honda Sana said that, she instinctively clenched the spear on her hand and pointed it toward her. But, Honda Sana suddenly continued, "Is what I wanted to say, but I see¡­ So, he is the one. Back when you said about ''Master'' AKA, your teacher in the arena, I felt it was weird as your tone was a bit complicated. So, he is your Master or, in other words, your owner." Letizia was dumbfounded. "You know, my Master?" "It is Alexander Sirius, right?" Honda Sana shrugged. Letizia opened her mouth wide. "I see, so you don''t know anything about him." She looked at Letizia''s shocked expression. "What do you mean?" "I will leave it at that. If you want to know, you should ask him. Albeit, I don''t know whether he will answer your question or not." Honda Sana paused a bit, "Still, I thought about inviting you as a guest of my Honda Family or even Blackwade Clan, to think you have become his servant. I feel I can''t invite you anymore despite you having a Pure Ice Element." "???" "Nothing. Just say that we are afraid of being wiped out to the last man by him. So, I won''t touch his ''belonging.'' That''s all." Honda Sana shrugged. Although the temptation of Pure Element was huge, it would be a shame if her family would be exterminated for that. After all, Alex would know about this and asked his Master to solve this. Or at least, she would need to kill Alex before he notified his master, albeit it was unlikely for that to happen. She remembered that Alex would kill many Martial Kings if she could keep the Peak Martial Kings busy for a while. So, she knew killing him would be an arduous task. So, instead of becoming his enemy, it would be better to become his friend, trying to benefit from that relationship. He was Song Yu''s Junior Brother as well. "Anyway, that''s it. If you are going to the Northern Continent, then make sure to visit Honda Family or Blackwade Clan, we will try to help you." She then disappeared. Letizia frowned. She had calculated it would be hard for them to realize it when she thought about using her Pure Ice Element. But she was lectured by her mother as a Martial King who had cultivated her soul, it would be easier to feel it, especially if she had Ice or Fire Element. So, she thought Honda Sana would do something to her. But, seeing her gone just because she knew Alex was her Master, it bewildered her. She was wondering what kind of person her master was. "Still, Northern Continent huh¡­" She looked down. At first, she did not want to leave the continent as she only wanted to lead the Rainbow Flower Sect to its golden age. However, she had become Alex''s servant, and what kind of servant would not help its master? "It seems, I will need to go, and maybe Rainbow Flower Sect will also have the chance to prosper under Master¡­" She clenched her fists as she strengthened her resolve. She had two goals for the time being. The first goal was to repay Alex by supporting her and might also get her freedom back later¡­ probably. She might want to know about Alex''s real identity first before she decided to do that. If Alex''s identity was beyond her imagination, then she felt it would not be bad to serve under him. At the very least, it would also fulfill her second goal, which was to lead Rainbow Flower Sect to glory. ¡­ Not long after, In Alex''s room, he was looking at the orange-haired beauty in front of him. The beauty did not look at him. Instead, she was looking at the black-haired beauty beside Alex. She was a bit surprised to see her as a 5-Star Martial King since she remembered the beauty was only a puny Martial Lord back then. In this land where the Spiritual Energy was not that dense, it was surprising to see a 5-Star Martial King, especially with such a fast cultivation speed. If Anna was in the Northern Continent, she might already reach peak Martial King. Even so, this was already enough to show Alex''s capability. Anna came out just to make sure Honda Sana did not do anything funny to Alex. She also glared back at her. "So, what do you want?" Alex asked. "I invited Letizia La Scola to my Honda Family or Blackwade Clan. But, after knowing she is your servant, I retracted my invitation." Honda Sana finally turned to him and explained. "Oh¡­" Alex was not astonished or something since it would be logical for her to do that. "Is that all?" "Yeah. I thought I needed to say it to you first rather than having you know about it later from her." She said. "I have expected something like that the moment she released her Pure Ice Element. So, no big deal." Alex added inwardly, ''I also know you are afraid of my master, so you won''t do anything about her.'' "Well, that''s it. I will try to report this to Lady Song Yu, but since she is your servant, I doubt Lady Song Yu will report it to the family." Alex paused a bit. "Anyway, if you are going to groom her, it is your choice. Just make sure you don''t force something against her will." Alex said that because he had lost interest in Letizia''s Pure Ice since Alicia had something worth the same as her Sacrificial Ice Element. As long as they did not force Letizia against her will, he thought it would be fine. "If I am not wrong, you are a wanted person in the Zhou Kingdom. Are you going to be alright tomorrow?" "Yeah, don''t mind that. I am going to pay them back tomorrow." "But all of them are 10-Star Martial Lords." Honda Sana warned him. "They are using Blood Pills." "Blood Pills?" "Remember about the influence that attacked Heavenly Sword Sect back then where they brought a few Martial Kings?" "Yes. They are the same influence from the people that will attack this competition, right?" She nodded. "The blood pill is coming from them, but I still don''t know about the details. After this, I will try to investigate the Nilis Continent and make a ruckus there." Alex said. Honda Sana was surprised. "You are not going to the Northern Continent?" "I will go there after making a ruckus in Nilis Continent. I can''t let them go away without paying anything after creating this mess." Alex shrugged. "I see. Anyway, I might not be able to help you tomorrow, be careful." Honda Sana said. "Yes." Alex nodded. She then disappeared. "Alex, what should-!" Anna finally spoke, but before she finished, she and Alex could see a notification. [Nano wants to talk to you.] Alex immediately took out Nano''s card and asked, "What happened?" "The Martial Kings have started to move. They will arrive in two days at the latest." "!!!" Alex''s and Anna''s expression darkened. "What should we do?" Anna asked. "Make sure there won''t be any reinforcement from there," Alex said to Nano. "Understood." "I will recall everyone back to the card. Anna will also go back to the card, I guess. I will recall Nicole later, so she will observe when they will arrive. We might need to have Rainbow Flower Sect to surrender if they arrived earlier than we expected." "Alright." Anna nodded and came inside the card again. Alex clenched his fists, "Come!" 415 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Part I "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have finally arrived at the second round of the Lord Stage Competition. I think I don''t need to explain again how interesting these two matches are, right? So, without further ado, let us welcome Heavenly Sword Sect and Zhou Kingdom!" "Ooh!" The audiences were hyped as they were curious how far Heavenly Sword Sect could fight Zhou Kingdom''s eight 10-Star Martial Lords. Zhou Kingdom did not care about this cheering as their first fighter had already arrived at the arena. "Xian Ming from Zhou Kingdom." In reality, they were scared of Heavenly Sword Sect. After all, they had three 10-Star Martial Lords. They knew that because of the blood pills, they might only be equal to 9-Star Martial Lords. Even so, the higher up forbade them from using the Berserk Pill, so they did not arise any suspicion from Honda Sana or any other people. Albeit, they did not really care about it as their mission in this competition was to kill as many people as possible. It would be perfect if they could recreate the same scene as yesterday. If Honda Sana killed Xiang Bai, it would be good for them. So, in this battle, they were planning to kill as many as possible, so Xiang Bai made a move and was killed by Honda Sana. For that, they would kill each of the participants from Heavenly Sword Sect brutally. Albeit, they might not be able to kill the three 10-Star Martial Lords in their side unless they exhausted them first before finishing them with the second person. That was why, for this match, they were not going to apply their last strategy. They would try to fight as much as possible before retiring. On the other hand, Heavenly Sword Sect gritted their teeth. They were wondering how they could defeat ten 10-Star Martial Lords. All of them were panicking, except Alex and the third elder. At first, Elder Dolf was panicking about this, but seeing Alex was so calm, the panic inside his heart suddenly disappeared. Alex was a Sword King, and he had seen that power back when he was only a puny 6-Star Martial Lord. However, Alex had become 8-Star Martial Lord, and his power should evolve further than that. So, he thought Alex should have a solution in this situation. Albeit, if their three 10-Star Martial Lords only needed to fight three 10-Star Martial Lords from Zhou Kingdom, then they were sure they could do that. In other words, today''s problem was to think about how they could defeat five 10-Star Martial Lords by their 5 people. When he thought Alex was a Sword King, he knew Alex should be able to kill at least two of them, despite his cultivation. Although he was not clear on the extent of Alex''s strength, he had read many records about a Sword King, and their power was absurd. It was like how Alex could dominate the Outer Disciple Competition two years ago by sending his Sword Wave flying. Alex said, "Then, I will go first." "Are you sure?" Charya was the first to react. The second one was the first elder as he was worried a disciple of a ''Great Person'' would die in here, and their Heavenly Sword Sect would be held accountable for this. "Don''t worry. It won''t be a problem, they are just fake goods." Alex said while walking toward the arena, ignoring the others'' concerns. He looked at the green-haired middle-aged man in the arena. "Oh, what do we have here? He must be the Legendary Alexander Sirius, the rising genius of Heavenly Sword Sect. I heard he is a master of Sword and Spear. According to the information, he is also a rank 4 Alchemist. In other words, his control of Fire is also at the level of Master. "If I am not wrong, he is a wanted person in the Zhou Kingdom, but the reason is a bit vague. Is he standing here to clear his name by slapping the Zhou Kingdom''s face, or will he finally be killed by the Zhou Kingdom? "Still, he is only an 8-Star Martial Lord and the lowest cultivation from Heavenly Sword Sect. We just witnessed a great performance from the younger generation yesterday, which was Letizia. Let us see how Alexander Sirius compared to the scion from Rainbow Flower Sect in just a moment." The announcer was strangely excited about this. "Hmph, he is just a paper tiger, unlike Goddess Letizia." "That''s right. He will lose this battle." "This is the Grand Tournament, not Heavenly Sword Sect." The people had little expectation of Alex because Letizia''s performance was too great yesterday. Evelyn was gnashing her teeth on the arena, as she could not stand these people from ridiculing him. If she could, she wanted to kill all these people. Letizia was also the same. In fact, without the sword Alex gave her, she might already lose in the fourth or fifth fight. It was because Alex, she could do something like that. And part of it was because she was his servant. Albeit, she was a bit apologetic to him since her action once again brought him mockeries. On the other hand, Alex ignored all of them. He looked at his opponent. "Alexander from Heavenly Sword Sect. Thank you for making me a wanted person in your kingdom." "Hmph. A small 8-Star Martial Lord is not worthy to talk to me. Who do you think you are? Pure Ice Element user?" "Nothing, I am just your average guy that wants to win the competition." Alex shrugged. "Hmph. Since you are here, I will kill you as a service for my kingdom." "Many people want to kill me, but none of them succeed. And you won''t be the first one." Alex just stated a fact. (AN: "Because the story will end." Alex added inwardly. Remember, this is Alex''s thought, it is certainly not mine.) Xian Ming was immediately angered by that statement. It was the same as telling him he was not qualified to kill him. "Oh, right. I am wondering why the Zhou Kingdom wants to kill me? Is it truly because I destroyed the Quinto Family? No, right? I am sure you, as a person from Zhou Kingdom, know that." Alex said with a smile. "Hmph, Quinto Family has a ''Relationship'' with our kingdom." He snorted. "Really? You mean Quinto Family is a spy from your kingdom? After all, it is located in Hazel Kingdom." Alex smirked. "You are just twisting my word, and we are not obligated to tell you about it." Xian Ming nodded. "I am just stating the fact." Alex closed his eyes a bit before he remembered something. "That''s right. Since your reason to kill me is vague, then how about I give you a reason?" Xian Ming only frowned. "I killed a person a few years ago, and if I was not wrong, he was a person from your Xian Family. If my memory serves right, then his name was Xian¡­ Hui, yeah, Xian Hui." "Third Young Master?!" Xian Ming was shocked. He had heard that Xian Hui was killed by someone, but no one found any clue about it even after a large scale investigation. "Still, I was wondering how he could move swiftly in that body." "You¡­ you bastard! You are the one who killed the third young master! I will kill you!" Xian Ming roared. Alex smiled as he had succeeded in riling up his mind. He looked at the other people from the Zhou Kingdom, and they all made a troubled expression. However, they did not really have an exaggerated reaction like Xian Ming. "Match Start!" After seeing this, the announcer decided to start the match. Xian Ming instantly took out his sword and charged at Alex. "Die!" Alex took out his Sword and Spear. He looked at Xian Ming''s sword that was coming to him. He thrust his spear toward his hand that was holding the sword. "!!!" As one would expect, after noticing Alex''s spear, Xian Ming immediately shifted his stance and received the spear with his sword. "Immovable Step!" He thrust his spear with twenty dragon strength. Normally, 10-Star Martial Lord would have around 11-15 Dragon Strength, depending on their encounter and pill. But for Xian Ming, who fed Blood Pills, he barely had 9 Dragon Strength. So, when he received Alex''s attack, he was surprised to see the difference in strength. "Khhh!" He used both of his hands to hold this attack, or at least, he wanted to get away from this powerful strike. *Stab* After noticing he could not escape from that thrust, he shifted his sword so Alex''s spear would change its direction and stabbed his left arm. After that, he immediately retreated a few meters from his position. "..." Alex wanted to finish him when he was still underestimating him, but it seemed it was not that easy. "Eh, what just happened?" "That Alexander Sirius just easily stabbed Xian Ming''s left arm?" "How is that possible? Isn''t Xian Ming a 10-Star Martial Lord while Alexander Sirius is only an 8-Star Martial Lord." The people were confused. They never expected Xian Ming would lose his left hand in the first exchange. Only Evelyn could make a smug smile. "Heh, you are all fools. No one knows the full power of big brother Alex, including me¡­" She was indeed true as the moment Alex showed his true power. There would not be anyone to tell the tale. In the arena, Alex looked at Xian Ming without any expression. "I am here. You can''t kill me if you are there, you know." Xian Ming clenched his sword. He tried to check his left hand, and it seemed he could not use it anymore in this match. He thought, ''What was that power? In that instant, I felt a powerful strength that I can''t even comprehend. It was like his power was twice mine. If we had this big difference in strength, I couldn''t kill him in this battle¡­ I will try to probe him a little for now." He waved his sword, and two blue lights appeared from his sword. The blue lights came toward Alex like a sword wave. Alex was not planning to use all of his energy in the first battle, so he only activated his Spirit Eyes. He avoided his attacks easily as he could see the sword''s path. He did not stop there. As soon as he avoided it, he immediately went around the arena and arrived behind Xian Ming. Xian Ming immediately turned his body over and saw Alex thrusting his spear. He ducked a bit to avoid Alex''s spear. But Alex never had mercy. Seeing his attack missed, he immediately kicked Xian Ming with his Immovable Step. With his position, he could not dodge this. Xian Ming was blown away to the wall. Alex raised his spear this time and threw it toward Xian Ming. "Immovable Step." "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." The spear flew like a bullet and instantly arrived at Xian Ming. Xian Ming immediately raised his sword to the front, trying to block the sword. "Single Earth Slash!" This was Alex''s plan. He decided to finish him with a combo if he could not kill Xian Ming when he underestimated him. Of course, he mostly used his strength and Immovable Step to preserve his Spiritual Energy. "Haaa!" Xian Ming was trying his best to block this spear, but this spear was far too powerful. After all, this was the same technique that Alex used to push back the Mount Hua Sect sect master. It was far too powerful for a fake 10-Star Martial Lord to block. "Bam!" Xian Ming failed to stop the spear and let it pierced his heart. Alex appeared in front of Xian Ming. "10-Star Martial Lord? Mediocre!" As he said that, Alex swung his sword and made Xian Ming''s head flying. He then came back to the arena, "Next!" "Hiss-!" 416 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Part II "Hiss-!" The people sucked a cold breath. They just witnessed the death of a 10-Star Martial Lord. And he was killed easily by an 8-Star Martial Lord to boot. Alex never saw him as an opponent. After all, if he truly released his full power, he might even defeat a Martial King, let alone a fake Martial Lord. And it was not considering his Fire Element and Array. He might even best Xiang Bai if he used all of his repertoires, albeit he had yet to know the usage of Soul, which might be useful in a battle¡­ probably. Even so, from others'' perspectives, Alex killing Xian Ming easily blew their mind. The arena turned into an uproar once more. It was not like Letizia, a 9-Star Martial Lord, defeating Mahiir, an ''elite'' 10-Star Martial Lord. It was far more ridiculous than that. Little did they know, this fight was only a fight between a ''Monster'' 8-Star and a ''fake'' 10-Star. "What was that?" "Did my eyes play me? I just witnessed Xian Ming was killed by Alexander Sirius in an instant." "Is he truly an 8-Star Martial Lord?" It was a major occurrence. Normally, Alex would die under the onslaught of Xian Ming, but this event turned into something ridiculous. In the Heavenly Sword Camp, The third elder was a bit confused about this. Alex was powerful indeed, but the fact that his opponent went down easily, it made him baffled. "This¡­ Is this because of Blood Pills?" "I assume, yes." Charya nodded. "Alex said because of blood pills, those people are like 9-Star Martial Lords or something. And compared to that ''monster'', they stand no chance." Charya even specifically addressed Alex as a monster. She knew she could not win against Alex anymore. In fact, she might go down after a few rounds. "That means, we can win this easily?" "I don''t know." Charya shook her head. "You don''t know?" Dolf looked at her with a complicated expression. "What do you mean?" "Alex said there is still a possibility of them using the Berserk Pill. I am sure you already know the effect of that pill, right?" Charya looked at the other elders. This was the reason why he panicked when only Elder Dolf and Alex did not panic at the start. "This¡­ Although we have the information about it, we have not seen it yet, so we could not imagine it." "I will tell you Putri''s experience since this is not in her report. She has seen someone using that pill, and to put it simply, a 9-Star Martial Lord almost killed the only 10-Star from the Southern Kingdom if he was not helped by someone back then." "Bima¡­ You mean that Bima?" The first elder asked. "Yeah." Charya nodded. "If I am not wrong, Bima''s strength is above me back then, albeit it is only a slight difference. However, to think he might die under a 9-Star Martial Lord''s hand if he was not helped¡­ This¡­" Elder Dolf said as his expression darkened. "Yeah, you are right. And his opponents are 10-Star Martial Lords. If the berserk pill can help a fake 9-Star Martial Lord kill Bima, what kind of thing would a fake 10-Star Martial Lord be?" They sweatdropped. They imagined a 10-Star Martial Lord had a strength of 1-Star Martial King, if not fake Martial King for a few minutes. And Alex would be under their onslaught. "However, there will be a high chance they would not use it. Still, we don''t know how the matches will progress, and he must be thinking about that too.." Charya said while looking at Alex. On the arena, Alex wanted to end the match as soon as possible, so they could not think about using the Blood Pill against him. He just realized they could just lie even if they chose to do that. They could say, ''This is a new Rage Pill that our kingdom developed.'' And since most Mount Hua Sect''s people in this tournament were killed, including their sect master and the ones that were still alive already went back to the sect. No one would try to clarify it as Mount Hua Sect would be the most powerful and trusted one in this aspect. Alex said, "Next!" On the Zhou Kingdom''s side, they were gnashing their teeth, looking at Alex''s arrogance. "What shall we do? What is his power?" "I don''t know, but it seems his strength is quite powerful as Xian Ming could not do anything." "Then, we can''t fight him in close combat." "That''s right. As long as we spam our Martial Art, we could force him to use it too. That way, we can''t stop him." "Alright, we will go with this plan until we get another plan. So, who will go next?" "I will go." The volunteer was a middle-aged man with white hair. He held a giant ax with his muscular body. He then walked to the arena as he glanced at Alex. "You are strong, aren''t you? To think an 8-Star Martial Lord could kill one of us with a cheap trick. But, I won''t underestimate you like Xian Ming, so your cheap trick won''t work on me." Alex looked at him with a weird expression. He did not use cheap tricks at all. The middle-aged man released his powerful Axe Domain. It was a fifty meter Axe Intent. Compared to the usual 10-Star Martial Lord, his Domain Was a bit small. Alex also released his Sword Domain and Spear Domain. However, Alex decided to hold back and used 50-meter domains. He did this because he wanted to make them think their power difference was not big, so there was no need to use their Berserk Pill. If Alex cornered them too much, he was afraid they would use the Berserk Pill. Of course, Alex was not scared of the Berserk Pill. He just wanted to win this fight without having any troublesome situation. Because of this, Alex did not say anything to him and immediately looked at the announcer. "Match Start!" "Hmph!" The middle-aged man snorted as he immediately charged toward Alex. "If it is about strength, then I have my pride in my strength." He swung his ax down as soon as he arrived in front of Alex. This time, Alex did not use his Immovable Step and took the blow head-on. A crater appeared right below his feet because of this attack alone. "Bam!" When the people saw this, they started believing that Alex was using a cheap trick in his fight against Xian Ming. "Look at that! Back in his fight with Xian Ming, Xian Ming could not do a single thing. But in this fight, he became in Xian Ming''s position. Doesn''t this mean he is using something?" "What a bastard!" "Heavenly Sword Sect is a bunch of cheaters." "Get the hell out of here." The people started booing him, and Evelyn''s expression turned to sour again. She could not understand the reason why Alex did this since he had yet to teach her about emotion manipulation. However, she could only believe in him as she knew Alex''s strength was more than that. Alex retreated a few steps back to show he was surprised by his power. He chased him again, and they started a brawl. It looked like Alex was using all of his power just to defend the middle-aged man attacks. They were fighting like that for a few minutes, and after Alex thought it was enough, he summoned twenty swords from his space ring. "!!!" Seeing that, the middle-aged man immediately retreated. Alex made the swords chase him. "Ground Breaking." He struck the ground with his giant ax and summoned a big wall in front of him. It was to let the sword stick there. Sadly, Alex could control the swords easily. He made the sword fly around the wall and plunged him from behind. "Rhino Axes!" The middle-aged man swung his ax and made a powerful shockwave that could blow the swords away. Unfortunately, Alex only used those swords for a distraction. "Seven Stars Cut!" Alex waved his sword as an overbearing Sword Wave appeared again in the arena. This threw the middle-aged man out of guard. He turned his body over, planning to strike the Sword Wave. It was at this moment, he realized he was too late as Alex''s Sword Wave already cut through the giant wall and split him into two. It was really shocking to see another 10-Star Martial Lord die under Alex''s hand again. Still, this match was more believable than the first one. Even so, the people from the Zhou Kingdom were baffled. "His strength should be superior to Alexander Sirius. So, there is still a chance for us about that. Maybe that Alexander Sirius is really playing a trick earlier." "Yeah, you are right." "Then, we should balance our Close Combat and Ranged Combat as that Alexander Sirius might still have that Seven Stars Cut." "And after dealing with us for a long time, he might know about our Blood Pills and the fact that we are not as strong as 10-Star Martial Lord." "How about we use our Berserk Pill, already? I heard the top brass want to kill this guy so much." "But our plan might get found out." "Idiot, we will also be found out if we all lose against him without fighting back as the people would be suspicious of our strength." "That''s right. We can just bluff our way to it, saying like we develop a new Rage Pill. Since no one from Mount Hua Sect left in this place, we should be able to convince them somehow." "..." They paused a bit before one of them said, "I think we need to check his strength first before deciding this." "Yeah, maybe two more people. Well, how about it, leader?" They looked at an old man with silver hair. He was the leader of this team, as well as the one who was most trusted by the top brass. "The higher-ups want to kill him badly to the point they don''t care about the loss. In fact, I am a bit doubtful about his Fire Element." "What do you mean?" "One of the Martial Kings once said he escaped from him by using a Space Gate or something. In other words, his element should be Space Element. He might get that rank 4 Alchemist badge from somewhere and used it to hide his identity. Just think about it, after so long, there was no sight of him using a Fire Element." The leader said. "!!!" They were shocked by his statement. Alex had used his Fire on multiple occasions, such as his battle against the third elder or the fight against the Thiveapia Kingdom Crown Prince''s army. However, no one would tell the tale about it. Of course, Elder Dolf''s case was a bit different. "Then, he is hiding his element by using his identity as an Alchemist?" "Yeah. That must be the reason why the higher-ups want to kill him no matter what. After all, the rarity of Space Element is the same as Pure Element after the great purge a few thousand years ago." The leader nodded. "So, no matter what, we need to kill him in this tournament since he might be able to escape from the array beneath this arena. "As for the matter of us losing our face here, it would be no different since all the people in this place will be killed when the army starts moving." "Understood, we will try to lower his guard first and make him think we won''t use the Blood Pill." One of the guys finally said. He looked at one of his friends in this team. They were planning to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the match. Well, the result would not be that different though. After all, the people who consumed Berserk Pill later would be crippled or died. So, it was the same as dying first or dying later. 417 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Part III "Seven Stars Cut." The Sword Wave finally split a middle-aged man into two. Just like what they had planned, Zhou Kingdom had sent two of their fighters to gauge Alex''s ability. Alex continued fighting while restricting himself as he never knew would happen later if he pushed them into the corner. The people could not say anything this whole time as they were too shocked Alex, an 8-Star Martial Lord, could defeat four 10-Star Martial Lords. It was far different from Letizia since she fought with 7-Star or 8-Star Martial Lord. In fact, Letizia could only beat one 10-Star, which was Mahiir. They thought if Alex could kill these many 10-Star Martial Lords, would not that mean only a Martial King could defeat him? They gasped. Heavenly Sword Sect finally had two Martial Kings class. This way, they could even dominate the continent. Heavenly Sword Sect''s rising genius, Alexander Sirius. Rainbow Flower Sect''s ice queen, Letizia La Scola. These two people were etched in their memory until suddenly one of them murmured. "The one that the Ice Queen searched for¡­ don''t tell me it was him?" "!!!" The people were shocked when they heard that. "There''s no way it is possible." "But both of them are peerless genius." "Yeah. That''s right, there is no way Heaven would only give a peerless genius. They would give a pair for him/her." "So, they are a couple matched by Heaven?" "This is the only explanation." The arena once again turned into an uproar as they were shocked by their own imagination. Meanwhile, Evelyn was sulking because she was not present when Letizia became Alex''s servant. "Matched by Heaven? Hmph, It is impossible. Big Brother Alex has big sister Anna, so she is not beautiful enough. As for strength, big sister Anna is already a Martial King. They are really not a match. Besides, I..." Even with the ruckus in the audience''s seat, Alex appeared to be the same. It was like he never paid attention to that matter. Letizia made a complicated expression as she sent a thought transmission to him, "Master, I apologize. Because of their wild imagination, your name¡­ Ugh, I will clear your name after this by utilizing Rainbow Flower Sect''s influence." "It''s fine. They can talk about anything they want as it is only their imagination. The rumor will disappear pretty soon after I go to another continent." Alex seemed to be nonchalant about this. And somehow, by seeing Alex like this, her heart filled with complicated emotions. Alex then looked at the Zhou Kingdom. "Come!" Another middle-aged man came to the arena. He looked at Alex, "Hmph, a match by Heaven? Let see if you can live after this tournament." The middle-aged man suddenly took out a red pill and said, "This is a Heaven Dying Pill that surpasses the Rage Pill. This is the new Creation of our Kingdom that can let us, 10-Star Martial King, have a power equal to..." He swallowed the Berserk Pill. His aura suddenly spiked as his blue eyes became red. There was this sinister energy that made other people scared. He stated, "a Martial King!" "!!!" Alex frowned as he sighed. "This is really coming. Well, it is normal since if I can think about it, then they should be able to come up with an alibi as well¡­" Alex looked around and saw the surprised expression on the people''s faces. The previous excitement was suddenly replaced by the astonishment of the pill effect. They really could feel the energy inside his body, and it was something that could not be compared to the 10-Star Martial Kings that fought in the arena previously. "That¡­ that is really a Martial King?" "A 10-Star Martial Lord becomes a Martial King?" The people could not hide their shock as they also wanted a pill like that. They even thought about whether they should go to Zhou Kingdom and buy that Berserk Pill from them. Alex said, "A fake Martial King! What is the use of it if you will die after you take this pill." "You¡­ you are framing us. Even if you are a rank 4 ''Alchemist,'' you can''t say something you don''t know. You are still too young and spout such nonsense." Alex frowned. He just wanted to say it was made by people''s blood, but it might get the opposite effect as the people would believe them more than him. After all, the rise of his fame only started one year ago where the Southern Kingdom put a bounty on his head. People would believe an old man who seemed to have ''experience'' rather than a youth like him. It seemed he could only kill him. He wanted to buy a bit more time, but it would be useless. "Match Start!" "Then, let me see the power of a faker." Alex finally released both of his domains to the fullest. All people immediately dropped their jaws the moment they saw his domain. Even Evelyn, Heavenly Sword Sect''s people, Rainbow Flower Sect''s, or even Zhou Kingdom, all of them were shocked. Because what they saw was¡­ "100 meters domain?!" "It is impossible." "According to rumor, even the sect master from Heavenly Sword Sect only has an 80 meters domain, and he is a goddamn Martial King. Are you saying his power is stronger than a Martial King?" "You forget the most important thing! Just look at his domains. Both of his sword and spear domains are 100 meters. Many people try to use two weapons at the same time, but no one has yet to succeed because of training two different things at once is very difficult." "He is also a rank 4 Alchemist. It means he is training three things at once!" "Peerless¡­ no, he is a freak!" Honda Sana did not say anything as she continued to observe Alex. She murmured, "He¡­ Is he at that level yet?" The people continued discussing Alex''s domains. And even the middle-aged man who wanted to charge at him was too shocked as he forgot the match had already started. Alex did not care about that. Since the match had started, Alex immediately leaped forward. Sensing Alex''s presence, the middle-aged man instinctively swung his sword. "Immovable Step." He also swung his sword to block this before thrusting his spear. "Bam-!" "!!!" Alex was surprised as this time, he could not push back this middle-aged man. If he did not gauge it wrong, his opponent had around 18 dragon strength. He thought, ''Is this the effect of Berserk Pill?'' Even though he had seen many occasions when Zhou Kingdom people used Berserk Pill, he had yet to experience fighting one himself. Alex was a bit surprised by this surge of power. He finally thrust his spear toward his face. The middle-aged man was also surprised by Alex''s power. Even after having this power, it seemed Alex''s strength was still stronger than him. "Swift Blade! He immediately swung his sword at lightning speed and knocked the two weapons away from him. This forced Alex to retreat. Alex then took out his twenty swords once again and made them surround his opponent. Although his swords'' strength was not that much, it was still useful as long as he manipulated it enough. "!!!" The middle-aged man started repelling the sword one by one. Some of them were planted on the ground, some of them flying in the sky. This was like what Charya did when she fought Alex. However, the swords that were knocked to the sky, bound to go down, and as soon as it entered Alex''s range, he instantly controlled it again. As for the swords that were planted on the ground, Alex controlled one single sword to blast the sword out of the ground. This way, Alex could continue fighting with his twenty swords. And because they were fighting in the arena, even if he tried to plant them on the wall, it was still in Alex''s range. "Kh!" The middle-aged man was struggling to fight with this unusual technique. Until finally, he stabbed the ground with his sword. "Blast Sword!" A big explosion occurred with the sword as the center and knocked all of those swords away. Looking at this, Alex made a distance and sent his Sword Wave. "Seven Stars Cut!" It was a plain Sword Wave that was covered with Sword Intent. "Military Sword, One Sword Breaks the Earth." He struck the Sword Wave. Surprisingly, the Seven Stars Cut that no one was able to destroy from the start, finally split into two by Zhou Kingdom. Alex took a deep breath. "3 more minutes¡­" When he saw his enemy used a Berserk Pill, he wanted to buy time long enough until the effect wore off. At that time, he could easily kill his opponent. Seeing this, the middle-aged man stepped forward, not letting him do so. There was no way he could die without taking Alex with him. "Ha!" He switched his stance to offensive and attacked him. He did not care about all the twenty swords that soon would be controlled again by Alex. He struck Alex with his sword. Alex frowned as he was forced to use his Immovable Step every time if he did not want to lose in strength. He knew his opponent was trying to go down with him, and if he got a disadvantage in strength, it would be bad for him. "Sword Dance." Alex immediately rained him down with the swords again. His opponent knocked most of them away while letting a few of them hit him, so he had an opportunity to strike Alex. "Seven Stars-!" "Blast Sword!" Before Alex could do anything, his opponent exploded once again. "This guy¡­" Alex retreated a few meters back as he realized his opponent was insane. This ''Blast Sword'' was a double-edged sword. The strength might be powerful, but Alex could see that his arm would be useless if he used that Blast Sword once again. And since his swords were planted on the wall or ground again, he was forced to do some brawl with him. *Clang* *Clang* "Silver Sovereign." "Military Sword, One Sword Breaks the Earth." "Bam!" They were going pretty hard in this battle. Sadly, they could see that even with the power coming from Berserk Pill, the middle-aged man had yet to manage to pressure Alex. Alex was on the defensive this whole time as he was planning to buy time. He murmured, "Thirty seconds left¡­" The middle-aged man became more desperate as he was also aware of the time limit. Alex enjoyed this situation since ''the more desperate his opponent is, the more comfortable he is.'' And with his twenty swords, he could even injure him as many as possible and made the situation even easier for him. His opponent could not use his ''Blast Sword'' again since it would be over for him if he lost his dominant hand in this situation. Alex smiled. "Damn. Damn. Damn it!" The middle-aged man was frustrated as he could not land a blow on Alex while he was taking all the damage from him. He gritted his teeth, since there were a few seconds left, he decided to risk it all. He gritted his teeth as he stabbed the ground once again. "Blast Sword!" "Boom!" The dust immediately covered them, preventing other people from seeing what happened inside. "Gah!" The pain of breaking his dominant hand filled his brain. Even after spatting a mouthful of blood, he still endured it as he grabbed the sword with his other hand and swung it toward Alex. "Die, you bastard!" "!!!" Alex had been waiting for this. Without his dominant hand, the strength reduced a bit. Alex chose to take advantage of that and knocked his opponent''s sword away. "Immovable Step!" *Clang!* "Kh!" The middle-aged man filled with regret as he watched his sword flying. Alex then turned his body and cut his head. No one was able to see what happened inside the smoke, and the moment it was cleared, they could see Alex walked normally as he had separated his opponent''s head from its body. "He-Heavenly Sword Sect Win!" 418 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Part IV Alex took a deep breath. He did not realize it in battle before, but surprisingly, he managed to make him use 30 percent of his energy. He already fought four people before and only used twenty percent of his energy in total. And to think fighting in equal terms would be this exhausting. If he revealed his Sword King identity and power, he might only need to use around ten percent or even one hit since his opponent did not know about it yet. However, doing so would put him at a great disadvantage as his enemies might have some time to think of a counter for that. So, revealing his Sword King power should only happen in the seventh or last fight as his opponent would not have time to think up a plan. But the next match was only his sixth match, so he would need to come up with another plan for this. He looked at the next person from the Zhou Kingdom. The next person was an old man with a long white beard. His eyes were profound and full of wisdom. "It seems he failed to kill you, this is why we can''t trust the younger generation that much for the glory of Zhou Kingdom. They don''t possess enough weight." The old man said. "This, old man, Wumba, will kill you with this hand." "You talk too much. Just use that idiotic pill and be done with it." Alex snorted. "You¡­ Since you want to die that much, then I will fulfill your wish." Wumba roared as he took out his glaive. Alex took a deep breath before he released both domains again. Wumba also released his glaive domain, but as expected, it only reached the level of 50 meters domain. When three domains clashed, his glaive domain was suppressed by Alex''s tyrannical domains. It was like two adults fighting a single kid. Even after getting his domain suppressed, there was no change in Wumba''s expression. He just simply laughed, "Domain¡­ they said the domain could show how big one''s progress is in a weapon path, but I feel this is lacking. After all, Domain does not have a big feature like Intent. You might be able to weaken an enemy''s attack with a domain or track someone''s movement in your Sword Domain. "But people also said, in your domain, you are the king. However, all of that, I find them to be lacking. A domain is useless as it is not more important than the Intent itself. Don''t you find it right, Rising Genius? "Just look at your domains, both of them are made from your intents and nothing else. This is why I separate myself from Domain and focus on my Intent. And after accumulating many years, I came up with an answer, and this is the answer¡­" Wumba said as he raised glaive to the top. Soon enough, a spark of Glaive intent suddenly covered his glaive. The spark was not something like a normal person used, it was a spark of concentrated Glaive Intent. The people could feel the sharpness on the glaive. They felt their skin was pierced by that boundless Glaive Intent. Many people were dumbfounded with this. Wumba continued, "With this strength, I shall reach Glaive King Realm." "What? Glaive King Realm, he said?" "He has reached that stage?" "Zhou Kingdom is really worthy of its reputation." Many people kept spouting praises after praises. Only three people realized he was wrong. First would be Honda Sana, who was a Sword King. She looked at him like looking at a dog that did not know a diamond in front of him. The second person was Elder Dolf. Like many others, he had searched the record about the Weapon King realm. However, others might be convinced about this, but it was useless for him. After all, he already saw a bonafide Sword King with his own eyes, and he was also looking at the current Sword King of Heavenly Sword Sect, standing in the arena. Alex, as the third person who knew about it, just looked at him with pity. He said, "You are truly foolish." He did not know why but his Sword Domain and Spear Domain was telling him to show what it meant to be a real Sword King and Spear King. The fierceness of Sword Intent and Spear Intent filled his eyes. It might be pride, or it might be something else. But he felt his Sword Intent, and Spear Intent seemed to be alive. It was even trying to fuse together if Alex did not show him. "System, what is this? Why are my Intents raging like this?" [Because of the fusion of both intents, your intents finally gain a bit of intelligence. Albeit, it is only as an instinct, and there is no way to train them. Unless you completely fuse them, you will get a rebound like this in the future.] "..." Alex was surprised. "Why did you never tell me this?" [No opportunity to explain it to you. Besides, it will be a bit too early for you to fuse them. If possible, I recommend you do it when you reach Martial King and impart your soul in both intents. This way, it will eliminate the intents'' intelligence.] [Ah, don''t think it is like your cheat power or something, alright? Not everything that has consciousness is good, like the stories inside your head. Most of them are something you need to eliminate.] [A good example of this is from your Home. If Artificial Intelligence is given enough power to let them think and evolve by themselves, they might try to hurt humans or something like that. So, if you let these two consciousnesses live, it might take control of you at some point.] In fact, the system only told him the problem that his past life faced. It was such a mess when the previous Alex tried to birth these two consciousnesses. It became more and more like a Heart Demon instead of his power. So, she suggested this reason. In his past life, she remembered that Alex sometimes got taken over by the consciousness because he was too late to eliminate them. When he fought for a long time, he sometimes forgot everything and just fought everyone in his way, no matter if they were friends or foes. She did not want to see something like that again, so she wanted Alex to eliminate that curse as soon as possible because it pained her heart so much. Not only her but Anna and Anya as well as his friends or the people he protected. They could not bear to see him that way. [Mission: Fuse Two Intents and Eliminate the Consciousnesses. Reward: Premium Ticket x5 Description: Don''t let power control you. Fight!] It might be her selfishness to put a mission like this and even use a worthy reward for that. But if Alicia and Firia also knew about this, they would suggest this too, even if that meant Alex would lose a part of his power. After all, that berserk power was like Leoz''s True Spirit Body. The longer he fought, the more powerful he got. However, this came with a certain risk as he could not recognize his friends and foes. And she felt the rational Alex would be better than a demon like Alex. "I see. So, I just need to fuse my intents, right?" [Yes.] "Still, now that I am forced to reveal my Sword King realm, my plan becomes a bit messed up." [You can just kill this person and suppress the second person before he could think up with a solution. As for the third person¡­ just spam your Fire on him and roast him¡­ literally. Remember, you are not fighting alone. There are still Sherry and Kyle. Just make sure you kill them as soon as possible to avoid any suspicion and then leave the arena.] "... This is not a game where you can spam magic¡­ Well, fighting with Sherry and Kyle is cheating, but not that I care about it. This battle is either you live or you die. And as long as it is not found out, then no one knows you are cheating. Besides, there is no rule to begin with." Alex pondered for a while. He thought her plan was good enough for the time being and decided to proceed with it. Suddenly, Wumba interrupted his conversation with his system. "Hahaha¡­ look at you. You are calling me foolish, but you are tongue-tied this whole time. You are pathetic." Wumba laughed. He was just a bit occupied with his system. Since the match did not start after the announcer looked at his complicated expression, Alex decided to talk about it for a bit. "So, look at you, Glaive King? I don''t think so." Alex sighed as he shrunk both of his domains. In others'' perspective, it looked like Alex recalled his domain because he could not fight the reasoning of Wumba. However, only one person could see what really happened. It was Honda Sana. The moment she saw this, she stood up in surprise. "He¡­ he is really¡­" Her legs suddenly felt weak as she fell to her seat. She murmured, "As expected of Lady Song Yu. Her eyes were as good as ever. Even though she was hiding in the Wilow Continent, she slowly made an acquaintance, and it was a monster like him. He was still in his early twenties, and he already became a Sword King and Spear King, no one in Northern Continent managed to do so¡­" She saw Alex compressing his domains rather than recalling his domain. The compressed domains flowed toward his sword and spear. With both domains stood side by side, even a rank 4 weapon could not stop it if it was clashing head-on. "Hmph, it seems you have given up. I will let you kill yourself to save your honor." Wumba snorted. "Look, this is why you are so foolish." Alex shook his head as he looked at the announcer, telling him to start. Wumba did not use his Berserk Pill as he was confident in his Glaive King Realm. So, he only nodded at the announcer. "Match Start!" Alex and Wumba jumped forward at the same time. Wumba swung his glaive while Alex swung his sword. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Glaive Terror." ¡­ In the Heavenly Sword Sect''s team, Charya was roaring, "We should stop him!" The others also agreed with her as Alex still had a great future. He could not go down in this tournament. "To think you are fussing about this matter, Elder Charya. You are the closest to him, and you don''t believe in him?" "I believe in him, but this is a different matter as his opponent is a Glaive King," Charya shouted while clenching her fists. "So, you don''t know about it, huh¡­" Dolf Kolk sighed. "What do you mean?" "You don''t need to worry about him as that Wumba or something is just a faker. There is no way a dog could measure the worth of a diamond." Dolf said. "A faker?" The others were baffled. And Charya suddenly figured out what he meant, "Don''t tell me¡­" "Yeah¡­" Dolf nodded. "Alexander Sirius is¡­" ¡­ In the arena, There was a big difference between the Concentrated Intent and Compressed Domain. If concentrating an intent to a single point was like a ''10+10=20 equation'', then the compression domain was like a ''10x10=100 equation.'' After all, the domain itself was already full of intent. When both weapons collided, it was like a normal clash, albeit the Glaive Intent suddenly disappeared the moment it clashed with Alex''s Sword. "Wha-!" The sharpness of Alex''s Sword, as well as Alex''s strength, suddenly cut through both the glaive as well as Wumba''s head. Thankfully, he was too prideful of his strength and did not take the Berserk Pill, so Alex did not have that much resistance from his side. In just one clash, the victor had been decided, and Wumba even could not finish his shock before his head flying. Alex said, "Glaive King? Mediocre." 419 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Part V "Glaive King? Mediocre!" The arena suddenly filled with silence. There was no one who could speak as all of them dropped their jaw to the ground. It was too shocking that everyone could not even react. Someone who they believed was a Glaive King died with just one slash. Even the announcer did not have any words to say. "I¡­ What just I witnessed?" After some time, the announcer finally said while stuttering. "A Glaive King suddenly died with just one slash¡­ what is this madness!!!" Even with those words, the people had yet to recover from their shock. Alex pointed his sword at the last two people from Zhou Kingdom. "What a disappointment. Next!" His overbearing tone filled the ears of everyone in the arena. "Hiss!" Everyone started regaining their calm after they heard Alex''s voice. Even so, that strong tone of him made them shiver. Looking at the dead ''Glaive King'' in the ground, they felt Alex''s tone was justified. After all, he killed that ''Glaive King'' in a single slash. "What just happened?" "Did a Glaive King just die in one slash?" "Didn''t he give up the match?" "But¡­" Confusion filled the arena. Meanwhile, the third elder made a smug face as he was the only one here who understood about this. "He is really a Sword King, and I am the witness for the birth of a Sword King. He can''t be compared to that fake over there." He laughed hard. "What? That bastard, he is not telling me¡­" Charya pouted. "Did he want to surprise us this match? Nah¡­ he was just a careful person." "Haha¡­ good good good. Our Sect finally has a Sword King again after thousands of years." The first elder roared. He knew Alex would not be in the Heavenly Sword Sect for so long. Still, Alex had an unofficial disciple under his tutelage, Evelyn. Since Alex had imparted a certain level of his knowledge, Evelyn should become another Sword King in the future. At that time, their Heavenly Sword Sect would enter a golden age. He could not hold the smile from appearing on his face. Even though his smile was ugly, his happiness was still transmitted to the others¡­ albeit with a chill down to their spine. "Haha¡­ since Alex is a Sword King, then this competition is as good as ours." Charya laughed. "That''s right. Long Live Heavenly Sword Sect." "Long Live Heavenly Sword Sect. If only Elder Conn were here, he would say, "You must thank me since I was the one who brought him here. I even fought Su Hua for it. If Alex joined the Mount Hua Sect or was kidnapped there by Su Hua, the one who gets the last laugh would be him." Sadly, he was not here to flaunt his achievement, and everyone seemed to forget about it too. "Well, seeing the Rainbow Flower Sect, they would surely defeat Buddha Sect. In other words, our next opponent would be them. I am wondering how Alex will defeat that Pure Ice Element princess¡­" Charya said. She was wondering if Letizia could even fight him after becoming his slave. "That''s right. We will need a strategy for that. Although our relationship is good, they must want to win too, so this will be a fair competition." "Such a surprising competition. To think Alexander Sirius managed to one-hit kill the Glaive King from Zhou Kingdom¡­ will he be able to recreate what the Ice Queen, Letizia, did yesterday? No, I can''t say replicate as Zhou Kingdom has eight 10-Star Martial Lords in this competition. Will he be able to surpass her?" When the people heard that, the excitement filled their hearts. They wanted to see Alex conquering the Zhou Kingdom by himself. This would be an epic tale where it could be passed down from generation to generation. One person started cheering for Alex as he wanted to see the next match as soon as possible. Hearing his voice, the people next to him also started cheering too, and before long, the entire arena reverberated with the people''s voice. The people outside the arena were confused about why it was so loud inside the arena and started curious about it. They heard, "Next!" "Next!" After regaining their calm, the spectators were urging them to send another fighter. Only two old men left in the Zhou Kingdom, and neither of them knew what to do. "What is his ability? Is he really a Sword King?" "I don''t know, but the fact he can cleave both rank 4 Glaive and Wumba, it must have a sharpness beyond our imagination. We won''t face his sword head-on and use a soft approach to it. This way, we could prevent our weapon from being cut. We will use that time to think up a countermeasure." "..." He could not agree to make himself a Sacrifice but thinking about the fact that the old man in front of him would also become a sacrifice with that Berserk pill, the feeling of unwillingness diminished a bit. He then started walking to the arena. He glared at Alex, "I don''t believe you are a Sword King." Alex did not admit it or deny it. He just shrugged his shoulder, telling him he did not care with prestige like that. In fact, he didn''t really care about reputation in general. It was like something that would chain him down. He thought if he had a big family somewhere and his kid messed with someone in the future. And to save his face, he would need to kill that someone even though his kid was in the wrong, he felt it was a bit wrong. At the very least, he would just apologize without caring about his face and give some compensation. Of course, if they took his kindness as granted, he would then be forced to move. Or maybe, he could think like this because he was bound to his System, and making good karma influenced his thinking a bit. If he did not have a system like this, he might not have this kind of thought. No, maybe if he did not meet his system from the start where he transported, he might be someone who would kill people even if they just annoyed him a little. His system became his barrier from turning into a person like that, and his encounters with Alicia, Firia, his teacher, and the others finally reformed his characters. Thinking like this, he wished he could go back to that world and said ''Thank you'' to them. Alex shook his head. He could not think of something like this since he was going to fight in a few seconds. He regained back his focus and looked at his opponent. "Match Start!" The old man immediately swallowed a Berserk Pill and increased his power. He then took out his spear and released his domain. Both of them jumped forward at the same time. Alex''s already compressed his domains, planning to finish him in one blow. But as expected, they managed to think up a way to buy time. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "God Thrust." "Bam-!" It looked like a replay of a fight between Alex and Wumba, but there was a big difference in this clash. The old man targeted the body of Alex''s sword to blow it away. He did not dare to strike at the edge of Alex''s sword as his spear might get cut by it. "!!!" Seeing that, Alex thrust his spear with the compressed domain, but once again, the old man deflected the spear with only touching its handle. Alex tried to cut him up a few times but to no avail. Because of the Berserk Pill, he had yet to find a way to suppress him. Alex retreated a few steps before swinging his Sword. "Seven Stars Cut." He wanted to use his ''Swords Dance'' but could not infuse his Compressed Domain on his swords. So, the only way to gain an advantage against him was to utilize his Martial Arts. A Seven Stars Cut made by his Sword King power was far more powerful than his usual Seven Stars Cut. It could even heavily injure Elder Dolf when he was only a 6-Star Martial Lord. "God Thrust!" The old man pierced the Seven Stars Cut from above, but he underestimated the power of Alex''s Seven Stars Cut. He was planning to use the force to send him upward to dodge this attack, but because of the mighty force contained inside the Seven Stars Cut, he failed to do so. "Not good!" "Bam!" The Seven Stars Cut finally crashed on the Barrier. "Gh!" The old man immediately shifted his body to the side since he could not send himself upward. However, it cost him an entire right leg. The blood splattered on the arena, but that was not the most shocking thing. Because, everyone could see the Barrier where the Seven Stars Cut crashed, cracking. No one was able to make a dent in that barrier this whole time, and to think the lowest cultivation from Heavenly Sword Sect could make a huge crack on it¡­ it made them baffled. Honda Sana immediately stood up and came to the barrier. She checked the condition of the barrier and frowned. In fact, she never thought this would happen and told the Array Master to come back to the Northern Continent. And since the barrier had a huge crack like this, she did not know how to repair it. At this time, Alex sent a thought transmission to her as he looked at her troubled expression. "Just channel your Spiritual Energy to the core of the array. It should be enough to fix them since my attack did not crack the core." Honda Sana was startled at first but immediately went to the core. The core was at the top of the array. Everyone did not know what she was up to, but when she placed her hand on the barrier and channeled her Spiritual Energy, the crack slowly vanished. The people started cheering again, not only to Alex but also to her. At first, they were astonished by Alex''s power, but when they saw Honda Sana repairing the barrier, the thought about the barrier breaking and the attacks would hurt them immediately sent shivers down their spine. After the barrier was fixed, Alex immediately leaped toward the old man and thrust his spear. "Silver Sovereign." Before the old man deflected his spear again, he stopped the thrust and changed to swing. He was swinging his spear like swinging a sword. "!!!" the old man finally realized what it meant to be a master of Sword and Spear. Alex''s spear cut his spear into two. Before it was sent to the air, he grabbed the upper half of the spear and used it as his spear. Alex did not stop there, he waved his sword. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "God Thrust." The old man tried to attack the handle of the sword, but at this time, Alex swiftly rotated his spear, so it was ready to swing it again. "Heaven Breaking Sword." If it was thrust, then the old man might be able to deflect it again, but because of this swing, he had no other choice than to clash his spear head-on. He struck his spear against Alex''s spear. Sadly, just like Wumba''s glaive, it immediately cleaved the sword into two and made its way toward the old man''s neck. "Kh!" Seeing this, the old man tried to duck down, but the spear still got his hand. Alex already got his hand and leg, and he was not planning to give up just for that. This time, Alex thrust his sword on the old man''s heart. "Silver Sovereign." Without any resistance, the old man''s heart was shattered by the sheer force of Silver Sovereign. "I am unwilling¡­" The old man spat a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground, died. Alex then pointed his sword toward the last man from Zhou Kingdom, "You are the last." 420 Alex vs Zhou Kingdom Last Par Gacha Sovereign "You are the last. Come!" Alex said coldly, not wanting to waste time. The people seemed to cheer for him as they roared, "Next!" "Hurry up and get your ass there. Don''t waste our time!" "Kill that old man!" The old man had a pale face as he had yet to come up with a plan to counter him. Actually, he had a plan, but that plan was too bizarre for him. He stepped forward to the arena. There was no hope for Zhou Kingdom to win, and surrendering was also not an option. Alex needed to die at this moment as if his talent flourished, their kingdom would be destroyed sooner or later. He finally steeled his resolve. Both Alex and the old man did not exchange a single word. Alex simply looked at the announcer, asking him to start the match. He also said to Sherry and Kyle, "Both of you get ready." "Wuu!" "Chirp!" He checked the old man first before announcing, "Match Start!" The old man swallowed a Berserk Pill and increased his power. They started clashing like the previous fight. Alex was planning to use his fire at the right time to end the battle in that instant. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "One sword decides life and death." "Bam!" The old man crashed into the arena wall. He immediately came out and leaped toward Alex once again. Alex thrust his spear toward him. "Silver Raven." Suddenly the old man decided to do something unbelievable. He shifted his body a bit and let Alex pierce his stomach. "Gah!" He spat out blood. After that, he grabbed Alex''s hand that was holding his spear. The old man smirked, "I catch you, little bastard." "!!!" Seeing this, Alex immediately swung his sword to cleave him into two, and the old man also grabbed Alex''s wrist and forced him to let go of his sword. Alex tried to move his hand but to no avail as this old man used everything just to stop him. The old man looked at him, "Heh¡­ as expected. As long as I can catch your hands, it will be easier to stop you." Fire suddenly appeared on both of his hands, and even his body started to glow brightly. "I will bring you down to hell with me, you little bastard!" "!!!" Alex could clearly see it with his Spirit Eyes. This old man wanted to explode himself by making his Fire Element in his body berserk. He was planning to become a suicide bomber¡­ "Oh no!" "That old man wants to perish together with him!" "You old bastard!" The people started panicking, they even wanted to charge to the arena. "Die! Fire Emperor last move, Grand Annihilation!" The old man roared as his body finally exploded, and intense heat filled the arena. "Boom-!" All people''s faces became pale. The hero in their heart suddenly died because of that. On the other hand, when Alex knew it was a Fire Element, he did not do anything other than opening his Fire Phoenix Seed a little bit and covered his body with fire. That way, the explosion did not roast him or something as it repelled the old man''s explosion like a bug repellent. He looked down, trying to look at the last trail of that old man. "Sherry, Kyle, it seems your power is not needed for this¡­" "Chirp!" "It is good then. If Master needs our power, we will always be ready¡­ albeit, I am soon going under my evolution, so I can''t help Master that much later. Maybe, the battle with the grand army will be the last battle before undergoing my evolution¡­" "Don''t worry. I am looking forward to seeing you as a Martial King beast." Alex said. "Yes." "Still, I was lucky since that old man decided to explode his body. I don''t need to use my power again." Alex sighed in relief. When the smoke finally cleared up, Alex was still standing in the arena, without any wounds or injuries on his body. They did not know why Alex had no injury, but seeing him not injured made them relieved. Only Letizia who knew about his element as she said inwardly, "Challenging a Pure Fire user with explosion¡­ it obviously won''t work at all unless you are far stronger than him¡­" The people from Heavenly Sword Sect immediately leaped with joy. Not only them but also the entire arena immediately roared to the sky. "What a fight! What a fight! With the cultivation of 8-Star Martial Lord, he killed eight 10-Star Martial Lords in this competition without rest. He revealed his power that seemed to be a Sword King power, according to our host, Honda Sana. And finally, even when we thought he died under that huge explosion, he shattered our imagination again as he was completely fine! What a God!" The announcer roared excitedly. No wonder the people were excited, the fight between Alex and Zhou Kingdom was a heaven-defying battle. It was not like Letizia''s battle where she was exhausted after fighting so long. And she also could not defeat Su Hua. They could only claim she single-handedly defeated Mount Hua Sect, only barely. But, it was different for this fight. Not only Alex fought them without rest, there were no injuries in his body nor any sign of exhaustion. This match was Alex''s complete victory. "Ooh!" The cheering from the spectators even shook the ground. Despite their excitement, Alex paid no heed as he collected all the Space Rings from these people. He wanted to eliminate the Blood Pills and Berserk Pills in their Space Ring. After doing that, Alex''s simply left the arena directly. He also had another reason for leaving swiftly. [Mission: Kill Zhou Kingdom''s Participants (8/8) Completed Reward: Gacha Card x1 Description: Congratulations Host for eliminating your enemies.] Alex immediately claimed the reward and checked his tickets. [Gacha Ticket x130] [Premium Ticket x0] [Gacha Card x3] [Dart x0] [Summoning Coin x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] He wanted to see the Gacha Box immediately since he never used it. [This is the first step for you to destroy your enemy. So for a special reward, I will give you a spoiler. If you decide to use Gacha Box, there will be a huge surprise.] This made him want to open it more. He immediately left the arena, leaving the people from the sect speechless. [By the way, the system will remove the Equipment function after you reach Martial King.] "Eh?" [After considering your future, it would be better to remove this system. After all, this function is not used that much.] "What? But I think it is a bit useful¡­" Alex said. [Mission: Martial King Stage (0/1) Reward: Premium Ticket 15 and Gacha Sovereign (Title) Description: After accumulating experiences, Host is finally eligible to receive the title as the true host of this system. System shall bestow this Title to you.] "..." Alex twitched his eyebrows when he saw the title. "This is not a scam¡­ right?" [Nope. This is the compensation for removing the Equipment Function.] "So, what is the effect?" [Gacha Sovereign (Title)] [Effect: Become a bit luckier.] [Description: Host will become the true master of this Gacha System. As the Master of the Gacha System that is closely related to luck and karma, Host will have a vague feeling that if you have any karma with someone, it can be bad karma or good karma. If it is good karma, Host can tie a knot with the said person and birth more good karma. If it is bad karma, you can choose to avoid that person.] "Karma, huh¡­" [Yes. There are many examples of them. Like your encounter with Mithra, you might be able to tie another knot with her and birth more good karma as you can try to do something good for her. Or your past enemy''s reincarnation, you can avoid him/her so as to not tie another knot with them whether it is intentional or unintentional.] "I am a bit confused with the explanation, but I will try to learn it in the future when I get the title. Still, getting a bit luckier, huh¡­" [Yes. This is the main feature of this title. Your Hard Work is finally paying off, and my name ''Good Luck Gacha System'' finally came into fruition.] "Well¡­ I argued with you a lot back then with that naming sense¡­" Alex chuckled. [Yes.] "That is a good memory too. I knew that you were trying to make me change my trauma to that anger so it would slowly disappear from my heart." Alex said with a smile. [I am your System, and I will always help you. So, it is my job.] Alex shook his head with a smile. "Well, I am going to leave now and open the Gacha. I am wondering what kind of surprise will you give me¡­" [It is a very very big surprise. You might even cry if you see it.] "I am looking forward to it." Alex then started walking to the exit of the arena. However, before he left, Letizia suddenly contacted him, "Master, what about the plan for tomorrow?" "Ah!" After contemplating for a while, Alex decided to tell her as he did not want to be disturbed when opening the Gacha. "Well, I am not sure whether there are spies or not around, so we will fight. But, we just need to make it look like a real fight and focus on conserving our energy. Because this Tournament is not really important after considering what will happen next¡­" "True enough. It is nothing important since we can''t do anything with it if we die after the tournament." Letizia said. "Yeah. That''s why we are going to preserve our strength for the main event. Since the battle between Buddha Sect and Zhou Kingdom is a no-go, we have plenty of time. "Just tell the people we will hold a special one on one battle with each other. As for who fights who¡­ just ask your mother to discuss it with Sect Master Xiang Bai." "But will people accept that?" "They will. Just tell them because we have an alliance and such." Alex said with a nonchalant attitude. "..." Letizia did not say anything for a while. "We can just surrender to you." "No no. I want to try to prolong our fight, maybe the last fight. Their Martial Kings are on the way here, and I am a bit unsure when they will arrive, but since I have put another spy, we can be notified a few minutes before their arrival. "Seeing we will fight (Our last), they will activate the array beneath the arena. Then, your sect will immediately surrender after that, and I will get the win. Maybe, I will be the last participant. As for the next plan¡­ just follow my instruction later." Alex said. "Understood." ... The last match between Rainbow Flower Sect and Buddha Sect finally started. However, the people were disappointed after watching the greatest match of Alexander Sirius to the point they just wanted to go home after that match and told the others about it. The result of the last match was already apparent anyway. Buddha Sect might fight bravely, but because of the power of Rainbow Flower Sect, specifically Letizia, they could not win. After defeating six of them, they finally faced Letizia and were defeated by her. The next day, it would be a final battle between Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. They were wondering how the fight between Alex and Letizia unfolded. Initially, there would be two battles on the last day. The battle between the finalists and the battle to get third place. However, because the Zhou Kingdom was completely annihilated, Buddha Sect automatically became the third place. They once again shamelessly promoted their influence as they could become the third place without fighting eight 10-Star Martial Lords. They said it was because of the guidance of light or something. When people from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect heard it, they even started doubting whether this Buddha Sect was a cult or not. 421 Gacha Palace Part I As soon as he entered the inn, he immediately sat down on his bed and opened the system. Alex was eager to see what kind of surprise the system would give him. He just hoped the system did not put his high hope and let it down later. He immediately opened the Gacha Box Function and smashed that [Gacha Box x3] button. This time, the Gacha did not do anything like teleport himself or something, and there was no sign of the delivery, so Alex was perplexed. He looked left and right, not finding anything. "Eh, system?" Alex finally asked. The System did not say anything. Instead, it gave him a notification. [Gacha Palace Ticket x1] "What is this?" Alex asked, wondering if it was a scam. [Just use it by channeling your energy.] Alex was bewildered by her comment. He opened his inventory and took out the Gacha Palace Ticket. The ticket was a card with the size of his palm. He observed it from every angle, and there was nothing noticeable except a kind of special array on the body of the card. He could only recognize a few symbols in this array, but at the very least, he understood that this array was a kind of Space Element Array. It might transport him somewhere if he used this. The only place he had visited because of the system was the Dart special place. So, he thought this might be something similar to that. He pointed the card to his front and channeled his Spiritual Energy inside it. The array then glowed before it summoned a door in front of him. "This¡­ is this a legendary door that can transport you to anywhere?" Alex exclaimed out of reflex. [Ahem. Just go in, and all your questions will be answered inside.] He took a deep breath, looking at a normal size wooden door. He opened the door and saw the world inside. He could see a giant machine on the very left of his sight, spurting many palm-size balls. And the ball slowly went to the bottom where it was recycled before the machine shot the ball again. That machine had its own space for doing that. Beside that machine, he could see a vending machine. Inside that vending machine, there were white boxes divided by twenty sections. He also could see a hole where you can put money in it and might work like your usual vending machine. The one in front of him was a roulette wheel, spinning normally. He recognized this blue roulette wheel as this was the usual wheel when he used his Dart Gacha. At this point, he realized all of this was his Gacha all along. After making sure of that, he then came inside the special place. However, his body suddenly collapsed to the floor, and his soul came out of his body. However, he looked like a ghost as he did not have any legs at the moment. He looked back and was shocked. "What happened?" Suddenly, a woman walked toward him. She had brown hair, otherworldly beauty, small brown eyes, cute nose, and sweet lips. She wore a white dress up to her knees. Alex had seen this woman as she was his system. Alex was a bit surprised to see the difference. He remembered the previous one had a robot-like body where he could see joint after joint in her arms, neck, and so on. However, this new one was not like that. There was no join or whatsoever. Sadly, Alex could feel that this was also not real. This because he did not sense any aura or whatsoever in her. Even normal people, or cultivators, or people that were stronger than him had an aura which he could feel. Sadly, Even though her appearance looked a bit more real, it was a kind to a real doll that got possessed and acted like a human. Even so, Alex did not know why, but after seeing the more realistic her, his heart was full of pain. The woman then came to him and stretched her hand to his face. She slowly wiped the tears that flowed out of his right eyes. "Seriously¡­ why are you crying? Have you missed me that much? Fufu." Alex was astonished as he immediately put his hand on his right cheek. Just like she said, he truly let out tears. "Who¡­ who are you?" "I am yours." She smiled. "Ah¡­" Alex snapped back. He just let out that question unconsciously, and since he had back, he looked at the woman. "I am sorry for this display." "It''s alright. Even the strongest person will have a weak side in him/her, and acting as a perfect person is rather tiring, so feel free to bother me with that. I can lend you my shoulder¡­ no, I can lend you this place." The system girl said playfully as she placed her hands on top of her chest. "I have upgraded myself, you know. And these ones here are pretty real, you can even check it if you want." Alex shook his head, smiling. "So, you are that type¡­" The woman said while opening her mouth in surprise. She then sat down on the floor and patted her lap a few times. "Come here. You must be the lap pillow type." "Alright. That''s really enough." Alex sighed. "Anyway, what is in here? Are all of them my Gachas?" "Yes. Let me give you a tour of this area." She rose from the ground and pointed out the first machine Alex saw. "That one is your normal Gacha Machine. Come with me as I will explain it one by one." The woman led Alex to the first machine. She suddenly took out a glass box, and inside it, there were six different things. The first one was a yellow ticket with a big ''G'' in the middle. The second ticket was similar to the first ticket, but this one was a bit shiny, showing it was a special one. The third one was a red dart, which he usually used. The fourth one was a golden card. Nothing noticeable other than the big star carved on its body. As for the last two, it was his Summoning Gacha. The first one was a shiny silver coin, and the other one was another card with an array that was close to the one he saw in the Gacha Palace Ticket. "I think there is nothing to explain for these six since all of them are your possessions. Gacha Ticket, Premium Ticket, Dart, Gacha Card for Lucky Box, Summoning Coin, and Summoning Ticket." The system girl explained. She then pointed her hand to the first machine. "Well, the work of this machine is simple. We just need to put the ticket, and one Gacha would pop out of the machine. If you do it with your usual style, it would need a bit more time to process since the machine would count the number of tickets before shooting all the Gacha Balls. Why don''t you try to take out the Gacha Tickets? You can just open your inventory and take it out like usual." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and did what she said. He had more than a hundred Gacha Tickets at the moment, and when he took all of them out, he saw the tickets were connected to each other. "If you want to use a hundred tickets, then I will split a hundred tickets from this and place it on the machine. Then, you get your Gachas¡­" She smiled. Alex nodded and looked at the Gacha Balls inside the machine. He noticed there were three different balls in the machine, in which there was a big ''G'' in the middle of the ball. "Ah. Because of the title, I have finally sorted things out. The first is these machines, and the second is Gacha Balls. The Common Gacha Ball is the bronze ball, Uncommon is the Silver one, and the gold one is the rare ball." "As for the Super Rare ball¡­ it has a green jade ball color which is pretty beautiful. And the last one would be the Ultra Rare ball. There is nothing changed in this ball as it has a white and yellow color split into half with a ''G'' on it. However, despite its unattractive color, it has red and blue aura on its body, so I think they are pretty attractive too." She explained. "I see." Alex nodded. After hearing her explanation, he suddenly remembered about his body. "What happens to my body, by the way?" "Ah, this is your soul. Actually, you can go to this place with your soul when you reach Martial King. I give you the Gacha Sovereign Title since it will be a perfect fit with this Gacha Palace. "After you reach Martial King, you won''t be a ghost like your appearance now. You will have a full body like me. Well, you will still leave your body for an extended period of time though." She said. "Then, why are you showing me now? I am still an 8-Star Martial Lord." Alex asked. "Hmm¡­ this is like a beta version, and you are a beta tester. You are the only one who has this though. Fufu¡­" She chuckled. "I see." Alex nodded. "Then, how about the other machines? Like this one that looks very similar to a vending machine?" He approached the second machine. The inside seemed to have two different sections. The top one was full of boxes while the bottom one was full of Gacha Ball. "It is your Premium Gacha, and how it works, it is pretty similar to the vending machine in your memory. You put in the money and choose whatever you want. The only difference is this machine has two money holes. The first one is for a singular ticket which you don''t use pretty often. You can only get a single Gacha Ball which you will get from one of the bottom sections." She pointed at the Gacha Ball, which had a black color with a big question mark on it. "Ah, this is an unidentified Gacha Ball. Since you can literally choose one of the balls here, it will be unfair if you can see which one is good and which one is bad." "Really? Aren''t you supporting me?" Alex glanced at her. "Of course, my job is to support you. However, the fairness system has been established from the start, so I can''t do anything to it." She shrugged. "..." Alex then looked up to the top section, which had twenty white boxes. "This is the usual box, right?" "Yes. There are five Gacha Balls inside each box, and the rewards are completely random. Usually, each time you use it, I will randomly pick one of the boxes and send it to you. However, since you can enter here in the near future, you can just choose it yourself." She said. "Thank you for your hard work." "No no. I am just simply doing my job in supporting you." She waved her hand. "In fact, even though you can enter here in the future, you can still open the Gacha from the real world like usual. Of course, you will need to enter this world for Dart Roulette and Gacha Box since these two are special." "Noted." Alex nodded before moving to the third machine. He immediately twitched his eyebrows when he saw the third machine again. He wanted to snap before, but because she surprised him, he could not. He looked at the spinning Roulette wheel in front of him and asked. "So, what is this all about?" "This is your Roulette Dart!" She smiled. "Really?" Alex looked at the Roulette Wheel that was rotating while moving left and right. Before, the Roulette was only rotating in one place, but with this left and right movement, it became far more harder. "So, what''s the deal with this Roulette Dart?" 422 Gacha Palace Part II "Well, there is some adjustment for this. Because you have Spirit Eyes as well as growing stronger, I need to adjust the speed and movement too. Of course, the reward is worth it." She said with a smile. "...I know this is bound to happen." Alex facepalmed. "I mean, there is always something that hit me down after the previous excitement." "There is nothing perfect. Gacha, Story, human, or even other races. You can''t find everything perfectly." She gently said to him. "I know. Well, I might be raging if it is the past me. I, either my past self or current self, am not. I have made many mistakes and might make a mistake in the future¡­" Alex nodded. "Fufu¡­ shall we move on then?" "Sure." The next one was the Gacha Box. The appearance looked like the ''hits the moles'' game, but it filled with boxes instead of holes for the moles. The box itself was like a treasure chest, but instead of hole key, it was replaced by a card hole. It seemed Alex would need to open that with his Gacha Card. "This is a Gacha Box. You can choose one of the chests from here and bring it out of this machine. After that, the other eight boxes would be recycled and replaced by the new nine chests. Try to look up a bit." Alex turned his head upward and saw another chest stuck on the top of the machine. "If you use the ''3+1'' function, then that chest is the ''1.'' Don''t worry, it will come down automatically after you choose three chests." She explained. "I see. Basically, I choose and open it with the card, right?" "Yes." "Do I need to choose all the chests first, or I can open it as soon as I grab one?" "It is up to you. The system still recognizes either way, but the latter will take a bit longer." "True enough, and it is a bit annoying to grab it again and again. It is better to grab all of them first before opening them." Ale nodded. "Do you want to use your Gacha Cards now?" She asked. "..." Alex contemplated a bit and shook his head. "I want to see the last two first." "Alright. Follow me." She guided him to the last two machines. The first one was like an ATM, but from his observation, instead of taking out money, it would give him the summoning cards. The second one was a grand white gate. The gate was like his usual Summoning Gate but without the color. "This is the Summoning Coin. Give the machine coin, and you will get the Summoning Card." The explanation was brief since it was plain to see. She then moved to the last one. "As for this one, you put the Summoning Ticket, and they will appear from within the gate." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, "But, what if I get Anna''s and the others'' cards again? Will they appear here?" "Technically, yes. However, it will be the same person. If you get two same cards, you can combine them and raise his/her level. I think I have explained this to you, right?" "Indeed." Alex nodded. "Anyway, if you don''t want to waste your time, then you can touch this button, and the cards will pop out of this gate without summoning them." She said while pointing at a green button on the gate. "Alright, I understand." "Then, should we go back to Gacha Box?" "Sure." Both of them came back to the fourth machine. Alex looked at her first before he started doing anything. "Just choose whichever you want. Pluck them like picking a flower." "Alright." Alex nodded and started walking to the machine. There was a big open hole in the machine to walk through. He then chose the first box, which was the center box, and came out of the machine. After that, he heard a sound from his back. He was curious about the sound, so he turned back. He was startled because he saw the floor suddenly opened and the box fell down, it was then replaced by the new nine chests, and the floor closed again. Alex looked at the system girl and asked, "I just need to pick it again, right?" "Yes." After her confirmation, he then put down the chest and went back inside the machine. For the second chest, he went to the farthest one on the left, and he chose the closest one to him as the third chest. The scenery was the same as the boxes were replaced each time he carried a chest out. After taking the three boxes, Alex saw the box on the top suddenly fell down to the floor before a cushion appeared beneath it. He did not know whether his eyes played him or not, but he could see the sparkle and light illuminating the chest. The chest was telling him, ''Look at me, here I am, and Love me!" Alex came to the box and brought the box out too. After checking the box, he found out there was no key-hole or card-hole in this chest. Instead, he saw a screen, and ''0/3'' was written on it. "This special box will automatically open after you open the other three." She explained. Alex simply nodded his head as he went to the first box. He took out one of the Gacha Cards and put it in the card-hole. *Clack!* As soon as the sound entered his ears, he knew it had been opened. He then slowly opened the lid, revealing the item inside there. Sadly, Alex could only see golden light coming from the box, and it made him perplexed. "!!!" Not long after, he felt something from the light. The golden light suddenly discharged an item and let it float a few centimeters above the chest. The item was a scroll. He observed the scroll carefully before taking it. "He then got a notification." [Supreme Lightning Scroll (SR) Acquired] Alex frowned. He checked the Scroll a bit and found out it was a Lightning Element Art. He did not have any use for it. He murmured, "Should I give it to Elder Charya¡­ Maybe not. I don''t mind if I give her the Martial Arts from Zwaka''s place, but I don''t feel I can give her this." The system girl did not say anything since he wanted Alex to decide all of this. Even though she was his former wife, in this life, she had yet to achieve anything other than becoming his support as a system. So, it would not be good to interfere with his decision making. Besides, she wanted Alex to grow with every decision and the experience he had. Since Alex decided not to give it to Charya, he just stored it in the Inventory. He then moved to the second box, which he opened with the second card. The process was the same as the first one. However, the item he got this time was a stick¡­ No, a staff. However, there was a shiny green jade on top of the staff, so it might be a magic staff or something. Sadly, it was no use of him in this world. [Greeny Magic Staff (R) Acquired] However, he felt the shiny green gem was a bit similar like he had seen it somewhere. He contemplated for a while but to no avail. "What are you thinking?" "I think I have seen this gem somewhere¡­" "This is a Wind Gem that your Senior Sister¡­ Ahem, your unofficial disciple gets back in Zwaka''s place." "Ah!" Alex finally remembered. It was a gem that could enhance one''s wind element. He thought it might be good to give it to Putri after he met her again, but the system immediately told him off. "One person can only use it once in their life. There are a few more elemental gems like this for Fire Element, Water Element, and so on. However, this gem is also not overpowered and can be used many times. "If not, someone''s element will become stronger and might even defeat a Pure Element like yours. So, you can''t give it to her since it has no use. Well, you can just store it for the time being." She said. "Wait, I can take the gem off?" Alex just thought of that, despite thinking about giving the gem to Putri. "... Check your Forging Master memory." She facepalmed and sighed. Alex pondered for a while, recalling all the Forging Memory inside his head. He was surprised by what he found. "There are numerous kinds of possibilities with this¡­ First, I can scrap the gem out of the staff and use it as it is. As for the other usage¡­ it seems I can take out the gem before fusing it with the staff itself. This will create an Elemental Sword. "Still, with my meager experience in Forging that is close to non-existent compared to my Alchemy or Array Mastery. The latter is out of option, so even if I want to use it, it will be the second one. "Maybe, I can take it out and sell it in the Northern Continent. This gem is a bit rare to begin with according to the knowledge, so it should be able to fetch up a good price on there." He then walked to the third one. This time, it was another scroll. [Space Seal Technique (UR) Acquired] "Space?" Alex was startled when he saw the name. He immediately opened the scroll and found out it was just a Space Seal Technique¡­ literally. The technique was meant to seal a Space Element user to use any spatial technique at a certain range. Basically, it was the same thing as the one that Zhou Kingdom used to seal his Space Element back then. However, this time, it was a technique while Zhou Kingdom used an Artifact. Alex still took it happily though. If he knew this technique, he should be able to come up with a plan in case someone sealed his Space Element. At the very least, he would understand a certain level of Space Element understanding. He then looked at the last box, which had been opened for quite a while. In fact, it was opened at the same time Alex opened the third box. This time, it was not a scroll, but a book. Alex twitched his eyebrows as he was wondering why he got so many techniques at once. [Spirit Step (UR) Acquired] Alex opened his eyes wide when he saw the name. It seemed to be a movement technique, so he immediately opened the book and read it. The Spirit Step was a special Saint Tier Martial Arts emphasized in the control of energy. By controlling the energy on the feet, the opponent would feel an overbearing pressure coming from the user''s feet. This pressure could not be underestimated as it could pressure others to the point it was restricting the other''s movement. This was only the first step. As for the second step, it was the exact opposite of the first step. It did not control the energy inside the foot but manipulated the energy around the foot to come inside the user''s body for a short time. This time, it gave the user a surge of strength for a short period of time. He knew the second one was like how he used his Immovable Step. As for how much power it would give him, he would need to check it later. It was coming from a Saint Tier Martial Art, so it should not be so low as the Sky Movement. As for the First Step, it was very useful to have the power to lower your opponents'' strength even a bit. He thought his luck was a bit low at the moment, but after receiving this, that thought had disappeared. Unbeknownst to him, the system girl only smiled. She was happy for him to get this technique since this movement technique was very important to him in the future. 423 Just for Show Alex had finished all of his business in this place, so he was planning to go out. But before that, he looked at the woman behind him and bowed his head. "I am really thankful for your assistance this whole time. If I don''t have you, then I may not become someone like this¡­ no, maybe I already died the moment I decide to leave the kingdom." The woman smiled. "I am yours forever, in the past, in the present, and even in the future." Alex closed his eyes. He did not know why, but he wanted to smile just by hearing her voice. He suddenly widened his eyes as he remembered something important. "You¡­ what is your name?" She shook her head as she walked to him. She did not hug him or something as she just started pushing Alex toward the door. Alex walked backward in surprise. He realized that she would not tell him her name or something to him. As for the reason, it might be because it was not the time or not qualified yet, so Alex did not ask more. However, just right before he went out of the place, the woman suddenly took one more step forward and gave a peck on his cheek. She then pushed him outside the door and waved her hand. "It''s still not the time yet, so I won''t tell you. However, my feeling is always the same¡­ I love you, Host. See you later." Alex was shocked as a part of his heart was telling him to hug her. Sadly, it was not possible as the door started to vanish together with her, and his soul began to come back to his body. A few seconds later, Alex rose from the floor and looked at the previous door''s location. He then put his right hand on his cheek. He had a complicated feeling about this situation. It was a pleasant feeling which made him happy. At the same time, he also felt a weird feeling, and it began to spread in his heart. He was wondering why that was and wanted to ask, but the door that could truly connect them was not in front of him again. "Martial King, huh¡­ I will come back when I reach Martial King¡­ probably." Alex said while closing his eyes. He shook his head as he read the Spirit Step once again. He was planning to learn the technique after this over before learning about the Space Seal Technique. He took a deep breath to calm his heart. He still needed to deal with the invasion tomorrow, so he could not afford to be excited about this. Alex then took out Ngina''s and Nicole''s cards. Because of this matter, they had been stationed outside Carageo City. Their mission was to scout the area around and inform him if the Martial Kings would arrive soon. As for the Southern Kingdom and the Thiveapia Kingdom, which were the place they had been stationed before, it did not matter to him. Nelson also said that they would just need to have one of them to oversee the continent when they reached Martial King stage. As for the rest, they would then start advancing to the Northern Continent and investigate the power level there. Well, he would only send them after this matter with the Zhou Kingdom since he could not afford to be careless in this battle. "Ngina, Nicole, how is the situation over there?" "There is nothing unusual over here, and it seems we only need to wait for them to arrive," Nicole explained. Ngina did not say anything, which meant he agreed with her. "Alright. I don''t know their exact speed, but it will still be at least fifteen minutes from your position, so I think it will be fine." Alex said. "Yes." Alex nodded his head. Anna and the others were inside their cards since nothing would change even if they kept hunting in the past few days. So, rather than exhausting them, he wanted them to rest as he was planning to make them use all their power the moment he summoned them. After a while, he noticed a presence in front of his room. When he activated his Spirit Eyes, he could see a woman in front of the door, albeit only her energy and shape. As for who, Alex could guess though, considering the woman had Pure Ice Element. Since he had finished his business with the system, he said, "Come in." The door was opened, and Letizia came in. Her face was a bit flushed. Although this was only a room at a certain inn, it was still her first time to enter a boy''s room. She thought she would not be flustered by this, but expectation and reality might not be the same as even Alex could see she was nervous. She stood in front of Alex and said hurriedly. "Ma-Master, I have come here to report about tomorrow''s plan." "No need to be tense," Alex said, thinking she was tense because of their Master and Disciple relationship. "Y-yess!" She nodded furiously. It would be fine if it were in any other place. But inside his room, she could see the bed behind Alex, and her wild thoughts surfaced in her mind. Despite having the knowledge about it, she never experienced something like this. Alex sighed. "Well, what is the plan?" "The plan¡­" Letizia hurriedly took out a paper from her space ring and handed it to Alex. In the paper, there were eight fights that had been carefully considered. Alex saw all the matches and just nodded. He did not know their real capability anyway, so he just trusted the battle arrangement. He only noticed a few names like Charya in the first battle, the first elder and the third elder, and him being in the last fight with Letizia as his opponent. "We will fake the battle tomorrow. Most battles will go like this, five minutes of weapon clashing and then two big Martial Arts, just to make it more flashy. After that, one of them will lose, and the other will look like he/she is exhausted and surrendered. "With this battle, we should be able to retain around ninety percent of our energy. This way, we can recover from it in a short time." Letizia explained carefully. "Well, it is good enough. What about our fight? If our fight had finished before those guys came, they might change their strategy." Alex asked. "This is the problem. I can try to challenge you in a sword fight¡­ literally without Master''s spear and my Ice Element to buy time." She answered. "Hmm¡­ Well, you can use a couple of big moves as I will let out my Sword King power. Maybe one Ice tornado and one Phoenix are enough for the show¡­ after that, we can do some sword fight." Alex said. "Understood." Letizia nodded. "Then, let''s talk about the thing that will happen next." Alex changed the topic. "Although I have said just to follow my instruction, I think I will explain it a bit more clearly." "Please." "There will be many Martial Kings coming tomorrow, and a barrier will prevent all people under Martial King from moving. Basically, it will suppress your element to the point you can''t move. Of course, our Pure Element can resist that, but I still want us to hide it. It is just to lower the enemy''s guard. "After a minute, the array should break since I have done some tweaking. At that time, I will stop all the Martial Kings and ultimately kill them. Meanwhile, you will go back to our forces and have them moved toward Rivulet Forest. "I will then activate the barrier that I place on that place and trap all the soldiers." "Are we going to attack them? Or we wait?" Letizia asked. Alex should have a few Martial Kings under him. Alex only smiled, "We will wait until the Martial Kings come to aid us. We will then start attacking them. Besides, the longer they wait, the more anxiety will be built up inside their heart. "It will be better if they start attacking the barrier and exhaust themselves. That way, we will have an easier time." Alex shrugged. "Master, may I ask what is this barrier that is capable of stopping 150,000 soldiers?" "It is nothing much. Only twenty rank 5 barriers, which makes a huge formation and a hundred million Spirit Stones." Alex smiled. "Twenty rank 5 barriers and a hundred million Spirit Stones?" Letizia was dumbfounded. There was not a single rank 5 Array Master in this continent and to think Alex was one of them. It did not stop there. Alex even used a hundred million Spirit Stones, and he said it like it was not a big deal. She, once again, was shocked by him. With this relaxed attitude, she was sure Alex had more ''money'' than that. In fact, he might even have more money than their entire sect. She gasped. "Anyway, that''s all. Do you have any other questions?" Alex asked. Letizia shook her head furiously. She stood up and bowed to him, "Then, please excuse me, Master." "Yes." Alex nodded. After she left, Alex just relaxed his mind for the rest of the day. ¡­ The next day, "Ladies and Gentlemen¡­ it seems you are bored since I called you with this these past few days. Anyway, we have the climax of our battle today. Heavenly Sword Sect versus Rainbow Flower Sect." "Ooh!" The spectators did not care about the joke and cheered as they were eager to see the battle between Alexander Sirius and Letizia La Scola. They had spread the word about both of them in the town. The people in the town had been talking about them from yesterday. They wanted to enter the arena, but it was already full, so they decided to look at it from the sky. Although there was an unwritten rule to forbid people from flying inside the town, it became an exception just for today. And the City Lord, AKA, the announcer had also informed them they could do that. The people were thrilled with that announcement. Although it was a bit tiring, they did not care because it was worth it. "I will announce the reward first. The Martial Lord Tournament will get sixty percent of the share. This sixty percent will be divided again according to the ranking. The first rank will get twenty-five percent. The second place will get twenty percent while the third place will get fifteen percent. "The Martial Grandmaster Tournament will get the rest forty percent. The same as before, The first rank will get fifteen percent. The second rank will get ten percent, and the last place will get five percent. The last five percent will be split into those who didn''t win. "Buddha Sect finished at third in both tournaments, so they received twenty percent of one of the biggest mines in history. According to the research, the total reserve is more than one billion Spirit Stones. And twenty percent of it is about two hundred million. Although this can only be mined bit by bit, their progress will soar even further with these many spirit stones. "As for this match, it will be determined which one will get the first place and the second place. With the result of the Martial Grandmaster Tournament, Heavenly Sword Sect has got a fifteen percent share of the mine. In comparison, Rainbow Flower Sect receives ten percent share. "In this match, it will be determined whether the Heavenly Sword Sect will receive a total of forty percent of the share or the Rainbow Flower Sect will get a sum of thirty-five percent share. "Not only this, but we can also see which is the strongest influence on this continent. Will it be Rainbow Flower Sect or Heavenly Sword Sect! "For that, let us give a big applause to them!" The announcer explained. *Applauses* The people started cheering for the influence they wanted to win. It was so loud that even the ground was shaking. Seeing the hype of the situation, he roared, "Now! The First Match!" 424 Dawn of the Battle "The first match!" Two women entered the arena. The first one was Charya, coming with a fierce aura. The second one was one of the elders from Rainbow Flower Sect. Their eyes intertwined with each other and nodded, understanding their role in the plan. "So, you are my opponent, huh¡­ Still, since our sects have an alliance, what should we do with this?" "Just fight seriously. We can end this fight in an instant." The elder said slowly. "Fine, I am going all out from the fight and end this match in an instant." "Only if you can." They were just rehearsing the conversation they made yesterday. "Match Start!" "Sun Beam!" Charya immediately raised her sword and swung it down. The giant sword plunged the elder, trying to crush the elder from Rainbow Flower Sect. "Grand Cross!" Meanwhile, the elder swung her sword twice, making a red X in the air. The ''X'' flew toward the giant sword and stopped its advance. The shock wave immediately sent through the arena, and the people started cheering for them. Both of them started fighting with their swords only without using any Martial Arts. Even so, with their sheer strength as well as Spiritual Energy, it was enough to send many destruction in the arena. Their objective was to make the match flashy, and the only solution they could think of was to destroy the arena. This should be enough to make it flashy. They continued to destroy the arena without seriously hurting each other. Meanwhile, Alex was talking with a card. "Nelson, what is your status?" "I am alright, Young Master. I can kill all of them in half a day since I have marked all of them. As soon as you want me to start, I will begin the killing feast." Nelson said from the other side of the card. "Have you checked there won''t be anyone that comes or leaves the Zhou Kingdom again?" "Yes. There should be no more. The ones in the Zhou Kingdom are just leftovers." "Still, it is half a day, huh¡­ So we are going to fight that giant army without you." Alex pondered for a while. "I am sorry about my incapability." Nelson apologized. He knew Alex wanted him to assassinate all the Martial Lords in the area since his ability would be the most useful for that job. After all, Anna, Leoz, and the others, their skills would be perfect for fighting many opponents. "Alright. You have my permission. Kill them." Alex just let go of that plan as he had a backup plan for that. If they managed to kill all the Martial Lords, the battle could progress smoothly, so no matter whose job it would be, it should pose no problem as long as it succeeded. "None shall live," Nelson said with a cold tone in the end. Alex then took out Vera''s card and summoned her. "Vera, you are going to kill all the people in the basement after they have activated the array. After that, erase all traces of the array. I will summon you again when I reach Rivulet Forest." "Understood." Vera nodded and disappeared. He watched the battle unfolded. Well, since he had known the result, this match did not interest him. After several minutes clashing, Charya and the elder retreated a few steps back before Charya said while panting, "You are good." "You too." "How about we end this right now?" "Last strike." The elder nodded. Both of them then raised their swords before leaping toward each other. The conclusion came to a sudden as it looked like they were passing each other. But in that instant, there was a single clash of blade which Charya won. The elder said while falling down to the ground, "I lose¡­" "Heavenly Sword Sect wins!" The ordinary people started cheering again since they only thought this fight was good. As for the strong people from Sects or Kingdoms, they frowned because this match was something ridiculous. They knew the two people had only used a small amount of power. However, they could not exactly say anything after considering the alliance between the two sects. They just understood that Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect had made a deal just by observing this match. "Such a powerful fight. The Heavenly Sword Sect wins the first fight as Elder Charya has managed to defeat three people in the first match against the Thiveapia Kingdom, will she do the same in this match?" Charya only smiled. "Nah! I am exhausted. Fighting her is truly tiring, so I will stop in this match." "That''s a shame. But considering this is the final, then it is understandable." The announcer said. The match continued again with the second elder that came for this round. The match was exciting for the people but not for the sect master of Buddha Sect or any powerful people as they could see how fake the matches were. Until the fourth match, Alex finally got the news from Nicole. "Young Master, they have passed us, and with their speed, they should arrive in twenty minutes." "How many?" Alex asked. "There was no change of plan, so we only saw 15 Martial Kings," Nicole reported. "Understood. One of you will go to the enemy''s army and help Njomo there, and the other will follow the Martial Kings until everything starts. I will be there in half an hour or so anyway, depending on their arrival time." Alex said. "Yes" Alex contemplated a bit. Since this was the fourth match, they would need around twenty-five minutes to finish. Alex immediately contacted Letizia to speed up a little before telling the people from Heavenly Sword Sect the same thing. He then took out Njomo''s card and Ngina''s card. He asked, "Njomo, how is the situation there?" "Woof Woof Woof!" Ngina instantly translated it. "The army is getting ready to move out. It seems they should be able to move out in around two hours." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. The timing was perfect, so the enemy should not know about their plan. However, one particular matter started crawling inside his mind. It was the matter of their previous attack. He was grateful that they did not change their plan since he could make a good plan like this. Sadly, thinking about that matter, he felt the enemies might also know about this. Of course, what he did not know was how desperate the enemy was for this plan. If he knew that the enemy had paid a huge price as well as had planned a few years just for this moment, Alex could realize the enemy would not change their plan. Sadly, because he did not know this, it made him worry. Alex just made a precaution for this and was ready to change his plan if needed. When he was thinking about his plan, the matches still continued. Sometimes it was Heavenly Sword Sect that won and sometimes it was Rainbow Flower Sect. Sometimes, Heavenly Sword Sect won twice, and sometimes it was Rainbow Flower Sect. The elders from both sects clearly knew about the plan and acted according to it. The plan was just to make the match look real, so they used many types of winning situations. They knew they had to conserve their strength because the real battle would be the battle against 150,000 soldiers. They realized no matter how many shares of Spirit Stone mine they would get from this tournament, it would be useless if they did not live to exploit that. They continued their own farce until finally, it was the last match. The announcer and the audience could not wait any longer. "Finally, we are going to the last match! Alexander Sirius versus Letizia La Scola. Even I, the announcer, could not hold my excitement any longer, so without further ado, let us call Alexander Sirius and Letizia La Scola to the arena!" "Uoh!" "Ice Queen!" "The most beautiful flower from Rainbow Flower Sect!" "My goddess!" "Sword King!" "My prince, good luck!" "Kyaa!" The cheering for both of them resounded through the entire city. Their fame already stuck in everyone''s mind and would spread to the entire continent after this tournament ended. Letizia walked slowly to the arena with her beautiful smile. She tied her hair into a ponytail since today, something big would occur in the tournament. She did not want her hair to mess her up in a ridiculous moment. Meanwhile, Alex appeared in the arena, leaving nothing to show like Letizia. Letizia clasped her hand and bowed respectfully to him. "It seems we are going to end this." Alex nodded. "Yeah." "I hope we can have a battle with a sword if there is an opportunity. It is a very rare chance to get guidance from a Sword King such as yourself." "My talent is not as powerful as your Pure Ice Element. How can I compete with you in that aspect? So, I will shamelessly accept your invitation. Of course, I am also curious about the power of the Pure Ice Element." "Then, how about I show you my power first before you show me your sword skill? After that, we can fight earnestly." Letizia asked with a smile. "I don''t personally mind." Alex nodded. "Match Start!" "Then, here I go." Letizia made the first move as she stretched her hand. "Deep Frozen Ice Technique. Ice Phoenix." A big ice phoenix came toward him. Alex smiled and raised his sword. He controlled the Sword Domain and fused it to his sword before waving his sword. The Ice Phoenix suddenly cut into two and crumbled into pieces right in front of Alex. "Such a powerful technique." Letizia nodded. She then waved her hands before a huge Ice Tornado appeared in the middle of the arena. "Heaven Freezing Tornado." This was the first time Alex felt this tornado from up-close. And he finally felt the full bone-chilling aura emanated from the tornado. He might not escape unscathed if he went inside that tornado if it was not because of his Pure Fire. As expected from a Heaven Tier Martial Arts, he thought. He waved his sword and sent out a Sword Wave this time. The sword wave did not hold his element as he also wanted to see how powerful a Heaven Tier Martial Art with a Pure Element. "Seven Stars Cut." The sword wave flew toward the Cold Tornado before it started freezing in mid-air. The people thought even though it was made by a Sword King, and it still could not win against a Pure Element. Sadly, Alex had carefully aimed the sword wave after considering this effect. The Sword Wave had yet to freeze entirely before it was engulfed by the tornado. Suddenly, the tornado started to vanish. Letizia also put an astonished face for this as the Sword Wave that everyone thought was a goner, managed to destroy the tornado. However, it also came with a price as the Sword Wave also got frozen and fell to the sky before it shattered to pieces on the ground. "Such a powerful move from a Sword King. To think you can destroy this attack." Letizia nodded. Alex only shrugged. "This is also my strongest move." Letizia sighed inwardly. She knew Alex still had his Pure Fire Element, and he would be able to destroy her tornado easily if he decided to use that power. She smiled, "Then, may I have the pleasure to have a sword fight with you?" Alex paused for a bit before he nodded. "Sure." Alex recalled his spear back and raised his sword. He pointed at his sword toward her and said, "Please." Letizia nodded as she was ready to make the first move. However, just before she stepped forward, "Hahaha¡­ so these two are the greatest prodigies in Wilow Continent. A Pure Ice Element and A Sword King in his early twenties¡­" A sound suddenly echoed through everyone''s ears. "Who is it? Show yourself!" Honda Sana suddenly rose from her seat and flew to the sky. She roared to the empty air in front of her while narrowing her eyes. 425 True Spirit Body A few minutes ago, The Martial Kings had arrived at Carageo City, and they were greeted by a single Martial Lord. "Welcome, Seniors." "How is it going?" An old man asked. "Yes. We have set the stage, and Senior can use the array anytime." "Then how about the participants in this tournament? We are purposely going this late because we want others to show their talents and prowess. That way, we can make them submit and become the pawn of our kingdom." "There are a few noticeable people, such as Thiveapia Kingdom''s genius Princess, Evelyn, or Rainbow Flower Sect''s Mina. However, there are two people that perfectly fit Senior''s influence." "Hoo¡­ Do tell." "The first one is a female from Rainbow Flower Sect. She is the daughter of the sect master, and she has the Pure Ice Element." "Pure Ice Element?" The old man and the others opened their eyes in surprise. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "I see. Good good. This is excellent news for Brynhildr Kingdom since the kingdom does not have a Pure Element yet." The old man nodded before noticing something. "You said the first one¡­ then, there is the second one?" "Yes." The Martial Lord nodded as his expression turned serious. "The second one is a male from Heavenly Sword Sect. According to our information, he is only in his early twenties, and he has only joined Heavenly Sword Sect for three years. Within that time, He manages to advance from 1-Star Martial Master to 8-Star Martial Lord." "I see. That must be the golden lightning boy." The elder nodded. "I have the information about that boy." "Se-senior. I am afraid this boy is different than reported." The Martial Lord said with a bit of an unsure tone. "What do you mean?" "This boy is a Sword King and a Spear King despite his young age." "What?!" They were shocked once again. The elder asked hurriedly, "What is the size of his domain?" "Both have 100 meters." He answered. The old man immediately pondered for a moment. A hundred meters was the minimum size for a Sword King to do a decent battle with its own power, so he was assured that this boy was really a Sword King. Still, he was unsure whether this boy was a Spear King or not since they lacked information. "Fu¡­" The old man''s expression turned serious. "Alright, you are not needed here. Go back to the army and tell everyone to get ready. We will destroy all the sects and kingdoms in this continent as soon as we kill the people in the tournament." "Yes." The Martial Lord nodded his head and disappeared. "Our main goal is this continent and its resources, but having two bonuses such as Pure Ice Element and Sword King is really a good thing. Let''s move." The elder said. ¡­ A few minutes later, "Show yourself." Honda Sana roared while releasing the full might of a Peak Martial King. The people in the arena were confused about this but still looking up. Suddenly, an old man appeared out of nowhere. The old man was using a staff to support his body even though he was flying in the air. All of his hair had gone from his head, leaving his short beard as the only ''hair'' in his head. He looked at Honda Sana with his blue eyes. Honda Sana narrowed her eyes as this was the people Alex told her. Although only this old man was the one who showed himself, she knew there were another 14 Martial Kings that were still hiding. She looked at the old man''s clothes. His long white robe had a symbol, and she clearly knew that symbol. "Brynhildr Kingdom." "You are right. This old man is from Nilis Continent''s Brynhildr Kingdom. As expected from the next leader of Northern Continent''s Honda Family¡­ No, I should call you the Servant of the Blackwade Clan. With your power, you can become the head of your second rate influence, Honda Family, but you choose to serve the Blackwade Clan." The old man said with a smile. "Hmph. Are your Brynhildr Kingdom going to make war with the entire Wilow Continent and Northern Continent?!" Honda Sana snorted. "Of course we know about the pact between continents. However, as long as no one informs the Northern Continent about this, we can gain an extended time of peace where we can get enough resources from this continent to grow." "So, just to stop me, you are planning to fight with all those people?" Honda Sana looked in another direction as fourteen people suddenly appeared. "Correct!" "Your Brynhildr Kingdom is almost a second rate influence so long you can birth a single Martial Emperor." Honda Sana narrowed her eyes. "Nonetheless, you are going to die in this place together with these people." The old man said as he raised his wand. "Activate!" Suddenly, the ground started glowing as the light coming from the array beneath the arena managed to go through the gap between the stones. "What is this light?" "Wait, what is happening? My element¡­" "Ugh, my body refuses to move!" "What is this pain?" The people started falling down one after another. Only Martial Kings that did not find anything wrong with it. The Buddha Sect''s sect master looked around and panicked. "What is this?" As for Cecilia and Xiang Bai, they were still calm in this situation. They just got a bit surprised when they saw the king of Zhou Kingdom was one of the Martial Kings. Meanwhile, Alex was also down to the ground. When the array was activated, he also had a feeling of suppression since his Pure Fire was still contained inside his Phoenix Seed. However, the Pure Fire immediately broke it open and resisted the elemental suppression coming from the array, so he did not feel a single thing. Even so, he acted like he got suppressed by it and fell to the ground. Seeing that, Letizia also fell down to the ground, following his action. Alex looked at Letizia and nodded his head. Letizia immediately murmured, "I surrender." Even though no one recognized this, it was still recognized by the system. [Mission: First Rank in Martial Lord Tournament (Complete) Reward: Premium Gacha Tickets 20x \u0026 Super EXP (UR) Card] [Mission: First Rank in Martial Grandmaster Tournament (Complete) Reward: UR Spirit Card x1 Note: If Host participates in the Martial Lord Tournament, you will automatically complete this mission as soon as the tournament ends.] Alex smiled as he immediately said to the system. "Use the Super EXP card to Jeanne." [Processing] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 124321/370000] Jeanne immediately advanced a whole realm from 6-Star Martial Lord to 6-Star Martial King. This was his backup plan since Nelson could not help him with the army. After all, in one on one fight, she might not be as powerful as Leoz, but she certainly was the fastest one who would finish the battle. So, Alex wanted Jeanne to assassinate as many as Martial Lord as possible. And with this, the situation had changed. He did not have the time to go through the Premium Tickets and UR Spirit Card, so he ignored them first. Alex then observed the people in the air and saw only the people from Zhou Kingdom had the blood red energy. He thought it was normal as the enemy would not want to use that pill to their Martial Kings. But it was also a relief for him since his spirits would not need to watch out for the Berserk Pill. In the air, the old men then looked toward Alex and Letizia. "Both of you have high talent, so I will offer you this. Swear your undying loyalty to the kingdom, and we will nurture you!" Alex, who was on his knees, snorted. "Leave sleep talking when you are asleep." "You bastard, when Elder Ryan is talking, you only need to shut your mouth and accept it gratefully." "Hoho¡­ I like this young man''s strong personality. But, I wonder how long you can hold onto that personality of yours? I cherish your abilities, so I will make sure you do not die. Still, I don''t say you won''t feel pain if you decide to reject me from the get-go." He then turned to the Martial Kings from the Zhou Kingdom. "One of you beat him first and make him swear his loyalty to Brynhildr Kingdom. Don''t worry, as long as he has sworn his loyalty, he would not be able to betray us no matter how much he hates us." One of them nodded and moved toward Alex. "You bastard!" Honda Sana tried to save him, but she was blocked by ten people. Two from each 5-Star to 10-Star Martial King, except the 9-Star Martial King. They immediately released their Spiritual Energy and surrounded her so she could not save him. Honda Sana gritted her teeth as she watched a Martial King come to Alex. She murmured before smirking, "50 seconds¡­" Meanwhile, the 1-Star Martial King came to Alex and snorted. "Heh¡­ You have stopped our plans a few times and killed many of our people. This time, I will make you understand pain." He grabbed Alex''s hair and raised him up. "You are lucky since Elder Ryan fancy your abilities. If not, you will have the same fate as all the people inside this city. Death!" The people gasped when they heard that. Even so, they could not do anything because of the suppression that they knew nothing of. "51¡­ 52¡­" Alex murmured as he smiled. He slowly raised his hand as he covered it with his Sword Domain. The Martial King snorted as he thought this was only Alex''s last struggle. "Even if you are a Martial King, you won''t be able to fi-eh?!" Just before he finished, he realized his vision turned upside down before he saw his body without a head. In that instant, Alex used a very fast movement and sent his head flying with his hand that was acting as a sword. The light that came from beneath the arena started to disappear, and the people began to notice the change. "Eh? I can move my body again?" "That''s right, that feeling is gone." The people rose from the ground with a clueless expression. Alex only snorted as he looked up. "Trash." "!!!" They had yet to realize what was going on, but the fact that one of the Martial King''s had died in Alex''s hand was clear to see. Suddenly, someone was rushing toward Alex with a sword in his hand. After seeing his comrade died, he could not hold this feeling. "You bastard, how dare you to kill him!" "Don''t kill him!" Elder Ryan wanted to kill the one who rushed to him. Still, he and the others were stopped by Honda Sana as she released her Spiritual Energy. Alex only smiled when he saw him coming. He took out Anna''s card and summoned her secretly. "!!!" The Martial King immediately recognized this pressure that was coming from his side. He immediately swung his sword to the right, but it was too late. "You dare to point your sword to my husband. You deserve death!" Anna''s scythe was already on his neck and immediately beheaded him. "Hiss-!" The people could not react at all as they saw a heavenly beauty suddenly come. However, it was different for the people from Brynhildr Kingdom. Elder Ryan immediately shouted, "Mica, Zink, kill them! They have realized our plan." Seeing Anna was a 5-Star Martial King, he immediately sent two 6-Star Martial Kings. The two nodded and charged toward Anna and Alex. However, at this time, Alex summoned Leoz and Jeanne at the same time. "!!!" The two Martial Kings realized better than the Martial King from Zhou Kingdom, but they were still too late. Even though Leoz and Jeanne could not kill them, each of them managed to get one hand. The two Martial Kings immediately retreated while looking at them. Alex said as he summoned Fabio, the last Martial King, "You want to fight with numbers? I have too. Better quality than yours to boot." In the arena, there were Alex as well as four Martial Kings beside him. Alex said, "Do it." Four of them nodded to his command and said, "True Spirit Body!" 426 Barrier "True Spirit Body! Dark Butterfly Spirit!" Anna immediately released her beautiful butterfly wings. With her big scythe on her hands as well as her beauty, she would look like a fairy in the full moon, dancing and singing. The people were entranced by her appearance. "True Spirit Body! Thunder Berserker Spirit!" This time, it was Leoz. Unlike Anna''s noticeable wings, Leoz only grew a pair of horns in his head. Even so, the thunder started sparking from his body, and his fierce aura grew more and more deadly. "True Spirit Body! Ifrit Spirit!" Unlike the other two that did not have any big change in their appearance, Fabio had the biggest one as the fire started covering his full body. From others'' perspectives, Fabio looked like a Fire Elemental, a being that was controlled and made by fire. "True Spirit Body!" Ethereal Lightning Body!" Even so, Jeanne was the most different from them. After all, even though she was still considered as a Spirit, her true form was nature itself. She was the lightning, and lightning was her. She got a true body because she received it from Alex in the past. It was the same as Jean, who was supposed to be her twin. Jean was the water itself, and because both of them were different, she considered them as a twin. All of them released their own Spiritual Energy and started pressuring those people. Without giving any chances for the people to recover, Alex immediately instructed them. "Leoz will take the 7-Star and 8-Star Martial Kings simultaneously. It is enough just to buy time and make sure you don''t use your energy that much since we have another battle after this. "Anna will take care of the two 6-Star Martial Kings in front of us while Fabio takes care of the two 5-Star Martial Kings. "Jeanne will take care of the Martial Kings from the Zhou Kingdom¡­ the weaker ones. After you finish with them, help Fabio and Anna before you three help Leoz. "The sect masters will evacuate the civilians out of the town and not in the direction of the Rivulet Forest. After all of them are safe, make sure you go to the Rivulet Forest for another battle. "Letizia, I want you to bring all the elders to go toward our people in the neighboring city and lead them to Rivulet Forest. "Meanwhile, I will stop their 150,000 armies. Move out!" Alex immediately gave his order. Initially, he wanted to leave the Martial Kings from Zhou Kingdom to the sect masters, because he was unsure whether he could get the last EXP card. Since he already leveled Jeanne up, he did not need to use a risk card since he was unsure whether the sect masters could fight those Martial Kings if they used the Berserk Pill. After giving his order, Alex immediately flew toward the Rivulet Forest. "!!!" Mica and Zink immediately leaped toward him to stop him again. Still, they suddenly raised their sword as a black colored attack came toward them. The attack immediately pushed them back. "Dark Cut!" Anna appeared between Alex and them. She looked down on them and said, "The likes of you are not qualified to stop him!" His spirits were the first one to do according to his orders. Leoz and Fabio immediately came to Honda Sana and met their respective opponents. "I shall buy time for you with these four people," Leoz said to Honda Sana. Fabio also nodded and said, "Then I will get these two people. You shall handle the two peak Martial Kings." Honda Sana narrowed her eyes before nodding her head. Even though she was a bit unsure whether these two can hold them on, especially Leoz. However, she did not say anything as she could feel a powerful strength inside Leoz that had yet to be released. "You Bastard! You know about our plan!" Ryan roared. "We have the number one spy in the world. Knowing your plan is easy for us." Leoz snorted before ignoring him and attacked his own opponents. Their battle finally started. As for the rest, Letizia immediately shouted. "All elders from Rainbow Flower Sect as well as Heavenly Sword Sect hear me. We shall go to Thine City and lead our disciples to the Rivulet Forest." When they heard that shout, they immediately woke from their daze. Even though they had known about this, it was still too shocking for them¡­ from the amount of Spiritual Energy released by many Martial Kings, and they also did not know about Alex''s plan, so it was normal for them to be like this. They immediately gathered around her and flew toward Thine City together. The three sect masters also roared to the people in the arena. "We are going to Shamwar Forest." Xiang Bai immediately said to the Buddha Sect''s sect master. "You are going to help the people in the arena evacuate to Shamwar Forest and also bring your disciples to help with the evacuation process." He then turned to Cecilia. "I am going to the north of the city, and you go to the south. We are going to chase them to Shamwar Forest. If possible, I want to make the soldiers from this city to help the evacuation process." Cecilia glanced toward the announcer and grabbed him. "You are the city lord. Immediately mobilize your soldiers to help the evacuation." "Un¡­understand!" The announcer did not ask any questions because he was a bit scared of the situation as well as her. The leaders of the kingdoms, except the Zhou Kingdom also came to them. "We will help you too." Even though they did not know what was going on, the fact that there were multiple Martial Kings in a single place, it must be something big. Of course, if the enemies only targeted Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect, then they would not go so far to help them. But it seemed they were also on the list, so they had no choice other than helping them. Xiang Bai and Cecilia nodded their heads. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex had arrived in the Rivulet Forest. After going out of the city, he immediately used his Teleportation Array and went to their last position. He then summoned Njomo and said, "We are going to fill the array with twenty million Spirit Stones now, guide me." Njomo nodded and started running. Both of them circled around the area and filled the five Gathering Arrays. Alex was surely made a huge array as he was not sure whether he would have time to refill it if he just put a million or ten million at once. Because of the size, Alex made sure the place he drew the array would not be easily discovered. After filling the Spirit Stones, Alex positioned himself in one of the Barrier Array. He channeled his Spiritual Energy just to start the array. The array started glowing. There was also a line of arrays that connected the array in his feet to the other arrays. After they were activated and fully connected to the Spirit Gathering Array, Alex did not need to supply his Spiritual Energy again as it would immediately take the energy from the Spirit Stones. When they started glowing, it was such a nice sight as he could see many lights between the woods. Of course, the fact that he could see this, the enemy soldiers could also see this. After he felt all arrays had been activated, he immediately clapped his hand. "Barrier Formation! Moonstone Barrier Great Formation!" Twenty arrays immediately projected themselves in the air before it was connected to the real array right below it with a stream of light. It was like a cell bar, and each cell bar immediately made a connection with each other, creating an enormous prism that trapped all the people inside. The soldiers immediately bewildered when they saw this. It became an uproar inside their ranks too. "What happens?" "Look at the light!" "Hurry up, check it!" "Are we trapped inside this?" "It must be an array, but there should be no array that has this enormous size!" "Send a signal to the outside scout and make them come back." They immediately threw a smoke signal that was seen by the scouts. They were also bewildered by this sudden phenomenon and already made their way toward the base even before the smoke signal rose. Because of the army scale, they had around a thousand people scouting around the area. Alex was a bit surprised by this number too, so he immediately summoned Greg, Anya, Vera, and Artur. "We know the situation. Our targets are those soldiers, right?" Anya immediately asked. "Can you fight, Anya?" Alex asked. "Well, I don''t have a powerful move like the others, but I can swing my staff around. Since the opponents are not really powerful, I can deal with them." Anya nodded. "..." Alex paused a bit before he said, "You are going together with me." Anya was surprised by his order. Even though she was tempted to do it, she ultimately shook her head. "I know you are worried, but don''t underestimate me. I can still fight, and we five need to kill all of them somehow." Alex shook his head. He summoned Wright, Salijan, and Limao. "You three are going to help us with this." The trio nodded their heads. Alex then turned to Njomo, "You and Ngina will go scout around the area and make sure no one approaches the core of the arrays." Njomo nodded and disappeared. Alex then turned to his spirits. "Alright, we are going to attack them now!" Anya did not raise any objection again and moved together with him. Even Sherry and Kyle came out of his body as they roared. Alex and Anya met their first group. It was a group of fifty people, and a group of people from inside the barrier were trying to talk to them. "Look! There are two people!" One of them noticed Alex. Alex did not say anything as he took out twenty swords from his Space Ring and started massacring those people. Of course, Anya also helped him, but she only got three people while Alex killed the rest. He then looked at the people inside the barrier. "You bastard!" "Who are you?!" "Do you know who we are?!" "Release this barrier at once!" They were raging inside the array. Alex stopped for a bit and looked at them without any expression. "Alex?" Anya looked at him, confused. Alex waved his hand as a Phoenix flew out of his hand. Just right before the phoenix would hit the barrier, Alex made a portal using his Spatial Gate and connected it to the inside. "Boom!" The people were taken aback by this and died by the explosion. Alex just thought of another strategy to make a ruckus inside. "Alex, you are not thinking about making a ruckus by sending all your attacks and might be others attacks too, right?" Anya asked with a complicated expression. "Ahaha¡­" Alex scratched his cheek, embarrassed. "You can''t do that, you know. After all, we need to clear the people outside the barrier first." Anya said while Alex only sighed. She then continued with a smug smile, "Well, after that, you are free to do whatever you want! We might even be able to kill a bunch of them." Alex smirked as he gave a thumb up to her. They then started going again. Of course, he knew he could do something like this with the sixty thousand disciples from his side, but it was not worth it as he needed to reveal his Space Element to them. So, he was planning to do it before the people from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect came. After a while, they had cleared the people since they did not have that high cultivation which he could kill pretty easily. And after a bit longer, the people led by Letizia came and dropped their jaws. 427 Martial Kings At the same time, in the arena, Alex spirits such as Anna, Leoz, and the others had met their respective opponents. Jeanne was getting it easy since she only needed to take care of three 1-Star or 2-Star Martial Kings since Alex had got two of them. And with her prowess as a 6-Star Martial King as well as True Spirit Body, it was clearly overkill. "A kid?" "But she is a 6-Star Martial King!" The people were dumbfounded. Not only the Martial Kings from Zhou Kingdom but also the people that had yet to leave the arena since it was too packed up with people. Remembering Alex could order a kid like this despite only having 8-Star Martial Lord cultivation, they were wondering what kind of background Alex truly had. Not only did he have a beautiful ''young'' Martial King wife, but he also had someone like this. Evelyn was stupefied when she saw her. She was helping the others in the evacuation but could not look away from her. She sighed as she knew there was no point in comparing herself to Alex''s friends and such. Little did they know that Jeanne and the others were a spirit, and they never aged. Of course, Jeanne and the others did not care about what others thought as long as Alex was fine with it. Jeanne immediately covered her hands with lightning as she looked at the trio Martial Kings. "If I am not tight in time, you will experience the worst thing in your life before you die. But since Master needs us as soon as possible, then there is no choice." "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark!" She placed her hand on the ground, and three sparks of lightning suddenly moved from her hand to the ground before moving toward the trio. "!!!" All of them jumped backward as to avoid the lightning, but the lightning suddenly sparked and left the ground. It then jumped forward like a kangaroo and charged at them. "Silver Sword!" "Extinguishing Spear." "Blood of Ashura." The trio immediately used their own skills to destroy the lightning attack, but before their skills managed to reach them, the lightning fused together and made a single entity. It destroyed their three attacks in an instant and continued its way toward them. Sadly, because the lightning fused together, it could only kill one of them by making a big hole right in their heart before exploding inside their body. Jeanne did not leave them a chance as she suddenly moved as fast as lightning and appeared behind one of them. She swung both of her two short swords, making a cross on their body. Each short sword sent a powerful lightning wave and split the Martial King into four pieces. It also made a huge ''X'' on the ground for the after effect. She then turned to the last one, ready to kill him. "Hii!" Seeing Jeanne killed two of them in an instant, he was scared. He tried to run away from the arena, but Jeanne simply threw one of her Short Swords. The sword flew like a bullet, piercing right through his heart. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet." She grabbed her short sword again before going toward Anna, who was the closest. But when she looked at Anna''s opponent, one of them had lost both of his hands while the other one was fully covered with wounds. "Help Fabio, we will regroup after that and help Leoz," Anna said. Jeanne nodded and left. Anna then turned toward her opponents once again. Because of the surprise attacks, they had been struggling against her. Anna simply did not care about them, she completely suppressed them with her scythe. "Dark Butterfly, Second Order. Nightmare Butterfly." She swung her scythe as a few dark butterflies appeared, flying toward the duo. They instantly knew that these butterflies were dangerous. They retreated a few steps back, but Anna did not let them. She immediately made the butterfly surround them. "White Light Sword." The heavily injured one tried to cut as many as butterflies as possible. They could not escape from her with their current condition, so the only hope for that was to buy time until the others could help them. Sadly, when the butterflies were cut down, they immediately exploded and shot out some kind of dark energy toward their body. The injured one could still block a few of them, but the one that had no hands left was completely covered with that dark energy. "Argh!" He immediately roared in pain, feeling thousands of ants crept inside his body and slowly fed his organs. The other one also felt the pain, but because of the amount, he did not feel that pain. At the very least, it was still within the amount that he could endure. Anna immediately appeared behind the dying guy and pierced his heart with her scythe. She then charged toward the other guy with her scythe. Anna let out a powerful desire to kill him and swung her scythe. "Dark-!" "White Light Sword." The guy tried to defend his life from this attack. Sadly, because of his current state, Anna''s killing intent was just a bait as her real target was his hand. "Kh!" Seeing his other hand got chopped, he immediately retreated. Anna rotated her body and completed her swing. "-Cut!" An attack like a Sword Wave flew from her scythe to the Martial Kings and killed the guy. She grabbed their space rings with a carefree attitude. Since Alex was using a hundred Million Spirit Stones, she should at least grab these people''s possessions for him. She glanced at the Martial Kings from Zhou Kingdoms. Jeanne seemed to forget to grab their space rings, so she decided to get over there and grab their possessions. When she was about to fly, she saw two men fall from the sky. One of them was burned to death while the other one was roasted by lightning. Nonetheless, she simply grabbed their space rings and flew to the sky. "You two should get their possessions. Alex has half of his pocket, so we need to receive something more." Anna reprimanded Fabio and Jeanne. They thought this battle would last longer, but because of Jeanne''s super power up, they managed to end this pretty quickly. Anna looked at Leoz and Honda Sana. Honda Sana was still flawlessly buying time for them. She made sure to conserve her strength while constantly wounding the two peak Martial Kings. As for Leoz¡­ it was completely a mess. Out of the four people that were fighting him, three of them had many wounds in their body. However, there was one of them that had a big cut right in their chest area. Leoz was also not that better either. Wounds also covered his body, but luckily, it was not superficial ones. "Fabio and Jeanne will attack one of the 7-Star while I take the other one. After you finish, you will attack the 8-Star since I am not sure I can finish the 7-Star with the same amount of time." Anna ordered. "Alright. We are understood. Leoz should be able to finish the last one." Jeanne nodded. All of them then went toward Leoz to help him. "Dark Cut." "!!!" All four of them immediately retreated from Leoz. Anna and the others met their respective opponents. She said, "Leoz, you need to preserve your stamina." "Haha¡­ sorry sorry. I am also not sure if I can fight until the end, you know about my True Spirit Body characteristic." "You can still use your Thunder God Cannon, right? There might be a chance for you to fully recover later." Anna said. What she meant by ''a chance to fully recover'' was Level Up. Leoz nodded. "Yeah, I know. I should be able to kill ten to fifteen thousand of them with two charges, depending on the place." "Then, that''s good." She nodded as she flew toward one of the 7-Star Martial Kings. "Dark Butterfly, Second Order. Nightmare Butterfly." She immediately sent a wave of butterflies. "Two Swords of Light." The Martial King used two swords to chop all the butterflies that were coming toward him. Even the dark energy from the butterflies was repelled. She leaped toward him with her scythe. She started engaging him in close combat. ¡­ Meanwhile, on Honda Sana''s side, "Honda Raid Sword!" "Twin Sphere." "Mightiest Spear." A clash between Sword, two flame balls, and a spear managed to shake the empty arena. Honda Sana looked at both of them after seeing the spirits'' power. She never thought they were this strong, especially when they used what they called ''True Spirit Body.'' She even felt her life would be in danger if she fought them. However, the most surprising thing would be Jeanne. There was no Martial King that young, even in the Northern Continent. So, she was a bit glad, not attacking or forcing Alex to do something against his will. At the very least, dragging him to the Northern Continent might be considered the latter. She was wondering where he knew them. She said to the two old men in front of her. "Your plan has failed. Just kill yourself." "Shut up, you woman. Don''t think just because you have got an advantage, you can defeat us. We still have 150,000 soldiers. Even though you are a Martial King, you would not be able to escape from those many, and we won''t let you come back to the Northern Continent." One of them said. "That is if your army can help you." Honda Sana snorted. "Hmph! Do you think a single Martial Lord can stop our army? You are dreaming. Even with the help of many people, they still can''t stop our army. After all, our army has five thousand Martial Lords." Elder Ryan said as he took out a token from his space ring. He lit them up, waiting for the response. However, even after a while, he had yet to get any response. "Oi, Old Ryan. Why have they not replied back to us?" "I don''t know." Ryan shook his head as he looked at Honda Sana with a complicated expression. "Hpmh. You are a useless old fart, just kill yourself¡­ so embarrassing." Honda Sanae openly mocked him. "You-!" Ryan gritted his teeth. "We are going to the Rivulet Forest." "Do you think I will let you?" Honda Sana immediately appeared behind them. "Old Ryan, go to the Rivulet Forest, I will hold her back." The old man beside him said. Ryan looked at him without saying anything. He did not know how their plan was discovered, but the way Alex handled this clearly told him he completely knew their plan. With the addition of the token incident just now, he was sure Alex must have prepared something to stop the army. After two seconds, he finally nodded. "Alright, I will leave this place to you." Ryan flew around the place to go to Rivulet Forest, leaving Honda Sana in the dust. "I won''t let you." Honda Sana flew toward him. Suddenly the other one appeared in front of her and thrust his spear. "I also won''t let you stop him. Mightiest Spear." "Get out of my way. Honda Raid Sword." She swung her sword with her full power. "Bam!" The blow was very powerful as the enemy got a wound on his left waist. She then tried to sneak past him, but the old man gritted his teeth and thrust his spear again. "!!!" Honda Sana was forced to parry this and retreated back. She clicked her tongue as she looked at Ryan, who was trying to help the army. Suddenly, two people''s voices echoed in their ears. One of them was a young kid''s voice, and the other one was a deep voice. "Master is not someone like you should bother." "You need to get past me first." "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet!" "Thunder Break." Two lightning bolts suddenly came and stopped Ryan. 428 Teamwork A few minutes ago, Anna was still fighting against the 7-Star Martial King. It was a bit hard to defeat him since, unlike the previous two, he had not lost his hand or something. She just tried to make some kind of opening before heavily injuring him. Sadly, she could not. The least she could do was just to make wounds after wounds as to lower his power. She had used her Tri Xeta, but every time she used it, the guy would block it no matter what. From the look of it, he was a bit scared of every technique she possessed. "Dark-!" She raised her scythe, ready to swing it down. However, she suddenly noticed a powerful presence coming from her right. She recognized this presence, this was not someone but a thing. The guy in front of her immediately swung his sword to his left, trying to block a short sword. It was at this time, he suddenly lost his balance as he was overpowered by the short sword. "!!!" Anna immediately took this chance to attack him. "Dark Cut!" "Swing-! Not good! I won''t make it." He gritted his teeth and turned his body over. He barely avoided death, but Anna still got his right hand and right leg. At least, she managed to get the hand that was holding the sword. "Kh!" Anna then swung her scythe toward him, trying to stab it in his heart. The man gritted his teeth as he grabbed his sword with his other hand and used it to parry Anna''s attack. Even so, Anna used the height advantage and blasted him to the ground. "Boom!" "Dark Cut." She once again sent her Dark Cut as the follow up before turning her head toward Jeanne and Fabio. Their opponent was also heavily injured as there was a huge stab wound on his stomach and a charred left hand. They should be able to kill him in a jiffy, so they decided to help her. Anna then appeared behind that guy, making it a 3v1 battle. She slashed his back with her scythe. "Tri Xeta." She finally inflicted her Tri Xeta. The only ability that could restrict an opponent''s power. Seeing Anna come over, Jeanne decided to throw the other Short Sword toward the guy on the ground. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet." The guy on the ground only had a little strength left inside him. Even so, he kept trying to block this attack. Sadly, his effort was not rewarded as the Short Sword slipped out of his sword and pierced his head. She then came to retrieve her sword. "Ifrit Spirit, Magma Claw!" Fabio also took this chance to attack the last guy. He sent a big fire claw, trying to make that person become molten lava. The guy obviously did not want that, but when he tried to block this, he suddenly noticed that his reaction was too slow. He immediately retreated back. "Gah!" Sadly, Fabio managed to still melt his other arm, and finally, Anna sent his head flying with her scythe. This was a good strategy despite not going with the original plan. Because they had fought together for so long, adjusting in the battle like this was considered normal for them. So, this was not a big deal. They then looked at Leoz and saw him injuring them pretty heavily, especially the one that had lost his hand. "We are going to take that one hand guy together in an instant before going to the second one." "Alright." All of them immediately came to him. "Dark Cut!" Anna used her Dark Cut and separated them "Ifrit Spirit, Magma Wall!" Fabio made a fire wall and completely blocked them off. "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark." A snake like lightning suddenly flew from Jeanne''s hand toward the one arm guy. "Don''t underestimate me." The one-arm guy roared and thrust his spear, completely breaking Jeanne''s attack. Anna only smiled as she raised her hand, "Dark Curtain." The moment the Dark Curtain was up, it completely sealed the one arm guy''s eyes. He was bewildered at that and tried to realize what happened. He instantly recognized there was something that was stopping him from seeing the light from his domain. He immediately sent an attack there, but he suddenly felt another attack coming toward him while breaking the Dark Curtain in its way. "Mightiest Thrust!" He tried to destroy the attack like before, but suddenly, he felt something wrong. Even though the attack looked the same, the power was far too different from what he had before. "Ethereal Lightning Spirit Second Charge, Bullet," Jeanne smirked. She did not throw a single sword this time, but two. Because she threw it one after another, it looked like her ''First Charge'' with that length. The guy managed to deflect the first sword but was killed by the second sword. Fabio then retrieved her swords and gave it back to her. They were trying to go to the last person before helping Honda Sana, but when they tried to do it, Anna saw Ryan trying to escape. She immediately flew toward Leoz''s opponent while shouting. "Leoz, Jeanne. Go stop that bastard for me, I will handle this one." "!!!" When they heard that, they immediately turned their head. Leoz and Jeanne did not say anything and immediately tried to catch up with the old man. "Do you think I will let you stop him?!" Leoz''s opponent roared. "You will, since you are going to die!" Anna swung her scythe as dark energy covered the blade. "Tri Xeta!" He snorted and immediately raised his hands. Both of his hands were covered with fire, and he was trying to blast Anna''s scythe away. "Flowing of infinity, Fire Guardian!" He made a fire shield that would explode as soon as Anna touched it with her weapon. However, when Anna saw this, she only snorted. "Puny fire." She shifted her body and stance a bit, making way for Fabio to release his attack. Fabio already stretched both of his hands to the front and made a head-sized ball with intense heat. It suddenly shot out a laser-like attack toward the shield. "Ifrit Spirit, Magma Flow." The attack immediately clashed with the shield, but surprisingly, it did not explode. In fact, the shield started melting. "What is this?" The guy was startled with this. Anna took this chance to attack him once again, "Tri Xeta." She made a graze on him, inflicting her Tri Xeta. The dark energy immediately came inside his body and decreased his reaction speed. She only sent Leoz and Jeanne for that Ryan because she knew Fabio would not show his power brightly there. It was because of the power difference. She might not be that useful there either. After all, both her and Fabio were still 5-Star Martial Kings. They might be able to handle this 8-Star Martial King in front of them with their power, but 10-Star Martial King was out of their league even with their True Spirit Body. In fact, if not because Leoz wounded the guy in front of them, they might not be able to fight him this easily. Leoz was a 7-Star Martial King as well as one of the strongest spirits, so he would be able to face that peak Martial King. As for Jeanne, her power was very convenient in one on one fight. That was the reason why Anna sent the lightning and thunder duo to stop the peak Martial King. "Fabio!" "Understood." Fabio nodded and raised his sword. "Twin Elements Slash! (Husband Version)." He sent the same sword wave that he used in the Nemu Forest. This was a couple technique, but Vera was not here, so he could only release a fire sword wave. The guy raised his shield once again, but this time, the shield managed to make an explosion. "Dark Curtain." Because there was no obstacle anymore, she immediately retreated and raised her Dark Curtain as big as possible, shrouding her, Fabio, and the 8-Star Martial King with complete darkness. Fabio immediately sent another attack toward her. In this pitch-black environment, the light coming from Fabio''s attack immediately brightened the place a little bit. "Ifrit Spirit, Magma Flow." "Hmph, I have seen this move already." He raised his hand and attacked him with a similar attack. "Fire God Beam." The guy also tried to search Anna, but because he was a Fire Cultivator, he did not have a domain or something. So, he raised his hand upward and sent a fireball upward. It then exploded and sent something like military flares and brightened the place. Sadly, Anna already made her move from behind. She sent her Dark Cut toward him, trying to catch him off guard. The guy just raised his hand and made a shield again. "Fire Guardian!" But because Anna managed to inflict him with Tri Xeta, he did not have enough time to make the complete shield. It was at this moment, he knew he f*cked up. The Dark Cut immediately cut the incomplete shield together with him. After that, Anna released the Dark Curtain. Fabio came to her and asked, "Are we going to help them?" "..." Anna looked at Leoz and Jeanne as well as Honda Sana before shaking her head. "No. I am going to gather all these people''s heads since it can be used to intimidate the soldiers after this. You are going to burn all the Blood and Berserk Pills in these rings." ¡­ Meanwhile, Jeanne and Leoz were in a hard fight against this Ryan. "Thunder Spirit Slash." "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark." "Twin Sphere." Leoz''s sword slash and Jeanne''s attack were completely blocked by these two spheres. They looked at the two wind spheres in his hands. The wind velocity in that sphere was astonishing as it could deflect their attack. They still did not have a way to deal with this until Jeanne said, "Leoz, I am going to use ''that,'' so stop him for three seconds." "!!!" Leoz was surprised by this. He knew exactly what was ''that.'' He asked, "Are you sure about this?" "Master has been waiting for us," Jeanne said with a serious expression. Leoz paused a bit and nodded his head. "Alright." "Thunder Constellation." Suddenly, there was a kind of Star Constellation. But the shape looked like a Pivot Stickfigure. There were thirteen points in the constellation. One in the head, two on each hand and foot, and four in the body. Just like a star, the spots shone brightly before suddenly each of them produced thunder, and their target was Ryan. Ryan was startled by this. He tried to move his body but to no avail even with his full power. Leoz had used his full power to bind Ryan after all. Jeanne then clasped her hand and prayed. "Lightning Spirit Worship o'' Spirit God. Use my body as the catalyst, so you may strike my enemy with your lightning. Lightning Dragon!" There was no dark cloud nor extreme weather. But there was certainly lightning that appeared out of nowhere before shaping into a dragon. The lightning dragon struck forth, raising the hair on their hands. When Anna and Fabio felt this, Fabio immediately came to the front and raised a fire wall, shielding him and Anna together. "What is this? What is this?!" Ryan roared as he struggled to break free from this restraint. "This is what we always have¡­ A good sunny day with a chance of Jeanne." Leoz said while shrugging. The lightning dragon engulfed Ryan and made a very massive explosion that engulfed almost one twice the size of the arena and destroyed the civilians'' houses. "You shorten your chant?" Leoz noticed something off. "I am just a Martial King at the moment. Wait for me to become a Martial Emperor, I can do a full chant, and with that, wiping the entire city from the map is nothing but an easy task." Jeanne said. Honda Sana and her opponent were also surprised by this and raised their own barrier to block the explosion. Because of the shock of losing all the Martial Kings as well as the plan''s failure, the old guy was a bit late to react after this. Honda Sana immediately took this chance and cut him down. 429 Teasing? Honda Sana did not manage to take him down even with the shock. She only managed to take one of his arms. Seeing that, Leoz immediately helped her, and before long, the last peak Martial Kings finally died. Jeanne could not help them as the last attack took almost her entire energy. Even her True Spirit Body was released. "You¡­" Honda Sana wanted to utter the question of her confusion, but she realized it was not the best time to ask it. "Never mind." "What do you want with their Space Rings? I am sure they have some wealth inside." Leoz asked her while narrowing his eyes. Honda Sana simply shook her head. She would die anyway if Leoz and the others were not here. She looked at the peak Martial Kings, and she knew she did not kill any of them. "You guys can take it. I might already die without ''him'' knowing their plan and all of you. Besides, I am here under Lady Song Yu''s instruction, so I don''t need to take any part of the ''reward'' so you can take all of them." Anna nodded and started taking their space rings as well as their heads. But... "Ah, wait a bit. Anna, give me their heads." Jeanne came to her and asked. "What do you want?" Anna looked at her, confused but still handed the heads. Jeanne did not say anything and grabbed the heads. After that, she retrieved all the corpses of the Martial Kings and chopped their limbs. She then used spears and such to make a good ''art piece.'' The others immediately looked away. Even though Anna and the others knew her characters, it was still blowing their mind when they saw this gore art piece. The limbs, body, and heads were lumped together and made a giant welcome gate. "Jeanne, aren''t you a bit excessive?" Anna asked. "If even you are uncomfortable, then the enemies would surely be more than that. I will bear the responsibility for this one. After all, I might not be able to join the battle." Jeanne said with a serious expression. "..." All of them looked at each other and sighed. "Fine." Anna and the others finally came toward the battlefield with the beautiful carving made by Jeanne. Jeanne''s presence alone was already shocking, but when they actually arrived at the battlefield and saw the condition, they dropped their jaws. The ground was burning, the people inside were trying to escape, and such. It was complete chaos inside. They immediately searched for Alex but were spotted by Njomo. Njomo then led them to Alex''s position. "Alex, what is happening to them?" Anna asked him, wondering if this was also a part of the plan or not. "Ahaha¡­ I got pretty excited a moment ago." Alex looked away. Anna looked at Anya to get an explanation. She only sighed and told them what happened. ¡­ Around two hours ago, After clearing the scouts in the area, the people inside had realized their group. They tried to search a way out but to no avail, so noticing Alex''s presence the supposed leader roared. "You Bastard! Who are you?!" "Who I am is not important¡­" Alex shrugged while Anya called the others to gather in this place. "Anyway, you won''t get out of this place until all of you die." "You-! Do you think you can fight 150,000 people at once? A small group like yours won''t be able to defeat us. Our Martial Kings will come soon and break this barrier from outside even if we don''t do anything." "They won''t since they have died." Alex snorted. "A mere 8-Star Martial Lord like you dare to claim boldly¡­ I will give you one more chance, release this barrier at once, and I will give you a quick death." The peak Martial Lord made a smug face. "Then, you need to get out of this place first, but even with your entire army, it is still not enough to destroy this Array Formation." "Hmph, there is not even a rank 5 Array Master in this continent, and you think this barrier can hold us back. I will show you what it means to fight 150,000 people. Prepare the troops to attack this barrier." He ordered his deputies. Alex just wanted to say something, but Anya had come back with the others. And when they spotted her, they shouted again. "Haha¡­ To think there is such a Heavenly Beauty in this place. Sadly, she will be ruined soon and be used by 150,000 soldiers!" The people behind him also drooled when they saw them. Anya did not put on her veil at the moment, and they could take a glimpse of the breathtaking face. Alex started getting annoyed by this. He raised his hands and waved it. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." He just showed how annoyed he was with his action. The phoenix wanted to hit the barrier, but suddenly a portal was opened. It was Alex''s Spatial Gate, and he used it the way Maxwell used it. "Hmph, what is that? Wait! We get a call from our leader, I will respond to him first." Alex did not care about that and made another portal above them with the phoenix coming out of the portal. It then flew to the person who said those vulgar words to Anya and exploded, engulfing him and the others. They were taken aback by this and failed to protect themselves from this attack. The glowing token was not incinerated by the flame and just dropped on the ground without anyone noticing. "Wha-!" "What is that explosion?" "We are under attack?" "Is the one who made the barrier attack us?" The people started asking themselves. They had been pretty organized even after the barrier appeared because the officers immediately calmed them down. And with this attack, they began to doubt it again. "Let us just attack the barrier and destroy it by ourselves!" "That''s right. We can do this with our number." "All of you calm down!" "That''s right, don''t get provoked. As long as we wait long enough, our Martial Kings will come and release us from the outside, and we still have yet got the instruction to move." In the riot, the officers started calming the people down again. When Alex saw this, he came up with another plan as he looked at Sherry and Kyle behind him. "Sherry, Kyle, we are going to attack them once again but together. We will create a ruckus to wear them out." He said. "Wuu!" "Chirp!" They nodded their heads, looking pretty fired up for this. Alex then closed his eyes, releasing the Pure Fire inside his Phoenix Fire Seed. He did not need to hold back this time since they were going to die. The people from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect had yet to come anyway, so he could do whatever he wanted. Alex nodded to them and raised his hands. Sherry and Kyle also followed his movement and summoned a big fireball that turned into a phoenix. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon!" Three Fire Phoenixes flew toward the barrier as Alex made another two portals in front of him and at the top of the barrier. "Look, it comes again from above!" "Destroy them!" "We can''t let them explode on us!" The officers immediately ordered the troops, but they did not manage to destroy them in an instant because the soldiers were still in disarray. "Boom Boom Boom!" It made three huge explosions, engulfing around one thousand each. Looking at this, Alex smirked. "We will attack those phoenixes first before they explode!" They started ordering the panicking soldiers. Uniting disarray troops would be easier if they had a single threat, which was the phoenixes. With this, the people would think of attacking the phoenixes before thinking about the barrier or any confusion. Alex took advantage of this and made another three phoenixes. However, before he sent them inside, he sent a message to Sherry and Kyle. "Follow my instruction." Sherry and Kyle simply nodded their heads. The phoenixes then passed the Spatial Gate once again. However, this time, the phoenixes did not come down. Instead, they were hovering in the air. It smelled like a trap, but before the officers could stop the action. More than fifty thousand soldiers already launched their attacks while another fifty thousand followed right behind. "Spring Jumper!" "Wind Troopers!" "Lightning Bolt Charge!" ¡­ ¡­ The officers tried to stop them but to no avail. "Don''t attack!" "Stop!" Sadly, no one knew Alex had closed the Spatial Gate in front of him and made a bigger one in front of him too, but inside of the barrier. Alex and the others then made their Phoenixes come inside the portal once again, and around a hundred thousand people attacks also followed along. Because of their numbers, a quiet number of them had exploded because they clashed with each other, but there were still around half of them. As soon as those attacks came inside the portal, it came out again from another gate that Alex had replaced with a new one. It then rained on the soldiers, creating many explosions and such. [EXP+ 1000] [EXP+ 500] [EXP+ 3000] [Gacha Ticket x1] His notification immediately filled with the EXP and Gacha Tickets. He was especially happy when he saw the Gacha Tickets raining down on him. With just those people, he managed to get almost a thousand Gacha Tickets. "How many people have I just killed?" Alex was perplexed as he looked at Anya. "Hmm¡­" Anya tried to observe the battlefield, calculating their casualties, "Around twenty thousand, I guess¡­ It is good, but an attack like this won''t be effective for the second time." "I know." Alex nodded. "Still, it feels good when you get this many Gacha Tickets at once. After this battle, we might be able to get around two to three thousand Gacha Tickets, I guess. Maybe I will exchange a few Premium Tickets and use the rest for normal Gacha to level up you guys." Alex said. [You have killed 27049 people in that attack, Host. Summing up with the previous attack, you have killed 32818 people. Ah, The system has been optimized since I have sorted it out. I can calculate this with the number EXP notification you get.] "I see. If only I have mastered my Space Element¡­ maybe I can teleport a very big mountain to this place and kill them all¡­" Alex said. "You need more strength to even make a portal that big, Alex." Anya sighed. "Haha¡­ I am just joking." Alex shrugged. In fact, his portal alone was already big enough as its size was around a hundred a meter in radius. "Maybe in the future¡­ you might kill millions and millions of enemies, but make sure it is only enemies¡­" Anya murmured. "What?" Alex did not hear it. "Nothing." Anya shook her head and tried to change the topic, "So, what are we going to do now? Are we going to attack them again?" "No. Cornering them too much will create an opposite effect. We will wait until the heads of Martial Kings and break their spirits in one go. As long as we kill those Martial Lords that were capable of commanding the soldiers in this chaos, we can slowly destroy them." Alex explained. Suddenly, Letizia and a few elders from both sects came to him. They immediately dropped their jaws when they saw the riots inside the barrier. They were already shocked when they saw a gigantic barrier from afar, but this scene immediately made them dumbfounded. "I ''tease'' them a little¡­ Anyway, Anya will lead you to the designated position, and we will discuss our plan once more when our Martial Kings have arrived." Alex then flew away with the others, except Anya, who was waiting for these people to wake up from the shock. "Thus, the end of the story¡­" Anya said with a smile. They were dumbfounded that Alex had killed a fifth of them as well as making them disarray. They just shook their heads and sighed. "Alright. Call the others as we will discuss our plan for the last time." Alex stated. 430 Start of the Grand Battle The others already gathered. It seemed the sect masters had arrived after evacuating the citizens. Even the Buddha Sect''s sect master, as well as the leaders of Thiveapia Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, and Hazel Kingdom, were present. Of course, whether they were present because of the situation or not would be a different case. One thing was certain, part of it was because they wanted to see the Martial Kings that Alex called and, if possible, made a connection with Alex and them. Alex did not care as he started telling them his plan. He looked at Letizia first and asked, "Have the disciples divided into two groups?" "Yes. They have been divided into two groups and understand their roles. So, they should be fine. The only problem is we don''t know when to change with each other." Letizia reported. Alex contemplated for a while. He then looked at Anna, "What about their leaders'' heads?" "This¡­" Anna looked down before glancing at Jeanne, not knowing what to say. Jeanne looked at him and took out the ''art piece'' she made earlier. The sight immediately made the people dumbfounded. The first person who said out of reflex was the Buddha Sect''s sect master. "Amithaba, are you not afraid by the retribution from Heaven¡­" "Shut up, you bald monkey. What do you know? You should say it to those rapists or those bastards from Zhou Kingdom. What about those hundreds of thousands of innocent people that were slaughtered with their blood extracted. All those poor souls that are trapped inside the soldiers'' bodies because of that cursed blood pill, have you thought what their fates are? "You should talk when you already know everything and don''t put those righteous words in front of me again if you don''t want to die. But, despite having done so much, where are you? You are not there and spread your righteousness¡­ you are only hiding inside your own houses leisurely. You can''t be called Justice or people who walk in the light. You are just bystanders." Jeanne snorted. "Mah, mah, Jeanne, I think you should stop at that." Artur immediately stopped her. "Artur, do you want to have a season with me?" She glared at him. "Ahaha¡­ Look, Jean can be called anytime later, so you can throw all of your problems at him." Artur escaped while sweating. The people thought this child was really scary, not only her power but her personality. "Jeanne¡­" Alex called her name. Jeanne was a bit tense when Alex was speaking. She was prepared to face his anger. "If you want to make something like this, you need to tell me first¡­" Alex sighed. "Now, I need to adjust my plan for a little bit." "Ehehe¡­ Master is the best." Jeanne said sweetly. The people were taken aback on how docile she became after Alex talked to her. And the way she called Alex was like a subordinate calling its leader. They were confused about what kind of relationship they shared as a very young Martial King would even follow a Martial Lord. "Still, no ''playtime'' for you¡­ let see¡­ one week is enough, I guess." Alex said. "!!!" Jeanne froze. She said, trying to convince him, "Master, how about you rethink your decision¡­" "I have decided, if you are going to negotiate with me, it will only go longer." Alex shrugged. "Ugh¡­" Jeanne looked down, depressed. "And, according to Anna, you seem to have used most of your power, already?" "Uhh¡­ There is no other way." Jeanne looked at the others, seeking for help. Sadly, the other spirits only looked away. Alex took a deep breath as he contemplated for a while. Anya was also the same. "The initial plan is still working, so we still stick with that plan. However, because Jeanne can''t kill the officers that could command the army, this will be the problem." Alex explained. "Indeed, if we back them to a corner, they might try to retaliate without caring for their lives. Especially with those commanding officers¡­ So, our problem is how to maintain their low morale." Anya nodded. Alex nodded before turning to Leoz. "For that¡­ I will need Leoz. "I want you to pummel their morale when there is a spark of morale by using your ''Lightning God Cannon.'' This way, we can extinguish the small fire with a bucket of water." "Understood, but I doubt, I can use that skill again in this battle," Leoz said with an unsure tone. "But, I should still be able to kill ten to fifteen thousand of them, considering our battlefield." "Alright. It is fine with me. Well, If I need you once more, I might need to force you with ''that'' so be prepared." Alex said. "Understood." "Anyway, since there are only 120,000 people left, it should be a bit more relaxed. I have killed their acting commander after all." Alex shrugged. "Get the people ready, and we will engage them now," Alex said as he did not need to explain the original plan to the new people. The elders from Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect immediately took their positions. At the same time, the new people were confused about what to do. They tried to ask the others and somehow found a role for them. Alex then came back to face those soldiers. He flew up to the sky so that all of them could see him. He then said, "All of you have lost." A few people came to the sky and glared at him. "Who do you think you are! Without your sneak attack, you won''t be able to kill so many of us! Now, you don''t have any means to kill us." "People attack him again! But this time, don''t attack at a single spot. Attack every corner of this gigantic barrier. We will show him what it means to oppose an army like us!" The soldiers immediately used their own skills, targeting the closest barriers. "Spring Jumper!" "Wind Troopers!" "Lightning Bolt Charge!" ¡­ ¡­ "Boom Boom Boom!" They were attacking the barriers, but all they got was nothing. There was not even a scratch on the barrier. "As I said earlier, your doom is inevitable." He said with killing intent. "Attack again!" The officers roared again, could not swallow what Alex just said. "Boom Boom Boom!" They did it three times before stopping. The officers were gnashing their teeth. If they did more than this, the soldiers would be exhausted. So, one of them roared. "Just you wait¡­ our Martial Kings will free us soon." "You mean these people?" Alex said while taking out Jeanne''s art piece. The soldiers froze as they could not believe what they saw. They did not know about those limbs, but they could clearly recognize those faces. There were fifteen heads in the art piece, and they knew all of them were the Martial Kings that were supposed to lead them. "Those are our leaders!" "What? How can a mere Wilow Continent kill our leaders?" "There should be no other Martial Kings in this continent!" Alex smiled as he signaled for his spirits to show up together with Honda Sana and the sect masters, totaling eight Martial Kings. "Martial Kings? I have too, you know. Sadly your Martial Kings are too much a failure that they could not stand my people." "We¡­ we still have an army!" The officer tried to re-ignite the fire in the soldiers'' hearts. They knew if they could not calm them, it would be troublesome. But before they managed to do that, Alex sent another signal. "I also have an army!" Alex smirked. Many people started coming toward him. He had chosen this terrain specifically. This terrain had a cliff and dark woods, perfect for concealing their people. The soldiers could only see twenty thousand people at once, but they knew there were more than this. Without giving them a chance to think, Alex clasped his hands, opening the barrier. He only opened two arrays in front of him, making a door that was a bit tight for sixty thousand people to fight. However, for him, this was a perfect door to conceal their actual number. "Attack!" Alex roared as he raised his hands. Three fire phoenixes immediately appeared above him. Of course, two of them came from Sherry and Kyle. After the others came, they immediately hid in Alex''s body. The phoenixes immediately flew toward the people, and they did not manage to block this because of the shock. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Gah!" Alex had killed a few thousand people again. Anna and the others immediately killed the commanding officers in front of Alex. The soldiers started panicking with their situation. The other officers tried to calm the soldiers down, but they were already attacked. Alex ordered Sherry and Kyle to continuously rain their firebirds down to kill as many as possible. He did not mind if they used all of their energy with this. Sherry and Kyle complied happily. Meanwhile, Alex started killing the people with his sword and spear, making him like a killing machine. Even his allies, like Letizia, Charya, or the others, thought him as a monster. Despite being a Sword King and Spear King, Alex was still holding back. If he truly used his fire together with his weapons like this, Zhou Kingdom would be destroyed instantly. They were terrified by how monstrous Alex''s real talent was. This was especially true for Xiang Bai and the others who had witnessed his godly master, Alex''s future was nothing but assured. They stopped thinking about that and continued killing the soldiers. At the very least, Alex was their ally in this war. Of course, it was another headache for Buddha Sect or any other kingdoms since they were thinking about how to pull a relationship with him after this farce was over. All of them thought that, except Thiveapia Kingdom, who was secretly cheering for Evelyn. After all, Evelyn was Alex''s student, albeit unofficial. Anna immediately used her power that was specialized in killing many enemies at once. The people were once again confused with the sudden appearance of butterflies. There were around a thousand butterflies, and each of them came to a different soldier. Anna smiled as she stretched her hand, "Dark Butterfly, First Order. Marionettes." The black butterflies exploded but did no damage to the soldiers. They thought it was just a distraction and continued to fight. Unbeknownst to them, the dark energy already seeped inside their mind and slowly corroded it. Before long, they suddenly lost control of their body. All of them suddenly raised their weapons or Martial Arts before destroying their own hearts. The people around them were bewildered when they saw that. They were trying to ask them, but the second wave of butterflies had arrived. On the other hand, Leoz was following Alex around since Alex needed to tell him the right time to use his skill. Of course, it did not mean that Alex chose a weak battlefield since he could see it from his Spirit Eyes. Alex and Leoz had been steadily killing the ones that looked like an officer. This way, the soldiers were still in disarray and had no chance to fight back. As for Fabio, he was flirting with Vera while killing the enemies. Each time they used a couple technique, they would blush and say something like, "It''s not like I am happy to use this with you, alright." and so on. The most frustrated in this war was Jeanne. At first, she would go to the front line and busy with the battle, but she was stuck in the back, protecting Anya. She was a bit vulnerable as she was supporting the other spirits and Alex. On the contrary, Greg was helping the disciples by creating a smaller shield to minimize their casualty. And lastly, Artur was busy killing the enemies while helping the others like a hero. And at this particular time, Alex finally found something interesting. He heard, "People, they only have twenty thousand people while we have more than a hundred thousand. Our leaders have been killed, but by no means, we will panic. Instead, we need to avenge them and kill these people!" "Ooh!" Alex frowned and called. "Leoz." 431 Kill! "Leoz, go to that unit and obliterate them. I will prepare EXP cards for you." Alex said while pointing his finger to a certain unit, which numbered around five thousand. Although they numbered five thousand, Alex could see that the unit was pretty close to other units, so he was planning to obliterate them together. Leoz nodded and went toward them. Meanwhile, Alex called his system. "System, use 500 Gacha Tickets, and use the summoning coins I get." [Processing] [Match Stick (C) x1] [Sky Breaking Sword (R) x1] [Summoning Coin (UC) x3] ¡­ ¡­ After getting all the 500 Gachas, Alex got around 83 Summoning coins in which he got twelve EXP cards. It was enough for Leoz to level up Leoz and made him use that Lightning God Cannon again. On the other hand, Leoz was facing these many units. They were trying to attack him, but Leoz simply clasped his hands as ten lightning balls suddenly appeared in front of Leoz and formed a circle. They were connected by a lightning line. The lightning circle suddenly got bigger and bigger until it made a hundred meters circle. In the center of the circle suddenly glowed brightly. Back when he was only a small Martial Lord, Leoz could only make a 30 meter one, but this time he could use a hundred meter one. "Thunder God Cannon!" The lightning shot out a laser beam. It destroyed everything in front of its way, killing thousands of soldiers. Because of the situation, Leoz decided to use his full power in this state since he would be able to use this move again after Alex raised his level with the EXP cards. The after effect immediately startled not only the enemies but also the allies. They were shocked that Leoz just killed more than ten thousand people in a single attack. Honda Sana thought she could kill ten thousand people with her Peak Martial King cultivation, but it would not be like Leoz since she did not have a big move like that. All of her deadly skills were a bit more toward a single opponent. "What happened just now?" "All the soldiers in here died just like that?" "What exactly are our enemies?" The people started panicking again even after their morale got revitalized a little bit. It was so sad when you wanted to get back up, but reality hit you hard once again. You would become depressed like these soldiers. They wanted to fight the enemies, but in their thoughts, they were thinking, ''Could they?'' Leoz immediately came back to Alex''s side as his True Spirit Body disappeared. He looked a bit worn out at this point. "I am sorry, Leoz. I really need to rely on you for this." Alex apologized as he took out two EXP cards. After killing a total of forty thousand soldiers, Leoz''s EXP had raised quite a bit. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 47/80 (7-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 205398/380000] Sadly, if not because of the power difference, Leoz might be able to level up. However, with this EXP, Alex only needed two EXP cards. And he could not level him up again since he already had a whole realm different from Alex. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 48/80 (8-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 25398/390000] His energy started coming back. Leoz then said, "Young Master. I think you should make Jeanne do another one. She might even kill more than me." "???" Alex looked at him, confused. "Well, Jeanne has a big trump card, so I think it is a good time to use her power. Although I am not good with strategy, I think it will be good in the long run to create chaos in the enemy''s back." Leoz explained. "What kind of attack Jeanne uses?" "This¡­ Can Young Master open the roof a little bit?" Leoz asked. "No." Alex shook his head. He then pointed at the translucent barrier wall. "I can only open the door." Leoz sighed. "Jeanne''s attack is from the sky. It should be able to obliterate more than fifteen thousand soldiers in one go and create massive chaos." Alex looked at him for quite a while before saying, "Well, I can open a Spatial Gate to send the attack inside, but I can''t do it from this distance." "Then, I shall accompany you," Leoz said. "..." Alex contemplated for a while before opening Jeanne''s status. [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 57865/370000] Alex decided to do it as he took out two EXP cards and used it on Jeanne. Jeanne was surprised that she got a surge of energy and finally noticed Alex raised her level. "Change with Greg and come here," Alex said. "Understood." Both Jeanne and Greg immediately changed place before Jeanne made her way toward Alex. However, just before they were setting out, Alex stopped as he thought of something. He immediately looked at the entire battlefield, trying to find someone. On the right side, the disciples were getting a bit overwhelmed. So, Alex immediately took out Anna''s card, "Go to our right and help them." "Understood." On the contrary, in the middle, they were overwhelming these soldiers because of Leoz and the others. As for the left side, it was in a standstill as Fabio and Vera focused on the Martial Lords, not giving them a chance to retaliate. Just within one hour, Alex''s group managed to kill fifty thousand soldiers, including the thirty thousand people he killed in the first round. The others managed to kill around twenty thousand soldiers while sustaining only two thousand casualties. It was a good number considering they were outnumbered at the start. Of course, even though the enemies had five thousand Martial Lords, it was not like all of them were in the front. Some of them were in the back, waiting until they could go to the front. He also found Charya in the process. She was using her Sword Rite and killed many people at a good rate. Of course, it could not be compared to his spirits. Alex tried to search for an individual and finally saw her after two minutes of searching. It was Letizia. Alex wanted her to use the Freezing Tornado or whatever. With her Pure Ice Element, it should be enough to kill one or two thousand people with that. Although he did not really want to use her, it was still better than seeing her restricting her full power. Letizia could not use her power because she was afraid she would injure the others around her, so Alex wanted to bring her along. In the front, he doubted anyone from Rainbow Flower Sect or Heavenly Sword Sect could see him making a portal. As for Letizia, she would surely keep the secret. "Wait for me here, I am going to bring one more person." Alex left, making the others confused. Alex suddenly appeared behind Letizia, making her surprised. She instinctively swung her sword at him. Alex stopped it with his bare hand. "Master!" Letizia froze. "I am sor-!" Alex did not let him finish her words and just dragged her away. "Come with me." "Kya-!" "Master, what do you want me to do?" Letizia asked. "Just follow my instruction later. It is time for you to release your full power since you can''t use it when you are with them, afraid of injuring them, right?" Alex shrugged. "Ah!" Letizia looked down, embarrassed. After bringing her along with Leoz and Jeanne. They finally flew toward the enemy''s back as Leoz kept killing all the people in their way. Alex specifically chose a place where the enemies concentrated. "Found it." Alex pointed toward the place and looked at Jeanne. "That place. I don''t know what kind of attack you will do, but don''t worry about the barrier." Jeanne looked at him and nodded. "Yes, I won''t disappoint, Master." She then clasped her hands and prayed. "Lightning Spirit Worship o'' Spirit God. Use my body as the catalyst, so you may strike my enemy with your lightning. Lightning Dragon!" Once again, lightning appeared out of nowhere and turned into a dragon. The lightning dragon struck forth, raising the hair on their hands. "Look, what is that?" "Lightning?" "But, it is a dragon!" "Prepare for an attack!" Alex raised his hand and made a portal to send the dragon inside. The people tried to attack the dragon but were engulfed by it. Before the dragon crashed to the ground, Leoz immediately went to the front and raised a thunder barrier, protecting Alex and Letizia. "Boom!" A massive explosion appeared, killing thousands of people. Letizia could only drop her jaw in shock. To think a move like this did exist, her Heaven Tier Martial Art looked very cute in front of this technique. "What is that?" "It made a huge explosion!" "There is also a giant crater." The people became pale as they were scared of this power. They never thought a power like this would exist. Of course, after using this, Jeanne had used almost all of her power, so she might not be able to join the fight afterward. Alex might be able to raise her level again. Still, Alex decided to hold onto the EXP cards and waited if the others needed it. He also had an option to use all the tickets he got from this to get the EXP cards, but it would not be wise for him to do that. He wanted to use it when his mind was calm and could make a rational decision. It did not mean he could not make a rational decision here, but there might be another way to use the tickets after he calmed his mind. Especially after seeing Jeanne''s move. Alex was astonished by this. He never thought Jeanne had a big move like this. However, he could not afford to be surprised here. "Letizia, you use that tornado again and wreck the rest before we escape from this place." With that single call, Letizia nodded and swung her sword first. "Ice of Infinity." She sent an overbearing Cold Energy and made a special 50x50 meters cold field. The ground and grasses were frozen, and the air filled with bone-chilling cold. It was a perfect time to use it. She waved her hands, and a tornado appeared out of nowhere. "Heaven Freezing Tornado." The tornado immediately froze many soldiers that were swallowed by it. On the contrary, Alex just spammed his firebirds together with Sherry and Kyle. They made quite a ruckus there, and when the soldiers started coming again, he decided to go back. "Where is the enemy?" "How many did they kill?" "I need a damage report!" "Not good. They have killed almost twenty thousand soldiers in that instant!" Meanwhile, Jeanne made a smile on her face. "It is really satisfying to kill many of them just like that. My frustration even disappears after that." "Your punishment still has not disappeared though." Alex reminded her. "Uhh¡­" Her smile vanished, and she became depressed again. Leoz and Letizia only made a chuckle. Alex then said to Letizia, "We need to change the people here. Have the second team come up and start changing from the right side. And make the people, who can move, to help the injured ones. We shall not let them die." "Understood." Letizia nodded. "We have killed around ninety thousand of them, so tell them we might not change the team again. So, have them help the injured people from the second team if they can still move." "Yes, I will convey it to them." After getting his orders, Letizia immediately left. But before she left, Alex called her again. "Letizia¡­" Alex called her name and said, "Thank you for helping me in this battle." Letizia was surprised by those words. She did not know why, but it made her heart skip a beat. The energy inside her body also started coming back to her. She became a bit impatient to change the team and came back again to the battlefield. Later, she was killing the soldiers with a rate faster than ever, and no one knew why she could do that. 432 Victory At the same time, Anya was also thinking about that. She also ordered the replacement of their army, starting from the weakest link, which was the right side. The other elders had been notified about Anya, so they immediately started retreating. Obviously, this swapping process took a bit more time as the narrow passage did let them exchange all the people with the fresh ones. They replaced a few thousand at a time. When the elders who also retreated together with the disciples checked their casualties, they were dumbfounded. The casualties in this battle were only three thousand disciples. If they checked the enemies, they were only around fifty thousand left while fighting their fresh thirty thousand disciples. There were two reasons for this low casualties. The first one was Alex and co, who used one big move after another and killed twice as much as all their people. The second reason was Anya''s timely distribution. Even though she was supporting the others, she continuously observed the battlefield. Because Alex and the others were in the middle force, Anya did not need to worry that much and sent a few thousand disciples to the left and right side. That was why when the enemies started getting the advantage, they were immediately suppressed by the reinforcement. His spirits were also targeting their Martial Lords to ensure no one used that Berserk Pill. If the enemies used the Berserk Pill, then their casualties might be twice this number. They gasped with how Anya controlled the battlefield. Even if they came up with one way or another, they would have at least 10,000 casualties. Unbeknownst to them, this was only an easy thing for Anya. She, the strategist of planet Eulja, the home of spirits, had gone through many wars against other spirit tribes or even the other planets, involving a few hundred thousands if not millions of people. So, this was only a small scale battle for her. Seeing this, the elder did not know why but felt rejuvenated. They even wanted to immediately head back to the battlefield, albeit they couldn''t. After checking their status, the elders immediately ordered the ones who could move to help the injured disciples from the second team and dragged them back. This way, they could minimize their injury and might even get less than five thousand casualties. Meanwhile, on the battlefield, The more pressing their situation, the more they would use the Berserk Pill. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and completely focused on the battlefield while Sherry and Kyle killed the soldiers. He needed to kill the one that started getting desperate and pummel their morale again. It was at this time Alex found another surge of morale in the back of the enemy. It was at the opposite place where Jeanne used her skill, so the soldiers could only see the explosions but not the after effect. "Leoz." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes." "We are going!" Jeanne had retired to the back after using that skill, and he already sent away Letizia, so this time, only the two of them would go. Alex was the vanguard as he wanted Leoz to conserve his strength to use that Thunder God Cannon. With more than a hundred firebirds hovering around him and shooting down all the people that tried to kill him, Alex and Leoz managed to go deep inside the enemy ranks again. "It''s showtime," Alex said. Leoz clasped his hands as lightning balls appeared and formed a circle like the previous one. They were connected by a lightning line before expanding to a giant cannon. "Thunder God Cannon!" The lightning shot out a laser beam. It destroyed everything in front of its way, the ground, Martial Lords, Martial Grandmasters, or even the ground did not escape from its mighty power. The soldiers once again became dispirited because of the situation. Alex did not care about their reaction as long as their morale was low. Alex simply grabbed Leoz, who was already too tired to fight and left the place. He went to Jeanne and said, "You and Leoz will stand by here." Before going back to the frontline. Alex continued killing the soldiers at an insane speed. After around half an hour, they managed to lower the enemy number into thirty thousand. It was like their endless fighting would come to an end. However, at this time, they heard the roar of the enemy officers. "All soldiers, hear me! They are going to kill all of us here. Those who have the Berserk Pill immediately use your berserk Pill. We are not going to escape this alive, so we need to drag them to hell with us!" Sadly, there were only a few hundred Martial Lords left, and only around half of them had a blood pill. As for those who did not have, they were either from the Brynhildr Kingdom or the unlucky ones from the Zhou Kingdom. Even so, the surge of strength coming from the Berserk Pill immediately made the battlefield standstill. The disciples from Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect were slaughtered left and right. Alex frowned upon seeing this. He knew this would happen, and he did not have Leoz or Jeanne this time. He felt a bit guilty to make them work to the bone, so Alex decided to use another one. Although he felt a bit embarrassed to do it, he needed to. ¡­ Half an hour ago, when Alex dragged Leoz to the rear, Leoz called him. "But, young master, what if they have another surge of morale. This will happen when their number becomes lower and lower since they will fight to the death." Leoz said with pure concern. "I have made you two work too hard, so it is time to rest. If there is another surge of morale, I will try to finish it alone." "With what? I don''t mean to disrespect you, but Young Master does not have a big move to cripple their morale again, right?" "Rest assured. It will be fine, trust me." Alex smiled, trying to convince him. "The enemy has only around forty thousand left. In other words, so even the enemies have another surge of strength, I will just cut it out." "How?" "Of course, with raising our own morale!" Alex smiled. On the battlefield, Alex finally roared, and his voice reverberated in everyone''s ears. "The moment is upon us, disciples of Rainbow Flower Sect, disciples of Heavenly Sword Sect. There are only forty thousand left from their original one hundred fifty thousand soldiers. "Their Martial Kings have died. They are only an army that has no leaders! Make no mistake. A portion of them might come from the Zhou Kingdom. They might be our brethren that hail from the same continent, but they also dare to betray us and let the influence from another continent to encroach upon our mainland. If we don''t stop them here, they will Kill our family, Rape our Beloved, and Destroy our Land. "How can we call them as one of us anymore?! We shall make this battle to let them see what happens if they are going to mess with our Willow Continent! All Disciples and All Elders, follow me. Leave no one alive!" When the people from Rainbow Flower Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect heard that, they immediately roared as hard as they could. The roars even shook the ground, leaving the sounds from the soldiers to the dust. All his spirits immediately smirked when they heard this. All of them thought, ''This is it! Our almighty King, the Spirit God, the one that feared upon many planets as they will open their gate and surrender just on his approach.'' "Kill them!" "Leave no one alive!" The surge of strength that came from these disciples even surmounted their rationality. They did not care whether they were injured by the enemies. They would clench their weapon and kill the enemy, like feeling no pain. It was especially true when they saw Alex''s back, who led them from the very front. They were stationed in the neighboring city, and Alex''s fame in the tournament already spread around, including them. For him to discover the enemy, leading many Martial Kings to help, and even coming to the very front line, the desire to become someone like him rose in their hearts and made them able to use their 120 percent strength. Finally, after two hours, they eventually killed the last soldier. Alex shouted, "We have killed the aggressor of our home. I declare, this battle is our Victory!!!" "Ooh!" After the victory, Alex just let the disciples hoard upon the enemies'' possessions. It was their reward for today. At the very least, Alex already got his reward from this. [Gacha Tickets x2708] [Premium Ticket x15] [Dart x3] [Gacha Card x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] He was satisfied to see that amount of Gacha Tickets. He had got more than three thousand Gacha Tickets, including the 500 tickets he used earlier, in this battle alone. And together with the Premium Tickets he won from the competition, he was fulfilled. He just needed to wait until Nelson finished his business in the Zhou Kingdom and gave him all the loot. However, he was dumbfounded when he saw ''Dart x3''. He did not remember he did not have them earlier, so it must come from the mission. And the only type of mission that had darts were always the Hidden Missions. He opened his system and saw the notification. [Hidden Mission: Defeat the Invaders Reward: Dart x3 Description: Beat the crap out of them!] He ignored the description and was just thankful for the three darts. He then waited for the disciples to gather again and checked their condition. Anya was the one who accompanied him for this. She gave him a paper. Heavenly Sword Sect Light Injury: 12154 Heavy Injury: 3152 Death: 2682 Rainbow Flower Sect Light Injury: 12032 Heavy Injury: 3810 Death: 2331 "This is our battle report. Well, it should not be a problem for each sect as this result is far better than a full brawl. This is only because of the narrow passage you give, we can minimize our casualties." Anya explained. Alex just nodded and strolled around the camp. He could see people who lost their arms or legs or even in a coma. However, all in all, Alex could see that their expression was not that sad. Instead, it was brimming with confidence and pride. On the other side, He also went to the field where they brought the deceased. He could see many people crying over the loss of their friends or even their families. "Do you regret making them help us?" Anya asked with a smile. Alex shook his head. "No. Although we may be able to defeat all those soldiers alone, it will still take days. We need many resources for that which we don''t have enough right now. Part of it because I am underestimating my Space Element. If I have mastered my Space Element, we can decimate them within a day." "Then, are you going to train after this?" "Yes. I am going to train my Spirit Step first, before searching for Element Arts." Alex nodded. He then took out Nicole''s card. Nicole was the one who followed the Martial Kings to the Carageo City. And after they appeared on the arena, Nicole had another task. Alex asked her to observe the situation of his arrays and asked her to tell him if there were only around ten million Spirit Stones left, so he could refill it. "How is the array situation?" "There are still ten million Spirit Stones left. Most of them used to maintain the formation while twenty million Spirit Stones were used to block the soldiers'' attack. I will bring the rest to you in a moment." "Erase all the arrays first before coming to me," Alex said, not wanting others to discover what kind of array he used. "Understood." 433 Soul After the war, Alex did not want to stay longer. The reason was simple, he did not want to deal with the top brass from other influences. After finishing the report of their situation and watching the clean up of the battlefield, Alex came back to the sect. Of course, before that, he notified the Sect Master from both sects. It seemed Charya was also going to go back together. Alex came to Honda Sana. "What are you going to do now?" "I will accompany you to the Northern Continent, according to Lady Song Yu''s order. As long as you can cross the ocean safely and become Martial King, then I will go back to Blackwade Clan since it will be dangerous for you to be acquainted with us. At the very least, you won''t be able to protect yourself in the Northern Continent." She said. "..." Alex frowned a bit. He was grateful to have a guide like that, and maybe he could get some information about the Northern Continent from her. However, he wanted to break through to Martial King first, and that advancement process was something she should not know. And he also wanted to make a ruckus in the Nilis Continent. He decided. "I am grateful for the thought, but I will stay on this continent for a bit longer, so you can go back first." "This¡­ I have promised lady Song Yu to bring you there¡­" Honda Sana looked at him with a troubled expression. "It''s fine. I am sure Senior Sister can understand. Just say I need something to do, and don''t worry about the journey. I can do that alone." Alex smiled, trying to assure her. "Besides, I have the others with me, so I should be fine." "This¡­" Honda Sana looked down, weighing something in her mind. After a while, she sighed. "Alright. I will go back first. Lady Song Yu also does not know about this incident and the Martial Kings, but I need to give reasonings to her, so¡­" "It''s fine. Just say I have several Martial Kings beside me at the moment. But don''t disclose their information." Alex nodded. "I understand. You are one of the Blackwade Clan''s VIP, so I will keep your information as a secret." Honda Sana nodded. "Then." Alex nodded and left. On the side, Letizia looked at them with a complicated expression. Seeing Alex left, Letizia came to Honda Sana. "Excuse me¡­" Honda Sana turned her head and was a bit surprised to see her. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex was completely unaware of their conversation. After finishing their discussion, he simply left the battlefield together and went to his spirits. He wanted to discuss the next plan with his spirits. However, it was at this time Nelson contacted him. "Young Master, I have finished the job. All the people that have been involved with the Blood Pill and Berserk Pill have died. I have bad news and good news, which one do you want to hear first?" "Bad news, I guess¡­" Alex said, a bit unsure. "The bad news is about the influence in the Nilis Continent. It seems we have underestimated their power level too much." "Oh?" Alex frowned. "Even with the Martial Kings coming to this place, they still had a pair of peak Martial Kings and around a hundred Martial Kings below that. They are completely on a different level from us." Nelson said. Alex was startled by this news. "Are you saying they are going toward this place after this?" "There is a high chance they will do that. They are one of the peak influences, and it seems they want to rule the Nilis Continent. However, they need enough resources to do that. That''s why they want to hoard all the resources in the Wilow Continent for themselves and rule the Nilis Continent." "I see." Alex pinched the spot between his eyebrows. "Don''t worry. I have a different plan for that. We can just let one of my subordinates oversee this continent and send the others to the Northern Continent so they could investigate the power level there and other things before you arrive." Nelson said. "How about you?" "I will go to the Nilis Continent. And when I have reached a certain level, I will destroy the Brynhildr Kingdom." "This¡­" Alex did not know what to say. "I have another thing I want to do. Since Young Master has the promise to wipe out a certain influence in the Sacred Continent and somehow it is related to the Brynhildr Kingdom, I will stay there. This way, I can gather enough information, so when Young Master goes there, everything is ready for you." Nelson said. "Alright, you have my permission." Alex was speechless. He thought, ''What a reliable guy he is¡­'' "Yes, thank you for your trust, Young Master." Nelson paused a bit. "Then I will move to the good news, is that alright with you, Young Master?" "Yeah." "After calculating all the possessions, I have got around 200 million Spirit Stones, a few hundred thousand rank 2 weapons, a few ten thousand rank 3 weapons, and a few hundred rank 4 weapons and a few thousand other artifacts, medicinal herbs, and so on. As expected, they have brought most of the rank 4 weapons to the battlefield." "... I never expected the Zhou Kingdom to be even wealthier than the Southern Kingdom. I thought the Southern Kingdom is known for its wealth, right?" "It is because I get all the loot I can grab¡­ from the Royal Family, a few prominent families, and somehow big families. Meanwhile, I only grab the Royal Family treasure back in the Southern Kingdom." "I see." "Well, there is one more thing¡­" Nelson said. "What is that?" "I have got Blaze Tree Seed." "What!" Alex''s heart skipped a beat when he heard that name. "Are you sure?" "I am a hundred percent sure." Nelson nodded. Alex''s reaction was normal. Blaze Tree was an abnormal tree. Its leaves were made of fire, and the rod itself was considered as a top-notch material for weapons. However, Alex did not care about any of that. What he wanted was its seed. Blaze Tree Seed was one of the medicinal herbs for his Undying Fire Body. It was for the second stage of Undying Fire Body, which was to refine his Meridians. He was happy, or at least he wanted to be happy about this. But when he remembered the pain just from the first refinement, he just could not. The refinement was very painful and might be the most painful one he had ever experienced. So, thinking about experiencing it again made him shudder. He was not a masochist, and to get stronger, he was experienced and was trained to become one. He just resigned his fate since he had chosen to go this way, he should have ready for this. As long as he could meet his wives again, he would walk in this path filled with pain. [Host, it is good since you want to do it. But I have a suggestion for you.] "Suggestion?" [Yes, do you remember when you first refined your body?] "Ah!!" Alex froze. He only remembered the pain since it was an everlasting memory. When he recalled the after-effect, he immediately sighed. "I see, I should use the Energy Pill first and then do the second refinement. Since the first three refinements are for the Inner Energy, this one should also increase my cultivation speed. "With that, I also need to get accustomed to my new cultivation speed and breakthrough to the 10-Star with Spirit Stones. After that, the consolidation should not take too long." Alex said. [Yes.] "Still, I have not practiced the Energy Pill since I was occupied by the war and tournaments. So, I think I should learn Energy Pill as well as a few rank 5 pills¡­ I might need to learn a few arrays, especially for the attacking array. After that, I will learn the Spirit Steps and search for a few Elemental Arrays." Alex pondered. "Hey, System, do you think I should stop for a while and increase my abilities first?" [It is up to you, Host. However, System think it is good for you to stop for a while and solidify your basics. You know about the usage of the soul for Alchemist, and the others, right?] "Yes. It is especially true for my Array Master. I can remotely control or do more than that with my soul. As for Forging Master, it can help you make an elemental sword." [It is also the same for the Weapon Cultivator.] "What do you mean?" Alex frowned. [When you use a Sword Art, what do you think about your Sword Intent or Domain?] "What do I think about them? I use them to cover the Sword Art to make a stronger attack." [That''s it. You cover the Sword Art with your Sword Intent or Domain. You cover it, not fuse it. When you have cultivated your soul, you can use your Soul to fuse the Sword Art with your intent or domain to make it far stronger than what you have now.] [Usually, this technique is only taught when you reach Martial Emperor since people do not have that much Soul Strength or Mental Energy at Martial King Stage. However, you are different.] [Mental Energy is an energy that comes from your mind that will be converted into your Spirit or Will or Soul. Your brain has been evolving because of all of that knowledge you had learned in the past, especially when you received the knowledge in your last Golden Tribulation.] [I am sure you can start practicing your soul since it is already good enough, albeit barely. That''s why solidating your basics will also make it easier for you to combine your soul with your technique and so on.] "I see." Alex contemplated for a while. If this was true, then it was good news for him. At first, he thought he did not need this basic since he usually overpowered his opponent with his firepower, or he won''t use the technique again because of his insane cultivating speed. However, if Soul can be used to do something like that, then it would be better to solidify all of his basics first. "Even so, I have many things to learn¡­ Array, Alchemist, Sword, Spear, and Fire as well as my Space Element. This is going to be rough, huh¡­" [One year is enough, I think. Just give each of them two months¡­ Still, I think with your basics in Sword and Spears, together with your Mastery Cards, it won''t take you up to two months. Anyway, just take your time¡­ I know you are rushing for this, but if you rush too much, this won''t be good for the long run, and you might reach the end of your potential before you can meet them.] "You might be right¡­" [But, I still suggest you take your tribulation first and become a Martial King before you start practicing all of that. You can experience many things with your soul that way.] "I know." Alex nodded. "Well, I am a careful person, so preparing for whatever in front of me is a must." He then said to Nelson. "Nelson, you can go to the Nilis Continent after this. Ah, I am going there soon, so try to check a place where I can hold my tribulation there." "I understand. I shall choose the best place for you to challenge your tribulation. What about all this loot?" Alex paused a little before he said, "Meet me in the Sect. I will also gather all your subordinates to make a plan." "I understand." Alex then stored back his card and went to his spirits. It seemed Charya was also with them since she was planning to go back early. As for his spirits, they did not want to have anything to do with the influences other than Heavenly Sword Sect and Rainbow Flower Sect. Alex looked at all of them and nodded. "Let''s go back." 434 Finally a Peaceful Day A few days after they came back, Nelson finally arrived. He wanted to meet Alex immediately, but Alex was in a crucial step. "Ha!" He was controlling his fire, condensing a pill. "Condense!!" This was the only thing Alex did in the past few days. He was busy making the Energy Pill and became a 9-Star Martial Lord. As for Sherry, she had gone through her evolution and fell asleep. Kyle needed two or three months before he slept. And since the others also did not have anything to do, they were searching for a 10-Star Martial Lord monster for Alex since the Alchemist Guild could not provide that. After making the pill, he recovered his Spiritual Energy and swallowed the pill. He needed around three days just to break through to the 9-Star Martial Lord. After that, he came out of his room. He saw all of his spirits in this house, waiting for him. "Sorry, it took me a bit longer," Alex said. "Take all the time you need, Alex." Anna smiled. The others also said with their own unique response. "That''s right. I will chop the one who dares to complain!" (Anya) "It''s not like we are waiting for you, alright." (Tsundere Couple) "Gahaha¡­ I am focused on my training, so I am fine." (Leoz) "I am Young Master''s shield. I am ready 24/7 to make sure no one injures you." (Greg) "Haha¡­ I am always in this place, so it is a shame that I can''t protect the one in need out there." Artur laughed. "Patient is the basic requirement for one who walks in the shadow." (Nelson) "Master¡­ This is already a week¡­ my punishment is already over, right? Can you summon my brother? I promise I will be a good girl." (Jeanne) Alex smiled at them. He took his UR Spirit Card, which he got from the reward. Alex said, "Summon." The card turned into Jean''s card and summoned a gate in front of them. The guy was very handsome with long light blue hair. His crystal blue eyes could charm many women out there. He wore fancy but a bit open clothes, making the others see his perfect body underneath. He walked toward Alex and kneeled in front of him like a perfect guy. "Jean greets Young Master." When Alex wanted to say something, Jeanne suddenly leaped toward Jean and clung on his neck. "Jean!!! I miss you." "Ah, Sister. I also miss you. It''s been a while indeed." Jean smiled. He looked like a perfect guy outside, but none of the spirits could look him that way. After all, they knew his character¡­ "Let''s go! We need to play right now! I am frustrated right now, so I will make sure you have your fill tonight." Jeanne said with a big smile. "Sister¡­" Jean looked at her with a troubled expression. However, his expression turned into a blissful expression of a sudden. "You make me blush¡­" All of them twitched their eyebrows, including Alex. Jean was a hardcore ''M''. "Good good good. As expected of my brother." Jeanne nodded happily. "Still, we are in the presence of Young Master, so we should wait a bit first¡­ But, thinking how Young Master will punish me if I disobey him¡­ guhehe¡­" Alex already clenched his fist upon this point, but before he knew it, the others already took out their weapons while making a scary expression. "Stop your play for the time being. If not, I will need to punish you, Jeanne¡­ As for Jean¡­ I will be nice to you and treat you like a king." Jean suddenly dropped his jaw and fell to the floor while saying, "No no no¡­ Young Master. Please don''t do it, I beg you." "Master¡­ you can only say that because you don''t understand the true pleasure in torture!" Jeanne shouted. "The goal of torture isn''t to harm the body. In fact, there''s no point in killing someone. Granting death is the easiest and most boring thing you can do. "Torture is about killing the heart. That''s why I normally won''t take any life or knock the target out. I will make sure to make them alternate between relief and anxiety, which will gradually kill their spirit. I will try to inject or do something that they think is a bad thing, but actually not, just like trying to make them relax by injecting a muscle relaxant medicine. However, they will think it is something that can take away their consciousness. "First, I will gradually take away their ability to control your body and keep them from sleeping. They will be conscious, but they won''t be able to do anything. Then, I will be able to completely have my way with them. They will stop being able to tell the difference between pleasure and pain. They will forget ethical concepts such as "good" and "evil," as well. Everything will be chaos. Eventually, they will tell me everything and won''t even feel remorse since such emotions will be long lost to them anyway. "Look, I am very kind, am I not? I don''t actually kill them if I am not forced by the situation. And they are pretty boring anyway when they are broken. That''s why Jean, who will endure everything that I throw to his way perfectly, is the best brother I can have. This is the true pleasure in torture. Master, how about you try it too?" Jeanne explained passionately. "I see. Torture huh¡­ You want me to try it too?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes! I am sure you will know the true pleasure in torture." Jeanne said proudly, thinking she managed to persuade Alex. "Then, you can''t do anything to Jean for a month." "!!!" Jeanne just got the shock of her life. "Ma-ma-master!" "You said I need to learn about it too, right? Here, I will try it on you. If you somehow sneakily do it, then it will be a year, ten years, and so on." Alex smiled with a very very dark expression. Jeanne fell on her butt, thinking this was only a dream. Her stare was empty like a broken toy. "As expected of Master¡­ only Master can handle Sister¡­ If only I were in my sister''s place...Guhehe." Jean drooled a bit. He did not even realize he called Alex with ''Master,'' not ''Young Master.'' Alex then came in front of Jean. He helped him up as he was still kneeling. "Master?!" Jean looked at him, confused. "It''s a nice day, isn''t it, Jean?" Alex smiled. "Yes. It''s a nice day." "I see. How about having tea? I will make it for you." Alex made a big smile. Jean froze when he heard that. Alex simply continued, "Then, you can rest for a while. Don''t worry. I won''t give you any mission since you have endured so much." "Ma-Master!" Jean was scared out of his life. "Fufu, then we can chat about all the things and enjoy our lives." Jean shuddered as he instinctively scratched his neck. "Ah! Master, please stop! Don''t do this¡­" He fell to the ground while scratching his necks until it was red, and eventually, he could not do anything like his soul had come out of his body. The others were looking at each other while making a weird face. They had the same thought. ''Whether it is in the past or the present. Only Alex can handle these two perfectly.'' Alex took a deep breath before calling all of his spies: Nicole, Nano, Ngina, Njomo, Noel, and Noah. "I am sure a few of you already know this, but I will stay on this continent to train my basics for a year after my tribulation to Martial King," Alex said. "We are going to the Northern Continent first then?" Anya instantly realized what he was trying to say. "Yes." Alex nodded. "Of course, all of you will stick around with me for a few months until my advancement is over. But it seems Nelson is going to stay in Nilis Continent." Nelson nodded. "It should be fine if I am alone. Since I am a Martial King now, I also have the power to control my soul. This way, I can make a perfect clone and cover a wider area. And since Young Master won''t have to deal with Nilis Continent or Sacred Continent, I can take my time to investigate all of them." "That''s what he said. Any of you have a problem?" Alex asked the others. All of them instantly shook their heads. They all knew Nelson''s ability and knew he would do his job well, so they did not have any objection about his plan. "And who will oversee this continent?" Alex asked. "Ah, I will do it." Ngina volunteered. "I think the others would be more useful in the Northern Continent. And I am sure Young Master needs a translator for Njomo and the others. I will do that job." Alex looked at him and ultimately nodded his head. "I see, thank you." "As for the others, what would you do?" Alex then asked the other UR spirits. Anya was the one who answered him. "We will go to the Northern Continent first before you. This is to make us accustomed to their custom and make preparation to welcome you. We also can raise our level there. Since the monsters over there are powerful, we can advance by leaps and bound within a year." Anna suddenly came to him. "Alex¡­ I am thinking about going with them too, so I can''t accompany you for a year." "I see¡­" Alex looked at her for a while. "I¡­ Thank you." Noticing the situation becoming awkward, Anna tried to change the topic. "Actually, My sister is the one who will accompany you here. Since my power is more useful for combat than them, it is better this way. She can take care of Sherry and Kyle as well as that brat, Evelyn, at the same time." "You will?" Alex looked at Anya. "Yes. I will make sure everything is alright. You already know about my Light Element, and I don''t really possess enough combat skills and are more focused on support. Since they are not going to do something big and just raise their level, I don''t think I am needed. "And when all of us gather again and have reached Martial Kings or even Martial Emperors, I think it will be good to make a little group and spread our name in the Northern Continent. This way, we can avoid any small problem just by using our name. I will handle the development and make our group as mysterious as possible to avoid our group from being targeted." Anya smiled. "Then, you are going to think of a development plan in this house?" "Yes. I will get general information from the spies anyway, so I can draw a map and other things for you." Anya nodded. "Well, I agree with it. As long as the others don''t have any objection, then we will proceed this way." Alex nodded. The others obviously did not have any objection. Even if they had, they would not be able to come up with a better plan anyway. Nelson then came to the front and presented him with a space ring. Alex grabbed the space ring and checked what was inside. Inside the space ring were many space rings. Because of the limited space inside the space ring, they just stored the space ring that had many things inside another Space Ring. This way, they could have infinite storage. It seemed Nelson also had sorted all of them according to their types. "Thank you, Nelson." "It''s nothing." Nelson nodded. "Alright. For the time being, all of you can do anything. I will start refining my body." Alex said. He was also planning to open his gacha. After looking at them for the last time, especially the broken Jeanne and the dead Jean, he came back to his room. 435 System Day Alex came back and opened his system. "System, I can go to the Gacha Palace, right?" [Yes. But because you have gone last time, you can''t stay for a long time this time. So, I suggest, after getting the boxes and the darts, you need to go back immediately.] "I see." He then took out the ticket from his inventory and channeled his Spiritual Energy to it. A door then appeared in front of him. This time, the door was opened by the system as he saw the system girl again. "Please come in." Alex nodded and walked inside but as expected, he immediately changed into his ghost form as his body fell down to the ground. He did not say anything and went ahead to the Dart. He opened the Gacha System and took out three darts from it. "Are you going to play this first?" The system asked. "Yes." Alex nodded. She then clasped her hand. The roulette wheel was filled with ten items but all of them were still having question marks. So, the moment she clasped her hands, the mark changed into their original reward. Alex only set his eyes to one item which was the UR reward. It was a glowing orb. The glowing orb was filled with a reddish aura. "Ah, you are very lucky today. The UR reward for the dart is Fire Element Orb. You can enchant your Sword or Spear with this and become a Fire Elemental weapon." The system girl said with a smile. "But, I might choose a rank 6 weapon for this since it will be a shame for me to use it on my current rank 4 weapons. After all, this is different from the weapon that I gave to Letizia." Alex frowned. "Indeed. You can do that. However, if my prediction is correct, then Elemental Sword would not be that scarce in the Northern Continent. At the very least, those who are wealthy will have one. If you use it at that time, maybe it will also boost the prestige of this small faction you want to build." "You¡­ might be right." Alex nodded. He then focused his entire being to this dart. He could not push it too strong since it would break the roulette wheel and he also could not do it too weak, since it would be pushed away. It became even more hard when the wheel started going left and right while rotating. In fact, this one would be the only thing that looked less like a Gacha. If the roulette was still having the Question mark where he could not see the reward and without rotating or moving, it might have looked like a gacha even if it was rotating. "Your suggestion will be put in the suggestion box. I will review the system for it." The system nodded. He shrugged and threw his darts like usual. But when the dart touched the wheel, it bounced off. Alex frowned when he saw this. He already got used to the rotation but when it was combined with the left and right movement, the calculation was wrong. "Fu." Alex took a deep breath. He wanted to scold the roulette, but he did not know why, after he became more and more mature, he just did not feel like it. Sometimes, he might feel annoyed or something, but he just lost the feeling to rant or something like that. The system girl only smiled when she saw this, albeit felt a bit tad lonely since they could talk more if they had gotten into a small fight like that. And she could insert some flirting in their conversation too. Alex did not notice her expression as he was focused on the roulette wheel, adjusting his strength. He threw the dart but it slipped between his fingers. "Crap!" The dart flew toward the roulette, completely missing the UR reward. It targeted the bottom row. However, he might be lucky today as he saw the dart that was supposed to miss, planted on the SR reward. "Oh¡­" Alex blinked his eyes a few times in disbelief. Meanwhile, the system only took out his reward from the system and handed it to him. The reward was a book called ''Draw a Bow for a Hundred Meter but fly for a thousand meter.'' He just stored it inside his inventory as he felt this was a story book. Of course, he knew this was a Heaven Tier Martial Art, but the title looked like a story book, he felt. Anyway, he did not use a bow, so he did not care about it. He took a deep breath again. He already knew the strength needed to win this dart thingy. As long as he controlled the strength right, he should be able to get it. And for the last box, he finally threw it and landed on the UR reward. He pumped his fist and shouted, "Yes." "Congratulations, Host. You get the UR reward." "Of course, there is no way I will miss the UR item that is in front of my eyes." Alex smiled. The system took out the red orb and handed it to him. This time, he stored the item first. He did not have any use of this orb for the time being and he might get a higher rank weapon later. He then went to the Premium Gacha Vending Machine. He looked at the system and said, "I will exchange a thousand Gacha Tickets with five Premium Tickets." "Understood." The system nodded. He then got the notification. [Gacha Ticket x2007] [Premium Ticket x20] Alex nodded before turning his head to the vending machine. There were twenty boxes he could choose but he could only grab four. There was no different in each box, so he did not know which one was a lucky box or an unlucky box. He never played a game that had a Gacha System, but he knew Gacha itself. He thought this must be the frustration of people who needed to choose something and felt afraid it was an unlucky one. He also had some rumors about having the first gacha and got the legendary beginner luck. It was said that it was a definite system to lure the people to go deeper and deeper. That way, they would spend thousands if not millions for the Gacha alone. Luckily, this Gacha did not need to use money. It used Tickets which he got from wrestling his way between life and death. From a normal point of view, it looked more dangerous, but Alex did not get the addiction of the Gacha since he did not use something that was easily obtained to open the Gacha. He did not know whether it was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing though. He just relied on his luck and chose random boxes. He tapped number "2", "7", "14", and "19." The four boxes immediately fell down to the basket and the system grabbed it before handing it to Alex. "Then, your business is done, so you should go back. Staying longer is bad for your health." She said. Alex nodded and walked to the exit. However, before he left, he turned back and looked at her. "Hmm¡­ See you later." The system girl was startled at first but immediately smiled at him. "Yes. I will always be waiting for you." Alex then left the gate, placing the boxes beside his body. He then came back to his body and watched the door slowly vanish. He then started opening the boxes. [Deep Sea Trident (SR) x1] [Hammer Stomp the Mountain (R) x1] [Water Bottle (R) x1] ¡­ [Dagger Mastery (UR) x1] ¡­ [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5] [Random Elemental Orb (SR) x1] ¡­ [Super EXP card (UR) x1] He only had his interest in the UR card and SR card, but considering the reward he got, he only had an interest in the Random Elemental Orb in SR items and Summoning Tickets. As for the UR items, he thought his luck was a bit crappy since he only got two UR items from four boxes. Normally, he would get around three or four UR items from this. He sighed. "Well, there is at least the Super EXP card. I will hold onto it for now and use the normal Gacha to rack up some EXP cards." [Processing] [Water Gallon (UC) x1] [Treacherous Axe (R) x1] .... [Summoning Coin (C) x1] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ It continued a bit longer since Alex had used two thousand Gacha Tickets at once. And as expected, he got plenty of summoning coins. Before he proceeded with the summon, he wanted to check his Spirits first. After all, they had indeed killed a hundred thousand soldiers. [Anna (Dark) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 299000/370000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 48/80 (8-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 213112/390000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 16464/370000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 45/80 (5-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 22458/360000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 40/80 (10-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 245479/310000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 40/80 (10-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 13523/310000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 47/80 (7-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 124321/380000] [Anya (Light) Level: 39/80 (9-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 198124/300000] [Artur (Light) Level: 36/80 (6-Star Martial Lord Stage) Exp: 198124/270000] [Jean (Water) Level: 1/80 (-) Exp: 0/100] Alex looked at his status and could not help but smile. All of his spirits were unique, he thought. "Anna is a supportive type while Anya is a Proactive one. Leoz is a battle maniac while Nelson is the reliable guy. Fabio and Vera are a tsundere couple. Greg is the silent one while Artur is the righteous one. The last one¡­ Haiz, Jean is like the male lead in shoujo manga, while Jeanne is a type that is NSFW (Not Safe For Work). And to think these two are S\u0026M. I am speechless. Still, the journey might not be boring with all of them." He smiled. He then checked his Summoning Coin and found out he got 584 Summoning Coins. With these alone, he could get EXP cards enough to raise their level into Martial King without using the Super EXP card. So, he would hold the Super EXP card for the time being. He then used his Summoning Coins and got 70 Rare EXP Cards, 120 Uncommon EXP Cards, totalling around 82 Rare EXP Cards. This was the highest record he thought since he never had these much. Even so, to raise Jean from level nothing to 1-Star Martial King, he needed 47 EXP cards and for Artur to reach Martial King, he needed ten EXP cards. As for the others, he needed another eight EXP cards. Which meant, he needed a total 65 EXP Cards to make all of his Spirits Martial King. Even then, the cost for each level after that was 3-4 EXP cards, so the road ahead was really¡­ Alex also had the SR spirits but since they could grow relatively faster than the UR spirits, he decided not to spare any cards on them and just relied on leveling up. After using the EXP cards, he stored the last 17 EXP cards for the time being. It was a precious resource. He was thinking he would be the king of this continent with ten Martial Kings by his side. However, he was wondering why the people from the Northern Continent who knew they were without any talent but still had a powerful cultivation did not come here and stayed. They would be treated like a king in this place. If it was him, he did not want to stay in this continent because he needed to reach a higher place to meet his wives. However, he did not know about those people. Maybe there was a rule for that or something that kept them there. Or they might treat this continent as a slum and that place as a high end place. Alex shook his head, thinking it should be the former. He then took out the seed that was covered by fire, Blaze Tree Seed. He was just about to proceed with his own ''Torture.'' 436 Refinement and the Anticlimactic Even From the record in the book, it would be more painful than the first one, so he was a bit hesitant. Even so, he had to swallow the blazing seed. His Pure Fire immediately came out of his Fire Phoenix Seed and suppressed the fire on the Blaze Tree Seed. The fire energy within the seed melted and spread throughout his body before fusing with his veins. It was then his Pure Fire flared up and burned all of his veins. This was to help the assimilation process. The pain had yet to start, but Alex had made a Sound Insulation Room. This way, no one could hear him screaming like the first refinement. The fire started becoming bigger and bigger before it slowly seeped through the pores, dancing around his body like having a ritual. When the fire finally covered his body, it was at this time Alex finally started feeling the pain. He already knew the pain from the first refinement and was prepared for twice or thrice the pain. Still, it seemed he had been underestimating this refinement so much. He, at least, experienced five times the pain than the first refinement. "Aaaaahhhh!!!" Alex started screaming before rolling around on his bed because of the pain. He did not have anything to do since all he needed was to endure the pain, and his Pure Fire would do the rest. It was another torture for him hat would end only after a week of pain. Luckily, he only needed to endure half the amount of time he needed for his heart. From his knowledge, it was because his heart was acting as the foundation of everything, the process took slower than the others. At the very least, even if, in the future, he needed to endure this pain again, it would not be for too long. After refining his meridians, he checked his body. It seemed he could change his meridians into fire like his heart, but Alex found this not useful. He also checked his strength, and he felt he could exert thirty dragon strength this time. It was not with the Immovable Step too. From the information he received, if Martial Lord could get one dragon strength from each star, Martial King could receive ten dragon strength from each star with the lowest one would be ten dragon strength. However, as expected, the best result for this refinement was his cultivation speed. It evolved once again. Since he already told his spirits he would have close door cultivation until he could have breakthrough, he immediately adjusted the Cultivation Speed. He believed he only needed around two weeks before he could reach the peak Martial Lord stage. In fact, he felt that his body was hungry for Spiritual Energy. At this time, the system finally answered his question. [This is also one of the reasons why the cultivators from the Northern Continent would not come here and rule this place. Your body feels that the energy around you is not enough. This is also the same for those cultivators. After the body becomes accustomed to a denser Energy in the Northern Continent, they need to take time to adjust to this place. [However, the adjustment is like someone full of nutrition suddenly needs to live in a place he can only barely get nutrition. His body will slowly become weaker and weaker. The stronger he is, the stronger the rebound.] "Then, I will also become like that now?" [Not really. Host''s body has been accustomed to this place''s density of Spiritual Energy, so you just need to limit your cultivation speed for the time being or use Spirit Stones. However, if you stay for a few years in the Northern Continent, it will become such a case.] "I see. Well, I don''t have anything to do. I will get used to the cultivation speed before using my Spirit Stones to boost my power." Alex nodded. It took him one week to become accustomed to his new cultivation speed and another two weeks to advance to 10-Star Martial Lord. He then started consolidating his cultivation. Even though he had a new cultivation speed, he needed to limit his absorption a bit since the Spiritual Energy beside him would be emptied before he knew it. His cultivation speed was just that great. At the very least, the consolidation did not take longer than a month, so Alex was ready to go to the Nilis Continent after this. He checked his preparation first for his tribulation. He could make rank 5 Gathering Array and rank 5 Lightning Rod Array. With the knowledge about Array Master that he got from the previous tribulation, he was confident his Array could block the 9th strike. He just needed to be wary of the tenth strike, AKA, his golden lightning. This would be the hardest challenge since it would be the strongest. But, he was confident this time since he was already a Sword King and Spear King, so it should be fine. Alex then came out of his room. He was surprised to see his spirits were already gathered out of his room. It seemed they had sensed his aura inside the room and knew he would come out today. "Our preparation is complete," Anna said as she handed a card to him. The card was a green card with a bit of decoration on it. "This is a ticket for the ship that will go to the Nilis Continent next week." Alex nodded. Anna then said, "I have acquired information concerning Letizia La Scola. It seems Honda Sana brought her to the Northern Continent with her." Alex frowned. "Why?" "I don''t know, but from Nelson''s investigation, the request comes from her." Anna shook her head. "..." Alex pondered for a moment. "Alright. We can forget about her for the time being." "Understood." Anna nodded. "We are going to the Nilis Continent right now. What about Nelson?" Nelson had gone to the Nilis Continent earlier so he could investigate the Brynhildr Kingdom as well as searching a perfect place for him. He then recalled his spirits, except Anya who would take care of Sherry and Kyle, to the card, and went to the port city. He also got a report from Anna about what happened this month. The biggest news about this was about Mount Hua Sect. After their several failures, the Mount Hua Sect was starting to decline as they were pressured by the other influences. And without Martial King, even other kingdoms could harass them as there was only one 10-Star Martial Lord in the Mount Hua Sect, Su Hua. And because of their past deeds, the other influences were trying to destroy them to curry favor from Alexander Sirius and his Martial King friends. Because of the situation, Mount Hua Sect chose to become a vassal of Heavenly Sword Sect. Sect Master Xiang Bai also agreed to this and changed the name of Mount Hua Sect to Mount Hua Pavilion, the branch of Heavenly Sword Sect. The Exchange Pavilion was also changed to Mount Hua Pavilion to show their sincerity. Well, that Pavilion was not that good, so the Sect Master did not need a long time to decide it. Alex did not really care about it though, since he was only staying here for a little bit longer. He did not know whether he would come back or not in the future. After several days of flying, he finally arrived at Port City. As expected from a Port, it had many huge ships on the shore. Alex could also see a huge amount of energy inside the ship. It looked like a Steam engine but with the Spiritual Energy element. From the information, the speed could reach the speed of early Martial Lord flying, so it was pretty fast. He entered the town and arrived at the dock. He just asked some random people for directions and arrived at his ship. It was a gigantic ship that was close to one of the biggest cruises on Earth. He then asked one of the sailors and asked about the ship. "How may I help you?" The sailor asked casually. "I have got the ticket for this ship," Alex said while taking out the green ticket from his pocket. He made sure to take a look at his surroundings, making sure there was no potential trouble. According to his research back on Earth, there was always a ship arc where he met a troublesome person. Luckily, he did not find anyone this time. "Ah! VIP passenger. Respectable Sir, I am Shary. I apologize for not greeting you first." He suddenly became polite. Alex shrugged his shoulders. He remembered that Anna said the ticket was pretty expensive. Nelson bought this ticket and sent it through one of his subordinates. Well, half of his wealth was in Anna''s hand, since she usually took care of Sherry and Kyle, especially filling their Spirit Stones part. So, Nelson must use those Spirit Stones too. "So, can I board the ship now?" "Of course, you can." He nodded furiously. However, when he was about to take another step, he sensed trouble. He immediately turned his head but did not find a person. Suddenly, he felt the ground was shaking and felt a bit of nausea. Before he knew it, the sailor was already in the air, looking at him with surprise. "Ah, I am sorry. Please come to the air first." Alex then leaped to the air and watched the event unfold. He realized this was an Earthquake, and this was the first time he felt an otherworldly Earthquake. He had experienced earthquakes on Earth but not as strong as this. This might even be more than 9.0 SR. Because of that, he immediately looked at the building around the shore. They were swaying left and right but not destroyed. "This must be your first time to Port City. This is a normal occurrence for the fort city. The Sea God is angry and sends this shockwave to us, and with the power of this shockwave, there will be a very tall wave¡­ maybe a few waves. That''s why the building around this place has been reinforced by Hard Rock to make sure we don''t need to rebuild again and again. Ah, you don''t need to worry about the waves since a few Martial Lords are enough to destroy the waves and not let them approach this city." The sailor explained the phenomenon to him. Alex facepalmed. He wanted to complain, "Sea God my ass. This is an Earthquake, and there will be a Tsunami soon. If this was on Earth, the people were already running to the higher ground. "Ah, this is another world. You just need to fly to escape from an Earthquake and send a few Martial Lords to destroy a tsunami. Yep, I should expect something like this." Alex sighed, holding this in his heart. "Take me to my room," Alex said. "Understood. But it might shake again, so I need to suggest you stay outside for a while." The sailor explained. "No need. I can handle that." Alex shook his head. The sailor nodded and led him to his room. Since he was one of the VIP passengers, the room was big and comfy. At the very least, he would feel comfortable since the ship needed two weeks to travel there. After guiding Alex to his room, the sailor said, "If you need any services, you can activate the crystal over there. And our staff will immediately come to your room. Of course, we also have that ''Service.'' You have the list on the table over there. The ship will sail in two days. Then I will leave you for now." Alex nodded. He did not need any service, so he immediately threw the list to the trash can. He looked at the window. He felt a few aftershocks and saw a few tsunamis that were literally destroyed by Martial Lord Cultivators. He just felt an Earthquake in another world was pretty anticlimactic. 437 Lightning Tribulation The journey was pretty boring since there was nothing to do. Many entertainments were on the ship, including the lewd one. Still, Alex had zero interest in them, so he decided to stay inside his room until they arrived. Of course, it did not mean he did nothing. He had a few peak Martial Lord monster blood, so he used it somehow to make a Rank 5 Simulation Room to start practicing his array. So, within these two weeks, he managed to master two more arrays. The first one was a binding Array called King Shackle, and the other one was an attack-type array called Metal Blade. The binding array was like Leoz''s Skill as it launched a few rings to restrict the enemy''s movement. The attack type array was similar to his Fire String Array but without the element. The string was very strong and could kill Martial Lords instantly if he was not careful. After the ship arrived, Alex immediately flew toward Nelson''s direction, leaving the crew since it was pretty rare to see a VIP passenger. In fact, if Alex took a look at the list of the women, he would find many women with rare beauty and decent talent. The VIP usually took them home as a maid or concubine but seeing Alex had no interest in them made them frustrated. Nelson had given him the direction. He found a few cities when he was flying toward him but did not find any interest to come there. He knew the cities would be more powerful than your average city in the Wilow Continent, but it did not pique his interest. After a week of flying, he finally arrived at Nelson''s place. The place was an abandoned village, and it had been abandoned for a few centuries, seeing the houses already become a pile of rubble with most of the materials already swept away by nature. "Nelson?" "This is a perfect place for you, Young Master. I have cleared all the monsters nearby, so there won''t be any monsters that will hinder you. As for the place itself, the village is located almost in the center of the continent. However, I have considered the speed and other things that needed to be considered and found out that they need at least one day to arrive here even with Martial King." Nelson explained. "Is that so?" Alex pondered for a while and nodded his head. He then summoned all his spirits, except Anya. "Spread out. If there is someone or some beasts nearby, kill them." Alex said. "Understood." All of them nodded. Alex then started building the arrays he needed for his tribulation, Gathering Array, Lightning Rod Array, and Barrier Array. With this, he was set to go. He only needed to do this for Martial King tribulation since he could make his own Special Realm after he became Martial Emperor. After finishing his preparation, Alex then started cultivating again. It was true that this continent had denser Spiritual Energy. Unexpectedly, it still could not keep up with his absorption speed, albeit only slightly. He was wondering what kind of future he would have if he were teleported here instead of Wilow Continent. He might be able to become stronger faster, but the difficulty was also far harder. He shook his head and turned his focus back to the cultivation. After one day cultivating, Alex finally felt it was coming. *Rumble Rumble* He had heard the sound of his Lightning Tribulation. He then slowly opened his eyes and looked up. Meanwhile, his spirits started becoming tense for another reason as they immediately raised their guard to make sure no one bothered him. Alex took a deep breath before he said, "Come!" *Rumble Rumble* Alex took out his Sword and Spear instantly and pointed at the lightning as well as activated his Pure Fire. The first yellow lightning strike came straight at him. He brushed it off easily with his sword. He had thirty dragon strength, so this was nothing. The lightning tribulation did not waste any time as it immediately sent the second lightning strike to him. Alex wanted to brush it off again with his sword. But when the sword clashed with the lightning, he felt a strong rejection force from the lightning. It became far stronger but was still in his calculation, so Alex just used his spear together and destroyed the lightning strike. Alex had yet to learn the Spirit Step. Considering it only gave him five dragon strength, it should be no problem for him even if he did not use the Immovable Step. As soon as the third struck forth, Alex threw his spear with all of his strength. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." The clash between the lightning and the spear was spectacular. It even sent a shockwave through the village, sweeping the remaining materials of the houses away. Alex felt his spear would lose this exchange after looking at the energy inside the lightning. Fortunately, the lightning only won barely, which Alex immediately destroyed with a single swing of his sword. There was a pause for a while before the fourth lightning came. The yellow lightning that was rumbling inside the dark cloud slowly turned into blue. He did not know why, but the Blue Lightning slowly turned into an arrow as the cloud became the bow. It shot that single lightning faster than he could imagine. Alex instinctively swung his sword with all of his strength. "Heaven Breaking Sword." Alex was a bit surprised by the power inside the lightning, but it was still manageable. He managed to destroy the lightning with the help of his Sword Intent. He also started covering his weapon with the Spear Intent, thinking he would need it soon. And he was right, the moment the blue arrow (lightning) flew toward him, Alex swung both of his Sword and Spear. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." He used Heaven Breaking Sword with his sword while Berserker Strike with his spear. He found out that if he tried to use Heaven Breaking Sword with both hands simultaneously, it would only produce a weaker technique as the Martial Art itself was for a single sword. This was why he used Berserker Strike with his spear. With a bit of push, Alex finally destroyed the lightning. After that, he finally activated his fire. The lightning tribulation escalated smoothly and faster than he expected, so he needed to release his fire before the lightning came out. The last blue lightning strike finally appeared, and Alex waved his hand. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." Alex shot out a fire phoenix. This was the first time he used his Pure Fire again after his body refinement, and he was surprised to see it surpassed his expectation. However¡­ He saw the Phoenix clash with the lightning arrow. It was a grand fight where the phoenix engulfed the arrow and started burning it. Even so, Alex immediately raised his hand and covered his hand with fire. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw." Even though the fire from the phoenix could extinguish the lightning, it did not have enough time. Alex used his Phoenix Claw after judging its speed. Well, he also considered using his Sword and Spear as a last resort, thus giving him another assurance. The tribulation paused for a while again before the lightning slowly turned into purple. His spirits were startled by the sudden appearance of this. Alex saw a dragon head made of Purple Lighting, coming out of the dark could. And the extraordinary aura that came from the dragon even gave him a goosebump. He covered himself with fire and took a deep breath. Alex thought this would be troublesome. The dragon then struck forth. Alex simply swung his sword. "Seven Stars Cut." This Seven Stars Cut was filled with his Sword Intent and Pure Fire. He did not want to use his Sword King power first as he wanted to conserve his strength for the later part. The blazing sword wave flew to the sky. It clashed with the lightning, making a huge shockwave. Alex could see a few trees bent to the sides before flying as its roots could not hold the shockwave. The fire was trying to burn the dragon while the sword wave itself was trying to cut it. The clash continued for a few more seconds until the dragon finally managed to break the Sword Wave. Looking at this, Alex did not move as the dragon finally disappeared before it could strike him. It already lost all of its energy, so Alex did not need to engage it anymore. Instead, he was focusing on the eighth waves. Alex released both of his domains to attack the lightning this time. Even though he only used his Sword Intent last time, it was still covered with his fire that had been strengthened by Undying Fire Body. Even with all of that, it still lost to the dragon, so he could imagine what kind of terrifying lightning that would come next. The domains started shrinking and went to his Sword and Spear. This time, he was planning to strike the lightning with both of his weapons, wanting to obliterate the lightning. When the eighth lightning strike came to him, Alex swung both of his weapons at the same time, making two sword waves in the shape of X. "Seven Stars Cut." Both of the sword waves contained his weapons king''s power as well as his Pure Fire. The moment it clashed with the dragon, the fire immediately burned the dragon, weakening its strength. After a few seconds, the Sword Wave managed to destroy the lightning completely. "Fu¡­" Even with a situation like this, Alex was still confident his Lightning Rod Array could withstand the lightning strike. A peak rank 4 array had a thousand symbols, while a peak rank 5 array had five thousand symbols. Previously, he made Lightning Rod Array with around 800 symbols. This time, he made the rank 5 Lightning Rod Array with five thousand symbols, but he added a little twist. He did not only use one Lightning Array. Instead, he used five and made a formation. From his knowledge, he could beat the system as long as he used his Space Element to channel the lightning from one array to another. After all, Space Element was also considered to be one of his elements and was legit to use in the Lightning Tribulation. Of course, making a space gate and sending it to that world was a no go. After all, the lightning strike would always be there, and there wouldn''t be a second strike as long as it was not destroyed. When the lightning came forth, he simply made four Spatial Gates and sent the lightning to the other Lightning Rod Arrays. This was like asking friends to cheat together. The Lightning Rod Array could hold the lightning without a problem, but the ground around it was shattered because of the impact. Alex did not care about those as he immediately released both of his domains again. This time, he did not compress it immediately. Instead, he was fusing them and made a very powerful domain. It had the sharpness of a sword, but also the piercing power from the spear. Alex then compressed the domain and channeled it to his Sword and Spear. Alex then started covering his weapons with his Pure Fire. He did not know whether it was enough to destroy the golden lightning or not, but he could only try. He just felt he used around fifteen percent of his energy just to make this combination attack. Maybe it was because of the imperfect fusion as he had yet to eliminate the consciousness of his intents or maybe something else. Otherwise, he would be confident he could destroy this in a single swing. Finally, the dark sky turned into golden like it was welcoming the king. Even the surroundings were also illuminated by the golden light. It was at this time a golden dragon head came out of the cloud. Alex looked at it and said, "Come!" 438 Lightning Tribulation Other Half *Rumble Rumble* The rumbling immediately alarmed everyone in the Nilis Continent. Not only in the Nilis Continent, but the people from Sacred Continent could also feel this rumble. All of them immediately came out of their house and looked at Alex''s direction. Not long after the rumble, they saw the sky turned into golden, like welcoming the king. They never saw something like this and no record about it either. Their interest was immediately piqued as all of them immediately sent their own people toward that place. They could feel that it was coming from a lightning tribulation, which meant someone was undergoing their tribulation. However, all of them did know which genius managed to do that. They immediately checked their own geniuses but found nothing. Even the people from Nilis Continent who were closer to this did not even know, let alone the people from Sacred Continent. All of them immediately suspected each other. But because it originated from a neutral area, they were confused. They all knew about the geniuses in the continent but felt all of them somewhat lacking. So, they immediately thought this was an unknown genius they never discovered. Their eyes immediately filled with greed. However, the king of Brynhildr Kingdom looked at this while frowning. He murmured, "Golden Sky? Golden Lightning? I have read the report about a certain genius from Wilow Continent, but how can this phenomenon appear in this continent? "The army is still conquering the Wilow Continent for me, and from the report, this boy should be participating in the tournament. If that happens, there are only two possible futures for him¡­ death or plead allegiance to us. "However, it is only about two months from all of that, but I haven''t gotten any news from those people. Did something happen to them? Or do they meet resistance from all the influences or even from the Northern Continent, so they get into trouble? It shouldn''t be possible since we have made sure there won''t be any resistance. "If they get into trouble, then they should request reinforcement from us¡­ However, what if there is another person that can trigger such a phenomenon? It seems I need to check it myself." He turned around and roared, "Guards. Call our army and set out to Ghoroa Forest." ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex looked at the golden dragon that was coming toward him. He raised both of his weapons and waved it. "Seven Stars Cut." The two sword waves flew toward the dragon. As usual, the lightning dragon was burned by the Fire and was struck by the sword waves. The ground started shaking by the sheer shockwave and sent many trees flying. It cleared the space around Alex, to nothing but dirt. Alex focused his Spirit Eyes on this clash and frowned. He never expected that his attack was losing. Although it was by a small amount, it was still shocking. After all, this was his most powerful move. He was confident that even 4-Star Martial King could not block this, but to think the lightning could defeat his attack¡­ Alex cursed, "This lightning is trying to kill me, right? It''s not even a challenge anymore, it is a murder." Alex immediately leaped to the sky, wanting to deal the last blow. He did not use his Twin Intent since there was no need to. He simply compressed his domains and struck the lightning. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." The lightning turned into golden dust and burst into the sky. It fell down and created a beautiful scene. But Alex did not have time to savor this scene as he felt his body was going to undergo a transformation. His head also started aching. Alex immediately recalled all of his spirits while enduring the uncomfortable feeling. He felt it would be nice just to receive it here and be done with it, but he knew the risk to do that. So, he immediately made rank 5 teleportation array. Each Array could only send him a hundred kilometers away, so he made several arrays to the direction Nelson pointed at in the beginning. After he managed to reach the place, Alex immediately summoned all of them back as he fell to the ground, trying to undergo the transformation. The first one was his soul. Alex could feel the energy inside his mind slowly flowed toward his heart. The energy slowly converted into another type of energy before coming back to his mind. Suddenly, he entered another space. The space was filled with darkness, and he could not see a single thing on the horizon. He noticed he was standing on a cloud instead of the ground. He was wondering where this place was. "System?" Alex tried to ask his system but to no avail. There was no response or whatsoever. He then noticed that the cloud slowly expanded to the horizon. In the middle of the cloud, he suddenly saw a small white ball. The ball was like cotton candy. However, Alex could feel an insane amount of energy inside of it. He found the energy was similar and instantly realized it was his soul. The ball then slowly turned into something as the cloud continued to expand. After about two hours, the expansion finally halted, and the ball finally revealed itself. It suddenly turned into a mini version of him. The appearance was his current experience, but the height itself was only a tenth of him. The soul was wearing casual clothes and a long black robe. He looked at the chibi, intrigued. It felt like he could control this mini creature with his thought. He slowly used his mind and ordered it to move his right hand. Surprisingly, the mini version of him raised his hand as he was ordered. Alex immediately tried a few more times and finally grasped the way to control it. Although it was still a bit rigid, it was still good enough. He then felt a presence¡­ no two presences. He turned his head and tried to look around. He could see two wisps floating around in the corner of the clouds, one white and one black. Alex frowned when he saw this. He did not know why, but he felt sharpness from both of them. Alex remembered the thing his system said to him. Consciousness! Alex realized it was the consciousness of his Sword and Spear. The two that he needed to remove. He raised his hands, trying to channel his power into his hand. He was bewildered when he found there was no energy inside his body. He pondered for a while. "Is this what it means to destroy them with my own soul?" He observed these two wisps first before shaking his head. He would not be able to do it at his current condition as he lacked information about this. Deciding to put the matter on hold, Alex tried to see what kind of this he could do. He also tried to come back to reality by pinching his cheek or something, thinking it was something similar to a dream but to no avail. After several attempts, he realized he could just picture the exit with his mind. Since he could do nothing at the moment, he decided to leave, wanting to ask the system for more information. Alex slowly opened his eyes and saw all of his spirits around him. Unfortunately, before they could realize he was awake, Alex closed his eyes again as the pain started creeping inside his head. Before long, he started to scream. "Gah!" The scream ended in an instant. He screamed out of reflex and found out that the pain was nothing compared to the pain he needed to endure in his body refinement. He just needed to clench his fists and greeted his teeth for this. His head was being filled with many kinds of information and knowledge. He felt the knowledge was about Martial Arts, but it turned out the opposite. There was not a single Martial Art inside the knowledge. Instead, all of it was Element Art. From Fire, Magma, Water, Ice, Wind, Thunder, even Space. All of that knowledge suddenly crammed inside his head at the same time. He felt his brain was roasted and became a bit fuzzy. Even so, he kept enduring this until it finished. He also took a glimpse of the Element Arts in the process. He was surprised the Element Arts were ranging from a Yellow Tier to the Saint Tier. There were many Heaven Tier Fire Element Arts as well as Saint Tier Arts. He felt he could learn them but not use them. One of the reasons was because his cultivation was not enough. With his Martial King cultivation, the most he could use was High Heaven Tier. After around 6-Star Martial King, his cultivation should be enough to use Low Saint Tier Element Art. Saint Tier Art was a bit special as there was a big gap between each level. From the look of it, the Saint Tier Art could influence the Nature itself, so it was pretty understandable it had a high requirement. It was just he learned another Tier above Saint Tier Art. It was called Forbidden Tier Art. It was called Forbidden Tier Art because it was a transition phase before becoming a Divine Art. Low Saint Tier could only be used at 6-Star Martial King, Mid Saint Tier at 1-Star Martial Emperor, and High Saint Tier at 6-Star Martial Emperor. However, only Martial Monarch and Martial Saint were qualified to use Forbidden Art. Alex wanted to learn it, but it was useless since he could not use it. In fact, he could not even practice it. So, Alex did not pry open those techniques for the time being and focused on his Heaven Tier Element Arts. He might need to sort all this knowledge again after he came back before choosing the right Element Art for him. However, he found something that could pique his interest. ''Realm Seal Technique.'' It was a unique Space Element Art. It did not have any tier as no one managed to learn this technique, except one person, Dungeon God, Rigor. "!!!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise. He did not know how to react to this. [Host, you need to learn it!] "System?" Alex was startled to see the system proactively commanded him. [This is only a hypothesis, but you should know the space element from the system is unique, right?] "Yes." Alex nodded before realizing something wrong. "Don''t tell me¡­" [Yes. From the record, no one could use this technique except the Dungeon God. But let us rethink this. To make the dungeon in the Lower World such as the Agar world that you lived in a few years ago, how can he get into the Lower World where the world barrier should restrict him?] [Even your teacher could not do this. It is either you destroy the entire world along with its barrier from the outside, or you break open the barrier and send some people in. If it was the latter, the people inside would feel a repelling force inside their body and would be expelled.] "To build those dungeons as well as the interior, he needed time." Alex froze upon the realization. [Yes. According to the Manual, the technique can allow you to make a special realm inside your body. This can transport or seal your cultivation and soul inside your special realm.] "That way, the world would not know! With my cute little soul and my cultivation sealed with that realm, doesn''t it mean I can go back to the lower world?" [Possibly. But are you going to?] "No. Even if I wanted, it would only for a short time. Maybe, telling them, I am safe or something and saying thanks to my teacher. But what I want to say is traveling between worlds! You say there is a world barrier that prevents people from going there, but with this technique, I can bypass that and travel between worlds! "With that, I might get special Medicinal herbs or resources that only a particular world has!" Alex shouted and finally opened his eyes. -1 Privilege The news is about Privilege. I''ve been notified that there is a new policy for Privilege. It seems they are going to make it a sitewide requirement for contracted. It is not compulsory but it is highly recommended. Also, if you don''t do it, your book will have even less of a chance to be recommended (No exposure). So, I am thinking about making it 2 chapters for 1 coin. That''s it, I am just going to go for the minimum, so I can get some chance for exposure. The reason for this Privilege is because WN has a hard time dealing with piracy even with DMCA, takedown, or whatever it is. They want to use Privilege to fight it since it will be harder to get it. I will try to explain the Privilege thingy. 1. (2 chapters for 1 coin): Privilege allows one to read advance chapters ahead of the mainstream one by paying a premium. In other words, if I put chapter 399 and 400 as privilege chapters. Only those who pay for privilege can read them while those who can''t would only see up to chapter 398. 2. (Pricing): After you buy the privilege with 1 coin, you will still need to pay for the two other chapters (in standard price) with coins as it can''t be unlocked with a fast pass. The one coin thingy is not for gathering money but to curb piracy plus a chance for exposure. P.S: If you buy privilege, you will get the privilege for a month. You can say it is like mini-Patreon on this site. 3. (Why should I buy this?): Honestly, it is up to you. This privilege thing is only for 2 chapters, not something like 20 or even 50 (Max). In fact, I doubt I will increase the amount any time soon. Well, there are two receptions for this privilege. Some authors were praised and blessed with coins by readers, while others were insulted and had people bouncing off. I seem to be the latter, which is why I try to avoid this. 4. (Where is the Chapters?): Oof, I will try to do it within this week since I write 3 chapters a day (Around 6k words), which I need around 12 hours, including the editing. Plus, I need time for study. Basically, I don''t really have that much free time. That was the reason why I held back my release rate for my other novel (If you know about it) for the Mass Release Event not long ago. Of course, I won''t stop the normal production 2chs/day just to make this privilege, so don''t worry. Even if you don''t buy privilege, you will still get your daily 2chs like normal. 5. (Gift Function): Well, there is a gift function where we can donate to the authors¡­ For this, I can''t say anything since it is not very beneficial. Google/Apple, as well as WN, take a significant share in this, while the one that comes to my way is¡­ Ugh, I will just give you one example: I got less than $1 from the total gifts sent last month... Of course, I am very thankful and appreciated for your continuous support. 6. (Personal Opinion): Well, I don''t really like the Privilege System for various reasons such as public dislike, release rate, money, and so on. In truth, my personal reasons are ''it is hard to write'' and ''I prefer normal Mass Release rather than releasing it in Privilege.'' Anyway, that''s the end of this privilege thingy. All in all, I want to apologize for this inconvenience, and thank you for your continuous support. 441 Disciple? At a certain outskirt town, there was a female with a rag. She appeared to be 12 to 13 years old. Her clothing was plain, as she looked like she did not have money to afford better clothing. She did not have high cultivation either as she was only Foundation Stage 3 or equal to rank 3 in the lower world. Despite having dirt covering her face and raggy appearance, her beauty was top-notch. She had light blue wavy hair and deep blue crystal eyes. If only she was a bit clean and wore a pretty outfit, she would be a flower in front of people''s eyes. However, it seemed she was having trouble as she was staring at three people in front of her. The one in the middle that seemed to be the leader of the group was a young man around 19 to 20 years old. He was a 1-Star Martial Master. He had short black hair and wore fancy clothes. "Rose. Time is up. You need to pay for your parent''s debt." "Young Master Suzen, I¡­ I don''t have the money. Please¡­ please, give me a bit more time." She said while gritting her teeth. She hated this person in front of her to the bone. She had been living happily for many years with her parents. They were a small family that could barely feed themselves. Even so, it was a happy family, or at least that was what she thought. When she started growing, her beauty also grew to a certain extent. And at that time, the person in front of her noticed her beauty. Her parents did not want it as they knew Suzen''s reputation in the town. He had broken many female teenagers as it seemed to be his preference. He loved to break a ''flower'' that had yet to grow to its peak. Because of that, her parents tried to hide her. Unfortunately, even with all the efforts, it was still not enough for them. Suzen used a trick and made them in debt before slowly killing them. After her parents died, he then started breaking her mentality with this debt thing. Even so, Rose tried to gain her freedom. Her father was a hunter in the forest, so she knew a thing or two and became a hunter despite her young age. She had killed many monsters that were on her level, but even so, the debt thing was too much. She looked at Suzen with hatred. There was a dagger on her back. She had prepared it to take away her life as she knew it would be pointless to attack him. It would be far more dangerous if she were captured as she could not imagine what would happen next. "Haha¡­ Time? I have given you plenty of time. Since you don''t have money, then you need to pay with your body." He said while licking his lips vulgarly. "You!" She took a deep breath as she was prepared to die. She took out the dagger and shouted, "Don''t come. I will kill you!" "Hmph. Grab her." Suzen only snorted as he ordered his two subordinates to seize her while thinking what kind of thing he would do after he captured her. Suddenly, she pointed her dagger to her neck, thrusting it to her neck. "Hmph, you have killed my parents. Since you want me, then I will let you do it with a corpse!" "Stop her!" Suzen was shocked that she decided to commit suicide. He could not let her die as she was one of the most beautiful people in this city despite having a young age. The subordinates were having trouble as they feared they did not have enough time to stop her. It was at this time, a young man suddenly appeared in front of Rose and stopped her from killing herself. The young man had golden hair and a handsome face. She did not know why, but she could feel a unique warmth from him. He said, "Aiya, young girl, I know you are in a bind, but you should not take your life." "Haha¡­ good good. I don''t know who you are but good work in stopping her. Come to my family and bring her to me. I will reward you well." Suzen shouted to the young man. Despite that, the young man ignored him and asked the young lady. "What is your name?" Hearing his soothing voice, she did not know why, but her mouth opened itself. "Rose." "Just Rose?" The young man looked a bit disappointed. It looked like he met the wrong person. Rose shook her head and replied hurriedly, "My name is Rose, Rose Skewes." "!!!" The young man looked surprised when he learned that name. "I see." The young man nodded. "You bastard. How dare you ignore me! Don''t you know who I am?" Suzen shouted. "I thought I needed to reward you, but since you dare to ignore me, I will teach you who I am! Break all of his limbs." "Big brother, please escape from here. He is the young master of Kantan Family, the family that ruled this city, Suzen Kantan." Rose said. The young man simply patted her head as he smiled. He waved his hand, and the two people that were trying to grab him halted, could not move even a finger. Rose opened her mouth in surprise. "You¡­ what did you do to my subordinates! You won''t dare to oppose my Kantan Family!" Suzen shouted. "What is your relationship with him?" "He is my enemy!" Rose answered in anger. "He has killed my parents." "I see." The young man nodded at her. He simply let out a bit more Spiritual Energy and crushed both of Suzen''s subordinates to death. "Wha-!" Suzen and Rose were shocked as they never saw something like this. The young man did not even move, and he already killed two 5-Star Martial Masters. "You bastard, how dare you to kill the servants of Kantan Family." Suzen roared. "Big brother, who are you?" Rose asked with an innocent face. "Me¡­ Well, I will tell you later. Do you want to change your fate?" The young man asked. Rose answered without hesitation. "I do!" "Your fate is decided by her." The young man looked at Suzen and said. He then grabbed her and disappeared, leaving Suzen in rage. ¡­ He only took her outside the town for a short talk. "You are asking my name, right? I am Alexander Sirius." Alex finally introduced himself. He suddenly saw a white string with green stripes on it when he was flying toward the Heavenly Sword Sect. He did not know who this was, but this was a person he had good karma with, so out of curiosity, he came to the town. At first, he was a bit disappointed when he knew her name was Rose. He never knew the name of Rose, so he thought he would just save her and be done with it. But when she said her full name, Alex had a different thought. He remembered the Spatial Gate technique he got from Skewes was very useful. So, he thought maybe he could bring her to the sect and let them nurture her. It might be the best way to repay the good karma. When he thought about this while carrying her out of the town, the system suddenly said, [Why don''t you make her your disciple? However, unlike Putri, who was only your in name disciple as you or she never made a serious pact before she left. It also was not like Evelyn. In other words, she would be your true disciple.] "!!!" Alex frowned. He never expected to have a disciple since just becoming his disciple might bring a calamity in their life. So, Alex always thought he did not mind teaching someone but not to the point they became his disciple. [I know you want to be careful about this, but just like your Master Maxwell and your Teacher Marco, you might want to experience what kind of experience to be a Master/Teacher.] "..." Alex pondered it deeply. After introducing himself, he looked at her with a serious expression. "Why is Big bro- I mean, Senior help me?" Rose asked timidly. She even corrected herself and said politely as Alex''s stare made her tense. "Say¡­ Do you use an Axe?" Alex finally asked. He decided that he would make her a disciple if she used an Axe as he just got a set of Axe thingy. It would be better to give it to his ''disciple,'' then letting it rot inside his Inventory. "N-no." Rose shook her head. Alex made a disappointed face again, and this immediately scared Rose. She replied hurriedly, "I can¡­ If Senior wants me, I can¡­ I am very grateful for Senior to help me, but I think we should escape from here since they are from the Kantan Family. The family head is a 2-Star Martial Lord." "Hmm¡­ you don''t need to care about them as they could not do anything to me. Anyway, what kind of weapon do you use?" Alex asked. He had a few mastery cards, Spear, Axe, Bow, and Dagger. If she used one of them, he might as well take her as his disciple. At that time, he could have her rule this continent. He knew how mighty the power of his Mastery Card was, so she should be able to reach Martial Lord or Martial King or more easily. Alex suddenly thought of something and corrected himself, "Anyway, There are four weapons, Spear, Axe, Box, and Dagger. You need to choose one of them." "Eh?" Rose looked at him with a pale face. Alex sighed when he looked at her expression. It seemed he pressed her too much. So, he changed his question again. "Alright. You don''t need to answer that first. It seems you hate that guy with fancy clothes, what''s the deal?" "He¡­ he killed my parents and wanted me to become his slave. I won''t forgive him." Rose suddenly filled with anger to the point she forgot about Alex''s power. Alex then said, "Well, I only save you on a whim. Even if you are fine now, you might not be later." "I am a hunter. He always observes me, making sure I don''t escape from the town while I am hunting. Senior has helped to get past that, so I think I will go to another town from here. I don''t know if I can reach there, but If I can reach there, I will surely try to search for a way to get stronger to have my revenge¡­ and repay Senior." Rose answered. Alex observed her quietly. "So, you are going to kill his family?" Rose thought for a while before shaking her head. "I think his family is not aware of the matter about him killing my parents, and I know that not every person in that family is bad. That''s why I think I will kill him and the people who like to oppress the citizens and let him do what ''he'' wants to a normal citizen." Alex closed his eyes. He did not find any problems with her character, and he knew she did not lie about that. He said, "You are too weak, and it is just an empty dream." "Even so, I won''t give up. As long as I don''t give up, the chance is not zero. That''s what my parents said to me. Even if I need decades, I will surely succeed." She said with conviction. "Then, choose one of the following weapons, Spear, Bow, Dagger, and Axe." Rose looked at him with a troubled expression. After pondering for a while, she said, "I am a hunter, and I use a bow and short sword on a daily basis. So, if I need to choose one, I will choose Bow." "Good." Alex nodded. He then asked his last question. "One last question. Do you want to be my disciple?" 442 Rose and Evelyn "One last question. Do you want to be my disciple?" Silent filled the atmosphere where the question was asked. It was something that Rose never expected. She looked at Alex, dumbfounded, wondering if this was real or not. She had seen him stop two Martial Masters with just a wave of his hands. With that power and Alex''s age, he should be a Martial Grandmaster or something. So, she thought Alex must also be a talented person. "I¡­" She looked left and right, not knowing what to do. She wanted to accept, but feeling she was not worth it. She started her cultivation two years ago, and she could only reach Foundation Stage 3. So, she thought she was only a mediocre person. "I am a person without talent¡­" "Don''t say it is because of a talent or something. What I am asking you is whether you want to be my disciple or not. Not the excuse. So, you need to answer me, yes or no." Alex simply said. "I¡­" She wanted to say no, but she felt she would lose everything if she said it. She gritted her teeth and kneeled on the ground. She said, "Useless Disciple Rose Skewes, greets Master." While slowly putting her head on the ground, kowtowing. Alex waved his hands to help her up. "Don''t say you are useless or something. If you think you lack talents, you just need to grab it from some old men''s inheritances or having a fateful encounter. And meeting me here is your fateful encounter." He took out the Bow Mastery Card and placed it on her forehead before activating it. The card then vanished into thin air. She was dumbfounded by this. "Wha-!" "This is your Fateful enc¡­ Hmm, not really right. This is your Cheat Ability. And the first order of your master is to never say a single word about this. Do you understand?" [Cheat Ability? Host, you suck.] "Shut up." Alex shrugged. "You are also my Cheat Ability." [True, saying I am your fateful encounter is a bit¡­ good, I think?] The system girl wanted to say it did not match as it was a meeting between a system and a Host. However, she ultimately said it was good because she thought it was a meeting between her as an individual and Alex. It was truly a fateful meeting. Alex decided to ignore it and said to Rose. "Anyway, you are my disciple now. So, I think I should give you something first other than that cheat ability." Alex pondered what to give her. "Hmm¡­ Well, I will think about it later when we reach the sect." He then grabbed her and flew to the sect. On the way, Alex asked Anna to make Njomo come back to the sect. After two days, they finally arrived at Heavenly Sword Sect, specifically the Ninth Peak. Alex took her to his house and met Anya. She was astonished to see Anya as she never saw someone this pretty. On the other hand, Anya looked at Alex with a weird expression. "Alex, have you swing that way?" "Nope." Alex simply shook his head. "She has become my disciple since two days ago. Her name is Rose Skewes." "Ah, I see." Anya nodded her head, not because she knew about Rose being Alex''s disciple, but because Rose''s full name was Rose Skewes. Alex had a certain story with Skewes, so with some tweaking, she could picture this would happen. He then looked at Rose, "This is Anya, you can call her-" "Master''s wife, you can certainly call me Master''s wife. No, you need-gah!" Alex hit her head again and said, "You are not." "It is only a matter of time!" She said like she was stating a fact. Alex simply smiled and placed his hand on her head. Anya thought he agreed with her statement, but suddenly, she felt that the grip slowly tightened. She became pale as she said, "Alex, it is starting to hurt." "You can heal yourself later," Alex said without letting his smile vanish. "Uhm¡­ I''m sorry, I won''t say it again." Alex finally released her head and pushed Rose gently to her. "Anyway, wash her first for me." "Sure." Anya nodded and pulled Rose to the bath. Rose did not resist as it was what her master wanted, and she was certainly dirty. One hour passed as they had yet to come out of the bathroom. Suddenly, Alex got visitors, and it turned out to be Charya and Evelyn. It seemed they realized Alex had come back and checked on him. "Yo, it seems you have become a Martial King," Charya said, surprised. Evelyn could only stare at him with astonishment. However, their eyes were taken away by the sight of two people on his back. They already knew about the golden-haired beauty, but they had no idea who the light blue-haired little girl was. After she washed herself, her true appearance finally came out. Without dirt covering her face, her pretty face finally showed itself, and Alex could understand why that Young Master wanted her. Alex did not have clothes for a little girl, so he just gave her a long robe that he cut a bit for her to wear for a while. She looked as pretty as Evelyn when Alex first met her in the recruitment test a few years ago. "Do you swing that way?" Charya could not help but blurt out that question. "Why do all of you think like that¡­" Alex was speechless as she just asked the same question as Anya. He shook his head and said, "No, she is my disciple. Well, she is not like Putri and Evelyn, so you can say she is my true disciple." "I see." Charya nodded, understanding what he meant. "Where do you meet her?" "On my way home, I met her and asked her to be my disciple. I thought about asking you to take care of her." Alex said. "Me? Why?" Charya was confused. "Her element is Lightning, I have confirmed it except it has yet to be awakened. So, she can''t use it yet; I will try to awaken it later." Alex said. "Ah, you want me to take care of her because we have the same elements." Charya nodded. "By the way, what is her weapon? This is Heavenly Sword Sect, you know." "Bow," Alex said. There was a trace of troubled expression in Charya''s face, but Alex immediately said, "You don''t need to care about her weapon. I will ask a few disciples in the Ninth Peak to show her about bows, she should understand the basics easily." Charya furrowed her eyebrows. "Another monster like you?" "Oi, don''t say it right in front of my face, will you? Anyway, just take care of her Lightning Element. I will try to give her what she needs, but it is certainly good to have experience on the outside." Alex said. "Alright. I will try to help you since it is pretty boring this day with just this little girl around." Charya said while placing her hand on Evelyn''s head. She then looked at Rose with a pity. "Still, poor girl. You need to experience demonic training." "Oi." "Gahaha." Charya simply laughed. Meanwhile, Evelyn had a contradictory thought. She was jealous of this little girl that came out of nowhere and suddenly became Alex''s disciple. Alex never became his mentor or Master this entire time, and to think this little girl became his disciple just like that. She suddenly had an absurd imagination. It might be because she had grown into a teenager, Alex had lost interest in her. She immediately hugged Alex while tears started coming out of her eyes. "Big¡­ big brother Alex, I am sorry for growing up. Please don''t abandon Evelyn." "I don''t know what you are talking about, but I am sure you misunderstand something." Rose looked at them, clueless. She then heard Alex say, "Rose, come here. Meet Elder Charya, who will take care of your lightning element training, and big sister Evelyn." "Eh?" Rose was not surprised by the two people, but because Alex knew her element. No one could know someone''s element even he/she herself when the element had yet to be awakened. So, she just could not understand why he knew. "Master, how do you know??? "I have my own way." Alex had Spirit Eyes, so he could check it easily. Rose did not understand but still walked to him. She introduced herself timidly, "I-I am Rose Skewes." "This girl must not know your identity, eh? Master?" Charya made a smug smile, trying to tease him. Alex said, "I have told her my name." "Oh¡­ So, she doesn''t know the information about you, I guess." "She has a pretty rough life, so maybe." "Well, you are going to buy her new clothes, right?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Well, I will bring this girl first, and you can do your thing first," Charya said and took Evelyn back. Alex nodded. After Charya and Evelyn left, he took Rose to the Heavenly Sword Sect to get a few clothes. He did not bring Anya thought as he felt they would have trouble. After that, Alex finally thought about what to give her. He already thought of two things that she needed. It was his two old books. Basic Body Tempering Manual and Basic Cultivation Manual. The tempering manual was for her to slowly strengthen her body, but she might not really need it as she had grown in this environment, and she said she was a hunter herself. But, she certainly needed the Basic Cultivation Manual as he even still used this cultivation manual. After all, his manual absorbed the purest form of energy. As for her bow, he simply gave her a rank 2 bow since she would become a Martial Master soon enough. He did not want to give her a powerful bow, lest she became reliant on it. "Before you learn these two, I need to teach you a single thing," Alex said. "What is it, Master?" Rose asked. "You need to make sure you know your enemy, your friend, and innocent people. And you shall never confuse between them." Alex said. "My enemy, my friend, and innocent people?" Rose tilted her head, confused. "Yeah. I tell you this based on my experiences. You shall treat your enemy like a bitter winter and kill them to not leave any future trouble for you¡­ trust me, if you spare your enemy because you feel pity or because of some circumstances, you will regret it in the future. "As for your friend¡­ You¡­ can treat them nicely since they are your friends. But beware of fake friends. There are many fake friends because they befriend you for a certain benefit and will leave or backstab you at your weakest time. "Lastly, you should never harm Innocent people, AKA bystanders. If you are trying to avenge your parents, you need to know who are involved and who are not. Simply said, you can have your revenge but not be blinded by it." This was the first thing he needed to teach her as a disciple of a Gacha Sovereign, who related with Luck and Karma, she needed to know this. "I¡­" "What? You don''t understand it?" Alex asked. "Uh¡­" Rose nodded, downcast. She was ashamed she could not understand what her master was talking about. "It''s fine if you don''t understand it immediately. However, you need to etch these words in your mind, and I am sure these words will be useful for you at one point." Alex said. "Mhm." She nodded furiously. "Good. I think you don''t really need that Body Tempering Manual, as I will personally teach you. But you need to adhere the Cultivation Manual. There might be many stronger Cultivation techniques, but no matter what, you need to use this one since I still use it. You might be wondering why, but even though it is slower, this cultivation manual will take you to the top." Alex said. She nodded as she grabbed the two books tightly. 443 Training A few days later, Rose was lying on the ground, tired after Alex''s training. There was a time when she wondered whether she regretted becoming Alex''s disciple or not, but she always chose not. It was because she had seen Alex also underwent the same amount of training. Alex had many things to do within this year, so he asked Anya to observe Rose''s progress. Meanwhile, He only sorted his knowledge about Fire and Space as they were important to him and would continue sorting the other elements later. He had two new Fire Elements Arts called, Flame of Extinction and Fire Wave Emission. Flame of Extinction was a High Heaven Tier Fire Art. It shot a laser that was capable of piercing through anything because of the intense heat. It was even far more terrifying with Alex''s Pure Fire. As for his Fire Wave Emission, Alex could make a wave or spiral of fire that could be controlled by his thoughts. This technique was only a Mid Heaven Tier Fire Art, but Alex was going to learn this technique because he wanted a binding technique. Since he usually used Array to bind his opponent, he thought it would be better to have a binding technique with his fire only. This way, he had two binding techniques and could reveal one of them easily. Rose could feel the intense heat even though Alex had made a distance with her and was wondering what kind of training he got. However, what she knew was sometimes Alex did not come back in two days because of the training, so she could somehow picture how intense Alex training was. That was why she did not complain and continued to practice. Unlike Alex, who practiced in the lower world, she got a good environment in this sect that was filled with Spiritual Energy. She progressed by leaps and bounds to the point she was scared by her own progress. After all, with just three months of training, She almost reached Martial Master. Alex also had asked a few Martial Grandmasters disciples to teach Rose with her bow. He did not know why, but they all ended up scared and left not long after. At first, they agreed to it because not only Alex gave a huge amount of compensation, they could meet the famous Alexander Sirius. Unexpectedly, when they taught Rose about Bow, Rose would always understand and was able to replicate them. It could be said that her foundation about the bow was rock-solid after all the training from those disciples. Of course, this was thanks to Alex''s Bow Mastery. Charya often dropped by to check and complained about the disciples that were complaining about how monstrous Rose was. Ultimately, she just concluded it was normal to have a Monstrous disciple considering her master was far more monstrous than her. On the contrary, Evelyn felt challenged by Rose''s existence. People only knew about her being the monstrous disciple under Alexander Sirius, but because of Rose, the people started forgetting her existence. Because of that, she often came to her, trying to make her understand her place by saying how great she was. Of course, Anya always teased her and ended up making her train together with Rose. Just right before Rose''s first tribulation, Alex came to her and said, "After you reach Martial Master, you need to stop your progress every five stars. In other words, in 5-Star and 10-Star, you need to stop your progress with Spirit Stones. Instead, you are going to train with your Cultivation Manual completely." Rose did not understand his teaching, but she nodded and took it as important. After these three months, she knew about Alex''s identity bit by bit. She was astonished when she learned Alex was a Martial King and a hero of Willow Continent. Unknowingly, Alex''s deeds became her favorite stories. In the meantime, Alex was completely focused on his Fire Element and Space Element. Although he had understood the basics of his new Fire Elements within two months, he kept practicing it to master it. After all, it was not like a Sword Art or Spear Art, where he could rely on his Mastery. Alex could only rely on his observation and hard work to master the Element Arts. As for his Space Element, Alex chose to master his Spatial Gate and Space Plate as both of them were a versatile technique. He also practiced his Realm Seal Technique. This allowed him to cross over the world and went back to the lower world. After Alicia and Firia found out about this, they wrote letters to their own family, telling them they are alright. Alex had to get it with his Gacha Tickets. Of course, it did not mean Alex would waste time by doing that. He just wanted to visit them for a couple of days before going back, so it was not a big deal. As for the continent, they were in turmoils. After knowing Alex had become a Martial King, they immediately sent a big gift to him, together with women. The women were practically the daughters or granddaughters from the higher up of their respective influences. He even saw Luna, the second princess of the Thiveapia Kingdom, on the list. Alex immediately turned all them down since he did not need any women or gifts, and no one dared to voice their opinion, afraid of becoming the second Zhou Kingdom. Ultimately, they were relieved when they knew Alex did not want anything from them, nor they had any thoughts about them. He just wanted to stay for a while before going to the Northern Continent. At one time, he thought, why did he not give Nelson the weapons he got from the systems, Zwaka''s place, and the Martial Arts and Element Arts. He did not care whether the price there plummeted or not. Ultimately, he sighed and threw away that thought. After another month, Rose finally underwent her first lightning tribulation. She felt a bit nervous as she never experienced this, but Alex thought it would be a normal tribulation. Unexpectedly, much less both of their expectations, it turned out Rose managed to pass her tribulation very easily. There were a few reasons for that. The first reason was that Alex had overestimated the lightning tribulation because of his absurd lightning tribulation. He also had not seen any normal Lightning Tribulation. So, his training was based on that Lightning Tribulation, and it turned out Rose became a bit overpowered. Secondly, Rose already grasped Bow Intent. She should be able to send her intent flying within a few months. Because of this, the reputation of Evelyn slowly replaced her own reputation. Lastly, her lightning element was already awakened, and Charya had taught her a few things. Alex wanted to give Lightning Technique to her, but he had yet to sort the Element Arts other than Fire and Space, so he thought it would be for later. Rose was very grateful to her Master, Alex. Not only could she live like this, but she could also picture the scene where she finally finished the business with Suzen Kantan and avenge her parents. And when she reached Martial Master, Alex finally made a requirement for her. Rose needed to finish ten missions before she became a Martial Grandmaster alone. She needed at least two herbs searching missions, two monsters subjugation missions, two scouting missions, and two bandit subjugation missions. Alex wanted to train her observation by having the herbs searching missions. If she entered a new kind of terrain and such, she would be unfamiliar with the ground nearby, and her sight of vision would be limited. He wanted her to have a cool head that could think at any time and not miss any important details. He wanted to train her prowess by killing many monsters in the subjugation missions. Of course, he was a bit merciless with this as he assigned her with monsters that were two or three stars above her level. This way, he could train her strategist ability by coming up plan after plan to subjugate monsters that were above her. Thirdly, she needed to improve her scouting skill and information gathering skills. It was a very powerful ability. He even called Ngina to teach her the basics of espionage. Of course, Alex also listened to this. Lastly, Alex wanted her to experience killing humans. After all, it was useless if she could not kill humans. This also could train her thought process as what she dealt with was a creature that had intelligence and was capable of making plans. He wanted to teach her how to outsmart her opponent. He did not teach Evelyn any of these since he thought there was no need to. After all, Evelyn had a kingdom as her backing, and she could use manpower as much as she needed. As for Rose, she lacked that as Alex bounded to go to another continent and left her here. So, he taught her to be independent. Of course, he did not forget to teach her how to become a careful person. Rose accepted his missions with pleasure. All in all, she would not have any missions before she reached 6-Star Martial Master. Charya was a bit skeptical about this as she was a bit worried since Rose was too small. Alex said it was fine since even though she was alone, Alex made Njomo stay inside her shadow. Njomo was almost a Martial King Beast, so it should be a problem. On the other hand, Alex decided to wait for Sherry and Kyle to wake up before giving them the Fire Dragon Saint Heart. Another three months passed. Alex was practicing his Alchemist Skill and Array Ability. Since he had learned most of the necessity of Array, he only learned two arrays: Fire Mirror Array and rank 5 Teleportation Array. The Fire Mirror Array was like its name, it was like a ring made of fire, and its purpose was to strengthen his Fire Element. He thought this array could increase the power of His Flame of Extinction. As for the Rank 5 Teleportation Array, he simply needed it. As for the Alchemist Pill, he had a few pills on his list. There were Giant Strength Pill, Soul Reinforcing Pill, Soul Protection Pill, Wondrous Healing Pill, and Anti Poison Pill. These past few months, Alex also asked about the market. It seemed that the Soul Protection Pill, Wondrous Healing Pill, and Anti Poison Pill were a common commodity. This was because all Martial Kings had condensed a soul inside their bodies. Much less of its name, Soul Protection Pill, was a pill to heal an internal injury as well as a soul for a little bit. This commodity was hot, but not really pricey since the soul healing effect itself was not that great. They usually needed many pills just to heal it. As for Wondrous Healing Pill and Anti Poison Pill, it was already a common item for cultivation even from this continent. Alex just never needed it, so he did not really care. Wondrous Healing Pill could heal External and Internal wounds, except the soul. It seemed that the Soul Protection Pill would become more effective after they treated the External and Internal wounds. It was the same for Anti Poison Pill. It could detoxify a rank 5 poison or lower easily. He did not need to care about his body being poisoned since he had Pure Fire Element, but it was still unknown whether his soul could be poisoned or not. The system answered he might, so he decided to learn this pill. The other two were Soul Reinforcing Pill, which was useful to nurture his soul. The second pill was Giant Strength Pill that could give him ten dragon strength upon consumption. Unlike the Giant Strength Pill that he could only eat one pill, the Soul Reinforcing Pill was the normal commodity here. The effect was the same as a Pill that could help cultivation, but for the soul. It could be consumed without limit to nurture his soul faster. He could train all of them except Soul Protection Pill because he did not have the ingredients and Giant Strength Pill because it was a high 5th rank pill, and he did not have enough strength to make that. He also could not make Soul Reinforcing Pill in large quantities since he did not have that many ingredients. All that he had was from the system Gacha, so he decided to master it first. After finishing his training, it was time to... 444 Training Part II After finishing his other training, it was time to face his soul. He needed to defeat those two consciousnesses and fused both of his intents completely. It was then he could start his Sword and Spear Training. Alex had been instructed by the system on how to control his soul and how to defeat the two consciousnesses. So, Alex sat on his bed and entered his consciousness. He went back to the special soul realm again and looked at his soul. He also observed the Sword and Spear consciousness. They would not attack him before he attacked them, so he could get accustomed to his Soul first. He sat back on the center of the cloud and tried to link his mind to his soul. He felt a bit of a connection between his mind and the mini version of him. This process was called synchronization, and before he knew it, he suddenly entered the little guy. He was surprised and raised his hands like normal. It was really weird to see small hands and such, even his vision was much lower. He tried to summon a sword and a spear on his hand with his thought and succeeded. He then started moving left and right to get accustomed to his small body. He fell many times as he was confused with the height difference and stumbled. It took him three hours to get accustomed to his body. He also managed to use his Fire and Space Element, so confidence started to build up within him. According to his system, Alex needed to destroy both consciousnesses simultaneously to trigger the fusion between the two intents. So, Alex needed a plan to do that. He waved his hand and sent a fire phoenix toward the two wisps. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." Surprisingly, the two wisps suddenly let out a single sword wave each, making an ''X'' sword wave and obliterated his phoenix in an instant. Alex frowned when he saw this. He could see that the Sword Wave had his condensed domains. It seemed to challenge them, he needed to use his Pure Fire and two elements at the same time. With that, he released his Pure Fire and covered his sword with them. He swung both of his weapons at the same time, making the same move like the wisps. "Seven Stars Cut." The weapons also did the same, but it did not have his Fire Element, so their attack was broken. They immediately avoided Alex''s attack and sent out another attack. It was his Quick Silver this time. Alex swung his weapons to destroy the two Quick Silvers. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." He then waved both of his hands, creating two fire spirals that flew toward the consciousness. "Fire Wave Emission." The fire spirals immediately circled around the consciousness before coming toward them. The flame immediately swallowed, but the two wisps quickly cut the flame with an invisible blade. Alex was astonished. He was observing them with his Spirit Eyes, and he could see what just happened. The wisps made a sudden explosion of the domain, creating a powerful rejection force and blasted his fire away. He never thought he could use his domains like that. It seemed he needed to prolong the fight a little bit to see what kind of wonder the Domains actually had. Alex started engaging them, and the wisps made an illusory weapon and attacked him together. They had equal exchanges even with his Pure Fire. So, Alex decided to bait them in using their Seven Stars Cut. "Fire Wave Emission." Alex sent another fire spiral, but this time, he made it like a huge ocean wave that would engulf everything in front of it. The wisps immediately used Seven Stars Cut and destroyed the fire wave. The sword wave was burned by the fire but managed to destroy his fire waves. He then made two portals in front of him. One to absorb the attack and the other one to send the attack back. He did not stop there and used his Seven Stars Cut together with his Fire. The two consciousness used the burst of the domain to deflect their own Seven Stars Cut and sent another Sword Wave to break the second one. They were prepared to avoid this attack, but Alex did not give them a chance. He used his teleportation array and appeared behind them while swinging his weapons. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." They were cut into two and could not do a single thing after that. After killing both wisps at the same time, they burst out, letting out many white and black particles in the air. The Sword and Spear Intents in his body started rampaging, and both of his domains were released in the real world. Before he knew it, Alex was already back in his real body and vanished from his consciousness. He came back to his real body and kept savoring all the feelings. The process was indescribable for him. Because of the size of his domains, Anya and Rose could see both of his domains from outside. Rose felt she was slashed by many swords in just a second and fell down, full of sweat. "Gah!" Anya immediately came to her and released a barrier to protect her. However, at this time, Anya suddenly cried. Her face was full of joy as she said, "Finally¡­ he¡­ he is coming back." They could see the two domains started fusing into a single domain. Rose admired her master even though she was injured by it. After all, she never thought that the encounter turned out to be her most precious encounter. With that encounter, she, an average person, became a disciple of a Martial King as well as Sword King and Spear King. However, it was not just pride that crept inside her heart, but also anxiety. She was wondering whether she could fulfill the expectation from the people around as well as his expectation. Looking at this, Anya patted her head and said while healing her, "It''s fine. You don''t need to care about others. As for your master, the thought is enough. As long as you try, you will have the opportunity to make your master proud. "That''s why you need to work hard. Know that your master might work harder than you." "Uhm. I will work hard." She nodded furiously. "Of course, sometimes you need to take a break, not for your body but your mental aspect. Maybe enjoying your life or something." Anya smiled. "My mother and father said to enjoy my life with someone I like. I like Master, so I need to enjoy my life with him? She asked innocently. Anya''s eyebrows twitched when she heard that. "Fufu¡­ You need to ask that question to him." ¡­ After a full day, Alex finally fused both of his domains into one, creating a stronger domain. It was the same as his intent. Alex tried to summon one of them but to no avail. It meant he had fused them entirely, and there was no sword intent or spear intent in him again. Instead, there was this intent that he called Sharp Twin Intent. He was not good with naming, so he would change the name if needed in the future. He finally finished dealing with the two consciousnesses, and he also got another technique as a bonus. He came out of his room and saw Anya together with Rose. Anya smiled at him and said, "Congratulations." Alex nodded with a smile. Meanwhile, Rose came to him and hugged him. "Master, congratulations." "Yeah, thank you." Alex patted her head. "Hehe¡­" After six months, Rose was not shy anymore. She then asked ''that'' question again. "Master, Big sister Anya said I need to ask you this." "Mhm? What is it? Do you have any problems with your cultivation?" Alex asked. "No, no." She shook her head hurriedly. "We talk about resting after training. She said it is for my mental aspect. My mother and father said I could enjoy my life with the person I like in the future, like mother and father. I like Master, that''s why I want to live together with Master." "Pu." Anya was trying hard to hold back her laughter. Alex sighed at her and made a troubled expression. He shook his head and patted her head with a smile. "Sure, Master like you too. That''s why you need to work hard." "Yes. I can''t shame Master''s name." She nodded repeatedly. Alex then started his sword and spear training. Firstly, after fusing both of his intents, he needed to get accustomed to the new intent and made sure he could use all of his Sword and Spear Arts with it. The second objective was to completely fuse his Intent as well as his Domain to his Martial Arts. This one was trial and error. Sometimes, the Martial Arts broke because it did not assimilate smoothly with his intents. Sometimes, it was far worse and created an explosion. After succeeding in this one, he then tried to fuse Fire to his Martial Arts with his soul. He kept recalling the mini version of him, dragging his fire to Martial Arts, and he somehow managed to succeed with his experiment. He then used it as his base and continued his experiment. The last objective was to combine his Fire, Intent and Domain, and Martial Arts altogether. This one was the hardest one, as Alex needed to keep all three in balance. Every time, he experimented, it would use a huge amount of soul power. This process took the longest time as Alex only succeeded in it after four months, while the previous three objectives only took him two months. Alex finally finished all of his training and strengthened his basics since he became a Martial King a year ago. He was ready to go to the forest where he met Ukon. It was time to meet with his relatives in the lower world before going to the Northern Continent. After all, he might need a few years before he could come back to this continent. Whether he wanted to go back or not was a different case though. Sherry and Kyle also had become Martial King beasts, and they were in the process of swallowing the Fire Dragon Heart and went back to his body. It seemed his Body was more beneficial for this because it hosted his Pure Fire. They were in a deep sleep again after swallowing the beasts. He then bid his goodbye to Rose and Anya. No one missed him since he would only leave for a while. After two days of flying, he finally arrived at the spot where he was teleported from the lower world. He instantly activated his spirit eyes and found the array, buried inside the ground. Alex started digging down and revealed the array. The array was very complex, as even Alex could not understand all of them even with his knowledge. He thought it was to be expected from a God that had a unique Space Element. "This is the teleportation array." "This one is a restriction array. It can only let pass a Martial Master from the other side. However, it seems there is nothing about the teleportation Array from this world to the lower world." Alex pondered for a moment while recalling all of his knowledge. He tweaked the array a little bit, making the one-way teleportation to two-ways teleportation portal. This way, Alex could teleport there. He did not change the restriction but still sealed his power to peak Foundation Stage 9. In other words, Rank 9, according to the lower world standard. According to the technique, he needed to seal his power into the depth of his soul before hiding his soul inside a special realm. This realm was called Realm Seal. If he entered his body again, there was a gate inside his cloud world with his soul hidden inside that gate. This way, the world would not detect his soul or his cultivation. He then channeled his Spiritual Energy and disappeared from the world. 445 Array It was only a blink of eyes where Alex found himself back into the nostalgic room where he used to come to the upper world. He remembered that he never observed the world as well as this array carefully as he was rushing back then. Recalling that, Alex looked through the dark room with his eyes while walking outside of the array. It was merely a dark room where the array was. He did not find a single thing outside the box, so he tried to use his Spirit Eyes to check. He was surprised to see that the array was more than he could see. The teleportation array that he could see was only a glimpse of the real array. If he activated the teleportation array, the energy would move toward the array below it. It was a gigantic array that was spanning more than one kilometer on the ground. "How many symbols are actually in this array?" Alex was startled. "One thousand..." "Ten thousand¡­" "A hundred thousand¡­" "Wait, this is over one million Symbols?" Alex gasped as he could not imagine that these many symbols were buried right below the ground. Judging from the floors'' size, one kilometer beneath the ground, and there was no way for others to discover this. "!!!" What made him shocked was the fact that this array had over a million symbols. The peak of rank 5 Array was only around five thousand symbols, while peak rank 6 array was around ten thousand. Unlike them, a rank 7 Array had a hundred thousand, whereas the rank 8 array had a million. But this array had more than a million. Alex finally realized that this was truly the array made by dungeon god, a true God. After all, above rank 8 Array, which equals to Martial Saint in terms of cultivation, it was called Divine Array. However, Alex tried to see the symbols one by one, but surprisingly, he did not know many symbols out there. He wanted to learn about this array as he thought his understanding of Space Element would increase, but he did not have time. So, he just made a miniature of the array that had all the symbols of this giant array. It took him almost a day just to copy all of these symbols. And he also found that the array was linking to above the ground, and when he tried to look where it ended, it was on the mysterious rooms. All the mysterious rooms that could not be opened. He had seen all of these rooms back on his first date with Alicia, and to think all of them were connected to this, it baffled him. After creating the miniature, Alex started making his way toward the surface. The last boss, a real Martial Master monster, was a savage boar, but it immediately ran away with just a glare from him. Even though Alex''s cultivation and soul was sealed within the special realm, his ferocity and Intent were not. With just a single glance, the monsters in this place instinctively ran away. There were some of them that tried to attack him, but they were butchered before even coming close to him by his Twin Sharp Domain. He slowly made his way toward the surface, and he somehow wanted to go up to see the mysterious rooms. He might need to cover his face a bit, so he put his mask on and wore a black cloak. As he expected, the situation was not changed inside the lower floors. The gold rank hunters were low in number, and he practically did not see anyone higher than that. He continued to the higher floor and stopped at the first floor. He then made a portal to go to the Blue layered realm, which he called Space Realm. He wanted to bypass all the people since he would need some kind of pass to go to the dungeon body on the surface. He sneaked away from the guards that were guarding the dungeon and made his way toward the mysterious rooms. He came out of the portal since he did not see anyone and skimmed the doors with his Spirit Eyes. It turned out that the rooms inside were also filled with arrays. The main teleportation array was on the bottom, while these arrays were about coordinates of teleportations, power restrictions, and such. This tower had ten floors, so seeing these many rooms, Alex could conclude that every floor had its own specific realm. He purposely went to the fifth floor, away from the crowd on the bottom or the top of the dungeon. Since the room was practically the same, he just checked one of the rooms. He came to the door and observed it. The door was just like your wooden door, but Alex knew it had been reinforced by arrays, so people could not destroy it. He also found the keyhole, which made the people think there was a key for the room. However, for him, who was an Array Master with knowledge surpassing his peers, he knew how to open it. He took a deep breath before pouring a few symbols that needed to lock the door, and before long, he could finally open it. He glanced left and right to make sure no one noticed this. It would be good if he could use his domain to check, but it would startle people as they should be able to see it. The moment he came inside the room, he was astonished. "Realm Restriction Array¡­ this is one of the arrays that was used in Zwaka''s place. However, for this array, it is restricted only for Foundation Stage 5 monsters to be able to cross the array." He observed one of the arrays he found inside the room. "This one is a Gathering Array¡­ But not from Spirit Stones, but from the monsters¡­ It sucks away every energy from Monster''s flesh, bones, and even a portion of their core. This grants the entire dungeon system self sustain for thousands of years." Alex murmured. All of these arrays were fascinating. He immediately recorded all the things he needed to record. After all, even in the knowledge he got, many things were not recorded. This was very special for him as both of them had a unique Space Element. "There is also one array that reinforced the floor and wall of this dungeon and also this pressurization array. This is why even below one kilometer underground, the pressure was still the same. All of these are truly fascinating¡­ how sad I can''t stay here and learn all of these since I have more important things." He continued to observe the arrays one by one, and unknowingly he had spent a few hours inside this room. He needed to warp all of this soon and came out. After checking for one last time, Alex finally came out of the room. It was at this time, he suddenly heard a cute voice from his right. "Uncle, how can you open the door?" It was coming from a little girl that seemed to be one or two years old. She had nostalgic purple hair, laying smoothly on her shoulder. The dimple on her face made her look cuter. She wore a long blue dress with a big butterfly ribbon on top of her head. "Mother said these doors couldn''t be opened." "Sh*t." Alex cursed inwardly. Because of this array, he was too excited and lowered his guard. He did not check the outside before going out of this room. In fact, he was a bit underestimating the world since he was too powerful for this world. He was also accustomed to killing in the upper world. In the upper world, he could not lower his guard down unless he was in his house to make sure he was not targeted by the people. And with this little girl who did not have any bad intention, she went unnoticed. He looked at the little girl that was around ten meters away from him, wondering what he should do with this. Did he need to kill a little kid like this? He shook his head and tried to see another option. However, when he was thinking, he sensed another woman that was coming toward him. He thought it must be this little girl''s relative. He needed to kidnap this little girl first before tricking her so she would forget about this. But that thought suddenly vanished after he saw the woman. She had long beautiful purple hair, reaching her waist. Purple eyes that socketed beautifully. Good seducing body. A beautiful face that left a mark in one''s heart. She wore a white flowery dress that enchanted her appearance. "Alexa." The woman called the little girl''s name with a sweet soothing sound. "Mother!" The little girl turned back and ran toward the woman while saying, "You said that these doors couldn''t be opened, but I saw the uncle over there just come out of the room." The woman was startled when she heard that. She looked at the mysterious man and immediately hugged her little daughter, trying to protect her. She released her killing intent and said, "Who are you?" Even though she did not have a weapon or her armors, she was planning to go all out with this man. Alex only smiled behind his mask. He was surprised that he saw a Foundation Stage 7 person, AKA rank 7. He slowly opened his hood and put off his mask, revealing the golden hair as well as his handsome face. Yet, the moment they saw his face, the little girl was astonished and said, "Uncle, you are very handsome¡­ better than my father." Meanwhile, the woman froze as she never thought she could see this face again. The one that was supposed to have gone but still etched inside their head. "It''s been a while, Sister Lea." The man smiled and said. It turned out that the woman was the first princess of the Acacia Kingdom, Alicia''s oldest sister, Lea. "Alex...ander¡­ Sirius." She uttered the man''s name. "Ho¡­ how¡­" "For many reasons, I have come back to this place for a while." He smiled. "Mother? You know uncle?" Alexa looked at her mother with her innocent face. "Ah¡­" Lea did not know what to do. She looked at Alexa''s cute face and said, "He¡­ he is your uncle¡­" "?!" She tilted her head, confused. Alex walked toward her slowly while glancing at the little girl on her embrace. "Who is this little girl? She calls you mother, is she your child?" "Little girl? Uncle, you are rude. I have a name too." She pouted. "My name is Alexa Van Rizertia. Mother said my name is born from my uncle, Alexander Sirius, and my aunt, Alicia Van Rizertia." "Is that so? Then, I apologize." He simply smiled and patted the little girl''s head. "Not long after you left, I also married and blessed with her. Because I was jealous of you two back then, I put both of your names to her." Lea said, embarrassed. She then said, "But that''s not important. What are you doing here? Aren''t you supposed to be in-" Alex shook his head. "I am just visiting here for a few days. Well, I also have letters from Alicia and Firia for families, so I will go there. How about you? Do you have any business here? Oh right, who is your husband? I am a bit curious." "No. I am here just to take her sightseeing all of your experience, including this place, as it is the place for your first date with Alicia." Lea shook her head. "As for my husband¡­ He is my deputy in the garrison, and we have known each other from the academy. He is a commoner too, so he needs to raise his noble ranks as well as his strength. Father is training him back home." "I see." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Alexa pinched Lea''s cheek and pouted. "Mother, don''t ignore Alexa. You haven''t told me about this uncle." "He¡­" 446 Passed Away "He is your uncle, Honey." She said with a smile. "You said you always want to meet your uncle, and here he is." "Uncle?" Alexa looked at Alex, confused. She then turned back to her mother, "Mother, you are lying. You said my uncle is God and won''t come back. But¡­ uncle''s face is similar to the statue." "Statue?" Alex looked at Lea. "Uh¡­" Lea did not know what to say. In fact, the whole truth about the upper world was only known by his teacher, Marco. As for the others, including his family from Alicia''s family or Firia''s family, all of them only knew that he became God and would only watch us from Heaven. Alex made a chuckle when he saw this. He patted her head and said, "I am Alexander Sirius, your uncle. I am coming here to see my little niece over here." "Really?" As one would expect from a two years old little girl, she was tricked already. Alex had been her idol, just like a little girl that idolized a character from a fairy tale. Alex''s story had become a common fairy tale in this world, and everyone had heard it, including this little girl. "Yes." He tried to stretch his hands to this girl, trying to carry her on his hand. The little girl came to him happily. He then turned to Lea and asked, "By the way, what are you going to do after this?" "Hmm¡­ I don''t have any plans and will go back the day after tomorrow." "No escort or whatsoever?" Alex asked. "There is an escort, and they are waiting for me in the town." She said. "Since you want to go back, how about coming with me?" "Hmm¡­ my time is a bit limited, so how about we go there right now? We can arrive at home instantly." Alex said. "Uncle is lying." "How am I lying?" He smiled and asked. "Alexa''s home is far. We need two days just to go back." Alexa pouted. "Of course, Uncle is not lying to you. Uncle can show it to you if you don''t believe uncle¡­ after your mother agrees, that is." "Really?" Alexa''s eyes brightened as she looked at her mother with an expectant look. Lea shook her head helplessly. "Can we bring the soldiers with us?" "Sure." Alex did not mind since there was basically nothing wrong, even if teleported all of them. No one would dare question him anyway. "Let''s go to the soldiers first. After that, we will go back." "Yay!" Alexa raised her hands, full of joy. She seemed to be pretty eager to see it and urged her mother. "Mother, let''s go." Lea could only shake her head and walk. Before then, Alex put on his mask. "Uncle, why are you using a mask again?" Alexa did not like his mask. "Uncle is better than my father and grandfather. Why is uncle hiding it?" "So, little Alexa does not like the mask?" "Uhm." She nodded. "If your uncle does not wear a mask, he will be surrounded by people, you know. At that time, you won''t get your uncle''s attention." Lea suddenly spoke. "!!!" Alexa looked down with a sad expression. "Uhm¡­ Mask is good." Not long after, they finally arrived at the inn near the dungeon. It seemed that Alicia''s butler, butler Ji, became Lea''s butler to help her with Alexa. So, when he greeted Lea and Alexa, he suddenly noticed the masked man that was carrying Alexa. "This is¡­" He looked at the masked man, vigilantly. "Butler Ji, it''s me." "Ah¡­ that voice." He was shocked by the voice. He remembered that voice, and when Alex showed his face, he froze. "It¡­ it is really you." "Well, I will need your help to gather the soldiers. We are going back right now." Alex said. "Un...understood." It seemed he had not recovered by the sight of Alex. He walked away like a robot. Even Alexa was laughing at him. Not long after, he came back with all of the soldiers. Alexa urged him after everyone was gathered. "Uncle, uncle." "Of course, let''s go back." Alex smiled. He then said to Alexa, "Then how about little Alexa close her eyes and count one to three. We will arrive back home if little Alexa does that." "Really?" She immediately covered her eyes with her little hands and counted. "1¡­" Alex then flicked his finger as a teleportation array appeared on the ground. They then disappeared from the place, and before they knew it, they were already inside the Rizertia mansion. "3¡­" Alexa immediately opened her eyes and saw her home right away. Her mouth opened in surprise. Because of the limitation of his power, Alex could only make rank 2 teleportation array at the moment. The soldiers and Lea could see a few different places when they were teleporting, albeit they thought it was only the aftereffect of the teleportation. "Who are you!" The soldiers that guarded the gate finally noticed there was a group of people inside the mansion. They immediately surrounded them with their weapon. Yet, with a single shout from Lea, they immediately recognized them. "Stop, it is me." "Princess Lea¡­" The guards immediately kneeled. Even the grand duke and the lady, as well as an unknown guy, were coming out because of the ruckus. They were surprised that Lea and Alexa had come back when they were supposed to come back in a few days. "Lea? What happens? Why have you come back?" The unknown guy shouted as he looked at them. The unknown guy had the same age as Lea. His appearance was average, and his strength was peak rank 6. Shocked by the sight of Alexa was carried by a masked man, he instinctively roared while charging at the masked man. "What have you done to my wife and daughter!" Alex was surprised by this as he instinctively stretched his hand to the front before flicking to that guy''s forehead. "Boom!" Before they knew it, the guy already flew back and crashed on the mansion''s wall. The soldiers immediately took their weapons, and even the grand duke frowned upon seeing this. "Aiya, I did that out of instinct. Don''t worry. I have held back." Alex said as he took out his mask again. Alexa said she wanted to see the surprised face of her grandparents like Butler Ji. So, when Alex took off his mask, they were dumbfounded. "Ya, Father-in-law, mother-in-law. It''s been a few years." "You¡­ you are Alex¡­" The Grand Duke and the lady froze. "That face¡­" "The Fire God¡­" The soldiers also recognized his face, especially the soldiers that had been working for this family for years. After all, they had seen his face directly. They immediately kneeled in the ground in the form of worship. "I am sorry, he is usually a cool guy, but when it concerns Alexa or me, he becomes overprotective," Lea said with a helpless face. "Yay¡­ Uncle is strong. He can send father flying with only his finger!" Alexa was not even bothered by her father, who was buried by a pile of rubbles and praised Alex, her idol. "How about we come inside first. The sun is almost set anyway." Alex suggested. "Ah, sure sure. Let''s come inside first. We can talk after eating dinner." The grand duke finally nodded. ¡­ A few minutes later, Lea''s husband was bowing his head to Alex. "I am very sorry." "Haha¡­ don''t mind about it." Alex simply shrugged the matter away. It seemed his name was Louis, and he had climbed his way in the military by his own strength. And before he knew it, he was smitten by Lea, and after a series of events, Lea decided to marry him. "Let''s go. Dinner is ready." Lea, beside him, helped him up and came to their own seat. And it seemed Alexa was attached to Alex and sat on his lap. "Alexa, you can''t do that. You need to sit in your own seat." Lea reprimanded her of her manner. "No. I don''t want to. I want to sit here." Alexa said while hugging Alex as tight as possible, not wanting to be dragged by her mother. "It''s fine, Sister Lea." The others looked at this weirdly but did not say anything. Lea finally gave up, and they proceeded with the dinner. It was a silent dinner while Alex was feeding Alexa the food. He did not need to eat anyway. After the dinner, Alex then took out a few letters and handed it to everyone except Louis. He handed them by utilizing Spiritual Energy, so it looked like they were flying to them. "Alex, what is this?" "A letter from Alicia for all of you." He answered. Alicia had prepared a letter for everyone, including butler Ji. As for Firia, she was the only child of her family, so she only prepared a letter for her parents, which Alex would give to them later. "She¡­" They were taken aback by this letter. All their memory about Alicia was she being half-dead. "She is fine. Although for several reasons, only I could go back here." Alex smiled. "Uncle¡­ it''s not fair. Everyone gets a present, I want a present too." Alexa begged with teary eyes. "Your father is not too, little Alexa." Louis sobbed on the side, forgotten once again by his own daughter. "Little Alexa, you need to be a good girl. Now, let us take a bath first." Lea tried to bring her away. Although she was curious about Alicia''s letter, she held back and decided to read it after Alexa fell asleep. "No no¡­ I don''t want to. I want a present." Alexa shook her head and kept clinging on Alex. Alex patted her head and said, "Good girl. Take a bath first, and Uncle will give you a present later." "Really?" Alexa looked at Alex, a bit doubtful. "Yeah." Reluctant as she was, she ultimately followed her mother and left the room. He then looked at the grand duke. "Still, Father-in-law, aren''t you cursed or something? You get another girl in the house. How about having a boy?" "Pfft." Mia and the madam tried to hold back their laughter, while Louis seemed shaking as he was scared of the grand duke after so many training sessions with him. "You brat. You can tease your father-in-law now? Having a daughter is better than having a son. Just look at my brother. His son continues to practice in the middle of nowhere even though he is a crown prince. I might not be able to hold myself back if I have such a son." He looked at Alex with strict eyes before eventually smirking. "You have grown up, and your personality has become better than years ago." Alex simply smiled. He recalled his gloomy and dark self from a few years ago and realized how far he progressed. "By the way, is my teacher still in the academy? I would like to visit him tonight or maybe tomorrow." All the people in the room were frozen when they heard that question and did not know what to do. The grand duke tried to answer him, "This¡­ Two years after you left, he¡­ passed away." "Wha-!" Alex was taken aback, could not believe his own ears. "Before he passed away, he said he did not have any regret left in this world. Having toiled as hard as he did, watching you grow up is the best experience he could ever have in his life¡­ He passed away with a smile." "!!!" Alex supported himself on the table as the news hit him hard. He wanted to cry for this, but even in his death door, his teacher was still smiling. He could only endure this pain of losing someone in his heart. "I see¡­ Where is his grave?" "At his house in the academy. He said the place had so many memories with you, so he wanted to be buried there." The grand duke said while closing his eyes. He knew how hurt Alex was. "I see. I will visit him tomorrow." 447 OP Little Girl "Yeah, you should do that." The grand duke nodded. "By the way, what happened to Father-in-law? You seem troubled." Alex asked, noticing his troubled expression earlier in front of the mansion. "This¡­" The grand duke did not want to involve Alex about this, but he decided to tell the whole story after Alex urged him. It seemed that after he left, many things happened in this world. The first one would be the conflict in the Holy Kingdom. The people there had a conflict whether choosing to follow their previous God or Alex as they had seen him becoming God with their own eyes. Their religion was shaken at that time, and ultimately, it became two religions. Alex made a weird expression when he heard this. He never expected his action could make a religion. The second would be the rebellion of Zircodina Kingdom. Because of the loss of its king as well as the deeds of their former king, the kingdom turned into chaos. They were trying to end the bloodline of Zircodina Kingdom''s royal family as they were cursed by taking so many lives. After a year of battle, it seemed Rize, who was backed by the only rank 8 warrior AKA, her teacher, finally emerged victorious. She started restoring the lands and stabilized the whole kingdom. And rule in a way better than her father or grandfather. The people slowly accepted her with their hearts. As for his former friends, Maria replaced the pope from his position last year. Meanwhile, Sandra became an ordinary nun, away from the problems of the mundane world. It seemed that after experiencing so much, she also had traumatic experiences with males whether it was a scary experience or regret because of Alex. The demihuman was building a statue for him in their council under the order of the Elven Queen. However, after watching his deeds, the other races also did not have a problem with that. Last but not least, the demon did not have any movement for the past few years. After listening to the whole story, Alex still could not find the problem. "So, what is the problem?" "The problem is¡­" *Bang!* Before he could explain it, the door was slammed open. Alexa finally came back to the room and clung to Alex once again, begging for a present. Alex just hid his feelings for the time being and played with Alexa. He did not know what to give Alexa. He had weapons, but it was too early for her. He had Martial Arts, but it was too strong for her. He wanted to give Mastery Card but did not know her preferred weapon. So, Alex was utterly clueless about what to give her. Until at one moment where he decided to activate his Spirit Eyes. He could see the element that resided inside her body like what he did to Rose. He saw Wind Element inside her body and remembered something. It was a staff where they used a wind gem as the head. He then broke the staff and grabbed the wind gem. It was an instant process as he used his Intent to separate it. The wind gem was not harmful to her body and was good to use at an early stage. The example was Putri. Putri used almost a month to fuse with the Wind Gem. It was because she had too much power in her body to be fused with the wind gem. However, Alexa was different. She would not need to wait for so long as her wind power was only a minuscule and was not awakened yet. This way, the gem would strengthen it as well as awaken it. "Look, I have this for you." A green transparent gem suddenly appeared on Alex''s hand. "Wha-! How beautiful¡­" Alexa was fascinated by the gem. She tried to grab it. Although it was only a small gem on Alex''s hand, she needed both of her hands to pick it up. "Well, there is a trick for this little gem, but Uncle will show you later." He smiled. Alexa was so happy with the gift from Alex. She showed it to everyone in the room. "I will ask about it later," Alex said to the grand duke. He nodded his head. "Since I will talk about it later, how about staying here for the night rather than in your mansion? They are still in perfect condition though." "Well, I bought the mansion for a while, so with Firia ascended, I don''t think I have any need for it," Alex said. "Indeed. Well, it is more like a landmark where the Fire God lived when he was a human." He said. "We have guest rooms ready, so you can just choose one of them. I don''t need to lead you, right?" Alex smiled and shook his head. "Uncle, what is the trick?" Alexa was curious about the trick as one would expect from a kid. "Alright, how about you follow Uncle? I will teach you the trick." He said. "Uhn!" Alexa nodded her head. Alex then took her to the guest room, where he would stay the night. Everyone looked at Lea and Louis with a weird expression. Even though they were her parents, it seemed she was more attached to Alex. "Alex is her idol, after all. Besides, he does not have much time and will only be here for a few days. Just let it be, I guess." Lea explained. Louis suddenly felt relieved as he felt his daughter would be snatched by Alex. (AN: And it will become a romance novel with her uncle¡­ Lol, jk.) Meanwhile, after arriving in a room. Alex put down Alexa on the bed. "Sit on the bed and close your eyes." He said. "Don''t open it before your uncle says it is okay." She nodded repeatedly and closed her eyes. Alex channeled his spiritual energy and had the energy from the wind gem moved toward her body. "Uncle, what is this? I feel my body become warmer." "Not yet, don''t open it yet," Alex said. He looked at the power inside the wind gem almost completely moved to her body. The process did not take too long as it would only increase her wind element. After one minute, the fusion finally finished, and the wind gem disappeared. He then said, "Alright, open your eyes." She slowly opened her eyes and was confused. She did not see anything, even the wind gem. "Uncle?" "How do you feel?" She pondered for a moment before saying, "I don''t know. I just feel a gust of wind around my body, and it feels warm." "Is this the trick? Where is that shiny thing?" She asked. Alex was wondering how to explain this to her. He remembered something. "Can you take your Status Card out?" He remembered that every child had a status card. He wanted to check it first. "Uhn¡­ Mother has taught me how to do it." She nodded and closed her eyes again. Not long after that, a status card appeared on her hands. Alex was startled when he saw her status card. Name: Alexa Van Rizertia Job: Wind Empress ( A Person Love by the Wind) Rank : 0 Level: 1 STR: 20 AGI: 67 VIT: 41 DEX: 34 INT: 999+ "..." Alex was speechless by her status. [Host¡­] Even the system did not know what to say. Alex made a troubled expression as he murmured, "Did I just make an OP little girl in this world?" [This power can be a calamity or something else.] "I know." Alex nodded with a serious expression. Just by looking at the INT, he could conclude that he did it too far. "Uncle, is this my status? The first time I saw mine is not like this." Alexa said while looking at Alex. He then kneeled in front of her while placing his hands on her shoulders. He said with a serious expression. "Alexa, can you promise uncle something?" "Uhn." "Can you promise me that you will use your power to protect your family, not to hurt other people? And keep this secret to your parents and grandparents okay as this will be our little secret, okay?" "Uhn." She nodded innocently. "If you break this promise, then uncle will be mad and spank you," Alex said. "Uh...uhn¡­" She nodded again and again. "Uncle, can I see yours¡­ I am curious." "Mine?" Alex pondered for a moment before taking out his status card. Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Error Rank: Error Level: Error STR: Error AGI: Error VIT: Error DEX: Error INT: Error "Uncle, what does this mean?" "It means Uncle is strong enough that even the status card can''t measure your uncle''s power. That''s why if you break your promise, Uncle will come again and punish you." Alex warned her again. "Uh¡­ Alexa does not want Uncle to hate her, so Alexa will not break the promise." "Good." Alex patted her head again. "Then, can Uncle sleep together with Alexa? Uncle is going away again, right?" "Yeah. In two or three days." Alex nodded. "I always dream of meeting uncle, so can I¡­" Alexa glanced at him, afraid he would reject her. "Sure." Alex smiled. "Yay!" Alex waited for her to fall asleep before going out of his room and met the grand duke. Surprisingly, Mia was there. "What is this all about?" Alex asked. "You remember the power that took the lives of thousands of people? The power that Zircodina''s former king had." "Yes." Alex nodded. "I have eliminated the source of that power." "Actually, you had indeed destroyed the source of that power. However, there was one that managed to escape. It turned out that the old king received his power from someone." "From someone?" "Yes. He had been hiding this entire time. Unlike the old king, he used his power to absorb the monsters'' power inside the dungeon. This way, he managed to escape from us and finally haunted us again." He said, ashamed. "I see. I thought that I had destroyed all the things that were related to it. It had given my master and me a headache. Well, what about him? I should end this once for all." Alex said. "He¡­ he has captured the Zircodina Kingdom as well as its queen. He is also trying to grab the pope. And lastly, he would take Mia from us and marry all of them at the same time before ruling the world." He said. Mia bit her lips when she heard that. "Is my name not enough to protect the kingdom?" "Just like the religion thing, some believe you and some don''t. He belongs to the latter, and he believes you won''t show up as even Alicia and Firia have disappeared. That''s why he became so brazen. He has come to this city and demanded her, not in an equal way, but as an act of submission." He said. Alex was astonished to hear that. "I don''t want to involve you in this matter¡­" "It''s alright. That power alone is already pulling me inside. So, I think I will go toward him." Alex nodded. "Well, I have a plan for sightseeing tomorrow with Alexa about the statues of me and the others in the academy as well as visiting my teacher''s grave¡­ maybe I will do it tonight. After that, Zircodina has something that piques my interest, so I will go there tomorrow. I will then go back the day after, I guess." "She seems to be attached to you." The grand duke finally smiled. "Haha¡­ Well, I can only be here for one more day, so let her be." Alex said. He just hoped that this father-in-law did not find out about her power so soon. "Indeed. Anyway, are you going to visit your teacher now?" He asked. Alex nodded before glancing at Mia, "Everything is going to be alright." "I¡­ Thank you¡­" Mia could only utter her thanks. "Well, if you are grateful to me, can you give these letters to the king? Unlike this family, it will be a huge mess if I appear there." He gave two letters to Mia and left to his teacher''s grave, leaving them speechless. 448 Fire God In the academy, in a very nostalgic place, Alex was sitting in front of a grave. He poured wine into his own cup, drinking to soothe his heart. Of course, this wine was not a good wine as Alex got it from his Normal Gacha, but it was the best wine he had at the moment. His teacher had done so much for him, yet he did not realize it back then. As soon as he realized it, he needed to go to the upper world in order to get stronger. It seemed that his place became a museum, letting the other see the great teacher of the Fire God, Alexander Sirius. "Teacher, I am glad that you are my teacher. Even if you are not here anymore, you shall be my teacher forever in my heart as I won''t take any other teacher other than you." Alex looked at the gravestone and kneeled on the ground. "You raised me when I was enveloped by the dark, and because of your support, I could stand bravely and face tomorrow. There is so much to say, but the most important thing I want to say is, Thank you." Alex was filled with emotions at this time. He was kneeling there for a while before he started telling the story, hoping it would reach him. He knew about reincarnation, but he could comfort himself by telling him how he grew up in the upper world. ... The next day, Alex was accompanying Alexa for sightseeing. The first place they visited was obviously his statue. She was talking about his tale with a smile. Alex corrected her a few times, trying to tell her the real situation, yet not making the story less excited. Although he was not a grand person like in her story, he was only a normal person that was trying to overcome his trauma. He did not forget to come to Firia''s house and delivered his letter. And expected, they were shocked when they saw Alex. And after a few hours touring the city, Alex finally asked, "Do you want to go to the Zircodina Kingdom? We will visit them secretly." Of course, she instantly agreed and put a mask per Alex''s request. There was another reason why he wanted to come to Zircodina Kingdom other than finishing the last matter he had in this world. He wanted to check whether Zircodina Kingdom had the array that could teleport him from this place to Earth or not. His answer came in the form of a grand array filled with more than a million symbols buried in the depth of the castle. The array was pretty similar to the teleportation array inside the dungeon, so Alex did not proceed any further. That array was the only array that could send him to the Earth. Whether he wanted to go back or not was a different matter. At the very least, he did not have such an intention at the moment. The portal could not be used again anyway as it would take a long time for the array to absorb enough Spiritual Energy. He suddenly found something interesting when he was strolling around with Alexa. It was when he had lunch with her. Three people were talking while eating their fill. One of them looked like a merchant while the two seemed to be his henchmen. "A week ago was pretty insane, right?" "You bet. To think we could see a rank 9 master, it was like a dream come true." "What happened? I just reached this city early in the morning." The merchant guy asked. "Ah, boss. You have missed something miraculous since you take the last group." He said. "Yeah, boss. A week ago, there was suddenly a man coming to the capital city from the sky. He had white hair and a fierce scar wound on his face. His appearance aside, his strength was a real deal. "The princess''s aide, a rank 8 knight, was defeated in a few moves. It seemed he did not kill him but took him along with the princess out of the kingdom. "According to the rumor around the city, he had come previously demanding the princess. His ambition was truly ridiculous. It seemed he wanted to have each kingdom''s beauty. From this kingdom would be Princess Rieze. From the Holy Kingdom would be Pope Maria while he also wanted to take Princess Mia from the Acacia Kingdom." "Are you sure? Acacia Kingdom is the Fire God''s territory, right? Does he dare to do something like that? Is he not afraid of the anger of the Fire God?" The merchant looked at him with a weird expression. "You might not be there back then, but I saw it with my own eyes when the Fire God ascended. I have Fire Element, so when I looked at him, he felt like a true God of Fire." "Boss, I know you are one of the Fire God''s believers. But it seems he does not believe such a thing." He shrugged. "Then, where is he now?" "I don''t know. But judging from the direction he was flying, it seemed he was going to the closer one, Acacia Kingdom." He said. Meanwhile, There was a trace of worry planted on Alexa''s innocent face as she called Alex. "Uncle." Alex simply smiled at her, "It''s alright, uncle is here. So, just eat your fill first." "Un!" Alexa nodded. "Do you want to go back, or do you want to go to demihuman territory first?" Alex asked. "Umm¡­ Mother said Uncle is the friend of demihuman, is that true?" "Yep." He nodded. Alexa looked down before shaking her head. "I am worried about my mother and aunt Mia." "Is that so? Then we will go back after you finish your meal." Alexa nodded and started gulping down the food. At the same time, in front of Acacia''s capital city. A man with a long black robe suddenly appeared as he shouted. "Listen to me, o'' the citizens of Acacia Kingdom. Your second Princess, Mia, has the honor of being chosen to become my, rank 9 Knight, concubine. Make her come out to greet her husband right now, or all of you will end up like these two." He shouted as he lifted Rieze and her teacher to the sky. Rieze only experienced some bruises but was tied down. As for her teacher, it was catastrophic. His body was covered with blood as he almost died. The grand duke and the king, along with a few ministers, came out. All of them had an angry expression. They never expected that someone would ask their princess'' hand in marriage, not with equal status, but as an act of submission. The grand duke had a complicated expression at this point as he knew Alex was here. However, he was going to the Zircodina at the moment with Alexa. He looked at the king, "Brother. Do you believe me?" "Of course, I am. That''s a foolish question." He said. "We need to buy time as long as possible, and a miracle will appear." The grand duke said. Because of several reasons, Mia had yet to give Alicia''s letter to the king, and he did not know that Alex was here. "What are you thinking?!" The king was confused with his statement. The grand duke did not say anything as he flew toward the sky and shouted. "We are not welcoming you. You have the same power as the person who has taken thousands of lives for strength. We have the blessing of Fire God!" "Hmph, it seems you want to be like them first. Fire God? Do you mean trashy God? Then, I want to ask you if he is a real God, then where is he when all of you are in trouble?" He spat. "You!" He pulled his sword and charged at him. The mysterious guy simply pulled his sword and swung it, making a sword wave flying toward the grand duke. After three years, he almost reached rank 8, yet in front of this attack, he could do nothing. "Call all the soldiers here. Even if he is a rank 9, he can''t defeat our army alone." The king immediately ordered after he saw his brother was sent flying. "Ministers, follow me." All of them started flying toward the guy, surrounding him. "Hmph. I will show you our power difference. They shall be honored if I choose them as my women as I have become level 990, and I shall become God after ten more levels." He snorted. The king and the others started charging at him, yet no one could land a blow on him. Instead, they were getting thrashed by his power. The guy did not kill them immediately as he wanted to make it as an example to the people of Acacia Kingdom. Unbeknownst to him, Alex and Alexa just arrived on top of the city wall. They looked at the mysterious guy walking toward the injured Grand Duke. "You shall be the first example." He smirked as he raised his sword. "Haha, what of this Fire God you are talking about? What did he say before he left? I will watch all of you. That''s right. Even when his father-in-law will be killed, he will only watch over you!" Alexa could not watch this anymore, and instinctively raised her hand. "Don''t hurt my grandfather!" Suddenly, a wind tornado appeared from her hand and blew these two away. All the people were shocked, especially the white-haired guy. He never thought a kid had a power like this. "I see. That little girl must be the daughter of the first princess! Haha¡­ to think she has a power like that. I am more interested in this girl. Fine, I won''t take your second princess. Instead, I will get this one and will nurture her as my woman." He flew toward Alexa while swinging his sword, trying to kill the masked man that was carrying her. Unbeknownst to them, this was the worst possible choice he could choose. The masked man stopped his sword merely with his fingers. He crushed the sword like nothing. "!!!" The guy immediately retreated when he saw this. The others did not know there was someone like him in the kingdom that could shatter a rank 9 knight''s sword. The masked man finally opened his mouth. "You want to kill my father-in-law and want to get my cute niece. What should I do to you?" He finally took off his mask, revealing his real appearance before flying to the sky with Alexa. When the people saw his face, they were taken aback. Some of them even started kneeling, whether they were ministers, nobles, or regular citizens. "Hahaha¡­" A burst of loud laughter suddenly echoed through the capital city. "You are the Fire God. Hmph! I have even killed the last boss of the dungeon and saw everything inside the dungeon. You are merely a rank 10, and I shall end your myth by my own hands." He let out the black fire on his hand, forgetting about his sword. He had entered the array room inside the dungeon, but he could not activate it or anything. Little did he know he simply lacked Spiritual Energy. He thought Alex just made a farce and deified himself as he went into hiding. That was why he dared to challenge Alex. Alex simply raised his hand, gathering all the Domain he could use into his hand. Alex swung his hand down as he said, "End me? You are not qualified." The white-haired guy did not know and charged at him before suddenly stopping midway. The others were confused when they saw him stopping in mid-air. It was then that the guy suddenly split into two, together with the ground beneath him, leaving a huge crack on the ground. For the people that could see it with their own eyes, it was like the hand of God. One swing and the earth would split. It shocked them to the core, whether it was Rieze, or his in-law, or even the ministers. Alex''s power was really beyond their imagination. A sight like this was normal in the upper world as Earth Cultivator could close this crack in an instant. However, it was different for the people in this world. Later, they even named this crack as Miracle of God and became a famous tourist spot. Alex''s name and religion spread like crazy and would last for centuries. But that was all for later. Because Alex had made his presence known, it seemed it was the time he would leave. He handed Alexa, who was praising him non-stop to the grand duke. "I need to leave now," Alex said. The grand duke did not know what his condition was or something, but he knew Alex had his own difficulty. "Uncle, are you going to leave? But you said you would sleep with Alexa for one more night." Alexa looked at him with teary eyes as her happiness suddenly replaced by sadness. Alex smiled and patted Alexa, "Listen to me. You are going to be strong, but never use your power to oppress others like this guy, but use it to protect someone you love, like your family. If not, then Uncle will be angry. Can you promise uncle that?" "Uh." Alexa nodded while letting out tears. "Good girl. Then, Uncle will be going since everything is alright." He patted her head again. He then turned to the king and nodded at him. It was unnecessary to exchange words as he would get Alicia''s letter. He rose to the sky, telling them he would watch over them, and when the opportunity had arrived, he would descend again. He then teleported himself to Maka Town and came to the dungeon. It only needed an instant for Alex to finally come back inside the teleportation array room. He then activated the array. Unbeknownst to him, the moment he changed the Array from one way teleportation array to two way teleportation array, the array itself had changed into another entity. He had been overconfident of his knowledge and ability, thinking that he only changed a little part for its convenience. He did not know the extent of the array made by a unique Space Element Array Master would look like, and this became his miscalculation. The array started glowing like usual as a sign of activation, but Alex suddenly heard several cracking sounds near him. Alex cursed when he discovered the answer he sought for as he saw many symbols malfunctioned. "Not good!" Alex immediately leaped to the front, trying to escape from this array. Yet his effort was too late. The array had engulfed him as a whole and teleported him into another place. ... In an unknown forest, a person that was trying to search for fruits found an injured golden-haired man in the ground. He immediately dropped his basket and came to him. The person checked his wound and took him back. (AN: Hehe¡­) 449 A New Place After a week, Alex finally opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling. He wanted to move his body but to no avail. The last thing he could recall was the error in the teleportation array. "Ah, you have finally woken up." A soothing voice echoed in his ears as a person came inside the room. Alex looked to the side and saw a person. This person had long blonde hair and smooth skin together with a tall build. Unless there were no mountains on the chest area as Alex could see this person as this person was a male. (AN: It''s a he, not she¡­ If you expect it is a woman, then¡­) "I was worried about you as I saw you dying on the ground. Surprisingly, you have survived. Well, I will boil you medicine, so wait for me, alright. Well, in your state, you should not be able to speak, so just wait for me." Alex simply looked at him, not knowing what to do. He remembered the scene of the sea in a story. He was stranded because of a sea creature and was found by a woman that saved him. However, not only was he stranded because the array malfunctioned, the person who saved him was also a man. Yet, he did not care about it. He was wondering if any of his spirits noticed his condition. His answer came when he felt a sense of touch on his hand. He tried hard to see what it was and was surprised to see Anya, sleeping beside him as she was too exhausted. "System, what happened to me?" Alex asked in his mind. [Because of the incident, you are stranded to another world different from the upper world where Anna and the others are. But it seems this world is close to that world as I can still sense the connection between them. [Anyway, Anna and the others want to come to your place, but considering this place is particularly safe. Anya would be the only one to come first as she needs to heal you. As for the others, it will be up to your decision. [You almost died while Anya almost killed him. The guy offered some help for shelter until you have woken up, so she took his offer. Well, even if he were not there, you would not die anyway as Anya would take you to another safe place.] "I see. Anyway, I should thank him too." Alex said. "After I can move, that is¡­" He checked his body and was surprised that his heart, as well as his meridians, were fine. Because he had sealed most of his cultivation as well as his soul in that special realm, there was no crack on his foundation or an injury on his soul. The only thing he needed to worry about was his physical injuries, as well as a bit of internal injury such as his other organs. It was already healed a bit after Anya''s continuous treatment. However, because of how worse his injuries were, he was still in this state. After a few more days, Alex could finally move his body. He was looking for the blonde guy to say his thanks while wondering what to give him as a reward. He was even confused if this person was considered to save his life or not. "I am very thankful for these ten days," Alex said. "I don''t know how to express how thankful I am." "You don''t need to thank me as the person behind you is the one who heals you. She is far more powerful than me and could easily find another shelter. So, you should thank her." He said. "Of course. But I also feel grateful to you." Alex said. "Don''t be. I am sure you want to come back to your own place¡­ you are not from here¡­ no, this world, right?" Alex and Anna frowned when they heard this. "Don''t need to be wary against me. I am just a small priest that lives here until the end of my time." He explained. Anya also had looked around the area, and this place could be considered hidden from the rest of the world. She did not find any settlements inside a few kilometers radius. "How do you know we are not from here?" "God¡­ No, the world told me¡­" The priest said. "I was a simple priest back then because I could hear this voice. After a certain point, I finally revealed what happened. I was driven out of the church for making dubious claims about hearing World''s voice¡­ That''s why, Alexander Sirius, do you want to hear the world''s voice?" "!!!" Anya and Alex were amazed. To think he even knew his name. Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "Is a path something that must be shown to you? One might advise or suggest my path, but I shall be the one to choose whether I will walk in that path or not." "No¡­ for you, a path does not mean spending your days in your fated paths or something. Your life will create a storm that will shake the Kingdom of Flores. "If you wish to simply go back to where you belong and cannot stop the desire in your heart. I will convey the voice of the World to you." He said while clasping his hands in front of his chest. "When darkness falls upon the land, "The supreme''s blood will restore life once more. "In accordance with the ancient pact, "When the six big races are gathered, "The sphere that leads the light will awaken. "The supreme will return." Alex and Anya looked at him with vigilance. They did not know what this guy was doing, but when the tension filled the atmosphere, the priest suddenly collapsed on the ground. "Conveying the World''s voice requires Spiritual Energy¡­" They looked at this person and sighed. However, a purple crystal suddenly appeared from the ground, revealing its appearance. Alex immediately activated and found many arrays sealed inside the crystal. The priest finally rose from the ground and continued. "You miraculously escaped death, and I believe that was not a miracle, but because the world''s will leading you here. Just like what you believe, the world can only show you the option, you must walk in the path you believe in as there is no correct answer before you reach the end." The priest then grabbed the crystal and presented it to Alex. "There is a portal that can lead you to another world, and that portal is buried in the deepest part of the ocean. Bring the six crystals, and the portal will open." He said. "..." Alex did not want to believe it, but after checking the crystal, he had no other choice than to believe it. He found many teleportation symbols inside, and the number of symbols was more than three hundred thousand symbols. And all of those symbols were compressed into the form of crystal. "You don''t need to pay me anything about this. But if you feel grateful to me, then please heed this request of mine. If you fully intend to go back, then you must see everything through the end." He said. "... Even so, I don''t know anything about this world." Alex sighed. "This world''s name is Brundra. It has four continents, while most of the place is filled with water, which is why the portal is buried under the sea. Formerly, the monsters were ruling the continents until finally, six big races rose and fought them. "The six big races are Human Race, Dragon Race, Phoenix Race, Angel Race, Elven Race, and Naga Race. "Dragon Race is proud of its strength and resides within the Rigan Continent. Phoenix Race''s fire is unbeatable and lives inside this continent, Tradin Continent. Angel Race''s light race could heal someone at the death door to full health, and they inhabit the flying continent, Breleabus. "Naga Race is ruling upon the sea, their utopia is known by the name of Atlantis. The last continent is called Lapone, and this is where we live together with the Elves. Back in the day, we could live side by side, but because we lost our leaders back then, no one is close enough to become a sovereign that can stand toe to toe with the Elven ruler. That''s why before long, the elves rule this continent with their wind. "All of these races want to try the world beyond this world. For that, you need the six crystals from the six big races to finally open the portal. Each race is still holding it until the world buried the Human Race''s crystal. Even this crystal in front of you is from the world itself as the world feels you shall open the portal again." "May I know the reason why this world buried this crystal?" "War." The priest said with a sharp eye. "After dealing with the monsters, we need to deal with the invasion from the other world. That''s why the world decides to hide one of the crystals to prevent anyone from entering this world." "I see." Alex closed his eyes, thinking. "But¡­ how do I even get the crystal from the other races¡­" "Fret not. There is a rule within this world¡­ One can get another race''s crystal if they manage to pass their trial. However, the requirement for that is they need to collect every crystal without help. In other words, he/she shall be the savior that liberates this world. Not one race, but one person." He said. "In other words, you need to pass all five races'' trials to get all of their crystal. "This is a story of the past. A guy from Naga race wanted to open the portal, and he challenged every race. It was said that when the crystals near each other, they would show a reaction, and the trial would take place, and all races would abide by this rule if they did not want the world''s retaliation. "The guy managed to get four crystals, but he failed the fifth crystal''s trial as it would be very hard for someone to pass all fifth trials, thus resulting in the crystal to be dispersed and going back to their respective race." He said. "In other words, I should bring this crystal to other places and pass the trials," Alex said. "But what would happen if I fail?" "The crystal will always be with you as the world decides you to become the representative of the human race. However, if you fail, then the other crystals will go back to their respective race, and you need to challenge it again." The priest said. "I see¡­" Alex nodded. "However, there is one thing that is certain. As long as you possess this crystal, the others might want to kill you¡­ especially Humans. Of course, it is not like they can kill you as the race itself could not kill someone who possesses the race''s crystal. This includes the other races¡­ as long as you get their crystal, they could not kill you. But this comes with a certain loophole, they can make the monsters kill you or torture you so you will surrender the crystal." Alex could somehow imagine why the humans wanted to kill him for this crystal. He did not know about the other races though. He pondered for a moment. It was indeed the only way he could go back to the original world. And according to the system, this world itself was still considered a lower world, just a bit more powerful than what he knew as the world barrier itself allowed the Martial Emperor to live here. Past that would be impossible. If he wanted to challenge the trials, he would need information. He already recalled Nano to scout this world as the other spies were needed for Anna and co. Even so, Nano might get the information about this world, but for folklore and the like, it would be best to know about it from the person in front of him. "I have no other choice then¡­ But I still need information." Alex said. 450 Races "Alright, I understand. The World''s will also want me to answer all of your questions." The priest said. "I have a lot of questions, but first of all, I still don''t know your name." "Ah, my name is August. Your simple priest." "Then, are there any records about the trials?" Alex asked his first question. "There are many records regarding that matter, but I think only a few of them are useful for you. The reason for that is because the ruler will decide the trial. However, from all the records, a few hints come. "Dragon Race is proud of their strength, so from all the records, they are fighting. Since you are from a younger generation, they should also make their younger generation become the challenge. However, from what I know, their younger generation is equal to a new Tier 6 mage." "Tier 6 magician?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows after hearing this new term. "I will explain it to you later, when I will talk about the Human Race. But we shall move on first to the second race, Phoenix Race. They are proud of their fire, so they usually force you to fight with their fire¡­ and If I am not wrong, they have a special space to hold their trial. I don''t know about the details, but they seem to be testing your will. "Further on, we have Angel Race in the sky. Just like their name, they want to see your heart and mind. There is a certain line that is very accurate from the record. ''Good people will be revered whereas Bad people will be vanquished. Know yourself and you shall go beyond the path.'' "As for the Naga Race. There are not many records about this one¡­ and most of them are only telling the place, so I''m sorry I can''t help you with this. If you want to meet the trial, you shall go to the red sea where the blood of warriors gathered that even turns the blue sea into the sea of blood. "And you might want to get the Elven Race as your first as they are the closest to us where you don''t need to cross the ocean where the Naga Race rules¡­ The Elven Race is proud of their element manipulation as they are blessed by nature. One of their princesses even gets a Pure Wind Element, so you need to be careful." August finally finished his explanation. Alex frowned when he heard another Pure Element beside him and Letizia, especially when it was coming from Elven Race. He remembered his previous relationship with the Elven race¡­ and he certainly did not want to remember that¡­ specifically the Elven Queen. Still, a Pure Element would be trouble. Still, there was one thing that piqued his interest. "What do you emphasize the ocean that much?" "Naga Race rules the ocean, and with sixty percent of this world filled with water, they are basically the strongest race out there. And when someone crosses the sea, they usually need a permit. Even the royal family of each race needs a truce agreement with the Naga Race if they want to go to another continent." "Then, why don''t they create transportation that can fly?" "The distance of each continent is pretty far. When a Tier 5 or even Tier 6 mage fly across the ocean, they would need at least two weeks. In the meantime, they will get constant harassment from the Naga Race, and if you fly too high, the Angel Race won''t like you. "And they have already created transportation that can fly, but compared to the boat, they are not really cost-effective, so the people abandon that idea. "Besides, although the Naga Race would only have half of their power when they come out to the land, their number is the most troublesome thing. Just imagine if you need to fly while crossing a few thousand sea creatures¡­ you might already die. Meanwhile, if you fly too high, the entire Angel Race will attack you." "I see. That would be troublesome¡­" "That''s why I feel you want to buy the special pass from the Flores Kingdom, the only Kingdom for the Human Race. It was pretty expensive though." He said. "If possible, I don''t really want to deal with the royal family¡­ since I have pretty bad records with all the kingdoms I met." Alex said. He certainly had a bad memory with all the kingdoms he had, even the Acacia Kingdom, as they forced the marriage thing to him. It was a happy ending for that though. "Then, it will be a bit troublesome for you." August made a troubled expression. "Only the royal family would have the pass to visit all the Races. If you want to go the hard way, the pass will only allow you to cross for one time only. In other words, if you buy the pass to go to Rigan Continent, you can only go there and need to buy another pass if you want to go back or go to another continent." "I don''t mind paying extra," Alex said. He could easily make money with his Alchemy or Array. So, he did not care about the money. Anya looked at him and sent a thought transmission. "Alex, we only have half of the wealth which is one hundred fifty million Spirit Stones with us as the other half is in Anna''s hand to establish our foundation in the Northern Continent¡­ And we don''t even know whether this world has the same currency." Alex thought she was right, so he took out his Spirit Stone and let August see it. "By the way, is this the currency?" "Ah, yes. They are called Spirit Stones, but I don''t know if you have the same name." "We have the same name." Alex nodded. Since he knew it was the same, then he did not need to mind about money. "How much is that pass?" "One pass is ten million Spirit Stones. This is usually hard for someone without background, especially since you need to have the requirement to get the pass. So, I will explain how you can earn money in this Kingdom. First of All, I need to explain the kingdom first. "The Kingdom of Flores... it''s a stable neutral country with a population of 25 million. It is a world filled with magic. Magic is traded like common goods. It has become a part of daily life. And there are people who use magic to make a living. Those people are called "Mages". "Mages belong to various guilds and perform their jobs on request. Countless guilds have been formed in this country. You need to be a recognized mage if you want to buy the pass as they are issued by the guild itself. "I know you are strong, but strength alone can''t make you a recognized mage. You need to complete missions until you reach a certain rank and become a recognized mage. As for the details, you need to ask the guild itself, and I don''t want to tell you which guild to choose, but there are only four guilds that have their own branches in all continents. They are Pixy, Basilisk, Empyrean, and Storm guild. If you want to travel to all the continents, you might want to join one of these guilds." Alex nodded his head before presenting him a pill. "How about this pill? Can I trade them for something?" August took the pill and observed it before shaking his head. "There is a huge amount of energy inside this tiny size ball. However, there is no such thing as this. If you want to trade this, I am afraid you will become like me and driven away from the human community." Alex looked down, weighing something. This was certainly troublesome for him if he could not trade his pill since it was his main income. Still, it was true that if his pill suddenly appeared out of nowhere and proved to be effective. He might become a recognized inventor, albeit it came with a certain risk. He might be targeted by a person with interest or might become heresy in the community''s eyes. He was even wondering how a person from Earth could sell the things from his world in the new world¡­ All he could see was they became a genius inventor in the community''s eyes, but when Alex was presented with this problem, he could see another path, which was the path of heresy. He then took out an Array Plate and presented it to him. "How about this?" "This is¡­ magic rune. And from the look of it, it has a thousand symbols and makes this a Tier 4 rune." August examined again. "!!!" Alex smirked inwardly as he finally saw another light. He presented to him his Rank 4 Teleportation Array, and since he recognized it, he should be able to sell it to raise money. And the only problem would be to rack up some achievement in a Guild and get the pass. Alex continued asking him question after question until he had enough. And what piqued his interest was the fact they were hunted by the people of the Northern Continent as Dragon or other races like that were useful for them. The people over there wanted to enslave them for various things. And after a few millennials passed, the people over there should have forgotten about them. As long as they hide and get stronger in the Northern Continent, they should be able to get stronger and create an influence to protect themselves. He also found out that this Tier thingy was actually a cultivation stage, but all the people actually used elements or magic as their weapons. So, Alex''s Sword or Spear was considered weird. In other words, Alex decided to practice his Element in this place. The next day, Alex came out of the house before the priest woke up. Anya accompanied him on this journey. "We go to the Mage Guild and become popular enough to buy the pass. Then we will go to the Elven Kingdom to challenge their trial. As for the next continent, we will think about it later." Anya said. "Do you want to call the others?" Alex shook his head. "I will try by myself in this world since I have been relying on all of you this entire time. It might be a good time to try to fight all by myself." "But we are your power. There is nothing wrong about relying on your own power." She said worriedly. Alex simply smiled and left a peck on her forehead. "I never treat all of you as my power. All of you here are my family. How can I treat my family like that." "Anyway, even though you and I are Tier 5, I think you should go back to the card first," Alex said. Tier 1 was equal to Foundation Stage, whereas the highest Tier in this world was Tier 6, which was the Martial Emperor, the same applied to his Array. Since they were in this world, Alex decided to go along with this Tier thingy. Anya was taken aback by the kiss and froze. She was filled with joy and said nothing more before coming back to his card. Alex then stored the card and finally went toward the Human Kingdom according to the direction of the priest. Unbeknownst to them, the priest had woken up and prayed once again. ''The Blessing of Ancestor, The Blessing of the World, shall accompany you. The Supreme finally returns. Long Live.'' He said. However, the priest''s eyes were glowing like he was possessed by something. Even Lin Xingzhi in Eulja sighed while staring upon the stars. "To think he came to that world¡­ Was this fate or coincidence? "Well, he was the one who liberated that world as it was his former friend''s hometown. Even in this life, it brought him to that place. Still¡­ what kind of surprise there, even I did not know about it. "Let the journey begin." 451 Guild [Mission: Acquire 6 Teleportation Crystals. (1/6) Reward: Optimizing Inventory \u0026 Shared Inventory Description: Just leave this world.] [Mission #1: Acquire Elven Teleportation Crystal. Reward: 5 Premium Tickets Description: This mission will continue until you acquire all the six crystals.] Alex was flying toward the Kingdom of Flores when these two missions suddenly appeared in front of him. "System?" [The first mission is a grand mission, and you can see the reward itself. The most effective one is the Shared Inventory. This will allow you to share your Inventory with all of your summoned spirits. As for the other mission, it is a continuous mission. The reward will be the same.] "I see. Well, it is good since I can get a total of 25 Premium Tickets with this chain mission alone if I need to get all the six crystals." [Yes. May fortune be with you, Host.] Alex smiled as he sped up a bit to reach the kingdom. It turned out that he had underestimated their distance. Even with his current speed, he needed more than two days before reaching the Flores Kingdom. He was a bit intrigued by this kingdom since this would be a kingdom of Mage, not cultivator. He wanted to see if there was any different than the kingdom he had visited before. He took out the priest token he received from August. He said because he did not have any identity, the people would be suspicious, especially from the guards. The guards immediately nodded their heads as they saw the token, so Alex came inside the kingdom. Surprisingly, there were no nobles in this kingdom as they were replaced by the guilds. The guilds would become the ''Nobles'' that took care of their territory or their city. After coming inside their city, Alex was completely dumbfounded. There was no difference than Acacia Kingdom. The housing was made of bricks and stones, the stalls on the side of the street, and so on. This kingdom completely betrayed his expectations. He then started searching for mage guilds by asking the people. He did not really care which guild he joined as long as he got the pass to travel between continents. That was why when he asked about the direction, he only asked, "Where is the nearest Mage Guild?" After around half an hour, he finally arrived at one of the four major guilds that were said to have all branches in all continents, Empyrean Guild. He wanted to enter, but he suddenly felt a presence inside the door, and it was coming toward him. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes and was surprised to see a person flying. *Bam!* The door was slammed open by that person, and Alex immediately dodged to the side. The person was a middle-aged man with an afro. He looked at the person who threw him while smiling. "You bastard. Do you want a go?" "Hehe¡­ I have been training, and I won''t lose to you this time." The one who said that was a young man with spiky black hair. His fist then changed into metal while the middle-aged man took out a giant doll. "!!!" Before they started, they noticed Alex''s presence and stopped. Alex looked at these two and furrowed his eyebrows. The two were only 8-Star Martial Lords, and he felt he could stop both of them at the same time. However, he was wondering if he should do that. He needed to come inside after all to register. "New Recruit?" The young man looked at Alex with great interest. "Do you want to join our Guild?" The middle-aged man suddenly came to him and asked. "... Yeah." Alex paused a little before he answered. "I see. Then, please come inside." The middle-aged man and the young man suddenly became friendly again and pushed him inside with a big smile. This guild had a restaurant inside of them, and many people were eating or drinking wine. He thought they must be the members of this guild. However, Alex indeed saw two Martial Kings inside of the guild. They dragged him to a woman that seemed to be the receptionist. Alex was a bit surprised to see the receptionist was one of the Martial King he saw. She had long black hair and black eyes. Surprisingly, she wore a white dress that complemented her black hair. She looked very friendly. "Welcome. I am the receptionist of this guild, my name is Ruby. Are you a new recruit? Do you want to join our guild?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "I see. There is a test before you can join our guild, which is to test your potential. There are two tests you can choose. First, you can measure your talent by pouring your Spiritual Energy inside the magical ball. This will measure your talent and element." Alex''s expression darkened the moment he heard the first option. It would be bad if he used that magical ball as they would find out he had two elements. As for Talents, he never cared about talent. "What is the second option?" "Fight one of us and prove your talent. However, we do need to measure your age." "How?" "Just drop one of your blood inside this card." She took out a card like his status card. "This card can measure your age with just a drop of your blood. If your age is suited and you pass the test, I will then proceed with all the paperwork, and you will officially be one of us." Alex nodded, but before he cut his finger, Alex asked, "By the way, who do I need to fight? "It will depend on your age. If you are 50 years old, then I will ask someone who is around your age to fight you. There is no win or defeat, as long as you prove your talent enough, it will be alright." Ruby explained. Alexx then cut his finger and let the blood drop to the card. He had seen inside the card that there was a mini array used to measure one''s age, so he did not mind. The blood then absorbed and revealed Alex''s real age by writing it on the card. Alex''s age turned out to be 23. Ruby dropped the card out of reflex as she was amazed by Alex''s real age. "Ah, I am sorry." She then grabbed back the card and stared at Alex with a weird expression. "Gahaha, He is 23 years old. Since I am still 32 years old, not older than him by ten years, I will guide this newbie here." The young man that was fighting earlier laughed. Ruby made a troubled expression before she said. "It seems you don''t need to prove your talents¡­" "What? Ruby? Don''t worry, he is only 23 years old, so I can." "That''s not the problem," Ruby said to the young man. "I don''t care. I will test him right here since this is going to be a short one." The young man said. "I am Seth, a Metal Mega. Here I go!" Seth suddenly leaped toward him while turning his fist into a metal. The battle turned into something unexpected. Alex simply clenched his fist and struck Seth''s fist. This was not a gesture he liked, so Alex wanted to hit him hard. He was astonished to see Seth had twenty dragon strength in his fist. The same strength of him. Although it was coming from his metal element, it still amazed him. Sadly, his opponent was Alex, and his twenty dragon strength was not comparable to Alex''s thirty dragon strength. *Bam!* The conclusion was too sudden as Seth crashed to the wall. The others were also taken aback by what they saw. Seth was one of their strongest younger generations, and to see him losing to someone younger than him, it completely blew their mind. Ruby let out a long sigh before she said to Alex. "I apologize for his behavior. Because he is one of our top younger generations, he somehow became too proud." "Mhm¡­" Alex nodded. "By the way, what to do with the wall? Do I need to pay for it? Or I can''t join this guild because I did that?" "No no. You don''t need to pay for it as Seth will be the one paying it. I can vouch for you as he attacked you first. As for the joining matter, I could not be happier to welcome a strong mage like you, albeit it is such a shame not to see your magic." Ruby said while taking the card with her. "I will complete the registration process first, so please wait a little bit." Alex nodded. "Damn, you bastard!" Seth came out of the wall and charged at Ale again. "I still can fight." "Seth, that is enough." Before Seth could even reach Alex, Ruby suddenly appeared above him and slammed his head inside the ground. "Apologize to him right now. If not, I will be angry." Not knowing the reason behind it, Alex looked at the people that started sweating when Ruby said that. They even started whispering it to Seth. "Seth, just apologize." "That''s right. Don''t make her mad." "We are screwed later." He was perplexed about why they were afraid of someone this friendly. However, he was a bit satisfied to taste another atmosphere since this was not a sect where strength reigned supreme. The people here seemed more friendly than he thought. "Ugh, I am sorry." Even Seth could only apologize while his head was inside the floor. "Well, it is normal for you to be defeated by him. After all, he is a Tier 5 Mage." "Wha-! What!" Not only Seth, but the entire guild shook by the astonishment. "Yo, Seth. You need to grow up a little bit." Suddenly, someone from the second floor looked at him. Alex furrowed his eyebrows to see the other Martial King beside Ruby. He did not have a business with him, so he only nodded his head before waiting for Ruby. "Leo. What do you mean?! I can become a Tier 5 mage in two or three years, and I will beat you at that time!" Seth shouted. "Right Right, just keep dreaming." She came back and asked. "I need your name to finish the registration." "Alexander Sirius." "Alright. I will finish it in another fifteen minutes. Do you want wine or something while waiting? By the way, you can ignore both of them." She said. Alex merely shook his head, telling her he did not need it. They continued to argue while Alex patiently waited for his card. According to the priest, as long as he had an ID card from the guild, he would be fine if he wanted to travel. Not long after that, Ruby came back and presented him with the same card that had his blood. Name: Alexander Sirius Tier: 5 Age: 23 Guild: Empyrean Guild Status: Bronze Mage (0/2500) "Here is your card." Ruby handed the card with a smile. "If you have something to ask, you can ask me. If you want to search for a mission, then you can go to that board and search which one suits you the most. And you need to show me the mission so that I can record it. "The payment will come from the Client, so if you finish a mission, this guild will only update your point." "And what about this point?" "I am sure you have heard about Bronze Mage, Silver Mage, and Gold Mage, right?" Alex nodded. "Each mission will have a point as a reward, which will be updated as long as you finish a mission. If you accumulate 2500 points, you can ask me to upgrade you to Silver Mage." "Then, do I need to be a Gold Mage to get a pass to travel to another continent?" Ruby was intrigued by this question. "That''s right. You need to be a Tier 5 mage to become a Gold Mage and completed a certain number of missions to accumulate these many points. This is to assure people that you are an experienced and powerful mage and won''t do anything stupid in their territory." "I see. I will take a look at the mission then." He nodded. "Sure. You can only take one mission at a time." 452 Bandits Alex went to the board and searched for a mission. He thought he could take several missions at once and immediately racked up his points, but it seemed he could not. Because of that, he was searching for a rewarding mission. He found three missions that seemed to be his specialty. Mission: Kill 100 griffins and take their talons Reward: 100,000 Spirit Stones and 100 Achievement Points Mission: Kill the Ant Queen in Rodygio Forest Reward: 150,000 Spirit Stones and 150 Achievement Points Mission: Destroy Evil Group Garua (5 members) Reward: 200,000 Spirit Stones and 200 Achievement Points He was pondering which missions he should take. According to the description, the easiest would be killing a hundred griffins as they were only around 4-Star or 5-Star Martial Lord. As for the Ant Queen, it must be inside an Ant Nest and filled with ants, so even though he only needed to kill the Queen, he needed to kill the ants that were protecting the Queen. That left the last quest. He had a bad memory with an evil group because he once destroyed a certain evil cult, and a bigger problem came to his life. However, seeing the reward itself was pretty alluring as most of the missions had only hand less than 150 Achievement Points, he was a bit tempted. If he wanted a fast but high reward, he should choose the third mission, but it also came with a risk. He pondered for a while before he chose the third mission. He had Nano with him, so he could make sure whether he was in a dangerous position or not. Alex then came to Ruby with the paper. "I will take this one." "Are you sure? Although they are a small group, their leader is a Tier 5 Magician." She looked at Alex with worry. "It''s alright." Alex nodded. "I have some assurance." "Fine. But you need to escape if you can''t win, alright?" She was worried if a new recruit suddenly died in his first mission. Even so, she kept recording the mission and handed the request paper to him. "If you finish the mission, you can come to the Mayor''s house as he is the one who posts the mission." Alex smiled as he grabbed the request paper and stored it inside his Space Ring. "By the way, do you have a map or something?" "Don''t you have one from your former guild?" She asked. After all, for a strong person like Alex, he should have come from another guild and wanted to become stronger in one of four major guilds. "I never joined a guild before." Alex shook his head. "Ah?" She was taken aback before taking out a scroll from her space ring. "There is a general map of the continent. Since you are a new recruit, I shall give you this as a present. They are not that expensive anyway." Alex nodded. "There is basic information about the quest in the paper, so I am sure you can find the place." "Thank you." Alex then left the guild. He also did not have a place to stay, but he would only search for it after this mission, he thought. Unbeknownst to him, an old man suddenly appeared beside Ruby. This old man was a peak Tier 5 Mage. He walked with his staff that had a blue gem planted on it. He looked at Alex''s disappearing back and said, "We have an extraordinary recruit this time¡­" "Ah, guild master!" Ruby was startled. "Aren''t you resting inside?" "Yeah. But this guy''s presence¡­ I feel that he managed to find me inside." He said. "What?" "I just hope he is not a spy or something from another Guild." "Do you suspect him? I feel no guild want to send him as a spy considering his age and power." "Indeed. But I still can''t shake that feeling¡­ the feeling he will leave the guild soon. That''s why I thought he is a spy or something." "I feel he has no bad intentions towards us," Ruby said, explaining what she felt about Alex. "How about you seduce him and make him tell his original intention." "Ah! I won''t do that." Ruby pouted. "Why don''t you ask Lilian for it? She will arrive in a few days." "You are right. She certainly has a more devilish body than your barely B-Gah!" Ruby suddenly stopped him by grabbing his head as strong as she could. "Guild Master, can you be more serious?" "But I am telling the truth. Even though you are more devilish than her, your body is¡­*Sigh*" Ruby immediately poured her Spiritual Energy and made a black flame, burning his bald head. "I am talking about her instinct. Her instinct is pretty accurate, and she can tell whether someone is lying or not." "That''s right. I also think about that. If only she learns the art of seduction¡­ the interrogation will be more intense!" He said. She could not help but throw this guild master to the air. "This is why our guild reputation is bad! Damn Geezer!" "I am just teasing them, I won''t make them pregnant or something!" The old man said with a straight face. Ruby''s expression turned to dark as she was enveloped by black light. She looked at the guild master with anger. "You are going to continue?" The guild master and the other members gulped down. It seemed the teasing went overboard today or maybe it was the effect of Alex. The guild master immediately laughed and disappeared. "Hoho, I will retire for today." "Damn!" They froze when they saw the guild master escape. "Seth, where are you?" Because the guild master had escaped, she needed to release the anger with another person, and the one that she used to bully was Seth. However, when they searched for Seth, he was nowhere to be seen. "Sh*t!" They knew Seth had run away, and they were going to get this one. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex was flying toward a city called Manuk, where the dark group was seen. It took him another two days just to arrive in that city. "Nano, search for those people. Make sure I won''t get into trouble if I defeat them." Alex said. Nano nodded and transformed into a bat before going to scout the area. Alex then came to the town and searched for his own information. He did not know the custom of this area, so he did not want to act recklessly. It took Nano a whole day to investigate the entire situation. He also found the group, and all of them were 10-Star Martial Lords while their leader was a 2-Star Martial King. However, he found a piece of interesting information. The group itself was more like bandits instead of Dark Group. They had raped, killed, and so on in this territory. The interesting part about this was they did all of that under the instruction of the mayor. Alex''s expression darkened when he heard this. If he destroyed this group, the mayor would retaliate against him. But the confusing thing was about the mayor, the one who posted the mission. If he was utilizing them, why did they want to kill him? Nano immediately proceeded with his investigation about this mayor upon this question. After another while, the answer came out unexpectedly. The mayor indeed had utilized them, but because they were becoming more and more uncontrollable, the mayor wanted to destroy them. "I see. So, we can kill that group, right?" "Yes. But, I still feel an uneasy feeling about the mayor. I feel he is hiding something. That''s why I am going to investigate him again while Young Master exterminates the group." Nano said. "Alright." Alex nodded. Both of them then disappeared. Alex immediately followed Nano''s instructions that lead to their base. They were inside a limestone cave filled with darkness, so it was hard for the people to find them. At the same time, Alex''s group was unusual. Nano used his ultrasonic to search their position and found them inside the cave. In contrast, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to locate their general position in this darkness. All in all, they could not escape anymore. Alex wanted to fight them with just his Fire Element to see whether it was strong enough to kill a small group like them. ¡­ Alex could see that a few women''s bodies were lying around the cave, but when they saw with his Spirit Eyes, he could not see any energy inside their bodies. In other words, they had died. He was a hero of justice, but it sure left a bad mouth if he did not settle this. Alex waved his hand as the dark cave suddenly lit up with a huge Phoenix. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage.Phoenix Summon." "Water Sanctuary." The tier 5 magician immediately rose and made a huge altar of water. It completely blocked Alex''s fire phoenix. Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he thought, "As expected from a Martial King, he can react quickly¡­" "Who are you!" The leader locked his eyes on Alex. "I am the one who will kill you." Alex simply said with a cold tone. "Ah, you must be one of the foolish ones that accept the mayor''s request! Since you have come, then don''t expect to come back alive." "Tch. This time is a man¡­ We can only kill him and burn his corpse. We can''t play with him like how we rape these women. As expected, Female Mages are excellent." One of the subordinates laughed. "That''s right. To think the mayor has such a brilliant idea. Ruling the Mages with missions before taking all their belongings to enrich us!" Alex frowned when he heard this. It seemed that this was truly the mayor''s scheme. If he killed this guy, the mayor would surely retaliate. In that case, he would just need to kill the mayor too. He could fabricate a few lies for this as Nano said only the Mayor knew about their relationship. "He is a 1-Star Tier 5 Magician. He must have many things in his possession! We are going to kill him." The leader roared as his subordinates immediately took their own position. Alex activated his Pure Fire, not wanting to delay any longer. He pointed his finger toward one of the Martial Lords as he shot out a laser. "Flame of Extinction." "Water Sanctuary." The leader immediately used his water magic to block Alex''s attack again, but Alex''s Flame of Extinction was focused on its piercing power, and it had his Pure Fire to boot¡­ it was unstoppable. "Gah!" "We need to get closer and prevent him from making that attack." He immediately instructed his subordinates after seeing one of them die just like that. The others instantly leaped toward him. Alex simply pointed his finger to someone else and used his Flame of Extinction again. However, because he was prepared for it, he managed to dodge it, albeit barely. There were two other subordinates, which Alex simply grabbed their wrists as a claw made by fire appeared from his hands. "Phoenix Fire Art, Second Art. Phoenix Claw." It roasted their hands almost instantly. Alex then shifted his stance and grabbed their necks. The powerful fire on his hands immediately melted their necks until their heads fell from their body. "You bastard!" The Martial Lord that managed to escape death earlier charged at him with wind covered his hands. "Swallowing Ocean Water!" The Martial King also used his attack. He created water and swallowed Alex. "Wind Fist." The Martial Lord then struck Alex on the face. They thought this should inflict considerable damage, but Alex''s hand suddenly appeared and stopped his fist. His flame then started to spread, burning the wind on his fist together with the water itself. The water instantly evaporated after getting exposed by the intense heat. Alex separated the wind guy''s neck with his flame. "Are you really a 1-Star Tier 5 Mage?!" The leader shouted as he clasped his hand. "Freezing Water!" The water he used now contained a very cold element. He made a huge wave inside the dark cave, trying to escape by using this as a distraction. It was useless because Alex could see him with his Spirit Eyes. He immediately pointed his finger at him and shot out a laser that penetrated the water wave. "Flames of Extinction." "Gah!" It penetrated his head and killed him on the spot. 453 A Threat? Meanwhile, in the Empyrean Guild, a woman slowly walked to Ruby as she wanted to report her mission. The woman had blonde hair with a red eye on her right and a blue eye on her left, making a unique charm on her face. She wore a white shirt coupled with a white mini skirt. However, her body was covered by a long white robe as she hid two daggers inside. "Ah, you have finally come back." Ruby greeted her. "How is the mission?" "No problem." She handed the mission report that had been stamped red by the client together with her Guild Card. Ruby nodded and received both of them before updating her Guild Card. She then gave them back to her and said, "Before you leave, Guild Master wants to ask something to you. So, wait a bit. I will call him for you." "Alright." She waited for a while and saw Ruby come back with the guild master. "Lilian. There is something I need from you." The old man said. "What is it, Guild Master? Is there a hard mission for me?" "Hmm¡­ This mission is hard but can be said not hard. Because it depends on the other party''s personality." "You mean there is a Dark Group?" "No no. This is about a new recruit of our guild." "Hmmm? We have a new recruit? This is interesting since our guild reputation is not really good outside. Although our guild is strong, new people would usually come to the other three guilds. And it''s been four months before the last new recruit." Lilian furrowed her eyebrows. "What about this new recruit? Is he an Evil Mage?" "That''s what I want you to investigate. Your instinct is pretty accurate, so you should ask his identity and the others to see whether he is not a threat to our guild." "I can do it, but won''t this make him suspicious? I mean, by coming to him and asking a couple of questions so suddenly." "Indeed. That''s why I am planning to make the other gold mages to go for a mission. That way, only you and Ruby in this guild. But since technically Ruby is our guild receptionist, you are the one who can go to a mission." "I see. I will invite him to a mission and ask him a few questions like a casual chat¡­ but why do you need me to investigate him? I mean, he is just a new recruit. You need to trust him a little bit. And if the new recruit is a female, you need to restrain yourself and not harass them." "I know, Ruby also says that. I do trust the new recruit, but there is something very strange from this new recruit." "Something strange? You mean his element?" "I don''t know. If you think a 23 years old Tier 5 magician coming here without a purpose is not strange, then I am not sure what is strange anymore." Lilian opened her eyes wide, shocked by the information. 23 years old Tier 5 magician¡­ It was such an insane young man as normally Tier 5 magicians would be around 35 years old or more. This new recruit managed to pique her interest, and she understood the concern of the guild master. "I see. If he is a Tier 5 magician, I can bait him with a big mission. I am sure he wants to be a Gold Mage since you can do many things with that identity." "Indeed. I have prepared a mission for both of you." He took out a request paper. "This is a request for a 5-Star Tier 5 monster. The monster has destroyed a few cities, and the request comes from the King himself. Both of you will receive one million Spirit Stones and one thousand achievement points if you subjugate the monster." "Understood. With such a reward, he would most likely accept." She nodded. "Where is he then?" "He is under a mission for¡­ what is it, Ruby? I forget." He looked at Ruby, who was busy cleaning the plates. "A Dark Group. He seems pretty confident, so I''m sure he will come back in a few days to a week." Ruby said. "Alright. I will stay in the guild for a while." She nodded. ¡­ On the contrary, Alex just finished killing all the members in the dark group. He separated all their heads for the proof. "Nano, it seems all of this is the mayor''s scheme." "Yes. From the look of it, no one knows about it, including his family. After all, this will damage his reputation and might get executed for his crime if someone knows about this." "This makes things easier for us. I will make him sign or stamp the paper first as the proof that I have completed my mission. After that, we will stage an assassination scene if he decides to attack me. If not, I will let him be. He is just a bystander after all." "Understood. I will be standing by outside the mansion, waiting for the event unfolds." "Thank you." Alex then left the dark cave. He forgot he needed to ask about the runemaster and where he could sell his Array plate/Rune. He also needed to rent a place soon as this might take him a while since he needed a few days just to get two hundred points while he did not know how much he needed to become a gold mage. Alex came to the mayor''s house and took out his request paper. The guard nodded and guided him inside before telling the mayor about him. Not long after, a chubby man came inside the room. Alex checked him with his Spirit Eyes, but luckily he did not see anything strange inside his body. This meant he only needed to wary about him being the mastermind of this request. "Good Afternoon, Mayor. I have completed the quest." Alex politely said. He observed the mayor''s strength and realized he was 2-Star Martial King, the same as the dark group leader. This might be the reason why they decided to cooperate with each other. The mayor might not be able to get rid of that bandit, then he might as well cooperate with him since both of them would be benefited from it. "I need to inspect it first. Do you bring their heads or something that can be recognized from them?" The mayor asked. Even normal people should have realized up to this point. It was already not normal for the mayor to see their heads personally, as this should be the job of the guard or his subordinates. Alex took out their heads and placed all of them on the table. "These are the heads. I apologize if this makes you uncomfortable." Alex replied. The mayor frowned for an instant before his expression changed to normal. However, he was raging inwardly. ''Damn, you bastard. How can those guys be defeated? He is only a 1-Star Tier 5 mage, and he should not be able to defeat him. This guy must have something that can let him defeat them. If it is like that, then this is my chance to grab it from him since I could not utilize those guys again.'' Alex saw the movement of energy from the mayor''s body into his right hand. He was planning to do something to him. Alex simply ignored that and said. "Since I have finished my mission, I implore for the mayor to sign the request paper." "Haha¡­ Sure sure. Do you want to rest here first for your hard work? You can go back tomorrow." The mayor said with a smile while taking the mission paper and stamped it. He also made his guard give him his Spirit Stones reward. When Alex heard this, he simply smirked inside his heart. He said, "How can I receive such graciousness? A normal mage like me will go back immediately and won''t bother the mayor as you have many things to do." "That is a shame." The mayor said while handing the paper back. Alex then clasped his hands while bowing to him politely. He then turned back before leaving the room. It was then that the mayor took his staff quietly as he made a huge black ball, wanting to kill Alex with it. Alex took out his sword as his domain appeared on the edge of his sword. He turned back and cut the staff into two. Because of that, the mayor lost his control of the black ball and let it explode. "Boom!" "You-!" Before the mayor could shout or the guard outside came. Alex chopped him into pieces with his fast movement. The mayor tried to block it with his staff, albeit Alex''s sword was too sharp, so he ended up cutting the mayor along with the staff. He also made a few superficial in his body to make it more believable. *Bang!* "Mayor, what happens?" The guards stormed inside the room, looking at the mayor who was chopped into pieces and the injured Alex. Alex raised his hand and sent a few firebirds to the outside before looking at the guards. "Assassin. He killed the mayor." Alex said while gesturing he was hurt by panting and putting his hand on the wound. The guard also noticed a strange person outside with a mask trying to escape from this place. They instantly believed Alex''s story. "Chase him! Don''t let him escape." They shouted. "Are you okay?" One of the guards stayed behind and looked at Alex. "Yes. I am going to tend my wound first at the inn." Alex said. "I am sorry, but I can''t join you guys with these wounds." The guard nodded and let him through. Alex kept pretending he was hurt. He did not go to the inn but to a dark alley. After that, he teleported outside the town and summoned Anya. "Well, you should not get a mission with the subjugation of a dark force or something again, Alex¡­" Anya said while healing him. "It seems so. Last time with Putri and this time¡­ I should not get another mission like this, afraid there will be a third time. I thought it would be fine since it is another world¡­" "Haha¡­ Anyway, they should not get something from Nano, so we should be safe for now." She said. "We will go back and search for a place. You can then start compiling the information about this world from Nano or the situation in the Northern Continent from Anya and the others while I am racking up the points for traveling." Alex said. "Yes. I will do that." She nodded. After Anya finished healing him, he flew back to the guild. But, before he went back to report his mission, he decided to look around the town for a place to stay. Ultimately, he rented a house for fifty thousand a month. It was pretty expensive, but Alex thought it was worth it. The place was spacious with a few bedrooms, living rooms, and any other necessities. He just needed to place a few Sound Insulation Room in the house to make it more comfortable. He also needed to make a few arrays for practice, such as gathering array and Simulation Room. He did not have any shortage of Spirit Stones at the moment, and if he could sell his Array Plate, he would become rich. After settling on his new house, he decided to go back to the guild tomorrow morning. It was only a few minutes away from the guild anyway. Anya had settled down in a room beside him. She wanted to stay in his room like Anna, but Alex said no, so she reluctantly used the room beside him. Alex then sat on his bed while watching the sky. He was wondering if Anya could do something in this world. When the morning came, Alex opened his eyes as he came out of the house and headed to the guild. Unbeknownst to him, the guild master of Empyrean Guild had prepared a scheme for him, which was Lilian. And he would believe it because he needed the points as soon as possible to get back to his friends. 454 Mission Alex came to the guild as he turned in his mission to Ruby. "Welcome, how is your first request?" She asked with a smile. "So-so." Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "I see. I will proceed with your mission, and I need your guild card to upgrade your point." Alex nodded as he took out both the request paper and his guild card. Name: Alexander Sirius Tier: 5 Age: 23 Guild: Empyrean Guild Status: Bronze Mage (200/2500) Alex frowned upon seeing this. Not long after, He sighed as he wondered if there was any quest that gave him more points. After all, he needed a few days just to get two hundred points, and this mission was the highest one he could get a few days ago. If this kept up, he would need at least two months before he could rank up to silver mage. "What is it? Do you have any discontent with the mission? I can listen to you, maybe give you a few suggestions." Alex shook his head. "I am wondering if I can get the points faster. By the way, what will happen if I reach Silver Mage, and what is the next requirement for the Gold Mage?" Alex thought he would need any test to level up, but Ruby answered. "Nothing, you can just do like usual, taking quests and such. I will just need to upgrade your rank, and we are done. As for the next requirement for the Gold Mage, after you become a Silver Mage, your point will be reset, and you need twenty thousand points to become a Gold Mage." "That... " Alex furrowed his eyebrows. If he needed around two months just to rank up to Silver, then he would need more than a year to reach Gold. He did not want this, and he needed a way to rank up faster. "What are you thinking?" Ruby asked when she looked at his troubled expression. "I really need to get points faster¡­" Alex sighed. "Hmm¡­ If you keep this up, you can become a Silver Mage in a few months while there are even people who need ten years for it. There is a way to get points faster though, which is a special mission from the Guild Master. There is one right now, but it will be a bit too hard for you. I will call the Guild Master for you, maybe you can discuss it with him. By the way, why do you want it? I am surprised to see you finish this request in just five days in which you need around four days to travel back and forth alone." "I have my reason." Alex shook his head. "I see. Then, I won''t ask again. However¡­" She paused a bit before her smile vanished as she released her killing intent. "If you try to do something funny to this guild, I will personally stop you as I love this guild." Alex knew she was serious. He then shook his head, assuring her he did not have any ill intention on doing that. "Rest assured." "I see. Then I will call the guild master for you." She nodded as she left the counter for a while. Before long, she came back with an old man that seemed to be the guild master and a blonde woman. "Guild master, this is our new recruit, Alexander Sirius." Ruby introduced Alex. The guild master glanced at him before looking up and down, trying to observe him. It had been according to the plan to check whether Alex was an enemy or not. He just needed to push Lilian together with him and made her ask a few questions. "Hello, Guild Master. My name is Alexander Sirius." Alex greeted him. He nodded. "I am Nicolas. I am glad to see a talented new recruit like you. I hear you want to increase your point faster and want to get a special mission from me?" "Yeah. I have a personal reason." He acknowledged. "Unfortunately, I only have one special mission in my hand with 1000 points as the reward. However, it requires you to deal with a giant monster that seems to be a 5-Star Tier 5 Monster, which I don''t think you can deal with." The guild master sighed. It was not like he underestimated him, considering Alex could kill 2-Star Tier 5 Magician in just a day. Alex pondered for a moment. ''5-Star Tier 5 Monster¡­ 5-Star Martial King monster¡­ With my 1-Star Martial King power, I can surely kill the monster as long as I use everything in my repertoires. I should get this mission.'' "I am confident I can complete the mission, Guild Master," Alex said, pondering how to persuade the guild master. "But¡­ I already have a candidate with me here. She is Lilian, one of the gold mages in this guild. She is also a 6-Star Tier 5 Magician." He said to Alex. "This¡­" Alex looked at the blonde hair beauty beside the guild master. "This is a suicide mission for you." She remarked. "Unfortunately, I am under the same opinion." Ruby even approved her claim. "Well, well. Don''t push the newbie like that. He is a Tier 5 mage despite being only 23 years old, so I know why he wants to become a Gold Mage as soon as possible." The guild master exclaimed, with his own misunderstanding. "Why don''t we do it like this. Lilian will take care of him in this mission, so both of you will go together and complete the mission. "Don''t worry, I will make an exception for both of you and reward you with one thousand points. You need to share the Spirit Stones prize though." "Guild master¡­ we can''t do this. This is too dangerous. The monster is a 5-Star Tier 5 monster while he is only a 1-Star Tier 5 Mage." Ruby protested. "Just look at his eyes, you can tell he is stubborn and wants to get the mission at any cost. He is too young, so he needs to learn by experience. That''s why I think it will be good to see how strong a monster can be and learn from experience. Lilian is strong as her own, so I am sure she can take care of him." He said. "If you are still not assured, how about you follow him too?" "I won''t." She shook her head. Lilian observed Alex with her two different colored eyes. She suddenly threw a punch on his face, which Alex intercepted with his hand. However, because of the strength difference between 1-Star and 6-Star, Alex was suppressed by her. "!!!" Lilian was just testing him. She said, "A normal person will only have a sixth of my strength, but you have half of my strength despite being a 1-Star." This time it was the turn for the guild master and Ruby to be surprised. Although they knew Alex''s power, they never tested him themselves. And Lilian said he had half of her strength, his strength alone was already comparable to 3-Star. And like Lilian, Alex was a mage that could become more powerful when using his magic. "Are you sure about that, Lilian?" Ruby asked with a shocked face. "Mhm." She nodded. "Then, how about taking him with you. I am sure he won''t become your burden. At the very least, he should not be in your way." The guild master asked. "It''s alright as long as he follows my order," Lilian said. Alex did not mind following her order though. He was not like those men in the story that said they would not bow to anyone, including women. Of course, he had his own morale, but he had no qualms in listening to someone more experienced than him in a new world like this. He nodded his head, agreeing with her statement. "When will you be ready?" She asked. "I can go anytime." "Then, meet me tomorrow at the guild. We will need three days just to travel there." She said. He nodded. "Alright." "My name is Lilian. You can call me that and I hope you can follow my order for your own safety, Alexander." She reminded him again after introducing herself. She then left the guild before Alex could reply. "..." Alex glanced at Ruby and the guild master. "Since the matter is settled, I will go back to my office." The guild master also left. "Lilian is not really talkative, but she cares about her teammates. So, please follow her instruction, alright?" Ruby said with concern. Alex nodded. "I know." "So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to prepare for tomorrow?" "That would be it¡­" Alex nodded before he recalled another thing. "Do you know about magic rune?" "I know." "I want to know more about the rune or maybe the place where I can buy them." He said. Since he had a one day free, he decided to know about rune to see whether he could sell it or not. He purposely did not say "sell" as he did not want her to know he could make them, afraid it was an unusual thing in this world. (A/N: Another reminder, Rune=Array Plate) "Oh!" She nodded, thinking Alex wanted to buy the rune for his safety. "The guild does not have this thing. If you want to buy Runes, you can head to the Rune Palace. Most of our guild members also buy runes from that place. They are two blocks away from here." Alex nodded. It seemed there was this place called Rune Palace that had the same function as the Array Master Guild. Alex then left the place to see this Rune Palace. He was a huge store with grand decorations. This place was even more magnificent than the Empyrean guild. He then came inside and saw a similar place like Array Master Guild. He came to the receptionist out of reflex. "Hello, how may I help you?" A guy in his twenties greeted him politely. Judging from his clothes, he was also a receptionist. "I am new here, so a little explanation, I guess," Alex said. He nodded. "This is Rune Palace, the home of magic runes. You can buy, sell, or exchange runes in this place. If you want to buy runes, you can ask me or a few people with the same outfit as mine. We will give you a catalog for the runes. "If you want to sell, there is another counter in the corner. I can guide you there if you want. However, different from the two, there is an exchange center in this building. In the exchange center, you can set up your own stall and see whether anyone wants to exchange a magic rune. Of course, fighting is forbidden, and all things shall be resolved peacefully in this building." The receptionist explained carefully. Alex nodded. He did not need to buy a rune since he could make it himself. "Can I buy runes making equipment in this place?" "Of course." "Then, I need Tier 5 monster blood," Alex said. He did not have any stocks for monster blood as the one he had was only Tier 4 or Rank 4 monster blood. "We have different types of bottles. The smallest one is enough for one Tier 5 Magic Rune while the biggest one is enough for ten Tier 5 Magic Rune." The receptionist became even more polite when he heard Tier 5 monster blood. He thought he must be running an errand for his master, considering his age. "How much is the biggest one?" Alex asked. "One million Spirit Stones for each bottle." He said. "Can I get a catalog for the runes?" "Very well." He nodded and took out a book from his space ring. Alex then took a look at this book as he immediately searched for Tier 5 Rune. It seemed in this world, even a Tier 5 Rune was a luxury as each of these runes was around a few hundred thousand to ten million Spirit Stones. He was tempted to sell his runes for this. He found his Barrier Array for 3 million Spirit Stones. They could even buy a service for Lightning Rod Array, and this needed 10 million Spirit Stones. With this one million Spirit Stones bottle, he could make 30 million Spirit Stones. Of course, even with his power, to compress a big array under a small paper was a big deal. At best, he could only make ten of them in a week as his mind would be too tired to even make another one. He was planning to make a certain number of runes and sold them at intervals to avoid suspicion. After thinking for a while, he decided to buy ten of the biggest bottles and came back to his house. 455 Mission Back at home, Alex was planning to make a few Array Plates. He did not buy the Array paper because he had plenty of them from the Gacha. Out of the array he could make, the barrier array was the common one, so he was planning to make that to avoid raising suspicion from the people around him, especially from the Empyrean Guild. He only made three Moonstone Barrier Arrays/Runes for the time being, and he already felt a bit drained after making three in one day. He decided to rest to prepare for tomorrow. Alex might ask Anya to sell the Runes, but it was for later, so he stored it inside his Space Ring and came to the guild on the next day. Alex was amazed to see Lilian arriving first even though Alex decided to come sooner. "Ah, you are early today." Ruby greeted him while noticing he was looking at Lilian. "Don''t worry. She is like that. You are by no means late." Lilian then came to him. "The monsters are in Hayes Plain. According to the information, the monster has destroyed two small towns. The monster is moving blindly¡­ Even so, we are going to observe its movement first. So, if we meet the monster, don''t immediately charge at it." Alex nodded. "I know." "Good. I don''t need someone dying on me again." Lilian nodded as she murmured. "Then, see you in a week, I guess¡­" Ruby sent them off with a smile. However, just after coming out of the guild, they saw Seth and the guild master together. When they saw Ruby waving her hand to Alex, Seth immediately came to Alex and stopped him. "Wait wait wait!" Alex looked at him in confusion, wondering what Seth wanted to do. He was prepared to do something if he tried to attack him or something. And it turned out he was right, Seth took out something from his Space Ring and made Alex vigilant. Lilian tilted her head as she looked at them. She did not know why these two became friendly so sudden, as she heard Alex was just a new recruit and did not have much interaction with the other guild members. "Hey, why is Ruby so friendly with you? She is friendly to anyone else, but she seems more friendly to you even though you are only here for less than a week." Seth asked. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He thought Ruby was only doing her job, so he never cared about it. Before he talked, Seth immediately gave him a book. "I will give you this book if you tell me your secret," Seth said while handing a book to Alex. Alex took a glimpse of the cover and opened his eyes wide. The cover was a woman in silver hair, making a sexy pose and in a bikini. She was a pretty woman, albeit her chest was flat. "It was a porn magazine." Alex thought. He never met this kind of magazine in the former two worlds, so it was certainly a surprise to see one in this world. He did not care about the content, he just cared about its existence because he was wondering if the world had something similar from a thing on Earth. Suddenly, the magazine disappeared from Seth''s hand. Alex did not steal it. Instead, it was the old man that suddenly appeared before them who stole the book. He nonchalantly opened it while scanning its content. "Heh¡­ To think you hide this from me, your father. Still, Are you even my son? Why are all of these girls flat?" The guild master complained to Seth in a loud voice. "If you are my son, you need to prefer it big! Now, I understand why you like Ruby, not Lilian. You idiotic son, I will teach you the blessing of the big chest!" "Shut up, you damn geezer! Flat is justice." Seth roared back. "No. Big is the best!" "Then why do you marry mom? Mom''s is not big!" "I...I don''t have a choice!" He groaned in regret. "What did you say?! Mom is the best. I am searching for one like mom!" "What did you say?!" Both of them looked at each other while gnashing their teeth. Even the others around looked at them with weird looks. Alex was speechless by these two interactions. Suddenly, Lilian grabbed his collar and dragged him away. If Alex could see her face, she was blushing at the moment, not because she was embarrassed, but because she was ashamed by these two. "This is why our reputation in this town is not good. Just ignore them as we have a mission." Alex was amused by it. He then started walking by himself as they were leaving this two idiotic father and son there. Even Ruby had come back to the guild as she did not want to get involved with these two. As soon as they got out of the town, they flew toward the north. Lilian asked him a few questions, such as where he lived and such. After all, they did not know what Alex did before he joined their guild. And with his age, he was basically the youngest Tier 5 magician in the continent. Alex only said he was training inside a forest with his master and came to the city when he passed away. It was also a perfect story to hide his lack of common sense. However, when Alex told her that, what he got was a weird stare from her. Alex did not know that Lilian could sense his lies. Even so, she kept talking to him, trying to search for more information about him. Of course, this information gathering was in the form of a normal talk. Sometimes Alex lied and sometimes Alex told her the truth. After pondering all of it, she decided Alex had no ill intention to their guild. He was just a mysterious person without any influence other than their Empyrean Guild. Because of that, she slowly opened up to him and could keep up an idle talk with him since it was boring if they were only flying. After three days, they finally arrived at the spot where the monsters last spotted. They followed a trail and found the monster not long after. The monster was similar to a white tiger. However, it had two tails and two horns, making it look ominous. The height of this monster was ten meters. Alex then saw a few monsters surrounding the tiger. Most of them were peak Tier 4 monsters while he found three Tier 5 monsters. It seemed these monsters were assisting the tiger. "This¡­ could be bad. I miscalculated the number of monsters that are following him." Lilian said. "Can you fight the tiger alone?" Alex asked. "I can." She nodded with confidence. "Then, that''s good. Leave the other monsters for me." Alex said. "There are still three Tier 5 monsters. Besides, there are more than fifty peak Tier 4 monsters." Lilian frowned. "Don''t worry. I am used to killing monsters. Those monsters should pose no problem." Alex said. "No. I can''t risk it. You are still a member of our Empyrean Guild, and I can''t allow you to do such a risky thing." She rejected his idea. Alex just looked at her weirdly. He usually dealt with those kind monsters easily and could do practically whatever he wanted. However, he had this superior this time, and she decided everything. This was certainly a new experience for him, albeit he did not really like it. "It''s alright. I know my ability the best." Alex shrugged his shoulder. She remembered that Alex''s strength alone was equal to 3-Star, but this time, he needed to fight many monsters at once. It was different from fighting a single monster. After a few minutes pondering this matter, she sighed. "Alright. We will retreat as soon as I see you in a bad situation." Alex nodded. "Alright." She nodded and flew toward the magical beasts. The giant tiger immediately roared when it noticed Lilian. His subordinates immediately charged at Lilian, trying to weaken her. Meanwhile, Alex appeared from the side as he made a few firebirds and rained them with his phoenix fire. Meanwhile, Lilian was making a bow using her ice element. She aimed it toward the tiger. Suddenly, the arrow was covered by fire, and she released it. Alex knew she had two elements like him, which were Fire and Ice from his Spirit Eyes. He was surprised at that time since it was the first time he saw a person who had two elements inside their body. Alex just maintained his firebirds to make sure no monsters tried to approach her. Before long, he managed to make all the monsters, except the tiger, focused on him. "Fire Phoenix Art, Third Stage. Fire Wing." A pair of fire wings appeared on his back. A few fire spirals flew out from his wing by flapping his wing. All those attacks were raining down toward the monsters. He just realized he was too comfortable with his sword as he instinctively wanted to take out his sword and finished all of these monsters. He then challenged them in close combat. He had thought of a solution to this situation. Looking at the monsters, Alex punched the air. Surprisingly, a torrential fire current appeared from his fist and flew toward a monster. Alex was using his Mid Heaven Tier Fire Art, Fire Wave Emission with this fist. Because he was used to close combat, he was planning to take advantage of it and made his own style. It managed to kill a single monster. Alex then made a round kick and sent a flame wave toward the monsters, killing a few monsters. The monster arrived in front of him and tried to bite him. Alex avoided it while sending another Fire Wave Emission toward another monster. With his Phoenix Fire, the monsters were roasted as soon as they were enveloped by the fire. He kept thinning the number of the monsters as he continuously summoned fire from his hands or feet. It was also thanks to his Alchemy skill that he could control his fire perfectly. This was the style that suited him the best. Although he usually used his elements just to assist his sword and spear, he could not do it in this world as it was a weird thing to have. Even Lilian only had two tiny daggers for precaution as she summoned magic one after another with her hands. Alex felt he would be able to master his elements if he was practicing like this in this world. Of course, he also shot out a few Flames of Extinction and his Fire Phoenix Art. And with his Pure Fire Element, which granted him the ability to withstand the heat, Alex rained all of his art around him, not caring if it reached him or not. The monsters kept charging at him with the intention to kill. Alex avoided each of their attacks while killing them. It could be said he had gotten the hang of this fighting style. "Fire Wave Emission." "Flame of Extinction." "Fire Phoenix Art..." Alex continued killing the magical beasts. Out of the three Tier 5 monsters, Alex used his Flame of Extinction to kill one and engulfed the other one with his Fire Phoenix. He was so intrigued by this new style like he learned the Silver Sovereign for the first time. His movement became more precise and refined. It was at this time, he managed to kill all of them beside the last Tier 5 monster. "Roar!" The last Tier 5 monster was an ape. It appeared behind him and plunged his fist toward Alex. Alex threw his fist against this. However, after fighting for a few minutes, he instinctively released his intent and fused it into his fist. It reaped the ape''s fist and blew the entire arm away. Alex then shot another Flame of Extinction and killed the ape. "Ah, I use my intent just now¡­" 456 Another Encounter With Elven Race Meanwhile, Lilian was shocked by Alex''s power. She never thought Alex could defeat all those monsters quickly and with that insane style to boot. She did not dare to engage the monsters in close combat as she did not have the confidence to do so. However, she knew mages had their own style, so she could not really say anything about his style since she could see Alex was very proficient with it. After seeing Alex killed all the monsters, she got pretty pumped up. She had been holding back this whole time to make sure she had enough distance to escape with Alex if anything went wrong. "I have made you wait, grown cat." She smirked as she made a fire on her right hand and ice on her left hand. "Fire and Ice dual Thorns." Both of her hands shot out an arrow with their respective element before they suddenly came together and flew toward the giant tiger. The giant tiger threw his paw toward this attack, but when it was touched by this attack, half of its paw was burning while the other one was freezing. "Roar!" The roar was echoing through the sky, and a series of roars were heard from the woods beside them. Alex frowned when he saw this. He immediately appeared in front of the woods and sent a thought transmission to Lilian. "Leave the monsters to me. Finish that tiger quickly." "!!!" Lilian glanced at him and nodded. She looked at the giant tiger and placed her hand on the ground. The ground suddenly froze and spread toward the giant tiger. The giant tiger tried to leap to the sky, but a huge ice spike rose from the freezing ground. It pierced through the other''s paw. "Roar Roar!" It let out a pained roar. But Lilian did not stop there, she immediately burned the freezing ground and channeled it to the spike. She was trying to burn the tiger from within. The tiger also noticed this dangerous move, so he immediately climbed the spike and freed his paw. He then leaped toward Lilian and threw his paw again, trying to crush her to death. "Ice Spike." She made another giant spike to stab the giant tiger, but the tiger managed to dodge it mid-air. "!!!" She furrowed her eyebrows before leaping backward to avoid the giant tiger. However, the giant tiger immediately jumped forward and sent his fist toward her. At this time, a Fire Phoenix appeared from the other side and hit the giant tiger, making it lose its balance. "Wha-!" Even Lilian was surprised by this. Alex was already fighting so many monsters at once, and he even managed to support her. Little did she know, Alex was used to a situation like this where he and his spirits helped each other despite being surrounded by magical beasts or soldiers. That was why he did not have any trouble keeping all the monsters on his side at bay while helping her. Lilian did not let this chance go and leaped toward the giant tiger''s neck. She placed both of her hands on its neck. "Blazing and Freezing Collar!" A big collar suddenly appeared on the tiger neck, burning its neck on the side and freezing it on the other side. "Roar Roar!" Lilian did not stop here as she immediately appeared right below the tiger''s belly. She duck down and spun a few times before a giant fire and ice tornado appeared out of nowhere. "Twin Elements Gust." Not only it inflicted damage to the tiger, but it also sent the tiger up high. Lilian placed her hand on the ground again and made a huge spike that pierced the tiger''s body and killed it. Although she did not need help from Alex, she was still grateful for his help as she could finish the battle sooner than she expected. "Roa-!" "Boom Boom Boom!" Right after she killed the tiger, she heard a series of explosions from the side. She turned her head and was prepared to charge to his aid, but she noticed that all the monsters were already lying on the ground. She sucked a cold breath. She thought there were around two hundred monsters in that horde, but Alex killed all of them in an instant. She was wondering who was this man called Alexander Sirius. She realized she had been underestimating him this whole time. If Alex''s age was forty or more, she could understand how he was this powerful. But what could he do with 23 years? It already took most of her time to raise her strength to 6-Star Tier 5 mage, and her age was far above him. In comparison, she was close to Charya''s age. She muttered, "Who is he¡­" She had a dilemma. At the very least, she knew Alex was a member of their Empyrean Guild and did not have any ill intent toward the guild. She could just keep observing him. She wondered if she should ask him to form a group with her so that she could keep a tab on him. After a while, she shook her head as she left it to the guild master to decide. Alex looked at her, clueless. He simply said, "We have finished our mission, right?" "Yes. We have." She nodded. "I will deal with the rest. You can rest first, and we will go back to the guild." He nodded and left while Lilian took care of the tiger''s corpse. It was at this time Alex noticed another presence within the forest. He shouted. "Who?" "!!!" Lilian heard the shout and turned her head. Suddenly, a woman appeared from the forest. Pretty was what everyone would think when they saw her. She had long silver hair and a graceful body¡­ similar to Ruby''s. She wore a set of uniforms with a leaves pattern. However, the most noticeable trait was her long pointed ears. She was an elf. Alex observed her cultivation and noticed it was only 5-Star. "I also have the same mission to get rid of the giant tiger. But it seems I am late." She said politely. "I have seen both of your fights, and it could be said that I am intrigued. One of you has two elements, while the other one has a powerful field of vision and flame." Alex raised his guard as he was waiting for Lilian to come. "Who are you¡­" The elf was surprised when she heard that question. She never thought someone did not know her name. "I am sorry for my teammate''s rudeness Princess Shelka. He is practicing this whole time, so he does not know you." Lilian immediately apologized to the elf. She then sent a thought transmission to Alex. ''She is the princess of Elven Race Royal Family, Shelka La Muerte. She is the one most likely to become the next generation Elven Queen as she has Pure Wind Element.'' "!!!" Alex was surprised by three things. First would be her status. The second was her element, which was the Pure Wind Element. Last but not least was her name¡­ La Muerte¡­ Wasn''t it¡­ Alex shuddered as he shook that thought off his mind. This was a different world, and that name should have a different meaning. "No no. It is I who should apologize. I have arrived at this place for a while, but I am too curious about both of you, so I decide to watch." She politely replied. "Does Princess want this tiger? Then, consider this as our gift." Lilian said. Alex frowned. If they gave the tiger to her, they would lose their mission and would not get the points. But he felt relieved after what she said next. "No. I am grateful for your thought alone. But, our Elven Kingdom does not want to claim what is not ours. After all, both of us are the six races that have been fighting together for generations. Although the Human Race has declined, it is still not an excuse to do that." Shelka shook her head. Alex wondered if this was what her races thought or only her. If it was what the entire Elven Races thought, he felt it would be easier for him when he challenged their trial. Lilian looked at her, not knowing what to do. The tiger''s corpse was inside her space ring. She was wondering if she should still give it to her or not despite the rejection, considering the other party''s background. Seeing their hesitation, Shelka assured them. "Don''t worry about me. You can take them back. As long as the monster is slain, I have no objections." ''What are we going to do?'' Alex asked with thought transmission. ''I guess, we can bring this and head back to the guild. You should know that our kingdom is ruled by 2-Star Tier 6 mage. But their kingdom is ruled over by their Elf King, a 7-Star Tier 6 Mage. We can''t act carelessly in front of her.'' ''I see. That will be bad.'' Alex understood. The human ruler alone could not hold a candle to their king. If they decided to go war against them, it would be one sided annihilation. Of course, if there were such a thing, he would not hesitate to call his spirits even if they had many things to do in the other world. If he could just reach 5-Star, he can level up his spirit to fight their kings. That way, he had a chance to fight their kingdom. Of course, it would be best if that did not happen. He wanted peace in this world after killing more than a hundred thousand humans and monsters in the previous world. He did not care how much he would kill, but it would be best to stop the situation from going toward that direction. As for the EXP and Gacha Tickets, Anna and the others were taking care of that in the other world. "Then, we will excuse ourselves, your highness." After a while, Lilian decided to accept it as she bowed slightly and took Alex away. "See you soon." Shelka smiled. Alex and Lilian then headed back to the guild, but Alex glanced back once, wondering what she meant by ''See you soon.'' He shook his head and asked Nano to investigate the Elven Kingdom after he finished with the Human Kingdom. According to Lilian, they could get the Spirit Stones reward from the guild as this mission required an advanced payment from the client. So, they immediately came back to the guild, not to the client. Shelka watched them until she could not see them anymore. At this time, another elf appeared. "Mistress, you seem happy." She said. "Happy huh¡­ I don''t know whether I am happy or not. But I can say, I am intrigued." She said. "I see. This is a surprise. Mistress usually does not look at others with such eyes and to think we meet two of them at the same time¡­" She glanced at Shelka. "Not two, one." "!!!" She was amazed before frowning. "The male?" "Yes." "Does Mistress not fancy the female one? This is the first time I see someone has two elements in their body." She said. "Yes. She has. However, the elements are not synchronized. So, I am sure she is not born with it." "Then, do you mean she acquired the element? But how?" "Who knows." "... Then, how about the young man?" "He? He is still holding back his power greatly. I see that he has a unique way of using his element, but I feel there is more to him than we can see." Shelka said her honest opinion. As an elf that was proud of their element manipulation, Shelka could see through both of their styles instantly. "However¡­ the most intriguing thing about him is¡­ I can feel that he would soon come to our kingdom. It''s like my racial''s instinct telling me that." "Is he one of the Slave Traders? Or someone who hates us? Should we eliminate him?" "Hmm¡­ I don''t know. I will try to report it to my father." Shelka said as she turned back. "Let''s go back." 457 Three Months After that day, Alex got a moment of peace. He was invited a few times to join Lilian for a mission and he accepted, considering the points reward, which basically ranged from 1000 to 2000 points. This alone managed to speed up his progress more than five times. Of course, Lilian also did not do anything suspicious during this time, so Alex kept agreeing with the mission. And before long, he had become a silver mage. Maintaining his speed, he continued racking up points after points, not caring about others'' opinions. He already had a goal, which was to get out of this world and came back to his own group. He also did not forget to make some cash from his Magic Runes. Although his money rate was a bit slower than when he sold his pill, Alex could balance it with his missions. Even so, Alex was considered a monster. In just two weeks ever since he joined the guild, he had become a Silver Mage. No one thought it was impossible to him, as they knew Alex was a Tier 5 Mage. Little did they know, in the meantime, he also started amassing money from his other job and made a hundred million in his first month. Even some of them might be using his Rank 5 Moonstone Barrier without knowing it. However, because of this, his training was a bit restrained. And even though his cultivation speed was increased after the second refinement of Undying Fire Body, it took him three months just to reach 2-Star. Alex could only sigh upon seeing this. Sadly, he was not planning to change his current schedule and because of that, his status after three months was like this. Name: Alexander Sirius Tier: 5 Age: 23 Guild: Empyrean Guild Status: Silver Mage (17300/20000) Alex even managed to get three hundred million Spirit Stones within these three months. He might be able to buy a kingdom if he came back to Willow Continent. It was different for his cultivation since he needed around three million Spirit Stones just to get another star. He might even need more and more money to get stronger. It was because the energy did not just go to his cultivation, but also to his soul. That way, he needed more and more Spirit Stones to keep going, especially when he needed to spoon-feed Sherry and Kyle. Sherry woke up after the first month while Kyle woke up the following month. In total, Alex would need ten million Spirit Stones just to get one star, and it would increase even further. He might need more money for auction and such, remembering he bought a flower for his Spirit Eyes in the auction. That was why he decided to make more money and keep it. Of course, Sherry and Kyle often came with him for a mission. After three months, Alex was searching for another mission before Lilian suddenly came over and presented him with another mission. Alex looked at it. Mission: Destroy a bandit group Reward: 3 Million Spirit Stones and 2000 Achievement Points Description: Two Hundred Tier 4 Mages, Ten Tier 5 Mages (Highest is 6-Star Tier 5 Mage) Alex was surprised. This was a mission that was hard to come by. Not only it gave 3 million Spirit Stones, but he would also get 2000 Achievement Points. He needed to share the Spirit Stones reward with Lilian, but he did not care about the Spirit Stones reward. However, with the Guild Master''s authority, they did not need to split the Achievement Points. The guild master often offered him special requests. It seemed after he got many reports from Lilian, he knew Alex had no ill intent toward them, so he decided to trust Alex more and more by giving him what he wanted. He also imposed an information lockdown to make sure no other guilds knew about Alex''s existence, lest they would try to kidnap him and make him their own. This was his first and only worry about Alex. "This mission is a bit hard," Lilian said. "What do you mean?" "The guild master said the bandits had made their base in the mountain by making many tunnels like Ant Nest. This way, they could ambush us with the unknown terrain, so we need to be extra careful." She said. "Ah." Alex nodded. Even in these three months, Alex never really showed his Spirit Eyes to anyone, so she did not know about it. With his Spirit Eyes, he was X-rayi¡­ Ahem, looking at their energy through the wall. This was the best power for a mission like this as no one could ambush him. "It''s alright. I can handle that. Let just say I have my own ways to know their general location." "Alright. At first, I wanted to spend time to close all the entrances and smoke them inside, but it seems not possible after considering their location and number. I can''t close all the entrances without them noticing." She sighed. "It''s alright. In fact, with a large base inside the mountain, it also means that the enemy would spread. We can start ambushing each of them inside the base without anyone noticing." Alex said. "..." Lilian paused a bit before nodding. "Yes, you are right. We can do that too as long as we can locate them." Alex nodded. "Is there anything you wish to say?" "Nothing. Considering we have been cooperating these three months, I know that you are strong. In fact, your power might be equal to 3-Star or 4-Star Tier 5 Mage and specialized in a big battle. Killing two hundred Tier 4 Mages should not be that hard for you." Lilian shook her head. "Anyway, I never know why you decided to join our guild instead of the other three guilds if you want to get the pass to travel." Alex had told her that he only wanted to become a Gold Mage and the pass to cross over the continent. As for the reason, he never specified it as there was no way he could say he wanted to go to another continent just to challenge other races'' trials. Alex also knew that Lilian could know if he was lying, so he was a bit embarrassed when his lies were exposed. After that time, he decided to never tell a lie in front of her. Of course, it did not mean he would tell her the whole truth. He just talked a portion of the truth to her and made her speculate the rest by herself. This way, she would get into her own misunderstanding, thus saving him from being exposed. He looked at Lilian and said, "Nothing. I never care about which guild to join anyway. When I arrived in this city, I just asked the people in the town to the nearest guild, and I found this guild." "Ah. That''s why you joined this guild since you don''t know anything about our guild and reputation." She sighed as she looked at Alex with a serious expression. "Are you saying you will join another guild if you come across them first?" "Yeah, I basically don''t have any knowledge about this guild." He shrugged. "Well, I might join them." "I see, so are you planning to join another guild after joining this guild?" She looked at him while gritting her teeth. Alex simply shook his head. "Nah. Since I have settled down here, I am not planning to go anywhere soon." "Guild Master has done a good job in dealing with your information. If the other guilds know about you, they might poach you with money, wo...women, or even with the pass since you want it so much." She looked at him, trying to discern whether he was lying or not. "Money, huh¡­ I have no interest in that." He shook his head while adding, "I can make them easily anyway." in his heart. "As for women, I will pass. I have enough experience in that, so I won''t be poached by women. Once is enough for me." Alex shook his head, recalling about Alicia. He had grown up from his past self, and he could not agree on how the duke made him get engaged with Alicia back then. Of course, at that time, he was too weak, whether it was his strength or personality, to even utter his discontent. "As for the last thing, I can only say the guild master has done a good job on keeping the secret. I might get interested in that. However, since I have been working hard in this guild, trying to get all the points I could get, I won''t jump ship after this hardship. Besides, I should be able to get my pass this month after looking at my progress." Alex sipped his wine. Alex was not lying, and Lilian knew this. She finally relieved after knowing all of that. "When are we leaving?" "You don''t like waiting, right? How about now? I have made the preparation anyway and can go anytime." She said. "Sounds good." Alex nodded. Lilian then turned the mission to Ruby so she could record it. "Ah, you two are going again?" "Yes. We will be going after this." She said. "Alright. I will record the mission for you." Ruby nodded. "If I am not wrong, Alexander almost finished the point requirement for a Gold Mage, right?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "Just a little less than three thousand left." "I see. This is the first time I see someone become a Gold Mage in just three months." "This is thanks to her and the guild master. I won''t get a high-level mission without her anyway." Alex pointed his finger to Lilian. "Well, not that I mind it since I can reach this level pretty quickly. At first, I thought I needed at least a year to do this." Alex shrugged. "I see. Then take care. I will wait for both of you here and update your status cards after you finish the mission." Ruby nodded as she handed back the mission paper. Alex and Lilian then left the guild, flying toward their destination. Not long after they left, the guild master suddenly slammed the door open. He looked through the entire guild but did not find the ones he was searching for. He instantly appeared in front of Ruby and asked, "Where are they?" "They?" "I mean, Lilian and Alexander!" "Ah. They just left for the mission two hours ago." Ruby answered. "Why are you searching for them?" "Kh¡­" The guild master gritted his teeth as they suddenly heard a pleasant voice from the guild''s entrance. "Ara, it seems we are late this time." All people immediately turned their heads as they never heard of this voice. They thought they would get another new recruit, but they dropped their jaws the moment they saw the figure. They immediately kneeled on one knee on the ground and greeted her. "Your Highness Shelka." Shelka was coming with her maid as well as a few royal guards from the human kingdom. At first, this was an official visit, before Shelka suddenly wanted to come to this place. "Since both of them have left, then I would need to stay for a while in this city, I guess." Shelka looked at the captain of the royal guard. "I will pass your message to his majesty." The captain bowed and said. He was wondering why she wanted to come to this guild despite its bad reputation. It seemed that this guild had a person that caught her interest, so he would also report this to the king. He did not know what kind of interest she had, but it seemed not a bad one. If so, they could use their authority to use this person to get a favor from the Elven Kingdom. Even the Empyrean Guild could not do anything about this. "Then, search for an inn around here." She looked at her maid. The maid did not have any objection as they already knew her intention before coming to the human kingdom. They were tasked to gauge these two people that caught her interest, especially Alexander Sirius. "Yes." One of them nodded and disappeared. 458 Weapons Released On the contrary, Alex and Lilian had arrived at their destination. They separated to do their own things. Lilian was gathering information about the bandits from the town nearby, while Alex was scouting the base. Alex tried to map their base and the people inside it from afar. He could see all their positions, including their position inside the mountain with his Spirit Eyes and movement to make a rough map. Surprisingly, he found more than two hundred people inside. And around fifty of the human signs were gathered inside a single room. Alex marked them as the boss room. However, he found another room where people gathered. In this room, he could see many weak life signs. It felt like they were not strong or something wrong with them and he found it strange. Alex just marked it as a special room. As for the others, they were scattered inside the entire mountain. He knew that with their positioning, it was perfect for ambushing any outsiders that did not know their base layout. Sadly, they met Alex this time. Alex continued to make a map of this base as they would raid the base tomorrow. In the night, he met Lilian to discuss tomorrow''s plan. Alex showed her the rough map, making Lilian surprised. "This is a rough map and their positioning. They have a special room here, where I find it strange and a boss room here, I am pretty sure the leader is in this room." Alex said. "This¡­ Where did you get this? Even in the town, no one had something like this." Lilian asked in surprise. She looked at the map and saw how complicated the tunnel was. Alex simply shook his head as he said, "I have my own way." Lilian wanted to ask again, but she knew he was not lying, albeit she did not know whether it was his handiwork or someone''s handiwork. "Alright. According to the information I got from the citizens. This bandit group consisted of elites. They never accept Tier 3 or lower to make their group powerful. As for their identity??? Most of them are war prisoners or criminals. That''s why we need to be more careful inside. A few mages have come inside, but no one managed to come back." "I see." Alex nodded. He did not have any assurance about their leader, the 6-Star Tier 5 mage, but luckily, he brought Sherry and Kyle this time. If needed, they could act as support. "And it seems they have been taking many young females from the towns to satiate their beastly desire." She said. "Oh, that must be what is in that room." He said as he glanced at the special room. He could somehow imagine what kind of scene he would see in that special room. Lilian nodded in agreement. "We will go attack them from here and here to take down their watchdogs. This way, we can slowly make our way toward the base and ambush each of these rooms without anyone noticing. We will then go this¡­" Alex continued explaining his plan. He was planning to kill all the subordinates first before fighting the leader. This was to make sure no one would come to help him. "Alright. We need speed, so if they manage to inform the others about our attack, we will be at a disadvantage." "Yeah. Not that much though." Alex nodded. Even if they knew about it, Alex could see their general position, so it was not a big deal. If only Anna and the others were here, they could spread out and finish all of the vital areas. This time, he needed to coordinate with Lilian just to kill them. After agreeing with their plan, both of them were making their preparation for tomorrow''s plan. They came to the mountain as Alex led her through the mountain to the entrance. They ambushed the guards silently before making their way inside the cave. Alex led her from one room to another, ambushing many people. Most of the rooms were their bedrooms, so they immediately moved to the next one after killing the people inside. After an hour, they finally arrived in the special room. Alex narrowed his eyes when he looked through the door. Now that he saw from close by, he was able to see what was inside. He said, "There are one 4-Star and one 5-Star Tier 5 Mage with a couple of Tier 4 mage inside. However, this is not the problem. I just want you to ignore all the things happening inside the room and focus on killing the enemies. Are we clear?" Lilian frowned when she heard this. Alex was not joking, so she assumed there was something crazy inside this room. She made a resolve in her heart and nodded. "We might attract more enemies past this point." Alex nodded. Considering this place was close to the boss room, he had expected this. "Don''t worry, I have several escape routes ready after we clear this room." "Alright. I will trust you." She nodded. "Let''s go." Both of them nodded and kicked the door open before storming inside. There were many women inside the room, lying on the ground lifelessly. They were still alive but there was no light inside their eyes. They were covered with white sticky liquid which did not need to be said. "!!!" The bandits turned their heads only to see their subordinates dying. Alex already killed a few of them in an instant while Lilian was clenching her fist and used her magic to kill them. She was thoroughly angered by the sight and started her killing spree. This happened everywhere. Even so, watching this with their own eyes would surely trigger one''s heart. Lilian immediately took on both Tier 5 mages while Alex kept killing the Tier 4 mages. ¡­ Meanwhile, in the boss room, there were twenty people drinking inside. They were laughing and so on as they kept sipping their wine. It was at this time, they suddenly heard a series of explosions. "Boom Boom Boom!" "What is that?" The leader immediately frowned as he asked. "There must be another foolish mage that is trying to storm our base." One of them said. "Yeah, this is a casual thing. It will be better if it is a female mage. We will get a new woman soon." "But, why is the alarm not ringing?" The leader noticed something off. When they heard this, all of the people inside this room instantly shocked. "Half of you will immediately go to check the disturbance. The others will gather the people here." The leader immediately commanded. "Yes." They immediately did their own thing. Meanwhile, Alex and Lilian had killed all the bandits in this room. Lilian immediately threw towels for these women. Some of them still had some light in their eyes and managed to look at Alex and Lilian. Lilian looked remorseful as she said. "I am sorry we are too late. If you still have the desire to lead a normal life after this nightmare, please wait for us as we will evacuate all of you after we destroy this base." Lilian turned to Alex and said with anger in her tone. "Let''s go. We have another thing to do." "Calm yourself down first. This time, the enemies are stronger. If you lose your cool, they will defeat us and you will be the same as them." Alex sent a thought transmission to her since he thought it was rude to say it in front of these women. Lilian''s body shook. She clenched her fist, almost bled her palms with her own nails. She took a couple of deep breaths before she said. "Thank you." Alex nodded. "They have noticed us because of our battle earlier. As long as we divert their attention, they should not come to this room. After this point, this will be my battle against them. Follow me." Lilian nodded. They started roaming around the place as they killed many people that were scattered in this base. Alex skillfully utilized his Spirit Eyes to get into their weak links and ambushed them. They met a few troublesome mages but all the battles ended before any reinforcement came. Lilian wanted to ask about his ability but decided not to do so. After a while, they were able to clean the bandits. All that left was the last forty people inside the boss room. Alex could see that there were five Tier 5 mages left, so it should not be a problem. "I will take care of the others while you kill the leader," Alex said to Lilian. She nodded as she released her fire and ice. Alex also released all of his firebirds. They then stormed inside the room and used their magic simultaneously. "Fire Wave Emission." Alex leaped toward his opponents while Lilian appeared in front of the 6-Star Tier 5 mage. "Haha, to think we will get another beauty, and she might be the prettiest one we get." The bandit leader laughed. Lilian shot out an arrow with both her elements. The bandit boss simply grabbed one of his subordinates and turned him into a shield. "Argh!" His subordinate was killed in an instant, but the attack did not reach him. "You¡­ How can you do that! He is your subordinate." Lilian shouted. "Ah, you must be one of the righteous bastards. That''s right, they are my subordinates. That''s why they should be honored if I use their life as my shield." The bandit leader laughed. Alex was also triggered by this. He was also one of those people who thought he should not treat his subordinate that way, considering he had his spirits. He immediately started killing his subordinates. Lilian gritted her teeth as she charged at him while shooting her two-element arrows again. She used that chance to get closer to him. However, Lilian was taken by surprise as the bandit leader used his subordinate to block the attack again. "Argh!" "You bastard." Lilian waved her hand, trying to use her magic. But the bandit leader did not stop there. He suddenly made a long dark spear from his other hand right behind his subordinate back. It pierced both his subordinate and Lilian on the stomach. "Gah!" She spat blood. The bandit leader then kicked her right on her wound, blowing her away. Alex frowned as he watched Lilian being beaten up by the bandit leader. He muttered, "This might be bad." He faced the last dilemma in his mind at this moment. If he decided to fight the bandit leader, his fire alone was not enough. Even with the help of Sherry and Kyle, he would not be able to win. "Did I need to use it?" "Argh!" The bandit leader managed to put another wound on Lilian''s body. He did not care if Lilian was killed, but the others from the guild might not like it. He just wanted to cultivate peacefully in this world while making his way to his previous world. If there were such an event, he would be¡­ Alex did not want to think about it. "Screw it." Alex cursed as he waved his hand toward the bandit leader and a phoenix appeared. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." "!!!" He noticed this attack and immediately made a large dark hand, destroying Alex''s phoenix. Alex used this time to appear in front of Lilian as he said, "Can you get up? If you can, then help me take care of the other bandits. I will kill the leader." "You¡­" Lilian was surprised. Alex was just 2-Star Tier 5 mage, while the bandit leader was 6-Star. There was no way Alex would win. "Haha¡­ A foolish 2-Star Tier 5 mage wants to kill me? Leave the sleep talking when you are asleep. Take this, Dark Tornado." The tornado made its way toward Alex and Lilian, but it was cut into two cleanly, revealing Alex holding a rank 5 Sword. All of them were shocked by this, even Lilian dropped her jaw. "Alex, you¡­" "All of you need to shut up already," Alex complained as he took out his spear from the space ring. "All of you will die anyway." 459 Alexs Power Alex looked at the bandit leader as he covered his weapons with his domain and elements. Alex said inwardly. "Sherry, you will back me up against this person. Kyle, you will back Lilian up. No need to go outside." "Understood." Both of them said. It seemed after Kyle reached Martial King, he could also speak, so Alex did not need to hear those chirpings again. "You¡­ what are you¡­" Lilian muttered. "What I am or who I am is not important. Just get back up and start killing them. If not, I will kill all of them." Alex said with a serious expression. He did not have any time to think about his response. The bandit leader did not understand what just happened, but he knew Alex was a bad deal. He quickly made another black tornado. Alex waved his sword as a Sword Wave contained his Intent and Fire flew toward the tornado. The tornado was immediately split open the moment it clashed with Alex''s sword wave. After all, the sword wave contained, not covered by his intent and fire. This way, it created an even stronger attack. The bandit leader gritted his teeth as he avoided the sword wave. He looked at Alex in surprise. "You¡­ What is that magic!" They never saw a mage using weapons beside staff. However, the staff here was not that good. Only a handful of people would have powerful staff that was embedded with Element Gem, like the wind gem Alex gave to Alexa. At the same time, Sherry and Kyle already made their firebirds. Half of them flew toward the bandit leader and the others were flying toward his subordinates. "!!!" They tried to avoid it. Even so, he still managed to kill two people. Looking at this, Lilian bit her lips. She endured the pain and stood up. Alex was really planning to deal with all of them if she did not stand up again. As a 6-Star, she would not let this happen. She summoned her ice and fire again and charged at the others. If she could finish all of them first, she could help Alex in defeating the bandit leader. Alex took a deep breath before sending another Seven Stars Cut toward him. The bandit leader tried to avoid him, but Alex was already closing in. He thrust his spear toward the bandit leader with all of his might, but surprisingly, the bandit leader covered his palm with dark fire and grabbed his spear. The intent and fire immediately reaped his palm open but the bandit leader just endured the pain as he said. "Caught you! As expected, I only need to grab your weapon to catch you because my strength is still stronger than you." Alex frowned as he swung his sword toward his hand to free his spear, but the bandit leader simply caught it with his other hands. "Die!" He then covered his foot with dark matter and kicked Alex. "!!!" Alex shifted his stance and weapons to utilize his foot perfectly. He deflected it with his right foot that was covered with his fire. There was a strange sensation in the clash between his fire and the bandit leader''s dark power. The bandit wanted to continue attacking him with his foot, but Alex did not let him. He released his sword on his right hand and turned his body over before waving his hand toward the bandit. "Kh!" This took him by surprise. He immediately covered his hand with the dark power as he released both of Alex''s weapons and jumped backward. Sadly, he was too late. Alex covered his hand with Intent and Fire and used it to cut his right hand. Alex grabbed his sword and turned his body again before making a round kick. Even without the sword in his hand, he still had the sword in his body. He then channeled the sword on his heart to his foot and turned his foot into his sword. This was the principle of that attack, the same attack as he used with his bare hand. "Seven Stars Cut." He sent a Seven Stars Cut with his foot. The bandit immediately shot out an attack toward the ceiling to make him drop to the ground and avoid the Seven Stars Cut. Alex did not let him have a chance to come back. He immediately leaped toward him while swinging both weapons. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." The bandit rolled over on the ground to dodge this, but it still made a huge cut wound on his body. He just barely escaped that. Alex wanted to attack him again, but the bandit leader tapped the ground with his hand and a dark hole appeared beneath Alex''s feet. "!!!" He saw many black tentacles coming from the dark hole. They were sharp. "Boom Boom Boom!" Sherry made firebirds explode behind the bandit leader to stop his movement. She did not help Alex to fend this attack as she felt Alex should be able to solve this. And she was right. The moment the tentacles came, Alex immediately made a burst of domain and blew those tentacles away. This was the technique that the wisps of his intents used. Alex then leaped toward the bandit. But a few of his subordinates managed to slip away from Kyle and Lilian. They suddenly appeared beside him and attacked him, preventing him from killing their leader. Looking at this, Alex could only kill them first. He used his overbearing intent to cut half of them while the other half was defeated by Sherry''s fire. The bandit leader took this chance to send another attack as another black hole appeared beneath Alex''s feet. Alex immediately jumped backward but he was too late. "Dark Piercer!" Three sharp claws suddenly rose from the dark hole and grazed Alex''s body. Although because of his timely reaction, it was only a small wound. The wound was still running from his waist to his shoulder. "Sherry." "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." Sherry sent a phoenix toward the bandit leader. "Dark Sphere." The bandit leader made a dark sphere, trying to hold the phoenix down. He succeeded in it, but the real attack was Alex. When both skills destroyed each other, Alex appeared from it and cut the bandit leader. "Imposs-!" Alex checked his wound before going to the rest of the enemies. He thought he should make a Healing Pill later for a swift recovery. As for Lilian''s wound, he was wondering whether to give a pill to her or not¡­ probably the latter. They managed to wipe the bandits out quickly. Before Lilian could ask, Alex immediately said. "We need to go back to the special room and evacuate them." "..." Lilian stared at him for a while before nodding. She knew Alex did not want to talk about it. "And don''t talk about it to the people in the guild. Do so, let see if you can stop me from leaving the guild." Alex said coldly. Upon this, he did not need to partner up with her again for a mission since he needed less than a thousand points to become a Gold Mage. Lilian sighed and nodded. She hated lying, but hiding about it was a different matter. She nodded her head and said, "Alright. You are not going to hurt the people from the guild anyway." They then started helping the women from earlier and came back to the town. The people were overjoyed to see their families again and thanked them. That night, they were dressing their wounds before going back on the next day. ¡­ Meanwhile, Anya got a call from Nano. "Mistress, there was a weird situation in the guild earlier. I was not there at that time, so this was what happened a few days ago just right after his majesty left the town." Nano did not bother calling Alex with Young Master again since Alex was his king. In fact, all of his spirits wanted to call him their king if not because of his order. "Hmm¡­ What is it?" "It seems there is an Elven Princess coming to the guild to search for His Majesty and that woman," Nano said. "Oh." Anya frowned. "For what?" "I don''t know. It is still unknown to others, but I feel it is related to the Elven Royal Family." "What about your investigation status for this kingdom?" Anya asked. "I have finished my basic investigation. I will be reporting to you after this." Nano replied. "Go to the Elven Kingdom after this and investigate them thoroughly. They have Martial Emperors in their ranks. Depending on the situation, I might summon all the other spirits for another war." "His majesty should be tired from many wars since we have fought with the Zhou Kingdom, Southern Kingdom, Mount Hua Sect, and Brynhildr Kingdom. It might be a bad thing to get another war this soon." Nano said, concerned. "I know. It will depend on the situation, but I also wish to stop it before moving toward that direction. Albeit, if needed, Alex would surely take his weapon again. He is not that weak. Even in his previous life, he had killed tens of millions, if not a few hundred million people. "I believe, as long as he still has the belief in his heart and knows what he is fighting for, he will not fall into darkness." She said. "I understand. I will investigate them to make sure another war won''t happen. Besides, we can also kidnap this princess and make her a hostage to meet their ruler, so we can challenge their trial." Nano said. "We will see the situation first," Anya said. "It will be the last thing we might do as even after he gets their crystal, they might try to kill him." "And one more thing, if possible, after his majesty comes back, please advise him not to step to the guild for a while. There are many Royal Guards from the kingdoms and the rumor. The situation might go in another direction if he goes there." "All right. I will tell him after he comes back since he does not carry my card." She nodded. "Anyway, come here first, so I will record the information in case we need it in the future. "Understood. Long Live o'' Spirit God." Nano said before leaving the conversation. ... Sadly, Anya thought Alex''s mission was something that he grabbed himself. If it were like that, Alex would surely come back first before turning his mission. Little did she know, the mission was coming from Lilian. After finishing their mission, they started their journey back, and they immediately came back to the guild. However, they never expected that someone had been waiting for them in the guild. The moment they reached the guild, everyone suddenly started acting strange. They kept staring at them, afraid of talking to them. Alex aside, they did not even dare to talk to Lilian. And both Lilian and Alex noticed this, so they immediately went to Ruby and asked. "What happens to them?" "Ah¡­" Ruby also started acting strange as she did not know what to do. If she answered at this moment, Alex or Lilian might leave the guild to avoid this problem. If she did not answer, they would also get suspicious and leave. "Just wait for the guild master, he has something for you," Ruby said after considering Lilian''s instinct. It was at this moment Seth suddenly appeared before them. "Lilian, Alexander, how can both of you do that? Please tell me the secret¡­ I also want to get ladies from my utopia." Both of them were baffled. They did not know what he was talking about. If only he knew it was Shelka, they would immediately understand what happened and why Seth was begging them. The Elven Race was full of handsome men and pretty girls. However, why Seth considered the Elven as his utopia because all the girls had the same characteristic. They were flat, and as the believer of ''Flat is Justice,'' Seth immediately thought he had found a haven. Before they started suspecting, their fate was sealed as they heard a familiar voice from the entrance. "It seems I am not late this time. I have finally met both of you again." They turned their heads and opened their eyes wide. It was Shelka. 460 Conditions Alex frowned when he saw her. He did not know what she was doing here, but he knew it was because of her everyone was acting strange. "I have been waiting for both of you." Shelka smiled at both of them. Lilian immediately kneeled on her knees and greeted her. "Your highness Shelka." Alex did not do that out of habit as in the Acacia Kingdom, he always told to stop kneeling while in the previous world, he did not have the need to do so. He looked at Shelka, trying to perceive her intention. "We apologize for making you wait, your highness," Lilian said. "It''s fine. Actually, I want to ask both of you to join a mission with me. It is a mission to destroy a certain Slave Trader that we have found recently. They have been enslaving humans and elves, so the royal family has sent me to destroy the group. "And because they are enslaving humans, this matter is not only my Elven Race''s matter but also Human Race''s. That''s why I am inviting both of you to join me." She said with a smile. "Forgive my rudeness, but may I know why Princess wants both of us? I am sure there are many people stronger than us." "It''s just a hunch. Both of you are unique in your own way and my family wants me to take both of you in this mission." She answered. [Host, she is fishy.] "Indeed." Alex acknowledged as he kept looking at her. He could not sense anything other than a scheme in this mission, but he did not know the other party''s real intention in this mission. [Are you going to accept it, Host?] "No. I don''t feel comfortable with this mission." [But this might be the chance to get acquainted with their royal family. And you might be able to get inside there and challenge their trial.] "..." Alex paused. "We will see how this conversation turns out." [Up to you.] Meanwhile, Lilian asked again. "We don''t dare to accept this mission, your highness. We are afraid we will become your burden." "Don''t worry. This is only for formality. And the most special people that I have seen are you two. That''s why¡­ Please join me in this mission, take it as I am asking both of you." She smiled. Lilian frowned when she heard this. Despite saying that, she could sense that the princess did not really mean it. She had a different intention from what she said. Alex could somehow feel it too. Because of this, he really wanted to leave this place. If only he had his cards and asked to investigate things, he should be able to make a better decision. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to observe this princess because he did not have the chance previously. It was as Lilian said, she really had a Pure Wind Element. Alex was sure about this because the concentrated green energy inside her heart and the color intensity alone was similar to his fire element or Letizia''s ice element. He suddenly found another thing that made his expression darken. He could see two other people hiding at the entrance. Their energy was similar to the elf in front of her, so Alex immediately thought they were coming with her. After all, it was a bit weird to see a royalty suddenly come unprotected. "This¡­ this is our honor to help your highness." She said. "Fufu, thank you. The strongest in the enemy''s party is 7-Star Tier 5 mage, so I am sure three of us can defeat him. Although it will be a bit troublesome to defeat him together with his subordinates, as long as we can defeat the leader and the strongest one, the others should have no motivation to fight us anymore." Shelka explained. "Yes." Alex closed his eyes, thinking about this matter. It was true that with the two people outside, they could defeat them easily as both of them were 9-Star. Alex was sure they were going to follow them. That was why Alex felt this was a scheme or something. "Alexander." Lilian then stared at him. Even Shelka looked at him. She knew Alex would be the hardest one to convince after their first meeting. Alex did not talk that much and seemed to have some assurances against her, that was why he could keep his calm even in her presence. "I am honored by Princess Shelka''s invitation. However, I am only a 2-Star Tier 5 mage. I am sure I will only be your burden." Alex replied without an expression. Lilian knew it was not true. Just by looking at their last mission, Alex was able to overpower 6-Star despite only being a 2-Star. Even though he used the surprise element to confuse the opponent, it was still a matter of the fact that he killed a 6-Star. Shelka also frowned, thinking about how to convince him. Suddenly, the guild master came out of his room and greeted Shelka before turning to Alex. "Alexander, you should accept this mission since her highness Shelka is inviting you personally." "They don''t need me." Alex shook his head before turning to Shelka. "If Princess just wants us to be the representative for the Human Race, I think Lilian is enough. I am just a weak person. Besides, I think with two 9-Star outside, it should be enough to defeat the group." "!!!" All the people were taken aback. Shelka smiled inwardly as she thought. ''Interesting.'' The two people that were guarding her suddenly came out after her signal, revealing two female elves. Shelka asked. "How do you know?" Alex merely shook his head. The two bodyguards immediately frowned. Their princess asked him nicely, but he dared to not answer her question. "Well, if you don''t want to answer, then I will change my question. How can I convince you to join me to finish this mission?" Before Alex could reply, the guild master suddenly said. "Alexander, if you don''t join the mission, I shall strip your rank and points." The guild master also had his own difficulty. He did not know the fate of this guild in case they fought with the Elven Royal Family, so he needed somehow to make Alex join, even if he needed to force him. Alex''s expression darkened as he looked at the guild master. "Don''t make me do something you will regret for the rest of your life. I have been playing with your rule to get all these points and you want to erase it just like that?" "You¡­ You need to join the mission for the guild." "It seems you are going that way. Then, I shall remove myself from this guild. I will search for another way to travel to another continent." He glared at him as he took out his guild card and threw it to the ground. The guild master also released his aura after hearing Alex''s words. But before he could do anything, Shelka shouted. "Wait. This is only a misunderstanding. If Mr. Alexander wants to go to another continent, we can issue the pass for you and take care of your expenses as long as you join this mission." "Princess is generous, but I can take care of it myself." Alex shook his head. "Then how about this." Shelka pondered for a moment before saying, "I will grant you something if you join this mission." This time, her two bodyguards were perplexed by her decision. They did not know that what Shelka wanted was Alex. She did not care whether Lilian would join or not, but Alex needed to join. After meeting him three months ago, her family had gathered enough information about him. He came out of nowhere and suddenly appeared in this guild three months ago as a Tier 5 mage. The most important thing was his age. They did not know about his age when they arrived at this place, so she continued her information gathering and found out that he was only 23 years old. This was unprecedented in history. She thought with his talent, the Human Race might flourish. She wanted to gauge what kind of person was this Alexander Sirius. If he was a good person, then it was worth becoming his friend, and if it were the opposite, then it would be best to eliminate him, thus the mission idea. Alex stared at her for a while. "Grant me something?" "Yes. As long as it is within my capability, I will try to grant you that." She said. "I do have three conditions. But I am not sure Princess will grant it, no maybe your subordinates will charge at me." He said while preparing a teleportation Array. "You ungrateful bas-!" One of her subordinates shouted, but instantly stopped by Shelka. "Three¡­ that is a bit too much, isn''t it?" She looked at Alex mysteriously. "Only the first one is a big one, the other two are something that can be fulfilled easily." "Oh. I need to hear your conditions first before I can decide." "Princess, you mustn''t. He is going to take advantage of you." Her subordinate said. "This is my decision." She said before turning back to Alex. "I wish to meet the Elven Ruler." Alex dropped a nuke in his first request. "Interesting. Is this the biggest request?" "Yes." "If I may ask, why do you want to meet my royal father? After all, we surely can''t meet an outsider just like that as it will be dangerous for us." "I can''t say." Alex shook his head. "But the only thing I can say, I bring you no harm." "Ho¡­ then how about the next request?" "I want a pass to travel between continents. Even if I need to pay it, I am more than willing to get it." "Continents? Not only just one?" She narrowed her eyes. "Yes." "What about the last one?" "This is not a condition actually as this is a fact now. If I join this mission, I want to join as Alexander Sirius, not as the Empyrean Guild''s mage." Alex dropped a bomb on the ears of every mage in this guild. "You¡­ you bastard!" This time, the guild master burst out of his anger. "Stop him." The princess instantly ordered her guards. They immediately came in front of him and made the guild master halt his action. He was only a peak Tier 5 mage, so it was impossible for him to challenge their royal family. Ruby looked devastated by his statement, Seth also looked at him and wondered if he was dreaming or not. As for Lilian, her heart was hurt but she felt Alex only told them half the truth. She asked herself, "Is there another reason?" Little did they know he made this statement because of two reasons. He was disappointed by the guild master''s decision and this led him to the second reason. Even though he was disappointed, he knew the guild master had helped him by giving those missions. If he were going to challenge all the trials, his name would become famous and there might be a chance for this guild to be targeted. He thought if he challenged them as Alexander Sirius, a loner. They would not come to the guild. This was the payment he gave to them after taking care of him for the past few months. Anyway, he only wanted to use this guild to get the pass, not wanting to be attached to it. So, this might be the perfect time to separate from them. He felt bad for Lilian but he had more important things to do. He looked at Shelka with a serious expression. "Fufu¡­ those three conditions are really interesting." She chuckled, making the other people speechless. They thought Alex''s condition was too absurd, considering the real mission itself. Her subordinates wanted to persuade her not to agree with his terms, yet the princess nodded and said, "I agree." 461 Shelkas True Intention That night, all the people had come back to their inn. They decided to leave tomorrow morning as Alex also needed to inform Anya about this. Meanwhile, in another inn, the princess just came out of the bath. She somehow felt very happy after that debate with Alex. The maid that was with her a few months ago came to her. She was also present in the debate with Alex as Shelka''s bodyguard. "Your Highness, you seem very happy." "You can tell?" She smiled. "You were humming this whole time. Why did your highness agree with his conditions? Although his majesty wanted your highness to gauge his ability, I thought we should not agree with the conditions." She said worriedly. "Fufu¡­ You already knew about his age, right?" "Yes. I was the one who investigated it after all. Although it is unprecedented to have a Tier 5 mage that young, we still don''t know about his ability or identity." The maid suddenly noticed something. "Don''t tell me¡­ Your highness wants him to come to the royal palace just to kill him? If we kill him in the human kingdom, they would think we are cutting their opportunity to raise and the other races might also not like it. "So, if we invite him to the palace, we can just fabricate him and kill him. This way, no one would judge us. As expected of you, your highness. Such quick thinking." Shelka smirked as she looked at the moon. "You could not be more off mark than this." "Your highness?" The maid tilted her head in confusion. "There is a certain history that is very famous." Shelka closed her eyes. "And he might be the person in the prophecy." "You mean the Supreme?" The maid frowned. "But that is only an urban legend." "Then, why don''t you recite it right now?" Shelka smiled. "When darkness falls upon the land, "The supreme''s blood will restore life once more. "In accordance with the ancient pact, "When the six big races are gathered, "The sphere that leads the light will awaken. "The supreme will return." Shelka opened her eyes. "That''s right. After that war in the past, our world has been basking the darkness. After a few millennia pass, we have almost regained the power that we had in the past. If he is the real one, he will be able to gather all the six crystals and open the portal. "I am sure of this because it is the Human Crystal that is nowhere to be seen. His mysterious identity and the timing are more than enough. That is what it means by the sphere that leads the light will awaken¡­ the human crystal must be in his hand. "The six races will gather once again and shall greet the supreme. Fufu, why don''t we bet on this? Whether he wants to meet my father because he wants to challenge the trial or not." "!!!" Her body shook. "Your Highness is wise." She immediately bowed. "But it might be impossible for the human race to gather with the other races as the Supreme has abandoned them because of their foolishness." "What do you think this mission is for? As I said, this is only for formality. Why do you think I want both him and her to represent humanity? Do you think I need them for this mission? Do you think my royal father will make us do this if I did not tell him?" Her jaw dropped to the ground. It was true that if they did not tell anything about Alex and Lilian, the royal family would not know. Shelka had been manipulating this situation as well as her father to give her that mission. All of it just to make Lilian represent the Human Race and fulfill the prophecy. After that, the supreme shall get all the crystals and open the portal again. In other words, all of this is in her hands all along. She sweatdropped as she thought, ''What a woman¡­'' "Your Highness is wise. His majesty must be happy with this." "Fufu¡­ As I said, you can''t be more off mark." She smirked. "What do you mean, your highness?" "I will tell you this as you are my maid from when I was a child." She grinned. "I did not do this for the Elven Race. All of this is for me. Fufu, I am wondering what kind of child will I have with him?" The maid frowned upon hearing that. "Your Highness, having a child with another race is a taboo in our race." She could not hold the excitement in her heart and grin. "Fufu¡­ If he is really the Supreme in the prophecy, who dares to voice it? Do you think our custom is even stronger than the Supreme? No. I am even sure the other races would do that as well, especially the Human Race. "That''s why I am even more like him when he decides to separate with the Human Race. This way, even when their royal family knew about it, they could not justify such an action. They won''t be able to claim he is their Supreme or the Hero of the Human. "And because of our geographical issue, I will be the first one who bears his child." She made a big smile, but the smile was somewhat dark. The maid was trembling. She was wondering how far she had planned all of this. But she also noticed another thing. "But all of it is still an empty dream if he turns out to be a normal person, not the Supreme." "Of course. At that time, We can do anything we want with him." Shelka then placed her hand on the maid''s cheek. "How is it? Do you also want to bear his child? Since you have been serving me all this time, I can consider this as a reward." "Your highness¡­" The maid looked away with a tinge red on her cheek. ... Meanwhile, Alex was telling Anya the whole story about this. "This is not certainly a bad plan." She said. "If we can get their crystal as well as the pass to travel to other continents, then our journey will be smooth. Where do you want to go first after we get the Elven Crystal?" "I don''t know." Alex shook his head. "Although I have yet to decide where, I know I will leave the Dragon Race and Naga Race for the last. If the trial the priest said turned out to be true, I am not strong enough to fight a Martial Emperor. As for the Naga Race, they are the strongest race, I don''t think we should challenge the strongest first." "Indeed. But there might be a different possibility for the Naga Race¡­ if you get their crystal, they might be able to help you travel to the other continents. Still, since they are the strongest ones, they should be more arrogant. We have many unknown factors, so it might be better if we leave them last." Alex nodded. "That leaves the Angel Race and Phoenix Race. I feel Phoenix Race would be the better choice. If they are like Kyle, then it means you are invincible. The priest said the trial itself is related to Fire. It should be easy for your Pure Fire." Anya said. "Hmm¡­ yeah. Even so, we will ask Nano to investigate it first." Alex said. "Indeed. This is an unknown world, so it will be best to be more careful." She nodded. "By the way, I have gotten information from Anna. They have established a little group called Spirit Nest. Although they are not famous, they are growing by leaps and bounds. "This is because they are cooperating with the Blackwade Clan. They are selling all the materials they get from the monsters, however I have them to only sell the materials for Forging and the like. "As for Alchemy and Array items, they will store it, so you can use them anytime when you go back." "I see. With how powerful and efficient they are, they should get a good amount of Spirit Stones there." Alex nodded. "Thank you." "Yes." She nodded. "The second report is about Putri, Song Yu, and Letizia. Although she was leaving the continent first, it seemed she had joined hands with Song Yu and according to her progress, she would become a peak Martial Lord in less than half a year. "As for your senior sister, she has become a Martial King by now. There are two influences that are harassing them at the moment, but they can withstand for the time being. Even Anna and the others just let it pass as the situation is still calm. "Letizia¡­ is a bit troublesome. We have indeed found Honda Sana bringing her to the Northern Continent. However, we lost her after that. Nicole has been searching for her, but she is nowhere to be found." Alex frowned. "Did she get kidnapped or something?" "Most probably. We will try to locate her." Anya assured him. He nodded. "Have you tried asking Honda Sana?" "Yes. According to her, an elder in white suddenly kidnapped her somewhere. She could not sense her cultivation, so I think the elder is a Martial Emperor or above and we suspect she might be taken to the Heavenly Continent. Should we send someone to investigate?" Alex pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "We should solidify our force first in the Northern Continent." "Understood." "How about the power level on the Northern Continent?" "I will give you the detailed report later, but the strongest should be the head of the first-rate influence. All of them are peak Martial Emperors, close to Martial Monarchs. It might take Anna and the others a while to catch up with them, so they will stay low until you come back." "Yeah. We should consolidate our influence first. I only need a small group consisting only elites and it should be enough to scare most of our potential enemies." She nodded. "Last but not least, we have gotten the report from Nelson. He has eliminated the entire Brynhildr Kingdom that is involved in that war. He also has emptied their treasury and acquired massive wealth. Combining our spirit stones with Anna''s and Nelson''s, we have almost one billion Spirit Stones. "Nelson also has sent a portion of the Spirit Stones to your disciple, Rose. Because of your incident, I did not have time to leave behind Spirit Stones for her use, so Nelson is taking care of that." "What a reliable guy." He exclaimed. "Indeed. He is the best guy to have around." She nodded. "Anyway, that is all the report." "Alright. I feel I will go to the Elven Kingdom before returning from this mission, so I want you to be ready all the time. I don''t know how this will turn out and I want you to be prepared as I might call you." Alex said as he grabbed Anya''s card with him. "Yes. I know what to do." She nodded. She also handed him the written report about the power level of the Northern Continent. "I will retire to my room then." Alex grabbed the report and went to his room. She nodded. ... The next day, Alex arrived in front of the west gate. Lilian was looking at him with a complicated expression. She wanted to be mad but knew it was wrong. She bit her lips as she gathered a certain resolve in her heart. Alex just nodded at her as a greeting. It was the best not to say anything to her for the time being. He then looked at Shelka as well as two of her guards. His prediction was correct. With the two guards coming along with them, this mission was fishy. He was trying to perceive Shelka''s real intention. "Good Morning." Shelka greeted him with a smile. "Good Morning." Alex nodded. "Shall we go?" She asked. "Our destination is Renner City, a neutral city where many races gathered." All of them nodded and flew toward the west. 462 Lilian They were flying nonstop toward the Renner City. The journey was a quiet one as even Lilian did not utter a single word to Alex. And after around three days, they have arrived. Alex was surprised at first as this neural city hosted both races. He did not see that many elves back in the capital city, but in this, almost half of them were elves. Shelka immediately asked her two bodyguards to investigate the area while they were resting in the city. Alex just strolled around as he was not planning to reveal anything for the elves, so he only followed their orders passively. As for Shelka, she immediately informed everyone of the plan as soon as she received the investigation result. Lilian was very proactive about this mission. She wanted to forget about Alex just for a moment. When they started their infiltration, Alex could see many weak signs of energy, symbolizing weak elves or humans after bad treatment in this place. They were planning to release them after they destroyed the base anyway, so they just ignored them for the time being. Inside, they started killing all the people involved. It turned out the slave trader was an Elf himself. He was cooperating with humans in this city to make a killing. The human slaves were traded in the Elven Territory while the Elves were going to the Human Territory, whether to be a sex slave or labor worker. Surprisingly, there was no change of expression in Shelka''s face. It was like she already knew all along. And the most shocking thing he found was how easy this mission was. He did not know Shelka subordinates'' abilities, but they only needed a few hours to investigate them thoroughly. He thought even Nelson would need more time than them. So, he thought they must have prior information about them. They even knew about their secret passage for escaping. That was why he thought this was a scheme. After killing the slave trader and all his subordinates, they then proceeded to help the slaves. It seemed they were bound to a Full Loyalty Heavenly Oath. They were tortured to force them and Most of them could not stand the pain, so they made the Oath. Some of them even died in the process. While there were some that managed to hold on until now, they were not in a good state. However, after killing the Slave Trader and his subordinates, they were freed from the contract. The Slavery had already been banned by both Human Race and Elven Race because of the cruelty. Even so, there were still many Slave Traders outside and they usually occupied a neutral city like this. They were trading all the goods underground to avoid any suspicion. Just like a rat underground, they were hard to catch, so it was just a waste of resources to purge them as even more Slave Traders would appear. They could only make missions to purge them to minimize the cost. "Since we have finished our mission, we should go to the Elven Kingdom first as it is only a few days away from this place. And I have informed my family that I will bring two guests with me." Shelka explained. Alex had no complaint while Lilian also followed her because of Alex. Meanwhile, Alex was planning to level up someone with his UR exp card if something went wrong. So, he was ready. After a few days, Alex could see a huge tree that even pierced the sky. Alex wondered why they always had a huge tree? There was a kind of wooden castle on the huge tree. This time, not only was there a castle, he could see many lights hanging on the tree, making this tree even grander than the World Tree in the lower world. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found this tree had a boundless vitality. In fact, it was absorbing the Spiritual Energy inside the ground before releasing a kind of miasma that was filled with energy to the air from its leaves. The tree would purify the energy and make it richer. This might be the reason why they could have 7-Star Tier 6 mage as their leader. He then looked at the town. All the housing was made of wood, but Alex could see that the wood was not ordinary. It might be able to stand a Martial Master or Grandmaster attack. He felt this town was not a town, but a fortress to protect the tree. "Fufu, magnificent, isn''t it?" Shelka looked at Alex. "Indeed." He just calmly replied to her. He was planning his escape route when they visited the Elven King by looking at the giant tree''s energy. Ultimately, he was convinced that he could only escape by using his teleportation array. Not long after, they landed in the town. She looked at Lilian and Alex, "We need to get formal clothes for both of you first since we are going to meet the ruler of this race." She looked at the casual outfit of Alex and Lilian, so she thought about dressing them up a little bit. "Belle, you should go back first. I have informed my royal father that we are coming there tomorrow, but I want you to explain it more clearly before we arrive. Dana should be enough to escort me." She commanded. Dana was the maid who knew about the Supreme and her scheme while Belle was the special escort coming from her father. She knew her father wanted her to keep close eyes on her, so she made her leave. With such a reason, Belle had no reason to refuse. She nodded and disappeared. Meanwhile, Shelka asked the others to get good clothes for the meeting. Alex had no trouble with this as he had many clothes from the Acacia Kingdom. However, when the night came, Alex heard someone knocking at his door. He activated his Spirit Eyes to see who it was and said. "Come in." When the door opened, Alex could see Lilian with her usual outfit. She looked at Alex while biting her lips. "Why? Why did you leave the guild? Although back then, the guild master forced you, you should know he was forced by the situation." Lilian looked very anguished. "You know nothing." Alex simply answered as he closed his eyes. "Why? You said you wouldn''t leave the guild easily. Just because of this, you leave the guild? Are you planning to come back?" She asked, hoping Alex would answer ''yes.'' But reality immediately struck her hard. Alex simply answered with, "No." "Please, just look at my face and forgive the guild master. Please go back to the guild." "Are you also one of them? The one that wants me to come back just because of my ability? That''s right, all the worlds are the same. You won''t be respected if you don''t have money, power, or status." Alex shook his head in disappointment. If he lost it all today, maybe only his Spirits, disciple, and Family that will still accept him. If he showed all of his flaws, his enemies might pick it and attack him or even his ''Friends'' might backstab him or leave him. He could see that Lilian was someone like Song Yu or Putri, they could be considered his friend, but he could not shake the picture where they left him if he did not have anything. "N-no. I am not." "Then tell me, If I come to the guild with nothing, will you ever look at me? The answer is no. I will merely be one of the guild members in your eyes. If not because of my power, I will be no one." Alex said. "I-" Lilian could not answer that one. "No one is born strong¡­ And even without power, you can still become stronger and stronger. You will meet all the people in the guild, eventually including me and at some point, I¡­ I will¡­" She could not continue. Alex sighed. "That''s enough. If all you want to talk about is this, then please leave, I need to prepare myself for tomorrow." Lilian bit her lips as she let out tears from her eyes. She suddenly took off her skirt and shirt, revealing her lingerie. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, looking at all this sight. If she stripped in front of others, they might get excited about it. From her beautiful hair, pretty face, two seductive mountains and beautiful skin. It was just Alex could only see this as a dumb move. He did not know why she did this, but he became more disappointed. She even took out her bra and panties before using her hands to cover all the important parts. Tears were still streaming on her face before dropping to the ground. "I¡­ I am still a Virgin¡­ You can use me however you want but¡­ please come back to the Empyrean Guild¡­" It took all her energy to say that. She was clearly shaken by this. Suddenly, Sherry came out of Alex''s body and struck her with her palm. But before she could do that, Alex grabbed her tails, making her startled as all her furs stood up. "Gya!" Lilian was shocked to see a small monster like her suddenly came out of Alex''s body. She even forgot this whole thing for a second. "Master? My instinct has been tingling this whole time. I shall enforce justice for you and remove this woman." Sherry complained as she held her tails, looking at him pitifully. "Go back, I will handle this by myself." Alex sighed. "But Master, I have received the Holy Mission from Mistress Alicia and Mistress Firia. She is clearly trying to seduce you, so I shall purge her according to the mission. I had missed that Letizia when she was harassing you, but luckily she had reformed. But this time, I need to make her leave you. I can feel you are very disappointed with this. "She might be a 6-Star and I am a 1-Star, but I still can fight." Sherry continuously punched the air with her cute paws, showing him she was pumped to fight and repel the evil. Alex simply grabbed her tail again. "Gya!" Sherry was electrocuted once again when Alex grabbed her tails. She turned her head to Alex again with her whole body shaking. "Master." "As I said, go back already. Or I will punish you later." Alex sighed. Sherry wanted to complain again but ultimately came back inside his body with a sad expression. Her show this time was canceled by Alex. He then looked at the naked Lilian with a poker face. "I have said to you that I won''t get poached by women, right? What is the point you are doing now?" "I¡­ I don''t have another way to convince you." She bit her lips. "The moment I left, the possibility was already zero," Alex said. "You don''t need to waste your time on me. I won''t go back. It is not a matter if I hate you or the guild. Besides, I already have wives and I don''t like to sleep with another woman besides my wives. So it would be best if you wear your clothes and leave the room." Alex was ruthless with his words. She clenched her fists as she said. "You¡­ I never thought you were someone like this. I thought you were a good guy, not someone who was ungrateful. I misplace my trust, I¡­ I hate you¡­" "Good. Since you hate me, then wear your clothes and leave." Alex said while adding inwardly. ''It is good if you hate me. You can be considered a friend of mine in this world, albeit it starts from benefit. It will be better if you don''t know the real reason.'' She grabbed all her clothes and left the room in tears. Alex closed his eyes and sighed. The next day, all of them went to the palace. Lilian kept glancing at him while biting her lips. Even so, they were still visiting the palace. 463 Trial Alex finally came inside the castle on the tree. The castle was made from wood and blended with the tree itself. There were a few wooden bridges inside the castle to move from one place to another, but he did not see anything special from that. He was wearing a formal white suit he got from the lower world. It gave him a certain elegance by putting on his clothes rather than his casual style. As for Lilian, she was wearing a long purple dress while tying her hair into a ponytail. Meanwhile, Shelka was wearing a white dress with a unique pattern that seemed to be a special pattern in this kingdom. Alex always felt something off from her. It was not like a scheme, but more to conspiracy. Even though she appeared to be very gentle, Alex just had a feeling she was similar to Princess Mega from the Southern Kingdom. Not long after, they finally arrived at the palace room where they could see a person sitting on a throne while a female accompanied him from the side. They must be the king and the queen, Alex thought. He glanced left and right to see all the people in the court. It seemed there were a few Tier 6, but as expected, the strongest one was the king. The other elves were trying to observe him for someone who dared to meet the king with just a favor from the princess, they found it rude. Alex simply bowed his head while an elder suddenly said. "You have the king''s attention." "Alexander Sirius greets the king and queen. I would like to thank you for the oppo-" He greeted them out of courtesy but was stopped by the king. "So, you are the one who wants to meet me, Human, Alexander Sirius. I never expected that my daughter would even promise you this meeting. Save your pointless preamble. For what purpose did you choose to personally make a journey and take advantage of my daughter, Human?" The king said. ''Rude.'' Everyone thought of this when they heard the king. However, Alex had a different thought. This attitude was right. As he said so, the only reason they allowed an audience with the king because he took advantage of the situation. The king himself had nothing to discuss with him. For an unknown human race and without any strength or background to visit like this was already bizarre. For him to be here despite that probably meant he did not have anything good to say to the king and might just want to admire him. The sooner they got this over with, the better. Alex paused a bit before he said politely. "I am perfectly aware that my presence here is hardly welcome. But it is because there is a matter that I must bring to Your Majesty''s attention that I have taken advantage of the situation." ''Something?'' A minister frowned upon hearing that. ''He wants to say something to the king, is this the reason¡­'' Lilian looked at his back. ''To the point that he needs to take advantage of me?'' Shelka smiled. "I would like to challenge the trial of the Elven Race," Alex said with a stern expression. ''Challenge our trial?'' All the people were shocked by his statement. Only Shelka gritted her teeth from excitement. "Presumptuous!" "Brazen. How dare he!" The people were raging upon that statement. Meanwhile, the king merely looked at Alex with a cold gaze and released his killing intent. "Who do you think you are, Human? You are merely a Tier 5 and one without background. Even the Human Royal Family does not have the qualification to challenge our trial. The reason is simple, they don''t have the crystal. Now answer me, why do you think I will let you challenge our race trial? Depending on your answer, I will need to execute you right here." Lilian wanted to grab Alex and immediately apologized to the king. She already forgot about the previous embarrassment as this was a matter far bigger than that. But before she could do so, Alex waved his hand. A Purple Crystal suddenly came out and made its appearance. Not just that, at the same time, the purple crystal was out, a green crystal also came out of the throne. Both crystals suddenly moved toward each other before shining brightly. In that moment of confusion, Alex was suddenly transported to another realm. He looked left and right to see whether this was the trial. He even wanted to check with his Spirit Eyes. But before he managed to activate his Spirit Eyes. A person appeared in front of him, kneeling. Alex felt a headache when he saw this guy. This person had long blue hair. His body alone reached up to three meters, but the most noticeable thing from him was two pairs of wings on his back. The first pair was a pair of dragon wings while the other one was a pair of Kyle''s wings. "Ay¡­ Watts, greet your majesty, Spi¡­ Go¡­" He could not hear what he was saying because of all the headaches. He tried to endure and listen to what he said as hard as possible. "I have something to tell you after you gather the six crystals." This was the only thing he could hear before the spirit suddenly disappeared. "Kh¡­" After that person vanished, the realm also disappeared and he came back to the hall. He dropped to his knees and was panting. The others were bewildered as to what happened. They were shocked that this unknown human had the crystal that was supposed to be lost a few thousand years ago. However, only one person was excited about this situation. It was Shelka. She licked her lips, wanting to keep him for herself. "You¡­ how do you have that crystal!" The king roared to Alex. Lilian snapped back into reality while looking at Alex with a shocked expression. She never thought Alex would have something like this. Alex did not answer the king''s question. Instead, he merely said. "According to the pact of ancient. When the two crystals approve, I am eligible to challenge the trial." The king wanted to hit him at this moment and asked what was going on. But because of the crystal, he could not¡­ It was not like he could not, but the crystals would protect him. "Father. Our race trial is always a fight with Element. Since he is only a 2-Star Tier 5 Mage, how about letting me fight him?" Shelka smirked while looking at Alex. However, there was a trace of lust inside her eyes. But considering Alex never saw these eyes, he did know what it was. He only knew she had some schemes for him. "Hmm¡­" The king looked at her. "I am the one who brings him to this place, so I am also responsible for it. Please let me do it, Father. I won''t disappoint you." She said. The king wanted to ask many questions to Alex, but it seemed he could not. Because he really needed to set the trial as soon as possible. And it was like Shelka said she might be the best one to do it. After all, Alex was still a younger generation and it was only fair for another younger generation to fight him. The queen and the other ministers were tongue-tied as they never expected it turned out to be this way. "Alright." The king finally said. "The trial will be a battle of Alexander Sirius and Shelka La Muerte by using elements. You are granted ten minutes of grace period to change your clothes and come back to this place as we will hold the trial in this room. You can''t kill or do any irreplaceable damage to any side. The battle time limit is one hour. If the challenger, Alexander Sirius, can''t defeat Shelka La Muerte, he is deemed to fail the challenge." He stood up and announced. "The trial has been approved by the two crystals and the ruler of the challenged party. With this, I, Greyson La Muerte, announce the challenge has formally started. "Guards, bring her to their respective rooms so they could change clothes that are comfortable for combat. Ministers, we shall set up a barrier in this place for the arena." "Understood." Alex and Shelka were guided to their respective rooms by the guards. Lilian was following him while biting her lips. After changing, Lilian finally had the courage to come to him. "Is this why you want to separate?" She realized this after she saw the crystal. If Alex challenged the other races'' trial, his life would be in danger. And there might even be people coming to them and harming them because of him. "Answer me?" Lilian clenched his shoulders, desperate. Alex simply held her hands and put them away from his shoulders. "I have people that I could consider as friends and family members. All of them will always follow me regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger. This is also the reason why I can put my life on the line for them. However, you and your Empyrean Guild are not one of them." He said as he walked away. Lilian''s body was shaking. This was also what the guild master did. No matter if it was because of the guild, for Alex, it meant nothing. After all, it was also considered as sacrificing someone for a greater good. Meanwhile, Alex and those people would live and die together. She did not know what in her heart right now. It was chaotic. She wanted to hate him, scorn him, or even thank him, but she could not. She did not know what to do at this moment. She turned back to see Alex, who had vanished from the spot. She fell down to her knees while thinking. Was it regret? She did not know. Alex had come back to the hall and looked at Shelka, who had changed her clothes too. Both of them were wearing the same clothes when they were completing a mission. "Fufu¡­ As expected, are you the Supreme?" She narrowed her eyes. "!!!" The others were taken aback while the king frowned. All of them immediately recalled that story. "I am Alexander Sirius and not someone else. I won''t let a story dictate my path." Alex denied. "Fufu¡­ as expected, you are truly an amusing man." She smiled. "How about we make a bet?" "A bet?" "That''s right. How about if I win, you need to tell me how you can get that crystal and all the things you know about the crystal, including your real identity?" Shelka smiled. "I don''t have any interest in that bet." Alex rejected. There was no benefit for him with that bet. "If you win, you can get a pass that can let you travel to all continents." "That is already included in my condition." Alex glanced at the elven king. "I am sure the Elven Race would not be so low to void that condition, right?" "Hmph." The elven king snorted. "There is no way my Elven Race will take back our own decision." He nodded and looked at Shelka. "Oh. Then, how about this. If you win, you can get my Sacrificial Element?" Shelka smirked. The others were dumbfounded when they heard that. Shelka did not know Alex had a Pure Fire Element. If she knew, she would not bait him with her sacrificial element as it was completely inconsequential. Because of that, he did not flinch when he heard that condition. "I have no interest in this bet. If Princess Shelka only wants to talk about this pointless thing, I suggest we should start right now." "Fufu¡­ You are truly an interesting one." She never expected that Alex was not interested in this element. She was suddenly enlightened. There were a few reasons someone did not have any interest in a Sacrificial Element and the more she thought about it, the more she got excited. "Father." Shelka looked at her father and nodded. The elven king looked at both sides before announcing. "The Trial Battle, Start!" 464 Defeat Shelka Shelka immediately raised her hands before swinging it down. "Wind Spirit." A gust of tornado appeared before her hands and transformed into a green ball. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes for this and saw that the green ball and Shelka were connected. He was wondering whether he could ask Sherry and Kyle to help, but he would try his best first. Alex waved his hands as he summoned a Phoenix out of the blue. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." The green ball suddenly moved to the front, charging toward the phoenix. When they clashed, the phoenix immediately engulfed the green ball, burning it into cinders. But Alex suddenly frowned as he could see the green ball started shining before it turned into a huge fire cyclone, reaching the ceiling of the barrier. If there was not a barrier, this room might be in the complete mess already. The fire cyclone then charged at him. The arena itself was not that big, only a 25m x 25m square. They did not have that much space to move around to make sure the battle could be concluded within an hour. This was to make it fair to Alex, but it could also be considered as a weapon for Shelka. After all, the wind might extinguish small fires, but enkindled the strong fire. This was an absolutely perfect counter for Alex''s strong fire. Alex tried to avoid the cyclone but because of the limited space, he was cornered instantly. He made a few firebirds to make a few explosions right at the core of the cyclone to destroy the circles. After around a hundred explosions, he finally managed to destroy the cyclone. Even so, the wind was still able to reach him, making a few graze on his body. "Looking at your technique, what is your relationship with Phoenix Race?" Shelka asked. "None." Alex just told her the truth. "Hmm¡­ It seems you are not lying¡­" Shelka narrowed her eyes as she took out a staff with a wind gem embedded on the staff. She then summoned another one. "Wind Spirit." This time, the green ball shape-shifted into a wolf and charged at Alex. "Flame Wave Emission." Alex sent a torrential flame and tried to burn the wind, but it was absorbed by the wind itself. The wind wolf suddenly turned into a blazing wolf. Alex frowned upon seeing this. He looked at the incoming wolf and tried to shoot it down with his Flame of Extinction. As soon as he pointed his finger, Shelka smiled as she tapped the ground once with her staff. "Shape-shift end. Original Form." "!!!" The blazing wolf suddenly turned back into a huge cyclone and engulfed him. The fire was not effective to him, but the wind was dangerous. He could see the wind make a few cuts on his body. He had no choice this time. Alex took a deep breath as he released his Pure Fire once again to contend with her Pure Wind. This took her a surprise as her wind suddenly burned by the fire. Shelka immediately realized and tried to reinforce her wind, but it was too late. Alex''s fire had already burned her wind to a crisp. "!!!" All the people were shocked as this was the first time they saw someone could burn her wind. Shelka instantly realized what was going on. "This power¡­ Pure Fire Element. You¡­ you are Pure Fire Element." The others dropped their jaws to the ground, could not believe what they heard. They looked at her with complete silence. Alex ignored her and pointed his finger toward her. "Flame of Extinction." "!!!" Shelka felt danger from that finger and ducked down. It turned out she was right as she took a glimpse of the barrier behind her. The laser that was coming from his finger managed to even melt the barrier that was made by ministers and her father. After knowing this, Shelka was only filled with joy. She was looking at Alex, like looking at prey. "Wind Spirit." "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." They were fighting with their full power at this point. The flame was trying to burn her wind but to no avail. Meanwhile, the wind was also trying to absorb the fire to make a fire tornado but failed. Ultimately, they destroyed each other. She looked at Alex and smiled. "You are strong. To think you are only 23 years old. As expected of my Supreme!" The others were shocked when they heard Alex''s real age. This was an information Shelka kept secret, but because of her excitement, she just blurted it out. She raised her staff and spun it a few times above her heads. The wind started gathering and made a small red torrential wind right above the staff. The wind kept getting stronger and stronger. "Fufu¡­ Then, let''s see how you handle this." Shelka swung her staff down and made a huge sharp twister. "Razor Wind." The twister charged at him with an unbelievable speed. "Not good." Alex looked at the twister that suddenly engulfed him. Everyone thought he would be heavily injured if he were swallowed by this wind. However, Alex completely destroyed their expectation. The twister was suddenly destroyed, revealing Alex with his sword and spear. His sword was on the ground, proving he just swung that sword while his spear pointed at Shelka. But both of his weapons were covered with his Pure Fire. He was just trying to search for a loophole in the trial. The elven king said it was a battle against Shelka by using their element. So, as long as he used his element while using his weapons, it should be within the rule. In fact, this was his stronger form, so Alex was completely ready for this. He said, "You are using a staff, right? Then I will also use mine. I am still using my fire even with these two weapons, so I am not breaking any rule." "!!!" All the people, except Lilian, had not seen anything like this. They never expected a mage to carry a sword and spear at the same time. They thought even if Alex had a weapon, it would be a staff with Fire Gem on it. But his weapons of choice were beyond their expectations. They also could not complain as he really did not break any rules. Alex then disappeared from his position before suddenly appearing right in front of Shelka while swinging his sword. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Not good." Shelka tried to block it with her staff while covering it with her wind. When she stood close to it, she could tell how sharp Alex''s sword was, so if she did not cover it, the staff might be cut by Alex''s sword. *Crack* There was a little cracking sound inside her staff, but the sword did not manage to cut her staff. Even so, Alex used this chance to blow her away. "Boom!" She crashed into the barrier. Alex did not give her a chance, so he immediately swung his sword again. "Seven Stars Cut." The blazing sword wave was flying toward Shelka. If she did not defend this, she might die. But as expected, Shelka was not that easy. "Aerial Blade." She also sent sharp wind blades toward his sword wave, hoping to destroy this sword wave of his. Sadly, it was too strong. The sword wave destroyed all the blades as Shelka kept making more and more just to destroy this. Finally, after around ten blades, she broke Alex''s sword wave. "Wind Spirit." The green ball appeared once again. Unlike before, the ball immediately turned into a torrential wind before moving toward Alex like a bouncing snake. Alex shot a blazing arrow from his spear. "Quick Silver." The arrow exploded when it touched the wind and both of them vanished into thin air. Shelka did not give up. She spun her staff and shot it again. "Razor Wind." Alex was ready to destroy this attack again, but when he saw a green ball inside that wind. "This might not be good¡­" Alex muttered. He steeled himself and let the wind engulf him before once again destroying it. However, Alex had many injuries after he destroyed the wind. Shelka smiled. "That wind just now has my Wind Spirit inside, of course, you won''t be able to handle it." Alex did not pay any heed and charged at her wanting to finish this battle as soon as possible. "There is no choice¡­ Luckily, this is another world." He muttered as he was closing in. Shelka was also making the previous move again, but Alex prevented it even if he needed to reveal his other identity. He flicked his finger and an array appeared beneath her feet. Many blue whips suddenly rose and entangled her hands, feet, body, and neck. It prevented her from moving. Alex did not know whether this was considered as using an element, but he indeed used an element in this technique¡­ his Space Element. He used his Space Plate and Spatial Door to make an array suddenly appear. "Rune Master?" Shelka gritted her teeth as she was surprised by this. She never thought Alex had not only his Pure Fire, weapons, but he was also a Rune Master. Looking at this array, it was Tier 5 King Shackle Rune/Array. She immediately covered her body with winds and slashed all of the tentacles with her wind, but Alex had arrived in front of her while swinging his sword. *Fwoosh!* Alex''s swords were one inch away from Shelka''s neck and it was the mark that Alex defeated Shelka in this trial. In other words, Alex was able to defeat the trial. Shelka was shocked by this result too. She never expected Alex to surprise her one after another and ultimately defeated her. However, there was another feeling that was filling her heart at this moment. It was a feeling of excitement. Alex was only 2-Star but could defeat her, a 6-Star. He had a Pure Fire Element on top of that. And those swords and spears, as well as his Rune, even made her body feel a chill. She was completely lost to Alex. Because of that, she became more and more interested in Alex. Alex was truly her ''Supreme'' and with this, the last barrier in her heart finally crumbled. No matter what, she would make this man hers. As for Lilian, she was completely speechless as this fight was beyond her level. "To think Alexander''s power was this powerful¡­ He certainly does not need me and the guild. It is a foolish thought of mine to think Alexander needs my protection¡­" "No way. Our princess has lost?" "To a 2-Star Tier 5 Mage to boot!" "He is still a Tier 5 Rune Master from his Rune alone." "We can''t forget about his sword and spear. Why is he using them instead of a staff¡­ but he is far stronger when he uses them." "The most shocking thing is really his Pure Fire Element. To think we meet another Pure Element. He even manages to melt the barrier for a second." The ministers were shocked and were discussing Alex''s power. They felt it was normal for their princess to lose. This showed how absurd Alex''s power was. Alex had used all of his power to defeat her and he even got a few injuries. Pure Element is really something else. On the other hand, the elven king had a completely different reaction. He was trembling not because of surprise but shame. She never thought his genius daughter was rendered useless to this 2-Star Tier 5 mage. He wanted to deny the conclusion and said he was cheating by using his sword and spear, but he certainly did not break any rule. He was still using his Fire. He clenched his fists to the point it was bleeding. He finally announced. "Hum... Alexander Sirius Win." The ministers were tongue-tied upon hearing his voice as they knew he was angry. He continued, "According to the pact, you are the rightful owner of this crystal and our race would be forbidden to kill you. You shall have this crystal until you are defeated in another trial." 465 Discussion The crystals flew to his hand as Alex stored them immediately inside his Space Ring. He looked at the king, reminding him about the other promise. The king closed his eyes for a bit before sighing. "We need to make the official paper first. You can rest first for a whole day and get it tomorrow." Alex looked at him, wondering if it was a scheme or not. He nodded his head before looking at Lilian. He then sent a thought transmission to her. "You need to go back as soon as possible. I am afraid they might be planning to do something to you." But after telling her so, he realized they could not easily come and go as they pleased. But Alex also knew he did not want to let her see his Space Element. He was wondering for a few seconds before he said. "Come to my room. We will escape if they are trying to do something funny." Lilian was surprised by this. She never thought Alex still cared about her. Sadly, she could not feel happy at this moment, she could only feel anguish, regretting her choice to join this mission. She should stay back inside the guild back then. If Alex came to this place alone, he did not need to worry about anything as the elves would not kill him according to the pact. She recalled the thing Alex told her previously. She suddenly shuddered as she pictured suiciding if they targeted her because of Alex. She would surely choose to live because she had another thing to do. They were like what he said. Unbeknownst to her, tears were coming out of her right eyes as she nodded her head. Both of them were guided to their own respective rooms, but Lilian later came to his room. "I¡­" Lilian did not know what to say when she met him. "You don''t need to say anything," Alex said. "I¡­ I am sorry." Lilian bit her lips. "That''s enough. If you want to say more than that, you better practice lying to those from Empyrean Guild. Just say I don''t have anything with me and just want to admire the Elven King. "I would then have my own journey to somewhere else. And don''t talk about the fight with that princess and my power. That will be enough." "You¡­ Why? If you have the help of the Human Race and they know about the crystal. They can even issue the pass to you and help you get stronger to challenge the trials. You don''t need to do it the hard way like this." "Then, what? They will become like your guild, right? Taking advantage of the situation and might use it to their own convenience. Let me see, from all the kingdoms I have seen, they might even give their daughters or granddaughters to me. Sigh¡­ I am tired of all of that." Alex sighed. Lilian was tongue-tied. She could not deny it. The first thing that the kingdom of Flores would do was to make a relationship with Alex. As for the way, it might be as he said. They would try to make him marry a princess or two. It might even become the bare minimum before they could cooperate. After all, not only the crystal that was supposed to be lost a few thousand years ago had been found, the holder was also a peerless genius. The Flores Kingdom might use that relationship to control him and such. They might even forbid him from challenging another trial to make sure he grew stronger than those leaders from other races. After all, with Alex''s talent, it was not impossible. However, Alex had his own objective and needed to come back as soon as possible. "You don''t need to say anything to me. As long as you can lie about that, it is already enough for me. I always destroy my enemies to the root, even if I need to be branded as a tyrant. I shall make sure I kill all of them to avoid future problems. If the Empyrean guild does something funny and tries to endanger me, then¡­" Alex did not continue, but the answer was already clear. Lilian gulped down. If it was Alex, it might be possible. She gritted her teeth as she nodded. She had no choice. Meanwhile, the elven king was discussing Alex''s matter with his ministers, wife, and daughter. "He is dangerous, my king. We can''t kill him and he can''t kill us at the moment. However, he is only 23 years old with all of those talents. He can grow stronger and stronger after this. As long as he carries the crystal, we can''t attack him without a trick. If he hides somewhere and gets stronger, he might become a sword that will cut our race down." One of the ministers said. "I agree with him. We need to somehow deal with him while we have time. First, we can kill that woman and harass him. And according to the information, he previously stayed in the Empyrean Guild before leaving that guild because of conflict. We can also destroy that guild by using our influence." Another minister said. The king continued to get all the information to his head while thinking about what he should do. He then said, "Basically, we have three options. We will have a special group to harass him continuously to make sure he can''t get stronger. Others might know about it and our reputation might suffer a loss, but it is still a good option. So long as there is enough manpower, it''s not impossible to hold him at Tier 5. If possible, we can ask the other races to kill him for us." "But that won''t work. What if he tries to use Human Race or even other races and take cover within them. We can deal with the Human Race, but we can''t deal with the other races as they are not in this continent and their strength is as strong as ours. If we ask them to kill him, they might even want to shelter him so they can use him to deal with us in the future." Another minister said. "Your majesty, would you grace us with the second option?" "The second is to modify our approach and mend our relationship. We can transform it with Heavenly Oath that is capable of bringing both of us benefit." "Is that something possible, your majesty?" They doubted. "Don''t even think about it. He won''t accept it anyway with his personality. Even if we try to mend our relationship first with him, how many days do you think something like that will take us? By the time we complete something as time-consuming as that¡­ he would already become far stronger than we can imagine." The queen said. "True." The king nodded. "In which case, it would appear that perhaps our only reasonable choice left is the third and final one¡­ Well, I say that, but I would imagine everyone here already knows what it entails¡­ The third choice is to shut up and close our gate to make sure we don''t have anything to do with him anymore." "What¡­ your majesty, forgive my rudeness, but are you serious?" They already knew about it, but it was still unbelievable. "Pfft." Shelka was amused. The king frowned as he asked Shelka. "Would you mind elaborating your opinion to us, Shelka? Considering you were the one who brought him to us." "What makes Father and the others think that there is not a fourth option available?" She asked while smiling. "Instead of waiting and worrying about our future, we abandon our ancestor rule altogether. Then we come to him with a Princess. I brought him here, so I should solve this problem. Making him one of us before all of the predictions will happen." Shelka was voicing her true intention. "Shelka, do you know what you are saying?!" The king roared. "If those humans know about this, they will surely marry him to bind him to the royal family even if they need to force him. Besides, there won''t be any ancestral rules if we are destroyed by him in the future. And it will be too late for us to regret our decision." Shelka then looked at him. "Father, please let this daughter accompany him on this journey. Your daughter shall definitely make him fall in love with me. If our people do not accept this, we can say he is the Supreme in the prophecy. That''s why we need to disregard our ancestral rules once." Unbeknownst to them, this was what Shelka wanted all along. She had been trying to make this situation go toward this direction. She could picture it where Alex was ravaging her on the bed and their child. (AN: Girl, know yourself and the opposite party first if you want to win.) The king closed his eyes, pondering all of this. This decision was the hardest he had to make in his whole life. The hall was very silent as they were waiting for the king to make the decision. One hour¡­ Two hours¡­ Three hours¡­ After a long three hours, the king had decided. ... The next day, the king suddenly negotiated with him. "I will give you the pass but in one condition." The king said. "Ho¡­ It seems you-!" Alex was stopped by him. He continued. "That''s why I promise you another thing if you accept this. My Elven Race will not do anything to you if you accept. "We might not be able to attack you directly. But that does not mean we are completely useless against you. For example, we can kill the woman beside you. I don''t know your exact relationship and in case you don''t care about her or the human race. "I can still continue harassing you with monsters and other things even to the point of sowing discord with the other races. That way, you won''t have a peaceful day at all. I am sure you won''t be able to collect all six crystals. "Besides, with her following you, the pass and royal statement would be more effective." The elven king said shamelessly. Alex''s expression was darkened. He never thought the king was using this way. He thought the king was trying to matchmaking him with the princess. Little did he know, the idea itself was coming from Shelka. If he knew about that, he did not know what to do. He might even feed her to the shark later when the elves did not see it. Alex also put out another condition. "I don''t like to have an eye with me. So, she is the one who can come. If she can''t take care of herself, then it is her fault. And this is an equal relationship, so I can still do something if she does something excessive." The king furrowed his eyebrows before nodding his head. "Alright. That will be the promise." He then handed Alex the pass along with the document. "Where will you go after this?" He asked. "Either Phoenix Race or Angel Race," Alex answered. "Then, you should go to the Phoenix Race. Their trial is different from ours and does not require you to fight. You should be able to complete it with your Pure Fire Element." The king said. Alex did not know why the king even gave a suggestion to him, but he did not have any objection to that. "I want to go immediately." He said. "Of course, there is not a problem, my Supreme." Shelka finally spoke. Alex wanted to make her change the way she addressed him, but the others might find it rude, so he was planning to ask her later. He then clasped his hands to the king and bid farewell. Alex, Shelka, and Lilian came out of the palace with the escort. Lilian also then bid farewell as she went back to the Empyrean Guild. She then told the guild he left to wander alone by himself after visiting the Elven King. She was lying to them as thanks for protecting her. Meanwhile, Shelka and Alex were flying toward the port in the north of the Elven Territory to go toward the place where the Phoenixes were, Phoenix Nest. 466 Before Departure Alex had arrived in the port town. Shelka was taking care of the pass and the ship for him. Alex told her that no matter what, they would have two rooms as he felt it would be dangerous if he stayed in the same room as her. It was no because of her beauty or something as Alex never cared about that. He just felt she might do something to him at that time. It felt like he was playing with Anna as his enemy. He needed to be very careful if he did not want to be trapped by her. This was the first time he felt this since Anya always thought about what would be the best in their current situation. To think she would be this troublesome when she was his enemy. Alex took out her card and said. "Anya. It seems I have underestimated this princess. She reeks of you." "What do you mean by that, Alex? I am a bit offended if you compare me with her." She pouted. "Nah, I am just telling you. She is like you but as the opposite party. I need to be very careful against her. Since we are going to another continent, I doubt we will come back to this continent. So, erase all the arrays there and I will summon you later." He said. "Ah, you must be bored in the boat. I can take care of all you needs like Anna if you want." She smiled. "..." Alex paused a bit before telling her. "I need a bit more time¡­ you are just like Anna, but I don''t want to like you because you are similar to her. Wait a bit more as I gather my resolve, alright?" "Yes." Anya closed her eyes as she sighed. She thought, ''Just a bit more¡­ I have been waiting for a few thousand years¡­ I can easily wait a year or two¡­'' Alex then took out Nano''s card and said, "You are following me, right?" A man suddenly appeared before him. "Yes. Since Young Master has resolved the problem with the Elven Kingdom, I deem it unnecessary to stay there." "Well, observe that princess first to make sure she does not do anything suspicious. I want to open my Gacha first before we set out." "Understood." Nano nodded and changed into his bat form before flying toward the sea. Alex then searched for an inn where he could have some private place to open his gacha. They agreed to meet in the dock this evening to talk about the departure, so Alex still had time to open his gacha. [Mission #1: Acquire Elven Teleportation Crystal (Complete) Reward: 5 Premium Tickets Description: This mission will continue until you acquire all the six crystals.] [Mission #2: Acquire Phoenix Teleportation Crystal Reward: 5 Premium Tickets Description: This mission will continue until you acquire all the six crystals.] Alex immediately claimed the reward. And as he had chosen to go toward the Phoenix Nest, the next mission was for that. He then checked his Gacha Status. [Gacha Ticket x438 Premium Ticket x5 Dart x0 Gacha Card x2 Summoning Ticket x0 Summoning Coin x0] Alex took out Anna''s card after seeing this. "Anna, how is the condition over there? Do you need help or something?" "No. Nothing big is going on right now. But because we need to stay low and the monsters are stronger, we can''t generate as much as tickets like when we are in Willow Continent. The monster also knows how to use the Soul after reaching the Martial King, which boosts their power. Even Leoz needs to be careful about this." "Should I use the Gacha Tickets and boost someone''s level?" "You can use the Gacha Tickets, but I don''t think we need to level up for the time being. After all, you need more and more EXP per level later, so I think we can hold it for the time being. If you have come back, then we can start a big movement depending on your decision." Anna said. "How is your progress, Alex?" "Well, I have gotten the second crystal. So four more to go. Still, I feel I need to get stronger if I want to take the Dragon Race Teleportation Crystal since it seems I need to take on someone equal to Martial Emperor. So, if I think I will need to stay here for around two years considering my progress." "I see. That is a bit unfortunate. I will be missing you here, but I wait." "Thank you. Just wait for me, I will come back as soon as possible." "Yeah." Alex then sighed. He thought he did not need to come to the Gacha Palace since he only used five Premium Tickets. He said, "System, use all my premium tickets." [Processing] The system girl appeared in front of him and gave him the box. But before she disappeared, she advised him. "I am sure you are anxious to come back. But the higher your power, the slower you can advance. If you don''t have many lucky encounters when you are Martial Master, Martial Grandmaster, or even Martial Lord. You might need more than a year to advance a whole realm. The biggest help in your cultivation is your Undying Fire Body. Without it, you might need at least five years just to advance from Martial Master to Martial King." "I know." Alex sighed. He remembered that in Martial Master, he found that blazing pond that was very helpful to his cultivation. In Martial Grandmaster, he got the Undying Fire Body and finished the first refinement. He also cultivated in Zwaka''s place. When he was a Martial Lord, he completed the second refinement. If he did not have that, he would need around a year to cover all of the benefits coming from them. "I will be assisting you as always to make sure you don''t make a wrong choice because you are rushing. Alright, see you later." She waved her hand as she disappeared. "Yeah." Alex nodded. Alex then opened the gacha one by one. [Aloe Herb (C) x1] [Rank 6 Monster Blood (SR) x1] [Fire Element Orb (UR) x1] [500x500 meter Array Paper (R) x1] [Rank 6 Alchemist Furnace (SR) x1] He did not need the Aloe Herb since its rank was too low. As for the monster blood, he gratefully accepted. It seemed the bottle was comparable to the biggest bottle that the Rune Palace sold. The biggest haul was this Fire Element Orb. However, he was wondering if he should buy it or not, considering he could use it with rank 7 or rank 8 if he used it later. It was just the thought he might get Elemental Weapon later made him hesitant. "System, will I get something like that in the future?" Alex asked. [No spoiler for you.] "..." Alex sighed. He thought it might be rare for Rank 5 or Rank 6 weapons, but it should not be that rare for rank 7 or rank 8 weapons. He could just buy it in the future. Because of that, he decided to fuse this with the most powerful sword he had at the moment, a rank 6 sword. He took out a blood red sword from his space ring and fused it with his Fire Element Orb. Not long after, the orb vanished and fire started covering the sword. This was not his fire. Alex was a bit curious about this. He then tried channeling his fire inside the sword. Surprisingly the fire was submitting to his fire and boosted his fire''s strength. He felt that he would create a stronger attack with this flame. This was very fascinating. The red fire complemented the color of the blade, making it look like a fierce sword. He stored the sword inside his Space Ring first and made this his trump card at the moment. He also did not slack in his training for his Sword and Spear either as he managed to expand his domain to 200 meters. Surprisingly, after he destroyed his intents'' consciousness, his domains immediately increased by fifty meters. And he could even expand his domain faster after fusing both of his intent. This was because no matter if he trained his sword or spear, he would still train the intent and domain as they were fused now. He was wondering about the Twin Blade Emperor Realm. After a few months, he finally came up with another name for his intent. Since it was a fusion between Sword and Spear, he decided to name it Blade as both Sword and Spear had blades. People often confused Blade as Sword, so Alex decided to add the "Twin" in its name, thus resulting in Twin Blade Intent. After this, he wanted to know about the requirement for the Emperor Realm. But when he asked the system, she did not give him an answer. And in this world, he could not ask someone since it was weird to cultivate Sword and Spear. He could only wait until he came back to the Northern Continent and asked someone about it. "Young Master. It seems she has finished the conversation. There is nothing strange from their conversation and she has reserved two rooms according to your request. The journey will take a month, since the Phoenix Race is the farthest we can travel right now. It is on the other side of the world." "Alright. Keep following her. We have already agreed with the schedule, so it would be weird if I show up right now." Alex said. "Understood." "Anya, take care of the house first. I will summon you after I board the boat." He said. "Alright. There is one more thing. It seems there is no movement yet from the Empyrean Guild after your incident. We can be assured that they are not going to prevent you or anything. So, as long as you are on another continent, they or the royal family should not be able to reach you. Of course, we still need to be careful of their forces on another continent. Still, it should not be as powerful as in this continent." "Thank you." Alex nodded and waited for the time. ... Alex then came to the port a few hours later and met with Shelka. "We can start the journey in two days. What are you going to do? Do you want to walk around the town with me?" Shelka asked with a smile. He looked at her for a while before asking. "What do I need to know about the Phoenix Continent? I don''t have any information about them." Shelka was surprised by his question and pondered for a while. "There might be a few things you need to keep in mind. First, you can''t show your Pure Fire right off the bat since we won''t know their reaction. It would be best to keep it secret until you challenge their trial. "The landscape of the continent is not that different from us. It is just that most of the mountains you can see in this continent are volcanoes in that continent. They love to bath there, especially female phoenixes. You might not want to get around there and be accused as a pervert. "Well, you might see many phoenixes roaming around the sky, so just ignore them as they won''t attack you for no reason. "Lastly, it is about their trial. According to the record, the phoenix trial is the weirdest and time-consuming. So, I feel like I need to tell you this. I will wait for you until you finish the trial." Shelka said, trying to earn a point in Alex''s heart. Alex ignored it and nodded his head. It was time-consuming, so it might be good to send Nano to the Flying continent that was supposed to be the third trial after the phoenix trial. "Alright. I will just stay inside the ship. It should not be a problem, right?" Alex asked. "No." Shelka shook her head. She was burning with fire inside as she failed to take an opportunity. Even so, she could only put on a smile as she handed the room card. "You can show this to one of the crews and they will take you to your room." "Thank you." Alex nodded. 467 Spirit Step Alex boarded the ship nonchalantly. It seemed that to get the ticket on the ship, they needed to have the pass first. The ship and the crews were forced to make sure no one was able to sneak inside the ship without a pass. Not long before they set off, a few Nagas came to the ship to ensure all of them had a pass. The Nagas were half fish and half snake. However, Alex could see a few Nagas had human, elf, or any other races for the top. He thought they must be half breed, albeit he could not imagine how they reproduced though. Luckily, they were not really that arrogant or something. They were humble and polite while asking for his pass. After Alex showed him the pass, they nodded and left to check the other passengers. The princess was coming to his room a few times, but Alex stopped her in front of his door. He talked with her in front of the door until she left. His room was the same as the princess''s room. Both of them were the highest class room on this ship and it was spacious. That was why to end his boredom, he practiced his Spirit Step. This whole time, he did not know why, but he could not master even the first step. It was like he was missing something. Every time he stepped in, he did not get any strength boost even though he had done it according to the manual. The manual said he needed at least a Martial King to qualify to use this technique. However, Alex still could not hold a grasp in this technique no matter how hard he tried. He lay down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He muttered, "What should I do now? The requirement is Martial King. I first thought it was related to the Soul, so I tried to utilize my soul in my step, but it failed again. I wonder¡­" Alex sighed as he went deep into his consciousness. He was wondering since he could control his soul, he might be able to train with his soul. This way, if he was too tired physically, he could train with his soul. After reaching 2-Star Martial King, his soul had grown taller. It was 50 cm kid before, but it had become a 60 cm kid. Even so, it still looked like a kid. He then tried to step forward and swung his hand. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." His soul could still use the Phoenix in this place. After confirming this fact, he tried to use Spirit Step once again, not hoping for anything. He was already disappointed about the Martial Art because he failed again and again without any clue. Unexpectedly, when he stepped on the cloud with his Spirit Step, the whole world trembled. Alex was bewildered upon this point and activated his Spirit Eyes. It was at this time he saw a surge of energy coming from all sides to this little body. The energy continued to fill him until at the point he choked. "Ah!" Before he knew it, he already came back to his real body, rising from his bed. Alex looked left and right, wondering what just happened. But he suddenly noticed that his body was full of energy. In fact, it was too full of the energy that even made him out of breath. "Alex?" A small voice was heard from his right. It was Anya''s voice. She had been summoned here after he got rid of all the array inside their place and returned the key as they were not planning to go back there. She was currently taking care of him while making plans for Anna and the others. Alex had yet to notice her. He was busy checking his body that was filled with energy. He muttered, "This¡­ I just used Spirit Step with my soul? Don''t tell me, the reason why I can''t use the Spirit Step this whole time is because I used it with my real body. This is truly ridiculous. "From my observation, the soul will use the Spirit Step. At that time, my body¡­ specifically, my heart would pump out to suck out more energy around my body. I see¡­ so that is what the manual means by the growth of the body, the strength surge will also become stronger. "In other words, as long as my soul keeps growing, I can exert more and more power until I reach the limit like my Sky Movement. Even with that tiny body, I feel I can exert around 60 dragon strength, which means I get an additional 20 dragon strength. With this, my strength alone is equal to 6-Star. I can do much more than this." Alex pumped his fists, feeling happy with this. "Alex? Did something good happen?" Anya came closer and asked him with a gentle expression after seeing his smiling face. "That''s right. This is really good!" Alex instinctively hugged her and kissed her on the lips before realizing what he had done. He put down Anya as the awkwardness filled the atmosphere. "Uh¡­ sorry." Anya was surprised by the kiss, but she was more surprised by the fact his habit did not change. When Alex had received something good, he usually released it to the nearby people. Even in the previous life, Alex sometimes did something like this to a palace girl, who made her fall in love with him or treated someone like a brother if it was a male. Of course, after that, he realized and compensated them for the misunderstanding. This was also the reason why the system kept making flaws after giving him something good. Lin Xingzhi did not want him to do that to a stranger. On the contrary, Anya finally snapped back to reality as she could not control her emotion anymore. She immediately pushed Alex down to the bed and kissed him. Alex was taken aback by this action. Even her tongue managed to get inside his mouth. It lasted for two seconds before Alex finally realized and grasped Anya''s head. "Gah! It hurts." Anya stopped the kiss and pulled back. "I''m sorry." Alex apologized as he released her head. "Fufu¡­ I am satisfied even with this alone. We can do more later, but you will be the one who pushes me down. I am ready whenever you are ready, whether it will be months or years from now." She made a big smile. "Mhm¡­" Alex nodded. He wanted to say something to her, but he heard someone banging his door. *Bang Bang!* "Sir Supreme, are you alright?" Judging from the voice and the way she talked, it was Shelka. It seemed she realized something happened inside his room, so she immediately tried to check him. However, when she heard the sound of a woman inside his bedroom saying, "It hurts." She misunderstood while raging inside. She thought Alex rented a virgin prostitute to satisfy his demand. She wanted that whore to understand her place and took this chance to give her virginity to Alex as a replacement. "Is there a woman in your room?" "Who is she?" Alex frowned as he took out Anya''s card. Anya also nodded as she understood his intention and came back to the card. Meanwhile, Alex opened the door and came outside. "Sir Supreme, are you alright? Why are you hiring a prostitute, if you want someone to satiate your lust, you can always use me." She immediately tried to hug him the moment he opened the door. Alex immediately closed the door again, slamming Shelka''s head. "Gah!" After that, he finally came out. "There is no one inside my room. You must be imagining something." She glanced and tried to spread her spiritual energy inside his room, but still did not find someone. She muttered, "Impossible." Shelka tried a few times but found no one. Because of this, Alex looked at her with cold eyes. "If you are done, then you can go back. I will be resting in my room." "If you need someone, you can always take me. I am ready to give you my virginity. I believe you are the Supreme in the prophecy, so I shall assist you in your journey with my soul and body." She said dramatically. Even so, Alex''s expression did not change. He only came back inside his room. Shelka thought he was giving her the opportunity to do this, so she smiled and walked toward his room, but Alex suddenly slammed the door again, not giving her the chance to come and said. "No need." She wanted to bang the door, but Alex continued. "As I said, we are equal. You can''t do something I don''t want, especially if it concerns my private life. If you don''t like it, you are free to go back. Of course, the pass is still mine according to the promise." She was shot by Alex''s ruthless actions and cold words. She dejectedly came back to her room while gritting her teeth. Inside her room, she immediately mas- Ahem, relieved her stress. Meanwhile, Alex summoned Anya again and sighed. Looking at this, Anya said, "That girl is annoying. I can relate that she is similar to me, considering how she thinks and such. However, that girl reeks of a strange smell. She must have a screw loose on her heads or something. I can notice it by looking at her behavior. "She is trying to approach you because she has some sort of intention. It is not coming from someone else. We really need to be careful against that woman as she is a double-edged sword. At a certain point, she might leave you if she is bored with you. Just look at her eyes, it is filled with lust. "If she is forced by her family, she must not have eyes like that unless she drank some kind of love potion or aphrodisiac. Anyway, I think you need to make a certain distance from her." Anya explained her observation honestly. Alex nodded. "Don''t worry. This is only a partnership between me and the Elven Race. That is nothing between me and her. After all of this end, I will just leave and not associate with her again. I certainly don''t want to keep someone that will backstab me as my friend or family even if they have Pure Element. If she tries to harm me in the future, I will surely cut her down even if it means we go to war against the Elven Race." Alex was completely serious about this. Without Anna telling him, Alex also had some sort of rejection for this princess. Although he did not know what it was, it kept repelling him from her even at their first meeting. With Anya saying about lustful eyes, he was perplexed at first, considering he never met someone who had those eyes up close. Anya smiled. "Don''t worry. Even if it means abandoning all our progress in the Northern Continent, we will always aid you even if the whole world becomes our enemy. Just remember this, you are a greater man than you think you are." Alex did not know what she meant, but he nodded his head. He then started his training again to make sure he had mastered the Spirit Step completely, albeit only the first step as the second step required him to reach Martial Emperor. It took him a whole month to arrive on another continent. Alex could feel that his fire was tingling. He recalled the man with dragon and phoenix wings on his back. He thought it might be related to it, so he shook that feeling from his heart. He recalled Anya to the card and came out of his room. Shelka immediately appeared in front of his room the moment they arrived to welcome him. "Good Morning, sir Supreme. We have arrived on the continent where the phoenixes live, Phoenix Nest. Please follow me. I will guide you outside." 468 When the Number Goes Wrong Alex and Shelka came out of the ship. Shelka had come to this continent previously, so she was not really shocked by the sight. But, when Alex saw the continent, he was amazed. He could already see a few volcanoes in front of his eyes. Inside of the volcano, there were a few phoenixes bathing on the hot of that blazing magma, according to his Spirit Eyes. Not only that, but he could also see a few phoenixes roaming in the sky. Their size was far bigger than Kyle, albeit Kyle usually used his small form as far as he remembered. Even so, this sight was truly fascinating. Suddenly, Kyle came out of his body. He was acting purely on instinct. "Kyle?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Phoenix?" Shelka retreated a few steps back as she observed the small phoenix, Kyle. "Master¡­ I just feel something¡­ I don''t know what it is, but this is like my instinct. I feel like I need to go toward there." Kyle suddenly spoke and pointed toward the west. "!!!" Shelka was surprised to see Kyle already had the ability to speak. This meant he was already a Tier 5 Phoenix. She confirmed it after checking his power. Still, the most shocking thing was Alex hosted a Phoenix inside his body, this was madness. Unexpectedly, when Kyle pointed his wing toward the west, she was dumbfounded. "Is that so? Hmm, I need to check what is there first before we can go. I still need to go to challenge the trial after all." "I am fine with it, Master. After all, Master''s matter is more important." Kyle nodded his head furiously. "Wait¡­ West¡­ that direction is¡­ the trial place." Shelka shouted to Alex. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Shelka. He then turned to Kyle and said, "Don''t tell me¡­ Kyle, are you some kind of stranded prince that comes to that forest? After a few thousand years, you keep dying and reincarnating again and again until you meet me?" "I don''t know. I am in that forest before I know it." Kyle shook his head. "I see. Well, we will find out later. You might be my cheat in this trial." Alex laughed. "I don''t know what Master is talking about, but I am happy if I am useful to Master." "Wait, Sir Supreme, there is another thing we need to do in this town, which even royalty like me can''t avoid." Shelka suddenly spoke. "What is it?" Alex asked. "The phoenix wants to test our element ability for the record. I am sure one of their Tier 6 Phoenix will come here soon." Shelka said. "Is that so?" Alex pondered. A matter that even royalty like Shelka could not avoid. He looked at Kyle and said, "Alright. Come back inside for a bit." "Yes." Kyle nodded and vanished. "Sir Supreme, may I know why you have a phoenix? By how he addresses you, is he your servant or pet?" Shelka looked at him with a troubled expression. "I took him in as my family a few years ago," Alex said. "This¡­ might be troublesome." "What do you mean?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, but before Shelka could answer. They heard a shout from the sky. "For a big ship, we need to measure you one by one. I, Ricky, will be in charge of today''s testing." Alex looked toward the sky and saw a giant phoenix coming toward them. He was surprised to see the phoenix was a Tier 6. Even more so when he saw the phoenix suddenly turned into a human with phoenix wings on his back. "I believe it is better for me to talk with all of you this way." The phoenix turned into an old man with glasses on his eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Alex. The phoenix came toward him, but it seemed it was a false alarm. Because when he arrived, he suddenly came toward Shelka. "Your Highness Shelka. I, Ricky, welcome you to our continent. May I know the reason why you come here as there is no statement from the royal family about this?" "I am just coming here for personal business. However, I indeed need to meet with the royal family about this." Shelka smiled and said politely. "We are honored to have your presence in this kingdom. I will guide you to our Blazing City if you want to meet the royal family." Ricky nodded. "Then, thank you very much, Sir Ricky." Shelka nodded gracefully. "But we need to record you first. I am sorry, but this is our tradition, your highness." "I understand. Please lead the way." Ricky nodded. He led Shelka and Alex together with all the passengers in the ship toward the north gate. They could see many people lining up for the testing. There were two crystals in front of them. Shelka looked at Alex and explained. "These two crystals are to see whether you have a connection with Phoenix Race as well as your talent in the fire. "The first crystal is to measure your bloodline. It will give you a number from 0-100. If you get 100 points, it means you are a Pure Phoenix. However, if you only get around 30, it means you have at least one phoenix member in your family within your five generations. "After that, the blood will dilute even more and you might even reach 0 point. If I am not wrong, you can be considered a Phoenix if you have at least 70% blood purity. The higher the purity, the harder to increase. If I am not wrong, the phoenix queen in this continent only has 98% purity." Alex nodded. "How about the second one?" "The second orb will measure your talent on a scale of 0-10. If you have another element, you usually will have 0-2. As for the rest of the points, it will measure how strong the fire in your body is." Shelka answered. "Of course, with your Pure Fire Element, you will get the maximum point no one ever gets. This way, we can easily enter the Phoenix Queen Palace, where Sir Supreme can finish their trial. Ah, for your information, the queen''s score is 9." Alex pondered for a moment. "What if I don''t have a perfect score?" "Sir Supreme is joking. However, in case you don''t have it, we can just use my identity to meet them." Shelka answered like she was sure Alex would have a perfect score and scared all of them. At that time, when their royal family knew about it, she could declare Alex was her husband. She was laughing inside. "Then, I will go first to show Sir Supreme how it''s done," Shelka said as she came toward the crystals. "Shelka La Muerte." The old man called Ricky nodded and recorded it. He then said, "Please." Shelka then placed her hand on the first crystal. 0 0 It was normal for Shelka to have both 0. The taboo about marrying other races already made her bloodline pure. In contrast, the Pure Wind Element dominated all the elements. Hence, her other elements were zero, as she did not have a dual element. Shelka then came back and said, "Sir Supreme, it is your turn." Alex nodded and came toward them. However, when he was about to place his hands on the first crystal, he was stopped by Ricky. "Wait. The other two fire entities inside your body need to be registered too." Ricky frowned. "!!!" Both Alex and Shelka were shocked. Alex was shocked because Ricky knew about Sherry and Kyle. He immediately opened his spirit status to see who he needed to level up if a fight with Tier 6 phoenix broke out. Meanwhile, Shelka was shocked because Alex had two entities. She thought it was only one, but it seemed there was another one inside him. She was wondering if it was another phoenix. Alex took a deep breath before saying, "I don''t know what you are talking about, Sir?" "Do you think I am just a sidekick? I can clearly sense two other fire entities and one of them close to our phoenix race." Ricky said. "We phoenix is sensitive about this. Hurry up or I need to force you." He pondered for a moment but decided to wait and see first. But before he called Kyle and Sherry, Shelka suddenly stepped forward. "Wait, Sir Ricky. This gentleman is coming with me. In fact, he is the one who needs to meet with the royal family. However, because of the time limit, our family could not issue a royal statement to your ruler. If you would, please see this letter." Shelka handed a letter to Ricky. He took the teller and read it. After some time, he looked at Alex. "Both of them still need to be registered. I won''t do anything to you for now, but I am sure the queen will also feel both existences, so if you wish to meet the royal family, you will also directly face this issue." "Your Highness Shelka, this is outside my jurisdiction, so I am afraid your highness needs to deal with this by yourself." "I know." Shelka nodded and looked at Alex. He nodded and called, "Sherry, Kyle, come out." The first one to come out was a phoenix with a huge vitality. Meanwhile, the other one was a cute white small fox. Shelka wanted to hug this cute creature instantly but she could not do it in front of Alex. ''Fufu¡­ if he becomes my husband later, you are also my possession. After that, I will make sure to pat your smooth white fur. And that pink color in the tip makes it cuter¡­ Ah, restrain myself, restrain myself.'' Shelka took a deep breath while shaking the image of her fantasy from her mind. The people were dumbfounded to see two creatures coming out of Alex''s body, especially when they saw the phoenix. "A phoenix?" Ricky furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Alex coldly. If there were an enslaved phoenix, the phoenix race would be hostile to you. However, he could also feel the phoenix was not forced or something, so there must be something else. Adding the fact he was coming with Shelka, he decided to let the queen handle considering Alex and Shelka were going to meet them. "The Phoenix first. You are the second and the fox will be the third." Ricky showed a little bit of favoritism. This showed the hierarchy of this continent. Alex simply looked at Kyle and nodded. "You go first." Kyle nodded and placed his wing on the first crystal before going to the second crystal. 69 6 "..." Alex was surprised to see such a low score considering Kyle had evolved after eating his Pure Fire. Aside from that, he was even confused that Kyle only had 69 scores. After all, he was certainly a phoenix. "Wait. You need to be in your real form." Ricky said. Kyle tilted his head in confusion. He did not know what Ricky wanted, but nonetheless, he soared to the sky before growing to a huge phoenix. His wingspan alone could reach ten meters. Because of that, Kyle was carefully descending to make sure he did not damage the surroundings. He slowly tapped the crystal with his wing. 69 9 "..." Alex was dumbfounded with the number. The bloodline aspect did not change and stayed on 69 while the element aspect turned from 6 to 9. He screamed inwardly. ''What the f*ck with that number!" Even Ricky was shocked by this. Firstly, he was surprised the number on the bloodline crystal did not change despite turning into his real form. This never happened before as usual, when they utilized the true body, the number would also increase. It was like when Sherry turned bigger in a serious fight. It would enhance her power. However, Kyle was out of their expectation. The only thing that changed was his Element aspect from 6 to 9. This meant Kyle''s fire was as strong as the queen. Still, that number... 469 The Chea A few minutes ago, these two females were bathing in the volcano nearby. They had finished their matter, so they thought it would be good to relax for a while. One of them was older, in her mid-thirties, and her charm was on her peak. While the younger one was filled with curiosity. People could tell that she wanted to know about the world more.a "You know why I feel like wanting to bath in this place, Ellen?" The older one asked the younger one whose name was Ellen. "I don''t know, Mother." The younger one shook her head. It turned out the older one was her mother. "Fufu¡­ This is where your father and I met. Ah, I really miss your father¡­" The older one closed her eyes in reminisce. However, at this time, she suddenly felt a presence that was close to her. It was from the sea... a port close to the sea, to be exact. She never thought she could feel this again. "Mother?" Ellen looked at her confused. She was following her, so she could learn how to work as royalty. But seeing her mother frowned, worry came to her heart. "Is there something happening? I feel you are looking at the direction of the Sunken Town." "I sense your father." She said. "Father? But Mother said father has gone and would never come back." Ellen looked at her confused. "No. This presence¡­ I won''t mistake him with someone else. Let''s go!" She immediately wore her clothes and flew. Her daughter did not know, but she just followed her. ¡­ Meanwhile, on the Port. Speechless by the number, Ricky furrowed his eyebrows. He might need to report a rare case like this. Even though Kyle could not be considered as a real phoenix, his fire alone was already extraordinary. And with the fact the bloodline number did not increase, it seemed there was another trick behind it. "Human, what trick do you use to make the number like that." Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he raised his awareness to the maximum. He would immediately activate his Pure Fire if he truly needed it. He just wanted to finish the test normally, but the people did not let him do that. "Sir Ricky. He is still my guess. If there is something you like to say, it will be better until we reach the palace, right? Or is Phoenix Race truly looking down on us?" Shelka glared at him. Meanwhile, her true intention was very different from what she said. She thought, ''Good good. Continue to be mad. If my Supreme sees me protecting him, he will fall for me sooner or later.'' Ricky gritted his teeth as he said to Alex. "Next." Alex shook his head helplessly. Kyle did not really have any specialty and could not be considered as a real phoenix. He thought, ''Just be done with it since Kyle is not my cheat in this continent.'' He placed his hand on the first crystal and it showed zero. It seemed he was a Pure Human, or at least did not have Phoenix as his ancestor. However, the problem was the second crystal. If Kyle already made such a ruckus with that score, it would be troublesome if he used his Pure Fire and got a perfect score. Because of that, he would just use his Phoenix Fire for this. 9 Even so, the score was still too high and shocked the people again. Ricky also furrowed his eyebrows. He never thought a human would have a fire element comparable to the Phoenix Queen. "You¡­ who are you?" When Ricky asked that question, he suddenly recalled what Shelka said. It was this human who wanted to meet her and he even got the support of Elven Race. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, calming his heart down. He needed to report this to the Phoenix Queen. Shelka was also frowning this whole time. Alex''s fire was Pure Fire, so his score should be 10, not 9. This completely bewildered her. "Next," Ricky said with great difficulty. The small fox simply flew toward the crystal and placed her hand on the crystal. 0 Sherry nodded and flew toward the second crystal. She placed her hand on this and was surprised because the number was¡­ 9.5 The people looked at this and were shocked. "This¡­ this point¡­" Ricky was shaken by the result. He even fell to his butt as he said, "Celes¡­ Celestial Fox." Alex facepalmed. He just wanted an easy journey, but all of these things suddenly happened in front of his eyes. Ricky took a deep breath as he shouted at Alex, "You all will stay here until the queen arrives. If you try to escape, I will kill you." "Hoo¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes as he did not like that statement. "Sir Ricky, he is our distinguished guest, are you planning to make war with our race?" Shelka looked at Ricky with killing intent. "I don''t care. If there are only the phoenix and the human, I will let this pass, but with the appearance of Celestial Fox, I will immediately process this." Ricky glared back at her before turning to Sherry. "I will bring you to the phoenix queen for her to process." "What do you think you are doing?" Alex suddenly appeared in front of Sherry, blocking Ricky''s hand. "Human. Don''t push your luck." "You are the one who should not push your luck." Alex was angry. Handling was okay, but taking her from him was not okay. After all, what they would do to Sherry. Ricky suddenly released his fire and Spiritual Energy. He tried to suppress Alex with this. "!!!" Alex did not back down. He had no choice as it seemed there was only one choice. War. He unsealed his Pure Fire and used it to the fullest. The fire was so strong as it immediately suppressed the flame inside Ricky''s body. "!!!" Ricky noticed this too. He wanted to attack Alex but could not do so as the fire itself restricted him. It was telling him that they could not attack the king. He tried to suppress the feeling with his Spiritual Energy, but could only move when Alex''s Spiritual Energy depleted. "Pure Fire User! Surround him!" Ricky immediately ordered a few subordinates. They wanted to do it, but Alex also suppressed them. Alex gritted his teeth as he would use all of his energy before he could do anything. This was the difference between 2-Star Tier 5 with 3-Star Tier 6, Ricky. Alex only had one thing to do, "System, use my UR EXP card to-!" Before he finished his order, a woman''s voice reverberated in their ears. "Stop!" A sudden appearance of a woman shocked all the people nearby. Alex''s expression immediately darkened when he saw this woman as she had 7-Star Tier 6. There was also another female that appeared like the first one but smaller. She was a 1-Star Tier 6. Both of them were certainly a beauty. The older one had that mature charm while the younger one had the youthful flavor. Both of them had red hair and red eyes. "Your Majesty." Ricky kneeled immediately. "Your Majesty." Hearing that, all of them started kneeling on the ground. "Kh, System, use-!" Alex knew it was a bad situation and needed to do something. Before he completed the request, the so-called Phoenix Queen had already disappeared from his eyes. Unexpectedly, the target was not Sherry or him, but Kyle. "Kyle-!" When he turned his head to Kyle, he was dumbfounded by the sight. The so-called Phoenix Queen was hugging Kyle while squeezing her cheek on Kyle. "Hubby." "Eh?!" Everyone was shocked. Even Alex was dumbfounded when he heard that. He blinked a few times to see if he was dreaming or not. "I finally found you, Hubby. I miss you so much." The woman kept hugging him tightly. She was afraid he would go away again if she let him go. Alex closed his eyes as he was trying to process what happened. At first, he thought Kyle was a stranded Phoenix''s prince that somehow stayed in that world. It seemed he was wrong about this after he saw Kyle''s score, Kyle was not even considered as a Phoenix as he was one point short from 70 points. And the one who was hugging him was called Your Majesty, AKA the Phoenix Queen. He did not really know about this, but it seemed the Queen did not have a husband. And she might be frustrated or something to even recognize Kyle as her husband. "Your Majesty¡­ what do you mean? This¡­ This phoenix only has bloodline points of-" Ricky wanted to inform her, but she had already answered. "69 bloodline points and 6 points in Fire Element. But when he transformed into his real form, the bloodline point did not change while his Fire Element became 9. Is that right?" The queen gave a very detailed answer and it shocked him even more. "Your Majesty¡­ how do you know¡­" Ricky looked at her with an empty stare, could not believe what he heard. "Then, he must be my hubby. He is a very unique individual after all." She was patting his head. Kyle tried to break free from her but to no avail. He looked at Alex for help, but Ricky interrupted again. Alex facepalmed as he thought, ''You are really my cheat in this place.'' "Your Majesty¡­ This¡­ There is another important matter, that man has Pure Fire Element in his body while that fox is a Celestial Fox. He is also bringing the phoenix with him. Because of that, I am trying to apprehend him, so Your Majesty could handle-!" Before he finished, he was blown away. "Boom Boom Boom!" They dropped their jaws to the ground when they saw the queen pose as she had just punched Ricky and blasted him out of the town through the houses and the city wall. "You bastard, to think you dare to apprehend my husband''s benefactor. I will kill you." The queen suddenly made a fierce expression. Because of this, Alex decided to wait before using his EXP card. "Master¡­ Help me¡­" Kyle looked at him with pitiful eyes. The queen did not let him do so. She immediately turned to him and said. "This is not a place for us to speak. Let''s go back first to my castle." "Wait, Your Majesty, we haven''t gotten our identity badges yet." Shelka suddenly stopped her. "Hmm¡­ If I am not wrong, you are the princess of the Elven Race, the one with Pure Wind Element." "Yes. Pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty. I am accompanying this gentleman to visit you." Shelka greeted her politely. Without answering her, the phoenix queen looked at her subordinates and said. "Give me four highest rank badges." "Ye-yes!" They did not dare to say anything and immediately handed green badges. There was a ''Royal Guest'' written on it, so it must be something important. She then took it before levitating them to the sky. She then waved her hand and a small boat for everyone to hop on. The boat was a simple wooden boat that could easily be lit in fire and not really suitable for the Phoenix Race. However, since they were already in human form, they did not need to care about this. "Well, all of you can continue with the recording process. Tell that person to come back to the palace a few days later to receive his punishment." She then came inside the boat. Alex looked at Shelka, who nodded her head. They had no choice. Kyle was in her possession anyway and he also wanted to challenge the trial, so they could only get into the boat. Of course, Alex did not let his guard down, ready to use his EXP card at any moment. Meanwhile, the younger one, Ellen, seemed to be looking at Alex continuously after Ricky announced he had Pure Fire Element. Her eyes were filled with curiosity. After everyone was no board, they finally set off toward the Phoenix Queen''s palace. 470 Kyles Pas Inside the boat, Alex and Shelka were sitting in front of the queen and her daughter. Sherry was sitting on Alex''s lap while the queen was still hugging Kyle. Alex did not know what to do with this situation. "I see. So, you are the benefactor of my husband and a Pure Fire Element user. No, it might be because of that, my Husband follows you. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" The queen asked politely. "Alexander Sirius." "Nice to meet you. I am Stina Blaze and this is my daughter Ellen Blaze." She introduced herself. Alex nodded. "May I know how you come to this world?" Stina suddenly asked an absurd question that shocked all of them. "What do you mean?" Alex feigned ignorance. "You don''t need to hide it. My husband has gone to another world to follow the Supreme. Because of that, I was separated from him for a few thousand years. You might not know, but we can rebirth ourselves with Fire and become a newborn phoenix with memory intact. "My daughter is still on her first though, she is a few hundred years old since I purposely slowed her birth for a few thousand years, hoping my husband would come back before she was born. Albeit, he never comes back and she is already a few hundred years old." She sobbed. "Kyle¡­ I never thought you¡­" Alex looked at Kyle with a complicated expression. "Your name is Kyle now? Well, it does not matter since I will always call you Hubby. Even Ellen will call you father." "Wait, Master. How can you believe her just like that? I don''t have any clue what she is talking about." Kyle said. "Ah, you call him Master¡­ I see. You have made a Life and Death Contract with him." The queen closed her eyes before she suddenly bowed her head. "Would you mind if he stops following you and stays here? This is my request. Of course, I will also properly compensate you." Alex pondered for a moment. Back then, he met Kyle and felt pity for him. He took him because he thought Kyle would be useful for him, but to think he already considered him as his family before he knew it. He had yet to believe Kyle was her husband though, so he decided to pry more information. "You can say I am coming from another world. I am on my way to what you called the Northern Continent. You must have a record with that name, right?" Alex said. Even the priest knew about it, so the ruler of Phoenix should know about this. "Indeed." Stina nodded. At the same time, Shelka was frowning. To think he was coming from another world despite the fact that the portal was sealed, this was truly interesting. However, she also noticed that this Ellen had been staring at Alex for a while. "I see¡­ Ellen, hurry up and call your father." Stina looked to the side. Ellen seemed very reluctant to do it. "You don''t want to? This is perfect, I should tell you about your father." She turned to Alex, "Will you mind to hear me rumbling about this?" "It''s fine. I am curious about Kyle''s story too." "This is a story from a few thousand years ago¡­ "I was still a princess back then with my father as the current ruler. My brother wanted the throne but because I had more talent than him, my father made me his successor. However, my brother could not take it and made a scheme to kill me. "He almost succeeded in that scheme and chased me out of the castle. At that time, I was pursued by his subordinates. I arrived at a certain mountain and was surrounded in that place. It was at that time he appeared. "He introduced himself as a Phoenix that could not be a Phoenix just because he was short one point according to the crystal. "I fell in love with him when I saw him risking his life to save a stranger like me. I was not like a Princess at that time. Even then, he still helped me. "I chose to stay for a while as an ordinary woman and followed him around. Although he was a bit dumb back then, every day was always fun. Not long after that, my brother found me and managed to take me away. Because my father was still alive, he could not kill me as he already took several blows when my father knew about that scheme. "Because of that, my father forced me to marry my own brother, so he could make him a king and me a queen. That was the most devastating event in my life. "I never thought he would also fall in love with me after that and chased me to the castle. He took me out of the castle. "Of course, my father could not swallow it and tried to chase us. We continuously escaped from him and unknowingly, my father finally breathed his last and my brother took the throne. "If my father wanted to get me back to the castle, my brother wanted to kill me. At this time, we met the former Supreme and my husband showed his growth. He kept getting stronger and stronger while weakening my brother''s faction. After finally, we managed to kill my brother and retook the throne. "We started calming the chaotic situation and restoring the lands that had been ruined due to our fights or my brother''s tyrannical rule. And after we finished all of that, we finally married and I was pregnant not long after. "However, the chaos appeared again in this land. It was when the Portal was opened, not from our side but from the other side. Normally, it was impossible to open it from the other side because it was a Rune where we could send people to the other side and not vice versa. "It seemed that the people from the other side tweaked it somehow and made a portal that connected these two worlds. They made dragons their pets, phoenixes as their cultivation resources, elves as their sex slaves, angel races as they watch birds, nagas became fishes in a pond for their enjoyment and humans as their laborer. "It was at this time our six races rose and Supreme became the leader of this coalition. We fought back and somehow managed to push them back to the other side. "The Supreme decided to destroy the portal and let each race have a crystal. He said that whoever managed to gather all the crystals, he or she would open the portal once again. The six races should bond together under him and come to the other side. "He also made a rule for trials. Human Race was Adaptability, Elven Race was Element Manipulation, Dragon Race was Strength, Angel Race was Mind, Naga Race was Soul, and lastly, our Phoenix Race was Will. "Shall someone manage to pass all those trials, open the portal because the time has come as a Peerless Genius has born. Thus the secret of the trial. The Phoenix Race has the longest lifespan, so maybe, only me still knows about this as he forbade us to record the official statement. "After that, he came to the other side to destroy the portal. We thought the Supreme had sacrificed himself for us. However, it seemed that he was chasing someone back then, not just for the sake of the portal. I knew about it because Husband told me he had a greater mission on the other side, so he wanted to help him because he had helped him in the past. I don''t know about the other races though. "I was just about to tell him that I was pregnant since I could not say it when we were fighting against those outsiders. Ultimately, I could not tell him because he already chased after the Supreme. Thus I decided I would wait no matter how long it would be, I would wait for him to finish his mission and come back. "Because I am a thousand years away from my lifespan, I chose to hibernate to prolong it so when my husband comes back, I could greet him with this form of mine. If he has not come back, I would then go to another rebirth process. This might be a fruitless path, but I choose to do it. After all, my love for him is eternal. Ahem, it seems the story deviates a little bit. "Anyway, after I retake the throne, I marry him. There were many oppositions back then since my husband does not even have 70 bloodline points. But he shut them up with his strength. "69¡­ it is our special number¡­ It is our favorite posi- Ahem, I should not talk about that. Anyway, it is our favorite number as our marriage on 6th month 9. "I am planning to hibernate and let my daughter take over as I wait for him, but it seems there is no need to do that since I can see him now. "That''s why I am asking you to let him stay with me." She begged. "Kyle¡­ how could you leave your family behind¡­ she was even pregnant with your child." Alex shook his head, looking very disappointed. "No. I am going with Master." Kyle looked at Alex, "Master, don''t believe her. I don''t have any memory about that." "Maybe, you can also stay here." She suggested. "I see. I could understand your sentiment. However, I still need to come back. I have another thing to do on the other side." "You can''t. You won''t be able to go back as the portal is closed. That''s why please stay here. I can''t afford to separate from my husband again." She could not kill him anyway since Kyle would also die along with him. "That is the exact reason I am going to this place," Alex said. "I want to open the portal again." "But¡­ there is one crystal that is lost for thousands of years¡­ Wait, don''t tell me¡­" She looked at him dumbfoundedly. "Yeah. I possess that crystal." Alex nodded. "That''s why I am going to challenge the trial." "..." Stina could not believe her ears. She blinked for a few seconds before sighing. "I see. You have that last one¡­ Then, my husband will follow you to another world again¡­" Alex closed his eyes. "That''s why I am going too!" She suddenly said and surprised everyone. "Huh?" "I am planning to let my daughter take over my place, so why not? Since I have nothing to do, then adventuring with my husband to the end of time sounds good to me." She nodded. "Mother?!" "Just say this is my retirement. Since I have found my husband and Ellen is strong and experienced enough to replace me, I could go somewhere else with my husband. Our retirement vacation. Besides, I am also curious about why the Supreme wanted to go to another world and why my husband wanted to help him and chased him to the other side." The queen said. "Wait, Mother, If you go, then the Phoenix Race would be chaotic," Ellen exclaimed. "Don''t worry. If this gentleman could open the portal again, it would be considered an honor if I go with him. So, you don''t need to worry about that. You still have support from the elders. That''s why I believe you can do it." Stina smiled. "But-" "Ellen¡­ I have ruled the race for a few thousand years, it is time for me to retire from my position. Your mother is tired, so please¡­ I am sure that one day if you have someone you loved so dearly, you will understand me." "..." "Besides, I will still be here until the portal is open. So, don''t worry about it." Stina said as she turned back to Alex. "Still, if you are planning to get the crystal, you need to take it after the trial. After all, this is the rule for all races. I hope you can complete the trial." "Of course." Alex nodded. 471 Discussion As soon as they arrived, Alex and the others were led to a small meeting room to discuss the trial. They did not make this public since the queen wanted to see the other elders that had supported her this whole time. There were around fifteen people inside the room, including Alex and Shelka¡­ Kyle was there too but still hugged by the queen. "As you might already know that Ellen is going to succeed the throne, she might be far younger than me, but her talent and knowledge are by no means below me. She might make a mistake, but please help her." The queen said to the elders. "Of course, our queen." All of them bowed their heads. On the contrary, Ellen could only watch her mother announcing while hugging a certain phoenix on her arms. As time passed, more and more people started glancing over and over on this little phoenix. "Your Majesty. I am sorry for my rudeness, If I may ask, who is this gentleman?" One of the elders could not hold her curiosity for Kyle. Even the others stayed silent, hoping for an answer. They had many questions such as ''Who is he?'', ''Where does he come from?'', ''Why are there a human and an elf here?'' and so on. Yet, their biggest curiosity was the phoenix kid in her embrace. Alex helped Kyle rebirth a few years ago. So, even his real age was unknown, the body was still those of a few years old and this baffled all the people. Some of them thought he was the queen''s child, some of them thought he was Ellen''s partner and some of them even thought the queen had gone to a forbidden path. Unless the queen solved the misunderstanding, their thought would only become crazier. Out of their absurd imaginations, they got the answer right as they heard the queen exclaimed. "He is my husband." The room fell silent. Confused, baffled, perplexed. All of them filled the scene, but the most dominating one was a shock. They froze like a statue out of shock. "Mother. You should explain to them more clearly." Ellen sighed. She had a lot of stress after her mother asked her to succeed the throne. She wanted to help her mother in managing the race and had been learning under her for quite a while. But when the moment came for her to take the throne, she could only feel anxiety, not excitement. "Look, she will be better than me after acquiring the experience as the queen." Stina smiled as she explained. "This is my husband. The same husband that had gone to another world in the past¡­ he¡­ finally come back." "!!!" A few of the oldest ones had their bodies shaken as they could not believe what they just heard. "Your majesty, is that true?" "Yeah." Stina nodded as she turned to Alex before explaining more. Alex nodded his head, knowing what to do. He took the purple crystal out and said. "I, Alexander Sirius, challenge the Phoenix Trial for the crystal." "!!!" The shock was running down their spines once again, "My Queen." No one knew that the Human had recovered their crystal, but their answer came in the form of action. An orange crystal appeared in the middle of the room and pulled the purple crystal toward it. Before long, both crystals shone, approving the challenge. The elders could say no more when they realized the trial had been approved. As for Alex, his consciousness was teleported again into another world. He had experienced this when his crystal joined together with the Elven Crystal. He saw the man who had phoenix wing and dragon wing on his back. "Portal to Another World..." He said. It was more clear from the first one, but Alex could not understand a single thing. He asked, "Portal to Another World... do you mean the portal that connects this world to the Northern Continent?" Sadly, he did not get his answer as the world vanished as he came back to his consciousness. No one noticed his change of expression, so the meeting continued as usual. "This gentleman here is the benefactor of my husband. I don''t know how they could get to this world, but it is a fact that I managed to reunite with my husband because of this. He does not have his memory though." Stina explained. "Kyle said he wanted to go here though. He did not know why but something was calling him to go to this place." Alex added, trying to calm himself from the previous scene. Since the queen decided to go with him to another world, he thought it would be no problem to say this. She would become a powerful ally anyway. Kyle became pale as he heard that statement, imagining what would happen after this. He looked at Alex with sad eyes. "Mast-" Before he could even call Alex, he was choked by two arms. Stina was hugging Kyle as she expressed all her emotions to him. "Husband still cares about me. Even if you don''t have a memory, you still don''t forget me." "Ahem¡­ Your Majesty??? I think we need more explanation about this gentleman¡­ There is even Princess Shelka from the Elven Kingdom here." One of the elders said. "Ah." The queen realized she lost herself just now. She looked at them with a weird expression before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "Anyway. Just say that he somehow has that crystal. "However, for some reason, humanity has yet to know about this. And if my speculation is right, then he should have beaten the Elven Race trial. If not, then there is no way their Princess Shelka would accompany him." The queen said with sharp eyes. "I am genuinely impressed. As expected of the queen of wisdom." Shelka smiled. "Yes. I am accompanying him on this journey. I believe he could beat all the trials." "?!" The elders were shocked by her statement. "I am also sure that he can finish the trial of our race. After all, his element is Pure Fire." The queen added. "?!" The elders turned their heads to the queen again. All of them were sweating as they could not swallow all of these shocks at once. "Your Majesty, please don''t joke with us." "I am not joking with you." Stina shook her head and turned to one of the elders. "Elder Arba, prepare the trial door and the ritual so we can enter the trial tomorrow. I shall explain the trial to him." "Un-Understood. I shall prepare it immediately." The elder called Arba nodded and left the room. She then looked at Alex with a serious expression. "Do you know why we are recording all the fire elements and bloodlines with those crystals?" "!!!" Alex was enlightened by that question. He narrowed his eyes as he answered. "Trial." "Yes. The trial will inquire about your bloodline and fire affinity. This will determine the difficulty of your trial as well as the place where you will finish your trial. "For example, I had 95 points from the bloodline crystal back then. I was transported to a Phoenix Grave to complete my trial. Ah, you might be unfamiliar with this term. Basically, when a Phoenix dies, their blood will be absorbed back to the Earth and their soul will migrate. Actually, this is not the case. "When a phoenix dies, we are transported to the Phoenix Grave. Our blood, our bones, and even our soul. After that, our blood and bones would remain in Phoenix Grave while our soul can choose whether to stay there or reincarnate. "Anyway, back then, I absorbed some of the blood and increased my blood purity. However, there is a record where the door will transport you to a whole white world for the trial. This usually happens when someone does not have Phoenix Bloodline. So, I am more or less confident that you will be teleported there. "Then there is another aspect which is Fire Affinity. This is a bit random, but I am sure it will test your will and perseverance. "That''s it. I can''t tell you more than this as it would destroy the meaning of the ritual. However, I do have one piece of advice for you. One does not get stronger in an instant. It is a tedious but dangerous process and you can only tread it step by step." "I know." Alex nodded while adding inwardly, ''A certain system taught me that already.'' [Your Welcome Host.] ''You know this is sarcasm, right?'' [Even pain is a certain form of love. Why can''t sarcasm become a certain form of flirting?] "..." Alex was dumbfounded. "However, may I know how long it will take? I still need to do a few things." Alex asked. "Is this related to the fox inside your body?" She asked while narrowing her eyes on the top of Alex''s belly where Sherry stayed. "Yes. If I am going to be away for a long time, I need to arrange a few things so she could keep progressing quickly." He answered. "I see. I can lend you a courtyard for that. But because the fox is a Celestial Fox, I could not allow her to roam outside. I am afraid the other phoenixes would look at her with hostile eyes. After all, Celestial Fox is a beast that governs Fire if there is no Pure Fire." The elders were dumbfounded. "Your Majesty, what do you mean by Celestial Fox?" "This human¡­" They were afraid of a Celestial Fox as they were told that this being could even swallow a whole phoenix alive if they were disturbed. The queen shut them up with, "Say no more. It is under control. My husband even said she is a good elder sister to him, so why are you even afraid?" "That is good enough for me. As long as she is not bothered, it should be fine." Alex nodded. "It includes you, Princess Shelka." Alex turned his head to Shelka, noticing she had a weird smug. "What do you mean, Sir Supreme?" Her body shook when she heard that. She just thought since Alex was hard to get, she could approach his pets first. But because Kyle was on the queen''s hand, so she could only target the fox. "She is very hostile to strangers. If she is disturbed, she might even rampage in this place and I am sure the Phoenixes won''t like this. If you can''t wait, then go back. I still can search for another way to get to another continent." Alex said. Of course, he also had another intent behind this. He wanted to summon Anya to take care of Sherry as well as Anna and the others. Judging from her reaction when she heard Anya''s voice in his room, he knew she was dangerous. For that reason, he wanted to keep her away. He couldn''t care less about her life, he was much more afraid of exposing Anya and the others, making them be targeted by others, especially her. In fact, if she went home, Alex would be more relieved since he did not need to be careful against her. She had served her purpose anyway. "Kh¡­" She tried to say something, but it would only make her look bad. Ultimately, she could only say, "I will wait for you, Sir Supreme." At the same time, she convinced herself. ''I can''t rush here. The harder he is, the more satisfying I will get when he falls in love with me. Refrain¡­ refrain¡­" Meanwhile, Stina answered. "If it is about time, I am also clueless about it. It will depend on you and your trial. But I can say it will at least take two months." "I see. Then I need to take your majesty''s suggestion and borrow a courtyard." Alex nodded. "Alright. Do you want to see the courtyard first?" She asked. "If possible." He nodded again. "Sure. I will lead you there before leading Princess Shelka to her own courtyard." Stina said before turning to the other elders, "Then, I hope all elders work like usual and assist Ellen in today''s affairs." "Yes, Your Majesty." They bowed. She turned back to Alex. "This way." After getting into his courtyard, Alex immediately drew a rank 5 Gathering Array for Sherry. The queen promised him that she would train Kyle, so Alex did not need to worry about him for the time being. Anya and Sherry were having a meeting to come up with a plan to drive Shelka away. Sherry had been holding back this whole time to not appear and kick her. Sadly, if Anna was here, they could put a curse on her like they did to Mega. That way, she would be stressed by all those nightmares and go home. Of course, since she was not an opponent, they would lift the curse if she decided to go back. Alex only sighed as he waited for the trial. The queen said the gate would measure his true potential, so even if he hid the Pure Fire inside his Phoenix Seed, it would not change the trial. Because of this, he decided to release his Pure Fire immediately and waited for tomorrow. 472 Phoenix Trial Part 1 The next day, Alex finally came out of his room. Although he had prepared for this, he kept thinking it was a waste of time. After all, even if he took a minimum of two months, it was enough to reach 3-Star. Besides, he could not help but be anxious, leaving Anya and Sherry alone that long. At first, he suggested summoning someone in the meantime, but Anya said they would be fine. Ultimately, he decided to trust them. The princess, Ellen, came to lead him to the trial. "Sir Alexander Sirius, I am going to lead you to the trial hall. Do you need more time to prepare?" "No. I have finished all the preparation." She nodded. "Follow me." Both of them then started walking inside a complex castle and stopped in front of a single giant door at the end of a corridor. She did not say anything other than the necessity this whole time. "Please. The others have been waiting for you in this room." Since this was an unofficial trial, there were no guards or whatsoever and the only ones who knew about it were the people in yesterday''s meeting. Because of that, there were no guards or servants around. Even the door in front of him was opened by Ellen herself. Alex nodded as he entered the room. The room was spacious, despite only having a gate inside. The gate was extremely beautiful. It had an orange color with a beautiful golden pattern with an orange jade on top of the gate. Stina came in front of the gate. She looked at Alex for a while before closing her eyes. She raised both of her hands and prayed. "Unlike other races, we can host the trials for our own people, but we usually give permission for only our closest vassals like them. In other words, all the people in this room had gone through this trial. However, each of them has very different trials. "Age, Experience, Memory, Bloodline, and Fire Affinity. All of them combine and become your challenge. I, The Current Phoenix Queen, Stina Blaze, give my permission to Alexander Sirius, the possessor of Human''s Teleportation Crystal, to enter the Phoenix Race Trial. May the ancestor open the gate." The gate slowly opened. They could see nothing but white light. Only Alex could see a white platform that the queen described yesterday. "Let the trial begin." She smiled. "Don''t worry, I won''t let anything happen to the people that my husband considers as family." Alex nodded. He swore that if something happened to them, he would not mind destroying this entire kingdom. This would be the first time Alex left his closest ones in a stranger''s place. This was not like when he left Firia in the lower world or where she was living now together with Alicia. He knew those places were safe. But in this place, where he did not have any place that could be said as his base or home, he could not help but have a weird thought. ''I don''t need to become stronger. If I just cure Alicia back then, I can just live with them in the lower world. I can still meet Anna and the others as long as I get enough tickets. ''I don''t need to experience the torture for Undying Fire Body since I am basically the strongest in that world. Why do I even place myself in this...'' Alex thought. ''Wait!'' Alex suddenly activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a wisp of energy coming out of the jade toward his head. He suddenly realized why he was having this kind of thought. The gate had been testing him even before he came inside. He let out a deep breath as he calmed his mind. The others were looking at him, confused. They did not know that Alex was already tested by the gate. However, when Alex looked at them, it felt like they were waiting for something. Even so, he was not going to ask. He simply nodded to the queen and stepped inside the gate. ''Alexander Sirius, 23 Years Old, Human. Pure Fire Element. Fire Affinity Perfect." The gate suddenly let out a voice as he was coming in. "What?" Alex was startled. He was surprised that the gate would tell them such a thing. Luckily, it did not tell them his other element, Space Element, and his unique intent. If they told them too, Anya and Sherry would be in danger. The people were shocked by Alex''s age. As for what would happen, Alex could only see it after he came out. ¡­ Inside the gate, Alex arrived at a full white world. He could not see the end of this white world and even his sense of direction became a bit messed up because of this white world. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes to see this world. Unexpectedly, he could see nothing. There was no energy around him, below or even above him. This world is simply empty. "Hello? Anybody here?" Alex looked left and right before feeling something. He turned in another direction and saw a wooden trail manifest itself in front of him. It was like telling him to follow this trail. "Should I go¡­" Alex pondered for a moment. Because there was no clue or whatsoever, he decided to follow this trail. He started his first step in this wooden trail while raising his guard to the maximum. After walking for one kilometer, Alex still could not find anything. He was curious, so he decided to stop and observe his surroundings again. But he suddenly found out that the wooden trail he had passed was gone, leaving only the white floor. This completely baffled him. He was wondering if he should go back or continue following this trail. If he came back now, he would only need to walk one kilometer in the opposite direction. Albeit, this would become a bit hard for him as this white world already messed up everything in his head, including the distance. He might not be able to get into where he originally came from, so he decided to follow the trail. "This Phoenix Queen said this is a test of will and perseverance. Don''t tell me I just need to walk for a few months?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "System?" He thought he could ask the system who seemed to know everything, but got no response from her. "I can''t cultivate here since there is no energy flowing here¡­ Anyway, I should just continue." Alex shook his head as he continued. One hour¡­ Two hours¡­ Three hours¡­ XXX hours... He followed the trail step by step, but the white world slowly messed with the time inside his brain. He did not know how long he had been walking on this trail. He tried to fly, but somehow his power got restricted and only allowed him to walk. "For how long do I need to walk? In fact, I don''t even know how long I have been walking in this place? Damn, if only the battery in my watch is not dead, I would not lose track of time. Why doesn''t Earth make something like an eternal battery¡­" He sighed. He never thought it would be this hard when you lost the sense of time. You thought it was already an hour even though it was only a few minutes. The only thing Alex could do was to keep walking in the wooden trail. Suddenly, after XXX hours, Alex saw the end of this wooden trail. However, the one that stood on his way was none other than his former enemy, John Penn. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes once again and saw this John was only an illusion. John did not say anything to him. He simply took out his sword and pointed at him. Alex also did not have anything to say and in fact, it was useless to say anything to him. Both of them looked ready to fight, but John suddenly swung his sword downwards. It was a simple stroke, but a deadly sword wave came out of it. "Huh?" Alex widened his eyes as he was surprised by this. He suddenly saw that John''s energy increased until it reached the level of Martial King. And even the technique he used was his Seven Stars Cut. "Are you kidding me?" "Heaven Breaking Sword." Alex put all his strength to destroy the sword wave. Alex frowned upon seeing this, it seemed this John was not John. And even that move was his move. "Don''t tell me¡­" Alex noticed something off and decided to see whether his speculation was right or wrong. He decided to leap toward John and slash his sword horizontally. John used Alex''s sword intent, not Twin Blade Intent. It seemed that even though this John was copying his moves, he could not copy his uniqueness. In other words, he had a massive advantage. This was like fighting his downgrade self. However, what he found strange was that John''s Sword and Spear was too stiff. This allowed him to overpower him in an instant. After studying it for a while, he decided to end this fight right. "Heaven Breaking Sword." Alex slashed his sword downwards with all his might. John was using Alex''s Berserker Strike, albeit the power was still not enough. The sword was cut before eventually splitting him into two. There was no change of expression in John''s face. He did not find anything when he killed John. He was his former enemy, and even though he had killed him in the past, he did not have any hesitation in killing him again, much less killing a doll. The figure finally disappeared and the energy inside John suddenly burst into the sky and started enveloping this world. He then observed it again with his Spirit Eyes. It turned out that the world was just a huge box. He could even see the shape because of that Spiritual Energy. In other words, Alex did not move a single step in this world. It was like walking on a treadmill. Even after walking a few thousand kilometers, you would only stay at that place. If Alex did not have his Spirit Eyes, he would be fooled by it. Not long after, a gate appeared in front of him. [Host, you should absorb this energy first. This place is like the Battle Tower in Heavenly Sword Sect. This won''t take you too long, so you can keep cultivating while you are completing this trial. Of course, if you reach 5-Star, you need to stop.] The system who had been silent for now finally spoke. "So, where are you just now? I ask a few questions to you earlier." [This is your trial Host. It would be bad if I stretch my hand in this, so I won''t give you any clue about this except for this.] Alex pondered for a moment. "Well, fine. Anyway, I should just walk, beat the boss, and open the gate, right?" No response again from the system. He clicked his tongue as he thought he could somehow trick the system with that. He shook his head and started absorbing the energy around this place. "Wait¡­ since I can cultivate in this place, why can''t I just use my Spirit Stones?" Alex murmured as he took out a Spirit Stone from his Space Ring. It turned out that the energy from the spirit stone was restricted by something and would not flow to his body. It seemed he could only harvest energy from this place. In other words, He might need to absorb the energy not to cultivate but to restore his Spiritual Energy. After all, he needed to fight a Martial King in the first fight alone. "Will and Perseverance huh¡­" Alex sighed as he started absorbing the energy around. After a few minutes, he then rose from the ground. He walked forward to the gate and opened it. 473 Phoenix Trial Part 2 The process repeated. As soon as he opened the gate, he was sucked and teleported to another place. This time, it was the same plain white world. Instead of a wooden trail, he could see a dirt trail on the ground. He did not waste any time and immediately followed the trail. He just walked patiently and waited until the next opponent to appear. Bryan, the former king of Zircodina Kingdom, suddenly appeared before his eyes. He suddenly charged at him the moment Alex was in sight. Alex took out his weapons and clashed with him. Since he had studied John''s movement and such, he took down Bryan in an instant. Without stopping, he immediately absorbed all the energy in the air and headed to the next stage. He continued to the third place that had the same trail, but there were grasses around the dirt trail. It felt like the white world started evolving. After beating the third boss, who was one of the assassins that poisoned Alicia, Alex went to fourth place. This time, the sky was added inside the white world, but it was always sunny. It seemed he was right. Every time he teleported to the next place, a certain scenery would be added into this place. He thought this must be the trial. Beat the boss and went to the next place. And he would finish this trial when he had filled all the details in this world. He tried to finish the trial as soon as possible. This was an easy task for him since even if the enemy was a Martial King, he did not have any problem. It would end in an instant. However, Alex found something ridiculous. At the end of his trial, the world had been filled with many things such as dirt, grasses, trees, even wind breeze suddenly disappeared. The world became plain white again, without having any single detail. "What is this? Did I just restart my progress?" Alex grumbled. For a moment, he thought he had finished the trial and was ready to go back. But all of it vanished and the world was restarted. "Am I stuck in this world forever?" Alex frowned. Although he was filled with anger, he still did not forget that he needed to calm down. It only took him a few seconds to calm his heart. After cooling down that hot head, he suddenly noticed something different from before. He did not know why, but he smelled heat. He tried to search for the trail and found a sand trail on the ground. "This¡­ Is this actually a different place?" Alex asked himself. "Is the Trial not over yet? This is the only possibility, if not, I would already go back." He had many questions inside his head, but it was a matter of fact that his trial had yet to finish. He took a deep breath before walking this path again. Not long after that, he suddenly found the boss again¡­ he might need to classify them as bosses as he could see there were two people blocking him. He had not seen their faces, so Alex thought it must be a different person. But they were wearing Zhou Kingdom''s armors, so he speculated that he had met them. In fact, after considering all the people he had met earlier, he could say that those people were killed by him in the past. Because of this, he thought the enemies would always be the people he killed in the past. He shuddered the moment he thought of that. He had killed many people, a few ten thousand at that. He was wondering if he needed to defeat all of them in this trial. It would take forever if that were the case. Alex shook his head and proceeded forward after killing the two illusions. The details were added one by one as he completed each stage. If the previous place was plain, then this place was a desert. The sand, cacti, dead bushes, bones, and the other details started filling this second world. He also needed to fight two people every time at this stage. He even needed to restore his energy after a few fights. After he finished the second world, he arrived at the new place without any details. He immediately checked his surroundings. This time he found another trail. The trail was a muddy ground with water flooding on top of it. It was hard to walk, let alone fighting. Alex kept thinking about how to fight the bosses when he arrived at the end. Unexpectedly, the bosses multiplied again from two to four. If not because he was lucky that the enemy had the same condition as him, he would be at a disadvantage. Although he needed to fight harder, the reward was also bountiful. He almost reached 3-Star Martial King in this place alone. The fourth world was a jungle. Alex was sure about it after he looked at the grassy trail filled with dead leaves, branches, and vines. He concluded that the world would continue to change after finishing the previous world¡­ no, he might need to call it biome. He had met four biomes this entire time, Plain, Desert, Swamp, and Jungle. He was wondering how many biomes he would need to finish before he finished the trial. This might be the reason why it was called Will and Perseverance. According to his speculations, he would need around three more, unless this trial suddenly made an alien biome or space biome¡­ However, he indeed found another problem. It was the bosses. In this fourth biome, he needed to fight 8 Martial Kings. Although they were only 1-Star, it was still hard to fight them simultaneously and with this kind of environment. He could not fly in this place or used his Sky Step, so his movement was pretty restricted. However, a blessing came after the misfortune. The energy that was released to the air was also doubled. This let him advance to 3-Star Martial King. The next biome was a snowy place. The cold did not bother him, so he was fine. In fact, he thought it was better than the previous one. In this biome, he could melt the snow in his surroundings with his fire, making a free space to move. Even when the enemy multiplied again to sixteen, he was able to kill them pretty easily. The energy here was also bountiful, so he was a bit thankful to this biome. Finally, the sixth biome, the hardest biome he had experienced. He was forced to walk underwater and could not use his Spiritual Energy to help him. He could breathe underwater though. Even so, he lost most of his mobility at this place until he met the bosses. The enemies were also having difficulty in moving their bodies. After several attempts, he started killing them one by one. Unfortunately, he also took damages in this place. His body was full of shallow wounds and superficial injuries. He took all the time he needed to recover as he knew the next place would be harder. Surprisingly, the seventh place had the same trail as the first biome. He was perplexed as he thought it should not be the same. After completing a few times, it turned out that he was in a village. He was perplexed at first considering a village was not a biome, but that was answered in the eighth place. He was transported to the modern world. He could see skyscrapers and so on. When he fought with the enemies, many buildings were shattered and the earth became chaotic. Luckily, there were no people around. If not, the situation would become chaotic and his fight would be viewed by many on Television. Because he needed to fight 128 people each time, he used strategy to deal with them. Surprisingly, even with all of that, he could not escape from injuries. In fact, the enemy managed to heavily injure him once and halted the progress. Only after he healed the injury, Alex decided to move forward. After these eight places, Alex sighed. He even thought whether he would be able to handle the ninth place where he would fight 256 people. Even so, it could not drop his determination. He was able to advance from 2-Star Martial King to 5-Star Martial King in this trial. He did not know how long the time had passed, but he felt it was not that long. At the very least, he felt his training would take more time than this. He took a deep breath and steeled his resolve once again. But the next thing that happened immediately stopped him. Before he opened the gate, words suddenly appeared one by one in front of the door. "Congratulations, Young Hero, for passing the hardest trial. This is the test of will and perseverance. "You might travel in a grassy plain, feeling all the cool and soothing breeze. You might grow in a desert, fighting the scorching sun on the day. Or a humid place such as Swamp and Jungle. Or even a very cold place in a snowy area. You have even experienced living under the sea, in a peaceful village, or your hometown, Modern Area. "This test tells you that there are many environments one can grow up in, it can always be your starting point. This will take your will and perseverance to choose whether you want to be normal and die according to your fate, or take up your weapon and become stronger. "If you don''t have a will to survive or the perseverance to stay alive and become the hunter instead of the prey, you won''t be able to reach this place. "You might even die on your way here, whether it is because of the environment or your enemies, especially in the last world. You have proved yourself you can withstand all of that with your strong will and clever mind. As long as you are not giving up, there is always a chance for you. You even manage to increase your power in this trial. "As a reward for this trial, you may come to the next and the last world. There is a reward waiting for you there." Alex froze upon reading this. It was true that he was frustrated to try and try again, especially when it became harder and harder. His patience was almost run out and his system did not want to help him in this trial. There was also Sherry and Anya that made him impatient. He closed his eyes first and took a deep breath. He wanted to roar to the sky as he finally completed this trial, but before he could do that. The door slowly opened and sucked Alex. 474 Phoenix Trial Part 3 Alex was transported to another place. As whoever said earlier, this place was where he could reap another reward. The room was completely dark and empty. Alex quickly activated his Spirit Eyes to see whether this was a place like Anna''s Dark Curtain or not, but before he had the chance, fire started to lit up and slowly brighten the whole room. Alex could see many fire colors in this place, red, blue, green, or even black. Each of them had different kinds of energy, but Alex could see that their base element was a fire element. The fire continued to spread more and more until it finally arrived at a single platform in the center of the room. It was there Alex found another person. That person had long and messy black hair that made him appear like he just woke up. The mole right under his right eye complimented his handsome face. He wore long white pants but did not wear a single thing on the top, revealing his muscular body. "It''s been over ten thousand years since my last slumber¡­ to think I can finally meet Pure Fire Element again. This is truly surprising." The man looked at him and was surprised. He never thought he would be able to see this face again. "You¡­ Are you Alexander Sirius?" Alex tilted his head, confused. It seemed the man in front of him knew him. He looked at this man in his prime and nodded. "Yes. I am Alexander Sirius. May I have the pleasure to know Senior?" Alex said Senior because he said over ten thousand years. He did not know if this person was powerful or not, but he still showed his respect. "..." The man looked at him for a while before closing his eyes. Not long after that, he suddenly laughed, making Alex even more confused. "I see. I see. He must not have learned about all of that. Still to think I met this brat twice." "Senior? Do you know me?" Alex gathered the courage to ask. "Hmm¡­ I can say I know you but also don''t know you." Alex pondered about his answer before replying. "My previous life?" "You know about that reincarnation thing?" He smiled. "Yes. I am aware. I have seen a reincarnated person with memory intact." Alex nodded while adding in his heart. ''My master, that is.'' "Reincarnation is a mysterious thing. There are many rules about that thing, but no one manages to understand the rule thoroughly. Even the ones who have reached extreme knowledge about life and death could not explain it. "The case you are talking about is very rare. I might say that it is one in one billion people. However, I can say that we are not supposed to have memories of our previous life unless someone interferes with Heaven''s way. "And you seem to be aware that you are also a reincarnated person. One piece of advice from me. No matter what happens, don''t seek your previous memory. You and your previous life are two different individuals. "One can be influenced by the past or the future, but one can''t become neither. You shall forge your current path that is different from the past and create your own future. "Anyway. What I am going to teach you is my Flame Manipulation Technique¡­ This is a technique that I create for the Pure Fire Element." He said. "Take a look at the flames around you. They have many different colors and attributes." Alex nodded. Although they indeed had Fire Element as their base, there was a glimmer of ice element inside the blue fire or a black curse color inside the dark flame. "These flames are created with two elements. The blue one is a fire that holds a cold attribute. The green one holds a poison attribute. Or the dark one holds a curse attribute. "Of course, this fire is not mine. It is just an imaginary fire that I create to show you my technique. "The motivation I had when I created this technique was a question that I asked myself. I asked, ''Why is there Pure inside Pure Fire Element?'' Because of that question, I thought it should not be said as Pure Fire, but Absolute Fire Element. After all, this element basically rules over fires. "I then thought, ''what if I make the real Pure Fire?'' This technique would then be born. I called this technique, Pure Fire Control. If I ask you to describe Fire in one word, what is your answer?" The man asked. Alex pondered for a moment. "Heat?" "That''s right. Fire is just heat and Pure Fire is just an intense heat that controls the other heats around. This sounds wrong but also sounds true. But that is all. The things that this heat can do is to burn, explode and so on. This Fire can be extinguished by water, it can also carry poison in its smoke and so on. "Meanwhile, What is Pure? Pure means not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material. In other words, free of any contamination. "I want a fire that can''t be extinguished by water and cold, I want a fire that can''t carry poison or curse, it would be even better to cure or burn those contaminants. I want a powerful fire but can choose whether it will extinguish my enemy or envelop my friend with warmth. This is the essence of my Pure Fire Control. This is my original technique that no one knows besides me." The man declared. "..." Alex was surprised by his explanation. Even so, there was still one thing he needed to consider. "If I may ask, Is there any requirement to learn such techniques?" He was afraid he needed to take him as his teacher or master. That would be a no go. "Nothing. You have read the words before you enter this door, right? This is your reward. If you want to repay me or anything, then please take care of my brethren, the Phoenix Race." He said. "Since you are here, I am sure she has found you and told you about it¡­Well, I think you should learn my name¡­ "I am Phitrus. I am a Pure Phoenix, one that holds 100 percent bloodline and the holder of Pure Fire Element." He smiled. "So, I ask you again, do you want to learn this technique?" The answer was obvious. "Yes." "Good. I will teach you this technique. What I want to see is that your Pure Fire will be the strongest out of all fire, purest that can expel curse and poison, and one that can''t be extinguished. The training will be hard, are you ready?" "Yes." Alex nodded. Looking at this, Phitrus could not help but remember a certain scene. It was a scene where he met the previous Alex. ¡­ A few years ago, In a world filled with fire, he was strolling around as this environment was comfortable for his cultivation. At that time, he managed to see a little brat with golden hair. The brat was around Alex''s age, but he could not help but felt interested in this young man. The brat was only an 8-Star Martial King while he had defeated around twenty 1-Star Martial Emperors. "Who are you?" The previous Alex asked while releasing his killing intent. "I am Fire God. Do you want to become my disciple?" He could not help but ask this question. This was the first time he had this feeling. "God?" He narrowed his eyes as he said, not believing what Phitrus said. "I hate God. If you take offense with me being weak and still utter such an insult, you can kill me." "Oh¡­ you don''t believe me?" He smiled as he released a bit of his pressure and suppressed Alex. "How about this? Do you believe me now?" He gritted his teeth as he kept staring at Phitrus. "I believe you are God, but I still hate God. They are selfish. Just because I am not strong and don''t have any background, he took her away from me." "Ho¡­ You said another God took your woman?" He smiled. "He just took her back home. Not taking her away from me. They are not the same." Alex complained. "Haha¡­ This is interesting. Then who is that God?" "Why should I tell you?" "Because you piqued my interest. I can feel many elements inside you. They are close but far, they are yours but not. I have gotten stronger and stronger, but I don''t have any disciples and the like, so I am a bit bored. Maybe by taking you as my disciple, it will brighten my day." He said. "I might even help you in your love if you amuse me." "I don''t feel like telling you. If you are God, then just search my memories or something. You can do that right." "But with your personality, I feel you will kill yourself before that happens. I can stop that from happening though." Alex looked away. "You are really a rude brat, aren''t you? Normally when people see me, they would kneel and worship me. The exact opposite of you. Since you don''t want to tell me, then I will do what you want." He smiled as he disappeared. In an instant, Alex felt his head was grabbed. Not long after, Phitrus laughed. "Bahaha¡­ So you want that old man''s daughter. No wonder he took her back. Very interesting. How is this brat? You become my disciple and I will make that old man marry his daughter to you. Still, to think that little lass is smitten for you." "No." "Why?" He was astonished, not believing his generous offer was just rejected. "My elements are said to be useless, but I never think so. They tell me I am talentless, but I believe I am filled with talent. After all, how can they say a fish is a genius if they measure it by its ability to climb a tree. There will come a day where my name alone is enough to have that old man accept us." "You are truly interesting. Fine, I won''t ask you to be my disciple. Still, do you want to learn my techniques? They are powerful, you know." Alex was surprised to see this Fire God still offered him this. "What are the terms and conditions? Do I need to do something for you?" "No. I just want you to learn it. That''s all." Alex pondered for a moment before declining his offer again. "I can''t accept that. You are very suspicious. I feel if I take a bit on this, I will be trapped into a deep hole." "You are exaggerating too much. I am not the same as the other Gods or Goddesses. I love freedom and adventure. I have traveled to many worlds and witnessed the change in each world. I can say that you are in the top three of the most amusing things that happened in my adventure." He said. "I am third?" Alex tilted his head, confused. "Yeah. The second one is how a race can bring their own extinction, from inside influence or outside influence. And the first one is how Love can turn the most logical guy to a brainless idiot. I even met a logical guy that took many attacks on his body just to protect his loved one, even though he could use her as a shield and heal her afterward. I never experienced it myself, so I don''t know why he would do that." He shrugged. "Is that so? Maybe you should search for your loved one instead of a person like me." Alex said. "You are getting more and more insolent by the minute, lad." He said as he stroked Alex''s hair. He then took out a token and handed it to Alex. "But you are right. I should search for my loved one. Take this token for your bright suggestion. I will come to your rescue if you are in a pinch." Phitrus said as he flew away, leaving Alex in confusion. After recalling how Alex could only be handled by rewards, he smiled. He took a look at the current Alex. Although they were a bit different, their core personality seemed to be the same. He then started his training. "Alright. Time to train you." 475 Phoenix Trial Last Par He started his training in this place. Although he was concerned about Kyle, Sherry, and Anya, he might need this technique in the future, making him unable to go back yet. Because he did not know how long the real world had passed and could not cultivate more than this, he could only increase his strength by learning this technique. The training was insane that even made him forget about his matter a few times. Even after experiencing the most gruesome training, he held it to the very end. In fact, this Phitrus just wanted to bully him in the process. And finally, after several months, he mastered his technique. Phitrus said this was a reward for him since he knew about Alex''s past and how troublesome it was to accept such a thing. This way, he would not meet any resistance from him. Even if Alex did not recognize him, he still felt Alex like his family. But the end had arrived and it was time for him to go back. He said, "You have mastered this technique and your fire is superior to a normal Pure Fire. So, go back, I want to sleep again." "I¡­ Thank you, Senior." Alex bowed. "Ah, that''s right. Take this with you." Phitrus handed him two of the same staves. The staves were made out of metal with four pairs of wings on top of it. There was another kind of aura emanating from the staff, but Alex thought it was just the staff''s energy. "You get the first one while giving the other one to the Phoenix Race''s current leader. Told them they need to take care of this staff even if they need to sacrifice the whole race." "But, isn''t this Senior''s staff? The ruler aside, I don''t think I deserve this." "It is an advance payment for you to deliver the other staff. If the phoenixes don''t want to listen to you, just whack them with that staff." "But¡­" "Alright. I hear enough. Go away." He waved his hands as a gate appeared. He used his flame to push Alex toward the gate without letting him say another world. Unbeknownst to him, this Phitrus just created a huge mess in the real world. The gate in the real world suddenly gleamed brightly. Because the training took so long, the phoenix queen ordered one of the elders to watch the gate to wait for Alex. The elder started to get bored as she had been watching this for a few months. However, she also never heard about someone taking this long. Usually, they would come out in the second or third month and even the longest one was in the fourth month. She was wondering if Alex had died or something, but there was no record that someone died in this trial. But the moment she saw the gate make such a reaction, she stood up. Flame started covering the gate while emanating a pressure that threw the whole palace in chaos. The fire in their heart wanted to come and kneel in front of this pressure while their phoenix blood started boiling up. The pressure was very mysterious and ancient, but they knew this was pressure from a Phoenix. The same thing also happened in other places. At the hall, Ellen and the other elders were having a meeting. Although no one knew that Ellen had taken the throne as the information about was not spread according to the queen order, Ellen had been doing her job, leaving nothing to be desired. Of course, the elders also took part in this achievement. But suddenly they felt a very oppressive pressure, making them fall to their knees. Even with Ellen''s bloodline or fire element, she was not free of this suppression. She gritted her teeth. "Is someone attacking us?" "This¡­" No elders could answer this as they did not have the answer themselves. "Her majesty might know something about this." The elder said. "..." She wanted to answer but was stopped by the shock when the pressure suddenly disappeared. Even so, she did not have time to waste. "I will go ask my mother about this. All of you will stand by in case there is an enemy." "Yes." At the queen''s bedroom, The queen was helping Kyle in his progress. Kyle''s progress had surpassed her imagination these past few months. Still, it was reasonable, considering he also got influenced by Alex''s Pure Fire. When the queen was smiling while watching Kyle''s progress, she suddenly stumbled on the ground after feeling the oppressive pressure. Kyle was also the same, but unlike her, he noticed that this pressure came from Alex. The pressure lasted for a few seconds before Stina came to Kyle. "Are you alright?" "Mas-!" *Bam* Ellen suddenly slammed the door open and searched for her mother. "Mother, we have an emergency." "What just happened?" Stina asked. "I don''t know. I am coming to Mother because I am clueless. I am sorry if I disturb both of you, but this needs to be stopped." Ellen said. "I am also clueless about this." "This is¡­ from Master." Kyle finally spoke. "!!!" Both Stina and Ellen looked at him with a shocked face. "There are many questions, but we should go there first. Call the elders to the gate." "Understood." Both of them ran as fast as they could to the trial room. But the moment they arrived, they could only see the clueless Alex and the kneeling elder. They were bewildered why she was kneeling, but the moment Stina saw the staves in Alex''s hand, she suddenly fell down to her knees. "Stina Blaze greets the Ancestor." "Mother?" Ellen was baffled. She became even more confused when the other elders arrived and kneeled upon seeing the staves. "Ancestor? But he is a human¡­" Stina gritted her teeth as she pulled Ellen down and made her kneel in one knee. "I apologize for my daughter." "This¡­" Alex scratched his cheek as he did not know what to do. At the same time, Kyle was freed from Stina''s hug and flew toward Alex. "Master¡­ I miss you." "Yes. I miss you two. How are Sherry and Anya?" "Elder Sister and Mistress are still in the courtyard. I often visited them to check their condition. They are missing you too." "Is that so? I will go back and meet them after this." Alex said as he was astonished by Kyle''s cultivation. "To think you have become 7-Star¡­ I wonder what kind of sorcery is this¡­" "Master, you have gone for six months," Kyle said. "That long?" Amazed, he said, "I could not tell the time inside there, so I apologize then for taking too long." "I can even wait for a few years if needed," Kyle said proudly. "Haha¡­ Anyway, I should finish my business first." Alex said before turning to Stina and Ellen. "Ehm¡­ who is the current queen?" "I abdicated the throne to my daughter two months ago, Ancestor," Stina answered. Alex nodded before walking toward Ellen. He smiled as he handed the scepter to her. "Well, he wants me to give this to you while I keep the other one. By the way, can all of you get up and explain what this thing is?" Ellen took the scepter with a clueless expression, wondering if this was right or not. But seeing her mother did not say anything, she just gratefully took it before asking her mother about this scepter later. Her answer came as Alex was also curious about it. Stina and the others got up before she explained. "This is our Ancestor''s scepter when he ruled this race. He was the only person who became God and he said to treat whoever held the scepter as him. So¡­" Ellen''s hands were shaking when she heard that. She never thought this staff was this important. "I see. Well, I am surprised to hear this scepter is something like that. After all, he said that I just needed to whack someone with this staff if they did not hear me or something." Alex chuckled. Meanwhile, none of them could feel that way. They were sweating, imagining Alex whacking this staff and ruled the phoenix race. The core ingredients of these staves were Phitrus''s Pure Fire Element. In case, he whacked a phoenix with this, the phoenix would not be able to utilize their power. This was also why he told them to guard it with their lives. If this scepter fell into another hand, phoenix might get enslaved. "This¡­ Please don''t do this¡­" Stina looked at him with a weird expression. "There will be chaos everywhere¡­ If I may ask, can you tell us what happened inside?" Alex pondered for a while, calculating the numbers in his mind. "I just teleported to white world and needed to fill all single details by defeating enemies. If my calculation was right, I fought more than five thousand Marti- Tier 5 enemies inside, filling eight worlds with details. After that, I met a man called Phitrus." "Is that senior with a mole under his right eye?" "Yes." "I see." Stina was convinced that the staves were coming from the ancestor himself. "This is just my curiosity, but all of you can transform into human form, right?" Alex asked while glancing at Kyle, who was in his Phoenix Form. "There are two ways to transform. We have a technique that can make phoenixes transform into a human form. The second way is to become a Tier 6 Phoenix. At that time, you will have a natural ability to change. I want him to change naturally and I believe he won''t need a long time to achieve that." "Does that rule apply to any other races?" Alex asked, picturing Sherry in his mind. "Yes. This should apply to others." She nodded. (AN: Good for you, Sherry.) Alex nodded, relieved by the answer. He then asked Stina and Ellen since they should get a better picture than Kyle. "By the way, what happened while I was inside?" "There is no movement from the Human Race, so it is safe to assume they have yet to know about the Purple Crystal you possess. Though if they want to, we will protect you at any cost. It must also be the will of the ancestor. "As for your companions, they are safe and sound. Lastly, Princess Shelka is still waiting for you. According to Hus¡­ Kyle, it seems you are wary about her. How about sending her back? "I have abdicated my throne anyway and have time. Kyle must surely follow you, so I think I can help your travel. I believe the other party would give me more face than a Princess even if she is a Pure Element user. I also need to thank you for giving the scepter to my daughter." Stina reported. "..." Alex was glad that the human race had yet to know about this, symbolizing that Lilian did not tell them about this yet. As for Shelka, it would be good to drive her away, but¡­ "I have promised the Elven King to let her accompany me on this journey. Although I can''t drive her away against her will, it does not mean I need to bring her everywhere. "She has yet to know that I have finished the trial, right?" "Yes. Only the people in the palace experienced the pressure earlier. However, if we impose an information lockdown, she should not know about it." Stina nodded. Even Sherry and Anya did not know about this pressure as the courtyard was a bit farther from the castle. "Hmm¡­ Don''t tell her about this yet. Pretend that I am still in the trial. As long as she does not know, she would think she is still accompanying me in this trial, meaning I still fulfill the promise." Alex said. Stina nodded. "If I am not wrong, you are going to visit the Angel Race after this. When are you leaving?" "Hmm¡­ Maybe in a few months. I still need to consolidate my power." Alex sighed. "I will go back to that courtyard." He wanted to see Anya and Sherry. As for Kyle, it seemed he had a great time with the queen. "I will guide you then. Kyle wants to meet them anyway." 476 Another Contracted Beas Inside the room, a fox was sleeping on the floor as light enveloped her. To the left of the fox was a woman with neatly arranged books on her desk, writing something on a paper. "Sherry, Anya, I am back." Alex smiled as he looked at these two with a gentle face, waking up the two from their tasks. "Master!" Sherry was the first one to leap toward Alex. "Haha¡­" He laughed. "You have become a 6-Star Martial King now." On the contrary, Anya did not come to him despite missing him. Alex found a troubled look in Anya''s face, starting to worry. "What happened?" "I will tell you later." She said, looking at Kyle and Stina. "It seems I am not very welcomed¡­" Stina made a complicated expression. "I am not going to stay for long since I am just accompanying Kyle here. "However, I do need to tell you about the Angel Race before I leave, so you can think about it first." Alex exchanged looks with Anya, agreeing to let her stay for a while. "Alright." Kyle was having a conversation with Sherry while Alex and the others had a serious conversation. After visiting this place a few times, Stina had known the existence of Anya. "First of all, I would need to know when you are going there. I can have a messenger to inform them, so we can have a smooth journey. Of course, we can suddenly appear on their continent, but I feel they might become hostile. If you don''t know the precise time, a range is fine too." Alex''s expression darkened, knowing the exact reason why they needed that. He pondered for a while, calculating the time he needed. "Two to three months, I guess." "Alright. I will arrange a visit at that time. After all, you are pretty lucky to meet me back then, especially with Kyle. If you are not with him, I might need to be careful against you, considering you have a Celestial Fox. However, if I made a prior arrangement, we would not have a troublesome situation and they also would escort us to their ruler." "Sorry about that." Alex sighed. "It''s fine. I have decided to go together with you and Kyle and with you having the ancestor''s scepter, it has cleared my last doubt." Stina said as she kneeled in front of Alex. She said with a pacifying tone. "I, Stina Blaze, With the blessing of my ancestors, offer up my life to become the contracted beast of Alexander Sirius. If he dies, I shall follow him together to the underworld while if I die, may Heaven only take my life. Hence, I, Stina Blaze, shall have a Life and Death Contract with Alexander Sirius." "You-!" Alex opened his eyes wide, not believing what just happened. In an instant, the Phoenix Queen, a 7-Star Martial Emperor, became his contracted beast like Sherry and Kyle. Alex''s Pure Fire suddenly came out of his body, starting to envelop Stina''s body with warmth. She also released the fire from her body before starting to fuse with Alex''s flame. A few minutes later, the intense flame started calming down, creating a new form of fire. ''Break Through'' 8-Star Martial Emperor Her abdomen started glowing before the light slowly turned into a symbol. It was a flame symbol with a crown on top of it. She slowly opened her eyes, greeting her new master. "Stina Blaze greets Master." Alex was taken aback, not knowing what to do. "This is just my selfishness. My hus- Kyle wants to follow you and I want to follow Kyle. The best way to do it is to become your contracted beast." "No. How can it be the best way to do it?" "I have just increased my strength¡­" Stina looked at Alex with a weird expression, believing he should know about it too. "I mean¡­ There must be another way." Alex sighed. Stina simply shook her head, explaining her reason to him. "He has forged a life and death contract with you. That means he is leaving his life in your hand. If I don''t enter a life and death contract, then the moment you die, I will be alone again. "I am not saying or cursing you to die¡­ I am just telling you I have enough resolve to follow you and him. Besides, I have abdicated the throne and my daughter does not need my support again, especially with the scepter you gave." "..." Alex wanted to throw another argument but refrained himself, knowing that was useless. "Alright. I won''t say anything about it since you have resolved yourself. In fact, it is good to have a powerful ally like you. "However, I need to warn you beforehand. My journey is treacherous¡­ and I might make enemies every now and then whether I want it or not." "I am aware. Kyle loves to tell your tales." She nodded. "Alright. I shall continue my explanation about Angel Race. Their trial involves the mind. I don''t know the exact reason, but this test might be the most dangerous or the hardest. Even the strongest person might not have the strongest mind. "In the trial, you would not die no matter if you take the dragon race trial or our trial. However, the Angel Race trial has its own danger. "If you get swallowed by the trial, you might not be able to advance your strength again. In the worst case, you will go insane," said Stina with a serious tone. Alex closed his eyes, pondering what she meant. ''Unable to advance again¡­ Ah, it must be a Heart Demon.'' "I should be fine," Alex assured her, knowing he could bypass the illusion with his Spirit Eyes. "Confidence is good, but please be careful," advised Stina, understanding how confidence could ruin someone. According to the record, there was once a young man who challenged the trial. He was powerful and gentle. However, upon meeting the trial, he stumbled and all of his ugly sides came out. He slowly fell to darkness, plundering and raping women from all races until finally, he died under the joint operation of Dragon, Angel, and Naga Races. Picturing that scene sent chills down her spine. Using this chance, she said, "No one is perfect. Everyone has a good side and an ugly side. One should accept both sides as they are part of them. "This is just my personal opinion¡­ I find no fault when it comes to standing against your strength with confidence. However, very few have the courage to sheathe their sword once it is out. The ugly side is not evil¡­ it tells you what your weakness is. And once you know your weakness, you can become stronger as well as kinder. It''s necessary in order to become the strongest." Alex nodded his head, thanking her for the advice. "As for the trial itself¡­ You will be thrown into the Tower of Sins. You will get tested by Seven Deadly Sins." "..." Alex pondered for a moment and nodded. "As long as I am prepared, I should be fine." "Then, I shall go back first." She nodded, wanting to leave since Anya wanted to speak something important. "Wait." Stopping her, Alex said, "You can stay." He gave her permission to stay and heard the important discussion, telling her that he trusted her. Anya did not say anything, understanding his decision. If she were in her position, she would not hesitate to make that contract too just to follow Alex. Seeing such a resolve, she could not say no. "You are going to be one of us after this. I know that you might only want to follow Kyle, but there might be a case where I need your strength. That''s why stay here." "Thank you¡­ Master." She humbly bowed to him, making him feel weird for having a far stronger person act like this. "Anya," said Alex, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling. "Yes." Taking out a map of the Upper World, she started explaining. "Firstly, our biggest problem would be Letizia. Ngina has searched the entire Willow Continent, Nelson has searched both Nilis and Sacred Continents. As for the Northern Continent, there is not a single trace about her. We can safely assume that she might be taken to Heavenly Continent. "There are two possibilities in this case. Because she has a Pure Ice Element, she might be nurtured by an influence." "That is good then. In fact, I can relieve the full loyalty oath from her as long as she does not run her mouth again. But watching her growth, I am sure she would not say anything about it." Alex nodded. "If that is the case, then it would be good. After all, we have the strength to protect our life for the time being. But it will be different if she is taken by an influence from the Heavenly Continent. "If they are nurturing her and somehow find about this oath, they would surely try to destroy it. The first thing they would do is to kill you, not asking you to relieve her contract. The reason is simple, you are only an ant in their eyes. "She might also decide to tell them your secret to protect you. But it will also lead to many problems afterward. That''s why this is a dangerous situation. "The second possibility is for her to get stronger or get to another world. The oath she takes is from this world. If she is in this world, she can do whatever she wants. Telling the others about the oath and might even make them force you to make an oath. "I don''t know what is in her heart, but in case she decides to humiliate you to release her hatred of her suffering. I¡­ We won''t be able to bear watching this." Anna explained before unknowingly releasing her killing intent. Even the ''We'' in her mouth was not only the spirits in this world but all the spirits from the Spirit World, Eulja. If she did something like that, they might destroy her along with the entire planet. Noticing her anger, he assured her. "Don''t worry. These eyes of mine, I should know if someone is coming to me. Or at least if they are hostile to me." What he meant was his eyes'' ability from Gacha Sovereign Title, not his Spirit Eyes. If they came truly with a bad intention, he would know and flee from that place. "Anyway, send someone to scout the Heavenly Continent," Alex ordered. "That is the plan. I am planning to send Njomo and follow her in her shadow. We have somehow established many things in the Northern Continent within these ten months." He closed his eyes, realizing that he had been staying in this place for ten months. The first three months were in Empyrean Guild, six months inside the trial, while the rest was the travel time. "It''s good then. After all, Martial Monarch or Martial Saint is not an opponent we can fight at the moment." "Martial Monarch? Martial Saint? What is that?" Stina suddenly asked. His eyes intertwined with Anya''s eyes, realizing they forgot about this basic thing. Alex said, "This world has a different concept than the other world. You can say Tier 1 to Tier 6 in this world, but in another world, we say Foundation Stage, Martial Master, Grandmaster, Lord, King, and Emperor, thus the Tier 1 to 6. Above them are Martial Monarch and Martial Saint. Meanwhile, Rune is called Array and magic is called Element Art. And another art for weapons is called Martial Art. I myself use weapons, Sword and Spear. This is the basics. As for details, you can ask Anya." Stina nodded, trying to understand what he meant. "Anyway. We should have finished the discussion about Letizia for now. Give me an update if there is something more." Alex looked at Anya. She nodded. "Moving on to the second matter." 477 Trouble After Trouble "Moving on to the second matter. We have established our group in the Northern Continent and after these few months, they are starting to well known even though we didn''t do anything flashy. "Why is this a problem? Firstly, there are seven first rate influences on the continent. However, we don''t have to discuss all of them at once. I want to focus on three influences: Blackwade Clan and its two opponents, Fire God Clan and Joyful Reunion Sect. "As you have known, the reason why Song Yu fled to the Willow Continent was that these two influences chased her. "Both of them had their own reason according to our investigation. Fire God Clan wanted to acquire her to get the resources from Fire God Clan. Basically, they are trying to make a marriage to tie these two clans together, just like the Blackwade Clan, they also stemmed from the Heavenly Continent. "We need to be extra careful when dealing with this Fire God Clan, especially your Pure Fire, a Celestial Fox, and phoenixes might be in their list. "As for the Joyful Reunion Sect, they did not care about the resource or whatever. Their name has told you everything. Basically, they are an R-18 sect. They have set their eyes upon the beautiful Song Yu or Song Jia. "However, even with our careful behavior, it seems they also set their eyes on our Spirit Nest. According to Anna, there is a rumor that Spirit Nest is full of handsome guys and pretty chicks. Not that they are wrong though¡­ except Greg, who never shows his face. "Anyway, I suggest we perform a mass castration to their men since the women would not be able to charm the men in our Spirit Nest. "Just look at you, the master, there is no way they would be able to charm you. Leoz? He is a muscle brain, so it is a no go. Jean? They think they can provide something more painful than Jeanne? Fabio has been taken while Nelson is far away. The only one left is Greg, who would not show his face¡­ So, we don''t need to worry about them." She implored. "..." Alex was speechless by her statement. Scratching his head in confusion, he said. "As long as we are careful, the Fire God Clan won''t notice us. Of course, if it means we need to fight, we would destroy the Fire God Clan even if it means moving the entire Fire God Clan on the Heavenly Continent. We can escape to the Sacred Continent and enter Heavenly Continent from there. I also have the promise to destroy a single evil sect there anyway. As for that R-18 Sect¡­ We should ask someone to censor them¡­" Anya chuckled, seeing him playing along with her charade. "Anyway, the rumor seems to have originated because they are often exchanging the goods with the Blackwade Clan. We did not know who spread the rumor, but we should be a bit more careful for the time being." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. "We can stop the development first and have our people focus on grinding EXP and stockpiling the materials. After a while, the rumor should die out and we can start doing business with the Blackwade clan again." "That is better than my plan." "Your Plan?" "My plan is to have them wear an ugly mask and so on. With enough make-up, I think we can make a huge scar on the face, making it uglier." "Anyway, is there anything else I need to know?" Alex asked, ignoring her plan. "No. That is all." "Your maj¡­ Elder Stina can stay here and learn the details about the other world." Alex said, confused about how to call her because of the new identity. In the end, he settled with Elder. "In the meantime, I will consolidate my power." Alex retired to his room and started consolidating his strength while Anya gave a few books to Stina to learn. ... Unknowingly, two months passed after Alex started his training. He had fully consolidated his strength and broke through to 6-Star Martial King. Sherry and Kyle had become 7-Star and 8-Star respectively. Nothing happened in these two months other than Shelka started getting impatient. Knowing Shelka''s situation from Anya''s mouth, Stina imposed the information lockdown, from the unknown pressure coming from the trial gate to Alex''s appearance, even to the point of hiding the scepter. This to prevent Shelka from getting any clue about Alex, hoping she would come back home before they needed to sneak out of the castle. Meanwhile, Alex was busy consolidating his power. Despite having increased his cultivation speed with the second refinement, Alex still needed two full months to consolidate his power. Another thing that kept him busy was his new Pure Fire. After getting enhanced by Phitrus''s technique, the Pure Fire even managed to influence Sherry and Kyle nearby. Stina said Alex''s Fire contained the essence of the Ancestor''s fire, the one that he embedded in the staff. Furthermore, Alex released a certain scent that made the phoenix cry out of fear. However, knowing that the essence was not Phitrus''s possession. Instead, it was his Pure Fire. Using this special Pure Fire, Phitrus ruled the Phoenix Race with an iron fist. After practicing, Alex decided to open the Gacha again. The system did not give any advice like she usually did and just gave him the box. Of course, she left after having a chat with him. [Summoning Ticket (SR) x5] [Rank 6 Forging Furnace (SR) x1] [Bluedrasil Berry (UR) x1] [Water Gallon (UC) x1] [Bamboo Flute (C) x1] He was disappointed with the result. He had wanted to get another Gacha Card to open the Gacha Box. Despite having no Summoning Tickets, he got it and only five, making him unable to use ''10+1 Summon.'' As for the Rank 6 Forging Furnace, he was not interested in forging. The reason he even learned forging from his teacher was to make a better weapon as well as Alchemy Furnaces. At this point, he already had rank 6 Alchemist Furnace and his Space Ring was filled with weapons. This time, the UR item was a Material, which was very rare to get. According to his knowledge about Alchemy, this material was one of the ingredients for a rank 7 pill. Saving it for later would be better for him. In a year, the status of his spirits was also progressing by leaps and bounds. [Anna (Dark) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 45387/400000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 50/80 (10-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 345342/410000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 212434/400000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 48/80 (8-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 75374/390000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 64533/370000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 304388/370000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 13222/400000] [Anya (Light) Level: 46/80 (6-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 297278/370000] [Artur (Light) Level: 45/80 (5-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 317387/360000] [Jean (Water) Level: 45/80 (5-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 275675/360000] Most of them had leveled up by two or three, and Leoz almost reached the Martial Emperor, making him close to the leader of Second Rate influence in the Northern Continent. Alex still had his EXP cards, enabling him to increase their level at a moment''s notice. At the very least, he could save up the EXP cards, making it a trump card for them. This would prove to be useful for when he came back to the Northern Continent. ¡­ Two months later, "Master, we are ready to depart." Stina came to the courtyard, greeting him like usual. "We shall move farther from this city first to ensure that Princess won''t see us." "I will leave the arrangement for you." Alex nodded before turning to Anya. "You, Sherry, and Kyle shall stay here. This place should be safe." "Don''t worry about us. We can take care of ourselves." Anya nodded. "That''s right, Master. Just you wait, I am going to become a Martial Emperor as soon as possible." Sherry puffed her chest, looking very ambitious with her plan. After knowing about it, Sherry was eager to have the same form as him. In fact, she was a bit jealous of Anna and Anya. Even though she met him first, they were getting together before she could. That was why she thought if she had the same form, she could also get the same treatment as them from him. "Yeah. I am rooting for you." Smiled, Alex turned back to Stina. "We should go." Stina nodded and led him outside. In front of the castle was a Tier 5 Phoenix. Stina told him that he would be their mount for this journey. Albeit, another trouble came their way. "Ara¡­ How can you leave me behind, my Supreme¡­ You should inform me that you have finished the trial and want to go toward the Flying Continent." She appeared out of nowhere, saying while narrowing her eyes. "!!!" Startled, Stina and Alex sweatdropped. After making sure there was no clue about Alex, she even managed to find out. This thought alone made them wary against her. Little did they know, she was just frustrated after having no information about Alex and decided to stroll around. She knew there was no trial this long, so she started roaming the castle after six months. She never thought she would be able to meet Alex, who was trying to escape from her. "You have promised to bring me on your journey. You think you can go to Angel Race because I think you are still in the middle of Phoenix Race''s trial? You need to have a good reason if you want me to stay." Narrowing his eyes, he tried to come up with a reason. He was not someone that would break a promise. One might say just make an exception for this, but he always believed if there were first, there would be second, third, and so on. Having no reason in his mind, he said. "Alright." "Are you sure?" Stina quickly sent a thought transmission. "Yes. Besides, she might do something outrageous if she goes back while bringing the news about this. I have no reason to make her stay or go home, so let her come with us." Alex nodded, observing the dangerous Shelka carefully. Hearing his answer, Stina said, "Alright. You may come with us. The other side already knows I am coming, so having another one would be no big deal." Shelka clenched her fists, thinking she had won. She thought, ''Fufu¡­ You can escape from me, my Supreme. Still, to think you want to leave without me, I need to think up a way to punish you." Unbeknownst to her, this trip cost her that very thought. Alex jumped to the back of the phoenix, waiting for the others to come. Stina and Shelka followed him immediately as Stina gestured to the phoenix to fly. "Scree!" The phoenix flapped its wing and uttered a cry before starting to fly. It took them one week before arriving on the flying continent. This was the first time Alex saw a flying continent and the sight mesmerized him. The continent itself was not that large, around the size of Heavenly Sword Sect. Even the population was not too crowded, making people feel the nature of this continent. There were even mountains and rivers in the sky. He could even see a free waterfall, stretching from this continent to the bottom of the ocean. Curious about the continent, he activated his Spirit Eyes only to find nothing. He could not find anything that could make the continent fly. In other words, he thought it would be physics. Not ordinary physics, but another world''s physics, making this a wonder of the world. A few yellow-haired winged humans were flying around the continent. Their white wings symbolizing they were not human, but more like a birdman or something. Upon spotting the phoenix, they flew toward them and bowed their heads. "Your Majesty, Phoenix Queen, We have been informed of your presence. We will lead you toward the sky castle immediately." 478 Meeting and Disgus Inside the castle''s meeting hall were the angel council as well as their leader, the Seraphim. He appeared to be a middle-aged man with three pairs of white wings on his back. His appearance was gentle, making him look like a peace-loving guy. He wore a long white robe and golden crown, making him look majestic. Besides him was the chancellor of this council, his wife. She had this golden hair and bountiful body, reminding Alex about a certain girl in the movie. The gentle and loving angel mother. However, her calm and mature expression changed slightly after taking a glimpse of the visitors. "May I know what is the meaning of this, Phoenix Queen? You bring the genius Princess of Elven Race, and there is even a human," asked her with a troubled tone. "Fufu¡­ You have my sincerest apologies for doing this without informing you. But to follow the proper procedure and informing you about this would have invited more anxiety and confusion, making it a somewhat difficult proposition at the time." The phoenix queen smiled and explained. "Well, certainly. Nonetheless, you should inform us first." She asked again. "I am afraid you have us completely at a loss, Phoenix Queen. To begin with, why did you bring those two people?" "Not two, one," said Stina while narrowing her eyes. The entire council was taken aback by that statement, wondering who she really brought to this place. "What?!" Startled, she wanted to ask again before the king, who was silent until now, interrupted her. "The human?" "!!!" All of them turned their heads toward the king, who suddenly spoke. "Exactly so." Phoenix Queen answered with a serious expression. "!!!" The people looked back at the phoenix queen, startled by the answer. The human was someone''s unknown while the Elven Princess was well-known. It was obvious to see that the Elven Princess should be the one. Much to their dismay, it was this unknown human that was the real guest. "For the Human to come to the Flying Continent, he must pass through our Continent and have the necessary pass. To that end, he somehow arrived at the Elven Kingdom first because he did not have a pass to our kingdom, thus the king agreed to grant him the pass. Their terms for the pass was allowing their princess to accompany him on the journey. I agreed and here she is." She explained while changing a bit of detail. "How¡­ How could you have agreed to that by yourself? If the Elven Kingdom wants to come, they should also make a formal notice to inform us." The seraphim''s wife said. "Certainly, you are correct. If this means that afterward, our Phoenix Race must compensate you, then so be it. However, if that is what it costs to arrange a face-to-face meeting between a Human like him that would make the entire world tremble and the wise Seraphim, then I consider it a trivial price to pay. "O''s Seraphim, as a wise seraph who wishes to see the united world, I respectfully ask that you exchange some words with the human, he who rose and challenges the world from unfertile land." The Phoenix Queen said with a serious expression. "Challenges the world?" Confused, the others kept looking at Alex and the Seraphim. Meanwhile, the Seraphim immediately realized what she meant, "Is he¡­ I see..." "Yes. Exactly." The Phoenix Queen nodded with a serious expression. The Seraphim suddenly stood up from his throne, clasping his hand and introduced himself. "Allow me to introduce myself properly. Zarall, Thirtieth Seraphim of the Angel Race." The moment his name filled everyone''s ears, they felt indescribable pressure coming out of it. Alex closed his eyes before smiling, feeling the majestic pressure of his name. What he witnessed was not the pressure of the name of Zarall. Instead, it was coming for the fact that he was the ruler of this race that kept the prosperity of the Angel Race. "I am just your Ordinary Human, Alexander Sirius." Alex introduced himself with just a simple smile. Yet, everyone spat out, thinking, ''There is no way for a Phoenix Queen to take Ordinary Human here.'' "Hoh¡­ Despite your pretty face, you seem to have grown up by yourself, not like a sheltered duckling. I have realized your intention. State it now." Not wanting to keep the suspense anymore, a Purple Crystal came out of his Spirit Ring as he said, "I, Alexander Sirius, Challenge the trial of Angel Race." "!!!" This utterly shocked them. Wanting to berate the Phoenix Queen about this, the Seraphim''s wife stopped by the appearance of a Yellow Crystal. The two crystals came closer and shone brightly, blinding the eyes of them. However, the moment Alex closed his eyes, he returned into the plain white world, meeting the mysterious man again. "Take the Green Box to Strength Plateau." Alex was too tired to even say anything, realizing he would not be able to talk with this person. Even so, the message kept lingering inside his mind, making him wonder what he meant by Green Box. He came back to reality without knowing the answer. "?!" The Seraphim noticed a slight change in his expression. Seeing that he was accompanied by the Phoenix Queen and Elven Genius Princess, he should have completed their trial first beforehand. Because of that, he should have accustomed to this sight, yet there was still a change in his expression. This made the Seraphim suspicious. "How intriguing¡­ The trial has been approved by the crystals. However, it is true that the Phoenix Queen has breached an agreement by bringing you to this place. "I don''t need the compensation, but all of you need to be tested. If you won''t, then I will do whatever it takes to stop you. Shall you collect all crystals, all races might unite. The problem is not every union would bring joy. They might also bring destruction. Hence, I need to discern your true intention." Taking out his golden wand, he knocked the floor twice. In an instant, a light started enveloping them. Alex realized that he came inside an illusion and he decided not to break it immediately despite knowing it was an illusion attack. Breaking this would make the Seraphim suspecting him even more. The scenery started to change and he could see the Elven Race''s tree in front of him. However, the tree was burning, the human soldiers were attacking all elves. Raping, Killing, Plundering. All acts that would lead to depravity appeared in this scene. It would then change to the Phoenix Race, having the same scenery. Alex felt nothing upon watching this, knowing that this was only an illusion. Judging how the Seraphim told him, it seemed this was another possibility of him getting all the crystals. The human would grow in strength and start dominating the whole world. Sadly, this might be possible if he was a real citizen in this world. He broke this illusion, saying, "I just want to go back to where I belong. I am not interested in ruling over just to see something like this." He came back to reality, looking at the Seraphim with a poker face. At the same time, Stina also broke the illusion. She also saw the same picture of Alex bringing the chaos into the world and found it unbelievable. Alex just wanted to go back to the other world. If he wanted to rule the world, he would use her to rule the Phoenix Race first, considering she was his contracted beast. "Good. I have seen that both of you don''t wish for such a thing. If you wish for such a thing, the illusion will engulf you." The seraphim turned to the Phoenix Queen, telling her she did not need to compensate them. "Fufu¡­" Before they continued, they heard Shelka suddenly laughing, surprised to see her not out of the illusion yet. ¡­ Shelka was experiencing the same thing that Alex and Stina saw. However, seeing her race slaughtered, she chose to stop Alex by ''sacrificing'' herself. She let Alex do anything he wanted to her body and eventually, she was pregnant with his child. The human race stopped their conquest after that and she saved the Elven Race. She was happy at that time¡­ because she bore his child, not because her race was saved. Their relationship went wrong at the beginning, but after some time, Alex said he did not know why, but he started to love her. That was her biggest wish. After giving birth to their child, Alex became more and more in love with her. He kept showering her with love and would bring whatever she wanted. At one point, she wanted the world, Alex conquered the whole world just for her. Many beautiful women were trying to climb on Alex''s bed, such as Lilian, Ellen, and so on. Yet, because of the undying love, he refused them and told the world how much he loved her. She became the holy mother, the mother of the world, and respected by all people. Until at one time, she stood upon the world tree and looked down, saying, "I am the mother of the world. If there is someone who dares to steal my husband, I will kill their entire race. Fufu, I love you, my Supreme." Unbeknownst to her, those words became her doom as she also said it out loud in the real world. Dumbfounded, all of them stared at her with a complicated expression¡­ especially Alex. He looked at her with disgust, knowing who the ''Supreme'' in her mouth was. After that moment, she snapped back into reality, looking at Alex, Stina, Seraphim and all others with a blank face. A few seconds later, she realized what she just uttered and asked, "Did I say it?" No one answered her, but she could tell just by looking at Alex''s disgusted expression. Her face became pale as she walked toward him, saying, "Sir¡­ Sir Supreme¡­ Let me explain¡­" Alex closed his eyes, saying with a serious tone. "I have got a reason to send you back to Elven Race." Hearing that alone made her knees soft as she fell on her butt. Despair filled her mind, realizing Alex was disappointed in her and would never fulfill that wish for her. "Sir¡­ Please¡­ Please, let me explain." Shelka begged, but her words went in one ear and out the other. The illusion was to seek their true nature and intention. She was engulfed by it, telling that she wanted the world''s destruction. "I am sorry, Princess Shelka. I would like you to leave the Angel Continent right at this moment. Shall you step upon our land for the second time, we won''t hesitate to raise our arms even if that means we would clash against the Elven Race." Deeming her as dangerous, the Seraphim passed his judgment. "I apologize too, Princess Shelka. I also can''t let you step on our Phoenix Continent." Phoenix Queen stated. They did not kill her because they knew her dream would come true if she were on Alex''s side. Unfortunately, if they stopped Alex from taking the trial, it would prove otherwise, meaning that instead of killing her, it should be enough to separate her from Alex. Alex also understood that. Even so, he still deemed her as dangerous. Taking Nano''s card out of his inventory, he ordered him secretly. "Nano, after this, you will go to the Elven Kingdom. Make sure a certain princess does not do anything funny¡­ "If she tries to, you have my permission¡­ to kill her. I will even use the EXP cards if you don''t have enough power." "Understood." Meanwhile, he was looking at Shelka who was dragged away by Seraphim''s wife with a few others. Despite seeing how desperate she was, Alex did not say anything. It might be better to remove her earlier, but if he did that, he could expect retaliation from the Elven Race. Phoenix Race aside, he doubted Angel Race would help him. This meant he would also need to summon Leoz and the others to fight and that would only lead their progress in the other world into a halt. After sending Shelka back, they continued their conversation. 479 Sins Trial Part 1 In front of him was a tall purple tower. Leading Alex to this place, Zarall explained the trial. "This is our tower of sins. Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Every creature would have at least one sin in their heart, no matter if we are aware of it or not. Even I could not let down my pride. As for the requirement to finish the trial¡­ as long as you arrive at the top of the tower, you can grab our crystal there." Nodding his head, Alex prepared his heart. Since this was only an illusion, he thought he was able to break away from it with his Spirit Eyes. "You can proceed whenever you want." The Phoenix Queen stared at him with a worried expression, hoping he would finish this trial. Alex took a deep breath before stepping inside the tower. There was no door for the entrance, but a few Martial Kings were guarding right in front of the tower, making it impossible to enter normally. Alex nodded to Zarall before entering the tower. According to his Spirit Eyes, this tower had a different kind of energy on each floor, symbolizing each sin. Just a few steps after he came inside the tower, his consciousness was teleported to another place. "?!" Alex looked left and right, observing the new surrounding with his Spirit Eyes. To his right was a dressing table, filled with make-up and the others. He found a giant bed in his front while finding a woman, wearing sexy and transparent lingerie. Her purple hair was wet as she just took a bath, making her appear sexier. Before he could call the woman, another woman came from behind and grabbed his hand. She had long red hair and a very seductive body. Looking at both of them, his heart moved. However, it was not because he was seduced or something¡­ It was because Alex knew these two women. He closed his eyes and muttered, "Alicia, Firia." The women that he had been longing for¡­ his two wives. Alicia smiled as she came to him and held his other hand. Their eyes intertwined, making Alex filled with emotions. Alicia and Firia started to pull him toward the bed before falling to the bed with him. Making a sexy pose and putting his hand on their chest, they said, "Husband. We haven''t done it for a long time. Please¡­" Alex''s hands started to move. Surprisingly, there was no trace of perverted thought in this movement as he slowly placed his hands on their cheeks before hugging both of them. "I am sorry. If only I were not weak back then, Alicia would not need to suffer and Firia did not need to go along with this treacherous path." He said with a hoarse tone, revealing all of his emotions. "I will be fine. We will reunite and I will do whatever I can to make our peace last. So, please go back." The illusion could not do anything other than disappearing, leaving Alex alone in the bed. He then rose up, wondering what to do. "So, what''s next? Do I need to leave the door?" He then stood up, reaching the door with his hand. *Clack!* Before he could pull the door open, he was hugged from behind. He heard as he felt the soft hands trembling. "Alex¡­ How long do I need to wait?" It was Anya''s voice. "Alex¡­ Can you fulfill this single wish of mine¡­ can you just do it one time with Anya." Anna suddenly appeared beside him with a sad expression. Looking at her made him sad, but it was still not shaking his heart. He looked at Anna. "You are a good sister, but being supportive is not the same as begging me like that." "I am sorry for making you wait very long." He then turned to Anya and hugged her, recalling all the memories about him and Anya. At a time, she was a seductress. On another time, she became an intelligent beauty, making one plan after another. Even so, her existence had left a mark in his heart. "Even though you are an illusion, I still need to thank you. I have decided not to run away anymore and confront her feelings from head-on." Both of them then disappeared, making him think that he passed the test. However, another woman suddenly appeared. She had long black hair tied into a ponytail. Her face was slightly beautiful, with a graceful body. "Alex, I am sorry¡­ I am sorry for betraying you¡­ Please, forgive me. I will do anything you want, so can we go back together again." Seeing this only made him furious, not lust. After all, the woman in front of him was Sandra. Alex clenched his fist and complained. "Is the illusion even trying? This is certainly not a trial of lust, but wrath¡­ Sherry!" Instinctively he called Sherry''s name, hoping she would come and beat the woman in front of him as usual. Of course, Alex realized that Sherry would not appear in this illusion. Surprisingly, his expectation was betrayed again as a silver-haired young girl appeared out of nowhere and kicked Sandra on the face. The young girl had fox ears with a tip of pink fur on her ears. Even her hair and tails had the pink tip. She appeared to be a 10 years old young girl, wearing a male T-shirt that was too big for her body. "Master. The target has been neutralized." The fox girl reported before looking at Alex with her big cute eyes. "Master¡­ I also want to be treated like Elder Sister Alicia and Firia. I want to be like Elder Sister Anna and Anya that come to your life." Hearing this, there was no other thought other than disappointment. He patted Sherry''s head and said as he pointed at the door behind him. "Grow first. I don''t want the FBI to slam my door open at night." (FBI: Why always me?) "FBI? What is that?" "Anyway, grow first and we can talk about that." Alex patted her head until she disappeared. To his surprise, the next woman was Shelka. He did not know why, but he waved his hand, killing her in a single blow out of reflex. He sighed, thinking how ridiculous this test was. "Anyway, there should be no one left unless the trial wants to piss me off." It turned out he was right. The next one was Stina, who Alex rejected the instant she appeared. She was Kyle''s. Even with Kyle losing his memory, her faithfulness alone was enough for him to shatter her illusion. "NTR? Sigh¡­ Just end this trial already, there won''t be anyone that will stop me." The moment he muttered those words, a female''s voice was heard. Sadness and disappointment filled her voice, telling him her feelings at the moment. Lying down on the bed, she looked like she wanted to cry. "I see. It seems my effort until now is futile." "!!!" Alex turned his head toward the brown-haired woman on the bed. He wanted to say something, but all the words stuck in her throat, filling his heart with dismay. "I¡­" "I have been with you for the longest¡­ but why¡­ If only I met you with a body, I would be the only one in your heart..." Alex clenched his fists as he said. "You are irreplaceable in my heart and no one could deny that. Regrets, Anxiety, and Loss may fill your heart, but I have promised you, haven''t I? I will find you¡­ definitely." She finally disappeared and as word started appearing in the air, like the thing happened in Phoenix Trial. The writing was: Wives (Check) Ex (Check) Loli (Check) Milf (Check) Hidden Feeling Girl for Plot Twist (Check) This took his breath for a second, never expecting something like this to happen. He berated, "This trial just wants to make me angry¡­ isn''t it?" Meanwhile, the system girl, who was watching this, made a very big smile. "Still¡­ what the heck with the Hidden Feeling Girl. I have been clearly flirting with him from the beginning of his journey." On the other hand, Alex was transported back to reality, looking at the floor that started shining in pink. "!!!" Stina and Zarall were surprised that Alex had finished the first test. Zarall said, "Pink Color¡­ So, he has finished the Lust Trial¡­ Seeing how he is so fast, it seems he is not a person moved by lust. Even a heaven shaking beauty would not shake his firm heart." Unbeknown to him, all the women that he met were Heavenly Beauties, except Sandra. On the other hand, Stina took a deep breath, feeling a bit relieved. "One down¡­ six left." They were watching his progress from the outside, wondering how fast he would finish the trial and which trial took the longest. If they knew about it, they could try to give him some advice after he returned. In the tower, Alex had stepped onto the second floor, preparing his heart to whatever trial he would get. He was teleported again into a continent. Its balance was so vast, making it so easy to identify the poor and the rich. He was also rich and in fact, he was the richest person in this continent. He had been living in luxury for so long and enjoyed that lifestyle while manifesting his money from the poor. Realizing the trial, Alex immediately took action. He did not immediately share his money, thinking it would be a waste. Instead, he bought a basket of the apples and when he met the poor who was begging him for a little bit of money. He gave them this basket of apples instead of money. He said before walking away, "You have strong arms and feet. How about selling this apple instead of waiting for people to give you money?" The person was astonished, looking at the apple and wondering whether he should eat it or sell it like he said. After all, Alex had left the place. After pondering for some time, he took the basket and tried to sell it. It was hard, it was tiring, but when he looked at the money on his hand, it felt the best. He wanted to eat a luxury with this money, but recalling how Alex gave him a basket of apples. He only bought the cheapest meal for his dinner and bought another basket of apples. Bit by bit, he slowly accumulated money and his business started to expand. Making a stand, building a store, and so on. However, even after his success, he would sometimes stroll around the street and give them a basket of apples like Alex did to him. He told people to make money, not begging for it. Alex also kept doing it, spreading people like him. Although the time kept moving forward at a very fast speed, he could say that he had given his wealth so others could make money like him, until all of his wealth was gone and he was teleported back to the real world. Closing his eyes, Alex sighed. "Sadly, it is only an illusion world." The floor started shining in green, signaling him he completed the floor. Stina and Zarall did not know how he did it, but they knew Alex was successful. The third floor was about Gluttony. This was an absurd test for him. In that world, he was still with his old family on Earth. However, the situation between him and his sister was reversed. They would give Alex a sumptuous meal while giving his sister a normal meal. This was the worst test the trial could give him, as he already had a problem with his old family. He immediately gave his sister his food while eating her food himself, telling them that was wrong. As for the taste, he was accustomed to bland food, so he never cared. Besides, cultivators did not need food. 480 Sins Trial Part 2 The next sin was about Sloth, giving him a world where he could stay peacefully with All of his women. He could see Alicia and Firia, Anna and Anya, or even Sherry and his system. He sighed, wanting to stay here. Just like a happy ending, it would be a good place to stay, albeit this trial could not trap here in this kind of environment. Instead, it lit up the fire in his heart to make this place a reality. He stepped forward and shattered the illusion, swearing he would create his paradise in the near future. Unfortunately, if there was Heaven, then there was Hell. The moment he stepped onto the next floor, he would find himself in a very difficult situation. He was teleported into a ruined kingdom. The women he loved were in the ground, dying upon another kingdom''s hand. Wrath can be defined as uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, and even hatred. This test was to see how he would do his vengeance. Previously, he kept saying to himself to not hurt the innocents and even taught his disciple that way. Little did he know that he could say that because everyone targeted him, not the people close to him. The moment he stumbled upon this, seeing his women dying right in front of his eyes. Rage. Rage crept into his head. A Rage that burned so strong as it was strong enough to melt even rock. "Why? This is only an illusion. That''s right. This is only an illusion." Alex kept chanting to calm himself. However, this sight kept coming to his memory and the rage burned even further. Alex suddenly doubted his belief for the first time. He looked at the sky and trembled. His fire soared into the sky and burned the cloud nearby, expressing his rage at this moment. His eyes started losing his light as he slowly made his way toward the kingdom that did this on the planted memory of this illusion. His rage directed at all people in this kingdom, not only the soldiers or the sovereign of this kingdom but all. He burned everything to the dust, killing every person who was in his way, even if they were only ordinary citizens. He killed the sovereign and 90 percent of the entire population. The last 10 percent managed to escape as Alex never spotted. However, he undoubtedly failed the trial. It teleported back, making him experience it again. The trial started working to its potential and trapped Alex in a loop. This would be the reason why people could go crazy upon failing the trial. The Seraphim told him that his time limit was a month. Any longer than that would be counted as his loss. He had finished the first four sins with flying color, but he stumbled upon this sin of wrath. If he were the one who got attacked, he would only kill the culprit, but his women would be in a different case. The scene continued to repeat, making Alex in misery. Kill¡­ Kill¡­ Kill¡­ 100.000 people¡­ 200.000 people¡­ 1.000.000 people... Even after knowing that this was just an illusion and the scene was just repeating, Alex still could not control his rage. Surprisingly, Lin Xingzhi only stared at him, watching him carefully. She did not stop him, as this was undoubtedly his biggest setback. Her heart wrenched in pain but she knew this was the part of him that would never change. She closed her eyes, remembering how Alex became a demon when his family or friends got hurt, but just laughed when the others mocked him or something. She closed her eyes and said, "Kill¡­ I won''t stop you from killing them. However, I do believe you can solve this¡­" Alex was looking at the sky. It was raining, but even the rainwater could not extinguish his hatred. "I admit that what I did was wrong, but even if it kills me, I just can''t find myself regretting my action. "If someone wants to kill me, I will get rid of that someone. However, if they tried to do something toward my wives, I would kill all of them. I don''t care who is in my way, I will even destroy Heaven if it is in my way. "This is not my weakness. This is my strength and my resolve to protect my friends and family. Even if it means my name shall go down in history as a tyrant, I will not stop. "My enemies will tremble just from hearing my name and they won''t dare to touch my friends and family. I swear that this is my shield, not a weapon." He roared to the sky. If his friends used this resolve as their weapon to get something they wanted, he would personally cut them down. Upon hearing his words, the sky trembled, sending a lightning strike upon him. The lightning strike was in the real world, hitting Alex inside the tower of sins. "!!!" Stina and Zarall were taken aback by this incident, knowing something went wrong. They knew Alex had stopped in this wrath place for two weeks and had been worrying about him. Unexpectedly, before stepping inside the tower to stop Alex, a huge amount of killing intent shook the entire mainland. "This¡­ What is this¡­" Stina was trembling upon feeling this killing intent. "Seraphim, What is this?" "Seeing this killing intent, I know he must be in the Wrath test right now. However, he should not be releasing something like this if he is in the test. In other words, he just breaks free from the illusion. "And this killing intent¡­ how many did he kill?" Seraphim trembled in shock. "What is the trial for Wrath?" Stina asked him with worried expressions. "I¡­ I don''t know¡­ the exact detail is unknown but it certainly involves killing. It seems the trial is about revenge." Seraphim clenched his fists. "Then, did he fail?" Stina gulped down. "No. I don''t know if it is because of the lightning strike or another thing, he undoubtedly completes the mission." Little did they know it was because of his will alone. He was determined to clash with heaven for the sake of dealing with his wrath, albeit he did not know any single thing that just happened, including the killing intent and lightning strike. Alex only knew he accepted the rage in his heart and would never change it. This rage was not for the sake of revenge but to protect his loved ones. It became a determination or sort and was recognized by the world as it sent down a lightning strike, breaking the endless loop of his trial. The moment he returned to reality, he looked left and right, not knowing what just happened and why he was able to break free from the illusion. Even if someone asked him to release that amount of killing intent, he would not be able to do it. "System, what happened?" [You can continue, Host.] Lin Xingzhi only smiled, acknowledging his answer. A rage¡­ A rage to protect his family. Although it was different from his previous life, there were still some similarities. Alex was confused to see the system answer. Usually, she would not answer his question when he was in the trial, it seemed there was something good happening today. Knowing that, he couldn''t help but smile as he stepped forward. As long as he was able to break free from that endless loop of misery, he did not mind the rest. The sixth sin was Envy. The world portrayed his previous life and tried to make him envy his little sister. As one would expect, he had matured enough to ignore something that insignificant. His Pure Fire had already made him a top talent. He also had the unique Sword, Spear, Alchemist, and Array Mastery. Above all, he had a Gacha System. He could not picture someone who would have more talents than him. The world instantly crumbled and Alex stepped forward. Seeing the purple light shining, Stina and Zarall felt relieved. This would mean that Alex almost finished the trial. Zarall looked at the last floor which was the floor of pride. He stumbled when taking this trial by himself before becoming the sovereign of Angel Race. Even so, after a few teachings from many masters, he could control his pride unless the opposite party had crossed the line. He hoped Alex could pass the test, remembering the tale of Supreme. On the seventh floor, Alex got several problems. The first one was inside a country where he met the king. Alex had no problem greeting them in courtesy even if their strength was far below him. If they tried to force him, he would just release his strength showing that he was superior and yet, he still greeted them politely. The second problem was sometime in the future, his son made trouble for many people. He, as his father, would lower his head to apologize. He never cared about this false pride anyway. He would apologize if he was wrong and he believed he could teach his sons and daughters in the future to be humble. Of course, if they decided to utilize it to strike him, he would retaliate. After a day, Alex completed the tower of sins and stepped onto the eight floors. The crystal was hovering around the floor, illuminating the whole floor for him. The tower shone so brightly, alarming everyone in the continent. Most of them were clueless about why the continent experienced such a phenomenon while the elderly knew what this meant. Zarall muttered, observing the tower. "He¡­ has the Human Crystal that is supposed to be lost. Even Heaven sent its lightning to help him when he was stuck in the trial of wrath¡­ Is he really the Supreme?" Upon seeing Alex had come back, Zarall was the first one to greet him. "Congratulations on passing the trial. You don''t need to worry about our races as we won''t target you or your closest one. Still, I can only say that you are young and have many rooms for improvement. Believe in yourself and keep getting stronger. "Yes." Alex nodded. "Rest your mind first for a day or two in this place before going back. I am sure your mind is tired after this trial." Alex glanced at the Phoenix Queen, who nodded her head, thinking he should open the Gacha while resting. "Alright. I will take up your invitation." "Good." The Seraphim nodded, thinking about what he should do with this news. "You have gathered four crystals, right?" "Yes." "Then, your next target would be the Dragon Continent." He nodded. Wondering why he was so certain about it, he asked, "May I know why you are so certain about this? I mean, I can take Naga Race''s trial after this." "..." Zarall and Stina made a troubled look. Stina explained, "I am afraid you need to become Tier 6 before you can challenge their trial." "Tier 6? Why is that?" Alex was confused. Before they could answer, the system explained it to him. [Host may remember about the Founder of Heavenly Sword Sect?"] ''Yes.'' Alex said inwardly. [He embedded his soul in that stone fragment. This is the ability of a Martial King''s soul. To embed or trap your soul into an inmate object.] [However, if you take a look at Zwaka. He has separated his soul from his body, making him able to wield all the things inside his palace. This is the Martial Emperor''s ability to separate a wisp of your soul while maintaining your main body consciousness. [Lastly, you can take a look at your Master. That is the ability of Martial Monarch''s and Martial Saint''s soul. Your soul will have Spiritual Energy reserves and utilize it. As for Martial Saint''s soul, you can have all of your mental energy. This is why your Master can create multiple arrays at once, even though it is only a wisp of his soul. Unlike Zwaka, who had embedded his barriers or arrays in his place with his soul, your master did it just by using the energy inside his body. Anyway, you will learn it when you reach that stage.] [I assume, the trial is related to that.] 481 Alexs View Alex was staying over in the flying continent. Having no interest made him lazy to even go out, enjoying the town. He had not used his Premium Tickets that he got from beating the Angel Trial because he was too occupied in reflecting on the previous trial. He was surprised that despite having beaten the other six sins within two days, he was stopped by the Wrath Trial for about two weeks. He never expected that despite telling himself and the others to spare the innocent, he would do something like that. At first, he thought it must be the pressure that made him do that, albeit, after three days, he could not change his opinion, thinking it was a normal thing to do. Stina finally came to take him back to the Phoenix Continent. However, Zarall accompanied her, wanting to say something to Alex. "Before you go back, can we exchange our view a little." Zarall as the wisest one, would always want to exchange his view with Alex. He was surprised that Alex managed to clear the Tower far faster than him, except the wrath. Alex glanced at Stina, who nodded her head and said, "Sure. It should not take too long anyway." "Yes." Zarall acknowledged. They were staying inside a private courtyard, so seeing they would like to talk, Stina excused herself. "Then, I will wait here." "I think it will be good for the Phoenix Queen to join us. After all, you have lived the longest and I would like to exchange some views with you." Stina pondered for a while before nodding her head. Alex would not mind too, considering she was not an outsider. Besides, she was filled with wisdom and he might be able to get his answer about the Wrath Trial. They walked toward a pavilion in the center of a pond. The scenery was excellent and the atmosphere was calming. Alex loved to sit here when reflecting on the trial. It seemed Zarall was prepared as he took out a pot of tea as soon as they arrived, pouring it for himself, Alex, and Stina. "I suppose we don''t need any pleasantries¡­ So, I will cut to the chase. Seeing the order of your trial was Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. I think we can talk in that order. "I will go first and explain my point of view about Lust. Lust is an intense or unbridled sexual desire¡­ I also have lust in my heart, seeing pretty women and having a desire for them¡­ I think that is pretty normal. However, I don''t have the determination to do such an inhumane thing like rape or anything because I feel like I would betray my wife at that moment." Zarall explained. "To be blunt, Phoenix Queen Stina is a very pretty woman. However, the guilt in my heart would swallow the lust of that. I hope Queen Stina forgives me." "I¡­ I don''t really have the lust in your mouth¡­ Maybe because I love my husband so much, I never think that way." Stina shook her head, glancing at Alex. "I came from a very low place, never experiencing the life of nobility like both of you and I believed because of that, my view of lust was shaped differently. Before the so-called Lust appeared, I would ask myself. "If I lost everything¡­ showed my flaws and could not be strong in the future. Would she¡­ stay beside me?" Alex said, remembering that particular betrayal. "That''s why before thinking about lust or anything, will she accept me when I have nothing? If yes, then I can slowly build up a relationship with her." Stina and Zarall were intrigued, finally realizing why he drove Shelka away. Looking at how she was too obsessed with ''Supreme'' instead of him, Alex would not accept her. "That is a really interesting perspective¡­" Zarall nodded. "If I have a son or daughter, I might want them to start from the bottom. That way, I can see if they love my children from the bottom of their heart or not. I can simply raise their power with enough resources from the palace." The Seraphim said, pondering about Alex''s perspective. "Well, certainly¡­ I met my husband at my lowest point¡­ Unfortunately, my daughter was too late for that." She sighed, wondering if her daughter would forever be single or not. However, the condition would not allow her to stay single, so her only hope was for a right man to appear before her. Zarall nodded. "Anyway, I don''t think we need to discuss Gluttony since we don''t really need to eat. As for Greed¡­ I will be alright as long as my family has enough and the race is happy. I assume the Phoenix Queen shares the same vision as mine¡­" "Yeah." She nodded. "Greed huh¡­ I don''t really have an exact view of greed. I have my goal and to reach that goal, I need more and more money. However, I would always think about it over and over again before I decide to get that money or any precious things." Alex shrugged. "As for the next topic, I have many things to do and could not procrastinate. So, Sloth is a no go to me." "Well, there is always a desire to rest in our hearts. As long as it is not too much, it should be alright." Zarall nodded, skipping the topic before having a serious expression. "As for Wrath¡­ may I know your perspective first?" Zarall released pressure from his eyes, telling him that he might do something if Alex''s answer would lead to an act of depravity. Alex simply shook his head. "If they come for me, I would slaughter my enemies and spare the innocent. However, if they come for my family, then don''t expect me to spare anyone because this is my Wrath. No one could change it." Seeing the light in Alex''s eyes, he sighed. "Around three thousand years ago. A great coalition army of three races led by Dragon Race almost led the Angel Race to extinction. The reason was because of my grandfather''s rage. "He once tried to take the trials to the other races. He had completed the trial from Phoenix Race, and Elven Race. However, because of the treatment he received from the two Royal Family. "The moment he finished the Dragon Race''s trial, he decided to attack them, considering they could not attack him. After that, he attacked the Phoenix Race and Elven Race too. "He enjoyed the satisfaction for a while until he was defeated in the fourth trial, Naga Race''s trial." "The three races took that chance to make a coalition army and strike back after getting back their race crystal. "It was at that perilous time my father was born. And since then, I have seen many great things on the way here to today. And there has been one thing that I have always believed in. One should only strike at their enemies, not innocent. "Because he attacked the dragon race that he had confidence in attacking the two other races," Zarall explained. "Your Grandfather is a jerk. You can''t blame me for giving him a bad treatment. He dared to ask for a palace woman to accompany him." Stina snorted, making the so-called Grandfather the bad one. On the other hand, Zarall''s expression darkened, telling her he was having a serious conversation here. "Cough¡­ I think our conversation will end here. The Race Crystals could be considered as a weapon itself as we could non attack the one who has the crystal. For example, you can attack me, but I can''t attack you¡­ That is the power of the crystal. "Actually, this talk is not about exchanging views but for this. For an alliance between you and our Angel Race." He sighed. "Our Angel Race can help you to get all the six crystals or at least help you pressure the other races to let you take the trial without bloodshed." "An alliance? And how would such an enterprise benefit the Angel Race?" Alex was amazed. "If I go to the other races¡­ Having an ally like you beside the Phoenix Queen would be the greatest advantage I could hope for out of an alliance. I am just looking for a chance to go to the other world and won''t hesitate to bury anyone that stands in my way¡­." Zarall suddenly spoke with a serious expression. "Such as you say, there is no telling about the future. After getting the six crystals, you can be considered as the Supreme and no one could attack you. If you want to rule all races, you can. "In this talk, I want to see what kind of person you are. Your eyes tell me that you will fly straight like an arrow, which means you will only accomplish your goal and won''t deviate. I am relieved after this talk¡­ However, The view from the top is different¡­ and when the time you arrive at the top comes, should your eyes have changed and become clouded by impurity¡­ Then Angel Race shall fight to the last man to protect their home even if we can only expel you from this world." Just like the first test, he was still worried that Alex would bring chaos to this world the moment he had all the crystals. He had seen many people get swallowed by their own power and hope not to see the same. Alex simply nodded his head. "You said I would fly straight like an arrow, then you don''t need to worry about that. After all, the arrow has yet to strike at the target. "I think we should wrap this up before the talk becomes more and more confusing." Stina nodded as she felt the talk became a bit nonsense¡­ or might because she knew about Alex''s goal that she was convinced that Alex would not do anything. They forgot to talk about the two other sins because of the heated situation earlier. "Indeed¡­ this is just my personal rant¡­ I apologize for that." He sighed. "However, you may want to be careful against the Elven Princess. With her personality, there is no telling what she would do." "I have already made an arrangement for that." Alex nodded. "Then, I shall see you off," Zarall said to Alex and Stina. They nodded, walking toward the phoenix that carried them up here. They were then escorted by soldiers out of the continent. Zarall said, "Our Angel Race would await your news." Alex and Stina then went back toward the Phoenix Race. The Queen was aware of one thing¡­ The fact that she brought Alex here would mean it would become big news to the other races. And she was planning to inform Alex about that when they arrived at the Phoenix Continent. 482 Reaction of the Two Races Two weeks ago, Such as the queen predicted, not long after she visited the Flying continent and the Naga Race and Dragon Race heard about it. If their distance were not that far, even the Human Race and Elven Race would already hear the news. Inside Naga Race''s Palace Hall, stood tall a person, half-fish and half-snake, looking at his advisors. He took a glimpse of everyone''s expression before starting the meeting. "I have heard that a Human is challenging Angel''s race trial¡­ and he even comes with the rumored Elven Princess, Shelka La Muerte and the Phoenix Queen, Stina Blaze¡­" "Your Majesty¡­ The crystal is supposed to be lost for thousands of years. Did the human hide it from us?" One of his aides said. The others also thought the same way as him. Only the king and a few others had another thought. "No. We can safely assume that the Human Race did not have it this whole time. It is only because of this human''s appearance that no one knows that the crystal manifests itself. I assume¡­ he is the one in the prophecy." He said. "!!!" The one thing that everyone wanted to avoid was brought here by their king, Neptune. They did not want to talk about it because they wished their later generation would be the Supreme¡­ albeit fate turned unexpected. Not only was it not their race that got chosen, the soon to be Supreme hailed from the Human Race, the weakest race at the moment. "I know what you are thinking¡­ However, there should be something special for this human to be chosen by the world itself¡­ I assume we can wait and see how it goes first in the Dragon Continent. After all, they should also hear about him and realize he would come toward them next. Do we have any report about his power?" The Neptune looked down, weighing something in his mind. "We have asked the investigation team to move." One of the ministers reported. "According to the information¡­ Elven Princess Shelka La Muerte was sent back to the Elven Race. We don''t know the exact reason, but we can assume they have a little friction. As for his power, we don''t know anything other than his Fire Element and his 6-Star Tier 5 strength." "..." Neptune did not say anything for a few minutes before saying, "It seems their relationship was not that good¡­ With Phoenix Queen at the helm and a Challenger shielding her, that wise Seraphim should know it was not a good move to send her back just like that, especially considering the human needed to take the ship in Elven Race''s border to go toward the Phoenix Race. "So, we can safely assume that because of some conflicts, the human already wanted to send her back but lack a good reason to do that. With how the things escalated in that particular meeting, the Seraphim decided to expel her and he did not stop him." "A good reason?" The aides exchanged looks, trying to understand what he meant. Seeing it took them so long (a few seconds) to understand it, the Neptune answered them quickly. "If I am an Elven King, I would then use my talented daughter to accompany the Supreme after seeing no one has made a move, especially the Human Race. She is a rare beauty after all. "Having her by your side for too long, she might enter your heart before you know it. At that time, the Elven Royal Family will rule the world by using him¡­ no, by using the six crystals." "Your Majesty¡­ There is something wrong about this. Doesn''t the Elven Race have that custom where they forbid marriage with another race?" One of the aides asked. "Custom¡­ No, it is more like a Law of the entire race. Law¡­ Law is a way to guide your race and its people toward the ideal state that one envisions. Using the Punishment as a tool to prevent anyone from breaking it, the Elven Race has managed to have their bloodline pure¡­ And now he has come¡­ an existence that can shake their foundation. If I need to choose whether to abide by the custom or make an exception, I will choose the latter without a doubt." "Your Majesty¡­ Are you planning¡­" The minister noticed something off, albeit the king simply shrugged his shoulder as he said, "No. It is already too late anyway and looking at how the Elven Princess was sent back, it would mean the human did not have any interest in that. "If we have a report about the trial in Angel Race, I am sure he does not have trouble in the Lust Trial. Anyway, call Elder Shinran and my first son." "If I may ask, is the Prince and the Elder going to stop the Human?" One of the ministers asked. The answer came with the form of a box that Neptune took out from his space ring, channeling his energy inside the box. However, there was another trick inside this box that Alex would find when he got it. "Tell my son to bring this box to him and tell the human if he wants to take the trial of our race, he should be able to open this box first." "Yes, Your Majesty." Knowing what the box was, they understood that the Neptune did not intend to hinder Alex. After that, they continued discussing all the things concerning Alex, making the situation pretty heated. Meanwhile, it was also the same in the Dragon Race. They never thought a Human would be able to possess four crystals before anyone knew about it. Normally, it would take at least a year for a person to take four crystals which Alex also took or might be a bit longer. However, the one who decided to gather the crystals usually had a certain amount of prestige in their name, making the other influences know his presence. Normally, they were people in the Royal Family or related to the Royal Family and in extreme cases, they were an unknown powerful warrior from each respective race. It was different for an unknown Alex. He did not need to get the Human Crystal, making his name hidden for a while. Only after he came to the Angel Race, the other influences managed to know his existence through the spies they planted in each race. Inside the Dragon King''s castle, a golden-haired young man stood tall, looking at a middle-aged and sitting on a throne. Beside him was an old man with very warm but sharp eyes. However, they had the same characteristics, which was the scale on their arms and feet as well as a pair of Dragon Wings and a tail. "You have come¡­ my son." The middle-aged man looked at him with a serious expression. "I am sure you have learned that a human is going to come to our territory soon and challenge the trial¡­ which to fight you." "That¡­ does not matter." The young man shook his head, looking like he did not care. "No matter what he throws at me, I shall stand tall and not be affected by it." "Fufu¡­ It seems the Golden Prince is very eager to fight this human." The old man smirked, looking at the golden-haired young man with a serious expression. "Father, I am going." The golden-haired man said with determination. *Bang!* The door was slammed as a golden-haired beauty coming inside. "It seems I have come back at the right time." "Yeah. You have come at the right time. This foolish brother of yours is going to strike the human before the trial even begins." The Dragon King sighed. "Fufu¡­ You can''t do that, Little Brother. You remember a certain case from Angel Race, right? If you attack him before the trial, he might attack us after getting the crystal because of the hatred." The young girl explained. "Don''t look down on me. My way of life does not involve anything as foolish as sowing hatred." The young man clenched his fists. "Hoh? Then what does it involve?" The Dragon King narrowed his eyes. "The Proving of my might¡­" He opened his eyes wide and shouted. "I am the strongest younger generation in the world. Apart from proving this, I have no interest in anything else!!" Suddenly, the old man, who had been silent until now, finally spoken. "Hoho¡­ Strongest in the world, you say? Hoho¡­ that is quite odd¡­ Isn''t there already someone stronger than you right here?" Turning his head toward the young girl, he asked, "Isn''t that right, my granddaughter, Levi?" Indescribable tension started filling the hall, making it hard to breathe. The young girl simply closed her eyes and said, "That is going too far for a joke, Grandfather." "Hoho¡­ Is that so? Then, let''s pretend I said nothing." The old man sighed, knowing what she meant. She was one hundred years older than her little brother. Although she could be considered as one of the younger generations, it was wrong to compare her to the young man. "Still, to think little brother wants to visit the human¡­ it is completely insane but also pretty interesting." The young girl smiled. "What do you mean by that?" The Dragon King asked. "As Little Qeigess said, he wants to prove himself as the strongest. However, he himself is someone different than reported. In other words, if the human comes to this place without knowing what would meet him, there is no proof or whatsoever." She explained. "That''s it. I am going." The young man turned his body and started walking away. "Hoho¡­ since this grandson of mine wants to tell something like this to the human, then I shall accompany him to stop the Phoenix Queen from going rampage." The old man chuckled as he followed the young man. The other two could only sigh. The Princess said, "This will be bad, Father. Even for the sake of the test, Qeigess wants to do it in the wrong way." "Yeah. This is why I make you my successor instead of him. Anyway, take Our Dragon Strengthening Technique and give it to the human for compensation and I will leave the explanation to you." "Dragon Strengthening Technique? Father¡­ Are you sure? This is our royal family''s technique." "Yes. You have yet to know about this, but the Supreme wants the one in the prophecy to learn it too." He said. "Grandfather also knows about this and I assume he has that technique in his Space Ring¡­ Albeit, it is the copy that he has in his whole life. That''s why bring a newer one." "Ah. Does Father want the Human to learn without any personal notes from Grandfather?" The princess realized his intention. Sadly, she was too serious about it. The king simply shook his head as he explained. "No¡­ Your grandfather is two thousand years old¡­ Just picture how worn out that book is? And do you think it is appropriate to give the human that?" "..." Speechless. She never expected that her father would answer like that. "Ehm¡­ I will get the new one then and chase both of them¡­" She then left the room, leaving the dragon king alone. He looked at the ceiling and sighed, thinking about the Supreme''s note. The Supreme was half-dragon and half-phoenix¡­ Although he got prejudiced by the Dragon Race in his early days, after the enemies came, he would still protect the race with his life. Before he left the world, the Supreme said, "When the time that someone is chosen by the world would ever come in the future¡­ whether it is a few thousand years in the future, please give him the Dragon Strengthening Technique. We¡­ No, the world owes him a greater debt." Even if he did not know what he meant, the Dragon Race still owed the Supreme that much. With this, they should have fulfilled the promise. He sighed¡­ "Hopefully, this is the right choice¡­" 483 Dragon Race On the other hand, Alex and the Phoenix Queen never expected to be attacked by those people. After a full two weeks flying across the ocean, they arrived at the Phoenix Continent again, flying toward the castle. At this time, an overbearing pressure appeared out of nowhere as three people stood in their way. The Phoenix Queen recognized them and furrowed her eyebrows, moving in front of Alex to protect him. "Hoh¡­ To think the Phoenix Queen could break the barrier that no Ruler can and breakthrough to 8-Star¡­ I thought 7-Star is the barrier where we can''t advance anymore¡­" "..." She ignored his pleasantries and cut to the chase. "I still need an explanation for this¡­" Alex frowned his eyebrows the moment he saw the two young people with his Spirit Eyes. The female was a 3-Star Martial Emperor while the male was a 10-Star Martial King. However, what made him frown was the fact that the younger one channeled the energy into his fist. He took a glimpse of the old man and shouted. "Be careful!" The moment his shout rang in their ears, the old man instantly appeared between him and Stina, looking at Stina while releasing his energy. "Well, there is only a passionate woman who wants to warn his rival not to come to seek death." "!!!" Stina opened her eyes wide as she disappeared, moving toward Alex. Unfortunately, her path was blocked by the old man, not letting her protect Alex. The young man appeared in front of him and threw a fist toward Alex, like the first time Alex met Lilian. Alex could somehow realize how much strength in that fist and instinctively used his Spirit Step. "First Spirit Step." The soul inside his body stomped the ground as hard as it could. Alex''s body started attracting all the energy in his surroundings. "!!!" The female noticed a sudden decrease in energy in their surroundings, just like having a dry and hot atmosphere from a cold and humid room. Taking a glance at Alex, she realized, "Energy is coming to his body?" Even noticing that was useless as their fists had collided, making the ground shake for an instant. It was a brief but powerful exchange as Alex was blown away. "Bam!" Crashing to the ground, Alex felt his hand numb because of that fist. His strength was around 80 dragon strength and the Spirit Step increased 40 dragon strength, totaling 120 dragon strength. Surprisingly, the 10-Star Martial King in front of him had almost twice his strength. On the other hand, the female opened her mouth in surprise. "Little Brother, your hand¡­" She was surprised by the wound in his hand. Although Qeigess certainly won that exchange, it seemed the human was not a pushover. Qeigess raised his hand, observing the damage. There were several shallow cut wounds on his hand, turning his hand into blue by the bleeding. Within Alex''s strike was a sharp and powerful intent, causing this wound on Qeigess''s strong body. "What do you think you are doing?!" Stina was enraged, enveloping her body with flame before turning into a giant phoenix. After having fused with Alex''s flame, her fire became even more powerful¡­ powerful enough to give a feeling of dread in the old man''s heart. "This is only a misunderstanding¡­" The old man wanted to stop her. Sadly, before he could do that, Alex attacked the young man, pissed by this treatment. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." The young man raised his hand, creating a ball of lightning. Swinging his hand downwards, he threw the lightning ball. The lightning tried to pierce the phoenix while the latter tried to burn the lightning, making each attack disappear at the same time. The young man furrowed his eyebrows, thinking he had held back in that exchange, but Alex was not grateful to him. Rage crept in his heart as lightning started covering his body as the scales on his body started glowing and turned him into a giant dragon. It was a golden dragon with a wingspan of twenty meters. His height alone was close to the Phoenix Queen, which was 30 meters while his appearance was close to those of western dragons. Flapping its wings, he tried to fly before making another attack, but the female suddenly appeared on top of him, kicking his head to the ground. "Boom!" The majestic dragon had his head buried inside the ground, making him look ridiculous. "!!!" Stina also noticed this, turning his head toward the old man to hear the explanation. Levi sighed, complaining about Qeigess''s attitude. He was on the wrong but still raging after that attack, and this completely disappointed her. "You said it would only take one punch¡­ so why the heck do you reveal your dragon form¡­" After silencing him, she turned to Alex and bowed her head. "I apologize for my little brother for this stunt. He does not have a bad intention as he only wants to tell you his strength so you can fight him in equal footing. "By the time you reach our continent and challenge the trial, you will fight him. What he wants is an equal fight, so if you challenge us blindly, you will only be defeated¡­ And that is the reason why he did this. "Of course, we do feel bad¡­ That''s why we have prepared this." She took out a book from her space ring before handing it to Alex. "This is Dragon Strengthening Technique and also our Royal Family''s highest grade technique." "!!!" While Alex was confused by this, Stina was surprised by the book as she clearly recognized the book. "That book¡­" "That''s right. This is only a misunderstanding, Phoenix Queen. I am planning to give that book to him, but because I heard my grandson plan, I choose to do it this way. "Of course, doing this will make our reputation bad in others'' eyes, so I am going to compensate for it." The old man threw a Space Ring toward her, leading her to change back to her human form. "What do you mean by this?" "I am sure that he will come to our continent next but by the time he does not know the opposite party strength¡­ he will just come for nothing¡­ After all, my grandson''s strength is different from the reported." The old man explained. "You¡­ are lucky," Stina said before closing her eyes, remembering Alex''s view about Wrath. If they somehow attacked his family member to draw him out just to test him, the Dragons might perish the moment he got the strength. Little did she know that he already had the strength to pick a fight with the Dragon Race. With his current cultivation, he could level up his spirits to 6-Star Martial Emperors. At that time, the Spirits would let them experience what it meant by terrifying. The old man ignored it as he glanced at the other side. It seemed that their situation was resolved by that Princess. Levi and Qeigess came back along with him a few minutes later. At the same time, Stina approached him, looking at him with a worried expression. "Are you alright?" "Yes." Alex nodded, storing the book inside him. "What are you going to do now? Do you think challenging him is possible?" Stina asked. "Hmm¡­ I don''t think I can for the time being. His strength alone was almost twice of myself." He shook his head. Stina furrowed her eyebrows. "This might not be good because his strength would be doubled with his dragon form¡­ and you need to handle his lightning too." Alex thought for a while, coming up with a plan. He did not care about his Lightning, as he already had a plan on how to handle it. However, when he heard his strength would be doubled in his dragon form, this might certainly be dangerous for him. He never thought 10-Star Martial King would have around 400 Dragon Strength¡­ (AN: Dragon with Dragon Strength...) [Host¡­ you are not the only weird one in the world. I mean, the world is vast and you are not the only genius out there¡­ If I compare it to the stories from your world, you can think of him as the Main Character in this world.] "I know. I am not a Genius in the first place¡­ considering I was just a commoner that was dragged to another world." He replied. [Screw Talent¡­ with enough resources and fateful encounters, you can be the best.] "I can''t acquire a Pure Fire though, only a Sacrificial Fire¡­" [...] This time, Alex was the one who silenced the system. Feeling good, he smiled before looking at Stina. "Anyway. I think I will train first before challenging him." "What are you going to do after you beat him and get the crystal? You won''t do¡­" Stina paused as she looked at Alex''s smiling face. "Don''t worry. I am not that petty since they did not attack my family member¡­ including you. However, I will certainly remember this grudge¡­ When I come and challenge him would be the day to make him pay." "If you do something excessive, I might be forced to stop you, Master," Stina said. "I know. Anyway, we should go back first." "Indeed. However, I need to remind you once more. I am your contracted beast now. Although I have broken my limit and became the only 8-Star in this world. I am still unable to protect you if all the races are trying to attack you at the same time." She sighed. "Yeah. I am not that foolish. As long as they don''t cross the line, that is." He shrugged. She shook her head helplessly and went back together with him. The moment Alex came back, Sherry threw herself at him, revealing her progress. Of course, Alex was happy after looking at her progress but he had another important thing to do. He looked at Anya for a while before sighing. There was only one last wall to break before he could fully accept her. By this time, Shelka had arrived back home. Nano immediately informed Alex concerning this matter. "Young Master. That princess has arrived. After telling the King about the journey and the reason, she had yet to do anything. The king was also the same. I assume they are going to do something about this. "I apologize if I use rude words, but I need to express this to you, Young Master. She is sick on the head. After she arrived in her bedroom, she started masturbating while thinking about you. Currently, she is asleep, but I feel she will be a threat to us. Should I kill her?" "..." Alex coughed a few times, surprised by the report. It seemed the princess was sexually frustrated. "Leave her be for now. As long as she does not make trouble for us before we go back to the other side, I will not do anything. Of course, if she is planning something, we might need to kill her." "Understood. I shall continue my observation." "Yes." After answering, he went back to his room to learn about the Dragon Strengthening Technique, wondering what kind of book it was. According to Stina, this book was an ancient book which the previous Supreme used. It was the current strongest body refining technique, capable of increasing a few hundred dragon strengths. ''Dragon Strengthening Technique is a Powerful Strengthening Technique that is linked to one''s soul. The premise is to strengthen the bone, allowing one to draw out his/her latent potential.'' Alex was intrigued by the technique as it was something similar to Undying Body Refinement, albeit without any special ingredients. He only needed to take another session of gruesome training and his strength would increase. At first, he wondered if this would drive him away from humanity, but after checking a few times, there was no such thing. So, he proceeded in his training again. Before that, he came to Anya and asked, "What is the progress on the other side?" 484 Spirit Nest and Song Yu On the Northern Continent, A small wooden house stood tall on a cliff, making people think it was a shack. However, this house, which made everyone stay away, actually had a big secret underneath. There was a tunnel right below the house, leading to the cave inside the cliff. In that cave, there was enough lighting, comfy furniture, and cultivation rooms, making it a nice base. This was the Spirit Nest''s headquarters. Greg found this special cave with his ability after Anna requested for a base. When the others agreed with this place, Greg started making the tunnel for this cave while the others made a run-down house to avoid anyone''s attention. There was one entrance at the bottom of the cliff. Still, they blocked it to prevent anyone from noticing and made that shack to redirect other people''s attention. They also made a secret entrance in case someone decided to investigate this house. Anna was asking Ngina, who was stationed on the Willow Continent. "Yes. Lady Rose reached the peak Martial Grandmaster Stage yesterday. She also had done the missions according to the Master''s decision. Although she was a bit sad because of the sudden disappearance of Master and Mistress Anya, we somehow raised her determination with a little lie. "As for Evelyn, she broke through to 9-Star Martial Lord Stage a month ago and should advance by another star pretty soon. Because of Lady Rose''s progress, she halted everything and chose to cultivate all the time. "Albeit, because Master''s Bow Mastery and Lightning Technique, Lady Rose cultivated by leaps and bounds. If we have a Lightning Gem, we could raise her power and cultivation speed even more." Ngina reported. "Yes. As for Lightning Gem, you should not worry about that. She should acquire it by herself. As for Evelyn, she has good progress, but she would not be able to help Alex with that speed. If she decides to go to another continent, then try to make her go to Blackwade Clan. If not, then it will be the end of our relationship. After all, not only would she endanger herself with that puny power, she would also put Alex in a dangerous situation." Anna sighed. She had a lot of hope for this Evelyn and thought she could become strong if she had enough resources, albeit she had limits because Alex did not teach her to consolidate her power every five stars. Unlike Rose, Evelyn was neither his disciple or protege, so Alex never taught her that. Besides, when he wanted to tell her about that, she had become a Martial Grandmaster, making it a bit too late to start. As for Rose, the moment Alex was teleported to another world and Anya chased him, she manipulated the information about Alex. She told Rose that Alex needed to go back and could not teach her again because of some circumstances. The only way to take him back was to become strong and go to his family. Only that she could free him from that prison. With a few more bullsh*ts, Rose was convinced. Not only did she need to become creative, making an ideal schedule for practice and missions, but it also increased her determination. With one year of Alex''s training and another year after Alex was missing. She managed to become a Peak Martial Grandmaster with a solid foundation. Her bow, Lightning Element, brain, beauty, characters, and strength. All of them were top-notch, leaving nothing to be desired. Even Charya could only classify her as a little monster with Alex as the big monster. However¡­ there was one problem¡­ "I have heard that a second rate influence is coming toward this continent. I don''t know what he is up to." Ngina said with a troubled tone. "Oh. That one¡­ It seems they are under Joyful Union Sect. Their plan is to investigate the place where Song Yu grew up. Well, we can wait for Alex to come back first before discussing this. "Considering the information we got from Anya not long ago, he should first reach the Martial Emperor before coming back. That way, the upper limit of our power would be Martial Monarch. Even if we screw that Joyful Union Sect, they could not do anything. "Albeit, Alex most likely will go back around a year from now after looking at his progress¡­ It can''t be helped since there were many long travels and many foundation techniques to learn such as his Spirit Step and such. "Just observe their movement first. If needed, you may eliminate them since, according to our information, the most powerful one was only a 5-Star Martial King. You alone should be enough for that." "Understood. I shall proceed accordingly." After hearing the report, she sighed, thinking about their own problem on the Northern Continent. Jeanne suddenly came to her and said, "Anna. We have a visitor." "Who is it?" "Well¡­ you can''t be more surprised that Song Yu finally came to us." Jeanne chuckled. "Anyway, should we lead her in? It seems there is an important thing." "Yeah. Lead her from the main entrance. Try to observe the situation and see if there are any spies nearby." Anna nodded. "I understand." Jeanne nodded, recalling that Alex wanted them to stay low for the time being and increased their strength. Not long after, Jeanne appeared right behind Song Yu after checking her surroundings. Her appearance did not really change much, such as her short figure, blonde hair, and the others. However, after coming back for almost three years, her cheerful eyes were replaced by serious eyes, making her transform from an energetic beauty to an intelligent beauty. And she even managed to become a peak Martial King in this short time by focusing all the resources she could get to her cultivation. She would be ashamed if her cultivation were below Alex when they met again. Noticing a presence behind her, she turned around only to see a small girl. She was dealing with Anna the entire time, so she never knew about her and her first reaction was. "Hello. Where are you coming from? Are you lost? Do you want me to lead you home?" "Shut up, you busty loli." Jeanne snarled. After all, Song Yu''s height was less than 140 centimeters (4.6 ft), not that different from her. However, Song Yu indeed had great assets for her body, albeit whether a normal one or a busty one was better, it was a never-ending mystery. Looking at her aggressiveness, Song Yu was taken aback. She wanted to say something, but Jeanne beat her first. "If you want to meet Anna, then you better follow me." Jeanne leaped, leading her toward the wooden house. Hearing that, Song Yu quickly followed her. At first, she was surprised they were living in a shack, but after opening some mechanism, the secret door that led to the hidden cave was opened. She was taken aback as this was her first time seeing something like that. Curious about this, she observed the surroundings, trying to notice any small detail. Jeanne led her to a comfortable area where Anna and the others stayed, albeit everyone was doing their own things outside except her, Anna, and Greg. Song Yu looked at Anna, wondering why her progress was slow compared to when she was on the Willow Continent. "May I know what is the purpose of your sudden visit?" Anna suddenly asked. "Ehm¡­" She looked at Jeanne and Greg, not knowing whether she could say or not. "Don''t worry about them. They are his closest aides." Anna introduced Jeanne and Greg. "Actually, I want to give him this." She said, taking out a green box from her space ring. Anna instantly recognized the Green Box as it was the box that Mithra gave her as well as the box he got from the auction, making a complete box like the one in her hand. "A green box?" Anna knew the box but did not know the function. She tried to probe it more from Song Yu. "What is this green box? From the appearance, it seems to contain a powerful array¡­" "This green box¡­ leads to the Strength Plateau." She said. "Strength Plateau? I have heard this name. If I am not wrong, it should be a place where you can get stronger just by walking. I don''t know the exact details though." Jeanne said. "Yes. Well, it is like a very big event for every influence on this continent. Everyone could only participate once in their lifetime. There are around a hundred boxes in this continent, so there are many bloodshed just for this box." She said. Narrowing her eyes, Anna recalled what Mithra said about the box. It was like opening a Pandora Box, making many people chase her until she ultimately died. "There are a thousand white planks on the ground, stretching over two kilometers. Rumors said that whoever could walk until the end, they would gain unparalleled strength. For example, my grandfather could only reach 768th planks and he gained around 100 Dragon Strength. "However, the trial is not that easy as each plank would give more and more pressure until it was unbearable. There are only several people in history that managed to step into the 900th planks. "The realm will be opened for anyone who possesses this box. This event will be held every fifty years, AKA one and a half years from now." "Wow! This is really such a coincidence¡­" Jeanne laughed, making Song Yu confused. "Don''t mind her. Anyway, if it is like what you said, it will be a good opportunity for him. However, I don''t know why you would give him something like this if there are only a hundred boxes out there. I am sure by holding this, our lives will be in danger." Anna looked at Song Yu with a serious expression. "He is my Junior Brother¡­" Song Yu closed her eyes, recalling something in her mind. "Without him, I won''t have the courage to challenge my past earlier¡­ I also heard his achievement in the Willow Continent. I am grateful that because of him, Honda Sana does not die, my Master does not die, or even Evelyn and the others from the Ninth Peak. "Besides, we are dealing business with you guys from the backdoor and could be said that you guys are insane. I could not believe you can achieve many things with a small group like this. You can consider this as my good will, gratitude for him or whatever you want. Anyway, I acquired this box long ago, so my clan does not know about this. If they ask something about this, don''t tell them it is from me." Pondered for a while, Anna nodded. Although they knew Alex had one, since the other party wanted to give this, they had no reason to reject. Alex could give it to someone else in the future, so Anna accepted the box. However, just when she was about to say something, there was a reaction in one of the traps that Nicole had set up. "!!!" "Hmm¡­ Anna, there is another visitor. Judging from the reactions¡­ there are four¡­ no, five people." Jeanne said while Greg confirmed her statement. "?!" Anna furrowed her eyebrows and turned to Song Yu. Seeing her expression, Song Yu immediately shook her head. "I have warned my clan that I will go alone to keep this as a secret." "So¡­ They are trespassers¡­ Jeanne, check their intention first by luring them to a deeper area. If they are just someone who passes by, then let them go. If they are our enemies, we will kill them in a deeper area." "Alright." She nodded, moving toward the exit. "They might want this box¡­" Song Yu said, pointing at the green box. "However, I have made sure to leave no trail¡­" "Well, they might also want to investigate our Spirit Nest. So, depending on the case, we might need to eliminate them¡­ Of course, it won''t be here so the people won''t suspect this place as our base." Anna said. "Should I help?" "... We will see their strength first." 485 Jeanne "I see her coming here." "Yes. I am aware she is going toward this direction. Blackwade Clan has been transacting with this mysterious influence called Spirit Nest. Seeing their heir, Song Yu, coming toward this place without any guards, she must come to meet them." "That''s right. We need to investigate this new influence. Even though they are new, I heard they have many strong fighters¡­" "Besides that, I heard from the rumor that this group is full of handsome men and pretty women!" A group of five were discussing Spirit Nest. The higher up had asked them to investigate this Spirit Nest but always left no clue behind. They were pretty lucky to see Song Yu coming alone to this average place. No one would notice them if they made a base here, considering this place was a jungle with low-level monsters. The energy around this place was also not really good, making them hard to cultivate, but because of this, no one could predict this. How can they predict a powerful group built their base in a place like this. They could not even cultivate in this place because of the lack of energy. Luckily, the Spirits did not need energy to cultivate, only monsters. Only Alex needed the energy to consolidate his foundation while Sherry and Kyle could live with just Spirit Stones and Gathering Array. Observing the shack from a distance, they started planning on how to go inside. On the other hand, Jeanne managed to see their cultivations. "Three 5-Star and two 4-Star Martial Kings¡­ who are they? What can they do with this low power¡­ Do they think they can do anything to Song Yu with their little power¡­ Wait¡­ this presence..." Jeanne signaled Greg to move toward their exit so she could kill them while Anna was talking with Song Yu. Meanwhile, she observed the other presence and was amazed to see a 1-Star Martial Emperor here. He was almost considered a middle-aged man. If only his orange hair and beard were slightly longer, he would look older. His body was not that muscular, but his Spiritual Energy was quite powerful. "This might be bad¡­" Jeanne signaled for Anna to come up. Anna frowned upon seeing this man too, never expecting a Martial Emperor to come. This would mean the other party was serious about it. "I am sorry. This must be my fault. I will lure them away from this place." Song Yu said after coming up together with Anna. "Jeanne, can you beat that Martial Emperor?" "Hmm¡­ I think I can¡­ but I need to use my True Spirit Body." Not shocked by the request, Anna nodded. "Granted. I will handle the others." "The usual plan?" Jeanne asked. "Yeah. Greg is on his way there." "What is the usual plan?" Song Yu asked, wondering what they were going to do. "It''s just a simple plan." Anna shrugged. "You are the guest of the house now. You can consider this as a little tip for the box. Just sit back, relax, get some snacks and wait for us in this place." "But I am a Peak Martial King, I could deal with that Martial Emperor somehow." Song Yu looked at them, telling them she wanted to join. But, Anna simply rejected her. "We are not that weak." She then walked inside and said, "lure them to our usual place." "Aye." "You said you have spotted that Song Yu up to this place¡­ So, where is she?" The Martial Emperor asked. "She should be inside that shack. However, we are waiting for Senior Brother to come since we can''t do anything to her." One of them said. "We will wait for her here. She will eventually come up and we will then start investigating this area." The Martial Emperor said. "Understood." However, at this time, Jeanne came out of the house and leaped between the woods, creating a shadow. Because her and Song Yu''s stature were not that different, the moment they saw this shadow, they were convinced that Song Yu noticed them and tried to run. "That''s¡­" One of them saw that blurry shadow. "This is odd¡­ Blackwade Clan is in the opposite direction." The Martial Emperor frowned before ordering. "You guys check that shack out. There is a possibility for that shack to be an outpost or something and the base is the way she is heading now. I will chase after her." Those five nodded as all of them started moving. Anna simply smiled as she left the clue about the underground tunnel, planning to wipe them out in that tunnel. Because of Anna''s rejection, she did not help and continued to wait for them, believing that Alex''s friends were not that weak. Meanwhile, those people started going down the tunnel, entering the dark cave. Upon seeing the light inside, they knew someone was inside. Sadly, they did not realize Anna was behind them. Butterflies started appearing out of nowhere, making it look unnatural. They looked around to see what was happening, but Anna had moved right above them, smiling as she clenched her scythe. "!!!" The movement of the scythe alarmed them, albeit it was too late. Meanwhile, "Who is it?" After a while, Jeanne stopped on her track and acted like she realized something, leading the Martial Emperor to reveal himself. Surprised with what he found, he furrowed his eyebrows. "You¡­ you are one of the Spirit Nest''s members¡­ To think you are this beautiful. With your little stature, you should be popular with the ones who have weird taste." He said that with confidence after realizing Jeanne was only a 9-Star Martial King while he was a 1-Star Martial Emperor. "I give you two choices. Lead me to your base or I will make you a prostitute." "Hmm¡­ Judging from your way of speaking, I see you are from Joyful Union Sect." Jeanne glared at him. "You should be honored to have the fancy of our sect. If you lead me to your base, our sect can formally take you under our wing." "..." Jeanne looked at him with a weird expression. "You do realize that you are asking a little girl to join an R-18 sect, right? Want me to call the police?" "R-18 Sect? Police?" He was clueless about this term since Jeanne just used the term from Earth. He was only a Senior Brother from the sect who stumbled upon this mission by chance and clearly was not the part of the investigation team or something. He thought there was this term for the Investigation team. "Anyway, the answer is no and your fate is shot to death." Her expression changed as lightning started sparking around her body. "True Spirit Body, Ethereal Lightning Body." Taking out her two short swords, Jeanne charged at him. "!!!" The Martial Emperor was surprised by this and took out his sword, swinging it horizontally. She ducked and waved her right hand, trying to stab his foot. Seeing this, the Martial Emperor jumped to the sky while swinging his sword down. "Great Sword Dragon." The energy on the sword transformed into an eastern dragon, flying toward Jeanne. As for Jeanne, she simply raised her other hand, shooting a lightning spear from her palm. "Natural Lightning Spear." She aimed right toward the dragon''s mouth, piercing it on the sweetest spot. However, as expected from a Martial Emperor, the moment he realized his Martial Art was at a disadvantage, the soul he planted on his Martial Art immediately made his dragon explode, destroying Jeanne''s lightning spear in the process. Seeing this, Jeanne decided to make a risky move. She knew the fight might become big if she did not end it soon. She leaped toward him, using the white smoke as her cover. The Martial Emperor was also not a pushover. He realized her movement by his Sword Domain and swung his sword as hard as possible, trying to mow her down. He was surprised to see a 9-Star Martial King had this much power, so he also needed to get serious. The moment Jeanne revealed herself, his sword was already right on her neck. Jeanne shifted her movement slightly, letting him graze her neck. However, she swung both of her hands, taking one of his arms. "Gaaaaahhh!" He screamed out of pain as he shouted. "You! How dare you do this to me! Joyful Union Sect won''t forgive you! I will make you a prostitute and destroy you!" Jeanne checked her wounds, finding it was only a graze. That was pretty risky, but she needed to quickly end this fight and not leave a huge mark around the area. "I wonder what you will say later the moment you experience the greatest torture¡­ Fufu¡­" Jeanne took a deep breath before charging at him again, ignoring his rumblings. "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark." The lightning from her hands spread to the ground and moved faster than her. It rose from the ground, striking the Martial Emperor like a snake. "Mountain Cleaving Sword." He brushed it off with a single swing, but this swing was what she wanted. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet." She threw one of her swords, aiming toward the Martial Emperor''s sword. "!!!" The Martial Emperor wanted to swing his sword again. Still, because of Jeanne''s Sword, he was late for a split second and Jeanne only needed that split second to stab her other sword on the right side of his heart, trying to cripple him. "You!" He never thought that a Martial King could defeat him just like this. The loss of his arm was huge, reducing his strength and mobility by much. However, it was also true that Jeanne kept using risky moves again and again. Just like the previous attack, if her sword did not manage to stop the last swing, she might get cut by the sword. And there was one more thing. The moment she pierced her other sword on the side of his heart, she would not have any sword again to protect her. This meant the Martial Emperor could turn his body and swing his sword as the last struggle before all energy left his body. "!!!" Jeanne raised both of her hands and aimed at his right hand. "Lightning Spear!" She destroyed his other arms and knocked him down. If there were a mistake on her part, she would be the one losing. Luckily, she had all the experiences she needed to prevent that from happening. "That can''t be." The Martial Emperor stared at empty air, not believing what just happened. Jeanne smirked as she said. "Fufu¡­ I am wondering how long you can hold on!" "You¡­ B*tch. How dare you raise your hands against me! Joyful Union Sect won''t let you off!" He roared. "Joyful Union this, Joyful Union that. I am sick hearing that." She snorted as she took both her swords and came closer to him. "Aaahhh!" Her session just started. ¡­ After a while, he had lost the light in his eyes and kept saying, "Please kill me." Jeanne then used her Second Charge, Bullet and literally shot him to death. Of course, she already got the necessary information from him. She then went back to the base after dealing with the corpse. Anna asked, "How is it?" "They are from Joyful Union. It seems after several failed attempts, they are starting to get real¡­ However, they have not known our place yet as this time, they were just lucky to spot Song Yu. "We are pretty far from cities around us, so we should be safe for a while¡­ at least enough until Master arrives." Jeanne reported. "I see." Anna pondered for a moment. "I will ask Anya about this. You will stay with Greg and me for a bit longer, considering I summon you here because we need to fortify our defense. After a few months, many people should have forgotten about us." "Alright. Well, it will be a boring few months since I can''t play." She sighed, resigning to her fate. "We go back to our base first for further discussion." 486 Timeskip After hearing about the report, Alex was surprised by the function of his green box. He did not know what the Strength Plateau was, but it should be something amazing. He could not wait until he came back and luckily, he did not have anything to do at the moment. So, he continued his gruesome training to increase his power for another three months, increasing his power from 6-Star to 8-Star Martial King. (AN: Are there a lot of timeskip recently?) This speed was normal for him, considering he usually needed a month to increase his cultivation by a star when he was a Martial Lord or below. And unlike the Wilow Continent, he was at peace here, not having many things to do¡­ he did not need to train his disciple and Evelyn, go to war with kingdoms and sects, and many conspiracies. All he needed to worry about was to get stronger and clear the trials as well as Shelka. However, Nano was observing Shelka continuously, so he could just sit back and cultivate. He did not have any senior sisters/brothers or friends in this place, except the Phoenix Queen, who already became his Contracted Beast. As for Ellen, there was not that much interaction between him and her. Besides, Stina would surely solve her problem instead of him. He also did not need to deal with any conspiracies that targeted his friends or families¡­ or at least that''s what he thought. In the first month, the Naga Race''s representatives gave him a little box, saying he needed to open the box before he could challenge the trial. From him and the system observation, it seemed there was a trick on the box which involved the soul. Just as the system said, it appeared someone put their soul in this box, making it impossible to open unless he erased that soul. The only way to erase that soul was to impart his soul inside and beat that remnant soul. In any case, he would need to be a Martial Emperor first before he could challenge the trial. Considering he needed to defeat a 10-Star Martial King golden dragon with 400 dragon strength or equal to a normal 4-Star Martial Emperor, he certainly did not mind breaking through to the Martial Emperor in this world. According to the information, the strongest influence in the Northern Continent, the first rare influence, only had peak Martial Emperor as their backing. With his UR EXP card and turned his spirit to Martial Monarch, he did not need to be afraid of them even if someone knew about the green box in his possession. He was wondering what he should do with the other green box. He certainly did not want it to go to waste. He was planning to give it back to Song Yu in case he did not have a use for them. He had thought of giving it to Evelyn or Rose, letting them increase their strength exponentially. Sadly, they were too weak to take the chance since they needed to be a Martial Emperor not above or below. The only one who had the chance for this was Song Yu, Song Jia, and Alex. Even Putri was not qualified. He also had opened his Premium Gacha Tickets, albeit he did not get anything good from it except the Summoning Tickets. He used the Summoning Tickets and got Anna''s and Leoz''s card as well as two spies, Natalie and Nicky. Natalie was a female wolf while Nicky was a flying squirrel. After leveling them up to Martial King, he sent them to Dragon Continent to check what they were up to. In the second month, there was no event going on, so Alex cultivated peacefully. However, it was changed when the human suddenly came to the Phoenix Continent, demanding Alex to go to the Human Capital with a certain decree. Alex paid no heed to that since he was not a part Human in this world. Of course, with Stina''s protection, they could not do anything. There was a time where the humans sent their princes and princesses to meet the Phoenix Queen. Of course, seeing their number, their target was certainly Alex. They thought Alex might fancy one of them and somehow made them his concubine, sister, brother, or whatever as long as they made a relationship with this unknown person. They even sent Lilian, who seemed to be the closest to him, telling her she would become a royalty if she succeeded. Lilian rejected the idea, but could only receive the order because she was too weak. Sadly, their wish was not fulfilled because Alex locked himself inside his courtyard, not letting anyone get near him. Of course, as his contracted beast, Stina was very supportive of this. However, the news of her breaking the world limit shook the entire world, making them want to know the method to achieve that. After speculating through everything happening in these past few months, they realized it was because of Alex''s appearance, she managed to break the limit. The Elven Race even sent his envoy to mend the relationship between him and Shelka. They even told him it was only a misunderstanding, albeit Nano was still reporting all the perverted things she did in her free time. At the very least, Alex was a bit relieved that she was just a pervert, not a yandere. If she was a yandere, he might need to kill her before she could do something bad to him. After all, her brain was similar to Anya. If Anya was a yandere that would do anything, he could not imagine what would happen. That was why knowing her was a pervert made him feel relieved. In the past three months, Alex also did not forget to ask Stina to search for a few materials, mostly Alchemy Ingredients. He never needed to use his Rank 5 Pills since it was out of the norm here. Besides, there was not much action in this world. Because of that, he only wanted to make Strength Spirit Pill and Diamond Soul Pill. Like their name, Strength Spirit Pill was to increase his strength. Unlike his Giant Strength Pill that only gave him 10 dragon strength, this Strength Spirit Pill could give him 100 dragon strength. Luckily, this world did not know the small blue ball called Pill. If not, he might need to fight a dragon with more than 500 dragon strength. That would be overkill even for him. As for Diamond Soul Pill, it basically increased the soul strength. He did not wish to learn anything other than that because he could simply buy them as the money coming from these two pills would easily cover his expenses. Of course, Stina was confused as to why Alex would need herbs like this. Because no one knew the function of Medicinal herbs, they were pretty much untouched. Because of this, Alex''s eyes blinked a few times as money started filling his eyes. He asked Stina to acquire all the herbs they could get in this continent and the other continents. Since it was going to waste, he should acquire it for himself. Of course, to thank their efforts, Alex was planning to give them the Strength Spirit Pill when he could make it. Thinking about this, Stina agreed without any hesitation since not only would it help Alex, it would also strengthen the race. The phoenixes were also glad to help him with that and started searching for Rank 6 medicinal herbs all around the world. Kyle had reached 10-Star while Sherry had become 9-Star Martial King in this process. After those three months, it was time for Alex to practice his first rank 6 pill. He stumbled across nine medicinal ingredients in front of him while sitting inside the Simulation Array. He channeled his energy into the array and entered the Simulation World together with the ingredients. The first item was a Safflower. It looked like a Sunflower but had a rainbow color instead of yellow. Alex poured his fire inside his furnace, warming it up. After two minutes, he tossed the Safflower inside the warm furnace. Because this was his first time, he did not dare to simultaneously refine all the ingredients since he wanted to know their own characteristics. This was a very important process for every alchemist because sometimes, the practice would be different than theory. The blazing fire started enveloping the Safflower, extracting the rainbow color. Its color came to a certain liquid which was Alex''s target. He melted the entire flower, leaving a single liquid droplet consisting of seven colors. It looked like oil under the sunlight, creating such wondrous and beautiful colors. Alex did not know why, but when he refined the ingredients, he seemed to have better control than before. It might be because of his continuous usage of Element in this world, but he was happy with it. His soul was also helping him quite a bit, suppressing all the energy inside the flower while his fire expelled the impurity. Without resting, Alex tossed the second ingredients, then third ingredients until the last ingredients, refining them one by one in succession. However, he was surprised by the first engagement with the soul of rank 6 monsters, which also could impart their soul in their core, making it more formidable. Alex fought hard and defeated so hard because he was not proficient enough to use his soul. It continued for a hundred times until he could defeat the soul in an efficient way. He looked at the blue pill that brought him so much trouble and destroyed it as he came out of the simulation world. However, he did not stop there. With his current energy, he could refine a few sets of ingredients in one go. So, he quickly entered the simulation world again but started refining two sets of ingredients at the same time, albeit was defeated again and again. He stopped at his limit, which was three pills, feeling that he could not do anymore with his current Mental Energy. Besides, he already refined 27 medicinal ingredients at the same time, making him look like a monster. It took him more than three hundred tries or equal to seven days of training until he got a good grasp of this pill. He was confident in refining three pills at the same time with a 100% success rate and Perfect Purity Quality after this training. After acquiring that technique, Alex finally started refining the pills in the real world, eating it for himself and increasing his strength by a hundred dragon strength. There were two other pills in his hands as he was planning to give it to Ellen and Stina so they could test the pill was legit. He stepped outside his room, checking the situation outside before going to his Array Training as well as body training with the Dragon Strengthening Technique. In front of his room, Anya was talking with Stina, who brought Sherry. 487 Anya Seeing Stina was here, Alex took out one of the Strength Spirit Pill and tossed it to her. "This¡­" Stina looked at the blue crystal rounded object with a confused expression. Even though Alex had offered to give her and the others a medicine for their assistance in getting the medicinal ingredients, no one had yet to know what kind of medicine they would get. "That is the promised medicine," Alex said nonchalantly. "Swallow it and the pill would do the rest." Astonished, she blinked a few times, observing this tiny little pill. She swallowed it without any hesitation, making Alex astonished. However, considering she was also his contracted beast, he could somehow understand it. Or at least that was what she heard from Anya. Anya told her that in his group, you would entrust your life to him as he would also entrust his back to them, connecting them by an unshakable loyalty. Her swallowing the pill proved that she trusted him, not only for Kyle but as his contracted beast, though she was too surprised by the pill. The moment she swallowed the pill, it melted inside her mouth, bursting out a ridiculous amount of energy. The weird thing was the energy did not burst out of her body or fill empty space like gas. Instead, it slowly moved toward her throat just like a liquid before slowly entered her stomach area. In that place, the energy slowly spread around her body, especially her heart, making her full of energy. The fire inside her started moving without her control, refining this energy. After several minutes, the energy completely assimilated with the muscle on her body, increasing her strength by a hundred dragons. This was the process that Alex experienced earlier. "..." She slowly opened her eyes, looking at Alex with shock and amazement. "To think there is a divine medicine like this¡­ and this divine medicine comes from medicinal herbs that we thought useless¡­" "I am not going to teach anyone about this though. Besides, it will be bad if we circulate this pill as a reward for the time being. At least, distribute it right before we leave." Alex said, thinking of the greed from the other continents, especially Dragon Race since they were a race that was proud of their strength. Stina pondered for a moment before nodding her head. "At the very least, I hope my daughter and at least a few others can receive the pill for their contribution. This can convince the others that this pill has no side effect or poison in it. This way, when we distribute the medicinal ingredients'' reward, no one would complain because we have proved it. After all, there might be people who would try to claim this medicine as an evil pill." "Right. Whatever their reason, whether they want to acquire the method to make the pill or anything, there would be someone who is too foolish. Should we change the reward and just exchange the medicinal ingredients with Spirit Stones?" Anya said, glancing at Alex. Alex simply shook his head, "I don''t really need that many medicinal ingredients anyway since I plan to sell it to the Blackwade Clan when we get back. If we change the reward with the Spirit Stones, we only have around 250 million Spirit Stones at the moment, it would not be enough to reward all of them. "However, if we use the pill as a reward, we can just claim one hundred rank 6 medicinal ingredients for one pill. Because this pill is still unknown, it raises the price by much, so they would not think we are tricking them. Besides, they are the ones who collect the medicinal ingredients for the pill anyway. "I use nine medicinal ingredients and one monster core for the ingredients. If we make at least fifty medicinal ingredients for a pill as the price. We will get 40 medicinal ingredients for the refining fee." Alex explained, thinking 40 rank 6 medicinal ingredients for thirty minutes pill refinement, it was far worth the price. Anya could relate what he meant as she turned to Stina. "Still, we could only give the people who were directly involved with the search. So, I think it will be your daughter and a few elders as test subjects." "Yes. There are only my daughter and five elders." Stina nodded. "By the way, how much rank 6 pill on the Northern Continent?" Alex asked Anya. "Around one million to ten million. This Strength Spirit Pill is around 7 million in Perfect Quality. There are several rare pills that can go more than ten million or even twenty million, but it was a rare and hard pill to make. I think it will be better just to buy it from someone if we need something like that." Anya explained. "Indeed. If I make three pills, I will get 21 million. And I don''t even need to buy the ingredients." Alex nodded before shrugging his shoulders, looking at how easy it was to make money. Maybe he should do more other world exploration, grab the resources there and sell it somewhere else. Albeit, he needed the ability to travel between worlds first as this one was pure coincidence. He looked at Stina and tossed another Strength Pill. "This one for the current queen. I have not made the others, so it will take a while." He would most likely need to stay here for a few months since he needed to be a Martial Emperor before challenging the Naga Race. He muttered. "Is there another way to get stronger in this world other than the usual way?" Stina heard it and shook her head. "There is not. Our biggest benefit is our trial gate, where we can get an inheritance. I haven''t heard any other way since a few thousand years ago." Alex could only sigh. The only path for him was to increase his strength to 9-Star and use an Energy Pill to reach 10-Star. After that, he would consolidate his power and breakthrough to the Martial Emperor before challenging the Naga Race. "Alright." Although disappointed, Alex did not really mind since he did not need to have war or competition and could increase his strength peacefully. "Alright. I will make the rest of the pills bit by bit." "Yes." "Since there is nothing more, I will continue my training," Alex said to Anya and Stina before walking toward his room. He finally entered the last two training sessions he needed, Array and Body. He first trained his Array Mastery, wanting to learn a couple of arrays that would help him. Of course, the first three would always be Gathering Array, Illusion Array and Simulation Room. He already stretched too much when he practiced his Alchemy with Rank 5 Simulation Room, so with this new rank 6 Simulation Room, he could start learning other pills more efficiently, albeit it was for a later date. He also practiced a certain array even though it was not the time yet. There was only one reason which was to help him in his fight against that Dragon Prince, especially because of his attack a few months ago. Even though he was convinced that he only wanted to tell him how strong he was, Alex did not forgive him. Although he would not go as far as killing him, beating him black and blue was a must. Last but not least, he practiced a certain array that he always wanted to learn, the rank 6 Barrier Array, the fundamental array for Special Realm, Ruby Phantasm Array but Space Element Master usually called this array with Extended World Array. This barrier array was different from the other barrier arrays because it allowed him to control the flow of life by utilizing his Space Element. The Space Element would bridge the outside world with the inside world, letting necessary elements like air and such to flow inside. And by utilizing the rank 6 Array, Boundary Illusion Array, he could create a cover that could hide this special array from the outside world and lastly, he could use rank 6 Gathering Array to absorb enough energy to maintain this Array, thus creating a special realm. However, there was another trick for this. If he was a Martial Emperor, he could infuse his soul, making a limitation for a special one to enter. For Zwaka, he set it so only Martial Grandmasters could enter while making a time limit of a few ten years before opening it automatically. As for Maxwell, only the person who had his token would be able to enter, like Mithra and him. Alex was planning to use this array to make this special realm as his base of operation, which led Anna to create a lousy base. After that, he trained his body according to the instruction of Dragon Strengthening Technique. The training was actually insane as it was training to expand the limiter inside one''s body. For example, when people thought they could hear ten kilometers, they would be forced to run more than that. Alex punched the air for a few thousand times until he felt he could not do anymore as he was too tired. However, according to the Dragon Strengthening Technique, this was only the mind that made him think like that. He just needed to convince himself to do another punch. Thinking like that, he made another punch before convincing himself to throw another punch. The process repeated itself again and again until Alex could not feel the muscle in his arm anymore. Doing this again and again would then start expanding his limit, thus increasing his overall strength. Of course, doing this as a normal person would strain their muscle and might die because of exhaustion. It was different from cultivators like Alex. He only needed to rest for a while, absorb the energy, and he would be back in full strength. This technique wanted to teach Alex that his brain was the limit. He just needed one more after his ''Limit'' then one more and more until his legs gave up, letting him fall to the ground. It was the first time for Alex to train his body until he collapsed on the ground, too tired to do anything. He finally experienced the feeling of Rose and Evelyn from his devilish training. If they knew Alex wanted to use this method to train them, they might immediately destroy this Dragon Strengthening Technique book and escape from him, unless they truly wanted to go to the path of no return, the Ultimate ''M'' Path. However, just like Rose and Evelyn, who had him to take care of them, he also had Anya. She always came by the moment she noticed Alex had passed his limit, taking care of him. Sometimes, she would create a good mood between them and sometimes Alex would do that. Before long, Alex decided to finally accept her. Alex certainly did not accept her because she took pity or made her wait for so long. It started from the sins trial, making him realize that Anya was also in his heart. In this training, she always made him number one despite having many responsibilities under her shoulder. If it were Shelka, she would jump on Alex and do many irreplaceable things like stimulating his body and going all the way. However, Anya did not do that. She simply put all the work down and headed to him, wiping his sweat, making him comfortable despite laying on the hard ground. They did not do anything perverted. They just purely built the relationship slowly but surely and Alex thought he was happy even without anything lewd, helping him decide to move forward. Until finally, in a certain good mood, Alex decided to take a step forward. Tears of happiness even fell from her eyes at that moment. Even Sherry gave them room and was happy for Anya even though she was longing for that too. Anya poured every bit of emotions she had been holding for thousands of years like Anna. 488 Kyle After the training finished, Alex was born anew. He had mastered a few rank 6 pills and arrays. His strength also increased by 170 dragon strength. 20 dragon strength from two stars breakthrough, 100 dragon strength from Strength Spirit Pill, and another 50 dragon strength from Dragon Strengthening Technique. Although the technique could give him more, Alex felt it would take too long, so he halted the progress for the time being. Besides, it was more than enough to defeat that prince. Coming out of his room, Alex''s eyes swept the room but found no one, making him wonder where everyone was. His answer came in the form of a little boy. He had fiery red hair, running through his shoulder. He wore formal clothes from the Phoenix Race, creating elegance and majestic aura despite his appearance. His phoenix wings had a nostalgic feeling. "Master!" Upon hearing the voice, Alex dropped his jaw, not believing what he just heard. He clearly recognized this voice. "Kyle?" "Yes!" He nodded furiously. "I am glad Master recognized me in an instant." He blinked a few times, trying to confirm whether the little boy in front of him was real or not. Eventually, seeing the box who just broke through to 1-Star Martial Emperor, Alex sighed, convinced. "I see. You are really Kyle¡­" "Are you doubting me, Master? I am really Kyle. I just broke through yesterday and acquired my Human Form. You can look at my wing." He flapped the little wing on his back, creating a weird noise. "I can even change back to my usual form if you want." "Well, I certainly took around four and a half months just to get into this step¡­ So, I know that you will soon reach the Martial Emperor since, unlike me, you don''t need to consolidate your cultivation." Alex sighed. "Well, Stina taught me many things." "Taught you many things¡­" Narrowing his eyes, Alex did not know which expression he should make. Imagining Stina and Kyle'' practicing¡­'' Facepalmed, Alex wished that the majestic Phoenix Queen would not fall to the path of sho- Ahem, fall to the forbidden path. "Why did I feel you just thought something rude, Master?" Kyle tilted his head, confused. "Nothing." He merely smiled, covering his weird thoughts. "Anyway, where are the others?" "Because of my transformation, Elder Sister Sherry wants to have cute clothes first, so they are buying any clothes she wants. We don''t know her size when she transforms, so they plan to buy all sizes of clothes¡­ so it will take a while." Kyle reported. "I see. We will wait for them here and go tonight or tomorrow. I hope I can leave this world in less than two years¡­ which is seven months from now¡­" "I think you can Master. With your speed, you only need less than four months to become a Martial Emperor." Kyle nodded. "Yeah. I need to use the Rank 6 Energy Pill though if I want to become Martial Emperor within that time." Alex nodded, thinking about the time. "Anyway, we can talk about anything while waiting for them, such as your progress¡­" "Well, because I was taught many things concerning the Phoenix, I could advance by leaps and bounds, even surpassing Elder Sister Sherry. However, I am afraid my cultivation could not advance as fast as this again, considering there is nothing left to help me increase my strength. "In the near future, Elder Sister Sherry will overtake me again and might even leave me in the dust." He looked down, a bit sad, thinking about the time where he was not any use to Alex again and was forced to leave him. Alex simply smiled and patted his head, feeling his sadness. "Don''t worry. You are my contracted beast. If you don''t have enough speed, I will just pour more resources to you. Anyway, I just want you to be safe like the others." "Master!" Star replaced his eyes, looking at him with a teary face. "No matter what, I will always follow you." They continued to chat until Sherry and the others came back. After considering a few things, Alex decided to go tomorrow morning with Stina and Kyle. Sherry also had reached the 10-Star Martial King stage and only needed around two months before evolving to 1-Star Martial Emperor. However, because she needed to experience deep sleep, she might need longer. Even so, Alex only told her to take all the time she needed because he prioritized her safety. As for Anya, she supported Sherry with all her might since her wish had been achieved. There was this weird relationship between Alex''s girls. They were rivals for Alex''s affection but also the greatest friends that would support each other if one of them did not get the attention they deserved. Of course, unlike them, Sherry was like a child, judging purely by age. The same applied to Alicia and Firia. Alex never cared about it since he was only one year older than Alicia and Firia. As for Sherry, her age was still unknown. After dealing with a few things, Alex decided to call it a day and prepared for tomorrow''s journey. The next day, the queen waited for him like previously. Alex was a bit surprised to see Kyle with her, wondering if the queen wanted to bring Kyle or not. After hearing she wanted to bring Kyle, Alex just accepted it right away, because he could hide inside his Pure Fire. They then started flying to the sky. ... It took them only a week to arrive at Dragon Continent by riding a Phoenix. Because of the distance, the queen deemed it unnecessary to use a ship like when he traveled to Phoenix Continent. Just like the Phoenix Continent, the Dragon Continent was filled with Dragons soaring in the sky. Realizing that the Phoenix Royal Family paid a visit to their continent, they bowed their heads, showing their courtesy. After an hour flying, a dragon suddenly flew toward them, appearing to be their guide. The dragon was like a western dragon, four limbs and a pair of wings. It had a beautiful green scale, looking very hard. On the other hand, his wingspan alone reached 50 meters, making Alex look very small. Because of this, he remembered that the Phoenix Queen also had a similar size in her Phoenix Form. Meanwhile, the prince from a few months ago seemed to only have a 30 meters wingspan. Alex was amazed, thinking that their size was related to their age. "O'' Phoenix Queen as well as Human Challenger. We have been waiting for your presence." The dragon bowed his big head, not turning into his human form. "I will be your guide to lead you to our Dragon Castle." "Please." She smiled and asked the Phoenix to follow him. At the same time, Kyle hid inside his body, according to Stina''s request. The journey only took three hours before they arrived in a mountain range. There was a huge castle right above the hill, creating a mesmerizing picture when they were coming from behind because the sunlight was illuminating the castle from behind. However, the castle''s size was almost the same as a mountain, making Alex surprised as the phoenix''s castle was not this big. "They are known because of their castle. Unlike the Phoenix Race, they are not really bothering to change their body to the Human Form." She explained after noticing his confused look. "Ah. So, that''s why they built a castle this big¡­" Alex nodded. "Anyway, you will see many dragons inside, so don''t be surprised," Stina warned him. Alex shrugged his shoulder, thinking he was glad to be a Human since if he needed to build a castle, he did not need to make one this big. The dragon led them inside to meet their king. Alex met a few dragons inside, from red scale to blue scale. Not long after, they arrived in front of an insanely huge door. Even a hundred of him can enter the room simultaneously. Alex was speechless about how they could waste their resources like this. The dragon that led them opened the door, waving his hand gently. "Her Majesty Stina Blaze and the Challenger, Alexander Sirius, have arrived." There were around nine dragons inside this big room. Three golden dragons were sitting on a spot where the throne should be, enlightening Alex of their status. The middle one should be the Dragon King, while the one on his right and left were the Dragon Prince and Princess respectively. "Welcome to the Dragon Continent. It brings me joy to witness the appearance of the current Supreme with my own eyes. I think I should introduce myself. I am Zephyr." The Dragon King greeted them with the aura of a sovereign. "Former Phoenix Queen, Stina Blaze, greets the Dragon King." Stina also greeted him. Although her aura was not majestic as him, she had a unique aura that could draw people in. "Human Alexander Sirius, Alexander Sirius, greets the Dragon King." On the other hand, Alex had no aura or whatsoever. However, this only made them feel anxious. They were certainly sure that Alex was an experienced person. Still, seeing no aura from his body made him more mysterious, which piqued the interest of the Dragon King. "I apologize for my rudeness, but I feel we can talk more comfortably with this figure." He said as he turned into a human with a pair of dragon wings on his back. His appearance was like a human in their forties with long golden hair like Alex''s. His body was muscular and very healthy, releasing certain energy. ''Rudeness?'' Alex was confused, but he suddenly heard Stina say, "This is their custom. They thought they were very rude by turning into their human appearance because it is not their real form." With a thought transmission. ''When they attacked us, they were in the Human Form¡­" Alex asked, wondering if that was rude too. ''No. It is only applied in their home. Like if you are in someone''s place, then act accordingly.'' She explained, clearing his misunderstanding. ''I see.'' Alex understood what she meant. At least, he did not need to look up because of his height. "I believe I need to explain the rule about the trial first." He looked at Alex. "Firstly, no killing or doing irreplaceable damage is allowed. If either party does that, the trial will stop and the other party will win. "The battle will be held in the hill a hundred kilometers away from this place, to make sure no civilians get hurt. Third, you will fight my son in his dragon form, so you can also use all of your abilities. "You don''t need to hold back because we will ensure your battle won''t destroy the nearby environment. "The condition of winning is when the other party surrenders or when I, as the judge, deem the situation dangerous." "Do you have any objection with the rule?" The Dragon King asked. "Our Dragon Race wants to have a fair duel, so if there is a rule you think is making you at a disadvantage, then please feel free to raise an objection. However, do note that we would fight with our full ability, so you can''t change the third rule." "I, Alexander Sirius, Challenge the Dragon Trial." After listening to the rule, Alex had no complaint. No killing or doing irreplaceable damage was allowed, but beating the prince black and blue was still alright, he thought. As for the place, Alex did not care where he fought. Upon hearing his words, the Dragon Crystal appeared. Alex thought since the dragon had golden scales, it would have a golden crystal, but it turned out to be a red crystal. Alex''s Purple Crystal then flew toward the air, attracting the red crystal like a magnet. The moment the two crystals met, it shone brightly, illuminating the room with the two colors. Alex closed his eyes as he would be teleported again to that white world to meet a certain person. 489 Weak Lightning The moment he opened his eyes, he returned to the plain white world to meet the mysterious person. Wondering what he wanted to say, Alex observed him carefully. "Everything shall be revealed in the Strength Plateau. Never Falter." This Strength Plateau again. It seemed that this person had a connection with the Strength Plateau, but Alex did not know their relationship. Even Song Yu emphasized this Strength Plateau very much, so he thought about asking someone to investigate the Strength Plateau, albeit he knew all of them were very busy. There was still more than a year before the Strength Plateau was opened, so Alex decided to increase his strength first. Coming back to reality, Alex stared at the Dragon Prince, his opponent. "We can fight anytime." The Dragon Prince said. *Slam!* The door was opened as another golden dragon came in. He looked at the Dragon King, who was using his human form, so he also turned into his human form, revealing an old appearance. Alex had seen him before when he stopped Stina from blocking him. "Hoho¡­ this old man is not late¡­" The former Dragon King, Zephyr''s father, laughed. "Good, I can witness a good fight after this. Although I am a Former Dragon King, I am rooting for both of you. Do your best." Alex simply nodded his head, not really liked this old man. "Since the sun almost set, the battle should proceed tomorrow." The Dragon King announced. The old man did not have an issue. Instead, he turned to Alex and asked. "Young Man, can you enlighten this old man a little, why do you want to gather the six crystals? Is it for women? Glory? Money?" "None of the above," Alex answered. "Oh. Then, Chaos?" The old man narrowed his eyes, asking again. Alex simply shook his head. "I am tired of chaotic situations. The reason why I gather these six crystals is that I want to go to the other world. Even if you want to split the crystals again after I use it, I don''t particularly mind." "Go to another world? Just that?" The old man was certainly surprised. Not only him, but every single dragon in the room. They had investigated this Alexander Sirius. They could only drop their jaws in surprise after knowing he was only 23 years old last year. This certainly blew their mind as they never saw someone this strong despite so young. Many people would surely want to make a relationship with him. However, unlike the Human Race, Dragon Race did not really need him, since no matter what they did, there was a limit of one person can do. If he tried to create chaos, they could gather all powerful monsters from every race and bring them to Alex to kill him. That was why when they heard their answer, they felt relieved. In fact, his answer sounded too good to be true. "Yes. I am planning to go to the other world and I think I won''t go back to this place again." Alex nodded. "Certainly that we, or even myself, is curious about the other world. Even though we are curious, we can''t go there because we were afraid the incident a few thousand years ago will repeat again. "That is why the Dragon Race is a bit unsure of your intention and even asked the Angel Race''s Seraphim about you. "We know that you are from the other world and want to go back. However, we don''t know if you will come back again and lead many people inside to attack us again¡­ albeit, the Seraphim kept telling me that you won''t do something like that. "Just reading your expression alone is enough. You are not a person who loves war and such¡­ "I am not hoping my grandson would lose, but in case you win and clear the trial, then I pray for your good fortune." Alex nodded. The Dragon King announced out loud. "With this, I declare that we, Dragon Race, accept the challenge of Alexander Sirius. The duel shall be in the Drago Hill with me as the judge. I order all Elder Dragons to participate to ensure the battle will progress smoothly. May fortune bless both of the participants with its presence." *Roar!* All dragons roared, acknowledging his order. Alex and Stina were guided to the guest room, albeit Stina decided to stay together with Alex as his contracted beast. "Master¡­ How are you planning to fight tomorrow?" Stina asked with a worried expression. "I am sure you are aware of ''his'' presence too, he is-" "1-Star Martial Emperor." Alex continued, smiling at her. He knew that the Dragon Prince had become a Martial Emperor because he took too long to increase his strength. Fortunately, the strength difference was not that big between 10-Star Martial King to 1-Star Martial Emperor. Just like what he experienced this entire time, each star at Martial King Stage would grant one''s 10 dragon strength while the strength of 1-Star Martial Emperor was precisely 100 dragon strength, which was the accumulation of the previous ten stars. That was why when he thought about it, Alex was not really worried about it since it would only be a difference of 10 Dragon Strength. Even if he could double it, it was only twenty dragon strength. His strength would surely not exceed five hundred dragon strength. "Don''t worry. I believe I can contend his strength with my three hundred dragon strength. As for his element, I have my own plan. I am sure you will like it too." Alex smiled, trying to assure her he was alright. "Are you planning to use your weapons?" "Of course. Though I will start with a bare fist to make him underestimate me, creating a perfect chance to use my intent to injure him. "Besides, having an element of surprise will increase your chance," Alex explained. "Trust me. I would not charge blindly without any plan." "I know." She nodded. "Anyway, I will also watch the fight to make sure no one is pulling any string." "Kyle will also appear if there is someone who wants to interfere." She said the real reason for bringing Kyle here. "Is that Anya''s idea?" "Yeah." "Alright." Alex nodded and closed his eyes, returning to his preparation. The next day, the dragon led him to Drago Hill. It was a grassy hill without any trees around it, perfect to be their arena. The hill had around five kilometers in radius, creating a giant arena for them. There were around twenty dragons surrounding the hill to erect a barrier, so their battle would not affect the nearby environment. On top of the hill, Qeigess stood tall, waiting for Alex to come. Stina left Alex''s side after entering the hill, clasping her hands. "May fortune be with you." Alex smiled and appeared on top of the hill with a single leap. Looking at the Dragon in front of him, he said, "I have kept you waiting." The Dragon snorted as he announced it out loud, "I am Qeigess, The Dragon that will become the strongest in the world!" "Strongest huh¡­ still, a few months ago, you were defeated by a single kick from your Elder Sister¡­" Alex said with a chuckle. This left Qeigess speechless. Even Stina and Lexi, along with a few dragons, made a chuckle. The lightning started sparking around his body as he roared to the sky. Alex just thought this was loud, nothing more. The Dragon King flew toward them and said, "Dragon Race Trial, Start!" Qeigess quickly threw a fist toward Alex. He used every inch of his power in this fist, trying to tell Alex he was superior. On the other hand, Alex used his Spirit Step, gathering all the energy around his body. At first, he thought he would use his Full Throttle to give him another 20% strength, but there was a time limit, so Alex did not really use it that often. However, to fight Qeigess, this was enough. Covering his fist with Twin Sharp Domain, Alex jumped forward and punched this big fist. Everyone was tongue-tied when they felt the sharpness around his hand. They did not know, but they felt dread of this particular power. They dropped their jaw the moment shallow cut wounds appeared on Qeigess''s hand when both fists collided. Lexi had seen this, but she also could not comprehend this power. Qeigess only clenched his fist tighter and roared. *Roar!* That roar contained his rage and determination to show Alex that he was the strongest. Although he was surprised that Alex had 300 dragon strength in just a few months, he still continued his punch, trying to flatten Alex. "!!!" Alex flew out like a cannonball and fell into the ground. However, right before he hit the ground, he shifted his body a little bit, and stepped on the air, bouncing back to the sky. Alex just used his Sky Movement, specifically his Sky Step, at the last second. He pointed his finger at the Qeigess as his finger started shining. "Flame of Extinction." Alex shot out a very dangerous beam attack toward Qeigess, making him dodge to the side. He flapped his giant wing to create a gush of wind that helped him move to the side. He looked at Alex with a surprise before flapping his wing, planning to fly. "To think you are holding this much power beforehand! And I never thought you could improve for a mere 6-Star to a so-so 8-Star within a few months. Human, you have earned this Qeigess''s respect. And I shall fight you with my full strength." Qeigess glared at him from the sky. "..." Alex looked at him with weird eyes, wondering if he did not pay attention to the rule that his father stated. Qeigess opened his mouth, creating a certain powerful attack from his mouth. It was a concentrated lightning attack from the observation of his Spirit Eyes and most likely to be in the form of breath. Seeing this, Alex smiled. Without anyone noticing, Alex started drawing his array in the inside world where his Space Plate was. In their eyes, Alex did not do anything. They even wondered if he was a fool to not dodge something like this. "Human, what are you doing!" Qeigess was angry, thinking Alex belittled him by doing nothing. Sadly, Alex did not even answer him, making him angrier. "You will regret this!" Qeigess finally let out the breath, shooting it toward Alex. Stina furrowed her eyebrows. Alex said he had a trump card for the lightning, but she could not understand why Alex did not use it. Even the Dragon King was ready to step up to stop the fight. Contrary to their expectation, Alex simply snapped his finger, confusing them because they could not see anything unusual from that. The Dragon King started moving toward him to protect him from that blast, but suddenly, the lightning breath bent and changed its direction like it was pulled by something, missing Alex by one meter. This was a risky move even for him as he would be injured if this trump card did not do any effect. However, to beat him black and blue, he also needed to shatter Qeigess''s confidence as this was his revenge against him. All dragons and Stina turned their heads to the side, looking at a bright rune above the ground. They were wondering since when that rune was there. "That¡­ that is rune¡­" "Since when¡­" "More like¡­ what is that rune for?!" They never saw this rune because, like Kyle and any other beasts, they only needed a deep sleep to breakthrough. Even Humans did not have any tribulation because their system was a bit different than cultivation. That was why they were perplexed by this array. They could only see that the array attracted the lightning and dispersed it to the ground, making them silent. And they heard Alex''s remark, "It seems even the lightning from a dragon is not stronger than my Lightning Tribulation¡­" 490 Dragon Trial Part 1 "It seems even the lightning from a dragon is not stronger than my Lightning Tribulation¡­" Alex smiled, seeing his array managed to suppress the lightning completely. He remembered how he needed to use multiple Rank 4 Lightning Rod Arrays just to withstand the ninth strike of Martial King Lightning Tribulation. For his Martial Emperor Tribulation, he could only use Rank 5 Lightning Rod Array because of the rule. Unfortunately, he took another step forward and used a Rank 6 Lightning Rod Array, completely suppressing the Lightning from Qeigess. The array that he was supposed to learn later in the future. This array showed Alex''s feelings and how much he wanted to defeat him. "What? It can attract Young Lord Qeigess''s lightning and completely suppress it? What is that Rune?" "Impossible!" Even the Dragon King narrowed his eyes, not believing it too. He took a glimpse of Alex''s expression, realizing Alex had been planning to use this. He rolled his eyes to his daughter and asked. "Do you know anything about this?" The Dragon Princess, Lexi, could only shake her head, not knowing the answer. "There is no information about him being a Rune Master¡­ All we have is the information when he was in the Empyrean Guild. After going to the Phoenix Continent, he does not appear that much." "This¡­ might be bad for Qeigess¡­ He basically can''t use his lightning anymore because of this rune¡­ No, not only him. This rune might be the bane of every single Lightning Dragon¡­" The Dragon King furrowed his eyebrows, thinking about what he should do next after knowing this. Little did they know was Alex had tested his Lightning Rod Array with his disciple, Rose. At that time, he was making a Rank 1 Lightning Rod Array for her advancement to Martial Master and Rose suddenly suggested something to him, which was to use Lightning Rod Array to counter her element. Alex was amazed at first because he never thought something like that. Unfortunately, the test was a failure because the Lightning Rod Array could only attract the Heavenly Lightning sent by the Lightning Tribulation Cloud. Even with his in-depth knowledge, he could not recreate the Lightning Rod Array for this. He almost gave up at this point until he stumbled into an accident. Rose suddenly lost control of her Lightning Arrow and hit his Lightning Rod Array when he activated it. Surprisingly, the Lightning Element was really absorbed by the Lightning Rod Array. It turned out that there was a part of the Lightning Rod Array which could absorb the Lightning Element, albeit the suction was minimal and not suited for combat. If it was powerful, many Array Masters might use it against people who had Thunder Elements. However, it would be different for Alex''s Lightning Rod Array. The memory about him using Lightning Rod Array in his Martial King Tribulation appeared. If the suction force was small, then he could just use a different ranking of Lightning Rod Array. He could imagine what kind of powerful lightning he would face when he had his Martial Emperor Lightning Tribulation, but he could only use Rank 5 Lightning Rod Array. This showed the real prowess of Lightning Rod Array. If he used his Rank 6 Lightning Rod Array that needed to deal with his Martial Monarch Tribulation, which was far more powerful than the upcoming Lightning Tribulation despite having a small suction force, it would still be enough to deal with this puny lightning. Of course, because no one knew about this array, they did not notice that Alex just used six Rank 6 Lightning Rod Arrays, that were connected by his Space Gate, in order to suppress it completely. In fact, because the array would not attract the lightning, Alex was forced to make a few small gates just to make it look bent and change direction. Using this tactic would need a lot of Spiritual Energy and Alex was not planning to use it more than once. He just wanted to create a restricted environment where Qeigess thought he could not use his lightning anymore. With this, he would rely on his strength prowess, giving Alex many opportunities to attack. And his goal was achieved when he looked at the expression on Qeigess''s face. "You bastard! What is that?" "Nothing. I am lucky to have a Lightning Element Dragon as my opponent, since I have a perfect counter for you that can restrict your lightning. Now, I am wondering if you can fight with just your strength alone¡­" Alex made a smug smile, taunting Qeigess. Alex had always used this technique in the past to manipulate people''s minds and emotions. Hearing his taunt, Qeigess quickly roared before throwing his fist toward him. "Why are all of you panicking? It would seem not a single one of you, including you human, has even the slightest inkling of just how much a power gap exists between him and I, Qeigess. "So allow me to take this chance to make it clear in terms even a human can understand. Even if you were to unleash ten of you at me simultaneously, you would still not be a match for I, Qeigess. "If even despite that, you still think using this kind of trick to do battle against me, then so be it! Since you have not learned anything from a few months ago, at least remember this, I shall never falter, the one who will perish is my enemy!" In front of this fist and that speech, Alex only smiled. He simply took out his rank 5 Sword and waved it, shooting a Sword Wave toward the fist. "Seven Stars Cut." "!!!" Qeigess had never seen a human, who should be a mage, suddenly wielded a sword in his hand, sending a very powerful attack. The Sword Wave contained his powerful domain as well as his Fire Element. Although he did not use his Pure Fire, it still created a Sword Wave powerful enough to leave a mark on Qeigess''s hand. "Boom!" It exploded after clashing with Qeigess''s fist for a few seconds. *Roar!* Qeigess roared to the sky, feeling hurt. All the people could see a huge sword mark on Qeigess''s hand, looking very painful. Despite that, Alex knew that this wound was too shallow. "What just happened¡­" The Dragon King was shaken. "Why¡­ Why is he using a sword¡­" No one could answer that question except Stina, albeit she did not have any desire to reveal her master''s power. At first, Stina was worried about Alex, but after seeing he managed to seal away Qeigess''s lightning, he should be fine. Alex did not stop there. He instantly took out his spear, surprising everyone once again. They could relate if he used two swords or one spear, but no one knew about someone who could simultaneously wield two different weapons. They did not know why, but the image of the previous Supreme appeared in their mind. In that image, Alex''s Sword and Spear became similar to the Supreme''s Dragon and Phoenix Wings. To different things fused, creating a single entity that was powerful and overbearing. The Dragon King was shaken to even think something like that. Alex then leaped toward Qeigess, waving his sword again. "Seven Stars Cut!" This time, Alex opened his eyes wide because he could not believe the conclusion. After shooting the same Sword Wave to Qeigess again, Qeigess simply raised his hand, trying to block his sword wave with just the scale on his hand. "!!!" Although it was not his full power, Qeigess should not be able to block that attack, considering the previous attack caused damage to him. He thought, ''Is the scale on his hand stronger than his fist?'' After a while, Alex thought it would be the case. Even so, he needed to confirm it first and sent another sword wave while concentrating his Spirit Eyes toward the clash. Surprisingly, there was not even a single dent on his scale. Alex could see that he was concentrating his energy on his scale so it would not break, making him wonder if he should use his Pure Fire again. After some thoughts, he decided to probe Qeigess''s power. The trump card should be saved for the last after all. Before that, Alex suddenly asked out loud to the Dragon King. "If that wing somehow gets cut like his hand, will it count as irreplaceable damage?" The Dragon King did not know why he asked this, but answered him nonetheless. "No. We have the ability to recover our torn wings. Of course, if you decide to separate our wings from our body, then it will count as one since we can''t regenerate our wing again. It is like if we cut your limbs, you can''t grow one again." Alex nodded, thinking it was enough. He clenched both his weapons and smiled. "I don''t need to hold back then." "You human, don''t be too full of yourself!" Qeigess roared, seeing Alex talk big despite being unable to crack his scale. Alex simply pointed his finger toward Qeigess and released another beam attack. "Flame of Extinction." Seeing this dangerous attack, Qeigess raised his hand, blocking it with his scale. However, this time, Alex managed to melt a little bit of his scale, though not at the point where it became molten lava. In that instant, Alex swung both of his weapons, creating a cross Sword Wave. Unfortunately, he did not know that a Dragon''s scale was a kind of shield for a dragon. This was also one of the reasons why the people in the past wanted a dragon. They could harvest their scale to make a shield because Armor would restrict one''s mobility. They would certainly want to avoid that because the enemy could strike at the part where there was no armor. However, it would be different for a shield. They did not even need something like Shield intent since it would have been strengthened by many materials by the Forging Master. Just like Qeigess in front of him, his scale could be turned into a rank 6 shield, making him like a mobile fortress. His attack was rendered useless. "I have said. Your useless trick won''t be useful against me!" He threw a fist again toward Alex. Seeing this, Alex took a few steps back and sent another Sword wave. Qeigess only snorted as he opened his fist and grabbed the sword wave with his claw before shattering it into pieces. "Oi Oi¡­" Alex made a weird expression, looking at the claw that almost reached him. He snapped his finger again, creating a teleportation array below his feet. "Bam!" That claw destroyed the ground, creating a big crater on the ground. All of them could see that Alex already disappeared from that place and they just could not believe what they just saw. "He¡­ he just used a Teleportation Rune!" "Isn''t Fire his element?" "Impossible. Are you saying he has two elements?" The dragons were baffled while Stina could only sigh. Alex had consulted about this with her. In this world, a person like Lilian, who had two elements, was rare but not that rare. Usually, there were at least five people within a thousand years, so they had a bit of a record about it. There were three ways to get dual elements. They could get it from a Pure Element user and make their Sacrificial Element as their second element. The second way was to be born with it, but this was extremely rare. Last but not least, he could acquire or inherit it from someone''s, just like Alex and Lilian. Alex acquired his Space Element from the system while Lilian had her own backstory. "He has two elements." Stina simply answered all of their doubts in a single sentence. Since it was already out, she felt there was no need to hide it. However, she also added, "I need to warn you first. If you try to make a move against him, you will have a full war with my Phoenix Race." All the dragons fell silent as they looked at her, gulping down. They never thought Stina would go as far as that. Meanwhile, Alex had appeared behind Qeigess and waved his sword again. "Seven Stars Cut!" Because of the sudden reveal of Space Element, Qeigess did not have enough time to react as the Sword Wave already reached his back. "Boom!" "Roar Roar!" 491 Dragon Trial Part 2 "Roar Roar!" Qeigess roared in pain. No one would expect Alex had another Element in his body and it was a freaking Space Element. Qeigess did not have enough time to concentrate his Spiritual Energy on his back, letting Alex injure him on the back. Albeit, despite this advantage, Alex could only click his tongue, disappointing on the result. As expected from a battle where he could not kill his opponent, it was far harder than where he could simply kill them by strengthening his attack with Pure Fire. He might only need to use his Flame of Extinction to his head. This was like when he restricted himself in the competition between disciples in Heavenly Sword Sect. He did not stop there and quickly sent another cross Sword Wave, leaving a huge cross mark on his back. It even tore a portion of his wing. "Roar Roar!" Alex raised his weapons again, trying to damage him as much as possible, albeit before he managed to swing his weapons again, he felt danger coming from his right. "!!!" It was Qeigess''s tail. Alex instantly dropped the sword on his right hand, letting it fall before catching it with his left hand. He then waved his hand to his right, creating a Barrier Array. The tail was stopped by the array and Alex immediately grabbed his sword again. Unexpectedly, when he did all of that, Qeigess already turned back and attacked him with his claw. Alex simply made another teleportation array and disappeared. Qeigess already knew about this, so he instantly waved his hand as he blocked another Sword Wave from Alex. "..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he was a bit surprised that Qeigess managed to keep up with his teleportation despite only seeing it once. "Dragon Body is a treasure¡­" He sighed, coming up with another plan to attack. Seeing he was coming, Alex teleported once again to his back while pointing his finger at him. "Flame of Extinction." Although Qeigess managed to block it again, Alex suddenly thought something good. He smirked as he focused on his Spirit Eyes. He raised both of his hands, creating a hundred firebirds and sending it toward Qeigess. The firebirds flew straight toward him at first, making Qeigess raise his hand to block it again. Unexpectedly, the firebirds suddenly changed their directions and completely surrounded him. "!!!" He tried to channel his Spiritual Energy to his entire body, but the firebirds had already exploded. "Boom Boom Boom!" Qeigess did not let out a roar this time, enduring the pain. On the other hand, Alex got useful data. The moment Qeigess channeled his Spiritual Energy to protect his full body, the defense on his hand decreased significantly, creating a good chance to attack. To make sure about this, Alex decided to do it a few more times by sending firebirds after firebirds like a machine gun. Meanwhile, the dragons could not hold their surprise. They never thought their prodigy, a 1-Star Tier 6 dragon, would be under the mercy of a Tier 5 human. "That¡­ Young Lord Qeigess is¡­" "No. This is impossible." "That''s right. Young Lord Qeigess should be stronger than this¡­ how can that human¡­" Stina narrowed her eyes, releasing a unique pressure and scared them off. The former Dragon King shook his head helplessly. "This is certainly bad¡­" "Father, can you predict something like this¡­" Zephyr asked with a troubled expression. Part of him was happy because the challenger was very powerful despite his young age, while another part was hurting to see his son was bullied like this. It was not like Alex could hurt Qeigess, but Qeigess also could not move because he needed to defend himself from Alex''s brutal attacks. He turned to his daughter and asked. "So, what do you think about this battle?" "Qeigess will lose¡­" Lexi sighed. "From the start, the human¡­ No, Alexander Sirius has sealed his Lightning Element, reducing his strength for quite a bit. Although Qiegess does not really use his Lightning Element, having them sealed is still hurt. "And with all that disadvantage, Alexander Sirius suddenly introduced a new element, Space Element to him. This would restrict his movement because he has yet to understand Alexander''s movement. "Little Brother has dealt that problem nicely, but it could only lead him to the defensive while Alexander Sirius can keep attacking him and dodging him with his Space Element. "Little brother might have a bigger Spiritual Energy Reserve, but I am sure Alexander Sirius would not let this chance go. He would find another way to attack him and eventually defeat him. "If only Qeigess has the chance to use his Lightning Element, I think the situation will improve." She explained her observation about the battle. "So, do you think he will be able to fight back?" The former dragon king asked. "..." She pondered for a moment and eventually shook her head. "I can''t find any way. I have been watching him these years, and I feel he has nothing to turn the situation around." "Is that so? Well, you can''t watch him all day, so I am sure you don''t know this. He still has a trump card." The grandfather said. "Trump Card?" Even Zephyr turned his head, wondering what the trump card was. "Anyway, just watch this battle." He refused to answer. When Stina heard that, she slightly furrowed her eyebrows, wondering what kind of thing would happen next. In the middle of the hill, Alex was still raining him with firebirds. He found a few things that he could take advantage of. He finally took a step forward with his plan by waving his hand. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." Qeigess immediately focused his Spiritual Energy to the front, shifting his body slightly so he could move his claw to destroy the phoenix. "Boom!" Surprisingly, the phoenix did not even last for a second before exploding. If Stina had experienced this attack, then she would know that this explosion was insanely large. Alex''s real plan was to use it as a smokescreen. It took him only a split second before he appeared right behind Qeigess, waving his sword and spear simultaneously. "Seven Stars Cut." "Boom!" That split second instantly cost him as Alex attacked him from behind. However, when he turned around, he found no one there and immediately turned around again, thinking Alex would attack him again from behind. Sadly, Alex did not appear there. Instead, Alex came right beside his giant foot and attacked it, creating a quite deep wound. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." "Roar!" Qeigess jumped up instinctively and looked at Alex before trying to stomp him. Alex teleported again, trying to confuse him. Surprisingly, Alex suddenly thought something unnecessary. ''Do Dragon have Pen*s?'' A useless question but worth consideration. Remembering that it was disrespectful to change into human form, he was wondering how they would mate. He did not think about this when he met the phoenixes, but considering that Stina used her human form almost all the time, it was normal for that thought not to appear inside his head. [Are you seriously thinking about this, Host?] Even the system started asking this question, showing how absurd Alex''s thought was. "Sorry. I was just right below him earlier and could not help thinking something like that¡­" He sighed as he buried his weird thought and started attacking him again. Cut wounds started appearing all over his body as Alex did not stop his attacks even for a split second. The Dragons were frustrated to see something like this, gritting their teeth. Their prodigy was played by a mere human and his power was even lower than him. If this were not a Trial, they would rush inside and start attacking Alex. It could be said that Alex had achieved a part of his objective. He knew that Qeigess was enduring the pain at this moment and thought to finish the battle soon. Surprisingly, at this time, Qeigess roared to the sky as his golden scale turned into red. Alex opened his mouth in surprise, not knowing what just happened. His Spirit Eyes could see that the blood on his body was absorbed to his scale, creating this red scale. Not only him, but the dragons were surprised by it, especially Zephyr and Lexi. "Father¡­ this¡­ this is Blood Fusion¡­" Zephyr stuttered because of his shock. "Blood Fusion¡­ Isn''t that¡­" Lexi looked at her grandfather. "Yes. This is the rarest constitution in our dragon race¡­ It is one in a million constitution and Supreme was the first one who discovered it. The constitution can let a fusion between the blood and element, creating a unique ability. "I first saw the sign of that constitution a hundred years ago. Qeigess wanted to learn it, but could not¡­ until at this time, he finally managed to awaken the constitution. This time, his lightning element would not just be lightning anymore and that rune would not stop him. Ah, my grandson is really blessed by lady luck. I should also thank that human after this." The old man nodded. "!!!" Even Stina could not help but eavesdrop, starting to worry about Alex''s condition. He had heard such a constitution from her husband when he followed the Supreme. However, it was really surprising to see one with her own eyes. Stina looked at Alex, hoping he could win, but Alex''s situation was not really good at this moment. Qeigess opened his mouth, letting out another breath. Alex tried to use the Lightning Rod Array again, but surprisingly, it was not effective because the array was destroyed immediately and exploded. "!!!" Alex tried to find anything teleported once again to buy time, but he was surprised that Qeigess immediately went after him, forcing him to teleport again. This new form increased his strength, reaction speed, and let him use the element again, making Alex in a pinch. He released his four hundred meter Twin Sharp Domain and changed into the defensive. They traded blow after blow, but it was clear that Alex was suppressed. The dragons were overjoyed, cheering for Qeigess. On the other hand, Stina could only clench her fists, wanting to beat these dragons up. She was wondering why Alex did not use his Pure Fire yet. On the other hand, Alex had gone through this situation many times, so even though he was at a disadvantage, it had yet to affect him despite bleeding all over. He was still buying time until he got an answer to his question and released his full power. For a few minutes, he got a constant attack from Qeigess, whether his claw, fist, breath, or even element. Alex constantly used his teleportation as well as barrier arrays to block his attack until, at one time, he suddenly stopped. "Human! I am very grateful to you. If not because of you, I won''t be able to awaken this constitution. Even after you lose, I shall treat you as my friend." Qeigess was still talking almighty in front of him. "Hmph. Talk after you won." Alex snorted. "I know you want to win, but your pointless struggle won''t let you win," Qeigess said. "Is that so? Do you think I am struggling pointlessly?" Alex smiled as he snapped his finger. A huge array suddenly appeared and revealed itself, creating a huge barrier that trapped Qeigess. This whole time, Alex did not teleport or move blindly just to buy time from him. It was for this moment. He had been speeding up his natural recovery to produce more blood so he could draw two arrays. He had used this technique back in the lower world, where he bound the former king of Zircodina Kingdom with his binding Array. Alex smiled as he succeeded in creating Ruby Phantasm or Extended World Array and teleported to the outside. "Do you think this can stop me?" Qeigess roared. "Of course, it can stop you." Alex smiled as he revealed the other array, which was Gathering Array. Pouring Spirit Stones into there, Alex smirked. "Feel free to try breaking it." 492 Dragon Trial Last Par "Feel free to try." Alex smiled. With the Gathering Array, the barrier would be able to withstand his attack easily as long it had enough Spirit Stones. Qeigess immediately released another breath attack, but was entirely blocked by Alex''s barrier. "Ooh¡­ five hundred thousand Spirit Stones just for one attack? Martial Emp- Ahem, Tier 6 Dragon is really different¡­" Alex acted like he was surprised. He then poured more Spirit Stones as he taunted him again. "Look, I have more Spiritual Stones. It is enough to trap you forever." If Qeigess had Lexi''s personality, he would not do anything. This way, Alex would also need to wait together with him forever and the judge would be forced to stop the competition. Just like the time limit when he fought Shelka, Qeigess would surely win. Luckily, Qeigess wanted to prove his strength and did not have that calm behavior. He punched the barrier as hard as possible, shaking the barrier and the ground nearby. Unfortunately, it did not break the barrier, giving Alex a chance to tease him again. "Just do it¡­" The Dragon Prince was thoroughly angered as he accumulated the element inside his mouth for a while, creating a very powerful breath. The moment he breathed, it sent chills down to one''s spine. On the contrary, Alex merely smiled, looking very happy with the breath. His happiness did not come from the breath instead of the barrier. He snapped his finger once again, creating a huge portal in front of him that sucked all Qeigess''s breath. Zephyr, Lexi, or even Stina instantly realized his plan and as they expected, a portal suddenly appeared behind Qeigess, carrying his powerful breath. "Boom!" "Roar Roar!" He let out a painful roar. Alex did not stop there. Releasing his Pure Fire, Alex replaced his sword with a Rank 6 Sword embedded with Fire Orb. When Stina felt this fire, she had the urge to kneel in front of Alex, bowing to the ruler of Flame, Alex. In fact, a few of the dragons already fell on their knees. If not because they were too shocked by Alex''s ability, they would create a ruckus already. On the other hand, Alex was too focused on the battle as he waved his hand, releasing his phoenix again. Because he was hit from behind and fell down, Qeigess did not have the opportunity to block this, so he tried to destroy the phoenix with his tail. Alex''s Pure Fire had undergone a transformation inside the Phoenix Trial. It could cure poison and curse, more powerful than a normal Pure Fire, and certainly would not lose to something Qeigess''s lightning even with his Blood Fusion. The entire potential of his fire that had been locked by Fire Phoenix Seed was released at this moment. "Boom!" "Roar!" The black spot suddenly appeared on his red scale. All the people could tell it was caused by Alex''s fire. The fire was still spreading, trying to burn Qeigess alive. "I don''t plan on using this, but you are too good and force me to use this." Alex sighed, looking at the burning Qeigess. Sooner or later, Qeigess would become a charred dragon¡­ He then raised his sword while Qeigess was wailing in pain. "Seven Stars Cut!" He swung his sword, releasing the strongest attack he had. And to put Qeigess under control, Alex bombarded him with his firebirds. Of course, all of those attacks were sent through by the portal. In the first Sword Wave, Alex only managed to graze that powerful scale, but he paid no heed and continued to strike at the same spot. After three Sword Waves, he managed to crack it and sent a few more until he created a deep cut wound. Each time Qeigess wanted to go back up, he would meet by relentless attack of firebirds, so he needed to allocate his Spiritual Energy all over his body. Sadly, he was injured by his own attack earlier, reducing his prowess. Alex raised his sword again, planning to send another sword wave but was stopped. After looking at his wound, Alex realized he had cut too deep. He pulled back and stored his weapons as well as releasing him from the array. He then turned to the Dragon King and said, "I think, there is no point in continuing after this¡­" "Ah¡­" Zephyr tried to regain his calm and announced. "Alexander Sirius Wins! With this, he would possess the Dragon Crystal." Alex nodded, sealing his Pure Fire inside the seed again before walking to the Phoenix Queen. Stina was sweating this whole time, fighting the urge to bow down because it would give the Dragon Race too much information. "Qeigess¡­ lost¡­" Lexi was as surprised as everyone here. At first, she thought her younger brother would win the battle, but she never thought Alex was never in a pinch. In fact, the last surge of strength was the reason he could keep calm and defeat Qeigess. "No way¡­" "Young Lord just lost?" "What is that power?" The Dragon still could not accept the fact. Seeing Qeigess wailing in pain on the ground hurt their heart. On the other hand, Alex wiped the blood on his face as he said to Stina. "Sorry, took me longer than I expected¡­ I even used all of my power¡­" "You¡­" Stina clenched her fists. "I have many questions, but I want to make sure, do you have the same flame as the ancestor?" "He taught me how to train my fire as a reward, so yeah," Alex replied. He did not even forget about the ''reward'' part. "..." Stina sighed. "You are truly...There is one more thing I want to ask you, if that is okay¡­" "What is it?" "Since when¡­" Stina paused a bit. "I have lost from that point¡­" Suddenly, they heard Qeigess''s voice. They turned around and saw Lexi carrying Qeigess on her shoulder. His body was full of wounds because of this fight and the worst wound would be the last one. Qeigess closed his eyes for a second, recalling their fight. "The moment you restricted my element, I have lost." "!!!" Stina and the others were shocked by his statement. "The others could not see it because of the distance, but because I was in front of you, I could see it. You are not really restricting my element this whole time. It was just a bluff." Qeigess sighed. All of them blinked a few times, trying to see whether they heard it wrong or not. Qeigess continued even though his eyes were fuzzy. "Fu¡­ Because of my condition, I can finally grasp the clear view in my head. I should realize it sooner that you use your Space Element to bend my lightning and that rune was not one. "It means with just a single element attack, you would be forced to use more Spiritual Energy than me. "If I could keep calm and not fall to your taunt, I could make you use a portion of your Spiritual Energy and would get the advantage from early on. "The rest was just a distraction, whether it was your Space Element, fire attacks, Sword and Spear. Even the barrier that trapped me. "All of it was just for a single moment, which was my last breath attack where I gathered quite a large energy to break the barrier. You used my own attack to restrict me and finished me with your true power. "Although I know that my Blood Fusion was outside of your expectation. However, it could be said that I was truly lost to you, completely lost¡­" Qeigess suddenly bowed his head to Alex. "I also want to thank you for your help in activating my special constitution. I have been struggling for around fifty years just to activate it but to no avail. "I was also too proud of my strength and should put some time to train my brain ability under my sister. Because of you, I have realized my weakness and know the path to get far stronger. That''s why, Thank you very much." Alex looked at him with disbelief as he could not comprehend this sudden change, but he thought this was a good change. The dragons were baffled by this prince, who usually only cared about strength to suddenly speak like this, especially Zephyr. He looked at Lexi and said with a thought transmission. "What are you going to do?" "Since my brother wants me to teach him, I will train him to the best of my ability. All the sadness after seeing my brother lost completely disappear because of this. "Not only did he manage to activate Blood Fusion, this setback also let him mature. Of course, one would not easily change, but I am sure little brother is walking in the right direction. "His strength will surpass me in the near future and as long as he has enough wisdom, I will step down and let him be the ruler." Lexi smiled, looking at the brother on her shoulder. "Are you sure?" Zephyr asked her with a worried expression. After all, he had been teaching Lexi to be the next leader and he feared she would have a weird thought. "I am sure. I will just let my brother be the king while I will become his assistant. Besides, our dragon race emphasizes strength, so the king should be in his hand." Lexi then looked at Alex, who had a clueless face, and bowed her head. "Hum¡­ Alexander Sirius. I am very grateful for your help in this trial." Alex thought for a bit and said. "I don''t do anything to help him since I just want to get the Crystal. Anything that happened in the battle was his good fortune." Lexi and the others only thought Alex was humble, so they did not rebuke his statement. Surprisingly, Qeigess suddenly fell to the floor, unconscious. All of them stared at him blankly before they realized what just happened. Zephyr was the one who grabbed Qeigess as he looked at Alex. "My son and you need treatment, so I think it will be better to stay inside our castle first. Lexi will guide you there. And one more thing. Since you have gotten five crystals, the emissary from Sea Race would surely visit you to give you an invitation for the world summit. Of course, the other races would also get it¡­ as for the detail, you can ask my daughter or the Phoenix Queen." He then carried Qeigess back to have someone treat him. The others also followed him, leaving Alex, Lexi, and Stina on the hill. Lexi looked at them with a weird expression. "Anyway, we should dress your wound and wash the blood from your body¡­ So, please follow me to the castle." Alex and Stina exchanged looks. They agreed to follow her. 493 World Summi Alex had come back after washing all the blood on his body while recovering from his injuries with Rank 5 Wondrous Healing Pill. It took him one hour inside the bath, but still made Lexi shocked seeing he appeared like nothing happened despite having so many injuries. She blinked a few times, wondering if he had shed his skin like a snake inside the bath. Of course, Alex was also surprised by everything inside the castle since everything was so large. At first, he saw a 100x100 meter mattress inside the room that dragons used to sleep. He could say that with a bed that big, he could even train his sword arts or something on that bed. The second surprise came from the bath. It looked like a normal royal bath such as a huge bath, fountains flowing with warm waters, and the others, but their size was almost 50 times more than the one in his memory. Even the bath was too deep for Alex to even enjoy it, so he only wiped all his blood, healed and came out. Looking at Lexi''s shocked face, Alex simply ignored it and turned to Stina. "Can you explain to me about this world summit?" She glanced at Lexi first before explaining it herself. "World Summit is the highest conference in this world that requires all six races to attend. We usually have this when there is something that threatens a race and might bring that race to extinction. "For example, if you decide to exterminate the entire race with the crystals, or back when the Angel Race attacked three races. The world summit was convened to calm the three races'' anger to make sure the Angel Race would not be exterminated. "And for someone who would get the last crystal, I think the world summit is needed for many things." She said while looking at Alex with a serious face. "When and where will the world summit convene?" "It probably will be held in Sea Race''s capital, Atlantis. As for when... this is something you decide, I guess. According to my prediction, they would hold the world summit right when you challenge the Sea Race''s Trial." "So, the others would watch me beating the trial?" Alex asked. The moment Lexi heard that, she was taken aback on how confident Alex was. "No." Stina shook her head. "You will have your own trial and no one will see that. If you get the six crystals, the world summit would be for the portal. They will decide whether to open the portal or separate it again. "They would discuss the pros and cons since this world had experienced something horrible a few thousand years ago. I personally do not really want to experience it again, so I don''t want to open the portal¡­ or at least, I ask Ellen not to support it. Not that much convincing since it is coming from me though, who decides to accompany you. "Anyway, that is the purpose of the world summit, so you don''t need to worry about it since it would not affect your trial," Stina assured. "I see¡­" Alex nodded. "Though I still need to become a Marti- Ahem, Tier 6 first before I can challenge the Naga Race trial." Seeing Lexi was still here, he decided to change his wording. Both of them then looked at Lexi, wondering why she was still here. "I¡­" Lexi blinked a few times, trying to think up something with her big brain¡­ literally, since she was still in her Dragon Form. Stina sighed as she looked at Alex, "I think we should go back after the envoy arrives¡­ we are talking about the sea race here, so I assume they are nearby." Lexi suddenly asked, "May¡­ I know how you can possess the Human Crystal that is supposed to be lost for a few thousand years?" Stina also had not heard about this because she did not really care. All she needed to know was her position, which was Alex''s contracted beast. And her job was to support Alex in her journey, including stopping him if he stumbled on the wrong path as well as having ''ABC'' with Kyle. Though since the question was out in the air, she did not mind learning it. Unfortunately, Alex was still thankful to the priest and did not want to disclose his information. He answered, "No comment for that." "..." Lexi made a weird expression before asking another question. "Then, are you coming from the other world? After all, we can''t get any information about you. So, I assume that with your weird fighting style, you are like someone from another world and just want to get back¡­ Not a Supreme of this world¡­" Alex pondered for a moment before changing the topic. "Supreme¡­ I am Alexander Sirius, not a Supreme. Besides, when you become Supreme, the other would most likely call you with that. It will be pretty sad if everyone only remembers your title, not your name." "Ah, I have experienced it too. It is quite sad since I have been called Phoenix Queen this and Phoenix Queen that for a few thousand years. Only after Ellen was born, was there someone who called me differently. Of course, you are different too." Stina smiled at Alex. He nodded before turning back to Lexi. "Anyway, If you are going to ask a personal question, just know that I won''t answer any of it." "..." She could only sigh. "Then I will lead the Phoenix Queen to another room, so she can rest. I will inform you if the messenger has arrived." "No. I am going to stay with him since I still don''t trust Dragon Race. There is no way I will leave him in this room alone." Stina declined while adding inwardly, ''I am his contracted beast, his safety is only second to Kyle.'' "I understand. Then, if there is anything, you can ring the bell over there." She pointed at a big bell in the corner of the room. Alex and Stina nodded while Lexi turned around and left. However, hearing about the bell made Alex wonder what kind of servant would come if he rang the bell. If it was in the Phoenix''s castle, all servants were at least Martial Lords and already learned shapeshifting ability. They wore a typical maid or butler suit, making them look like a butler or maid on Earth, except their wings. He was wondering what kind of servant the dragon race would have. He started imagining a dragon on their human form, having a horn, wings, and tail, wearing a uniform like in manga or anime from Japan. Sadly, the moment he pictured it, it would instantly be replaced by a huge western dragon wearing a uniform. It even made him shudder. Stina did not know what Alex was thinking and just ignored him as Kyle came out of Alex''s body. She just took her time with him. The next day, As Stina predicted, the envoy from the Sea Races had come to the palace, handing a certain invitation to them. Alex was astonished to see someone had a fish head with hands like a frog and joined at the waist to the body and legs of a snake. Alex only had curiosity and amazement while there was no trace of disgust in his eyes since he had seen monsters that had an uglier appearance. The envoy said while taking out three scrolls. "I am honored to hand the invitation of the World Summit to the Majestic Dragon King, Your Majesty Phoenix Queen and the Challenger Alexander Sirius. "The world summit will be held in our capital city, Atlantis. As for the specific date, May I inquire for Sir Alexander Sirius to specify the date? A range is fine too. After all, this invitation is also for the other races'' rulers and each of them has different distances from our Atlantis. "If you could provide the date, it will be better for all of us. Thus, his Majesty, Neptune, asks for a specific date." He said in front of all the dragons that were standing inside the Dragon Hall. "..." Alex pondered for a moment, recalculating the time he needed to advance to the Martial Emperor. He would need around one month or so to reach 9-Star Martial King and a few days more to reach 10-Star because he had an Energy Pill. After that, he would need to consolidate his strength as well as challenging his tribulation. It would take at least two months while considering the journey time. Hence, Alex replied, "Six months. I need around six months." All the people inside the hall except Stina were dumbfounded hearing that. He was only an 8-Star and he said he only needed six months to become a Tier 6, no one could believe it. Although they had heard about Alex raising his strength from 6-Star to 8-Star in a mere six months, it would be different if he needed to advance through a whole tier. This stupefied the entire hall and even the envoy could only reply to him with, "With all due respect, may I ask if Sire is sure to hold it in six months?" "Yes." Alex nodded. In fact, he had stretched it quite a bit, allowing him to train other things and refined pills for the medicinal ingredients quest. All of them exchanged looks, still could not believe it. After all, each ruler would have a busy schedule and if Alex suddenly said ''Sorry, I still need more time.'' and canceled the meeting, it would invite rage from the rulers. Seeing this, Stina decided to take a step forward and said, "In the name of Phoenix Race, I would surely bring him to Atlantis six months from now, so you don''t need to worry about that. Her name had already resounded throughout the world for a few thousand years and surely carried a big weight. Because of that, they somehow accepted it. "Then, I shall declare, in the name of the great Neptune, the world summit will be held in Atlantis six months from now." Alex nodded then turned to Stina, sending a thought transmission to her. ''Thank you.'' ''It''s a small problem, Master. According to the tale I heard from Anya, Master must have stretched it a bit.'' ''Well, I also need to train other things and refine the pills for the medicinal ingredients. Besides, if you are going with me, it will leave your Phoenix Race unprotected. If all of them at least have a hundred dragon strength more, it will enhance the security, so you can be more assured when you leave this world.'' Alex explained. Stina opened her eyes wide, astonished by his intention. She smiled and thought she and Kyle did not choose the wrong master. ''Yes.'' After the declaration, the invitation was updated by the date that they agreed upon. He then handed one to the Dragon King, Stina, and even Alex had his own invitation. It was said that he could invite a few people as his companions or guards and this certainly made him happy. He was planning to invite Anya and Sherry with him. After beating the last trial, he was basically invincible in this world, so if the situation became a bit more chaotic, he could just recall Anya back and had Sherry hide inside his body. This way, no one would be able to touch them. As for the Phoenix Queen, she should be alright if she and Kyle also entered his body, but it would be a different matter since the current queen was Ellen, albeit was still not announced to the world, so the invitation still fell onto her hand. "Then, with this, our business on this continent has officially finished. I am thankful for the good reception, Dragon King Zephyr." Stina said. "Are you not going to stay for a few more days?" "No. Since we only have six months, we need to go back right now, since we also need to consider our departure time," Stina replied. "Umu." My Dragon Race shall escort you back so you won''t have any trouble in your journey and I bet the Naga race would also allow this, right?" "Your Majesty is right." The envoy nodded. They then concluded the meeting there and started their journey again. 494 Sherry Alex instantly had closed-door cultivation the moment he came back. Because of the World Summit thing, Stina immediately met Ellen to discuss this. "Do you want to go? You are technically the current queen and it might be good to come since I can announce your ascension in front of the other rulers. And if you can talk face to face with the other rulers, it will be a good experience for you." Stina said. Ellen and the others were startled. They never thought Stina would come back and drop a bomb like this. She even threw the invitation to her like it was nothing. Ellen looked down, pondering something. She had known about the World Summit, but it was only in the record. She never attended the real one. In fact, only a few rulers managed to see one and only Stina had attended twice, the Angel Race matter and the previous Supreme Matter. Alex''s matter would be her third one. After a few minutes, Ellen nodded her head. "Yes. I would love to. However, isn''t this a bit dangerous, Mother?" "Not really. From what I know, the Seraphim and Dragon King would support him. With the addition of our race, he already has the support of half this world''s strength. According to my observation, Neptune would not join in the fray. Which only leaves us two potential enemies, Human Race and Elven Race." Stina shrugged. "Yes. The Human Race feels betrayed because he never seeks their help or tells them anything about the crystal. However, seeing he already has the support of our race, they could not do anything. "However, it would be different for the Elven Race. Their king is a 7-Star Tier 6 Elf. And their strength is beyond the Human Race. What I am afraid of is if they would join hands and attack us." Ellen sighed. "Don''t worry about them. It seems that he will finish the pills before we go. Our race''s strength will be greatly increased. Fighting the Elven Race will be easy. As for the Human Race, they are not even worth consideration. "As long as we are careful, we should be fine." Stina paused a bit before looking at the elders. "Elder Chiyo and Chiho will assemble a few spies and send them to the Human Race and Elven Race. Elder Thari will gather all the people who gathered the medicinal ingredients and record them. "Beside Ellen, I will also ask three elders to be Ellen''s guards. And there is another thing I need to announce¡­ I have become Alexander Sirius''s Contracted Beast, so basically, he is my master now." "Mother (Your Majesty)?" They were shocked by this sudden revelation. They already knew about her following him because of Kyle, but they did not know that she would even become his Contracted Beast. Their strongest and oldest Phoenix became someone''s Contracted Beast, it was already beyond their imagination. "This is the sole reason I can break the world limit and become an 8-Star Tier 6 Phoenix." She said. However, she also learned she could still live longer as long as she kept getting stronger, extending the time she could have with Kyle. "Don''t worry. Even without me, our Phoenix Race will still stand strong." "I just want to ask all elders that have supported me for a few thousand years to also support my daughter, Ellen." "Yes." All elders immediately kneeled on the ground. "Anyway, we will go in six months, so just make some schedule at that time," Stina said as she turned around and left. The elders looked at Ellen with a worried expression. They had a contradictory thought since they hoped Alex could get all the crystals, but they also wanted the queen to continue ruling upon their race. Ellen also understood their worry and shook her help. "We have burdened my mother for too long. I think it is time for my mother to pursue her happiness. I might not be as good as my mother, but I hope all elders will help me." "Yes, Your Majesty." They kneeled once again. ¡­ In Alex''s courtyard, Alex and Anya had thought the same thing as Stina. As soon as they were back, they immediately dispatched all their spies to investigate the Elven Race and Human Race. Alex then started cultivating after knowing Sherry was in a deep sleep for her evolution. With his Rank 6 Gathering Array, it merely took him one month to become a 9-Star Martial King, a half month shorter than what he predicted. Seeing Sherry had yet to wake up, he immediately asked Stina to get a 10-Star Martial King monster core for his Energy Pill. The next day, the core arrived, making Alex wonder how easy it was to get a 10-Star core. Alex only shook his head and focused on the pill in front of him. All the medicinal ingredients appeared in front of him together with his Rank 6 Alchemy Furnace. He raised the furnace with his Spiritual Energy, warming it with his Pure Fire. After a minute, he waved his hand as ten ingredients rose from the ground together with the Monster Core. At his level, he could make something like this easily. He tossed the ingredients inside, except the Monster Core, burning them with his Pure Fire. Each ingredient would have a different treatment and temperature and Alex skillfully adjusted all of that. In one ingredient, he would use a low-temperature flame to melt it slowly and in the other, he just needed to blast them with a blazing flame and take their essence. On the contrary, he looked at the Monster Core with a powerful strength inside. According to his Spirit Eyes, the monster was a kind of giant eagle. He poured his flame to bait the eagle out. Surprisingly, the Eagle was very big, around a third of Qeigess''s size. Seeing this, Alex immediately shook his head as he let out his overbearing Pure Fire. "I have defeated a Rank 6 dragon that is bigger than you." It only took him several clashes before he defeated it. There was also another thing that astonished him. It seemed that with his current Pure Fire, the refining process became shorter, specifically in the Impurity Process. He was happy with it though. After a while, Alex finished his refinement, tossing all of his medicinal ingredients and monster core inside the furnace and slowly fusing them. The sweet aroma started enveloping the room, telling the pill was almost ready. He gave another spark inside the flame before taking his fire back. Without any rest, he opened the lid and took out a shiny green pill. This was a rank 5 Energy Pill. He swallowed the pill without hesitation, trying to break through to 10-Star. The pill energy was intense and he boosted it with his Rank 6 Gathering Array, letting him advance in only five days. "Fu." Alex let out a long breath. After this, he would start consolidating his power, but before that, he needed to check up the other conditions first, including Anna''s progress, so he came out of his room, walking toward Anya. Surprisingly, the one he met first was a certain 12-13 years old girl with cute white fox ears and tail. Her long white hair complemented her cute face while the pink color on the tip of her hair, ears, and tail gave her a charming aura. She was wearing a white butterfly hairpin on her back while wearing a white shirt and a black skirt that reached her knees, giving her a cheerful aura. "Master-Wuu!" She leaped toward him and hugged him. Alex recognized her even before she called him. After all, he had seen her image in the sins trial. "Sherry, Congratulations." He patted her head and stroked her hair. "This way, I can also become like the four elder sisters-wuu!" She smiled. Alex made a weird expression as he said, "Ehm¡­ Wait until you get a bit bigger, okay?" "Bigger?" She tilted her head before looking down. "Oh, bigger!" She even misunderstood his statement, making him sigh. Anya then appeared out of nowhere and said, "Fufu¡­ How is it? She is cute, right? Did she make you fall into that path?" "Ahaha¡­" Alex shook his head inwardly, thinking about how he could fall into that path. "By the way, how old are you, Sherry?" "Hmm? I met Master seven and a half years ago and as long as I remember, I have roamed around for the same amount of time." She answered, trying to recall everything. "Then, three more years." He patted her head. "Three more years? What do you mean, Master?" She asked, confused. "Fufu¡­ This is not Earth, you know." Anya smirked. Alex merely shook his head. "This is a matter of principle and I don''t really have a taste for that." He just could not see her like that. And luckily, she did not wear a hakama. (AN: Even if the world forgives you, WN''s blacklist system won''t!) "Well, you are the one who chose. She will reach Martial Monarch within three years. The same as you." She said "Yeah." "Master, Is there something worrying you?" She looked at him with her big eyes. "No. Anyway, it truly brings me happiness to see you like this." He smiled, patting her head again. "Well, I am thinking about bringing both of you to the World Summit. And not inside my body or inside the card." "World Summit? I have heard about it from Stina, and are you sure about this?" Anya took a glance at Sherry. "I mean, there might be a few of them that have a weird taste." "It''s fine. I can recall you back to the card and hide Sherry. Since we are not going to meet them before I finish the trial, I could get the crystal and become an invincible existence first. So we are good. "I also heard Stina asked Ellen not to support the motion of going to another world. If that happens, then we will be free after this, so it is fine." Alex nodded. "Besides, all of you are not like the flowers inside my garden that I would keep inside for myself." Anya smiled and nodded. "If that is your decision, then I will follow you. I will wear a veil though, while Sherry¡­ does not need it." "Yeah." He nodded. "Anyway, how is everyone''s condition?" "They are fine. The Spirit Nest has started to disappear from everyone''s memory. They are just awaiting your return before they resurface. "Only the Joyful Union Sect has set their eyes on us while the other influences, including the Fire God Clan. We can build a base with your Extended World Array, so they would not find us later. "As for their future fate¡­ I will let you decide the fate of that R-18 sect. You can mark it with a police line or purge it." She shrugged. "As for Evelyn and Rose, Evelyn has reached 9-Star Martial Lord while Rose has become a 3-Star Martial Lord. Before you come back, I feel Evelyn would have reached Martial King and started her journey. As for Rose, because we are focusing on her foundation, she has a slower pace." "Slower Pace? She has the same pace as me¡­" Alex said with a poker face. "Yeah, but you need to get your Spirit Stones and train other things." She shrugged. "Well, it seems after getting Bow Mastery, she is increasing even faster than Evelyn. Anna wants to give her Lightning Gem, but it will be for later." "What about her technique?" "She is using three Earth Tier Bow Skills and two Heaven Tier Lightning Arts." Anya paused a bit, remembering about a certain matter. "She also has some suitors. One of them comes from our sect and one of them is the guy from the Northern Continent. She defeated both of them in a fight, so they can''t do anything. The one from the Northern Continent asked his family but was defeated by Anna and the others. She wanted to exterminate that family but still waited for you to come back first." 495 Special Realm After hearing the report, he came back to his room. Anya asked about what he wanted to do, but Alex simply said, "If he wants to pursue my disciple, do it without his background. If he crosses the line and brings his family, I shall beat the parents first before killing the son. This way, if he tried to say, ''Don''t you know who I am? and blah blah.'' I can just present his parents'' heads and say, ''I only know these guys died in my hand.'' Then the situation will be resolved." Anya was laughing when she heard that. She could somehow imagine what kind of expression that person would have. Besides, he really moved his family, so he was on Alex''s wanted list. Knowing his answer, she then left him alone, so he could consolidate his strength. Sherry was a bit disappointed, but she still let him go. The three years agreement from Alex kept playing inside her head, making her a bit impatient. Her solution was to cultivate to skip the time. Surprisingly, Sherry literally slept like a normal human when cultivated, unlike Alex, who sat on lotus pose while absorbing the Spiritual Energy. And unlike her fox form, she kept rolling around the bed, making Anya often come to fix her clothes. On the other hand, Alex took a full two months just to consolidate his strength. He was planning to advance to Martial Emperor first before refining the pills. According to Anya, there was a big movement from the Human Race. They wanted Alex''s to be a part of their race. They even tried to take the guild master of Empyrean Guild and Lilian to the World Summit. Sadly, Alex did not really care about that, so no matter how hard they argued, Alex would simply shrug his shoulder. Besides, Alex was as strong as their ruler when the World Summit began, so he did not need to be afraid. Nothing big was going on for the Elven Race. They wanted to get Alex, but since he did not have any desire in this world, they just focused on Shelka and put Alex away. Hearing that, Alex was relieved. The moment he had finished his closed-door cultivation, he wanted to borrow a quite large land from Stina to make a Special Realm. Even though he did not really care about this world, it was still out of his character not to be careful. He was not an attention seeker anyway, so he did not really care if the world did not know about it. He came to Stina, who was helping Kyle in his cultivation. "I think I will have my breakthrough now." "Do you need anything from me?" Stina asked, wondering what Alex wanted. After all, Alex never came to ask something and she did not really know about Lightning Tribulation. "Well, I want to ask if there is a quite big land that I can borrow for a few days¡­ If possible, one that people don''t know." He asked. He could just come to anywhere he wanted in this continent and just used one of them to build his Special Realm. But he thought it would be better to ask the ruler and borrow one. "There are many of those here. I can lead you to those places if you want. I can even dispatch a few soldiers to guard the place." She said. "I don''t need guards since no one would know about it as long as I construct the array." Alex shook his head. "Well, I will lead you to the nearest one. It is a half-day trip from here." Stina nodded. "Thanks." "Kyle, I am going for a bit, okay?" Stina said to Kyle, who was sitting in lotus pose. "Yes." Kyle answered and opened his eyes before clasping his hands to Alex. "Master, may fortune be with you." "Yes. I''m off, Kyle." Alex smiled Alex and Stina then left the room, but Alex wanted to say goodbye to Anya and Sherry first before going. Hence, they went back to his courtyard. Surprisingly, the answer he got was, "No!" Alex was surprised to hear their answer. "I need to come with Master to make sure no one would disturb you." Sherry pouted. "I will make a Special Realm for that." "I can also heal you after you finish your tribulation," Anya said. "I don''t usually get an injury with my tribulation¡­" Anya then changed her answer. "Your lightning tribulation is special, so I am afraid something might happen to you. Even if Anna and the others were here, they would surely come with you." Alex could only nod, accepting their request. "Alright. Anyway, we are going now." Anya and Sherry nodded happily. Four of them then flew according to Stina''s direction and arrived at a barren land half a day later. Taking out the rank 6 blood, Alex started making the array on the ground. He made an Extended World Array first before covering it up with an illusion array. Inside, he made two Gathering Arrays as well as a few rank 5 Lightning Rod Arrays. The first Gathering Array was for his cultivation while the other one was to maintain the barrier. He only used natural energy because he only needed this array to hide his tribulation, so there was no need for a huge amount of energy. Stina also decided to watch it because she was a bit curious. And with her status, he allowed her to watch. There were already Anya and Sherry, so having another one would pose no issue. It took him two hours to set up all of these arrays to make a system for his Special Realm. Despite that, the array was only two hundred in diameter. If he wanted to make a big one like Zwaka''s or Maxwell''s, he would need a few days to set up the system entirely and enough materials. He started activating his array from the Gathering Array, Extended World Array and Illusion Array. When he activated the Extended World Array, he was surprised to see the array shoot light to the sky. Luckily, the light was dim and no one would really notice this light unless they were close. The light then started linking with his array and made a transparent barrier. He then channeled his Spiritual Energy into his Illusion Array, making it blend with the surroundings. If they came here, they would just see a normal scenery unless they bumped into this array. He let out a long breath, feeling relieved. "Alex, since you don''t really make a Special Realm, how about you try all the features in this array before undergoing your tribulation? I mean, you can try making a token as a key for this array. Or maybe you can try to create a timing that can open the array for a set time interval." Anya suggested. Hearing this, Alex pondered for a while. What she said was true and if he wanted to make a base with this, he would need to try all the concepts first. "Yes. You might be right." Alex nodded and made a little tweaking on the array, creating a ''keyhole'' in his array. Not long after, he made the keys from an Array Paper and gave it to everyone. He wanted to check if all of them can go in with the four keys. Alex was a bit nervous when he tested it, but luckily, the test was a success. He then tweaked the array again, making a timer inside his array. It would open and close every minute. After seeing it worked properly for half an hour, he tested it with a different set of intervals. He then asked Stina to attack the array to make sure it could withstand her attack. If not, Zwaka''s place or his master''s realm would have been broken a long time ago. It could withstand Stina''s full attack three times before it started to crack. His Space Element had already reinforced the barrier and to make sure no one could teleport inside, but it was still not enough. He needed a few more Gathering Arrays to make the barrier even stronger, which was the solution for that, but he did not do it in this case. There were three other solutions: to use a Spirit Stone Mine below the ground if there was one or let the Special Realm for a period of time to let the field inside mutate and create a Spirit Stone Mine, like Zwaka''s. The last solution was to use his own Spirit Stones. Even though it took more than a day to confirm all of that, Alex was very satisfied with the result nonetheless. He looked at Sherry, Anya, and Stina. "I will be starting now. Wish me luck." "This Lightning Tribulation can''t stop you." Anya smiled. "That''s right. Just destroy the Lightning Tribulation with Master''s power." Sherry nodded furiously while Stina could only say, "Good luck." Alex then started cultivating without Gathering Array, waiting until his Lightning Tribulation to come. It took him a few days to trigger the lightning tribulation. Stina was a bit shocked when she saw a huge black cloud hovering in the sky above Alex. There was a sense of dread when she saw this cloud, telling her it was coming from Heaven itself. Anya came to her, tapping her shoulder a few times. "Don''t panic and no matter how hard it is, just endure it and don''t help him. This is the basic rule." Stina nodded and turned back to the black cloud. The thunder was rumbling loudly, sending an ominous presence. Stina was able to see four different colors inside this black cloud which was Yellow, Blue, Purple, and Gold. "You have seen how he could block a power that Qeigess''s lightning, right? This is one of the reasons¡­ In fact, Qeigess could not be compared to his tribulation." Anya smiled. "He always had a tribulation like this every time he had a major breakthrough, so he always needed a stronger power or else, his cultivation would be stagnant." She gulped down, only believing a portion of what she said. She clenched her fists, imagining if she was the one who had this lightning tribulation. Suddenly, Alex released his domain, letting his current four hundred meter domain for the world to see. He slowly opened his eyes, standing and looking at the black cloud with a serious expression. This time, he instantly took out his Rank 6 Spear and Fire Elemental Sword because he felt he could not look down on his tribulation anymore. His Pure Fire also gushed out from the Phoenix Seed, hovering around his body. This time, Alex controlled it so Stina and Sherry would not feel the pressure. He took a deep breath before raising his sword and said, "Come!" *Rumble Rumble!* The thunder rumbled for one last time before a bolt of glowing yellow lightning struck forth. 496 Lightning Tribulation Part 1 "Come!" *Rumble!* The Heaven sent forth yellow lightning to site Alex. Because this was the first time she saw something like this, Stina could not help but mutter, "Is Heaven angry right now?" Anya chuckled before explaining it to her. "No. I have explained it to you before there are many worlds outside there and each world has its own system, varying from the speed, power, and difficulty. And just think the path that Alex takes is this which has its own characteristics." "Is that so?" "Well, just watch him, shall we?" She shrugged. Without hearing their voices, Alex simply focused his attention on this yellow lightning. He raised his sword, swinging it toward the lightning. "Bam!" A Rank 6 Fire Element Sword finally revealed its power as it sliced the lightning like nothing. Unexpectedly, Alex suddenly looked at his sword, blinking a few times like he was surprised by something. This action did not escape Anya''s and Stina''s eyes, making them think he was amazed by his sword. However, they learned it was wrong the moment they saw the second strike. *Rumble!* The sky brightened by yellow color before another lightning struck forth. Stina opened her mouth in surprise. Anya already told her that it would become stronger and stronger until the last strike, but she was still surprised because the lightning did not get stronger linearly. Instead, it was coming by exponentially. Alex also figured this out as he closed his eyes, moving the soul inside his body to step the ground. Because of the Gathering Array, his body managed to gather more strength than usual. "Spirit Step." He clenched his sword as hard as possible after receiving the strength, slicing the lightning once again with 350 Dragon Strength. Surprisingly, Alex couldn''t cut it in a single swing. Anya furrowed her eyebrows, thinking it was something unusual even for Alex. The clash was over a few seconds before Alex managed to break the lightning strike, creating a powerful shockwave in all directions. Kai took a deep breath, looking at the dark cloud. One thing for sure, the Lightning Tribulation was harder than usual. That lightning strike alone had a certain kind of power that could strengthen itself. Unfortunately, he had yet to know what that power was. Activating his Spirit Eyes, he would not let anything escape from his eyes again, including that mysterious power. After another rumbling sound, the third strike charged at him. He pointed his left finger toward the lightning, creating a small fireball. The ball slowly turned into a fire tornado, engulfing the lightning. Although his Firewave of Emission was not as powerful as his other techniques, it was versatile enough for another thing. Seeing the tornado was burning the lightning, chipping its strength bit by bit, Alex took a step forward while clenching at both his weapons. He could clearly see with his Spirit Eyes that the Fire Tornado was not enough to destroy this third lightning strike. After more than ten seconds burning it, the lightning finally broke through the tornado, charging at Alex with less than half of its strength. Alex simply pierced the lightning before destroying the remnant power of the lightning with his sword. *Rumble!* All of them looked up, watching the yellow flash inside the dark cloud turned into blue. Stina clenched her fists, asking, "This is the second stage of the lightning tribulation, right?" "Indeed. This is the fourth wave and the power will be far stronger than the yellow one. Alex would need to be serious when facing this." Anya nodded. The fourth strike finally arrived, coming toward Alex with its powerful might. Pulling his spear to the back, he threw it with all his might. "Spin Throwing Art. Spin Throwing." He had not used this technique for a long time. The technique itself was an Earth Tier, which made Alex pretty surprised since he got the technique back when he was in the lower world. After knowing the limit, Alex realized it practically linked to his spear. If he had a powerful rank 8 Spear, it would bring a greater might. However, having seen the limit, he doubted it would be as effective as now if he threw it when he was a Martial Emperor or even Martial Monarch. It would seem he needed to search for another technique when he went back. *Bang!* The lightning sparked, clashing with the spear, specifically with the intent in the spear. The clash did not give birth a shockwave, but it was enough to create a dreadful atmosphere around. Stina muttered, "This is only the fourth. He still needs to beat six stronger lightning strikes. I have seen his fight against the dragon prince, Qeigess, and I know he has yet to use all his power. Still¡­ six more¡­" If he had the same power as her, it would be a piece of cake destroying all these lightning. Unfortunately, he needed to do it now with only 10-Star Martial King''s strength. The lightning finally blew away the spear, making its way toward Alex. He channeled his domain into his sword, making the sword flash a bit. Spiritual Energy also started gathering inside his sword as Alex struck the weakened lightning. "Heaven Breaking Sword." His intent instantly cut the lightning several times, scattering the lightning arrow. At the same time, the main blade struck the lightning core and destroyed it. "Fu." He never thought he needed this much power for the fourth strike. He might even need to use his Pure Fire to the fullest in the next strike as to burn its power a bit. *Rumble!* The sky started rumbling again, leaving Alex no time to recover. Unlike the previous Lightning Tribulations, this certainly was the most abnormal as Alex felt he would need time to recover his strength even just for a bit. Alex took a glimpse of the fifth strike, waving his left hand before taking his spear again. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." The Fire Phoenix flew toward the lightning, bringing a blazing flame in its core. And the moment it collided with the lightning, the phoenix itself was burning the lightning as usual. Until at one moment where the Phoenix was destroyed, the blazing flame exploded, scattering the lightning around. Alex purposely concentrated a denser amount of energy inside the phoenix just for this. The scattered lightning struck the ground, shaking it a bit. At the same time, more than half of the lightning fused again and came to his way. He was not afraid of this little lightning again and swung both of his weapons simultaneously. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." These two Martial Arts shattered the lightning without a problem because Alex also enhanced his power with Spirit Step. *Rumble Rumble!* Like it could not accept Alex managed to destroy its strike, the dark cloud sent the sixth strike in the instant Alex broke the fifth strike. "!!!" Alex noticed that there was concentrated energy inside the lightning. "Oi oi¡­ Are you copying me?" The concentrated energy inside the lightning was to prevent Alex from using his Phoenix again because if he tried to scatter it again, it would only break the outer layer while the core would strike at him. Seeing this, he pointed his index finger and shot out a laser attack. "Flame of Extinction." His Pure Fire immediately revealed its prowess as it melted the outer layer of the lightning in an instant before exploding in the clash against the core. Sadly, it did not manage to disperse the core, only chipping a portion of its energy away. Alex only smiled, thinking it was enough. He struck the lightning with his weapons again. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." Because Flame of Extinction carried more piercing power than the phoenix, it managed to damage the lightning core more than the phoenix, giving Alex an easier time. But just like the difference of power for two Fire Arst, the two lightning also had a significant difference in might. The moment Alex struck the lightning, he instantly felt the heaviness in its power, making a small crater under his feet. Alex focused his energy toward his hands and his feet to make sure the lightning strike did not throw his balance. The collision between his weapons and the lightning created a powerful shockwave that blew the sand nearby. Stina immediately made a shield to protect them from the sand and continued observing Alex. She felt the attack was comparable to Qeigess''s breath, so Alex should not have a problem. If he did not conserve his strength, he would destroy the lightning already. Unfortunately, Stina had yet to realize the true terror of the last strike, making her doubt Alex in his decision for the sixth strike. After a minute, under the constant clash between power, Alex managed to destroy the lightning with his weapons. "This is certainly not good¡­" Alex sighed, recalling the last strike. Usually, he would only start having trouble with the purple lightning. Yet, this time, he already had a bit of a problem with the sixth strike. He really hoped he had access to Martial Arts in this world. He had seen the Martial Arts that Zwaka possessed and no Martial Art fancied him, albeit he could relate that as Zwaka was an Elemental User and Array Master. Because of this, he felt his power was a bit lacking. Luckily, he got a few minutes to breathe as the lightning transitioned from blue into purple. The transition was a bit longer than usual, but it was certainly more terrifying, making Stina a bit tense. Sherry and Anya did not care about the lightning because they had absolute trust in Alex. They thought, ''If it is Alex, it will be possible.'' *Rumble Rumble* The purple lightning came out of the cloud. Surprisingly, the lightning started forming into a giant sword. As soon as the sword was coming down, Alex pointed his finger, using his Flame of Extinction to weaken the lightning. The laser collided with the tip of the sword, halting its progress. Albeit, after doing it for a minute, Alex felt it would only be a waste of Spiritual Energy, so he decided to end it in one go. "Seven Stars Cut!" Using both weapons, Alex shot a cross Sword Wave. The clash was no joke as the Shockwave birth from the clash even made his barrier tremble. "!!!" Alex split his attention a bit to check the barrier. However, there was no abnormality in the barrier and the energy was still full, so he focused back on the lightning. The clash went for quite a while, making Alex think if he should send another attack toward the lightning. Luckily, his sword wave started splitting the sword into two. Even with the energy inside the sword wave slowly diminished, Alex had no doubt the sword wave would win the battle. In another ten seconds, his sword wave finally broke the lightning, albeit it was destroyed after that for having no energy left. "Eight Strike¡­" Alex clenched his weapons, thinking up his plan for the next attack. *Rumble!* The eighth strike also appeared in the form of a sword, so Alex swiftly sent another cross Sword Wave. "Seven Stars Cut." Unexpectedly, in this clash, his sword wave immediately had a sign of breaking in just a few seconds, making him wave his hands. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon!" The phoenix flew toward the sword''s body, creating a huge explosion that shook the sword. Because of this, his sword wave managed to destroy its pointed tip. Sadly, it was then destroyed by the sword. Alex confirmed the energy first with his Spirit Eyes before striking it with his weapons. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." "!!!" The lightning almost made Alex fall to his knees upon contact, showing how powerful the lightning was. Even Anya knew this, looking at him with worry as she clenched her hands. Noticing how dire the situation was, Alex abandoned his spear and covered his fist with fire before turning into a claw. He struck the lightning with the claw. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw!" 497 Lightning Tribulation Part 2 "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Phoenix Claw!" His Phoenix Claw had a different intensity now and the moment he struck his Phoenix Claw, it started melting the lightning sword a little bit, creating a little hole on its body. Alex''s Heaven Breaking Sword continued forward, chopping the lightning sword bit by bit. He continued for a few times until the sword was destroyed entirely. "!!!" Anya, Sherry, and Stina were alarmed when they saw this. At first, they were shocked by his approach as it was a risky approach, but the thing that shocked them the most was his hand. Alex already felt their gaze as there was a tingling pain on his hand. He raised his left hand, feeling a bit numb after that attack. His left hand was injured quite a bit, bleeding all over. There was even one spot where his skin was peeled. Unfortunately, the lightning tribulation did not let him time to recover his injury and sent the ninth strike. Watching this made Stina tremble as the lightning strike already surpassed the attack he used to create a huge wound on Qeigess. If this lightning struck Qeigess, it would probably make a hole in his body. "This¡­ Are you sure 10-Star Martial King needs to withstand this!" Stina questioned Heaven, looking up toward the dark cloud. Anya also had the same opinion, but she speculated the difficulty came from the Golden Lightning itself. She did not know the reason for that Golden Lightning but considering all of them contain an inheritance for him, she speculated it was from the previous Alexander Sirius. Just like the present Alexander Sirius, the previous him was also a careful person, so she thought because he believed in his future self, he decided to do this. Thinking of that, Anya only prayed for Alex''s good fortune. As for Sherry, she already looked down for a few minutes, hoping for his safety. Alex heard the rumbling and looked up. He already prepared for this ninth strike and felt relieved because he made more than he needed. For this ninth strike, Alex prepared ten Lightning Rod Arrays. The arrays shone as he activated all of them simultaneously. He created a portal to divide the lightning into ten and sent them to their respective Lighting Rod Array. The moment he did this, the lightning sword split and struck the ground, making the ground vibrate. The lightning was sparking around the area, forcing Anya and the others to retreat as to avoid the lightning. On the other hand, Alex utilized his Lightning Rod Arrays skillfully, channeling the lightning bit by bit. Suddenly, just like having an overload, one of his arrays broke, making a massive explosion. "Boom!" Alex instinctively created a Barrier Array to shield him from the explosion. Unexpectedly, the other Lightning Rod Array started breaking, creating a chain of explosions. "Not good!" He did not mind about the explosion, but if all Lightning Roy broke, he would fail in this ninth strike. To prevent that, Alex immediately created two Lightning Rod Arrays from his own Spiritual Energy, taking a full brunt from the whole lightning strike. The pressure alone ripped his sleeves, making a few shallow cuts on his hands. Alex felt the pain but did not utter a single scream, so the others would not worry that much. He could withstand such a pain because he was already accustomed to the Undying Fire Body''s refinement. In fact, the pain he felt was like a sting from an ant. Looking back at his past, he would certainly scream in pain no matter how hard he held it. He did not know if this because he was mature now or he was a masochist now. At least, he was thankful since he knew the pain would not break his focus. Enduring for another minute, he finally dispersed all the lightning power. He took a glimpse at Anya''s and Sherry''s expression and apologized inwardly for making them worry. He told Stina to believe in him as he would not die from a thing like this before he met his wives. Without resting, Alex grabbed the weapons that he threw earlier. He took a deep breath, trying to recover as much as possible. The lightning started its last transition, changing its color from purple to golden. An eastern dragon head came out of the cloud, looking at Alex. It brought an overbearing pressure just by coming out, making Anya and Sherry fall to their knees. "Alex (Master)!" They shouted at the same time. On the other hand, Stina realized the true terror of Alex''s lightning tribulation. She remembered when Alex said that Qeigess''s lightning was not comparable to his lightning tribulation. What he said was true and if she tried to compare it with Qeigess''s lightning, it was the same as comparing a cat with a tiger. Even Qeigess would be obliterated to ash if he took this lightning, let alone Alex. However, at this very moment, Alex was actually smiling to himself. "Sh*t. This is really no joke." Alex felt his blood riled up as his Pure Fire burst out of his body. He could spare a portion of his energy in all of his previous lightning tribulations. Yet, facing this lightning strike, if he tried to conserve his energy, he would die. He used his Spirit Step again, giving him a surge of strength. He shot out another Cross Sword Wave, trying to stop the advance of the lightning. "Seven Stars Cut." "Roar!" It let out a roar, making the ground tremble. The dragon flew down, opening its mouth as it tried to swallow the Seven Stars Cut. Luckily, the Sword Wave was bigger than its mouth and struck its teeth. The clash between them shook the entire realm, cracking the Extended World Array. He knew his sword wave alone would not be enough to stop its advance and would soon crumble. To help the sword wave, Alex threw a spear while pointing his finger. "Spear Throwing Art. Spin Throwing!" "Flame of Extinction. The dragon finally halted its advance after getting struck by four attacks. Surprisingly when he saw the condition with his Spirit Eyes, he realized his attack had yet to deplete the dragon''s energy¡­ no, it could be said that the dragon was supplied constantly by the dark cloud as it only let out half of its body while the other half was inside the dark cloud. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if he could do any damage if he stuck at the dragon body. Knowing it was futile to think, he immediately waved his hand, sending a phoenix toward the body. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." *Cry!* Just like the dragon, the phoenix let out a loud cry before flying toward the dragon body. "Boom!" The phoenix exploded as soon it touched the body, enveloping its body with Pure Fire and burning it bit by bit. Because of this, Alex could see the flow of the energy disturbed a little bit. It impacted on the dragon head as its energy was slowly decreasing because of Alex''s attacks. Alex smiled as he used his Space Element to make a portal. "Seven Stars Cut." "Firebirds." He sent his sword wave to cut the dragon body to stop the energy from flowing. As for his firebirds, it was there to burn the dragon as to make the sword wave''s advance easier. "Boom Boom Boom!" This series of explosions gave Anya and the others hope, knowing it would end soon. On the contrary, Alex worried about a different thing from them. He glanced at his barrier that started cracking, knowing it happened because of the energy inside that dark cloud, not from the clash with the dragon. It meant, if he could not end this fight as soon as possible, there was a possibility the special realm would crumble, letting the world witness this. "Sh*t. That cloud¡­ I never thought it would have this much power¡­" He sighed. Little did he know, the energy was coming from this world. Because no one ever experienced Lightning Tribulation, the world had accumulated enough energy for this dark cloud. However, because of the limitation, it could only gather enough energy at the level of Stina, the strongest one in the world. In other words, this fight was between him and Stina. Although the attack was not at the same level as Stina''s strongest attack, it was enough to suppress Alex, who was only a 10-Star Martial King. "..." After a few more seconds, he saw the dragon finally separated from the cloud. Alex quickly waved his hands, shooting another phoenix to scatter the power. "Boom!" Another explosion occurred, dispersing the power of the dragon a bit. With this, Alex swung his weapons simultaneously. "Heaven Breaking Sword." "Berserker Strike." "!!!" Even with only a bit of energy left, the dragon was still unstoppable, creating a huge crater beneath Alex''s feet from pressure alone. His Pure Fire started dancing on his sword as it slowly moved toward the dragon and burned it. Alex smirked. "Firewave Emission." He used the versatile technique to burn the dragon while he tried to cut it with his weapons. The dragon started to crack, but because he only paid attention to the dragon, he missed its other half. After Alex split the dragon into two, the other half slowly came back inside the cloud and sent a terrifying amount of energy to all directions. Of course, this was stopped by the Special Realm, but the realm only had the energy from its surroundings as Alex did not supply it with his Spirit Stones. Because of this, the special realm started cracking before finally crumbling. "Ha!" At the same time, Alex roared as he used every ounce of his strength, slicing the dragon''s head. "Boom!" The dragon exploded, bursting out a golden particle to the air. Alex''s hand was covered with blood as he spat blood and fell to his knees. Unfortunately, his problem did not end there as he looked up, watching his special realm crumble. "Sh*t!" The moment the dragon exploded, the lightning showed a golden flash, revealing a golden sky to the world for a split second. The phoenixes on the continent suddenly dropped to their knees, watching the event unfold while crying. For an unknown reason, their eyes suddenly felt so itchy, forcing them to close their eyes. Unbeknownst to them, after around an hour or so, they suddenly opened their eyes, feeling a sudden increase in their strength. There were even some that managed to have a breakthrough. It was true that the Phoenix Continent was the center of this phenomenon, but all of it could be seen from other continents, including from under the sea. For those who saw this phenomenon, they experienced the same thing as the phoenixes, albeit the effect was not as powerful as them. Even so, the people still claimed it was God''s miracle. As for the perpetrator of this phenomenon, Alex was not in good condition. He almost used all of his energy and he was injured from all the lightning strikes. "Alex (Master)!" Anya and the others swiftly leaped toward him, checking his condition. Anya said, "I will heal you." Alex looked at her fuzzily, shaking his head as it was not the time. Knowing this matter was exposed to the world, he used every bit of his energy to create a Teleportation Array. Even though two rank 6 Teleportation Arrays were enough to teleport them to the castle, Alex had no energy left. They only managed to cover half of the distance, appearing in a grassy plain. "I have no time. I need to take it¡­" Alex could not hold it anymore before falling. Sherry did not let him touch the ground as she changed to her big fox form, giving him a soft cushion. "Sister Anya, hop on. I will bring him back while you heal him. I can''t watch him like this-wuu." Sherry said. Anya nodded and leaped toward Sherry''s back and Stina immediately led them toward the castle. 498 Post Tribulation In the Phoenix Castle, A guard came inside the hall, where Ellen had a meeting with the elders. "Emergency!" The guard rushed in, sweating all over because of the importance of the situation. "Outside¡­ Outside¡­" He was struggling to say his report. "What happens?" Ellen furrowed her eyebrows, looking at this guard. "Calm down and give me the report. What is the emergency?" "I¡­ I don''t know¡­ what is happening. But our people outside start falling down. Their conditions are stable, but we do not know the exact reason why they are unconscious." The guard reported. Like Ellen and the others, he was a guard inside the castle and did not see the flash of the golden sky, so he did not experience it. After checking the people around the castle who witnessed the phenomenon, he immediately reported this. Furrowing her eyebrows, she stood up and asked, "How many people? Elder Kana, we need you to check their condition. Seeing their conditions are stable, we should be able to save them." "Your Majesty¡­ the problem¡­ the problem is¡­" The guard was trembling, recalling the earlier scene. "What?" Ellen had no patient since this was an emergency situation. "This incident does not only affect the people around the castle¡­ but the whole town!" The guard remembered when his friend said it when he checked around the town from the sky after seeing this situation. "What?!" Ellen and the elders were stupefied, looking at the guard with disbelief. "This... if this is true¡­" Ellen sweatdropped just by thinking of it. "We need to check this situation. Elder Ma and Ta will check around the capital city and search for any other races with the same conditions as our race. Elder Kana will try to check the condition of our subjects." "Yes, Your Majesty." The three elders instantly disappeared. She said to the guard, "Pass my order to all guards in the castle to help all our subjects and protect them. They will be vulnerable in this state, so ensure no chaos inside the city. Elder Xin will take charge of the guard as to quell the unrest." "Understood." The elder and the guard left. "Where is my mother¡­" Ellen did not want to rely on her, but this was the first time she experienced this. Even if she did not rely on her, she at least wanted to ask any clues about this. "Her Majesty¡­ her majesty is accompanying Alexander Sirius outside. It''s already the third day." One of the elders said. "..." Ellen''s expression darkened, thinking about why she was not in the castle at a time like this. At this time, she suddenly had an absurd idea. "What if¡­ my mother accompanied him because she knew about this¡­" "!!!" The elders were startled hearing her statement, thinking if it was her, it was certainly possible. With the amount of her knowledge, the queen often predicted something about the future. And as the elders that followed her for a few thousand years, they could clearly picture the queen doing that. She needed the power of Alexander Sirius, so she asked him to accompany her, not her accompany him. Ellen also thought of this and she said, "Anyway, rather thinking about a possibility, we should do something definite first which is to help our citizens." "Yes, Your Majesty." ¡­ It was the same as for the other continents, In Human Palace Hall, The king was angry. "What is happening? Why do our people suddenly become like that?" "According to the people who have woken up, it was because the sky turned golden for a split second. It would seem everyone who saw the phenomenon fall into that state and somehow got their cultivation increase. A few even managed to advance." The soldier reported while trembling. Because the effect was not as powerful as the Phoenix continent, the people of this continent had woken up. He was struggling to realize the opposite party''s intention. Just right before the World Summit started, this phenomenon happened, making them doubtful about the credibility of Phoenix Queen. On the contrary, the Elven Race thought something different, As they had experienced and known Alex''s existence and how different he was from the other. The possibility was big since there was no record of this before Alex''s appearance. And somehow, all other rulers who had met Alex or even the Neptune were aware of this too. "I will still go to the World Summit and know the truth." The Elven King decided. In the Angel Continent, The Seraphim was dealing with the damage as a few angels who were patrolling around suddenly fell down, destroying houses and such. "I will get the answer to the World Summit. Marta¡­ you will stay here, and if something happens to me, you will replace me as the ruler." The seraphim said to his wife. "What! I won''t-" The seraphim stopped her. "No, this World Summit will certainly bring more surprises than you can think¡­ Albeit, it also means more dangerous. If I come back alive, I will surely gain many things... For my Angel Race, I will go." The same in the Dragon Continent, Qeigess, who was practicing outside, came back to the castle and told the other his experience. And he added another thing before finishing his report. He said, "... Most likely, it came from that human in the Phoenix Continent." Zephyr and Lexi also understood what he meant. Zephyr was thinking about how lucky the Phoenix Race was to get a hold of Alex. While the Neptune who experienced the light itself and somehow broke through to 8-Star Martial Emperor ordered his guard to make a grand party. He also ordered his soldiers to make a big reception party for Alexander Sirius. Although he had yet to confirm it was Alex, knowing him as the Supreme alone was enough for him to speculate. Meanwhile, Alex was lying down on his bed. Anya already healed all of his injuries and his condition was stable, so she let him rest while receiving the inheritance, wondering what kind of inheritance he would get. As for Stina, she had been busy quelling the unrest. Although she did not tell the exact reason, the people immediately listened to her and learned it was a miracle. After saying a few more bullsh*ts, she returned to the castle. The culprit was taking his time to receive a tremendous amount of knowledge from the golden lightning. This time, he learned about all kinds of Martial Arts, from weapons such as sword and spear to body skills like punching or kicking. It even had more variety than the knowledge about elements and it took him a week to finish absorbing the knowledge. Alex fuzzily opened his eyes, looking at the familiar ceiling. He realized he had come back to his room, knowing it must be the others that took him back. It would seem it was the correct choice to bring them. He tried to rise from the bed, feeling a bit sluggish. Surprisingly, he felt some kind of resistance on his left arm, making him turn his head to the left. Alex opened his eyes wide, not believing what he just saw. Sherry was hugging his left arm tightly, making his left arm a bit numb. However, it seemed she was still in her cultivation despite sleeping beside him. He shook his head helplessly, smiling when watching this. *Bang!* The door was slammed open suddenly, giving Alex a heart attack. He looked at the door, waiting for someone to come in. After a few seconds, he activated his Spirit Eyes and sighed. "Anya, come in." "Ahaha¡­" Anya revealed her head, laughing. "Did I surprise you?" "Yeah, You did¡­ I thought I would hear something like ''FBI open up!'' Haiz, you got me there¡­" Alex sighed. "Should I say that too?" She smirked. "No," Alex answered with a poker face. "Haha¡­ besides, you are far stronger than them¡­ You can just burn them alive¡­" "..." Alexx rolled his eyes, saying, "Maybe, they bring plasma gun or something, not a normal gun." Anya smiled. "Alright. Let''s stop joking. Still, your world really loves something like that, huh¡­" Alex shrugged. "Anyway, what happened when I was asleep?" "You knew that your tribulation somehow managed to alarm the whole world, right?" "I don''t know if it is the whole world¡­ since the planet should be round, and the flash might not reach the other side¡­" Alex replied. "True enough¡­ Stina is searching for that information right now, so we can wait for her information. However, according to Nano, the Human Race and Elven Race experienced it and had big progress in their cultivation. Even some of them managed to have a breakthrough. The condition of the Phoenix Race is the same. According to the statistics, the Phoenixes get more benefits than other continents because of the distance." "I see¡­" Alex looked down, pondering something. "What are you going to do now? And what kind of knowledge have you received?" "There should be around one and a half months even after taking the travel time to Sea Race into consideration. In the meantime, I will try to break the box that the Sea Race gave me. Then refine pills for medicinal ingredients quest''s reward and sorting my new knowledge about Martial Arts." Alex answered. "So, you got Martial Arts this time¡­" "Yes. From weapons to body." Alex nodded. "I have also found how to utilize vein, but it seems it is a different type of cultivation." "I have heard about that technique. There are many worlds that have a system like that. Though I am sure you would not transplant someone''s veins into your body, right?" "Mhm." Alex nodded. He learned about it in Medical Knowledge from his Martial Lord Tribulation. Unfortunately, by transplanting a vein inside his body, his blood would slowly transform. If he got another race vein, he would become that race, so he did not really want it even if it was a human vein. She glanced at Sherry for a few seconds before turning back to him. "Sherry is watching you for a few days¡­ no, a week, I guess." "Oh." Alex nodded, thanking Sherry by patting her head. Somehow, she even smiled, enjoying it. "That''s right. You can check the system reward too." "Ah. Usually, I would get a reward for breaking through. Because what I did lately was only training, doing trials, and training again, and I somehow forgot about it¡­ I will check it later." "Alright. Seeing you are alright, I will leave you for a while. Ah, I will also bring Sherry to the other room." Anya said. Since Alex would most likely open his gacha, she did not want anyone to disturb his time with Lin Xingzhi, including Sherry. Sherry would certainly understand this even if she woke up. Pulling her away from Alex, she carried Sherry to her own room. Alex then asked, "System, is there any reward for me?" [So you have finally remembered me, Host? Even though you never visit me again in Gacha Palace.] "Ahaha¡­ Sorry sorry. I will come to Gacha Palace this time." [Well, you should be since there will be a new Gacha for you. This one is a bit special.] "Oh?" [Mission: Martial Emperor Reward: Slot Gacha and Gacha Coin x5 Description: Become a Martial Emperor and play another Gacha.] "Slot Gacha? As in a Slot Machine?" [Yes. It is a bit different from a normal Slot Machine, so I suggest you come since you also need to use it in the Gacha Palace.] "Alright." Alex nodded as he claimed the reward. [Gacha Ticket x2301] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x 2] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] [Gacha Coin x5] He saved up quite a bit of Gacha Tickets, and the amount really astonished him, considering the monsters were more powerful and there was no war where they could grind Gacha Tickets. After checking his Gacha, he then said. "Open the gate." The system immediately summoned the gate in front of him as Alex opened and entered the Gacha Palace. 499 Gacha Palace Alex came back to the Gacha Palace, wondering what kind of slot gacha he would have. He expected it would be like the slot machine in a casino, but he might be wrong like the Dart Gacha. Surprisingly, when he arrived inside the palace, the system girl, who was supposed to wear a white uniform, changed her attire into a short black dress. She did not forget a black stocking and gloves, looking like a casino girl. Alex blinked his eyes, checking if his eyes were working perfectly. "Ehm¡­ what happens with your clothes?" "I just used one of your memory ideas and became a casino girl. At first, I thought about using a bunny girl costume, but then I realized, I am here to guide you, not seduce you." She said that but her dress was already sexy enough. "..." Alex did not really have any opinion about the outfit as long as it did not cross the line. He paused a bit, remembering what she said. "Casino Girl? Slot Gacha¡­" "Yes. As you have expected, the Slot Gacha is like the slot machine in a casino." She smiled, stretching her hand politely, "Let''s go. I will bring you to the Gacha." Alex nodded, following her toward a Slot Machine. The machine was made of gold and just like the slot machine, it had three displaying screens that spin when the game was activated. However, what he found different were three symbols above each screen. They looked like a shovel, a book, and a pouch. And a rainbow box hung on top of the machine, making it look like the extra reward from Gacha Box. Seeing his gaze, Lin Xingzhi quickly explained, "This is a symbol for each Gacha: Tool, Technique, and Material." "Ah, I see." "Take a look at this." Pointing her finger at the screen, she pulled the handle on the side of the machine. The reels started spinning. Alex could see that the usual ''7'' or bar and the like were replaced by (C), (UC), (R), (SR), and (UR). "I am sure I don''t need to explain what these characters stand for since I will be explaining how this machine works." She looked at Alex, who nodded his head and smiled. "To put it simply, each time you use this Gacha, you will get three items simultaneously. One tool or weapon, one Martial Arts or the like, and one material of all kinds. "As for their rank, it will depend on what you get in the machine. For example, you get rare tools, ultra-rare technique, and common material, the slot rule does not apply and you get the rewards as it is. However, if you get the same rank in all three, you will receive the special box on the top as your fourth reward. "The box contains the same rank as the one you get. If you get three Rare rewards, then the box will contain a Rare reward. And if you get three UR rewards, then you will get the fourth UR." "The machine is not rigged, right? Or at least like what I learn from rumors about casinos?" Alex asked. "If a system that is supposed to help the Host do something like that, it would be weird. I am not even sending you to death with the mission, so why should I do something as petty as that?" She shrugged. "Though you can rig it so I can get all UR items¡­" Alex glanced, smiling playfully. "I might as well give it to you without this system. And you will be spoon-fed for the entire life and die as useless¡­ or when you lost everything, no one would stay by your side¡­ just like the last thing you experienced before coming to another world. Would you want to experience it again?" "... Sorry." He said it as a joke, but it would seem to have touched her nerve. "Anyway. This is the three in one gacha! Or maybe four in one if I am lucky¡­" He was a bit unsure when he said he was lucky because if he got three common rewards plus one special common reward, he could not say he was lucky. "That''s basically the principle." She nodded. Alex waved his hand, calling the system as to take the Gacha Coin so that he could play this gacha. The coin was similar to Summoning Coin, except the Summoning Coin was silver while this one was gold. There was even ''G'' on it. But before he inserted the coin, he commented. "Still, is not this room becoming more like a game center?" Lin Xingzhi could not deny it. She shrugged. "Gacha is a game system usually, so isn''t it natural?" "... I mean, if this is like a game center, I can use a string and pull the coin back after I play it," Alex said. "You can indeed. But if you think your string can win against Space Element, feel free to try." Looking at her, it seemed he could not joke around today. He sighed and inserted the coin before pulling the handle down. The reels started spinning for a minute before it stopped in succession. [SR] [R] [C] Three balls then dropped to the basket at the bottom of the machine. Lin Xingzhi presented them to him, "Do you want to open it first?" "..." Alex nodded. "I want to see how random they are." He opened the first SR ball, which was supposed to give him a tool. A Warhammer appeared. [Great Giant Warhammer Acquired] Without commenting, he opened the other two. [Shadow Movement Acquired] [Rian Beast Blood Acquired] "Yeah. It is very random¡­" Alex sighed and used the other two coins. [SR] [UC] [SR] [R] [R] [UR] The tools he got were a rank 7 bow and a rank 6 dagger. As for the technique, it was a Low Heaven Tier Technique. With his new knowledge, Alex felt no need for them and just stored them inside his Inventory. On the other hand, he got pretty lucky with his materials, which he got a rank 7 monster blood and rank 8 Alchemy Furnace for the UR. He did not know whether he was lucky or unlucky after seeing he got two SR in the second try while two rare items on the third try. "I guess, I want to open my Gacha Ticket and Summoning Coin so that I can save up the EXP cards." Alex glanced at the system girl. "Alright. Just stay here since it will become a bit chaotic¡­" Lin Xingzhi said as she walked toward the machine. She waved her hand, taking out all of his tickets at the same time. It created a tall stack of tickets. Ignoring that, she slowly inserted the first ticket inside the ticket hole. The machine sucked the ticket one by one at breakneck speed. It looked like someone who tried to slurp a noodle but without needing to take a breath. It sucked all the tickets in less than thirty seconds. It then started shooting out Gacha Balls one by one like a machine gun, making a fascinating spectacle for Alex. This was the first time he saw something like this, albeit his expression slowly turned to the worst as he realized it was too much as the ticket slowly flooded the floor. After another minute, the machine stopped. He finally realized how stressful working in this place and could not help but say, "Ehmm¡­ I am sorry for making you through this¡­" ??It''s fine. In fact, it is better than you asking me to open five hundred at a time. It surely will take a longer time." "Is that so?" "Besides, I can do this." She said as she waved her hands. The ball opened at the same time, showing more than two thousand reward items. All of the items looked so shiny and in the middle of them was the system. Alex did not know why but seeing this scene mesmerized him. The system took a glimpse of his expression and made a little smile. She then clapped her hand once and said, "Collect." When Alex heard that, he saw all items suddenly disappear, leaving only empty gacha balls. She clapped her hand once again. "Clear." The balls also disappeared and she finished her task in just two claps. "All the rewards are in your inventory." "Ah." He suddenly realized it was the normal time for him to open his inventory to check the rewards. It could be said that the reward was pretty interesting as he also got many rank 6 materials from the Gacha even though it could not be compared to all rank 6 materials in this world. While Alex checked his inventory, she slowly walked toward the gate, which was supposed to be the Summoning Gate. She made her spiritual energy to insert the coin like a machine gun, taking around a minute. After calculating the coin, the card started flying around. She waited until it finished before saying ''Collect'' again. She then walked to Alex and said, "I have finished." "Yes. Thank you for your hard work." "It''s not a big deal. However, before you go, I want to say something¡­ Just believe in yourself if you ever go to the Strength Plateau with that green box," she said mysteriously. "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head, wondering if she knew something about the Strength Plateau and the green box. "As long as you remember that, it will be alright. Now go, you have finished your business here." She held his hands as she pulled him outside. "I don''t know how long you will come here again, but take care, okay?" She waved her hand after pulling him out of the palace. "Yeah¡­" Alex nodded. "You too." The door then closed before Alex let out a long sigh. He knew the system might know something about the green box, but he would only know the answer if he went there. "She only said that¡­ not forbade me from going there. It should be alright." Alex sighed as he came out, searching for Anya. Unexpectedly, instead of finding her, he found Stina with her troubled expression. "Are you¡­ going to bring the two of them with you in the World Summit?" She asked. "..." Alex was confused as to why she suddenly asked this, but still nodded his head. "Yes. That''s what I am planning to do." "Well, I don''t want to ask you to stop or anything, but because of the recent event, we can safely assume it has become a bit chaotic in every continent. As for how chaotic it is, I will need to wait for the investigation report. Although we can somehow get all phoenixes'' support by using my reputation and your pills, there might be a potential danger, and we should proceed with caution." "I know." Alex already had a precaution for it, which was his master. If push comes to shove, he would just summon his master, considering this was a different world in which had no record of his master. Although it felt bad when he needed to rely on him, it might be better than asking the other spirits to come. "Well, that is what I want to tell you since I will also bring Ellen, Kyle, and three elders there." Stina nodded. Alex simply nodded. "Is that all?" "Yeah. Anyway, I just want you to be careful. We will set out in another one and a half months." "Alright." He nodded. "The pill will also be ready at that time. I need to know how many I should make though." "Don''t worry, we are working on it now and I will send the result to you in a week." "Sure." "And one last thing." "What is it? Is there any problem I need to help?" "No." She shook her head before clasping her hand. "Congratulations on becoming a Martial Emperor." Alex was astonished to hear that and nodded his head with a smile. "Thank you." "That''s all. I will go back and deal with the kingdom problems then." Stina turned around and left while Alex started searching for Anya again. 500 Neptune One and a half months later, Alex was ready to set off toward the Naga Races. He had been sorting out the amount of knowledge and learned the other half of Spirit Step. Although he doubted he would use it in this trial, it was for his assurance. If the first step of Spirit Step were from outside to inside, the second step would be from inside to outside. Alex had another way to release it other than converting to his strength. With the influx of Spiritual Energy from the first step, the second step would try to attack someone''s Spiritual Energy, disturbing them from using a Martial Art or Element Art. In case he faced a far weaker person than him, this Spiritual Energy could crush them to death, making them explode from inside. There was another usage of this technique related to the soul, but Alex did not know whether he would use it or not. In fact, it might be the real attack of this Spirit Step, which required him to be a Martial Emperor first and embedded his soul to his attack. Nonetheless, Alex was pretty satisfied with this Spirit Step despite using half of his time to practice this. The other half was used to make pill and sorting. He even only had a tiny amount of time to cultivate because of this, halting his progress at 1-Star Martial Emperor. Fortunately, it seemed after receiving his pills, the phoenixes became even more united. For the sake of concealing Alex''s power, Stina told them that these pills were the treasures of their kingdom, making them feel grateful. The elders also had their portion, especially two 6-Star Tier 6 elders would have the same strength as 7-Star. This way, even without Stina, they should be fine. Of course, they were loyal to Ellen, who was the greatest assurance. If they were not, they would be whacked by the scepter to death. Alex had given them more than a thousand pills, albeit he got more than five thousand medicinal ingredients worth of pills. If they sold all of them, they might be able to get three billion Spirit Stones or three million Spirit Gems, considering the exchange rate was one to a thousand. Although they would be able to get more if they made a pill out of them, Alex simply did not have time. Alex felt he would need three full months to refine all of them into pills, which would only happen if he did not do anything other than refining. Alex was already satisfied and stepped outside his room. Stina, Anya, and Sherry had been waiting for him. "Alex¡­ we are going back soon." Anya smiled. "That''s right. I want to show sister Anna this form. I am sure she will be surprised." Sherry grinned. "We can set out at any time. Kyle and Ellen have been waiting for us outside." Stina reported. "Yes. Thank you." Alex nodded. "Before that¡­" He paused a bit, taking out the box that the Neptune gave. He closed his eyes, planting his soul inside the box. "!!!" It happened in an instant as the moment he blinked, he was inside a plain white world. He looked around, searching for some clues about this place and found a half-snake and half-fish. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes, realizing who he was with a glance. He walked toward this naga and said, "Neptune?" "Exactly." The naga nodded. "I never thought you only need a short amount of time to reach this level¡­" "I am just lucky," Alex replied. "Luck is a weapon¡­ However, if you think luck can make you Tier 6 from 1-Star Tier 5 in less than two years, then you are really blessed by lady luck." "I am not blessed by lady luck, but there is indeed someone who wishes me luck every single time," Alex said mysteriously, recalling the name of his Gacha System. It was ''Good-Luck Gacha System.'' Though he was mad at first because it just wished him luck, not giving him luck. "?!" The Neptune did not understand him. Nonetheless, he gave him one piece of advice. "Well, I only want to say, the soul is a wonderful thing. It can be a weapon for you and your enemy, so you need to be careful in dealing with the soul. "I just want to tell you this trial is not really that hard for you, but you still need to be careful. So, I want to ask you again, are you ready for the trial?" Alex paused a bit before nodding his head. "Yes." "Good, then I will be waiting for you in Atlantis." He said before vanishing. ... In Atlantis, The Neptune looked like he was taking a nap in the middle of the meeting. The others did not dare to wake him up, and paused the meeting for him. After a while, the Neptune woke up, confusing his retainers. Because he was intrigued by Alex, he decided to focus on him instead of this meeting and the result did not let him down. He looked at his retainers'' faces and said, "He is coming to this place¡­ Since he is with the phoenix, they should arrive in ten days. "Make a good reception for him as he mig¡­ will get the crystal." At first, he wanted to say ''he might,'' but after looking at Alex, he was sure Alex would succeed. "Your Majesty¡­ you¡­" One of his retainers realized what he meant. "Yes. I just met this person called Alexander Sirius. It can be said he is an intriguing person. In any case, I doubt our trial will pose a problem for him." "!!!" The retainers were shocked by hearing such high praise for a mere human. "How about the other rulers? Have they arrived yet?" He asked. "Yes. The dragon king has arrived just now and we have Duke Ri to receive him. The seraphim of Angel Race would come tomorrow according to the schedule while the Human and Elven Rulers would arrive in three days." The retainer answered. "Alright. Good job to all of you. I don''t know if I can say we are lucky or not, but we would witness the six crystals joined together." The Neptune paused a bit, feeling the tension from his retainers. "Just ten more days¡­ Make sure to expand our patrol force and let no one disrupt this meeting." "Yes." ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex came back to reality. He checked the box and saw no energy inside since the Neptune already erased his soul from the box. "Let''s go." They nodded as Stina guided them. It would seem the elders were curious about him to even wait for him together with Ellen and Kyle. The moment they saw him, they quickly clasped their hands respectfully and shouted. "May fortune be with you, Your Majesty, as well as Sir Alexander Sirius." Anya and Sherry were grinning behind his back, happy with their treatment. "I thank you for taking care of me this whole time, so you don''t need to do this as those pills were just my payment." Alex smiled. Even so, the elders still bowed to him until he set forth. Noticing this, the queen led him to the caravan on top of the phoenix. "Greetings, Sir Alexander." Ellen also acted politely to him after knowing her mother became his Contracted Beast. Alex sighed inwardly as Stina asked the phoenix to set off. It seemed there were three elders in the back to protect Ellen in this meeting. "By the way, what kind of person is the ruler of Naga Race?" Alex asked. "Him? He is a passive person¡­ if you don''t do something to his race, he would usually support you. "In fact, the reason why there were many challengers from Naga race was that the Neptune supported and nurtured them. I want to do something like this, but unlike the Sea, our land is limited, so we can''t employ such a thing. After all, we need to consider the race''s stability." Stina explained. "I see¡­" He finally understood why the Neptune seemed a bit casual to him. He hoped there would be no problem in this meeting and go back safely. "For your information, the Dragon King is also bringing the prince and princess to this meeting while the former dragon king becomes the protector. "As for Seraphim, he is coming along with only two of his personal guards while Elven-" Before she finished, Alex cut in. "Elven Race brings the queen and their princess while the Human Race brings one of their prince and princess¡­ as well as Lilian." Ellen opened her eyes, getting surprised by Alex''s information. She was wondering how he could know since her mother had yet to inform him. Stina simply smiled, knowing it was his spies. Alex cut her in because he felt relieved after seeing no movement from Shelka. At the very least, she would not be a threat to him in this meeting. "By the way, Master, what is your plan after we teleport to the other side? I mean, this test might not take too long and will soon go to the other side, so I would like to know our plan." Stina asked. "Plan¡­ For the time being, I just want to meet the others and build a Special Realm as our base. This time, I would surely make one that would not break like the previous time. "After that¡­ I will go to the Blackwade Clan to sell Medicinal Ingredients and say hi since it has been three years since our last meeting. The people there should have forgotten about our influence anyway. As long as I am careful, no one should know about it. "There are only two influences that might pose some problems to us, which you should already know, Fire God Clan and Joyful Union Sect. "If they try to do anything funny to my Spirit Nest, then I will exterminate them no matter the cost. In the worst case, I will go back to Willow Continent before going to the Sacred Continent as my route to the Heavenly Continent. I have promised someone to destroy an evil cult there anyway. "Talking about going back, I also need to destroy one family that has been harassing my disciple¡­ So yeah, we might have a war against the Joyful Union Sect¡­ not that I am scared since we could have a Martial Monarch at any moment. "In any case, our journey will be harsher¡­ So, I want to ask one more time. Are you up to it?" Alex looked at Stina with a serious expression. "With Master''s Pure Fire, my speed should be similar to Kyle and I am sure with my 8-Star power, it should be enough to help Master for a while. So, I am ready to follow you and Kyle." She answered. "Good." Alex nodded. 501 Last Trial Part 1 After seven days, they finally arrived at the coast before continuing above the sea. After another three days where Alex thought they were out of nowhere, another Naga suddenly appeared from the ocean and greeted them. He then led them to the city of Atlantis. At first, Alex was confused, recalling how much pressure at the bottom of the sea. He was worried they would be crushed to death or something. As for the cold, it would not bother him anyway and he could use his flame to take care of Anya. Surprisingly, the Naga came out of the water and opened up a water bubble for them. He was controlling the water bubble the whole time, moving like a submarine. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, feeling like their lives were in the hand of this person. He tried to ask Stina with a thought transmission. "Are we going to be alright with this? I mean, if this bubble pops..." "Don''t worry. The pressure under the sea is not as powerful as you thought. A Martial King should be enough to withstand the pressure." "Oh¡­" Alex nodded. If they would be alright for a while, he could teleport the others to escape. He could use his Spiritual Energy to make an air bubble like this, but it would take a huge amount of energy, so he was a bit worried. And it turned out his worry was not needed as they arrived after diving for about two kilometers (1.2 miles). It was not too deep, so he thought it would be fine. Sherry was looking around inside the bubble, enjoying the beauty of the sea. As for Alex, he did not find enjoyment in watching these fishes. He had seen a giant aquarium for attraction from the internet but found it boring, so he just closed his eyes for the entire time. In the middle of their journey, the sea slowly turned dark as the light could not pierce through this layer. As one would expect from a fantasy world, not long after the darkness, they could see a giant light from afar before realizing it was a town. The light was coming from lanterns that contained glowing fishes. The principal was the same as using fireflies. It was a fascinating sight and would last forever in one''s memory. They entered the city as the Nagas around immediately bowed their heads as soon as their figures appeared. After a few more minutes, they arrived at a huge castle. The castle looked very similar to Phoenix''s castle except for the patterns in their pillars. He remembered that Earth originally came from this universe and with a power level that managed to kill many Gods and Goddesses, he felt Atlantis might not only be a myth but a real place. Maybe they just had a Special Realm or something that let them vanish from everyone''s sight. With how many Gods and Goddesses died in that place, Earth might hold more mysteries than he thought. He had a side thought, thinking if he should visit Earth after becoming a God or not, albeit it was only for later. He shook his head as he entered the castle, specifically the Throne Room. It seemed to meet Alex, they used an array to create a huge bubble so they could talk normally. The one who led them immediately released his barrier as he stretched his hand, asking Alex and the others to come in. "Please." Alex nodded and walked inside, looking at the Naga he saw a few days ago and greeted him. "Human, Alexander Sirius, greets Your Majesty." "This¡­ will be the second time we meet, right?" The Neptune introduced himself. "Anyway, I should also introduce myself. Neptune, Eikha. I welcome you to this humble palace. "Firstly, I want to thank you for that flash of the golden sky that you have made, letting me advance to 8-Star." "I don''t know what you are talking about." Alex just played ignorance. The Neptune also understood the reason why Alex wanted to play like this. He smiled, "Haha¡­ Truly, it was a jest. I was hoping to lighten up the mood. "However¡­ I still want to know your take about the portal to another world." His expression turned serious. "Seeing you are a person from another world, I want to know if we are going to open the gate and step inside the other world, what will our fate be?" "You!" Stina could not help but surprise. The others also tensed up as they could not believe their king would ask something like that. The Neptune continued, "I have investigated your background and I would love to hear your honest input." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if he should answer this question. After a while, he sighed. "To put it simply, you might be able to be free for a while, but if a war should occur, you will certainly lose¡­ one-sidedly." "!!!" They were surprised by his view. One of them stood up and wanted to retort back, but Alex continued, "If you really wish to go to another world, you will face Tier 7 or even Tier 8. And if they somehow manage to get into this world, the tragedy will repeat¡­ "Naga Race would become a fish inside a pond that would entertain them. Phoenixes will be exploited for their fires. Dragons would become their pet or materials¡­ I should stop myself since I am sure the great Neptune should already know about the conscience himself¡­" "Indeed¡­" He nodded, closing his eyes in reminisce. "Around five thousand years ago, a great army led by outsiders brought a calamity to this world. Although it was my father who experienced that calamity, there has been one thing that I have always believed in. That a thoroughly sickening amount of blood has already been shed on this world and become an enigma that plagues the whole world. "This world is tired of tragedy¡­ that is why if you are able to open the portal, I wish you would return the crystals to us as to prevent anyone from discovering this world." The Neptune requested politely. "..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, confused. He thought the crystals would be in their possession after opening the portal, but it seemed it was not. Unfortunately, there was no other race that knew exactly how the portal works, even for Stina. The Neptune explained, "According to the investigation, I heard you are a Space Element Rune Master, so I am sure you will understand the principle on the portal as soon as you see it. "Still, I need to explain the mechanism to you as per tradition. If you are able to go through, the six crystals would also teleport together with you as it was the catalyst for the portal. "Because of that, I request you throw the crystals back and destroy the portal on the other side." Alex nodded his head. Although he had yet to see the portal, he could imagine what kind of mechanism the portal would have from his explanation. "However, by doing so, no one could travel between worlds again after me." "You are half right." Neptune shook his head. "Half right?" "Yes. We might not be able to make a portal again, but teleporting one person is still possible. Actually, this request came from the Supreme a few thousand years ago, which was passed to me from my father. "He said, ''If there is a day when a person, who possesses a Human Crystal, comes here, please ask his goal. If he wants to lead the entire world to another world, all races shall bow down to him and heed his command. ''However, if he does not have this ambition, please destroy the portal so there would be no tragedy in this world anymore. By destroying the portal, you can only send a person at a time. So, if someone really wants to go to another world after this person, they would be a genius that wants to struggle to fight their fate. The road will be huge but dangerous for them, and if they are able to cross the world safely, the blood of our world will eventually spread in another world.'' This was his message." "One person¡­" Alex closed his eyes, thinking of something in his mind. It took him a minute before he opened his eyes again. "I see. So it is like that¡­" "Like that?" "No. I just understood the concept of the portal. I don''t know about this Supreme, but if the person after me comes, then he/she will be the same as me. They have some kind of goal they want to achieve and this place certainly could not fulfill that goal. That''s why rather than having them here, which might cause potential chaos, it would be better to send them to the other world." "Your words¡­ I have gratefully accepted." The Neptune thanked him. "Anyway, I think it is time for you to challenge our trial." His retainers had so many mood swings because of their conversations, so when they heard this, they felt relieved. The talk finally progressed. "I, Alexander Sirius, challenge the trial of Naga Race." Alex chanted the usual words as the two crystals appeared. The crystal from Naga Race had blue color, creating a blue and purple light together with Alex''s crystal. Alex closed his eyes again, entering the space for the last time. This time, he was walking toward him instead of speaking until he arrived in front of Alex and kneeled. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. This subordinate is useless and might trouble you again¡­ I wish if Your Majesty can go to the Strength Plateau as my request is there. After finishing the test, your majesty might request for the two keys I have left in their hand." "Your Majesty? What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. Firstly, he did not know this person who suddenly called him like he was his king. Secondly, he did not really want to take on a request from a stranger. Unexpectedly, this time the system suddenly said, [Host, it will be better for you to accept his request.] "System, do you know something? Come on, tell me." [I can''t say anything other than your previous life. He is related to your previous life. Unfortunately, because this is a special place, you can''t see the thread from your Gacha Sovereign Title. If you go to Strength Plateau, I am sure you can see it.] "..." Alex was still hesitant in accepting the request due to his careful nature. [Host can trust me on this. Besides, you will get more benefits than you can wish if I am not wrong.] "I don''t particularly like this¡­ but can you answer me one question? Who am I in the previous life¡­ No, I am sure you would not answer that so that I will change my question. Am I a king in my previous life?" Alex asked. [Something similar.] "Something similar? But it is related to a ruler, right?" Alex asked. Sadly, the system did not answer him again, making him sigh. Alex pondered for a moment before nodding his head. "Alright. I will go to the Strength Plateau¡­ but because I want the benefit, not because of this promise." After getting the answer, the half-dragon half-phoenix finally disappeared, teleporting him again to reality. He slowly opened his eyes and sighed, leaving the others in confusion. "Is there something wrong, Alexander Sirius?" The Neptune asked. "No¡­ Nothing is wrong." Alex smiled. "That''s right¡­ If I am not wrong, I would need to ask the keys that the Supreme has entrusted to the Sea Race." "!!!" The Neptune rose with a shocked expression. "How do you know? This is the secret that only the rule can know¡­ No, I suppose I should say as expected of you. That''s right, I will give you the keys after you finish the trial." His retainers, Stina and the others were confused, but they did not say anything, respecting the secret about Supreme. "I would sincerely ask all of you to remain in this room since I don''t think this will take a long time." He asked. The others could only nod their heads as the Neptune turned to Alex, "Then, shall we?" Alex nodded and followed him. 502 Last Trial Part 2 They arrived in a very peculiar chamber. He observed the room with his Spirit Eyes, trying to see if there was anything weird in the room. The room itself only had a big table and two chairs while there was no suspicious energy around the room. The decoration itself was like the Phoenix Trial Room, except there was no gate. Alex could only see an illusion array inside the room and looked at the Neptune. "Please come inside the rune¡­ no, I should say Array, right?" The Neptune narrowed his eyes. "!!!" He was astonished to see the Neptune knew about Array. "Although the most knowledgeable person in this world is the Phoenix Queen. The Naga Race has more information about the other world than her. Like, I am not an 8-Star Tier 6, but 8-Star Martial Emperor. "And we precisely know about the terror of those who are higher than a Martial Emperor. That''s why it did not take too long for us to decide what to do. In fact, if we are stubborn, we can just hide the truth and follow you to another world. "Then, we can build our strength before revealing ourselves." The Neptune paused for a while before telling him the truth. "Actually, the prophecy about a new Supreme was already tempered according to his will. "When darkness falls upon the land, "The supreme''s blood will restore life once more. "In accordance with the ancient pact, "When the six big races are gathered, "The sphere that leads the light will awaken. "The supreme will return. "This is the normal story. The darkness was already over when the first supreme sent the outsiders back. As for the Supreme''s blood, he said it was more like a premonition from someone, leading him to say that. "The third line was about Ancient Pact. The Supreme knew it would be a very long time to meet someone who can possess the crystal or he might know that someone would come to this land a few thousand years later. At that time, the pact can be considered as an Ancient Pact¡­ which is the present time¡­ "And this World Summit is what he meant by six races gathered again to decide our next course. Albeit, from my point of view, the Phoenix, Dragon, Angel, and my race will choose not to go to the other world. I don''t know about the Elven and Human Race though. "The sphere that leads the light will awaken¡­ This is actually pointed to the crystals and what it means by awakening is the portal. It would then lead you again to the last line. "The supreme will return¡­ Which is basically talking about you, not everyone else, but you. Even if there is someone who manages to gather all the six crystals, no one would be able to replicate your achievement, which means you are the one in his mouth," he said. Alex stared at him for a while, pondering the meaning. He did not know why this Supreme was waiting for him, but it seemed to have a connection to his past life. Yet, he felt something strange about this whole thing. He learned about that chant and crystal from a priest, making this story unbelievable. "I got the crystal from someone though." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Did he get possessed or something?" "!!!" Alex was taken back, wondering why he knew about it. He said, "Yes." "Then, it must be the Supreme. If I am not wrong, the Supreme seals his soul inside the six crystals and the world. I assume you have seen the Supreme as well. He is half dragon and half phoenix." "You¡­ are correct." Alex nodded. "I would like to talk more with you, but I think we should start the trial right now, afraid of making the others wait for too long." "Yeah." "Then, please step on the Array." Alex entered the magic circle, sitting in lotus pose as he entered the world within the illusion. It was the same plain white world where he could find a wooden token in front of him. According to the Neptune, his objective in this situation was only to embed his soul inside whatever it presented him. Hence, he grabbed the token and injected his soul inside it. The token glowed for a second before it projected Alex''s soul, which he could control with his will. This was an easy task for him as he already knew about this technique when he experimented with his Special Realm. Knowing it was a success, the token finally disappeared with his soul. The next item was also another token, but it was made from bronze. Surprisingly, when he planted his soul inside the token, it shattered to pieces, confusing Alex. "What is the meaning of this?" Alex frowned. There was no knowledge about the soul inside his head, so he was clueless about this. Even so, seeing another item appeared in front of him, he quickly grabbed it and infused his soul inside. It continued from an inmate object, like tokens from wooden to metal tokens. It was then moved to Weapons such as sword and spear, then to raw materials like rock or ore until it was finally a book. Surprisingly, he could fuse his soul with books, letting him teach someone who opened the book. Unfortunately, this technique was very costly. Even his system warned him not to do it unless necessary. After inmate objects, he would need to infuse his soul to living creatures. It started with plants and animals before moving to monsters. His purpose was not just to embed his soul inside but also to control them with his soul. He even needed to erase someone''s memory. It was weird when he needed to erase their memory. He felt like he just cut something far more precious than anything he possessed. It was also different from Maxwell''s sealing memory technique, which basically used his Divine Power to someone''s soul. Alex pondered for a while and knew Maxwell seemed to be against the idea of erasing someone''s memory and like the idea of sealing more. As for Alex, he preferred killing than erasing or sealing their memory. In fact, without a memory, there would not be any satisfaction in torturing them. That was why Alex decided to stick with his way. The soul test continued as he had another human as his test subject. He did not hesitate and erase the human memory as he knew it was only an illusion. After that, the third step finally arrived, where Alex needed to defend from a soul attack. In other words, he needed to defend himself from all the things he did from the start. Fortunately, his soul was stronger than normal and it was amusing to see the mini version of him turned into a teenager. Witnessing the transformation, He thought he would get the same appearance if he broke through to Martial Monarch. Alex then continued to defend himself from brainwash, memory-erasing and so on. His head was slightly hurt, but it could be said this test was the easiest than all he had experienced. In fact, it even made him think why this test had the highest requirement despite having the easiest difficulty. He did not find any answer beside it was not the easiest test because if Shelka was not in the Elven Race, he might fight someone weaker than her. The same applied to Dragon Race. As for the Human Race, he never knew about them nor met their family, so he did not particularly care. It took him only two hours before he completed the trial. "It seems you have finished the trial." The Neptune smiled upon noticing the slight movement on his eyebrows. Alex opened his eyes and let out a long breath. "Yes." "Although the test has ended, there are still a few things I need to say about Soul, so I hope you can hear this." "Please." Alex nodded, knowing his understanding of the soul was still shallow, so he accepted it gratefully. "Soul is something marvelous. I am sure your first trail is to infuse your soul inside inmate objects. And in some materials, they would break as soon as you infuse your soul." "Yes." "This is because of the quality of the materials. The ones that broke were low-level materials which could not withstand your Martial Emperor''s soul." "Ah." Alex remembered the energy inside those low-quality ones were smaller. Although he had thought like that, it was not one hundred percent. But when Neptune clarified it, he knew it was the reason those objects broke. "It seems I have more things I need to learn about Soul." Alex nodded, wondering if he would receive some kind of Soul Inheritance in his next tribulation. Recalled back, he got his Spear Intent because he already had Sword Intent despite using both in the lower world. Then it was his sword intent, letting him use two intents simultaneously. The three were something that he was severely lacking. So, he thought the inheritance was something he wished for. Although there was not a definite proof about this, the system also arrived at the same conclusion. Alex shocked his head and continued listening to Neptune''s explanation. After another fifteen minutes, he finally finished. "The trial has finished and I think it is time for us to go back." "Yes." Alex nodded before asking, "What about the World Summit thing? Do I need to attend it or should I go straight to the portal?" "Ehm, I hope you can attend the meeting first. It will be held tomorrow, and I believe it won''t take much time." "Alright." Alex agreed since it would be the same whether he left today or tomorrow. "I have prepared your room too, and I will send a servant to inform you tomorrow morning." "I will leave it to you." Alex nodded, not caring about it. "By the way, every ruler has already arrived, right?" "Yes. Dragon King came first, followed by Seraphim. Human Sovereign and Elven King arrived together. I will inform them after this." Alex nodded, thinking it was over before he remembered another matter. It was the message that the Supreme left him. He looked at the Neptune and said, "Actually, there is one more thing I need to ask you." "Ask me?" Neptune was certainly surprised by this, wondering if he missed something. Unfortunately, he could not think of a single thing, so he asked, "May I know what it is? Or maybe it is a request?" "This is not a request. Instead, it was items. I certainly met the Supreme and he asked me to tell you to give me the keys after I beat the trial." "Keys..." The Neptune tried to remember. It took him a few seconds before realizing what the keys were. "Ah, I see. The Supreme certainly left the keys... although it did not look like a key. It would seem it was something similar to the Teleportation Crystal. Anyway, the keys are inside the treasury at the moment, so I could only give it to you tomorrow. Is that okay with you?" "Yes. It is the same, whether it is today or tomorrow." Alex nodded. "Besides, I feel we have made the others wait for too long." "Indeed. Please this way." He then guided Alex back to the throne room. Surprisingly, they were waiting for them to come back patiently. Little did he know it was because of Stina. At first, Sherry made a ruckus, saying how it would take too long after two hours of waiting. Stina said, compared to another race trial, the trial of this race would only last for a few hours at best, so Sherry waited, albeit reluctantly. "Master!" Sherry leaped toward Alex the moment she saw him, making Stina and the others having a weird expression. Even so, Alex only smiled and patted her head, not caring about other opinions. The Neptune then ordered someone to take them to their room and Stina decided to stay with Ellen and the others, Ellen and the others. 503 World Summit Part 1 The next day, Alex was wearing formal clothes, according to Neptune''s request. He would meet with the other rulers, so he thought it was necessary. The clothes were just a white uniform, giving him another type of charm. On the other hand, Anya was wearing a beautiful white dress, making them look like a pair. As for Sherry, she wore a new dress they bought from the shop in Phoenix Continent. It was a long pink dress, complimenting her white and pink fur. Besides, she was thrilled by hearing Alex''s compliment. He felt if they were in the Northern Continent, someone would get charmed by her beauty and uniqueness, especially her ears and tail. Luckily, it was normal around here, so Alex just let her do anything she wanted. In fact, if she could hide her tail and ears, he would give her the green box and accompany him to the Strength Plateau. Anya wore a white veil, covering everything under her eyes. Even so, the charm on her eyes still managed to captivate others. "Knock Knock!" Hearing the knock, Alex knew it was the time to go. "Alright, let''s go." "Yes." Surprisingly, it was not a servant. Instead, the Neptune suddenly appeared before him, bringing three green boxes to him. "This is what the Supreme wanted to give you." "!!!" Alex was certainly surprised to see three green boxes at the same time. According to Song Yu and Mithra, these boxes would invite bloodbath, especially when the number of boxes was limited. "These boxes are the keys that the Supreme placed in our hands. I don''t know what they are for, but I feel a huge amount of energy inside these boxes. If I may ask, do you know anything about these boxes?" "It is only useful in another world, so even if I tell you, there will be no use." Alex sighed. "Well, I just wish to know since the matter about Supreme will end after we send you off." "I don''t really know the purpose, but every time I challenged the trial and two crystals met, I would meet him in a certain illusion plane. He did not really tell me anything other than to bring these boxes to the Strength Plateau. As for the details about that place, even I don''t know." The Neptune thanked him for the explanation. "Anyway, the other races are waiting for you. Please." Alex nodded as he followed the Neptune with Sherry and Anya. There was another reason why he wanted Anya to accompany him in this World Summit. According to the information, Princess Shelka would also participate in this meeting. He still recalled when she cursed Anya even though it was a misunderstanding. That was why he wanted to let her show how inferior she was to Anya before he left. ¡­ In the giant meeting room, there were already five rulers sitting on their respective seats. The human ruler was a middle-aged man with his mouth covered by a black beard. With just a single look on his expression, they would know he had been holding something back. Most likely, it was a matter about Alex. The Prince and Princess behind him also stared at Stina, remembering the time when she rejected their request in meeting him. As for Lilian, she could only look down, ashamed. It was because of the order of the guild master, she came together with them. Of course, it was also from the order of the royal family. On the Dragon''s seat, Zephyr was talking with the Seraphim nonchalantly, ignoring this heavy atmosphere. They were talking happily about how Alex beat their trials. Qeigess and Lexi did not have anything to do other than standing with a blank look, waiting for the star to show up. On the other hand, the Elven King had a fierce expression, looking at the Phoenix Seat. He wanted to say something about it but waited until Neptune and Alex arrived. Shelka was also the same. She was waiting for the ''Supreme'' on her mind to come. Albeit the moment he came... After another ten minutes, the gate finally opened as the soldiers shouted. "Neptune, Eikha, and Sir Alexander Sirius enter the room!" Upon entering the room, no one would care about the Neptune. Instead, their eyes were glued on the young human, Alexander Sirius. They immediately gauged Alex with their keen eyes since they were curious about what kind of transformation he would have after becoming a Tier 6. The moment Alex stood in front of them, it was apparent to everyone present that the atmosphere inside the room had changed. ''So¡­ this is Alexander Sirius!'' The human king immediately thought. ''He might not have a fierce aura, but this strange sensation as if I am being enveloped in something¡­'' The Seraphim and Dragon King were astonished by how the clothes could change one''s aura. The Elven King gritted his teeth. He had seen many strong challengers in his life, but he clearly knew that Alex was different from other challengers. It was no doubt Alex was the current Supreme. He did not know if the room lighting was playing tricks, but it almost looked as if Alex was wreathed in light. Unfortunately, this only made him angrier, thinking about why he did not take more initiative. At first, because he did not really trust Alex was the supreme despite being told by his daughter, he only set a few simple promises. Unexpectedly, it was broken the moment they arrived at the Angel Race. This resentment was not only toward Alex but also the Angel Race. It was the same as Shelka. Upon seeing Anya and Sherry, she was stupefied. She did not know Sherry, but according to her power, she was clearly stronger than her. As for Anya, although she was still a Martial King, she felt a threat from her. It was related to her existence instead of her life. After all, there was one thing she knew there was an otherworld beauty behind that white veil. She remembered when she heard a woman''s voice inside Alex''s room. If Alex had such a beautiful woman as his companion, he would not need any b*tch. She gritted her teeth as she understood Alex''s meaning by bringing her here. Besides, there would be no way she could attack Alex or Anya in this meeting, and after this meeting, they would not meet anymore. If someone looked at her, they would see blood streaming down her lips. Unfortunately, all of them were entranced by his appearance. A few of them even focused on Sherry''s and Anya''s appearance, captivated by their beauty. Seeing so many familiar faces amused him, but the moment his eyes fell upon Lilian, a trace of pity flashed in his eyes. The Neptune smiled, stretching his hand politely toward Alex''s seat. "Please." Alex nodded, looking at the round table and his seat. The Neptune also sat down before saying, "I think we can start the World Summit''s meeting. We will discuss whether we will go to the other world or not." *Bang!* "Wait!" The Elven King slammed the table, turning his head toward the Phoenix Queen. "What do you mean by this?! Do you think we are not qualified to sit with you and let your daughter present you in this meeting?" That was right. As she intended, Stina was standing behind Ellen while Ellen sat upon the Phoenix Queen''s seat. "Well, this might be a good topic to open this meeting." Stina simply smiled as she looked at everyone in the room. "My daughter, Stina Blaze, has succeeded the throne for almost a year. Although it is still unofficial, I shall declare in this World Summit''s meeting and in front of the other rulers, Stina Blaze, shall officially become a Phoenix Queen!" "!!!" The declaration immediately shook the entire room, except Alex''s group. They never thought the Phoenix Queen that had been ruling upon the Phoenix Race would retire at this particular time. "What do you mean by this?" The Elven King obviously could not swallow the matter. "After breaking your limit and becoming an 8-Star Tier 6 Phoenix, you decide to pass the throne to her. Are you insane?" Stina simply smiled. "It is because I have overcome my limit, I would like to see the next limit. My daughter is already a Tier 6 Phoenix anyway and the elders are supportive. Of course, if someone dares to treat my race, I shall reveal myself again. Is that explanation too hard for you to swallow, Elven King?" Stina said this to protect the Phoenix Race. By just knowing she was still alive, the enemies would think twice before attacking them. This was the last gift she could give to her daughter. Ellen only closed her eyes, smiling. She said inwardly. ''Thank you, Mother.'' On the other hand, the Elven King was tongue-tied as he could not rebuke it. He was just a bit resentful for his own decision, resulting in him questioning the decision. "You may stop, Elven King. Seeing how much the Phoenix Queen loved her race, how long she had protected them, and even to do such a thing like informing her daughter''s ascension in front of us, we should not judge her decision." The Neptune said. "Although the timing is not really good, I, Neptune Eikha, wish you good fortune, Former Queen Stina Blaze and Current Queen Ellen Blaze." "Thank you." Stina and Ellen nodded at the same time. "Congratulations, Queen Ellen, for the throne." Zephyr followed right after. "Congratulations¡­" The others also started congratulating her. At the same time, the elders were also spreading this good news in the Phoenix Race, telling they would hold the ascension of Ellen Blaze as soon as she came back and the matter of their former queen to have a closed-door training. Thinking how long and how wise Stina Blaze had ruled the race, the majority of them dropped to the floor while crying, especially the elderly. They knew how much the queen had sacrificed for them. Upon hearing that, they knew she deserved to rest. There was certain friction for those who wanted the throne, but as soon as Ellen came back, they were whacked to death by the ancestor''s scepter, albeit it was the story for later. As for the situation inside the meeting room, it was pretty chaotic for the Elven King and Human Sovereign. Seeing how the others reacted, they knew three other rulers were having a good relationship with the human, thus giving the Phoenix Queen that relationship too. Surprisingly, under this tension, the Seraphim suddenly asked Alex. "Ehm, Alexander Sirius, may I know who are the two behind you?" "!!!" The other rulers narrowed their eyes, curious about them too. Even though they were peerless beauty, they were not known by others, which was impossible. Alex simply smiled. "They are the ones who have witnessed my entire journey, My wife and partner." 504 World Summit Part 2 "They are the ones who have witnessed my entire journey, My wife and partner." His introduction made them gulp down. The one who had the most excruciating expression was Shelka. If she could do anything she wanted, she would make these two disappear first. Unfortunately, she could not do anything in front of these many rulers. The second person who had a terrible expression was the human king. This was different from his original plan. He never thought Alex would already have a partner and even a person like him would know there was an otherworld face beneath that veil. As for the little fox girl, he had become a Tier 6 fox with that age. It was apparent that none of the princesses could win against him, whether it was beauty or strength. As for Lilian, she could only close her eyes. As she had expected, there was no way a man of Alex''s caliber would have a normal woman. The atmosphere became heavy again and the Neptune announced, "I presume we can start the meeting. Hence I declare the World Summit will begin now!" He paused for a bit, looking at all of their expressions. "The purpose of this meeting is to discuss all things related to the six crystals and the portal to the other worlds. Hence, for the start, we will discuss the crystal first. Do any of you have any problem with Alexander Sirius possessing all six crystals, especially after completing the trials?" Seraphim and Dragon King immediately shook their heads and said at the same time. "No. I don''t have any objection since he truly deserves the crystals." "Our Phoenix Race also does not have a problem with this. In fact, many of our phoenixes like him." Ellen nodded, agreeing with the two rulers. The Elven King stared at the Seraphim. "Before I agree, I need to get an explanation from Seraphim. For what reason you sent my daughter back? You should have realized she was accompanying him at that time." "The reason is simple. She is dangerous." "You do realize what you said can trigger a war between our races, right?" He glared, releasing a bit of his killing intent. "Let me elaborate it a little bit. There are only two options for my Illusion Skill: 0 or 100 percent. If they do not have any bad intentions, they would easily render my illusion skill useless. However, in case they have even a little bit of bad intention, it would raise to one hundred percent. "Hence, I don''t even need a reason to send her back. Even if you say she has her own reason, my illusion will dig up the deepest desire that even she might not be aware of. Is this reason enough, Elven King?" Seraphim narrowed his eyes. He wanted to rebuke him, but after hearing the report from Shelka herself, he really could not say anything. He clenched his fists before loosening it again. "No." The seraphim nodded. "Wait!" Human Sovereign cut in. "There is still a problem with the crystal. Why did he not go to my kingdom if he possessed the human crystal? I need an explanation for this. If I don''t get any satisfactory answer, we will see!" Alex felt the killing intent from the Human Sovereign and shrugged his shoulder. The Human Sovereign was a 2-Star Martial Emperor and he believed he could defeat him. Besides, he was not his subject, so seeing the other party was a bit rude and even released his killing intent. He snorted. "I don''t have any obligation to meet you. Even if I meet you, then what? Do you want to control me? For example, that son and daughter of yours? Don''t make me laugh. "If I come to you when I am a mere Tier 5 mage, you might make some plots to kill me. With the crystal in my hand, you surely can''t kill me. However, monsters are a different case. If you ordered someone to lead a Tier 6 monster, or even you would handle it yourself, it might cost you a bit, but I would undoubtedly die. "At that time, you can just seize the crystal for yourself." Alex berated him completely. The Human Sovereign''s expression turned ugly and Alex continued, "Besides, I am not your subject nor am I a part of the Human Race of this world. "I only need the pass from the guild, which I can''t get. I could not be careless as for what fate you will have." "You bastard!" The king released his spiritual energy as he could not stomach Alex''s attitude. Alex was not afraid of him, so he also released his energy. At the same time, Sherry was angry and released another energy from behind Alex. The energy synchronized with Alex''s energy and suppressed the opposite party''s energy. "Cough!" The Neptune also released his Spiritual Energy, stopping this battle. He looked at the Human Sovereign and said, "If you want to create a ruckus, then I might need to ask you to leave this meeting." "..." The Human Sovereign could only grit his teeth. He snorted and looked away. "First of all, I want to clarify first. Human, Elf, Phoenix, Angel, Dragon, and Naga race¡­ Alexander Sirius got the crystals in this order, right?" He glanced at Alex. "Yes." "In that case, I ask you to take all of them out so the others can confirm that you possess the six crystals." Alex pondered for a moment before taking the six crystals out of his space ring. Red, Orange, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Purple. The six crystals were shining, captivating the others. It was already close to impossible to see six crystals together. That was why they were mesmerized, looking at the beautiful crystals. "We¡­ we have certainly witnessed and confirmed that you possess all six crystals." The Neptune declared. Seraphim, Dragon King, and Ellen applauded. "Since this matter is concluded, we will move to the other matters, which is whether we will go to another world or not," Neptune said. Their expressions turned serious upon hearing it. "Before you say your opinions, I should give you the advantages and disadvantages first. I will start with the advantages. "Firstly, you can break your limit and have a chance to become a Tier 7 being." Upon hearing this, a certain feeling started creeping in their heart. "The second benefit we would get is about pills and many other things. According to the previous Supreme, their system is very different from ours. "They have pills that can help one to recover. There is even a pill that can raise one''s strength. They also have powerful weapons that can destroy the Dragon Scale easily, though it must be a very powerful weapon, which is very rare. "They also have explored the runes deeper than us." He paused a bit, letting everyone to consider the information. Ellen had known about this from her mother. It was true that the enticement of Tier 7 was huge, but it came with a certain risk that even made her cower. As for the pills, she absolutely knew how wonderful it was, considering she had experienced it herself. It was enough for her to have a feeling to possess Alex. If not because of her mother and other things, she wanted to ask Alex to join Phoenix Race no matter the price. His knowledge about weapons was deep too, so he might be able to teach the Phoenixes to fight with weapons. This would let a phoenix that did not have a powerful element to still have great strength. Although she could hide this desire, it might not be the same for the others. They might do something beyond her imagination and seize Alex. Luckily, no one knew about it other than the royal family and a few elders. She looked at the expression from other rulers and furrowed her eyebrows. Even the Seraphim and Dragon King were baited for this, let alone the Elven King and Human Sovereign. Unfortunately, their expectation was shattered as soon as the Neptune explained the disadvantages. "This is certainly very tempting for all of us. Sadly, just like a coin, it also has other sides. The first disadvantage is their entire population is Human Race. In other words, we are like a special creature for them and I believe, if we go through, there would be another tragedy in this land. "After all, just like we would have the potential to become a Tier 7, that world has many bonafide Tier 7 fighters. I even heard they have Tier 8¡­ and I don''t think I should tell you the consequences if they come to our world again, right?" They gulped down, picturing what would happen. They could not help but shudder. "Yes. Our troops will be destroyed in an instant and this world would be ruined. Dying might be considered salvation at that point. That''s why I, representing the Naga Race, decide to stay." "Wait! In that case, just send our human race!" Human Sovereign broke his silence with greed. "Since we have the same race, then we can live together with them. This way, we can increase our strength first before revealing we are from another world." "Human Sovereign¡­ if you speak without greed in your eyes, I would certainly believe you." The Seraphim, who was sensitive about this, glared. "Just looking at your expression, I know what you want to do. "You absolutely want to get stronger in another world first. After that, there will be two futures for us. First, you will bring an army from the other side and attack us. The second future is where you have become a Tier 7 and come back to this place. "You might want to devastate us and enslave us. You can''t hide your greed from me, Human Sovereign." He finally released his killing intent. "Even the human from the other side like Alexander Sirius is more trustworthy than you." Even the Elven King agreed with him despite the friction between them. The Human Race was declining every single day. As their neighboring country, they certainly knew they usually had a battle for the throne. And at some point, a useless king was selected and ruined the talent of the royal family. Since they could not endure such humiliation, they decided to oppress other humans to make sure no one would have the ability to revolt. "Indeed. I, Ellen Blaze, represent the Phoenix Race and decide to stay in this world." The other rulers looked at Ellen, who suddenly declared her decision and looked at each other. "I, Zarall, represent the Angel Race and decide to stay in this world." "I, Zephyr, represent the Dragon Race and decide to stay in this world." "I, Greyson La Muerte, represent the Elven Race and decide to stay in this world." "You¡­ you bastards! All of you are abusing your authority!" 505 Finally Back on the Other Side "You¡­ you bastards! All of you are abusing your authority!" He glared at all of them, looking like he was suffering from injustice. The rulers only ignored him as the Neptune declared. "It seems we have gotten our decision. After opening the portal, the crystals would also go with him. "However, I have asked our friend, Alexander Sirius, to throw back the crystals and destroy the portal. This way, no army would go toward our world while we still can send one person at a time with the power of crystals. Certainly, only the next Supreme would be the one to go. And if he/she is a real Supreme, the portal would be reconstructed if we want to. That was the plan of the previous Supreme." "..." They looked at him, pondering the plan in their heads. They certainly did not have any objection to that decision. On the other hand, the Human Sovereign clearly could not accept this. Unfortunately, no matter how loud he was, they kept ignoring him. He also could not do anything against them because he did not have enough power. "Since we have got the conclusion, I think we should go toward the gate now," The Neptune said. "I am sorry, but all of you might remember the golden flash not long ago¡­" Ellen stopped him from ending the meeting. The others immediately furrowed their eyebrows, remembering this incident. They then turned their heads to Alex. "You might already guess, and yes, it was from Sir Alexander Sirius. And because of this matter, I need to go back immediately because the reparation process is still on-going. I would like to leave the meeting early. As for the details of that incident, I should not go into details. Just know that it won''t happen again. No matter how many spies you throw at us, you won''t know anything about it since there is literally nothing in that place and my castle." When they heard it, they exchanged looks, wondering if they should trust it or not. Seeing it would be better to discuss it after she went back, Neptune said, "Since the Phoenix Queen wants to go back early, I think we should see off the phoenix queen together." The others also nodded their heads, having no objection to the decision. "With this, I declare that our World Summit''s meeting has officially ended. After we send the Phoenix Queen off, we shall go to the portal." After that declaration, they rose and left the room with their companions. Neptune Eikha personally led them to the surface where the Phoenix was waiting. Ellen, Stina, Kyle, and the elders came inside the carriage, hiding from their eyes. Surprisingly, before they flew away, Ellen opened the door and called Alex. "Sir Alexander, may I talk a bit with you." "Yes." Alex nodded, knowing this was their plan. He walked to the carriage and just stretched his head inside, making others think they only had a normal conversation. Unbeknownst to them, Kyle and Stina turned into a ball of light and went inside him. This way, they only knew Stina and Kyle were going back with Ellen, not Alex. Alex nodded his head and waved his hand. "What is that?" The Seraphim asked, looking at his expression to check whether he was lying or not. "Nothing. It''s just a simple goodbye." Alex shrugged. He did not lie since Ellen was really saying her goodbye to him. It was Stina and Kyle who acted on their own accord. Seeing no lie from him, the Seraphim nodded. They then watched the phoenix fly to the horizon and dove again. The Neptune led them to the portal, walking through a maze where they ended up on a heavily guarded door. "My king." The guard leader immediately ran toward him before glancing at Alexander Sirius. "Is he?" "Yes." "!!!" The guard leader stared at Alex for a few seconds before shouting, "All soldiers, Hear me!" Hearing that loud shout, they were curious. After all, only the leader had been informed of his existence, and he did not dare to talk it out with his subordinates. His subordinates wondered why the Neptune brought many people here. The answer came in the form of a shout. "All soldiers. Salute to the new Supreme, Human Alexander Sirius!" "Supreme?" "Human Supreme?" "As is the Supreme a few thousand years ago?" Many were confused about it. However, seeing their leaders salute to a human, they got their answer and slowly clasped their hands as they kneeled on one knee. "We greet Human Supreme Alexander Sirius." They shouted in unison. Alex had a weird expression, not knowing what to do. He looked at the Neptune and said, "Ehm, what should I do about this?" "Let me handle this." The Neptune whispered as he stepped forward, looking at the soldiers. "All soldiers should return to their work respectively." "!!!" Even though they did not want to disperse as they were curious about the Supreme, Neptune''s words were absolute. Much to their dismay, they started to disperse. At the very least, they could tell their kids or family that they had witnessed the second Supreme''s appearance. At the same time, the leader immediately shouted, "Open the gate!" The giant door slowly opened as the soldiers released the seal. They could see a metallic gate without any blemish. Alex could see that the gate must have been taken care of by the Naga Race. The white metallic gate looked like a gate to heaven, unless it was completely empty as he could see through it. He looked at the six holes around the gate and furrowed his eyebrows. It would seem he needed to insert the crystals there. He checked the gate with his Spirit Eyes, and as expected, he found nothing. The crystals were the keys of this portal as it contained the array and the necessary energy to make a portal. Looking at this, he walked toward the gate. Before taking out the crystals, Alex looked at the Neptune. Sherry and Anya came behind him, looking at the other suspiciously. They were trying to make sure no one would do anything funny such as running through the gate. "Please." Neptune gave his confirmation. Alex nodded and took out the six crystals and started placing them one by one. Each time he inserted the crystal, the crystal shone brightly before creating symbols after symbols. It slowly spread all over the gate and floor, creating a giant teleportation array. With just one look, Alex knew it was a God Level Teleportation Array. However, it used the crystals as the catalysts and the white gate as the body, giving it the ability to make a portal. All rulers were shocked by the sight as they stepped back, thinking it was dangerous. Alex narrowed his eyes. After the crystal revealed the array''s true form, it started creating a blue gate, starting from one tiny dot before making a full gate. He looked at the other side and noticed it was very dark. He felt they were in a special place or something. "Anya, Sherry, be ready to fight at any moment notice." He ordered, a bit unsure of what they would meet on the other side. "Yes." They knew their job well. After a few seconds, noticing no human or monster was coming in, he thought the place was something deserted such as a cave or something, albeit he would need to confirm it first on the other side. Taking a deep breath, he turned to the other rulers. "I will throw you the crystals and I am sure the portal will close instantly. And then, I will destroy the portal to prevent someone from crossing to this world. "If in the future, you want to restore the portal, the crystals are the materials. Even if you build the portal and make the rune, it would be impossible. When someone is chosen to rebuild the portal, you shall teleport them together with the crystal. The rulers stared at him for a few seconds before the Neptune bowed his head. "We have received the Supreme''s words." "We have received the Supreme''s words." The others also followed, except the Human King. Alex was observing this guy from the start, worrying he might jump to the portal and tell his power in the other world. Luckily, if he destroyed the portal, it would take a long time for another Supreme to arrive. This way, even if they spread his information, he would already be far ahead. After looking at the others one last time, including Qeigess, Lexi and Lilian, he finally walked toward the portal. Anya and Sherry also followed him while watching the Human Sovereign. Luckily, he did not do anything, so they managed to cross the portal without difficulty. Alex looked at the portal on the other side and noticed the crystals. It would seem the gates were connected, which meant if he took the crystals on this side, the crystals on the other side would disappear. He simply smiled and waved his hand, using his Spiritual Energy to take out the crystals. Although he was sure that he could just ask the others to take the crystals out on the other side, he wanted to make an assurance. Neptune and the others gulped down, thinking if Alex decided to go back on his word. Fortunately, Alex was not someone like that. After taking the crystals out, he tossed them toward the shrinking gate. Without the power from the crystals, the gate could not maintain its portal, and in just a few seconds, it closed. Alex waved his hands and smiled. "Goodbye." They stared at him blankly before clasping their hands respectfully until the gate fully closed. After the gate disappeared, he finally left alone in an empty dark space. He might look carefree earlier despite warning Anya and Sherry, but he actually had skimmed the place with his Spirit Eyes and found nothing. Hence, he could actually act like that while Anya and Sherry guarded him. "Alex, this should be a cave or something. If you listen carefully, I hear the sound of water in that direction." Anya pointed her finger toward the cave''s passage. Before answering her, he took out his sword and covered it with his intent. He struck the gate with all of his strength, destroying it into pieces. "Boom!" The crumbling sound echoed as Alex activated his Spirit Eyes again, observing if any people came to the cave. If this place were under someone''s jurisdiction, then he would need to escape by utilizing his Teleportation Array. Luckily, it would seem his worry was not needed as after a minute, he had yet to see any energy. "Where are we¡­" "I don''t know. I have asked Anna to search for this portal, but¡­" "They did not find it, huh¡­" Alex pondered for a while before stretching his hand to her. "Give me Anna''s card." Anya nodded and handed him the card. "Anna, we have arrived in the Northern Continent," Alex said. His voice startled her. "I¡­ I am sorry, Alex. I have dispatched the N squad to search for the gate but can''t find it¡­" The N squad in her mouth was Nelson''s subordinates. Since all of them started with N, she just called it N squad. "It''s fine since, according to our observation, we are inside a cave or something. We will try to go outside first and search for a town or something. At that time, I will ask you to get us." Alex explained his plan. "I understand. As long as the town is not very deserted, we should know your location. I will send Jeanne to lead you to our base." "Alright." He nodded and turned his head to Anya and Sherry. "Sorry. I need to ask you guys back. Although there is a shapeshifting technique for Sherry, I need to sort all the techniques first, in case there is a better technique." "Yes!" They understood his reason and immediately went back inside his body and card. Alex then started walking through the cave until he finally saw a light that seemed to be the exit. It would seem he was behind a waterfall. He used his fire to burn the water as he did not want to get wet and walked forward. Unexpectedly, there was a blonde-haired woman, bathing on the lake outside the cave. Their eyes intertwined and trouble might come soon. 506 Acquaintances Looking at the blonde-haired beauty, Alex stood still. He was surprised to find a woman bathing in this kind of place. He turned off his Spirit Eyes for a split second after knowing it was a waterfall and the area was deserted, he believed he could go out just like that. No, it could be said that he just got accustomed to a lifestyle where he did not need to be on constant guard. "Ah¡­ The lifestyle seems to dull my perception a bit¡­ I should check first before coming out. That''s right¡­ After almost two years in that world, I have grown accustomed that no one would attack me as long as I have those crystals. In that case, I only need to do some planning and everything would be fine. But in this world..." Alex sighed. The woman saw astonishment inside his eyes rather than lust. The astonishment came not from her beauty but because he knew this person. "Ky-" She wanted to scream out of reflex but bit her lips to hold it back. "You¡­ can you turn around for a minute." "!!" Alex was a bit surprised, seeing there was not any irrational retaliation from her. He was prepared to see her charge at him with power, shouting ''Die.'' But it would seem the woman did not go for that cliche. He stepped backward and stopped his fire, letting the waterfall become a curtain once again. Not long after, the waterfall was stopped by the wind power of this woman. She was wearing a white shirt with a knee-length skirt. Her wind, like a hairdryer, already dried her wet hair. She looked at Alex and bit her lips. "Well, I apologize for seeing you. Not my intention though." Alex said with a poker face. "I understand¡­ I wanted to kill you at first, but I instantly realized it was you. Well, you should certainly thank my sister for this because I recalled what she said earlier." "?!" Alex tilted his head in confusion. He was prepared for some attack and might even attack her back, but he was lucky since the other party could retain their calm. "She said, ''You shall always keep calm in any situation, even when you are naked. Just say that some assassins want to kill you when you are bathing, can you say I will kill you because you peep me? No, so just keep calm, assess the situation, and do whatever you think is right.'' Besides, I know you don''t mean to do it. I should check my surroundings first." "Ah." He nodded. "Though I might do something an assassin would do if you attack me. And we can talk after you calm down, or maybe just ask your sister to calm you down." "Ahaha¡­ Are you a man?" She paused a bit before saying, "Since you have taken a glimpse of my naked body, you should marry me." "..." Alex opened his eyes wide, stupefied. She chuckled and said, "Just kidding. There is no custom about it anyway. Of course, if they are strangers or any other person, I might kill them right now. However, you are my Elder Sister''s junior brother and one of the VIP cardholders, it will just bring me more trouble. "So, I want to ask you to forget about it¡­ well, that is certainly not possible, right? Though I wish you can keep it buried and not recall it again¡­ and don''t tell anyone about it. After all, my sister said your perspective of women is very different from the norm." She bit her lips and clenched her fists, holding all the emotions inside her. She also had another reason, which was his master. If his master directed his rage toward the Blackwade Clan, they would die without knowing how. Alex nodded, wondering how this woman could keep her calm. He recalled when he first met her. She looked like a muscle brain, whose emotion would be easily manipulated. "This might be the second time we meet¡­ right?" "Yes." "I think I have never properly introduced myself¡­ I am Song Jia, Blackwade''s clan second daughter, Song Yu''s younger sister, nice to meet you. First of all, I thank you for your help back in Willow Continent, including taking care of Honda Sana and the invaders." Although he knew she was trying to suppress her emotion, he was still surprised at how much she changed from back then. Little did he know after Song Yu came back, Song Jia was literally happy for it. And because of the plan she proposed, she started learning how to have a calm state of mind. Her raging flame that wished to challenge every person she met was gone to puff after her idol, Song Yu, came back. "Alexander Sirius. Anyway, I think I should apologize again¡­ I''m sorry." She shook her head before looking at him with a serious expression. "What are you going to do now? Elder Sister is worrying about you, you know. If I am not wrong, you should have arrived on this continent two years ago." "I needed to take care of a few things and had closed-door cultivation for a while in this cave. Anyway, I can go back to this place for a while and visit her at a certain point. For now, I am planning to go to the nearest town." Looking at him, she sighed. "How about coming with me? My group has just come back from a mission. We are on our way to the Blackwade Clan. If you wish to stop at the nearest town, I can guide you there before going back. Besides, Putri¡­ your disciple is with me too. I think you might want to visit her for a bit." "Putri?" Alex knew Putri was with the Blackwade Clan after meeting Song Yu, but he was surprised to see her with Song Jia. "Well, I might as well meet her." "Sure. Follow me, I will lead you to my group." She then leaped outside the cave, flying to the north. Alex followed her for about a hundred meters before he found nine other people with one of them being his disciple. They descended together, making others surprised, especially Putri. However, Alex decided to use his mask as a precaution after the earlier incident. Alex observed these people''s cultivation and found out they were only Martial Kings while Song Jia was the strongest, a Martial Emperor. He also checked Putri''s cultivation and found she had become an 8-Star Martial King. Of all the people he taught, Putri certainly had the lowest talent. Even the wind gem she consumed only closed the gap between her and Evelyn as well as Rose. Luckily, with the resources from the Blackwade Clan, she could advance faster. With her current progress, he thought Evelyn and Rose would catch up sooner or later. The soonest would be in Martial Emperor and the latest would be in Martial Monarch. If she did not go to the Heavenly Continent soon, Alex feared she could not keep up. At first, he thought even if he left this world, they would be fine since someone would take care of them like Putri and Song Yu. He might also help Song Yu with her family, so Rose and probably... Evelyn would have a backing in Heavenly Continent. The group comprised three females and seven males, so Alex felt he would leave the group after talking with Putri. "Young Miss." All of them greeted her, despite being curious about the masked man. Only Putri had seen this mask when Alex joined the war to protect the Southern Kingdom. She was walking toward the masked man alone, confusing the others in her group. She slowly dropped to one knee and clasped her hand respectfully. "Putri greets Master." "!!!" They dropped their jaw upon hearing it. They only knew Putri as Song Yu''s junior sister and never knew her master''s existence besides Charya. "It''s been a few years¡­ Before I can sever the relationship, you decide to run to this continent¡­ So, I assume you have your decision already¡­" Alex did not help her up and replied. "I have decided long ago. I will always be Master''s disciple, so please, don''t-" "If you have decided, I would say no more. This is your choice, but you know that being my disciple might take away your life, right?" "I''m aware." "Then, it is good." Alex nodded. "I should leave then." "Master¡­" "Wait!" Right after Alex turned around, a shout echoed inside his ears. He turned to the side, looking at a black-haired man. "She has been searching for you since two years ago! And now you are here, you will leave just like that? Have you ever thought about her feelings?" He roared. Even though he had no information about Putri''s master, he knew Putri had been searching for someone this whole time. It must be this person, he thought. "..." As he expected, it would become like this. He certainly had read some scenes about Master and Disciple relationships from other points of view. The first one would come from a friend and they would certainly rage when they saw the nonchalant master like Alex. The second one was her pursuer, trying to mend their relationship so he could get a point in her heart. The third one was a lusty brat who thought with his dick, not brain. Last but not least, it came from an MC perspective, where he wanted to fight for his woman. "Andre!" Song Jia frowned, glaring at him with killing intent. Alex looked at this man weirdly before turning to Putri. "Your boyfriend?" "I am sorry, Master. Please pay no heed." She shook her head. He nodded and walked away, albeit he was stopped once again. This time, the man stopped him from the front, not letting him pass. Alex sighed and said, "You did not know anything and made a bold claim. Don''t use half-baked information to fight a stranger. Also, blocking me is the last thing you want to do." "You bastard! You are only a 1-Star Martial Emperor. I can fight a Martial Emperor like you even though I am only a peak Martial King." Alex looked at Song Jia and said, "If you don''t stop him, I am afraid I might kill him." "Andre, stop it right now. He won''t be the one to kill you, I will." Song Jia glared at him. He already broke the family rule just by confronting a VIP cardholder even though he did not know it. Song Jia also had warned him to stop and if he did not stop, she was forced to carry the punishment. And with Alex''s Spirit Nest, she knew how big their contribution was in providing materials, so it was enough reason to kill him. 507 Something Interesting The tension started filling the air, making others gulp down. Though Alex gave Song Jia some face, he would not show any mercy to him. Surprisingly, before anyone made a move, Putri appeared beside the man, swinging her sword at him. Andre took out his sword instinctively, blocking Putri''s sword. Putri then shifted her stance to gather enough footing and blew him away. "Master, please go on." She clasped her hand. "Ah, by the way, where is the closest town?" Alex glanced at Song Jia, who pointed out her finger toward Northwest. She believed it would be better for Alex to go before having any casualties. He nodded and flew away. On the other hand, Song Jia glared at Andre, releasing a killing intent. "Do you know that your action will cost us a few hundred million, if not billions of Spirit Stones? And you don''t even know his identity and already run your mouth around! If my elder sister here, you will already die." "I¡­ I¡­ I just can''t stand him. I don''t know who he is, but if he is truly her master, he is a careless master. His disciple has been searching for him since two years ago, and when she finally meets her, it-!" "Enough!" Before he finished, Putri blew him away again with her spear. "Don''t assume everything by yourself and don''t talk bad to my master. Even if you are my friend, I will still kill you." Song Jia only sighed, leaving this matter to her sister. Besides, the earlier incident was hindering her from thinking something good about this situation. It would seem the matter still disturbed her. Meanwhile, Alex had arrived in the nearest city, wondering what the name of this city was. The city was truly marvelous and he could sense a powerful pressure emanating inside the city. This was the first time he looked at the Northern Continent. And as expected, their power level was similar to the other world. He strolled around and found the city was called Minerba. Alex immediately disappeared to an alley and took out Anna''s card. "Anna, I am in Minerba City. Do you know this city?" "Absolutely. Still, Minerba City, huh¡­ This is a bit farther than I thought," Anna said with a troubled tone. "What''s the matter?" "Actually, our current base is in the east of this continent. And Minerba City is up north. In fact, if you go a little bit more, you will find a port to the Heavenly Continent. Or do you want to go there?" "Nah. I could not handle the people over there. I might get stronger faster, but if I need to go through a whole process like Heavenly Sword Sect, I will pass. I don''t know what they would do if they knew about my power since the stronger they are, the weirder their power. Besides, I want to see the Strength Plateau first." "Alright." Anna knew his concern since she was only asking the question as a joke. "The Northern Continent was bigger than we thought, so if I sent Jeanne, she would only arrive after a week, would you wait that long?" "No." Alex took out a map that Anya made. Although it was not as accurate and lacked many details since she only drew under Anna''s explanation, it was still enough for him. "With Anya''s map, I see a city called Klard City in the southeast direction and Galapus City in the south direction, I can teleport to them." "This is the problem. Galapus City is around the Fire God Clan. Going there might be a bad move for us. As for Klard City, it was under Blackwade Clan jurisdiction." "Then, I can go to Klard City. What is the problem?" "Well, it would seem the Young Master of the Joyful Union Sect is there now, so if you are going there, you might find him." "Then, how about a city before Klard City? I think it is better to go there than going to Fire God Clan Territory. Although the map does not have a city, I can buy a general map, I guess." Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. "Well, there is a city around that area, but how do I tell you the exact location¡­ I think it is better to go to that town as Jeanne would only need one day to reach that city. And yes, it might be better to get a map of the continent. If I am not wrong, there is a Blackwade Clan branch there so that you can buy a map there." "Alright. That''s our plan for now¡­" Alex nodded, thinking about Song Jia''s group. He thought since they were going back to Blackwade Clan, he was sure they would meet this young master. After all, from his information, the young master was smitten by Song Jia. That was why when he knew it was the town, he could go in a separate way. Unfortunately, there was a bit of friction earlier and he felt they were too slow. Making up his mind, he searched for the Blackwade Clan branch in the area and bought a map. He then came out of the city before hiding himself in the woods. The surroundings were safe after getting a glance from his Spirit Eyes. Rank 6 Teleportation Array then appeared with a snap of his finger and teleported him five hundred kilometers away toward the southeast. The teleportation array appeared once again as soon as he arrived, ready to teleport him again, but Alex sensed a few presences around him. The array dimmed down before vanishing to thin air. His Spirit Eyes was telling him a group of ten approaching him from the direction he came from. He furrowed his eyebrows, muttering, "Don''t tell me¡­" His answer came in the form of two females who were Song Jia and Putri. When their eyes intertwined, a weird expression filled their face. All of them thought of the same thing. ''What the heck with this!'' "Master, Are not you in Minerba City?" Putri asked with a complicated expression. On the other hand, Andre was clenching his fists, looking at Alex with killing intent. "This person¡­" Alex felt that killing intent. Even his Spirit Eyes were showing him dark energy coming from him, symbolizing the killing intent. He did not kill him earlier because Andre was not aggressive yet. Unfortunately, this time, he really released his killing intent. Unlike the Human Sovereign in the other world, he would certainly meet this person again if he wanted to have a transaction. Or at least, the probability was high. He glanced at Song Jia and said, "Just my advice, don''t go toward Klard City." "!!!" Song Jia''s body shook, staring at him with a weird look. She did not know why Alex warned her of this city, but she certainly would pass the Klard City before arriving at the Blackwade Clan. Unexpectedly, Andre showed an exaggerated reaction. "You¡­ Not only have you disappointed your disciple, you even want to decide our course? How dare you!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows behind his mask, thinking of killing him right now. "May I know the reason? After all, the fastest way to reach my clan is to ass Klard City." She kept glancing at him and Andre. This time, he sent a thought transmission instead of talking. ''There is a young master from Joyful Union Sect in that city. Though I don''t know who he is, I know that he seems to be smitten by you. Well, that is the information I have right now.'' Her heart skipped a beat, not expecting him to be there. Because of Song Yu''s plan, she had been hiding from this person as if the Joyful Union Sect or Fire God Clan managed to sniff out their plan, there would certainly be a big movement in this continent. The information about Alex that she got from her sister flashed in her mind. Song Yu said Alex had a powerful information network, even capable of sniffing a big conspiracy to the slightest details. Because of that, she could somehow believe his information. ''Thank you for your information. I will try to go around that city.'' She nodded. Because he could not hold his anxiety, Andre shouted. "We should go right now!" Alex glanced at Andre before looking at her with a weird expression. ''Is he an idiot? He should also realize I am a Martial Emperor¡­ or he thinks his identity can stop me from killing him?'' Song Jia opened her eyes wide, coming to a realization. Her mouth opened slightly, showing her surprise. ''He¡­ he was the one who led me to this place¡­'' ''What do you mean?'' ''Actually, we were not supposed to go through this city on our way home. However, for several reasons, we changed our direction and went to the north for a bit. Because of this, we needed to pass Klard City. And the one who persuaded me was him.'' ''Did he¡­'' Alex paused, letting Song Jia come up with her own conclusion. ''Yes. The probability is high¡­ Unlike Putri, His background is a bit off.'' Song Jia tried to recall his personal information. ''He appeared in our clan around ten years ago with 8-Star Martial King Cultivation. With his hard work, he managed to climb up the rank and joined my group a year ago. I thought since he was already in my clan for a long time, he was trustworthy and let him enter my group. ''Except¡­ rather than joining my sister''s group, who needed his ability the most, he decided to join my group. With your information just now, I realized he was indeed suspicious.'' ''He is in cahoots with that guy?'' ''Most probably.'' She nodded. ''He must want to lead me so I can meet that idiotic young master.'' ''Want to kill him?'' Alex asked with a serious expression as he wanted to kill him. She nodded again. ''Yes. But I will try to reason with him first before making a move.'' Alex shrugged, letting her do whatever she wanted as long as he died in the end. She then leaped toward Andre, demanding his space ring. "I need to check your space ring." "!!!" The others gasped, wondering what Alex said to make Song Jia like this. In fact, it might be the first time she would do something like this. "Young Lady, what do you mean by my space ring?" Andre sweatdropped. "I have found something suspicious, so I demand your space ring. I won''t take anything from your space ring, I just need to check it." She looked at him menacingly. The tension started filling the atmosphere again. Putri appeared beside Alex, asking, "Master, what is this?" "It''s just something interesting." Alex smiled. "Young Lady, I am afraid I cannot hand you my space ring." "I am using my authority as the second young lady of Blackwade Clan. According to the family rule, you have to obey and hand me the space ring. If you don''t want to give your space ring obediently, I will use force." She became angrier. All the frustration she got from Alex seeing her body came out, targeting him. "Young Lady. I don''t know what he said to you, but it should not cloud your judgment. From what I see, he is trying to break up our group. Not only is he a disappointing Master, but he is also a bad guy." He still refused to hand over his space ring. "You do realize you are talking to a Martial Emperor, right?" She narrowed her eyes, releasing her killing intent. "And from all the people you can offend, you don''t have the right to offend him." "I can fight a 1-Star Martial Emperor to a standstill. Young Lady is different, but I believe he can''t defeat me." ''Oh, what confidence¡­'' Alex thought nonchalantly. "I don''t care what you said, just hand me your space ring or I will use my power to take your space ring!" She took out her sword. "I will count to three." "One¡­" "Two¡­" Before she continued, he already took out his sword. Song Jia swung her sword. (AN: So, you have chosen... death.) 508 Figh Song Jia swung her sword, aiming at his neck. Another sword came to her way, blocking it perfectly despite pushing it with her full strength. With this, it was clear that Andre was suspicious. Alex did not immediately join this fight as he observed everyone''s expression, trying to see if there was another one. Luckily, it would seem he was alone, making the situation not complicated. "Bang!" Alex turned around and saw Song Jia blow Andre away. She then disappeared, raising the dust with her speed. A shadow appeared behind Andre, making him turn around and channeling his energy to his sword. From his Spirit Eyes, Alex knew this person did not really cultivate his element. He looked at the energy inside the sword and understood the battle situation. Although the energy in his sword was powerful, it was not refined, making him lose to Song Jia. "Grand Slash!" "Blackwade Clan First Dance, Flower Sword." Her sword shone in pink, releasing a powerful oppressive pressure. The light slowly turned into flower petals, falling from above. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing how sharp the petals were. Even though he already knew the technique, he did not manage to block two of the petals, piercing his skin. Seeing Andre channeled his Spiritual Energy, he stopped the bleeding on those two holes in his arm. He never thought a graceful swing would be that deadly, making him amazed. "Bam!" After injuring his arm, the last strike from Song Jia''s sword blew him to the ground. "Blackwade Clan Second Dance, Twin Flowers!" Creating two swings in a single move, Song Jia shot out a powerful Sword Wave from pink flower petals. It was like a thousand of those petals joined together to create a single powerful sword wave that would cut the enemy to pieces. Alex felt he could copy this technique, but had no desire as he already had the Martial Art Inheritances. There would be a Martial Art that suited him better than this art, he thought. Andre suddenly swung his sword to the side, creating a powerful shockwave that would blow him away. Song Jia''s Sword Wave only hit an empty ground as Andre managed to avoid it by blowing himself away. Song Jia released all of her Spiritual Energy and Domain, wanting to finish it as quickly as possible. She took a glimpse of Alex''s expression and decided not to involve him in this. She was already thankful enough for giving her precious information, forgetting about the bathing scene. Besides, Andre was her subordinate, so she would take full responsibility for this. The pressure locked onto Andre, making him know he could not escape. Gritting his teeth, he stopped and swung his sword toward her. His cover was already blown away, so he did not need to hold back from killing her. "Die! One Sword Ultima!" The energy fused with the sword was close to ten percent of his full energy. If it were a normal fight, it would be a foolish thing to do. However, this was a life and death fight. He was planning to end this fight before anyone would and or even tried helping her. "!!!" Feeling the overbearing pressure coming from the sword, she lowered her center of gravity and clenched her sword, gradually blocking it with her sword. The moment two swords clashed, it created a powerful shockwave, blowing the dust toward Alex and the others. Before making his move, Putri stepped forward and created a barrier from Spiritual Energy, blocking the dust and shockwave to sweep even his hair. It was just like her instinct was telling her to do that. Alex made a weird expression, looking at her who was so focused on stopping this shockwave. He wondered if Rose and Evelyn would do something like this¡­ Nah, he would be the one who stepped in, muttering to himself, "They are still kids after all¡­" Even though Evelyn was not a kid anymore, Alex still treated her like a kid as he was accustomed to that way. He shook his head, observing the battle again. Although Song Jia was blown away by that sword attack, she managed to reduce the impact, not letting it injure her. She turned her body around while swinging her sword gracefully. "Blackwade Clan Second Dance, Twin Flowers." The sword wave flew toward Andre, pushing him back a few steps before he somehow destroyed the sword wave. Using his Spiritual Energy, he blew all the flower petals to the side as to prevent them from injuring him. She did not believe she could kill him with that attack anyway as she used it just to create a chance to close in again. After knowing his reckless style, she could charge in and kill him somehow. "Blackwade Clan First Dance, Flower Sword." He released his one hundred meter sword domain like an explosion, bursting all the petals away and blowing Song Jia''s main sword. Alex knew this technique as he learned it from the fight with those two intents. With that burst of energy, it would give him a chance to swing his sword at her neck. Song Jia ducked down and swung her sword while he made a full swing before blocking her sword with his sword. The two continued to clash, aiming at the neck, hands, feet, and so on. Their battle left marks around the area, creating a messy plain. Luckily, no cultivators came to the area despite being in a grassy plain. A few minutes later, Alex thought he needed to go, so he decided to step in, finishing the battle. She was surprised at first but realized how long it took just to kill Andre. With the power of two Martial Emperors, even Andre would not last for long. Although she was reluctant to have Alex''s help, she knew it would be better to finish it as quickly as possible. She released her two hundred sword domain and concentrated it into her sword. The sword started glowing again, emanating an overbearing Spiritual Pressure. Andre also released his full strength, condensing it into a single strike. Unfortunately, by the time it almost struck her sword, Alex made a move. "Spirit Step, First Step." The little soul stepped on the ground, absorbing all the energy he could absorb. This certainly shocked everyone on the scene, feeling the dry Spiritual Energy in the air. In fact, even a bit of energy from the sword was sucked into his body. All the energy stored inside his body filled all the muscles inside his body from his hands to feet. Alex then channeled his energy into his right foot, gradually stepping the ground. "Spirit Step, Second Step." The energy burst out from his foot to Andre, attacking him with a Spiritual Pressure. It gave him a headache and lost control of his attack. Song Jia, Putri, and the others were shocked by this power, glancing at him for an instant. With the flow of energy alone, they knew Alex could turn the tide of the battle. This was a powerful technique if he could use it in the battle. With how troublesome the process, he would need at least a second or two in order to activate it and no enemy would wait for that long. It was different in this battle. With Song Jia occupying Andre, he could launch this attack, supporting her in the process. Song Jia was not foolish enough just to be shocked and missed this opportunity. She slashed downwards, cutting him into two. Unfortunately, Andre still managed to react. He gritted his teeth and let every energy left to block this powerful attack. Although he managed to block the attack, the residual force did not let him from blocking her next attack. Of course, the most powerful thing she could do was kicking him right at his chest because of the position. "Gah!" The strike broke a few ribs. He spat blood and flew away with the momentum of that kick. Alex had predicted this and already stood behind him all the time even before attacking with Spirit Step. A rank 6 Fire Elemental Sword appeared on his hand, gradually moving toward Andre. Releasing the pressure, Andre turned around and found Alex. He gritted his teeth, moving his body under the pain just to create a powerful swing. This swing was not to strike at Alex. Instead, it was to stop Alex''s attack and let Alex blow him away. He would then run away with that momentum. Unfortunately, the one in front of him was Alex. His Twin Blade Domain was already covering his sword, swinging it toward him. ''This is it.'' He thought before feeling something wrong. The moment he took his blow, everything became clear as he felt the heaviness of this sword. Alex''s sword was not meant to kill him. Instead, it was aiming at his hand. And because Alex was planning to cut his hand together with his sword, Andre misunderstood his intention. Sharpness and a swing with 300 dragon strength and 400 meter domain were enough to cut a rank 5 Sword along with the user''s hand before letting him drop to the ground. "No way!" Only Song Jia, who had the highest attainment in Sword, barely managed to keep up with him. Although she did not want to admit it, she certainly saw Alex create a 400 meter domain for an instant. She and her sister had the same 200 meter domain, but to think, someone was really more monstrous than them. His existence alone would undoubtedly shake the continent. She muttered to herself, "As expected of Elder Sister." She sighed, thinking it was really impossible to beat her sister. Although their cultivation at the moment, Song Yu was blessed with a ''bigger'' brain than her and her luck was insane just by becoming Alex''s Senior Sister. She looked at the single swing that managed to claim a hand and a sword, wondering what he would do next. Out of desperation, Andre took out another Sword with him, but Alex already cut the other hand before he could even swing it. He then grabbed his head before covering it with his fire. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Claw." "Argh!!!" The fire turned into a claw and roasted Andre''s head with powerful heat. It did not stop there, he continued grabbing his hand until it melted Andre''s head and burned the skull and brain inside. He could not grab his head again as he had melted the entire head. Song Jia walked toward him with a complicated expression. "I am sorry for involving you in this." "Young Lady, are you alright?" The others started coming toward her, checking her condition. He had yet to trust these people, so he backed up a little bit, preventing anyone from getting close to him. Putri stayed beside him even though she was in this group. "Alexander Sirius¡­ Thank you. I didn''t mean to involve you, but ultimately involved you¡­" She sighed, clasping her hand respectfully. "It''s fine. Well, I need to go now since the matter is finished." He nodded before turning to Putri, "Take care." "Yes." Both women nodded their heads, looking at him turn around. At this time, Alex miscalculated one thing. Although he had his guard up, it was only for himself, not for the tired Song Jia, who had used almost half of her energy. One of the 10-Star Martial King females sneaked behind her and took out her Sword. "!!!" Alex disappeared from their point of view, circling around them as he swung his sword. Unfortunately, he was too late. Her blade already pierced through her body, missing a little bit from her heart. He should know that if this guy was from a Joyful Union Sect, he should have a woman already even inside the Blackwade Clan. And that woman almost claimed Song Jia''s life if not because she was suspicious why Alex suddenly disappeared. Alex''s swing immediately cut her head and took out that sword as he saw a black liquid covering that sword. "Poison!" Song Jia fell down to the ground, spitting up blood. "Gah!" "Young Lady!" 509 Book of Culture "Young Lady!" The shout could not enter her ears as she fell down on her knees. Her face turned pale and muttered. "Poison¡­ I should know if he was directing me to Joyful Union Sect''s young master, he should already consummate with a female¡­ And I never thought the female was also in this group." "Young Lady!" "This is a rank 7 poison¡­ Eating Poison Pill. It will melt all my organs if it is spread¡­ How can she have rank 7 poison." Before ordering them, she saw Alex taking the woman''s and Andre''s space rings. He was checking if they had an antidote or not. Unfortunately, after a few seconds passed, Alex could only shake his head in disappointment. He did not find any Rank 7 except the remnant of poison, which he took out and burned. "I see. It''s a shame." Her body dropped to the ground. Although she was supporting it with her hands, it was a matter of time for her to die. Putri also fell to her knees, shocked by this incident. Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. He activated his Spirit Eyes, looking at poison in her body. It would seem she was still holding the poison back, preventing it from spreading. With her current state, half an hour would be the longest she could hold. He waved his hand, raising Song Jia to the air. "I can heal her, so leave her to me for a few minutes." "We-" They wanted to hold him back, but Putri quickly stopped them. "My Master surely can! I am sure of it¡­" Just like she said, there were two ways to heal her. First was to let Anya tend her injury while the other one was his new Pure Fire. This might sound cold, but Alex wanted to use the second method as he remembered Alicia''s matter. From Anya''s understanding, it would seem his fire was even stronger than her light element in curing something like this. Anya did not really care about it since it would be a blessing for him to have that power, even if it meant she could only support by increasing his strength or healing his physical or soul injuries, which could not be done by his fire. They did not know if Alex could heal Alicia''s poison back then, but it should be enough to cure this poison. Alex also released his Spiritual Energy, revealing his Martial Emperor cultivation to scare them. Ultimately, Song Jia added, "It''s fine. I trust him. Wait for me." Seeing no one make a ruckus anymore, he then leaped toward a more closed area and sent a thought transmission to Putri. "Be careful, there might be another enemy." Putri nodded inwardly, treating all of them as her enemies. Though she did not show in her face, she would not come closer to them. Alex brought her inside the woods nearby, laying her body on the ground. She looked at Alex with her pale face and asked, "Are you sure you can cure it? This is a Rank 7 poison, originating from rainbow snakes. Even my clan would need to make a meeting for the antidote pill as it is a rare commodity in this continent. I-" She stopped after looking at Alex''s serious face. "I am in your care, I will certainly repay this debt to you." "Well, I don''t really need you to repay me since this is the first time I do this. You can say being my test subject is the payment, so don''t think about it," Alex said, assuring her. She sighed before making a small smile. She muttered, ''This person¡­'' "Though I need to touch the wound, which is supposed to be in your chest," Alex said with a poker face as he did not really care about touching her chest. He only warned her and did not let her have any objection. Besides, he already saw her naked, so touching like this to heal her should be easily tolerated. "Do what you want¡­" She closed her eyes, distracting her thought from what would happen next. She even used a little bit of her Spiritual Energy to open her top, revealing the mountains underneath just to show her willingness to the treatment. Alex nodded and released the Pure Fire inside his body. Since this was the property of his Pure Fire, there was no way he would use his Phoenix Fire like in the battle. He placed his finger on the wound, right above her chest, feeling the softness of her breast. Without a single thought in his mind, he planted the Pure Fire and controlled it inside her body. There were two attributes he was using in his Pure Fire. Firstly would be a fire that would not burn his friend unless he wanted it and the second was Anti poison and curse ability. The Pure Fire slowly burned the poison bit by bit without letting Song Jia feel the heat. She only felt an ant walking inside her wound, making it a bit ticklish. His Spirit Eyes showed him that the poison slowly vanished from her body. He indeed needed more Spiritual Energy than he thought, he repelled it nonetheless. After around three minutes, he finished the treatment, restoring the color on her face. Although she still felt a bit weak, she did not need to use her Spiritual Energy again and opened her eyes. "I feel¡­ I know the one who sent them to me¡­" Song Jia said weakly. "That Joyful Union Young Master¡­ wait, no¡­" Alex suddenly realized. "That''s right. That bastard''s target is to take me as his wife. There is no way that bastard will plot something like this¡­" She sighed. "It would seem the one who staged this incident is the Eldest Senior Brother from the Fire God Clan, Grimes. "Andre would be his pawn that infiltrated the Joyful Union Sect. After a certain amount of time, he gained the trust of that bastard and staged this plan under the order of that Grimes. "Considering how he wanted to take the Blackwade Clan under his name by marrying Elder Sister, he would likely use this plan to eliminate me. This way, with how uncertain the situation would be, the clan might take the initiative to marry her to him. After all, no one would be foolish enough to kill someone under the protection of two first-rate influences." she realized this the second she closed her eyes. Alex found his name a bit funny. Grimes. If he took the horizontal stroke from his ''G,'' he would get Crimes. This Fire God Clan really knew how to liven up someone''s name, he joked. Not that he could say his inner thoughts to her. "I apologize again for involving you in this accident. After you trouble yourself to make your influences hidden, with my group there, I am sure some kind of rumor will be created¡­ unless I eliminate all of them. Unfortunately, I can''t under the family rule as I don''t have anything to prove they are wrong. And if I abuse my authority, it will bring more trouble." Song Jia looked at his face and closed her eyes in reminisce. "You know, the first time I knew you from Elder Sister, I really wanted to challenge you? After all, it was unprecedented to see someone reach your level in less than a year¡­ "Anyway, I thought I would have a good challenge by the time you reached my level. And after that time, I trained even harder. Before I knew it, Elder Sister had come back home, reaching the same cultivation as me in an instant. Not that I hate it though¡­ After all, I am really proud of her. "I really want to thank you for giving Elder Sister another hope that will make her come back earlier than planned¡­ as well as giving me some kind of hope for a challenge. Though I might not be your opponent by seeing your domain alone¡­ and now, the feeling to challenge you has disappeared... "Ah¡­ I should recover my Spiritual Energy instead of talking about this nonsense." She chuckled and stopped talking. "..." Alex did not know what to say. He just used his Spiritual Energy to close her clothes and said, "You should be able to walk after a few minutes. This is a crucial recovery, so before you restore 10 percent of your energy, don''t use any recovery pill. After that, you can ask Putri to carry you back while restoring your Spiritual Energy. You can trust her since she is my disciple." "Yeah. I will do that." She smiled. "Anyway, I found this weird book inside their ring earlier¡­" Kama Sutra Technique (Male) Kama Sutra Technique (Female) "Hmm¡­ I think you should burn that book¡­" She looked away. The name of this book really baited him as he remembered this name from Earth. The problem was whether this book really had the same meaning as that book on Earth or not. Out of curiosity, he opened the first few pages and closed it right away. "..." Alex simply sighed as the meaning was the same. There were many sex positions in that book and it even provided a detailed explanation, making Alex speechless. Surprisingly, the system suddenly showed enthusiasm as she said, [Por- Ahem, Book of Culture has been acquired.] "..." Alex did not say anything and burned both books without any hesitation. [Host¡­ You are not a man of culture¡­] "Shut up. If you want, I can get it for you later from Joyful Union Sect," He said inwardly. [I''m kidding. That book could not be compared to my knowledge.] "Hoo¡­" Alex just furrowed his eyebrows. "Why don''t you change your name from Gacha System to R-18 System?" [Oh, the mission will become [Sex with a female #1], [Sex with a female #2], and the Gacha Part will give you a woman like a pet or a cauldron, Do you want that?] "... I''m kidding." After another five minutes, she finally could stand up and walk. Alex helped her up and carried her to her group before asking Putri to carry her. Seeing the earlier incident, it would be normal for her to not trust her group. She might request a reshuffle after coming back to Blackwade Clan. On the other hand, Alex set off alone before using his Teleportation Array when no one could see. He somehow managed to reach the city with his map and entered the city. Unfortunately, it would seem his luck upon entering this world again was very low, and he had yet to pass a single day in this world. He came across a woman with tattered clothes, trying to hug him while shouting. "Help me." Unfortunately, she missed him as Alex turned his body to the side out of reflex. She fell and a young man appeared out of the blue. The man had purple hair that long enough to reach his shoulder. He wore lousy but shiny clothes, making him a bit different than the others. Unfortunately, he did not know why, but he could see a bit of makeup on his face. "You bitch, how dare you run away from me." He shouted as he grabbed the woman''s hair. "Argh! I am sorry. I am sorry." The woman was a Martial King. Even then, she was scared of this guy, not because of his 2-Star Martial Emperor Cultivation, but something else. Nonetheless, Alex was not a good guy that would help everyone needed as he was convinced that this guy was that man-woman in a movie. He started to recall that this type of man was very scary in his opinion. Luckily, he dodged that woman, letting him escape from unnecessary problems, or so what he thought. When he started walking away¡­ "Wait! You bastard, how dare you dodge my toy and let her fall!" The man shouted. ''Huh?'' Alex stupefied. He shouted inwardly, ''Isn''t that the right thing to do? If I catch that woman, you will just get mad at me and try to fight with me while saying, ''Who are you to touch my woman or something along the line?'' 510 Unlucky Day When he heard that, other than commenting inwardly, he did not turn back. The thing would escalate if he went with the cliches and confronted him. Alex waved his hands, creating a small form of energy in order to distract him. For the instant he looked away, Alex disappeared. This action angered him as he never thought someone would dare to ignore him. He pushed off the woman and chased Alex. Alex did not really want to confront whoever he was, not because he was afraid, but it was annoying. Just by looking at his face, clothes, and characters, he knew it would be ''A family guy!'' And with his cultivation, he would most likely come from one of the seven first-rate influences. A dark alley appeared on his line of sight, tempting him to go inside. Alex smiled and leaped in, but when the guy came inside the alley, he only found a dead end. He even flew up but found no one. This certainly baffled him as he snarled. "I remember his mask!" Meanwhile, Alex was outside of the city, sighing. "Ehm¡­ System, is my luck that bad today? Not even a day has passed, but I have gotten two problems¡­" [There is always a day like this once in a while, Host.] "Still, I don''t know who that guy is." He furrowed his eyebrows, planning to ask Anya later. He took out Anna''s card and said, "Anna, change of plan¡­ It would seem we can''t meet in the city. I will explain the situation later, but ask Jeanne to meet me on a hill outside the city¡­ the one in the north." "Alright. I will tell her." Although she was curious, it would be better to talk in the base. Besides, she was planning to summon all the spirits after he arrived. He flew to the top of the hill, finding a good place to wait while wondering what he would do next. From what he knew, he had two problems, Joyful Union Sect and Fire God Clan as they were targeting Spirit Nest for their own benefits. Although the Fire God Clan had yet to search their hand on them like the Joyful Union Sect, it would only be a matter of time. Most likely, they were planning something toward the Blackwade Clan first before targeting his Spirit Nest. When he thought about this, he heard a loud roar from behind. He turned around and saw a huge rhinoceros. Its strength was around Peak Martial King, but it should have a good defense just by looking at the jade that covered its body. Unfortunately, Alex did not really have a mood to play around like this. A Rank 6 sword appeared on his hands before slashing the empty air, shooting out a Sword Wave. Even though Alex had restricted himself by not using his Fire in this Sword Wave, it was sharp enough to cut this Martial King beast. The moment they clashed, the Sword Wave sliced the beast like tofu, killing it instantly. Not long after, a group of people appeared. The majority of them were peak Martial King while there were two 2-Star Martial Emperors with them: A male and a female. The male was a young handsome blue-haired man while the woman was a cold beauty. They looked at Alex in amazement. His eyebrows twitched, feeling another trouble would soon come. Surprisingly, before he left, the young man said while clasping his hands politely, "Friend¡­ Ehm¡­ Actually, we need this beast. Seeing you want to leave, can we take this beast? I can pay for the beast." The young man was polite to him because of his prowess. Even with his 2-Star Martial Emperor strength, it was still impossible to cut this monster cleanly like him. That was why when he saw Alex only had 1-Star Martial Emperor cultivation, he was sure Alex''s attainment in the sword was far above him. And a person like him was unnoticed in this continent, he would certainly like to know such a person, especially since the time for the Strength Plateau to open was near. From the record, every time the Strength Plateau opened, there would always be a genius appearing out of nowhere. Some geniuses would become a part of influence and some did not like to be under someone. Nonetheless, knowing such a person would bring nothing but benefit. No trace of arrogance in his eyes, trying to make the other party comfortable. "Do as you like." Alex shrugged. "I just don''t like to be bothered and that beast bothers me." "This¡­" The young man made a weird expression before saying, "We gratefully accept the beast. Ah, I am Ruben from Blue West Clan, and the person beside me is Lucia from Antheram Family." The two names rang the bell on his ears. Blue West Clan was a clan that controlled the entire southwest of this continent, a first-rate influence. Antheream Family was also a first-rate influence, but they were the same as Blackwade Clan, a Merchant Family. If the Blackwade Clan controlled the market in the east, then this family controlled the west market. He started to recall another information that Anya said to him back then. It was about the marriage between the young master of Blue West Clan, Ruben, and the young lady of Antheream Family. They wanted to create a powerful influence so that they could expand their influence to Heavenly Continent. And this was precisely why the Fire God Clan would resort to something like that. With the massive amount of money from the Antheream Family, even with Joyful Union Sect, it was not enough to beat these two families. In case they were beaten and asked for the clan in Heavenly Continent, there would be no more Fire God Clan in the Northern Continent. Though Alex and the others did not know the depth of this plan, they understood the enemy of their enemy was their friend¡­ for a while. Because of this, Alex stopped in his tracks. He tried to come up with a single plan, but nothing came to his mind. There was nothing between them, and suddenly making contact with them would be suspicious. From their perspective, it looked like Alex was struggling to say his name since he already bothered himself to put on a mask to hide his face. Ultimately, he shook his head and disappeared, waiting for Jeanne somewhere else. "Young Master, why are you so polite to him?" Ruben''s subordinate asked. "It''s simply because he might be one of those, right?" Lucia turned her head and broke her silence. "As expected of my wife!" Ruben jumped toward her, trying to hug her. "Enough with your joke!" She only took out her spear and hit her head with the handle. "Gah!" Ruben rubbed his head as he said, "Yes. He might be one of the geniuses that appeared out of nowhere. After all, there was no way a normal 1-Star Martial Emperor could cut the Jade Rhino this clean in a single slash. "From the record, every time this kind of genius appeared, they would possess a unique strength. Even Family Head asked me to treat this kind of genius nicely and try to recruit him if possible. Albeit, this one seemed to not have any interest in it." Hearing Ruben''s explanation, they looked down. "I heard there might be a few more." "Yeah¡­" He nodded. "I think she will also be qualified as a genius." "She?" Lucia furrowed her eyebrows, recalling any genius in her mind. "Yeah, the one who uses a sword like using a spear, Putri. Sadly, the Blackwade Clan stole the march and brought her under them." "Ah!" Lucia agreed. "That one is really special. I never thought using a sword like using a spear is possible. She can even use either Sword Art or Spear Art depending on what she needs." "Yeah. Although she could not participate in this time''s Strength Trial, she might dominate the next one." He nodded. Lucia remembered something. "If I am not wrong, she has a Master called Alexander Sirius. He was the one who taught her that art. Unfortunately, that person suddenly vanished and never appeared again. At first, we thought he went to Sacred Continent instead of this continent, but the spies did not find him anywhere." "Should we meet him, we would certainly invite him." Ruben sighed. "That father of mine even wants to ask my little sister to entice him so we can obtain the art. Well, he is certainly worthy as he is also an Alchemist, powerful to boot. If his character is good, I am fine with it." "Anyway, we should continue our mission first." Lucia turned back and ordered. "Get what we need right now. We should complete our second mission in less than a day." "Yes!" They started working again, removing all the parts they needed. Meanwhile, Alex was talking to Anna. "Anna, can you get Jeanne to rush to my position¡­ Somehow my luck today is very bad since I have met a few troubles on the first day I come back. Oh, wait, if you ask Jeanne to come here, she might also get into trouble because of me." "Ahaha¡­" She chuckled before pausing for a while as Jeanne called her. "Anna?" Alex was confused by this sudden silence. Not long after that, Anna replied with a troubled tone. "Well, just as you say, your luck sucks today. The Joyful Union Sect is chasing her right now. If I am not wrong, she should arrive in a few hours. Their number is a hundred with 5 Martial Emperors, what are you going to do?" Alex pondered for a moment. "I will cut them down right now and regroup with Jeanne." "Alright. I will tell Jeanne to come to your position and prepare to fight back," Anna said. "Yes." Alex then searched for an ambush position before calling the others out. "Sherry, Kyle, Stina, come out." "I understand¡­ Sister Jeanne will be surprised by my appearance." Sherry chuckled as she appeared in front of him. "This is the first time I fight in this form¡­ I wonder if I can do that." Kyle sighed. "It''s alright. I know you can. And there is still me." Stina smiled, gradually looking around her surroundings. "The energy around is the same¡­ no, it''s slightly higher than in my world. I guess I can break through to peak Martial Emperor in this place." Alex nodded. "Well, I want three of you to learn Shapeshifting Technique to hide your wing, tail, and ears." "!!!" Sherry''s face became pale as she asked, "Master¡­ Do you prefer that kind of appearance? I thought this tail and ears are good¡­" She looked down, disappointed. Alex sighed. "No. That''s not it. I want all of you to join me in the Strength Plateau. It''s just for that, and you can seal that technique away. "I am sure that we can get something bountiful in that place, so it will be a waste not to utilize it. Besides, I have five keys right now. One is my possession, three from Neptune and the last one from Senior Sister¡­ maybe I should give the box back since no spirits want to go and I don''t have an acquaintance to use it." "I thought you don''t like my tail and ears." Sherry felt relieved. "If that is my Master''s will." Kyle nodded. "Won''t that bring trouble to you?" Stina worried. "There are approximately nine months from now. I believe I can become a 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Emperor and level up one of the spirits to at least 3-Star Martial Monarch. Who can stop them at that time?" Alex smirked. "If that is so, then I will obey. After all, I am also curious about the inheritance left by the previous Supreme." Stina nodded. They then waited for another three hours before Alex could see Jeanne rushing toward his place with a hundred people. Alex''s expression turned serious as he said, "Sherry, Kyle, and Stina¡­ It''s killing time." They smirked and replied. "Yes." 511 Home "Yes!" Alex nodded. "I will attack them from the front as to grab their attention while Sherry and Kyle make a surprise attack on their backs. Stina will wait for a bit until they think they can win with their number, at that time, we will break their spirit and rout them completely." "Understood." "Then, good luck." Alex took out his rank 6 sword and spear, covering them with his domain. A good impact could draw their attention better, so he shot out a cross Sword Wave, trying to kill their Martial Emperor in a single strike. "!!!" Jeanne instantly felt this familiar but powerful pressure. Thunder started sparking around her body as she turned around. "Enemy Attack!" The leader shouted, noticing this pressure as well. He was convinced that this power would strike them after considering how weird Jeanne moved. The trees covered the sword wave for a split second, letting it strike a Martial Emperor. Even though the Martial Emperor blocked it with his sword, it was futile. "Ah!" The woman died in an instant. "Sh*t. We have been had." The leader gritted his teeth. Unfortunately, this distraction caused him his doom as Jeanne appeared behind him, swinging her two short swords. He turned around and made a powerful swing toward her neck, but this was also another distraction. He only cut Jeanne''s shadow as the real one appeared behind him once again, thrusting her sword on his chest. She smirked. "Heh¡­ you have said many vulgar words toward me. Although it is such a shame to kill you easily, I don''t have time to play with the likes of you." "Impossible¡­" He gritted his teeth before falling to the ground. "Jeanne, kill the Martial Kings first," Alex ordered. "Understood, Master." She happily received his order. "What? What did she call him?" "Master?" "Is he the Master of Spirit Nest?" The confusion started filling the air among them. Unfortunately, even with that confusion, it did not stop the other Martial Emperors from giving an order. "We still have our number advantage! Don''t panic and attack them. Since the Spirit Nest is full of handsome men and pretty women, we can first capture their leader and enjoy it later! Break that mask of his!" "That''s right. If we capture their leader, the rest will surrender to us also." The others clenched their weapons. The vulgar males smirked while hungry females licked their lips, preparing to attack them. "Disciples of Joyful Union Sect, att-!" "Attack!" Alex stole the march and shouted by using their momentum. He and Jeanne charged at them, taking them by surprise. If they did not have a big group, a slight hesitation like this would prove to be fatal. Unfortunately, they had almost a hundred people. And there were qualitative leaps between Martial Lord and Martial King, making it even harder to kill them. They gripped their weapons tightly, ready to charge at Alex and Jeanne, albeit once again, Alex turned the tide around. Alex smiled as Sherry and Kyle appeared in his line of vision. "Kyle!" "Yes!" Both Sherry and Kyle raised their hands at the same time, making two phoenixes. "Cry!" The phoenixes flew out at the same time, trying to strike their rear. For those people who charged at him, they did not have time to block these attacks. "Boom, Boom!" The phoenixes exploded at the same time, engulfing half of them with fire. Alex only clicked his tongue, looking at this battle. The attack only killed ten people who took the full brunt of that attack as what the Spirit Eyes showed him. If they were at Martial Lord, those two phoenixes alone might kill thirty of them. "Who is that boy and girl?!" "The boy is cute. Look at that little wing, is he cosplaying?" "The girl is not losing to that blonde girl over there. And that ears and tail, is that even real?" "Don''t panic. Split our people to two and attack them at the same time. Even though they are Martial Emperors, it is not easy to kill disciples of the Joyful Union Sect!" A man roared within their rank. Alex checked his surroundings, making sure no other people were around. He smiled. "It would seem I don''t need to hold back at the moment." The Phoenix Seed released his Pure Fire, suppressing all disciples who had the same element. Surprisingly, a little less than half of them were suppressed, taking a bit of his energy just to suppress them. "Jeanne, kill all of their Martial Emperors." Alex adjusted his plan and ordered, "Change of plan. Kill them all." Sherry and Kyle knew this order was not directed at them. Instead, it was for a woman who finally made her appearance in this place. She was enveloped with fire while having a serious expression. She muttered to herself. "How dare you to think something vulgar to my husband. Be gone thots!" A lotus appeared above her head and a petal was falling toward the group. As soon as it touched one of them, it created an explosion bigger than the phoenixes, killing ten more people. "Fire Lotus, First Petal. Fire of Jealo¡­ Ahem, Fire of Supreme Phoenix!" "Boom!" "Argh!" "Martial Emperor¡­ I can''t see through her cultivation!" One of the Martial Emperors uttered in shock. With her power alone, she would undoubtedly get an Elder Rank in the Joyful Union Sect and they certainly knew they could not win against their elders even with this number. "Ru-" Just as he was about to announce it, Jeanne appeared behind him and sent his head flying. Stina clapped her hand as the lotus burst out, shooting its petals in all directions. The petals stopped in mid-air, surrounding them like a cage. "Fire Lotus, Fourth Petal. Fire Formation." She smirked, having an intention to kill anyone who dared to have a lustful thought about him. "Even in this second life, my husband''s first time is for me to take." Alex shuddered for a moment and wanted to say, ''Please wait until he grows up so it won''t be censored.'' Shaking the thought away, he killed all the fire elements while suppressing them. This technique used a lot of energy, so he could only maintain it for a few seconds. He also needed to suppress their soul, barring them from moving. A few minutes later, They managed to wipe the enemy out, leaving no one alive before burning their bodies to erase the evidence. Alex took a deep breath, feeling he wasted too much Spiritual Energy despite fighting against a small number. He asked Sherry, "Is this normal? Can we even fight against a hundred thousand enemies like this?" "It might not be possible to confront a hundred thousand enemies head-on with a little number we have. We can use guerilla tactics, removing a thousand or so at a time, reducing their number bit by bit. Or we can use Array to trap them. The easiest way was to have the same number as them. "Luckily, they should not have those many people above Martial Kings. From our data, each first-rate influence would have a few thousand Martial Kings and hundreds of Martial Emperors." Jeanne explained. "Well, if that is all, then we surely can." He nodded. "By the way, how could they chase you?" "I was unlucky this time. The moment I flew out, they somehow spotted me and chased me. I am sorry, Master." "... I should apologize too, since I might be the one who brought the bad luck," Alex apologized with a troubled look. "Anyway, I will use my Teleportation Array in our journey as to prevent any bad luck from happening again," he said. Unbeknownst to him, he still had a few other misfortunes. He did not know it yet as it did not impact him directly, at least, not yet. Sherry, Kyle, and Stina went back inside his body while Jeanne nodded. She pointed at a specific direction. "Our base is a bit farther that way." "I will tell you if we are close." "Alright." He created a magic circle and disappeared together with her. After several teleportations, Jeanne stopped him and led him on foot. They arrived at the base beneath the sack, entering it from the main entrance. Sherry and the others, including Anya, came out. All his spirits except Nelson and the spies were here. "Young Master (Alex)." They greeted him at the same time. "Big Sister Anna!" Sherry leaped toward her, hugging her waist. "Ahaha¡­ So, this is Sherry. I heard from Anya that you are a cute fox girl that almost brought Alex to a path of no return." "Oi." Alex narrowed his eyes, looking at Anya. "Ahaha¡­ I am joking." Anya looked away. "Anyway, I am happy to see all of you here." Alex smiled, checking their status. [Anna (Dark) Level: 51/80 (1-Star Martial EmperorStage) Exp: 405489/420000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 52/80 (2-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 310454/430000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 51/80 (1-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 298787/420000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 50/80 (10-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 97887/410000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 345005/400000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 374311/400000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 51/80 (1-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 179978/420000] [Anya (Light) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 310880/400000] [Artur (Light) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 39888/400000] [Jean (Water) Level: 49/80 (9-Star Martial King Stage) Exp: 24512/400000] It would seem their killing count had decreased drastically and could not level up that fast without his EXP card. He realized. ''Now that I think about it, I usually use my EXP card to raise their level. It seems I need to raise their level after this. I also need to use my Premium Tickets and test the new Inventory system after completing the mission¡­'' "Young Master," Leoz called him with a troubled look. "Since we have been summoned back, we get a glimpse of that young master you met in that city. Actually, he is the Young Master of the Joyful Union Sect¡­" "Huh? Isn''t he in Klard City?" Alex was confused. "I have said that he is going to Klard City, right? It''s because I don''t know whether he has arrived or not." Anna sighed. "Well¡­ I need information and the impact if I kill him first. Besides, how is the situation over here? I need a detailed report. And maybe pictures for all important figures." "I have the pictures here. As for the overall situation, I will explain it to you ''after this.'' The most important thing will be the matter concerning the Joyful Union Sect. Out of all influences on this continent, this one is annoying us the most. We actually want to burn their sect long ago, but wait for you to go back first." Alex checked the others'' expressions and knew they also felt the same way. "Alright. Explain it to me." 512 Their Course of Action "Alright. Explain it to me." Anna nodded, taking out a paper full of their information. "Their Joyful Union Sect has seven branches near us and most disciples stationed there have been dispatched to monitor us." "Branches?" Alex was surprised to see a sect having a few branches. She shook her head. "It''s not like what you are thinking. Even though I said branches, they are basically a brothel for men and women. "According to the information we have, they are sucking the other party''s energy to increase their cultivation. Although I have no qualm with their method, I¡­ we don''t like how they treat us like new sex slaves. Hence, I wish to burn their sect. "Of course, if this is the only reason, we might look too petty. They have heavily injured Jeanne and it can be said, most of their information is about Jeanne. If they really capture us, I can''t imagine what will happen next. "If we are not planning to destroy their sect, I wish to destroy these seven branches first as a warning." Anna looked at him with a serious expression. "Hmm¡­ Do you have information about the branches?" "We are investigating it now." "I will need their information first. I want their power level, operation time and such." "Understood." "We have killed a hundred disciples earlier, so I am planning to hide for a while. Firstly, I want to learn Martial Arts as I feel it has become too weak for me. Secondly, we can make a sneak attack in an unexpected time." "Indeed. Young Master should also wait until today is over." Leoz added. "..." Alex was speechless. Nonetheless, he nodded. "Yeah. I should wash away this bad luck." "Besides, we have prepared a space for a new base. We can make a huge base there rather than this cave." Anna reported. "I will do it tomorrow, including opening my Gacha. I am afraid if I do anything, there will be another bad luck." Alex looked at his spirits and introduced Stina. "This is Stina Blaze. Kyle''s previous wife and it seems Kyle has accepted that." "I am learning from Master. Even though I don''t have any memories about it, I would man up and take responsibility." He puffed his chest proudly. "I am Stina Blaze, nice to meet you." Stina bowed her head politely. "You don''t need to talk politely since these guys are special. You can talk to me like you talk to Anya. Well, I should introduce myself too. I am Anna Sirius, Anya''s twin sister. Nice to meet you, Stina." "Leoz here. If you want a spar, I am free." "Jeanne. If you want to learn how to get pleasure from pain, I can teach you the way." "Jean. As the elder sister said, the technique is godly." "It''s not like we accept you, alright? It''s only because of the Young Master''s order." "Greg." "Ahaha¡­ I sense righteousness inside you. If you have any problem, come to me, I will surely help you. My name is Artur." "Well, there is one more called Nelson. He is a master of espionage. Just a cool and reliable guy." Anna added. She had heard that these people were special, but they were truly diverse, astonishing her even further. "If you want to talk, now will be the perfect time as we are going to the new base tomorrow," Alex stated as he turned around. Anna smiled while waving her hand toward them before leading Alex to his room. They all knew what they were going to do, so they did not disturb them. Even Anya and Sherry stayed in this room, giving them precious time alone. Stina then started learning everything on this continent and the world. It was beyond her imagination as she never thought the world would be this big. No wonder the Supreme would go to this world, she thought. Alex had invited her to the Spirit Nest from the system, so she knew everything about EXP and levels. She was surprised to see such an awesome thing, but according to them, they just sealed their power and reclaimed it again from the start. It might sound foolish, but for Alex to accept them, this was the only way. She also learned her and everyone''s role in the group. Leoz was the battle maniac that would keep grinding EXP, and he was this group''s strongest fighter. Anna was acting as Alex''s secretary with Anya as their strategist. Nelson was in charge of espionage. Greg was their iron wall, while Artur was their sword. Jeanne could extract any information from the ultimate ''session'' while Jean was Jeanne''s toy. As for the Tsun couple, they were the joker. Meanwhile, in another room, Alex was naked after ''fighting'' for a few hours. He sat on the bed while reading a few papers containing many information and pictures. Anna had a blissful expression, lying on the bed, naked. Looking at Alex''s back, she hugged him from behind, clinging her arms around his neck. "The situation is becoming chaotic lately. Mainly is because the Strength Plateau would open soon. "Many influences try to get as many keys as possible. Even Song Yu does not really have time to visit us." "I am planning to give the box back to Senior Sister Song Yu. I currently have four keys with me, enough for me, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina. You guys don''t need it, right?" "Yes. It is useless for us." Anna nodded. "Yeah. Although it might hurt her feelings a bit, we can just explain our situation and she will surely accept it. Besides, she can raise her reputation in the Blackwade Clan by using that box. I am wondering why she even gave us that box." "Ahaha¡­ That sounds like her." Alex chuckled. "That''s right. It would seem Blackwade clan is going to hold a grand auction using the hype of the Strength Plateau. I believe I should tell you as one of the items is really useful for you." Anna took out a catalog and opened a certain page, showing a picture of a lotus flower. The petals were made of fire while the crown looked like molten lava. Alex certainly needed this flower. "Flame Heating Lotus. This is your third item for Undying Fire Body." She smiled. "This¡­ is really what I need. How much do you think I can buy it?" Alex asked. "I don''t know. This past year, we have raised two billion Spirit Stones or two million Spirit Gems. According to Song Yu, the wealth of Blackwade clan is less than twenty million Spirit Stones. At the same time, a normal first-rate sect or influence should have less than half of a Merchant Family." Alex recalled this term again. Spirit Gems, a more concentrated Spirit Stones, which was equal to a thousand Spirit Stones. There was another one that surpassed Spirit Gems, but it only existed on the Heavenly Continent. "A few million Spirit Gems¡­ I might be able to raise another three million Spirit Gems, but it won''t guarantee us to get that lotus." Alex sighed. "Yes, especially with the Fire God Clan aiming it. They might not have an Undying Fire Body, but it is still very beneficial for Fire Cultivators. So, we might have some friction with them in the auction." "A passive enemy that will turn into an active enemy, huh¡­ We have experienced this in the past with Mount Hua Sect. Wait, why do my enemies always have Fire Elements?" "You are the ruler of Fire. You are bound to have more friction against Fire Elements people as your interest would clash with them. Just beat them up and show them who the boss is. Though we need to be careful against the Fire God Clan since they hailed from Heavenly Continent." Anna explained. "Fine. I already have many enemies anyway, so adding one or two is not really a problem. The problem is to make sure they are not targeting my disciple." Alex pondered for a moment. "We have nine months before the Strength Plateau is open. I am planning to use two or three months to train my Martial Arts and Element Arts. If possible, I want to make pills in my free time to get more money. At the very least, I want to have seven million Spirit Gems before the auction." "It should be feasible." Anna nodded. "After that, we will attack the seven branches to warn Joyful Union Sect the consequences of their action. We will see if they want to protect their pride or stop their action against us. Though I believe they will choose the former. "We will hide once again after we finish with these seven branches. If possible, I wish to reach 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Emperor first before going to the Strength Plateau. That''s right, when is the Auction start?" "Actually, the Strength Plateau is not really that far from Blackwade Clan. Using this advantage, the Blackwade Clan makes an auction to gather all influences and milk their money right before the Strength Plateau is opened. In other words, they are holding the auction one month before that strength trial starts. "It will also be a good opportunity for you to meet Song Yu in that auction," Anna remembered a certain matter. "One more thing, when are you going to destroy the family that is bothering Rose?" "Hmm¡­ I have not made a plan for that yet, but around that big event. As for whether it is before or after the event, we will see." Alex answered. "Talking about her, how is the condition of Evelyn and Rose?" "Evelyn is going to be a Martial King soon and will go to this continent right after. As for Rose, she is also progressing by leaps and bounds. In less than a year, she should become a Martial King with a very solid foundation, unlike Evelyn''s. I am expecting many things from Rose and I hope she is lucky enough to reach the top." "That''s good then." Alex nodded before recalling a certain topic. He suddenly took out a spear from his Inventory and threw it toward the wall. "Are you testing the new Inventory system?" "Yeah. Since I can''t draw Premium Gacha with this luck, I should be able to test this system." Alex raised his hand, trying to store it from afar. Surprisingly, it slowly vanished. He checked the Inventory and as expected, it was there. He took it out and threw it again. He tried something different this time as he activated his Spirit Eyes. He saw pink energy started enveloping his spear, teleporting it inside his Inventory. It would seem that the Optimization Inventory gave him the ability to store whatever he had in the system and allowed normal items from his Space Ring to be stored inside the Inventory. Then he had the second effect, which was a Shared Inventory. His spirits would have the ability to use the same Inventory as him, letting them store everything inside. It could be said that this Inventory had become a moving bank. His spirits could send materials instantly with this function and vice versa. Alex could also make pills and station one of his spirits inside the Blackwade Clan. This allowed them to have a nonstop and secretive transaction. Talking about being secretive, he remembered he had two other spies with him. He took out their card and handed them to Anna. "This is Natalie''s and Nicky''s." "Fufu¡­ You are just testing a new system and you have forgotten about it." Anna chuckled. "Since we have a shared Inventory, I can take the cards by myself. In fact, I have sent them to investigate the seven branches." "..." Alex was speechless. He was happy to have this reliable woman on his side. "Thank you. I might need more time to reach this place if I am alone or even die somewhere. I am really thankful to all of you." "Fufu¡­ It''s us who are lucky. Well, I am also happy since you have accepted Anya. Though I wish the night were longer." She smiled at Alex. Alex looked at her with gentle eyes, saying, "That''s right. The night is still young." 513 Base The next day, Alex came out of his room with Anna, whose face looked shiny. No one needed any explanation for that and just looked at Alex, waiting for his order. "There are a few things I want to say first. First of all, I am thankful for you guys to help me this whole time and without all of you, I don''t know what my fate would be. The second thing is I am still unsure whether to destroy the entire Joyful Union Sect. "It''s not like I am sparring them. From the information, they are a kind of brothel, right? They help people relieve their stress. I don''t say they are good, but if we destroy their influence, I am afraid we will be targeted by many. Although I am not scared of them, I can''t be sure if they would just target me or even target Rose. "That''s why, after destroying the seven branches, we will retreat and wait for a while. Since we have Ngina on Rose''s side, they can at least run away for a while. In the meantime, we will completely destroy their sect. "Of course, if they don''t fight us again, then I will ask the N Squad to check upon them. As long as I have become a Martial Monarch, they should not dare to fight us again anyway." Alex explained the thought he had after learning their information last night. Anya pondered for a moment before saying, "It''s okay. As long as we have one dedicated spy to keep an eye on them, it will be fine. Though I personally want to end it as soon as possible, yeah, I know if the entire world turns their eyes to us, it will be a bit of trouble for us. Even if we have a Martial Monarch, as long as they have a thousand or so Martial Emperors, it will be hard to wipe them out." "Yeah. It''s only a matter of time." Alex nodded. "We would obey your order." The spirits bowed, not finding a problem with Alex''s plan. "Alright. It''s time for us to go to our new base." Alex smiled, looking at Anna to lead them. Anna then stepped forward and said, "Follow me." They came out from the base and destroyed every evidence in this place, making sure no one would know something from this place. Anna then led them east and it took them a half-day before arriving at a forest near the sea. This place had been cleaned up by Leoz and the others in the past few months, not leaving a single monster alive. He looked around, trying to see if there was another person or not in the area. After checking, he ordered, "I am going to make a Special Realm with one kilometers radius. Leoz, Jeanne, Anna, Artur, and Greg will set the perimeter. "Fabio and Vera will check our surroundings to make sure no one or monster is around. Jean will help Anya to supervise them. Stina, Kyle, and Sherry will stand by at the moment." Before the others replied, Greg called him, "Young Master." "What is it, Greg? Is there any problem?" "I don''t have any problem with the plan. However, my element is tingling. There should be a Spirit Stones Mine in this area, but I can''t pinpoint it. I have felt this long ago, but I believe Young Master''s Spirit Eye can find them. We can use it as our source to establish the Special Realm," he said. "Spirit Stones Mine?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes, looking at the ground. He was surprised to see the ground didn''t really have rich energy, but considering what Greg said, he tried to look around. "This place only has a 2-Star Martial Emperor as the strongest," Anna added. Alex pondered for a moment and flew to the air while searching for the Spirit Stones Mine. After searching for an hour, he finally found it. It was a bit deep underground and it would seem the ground was a bit special around this area. Because of that, the mine''s energy did not reach the surface, making this place unnoticeable to all influences. "The mine itself is situated three kilometers from our original position¡­ Should we use this as our center or can we make a hole to channel the energy." Alex pondered for a moment, recalling the map they had. After a while, he decided. "We will use this place as our base. But the problem is how to connect this place with that mine so I can make a Gathering Array to supply this array¡­" "As long as I know its position, I should be able to build a small hole to that hole. After that, Young Master can trap the Spiritual Energy and use the Gathering Array to gather the energy." Greg said. "Alright. Greg will stay here while Stina and Kyle are going to replace him. Kyle, since you are the senior with how we work, it''s time for you to shine." Alex smiled. Kyle blinked as a star appeared in the center of his eyes. "Leave it to me, Master! I will surely meet your expectation." "Sherry will follow me and protect me when I make the array. As for the others, move out!" Alex ordered. "Understood." All of them then disappeared at the same time, moving toward their positions. Alex then took out the Rank 6 monster blood he bought in the previous world. He bought many blood bottles at that time as to make sure he had enough supply to make this Special Realm. To make a giant Array like this, Alex needed more than fifty biggest bottles, costing him fifty million Spirit Stones right off the bat. This was the same size as his master''s Special Realm, while Zwaka''s place was twice as big. This was certainly a big sum even for a normal rank 6 Array Master. If he did not have his spirits and the medicinal ingredients from the previous world, he might need to think twice before making something this big. Luckily, he did not need to maintain the entire array with his Spirit Stones as he could just use the Spirit Stones Mine. He channeled his energy, directing all the blood to come out of the bottle. The blood started taking shape into many symbols where Alex skillfully controlled it and planted the symbols on the ground. On his side, Sherry was watching him, wondering if she could learn this too. Ultimately, she shook her head as she might give up before she learned it. Since he had space to work with, he really wanted to turn this special base as a fortress. He might even build a special realm inside a special realm. It could become a prison, trap, or whatever he wanted. He then started making the symbols around Anna and the others, setting up the extent of his barrier. 10,000... 20,000... 30,000... The array building took him around a half-day as he needed to build seventy thousand symbols. And unlike his normal array, the planted one needed more concentration as there were still trees, grass and such, hindering him from planting the symbols. This was why Alex needed such a long time despite only needing a few seconds to use an original Array. After setting up the Special Realm, he began to add Illusion Array to camouflage the area and made the barrier transparent. The third thing he needed to make was a key to this place. At the moment, he only created thirty keys. Although the Spirits could get the key from the Inventory, it was still good for them to carry one around. Sherry, Kyle, and Stina also got the keys. It would seem that they could access the Inventory even though they were not his spirits. With that, he already gave fourteen keys. He gave the others the N Squad the keys too. In total, he had given 22 keys for his spirits, contracted beasts, and himself. There were eight more keys in which Alex would give one of them to Rose later. As for Evelyn, Song Yu, and Putri, he had yet to decide whether it was alright for them to know about his Space Element. He kept the keys for the time being. After the keys, Alex created a few smaller Special Arrays. The first one would be Jeanne''s Torture Chamber, which could be used as an interrogation place. The second one was Alex''s Alchemist room. Inside was his Simulation Room, Refining Place and so on. There were three rooms for training if someone wanted to use it to have a spar with each other. Looking at Sherry and Kyle, these rooms were necessary. The other one would be cultivating space. Alex made five Gathering Arrays, so anyone could enter this room if they wanted to cultivate. The next and most important thing was their core base for the meeting room and bedrooms. Alex hoped there was a mansion in this place and Anya said he just needed to ask his Common and Uncommon Spirits to make a big mansion for him. He nodded, planning to ask them after the Special Realm construction was finished. Other than the mansion, they also needed to build training space and such for other smaller special realms. Last but not least, he built a special realm for the power room where he built a Gathering Array that would power up this entire base. He did not know why, but this place felt like his inheritance palace. With the mansion as the core, he thought about calling this Alex''s Mansion¡­ Maybe something more mysterious, so even when they left, Rose could use this place as her base or shelter. The construction of this base took two days. Anna and the others sometimes found people coming around this place, and luckily, they did not need to kill or anything as they were only a passerby. After he finished, he summoned fifty Spirits and asked them to construct everything he wanted. Although the spirits were not construction workers, they should be able to make a good mansion with Anya''s supervision. "Anya, I will leave it to you." "Yes. Leave it to me. We should finish in a week or so." She smirked. "For the time being, you can train or whatever." "Yes." Alex nodded before looking at Greg. "How many Spirit Stones inside?" "It''s around one million Spirit Gems," He said. "!!!" Alex noticed that the mine was not that big, but knowing it was filled with Spirit Gems, he was delighted. "That''s quite a big one." "Yes. It''s a Pure and no Spiritual Energy escape, so all of them mutate to Spirit Gems." Greg nodded. With that reserve, this barrier should last long and bred to even more mine in the future, creating a sustainable Special Realm. He was satisfied with the result as he did not have any plan in extracting those Spirit Stones for two reasons. It was deep and would take too much time. He would rather refine pills than mining. He then ordered everyone. "Everyone can also start doing your own task. If you want to kill monsters, then go. I will use the EXP cards a bit later. And We are going to attack the seven ranches in two or three months, so make sure you remember that." "Understood." Everyone except Anna, Anya, and Alex left. Of course, the contracted beasts also stayed, increasing their strength in the Gathering Array. Alex then looked around and activated the entire realm by channeling his energy. The dim light shot out to the sky and made a giant barrier, concealing everything inside. From the outside, they would not see anything as Alex made the illusion as similar as possible. If they had the token, they could activate the token to give a general direction of the array, which would lead them to the Special Realm itself. The latest thing he needed to do was to test everything from the token, illusion, to his Simulation Room, making sure everything was working. After that, he quarantined himself to use his Gacha and EXP cards. 514 Gacha and Training [Gacha Ticket x320] [Premium Ticket x5] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x2] [Gacha Coin x0] [Summoning Ticket x5] [Summoning Coin x0] "System, how many EXP cards do I have?" Alex asked, wondering if he should open Gacha Tickets or not. [You have 387 UC EXP Cards, 102 Rare EXP Cards, and 1 UR EXP Card.] "If I convert the UC EXP Cards to Rare EXP Cards, it means I have at least 150 Rare EXP Cards." Alex pondered for a moment before asking again, "How many Rare EXP Cards do I need to level up each UR spirit to 5-Star Martial Emperor?" [Calculating] [Leoz: 11 Anna: 14 Nelson \u0026 Jeanne: 15 Fabio: 21 Anya, Greg, and Vera: 23 Artur \u0026 Jean: 26 Total: 182] "..." Alex was amazed by the number. "Sigh, they need more and more EXP Cards. And as soon as they enter the Martial Emperor Stage, they would need 9 Rare EXP Cards just to increase two levels¡­ and I would not be able to level up everyone this way. "Unfortunately, we are pressed by time. In the next operation, we need speed the most. If their strength is too low, the other party might be able to send reinforcement. So, they should be 5-Star Martial Emperors¡­" "For example, I think I will exclude Anya first as a support and Leoz¡­ probably. Anya is a support while I plan to use my UR EXP Card to Leoz after I get to 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Emperor. "Which means I only need 148 EXP Cards. Though I can open my Gacha Tickets now and somehow make Anya to 3-Star or 4-Star, it might not be a good idea. Besides, all sect masters, family leaders and the like would be Peak Martial Emperor if not Martial Monarch. I will need another Martial Monarch beside Leoz¡­ "Hopefully, we can get a good amount of Gacha Tickets and EXP Cards before the Strength Plateau opens." Alex sighed. "System. Raise everyone except Leoz and Anya to 5-Star Martial Emperor." [Processing] [Complete. Do you want to see their status, Host? You still have 2 Rare EXP Cards and one UR EXP Card, do you want to use it now?] "No for both questions. I want to open the Premium Gacha here." [Processing] She appeared out of thin air, walking straight to him while bringing the white box. "This is your package." "Thanks." Alex nodded, putting the box down. Before going back, she gave him a piece of advice. "You have twelve fighters right now and if you split the group into two, you need two group leaders, having to be at least an 8-Star Martial Emperor. Stina can be one of them, while the other one would be Anna or Jeanne. "You are right to not use the UR EXP card to Leoz for the time being as it is not really cost-effective. That''s why you should open the Gacha Tickets before starting your plan." "Yeah. That''s the plan." Alex nodded. "Then, have you decided on what you would practice in these few months?" "Yes. I have chosen three Sword Arts and Spear Arts." "How about Element Art? You only have Fire Phoenix Art, Flame of Extinction and Flame Wave Emission. Seeing you have become a Martial Emperor, you should learn a Heaven Tier Fire Art. As for which art, I will leave it to your own decision." She smiled. "Ah¡­" Alex realized he had neglected the Fire Element Art and Space Element Art. The Northern Continent had hidden dragons and crouching tigers, making him unable to hold his strength back. The first thing he exposed would be his Intent and Fire Element before using his Array while Space Element would be the last. If people found Space Element, the reaction would be more dramatic than the Pure Fire Element due to its uniqueness. This thought made him wonder what kind of power would a Pure Space Element bring. "If you are thinking of a Pure Space Element, you won''t find them. Pure Element is only a term for Element related to Nature such as fire, water, ice, thunder, and so on. However, if you want to classify your Space Element, then yes, it is close to Pure Element due to its uniqueness." She explained. "Should I also learn any other Space Element? I mean, I only know Teleportation Array, Space Plate and Spatial Gate. And in my memory, there are not many Space Element Techniques that I can choose." "For now, no. The three that you have learned are the versatile ones. You can use your sword, spear, array, and fire as your strength while using the Space Element as a support." "Thought so¡­" Alex nodded in agreement. She smiled, waving her hand. "I have finished my business. Oh, there is one more thing about your plan. Sometimes one is better than two." Alex tilted his head in confusion, wanting to ask her what she meant, albeit she had disappeared. He thought of that advice for a while before giving up, not having the slightest clue. The box was calling him this whole time, asking him to open it. He waved his hand, directing the Spiritual Energy to open the box before opening them one by one. [Metal Bullet Technique (R) x1] [Metal Orb (UR) x1] [Water Tank (R) x1] [500x500 Array Paper (SR) x1] [Lightning Hammer (UC) x1] A glimpse was what he needed to ignore the Metal Bullet Technique, Water Tank, and Lightning Hammer. It was different for the SR Array Paper as he was planning to use it to create a few arrays for later purposes. The most important thing was the UR item, Metal Orb. The appearance of Metal Orb caused a change of his decision in the Spear Art. After considering the pros and cons for a while, he decided to imbue the Metal Orb to his rank 6 spear. The moment the metal element was infused, the spear hardness increased several folds. Although it did not compliment his Fire Element, it had another purpose due to a certain technique he wanted to learn. After dealing with the Gacha and EXP Cards, he started his training inside the empty base. The first sword technique he learned was a low Heaven Tier Sword Art called Heaven Light Slash. This technique was a stronger version of Heaven Breaking Sword or Berserker Strike. He learned that every Heaven Tier Art would relate to nature and after observing this technique, Alex realized it was true. Though it might seem not that different, the Art itself did not take only his Spiritual Energy. Instead, it would also absorb the energy around his sword, creating a stronger attack. Alex believed this was the Nature part. He felt that this technique could crack Qeigess''s scale in a few hits. The second sword technique was related to his Fire Element named Ignition Break. An explosion would occur the moment he struck his weapon, blowing the opponent''s weapon away. They could retain the weapon, but it would take the energy on their hand to do it since the force was powerful. The Nature part was similar to Heaven Light Slash. The difference was the Spiritual Energy in the air became the fuel while his fire energy became its ignition, triggering a powerful explosion. This sword technique was not popular because it was a double-edged sword, but the negative could be ignored with Alex''s Pure Fire Element, making it a perfect sword technique for him. The third Sword Art was Blade of Conquest. After two close-range techniques, Alex certainly needed a ranged attack to replace his Seven Stars Cut. Alex noticed that the Seven Stars Cut did not have the Nature part despite being a low Heaven Tier Sword Art. The ancestor of Heavenly Sword Sect never knew what distinguished a Heaven Tier Art, making him unable to comprehend the Nature part. It could be said that this technique was not a Heaven Tier, but a peak Earth Tier. He could also send a powerful Sword Wave with Blade of Conquest, but its strength lies elsewhere. If the sword wave traveled on the ground, it could create a Stronger Sword Wave due to the absorption of Nature Element from the ground. Though it could also absorb from the air, the effect was very small, only enough to maintain the same strength from start to finish. The training needed for all these three Sword Arts was one month with his Sword Mastery and unique Sword Ability, making normal people look away in shame as they required, at least, a year. He did not stop there. The training spree continued to his spear with Hundred Spear being his first technique. The technique allowed him to shoot out one hundred bullets like Quick Silver. He could even shoot them in a straight line, making it look like a snake. If it could strike at one spot a hundred times, its strength alone might surpass Blade of Conquest, albeit it was too hard to do it in a battle. The second spear technique was Phantom Trust, allowing him to trust his opponent from a distance. From the opponent''s perspective, they would see an extended part of his spear, ranging from 1 meter to 20 meters. This was caused by the sunlight or darkness that allowed Phantom Trust to utilize the slight change of shadow to create the extended spear. This technique might not be as strong as the others, but it certainly had a similarity to Alex''s Spear Throwing Technique. He could use spin or insane power for the absorption part. The power itself was far stronger than his Silver Sovereign, so he did not have any objection to this spear technique. Finally, the third spear technique was changed due to the Metal Orb. The third technique, Weapon Consuming Spear, focused on destroying an opponent''s weapon. This was why when his sear got strengthened by the orb power, he chose this spear. It took him another month to master these three before going with the request of his system, A fire Element Art. After careful consideration, he only learned one technique called Hell Inferno due to Flame of Extinction and Flame Wave Emission was still usable with the power-up of his Pure Fire. The Fire Art was surprising for him if it did not have a time limit. This technique might not need a huge amount of Energy from him as it took the energy from its surroundings, creating a huge fireball and exploding. It took the fireball thirty seconds to its max form while creating a huge explosion that did not care about friends or foes. Luckily with Alex''s Pure Fire, he could make the fire not hot for his friends. He needed to thank that Fire God in the Phoenix Trial for this. The total time he needed for his training was two and a half months. Alex decided to extend it to three months, trying to break through to 2-Star Martial Emperor. He might fail in that, but he was close to 2-Star. 515 Last Preparation Alex opened his eyes, noticing the time had come for him to obliterate the seven branches. Putting on his clothes, he looked at Anya, who slept soundlessly in his bed. He stroked her hair for a while before saying, "I''m going." These three months passed in no time. Anya and the spirits managed to build a peaceful mansion, cultivation room and such. The empty base had become a good place to live in. He did not take Anya because she was a support. Rather than bringing her, it was better to have her inside the base, maintaining all necessary things. The door slowly opened, revealing Anna''s figure outside. "Let''s go." "Yeah." Alex nodded, taking another look at Anya before leaving. She waved her hands, taking out a few papers from the inventory. "This is the information about the Seven Branches around us." Alex took the papers, reading it one by one. Even so, Anna still explained the basic information. "They have around a hundred people inside each branch with twenty of them being Martial Emperors. According to our information, the strongest is a 6-Star Martial Emperor. They are usually a new elder in the sect. "With how they operate, it is hard to find time to attack them. If we attack during the day, many people might notice and help them and if we attack during the night, it is their operation time¡­ it will be filled with customers¡­ so, we have yet to find the time to attack them." Anna sighed. "Do we have masks or something?" Alex asked. "We don''t." He recalled what the system girl said, muttering to himself, "Two better than one." Anna tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows. "Originally, I wanted to split our group into two and strike at them from two fronts, but I abandoned this idea after realizing how they operate. "That''s why rather than attacking them in two areas at once, we will destroy one at a time during the day. I believe we can destroy two branches within a day with my teleportation array. So, we can destroy the seven branches within four days." Alex explained his idea. "So, that''s why you want masks for everyone¡­" She finally realized Alex''s plan. "Yeah. Since you can hide inside a card or my body, I only need to use one person''s worth of energy to teleport to the next place." Alex pondered for a moment. "Our target will be the branch in Rino Town. I will ask Leoz to buy masks there, and we will destroy the branch within two hours. "Since they are using all the disciples in their branch to pursue us, we will kill everyone in that branch before burning it down. It''s time for our Spirit Nest to resurface. Let''s go meet the others." Alex narrowed his eyes, releasing a cold killing intent. Anna nodded, not uttering a single word. She had been waiting for this too long. His Spirits and Contracted Beasts had been waiting for him in the meeting room. "All of you enter the card and my body, we are going." "Wait, Young Master¡­ I need you to raise my level." Leoz suddenly appeared in front of him, begging pathetically. Alex opened his mouth in confusion, looking at the others, who let out a hollow laugh. He asked, "Do you need something to make me increase your level?" "These¡­ These guys have been bullying me because I am not the strongest any longer." Leoz sighed. "Although I don''t mind sparring against them, they have been asking me one after another." "..." Alex could not think a single thing with the sudden change of Leoz. He remembered that Leoz was a muscle brain who loved to spar against each other. If they had the same strength, he would certainly not lose. Unfortunately, the EXP Cards gave the others an advantage. They even asked him for another one after they finished, beating him black and blue. For the first time of his life, he realized how scary his friends were. Alex tapped his shoulder twice, saying, "I am planning to raise your level with UR EXP Card after I reach 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Emperor so as not to waste the EXP Card. At that time, you will become a Martial Monarch." Leoz looked at Alex, wondering if an angel had descended. He looked at the other spirits, who sweatdropped because of Alex''s plan. He smirked, "Just wait, you guys. When I reach Martial Monarch, we can spar once again." "Master, I believe you should use that to Anna or me. It will be better this way." Jeanne tried to persuade him. Initially, they did this because they wanted to pay him back for what he had done to them back in the Spirit World. And this was the only time they could do it, considering he was one of the first spirits Alex summoned. "It''s for Leoz. I will increase your level later." Alex shrugged, not caring about their problem. "Ehm¡­ How about I lend you Jean? He can be your punching bag for a while. Just don''t give the UR EXP Card to him." "I have decided." Alex patted her shoulder, telling her it was her problem. Greg and Artur were the only ones who did not join this bullying while Anna and Anya were busy taking care of him. Sherry, Kyle, and Stina were not close enough to do something like that, leaving Jeanne, Jean, Fabio, and Vera in the plan. If Leoz really got that much power, they would certainly not survive. Jeanne looked around before walking to Alex, grabbing his hand. "Ehm¡­" Leoz looked forward to the time where he could pay them back. Unfortunately, Alex added, "Leoz, I believe you understand your role, right? With you as the strongest, you should prioritize the monsters. We need to kill more monsters to get Gacha Tickets and EXP since it is harder and harder to raise all of you." Leoz stupefied. After helping him, Alex beat him down again, making him disappointed. And just like this, Alex managed to control all the spirits. "Anyway, we have our mission today, and I don''t want to waste any more time." Without a single word of complaint, they disappeared before checking his system. [Gacha Ticket x439] "System, use all the tickets." [Processing] [Summoning Coin x1] [Metal Spear x1] [Bringun Grass x1] ¡­ ¡­ "Now, use all my summoning coins." The system started rolling the Gacha again, giving him a total of 12 EXP Cards. It was not much, but it was enough to increase Jeanne''s level. After careful consideration, he decided to use Jeanne as his sword in this operation. "Use all my EXP Cards to Jeanne." [Processing] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 58/80 (8-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 141354/490000] Alex nodded, satisfied with the result. With Jeanne and Stina''s power as 8-Star Martial Emperors, they could complete this mission in a flash. Besides, Stina''s power almost reached 9-Star anyway, giving him more assurance. Sherry and Kyle also had reached 3-Star and 4-Star Martial Emperors respectively. They were hiding their animal''s parts with his Shapeshifting technique as if they appeared in this form or their true form, it would only bring more problems to Alex and themselves. [Host, you have gotten a special mission for this.] [Mission: Eradicate Seven Brothels Reward: Gacha Card x3 Description: Destroy those places of culture. Your wives will be jealous if you go to that kind of place.] "That description¡­" Alex shook his head helplessly. [Missionn: Eradicate Seven Brothels Side Quest (0/7) Reward: Gacha Tickets x50 Description: Just like the mission in the previous world, destroying each place would bring you great reward with a grand reward of Gacha Card. Good luck in destroying those places.] "..." He became speechless, quickly correcting his words earlier. "I am kidding. That description is the best. Let us destroy those places." Alex immediately traveled with his teleportation array according to the map. As planned, he went inside the Rino Town, looking around for the brothel. This place of culture was very popular amongst the townsfolk, so it only took him a few minutes before arriving in front of the place. He looked at the sky that would soon reach its apex, knowing he only had a little amount of time to buy the masks. The original plan was canceled, and Alex immediately searched for a shop to buy a town. The shopkeeper was baffled, seeing a masked person would buy many masks at once. He was wondering if Alex had a mask fetish. Alex did not forget to buy another mask for him, recalling that arrogant young master from back then. He did not really care about him, but that young master must recognize this mask and attack him. He entered a dark alley while changing his mask before summoning all the others. The masks came with great variety. Sherry got a fox mask while Kyle and Stina received a couple masks with three feathers on the right side for females while on the left for males. He even found a tengu mask, handing it to Leoz. "We need to destroy two brothels today. I only have two instructions. Don''t get hurt and kill them all." "Are we going to sneak attack them or destroy them from head-on?" Jeanne asked. "That''s a good question. We will sneak around first to enter the brothels, killing as many as possible. With their number, it is basically impossible to finish this without alarming anyone, so watch out for reinforcements. They might be Joyful Union Sect disciples or nearby cultivators. In fact, I feel the city lord of this town might come and attack us. "After twenty minutes, Stina will stop the city lord. If he attacks aggressively, you may kill him. Depending on the reinforcement, Sherry and Kyle will help you." Alex answered. "Understood." "As for Jeanne, your target is the strongest one in this place, a 6-Star Martial Emperor. It should not be a problem with you, right?" He narrowed his eyes. "Of course, leave it to me." Jeanne smiled with confidence. "Good." "The rest will follow me and kill." He said with killing intent. "Understood." He sneaked inside the ballroom, activating his Spirit Eyes to locate all the peoples. The area was full of people and it was a bit hard to see a place they could kill first. "If it is like this¡­" Alex closed his eyes, weighing something in his mind. Their positions and number of people changed his decision. He looked at them, sending a thought transmission. "Change of plan. We will ambush the most crowded area and kill as many as possible in that chaotic situation. Meanwhile, I will create a little barrier to make sure they can''t escape." All of them nodded, taking out their respective weapons. Alex then started leading them to the main lobby, finding twenty males and females. "Who are you guys?" One of them stood up and shouted. Alex did not say anything and cut him down, making the enemies alarmed. "You-" "Kill them all." Alex gave his order. 516 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 1 "Kill them all!" The spirits took up their weapons, starting to kill the rest. In front of the shock, the enemies somehow managed to react, releasing their energy to warn the others. However, the spirits were too strong, cutting a few people down in an instant. He could make a small Special realm, blocking all the Spiritual Energy from alerting those people, but chose not to. Instead of making a small one, he created a bigger Special Realm, locking the entire brothel down. Sound Insulation Array was even added in this barrier, buying time before the people outside realized what was going on. The Special Realm itself was adjusted to barely cover the house as to make it not as obvious. "Die!" Alex glanced to the side, finding a foolish peak Martial King who charged at him. He slashed his sword downwards, using his domain to sharpen it. "..." The Martial King managed to stop his strike, albeit barely. This happened due to Alex maintaining the barrier with his power. A light started glowing, wrapping the sword in blue. His soul stomped the ground, taking all the energy around his body before channeling it to his hand. Alex pressed his sword and sliced the Martial King apart along with his sword. "Heaven Light Slash." As he expected, it would seem that the Heaven Light Slash was far more powerful than Heaven Breaking Sword. If this was his previous sword art, the best he could do was blowing him away. There was half of them left in this hall, but the reinforcement had arrived. "Who are you? How dare you attack this place! Don''t you know we are the disciples of the Joyful Union Sect and this place is the sect''s branch?" The guy roared, narrowing his eyes to this masked group. Alex did not utter a single word, slamming his sword to the ground. "Blade of Conquest." The swing unleashed a powerful shockwave, striking the one who shouted earlier. "!!!" The man took out his spear, thrusting the spear in order to break the attack. "One of you informs the others, including the Elder. The rest will stop these people!" He shouted. They began to move closer to Alex while Anna and Greg appeared, protecting Alex. And at this time, something unexpected happened. The person, who took Alex''s attack from head-on, died. The clash between his spear and his sword attack took a few seconds before his attack managed to shatter the spear, killing him in a single sweep. "!!!" The disciples shouted as hard as possible, trying to make the people inside or outside to notice. Unfortunately, only the people inside could hear these screams. Alex spotted their strongest person, coming at him with breakneck speed. "Jeanne." "Understood." Jeanne, who was clashing with her opponent, decided to blow her enemy away and appeared in front of Alex. She found a blue-haired female with an extraordinary aura. Both of them swung their weapons at the same time, creating a small shockwave that shattered the windows. Outside, two patrolling guards halted their steps, looking at each other with confused expressions. "Do you hear anything?" "No. but I feel there is something different¡­" "What is the difference?" "I don''t know." He shook his head, recalling one certain matter. "Still¡­ I can''t wait when I finish this job. I have saved enough money to get the woman in the Joyful Union Brothel." "Ahaha¡­ you are certainly right. Even though it is expensive, their service is top-notch. I hear if you have compatibility with your partner, you can increase your cultivation while doing it." "That''s right. Ah¡­ I wish I can have a go with Miss Luna." "You idiot. She is the master of this place, so how can she have time for a person like you. The city lord is the one who has this privilege." He snorted. "Right. I wish I had enough talent to become a powerful person and enjoy all the beauties in the world." He laughed before looking at the brothel. "Still, brothel, huh¡­" "!!!" He suddenly noticed something wrong with the brothel. He had been working in this place for a few years, but he had yet to see a dent in the glass, let alone shattered windows. "This¡­ Is there something happening inside the brothel?" "What do you mean?" The other guard looked at him like a fool, turning his head toward the brothel. He dropped his jaw after finding shattered windows. "This¡­" "We need to report to the city lord." "No¡­ I will report to the city lord while you try to find what is going on." "Alright." They started doing their own jobs. Meanwhile, Jeanne was fighting with the strongest person. "You¡­ who are you!" She could only utter the same question as the others. Not only did she not know Alex''s group, but she was also utterly shocked by the sight of a little kid being an 8-Star Martial Emperor. Jeanne might cover her face, but her stature could easily be misunderstood. And this precisely the reason why Alex chose Jeanne as his sword. He wanted to confuse his opponent, catching her off guard. Unfortunately, even with that preparation, an Elder Rank from a first-rate influence was better than your average guy. Even with the difference of two stars, she could barely stop her. "We need to request the city lord for help." She shouted, looking at Alex''s group killing the disciples one by one. She clapped her hand, channeling her energy to the ground. "Great Mountain Spike!" "!!!" Alex looked down, noticing the movement of Spiritual Energy. Even with Jeanne taking care of her, she still tried to attack the Alex. He leaped backward a few meters, looking at the ground rising and turning into a huge spike that destroyed the hall. He channeled more of his Spiritual Energy to maintain the barrier. "Array Master." She finally realized why a 1-Star Martial Emperor could order an 8-Star Martial Emperor. It would seem that Alex''s background was big. "For what reason you attack us? We have not offended any Array Master." "You haven''t? That''s one of the best jokes I heard these days." Alex shrugged, signaling Jeanne to continue. "How about we talk about this first? I am sure there is a misunderstanding between us." The blue-haired leader still tried to persuade him. "There is nothing to discuss." Alex shook her head. "Kill her before the city lord notices." "Understood." Jeanne nodded. The blue-haired person''s expression darkened, ordering other disciples. "All disciples. Use all of your power and tear this place down as to make the people outside notice us. It seems beside the barrier, he also makes a Sound Insulation Array." "Yes." They nodded, starting to use a bigger move. Alex and the others were not idiots. They quickly struck those who used a big move, not letting them inform anyone, but¡­ "Boom Boom Boom!" Even though forty people had died, there were still around sixty people left, creating big moves at the same time. It was impossible for Alex and the others to stop all of them. And this happened when they were together, making Alex think about what would happen if they separated their force. Although no sound alarmed passed his barrier, the people outside could see the brothel crumble. "Look!" "The Joyful Union Brothel has¡­" "Collapsed!" "What?" "Is there someone that dares to pick a fight against the Joyful Union Sect?" The confusion spread, creating a ruckus outside the brothel. Alex''s barrier somehow stopped them from breaking in. They might be happy with the service of the brothel. Still, if someone dared to destroy a Joyful Union Brothel, they would certainly dare to fight the Joyful Union Sect. For someone like that, people like them were like ants. Alex confirmed no civilian would help with his Spirit Eyes, leaving only the city lord. "No need to hold back anymore. Kill them all!" He ordered before looking at Stina. "I will open the barrier for you, Kyle and Sherry. Stop the city lord and soldiers or even all the others that are going to help. If necessary, you may kill them." "Understood." Stina nodded, releasing her 8-Star Martial Emperor Strength. "Another 8-Star¡­" The blue-haired leader was startled, seeing another 8-Star. It already took her all just to stop Jeanne and if that person attacked her, she would die in a few minutes. "City Lord, you must come immediately." She had been enticing the city lord, a 7-Star Martial Emperor, to control the city. If the city lord had come, though she could not kill these people, she would still be able to escape. At that time, she could return to the sect and destroy these people. "Jeanne." Alex simply called her name to make Jeanne serious. "Yes." The lightning started sparking around her body, shattering the ground around her. She pointed her short sword toward the blue-haired leader and disappeared. "!!!" The blue-haired girl immediately turned around, striking a shadow on her back. "Joyful Slash!" "Lightning Grinder." The clash created a crater on the ground. Jeanne completed the strike, channeling her lightning to the ground. On the other hand, her opponent took out a pill and shattered it, creating a pink smoke. Jeanne quickly leaped back, avoiding the smoke. Alex sensed an aura within this smoke, recognizing it as dangerous. Fire started covering his hand before moving toward the pink smoke. "Fire Wave Emission." He controlled this versatile technique, wrapping the pink smoke completely. Although only his Pure Fire had a purifying effect, Phoenix Fire was enough to burn all the smoke before anyone got infected. In the worst case, he could reveal his Pure Fire for a few seconds or call Anya to this place. His Spirit Eyes were telling him the position of it no matter how small it was and it had yet to go inside any of his teammates. After checking their condition, he slowly met his way toward the rest of the enemies. Their attack power was quite surprising, considering they came from R-18 Sect. At the very least, they did not go down just like when fighting a Martial Lord. They were much harder and tenacious, making him surprised. It might be a normal occurrence for the spirits, but for him, who had been living comfortably in the previous world. It made him rethink his decision as he felt he was overconfident before, thinking he could finish it with two fronts. He was wondering whether he could destroy one hundred thousand people like on the Willow Continent. His group had yet to release their True Spirit Body though. There were only thirty people left in the brothel, including their leader. She was covered with blood, looking very unwilling. "Thunder Spear!" Jeanne raised her hand, shooting up a bolt of lightning in the form of a spear. "Swallowing Slash." She slashed downward, breaking the thunder spear. Little did she know Jeanne''s real attack came right after. "!!!" As soon as the spear was destroyed, it created a smokescreen, using it to get close to her. "Swallowing Slash." The leader swung her sword again, stopping Jeanne on her track. Jeanne did not have any choice other than taking this attack head-on or so what she thought. The moment their weapons collided, she let go of her two swords, going around and placed her hands on the leader''s neck. "Sh*t." She tried to leap forward, escaping from Jeanne''s grasp but was too late. "Lightning Subjugation," Jeanne smirked as she channeled the lightning energy, electrocuting her from the inside. "AAAHHHH!" The shock ran through her brain and heart, roasting her from the inside. Jeanne just used her torturing technique. The pain itself should be endurable and even Alex might immediately turn around and strike at her. Sadly, the leader had been accustomed to pleasure, making her vulnerable to this kind of technique. "Even though you are like this, it would seem you are not into S\u0026M play." She snorted. The leader went unconscious for a split second, giving Jeanne precious time to kill her. A sound of trumpet stopped her, making all of them look upward. The city lord had come. 517 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 2 The sound of a trumpet stopped the battle for a second before the city lord made his appearance. Alex had predicted that he would come sooner, but it would seem he overestimated him. According to Anna''s report, the city lord was having a good relationship with their leader. By attacking the blue-haired woman, it would surely make the city lord furious. Unfortunately, fury alone was not enough for him to help her. "You Bastard! What have you done?!" The city lord roared, looking down on them. Alex checked his and the others'' cultivations. The city lord himself was a 7-Star Martial Emperor. It was also the reason why only the elder at 6-Star Martial Emperor came to this place. They should not disrupt the city''s order by sending a more powerful elder. Another possibility would be enticing the City Lord to become one of their elders. This way, the Joyful Union Sect would receive a powerful elder without cultivating him. There were several cases where both fell in love, but it was a rare case. For Joyful Union Sect, they saw all these people were like a blood bag in a vampire''s eye. Their purpose was only for cultivation and tools. And the current city lord was just a tool for the leader by looking at that Pink Energy inside his body. "Stina." Alex waved his hands, opening the barrier for Stina, Kyle, and Sherry. "Yes." Stina and the others nodded, coming out of the barrier before Alex closed it again. She knew if the city lord attacked the barrier continuously, Alex''s power would not be enough to maintain the barrier. "Who are you?! Do you know what you have done?" The city lord screamed in anger. "They dare to make us their enemies. Even the Joyful Union Sect could not withstand our anger." Stina snorted. "If you decide to attack us, then don''t blame me for being impolite." "You are only an 8-Star Martial Emperor. There are many people above you inside the sect. And most importantly, your group has injured my woman. Prepare to die!" The city lord took out his sword, shouting. "Half of you will protect the civilians while half of you will follow me and fight them. We are going to help the people from Joyful Union Brothel." "Ooh!" "Haiz, a stubborn one." Stina shook her head, disappointed. She created a pair of wings from fire, taking the most comfortable form for fighting. The fire gushed out from her body, creating a ball of flame above her head. The intense heat made the town''s people escape as they could not withstand the heat. Only Martial Lords or above could withstand this kind of power. "You¡­" At the same time, Sherry and Kyle made a pair of fire phoenix wings, shooting them toward the soldiers. Since they were outnumbered, it would be better if they delivered the first blow. "Boom Boom!" "!!!" The city lord gritted his teeth, swinging his sword downward. "Greater Slash." A sword wave flew out of his sword, flying toward the giant fireball in order to destroy it. Stina clapped her hand and controlled the fireball. It slowly turned into five living fire snakes. She raised her hand and made the snakes charge at him. "Fire Snakes!" "!!!" Noticing that his first attack was missed, he charged at one of the snakes. "Greater Slash." He used the Sword Wave from point-blank range, slicing one of the snakes. Unfortunately, Stina''s real target was the soldiers. Three snakes were enough to keep him busy while she killed the soldiers one by one. Of course, she still followed Alex''s plan to stop the city lord. The soldiers were just baits to lure the attention of the city lord. She wanted to see whether the city lord loved that woman more or the soldiers more. "You Bastard!" And it would seem he still had his rationality by how he could rage when she killed the soldiers. "Sherry, Kyle, do kill them in moderation," She said. They did not know what she meant but still nodded. The purpose of this was buying time, not killing the soldiers and Stina precisely knew what it meant. Anya had told her about Karma and such, but she didn''t really understand whether this action would affect Karma or not. The only thing she could do was to kill in moderation unless she was one hundred percent sure they were enemies. Looking at the expression of civilians, Sherry and Kyle, or even the city lord, the fire started covering her hand, forming two claws. "If you want to help the people inside, you can only go through me." The city lord gritted his teeth as he raised his hand. "Soldiers! Follow me!" ¡­ With the situation outside handled perfectly by Stina, Alex only needed to worry about time. They had come inside this place for thirty minutes, and from his prediction, he would need another thirty minutes to kill them. "Swallowing Slash." Alex turned around, noticing an attack that came to his way. "No, you won''t." Jeanne also appeared right in front of him, destroying the sword attack. "Master, this woman is tenacious despite having those injuries. I might need to take a bit longer." He looked at the other situation, counting the enemies before turning back to Jeanne. "If they finish first, no Jean for a month." "..." Jeanne was stupefied, wondering if her ears were playing a trick on her. "Master?" Alex ignored her and disappeared, observing the whole situation from a better place. "Wait! Swallowing Slash." The leader struck Alex''s shadow but was too late. Before she could move, Jeanne appeared in front of her, full of anger. She glared at her. "You bitch. You are going to die within a minute." "Lightning Cannon." Seven lightning spheres appeared, hovering around her body. The spheres shone brightly, shooting seven lightning strikes simultaneously. "!!!" She leaped back to avoid the lightning strikes, but Jeanne appeared again, slashing downwards. "Bam!" The force from Jeanne was enough to blow toward the wall. She raised her hands, shooting another round of lightning strikes. "Kh!" The power behind these lightning strikes was no joke. Even Alex''s Flame of Extinction might lose to this attack. Unfortunately, this skill also needed a huge amount of energy, making it hard for her to use it continuously. She also needed to worry about using too much Spiritual Energy as they would strike another base after this. "Die." Jeanne raised the power output. Meanwhile, Alex was watching the battle between the city lord and Stina. "Flawless Fire Ascension." Three streams of fire came out of her hands, charging toward the city lord. "Multiple Sword Breaker." The city lord was also not a pushover. Each strike was precise and powerful, destroying each stream perfectly. "..." Looking at this, Alex thought another thing. ''Stina should not have a weapon as she usually used her fire on every occasion. What if Stina had a weapon, maybe like a mage in the previous world, would she become stronger?'' Alex had this question in his mind for a while. Her fire was indeed powerful, but if she combined it with a weapon, and not any other weapon but the scepter of a Fire God. He recalled that the phoenix was scared of that scepter because the fire essence of that scepter was powerful and could suppress every phoenix. If that was the case, the wielder should also feel the suppression. At that time, Alex had a theory. What if the scepter needed to be activated first before it could be used? This thought kept recalling inside his mind, thinking about giving the scepter to Stina. The Fire God should know that the scepter would be useless to him as his Pure Fire had the same ferocity. He also could not use it as there was no way Alex would bring those six races to another world. ''What if¡­'' Alex opened his eyes wide, coming to a realization. ''What if he gave the scepter because he knew there would be at least someone who would accompany me to the other world? He left the scepter to let me decide whether this person is worth it or not? By giving this scepter, although it won''t reach my Pure Fire Level, it should be enough to reach the level of normal Pure Fire.'' "!!!" The realization shocked him. He looked at Stina, pondering for a moment. He had trusted Stina enough to invite her inside the group, letting her see the system. And if she wanted, she actually could use the Fire God Scepter as he stored it inside his Inventory, not his Space Ring. He sighed before making a little smile. He took out the scepter from his Inventory. The overbearing pressure coming from the scepter immediately suppressed all fire users in the area. Alex used his Pure Fire to mild the pressure, so it would not release that kind of pressure and let others know about the scepter''s power. The barrier was opened with a wave of his hand and a scepter flew out. Stina could only smile, thanking Alex secretly for the trust. She stretched her hand, grabbing the scepter and channeling her Spiritual Energy inside. The energy within her body and the scepter clashed together before slowly overpowering her. She decided to take this energy inside of her, giving it a chance to lay root inside her body. The surge of energy forced her flame to gush out of her body. She raised her hand, sending another three streams of fire. "Multiple Sword Breaker." The city lord only snorted, breaking these three again. Unexpectedly, when he struck at the first one, it exploded, blowing his sword away. He took out another sword and leaped back before striking at the two fire streams with great difficulty. "Kh¡­ What is that?" He glanced at the scepter, feeling the numbness on his hand. Stina''s flame was now a Pseudo Pure Fire. Although it was a bit inferior to a Pure Fire, she could utilize the fire essence of the ancestor, giving the same ability as Alex. And that last strike contained empowerment. Although she could not utilize a Pure Fire that could cure poison and any other else yet, this was enough to turn the situation around. She clenched the scepter, creating another giant ball. This time, it shot a laser instead of creating five snakes. "Fire Blast." "Soldiers, be careful!" The city lord shouted, moving toward the laser. He blocked the laser with his puny sword, getting pushed back by the sheer power. "City Lord!" The soldiers felt anguish when they saw the city lord took this attack for them. They bit their lips and rose from the ground, helping him in pushing this attack back. "We are going to help you." "That''s right. We should defeat all these guys together." "Push back!" They shouted in unison, making Stina appear to be the bad guy. "Directed it to the sky." "Ooh!" They pushed the attack to the sky. The scene was very moving as the city lord used and soldiers protected the civilians from other attacks. "City Lord!" "Ooh!" "Let''s help them and defeat these people." Lone cultivators, who were scared earlier, slowly rose to the sky, looking at Stina with killing intent. Unfortunately, they were too late because a man''s voice echoed inside their ears. "If you are going to stand in our way, we will not spare any of you." They turned around to see Alex and the others appearing beside Stina. The city lord opened his mouth in shock, looking at the fallen blue-haired woman. "Luna!" He roared to the sky, holding the woman he loved. Little did he know that she had been using him all along. Alex looked at the scene and sent a thought transmission to everyone. "This is going to be another cliche where he avenges his woman. We should go before they realize it." They nodded and left the city. Some of them managed to react, but because they were unsure whether to fight them or not, they decided to wait for the city lord to decide. Of course, the city lord ordered a pursuit, but Alex and the others had long gone with the Teleportation Array. 518 Eradiate Seven Branches Part 3 "Luckily, we don''t split our force." Alex sighed, leaning on a tree. "Yeah. We have only used twenty percent of our power this time, but with the little number we have after splitting the group, we might need more than 70 percent." Anna nodded in agreement. He looked at Stina, recalling the previous attack. "How is your condition? That last attack uses many of your Spiritual Energy, right?" "I am sorry for making you worry, Master. Because I was too excited earlier, I used my strongest attack. I still have around 60 percent of my power." Stina shook her head. "Well, it is a shame that you can''t kill him even with that attack¡­ I guess it might be normal, considering it is blocked by a hundred people, either Martial Kings or Martial Emperors." Alex paused a bit, noticing something off in her attack. "Besides, it seems you have yet to grasp the scepter''s power." "Yes. The fire itself has taken root inside me, and I can slowly nurture it. Although it won''t be as strong as you, I might get a portion of Pure Fire ability. If I have gotten used to this wand, I should be able to kill them." "That''s good then. Anyway, you can take your time in mastering the weapon, and I am sure this mission will provide a good experience for you." Alex nodded. "Yes. I am thankful for Master''s trust." She smiled. "You are Kyle''s¡­" Alex paused a bit, wondering if it was alright to call her Kyle''s wife. After a few seconds, he corrected himself, "You are my contracted beast. If I can''t trust you, then who can I trust?" The others could not help but chuckle, including Stina. She shook that smile and replied, "Yes. I won''t disappoint you, Master." Alex shrugged his shoulder, ignoring their chuckle. "Alright. Time to discuss the second branch. I am sure you have read the information about them, so I make it brief. "There is no change in our plan. Hit and run. The reinforcement from the city will be in your hand again, Stina. It''s just this time, I want Greg to back her up since her Spiritual Energy is a bit low. "Since we will stop after this and wait for the next day before continuing our plan, you can use your full strength in order to end the battle earlier, which means we can get more time to recover our energy," Alex explained. "Understood." They nodded. "There is one more thing you need to consider. It would seem that we don''t have time to waste." Alex sighed. "What do you mean, Alex?" Anna asked. "They have a soul in memory crystal, making their death to be noticed. I saw that crystal energy inside their heart." "As expected, they really have. The Willow Continent does not have this kind of thing, making it easy to ambush." Anna nodded. "Don''t worry. We have calculated the timing too. As long as we can continue two branches per day, we can finish our mission before the reinforcement comes." "I know. Still, why don''t you guys learn Spirit Eyes? This way, you all can learn about it." Alex wanted to ask this question for a while. Anna and the others looked away, not wanting to disclose the reason. After all, how can they tell him they did not want to learn it because it was previous Alex''s original technique. It was considered blaspheme if they learned that technique. "It''s fine if you are not going to tell me since it is only a simple matter. You can even learn all my memories just by going inside the card." Alex shrugged, not caring about this matter. "Yeah." Anna simply smiled, trying to change the topic. "Anyway, we should get going to the second branch." "You are right." Alex rose and said, "Let''s go." "Yes." The spirits went back into his card while the contracted beasts hid inside his body. He snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array. Unbeknownst to them, Alex had miscalculated something, leading to a big fight against the Joyful Union Sect. ¡­ A major reaction appeared in the midst of the upper rank of Joyful Union Sect. Inside a big room sat a few elderly men and women, discussing a pressing matter. "Sect Master, Elder Luna''s crystal is shattered¡­ We need to mobilize our force here." The fourth elder shouted. He had been nurturing Luna for a while, letting her take advantage of the city lord to raise her strength before using her in the same way. This incident hit him the most, thus he wanted to move the disciples in the sect to hunt whoever did this down. The elder knew that this was close to the fourth elder''s personal matter, but knowing someone dared to attack the sect certainly made the other furious. It was at this time a disciple slammed the door, rushing inside. "We have bad news¡­ Elder¡­ Elder Gian has died." "What did you say?!" The sect master rose from his seat with an angry look. "And that''s not all. According to the sect master''s request, we have confirmed that many core disciples have died too." The disciple said while sweating, knowing the graveness of the news. "!!!" All elders turned around, looking at him with a darkened expression. "This¡­" The sect master furrowed his eyebrows. "Do we have any information about our attacker? I don''t remember offending anyone that can destroy our branches." "Sect¡­ Sect Master¡­ I have recalled a group, a group that we put under our observation." The third elder said. Once again, the room fell into silence. "Third Elder¡­ Do you mean the group that has a deal with the Blackwade Clan, Spirit Nest?" "I assume, yes. Even though they have hidden, we have yet to see their real power." She nodded. "It seems they are close to a first rate-influence. But seeing how they strike at our branches, it would mean they have yet to reach our level, or they just don''t have enough people. If it is like this, we should strike back." "We can strike back, but how can we find them? Last time, they completely disappeared from our eyes without leaving any trace. They even killed a few disciples." "Actually, there are two possibilities that I have thought of. First, their target might be our branches to warn us not to mess with them. The second target would be our top disciple, Raku, who is currently in Klard City." "..." The elders sweatdropped, noticing the severity of this situation. The sect master shook his head, sitting down on his seat weakly. "No. Raku went back yesterday. I assume he will pass one of the branches and probably will get attacked by them." "We need more information about these guys¡­ How strong they are to destroy our branches¡­" The sect master sighed. "Sect master, Raku still has the first, second, and fifth elder accompanying him as well as ten Martial Emperors disciple. I think they can turn it around and strike back at them. We can even reinforce them too." The third elder said. "Indeed." The sect master nodded. "However, you have missed one problem. That is why they can destroy two branches in a single day, even though it should be a few days traveling around. If they are splitting their force, judging from the first two branches they destroyed, I am sure they will meet the elders in the last branch. "In other words, they will strike with a stronger force than the three elders can handle. We need reinforcement. Third Elder and Fourth Elder shall bring a hundred Martial Emperor disciples to aid the three elders and probe the enemy. "I assume they should not move their entire force to strike us and most likely, we have underestimated this Spirit Nest for the whole time. If you can''t win, then retreat." The third elder and fourth elder immediately rose from their seat, clasping their hands politely to the sect master before leaving the meeting hall. "Seventh Elder, I want you to take the lead of another a hundred disciples to gather the information about this Spirit Nest." "Understood." "Sect Master, how about we inform the Fire God Clan about this too?" The sixth elder asked, knowing their relationship with Fire God Clan. If they moved together with the Fire God Clan, even if the Spirit Nest was under the protection of the Blackwade Clan, they still could not escape their wrath. The sect master quickly rebuked her. "Are you stupid? Fire God Clan might have a friendly relationship with us. However, their true target is the Blackwade Clan, not Spirit Nest. Unless we can prove Blackwade Clan is also participating in this war, we can''t persuade Fire God Clan. Besides, where can we put our face if we need their help in destroying a pest like this?" The sect master was in full anger. He might know that the Fire God Clan stemmed from the Heavenly Continent, and they had even sent many disciples to please them. If they truly used that favor just for something like this, it would be such a waste. "Spirit Nest¡­" He looked down, weighing something in his mind. "We have too little information about them before we can act. Damn, those people. If I can catch them right now, I will destroy their cultivation and send them to our brothel as our free service." The other elders also had the same thought as him. Spirit Nest itself was only established for a year or so. At first, they thought this was only an aspiring group that wanted to be recognized by others. By the time they found out that the Spirit Nest was full of handsome men and pretty women, they could make them their disciples. With how good the relationship between them and Blackwade Clan and how much money had come to their pockets, it was enough to incite the greed from many first-rate influences. If that Blue and Antheram family was situated in the east of the continent, they might even try to recruit this group. Unfortunately, it would seem that their actions had turned back at them. After concealing themselves for a year, they resurfaced and struck at them at a very unexpected time. And at this time, he recalled certain information coming from a spy in a certain family. He thought for a while before smiling underneath that serious face. "Sixth Elder, I want you to do something for me." He sent this mission through a thought transmission, leaving only him and the sixth elder to know the mission. The sixth elder was, at first, shocked by the mission, but he nodded his head with a serious expression. Unbeknownst to them, this decision of his would lead to a big war that concerned the fate of his sect. A war that would be in the eyes of every influence in the Heavenly Continent. 519 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 4 Alex''s group then continued to destroy the second branch. It did not really have much difference from the first branch other than the participation of the city lord. Inside the next town, the city lord had a peaceful family life. He really loved his wife, so he did not really have any attachment to the brothel. In fact, he hated the brothel to the bone. The brothel had misled his son, turning him to a regular customer there. Unfortunately, he could not do anything because he could not go against the Joyful Union Sect. When he saw Alex''s group, he pretended to help the brothel. Stina could feel that he did not fight seriously at all and went along with him, making a fake fight. This way, she would not use much power while the City Lord could see the brothel crumble to pieces. If the Joyful Union Sect asked him to do account, he could just say that the enemies were too powerful as an 8-Star Martial Emperor stopped him. The reason he joined the fight was also because of his son. Seeing how he went through the motion, his son would be convinced that he had fulfilled his job as a father, he just could not stop them. It was a win-win situation for him, so he did not care about anything else. He even thanked Alex''s group inwardly after he destroyed the brothel. Unlike the brothel from the last town, this town''s brothel openly took advantage of his son, making him spend numerous resources. If he did not give his son freedom, they would threaten him by using the Joyful Union Sect. Because of the situation, they finished earlier than Alex expected. The next day, they continued destroying the third and fourth target, leaving no time to react. Luckily, it would seem there was no Memory Mirror that let them communicate through the long-distance as it was a peak rank 7 item. It was understandable if the influence in Heavenly Continent used it, but it was too expensive for Joyful Union Sect. Luckily, the situation was also under control. Alex used his array to block every exit and kill all of them. After destroying their target for the day, they rested in a forest near them. ¡­ In the same meeting room as yesterday, the sect master of Joyful Union Sect discussed the general situation of the sect until a disciple rushed in. "Sect Master, I have bad news." "Bad news again? Sh*t. Is God playing us recently? What is the bad news? Did another influence, especially the Blackwade Clan, decide to attack us?" He snorted. "No. It''s about Elder Tian. After checking the Life Room, we have confirmed that Elder Tian, along with all the disciples in Iron Branch, died." "What did you say?!" He stood up, roaring, "Who dared to do it? You won''t say it was Spirit Nest, right? They just destroyed two branches yesterday and they needed at least three days before arriving at the nearest branch!" "I¡­ I don''t know." The disciple kneeled, sweating profusely. She just came here to bring the bad news, not knowing anything other than that. The elders'' expression also darkened. If Alex was here, he might even laugh at them, saying, "There is no telephone here or my spirit cards, so you won''t know anything if you don''t have time." "Sect Master, what should we do?" "Do they have a bigger force than us?" "Do you mean they have split their force into three and attack us simultaneously?" "Shut up!" Before they started debating amongst themselves, the sect master silenced him with a shout. "Can you-" The same as what he did, he was stopped by a disciple who suddenly came like the first one. He clasped his hand and kneeled down, "I bring bad news, Sect Master. Elder¡­ Elder¡­ Elder Rene has died together with all the core disciples." "Hiss¡­" No one would dare to speak again after hearing this news. The sect master walked toward the disciple, grabbing his neck. "What did you say¡­" The cold killing intent spread through the room as a fierce 10-Star Martial Emperor''s aura slowly filled the tension. "Sect Master¡­" The disciple could not breathe, begging the sect master to put him down. Unfortunately, before the sect master put him down, he grabbed his head, shattering his skull with his grip alone. He threw away the disciple like throwing a broken toy before slamming his hand on the ground, cracking the whole room. "Those bastards! Since they want war, I will give them war!" The roar was echoing through the entire sect, startling all disciples. He looked at an elder, giving his order, "Tell all elders to stand by inside the sect and all disciples to train inside the sect. From today, all missions shall be suspended until further notice. "Tenth Elder will oversee the sect until I come back. As for the other elders, try to use your connection to buy as many pills as possible." "Sect Master, are you going to¡­" "Yeah. It''s time to wake that person up from his cultivation." He stared at them coldly, telling them not to mess up. They clasped their hands, assuring him. Unfortunately, with how the Blackwade Clan monopolize the pill market, it would be a hard challenge for them to buy the pills because a bit far away from the room, there was a little black dog, hearing all their conversation. And it would immediately contact Alex, who was recovering his strength after destroying the fourth branch. [Host, Anya is calling you.] Alex took out Anya''s card, confusing the others. "Do you need me for something?" "Get Njomo''s card in the Inventory as he has information about the Joyful Union Sect." "Alright. Thanks." He opened his inventory, taking out Njomo''s card. "What''s up?" "Woof Woof Woof. Woof Woof." As expected, he still could not understand what he was saying. "Njomo said, the sect master of the Joyful Union Sect has left the sect. He does not know where he is heading, but it seems he is going to wake someone up, and this person is powerful." "Woof Woof Woof." "He also said the sect had shut their gate and prepared for war. The elders need to buy as many pills as possible." Anna translated him before realizing something. "If they want to buy a pill, we have two options. First, we can use this opportunity to sell our pill, but it would strengthen our enemy. The second option would be informing Song Yu about this, asking her not to sell any pills to Joyful Union Sect." "Woof Woof." "What?" Anna was startled by the next information, even the others who knew the language opened their mouth in surprise. "What is it?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, confused by everyone''s reaction. "Our course of action has been decided. It will be either I die or you perish." "It will be hard to move Senior Sister, but I think it is worth it. Seeing how Blackwade Clan hate Joyful Union Sect, I am sure she would be convinced." Alex nodded. "Since he wants a war, then I will give him war." "Woof." "He said the same thing as you." "..." Alex was speechless. "I think you don''t need to translate the last thing." Everyone chuckled, brightening the mood. Alex then asked Anna, "Who is the one responsible for the Blackwade Clan?" "It''s Nicole." Alex nodded. "Anya, give me Nicole''s card." "Alright." She put Nicole''s card in inventory. The Inventory system had become a very good system. He grabbed Nicole''s card and said, "Nicole. Tell Senior Sister that I am going to war against the Joyful Union Sect. It will be best if they don''t sell anything to Joyful Union Sect. "I know it will be a good deal for them to get money from this, but if they are truly helping them, it is the same as making it hard for me. "If you can''t convince her, tell her that I will bring three million Spirit Gems worth of Medicinal Ingredients. With my VIP card, they should buy them from me twenty percent more, making it six hundred thousand Spirit Gems. Tell her she only needs to prepare three million Spirit Gems and use that six hundred thousand to ban the Joyful Union Sect." "Understood." He then tossed the card inside the Inventory again. "Sigh¡­ it will be chaotic from now on." "Ah, I wish to have that peaceful environment from my world¡­" Stina sighed. "Well, you have been warned." Alex shrugged. He looked at Anna, "Do you have the information about that sect with you? Like their number and such." "There is nothing much I can tell you. From our information, they had an old Martial Monarch as their sect guardian a few hundred years ago. Suddenly, that person vanished from everyone''s sight, making them think he has died. "However, judging from the sect master''s reaction, that person might haven''t died and would fight against us. We should prepare for a Martial Monarch, 2-Star or 3-Star as our opponent this time. "As for the elders, their elders range from 6-Star to 9-Star Martial Emperors with the sect master being a 10-Star. There are a total of 72 elders with seven elders being 9-Star Martial Emperors. "Their core disciples are around 1-Star to 5-Star Martial Emperors. In total, they have around 500 disciples. The rest would be Martial King or lower. They have around six thousand Martial Kings and more than twenty thousand Martial Lords. We can ignore the rest." "Hmm¡­ This will be a bit hard, I guess." Alex looked down, speculating the war. Since they were the attacker, they would invade someone''s home, unaware of their terrain and such. "We need more information about their sect, terrain, people, and relation. "As for the fight, I think I would ask for Senior Sister help." Alex sighed. "Since the Blackwade Clan wants to destroy his sect, she should agree with this." "When are you telling her?" "We are going to war right before the Strength Plateau event and after the auction, since I am going to increase my cultivation as high as possible. Hopefully, I can reach 4-Star to raise Leoz to 4-Star Martial Monarch. I will tell Senior Sister one month before the auction." Alex replied. "If we are going to war at that time, I suggest we employ Guerilla tactics for a while. Their branches even extend to the western part of this continent, so we can strike them first and reduce their number. I know you are going to cultivate after this, so only us, spirits, will go this time. I will take the command while Anya will handle the battle plan. As for Sherry, Kyle, and Stina, I suggest cultivating in the meantime, especially Stina. I hope you can reach the 10-Star Martial Emperor before our fight against the Joyful Union Sect." Sherry and Kyle nodded. "We will reach at least 5-Star or 6-Star Martial Emperors within this time." "It should be possible with Master''s resource and gathering array. I am close to 9-Star anyway." Stina accepted the requirement. "Good. The spirits are 5-Star right now. After destroying all the branches, I hope we can become 6-Star or even 7-Star Martial Emperors. Leoz and Stina alone won''t be enough. We, at least, need two more people to reach 10-Star though I would welcome more. For now, our mission will be to destroy all branches in this continent and get Gacha Tickets as many as possible." Anna ordered the spirits. "Gahaha¡­ I will destroy their sect." Leoz raised his sword, looking forward to the battle. "Indeed. They dare to make war against our Master. They deserve death." Jeanne smirked. "If only I can torture that sect master¡­" "Uhm, as expected of Sister, you are only second to Master." Jean praised Jeanne. "It''s not like we are doing it for you, alright? It''s just because they target us." The couple acted as usual. "I am Master''s knight, so I shall wield this blade to claim my enemy''s life. Besides, that sect is evil, I shall purge them with my own hand." Artur released his righteous aura. "I am just a shield and I will ensure everyone''s safety all the time," Greg said with his reliable tone. If only Nelson were here, he might say he would assassinate the sect master and that mysterious old man. After discussing the plan, they waited for the next day to come. 520 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 5 The next day, Alex and the others attacked the fifty and the sixth branches without much problem. No city lords or whatsoever, removing all potential unnecessary problems. It might be because these two city lords were female, they were not necessarily trapped inside that spider web. Though they knew how annoying the reparation process after the brothel had gone, at the very least, it was not as troublesome as the problem brought by those people from Joyful Union Sect. In this continent, which did not have any kingdoms, the city lords were usually not under someone else''s jurisdiction. All the present city lords were coming from their predecessor, ruling the city for a few generations. It could be said that the city lord''s families in this continent were between first-rate and second-rate influence, but they were a lone influence. Even the first influence, such as Blackwade Clan or Joyful Union Sect, would not necessarily take these families under their banner. The reason for that was simple, there would be a potential of rebellion if these families rose in power and other things. The best they could do was to make them completely loyal, whether using the full loyalty contract or seduction like Joyful Union Sect. Unless they had legitimate reasons like the first or second branches, even Joyful Union Sect might not necessarily destroy these families unless they wanted to get many discontents not only from these families but also from the first-rate and second-rate influences. Alex also knew this reason and took advantage of it but still kept Stina to watch over them, preparing for an attack. It took them less than four hours to destroy the two branches, giving them more time to prepare for tomorrow. Unfortunately, he had yet to know what would await them inside the seventh branch, bringing a huge fight to his way as none of his spies currently watched the seventh branches. After all, the distance between them was far and not possible to travel within a day even for his spies. He sighed, looking at the sky. The spirits looked at him as Anna walked to him, smiling gently. "Is there something bothering you?" "No. I just realize the stronger you are, the harder we would fight. And when we decide to fight Joyful Union Sect, I assume the fight will be messier than that giant war a few years ago¡­" Alex closed his eyes. "Then, are you going to stop here?" She asked. "No way. I still need to find Alicia and Firia¡­" Alex paused a bit before adding another name, "And probably the system too." "Battle against a sect like this only consists of less than a hundred thousand people¡­ Nah, it is practically the same as the war on Willow Continent, just a bit harder. In the future, there might be a big war involving millions of people. At that time, will you still go to the war or let it be?" "If they dare to hurt you and the others, I will destroy them even if I need to bathe this hand with the blood of millions of people. I am not afraid of killing as long as I can protect all of you. It''s just... sometimes, it is tiring to fight like this." Alex let out a long sigh. "It is certainly tiring, but no matter what path you choose, if you want to be better and better, there is no other way than this tiring process. It''s repetition and repetition." Anna looked down, weighing something. "If you feel exhausted, come to me or any other else. We will support you like you protect us." "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Anyway, we will destroy the last one tomorrow and hide until the auction." "Will you call Nelson back?" Alex was surprised by the question, looking at her with empty eyes for a while. "No. Nelson is on the Sacred Continent. If I really call him here, there are two ways he could go back there. First, he will need to cross the ocean between the two continents. Unfortunately, there is no ship that will cross this sea as it would contain many Saint Stage monsters. "This leads to the second option, which is to go through Willow Continent, Nilis Continent, before going back to Sacred Continent. Well¡­ there is the third option, which is to use Heavenly Continent as transit, but I doubt this route. It is said that the Heavenly Continent is very vast, making it hard to travel from one place to another. "Anyway, whichever route, it will take at least 2-3 months. This will waste too much time since he is the only front we have in the Sacred Continent. That''s why I don''t consider him in my plan." Alex explained. "You can assassinate those elders or the sect master or the mysterious person." Anna shrugged. "Yeah. I have figured that will be how I act with Nelson''s as my force. We might be able to scare them now but in the future? Unless we destroy them, there is no reassurance. "If I use Nelson, this will be the scenario. Their sect master and whoever that mysterious person will die. Alright, that is good. The next step will be the problem. First, if we decide to make war to raze them on the ground, people would think that we win just by using an assassin. It''s not like I hate assassins, but if that is the case, they might not fear us and create more trouble behind us, whether it is revenge or whatever. "The second option will be where we spare their life after killing their higher up. This¡­ I don''t think I need to explain what this scenario will bring to us in the future¡­ After all, this scenario is the same as cutting John''s little brother and sparing him for a while. They would come back with an army or even an assassin. What makes it worse is they might hire an assassin from Heavenly Continent. "That''s why I chose to raise Leoz''s level to Martial Monarch to shut them up even if I need to use the hard way." Alex paused a bit before continuing, "Besides, there is no way I can let them off after attacking my friends and family." The others blinked a few times, realizing how Alex had thought far ahead for this problem. There were still many uncertain possibilities, but this might be the best plan they could have at the moment. "There is one more thing I need to tell you guys. With how hard the upcoming battle is, I want to try to mobilize the Blackwade Clan." "Blackwade Clan? Wouldn''t it attract the Fire God Clan?" "I don''t need many of them. One thousand or two thousand people are fine." "The problem is how to convince them," Anna added. "I have thought of it. As to prevent the Fire God Clan from knowing, I will just ask Senior Sister in the Auction. When she even does not have time to prepare much, the Fire God Clan also won''t have enough time to go back and attack us." Alex shrugged. "Alright." "Well, I want to drink for tonight. Will you join me?" Alex walked away from the group, bringing out the wine he got from the system. It could be said this was also one of the ways to relax. "Sure." Anna smiled, following him into the woods. The other spirits also made their own preparations for tomorrow and the future war, wondering what they could do in the war. ¡­ Meanwhile, in the Blackwade Clan, specifically Song Yu''s courtyard, a petite blonde girl was sitting above a pond, cultivating peacefully. A sudden presence alarmed her. "Who is it?!" She opened her eyes, rising to the air while taking out her sword. The shadow moved, making her turn to the side. "Who are you?" A sexy figure appeared from the shadow, revealing a beauty with pink hair. She looked like a human but released a presence that was far from it. Song Yu frowned her eyebrows, preparing for a fight. "Greetings. I have come here, bringing the word of my Master." The mysterious woman bowed her head politely. "Your Master?" Song Yu was bewildered, wondering who her master was. She tried to recall everyone she knew, but none of them were capable of infiltrating the Blackwade Clan like this until a certain figure flashed in his mind. "Alexander Sir¡­ No, Junior Brother?" "Exactly so." She nodded with a smile. "He¡­ Is he alright?" She asked with a worried expression. "Yes. Master is fine and currently has a busy schedule, so he can''t meet you right now." "I see. As long as he is fine, I have no problem." Song Yu smiled, "Tell me his words." Nicole nodded, "Firstly, Master will meet you in the auction a few months from now. There, he will discuss something very important to you. I can''t tell you what it is, but you need to prepare for the worst." "Something very important?" Song Yu looked down, seeing her reflection on the water while thinking this something. "Well, I can''t really guess what kind of important thing he wants to discuss. Anyway, I will become his assistant in the auction, so I guess we can talk there." Nicole nodded. "On to the second matter, the Joyful Union Sect will surely buy Medicinal Pills from the Blackwade Clan. In massive quantities at that." She was taken aback, wondering why Alex said this. She thought no incident could cause the Joyful Union Sect to buy pills with large quantities. "That will be a good business for us. Maybe we can get half or even one million Spirit Gems in this transaction." "That''s what my Master has predicted. However, my Master said, ''you can''t sell any pills to Joyful Union Sect no matter what." Nicole added, shooting down her excitement. "Can''t sell?" Song Yu furrowed her eyebrows, asking, "Why is that? This is a perfect opportunity to bleed that sect." "You will know the reason in a few days," Nicole answered mysteriously before telling her Alex''s offer. "If you don''t sell the pill to them, My master will bring you three million Spirit Gems worth Medicinal ingredients. With his VIP card''s power, he should have gotten another six hundred thousand Spirit Gems, but my Master wants to annul that for this transaction." "!!!" Song You dropped her jaw to the ground. "Are you serious? Three billion Spirit Gems worth medicinal ingredients? That¡­ is that even possible?" "Yes. In my master''s hand are five thousand rank 6 pills worth Medicinal Ingredients. With those ingredients and the price of Blackwade Clan has set, I am sure you can get a total profit of two million Spirit Gems. This will be much better than the deal with the Joyful Union Sect. "Besides, the moment you know why my Master wants something like this, you will certainly not regret it." She nodded. "But promise alone won''t let me convince my family." Song Yu sighed. "Don''t worry. Someone will bring one million worth Medicinal Ingredients in a few days for our trust." She nodded. "If that''s so, then I can definitely convince them." Song Yu nodded confidently. "That is good." She paused a bit, giving another warning to her before leaving. "This will be a crucial step for us. If the Blackwade Clan will continue selling the pills to them¡­ or at least someone dares to smuggle the pills to them. Ignore this warning, no matter our past relationship, we will consider the Blackwade Clan as a hostile force and will prepare to remove this influence from this continent no matter the cost. "If we truly arrive at that step, even if you escape back to the Heavenly Continent, the end result will be death. Heed this word. Even the Blackwade Clan can''t defeat us." After giving the warning, she disappeared, sneaking out of the mansion. That was a pretty bold claim from her, but she did not know why knowing Alex might be possible. At this time, she remembered a certain matter that she forgot to ask her grandfather. 521 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 6 The next day, Song Yu swiftly gathered all the elders in the family by using her father''s prestige. She came out of her courtyard, finding her father just wanted to enter her room. "Good Morning, Father." She bowed her head, greeting him politely. "Yeah. I was surprised to see you asking for a meeting last night, so I want to ask you what happens first before the meeting starts. After all, there might be some dissatisfaction from the elders if there is nothing important." A blonde middle-aged man said. "Don''t worry, Father. There is something really important that we need to discuss¡­ the topic I want to discuss today might concern the fate of our very family." Song Yu said with a serious expression. She suddenly remembered that she forgot to say thank you to Alex because of the severeness of this matter. "Such a thing¡­" He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what kind of thing was that. Even though they had a cold war against the Fire God Clan and Joyful Union Sect, it was not at this level. They walked toward the meeting hall, finding ten old men in the hall. "Patriarch, what is this all about?" "Is there a problem that concerns the fate of our family to make an emergency meeting like this?" "Patriarch¡­" He turned to blind ear, walking toward his own seat while pointing at Song Yu. "She is the one who wants to hold this meeting." "What?" "Young Miss?" "Young Miss, you should not outstep your bound as you have yet to become the Patriarch of this clan." Song Yu released her killing intent and shouted, "I am calling elders because our family is in that situation." "..." They wanted to rebuke her again, but the words stuck on their throat after seeing how serious she was. Another person suddenly came inside the room. He was a muscular old man with half of his blonde hair had turned white. A smile appeared on his face, brightening the situation inside. "Hoho. It seems I am not late¡­ So, little Song Yu is the one who holds the meeting. From your reaction alone, it would seem this is really a big matter. After all, despite your cheerful side, you are a very serious person. Then, I want to ask little Song Yu, in one simple sentence, how is the family''s situation?" "Grandfather." She clasped her hand respectfully, knowing that her grandfather asked her this to silence the mass. She gave a quick answer. "If the family does not want to be razed into the ground by a peak Rank 8 Array Master, please listen to me." *Gasp-!* The elders opened their eyes wide, wondering if they heard it right. "Oh¡­ a peak Rank 8 Array Master?" Her grandfather narrowed his eyes. "Yes. He is a Space Element Array Master at that." Song Yu nodded, telling Maxwell''s identity that she knew. "!!!" The elders'' hearts skipped a beat when they heard the array master had a space element. On the other hand, her grandfather came to a realization as he asked, "Does this matter about Alexander Sirius?" "Exactly so." She nodded. "I see. I will oversee the meeting right now, you can start." The old man smiled, releasing a little pressure with his smile. "Thank you, Grandfather." She clasped her hand again before turning to the elders. "Last night, I received news that a huge storm will brew in this very continent. The first thing that will happen is that the Joyful Union Sect will try to buy as many pills as possible from us." "That¡­ That is a good thing for us. We need to get a list of our pills from the logistics department¡­ I am sure the Seventh Elder is the one who handles the logistics¡­" One of them was surprised and looked at another elder. "I haven''t finished my piece." Song Yu halted them from discussing this. "We are not going to sell a single pill to them." "Wha-!" "Young Miss!" "That''s foolish." "With the condition of Joyful Union Sect now, we can expect a few hundred thousand to a million Spirit Gems." "Shut up!" This time, her grandfather released his pressure. As one would expect from the strongest of Blackwade Clan, a 3-Star Martial Monarch. Even the elders were unwilling, nothing they could do. He looked at Song Yu. "Continue." "Yes." She nodded. "This request is coming from a boy named Alexander Sirius. I am sure none of you know about this since only me, Father, Grandfather, my little sister, and Honda Sana know this person. That''s why I will explain it first¡­ "He is my Junior Brother in the Heavenly Sword Sect. He has a very mysterious background that no matter how I search, I would never find it. And every time I set an expectation on him, he just shatters it and completely surpasses that expectation. "And from what I have seen, his master is a peak rank 8 Space Element Master. I know what you want to say, but if you think a single wisp of soul can use Spiritual Energy and Mental Energy at the same time to send every single person in Willow Continent back to the Northern Continent with just a single clap is someone ordinary, then I don''t know what you think unordinary. "Anyway, I have accepted his request, but his master is not my sole reason I am accepting this. The second reason is that he promised to bring three million Spirit Gems worth of Medicinal Ingredients to us in a few months. "For the time being, he has sent one million worth to us and will arrive in a few days. He is our VIP Card holder, and I have checked the credibility of his card. He said he is willing to annul that bonus and give us, which means we can get around two million Spirit Gems with all of those Medicinal Ingredients. "And there is one more problem that you need to take note of. I will need to ensure that none of you will smuggle any pills to the Joyful Union Sect. If that happens, then you can expect that this clan will be destroyed in the near future." Song Yu explained, making the entire room shocked. Even her grandfather looked at her without blinking. After a few seconds, her grandfather coughed and asked, "Do you know the reason why the Joyful Union Sect wants to buy pills?" "I don''t know. He only said we would know the reason a few days later." Song Yu shook her head. "Hmm¡­" He closed his eyes for a bit before opening it again. "We can hold this matter off for a few days until the medicinal ingredients arrive, and the reason shows up." "..." Song Yu pondered for a moment and nodded her head. "I understand." Seeing her disappointed, he assured her. "Don''t worry. If what you said is true, I will be the one to ensure that myself. If any of these people will bring harm to this clan, I will send their heads flying by myself." "Yes." She nodded. "Actually, Grandfather, there is another matter that I want to discuss with you after this." "Sure. Just ask me later." He smiled before turning to the elders. "No elders shall go outside in these few days until we get the news." "Yes." "Alright. Do your normal matter." He waved his hand, letting the elders discuss the normal matter¡­ albeit this matter is in their mind the entire time, making them discuss it most of the time. "Song Yu, come with me outside." Her grandfather smiled, waving his hand. She nodded happily and followed him. "Haha¡­ So, is our little Song Yu smitten by him to help him this much? I am sure his master is not the only reason, right?" He smiled, asking an unexpected question. "Grandfather is right." She was not flustered by the question, keeping that calm smile of her. "I am not smitten by him. I still have many things to do before I can talk about that. As for the reason¡­ I think I have several reasons. He is my Junior Brother and the one who made me go back earlier than I expected. "Then, he helped Honda Sana, who became my assistant after Putri became Song Jia''s assistance. As for his own talents, I am sure Grandfather knew that already and he even saved Song Jia''s life not long ago. I have too many debts to pay." She smiled. "Hoho¡­ Is that so? Haiz, I thought I would see a great-grandson or a granddaughter soon. It seems even a man of that caliber can''t take my granddaughter''s heart. Such a shame." He shook his head, disappointed. "Haha¡­ Grandfather is joking. He is a fine man, and if I don''t have this responsibility, I would surely fall in love with him. It''s just this is not the time. Besides, if you look at his wives, you will know why I won''t think about it." She shook her head but kept her smile, not disappointed by her decision. "Fine¡­ I won''t talk about this any longer." He shrugged. "So, what do you want to ask me?" "Grandfather knows that he has a VIP card, right?" "Indeed." "Actually, his VIP card is somewhat special." Song Yu glanced left and right, unsure whether to ask it or not. "Special?" He closed his eyes, recalling something in his mind. As soon as he opened his eyes, his jaw dropped to the ground, saying with a shocked tone. "He¡­ Special VIP Card¡­ Did his card have double ''V'' there?" "Eh? Grandfather, how did you know?" Song Yu was startled. "That¡­" He was taken aback, placing his hand on Song Yu''s shoulder. "Did you know anything about that card?" He gritted his teeth, shaking his head in disappointment. "I only heard the rumor about it. It is said that there is one more level for our VIP Card. I heard if a card like that appears, he or she can mobilize a portion or even our entire force¡­ "That is the rumor that I have heard. As for its credibility¡­ I doubt it." He shook his head. "Is that really a rumor? Maybe there is such a thing in our family''s book?" Hope flashed in Song Yu''s eyes, piquing her curiosity. "I am afraid it will be hard to get the archive for that¡­" He let out a long sigh. "Why? Although we only have many books, it should not be that long to go through all of them." Song Yu pondered for a moment and said, "I can go through them alone within a month." "No no. That is not a problem here." He waved his hand, telling her to stop. "Then what is the problem?" Song Yu looked at him with a confused face. "It''s because I heard this rumor back when I stayed in the main clan." He closed his eyes, furrowing his eyebrows. He disappointed himself. "Main clan?" Song Yu opened her mouth in surprise. "Yeah. If you want to know the truth about that card, you can only go to the main clan in the Heavenly Continent." "..." She looked down, not knowing what to say. "I think it is good to go there. You can even bring him there¡­ I have disappointed the clan back then, making them exile me. With your ability and talent, I am sure you can gain the recognition of the main family." "But¡­ I just want to stay in this family." "I am glad if you think that way, but you should not waste that talent of yours. If you really want to stay here, why don''t you guide him to the main clan first and discover the card''s secret then go home? That way, you might get rewarded or something. It''s not only for you but also for our entire clan." He smiled. "Ehm¡­" Song Yu did not know whether she actually wanted to do that or not. "Haha¡­ I am sure even if you want to go there, you need to reach Martial Monarch at the very least as to make sure no random person could bully you. Just take your time and think about it, I will always be watching over you." "Yes. Thank you, Grandfather." Song Yu nodded. 522 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 7 Meanwhile, Alex and the others had arrived at their destination. He had yet to summon his spirits as he was planning to sneak in first. Surprisingly, Stina suddenly stopped him by sending a thought transmission. "Master, I feel danger inside." "What do you mean?" Alex stared at the brothel, halting his footsteps. He pondered for a while before activating his Spirit Eyes, checking whatever inside that could make her uncomfortable. Stina had a sharp intuition for this kind of thing after living for so long, so he believed this. He was taken aback by what he saw inside. Although he could only see it in the form of energy, he could see a 2-Star Martial Emperor sitting on a couch and having someone suck his pen*s. The surprise came from the actual woman who actually sucked it. Judging from her energy, she was a 6-Star Martial Emperor, which should be the elder that took charge of this place. According to their behavior, the woman looked very obedient, piquing Alex''s interest. He thought, ''The brothel is not open yet, but there is a customer already? Does this person have a special identity?'' He tried to look around the building, scanning each corner with his Spirit Eyes until he found three people having the cultivation of 9-Star Martial Emperors, making Alex hesitate even to move. ''This¡­'' Alex muttered to himself, wondering who these people were. They should have come to this place with the person in the front, but he did not know how long they were going to stay in this place and their identities. He took a step back, before recalling one matter. Two days ago, one of the N squad stationed inside the Joyful Union Sect reported that the eldest brother of this sect was likely staying inside one of the brothels. Noticing this situation, Alex decided to go outside first, discussing it with his spirits. He walked away and teleported before summoning them. "I am sure you know our situation¡­" Alex said, calling Sherry, Kyle, and Stina out. "I forgot about this matter since we thought it was a false alarm¡­ And many things to be considered." "Alright. Leave it for later, what we need to discuss is how we want to deal with the enemies here." Anna stopped him, pressing the matter on hand. "Yeah." He smiled. "Since they have no plan in backing down and even sent reinforcements, we will kill them as this is a good opportunity to strike them." "Indeed. Still, three 9-Star, one 6-Star, and we need to be wary against the City Lord of this city." Anna pondered with a serious expression before saying, "I can''t think a single thing." Alex closed his eyes, running through a simulation inside his mind. After half an hour, he opened his eyes, looking at Stina. "Can you take one 9-Star?" "I can, with this wand." Stina nodded, showing the Fire God''s scepter. "How about if you need to take on another 7-Star Martial Emperor?" "Hmm¡­" She pondered for a moment before nodding her head in confidence. "If it is to buy time, I absolutely can. As for killing them, it will depend on our condition." "Nah. It is only for precaution." Alex shook his head. "I think it is time to get serious." "Are you going to trap them inside?" Anna realized his plan and asked. "Yeah. I am going to use my Extended World Array, the barrier array to make the special realm to trap them inside. It should be enough to stop the city lord while we kill them. If they somehow break it, then Stina will stop them." "Ah, I see." Stina nodded. "Though we need a quite big space to fight those strong people." "Yeah. I will take care of that¡­ I won''t make a sphere this time but a full sky. You can take the fight to the sky while the area is still around the brothel''s size." Alex nodded, assuring them. "So, how is the arrangement?" Anna asked. "Stina will take one of the 9-Star." Alex then turned to Jeanne, "You will get two of them, can you do it?" "Is it to buy time or to kill them?" "Kill them." She pondered for a while. "May I request to use my True Spirit Body?" "Granted. We are hiding after today anyway." Alex nodded. "Alright. I should kill them." She smirked. "I will take on their young lord or something while Anna¡­ No, I think Artur will fight the elder with your True Spirit Body. Anna will also use her True Spirit Body to make up for our disadvantage by having these three focused on their respective opponents." "Understood." Anna and Artur replied. "I will make the array first before sneaking in. I will just use the Gathering Array and Spirit Gems for the fuel so that I can fight that so-called eldest senior brother. The others will stick to kill the rest." "Understood." "..." Alex suddenly noticed that Leoz was sitting far away with a sad expression. He frowned and asked him, "What is it, Leoz? Is my plan not suited to your taste?" "No no¡­ That''s not it, Young Master." Leoz shook his head furiously. "It¡­ It''s just¡­" "Hahahaha¡­" Anna laughed, realizing what happened. She explained, "Usually, Leoz is your main fighter and fights your strongest opponent. Unfortunately, he can only sit back at this one. I think this is why he is sad. Truly Ridiculous¡­ Hahaha¡­" Leoz looked away, embarrassed, making others chuckle. "Well, you will have your fill in the war a few months later. So, just be patient." Alex sighed. "Yes, I understand." Leoz bowed his head, looking down to avoid anyone from making fun of him. "Alright. Time to go back." They nodded, going back inside of his body. Alex approached the city again, walking through all the procedures before arriving at the brothel. He took out a bottle from his Inventory, opening the lid and controlling the blood to create many symbols around the building. He even sealed his power for the moment, afraid of being found out. Hundreds of symbols were produced in a few seconds. Alex''s movement was fast and precise, finishing the array in two minutes. Luckily, the establishment itself was grand as the building had its own space, giving Alex''s enough room to create this array without anyone noticing. After that, he teleported himself inside to the area without any signs of people. "Teleportation." He checked his surroundings as soon as he appeared inside the room before summoning all his spirits and contracted beasts. "They have yet to notice us. Let''s go." Alex led them through the corridor, arriving at the main hall where they found many people. It would seem other than the leaders, this so-called Eldest Senior Brother also preyed in others. "Who are you?" The elders stood up. Two of them were old men, while the other one was a middle-aged woman. "Fifth Elder!" "Enemy Attack!" One of the old men shouted, releasing all his Spiritual Energy to warn the others. Even the 6-Star Martial Emperor woman stopped and rose from her position, taking out her weapon. Alex and the others already took out their weapons, striking at those who should be struck. Stina immediately stopped the female elder from helping while Jeanne stared at the two old men. "Young Lord Raku, please go back behind me." The 6-Star elder stepped forward only to see Artur in front of her. "Who are you people? Daring to intrude the Joyful Union Sect branch." "Kill the men and strip those women." Raku snorted, noticing that they would win with power level alone. Besides, the women had good bodies, it would be a waste to kill them before tasting them first. In fact, he was planning to suck their energy die before killing them. At this time, Jeanne smiled as lightning sparked around her body. "True Spirit Body, Ethereal Lightning Form." "!!!" Noticing the spark of power, the two elders swiftly took out their weapons, striking her. Jeanne used both of her short swords to block this. She smiled. "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark." The swords channeled her lightning, causing a little explosion on the tip of her swords. The explosions forced the elder to retreat a few steps, giving her precious time. She raised her hands toward each of them, shooting out a powerful lightning strike. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet." "Bam!" The two elders struck at the lightning, destroying it. However, they looked at their swords, noticing how much power in that strike. "..." They exchanged looks as they were surprised to see an 8-Star Martial Emperor would carry that much power. "Fufu¡­ You two are my prey." Jeanne smiled behind her mask. "Attack her together!" They came to a conclusion to kill her first, ignoring Raku''s order. At the same time, Stina also locked her full energy to the fifth elder. She took out her wand, raising her hand and creating a fire lotus above her. "Fire Lotus, First Petal. Fire of Supreme Phoenix." A petal flew toward her, carrying intense heat. "!!!" The fifth elder quickly noticed this and shouted, "Be prepared!" She took out her spear and created a little barrier on the tip, thrusting it toward the fireball. "Boom!" It immediately exploded, but surprisingly, the explosion only went toward her side, destroying a part of the brothel. "..." Stina smiled, "You are going to be my opponent." The fifth elder glanced at Raku, who was protected by a new elder, feeling it would be alright since her opponent was a 5-Star Martial Emperor. At this time, Artur raised his sword before getting enveloped by white light. The sword released a powerful light as he said, "True Spirit Body. Heroic Knight Form." A small rectangular appeared in the center of his eyes, filling it with intense white light. If one stared at him, they would feel intense pressure, weakening them a little bit. A knight''s full armor appeared, covering his entire body. The only thing others could see was the intense white rectangular in his eyes, making him look ominous. He raised his swords before slashing downwards, creating a white sword wave. "!!!" The elder stepped in, striking the strike with her sword. "Dual Joy Slash!" "Kh¡­" The elder finally realized how powerful the strike was after receiving it. She was pushed a few steps back, stopping right in front of Raku. Could not let Raku get hit by something like this, she shifted her stance, deflecting it to the side. "I shall fight you with my sword." Artur pointed his sword toward her. The other spirits also started attacking the rest of the disciples. Seeing this situation, Anna also started by raising her scythe. "True Spirit Body, Dark Butterfly Spirit." A pair of butterfly wings appeared on her back, entrancing everyone with its beauty. Before anyone noticed, he walked toward the center of the brothel, placing his hand on the ground. "Activate." The ground shone as many symbols appeared, covering the ground and wall. A barrier appeared, making him smile. "Stina." "Yes." She nodded and sent out another petal. However, this time it went toward Raku instead of the fifth elder. "Array Master!" The fifth elder instantly appeared in front of Raku, creating a huge shield to protect him from the blast. "Boom!" After experiencing the explosion, she turned back, asking, "Raku, leave this place right away. I don''t know who they are, but they are strong." "You think I will let him go?" Alex''s sound echoed in her ears as he slipped, charging at Raku, who also took out his sword. Alex already knew this Raku as he was the one who stopped him in that particular city, saying it because he did not catch his woman. The fifth elder wanted to strike at him, but Stina appeared right beside her, grabbing her hand and throwing her to the air. "Who are you?!" He glared at the masked Alex as he did not recognize him as he had changed his mask. "Just a person who wants to kill you." Alex shrugged, thinking, ''It seems I would do that girl a favor by killing this person.'' With this, each of them had their respective opponents. Alex versus Raku Stina versus Fifth Elder Artur versus The Branch''s elder Jeanne versus two old men Alex shouted with killing intent. "Kill them all." 523 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 8 "Kill them all." The moment his order echoed in their ears, Artur raised his sword, covering his sword with white light. He leaped forward, swinging his sword toward the elder''s neck. "Spirit Slash." "Dual Joy Slash." The elder parried the attack with her own sword art, not losing in the slightest. Artur smiled, knowing this attack was not to kill her but to open a way to Alex, allowing him to fight Raku. Alex only took out his sword for the time being as he might be found out by them. After all, the iconic sword-spear wielding had been popularized by Putri, so unless it were necessary, Alex would not use it. A sword appeared in Raku''s hand, containing a huge amount of energy. As expected of peerless genius from Joyful Union Sect, a rank 6 Sword would be normal for him. Alex recalled that only around ten percent of Martial Emperors they killed possessed a rank 6 Sword. In addition, the sword also released a wind pressure, the symbol of the Elemental Sword. The fire on his elemental sword softened a bit, wrapping it with gentle flame energy. Different than one would expect, the fire energy was only in its compressed form while still taking the Spiritual Energy around, enhancing its power even further. Alex arrived in front of Raku, slashing downwards. Raku also covered his sword with wind energy, but a trace of the same energy as the elder appeared on the blade, hinting Alex what kind of Sword Art he would use. "Heaven Light Slash." "Dual Joy Slash." The red and green light flashed upon the room, illuminating the room in two colors. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, finding Raku''s strength to be the same level as him. On the other hand, Raku was too shocked to see a 1-Star Martial Emperor could have the same strength as him, riling up his pride. Surprisingly, Alex was the first to make a move. "Spirit Step, First Step." His soul stomped the ground, sucking all the Spiritual Energy nearby before channeling it to his hand. ''400 Dragon Strength.'' Alex pushed him back with this new strength before blowing him away to the wall. "!!!" All elders and disciples were shocked as they could not believe Raku was blown away by a mere 1-Star Martial Emperor. Even in the sect, he could fight 3-Star Martial Emperor alone with his strength, let alone a 1-Star Martial Emperor. This could only mean that the masked Alex had stronger strength than him. Alex did not care what they were thinking, only focusing his attention to Raku. He was not someone who would go for a cliche, waiting for his opponent to come back while saying, ''You are strong, so take this attack.'' Besides, even with the sneak attack, the surprise only lasted for a while before Raku regained his calm. He did not say or act like an idiot in this battle, making him a difficult opponent even for Alex. These two reasons were enough for Alex to strike him without giving any single opportunity. He raised his sword before striking the ground with all of his power, sending a powerful sword wave on the ground. "Blade of Conquest." Raku swiftly raised his sword, stopping the sword wave. "Kh¡­" The sword wave was too strong, pushing him out of the house. It was at this moment, Raku made a smart move. He lowered his stance before spinning to avoid the sword wave. Alex frowned, noticing it was not his real intention. His own sword wave, which was supposed to hit Raku, struck his barrier, creating a massive shockwave on the barrier. "Fu." He took a deep breath, realizing that his opponent was a real deal despite his character. "Wind Stimulant." Raku clapped his hand, creating a huge tornado before destroying a pill pink, the same pill that carried pink energy inside it. At first, Alex did not know what the pink energy was, but after knowing the pill, he was sure the pink energy was a strong aphrodisiac. There was no way Alex would let this giant tornado pass him. His fire started gushing out of his body, dancing around his body. A single wave of his hand made a huge fire tornado, bigger than Raku''s tornado. "Fire Wave Emission." His Spirit Eyes ensured that no pink energy would pass through his tornado as it engulfed the green tornado. It would seem this was not Raku''s realm aim as he started making his move. "!!!" Alex realized that his target was Artur, wanting to help the elder. If Alex was a normal person, he might succeed in using the tornado as a cover, but Alex had seen through his plan from miles away. He appeared on Raku''s way again, swinging his sword. As expected of the eldest senior brother of Joyful Union Sect, he somehow managed to react despite the shock he got. A giant tornado like that was enough to cover his track normally. Still, it was certain that his opponent was not normal. As soon as their sword collided, fire spiked from Alex''s sword, engulfing both of them in an explosion. "Boom!" "Young Lord!" The elders started panicking, but could not do anything. They could only grit their teeth, seeing Raku was blown away to the barrier. "Bam!" "Kh¡­" Raku bit his lips, looking at his left hand that was covered by a little burn mark here and there. He took a glimpse of the barrier and shook his head. Even Alex''s attack did not really do anything to the barrier, his attack would also be rendered as useless no matter how hard he struck it. The only way to leave this barrier was to kill Alex, who was supposed to be the Array Master. Alex did not use his Blade of Conquest again, not wanting it to be utilized by Raku to break his own barrier. He leaped forward, releasing a powerful blow. "Heaven Light Slash." "Dual Joy Slash." The two swords collided again, sending another wave of a shockwave. Although this was only a fight between 2-Star and 3-Star Martial Emperors, both men were the leaders of their respective groups. If one would go down, that side would undoubtedly lose. "Bam!" Alex, once again, blew him to the barrier, making him spat blood. He leaped toward him this time, thrusting his sword like using his spear. "Phantom Trust." Raku blinked once, seeing Alex''s sword somehow get extended. He was wondering if his eyes were playing with him or not but chose to strike that shadow. "Dual Joy Slash." It turned out his gamble was right. He managed to intercept Alex''s phantom trust in the nick of time. This might be his luck as when he struck the sword, he closed the path toward his head, which was Alex''s real target. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, spinning his sword and changing his target. "Argh!" Raku felt a painful jab on his left shoulder. It was for an instant, but he realized that Alex''s sword somehow moved toward his shoulder. Unfortunately, he could not react and let it pierce his shoulder. Raku could only let the pain shake his brain, but not his action. He bit his lips, spinning his wrist to strike at Alex. On the other hand, Alex knew this attack was only to push him away. He did what Raku wanted, leaping a few meters back, except he also raised his sword and thrust the air a hundred times in two seconds. "Hundred Spear." A hundred arrowheads made of fire flew toward Raku. Despite his condition, Raku did not let out a single plea for his life. He simply waved his sword, striking the arrowheads one by one. "Bam Bam Bam!" Each time he destroyed an attack, it created a loud sound, but like he was unbothered by all of it, he kept striking it. Unfortunately, if he could use his left hand, his movement would be perfect. Within a hundred attacks, he managed to destroy ninety of them, leaving the other ten to strike his body. "Kh¡­" He endured the pain as much as possible, not letting out a single scream. The attack itself managed to put a total of five holes on his legs, three on his arms, and two on his body. Luckily, he managed to destroy all attacks that were coming to his vitals, so as long as he had enough time, he could fully recover from this position. His hand started shaking because of his injuries, looking at Alex with his fuzzy eyes. Even in front of death, he did not beg for his life as he always believed his life was in his hand, not others. If they wanted to control him with death, he would fight to the death or commit suicide rather than getting humiliated. It might be because of this, he always treated women badly. After all, they always tried to suck up to him, thinking his life was above them. He hated such guts, making him beat them or even rape them. Of course, with the influence of Joyful Union Sect, all he could think about treating someone badly would be concerned about R-18 things. This was why when he faced death, he only leaned on the barrier, looking at Alex with fierce eyes. "Die." Alex swung his sword, finishing Raku with a single blow. Though he was lecherous, as a fighter, he was one worth respect. Raku knew he had lost and that his life would be over in this instant. He closed his eyes, resigning to his fate. Unexpectedly, an old man appeared with an arm full of blood as it was cut freshly. The blood was still falling down to the ground. "!!!" Alex realized this man''s presence and struck his sword at him with all of his strength at the moment. "You Brat, Die!" He swung his sword. The sword carried a huge amount of vitality, coming from his own very vitality. That energy then absorbed the Spiritual Energy around, creating a move that was beyond his imagination. "Lost Vitality Strike." "Heaven Light Slash!" Alex was not a pushover and immediately struck at his weapon. Even if he could not stop this attack, he only needed to block it and use the energy to send him away. It was at this time he suddenly heard Jeanne''s voice. "Master, Be careful! He is-" Before she could finish her words, the strike had arrived right on his sword. The heaviness sent chills down his spine, making him sense death. In that split second, he instinctively activated his Spirit Step and Full Throttle, boosting his strength as much as possible. ''This¡­ What is this power? This is not something a 9-Star Martial Emperor could do¡­'' This was Alex''s last thought before he was blown away by that strike. It even created a sword wave as a follow-up. "-A Sword Emperor!" Alex finally heard the continuation of Jeanne''s warning. Unfortunately, the sword wave already sent him to the other side of the barrier, pinning him down. If Alex relaxed his strength a little bit, this sword strike would certainly split him into half. If he did not do anything, he would also be cut as the sword wave kept getting power. ''Sword Emperor?'' Alex was bewildered. He never thought he would encounter a Sword Emperor. There was no report about the first elder of Joyful Union Sect being a Sword Emperor, baffling him at this moment. Little did he know the first elder just reached the Sword Emperor Stage, and only a few close ones knew about it. He noticed that Anna, Jeanne, and Leoz came toward him, albeit they were too late as the attack would not give him enough time to get rescued. ''Kh¡­ What should I do? Teleport? No, this attack would not let me teleport. Judging from the strength, it has enough time to cut me down before the array teleports my entire body¡­ I can only take it head-on.'' Alex gritted his teeth, releasing his Pure Fire from his body as well as taking out his spear. "Heaven Light Slash!" He already used his full domain, strength, and even Pure Fire, striking the sword wave with both weapons as his last struggle. "Boom!" "Young Master (Alex)!" 524 Eradicate Seven Branches Part 9 A few minutes earlier, Jeanne was facing these two old men with confidence. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet." She produced two bullets that even made the two old men struggling just to destroy it. "What the heck¡­" The first elder was frustrated. In these few minutes, they had been fighting in equal terms despite fighting her two on one. They had tried everything from Sword Arts to close combat. Jeanne blocked their sword arts one by one, not letting even a speck of energy even to reach her small body. As for close combat, it was no better. They used their speeds and numerical advantage to strike at her continuously, but Jeanne used her two swords skillfully and held them back. It might be because her weapons were Short Sword, it gave her a shorter range to deal with, which meant giving her a shorter swing to block any attacks. They even tried to hold her back while letting the other one slip, but it also ended in failure. Her Ethereal Body First Charge went around her opponent and struck at the sneaky one. This ensured no one could escape from her. From Jeanne''s perspective, she only needed to do this until she managed to catch them off guard. She did not mean to do it herself as there were four important fights in this place: Her battle, Stina''s, Artur''s, and Alex''s. As long as one of them concluded their battle, an opportunity should arrive, especially when Alex killed Raku. According to the information, Raku was as important as the sect master, making him the number one target for this operation. She only needed to wait for Alex to kill Raku before making a big move. "Lightning Spear." She created a lightning spear, shooting it toward them. "Dual Joy Slash." The first elder struck the lightning spear at the same time. He managed to destroy it, but it also blew him away. Finding this opportunity, Jeanne raised her hand toward the second elder. Unbeknownst to her, the first elder sighed, looking at Jeanne with a mysterious expression. "There is no choice¡­" His sword started glowing, but his hand began to shake. He bit his lips, feeling the suction force from the sword. The energy started rising, and after reaching a certain point, he disappeared. "Ethereal Lightning Body First Charge, Spark!" She shot out a lightning strike from her hand toward the second elder. "Blue Grim Sword." He tried to repel the attack but got electrocuted by the lightning. His hands felt numb, but luckily, the grip was still strong enough to fight. He took a deep breath, pointing his sword at Jeanne. Jeanne furrowed her eyebrows, wanting to shoot another lightning strike, but... "Vitality Strike." She suddenly felt death coming from the side and noticed the attack. She used her two swords and created a cross sword wave to counter it. "Full Body Cross Lightning." The clash between these two attacks created a huge shockwave, but they could only feel this powerful shockwave and keep fighting because they had their own fights. "Boom!" The two attacks destroyed each other as Jeanne looked at the first elder. "To think there is a Sword Emperor in this little place¡­" "!!!" The first elder and the second elder were shocked to see the powerful attack from the first elder was destroyed just like that. She even managed to discern his power, which was coming from the Sword Emperor''s power. "How can you stop my attack¡­" The first elder sucked a cold breath. Even the sect master had trouble destroying his attack, let alone this 8-Star Martial Emperor brat who did not even have a shred of Sword Intent. He knew that this little girl only used her element to overcome his Sword Attack from the last attack. "We have our differences in cultivation. I never care about Intent as to reach the pinnacle of my element." She clapped her hand, creating five lightning spears above her head. She usually used only one spear, but this time, she was going all out after knowing her opponent was a Sword Emperor. "Lightning Spear." The first elder sent out the same sword wave, wanting to destroy the spears. Unfortunately, Jeanne''s power was beyond their imagination as the attack only managed to break three of her spears, letting the two others slip and fly toward them. "!!!" Both elders raised their sword, stopping this attack, albeit they were blown away. *Spat* They never expected the lightning spears held that much power, as lightning struck their inner strength, injuring a bit of their soul. Suddenly, the second elder looked at the first elder, sending a thought transmission. ''First Elder¡­ I have a plan¡­ but this will cost us.'' ''Plan?" ''Just take a look at that brat. I don''t know how she is so strong, but we need to help the young master somehow.'' "!!!" He took a glimpse of Raku''s condition and was shocked, never expecting a 1-Star Martial Emperor could bully him. ''His safety is our priority, and I believe he could become a Martial Monarch in the future¡­ might even surpass that ''old man.'' Despite his lecherous behavior, he is a prodigy in battle. We can''t let him die in this place.'' The second elder said with conviction. ''...'' The first elder paused a bit before nodding his head. ''Indeed. But this little brat is in our way¡­ If only we have more people, we can capture this brat and make her one of us. This way, there will be two prominent figures in the future¡­'' ''Don''t bite more than you can chew. We can only cope with whatever we have now.'' He sighed. ''Anyway, I plan to stop her with my life on the line. I want you to use that time to break through and help the Young Master. Break this stupid barrier and escape.'' ''She is better than you think, you know¡­'' The first elder pondered for a moment, ''I will blow Young Master''s enemy away, allowing us to escape¡­ and I will also be ready to lose a bit¡­'' ''Alright¡­ fine by me¡­ If I die here, I want you to take care of my family.'' ''Don''t worry, you are my best friend, I will make sure your family won''t be bullied inside the sect.'' ''Thanks.'' ''No, I should be the one to thank you¡­'' ''Let''s go.'' The second elder looked at him, nodding his head. The first elder nodded his head with a serious expression, preparing himself for any consequences. "Good Luck to you." "You too." The first elder leaped toward Alex with a furious expression. Jeanne came to his way, stopping him, but the second elder immediately blocked her way. "Get lost!" She spun her body, swinging her swords on him. "Kh!" He felt many painful spots on his body as many wounds appeared on his body. Even so, he abandoned the sword in his hand, and hugged Jeanne, not letting her reach the first elder. "You Bastard!" The grip was too strong for her to break free with sheer strength alone. She gritted her teeth and swiftly sliced both of his arms before striking her short sword toward the first elder. Unfortunately, because of the second elder''s sacrifice, her sword only reached the first elder''s right hand, cutting it cleanly. The first elder slipped past through her, coming toward Alex. At this moment, she realized their true intent was Alex. Without his two hands, the second elder could not stop her anymore, letting her chase the first elder. Even so, he could only smile as the first elder had arrived beside Alex, swinging his sword. "You Brat, Die!" He swung his sword. The sword carried a huge amount of vitality, coming from his own very vitality. That energy then absorbed the Spiritual Energy around, creating a move that was beyond his imagination. "Lost Vitality Strike." Jeanne just made the biggest blunder of this mission, dangering her master life. She could never predict that both elders had prepared to sacrifice their life, gambling just to let the first elder somehow slip her guard. "Master, be careful! He is-" She realized she was too late and found him being pounced by the attack. "-A Sword Emperor!" All his spirits and his contracted beasts watched this and felt a sense of loss on their heart. "Young Master (Alex)!" Jeanne had no time to relax and made her way toward Alex, trying to help him. Leoz and Anna, who were the closest to him, also leaped toward him, abandoning their fights. "Boom!" Jeanne, Leoz, and Anna gnashed their teeth, seeing the last clash between Alex and the sword strike. How could they not worry? This was the clash between A 9-Star Martial Emperor in Sword Emperor Stage and a 1-Star Martial Emperor in Sword King Stage. It was even more so when the Sword Emperor used that special technique, creating a colossal gap between them. After the explosion, they saw Alex was still alive. However, they also saw a huge wound on his chest, dying his clothes to red. This might be the biggest wound Alex got in his entire life. If not because of luck, he might die because of that attack. "Master¡­" Jeanne was devastated, looking at the injured Alex. Anna''s heart beat rapidly, filling her emotion with rage. With the last bit of her rationality, she took out Anya''s card and summoned her without warning. "Anna?" Anya was startled to be summoned without warning, albeit she could not say anything when she looked at Alex. Blood lost, deep wound, fuzzy consciousness, all of those immediately transmitted to her brain. Her staff appeared in her hand as she stomped the ground, creating a yellow sphere to heal Alex. "He should be fine." Her soft voice filled the atmosphere, halting the battle for a second. The people from Joyful Union Sect were entranced as they never saw someone that beautiful. Even Song Yu or Song Jia could not be compared to her. They somehow glanced at Anna, Jeanne, and Vera, wondering if they had the same beauty. As for the allies, those words echoed on her ears, snapping them back to reality. Anna turned around, releasing a killing intent that never appeared for a few thousand years. She rose to the air, shouting, "Kill!" Everyone had the same thought as her. Leoz raised his sword as he was covered by yellow lightning. Even without Alex''s permission, he dared to do it. A pair of horns appeared on his head, making him even more ferocious with the tengu mask. "True Spirit Body, Thunder Berserker!" Not only him, but even Fabio also enveloped his body with fire, giving him an appearance like a flame elemental. "True Spirit Body, Ifrit Spirit." A pair of beautiful ice blue wings appeared on Vera''s back. "True Spirit Body, Ice Phoenix Spirit." "True Spirit Body, Fortress." Greg also activated his True Spirit Body despite having no change in his appearance. "True Spirit Body, Exquisite Water Body." Fish scales started appearing on Jean''s skin, and even his teeth became sharp, looking like a Fishman. Sherry and Kyle also revealed their real form, a celestial fox and a phoenix, but before they could finish the transformation, Stina dove from the sky, crashing their heads on the ground to turn them back. She was also furious about this, but if these two also changed, revealing a whole beast form, they would be very noticeable, unlike the spirits. To prevent any trouble from occurring, she could only grit her teeth and pin them down. "Uoh! How can this happen¡­" Artur gnashed his teeth as he raised his sword. "By the Spirit God''s Blessing, This body shall become my sword, and my sword shall become my body. Let this entire existence cut through all enemies, Grand Cross!" "!!!" The elder noticed this and tried to stop him. Unfortunately, it was too late. Artur stabbed his sword on the ground as the sword rose from the ground, creating a circle of swords with a radius of fifty meters. Their blades extended to the sky, letting anyone see it. 525 Eradicate Seven Branches Last Par "By the Spirit God''s Blessing, This body shall become my sword, and my sword shall become my body. Let this entire existence cut through all enemies, Grand Cross!" The anger of a righteous knight shook the entire town. Only at the spot of his friends rose no swords. Many disciples died in this strike, but Artur himself fell on his knees as his helmet disappeared. *Pant Pant* This power could let him kill many people like Leoz''s Thunder God Cannon. However, controlling Spiritual Energy in extreme precision was using a similar amount of Spiritual Energy as pouring all his Spiritual Energy in one single attack. And this was what Artur precisely did. He did not let the swords appear around his friends, and even Stina on the sky was the same. This rage killed more than fifty enemies but sucking his Spiritual Energy dry. Luckily, because of losing his strength and arms, the second elder could not block this attack and die. "Fortress Form First Stage, Enhanced Wall." Greg positioned himself in front of Alex and Anya, creating a strong barrier with all of his power. "Anya, how is his condition?" "He is stable right now. Although he lost consciousness for a bit, he should have woken up, just with not enough strength to open his eyes and speak." Anya nodded. Greg nodded, feeling relieved. After all, the previous wound almost reached his heart, making one worry. No one would blame Jeanne, but she still needed punishment for this. "Alright. I will ensure your safety even with my life." On the other hand, Jeanne swapped places with Stina, dealing with the third elder. "Lightning Spirit Worship o'' Spirit God. Use my body as the catalyst, so you may strike my enemy with your lightning. Lightning Dragon!" A yellow dragon suddenly appeared from the bright sky, flying toward the third elder. "!!!" Because of these many swords, she could not escape in time while breaking Artur''s swords. She gritted her teeth and thrust her spear. "Umbrella Spear!" A barrier appeared in front of her spear, blocking the lightning dragon to reach her. Unfortunately, this attack carried all Jeanne''s hatred. It only took a second before the lightning dragon destroyed the barrier and killed her. "Exquisite Water Body, First Command. Water Particles." Jean clapped his hand as the water vapor in the air started gathering, flooding a certain area with little water bubbles. "Leoz, kill them." "Oh!" Leoz pointed his hand toward this area, shooting a lightning strike. "Thunder Break." A bolt of lightning flew out of his hand toward Jean''s water bubbles. He used the water element around to electrocute all the people around the area. If this was normal water, Martial Kings or Martial Emperors might not be affected. Unfortunately, Jean''s water could boost lightning power and become a better conductor. The moment the lightning arrived, it created a lightning pattern before striking at the enemies. The rest of the disciples were scared, never expecting to meet a group like this. They wanted to escape, but with everyone''s attention occupied with these attacks, they did not realize Anna''s butterflies already latched onto them. "Dark Butterfly, First Order. Marionettes." The butterflies exploded as the black energy started invading their mind. "Ah-!" "What is this?" "I can''t move my body?" "No, I can''t control my body!" "What¡­ What is this?" The people started getting insane as they took out their weapons, pointing them at their own bodies. "Gah!" "Argh!" They stabbed themselves at the same time, dropping to the ground, died. Anna''s power was not this fast normally. If she did not wear a mask, everyone could see veins were bulging around her eyes as even blood fell down from her right eye. Seeing Alex like that released her limiter and squished every speck of her energy, forcing the invasion in their body and finally killing the rest of the disciples. "Break! Vitality Strike!" Without anyone noticing, the first elder had destroyed the Gathering Array and without energy supply, his Vitality Strike was enough to break the barrier. "!!!" The first elder escaped with Raku on his hand before anyone could react. "Cha-" Before Anna could order a pursuit, a male voice echoed in everyone''s ears. "You dare to cause trouble in my city¡­" Anna glanced, finding an old man with a thousand people with him. Their cultivation was at least Martial King, while the strongest was the old man, a 7-Star Martial Emperor. "I am Neutral in this city, but since you create a ruckus in this city, then I will be forced to attack you. I don''t care which influence you are as I will still attack you even if you come from Joyful Union Sect. Attack them!" "Swinging Spear!" "Torrential Wind." "Blazing Fire!" All the enemies shot out their respective attacks. Greg stepped forward as he raised his shield. "Fortress Form First Stage, Enhanced Wall." A green barrier rose, stopping all attacks for a few seconds. "Anna!" Anya instantly recognized the priority here. By looking at Anna''s, Artur, and Greg''s condition, it was better to stop fighting and run until Alex was healed. Anna looked at her serious expression and commanded. "We are leaving." Leoz grabbed Artur while Fabio carried Alex. Greg dissolved his barrier as they fled from the city. Unfortunately, the city lord ordered a pursuit, making sure to kill an unknown party like them. The thing he said was only a pure bullsh*t as he decided the pursuit because they killed the original elder from Joyful Union Brothel. Seeing the chase, Jeanne suddenly said, "I will hold the rear¡­" They looked at Jeanne, knowing she felt guilty about this, but no one stopped her. Instead, Fabio and Vera came with her, "We are going too." For once, they did not say those annoying Tsun-Tsun lines because they also held rage in their hearts at this moment. Stina and Kyle also said, "We will help them too. Five of us should be enough to kill them." "I will-" Sherry also wanted to go but was stopped by Stina. "It''s alright. You need to go with him." "..." Sherry glanced between Alex and Stina a few times before she decided to go with Alex. After getting separated, Alex''s group kept flying for a few hours before stopping in a forest where they decided to focus on healing Alex. Not long after that, he finally opened his eyes. He was awake this entire time, but because he did not have enough energy and the wound was too deep, he could neither speak nor open his eyes. He was sad to make his spirits and contracted beasts like this. "Alex!" Anna immediately hugged him gently, afraid of hurting him. Anya might have closed his wound, but his body should still hurt, so she did not dare to put any strength in this hug. He smiled weakly, raising his hand bit by bit before putting it on Anna''s head. "It seems I have troubled all of you¡­" "No¡­ We just miscalculated the opponent would do something like that." Anna shook her head furiously. He closed his eyes for a few seconds before turning to Anya, "Thank you for healing me." "I will commit suicide if you die, no matter others'' opinions." Alex smiled, tapping Anna''s shoulder. She released her hug, afraid of hurting him, but Alex just wanted to take off her mask. He was sad, looking at the blood that had dried on her face. His hand tried to wipe the blood away but to no avail. "I am truly sorry¡­" "Master-Wuu!" Sherry clung onto him. ''Her hands are shaking.'' He noticed how worried she was and patted her head. "Sorry, Sherry." "Still¡­ Sword Emperor, huh¡­" Alex looked down, recalling everything about that ''Vitality Break.'' "What is the qualification for the Sword Emperor?" "It is¡­" The spirits wondered if they could answer this or not. On the other hand, seeing this kind of reaction did not disappoint him. Instead, it slowly made him realize what he was exactly lacking. Though he did not really watch the first elder from up close, he noticed his battle with Jeanne. He found nothing different in their fighting style, which meant Sword Emperor actually was no different than Sword King. Their strength came from another thing, which Alex had yet to realize. "Sword Emperor¡­ Vitality Break." Alex muttered to himself, gradually fell into deep thought. "Ah¡­" The spirits were startled by the sudden realization, and looked at him with a worried expression. They feared Alex would be disappointed or anything, but all they saw was Alex''s curious face. He realized that when he looked at the Vitality Break, he could not understand its concept even a little bit. It should not be possible with his Sword Mastery, yet this Sword Technique could confuse him. "Sword¡­ Sword Concept¡­ No, Sword Technique¡­ Is that the requirement to be a Sword Emperor?" Since Anna and the others were indecisive, the system answered him. [Host has figured it out, so I will explain it more to prevent any confusion. As a step to be peerless in the way of the sword, you need to make your own Sword Technique, the one that only you can use, your specialty. No requirement needed in your domain, but people usually can make their Sword Technique after reaching 500 meters domain.] "I see. My domain has reached 500 meters not long ago, so I will try to reach the Sword Emperor stage before the war¡­ Wait! I should also aim for the Spear Emperor stage, can''t I?" [Yes. Though a normal person could only make one Original Technique, you can make two with that perk of yours and use both weapons to do it. So, you will have two Original Techniques.] "Alright. The target has been set." [Good Luck.] "Thank you." Two hours later, Jeanne and the others had come back. It would seem they had truly killed all those people without leaving anyone behind, including the city lord. When Alex saw Jeanne, his heart was aching. Jeanne was fully covered with blood from top to bottom. Alex sighed, knowing she would kill all of them recklessly. He could even picture it where Jeanne single-handedly killed half of them. She kneeled on the ground, placing her head on the ground. If she were a normal person, the way she did it would be strong enough to make her head bleeding. "Master, I deserve death." Tears fell to the ground as her body was shaking. Alex only smiled, never putting any blame on her. He stretched his hand at her, asking, "Jeanne, can you come here?" She did not rise for a minute before she moved toward him and kowtowed again. He still could not reach her, so he said, "Come a bit closer." She was unsure but followed his order. Unexpectedly, before she put down her head again, Alex immediately hugged her with one hand, not letting her do it again. Even with the blood on her hair or body stuck on him, he did not care. "Master, I am not worthy¡­" She struggled to break free. "I have almost killed you¡­ The blood will also stick on you¡­" "Calm down for a minute." Alex only smiled, talking to her with a gentle expression. She kept struggling for a minute until she calmed down, afraid of hurting Alex. "This is because I am weak, you can''t change my opinion." Alex stated, "If you are going to hurt yourself like this, then it is the same as you hurting me. Remember, if I find you doing something like this again, I will also do the same, do you hear me?" "I¡­ I¡­" "You all are my precious family¡­ I can''t stand when you hurt yourself like this." Alex sighed. Seeing her like this, he added, "With this, we know what we need to do. It is to get stronger than ever¡­ Within the next five months, Leoz will become Martial Monarch while the rest of you shall at least become a 7-Star Martial Emperor. Are we clear?" "Yes." All of them acknowledged his order. "Thus¡­ this is our fault Jeanne, not yours alone." He hugged her tightly, telling her it''s fine. "Master¡­" It might be the first time for everyone to see Jeanne crying. The guilt, anger, sadness, she released all of it with this cry. Alex simply smiled, stroking her hair gently. 526 Reactions from All Sides After recuperating from his wound, Alex used his teleportation array to go back, hiding once again from the crowd. As for his spirits, they flew toward the western part of the Northern Continent, planning to destroy the other branches. Alex told them not to be reckless and watched out if there were any elders with Anna being in charge. Especially when he said to Jeanne, he needed to make sure she did not do something like this again. If he heard a single word about it, he would not involve her again in any future fights. Reluctant as she may, she could only comply. And a few days later, the continent was in chaos, especially for three influences, Joyful Union Sect, Fire God Clan, and Blackwade Clan. Joyful Union Sect, Inside the hall, the tenth elder took the lead of the meeting because of the absence of the sect master. After being heavily injured and too much blood lost, the first elder was still unconscious. Anna wanted Jeanne to torture him in the cruelest way possible, but it turned out backfired, allowing him to escape. The tenth elder looked at the half-empty meeting hall, sweating all over. At this time, Raku suddenly appeared in the meeting room with a pale looking face. "Raku!" They stared at him, observing his condition. "Tenth Elder, are you in charge here? Where is the sect master?" He asked with a tired tone, enduring the pain in his body. "Ye-yes. Sect Master is calling our Grand Elder to prepare for a wa- Incursion to the Spirit Nest." He answered. First to Seventh Elders were not here also, so they also could not make an important decision here. "I know you can''t make a decision here, so just record my information here before I go to close door cultivation to recuperate." The tenth elder looked around and nodded. "Alright. We need to trouble you." He nodded. "First of all, their leader, a 1-Star Martial Emperor. His strength is equal to a 4-Star Martial Emperor. If I am not wrong, he could even use Sword and Spear simultaneously, so I can only relate to one person, and he is coming from the Willow Continent." "Yes, we have got the information about it as well about him being that Blackwade clan princess''s junior brother. The sixth elder is taking charge of our trump card later." The tenth elder stopped him since confirming his identity was enough. "Alright. They have two 8-Star Martial Emperors, and most of them are 5-Star Martial Emperors. From what I see, they can have animals'' parts like butterfly wings, horns, and the like. However, I can''t confirm if it is their real form or because of Martial Arts. All I know is the moment they use it, they would get a sharp increase in strength." Raku pondered for a moment, recalling all the things he saw. "I will note it down." He nodded. "How is our situation?" "They have attacked all the branches in the western continent within four days. That''s why the third elder and fourth elder only found you after two days because we don''t have time to react. As for the sect, we are planning to lock down our gate until further notice." "Alright. I have finished the business here, so I am going to recuperate from my injury." He then left after confirming everything. ... The same situation also occurred inside the Fire God Clan''s meeting hall. Sect Master gathered all elders to discuss the situation concerning their clan or even this continent''s fate. "I don''t want to have a long meeting, so I will just give you the scenario in my mind." The sect master stood tall in the meeting room, looking down on the elders with a bored look. "First, if the Spirit Nest somehow wins this battle, the Joyful Union Sect will be destroyed, and their function as a stress reliever would be gone. The situation would become more chaotic in this continent. "The Blackwade Clan would surely utilize this kind situation to wage war against us. Looking at the partnership between them and Spirit Nest, they would certainly bring Spirit Nest to attack us. "Though we may have some good relationship with the Joyful Union Sect, we can''t participate directly in this war unless we have a good reason... Unless we want to antagonize the western influences. There are only two options for this, it is either Blackwade Clan or Spirit Nest. "If Blackwade Clan has a sign in using their troops, we can participate, but they would most likely not do this. In other words, we will use the second option, which is to rile up the Spirit Nest and use it as our reason to wage war." "How do we do it?" "The Auction." The sect master paused a little. "We will use the auction to rile up the Spirit Nest and use it to our advantage. Judging how the preparation would be, the war will take place after the Strength Plateau ends." The elders closed their eyes, understanding his plan. The only problem would be how they could make the Spirit Nest angry. Unexpectedly, the sect master used the most unique way. He said, "First Elder and Second Elder will prepare our force for war." "Understood." "Third Elder, I want you to take my idiotic son to the auction. Seeing how he is obsessed with Song Yu''s beauty, we will use his idiocy to make him bid everything in the auction or all the items the Spirit Nest bid. "Haha¡­ Nothing is useless. Even the idiotic son of mine can be used for this." The sect master laughed, recalling his son, who was a typical arrogant young master. Looking at how useless he was, it would be better to sacrifice him to get a reason for a war. At the very least, he could prove to be useful for once. The elders fell into silence, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. They also agreed with how his son acted, it would be better to get rid of him. "If you don''t have any questions, then dismiss." The sect master waved his hands, disappearing from the meeting room. The elders then handled the rest. ¡­ In the Blackwade Clan, As soon as she heard the news, Song Yu came to the meeting again, talking about Alex. This time, the elders did not say a single thing, knowing there was big friction between Spirit Nest and Joyful Union Sect. "Song Yu, what do you think about this?" Her father decided to ask as she knew Alex the most in this room. "I¡­ have told you all I know, and I am sure this incident will escalate to a big war that will shake the entire continent. Our problem right now is whether we will stay neutral or support one side." "Neutral or join one side?" Her father frowned, pondering that question in his mind. He could easily predict if they joined one side, his daughter would likely join on Alex''s side. After all, their influence had a cold war against the Joyful Union Sect and Fire God Clan. Fire God Clan would be the trouble as they might participate in the war if they joined the war. "Do you have any information about Spirit Nest?" He asked Song Yu. Song Yu shook her head, hiding about their promised meeting in the auction. She wanted to gather her force to help Alex, but was unsure how to do it. "We need to get all the information we can and decide whether to join this war or not. In any case, we won''t sell any pills or whatever to the Joyful Union Sect until we have a clear grasp of the situation around." "Oh, now you say it, I do have another thing to add, Father." Song Yu recalled another thing. "Hmmm?" He narrowed his eyes. "It would seem that he has a grudge against the Zhou Kingdom when he is a Martial Master or Martial Grandmaster, followed by the Southern Kingdom. The former has been razed to the ground while the latter has changed ownership. "If I am not wrong, there is also certain friction with Mount Hua Sect, but because he does not really participate in that matter, Mount Hua Sect is spared after becoming a vassal of Heavenly Sword Sect. "On the other hand, his ally was at their peak. Heavenly Sword Sect aside, even Rainbow Flower Sect got benefit and reached their golden age." Song Yu smiled, telling them how Alex treated his allies and enemies. This can be a normal fact, a warning, or a suggestion. "..." Her father fell into silence, pondering this matter with great difficulty. "For the time being, we won''t favor any of these two, aside from the business with Spirit Nest." Song Yu shrugged her shoulders, not hoping anything and planning to do it in her own way. After all, if she succeeded in this, she could get rid of that annoying Joyful Union Sect. At that time, she could fight openly against the Fire God Clan with Blackwade Clan influence, paying back all the grievances she received. She came out of the room, meeting with her grandfather. It could be said that her true ally, one that would do anything for her, was her grandfather. "Fufu, little Song Yu, now the situation has escalated like this, are you going to help him?" "As expected, Grandfather has realized Song Yu''s intention." She smiled. "There is one more problem if you want to help him." He said with a serious expression. Song Yu tilted her head, asking, "What is it?" "Now we don''t sell anything to Joyful Union Sect and receive the business with Spirit Nest, no matter how we stay neutral, people will see we have joined hands with Spirit Nest. Luckily, the business with Spirit Nest has yet to reach anyone''s ears. "This might also be the reason why your junior brother only gave you a portion of the medicinal ingredients instead of all. With him selling the rest in the auction, he only used 1 million Spirit Gems worth of medicinal ingredients to buy our loyalty. "Judging with the information we have now, it would seem he is planning to fight them right after the Strength Plateau event, and I believe Joyful Union Sect knows about it too, considering our preparation as well. In other words, he will come to the auction while Joyful Union Sect not, weakening them even further. "This way, you can gather a certain amount of force to help him, but this is the problem. If you gather too much, the Fire God Clan will sniff it out and participate in this war." "Yeah. That''s why I am confused." She sighed. "Let''s talk if the Spirit Nest somehow comes victorious. They have five green boxes which can be used immediately. If we join this fight, he would certainly sell the boxes to us as thanks. "Remember how he let us get the six hundred thousand Spirit Gems? We will get five million Spirit Gems if we sell all those medicinal herbs, which we will give him three million as part of the deal. "By the time he sells those boxes to us, he will get the other two million. Which means, he can get all the value from those Medicinal Herbs. On the other hand, we will continue as his business partner, and only receive five green boxes as compensation while harboring the risk of the Fire God Clan intervention. "Ah, what a guy, I really wish to have him in this family¡­ If only any of my granddaughters have some kind of interest in this guy." He glanced at Song Yu. She only rolled her eyes away, "If we don''t join hands, we will get nothing. So, it''s better to participate in this battle since we would have one less enemy to fight with." "Haha, sure. That''s why I call a helper for you since you can''t gather the force yourself because of the Fire God Clan. Look." He smirked while pointing at the person behind her. "!!!" Song Yu turned around, dropping her jaw in surprise. "You-!" 527 Situation In Alex''s Special Realm, The training rooms were fully occupied by Alex and the others, while Anya made a battle plan for the raid. Sherry and Kyle were trying to at least reach the 6-Star Martial Emperor stage within five months. On the other hand, Stina needed to reach 10-Star Martial Emperor to become equal against their sect master since Leoz needed to take care of the mysterious Martial Monarch. As for Alex, he had more objectives than them as not only did he need to reach 4-Star Martial Emperor, but he also needed to progress to Emperor Stage for both weapons. From all the calculations he made, it was possible if he did not do anything other than practices, including the hot steamy night''s activity. Anna was away, so she did not really care, while Anya understood the circumstances. She rather left him alone for years than seeing him die. After all, a few years was short compared to thousands of years of waiting, so it was not a big deal for her. His system did not say a single thing even though he got 350 Gacha Tickets and 3 Gacha Cards, giving him precious time to focus. In the first month, Alex advanced to 2-Star Martial Emperor. Without any rest, Alex quickly strove for the 3-Star Martial Emperor. Luckily, it only took him a month and a half for a stage with his Spirit Gems and Gathering Array, allowing him to reach 4-Star Martial Emperor within four months. In the last month, Alex stopped cultivating, focusing on becoming a Sword Emperor and Spear Emperor. Alex pondered what kind of original technique he would create. Considering he could only make one for each weapon, he needed to think carefully about this. He had a few concepts ready, but only a few seemed powerful. In the end, he decided the first Sword Art he would create. He called it Triple Draws. Although it was not a sword draw technique, it took the concept of that. He noticed that his three usual Sword Arts were powerful, but they lacked speed, allowing the first elder of Joyful Union Sect almost killed him previously. This technique emphasized speed from the Sword Drawing Technique, creating three powerful slashes in a split second. The technique might not be considered a Heaven Tier Sword Art as there was no nature part of this technique. However, it was at this time where the Triple Draws showed superiority. He could combine all his techniques with his Triple Draws. In other words, if he used his Blade of Conquest with Triple Draws, he could send three Sword Waves almost simultaneously, making this technique very powerful. And if Alex decided to use it along with his spear, he could easily create six Sword Waves, turning into a far more powerful attack. Unfortunately, the limit was three swings, and he even had stretched it out to reach three swings somehow. If a normal person created this technique, it would only be a normal Sword Drawing Technique, while a genius might come up with Dual Draws. It was only because of his Sword Mastery and unique Sword Intent giving him the chance to create this powerful Original Technique. It took him three weeks to create this technique and stepped on the uncharted territory. Still, he officially reached the Sword Emperor Stage. At first, Alex was a bit unsure whether to make his Spear Technique right after or not, considering he only had one week left. Ultimately, Alex decided to give up. Unlike his Sword Technique, he did not have any picture of what kind of Spear Technique he would make, so thinking about it would take a long time. He came out of the training room, walking straight to the main room where he found Anya with a troubled expression. "Anya? Why do you have such expressions?" Alex looked at her with a worried expression, wondering if something big had happened when he cultivated. "Hmm... I have a few good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?" Anya asked, letting out a long sigh. Alex pondered for a moment, recalling when his system usually gave him good things first before pummeling his mood, so he said, "Good news then." [Thank you for thinking about me, Host.] "Shut up." Alex chuckled. "Alright." Anya ignored their conversation and proceeded with the good news. "First of all, almost all spirits have somehow managed to reach 7-Star Martial Emperors with Jeanne reaching 9-Star and Leoz to 4-Star. Only me, Greg, Vera, and Jean have yet to reach 7-Star, but considering your Gacha Tickets now, you can easily use EXP Cards to raise our level." "Oh, I forgot about it. I got 350 Gacha Tickets and 3 Gacha Cards back then." Alex nodded, imagining that his spirits were killing machines. He could feel he had at least 800 Gacha Tickets at this moment. In any case, he would raise Leoz to 4-Star Martial Monarch and Jeanne to 10-Star Martial Emperor or 1-Star Martial Monarch, depending on how many EXP Cards he could get in the next Gacha session. "What is the second good news?" "The second news is about the Blackwade Clan, they have agreed with our terms and don''t sell anything to the Joyful Union Sect. At the very least, Nicole did not find any elders smuggling pills to them." "Good, we don''t have a reason to attack them then." Alex nodded. "Yeah. Besides that, Song Yu has raised her own force within these months. Though Nicole has yet to get the exact number, we can assume they have five thousand Blackwade Clan disciples." "Oh? Five thousand?" Alex looked down, thinking it should not be possible to gather all those people without being noticed by the Fire God Clan. "Any movement from Fire God Clan?" "No. They have not noticed it." "What?!" Alex was dumbfounded. He did not know if it was because the Fire God Clan was incompetent or Blackwade Clan was that amazing. Either way, this was a good thing for him. At the start, he thought there would only be one thousand people from the Blackwade Clan, but with this, the chance to destroy the Joyful Union Sect increased. "Yeah. You won''t believe what we found. It''s not Song Yu alone that raises the force, but three people. I don''t know why but it seems the former head of Blackwade Clan also joins the fray, helping Song Yu in this matter. Here is the report." She handed a paper, containing the date of the people and how many they had gathered at the moment. Alex took the paper and read it, dropping his jaw the moment he saw the third person. "Seriously..." "Yes." Anna smiled. "In any case, according to our speculation, they at least have five thousand people, consisting of two hundred Martial Emperors, one thousand Martial Kings and three thousand Martial Lords." Alex nodded. "Actually, I have come up with a plan to deal a great blow on the Joyful Union Sect in the big war. From my prediction, I should be able to stop at least fifteen thousand people, allowing us to gain a big advantage." "Oh, A trap? I like it." She smirked, realizing Alex''s plan. "Yeah. It seems the good news ends here," Alex said, wondering if he had another good thing to know. "Actually, there is one good news, but it''s linked to bad news." She looked at Alex with a troubled look. "Oh?" Alex nodded, thinking, ''Here it comes.'' "Yeah. Evelyn became Martial King two months ago and reached this continent two months ago." "..." He furrowed his eyebrows. If that was the good news, the bad news should be related to Evelyn. A bad feeling rose in his heart. "She has been captured by the Joyful Union Sect." "!!!" Alex opened his eyes wide. "What?!" "Yeah. I will explain the chronology process according to the N squad. After becoming a Martial King, the Thiveapia Kingdom and Heavenly Sword Sect threw a party. Unfortunately, the hype died down as soon as she announced she was going to this continent. "Despite many oppositions, especially coming from the Thiveapia Kingdom, no one could stop her from going to this continent. Do you remember when you used both weapons a few months ago? I think that leads them to find out your identity. "Though they might not have the courage to venture to the Willow Continent because of your master, they still have that useless young master who is bothering our Rose right now. By knowing Evelyn''s schedule from him, they captured her. In fact, this might be the perfect time to do it, considering we are too occupied with this war thingy and believed that Evelyn would reach the Blackwade Clan. "I''m sorry, Alex. If only I had predicted this would happen, I would ask Rose to make her stay on the Willow Continent until this storm passes... Only Ngina on the Willow Continent anyway, and he is protecting Rose, not Evelyn." Alex pinched his eyebrows, closing his eyes. "How is her situation?" He feared that she would get inhuman treatments from them since they were an R-18 Sect. Fortunately, his answer came in the form of shaking his head. "Because of the preparation of this war, they can''t do anything to Evelyn. After all, she is their current weapon against you. According to the N squad, she is locked down in their basement." "I see. That''s good then." He felt relieved. "I could not... no, I don''t want to imagine what kind of inhuman treatment she would get in there. Luckily, since she has yet to serve her purpose, she is safe. In that way, I will rescue her by myself. Just ask the exact position from the N Squad, and I will go there with my teleportation array." "I will. There is actually one more thing. I feel this is a good setback to Evelyn. From our little black cat, Evelyn''s aura has changed from childish to mature. Just like when you decide to get rid of your low self-esteem after sealing Alicia. I feel she can achieve far. Rose is still the best though, at least in terms of potential." Anya smiled. "I see..." Alex fell into silence, not knowing what to say. It could be said he was also at fault here, considering she was captured because of him. However, even after reminding her again and again, Evelyn decided to stick with him. Maybe after this time, he needed to talk about it to her, whether they should sever this relationship or not. After all, he was like a pseudo mentor, which was not a really great status. "How is Rose?" "She is a 7-Star Martial Lord right now. I plan to give her a lightning gem to enhance her lightning power after reaching Martial King, though with some trial. She also avenged her parents by destroying ''that'' family. After knowing how bad that family is, she kills them all instead of their young master alone. "As for her pursuer, he is still persistent despite being rejected hundreds of times. She does not want to trouble you, so she has yet to kill him." "Hmm... After destroying the Joyful Union Sect, I will kill that family." He nodded. "Sure." She nodded, recalling something. "Ah, one last thing. It seems the Joyful Union Sect is pretty daring by sending one of their elders to participate in the auction." "Ho..." Alex was astonished. "Then, we shall use that head as a war declaration." "Yeah. That''s what I am planning to do." She nodded. "What about the first elder and that person?" "Much to my dismay, they are still alive. Though they will die in this war." She said with killing intent. "Is that all?" Alex asked. "Yeah, I believe so." "Then, I am going to open my Gacha first. Tell the others to stand by since I am going to summon them around the time I finish the auction." "That''s right. You are planning to attack them right after the auction ends..." Anya nodded. "Don''t worry, I will prepare everything for you, though you need a few things from the Blackwade Clan for your plan." "Yeah. I know." Alex nodded. "Just proceed with what you can do at the moment and leave the rest to me." 528 Gacha and Reunion Having at least a week, Alex was wondering what he should do other than opening his Gacha. In the end, he shook that thought off his mind, focusing on the Gacha. His Gacha Status appeared by a single wave of his hand, revealing the numbers of his Gacha. [Gacha Ticket x891] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x5] [Gacha Coin x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] He pondered for a moment before deciding to enter the Gacha Palace. Realizing his intention, the system summoned the gate, leading him to the gate. [Come in, Host.] "..." Alex smiled, walking toward the gate. Before he opened the gate, his system already opened it, revealing the usual system girl. "I have a present for you today, and I am sure you will like it." She smiled gently, leading him inside by holding his hand. Alex was filled with astonishment since the system never really gave him a present. And suddenly, another gate appeared in the opposite direction of him. He looked at the system girl, asking, "Is there any new feature?" "That is my present for you." She smirked. "It''s because of the last event where you almost died." Alex made a weird smile, "I am sorry for that." "Fufu..." She chuckled mysteriously, recalling a few months earlier. Her computer showed the scene that Alex saw as usual before that old man appeared and almost killed him. At that time, she was furious and wanted to kill that old man by herself. After all, the world itself had yet to recognize her soul, allowing her to enter it by using the system as the catalyst. Ultimately, she decided to stay for several reasons. She could not predict what would happen if she showed herself at that moment. Luckily, the opponents were not stronger than the spirits, convincing her not to go. This reward she prepared for him was her compensation to him. "Do you want to guess what this present is?" Alex stared at her for a while before answering, "A hundred UR items?" "Are you acting right now? You are not shameless enough, and it''s forced. I can only rate it with three stars out of five." She grinned, giving a teasing glance. "Nope. I am not acting; it''s just my wish." Alex shrugged. She sighed, "Anyway, let us see the present." The gate began to open with a single wave from her, revealing two shadows. The first one had purple hair tied into twin tails, reaching to her waist. Her blue eyes had a trace of ice element, influencing her eye color. Her beauty was enhanced once more, taking away one''s breath. The other one had blazing red hair, running down her back. She had this weird aura that complimented her devilish body. They wore the same black dress as Lin Xingzhi as the uniform. Alex dropped his jaw to the ground, shocked until he could not think. He looked like a broken toy, staring at these two figures with blank eyes. "Eh? Did I break him?" She looked at him with a complicated expression before turning to the two figures, "Come here, Firia, Alicia, we need to fix him." It turned out the present was Alicia and Firia. They somehow wanted to meet him earlier, but they were not strong enough. Only after breaking through to Martial King, they could use their soul to come to this place. Though they wanted to give Lin Xingzhi some space with Alex, they were too worried after hearing he almost died. In the end, without even them asking, she had given them the invitation for this, which they accepted. "Hehe..." She grinned, reuniting this husband and wives. Just as she was about to leave them alone, her hands were grabbed by the two women. "Sister, you can''t leave." Alicia smiled. "That''s right. Both of us are your assistant right now, so you can''t leave right now." Firia nodded, convincing her. Lin Xingzhi could only smile upon seeing this. They had gotten close these past few years despite not seeing each other that much. Information about Alex''s progress always came every month for both of them, increasing their desire to get stronger. Ultimately, she got recognized by both of them first before Alex even knew her name. "Alex, you have no problem with her staying with us, right?" Alicia narrowed her eyes, asking him without giving any option. "I will send you back if you have." Firia nodded. Alex hugged them first, releasing his loneliness before answering, "Of course. She is no outsider. Still, I am glad both of you are fine." "Hehe..." Alicia chuckled, waving her hand to Lin Xingzhi and telling her to take advantage of the situation. Firia also blinked her eyes, supporting her. She was happy with their thought, but she ultimately shook her head, telling them it was not the time yet. Alex surely would not reject her if she decided to hug him from behind, but doing it like this would leave a bad taste in her mouth. At the very least, Alex needed to know her name first. As of yet, he was still unqualified to know her name. Unexpectedly, after releasing Alicia and Firia from his embrace, he turned around, facing the system girl. He took her hands, raising it a little bit as he bowed down. "Thank you... Thank you..." She smiled, not saying anything. "That''s right, how about finishing your Gacha first? We can talk after this." Alicia suggested. "Yeah. We should do that rather than having this awkward moment." Lin Xingzhi nodded, smiling gently. Alex had no qualm and nodded his head. "Sure. I will open the Gacha Box first before opening the normal gacha." "Sure. Follow me." She led them to the previous Gacha Machine, using the three cards option. The machine then summoned three boxes for him as the system handed them to him. She waved her hand, taking out the bonus box too. "Here you go." Alex stared at the four boxes before looking at them. "We are four people here, how about each of us open one? Maybe the legendary beginner luck will occur again?" "Beginner? I am the Grand Master of this system, and you expect me to open?" Linn Xingzhi shrugged, not wanting to open it. "I will pass." Alicia shook her head. "Same here. I will comment on everything you get." Firia smirked, planning to tease him if he got bad items. "Oi." He helplessly shook his head, taking out three Gacha Cards and placing them on the boxes one by one. [Dragon Strengthened Bow (UR) x1] [Water Tank (R) x1] [Ancient Peacock Blood (SR) x1] [Windy Blow Technique (UC) x1] He observed the Dragon Strengthened Bow, which seemed to be a peak rank 7 bow before turning to the system. "I thought I would get rank 8 bow if I got UR, is the system rigged?" "Nope. It''s just a small adjustment. I mean, take a look at this. If you reach Martial Monarch and give you Divine Item, can you handle that and what would others think if they see it? This adjustment also applies to your spirit. They can''t level up anymore after reaching level 80 or Peak Martial Saint. You need to reach God Stage first before they can level up again. And you also can''t use any EXP Cards to them as soon as they reach God Stage." "..." Alex stared at her, wondering if she nerfed the system. He then looked at Alicia and Firia. "She always did this to me." "You need to hear her explanation first before complaining." Alicia rebuked him. "That''s right." Alex looked at them in amazement, never expecting them to choose her over him. "As I have said to you in the past, the system is not omnipotent like what you think. Just like when you are cultivating in this world, you have a limit up to Martial Saint and would not be able to advance further. And this system limit is God Stage. As for the whole explanation about the world, you don''t need to know it right now. It''s better for you to take your time and advance as soon as possible. That is the answer to your question earlier." The explanation stupefied him. Many questions flashed in his mind, but he only uttered one question to himself, not them. ''If I reach God Stage, I can meet Alicia and Firia again, and also the system... probably. At that time, will I continue my journey?'' This question shook his very motivation, that kept him going. By the time he reached the end of the journey, would he still keep going, searching for another chance to breakthrough? He could not find the answer he was looking for. "Alex?" They tried to wake him up, waving their hands or shaking him. "Ah?" Alex snapped back into reality, burying the question deep inside his mind. He would answer it when the time came. "Anyway, I will just reward the bow to my disciple later. "As for the water tank, I will keep it. Maybe I will have too many and can make a lake with it." Alex shrugged. "Pfft. A lake." Firia laughed. "I am in no position to say anything." Lin Xingzhi quickly gave her stance. "Yeah, because you gave me all of that water." Alex narrowed his eyes, staring at her. "By the way, how many water bottles do I have right now?" [Water Bottle x7840] [Water Gallon x974] [Water Tank x27] "..." He was stupefied after checking the number, never expecting to be this many. "Pfft." Alicia and Firia could not see it, but they knew he must have many of them, making them chuckle. "Is there any difference with the Ancient Peacock Blood? I usually get a Rank 6 or Rank 7 Monster blood, but the name was not specified." He suddenly asked the system. "Like Kyle, you can use this blood to become half Ancient Peacock Blood and gain strength. You have clearly stated that you won''t abandon your humanity, so this is useless for you," she answered. "I see." Alex understood, classifying it as another power system. As for the last Windy Blow Technique, he already had that technique inside his brain, so he threw it inside the Inventory, letting it rot. "Use all my Gacha Tickets." After opening the Gacha Boxes, he quickly asked the system, not wanting to waste any second so they could talk. She nodded and walked toward the machine, inserting all his Gacha Tickets before using all his Summoning Coins. Alex got 17 Rare EXP Cards, making him sigh. He needed to sacrifice someone in this battle as the EXP Cards might not be enough to level them up. "Putting the trouble aside, how are you guys doing?" Alex asked. They continued to talk about Alicia''s progress and how she became a Phoenix Queen. He would surely tell Vera about this, considering she was the previous Ice Phoenix Queen. On the other hand, Firia had her own training with his master''s wife, reaching the same level as Alicia, a 5-Star Martial King. Alex could only shake his head, finding how ridiculous it was to be spoon-fed. In fact, if he stayed like Alicia or Firia, he might reach Martial Monarch already, except his skills and experiences would be too low, making him a paper tiger. He also probed everything about the system, but to no avail, as the system stopped him every time he asked. Ultimately, she said she would reveal it later, not specifying the date. They talked for about a day, discussing everything from small things to big things. Unfortunately, it was the time limit where the system needed to expel him from the Gacha Palace. He came out of the palace with a smile even after knowing he might not meet Alicia and Firia again in that place as they wanted to train. He waved his hands, saying goodbye to all of them and looking at the disappearing gate. "Fu." His mood had cheered up, raising back his determination. Just as he was about to come up, Anya opened his door, giving him the last report about the Joyful Union Sect. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 529 Auction House "This is the last report of our status from Anna." She handed a paper to him. Alex read for a minute, not leaving any single details. Their efforts had resulted in weakening the enemy force. At first, they would need to fight around six thousand Martial Kings and more than five hundred Martial Emperors. After destroying all the branches, they killed more than a thousand Martial Kings and a hundred Martial Emperors from all their branches. They did not really care about the twenty thousand Martial Lords or even more below that level as he considered them as experience points. He could trap more than half of them if he played the card right. Meanwhile, Song Yu force could at least hold half of their force while his Spirits would go rampage with the other half. After giving the last blow, they could then rout the Joyful Union Sect. "Good, I can see the path to victory." Alex nodded with a smile. He checked his system, calculating how many EXP Cards he needed to level his spirits. Jeanne needed eight EXP Cards to become 1-Star Martial Monarch while he used the rest to Anya, raising her level to 5-Star Martial Emperor since he did not raise her level previously. "We will arrive at the last minute, so tell Nicole to convey our time. I don''t want to find unnecessary problems, so it''s better if someone can guide me inside the auction room as soon as I reach there. They should know about my VIP card anyway, so it should not be a problem." "Sure. Considering you are going to discuss an important topic, they should understand it too." Anya nodded, noting his request down. "I am going to relax for a few days and think about the concept of my original spear technique." "Alright. You have been training madly for the past few months, so you deserve some rest." Alex nodded, locking himself inside the bedroom. Before relaxing his mind, he took out Vera''s card. "Vera, do you know there is another Ice Phoenix Queen after you?" "Really?" Vera was surprised since the system did not tell her anything. "I am happy they have another me." "Actually... It''s my wife, Alicia. According to her, she somehow managed to complete a hundred percent of the ritual. I don''t know what ritual though." On the other side, Vera opened her mouth in surprise, clarifying Alex''s doubt. "It''s the Ice Phoenix Ritual. Since Young Master''s wife was a human, after going through the ritual, she completely became an Ice Phoenix Spirit, and truly mastered the ice. Does Young Master find our Ice Phoenix Spirit ugly?" "No," Alex answered with one word, understanding her worry. She was afraid Alex would leave Alicia because she became Ice Phoenix Spirit, seeing how adamant he was in keeping his humanity. If Alex really disgusted by that, he would not look at his Spirits, like Anna and Anya, or his contracted beast like Sherry. "It... It''s not like I am happy to receive this news, alright? This is only my last duty as the former Ice Phoenix Queen to know that there is another generation of Ice Phoenix Queen." "Yeah. I know." He smiled, ignoring the annoying line. "Anyway, I am truly happy that Young Master''s wife is the next Ice Phoenix Queen." "Thank you." Sherry and Kyle had reached 6-Star Martial Emperors a month ago, but Kyle almost reached 7-Star. Unfortunately, despite his effort, he could not reach 7-Star until the time limit. On the other hand, Stina felt fabulous. After she stuck at 7-Star Martial Emperor for a few thousand years, all memory about how wonderful the feeling of breaking through came back to her mind. She felt more energetic, hoping Kyle would become an adult soon. Alex turned blind eyes to their matter since Kyle wanted to take responsibility. In an instant, the auction finally came as Alex came out of his room, finding Anya, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina outside of his room. "Sorry for making you wait." Alex smiled before turning to Anya. "Have the others come back?" "Yeah. They are inside the card." "Master, we are going now?" Sherry came to him. Since this was inside the base, she let out her fox ears and tail, making her look cute. Alex smiled and patted her head, "Yeah. We are going." She nodded, turning into a light ball before coming inside his body. Kyle and Stina also did the same while Anya said one last thing to him. "I have recalled all the N squad back inside the card so that you won''t get any more information past this point." "Yes. I know." Alex nodded, taking out her card and recalling her back. He tossed the card inside the Inventory and snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array. He only needed to make six teleportations array before arriving in front of the Blackwade Clan headquarters inside a city called Jild. The city was bigger than he thought, but still within his expectation. He went through all the process he needed to go inside while wearing his mask. He did not forget to ask the direction of the Blackwade Clan. With how big the attraction of the auction, the guard immediately pointed the direction. In the center of the city stood a building which was different from the others. Its size alone was close to a football stadium, rivaling the size of the mansion of Blackwade Clan. He went inside and found it bustling with people. The aura felt very familiar, like he was looking at the combination of Alchemist Guild, Forging Master Guild, Array Master Guild by smelling the medicinal herbs, metallic scent, blood scent mixing in the air. It was like a supermarket where you could buy anything you wanted, from electronics to food. Song Yu said she would wait for him in the entrance, so he looked around, searching for her. After a few seconds not finding her, he suddenly heard a woman voice from behind. "I have been waiting for you." "!!!" Alex recognized this voice, which was not Song Yu''s voice. He turned around, finding a big Song Yu standing in front of him. "It''s been a while, ehm... Miss Song Jia." "Just call me Song Jia, since you are my benefactor. Anyway, Elder Sister asked me to bring you to your room." Song Jia smiled. She purposely hid her presence earlier as to not make a flashy appearance and bring trouble to him, causing Alex to wait. "Yeah. It''s better to go there first." He nodded. "I will trouble you then." Song Jia nodded, and led him to the top floor, making others suspicious for what reason a princess of the Blackwade Clan family would accompany someone. They never heard about her having a man by her side. In addition, she also talked with him in a polite way, very different from how she treated others, especially her past challenger nature. The top floor usually was for VIP or top influence ambassadors. To his surprise, before coming inside the room, a familiar voice came from his side. "Oh, you are..." As soon as he heard this voice, he turned around, finding the same man he met back then: the West Blue Clan young lord, Ruben, and his fiancee, the Antheream Family, Lucia. Song Jia only smiled, greeting them politely. "Pleasure to have both of you here, and I hope you enjoy the auction today." "Such an honor for me to have the great Miss Song Jia to greet me like this." Ruben acted like his unrealistic gentleman way before receiving an elbow on his stomach area from Lucia. Of course, Ruben did not like her or whatsoever as he wanted to probe the masked man''s identity. For a Blackwade Clan to invite him on this top floor, it would only mean he was that important. Lucia bowed her head, placing her hand on her chest. "Nice to meet you, Blackwade Clan''s second young lady, Song Jia." As a daughter of the economy tyrant in the west, she obviously did not want to lose against her, albeit her opponent changed back to Song Yu as soon as she heard her coming back. She was not surprised, as if she had already expected a greeting like this. Alex watched silently without interjecting. "Fufu..." In the past, Song Jia might challenge her, but now, she exhaled and looked at Lucia calmly. "Yeah. I hope you will have a pleasant time in this city. However, I would expect you to buy a few things at this auction. After all, the Antheream Family should have enough money to buy our items, right? Or do you want us to lend you some?" "..." Though she had not met Song Jia in the past few years, she recognized her change in this exchange. The taunt failed to rile her up. Instead, it made her smile. She thought for a moment before saying, "Of course, unlike Blackwade Clan, who uses this situation to set up an auction, we are more trustable. We can afford all the items you set in the auction, albeit I wonder if you have a good item that could fancy us..." Song Jia narrowed her eyes since their main target was the Fire God Clan by using the Flame Heating Lotus. Little did she know it was Alex''s target all along. "Still, to think the great Song Jia would lead someone like this, Is he your man?" "It''s none of your business." She began to revert to her previous character after losing patience in this conversation. At this time, Ruben sent a thought transmission to Lucia. ''Oi Oi. You can''t just antagonize them like that. We have yet to get a clear grasp of this masked man. I thought this masked man is the same person as the one who destroyed all branches of the Joyful Union Sect. ''If this is really the same man, he is a bad deal. Just take a look at his cultivation; it''s impossible to reach 4-Star from 1-Star Martial Emperor within five months. It might be a little possible considering the resource from Blackwade Clan, but you need to remember that he was heavily injured back then.'' The answer came in the form of glare, shutting his mouth up. Lucia knew it better than him already, answering back with her thought, ''I know that already. I thought the same at first. In fact, I am taunting her to see whether they are the same person and have some relationship with the Blackwade Clan. If Song Jia herself led him here, it would mean there is something between him and her. Most probably they are like us, arranged by family. So, shut up and let me do my part.'' ''Though you have fallen for this great man''s charm.'' He said proudly. If this were a normal conversation, she would beat him up. She ended up holding back her desire and let him win this time. At the same time, Alex had another thought. The news would not travel so fast, and with the timing of Strength Plateau, it would not bring him too much trouble. Recalling the green box that Song Yu gave him, he took it out before handing it to Song Jia. "You can have this." "!!!" All eyes locked on the box before staring at Alex with a dumbfounded face. From Alex''s perspective, he only returned the box while showing his prestige. Joyful Union Sect and Fire God Clan would not have time to make trouble for him because of the time, let alone the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family far in the west. As he said a few months ago, it was time for his Spirit Nest to resurface and shake the continent. On the other hand, Song Jia, Ruben, and Lucia were dumbfounded by the green box and his words. He said, ''You can have this.'' and that was it. He did not state the purpose, meaning he truly gave it to her. Whether she chose to put it in the auction or not was up to her. In any case, this scene will undoubtedly bring misunderstanding. "You can finish your business first, and I will wait inside," Alex said, noticing a person''s energy inside the room, who was most likely Song Yu. He left those dumbfounded people and entered the room. As soon as he closed the door, Song Yu turned around, smiling at him. "You have come, Junior Brother." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 530 Song Yu "You have come, Junior Brother." "Yeah." Alex nodded and looked around the room, checking any suspicious things in his room or other rooms around. "It''s only been a few years, and you have become stronger than me." She could not help but sigh. Alex had become a 4-Star Martial Emperor while she was only a 2-Star Martial Emperor, the gap was too far, and once Alex became stronger than her, she would not be able to catch up in the future. After ensuring that the surrounding rooms looked normal, he turned to Song Yu and said, "I am just lucky." "You always answer like this. Maybe you should give me a portion of your good luck." She smirked. When he was about to say something, Song Jia entered the room, intruding on their small conversation while handing Alex''s green box. "This is your box. Though I am thankful for helping me earlier, you still need the box." "You give her a key to the Strength Plateau?" Song Yu was surprised. "Actually, I am returning the box," Alex answered frankly, shrugging his shoulder. He was not surprised that Song Yu did not hear it despite her hearing ability because the Sound Insulation Array was placed in every room. It should be for privacy purposes, he thought. "!!!" Song Yu realized what he meant, recalling the matter from one year ago where she came to the Spirit Nest. "This... Is this my green box?" "Yeah. I already have mine, so I will just give it back," he replied. "It''s better for Senior Sister to have it." "Elder Sister?" Song Jia stared at Song Yu dumbfoundedly, never expecting her to give him something like that. "Ehm..." She glanced left and right, not knowing what to say. "Actually, I found the box in the past and just stored it inside my Space Ring." He withdrew his gaze, searched for his seat and relaxed. "Junior Brother, this..." Song Yu glanced at him, wanting to give it back to him. "It''s fine." He waved his hand, looking at the auction area. "Can you keep this a secret?" She turned back to Song Jia with a complicated expression. "..." Song Jia did not know what to do since it was a grave matter. Usually, to give something like this would require elders and patriarch approval. Considering she never said something like this and treated it like it did not exist, this matter would not blow up inside the family. She pondered for a moment before saying, "Alright. Just this once." "Thanks." Alex stopped caring about their matter, grabbed the catalog in the table beside him and searched if the list had anything different from what Anna gave. "Alright. Let''s stop this talk, I will handle it with the family." Song Yu sighed, stretching her hand to Song Jia and asking for the green box. "Yeah." She nodded and handed the box. Song Yu stored the box inside her space ring before walking toward Alex. "Well, you are going to talk about the war against the Joyful Union Sect, right? There is still an hour before the auction starts, so it''s better to talk about it now." "Sure." Alex nodded before glancing at Song Jia. Song Yu misunderstood his intention and explained why Song Jia led him here and stayed. "My sister-" "She is gathering people together with you and your grandfather. Don''t worry, I know that." Alex shrugged. Song Jia stupefied while Song Yu shook her head helplessly. "As expected, you already know it." His expression was still flat, not happy or proud of his achievement. She closed her eyes, recalled the scene where she talked with her grandfather. ... "I have brought you a helper. Look." Her grandfather said, pointing toward a person on her back. Though she might have heard the sound, she did not know who it was. Her eyes couldn''t help but widen as she turned around. "You-" "Sister, I wish to help you in this fight as well as to pay him back for saving my life." They already knew the matter about the poison and the Klard City, but they expected Putri to come first. Yet, not only Song Jia came first, she wanted to take part in it instead of suggesting the idea. It was true that Putri did not have enough influence to gather force, while Song Jia had matured and shown great progress, making her a perfect candidate. Even so, it was hard to make the decision. "In the past, I knew I had a rash personality and reflected on it. This time, I want to help you and pay my debt back." "Song Yu," Her grandfather called her and smiled. "Take a look at her. She is not the younger sister that you need to protect all time. Though she could not be as efficient as you or me, let her try. Don''t worry, I will be responsible for her training, while you need to give her a chance to prove herself." Song Yu stared at her younger sister. The memories of the past kept replaying in her mind. They ended with a flash of the memory where she needed to flee from the continent to protect her and her family. "This old man is not involved in the family''s matter again. On the other hand, you have many matters at your hands, and you alone might not be able to handle all of them. That''s why take your younger sister as your assistant. I believe both of your potentials are equal, she just does not have enough experience and responsibility until you finally return to this continent." "It''s enough, Grandfather." She stopped him and sighed. "It''s not you who need to convince me, but her." "This matter will be dangerous and might endanger the entire family with one wrong step. Are you sure you can take up the responsibility?" Song Jia took a deep breath before saying, "Yes. Let me help you." She had been practicing like a mad and trained her other skills befitting the young lady of big influence. The only thing she wanted was a chance to prove herself. "Sister might be able to gather more than two thousand people, and I surely can''t replace that. However, I believe I can gather around one thousand people too." "Ho. But the fact that you have spies in your own group..." She stopped, knowing she should not continue. Song Jia clenched her fist. "Yes. I can''t say anything about that. After that incident, I had found another spy in my group and killed him before running a full check on my followers. I assure you I have cleaned my group." She pondered for a few minutes before saying, "Alright." Song Jia gripped a corner of her clothes, saying inwardly, ''I won''t disappoint anyone this time.'' After that, they often gathered to discuss the continuation of their plan. ... She opened her eyes and asked, "Are we going to strike them right after the Strength Plateau?" Considering it would be a huge gathering, many higher-ups of Joyful Union Sect would certainly gather there. If they ambushed them when they flew back to the sect, they could cripple the Joyful Union Sect. "No." Alex shook his head. "We are going to attack them right after this auction ends." "Wha-!" They once thought Alex would attack them right after or before the Strength Plateau Event and took their green boxes. To think he blew their mind with unexpected timing. "Are you insane?" Song Yu raised her voice. "They are holing themselves right now with all of their disciples there. If we attack now, we will take the full brunt of an entire sect. We need to diminish their strength first by attacking their higher up." "There is no best time other than attacking them now." He shrugged. "I can''t picture how we would win. We need to fight against their twenty-five thousand Martial Lords or above. A hundred thousand if you also count the Martial Masters and Martial Grandmasters. After preparing for five months, we only have five thousand. Do you also have an army?" "No. My number won''t exceed twenty people." Alex shook his head, disappointing them once again. "Then, why? If you are like this, I can''t order for an attack since I am still responsible for the lives of five thousand men." She walked toward her, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "Let me explain it first." Alex held her hands and pushed her away. "Just take a seat first." Song Yu exchanged looks with Song Jia before falling into silence. Then, they took their own seat as Alex started explaining his plan. "First of all, Evelyn is captured." "Evelyn?!" Song Yu instantly recognized this name, picturing that naive young girl. "Yeah." He nodded. "This is one of my reasons to start a war this early. The second reason is that I have confidence in trapping at least ten thousand enemies at once. We can ignore the Martial Master and Martial Grandmaster since they won''t bring any change in this war, so I promise you, I will trap ten thousand Martial Lords or above. Though I can''t promise if I can catch the Martial Emperors." "Ho-how?" Since he was planning to use it in the war, it would not hurt him to show her now. He pointed his finger at the Sound Insulation Array in front of them. It looked like there was a token where they could open the array when the auction started, so without a token, he manipulated the array and made a hole to let the sound come in. "!!!" Song Yu certainly knew nothing about this, while Song Jia was not that close to him to begin with. He then closed it again before saying, "I am an array master. As long as I use my card right, I can trap them. That''s why other than a certain item in this auction, I want to buy many Array Papers from you." "Unlike the Willow Continent, they also have many Array Masters in their rank, you know." Song Yu still could not picture how this trick would trap them. "I will have my assassins take care of their Array Masters the moment they need to break open my barrier. Besides, I will be using a Rank 6 Barrier, so we can eliminate the rank 5 or below Array Master. This way, I am sure we can count those array masters with our fingers." Alex smiled before tossing a space ring to her. "If they want to destroy the barrier, I will just throw my money there. This is why I have a deal of three million Spirit Gems with you." Song Jia dropped her jaw, hearing three million Spirit Gems from his mouth. If she calculated all money Spirit Nest got together with this business, he would have five million Spirit Stones. Based on how loyal the Spirit Nest was, all the money would certainly go into his pocket. "That''s why in this auction. If I don''t have enough money, can you put it to my tab first? I will get the rest of the money after destroying the Joyful Union Sect." He smiled. "You are very confident, aren''t you?" "I will give you all of their green boxes for the strength plateau for the compensation of helping me. Though I will get all the things inside their treasury." "..." Song Yu fell into silence... It would seem she and her grandfather had underestimated him. With him abandoning the two million profit of the medicinal herbs, she could use it to reward the people who joined the war, raising their motivation. "That''s right. You can get all the things in their space rings." Alex dropped another bomb. He felt the treasury would have more important things than those inside their space rings, so it was not a big deal to give it to Song Yu. "Still, do you think we can fight them with five thousand plus twenty people of yours?" "Don''t underestimate my people. Each is stronger than you think. Besides, with your Grandfather, and two of my subordinates, we will have three Martial Monarchs," Alex said. "But they also have a single Martial Monarch, around five hundred Martial Emperors and five thousand Martial Kings. So, I need to warn you first." Song Jia finally realized how monstrous Alex''s information network was, while Song Yu calculated the pros and cons in her mind. A few minutes later, she stretched her hands for a handshake. "Let''s destroy the Joyful Union Sect together, junior brother." She smiled. Alex nodded and shook her hand. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 531 Auction Star "By the way, is there any rule about this city, like I can''t kill or whatever?" Alex asked. "Not really." Song Yu shook her head. "Then it is fine if I use that elder''s head to wage war, right?" He asked, pointing at Joyful Union Sect''s room. "Oh." She nodded. "If you want to move right after the auction, it will be best to wait until night as to avoid any suspicion from the Fire God Clan. "That''s my plan." "Good." She turned back to Song Jia, "I need you to tell the others to get ready tonight..." Before she finished, she glanced at Alex, "Or do you want my younger sister to accompany you in this auction?" Song Jia stared at his back for a few seconds before rising from her seat. "I can handle our people. Elder Sister can stay here and continue discussing the plan." Alex did not say anything, not caring about who would stay. She only smiled and left the room. "You are blessed with a younger sister like that," Alex could not help but comment. "Yeah. I am proud of her." She nodded, raised her hand and puffed her chest. "On the battlefield, it will be better if your Blackwade Clan makes a late entrance. If possible, after I have erected the barrier to trap them." "Alright. Still, can your assassins kill the array masters? I mean, they are rank 6 array masters." Considering there were not many records about space element array masters, they might not understand how Extended World Array works. After all, this array had been tweaked by him with all his knowledge to make it harder to decipher. A few dummy symbols which served no purpose other than bait for people. Alex needed to make a few array papers so he could create an array big enough to produce those dummy symbols. In the meantime, his N squad could kill them. Though he did not use his EXP cards, they somehow were able to reach Martial Emperors since he found out that SR spirits were easier to level up than UR spirits long ago. The competence and stealth ability of his N squad would surely make the enemy confused. Of course, the worst-case scenario would be if they managed to break the barrier. He wasn''t certain how big the impact would hit him, so he decided to send a few people to protect the barrier from the array masters. He answered, "I will take care of the barrier, so you don''t need to worry about it. Just attack them as hard as possible while preparing for the worst." She paused for a few seconds before nodding her head. "Alright. By the way, you said you want an item in this auction, which item?" "Flame Heating Lotus." "!!!" Song Yu fell into silence and made a troubled look. "Are you sure?" "Yeah. It is beneficial to me." Alex acknowledged. "This might be a bit troublesome for us." "Why? Is it because the Fire God Clan is targeting it?" "Yeah." She nodded. "I really need this Flame Heating Lotus, and I won''t give it to anyone." "No. That''s not what I mean." She sighed. "The Fire God Clan might use this as a reason to attack you or us." "Don''t worry. They won''t have the time to react. First of all, they need to go back first and come back with their people. It will take at least three days from Fire God Clan to Joyful Union Sect. I carefully choose the timing to make sure that won''t happen." "The person who is coming to this auction is their young master, the one that wants me. He brings three 9-Star Martial Emperors here." Song Yu explained carefully, making sure he understood the possibility. "If he decides to enter the war despite having little number, the only result is death. In that case, you can take that chance to attack the Fire God Clan after destroying the Joyful Union Sect." Alex shrugged. "If they are coming back to bring their people, it would be too late as the war would be over. Trust me. I am not someone who would drag on the war." "Alright. I will go according to your plan." She pondered for a moment and nodded. "Back to the previous topic, I feel they will fight a money war with you." "That''s why I am asking for a leeway. From my information, the Joyful Union Sect at least has 10 million Spirit Gems. I don''t really like thieves, so I don''t want to take someone''s possession unless they are my enemy, that I made not because of this money war." Alex sighed. She stared at him for a while before shaking her head helplessly. "In this world, you can kill someone because of a whim or from the slightest grievances, and you don''t want that?" "Nah. I am not a good person, but I still have integrity. If I labeled something bad, I rather not do it than doing it before explaining with flowery words, especially in this case. If not with my power, I can steal the flower before you can put it in the auction." "It''s... true." Song Yu wanted to say he could not steal it, but Nicole''s figure flashed in her mind. Just like Nicole, Alex could really bypass their defense and steal it unless they put a few elders to guard it. In fact, Alex wanted to rescue Evelyn by using his N squad, but the prison was filled with Martial Emperors with two elders standing on the guard. Little did they know it was still useless in front of Alex''s power. "Anyway, I want to buy Array Papers first since we need to wait." "Sure. Let me bring it to you." Song Yu poured tea for him before leaving the room. Alex then started enjoying his time alone in the room and began observing the auction room. He was in the first room from the right. The elder from Joyful Union Sect, who came alone, was two rooms beside him. On the other hand, Blue West Clan and Antheream Family stayed together while the Fire God Clan was right beside them. Alex saw another room with one person inside, thinking it should be another VIP guest like him. Ignoring that guest, he looked at the stage with his Spirit Eyes. "Oh!" He found an array underneath the stage and calculated the number of symbols. "Rank 6... It must be there to prevent anyone from stealing it just by activating it." After observing the platform, he picked up a porcelain teacup and took a sip. The waiting time was surely boring, but luckily, Song Yu came back after ten minutes. She handed the space ring to him. "There are a few 100x100 meter array papers made by rank 6 monsters, along with their blood." Alex channeled his spiritual energy inside the ring, checking the quality and quantity. "Good enough. How much?" "You don''t need to worry about it. Just take it as a gesture from me since you will give so many things to us later like the green boxes and money from the auction... making me feel bad. At the very least, I can cover a little portion of your expense." She waved her hand. How could she accept it when she would get a few million Spirit Gems in the near future from the Flame Heating Lotus and Alex''s medicinal ingredients. In addition, he would even give their green boxes." He did not act reserved and took the space ring. "Thanks." "I should be the one who says that." Song Yu paused for a moment before saying, "Can you really draw many symbols in a day? From what I know, array masters draw slowly to prevent any misstep." "Don''t compare me with them," He stated and sipped his tea. "True enough. I almost forgot how monstrous your pill refining speed alone, and the array should be easy for you. Alright. I don''t need to worry about it anymore." "Yeah." He nodded. "Actually... I want to tell you something." Song Yu looked down, playing with her hair. "What is it?" "It''s about your VIP card." "Is there something special about it?" "I asked my grandfather, but it was related to the main family. All he heard was just a rumor, so if you want to know the truth, you need to go to the main family. I am sorry that I can''t help you." She sighed. "Hmm... I don''t have a purpose there and might only utilize it as a trading partner. Whether I know or not, I don''t care." "Actually, my grandfather asked me to accompany you to the Heavenly Continent to ask about the card." "I have something to do, so I am not sure I can travel to the Heavenly Continent directly from here. I also need to fix Rose''s problem and go to the Sacred Continent." Alex rejected her by saying his general plan. She did not ask the details of his plan. Instead, she smiled and encouraged him. "Good luck. I am planning to go there in the future. So, if fate reunites us, I will give you detailed information about the card. Though I doubt I will know it before you." Alex shrugged. "Just leave it to the future." "Sure." Having nothing important to talk about, they decided to talk about all the smaller things like Rose and Evelyn. After a while, a middle-aged man walked to the stage. He had the same blonde hair as Song Yu but no other similar features. Even so, Song Yu exclaimed, "Ah, that is my father. The auction is going to start soon." "Oh." Alex nodded, observing the guy. Unlike Song Yu''s cheerful personality, this person only put a strict face without any expression. Except for his power as a 10-Star Martial Emperor, Alex found no other distinctive feature from him. "Is he going to host the auction?" "Yeah. At first, we are going for the first elder, but seeing the potential of trouble, my father ends up hosting it." Just as he arrived in the middle of the platform and began turning around to start the auction, the applause echoed. He only waved his hand around without showing any expression before asking them to stop. After getting the attention of all people, he finally began talking. "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, I am your Host for today, as you might have already known, my name is Song Lei. As the current patriarch of Blackwade Clan, I would like to warn you before we start the auction. I am going to expel anyone that causes a ruckus in this place no matter which influence he/she has." He introduced himself with killing intent. The participants could not say a single thing, especially if they were not the people inside the VIP room. As for the other influences, they had known the quirk of this patriarch, so they just let this slide. "There are fifty items in this auction. Unless we have a bid fight, the maximum time for each item would be five minutes. And please note that this is a bidding war, not showing how prestigious your background is, so please refrain from threatening other bidders with your background. If you purposely use it to scare away other bidders, then I will recall the item and make it unsold since the price is unfair. "I myself will ensure that your information won''t be known to others. If any bidders want to pay the items, we have a special room for you and do the transaction simultaneously. Everything in this room will be a secret, so no one would know which items you get. "You are free to wear a mask or whatever to hide your identity too. If you don''t bring a mask, just ask one of our staff around you and ask for a mask. They will give you a mask in random choice. "One last warning, they are our staffs and protected by us. So, please refrain yourself from treating them like your sex slaves or whatever. It would mean disrespect for our Blackwade Clan. If you can''t abide by this rule, then I ask you to go out now." He stopped for a while before nodding his head, seeing no one leave. "Good. Now, I shall start the auction with the first item. Bring it in!" Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 532 Flame Heating Lotus "Bring it in." After hearing the order, a beautiful assistant walked to the platform, bringing the first item. The first item was a red-colored rock containing fire energy. It could increase one''s fire element slightly but not at the level of Elemental Gems like Fire or Wind Gem. Alex had no interest in that stone and turned his head. "Your father... is a bit special..." "Pfft." Song Yu chuckled. "I hear that a lot." "Even my grandfather is complaining about his attitude. Still, he is a great father, who won''t sacrifice me by using a political marriage, and a great patriarch." "Hmm... Sounds like a good father." "Yeah. Back then, he even wanted to step down and left the family to take care of me alone in another continent while leaving Song Jia in my grandfather''s care. Ultimately, my grandfather shut all the opposition up with his strength." She smiled, reminiscing all past scenes. "That''s good then." Alex nodded. "Yep. I am proud of him." She smiled brightly, saying it with her heart." Alex did not really care about her family, so he only nodded his head. "Oh, one more thing. I heard you had seen Putri. How is she?" Alex could not understand her question since Putri was under her care until now. He then realized she was asking about her progress in his eyes. "It''s good enough. As long as she has resources, she can become Martial Monarch or even Saint." "How is she compared to Evelyn and Rose?" He shook his head, refused to answer. Though the answer was clear, he did not want to compare them in front of others, and Song Yu could understand that. "Twenty million Spirit Stones, going once..." "Going Twice..." "Sold." The item was not really that good, so it had yet to reach the level where he needed to measure the money with Spirit Gems." He only closed his eyes while waiting until the Flame Heating Lotus. "I should come a few hours later..." "Haha... It seems nothing can fancy you other than lotus." Song Yu smiled upon his bored look. She stood up, fixed her flower embroidered short dress, and moved her chair closer to him. "You can cultivate to pass the time. I will wake you up later. There should be around four or five hours before the lotus even comes up, considering it is the last item." Alex took up her offer and closed his eyes. "Thank you." "Sure. This is my job after all." She glanced at Alex''s face and thought, ''Huft. You said luck, but I don''t believe it myself. Despite how you look, you surely have practice harder than anyone else. I even heard you almost died a few months ago. If I don''t have my background, can I become someone like you? Free and unfettered...'' The thought of it was beautiful, but just like anybody else, she did not know what kind of experience Alex had. It might be a good scene on her mind, but treacherous on his eyes. ''Still, I am wondering what can drive you to go to such an extent. I heard you are chasing your wives... I am wondering what kind of person they are. ''For a person like you to chase them, they must be pretty, have good talent and beauty, and many more. I am nothing in front of them.'' She sighed. ''To think I would help you by going back first... Why... Why did I only meet you after you become a Martial Emperor? A 4-Star at that. I am really unsuited to be your Senior Sister.'' "I am proud of you." She unconsciously uttered with her mouth. As if he did not hear her words, he opened his eyes and asked, "What is it?" "Nothing." Her heart skipped a beat, wondering if Alex was just playing dumb or not. Luckily, he did not pursue the matter anymore and closed his eyes again. She busied herself with taking notes on what she needed to do after the auction ended and planning ahead. Four hours passed by in an instant. Her father had auctioned more than forty-five items in a row without taking a break. Although it was a boring auction, the items livened up the situation. They had chosen the item carefully so as to grasp the attention of all influences and loose cultivators. Blackwade Clan wanted to use this opportunity to amass money and search for any mysterious person nearby. This was like Ruben''s intention when he asked Alex to come to the Blue West Clan, just in a different way. Unfortunately, except Alex, he found no genius or mysterious person that he could invite to their Blackwade Clan. Of course, his effort was still rewarded by finding Alex alone and his desire to take down one of the first-rate influences. The only problem was how he did not have any interest in this auction by not bidding anything. Each first-rate influence had shown their interest in one thing, but Alex had none. In fact, he could not fully grasp what was on his mind. On the other hand, Song Yu woke him up after the auction for the 45th item had ended. "Ehm?" Alex opened his eyes and checked his surroundings only to meet Song Yu''s gentle smile. "There are only four items more. Each item in the last five worth around one million Spirit Gems while the Flame Heating Lotus worth around two to three million Spirit Gems. "After all, it is a rank 7 medicinal ingredient and a very rare one on top of that. I doubt even Heavenly Continent has that." She explained. "I know." Alex nodded before thinking, ''Now that I think about it, I never get any item from the system that can help my Undying Fire Body refinement... System, do you have any of that?'' [It''s UUR item, Host.] "..." Alex almost chuckled when he heard it. Seeing how the system did not want to admit it, she purposely said it was an Ultra Ultra Rare item, which was impossible to get. [Your Undying Fire Body is not your ordinary art, and I doubt you can even get all the refinement done before you reach God Stage.] ''Isn''t that bad?'' [Nope. It''s not that bad, considering how powerful the real might of Undying Fire Body is.] ''True enough.'' He agreed. In the first three stages of refinement, he would have a qualitative leap in his absorption speed. In the fourth and fifth stage where he needed to refine his tendons and bones, there would be a huge leap for his strength. And the last two stages increase his recovery ability. Considering this ability was only for Pure Fire Element, he could somehow relate to the difficulty. Still, figuring out how long it would take him to refine all of his body, his mood went down. "Sigh..." Song Yu tilted her head, wondering if she should wake him up a bit later. "I am sorry. How about you cultivate again? I will wake you up when the Flame Heating Lotus is up." "Ah. I am not complaining about that." Alex waved his hand, telling it was fine. "I just thought about how difficult and how much money I would need in the future. I should search for a way to earn money. For the time being, I will be content in having the same amount of money as Blackwade Clan. "Well, I can just sell pills to you or maybe array papers. Ah, but I have not upgraded my alchemist and array master rank. Can I still sell pills or array plates?" "I can''t help you with the Alchemist and Array Master guild, but I will gladly become your trading partner if you want to sell some pills or array plates. Besides, you are a money-making machine just by looking at how rich you can be in a short amount of time. Maybe I should consider marrying you." She smirked. "Please don''t joke about that." He shook his head. "Sherry might come out and kick you." "Wuu." Speaking of the devil, Sherry came out as soon as she heard her name called. She punched the air a few times, telling Song Yu that she would fight her if she dared to joke about it. She could show herself to Song Yu since she had met her. Though she did not reveal her human form to avoid her from knowing she was a bit different from other monsters. "Besides, marrying me will just create an endless stream of problems for you. Just take a look at Evelyn right now. I might not be there when you need me the most, so it''s better not to get close to a person like me. Besides, I am also a bit skeptical about this thing." He stretched his hand to Sherry as she came to his lap, sitting comfortably. "Indeed. Still, to think Sherry has become a 6-Star Martial Emperor monster, my pride hurts." She laughed after saying half-joke and half-truth, brushing the matter off. "Wuu." She puffed her chest proudly, acting like she could not talk. "If only I have Sherry''s talent, I might be able to become a good senior sister." She patted Sherry''s head and smiled. "Are you worried about that? For me, you are a good senior sister. You take care of your junior and are very responsible." "Still, I don''t really help you before you shoot through me and become a 4-Star Martial Emperor." "Just by gathering the force for this war, you have helped me. I and my spirits can defeat the Joyful Union Sect, but we need time. If we want to destroy them in one fell swoop, we can only rely on you." "Hehe... That makes me happy." "By the way, did something big happen when I was cultivating?" "Except for a few bidding wars, there is really not much action. It''s usually like this when my father is holding the auction." Alex nodded and continued observing the auction. ... Thirty minutes later, "Sold!" "Finally, we will move to the last item, Flame Heating Lotus. This is a very rare rank 7 Fire Medicinal Herbs that could refine one''s body as long as he/she has Fire Element. Rumor said it could even increase your training speed, but we have no record of it. This also shows how rare this medicinal herb is. "The Heavenly Continent might not even have this medicinal herb right now. We were very lucky to stumble upon this item not long ago, and with the hype of the Strength Plateau, we decided to put it in today''s action. Without further ado, we shall start." His assistant came to the stage, bringing the herb and placing it on the bidder table. For the last item, Song Lei took out a token and channeled his spiritual energy. A translucent yellow barrier appeared from the ground, protecting him, the assistant and the lotus from any thief that would try to steal the lotus. No one was surprised by the yellow barrier''s appearance as if they had seen it a few times. Finding a doubt on Alex''s face, Song Yu explained the array slowly. "This is a rank 6 barrier array that is placed to prevent anyone from taking a precious item while we are still auctioning. Though we don''t really need to do it with my father as the host, it seems he wants to have a double layer of protection. "You are going to bid it, right? Do you want me to bid it?" Song Yu asked. Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "Sure. Just don''t rip me off, alright?" "Haha... I don''t want to be hated by you, so don''t worry. As a daughter of a merchant family, I know how to bid it." "Actually, I take that back." He just observed the last few items and noticed that despite having a staff from the Blackwade Clan, they did not ask them to bid on their behalf. Considering the relationship Song Yu has with the Fire God Clan''s young master, it would be better if he bid it himself. This way, he could avoid any trace of jealousy and fight him with money alone. "Are you sure?" "Yeah. It''s fine." Alex nodded before patting Sherry two times in the head, signaling her to come back. "Alright. I will just stay beside you. From my prediction, Fire God Clan only brought three million Spirit Gems. They had spent one million, so you should be able to win this easily." "That''s good then." He nodded, rose from his seat and walked toward the window without any change in his expression. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 533 Heated Bidding Figh "The Flame Heating Lotus base price is one hundred thousand Spirit Gems. Any bid can''t be lower than ten thousand Spirit Gems. Start!" "100,000 Spirit Gems." "110,000 thousand..." The bid continued peacefully for a few seconds before someone broke the peace. "1,000,000 Spirit Gems." They immediately stupefied, searching for the bidder. Shock and disappointment filled their heart the moment they saw the young master of Fire God Clan joined, breaking the fierce competition. It was not really surprising as Fire God Clan had shown their interest in this item from the start, but the sudden increase pummeled the excitement. Albeit, just like the Fire God Clan, the Antheream family also had some money to spare for a special herb like this. After the Fire God Clan destroyed everyone''s enthusiasm, Lucia decided to play around. "1,100,000." Alex peeked out of the windows to see the other appearances, but it would seem they were chilling inside their room. "1,200,000." "1,300,000..." The Flame Heating Lotus might not benefit their family as the Fire God Clan, but there were many Fire Martial Artists in the family that might need this. It would be better if they found someone who had a fire element and invited them to their family. For someone to be qualified for this lotus, they should be one of the continent''s peerless geniuses. As long as they bought this lotus, there would be a high chance of a genius like Alex to appear before their gate. Unfortunately, this item was too important for the Fire God Clan, forcing the young master of Fire God Clan to bid even higher. Alex walked back to his chair, sat down, and narrowed his eyes. In this bidding war, this person did not resemble a person who made an assassination plan for Song Jia. "Is this person a different one?" Alex muttered to himself, before gradually looking at Song Yu. When he was about to ask, he finally found a certain person in the Fire God Clan that was known as a ''bastard.'' "Interesting..." The Fire God Clan made its preparation as well by using the clown as a front. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes once again, probing other cultivations. It turned out there were three people inside the room, with one being the useless person. The other one had a 9-Star Martial Emperor cultivation, which could be easily recognized as an elder. On the other hand, the third person had a calm aura with 4-Star Martial Emperor Cultivation. The fire inside him was blazing but sturdy. Alex predicted their sect master sent them here as a clown, a brain, and a bodyguard. He was in no hurry to confirm his general assumptions. He sipped his tea and waited until the fight was almost over. ... "2,100,000 Spirit Gems!" The young master of Fire God Clan shouted and smirked while looking at Lucia. Lucia pondered for a moment before shaking her head. They had used up their money because of many previous bids. Fighting more would only lead to more damage to both sides, so she decided to step down. "2,100,000. Going once." Song Lei started counting. "2,200,000." Similarly, he would start as soon as the war stopped, creating another bidding war. On the other hand, the Fire God Clan turned around, glared at Alex''s room, and understood that it was the Spirit Nest room. At this moment, a young man with fiery red hair smiled evilly and thought something good. He had been waiting for the Spirit Nest to come out and thought they would not participate. "Wait." The young man fixed his hair as he rose from his seat. This person was known as Fire God Clan''s eldest senior brother, Grimes. Even the elder narrowed his eyes, never expecting him to get fired up. "The Sect Master has given an order to retrieve this lotus. We still have money to spare, so no need to be polite." Grimes was planning to use the young man to offend the Spirit Nest''s leader according to the Sect Master''s request, and the elder had no intention to stop him. For a useless young master, he simply misunderstood him, smirked, and shouted. "2,500,000." Listening to another skip, Alex furrowed his eyebrows before glancing at Song Yu. "How much do they actually bring?" Song Yu pondered for a moment before saying, "I don''t know. From my point of view, they would not bring more than half of their own treasury, so around five million Spirit Gems. Looking at how they have spent more than one million, just be prepared to use around four million Spirit Gems." "Alright. It''s not like I can''t afford it anyway. I will play it politely." Alex said playfully, having another plan for this fight. "2,600,000." The voice was calm and soothing, making the others know he did not take offense in that leap. On the other hand, the Fire God Clan attacked him once more. "3,000,000!" The other participants started piling up the displeasure for Fire God Clan by disrupting this bid fight. If not because the host was Song Lei, they would start a ruckus by saying many things toward the Fire God Clan. Unfortunately, they could only sit down and clench their hands in frustration. "3,100,000." Alex''s voice echoed again without any change of tone. Though they have heard rumors about Spirit Nest, they never knew the depth of this influence. Even though they had destroyed the branches of Joyful Union Sect, they went into hiding once more. If it were other influences, they would certainly tell the world their strength and look down upon them. With this bidding fight, the people wondered whether the Spirit Nest would pick another fight, considering their close relationship with Blackwade Clan. "3,500,000!" The other side had no patience about him anymore because they had no more money. Unfortunately, Alex still kept his calm and said, "3,600,000." "You-!" The young master glared at Alex''s room and gnashed his teeth. Even Grimes had a change of expression. The Spirit Nest itself should be a new influence as no matter how hard they searched, not a single trace or record to be found. For a newborn influence, it was almost impossible to have this much money. The Fire God Clan had been speculating their total numbers, but they should not be able to hide if they had too many people. On the other hand, if they did not possess a big number, they would not have this much money. According to the record, there was only a transaction around two million Spirit Gems with Blackwade Clan. Then, he was curious about where this much money was coming from. For the first time of this auction, he walked to the window, revealing his appearance. The people would certainly know this person. After all, if the young master was a hell that might bring doom to the sect, this Grimes was Heaven, who would bring prosperity. As soon as he revealed his presence, the auction room fell into silence while Song Lei frowned. "If Patriarch Song Lei could forgive this young man''s rudeness, this young man has a question to ask Patriarch Song Lei." He paused a bit, creating a tense atmosphere before saying, "No one knows enough about Spirit Nest, so I can''t help but wondering if they really have that much money? "The only influence that has been collaborating with them is your Blackwade Clan. If I am not wrong, it''s at the point of millions of Spirit Gems. However, we don''t know the exact amount. It might even lower than what they are bidding right now..." He flowered his words to make Song Lei look bad by cheating on them. "My Blackwade Clan has never done such irresponsible things for a few centuries. Are you questioning our integrity?" Song Lei narrowed his eyes. "No, of course, I''m not questioning your integrity. It''s just with how close they are with Blackwade Clan, I feel it''s just because you won''t part with the lotus, you are using them to get it back for you by your own money. Or another possibility is you using them to raise the bid. "After all, it''s hard for us to believe they have enough money to buy the herb. They also don''t have enough reputation to make us believe their claim." Grimes cornered Song Lei with his words. Alex knew that Grimes was trying to antagonize him. Grimes might even nitpick a very tiny detail and used it to his cause. Unfortunately, with his N squad telling him their plan to rile him up, Alex decided not to say anything and let Song Lei resolve the issue. In the end, Song Lei only shrugged his shoulder. "We would never conduct such a thing. If you don''t believe us, what can we do? Checking their space rings? Do you want us to break our own integrity just to satisfy your ''curiosity.'' In the end, you can attack us again with those bullsh*t words after we check their credibility. "So, I only have one thing to say. We will keep our integrity no matter how you pressure us. You don''t like it, then leave it." His statement could be interpreted as a declaration of war, but the people inside were also not stupid. They could differentiate who was at fault here. Grimes narrowed his eyes, pondered for a moment and looked at Alex''s room for a few seconds before turning back to Song Lei. "Since Patriarch Song Lei is adamant on this matter, then this Junior can only back down." Song Lei only shrugged, ignored his last comment and continued the auction. "3,600,000. Going Once." "Going Twice." "Sold." "With this, the auction has officially ended. For all participants, you can get your items in our special room as to ensure your privacy. On the other hand, our VIP can just ask our staff to get your items if you want. And I hope all of you can have your discretion and not cause a ruckus around here." Normally, someone would end an auction with a warm smile, but all they got was another wave of killing intent from Song Lei. Even Alex was a bit surprised at how different he was. "Fufu... Junior Brother, thank you for your patronage." Song Yu smirked, teasing him. Alex simply stared at her for a while without an expression before replying, "I can get it back later. If I am not wrong, a single rank 6 array plate can give me around fifty to one hundred thousand Spirit Gems, so just be prepared and get your money ready. I might suck you dry." "Haha... True enough. It''s because of your abnormal refining speed, and I am assuming your drawing speed is also as good as your refining speed, right? In that way, we might get bankrupt soon." Song Yu paused for a moment, made a cute smile, and teased him again. "At that time, I will ask Junior Brother to take care of me." "Enough with the joke. In any case, the price would decrease by doing that." "Of course, we won''t sell it immediately so as not to inflate the market. This way, we can make more money in the long term. Though if Junior Brother keeps sending us the array plates, we can''t accept it as we have no more money." Song yu shook her head before changing the topic. "Anyway, I will get your items right away, so please wait here... or do you want to get it yourself?" Alex pondered for a moment and looked around his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes before shaking his head. "Nah. I will trouble Senior Sister." "Sure." Song Yu nodded and left the room. Alex noticed that no one had yet to leave their VIP room, including the Joyful Union Sect. Using this chance, he took Leoz''s, and Jeanne''s cards. "Summon." The duo appeared out of thin air, knowing what to do. Jeanne said with a grim expression, "We are going." "Yeah. Be careful." Alex nodded. Alex''s memory and intention came inside their mind earlier. He was planning to stay here for a while to make others think he was not going to do anything. Meanwhile, Leoz, and Jeanne had positioned themselves to ambush the Joyful Union Sect Elder. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 534 End of the Auction Alex masked Leoz''s and Jeanne''s presence by his Spiritual Energy. He purposely came to the auction alone because of this reason. Unlike the previous time he went to the auction with Anna, the people here would surely suspect him doing anything by deliberately spreading his Spiritual Energy. The only way they could observe was him releasing his Spiritual Energy because there was friction with the Blackwade Clan staff. The Blue West Clan and Antheream Family had seen Song Jia enter with him, so they thought Song Jia might displease him. Ruben and Lucia exchanged looks, noticing they had the same thought. "We are going to meet him after this," Ruben said without hesitation. Lucia was a bit unsure of doing this since he could even buy Flame Heating Lotus with three million six hundred Spirit Stones. With that much money, what kind of thing they had to entice him. She kept pondering it over and over again while waiting for their items. The same applied to Fire God Clan, Joyful Union Sect, and the others. The Fire God Clan wanted to take this opportunity to weaken the Blackwade Clan. Considering they had amassed a huge amount of money, they would likely do something. And if they managed to rob the Spirit Nest from them, it was the best move against the Blackwade Clan. On the other hand, it would also remove the possibility of them attacking their clan. The Fire God Clan Patriarch''s plan might be useless, but he surely could not say no with the addition of Spirit Nest in their rank. They only needed to solve one thing, which was the Joyful Union Sect''s matter. While thinking like that, the Joyful Union Sect''s elder pumped his fist. The Spirit Nest would go to war without the help from the Blackwade Clan. This would give them a very big advantage. Although they did not know the full extent of Spirit Nest, after the raids a few months ago in all their base, they could speculate that the Spirit Nest did not really have many people. Even if all of them were 5-Star Martial Emperors, they could not defeat their entire sect. Unfortunately, he knew he could neither go back nor inform the sect master about this news. The sect had chosen him as a sacrifice for this situation, and he agreed in exchange for the treatment of his family. In the end, he only muttered to himself. "Even if I die, my family and disciples won''t." Determination filled his eyes as he took a deep breath. The moment the door opened, he took the space ring from the staff and left. Walking through the crowd in the auction house and the city, he bypassed everything to escape from this city before Alex realized it. Unfortunately, after flying for one minute and going inside the forest to camouflage, he felt killing intent from his right and left. He took out his spear instinctively as two shadows appeared on the corner of his eyes. He swung his spear but never expected that the opponent would have tremendous power. "Spear Blast!" The first shadow on his left struck the spear with his big sword. "Thunder Slash!" Leoz revealed his element and blew the spear away. A trace of shock appeared on his face as he lost the grip on his spear. In that split second, he realized Leoz''s power and said with a surprised tone. "Martial Mon-Gah!" Before he could utter the last word, a short sword had pierced his body, specifically his heart and reduced his heart by a spark of lightning. "-arc..." He also sensed Jeanne''s power, and it completely blew his mind. Two Martial Monarchs came just to kill him. This could mean that the Spirit Nest was going to win this war seriously. The Joyful Union Sect only had a single Martial Monarch, so this certainly big news for them. Unfortunately, he was only a puny 7-Star Martial Emperor. Even in the elite elder rank, he was one of the weakest as his training as a new elder in the brothel just ended one year ago. He stretched his hand to the sky despite having blurry eyes and little energy before gradually dying. Leoz and Jeanne only stared at him with empty eyes, didn''t care about his motivation, and turned around. "Jeanne, you should act natural. Young Master won''t like that." Leoz observed Jeanne''s stern expression and knew her condition. Jeanne still blamed herself no matter what kind of words Alex uttered. Although she was a bit calmer because of Alex''s warning, she had yet to return to normal. Even when Jean volunteered himself, Jeanne ignored him and finished her own business. The next words coming out of her mouth completely blew Leoz''s mind. Her expression was serious, so Leoz knew what she would say was something special and prepared his heart. "I will stop teasing Jean until I have destroyed the Joyful Union Sect with my own hands." Jeanne clenched her hands and bit her lips. "Young Master never blames you though." "Even so, I am still planning to do the same." Jeanne ignored him, separated the head, burned the dead body with her lightning, and informed Alex, "Master, we have finished our mission." ... A few minutes ago, Alex relaxed in his room while waiting for Song Yu to come back. He noticed a few staff members had returned and gave the others their items while they gave the money. Because of the importance of these people, the elders from the Blackwade Clan who transacted with them, preventing anyone from bullying or stealing their items. Song Yu came together with the elders and entered Alex''s room with his item. "This is your item. You have a VIP Card, so there is a discount for you. Though I can only waive all the six hundred thousand for you." "So..." Alex calculated in his mind and handed her one million Spirit Gems. "With my medicinal ingredients and this one million Spirit Gems, it should be enough, right?" "Yeah." Song Yu nodded. In the end, he gathered all the medicinal ingredients in the other world for a single Flame Heating Lotus. He shook his head, not knowing whether it was a waste or not. "Now, I think you should go to chase the elder from Joyful Union Sect. After all, if we did anything to him, the Fire God Clan would use it as their advantage." Song Yu sighed. "You don''t need to worry about that as that old man is going to die soon." Alex closed his eyes and leaned on his chair. Song Yu realized the reason why he had no one accompanying him. She closed her eyes, sat on her previous couch, and sighed. "I see. I really can''t beat you, Junior Brother. I can''t imagine what kind of calamity I would invite if the sect master does not make you my junior brother." "Haha... I am not a hostile one who would kill everyone in sight nor am I a hero of justice that would protect someone and the like. As long as they don''t provoke me, then you do you, I do me. My way is that simple." He paused for a moment, looked at her, and made a strange atmosphere. "Though I might want to warn you, I am serious about what I said a few months ago." Song Yu tilted her head in confusion for a second before realizing what he meant. She shook her head. "I am not going to pick a fight with you. After all, you are my junior brother. Besides, with your master, my family would not stand a chance." "That''s good then. I have too many enemies already, so I don''t want to add another one." Alex said without any hidden intention as he simply meant it. However, it might be precisely because he did not have any intention, which made it even more terrifying. "I don''t know why, but you are scaring me." Song Yu realized what she said and shook her head. "Ah, sorry. Just forget about it." Alex only looked at her eyes for a moment and closed his eyes. She did not notice Alex was summoning his cards to recall Jeanne and Leoz back. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "When are you leaving and your plan?" "For the time being, I will just chill in this room until all the people leave. They are not going to stay for long anyway. After that, we will use the night as a cover and head to the Joyful Union Sect. Considering our distance, we would arrive in four days or so. I will rescue Evelyn within that time and wait until you guys come." "Then we will start the war..." Song Yu added with a serious expression. "Yeah. That''s basically it." Alex noticed the confusion in Song Yu''s expression and said, "Don''t ask how I will rescue Evelyn. I just have a way." "Alright." The atmosphere became heavy, so Alex changed the topic just to lighten the atmosphere. They talked about the general war plan, positioning, timing, and other details. Song Yu could not talk as she kept taking note after note from Alex''s plan. Eventually, they lacked topics to talk about, so Alex decided to cultivate. ... After waiting for a while, the guests started coming out of the auction house, disappointed as they could not meet Alex. They thought he needed more time in dealing with his matter with the Blackwade Clan. After that, they could easily poach him. Unfortunately, Alex would never appear as he was still chilling inside the room. Song Yu had gone to help Song Jia in organizing the army because he said those people were still waiting on the front gate. There was one positive and one negative for this. Firstly, they could outspeed them, and they could do nothing with their tiny number. However, they would also find out that the Blackwade Clan participated in the war. In other words, they were tricked by that pressure, and this would cost them a lot. And when it was over, they would regret deeply, especially the Fire God Clan. On the other hand, after waiting for a good amount of time, he used his teleportation array and appeared a hundred kilometers from the city. He created several teleportation arrays and arrived in front of the Joyful Union Sect in an instant. The Joyful Union Sect''s territory was vast, bigger than Blackwade Clan''s city. Before entering, Alex summoned all of his spirits and contracted beasts. "You guys stay here." "Wait! I can''t accept that." Anna stopped him from going, not having the same opinion as him. "I know you will use your Space Element, but it''s still dangerous. At the very least, bring Leoz or Jeanne inside. It will be safer that way." Alex knew she said it because she was scared the previous thing would happen again. "Alright." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 535 Rescuing Evelyn "Alright." Alex nodded and began looking at Jeanne and Leoz. Normally, Jeanne would be so hyped in this matter, but when Alex searched for her, she was nowhere to be seen. He activated his Spirit Eyes and shook his head helplessly. It turned out the previous matter still bothered her to the point she needed to hide behind Greg. He did not really know how she felt, but she would most likely have the same feeling as him from back when Alicia was poisoned. Because he was useless, she almost died. At that time, he was full of guilt. For Jeanne, who was loyal to him, it should be close to that. "Leoz, come with me." Alex pulled out Leoz''s card and recalled him back. Although he wanted to fix Jeanne''s matter, it was not reasonable to bring someone who got too emotional. Before storming in, he took out a certain''s black cat card and asked, "Noel, where are you?" "Meow Meow!" "She is right beside Evelyn right now. There are two elders guarding them, but they were outside of the prison." Anna quickly translated it. Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. He would need Noel''s direction to bypass all the guards inside before using the teleportation array to sneak inside the prison. "How is her condition?" "Meow." "Just have a few bruises." Alex pondered for a moment before looking at Anna. "I will leave the outside matter to you." "Alex, I think we should have waited until the people from Blackwade Clan come." Anya broke her silence. A hint of confusion appeared on his face, not knowing what she meant. At the same time, Anya did not answer him as she asked Noel, "How is the guard''s schedule?" "Meow Meow Meow." Anna frowned her eyebrows for a few seconds. "The guard usually visits her once a week. The last visit was five days ago, so it is better to take her away later. We could surprise them this way." Alex fell into silence, understanding what Anya said. "Five days... We will wait two days outside, save Evelyn, and wait another two or three days for the Blackwade Clan to catch up with us." "Understood." "Nicole and Nano would investigate if they have another ''surprise'' for us while Njomo, Noah, Nicky and Natalie check our surroundings if there are any traps nearby." The N squad did not say anything and vanished from the spot. Alex did not know why, but they were like Nelson. Cool but reliable, albeit he needed to understand their language first. In these two days, Alex was busy creating many array plates. Just like the array he used to trap more than a hundred thousand soldiers, Alex also planned to use a combination array, linking them to his own Gathering Array. He made around twenty array papers and felt it was enough. Considering he made an Extended World Array for his barrier, planted his Space Element and Soul inside, and threw one million Spirit Gems, this giant array formation would surely trap them to the end of the battle. After all, even he was not sure he could break the barrier with brute force with that many Spirit Gems. Of course, they could focus their attacks on a single point, and that was why he made more array plates than needed. Two days passed in an instant, Alex waited for the night to come while Noel was waiting beside him. Previously, he had thought about using the normal way according to Noel''s direction. However, seeing that the Joyful Union Sect didn''t underestimate him by placing a few more traps and making it a more hazardous path, he gave up on this idea. He came up with another bright plan. Telling Anna he would go, Alex raised his hand and made a single portal to a blue-layered realm. "Spatial Gate." He did not really use this space technique that much other than sending the enemy''s attack back and array, but he almost forgot that the main essence of this technique was its ability to sneak inside the space. Another reason he rarely used this ability was that it had the same distance as the real world. Assuming he came inside and flew, it would most likely take a few days to arrive. However, it was different when he used it on this occasion. Alex used the same scale to have Noel led him toward the prison. It only took them a few minutes to arrive, but he noticed something unusual in the prison wall. "Meow?" Noel could not see through the blue-layered wall, so she was confused about why Alex stopped abruptly. Alex did not hear her as he was too focused on the wall. He placed his hand on the wall and could not go through. "As expected, this wall is protected by space energy. It most likely comes from an array, and I need around one or two hours to remove the space energy without alarming them." "Meow!" Alex finally noticed her and turned his head. "Ah, sorry. I am a bit too absorbed. Anyway, you go in first to check her condition." Noel nodded and left the blue colored realm after Alex opened a gate. Then, he activated his Spirit Eyes, observing the entire prison. He was dumbfounded to find the prison was filled with pink energy. The only thing that came to his mind was the aphrodisiac that the Joyful Union Sect used. "Though it''s slightly different, but..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing something wrong with the energy. "It should affect a woman, but... this mild color..." No answer came since he lacked information. He could only enter the prison and checked the characteristic of this poison himself as he believed he could decipher it with his knowledge. "Fu. Anyway, I can only start working on this array and spatial energy..." Alex sighed, raised his hand, and began feeling the array with his Spiritual Energy. The prison itself was a colossal building, close to a military barracks with a man and a woman statues in the front and back. With his Spirit Eyes, he could see around thirty people inside the prison before finding more in the underground. Although he did not know Evelyn''s exact position, he could easily locate her by finding Noel''s Spiritual Energy. One thing that confused him. The fact that there were a few floors underground with each of them filled with a different kind of energy made by Alex frown. He found Noel on the lowest floor with concentrated pink energy. According to the information, Evelyn had no other injury or sign of being poisoned except for a few beatings. This was why the energy baffled him as he did not know the purpose behind it. Therefore, he decided to observe the energy first before rescuing Evelyn. However, be it the pink energy, or rescuing Evelyn, it was useless if he could not go through this barrier. Unlike Noel, he could not sneak past the guard even with his Space Element while risking the potential of being found out. Time and speed would be Alex''s main concern as he needed to go outside the space realm and fixed it before anyone could notice him. Before altering the array, he created an illusion array, especially the illusion array that he used for his special realm. All the people could only see nothing. He took a few symbols and altered it before planting his own symbols inside the array. The symbol he planted had a suction force, absorbing the space energy nearby. One symbol was not fast enough to suck all the space energy before dawn, so Alex made a few more symbols in different areas to optimize the suction force. After planting around six symbols, the only thing he could do was wait. He did not make the symbol on one side of the building to become his door. Although the symbols could concentrate the space energy around, it only reinforced the wall in a certain area. With one side not having a single trace of space element, he tweaked the array a little bit and walked through the wall with his Spatial Gate. Alex chose an empty corridor to enter and activated his Pure Fire. He did not release its overbearing pressure, and would only use its special characteristic to protect him from the pink energy. "What is this energy?" Alex muttered to himself, looked at the transparent miasma, and smelled it. According to all the characteristics, he found a few things that could define this energy, but most of them were aphrodisiacs. He focused his Spirit Eyes on all people around. It turned out all of them to be women. Seeing no one had been affected by the energy, he narrowed the options into two medicines. The first aphrodisiac was called Pink Reed Powder. Just like its name, it originated from a pink bamboo. The bamboo would release a certain invisible miasma that had aphrodisiac effect. This would dormant inside someone''s body until they met the opposite gender. They would become a hungry sex predator. The second medicine was called Prosperous Body Miasma. The miasma itself was transparent and one without a smell. It originated from a certain tree, and if one burned the tree, it would create this miasma. It almost had the same effect, but this miasma would make one hallucinate. Alex did not know which one until he saw Evelyn. If it were the first type, he would need to knock her out before healing her with his Pure Fire. If it were the second type, he would need to take her away first before asking her to fight the poison herself. After all, this medicine was like an injection, and would certainly consume her will. He could burn the one that affected her, but the moment she chose to drown inside the hallucination, it was over. He made his way toward the second level and found a different type of energy. He noticed that it had a similar aphrodisiac effect but only affected males. The moment he figured that out, he found that the inhabitants in this prison were males. Luckily, he had his Pure Fire and prevented any of this medicine to affect his mind. Alex had no intention of bringing all these people out as he was not a hero, and the potential of his plan being found out sealed the deal. He swiftly flew toward the third, fourth, and fifth floor to where Evelyn was at. The fifth floor was filled with pink energy, a few times more concentrated than the other floors. Looking at how dense the energy was, Alex did not immediately rescue Evelyn. Instead, he looked around to see the cause of it. In the corner of the room stood a few pink colored bamboos. As soon as he found the cause, Alex took out his sword and cut them into pieces. He burned all traces coming from the bamboo, so it could not produce more energy. "To think it''s pink bamboo... Well, I can''t complain since it is easier to solve than the other one." Alex walked toward Evelyn''s cell and looked at the pitiful Evelyn. Her white leaves embroidered dress was a bit worn, and there were even a few ripped parts. Her face and body had a trace of bruises while her messy hair loose flowed down her back. Even so, her eyes were still clear. Despite the beating she got, she certainly knew it was her own fault. A few years ago, Evelyn had decided to keep her relationship with Alex, despite not needing his teaching anymore. Even after knowing the risk, she still preserved that ambition as she felt indebted to him. She had prepared for death the moment she set upon this continent, albeit before she could do anything, she was ambushed by unknown people and taken to this place. Her only regret was that she should have planned her departure more carefully as not to give a problem to Alex. Just as he thought about that, she heard a cat''s sound. "Meow!" Evelyn raised her head, found the cat and someone''s feet. She thought it was the time for another beating, but she suddenly heard a familiar voice. "Ya. Are you still kicking?" Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 536 Manness Noticing there was one more person on the fifth floor, he erected a sound insulation barrier before saying, "Ya. Are you still kicking?" For Evelyn, this familiar sound was soothing but also making her feel ashamed. She looked up, seeing a cat and someone she held close. Unfortunately, as soon as Evelyn saw Alex''s, the medicine kicked in as her body started absorbing the energy at an alarming rate. Her consciousness went fuzzy, blurring her eyes. She mysteriously rose from the ground, stared at him with blank eyes, and walked toward him. The tinge red from her face slowly spread as sweat started falling down her body. "Big Brother Alex..." "Sorry, Evelyn." Alex had anticipated this effect, apologized to her inwardly, and prepared to knock her out. When the distance between them was only two meters left, Evelyn leaped toward his embrace, hugging him. Despite the jail bars separating them, her small hands passed between the gap and clung on his neck as her face came closer and closer before she kissed him. Unfortunately, Alex had his mask on the way, blocking her lips. He hugged her before knocking her out with a single swing on the back of her neck. "Sleep well. I will cure you in a moment." Alex carried her away before an overbearing pressure tickled him from the back. "!!!" Alex turned away, failing to catch Evelyn. His Spirit Eyes showed something terrifying as he shuddered. The energy inside this place was suddenly reversed by energy from a single person. In other words, it was Evelyn''s prison mate. "Martial Monarch? No... This..." Leoz''s card appeared in his hand. Just as he was about to summon Leoz, the Sound Insulation Room suddenly broke, as he heard, "Yo, lad. Are you her master... No, are you her boyfriend or maybe her teacher?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, halted his energy from going inside the card, and looked at the old man''s cell. "Don''t be hostile to me. To be honest, I like that little lass. She has a deep foundation in sword and a good mentality, meaning she has a good teacher." The energy wrapped him as to prevent him from going. This person''s cultivation was only Martial Emperor, or at least, that was what he wanted others to see. Only his Spirit Eyes could see that he was hiding his real power. This could also mean another mistake in Noel''s part, albeit if not because of the peculiar sealing on his body, Noel would notice it already. "Noel, go back," Alex ordered, waved his hand and broke free from the energy restriction. "Well, I certainly can''t convince you this way, right?" The mysterious person rose from the ground, broke the seal on his body, and released his real Spiritual Energy. "It''s useless to escape from me. I am a just person, so how about this. You can ask two questions before answering my question." "..." Alex undoubtedly was on his wit''s end. Looking there was no killing intent on this energy, he calmed down and decided to play along. With his opponent being a peak Martial Monarch or even a Martial Saint, he could not win even if he summoned every single spirit. There was another thing in his Inventory that could turn the situation around, so he grabbed it out. "What?!" The mysterious person felt the pressure emanating from Alex''s item and shouted. "You brat, how can you have that thing? What is your relationship with him?" A hint of surprise appeared on Alex''s face but quickly regained its calm. He never expected that this mysterious person would have a connection with his master, Maxwell. After all, the item he took from his Inventory was Maxwell''s token. Upon recalling that the token contained one of his skills, he was planning to use it as soon as the situation worsened. However, the mysterious person''s reaction intrigued his curiosity. "..." Even so, Alex still remained silent, not answering his question. "I don''t know if you are calm or playing tricks on me. Anyway, you can''t escape from here, so just ask me two things before answering one of my questions. I am not planning to fight you in any case." The mysterious person shrugged his shoulder as he walked toward the bars and destroyed it with his fist. This mysterious person had short brown hair. Although he did not know his real age, his middle-aged face looked very smooth without any wrinkles. However, after he suddenly felt something different from his eyes, like he had seen it somewhere. "You..." Alex narrowed his eyes, trying to recall where he had seen this type of eyes. It took him a few seconds before he realized, he truly had seen it somewhere, and it was back in the previous world. "You are not a human... you are a dragon." "Oh? You know something like that?" He was a bit surprised, not expecting someone could discern this. After all, because there was a little record about another race, except the monster, everyone only classified his sharp eyes as something weird. "Still, no one should know there is a dragon in this world. How can you know I am a dragon... Ah, I am asking again. Anyway, just ask a few questions to me, so I can also ask a few questions to you. Seeing you have that token, I won''t attack you." Many questions flashed in his mind, and no matter what, there was always a question that was placed on the top. "Who are you?" "Oh, boy." The mysterious person facepalmed, shook his head, and said with disappointment. "Come on. Don''t go with that cliche question. Though if you want me to answer it, I can. I will give you another chance to change your question." Alex pondered for a moment before asking, "Why a Martial Saint like you come to this place? This place certainly could not hold you, and you even sealed your cultivation in a peculiar way." "Oh, to think you can even see through my technique. As expected for someone who is related to him..." He pondered for a moment before answering, "I don''t have any big reason. It''s only related to my cultivation. I experienced another strange evolution and needed women to sleep with to suppress my energy. "I tried to use the brothel in the Heavenly Continent, but none of them had an extraordinary effect... until I found this place. Their cultivation technique could absorb someone''s energy, so I wanted to utilize this perk to absorb my extra energy. To be honest, they are doing a pretty good job. Not only have they sucked almost all my energy, but their women are also strong and pretty. Haha, precisely two birds in one stone. "Anyway... Even in the Heavenly Continent, those women in the brothel only had a cultivation of Martial King or Emperor, not much different than those girls in here. After all, they were sex workers, not sect disciples... and I am sure you know what I mean. Wait, I should not talk too much since I have answered your question. Yeah, the answer is because of cultivation." "Then, why are you fond of Evelyn, don''t tell me you..." Although Alex never expected it was for Cultivation, he did not show any change of expression and asked again. "Haha... you dirty-minded little brat. I know your age is not really too far from that little girl. And You don''t need to accuse me like that since I have solved most of my problems." The mysterious person slowly revealed his Sword Domain. He might only use a portion of his Sword Domain, but according to the sharpness alone, this old man was strong in the way of the sword. "This is one of the reasons while the other reason is her eyes. I have seen something in her that she doesn''t even see in herself. That''s why when I finally solve my problem, I will save her and make her my disciple." "It''s impossible. They are using her to fight against me." Alex shook his head, knowing this mysterious person was not lying at all. "Then, I have a question for you. Are you his teacher or something? Since it feels like I am robbing someone''s possession if I just take her away." Alex didn''t immediately answer him. Instead, he turned his head around and glanced at Evelyn before shaking his head. "No. I am not his teacher or master. It''s true that I was the one who taught her, but I treat her more like... a younger sister? No, a junior sister." "Is that so..." The mysterious person narrowed his eyes and said, "Then, I can take her in as my disciple." "You indeed can... But I still don''t know who you are. And if something happens to her..." "Don''t worry. I am not someone like that." The mysterious person glanced at his token, making Alex flinch, but he waved his hand and took out the same token as him. "This is Maxwell''s token, and I am his friend, Manness. People often know me as Drunken Fire... Though Maxwell was the one who gave that nickname to me." "Drunken Fire..." Alex opened his mouth in surprise, recalled a certain scene back in the lower world and stared at him. He remembered that besides telling him that the token held one of his skills, he also told him that there was a certain person called Drunken Fire. According to Maxwell, he could rely on this person. He clasped his respectfully and greeted him. "Alexander Sirius, Disciple of Maxwell, greets Senior Drunken Fire." "Buhaha..." Manness stupefied for a second before laughing so hard. Alex quickly made a Sound Insulation Array to avoid alarming the enemy. "You are his disciple? That''s right. Back then, he said to me he was from a lower world..." "Yes. I met Master back in the lower world and became his disciple. Master left a wisp of his soul there." Alex nodded with a relieved tone. With this, he finally met all his master friends... Or at least, the one he remembered. "That guy is really no joke. I feel from your energy that you are not older than thirty. Besides, from the fire aura I feel earlier, you must have Pure Fire. By how he likes to act, he should have taught you about Alchemy and Array. In fact, he must require you to get a space element. Ah, I really know him." Manness said proudly while laughing. "Anyway, You said earlier that this influence is using that little girl to fight you. Are you in a fight or something? Since you are my best friend''s disciple, I don''t mind razing this influence to the ground. Though I will only help you this once, and you should already know the reason." Alex quickly shook his head, rejecting his idea. He wanted to have more trump cards when roaming on the Heavenly Continent, and help from a Martial Saint was much appreciated. Ultimately, he would use Maxwell''s skill first before going to this old man. "I will solve this issue by myself." "Alright then." Manness nodded his head and pointed his finger at the token before saying, "Inside that token is a technique called Fire Devil String. It was not a big move, but more like an assassin move. If I am not wrong, it will shoot a few strings made of his Pure Fire. With that hotness, it could slice the hardest metal in this world, like slicing tofu. Though I still won''t die if you attack me with that technique." "Well, we should go out of this place first. Though I can easily break out, I feel you don''t want me to do that." Manness narrowed his eyes, glanced at him, and rubbed his chin. "Yeah. This is just an infiltration to help Evelyn. And if there is another variant like Senior, my plan might fail." Alex did not hide anything from him. He raised his hand and created a gate to the blue layered realm. "That''s why let me guide you outside, Senior." "Just call me, Old Manness. Still, it''s been so long I have seen this technique... A nostalgic Spatial Gate." Manness leaped inside the gate without hesitation, trusting Alex. Alex followed immediately, leading him to another place. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 537 Evelyn Alex didn''t lead him to where his spirits were because it was better that way. Even though he knew Manness was Maxwell''s friend, it was still not enough to earn his whole trust. The Space Element was alright, since he had figured it out from Maxwell, but even Maxwell had yet to know about the system, so he wanted to keep it a secret from him. Little did he know the ''system girl'' had appeared in front of Maxwell long ago. Manness came out of the blue layered world as soon as Alex opened the portal. He stretched his body, that had been rusty for a few years inside that prison, and turned to Alex. Before he could say something, Alex already put down Evelyn on the ground and infused his Pure Fire into her veins to burn the remaining aphrodisiac from her body according to his Spirit Eyes. To open the barrier, he needed to cut the jails with his entire power, so he could relate why Evelyn could not escape despite not being chained. Manness kept his silence, observed Alex''s technique, and nodded, knowing Evelyn would be healed with whatever technique he used. Alex treated her for a few minutes and withdrew his hand from her forehead. Now that they were out, he finally saw Evelyn''s figure completely. Her black hair had even reached her waist, her small cute face became a pretty and youthful face, her small innocent mouth had a tinge red, showing she had put on makeup before going out. It could be said that her body already left her sister, Lena, behind. He only stroked her hair a little bit, thinking that the little girl from the Willow Continent had become a pretty young girl. However, Alex also felt pity for her, as she could deserve more if she pretended not to know him. The moment he thought of that, Evelyn''s image flashed on his mind, telling him that she would never achieve this without his help. After healing her, he rose and looked at Manness with a serious expression. "Though she is a naive little girl, she has many potentials. I hope Senior can take care of her." Manness checked Evelyn''s condition before turning back to Alex. He patted Alex''s shoulder. "Although her cultivation foundation is not really that solid, I can solve it with the herb in my possession. I will train her to the best of my ability as her master. Just like what Maxwell said, I would treat my disciple as a treasure. "In any case, I feel you are a good master yourself, and it''s this little girl''s good fortune to be taught by you. And from all the things she experiences inside the prison, never once her determination waver. Although I am a few thousand years old Dragon, I have adapted to society today after Maxwell helped me. "I also have Fire Element, so I will teach her sword and fire to surpass you. Fufu... I am wondering which one would win, Maxwell''s disciple or mine... Nah, probably you would win." Manness shrugged. Suddenly, Evelyn opened her eyes, saw two people beside her with her fuzzy eyes and uttered as hard as she could. "Big brother?" Alex heard that small voice, turned around, and kneeled down. "How are you? Do you feel any discomfort in your body?" Besides feeling weak, Evelyn found nothing inside her body while only a few bruises on her skin. "I am sorry to have you helped me once again." "I said the risk of knowing me a few years ago, and my enemy ambushed you, bullied you, and might even use you against me... No, I should say you were lucky that they were planning to use you against me. If not..." Alex paused, not continuing his sentence. Evelyn closed her eyes, recalled all memories she had inside the prison, and pictured what would happen to her. The only picture in her mind was about the mysterious man that was talking to her when she was inside. Many moaning sounds always appeared when those people, who beat her, came. At the same time, she recalled her action earlier, where she hugged Alex and kissed her. If not for the mask, she would already kiss him on the lips. The thought alone made her flush. If she met another male and did that... she did not want to picture it. Even so, Evelyn grabbed Alex''s hand and clenched it as strong as possible, conveying her emotion. She suddenly realized why Alex talked about it now. "No... Big Brother Alex... Evelyn can conceal her identity after this and change her name. I..." "Oi oi, you almost made this little girl cry." Manness walked toward them and tapped Alex''s shoulder. "I know that crying is a little price to pay if that can save this girl''s life and future. Still, if you have a wife and your wife want you to forget her so she can save you, do you think you would do that?" "You are..." Evelyn looked at Manness in amazement as she realized his voice. "You are the man in the prison like me..." "Yo, little girl. I am Manness from the Heavenly Continent. Actually, I have another option for you if you want to help him." Manness grinned, acting like a salesman. "Another option?" "Yeah. Become my disciple and go back with me to the Heavenly Continent. I am sure you can reach the Martial Emperor or even Martial Monarch in a few years there. You might not be able to help him on this continent, but I know you will be able to help him in the Heavenly Continent. "I can use a sword and my fire, so I am pretty sure I could teach you." Manness paused for a moment, creating a little atmosphere before saying, "Just think about it girl, if you waste your time in this place, knowing fully you can''t catch up with his pace, you won''t have a single chance anymore. However, if you skip this continent and train in the Heavenly Continent, you can help him there." Evelyn didn''t say yes immediately despite being interested in it. As Alex taught her, it was not good to trust an unknown person unless she knew their strength, background, and identity. Manness''s eyebrows twitched upon seeing this little girl''s expression as it was the same expression to what Alex had earlier. He quickly added, "His master is my best friend." Once again, Evelyn did not answer him. Instead, she just looked at Alex, not knowing what to answer. "Oi boy, you should help me convince her." Manness tugged Alex''s hand and whispered. Alex simply shrugged his shoulders, looked at Evelyn, and said with a serious expression. "His identity aside, whether you want to go or not is your choice. If you decide to go, remember you need to take care of yourself, don''t skip training, and live for yourself." On the one hand, she was going to follow him and handle a few small things for him. On the other hand, she was afraid not to have the ability to do it herself either. As a puny Martial King or barely Sword King, neither one of them was qualified to help him, and all she could do was bring trouble to him. ''Live for yourself.'' The path had been set. Evelyn closed her eyes for a moment, thinking about the pros and cons before trying to get up. Unfortunately, her body was too weak to get up, and she could only say, "Disciple Evelyn, greets Master." "Haha... Don''t worry, you are in a good hand. For your information, I am a Martial Saint and a Pavillion Master. In the future, you might even succeed my position in the Pavilion, and if you don''t want it, then just give it to someone else and continue your own journey." Manness didn''t force her to become his replacement because of Alex. Remembering how Maxwell became a god, Evelyn, who had a better foundation than him, might achieve that as long as she had enough resources. After pondering for a few seconds, Manness took out a wooden token and handed it to Alex. "This is a token of my Drunken Pavilion. If you have any trouble on the Heavenly Continent, just go to the Drunken Pavilion, and I will help you out. Well... it''s more like a restaurant though. Just ask where the main Drunken Pavilion is if you find the branch, and they would tell my place. "You can even use this to meet this little girl again. Or maybe, we can be a drinking buddy like your master and me. Your Pure Fire should be enough to endure all of my wines like that Maxwell. Haha..." Manness laughed cheerfully, thinking of the prospect of these two. "Pure Fire?" Evelyn''s body shook in surprise, wondering if she heard it right. Looking at her expression, Manness furrowed his eyebrows before asking, "Oi boy, you haven''t told this little girl about it? Is this bad?" From a normal perspective, as long as she was under Manness''s scope of vision, she should have an opportunity to spread the secret. Besides, Alex knew Evelyn was not someone like that. On the other hand, the next time they met would be on the Heavenly Continent. By that time, Alex might already use his Pure Fire, so he thought there was no point in hiding it anymore. "It''s okay." On the other hand, Evelyn was still in shock, realizing why she could never catch up. In fact, becoming Manness''s disciple might be the only way to catch up. When she was about to say something, a flash of blue light appeared in the sky even though the dawn had yet to come. Alex and Manness felt an overbearing pressure from the sky. The clouds spun, creating a giant circle in the sky. "That direction... Heavenly, no, it should be from Ascension Island." Manness looked at this in amazement. "To think another God has born..." "God?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "You must have heard it from Maxwell, so I will briefly explain it so the little girl also can learn about it. It''s simply the next stage after Martial Saint. People said it was Martial God, but they often shortened it to God. "According to the rumor, after reaching God Stage, your mortal body will be reconstructed to a divine body. The same applies to your Mental Energy; it becomes Divine Energy. Anyway, there are many terms about it, but in most cases, you just need to add ''Divine'' in front of it. I don''t know why, but people love to mistify it with the word ''Divine.'' Haha..." He laughed for a few seconds before continuing. "After you pass the Divine Tribulation and become God, the world would expel you through Ascension Island within a day. "What you see right now is the portal to expel you. Take a look at it; a huge light pillar will soon shoot to the sky." Just as Manness said those words, a blue light shot to the sky, blowing away all the clouds around. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see what kind of power was that, but he suddenly fell while screaming. "Argh!" The energy was too strong for his eyes to handle and quickly pierced his eyes. Although it was only a split second, he could see a little trace of Teleportation Array. He was convinced that the formation only expelled him/her outside the world, which was a vacuum space. "Are you okay?" "Big Brother?" "I''m fine." Alex waved his hand before slowly rising from the ground with red eyes. "In any case, if you aim like your teacher, one day you will also have a show like that. I won''t tell you more before you reach Martial Saint. Anyway, we have talked about everything, so I am going to bring this little girl away." Manness waved his hand, carrying Evelyn with his energy. "See you later, boy." "Big Brother... Evelyn will become stronger!" Evelyn looked at him with anguish but filled with determination. Alex smiled as his response, waving his hand to her as he watched them flying away before clasping his hand and sending a thought transmission to Manness, "Please take care of her better than me, Senior." Evelyn was too preoccupied with Alex, but a smile appeared in Manness''s face. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 538 Panic After bidding his goodbye to Evelyn, Alex didn''t immediately come back. Instead, he looked at the sky. Evelyn deserved more than he could give. As long as she was careful, she could reach the apex with the help of a Martial Saint. He thought maintaining the status quo would be the best he could give to her, so at one time, he could protect her from his future problems. On the other hand, her dedication to him made it hard for him to do that. In the end, just like when he entrusted Alicia and Firia to Maxwell, he placed Evelyn on Manness''s hand. No one would attack her again like this. He was planning to rescue Evelyn, risking his very plan if the Joyful Union Sect decided to kill or do their ''specialty'' to her though. "Go. You can fly on your own now." Alex said with a half-happy half-sad smile. He created a teleportation array and disappeared. ... On the other side, Anna frowned upon hearing Noel''s report. In the end, she asked Noel to summon her back as to get all the necessary information from the system. It turned out the powerful person was Maxwell''s friend, and she asked Noel to standby. She waited for a while until Alex came back without Evelyn. "Is she gone?" "Yeah. She is in a better hand now." "Indeed. Besides, you would protect her if they... No, I should stop." Alex didn''t reply. Although he was a bit strict, he was by no means worried about her. At first, he wanted to have someone from the N squad protect her from the shadow, albeit he thought it was unnecessary after finding Manness''s strength. "What are we going to do now?" "Our objective is still the same. Annihilate the Joyful Union Sect." Alex said with killing intent. "Because of Evelyn?" Alex pondered for a moment before replying honestly, "Part of it is for Evelyn. I never thought they would use a certain aphrodisiac... It''s time to destroy this sect." Anna smiled, fully knowing what he felt. With an aphrodisiac that powerful, she could picture what they would use it for. In fact, she was also furious at the Joyful Union Sect right now. "We still have one more day before the big war. For now, I want to disarm all the traps they use." "I understand. Don''t worry about this place, we would not be discovered in this place." Anna pondered for a moment before stopping him. "Alex, I feel we should have another meeting about the detailed plan." He wanted to have it after this, but considering Evelyn was not here, he needed to adjust his plan a bit. Besides, for an old man to be restrained on the lowest floor like Evelyn, this would cause quite a ruckus inside Joyful Union Sect. So, it was better to adjust their plan early. "Alright. Summon all of them back." Alex nodded, opened the map of the surrounding area and placed it on the ground. Anna took everyone''s card out and summoned them here, including the N squad. "First of all, like we originally planned, we will fight them here." Alex pointed at a big plain in the Southeast of Joyful Union Sect. The plain was more than enough to hold a battle of hundreds of thousands, making it perfect as their battlefield. There was a forest on their left and a hill on their right, but not really usable for them. If they fought in the forest, it was easy to ambush the enemy and vice versa. On the other hand, the Blackwade Clan would come from the hill direction, so it was better to avoid using the hill. "Leoz will take care of the grand elder, and Jeanne will kill the sect master." The first bomb exploded on Jeanne''s ears as she looked at Alex with a surprise. She wanted to say something, but Alex continued. "Listen, these two would be crucial in this war, so failure is not allowed. Are we clear, Jeanne?" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at Jeanne with a grim expression. Jeanne was taken aback but soon regained her calm. Her expression turned serious, and she said, "Understood." "Good." He then turned back to the map, pondered for a moment before pointing at the plain. "We will have them charged at us until they reach the south part of this plain before trapping them there. After all, it would be annoying if the sphere was in your way. "At the same time, Anya, Greg, Sherry, and Kyle will protect the sphere from our enemies. Sherry and Kyle would be our main power in defending the sphere while Greg became their shield. On the other hand, Anya would use her support skills to strengthen our power." "Understood." "This means we only have me, Stina, and five spirits. Stina would be our main cannon to pierce through the enemy ranks and deal with a few 9-Star Martial Emperor elders. At this time, the Blackwade Clan will surely make their appearance and flank them from our right. Considering their number and power, it would be best for us to retreat a bit and make them our shield. "This battle can''t go on more than a day, so you are free to use your True Spirit Body. Don''t forget to check your own status. If you almost leveled up, you may use your biggest move to obliterate our enemies since your energy would be restored." Alex turned to Anya, "Do you want to add something?" This was a normal occurrence as even after asking his spirits about this type of thing, only Anya would answer him. "There is one thing I need to clarify. From this battle plan, I can foresee that their enemy line would be tight. In other words, there is no opportunity for Leoz and Jeanne to strike at them. So, I am suggesting we don''t attack too deep as to prevent ourselves from being surrounded. As soon as the Blackwade Clan appears, we will attack them like a spear and pierce through their defense." Anya crossed her arms, observing the map carefully. "I see." Alex agreed with her and made a change to his plan. "I am planning to remove all the traps inside the sect to ensure our safety. One of the N squad will guide me to the location of the traps... Wait, maybe I can replace their trap with my own?" "Do you have any arrays for that? As far as I remember, you don''t have any attack type array at the moment." Anya shrugged. "True. Such a shame." Alex sighed. "Any more?" All of them shook their head, and Alex ended the meeting. Noel volunteered to be his guide, so he took her offers and went around using his Spatial Gate. ... The next day, the situation inside the Joyful Union Sect was in turmoil. They had been played by both Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan. At first, they had expected for their elder to die, but they would never predict that the Blackwade Clan would launch an attack toward them by bringing more than five thousand disciples. If that was all, they could feel a bit relieved, but according to the report, the previous patriarch of Blackwade Clan, Song Yi, participated in this raid. The previous trump card they had brought to deal with the Spirit Nest, their grand elder, would certainly need to stop Song Yi. The biggest factor in this war would be how many people did the Spirit Nest bring. In that case, the sect master could only utilize his other trump card. "Grab that little b*tch from the prison. Tell our disciples to get ready for war." The sect master ordered. When the messenger was about to leave, another one appeared and kneeled in front of him. "We have bad news from prison. The two people on the fifth floor are gone! We haven''t received any news about what happened." "!!!" The hall fell into silence, as they were too shocked. There were even two elders watching over the prison, and they still let the two people slip. This certainly angered the sect master. "What?! Call Fourth Elder and Six Elder here!" Not long after, both elders kneeled in front of the sect master, trembling out of fear. Even though they were guarding the prison, they did not feel or see anything suspicious as usual. And in that one night, they were gone. "We didn''t know anything, Sect Master. There was not a single clue about what happened inside. Many arrays reinforced our prison, so we seriously didn''t know anything. The only clue we had was our bamboo had been destroyed by them," The fourth elder explained. "You bast-" The sect master was about to blow up, but an old man appeared and stopped him. "Wait a bit, This is really intriguing." The old man had no hair left in his head while his beard reached his stomach area. Despite his aged face, this old man could beat the sect master black and blue easily, so with a single word from him, he managed to stop the sect master. "Grand Elder!" "Our prison is reinforced by a space element array to prevent any thief from coming in. Yet, they could still escape, or someone managed to take them away. Looking at the timing, we can be sure this matter is related to the Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest. The problem is which influence." He paused for a moment before answering his own question. "We have a lot of information about the Blackwade Clan, but almost nothing about Spirit Nest. "The probability becomes twenty percent to eighty percent, with Spirit Nest as the suspect. This little influence might possess more trouble for us than the Blackwade Clan..." The grand elder closed his eyes and sighed. "How is the condition of our array?" "Many elders are checking it right now, but there is nothing to be found. In other words, they also did not escape through the array." "This is really suspicious. No one has managed to escape from our prison for many centuries, and two people suddenly break that record..." "We are currently investigating the matter, Grand Elder. There are more than a thousand disciples in prison to check every nook and corner." "I will leave it to you. Still, if the other influences know about our prison trick, then it will be dangerous to us." "Yes." "But this is hilarious. Those two are man and woman, with how potent the aphrodisiac is, they must have sex right now... Anyway, impose an information lockdown for the time being. We can''t let the other influences know anything about this. If any of the disciples are untrustworthy, kill them." "Yes." The others agreed with him. Their prison was protected with a rank 7 Space Element Array that would prevent anyone from teleporting inside. The only way to come inside was from the main door, which was protected by the fourth elder and sixth elder. They could not think of a single plan that would let these two escape unnoticed. "How about our preparation, like pills and traps?" The grand elder asked the sect master. With the question coming from him, the sect master became docile and answered respectfully. "We can''t really secure many pills for this battle because of the Blackwade Clan, so we can only make a short but decisive war. As for the traps, we have set many arrays in our surroundings, so no matter which direction they attack us, we have enough traps to slow them down." "Good." The grand elder nodded. "From the direction of Blackwade Clan, we can roughly guess the battle location. It should be in the plain south of our sect. With five thousand people, they should only arrive tomorrow if they come at us right after the auction. Haiz... we are outplayed by them. To think they use the auction as bait to camouflage their real intention. Anyway, we shall prepare to the best of our ability. All elders shall gather the disciples and group them up." "Yes, Grand Elder." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 539 Mission "Young Master, we have found the Blackwade Clan. They are supposed to arrive in two hours." Nicole, who was in charge of the Blackwade Clan, reported as she was coming along with the group. For the past few months, she was one of the ''disciples'' the Blackwade Clan recruited for this operation. Although the three people did not have many contacts to avoid suspicion, she was free to move around the three camps, reporting their progress. "Alright. We have finished our preparation and will torch them in an hour or so." Alex nodded and threw the card back to the Inventory. He pondered for a moment before saying, "Fabio, Leoz, and Jeanne will destroy a few buildings according to our original plan. Inform me as soon as you have done it, and I will summon you back here." At first, Alex thought about attacking them first and creating a diversion for the Blackwade Clan, but looking at how prepared they were, he threw that thought out. If he truly made a huge confusion, the disciples might not be ready, but the elders would and might activate the array. He did not want them to realize that their traps were already neutralized, so he could use it to create a larger confusion in the war. "The rest of the N squad will infiltrate their ranks and be ready to deploy the barrier." "Understood." There were six left in the N squad, as Nicole and Ngina were not here. Each of them had at least three array plates from Alex. All those arrays would be connected to a small underground tunnel where Alex planted his Gathering Array. This was the reason why Anya and the others were not in this place. After checking for one last time, Alex waited around an hour before ordering, "Go!" They put their mask on, bowed to Alex, and disappeared. Leoz sneaked inside their training area, where many students practiced their Martial Arts. Although not many people were around after the sect master issued the lockdown, there were still a few hundred people. For Leoz, this was the perfect place to make a commotion. He looked at Njomo and Noel, who was leading him inside and nodded. "I am going to aim at this place. There are a few Martial Emperors here, but it would not be a problem with my strength since I basically can kill them in a single attack." "Meow!" "Make sure you leave some behind so they could create more commotion. This allows us to sneak inside them." Njomo said¡­ or at least that was what Leoz heard aside from his barking. "Sure. I will aim at the Martial Emperors only¡­ and maybe a few Martial Kings." Leoz nodded, released his element and big sword, and leaped toward the training area. The disciples stared at this new guy with a blank look, thinking someone just wanted to cover his face and practiced. After all, there was no way the enemy would get past with the traps and other things without alarming them. Unfortunately, that thought cost them their lives as Leoz suddenly raised his sword, gathered all the lightning onto it, and slashed downwards. "Thunder Spirit Slash." The lightning flew out of his sword, creating a huge Thunder Sword Wave that trampled everything on its way. "Wha-!" No one could react as they were already turned to ashes while the others had yet to react. Leoz took this chance to cut down a few more before two 3-Star Martial Emperors appeared in front of him, swinging their weapons at him. He simply smiled, feeling the weak swing before saying, "Haha¡­ You are too weak." The thunder started sparking on his sword as he shifted his stance and knocked both of these Martial Emperors away. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" Another sword wave flew out of the sword, blasting many people on the ground, including the two Martial Emperors. After releasing two attacks, the disciples started to realize what just happened. A few of them quickly shouted. "Enemy!" "The enemy manages to sneak inside the sect!" "He kills two 3-Star Martial Emperors earlier." "He is still alone. We will attack him together until the elders arrive!" "No, we can''t kill him!" Four people, two left and two right, charged at Leoz with their weapons in hand. Leoz blew them away by a simple swing. His sword dropped to the ground, and he raised both of his hands, aiming at his left and right. Lightning started sparking on his hands before shooting a lightning bolt. "Thunder Break: Lightning Bolt." "Boom!" The two lightning balls created huge explosions on both sides as Leoz raised his blade again before saying, "I am enough to handle you guys." ¡­ On the other side, Jeanne was in charge of their ''sacred'' palace. Many people were currently having sexual intercourse. From the information, this place is used for cultivation purposes because the array and other arrangements could increase the energy they produced from sexual intercourse. Jeanne couldn''t care less about this place, as she slowly walked inside with Noah and Nicky. She took out both of her weapons and stormed inside the palace. In the entrance sat a middle-aged female, writing a few things on her note. "Oh, another girl today? You need to take that mask off before you-" It seemed she was in charge of the register of this place. Unfortunately, Jeanne killed her without letting her say any further. "Trash." Jeanne snorted, swung her short sword again to wipe the blood off, and continued inside. Many rooms inside, but no sound could be heard. She looked at the Sound Insulation Array inside the door and turned to Nicky. "Squeak." Nicky, the flying squirrel, sat on Jeanne''s shoulder, telling her to cause a huge ruckus and not kill everyone. Basically, she had the same mission as Leoz before retreating. However, Nicky seriously needed to warn her as Jeanne was too focused on the matter a few months ago, so she made Jeanne promise her. After getting the confirmation from Jeanne, Nicky and Noah disappeared. Jeanne clenched her swords, kicked the door, and stormed inside, finding two people inside. "Who are-" Both of them were surprised, but Jeanne quickly sliced their throats, killing them before they could yell. Though, even if they yelled, no one would hear it because of the Sound Insulation Array. Unlike Leoz, Jeanne''s mission was easier, considering it was an assassination mission before she needed to cause massive destruction. In that case, she quickly killed many people, leaving barely enough people to create a huge commotion. ¡­ The same applied to the Fabio. He came inside a pavilion where they stored Array Plates, pills, and weapons for their disciple. The place was like the Exchange Pavilion of Heavenly Sword Sect. Although he could not cause a huge commotion here because he was far weaker than Leoz and Jeanne, he asked Nano and Natalie to get inside their warehouse and steal everything inside. Nano and Natalie complied and disappeared. One minute later, they came out and gave the space ring to Fabio. At first, Fabio wanted to burn this place, but he had a change of mind at the last second, thinking it would be such a waste just to let those items burn. After all, Alex could exchange them with money in the Blackwade Clan. Even though it might not be comparable to the items in their treasury, it could at least reach one million Spirit Gems, considering how lucrative this business was to the disciples. Fabio raised his hands and created a huge fireball outside the pavilion. Due to the size of the fireball, the disciples around noticed the heat and glowed coming from the fireball. Fabio didn''t let them close and quickly broke his own fireball into a few flame pillars. Then, the fire pillars wreaked havoc in the pavilion and created many destructions and blazed everywhere. Although he might not kill anyone in this attack, he created the biggest disturbance in the sect and even profited Alex from it. It was at this time a bat appeared on his shoulder and said, "You need to go. Two elders are coming our way." "Understood." Fabio nodded and left according to the escape path he made prior. The building was on fire, and they could somehow stop the fire not long after, but as one would expect from a place like this, they would inspect their goods first. When the elders came, they were dumbfounded by the empty warehouse. There was already chaos in the high command, and the sect master was raging inside the meeting hall. They volunteered to check this building as to avoid his anger, but this empty warehouse would certainly end their career. Unbeknownst to them, a bat was flying around them, and a shadow wolf sank on someone''s shadow. The same applied to the training field where Njomo warned Leoz about the incoming elders. Leoz nodded and created a huge explosion with his lightning before disappearing from their sight. The elders only found dead bodies and injured people inside the area. If not for Alex''s warning, no one would be alive past this point. The elders sweatdropped, never expecting an enemy would raid this place. Unfortunately, the sneaky dog, Njomo, and cat, Noel, had come inside their shadow. Unfortunately, Noah and Nicky had it rough as they needed to convince Jeanne to stop the killing and leave. It was not like she needed to leave immediately, but because she had killed too many. If she killed all of them, Noah and Nicky would have a harder job. In the end, she gave in and reluctantly left the building after getting threatened by Noah, saying she would report this to Alex. His importance surpassed Jean, so she could only retreat before sending a huge cross Sword Wave to destroy the building. This time, the elders were stupefied. The building aside, they were completely speechless when they saw how the disciples died. The males'' pen*ses were cut as Jeanne shoved it to the females'' mouths before beheading them. It was gross, making the elders forget about the anger. The eagle, Noah, quickly soared to the sky, watching their every movement while flying with the other birds that flew after the destruction. As for Nicky, the flying squirrel, she enjoyed the stay under the tree and waited for the event to unfold. After getting to a safe distance, Alex resummoned them outside the clan. "How is it?" "I have incapacitated almost a thousand people." Leoz proudly reported his deed. "Good, our battle will be easier right now." Alex nodded with a smile before turning to Fabio. "Young Master, I have managed to loot their warehouse. Although it can''t be compared to the treasury, it still at least has around one million worth Spirit Gems." Fabio presented the space ring to Alex before ending it with his catchphrase. "I didn''t do it for you, alright? I just thought it would be beneficial for our group." "Thank you for thinking like that." Alex had gotten used to this line, so he just took the space ring from his hand before handing it to Anna. As for Jeanne, she kept glancing left and right, wondering if Alex would be mad. She was too absorbed after killing a few disciples and ended up doing too many masterpieces to show her anger. Luckily, no one reported about what she did and her problem, so Alex knew nothing about it. "I have done my part too¡­" Jeanne said while flinching. Alex tilted his head in confusion and asked, "Is there something wrong with the mission?" "No¡­ There is nothing wrong. I have completed the mission." Jeanne quickly corrected herself to avoid Alex''s suspicion. "Alright. That''s good then." Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "With this, the enemy should have a meeting and gather all their disciples right now. In around fifteen minutes, we will show ourselves and bait them into our trap. The Blackwade Clan should arrive by then according to Nicole''s words." "Understood." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 540 Spirit Nest Arrived Inside the meeting hall, where the sect master, grand elder, and other elders had the last discussion about routing the Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest, a person came out of the blue with sweat all over his body. "Emergency! We¡­ We¡­ We have been attacked!" He stuttered as the matter was shocking enough to create a huge storm inside the sect. Despite locking down their sect and increasing their surveillance, the Spirit Nest could still sneak inside them. Luckily, this room was guarded heavily, unlike those places. If not, nothing would be able to stop them. And all people inside the room understood this the moment they heard the news. "Three places are attacked right now, but we have yet to get a clear view of the perpetrators. The places are Training Field, Dual Cultivation Pavilion and Items Pavilion." "What?!" The sect master already fed up with this matter, so his anger quickly filled his head. Fortunately, before he could release his anger, the grand elder stopped him and said, "How is their condition? How many are attacking them?" "We don''t know their condition, but we can safely assume they are pretty bad¡­ One thing about the Dual Cultivation Pavilion, according to the disciples there, the elder in charge of Dual Cultivation has died." "We need to go toward them and help. Each place would need two elders, so who wants to go there?" Surprisingly, all the elders suddenly stood up, not wanting to be left behind. Doing this mission would allow them to escape from the calamity of the sect master, so no one wanted to reject this proposal. The grand elder facepalmed before choosing them himself. "You and you go to the Training Field, you two to Dual Cultivation Pavilion, and you two are going to Items Pavilion." He assigned all the matters to 8-Star or above Martial Emperors to avoid becoming a cannon fodder if their enemies were strong. The strong elders quickly left the room with happy hearts, while the rest had despair in their hearts. The grand elder turned around and narrowed his eyes, looking at the sect master with killing intent. "I am sick with your short temper. I know this matter is frustrating, but we need to solve this issue with calm heads. In fact, if not because you want to get this Spirit Nest, this situation won''t happen." What the grand elder said was right. It was the Joyful Union Sect first that made a move to the Spirit Nest. After they could not take it anymore, they retaliated by destroying the branches. This problem even escalated to a big war between three influences. The grand elder continued handling the situation, not letting the sect master say anything. It was a dire situation, and the elders felt relieved after knowing the sect master could not get angry. They helped as much as possible, not allowing the sect master to get angry. After a while, two elders came back. "It''s chaos¡­ They¡­ They have stolen our goods in the Items Pavilion. With our daily trade and the stock in the warehouse, it amounts to one million Spirit Gems." An elder reported after coming back. Before responding to their report, the grand elder noticed the other elders coming back. He halted his questions and asked for the status report. "Training Field is absolutely terrible. There are around one thousand disciples there, and half of them are dead while the rest are heavily injured. We have asked other disciples to treat their injury for now." "It''s the same with the Dual Cultivation Pavilion. More than half of the disciples, including the elder in charge, are dead. They even cut the pen*ses and shoved them to the females'' disciple mouths. This¡­" The elder was confused about whether he should say gross, terrifying, or anguish. In the end, he did not continue and let the other judge it. The elders gasped. Raku was rushing to this place and finally arrived, but he was greeted by the news, making him tremble. "What?! Where is the culprit?" The grand elder frowned, not knowing what to do. Basically, he needed more information about this, but the enemy was very smart and did not leave any trace. "We don''t know. We have searched them, but found no one." The elder answered while the other shook their heads, agreeing to what she said. "..." The grand elder looked at Raku and asked. "What? Why do you come here?" "There¡­ There is a group in the southern plain. Although I can''t see them clearly, I am absolutely sure it is them." "Them?" The grand elder narrowed his eyes. "Yes, they are Spirit Nest." "All elders immediately arrange our disciples and bring them to the southern plain. I will only wait for five minutes!" "Yes." The elders moved as fast as possible, sounding the alarm to the entire sect. Because of earlier preparation, the disciples managed to gather in less than five minutes. The sect master, grand elder, and all elders nodded to the disciples before flying toward the south to meet the Spirit Nest. Above the plain stood proudly thirteen people, waiting for the late arrival of Joyful Union Sect. "Spirit Nest!" The sect master of Joyful Union Sect roared to the sky with a deafening sound. He released all of his rages at the moment because he realized all the troubles the sect got lately was coming from them. The Grand Elder locked on two figures: One was a muscular figure with a huge sword on his hand. What grabbed his attention was the fact this yellow-haired guy was a Martial Monarch, a stronger one than him to boot. The other one was a young and tiny girl with blonde hair. He heard about her from the first elder, as she should be the one who stopped the first and second elders. One thing that he could not swallow was the fact the Spirit Nest actually had two Martial Monarchs. There was another 10-Star Martial Emperor, but he could let the sect master deal with her. However, this matter escalated to a greater height when he remembered that the Blackwade Clan was also going to attack them. On the other hand, the elders were observing the leader of Spirit Nest, Alexander Sirius. The Spirit Nest had been dormant this entire time before they heard the rumor about their leader. However, as soon as they learned his existence, seven branches followed by the western branches were destroyed. The first elder flinched a little, never expecting the man that almost died back then suddenly turned into a 4-Star Martial Emperor. This certainly a matter of highest importance because if their leader just hid a few years, he would most likely become a Martial Monarch. At that time, the Joyful Union Sect couldn''t do anything to stop its destruction. Raku, Alex''s previous opponent, took out his sword despite knowing his real power. His action quickly reignited the fire in the elders'' hearts. They gritted their teeth and took out their weapons. The Grand Elder swept at their disciples. Even if they had many powerful people, it was useless in front of this huge army. As long as they could kill them before the Blackwade Clan arrived, their sect would be saved. "I am thankful for your treatment of me and my little girl, Sect Master of Joyful Union Sect. Hence, I will pay your ''generous'' treatment," Alex said sarcastically before releasing his killing intent. Many disciples did not know about Evelyn''s matter, so they were a bit confused. Looking at this, the grand elder quickly solved the issue. "All people of Joyful Union Sect, they only have thirteen people. Even if they are strong, they can''t defeat so many of us here!" The Grand Elder shouted, waking up the soldiers and the sect master. "Uoh! Grand Elder." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the surge of morale. Even so, he could not flinch in this and command, "Stina, you take care of all the 9-Star Martial Emperors. There are only three left, so it should be no problem for you. If needed, Leoz or Jeanne will help you after they finish their fight. "Anna, Fabio, and Artur will handle all the Martial Emperors above 6-Star until the reinforcements arrive. I will finish my battle with that guy while the others go according to the plan." "Understood." They nodded in unison. "Lastly, you may use your full power," Alex said with a severe tone. The spirits smirked behind their masks as they had been waiting for this moment. On the other hand, the grand elder did not like how the battle was going, so he raised his hand before shouting once again. "Disciples, we need to kill them before the Blackwade Clan arrives. All Martial Emperors shall lead the disciples to go through our battlefield. This is our home, so we will protect it no matter what." "Uoh!" "All disciples! Attack!" "Uoh!" They took out their weapons and started charging toward Alex and the others, albeit they only smiled. "True Spirit Body!" The spirits shouted in unison, releasing a huge amount of energy from their body. The sight stopped the disciples and elders as this was the first time they saw something like this. One of them had a pair of horns, two of them had a pair of butterfly wings, and even ice wings. They could even see a human enveloped by a flame. Sherry and Kyle released their fire phoenixes and shot it toward the elders and sect masters. "Sect Master, Grand Elder, and Elders!" The disciples looked up and shouted. "Boom Boom!" The disciples gasped, thinking about what kind of consequences if those phoenixes hit them. "Idiot, All of you need to calm down. If not, we won''t win this war!" The Grand Elders brushed the phoenixes off, assuring the disciples. "Ah!" "You don''t need to worry about us. All you need to do is to kill them." "Yes!" The disciples started flying toward Alex and the others again, albeit just when there were only 20 meters left, they were stopped once again by an eagle hovering above them. *Cry* The eagle let out a loud cry as it dove down from the sky. One thing that made them surprised was when they saw the eagle taking out a huge array plate. "!!!" It was like a signal for others to see, not enemies, but friendlies. The N squad appeared in sync as they took out array plates and activated them. In an instant, all six array plates activated at the same time, erecting a huge barrier trapping around fifteen thousand people. "!!!" The sect master and others only furrowed their eyebrows with a little hint of surprise. They had expected this after knowing their leader was a rank 6 Array Master, so he quickly ordered. "Don''t panic! We have been expecting this. All rank 6 Array Masters will solve the barrier problem." "That is if you can¡­" Alex smiled as he raised his hand, telling the others to attack. "Go, bring me their heads." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 541 Blackwade Clan Arrived "Go, bring me their heads." Leoz raised his sword and gathered all the lightning energy, releasing it in one single swing. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" The sword wave flew toward the sect master, but the grand elder came to its way, swinging his own sword. "Depravity Sword." The two sword waves clashed, creating a huge shockwave that startled the entire battlefield. The sect master quickly realized that this person was also a Martial Monarch and at the grand elder''s level. Unfortunately, Leoz''s sword wave slowly gained an advantage, chipping away the grand elder''s red sword wave. "What?" The sect master could not believe what he just saw and turned to the grand elder. The instant he looked at his expression, he frowned. "Attack them. Attack them! They may be strong, but they only have a small number. This is why they need to resort to trapping us with that barrier. As long as we preserve, we will win this battle." He tried to make another rallying call. "All elders will also go with them! As long as we take down their leader, we will win." "Vitality Strike!" The first elder made his move, charging at Alex before using his original sword technique. The sword wave flew while emanating powerful pressure. Alex watched this move that almost killed a few months ago and smiled. "Fire Lotus, First Petal. Fire of Supreme Phoenix." From his side, a fire petal intercepted the sword wave and exploded. The fire started burning the sword wave until nothing left. Stina appeared in front of him, brushing the smoke out of their way. She raised her scepter and created a huge fireball above her before slowly turning into five snakes. It attacked the first, third, and fourth elders at the same time, gathering them in one spot. Then, she flew toward them and said with an overbearing tone, "Your opponent is me." The same applied to the other elders. There was one person who managed to pass their formation only to be intercepted by Anna. Anna blew her away and snorted. "It''s not the time for our king to move." Without anyone noticing, Leoz already engaged in a fierce fight with the grand elder while Jeanne was still staring at the sect master. She wanted to make sure Alex''s safety first before engaging him. After all, she was afraid if the sect master would pull the same thing as the first elder. "Let me help you all." Anya smiled as she raised her golden staff to the front, closing her eyes. She had become a Martial Emperor, so ten people were not her limit anymore. Boosting twelve people was just a simple task for her now. "Light Butterfly Blessing." The light coming out of her staff went to Alex and the others, increasing their strength. Alex looked down, checking his body condition. He was a bit surprised to receive such a thing as he became equal to a 5-Star Martial Emperor. With his strength, he might be able to fight 7-Star Martial Emperor to a standstill. Though he wanted to test it, he had another important thing to do. Before fighting against Raku, he pointed his finger to the barrier. "Jean, Vera, help them to maintain the barrier." "Understood." They glanced at Sherry and Kyle, who were going toward the barrier while being protected by Greg. Sherry and Kyle had been using their firebirds to its full potential, but it was still hard to fight against a few thousand attacks on their way even with Greg''s help. In the end, their progress halted as they could only watch the array masters solving the barrier. Fortunately, Alex''s barrier was far stronger than expected. Even with many rank 6 array masters working on it at the same time, they needed at least one or two hours before they could decipher it. At this time, Jean appeared in front of them as his hands turned into water. He pointed at the disciples and shot out nine snakeheads. "Exquisite Water Body, Second Command. Hydras." "Water Breath." The snakeheads opened their mouth and shot out high-pressure water. However, this certainly would not kill people Martial Kings or above, so he glanced at Vera. Vera simply nodded her head as she touched one of Jean''s hydra and channeled her ice element. The water froze in an instant as many people got frostbite or even frozen inside the ice. Unfortunately, the Joyful Union Sect was not this easy. They continued barraging them with their attacks. Greg played a huge role in this as he kept greeting shield after shield to protect all of them. After seeing the battle was going according to the plan, Alex then took out his sword and spear, pointing them to Raku. He failed to kill him because of the first elder''s interference, but this time, nothing shall stop them anymore. The battle would not stop before one of them died. As the strongest younger generation, Raku was obligated to fight him to raise the disciples'' morale. After all, if he ran away, the disciples would think what they were fighting for when even their most talented generation could only flee. This was something he would not want to see. Raku also took out his sword, pointing it toward Alex. They both flew toward each other as their swords started glowing. "Heaven Light Slash." "Dual Joy Slash." With how big their gap now was, the moment Alex activated his Spirit Step, he accumulated enough strength and blew him away to the ground. "Bam!" Raku bit his lips, endured the pain, and flew toward Alex. He pointed his palm toward Alex as a wind tornado came out. "Wind Stimulant." Alex waved his sword, shooting a golden sword wave. "Blade of Conquest." The sword struck at the center of the tornado, blasting the tornado away before continuing its way toward Raku. On the other hand, Raku simply flew to the side before attacking him with his sword. Albeit no matter how hard he tried, his sword could not reach Alex. "Ignition Break." Raku crashed on the ground again due to the force of Ignition Break. Despite having a disadvantageous battle, he still put a brave face and struck at Alex again. To lower the disciples'' morale, Alex purposely bullied Raku first before killing him. Besides, he still needed to wait for the Blackwade Clan to appear. Their battle continued for a few more finally until finally, *Clang* Alex finally blew Raku''s sword away. Raku tried to escape, but Alex quickly stabbed his sword right on his chest. As if he was expecting it, Raku shifted his body a little bit and let the sword pierce right beside his heart before grabbing the sword. *Thud Thud* Before he could say anything, a trumpet sound echoed through the battlefield from the hill. Without even looking, they already knew what happened. Reinforcement from the Blackwade Clan finally arrived. "Enemy from our left!" One of the disciples shouted, noticing the reinforcement from the hill. "What? Blackwade Clan has appeared. We still could not defeat a single opponent!" The situation turned bad for the Joyful Union Sect. All the promise the grand elder gave to them previously had gone to smoke. With the addition of the Blackwade Clan, they would surely lose. This thought alone pummeled their morale. Song Yu narrowed her eyes, surprised with the development. Although the Joyful Union Sect had the advantage, their formation was derailed. If they flanked from the side, they could easily annihilate the army. "Sisters!" "Don''t worry. Take a look at the battle carefully. They may have the advantage, but they still could not defeat one of Alex''s comrades. We still have time and search for the best spot to attack." Looking at this, Raku was on his wit''s end. He already expected this would happen after looking at his 4-Star Martial Emperor cultivation, but it was still frustrating. "I know I can''t defeat you. That''s why I am taking you with me!" Raku grabbed Alex''s wrist before taking out a single array plate. He was ready to sacrifice his life to kill Alex with this suicide idea from the start. "Raku!" "Young Master Raku." Many disciples could not believe Raku wanted to make a suicide attack. They wanted to rush to here, but the spirits and contracted beasts were in their way. "Stay strong, my Joyful Union Sect!" Raku shouted his last piece as he activated the array plate. "Stay strong, my Joyful Union Sect!" "Stay strong¡­" They did not know why, but his last message gave them a surge of energy, allowing them to fight more than this. Hope was still there as long as they preserved. On the other hand, Alex was getting into a troublesome situation. "!!!" Seeing the restriction from his hand, if he used his right hand, it would be too late to destroy this attack. That was why Alex quickly swung his spear as a sword at lightning speed. "Triple Draws." He used the first strike to slice Raku''s hand, before using the second strike to cut his head. And the last strike, Alex channeled fire element onto his spear as he combined it with another technique. "Ignition Break!" As soon as the spear struck the array plate, it exploded as an ice crystal appeared in the sky. Raku''s plan was freezing him with this attack as the ice was so brittle, making it easy for Alex to shatter if he was frozen. Luckily, Alex created the new technique Triple Draws, allowing him to blast the ice element from him and escape from the ice crystal. Although he could melt it with his fire, the attack would still deal a huge amount of damage to him if he was hit by it, considering it was a peak rank 6 array plate. He looked down on the frozen and dead Raku for the last time before shattering him into pieces. Even in the end, he did not show any weakness, like begging for his life. He even wanted to die together. Alex raised his sword and shattered the ice, letting everyone know their present situation. With Raku dying in Alex''s hand, it slowly pummeled the disciples'' morale. Even more so when they saw the sect master, grand elder, and elders could not do anything because of their own opponents. The grand elder bit his lips. It was a shame to lose a person like Raku, but he regained his focus immediately. His eyes swept the entire battlefield with a single glance. At first, they could gain an advantage because of their number and slowly pushed them back. Although their transformations managed to halt their advance quite a bit, they could win if they had another thirty minutes. The situation changed the moment Raku died and the Blackwade Clan arrived. In a split second, he decided to switch to plan B. "We are retreating a little bit." As soon as they heard his command, the disciples started retreating to a deeper area, leaving the trapped disciples behind. With how things were going on, the disciples should be safe for a while. Song Yu narrowed her eyes, feeling very suspicious about this motion. She stared at Alex, waiting for his next move. Knowing her hearing ability, Alex said, "Advancing past this area will be very dangerous¡­ you must think like that¡­" A trace of surprise appeared on her face as she looked at Song Jia and her grandfather before turning to Alex again. "I have disarmed all their traps earlier. Trust me." Alex smiled. Song Jia glanced at her sister. "Sister, there must be traps around the area." "Alex has disarmed them¡­" Song Yu said in disbelief before looking at her grandfather. "How is it, Grandfather? Are we going to advance?" "You are the leader of this war, so you choose." Her grandfather simply shrugged. Song Yu pondered for a moment and took a glimpse of Alex''s motion, never expecting he would move even without her. She gritted her teeth and raised her hand. "Warriors of Blackwade Clan. It''s time we finish this business with Joyful Union Sect. Let us start the chase game!" "Ooh!" "All Warriors¡­" "Everyone¡­" "Charge!" Song Yu and Alex ordered a pursuit at the same time. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 542 Full Attack "Charge!" As soon as the order was made, the spirits, contracted beasts, and the people from Blackwade Clan moved in unison, pursuing the Joyful Union Sect. Because of this situation, only Greg and Kyle left behind to protect the array as they would come back soon. The sect leader roared to the sky, intending to alarm the entire sect. "All disciples of the Joyful Union Sect. This battle will decide our fate. No matter if you are a Martial Master or Martial Grandmaster or even Martial Emperor, come to this place right now to repel our enemies! If we lose here, there is no more Joyful Union Sect in the future, and there is no way our enemies will be kind enough to let you go. Come to this place right now as we will wrest away our fate." This loud sound alarmed everyone on the scene, including all the disciples that were going into hiding with the earlier notice. The disciples did not know what to do, but when one person stood up, the rest would follow until all of them finally stood up. The Martial Master and Grandmaster in this sect was around one hundred fifty thousand people. Despite being cannon fodders, that number alone would threaten the Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan. It was proven by how Alex''s expression turned serious. "Haha! We will defeat you in this place! To think you are foolish enough to pursue us!" The sect master laughed, looking down on Alex. The grand elder raised his hand, signaling the people in charge before shouting. "Activate the array!" "!!!" Song Yu furrowed her eyebrows and looked around. Song Jia and her grandfather also watched their surroundings to see if Alex told the truth or not. After waiting for a few seconds, nothing appeared on the battlefield, making the warriors from the Blackwade Clan feel relieved. Alex released his killing intent. "Traps? Do you think your trap can stop me? I have long disarmed them." "What!" The sect master and grand elder opened their mouths in surprise. They did not want to believe it, but the fact their traps did not turn on, they had no choice other than to believe it. "Impossible, how can you know their positions¡­ No, you should be the one who saves that little brat!" "As I said, nothing can stop me." Alex shrugged. "Young Master, if you want to attack, let me open it with a huge attack. I am going to level up in a bit." Suddenly, Artur sent a message to his head. [Artur (Light) Level: 57/80 (7-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 475343/480000] "Hmm¡­" Alex checked his status, and it was true. Artur only needed less than four thousand EXPs. Even if he killed Martial Master and Martial Grandmasters, he should be able to level up despite them only giving him one experience point per person. "Leoz, Jeanne, make way for Arthur and defeat those two leaders as quickly as possible." He commanded. "I think we are going to attack them after that." Fabio and Vera informed him. "Yeah. I have the same." Anna also came toward him and nodded. [Anna (Dark) Level: 57/80 (7-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 470001/480000] [Fabio (Fire) Level: 57/80 (7-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 468991/480000] [Vera (Water) Level: 56/80 (6-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 451285/470000] After checking their status, he gave them a go. "Understood. All of you can just bombard them with your strongest skill before you all level up. No need for my permission." The spirits nodded. Alex glanced at Song Yu, signaling her to start. "Go!" Both of them said at the same time. "Ooh!" "Joyful Union Sect, on me!" The sect leader and grand elder decided to lead the disciples to fight back. Artur cut everyone on his way. Even if he was going to be surrounded after this, he did not care. In fact, he welcomed such a thing as his strongest attack did not really have long reach like the others. "Spirit Slash!" He created a giant sword strike to clean up the ground around him a little bit as he descended and placed his hand on the ground. "By the Spirit God''s Blessing, this body shall become my sword, and my sword shall become my body. Let this entire existence cut through all enemies." A bright white light appeared on the ground, alarming the enemies. Only one thought they could feel from this light. It was something bad. The light enveloped more than five thousand disciples. Seeing this, the grand elder warned them. "Get out of the light!" Unfortunately, they were too late, Artur activated the last phase. "Grand Cross!" As soon as he used the technique, a circle of swords rose from the ground, piercing many disciples in one go. There were survivors, but most of them were heavily injured. Song Yu and Song Jia dropped their jaw to the ground as they never saw a powerful technique. On the other hand, their grandfather was surprised because of another thing. He muttered, "This¡­ This is a peak Heaven Tier Martial Art! How¡­ Even a Martial Emperor like him would have a difficulty to activate him. Is he going to suicide? After using this technique, he would absolutely have no Spiritual Energy left." "!!!" Song Yu looked at her grandfather and said, "We need to save him immediately!" When her grandfather was about to answer, they suddenly saw Artur coming out of that sword formation with a face full of energy. As if the sword attack did not affect him at all, he laughed. "Haha¡­ This knight has finally become useful for his master." "What?!" Not only the Blackwade Clan people, but even the grand elder and sect leader were also stupefied. The disciples from both sides were utterly speechless. More than a surprise, they felt dread of this technique. After all, if they got attacked by this technique, they would become those who were pierced from under. Anna complained a little bit. "Artur, you almost made me lose my opportunity! If I lose the opportunity to pay them back, I will surely remember you." Artur''s excitement suddenly died down before he replied. "I am sorry, Mistress." "Hmph. Fabio, Vera, let''s go." Anna appeared from in front of the enemies, making them suck a cold breath. After looking at Artur''s attack, they could somehow imagine what kind of attack Anna would release. And she even brought two of her friends. "O'' moonlight, hear my prayer. Darkness is eternal. Let this dark butterfly carry you around to feed you with these lives as offerings." Anna raised her scythe before appearing in the middle of the enemies while stabbing the ground with her scythe. The dark fire that appeared on her scythe slowly went inside the ground and spread around. "Memory of Death!" As soon as she used the attack, many black tentacles rose and started pulling the disciples inside. This was Anna''s strongest curse. Inside this technique, the people would be tested their will and other things for a long long time even though only a second passed in the real world. If they could not pass the test, the curse would swallow their memories and existences. One second later, all the people absorbed by the black hole appeared, but only a few managed to stand up again. The rest of them were living deaths. The system even considered them dead, as they were just empty shells. It was not a matter where they could just get the soul and memory from Anna as their souls and memories were already extinguished inside that darkness. At the same time, Fabio and Vera held hands as they walked toward the enemies. It was like a harmonious couple strolling in a park. They were walking while chanting with a pacifying tone. "By the blessing of Spirit God, permitting marriage between Fire and Ice, we will dance in your palm as a Fire and Ice, opposite but inseparable." Suddenly, they pulled their swords and stabbed the ground at the same time. From Fabio''s sword, a blazing flame appeared and charged at the crowd. The same as his sword, the ice spike continued moving forward alongside the flame before it fused at some point. The fusion created a shiny glow on the battlefield, revealing a blazing ice flower on the ground. It was a cute and tiny flower that one would protect with their life, but it was a very deadly flower in this case. "Fire and Ice World!" The lotus created a huge explosion, engulfing almost ten thousand disciples. "Boom!" The aftereffect was very beautiful in Alex''s opinion. After the explosion, it created two worlds in the same place. Just like yin and yang, the fire and ice circled around the lotus, creating two worlds. Fire on the right and ice on the left. Although they could not get together, they were inseparable. And with the collaborations of the three, they managed to level up and quickly retreated to Alex''s side. It already created a huge ruckus for both friendlies and enemies. Even Song Yu''s grandfather was broken as he kept saying ''Peak Heaven Tier Art.'' Alex shrugged his shoulder as he wanted Jeanne and Leoz to finish it soon. Noticing the exp almost filled up, Jeanne nodded to Alex. After fighting so long, she already grasped the extent of this sect master and planned to finish the fight as soon as possible. Lightning sparked on her swords. She waved both swords and created a cross slash before shooting a yellow lightning Sword Wave. "Full Body Cross Lightning." "Dual Joy Slash!" The sect master did not want to lose as he swung his sword as hard as possible. The clash between two techniques shocked the entire battlefield, but before he managed to destroy Jeanne''s sword wave, she already appeared diagonally to his top, pointing her sword at him. "Natural Lightning Spear." She shot out a powerful lightning spear, boosting the power of her sword wave. It pushed the sect master to the ground before he managed to destroy it. Unfortunately, Jeanne already finished her preparation. "Lightning Spirit Worship o'' Spirit God. Use my body as the catalyst, so you may strike my enemy with your lightning. Lightning Dragon!" Despite having a bright blue sky, the glamour thunder still echoed in the sky, shocking everyone. From one cloud, a lightning dragon appeared and flew toward the sect master. "No!" The sect master looked very unwilling as he swung his sword again. Sadly, it was not enough to destroy the lightning dragon. As the main target of the lightning dragon, the sect master was engulfed before creating another huge explosion, killing many disciples. However, despite gaining this much advantage, Alex could not help but frown. He noticed something that no one noticed in this battlefield. They surely killed thousands of people every single time, but most of them Martial Lords or below. Just like Artur, Anna, and the other attacks, most survivors were Martial Kings and Emperors. In other words, if they could realize it, they might have another surge of morale and the situation would become a difficult battle. He was convinced like that because he found the sect master was still alive, albeit half-dead. This was why when he planned the battle, the most important thing in his mind was how to manipulate the entire battle, including emotion and attention. There were only Anya, Jean, and Leoz that had yet to release their strongest attack. Seeing he got many Gacha Tickets, he was ready to use it, so they could make their strongest attack without fearing about their Spiritual Energy. ¡­ On the other side, Song Jia and her grandfather exchanged looks as she asked, "Grandfather, do you know anything about this?" "How could I know that they have many peak Heaven Tier Arts? I don''t even have it myself¡­" "..." Song Jia looked around, thinking about Alex''s matter where he peeked on her before asking, "Ehm¡­ I¡­ Should I sacrifice myself?" "According to Song Yu, it would only trigger him. Don''t think about it. At the very least, we are his ally because of you, Song Yu, and Putri." Her grandfather sighed. Song Yu stared blankly, wondering what just happened. This scene shocked her to the core and could not help but mutter to herself. "Does he even need our help?" Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 543 A Man Known as a Beas "Does he even need our help?" If Song Yu remained calm and observed the battle, she would know the answer was yes. With the low fatality rate on Martial Kings and Martial Emperors, the enemies would rise sooner or later. In fact, they would only kill around three thousand Martial Kings and Martial Emperors in total even with all those powerful attacks if the sect leader did not call the Martial Master and Martial Lords. Luckily, the people made Anna and the others release their attacks, turning the situation in their favor. Alex opened his system. [Gacha Ticket x2020] "Hmm¡­ I can shoot a few more ''cannons'' in this war." Alex calculated the amount of EXP cards he would get with all these tickets. In this war, his group had killed around fifty thousand people from Martial Masters to Martial Emperors. There were many Martial Masters that could be converted to Gacha Tickets. From what he had seen, he could just come to the Willow or Nilis Continent and screw them over to get Gacha Tickets. By doing so, he would get more than enough Gacha Tickets to level the spirits up to the max level. Unfortunately, the bad karma would fill his life, and the Gacha would surely become useless. According to the system, if he truly did that, Alex might only get less than ten rare items from Gacha Tickets, and this precisely what he did not want. Alex did not know whether to thank this Joyful Union Sect or hate them for becoming his enemy. Of course, one misstep might cost him his life, so it was better not to have an enemy like them, especially in the Heavenly Continent. It would be extremely dangerous as they had Martial Saints. Even a Martial Saint might be able to kill their group now, let alone a bunch of them. He sighed, not knowing why he actually thought about this in this war. There were only Leoz and Jean that had yet to reveal their power, so he decided to check them. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 64/80 (4-Star Martial MonarchStage) Exp: 650000/650000] [Jean (Water) Level: 56/80 (6-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 431285/470000] It was at this moment he realized Leoz could not use whatever he had because his cultivation was too low, not allowing him to level up. The moment Leoz shot out a powerful attack, it would be the end of this battle. On the other hand, Jean needed to wait a little bit. Of course, he could force him to use it before raising his level with EXP cards. "System, use all the Gacha Tickets before using the Summoning Coins," Alex commanded, planning to stock up the EXP cards, so he could use it at any moment. [Processing] [Star Dagger x1] [Great Giant Hen Egg x1] ¡­ ¡­ Alex put down the notification, turned around, and found Song Yu before saying, "I need you guys to attack them!" Song Yu was startled, almost forgetting they were still in the war. She looked around only to find that most of them were fighting already. Due to the distance between her and the nearest enemy, she thought it was no problem to stop and ponder about Alex''s friends for a while. Unfortunately, Alex had no time for that. Seeing Song Yu finally moved around, Alex looked at Leoz and Jeanne. They had the most intense fight in this battle. Although he believed in his spirits, the grand elder and sect master would surely have their own strength, so he could not underestimate them. Jeanne continued to fight the sect master after heavily injuring him by her lightning dragon. On the other hand, Leoz was still exchanging clashes with the grand elder. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" "Depravity Slash." The two sword waves destroyed each other. This could only happen because Leoz started losing his sanity after using the True Spirit Body to the limit. He had injured the grand elder many times. Yet, he would also grow weaker because he needed to fight the impulse of attacking everyone as time passed. "Young Master. This old man is no joke. Not only is he a Martial Monarch, but he is also a Sword Emperor. A top one at that. The first elder could not be compared to this guy¡­ If I prolong this fight, it will be bad if I start rampaging around after killing this guy. "However, if I use my entire power, I could sweep around twenty thousand people at once, but I won''t be able to participate in this war anymore. Even if I level up, I won''t be able to continue because as soon as I enter the fight again, the impulse will only get stronger and stronger even without using the True Spirit Body." Leoz sent a thought transmission to him. "..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Jeanne would soon kill the sect master in another few rounds, depending on his injury, while Song Yu''s grandfather was killing many elders at the moment. Though Leoz''s absence was hurt, it was better than having Leoz to rampage around without sanity. In the end, he might even fight Song Yu''s grandfather. "What if I just recall you back in the card after you lose your sanity?" "I haven''t tried it, but our time is frozen inside the card despite getting your memory. I believe I will still become a crazy berserker even if you summon me later." Leoz answered. "I see. The card can''t heal you then." Alex nodded before turning to Jeanne. "Jeanne, I want you to coordinate with Leoz and kill both the grand elder and sect master in one sweep. Can you do that?" "..." Jeanne pondered while swinging her swords around. "Yes. This guy almost died anyway." "Good." Alex nodded before informing Leoz. "Move along with Jeanne and strike at the sect master and grand elder at the same time. Also, take at least twenty thousand disciples along with them." "Understood." Leoz raised his hand as five lightning chains appeared out of his hand, circling around the grand elder, "Thunder Constellation." "What is this?" He struggled to escape from the bind, but noticed that Leoz could not move too. Leoz glanced at Jeanne for a signal. At first, Jeanne thought Leoz would use the Thunder God Cannon, but it would seem she had been mistaken. With that signal alone, she quickly recognized what she wanted to do, but still asked for a confirmation. "Are you going to use that?" "My master has returned, and I shall celebrate it with a bang." Leoz smiled. "Glory to the Spirit King." "Glory to the Spirit King." Jeanne nodded as she quickly blew the sect master to the ground before flying to Leoz and sent the grand elder to him. "I haven''t done this in a while, so be proud as this is my true strength." Leoz took off his mask for the first time and showed his face to everyone present. Suddenly, his head glowed before the third horn slowly appeared from his forehead. At this time, Leoz looked like a monster as the red light flashed on his eyes. He did not know why, but the moment he blinked his eyes, a memory from a few thousand years ago flashed in his mind. ¡­ A few thousand years ago, in a dark forest stood a young man with three horns. Near him were a thousand corpses of spirits, whether they were like slimes or even centaurs. Their blood had dyed the ground with many colors and slowly transformed the ground into black. Despite having many injuries in his body, the young man felt no pain nor exhaustion. In fact, he was eager for another fight while chewing the enemy flesh in his mouth. It was at this time, another young man appeared in front of him with a sword and spear in his hands. There were a few others that followed this young man, but the young man stepped forward without any care. "Stay back, the rest of you." The young man started releasing his killing intent, triggering the instinct of the three-horned spirit. "Sir, you need to be careful. That beast has killed more than a thousand people!" The people warned him but to no avail as the young man turned blind eyes on their warnings. Instead, he just leaped forward as the ''beast'' grabbed the nearest sword beside him, which happened to be a big sword. They clashed with each other, purely with their weapons. However, Alex kept blowing him away repeatedly, destroying many things in the process. Injury after injury was inflicted on Leoz. No matter how he attacked Alex, it didn''t have any effect. They kept clashing for a few more minutes until, at one moment, Leoz felt he could not move his body anymore, and Alex blew him away once again. ''Die.'' That thought suddenly appeared in his head as he looked at the dead bodies, thinking he would soon become like them. "*\u0026$%*%\u0026*\u0026$%." He barked like a beast. That was the first time in his life that he felt fear. All the wounds started acting on him as he finally felt pain after these many years. "This is why others call you beast instead of spirit." The previous Alex kicked him again before saying, "Speak the words of man!" He pointed his sword right on his face and shouted, "Listen up! If you are going to keep going on acting like some sort of animal, then I will kill you right here, right now! Do you hear me?" The killing intent was crazy, paralyzing Leoz''s body. However, after saying all of those things, Alex released both of his spear and sword, not afraid of Leoz hurting him. He placed his hands on Leoz''s shoulders like a friend or family while saying with a smile before hugging him. "But if you choose otherwise... And choose to take back your sanity and become a spirit again, then I welcome you right now as a member of my family." Many things flashed in Leoz''s mind. He, who had been fighting for many years alone, felt something warm for the first time. Back then, he did not understand his words, but even then, it was enough¡­ enough to make him cry. Even the people that followed Alex at that time were stunned the moment Leoz cried. The third horn in his forehead suddenly shrank before vanishing, while the other two became smaller than his ears. No one knew the pain of being alone better than Alex, and he might not be the first and won''t be the last, but it was enough to show them his feelings. Then, He took care of him for a few months until he could speak and act appropriately. It was at that time, Leoz swore inside his heart. At that very moment, he swore that no matter who his foes might be¡­ even if the cost would be his own life¡­ He would fight for him. ¡­ Leoz glanced at Jeanne, who was flying toward him and blasting the grand elder to the sect master, and flew to the sky. "O'' Ancient Thunder God, What is it that lies within your eyes? O Bright Thunder that splits the Heaven, rumbling tremors that shake the Earth, what pulse beats within your ears? Dwell inside me o God of Lightning as I am Thunder Berserker, Spirit Vessel." As Leoz was chanting, the sky turned to dark, forming vast black clouds. The thunder rumbled inside as a golden light flashed above it. The temperature slowly dropped, creating a chill in the air. Anna noticed this and quickly shouted. "Retreat! You hear me?! Retreat!" Her warning targeted the people from Blackwade Clan as the spirits had retreated a long time ago while bringing Stina and Sherry away before regrouping with Alex. The Blackwade Clan didn''t know what would happen, but looking at Anna''s expression immediately made them dread. They instinctively cowered and escaped from the battlefield, gathering behind Song Yu and the others. Even Greg, on the other side, stared at this black cloud and mumbled. "He¡­ To think that man will use this technique again after a few thousand years. O'' my Master, Spirit King, this is your spear that will slay even God. Please watch him." "Lightning God Possession, Heaven''s Wrath." Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 544 Heavens Wrath "Lightning God Possession, Heaven''s Wrath." A bolt of lightning struck the Earth with its mighty power before it suddenly split into thousands of smaller lightning strikes, coloring the sky with a flash of golden color. Although it didn''t make a huge impact like Alex''s golden tribulation, it was still enough to brighten the sky nearby. The disciples'' hearts skipped a beat when they thought the lightning strikes would kill him. To their surprise, it didn''t do anything to them, making them feel relieved. Unfortunately, the lightning suddenly vanished into thin air before there was a golden flash in everyone''s eyes before a huge explosion that no one thought even existed shook the world. Even Jeanne''s lightning strike looked like a cat in front of a lion compared to this lightning. The explosion engulfed everything on its way, turning them into ash regardless of their cultivation. In fact, even their grand elder or other spirits could not survive from this attack, let alone them. Song Yu, Song Jia, and their grandfather dropped their jaws to the ground, not expecting Leoz to use a technique beyond his understanding. "This¡­ Is this that legendary technique?" He muttered to himself. Song Yu heard it and wanted to ask him, but the flash gradually dimmed down as she could slowly see the situation before dropping her jaw again. The result was a huge and deep hole, piercing to the ground in about several ten meters. The hole had a diameter of three hundred meters and filled with darkness. The most outrageous thing of this whole situation was the fact Leoz only did this with his 4-Star Martial Monarch strength. What if he used it at Martial Saint or above it? The thought flashed in everyone''s mind, sending chills down their spine. ''Escape.'' This was the first thought of people from Joyful Union Sect. Unfortunately, the N squad worked fast as they suddenly appeared, taking out their Array Plates. Another barrier erected in the middle of the battlefield, trapping more than thirty thousand people. Alex''s spare array plates finally became useful. Although their original purpose was to reinforce the barrier if they managed to break it, Greg reported that the barrier was fine, so they decided to use it this time without Alex''s permission. There were still enough array plates to build another barrier, so they disappeared once again, searching for a perfect spot. "Hii!" "No!" "Please help me out of here." "I don''t want to die." The shrills coming from the trapped disciples jolted everyone''s mind. "Run!" "Escape for your life!" They started running for their life before another big array trapped another thirty thousand. "Kill the ones that escape!" Alex shouted, ordering not only his friends but also the people from Blackwade Clan. Song Yu quickly heard it and commanded, "We can save these guys for later. We will kill the ones that are escaping right now as to rout the remnant of Joyful Union Sect. Make sure you kill all of them to prevent them from taking revenge on us!" "Yes!" They began their pursuit. On the other hand, Alex threw two space rings to Anna. "Use the Spirit Gems to reinforce the array." Anna nodded and flew to the barriers. She knew why Alex gave the space rings to her instead of bringing it himself. After all, he still had another important thing to do. Watching Anna disappear, Alex flew toward Leoz, who was swaying around in the air, feeling exhausted. He stretched his hand and placed it on Leoz''s shoulder, pulling him like a brother. "Thank you, Leoz. You can rest now. You have done more than enough. Thanks to your effort, we have won this battle." "Yes¡­ Master." Leoz closed his eyes, smiling widely as all of his horns slowly shrank. It might be strange that just hearing those words made it feel like everything was worth it. No matter how brutal the fighting he was forced to endure or how much blood he had to bleed or spill, those words alone relieved every burden in his heart. Alex flew away with him before recalling him back to the card, not letting the others see. Song Yu didn''t hear a single thing, so she continued moving forward while leaving people behind to protect the barrier. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if these guys could be trusted, but he got his answer as soon as Song Jia came. "Where are the others?" Alex asked, activating his Spirit Eyes to see whether there was anyone that dared to break the barrier. Due to Leoz''s prowess''s showcase, even if there were any spies, they would not dare to fight Alex. "They are still pursuing them. According to the statistic, our enemy has around one hundred and eighty thousand people. You have managed to trap around eighty thousand of them, while your friends have killed over sixty thousand. On the other hand, with our joint efforts, we have killed thirty thousand of them¡­ which means they only have ten thousand left that are escaping. So, I assume the others will come back soon. Are you going to chase them?" Song Jia asked. "Considering they have gone for a while, it''s better to stay here and conserve my Spiritual Energy. We still need to kill eighty thousand more people after all." Alex shrugged. "True enough." Song Jia glanced left and right before saying in a low voice. "Thank you." "For what?" "For all of this. You have destroyed the Joyful Union Sect, one of my Blackwade Clan enemies." "Only for myself, not for the Blackwade Clan." "Even so, I need to thank you." Song Jia bowed her head. Alex didn''t answer her anymore and waited for the groups to come back. ¡­ One hour later, Anna and the others arrived before him, reporting their status. "We have killed all of them, so there should be no worry about any potential threats." Anna glanced at Anya, asking if she wanted to add something. "There is one more thing. What are you going to do with these people?" Anya asked before recalling a certain matter. "Wait, Leoz has pulverized the sect master and grand elder¡­ Doesn''t this mean we can''t do anything after this war?" Alex widened his eyes as he also forgot about this. Before the war, Alex wanted to destroy the family that had been bothering his disciple for a while. He thought about using the head of the sect master and grand elder to deal considerable damage if they said those cliche lines. It would seem he could not do it anymore. "Sigh¡­ We can only do it in a traditional way." Alex was disappointed. "Haha¡­" The others started laughing. "Anyway, can all of you kill those inside the barrier?" He pointed his finger to the two barriers. "If we use the previous attack, those two were our limits. Me, Artur, and Jean could finish one barrier considering they are trapped inside. Jeanne, Fabio, and Vera could do another one. However, the problem would be the last barrier," Anna said. "As expected¡­" Alex pondered for a moment before looking at Stina and Sherry. Understanding his meaning, Stina nodded. "My opponents were engulfed by Leoz''s attack so that I can fight those people. There are not many strong people there anyway. Besides, Sherry and Kyle are there. As long as we attack them with the Blackwade Clan, it is only a matter of time before they perish." "Alright. We will go with that." Alex nodded and turned to everyone. Song Yu also heard about it and came to Alex while looking at the spirits. "You have heard them, right?" Alex cut to the chase. "Yeah. It looks like you don''t really need our help¡­ With only a few people, you can destroy a single sect¡­ I am afraid my Blackwade Clan will be next." Song Yu sighed. ''It seems she doesn''t notice it.'' Alex narrowed his eyes before feeling relieved. He laughed and changed the topic. "Haha¡­ For what issue do I need to attack Senior Sister''s clan? Or are you planning to make that issue?" "No way. I will just sleep with you if that happens." Song Yu paused for a moment before letting out a hollow laugh. "Just kidding. You will hate me if I do that anyway." "Though it''s not really a good joke." "Sorry Sorry. I can''t help that." Song Yu waved his hands, treating it like no big deal. "In any case, I am going to start now." "Sure." Alex brought the six spirits and opened both barriers. Anna and the others used their attacks once again to kill the people inside the barriers. The battle only lasted for an instant as they were butchered in an instant. Unlike Leoz, Anna and the others only had their True Spirit Body undone after using the attack. In a normal case, Song Yu''s grandfather would certainly view this as something different. He would think about whether to attack Alex or not, even if they were allies. After all, there was no telling if they would turn back on them. Seeing that Alex''s group was on their lowest, this would be the perfect time to eliminate them. Fortunately, Leoz''s power left him a deep fear. He could not see Leoz anywhere, making him wary deep inside his heart. The wariness stopped him from thinking something like this. Song Yu came to him. "What are you going to do now?" "I will just wait until the Strength Plateau starts. Besides, just like our agreements, you guys can take their possessions other than their treasury after we hit the last barrier." Alex shrugged. He only cared about their treasury anyway, and his N squad already made their way there before he even asked. "You know you will be famous throughout the continent after this, right? This is not like your usual style, where you usually take precautions." Song Yu asked, recalling how he acted in the Willow Continent. "Northern Continent is Northern Continent, and Willow Continent is Willow Continent," Alex said mysteriously. Yet, Song Yu could somehow grasp what he meant. She smiled and closed her eyes before saying, "Well¡­ You must not want to be under someone again. Just take a look at Putri and me, despite having all of it from the start, we can only help you a little." "By the way, where is Putri?" Alex asked, noticing the missing Putri. Knowing her nature, she would not miss this opportunity. "I have asked her to do something for me, so she is not with us in this raid. Her role is to keep the family from informing any other influences about this battle. Well, just like we send spies to other influences, our clan also has many spies from other influences. Although we have killed many of them, there are still numerous of them inside. Putri is there to ensure no one could send a message about this battle, preventing them from joining this war." Song Yu shrugged. "I see¡­" Alex nodded. "Well then, it''s time to clean up." "Yeah." Alex nodded. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 545 Becoming a Rich Guy "How is it?" An old man asked a middle-aged man. "We don''t know what those symbols are. After looking for a while, we have found many symbols with the purpose of baiting us, making the array harder to break." The middle-aged man answered. Looking back when he observed the array, he could not understand a single thing, leading him to give up on the observation itself. One might think they could learn it if they looked at it hard enough. Unfortunately for Array Masters, they needed to remember the symbols and tested them to know their effect. There was not enough time to remember anything in that array other than a few symbols. Besides, if he made it too obvious, Alex might find out. "I see. He is indeed special¡­" The old man looked at Alex from afar. "Haiz. Why is such a man not from my family?" "..." The middle-aged man treated himself as if he did not hear the question. He was wondering why such a man was not famous in the Array Master Guild. "Grandfather, what are you doing? We need to move now!" Song Yu flew toward him as she shouted. "We still need to fight fifteen thousand people before this war ends in our victory." "Haha¡­ That''s right. We still have one last battle to finish." It turned out the old man was Song Yu''s grandfather. He asked a rank 6 Array Master to learn anything about the trap Alex was talking about. Although he did not know whether Alex was the unordinary one or the array master was the foolish one, he knew the plan ended up in failure. Song Yu heard their conversation and glanced at the middle-aged man with hostility. "Little Song Yu, don''t be like that. I am the one who hired him for this mission. Although I trust your judgment, as the previous head of Blackwade Clan, I also need to worry about the clan, especially against a special person like him." He explained his reason before adding, "If only my granddaughters can get his heart¡­ I can die peacefully." "You can still live for a few decades considering your cultivation and age." Song Yu replied while narrowing her eyes. "I still can''t condone what you did, so I am going to ignore you for a few months." "Haiz." He facepalmed, watching Song Yu leave after saying those words. In the end, he glanced at the middle-aged man and said, "We should go too. You are my old friend''s son, so I am sure you know it too, right? If you tell a single soul about this, you are done." "Yes." The middle-aged man could only nod. He himself was too scared about Alex''s and his group prowess. As soon as Alex returned to the battlefield, he quickly stopped his investigation, so there was no need to worry about it. The two flew toward the last barrier watching how scared the people inside the barrier. By coming here alone, the people inside the barrier could already predict what just happened on the battlefield. It was either they suffered a defeat, or the others had escaped. Nonetheless, it would be the end of them. In front of the barrier, Alex was talking with Greg. "How is the situation?" "They have been attacking the barrier, but with our resources, we can stop them easily. From my speculation, we only lose around five hundred thousand Spirit Gems." "Five hundred thousand Spirit Gems¡­ I never thought we needed to spend that much¡­" Alex sighed. "It can''t be helped considering the people we trapped here are Martial Lords and Martial Kings. Even some of the Martial Emperors are here. However, they have given up and exhausted their Spiritual Energy." Greg paused for a moment, glanced at Anna and the others, and realized what happened. "Even with the others have exhausted their energy, I believe we can kill them pretty easily. Besides, I have been restoring my energy this whole time. As long as Anya supports me, I can do some reflecting attacks." "Oh, you want to combine your metal and my light element, Greg?" Anya entered the conversation as soon as she heard her name. "Yeah. What is that called again? Life Link? If you use the Life Link and give me a light element, I can use that element and combine it with my metal element to create a mirror that can send the attack back. Though it will require a bit more stamina, they are already weak anyway." "Sure. I can do that." Anya nodded. It was at this time Alex was wondering about these two''s supreme attacks, so he asked with a thought transmission, not letting Song Yu hear it. "This is just my curiosity, so you guys don''t have any obligation to answer. But I wonder what is your strongest skill?" Due to the experience in the battlefield, Anya instantly realized what he was talking about. "I don''t have any powerful attack techniques like what you are thinking. I am a support anyway, so I can only heal other people with my light element in a quite big area. I can''t recover their stamina and energy though." Anya whispered something to Greg as he nodded and answered Alex. "I am in the same position as Anya. With my shield, I can block a Martial Saint full attack once. However, I can create a huge shield and stamp everyone to death, but I am afraid no one would get that technique as it''s very slow." "Is that so?" Alex did not know what he was talking about, but he nodded nonetheless. "Then how about Nelson? I am a bit curious, considering I haven''t met him for a while." "Nelson technique doesn''t kill many people despite having a mighty technique. If he could reach at least 7-Star Martial Monarch, I believe he can kill a normal 1-Star Martial Saint with that technique? I am not very sure though." Anya answered while shaking her head." "That powerful?" Alex opened his mouth in amazement. "If he uses it at night, of course," Anya added. "Ah!" Alex suddenly recalled something that Anna told him a few years ago. He remembered that Nelson was actually stronger than Leoz in the night. And it would seem what she said was true since the others also knew it. "How about the SR spirits? Can they use something like this?" "Not really. Only a spirit that has gained their full humanoid form would have the chance to grasp such a technique, but not all of them can. It''s like one percent of the UR spirits, and there are not many UR spirits to begin with." "That rare?" Alex widened his eyes in surprise. Although he knew the existence of Spirits, he didn''t really know about them at all. The system kept telling him he would know about it eventually, albeit even after reaching the Martial Emperor Stage, he still knew nothing. "Alright. That''s enough for us. We need to kill them first." Alex sighed and changed the topic. "Do we need any plan?" Anya pondered for a moment while observing the state of the trapped disciples before shaking her head. "I believe we can do a frontal assault. Seeing how they have lost hopes, we can finish this one pretty easily. Of course, we need to watch out if they try to fight with their lives on the line." "Alright. I will go to my Senior Sister and tell her about it." Alex flew toward Song Yu, who was busy arranging the warriors from the Blackwade Clan. "Is there any plan for this battle?" "Not really. Many of my friends have exhausted most of their energies, so this battle will be relying on the Blackwade Clan. However, the Joyful Union Sect also has spent most of their energy, trying to break the barrier, so we should not need any plan." "Understood. I will talk about it to my grandfather and Song Jia, so they can lead a portion of them to rout them swiftly." Song Yu nodded before looking at Alex with a complicated expression. "Since you are going to the Strength Plateau in a few weeks, why don''t you come to my clan? I mean, most of the representatives from the western part of the continents are staying inside my clan to wait for the event." "I am thankful for your invitation, but I have something I need to do. Besides, I also need to smack this little family that has been harassing my Rose." Alex shrugged. "Ah, your disciple." Song Yu nodded, understanding his problem. "I see. Then it''s too bad, I guess. I will invite you next time." "Yeah." Alex smiled. "By the way, I almost forgot about Evelyn, where is she? Have you rescued her?" "She is fine¡­ It''s time for her to soar and get a better place. In any case, she is under my master friend''s care." "I see. It''s good then." Song Yu let out a relieved breath. "I will meet you in a few minutes then." "Sure." Alex then waited for the Blackwade Clan to finish their preparation. ¡­ Ten minutes later, "Attack!" Alex shouted as he opened a huge door for his group and Blackwade Clan to enter before closing it again to prevent anyone from escaping. Just like Greg had said earlier, he made those shields around, bouncing every attack that came to him or his allies. Although he didn''t understand the concept of that technique, it was good nonetheless. The battle ended too quickly as they had been exhausted from using too many techniques earlier. Alex also had a fair share of kills, so he wasn''t bothered with how little his participation in this war. After all, just by presenting himself as the leader alone already brought much attention, if he killed many people and shocked the others, the Spirit Nest would surely be attacked again. At that time, it would not be just one influence that attacked them, but an alliance between two or three influences. Before giving a signal that Song Yu could loot the space rings, Nicole appeared in front of Alex and presented him with a space ring. "Master, we have finished gathering everything from their treasury. There are-" "Say it in thought transmission." Alex stopped her before anyone could hear it, including Song Yu. Nicole glanced around and nodded her head before continuing with thought transmission. "Yes. We have gathered around ten million Spirit Gems, many weapons from swords to bows, from rank 1 weapons to rank 6 weapons, and there are only twenty or something elemental weapons. They should fetch us quite a bit in case we sell them. "The same as weapons, we get many pills and arrays. Although they are inferior to Young Master''s, it''s still worthy enough to be put in the treasury. Unfortunately, we don''t find any rank 7 goods. "Move onto the techniques. There are many techniques, including dual cultivation techniques, since they are famous because of it¡­ In any case, we don''t exactly need those techniques as they are inferior to Master''s knowledge. "Lastly, it''s about Materials. As Master can expect from a sect treasury, they have plenty of good stuff from medicinal ingredients, metal, monster parts and so on. In other words, if Master has the urge to make pills or array plates, you don''t need to worry for a while. "From my speculations, if we sell the useless one and keep the useful one, we can somehow gain another five to seven million Spirit Gems." Nicole finished her report and began calculating how they would trade the items to Blackwade Clan. "I understand. We will hold the items for the time being. Even if we are going to sell it, it will be after the strength plateau or before we go to the Sacred Continent." Alex smiled before asking, "That''s right. Where are the green boxes?" Nicole took out five green boxes and presented them to Alex. The glow of these boxes quickly captured everyone''s attention. With the Spirit Nest contribution in this battle, Alex didn''t have an obligation to give it to them. Despite being filled with jealousy, no one complained because Alex was already generous enough to let them loot the space rings. Little did they know that the Strength Plateau did not affect the spirits, so as soon as he received the green boxes, he looked around before tossing those five boxes to Song Yu. "It''s yours," Alex said cooly, treating the boxes like nothing. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 546 Cleaning Up the Mess A few days later, The entire continent was in turmoil. Each of the first-rate influences trembled after hearing the news that one of the first-rate influences, Joyful Union Sect, had been destroyed by the Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan. The problem that grabbed anyone''s attention was the fact that the Blackwade Clan only sent five thousand of their elites while the Spirit Nest only sent less than twenty members. However, despite having little numbers, they killed most of the Joyful Union Sect. According to their spies, they even saw Leoz using a weird technique called a terrifying lightning strike that created a deep and huge hole on the ground. As one would expect, the one who had a terrible situation after hearing the news would be Fire God Clan. Even the patriarch of this clan had a change of his expression as he led a meeting. "What should we do now, Patriarch? With the Joyful Union Sect out of the picture, the Blackwade Clan would surely make a move." "The Strength Plateau is around the corner, so we need to prepare for the Blackwade Clan invasion. Considering their relationship with Spirit Nest, they would surely ask the Spirit Nest to deal with us." "That''s right. We need to prepare for the war." "Shut up a little!" The patriarch shouted in order to silence the room. The elders trembled because of that shock and fell into silence, staring at the patriarch attentively. "First of all, we have misjudged and underestimated them this whole time. Despite having that little number, we would never expect that their blade could shatter the Joyful Union Sect. "For the time being, the Blackwade Clan would not make a move because the Strength Plateau is around the corner. In other words, we have a little moment of peace. That''s why I want the second and third elders to go to the Heavenly Continent and seek the main clan about this. "From my speculation, the main clan would quickly confront the main Blackwade Clan because of this accident. I heard that the Blackwade Clan doesn''t really have a good reputation in the family because their founder, the previous patriarch, was exiled from the main clan. "The main clan would surely not risk it for a little branch clan like them, so as long as we can gain the support of the main clan, this battle will be ours. "Besides that, tell the main clan that the leader of Spirit Nest, Alexander Sirius, possesses the Flame Heating Lotus. Even though it is only a rank 7 medicinal herb, it would still be very precious in the main clan''s eyes. "With both matters, we surely can move the main clan to have them send some help to eradicate the Spirit Nest. After that, we can slowly deal with the Blackwade Clan." The patriarch explained his plan carefully. The elders were shocked beyond belief. The patriarch himself didn''t show himself so often. Although he was known as a genius with a smart brain just like Grimes, they didn''t know whether it was more tricky than Grimes. It would seem that the Patriarch of this clan was beyond their imagination. After hearing the mission, the second and third elder quickly rose from their seat, clasped their hands, and began their journey. Meanwhile, the patriarch continued, "However, it would take a while before the second and third elders could reach the main clan, so we need to prepare for the war nonetheless. "There is one more thing that I want you to take note. It''s about the Strength Plateau. Considering how the thing would turn out, the Blackwade Clan might decide to attack us as soon as the event ends. "That''s why the first elder will gather five thousand disciples to accompany the participants of this event. I will lead them myself together with all elders. This way, we could prevent the Blackwade Clan from ambushing us. As long as we have enough time, the reinforcement would surely arrive." "Yes, Patriarch. We obey orders." The elders rose and bowed their heads. "Before we end the meeting, ask Grimes to come to me after this. I need to discuss a few things with him." The patriarch left a message before leaving the room. One of the elders quickly searched for Grimes while the others began their own preparations. ¡­ Two influences that could be said involved in this kind of situation was Blue West Clan and Antheream Family. Ruben was eating his fill while reading the report before asking his beautiful fiancee. "What do you think about this, Lucia? To think the masked man we have found not long ago is Alexander Sirius, the leader of Spirit Nest. And their strength alone is¡­" Lucia didn''t need to hear the rest as she already knew. "This will certainly be troublesome¡­ Considering how close the Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan, I am sure it''s hard for us to make them jump ship. "I am reading the reports about Alexander Sirius back when he was in the Willow Continent. But whether it was Mount Hua Sect, Zhou Kingdom, or the Southern Kingdom. All of them had justified reasons to be attacked." Lucia narrowed her eyes, glaring at Ruben. "!!!" Ruben caught the real meaning of her words. "Do you mean¡­" "Yes. As long as we don''t provoke him, he would treat us like a stranger¡­ or a neighbor. In fact, if we can become his friend, our influences might get treated like Heavenly Sword Sect or Rainbow Flower Sect. Though I doubt our back influences would suffer that humiliation just for this. For the time being, including in the Strength Plateau, we should treat him like normal." "Oh, you got it. I don''t really like trouble anyway since living with you is trouble itself." "Do you say anything?" Lucia glared at him with killing intent. Ruben smiled as he closed his eyes. "Nothing. I just want to say I love you." ... One other influence that had an issue was a certain second-rate influence called the Sansuin Family. They finally learned that the fact that he used Sword and Spear would mean that their leader was none other than Alexander Sirius from Willow Continent. Putri herself was already famous with the technique he taught him, so the moment they heard about this news, they sweatdropped. A certain younger generation of their family had gone to the Willow Continent according to the request of the Joyful Union Sect and somehow fell in love with Rose, Alex''s disciple. With the backing of Joyful Union Sect, they did not need to fear Alex''s retaliation as he was simply a nobody in this continent. His reputation in the Willow Continent worth nothing here, so as soon as they knew Rose beat him, they quickly sent a few people to make Rose obedient. Unfortunately, every time they sent people, they would always get intercepted by a mysterious force. Thinking back at this point, it was obvious that the Spirit Nest was the one behind this. And now, the Spirit Nest could destroy the Joyful Union Sect with that small number, let alone their family. The head of the family, Rafii Sansuin, quickly assembled every elder in the family into a huge meeting. It was very chaotic as everyone started blaming others, especially him. "Shut up!" Rafii roared to silence the people, but they started blaming him again after a split second of silence. After committing such a blunder, no one cared about him anymore, even if he was the strongest person in the family. The reason was simple, he was just a 3-Star Martial Emperor. For a second rate influence, it was good, but it was nothing compared to the Spirit Nest. Even if he was mad at them, they could simply leave the family, avoiding the Spirit Nest''s wrath. "This is your fault, family head." "If your son is not lecherous, this whole situation won''t happen." "That''s right. We become a vassal of the Joyful Union Sect is already bad enough for our reputation as other families start calling us a family of sex workers. And now we even get into this problem because of your son." "He is right. If you didn''t send the people to the Willow Continent, the Spirit Nest would not be angry at us." "We need to solve this issue by bringing that idiot back and presenting Alexander Sirius with his head." "It will take too long. Considering our location and the grudge, he will most likely find us before the Strength Plateau starts. We need another way to solve this issue." "We can just give our family head to him since this is his problem." Those elders shouted at each other, filling the entire room with noises. They never said anything despite them having been involved in this part too, and put all the blame to the family head because of his son. It was obvious that the family head was furious about it, but there was nothing he could do. If he killed one of them, the others would retaliate and attack him at the same time. Even if he somehow killed all of these elders, his family might not even escape the next calamity. Unfortunately, when they were arguing like this, a high pitch sound echoed through the entire city. Not only them but even other second-rate influences or even the city lord of the city would hear this voice, albeit none of them would actually come out of their house and seek death. They would just let the Spirit Nest release their anger on this Sansuin Family and be done with it. "People of the Sansuin Family, it''s the time for you to accept your death!" In the sky stood tall ten people, including Alex, while the one who shouted just now was Leoz. It was because of him that Alex decided to wait for a few days before eliminating this family, so he expected something from him as the strongest fighter of the Spirit Nest. The elders inside the meeting room couldn''t speak anymore as their bodies covered in a cold sweat in an instant. It was at this moment they knew they f*cked up. No one dared to fight anymore as they glared at their family head. "Family head, surrender yourself to the Spirit Nest. Maybe with the graciousness of their leader, they would spare our family." "That''s right. This is your responsibility as the family head." "You-!" Rafii Sansuin could only grit his teeth as he walked out of the room, filled with anger. The elders exchanged looks and followed him, making sure he didn''t spew any bullsh*ts. Alex found a middle-aged man with brown hair, floating a few meters below him. The middle-aged man clasped his hands respectfully and bowed to Alex. "Rafii Sansuin, The family head of Sansuin Family, greets his excellency. I know that my son has brought trouble to your excellency eyes, but I believe it''s because he is still young and still can be shaped. I hope your excellency would have the heart to forgive and spare this little family." Alex looked down on him without any expression. Even if he had any expression, it would be displeasure. He snorted inwardly, ''Young? Can he even be younger than me?'' He recalled the very first matter that changed his life. It was when Sandra betrayed him with John. At that time, despite having disappointment and sadness, he didn''t have a single desire to attack John, no matter what he did. Family would be the first thing he thought even with all those bad treatments. And his son, who was equal to at least a middle-aged man on Earth, was far worse than him. "You don''t need to say anything more as you and your family fate has been decided," Alex said with a cold tone. His voice even sent chills down to the elders'' spine as they accompanied the family head. "All of this is the family head''s fault. We have nothing to do with this!" One of the elders could not help but comment. The others also followed his example and commented on anything they could in order to prove they were innocent. Alex yawned behind his mask as he raised his hand. "Kill them all." "Yes." The spirits understood and began their killing spree. Despite meeting a few resistances, Alex and the others destroyed the entire family in less than an hour. And from that moment, the Sansuin Family had ceased to exist. After getting all the things they needed, including Rafii Sansuin''s head, the spirits nest came back to their base, waiting for the Strength Plateau to start. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 547 Three Weeks As soon as Alex arrived on his base, he locked himself in his bedroom. They still had three weeks before the Strength Plateau opened. Judging from the previous refinement, he would still have time to refine his body using the Flame Heating Lotus. "I am going to refine the blood vessel. According to the refining manual, I need to burn the Flame Heating Lotus to extract its essence. Then, I swallow the essence, and the body will start the refinement. Not many explanations to be honest¡­" Alex sighed while taking out the lotus and placing it on his bed. "After refining my blood vessel, my absorption speed should increase. I hope I don''t take too long to reach 5-Star or even the consolidation process. After all, this will be the last internal refinement that could increase absorption speed. The next two would be tendons and bones where I would get a boost in strength." Alex shook his head and focused back on the lotus, "Anyway, I shouldn''t waste more time. I still need to get used to the absorption speed after refining my body." Alex grabbed the lotus and burned it with his Pure Fire. The fire inside the lotus quickly melted as Alex''s Pure Fire slowly gained control of the lotus fire. The Pure Fire slowly entered the deepest region of the lotus and slowly took out the essence. Surprisingly, there was a resistance when Alex lifted it. He couldn''t help but comment, "I see. This must be the reason why I need to refine the lotus first before I can take the essence." After knowing what to do, Alex proceeded in the burning process. The lotus slowly burned to ash, as the essence slowly revealed its appearance. The essence was a little red fluffy ball. He activated his Spirit Eyes and found that the lotus''s fire energy slowly disappeared while the essence released intense fire energy. "It looks like the essence is providing the entire lotus with a fire element. Now that I have taken the essence out, the lotus has no supply of energy and will slowly rot. There is not really much information about this lotus even in my knowledge, so it is intriguing. In any case, it will soon go down to my stomach¡­" Alex chuckled as he swallowed the little red ball. As soon as it touched his saliva, the essence suddenly melted into a liquid and flowed down his throat before arriving into his stomach. At the same time, his Pure Fire slightly vibrated by the incoming essence and marched to his stomach before purifying and refining the essence. It took only a few minutes until all the essence liquid evaporated into gas, turning into something similar to air. It pierced through his stomach before going inside all of his blood vessels. The gaseous essence slowly bloated his blood vessels, forcing them to expand. Of course, bloating the blood vessels would lead to injuries if done poorly. However, the lotus expanded it little by little as to have the vessels adjusted themselves with the new size. Lotus''s fire energy and Alex''s Pure Fire allowed this process to be possible. Even if this lotus fell into Fire God CLan''s hand, he believed they wouldn''t have this refining technique. The process was very slow, and within that time, Alex experienced pain, more painful than the second refinement. After his preparation, the pain was still in his expectation, so Alex didn''t let out a single shrill for the entire process. He simply clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and endured it. It took him a week to finally finish the refining process as his fire dimmed down before he opened his eyes. He didn''t know why, but he felt like the skin was absorbing the air around, giving a cool breeze to his body. He raised his hand and checked the flow of energy with his Spirit Eyes. There was not much different from before, except the energy could flow more smoothly and in a bigger capacity. He tried to channel Spiritual Energy to his hand, and surprisingly, it flowed faster than usual. Then, Alex started absorbing the Spiritual Energy nearby. He was surprised by the result once again because as soon as his body began absorbing, the Spiritual Energy around slowly dried up. "This¡­ With this speed, I might be able to enter another stage within a month¡­ Though as soon as I enter Martial Monarch Stage or even Martial Saint Stage, it wouldn''t be that fast, considering I wouldn''t get another boost like this." Alex was happy, but also couldn''t be overjoyed. After all, this would only give him a momentary boost in the Martial Emperor Stage. "In any case, I should get used to my new cultivating speed first." Alex shook his head. He tried many things about this new cultivation speed from absorption speed to consolidation speed before trying his fighting speed. This was new territory for him because with how fast he could channel the energy, his speed would increase as long as his physical body could keep up. Unfortunately, his speed was still nowhere near enough to handle the Spiritual Energy speed, resulting in him slowing down a bit. He could move one or two steps ahead, but it was not that omnipotent. Not only was it risky to play that way, but it also took a huge amount of mental energy from him. In the end, he abandoned the idea since, at least, his expanded blood vessel allowed him to create a stronger move by channeling more Spiritual Energy. The only problem would be his energy reserve. As long as he could keep that in mind, his fighting prowess would increase. Two weeks later, Alex let out a deep breath as he wiped the sweat on his forehead. He had gotten used to everything with this refinement. If he had another week or two, he might even reach 5-Star Martial Emperor. Unfortunately, Alex and the others had to prepare for the Strength Plateau. In these two weeks, there was no major event after the Joyful Union Sect extermination. In fact, the matter of extermination was so big that no matter could be compared to it. All influences on the Northern Continent were stupefied. After all, destroying a single sect was hard enough for a big Blackwade Clan, let alone the little Spirit Nest. However, even with the little number they had, they could destroy the huge Joyful Union Sect with just a little help from the Blackwade Clan. There were many resistance and revolts going around because of the lack of male and female prostitutes from the Joyful Union Sect. They banded together to ask the city lords to create another brothel. At first, they didn''t think about this because as soon as the storm passed, the Joyful Union Sect would surely rebuild the brothel and start servicing them. Unfortunately, with the Joyful Union Sect was out of the picture, their thoughts were shattered. The city lords used their strength to suppress the town from creating a ruckus. There was even a period where they needed to kill on sight. Luckily, the city lord was far stronger than all of them. Even if they brought second-rate influences with them, the difference in strength was still apparent, and the commotion quickly suppressed. A few city lords were happy with the situation since they didn''t like the brothel, while some were in anguish because they used the brothel. However, no one was actually brave enough to provoke the Spirit Nest unless they had some reassurances with how mysterious they were. This tense situation allowed Alex and the others a peaceful time in the base. Alex came out of his room, finding Anna and the spirits inside the living room. "Master, have you finished your practice? Or do you need more time?" Sherry ran to him and hugged him while wagging her tail around. She only needed to use the shapeshifting technique to hide her ears and tail on the outside, so everyone always saw her revealing her proudest ears and tail. Alex patted her head and smiled, "Of course, I have finished my practice. This Strength Plateau seems very important to me, so I can''t skip this one and end my training." "What is the condition around?" Alex asked Anna. "According to Nano, who is currently watching the Strength Plateau, many influences have gathered there as it will open tomorrow. The most important thing would be the Fire God Clan and Blackwade Clan. "Fire God Clan has many elders to participate in protecting their people, including their sect master. The same as them, the Blackwade Clan brings a few thousand people to confront them. Although the way hasn''t started, we can assume that this battle will surely suck. "In any case, we have stationed a few people around our border and the other influences. It seems they are interested in the information about Spirit Nest, considering we are a newborn influence with extraordinary power." Anna explained. "It''s good then. We want the others to have enough information to misunderstand us, making them hesitate in attacking us as it would give us an advantage in everything, such as negotiation or battle." Alex nodded and pondered for a moment. "How about Rose?" It took Anna a few seconds to realize Alex''s real question. "Rose is still harassed by that douchebag since he has yet to know the real situation of his family. Do you want to go back after this event? Or do you want to deal with the Fire God Clan first?" "Hmm¡­ I couldn''t care less about this Fire God Clan. We have done enough to the Blackwade Clan by destroying the Joyful Union Sect¡­ with their help of course. As long as the Fire God Clan doesn''t do anything to us, I won''t do anything to them. Yet, I still need someone to monitor them." "Actually¡­ They are planning to call a reinforcement from their main clan to help them in fighting us. However, it will take one or two months for them to arrive with reinforcement. As long as we finish our business on this continent then go to the Sacred Continent, it should be fine. Besides, if they want to target Rose, she has Ngina with her. Ngina could warn her to avoid them." Anna shrugged. "Of course, this grudge won''t be forgotten. After we destroy the Fire God Clan, we shall have the clan in this continent pay the price." "Yeah, you are right. Though I have another plan." Alex sighed. "Your plan?" "I don''t know what I will do with the Fire God Clan though. After all, they are still passive-aggressive. I don''t wish to be someone that will destroy an entire clan for the slightest grievance. Just ask the N squad to monitor them first, and if they truly make a move against us, then I will decide after that." Alex shrugged before explaining his plan. "I am going to consolidate my foundation first on this continent. After that, we will fix Rose''s problem and go to the Sacred Continent to fulfill my promise." "Oh, you want to consolidate first. Well, it will take a few months, but considering how we are hidden from everyone else, it should pose no problem. They will just think we are hiding from them and unbeknownst to them, we have gone to the Sacred Continent." Anna nodded. "Yeah. Anya, do you want to add something?" Alex turned to Anya. "We don''t have enough information about the Fire God Clan, so I suggest one of the N squad needs to go there to check their progress and such. No one should find them as long as they are careful, and we will use the Fire God Clan as a base to get information about the Heavenly Continent." "Well, who do you think I should choose?" "Nano will be good." "Sure. I will ask Nicole to take over him after we arrive." Alex nodded. "Since we are done here, shall we go?" Everyone nodded and entered their respective ''home'' as Alex made a teleportation array and disappeared. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 548 The New Seven First-Rate Influences In front of the place called Strength Plateau was a town named Lore Town. It was a stable neutral town with a population of ten thousand. It was a town without a government, letting the town be filled with violence. Violence became a part of daily life. And even the first-rate influences and guilds wouldn''t want to build a branch in this place. The fighters belonged to various gangs and performed thor daily jobs such as pillaging or robbing according to the request of their leader. Surprisingly, all of the violence would cease every time the Strength Plateau was opened. The first reason would be the gangs were afraid of the retaliation of first-rate influences. Although they wouldn''t have bothered purging this place, they still could destroy them with ease. If the gangs didn''t stop their violence around this event, the pent they somehow hurt someone from the influences, their life would surely become miserable. At this time, a huge carriage moved in the air, revealing its noble appearance. The material of this carriage was not for decorations but defense, and according to the legend, it was formed by many rank 6 materials. And with huge resources and extraordinary craftsmen, they managed to turn this carriage into a living fortress. Soon, two people came out of the carriage. One of them was a male with an elegant behavior, and the other one was a cold beauty. They quickly became the center of attention as they slowly descended to the town. "Look, that is the prince of Blue West Clan, Ruben and his fiancee, the lady of Antheream Family, Lucia." "Ah, I wish I am in his place just for a day. I can die peacefully." "Hmph. I don''t need a day, I only need a few hours." The people began commenting uncontrollably, creating a huge ruckus inside the town. Meanwhile, Ruben had a very different feeling about those words. "Ah, Ignorance is bliss. If they know how violent you are, they will die in an hour, let alone a few hours or even a day. Haha¡­" This teasing gave him an elbow right on his stomach area from Lucia. She glared at him while releasing her killing intent. "If you continue to talk, you die." "Yes, yes." Ruben shrugged his shoulder while walking together with her. On the other hand, this action invited a misunderstanding for the people. "Look, they just flirt in front of us." "How envious." "Ah, if only I could control where I would be born and whose child I would be¡­" Ruben listened to their ramblings and chuckled, inviting another glare from Lucia. "Oi oi, I don''t say anything, so you can''t hit me." "Hmph." Lucia snorted and looked away. "By the way, what are your thoughts about this event?" "It will be chaotic. The first thing we need to do is to watch out between the Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan. After all, with the loss of the Joyful Union Sect, Blackwade Clan could finally strike at the Fire God Clan. If not because of this event, they would wage war already instead of this stupid cold war." Lucia explained her view. "As expected¡­ and the main attraction in this event would be¡­" "Spirit Nest," Lucia answered without hesitation. "Yeah. Their influence is powerful despite the little number. I have some doubts about it, but if each of them undergoes the trial this time, what kind of terrifying thing they would become¡­" Ruben narrowed his eyes. "That is not possible." Lucia quickly replied. "According to our information network, Joyful Union Sect only has five keys in their possession, and all of them are given to the Blackwade Clan as a payment for their help to destroy Joyful Union Sect. And after calculating other influence possessions, there should only be one left for the Spirit Nest¡­" "Which means only their leader would take this chance?" Ruben furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. If they didn''t give the Blackwade Clan, six of them could enter¡­ I didn''t know why their leader just gave the keys to them, but it was most likely an internal problem¡­ I am assuming rather than having six of them enter this event, just let the leader enter to avoid any dispute between members." Lucia nodded, crossed her arms, and supported her chin with her hand. "That¡­ might be possible." Ruben couldn''t help but agree with her. "In any case, we can see how many platforms the leader can take¡­ I am sure the other influences want to use this opportunity to measure their leader''s power." Lucia stopped talking as they arrived at the gate of the Strength Plateau. It was a grand gate with a wingspan of ten meters. A dragon and a phoenix were built as a decoration. The surrounding of this place was surrounded by barriers, preventing others from seeing the interior. However, its actual purpose was to prevent anyone from breaking through this barrier. After all, even a few Martial Monarchs tried to break the barrier, none of them could even scratch on it. In the end, they only let their talented younger generations take the inheritances inside by completing the trials. Unfortunately, even after a few thousand years, no one had yet to get the reward. Lucia narrowed her eyes, trying to see through but to no avail. She did it just to confirm the rumor. "According to our information, there are one thousand platforms after walking through this gate. The Strength Plateau wants to test our will and strength, so it gives the trial that corresponds to your actual strength. "Each Platform will have a certain level of pressure that will hinder us from going to the next one. Only after passing one thousand platforms will we get the inheritance. In any case, we can give up and receive a portion of the inheritance if we can''t endure the pressure anymore. "There are some people that try to force their way inside even though they couldn''t withstand the pressure, albeit they die while trying¡­" Ruben sighed as he watched the gate in amazement. "Hmph. I don''t need to hear any previous record or legend. I come here as a challenger, and I will challenge my own limit, not those people." Lucia snorted. "That''s just like you. We still need to wait for an hour or two before the gate is open for a day. Do you want to go to a restaurant nearby and wait?" Lucia closed her eyes and didn''t answer him. "Since you want to stay here, I will just accompany you." Ruben smiled, knowing her personality. He turned around and looked at the other disciples from both influences as well as the elders, "All of you can do whatever you want at the moment. Just make sure you come back when we start." The disciples and elders clasped their hands and bowed, but no one left the palace. Ruben and Lucia were their priorities, so they couldn''t exactly go anywhere without them. Besides, with the tense atmosphere from the war, it gave them more reason not to wander around. Not long after, the representative of first-rate influence began to arrive in this place. Just like one would expect, they didn''t care about anything other than themselves, and big matters. They just looked at each other, gave a greeting, and were done with it before creating tension while waiting for the rumored Spirit Nest to appear. There were even some from the second-rate influences or city lord families. The first-rate influences started searching for loose cultivators, albeit couldn''t find them this time. When the tension reached the peak, the Fire God Clan and Blackwade Clan arrived at the same time, making it worse. There were only a few people from the Blackwade Clan since most of the people they brought were stationed outside the city. The same applied to the Fire God Clan as they didn''t want to antagonize the other four influences while fighting the Blackwade Clan. "Heh, you dare to come after destroying our ally, Joyful Union Sect? The Blackwade Clan is truly bold." The Fire God Clan Patriarch snorted. The previous patriarch of Blackwade Clan, Song Yu''s grandfather, laughed loudly before saying, "Said a person who bullies our influence by allying with someone¡­ This is truly hilarious." "Your daughter is at that age already, just give your daughter to the Fire God Clan and we can write off this problem." "Hmph. I might do business as a Merchant Family, but I don''t trade my family. I don''t mind prolonging this battle with you until one of us perishes¡­" He narrowed his eyes. "You will be the one who regrets this decision." "Really? That Joyful Union Sect said something similar a few years ago, but take a look at their state now." "You can''t even destroy the Joyful Union Sect without the help of Spirit Nest. Now that I think about it, your Song Yu was in the Heavenly Sword Sect a few years ago¡­ and if I am not wrong, Alexander Sirius, the leader of Spirit Nest, became a Junior Brother of your Song Yu¡­ "Now I can see¡­ To think a man who doesn''t trade his family spews such a bullsh*t¡­ Let see, the reason why your Song Yu is very adamant to this is that she has given her chastity to him, right? This must be the reason why the Spirit Nest would even help yours." "You-" There were many things that could be explained, but those words earlier just touched the spot. To think he had the audacity to say something like that, Song Yu made an unpleasant expression. "Look at your expression, did I hit it right?" Song Yu took a deep breath, planning to rebuke his claim, but a male''s voice resounded in everyone''s ears. "Fire God Clan¡­ You shouldn''t talk about something without proof. I still have my integrity with me and won''t act with my lust like you and Joyful Union Sect. It would seem the mouth and pride of the Fire God Clan are the same¡­ Big but useless." "!!!" The sound completely rebuked everything, but anyone in the square knew this voice only defended himself. If the Patriarch of Fire God Clan used this to fight, he would be known as a petty patriarch, not like the image he built this entire time. Just like a shooting star, a group of masked people slowly entered the town, releasing a certain kind of aura. They instantly became the center of attention, gaining the stare of everyone in the square. Even the Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan stopped their friction and observed this group, but no one had yet to make a move. Alex didn''t care about them and simply walked forward while looking at the Strength Plateau. It had the same appearance as what Ruben saw, but Alex could discern that this array was a rank 8 Array. It also could be incorporated into his Special Realm. Fortunately, the knowledge about this array was already inside his mind. His gaze slowly moved toward the gate and found the dragon and phoenix. ''As expected, it must be the symbol of that Supreme, a half-dragon and a half-phoenix,'' he muttered inwardly before lowering his vision down to see the platform. Unlike Ruben, Alex had Spirit Eyes that could see past through the barrier, albeit only in the form of energy. Though he couldn''t see much farther, around two hundred platforms were still in his scope of vision. The platform contained some kind of array that held powerful energy from monsters. According to Anna, if he couldn''t endure the pressure anymore, he should give up and receive a portion of the inheritance. In fact, if not because of this inheritance, the first elder of the Joyful Union Sect would never reach the Sword Emperor Stage, together with their sect master and grand elder, making them hard to kill. Alex had the full intention to reach the one-thousandth platform. After arriving in the square, he glanced at his surroundings, looking at Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan before turning to Blue West Clan and Antheream Family. There were even two other first-rate influences called Martial Tower and Supreme Elemental Sect. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 549 Requirements "Spi... Spirit Nest¡­" The people gasped with the sudden appearance of the Spirit Nest, sending chills down their spines. Just like many others who brought their members, Spirit Nest brought all their relatively small numbers into this place. If anyone said they were coming with a full force, but also didn''t bring more than anyone else here, they were not wrong. Alex took a glance at Song Yu and Song Jia, finding another nine people behind them. Considering they had gotten five boxes from here, the Blackwade Clan picked them by looking at their talent and background, making sure no one was suspicious with the little time they had. Song Yu didn''t come to his side because they were in front of many people. It would be bad if she was too friendly with him and made others misunderstand their relationship." Actually, Alex had already arrived at this place an hour ago. He waited outside the town to avoid any problem with the other influences. And to stop everyone from saying anything, he walked inside the plaza just a bit before the gate opened. Obviously, no one was foolish enough to say something to Alex before observing him. In fact, they were waiting for someone to make a move first, so they could use them as a stepping stone to knowing more about this Spirit Nest. At this time, the barrier shone brightly before the gate slowly opened a small entrance for Alex and the others to come in. "Look!" "It''s opening. Let''s come inside." Even the first-rate influences took their gaze off Alex for a few seconds to see the barrier opening. It revealed one thousand white planks that were infused with a certain energy. The planks itself could only hold ten people. Alex took a glance at these white planks and confirmed the energy inside them. It would seem the energy would attack him if he stepped on them. That might be the reason why the people couldn''t reach the thousandth plank because he could see that the energy continued rising in every plank. The moment it opened, Alex quickly stepped aside, letting the cannon fodder to check first before he went inside. In any case, the information said no one could attack him inside, so he would be safe inside. The only problem would be his spirits. "Master, should we go now?" Sherry asked. "No. We will wait for a bit since I want to see what kind of thing they experience before stepping inside." Alex shrugged before turning to Anna and the others. "All of you guys should be prepared too. I don''t know what would happen to you guys later." Anna pondered for a moment before sending a thought transmission. ''Don''t worry. We will just watch your progress from the side since the barrier starts clearing¡­ The N squad will stand by and check other movements and will retreat if we have any trouble. ''However, you might not be able to retreat when you are inside. And I am sure there is a space element inside preventing you from using the teleportation array. In other words, if someone chooses to attack you, this will be the right time.'' Alex nodded and answered, ''At that time, we can only break through this place. I still have my master''s token anyway. Even if several Martial Saints come, I can kill them with this. As for Martial Monarch¡­ As long as they are not too absurd, we will just buy time from them and escape.'' Anna furrowed her eyebrows and asked, ''That means, if there are enemies, we will escape and wait for your instruction? And depending on the enemies, we will see whether to escape or battle.'' ''That''s basically it.'' Alex nodded. ''Alright, I will take care of the details with Anya.'' Anna nodded. ''Sure. I leave it to you.'' Alex smiled before turning around, observing how the trial worked. He was a careful guy, so he needed information first before going inside. In fact, he was prepared to go last. People started coming one by one, testing the water. Most of them were loose cultivators or from second-rate or city lord families. Alex quickly turned around and watched what would happen to them with his Spirit Eyes. The first guy that went inside was a middle-aged man. It would seem he was coming from the second-rate influence after considering his age and his 1-Star Martial Emperor cultivation. Alex didn''t know how he could get it, but it must be a hard process. He didn''t care about his life and just observed what he would get inside. The middle-aged man stepped onto the first plank. He suddenly stopped and froze in the first plan, making the others anxious. From everyone''s point of view, they saw nothing wrong with this man. However, Alex could see the energy that covered the plank suddenly spiked and entered his body. It was not by his body or anything, but more like an attack. The energy hit his body, brain, energy, and heart. The instant Alex saw this, he instantly remembered about the records. If they started walking inside this place, their physical ability would slowly go down, leading to a few injuries. After that, they would start feeling tired as their consciousness slowly became fuzzy. Not long after, they would feel exhausted and die if they continued. ''This must be the works of the energy inside those planks. Body for physical ability, brain means Mental Energy, then Spiritual Energy, before it starts killing them when they have no protection anymore.'' Alex was enlightened after watching the first man. He looked at the man, who had stopped for a few seconds, suddenly moved to the second plank. ''It would seem he is trying to get used to the energy before moving to the second plank. This concept has been popularized by someone and shown a better result than charging blindly.'' Though the question would be whether Alex used this technique or not. He decided to watch the second, third, and so on. After watching for ten minutes, there were already ten people inside. He didn''t know why but the people didn''t really want to get close. It might be because he had yet to see how the group would come in since those people were alone. "Look, it''s the Gilberta Family, the city lord family of Ansel Town." Suddenly, a person shouted, staring at a woman entering the gate. All of the influences furrowed their eyebrows. They certainly didn''t want to be the first to move because the others could watch their example before using that knowledge to their advantage. And with a city lord family entering the fray, the event finally made progress. She entered together with a man side by side. They thought they were a couple, so they just observed their progress. Unlike the previous middle-aged man, it would seem they made faster progress. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing another thing from this place. It would seem the trial didn''t judge only on strength but also on one''s age. Age, Strength, Cultivation, and other things. Combining all of them gave a big trial for them. ''If the trial is like this¡­ doesn''t it mean the trial is fair?'' Alex thought of an idea. ''Those variables will create a trial that suits your own¡­ If that happens, then isn''t everyone should be able to finish the trial? Then, how can they die inside the trial?'' He fell into deep thought, pondering the matter over and over. ''Did they lack anything?" Alex turned around and looked at Anna, "Do we have any information why the participants died?" "No, we only have one information. It would be like they are trying to pass their limit or something, but still unattainable because they lack something¡­ That is the rumor around the continent, and it should be pretty accurate considering it comes from all first-rate influences." Anna shook her head. "Lacking something? What are they lacking?" Alex looked down, remembering a certain thing back in the previous world. He muttered to himself, ''The supreme should be the one who set up this trial¡­ Why would he set up a trial that can''t be cleared¡­ Wait? Is this the reason why Supreme released that lore?'' He recalled the lore of the Supreme. The Neptune even said they altered it a little bit. If that were the case, the Supreme would already know he was going to set up this trial. However, the problem would be the reason¡­ why would he leave many things, including the lore¡­ Alex recalled every encounter in the lower world, wondering if he issued anything. This was the only clue he had right now, so whatever he lacked must be from that world. "Wait a minute¡­" After thinking for a few minutes, Alex realized something important. "Alex?" Anna turned around and looked at him in confusion. He crossed his arms and supported his chin with his hand, thinking, ''The supreme should leave something in the previous world, which I lack right now. Neptune gave me three keys¡­ it should have a meaning¡­ What is the meaning?'' Alex frowned, making the others worry. Even Song Yu, who was busy with her group, suddenly turned to Alex, not knowing why he had such an expression. "Alex? What are you thinking right now? How about you share it with us? Maybe we can help you think about it. Take a look, we have me and the others or even Stina." Anna smiled, pointing at everyone. "Stina¡­" That name enlightened him as he looked up and grabbed Stina''s shoulder. "That''s right. You are the answer! How can I not think about it?" "What? Master?" Stina was obviously clueless about Alex''s excitement. Alex finally realized what he was lacking. The three keys were the clue, and it turned out to be the three races. The Supreme was a half-dragon and half-phoenix. It represented each race, which was Dragon and Phoenix Races. And along with him, it would mean three races, which would require three keys if it was only for their representatives. However, Alex might not understand that vague clue before coming to this place, so the Supreme asked the Dragon Race to keep a single technique and give it to someone. It turned out the answer to this trial was the Dragon Strengthening Technique. Alex sighed in amazement. There were two phases of this Dragon Strengthening Technique, and Alex only mastered one that gave him a couple of Dragon Strength. However, he couldn''t understand the second part. It was like preparing something for him, but didn''t bring any effect. In the end, he gave up on the technique after doing everything he needed to do. "I see. I have the answer now." Alex smiled as he turned around, only to see everyone was already gone. Only Song Yu''s group still waited for him. He realized that he forgot about the other existence. The spirits didn''t want to alarm him while he was in deep thought, so he didn''t realize the others already stepped inside. "Alex, Want to come together?" Song Yu sent a thought transmission to Alex, who was in thought for a long time. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, looked at Song Yu and her group, and shook his head. "No, I will go a bit later." "..." Song Yu felt a bit disappointed but couldn''t show it on her face. She didn''t know why Alex showed such a happy expression, but it should be related to this trial. She threw that thought away since Alex had no obligation to inform her as she turned around and smiled, "Let''s go." Song Jia also took a glimpse of Alex''s face before following her sister inside. With Song Yu''s group gone inside, only Alex''s group had yet to go. The last group would also become the center of attention again as they would surely wait for Alex''s group to observe them while watching over their and other influences. After watching the process, Alex finally stepped forward, "Let''s go." "Yes." Sherry, Kyle, and Stina nodded, following him inside. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 550 Three Races "Let''s go." Alex''s group finally entered the trial. Everyone looked at them attentively, not wanting to leave a single detail. They were surprised to see four of them suddenly enter the trial. Just like Lucia, they also predicted that only Alex would have the chance to enter. Seeing how mysterious Alex was, they prepared to see a certain surprise like two or three, but not four. They never expected that Alex possessed four keys despite leaving only one or two according to the record. The urge to know Alex''s secret increased as they glanced at the Spirit Nest. Anna and the others just ignored them. Even the Blackwade Clan wouldn''t know about this, let alone them. The influence named Spirit Nest became more and more mysterious in their eyes. The Fire God Clan Patriarch even took a step back and thought if it was alright to bother the main clan for this. He had paid a considerable price and lost the trust of the main clan about this. Seeing how mysterious the Spirit Nest was, it would be better if they were out of the picture as soon as possible. He clenched his fists, being adamant to his thoughts. He shook his head and decided to observe him from a little longer. Even if he brought the main clan here, they would still need at least a month to arrive, so there was no point in thinking it here¡­ albeit, he found another reason to kill the Spirit Nest after looking at Sherry and Kyle. Sherry was already a 7-Star Martial Emperor despite being so young. It looked like her body reflected her age rather than hiding her age. This would be scary as she might even become a Martial Monarch when she was still a teenager. However, Kyle would still be the most dangerous one. Despite being a kid, he had the same cultivation as Sherry, 7-Star Martial Emperor. He wondered what kind of scary being he would become as soon as he entered teenage. Little did he know that Sherry had finally caught up with Kyle, and would slowly outgrow him. Looking at them, at Alex, and at them again, the Patriarch sweatdropped, thinking he just made a good choice by bringing the main clan over. These two kids might even become precious talents in the main clan, let alone their Fire God Clan. He was happy because, with this contribution, they wouldn''t let out any disappointment. Instead, they might even reward them. Of course, what he could see meant the other could see it as well. They instantly pondered how to poach these people from the Spirit Nest no matter what they needed to sacrifice. Seeing the future of these two kids alone was already enough to incite their greed. If they couldn''t get them, it would be better to kill them. Unfortunately, they couldn''t do a single thing to them right now since they had entered the trial. As soon as Alex entered the first plank, the dormant energy inside the plank slowly entered his body. It tried to attack his body to lower his physical ability. Unfortunately, his body was far stronger than any other person who took the challenge. It blocked the attack from the energy, making it change direction to his brain. He realized that after failing to attack the body, the energy lost almost its entire power, so when it entered his brain, Alex didn''t even feel anything as the energy dissipated. He turned around to check on the others. "How are you feeling?" "Just a little poking here and there," Sherry replied. "Yeah. I have the same feeling. However¡­ I do feel a little bit comfortable inside this place." Kyle said with a bit of an unsure expression. "!!!" This answer alone was enough to convince that his hypothesis earlier was correct. "I have the same feeling. I don''t know if this comfortable feeling is related to this place or not since we are still in the first plank." Stina nodded in agreement before glancing at the other planks. "Sure. We can be more sure after gathering enough information. We will go slowly for now to gather information. Maybe, one hundred planks will be enough before we start picking up speed. We don''t want the others to wait for too long anyway." Alex smiled and turned around. He stepped onto the second plank and felt the same thing, albeit a bit more powerful. He tried to compare the first and the second energy from before. The energy was too small like the first rank of Foundation Stage, and the second one was similar. Alex wondered whether it had a milestone or not like the energy suddenly became sharp after a certain step. In the end, he had too little information, so he could only say, "If there are any other feelings you get, please tell me about it. If not, then just shake your head to save time." The trio nodded before walking again. They slowly walked step by step, feeling any change in the energy. Unfortunately, there was no other feeling as it was still too weak. "So, what do you think?" Alex asked as he felt all the energy inside the first one hundred planks was only at the foundation stage, not even reached the Martial Master. "Nothing. I don''t feel anything wrong." Sherry simply shook her head, looking down to see if she missed anything. "I do feel a bit more comfortable than the beginning, but there is something missing, and I don''t know what it is¡­" Kyle looked down, falling into deep thought. "Yeah. I have the same feeling as Kyle. I don''t know whether this is true or not, but I feel a trace of dragon energy." Stina expressed her feelings. "Maybe because the energy is too low, I truly can''t discern it. If the information is correct, I should be able to feel it more clearly." Sherry obviously didn''t know about the Dragon aura. Not only was she not familiar with it, considering she never met a dragon even in the other world. Hence, it was normal if Sherry didn''t know about it. On the other hand, Kyle was a phoenix, which allowed him to get the phoenix energy inside him. Unfortunately, he didn''t have Dragon Blood, giving him a sense of loss. Only Stina, who had many experiences with the Dragon, managed to sense the thin dragon energy. Alex also couldn''t discern the energy because both blended with the Spiritual Energy, showing the same color as it. In the end, Alex could only rely on these three to see if there was something wrong. "I see." Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "I am not going to brag or whatever, but I feel this place¡­ no, this inheritance is for me." "What do you mean, Master?" Sherry was surprised, never expecting him to say that. Kyle and Stina fell into silence, waiting for him to continue. "I am sure Stina might notice this, but have you seen me suddenly be absent-minded when I challenged a trial in the other world?" Alex looked at Stina with a smile. This might be the first time he told this to others. "!!!" The memory suddenly flashed inside her mind, giving a few flashback scenes. Stina nodded. "Yes. I have seen you a few times. I thought other race leaders also knew about it¡­ But what is the relation between that state and this inheritance?" "I met a person, half-dragon half-phoenix," Alex answered with just a simple introduction. Yet, it was enough for Stina to realize what he meant. "The Supreme?" Stina gasped. Alex nodded, "I feel so. Although I know he is half-dragon half-phoenix, I don''t know if I met the same person or not. In any case, he told me many things, but all of them led to this Strength Plateau. After that, he told me to ask the Neptune about the keys, and this was where I got three extra green boxes from him. "This was a clue that the Supreme left behind, representing three races. My race for whatever it is, Dragon Race and Phoenix Race, the two that he belonged to. He must feel responsible for the two races, considering he bore both blood, so he wanted to give both races a chance for this. "And the last key to beat the inheritance lies in the Dragon Race," Alex said mysteriously. Stina fell into deep thought before realizing the real thing to get past this inheritance. "Dragon Strengthening Technique!" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "This inheritance must be for me to unlock the second stage of the Dragon Strengthening Technique. I don''t know what it is for, but I will reject it if it''s against my principle." "I see. But I don''t know the connection between this to my Phoenix Race other than blood-related. I mean, Dragon delivered you a technique while the Neptune gave you the keys. Then¡­ What''s about the phoenix?" Stina furrowed her eyebrows. She didn''t know whether to be annoyed or happy since she didn''t need to bear such a burden. "Actually¡­ he has given a mission to the Phoenix Race¡­ No, I should say the Phoenix Race is the one who gave the mission to him." "What do you mean?" Stina tried to recall everything, but nothing came to her mind that was related to this issue. Alex smiled and asked, "Are you sure you can''t think of it?" Stina shook her head before Alex suddenly took out one thing from his Inventory. At that time, she finally recognized every plan and condition in this inheritance. Alex held the Fire God Scepter and smiled. "Yeah. This is the item that the Fire God might want to give him¡­ albeit he might reject it or something. He then used it for his trial as one of the requirements. With this, I should have gotten all the requirements." "Master, you are great!" Sherry hugged her like a kid, smiling proudly. He only patted her head a few times before saying to Stina. "Sorry. If I know about it before we go to another world, I will give you the Dragon Strengthening Technique and the other scepter to you." Alex never promised anything about the Dragon Strengthening Technique, so he could give it to anyone. "No. This must be the will of the ancestor. He even said it to you to give the scepter to the current ruler. Besides, even though there is no promise between you and the Supreme, I shouldn''t learn it too¡­ courtesy¡­ I guess." Stina shook her head with a smile. "I don''t really give a damn about courtesy. I only stick to my promise. Other than that, I will do anything I deem beneficial to me." Stina still shook her head. "I am grateful for the thought alone, Master. Despite fulfilling all the requirements, all of it would be useless if you can''t reach the last place, Master." "I know." Alex nodded before turning back, "Shall we go then?" The trio exchanged looks and nodded, following him. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 551 Strength Plateau Trial Alex and the others started walking through the trial before picking up some pace after knowing the trick behind the trial. It would seem that the first hundred contained energy of foundation rank, and they noticed that the next a hundred planks were for Martial Master. This actually made Alex confused. After all, the minimum requirement for this trial was Martial Emperor. By going with the requirement, the pressure from the Martial Emperor would be from 501st to 600th planks. Looking at each participant''s power, people should only start dropping around the Martial Emperor Planks. The problem would be what would happen if they stepped onto the 601st plank, would they get Martial Monarch''s pressure? And what would they get after entering the next a hundred and so on? Alex couldn''t say anything though, considering he only stepped onto the 300th plank while the other had arrived at least the 400th mark. "Master, are we going to catch up with them?" Sherry asked innocently. "Do you want to catch up?" "No. I''m fine as long as I can walk beside Master until the need to stop. Besides, I am sure Master doesn''t want to do that because it will just bring you trouble. I just wanted to know if Master is going to meet Elder Sister Song Yu." "I am better not." Alex shook his head before continuing, "Although our relationship is good, I want to draw a line with her and Blackwade Clan. There are a few reasons for this. First, we wouldn''t know how the other first-rate influences would react, especially after causing a big ruckus in the continent. If we get too friendly with them, they might attack us for no reason. "The second reason would be our identity. I want to retain our identity as an independent influence. If we get too close with them, they might even call us a vessel of the Blackwade Clan or whatever. And lastly, I am a bit uncomfortable since I feel the Blackwade Clan is also plotting something¡­" Alex said mysteriously, narrowing his eyes. It might not be Song Yu, Song Jia, or Putri that would plot against him. However, they couldn''t stop the other family members from plotting something. In the end, if they are going to war against the Blackwade Clan, he might even need to kill Song Yu, Song Jia, or Putri. That was something he didn''t want to imagine. "Well, Sherry doesn''t know anything, so she will just follow Master. Even with Elder Sister Anya, the strategist of our Spirit Nest, told me the plan, I wouldn''t understand half. I will only go according to the other with caution." Sherry grinned, revealing the cheerful side, albeit the mask hid it. Alex also smiled behind his mask as he patted her head before glancing at Song Yu then turned back to Stina and Kyle. ''How about Stina and Kyle, do you feel anything change within you?'' He asked the duo with a thought transmission. ''I am the same. However, just like what Stina said, I could somehow feel something other than Phoenix Aura. If what she said is right, then it should be a Dragon Aura.'' Kyle nodded. ''Yeah. I can confirm it now. It is truly a Dragon Aura. Although it has been blended with Spiritual Energy and Phoenix Energy, I can differentiate them easily.'' Stina nodded, confirming everything Kyle said. ''Can''t Master see it with your Spirit Eyes?'' ''No. I still have another stage for Spirit Eyes. After refining it one more time, I can see blended energy like this more clearly. As of now, I can''t.'' Alex looked down, weighing something on his mind. He had a certain feeling after walking for so long. The energy around him slowly entered his body and the scepter. He could see it with his Spirit Eyes, and he assumed the Phoenix Energy entered his scepter while the Dragon Energy entered his body. The phoenix energy aside, the dragon energy tried to refine his Dragon Strengthening Technique to lock the second stage. Alex was wondering what kind of benefit he would get the moment he opened the second stage. He looked up and saw many people outside the barrier. With the illusion that masked the inside trial was lifted, the people could fly outside and peek. Almost all eyes were on him, treating him like a zoo''s animal. Alex quickly sent a thought transmission to the trio. ''We will be advancing without talking. I will ask you a couple of questions later by using thought transmission.'' ''Understood.'' They answered at the same time and nodded. Alex''s group started advancing again. Meanwhile, many people started getting displeased because of the caution that Alex showed. They couldn''t even hear them, and with Alex seemed to talk with a thought transmission, they now couldn''t try to decipher their talk just by looking at their lips movement. In the end, they decided to give up and observed them carefully. "What do you think, Patriarch?" One of the elders from the Blackwade Clan asked. Song Lei glanced at him while narrowing his eyes. "Nothing. You can think whatever you want, but I don''t have an obligation to share mine. I just want to say they are dangerous. That''s all." Even the previous patriarch, Song Yu''s grandfather, Song Qiang, furrowed his eyebrows. He had seen these two kids, Sherry and Kyle, on the battlefield previously. Unfortunately, he was too focused on Alex and Jeanne, and missed these two kids. Judging by their cultivation and strength alone, they might be able to break through from the Blackwade Clan''s encirclement even if they moved the entire family. After that, they would certainly come back and attack the clan after getting enough strength. He wouldn''t want to see something like that because it would be the end of their clan. Besides, Alex also had the mysterious VIP card, which he had little knowledge of. At this time, he was just grateful to Heavenly Sword Sect''s sect master for making Song Yu his Senior Sister. Even though their relationship was not like a lover or something, it was still enough to receive some benefit and lower the potential to become an enemy. In the end, he only warned his son, Song Lei, to not do anything about this Spirit Nest, resulting in Song Lei not answering the elder''s question. He muttered himself, "Should I go back to the main clan for a while to search about the VIP card? Although I have been exiled, I still can ask some elders or friends that I knew back then. Or maybe I should send Song Yu there and ask my acquaintances to take care of her? Her talent is far above me, and I am sure with her intelligence, she could make it big there. On the other hand, Song Jia can become the next successor¡­" Many thoughts came into his mind, making him look down to ponder the pros and cons. On the other hand, the others also had some thought about this Spirit Nest before someone broke the silence. "Look, someone just fell!" "!!!" All leaders quickly glanced to the side, searching for that person. It turned out to be the first man that stepped inside the trial. He looked extremely exhausted as he fell on his butt before spitting blood. His body was swaying around, feeling very weak as he couldn''t stand the pressure. He had been walking non-stop as soon as he entered. He might be comfortable or whatever, but staying in front made him proud. Unfortunately, he walked too fast, and the trial drained his energy. He didn''t know why, but the trial started lowering his physical body. There was a period where his legs went limp and felt he couldn''t walk anymore. Not long after that, his mind slowly became tired. He began losing his consciousness and, in fact, a few planks before he fell, his eyes were blurry, and he lost track of his direction. Not knowing the left and right made him lose hope. Although he walked straight, he felt he had been walking to the left and right. The last attack was on his Spiritual Energy. It slowly drained his Spiritual Energy that had been keeping him from going. Even if his legs went limp, or he couldn''t see anymore, he could still use his Spiritual Energy to strengthen his legs and somehow guessed the direction he needed to take. Unfortunately, after reaching 544th plank, he couldn''t do it anymore and decided to give up. "Hmm¡­ 544th plank¡­ Not bad for a reckless one." Song Lei appeared beside Song Qiang and uttered his input. "Yeah¡­ Unfortunately, he is too old." Song Qiang shook his head in disappointment. "Indeed. I had tested myself there when I was young. Although the pressure was heavy, as long as you are prepared, it shouldn''t be able to hinder you. I mean¡­ if you are prepared, even a nobody could march to 700th planks." "Oi oi. You have set your bar too high. If it''s a nobody like that Spirit Nest''s leader, he surely can. However, if he/she was one without help and unique skill, I am afraid they would only last until 670th planks. Usually, if they are not too old, it would be a talent worth acquiring." Song Qiang nodded before continuing. "Then, we could see someone''s unique ability on 601st to 700th planks. The energy was crazy there and would even hinder you greatly. As far as I remember, you even need to halt your step every time you go to another plank." "It was to adjust my body to the pressure. After all, it was like the pressure from you, Father, but without any intention of attacking." Song Lei protected his pride by an excuse. "Haha¡­ Indeed. In any case, if you can pass the 700th mark, I believe many people would start to recruit you." Song Qiang continued. "Then, there is this 800th mark. If the peerless genius from first-rate influence couldn''t pass this mark, they should be ashamed¡­" "Haha¡­ What if Song¡­ I shouldn''t say that." Song Lei stopped from talking about something sensitive and chose to change the topic. "I mean. If you managed to pass the 800th mark, you might find something special there." Song Qiang nodded in agreement. "Indeed. You can gain some enlightenment or something, but I still prefer the 900th mark. As long as they could step inside the 901st plank. I am happy with the result. After all, it would surely give something special to them. "If I am not wrong, the Joyful Union Sect first elder reached the 905th step while you reached 923rd. I hope Song Yu and Song Jia could surpass you in this event." Song Qiang sighed. "I have no qualms about that." Even the prideful Song Lei would melt while talking about his daughters. These two daughters were his pride and joy as he promised his late wife to take care of them. He loved his wife too much to even push other women away from his life even after she passed away. That was why even with the risk of the entire family, he would truly fight it out. "Haha¡­ In any case, we only need to observe the heir of other influences and this Spirit Nest." Song Qiang laughed before patting Song Lei on the shoulder. "Father. If we become the enemy of the Spirit Nest, what would you do?" "Song Lei¡­ That question¡­ can''t be taken lightly." Song Qiang suddenly said with a chilling tone. He looked at Song Lei''s serious expression before answering, "They might be the most dangerous influence in this continent. I haven''t started talking about their strength. The lack of information alone stops us from doing more to them. "After all, the most dangerous opponent was not the stronger one, but the mysterious one. With information, you can turn a one percent chance to one hundred percent. For me, I want to discern what kind of terrifying monsters they have sent, including their sect master." "..." Song Lei paused for a moment before nodding his head. "You are right." They didn''t talk anything more and just continued to observe the trial. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 552 The Reason Behind Trials Alex and the others couldn''t really see the person who fell, but judging from everyone''s chain reaction; he could predict that the first one had fallen. ''Master, do you want to reach there?'' Sherry looked at Alex with a confused expression. Seeing how Alex usually behaved, he would surely want to observe what happened so he could prepare. ''No. We are going at the same pace and getting used to this pressure slowly. After all, we don''t want to exhaust ourselves easily.'' Alex pondered for a moment before continuing, ''In any case, we are going there anyway. With our pace, we can slowly catch up with them. At that time, I can observe anyone along the way since there will be more examples.'' ''Understood.'' Sherry nodded. Alex and the others advanced at their own pace, minding their own business. This even made the other influences get a little bit pissed. After all, they couldn''t wait to see if the Spirit Nest could reach 900th planks or not. Meanwhile, Song Yu kept glancing back from time to time, wondering Alex''s condition. "Sister, you keep glancing back from time to time¡­ Are you worried? If you are worried, why don''t you slow your pace and come to him?" Song Jia asked while stepping on the 550th planks. Song Yu glanced at her before looking to the front, finding the Blue West Clan prince and Antheream Family had reached 600th planks. It would seem they had decreased their speed to adjust the pressure better. "Although I want to do that, I can''t¡­ We are from Blackwade Clan while he is now from Spirit Nest. It''s not a matter about Junior Brother and Senior Sister anymore like the past. If we are getting too carried away, it would surely invite misunderstandings from the other influences. "To be honest, after knowing him for a few years, I am convinced about something¡­" Song Yu looked down before sighing. "What is it?" Song Jia was filled with curiosity. In fact, their second encounter might be the scene that brought all of this curiosity. "He is careful but deadly¡­ Sometimes, he might look rushed or indecisive, but sometimes he looked calm and careful. I don''t even know what he was thinking from a few years ago. Not a single time I find myself can decipher his thinking¡­ except for the business part." Song Yu sighed in disappointment. "However, if you observe him closely, you would notice that beside him are two 7-Star Martial Emperor kids¡­ Isn''t this a big problem?" Song Jia asked "Well¡­ The answer is yes and no. Yes, as long as they have enough time, they might even become a peak Martial Monarch if not Martial Saint. And no, he is someone who cherishes relationships. If we don''t betray him, he won''t betray us." "Then what do you think about our current relationship? Do you think there is a possibility of becoming his enemy?" Song Jia asked. "There is one possibility that would lead to such a case¡­" Song Yu nodded. "Though it is our internal problem." Song Jia looked down, pondering her words for a minute before realizing who it was. It was not a single person but a whole group. "Do you mean the elders?" "Yeah. Father and Grandfather would obviously not support something like this, and the lower family couldn''t even raise something big. In that case, the elders would be on our watchlist. One elder couldn''t do anything, but if they gathered enough numbers, they might do something¡­ especially in the battle against the Fire God Clan." "I see." Song Jia nodded. "After all, from their perspective, the threat from Spirit Nest is higher than the Fire God Clan." "Yes. That''s why we need to be careful." Song Yu nodded before looking at the front. "Besides, I feel we need to get serious now." Song Jia stepped onto the 601st platform before suddenly feeling an oppressive pressure, forcing her to fully use her Spiritual Energy. ¡­ On the other hand, Alex was still chilling in the back as he slowly entered the 450th planks. He started feeling the pressure of Martial King, but was still easily blocked by his physics alone. At this time, he suddenly felt something wrong about this energy. The energy was only hovering around him without personally attacking him. It was true that the energy still jumped from his body to his brain and so on, but he felt it was like mild energy. Instead of attacking, its purpose was more like exhausting him. In this case, he couldn''t see why people would die from something like this. Even without his Dragon Strengthening Technique, they shouldn''t be able to die in this place. The result would only be exhaustion to the point they couldn''t stand up anymore. ''Is there another thing behind this trial?'' Alex crossed his arms while showing a troubled look. Stina noticed his look and quickly shared her input. ''Master, why do I feel this trial is very similar to our Phoenix Race trial?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows before realizing the similarity. In the Phoenix Trial, he was asked to walk for who knows how long. Then, he would need to fight an enemy that slowly became stronger and multiplied. However, this trial didn''t bring stronger and multiplied enemies. Instead, it gave them an enemy called pressure. He also felt that there was a certain opening for the second stage of the Dragon Strengthening Technique. It was like a gate inside his heart made a little opening. Judging from his prediction, he should be able to open it in around 900th planks. He didn''t know how significant the effect of each plank was though. ''Trial?'' A thought flashed on his mind as he stared at Stina before asking, ''Stina, what is the purpose of all trials back in the previous world?'' ''Human Race is Adaptability, Elf Race is Element Manipulation, Dragon Race is Strength, Angel Race is Heart, Naga Race is Soul, and my Phoenix Race is Will.'' Alex fell into deep thought before realizing what the trial was. ''I see. This is why the six trials are like that¡­'' ''Master? Do you realize something?'' ''This is the manifestation of the six trials, and it might be the reason why the six trials exist.'' ''I couldn''t understand you this time. I know the six trials only exist after the Supreme rule the world. However, I can''t relate it to this trial¡­'' Stina tilted her head, confused. ''The energy is attacking our body, brain, and Spiritual Energy. I will just explain it in a simple way. I will start with the Dragon Race Strength Trial. With how the energy attacked our body, the Dragon Race wanted us to prepare our bodies. Increasing our strength also means our body is getting stronger and won''t lose to this kind of attack. ''Elf Race Element Manipulation Trial¡­ I am not sure about this, but it must be like we can use our flame to help us in blocking the energy attack. This would surely relieve a portion of our burden. We can just see whether the front group uses their element, and we will know the answer. ''Then brain¡­ I am assuming it is about Mental Energy, which is related to the soul. Although the soul trial is pretty useless, it shows the proper way to use the soul. And more importantly, it still couldn''t be used except by having a strong soul. ''Then, Angel Race Heart Trial. After releasing all of your mental energy or soul. You would feel exhausted, and your consciousness would become blurry. At that time, you might even hallucinate about many things. This trial prepares you for a strong heart so you won''t hallucinate or whatever. ''Finally, after getting attacked by many things. You would surely be fed up with it, albeit your Spiritual Energy would slowly be chipped away. This is what it means to have adaptability. I didn''t finish this trial though, so I can''t say much about it. ''And lastly, even after being brutally wrecked by those things. Do you still have a will to persist?'' Alex didn''t say this only to Stina, but also to Sherry and Kyle. ''I see¡­ So the missing pieces are the scepter, Dragon Strengthening Technique, and the keys. On the other hand, the Supreme actually has trained you to enter this trial by using those trials¡­ To think he has predicted all of this.'' Stina couldn''t help but impress. ''Nah. I am sure the one who made this was an old man from your trial.'' Alex shrugged. ''You mean the Fire God?'' Stina closed her eyes before opening it again with a shocked expression. A few thousand years ago, the Supreme indeed went inside the Phoenix Gate after getting permission from her husband. It should be at that time he discussed this trial thing with the Fire God. She recalled the last line of the lore, ''the six races would gather, and the supreme shall return¡­'' It was not talking about the actual six races¡­ It only meant for the six trials. After surpassing those six trials, the current supreme, Alex, would surely come here. That would be the meaning ''the supreme shall return.'' She shook her head in amazement, never expecting this to happen in a few thousand years. ''You know what, Master¡­ I feel like I am glad to join you right now¡­ Maybe the first reason is Kyle, but this time I really wish to walk alongside you as your contracted beast.'' Stina suddenly kneeled and clasped her hand politely. She looked at Alex with a genuine but severe expression. ''Let us aim for the peak, Master.'' Alex only smiled and nodded his head. ''Yeah.'' This action surely shocked everyone because they didn''t know a single thing about this. Even Anna was clueless about this, forcing someone to get back to the card for the memory and told everyone about it. Unfortunately, Anya shook her head, stopping her since it was better to give him privacy and believe in him. In the end, she could only sigh and let him do whatever she wanted despite the worry in her heart. ''All right. I finally figured the trial out. As long as I am careful, I can do this. Also, I hope you three aim for the 1000th planks and don''t give up midway. After all, you have a strength advantage by being a Phoenix and a Celestial Fox. I don''t need to tell you about the Element Manipulation, mind, and so on. That''s why, do your best, and we shall reclaim everything in this trial. As for the after effect, I will handle them.'' Alex smiled. ''Yes.'' The three quickly nodded. ''Let''s continue then.'' Alex nodded and turned around before starting to walk forward. The trio walked beside him, enjoying the breeze of the pressure. On the other hand, all influences could only speculate what they were talking inside before giving up in frustration. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 553 Reward? It took Alex and the others half an hour just to reach 600th plank. They had been bombarded by a Martial Emperor pressure ever since they stepped on the 501st plank. Fortunately, no one was actually weak enough to even use their Spiritual Energy. Sherry and Kyle were already 7-Star Martial Emperor, so they could still walk easily while facing Martial Emperor pressure, let alone Stina, a peak Martial Emperor. On the other hand, Alex''s body was sturdy enough to not get swayed by a weak pressure like that. After all, the pressure itself was intending to chip away one''s energy, not attack them. From Alex''s perspective, the pressure didn''t go more than 5-Star Martial Emperor energy, so he was fine. Alex faced another problem after stepping on the 600th plank. He looked at the people in front, many of them started dropping out after reaching this point. People such as Song Yu or even Ruben and Lucia were still going strong while only releasing their Spiritual Energy to the maximum. He observed the plank in front of them. Now that he was close enough, Alex could finally see that a Martial Monarch pressure imbued inside the plank. He had seen many of these just by looking at Jeanne''s or Leoz''s Spiritual Energy. "This might be a little bit troublesome¡­" "Master?" Sherry walked in front of him and looked at him with a worried expression. "Nothing. It''s just a Martial Monarch Pressure, we can just use our Spiritual Energy to block a portion of the pressure. The problem would be the next step¡­ I am wondering if they would release a Martial Saint Pressure¡­ Though I feel there is another trick on this." Alex didn''t say this inside the thought transmission because what he said must have been explored by the people in front. As soon as he said the last word, he stepped on the 601st plank. Just like a sensor, the pressure kicked up the moment his foot touched the plank. *Thud!* Alex''s heart began beating rapidly. It made his body tremble gently until his Spiritual Energy enveloped him. There was an instant when he nearly forgot what he had to do until his instinct released his Spiritual Energy. The Spiritual Energy blocked the pressure coming off the plank as though protecting Alex for any attack. "I see¡­" Alex smirked as he recalled the sudden change in heaviness. Although he hadn''t experienced the pressure of Martial Monarch himself, he already saw how terrifying it was from Jeanne and Leoz or that Grand Elder of Joyful Union Sect. "This is a Martial Monarch pressure. If it''s like this¡­" Alex turned around and said, "It''s better to use a portion of your Spiritual Energy before stepping here." Stina and the others nodded and released their Spiritual Energy. Fortunately, they had stronger cultivation than Alex, so they were pretty relaxed facing this pressure. "How are you doing?" Alex asked. "Nothing in particular. Maybe this is still not too strong for us since I still only need to release a little portion of my energy," Sherry said. "I don''t have any problem either." "Same here. Although we have different cultivation, the energy around us feels no different¡­ or at least not much higher." "We just stepped on the 601st, so it''s better to be careful. In any case, I am sure we can only go slower as to conserve our stamina." Alex pondered for a moment before continuing the trial. Sherry and the others didn''t say anything and followed him. Alex always stopped from a few seconds to half a minute every time he stepped on the next plank. Like charging toward a thousand arrows, it would be better if one held a position for a few seconds to reinforce their defense rather than continuously charging. It would obviously drain their stamina. Though his resting process was slightly faster than Song Yu and the others, allowing them to slowly catch up with them. After another walking for another half an hour, Alex was only a few planks away from Song Yu. "You have come¡­" Song Yu turned back after noticing his presence. "Yeah." Alex shrugged his shoulder as he took a glimpse of her group. Three of her group had given up, considering they were close to the 700th planks. Song Jia and the others silently watched them conversed, but Alex''s eyes focused not on Song Yu. Instead, he was looking at the people from other influences. Ruben and Lucia had another eight members in their group earlier, but four had fallen and accepted the trial reward. Just like Song Yu''s group, a few of them had a sign of exhaustion. Alex was sure they would surely give up sooner or later. When he looked at the Fire God Clan group, he found out that Grimes was also staring at him. Both of them furrowed their eyebrows the moment their eyes locked. Alex didn''t know why, but he felt something dangerous from these guys. It was like watching Shelka, albeit she was trapped in the other world while the latter was in front of him. Alex felt that he was planning something. He looked up, found that he was watched from every direction. Judging from their eyes, they wouldn''t let a single detail escape their observation. "Tch!" Alex clicked his tongue, noticing that he couldn''t warn Anna and the others to be prepared. He didn''t know what kind of plan this Grimes had for him, but the timing was pretty obvious. "It would seem I need a change of plan later¡­" Alex sighed, resigning himself to another problem. He cursed inwardly, ''I never really search for a problem... but why does the problem always come to me¡­ What? Do my talent and my group bring trouble unintentionally? But without them, I might not be able to meet my wife again. Sigh...'' Stina''s world was better than this world. Although there was some friction here and there, the world was pretty civil. He thought he would surely search for a peaceful world after reaching the God stage and left this world to stay with his family. "Alex¡­ Do you have a problem?" Alex looked at Song Yu for a few seconds before turning back to Sherry and the others, not answering her question. Then, he sent a thought transmission to her instead of Sherry and the others. ''No. They might not think as extreme as earlier, but it''s still troublesome to me. Besides, the Fire God Clan is going to do something. In any case, they might try to hurt us while preventing you from helping¡­'' Looking at his act, Song Yu also played along and turned back before saying in disappointment. "Let''s go." At the same time, Song Yu asked Alex with a thought transmission. ''What do you mean?'' ''Main Clan. They are going to Blackwade Main Clan and make some kind of treaty to deal with me first. I thought I don''t need to tell you this, but I feel there is something wrong with Grimes'' eyes.'' ''Main Clan?'' Song Yu gasped. Besides her, Song Jia tilted her head in confusion before asking her, "Sister? What''s wrong?" "No¡­ Nothing." Song Yu smiled, assuring her. She pondered for a moment. ''What do you mean by the main clan?'' ''It''s simple. Fire God Main Clan will have a peace treaty with your main clan, which means your clan on this continent can''t do anything to them. After that, the Fire God Clan would surely attack my Spirit Nest. ''At first, I am planning to hide after this, but I feel there is something wrong in Grimes'' eyes. I am not sure what it is though.'' Song Yu clearly pictured the plan on her mind. There were two people that were capable of planning something like this. The Patriarch of Fire God Clan and Grimes, albeit she didn''t know who it was. ''I will try to contact the main clan after this event.'' ''It''s futile. I will just break out of this place after this event and hide for a while before going according to my original plan.'' Alex rejected her plan as it was too late. He didn''t want to be connected to the Blackwade Clan after the Joyful Union Sect in the first place. After all, Alex might trust Song Yu, but it didn''t mean he trusted the Blackwade Clan. ''But the Fire God Main Clan is far stronger than Joyful Union Sect. Although I am not underestimating your Spirit Nest, you might not be able to hide from them.'' Alex didn''t answer her and continued to step forward. Even if she didn''t say it, he already knew. Rather than having involved Song Yu in this, it would be better to keep her away so as to avoid ruining his plan. He told all of this to her earlier just to warn her that she shouldn''t stay on his way. With the difference of a few planks, Alex finally passed her group in a few minutes. No one dared to stop Alex while they were passing their group. And not long after they passed Song Yu''s group, he stumbled on the 700th planks. There would be another challenge starting from the 701st plank. He didn''t know what it was, but it was surely dangerous because he found out that the Spiritual Energy in the plank had a slightly different color than the one he stepped on. Before coming to a conclusion, he took a look at the other groups ahead. As he predicted earlier, most of them had released their full power from Spiritual Energy to their element. His Spirit Eyes could see how they manipulated their elements and whether they were good at it. It would seem he was right after gathering all the information from them. The people who could better manipulate their element had a slightly better expression than the one who couldn''t. Their element became like an umbrella, shielding them from the Spiritual Energy attack. However, he also found something different than all the planks he experienced in this trial. The Spiritual Energy was still at Martial Monarch, making it hard to move forward, but what caught his eyes was their attack. This time each plank attacked them twice. The second wave might be the same as earlier, attacking their body first before going to the brain and Spiritual Energy. It was the first wave that made this trial troublesome. ''I see. It would seem the next hundred planks would lower our physical body.'' Alex arrived at that conclusion after seeing the first wave only attacked their body. With these two waves, the people started going down one by one. Even Ruben and Lucia''s group only had three other teammates left. There was another thing he noticed from the people who sat down and received the reward. Unlike the people on the back, after reaching the 700th plank. Unless they died, their injuries would be healed in an instant. "Look, there is one that falls!" Sherry exclaimed as she pointed her finger. Alex glanced at the person who fell. It was a young man with a cultivation of 1-Star Martial Emperor. Judging from his age alone, he would seem a little bit older than Song Yu. His condition was terrible. One of his arms and legs bent in a weird way as he had been walking through these planks with a single leg. After spitting blood and couldn''t endure it anymore, he fell. At this moment, the trial finally showed its wonder. A surge of Spiritual Energy suddenly rose from the plank he was on and enveloped his body with white light. The white light restored all of his wounds from his broken arm and leg to his internal injury. The heavy breathing of this man slowed down as he sat perfectly on the ground, falling into deep cultivation. The light then surrounded him to protect him from anyone who tried to disturb him. "He is receiving something¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes as his Spirit Eyes showed another stream of light coming into this man''s head. "Interesting¡­" Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 554 Talen Alex observed them for a minute as another person fell to the ground, receiving the reward too. This time, the person was coming from the Blue West Clan, piquing Alex''s curiosity. The rest of the people mostly came from big influences. Only a certain couple from the city lord families and two other unknown people were still advancing. Although they were struggling at the moment, they would still pass the 800th mark, or that was what Alex thought after looking at their condition. He then turned around, facing the trio. "It seems we need to get a bit serious after here. From what I feel, I would need to release most of my Spiritual Energy before gradually releasing more and more." "How about you Stina?" asked Alex worriedly. According to the information, age was also one of the most important factors calculated in this trial, so he was a bit concerned about Stina, who was a few thousand years old. Sherry and Kyle had no problem with this as they were even younger than Alex. Stina Smiled gently. "I am fine. Although the pressure is starting a bit rough to me, I can still manage it just fine. I feel like with my element and Spiritual Energy, I can at least go for the last hundred marks." "Is that so? Don''t push yourself too hard." Alex nodded. "Yes, Master." Stina nodded. Besides her, Kyle looked at her with a worried expression but didn''t tell her anything after Alex''s words. He nodded and turned around before starting to walk again. The moment he stepped on the net plan, the heaviness of the pressure increased abruptly, forcing him to release all of his Spiritual Energy immediately. He did it out of reflex, and after getting accustomed to the pressure, Alex adjusted his Spiritual Energy a little to conserve his stamina. Following Alex, the trio also released their Spiritual Energy as the pressure jolted their mind upon stepping on the next plan. It was like someone punched them right on the stomach. Alex quickly turned around and checked them. "Are you guys alright?" "Yes. It just stung us earlier, but we are fine now." Sherry nodded with a smile while Kyle nodded in agreement. On the other hand, Stina frowned, feeling a far heavier blow than both of them. Just like Alex, she received a powerful blow, making her heart skip a beat. "I am fine, Master. I shouldn''t underestimate this trial any longer." Stina took a deep breath before ensuring everyone. "Are you alright?" Kyle looked at her with worries. He didn''t know why, but pain instantly engulfed his heart as he couldn''t stand her from being hurt like this. Unconsciously, the feeling of the past began creeping inside his heart. He instinctively grabbed her hand and said, "I will advance to the next plank first so that you can be prepared." Alex and Sherry looked away as he dragged Sherry to go to the next plank. Meanwhile, Stina''s heart was in euphoria. This was the first time that Kyle was like this. Usually, Kyle only stayed composed and friendly to her, but not caring. Stina was making a big smile behind her mask. The memory of previous Kyle flashed on her mind, especially the time when he blasted all the dangers and opened a way for her just to make her safe. Luckily, Kyle couldn''t see behind the mask or else he might take back his words. "It''s fine. I am ready for anything as soon as I follow you." Kyle didn''t know what to say anymore as he turned around to ask for Alex''s help. Unfortunately, Alex was already on two planks ahead with Sherry. Stina kept smiling as Kyle was becoming more and more like the previous him. Just like Alex, who retained a portion of personality despite having no memory, Kyle also had his instinct and awkwardness. Alex slowed down his pace after a few planks to let Kyle and Stina catch up. Kyle could only look away while walking forward. Alex and Sherry only smiled while ignoring both of them. Like the group ahead, Alex started feeling more and more pressure on him, hindering him from moving forward. After threading fifty planks, Alex took a deep breath and released more of his Spiritual Energy. The top people from other influences only released their full Spiritual Energy at the moment while all their followers were already using their elements. It was when they finally crossed the 800th mark and stepped on the 801st plank, all people started using their elements. Alex was thirty planks away from them, so he could already see what kind of trouble they were facing. It had three waves instead of two, making it even harder. The additional wave of energy was striking at their brain to exhaust their mental energy. Despite seeing their condition, Alex continued at his own pace while checking on Stina''s complexion, afraid of burning her out with their fast pace. Luckily, a 10-Star Martial Emperor was not that weak, and Stina could follow them just fine. Her energy was also stable from his Spirit Eyes, so Alex only nodded while monitoring her. Step by step, plank by plank, Alex finally reached the 800th mark. He almost released all of his Spiritual Energy constantly to protect himself. It only chipped away fifteen percent of his energy up to this point, but after this point, he would surely become crazy. "Stina, we are going to stop for a while since this is going to attack your Body and Mental Energy." "Yes." Stina nodded solemnly. Sherry and Kyle were still fine as their condition was similar to him. They might even come with him to the ending of this trial unless they really needed the Dragon Strengthening Technique and Fire God Scepter. On the other hand, Alex noticed that the Dragon Strengthening Technique almost awakened the second stage. At this rate, he would surely open the second stage at the 900th mark. He pondered for a moment as he looked at Ruben and the others before turning back to Song Yu and Song Jia. Ruben and Lucia still had two teammates, while Grimes also had two teammates. The other first-rate influences had one main heir and one teammate. Blackwade Clan still had Song Yu and Song Jia together with four teammates as they were still a bit far behind. What made him surprised was the fact the couple from city lord families managed to walk this far. They were walking hand in hand as they continued on their path. Despite having injured all over because of the constant pressure, they leaned on each other, so even if they didn''t walk forward, with constant pushing from each other, they would still be able to walk forward. Alex didn''t know whether this was a trick or not since they needed a couple of the same talent and cultivation to do something like this. He shook his head as this couple already had their influence. Besides, they were going to fall before reaching the 900th mark after looking at their condition with Spirit Eyes. Sherry furrowed her eyebrows but didn''t ask any question. At first, they had the difference of two to three hundred planks, but they had caught up on them with only around forty planks distance. Sherry felt she would pass them after entering the 900th mark. ¡­ Outside the barrier, All people from first-rate influences sucked a cold breath the moment they saw Alex had yet to release his element after passing the 800th mark. It would seem that his talent was far higher than the other heirs on the continents, as all of them immediately used their elements after stepping on the 801st plank. Song Qiang furrowed his eyebrows and looked at this little monster. This group was really unusual, making him rethink his decision. As he was observing Alex''s group, his granddaughter also reached the 800th mark and entered at a harder territory. Unfortunately, Song Yu and Song Jia were also forced to use their elements. Even so, Song Qiang''s eyes were locked on Alex and his teammates. After around twenty minutes, Alex reached 820th plank without a speck of his element. Only at 825th a fire suddenly appeared in their group. It was coming from none other than Stina. After enduring for so long, she couldn''t stand the pressure anymore and released her fire to lift a portion of the burden. Looking at this, he was convinced that the first one who would go down was Stina. "Father¡­" Song Lei looked at his father with worries. The other influences were tongue-tied after watching this ridiculous group as they slowly looked up and narrowed their eyes upon the sight of the Spirit Nest. They were wondering whether to attack them while they were here or not. If they made an alliance in this place and attacked them before the four came out, they had a high probability of success. Song Qiang shook his head with a serious expression. "Don''t think about it. Whatever they want to do with the Spirit Nest, we won''t participate. We will see what kind of trouble they would get, and if possible, we will help them." "Father, are you sure? All first-rate influences might attack them and if we help them¡­" Song Lei didn''t continue after sensing a killing intent from his father. "I have made this mistake in the past, resulting in me being exiled to this place from the main clan. I am teaching you that potential that could bloom is far more terrifying than the reputation. I won''t go into detail, but just mark my words somewhere in your mind, we might need to help them out with our people outside. Ask one of the trusted elders to inform our people to stand by." Song Qiang glared at his son. "..." Song Lei was speechless, never expecting that his father chose this option since they might get attacked by five first-rate influences at the same time. It was still impossible even with the help of Spirit Nest. "Lei¡­ You might take me as a fool about this decision, but even if you think about family and choose to stop. I won''t blame you. However, I am doing this for my little granddaughters¡­ I might not live anymore after this decision, but I am sure my granddaughter''s future would be more prosperous than mine." Song Qiang said mysteriously. Song Lei pondered for a moment before leaving his grandfather alone. Song Qiang sighed. Though A huge genius that can''t grow might not be dangerous, Alex was a different case as he didn''t know why, but he could picture that Alex would surely grow. Whether coming from his mysterious identity or VIP Card, Alex must be someone special, and he was betting on that identity. He then continued observing him before finding Kyle and Sherry finally released their Fire after stepping on the 835th plank 840th respectively. Even though the difference was only forty planks, the gap between their talents and the heirs and heiresses of first-rate influences was too far, let alone when they saw Alex had yet to release his flame. Unbeknownst to them, they were a Phoenix and a Celestial Fox that became contracted beasts of a Pure Fire Element person. Unlike Stina, who only joined recently, their talent had been shaped from an early age, making them unnaturally fearful in this trial. The other leaders began gulping down, wondering when Alex, the leader of Spirit Nest, would release his element. Considering he had Alchemist rank under his name, his element manipulation would surely perfect. They were already happy when their heirs and heiresses passed the 900th mark, but that happiness pummeled when they saw Alex. A feeling of relief appeared on their hearts when they saw Alex reached the 850th mark. Fire started gushing out of his body and enveloped his entire body. This would mean that Alex couldn''t stand it anymore. But¡­ using it after only reaching this far, one question suddenly appeared on their minds. ''Will he beat the record of this trial?'' Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 555 Ruben and Lucia When the thought was present on their mind, Alex took a deep breath, adjusting his state. He was able to reach the 850th mark before using his fire. It was possible to walk through another fifty planks without using his flame, but if he seriously did that, he would most likely be exhausted before the real fight even started. "How are you, Stina?" Alex asked the one who worried him the most. ''I am still fine¡­ but I think I will release my Phoenix Wings not long after this. Seeing how the Joyful Union Sect and Blackwade thought we have a special Martial Art that can grow a beast part. I am sure unless I reveal what I needed, they would only think this is a Martial Art.'' Stina sighed while sending a thought transmission. Alex looked down, weighing the matter on his mind. What Stina said was true since he saw the indifferent reaction from the two sects concerning the beast parts. If Stina, Kyle, and Sherry just revealed a little bit, they would think it was a special Martial Art. After pondering for a while, he nodded at her, allowing her to use it. ''Though I want you to make it look more like a Martial Art. Tell Kyle and Sherry too. Also, you need to quickly recall it before you give up since they thought you have used all of your Spiritual Energy and given up.'' ''Understood.'' Stina nodded before telling Kyle and Sherry. Alex slowed down his pace because he thought about something. He was too fast, and even now, he started doubting if he could pass through the last a hundred planks without using his Pure Fire. Sherry was confused by his action, but didn''t ask him anything. Alex always thought of the consequences before doing something, so he must be thinking something. Although Sherry didn''t like to think, she tried to come up for a reason. It could be said this was training for her to get better since she didn''t want to be outdone in the brain too, and thought it was another charming point for Alex. In the end, Even Song Yu and Song Jia caught up with them before entering the 900th planks. "Why are you slowing down? I don''t think this is your limit¡­" Song Yu asked. Song Jia looked back at all the other comrades who already gave up and nodded. With Alex''s brain, there was no way he actually wanted to act cool and didn''t use his Element stubbornly. "Just go ahead. Don''t mind me," said Alex nonchalantly. The journey was really a treacherous one as he even had released his Twin Blade Domain to provide more protection. Albeit, before either of them moved to the next one, the event finally moved forward. "Look, the couple finally go down." One of them shouted, making the other forget about Alex for a second. For a couple like them to reach 900th planks, they were already unbelievable, let alone come from city lord families. Usually, this mark could only be crossed by a peerless Genius or a successor of first-rate influences. The couple reached the 910th plank before sitting down on the plank as the energy began healing their injuries. There would be two peerless geniuses coming from the city lord families. Though their focus quickly changed as both Alex''s group and Song Yu''s group had arrived at the last one hundred. They looked at the people like Ruben and Lucia as well as Grimes. Both of them were struggling to advance as they felt the burden was far harder than before. Alex observed them with his Spirit Eyes. Another wave of energy attacked appeared, but this time it attacked one Spiritual Energy, draining them. He looked at a woman from one of the first-rate influences called Supreme Element Sect. Alex wasn''t focused on her appearance. Instead, he was observing how she manipulated her wind element. Surprisingly, she created a torrential wind that somehow directed a portion of energy that was coming toward her away. Even so, she looked so beaten up as one of her hands was broken after reaching the 920th planks. After spitting out blood, she bit her lips and looked up. "Kh¡­ I can still go on." The same as her, the Martial Tower also sent its representative who was a young male. Although he was barely a 1-Star Martial Emperor, it could be said he was the youngest out of the first-rate influences'' successor. Unfortunately, with all the effort he had been putting up, he slowly descended to the ground as his legs went limp. Even his eyes had lost its focus. After having walked for 930th planks, he finally went down and gave up. "One down." After seeing the first successor finally fall, the others started frowning as they were also the same as him and could only reach a few more planks. "Patriarch, look. Our¡­ Our Grimes has finally reached his limit." One of the elders pointed his finger while informing the patriarch. His eyes rolled from Alex to Grimes, calculating how many planks he had passed. "937th¡­ It''s good, but it seems?? even Grimes can''t beat the record." He sighed in disappointment. Grimes was a genius that was hard to come by. He was a person equipped with both brain and talent. Unfortunately, it was still not enough to pass 943rd, which was supposed to be the highest record. He swept to see who finally went down after this. On the other hand, Alex finally stepped on the 901st planks after seeing Grimes fell. He went first before Song Yu because she was busy regaining her calm. "!!" Alex took a deep breath as he felt the heaviness of the new attack and quickly made a few small Spatial Gates. Of course, he made it in the space within his clothes, hiding it from others. The Spatial Gates sucked a portion of the energy. Alex adjusted his state first before turning back to the others and nodded. The second one stepped forward was Sherry. Her mind jolted after sensing the pressure and quickly raised her fire to the maximum. Following Sherry, Kyle also entered after releasing his fire, so he didn''t have much reaction. The worst-case was Stina. She couldn''t endure this presence anymore and raised her hand before enveloping her body in flame. Then her flame slowly turned into a pair of wings before she revealed her Phoenix Wings to everyone. "This¡­" The patriarch of the Fire God Clan narrowed his eyes. He had gotten the information about this from his spies that the Spirit Nest was practicing a strength technique that could boost strength. This was the technique that allowed them to defeat the Joyful Union Sect. He quickly observed this technique to see what this technique was with his own eyes. After revealing her phoenix wings, Stina''s aura became stable again, albeit Kyle came to her with a worried expression. "Are you alright?" "I am fine. I should have no problem with another forty planks, but I don''t know if I can beat the record. Let us see." Stina assured him with a relaxed tone, not wanting him to be worried. After looking at her for a few seconds, Kyle nodded and turned around. They started walking again. Alex was planning to take this opportunity to complete the trial before anyone waking up. After all, there were only Ruben, Lucia, Song Yu, and Song Jia left in this trial. None of them had Fire Element, so it should pose no problem if he revealed his Pure Fire in front of them. While he was at it, he observed Ruben and Lucia, who were already beaten up. "Can you still go on?" Ruben looked at his fiancee. "Yeah." Lucia nodded as she wiped the blood on her mouth, albeit the blood that her clean face was covered with blood again when she stepped on the next plank. *Spat* She spat a mouthful of blood, sticking on the plank and her clothes. Although he could even barely move, Ruben turned around and looked at Lucia. "Don''t give up. You said earlier that you want to challenge yourself. You can''t go down now." Ruben kneeled on the ground, placing her hand on his shoulder before gradually rising from his feet. The process was filled with pain. Even so, Ruben still put his strong front just for her. He enveloped her with his Spiritual Energy, doubling the pressure on him. "We are still on 933rd¡­ Just a bit more to reach 935th then to 940th." "Ru¡­ Ruben¡­ why are you doing this? You have been like this from the beginning¡­ You are blessed with overwhelming talents and could practically do anything I learn¡­ You don''t need to torture yourself by carrying me." Lucia bit her lips. "I have been watching you from the start, and your talent might even take you to the record if not surpassing it¡­" Ruben only smiled in front of her confession while carrying her. He recalled a certain scene of a girl still practicing in the rain, in the scorching sun, or even the cold winter. Despite having a harsh environment, the girl still focused on what to do. He closed her eyes for a second before saying, "It''s because I met a girl. Despite having so much talent, the girl didn''t give up or was satisfied with it. Instead, she trained harder than anyone else¡­ At that time, I was charmed by her unique passion and started practicing harder. "You have been watching me, but I am also the same¡­ I have seen something in you that you might not even see in yourself. People might think that you could succeed because of your talent, but I know that you succeed because of your hard work¡­ There is no way that I let that girl behind." "You¡­" Lucia''s regret slowly turned into sadness. Even so, there was a movement on her heart as she smiled while saying in a low voice, "... fool." As soon as she said those two words, she released the hand on his shoulder before using the momentum to slip away. "Lucia¡­" Ruben was startled. "I am rooting for you¡­ Dear." Lucia quickly gave up, not wanting to hold Ruben back. "You¡­" It might be the first time that Lucia ever called him with that. They had recognized each other but had yet to move to the next step. His words broke the gate that held her back from recognizing her feelings toward him. Ruben bit her lips, watching the girl he loved gave up on the 935th planks. He took a deep breath as he looked forward and continued with a determination. Alex thought that the people here only married because of their family circumstances. However, Ruben and Lucia proved otherwise. Although he didn''t know them well, he held respect for them. Unfortunately, he could only focus on them for a few seconds before he noticed that Kyle opened his wings too while Sherry also released her fox ears and tail a few planks later. Alex also started feeling the pressure, so he was preparing to open his Pure Fire. "Sherry, are you alright?" Alex asked as they entered the 930th planks and found a trace of exhaustion on Sherry''s energy. "I am fine, Master. This is not as extreme as your or Elder Sister''s Anna training." Sherry smiled. "It''s good then." Alex nodded before glancing on the phoenix couple. T "Stina, are you alright?" Kyle looked at her. Stina was exhausted. One of her hands was broken because of the pressure, so it was normal for Kyle to worry. Alex took a deep breath before stepping on the next plank. He looked like Ruben, who was walking practically like a zombie. Ruben stretched his hand to the front as he walked forward. His mouth kept muttering "Lucia" as a motivation. Meanwhile, Song Yu and Song Jia decreased their pace even further as they wanted to observe Alex''s limit. Alex clicked his tongue before revealing his Pure Fire. "Pure Fi-" However, when he was about to activate his Pure Fire, he sensed another thing coming from his body. This sensation came with a great surge of strength. "This?" Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 556 Stina, Kyle, and Sherry "This?" He observed the situation before noticing that the scepter on his hand also channeled its energy into his body. "Wait?" Alex was confused about this whole mess as he couldn''t afford to have trouble in this trial. "Kh¡­" The Dragon Energy that had been absorbed by his Dragon Strengthening Technique and the Phoenix Energy in the Fire God Scepter, fused inside his body before creating a strange mark on his back. On his back appeared two tattoos: A Dragon and a Phoenix Tattoo. After getting charged by the energy, the tattoos shone in golden color. Without waiting for him, the staff vibrated and sent energy to his mind, giving him knowledge about a particular Martial Art. "Dragon and Phoenix Body Technique?" Alex was utterly speechless. By looking at a few lines in the book, he already knew that this technique was an upgraded version of the Dragon Strengthening Technique. He took a few breaths before checking the whole contents of the Dragon and Phoenix Body Technique. He only skimmed it a little bit because of the trial. It would seem this technique was two partial techniques that had been combined. This technique allowed him to use an aura of a Dragon and a Phoenix respectively. If he used the dragon aura, he would get a powerful strength. On the other hand, he could release a powerful pressure with Phoenix Aura that could be used as a defensive shield even from a normal attack. Unfortunately, Alex had no experience with this technique. Rather than depending on an unknown technique, he revealed his Pure Fire. "Fu." Alex cracked the Phoenix Seed to release his Pure Fire. The Pure Fire reaction was more intense than he thought as it suddenly burned the pressure around him. '' The Pure Fire was like no other fire. It was hovering around him as it burned a portion of the pressure. With this, he could advance further. Before he knew it, Ruben had given up on the 440th, failing to beat the record. "I''m sorry, Lucia." Ruben fell with sadness. He stretched his hand forward. It was only three planks away but still unreachable. Following him, the last heir from Supreme Element Sect finally gave up after reaching 934th plank. One plank away from Lucia. Meanwhile, Alex''s group also had no leeway in this situation. "Are you seriously, alright?" Kyle looked at Stina, who could barely move after advancing for 935 planks. Even though Alex''s Pure Fire had strengthened her talent, it was still not enough because she was already too old. She looked at Kyle and placed her hands on his shoulder. "I am fine. I just need to work out a little bit." After saying that, Stina spat a mouthful of blood, running through her mask. She clenched her broken arm as she rose from the ground and walked forward. She remembered that her husband was always above her. She wasn''t complaining about it, but she also had her pride. His pride should be protected, and as his wife, there was no way she could give up with just a little bit of pain. The few thousand years of waiting was far more painful than this. Pushing away Kyle''s hand from her shoulder, she walked forward without waiting for Alex''s order, showing Kyle she was fine. She reached the next plan and fell again. Just like the other people, she also entered the last few planks of her trial. It was impossible to follow Alex or Kyle after this point. 936th¡­ 937th¡­ 938th¡­ Stina continued forward with a determination, making Kyle''s heart wrenched. It was so hurt as he felt someone squeeze his heart. Kyle followed her step by step as he helped them every time she fell. He wanted to stop her, but in his heart, he also wanted to support her. The two contradictory feelings made his heart in anguish. Alex and Sherry also followed them without saying anything. This was the matter between Kyle and Stina. Step by step she went through, and before long, she finally reached Ruben on 940th plank. "Just a few more steps to pass three planks¡­" She muttered, trying to go forward. With her husband worrying her, her heart felt a surge of strength to pass the last few planks. She might be the one with the least potential in the Spirit Nest. At the very least, she wanted to pass the highest record in this trial as to protect the pride of Spirit Nest. 941st¡­ 942nd¡­ 943rd¡­ She finally reached the same place as the highest record. However, she had no energy left inside her body to even stand up Stina spat a mouthful of blood and tried to rise again. Unfortunately, she couldn''t even stand up. Even so, she kept muttering on her mind, "Just one more¡­ Just one more¡­" Despite having a fuzzy consciousness and no energy. She kept marching forward even if she needed to crawl on the ground. Until she finally broke the record. ''She did it.'' ''She was the first one to break the record.'' Kyle leaped toward her and hugged her tightly. It was like half of his life had gone away as he muttered, "It''s fine¡­ It''s fine now¡­ You did it. I am proud of you, so please rest." He couldn''t help but let out tears from behind his mask. The words filled with emotions were conveyed and resonated with her heart as she said, "I am glad, Husband." Alex and Sherry closed their eyes. The people outside also wanted to cause a ruckus, but the scene of this pair was beautiful. They wanted to tell the whole how ridiculous their relationship was considering the gap between their age, they just couldn''t utter it. Secondly, those top influences were shocked by Stina, who finally broke the record. But they were speechless because they saw Kyle, Alex, and Sherry also broke the record¡­ in a more relaxed way. The energy started enveloping her body, signaling the others she finally gave up the trial. Kyle rose from the ground and looked at Alex. "Master, let''s go." Although he couldn''t see his expression, he was determined to finish this trial. "Sure." Alex nodded and started picking up the pace again after Stina gave up. ¡­ A few minutes after Stina gave up, the people outside were shocked by a shout. "Look¡­ He... No, they. They passed the 950th mark. Are they going to beat this trial?" One of the people outside exclaimed in a shocked tone. The people gasped as they never expected someone could reach this far. Their condition looked much better than other people to boot. "You all can go on, right?" Alex asked, noticing Sherry and Kyle started having a short breath. "Yes." Sherry nodded with a serious expression. On the other hand, Kyle''s answer came in the form of action. He raised his hand to the sky before his fire gradually rose to the sky. Kyle tried to take a deep breath after that, but to no avail. The pressure started coming onto him as he felt awful at the moment. He raised his hand again before observing and clenching it a few times. Alex looked at his hand with his Spirit Eyes to check his condition, albeit found nothing wrong with him. "It''s only numb. Seeing this, I might probably go down before Elder Sister Sherry." Kyle sighed in disappointment. He wasn''t sad because Sherry beat him, but because he couldn''t finish this trial for Stina. "If you are fine, then it''s alright." Alex nodded, calculating how many planks Kyle would reach. He shook his head as Kyle would be the one to decide that, not him. "Let''s go." Without waiting, Alex took another step forward. Sherry patted Kyle''s shoulder before following Alex. 951st¡­ 952nd¡­ 953rd¡­ Alex was still going strong. At first, the people thought Alex might have the ability to break the record, but now, they could only think how far Alex would go. The same as Song Yu and Song Jia. They stared at him, looking not much better than Kyle''s state. They had slowed down their pace just to see how far Alex could go, but in the end, Song Jia gave up on the 935th plank. Song Yu could only grit her teeth as she walked alone while watching Alex''s group. They went strong at the moment and reached the 960th mark easily, but not long after that, she widened her eyes. "Gah!" Kyle spat blood while clenching his fists to not go down just for this. They had reached 965th planks, and his vision became blurry. Although he somehow saw Alex''s figure, it wouldn''t be so long before he needed to give up. "Kyle?" Alex was concerned about Kyle''s state. After having an emotional impact from earlier, he might do something reckless in this trial. Unfortunately, Kyle could hear him any longer. His instinct took over him and marched forward without waiting for Alex. It was just one step away. He continued with that in mind, and before long, he fell after reaching 970th plank. Alex gave a pat on his back since Kyle had yet to take back his wings. The warm hand raised his instinct as the wing slowly disappeared from his back. "You have worked hard." He smiled. Sherry also wanted to say something, but her condition was not much better. Her hands were shivering from the pressure, and she hid it so as to not make Alex worry. "How about you, Sherry?" Looking at her Spiritual Energy, he could see a sign of exhaustion on her. Sherry only sent a thought transmission to him, thinking it was easier than opening her mouth. "I can still go on. Master, do you remember when I carried you from that forest to Acacia Kingdom? The feeling I needed to endure at that time was more painful than this. Although I could reveal my original form to get a better fight with this pressure, the problem we would get was far heavier and not worth the reward. So¡­ Master, please don''t say anything and trust me." Alex''s heart was moved. He recalled when he decided not to kill the fox who protected a certain medicinal ingredient. Meeting her, sparing her life, and letting her accompany him might be the best decision he had made. Looking at this stubborn little girl, Alex smiled behind his mask before turning around. "Let''s go." Alex didn''t say anything the whole time because his worry might also hurt her, so he only stood tall in front of her, leading the way. Staring on his back, Sherry smiled. One of her arms and legs were broken, but she endured it. She didn''t want to make Alex turn around because of her groan. Despite not hearing anything, Alex knew how much pain Sherry endured right now. He bit his lips until blood fell out of his mouth. He kept cheering for Sherry inside of his heart and walking forward. Step by step he went through; each step was painful because he felt Sherry was suffering. Even so, not a single time, he looked back to check Sherry''s condition. Sherry also had her own pride, but after he reached 985th plank, he abruptly turned around because Sherry sent the last thought transmission. ''I''m sorry, Master.'' He saw Sherry stumble upon the 980th plank and gave up. Despite numbness covering his hand, He stretched his hand toward her, wanting to hug her to show how much he was proud of her. ''This trial¡­'' Alex gritted his teeth and walked forward again. ''Don''t worry, Sherry. I will beat this trial.'' 986th¡­ 987th¡­ 988th... Alex was panting as he looked at the last ten planks before him. He felt with his current Spiritual Energy, he should be able to finish this in one go. The people outside were utterly shocked by this and couldn''t take their eyes away from him. They were wondering whether Alex could beat this trial or not. And this might be the factor that would decide their future action. Unexpectedly, before marching forward, A few sentences appeared before him. ''Challenger has appeared.'' ''Moving to the real trial.'' ''Each step from here would be a dangerous field where you would feel a Martial Saint Pressure.'' ''Are you ready, o'' Challenger?'' It was at this moment he knew, he f*cked up. *** (A/N: Hi guys, I have made a glossary for Gacha System and his spirits. You can take a look on the Auxiliary Chapter.) Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 557 Beat the Trial or Give Up? Alex was stupefied, never expecting something like this to appear. "Oi, oi. What exactly is this trial?" The people outside also had the same question as him. They thought Alex would surely reach the end of this trial, but the image completely shattered as soon as they read those words. "Martial Saint Pressure?" It was already hard enough for them to withstand Martial Monarch pressure, let alone Martial Saint. This was completely impossible for a little Martial Emperor. Even though it could be a shame as no one could witness what kind of appearance when one cleared this trial, they were also happy because Alex couldn''t complete the trial. After all, he would surely become an immediate threat. "Father, this¡­" Song Lei furrowed his eyebrows. The answer came with a sigh. "This trial is not possible for a Martial Emperor. He is currently a 4-Star Martial Emperor¡­ from my prediction, he could somehow endure three or four planks if the pressure only came from a 1-Star Martial Saint¡­ I know this because I have endured it back then." Song Qiang looked down while closing his eyes, disappointed by the trial. They finally knew that this trial was truly impossible. First, they needed to consider age, talent, and other things. If they waited until they reached the 10-Star Martial Emperor stage, it would be too late. "Still, Father¡­ by going to a few planks alone, he could be considered as one of the tops¡­ No, he is the best talent on this continent. I am sure that no one would leave him alone." Song Lei looked around, watching the other movements. He could tell that all of them were whispering to each other with thought transmission. Although they didn''t let out any voice, he knew they were talking about Alex. The two kids, Sherry and Kyle, might have ''better'' talent than Alex, considering their cultivation was both 7-Star Martial Emperor Stage. However, looking at their and Alex''s performance, it was apparent that Alex had another thing that could surpass their cultivation speed. And Song Yu precisely had this belief. She hadn''t given up since she could walk a few more steps. She didn''t step on the next plank because she wanted to witness Alex completing the trial. Zwaka''s place flashed on her mind. Thinking about it, Alex could easily solve the puzzle on trial before completing it with flying color. At first, it might look like his eyes were the reason, but looking at Alex now, Song Yu had a doubt it was his eyes. Alex had shown abnormal cultivation speed despite learning to control his flame, studying Martial Arts, practicing his Sword and Spear, and mastering Alchemy and Array Master skills. It wouldn''t be surprising if Alex actually had a more powerful talent than Sherry and Kyle. However, it was a different case whether he would tell her or not. Even so, the sight of his back rose the flame in her heart as she couldn''t help but cheer for him. If it was him, it might be possible. "Go!" The same as Song Yu, Anna and the others exchanged looks, wondering if this was really a trial. Anna made a complicated expression as she asked, "Ehm¡­ That guy made this trial, right? Are you sure he doesn''t want to kill him? I thought they were friends." Everyone rolled their eyes away, not knowing what to say. Anya sighed and nodded before saying, "Yes. That guy should make this trial. I am sure sister Xingzhi could testify to this. However, I am also unsure about his intention in this trial. There is only one thing I am sure about¡­ they were friends." Anna bit her lips before turning back to look at this trial. ... Alex asked himself. "Can I do it?" [You can absolutely do it, Host.] "Still¡­ asking me to walk through this path¡­ what kind of trial is this? I know you are just encouraging me, System." Alex sighed. [I don''t say this to encourage you. I am just telling the truth about you, and I could picture you beating this trial. Take a look at your strength, and you will know the way to beat this trial.] Alex looked down, pondering for a moment before remembering a few things. "Spirit Step and this new technique. I can still use my Twin Blade and Pure Fire to the maximum." A few plans flashed on his mind, raising his confidence. If he used everything from the beginning, he wouldn''t succeed in this. In other words, he needed to choose which one he used first before moving forward. One minute¡­ Two minutes¡­ After pondering for five minutes, Alex took a deep breath as he completed the plan on his mind. He took out his Sword and Spear at the same time and released his Twin Blade Domain. Even though he could use this without them, it still felt more comfortable by doing it with his sword and spear in hands. "Ha!" Just like an explosion, the domain expanded and revealed its full might, blasting the energy nearby. "!!!" "700 meters¡­" "What?!" "He has a 700 meters domain?" His domain alarmed everyone and once again shattered their expectation. Alex paid no heed about their reaction and moved forward. "!!!" He felt the pressure of Martial Saint for the first time and fell to the ground, spitting a mouthful of blood. "Gah!" Although he had yet to release all of its might, his Pure Fire still burned a portion of the energy while his sharp domain started cutting the energy that came to him. If the two powers didn''t help him in facing this pressure, Alex might be knocked unconscious before fighting. In the worst case, he might even die. Alex panted, adjusting his state on this pressure before gritting his teeth and rising from the ground. "Ha!" With great difficulty, he could finally stand on his feet. "This is only the first plank¡­" Alex muttered with a short breath. "My domain alone can''t withstand this pressure¡­ I need more." "Spirit Step, First Step." He stomped the ground to gather the Spiritual Energy nearby. His body absorbed the energy around like crazy, giving him a crazy boost on his strength. However, his real aim was somewhere else. The moment he stepped on the 992nd plank, he activated the Spirit Step once more, but the second step this time. The Second Step quickly channeled all the energy that Alex stored just now and blasted most of the pressure that came into him. The pressure that attacked him was lesser than the previous one, so he didn''t fall this time. Even so, it really took a toll on him just to fight with Martial Saint Pressure with his weak Martial Emperor Pressure. Blood started coming out of his mouth. "Fu." Alex took a few deep breaths before preparing himself for the next one. "Spirit Step, First Step." He took the energy once more before finally stepping on the third plank, using the second step again. "Bam!" The clash between his Spiritual Energy attack and the plank was fierce. Unfortunately, after dealing with a portion of the energy, his attack was destroyed. "Not good!" Alex quickly released his Pure Fire to the fullest. The blazing flame rose to the sky and torched all the Spiritual Energy around him. The people were utterly speechless. Even the Supreme Elemental Sect''s sect master couldn''t help but exclaimed, "This fire is so perfect and the control too." On the other hand, Alex had no leeway as this pressure was killing him from inside. "This might be bad¡­" Alex couldn''t help but think they had to fight it out, considering he already needed his Pure Fire despite reaching only 993rd plank. He spat some blood as it flowed out of his mask, dripping down to his clothes. "What should I do?" After stabilizing his energy, Alex pondered for a moment. He couldn''t go on like this, considering he needed another seven planks before completing the trial. He wanted to think about this but to no avail. The pressure kept distracting him from his thoughts as it was too much for him to bear. In the end, he could only grit his teeth and enter the next plank with this Pure Fire. "Kh!" He fell on his knees after feeling the pressure from the next plank. It was hard like a Warhammer, breaking the bone on his arm. Alex kept enduring the pain. The next plank would surely be dangerous. Unfortunately, there was no other way than threading upon this path. After getting used to the pressure, Alex took a deep breath once more, preparing to lose his other hand on the next plank. "Screw it." The Pure Fire started rising again as he entered the next plank. The pressure came again, and it was truly something powerful. However, before breaking his bones, the dragon symbol on his back suddenly shone as it suddenly lent Alex a big strength. He had eight hundred dragon strength at the moment, and when the dragon aura was activated, it doubled his power immediately. Unbeknownst to him, his Spiritual Energy formed into an eastern dragon on his back. Obviously, the other influences didn''t miss this. After knowing the Spirit Nest had an unusual technique, it wasn''t surprising if Alex, the leader of Spirit Nest, also had something like that. Alex had no time to care about it because the dragon just helped him to complete half of this real trial. He wanted to be surprised, but he didn''t have time to waste. Riding on his success about this new technique, Alex stepped on the next plank before the other one also activated. The Spiritual Energy formed a Phoenix before turning into an armor that protected him from the pressure. Alex spat another mouthful of blood as he fell on his knees. He felt his brain couldn''t work anymore as this pressure already overwhelmed him. The only thought in his mind was to reach the 1000th plank and beat the trial. By using everything he had simultaneously, Alex stepped onto the 997th plank before stumbling. Everyone could see his face that was full of exhaustion. If it was Grimes or Ruben here, they might die in front of this pressure. "I still need three more¡­" Alex''s eyes lost its focus as he looked at the plank that split into two in his vision. By relying on his instinct alone, he took another step forward with all of his strength, whether they were the new Dragon and Phoenix Aura, Pure Fire, his Spirit Step, or even his Domain. *Crack* Just as his right leg stepped upon the 998th planks, the bone cracked as Alex fell forward. This took Alex by surprise as he was quickly bombarded by the pressure. It broke many bones inside his body. Without the protection of Spiritual Energy, the mask finally shattered, revealing Alex''s face. This might be the first time that Alex showed his appearance on this continent, making the others surprised. He was handsome as his golden hair complimented his face. Unfortunately, half of his face was covered with blood, so they couldn''t clearly see it. All they could see was the anguish on Alex''s face. All the sect masters, patriarchs, or leaders of their respective influences had gone through this trial in their life. They could imagine what kind of pain he was experiencing. However, The person in front of them only needed to pass two more planks to beat the trial. However, the Martial Saint Pressure forbade them from picturing it. They couldn''t picture what kind of pain he was experiencing just now. "Kh!" Despite feeling so much pain, Alex endured and didn''t let out any voice. He had experienced the refining of Undying Fire body, this kind of pain was nothing for him. His consciousness became blurry, and his body couldn''t be controlled. He wanted to raise again but to no avail. A foam started coming out of the corner of his mouth as he struggled to get back up. His eyes started losing its light as everyone knew that he would soon give up on this trial. It was not like Alex lacked talent, the trial was too brutal even with a person like him. They could only look away with sadness; seeing even a genius like him still couldn''t pass the trial. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 558 Hallucination Suppor In a far far away world, a red-haired woman was panting as she looked at the middle-aged woman in front of her. "Master¡­I-" Before uttering her words, she didn''t know why, but her heart skipped a beat. She was bewildered as an expression of shock appeared on her face. "What?" "No¡­" The young woman stared at her blankly, not knowing what to say as an emptiness filled her heart. "Mas¡­ Master¡­ Can I take a break for a few minutes?" Never expecting her disciple to ask for a break, she was dumbfounded for a second. They had been training like crazy for a few years, and her disciple never said the word ''tired.'' That was why when she uttered this; she was utterly speechless. On the young woman''s mind flashed a picture of her husband. Normally, it wouldn''t appear out of the blue as she would be too occupied with the practice. Meanwhile, the bad feeling kept increasing, so she couldn''t help but ask for a break. "Why are you taking a break now? We have been going for two years, and you never want to have a break even though I am telling you so." "I don''t know¡­ Hus¡­ I mean, Alex''s image suddenly flashed on my mind as my heart filled with emptiness. I am wondering why I suddenly have such a feeling." She sighed. "Have Master experienced the same thing?" "Firia¡­" The master had a troubled expression. If Alex were here with his usual attitude, he would likely have commented, ''Is this the legendary bad moment? But where is the glass that is usually shattered when this happens?'' Unfortunately, Alex would never see this scene. In fact, he would be scared if he was here because Firia''s Master suddenly said, "I have once felt that. At that time, I was so worried that Maxwell cheated on me. Maybe he is cheating on you?" Firia could only shake her head. "He is a unique person¡­ so I doubt he would do something like that. Even with Master telling me that I would never know, I still believe in him." "Then, I don''t know¡­" Firia''s Master, Maxwell''s wife, shrugged. "Do you want to go to Eulja and check on him? I heard you can observe him there¡­" Firia pondered for a moment before saying, "No. There is sister Xingzhi that would watch over him 24/7, so I am not worried about him. I just wish he wouldn''t get in any trouble there." "You know that is impossible, right? I heard from Maxwell that the world he is in right now is filled with trouble, especially with him, a person full of talent." She shook her head. "Haha¡­ Well, I will just wish him the best from here." Firia shook her head before saying with a smile, "I think that''s enough for me. I can''t procrastinate more than this as I need to catch up with him to help him." Her Master stared at this stubborn girl before smiling. "Alright." Both of them began their training again. ¡­ Meanwhile, Just like Firia, Alicia also had the same feeling, forcing her to stop her training. The Ice Phoenix Spirits were confused about her action. Without waiting for their reaction, Alicia suddenly flew to the castle. It only took her a few minutes as she stormed inside a particular room. "Sister Xingzhi¡­" The woman that she called still had no reaction, staring at the screen in front of her without a single motion. Alicia furrowed her eyebrows as she walked toward her before looking at the screen. *Gasp!* The screen showed her Alex on the floor. His eyes lost its light while his mouth started foaming. The vision moved according to Alex''s eyes and saw both of his arms were injured. "Sister, what¡­ is he doing? Did someone attack him?" Alicia shook her body, waking her up. Lin Xingzhi took a deep breath as she looked at Alicia before turning back to the screen again. She sighed. "No one attacks him¡­ This is inside a trial. Explaining it will be a bit troublesome. Let see... to put it simply¡­ he had been attacked by Martial Saint''s pressure for a while." "What?" Alicia was dumbfounded. "What is that trial? Why is he taking a trial like that?" "Alicia. Calm down!" Lin Xingzhi bit her lips before explaining, "This is the trial of his former friend. And it will surely be beneficial for him as long as he can beat the trial. Do you trust him?" Alicia fell into silence for a few seconds. Her expression turned serious as she nodded. "I do." "Good. Just believe in him and his friend. With how unique he was, his friend would never put something that could endanger him." Xingzhi sighed." Alicia looked down, not knowing what to say. She just abruptly came to this place in the middle of training. Even she didn''t know why she would act like that from the beginning. It was like her instinct that moved her entire body. It took over her rationality to rush here. "I¡­ Understand." Alicia nodded with great difficulty. She pondered for a moment before asking, "Sister, can I use this for a few seconds?" Lin Xingzhi glanced at her expression for a few seconds before letting her do whatever she wanted. ¡­ At the same time, Anna and Anya were also raging in their hearts. "Damn that bastard. Had he gone insane to put something like this as a trial?" Anna grabbed Jean''s collar before throwing him to the ground. "Anna¡­ Where is that bastard, I want to kill him right now!" Anya also flared up. Unfortunately, their punching bag, Jean, was already thrown by Anna. She didn''t care anymore as she grabbed Artur''s head and threw him to the ground. "Oi, Mistresses¡­ He already died a few thousand years ago." Artur flew down before crashing onto Jean. "Bam!" "Oh, a good one, Artur!" Jean said with a creepy tone, making Artur shudder. Anna and Anya already knew the answer, but they were too frustrated right now. ... On the other hand, Alex was on the verge of giving up. In the middle of this torture, he swayed his head right and left before he heard. [Host, please come back.] Unfortunately, with his eyes lost its focus and his brain couldn''t think anymore, Alex didn''t hear this. Instead, whether it was a miracle, fate, karma, or any other miraculous things, a certain scene flashed on his half-dead mind. It was Alicia''s last day where she asked a song from him. And a certain line kept flashing on his mind again and again. It said, "Even if I''m alone, I''ll go, even if I want to die, I can hear your voice, saying I shouldn''t die." This was the line he sang back then. The song and the promise that he uttered kept playing back inside his mind. For just a second he closed his eyes, Alicia appeared on his mind, smiling in front of him. And for some reason, that was his most precious treasure. Not long after that, he could also see Firia and even the twins, Anna and Anya. To his surprise, he could feel the presence of a system girl. "Haha¡­ I am already hallucinating right now¡­" Alex didn''t know why, but he could stand up at this moment after getting this surge of strength from somewhere. "But¡­ I don''t hate this illusion." He muttered to himself, rolling around on the ground before using his broken arm to raise his body. His body was already numb as he couldn''t tell which part of his body was hurting. Despite losing its focus, his eyes could discern which way was the goal. After getting back up, he slowly raised his feet before stepping on the next plank. "A...Ahh!" Alex couldn''t scream anymore as he fell once again. His arms, feet, and ribs were already broken. Even so, the five figures kept cheering to rise again and telling him that it was one step away. After that one step, he only needed another step before another step. He would reach his target as long as he thought like that. With the plank''s size, he only needed three small steps before he could go to the next plank. This was true, especially when Alex had no energy left to make a large step to reach the next plank. He would fall in every step he took, but he still rose again. Even though it was only one plank away, it looked like a one-kilometer trail. First Step¡­ *Bam!* Alex fell to the ground, groaning a little. He struggled for five minutes before he could get up again. The people outside were dumbfounded. Even the sect master of Fire God Clan, who was planning their secret trump card, could only stand still. If this were a normal person, they would surely already give up. Even Ruben, Grimes, and the others, they wouldn''t struggle this much. "Fa¡­ Father." Song Lei gasped. "Lei¡­ Shut up," said Song Qiang, not wanting to hear anything at this moment. It was true that only one more plank for Alex to beat the trial. However, with his condition, that one step would be the hardest step he took in this trial. From his determination alone, only respect appeared in his heart. At this very time, all the influences respected Alex, not because of his talent but because of his will and determination. It could be said that his will and determination was far higher than his talent. Sadly, a person like this might become their enemy after this event. They had reached stability for centuries on this continent, and a single existence called Alex shook the very foundation they could build. Looking at the Blackwade Clan, the only thing they could feel was envy. Why would Song Yu meet this kid when he was at the lowest? Why was Song Yu the one who fled from this continent? If the woman in their influence were the one who met him back then, what kind of thing would happen? Many questions appeared in their mind, but it only showed their regret over this matter. If Alex were acquainted with their influence, they would surely help him. Especially with the alliance of Blue West Clan and Antheream Family, they had the strength to hold for a few years in case all influences attacked them on this continent. Those few years would be enough for Alex to become Martial Monarch and strike back at them. Unfortunately, it was only just a pipe dream. He would always be a part of Spirit Nest and only had a good relationship with Blackwade Clan. The Blackwade Clan had a main clan on the Heavenly Continent. If they sent Alex to that place, it was no doubt Alex would become one of the top talents on the Heavenly Continent. The clan would ensure to bind him before giving him resources. They pitied him at this moment because nothing would exist after this event. After all, a dead genius was not scary at all. They unconsciously stared at the Spirit Nest, who would likely make a move to protect their leaders. Unbeknownst to them, there was a woman far away, observing Alex''s every action. She never expected him to be like this and couldn''t help but smile. No one had yet to realize her presence because they were too focused on Alex. In the end, she abruptly snorted before looking away while gritting her teeth. ¡­ Alex never knew what happened outside because he didn''t have such leeway. After ten minutes, he only needed a single step to reach the 1000th plank. His battered body swayed left and right, trying to retain its balance. After a full struggle, Alex muttered as he raised his right hand a little." One more¡­" The last step took everything he had. Alex didn''t even know why he could even reach this step. If it were the normal him, he would think this was the break past your limit thing like the one in sport. Unfortunately, his consciousness was already hazy as he placed down his foot on the 1000th plank. "Thank you, all of you," Alex muttered as he lost his consciousness. Please go to to read the latest chapters for free 559 Reaction from All Influences "Hiss¡­" The people could only suck a cold breath, witnessing Alex entered the 1000th plank despite having insane difficulty. It was the first time a genius like that would ever exist. ... In the trial, Song Yu could only stare at his back as the light started enveloping him with its gentle embrace. His injuries began recovering at speed visible with naked eyes. She placed her hand on her chest and looked at him with a complicated expression. This might be the first time she saw Alex''s will that far surpassed his talent. It was true that one''s talent might determine one''s prospects, but the hardest will would surely take one far. "Just one more step huh¡­" Song Yu sighed, muttering to herself. "I wonder who would go that far¡­ It was true that there were a few deaths in this trial, but all of them were reckless. Unlike normal people who would challenge the pressure one by one, they rushed in, hoping to pass a few planks in a single leap. "Those foolish people usually did it when they thought it was the time to give up. For the last act out of desperation, they leaped for a few planks. "It looked smart at first, but it turned out they were challenging a few planks simultaneously in a half-dead state. It was obvious they would be wrecked. "If we challenge this trial properly, there is actually no actual death. In the worst case, the trial would knock you out before healing you. That''s why people call this a trial of will, not strength." Song Yu sighed as she clenched her fist. "One more step¡­" Said Song Yu mysteriously as she thought something ridiculous on her mind. However, it was not about Alex or this trial. Song Yu thought for a few minutes before continuing her trial. On the other hand, the outside was in complete chaos. Not only did they see four people surpass the record, but they also witnessed Alexander Sirius completing the trial. This completely shook all of the influences on the continent. After all, four of them were coming from a mysterious influence called Spirit Nest. They didn''t have much information about them, making them more dangerous, especially to the Fire God Clan. "Look! He¡­" A person shouted out loud, alarming all the people around. Their vision turned back to Alex, watching the slight difference in him. Even though the light energy finished healing him, it continued enveloping him before it slowly gathered more and more energy. Then, it turned into a white spherical wall that slowly hid him inside. One thought appeared in their mind simultaneously. ''He gets the inheritance!'' The Fire God Clan had a complicated expression as their patriarch turned to the elders. "Prepare for war. I will talk with the other influences to attack them to prevent him from escaping. As long as we have enough Martial Monarchs, we can beat the entire Spirit Nest." "Hmph. Even Blackwade Clan couldn''t stop all first-rate influences. This alliance wouldn''t be going that complicated, and it could only be done at a time like this. Just go to the disciples. I will handle the matter here." The patriarch pushed him away as he looked down, weighing something in his mind. Their first trouble would be the failure of their original plan. With this timing, the elder from Fire God Main Clan wouldn''t be here to help. On the other hand, if he asked Alex to join the Fire God Clan, they would be attacked by others. The only way to solve this was to kill Alex. Even if the people from Spirit Nest held them back, as long as they killed Alex, everything would be over. With the tension in the air, he could easily convince the other influences to participate in this alliance. He just needed a little tweaking in his words, and everything would be solved. At the same time, an elder from Fire God Clan flew out of the city, informing the disciples to get ready. This naturally wouldn''t escape everyone''s eyes, including Blackwade Clan. Song Lei quickly disappeared before appearing beside Song Qiang a minute later, "Father, Fire God Clan is¡­" "You don''t need to say it. I know." Song Qiang narrowed his eyes, looking at the Patriarch of Fire God Clan. This situation would be tricky as he tried to see he was talking with who. "Lei, take a look at that first." Song Lei looked at the trial and found out that his daughter fell to the ground. Happiness crept inside his heart because Song Yu fell on the 943rd plank, the record. Before saying something, Song Qiang pummeled his mood by asking, "Have you sent people to our disciples?" "Yes. I have sent an elder to inform our situation and prepare our force to get ready. The problem would be the five Martial Monarchs coming from the strongest fighters of their respective influences. "On the other hand, we only had you. If we add the people from Spirit Nest, we could only get another two. After looking at that yellow-haired one, I am pretty sure his actual strength is higher. As long as he could hold more than one, I believe we can buy time and escape. "The problem is what we should do after that. With all influences eyes on us, we would be forced to fight a battle that we would surely lose. After all, we won''t survive if we are attacked by a few hundred thousand Martial Lords or above. "I still feel that we are reckless just by being on the Spirit Nest side. If we join the other side and attack the Spirit Nest, we would surely win." Song Lei frowned. "I care about my daughter, but her feelings and life, I obviously choose her life." "Lei¡­ I am not blaming you if you decide to turn away in this battle. However, when the clash breaks, I would jump in to help the Spirit Nest¡­ maybe with Song Yu and Song Jia¡­" Song Qiang said with a mysterious tone. "I still believe that my choice is not wrong. For the future of my two granddaughters, the Blackwade Clan, and you. I need to pick this side." Song Lei couldn''t say anything. He thought, ''Screwed it. If the elders usurped me after this, I would have no one to blame other than myself. At that time, I will just escape to the Willow Continent with a few family members¡­ maybe go to Nilis or even to the Sacred Continent. Father built a branch for the Blackwade Clan in a few centuries, and I will do the same. Luckily, I bring quite a stash, so I can start making money with that.'' "Patriarch. Look!" One of the elders alarmed him while pointing at the person who gave up first. The middle-aged man was transported back outside the trial as his green box lost its color, showing it couldn''t be used anymore. He looked around whether anyone would approach him. Unfortunately, their focus was already on Alex and couldn''t spare single attention for him. The people started coming back in succession. They waited for their successor while observing Alex''s sphere that hid everything inside it. They were dying to know what he would get inside, wondering if they could get a share of what he got inside. This precisely was what the Fire God Clan used to entice the other influences. "Look. It''s Grimes!" After an hour or so, Grimes finally finished his inheritance as he was teleported outside. He flew straight to the Fire God Clan. Surprisingly before he could say anything, the Patriarch pointed at the barrier. Grimes turned around as he finally saw a spherical barrier that he never saw. On the side, he could also see three people beat the record. "This¡­" He was stunned. The barrier hid a person inside, and I don''t think I need to tell you who is that person?" "Alexander Sirius, the leader of Spirit Nest." Grimes frowned, thinking something in his mind. "That''s right. This is going to be bad for us. First, what do you get from the trial?" Grimes started explaining his experience inside the trial and his reward. Meanwhile, Lucia finished her inheritance. However, she didn''t fly toward the Antheream Family. Instead, she flew toward the barrier to find Ruben. The same as other people, she was astounded, seeing Stina, Kyle, and Sherry. She thought about asking the family about it, but Ruben suddenly disappeared. She quickly went back to the entrance of the trial as she looked at Ruben. "Hehe¡­ Can you say that one more time?" Ruben was grinning over the word ''Dear.'' Normally, Lucia would roll her eyes away if not punching him. However, the shock got better of her as she looked at Ruben with a serious expression. He noticed something wrong about this and asked, "What happens? Did someone die in this trial?" "Song Yu finishes on 943rd plank." "Oh, her? I know she has talent¡­" Ruben nodded calmly. "What about this trial''s main attraction?" "They have finished on 944th, 970th, and 980th planks. However, I don''t see their leader, making me think he is dead. Surprisingly, I see a spherical barrier that obviously hides something inside, and it is on the 1000th plank¡­" Lucia stopped before finishing her words. It was enough for Ruben to realize her meaning as he said with a serious expression, "Alexander Sirius has beaten the trial¡­" "Yes." Lucia nodded in agreement. He pondered for a moment before flying to the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family. "Father, Father-in-law." The ones who waited for him were two middle-aged men with strict eyes. ''Ruben, I am sure you have known our situation, right?'' His father suddenly sent a thought transmission. Shocked by the sudden transmission, his heart skipped a beat before he nodded. He sent both of them a thought transmission, ''Yes. I am aware of our situation.'' ''After this, we will join forces with Fire God Clan, Martial Tower, and Supreme Element Sect to kill Alexander Sirius. We would see whether we can rout the Spirit Nest after that.'' No trace of surprise on his face as he had predicted this would happen. Instead, he glanced at Lucia to gather his determination. ''Father¡­ I don''t think we should join forces with them to attack the Spirit Nest.'' ''Why?'' His father frowned. ''Why? It''s simple. If we go to the other side and join the Spirit Nest, we could destroy the three influences simultaneously. Our effort would then be rewarded by the fact the Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan would owe us something.'' ''If we have more information about the Spirit Nest, I would surely agree with you. Unfortunately, this time, I could only disagree.'' His father shook his head. ''Father, you must know that I always have a single vision about influence in my life.'' Ruben paused for a moment before saying, ''If I am going to lead the influence, I would see the influence as two sides of coins. Fear and Loyalty. If I rule the influence through fear, there would be a time where it will bite us again. ''Of course, I am not saying the possibility would completely disappear if I choose the latter. However, the chance would be very low. And I see the Spirit Nest with my eyes, I notice they are the latter. If push comes to shoves, I believe staying with the Spirit Nest would be better as they are not someone who would betray their comrade over something petty. Hence, I suggest we form a temporary alliance with Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest¡­ or at least, we wouldn''t do anything and ambush the three influences before helping them. This would increase our chance of success.'' His father fell into silence. Meanwhile, Grimes finished his report about all the things he experienced and received. "Grimes, prepare yourself. By the look of it, we would need to fight against Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan." "Understood, Sect Master." Grimes clasped his hand and bowed politely. He looked at the patriarch with a hesitant expression. "Do you want to tell me something?" "Actually, I have other information that you would absolutely be interested in." Grimes took a deep breath before making an evil smile. "It''s about Alexander Sirius¡­ 560 Teodross Meanwhile, Alex opened his eyes after a few minutes unconscious. ''Kh¡­'' He struggled to open his eyelids. His Spiritual Energy, Injuries and Mental Energy had been healed by the light, so as soon as he realized it, his eyes instantly opened. Alex used his hand to support his body before getting up. He looked at another plain white world, wondering where he was. ''Is that person love the plain white world so much?'' Alex muttered to himself, getting sick of this white world. "Where is this?" He looked around, not going to miss a single detail that would be the clue of this place like in the Phoenix Trial. Unbeknownst to him, a middle-aged man stood a few meters behind him. The middle-aged man had long blue hair with a pair of dragon wings and phoenix wings. His muscular body released a certain aura, making one couldn''t take their eyes from him. Alex abruptly turned around after noticing the presence. He narrowed his eyes upon locking his eyes on him. "Are you another wisp of a soul that only gives me a message?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes, albeit found nothing. The middle-aged man walked toward him slowly. "Who are you? What are you going to do?" Alex took out his sword and spear, raising his guard to the maximum. He remembered that in a certain story. If he met a soul like this, they would most likely come and take over his body. The reason was his perfect body and peerless talent. That was why he would attack him if the middle-aged man did anything strange. Alex was not afraid of him because he was only a wisp of soul, and according to his Spirit Eyes, the real person was already dead. Suddenly, the middle-aged man shocked him to the core as he kneeled on one knee, clasping his hand respectfully. This was like a master and a servant procession. Two pairs of wings suddenly flapped, revealing a mighty pressure as the person in question introduced himself. "Teodross, Rank 2 God, Strength God, greets Master, Spirit King, Alexander Sirius." "Spirit King?" Alex''s body shook after hearing those two words. He remembered that he had a past life that was connected to Anna and Anya, his spirits. He muttered to himself, "Is this my past life''s identity? A Spirit King? If that is the case, then it is no wonder I have Anna and the others¡­ How about this person? Is he my acquaintance from my past life? I don''t want to get too close to my past life and live like him¡­ I want to forge my own path in this." The middle-aged man noticed his reaction and quickly bowed his head. "It would seem Master has chosen otherwise. I am sorry for startling you. Let me introduce myself in another way. I am Teodross, Your Previous Life''s friend¡­ and the one who you helped back then. I can''t tell you anything other than these two because it wouldn''t do you any good." "Hmm¡­" Teodross pondered for a moment before saying, "I still have my consciousness in this soul of mine¡­ and might be the last consciousness, so yeah, I am real. As for this trial, this is a trial that I need to set up no matter what, just for you. However, I can''t tell you why I set up this trial." Alex tilted his head in confusion. Even after completing the trial, not only was he clueless about everything, questions kept coming inside his head one by one. "Alright. So, what will you do here since you are not going to tell me anything?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "I won''t do anything because I have created this trial for that purpose. With the scepter in Master''s hand, I am sure you have realized the requirement of this trial." Teodross said while pausing for a while as he stared at the Fire God Scepter on Alex''s hand. "!!!" Alex quickly raised his hand, noticing this staff had yet to leave his hand. "What is happening here? I do realize the requirement for this trial, but I don''t know what this trial is for? Is it only to awaken the Dragon and Phoenix Aura? In that case, I would surely have awakened it before completing the trial." Teodross smiled. "Yes. One of the reasons is the Dragon and Phoenix Aura. However, the energy that you have right now is still unpolished and small." "Hmm?" Furrowing his eyebrows, Alex released both auras. The Dragon and Phoenix intertwined as it gave a surge of power to him, one for strength and one for defense. Teodross still smiled as he continued. "This technique is a Peak Heaven Tier Technique that I created back then. The dragon aura could double your strength immediately even when you are a Martial Saint. With this technique, I claimed the title of Strength God. "The Dragon Energy that you have absorbed is still too small to awaken the portion of Martial Monarch and Martial Saint. For example, you can only activate this technique to boost your strength in the Martial Emperor Stage. In other words, if you have one thousand dragon strength, it would only give you an additional one thousand. "You wouldn''t be able to use this technique anymore after you reach Martial Monarch, let alone Martial Saint. "The same as Phoenix Aura. It would give you the best defense you could hope for as it is like a covering yourself with dragon scales. However, normal dragon scales could only withstand physical attacks while this aura could defend the soul or pressure attack. The power is the same. If Master is a Martial Emperor, you could only use the defense of the Martial Emperor''s dragon scale. "You need to absorb the energy and cultivate the Martial Monarch before you could use the next level. "In this place, you could absorb the necessary energy to cultivate this technique¡­ though you need a month or two. Considering how useful this technique in the future, I think giving up a month or two is worth it." Teodross nodded. "It''s worth the effort, but in this situation, I need to go back immediately. I am worried about Anna and the others." Alex sighed. He purposely said Anna''s name to probe whether he really had a relationship with him. "Ah, Anna and Anya, such a nostalgic name. To think the two kids really became your wife." Teodross used ''Became'' instead of ''Become'' because he only knew about the previous life. This also answered Alex''s question. "I am sure they are going to be fine. It will only take a month or two." Alex tried opening his system, and luckily, he could open it. Taking out Anna''s card, he said, "Anna. After Sherry and the others finished, can you take them somewhere because I might need to stay in this place for a while." Anna didn''t know what he was planning to do and for what reason, but she still answered with a ''yes.'' Alex then turned back at Teodross. He didn''t ask anything about the card and how Alex interacted with Anna. Teodross simply smiled. "Have you decided?" "Yeah. I am going to get all the energy to cultivate the technique. Besides, I can utilize the barrier to block them for a while before sneaking out the barrier with Teleportation Array." Alex shrugged. "Ah¡­ Actually, that''s not possible." Teodross finally made an expression other than a smile. "What do you mean?" "After you absorb the energy here, this barrier would crumble. After all, I use the Phoenix Aura to reinforce the barrier as to prevent a Martial Saint from scratching this barrier." Teodross said embarrassedly. Alex fell into silence as his expression darkened. "Haha¡­ I have another thing to make up for it. As you might have realized, the energy around you is a natural Spiritual Energy and only infused by Dragon and Phoenix auras. This allows you to cultivate in this place. "Seeing you are a 4-Star Martial Emperor and still need to consolidate your foundation, I am sure you can become a 6-Star Martial Emperor within two months. I have seen your cultivation speed and know that you need around three to four months before advancing to 6-Star Martial Emperor. So, I think this will be a good chance for you." Teodross regained his smile. "But I still need to deal with the Fire God Main Clan that would come to this place. I don''t know who they would send, but my prediction is a peak Martial Monarch or even a Saint¡­" Alex sighed with a troubled expression. He pondered for a moment and muttered to himself, "It seems I need to use Master''s token to beat those people before breaking through the enemy rank with the others." There was no other way, Alex thought. To get something, he needed to sacrifice something. Besides, with him showing all of these spectacular things, it might even come under the radar of their main clan. In other words, if he killed them or escaped without killing them, he would soon become a wanted person. After finding his calm, Alex looked at Teodross. Teodross put a grim expression as he knew how much trouble he brought to Alex. He then started explaining the thing Alex needed to know. "I know this reward might not be satisfying for you, so I prepare another reward¡­ although it''s still incomplete." Teodross said as he clapped his hand before a sword and a spear appeared above him. "This is rank 8 sword and spear. They were created with a rank 8 Thaysten, and I added my blood in it. How about you attack this sword?" Alex was confused but still drew his sword before sending a sword wave to fly toward the weapons. Surprisingly, the weapon started glowing before they released Spiritual Energy, creating a kind of barrier in front of them. "Bam!" The barrier completely blocked the attack like nothing. "This¡­" Alex tried recalling all the things about forging in his mind. "Normal or elemental weapons might have residual energy that would enhance our Spiritual Energy as soon as we channel it. It would then create a stronger attack. However, these two weapons are different. "Firstly, they were created by shaping a rank 8 metal called Thaysten. This metal could absorb my blood as a catalyst to strengthen the sword. It''s already fused with my blood. The metal would absorb the energy from the surroundings automatically, thus erecting a barrier to block your attack. "As soon as Master binds this for yourself. It will be helpful for you since it still has enough energy to block a Martial Saint attack once. Of course, suppose Master can supply the energy. In that case, you could use the barrier to block an attack without using much energy because half of them would be supplied from the weapons. Just drop a droplet of your blood and my blood would recognize you as its master and wouldn''t let anyone other than you wield it." Alex finally realized what this type of weapon called. "This is¡­ Spiritual Weapon?" "Correct. Unlike Normal and Spiritual Weapons, we use a portion of blood to create a weapon with a bit of intelligence. Though I don''t need to explain it to you." Teodross then flipped the weapons, revealing two holes. "As I said earlier, these gifts are incomplete. I don''t know your element, so you can add the Elemental Gems yourself to enhance your element power while using them. "However, this sword needs one more process to fuse the gems to the weapons." Teodross took out a few papers and handed it to him. "On the Sacred Continent, there is a realm that has a perfect thing to fuse the gem completely. I put a map and explanation about it in these papers so that you can follow the instructions easily. The realm is called Underworld." "That sounds¡­ eerie." Alex looked at him with a complicated expression after hearing the word ''Underworld.'' "Well, I have done with the reward. It''s time for you to absorb energy." Alex needed to inform Anna about this and might need to explain to her what kind of weapon was this. He didn''t mind going to Sacred Continent since he had a business there, but the realm''s name was so dark. As he said, the Spiritual Weapon could be considered as an intelligent weapon. However, it shouldn''t exist on this planet as it follows a different system. It would seem the person in front of him had altered it a little bit. "Can I ask one last question?" "What is it?" "Why did you build the trial on this continent? After all, with your power, you could build it on the Sacred Continent." Alex furrowed his eyebrows because he noticed these things, and arrays were all rank 8. "I am half-dragon half-phoenix from another world. The portal of that world is on this continent, so I have an obligation to set up on this place, hoping someone from there will come to this trial." He answered with half the truth. After all, how could he say because he was confident that Alex would go to that world and enter this place because of a certain Fire God? Alex looked at him mysteriously before sitting down. The energy started coming inside of him. At the same time, Teodross''s body began to vanish as he smiled. He said inwardly, ''I have done my part, oh, old friend. I am thrilled to see you have the same personality. If there is a chance for us to reunite, I hope to be your sworn brother.'' Teodross closed his eyes, remembering all the past scenes with Alex. Back then, Alex was stranded to his world, injured after a big war. He took care of him, and after a month, he went back to full health before the Northern Continent invasion started. Unfortunately, he couldn''t participate in this war and to repay him for what he had done. Alex took him as his disciple at first before becoming his friend. Alex taught him many things from start to finish until he finally became strong enough to fight for his home planet. At that time, the six races united under his banner and the time when Alex disappeared. He continuously trained to meet Alex again before he finally found him on Eulja. Those days were the best memory he could have, and Alex accepted him as a family member of Eulja. He wanted to reminisce, but his body had already disappeared. He uttered the last words. "Goodbye¡­ my friend." Alex opened his eyes, seeing nothing. However, there was an uncomfortable feeling in his heart. He was wondering what that was. 561 Main Clan Two months later, Song Yu kept staring at the white barrier that hid everything inside. It had been a frustrating two months as there was no change in the barrier. "Father, it has been two months. What are we going to do here?" Song Yu took a glance at her father''s worried expression. Because of this situation, Song Qiang asked Song Lei to go back to the clan as the situation became unstable with the long absence of their patriarch. The same applied to the other influences as a few of them decided to go back to bring the information about Alexander Sirius. However, it would seem that all Martial Monarchs were here to wait until Alex came out. After all, if the Martial Monarchs were not here, no one could stop Spirit Nest. "We are going to wait here. Song Yu, you have a bright future in front of you, why don''t you leave this place to me? I would bring him away from this place." Song Qiang smiled gently. "Still¡­" Song Yu looked very adamant, wondering what she could do. She thought for a while before shaking his head. "At the very least, I would love to see the conclusion of this event. Don''t worry, I will quickly flee from the area as soon as they move. I have this hearing ability anyway." "..." Song Qiang was astounded. It was true that their target was Alex. However, they might change their target in case they wanted to stop him from helping the Spirit Nest. He brought Song Lei for that purpose as she wouldn''t easily be captured with Song Lei protecting her. Unfortunately, the inheritance took too long, forcing Song Lei to handle the family unrest. "Song Yu, this is going to be a big battle¡­" Song Qiang looked at her with a grim expression. "I know, Grandfather. I have confidence in my escape ability¡­ Besides, this won''t be the first time I escape¡­" Song Yu said with a half-sad half-assuring tone. "There is still one more thing that I am concerned about¡­ I don''t know why the Spirit Nest suddenly left this place. I have searched for them but only come back empty-handed. I am sure the others are the same." Song Qiang sighed, wondering what was inside the barrier. Song Qiang closed his eyes completely, recalling the matter two months ago. Two months ago... Song Yu didn''t know this as she was still receiving her reward from the trial. When the tension filled the air as the influences discussed Alex''s matter. The Spirit Nest suddenly gathered around, debating over something. Not long after Sherry, Kyle, and Stina came back, they abruptly left the scene like abandoning their leader. "Father, they¡­" Song Lei furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why they would leave. For a united influence like them, they would surely not leave their leader behind. "Understood." Song Lei obviously knew the reason and disappeared. He looked at Song Yu and Song Jia, who were receiving their reward. "If only little Yu is here¡­ she could listen to what they said and make my job easier." ¡­ Just as he recalled this thing, ten people suddenly appeared in the sky and released their Spiritual Energy. This aura jolted his mind as he abruptly opened his eyes and looked up. "Elder¡­ Junior Song Qiang greets Third Elder and Fourth Elder." Song Qiang suddenly bowed his head to the two old men in the sky. "Grandfather?" Song Yu was astounded, wondering who the two old men were for her grandfather suddenly acted like this. A few seconds later, she looked toward the other people and noticed who they were. "Song Qiang¡­ It''s been so long¡­" The Fourth Elder smiled as he descended to his level, raising him. "I am not worthy of the Fourth Elder''s concern¡­" Song Qiang humbly said. "Come on¡­ you used to call me Old Yi, and now you are so humble to me." He gently smiled as he patted Song Qiang''s shoulders. "I¡­ I am not qualified. I have failed Elder." "Haha¡­ why do you bring the past¡­ You didn''t fail me in the past. It was me who failed you. You should already become a Martial Saint and take my post if I didn''t fail you. Haiz¡­ Now, I don''t have any successor for my spot." As he said, if Song Qiang didn''t go to the Northern Continent, he wouldn''t limit his talent with the amount of Spiritual Energy around. "Elder¡­" "Who is she? Would you introduce her to me?" The fourth elder turned around, glancing at Song Yu. "She is my granddaughter, Song Yu. Come here, Song Yu, introduce yourself to Elder Song Yi. He took care of me when I was in the main clan." Song Yu hesitated for a second, looking at this elderly. Maybe it was the gen or something; the elder also had blonde hair like her. His aged face looked very fragile, but his Spiritual Energy was powerful. She looked at his gentle smile before clasping her hands politely. "Song Yu greets Elder Song Yi." "Haha¡­ To think you already have a granddaughter." Song Yi laughed. "Yes. She is my proud granddaughter. Her talent is even above mine¡­" Song Qiang smiled proudly. "Hmm¡­ After all, she has reached the previous record." "Hmm¡­ Although this trial is only on this continent, I still follow the result. After all, the one who managed to set the highest record could become a high-level Martial Saint. As expected of you¡­" Song Yi smiled before nodding his head to Song Yu. "Elder, may I know for what reason you come to this place?" Song Qiang asked and glanced at the other people before continuing, "Especially with the Fire God Clan¡­" Song Yi pondered for a moment before saying, "Nothing. I am here just to help you because of the friction between you and the Fire God Clan. We just made a peace treaty with them, so if you attack them, then the main Fire God Clan would have the right to remove this unofficial branch. "After considering many things, we have decided that it is good to have an alliance with them. I heard you also had been haunted by another influence called Spirit Nest¡­ "When I heard that a first-rate influence was destroyed and you will be the next, I have no choice other than to help you. After all, you were my successor¡­ "With the conflict between your Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan, you wouldn''t be able to fight them. That''s why I am coming to this place to destroy the Spirit Nest for you." Song Yi smiled as he wanted to solve Song Qiang''s trouble. However, Song Qiang was literally speechless. There was only one thought in his mind at this moment, ''We''ve been had!'' "Sh*t!" Song Qiang gritted his teeth. "Don''t throw a curse word in front of me." The fourth elder smacked his head out of habit. "I am sorry, Elder¡­ I am frustrated about the fact that we have been played." Song Qiang facepalmed as he glanced at the Fire God Clan. "What do you mean?" The Fourth Elder tilted his head in confusion. "They are spouting lies. They know that the influences from Heavenly Continent don''t really think highly about the matter on Sacred Continent or Northern Continent. By using that fact, they instigated the clan to make a peace alliance." Song Qiang was sweating profusely. "I still couldn''t understand." "The real enemy of the Blackwade Clan is none other than Fire God Clan and Joyful Union Sect. For some reason, our interest aligned with the Spirit Nest and destroyed the Joyful Union Sect together. "After that, we would deal with the Fire God Clan by ourselves. However, this peace treaty stopped this plan. Not only we couldn''t attack the Fire God Clan, but they could also destroy the Spirit Nest." "What?" Song Yi was astounded. He looked down, weighing something in his mind. One thing was strange for him as he asked, "Why the Fire God Clan placed such an importance on this matter? What kind of influence is this Spirit Nest?" "They could raise five million Spirit Gems within two years. Having two monarchs at the moment, but the most terrifying would be their potentials. Firstly, they have two 7-Star Martial Emperors kids. I believe they are less than twenty years old. Then another kid at Martial Monarch Stage." Song Yi was astounded, but before he could express how shocked he was, Song Qiang continued, "I believe the most terrifying one would be their leader. He just completed this trial." "This trial? If I am not wrong, the last record is 943rd plank, right? And that person managed to become a high-level Martial Saint on the Heavenly Continent." "Yeah. That''s the problem. For some reason, they only sent four people to enter the trial. However, one of them managed to surpass the record by one plank. The two Martial Emperor kids reached 970th and 980th planks respectively. "Still¡­" Song Qiang paused for a moment, creating tension. "As expected the most terrifying person would be their leader. Song Yu became his Senior Sister a few years ago¡­ and he was only a weak Martial Master at that time. In less than a decade, he somehow managed to get into Martial Emperor and beat this trial. If Elder looks at the trial place, you would be able to see a barrier inside. Their leader has been receiving the inheritance for about two months." "What?!" Song Yi was astounded and flew to the sky, finding the barrier inside. "This¡­ We¡­ We have been had!" He instantly realized that they just created misinformation to make the Blackwade Clan unable to protect a genius like Alex. Even the third elder furrowed his eyebrows. "Elder¡­ There is actually one more thing I need to say about him," said Song Qiang after Song Yi descended. "What?" "He actually possesses our VIP card, and it has two ''V'' on the card just like the rumor. I want to ask if Elder knows something about this?" "What did you say?" Song Yi grabbed his arms and asked dumbfoundedly. The third elder dropped his jaw to the ground. "I¡­ I don''t know the details, but according to the rumor that is going around the elder seats, it is a Supreme VIP Card. Only the patriarch and the grand elder would know about the real issue. If he really possesses such a card, then I can break the treaty to protect him." "Is that true?" Song Qiang was happy with this conclusion. Even the Fire God Clan wouldn''t touch Alex easily if this were the case. "However, we still have another problem. Firstly, even if we try to fight it out, the Fire God Clan still has a justified reason to kill him. Even if we fight it out, we only have two 7-Star Martial Saints with us. On the other hand, they have two 7-Star Martial Saints, five 1-Star Martial Saints, and their young master, a Peak Martial Monarch. I don''t know why a person like him would come, but this is certainly a matter of importance." Song Yi took a deep breath, pondering what he could do at this moment. The third elder looked at them mysteriously, wondering about something. On the other hand, Song Qiang said, "How about asking for reinforcement? Seeing there is no news about him for two months, he would most likely need more time. His influence also disappeared mysteriously two months ago, so they must know he needed more time inside." "Hmm¡­ That is a good idea." Song Yi nodded while glancing at the Fire God Clan. At first, he thought he would need to kidnap their young master, Ryan Hinga, and use him as a hostage to retreat. However, seeing that Alexander would need more time, he could certainly ask for reinforcement. "I won''t let you do as you wish." Song Yi muttered with a grim expression. Unfortunately, even if he didn''t let Fire God Clan do as they wish, fate said otherwise. *Crack!* The cracking sound alarmed everyone in the area as they saw the barrier started crumbling. *Clang!* One second later after the cracking sound, the barrier shattered into pieces. 562 Negotiation and Heavenly Oath The barrier crumbled, including the barrier that protected Alex. Inside the trial area, Alex slowly opened his eyes, noticing that the energy that kept the barrier had been absorbed completely. He took out Anna''s card, "Anna, come here." There was a miscalculation in his plan. Activating his Spirit Eyes, he observed his surroundings, especially the people in the sky. His eyes widened the moment he set his eyes upon four people in the sky. It was similar when he looked at Manness. Although the energy inside them was not as big as Manness''s, it was not far away. This might be the biggest miscalculation he made. Usually, the most reasonable option would be sending Martial Monarch, or maybe Peak Martial Monarch, and they were practically invincible on this continent. That was why he was clueless to find Martial Saints on this continent, high-level Martial Saints to boot. He glanced a bit and noticed that there was a peak Martial Monarch, but surrounded by people slightly stronger than him. "This might be bad¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Suddenly, a shout reverberated on everyone''s ears. "Wait! No one could touch this person!" Song Yi appeared above Alex, trying to protect him. The third elder paused for a moment before appearing behind Song Yi. "Song Yi. What are you doing?" The 7-Star Martial Saint from Fire God Clan shouted back. "Both clans have signed an agreement about this. Are you going to break the agreement between the two clans, fully knowing it would mean a war between us?" "I am fully aware of that agreement. However, even if the Patriarch or Grand Elder is here, they would do the same thing. To think your clan has cheated us¡­ Do you think your clan would escape our rage?" "I don''t know what you are talking about." He narrowed his eyes. Song Yi snorted before shouting out loud. "Hmph. You want to kill a genius like him? I wouldn''t let you!" "I am not going to kill him as long as he pledged his allegiance to my Fire God Clan!" The elder said nonchalantly. "That is impossible. How can a guess of our clan be your dog?" Song Qiang snorted, recalling the matter of Alex''s Supreme Card. Although he didn''t know the detail of that card, it was surely a very important card. It would be better to take him to meet the patriarch so he could handle the problem. "You are going to do it, no matter what! Do you think you two alone can beat five of us? Even if our two 7-Star Martial Saints need to stop you, no one could block five Martial Saints and our young lord, Ryan Hinga. I heard they have Martial Monarchs, but it wouldn''t still be able to stop us." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, confused why the Blackwade main clan would protect him in this situation. If he wasn''t wrong, those Martial Saint elders should come to this place to meet Song Qiang. "Hmph. I have said that he would be under my protection until he comes to the Blackwade Clan on Heavenly Continent. If you dare to take him away from me, I will attack you with everything I have." Song Yi narrowed his eyes. "We only need a single thing from him, and it''s not his life or the inheritance. As long as we take it, then we could treat this like never happened. In fact, we would even start protecting him if he wants to come to the Heavenly Continent. How is it? It''s a generous term from us, right?" The Elder smirked. "Protect him?" Song Yi was astounded by their terms, wondering what Alex possessed to get that much attention from the Fire God Clan. It was true that fighting them here would be a disadvantage for him and the third elder. However, he still couldn''t believe what he said was true. To assure Song Yi, the elder added, "I can make a Heavenly Oath to protect him with my life. In fact, even the Young Lord wouldn''t mind making him a sworn brother. Both of us can be bound by Heavenly Oath immediately." "Heavenly Oath?" Song Yi gasped. This certainly never happened before as Fire God Clan never used a Heavenly Oath to negotiate with them. Although he didn''t know what kind of thing the Fire God Clan wanted from Alex, the term itself was tempting. Unfortunately, there was one thing that stopped him from being too hasty. It was Alex''s Supreme VIP Card. This was why before he accepted, he thought of a clause to bind him as to protect Alex. After a few seconds, Song Yi suddenly said, "If you promise not to hurt him and let me bring him to the Blackwade Clan, then I can accept. The agreement as follows, no one could hurt him, including all members of Fire God Clan. At the same time, he will also become your Ryan''s sworn brother to ensure he was protected. The last thing you needed to promise me is that you want wouldn''t be related to my Blackwade Clan." The elder pondered for a moment before nodding his head. "I can make a Heavenly Oath for that. However, you and the third elder also need to make an Oath that you won''t hinder us no matter what happens." "Alright." Song Yi agreed. "I will go first." The elder took a deep breath before swearing an oath. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Bruno Hinga, would protect Alexander Sirius with all my might. Even if the Fire God Clan wants to hurt him, I would be there to protect him with my life. I shall abide by this promise if Alexander Sirius gives one thing I needed." The other Martial Saints also swore the same Oath, making it look trustable. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Ryan Hinga, would become Alexander Sirius''s sworn brother after he gives the thing we needed. I would protect him until I die or he dies from old age." The young master also swore the Heavenly Oath. "Now, your turn." The elder narrowed his eyes. Song Yi hesitated for a few seconds before swearing an oath. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Song Yi, wouldn''t hinder the Fire God Clan from doing their business as long as it''s not related to my Blackwade Clan." The third elder also followed his example and swore an oath. At this time, the people from Fire God Clan suddenly smirked. "Haha¡­ You are a fool, Elder Song Yi." Ryan suddenly laughed out loud. "Do you think why we want you to swear an oath? Do you think an inheritance like this would worth our time? No. All of you don''t know what we actually want." "And do you think I would abide with this¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he finally broke his silence. He had been making his preparation this whole time. "And goodbye." He opened a teleportation scroll as he was planning to run away. The array activated and teleported him out of place. However, at this time, a high-level Martial Saint finally showed its prowess. In a split second, the Martial Saint waved his hand and controlled the Spiritual Energy, breaking Alex''s array. "!!!" Alex was startled to see his teleportation array was broken in a split second. "Brat¡­. don''t underestimate me." The elder from the Fire God Clan looked down on him, releasing his Spiritual Energy. He noticed the slightest movement from Alex this whole time and already knew what he was planning to do. Even if Alex did it secretly, he would still be able to stop him from going. "Unfortunately, you are still a Martial Emperor, and that teleportation array is still a rank 6 array. If you have a rank 7 array, you would be able to escape from me." Anna and the others quickly activated their True Spirit Body, releasing their energy to counter the elder Spiritual Energy. "Hoh¡­ Are you planning to challenge me? Your fate is already sealed. Without the help of the Blackwade Clan, you wouldn''t get away from here." The elder snorted. Song Yi was confused, but he also felt that he was tricked once more. "This is why you are foolish, Elder Song Yi." Ryan smirked as he waved his hand. Grimes appeared out of nowhere as Ryan called for him. "I have come, Young Lord Ryan." "Tell them why they are foolish." "Yes." Grimes calmly nodded as he looked at Alex and the others. "Be honored for the Young Lord''s big heart as he would grace you as his sworn brother. As long as you hand your Fire Sacrificial Element, you would be protected by Fire God Clan." "!!!" All people dropped their jaws to the ground, never expecting a Pure Element user. Even Alex was also surprised by this statement because he never let anyone witness his Pure Fire alive. On the other hand, Song Yi was sweating profusely. No wonder the Fire God Clan would protect Alex. The Sacrificial Element would vanish if the Pure Fire user died. He gritted his teeth as he had lost something more important. Still, there was one question that had yet to be answered. Why did he know Alex had a Pure Fire? Suddenly, a person appeared beside Grimes and Alex opened his mouth in surprise. "What? You¡­ you¡­" "Fufu¡­ It''s been a while, my Supreme." She smiled. "Shelka!" Alex shouted at her as he never expected her to be here. First of all, her cultivation was barely 1-Star Martial Emperor. "I have beaten the trials like you not long after you left. No one knows your Pure Fire Element other than me." "..." Alex looked to the sky, wondering if he was wrong. "Am I wrong to spare anyone that hasn''t become my enemy? Do I also need to remove every person that might become a threat?" Alex was shocked to the core. "Anna, am I wrong this whole time? Should I kill everyone?" "No. You are not wrong¡­ we wouldn''t know what is inside someone''s mind even if we spend a few thousand years with them. The answer is in yourself. Don''t think about Karma or anything as if you think about them, then you will be controlled by that." Anna smiled before adding, "Anyway, we will always be by your side even if we need to level this world." Those words hit him in his heart as he made a decision. "Yeah¡­ However, we need to escape from this place first. Lend me your strength." "As you wish!" Anna and the others replied. "We will break through this place," Alex shouted as he prepared another teleportation array by using his Space Plate. He didn''t mind showing his Space Element since this place would be dangerous. As long as he had a second, it would be enough. "Do you think I would let you? Catch him!" The elder shouted. However, someone already lost her patient. [All of you can stop. I will handle this situation.] This notification appeared in front of everyone. This was the first time Stina saw a notification from the system, so she was startled. On the other hand, Anna and the others were shocked like her, not because of the notification, but because it would seem that Lin Xingzhi wanted to act personally. Like Maxwell that could appear by using his token, Lin Xingzhi could also do the same by using the system as the catalyst. Luckily, she never entered this place, so her soul hadn''t been marked by this world. If Lin Xingzhi appeared in this battle, the problem would surely be solved. Not long after, they got a notification that left one speechless. [Commencing Gacha System Ultimate Defense.] [Processing.] [Using Skill: Supreme Wife''s Anger.] 563 Supreme Wifes Anger [Using Skill: Supreme Wife''s Anger.] As soon as the system resounded, they were completely speechless, not because of the fact that Lin Xingzhi would come, but the skill''s name. From Alex''s body, a stream of light appeared as it slowly formed into a person. The person had long straight brown hair, gently running on her back. She wore a one-piece long green dress with leaves pattern on it. Her beauty stunned every person in this place while her gentle expression melted their hearts. "You¡­" At this moment, a furious shiver shook through the body of Alex. He was originally in the process of summoning the Teleportation Array. Turning his head around, he blankly stared at the figure of the lady loved by Spiritual Energy and Nature. The figure started to overlap with the warm and gentle silhouette within the deepest part of his heart. Ever since he had started meeting her, her presence was buried deep inside his heart. The brand originated from his previous life was something that couldn''t be erased, no matter how much time had elapsed. Alex stretched his hand as he wanted to grab this woman, but couldn''t walk forward as his entire blood¡­ if not existence was shaken by the sight of her. He didn''t know why, but tears started to form on the corner of his eyes, sending a wave of sadness. "You¡­" While in a somewhat vacant state, Alex muttered out a single word, his voice sounded hoarse with a slight shakiness to it. It appeared as if he didn''t dare believe that the figure that always helped him actually appeared here, right in front of him. Unfortunately, he couldn''t mutter her name as he had yet to learn her name. "Ya¡­ It''s been a while since our last meeting. Have you been missing me? Alex." The gentle voice shook Alex''s heart as his tears finally fell. The woman walked slowly to him before wiping his tears. "Look at you¡­ You don''t let out a single sound after enduring painful torture, but why are you letting out your tears now?" The answer had no answer as this matter also confused him. "I- I don''t know. My heart is full of pain right now. The pain might not be comparable to the refining body technique. Still, it is somewhat unbearable to me," answered Alex honestly. This might be the first time he met the real system. He recalled that the appearance of the system body was altered a little bit from her real appearance. Aside from her beauty, there was one thing that crept inside his heart, making the pain unbearable. It looked like something inside him wanted to say something, show its emotion, and express its feeling. "Fufu¡­" The woman chuckled. The Spiritual Energy suddenly spiked with that chuckle like her smile made them happy. "Look at you¡­ If you are like yourself, you are going to ask, ''Is this the legendary manly tears?'' and laugh." "Let me take care of this." She smiled before turning around. "So¡­ Did you think that a measly Martial Saint can harm my beloved one?!" As the gentle voice that contained a trace of fury reverberated across the entire world, shock filled the hearts of everyone present, especially after sensing the Spiritual Energy fluctuations that had flared up all of a sudden across this entire region. The face of the various big shots twisted, having a hard time to believe the scene that was happening in front of them. From the gentle voice alone, they were able to feel an indescribable pressure and might. Despite feeling so much pressure, the elder of Fire God Clan still had its pride as a 7-Star Martial Saint. He gritted his teeth while pulling out his swords. The sword contained a huge amount of energy before the elder sent it flying toward the woman. This attack couldn''t be compared to the attack when he stopped Alex from using his Teleportation Array. The moment this attack reached the ground, it would reveal its might by creating a deep hole to the ground. At this moment, an unforeseen change might have happened to this entire situation. As countless people in the region looked over in shock at the beautiful figure, the figure slowly lifted up her hand. With a gentle wave, the powerful sword attack flying toward her suddenly froze up. In the next instant, cracks started to appear on it, and with a final loud bang, it transformed into glowing glitters in the sky. With a single wave of her hand, the tyrannical attack of a 7-Star Martial Saint was instantly dispelled!" As this spectacle happened, even experts on the same level as him, such as Song Yi, had their bodies furiously shaking in shock. "Who are you?!" The furious roar of the Fire God Clan''s elder rang across the region as he glared towards the beautiful figure. Although the previous attack he had sent out wasn''t his full power, it was impossible for anyone to break it as easily as she did. Exactly where did this mysterious lady come from?! Did she say that he was her beloved?! Could it be that she''s the woman of Alexander Sirius?! "Your excellency. This is a matter between my Fire God Clan and Spirit Nest. If he is your beloved, you can take him away, and we won''t trouble you," said the elder with a shaken voice. He wasn''t an idiot. He felt extreme danger from the mysterious lady in front of him. If she was to become his enemy, it might be more dangerous than fighting Blackwade Clan. "You have hurt my beloved! Even the entire Fire God Clan isn''t enough to compensate for that!" The anger became more apparent. With a wave of her hand, the Spiritual Energy started dancing around her, creating a tornado of Spiritual Energy. As if Nature danced on her palm, the tornado enveloped the elder. It looked harmless, but as soon as it reached the elder, a shrill of pain echoed through the city. "Argh!" The Spiritual Energy went inside of him before coming out again in a bigger volume. The elder was to get slimmer in a few seconds as he suddenly spat out blood. "Trash." She snorted before clenching her palm. The energy ruptured the blood vessels and organs inside the elder body before killing him. "!!!" The other 7-Star Martial Saint cowered as it quickly clasped his hands. "Your excellency. We don''t need anything from him anymore. At the same time, we will offer the girl that provides the information to us, and I will also tell the main clan to not attack him again." "That''s what all my enemies said. Despite saying they didn''t want to do anything again, they would surely attack us. And¡­ since you would bully my man, I will bully you. What''s the matter?" The lady''s cold voice resounded across the city as the original gentle voice had now turned into one extreme anger. However, the sky suddenly turned dark. The lightning reverberated in everyone''s ears as they were wondering why this would happen. They thought this must be the lady''s power, albeit they were not one hundred percent sure since the situation was like a Heavenly Tribulation. "This¡­ this is the world will? Why would the world send its tribulation?" Song Yi exclaimed in shock as he observed the lightning tribulation. He then glanced at the single figure that might bring this kind of tribulation at this place, wondering what kind of existence could bring a Heavenly Tribulation with a single wave of her hand. He was sure that the lady wanted to use the Heavenly Tribulation to attack the Fire God Clan. From one surprise to another, the lightning finally struck forth. The people wanted to see how the other 7-Star Martial Saint from Fire God Clan would be destroyed by the lightning, except it would seem the lightning itself currently flew toward the lady. "Shut up. I know it already. This is not going to be long." She waved her hands before creating another tornado and struck at the lightning. "If you don''t go away, you are just creating a reason for me to destroy this world." It blew the lightning away easily before reaching the dark sky and blasting the dark clouds away. The light came back to their original place, looking like nothing happened earlier. "!!!" Song Yi was stunned as he never saw someone could blow away a Heavenly Tribulation. Out of panic, he quickly flew toward Song Qiang and the others, protecting the Blackwade Clan. "I am the fifth elder of the Fire God Clan, Bli Hinga. Your excellency, please appease your anger. We know we are in the wrong, but if you decided to kill us, it would only bring the main clan to attack your excellency." The other elder exclaimed. "So?" The lady looked at him with a poker face, looking at him¡­ no, at Fire God Clan like looking at an ant. It wasn''t worth a single speck of dread. "Fire God Clan is not worthy to challenge me." The single statement shocked everyone. If this happened before she killed a 7-Star Martial Saint with a gentle wave of her hand, they would snort, not believing a single word from her mouth. However, they could only feel dread at this moment. The other influences, such as the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family, or even the Martial Tower and Supreme Element Sect, wanted to escape. Unfortunately, the lady waved her hand again, enveloping this city with Spiritual Energy. "Where do you think you are going?" The Spiritual Energy blocked their escape route. From the system and the N squad, she knew the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family were planning to help him for their own benefit. Although she didn''t like it, she had no reason to kill them and disrupted the world balance. However, it was different for the Martial Tower and Supreme Element Sect. Lin Xingzhi absolutely couldn''t stand them. She pointed her finger toward them before plants suddenly grew from concrete. It rose to the sky within a second, turning into a tree. Then, it spread its branches and grasped every person from the two influences. They were brutally pierced by many branches and died. Their Martial Monarchs had a better situation, but only after a minute, they were trapped and died. "With the trash now gone, let see¡­" The lady glanced back toward Bli Hinga. "Your exc-" Before he could finish his words, the Spiritual Energy already swallowed him and killed him. Before finishing the other trash from Fire God Clan, her eyes took a glimpse of Shelka. "This is what I mean by my words earlier¡­ After getting spared by my beloved, you still dare to show yourself and plot this whole thing. You must have used many tricks to come to this place, and now, it''s time for you to die. Begone, Thot." The Spiritual Energy locked on herself as she felt bloated. It was true that she needed to use some tricks like using poisons against Qeigess, the dragon prince, and other things. She thought everything was because of Alex, so she didn''t mind. Unfortunately, their meeting only for a breeze as one of them would be dying¡­ and it was her that would depart from this world. "Wait!" Alex''s voice suddenly echoed, stopping Lin Xingzhi from killing Shelka. "Sir Supreme." Shelka smiled as she thought he didn''t want her to be killed. "Are you going to spare this thot?" "Ehm¡­ Your words don''t match with your mysterious presence earlier." Alex made a weird smile. "It''s tiring to act like that¡­ but the anger is real." She shrugged. "So, are you going to spare her? Hmm, it''s true that she has a Pure Wind Element. If she becomes your slave, she will provide good support." "Sir Supreme. I know I am in the wrong, I can become your slave or whatever as long as I can be with you." Shelka struggled. "No. As she said earlier, begone thot." Alex took out his sword and slashed it toward her. 564 Goodbye Alex swung his sword at her, cutting both her hands simultaneously. "Argh!" Shelka screamed out of pain as she looked at her two arms flying. "Sir¡­ Sir Supreme¡­" "I thought I would never see you again¡­ But to think you come back to my life and plan all of this." Alex grabbed her head, throwing her to the back. Although he wanted to kill her so badly, it would only give a quick death for Shelka. It was better for a specialist to send her off to release all the frustration in his heart. "Jeanne, do whatever you want," Alex said coldly. Jeanne only nodded her head before grabbing Shelka in the air and had a private time with her. "Then, what are you going to do with these people?" Lin Xingzhi asked before glancing at Ryan Hinga and the other Martial Saints as well as Grimes and their Patriarch. Her voice sent chills down their spines. "I¡­ I am the young lord of Fire God Clan. My Fire God Clan would haunt you down if you kill me." Knowing that his ending was near, he tried to scare her once more. It was true that her beauty managed to capture his heart, but the feat still managed to overcome his lust. "Fire God Clan is trash." She snorted. "Argh!" They screamed, dying the same way as those people from Martial Tower and Supreme Element Sect. "!!!" Tension filled their air as all people''s bodies were contracting profusely. The death of many Martial Saints was enough to scare them out of their life. They would never think that a person so beautiful, actually had a power that could trample Martial Saints. Many people thought about escaping, but with the wall of Spiritual Energy erected around the town, the moment they fled, the moment they would end up like those people. After killing the people from the Fire God Clan, she headed toward the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family. They were scared out of their life. Luckily they had sent Ruben and Lucia away to quell the clan unrest. Even if they died here, both of them would surely lead the influences better than them. The death of the strongest Martial Artist from Martial Tower and Supreme Element Sect, as well as the Fire God Clan, made them feel relieved. This allowed their two influences to withstand their attack if anything happened. The only thing they needed to worry about was the Blackwade Clan, albeit it might not be possible. With how things went on, she would erase the Blackwade Clan''s memory even if they were allies. Her existences alone could threaten all existences on the Heavenly Continent, so it wouldn''t be wise to leave any clue about her. "Your¡­ your excellency¡­ We know we are in the wrong. Even if you kill us, please spare all of our clansmen. They are not related to this and innocent." She sealed them in a blank state first until she disappeared. If Ruben didn''t convince them to aid Alex and Blackwade Clan, they would already die. Finishing the business with the two influences, she made her way toward the Blackwade Clan. Song Yi and the others clasped their hands politely, fully knowing that this person could kill them instantly. He wondered if this person was actually a god because even the strongest in their clan, a peak Martial Saint wouldn''t have a power like that. When enlightenment appeared in his head, he was slightly stunned. Heavenly Tribulation wouldn''t come so easily for a Martial Saint. With how she could easily blow the tribulation away, she was indeed Goddess. He glanced at Alex, wondering why he would know such a person. Another thing that bothered him was how this goddess could enter this world. Blackwade Clan had a few thousand years of history under their banner. Obviously, they also had many records about the ascension to God Stage as even a few members of their clan had ascended. However, he had never heard about people who reached God Stage could come to this world again. It was like the world was stopping them from coming. By sealing the memories of two Influences, Song Yi knew it was their time to have their memory sealed. "I don''t think I need to explain more, right? The Blackwade Clan¡­ might be good on the Heavenly Continent. However, it was still nothing to be compared to the bigger one, right?" "!!!" Song Yi and the third elder were shaken. This was also another rumor going around the elder seats. Unfortunately, only the patriarch and the grand elder could know such a truth. He heard the rumor that the successor could also have a certain degree of information. But with a single sentence from her mouth, his doubt suddenly disappeared. "Yes. Your excellency is correct." "Judging from your expression, it would seem you don''t know much either." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes before sealing their memory, including Song Yu and the others. Last but not least, Lin Xingzhi swept her eyes on the town, entrancing all the people in this city. Unfortunately, this would be the single memory that would soon be erased by her. The Spiritual Energy that covered the entire city sparked and erased their memories. Not a single person was spared in this city. After all, she didn''t have any intention of leaving a messenger to Blackwade Clan or any other influences like Maxwell. As long as they had been dealt, it was Alex''s problem from then on. "Let''s come to a quiet place." She clapped her hand and used the Spiritual Energy to send them away from this trial place. In a forest far from the city, Lin Xingzhi descended while Alex followed her. "This¡­ might be our first meeting with my real appearance¡­ This is only a soul though." She gently smiled. Alex looked at that smile before noticing the sudden change of his surroundings. The trees started growing higher while the ground looked glowing. This was something he never knew. Without waiting for his reply, Lin Xingzhi turned around and said, "Why are all of you not here? Come here." Anna and the others appeared on her call. Anna didn''t know whether to call her name or not, so she waited for her to talk. Lin Xingzhi only smiled at Anna, making her confused if it was a ''yes'' or a ''no''. "It''s been a while since our last meeting. Though I could still see all of your progress." "Yes. We are aware of that. Are you sure you don''t want to be alone?" Anna asked while glancing at Alex. "It''s fine. We are family anyway." She smiled before turning to Alex. "So, I give you three chances to ask. There are some off-limits questions, so you can change it later." Alex pondered for a moment. He wanted to ask her name, but seeing from her action these few years, she wouldn''t say her name. In that case, Alex should ask another thing to confirm their relationship. "Are you related to my past life?" He remembered the skill name. It was ''Supreme Wife''s Anger.'' "Yes. I am related to him, and it could be said I am his wife." She nodded before noticing a trace of hesitation on Alex''s face. She added, "However, you are not him, and he is not you. I only know that you have a shadow of him, but you would always be you. In other words, you can say I love him, but I also love you. If I tell you that, would you accept me?" Alex was stunned for a few seconds before answering, "If I am not wrong, my past life died a few thousand years ago. To love him that long, I only have my admiration. It''s just after listening to this question, I am wondering whether I can or not. I am grateful to you for your support this whole time, but I don''t want to mix gratitude and love. So, I still can''t answer that question." "It''s fine to take your time. Fufu¡­ I can still have my sweet little time with you like your system anyway." She grinned. "Then, onto the second question." "Where could I find you?" Astonishment appeared on her face before she chuckled. "Haha¡­ I couldn''t say my exact location, but I think he has left the clue for you. I wouldn''t say anything more about this and could only tell you to get stronger. After assembling all the clues, you would naturally know where I am. Besides¡­ there is no point in knowing it now since you couldn''t reach this place anyway." "True enough. I need to reach God Stage first before I can search for you. At that time, I would answer that question." Alex nodded with determination. "Haha¡­ don''t overthink it. Besides, do you think you can escape from me? I literally have your thoughts recorded. Ah, it''s not because of me, but the system." She shrugged. "..." Alex was speechless. "Or do you want me to pretend I don''t know the answer?" "Let''s see in the future¡­" Alex sighed in defeat. "Alright. It''s time for the last quest-" Before she finished her words, the sky turned dark again. *Rumble!* The world wanted to expel her once again but with a stronger tribulation. "Haiz, it''s time for me to go." She sighed in disappointment as her body slowly turned into light. Knowing that the time was short, Alex didn''t have the time to think about any other question because he knew what he wanted to know the most. "What is your name?" Alex asked, watching her disappear. He was prepared to be disappointed as it might be one of the off-limit questions. Even so, Alex really wanted to know her name. He thought he wouldn''t get the answer, but there was a single message from her. "Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi." There was no point in hiding her existence anymore, so she decided to tell him her title and name. Alex was stunned for a second before etching those two in his mind. He smiled, "Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi¡­ I will find the real you." Albeit, like usual, the system beat him down once again as it gave another message to him. [I''m looking forward to it, Host. Ah, but don''t call me with my name when you are talking to the system, alright? After all, wouldn''t it be weird if you call the system Lin Xingzhi? Or call Lin Xingzhi with System? Anyway, just don''t confuse the two names. Call me by my name when we are alone, but call me System when you use the Gacha System. Do you understand?] *Thud!* 565 Confusion As Alex and the group had settled down with Lin Xingzhi, his group flew toward their base to discuss their next plans. However, the matter in the city had yet to finish. As soon as Lin Xingzhi disappeared, the Divine Soul lifted from their mind, letting their consciousness come back to their bodies. Song Yi''s body shook as he looked around to see what was going on. "This?" The light finally returned from his blank eyes as the black world finally turned into the normal world again. In a split second, he realized that he was stopped by an existence far higher than him. However, there wasn''t a single memory of why he would experience such a thing. He tried to search his memory, but the only thing he remembered was when he arrived at this continent, albeit he found out that his surroundings were not in the port. Instead, it looked like he was above the city or something. "El¡­ Fourth Elder¡­" An old man''s voice resounded from behind. Song Yi turned around only to see a familiar figure on his mind. "Song Qiang?" "So¡­ Song Qiang greets Fourth Elder." Song Qiang quickly bowed, greeting him again. Song Yi wanted to reply, but this full situation confused him, not allowing him to show his warm side. Then, he looked around to search for the people that came here with him. "If I am not wrong, I came with the people from the Fire God Clan. Where are they?" "Fire God Clan?" Song Qiang narrowed his eyes before helping him search for them. Although he didn''t want to, he needed to know what was happening. "But elders, which Fire God Clan are you talking about?" There was not even a single member from Fire God Clan around whether they were from this continent or the other continent, confusing him. "From Heavenly Continent of course¡­ I thought we were going together¡­ Is this the plan of the Fire God Clan? Are they plotting something?" Song Yi released his power to see whether there were stronger people nearby. Unfortunately, not a single Martial Saint was near except the third elder. If Alex were here, he wouldn''t even realize that the Spiritual Energy cleaned up the bodies after Lin Xingzhi left this place. Yet, if they took care of the bodies, the blood still left a mark on the ground. Song Qiang somehow managed to spot one of them. He quickly entered the city and touched the blood. "This¡­ This is still new." Song Yi noticed his movement, so he flew toward him. "What is this? Blood? Did someone get murdered or something? But this blood has a Martial Monarch aura inside them¡­" "Without you talking about it, I also have some doubts. Search around this town and see if there is Martial Saints blood around this area." Song Yi quickly gave an order. He suspected that someone butchered the Fire God Clan. This was why they were not here. He was wondering what kind of existence that could lock his consciousness and erase his memory. Dread crept inside his heart as he thought about it. Luckily, the situation seemed to be safe, so he just wanted to have a quick look before reporting to the main clan. After a few minutes, Song Qiang found the blood trail and reported to Song Yi. "This is really¡­ Martial Saints¡­ As expected, they are killed¡­" Song Yi gasped before gulping down. "Is this the work of Spirit Nest?" "Spirit Nest?" With his memory erased, Song Qiang was clueless. He asked, "May I know Elder''s purpose for visiting this continent?" "I am here to help you to deal with the Spirit Nest¡­" Song Yi started recalling his mission. Like the previous conversation, Song Qiang explained that this was a scam and began badmouthing the Fire God Clan, except that the conclusion was a bit different from the previous one. Unlike the peaceful situation where Song Yi decided to help the Spirit Nest, he could only feel dread at this point. The doubts lingered around in his mind as he flew toward the Blue West Clan and Antheream Family. "You two answer me. Are you going to fight against the Spirit Nest or help them?" Song Yi released his Martial Saint pressure to scare the two Martial Monarchs. They were obviously frightened and started talking about the matter. "We remember that the Fire God Clan offered us to join hands to destroy Spirit Nest. However, my son, who is not here, advised me to help Spirit Nest. In the end, we decided to help them." The answer enlightened him. It was like what he suspected. "This must be the works of the Spirit Nest. Looking at this scene, the first trail we found are from the two influences, Martial Tower and Supreme Element Sect. On the other hand, the separate trails would be the Fire God Clan. It would seem the Spirit Nest actually had someone terrifying in their ranks." Song Yi muttered to himself, trying to find out any other clues. After a few minutes, Song Qiang suddenly asked him. "Elder, do you know our Blackwade Clan VIP Card but with two ''V'' on it?" Song Yi fell into silence as his eyes widened, staring at Song Qiang. "What did you say? Two ''V'' on the card?" "Ye-Yes." The big reaction from Song Yi startled him as he quickly added. "According to my granddaughter, the VIP card had two ''V.'' Back when I was in the main clan, I learned about its existence from rumor. Because I am not confident about this, I want to ask Elder about it." "This¡­ I am also not clear. Only a few important people, such as the grand elder, the patriarch, and the successor, have access to this information. Some rumors are going around the elder seats, but I still need to ask the patriarch about this. From the rumor, this card is usually called by Supreme VIP Card. A person who has this card can be considered as one of us. I don''t know if it''s true, but his identity would be at the same level as Grand Elder¡­ I need to ask about this first to the patriarch." Song Yi said with great difficulty. "Un-understood." Song Qiang bowed. "Still¡­ if their rumor is actually true, I can somehow imagine how the Fire God Clan died. I need to warn the patriarch about this Spirit Nest and invite him to the main clan." Song Yi nodded before staring at Song Qiang like he wanted to ask something. Song Qiang tilted his head in confusion. He wanted to ask, but Song Yi had already continued. "Actually, I have been following your information. If I am not wrong, your eldest granddaughter has some connection with the leader of Spirit Nest, Alexander Sirius, right?" "That powerful?" Song Qiang gasped before looking down, pondering something. "Yes. She is Song Yu. In fact, she is here with us." Song Qiang turned around and looked at Song Yu. "Little Yu, come here and meet the Fourth Elder, the elder who took care of me when I was back at the main clan." Song Yu nodded and flew toward her before she clasped her hand respectfully. "Song Yu greets Elder¡­" "Just call me Elder Song Yi. Even your grandfather used to call me Old Yi." Song Yi waved his hand. He didn''t know why, but looking at Song Yu calmed his heart a bit. "Yes, Elder Song Yi." "Anyway, I want to talk about many things, but I have another important thing to do. That''s why I want to ask whether you really have some personal relationship with this Alexander Sirius?" "Yes. Junior has some kind of relationship. However, it''s only between Senior Sister and Junior Brother." Song Yu answered politely. As soon as the talk changed into Alex, Song Yu suddenly remembered a certain figure. That figure could threaten the existence of the Blackwade Clan. It was none other than Maxwell, albeit she still doubted whether Maxwell actually had that much power. "She has more talent than me, and her hearing is exceptional." Song Qiang introduced her with pride. Song Yi only nodded about this before asking his next question. "In that case, how much do you know about Alexander Sirius?" "Junior doesn''t have much memory with him since he always trained. Junior knows about his talents in Sword, Spear, Alchemy, and Array. As to how high his achievement is, Junior is still not clear. It could be said the report on this day, might be very different from the report on the next day." Song Yu said mysteriously. Song Yi narrowed his eyes. "I see. A peerless genius that can beat the trial. His genius knows no bounds that even the report about him needs to be quickly changed. This will be troublesome for the main clan. If he really has the Supreme VIP card, it couldn''t go to our opposition because it will be a disgrace to the clan." Song Yu looked down. After learning that Alex had this much power, it was foolish of her to think that he would need a little help from her. She bit her lips in disappointment. "We should search for this Alexander Sirius first before asking him to go to the Heavenly Continent''s Blackwade Clan. Considering his power¡­ or at least his influence, I feel it is worth it to give him that kind of position." Song Yi nodded. He looked at Song Yu, and an idea flashed on his mind. "Ehm¡­ I will call you little Yu, alright?" "As Elder Song Yi wishes." Song Yu nodded. "Little Yu, what do you think about the Main Clan?" "What do I think about the Main Clan?" Song Yu was astonished to get a question like this. "Yes, the Main Clan. Do you have any prejudice about the main clan? The fact that it has expelled your Grandfather to this place¡­ it''s entirely my fault. However, the sin of a grandfather is not a sin of a granddaughter. If I invite you to the main clan, would you come with me?" Song Yi asked. He didn''t know why, but looking at Song Yu reminded him of the young Song Qiang. He might repay the debt through Song Yu and help her become an elder. At that time, he could retire and enjoy life. Besides, Song Yu had a certain relationship with Alex. He could use this as a bargaining chip to the patriarch when he asked about the Supreme VIP Card. The patriarch would obviously protect Song Yu if that truly happened, killing three birds with one stone. "I¡­ N-" She wanted to reject this offer, but the words stuck on her throat. The scene where Alex continued despite having many injuries flashed on her mind. It was only one step away. After the first step, you only need another step and repeat the process. She wondered whether the main clan could provide her more assistance for Alex if she joined. There was also another report about Letizia, Alex''s servant, that mysteriously disappeared. Seeing there was no trace of her, she predicted that she already reached Heavenly Continent. Looking at these two, Song Yu hesitated to reject his offer. It would be good if she entered the Heavenly Continent and cultivated there. At least, she would have a chance to help Alex. "Grandfather¡­" Song Yu glanced at Song Qiang, asking for permission. "You are already a grown-up¡­ Don''t worry about the clan. Besides, little Jia is there." Song Qiang only smiled, relieving her heart. "I am in the care of Elder Song Yi." "Haha¡­ Good good good. I won''t repeat the mistake I made in the past and would surely protect you." He then glanced at Song Qiang. "We are going to stay in your house for one or two days so that she can say goodbye. After that, we are going back to the Heavenly Continent." "Yes. I will even make a party for Elder." Song Qiang smiled. "Haha¡­" Song Yi only laughed cheerfully. 566 Discussion At the same time, Alex appeared outside the base before using his token to open the barrier. Upon entering the barrier, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina came out of his body. Alex smiled. "Good work for all of you." He closed the barrier first before entering the meeting room and summoning the other spirits. Alex took his seat, the furthest away from their seat as Anna and Anya took the seat beside him. He placed his hand on the round table as he supported his chin. Thinking about the system made him a bit motivated to find her whereabouts. Although he only had some interest in her, it would still be nice just to have a chat with the real her. "Well, we can forget about what happened earlier because we couldn''t afford to separate our attention from this crisis." Alex sighed with a tired expression. "First of all, the mistake comes from my side because I underestimated the power of Martial Saint. At that time, I thought I would lose you guys¡­ since with how you guys are acting, you would obviously put your life on the line just to block a single attack from that Martial Saint." "Don''t say it like that, Alex. You are only going to hurt us if you say that. You should say thank you, not sorry." Anna stopped him by patting his shoulder and smiling at him. "Yeah. You are right." Alex turned his head and sighed. Then, he turned back and corrected his words. "Thank you for sticking up with me despite facing death." "Rather than talking about this depressing topic, how about we move to the real part? It''s about the information that b*tch provided, right?" Anna suddenly broke her silence while cursing Shelka. Alex nodded before looking at Stina. "Stina, in your opinion, why do you think that person can enter this world?" "I am not very clear¡­" Stina shook her head, having no imagination. "However, if I am her, I would reach the Martial Emperor first, then start hunting the crystal with this order." Stina used her Spiritual Energy to write a few words in the air. "I see. Human first, Angel Race, Sea Race, Dragon Race, before going to your race." "Yes. Angel Race has exiled her from the flying continent, so If I can make a surprise there and challenge him before anyone could find out, it would be my win. The second thing would be the sea race, the guardian of the portal. First, I need to secure my goal before I can take care of the key. As for why my race is the last, I am sure I don''t need to tell you anymore, Master." "Indeed. Ellen has inherited your will, so there is no way she would let her get the inheritance." Alex nodded. "But I am still confused as to why Shelka suddenly reached the Martial Emperor¡­" "Master, have you forgotten about your own lightning tribulation?" Stina asked with a smile. "Ah!" That question enlightened him in an instant. Suddenly, Alex slammed the table. "Why didn''t I see this? She was already a 9-Star back on the World Summit. She must be a peak 9-Star at that time, and after going back to the Elven Race, she entered 10-Star. Then, she could easily reach the 1-Star Martial Emperor. Meanwhile, we have almost a year to give her that time. I underestimated her too much." "Yeah, you might be right." Stina nodded before correcting his statement. "We underestimated them." Alex thought for a moment before turning his head to Anya. "Anya, if you are her, how will you defeat all the trials?" Anya pondered for a few minutes as they looked at her expectantly, wondering what kind of plan would be. After waiting for some time, Anya finally opened her mouth. "Firstly, I don''t have any better order other than what Stina said earlier. Then, I would ask a few Martial Emperor elders to carry me, so I don''t waste a single time and energy challenging the trials. Let''s talk about each of them in detail. "I would go to the Human Race for a few reasons. They are the nearest and the weakest of other races. But the most important thing was their hate against you. Because they didn''t get anything from you, Shelka would have no problem challenging them for their crystal. I don''t know what kind of trial the human has, but it shouldn''t be really that hard. "After that, the elder would carry me to the next continent, which is the Angel Continent. Before going to that continent, I would send an envoy as a bait, so they didn''t suspect or recognize me. I know that I wouldn''t be able to enter the palace hall to meet the Seraphim since the guard would stop me. At that time, I would just find a way to sneak inside the throne room. According to your memory, I could see many mirrors and gaps to exploit. With those, I could somehow enter the hall. "Then, I would challenge the trial before anyone could stop me. As soon as the crystal recognized the challenge, no one would be able to stop me anymore. You already know about her crazy personality, so I assume you can picture how she could pass the trial in an instant. At first, I doubt she could pass the Lust trial since I am sure you would be there to stop her¡­ but considering the ultimate yandere ability, I can picture how she would butcher that image ruthlessly. "After conquering the trial, the Angel Race wouldn''t be able to touch me. Then, there was only a single threat left that needed to be dealt with, the Naga Race. They inhabited and had the most population in that world. With how the Angel Race would react, they would inevitably ask the Neptune to be on his guard. I also could safely assume that the Seraphim didn''t inform the Neptune while Shelka challenged the trial, or he just didn''t have enough time. "Either way, she managed to enter the Sea Race and challenged the trial first. The trial wasn''t hard, to begin with, so she would surely beat the trial in a breeze. The Neptune had no way other than let her go even if later he got the information from the Seraphim. "Then, the elders that I had scattered around on other continents would carry me to the next place, the Dragon Clan. At this point, I couldn''t think another way beside poison. Although the Dragon Clan trial was a one on one battle, the king didn''t specify that no poison or anything could be used. The fight would still be considered legal if she didn''t do any irreplaceable damage or kill him. In other words, a poison that could weaken him was enough to defeat him. "That dragon prince would surely lose the battle without its strength. This would leave me to the last place, the Phoenix Continent... it would be easy for me to challenge the last trial. After all, I would only need to use the entire Elven Race to pressure the Phoenix Race. No matter how unwilling they were, they needed to step down, mainly because of the five crystals in my possession. "I am not being cruel or underestimating Ellen, but as wise as she may, she would give in. The Phoenix Trial is not hard to be honest, considering Shelka''s element was a Pure Wind and a pureblood Elf." Anya finally finished explaining her plan. All spirits fell into silence as they stared at Anya with a complicated expression. Anya was confused as she glanced at Alex. "I suddenly fear what would happen to me if you are my enemy¡­" Alex decided to joke. "Pfft¡­ Haha." Anya laughed out loud. "I am sure you could also come up with a plan like this. In fact, you should have planned more than half of this plan, assuming that Shelka had the determination to chase you to this world." "Eighty percent to be exact." Alex shrugged as he looked at the ceiling. "I wonder if I should kill all enemies and my potential enemies¡­" "Up to you. There is no right and wrong unless you decide which one is right and which one is wrong. This is like there is no number zero or number one before the people agreed there was one. It was then any species started knowing about the conversation before learning about language. That''s why, no matter what your choice is, as long as you deem it as the right choice, it''s good enough." Anna smiled. "That''s right." Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Alright. Let''s close this topic and move onto the next topic." "!!!" Anya narrowed her eyes as she said, "Fire God Clan?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "With the leaked information about my Fire God Clan, they would surely chase me. Even if I claim that I have given my Sacrificial Fire to Firia, they would still eliminate me. "There are a few reasons. Firstly, the death of those two elders and their so-called young lord, Ryan Hinga, was it? The second reason would be my element. They are Fire God Clan with most disciples using Fire Element. I am the bane of their clan and as long as I can reach Martial Saint Stage. I believe I can suppress them to a certain extent." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Anya nodded in agreement before inserting her opinion. "Indeed. If I am the patriarch, I will chase you down by Martial Saints to make sure I have enough power to eliminate you. Especially, with how they tricked the Blackwade Clan, it would surely invite much displeasure from them after that elder reported it. " The relationship between you and Blackwade Clan, the VIP card, and the friction between the two clans are enough reasons for me to invite you as the Blackwade Clan guest. I would protect you by using the clan resources until you reach Martial Saint Stage before launching an attack against the Fire God Clan. "Your Pure Fire is overpowered, so I can safely assume that the moment the war breaks out, one of the clans will perish." Anya released her killing intent. "Thank you for your input. Now, we are going to discuss how we should deal with the retaliation of the Fire God Clan¡­" Alex closed his eyes while coming up with a plan. Anna and the others also thought about it, but they knew Alex or Anya would come up with a plan first. That was why they began thinking about some twists in their plan to make a more interesting plan. Anya sighed. "Since our destination has been set, we can only go to the Sacred Continent. Firstly, we will fulfill the promise you made to Zwaka. Seeing the progress of Nelson, we can destroy them right now, like how we destroy the Joyful Union Sect. Besides, seeing how they are unacceptable by society, their number wouldn''t be that high. "After that, we will go to this realm (?) that Teodross told you to strengthen yourself. Besides, when we fought against their Martial Saint, we could use those two weapons to block the Fire God Clan for a while and teleported." "Ah! I am sorry. I didn''t use high ranking weapons often to prevent me from relying on them. Besides, I would be able to progress quickly because of that system. I wanted to use the swords as a last resort, but still a bit hesitant since those elders still needed my Sacrificial Element. At that time, I knew the elders wouldn''t kill me, so I didn''t use the weapons. Sorry, my misjudgment." Alex apologized. "Alright. Leave it for later." Anya stopped him. "You have become a 6-Star Martial Emperor anyway, why don''t we go back to the Willow Continent now and help Rose before the Fire God Clan realize this matter," Anna asked, concluding the meeting. "Yeah. Let''s go. The sooner, the better." Alex nodded. "We are going to rest for a day before going according to the plan." 567 Lucky Day? The next day, Alex came out of his room alone with Anya. It would seem other than doing the usual thing, he had some discussion with her about the plan against the Fire God Clan. Unfortunately, no matter how they twisted the plan, there was no other way out other than escape. At first, Alex thought escaping to the Sacred Continent might finish the problem, but with how huge the Fire God Clan was, it would only be a matter of time before they found him. On the other hand, by seeing how Fire God Clan sent two 7-Star Martial Saints at them, it could be assured that the retaliation would be like a hundred Martial Saints¡­ Albeit, the number of Martial Saints alone was still too scarce even on the Heavenly Continent. This was their only advantage since they knew the enemy wouldn''t send more than ten Martial Saints at once because of the clan''s stability. As for ten Martial Saints, they still had the confidence of killing them with Maxwell''s token. In the meantime, they needed to get stronger faster. "We only need time¡­" Alex sighed. "Indeed. There is a realm there, and I want to check that place as soon as we finish dealing with the Blood Devil Sect. If the realm still stands after a few thousand years, we can use that realm to break through to Martial Monarch. With that strength, we can enter the Heavenly Continent. Although we couldn''t contain the Fire God Clan at the moment, we can slowly raise our strength while escaping." Anya nodded. "Yeah. There is another deciding factor, which is the Blackwade Clan. You said that the elder from their main clan reacted strongly about my VIP Card. We would investigate the card matter and what kind of reaction they would have if I show the card." Alex took a deep breath. "It was according to the N squad though. In any case, the problem would be Rose." Alex lifted his eyebrows, showing how troubled he was. "For the time being, we will split the N squad a bit and assign them for a specific task. Nelson has prepared everything for us on the Sacred Continent, so I doubt we would need many spies anymore. "In that case, I want Nano to oversee this continent and see what kind of reaction the influences would have after their leaders died. Meanwhile, Noel will be watching over the port. After all, no matter if they are Martial Saints, they would need to first arrive at this continent before going to the Willow Continent¡­ albeit Rose would likely enter this continent soon." Alex closed his eyes while crossing his arms. "Don''t worry. Ngina should be able to take her to that realm as long as they have a prior warning from Noel. Of course, we need to recall Ngina first so he could receive the information we have." Anya assured him. "By the way, now we are talking about the N squad, do you really not get any N squad again? If I remember it right, there are ten Nelson''s subordinates in the system. Have you checked the system if you get the other two?" Anya asked. "No. I haven''t gotten them yet since both of them are SR spirits. I need a Summoning Ticket instead of Summoning Coin, making it even harder." Alex shook his head and sighed. "I see." [Host, you should check the mission first before going back to Willow Continent. I want to tell you about this, but you are too busy.] "Did I complete a mission?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, not remembering completing any missions. In fact, he didn''t get any mission for the trial, so he was wondering why the system wanted him to check the mission. Nonetheless, Alex still opened the panel and fell into silence. [Secret Mission: Trial (Completed) Requirement: Beat the trial. Reward: Dart x3] [Secret Mission: Meet and Finish the matter of the past (Completed) Requirement: Meet Teodross Reward: Gacha Card x10] [Special Mission: Extermination of Blood Devil Sect (New) Requirement: Eliminate every single member of Blood Devil Sect Reward: Premium Ticket x10] [Special Mission: Sword and Spear Requirement: Go to the Underworld and refine the two weapons to its complete state Reward: Dart x3] "Oh. To think there are two complete missions and two new missions." Alex was astonished and checked the details. He never knew about the Secret Mission requirement that he never had for a few years to the point he completely forgot such a mission existed. On the other hand, he was pretty happy with the result. He would usually get something nice from the dart. Although he wasn''t very sure about the current dart, it would still give him something decent. Meanwhile, he had five Gacha Cards a few months ago, which he used three of them. He would still have twelve, which can practically summon sixteen gacha boxes. Thinking about this alone quickly made him happy. "Anya. Tell the other to wait for me since I have something to do." Alex quickly entered his room again. Anya was startled by his reaction and could only think of one person who could do that. She shook her head hopelessly and walked toward the meeting room. On the other hand, Alex opened his Gacha. [Gacha Ticket x1355] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x3] [Gacha Card x12] [Gacha Coin x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] "Hmm¡­ I can open Gacha Tickets and level up my spirits. Though I need to see what items I would get with the Dart and Gacha Card before coming to such a conclusion." Alex nodded as he was ready to open the gate to Gacha Palace, except the mission bugged his mind. He didn''t know why, but he felt a sense of danger when watching the new missions. Exterminating Blood Devil Sect only granted him ten Premium Tickets while refining his weapons gave him three darts. The darts were hard to get even though the mission only needed him to finish the refining. However, seeing it give him more generous rewards rather than the extermination mission, he couldn''t help sense trouble. "System¡­ I feel like the Special Mission this time is foreshadowing something big¡­" Alex said with a complicated expression. "Do you know anything about this realm?" Unfortunately, the system didn''t reply to him, so he decided to enter the Gacha Palace and asked her face to face. Upon entering the gate, Lin Xingzhi smiled at him and warned him. "There are many things that I can''t explain to you. However, I would love it if you can go there because it will be beneficial." Alex was astounded as she had already rejected him before even letting him ask. "How so? By bringing troubles to me?" "I can''t say anything about it." She shook her head with a calm expression. "Sigh¡­ Asking about this will only make me frustrated." Alex sighed. He thought about it for a while. If he didn''t have the mission, he would still rush there without knowing anything. However, the system was already kind enough to warn him of the reward. In the end, Alex apologized. "I''m sorry for being entitled." "Haha¡­ it''s normal to have such a reaction. However, I should say you need to be careful in this journey because it''s not going to be an easy journey." "Alright. I will put it in my mind." Alex nodded before looking at the Gachas. "Let''s go then. Which one do you want to open first? Dart or Gacha Box?" "Dart first." Alex nodded as he walked toward the Dart area. The newly implemented dart was still a spinning roulette wheel with seven different sockets. Alex looked at the question mark in each socket and wondered what was inside. He could see the reward before, so he was kind of disappointed when he met this. "There are three Rare, two SR, and two UR rank items. The wheel would spin altogether, and you can throw your dart anytime. This will become a kind of roulette, but we use your dart instead of an arrow on the roulette wheel to stop the spin." She explained carefully. Alex nodded before taking out three darts from his Inventory. Because the roulette wouldn''t change, he threw three darts simultaneously without any hesitation. "You seem to be in a hurry." She smiled while walking toward the roulette. "No. I don''t want to see them before I finish throwing the darts since I don''t want it pummeling my mood." Alex shrugged. Lin Xingzhi opened the first ''?'' and showed him a picture of a sword. It slowly turned into a real item. [Sword Mastery (UR) Acquired.] "Sword Mastery again?" Alex was a little disappointed since he didn''t need any Mastery Card again. Lin Xingzhi only smiled at him while opening the other two. [Rank 6 Monster Blood (R) Acquired.] [Vengeful Ice Technique (UR) Acquired.] He opened his mouth in surprise because he never expected two URs. After seeing the Rare item, he was a bit disappointed. Still, he thought this must be his lucky day if he got two UR items, even with the disappointing rewards. Meanwhile, Alex walked toward the Gacha Box area. Lin Xingzhi quickly gathered all the twelve Gacha Boxes along with the four bonus boxes. Alex opened all of them in succession. [Water Tank (R) x1] [Heaven Piercing Bow (UR) x1] ¡­ ¡­ [Summoning Tickets (SR) x5] [Dragon Glaive (UR) x1] ¡­ ¡­ [Summoning Tickets (SR) x5] [Rank 6 Monster Blood (R) x1] It would seem that his luck continued. He got two UR and five SR items out of sixteen boxes. Unfortunately, none of them were of use to him. He could give Heaven Piercing Bow to Rose, but other than that, those were only junks for him. The same as the Sword Mastery. If he had this Sword Mastery when he said goodbye to Evelyn, he could use it to Evelyn as his parting gift. He could ask Evelyn to close her eyes and whatever just to direct her focus elsewhere while activating the card. By then, Evelyn would be a one hell sword user. "Haiz¡­ My luck is good but also not good." Alex sighed. "Look, you still got ten Summoning Tickets." Lin Xingzhi consoled him. "Should I use them now?" "Yeah." Alex nodded and waited for another disappointment. Surprisingly, a person came out of the gate at this time before slowly walking toward him. "Young Master." He kneeled on one knee. Alex was startled for a second before glancing at Lin Xingzhi, who told him to see the notification. [Narman (SR)] "Narman, Dark Elf Spirit, greets Young Master. People usually call me Night Ranger." Alex observed this brown-haired man with pointed ears. He indeed looked like a Dark Elf, according to the description from Earth. "Yeah. Nice to meet you." "Besides him, you also got two UR spirits, Jeanne and Anna. You can raise their level by one if you use them." Lin Xingzhi added. "Yeah." Alex nodded and quickly used the two cards. He looked at Narman and said, "Go back for now. I will summon you after this." "Use all my Gacha Tickets." She nodded and worked like magic. After using all Gacha Tickets, she quickly used the summoning tickets without having any instruction from Alex. The Rare EXP Cards entered his Inventory. He was wondering whether he should raise Namran''s level or not. In the end, he put the matter on hold and waited for how troublesome the Underworld would be. After all, he might use Nelson, Njomo, and him to acquire information. After settling the business he had in the Gacha Palace, Alex came out and quickly went to the meeting room. Anna and the others had been waiting for him. "I don''t think we need any boats since we are already a Martial Emperor. We are going for the speed anyway rather than for comfort." Alex said. They understood his meaning and went back to either his cards or body. Alex then flew out of the barrier before using his Teleportation. 568 Rose Two days later, In front of Heavenly Sword City, Rose flew in the sky. She had just finished the mission even though she was already at the same level as Charya, a 10-Star Martial Lord. Alex''s task about the mission was still etched on her heart as she never skipped a mission in her entire journey. If not, she might have already reached Martial King and gone to the Northern Continent. Meanwhile, Alex''s mission really raised her up because she could see many matters from perspectives. At first, when she was only a Martial Master, she needed to struggle as a nobody because Alex wanted to have her struggle with her own strength. That time, she was underestimated, poorly treated, and so on. She endured all of it because she already grew accustomed to it before she became Alex''s disciple. When she became a Martial Grandmaster, people started looking at her as equal because she could be considered an inner disciple who was supposed to be an elite in the sect. She started implementing all her plans in the mission, and it turned out nicely. Although some of them were failures, she considered it seriously and made better next time. It was after she finally became Martial Lord, her efforts were rewarded. The people began to recognize her, and before long, the matter about her being Alex''s disciples blew up. At that time, she could see the top view because everyone started idolizing her like crazy. However, even with the power on her hands, she still treated others fairly because she understood what kind of view she saw at the bottom. Of course, she beat the crap of those entitled ones. Alex''s influence was already too big on this continent. Not only was he similar to Evelyn''s mentor and had some relationship with Letizia, who both were going to the Northern Continent to pursue higher levels. It was at this time another trouble that wouldn''t go away appeared in front of her. "A coincidence in meeting you here, I also just came back from my matter with my elder since I need to kill a few 10-Star Martial Lord monsters." A male''s voice resounded on her right ear. An unpleasant expression quickly replaced Rose''s serious expression. The pest that never left her side, the young lord of the Sansuin Family, Erze Sansuin. Obviously, one of her motivations to reach a higher stage was to make this person leave. Because he threatened that Sansuin Family and Joyful Union Sect would thrash Alex, she didn''t do anything against him. Only when he was too close that she was forced to act. Erze already asked the sect master of Heavenly Sword Sect, Xiang Bai, for Rose''s hand in marriage, albeit Xiang Bai rejected that offer. Erze tried to harass the female disciples of the sect, but all he got was Rose''s arrows. Even when threatening that she would kill the female disciples if Rose didn''t drink with him, it only made Rose hate him more and didn''t care about the disciples'' lives. Out of frustration, Erze asked the elder that accompanied him to hunt her down. It was at this time Ngina worked in the dark and blasted him away mysteriously, scaring the elder to not approach Rose. Even though Ngina didn''t come to the Northern Continent, he was still a Spirit Nest member. The exp that came from killing monsters still flowed inside of him and raised his level. Just like the other spies, Ngina managed to reach the Martial Emperor Stage. The elder was too scared to move after that despite hearing all the rants that Erze threw at him. Rose didn''t know this, so she thought the elder wouldn''t move at all unless it were a life-threatening matter. Thinking about it, she made an annoyed face before glaring at him. "Coincidence, please don''t say such a bullsh*t. This is why Master is the only one for me. Unlike you, men, he never lied to me." The cold voice from her quickly changed the expression of Erze. His brown hair swayed by the wind, but it suddenly blew in the opposite direction because the Spiritual Energy was coming out of his body. "What? Are you planning to challenge me? You are just trash. For what reason do you think you are qualified to pursue me? Your Family? Spare me from that joke. Without your family, you can''t do anything at all. My Master left me alone, so I can fend the world by myself, knowing more than anyone should. How about you? You can only rely on your family and don''t know most matters. Without your family, you wouldn''t know anything at all." Rose cursed at him. "Hmph. Then why don''t you kill me already? If it''s not because of my family sparing him, your master will already die." Erze blatantly took this matter to another level. Not only he wasn''t ashamed of those insults, but he was also proud of it. "No men are equal. All of us already have talent and background. If someone is complaining about it, they sound like envious people and petty people." His statement didn''t trigger Rose from being angry as she knew it would only make him happy. Rose only snorted. "I will see what kind of expression you would have after your family is destroyed." "You-" Her words triggered him because this was the same as her cursing his family. The elder appeared beside Erze and said, "Young Lady¡­ your statement is quite heavy, you know. This sentence could bring trouble to your master. Heh¡­ I will also see what kind of expression when you know your master has died because of your statement." "You¡­ All of you wouldn''t be able to beat my master!" Rose narrowed her eyes before taking out of her bow. The situation became pretty heated, and no one in Heavenly Sword Town was brave enough to stop the fight between these two because of both identities. The only thing they could do was to pray that the fight wouldn''t destroy the Heavenly Sword Town, especially when they looked at the 8-Star Martial King. This was also one of the reasons why the Heavenly Sword Sect wasn''t afraid of them. They knew Alex had killed 8-Star Martial King a few years ago. With his cultivation speed, he should be able to kill this person easily. Unfortunately, they didn''t know whether Alex would come back or not, so they couldn''t take any appropriate action. Rose looked at the elder while taking out her bow. The lightning already sparked around her body as she pulled the string, aiming at the Elder. "Heh, you brat. Are you planning to attack me?" The elder made a smug smile. Rose hesitated. There were many reasons why she didn''t take on the elder. Still, she felt that this situation could only be resolved by defeating the elder or escaping inside the sect. Just like a ray of hope, another male''s voice resounded on Rose''s ears. "Hit him with your strongest attack. I want to see what kind of progress you will show me in these few years¡­" Rose''s body shook as she never expected to hear this voice again. She trusted this voice completely despite finding no one in her surroundings. The lightning slowly flowed to her arrow as the Bow Domain made its appearance. There was blue colored lightning spinning in the tip of her arrow, looking very ferocious. "You know the consequences of attacking me, right?" The elder threatened her with empty lies. There were no consequences of attacking him because the elder was actually afraid of someone behind Rose. The memory about him being repelled by a shadow was still fresh on his mind, especially about the shadow''s cultivation. He threatened just to make her stop since he noticed that the shadow wouldn''t make a move unless he involved himself in this matter. The elder thought the shadow would make a move here if Rose decided to attack him. The only way to stop this was to threaten her, so she didn''t shoot her arrow. "Young Lady, my young master is smitten by you. Why don''t you accept him already? After that, you can even make this elder move according to your direction." The old man said while searching if the shadow was nearby. "What about him? If an ugly duckling suddenly comes to him, saying she loves him and he should become her man, will you accept? No right? Especially if she is talentless without any redeeming quality." Rose snorted as she looked at Erze like looking at garbage. "You-" "You couldn''t compare it like that. There is a big differ-" Erze tried to rebuke her statement, but Rose suddenly released her arrow. "Take this. Draconic Arrow." The arrow suddenly turned into an eastern dragon, covered with lightning. This dragon was big enough to barely swallow a person alive. If Erze took this attack head-on, the only outcome for him was death. However, he didn''t know why, but the arrow seemed to be targeting his elder. He made a smug smile, thinking she missed the target or made a foolish move. Unfortunately, the elder sweatdropped because this finally escalated to the way he didn''t want to. He took out his sword to destroy this attack before he could threaten her again. The Spiritual Energy flashed on his sword as he was going to use a technique to show the difference between them. This would make his empty threat more effective. It was at this moment, another person finally made his move. The lightning from Rose''s thunder dragon suddenly magnified before turning into a bolt of lightning, flying toward the elder. The bolt lightning struck the elder before the dragon arrived. This weak attack suddenly turned into a powerful strike. Feeling the dreadful aura from this bolt of lightning, he decided to destroy this attack first. "Sansuin Great Slash!" The sword emanated an orange light, clashing with the energy from the single bolt of lightning. It created a huge shockwave that could be felt through the Heavenly Sword Town, albeit one second later, the bolt finally beat his power and dispelled all the Spiritual Energy he used. "Kh!" It blew his sword away. He looked at the dragon coming toward him. He didn''t have enough time to use another attack, and his sword already flew out of his hand. With the little time to react, he channeled a portion of his Spiritual Energy and struck forth with his fist. "Don''t underestimate me." "Boom!" The dragon exploded after touching his fist. Even Erze dropped his jaw, looking at the explosion to see if the elder was alright. This was the first time something like this happened, and it was impossible to happen. His elder was the strongest on this continent and to think a Martial Lord could do such a thing. The smoke slowly dispersed by the wind, revealing the elder figure. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the elder looked fine, but if one took a look at his fist, it was covered with blood. "Hehe¡­ I heard some interesting words earlier, all of you. Do you think that your family and Joyful Union Sect is sparing my life and not the other way around? I am also wondering what kind of expression you would have if your family is destroyed. And that old man also said interestingly, I am wondering what kind of consequence my disciple would have if she attacks you?" A male''s voice resounded through the Heavenly Sword Town, commenting on Rose, Erze, and the elder''s words. A smile that Erze had never seen suddenly appeared on her face, making her look so pretty. Rose didn''t care about other reactions and quickly turned her head, shouting. "Master!" "Rose. It''s been a while. How are you doing?" 569 Meeting Charya "Rose. It''s been a while. How are you doing?" The voice that she missed so much finally resounded on her ears. She turned around and looked at Alex with happiness. Because of the matter from several years ago about Alex''s sudden disappearance, Anna told her how to rescue Alex from his family matter. This was the sole reason she managed to put up with all the training. Back then, Alex saved her at her lowest time and raised her to be a dignified person. This time, she wanted to help him. Rose didn''t make any excessive attack on Erze because it might bring trouble to him. However, the nostalgic voice and figure stood tall not far from her. Besides him were a muscular man and a tiny woman. Both of them stretched their hands toward them. Now that she thought about it, the reason she could hit the elder lay on their help. "Who¡­ who are you?" The elder frowned as he glared at the trio before remembering how Rose called him. "Master¡­ You- You are¡­" The shock planted on his face looked amusing. Alex couldn''t help but chuckle as he said, "You have bullied my disciple; how would I deal with you?" As he said that, Alex appeared behind Rose in an instant. Even though he was surprised, the Martial King Elder would struggle just to follow his movement. He quickly released his power to check Alex cultivation, but couldn''t sense the depth of his cultivation. "You¡­ You are far above the Martial Emperor Stage." The elder gasped. A few years ago, Alex was only a Martial Lord, and now he had reached Martial Emperor Stage and a high-level one at that. This situation would surely become troublesome, he thought. "Your excellency. We are still under the order of the Joyful Union Sect¡­ I believe we should just end the matter here. I will bring my nephew away from here." The elder said while sweating. He was planning to run away from here because engaging with a Martial Emperor would only result in death. As soon as he ran away, he would report the matter to his family before telling the Joyful Union Sect about this. Unfortunately, his plan would only be a pipe dream, especially when Alex suddenly took a person''s head out of his Space Ring. "Do you think I will spare you? From bullying my disciple this whole time, you are sure planning deep¡­ Sadly, the only outcome for you today is death like this guy." The head stunned Erze and the elder. It was a head of someone they knew¡­ and would never forget. "Fat-ther!" Erze uttered the head''s identity. This was the person Alex killed not long ago, Rafii Sansui, Erze''s father. As the family head, this was enough to prove that he had destroyed their family. Secondly, Alex killed the Sansuin Family and escaped from the relentless assault from Joyful Union Sect to this place. Although he didn''t know whether the Joyful Union Sect would attack him on this continent or not, it was a bad situation for them nonetheless. If he couldn''t escape from this place, the only result was death. In that way, he wanted to reason with him first so they could escape. Little did he know there was the third possibility. The elder didn''t consider it as a possibility because he thought it was impossible. There was no way Alex could destroy the Joyful Union Sect, one of the seven first-rate influences on the Northern Continent. Meanwhile, Alex simply smiled, looking at his expression. This made the elder even scared because he knew the confidence behind that smile. "Your Exce-" The elder tried another reasoning, but he saw Alex patting Rose''s shoulder. He said, "Rose. This is your matter. I will handle the elder, so you can handle that one." "Ye-yes, Master." Rose nodded furiously before calming her heart down. She didn''t know why Alex appeared in this place, but she certainly couldn''t let him down. Rose pulled her bow again, using her strongest strike. "Draconic Attack." Erze shuddered after noticing the killing intent from Rose. This time, she was seriously going to kill him. "Elder!" The elder flew in front of him to block this attack, but before the strike arrived, Alex appeared in front of the elder, swinging his sword. "No. You don''t!" Even with the big difference against him, the elder only gritted his teeth and challenged Alex by swinging his sword toward Alex''s sword. Looking at this, Alex merely smiled as the sword moved faster than lightning. It was true that the elder realized his sword struck from above. What he didn''t know was that he used his original Sword Skill, Triple Draws. One strike really came from above, but there were two other strikes beside the first strike. The elder noticed the strikes a bit too late as it already passed his sword. "This... Impossible." The shock planted on his face as he noticed that the two strikes sent his hands flying. The pain came a second after that like it just realized the arms were cut. This was the difference between the Sword Emperor. In fact, if Alex were a Martial King, he would die after taking Joyful Union Sect First Elder''s strike from head-on, even if he was a peak Martial King. Alex glanced at his back before vanishing from the scene. "Roar!" The dragon roared while flying toward the elder. The elder wanted to block this dragon, but he lost his two arms. He lifted up his foot to kick the dragon, but he didn''t have enough time. "Boom!" Rose''s Draconic Arrow already crashed onto his body. Although he took the blow head-on, as expected from an 8-Star Martial King, he was still alive. Alex looked at the old man''s body, which had been covered with blood. He chose to end this man''s life quickly, so he raised his hand and pointed his finger at the old man. "Flame of Extinction." An intense heat came out of his finger before releasing a laser at the old man. Because of his wound and timing, the old man didn''t manage to dodge, and the laser pierced through his skull, killing him in an instant. "Young Master, run¡­" The last words he uttered were still about Erze. It would seem that this man had a loyal heart. He was better than the two-face elders in the main family, Alex thought. Sadly, that alone wouldn''t be enough to redeem his life. Erze was too shocked to react. Rose might use her arrow to somehow injure him, but it was Alex who did the most. His hands and feet started trembling while his body was shaking uncontrollably. Alex paid no heed to his state and looked at Rose for a few seconds before saying, "I see. A peak Earth Tier Art huh¡­ only one step away from entering Heaven Tier Art. It''s good enough for your present state." "This is all thanks to Master''s guidance," Rose said with a big smile. Even though she tried to be humble, Alex''s praise just brought her so much joy. "Haha, you little girl¡­" Alex looked at Rose, who seemed to have grown up. When he picked Rose, she was only a 12-13 years old little girl. The time he spent in the other world, and the Northern Continent gave this little girl a chance to become a teenager. Her light-blue wavy hair swayed by the wind as her undeveloped body slowly turned into a charming one. Rose, who never cared about what she wore, finally put on good clothes. The clothes didn''t have many decorations or weird patterns, but the simple design gave her a natural feeling. After appreciating her new appearance, Alex glanced at Erze, who was scared out of his life. He patted her shoulders while saying, "Alright. I will be staying on this continent for a day or two before leaving again for another matter. After you deal with him, come to my¡­ house? Or is there another person who lived there now?" "No way. Master''s place would be a special place. Even if Elder Charya took in another disciple, at most, he or she would probably stay on Elder Sister Song Yu''s or Putri''s house." Rose smirked. Of course, she didn''t tell him that she was living in his house the entire time even after Charya gave her an option to change house, afraid she would be missing Alex if she stayed inside. Unfortunately, the stubborn little girl considered Alex''s house a challenge from Alex as she wanted to graduate from Heavenly Sword Sect and Alex''s house. Rose wanted to hug him to show how much she missed him like the usual thing she did when Alex trained her, albeit she needed to show some restraint in front of this many people. In the end, she simply pulled her bow again and aimed at Erze. Before pulling her bow, a shout reverberated from the horizon as a woman figure slowly made its appearance. "Rose. I am going to help you." Alex turned around to see who it was, but the voice alone was already enough to recognize her. It was Charya. At the same time, thinking it was the best chance he would ever get, Erze turned around and escaped. Unfortunately, this time, Leoz appeared in front of him as a few lightning balls appeared around his body. "Thunder Ring. Expand and Become a Cage." The lightning balls expanded to a hundred-meter radius before creating a circle. Erze and Leoz were inside the circle. At the same time, Leoz snapped his finger and created another spark on the lightning balls. Then, each ball created a layer of lightning and connected with each other. This looked like an electric ball trapped. "You are not going anywhere." Erze''s face became pale, knowing that the person in front of him was much stronger than him. Leoz only did his job to prevent the target from escaping while letting Alex have their own little space for a few minutes. Alex also noticed the sudden movement of Erze, so he turned around and nodded to Leoz before turning back to Charya. When Charya appeared beside Rose, she quickly scanned her first to ensure she wasn''t injured. "Are you alright? Do you have any injuries? Is he doing anything to you? I am sorry for being late since the meeting was too long." "Elder Charya, thank you for your concern. But everything is going to be alright now." Rose smiled at her, assuring her with the best smile she could ever give. Charya always took care and observed her this whole time, so Rose was thankful for her. "Good Good. Don''t worry. I will handle the matter over here. You can go to the clan." Charya nodded furiously as she said apologetically. She took the blame of this blunder very deeply. "Don''t worry, Elder. Master helped me earlier." Rose assured her. "Ehm. Right. There is someone beside you earlier." Charya didn''t take the ''Master'' word from Rose''s mouth seriously and turned around to see the person''s appearance. She was stunned the moment she looked at his face and golden hair. Alex only smiled as he said, "It''s been a few years, Elder Charya. Thank you for taking care of this little disciple of mine." "Master, I am not little anymore." Rose pouted. "Are¡­ are you really, Alex?" Charya asked with a shocked tone. Even though the answer was right in front of her, she still couldn''t believe it. "Yeah. I am Alex. I have met Senior Sister and Putri on the Heavenly Continent. Well¡­ how about coming inside first. I also want to talk about Evelyn." Alex smiled. "Yeah. Sure." Charya nodded before taking a glimpse of Erze. "Don''t worry. Rose will handle that person, and no problem will come to Heavenly Sword Sect." Alex laughed before saying, "Let''s go." After taking another look, Charya nodded and followed him inside. 570 Normal Talk In Alex''s house, Charya sat down on a couch, looking at the ceiling with empty eyes. Alex just finished telling her the condition of Song Yu, Putri, and Evelyn in a simple way. It was something unbelievable for her, especially Evelyn. "I''m glad that Song Yu and Putri are fine." The burden that was filling her heart this whole time finally lifted. Charya made a genuine smile, thinking that both of them were already becoming a great figure. "Is Evelyn really gone to the Heavenly Continent?" "Yeah. The person who took her was my master''s acquaintance, so I think there is no problem for the time being." "It''s good then. At the very least, all of them have a bright future ahead, and I will only wish for their good fortune from here." Charya closed her eyes while smiling. Alex looked at her mysteriously before asking, "Elder Charya¡­ Do you want to reach a higher level? If you come to the Northern Continent, I bet you can reach the Martial King if not Emperor." "No. I am fine at this place. Unlike all of you, I don''t have any desire to pursue higher cultivation. I am rather here while watching all of you guys and any new disciples that came to the Heavenly Sword Sect grow." Charya declined his invitation while sighing in disappointment. Alex didn''t know where the disappointment was directed, but he also chose not to ask her. He smiled and said, "It''s fine. Elder Charya has helped me in the past, so I just wish for your well being." "Thank you." Charya nodded before asking, "By the way, what about that girl from Rainbow Flower Sect?" "Ah." Alex finally remembered her. "According to my information, a person captured her when she was on her way toward the Northern Continent. After searching through the Northern Continent, I couldn''t find her, so the only place I could think of right now would be Heavenly Continent. After all, this is the only continent that I don''t have any information about it." ???Hmm¡­ Well, she has made her own choice by going to the Northern Continent. You shouldn''t blame yourself either. Just like Evelyn''s case, her situation should be the same. With her Pure Ice Element, she shouldn''t die easily." Charya assured her with a smile. "Oh, right. There is one problem that I need to inform you about. We are speaking about Heavenly Continent right now, and yes, the problem is coming from there." Alex made a complicated expression. Charya tilted her head, confused why he looked so worried. "What''s wrong? Is it too big for you to handle?" "I can handle them appropriately, but not you guys. I am afraid Evelyn''s case will be repeated. I-" Before he finished his words, the door was slammed open as a person came inside, running toward Alex. "Master, I have done my job." "What is it, Master?" Rose looked at him, confused. She walked toward a couch not far from Alex and sat down. "I want to talk about the problem that will come in the future. Although I am not a hundred percent sure, it has a high probability." Alex sighed before taking out a token and tossing it to Rose. "First of all, take this." Rose caught the token with both hands and looked at this plain wooden token. She noticed a few symbols on the token, looked up, and asked Alex. "What is this wooden plank, Master?" "It''s a token for my base on the Northern Continent. Seeing your progress, you would likely reach the Martial King Stage within two months. If you are planning to go to the Northern Continent, then I have made a base there. You can activate the token, and it will give you a general direction of my base and also act as a key. "As for what kind of base it is, you can experience it yourself. Though I could proudly say, it''s a good base. The location is also not too far from Blackwade Clan, where Senior Sister Song Yu and Putri stayed. You will be safe there since no one would find that place unless they are lucky." Alex explained. "To the Northern Continent? Why did Master tell me like you are not there anymore?" Rose asked with a complicated expression. "I am not going there anymore. I have another thing to do at Sacred Continent after this and will go to the Heavenly Continent through that place." "What? I can''t meet Master?" Rose was shocked. She had been practicing this whole time just to chase him like Evelyn, especially after Anna lied to him about Alex. This made her think Alex was avoiding her for her own good because whoever could lock him in one place would be very powerful. They wouldn''t care about Alex''s opinion much less Rose''s life. This problem made Rose''s heart move but also hurt. She had owed him too much by making her his disciple alone. "Master, is this because of Rose? If so, then I will do anything you want as long as I can help you." "Haha¡­ What are you thinking, honestly? There are two reasons I am going to the Sacred Continent. First, there is a certain influence from Heavenly Continent that is chasing me. They are called Fire God Clan. The second reason is a promise. "I promised someone to go to the Sacred Continent and fulfill his wish there. In other words, I am not escaping to the Sacred Continent, but I am tricking them. Besides, if they know I am on the Sacred Continent, they would direct their attention there." Alex patted her head a few times. "Even with all of this, they might still target you. So within that time, I want you to go to the Heavenly Continent to pursue higher cultivation." "At that time, if someone is searching for you, just go hide for a while in the base." Alex smiled before looking at Charya. "There is also a chance of Heavenly Sword Sect to get attacked by them. However, the probability would be low because it would only make them look bad." "Ah. Don''t worry about me and this sect. Compared to them, we are just like ants. We have been living in a paradise that people start forgetting about that fact. Though I will surely inform the sect master about it." Charya shrugged nonchalantly. Alex smiled helplessly, looking at her carefree attitude. It was at this time Leoz walked toward him and whispered something. It must be something important, Rose and Charya thought after looking at his change of expression. Alex made a severe expression while looking at both of them and rising from his seat. "I''m sorry. I need to talk a bit outside." "Oh. Just take your time." "I will wait for Master patiently." Alex nodded before walking outside with Leoz. He abruptly opened his Inventory and took out Nano''s Card. "Nano, are you serious?" "Yes, Young Master. I have witnessed it with my own eyes. Even Noel has confirmed the fact." Nano affirmed. Astonishment appeared on his face because he would never think a person who thought their family would agree with this. "Young Master, what are you going to do with this?" Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "Nah. Seeing the distance between Heavenly Continent and Northern Continent, they would certainly need to travel by boat, considering they don''t have Space Element. It would only be around a month before they could arrive, so we will leave them alone for the time being. Besides, Nicole and the other spies already made their way toward the Heavenly Continent, so they are going to be in charge of this matter." "Understood." Nano nodded. After finishing the matter, Alex tossed the card into his Inventory before going back. His expression had lessened as he sat on his previous seat and let out a long sigh. "What''s wrong, Master?" Rose asked innocently, worrying about him. Charya also listened carefully. "Senior Sister Song Yu decided to go to the Heavenly Continent." Alex sighed. Charya was astounded while Rose quickly fell into deep thought, thinking why her master had such a troubled expression. "That''s good then." Charya was happy for Song Yu, who pursued higher cultivation, albeit Rose had a different reaction as she asked, "Master, what kind of problem would Elder Sister Song Yu receive if she goes to the Heavenly Continent?" "Her grandfather was exiled to the Northern Continent because of a mistake. However, a certain elder from the main clan decided to bring Song Yu to the Heavenly Continent. There are various reasons that are related to me, but seeing I am not going there any time soon¡­ As expected, the main problem would come from the clan itself." Alex sighed. "You mean, she is going to fight the main clan?" Rose asked. Alex recalled the information about Song Yu first instead of answering. After two minutes, he opened his mouth. "According to my information, I remembered that the Elder who takes her away is the Fourth Elder of Blackwade Main Clan. If this kind of elder suddenly said he failed her grandfather and couldn''t fight for him a few centuries ago, do you think this problem is going too deep? "Now I think about it, even her grandfather said how his granddaughter''s talent was above him. Coupled with her extraordinary hearing, I doubt the journey is going to be smooth." "Ah." Rose was enlightened. If that was a small mistake, an Elder like that should be enough to protect Song Yu''s grandfather. However, if a person such as him said he failed Song Qiang, there would be only two possibilities about it. First, the mistake is too big, and the elder is hopeless against it. The second would be a conspiracy in the main clan. Either way, Song Yu would have a share of that problem. "I see¡­" Charya''s expression darkened as she was the most troubled with this information. "I hope she is fine¡­" The atmosphere became awkward before Charya suddenly rose and said, "I am going to my house for a while." Alex nodded, looking at Charya, who was pretty shaken by the news. Watching her leave the house, he then turned to Rose and changed the topic. "Anyway, I will only stay for a day in this place. How about you show me what you learned in the past few years, Rose?" Rose was a bit surprised by his invitation and smiled. "Fine by me." Then, they went into the field while having some light sparring. Surprisingly, Rose didn''t give up, no matter how Alex beat her up until she was finally too exhausted to move. He carried her to the bedroom, thinking it was the best time to leave. Charya also came to him before he left. "Are you going to leave?" "Yes." "Take care then. If you are going back here, I will always be in this place." Charya smiled. "Yes. See you later, Elder Charya. If fate aligns, we shall meet again." Alex nodded and disappeared. 571 Alexs Next Plan After resting enough for a trip to the Nilis Continent, Alex flew out of the sect. He didn''t meet the sect master or any other person in the sect since their relationship wasn''t as deep as Charya and Rose. In the end, Xiang Bai and the others only knew about it after Alex left the sect. The journey was instant as he used rank 6 Teleportation Array for a few tens of times to cover the distance between the two continents. Of course, it took him more than he expected, considering it was further than the distance between Willow Continent and Northern Continent. Even so, it only took them an instant for Alex to reach the land before recovering his energy for a while. Alex sat down in a deeper part of the forest to recover his Spiritual Energy. As a careful person, of course, he left Jeanne and Leoz to watch the surroundings, so no one bothered him. Luckily, there were a few monsters and people nearby, but no one flew toward Alex''s direction. He stayed inside the forest for a few hours before finally recovering back to full strength. Alex continued his journey by using his teleportation to reach another side of the continent so that he could reach the Sacred Continent. Alex arrived at the port city but didn''t enter. His purpose in going near this city was to confirm his direction. Leoz said that after reaching the port city, they needed to go toward Northeast. If he used his Teleportation Array toward the North, he would likely have arrived at Heavenly Continent without even arriving at Sacred Continent. He took the time to recover again as he wanted to go prepared rather than unprepared. He could arrive within an hour with his teleportation array, considering he could make one array per minute. The distance was around half of the distance to travel around the Earth. With monsters protecting the ocean and the sky, it made traveling hard. If not, Alex would need around one and half months to travel. In this case, Alex was glad to have a Space Element. After resting for an hour, Alex finally snapped his finger as a Teleportation Array appeared beneath his feet and teleported him away. ... After entering the new continent, Alex was confused as to his own position. "Nelson, where are you? I have arrived on Sacred Continent¡­ but I am still vague about my own position." Nelson''s card on his hand glowed before releasing a sound. "I don''t have a base on this continent so that Young Master can summon me to your side." Without replying, Alex quickly channeled his Spiritual Energy to the card and said, "Summon." The handsome young man appeared in front of him, kneeling respectfully. "It''s been a few years, Young Master. I am happy to see you again." "Yeah. Sorry for asking you this task alone for the past few years." Alex nodded and smiled, appreciating Nelson''s efforts. "First of all, where am I right now?" Alex asked. Nelson didn''t immediately answer him as he flew up for a minute to observe their surroundings before descending. "We are not far from the port city. We can go to the Port City from here with a single teleportation array." Talking in the city sounded nice, but Alex had no idea about this continent. He decided to ask first before doing anything. "Can you tell me about the influences on this continent?" "Yes." He pondered for a moment and said, "There are five influences that ruled this continent. Black Devil Sect in the west, Ancient Blue Family in the north, Tyrant Clan in the center, Martial Pavillion in the south, and Likas Kingdom in the east. "We are situated in Martial Pavillion''s territory. If you enter the Martial Pavilion, there would be many Martial Arts, Element Arts and other Arts opened to you. However, Young Master wouldn''t need something like that with the knowledge in your head." Nelson explained honestly. "Haha¡­ I can say the knowledge that I got from the lightning tribulation is numerous, but that''s not all. There will always be something that I don''t know." Alex shrugged. "Tell me the others first." "Understood." Nelson nodded and started explaining. "The Tyrant Clan is like its name. They are a clan that is focused on strength and body refining. The clan thought that their body is the best weapon and wouldn''t lose against any weapons. They were training something to make an artificial dragon scale¡­ or at least that''s the purpose of their technique. "On the other hand, the Ancient Blue Family in the North is a Family that has been ruling the north for a few millennials. They were also connected to the Ancient Blue Family on the Heavenly Continent, so we should avoid them for the time being. "The next influence would be the Likas Kingdom. This Kingdom didn''t have any outstanding ability enough to be their trademarks. This also means they have an average about Strength, Martial Arts, and other things you can think of. Let''s say that this is a mediocre kingdom but won''t easily go down because of its stability. "And the last thing would be our target. Unlike the other influences, the people on this continent didn''t really like Blood Devil Sect because of their practice. Their actual territory is their sect at the size of Heavenly Sword Sect. They have around fifty thousand members¡­ it''s a small number, but¡­" Nelson paused for a while. Alex already knew what he wanted to say, so he broke his silence. "I see. Their cultivation is higher than anybody else because of the pill. Then with that kind of practice, their influence doesn''t have a great image." "Yeah. That''s basically it. They also don''t control their territory at all. Let''s say that the areas in their jurisdiction are lawless areas where crime could happen at any moment. Their territory is filled with criminals and prisoners. This is why the Black Devil Sect could easily extract their blood and turn them into a pill. "However, I suggest being careful if you want to go against them. I have some information about them, including their origin. Their sect master is a human but looked like a zombie. From what I know, the leader went into the Cursed Land situated on the west of Black Devil Sect. In that place, he received this kind of power to extract people''s blood and created Black Devil Sect to the scale now within five centuries. "I don''t know his exact power, but we could safely assume he is a Martial Monarch¡­ at least 5-Star." Nelson said. Alex suddenly remembered that he had yet to level Nelson up, so he quickly asked the city to use every EXP Card to Nelson, raising his power to 1-Star Martial Monarch. "Thank you for the EXP Cards, Young Master." Nelson thanked him before pausing for a few seconds. "Even though I am a Martial Monarch now, I doubt I can fight against their Sect Master. At best, Leoz might be his opponent after he enters 6-Star to be careful." "6-Star Martial Monarch?" Alex was bewildered. The highest power on the Northern Continent was only 3-Star Martial Monarchs. Although it was the pill''s work to make their sect master a 5-Star Martial Monarch, it was still too absurd to wait for Leoz 6-Star Martial Monarch to fight him. Noticing the confusion in his eyes, Nelson quickly explained. "I am not asking this because I am afraid of the sect master. It''s because of their members. If I am not wrong, there are around two hundred Martial Monarchs in this place. Of course, two-third of them were 1-Star Martial Monarch, and their power was equal to 10-Star Martial Emperor, but considering they have Berserk Pills and such, they silently became the ruler of this continent. Meanwhile, the other influences here have similar power from those on the Northern Continent." Alex looked down while crossing his arm. His face made a troubled expression as he was clear what kind of effect the Berserk Pill gave. "This would be a troublesome fight¡­" "Yeah. We can safely assume it''s hard to fight them from head-on. In that case, we can start using the guerilla tactic." "We can indeed. But the problem is¡­ the moment they decide to lock down their gate, killing them would be hard because of the concentrated force. The sooner they make that decision, the harder they are." Alex scratched his head as he couldn''t come up with a single plan. If this was on the Northern Continent, he could somehow pull Blackwade Clan for a fight like this. Unfortunately, he was on the Sacred Continent and was also a nobody. Alexx looked at Nelson for a few seconds before muttering, "If I ask you to assassinate a few people, it would only alarm the enemy. However, if we attack them big time to chip away their number, how many times do you think we could attack them before they lockdown their gates?" "I don''t know the answer." Nelson regretfully shook his head and said. "It''s better to call Anya for a question like this, Young Master." "Yeah. You are right." Alex nodded. However, he didn''t take Anya''s card alone. Instead, there are Anna, Jeanne, Leoz, and Greg. "Anya and Anna will stay here to think about our situation. Jeanne, Leoz, and Greg will be watching our surroundings." "Yes." The trio quickly bowed their heads and disappeared. Meanwhile, Anya quickly answered Alex''s previous question. "I assume we can only do that for two or three times at most. If possible, I want to attack them to get at least five thousand to ten thousand people at once. Their first reaction would be angry. "After all, with their power, they secretly rule the continent. However, an unknown influence suddenly decides to give a devastating blow. They would surely be angry at us and try to attack us. We will use that opportunity to attack them the second time. Depending on their reaction time, we can kill another batch." Alex looked at Anya for a few seconds before he nodded. "Indeed. The second time aside, there is no way they would move five to ten thousand people at once without any big event." Alex sighed. As Alex said, that was also the problem in Anya''s head. She pondered for a moment before looking at Nelson. "Do we have any information about big events on this continent?" "There is one that would start in a month. It''s called Martial Festival. I have done a few investigations, and it would seem the event will be held in the Special Realm of Martial Arts Pavillion. The realm itself is vast, and around a thousand disciples from each big influence will participate in this event." Nelson nodded while recalling all the information from his head. "What is this event all about?" "It''s something you know, Young Master. The event is similar to the Battle Tower that you experienced in Heavenly Sword Sect. That killing monsters thing and raises one''s strength." Nelson smiled. "Oh?" Astonishment appeared on his face. He started recalling that he needed to kill monsters and receive energy equivalent to them to raise his strength. "The difference between them is that this event would ask you to get the monster core yourself before going to the temple in the middle of the realm and pour all your cores inside. From my expectation, you can raise your cultivation by one or two stars. The people outside wouldn''t know what happened inside the realm so that we could easily kill all the Black Devil Sect''s disciples. Of course, only Martial Emperors could enter the barrier. In other words, Leoz, me, and Jeanne couldn''t participate." "Ehm¡­ I shouldn''t level you up earlier." Alex sighed. "Haha¡­ Don''t worry, Young Master. I, Leoz, and Jeanne will create a disturbance outside by killing the people from Black Devil Sect. Then they would send some reinforcement and hopefully a few thousands which we can exterminate." Nelson assured him. 572 Song Qiangs Pas While they were discussing their next plan, a certain tragedy occurred on the boat that Song Yu used. "How is your condition? Do you miss your family?" Song Yi asked her to check her condition. The ship itself was luxurious as they had their own room. Song Yi would start training her as soon as they arrived at the Blackwade Clan, so he wanted to use this chance to make Song Yu as comfortable as possible with him. "Yes. Thank you for the concern, Elder Song Yi." Song Yu was still polite to him even though he was her grandfather''s elder. "Haha¡­ You don''t need to act like that. In fact, my late little sister was actually your grandfather''s beloved. That''s why I treated him like my successor back in the Main Clan. Unfortunately, if that incident didn''t happen, your grandfather would become at least 5-Star Martial Saint instead of 3-Star Martial Monarch and replace me as the fourth elder." Song Yi sighed, recalling the past matter. Song Yu looked down, weighing something in her mind. The elder mentioned this matter a few times already, so it must be something important. In that case, she needed to clarify it. "May I know what the matter was, Elder?" "Hmm¡­ Although I can''t go into full detail yet. There is actually one thing that you need to know. Don''t believe the First Elder. He hated your grandfather because of my little sister and used some trick to cause an incident that made the main clan expel Song Qiang and took my sister''s life. Well¡­ it''s more like he liked my sister, but instead, she loved your grandfather." Song Yi explained a general situation which was already known by the clan. Song Yu was astonished because she never knew her grandfather had such a love story. Song Yi smiled and continued. "Although I want to tell you more¡­ you need to get stronger first. Let''s say¡­ 5-Star Martial Monarch will be the requirement to know the truth. By the time you reach Martial Saint Stage, the main clan will also protect you as one of their important resources." "Thank you for your trust, Elder." Song Yu bowed her head and thanked him. It was "Haha¡­ Seeing the praise from your grandfather, I have some expectations for you. So, keep getting stronger to make me and your grandfather proud." Song Yi smiled. "Yes. I will meet Elder''s expectations." Song Yu humbly said while swearing inside her heart that she would do it. "It''s good then." Song Yi nodded and fell into deep thought. "We still have ten days before reaching the Heavenly Continent. You can use this time to sort out your resolve and emotion. I will be going to meet the Third Elder then." "Yes." Song Yu clasped her hands respectfully, watching Song Yi leave the room. It was at that time his sister started challenging Song Qiang with or without reason. Sometimes she won, sometimes she lost. She was proud when she won, but that pride was shattered when she saw Song Qiang only practiced more every time he lost. Slowly but surely, his sister fell in love with him. Although he didn''t know why it suddenly turned that way, Song Qiang was his favorite and gave a ''go'' sign to his little sister. Of course, the journey was hard because Song Qiang had no spare thought about romance until one time in a certain life and death situation. Song Qiang realized how important her figure was in his heart and finally became a couple. The first elder who was still young at that time also loved her appearance and talent. He proposed to her only to get rejected blatantly. Out of jealousy, he planned to kill Song Qiang. Unfortunately, that plan misfired. It killed his little sister instead of Song Qiang. He went to fight against the first elder only to be stopped by the Grand Elder and the Patriarch before Song Qiang was blamed about that incident. Her sister gave birth to a boy one year before she died. It was Song Lei. At first, Song Yi wanted to raise the boy, but Song Qiang begged him so he could take Song Lei with him. He remembered at that time, Song Qiang said, "Actually, I and Song Ai-ling just wanted a peaceful life. We decided that after becoming an elder, we would have a normal but loving family." Those words melted his heart. Song Yi feared that the first elder would pull another trick on the baby, so he let Song Qiang take the baby while his little sister''s grave was in his place. This could also be considered as a target to give Song Qiang a reason to come back and meet her. After glancing at her one last time, he left the room and went to the third elder. "Elder Song Jing¡­ I have made you wait." Song Yi smiled as he looked at the third elder. He sat in front of him as the third elder poured the wine for him. "Thank you." "Are you sure bringing that lass is a good idea?" Song Jing asked while observing his expression. "I am sure. Her personality is calm, and her talent is top-notch. I am sure she will reach higher than me in the future." Song Yi nodded. He fell into silence for a minute while sipping his wine. "Actually, Third Elder. I want your help. Seeing how you also hate the first elder after the first elder kills your wife, would you help me protect this little lass from him?" Song Jing didn''t immediately answer him. Instead, he finished the wine on his cup before saying, "Song Yi¡­ If there is another open battle between elders, the sect master and the grand elder would stop it. After all, it would only ruin the clan stability." "I know. That''s why I want to protect her from the dark. After all, this girl also has my sister''s blood running through her vein. It can be said she is also my granddaughter." Song Yi clenched his fists with determination. "I know how you feel." Song Jing paused for a few seconds before saying, "You know what¡­ There is a poison called Vein Poison Powder. This poison can seal one cultivation. Unless a few Martial Saint at the same level dispelled this poison simultaneously, the other person wouldn''t be able to use Spiritual Energy again for the rest of his life." "I know that poison since it''s the strongest poison in the world. They are very rare. Even our clan only has a little." Song Yi nodded. "Actually, I found the poison a few decades ago when I was roaming to get my cultivation resources. I stumbled upon this powder and always stayed in my Space Ring." "Why are you talking about this poison?" Song Yi pondered for a moment before coming to a realization. "Don''t tell me¡­ you are going to use this poison to seal the first elder cultivation?" Song Jing smiled evilly. It already gave Song Yi the answer he wanted. He smiled, "Thank you, Song Jing." "Don''t worry. You wouldn''t need to worry about this matter anymore." Song Jing smiled warmly at him. Song Yi was shaken by how deep the hatred inside Song Jing''s heart. It might be the right choice to side with him, so they could take down the first elder until suddenly¡­ Song Yi lost control of his body and stumbled. "Ugh?" Song Yi instinctively reacted because his mind jolted for a second there before stumbling to the ground. He looked at Song Jing, who wasn''t surprised at all. Song Jing only smiled while sipping his wine. "As I said earlier, Song Yi. You don''t need to care about this matter anymore." "You¡­ You poisoned the wine?" Song Yi realized that Song Jing only drank from his own cup all this time while pouring the wine to him. In other words, the wine in his cup was a normal wine while he took the poison this whole time. "You Bastard. Why are you doing this? Didn''t the first elder kill your wife?" Song Yi stared at him before trying to rise from the ground. Although his Spiritual Energy was sealed, he could still move his body. Unfortunately, Song Jing used his Spiritual Energy to lock his movement so he couldn''t go anywhere. "You are basically a cripple now." Song Jing evilly smiled as he said, "You think I hate the first elder because he killed my wife? Unfortunately, not. That bitch has been harboring a feeling on that Song Qiang even though she married me. After giving birth to a son, I wanted to kill her badly. "Unfortunately, by killing her with my own hand, my son would hate me, and my reputation will take a huge hit. At that time, the first elder lent me a hand in exchange for me to cooperate with him to kill Song Qiang." Song Jing snorted while taking out his sword. "However, this is certainly a serious matter. After all, I know that by bringing that Song Yu, you will get three things. Firstly, she will become your successor. Secondly, you would get a relationship with that Alexander Sirius since if the rumor is true, Song Yu and you will be the ones to get the benefit. Thirdly, without anyone hindering your movement, you will know that I participated in that scheme sooner or later. At that time, the first elder and I will be busted. There is no way I am letting you use this opportunity." "You¡­ You." Song Yi was speechless as the Spiritual Energy raised his body. "That''s why you need to die here. Luckily, with the people from the Fire God Clan dead, I can use this as a reason. I can just say I managed to escape and framed that Alexander Sirius. After killing him, I can get that VIP Card and present it to the patriarch. It''s only a matter of time I will become a Grand Elder if the rumor is true." Song Jing evilly laughed as he stabbed Song Yi''s heart. "Gah! You¡­" Song Yi gritted his teeth as his strength began leaving his body. "Bam!" Suddenly the door was slammed before a woman''s voice echoed. "Elder Song Yi." Song Jing quickly released Song Yi, who would die at any moment and appeared in front of Song Yu before grabbing her neck. "Release me." Song Yu was startled because Song Jing''s neck was already on her neck before she knew it. "You need to die too, you little brat." Song Jing said with a cold tone as he walked toward Song Yi. "Look at this Song Yi, your granddaughter is going to die along with you." "Song¡­ Song Jing. You can get everything from me¡­ just don''t kill her. I beg you." Song Jing didn''t pay any attention to the half-dead Song Yi as he raised his sword, preparing to kill her. However, by the last strength of his life, Song Yi gritted his teeth and rose from the ground before throwing himself to Song Jing. Even though his cultivation was sealed, his body was still a Martial Saint. The force was enough to push Song Jing away before he grabbed Song Yu and threw her to the sea. "!!!" Both of them were surprised. "Granddaughter¡­ may fortune be with you." Song Yi uttered his last words. If Song Yu were killed here, there would be no second chance. However, the ocean was also filled with Martial Beasts and the others. Even if she flew from here, she wouldn''t reach the shore for each continent. He used the last struggle to pin Song Jing on the ground for a minute, letting Song Yu escape before he died. Song Jing would probably do the same because he might encounter Martial Saint monsters and exhaust his Spiritual Energy. It was better to stay with the group and enjoy his stay. Song Yu would most likely die anyway, and even if she tried to sneak inside the ship, she would be found out by him. With that thought in mind, Song Jing let out a relieved breath. At the very least, the immediate threat had gone. 573 Underworlds Information Alex continued his conversation with Nelson and the others without knowing. Even though there were Nano and Noel on the Northern Continent, no N squad in that ship, so no one would know the fate of Song Yu. Hearing Nelson''s reasoning, Alex could picture that there should be a few Martial Monarchs that brought so many people. If they killed a few while sparing one or two, they would inform the sect and request reinforcement. Seeing a thousand disciples becoming hostages, the sect would surely make a move. "In case they are bringing more people and getting killed by us. They would surely send another wave because their face wouldn''t let a mysterious influence like us attack them... or at least allow us to escape unscathed. They want to show dominance against us." Alex said calmly. "In that case, we can find some places for a base where we can destroy them easily by putting traps and other things." "Yes. Young Master is right. If you want a place, I have a few candidates so that Young Master can check it out first." Nelson nodded. Alex pondered for a moment before taking out the note that Teodross gave him. "There is another realm that I need to visit on this continent. It''s better if we have a little base around that area and discover that place first." Nelson nodded. Alex never read the message, so Nelson didn''t know about the information because there was no memory about it. Anna and Anya also came closer, reading the message together. "In the Cursed Land stood tall a vast realm like none other. Inside the realm were a race with tiny figures and forging affinity, a mutated race that looked like a living death, a race with animal parts with their body. The Cursed Land had transformed them into such a being after infecting them for a few millennials." Alex read this message and fell into silence. The mystifying explanation made him speechless. He couldn''t help but comment, "Isn''t this a Dwarf, Beastman, and Undead?" "Alex¡­ They might have a different name, you know. This is why it''s better to describe their appearance than their race name." Anna reminded him while Anya shrugged her shoulder. "I''m just joking." Alex sighed before reading the second part. "Open the door inside, and the outside will show themself. To fuse the elemental gem and make a true Spiritual Weapon, you need the altar of the third race, the pure blood of the second race, and the first race''s skill." Alex pondered for a moment before commenting, "I see. To put it simply, I need a beastman blood, a Dwarven Skill, and Undead''s altar." "Yeah. You can say it like that. Still, there are two problems that we need to deal with. First, we need to know their power level, how strong they are, and their number. The other problem is how we will get their cooperation." Anya remarked while crossing her arms. "Indeed." Alex continued to read the note again. "The third race would recognize the Dragon and Phoenix Aura in your body, but they also wanted to see the outside world, AKA, the Sacred Continent. However, they had yet to realize that the world didn''t take their races kindly. "If that happens, just accomplish their dream and let them see reality. From my understanding of their race, they should give up that dream after knowing the reality. In fact, you might get their favor and help you if needed." "This¡­" Alex had a complicated expression at the moment, not knowing what to say about this message. "If they are strong, I think it is worth it to get their favor. We can use that favor to attack Black Devil Sect." Anya said while frowning. Alex looked at her for a few seconds and fell into deep thought. As she said, they would be a good fighting force in a battle against the Black Devil Sect¡­ albeit they didn''t know how strong the people inside the realm were. "So, how is our plan?" Anna asked. "Let me ponder a bit." Alex and Anya said at the same time. After a few minutes, they exchanged looks as if they had the same plan. Then, Anya started explaining their plan. "We will go to the event one month later. We need to search for a way to get inside the realm since looking at the situation, there are going to have many people inside. Nelson won''t be going with us inside, so we should utilize Namran and Njomo to track our enemies inside. "After that, we would kill a few thousand of them before going to the realm called Underworld. Alex, you have the map of this place, right? Why don''t you take it out?" Anya asked. Alex nodded and took out a map. However, the map didn''t resemble the Northern Continent at all. At first, they thought it was the Northern Continent map from a few thousand years ago, but it would seem that wasn''t the case. "Nelson, do you know about this Cursed Land? And where are they?" "No. I never heard about the Cursed Land, but I have indeed heard about Cursed Night Forest." Nelson shook his head in disappointment. "Cursed Night Forest?" Alex pondered for a moment. "Maybe we can check that place first since it''s the only clue we have. The forest might be the entrance for this special realm. Just like the clue said, open the door inside, the outside shall appear before you. This might be the reason why you don''t know¡­ or at least you don''t recognize it." "I apologize, Young Master. I am too useless against Array Master, especially with their concealment array. Although I have understood Array to a certain degree, if one mastered the way of arrays such as yourself, it''s impossible for me to track the array." Nelson apologized while bowing his head. "It''s not your fault. In fact, My pride will be hurt if you can find my Special Realm easily." Alex shook his head, telling Nelson not to apologize. "In any case, we have a month of free time so that we will check the entrance first. If this is not the entrance, then we should check this whole continent." "Understood." "This map might be the map of that special realm. Now that I look about it, there are three marks that symbolize each race." Alex pointed his finger at the map. Anya and the others nodded. Anya said, "I will ask Artur to investigate the Special Realm of Martial Arts Pavilion¡­ and acquire the ticket if possible." "Yeah." Alex nodded before changing the topic back to the track. "After that event, we will handle the reinforcement from Black Devil Sect before going to this Special Realm. If possible, I want to finish my Spiritual Weapons first before destroying the Black Devil Sect." "Yeah. After we finish our business in the Underworld, we should destroy the Black Devil Sect." Anya nodded in agreement." "When are you going to the Heavenly Continent?" Anna asked an important question. Alex was stunned and fell into deep thought. "Ehm¡­ Actually, I am also confused about this. First of all, the biggest influence there should have at least 9-Star Martial Saint as their strongest if not 10-Star. I am not even a Martial Monarch, much less Martial Saint. If I come to that place without any preparation, the only outcome would be death. "In that case, when should I go there? My plan is to reach at least 5-Star Martial Monarch Stage in this place, so I can have the power to fend them by raising your level with the EXP Card." Alex replied honestly. "This will be hard though. I mean, without an insane boost, it will take around one year to reach peak Martial Monarch. Even if we use the special realm of Martial Arts Pavilion, it would still take six months at the very least. You also need to consolidate your power, which will take around two months." Anna furrowed her eyebrows. "Yeah. We should safely assume I need one year to reach Martial Monarch because I still need to deal with the Black Devil Sect. In that case, I will go toward the Underworld when I reach Martial Monarch, how is that sound?" Alex nodded before asking. "Sounds good to me. You can level up to Martial Saint anyway." Anya approved Alex''s plan. With a single approval from her, Anna and Nelson couldn''t raise any objection. "I will need to reinforce my Special Realm¡­ or at least make two of it so when the first one breaks, the second one still holds. After all, I don''t want the incident from Stina''s world to repeat, considering this world is far more dangerous than her world." Alex sighed. "Yeah. We don''t know how powerful the tribulation is this time. Maybe we should raise some money again? That''s right. You also need to learn about Array and Alchemy before reaching Martial Monarch. This will also take some time." Anna frowned. "That''s why I said we could safely assume it will take a year to reach Martial Monarch." Alex nodded. "Oh." Anna became silent again after realizing it was already inside Alex''s calculation. "Then, we need to find a way to reach the 5-Star Martial Monarch inside the realm before attacking the Blood Devil Sect and going to the Heavenly Continent." Alex finished explaining his plan. "Yeah. Though you will need to consolidate your power first, which means you are going to be a 6-Star Martial Monarch at that time." Anya corrected him. "Indeed." Alex nodded before turning to Nelson. "Nelson, where is the best place to kill monsters? I want to use Narman, but I don''t have EXP Cards, so I want to ask the others to kill monsters to raise his level." "There is one in our northwest¡­ Around five hundred kilometers. It''s in a vast plain called Gerren under Likas Kingdom''s jurisdiction. The place is full of Martial Emperor monsters and a few Martial Monarchs. Not many people want to venture in that area because of this." Nelson explained while pointing at a certain direction. He knew Alex would use his teleportation, so he pointed at the direction. Alex nodded and recalled all spirits and teleported. As Nelson said, it was a place full of monsters. He quickly summoned his spirits. "I want you to kill the monsters in this area while¡­" Alex pondered for a moment before continuing, "Nelson and I will check the Cursed Forest. Sherry, Kyle, and Stina will be with me to provide more firepower." In fact, the reason Alex brought Sherry and the others because he couldn''t recall them like the spirits. If things turned different than they expected, Alex could just recall the spirits. "Understood." The spirits nodded their heads in unison. "One question. What should we do if we encounter the people around here? Especially from Black Devil Sect?" Anya asked. "If they are from Black Devil Sect, no need to hesitate and kill them. Other than them, just avoid them for safety reasons. We don''t want anyone to be suspicious of us for the time being." Alex answered. "Alright. I will take charge of this group." Anya nodded, satisfied. "Then, I am going." Alex nodded before teleporting toward the Martial Arts Pavilion. After that, he summoned Artur to investigate the special realm requirement and acquire a single ticket for him. Artur nodded. Although it wasn''t his specialty, he could at least do that much. Alex chose Artur because he would be less suspicious and blend very well. After dropping Artur off, Alex quickly made his way toward the Cursed Forest. 574 Entrance It turned out the Cursed Forest was inside the Black Devil Sect''s territory, albeit a bit further away, making it less suspicious. According to Nelson, the Black Devil Sect seemed to avoid this place. This matter piqued Alex''s interest as he was wondering if there was something special in this place. After all, this place changed his opinion drastically from destroying the sect as soon as possible to destroying it after he was too powerful for the sect to handle. There was also another purpose by hiding inside the realm. It was to confuse the Fire God Clan and Black Devil Sect. For Black Deil Sect, Alex''s group looked like they were heavily injured and needed a few years to recover. As for Fire God Clan, they would think Alex hid on the Northern Continent. By doing so, Alex would have time to increase his strength peacefully. Alex arrived within an hour by using his Teleportation Array. He didn''t know about the specific place, so he stopped right after entering the Black Devil Sect territory before summoning Nelson. "How is our position?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "We are close. If Young Master wants, we can fly from here toward that direction." Nelson pointed his finger a bit left from where they should go. "I don''t know what kind of place Cursed Forest is since even after entering the forest, I still couldn''t find anything other than a normal forest with a bit of creepiness. However, there should be some traps nearby if the realm is there." "Indeed. To hold a Special Realm, Array Master usually would set up a few Space Element defenses to prevent us from entering. Depending on their skill, I can or can''t forcefully enter the barrier." Alex nodded. "Yeah. Let me guide you to that place." Nelson nodded before leading Alex in the front. Alex quickly followed him without saying anything. He activated his Spirit Eyes to check his surroundings and found something strange. After around fifteen minutes, they entered a vast desert. This place felt strange for Alex, especially from his Spirit Eyes''s perspective. "Wait, Nelson. Can we stop for a few minutes?" "Yes, Young Master." Nelson abruptly halted his movement before moving toward Alex with a serious expression. "If I may ask, why do we stop?" "This place¡­ No, this desert is very strange." Alex looked around and noticed pink energy around the area. This usually symbolized Space Element was around, but this pink energy was tainted by red, green, or even black energy. Alex looked down, weighing something in his mind. From the ground, Alex didn''t notice any other energy aside from sand. Even his eyes couldn''t see any symbols. At first, he suspected there was an array around the area, but it seemed not to be the case. "This place has something that shouldn''t belong to this kind of place. However, it''s also tainted by something." Alex looked at him for a few seconds before asking, "Why don''t you learn the Spirit Eyes too?" "I am afraid I can''t. It''s a ta-" Nelson stopped before finishing his word. He was about to say ''taboo,'' but it would lead to too many clues about the Previous Alex, so he refrained himself. "Anyway, no other spirits could learn that technique for various reasons." "..." Staring at him for a few seconds, Alex sighed. "Anyway, this place is no joke. There might be a trap in this area, so we should proceed with caution." Nelson nodded. "Understood. I will slow down my pace." There was another thing that confused Alex. No monsters stayed around this place, even underground. This made him think whether they died in this place or migrated. Unfortunately, the only thing he knew was that the answer was inside the Cursed Forest. Alex continued while taking out all the spirit cards before calling the trio. "Sherry, Kyle, and Stina. Come out." Sherry wanted to greet him, but his serious expression made the thought disappear. She only nodded at him before flying while observing the surroundings. There was no need for words to understand Alex''s intention since they somehow figured their situation. The journey went without a problem. However, Alex noticed that the closer they were, the denser the space energy. This made him worry about what would happen next. After around an hour, Alex could see a forest on the horizon and furrowed his eyebrows. Sherry and the others realized his expression, but not saying anything. It wasn''t apparent from afar, so he decided to come closer while observing the energy with his Spirit Eyes. Alex abruptly halted his movement, staring at the forest dumbfoundedly. "This¡­ is impossible." Alex''s voice stopped everyone in their tracks. Sherry came to him and asked, "What happens? Is this place dangerous? Should we stay away?" "I don''t know." Alex shook his head as his sweat started dropping. He turned to Nelson and asked, "You have come to this place, right? What kind of place is this?" "I didn''t find a single suspicious thing here. It looked like a normal forest for me. Even after investigating the entire forest, I couldn''t find a single thing." Nelson shook his head, ashamed of himself. "It''s fine. Don''t beat yourself." Alex smiled before turning back to the enormous Space Element. He tried to see the array from afar but had yet to find even a single symbol. If this was an array, its size should be huge. This caused Alex to ponder the matter over and over again. He was hesitating to come inside the forest. Firstly, he didn''t want to get stuck inside the barrier since he had something to do. Secondly, Alex recalled a single peak Rank 8 Space Element Array. "It would seem a person of high-level sealed the three races in this place," Alex muttered. "!!!" Sherry and the others gasped as they stared at him, asking for an explanation. "There is an array called "Within World." It''s a peak Rank 8 Space Element Array. The array itself needed a technique that my Master asked me to learn, Spatial Gate. This technique combined the Spatial Gate to create an Array within the blue-layered realm." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Young Master¡­ Do you mean I couldn''t see the array because it was inside the blue-layered realm?" "Yeah. This allows the user to create a Space Prison. In other words, the only way to get inside is to activate the array within the blue-layered realm in this area. Now I can see why the area is surrounded by Space Element but mixed with other elements. However, I couldn''t understand why someone would use this technique." Alex gasped. "What do you mean, Master?" Sherry asked, not understanding his words. "This technique needs sacrifices. There should be 10 Martial Saints with at least 5-Star to keep this realm intact." Alex said with a grim expression. "Martial Saints? But if they went such a length to seal the people inside, wouldn''t it mean the people inside the realm are very strong?" Nelson sweatdropped because this might ruin their plan. "I don''t know. The only thing we can do is check the realm. I can send Njomo inside so that he can take a glimpse of these three races." Alex said before turning to Nelson. "However, I would be troubled if you are going there too." "Understood. I would leave some instructions to Njomo before he goes inside." Nelson nodded. "Alright. We should recheck the forest, so I can make sure this is the case. The denseness of Space Element makes it hard for me to move in the blue-layered realm. If this is truly the case, I want to search for the core before opening the portal." Alex said. As Alex said those words, Njomo came out of his shadow and leaped toward Nelson. It would seem both of them were talking about something, so Alex just left them alone for a few minutes. After finishing their talk, Nelson led them inside the forest since he was the most familiar with this forest. Unfortunately, the forest looked the same as any other forest. Green leaves, tall trees, etc. It was only after walking for a few minutes Alex found withered trees, grasses, leaves. Alex was astonished by seeing this sight as this was the first time he saw something like this. He wanted to say that this must be the legendary withered forest¡­ but the situation didn''t allow him. He could only proceed with caution while observing his surroundings. The forest was empty without any living beings inside. Even the wind didn''t blow around this area. "The center of the forest is in this direction. There is a stone mark¡­ or I should say a grave. Just as Young Master said, there were around eleven people there." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before nodding to Nelson. "Lead the way. That might be the core. Oh right, is there any lore about this Cursed Forest?" "Hmm¡­" Nelson pondered for a minute before shaking his head. "No. I didn''t find lore about this Cursed Forest." Alex sighed. Usually, the information would be the one that boosted his confidence. He finally got to the point there was no information about this dangerous place. As a careful person like him, information was the most important thing before doing anything. And this lack of information made him hesitant to venture. Luckily, Nelson said the forest itself was safe, so he didn''t mind checking the graves first. After walking for another few minutes, Alex arrived at the core area of this forest. Unlike the dead trees around the area, this place was full of energy. He saw a huge lake surrounded by dead trees. In the middle of the lake was a small island with eleven graves. One in the middle, while the other ten circled the first grave. Alex scanned the area first before leaping toward the graves. "This¡­" In the middle grave, a few words were written. "Here lies the hero of the Blackwade Clan, Song Shijie and ten powerful warriors." Alex looked around the graves and took note of their names. Then, he checked his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes and found that this place holds immense energy. Alex quickly created a portal to the blue-layered realm, and all his speculations were answered. As he said earlier, it was filled with symbols. Even without entering the portal, he managed to locate the gate which he could open and send Njomo inside. "Njomo. After entering the portal, I don''t know where you will be teleported to. If there is a danger, quickly call me, and I will summon you back. Do you understand?" Alex looked at Njomo with a grim expression. "Woof." Njomo nodded furiously. "Good." Alex brought Njomo inside before tweaking the symbols for a bit. It was then he activated a small portion of that array right below Njomo''s feet. "Teleportation." The symbols glowed, and Njomo vanished into thin air. 575 Blackwade Clan One month later, In the Blackwade Clan''s Assembly Hall sat a total of twenty-one people, looking at a certain old man kneeled in the middle of them. A middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows as he heard what this man said. He said with a deep tone, "Are you sure about it, Third Elder?" "Ye-yes. It would seem there is someone who could kill the Fourth Elder and the people from Fire God Clan. They were using traps and other things, and they killed the people from the Fire God Clan. It would seem that these people had a grudge against the people from the Fire God Clan because they killed only us and those involved in this matter. On the other hand, the branch that Junior Song Qiang built didn''t suffer any damage." He fed these people with a complete bullsh*t. He glanced at the first elder and closed his eyes, recalling the scene where he discussed this matter. ¡­ A week ago, As soon as he returned to the clan, he quickly made a ruckus in the first elder''s courtyard, forcing his way inside. He didn''t give a damn whether the first elder wanted to meet him or not because they shared the same problem. "Song Xu. We need to talk!" Shouting once more, Song Jing finally broke into his house. "Song Jing. What are you doing here, and why are you creating a ruckus here?" An old man appeared from inside the house, glaring at Song Jing with killing intent. "I need to talk with you." Song Jing clicked his teeth and said with an annoyed tone. He sent a thought transmission to Song Xu. "I killed the third elder." "!!!" Song Xu coughed a few times, never expecting he would hear such news. His angry expression turned into a grim expression as he raised his hand for a split second, gesturing for him to come in. Song Jing didn''t say anything and came inside the house. Song Xu looked at one of his trusted servants and said carefully, "Impose information lockdown for a while. I need to talk to him before making a move." Without waiting for an answer, he followed Song Jing and went to their usual place. "What do you mean by those words earlier?" Narrowing his eyes, Song Xu sat down and asked with a serious tone. "There are many things I need to tell you. First, I killed Song Jing on our way here. There were several reasons¡­" Song Xu heard this part already. However, the reasons piqued his interest because he might need to take some action against him, depending on his reasons. "Tell me." "However, there are more than meets the eyes of this guy. His talent is top-notch, but the mysterious ones would be the people around him¡­ or he himself? I don''t know. Song Yi and I were in the blank state at that time, and before we knew it, the Fire God Clan had already been wiped out, and the Spirit Nest had disappeared. "After that, we know that the Fire God Clan has tricked us. Their real target is him for many reasons that I stated above. Still, there is one thing that made me decide to kill Song Jing¡­ It would seem that he possesses the legendary Supreme VIP Card. Although I only heard it from rumor, it would seem something special. "The problem is this guy has a certain relationship with Song Yi''s granddaughter¡­ or Song Ai-ling''s granddaughter to be exact¡­ and that person was planning to bring her here. If that happened¡­" Song Jing stopped at this point because the first elder would surely come into the same conclusion. Fortunately, because of Shelka''s late appearance, he had yet to know about Alex''s Pure Fire as it was one of the memories erased by Lin Xingzhi. "What? Supreme VIP Card?" The first elder astounded for a few minutes. He couldn''t talk at all because of the information. As Song Jing worried about, they would get impeached by the clan and stripped from their ranks. They might get executed because of their grudge with Song Yi. This would only happen if the rumor about the Supreme VIP Card were true. "There is one more thing. Song Yi believed that someone who could do something like this might already reach the God Stage." Song Jing said. "That''s impossible. No God Stage could stay in this world. A few thousand years ago, there is even a record that someone reached God Stage and forcefully stayed in this world. Unfortunately, after a day, the Lightning Tribulation far stronger than God Stage appeared and reduced him into ashes. We already know that the limit of this world is 10-Star Martial Saint." Song Xu snarled. "That''s what I thought too¡­ This is the reason I dared to kill Song Yi. It was either that this being was a Martial Saint and used a certain trap to make us blank¡­ or a powerful skill from God Stage expert." "Possible. That''s the only possibility I can think right now." Song Xu nodded. "Still, the Supreme VIP Card¡­ I thought it was only a rumor¡­" "I believe so until Song Qiang said the VIP Card had two ''V'' on it. Song Qiang should have limited knowledge about it and the appearance of the card. He could only explain the appearance because he knew it. In other words, the card was real." "This is really a troublesome opponent for us. There should be no godly being that could stay in this world, so at most, they would have 10-Star Martial Saint at most. In other words, if we can move the clan to kill him and take his Supreme VIP Card¡­" The first elder narrowed his eyes. "Yes. This will be a big battle. However, seeing the grudge between him and the Fire God Clan, we could trigger them to move together with us." Song Jing grinned. "Indeed. The alliance between us is for that. Seeing how they trick us, why don''t we trick them back?" Song Xu smirked. "First. We are going to create a rumor about this Alexander Sirius that killed Song Yi and the Fire God Clan. You will say that you don''t know anything and blame everything to Alexander Sirius. Don''t mystify him too much, so the people would believe they could win." Song Jing nodded. "I have told a little about the incident, and the patriarch is going to set up a clan assembly to discuss this. I would manipulate them with my words. What about you?" "I will create a rumor in the Fire God Clan so that they will make a move together with us. With two 10-Star Martial Saints with us, we should be able to beat him as long as we are careful. He shouldn''t be able to use that Godly power again." "Sure. This is the only way we can fool them and take his Supreme VIP Card. At that time, both of us will take those benefits together." Song Xu mysteriously said like he didn''t trust the third elder. After seeing how trustworthy as well as untrustworthy they were, they believed also did not believe in each other. Despite working together, they would also plot against each other. ¡­ Back to the present, Song Jing smirked as the plan was going according to the plan. Beside the middle-aged man was a young man with long blonde hair. His elegant face distorted a little bit before asking, "Elder Song Yi, is it true that the Blackwade Clan''s branch on the Northern Continent is untouched?" "Yes. There should be a peak Martial Saint, who used a certain trickery to attack us from what I had seen. At that time, Song Yi and I hadn''t gotten attacked yet, so we saw a red clothing person, attacking the Fire God Clan. I couldn''t describe it more because he covered most parts of his body, including his face. "At that time, Song Yi and I took the people from our branch and escaped immediately. Seeing the situation, Song Yi decided to buy time for us, and we arrived at the port before we knew it. Luckily, that person didn''t attack us at that point. "After entering the port, Junior Song Qiang decided to go back because he couldn''t see the family and ashamed the family again. Although it pained me, I could only grit my teeth and cross the ocean to tell the tale, hoping the main family would take action. If the young lord can''t believe me, this elder asks the young lord to check Song Qiang''s life stone. It should be in our clan life house." He spat all the bullsh*t he prepared earlier. "I see. If this is the truth, we are in trouble, Father." The young man looked at the middle-aged man who controlled the meeting. "Yes. If the opposite party is that strong, then they would be a match against Fat- I mean, Grand Elder." He looked at the old man beside him. Usually, he would cultivate to reach Godhood, but this matter really forced him to participate. "There are some flaws in your theory, like how strong that person actually is¡­ According to you, he didn''t chase you there, it would seem the fourth elder managed to hold that person for a while. This can certainly be used to measure his power. Even I couldn''t kill Song Yi in an instant." The grand elder said while narrowing his eyes. "I want to point out more flaws, but considering how dire the situation was, I could somehow relate and imagine the scene. Still, if it''s a 10-Star Martial Saint, it will be trouble even to our clan. Song Ping." The middle-aged man, who was called Song Ping, nodded. He looked at the third elder, "Judging how the Fire God Clan brought more people than us, they must not know about this situation. Seeing how they made an alliance with us, we shall use that to our advantage and move in unison. "We will figure out what this Spirit Nest wants as well as their exact location and power¡­ Sixth Elder to Ten Elder will handle this matter. "Wait, Father. There is another problem with this." His son, Song Jiaoren, stopped him after noticing something off. "If they really have a peak Martial Saint, they should come from the Heavenly Continent because whether it is the Northern Continent or Sacred Continent, none of them are capable of raising a peak Martial Saint. This is certainly interesting because why would influence like them move like this?" The 10-Star Martial Saint suddenly realized what his grandson meant. He narrowed his eyes and said, "Is this about the person named Alexander Sirius? Now that I think about it, there is no prior record about this Spirit Nest before a person called Alexander Sirius appeared. However, there is a record of him being only a lousy Martial Master from Willow Continent and how fast his cultivation speed is. After all, he managed to advance from Martial Master to Martial Emperor in less than a decade. This is certainly a big influence." "Is there an influence like that escaped from us this whole time?" Song Ping narrowed his eyes. "We should make two forces against them. The first group will control the movement on this continent while searching for their base while the other group will attack him. If we let such a person grow, it will be trouble for us." The grandfather took a deep breath. "Get the Fire God Clan cooperation." "Alright." On the other hand, Song Jing evilly smiled because everyone started misunderstanding his words. Song Jiaoren looked at the elders and noticed the calm in the First Elder''s expression. He furrowed his eyebrows. 576 Five Influences Meanwhile, Alex opened his eyes, looking at his surroundings. Because of the long wait, Alex decided to cultivate this month and waited. Stina, Kyle, and Sherry also came with him to protect while cultivating. On the other hand, Nelson joined the other spirits and started his killing spree. Only Artur was here to protect him from others. He stayed inside an inn that was full of people, hoping to enter the Special Realm. Artur opened the door and came inside the room, looking at Alex, who had opened his eyes. "Young Master. How is your condition?" "The same as always. I might need another month to reach 7-Star¡­" Alex sighed, fully knowing it would be hard to advance past this point. "Is the event going to start?" "It should be in a few hours. I have acquired the ticket by snatching it from a rogue cultivator. There are around a thousand people from each influence and a thousand rogue cultivators¡­ So we should be able to enter easily. The problem is we need to kill every single member of Black Devil Sect while exterminating the monsters. If we are able to do that, then we are the biggest winner." Artur nodded. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "We have many things we need to do right now and also need to watch out that other influences would attack us. Looking at how vast the place is and with a few thousand people, I would still meet many people in this area." "Yes. The realm itself almost took almost an eighth of this continent. There are at least a few hundred monsters in this area. Even the people don''t understand why this place holds so many monsters." Artur nodded while looking at the scenery outside the window. It was brimming with people. "Actually, there is one more thing that I like about this event. We can get many cores from the Black Devil Sect since they are going to collect the cores for us." Alex smirked. "Indeed. There are a hundred of them, so I am sure we can gather enough monster cores from them." Artur nodded in agreement. "Sherry, Stina, Kyle, wake up," Alex called their name. Stina was the first one to wake up and greeted him. "Master, I almost broke through to Martial Monarch. I decided to halt my cultivation and advance after this event ended." "Thank you for your concern." Alex smiled before turning to Artur. "Do you know anything about the place where we can use the cores?" "It''s like a cultivation room that could fit many people. According to the information around the city, there are around a thousand rooms for them. They are planning to split 900 of them to five sects while giving the rest to rogue cultivators." Artur explained. "Master, thank you for the thought." Kyle bowed to him respectfully. "That''s right. The cultivating space will only be opened after a month. In other words, if the monsters are wiped out before the time limit, they would most likely band together to protect each other. We can use this opportunity to kill them." Artur nodded with a serious expression. "Well, we need to lower their number as much as possible before they assemble," Alex explained the most logical plan they could take at the moment. "Alright. All of you prepare your mask and hide. I am going there now." Alex stood up and walked to the center of the room before recalling Artur to the card. It would seem that Artur worked fast since he had recalled the other spirits before coming here. Taking out Nelson''s, Leoz''s, and Jeanne''s card, he summoned the three of them simultaneously. "The three of you already know your mission, right?" Alex smiled. "Yes. I will search for their power level after this. Seeing how this event is arranged, I feel there will only be less than three monarchs in their ranks. On the other hand, Young Master needs to be careful this time because there are numerous of them. I am sure many of them are equipped with Berserk Pill." Nelson said with a worried expression. "Alright. I will leave the outside matter to you since you three are alone the moment I enter the barrier." Alex nodded. "Yes. We know." Nelson and the others nodded. Alex then walked toward the door and left the inn. In the corner of the city stood a tall door. The door looked majestic, but it appeared strangely similar to those gates from Japan. It looked like the usual entrance from a Shinto shrine. He looked down and thought, ''That gate¡­ What is the name again? Torii? Ugh, I should also learn every country''s culture at this rate since this world is filled with many of those from Earth. I am actually wondering whether this is an alternate Earth or something? ''Is there even a plot twist that this planet is actually Earth of the past or the future? Haha¡­ that''s not possible since I come to this place from Earth and the Lower World. In any case, it''s only a similar gate¡­ it should have no other meaning. Though I am wondering if Earth actually copied this place''s culture or the other way around.'' Alex thought while waiting for the event. "Look, the main characters from each sect finally appear!" One of the people exclaimed out loud. Alex turned around and saw them behind the mask. The first one that appeared looked very similar to a picture that Nelson gave him. He had spiky red hair with a red dragon tattoo running through his right hand. He was the crown prince of Likas Kingdom, an 8-Star Martial Emperor. Behind him stood a few strong people at the 10-Star Martial Emperor stage. These people should be the guards of this crown prince. Alex could safely assume that the crown prince wanted to enter 10-Star Martial Saint by using this event. Meanwhile, the second party also arrived. He had white hair despite his young age. The hair coloring wasn''t natural, so Alex thought it must be coming from his cultivation. A scar from his left eyebrows running through to his left cheek, making him look badass. However, Alex knew that this was the person he needed to kill the most, 10-Star Martial Emperor, Black Devil Sect''s successor candidate, Moar. He was sure of this because he could see the familiar red energy inside his body. "Heh. Pantsy prince, Mitras, is here." Moar snorted with his hoarse voice. "It''s better than a guy who could rely on blood to cultivate." Mitras rolled his eyes while spitting some insult. "Can''t you guys be more civil?" A female''s voice echoed as a pink-haired beauty slowly flew between and passed them. "This is why guys are¡­" "What did you say? Do you want to fight me?" Moar roared at the beauty. "Sure. I can fight you if you want. Only relying on pills, I can beat you if you want." The woman didn''t fear him as their cultivation was the same, 10-Star Martial Emperor. However, the blood pill weakened his strength, so she had a big advantage. Although Moar was stronger than the normal one and could fight 10-Star Martial Emperor, it was still hard for him to fight the woman. "Tch. I will spare you for now." Moar clicked his tongue. He was preparing to advance to Martial Monarch in this place to increase his chance of being a successor, so it wasn''t best to make an enemy. As for his rude comments, everyone already knew he had such a thing, so they only thought of it as his rant, not an insult. "Haha? Are you not going to fight? Come on, why don''t you fight me?" A muscular guy suddenly appeared with light speed. Alex observed this muscular yellow-haired guy. He didn''t know why, but this person reminded him of Leoz, the muscle brain type fighter. "You big muscle brain, you should control your fighting spirit first." The woman glared at him. "Haha¡­ Mio, you still couldn''t let go of your defeat?" The muscular man grinned. "Hmph. You are a muscle gorilla who continued to fight even on the verge of death. I can''t kill you since it will result in the war of our two influences, so I just spared you, Ganga." Mio rolled her eyes away. "Haha¡­ It''s gut. We need guts in our life." Of course, what she said was true. He was only one star weaker than her. It was only after he was half-dead did Mio stop the fight. While they were busy chatting, another woman appeared in front of them. "Welcome to my Martial Arts Pavilion. I hope you all enjoy your stay and have a healthy competition." "Chloe¡­ Huh, as expected, you are going to be here." Moar narrowed his eyes, looking at this 8-Star Martial Emperor woman. This woman was dangerous because, despite having weak cultivation, she had numerous Martial Arts that they would lose if one weren''t careful. Normally, they would only have around four Martial Arts because they would lack a Martial Arts if they had less than that and too many Martial Arts to focus. Either way, their combat ability would decrease. Only this woman, known as Chloe, could use nine Martial Arts simultaneously without dropping her prowess. In fact, she increased it to the limit, making her able to fight a stronger opponent. "Heh¡­ No matter who stands in my way, I will blast them out." Ganga said while releasing his fighting intent. "I am sure all of you already know it, but we have an agreement not to intentionally attack each other, unless in a case like Ganga described. Of course, other than that, it would be your responsibility to keep your people in check." Chloe said with a smile. Her silver hair swayed by the wind, forcing her to use her hand to pin it down. Alex observed each of them. He thought, ''These people are thought.'' Even with his 6-Star Martial Emperor Stage and full power, he was a bit doubtful to kill easily. Only if another person assisted him could he kill them within five minutes or so. Still, the one that caught his eyes was Chloe. His instinct told him that this woman was dangerous, so he should proceed with caution. Alex shook his head as his target was only Moar. As long as no one would come to his way, he wouldn''t need to kill them. Hearing their previous conversation made his heart at ease, because he knew that neither all of them were friends with each other. At this time, an old man with around ten people appeared in the sky as a voice resounded across the city. "This old man welcomes you o''s fighters of the Sacred Continent." 577 Devastating News "This old man welcomes you o''s fighters of the Sacred Continent." The sound wasn''t loud but echoed through everyone''s ears. This sound managed to capture everyone''s attention, including Alex. Turning around, Alex looked up to see the old man in the sky while activating his Spirit Eyes. The old man''s 4-Star Martial Saint strength surprised him. By the look of it, the old man only had an advancement not long ago as the Spiritual Energy was still not stable. Nonetheless, the strength of 4-Star Martial Saint was enough to capture everyone''s attention. Alex''s expression turned serious behind his mask. The old man had long white hair and beard. He wore big round glasses, making him look younger. His facial expression had been described by Leoz together with his picture, so Alex instantly recognized this old man. "Most of you might already know me, but I will introduce myself nonetheless. I am Aran, Martial Arts Pavilion''s Master. We always have this kind of event every hundred years to wait for the monster to appear. From where do the monsters come from? I don''t know." The old man shook his head helplessly. "In any case, our ancestors made this place a few thousand years ago without leaving any note. We are thankful to our ancestors because his effort could give this opportunity. Anyway, you may be bored listening to this old man, so I am just going to say that this place only has one rule. No matter what kind of experience you have inside this realm, don''t try to make any funny movements in this city. This old man shall be the one to stop you. At that time, I don''t know what kind of fate you will have," said Aran with a deep voice. The people gulped down, understanding the seriousness of this matter to Aran. Even if they were under the protection of influences, the influences wouldn''t protect them if they were not important enough. Alex, on the other hand, leaned on a wall while waiting for the realm to open. He only planned to move inside the realm and fought the Black Devil Sect''s reinforcement anywhere so that he wouldn''t care about his speech. It was at this time Alex suddenly received devastating news. [Host, Nicole wants to talk with you.] His eyebrows twitched as the spirits never asked about this unless it was an important matter. Many thoughts flooded into his mind, but none of them were important enough to guarantee a request from the spirits. The heart started pumping furiously as Alex walked into a dark alley while taking out Nicole''s card. "What happened, Nicole?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "I need to inform you of some bad news," Nicole said with a deep voice as she also didn''t take this matter lightly. Alex didn''t reply instantly as he calmed his heart down first. "Tell me." "First, Elder Song Yi¡­ I mean, the fourth elder is dead. The third elder kills him." "The fourth elder is the one who has a closer relationship with Song Yu and the others." Nicole paused for a moment. "There is a complicated relationship between the first, third, and fourth elder. We arrived at Heavenly Continent earlier than them, so we don''t know about the process. "From what I heard, Song Yu should still be alive because he didn''t directly kill her. Unfortunately, she was in the middle of the ocean¡­ I''m sure Young Master knows how dangerous it is in that place." Nicole didn''t continue as she could imagine Alex''s expression right now. Alex closed his eyes as rage filled his heart. He wanted to release this anger to the Blackwade Clan, but none of them were here. He took a deep breath before saying remorsefully. "I see. Her fate is unknown." He purposely said unknown because he didn''t want to believe she died. "Yes. She will either go back or continue to the Heavenly Continent. If she comes to the Heavenly Continent, we will find her. Otherwise, Noel would surely spot her in the port town. "I see. You said you have several bad news¡­ continue then." Alex said with difficulty to calm his anger. "After returning to the Blackwade Clan, the third elder and the first elder successfully convinced the clan to hunt you down. They are also trying to cooperate with the Fire God Clan. In this case, your situation will be dangerous. And I''m afraid they will come with a full force or at least more than half." "!!!" Alex narrowed his eyes as he was trying to come up with an idea. It was true that if the two clans targeted him, Alex would have a big problem. There was only one way to solve this issue. "It seems I need to use the favor of Elder Manness." Just like the ray of hope in the midst of darkness, Nicole said, "This can be good news or bad news, depending on how we act. But I notice that the successor of this clan seems to have some doubts about this. I am planning to leave the clues bit by bit to make him understand the truth. "At that time, Young Master or I can show up in front of him and present the VIP Card. I have found out that the biggest hierarchy of this clan is Patriarch, Grand Elder, Successor, then Elders. If we can rope him to our side, we should be able to turn the situation around." "If that time comes, don''t make a move yet as we want to use our trump card at the last second. For now, I want you to investigate the rumor of the VIP card. Though I don''t have a good vibe about this." "Understood. I will do my best." Nicole knew that Alex was planning to use the successor to convince the grand elder and the patriarch, to kill the first elder and third elder. However, this was only the plan in her head. Alex must have the plan bigger than those. After finishing his talk with Nicole, he tossed the card inside the Inventory and leaned on the wall. He let out a long sigh. "We can''t be impatient here. If there are too many clues, the successor will be confused. At this rate, I might need to take a brunt of their first attack before escaping to the realm. After all, they should have no Space Element Array Master in their ranks." Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds before letting out another long breath. He had calmed his head down. "Whether Senior Sister is alive or dead, I will surely take revenge on them. As for how I will deal with the Blackwade Clan, I will see how they react first after I play all my cards. After all, I can deal with the Fire God Clan alone at this moment. It''s better to forgive them and use them as my card in this battle. "Besides, when I use the influence of Elder Manness, it should be enough to destroy them with the help of the Blackwade Clan." Alex looked up for a few seconds before starting to walk to the main plaza. Surprisingly, Alex found the plaza was empty with only a few people left, including the old man who greeted all the participants. He turned right and saw the gate was opened. Although barely, Alex could find Nelson''s energy too, sneaking around them. He rolled his eyes away and walked toward the gate. "!!!" Of course, all the people here noticed Alex''s presence and turned their heads. Even the leader of their disciples'' group already entered the barrier, why would someone like him hadn''t. This confused them, wondering if he was late or had something in mind. Nonetheless, Alex entered the special realm without anyone stopping him. As soon as he entered the realm, he was teleported randomly. "Look. There is a rogue cultivator here!" One of the people in his surroundings noticed his presence and shouted. The other disciples halted their movement and looked at Alex while smirking. With those long black robes, Alex somehow knew that these people were from Black Devil Sect. His speculation was strengthened by those people''s words. "Although we can''t attack other influences easily, we can target the rogue cultivators and turn them into a blood pill." One of them nodded while coming toward Alex. Alex swept his eyes through the entire area while counting the people who had blood energy inside them. He muttered to himself, "Fifteen people." "What?" One of them seemed to have noticed Alex mutter some words and took offense. Alex shrugged while asking them, "Do you think fifteen people are enough to kill me?" "You are only a rogue cultivator. Who do you think you are? You might be a 6-Star Martial Emperor, but we have seven 5-Star Martial Emperors and two 6-Star Martial Emperors. Do you think we are afraid of you?" The one who took offense walked toward Alex while making a scary face. "It''s your fortune to die in our hands." He placed his hand on Alex''s shoulder as Alex merely smiled at him. Alex said, "I won''t do it if I am you." "What did you-" Before he finished his words, he noticed the presence behind him and turned back, but his head was already flying. At the last second, he saw a black-haired woman, killing him with her scythe. Without waiting for Alex''s signal, his contracted beasts and his spirits, except Leoz, Jeanne, and Nelson, came out of his body and tried to kill the people around. Even without three spirits, they still had eleven people, including Alex. Stina and Anna killed their respective opponents in an instant because of the difference in strength while the other finished their fight in a few rounds. Fifteen people died in a few seconds. Alex''s expression turned serious as he looked around with his Spirit Eyes to see if there were people nearby. After checking they were safe, Alex sat down before summoning Narman. "Narman. Even though you are a Martial King, your power should be enough to locate our enemies. Move around and maintain contact with the other spirits, so we can ambush them." "Understood." Narman nodded before vanishing from their eyes. Alex turned back. "First of all, we have eleven people with us. It will be dangerous to move around despite our strength. Hence, I want to split us into three groups. Stina''s strength is at the peak of 10-Star Martial Emperor, so I want her to lead a group of three. Can you do it?" It wasn''t Alex''s plan to burden Stina since he wanted them to spread out. However, seeing how they grouped up like this, they would really need to form a group. In that case, he needed to rely on the strongest of their group, Stina. Of course, she had no qualms about this and nodded without saying anything. "Understood. How about my teammates?" Alex pondered for a minute before saying, "You will go with Kyle and Jean. Meanwhile, the second group will be led by Fabio. Your teammates will be Vera, Greg, and Artur. The rest will follow me." Anna and Sherry exchanged looks and nodded at each other, agreeing with this arrangement. It was at this time, Anya suddenly shouted and stopped him. "Wait, Alex. I think it is better if I don''t go with you. I can observe what you can''t observe and make a plan according to that." Unfortunately, the answer to her question was a shaking head. "I put Kyle and Stina together because they have a better combination together while Jean is the buffer of this group. It''s the same as Fabio and Vera. On the other hand, Greg maintained his role as the shield of the second group while Artur was the spear. Lastly, our group has the biggest amount of firepower, especially with your support. Suppose we need to attack a larger group. In that case, this group can join with another group and attack them simultaneously, using their own strength. "Don''t worry, Anya. I''m not splitting the group with the thought in your mind." 578 The Start of a Killing Spree "Don''t worry, Anya. I''m not splitting the group with the thought in your mind." Alex smiled, assuring her that he wasn''t insane or had his feelings taken over his rationality. "It could be said that we are the spear, Stina''s group is the sword, while Fabio''s group is the shield. I am preparing for the bigger war." Anya fell into silence after hearing his explanation. "If that is the real reason, then I have no qualms." Hearing Anya''s approval, Alex smiled and nodded. "Thank you." Anya sighed. "We can regroup first before attacking them¡­ but the situation might not be in our favor, forcing us to attack them quickly. I have some images of what kind of situations those are, but I believe this is the best combination." Alex nodded before a roar came from his left. He turned around and saw a 5-Star Martial Emperor tiger charging at him. The sword appeared in his hand as Alex waved his swords. "Triple Draws!" Like other people who experienced Alex''s sword for the first time, the tiger quickly realized the first swing. The tiger tried to bite the sword to stop it before noticing the second and third slash. Unfortunately, it was too late. Knowing that he couldn''t dodge this attack, it channeled all of its energy to strengthen the part that would be struck by Alex''s sword. "Roar Roar!" The tiger let out roars as it managed to block the strike toward its attack, but failed to block the two strikes aiming at its front legs. After regaining its composure, the tiger quickly made its distance from Alex while observing him with its sharp eyes. Unfortunately, both Anna and Artur already appeared beside the tiger, swinging their respective weapons. Without holding back their strength, they slashed the tiger without holding back. For the tiger, Anna and Artur were overkill as their weapons cut his body cleanly. "Ro-uu¡­" The Tiger let out a shrill as it realized that he died. "Good Work." Alex nodded to Anna and Artur, looking at Artur take the privilege to gouge out their core from the body. "What should we do now? We have made the plan already, so should we go now?" Anya asked. Alex didn''t answer her immediately. Instead, he took out Nelson''s card and asked, "Nelson, do the people here know about my identity? Or at least my Sword and Spear?" "No. I don''t hear anything about it even on the Nilis Continent. If you are going to use both weapons, I think they won''t know your identity." Nelson answered calmly. ''I see. Thanks." Alex tossed the card inside the Inventory before saying, "If I use both of my weapons, what do you think?" "You already know that we have the guarantee of the Underworld. Even if we need to, we can just escape to that place and struggle our way there. This continent only has Martial Monarchs, so we should be fine there." Alex explained. "It''s true that we should be able to struggle there¡­ and your plan about the Blackwade Clan. Have you considered the local people here? Like this Martial Arts Pavilion¡­ what will they do if they found out your power? Have you considered the possibility of them joining the Black Devil Sect to target you and mess up our plan?" "I have considered it as well. We can simply use my teleportation to make a move at a time they would never expect. After all, we would move from this place and destroy their reinforcement before going toward the Underworld. At that time, they wouldn''t have the chance to react." Alex said with a serious expression. Looking at his expression, Anya could only agree with him. "Alright. We are going with your plan. After this, we should see whether we need to adjust our plan." "Yes." Alex nodded with a smile. "Alright. Seeing we have come into a conclusion, shall we start? Our mission this time is to kill monsters and Black Devil Sect. We can get their monster cores and EXP for you guys. I hope most of you reach at least 8-Star Martial Emperors." "We surely can. We are already 7-Star after all." Anya nodded with a smile. Alex looked at her for a while and turned around before pointing at three directions. "Stina''s group is going that way. Fabio''s group is going this way, while my group will follow me in this direction." "Understood." They nodded and disappeared from that place. Their initial plan was to wipe as much as possible both monsters or Black Devil Sect members before relying on Narman to guide them. Alex encountered a few monsters and people along the way. They killed the monsters and spared the humans because none of them had the Blood Energy. There wasn''t a reason for him to stop in front of them either, even if they came from the five influences. After a while, Alex suddenly halted his movement. "!!!" Anna also stopped and asked, "Why did you stop? Something caught your attention?" "No. There are around thirty people in front of us, to which half of them had blood energy. They are fighting the monsters at the moment and have no sign of betraying or whatever." Alex said, according to the view of his Spirit Eyes. "Hmm¡­ Shall we kill the monsters and Black Devil Sect members, or only the monsters or even all of them?" A cold glint flashed on Anna''s eyes. "Hmm¡­ We don''t necessarily need to kill other people unless they are in our way. Our priority target will be the Black Devil Sect and their space rings while killing the monster for EXPs is a bonus. If those people stop us from killing Black Devil Sect, then kill them as well." Anna said after pondering for a minute. "Yeah. Let''s do that." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Anya pouted, confusing Alex and the others. "I thought this was my unlucky day since Alex denied my plan a few times." "Haha¡­ This is not." Alex chuckled, while Anna and Sherry rolled their eyes. "Master, can we make some big move for a diversion or something?" Sherry asked. "Hmm¡­ I think we should refrain from it for now. I don''t want to get unwarranted attention that much. The people should already recognize us in a week or so. According to the information, this place will be open for a month. After two weeks, I am sure we can''t find a single monster in this place because they have been exterminated by these many people. "At that time, the people will band together to protect their lives until the cultivation palace is opened and put our monster cores to use." Alex pondered for a moment before saying, "We will see it first, but most likely, we can use it as much as we want after a week." "Alright. I will just use something that can easily kill those people without making a big scene." Sherry nodded. Anya tapped the ground two times as a stream of light flew out of her staff and went inside Alex''s, Anna''s and Sherry''s head. Alex closed his eyes for a second, feeling the power-up from the light. He felt that his strength managed to reach the 7-Star Martial Emperor level. Although he could see an 8-Star Martial Emperor within their ranks, she should not be a problem because of Anna and Sherry. "Let''s go. We won''t talk to any of them and just leave after completing our objective," said Alex while clenching his weapons. The trio nodded and flew toward the group. Intruding the battlefield, Alex found out that there were around fifty monsters in this area. The 8-Star Martial Emperor surely stood out amongst the rest. "Crimson Blade." The 8-Star Martial Emperor was a female with silver hair. Her blade glowed with crimson color as she slashed a bull monster in front of her. Surprisingly, the sword cleanly cut two gigantic horns from this bull that was charging at her. Slicing the bull horns wasn''t enough for her. She took another step to spin her body one time and swung her sword downwards. "Tyrannical Slash." A sword wave flew out of her sword, splitting the bull into two. It was at this time, Alex and co entered the battle. Their group stood out because of the way they entered and their masks. Behind his mask, a flash of astonishment filled his face. He never expected that this woman turned out to be the Martial Arts Pavilion group leader, Chloe. He shook the thought off his mind and flew toward two 3-Star Martial Emperor disciples. The sword and spear already moved toward their neck. "Heaven Light Slash." Unfortunately, the two disciples somehow managed to react and struck at Alex''s sword and spear. "Blood Slash." Both of them had the same technique because they were from the same sect, but this was when Alex showed his superiority. "Ignition Break." Alex changed his technique at the last moment, creating a red glow on his weapons. Upon clashing with his enemies'' weapons, it caused a small but powerful explosion, knocking the weapons out of their hands. "Boom!" Using the chance, Alex used his Heaven Light Slash again and killed these two. He quickly scanned the area and moved into his next target before they could react. The next opponent was a 5-Star Martial Emperor, but he was more prepared than the previous two. Alex paid no heed as he thrust his spear toward him. "Phantom Trust." The spear looked like it was extended to a certain extent, causing him to see the spear already arrived at him despite Alex being so far. He blocked it with his spear but noticed that Alex''s spear was a camouflage. The spear''s only purpose was to distract him, so Alex could get closer. Moving the handle of his spear to block an incoming attack from Alex''s sword, he used it as an attack. "Spear Great Swing." Alex was a bit surprised finding someone who used the spear handle as a weapon but regained his focus in a split second. He couldn''t use his Ignition Break to strike the handle because it would mean the spear would spin, and the spearhead would come from the side. A smile appeared on the enemy''s face, thinking that Alex wouldn''t be able to kill him. Yet, Alex surprised him once again. Pointing out his finger toward the enemy, a ray of red light flew out of Alex''s finger. "Flame of Extinction." This time, Alex completely used his weapons as bait and killed the enemy. At the same time, the other also reacted to this. The closest people, one Black Devil Sect member and one Martial Arts Pavilion Member, leaped toward him. 579 Misunderstanding "Tch." Alex glanced at the two people. In this split second, he needed to choose whether to kill them or not. The Black Devil Sect member aside, if he killed the Martial Arts Pavilion member, that Chloe would jump on him. He wasn''t afraid of her and had enough confidence in killing her, but the problem would be after that. Seeing the scale of influence, they should be able to learn the truth about the killer. This thought caused Alex to think it over. In the end, Alex gritted his teeth and changed his plan only for this time because of the importance of their identity. "Blade of Conquest." Two sword waves flew out of his sword and spear at the same time, making their way toward respective people. If one looked closely, they would notice the difference in power of these two sword waves. The one that flew toward the Martial Arts Pavilion Member didn''t have a single trace of Intent or Domain. It only contained enough Spiritual Energy to blow him away. Meanwhile, the other sword wave contained Alex''s 700 meters domain, and the force was no joke. "Kh!" It was proven at how the other person struggled upon clashing with Alex''s sword wave. Unfortunately, despite all of his effort, Alex''s sword wave still blasted the sword out of his hand. "!!!" As observant as her, Chloe obviously noticed the difference between the two sword waves. It was clear that Alex''s targets were the people from Black Devil Sect. However, what shocked her the most was how Alex could use his spear to create a Sword Wave. She had been practicing and learning all kinds of Martial Arts from a young age, but she never encountered a Martial Art that allowed something like this. There was a trace of curiosity and other feelings, creating a complicated emotion in her heart. Chloe searched for another memory if this person had ever spotted on this continent, albeit not a single piece of memory came to her mind. She thought, ''Who is this masked man? I never heard a person like him on this continent. Besides, his teammates are eliminating the people of Black Devil Sect. Did they have a grudge against them? Thinking how the Black Devil Sect acted, is he taking revenge on them?" Chloe fell into a misunderstanding. She thought Black Devil Sect slaughtered Alex''s and these people''s families. Then they hid while building their strength to take revenge on the Black Devil Sect. And this was the perfect time to strike at them. ''Still¡­ If I don''t prevent him from killing the Black Devil Sect, the others will think I have shared the same sentiment as him. We are teleported randomly, so I meet these people from Martial Arts Pavilion, but I am sure they might still spread it even though I ask them not to. The rumor will become a reality, and the Martial Arts Pavilion will be blamed. ''This will justify the reason why we let the people from Black Devil Sect die.'' She could only come up with something like this in the short time she had. She might be able to come up with a better plan, but this situation didn''t allow her. Gritting her teeth, she took her weapons while jumping toward Alex, ignoring all the monsters around her. She pretended that she wanted to stop him from killing the rest. Unfortunately, like how she misunderstood his intention, Alex also misunderstood her action. The first thought that came to his mind was that Chloe wanted to stop him. "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance. Although it would be bad to kill her, it should be fine to injure her and blow her away. Alex swung both of his sword and spear simultaneously while using his Heaven Light Slash. However, Alex added his Triple Draws to the mix out of annoyance. "!!!" Chloe realized that he misunderstood her action, but as expected from a leading person in the Martial Arts Pavilion, she could clearly see the six attacks. Although she was surprised by how fast the strike was, she somehow managed to react. The Spiritual Energy covered her body as she used her power to the maximum. Seeing the six incoming attacks, Chloe spun her body to make a circular attack that could strike all of these. "Sword Flash, Spinning Dance." The clicking sounds of swords resounded on everyone''s ears. Surprisingly, Chloe managed to block all the attacks and repelled them from touching her body. This feat managed to astonish Alex. Unfortunately, Alex''s attacks were not that easy to block. Chloe felt the powerful power behind each attack and barely blocked it. She used the momentum of this attack to send her away from Alex. "Lady Chloe!" The people from Martial Arts Pavilion surrounded her to protect her from Alex. "Don''t worry. I am fine." Chloe said before blood flowed out of the corner of her mouth. Taking Alex''s blow was really taxing for her body, especially when she was unprepared for it. The people around looked at Alex with hostility, but the latter didn''t care for them as long as they wouldn''t interfere. "Who are you?" Chloe uttered a question. It might be a foolish question, but it was indeed something she needed to ask. And one of them just to make the other disciples believe she didn''t know him. Sadly, her question would never be answered. Not only was there no such intention to answer, but Sherry also appeared beside Alex while saying, "Master, we have finished here." As if he didn''t hear Chloe''s words, Alex turned around and nodded at Sherry before escaping from the situation. "Don''t run!" Some disciples were angry when they saw Chloe hurt while some of them wished Alex to go away after seeing how she was hurt. And with the addition of Sherry, they realized that the monsters and all Black Devil Sect members already died. This scared them out of their wits. Chloe quickly stopped the idiotic one by a single shout. "Stop." "Are you idiots? Haven''t you seen how the monsters and the Black Devil Sect members died and how fast they took to kill them? I don''t know why, but their target should only be the Black Devil Sect. If you don''t want to die, then don''t chase them and let them do whatever they want." "But¡­" Some of the angry ones calmed down, but there were still two disciples that couldn''t let go of their anger. The first one was the person that Alex struck while the other one was his friend. Albeit, their discontent was stopped by another shout. "If you are going to chase them, I will kill you myself. I don''t know how much they will kill, but it would seem their target is Moar. If we act more than this, I and other core members might be put in their killing list. I will handle the matter of the elders, so just shut up and follow my instruction." Chloe let out her frustration. Hearing the words from Chloe''s mouth shut them up. Meanwhile, Chloe wiped the blood on her mouth with her hand before storing her weapons. She said, "Remember, our five influences don''t really have a good relationship with each other, so let them deal with their problem." Meanwhile, Alex was already far enough from them as they stopped for a while. "Alex¡­" Anya looked at him with a troubled expression. "Yeah. That one was my mistake. If they are a group of non-important people, we can just kill them easily. However, the existence of that woman quickly changes the importance of their group." Alex nodded, admitting his mistakes. "Though I am indeed a bit reckless on that attack¡­ After that, I realized that she was only pretending to attack me. It would seem that woman is smart." "I have the same opinion. She used her power at the last minute to block your attack and took advantage of that force to send her away. Fortunately, he wasn''t on our target list. If not, we will need to hunt her down first, so she wouldn''t become a threat to us like Shelka." Anya nodded in agreement while reconstructing the scene from earlier in her mind. Anna crossed her arms and asked, "So, what should we do? Ask Narman to check her just to be careful?" "No. We will continue our original plan. After we are going inside the realm¡­ no, after we are out of this place, I will ask Narman to investigate her usual behavior and other things. If she had the same change as Shelka, I would need to kill her." Alex narrowed his eyes while releasing his killing intent. He was dead serious about it. "Master¡­ How about I transform into my original form and kill her? This way, we could make it look like a monster kills them. If they investigate it, all the clues will only lead to me. As long as I use my human form, there should be no problem." Sherry said with a pure thought to help Alex. Astonishment appeared on Alex''s and Anya''s faces. They forgot to think about this because none of the spirits could look like a monster. Only Fabio''s True Spirit Body had the closest appearance to those of monsters. On the other hand, Kyle and Stina were phoenixes. The phoenixes were rare and targeted in this world, so he shook that thought off his head. The only person left would be Sherry. Sherry would always be his family. This might be the reason why Alex never considered her as a monster and used it as his advantage. However, when they were presented by the problem as Sherry suggested it herself, Alex couldn''t help but think it over and over again. "I mean¡­ with the monsters around, it''s more convincing than killing her outside of this barrier." Sherry looked at Alex''s eyes. Anya pondered for a moment before glancing at Alex. It would seem that Alex already had his answer. "No." Alex shook his head. "It''s not worth the effort. We might be able to fabricate how they die, but there are still other factors that need to be considered." Alex shook his head. "I am not doing this because she is a woman. Even if the one in this is a male, such as that muscle brain, I would probably do the same¡­ Rather than talking about this, how about we continue the mission? Maybe we can find another solution with a bit more time." They nodded because they could easily find Chloe''s position in this realm by asking Narman. With that thought in mind, they flew to search for other prey. 580 Their Situation "Alex, we are done here. How is it on your side?" Anna asked while pulling her scythe out of the corpse. "I have finished on my side as well." Alex used his Spiritual Energy to wipe the blood on his sword before walking to Anna. "I have finished my task also." Sherry jumped between them and said happily. Alex could only smile, looking at her action. He patted her head while looking at Anya behind the tree. "Anya, we are done here." Anya took a step to the left and revealed herself. "What is our status? I have lost the count in my head." Alex asked. Anya came closer first before answering his question. "After a week of hunting, we have killed around six hundred Black Devil Members in total. This can only be achieved by the swift operation of three teams. As for the monsters count, I am also not very sure. If I need to give a prediction, we should have killed around eight thousand monsters in total." Alex looked down. They had been hunting for a week, searching for Black Devil Sect disciples and monsters in this vast realm. However, they might be too focused on the Black Devil Sect as their monsters killing count were only eight thousand. If this was a normal Spirit Nest, they should be able to kill twenty thousand in a week and consider this place as a blessing. At first, he even thought about entering the barrier before anyone could do, but he let go of that thought after visiting the barrier. The defense mechanism, especially for Space Element Array Master, was too complicated. Even Alex might need more than two weeks to solve it. This barrier clearly surpassed the barrier of Joyful Union Sect''s prison. Even if the builder of this barrier was most likely a Martial Saint. After that, Alex decided to wait and enter this barrier in a legitimate way. Now that he entered this place for a week, Alex thought about what kind of array could produce so many magical beasts even though they were slaughtered every hundred years. This thought made Alex think whether he should search for the truth or not after killing the Black Devil Sect. Of course, there were already multiple arrays in his mind that could be the answer to this place, but as an array master, he wanted to see whether his hypothesis was true or not. If there was actually an array that wasn''t registered in the knowledge he got from Lightning Tribulation, he could add the knowledge of this array to make the knowledge more perfect. "Say, I want to explore this place to know the truth, do you think it''s a bad idea?" Alex asked. "Not really. Though if you really find it, you will need to choose whether to keep it running or destroy the arrays." Anna gave the option of the conclusion as she believed Alex would find them. Alex thought for a moment and said, "We still need to kill the Black Devil Sect Members and the monsters. With how our place is going, we can kill the monsters for another week before attacking the rest of Black Devil Sect." "Yeah. They have banded together because of us, so we can''t easily attack them. It''s best to let them live for another week to catch them off guard with our attack." Anna nodded. "Indeed. You can start your exploration after that." Anya agreed with Anna''s opinion. "Besides, five spirits have leveled up, so we can definitely level the rest up before the exploration." "Adventure!" Sherry was happy about this. After cultivating and staying at home for so long, she rarely had any adventures. That was why she would always be happy when such a thing happened. She began feeling this way after the scene back after they met Kyle, where she found out that she couldn''t be lazy. Without her knowing, she already liked the joy of working hard for Alex and went around with him. This feeling was boosted when she gained her human form. Alex patted her head a few times and asked, "Where do you think we should search?" The instant he uttered that question, he activated his Spirit Eyes to see whether there was an array or whatever was too suspicious underground. Whether it was unfortunate or as he expected, there was no clue that he could use to pinpoint its location. An array this big would need a big core, so it should be easier to track. But the opposite party should use a rank 8 illusion array to cover the array, so it was hard for even his Spirit Eyes to find it. "Can''t Master search for it with your Spirit Eyes?" Sherry asked the most obvious thing that Alex just worried about. "I can''t. There is a peculiar illusion array that assimilates the array with its surrounding. Also, my Spirit Eyes can evolve one more time, but I don''t have the medicinal herbs with me. If only I have such a thing, there should be nothing I can''t see. I believe this Spirit Eyes is also very effective for illusion, invisible poison or other similar things since I can see their energy and differentiate them better." Alex sighed in disappointment. Anna and Anya exchanged looks and thought the might of Alex''s Spirit Eyes. They remembered that this technique was previous Alex''s first technique¡­ and it was also a technique that allowed them to meet Alex. Both of them couldn''t help but chuckle. ''We both think the same thing, right?'' Anya sent a thought transmission to Anna. ''Yes. Alex managed to find us among the other butterfly spirits even though we didn''t have a human form like this by using this technique. He saw something in us that normal spirits can''t see. We were injured back then, he took us in and let us evolve into a greater spirit that gave us a human form. Though sister Xingzhi, Leoz, and his right hand, Korzan were already there." Anna nodded. ''Well, we can''t reminisce about things in this place. Besides, the past Alex is different from the one in the present. Can I be considered as not loyal because they are different?'' Anya asked a foolish question. ''Of course not. Although they are not the same, they are similar. In fact, the core and his beliefs are similar. They are a bit different only because what they experience is different. It''s like food with core ingredients but just with different spices. And we love both of them.'' Anna smiled. Anya nodded with a smile before turning to Alex before he got suspicious. She shifted Alex''s attention with a question, "Where do you think the most suspicious place, Alex?" "Ah, there is one place that I found more suspicious than the others. It is-" "The Cultivation Place." Before he finished his words, Sherry answered Anya''s question. Alex only smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, The Cultivation Place is strangely suspicious, so we can go there after dealing with the Black Devil Sect a week from now on." "Alright. It''s your call." "We will regroup with Fabio''s and Stina''s group after a week." Alex nodded before asking Anya, "How is Narman''s situation? He has two specific targets right now." "Yeah. After a few days, you asked Narman to focus on Moar and Chloe instead of Black Devil Sect. According to Narman, Moar has gathered almost four hundred people¡­ There are a few missing people, but they are most likely killed by monsters or still on their way there. As for Chloe, she hasn''t made a big movement. Although the rumor about our existence has become a rumor in their ranks, there is no sign of her making a move on us. "Actually, the rumor has spread to the other influences too, but it''s not because of us. The other groups also met some people from other influences. This created confusion in those five influences, so I secretly asked Narman to observe the five influences also." Anya explained carefully. "And their situation?" Alex wasn''t offended that Anya secretly asked to do more stuff. It just showed how much she cared about their present situation. "The same as Chloe. They are confused and have no sign of moving. That muscle brain wanted to fight you or something, but Chloe, who experienced your power, shut him up. She said that you are a person who wouldn''t care about their background and if he challenges you, the only end result is death. Luckily, the muscle brain still had some knacks and decided to abandon that idea." Anya let out a breath of relief. In this past week, Alex''s group had encountered all influences while killing monsters and Black Devil Sect members. There are some occasions he decided to kill other influences as well, but most of the time was because they went overboard. They concentrated their attack on Sherry or him to stop their group, or even lusting Anna''s body. Unbeknownst to them, their action garnered Alex''s anger and brought calamity to themselves. It was the same as the group. In fact, the total of kills on the other influences was close to one hundred from each influence. The five influences other than Black Devil Sect believed this was the act of Alex''s group. They even met each other to discuss how they wanted to deal with this situation because it concerned all of their influences. At that time, the most surprising thing was how Chloe became supportive about Alex. There were many reasons for her to be supportive, but as expected, the main reason was Alex''s sword and spear. That technique held much more attention to her other than the lives of a hundred disciples from her influence. She was the Martial Arts genius that could combine nine Martial Arts into her fighting style with only her sword. However, had she used a spear as well, she might double the amount of Martial Arts. At that time, she could even combine some of them and confuse the enemy. This would surely increase her current prowess. As for how she could acquire the technique, she felt it would be better to have an equivalent exchange for that technique, or she could bug him to join her influence and offer many benefits. This was how she appreciated Alex''s talent. Yet, Alex was still ignorant about this. "That''s good to hear." Alex nodded. "Yeah. Should we move again to kill some monsters?" Anya asked. "Yeah. Let''s go." Alex''s group began to move again. 581 Preparation of a Big Figh One week later, Alex and the others had regrouped with the others. At first, Alex was planning to make a surprise attack on the Black Devil Sect, but they were better than expected. Although they barely had 400 people, they managed to gather in a single spot to prevent Alex from killing them. On the other hand, the people from Black Devil Sect felt sh*t. They never expected that the powerful sect would have this kind of situation. They hid on a small plain behind a rocky mountain area. Not only could it hide many people inside, but the mountain area also made it hard for normal people to get in. This would be the perfect hiding place for those who had the information about the area. Moar decided to move the disciples here because of Alex''s pursuit. Although he never heard about it, he knew that the disciples had been killed relentlessly by Alex''s group. His only question was Alex''s real target. He even met with the other group leaders from respective influences, but only Chloe''s group, who encountered Alex''s group, and Ganga, who met Stina''s group. They simply shared their experiences with him but didn''t give a damn about his situation. Only Moar and a few elite disciples could go out of this mountain to make sure they could come back alive. Unfortunately, the result wasn''t really good because other influences had completely killed the monsters around them. This made him angry, resulting in him gathering the elite disciples to discuss this. "I need a solution to this problem. If you have any solution, say it. If you don''t, just stay silent." Moar said in frustration, looking at the elite disciples. "Even though we have been careful to only send fifty disciples outside to gather monster cores, they could somehow ambush us again and again. Say, who is their target?" The disciples wanted to say ''you,'' but there was no proof. In the end, they could only stay silent rather than angering him. It wasn''t like they believed Moar was the target, they just wanted to have a scapegoat to end this suffering. Besides, what would be the reason for Alex''s group to slaughter more than six hundred of them other than revenge. The only person who appeared in their mind was Moar. From his younger days, Moar was crueler than any others. Though they couldn''t say they were good either because they had been slaughtering people to make blood pills, Moar was just that different. The first time he roamed outside the sect, he would kill at least a hundred people. It was when he was a Martial Grandmaster. His killing counts alone had already surpassed a few hundred thousand. This made many people want to kill him secretly since they couldn''t kill him openly because of the protection of his elders. In the end, he managed to become a Martial Emperor and every time his name was heard, it would send chills down one''s spine. No wonder everyone would think it was him. "But the monsters have been cleared by other influences. If we go out, we wouldn''t be able to acquire anything." One of the elite disciples said before his pale turned pale, thinking he had stepped over his bound. Fortunately, Moar didn''t berate him. Instead, he narrowed his eyes, thinking it was a good idea. Moar also had thought about this but abandoned the idea because he feared the target was him. After all, he heard that Chloe was no match against a mere 6-Star Martial Emperor while Ganga said he fought a 10-Star Martial Emperor, but couldn''t stand a single blow from her. He feared the moment he came out, they would target only him before running away. However, he had seen that Alex''s group only ambushed the people that patrolled around. He thought Alex mustn''t have enough people to fight this whole group. This thought gave him another confidence. "Alright. Assemble all disciples and make them search the area before going out." Moar ordered one of them to notify the disciples while making a detailed plan with the rest. He needed to be extra careful when he went out because he knew Alex would kill these many people because he was prepared for it. And this was the perfect time to kill him. Unbeknownst to him, his grim reaper already stood a bit farther from their hidden position. They were at the bottom of the mountain, looking at the tall mountain¡­ no, the plain behind the mountain. "Alex, how about our plan?" Anya came to him while glancing at his expression. Alex pondered for a moment before asking her back, "If you are going to kill all of them, what are you going to do?" Anya fell into deep thought while Alex walked past her and came to Anna, albeit he hesitated to ask her and pulled Narman''s card. "I need information about the enemy such as their number, the terrain and other things." "You can summon me, Young Master." Without answering him, Alex channeled his Spiritual Energy to the card. "Summon." Narman appeared in front of him while kneeling on one knee. "They are planning to move together outside the plain behind this mountain. I''m afraid we will have trouble fighting them outside the mountain range, so I believe we can destroy them tonight." Alex raised his eyebrows. "Hoh¡­ It''s indeed better to have made a move on this mountain because the only way you can escape is the sky. We can just put the barrier there and lock them here to make them fall into despair. But¡­ In order to do that, I need information." Narman nodded. "Yes. First of all, they numbered 387 people with 13people above 8-Star Martial Emperor, with three of them being 10-Star Martial Emperor. Although they are not as strong as 10-Star Martial Emperor, that Moar is really different. Besides, some of them should have a Berserk Pill with them." Alex narrowed his eyes as his expression darkened. As Narman said, they had met the people with Berserk Pill a few times in the past two weeks. It was hard to fight all of those people, so he was worried about it as well. He had a solution for that though. "As for the terrain, I can give you a rough sketch of our current terrain and point out a few weak spots that we can use." Narman continued. Alex thought for a moment before giving Narman a ''go''. Meanwhile, Anya appeared beside him and said, "Narman can draw fast and his quality is good. With this, we can get a good grasp of the terrain. For the time being, I shall explain a general strategy we can use." Anna paused for a moment to get their attention before saying, "First of all, Alex will need to make a Special Realm in this area to trap them from moving. By using the complicated terrain, we can attack them from one place to another. We can even use his Space Element to teleport us not far from our position to make the people we move from that place. In that case, they will think the enemies are constantly moving, or there are more than a group of enemies." "Hmm¡­ How about if they use their Berserk Pill?" Alex asked mysteriously, wondering if she came up with the same strategy as him or not. "Of course. It''s your space element." Anya smiled. "As expected, it''s the only solution for us, huh¡­" Alex sighed. Looking at the confusion on the others'' faces, he began explaining his plan, "This plan is related to the Special Realm that I will build to prevent them from escaping. The moment they eat the pills, we are teleporting outside the area and wait until the pill effect is over. They are going to die anyway, so using my Space Element isn''t a problem." "Yeah. We need to search around this area to make sure no one from other influences saw Alex''s Space Element." Anya added with a grim expression. "In order to do that, we will use the night and fastest method. This is what we are going to discuss." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Are we going to use the True Spirit Body again?" Anna asked with a complicated expression. She was worried about the other influences because the True Spirit Body is their main trump card. If the other influences decided to attack them after that, they could only escape. Alex understood her concern but still nodded. "Yes. Don''t worry. We are going to explore this vast barrier anyway. I don''t really mind them coming at us. Besides, they shouldn''t be too foolish since they know we have eliminated the Black Devil Sect unless they want to be the second one. The best they will do is to make a distance with us before reporting about it to their influences. At that time, we would be long gone." "Alright." Anna nodded before noticing Narman had finished. "Young Master, I have finished with the sketch." Narman showed him a rough but easy to differentiate sketch of their surroundings. The mountain, hill, or even plain could be in sight in 2x2 meters paper. Alex couldn''t help but be astonished by the details. He didn''t even need to clear the drawing as Alex had already grasped everything in this drawing. He narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought before pointing at two spots. "These two spots are good. This first spot surrounded by mountains can be used to get a good advantage because it has a height advantage and is hard to be seen. The only way to get into this place is from the air¡­ But this means we only need to target one direction. "On the other hand, a bit further from the plain was a small forest that we can use to confuse them. If it were me, I would attack them from this mountain first, and when they try to fly toward the mountain, I will use my teleportation to go to the forest. Using the forest as a camouflage to hide my little number, we can bring confusion in their rank, forcing them to split their force to the mountain and forest. We can then eliminate the ones that are inside the forest." "That''s nice. We need to be fast enough to kill everyone inside the forest and target those who want to use the Berserk Pills. By the time the rest found out, they might use the pills before the battle. At that time, we will teleport and let them die. In case they target the barrier, we can use the Spatial Gate to send the attacks back to them." Anya smirked. "Yeah. That''s what I am planning to do. However, I need to set up quite a big array without them noticing. Narman, can you guide me around the area so I can finish the array before midnight?" Alex asked. "Your wish is my order." Narman nodded in confidence. "Anya, I will leave the plan details to you since I will be busy." "Yes. Leave it to me." Then, Alex and Narman sneaked around the area. Alex''s speed in drawing symbols was fast. In fact, he only needed to reach 8-Star Martial Emperor before learning the rank 7 Arrays and pills. Though he never really had the need to make pills recently because he had enough money¡­ from plundering the Joyful Union Sect. It took them a few hours to finish the entire arrays because they needed to go around the moment they found a disciple patrolling the area. They didn''t want to kill them just yet, to avoid being noticed. And luckily, the plan was progressing smoothly. Alex and Narman came back to the meeting place, and Anya quickly explained her plan. After that, Narman disappeared to check their surroundings to prevent any influences from spying on them while Alex and the others could only wait for the night to come. 582 The Beginning of the Battle Later at night, the moon was almost right above their heads. For Black Devil Sect, this was the last night to prepare for their big movement tomorrow. Little did they know that this night was actually the start of their doom. Alex and the others slowly made their way toward the mountain, positioning themselves on the top of the mountain. Because the mountain was higher than the plain and surrounded by many hills, it was hard to see the top, especially in this darkness. Alex climbed on top of the rock to see the condition on the plain. Although his condition was basically the same, barely able to see their figure, he could still easily see them with his Spirit Eyes. The energy in their body brightened the world. Then, Alex started searching around the surroundings, whether there was any patrol around. Luckily, he found no sign of energy or else he needed to eliminate them. After checking his surroundings and the enemies'' position, Alex jumped off the rock while saying, "According to the plan, all of you can use your True Spirit Body now. Although it will create a little turbulence in our surroundings and the possibility of alarming them, our plan won''t change. We will bombard them with powerful attacks and kill as many as possible." The spirits nodded at the same time before raising their respective weapons and said, "True Spirit Body." Inside their body, Spiritual Energy sparked and gushed out of their pores. The sudden influx of energy alarmed not around their area, but also those on the plain. Moar also felt the sudden change of Spiritual Energy and quickly opened his eyes, looking above the mountain. At this time, four lights shot to the sky from four directions. Although the light was hard to see from a distance, it was very clear for those on the plain. The lights suddenly created a layer of translucent barrier, connecting with each other. It was at this moment Moar realized the enemy was coming¡­ And they used a barrier to trap them. In other words, there was an Array Master in their ranks. After realizing his situation, Moar shouted, "Is there any Array Master here? We need you to break the barrier!" Unfortunately, his shout wasn''t answered. It wasn''t because there was no Array Master in their rank, but because all people could see the sky brightened. Four Phoenixes appeared on top of the mountain. "Cry!" They released a cry before flying toward the plain. "Attack!" "Shoot down the phoenixes!" A few fast ones who had recovered from the shock quickly shouted to wake the others up, and they somehow woke around two hundred members. "Raging Wind." "Sword Blaster." "Fire Breath." Those people shot their own attacks in order to destroy the phoenixes. Unbeknownst to them, this was exactly what the opposite party wanted. The moment they shot out those attacks. The guy simply clapped his hand once before a gate appeared in front of the phoenixes. It was a huge gate, leading to a blue-layered realm. However, all the people here were confused about what kind of gate it was, until Moar finally recognized the gate. "It¡­ It''s a Space Element! A Space Gate!" His face turned pale as he saw the gate swallow those attacks while the phoenixes flew around the gate and continued making its way toward them. "Not good!" The disciples tried to send another wave of attack, but the previous portal suddenly appeared right above them. At this time, everyone realized what kind of attack was this. "Space-" "Boom Boom!" Before they could finish their words, their previous attacks rained from the portal, creating numerous explosions. Alex, of course, had added Sound Insulation Array into his barrier to prevent anyone from noticing. The series of explosions wreaked havoc on the battlefield with its might. The one who created this was none other than Alex. By using this kind of diversion tactic, the Phoenixes fell on them. "Boom Boom!" "Argh!" "Gah!" The disciples that were hit at the point-blank range were injured or reduced to ashes for their weaker ones. Unfortunately, their suffering had yet come to an end. In fact, it was just a start because a huge bubble fell onto them. It was at this time Moar finally made a move as he flew toward the bubble. Taking his sword out of the space ring, Moar covered it with his domain and dark red energy. The energy was blazing like a flame before growing into a larger size. Moar raised his sword and swung it, shooting a cross Sword Wave toward the bubble. "Dark Blood Cross Slash!" It sliced the bubble into four as well as popping it out. The bubble turned into millions of droplets, raining on them. "Don''t panic! The enemy is above the mountain. We just need to fly." Moar shout woke everyone, albeit as soon as his shout, it was followed by another move from Alex''s group. This time it was the combined attack of Fabio and Vera. Just like Moar''s cross sword wave, these two''s combination attacks also sent out a cross sword wave. The two sword waves clashed against each other. As one would expect, the sword wave from Fabio and Vera shattered Moar''s sword wave in an instant and made its way toward Moar. "Ugh!" Moar quickly raised his sword while covering it with a dark red flame. Unfortunately, he wasn''t strong enough to block this attack completely. The sword wave blew him away to the ground. "Bam!" Moar endured the pain while looking at the sword wave that had yet to be broken. He ignored the blood that flowed outside his mouth as he tried to get back on his feet. However, a few people appeared in front of the air and struck the sword wave with their full power. "Boom!" After a few seconds, they somehow managed to destroy the sword wave with great difficulty. Just like Moar, the force from the sword wave blew them to the ground. A few of them spat a mouthful of blood while some of them had their hand numb. At the same time, another wave of attack came at them. This time there was a black wave carrying dreadful energy, a big sword falling from the sky, and five hundred firebirds. "Shoot them!" "Attack!" They started using their respective Martial Arts for the sake of destroying these attacks because they were scared after watching how strong the two previous attacks were. They didn''t hope for this attack to crash on them. As if they were the bodyguards of the black wave and big sword, the firebirds formed a formation in front of these two attacks and intercepted all incoming attacks. "Boom Boom!" A series of continuous explosions kept echoing across the region as the two attacks were flying toward them safe and sound. "It''s coming." Moar roared and made a barrier for himself. On the other hand, the other disciples charged at the two attacks with their weapons. From ten people to twenty¡­ From twenty to fifty¡­ The number of disciples kept increasing and managed to destroy these two attacks. "The enemies should be on the top of the mountain. Fly up high and spread out, so they can''t target us." Moar ordered as he also floated to the air. The disciples quickly flew to the sky, but this was the time where things started getting rough. Just like before, four phoenixes appeared on top of the mountain as the disciples were wondering whether the space gate would appear again or not. At the same time, Alex and his group took advantage of this and summoned a hundred firebirds to surround the phoenixes. The four phoenixes let out a cry and flew toward the Black Devil Sect. The people wanted to shoot it down but were afraid of the Spatial Gate. In the end, they let the Phoenixes get closer and closer to them so they could strike it. Unfortunately, the moment they got closer, all the firebirds that had been hiding until now finally spread out. "!!!" "It''s a trap!" The disciples shouted as they quickly destroyed the firebirds first before shooting the phoenixes down. "Boom Boom Boom!" Countless explosions occurred on the battlefield as each firebird exploded every time someone struck at them. This was also one of the wonderful things about the soul because Alex could control whether he wanted to destroy it or keep it. Though as expected from the disciples of Black Devil Sect. Even though they were not expecting something like this, they could somehow manage to destroy all the firebirds. At the same time, a few people gathered around and formed a barrier made of their Spiritual Energy to block the Phoenixes. The Phoenixes'' explosions swallowed them, but it didn''t manage to kill them. The worst one only had one of his arms destroyed. Seeing the state of the battle, Alex knew they could still shoot another attack before retreating to the forest. After signaling the order to his group, Alex used his sword and spear this time. He raised both weapons and channeled his Spiritual Energy. The domain was concentrated in the tip of each weapon before fusing with Alex''s fire. Alex took a deep breath before breaking the seed inside his body and letting his Pure Fire take over. This would enhance his attack even further. Looking at Anna and the others who were ready to shoot out their attack, Alex nodded and swung both weapons simultaneously. "Triple Draws!" "Blade of Conquest!" By using these two moves with his two weapons, Alex could create six sword waves at the same time. Meanwhile, Stina and Kyle used Fire Lotus Petal technique to blast their enemy. On the other hand, Sherry made a big Flame of Extinction above her head¡­ a small laser beam of this technique alone was already dangerous, let alone one this big. Alex only worried about her Spiritual Energy because this technique should require a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. All of them shot their attacks in unison while the spirits released their attacks in succession. This was Alex''s plan. His and the contracted beasts attacks were just a decoy while his spirits were the real attacks. The strategy was proven to be effective when they saw the disciples were focusing on the decoy instead of the attack behind them. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Argh!" The decoy might not be able to hurt anyone, but it was already enough for the other attacks to kill a few of them. Alex calculated briefly in a single glance and noticed that their numbers were reduced significantly. We should have killed fifty people within these few attacks, Alex thought. After confirming the enemy state, he turned around and said, "We are going for phase two!" 583 A Danger? "We are going for phase two!" As soon as Alex ordered them, they quickly turned into lights and went inside his body. *Snap!* A teleportation array appeared along with the sound and teleported Alex into the forest. When the people from Black Devil Sect arrived at the top of the mountain, they could only see darkness without any sign of a person. Even after spreading their energy around. Moar couldn''t believe this and shouted. "Spread out. They shouldn''t get too far." It was at this time another barrage of Martial Arts flanked them from the side. "Boom Boom Boom!" "Argh!" "Gah!" Alex''s plan slightly changed because of the Spatial Gate he used earlier. By showing his Space Element early on, they would have some reservations before using their Berserk Pill because they knew Alex could escape any time. Alex wanted to take advantage of this to end the battle without letting them take any Berserk Pill. However, showing this also meant that the enemy would know that Alex could teleport around the area and attack them from every direction. This would surely make Moar spread the disciples around because they might be attacked from many directions. To prevent that from happening, Alex attacked them with all previous skills to tell them they were here. Of course, he could also teleport again before the enemies arrived in the forest. And this mind battle was Alex''s real target. It was hard to see in this darkness. Still, for Alex, who had Spirit Eyes, it was easy for him to get the best spot to make another attack. In the end, Moar would be too scared as Alex might teleport right in front of him at any given time. The moment he locked into a mind battle, Alex''s chance of victory increased significantly. While thinking of that, he could finally see the damage that had been done by his power. It would seem that he managed to kill another twenty of them, making their group had only three hundred people left. On the other hand, Moar was given a hard choice. He was sweating profusely, wondering which was the best choice he could use. First of all, destroying the barrier seemed not possible because Alex would surely reinforce it. At the same time, he couldn''t use his pill because Alex might escape, waiting until the effect wore off. In this situation, the only plan possible was to split their group. "Rio and Troy will lead a hundred disciples to the forest while the rest will explore the mountain to make sure no one is hiding on the mountain." He said he would explore the mountain, but it only masked his real intention. His original plan was to use the first a hundred as bait to lure Alex to split his force, so he could pay him back for the ambush earlier. Alex surely couldn''t teleport all of them at once because they were too separated. And it would be the perfect chance for his and two hundred disciples to attack Alex''s group. In the worst case, he could order a few people to use their berserk pill. Even if Alex forced it out by teleporting a few, he could kill the rest. Moar grinned as he watched a hundred people fly down the mountain and entered the dark forest. Little did he know, he still underestimated Alex''s group too much. Alex could see the energy of those hundred people and quickly informed Anna and the others. "A hundred are coming for us while the rest are still on the mountain. I believe they are planning something, so our solution is to kill the people in the forest as quickly as possible before the bigger ones come." Alex said while narrowing his eyes. "What should we do if they come before we finish?" "It''s simple. Anya will stay here as our support and command. As soon as I see the bigger group charge at us, I will tell her that so she can recall all of you. Meanwhile, I want Sherry, Kyle, and Stina to kill the enemy around me¡­ or at least, stay close with me so I can inform you at any time. I will use my teleportation to teleport us to the Top of the mountain again and ambush them." Alex grinned evilly. "Ah. A good strategy that takes advantage of this darkness." Anya gave her approval. Alex nodded before clenching his two weapons. "Let''s go." "Yes." They moved in unison. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see in this darkness. The Spirit Eyes became something similar to a heat vision but saw the energy instead of heat. This allowed Alex to locate many people at once, making the killing easier than the rest. The people could activate their domain to check their surroundings, but it was nothing compared to Alex''s teleportation. *Clap!* By a single clap of his hand, a teleportation array appeared as it teleported Alex behind his target. The opponent was only a 5-Star Martial Emperor, so Alex quickly used both his weapons at the same time. "Triple Draws." "Heaven Light Slash." These six attacks were truly a devastating attack. Although Chloe managed to block this even though it caught her unprepared, it was still enough to injure the people of the same level, let alone a 5-Star Martial Emperor that had been using the blood pills for years. He also wasn''t special like Moar, so if Alex needed to predict his real prowess, it was more like a 3-Star Martial Emperor. With the difference in mind, Alex struck him at his four limbs, heart and head. These six spots would surely heavily injure him or kill him even if only one spot was struck. "Blood Barrier." Red energy gushed out of his body before turning into a circular shield. Knowing that Moar was planning to sacrifice them, he had been extra careful after entering the forest. He realized that Alex was teleported behind him after knowing his space element earlier. He didn''t have anything that could block these six attacks other than this barrier, albeit he miscalculated the strength behind Alex''s attacks. *Crack!* The cracking sound echoed in his ears as a few parts of the barrier were broken. "Argh!" The man screamed out of pain as his left arm fell to the ground. "Tch!" Alex clicked his tongue as he never expected the barrier could hinder him. Out of the six attacks, the head and the heart were heavily guarded as his attack didn''t graze the barrier there. On the other hand, the two legs quickly stuck with each other, so Alex needed to penetrate deep enough to injure it. Unfortunately, the Heaven Light Slash wasn''t able to cut the hand at all. In contrast, the two hands didn''t have anywhere to escape other than jumping back, but the timing prevented that option. Alex should be able to slice deep enough to render both of his hands useless. As if he knew about Alex''s intention, the man shifted his body to the left to avoid the Heaven Light Slash from his right. This would prevent both hands from being attacked, but it also cost him the entire left arm. Screaming out of pain, the man still managed to clenched his sword to strike back at Alex. This was the time where Alex showed his superiority. His sword glowed red while his spear had no change other than an influx of Spiritual Energy. Alex struck the enemy weapon with his sword first before using his spear. "Ignition Break!" The red light on his sword turned into a small explosion that resounded across the forest. It would certainly let more people come in, but Alex could just teleport. Meanwhile, after blasting the sword from his opponent''s hand, Alex''s spear moved like lightning and pierced his neck. Alex took a deep breath before looking at his surroundings. As expected, that explosion sound alarmed the enemy as he saw twenty people coming toward his place. At this time, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina, who were close at his place, appeared before him. "We are going to kill those twenty. Don''t mind about alarming them¡­ as long as you control your fire or I might control it with my Pure Fire, there should be no fire spread that can light this entire forest. Of course, the enemy could light them up as well, but we can simply retreat to a deeper part of the forest." "They can simply use Fire Element to brighten the area, Master." Stina furrowed her eyebrows because she was sure Alex knew about this already. Just like how she described it, a few light balls flew to the sky, carrying a huge amount of energy and light and brightening the forest. This allowed the enemy to identify their positions. Finding this strategy funny, Alex chuckled before saying, "Don''t worry. I have a solution to this." As soon as Alex said that, a black sphere appeared in the air as it slowly turned into a vast thin layer of complete darkness. This plate completely blocked the light coming from the fireball. "This is Dark Curtain?" Stina exclaimed in surprise. "Yeah. I have asked Anna to do this because I am sure the enemy will use it at some point." Alex nodded. "At some point? What if they use it from the beginning?" "No. They won''t do that because they would think that the darkness also blinds us. They would surely think first whether using that technique is beneficial for them or not? After all, not only our position, but their position would also be exposed. If we are not cornering them like this, they wouldn''t do such a thing." Alex smirked. "Anyway, we still have another job to do." Without waiting for Stina to reply, Alex glanced at the twenty people in their way. There was no need for explanation as both Alex and Sherry charged at the enemy in unison while Kyle and Stina used their flame to create a lotus. Alex appeared right behind the enemy again and struck him using the same strategy. He could kill two people with the same strategy, but the third one was a little too good to the point he couldn''t end the battle soon. "Blade of Conquest!" Alex released a sword wave to blow this man away to Sherry''s direction, which the latter simply raised her hand with fire surrounding her palm. The man wanted to slash her hand to avoid this, but Sherry grabbed his sword and burned it with her flame. "Fire Phoenix Art, Second Stage. Fire Claw!" The sword melted and Sherry managed to grab his head and melted it as well. It was at this time they felt intense heat from behind. A five-meter blue lotus appeared in the forest, brightening the darkness nearby. Stina and Kyle would obviously become the center of attention, but they had finished their skill first before anyone could arrive. All the petals of the lotus slowly fell and carried a huge amount of energy. The people knew if this lotus hit them, their only fate would be death. "Not good!" Alex found someone using her bow to strike at this lotus. He quickly sent out his firebirds to intercept the arrow, but none of the firebirds could hit it because the caster controlled the arrow perfectly to dodge Alex''s firebirds. He even used his Spatial Gate to swallow this arrow but to no avail. The arrow leaped to the sky and flew around before finally hitting the target. Alex gritted his teeth because he knew the lotus would create a huge explosion. "Boom!" 584 The Might of Heaven Tier Fire Ar "Boom!" The first explosion occurred from the lotus that had been hit by the arrow. That explosion hit a few other petals and so on, creating a chain of explosions that engulfed Alex''s group and a few people from the enemy side. However, Alex managed to use his teleportation array to appear beside Stina and Kyle while bringing Sherry with him. He made a barrier of flame using his Pure Fire to protect everyone from the explosion. As for the enemies, they were not lucky enough to escape and were burned into ashes. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and couldn''t help but suck a cold breath. He muttered to himself while recalling a certain figure in his mind. "Is Rose going to have something like this? An arrow that can''t miss or can be controlled at any time? An arrow that has more power than my Spear Throwing Art?" He didn''t care about the explosion, because he could see the wonder of a bow user. The thought about the possibility made him smile because he was happy his disciple had so much room to grow. On the other hand, Alex also had no time to think about this. He quickly shook his head and looked at the mighty flame from the lotus. The fire was blazing everywhere and looked terrifying. *Stomp!* The fire suddenly moved after the sound like someone controlled it. The enemies who weren''t hit by the explosion looked at the fire and gasped. "This¡­" Alex gathered the fire to his side with a wave of his hand. This fire was Stina''s and Kyle''s fire. As for him, he was their master as well as the owner of Pure Fire that strengthened their fire, it was possible to control the fire to a certain extent. "Fire Wave Emission." He even used his technique to control this fire, creating a few normal size spears and pointing them at the enemies. These spears were far stronger than his firebirds, and if they weren''t careful, they might lose their life in an instant. Alex released those spears at the same time, raining the enemies down with his spears. "Not good. Everyone, be careful!" The shout resounded across the forest. The Black Devil Sect disciples drew their weapons and struck or dodged these fire spears. Nonetheless, no matter what they did, the result wasn''t so great for them. The spear that they struck carried Alex''s soul as it automatically exploded the moment it touched their sword, whereas the spears would explode the moment they flew past the people. In other words, the ones that dodged the spears weren''t so lucky. They somehow created a powerful shield to protect themselves, but Alex''s Pure Fire was far stronger. It broke a portion of their shields and heavily injured them. Alex looked around and saw that only one person died. It was surprising for him and made him wonder if they were this strong or because they were lucky. However, it would seem that most of them were heavily injured, so he gave a signal toward Sherry and the others. Phoenixes'' cries echoed in everyone''s ears as they saw the four phoenixes that devastated them earlier reappear. For the heavily injured people, their hearts skipped a beat because they were sure the phoenixes were going to kill them. Thinking upon that point, the disciples'' faces turned pale. However, the phoenixes actually didn''t fly toward them. Instead, they were collecting the flames around the area, including the flame that was produced earlier. Not long after, Alex''s phoenix absorbed the other three phoenixes and the flame they had collected. The phoenix turned into a huge ball, carrying a terrifying amount of Fire Energy. It might be the first time he used this technique as this was the only Heaven Tier Fire Art he had at the moment. The people were shocked by this Fireball and instantly realized they needed to destroy this. The bow user released another arrow that had destroyed the fire lotus earlier. His arrow flew toward the fireball without any restriction, there wasn''t even a single attack from Sherry and the others to prevent the arrow from reaching the fireball. The first reason they allowed this was because of Alex''s control of his Pure Fire. He could make the Fire harmless to his friend while becoming a harbinger of death to his enemies. In other words, even if the arrow could destroy it, they would be fine. As for the second reason¡­ The enemy''s arrow that flew toward the fireball melted before reaching it and slowly turning into fuel for the fireball. No one had a calm expression at this point as they raised their weapons to attack the fireball. "Gigantic Wind!" "Sword Heaven Gift!" ¡­ Around ten attacks flew toward the fireball but melted by the intense heat. On the other hand, Moar also saw this fireball that brightened the whole area like the sun and felt the scorching heat even from afar. "This is not good! Prepare the barriers!" Moar, who just went chasing Alex''s group to the forest after waiting for some time, halted his movement and shouted. He noticed the abnormality in that fireball and shuddered. All disciples obeyed him without wasting a single second because they felt dread upon seeing the fireball. "Thirty seconds¡­" Alex muttered himself. The fireball needed to gather enough energy from the surroundings for up to thirty seconds. This was the only weakness of this attack. In fact, there were only three ways to stop this attack. Firstly, they could shatter the fireball with a stronger power such as peak Martial Monarch if not Martial Saint. Secondly, they could attack Alex instead of the fireball. And the last way was to stop him by using elemental advantage. Out of the three ways, none of them was able to stop him. They didn''t have a powerful person at peak Martial Monarch stage, let alone Martial Saint. In case they attacked Alex instead of this fireball, Sherry and the others were ready to protect him with their lives. Lastly, with Alex''s Pure Fire, there was nothing that could be said as an elemental advantage, including Letizia''s Pure Ice Element because his Pure Fire already evolved. After finishing the counts, Alex finally activated the fireball as it slowly shone brightly. He raised his hand before clutching. The fireball that was 30 meters in diameter flew a bit higher to the sky. The flame started gushing out of the fireball. Just like a water balloon popped out and blasted all the water inside, this fire also did such a thing but with a massive explosion. "Hell Inferno!" Alex said with a low voice, but those who heard him felt it was the sound of the satan, giving them an invitation to hell. "Boom!" The explosion was like none other. It engulfed everything in a five hundred meters radius before the fire shot up to the sky, alarming everyone around the area, including the people from other influences. The people couldn''t even utter a single word before turning into ashes. It had the power similar to Leoz''s ultimate attack that devastated the Joyful Union Sect. The difference between their power was Leoz had his True Spirit Body and used all of his power. In contrast, Alex had his evolved Pure Fire and used eighty percent of his power while having a weaker cultivation base than Leoz. However, this also showed how overpowered his Pure Fire was. The fire slowly disappeared with many people and the whole forest. All people inside the forest except Alex''s group died, and around a hundred people in the sky died because their barrier was broken by the explosion. "Ha¡­ Ha¡­" Alex fell on his knees, panting. It was truly exhausting to use such a technique. Not far from him, Anna opened her eyes wide as she saw the fire was avoiding her. Even the ground beneath her feet was saved. The same also applied to the other spirits, but Anna was the closest one to Alex and appeared beside him with her shocked expression. Her expression turned from shocked into angry after seeing Alex''s exhausted state. "Alex, what are you doing?!" Anna grabbed his collar and pulled him up. The anger in her heart wasn''t because of Alex''s irrational decision, she was mad because of his current condition. "Don''t worry. I only use eighty percent of my power, so I have enough strength to teleport us away before the enemy could come to this place." Alex smiled, assuring her. "Haiz, if only I am a peak Martial Emperor or Martial Monarch, I can kill every member of Black Devil Sect instead of leaving a hundred of them alive." "I am not talking about this technique. I am asking why you would do such a thing and exhaust yourself like this!" Anna snarled, glaring at Alex fiercely. "Elder Sister Anna¡­" Sherry walked toward her and wanted to stop her, but Anna''s expression stopped her instead. "Anna, Stop it for now. We still need to kill the rest." Artur finally arrived at their side. He looked at a hundred people in the sky. They had shocked expressions, but they could see a few of them had recovered, including Moar, who was shouting to his people. Not long after, half of them swallowed a pill, which they believed to be Berserk Pills. "That''s right. I will protect him here, so all of you can take over." Greg appeared in front of Alex while raising his shield. The rest of the spirits also appeared one by one as they looked toward the people in the sky. "There are only one hundred of them left, I believe all of you can finish it within thirty minutes. I will take care of the undoing of this barrier since the other influences would most likely come to this area. It would be a different matter whether they are brave enough to come or not. Of course, I will move around the area to search for Space Rings¡­ I just hope they are not destroyed yet because of your attack, Alex." Anya appeared, gave her order, and left. It was such as she said, Alex''s group needed to finish this battle as soon as possible. Although Nelson, Jeanne, and Leoz weren''t here, the spirits weren''t that weak, especially after killing so many monsters and people. All of them managed to level up, and the lowest one was Greg with 8-Star Martial Emperor, but he almost leveled up to 9-Star Martial Emperor. He believed they could reach 9-Star if not 10-Star after killing the reinforcement from Black Devil Sect. It might be such a shame to enter the Underworld before reaching Martial Monarch, but there should be no other groups that could kill them easily since the highest should be 5-Star Martial Monarch. Anna gritted her teeth before releasing her hands. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Alex. "Fine, you can go sit here and relax. If you join again, you can see what I''m going to do to you." Alex only smiled gently. "Yes. I won''t do anything. Anyway, thanks for worrying me, Anna." Anna didn''t say anything and flew to the sky, followed by the other spirits and the contracted beasts. On the other hand, Alex sat down and let out a long sigh. He had used this Peak Heaven Tier Martial Art in his Simulation Room, and the result was devastating like this. It used a huge amount of Mental Energy to control the attack to prevent any allies from getting hit. In fact, if he had a hundred subordinates around him, only ten to fifteen people would survive. After all, this Peak Heaven Tier Fire Art attacked both allies and enemies. He trained so hard and took more time to perfect this technique than any other Sword or Spear Technique because he wanted absolutely sure he could control it. Alex chuckled as he glanced at Greg before shaking his head. He knew Greg would watch his every movement, so he just sat back and watched how the Black Devil Sect were butchered. 585 Assassin Nelson On the same night, the outside conditions were also not very peaceful. In the usual silent night, all people had gone back to their homes. For the elders from Martial Arts Pavilion would be their respective houses, for the elders from other influences would be their inn. They had nothing to do other than waiting for their disciples to come back. According to their timing, the cultivation place would be opened in two weeks before it would stay open for a week. In other words, they still need to wait for another three weeks. If they could come back to their influences and fly back here later, they would surely do. Unfortunately, they needed around a week of flying just to get back while the Ancient Blue Family in the north needed a bit more. So, it was better to wait. There were five elders in the Martial Monarch stage from Black Devil Clan staying in this inn. The inn was called Wind Art Inn. Nelson had been lurking in this place for a while, creating as many preparations as possible. Under the dark alley where the light couldn''t reach, Nelson had a secret meeting with Leoz and Jeanne. "I will take care of those five elders¡­ maybe killing four of them and letting the last one escape so he can bring more. This is the right time to do it because he would most likely arrive one month after this¡­ three weeks if he is rushing through the way. At that time, the reinforcement will surely come and Master should have finished his business in the special realm." Nelson explained. So, you are saying we are going to ambush them on the way here?" Jeanne asked while narrowing her eyes. "But won''t this give them false hope? I mean, they don''t have enough time to catch us." Nelson shook his head. "According to Anya, they would most likely spread their disciples to a few areas so they can catch us. Seeing how we are able to kill one thousand people, they should leave around two to three thousand in each area." "Each Area?" Jeanne thought for a moment and widened her eyes. "I see. If they are searching for five areas, they will need ten thousand to fifteen thousand people. Seeing how we move using Master''s Teleportation, we should be able to clear them all without letting them have a chance to react." "Yeah. You are right. At that time, they would surely come at us with full force, but little do they know, we have gone past them and entered the Underworld." Nelson said calmly. "When we are back to this place, we will be powerful enough to exterminate them." Jeanne grinned evilly. Nelson nodded. "By the way, what is the plan for tonight? If you are going to fight them all, then why would we come with you?" Leoz asked. "This is an assassination. I am more suited than you, Leoz. However, I''m sure that with how powerful they are and the Berserk Pill, I might not be able to finish them all without alarming other influences in this city." "Yeah. You get it right¡­ But you need to take note that not all of them will attack us. At most, only the Martial Arts Pavilion and Ancient Blue Family that will attack us." "Ancient Blue Family? I can understand why the Martial Arts Pavilion will attack us, but Ancient Blue Family¡­" Leoz narrowed his eyes. "I have written it in my report. The Ancient Blue Family is having a deal with the Black Devil Sect at the moment. It''s about how the Black Devil Sect wants to have a new headquarters on the Heavenly Continent." Nelson explained. "Then why are they contacting the Ancient Blue Family?" Jeanne couldn''t comprehend his meaning. "Their condition is similar to the Blackwade Clan." "So, you mean they are just a branch?" "Yeah. The Black Devil Sect wants the help of Ancient Blue Family to establish themselves on the Heavenly Continent, and the price is Berserk Pill. The Blood Pill is considered a taboo in the Heavenly Continent, but the Berserk Pill is not. They are considered as a pill that can enhance one body for a certain amount of time like the normal pill but just a bit stronger¡­ Unfortunately, this is the only thing I know unless I go to the Heavenly Continent myself." Nelson explained carefully. "Haiz. Why are we so unlucky? We have encountered one trouble after another, including this time. The Blackwade Clan aside, the Fire God Clan is irritating me, and there is this Ancient Blue Family. Now that I think about it, Master was known as an overprotective person in his previous life. He had many friends and families, but also had many enemies¡­" Jeanne fell into silence. "Indeed. There might be many people that want him to die before he could get stronger¡­ Albeit, Mistress and Korzan will surely deal with the problem. The only thing we need to do right now is to solve the problems in this world and acquire our previous strength. After that, we can strive for more." Nelson said with a grim expression. "You are right. Mistress is not a person who will let this happen." Jeanne nodded. "Alright. I will stop the Ancient Blue Family while Leoz takes care of the Martial Arts Pavilion." Leoz simply nodded. He couldn''t really understand this complicated matter since he only knows that if Alex wants him to fight, he will fight with his life on the line. "Then, I will go first. You guys can stay here and wait for the other influences to come. Don''t forget about your masks," said Nelson while putting on his mask and vanishing into thin air. Inside the inn, the elders have their own separate room to cultivate and pass the time. Nelson slipped inside one of their rooms and found a middle-aged man sitting on his bed. The plan was to strike the weakest one first, which was a barely 1-Star Martial Monarch, and his last target would be the 3-Star Martial Monarch elder. Nelson didn''t release his Spiritual Energy and presence. Even Alex might have a hard time to notice it unless he used his Domain or Spirit Eyes. Just like how Leoz was saved by Alex and turned into a proper being, or Anna and Anya, who were protected by Alex, Nelson also had an everlasting experience with Alex and the reason he swore his loyalty to him. At that time, Nelson was a powerful and lone assassin tasked to kill Alex. His assassination failed completely because of Alex''s Spirit Eyes. At that time, Alex played him until the end, showing every mistake he made as an assassination despite knowing nothing about the thing himself. Alex only said if he could even find them very obvious, it should be enough to see his skill wasn''t enough. That was the start of his curiosity on Alex and began ambushing him on every occasion in order to train himself. Alex got pretty annoyed back then, but he still pointed out all the flaws. Only after a thousand times trying, he managed to catch Alex off guard. He used everything he had learned and was proud he could catch him off guard. Alex said he lost and if he wanted to kill him, he could. Unexpectedly, he dropped his sword back then before kneeling in front of Alex, asking Alex to take him under his wing, which he accepted. All his assassination and espionage skills were self-taught with Alex as a judge. He couldn''t be more thankful to Alex, who pointed all the flaws to him, making him into a better person. He, who should die when Alex caught him, decided to be Alex''s shadow after finishing his own training. Nelson sneaked inside the room with all those experiences, moving inside the shadow and appeared right behind the middle-aged man with a sword in hand. "!!!" The middle-aged man realized the presence behind him and quickly released his Spiritual Energy to escape from this presence. Unfortunately, Nelson had prepared this for a few weeks. With a snap of his finger, dark energy appeared and locked the middle-aged man. The dark energy turned into a tentacle that sealed his Spiritual Energy away. Another torrential dark energy also appeared on Nelson''s sword as he slashed downwards. The middle-aged man might not be able to unleash his Spiritual Energy, but his strength was still there. He took out his spear to block Nelson''s attack. Sadly, this was midnight and a full moon where Nelson''s strength was at its highest. The moment it touched the spear handle, it didn''t push the middle-aged man or whatever and had no sign of moving. The middle-aged man thought he managed to block Nelson''s attack, but the thought appeared, the spear bent before getting sliced along with his body. Nelson snorted and took the space ring before cleaning up the corpse by sucking it inside his shadow. He looked inside the space ring to check the belongings and found a bunch of Blood Pills and a berserk pill. However, the quality was much better than the one in Nilis Continent or Willow Continent. Without thinking any further, Nelson disposed of those pills before moving onto his next target. The next target wasn''t different than the first target since both were 1-Star Martial Monarchs. Nelson could finish it in an instant. The problem was on the third target, a 2-Star Martial Monarch. He needed to engage in close combat for a few seconds before he could kill the elder. Luckily, the room was enhanced by Sound Insulation so no one could hear. In the fourth room, Nelson sneaked inside like the three previous attempts. Unfortunately, he found out that the fourth one wasn''t cultivating. Instead, he was drinking his wine at the moment while looking at the moon. His first plan was to use his black tentacle to seal his cultivation and attacked him. Nelson slowly walked behind him while carrying his sword. The old man sipped his wine before noticing a slight shift of the shadow in the window. "!!!" He rose from his seat and turned around while taking out his weapon. He looked at the empty room and shouted, "Who''s there?" His heart skipped a beat while looking around his room. It felt like there was something creeping inside his room, and his instinct told him it was something dangerous. He slowly walked forth while looking left and right, scanning the room. He gripped his sword tightly to prepare a sudden attack. From the living room, to the bathroom, to the living room again, albeit he found nothing. It irked his instinct, but lowered his guard slightly, thinking he would check the situation of other elders. And the shadow didn''t miss that chance. "!!!" The elder turned around and saw a shadow appear behind him, slowly turning into a masked man. Without wasting a single second, the masked man waved his sword. 586 Jeanne Is Creating A Confusion The shadow turned into Nelson and shocked the elder. Without wasting a single second, Nelson slashed his sword right onto the elder''s neck. *Clank!* Surprisingly, the expected slicing sound was replaced by a clicking sound between two metals. It turned out that the Elder still managed to react. Nelson quickly used the Shadow Energy to slice through this weapon and kill the elder while activating the Black Tentacle that would seal the Spiritual Energy. The elder also noticed the feeling. Not only he felt he was going to lose in this sword exchange, but his Spiritual Energy was also sucked by the Dark Energy. He realized how dangerous the person in front of him after this experience. Even though Nelson was only a 2-Star Martial Monarch, it would seem that in this place, he was the one who took the lead. Not wanting to die in Nelson''s hand, the elder used the force of Maxwell''s swing to launch himself backward before taking out a single red pill and swallowing it without hesitation. His heart pumped like crazy after swallowing the pill as he released all the latent potential inside of him. The pill even managed to double his Spiritual Energy, making him scarier. "Who are you?" The elder released his domain to the fullest, alarming everyone in the inn. However, he couldn''t care less about it because he found that three elders had died while the other one already felt his domain. Nelson didn''t answer him as he swiftly disappeared from the elder''s eyes. The elder gritted his teeth as he barely followed Nelson''s movement. Even though he was a 3-Star Martial Monarch, he couldn''t follow Nelson''s movement properly, even with the help of Berserk Pill. He raised his sword to the left of his neck as Nelson appeared from that side, slicing his sword toward the elder''s neck. *Clank!* Once again, the elder threw himself to the right by using the force before slamming himself to the wall to enter the next room where the fifth elder was. "!!!" The fifth guy was another old man with spiky white hair. He was startled upon seeing the elder appear inside his room. "Seventh Elder, why are you releasing your Domain and Spiritual Energy? Why do I feel blood aura from you? Don''t tell me you use a Berserk Pill." The elder didn''t have the time to explain it while locking at Nelson''s presence to make sure he didn''t ambush him again. "Whatever. You need to go back to the sect and inform the sect master that a mysterious person ambushes us. I don''t know Moar''s and the others'' conditions¡­ But you need to go back instead of waiting." Hearing the statement, the fifth person released his domain to check the other elders and stunned him. "We can fight him together." "No. Although the enemy is only a 2-Star Martial Monarch, I still can''t see his movement at all. I believe he is hiding his true ability. If we lose you here, there is no one that can inform the sect about this¡­ In other words, it''s the same as abandoning the disciples here." Little did they know, Nelson was actually sparing them. First of all, he could kill the fourth person pretty easily. In the first place, there was no need for Nelson to let the fourth person enter this room. Nelson actually wanted to use this opportunity to alarm the fifth person and used the fourth person to say something so he could go back and bring more people. At the same time, he also gave them some time to let the fourth person explain. After noticing how the elder had convinced the fifth person, Nelson appeared again from the side, releasing a sword strike toward them. "Shadow Wave." The elder noticed this black sword wave and quickly shifted his balance to intercept it. "Bam!" The elder managed to destroy the sword wave before shouting. "Go. You need to inform the sect about this." The fifth person bit his lips and left through the window with great difficulty. He flew as fast as possible toward the Black Devil Sect. At the same time, Nelson appeared in front of the elder and struck him hard. "Kh!" The elder stopped the attack with his sword, but the force still blasted him to the wall before destroying it. He quickly destroyed the wall and flew outside the inn to get a clear area so Nelson couldn''t sneak-attack him again. Nelson only shrugged his shoulder as he flew outside the inn and stopped a few meters in front of the elder. Before Nelson could react, the elder quickly released his Spiritual Energy and Domain to alarm the entire city. His effort was successful because a few seconds later, a shout echoed across the city. "Who is trying to mess inside my territory?! The fact that the elder''s Spiritual Energy could be felt easily brought another group in this chaotic situation. The two groups looked at the masked man and the elder from Black Devil Sect fighting. "He is an assassin that wants to kill me." The elder quickly shouted after hearing the pavilion master''s voice, hoping that they would help him in dealing with this masked man. Unfortunately, before the pavilion master could react, two people appeared in front of him. "Who are you?" The pavilion master narrowed his eyes while releasing his Spiritual Energy. Not wanting to be outdone, Leoz also released his 5-Star Martial Monarch power, shocking the Martial Arts Pavilion''s and Ancient Blue Family''s people. At the same time, the elders from the other influences also rose to the sky to see what was happening before they were stunned by Leoz''s power. Leoz raised his sword and shouted, "I don''t have a reason to attack you. As long as we can kill that elder, we would quickly leave this place. However, if you decide to attack us, you should be prepared for the worst outcome." "Who do you think you are? You might be a 5-Star Martial Monarch, but there is no way you can fight these many monarchs by yourself." The Pavilion Master became the leader of the pack and threatened Leoz back. "You can try." Leoz raised his sword and summoned his lightning. Jeanne flew toward the Martial Monarchs from the Ancient Blue Family. "Hmph. Empty words. Do you think I am afraid of you?" The Pavilion Master snorted. "That''s right. We should lend help, so the Martial Arts Pavilion to solve this problem." The elder from the Ancient Blue Family shouted. It sounded righteous in everyone''s ears, except the spirits. Jeanne laughed out loud, "Gahahaha. You are very funny." The elder obviously didn''t take this lightly because a brat just laughed at him. Without waiting for him to say anything, Jeanne shouted loud enough for others to hear. "Lend help to the Martial Arts Pavilion? You are just flowering your world. Why don''t you be more honest and say you want to help Black Devil Sect instead of Martial Arts Pavilion? After all, you have an agreement with Black Devil Sect, right?" "!!!" All the people were stunned as they looked at the people from the Ancient Blue Family. It was something like an unwritten rule on this continent that no influences could make an alliance with each other. The reason was simple. Their alliance would make the other three influences unrest and might force the three to band together to attack their alliance. Even the Ancient Blue Family didn''t want this matter to be found out. But¡­ to think they were exposed here. "I am the third elder of the Ancient Blue Family, Johan. I can guarantee you we don''t have such a relationship with the Black Devil Sect. We are only planning to help the Martial Arts Pavilion to settle this matter. Brat, you better speak carefully so as to not say anything that would invite misunderstanding." Johan exclaimed. "Yeah Yeah. You said that, but how about the agreement where you help the Black Devil Sect to spread to the Heavenly Continent in exchange for their Berserk Pills? Old man, you shouldn''t tell a lie. I am just a brat to you, and a brat can''t lie." Jeanne shrugged. "Do you think why do we suddenly reveal ourselves? It''s to bring back the balance between five influences." Jeanne revealed this matter to bring unrest to those people from other influences. If they started doubting the Ancient Blue Family, Nelson would have enough time to kill the elder, and they could just escape. As for whether they would start investigating the Black Devil Sect and Ancient Blue Family after this incident or not, it wasn''t their problem. "What do you mean by this Ancient Blue Family?" The first person who reacted was the Tyrant Clan. After all, the closest influence from these two influences was Tyrant Clan. In other words, if they decided to attack, the Tyrant Clan would be the first target. Whether it was the truth or an empty threat, the Tyrant Clan needed to check about it first. The mysterious identity of these masked people also piqued his interest, but it could wait. "Don''t be swayed by her words. I can assure you as the third elder of the Ancient Blue Family that we don''t have such a relationship with Black Devil Sect. Do you think we like how they conduct by killing many people?" Johan exclaimed to quell them. "Come on. You tell them. If you investigate more carefully, it''s easy to see whether the Ancient Blue Family has some sort of deal with the Black Devil Sect. They might be able to hide it from you, but they can''t escape from our eyes. Of course, we can''t attack Ancient Blue Family because of the protection from its parents. The only one that we can strike to balance the power again is to attack Black Devil Sect." Jeanne kept throwing more and more words that would invite misunderstanding to the elders. She didn''t tell any lies though. "You Brat!" Johan was frustrated, but another fight had come to an end when they talked like this. ¡­ "Shadow Strikes!" A few black slashes appeared out of nowhere, injuring the elder from Black Devil Sect heavily. Nelson looked at the elder with fierce killing intent and attacked him a few more times. The blood pill effect had worn off, and the elder would die at any moment. *Pant!* *Pant!* The elder looked at Nelson even though his vision had become red because blood from the wound on his forehead ran through his eyes. He never thought that a person like him would be hidden from everyone''s knowledge. Luckily, he managed to buy some time for his friend. He could bring reinforcement to this place after reporting this matter to the sect. Although the disciples might suffer a little bit, as long as they waited patiently inside this city, they should be fine because the Martial Arts Pavilion would protect them for a while. Yeah, as long as they waited for a month... "Time? Wait! This is not right." The elder suddenly noticed something off on his deathbed. All the things that could kill him but not appear in this battle resurfaced on his mind, including the conversation with the fifth person. He trembled before looking at Nelson with a pale face. "You¡­ You want to split our forces and destroy them¡­ All of this is your plan!" Despite being filled with so much rage, the elder couldn''t move an inch of his body due to the injuries and blood loss. He never thought that the masked man''s real aim wasn''t him but the whole sect itself. His body trembled furiously. A smile appeared behind the mask as Nelson raised his sword. "Long Live Spirit King." As he muttered that to himself, he beheaded the elder''s head. 587 Kill Moar "Dark Cut!" A dark wave flew out of Anna''s scythe and made its way toward Moar. Just like how Nelson finished his mission, Anna and the others were also eliminating the people from Black Devil Sect. Anna took the spot for killing Moar and she had good progress. The fight only started a few minutes ago, and Moar was already covered with blood. "Bam!" Anna narrowed her eyes, seeing her dark wave was destroyed yet again. Moar hadn''t used the Berserk Pill from the beginning, confusing Anna for a bit. However, remembering the side-effects of the pill made her at ease. She knew Moar would absolutely use it, but it would only as his last resort because he might die after using the pill. His action and how scared he was to face death reinforced her speculation that he would only do it at the last minute when he lost hope. Moar glanced at the other disciples who were butchered by the people from the Spirit nest. It was a devastating sight for him. Even after ordering a few of them to use the Berserk Pill, the situation didn''t change much. Instead, these people acted accordingly like they had some experiences in dealing with the blood pill. Only half of them remained after a few minutes and he expected that they would be killed sooner or later. Moar could only grit his teeth as the situation convinced him this would be the place where he died. He bit his lips until blood flowed out of his mouth before looking at Anna with sharp killing intent. "All people from Black Devil Sect, you have seen yourself that this is going to be the place where we die. We might not know the reason why they want to kill us. But¡­ We know that dragging them along with us is better than dying alone!" Moar paused for a moment and said. "Use your Berserk Pill and kill them." Hearing the shout broke the last barrier in their hearts that prevented them from using the Berserk Pills. There were a few disciples that couldn''t hold on and use the pill earlier. Unfortunately, they died from the Berserk Pill or in the hand of these masked people. They might be reluctant to die, but as Moar said, they had no choice other than using it right now and dragged the enemies down. The disciples exchanged looks with each other for a second before nodding their heads with a grim expression. They took out red pills from their space ring and swallowed them at the same time. Alex''s spirits didn''t wait for them and quickly killed a few more to decrease their numbers, knowing it would be a hard fight after this. Luckily, these people didn''t have a high cultivation base. There were only ten people with 6-Star to 9-Star Martial Emperors cultivation while the rest were below 5-Star, so the situation was still good enough for Alex''s group. His power spiked and the amount was enough to surprise Anna. She tried to force her way to at least cut his hand, but Moar spun his body around and threw a punch at her. Anna used her scythe''s handle to block it, but a sudden push on her scythe prevented her from doing so. "!!!" Anna glanced at Moar''s sword and noticed it started pushing her scythe away. As if she had abandoned the idea, Anna quickly clicked her tongue and threw a fist toward Moar. Anna''s fist was covered by dark energy, while red energy was hovering around Moar''s fist. The two fists collided and created a powerful shockwave that blew the trees away. "Kh!" Anna let out a small groan, feeling the pressure on her hand. Moar grinned and pushed her away with the fist. "Haaa!" Knowing it was futile to compete with strength, she just let her the force blow her away. "Haha! You have forced me to use this¡­ so I''m taking you down with me." Moar laughed abruptly while pointing his finger at Anna. "Are you sure?" The answer to his arrogance came in the form of a question. Anna simply smiled as a flash of slyness appeared on her eyes. She made a smug smile before pointing her finger toward Moar. Moar didn''t understand her reason and thought she only mimicked him. However, Anna suddenly turned around her palm and raised a finger that pointed at Moar. "I have created a wound in your body thirteen times. Do you think I will let you off with something like that?" Anna smirked as dark energy slowly appeared from Moar''s wound after Anna raised her finger. "!!!" Moar looked at his body as it slowly appeared and went inside his body. "What is this?" Anna smiled as she muttered, "Tri Xeta." This was the curse that could decrease the opponent''s performance. At first glance, people would wonder why she didn''t use it right from the beginning. The answer was simple. If she used it right at the beginning, it wouldn''t be able to restrain Moar completely. Only with the accumulations of thirteen wounds, it could completely restrain Moar with his berserk pill. If Moar discovered the existence of Tri Xeta from the start, he might use his Berserk Pill earlier, but her Tri Xeta could only restrain a portion of that Berserk Pill power. However, with thirteen of them at the same time, the effect of Berserk Pill was completely denied. In other words, Anna only needed to fight against the normal him. "Argh!" Anna''s Tri Xeta jolted his mind before he finally felt the strength began leaving his body. "What is this? What did you do?" Moar gritted his teeth as he felt his strength came back to his original strength. "I swallow a berserk pill, why is there no power up?!" Anna didn''t answer his question. Instead, she took a deep breath before charging at him with her scythe. On the way, she wondered why Moar didn''t have any change in his body after using the berserk pill like the people they met in Willow Continent. However, the thought vanished after noticing that the other disciples from Black Devil Sect also had no change in their appearance. Anna thought it must be the strength of Black Devil Sect, not a cheap imitation like those in Willow Continent. "Without the power-up, you won''t be a match against me." Anna snorted. "Kh!" Moar wanted to rebuke her claim, but what she said was the truth. They had been fighting in the same condition earlier. It would only be a matter of time, he would be defeated. Unwillingness filled his heart as he took upon his sword and fought her again. The clash didn''t last for more than three minutes before Moar fell from the sky. "Gah!" Moar spat a mouthful of blood. His full body went numb a minute ago. After struggling for a little bit more, he fell on his knees and panted while blood flowed out of his mouth. "This is impossible. I will die." Anna had no change of expression as she slowly flew toward Moar. "Yeah, you are going to die¡­ but do you think I will let you die peacefully?" "What?" Moar gritted his teeth as he looked up. The uncontrollable hate swarmed from his eyes to Anna, but the latter only shrugged her shoulder. Anna smiled behind her mask before pointing her finger on Moar''s shoulder. "It seems you haven''t noticed it yet?" Moar couldn''t help but turn his head and see a big butterfly on his shoulder. This was such an unnatural phenomenon. He realized it was another trick from Anna. Before he could react, the butterfly exploded, and the dark energy went inside his wound and made their way toward his brain. This dark energy jolted his mind once again. However, this time the energy felt like eating his brain and consciousness away. This was clearly an attempt to control his mind. Moar quickly protected his brain, but he suddenly felt many souls invade his soul. These souls came from all the people he killed and turned into the blood pill. He never expected to see such a phenomenon at this very moment. "Argh!" He grabbed his head while screaming in pain. He banged his head to the ground a few times. Little did he know that it was only because of the soul, the berserk pill, and his current condition that Anna''s technique would have an effect. Anna smirked and muttered, "Dark Butterfly, First Order. Marionettes." "!!!" With the last jolt in his mind, he finally lost control of his body. "Let see. Jeanne is not here, so I can take charge of this." Anna paused for a moment and said, "Where to start? Maybe from fingers, hands, feet, and heart. Seeing the time limit, I can only do this for three minutes." Moar''s hand moved on its own and grabbed his sword. His hand slowly moved toward his other hand, confusing him. "Why? Why did my body start moving on its own? You!" Moar wanted to curse Anna, but his left hand was already on the ground while his sword was right above it. *Slice!* "Aaaahhhh!" Moar screamed in pain as he just cut his own little finger. It didn''t stop there. After cutting his right index finger, the sword slowly made its way toward the middle finger and¡­ *Slice!* This was Anna''s plan. She wanted to give Moar a terror before killing him. Moar would continue cutting his body parts before eventually killing himself. This was the nightmare that Anna envisioned earlier. The torture continued while the other spirits finished their own business in the sky. When they took a glance at Anna, they rolled their eyes, ignoring whatever happened there. Even Alex might not know about this because no one would explain it to him either. Meanwhile, Alex was confused about this. After losing the sight of Anna, he could only hear scream after scream from Moar. He wanted to see what happened, but Greg''s barrier didn''t let him. On the other hand, he would break his promise with Anna if he used the teleportation array. He could only sit there and watch until everyone''s back. At the same time, he also felt that the people had gathered enough people and marched their way to this place. They would need to leave this place as soon as possible. In just a minute, Anna and the others appeared right in front of him as Greg finally released him. "I''m sorry, Young Master. I needed to trap you earlier." Greg apologized and bowed his head to Alex before walking backward. "It''s fine. I have gotten plenty of rest because of it." Alex waved his hand while smiling. He then walked toward Anna, who had a bit of a guilty expression on her face, and said, "I know you are just worried about me, but you should trust me more." "Uhm, sorry." Anna had no explanation. She was mad earlier before making that decision. Even Anya complained about her decision for a minute but didn''t say it was a wrong decision either. She only said there was a better solution. Of course, she could only complain to herself because she was away from the group. Alex only patted her head a few times before noticing that Anya had undone the barrier. He took Anya''s card and asked, "Are we good to go?" "Yes. I have removed the barrier and collected all the things we need." "Alright." Alex nodded before recalling all the spirits back to their cards. Sherry and Kyle also went back to his body while Stina waited for a few seconds. Noticing her expression, Alex nodded, "You can enter your deep sleep right now. I believe you can enter Martial Monarch within a month." "Thank you, Master." Stina nodded and disappeared inside his body. Alex then created a teleportation array for himself and left the scene. 588 Finding the Entrance Not long after, the people from other influences arrived at the scene. It took them all their courage to come here after seeing the huge flame pillar. It was only after all influences ganged together, they finally had the courage to come here. They only knew that this place should be the place where the Black Devil Sect was stationed. However, they realized they had underestimated Alex and his group this entire time. The forest was destroyed, leaving only a huge crater with blazing fire¡­ There were many other things that shocked them the most, but the forest took the first spot. Chloe sweatdropped before flinching back. At first, she thought by coming here, there would be a bit more guarantee for her safety. The thought vanished as she presented the scenes in front of her. "Who are they?" If she knew that Nelson also had killed the elders from Black Devil Sect, she wouldn''t want to come to this place just to check the situation. The chaotic feeling continued when they began investigating the area. They could see a pool of blood around, but not a single dead body. Because of this, they couldn''t learn how many people were buried here? Have the Black Devil Sect been wiped out in this area? Or there were still a few that managed to escape? Unfortunately, these questions would remain unanswered. Meanwhile, Alex and the others were already teleported far away from them. They were inside the woods, so no one would ever bother searching for her. Anya used her element to provide light so they could have a discussion. "What are we going to do after this?" Alex asked. "There is no other place we need to go other than that place, right?" Anya rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I''m just asking since there might be a place where you feel suspicious." Alex shrugged before remembering Stina''s matter. "By the way, Stina is having her deep sleep. In other words, we can only do the rest by ourselves." "We have completed our mission anyway, so I believe it''s not a problem." Anya nodded. "How about the others? Do you have a place that looks suspicious to you?" The other spirits pondered for a minute before shaking their heads in unison. Anna pondered for a moment before asking, "Do you think there will be a secret door in the cultivation place?" "I don''t know." Alex shook his head. "The cultivation place is situated in the middle of the barrier. It is a perfect spot to place the Gathering Array to hold this array. If I want to use the same plan as our secret base on the Northern Continent, there will be many symbols underground that can be traced. "After observing the layout, the only suspicious place is in the middle, which means the cultivation place. I heard there is another barrier that prevents everyone from entering. It makes the spot more suspicious." Alex nodded. "Yeah. You are right. We will go to that place in three days, so have a good rest." The spirits nodded while asking Greg, who didn''t do much in the battle earlier to guard Alex while he was recovering. The spirits could recover inside the card anyway, while the contracted beasts could heal themselves in Alex''s body. In other words, only Alex and Greg were in the real world right now, with the former closed his eyes and recovered. Alex took one day to recover all of his energy, but he rested for another two days just in case. "Young Master. Should I go back or follow you?" Greg asked. Alex thought for a moment and said, "I will ask Narman to guide me in the dark so as to not alarm the enemy. If we are going to fight, I will call all of you later." "Understood." Greg nodded before turning into a green light that flew and disappeared inside Alex''s body. Alex took out Narman''s card and summoned him. "Narman, you already know your mission, right?"'' "Yes. Please follow me." Narman nodded and disappeared. Alex began running forward, following Narman right behind his back. He could see a few signs of people around the area, but Narman avoided them skillfully. Although Alex could use his teleportation to pass them, he wouldn''t know whether they would be spotted when they arrived or not. After all, Alex knew he would teleport them if it were not too far. It also meant that it was faster to cross the region with their speed than wasting his energy with a teleportation array. In the end, Alex abandoned the idea and followed Narman patiently. It took them three hours before they arrived in front of a barrier. Inside the barrier stood a few buildings made of stone. Each building had a hundred sockets sealed with a simple stone door. The barrier itself was hidden inside a small forest. Outside the forest was a huge plain with a few hiding spots. The other influences stayed right outside the forest. Nonetheless, Narman guided him safely. And when they entered the forest, a few disciples were patrolling around the area. If Alex used his teleportation, he might end up spotted by one of these disciples and forced to kill them¡­ unless they were fast enough to inform the others since Alex still needed to look around the area. Finally, their efforts had been rewarded with Alex arriving in front of the barrier secretly. He took a look at this barrier. "Hmm¡­" "Young Master? Should I go back?" Narman asked. "Just watch over me and check whether any disciples are coming here." Alex nodded before turning back to the barrier. "Yes." Narman nodded and disappeared. Meanwhile, Alex narrowed his eyes because he never expected he would see this. "This is the combination of many arrays¡­ In terms of complexity, it is as hard as mine to decipher. If I want to break inside this, I might need a week to create a hole inside the barrier. "This is because the barrier is reinforced by Rank 8 Array, Space Element, and powerful energy." Alex couldn''t help but look down. "There was no way the person who created this array would draw a core in the sky¡­ which means, the only possibility is underground." The moment he looked down, the answer appeared. "I see. That''s how it is¡­" Although barely, he could see a flash of energy deep underground. It would only occur when the barrier would open soon. "Young Master, have you found the way? There are two disciples nearby, so if you haven''t the secret entrance, we need to hide." Narman appeared behind him and said. "Let''s hide first," Alex said without hesitation. Narman nodded and guided him. After finding a safe place, Alex started muttering in a low voice. "A hidden barrier underground¡­ and leaking spiritual energy. This will only occur when the Spiritual Energy has reached its maximum capacity and want the array to open itself. However, making an array underground is easier said than done. There should be an entrance that leads to the underground¡­ The problem will be where it is¡­" Alex already found the clue he was searching for. He might not know the entrance, but it should be inside this forest. The problem would be how he entered it. "I need to search the entrance and lock it back again¡­ I can''t let the mistake happen twice." Alex narrowed his eyes as he remembered how he first met Letizia. If such a thing happened again, he might as well kill them to prevent any future problem and not become a good person by letting them off with a single Heavenly Oath. "Narman, I want you to lead me around this area to check where the entrance is." "How about inside the barrier, Young Master? Isn''t it more protected that way?" Narman asked. "No. There is going to be a distorted flow of energy if I place the entrance inside the barrier. The best place would be outside this barrier¡­ but not too far. In other words, the entrance is somewhere in this forest." Alex carefully said with all the knowledge he had. "Understood. I will keep looking out while guiding you so you can rest assured while finding the entrance." Narman nodded. The two of them quickly looked around the area. They had quite a hard time because they needed constantly moving. Alex looked left and right to see any abnormality and watched the condition underground to find any clue. Until finally they entered the southern part of the forest¡­ *Fwoosh!* A strange wind blew his hair a little bit. He hadn''t felt a single wind up to this point, so he knew there was something wrong around the area. The moment, he looked down, a flash of crystal golden light came into his eyes. This was the color of Spiritual Energy, which meant the one that previously blew his hair was the leaked Spiritual Energy. Alex halted his footsteps and looked around to find the concealment array. It wouldn''t be possible to make a natural-looking entrance without a concealment array because the energy would leak from the entrance. "Young Master?" Narman glanced at Alex. "We have found the general spot. And now, our task is to find the entrance." "Understood. Young Master can take your time. If any disciples come here, I will direct them somewhere. I will inform you if I can''t." Narman nodded. Alex nodded. "I will leave it to you." He began his investigation with the Spirit Eyes before he stumbled upon a weird looking stone. It was quite a big stone with a dense of trees surrounding it. For normal people, they wouldn''t be able to find a strangeness from this, but for Alex and other skilled Space Element Array Masters, this place might look strange. Alex kneeled right in front of the boulder and looked into the trees only to find it artificial. "This is artificial trees¡­ and behind this¡­" Alex scrapped the outer layer of the wood and smiled. "I know it!" Many symbols were hidden under these trees. No one would be bothered enough to scrap these trees to check what''s inside. Nonetheless, Alex found this matter unusual. This barrier had stood tall for over thousands of years. He was wondering why this place wasn''t found yet. Alex placed his hand right on the ground and channeled his Spiritual Energy inside. At that time, he noticed his energy was being repulsed. This only meant there was an array a few meters underground. Remembering the matter with Race Crystal in another world, he realized that the same as Race Crystal, the array underground was the core, while the symbols in these trees would be the ones that made it sustainable. If Alex tore this place down, he would only meet a normal destroyed ground unless he dug a hole. He couldn''t help but smile. "Alright. Let''s get to work and break the barrier." 589 Solving the Array Alex began solving the array in complete focus. He had a one hundred percent trust that Narman would inform him in case someone walked toward this place. Alex''s movement was fast and precise. He scanned each symbol around the area while deciphering their link and function. These symbols astonished him because this was the first time he saw a rank 8 Array. He might be able to understand the concept of rank 8 Array because of his knowledge, but he didn''t have practical experience in the area, just like how he needed to practice how to build an Array. "This array¡­ The entrance is already like this; what about the array inside? This concealment array contains a Space Element that prevents me from going inside. If I force myself in, I might be injured if not heavily." He muttered to himself while deciphering the array. It took him a few minutes before he could figure out how the array worked. The array consisted of five different arrays. First would be the barrier array that could hold an attack of Martial Saint. It already showed how sturdy this gate was. The second array was an illusion array. If they were hit, the illusion array was there to produce an after effect relating to such an attack, like creating a small crater. The third array was the concealment array. This array made the energy around this area as smooth as possible. In fact, this concealment array was the array that blocked his Spirit Eyes. The fourth array was a Space Element Defense Mechanism. Its purpose was to repel any Space Element fluctuation inside the array. As for the last array, it was a gathering array linked to the underground that kept this whole place active. "I need to do some reconstruction of this array. On one hand, I can just create a hole for me to go in. However, the Spiritual Energy will leak from that hole, and once it leaks, it will be hard to plug the hole even with my skill and knowledge. On the other hand, it will take a long time to reconstruct it." Alex crossed his arms while trying to see if there was another way. Luckily, no one interrupted him while he thought about this. After several minutes of thinking, Alex had another solution, which was a bit troublesome but allowed him to quickly solve the array. "Maybe I should create another barrier that prevents Spiritual Energy from flowing outside. I will then enter the gap between the first and the second barrier¡­ close the first barrier and open the second barrier. If I am done with this place, I will need to reconstruct it again to its original arrangement." Alex sighed, thinking about how it would take him a day to do it. "Young Master. One person is coming here. We need to hide for a few minutes." Narman suddenly appeared while he was in deep thought. "We still have enough time before the Cultivation Place opens, so Young Master can take your time. It''s better to be safe than sorry." Narman said while guiding him inside the woods. "Yeah. This takes a lot of time because I need to reconstruct a rank 8 array. I might not be able to build a rank 8 array, but reconstructing is still possible¡­ albeit far slower. I hope you can bear with me." Alex nodded. "Yes. I am Young Master''s spirit, so your wish is my order." Narman nodded while watching the person walk away. "Yeah. Thank you." Alex nodded while waiting together. It took them two minutes before the disciples left the place. Narman left his side again, and Alex began reconstructing the array. Just like how the previous person distracted him from making the array, a few other disciples also checked the area, hindering Alex from working on the array. After the third person, Alex decided to build an illusion array and concealment array first, so he could work in peace. Unfortunately, it took him a few more hours before he finally finished in the new array. "Open." He channeled his Spiritual Energy inside the outer barrier that he made just now. It created a hole which was enough for a person to come in. The hole allowed Alex to enter into the inner area. Alex waved his hand and sent out a wave of Spiritual Energy to activate the outer barrier again, closing the hole. He didn''t quickly open the second barrier. Instead, he looked at it in amazement, thinking it was a kind of achievement to reconstruct a Rank 8 Array even though he had yet to create a single Rank 7 Array. The smile appeared on his face, showing how proud he was. After a minute observing the barrier, he opened the barrier only to reveal a single teleportation array inside. It shocked him quite a bit. There should be a hole leading into the underground behind the barrier. However, the creator of this array should think differently. The tunnel was there as a passage to create an underground palace, but after finishing the construction, the creator decided to bury the passage and used this teleportation array as the bridge between the surface and the underground. "Narman, I am going to enter the underground." "Then, I shall observe the four influences and the rogue cultivators as planned," Narman replied calmly. "Yeah. I leave them to you. Make sure no one knows our whereabouts, or you can even leak out false information among them." Alex nodded. "Understood." After informing Narman what he should do, Alex walked inside the array and channeled his Spiritual Energy, activating the array. He also didn''t forget to take out his weapons before using the array. A glowing pink light flashed for two seconds before the array teleported Alex underground. "Kh!" Alex quickly observed his surroundings to see if he was inside a safe place or not. The room was dark, with no source of light that can be lit up around this area. However, the air seemed to be fine for breathing and fighting. Nonetheless, he activated the Spirit Eyes as a precaution. Surprisingly, he was teleported inside a 3x3 meters room without a single decoration other than the array. The Spirit Eyes didn''t show any sign of being inside the room, so he let out a breath of relief before summoning out Anna and the others. "Summon." At the same time, Sherry and Kyle came out of his body without his order. The cute little fox girl took off her mask and released her transformation, showing her ears and tail. Apparently, she also saw the previous scene where Alex reconstructed the array. "Master, can you use rank 8 Array now?" "No. My cultivation base is still not enough right now. Although I can somehow reconstruct it, drawing it is a different thing." Alex shook his head. "After reaching the 8-Star Martial Emperor in this place, I will learn Alchemy and Array again for one to two months¡­ maybe inside the Cursed Forest since the Black Devil Sect wouldn''t know we are in that place," Alex said. "Is that so? That''s a shame, I guess." Sherry paused for a moment and said. "We still have things to do." "Yeah. You are right." Alex nodded. Surprisingly, Kyle already used his Fire Element to light the room while they were talking. Alex could finally see a single door lead to another place and had a thorough search with his Spirit Eyes. The door itself didn''t have any significance. It was a simple white door with some flowers as decorations. The energy was quite weak as it was only a low-level material, at least, strong enough to handle the passing time. Behind the door was a numerous sign of life. "One thousand¡­ two thousand¡­" Alex began counting their numbers and sighed, "There are around five thousand lives behind the door. "It seems there is a big place inside that can cultivate five thousand monsters inside. This is similar to Zwaka''s place¡­ which means this is going to be a hard fight, considering the monsters behind this door mostly at 3-Star to 8-Star Martial Emperors." Alex''s statement made various expressions on the spirits'' faces. Anya was the first to talk, "I see. We can see this as a challenge that will hinder us from getting what lies beyond this place¡­ or we can see this as an EXP farm for us. We need to know what kind of creature they are and space where we can fight." Anna''s words were completely right. However, Alex could understand why it was a challenge for them. With only a few of them, Alex wouldn''t be able to win, especially after using the True Spirit Body a few days ago. No matter how abnormal his spirits were, it was impossible to surmount this numerical gap, considering all the monsters were stuck in one place. "Indeed. They will swarm us like crazy. Unless we can lead them into a passage where only a few hundreds could come in, I can''t see how we can win this." Anya shook her head. "Don''t worry. There is a passage that is close to your description. We can fight them in that place after we clear the monsters in that passage." Alex nodded. "There are one and a half weeks before the cultivation place opens. I think we can wait for a few days to use the True Spirit Body again, especially because of Leoz and Jeanne''s absence. Although I don''t want to admit it, that muscle brain is really one hell of a fighter." Anya bit her lips while looking at Alex. "Yeah. We need to be more careful without Leoz, and Stina is also undergoing her transformation¡­ We lack in numbers, so we can only wait until you and the others can use your True Spirit Body again." Alex nodded in agreement. "But there is one more question that needs to be answered. How can we go to that passage?" Anna asked. "Don''t worry. The Space Element Array only blocked us from directly teleporting here, and the teleportation array inside the entrance can bypass that system. On the other hand, I don''t see a strong Space Element in the air, so I can use my Spatial Gate if not Teleportation array to go there." Alex assured them with a calm voice. "Alright. How about the monsters? Their species, weakness, and strength. We need to know about it." Anya muttered to herself while crossing her arms. She glanced at Alex, wondering if he had the answer. "I don''t have the answer as well. I will describe their appearance first since they are from the same species. Their appearance looks like a lizard but can walk on two feet. They have a dense amount of energy in their hands and feet while almost nothing around their belly. They have brown colored energy which is symbolized as an Earth Element, but it is so weak, so we can safely assume they don''t have a strength in the element." Alex explained carefully from his observation alone. "If only my Spirit Eyes can evolve once more, I can look at them more clearly." "Don''t worry. We can just see the rest when we fight them. Those descriptions are more than enough for us at the moment. Let''s just say they are walking lizards with useless Earth Elements. We need to target their belly instead of their arms and feet." Anya concluded Alex''s explanation. "Yeah. Because of the scale of the tunnel, we can implement a shift. We can make three groups hold the enemies at bay. However, we don''t have Stina with us, so I need Artur to help Kyle and Jean." Alex said. "Understood." "And because only my group has four people, we will hold them longer than all of you." "No. If you are going to implement a shift, I can support all of you continuously. Just build me a Gathering Array to let me recover myself and protect me, I will be fine." Anya cut in. "Are you serious? It''s going to take a toll on you, right?" "It should be fine. As long as we can finish the battle quickly, it''s a small matter to me." Anya smiled. 590 Lizards Alex waited for a whole week until the Spirits could use their True Spirit Body again. If he was defeated, he could run to this door again before running away to the surface if the monsters actually chased him. If he emerged victorious, Anna and the others might even reach 10-Star Martial Emperor Stage, giving a sense of security when they came to the Underworld. On the other hand, the place he searched for might not be like what he expected and left with disappointment. Nonetheless, Alex was satisfied if he could kill these many high-level monsters, unlike the one outside since most of them were 4-Star Martial Emperors or below. It also became the proof that these monsters were protected or this place hadn''t been touched for a few thousand years. Alex wanted to know what was inside this place, learned everything he could, and used all of it as something to make him stronger. "By the way, will your True Spirit Body be undone if you enter the card?" Alex asked, confirming the only matter that made him hesitate: "If it is undone, I need to teleport all of you guys." Before the spirits could answer him, the system already beat them. [Don''t worry, Host. It won''t. The True Spirit Body is essentially one day long. As long as it''s not the case like Leoz when fighting the Joyful Union Sect, it''s safe.] "Oh, System. I haven''t seen you in a while." Alex exclaimed in amazement. [Have you forgotten about me, Host? Even though I will give you the last type of Gacha after you reach Monarch.] "Wait, really?" [Yes. It''s going to be a good one for you.] "What is it? How about giving me the special mission right now?" [I''m sorry, Host. The mission is a secret for now. You will know about it before you start your lightning tribulation.] "Fine," Alex said after hesitating for a second. "Anyway, thank you for the clarification." [Yes. We will meet again after you finish this place or the Black Devil Sect''s reinforcement. Remember to use the Gacha Tickets at that time.] "Yeah. I won''t forget." Alex shrugged before looking at his spirits again. "Sherry, Kyle, come back inside my body. Anna and the others can activate your True Spirit Body right now." "True Spirit Body." The spirits nodded and activated their True Spirit Body without hesitation before turning into lights that flew inside Alex''s body. Checking the room situation one last time, Alex snapped his finger and created a teleportation array beneath his feet. In a blink of an eye, he arrived right inside his destination. The tunnel itself wasn''t too big, around ten meters wide. In other words, there should be approximately twenty lizards charging at once. It was still in Alex''s expectation, so Alex quickly summoned the spirits and contracted beasts. His voice echoed through the tunnel, reverberating in every lizard''s ears. They quickly woke up from their slumber and noticed the intruders. "Scree!" "Scree!" Their rallying cries resounded across the tunnel, waking the rest of the lizards. However, before they could react, Alex already appeared right in front of the lizards and took advantage of this sudden confusion by swinging his sword. "Triple Draws." Alex observed the lizard in front of him. It had a cream-colored belly with a black and orange line on its back. Their eyes looked sharp, but they still had a fuzzy movement because they just woke up. Even so, the lizard still raised both arms to block Alex''s attack, albeit it met Alex''s Triple Draws. Two slashes indeed struck at both arms. It managed to block Alex''s slashes with both hands, amazed Alex. Even though he didn''t use Heaven Light Slash or any other attacks technique, it was still covered with his Domain. But his sword didn''t manage to graze it, let alone injuring it. Luckily, it was Triple Draws. The lizard might be able to protect itself from the first two strikes with its strong hands. However, Alex had the third slash, aiming at its belly, which was supposed to be their weakness. Alex smiled when he noticed how his slash was finally connected the moment it touched the belly. It continued slashing every muscle in the stomach before the blade appeared again behind the lizard. "Scree¡­" The lizard fell while uttering its last word. Having no time to look at the lizard, Alex leaped forward while activating his Pure Fire. The Phoenix Seed once again cracked open and let out the Pure Fire. The tunnel might not be huge enough to hold his Fire Phoenix, but it could host many firebirds inside. Sherry and Kyle also followed his lead by summoning their own firebirds, raining them down toward the crowd of lizards. "There are around two hundred lizards in this tunnel, so we need to be fast and help Fabio''s group after this." Alex roared while controlling his firebirds as he jumped forward to another lizard. "Triple Draws." At the same time, Anna mainly used her Dark Cut because she couldn''t control the mind of these magical beasts with her True Spirit Body. Anna became the useless one in here, so she decided to kill as many as possible with her Dark Cut since it could pierce the lizard''s body. Sometimes, it killed two or three, but sometimes, it was only one. Anna didn''t care about it and continuously moved forward with caution. As for Sherry, she suddenly turned into her original fox form and fought them in that state. Alex wanted to finish this as quickly as possible, so the only way to let that happen was to fight with her original form. Hence, she used her extraordinary strength coupled with Fire Claw to mow them down one by one while controlling her firebirds. Sherry became one of the main attackers in this tunnel. Kyle also controlled his firebirds while occasionally using his Flame Lotus like how Stina used it. Unfortunately, he couldn''t use his original phoenix form because this tunnel was too small for that. As for Artur, he summoned a few swords and let them hover around him. This technique looked like the one that Alex used back in the Heavenly Sword Sect, where he controlled twenty swords to overpower his enemies. But Alex found something amazing. Artur shot all the swords he had toward a few meters in front of him, mainly around the lizards. The moment he arrived in front of the lizard, he would take the sword and kill the lizard with that sword before throwing it again. If the lizard somehow blocked his attack, he simply let go of his sword and pulled out another sword to kill them. At first, Alex thought such a fighting style would bring disadvantages to Artur, but Artur''s footwork perfected this style. Even Alex couldn''t find a gap in his footwork in a short time. Knowing Artur would be fine, his gaze changed to Jean. Alex opened his mouth in amazement because Jean released a few high pressurized water slashes that seemed to contain enough sharpness to kill the lizard in an instant. Unfortunately, the lizard was sturdy enough to block this attack. It took Jean three water slashes to kill a lizard, and this made Alex wonder how he would fight the lizards later. In the end, Alex thought Jean could just flood the tunnel to send them back where they belong. Of course, one couldn''t forget Anya in this place. Only because of her they could advance like this. Anya shared a part of her power to increase their power as usual. In a battle like this, Anya power was one that would be drooled by many influences, especially peak influence. Theoretically speaking, in the fight between 10-Star Martial Saints, the one that Anya decided to boost would be the winner. It was enough to show how scary her ability was. Luckily, Anya skills didn''t have any outstanding appearance that could invite that kind of thought, so Alex was pretty happy. Alex nodded at them after seeing their performances while killing the monsters. He didn''t forget to see what kind of stone that made this tunnel, checking whether they had the possibility of collapsing after getting a powerful impact or not. Apparently, his worry was unnecessary. He found out that the stone had mutated a little bit. The original stone was called Muss Stone, where it could stand a normal Martial King attack easily. After mutating, this stone should be able to block an attack of a peak Martial King. Although it wasn''t hard enough for Alex and the others, it should be enough to let them fight in this place as long as they didn''t do something big like his Hell Inferno. They proceeded at an insane speed, killing the lizards one by one and going deeper and deeper. No lizard could stop them from going forward because they were killed in an instant. The lizards were also somehow scared of Alex and the others. They were dangerous was what their instinct told them. However, seeing how they disturbed their nest, they could only fight them with their life on the line. Alex didn''t know about this nest or what kind of place this was. The only thing he could do was to wipe the lizards out before exploring the place, hoping to find something good. "Anna, there is a big one at the end of this tunnel¡­ it''s around 9-Star Martial Emperor if not 10-Star. In case we haven''t killed the normal lizards, I am asking you to buy us some time, so we can attack it together¡­ if necessary," Alex added the last two words because he was pretty confident in Anna''s prowess. A lizard like this should be killed in a short time after considering Anna''s strength. "Understood." They advanced for another few minutes before they finally found out that there were no more lizards around the area except the one at the end of the tunnel. Alex and the others quickly made their way toward that place and gasped. "This." Alex arrived at the end of the tunnel and found a bigger lizard, sleeping comfortably as if it didn''t hear the other screams. The lizard only opened its eyes when Alex and the others arrived at the end of the tunnel. It had the same cream-colored belly, but the color on its back was pure red. The two meters long spiky tail looked very dangerous. Though, there was something more dangerous than all of it, especially from Alex''s Spirit Eyes. "Scree!" Alex''s expression turned serious as he knew that the lizard was a 10-Star Martial Emperor. "This lizard might not be the same species¡­ No, it''s the same species, but more like a normal ant and a general ant. You can expect that this lizard has a higher prowess than the rest." "Understood." They nodded in unison. 591 The Giant Lizard "Understood!" After hearing Alex''s voice, they quickly spread out to kill the 10-Star Martial Emperor with their hands. It shouldn''t be too hard considering their progress, but seeing it wasn''t a normal monster, they needed to be careful. As it just woke up from its slumber, Anna made the first move. She appeared right above the five meters high lizard. Dark Energy formed and covered her scythe. There was not a single clue to identify Anna''s attack, but everyone somehow knew what kind of attack she would use. This was the most crucial attack that could overturn the situation. The lizard waved its hand toward Anna, trying to slap her away. "Tch." Artur clicked his tongue as he leaped toward the lizard, specifically to its right hand. He drew his sword and slashed it toward the lizard. "Mistress Anna attacks you, just accept it. Heroic Slash." Artur struck right at the hand that was trying to slap Anna, blowing it away and throwing the lizard''s balance. "Scree!" The lizard roared again as it was angry against Artur. It sent the other hand to slap Artur. Unfortunately, Anna already arrived on its shoulder, swinging her scythe downwards. "Tri Xeta." *Clang!* Everyone expected a stabbing sound and another scream. Yet, somehow they could only hear a clicking sound like two metal clashing. On the way here, Anna already tested it with the normal lizard that they might have strong arms, but not strong shoulders. The attack that should have been connected, now couldn''t even penetrate the skin. "I''m sorry. I haven''t told you about it. The lizard seems to have extraordinary energy like a dragon. Only aim at its belly next time, but for now, let''s connect the attack first." A male''s voice resounded gently in her ears. Anna was startled for a split second before uttering the person''s name. "Alex." Alex didn''t reply to her. Instead, he focused on her scythe and raised his sword above his head before slashing downwards. "Heaven Light Slash." The sword struck right on the back of the scythe, giving another push to the scythe to let it pierce the lizard''s thick skin. "Scree!" The lizard screamed again because it never expected to be stabbed by a human. In fact, after a few thousand years, it had never seen a single human invading this place, so it hadn''t gotten used to their movements. At the same time, Anna quickly activated her skill and sent the dark energy on her scythe inside the lizard. "Tri Xeta." The lizard screamed once more because of the disturbance in its brain because of Tri Xeta. Alex then grabbed Anna and snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array right below their feet. "Teleportation!" "Bam!" As soon as they teleported, the lizard''s other hand finally reached their position after Artur retreated. Alex and Anna went back to the others. "Aim its belly," Anna added because she just made a mistake earlier. Alex didn''t say anything about it and just left it to the others'' discretions. "Flame of Extinction." "Water Spiral." Sherry used Alex''s technique, Flame of Extinction, as usual. In fact, all the fire arts she knew this entire time came from him. She didn''t know why, but she could copy Alex''s skill pretty easily rather than using Kyle''s or Stina''s ability. In the end, Alex gave permission to do whatever she wanted as long as she was comfortable with it. Meanwhile, Jean also released torrential water and enveloped Sherry''s flame inside it. Sherry''s flame seemed to be faster than Jean''s water, so it hit and pierced through the lizard''s belly first. The torrential water followed right after, but it didn''t have any penetration effect. Instead, it had a different purpose. By using the power behind the water force, Jean pushed the lizard two meters back, making the position of Sherry''s attack shift. This shift was a good thing because Sherry''s Flame of Extinction cut the belly like a moving laser. It created a vertical cut in the lizard''s belly. "Scree!" The lizard screamed again as it looked at the blood that started dripping from the wound. It sent another paw toward Sherry and Jean, but Kyle finally made a move. "Fire Lotus, First Petal. Fire of Supreme Phoenix." A lotus appeared in the middle of the cave as two petals fell from the lotus, flying toward the lizard''s hands. "Boom Boom!" The two explosions came from between the hands, blowing the two hands away. "!!!" Alex and Anna noticed the purpose of this attack, which was to create a gap in the lizard defense so they could take advantage of it. Alex and Anna exchanged looks and nodded at each other before leaping forward. "Dark Cut." Anna appeared from the left side, sending a powerful dark wave toward the belly. "Bam!" Another explosion sound resounded across the cave. "Scree!" The lizard screamed out of pain. It looked at its belly that had a deep wound. Anna looked at the wound and shook her head in disappointment. "Tch. It''s still not enough. As expected, my Dark Cut doesn''t have enough penetrating power¡­ but that should be enough for Alex." As she muttered to herself, Alex appeared from the opposite, swinging his sword three times. "Triple Draws." However, this attack was like none other. Usually, he combined the Triple Draws with Heaven Light Slash, but the reach alone wouldn''t let him kill this lizard. In that case, Alex changed his strategy as he coated his sword with powerful Domain and Fire. "Blade of Conquest." He finally combined the Blade of Conquest with his Triple Draws, sending three flame sword waves toward the lizard, specifically to the wound that Anna created earlier. "Boom Boom Boom!" Just like how an explosion sound echoed after Anna''s attack, each Sword Wave also produced a sound after it hit¡­ However, it exploded not because it hit the lizard''s stomach, but because it hit the cave wall. "Heroic Slash." Artur struck at the lizard''s chest to confirm the effect. Surprisingly, the lizard''s upper body flew toward the wall while the lower part fell to the ground. "The lizard isn''t so strong. Although it will give us a bit more trouble, I doubt a lizard that big will let another lizard fit inside the tunnel. In other words, if there is another lizard like that in this place, we will most likely fight them like this. Each group should be able to kill it within two minutes." Alex nodded while observing the lizard. "Yeah. I should be able to split the lizard into half if I use Dark Cut three times, considering it doesn''t have enough penetration power." Anna nodded before coming back to Alex''s side. "Don''t worry. You are with Sherry and me. We should be able to finish it easily." Alex assured her with a smile. Anna only smiled and walked to Anya. On the other hand, Alex burned the lizard''s body and skeleton to clear up someplace. Yet, he spared the blood because he wanted to use it for something else. Forcing the blood that flew out of the body float in the air, Alex began drawing symbols on the ground while giving his order, "Kyle''s group will check Fabio''s group and replace them after an hour. Also, tell them to go back here so they can recover their Spiritual Energy in this place. I am planning to make a bigger rank 6 Gathering Array so many people can use it at once." "Understood." Kyle, Jean, and Artur left as soon as they heard the order. Meanwhile, Anna and Sherry looked around the area to see if there was any danger in this place. "Alex, I am going to the front for a few minutes to see the situation." Anya couldn''t stay still, so she requested. "Sure. Give me the status report." Alex nodded. "Yeah." Anya vanished into thin air. On the other hand, Sherry turned back to half-human form and walked toward Alex while watching their surroundings. "Master. How long will the battle last?" Alex wasn''t surprised by her question as he didn''t have any change of expression. He thought for a moment and answered, "It will depend on how much we can kill and their strength. We don''t really have much information about this place¡­ but if you want me to speculate the time, it won''t last more than two days." "What is the basis of that number?" Sherry asked while tilting her head. She thought they should be able to finish it in a day, but Alex needed twice the number. "We need to preserve our Spiritual Energy and the other reason is this place," Alex answered mysteriously while drawing a symbol. "This place?" This statement also piqued Anna''s interest before realizing what he meant. "I see. The space, huh¡­" "Yeah. You are right." Alex smiled and nodded. "With their number, it is easy to fill up the tunnel with dead bodies. Unlike in Zwaka''s place where we fought inside an Ant Nest and killed in a wider area, we need to kill in this small tunnel this time. In other words, we should also dispose of their body with our flame or teleport them inside the blue-layered realm, which I will burn them after this is over." "I see. The other groups have Fabio and Kyle, so they should be fine in destroying the dead bodies." Anna nodded. "How about we strike them in their nest? Although their number is pretty high, we should be able to handle one thousand monsters at once." Sherry asked. The questions she asked this whole time might be foolish, but it was her own effort to learn everything she could from Alex. "I am sorry if I ask too many questions." "Haha¡­ It''s fine. The answer to your question is because of this place. After killing all lizards in this place, we still need to continue our journey underground. We don''t know anything about this place, and there might be more monsters other than these lizards. In that case, I want to preserve our stamina as much as I can¡­ especially when the spirits'' True Spirit Body will be undone in a day." Alex said while sighing. "So, is Master planning to attack them together on the second day¡­ I mean, after the True Spirit Body''s effect is over? That''s why you said no more than two days?" Sherry opened her mouth in surprise, just like she got enlightenment. Alex smiled and nodded. "Correct." Before Sherry could ask another question, Anya called him. "The situation is pretty controlled there. Their number is slowly increasing, but it is still stuck in line. As long as we can control the flow of monsters, we should be fine." "Alright. Just make the others preserve their stamina because this will be a long one. From my Spirit Eyes yesterday, there should be around five thousand lizards. I want to kill three to four thousand today without spending all of our stamina." Alex said. "I understand your plan. I will explain the plan to them right now." Anya replied with a calm tone as she already read Alex''s move long ago. "Yeah. The huge array will be completed in an hour, so you can come back after that since I, Anna, and Sherry will go there. Tell Fabio to change position with Kyle''s group and escort you to this place to restore their energy." "Sure. I will tell them that." Anya nodded and fell into silence. Alex knew Anya had cut their connection and tossed her card inside the Inventory. Sherry kept asking questions to him to learn about his tactics. Alex was happy to answer Sherry''s query because there might be a time where he wasn''t with her. One hour passed in an instant, and Alex finally stretched his body after finishing the array. He activated the array and poured the Spirit Gems before glancing at Anna and Sherry. "Let''s go." They nodded and disappeared at the same time. 592 Lizard Nes "Firewave Emission." Alex and Sherry created a giant horizontal fire tornado, sweeping everything inside the cave. "Good one, Sherry." "Yes, Master," Sherry shouted in a happy tone. If she was in her half-human form, she might jump in joy after that praise. "Don''t celebrate too early you two. None of them die yet." Anna shouted as she went in front of them and slashed her scythe forward. "Dark Cut." The dark wave flew toward the lizards that had been blown away by Alex''s and Sherry''s Firewave Emission. It had been two hours since Alex finished his array. Kyle''s group took charge of the defense as soon as one hour was up. Fabio''s group escorted Anya to get to a safer place and met Alex''s group on the way. The tunnel seemed to be longer than he expected because there were around one hundred meters between the frontline and the safe place. Alex vaguely noticed this because he was too focused on the lizards. Anya had no report, so they quickly passed them without talking with each other. They knew their priority was to recover to make this battle easier. After another hour, Alex finally took charge of the frontline while Kyle, Artur, and Jean pulled back to regroup with Anya and the others. And it had been another hour since Alex''s group took over. The situation wasn''t really dangerous because they could blow the lizards away with their Firewave Emission. Although they had strong bodies, they never fought in their life. Just like a lizard that had been inside the cage for a few hundred if not thousands of years, knowing nothing other than getting stronger, the lizards were pretty easy to control. Every time the lizards were closing in against them, Alex and Sherry used their flame to blow them back. Besides, they could rain them down with unlimited firebirds, making their job easier. Anna was there as a buffer to kill every lizard that somehow passed them. "Blade of Conquest." Alex sent another Blade of Conquest by channeling the shockwave to the ground. This was the proper way to use Blade of Conquest. Obviously, the power inside this shockwave was stronger than when Alex used it as a sword wave. Each Blade of Conquest could kill around five to ten lizards before they could stop them with their strong arms. Of course, Alex didn''t use it that much because of the stamina reason. After these three hours from Fabio''s group, they hadn''t seen a single big lizard again in this tunnel, so they thought the big lizard earlier was a special one. At first, Alex was worrying whether the lizard would continue rushing to this place after this much ruckus or not. Considering it was a long tunnel from Alex''s position to their nest, it was normal that no lizard would be bothered enough to come in. Luckily, the sound of explosions and other things kept echoing through the cave, alarming the rest of the lizards. According to this rate, most of his Spirits should reach 10-Star Martial Monarch in this place. After that, he could use his EXP Cards to turn them into a Martial Monarch. When Sherry, Kyle, and he turned into Martial Monarch, The Black Devil Sect wouldn''t be able to stop them. This thought motivated him even further. He killed the lizard one by one, not letting even a single of them pass him. Besides him, Sherry mostly used Firewave Emission and Flame of Extinction because she didn''t have any other fire arts. "Sherry, how about learning other fire arts? I can search for one that suits you after this." Alex asked while swinging his sword. "Hmm¡­" Sherry thought for a moment. All the fire arts in her repertoire were pretty versatile, except fighting underground like this, so she answered. "I don''t particularly need one though since Master learned the fire art after putting in so much thought. Of course, I can''t copy Master''s Hell Inferno for various reasons, but if Master wants me to learn another fire art, I don''t mind." "Sure. I will pick one to add your firepower since Kyle had Fire Lotus Art from Stina. Maybe, I will also learn that, but who knows." Alex shrugged. "Yes. I will master it as quickly as possible." Sherry nodded with a smile. Alex nodded as he focused back on his enemies. Anna didn''t have too much screen time because most of the monsters died before it could pass Alex and Sherry. She ended up watching these two from afar while sending her ''Dark Cut'' from time to time. After the two hours passed, Fabio, Vera, and Greg appeared right behind them. Greg said, "Young Master, please retreat. We will take care of here." "Sure." Alex nodded without hesitation while Anna and Sherry followed him abruptly. Fabio and Vera crossed their swords and slashed downwards at the same time, sending a cross sword wave. Unfortunately, Alex couldn''t see it anymore because he already arrived in front of Anna. A hundred meters was nothing for a Martial Emperor. He asked, "How is your condition?" "With this rate, I am sure I can hold on until we kill them all," Anya assured him with a smile. "That''s good. Just don''t overwork yourself." Alex smiled before checking the others. They kept rotating their members around and chipped away their number bit by bit. It was only after six rotations the True Spirit Body was finally undone. It was still Alex''s group turn, but Fabio''s and Kyle''s group already appeared behind him, helping him in fighting the lizards. Alex decided to have a thirty minutes break and continued fighting. The progress was according to the plan, and they started pushing them through the tunnel after they killed three thousand lizards. Because of the size of the tunnel, they split the group into two. The first group would be the vanguard: Artur, Greg, Anna, Jean, Fabio and Vera. Alex and the rest were the second group, and their task was to bombard the enemies with their elements. With how powerful and extraordinary these people were, the lizards were pushed back like none other. Surprisingly, they needed to cross a few hundred meters just to arrive at the other side. Alex confirmed such a nest existed with his Spirit Eyes before Artur made a move. "Heroic Slash!" Artur released a sword wave and used it as a cover to break through the enemy''s line. The nest was big, but he didn''t have time to observe the nest because there were still enemies inside. "We have arrived at their nest!" Artur exclaimed, looking at three giant lizards with six hundred normal lizards. He quickly reported their number to Alex. "We are going back to the tunnel first and fight them until there are only three hundred left. We can then fight them in a bigger area to speed up the process." Alex quickly ordered after knowing their number. "Sherry, Kyle." Sherry and Kyle understood their jobs with a single shout of their name as they made two hundred firebirds each. There were a total of six hundred firebirds, including Alex''s, and all of them flew toward them at the same time. "Scree Scree Scree!" A series of roars from the lizards echoed as they raised their arms to block the incoming firebirds after sensing the extraordinary heat coming from each of the birds. "Boom Boom Boom!" The sound of explosions followed their roars. Many of them had their hands charred black, especially when Alex''s firebirds hit them. After all, it was a Pure Fire Element. However, they seemed to be not very effective because it only killed less than twenty lizards despite using so many explosions. It might be because the firebirds were too scattered. Nonetheless, Alex was disappointed and retreated to invite them. They quickly used the same formation to fight the rest. Alex couldn''t say it was a hard fight nor an easy fight. After killing around four hundred lizards, they finally broke through their ranks and moved to a bigger place. The one tasked to kill the three giant lizards were Alex, Artur, and Kyle. Alex finished the lizards by sending six consecutive Blade of Conquest with his Spear and Sword coupled with Triple Draws. The first destroyed the two arms with its overbearing power while the other three split the lizard into two. On the other hand, Artur used his unique footwork to confuse the lizard and somehow made it trip. For a lizard who never knew how to fight, it wasn''t a hard task for Artur. After that, he pierced the belly a few times until it finally died. Kyle was the most brutal one. Like how Stina dominated the battle with her fire, Kyle had the same style¡­ No, it could be said that Stina actually copied Kyle''s previous life fighting style while Kyle copied her style. In other words, Kyle just copied his previous style, so it made him more comfortable in fighting because the fighting style was the accumulation of many battles. Of course, it was already in perfection. Kyle used Fire Lotus again to blow away the two hands like the first giant lizard. He then used the Fire Blast, a fireball that turned into a laser, aiming it right at its belly. It was awful because it created a giant hole on its stomach as it slowly evaporated the blood that touched the remnant fire. The lizard let out a shrill before it died. Those three joined the fight with the remaining two hundred which had been cut into half by the others. The battle didn''t last for ten minutes. "We should rest first before continuing the exploration," Alex informed after looking around. "I shall be the lookout then. I haven''t used my energy too much, so I am fine." Greg informed him. "Thank you." Alex nodded before observing this big nest. The nest was around one kilometer wide and two kilometers in length. No wonder it could nest for a few thousand lizards in this space alone. Sadly, the lizards could only sleep and cultivate in this place, so they didn''t have any combat prowess like the monsters on the surface. At the end of the nest were two tunnels leading to the unknown. Alex was wondering whether to split their force into two, so they could explore both tunnels simultaneously, albeit many thoughts prevented him from thinking so. First, there might be another nest like this¡­ the chance was low, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Second, in case they found something unordinary and related to Array, they would be clueless about it, and it would take a while to go to their place. In the end, Alex decided not to split and sat down, restoring his Spiritual Energy. A few hours later, Alex rose from the ground as he noticed that all of his spirits had fully recovered. Before talking to them, he had another job to do. "Hmmm? We should have finished all the monsters nearby." Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see through the wall, but not a single monster appeared in his eyes. "Should we get going?" The others nodded without hesitation because there was no point in sitting here any longer. They needed to check this place before the Cultivation Place opened. And since they had wasted two days in the battle of Black Devil Sect and recovering, one week of waiting for the True Spirit Body, and two days for killing these lizards, they only had three days left. If there were more monsters in the deeper area, it would be bad. "Sure. Let''s proceed." Anya nodded in agreement. "Keep using your Spirit Eyes to see if there is an ambush or not. Greg will detect if there is any metal nearby while Artur walks in front to check whether there is a trap or not." "Yes." Greg and Artur clasped their hands and bowed to Anya. Then, the group began exploring the tunnel. 593 Little Exploration Alex and his group proceeded in their exploration. This might be the first time for Sherry and Kyle walked around in an unknown place like this out of his body. Kyle didn''t have such an excited expression, but Sherry looked around while walking, admiring everything she could find. Of course, it wasn''t like she lowered her guard down because she still maintained her distance to not pass Artur. The first problem would be whether to choose left and right to proceed from the nest. Rather than having too many thoughts to something that didn''t have any clue, Alex just asked Sherry who enjoyed such a thing. "Sherry, where do you want to go?" "Hmm¡­ It''s better for Master to choose. I can''t think about complicated stuff, so Master''s decision is the best." Sherry declined his offer to choose a direction, afraid she would choose the wrong way. "You don''t need to worry about it. We don''t have a clue or whatsoever, so it''s a fifty-fifty chance. No need to think it hard; just choose whichever way you feel comfortable." Alex smiled, thankful for her consideration. "Is that so?" Sherry blinked her eyes a few times before turning around and staring at the two dark tunnels. "Hmm, Master is always right, so I will choose the right passage." "I am not always right¡­ I have made many mistakes." Alex chuckled as he patted her head. Artur began walking toward the right passage, followed by the others. Sherry was smiling and humming the entire time. She had turned back to her half-human half-beast form after fighting the lizards. "Master, there is something that bothers me." "Uhm? What is it?" Alex looked at her in confusion. "We are going to the realm called Underworld after beating the Black Devil Sect, right?" "Yes. Do you have some problem with the Underworld or Black Devil Sect? Don''t tell me you are like Kyle, who suddenly has a husband in your previous life?" Alex teased. "Master!" Kyle couldn''t help but shout. "No. Even if I have a previous life, I will still choose Master, no matter what. And no, I don''t have a problem with the Black Devil Sect and Underworld. It''s just I am wondering if you can enter a realm like this when you reach Martial Monarch by sealing your cultivation like in the past." Sherry asked. A trace of surprise flashed on his eyes as he opened his mouth slightly. Alex never expected such a question from Sherry. He thought for a moment and said, "Yes, I can enter without any problem. Though I will have the problem of killing these many lizards¡­ In fact, I might not be able to kill them by myself in this small space." Listening to Alex''s honest response, Sherry simply shook her head. "I am not talking about that." "So, what is exactly the question?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Oh." Alex finally realized her question, but there wasn''t a surprise on his face. He calmly explained, "There are actually two types of restriction in the array for a special realm: With or without a restriction. "The special realm I made on the Northern Continent was one without a restriction. One of the reasons was Rose. I might visit her again after entering the Heavenly Continent for a few years to check her progress. That''s why it''s better to have no restrictions in that place. "The other reason was because I didn''t have enough strength to place a restriction. First of all, the barrier itself was only constructed by a rank 6 array. I could only bind those who were weaker than me, which meant Martial King or above¡­ It could bar the entry of Martial Emperors, but it would need some time until the place matured because of the Spirit Stone Mine beneath it. "I will use this place as an example. This place has a restriction that allows only Martial Emperors to enter because it''s reinforced with a rank 8 Array. If it''s only a rank 6 array, the people outside can just break this array, especially those Martial Monarchs. "Now let''s talk about the restriction. There are two places where you can implement the restriction. First would be the entrance and all explanations above are about this. This place implements the second type, which is to implement the restriction inside the barrier. "If a Martial Monarch somehow sneaks inside the barrier without a special sealing technique like mine, he or she will be teleported by a teleportation array from the barrier. Even if they could sneak inside again, the process will only be repeated. Now, do you understand?" Alex finished his explanation. "Somehow. I can understand the basic concept." Sherry nodded before falling into deep thought. "How about the Underworld, Master? The realm was inside the world within space, right? Can you still place a restriction?" "Ah. Now I understand your endpoint. You want to ask whether there are restrictions in the Underworld, right? Then if only I can enter because I''m the only one who is a Martial Emperor, can I find some way to bypass the system?" Alex smiled. "Yes. That''s what I want to ask." She nodded furiously, worrying about Alex. Alex patted her head again and said, "Don''t worry. Although it''s only a glimpse, I have scanned the entire array. As far as I remember, there is no restriction in the Underworld. Even if you reach Martial Monarch right now, you can still enter the realm." "That''s good then." Sherry let out a relieved breath, purely worried about Alex. After hearing Alex''s answer, the burden in her heart vanished. "I am still a 6-Star Martial Emperor right now. I should be able to enter 8-Star Martial Emperor after this place and practice to make some arrays and pills before entering the Underworld. In other words, I need around two months before entering that place. I''m sure I don''t need to say anything more, right?" Alex smiled at Sherry. "In the meantime, Kyle and I will need to advance to Martial Monarch. As for Stina, she should finish her deep sleep before us. And big brother and sister spirits, they should be able to enter Martial Monarch by using EXP Cards. Then we will protect Master." She smiled brightly. "Yeah. You are right." "Hmm." Sherry''s bright smile suddenly turned into a serious face as she narrowed her eyes. She crossed her arms while placing her hand on her chin like she was thinking hard. "Do you want to add something?" "No. I just think if Master doesn''t learn Alchemy and Array, you should reach the Martial Monarch a long time ago." Sherry answered honestly. "That might not be the case. First of all, I will need to search for a way to earn money. Pills and Array Plates are the best choices for me. Besides, I wouldn''t meet you in the lower world if I didn''t learn Alchemy. After all, I came to that place because I wanted to use that medicinal herb for my pill." Alex smiled. "That won''t be good¡­" Sherry regretted asking about it. Just the thought alone was enough to make her shudder. There wasn''t a single good future if she didn''t meet Alex because she might already die in that place, killed by another monster. Alex chuckled while looking at her. He didn''t mind answering her question because they couldn''t move too fast to avoid missing a single trap, so talking like this was perfect to pass the time. Luckily, they had yet to encounter a single trap in this passage. The exploration continued. Sherry asked a few more questions to him before they met a dead end. After turning away, she seemed to be down because her choice was the wrong one. Alex changed the topic for her and the two continued talking. Anna and the others only smiled while watching these two. In the depth of their hearts, they wished Sherry to grow up a bit more because, after a few years, she had no sign of growing up like Kyle. Alex didn''t know their thinking and continued to the second passage. It was only after an hour of walking, he suddenly found something. "Hmm¡­ there is a huge amount of energy in front of us. Judging from their texture, it wasn''t a monster or something¡­ It looked like a box(?) Not quite right. Anyway, we will encounter it in a moment, so be careful." Alex warned everyone after finding a chunk of energy. He looked behind the chunk but saw nothing. Upon hearing his words, all of them took out their weapons and raised their guard. Their pace became even slower, so they can be prepared if something that held this energy attacked them. Sherry also turned into her beast form. It took them around fifteen minutes to cover the distance because the passage was meandering. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Taking the last turn, Artur was the first to see whatever it was since he was in the front. He gasped upon finding a big chunk of energy in front of him. "Artur, what happened?" Alex shouted as he observed Artur with his Spirit Eyes, thinking an illusion bewitched him. However, there was no sign of it happening. His action also affected the rest as they clenched their weapons tightly. A few seconds later, Artur woke up and broke their tension. "Ah. I''m sorry for scaring you. There is actually a gate in front of us, and I am just mesmerizing it because it''s beautiful." Alex and the others quickly took their turn and closed their eyes for a split second. "Argh. My eyes." Anna was the first one to scream while the others came back to the dark passage. "Such an intense brightness¡­" Anya exclaimed. Alex covered a part of his eyes, so not all the light came into his eyes. They had been in the passage with a minimal light because the light only came from Kyle''s fire. On the other hand, this gate had a full brightness in its setting. Just like when their eyes had grown accustomed to a dark mode and suddenly it changed into a light mode, it was normal for Anna to scream. "It''s a curse." Anna bit her lips and complained. "What curse? There is no such curse. Just look at the light, you can know that this is a nice place to live in¡­" Artur shrugged. "Shut up. I will beat you up later, Artur¡­" Anna snorted before she slowly entered and slowly got accustomed to the light. "Oi oi. This is not my fault. It''s the gate fault." Artur looked at her with confusion. Alex let out a hollow laugh, watching them fight. Then, he observed the gate with his Spirit Eyes and noticed an array inside the gate. The gate was also reinforced by a concealment array to prevent any Spiritual Energy from leaking. Alex couldn''t see past this array, so he was wondering whether to proceed or not. In the end, he decided to check the gate first. The gate itself was a normal white door without any patterns or anything. Tho pillars were connected to this gate, making it look a bit cooler. Other than these two features, Alex could only find the full glowing brightness that torched one''s eyes. "Check around the gate first to see if my eyes miss anything," Alex ordered before walking to the gate itself. He felt the gate couldn''t be opened without some tweaking from his side as it would require a special token to open it. Alex waited for the others to check their surroundings first just to be careful. After around ten minutes and nothing was found, Alex said, "I am going to open this gate right now. I will need around five minutes, so you guys can prepare for something from inside since I can''t see anything past this gate." "Understood." They nodded and raised their weapons. 594 The Meaning Behind the Array "Done!" After a few minutes of tweaking, Alex finally created a temporary key to open the gate. Even though it was a key, it wasn''t like he made a physical one. It was just a temporary symbol that could unlock the gate for a minute. As soon as he finished the key, Alex quickly backed away and took out his sword and spear. He, Sherry, and Kyle summoned their firebirds, ready to bombard everything behind the door. *Clack!* The gate slowly opened, creating a tension in the air. Alex and the others narrowed their eyes to see what kind of being behind the door, albeit their expectations were betrayed. Alex was the first to notice because of his Spirit Eyes. He found not a single being inside from the small gap between the doors. They waited for a little more until the gate fully opened before noticing there was only a staircase in front of them. The staircase had the same color as the gate. Alex observed the staircase for a few seconds to see if there was any array behind or beneath the staircase. Only after half a minute, he finally nodded. "Let''s go. The gate will be closed in ten seconds." Anna and the others nodded while passing the gate and looking up. Unfortunately, they couldn''t see a single thing other than a white ceiling with some pillars supporting it. The firebirds disappeared with Alex''s signal as he sent a thought transmission to everyone. "We are going upstairs. Although there is no monster, we shouldn''t lower our guard." Upon his order, they started climbing the stairs with caution. They looked left and right to see if there was a clue to this place, albeit when they climbed onto the second floor, they found something more amazing than a monster. They found a huge hall underground. More importantly, they saw the water flowing like a river without a sound, seeing how slow and smooth their flow was. In the two corners were a kind of pool. There was no speck of dust around because this place was fully enclosed and the water was crystal clear. "What is this place, Master? It''s a pretty place, but¡­" Sherry looked at Alex with an unsure tone. She furrowed her eyebrows, wondering if this beautiful place was an illusion or not. "Let me check first. No one moves." Alex nodded and scanned the area with his Spirit Eyes before finding something amazing. "This¡­" They misunderstood his action and quickly raised their weapons, but Alex stopped them. "Don''t worry. There is no monster nearby and only a few arrays in this room. I can clarify that none of them are dangerous. This place seemed to be safe." Alex nodded. "Fu." They let out a breath of relief before lowering their weapons. Alex began walking forward to show it wasn''t dangerous. The others followed him with caution before arriving into a huge platform in the middle of the room. "What is this place, Alex?" Anna asked. "Hmm?" Sherry tilted her head, couldn''t understand Alex''s point. "Master?" Alex glanced at her confused expression and smiled. He pointed at the four pillars in the corner of the platforms that connected to the ceiling. "Can you see these four pillars? I mean, the function of these four pillars." "To hold the ceiling?" Sherry answered while tilting her head. "No. These four pillars are connected to the surface¡­ specifically to the Cultivation Place." Alex smirked, thinking about something evil. "But isn''t Cultivation Place still locked?" Sherry asked. "Yes. It''s still locked for another few days. Do you think how a giant Array like this could survive for a few thousand years?" Alex smiled before pointing his finger to the top. "The cultivation place is the key to sustain this place. The cultivation place will direct half of the energy from the monster core for cultivation while the rest will go to this place. "The energy will then be stored inside this place to keep this place running. As for the lizards outside, they are acting as a guard of this place, just like the ants in Zwaka''s place. This array will search for monsters nearby and kidnap them continuously. Don''t you find it''s strange that this place is right in front of the forest? But that forest doesn''t have any monsters?" "So, Master is saying that those one hundred thousand monsters actually came from the forest?" Sherry came to a realization. "Yeah. Migration, normal moving, and so on will eventually fill the forest. It''s not a rare occurrence. However, this array is searching from the monsters over there¡­ Judging from the scale, it''s not that forest alone. The surrounding should also be the supplier of this array." Alex pondered for a moment. "Now that you said it, I remember that Nelson said this place is peaceful because there is no monster in its surrounding. Maybe all the monsters are transferred into this place?" Anna said with a surprised tone. "Yeah. This array will pull the monster continuously to make the area peaceful. After that, this place will be opened to have cultivators cleared this place. It even gave the cultivation benefit to grab their interest. Then, the cultivators will use the cores to power up the array for another one hundred years and the cycle will repeat." Alex smiled. "The person who built this place must love this place to that extent," Anna commented in amazement. She somehow had a respect for this person because even when he wasn''t here anymore, this array could still protect the people living in this place. "Yeah. You are right. This array only abducts the Emperor Stage monsters so the economy could still run with the scarce Martial Monarch monsters and Martial King or below monsters." Alex nodded. "I see." Sherry let out a relieved breath because there was no problem in this place. It was only after a minute of momentary silence, Sherry suddenly noticed something wrong in Alex''s explanation. "Master, did you say it''s connected to the Cultivation Place on the surface?" "Haha, Sherry finally notices this important matter," Alex smirked while Anna and the others purposely waited for her to realize. He continued, "That''s right. The energy will fill this place as soon as the cultivation place opens. The Gathering Array allows us to absorb the energy at speed far greater than before. It''s even possible for you to reach peak Martial Emperor and enter your deep sleep." "But Alex¡­ if we absorb more than we are supposed to, wouldn''t this break the whole array?" Anna furrowed her eyebrows. "I am just taking advantage of this system¡­ I''m not going to destroy it or something. We can replace the necessary energy with Spirit Gems¡­ Maybe around one hundred thousand Spirit Gems might be enough. It''s worth it to exchange those with two stars advancement in a week." Alex smiled. He also didn''t want to destroy this place because it already protected the people for a few thousand years. If he destroyed this place because of his greed, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth. He might not be a good person, but he knew the difference between taking advantage and plundering. "Well, It''s your choice. One hundred or two hundred thousand Spirit Gems are a small number for us. We can spare that much and get more after destroying the Black Devil Sect later." Anna shrugged. "Yeah. You are right." Alex nodded. "The only problem would be how long it will take me to go back to the teleportation array and reconstruct the array again without anyone noticing¡­" He fell into silence for a few minutes before muttering, "I should be able to do it within a day. In other words, if I cultivate right now, I have a week and a day before going back to the surface." "There is another problem that needs to be answered." Anna cut in. "And that is?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You basically won''t appear in the Cultivation Place and Narman said those people from the other influences believed that the ones who destroyed the Black Devil Sect were us. If we didn''t come to that Cultivation Place, they might think anything." Anna sighed, thinking about what kind of conspiracy theories that would appear later. "I can put on a long robe, smear them with blood and make myself look injured. I can ask Sherry and one of you to have the same setup and act like we are heavily injured. It should be enough to fool them for some time until we have gathered enough information to attack the reinforcement from Black Devil Sect." Alex smiled. "I see. So that''s your plan. Not the best, but not bad either. We won''t stay too long in this place anyway." Anna nodded in agreement. "Anyway, we can cultivate first before the Cultivation Place opens since we have our own monster cores. We have more than ten thousand monster cores, including the lizards''... Thanks to Anya." Alex decided to change the topic so as to not waste time. Anya proudly smiled while puffing her chest. Since she was just a support that could only stay behind, she decided to use that advantage to grab all the monsters for Alex, so they didn''t need to come back after killing the lizards. "I can''t fight like you guys, but I can provide the support that will leave you speechless." Alex and the others simply smiled and let her brag. "Where to pour the cores? And we still need to come out of this place before the time limit." Anna asked while presenting another problem. "Hmm, we indeed need to go back to the surface and leave the barrier¡­ Maybe one of you can wake me up later since I believe Sherry and Kyle will enter their deep sleep before one week is up." Alex said. "This is rank 8 Gathering Array after all." "Well, we have seven of us here, so you don''t need to worry about that. Maybe, we can also ask Nelson and the others to summon six of us outside to kill more monsters." Anna said. "Hmm¡­ You can discuss it with the spirits." Alex nodded before turning around and pointing at the two pools. You can just toss them there, because usually the monster cores will be destroyed on the surface. We can use the pool to hold the Spirit Gems and I will make an array to destroy the Spirit Gems when they run out of energy and turn into a normal rock." "Oh. So, the Gathering Array is covering this entire room." Anna nodded before splitting the monster cores with Anya, so they could fill the two pools together. Anya gladly helped her and took the space ring before walking toward the pool. They poured the monster cores at the same time, making the water in the pool overflow. As soon as the monster cores filled the pool, the array beneath the platform reacted strongly. Alex watched this with his Spirit Eyes. He found that the energy from the monster cores flowed toward the platform. Alex smiled before sitting on the ground. Sherry turned back into half-human half-beast form and followed Alex. Kyle also sat down, feeling the insane amount of Spiritual Energy. In just a second, all the Spiritual Energy went inside his body from every pore at speed beyond his imagination. He became confident in advancing within a week. Alex''s absorption speed was even higher than them because he had refined his body three times, according to the Undying Fire Body. This was the first time he experienced a rank 8 Gathering Array and never expected to be this fast. He was overwhelmed for a few seconds before growing accustomed to the current speed. This wasn''t a big deal to him, who always had a need to get accustomed to his absorption speed. Without the trio noticing, Anna and the others had begun discussing with Anya planning the whole thing. Meanwhile, Alex, Sherry, and Kyle started cultivating in this place. 595 Their Reactions Two days later, On the surface, the people from four influences had been standing by from the morning, waiting for the Barrier to open. The same as them, the Rogue Cultivators started gathering around and made a temporary alliance. Unfortunately, their original number had been reduced into half, which meant five hundred people. As for the original people from five influences, one influence had been massacred for an unknown reason while the other four managed to retain at least eighty percent of their force. In other words, from the original six thousand people remained three thousand and seven hundred. The number was too low than the previous time this place opened. And the four young leaders gathered one last time because of the matter of importance. The only topic that would be discussed in this meeting was Alex''s matter. Chloe stood right in front of the barrier, looking at the other young leaders. She crossed her arms and had a bag under her eye. He had been thinking about Alex this whole time. The only reason for that was because of how he massacred the Black Devil Sect. Even without any proof, they could know that much. She was afraid that they might be one of Alex''s targets and would be wiped out after the Black Devil Sect. It wasn''t a surprise to have this kind of thought, considering they saw the result of their battle. The flame pillar that shot through the sky, creating a huge crater like none other. It made them doubt if Alex was actually a Martial Emperor, not a Martial Monarch. She couldn''t enter the calm state for cultivation, because the thought of Alex kept flashing in her mind. However, the others weren''t the same. Only another person had the same condition as her. It was the prince from the Likas Kingdom. Like Chloe, he was also the one who overthought the situation because of his job as the prince of Likas Kingdom. The other two young leaders, Mio and Ganga, didn''t want to think that much. Ganga aside, who was a muscle brain, Mio had a different thought about this matter. Seeing how the other party dared to challenge Black Devil Sect, she was wondering whether they knew about their relationship with Black Devil Sect. Even though they had the backing of the main clan from Heavenly Continent, it was hard to call them unless they prepared for something crazy, like Fire God Clan. In the end, she decided to inform her family first on this matter. Luckily, after waiting for a few days, Alex didn''t come to take her life. There were only two possibilities. First, Alex didn''t know about their family relationship with the Black Devil Sect. Second, that battle heavily injured him, making him unable to move. There was actually a third reason, which meant Alex died together with Moar in that flashy attack, but she didn''t want to think that because it sounded too good to be true. Looking at how he beat Moar''s group, there was no way that Alex would be foolish enough to attack them without a plan. If he attacked them, it would only mean one thing. Alex had a great plan that would lead him into victory. There was no need to think too hard for that since she would die at that time. After a few more days, the day for Cultivation Place was finally opened. Mio was smiling, knowing Alex wouldn''t come. She accepted Chloe''s invitation to meet before entering the cultivation place. The place was right in front of the barrier. Chloe was as fast as always and arrived at this place first. Ganga and Mitras arrived at the same time before turning their head around, sensing Mio''s presence. "I am not late, am I?" Mio calmly smiled while observing these three''s expressions. "No. Just barely make it." Mitras snorted, thinking if a minister acted like that, he would hit him as only the royal could arrive the lastest. Ganga only shrugged his shoulders and stared at Chloe, "So, what do you want to talk about by gathering us here?" "There are a few topics that need to be discussed. However, there is actually one matter that we need to discuss first." Chloe said while looking at them sharply. Even Ganga furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth. "Black Devil Sect and the mysterious group." "To be exact, the mysterious group." Mitras cut in before continuing. "There is nothing to say about the Black Devil Sect other than serve them right." "Indeed. Even I know how bad their conduct is. Still, I should say it. They are useful to control people, especially in this barrier." Ganga nodded. "So, what is this mysterious group, Chloe? Do you have any information about them?" Mio broke her silence and looked at Chloe while narrowing her eyes. "I don''t have a single clue about them other than they are mysterious and dangerous." Chloe shook her head helplessly. "I want to talk about this based on assumptions and from what we had seen a week ago." "You can start the discussion." Mitras stretched his hand, letting her talk first because he knew Chloe was the most skeptical person out of the people here. Chloe mysteriously set her eyes on Mitras for a few seconds before nodding her head. "All of you must have seen the condition of the battlefield. I believe their group is not merely from what Ganga and I had seen." "Do you have a prediction on how many people they have?" Mio asked. "To destroy Black Devil Sect¡­ A hundred people should be the minimum. Even so, most of them should be 7-Star Martial Emperor at the very least. They can make a guerilla tactic and chip away their number. The number can be decreased if they have Array Masters and use many arrays skillfully¡­ but I still believe their number should be more than fifty." Chloe explained carefully. "Hmm¡­ They indeed succeeded with their plan because they managed to kill many Black Devil Sect members before they decided to gather on that plain." Mitras nodded in agreement. "Still, I have asked my subordinates to search for a masked man, but none of them sees them. They might have perished together with the Black Devil Sect¡­ You must remember about the flame pillar that shot to the sky a week ago." Ganga said. "This is why people call you a muscle brain." Mio snorted before saying, "If we believe in something like that, we would be attacked at a time we never expected. We need to assume that our enemies are still alive unless we have confirmed their corpses." "Indeed. I still believe they are still alive somewhere¡­ and I could only believe to the extent of heavily injured, not dead." Chloe agreed with Mio. "That''s why I want us to make a rotation for our people." "A rotation? Do you want to set up a defense perimeter for our disciples? I know that they are basically free because of the limited number of Cultivation Room. However, they could still benefit from staying around the rooms and cultivate with the excess Spiritual Energy." Mitras raised a problem. "Mitras. There won''t be any benefit if we die!" Mio narrowed her eyes, looking at Mitras with a grim expression. Mitras furrowed his eyebrows before letting her continue. "I know that asking the people to set up a perimeter is too much for influences. That''s why I want all of you to make a rotation of your disciples. Each influence will send two hundred of their disciples every day to set up a parameter. Eight hundred people are not easy to kill, so I believe that should be enough." Chloe explained. "I understand. The other two hundred can stay inside and cultivate while the rest can stay outside and cultivate but not entering the deep cultivation state. They should be able to realize if they are attacked and help the disciples." Mitras nodded. "Yeah. That''s what I am planning to do." Chloe paused for a few seconds and said. "First, I want to see whether you agree with my plan? If you have any objection, raise it now! I don''t want to have an objection later." "I don''t have a problem. It''s for our and our influences'' safety. The fact that you have made the proposal and discussed it with us is enough for me to agree." Mitras nodded. "Haha¡­ Sounds good. Although I want to fight this mysterious group, our real target is the place behind this barrier." Ganga laughed while pointing at the barrier. "I agree. They are mysterious and dangerous, and it''s better to band together than having them kill us." Mio shrugged. "Since all of you have agreed, we can move on from this topic." Chloe continued to the next topic. "The second topic I want to discuss is the split. As you know, we have lost the Black Devil Sect, which meant their spots would be split among us and the rogue cultivator." "Agreed. The rogue cultivators are also nice because we can invite a few of them in this event like we usually do. If they can get power up before we invite them, it would be better since we don''t need to spare more resources." Mitras quickly agreed with her as he could already see her proposal. "Yeah. I am planning to split them into five ways. We, four influences, and they can have two hundred rooms each. Seeing how they have fewer people, we can grab our share after a few days and let more disciples cultivate. It might only be for one or two days, but it should be enough." Chloe nodded. "But¡­ shouldn''t they outside to protect us?" Ganga asked. "No. If it''s only one or two days, the mysterious group won''t attack us because it will be harder. After all, the disciples should have gotten a power-up by cultivating for a few days in this place." Chloe shook her head and explained. "I see." Ganga looked down, weighing something in his mind. "Do any of you have a problem with this decision?" Chloe asked with a sharp eye. "No. I don''t have a problem." Mitras raised his hand, agreeing with her plan. "My Tyrant Clan also agrees with this plan." Ganga nodded. "My Ancient Blue Family will proceed accordingly." Mio closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. Chloe nodded before calling her trusted subordinate. She told them to inform the disciples and the rogue cultivators about the splitting. The news should bring happiness to the rogue cultivators, and they would also be thankful for such a gracious chance. This way, they could invite them to their influences easier. It was two birds with one stone. "Is that all?" Mitras asked while crossing his arms. "Yeah. I believe so unless you want to discuss another problem¡­ Of course, don''t talk about the outside world problem and bring it here. I don''t want us to have a conflict because of this mysterious group." Chloe nodded. "No. I don''t have a problem." Mitras shook her head. "I am going to inform my subordinate first before coming back here to make sure none of you have a head start." Ganga and Mio exchanged looks and nodded. They also disappeared for a while before returning. They didn''t have a single conversation for an hour before the barrier showed another sign. "Look, it is opening." Ganga pointed at the barrier behind Chloe as the top of the barrier slowly opened and continued to the lower part. "It seems the time has come. Ask the disciples to go according to the plan if they want to survive." Mio nodded before sending a thought transmission to her subordinate. The other also did the same thing. After sending the information to their respective subordinates, they exchanged looks and went inside. 596 Alexs Plan One week later, Alex was still cultivating, ignoring everything around him. Even though it was everything, there was only Anna beside him. Sherry and Kyle had entered their deep slumber to evolve into Martial Monarchs. As for the other spirits, they were summoned outside by Nelson. Luckily, their Space Element was a weird one and the space restriction in this place couldn''t stop them from teleporting by using the system. Logically speaking, Anya would be the best person to stay because she was the weakest, considering it was hard for her to kill monsters. However, Anya had a different plan. She wanted to search for a perfect place where they could lay an ambush. She was also wondering how many people they would bring to search for their group, so she took charge of the operation herself. Nelson supported her and supplied every information she needed while the other spirits gathered some more EXPs. Ultimately, Anna would be the best one to wake Alex up. Not only was she the closest one to Alex, but her figure also had been seen by Chloe. If Alex truly wanted to make the four influences think they were trying to perish together, it would be better if Anna was on his side as it would give another proof. Anna understood Anya''s intention and agreed with the plan. Although Alex never pointed out the details about his plan, he should also have the same intention as Anya. Besides, Narman was also on the surface, observing those people. They should be able to create a believable scene. Only after the next day, Anna woke Alex up as this was the last day. "Alex, Alex, wake up." Anna first called him before slowly inserting her soul into his consciousness to wake him up. Alex slowly opened his eyes after she did that. He scanned the room before noticing what happened. "Everyone is gone?" "Yeah." Anna confirmed and added, "Sherry and Kyle are inside your body, evolving to Martial Monarchs." "Indeed. I am not planning to have them join us in the next battle though." Alex nodded with a smile. "You mean Black Devil Sect''s reinforcements?" Anna narrowed her eyes with a serious expression. "Yeah. It''s been a while for all of us to fight together. Only I and the spirits¡­" Alex smiled. "Ah!" Anna opened her mouth in surprise. "So, are you planning for this?" "No. If Sherry, Kyle, and Stina are here, I will also ask them to participate. I just go with the flow." Alex shrugged. "Haha." Anna chuckled before adding, "We are capable enough to beat them though. This time, I am planning to beat them hard with my butterflies." She was frustrated because her Dark Butterflies, which were effective against people, had been restricted since their enemies were monsters. This time, she would really cause a ruckus in the enemy. "So, what is your plan?" Anna asked. "If they have one to three thousand people in each group, we can destroy two or three groups in a day¡­ At least, before your True Spirit Body ends." Alex paused for a moment. "The problem will be how the other groups and us will react? It''s hard to kill them without the True Spirit Body and I admit that." "You already have a plan, right?" Anna narrowed her eyes. "Yes. First of all. I believe your ability will give us a big advantage." Alex said mysteriously. Anna nodded. She knew that Alex would be relying on her butterflies, which were more effective against the Blood Devil Sect than normal humans. This is why he believes they could annihilate two to three groups in a day. "As for the plan, I can only think of one." Alex paused for a moment, creating a mysterious atmosphere around him. Anna narrowed her eyes before realizing his plan. "EXP Cards?" "Yeah. I''m planning to use the EXP Cards at the right moment to recover your Spiritual Energy. Depending on the number of our enemies, all of you might have a turn." Alex sighed. "This will be a hard fight though, considering it''s hard to kill Martial Kings or above." Anna presented another problem. "I believe so. The groups we are fighting with the True Spirit Body will be easier. We were not like the past when we fought against the Joyful Union Sect. Besides, the disciples'' quality will be much lower than the Joyful Union Sect." "How about the battle plan?" "I have a few plans in mind, but the best plan will utilize Nelson." Alex paused for a second. "We are going to ambush their leaders first before starting to kill the rest. Nelson will go around and assassinate every person who has a leader ability. Also, we will erect a barrier so we can retreat when they use Berserk Pills." "You can''t go into the details without knowing their information, huh¡­" Anna sighed before noticing one last important matter. "How about splitting us? I mean the True Spirit Body. Seeing how you want to use the EXP Cards, we can have seven spirits use their True Spirit Body for the first day and the second day will have the three spirits and EXP Cards." "It''s a good plan if we don''t fight against too many enemies. Let''s say, if they are around two thousand, I will implement that plan." Alex nodded. "Hmm, good enough." Anna smiled before staring at him for a couple of seconds. "How is your body? You have advanced a few times, you know." "Yeah. I never expected the effect would be this wonderful. My three times of body refining with Undying Fire Body coupled with the rank 8 Gathering Array, it was such a marvelous one. Of course, the energy that poured onto us continuously was also the reason I could enter the 9-Star Martial Emperor." Alex smiled. "Hmm, an effort that needs to take four to five months only takes one week¡­" Anna furrowed her eyebrows. "Haha. I just barely broke through to the 9-Star Martial Emperor, it will take a long time to reach 10-Star." Alex laughed. "Fair enough. Besides, you need to learn more about Array and Pill. We can''t plunder the Black Devil Sect anytime soon, so we might exhaust our Spirit Gems before we know it." "Don''t worry. I will surely make rank 7 pills to get some money." Alex assured her with a smile. "Good." Anna looked at him and asked, "What are you going to do now? Do you want some information about the surface or do something else?" "I will make the destruction array first." This was something he promised at first, to build an array that would solve the Spiritual Gems later. After finishing the job, he took out Narman''s card. "Narman, you are on the surface, right? How is the situation there?" "There is nothing special, Young Master. As you have predicted, the four influences band together to save their own asses." Narman answered. "They should have a few people to patrol the area, right?" Alex asked. "Indeed. There are around eight hundred people patrolling the forest and outside the forest. They began lowering their guard because they had seen no suspicious people for the past few days. I believe this is the perfect chance to give them a flash of your greatness." Narman joked at the end. "What greatness? I am acting like I am heavily injured¡­" Alex paused for a moment. "I won''t come that close to them because it will blow my cover. I will just let a few of them see my appearance before teleporting out of the forest." "For what purpose?" Anna was the one who asked this time. Alex answered immediately. "It''s to make them think, I also put the Cultivation Place as my mission, not them. However, my injuries prevent me from going there and because I am afraid the four influences will hunt me down. After all, I can''t fight them in my state. "On the other hand, only the injured you are with me. They might think our people have died in the battle, considering how big the ruckus we made. Taking advantage of their lack of information, they will easily misunderstand us. "We will present ourselves one more time right when we are leaving the place. We can sneak inside the crowd before disappearing from that place. Nelson and the others already caused a problem outside, so they shouldn''t chase us. "Ultimately, the juniors will focus on us while the seniors will focus on Nelson. The juniors have their information, so the seniors. They will give each other some false information before unknowingly creating a huge misunderstanding." Alex smirked evilly. "Now you said about it. It''s truly easy to create misunderstanding when you base it on assumptions." Anna nodded. "So, what should I do now?" Narman finally broke his silence. "For the time being, you will look around the entrance since I want to leave this place while fixing the array. I don''t want any unnecessary people to find me." "Understood. So, I am patrolling around the array and if I find disciples nearby, I will inform you, right?" "Yes. Especially when I almost finished fixing everything. I can stop the progress for a while until you say it''s safe." "Understood." Receiving his order, Narman quickly proceeded. On the other hand, Alex began his preparation. He took out a bottle containing monster blood. He smeared some of it to his clothes and ripped some parts to make him look wounded. He also took out a long robe and did the same thing. Anna followed whatever he did and made it as natural as possible. After putting on the clothes, Alex and Anna exchanged looks before observing each other''s bodies. Of course, not in a lewd way. Instead, they were staring in their attire to see if it was natural enough. Satisfied with each other''s efforts, both of them nodded at the same time before their eyes locked into each other. "Let''s go." "Yeah." Alex didn''t recall her back inside the card, but asked her to accompany him all the way. They came out of this place from the white gate, passing the lizard nest again before reaching the teleportation room. They entered the teleportation array without hesitation and arrived on the surface. Alex created a hole on the first barrier, so they could stay in the gap between the original barrier and Alex''s barrier. He began working on the restoration of the original barrier because he didn''t have any intention of destroying this place. In fact, he never had the intention to destroy a single place. Whether it was Zwaka''s place, his master place, and Teodross''s place, all of them were destroyed on its own. Zwaka''s place was destroyed because he absorbed the Space Element knowledge, according to Zwaka''s request. His master place was shattered because of the Heavenly Tribulation after his master''s advice to undergo his tribulation there. Teodross, on the other hand, was destroyed after giving a few things. In the end, all of those places were never destroyed because he wished for that to happen. He always wanted to leave without making a ruckus like such a thing. After finishing the reconstruction of the original barrier, he proceeded to remove all of his barriers. Of course, under Narman''s surveillance. He didn''t want people to find him right after exiting this place. A few hours later, he could finally remove the barrier. The orange sky filled their eyes as soon as they came out. It looked romantic if they were on a beach, watching the sunset or whatever, but Alex and Anna had another purpose. Narman suddenly appeared right before them and pointed her finger toward a direction. "The cultivation place is in this direction. If you walk around fifty meters, you will meet around seven people that are patrolling the forest." "Thank you." Alex nodded with a smile as Narman disappeared again. They looked at each other and nodded before walking toward the cultivation place. 597 Deception "Report." A disciple suddenly appeared right in front of a certain cultivation room. This certain room looked more guarded than the other rooms. There were a few similar rooms like this and all of them had a disciple reporting before them. "What happened?" The disciples, who guarded the room, furrowed their eyebrows and asked. They were pretty displeased because they were interrupted, but didn''t quickly push this guy away. The dangerous situation didn''t allow them, so they asked, "What is your report? We need this to be done as fast as possible." "We need to inform Lady Chloe." The guy panted while looking at the two people in front of him. He paused a few seconds to catch his breath, but those people were so impatient. "What? Just spit it already!" "We need to inform Lady Chloe¡­ Lady Chloe that we have spotted the mysterious masked people." The disciples finally said his pieces with great difficulty. "What did you say?!" As the closest guards of Chloe, they knew exactly what happened in this situation. The appearance of masked people would surely bring chaos upon this place. The guards exchanged looks with each other before nodding their heads at the same time. "We need to wake Lady Chloe up." "No need to do that." Before they even turned around, a soft female''s voice resounded from behind the door. The stone gate slowly opened as Chloe walked outside. "I have heard it. What do you mean by the information?" "We have found the masked people in the woods. It would seem they decided not to participate in this place and just left." The disciple reported. Chloe furrowed her eyebrows, thinking about something. "Did they do anything? Tell me in detail." "They didn''t do anything. I witnessed their appearance myself. They showed up inside the forest, saw this place for a few seconds, and left." "Hmm? They didn''t do anything? Maybe they are setting up something?" Chloe muttered to herself, with a volume high enough for the disciple to hear. "I believed they didn''t do anything." The disciple shook his head. "Oi. Are you saying Lady Chloe wrong?" The guard narrowed his eyes and released killing intent. "No, no. I believed such a case because I saw them heavily injured." "Heavily Injured!" Chloe opened her mouth in surprise before asking, "Give me the report of their appearance." "I only saw two people. The first one was a male with golden hair. His clothes were tattered with blood smeared everywhere. He couldn''t even stand up and needed to rely on the second person. The second person was a female with long black hair tied into a ponytail. She had the same condition as him¡­ might be a bit better." The disciple reported hurriedly. Chloe kept muttering for a few minutes like how Alex predicted her would be. The long wait led the other young leaders to meet with each other before going toward her group. "What are you talking about?" Ganga narrowed her eyes at Chloe, who was busy muttering something. "Why don''t you share your thoughts with us?" "That''s right. We also need some answers to this situation." Mio nodded. Mitras simply stared at her, demanding the same thing, but he didn''t let out a single sound. Their words distracted Chloe''s train of thought and snapped her back into reality. She looked at the trio while narrowing her eyes. "You guys¡­" Although she wanted to be angry, she couldn''t because they would surely participate in her plan. She thought for a moment and said. "There is nothing we can do. They might be attacked if they come here, so they escape." "According to the report, there were only two of them left and they were heavily injured. This will be the perfect chance if you want to strike them." Mio said, inciting the heart from other young leaders. She was planning to murder with a borrowed knife, just to avenge the Black Devil Sect. It somehow became her obligation after the cooperation. Unfortunately, Chloe stopped anyone from thinking into something that ''stupid'' or at least she didn''t want them to ruin her own plan. She said with a serious expression. "Rather than attacking them, it''s better to stay here and cultivate." "That''s true. It''s better to cultivate." Mitras nodded as he thought it was better to be safe than sorry. After all, Alex''s matter was against the Black Devil Sect, considering his people were fine. Ganga also agreed with Chloe''s plan. Mio pondered for a moment before gritting her teeth. She had no choice other than to agree here. Besides, she reached the peak state a day ago, so she said, "Alright. I also agree. I am going to have my tribulation soon¡­ maybe a few hours anyway. After I become a Martial Monarch, the realm will send me off." She thought that by leaving this realm first, she could inform her family about this matter beforehand. After coming to a conclusion, all of them went back to their own cultivation room. "Riel." Chloe narrowed her eyes, calling her trusted subordinate. The one who called Riel turned out to be one of her guards. He appeared beside her, clasped his hands, and bowed to her respectfully. "Do you have any task for me, milady?" "I have one job for you and I want you to do it secretly," Chloe said with a chilling tone. It would be bad if other people knew about it, so she warned him before even giving her order. "I am happy to serve milady. Please order me." Riel kneeled on one knee. "I won''t say anything and will keep the mission as a secret with all my strength." "Good." Chloe nodded, thought for a moment and said. "I want you to bring five disciples to track upon those two masked people." "Does milady want to kill them?" Riel''s expression turned grim. "No. I don''t want to be killed. Instead, I want them to be alive." Chloe smiled brightly, but it still held the chilling aura. It looked like this mission was very important to her. "I live to obey." "I want you to help them until they are recovered. However, keep your identity as a secret for the time being. I want to make them feel indebted to you¡­ before the debt is going to me and my Martial Arts Pavilion." "Young Lady wants to recruit them?" Riel knew how her brain worked, so he somehow realized her intention. "Yeah. Unfortunately, we can''t let the other influences know this since they might be suspecting us and the Black Devil Sect won''t swallow this matter. Since they kill those people with their masks, I can just ask them to take off their masks and live like normal people. The noticeable one would be their hair, but it is easily solvable by hair-dye." Chloe smirked, picturing how she could acquire the power that could bring benefit to her Martial Pavilion. "By making them feel indebted, it will be easier to recruit them. I see¡­ Milady is really a genius." Riel praised her. "Enough about me. Go now before they are too far." Chloe waved her hand, telling her to proceed with the mission. Looking at Riel''s back, Chloe''s grim expression turned into a happy one. She thought that as long as she could acquire this mysterious group, it would surely benefit the Martial Arts Pavilion. She made this a secret at first because she had another thought in her mind. In case they were found out by the Black Devil Sect, and it wasn''t worth it to protect them, she could simply brush the matter off. She could just say, we don''t know they were the masked people and they had sneaked inside the pavilion. Although it might have some impact on their influence''s reputation, it was at the level where it could be ignored. However, if they turned out to be useful individuals, they would gain greatly. She thought, ''Is this what it means by striking when someone is low?'' Chloe let out a hollow laugh while walking back into her cultivation room. Unbeknownst to her, a disciple of Martial Pavilion Sect was looking at her mysteriously. If one took a look at his eyes carefully, they would notice that his eyes were a bit sharper than normal humans. This person was Narman, and he somehow managed to listen to their conversation with his long pointed ears that had been disguised as normal human ears. He stared for a moment before informing Alex through the system. Outside the forest, a bit further to the north, Alex and Anna leaned on a big tree, knowing that their plan was successful. Narman calling him was proof that his plan succeeded. However, when he asked Narman, he suddenly got a response different than his expectation. "Narman, it''s a success, right?" "Yeah. The plan is a success and the five influences decide to not create a ruckus and act like nothing happened." "Good." Alex nodded happily. "There is actually one more matter that I need to bring to your presence." "What is it?" Alex asked while frowning. A problem at a time like this would surely come from one of the young leaders. And as expected, when Narman informed him about Chloe''s plan, Alex let out a long sigh. He said, "Alright. Knowing it is enough for me. They won''t be able to catch us with my Teleportation Array. As for the time we need to leave the realm, I will come out as ''one'' of them." "Understood. Good luck to you, Young Master." Narman nodded. The card fell into silence, so Alex tossed it back into the Inventory. Anna looked at him with a worried expression. "What are we going to do with this? Should we attack the Martial Arts Pavilion?" "No. We will let them be. I don''t want to have other trouble than we already have." Alex sighed. "Though we have two options now and I don''t know which one is better. First, we can still use this appearance and leave this realm before hiding. The second option would be changing into a fresh appearance and come inside their rank." "For the first option, are we still going to leave this place together with the other rogue cultivators?" Anna asked. "No. I am sure they have already anticipated it. Although they won''t touch us because the ruckus we and Nelson made, they would still put us under surveillance. If we come to an inn or dark alley and teleport, they might suspect us using the teleportation array. Whether they think it''s my Space Element or an array plate, I don''t want to see that from happening." Alex shook his head helplessly. "If it were me, I would choose the former. We and Nelson have caused a big ruckus by saying we are a hidden influence on this continent. Knowing that they never know such an influence, it''s easy to think we are inside a Special Realm, and one of us might also have a Space Element. After all, we ''have'' been nurturing ourselves for a few thousand years." Anna narrowed her eyes. "Yeah. That''s why I''m going to leave as quickly as possible. Seeing how powerful the Cultivation Place is, they would certainly want to stay as long as possible. That way, no one would be able to stop us unless they station disciples around the gate." Alex nodded. "And I doubt their leader would be there," Anna added with a smile. "Yeah. Normal disciples wouldn''t dare to stop us easily, especially when they are forced to guard for the past few days against us. As long as we escape quickly and naturally, the elders outside the array won''t realize we are from the hidden influence. The most they could think is to ask their junior about this and at that time, they are already too late." Alex smiled evilly. "I see. The first option and the second option¡­ seeing how we have been discussing the first option, let''s go with the first option." Anna chose the decision since Alex couldn''t decide. "Alright. We will go with the first option." Alex nodded. 598 According to the Plan "Why is it, Father?" Chloe asked while sending a trace of hatred to the old man in front of her. It turned out she was the daughter of the Pavilion Master. "I have decided. We won''t do anything against him." The old man shook his head. "I know you are doing this for the sake of pavilion, but we better not step on a lion''s tail." Even Chloe''s rage would vanish as she realized something after listening to his words. She took a few deep breaths to calm her heart before asking, "What do you mean, Father?" He closed his eyes first, recalling the matter a few weeks ago. It was very chaotic at that time where the three influences almost grouped up to attack the Ancient Blue Family. If Nelson and the others kept spewing all of it, a fight would most likely break out, and countless lives would be lost. Luckily, Nelson and his group disappeared as soon as they killed Black Devil Sect. The Ancient Blue Family could start explaining how they were not related to the Black Devil Sect¡­ of course, with bullsh*ts. Without Jeanne presenting more truth, the other influences could only calm down and believe them before sending their own spies to check the Ancient Blue Family. This was the second reason why Alex let Jeanne spread the information. Their Spirit Nest was dealing with the Black Devil Sect, so they would be out of the picture. The other three influences would surely keep the Ancient Blue Family in check because everything was true until proven otherwise. This would prevent the Ancient Blue Family from interfering in the fight between these two influences. Alex was happier to use them as convenience pieces. The old man opened his eyes and let out a long sigh. He looked at his daughter''s face and said, "Since you want to know, then I will tell you about the matter a few weeks ago. First¡­" He started telling all the stories from start to finish, including the danger of this hidden influence. Chloe gasped when she learned the whole truth. She never thought about this possibility at all. "I never thought this would happen¡­ Does Grandfather think a big war will happen?" "I''m not sure, but the probability is high. Nonetheless, the elder from Black Devil Sect should arrive by now. If they want to attack this hidden influence, it would be impossible because they would need around a month to go back here. In other words, they could only start investigating their own territory and expand the search to our territory." The old man stopped. "I see. Conducting such a blind investigation will certainly cost a lot, especially since they need to pay us with money unless they are trying to ignore us. If it''s like that, the other influences wouldn''t be happy with them, and this is not what they want in the present situation." Chloe nodded, understanding the situation. They had been talking for an hour in his room, so the tea had become cold. He looked at Chloe with a smile. "So, why do you have such a strong opinion about them?" Chloe had expected this question, so she already prepared the answer beforehand. "I will talk about the one that looks like a leader, a golden-haired masked man. He used a sword and spear at the same time, and I could certainly see that he could use Sword Art with a spear and vice versa." "!!!" The old man almost spilled his tea as he looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. "What did you say?" Chloe knew he heard her clearly, so she decided to move on. "Then, he and his group kill the entire Black Devil Sect inside the realm. I don''t know who used it, but I saw a huge flame pillar shooting to the sky and leaving a huge crater afterward¡­" She continued talking about Alex''s deeds and everything she speculated after learning some information. The old man dropped his jaw further and further before losing his grip. The teacup fell and broke upon touching the ground, spilling the tea everywhere. Even so, the old man didn''t move because he was too shocked. Chloe could understand his reaction. If she didn''t learn all of this step by step, she would also have this kind of expression. "Now, do you know why I have a strong opinion about them, right?" She narrowed her eyes, finishing her explanation with a question. The old man took a deep breath first before commenting, "Such a dangerous hidden influence. They said they would only appear when the balance in this continent will crumble. Their words¡­ might be true." "Are you saying Black Devil Sect and Ancient Blue Family have some sort of agreement?" "We can''t be sure for now. I will ask the elders to increase the number of spies for the time being. As for this hidden influence¡­ They can hide for a few thousand years, there is no point in searching for them. We will only see if there is any major movement on the continent." Not the answer she wished for, but it was the best for their pavilion. It would seem she needed to abandon the idea of getting that Sword and Spear Technique. "What should I do, Grandfather? Although I want to act alone, I believe I should ask you this question first." "Nothing. You have reached 9-Star Martial Emperor right now. You can advance to 10-Star Martial Emperor first." The old man paused for a moment and said, "If there is a movement in the near future, It must be a big one. All we can do is prepare if a war will really happen. I will also talk about this with the Tyrant Clan and Likas Kingdom. So you don''t need to be worried about the Pavilion affairs." "Understood." Chloe nodded her head before drinking her tea in a single gulp. She clasped her hand politely and rose from her position. She bowed respectfully and left the room. "Wait a minute. I have one more thing to say." The old man stopped her after a certain scene flashed in his mind. Chloe turned around and tilted her head in confusion. "May I know what it is, Grandfather?" "Not acting against him is the right choice. If you are going to him, I am afraid you will die." She frowned and asked again, "What do you mean?" The old man looked at her back and shook his head. He closed his eyes, recalling the matter of a few hours ago. After a few seconds, he finally opened his mouth, telling her that scene. "They are¡­" ... It was the day for the gate to appear. Alex and Anna appeared right before it opened. Both of them had been waiting nearby, observing each disciple movement. Just like how they expected, the disciples were waiting around the gate. *Stomp!* Alex''s appearance alarmed everyone in the area. They had been tasked by their leaders to stand by in this place, so they would inform them after confirming the gate. However, Alex''s sudden appearance made them hesitant whether their mission would change. They were guarding the cultivation place for a few days just to guard against him. Seeing him come into sight, hate and fear mixed inside their heart. On one hand, Alex''s group managed to kill the entire Black Devil Sect, instilling the deep fear inside their heart. On the other hand, seeing how injured he was, they thought this would be the best chance to attack him. Anna placed his hand around her shoulder and carried him in this situation. Noticing their thought, Anna released her 10-Star Martial Emperor strength. Their body shook after feeling Anna''s strength as the fear inside their heart intensified. She also released her killing intents, telling them she wouldn''t hesitate to attack if they moved. The people thought she was just bluffing because of her appearance. Unfortunately, they didn''t know whether the leaders wanted to attack them or not because there was no order about it. In the end, they retreated a few steps, giving them a space to enter the portal. Alex and Anna walked over the gate. A few elders were flying above the air, waiting for their disciples to come back, except they first met these two mysterious people. Their masked was telling them that these two were the same group as those who attacked the elders from Black Devil Sect. When they thought about what they should do about these two people, Alex and Anna separated from each other before stretching their bodies like nothing happened. "!!!" The elders widened their eyes and opened their mouths, witnessing something amazing. It took them an instant to realize that the two were faking their injury, and they showed it to them purposely. Even a foolish elder would notice that they were plotting something, especially inside the barrier. ''They must be from that hidden influence.'' This thought flashed in every elder who watched them. They needed to confirm one other thing from their disciples, so no one dared to move first. Surprisingly, the Ancient Blue Family also didn''t do anything else. Alex looked at them with a grim expression, preparing for their attack, albeit his worry was proven to be unnecessary. They didn''t have any sign of attacking him or following him. ''Alex, they are not coming? Maybe they lay an ambush ahead?'' Anna asked with a thought transmission. ''Nonetheless, they wouldn''t set up an ambush in this city because it''s the most foolish thing to do. They would just expose their relationship with Black Devil Sect and force the three influences to band together.'' Alex shook his head while walking normally, passing the elders nonchalantly. ''So, there will be an ambush outside this place?'' Anna asked because Alex didn''t say there would be no ambush. ''I can''t deny that possibility. However, we have a Teleportation Array, so you don''t need to worry.'' Alex smiled before continuing. ''At first, I thought that Mio would become a trouble for us, considering the barrier that expelled her after finishing her tribulation. ''But it seems the elder won''t make a move now. We are going outside the city in a normal way before hiding inside the woods and teleporting.'' Anna looked at him mysteriously, recalling yesterday''s master. The tribulation cloud came, symbolizing someone would have a breakthrough. Before this tribulation, there were a few more tribulations, according to Narman. However, they were not as crucial as Mio, so Alex brushed off the matter. When Mio actually finished her tribulation, Alex frowned for a few minutes, thinking the possibility of her informing the elder. In the end, he was convinced that Mio¡­ No, the elders wouldn''t act unless she wanted to ruin their reputation. After coming out of this place, Alex was able to make sure of his speculation and left the city without a single problem. The Ancient Blue Family wanted to attack them, but could only refrain from acting suspiciously. "We surely have it easy," Anna smirked. "But do you think they can defeat us?" "I doubt it." Alex shrugged. "The Martial Monarch elders won''t be able to move because they are under heavy watch from the other influences. If they use some Martial Emperor disciples, they wouldn''t be able to kill us easily. In other words, they might only spy on us rather than attacking us." Anna nodded. "Should we go then?" "Yeah. Before they notice." Alex nodded, scanned the area with his Spirit Eyes first, and snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array. Before it was activated, Anna turned into a light and went inside his body. Then, Alex disappeared. 599 Perilous Situation *Bang!* The sound of slammed doors echoed through the room. Inside the room, a few people were sitting against each other in a round table, sipping their own tea. The loud sound alarmed them and got their attention. "Who dares to trespass this room? What can the guards in front do?" An old man, who sat on the furthest seat, stood up and shouted out loud. His voice mixed with his anger because it was his turn to say something. Albeit, the words stuck on his throat upon finding the man, who interrupted him, was none other than the fifth elder. His look was distorted and had a severe case of exhaustion. "Sect¡­ Sect Master Ti¡­ Tian." The fifth elder tried to utter the sect master name but fumbled because of the exhaustion. Without even saying anything, all of them knew that the fifth elder had used almost his Spiritual Energy. Sect Master Tian furrowed his eyebrows and ran toward him. Even the other elders were shocked and stood up, watching the fifth elder. "What happened to you? Isn''t today the day where the secret realm opens again?" After asking the question, he looked at the fifth elder. His clothes stuck on his skin because of sweat, while those in his forehead streamed down furiously. The sect master didn''t know anything about this and still acted calm but curious. "We were attacked by someone¡­ All the elders died. The seventh elder even sacrificed his life for me to escape." The fifth elder clenched his hand tightly so that even his palm started bleeding. "Attacked by someone?" The sect master furrowed his eyebrows, looking down for a few seconds to think a few things. "Who has the audacity to attack us?" "I don''t know." The fifth elder shook his head helplessly, closed his eyes, and said in anguish. "I don''t know anything, including the fate of our disciples. "What?!" The other elders began walking toward them in shock. They demanded an explanation from the fifth elder. "Fifth Elder, can you tell us what happened?" The sect master tried his best to keep his calm. He knew that the fifth elder wasn''t in his right mind after this much exhaustion, so he asked him with a soft tone to calm him down. "Ha¡­ ha¡­" The fifth elder struggled to say a single word, so he took a few deep breaths. "First¡­" The fifth elder began telling them his own story from how they came to the Special Realm until the sudden attack from a mysterious organization. The fifth elder didn''t know a single thing about the fact Jeanne had told some truth about their relationship with the Ancient Blue Family. His story stunned everyone, including the sect master. It was only broken when the sect master suddenly released his Martial Monarch Energy as well as his hatred. "Then how about the other disciples? How about Moar, one of the successor candidates?" The sect master roared. "We can''t link our life to the soul stone where we can check each other''s lives because of our Blood Pill. This¡­" The sect master gritted his teeth, finally experiencing the rebound of the blood pill in the worst way possible. The blood pill contained many people''s souls and blood, mixing them inside a single body. On the other hand, the soul stone would only record someone''s soul and blood and link it with their life. This was the Soul Stone principle, the stone that Joyful Union Sect and many other influences, used to know their people''s conditions. However, many souls and blood inside the blood pill confused the Soul Stone, so they couldn''t record all of them. To put it simply, their soul would be filled with ninety percent of the deaths while the living life occupied ten percent. The Soul Stone couldn''t record such a thing, and couldn''t be activated. "Sect Master Tian. This is a perilous situation. We are discussing the message from the Ancient Blue Family right now¡­ and this¡­" One of the elders said out loud. "Kh!" The sect master bit his lips until blood began flowing down. The fifth elder looked confused, and asked, "What did you say? What message?" Looking at how the sect master fell into deep thought, one of the elders came to the fifth elder and explained. "We just received a message from the Ancient Blue Family." The elder said while frowning. "Message from Ancient Blue Family? Is it concerning this matter? How can their message arrive first?" The fifth elder was bewildered. This matter indeed gave him another blow. He had been flying nonstop for the past three weeks, and to think someone actually beat him. It was incomprehensible. The elder shook his head. "Unlike you, they have stationed many elders and spies in the territory. After getting past to one point, they will change with the other person and relay the message, just like how we need to change a normal horse after having them running for a whole day. This was the reason why they could arrive before you. However, I can''t say anything about you because we need to learn everything you saw a few weeks ago. So, as much as I want to ask you to rest, you need to be here and clarify everything." "Yes." The fifth elder didn''t know whether he was angry because of this or Alex. In the end, he thought he was angry at everything. "If it means they will suffer, then I will give my testament even if you ask me for one week straight." The elder nodded his head before explaining the content of the letter. The fifth elder was utterly shocked when he heard that their agreement with the Ancient Blue Family had been discovered, and it became a huge thing. After a few minutes, the sect master finally finished his thought and released his killing intent. "We can''t search for them since they will surely have left the Martial Arts Pavilion. We will assume that the disciples there have died. The matter we need to focus on now is the hidden influence. "Seeing how the agreement is exposed, the Ancient Blue Family won''t be able to cooperate with us. At most, they will only stay still because the other three influences will investigate their relationship with us. In other words, we can only rely on ourselves to deal with this problem. "First of all, we need to check their real base and target. Supposed they were telling the truth that our enemy right now is a hidden influence, we need to be careful. However, they said that they would surely attack or even annihilate us from this continent. As a big sect on this continent, I wouldn''t let such a thing. "Since they want a war, then I will give them a war. First of all, we will search around our area before expanding our range of investigation to the other influences. That''s why I want to make ten thousand¡­ no, fifteen thousand people for this investigation." The sect master needed to catch his breath after taking so long in anger. "But Sect Master Tian¡­ they are strong enough to make the Fifth Elder tremble at fear, they must have strength above us." One of the elders exclaimed. "I know. We will fight quality with quantity. Three thousand people should be enough to deal with them for a few days. I can only do this because I need to assume that our one thousand Martial Emperors have died in their hands." The sect master said out loud. "How about their proportion, Sect Master?" "We will have 10 Martial Monarchs to accompany each group. This is to tell them we are strong. After that, we will only have one hundred Martial Emperors in each group. The rest will be filled with Martial Kings. It should be enough to fight this hidden influence." The elders exchanged looks after listening to his plan. They abruptly nodded after a few seconds, knowing it was their best choice for the time being. The sect master nodded and continued. "In the meantime, we will proceed in raising the other Martial Kings and Martial Lords to replace their spots. Our Blood Pill storage will surely take a hit, but it''s something necessary at the moment. We can replenish our storage later, but we can''t build our sect again if we die. I will tell you my plan." The elders listened to him attentively, making sure to not leave any details behind. Unbeknownst to them, there was a shadow that had an eye inside the room. The eye was hidden behind the vase before it abruptly disappeared when they finished their discussion. Just like that, a handsome young boy left the sect to inform his Master. When all of them were busy, Alex teleported himself to a certain forest, and before long, he met Anya. Without even saying anything, Anya already gave him the report. "You are seriously taking your time. According to Nelson, they seriously want to kill you." She paused for a moment before saying, "As you predicted, they managed to slip into our spider web." Alex nodded with a smile. "I couldn''t ask for more. The moment they send a few thousand disciples to investigate us will be the day of our first victory." "Nelson said they would most likely need around a week to gather enough numbers to start their investigation. Considering their plan, the distance between each army wouldn''t be more than two days." Anya said with a poker face. "Really? The battle won''t even take a day, though." Alex shrugged. "If it''s a normal influence, then it surely won''t last a day. However, you need to know that we are a bit different than them and rely too much on the True Spirit Body. Losing these two points, we will just be your average warrior." Anya complained. "I''m just trying to liven up the mood." Alex chuckled before brushing the matter off. "Anyway, I will practice the array first. Their preparation will take a week while we need another week to wait for them to lower their guard. In the meantime, I should be able to learn Illusion Array, Simulation Room, and the rank 7 Barrier Array. We can''t have them escape after all." "Since you are going to do that, I will be joining Nelson to search for a good spot to attack them, investigating their weak points, and finding the best tactic to kill them." Anya nodded. "Yeah. Thank you." Alex smiled. He thought this was the matter that he promised to Zwaka, but his spirits were actually the ones who did the most. He couldn''t help but be ashamed. Anya didn''t say anything and left his side. Alex looked at her back before shaking his head helplessly. He began making a barrier to have a temporary safe place in this forest. 600 Devising the Strategy Anna appeared when he began creating a safe place with his array, protecting him from the monsters nearby. Her worry was proven to be unnecessary because the spirits had cleared the area since long ago. After the array finished, Anna quickly left his side and joined the others, killing monsters. Meanwhile, Alex thought for a moment to make a schedule for himself. He crossed his arms before looking at a one hundred meter radius barrier. "Hmm¡­ I make the barrier this big because I am not sure the size of the rank 7 Illusion Array and Simulation Array. I will practice the Illusion Array first before incorporating it to make the Simulation Array. After that, I will work with the barrier inside the Simulation Array." He would need to finish training these three arrays within two weeks. It was truly a big hurdle for him because it would normally take a month. Fortunately, he had a chance to work with the rank 8 Array, deepening his understanding of array. In fact, the array boosted his confidence in pulling this sprint through. "I can do this." Alex took a deep breath as his face turned serious. "Hmm, I should also open the Gacha Tickets too¡­ Should I do it now, before the fight or after I finish the mission? Hmm, the third option is a no since I need to use EXP Cards in the battle against the Black Devil Sect. As for the other two, there is no problem either way. I will do it after this training then." Deciding his course of action, Alex took a deep breath before taking out many bottles filled with blood. His gruesome trial and error had begun. ¡­ Two weeks later, Alex removed his barrier from inside. He found out that the spirits had been standing by in front of his barrier since a day ago. "We have been waiting for you." They clasped their hands in unison and bowed to Alex. "I finished my training one day ago. Why don''t you guys come inside the barrier? The token will always be the key to my barrier." Alex asked, tilting his head in confusion. "You are too tired after creating arrays nonstop, especially your Mental Energy. We don''t want to disturb you in your recovery." Anna smiled gently before walking toward him. "Besides, we have cleared this forest, so we are just waiting for you to come out." "How is the situation on the other side? I mean, Anya and Leoz." Alex asked. "I think it''s better to ask them yourself. They are waiting a bit further from the border between Black Devil Sect and Martial Arts Pavilion." Anna answered. "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows before falling into deep thought. It took a few seconds to realize the positioning. "Is the place close to the sea?" Alex closed his eyes, picturing the map of the continent. The Black Devil was situated in the west. If they separated their force into five groups¡­ He furrowed his eyebrows. "They are planning to have a thorough war against us. Before going to discuss their number and other things, we will meet with Anya and Nelson first." "Understood." They nodded and turned into lights, flowing inside his body. Before Anna disappeared, she left a map for Alex that had been marked. She circled a town, near the sea with a black marker. Alex calculated his position, the distance, and his direction from the map before using his teleportation array. The travel would take at least a week for normal cultivators, but it only took ten minutes for Alex. This, once again, showed how useful the Space Element to the people. At a time, Alex was wondering if there were actually Space Element users that were known to the people. It was normal for him to think like this, considering he had met two Pure Element users, Letizia and Shelka. However, he had never seen a single Space Element user. In the end, he shook that thought off because it was better to not see them. They wouldn''t create trouble for him by their special realm or using their space ability to prevent him from using teleportation. After arriving at a town called Ueka, Alex went to the inn and rented a room. "Anya, Nelson, I am in Deso Inn." "Understood." Their voices resounded through the card before Alex tossed the cards inside his Inventory. He drew a Sound Insulation Array to prevent them from being spied. After finishing all the preparations, Alex decided to use his tickets first. "System¡­" Alex paused for a moment, wondering if he should meet her or not. He, in the end, decided not to meet her because it would take more time. "Use all of my tickets as well as all the summoning coins I will get." [Processing the Gacha Tickets] [Gabulg x1] [Summoning Coins x5] [Water Bottle x1] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ [Mountain Sword x1] Alex furrowed his eyebrows ever since he saw the first name. "System, did I just see a Gae Bulg? Wait¡­ Is it even a spear? But the name¡­" Usually, the system would say another joke or tell him not to mind the small details. But whether she was busy or didn''t want to talk to him, the system ignored him. [Processing the Summoning Coins.] [Green Slime (C) x1] [Swordfish (UC) x1] [Kappa (C) x1] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ [EXP Cards (R) x1] "Thanks." Alex couldn''t say anything other than a simple thanks. Before planning the other things, he needed to consider another thing. He opened his spirits'' status. [Anna (Dark) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 451675/510000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 66/80 (6-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 213112/570000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 61/80 (1-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 378674/520000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 214024/510000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 45175/510000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 45178/510000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 62/80 (2-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 12421/530000] [Anya (Light) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 51675/510000] [Artur (Light) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 4167/510000] [Jean (Water) Level: 60/80 (10-Star Martial Emperor Stage) Exp: 4675/510000] Other than Leoz, Nelson, and Jeanne, the rest of the spirits were at the 10-Star Martial Emperor. Alex was lucky enough to get her card with his Summoning Ticket to raise her level. Although the gap had been decreased, she still had four thousand EXPs gap with only less than a hundred thousand more EXPs to level up. Leoz had the same condition, so he was able to reach the 6-Star Martial Monarch Stage, which wasn''t surprising. At the same time, he took another look at his EXP Cards. He got only seventeen Rare rank EXP Cards. "This won''t be enough to raise their level¡­" Alex sighed. "I wonder if their number will suffice to increase their EXPs to a certain level, so I only need one or two EXP Cards to level them up¡­ I might not be able to use the EXP Cards on Anna. Considering she would level up after killing a few more thousands¡­ And the cost will be too much for me to bear if I force the EXP Cards." "What should I do¡­" Alex pondered for a moment. When he was thinking about this matter, the sound of knocking doors echoed in the room. "Come in," Alex said after checking the two people outside with his Spirit Eyes. He was already too familiar with them to the point he could differentiate their energy from other people. Nelson opened the door, letting Anya come in first before he came in and closed the door. Anya smiled, walked toward him, and sat on the bed. "We can start the operation tomorrow." Alex shook his head helplessly before asking, "How about giving me information first?" "Hmm?" Anya tilted her head in confusion. She thought Anna already told him about the mission, but it seemed to be not the case. "So, Anna didn''t tell you anything?" "Nah. It was my decision." Alex shook his head. "I wanted to discuss it with you together." As soon as he said that, the other spirits came out of their cards. Anya took a glimpse of their expressions before beginning to explain. "First of all. Their number is fifteen thousand, split into five groups. Most of them are in Martial King. After killing a thousand of their Martial Emperor, they could only spare five hundred more while the other five hundred stayed inside the sect." Alex agreed with this point. It was already insane to have two thousand Martial Emperors. Even the Joyful Union Sect only had a few hundred at maximum while this place had two thousand. Their quality aside, their quantity was enough to scare most people. "As expected from the hidden ruler of this continent¡­ How many lives have they actually taken since they were created?" Alex pondered for a few seconds before estimating the number nonchalantly. "A million people, I guess¡­" "Must be more, but that''s not important for us at the moment." Anya shook her head and changed the topic back. "Anyway, each group will have only one hundred Martial Emperors and ten Martial Monarchs. It could be said they are utilizing half of their sect power at the moment." "That''s good then. We can truly cripple them with this attack. We don''t need to worry about other things because we need to go to the Underworld. They will become too anxious to even cultivate because of this deed. I don''t know how long we are going there, but the Black Devil Sect will suffer from our shadow for that long." Alex smirked evilly. "Exactly." Anya nodded before taking out a map of the continent. She marked five areas with markers. "We are going to attack these five spots. To search for us, they scatter their forces around the area and slowly make their way toward the right side of the continent." "Hmm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes, feeling something was off. "How many people each group has?" "Around five hundred. Each group has headquarters with a thousand people. The distance between each other is more than a few kilometers, considering how big the place they need to investigate." Anya explained. "We can actually kill them separately if it''s like this." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. And the plan is-" Alex answered before she could. "I will use today to make as many barriers as possible to trap one thousand people. We can use the Rare or SR rank spirits to hold this Array Plate and have them activated it as a signal to attack. Then with their low number, we should be able to wipe them out quickly before annihilating the other groups." "Yes. That''s my plan. However, we also need to fight with time. Let''s say we need an hour to kill five hundred people, we can finish the four big groups today. I really want to say this. Lady luck is smiling upon us with how they position themselves." Anya smiled brightly, pointing out many flaws of Black Devil Sect''s formation. "It can''t be helped. Their first priority is to search for our location. These five hundred groups are baits for us to appear. They think they can easily draw us with these baits, and they will be able to buy enough time for the main group to appear. However, they have underestimated us far too much." Alex narrowed his eyes. Although the sect master had considered the thousand Martial Emperors he sent to the Martial Arts Pavilion died, he didn''t know how they were killed. Without having enough information, this was the best he could do¡­ and Alex took advantage of this. He smiled. "I will prepare the arrays. You guys can do anything you want." 601 Operation Begin Alex calculated the number of Array Plates he needed to trap everyone from Black Devil Sect. He could somehow trap a thousand people with a single Rank 7 Barrier, but the problem was how they split their group into five with four five-hundred squadrons and one thousand people in the headquarters. He needed five barrier arrays to trap one group or three thousand people in total, and he fought with five groups. In other words, he needed to make twenty-five Array Plates for this operation. Of course, he couldn''t forget about the Gathering Array to power up this Array Plates so they could stay for at least an hour. Alex made a total of fifty Array Plates in a single day. It was quite an achievement, only for those with a strong soul like him. Although it was a bit costly either for the monster blood or Spirit Gems, they needed to speed up this process. After finishing his last preparation, Alex recalled everyone back to their cards and used his teleportation array. He stopped not far away from those disciples. He summoned every single spirit. "It seems they are too scattered at this moment. A group of ten, if I''m not wrong." "Yes. They are not too far from each other, though." Nelson nodded. Alex narrowed his eyebrows, feeling there was a hidden meaning in Nelson''s words. He thought for a moment and opened his eyes wide, saying. "You want me to be bait?" "As much as I hate this plan, this is the only way to gather their attention." Nelson closed his eyes in regret. "I don''t really mind about it as long as it''s effective." Alex shrugged. He thought for a minute before saying, "I will appear right above them and attack with some sort of flashy attack to garner their attention. Considering their number and positioning¡­ You are going to activate the array, Nelson." "Yes. I will activate it at the best time." Nelson nodded. "On the other hand, I want all of you to spread around¡­ Anya can support us while Greg protects her. As for the other eight, including Nelson, will spread toward eight directions. I will be the center, so when I start attacking them, you guys can wreak havoc from their back before making your way toward me." Alex said. "Understood." The spirits nodded. Anna looked down for ten seconds and asked Alex, "How about the True Spirit Body? Are all of us going to use it at the same time?" "I believe we can destroy four groups before one day passes with their number and positioning. That''s why I want Vera, Fabio, and Jeanne to hold until we eradicate the second group. These three will surely last until we wipe them out. As for the other spirits, I will see what I can do with the EXP Cards." Alex explained. "Are you worried about your instinct taking over? If you think that way, you can undo your True Spirit Body and attack them normally. There might be a time I will use your Thunder God Cannon. Killing a hundred people with that should be fine, and if I raise your level once, it will be perfect." Alex nodded with a gentle smile, ensuring Leoz. "Understood. I will hold as long as possible¡­ Assuming my fighting style, I will be out after killing six thousand people. Still, I will surely kill as many people as possible." Leoz nodded with a serious expression. Everyone knew that Leoz would surely do that, especially with his 6-Star Martial Monarch strength. "Alright. Go to your position." Alex ordered. "True Spirit Body!" Seven of them quickly used their True Spirit Body. "Life Blessing." Anya tapped the ground twice with her wand as light glowed from her staff and flowed inside their body. Alex and the others felt the power-up in this skill. For Alex, he could somehow feel that his power had reached the 10-Star Martial Emperor. He took a deep breath before saying, "Go!" They had finished their preparation, so they disappeared right after hearing that signal. Alex waited for one minute before he snapped his finger, creating a magic circle beneath his feet. He blinked his eyes for a split second, and he was already above the sky. Alex looked upon them, and even some of them had noticed him in the sky. They frowned, not knowing Alex''s identity. However, they remembered a certain explanation from their elders. The attacker wore a mask to hide his face, and somehow they could relate it with this person. Alex smiled and took advantage of this 0.1-second confusion to create a huge phoenix and hundreds of firebirds in the sky. He sent all those firebirds toward the ground, scattering them around to hit as many as possible. On the other hand, the phoenix went to a group of three, blasting them into smithereens. "Boom Boom Boom!" "That is the attacker!" "Attack him, but make sure you don''t kill him. We need to extract information from them. A few of you go to the Headquarters to inform them about this." The person that seemed to be the commander roared. "Attack!" Alex smirked as it was according to the plan. He waited for another few seconds, gathering more and more attention. The people, who saw him first, managed to react and jump toward him. Alex took a glimpse of their faces before raising his right hand and snapping his finger. They were confused about such an action that didn''t do anything. However, the moment they saw a barrier suddenly erected to the sky, trapping all of them in a single space, they realized they had been tricked. Of course, Alex was just bluffing. The flick actually didn''t do anything other than bait. He wanted to make them think it was his doing so they would focus on him. As for the person in question, Nelson, already disappeared and took his own position. "Attack him!" "If we defeat him, the barrier won''t last." "Uoh!" Many of them charged at him while a few others stayed behind and released their Martial or Element Arts. Nonetheless, they would be shocked again because the barrier was also another signal for another phase to begin. "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions occurred in eight directions. Alex could see that Anya was in the west, Leoz was in the north, and Artur in the south. He could only realize these three because they made a huge commotion in a single attack. "What?" The commander was startled upon listening to those explosions on their rears. It only took him a few seconds before realizing that the masked man in front of him was just a bait. "Not good. The one in the sky is just a bait. We need to regroup!" Alex already saw this guy commanding the people two times, so he was convinced that this was the commander. He flicked his finger once again and created an array to teleport him in front of this commander. "!!!" As expected, he somehow managed to react, considering he was a 5-Star Martial Emperor. Unfortunately, Alex was a 10-Star Martial Emperor at the moment after getting power up from Anya. "Triple Draws." "Heaven Light Slash." Alex released the two techniques with both sword and spear. "Blood Strike!" The Martial Emperor gritted his teeth and struck at the two incoming strikes. Unfortunately, the ones he struck were yet another baits because the real attacks were coming from the below. "Uoh!" The Martial Emperor twisted his handle to block the other attacks, but he was too late. The four strikes blew his weapon away before slashing his body into a few pieces. "What?" "A Martial Emperor has died?" "But he is the only Martial Emperor in our group. What should we do!" The people began realizing Alex''s strength and falling into despair. By listening to these words alone, Alex somehow grasped their entire rank. He wouldn''t let them recover, so he summoned another wave of firebirds and attacked them again. On the west side, Anna raised her scythe before a flock of butterflies flew and filled the region. They perched on the body parts of the disciples before exploding. The dark energy seeped inside their body and controlled their brains. Anna made them commit suicide immediately before moving onto the second target. "Hmmm¡­" Anna furrowed her eyebrows. "It seems I can only control one hundred Martial Kings at the moment. Lady luck is really smiling upon us, considering this number is perfect for making a speedy assassination. We might only need less than thirty minutes before sweeping these people off¡­ And Alex''s original estimate was an hour¡­ Is he overestimating too much?" The answer remained unanswered because she didn''t ask Alex about it and considered it as her personal rant. In another direction, Nelson also finished assassinating ten Martial Kings. These three people were close to the barrier because they were going to report about this matter to their headquarters. His job was to assassinate first so they couldn''t react with a big group and chipped away their number bit by bit. He thought this tactic would cost less time and praised Alex once again in his heart. The same as these two spirits, Fabio and Vera, also did their best in killing as many as possible. They were unstoppable because their gap was too far. After all, they were 10-Star Martial Emperors, while their enemies were only Martial Kings. The spirits did all their best to wipe the enemy out. If someone actually witnessed this, they would only describe it as a one-sided slaughter. It wasn''t even a fight despite their numbers. It took them precisely twenty-five minutes to wipe them out. Including the bait and the barrier, it was safe to say this took them thirty minutes. As soon as they wiped them out, Nelson took off the barrier and turned into a stream of light like the other. Alex used teleportation again to appear in front of another group. They used the same tactic, and though they couldn''t say it was the same, their reaction and decision were similar to the first group. In two hours, Alex and his group finished his task with only the headquarters left. He had another meeting with the spirits to discuss this. "So, this headquarters is more organized because there are many high-level people in this place. However, there is one thing that we can take advantage of, it''s how they are not too separated." Alex smirked evilly. "Oh, you are going to assassinate them?" Anya agreed with his plan. "It''s correct but not the full answer. We are going to assassinate them." Alex said mysteriously. Anya instantly recognized his plan. "We¡­ I see. You are going to use your Spatial Gate to infiltrate their ranks. We are going to assassinate them at the same time and kill all those Martial Monarchs. After that, we will wipe them out." "Yeah. They are not scattered like the first four groups, so we only need a single barrier in the center to trap them." Alex shrugged. "Besides, I''m happy with how we are ahead of our schedule. We might be able to finish all of them before one day passes. Of course, there is no change of plan considering the timing to use your True Spirit Body." "Indeed. But how about who deals with who?" Anya asked. "Nelson and Leoz will kill three Martial Monarchs each. I''m sure this is the limit before they find us. If they are using their Berserk Pills, I''m going to teleport us outside. Then I want Anna to use her dark butterflies to kill as many as possible. Don''t worry, since we are outside, I will open the gate." Alex smiled. "Only after the effect wears off will we attack them again. At that time, they will most likely fall into despair after seeing ten Martial Monarchs die just like that." Anya grinned. 602 Trickery As soon as they decided their plan, Alex opened his Spatial Gate, leading all spirits inside his Blue Layered Realm. The spirits followed him without hesitation, and before long, Alex stopped in front of something. They didn''t have a space element, so they couldn''t see it. But Alex could clearly watch four Martial Monarchs gathering inside one tent, talking about something. Alex halted his footsteps before saying, "Change of plan. All of us are going to attack four Martial Monarchs at the same time. We will kill as many as possible to make them use their Berserk Pill. Other than that, we don''t have a change of plan." "Understood." Although the spirits didn''t know what lies beyond the Blue Layered Realm, they knew there were four Martial Monarchs there. As long as they killed these four before anyone noticed, their situation would be improved even further. Before opening the gate, Alex observed them with his Spirit Eyes first. It turned out their enemies were only two 1-Star Martial Monarchs and two 2-Star Martial Monarchs. In terms of prowess, they were like 10-Star Martial Emperors and 1-Star Martial Monarchs. Of course, it wasn''t that easy to kill four of them simultaneously, even with that kind of prowess. Alex pondered for a moment and said, "Nelson, me, Anna, and Artur will handle the two 1-Star Martial Monarchs. The rest will handle the other two." He activated his Pure Fire this time because he could see one of them had Fire Element. "Nelson, I can suppress one of them with my Pure Fire. Within that split second confusion, I want you to kill him. Is that a hard task?" "You have sent the invitation to hell, how can he not go there instantly?" Nelson shrugged, saying he would let that person alive even for one second more. "Anna and Artur will wait for a few seconds before Nelson and I join the fight." Alex smiled. "Understood." They nodded furiously before glancing at the other group who had their own discussion on how they killed the Martial Monarchs. As expected, with how powerful Leoz was, they decided they would do anything in their power to restrict their movement before Leoz finished them off. "Are you ready?" As soon as they nodded, Alex created a single portal capable of letting eleven people out at once. "!!!" "Who are you!" The Martial Monarchs were confused as they couldn''t understand the Spatial Gate for a few seconds. However, before those few seconds, they were already engaged in combat. A blazing red fire gushed out from Alex''s body, revealing its mighty prestige. Alex locked his eyes onto one of them and used everything one his power to suppress this person. "Elemental Suppression." Nelson released his powerful Dark Energy and slashed that person into two. Confirming he was dead, Alex and Nelson exchanged looks and nodded at each other before going toward Anna and Artur. They occupied him decently by using Anna''s Tri Xeta and Artur''s sword. With some desperate movement, the 1-Star Martial Monarch somehow managed to reach the Berserk Pill and swallowed him. Unfortunately for him, his comrade had already died, and Nelson already appeared right beside him. Nelson cut the Monarch''s hand, preventing him from eating the pill. "!!!" The monarch gritted his teeth and took a glimpse of his other friends'' conditions. Unfortunately, their two friends were not much better. One of them was restricted by four people, while the other one almost died. However, the one that got restricted were somehow able to swallow the pill. "You Bastard, I will kill you!" Alex and Nelson furrowed their eyebrows upon sensing the energy. The Martial Monarch in front of them took this as his advantage by roaring out loud. "AAAAHHHH!!" He shouted as loud as possible to make sure everyone could hear it. Of course, he couldn''t say something like "Help me" or "Enemy Attack!" because he didn''t have time to produce so many syllables in his condition. The only thing he could shout was that roar that didn''t contain a single message. The other Martial Monarchs were confused with this shout, so they decided to check. They banded with one another. Before they knew it, six of them got together, along with some Martial Emperors and Martial Kings. At the moment they entered the tent, they widened their eyes, didn''t believe that four of the Martial Monarchs had died. The one that had Berserk Pill still died under the constant attacks of Alex and his ten spirits. "Attack them!" The one in the front shouted before taking out his Berserk Pill. Seeing how these four people died without anyone noticing, these enemies were not ordinary. "Use your Berserk pill. These enemies are very dangerous. You don''t need to care about their lives, as long as one of them is still alive, everything is good." The other Martial Monarch shouted while swallowing a Berserk Pill. Alex frowned his eyebrows. He didn''t teleport them right away, so more people would notice their presence, which meant more people would use their Blood Pills. In an instant, he ordered, "Attack them. Kill as many as you can." His order was like a wake-up call for the spirits. Anna quickly released her butterflies, and the others followed with their respective attacks. "The one that shouted earlier should be their leader. As long as we can capture him, we will win this battle." The Martial Monarch shouted. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Summon Phoenix." Alex sent his phoenix together with his firebirds to create a commotion. "Boom Boom Boom!" In the first wave of attacks, they somehow managed to kill one hundred Martial Kings but no Emperor or Monarch. More so, the other disciples had already arrived and waited for the order. "Attack them. Just spare one of them so we can get information." The Martial Monarch''s roar finalized their action. "Nelson!" Alex shouted before snapping his finger, creating a pink array on the ground. At the same time, Nelson took out an Array Plate that Alex prepared earlier. "Activate." The barrier was erected to the sky, trapping this group who had taken their Berserk Pill. Alex teleported to the sky outside the barrier. "Haha¡­ now you have used your Berserk Pill, and we are outside here, we can just watch you die!" Looking down on them, Alex roared. His words filled with mockery, and their purpose was none other than to taunt them. "You Bastard!" The Martial Monarchs realized their situations. They wanted to say ''Attack this barrier!'' but couldn''t. In that instant, they knew Alex had Space ELement, and if they attacked them¡­ the consequences would be big. "After your elders died, I will kill all of you!" Alex released his killing intent. The spirits also followed suits and combined their killing intent with him. Surprisingly, their killing intents were much more than Alex and created tension on the people from Black Devil Sect. "No, no. If we are trapped here without the elders, we will die!" "Destroy the barrier!" "As long as we can destroy the barrier, the elders will surely kill them." The situation turned worse for Black Devil Sect. Their elders might be able to keep their calm because of their experiences, but most of the disciples, especially the Martial King stage disciples, couldn''t control their impulse. "Wind Storm!" "Blood Blade!" ¡­ They used many attacks at once and released it toward the barrier, specifically right in front of Alex. "You fool! Do no-!" The elders were too late to stop them because many of the attacks had released their attacks. The elders gritted their teeth before shouting, "Scatter. Don''t gather in one place!" The disciples were confused with the sudden order and calmed their hearts down a little bit before their face turned pale. "Too late!" Alex smirked evilly and created a huge portal, sucking every single attack that flew toward the barrier. He made another portal right above them and rained them down with their own attacks. "Boom Boom Boom!" Explosions'' sounds kept echoing across the region because of the number of their attacks. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes again to check how many people had died by those explosions, and the result didn''t disappoint him. "We have killed three hundred¡­ Coupled with the first one hundred and fifty people, we are almost half done." Alex muttered to himself. "Still, they are calmer than I expected???" "Alex, I believe we should go in again. Seeing those numbers, we can have Leoz and Nelson to take care of the Martial Monarchs while the others kill the Martial kings. As for the Martial Emperor, you and Jeanne should be enough." Anya advised him. "I know." Alex nodded. "Wait for a bit more." He wanted to make them panic, to get an advantage in the mind battle. On the other side, the elders were racking their brains to see a way to escape from this situation. Seeing Alex''s group prowess, if they spread out, the disciples and elders would most likely die. However, if they don''t do anything, they will also die. "Spread out but not too much. We are going to attack the barrier again together. Make sure you position yourself in front of the barrier so they couldn''t use that Space Art again." One of the elders shouted. The others could only nod because they thought it was the only thing they could do. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes when he saw this. Not because he was surprised by the strategy, but because the moment he had been waiting for finally came. He created another portal right in front of him to confuse the enemy. "Watch out! Make sure you don''t shoot the portal with your attack!" The elders warned them after seeing the portal. Alex smirked and snapped his finger. The portal disappeared before a pink array emerged from within the Blue Colored Realm. It was yet another Teleportation Array, and their destination was the enemy''s rear. Alex purposely chose the furthest spot after looking at how they were spread out. "Attack!" Even though it was only for a few seconds, it was enough to kill another one hundred people with a sneak attack. As Anya advised, they took care of the Martial Monarchs and Martial Emperors first before cleaning up the Martial Kings. All of them were unwilling to die in this place, but Alex''s group was just too strong. It was like an army of plebians fighting against eleven powerful assassins. Only their leaders could somehow fight them while the rest had no chance. At best, they could only buy a few seconds before dying. And with almost an hour, they annihilated the bigger group. Knowing how their tactic worked, Alex repeated it for the other groups. Unfortunately, it was a bit harder when Leoz couldn''t hold his True Spirit Body. He apologized to Alex once again and said he could still fight until the end. Alex let him do whatever he wanted because Leoz''s power was truly needed in this fight. After destroying the second three-thousand men group, they went toward the third group. The battle went smoothly, and Anna leveled up in this battle. It was only after the fourth group Alex asked Jeanne, Vera, and Fabio to use their True Spirit Body. At the same time, the night finally came, and Nelson powered up like crazy. If Leoz could still use his True Spirit Body, this would be the most powerful line-up in Alex''s history. With how the battle of each group finished within three hours, Alex finished the battle in less than a day. Of course, suppose they didn''t split their group and fight Alex''s group using those fifteen thousand people altogether. In that case, it might take more than a day, and Alex would need more planning about this. After finishing the battle, Alex took a breather first around the area. He knew after this; he would go toward the Cursed Forest and trained for a while. 603 Training In the middle of the night, the sound of cricket filled the entire Cursed Forest. Nonetheless, no matter how hard they investigated the forest, there was not even a single cricket around, let alone monsters. This was the first time Alex visited the Cursed Forest at night and it could be said it was creepier than during the day. He stopped not far from the portal, gathered his spirits around, and sat on a stone. He pointed his palm to the front and released a fireball to brighten the space. "Assuming that the Black Devil Sect will be angry and people know they are weakened, how do you think they will cope up with the situation?" Alex asked lightly, but there was a hidden meaning behind his words. "They? Are you asking about how Black Devil Sect will do or other influences?" Anya asked. Alex smiled, but his answer came in the form of a nod. "If I am the Ancient Blue Family leader, I will end the agreement with them. After all, they have lost their purpose. It''s not like there is a good relationship between us." Anna snorted. "As for whether I attack them or not? There is a high chance I will attack them to prove that Ancient Blue Family doesn''t have some sort of agreement with them." "Indeed. But you should know that their agreement is also with the Main Family of Ancient Blue Family. If that family on the Heavenly Continent interfered, what would you do?" Nelson narrowed his eyes. "I will still attack them. Unless the main family wants to lose their face on the Heavenly Continent, they won''t help a puny evil influence all the way." Anna shrugged. "Certainly¡­" Anya nodded, closed her eyes, and thought for a moment. She opened her mouth after a moment of silence. "I believe it''s futile to talk about it. We can ask Nelson¡­ No, Narman should be enough to oversee this continent, specifically Black Devil Sect." "You are right. If I''m the spy, I will just check the condition of Black Devil Sect to learn the Ancient Blue Family situation. As for the other three influences, if they are planning to act against the Black Devil Sect, their movement must be big. It shouldn''t be too hard to track their movement." Nelson agreed as an expert in espionage. "Alright. We shouldn''t discuss this for now. Anna, ask Narman to observe the Black Devil Sect. We have cut their strength more than half, so they must be panicking right now. Have him search for everything and inform me if something happened." Alex ordered. "Then, are we going to enter the Underworld? Let''s ask Njomo first." Anya looked at Alex''s expression for a second to get his affirmation before pulling out Njomo''s Card. "Njomo. We need to have information about your situation." "Woof Woof Woof." "He said he is going to tell him all the way from the start. If you have time, that is." Nelson, who stood beside him, translated Njomo''s words nonchalantly. Njomo began his explanation, of course, in the form of barking. Alex was completely clueless about it, so he could only wait for someone to translate it. On his left, Nelson listened to Njomo attentively before he even wanted to translate. He simply didn''t want to misinterpret his information. After a whole fifteen minutes'' lecture'' from Njomo, the sound finally died down. Anya turned around and looked at Nelson, "Who is going to translate it?" "I will do it. You can add anything if I misinterpret or misunderstand his words." Nelson nodded at Anya. "Sure." Knowing Nelson would be the one to give him the explanation, Alex looked at him with great interest. "As you know, there are three races inside this realm that stay in harmony. According to Njomo, the space inside was around half the west side of this continent or in another word, it was half the size of Black Devil Sect territory." Nelson started with the geography first. "Alright. It''s really a big place. How about their power level?" Alex asked. "This might be a bit troublesome for us. Each race has one strongest person as their leader and all of them are 7-Star Martial Saints. As for their subjects¡­ I am sure you can imagine. You can say that this realm is a pseudo Heavenly Continent." Nelson said. "Still, their power level is not¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. Njomo has tried to search for the reason, but it''s not possible." Nelson shook his head helplessly. "Alright. We can see what we need to do inside. Though I don''t know if we can survive inside, considering they have a high-level power system¡­" Alex frowned, wondering if it was too risky to go. "Njomo said they were pretty civil. If what Teodross said was right, they shouldn''t attack you without reason. Of course, We need to make sure they are not hostile to humans. If they are hostile, I can somehow intrude their place and present the sword. If it''s not possible, I have a way to retreat." Nelson assured him. "That''s work too¡­ Well, I''m close to Martial Monarch anyway, and the enemy is a Martial Saint. Looking back on our past record, we needed to be aware of a Martial Lord or a King when I was merely a Martial Master. And met Martial Emperors when I was a Martial King¡­ Nonetheless, we should be able to do it as long as we are careful." Alex nodded. "You are indeed right¡­ but you should add that those two occasions know about humanity. However, this place doesn''t have a single human. If possible, I want you to hide yourself or maybe cover yourself with a long robe¡­ In case we are in trouble, we can summon Wright, who has the closest appearance to an undead to talk." Anya added. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. We should do that." Nelson waited for another question, but Alex signaled him to continue. "Anyway, the three races inside the realm are the same as you predicted. The First Race is the Dwarf Race, and they are the same as your knowledge, good in forging. They are highly appreciated as a strong weapon, so I assume, we can entice them with Teodross''s weapon. "The second race is beastmen. They contain many beasts such as cat tribe, dog tribe, and so on. Suppose you tone down Sherry a little bit and become a normal fox, she can be placed in the wolf tribe. They are the same as Sherry and Stina, but it is more of an animal tribe. "The last is like Wright, Undead Race. There are living skeletons, zombies, and so on. It would seem that this race is like the truth keeper in this place. If you want to ask anything, you can ask them. Of course, you need to gain their trust first." "..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I only want to get my sword and spear done. After that, we can leave the Underworld." "Fair enough. Young Master might need the Spiritual Weapons to fight the Fire God Clan anyway." Nelson nodded. "I will ensure everything first before Young Master joins. However, I believe Young Master doesn''t need to practice arrays or pills because you won''t need it in this realm." "What do you mean? I am practicing these two for money." Alex frowned. "There is simply a lack of medicinal herbs in this realm. On the other hand, there isn''t a single monster in this realm." Nelson shook his head. "No materials I can use in this realm?" "Yes. If you want to use the Gacha items, then I won''t stop you¡­ but they are not enough to make a few million Spirit Gems in total¡­ I believe you can only get around five million Spirit Gems." "I see¡­" Alex let out a sigh. "I will still practice though. After all, I doubt I will be powerful enough to produce rank 8 pills or arrays by the time I leave this realm. I will just grab some ingredients on the Heavenly Continent and sell the products." "If that is Young Master''s wish, then I have no qualms." Nelson bowed his head. "Anyway, we are going inside in two months." Alex paused for a moment and asked, "Did Njomo tell you anything other than that information?" "No. I believe we have covered everything up." Nelson shook his head before glancing at Anya. "Do you want to add something?" Anya pondered for a moment and shook her head. "No." "Alright. Since we have finished our discussion, I''m going to proceed with my training session. As for the others¡­ I will be raising all of you to Martial Monarch because we don''t really need to use EXP Cards earlier." Alex scratched his cheek because he only relied on everyone''s True Spirit Body. "System, please." [Processing.] The system used Alex''s EXP Cards on Six Spirits: Anya, Jean, Fabio, Vera, Greg, and Artur. Most of them required two EXP Cards, so Alex had no problem leveling all of them. "You guys can stand by here for two months. As for Nelson, you might want to go inside and check our surroundings first." "Yes. I will make sure we are safe after entering this place." Nelson nodded. Alex quickly opened the portal and sent Nelson to the Underworld. After ensuring everything, he began his practice. For his Arrays, he learned two more arrays: rank 7 Teleportation Array and rank 7 God Sword Array. It took him almost two weeks for these two arrays. His current rank 6 Teleportation Array could teleport him a few hundred kilometers at once. This rank 7 Teleportation Array could cover ten times that distance. In fact, he could cross the ocean by using this Teleportation Array a couple of times and arrived on the Heavenly Continent. On the other hand, God Sword Array was an array specialized in the offense. Alex could summon a rain of swords in the middle of the enemy and combined them with his Firebirds. It could cause a huge ruckus in their ranks. After that, Alex moved into the Alchemy Training. He only had one pill in his mind, which was Dragon Strengthened Pill. And yes, the effect was to increase his strength. By consuming this pill, Alex could gain two thousand dragon strength. His current strength was one thousand and three hundred dragons and it was already equal to 1-Star Martial Monarch. This pill would become his assurance to enter this realm. He produced the pill with everything he had in the System, exhausting all the medicinal herbs of this pill. In the end, Alex somehow made fifty pills and swallowed one of them. As for the rest, he was planning to give Rose one and sell the rest. If there was Evelyn, he might give it to her, but he believed Manness would surely take care of her, so he proceeded with the next training. Alex had been wasting a lot of time thinking about this and finally came to a conclusion. The last training and the one that took the longest was the creation of his Original Spear Technique. His Original Sword Technique was Triple Draws, which was more a kind of support technique to enhance every Martial Art he used. A normal person might only master one technique in their life, but Alex still had his spear. If his Sword Technique was a support, he chose an attack technique for his spear. The name of the spear technique was Mythical Spear Cannon. And surprisingly, he found something unbelievable in this technique. The Mythical Spear Cannon itself couldn''t be used together with Triple Draws due to its power. However, when Alex used his Sword a couple of times, the strike became more refined and focused on penetration power. As for what kind of power this technique had, Alex could only try it with an opponent in the near future. It was only after two months, he finally finished all of his preparation. In these two months, he had been waiting for Sherry, Kyle, and Stina to finish their evolution, but they needed more time. Alex ended up going inside the realm before they finished. 604 Entering the Underworld As Alex headed toward the gate of Underworld, he took out Nelson''s card. "Nelson, how is the situation over there? Is it safe for me to enter the realm?" "Yes. You will appear in a forest, Young Master." Nelson informed almost instantly. Alex looked up and watched the blue sky, remembering the creepy dark forest and how different this place could be. The spirits had gone back to the card after Alex finished his training, knowing it was the day to go to the Underworld. He took a deep breath and stretched his right hand to the front. A small circle appeared right in front of him before gradually growing big enough for Alex to come in. The array presented itself with a dim golden-colored glow. On the floor of Blue Colored Realm, a complicated pattern containing a few symbols glowed in a different color. It was telling Alex, "Look at me. Here I am." There was no need to think even for normal people because they would surely know this was the gate of this array. Alex waved his hand and sent his Spiritual Energy to this gate. The blue light started shining brighter before releasing some kind of particles to the air. The particles also glowed in golden color and circled around the gate. It slowly raised higher and higher. He was already inside the gate and had seen this scene from teleporting Njomo and Nelson, but never experienced it himself. "Hmm, it''s certainly beautiful if you are inside this¡­" Even though this looked very mysterious, Alex knew it was going to teleport him inside. The golden particles slowly formed a sphere right above the array. *Fwoosh!* A sound of blowing wind echoed in his ears even though this place shouldn''t have such a thing called wind. After forming into a sphere, the array glowed brightly, blinding Alex''s eyes. He ended up closing his eyes until the light stopped glowing. However, one second after closing his eyes, Alex felt the ground change from a smooth ground in the Blue Colored Realm into something rough and wavy ground. In the instant he recognized it, he opened his eyes only to see a sudden change of scenario. *Crack!* His feet flinched a bit because of this sudden change, and the ground let out a cracking sound of a branch. Before looking down to confirm his footing, Alex was fascinated by the scenery¡­ In fact, no one sane would ignore this sudden change of scenery because the sun should be up on the other side, but in this realm, there was only darkness with some creepy green light flashing out of the dark cloud. "Am I entering a horror movie?" Alex couldn''t help but remark. There wasn''t a single moon in the sky despite this darkness. Considering this was a Special Realm, Alex somehow could relate to such a setting. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes without hesitation, checking whether there was a single living being around him. Only after a minute, he could finally let out a sigh of relief, finding no sign of energy. He moved his feet once again, and the sound of cracking branches echoed in his ears, piquing his interest. The first thing he saw was a big brown root coming out of the ground and then a dirt trail not far from him. Other than that, there was nothing else. However, all of it changed when he turned around. It turned out he was right in front of a tree. The huge tree with ten meters in diameters had some swirly patterns in the clockwise direction, creating a huge circle on its body. The body was actually a gate for teleportation. If he looked with his Spirit Eyes, he could see the hidden symbols embedded inside the tree. The symbols ran through from its root to the leaves. Alex was surprised that this one hundred meters tree held around one hundred thousand symbols. The array that sealed this place was bonafide peak rank 8 Array. After an unknown period of time, he suddenly heard the sound of someone''s footsteps. More so, it was coming toward him. Alex turned around as he abruptly took a defensive stance. As soon as the person arrived right in front of him, Alex let his guard down and looked at the handsome young man kneeling in front of him. "Nelson." He should expect this since Nelson said it was fine to enter this realm. "Young Master, have you finished your training or have something made you stop your training?" Nelson asked the question he couldn''t utter earlier. "Thank you for worrying about me. I have finished my training and come here." Alex said with a gentle smile. "By the way, is this place safe? Is there any Dwarf, Undead, or Beastman around here?" "No. You can say we are a bit far from them." Nelson calmly said and gradually stood up. "Hmm? A bit far?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "I should reword it better." Nelson apologized and closed his eyes. "Apparently, the three races couldn''t approach this place, so they made a settlement a bit farther from this place." "I see." Alex nodded. "How about their Martial Saint?" "No. No one could come to this area. If Young Master wants to see the reason, I can lead you to that place." Nelson nodded. "Sure. We can go there." Alex nodded and looked up. "Still, this dark sky and the green flash¡­ it really looks scary¡­" "I can relate with Young Master. Though it appears the sky itself is the work of the three races. According to Njomo, they are more comfortable with something like this." Nelson explained. "As for how they do it, it''s the Undead Race. Unfortunately, I don''t know about the specific." "It''s fine. We are not going there anyway." Alex shrugged and tapped Nelson''s shoulder. "Yes." Nelson nodded. "Does Young Master have any more questions? If not, I can lead you to the barrier." Alex thought for a moment and looked at the tree once more before turning back to Nelson. "Yeah. I don''t have any more questions. We should go." Nelson nodded and began leading him. However, as Alex took one step from his position, a red ball of light suddenly came out of his body. At first glance, it looked like Fabio came out, but the light turned into a woman figure. The wind swayed her long red hair before the person in question turned around, revealing a mature beauty. The first time Alex and Nelson saw this person, they realized something was off. They knew this person, but her face looked younger, and her facial features looked more charming and fresher. Alex took a breath first before asking, "Are you Stina?" The woman tilted her head, not understanding his question as the answer was obvious. "What do you mean, Master? I am Stina, of course." "Uhm¡­" Alex glanced left and right before saying, "Sorry. You should look at yourself first." "What do you mean?" Stina frowned before Alex took out a mirror from his Inventory and pointed it to Stina. She took the mirror from his hand and looked at herself in the mirror before dropping the mirror in shock. She glanced at Alex, Nelson, and Alex again. "Is that me?" "Yeah." "My look changes when I''m in my prime?" Stina exclaimed in surprise. Alex made a confused face and raised his hand, telling her how he can know? "I don''t know. You tell me." "Still, since I am in my prime, Kyle should also love this look better." Stina seemed to be thrilled with this. "Right, if you are advancing your cultivation, you should be able to live longer." "Well, isn''t it good? Now you are with us and will have the chance to enter Martial Saint or even higher?" Alex smiled gently. "Yes." Stina''s reaction wasn''t normal. She abruptly fell on her knees before a sobbing sound echoed in everyone''s ears. Clenching her palms tightly, she said. "I can¡­ I can live with Kyle for a long time¡­ After these few thousand years waiting, finally¡­ Finally¡­" Alex and Nelson exchanged looks and smiled. Alex walked toward her and kneeled before patting her shoulder. "Master¡­ *sob*... Master¡­ I¡­ can''t thank you enough." Stina let out tears of joy and it couldn''t stop, showing how happy she was. Alex smiled helplessly and said in a soft tone. "I am also happy for you." "I''m sorry for this display, Master." Stina tried to hold back her tears before going back inside his body. She didn''t want to distract Alex with this. Alex closed his eyes and couldn''t stop smiling. He was happy from the bottom of his heart, seeing Stina get her happiness. Nelson came to him and silently watched him from the side. This was Alex''s previous nature. He would always be overjoyed when something good happened to his family and friends but would become a demon feared by thousands of worlds when they stepped on his tail. Alex stood up and took a deep breath. "Let''s go." Nelson simply nodded and said, "Yes." He led Alex to the outer ring of this forest before finding a monolith covered with symbols. The monolith was a ten meters tall white stone standing right in the entrance of the forest. "This is the one that creates the barrier. Njomo said he couldn''t go back to this place after entering¡­ So it also becomes our problem. Even if Young Master doesn''t mention it, I will still lead you to this place." As if he didn''t hear him, Alex looked at the monolith with his Spirit Eyes. "A peak rank 8 Barrier? Is this a one-way barrier?" One minute¡­ Five minutes¡­ One hour¡­ After observing the array, a flash of enlightenment appeared on his eyes. "So that is the purpose of this array¡­" "Young Master?" Nelson felt relieved when Alex seemed to have understood the array. "This is not a one-way barrier¡­" Alex smiled before reaching a thin layer of screen and walking through it. "Young Ma-" Nelson widened his eyes, never expecting Alex to go out. "Young Master, you need to fix the barrier first¡­ If you are outside there¡­" Despite his rumbling, Nelson still believed that Alex had a way to fix the barrier even from the outside. However, thinking of how Alex walked past the barrier like he was possessed by something made him worry. "Ah!" It was when Alex suddenly let out a surprised tone and face, the worry in his heart intensified. He thought, ''As expected, Young Master didn''t realize he had walked through the barrier. This is not good¡­'' Albeit¡­ his worry proved to be unnecessary. The reason Alex had such a reaction was the meaning behind the array. Before explaining what he understood from this array, he noticed the shock in Nelson''s face and made a weird smile. He slowly walked back to him, passing through the barrier like nothing. "How?" Nelson didn''t understand Array, so he had trouble comprehending this action. Alex smiled. "This is not a one-way barrier but a barrier to block every other creature other than humans. I have found the trace of Human blood as a recognition process¡­ So, only I can enter this barrier. If you want me to reconstruct the barrier, I can though." Even though he was surprised, Nelson still shook his head and answered with rational thinking. "No. It''s better we don''t do anything about it. If what Young Master said is correct, then we can use this place as our base. All those Martial Saints who might attack us won''t be able to do anything if we stay inside this barrier." "True enough. The Martial Saints are troubles¡­" Alex agreed. "If they want to attack us, we can retreat to this barrier and go back when we are stronger." "Yes. I agree." Nelson nodded. "Besides, this barrier covers quite a big area because I have seen many monoliths around this area." "Oh." Alex wasn''t surprised and simply nodded. 605 Zekhram "Oh." Alex simply nodded, not surprised by Nelson''s statement. "In any case, knowing there is a safe area here is very good for us. As for the Martial Saint, this incomplete Spiritual Weapon can block one or two attacks from them. I will use that time to create a teleportation array." "Understood. We spirits can also block such an attack if we combine our strength." Nelson nodded, assuring him that he wouldn''t be the one to fight. Alex smiled and said, "Let''s go. Our first direction will be the Dwarf. I will stay outside their settlement while you are infiltrating their rank. You will bring the sword and spear with you to see whether they would accept our request. If not, I will summon you back immediately." "Yes. I understand my role." Nelson nodded. "Young Master can rest assured that I will complete the mission successfully." Alex asked, "By the way, how far is the Dwarf settlement? If we are too far, we should go with teleportation." "They are not really far, only a few hours from here. Because I''m also not too sure about the terrain because of the lack of time, it''s better to fly like this." Nelson rejected his idea. "Well, if they are not too far, it''s fine." Alex nodded. They flew in low altitude so they could land or hide when they spotted someone. Nelson even released his shadows to the surrounding, keeping lockout from nearby spots that might have some population. Luckily, it would seem there was nothing such as settlement around this area, and there were no monsters as well, like what Nelson said. They kept flying for a few hours without any problem. Alex decided not to summon his spirits for the time being because it might bother them if they were coming in a large group and had the potential to be found out. Nelson suddenly halted his flying while Alex followed his movement and activated his Spirit Eyes. He found not a single sign of life around the area, so he was confused with Nelson''s action. "The settlement is actually ahead. We need to fly for another fifteen minutes. However, we should get some safe distance with them, which is this place." Nelson warned Alex. "..." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before turning around, finding a tree nearby. He was supposed to be in the grassy plain except the fact that the grass was purple, and the tree looked ominous. "I will stay around that tree." "Yes. There is not a single person that has come to this place in the past few months, according to Njomo, so you should be safe in this." Nelson nodded. "Alright." Alex nodded. "The sword and the spear are in the Inventory. You can take them out whenever you like." Nelson nodded, clasped his hands, and bowed to him. "Then, please excuse me." Without waiting for Alex''s reply, Nelson disappeared from Alex''s vision, flying toward the settlement. ¡­ Around half an hour later, On the other hand, the dwarf had a similar appearance to those Alex met in the lower world. Their short stature, long braided silver hair, and those aged but sharp eyes looked perfectly similar to the ones Alex met. The difference was this dwarf wore round glasses, making him look younger than he was supposed to. He reached the hammer on the corner of the table and placed the sword on the anvil right behind him. However, the dwarf suddenly said without any interest. "Who are you? What is your purpose for coming here?" "Are you the leader of this race?" A shadow appeared on the wall before two red dots that were supposed to be the eyes of this shadow flashed. "This race?" These two words piqued the Dwarf''s interest. He turned around and saw this shadow. "Appearance-wise, Nelson looked like a creature from Undead Race, but those Undead Race should already know his identity. There would be no one ignorant enough not to know about his name, so the dwarf noticed these two words. "I will tell you the answer if you answer a question of mine first." The dwarf played it safe to confirm the question in his head. "Let''s hear it." "Looking at your appearance, it is similar to Undead Race, but you lack several things to be considered an Undead. I assume you are not an Undead. In contrast, you also don''t have any features that symbolize a Dwarf or a beastman. We conquered this piece of the realm a long time ago, so here is my question. You are from the outside, right?" Nelson thought for a moment and said. "Indeed." "Good. Since you have answered a question of mine, I will also answer your question. I''m the current leader of this race, Zekhram. What purpose are you coming here? Seeing how you can infiltrate this place without anyone noticing is already impressive. If you want to assassinate me, I will only realize your present at the last minute. After all, we have been in this place for a few thousand years without a single enemy. You can''t expect me to raise my guard this whole time." The elder explained. Nelson fell into silence, having no sign to talk. "Haiz. If you are going here from the outside world, you must want something this much. Though I believe that war should have no report about this¡­ and you won''t suddenly stumble upon this place because of various reasons¡­ Wait-" The dwarf stopped talking, noticing something was off. The silence filled the entire room for a few minutes before the dwarf finished his thought. "A few thousand years ago, a visitor came here, asking us my grandfather to create a weapon. Are you¡­" The dwarf didn''t finish his question, but Nelson understood his intention. He corrected his words, "Not one, two." "!!!" Finally, the dwarf opened his eyes wide. He purposely said a weapon to see whether he actually knew the secret. Hearing Nelson corrected him, Zekhram nodded and let out a long sigh. "I see. You are coming here because of those two weapons. But I still need to ask you one more question to ensure credibility. What is the weapon type?" "Sword and Spear." Nelson also corrected him again. Zekhram tested him with a single weapon type because the record said there were two types of weapons, Sword and Spear. "I see. Thank you for answering my question. Having knowledge about such weapons would surely incite one greed, especially for a craftsman like me. However, I didn''t wish for such a thing. Hence, if you don''t trust me, you can leave this place. I won''t tell a single soul about your presence here." Zekhram exclaimed. "I am only a servant. This is my Master''s sword." Nelson took out the rank 8 sword from the Inventory. The dwarf observed the sword with great interest before looking at Nelson with narrowed eyes. "You are not afraid I will take this Sword from you? After all, you are only a Martial Monarch while I am a Martial Saint." "If I don''t release a tiny bit of my energy, you won''t notice my presence." Nelson snorted. "Fair enough. Although you do not look like it, you might indeed be able to run away from me. Besides, I don''t really like fighting unless necessary." Zekhram fell into silence for a few minutes before saying, "Follow me." He left the room without waiting for Nelson''s replied. Although Nelson believed that Zekhram didn''t have any intentions to hurt him, he still put up his guard, preparing for a sneak attack. They walked in the corridor before reaching a room in the corner. Zekhram opened the door for Nelson and took out a book on the shelf. The room looked like a study room with light, table and books. There wasn''t a single piece of furniture other than these three. Flipping through the book, he finally arrived at a certain page. He found two drawings, a sword and a spear, and took another look at the sword. "Yeah. It''s indeed the sword. It doesn''t have a name yet because it''s still incomplete. I''m just warning you first. My skill isn''t on par with my Grandfather." "..." Nelson narrowed his eyes. "Although I''m not on par with my father, the gap isn''t that big. Besides, I''m the best one in this race, so you are free to leave this place if you feel I''m not worth your time." Zekhram said. "Of course, I can say I''m really intrigued by such a thing, especially since my grandfather said it was his masterpiece. There are a few records about the sword and spear, so I should be able to complete the two weapons." "That''s great." Nelson nodded. "Though I have a few problems." Zekhram paused for a moment. "To complete these weapons, I need to go to the Abysmal Tower in the Undead Race territory because it would require a lightning strike from Heaven. And that tower is capable of pulling this kind of lightning." Nelson widened his eyes, never expecting him to require such a thing. "I will leave this weapon to you because they might look at me with hostility." "Well, my grandfather also wished to finish these two weapons, so I''m not going to cheat you or anything. Right, you said these two weapons are your Master''s weapons, how about inviting him here? With your expertise, I''m sure you two can sneak inside this place. I can talk to him about this. Even if I attack you, the weapons can block two attacks of mine, so you can escape." He added such a thing in the end. "Even so, the other races might not have the same view as you do." Nelson shook his head. "I have something you can bring to the Undead King, Atlas. Seeing my item, he would surely talk with you peacefully. As for the negotiation between you and him, I can''t do a single thing. Whether he gives you permission to use the altar, it will be up to you." Zekhram shook his head. "It carries so much risk." Nelson furrowed his eyebrows. "Actually, I also have one wish that I want you to grant. That''s why I''m asking you to bring your master here." He took a deep breath before asking, "Can you show me the spear as an assurance? To make sure you get the pair¡­" Nelson thought for a moment and released the spear from the Inventory. He only showed him for a few seconds before pulling it back, unlike the sword. "It''s indeed the spear." The dwarf nodded. He also understood why Nelson couldn''t trust him. "I will ask him about it." Nelson nodded, tossed the sword back to the Inventory and vanished. Zekhram stared at the empty space, sat on the chair, and sighed. "Has our time finally moved again? The wish of the three races¡­ Oh, our home." ¡­ Outside, Nelson flew toward Alex, who was waiting for him under the tree. "Young Master." "Oh, Nelson. How is it?" "The Dwarf is rather cooperative. I can assure you with my name and experiences, he is not lying. But¡­ we might need to pay some price for this." Nelson sighed. "What do you mean? What kind of price?" "There are two things actually¡­ First, we need to go to the Undead Race and borrow their altar. The Dwarf said he could lend us something to smoothen the discussion with them. As for their price, I don''t know. The second thing was about the wish of the dwarf. He refused to talk because he wanted to tell you about it, so I could only return to you." Alex narrowed his eyes. "These weapons might be necessary for our battle against the Fire God Clan. As long as they are not asking for ridiculous prices, I think it''s fine. Our original plan is to stay here until I reach the 5-Star Martial Monarch stage anyway." "Understood. I shall lead the way." Nelson nodded. 606 A Deal Alex and Nelson sneaked inside the place. Alex was utterly shocked because the settlement he found wasn''t like any other he had seen. In fact, the place itself was already unusual. It was a mine. They needed to enter from a cave entrance reinforced by wooden logs. Luckily, this place was so peaceful that no one would ever bother to guard it. The mine itself didn''t originate from a mountain area. Instead, it came from a huge crater. By the looks of it, the crater itself was, in fact, the result of the dwarf mining. Alex went through the tunnel and slowly descended underground. "!!!" Alex covered his mouth, activated his Spirit Eyes, and checked his surrounding after smelling a suffocating odor. There was no trace of poison inside the air, so Alex quickly released his hand and endured the smell. After walking for a few minutes, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. Alex and Nelson sneakily walked toward it. "Wow¡­" Alex looked at this in amazement. Inside the mine was a huge underground city with some factories, some smithing places and so on. He looked at the dwarves and found them to be similar to those in the lower world. However, his attention was taken away by the smog in this place. The air was gray with a yellowish tint as though it was floating dust. Occasionally a pungent, suffocating odor that he smelled earlier, came to his nose. Alex turned to Nelson, who appeared to be fine with this kind of smell. "You are fine with this smell? I know this is bearable, but my nose still needs to adjust." "Don''t worry, Young Master. I have seen worse." Nelson shrugged. "Besides, the people here also have grown accustomed to such a place. If I''m not wrong, they are comfortable with this kind of place." Alex couldn''t comprehend that, but he remembered that this was a dwarf from another world. Just like those Phoenix from the previous world that loved to bath in the volcano, these dwarves might be similar. "Alright. We can go to this person to discuss the terms." "Understood. I shall guide you." Nelson nodded and led him to Zekhram''s house without alarming any single dwarf they passed. He knew that Zekhram had an open-minded perspective about someone from the outside, but he wasn''t clear with the others. When Nelson abruptly revealed his presence once again, it was only after he entered Zekhram''s house. "You have come¡­" Zekhram, who was busy in his study room reading a few books that contained the information about Sword and Spear, turned to Alex, who was supposed to be a human, and said, "So you are the master¡­ I''m the third generation of the ruler, Zekhram. I heard you want to complete those weapons, correct?" "You are correct." Alex nodded. "I heard you want to discuss a few things with me¡­" "That''s right. How about following me upstairs, we can talk more comfortably." Zekhram rose from his seat and led him to the upstairs, where he usually greeted people. It was a nice room with some chairs and a table. Although the chair was hard like sitting on a stone, Alex sat like nothing. "So, what do you want to discuss with me?" "First of all, it will be about Sword and Spear. You will need to negotiate with the Undead King, Atlas, by yourself, as you might already know. I don''t know what kind of thing he wants you to do, but it shouldn''t be ridiculous as I know him myself." "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I heard that it needs Heavenly Lightning¡­ Are there no other alternatives?" "Unfortunately not. The Altar brings special lightning, not certainly a Heavenly Lightning, as in your usual Lightning Tribulation. I can''t describe it well enough, so you might want to ask Atlas for the lightning." "It seems I have no other option." Alex sighed. "I''m sorry." Zekhram apologized before saying. "Anyway, let''s talk about your weapons first. The only reason it is incomplete is because of the lack of Elemental Gem, right?" "Yes. I have a Fire Element, so I wish to fuse the Fire Gem to both of my weapons. I have brought the Fire Gem with me." Alex nodded. "Fire Element!" Zekhram opened his mouth wide. "If¡­ If you are a Fire Element, I have exactly something that can be used as a replacement. In fact, it will bring a greater effect on the weapons." "Why do you suddenly get so excited like this?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I actually have a request for you in exchange for that item and this fusing process. It''s not a big deal, so you can rest assured." "Let me hear it first." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I will talk about the items I have in my possession first. You might have noticed the smell in this place, but let me tell you if you are not. We are right above a volcano¡­ A Natural Volcano that was active for thousands of years." Zerkham paused for a moment. "This volcano condensed a crystal called Magma Crystal. Just like how fire normally couldn''t win against magma, this crystal can be used as a more powerful ingredient for your sword. "In fact, you might feel double if not triple the power that you will get from a Fire Gem. Unfortunately, this crystal can only be used as a material in forging. If not, many people might want to use it as a cultivation resource." "Hm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I still need to know your request first before I can agree." "I only have one wish. To open the Barrier and return home. We have been stuck in this place for a few thousand years, so we don''t really have anything to do anymore other than living in harmony. I am not saying it is bad, but it''s making us like a frog in the well." "Home?" "How about this¡­ You can go to the Undead Race first and seek the Undead King. If you get his cooperation, you might as well ask him about us in general. I believe he also has the same wish as me. He is the Undead King¡­ No, he is more well known as Undying King. Out of the three races, only he was the first generation of rulers. That''s why if you want to know anything, it will be from him." Zerkham said. "This is starting to be suspicious. What are you hiding?" Alex narrowed his eyes. Although the man in front of him was a 7-Star Martial Saint, Alex wasn''t his goofer to do everything according to his wish. Besides, he didn''t know whether it would be a good choice to open the barrier and let these people roam the world. After all, they have been sealed in this place for a few thousand years." "I know what you are thinking. However, you may need to ask about it from the Undying King as he holds every answer to your question. Just like how your subordinate hides his presence, I''m sure you can escape unscathed if something goes wrong." "I''m not the person who likes the unknown¡­" Alex uttered his careful side. After all, he had gotten used to knowing everything before doing something. If he had no information about Black Devil Sect, he might halt his plan in eliminating them. "Of course, if you don''t feel it''s enough. I can give you more." Zerkham persuaded Alex with more weapons. "I build many things in my life, and many of them are Rank 8 weapons. Whether you want a sword, spear, bow, I have all of them and good quality as well." "I''m sorry, but I am not a person who will be swayed by greed." Alex shook his head, declining his offer again. "Ugh¡­" Zekhram had no way to convince Alex. Even if he wanted to explain it to him, only Atlas could tell the whole point without any misunderstanding. That was why he asked Alex to go to him first. "I really can''t persuade you in that case. Even so, I still ask you to seek the Undying King for information. If you still hold such a belief, I will still finish your weapons with Fire Gems." Alex looked at his serious expression and furrowed his eyebrows. He glanced at Nelson, asking whether Zekhram was telling the truth or not. Nelson thought for a moment before suddenly sending a thought transmission to Zekhram. A trace of surprise appeared on Zekhram''s face before he nodded profusely. He clenched his fists tightly and communicated with Nelson secretly. After getting his answer, Nelson looked at Alex with a nod. He also sent a thought transmission to him. "I believe we can try it first, Young Master." Alex narrowed his eyes. ''Why are you suddenly so supportive about it?'' ''I have some knowledge about them, but I can''t say anything to you at the moment. If you want to know the reason, you can ask about it from the Undying King or whatsoever. There is only a benefit for us in this deal. I promise you.'' Nelson assured him and bowed to him. Alex wanted to reject it, but seeing how Nelson actually asked him like this, he hesitated. ''I have several questions about it, but I want to clarify first, is this related to my past life?'' Nelson thought for a moment and shook his head. ''No. I believe you have no contact with them.'' ''Then, the second question¡­ Can I believe you in this?'' This second question took a deep blow in Nelson''s heart. Even so, he still had a reason to continue. He nodded with great difficulty. ''Yes. If something is wrong in this decision, I will bear full responsibility.'' Nelson didn''t say anything more to Alex. Instead, he looked at Zekhram. ''There are two things I want you to promise with your Great Mother of Earth. First, you shall assist us in something before you can go. Second, you will give anything that my Master wants.'' ''I promise in the name of the Great Mother of Earth, Gaia.'' Zekhram sore without hesitation. ''Good. Then, I shall promise you in the name of Eulja.'' Nelson nodded. The dwarf needed to change the topic out of this depressing topic. "If the Undying King has agreed with you, please notify me immediately because I will also show you something¡­ In fact, the Undying King will also ask you to see it." Alex thought for a while and said. "Alright. I will get the cooperation of the Undying King." The dwarf took out a hammer. The hammer had this red-colored metal with the golden aura surrounding it. Its size alone was similar to the hammer for forging. "This is my grandfather''s Absolute Hammer. He and Atlas have exchanged vow that whoever brings this hammer, one shall treat them as equal. Atlas has a similar item, but that''s not important." Zekhram shook his head. "Bring this Hammer to Atlas, and he will listen to what you want to talk. As for whether you can have him lend the altar, it will be up to you." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, walked toward Zekhram, and took the red hammer with him. "I apologize. I want to talk with Atlas to ask for the altar, but I''m bound with a contract. It''s said that only those who possess that weapon should be the one to go." Zekhram said helplessly. "Contract? If I may ask, is it coming from your Grandfather?" "Yes and no." "What do you mean?" "It was indeed coming from my grandfather, but this was not the rule or contract that my grandfather made. Instead, it came from the one that asked for these weapons." "Teodross?" Alex was astonished upon hearing it, thinking he should punch that guy in the face once for all this trouble. "I understand. I will go toward the Undead Race right now." "Many thanks." The Dwarf acted like it wasn''t the discussion between 7-Star Martial Saint and 10-Star Martial Emperor. It might be because of his personality or another thing. Nonetheless, it was a peaceful talk for Alex. After promising him, Alex looked at Nelson and left the room. 607 Undead Race "Nelson. How far are we from the Undead Race?" Alex asked. "If we are flying, we need a few days and another few days if we want to reach the beastman tribe," Nelson answered him while looking down. He took a deep breath before saying, "I''m sorry, Young Master. To make you agree with this request even though it''s reckless." "It''s fine. I know that you, spirits, won''t betray me." Alex shook his head. "Even so, I wish you could open to me more because I don''t know about anything here." Those words he uttered were the reflection of Nelson, who acted a bit familiar with Zekhram. He felt there was something behind that knowledge. "Ultimately, I need to reach God Stage, so I can leave this planet and seek the answer." Alex thought for a moment and said. Nelson only looked down and closed his eyes. "I will always be supporting you, Young Master." In the midst of his frustration, Alex smiled and said. "I''m just thinking about my future." "So, which direction is the Undead Race, and how far is it to get there?" Alex asked while creating his rank 7 Teleportation Array. He didn''t activate it yet because Nelson hadn''t answered his question. "According to Njomo, we need around five days to reach their settlement. And considering your rank 7 Teleportation, fifteen teleportation arrays should be enough. Hence, we won''t do the fifteenth one as to avoid directly teleporting there." Nelson answered. "Alright. Then, the direction." Alex nodded. "This way." Nelson pointed his hand in the Northeast direction. Without wasting a single second, Alex activated his Array, and both disappeared right after. ¡­ One hour later, In the middle of a desert appeared a single pink-colored array and two people emerged from within. "This is the fourteenth. Where is Njomo, by the way?" "He is in the Beastman territory at the moment," Nelson answered. Alex nodded and looked at his surroundings. The desert and blazing sun were a complete couple back on Earth, especially if he searched for it on the Internet. Unfortunately, the latter was missing and replaced by this dark and green sky. The sun that looked bright suddenly turned into a horror movie in his eyes. "Haiz." Alex sighed, shook his head, and closed his eyes. "Anyway, I shouldn''t think about this." "Young Master, I''m not sure how far we are from the Undead¡­ But it should be around three hours from there. Of course, I''m just speculating from Njomo''s information." said Nelson while observing his surroundings to see if there was a hidden creature. "Sure. We can fly from here." Alex nodded and flew to the sky. However, he stopped as soon as he entered the sky, shocked by what he saw. Nelson wasn''t shocked like Alex. Instead, he smiled, knowing he was right all along. "This is Undead Race?" He muttered to himself. A few kilometers from them was still another side of the desert. However, the sand there was different from the white sand from this place. The sand there had black color and reflected the green flash from the sky, making them look eerie. Luckily, there was no dead bush or tree, so it looked less scary. Alex flew closer and asked Nelson. "It''s fine to cross this place, right? Our souls won''t get attacked or anything?" "Yeah. It''s only the appearance." Nelson nodded. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to recheck it. Although he could see some dark energy inside the sand that turned them into black sand, he realized that the sand wasn''t dangerous. Even so, he couldn''t just go like that without trying it. The best way to check it was to cross it using their feet that had direct contact with them. Alex landed on the ground right before the black sand. He looked left and right in amazement because the two colored sand didn''t mix with each other. Alex kneeled on one knee and scooped a handful of black sand. The black energy that fused with the sand stayed dormant even though it got a contact with Alex''s life energy, showing Alex it was just ordinary sand. Feeling no resistance from the sand even after channeling his Spiritual Energy inside, Alex stepped on the black sand. "Hmm¡­ Nothing." Alex muttered to himself while looking down with his Spirit Eyes. Alex punched the black sand and created a little clamor, but it was completely normal. "Yeah. It''s nothing." "Haha¡­" Nelson smiled, knowing he would do the same if he didn''t have information about them. "Sorry for making you wait. Let''s go." "Yes." Nelson nodded with a smile and the two proceeded together. The more they entered this place, the creepier the place. This was a fresh experience for Alex because he never met a race that had this much influence on its surroundings. Dead bushes and trees started appearing along the way and after two hours of flying, a huge building was sighted. The building itself pierced the sky, showing its great high. On the other hand, Alex could see that the building was made of bone. Alex was wondering how the bone would actually stick with each other and created this tall tower. The tower had a cone''s shape, and the top had a kind of hat like a lighthouse. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found no one in the tower. However, he could see blue lines with his Spirit Eyes and felt something wrong from it. He didn''t know why, but it reminded him of the array when he saw these blue lines. Luckily, it didn''t look like it was active or something, so Alex shook his head and continued onward. After another hour, Alex saw a massive wall. Its height might not be comparable to the tower he saw earlier, but it was already close to half of it. "Stop!" Alex warned Nelson and halted his movement as his Spirit Eyes told him something. "This might be bad¡­" "What happened, Young Master?" Nelson narrowed his eyes before spreadings a certain black powder. As soon as it spread, it touched a certain barrier in front of the wall. A blue barrier came into sight and only around the area that had been touched by the black powder. "I see... An invisible barrier." Nelson furrowed his eyebrows. Alex ascended his altitude as he saw the two pointed tips behind this wall. He was wondering what these two tips were. He opened his eyes wide as soon as two buildings became visible. The first one was another tower, similar to the one he saw earlier. There was one single difference, which was the top of the building. Instead of a hat like a lighthouse, it was replaced by a huge green crystal surrounded by fire. Even now, the fire still jumped around the crystal, like it was dancing. Right beside this tower was another tall building. It had a flat top but a complex terrace. On the surface of this building planted a few green crystals that shone to brighten the building. He furrowed his eyebrows and felt pressure coming into his eyes. It felt like the building was protected by something. Alex descended again and hid himself. "Young Master¡­" Nelson looked at him with a worried expression. As if he didn''t hear him, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see the invisible barrier that covered the entire place. The wall itself covered a great space inside them. It looked like the city in Martial Arts Pavilion territory. It should also host many lives inside, so Alex needed to be more careful about this. It contained a huge amount of blue and dark energy while there was a trace of pink energy around. Alex could understand the pink energy was coming from a Space Element, and the black energy came from the same energy as the one that changed the sand color. Yet, he couldn''t see through this blue energy even with his Spirit Eyes and knowledge about arrays. "What is this barrier? I have never seen it before." Alex muttered to himself, looking up and down, left and right to find a single clue. Unfortunately, only a single thing he could find. It was the blue lines like those in the towers. It was planted within the wall. "Young Master¡­" Nelson called him with a low voice. "Hmm¡­ Is this an array or something? But it''s actually nothing like an array." Alex fell into deep thought. "There wasn''t a symbol here and just those blue lines¡­" "Young Master." Nelson finally tapped his shoulder to wake him up. "What?" Alex''s body shook as he was a bit startled. "What is it?" "I might know something about this," Nelson said. "Do you think you can bypass this barrier?" Alex asked. The most obvious question was this since Nelson was a master of espionage. Nelson shook his head. "I can''t bypass the barrier. It''s already reinforced by Space Element as well¡­ But I actually know that the barrier originated from the flat top building inside." "Yeah. I can see that." Alex nodded. "There is a line of energy from this barrier to that building. Still, you can''t ask me to bypass this array since I don''t even have a single clue about this." "Actually, this is not an array, Young Master." Nelson scratched his cheek embarrassedly. "If I remember correctly, Rune should be the appropriate name." "Rune? Rune¡­ Rune!" Alex muttered the word three times. The first was in confusion, the second one was like he fell into deep thought, and the last one was when he realized something. "So, this is rune¡­ It''s a special form of Array, but one that can''t be related to Array. If a person can use an array, he couldn''t use rune and vice versa." Nelson watched Alex''s reaction. Although he knew about the name, he still didn''t have a single clue about what to do. "I see¡­ According to the knowledge I receive, this rune is something special, and there is not much information to begin with¡­" Alex fell into deep thought, remembering every knowledge about rune. "These blue lines had the same functioned as symbols in Array, but they were from one different concept. I wouldn''t be able to break this barrier¡­" "I''m sorry, I only know that much, Young Master. I can''t provide you with a solution." Nelson apologized. "It''s fine. Let me recall all the knowledge first. Maybe I can find something." "I understand. I shall patrol around here to see if there was any gap to exploit or any Undead nearby." Nelson nodded and disappeared. Alex continued recalling everything. One minute¡­ Five minutes¡­ An hour¡­ Two hours... Alex began clutching his head, asking for inspiration. He looked stressed because there was no clue about this rune that he could use. If he actually used this from the beginning, he might find a way to break through this rune. Nelson came back after patrolling and investigating the structure, but he still found nothing. "I''m sorry, Young Master." "It''s fine." Alex stopped him and continued thinking. Nelson waited beside him, trying to recall every piece of his memory. It was only after another two hours where he recalled a recent memory. "Young Master, didn''t the dwarf give you something?" "The hammer!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise and immediately took out the hammer. He was surprised to see another rune inside the hammer. "Is this like the array and its key?" Thinking like that, Alex touched the barrier with this hammer. Surprisingly, the blue lines in the hammer channeled some energy, and a hole appeared in the barrier. "!!!" Alex exchanged looks with Nelson, who nodded his head. After taking a few deep breaths, Alex and Nelson entered the barrier and thought for a way to bypass the city and entered the building. Suddenly, a few blue lines appeared right in front of them, and a deep and pacifying voice resounded from within. "O'' dwarf that brings the promised hammer, please come in. I have been waiting for you." 608 The Origin of the Three Races "O'' dwarf that brings the promised hammer, please come in. I have been waiting for you." Alex and Nelson were startled to hear and see something like this, so they exchanged looks. "What are we going to do?" Alex asked through thought transmission. "I believe we should come in with this portal. After all, we are going to talk about the one who brought the hammer. According to the dwarf, he will treat us as an equal no matter if we are from the outside." Nelson informed him. Although it sounded the most reasonable choice, Alex still pondered it over. "Alright. We should." Nelson nodded and went through the portal first to check whether it was alright. Normally, Nelson would react with only a second after entering because he would know the original place would be safe or not. Unfortunately, he never received any single word from Nelson, so he entered the portal himself. Surprisingly, he entered into a huge room¡­ looking like a royal palace hall. With some white pillars supporting the room, the red carpet that stretched from the door into a throne. The only difference was how big the throne and the ruler was. The ruler was a skeleton shrouded by black energy that covered his face and entire body. Alex could see behind the black energy was a skull with some blue lights forming into its eyes and other things. He was fully covered with a long red robe, so Alex couldn''t see the other bones. And in front of him, Nelson stood in front of this ruler and looked very tiny. Alex needed to look up to see this six-meter skeleton even though he was a bit far from them, showing how tall the skeleton was. The Undying King glanced at Nelson for a second before turning to Alex. "Welcome to my humble palace, O''s promised one." The pacifying tone from the Undying King echoed through the hall. Alex looked left and right before glancing at Nelson, who later nodded his head. He slowly stepped forward, walking through the red carpet. "I know you are confused, but I will surely explain everything clearly." The Undying King raised his hand first before placing it on his¡­ heart¡­ and bowing to Alex like a gentleman. "I am Atlas, the Undying King, as well as the first ruler of the Undead Race in this place." Alex glanced at Nelson once again, knowing he must say something to make Atlas act like this. "I believe you don''t have much information regarding this place, especially since the ruler of Dwarf refused to talk. It is an ancient pact between our two¡­ no, three races that if one wishes to seek information, they shall come to me." The Undying King''s deep voice resounded on Alex''s ears. "What do you want to know?" "First of all, I want to know something. Are you my enemy?" "I want to borrow the altar to create a weapon." Alex thought for a moment and said. "Weapons? Ah, You must be acquainted with that half-dragon and half-phoenix person from back then." Atlas didn''t know about his purpose but recalled Teodross as soon as Alex mentioned weapons. "The weapons should be a sword and a spear. Yes, I can lend you an altar¡­ though I have a wish that I hope you can consider." Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see through this person. It turned out his energy was far stronger than Zekhram. Although he didn''t know his exact cultivation, it should be higher than 7-Star Martial Saint. Inside his body were also two colors, which were black and pink. Alex realized that this person also possessed a space element and somehow related to that rune earlier. "A wish? What is your wish?" Alex asked. "It''s something simple for you who possesses a Space Element. I¡­ No, we just want you to open the array for us." "What for? I am sure you know that I can''t do that without reason, right? After all, I still have friends outside this place¡­ And if something happens to them by bringing you out, I-" "I know." Atlas stopped him and explained the reason, but in the form of a story. "The reason might be ridiculous for you, but it will make sense if I explain it from the start. Would you have time for this little story?" Alex nodded. "First of all, you must be wondering why we are different from outside people? We are not humans, but beastmen, undeads, and dwarfs." The Undying King paused for a moment, inciting Alex''s curiosity. "The answer is simple. We are not from this world." "!!!" Alex''s eyes widened. He had expected something like this, but there was still a problem with the idea. Stina came from another world, but there was a portal that connected this world to that world. If they were also from another world, where would their portal be? "You want me to open the barrier so you can cross the barrier and go home, right?" Just as he asked that question, another thought flashed in his mind. ''Wait, if they want to go back, why don''t they just go back since they know the portal location¡­ unless the teleportation array is not in this barrier. "Yes. We want to go back to our world, and the first thing we need to do is to cross this barrier that traps us for a few thousand years." Atlas nodded. "Why don''t you break out of this place using your Space Element or Arr- I mean, Rune?" Alex asked. Atlas was surprised that Alex knew the existence of Rune. He thought for a moment and said. "Rune is actually a unique thing that only our world possesses. This is especially true that we, undead, are the only one that can use it. Not dwarf, not beastman. "First of all, I shall tell you about our world first. Our world consists of three races which are Dwarf, Beastman, and Undead. The Dwarfs will create weapons and machinery, the Beastmen will fight in the front, while we, the Undeads, will support them. "Rune is something similar to Array, but it''s more suited to be planted on weapons and buildings. Just like the portal from earlier, I used the rune that I planted to connect this place and that wall. We even can enhance someone''s body using a rune, which we usually use to strengthen the beastmen. "However, Rune can''t learn Array and vice versa. You must have understood this earlier, considering you know the existence of Rune. I can''t break the array and you can''t break my rune. This is why we are stuck in this place for a few thousand years." The Undying King finished his explanation. "I haven''t understood why you would come here and why you can''t come back and get sealed in this place?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "After getting some breakthrough in the machinery, we build a plan that is capable of crossing the vacuum outside our world. It''s the combination of the craft and rune. Back then, we are so happy and decide to explore the worlds around us. "Unfortunately, we are attacked by someone and our ship is ruined. To save all of our lives, we decide to come to the nearest world, which is this place." Atlas said with a pained voice. "But because this world is filled with humans, they have treated you with hostility and sealed you in this place." Alex continued Atlas''s story. "Yes. We fought back but still couldn''t win against them. Luckily, the other two leaders and I still managed to push the enemies and ended up sealed in this place instead of destruction." "But how will you go home if the ship is broken?" Alex asked. "Of course. We still have the ship and fixed it three thousand years ago with limited resources. Only, we lack one thing." "Which is?" "A Blood Gem! This blood gem is the source of energy for us. The undeads wished to have a mortal body by creating them and while researching about the blood, we stumbled and created this Blood Gem." The Undying King explained. Alex frowned on this topic. He didn''t know why but felt this topic would lead to one of his problems. "Our Blood Gem could create a rune in one body to possess a certain control of blood¡­ And it''s only the blood of the dead like us. It will combine the blood, genetics, soul, and many other things into a pill that theoretically would give us a mortal body. We stored the blood from the dying dwarfs and beastmen under their permission, and it contained a huge amount of energy that was capable of running the ship. Even if we broke this barrier, we wouldn''t be able to get away without Blood Gem and might lead to another war between them and us." Alex''s eyebrows twitched as he could relate this to a certain influence. It was Black Devil Sect. ''Don''t tell me, the Black Devil Sect actually got this one and stored it inside their sect?'' Nelson looked at Alex and nodded his head. "I have seen that in their base. According to them, it''s a sacred ritual or something, but this might be the actual case." "..." Alex was speechless before letting out a long sigh. "To think this is the case¡­" "Do you happen to know something about it?" "Yeah. In fact, they are our enemy right now." Alex nodded. "So it seems your wish and my objective is aligned." "That''s great. If the dwarf wish is to open the barrier, my wish is to recover the Blood Gem. As for the payment, I can lend you the Soul Altar as well as reinforcing your weapons with Runes. I believe it will also benefit you." The Undying King nodded. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. He wanted to destroy Black Devil Sect all along, so there was no change of plan. He wondered about the Black Devil Sect imitation from Nilis Continent but thought it must be some disciples that created an imitation. If he could get something double with the same target, he had no choice other than to accept. "How about showing me the weapons? It won''t take too long." Alex took out the two weapons and presented it to the Undying King. A bone staff with a shining green jade inside the skull appeared in Atlas''s hand. He slowly floated toward the two weapons and raised his other hand, revealing his hand. His index finger bone touched the weapon first and created a few complex blue lines in his sword. The process only took fifteen minutes for the sword and another fifteen minutes for the spear. On the surface, there were only a few natural blue lines that wouldn''t make the enemy suspicious, so Alex felt relieved, knowing he wouldn''t attract something dangerous with these blue lines. "I have increased this weapon sharpness. If Zekhram can finish these weapons, you might be able to destroy rank 7 weapons in an instant. As for the rank 8 weapons, nothing will match these weapons strength." Unlike Zekhram, it looked like the Undying King wasn''t that cheapskate by giving him an advance payment. "How about trying to test the two weapons first?" The Undying King asked while creating another portal. The blue lines connected with each other before turning into a swirling blue whirlpool. In the middle of the portal reflected the scene where they would actually head. It was a forest filled with dying trees and mountains. Alex took a look at his weapon and spear first to check their energy. Luckily, the energy itself seemed to be in harmony with the original energy. He wanted to channel his Spiritual Energy here out of curiosity, but it would bring him into some unpleasant situations. He ended up accepting Atlas''s invitation. "Sure." They walked together to the portal with Nelson following right behind Alex. 609 Testing the Weapons *Fwoosh!* The wind blew Alex''s hair the moment he entered the portal. Kai looked at Nelson, who was right behind him and winked at him. ''Don''t worry, Young Master. There should be no monsters around this area, and you can trust this person. At the very least, he wouldn''t attack you without reason.'' Nelson didn''t know what Alex wanted to ask, so he answered with everything that Alex might worry about. Alex shook his head and sighed. Without giving his reason, Alex just clenched his sword and spear. "This is Netro Forest¡­ The forest that was filled with monsters had long gone." Atlas introduced the forest. "In fact, the monsters in this realm are mostly from this forest. That''s why we are using our Rune Tower to fend them off." "!!!" Nelson was the one who got shocked by his words. Hearing the Rune Tower, Nelson instinctively turned around and saw the tower he had seen earlier. He realized that Alex was asking him to look behind. "The Rune Tower has one purpose when it''s activated. It''s to relay energy and use the Runes that have been stored inside it. Just like earlier, I used the Teleportation Rune to create a gate from my palace here." Alex nodded, knowing the concept. What shocked him was actually the knowledge in his brain and the golden lightning tribulation. He remembered where he used some knowledge about forging to understand that the weapons that Teodross gave him were a weapon that shouldn''t exist in this world. Yet, his knowledge still stored that information. The same with Rune. Alex was utterly speechless when he thought about it, wondering what the real reason for the Lightning Tribulation was. Alex asked inwardly, "System, do you know anything about the Lightning Tribulation." [I know to a certain extent, but not everything, including the real reason for your Lightning Tribulation. Besides, knowing the real reason might kill the purpose, so you should just enjoy the privilege, Host.] "True enough. Maybe I will know the reason in the future. But I need to get stronger and stronger for the time being." Alex nodded. "Now, how about going inside the forest and testing the weapons? Or you can even use it from here¡­" Atlas stretched his hand, giving the opportunity to Alex. "..." Alex fell into silence for a minute before nodding his head. "Since the Undying King has given me permission, I shall test the weapons." "Please." Alex raised his sword first, feeling the weight of the sword. It was slightly heavy for him unless he carried it with his Spiritual Energy. However, being heavy would also mean it carried a deadly weight that could be turned into power. Alex slashed downwards and struck the ground with only his sword and strength. *Bam!* The dust kicked up, and the loud sound resounded across the forest. In front of him, a fifty meters deep hole appeared as soon as Alex struck the ground. The hole continued to a hundred meters away to the front. "As expected from a rank 8 weapon from Yuda. He is indeed a master of forging." Atlas acted like he always believed in his former friend. Alex waited for a minute and thought. ''This sword is powerful¡­ According to my memory, a rank 8 sword would only be able to create half of this. However, this sword has become something like this before it''s even completed. There are two more enhancements left, which was the fusion and recognition ceremony. This might be my main weapon if it''s complete.'' Alex thought for a moment and looked at Atlas''s expression first before pulling the second weapon. He also struck the ground right beside the hole, and it also created the same cut hole, unless a bit smaller. It was normal, considering he used it as a spear, not a sword. Its main purpose was to thrust, not cut or shatter." "Hmm¡­ the runes are perfect, and this weapon should be indestructible." Atlas nodded in confidence. "How about cutting some trees or shattering a mountain over there?" Atlas pointed his finger toward the trees in front of him and the mountain behind it. Alex accepted and raised his sword. Spiritual Energy slowly enveloped it as the Sword shone in red-colored light like his fire color. However, Alex had yet to infuse his fire element, so the sword only contained his Spiritual Energy and Domain. Wanting to see what kind of power would this sword show him, Alex slashed it downwards. "Blade of Conquest." The shockwave flew from the sword and moved through the ground. It continued moving while slashing every tree that the shockwave encountered. Although there was nothing that could be a challenge for this sword strike, Alex could still observe it through his Spirit Eyes, and the sight shocked him. There wasn''t a single difference in terms of energy. Yet the power was far stronger than his usual Blade of Conquest. At the very least, he should be able to fight 3-Star or 4-Star Martial Monarch with this sword alone. Alex felt his confidence in dealing with the Fire God Clan raising. ''If only the Blackwade Clan doesn''t help them, I might be able to make war with them when I reach Martial Saint.'' "Judging from your domain earlier, it seems you have become a weapon emperor. Whether it is Sword Emperor or Spear Emperor, I am sure you have made your Original Skill. Why don''t you test it to see whether the rune can complement your original skill?" Atlas asked. "Hmm?" Alex tilted his head, unsure if he should actually do it in front of Atlas or not. After glancing at Nelson one more time, he agreed to it. Alex raised his sword first and waved it simply. But just like how it broke the rule of physics, his normal swing suddenly turned into three. A trace of surprise even appeared on Atlas''s face. Although he saw that the movement only had a simple three swings that could be easily blocked, he felt there was something behind those three slashes that he couldn''t shake away. In fact, he would be super careful if he met Alex''s attack. Yet, another surprise when Alex pulled his spear to the back like pulling a bow. The intense Spiritual Energy began gathering on the tip of his spear. "Fu." Alex took a deep breath before thrusting onward. Like releasing an arrow, the spear charged forth and released a shockwave. The shockwave charged forth similar to a laser, but it blew everything in front of it away instead of melting it. The trees cut and flew to the sky, with most of them having a circle round mark, showing that Alex just blasted that spot to smithereens. And the effect wasn''t finished yet. It showed clearer when the trees had fallen to the ground, but Alex and Atlas weren''t someone who would leave such a detail. They saw a huge bowl-shaped trail on the ground. "I think it''s better to stop here." Alex already used both of his Original Skill. Although it wasn''t everything he got, Atlas should have seen more than enough. Doing more would be making him at a disadvantage. Atlas also understood Alex''s intention. "Indeed. We shall stop here." He fell into silence, pondering something over. "Actually, bring this to Zekhram. He might even let you see our ship." Alex tilted his head in confusion. It looked like a normal key from Earth. A round head and some serration in its body. However, there were still a few blue lines in this key. "This is a key that I wish you to bring to Zekhram. If you have this key, he should let you enter that place and learn from his story." Atlas said, handing him the key. Although the key had a shape similar to the key on Earth, its size was different. The size alone was slightly bigger than his body. Alex stored the key in his Space Ring but was rejected by the array from his ring. It seemed to have a certain incompatibility with his space ring¡­ specifically with the array. He muttered to himself. ''I see. The rune on the key and the array on the Space Ring is rejecting each other.'' He didn''t say a single thing about this and stored the key inside his Inventory. Atlas already knew that the rune would clash with the space ring, preventing it from being stored inside. He also believed that Alex''s Space attainment wouldn''t be so low that he couldn''t store this key. Hence, he only watched his movement and nodded. "Tell him that he can come over and use the Soul Tower to fuse the gem and birth the soul to this Spiritual Weapon." Atlas nodded. "Yes. I will tell him that and might bring him here because it will take a few days if we travel by flying." "Yes. I shall wait for you to return to my palace." Atlas nodded with a smile, but only Undead would know that he was actually smiling. As for Alex, he could only see him as normal without having any expression. Even his tone was still the pacifying tone that made him a bit more mysterious. Atlas bowed his head once more and waved his hand, creating a portal to his palace. He crossed the portal and closed it. Alex looked at Nelson. "So, what are we going to do? Go to Zekhram?" "Yes. We should finish this matter as soon as possible." Nelson nodded. "Besides, we still need to check Rose''s condition and the situation on Heavenly Continent, from the general situation, Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan alliance, and Letizia''s whereabouts." "You are right. We need Nicole to update us on whether the successor of Blackwade Clan actually stops the alliance or not. It will be very important to Rose and us since they might attack Rose, thinking I am still on that continent. If we know about their status, we can ask Ngina to inform Rose to hide in our base." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "As for Letizia''s whereabouts¡­ I don''t know to be honest. At a time, I am thinking about releasing her, and at another, I feel that she might become our sword¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "I am not treating her like a chess piece or an object¡­ I am just¡­ how do you say it? Pity?" Falling into silence for a few seconds, Alex shook his head. "Whatever. I will check her condition together with Evelyn." Nelson nodded. "Should I actually summon Anna and the others?" "Hmm¡­ I don''t think we need to have a fight in this realm, so I don''t think we shouldn''t. After all, we are mostly moving back and forth." Nelson said their experience since coming here. In fact, they had yet to pass a single day in this realm, and they already met the two rulers of the races and learned much information at once. "Yeah. I should use the time to make some array instead. It might not be much, but we can get a nice amount of money later. Then, I will prepare for a breakthrough. I should be able to reach the 10-Star Martial Emperor in a month while using two months for consolidation. I will then create a small Special Realm and breakthrough in this place." Alex nodded. "The huge barrier itself should be able to hide the tribulation from outside people while your Special Realm will hide from these three races. Although I know their races, it''s still better to draw some line with them." Nelson added. "That''s the point. I don''t know about forging, but it will surely take time. The knowledge tells me so." Alex shrugged, planning to use that time to advance. "Yes. We need to finish this first." Nelson nodded. Alex didn''t say anything more and snapped his finger, creating a pink array beneath their feet. The two then disappeared. 610 Spaceship An hour later, Alex arrived at Zekhram''s house once again. Although Alex wanted to hide his space ability from Zekhram, he decided not to after knowing their background. If they wanted to leave this place, Alex would actually need to reconstruct the barrier. For Atlas, who knew about the Space Element, it was easy to see that Alex had a Space Element. He already knew about it the moment he saw Alex. On the other hand, Zekhram would eventually know it. Rather than hiding and making this process longer, might as well show it. Besides, Nelson said that these races didn''t really have such importance toward Space Element. "I see¡­ So you are the same as Atlas, a Space Element user." Zekhram let out a long sigh, wondering if this was a good thing or not. "You must have learned many things from here, right?" "Yes." Alex nodded calmly. They were sitting in the previous room where Zekhram met him. It was a bit weird to see someone who was tasked with a meeting that would need a few weeks, returned after only a few hours. "I guess I should ask you first." Zekhram paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "What do you want to know?" "First of all¡­ I need to inform you first that the Undying King embedded a rune on my weapons." Alex took out his sword from his Inventory, placing it on the table. "This is the result." "Rune?!" This single word jolted his mind, making him straighten his body. He looked at Alex''s eyes with a weird face before observing the sword. "This¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes when he watched Zekhram having a troubled look. "Is there anything wrong about the sword?" At first, he thought that the rune wasn''t compatible with the sword, but with Atlas''s knowledge, he shouldn''t be so clueless about such common sense. "A trouble¡­ Well, I don''t know if it''s a problem or not, but considering you have a rune in your sword and spear, I need to recast some parts and fuse another metal." Zekhram explained. "Hmm? You have the metal, right?" Alex sensed trouble was coming. "Don''t worry. I have the metal, but it will take a bit longer than I expect to. Seeing that I need to do it for both weapons, I will need two weeks." "Two weeks?" Alex pondered for a moment and nodded. "I don''t have a problem with time. Do I need to pay more about this?" "No, no. I will handle the cost. Besides, I am already planning to give some of my weapons to you, let alone metal. The problem would be the blood inside the weapons." Zekhram shook his head helplessly. "Blood?" The moment he mentioned it, Alex recalled what Teodross said to him. According to Teodross, he used his own blood to power up these two weapons. Alex wondered if he was talking the same blood. "But I don''t have any blood with me." Alex shook his head helplessly. "There is actually one place where you can get it," Zekhram said. His eyebrows twitched upon hearing this. Alex couldn''t help but think, ''Am I inside a game world right now? I only get quest after quest¡­'' "Are you expecting me to bring the blood too?" Alex asked. "I wish to ask you for it, but I know I have nothing that can move you." Zekhram paused before saying, "Actually, the Undying King, Atlas, did this, so you can ask him to do an account." "Bringing the Undying King?" Alex was confused. "Yes. Just say that I need Ancient Blood for the two weapons. Don''t forget to ask him to bring you to the Beastman Tribe, of course." Zekhram let out a hollow laugh before returning to his poker face. "In any case, he will surely take responsibility for it and accompany you to the beastman tribe to demand the blood." "So, the blood is in the Beastman tribe?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, couldn''t see the connection at all. First of all, Teodross should have no reason to give his blood to them. Secondly, since when did he become their goffer?" Alex pondered for a moment and predicted what would happen if he accepted this. He would most probably get another task from the beast king and a reward. However, Alex had no good reason to reject him. After pondering for a moment, Alex nodded but added a condition. "I want to finish the matter in this place first since I want to know a few things." "Sure." Zekhram nodded. "You can ask me anything." "I want to know about the ship," Alex said. "Oh, you are cutting to the chase already?" He shook his head helplessly. "Sure. I can lead you to the ship." "Secondly, I need to recover my Spiritual Energy. Going back and forth has exhausted a big portion of my energy." Alex added another condition. "Yeah. I have no problem with your condition. There is a certain place where there is no pungent smell like this. I believe you will also feel comfortable in that place." Zekhram nodded. Alex nodded, agreeing with him. He might summon the other spirits and decide their course of action. After all, the spirits might be more active outside of this place than in his card. "Is that all of your condition?" Alex thought for a moment and said. "Probably." "If you have any other condition, just tell me about it." Zekhram nodded before rising from his seat. He stretched his hand and asked Alex to follow him. Alex and Nelson walked right behind him, observing his every movement. They returned to his study room. Zekhram waved his hand, sending a Spiritual Energy to a certain bookshelf. Alex realized it as well and activated his Spirit Eyes immediately. He followed the movement of Spiritual Energy from going inside the bookshelf into a certain mechanism. This certain mechanism opened the secret entrance hidden behind the bookshelf. "This way." Zekhram nodded and walked inside the secret entrance. The pathway made of moss stone and its size wasn''t too big either, probably would only fit a few people. At the end of the path were stairs leading to Underground. In fact, they were inside an underground mine already with Zekhram''s house being at the lowest level. When he learned there was actually another level below this, he was amazed at the same time amused. He had seen the entire city with his Spirit Eyes, but couldn''t find anything under this city. Yet, if the ship was actually in this place, there must be an array or rune that was capable of preventing his Spirit Eyes from seeing through. His answer came right after they descended the lower level and met a giant metal door. The door itself contained a few blue lines, allowing Alex to understand why he saw nothing. Even without using the knowledge in his brain, he knew that this rune was similar to a concealment array. Alex let out a long sigh and waited for Zekhram to open the door. Surprisingly, it was easy to open the door because Zekhram simply channeled his Spiritual Energy on the door and¡­ *Creak!* The door slowly opened, revealing a huge room and ship inside. "Welcome to Dwarf workshop¡­ Though, this was already abandoned a thousand years ago after the repair was completed." Zekhram shrugged. "If we truly can go home, then I will need many people to clean this ship up and check the ship." Alex opened his eyes wide upon the sight of this ship. It looked like a spaceship. Alex observed it from the front to the back. This gigantic ship had a length around two kilometers and two hundred meters wide. It should be enough to carry a few hundred thousand inside. The ship was made of metal that contained a huge amount of energy and blue lines that reinforced the ship. The shape itself was similar to a box with some kind of terrace pattern on its shape. "A spaceship of another world¡­" Alex muttered in a volume only he could hear. "I wonder if I can bring this home, what kind of reaction the people on Earth will have¡­" This big ship was supported by a few pillars below it. A powerful black pillar that should have supported this ship for a few thousand years. "This ship is powered by Blood Gem, and I assume Atlas has informed you about it. The metal in the outer part only functioned as a shield for the room inside. In fact, there are three spaces inside the ship for our three races to have a comfortable place. It doesn''t have much different from my house right now for Dwarf Place." Zekhram explained it briefly after looking at the astonishment in Alex''s eyes. In the depth of his heart, Alex actually wanted to see this flying. "Come with me," Zekhram said before going to the back of the ship. They climbed the stairs to get up around half of the ship''s body size, and there was actually a small door where a person could enter. "We can enter the ship from here." Alex nodded before turning to Nelson. "I''m wondering if there are actually many of these ships outside this world¡­" "Many ships yes, but not like this." Nelson shook his head. "First of all, the ship itself is to carry people and intrude on the other world''s barrier. Some God rank cultivators usually protected this ship and ensured its safety. "Normally, there are some worlds that have some technological advancement and make smaller ships or something like robots in your memory. Albeit, none of them are actually strong enough to even stand in front of a God Rank cultivator. In the end, they are blasted to smithereens before they even fight." "Heh¡­" Alex was quite astonished that there were actually many spaceships in the universe. Nevertheless, he was quite disappointed that there was no galactic war revolving around these spaceships. Since he was already a Martial Emperor, he was suddenly reminded about the missile and nuclear weapons on Earth. Thinking about it, he didn''t think he would actually die because of them. In fact, they might not even be able to penetrate his Barrier Array. As for all those laser guns or whatever in the movie, they were made of heat while he was the absolute king, they would only die if they brought that kind of weapon in front of him. Alex shook his head and focused back on this ship alone. Even though they were in a spaceship, he actually didn''t see a single technology or electricity here. The corridor itself was only made of some metal with a kind of monster core to light the lamp. His image of modern spaceships was shattered upon observing his surroundings. There wasn''t even a single ''modern'' on this ship except for the name. In fact, if they actually had a wood stronger than this metal, they might replace it with that. "This is the Dwarf Corridor. We like the metallic thing, so we make a place that we are comfortable with. If you go through this corridor or beyond that, you will find an environment suited to each respective race." Zekhram informed. Alex nodded. "Actually, the ship itself doesn''t really matter. The strength of God rank, enhancement and Array are what matter. If a ship like this actually gets destroyed in outer space, the people inside might actually die from the sheer pressure." Nelson added. "I see. If I am a Martial Saint, I might be able to destroy a ship like this. However, if there is actually a God rank expert and a Divine rank array protecting it, I''m not sure¡­" Alex fell into deep thought When he thought about it, they arrived at a certain room. Zekhram halted his footsteps and turned around, stretching his hands toward the room. "This is the main control room where we can control the course of our ship." Alex, Nelson, and Zekhram finally entered the room. 611 Strategy Meeting Part 1 Alex, Nelson, and Zekhram entered the so-called control room. Alex already had no expectation about the machinery or maybe a high-tech engine and touchable projection screen. Nonetheless, it still piqued his curiosity to see what kind of control room the spaceship had. Inside the room, precisely in front of him, stood a small podium. The podium had a golden leg and a head like a trophy. Zekhram quickly explained what this golden podium was upon noticing Alex''s gaze. "This is the Golden Podium. We put the Blood Gem in this bowl shape hat, and the ship would be up. Although it might be a little unusual for you, specifically about how actually a Blood Gem had enough power to power the entire ship¡­ "The answer is actually pretty simple. The Blood Gem might not have an attack or defend technique despite being a peak rank 8 item. However, the amount of energy that it can hold is actually close to those Divine Items." "..." Alex thought for a moment and felt it was possible. He might haven''t seen a Divine Item, but his knowledge alone could show him how mighty a Divine Item was. "I see. The energy is more than enough to cover the weakness of this item¡­ In fact, it somehow enhanced the item even further. It might not reach the Divine Item level, but it was close. What is it? Semi-Divine Item?" Alex recalled his memory for a bit and nodded after finding the name. "Yeah, Semi-Divine Item." Zekhram also nodded in agreement. "Anyway, we can put the Blood Gem here. Then we can look at the other spots." Alex nodded and observed his surroundings. It was mostly made of translucent metal as a replacement of glass in his mind. However, blue lines on the floor piqued his interest, making him trace the blue line. This blue line''s head was connected to the golden podium while the tail was connected to a box. It was quite a big box with a giant keyhole on it. "Atlas must have entrusted a key for you. This key is to let you choose whether we are qualified or not, especially when we ask you to run through all of this process when your initial goal was a simple Energy Fusion." Zekhram said with an embarrassed tone. "Actually, we want you to know about us better to know that we are, in fact, not battle loving races. It is so we can prove that we don''t seek chaos and just want to go home." "..." Alex narrowed his eyes. Although it looked like he was telling the truth, he couldn''t trust his words yet. "In any case¡­" Zekhram shook his head first before continuing. "That hole over there is to plug in the key. It''s to let us fly the ship¡­ The key would trigger the energy from the Blood Gem and channel it through the entire ship." "I understand." Alex nodded. After knowing about the ship, Alex felt he had nothing to ask anymore as his curiosity had all been answered. Noticing his expression, Zekhram nodded and asked to confirm it. "Do you have anything more to ask?" "I don''t have." Alex shook his head. "Though, I wish to have a space to recover my energy." "Sure, I will lead you to the room." Zekhram nodded. They left the ship, returned to Zekhram''s study room, and walked to a special build room. In this room, there was a kind of material that absorbed all the mist and erected a barrier to prevent the smell from coming in. "This is your room." Alex checked the room with his Spirit Eyes to see if there was anything hidden inside the room. It seemed that his worry was unnecessary, so he entered the room with Nelson. "Then, I will leave." Zekhram closed the door and walked back to his Study Room. He took out a letter behind a bookshelf and opened it. ''If you don''t have anyone liberating the cursed barrier that prevents you from leaving, there will be a certain person that will liberate it. He will come with a sword and a spear that I made today. ''As soon as that person comes, you must treat him as a friend, not an enemy. In case you treat him as an enemy, there won''t be any hope for you to come back home. In fact, you might even die. ''I, Teodross, promise you that you will only get benefit from this. At that time, the three races should meet him and become his friend. No matter what you do, you will need to become his friend.'' Zekhram let out a long sigh after reading the message from thousands of years ago. This was a message that had been preserved from his grandfather''s generation. He looked at the ceiling and muttered to himself. "Is this really the right thing to do? I can see his power that is beyond measure, but¡­ I can only believe in him¡­ No, we can only believe in him as he will be the only one that can help us from this situation. Besides, that handsome shadow man actually knows about our real identity¡­ Who are they really?" Similar to him, who was discussing things with himself, Alex also discussed their course of action from now on. He rushed to this place after his training, so he never knew any information from his spies. Hence, he summoned every single spirit and took out all N Squad cards, planning to have a thorough discussion. "I want to discuss it with you guys when we are inside this realm, but I have been going back and forth, so I''m sorry." Alex let out a hollow laugh. "We understand." Anna nodded with a smile. "Since all of us here, we should discuss everything from the start. Where should we start?" Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Anya, who gave him the authority to decide. "I will go with our future course in this realm. As you already know that we are currently facing a certain issue where I need to go back and forth¡­ If I''m not making an excuse like this, I might even meet the three rulers in a day. Hence, I need time to think about our future course." "You are right. This place seems to be civil." Anna nodded. "Yeah. The problem is whether we will actually leave this place and leave Alex here alone¡­ might be with Nelson, or continue staying inside his card." Anya presented the problem out loud. The spirits thought for a few minutes. Leoz gave the first answer, "It''s better if we leave this place and kill some monsters. To be honest, we can start killing some Black Devil Sect members if they aren''t holing up inside the sect." Anna and the others agreed with his thought. They only thought it this way because they also knew these three races like Nelson. Only Alex was actually clueless that the three races were, in fact, from a world that never fought. Yet, they also couldn''t tell him about it right away because they were unsure what kind of influence it would bring to Alex. The worst case, he might become overly conscious of his past, and his personality might change. This was what everyone did not want to see. On the other hand, clueless thought about their choice carefully and gave them a ''go.'' Alex thought for a moment and looked at Anya. "You will be in charge of them. Make sure you don''t do anything reckless. If the Black Devil Sect locks themselves, just pull back and wait until I''m done. Besides, Stina, Sherry, and Kyle will be with me in the later part." "Understood. We are going to kill monsters most of the time, so you don''t need to worry." Anya nodded with a smile. "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Alright. Time to get more outside world information. I have practiced for two months before entering here, there should be some shift on the continent." "Which one do you want? We can ask Narman for the situation on Sacred Continent, we can ask Ngina about Rose and ask Nicole about Heavenly Continent. You choose." Anna replied. "Hmm¡­ We are basically on the Sacred Continent, so we are going to ask Narman." Alex nodded. He asked for information on this timing because there might be a change in the future course after knowing them. It would be better if they could prepare first. Taking out Narman''s card, Alex asked. "Narman, how is the situation over there?" "As we have expected, the Northern Continent has a great change. First of all, there is an alliance between many second-rate influences to oppose the Black Devil Sect. The Ancient Blue Family doesn''t dare to help the Black Devil Sect, because the loss outweighs the gain. "Although there is nothing concrete in the rumor around this alliance, I have found out that the three influences actually band together and give their support of the second-rate alliance to pressure the Black Devil Sect. "The Black Devil Sect put up a fight, but as long as there are still us in the dark, they can''t do many things. The alliance takes this chance to suppress the Black Devil Sect. Considering how brutal the Black Devil Sect acts in this continent, they gather a huge amount of followers. Even many rogue cultivators decide to join this alliance. "For the other three influences, they are happy if the Black Devil Sect is out of the picture. They know the agreement between Black Devil Sect and Ancient Blue Family will crumble if the former is destroyed. "They are also trying to search for any information about us, but to no avail. I''m not too sure about the Ancient Blue Family, but I believe they have sent some information to their main family. You can ask the details about them from the others. "As for the Black Devil Sect itself, they are currently hiding in their sect. There is no movement from them. "The alliance also doesn''t dare to antagonize the Black Devil Sect so much because they know how scary it is to face the full brunt of an angry Black Devil Sect with their Berserk Pill. Although we have killed around thirty percent of their people or cut down sixty percent of their power, they are still formidable if all of them are fighting to the death. "That''s why I''m assuming the alliance is waiting for you to make a move before they even move." Narman finished his report. Alex fell into silence, pondering over all the reports before he suddenly smiled with a certain evil intention. 612 Strategy Meeting Part 2 The evil smile on Alex''s mouth made the spirits serious. They didn''t know what Alex was thinking, but they had a gist of it. "Do you know about Blood Gem? A shiny gem that can let the Black Devil Sect gain their current power." Alex asked. ''...'' The spirits were speechless after hearing his question. They had expected this coming. "Yes. I have seen that gem. It''s a red-colored gem, with very powerful energy. The Black Devil Sect doesn''t know how to use this gem and somehow only uses it as their source of power that lets them control the blood and turn them into Blood Pill and Berserk Pill." Narman affirmed. "I wonder if you can steal that gem from them?" Alex smirked. He was planning to have Narman steal the gem and bring it to here. That way, he didn''t need to destroy the Black Devil Sect first to finish his job here. At that time, Alex didn''t need to visit this realm again. "I am afraid I can''t infiltrate that place. Although they are using it as a ritual or something, there will be around five Martial Monarchs there. Even if they put it back on their treasury, two Martial Monarchs will stay there with a Space Element Barrier covering the treasury." Narman answered honestly. "I see. Space Element and Martial Monarchs. They are indeed hard to bypass. Besides, that barrier will certainly have the key. To get the key alone will require you to fight another Martial Monarch since there is no way that key will be given to a weak person." Alex let out a long sigh, knowing his plan had failed. At first, he thought about summoning Nelson there and asked him to kill those Martial Monarchs. But they would be stopped when they encountered the barrier. "Yes¡­ The key is in their sect master." Narman confirmed another problem. If they needed to kill their sect master just to get the key, it would be better if they killed the whole sect along with him. There were two reasons for that. First, by killing him, the entire sect might panic and do something unpredictable. If that truly happened, Alex needed to reconsider his plan. Secondly, there might be a probability where the sect master actually stayed alive until the reinforcement came. At that time, Alex would need to recall Nelson because the plan failed. The real problem was after that. The Black Devil Sect might reinforce or do more preparation in their fight against him. He didn''t need to make the enemy have a need to raise their strength unreasonably. After thinking of those two reasons, Alex completely abandoned the idea. "Alright. We are going according to the plan and get that Blood Gem after exterminating the Black Devil Sect." "Yes." Not only Narman, but the spirits in his room also shouted. "Alright. We are done with this matter, I guess¡­" Alex nodded. After getting a nod from every spirit, Alex tossed Narman''s card back to the Inventory. The spirits said no objection, so Alex took out Nicole''s card and asked her. "Nicole. You are in the Blackwade Clan, right? How is your situation?" "I haven''t done many things other than observing the Blackwade Clan and trying to get into the successor''s head," Nicole reported. "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "So, what is the status update there?" Nicole paused for a moment and said. "Blackwade Clan is in the middle of preparing their force to hunt you down with Fire God Clan. The successor has been very suspicious about this and investigated it on his own. In contrast, he learned a few conspiracies between the first elder and the fourth elder, which lead to the controversial thing between you, the third elder and the fourth elder. "He is then investigating the Blackwade Clan on the Heavenly Continent and has found something very controversial from the third elder''s story. He slows down the preparation and somehow manages to slow it down for a few months. "A few weeks ago, he had presented the problem with the Patriarch and the Grand Elder, but they declined his plea even though he knew they were in the wrong. The reason was simple, the living first elder and third elder are more important to the dead. "In other words, they have truly given up the matter and just created prestige for themselves. After all, they can gain the trust of disciples and elders that they will protect them if they suffer from injustices." "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. It would seem that this successor had some righteousness, despite it not fitting with the clan''s way. It was easy to see that his effort actually would only lead to a conflict inside the clan and make it unstable. On the other hand, the Patriarch and Grand Elder were planning to sacrifice an outside (him) to get the stability inside the clan. The last problem they needed to worry about was Spirit Nest''s actual strength. They should have investigated him thoroughly before moving out. And the fact that the successor gave another few months for preparation, they should have finished their investigation. Alex was wondering why they would act against him and what kind of thing they actually found about him. He could only imagine these two answers for the time being. The answer to his second question would be nothing¡­ Or at least, they would only trace him back as the disciple of Heavenly Sword Sect and have a disciple named Rose as well as a protege named Evelyn. Luckily, Evelyn was taken care of by Manness, so even if they knew about Evelyn''s existence, the only thing they knew would be Old Manness''s disciple. As for Rose, Ngina was with her, so he could inform her when to hide. The last problem would be his current situation. Looking at how he acted on this continent, they might find it sooner or later. No matter what disguise he used, they would know it was him since no one managed to create such a stir except for him. "I see. The only hope to stop the Blackwade Clan is still in the hand of that successor. Nicole, I believe we should have the successor try it once more." said Alex with a cold tone. "But how can we convince him? After convincing him, how can we convince the Patriarch and the Grand Elder?" Nicole asked. "I''m planning to use my VIP Card to convince them," Alex said. "!!!" Nicole gasped, never expecting him to suggest this. "VIP Card itself came from the system in which I can fully control with the Inventory. Even if they somehow take this forcefully, we can take it back easily. On the other hand, showing the card will convince him because no one could prove the card''s existence. "In other words, I want you to present the card to him, but don''t let him check it. We can then throw a few bluffs to make him believe this card is real¡­ well, it''s real though. At that time, you can just say you need to stop this first if you want the master of the card presented himself before you." Alex suggested a plan. "Hmm¡­" Nicole didn''t accept this task easily because it contained a huge chance of failure. She didn''t want to promise him something she wasn''t sure about. "I don''t know if it will succeed, especially when I can''t let him check the card¡­ But I will try." Alex also understood the risk. If he could let him check the card, the situation would be easier. But he wasn''t sure what kind of problem this card would actually bring to him. Song Qiang said it might be something good, like having a certain power in the Blackwade Clan. Still, a power without strength backing it up, it would soon crumble from those power-hunger people. He wanted to use it after arriving at the Heavenly Continent, thus resulting in his decision. "I will try my best on this matter, but I can''t promise you, Young Master. I hope you can forgive me." "It''s fine. I have given you a risky plan, so I have considered it. If we can''t solve this matter, I will try to ask Old Manness about this." Alex ensured. "That''s right. We can still use the Drunken Pavilion as a threat. This will give us a higher chance of convincing him." Nicole flashed with enlightenment, coming up with a great plan that led her to convince the successor. "By the way, how is the situation over there? Like, have you found Senior Sister yet or Letizia? And how about Evelyn''s condition?" Alex asked. "The general situation became pretty heated because of your existence. Nonetheless, they don''t have a huge impact on the continent or whatsoever." Nicole answered his first question and thought about the second question, thinking of a way to explain without hurting Alex. "You have the second answer, right? Just tell me about it?" Alex demanded an answer while preparing himself for the worst. Hearing his words, Nicole took a deep breath and said, "Yes. We haven''t found Song Yu yet, even though we have searched around the continent. I could say that her chance of being alive right now is pretty slim." "I see." Alex bit his lips when he listened to the answer. The spirits closed their eyes as well, hoping Alex didn''t act recklessly because of this. "I will remember them first¡­ First Elder and Third Elder of Blackwade Clan. When I''m strong enough that the Blackwade Clan can''t oppose me, I will kill them." Alex said while releasing his killing intent. "We, spirits, exist to fulfill your wish, so even if you want to ruin this world, we will surely destroy it," Nicole said sincerely. All of the spirits nodded their heads. They might say they exist to fulfill Alex''s wish, but they only got it after Previous Life Alex saved them and gave them a reason to live. Seeing how their king protected them, raised them, and protected them again to the point, he sacrificed his life was enough for them. Spirits were purer than humans, especially one in this world. They wouldn''t betray Alex, who had done so much for them. Alex couldn''t say anything about her words and only swore that he would protect them with everything he''d got. "By the way, how about Letizia?" "Letizia¡­ Actually, we have found Letizia. Her pure element caught the eye of an elder who visited the Northern Continent. It turned out that the elder was the Grand Elder of Snow White Mountain. They are considered the same level as Blackwade Clan and Fire God Clan. "However, she had yet to find out that Letizia had a full loyalty to Heavenly Oath on you. Letizia seemed to have no intention of revealing her relationship with you. The one thing I worried is if they know about the relationship, the entire Snow White Mountain might chase you and become the third influence that will fight us as of now." "It''s second. I believe you can convince the Blackwade clan." Alex smiled. "Thank you for your trust, Young Master. I will try not to betray your expectation." "As for Letizia¡­ I don''t know whether she doesn''t want to say it or because the Oath binds her in her heart. Nonetheless, we can leave that aside for the time being." Alex nodded. "If we fight with Fire God Clan on Heavenly Continent, her intention will be clear." "Understood." Nicole paused for a moment and said. "Then, the last information about Evelyn. I just got information from Ngina, who asked me whether they needed to hide or not. It seemed that Rose had made contact with Putri and Song Jia. As of now, she is acting carefully while increasing her strength." "I see. At least, she has some peaceful time right now because it will soon turn chaotic." Alex nodded. "Yes. I have reported everything to you, so I will take my leave and try to convince the successor." 613 Convincing Blackwade Clan Inside Blackwade Clan, specifically inside a red pavilion that stood out the most from its surroundings that had mostly green color. The guards right in front of the red pavilion, 2-Star Martial Emperors, were just doing their usual patrol. It was at this time; a small wind was blowing. Yet, the guards felt nothing as the wind carried something inside them. The black ball that kept rolling out slowly turned into a shadow that moved inside the ground, bypassing the guards with utmost precision. Luckily, none of the guards had activated their domain or whatsoever, so they couldn''t notice this shadow. The shadow slowly went through the door and made its way toward a specific room. "Who are you?" A male''s voice echoed from within the room. As expected from a Martial Saint, Nicole thought before turning into her human form. "I have brought the words of my Master," Nicole said humbly. "Your Master? This place should have been guarded heavily; how can you sneak inside?" The man waved his hand and let the door open, revealing a pink-haired woman outside. Although she was quite a beauty, it was like those pursued like crazy by lusty men. Even so, it was like she had an attractive charm that pulled one''s heart away. The woman smiled at him. "How I can sneak inside is an answer that can''t be answered. However, I am here in place of my master¡­ And my master is the one who you hunt right now." "Alexander Sirius?" The man furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting that this mysterious man had a subordinate like this. The fact that she could infiltrate the Blackwade Clan like this alone was already enough to throw the entire family. "Exactly so." She smiled and politely bowed her head. "My Master wants you to stop the pursuit and break off the alliance with the Fire God Clan." "Hmm?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "So, that''s what you mean¡­ I''m not a person who likes to fight the unknown, and your sudden appearance here is already proving my first assumption. It seems this Alexander Sirius is not a push-over¡­ After all, how can a mere peak Martial Emperor sneak inside the Blackwade Clan easily¡­" Nicole didn''t say anything and earnestly looked at him. "I also don''t like the idea of fighting but doesn''t mean I am scared. On what basis do you want me to support you?" "Actually, our master wants the Blackwade Clan to break off the alliance, not because he is scared. He is just placing importance on his relationship with Song Yu from the Northern Continent Blackwade Clan. I''m afraid if push comes to shove, my master might torch the two influences to the ground." Nicole looked at him sharply, telling him that her words weren''t empty threats. "We are just not retaliating yet." Nicole paused for a moment before saying, "I" m just a mere spy in the influence just because I don''t have enough strength. If we are truly revealing our true might, I don''t think Blackwade Clan wants to see that." "Hoh¡­ Woman, I am impressed by your skill. It''s not easy to infiltrate this place, but you can with a mere 10-Star Martial Emperor strength. However, do you think you can escape from me?" The successor revealed his 1-Star Martial Saint power, locking on Nicole. Unfortunately, Nicole paid no heed of this suppression. Her face was still calm and acted composed. "I''m afraid you don''t want to do this¡­" "You think so? I am stopping the war doesn''t mean you can use it to control me, especially with an empty threat like this!" The successor started getting angry. "This is certainly not an empty threat. I have another thing that can make me convince you." Nicole gritted her teeth, feeling the pressure coming from him. "Blackwade Clan Supreme VIP Card!" "!!!" The successor''s body shook as if he heard something unbelievable. "How did you know that name?" "I had certainly known about it a long time ago. Supreme VIP Card from Blackwade Clan is the only VIP card that has a special status in the Blackwade Clan. It grants an honorary eld¡­ No, it should be a Grand Elder rank here." Nicole smiled. "You¡­ You even know that. Who are you¡­ No, who is your Master?" The successor was shocked to the core. "The Card shouldn''t exist in this world¡­ Yet, you¡­" Nicole smiled. "You are just blatantly telling me that Blackwade Clan is not from this world. And I think you have gotten the answer yourself." Her words jolted his mind. "You are not from this world?" Nicole didn''t answer him. Instead, she simply smiled and waved her hand, taking out a certain black card with two ''V'' on it. "That¡­ That is¡­" The successor couldn''t recover from his shock as Nicole threw it again and again. "I have said earlier, this is not an empty threat. Instead, it is a friendly reminder. Having this card alone is already enough to prove our identity. You must have a way to see whether this is real or fake, right? Unfortunately, my master doesn''t want to have this little card checked yet since he will bring it to you after resolving the entire situation." Nicole smirked. "That¡­" The successor gritted his teeth. If he could check that card, it would be easier for him to decide which path he needed to choose. Unfortunately, this could only become a gamble for him. However, he also couldn''t say it was a gamble. After all, the other party kept telling him that they were a normal influence and that they were from another world. As the successor of this clan, he knew about the real power of this card. Even the Grand Elder couldn''t touch a person like this if they didn''t want to anger ''those people'', but if many began to know about this, he wondered if he could actually stop it. "Woman¡­ I want to ask you something." The successor narrowed his eyes. "Let''s hear it." She nodded. "Do you know who is in our back?" "If they know our Master''s name, they will cower in fear. I believe it should be enough to narrow it into a few people¡­ Nah, our master''s name is already as it is, there is no need for a clue." Nicole shook her head. She didn''t mind telling a portion of what she knew because Alex''s name had resounded through this world. His name would continue growing like none other and created a huge spark. Sooner or later, everyone would know the meaning of his name, especially the Blackwade Clan. Just by showing the card to him was already giving a huge clue. If they were smart, they would certainly check that name. By how Nicole acted like she knew everything and left a few clues about their real existence, it had already diminished the doubt in their hearts by a large margin. "As I said, it''s not an empty threat. If you think we are lying, you are free to check it¡­ especially to those who are in control in your back or our back." Nicole smiled mysteriously. The successor couldn''t say anything and only gritted his teeth. His body shook uncontrollably, thinking about the possibility of the future. If she was right, then their Blackwade Clan might be screwed the moment they attacked Alex. If they were not, they would certainly lose big time. However, the latter had a very small chance after Nicole''s clues. He thought about it and planned away to convince his grandfather and the grand elder if it was true. Nicole knew that it worked pretty well. Although Alex forbade her from letting him check the card, he didn''t say anything about leaving any clues. Nicole could only tell the successor about it if she wanted to succeed. "There is actually one more thing you need to be worried about." Nicole paused for a moment to grab his attention. "Even if you chase us, Drunken Pavilion will stop you." "What did you mean by those words?" The successor tilted his head in confusion. "I''m sure the mighty Blackwade Clan could investigate it themselves, so I won''t say anything about this. Besides, the answer will be clear when my Master decides to visit this continent." Nicole smirked. "You.." The successor wanted to hit this woman once after revealing one secret after another. It could be said that he was proud of how he could remain calm in every situation. But it also meant how absurd this information was. After all, this information had reached a level where it involved the entire fate of the Blackwade Clan. "Then, since I have finished my duty, I will leave and not bother you again." Nicole smiled before disappearing. If it were the calm him, he could easily prevent her from leaving and ask her a few questions. However, Nicole took advantage of his loss of composure to get away. She had revealed too much information at once, so it wouldn''t be good to reveal more, afraid Alex would be bothered with his previous life information. The successor was left alone in a silent room, not having anyone to talk in this ordeal. He bit his lips and quickly went to another place to check the information. ... The situation began turning in Alex''s favor. Yet, Blackwade Clan matter wasn''t the only one. In the corner of Heavenly Continent stood tall a white tower piercing the sky. Below the tower, a man was walking on the shore. "Training and training¡­ Why do I always need to train?" The man whistled while strolling around the beach. "This is the only thing I can do right now to ease my stress. Unlike the other influences which gave a certain amount of freedom to their successor, I don''t have a single thing on me¡­ "Sucks to be me because I don''t have any purpose in my life other than cultivating. I''m bored¡­" He continued ranting about his condition as if it was the only way to pent up his frustration. A few moments later, he suddenly found a girl carried away by the waves. She had long blonde hair and a petite figure. The man observed her with great interest as it was the first time he saw someone actually in this place. Out of curiosity, he approached the female and checked her pulse, confirming her status. "Hmm¡­ She is not dead yet, but her pulse is weak. What kind of experience does she actually have?" He looked at the sea and furrowed his eyebrows. "This direction is from the Northern Continent, right? Did she cross the ocean? It''s something unbelievable as even Martial Saints don''t dare to cross it, let alone a Martial Emperor." He looked at the unconscious woman with great interest. It was the first time he encountered something like this and smiled. "I should take this woman in then¡­ I am bored anyway." 614 Meeting the Chieftain Just like how Nicole finished her job in persuading the successor, Alex also had concluded his conversation with the spirits. The morning should have arrived, and he needed to finish his job as soon as possible. He recalled everyone back and asked Nelson, "You can inform him that we will move out right now. It''s been a few hours after all." "Understood." Nelson nodded and disappeared, leaving Alex alone in the room. Alex snapped his finger and created a teleportation array in the room. In the blink of an eye, Alex was already outside of the mine, heading toward the portal with his Teleportation Array. On the way, Nelson informed him that he had informed Zekhram, but Alex wanted him to hold on, so he could summon him when they arrived at the portal. After another few minutes, Alex arrived in front of the translucent barrier. He looked at the huge tree within the barrier and furrowed his eyebrows. "I still need to open the portal in the Blue Colored Realm¡­" Alex sighed as he entered the barrier. "Summon!" The ten spirits appeared beside him, watching him walk toward the tree. Alex waved his hand and began channeling his Spiritual Energy inside the array. The tree started shining brightly, revealing symbol after symbol that had been planted in this tree a few thousand years ago. After the entire glowed, right on where he came in, the tree''s body appeared a blue-colored gate with a size five people. Alex thought about it for a moment and returned to his spirits. "I have opened the barrier in this world, just one more in the Blue-Colored Realm," Alex said nonchalantly. "Yes. Thank you for the effort, Alex." Anna smiled. "By the way, keep looking out of the Black Devil Sect. Don''t let them power up too much." Alex warned. "Don''t worry. Even with the Blood Pill, their peak will only be at 5-Star or 6-Star because this is the limit of this continent. I don''t believe they can reach 7-Star, or even if they do, they are still not a match with our Leoz." Anya assured him. "Oh, I will be relying on you then, Leoz." Alex smiled. The spirits chuckled, seeing how Alex was planning to tease him. However, Leoz only said, "Please, don''t put too much trust on me, Young Master." After saying goodbye, all of them entered the portal to the Blue-Colored realm, where Alex used his Spatial Gate to open the portal to the outside world. "Take care." Alex smiled and waved his hand as the portal gradually shrank. Anna and the others clasped their hands and bowed to him one last time until the portal closed. Alex looked at Nelson, who was standing beside him and said, "I suppose¡­ We can go to the Undying King again." "Yeah. We should go there and seek his help to delegate the matter with the third race." Nelson nodded. In a matter of a few minutes, they arrived once again in front of the wall where the Undead Race lived. Alex knew the Undying King should have predicted this, so he took out the hammer, and a hole appeared right on the barrier. As expected from the Undying King, he noticed that someone intruded his barrier and created a portal to his palace. "Welcome again. As expected of a Space Element user, the Teleportation Array can let you travel back and forth in an instant. If only I had your Array instead of my rune, I could do it as well." The Undying King greeted him as if he expected him to come around this time. "You are not very surprised¡­ You already know I will be sent back to this place, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I have indeed expected it. However, I believe all of this starts making sense to you after knowing we are not from this world, right? Especially after seeing our ship." The Undying King said with a pacifying tone. "Yeah. They are... Though the ship is different from my expectations." Alex nodded, sighing about the fact that the spaceship didn''t have any modern concept inside as it was just a vessel to carry people. "I don''t know about your expectations. But if you are talking about how we actually move the ship, we need to start it with the Dwarven Golden Key, Undead''s Blood Gem, and Beastman Blood. After that, the ship could be controlled by utilizing the Blood Gem." The Undying King explained, not knowing about Alex''s expectation. After all, even he wouldn''t realize that Alex actually came from Earth, not stemmed from this world. "Nah. That''s not what I mean¡­ But nevermind... it''s just a stupid comparison of mine." Alex shook his head. "Is that so?" "Yeah." Alex nodded before his expression turned serious as he looked at the Undying King. "What I actually want is the answer to my problem. With how I need to go to another territory because of you, you must have the solution ready, right?" "Of course. I will accompany you there myself and talk about it with the Chieftain." Atlas nodded. A trace of surprise appeared on Alex''s face. He thought Atlas would give him another item to make their meeting easier. He had once expected this, but it was still shocking when this choice actually came out. "If you are going there yourself, then I have no qualms. In fact, I will be assured." Alex nodded humbly. "Yes." Atlas thought for a moment before asking, "When do you want to go?" "I want to finish it as soon as possible," Alex replied. "I understand. I don''t need any preparation, so we can go there." Atlas nodded. "But how do we get there?" Alex asked. "I know a little about the rune, but it can''t teleport you like an array, right?" "Indeed. Rune itself can''t teleport us because it has a different concept. However, this place has long become my turf." The Undying chuckled. "Unlike the Array, the Teleportation Rune can cover a hundred times the teleportation array in the same rank. Due to its monstrosity, they also have a weakness. "The rune can''t teleport without placing another rune on the other end. But in these few thousand years, I have planted as many as possible, so it''s easy to cross this entire space with single teleportation." Without waiting for Alex''s reply, the Undying King waved his hands before a portal appeared right in front of him. "Let''s go." The Undying King stretched his hand, asking Alex to come inside the portal. Alex nodded and entered together with Atlas while Nelson followed him from behind like usual. They arrived in a grassy plain. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he watched this scene. The tall green grass, the windy plain, and the bright sky¡­ Just, it lacked the town and other things. Before going saying anything, he looked behind him and found a huge glowing stone. The stone looked like a prism with blue lines on it. It floated a few centimeters in the air, appearing very mysterious. He couldn''t help but ask, "Undying King, if I may ask, how does this rune work?" "What do you mean?" "I mean, Array has an Array Plate, right? I wonder¡­" Alex paused for a moment, but before he could continue, Atlas already knew his intention. "Hoho¡­ Do you want to have something like this?" Atlas smiled. "Yeah. If I truly use my everything to create the pinnacle Rank 8 Teleportation Rune, you can teleport from this continent to the other continent with a single rune. As long as the other place has this stone. In other words, if I actually make five of these stones, you are able to travel back and forth among the five continents." Alex stared at him in silence. He wasn''t surprised by the fact he knew about the continent. At first glance, these three races looked like they were stranded here and couldn''t fight back. However, the people in this continent shouldn''t be able to beat them into submission or even make such a huge array. There was only one possibility that would lead to such a situation. They crashed on the Heavenly Continent, and with how different they were, the influences there attacked them. These three races didn''t like to fight to begin with, so they were pushed back to this continent. Seeing the name of the sealer, which would likely be one of the Blackwade Clan''s members, it was easy to see that they pursued them to this continent and decided to seal them because of how dangerous they were. In the end, they managed to end the war without many casualties and ruckus. It is also why the people in this continent only knew this was a cursed forest. When Alex thought about this, Atlas actually offered something amazing. "If I use all of my energy, I can make a stone like this in a month. So, as long as you are staying inside this realm for five months, I can give all of you. Treat this as compensation for making you go back and forth." Alex''s body shook with that generous offer and the word'' compensation.'' Since this was a compensation, he had no reason to refuse. He already promised them to break the array anyway, so any bonuses he would get was always welcome. "Then, I need to thank the Undying King for his generosity." Alex thanked him politely. Although he misunderstood his intention in having the stone, it was alright since he could get more than he needed it for. Alex wanted to use this stone, so he could go to Rose if needed as long as he was on the continent. This would only cost them two stones, and the other three could be used in another way. "Hoho¡­ It''s fine." Just like Zekhram, he also remembered Teodross''s words. He wanted Alex to go here for two reasons. The first would be to allow him to befriend all three races. The second reason was to check something inside him. He looked at Alex mysteriously and thought, ''If he is really the one, he should have that¡­'' The only way to confirm it was to have the Chieftain check it, whether it was genuine or not. "Let''s go." Atlas pointed his finger toward the wet. "They are in this direction, only a few minutes away. You will find their city if you fly over a minute." Alex nodded and flew to the sky. As Atlas said, he could see a town on the horizon. However, the town itself had no gate or wall. It is completely like a tribal group with their tents and other things. Because of the distance, he couldn''t see it clearly, so he waited for a few minutes before observing the city. The tent itself had a brown and yellow color, but there was this glaring black sun in every tent. Alex thought it must be a symbol or something. "Please wait behind me first," Atlas said, interrupting his thought. Although he didn''t know what it was for, he still went behind him, hiding from the beastmen. Atlas then released his aura and swept everything in front of him before taking out his staff and pointing it to the sky. A green light flashed on his wand before shooting out a powerful green light to the sky. The black cloud in the sky slowly blasted away before they gathered again and circled around the green light. On the other hand, the original green flash in the sky shone brightly. "Chieftain, I have come!" Atlas roared. His appearance was majestic from Alex''s point of view. Not long after, a shadow appeared and crashed to the ground in front of him. The shadow slowly transformed into a lion that could stand on two feet. Even its body was very muscular like a human. "Why do you always make such an entrance every time you come here?" The lion let out a long sigh. 615 Sword Saint Stage? "Why do you always make such an entrance every time you come here?" The lion let out a long sigh, looking at the Undying King with a tired expression. "This is the only way to make you come out of your house faster. If I need to go through the process, I will need a few hours to go through the city and yell your name." Atlas suddenly appeared not very mysterious when he was talking with the chieftain. Unlike his usual pacifying tone, when he was speaking with Alex, the Undying King actually had a warm tone with the Chieftain, like meeting a friend. "Enough of that. So, what do you want? It''s not that often you come here, so you must have a reason." The Chieftain said while narrowing his eyes before noticing two presences behind the Undying King. "And to think you have brought two people with you." "That''s right. I have two people with me¡­ In fact, you are the one who actually needs to meet them." "I''m the one?" The Chieftain was bewildered, looking at the Undying King with utter confusion. "What do you mean?" Atlas nodded before moving sidewards, revealing Alex and Nelson to the Chieftain. *Sniff!* His instinct kicked in, and smelled these two. He gasped, "A human and a¡­" He didn''t know Nelson, so he tried to ignore it. "Anyway, there should be no ones like them in this place unless¡­" When he said that, he frowned after noticing the reason for Atlas''s visit. "I see. They are from the outside world. Do you want to have them break the barrier?" "That is one of the reasons since we wish to go home." Atlas nodded. "One of the reasons? Not a sole reason?" The words jolted his mind before observing Alex and Nelson up and down. "Yes. He is the promised one¡­ The one that person informed us." Atlas said. "He?" The Chieftain, once again, stunned by his words. There were two of them, while Atlas only said one. In that case, Alex would be the only person since he looked like the leader of the two. "You?!" "I am Alexander Sirius, and he is Nelson. We want to finish the Spiritual Weapons, but after having the Undying King enhanced them with runes. We need Dragon and Phoenix blood in your possession." Alex introduced himself and cut to the chase. "To the point already? Not that I dislike it though." The Chieftain narrowed his eyes and said. "I want to believe you two, but I need to make sure you are the one. Unlike the other two, we had a stronger relationship with that guy since we are animal people while he is a half-dragon half-phoenix. When he gave us the promise, he actually said that the person would have the aura of a Dragon and a Phoenix¡­" Alex''s eyebrows lifted as he recalled the technique from back then. The only technique that Teodross taught him. Alex took a deep breath before releasing his technique. *Roar!* The roar shook almost the entire tribe. Some of them were scared and hid in their home while some of them were brave enough to witness what happened. Albeit, before they could actually arrive to check, a huge phoenix appeared in the sky. *Cry!* The loud sound completely startled them as both actually released an extraordinary aura, especially when they were close. "All of you go back!" The two loud noises were followed by a roar. The sound was very familiar, and they quickly noticed whose voice it belonged to. Without hesitation, they retreated to a deeper area and continued their activity. On the other hand, the Chieftain was shocked to the core, watching Alex with great interest. "I see. Having shown me something like this is already enough. I''m sorry for doubting you." "It''s normal to doubt a stranger." Alex smiled as he knew how he felt. He himself wouldn''t believe it either unless he could trust the Undying King one hundred percent. "My name is Igor. Just like the Undead King or Undying King, or that Elder Dwarf, I''m known as a Beast King, but people call me Chieftain more." Igor finally introduced himself. Alex nodded. "So, you have come for the blood¡­" Igor had a troubled look as he closed his eyes. "Chieftain, why do you have that look?" Atlas said with a slightly higher tone, noticing the problem he might have. "Because there is trouble." Igor let out a long sigh. "Good news. It is safe." "And the bad news?" "It''s too safe that I can''t even touch it." Igor fell into silence after uttering those words. He was ashamed to tell it. "What do you mean?" "You know that my grandfather¡­ The first generation of Chieftains want to try to break out of this place, right?" "Indeed. He is the one with the highest talent and believes he can reach God Stage." Atlas nodded, remembering such a person who wanted to forcefully break the mortal limit to shatter this realm. "However, he used that method to go beyond his limit. I only have the strength of 9-Star Martial Saint." "Yes. The problem is my grandfather actually died back then." "I am aware." "The blood was with my grandfather, and my father went to retrieve it. My grandfather, who used that technique, lost his soul, not his body. And that body became an empty vessel that would fight anyone that came nearby, and it killed my father and sealed his soul in that body." Igor looked down, ashamed. "So you are saying, the blood is still in your grandfather''s Spatial Ring?" Atlas said with slight anger. "Yes. To get that ring, you need to kill my grandfather again¡­ In other words, you need to burn my grandfather''s body to ashes." Igor said the reason. "Ridiculous! Why did you not inform me? He wasn''t an idiot who would bring something like that to his tribulation, especially when it had a huge chance of failure." Atlas released his aura to show his anger. "You didn''t know one thing." Igor shook his head. "That blood was the reason why he dared to use the Sacrifice Method and force his way to the God Rank. Just cultivating around that blood and basking on its aura would increase one''s cultivation speed. This is only for our tribe, so there is no need to inform you." "So you are saying¡­ he knew about it but still brought the blood to increase the success chance?" Atlas''s energy slowly diminished as he slowly calmed down after knowing the reason. "Yeah. This was the only reason why my grandfather brought it." Igor nodded. "Our problem remains the same, even with knowing the reason. That is to bring the blood back for him." Atlas raised his hand before pointing his finger at Alex. "I have promised him the blood, so I would give him the blood." "This is also a blunder on our part¡­ So, I will also help you." Igor paused for a moment and looked at Kai with sincere expression. "I apologize for this trouble. But I hope you can forgive me." "¡­" Alex didn''t know what to answer. On one hand, he was disappointed that the problem escalated into something like this. On the other hand, he somehow wanted to know how a Martial Saint would fight. "Talking about something like this is better in your tent." Atlas wanted to change the place to calm their heads down. "You are right. Follow me." Igor nodded and floated to the air before turning around and flew forward. Atlas and Alex exchanged looks and followed him. On the way, Alex observed the entire city with great interest. There was one absolute thing that piqued his interest. It was how these people resemble humans with animal parts. They absolutely looked like those cat people or dog people on the television. The girls especially looked very cute as they had a similar appearance to Sherry and the others. He wondered if the people from Earth came here, they might be overjoyed and treated this as Heaven. Alex shook his head helplessly. Although he wanted to react about them like how he found Earthquake or Tsunami in this world, or even the Japanese Names and other similar names, he couldn''t. Atlas would look at him with weird eyes and think of him as an idiot. Besides, watching these people, the Undead, and the dwarf, Alex was wondering what he would find when he traveled to many worlds. "I wonder if Firia or Alicia have seen other races like this?" Alex muttered to himself. Not long after, they arrived at Igor''s house. Unlike many tents in his surroundings, only Igor''s house was different. It was made out of sandstones and carefully shaped like a desert house. The yellowish sandstone made it look bright. If he observed carefully, the windows were covered with clothes instead of glasses like in Undead or Dwarf territories. Alex looked at this thirty meters wide house that looked like a mansion with great interest. Unfortunately, he couldn''t observe it any longer because Igor invited him in. "Please come in." Atlas stretched his hand, telling him to go first. Alex nodded and walked inside an entrance without a door. His eyes widened when he found a fairly lagged white sword as a decoration of the house. The sword itself was bigger than Leoz''s sword, but he somehow could picture the Chieftain using the sword. With his two and a half meters body, it was a perfect fit to use this sword. His suspicion was confirmed when Igor said, "This is my sword, Great Baku la Teeth. Don''t mind the name." Alex nodded. "Since you also use Sword, what is your sword rank?" "I''m only a Sword Emperor," Alex answered honestly. "I see." Igor glanced at Alex''s expression and asked, "How far have you reached in this path and how close you are from the Sword Saint Stage?" "Sword Saint Stage¡­" Alex looked away for a second. Igor lifted his eyebrows and asked. "You don''t know what kind of stage this Sword Saint Stage is?" Alex looked down, a little ashamed. He had no teacher that he could ask this whole time. Even when he tried to reach Sword Grandmaster and unlock his domain, he only learned it by observing other people. He was lucky to have Mithra show him the way to reach Sword King while he got bad luck when he encountered the requirement of a Sword Emperor from the first elder of the Joyful Union Sect. "I see. Then how about I teach you the requirements? Treat it as an apology from me." Igor smiled gently. He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts and said. "The Sword Saint Stage has one requirement. It''s to form your own path." "To form my own path?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Ah. I should reword it. You should find your own path. A path that is unique to only yours." "I will give you an example. Watch this." Igor said while walking toward a couch before sitting on it. Have you seen it?" Igor asked. His action didn''t have any specialness within it. However, Alex actually felt a Sword Intent in every action he made. "This is a Sword Intent?" But there is something wrong with this Sword Intent¡­ It''s like they are different. They have beastly aura¡­" "I''m the beast king." Igor''s answer was as simple as that. "After finding your own path, every action you take will generate your unique Sword Intent. You can''t actually turn it off, but you can tone it down. This is an unorthodox technique, and I will teach you about it." After listening to his words, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and looked back. *Gasp!* He saw Sword Intent in every step Igor actually took. Alex realized that it was toned down nicely to make others not feel it. 616 The Secret Behind Sword Saint Stage *Gasp!* After realizing his technique, Alex realized how it would impact every action he had in the future if he truly reached Sword Saint Stage. People could easily recognize a Sword Saint with their actions alone. The Sword Intent itself would be screaming, ''Look at me.'' Apparently, Sword Saint Stage was the peak in this world. In other words, if he, a Martial Emperor, learned it this early, the others would recognize him and might even target him whether it was for his talent or to kill him. The situation would be different if he learned this technique. Concealing the Sword Intent, so the others would think he was still a mere Sword Emperor. It might not only be useful in hiding his strength as he could also use it as a trump card by making others underestimate him. Knowing how useful the technique was for him, Alex said politely. "Please teach me this technique." Alex could copy this technique with his Sword Mastery, but the other party already offered to teach him one. Rather than a sneaky way that would take a longer time, it would be better to learn it in a faster way. "Sure. It is only a simple trick though. Originally, I used my Beastly Aura to cover the aura. However, my father actually found a way to solve this problem." Igor paused for a moment. "Remember about all the stages before Sword Saint?" Alex nodded. "Don''t you feel they are linked with each other?" "Absolutely," Alex answered without hesitation. "You condense your own Sword Intent when you reach Sword Master. And that Sword Intent evolves into Sword Domain the moment you enter Sword Grandmaster. After learning the outside way, you will find the inside way to use Sword by treating everything around you, including your body, as a sword. Thus resulting in the Sword Body, which is the requirement to be a Sword King. After learning these three, you have mastered the sword''s inner and outer path, and it is the time to learn your own way." "That is Original Sword Skill¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows while replying to his explanation. "This is my realm now after creating my Original Sword Skill." "Indeed." Igor nodded with a smile. "This is the first time you learn how to use your own skill. However, the Sword Saint Stage actually makes you learn the basics again." "My basics again?" Astonishment flashed on his face. "Yes. Do you think which one is the first: a kid learns how to speak or read and learns the meaning?" "It''s the former. A kid learns how to speak first as they learn it by observing them." Alex answered. "That''s the answer." Igor nodded. "We are learning how to use them first before learning what is the real meaning behind those words. In other words, the Martial Saint Stage wants you to go back to the basics and ask you. What is your Sword?" "Your example sucks." Atlas let out a hollow laugh. "Then why don''t you come up with a good example? You are good at theory, but not good at explaining. This is why even though you know many things, only a few could understand your thinking." Igor snorted. Atlas looked away and said. "Anyway, the trick about Sword Saint Stage is Sword Path. Just like how you created Original Sword Skill, you needed to create your own Sword Path, that only you can have it. Heart, experiences, hand, height, and so on. All of the practitioners were different from each other. With those unique qualities, you shall create your own Sword Path." "So, is that the reason why the Sword Intent from earlier has a beastly aura?" Alex asked. "Yeah. This is my Sword Path, Beastly Sword Path." Igor nodded. "If you are asking me about your quality and what kind of Sword Path you actually can create, I won''t be able to answer you¡­ No, no one can answer that question other than you." "My unique Sword Path¡­" Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "This is something you need to understand. You have created and used your own Original Sword Skill. This is the time to go back to the essence of your Original Sword Skill and the secret behind it. Why would you create such a Sword Skill?" Igor added. Alex closed his eyes. The only reason he would create Triple Draws and Mythical Spear Cannon was because of how useful it was in his current situation. However, he knew¡­ or his Sword Mastery was telling him not to look at the reason in his logic. Instead, he needed to feel it by his heart and learn what the actual reason was. ''What is the real reason buried in the deepest of my heart?'' Alex questioned himself but found no answer. "You don''t need to overthink it. Sometimes, it is right beside you." Igor stated while watching his expression. "Besides me?" Alex frowned but still found no answer. "You might not find it right now. But seeing how you are a Sword Emperor even though you are only a Martial Emperor, I believe you can reach the stage sooner or later." Igor smiled, assuring him. "That''s right. I have seen both of your Original Skills, and I can see something inside you that far surpasses normal people." Atlas nodded before correcting his intention. "That is a compliment, but I wish you are not overconfident and don''t wish to learn from others." "Don''t worry." Alex nodded with a smile. He thought, ''I have no teacher that would guide me in this path. The only thing I can come this far is by observing others and learning from others. How can I stop because of my ego?'' Igor nodded. Atlas interjected, "In any case, we need to solve our current problem first, which is the blood. He is the only 10-Star Martial Saint among us, and his power is¡­ Ugh, you already know since it''s your grandfather." "I understand. He might be formidable, but I believe both of us can fight him." Igor nodded. "After losing his soul, my grandfather could only use his physical ability. Unfortunately, my father lost to that physical ability alone. He was like me, a 7-Star Martial Saint. However, if I have your support, I will be alright." "I can only provide some support and enhance your equipment with a rune. That''s all." Atlas sighed. "I''m not really good at fighting. In fact, I might get some distance after providing enough support." "Don''t worry. It will be enough." Igor nodded. "I will cut his limbs before letting you put him into slumber." Atlas looked at his expression carefully. He thought it must be hard to kill his own grandfather. "Haha¡­ I have lost my grandfather for a few thousand years. The one we will fight is just an empty shell. You don''t need to worry about me." Igor laughed. "Well¡­ If you said so." Atlas nodded. Alex was in confusion. At first, he thought that Igor should be able to kill him as long as he used his Spiritual Energy and Martial Arts. However, Igor appeared to be convinced that he would lose if he fought his grandfather alone. Noticing the severe confusion, Igor laughed. "Our tribe is known for our physical prowess. If I am truly serious, I will turn into a full lion. I won''t have this muscle and other things, but my strength will be far higher. You should know that the man who sent you here was a half-dragon half-phoenix, right?" "Yes," Alex affirmed. "His strength was one of a kind. He came to this place when he was a 5-Star Martial Saint, and my grandfather couldn''t beat him in strength alone. The first reason would be the technique you have right now, while the other one was his transformation. The moment he turned into a dragon, my grandfather lost." "I witnessed that battle as well. It was spectacular. Even though your grandfather was only a 7-Star Martial Saint back then, it was still a huge gap." Atlas confirmed and reminisced together. "If he didn''t have a transformation like that, my grandfather would win." Igor shrugged. Atlas laughed. "Sore loser. Though I can''t say it because that loss made him get another goal." "Yeah. Other than dispelling the realm, he wanted to have another match with him after reaching God Stage." Igor nodded before letting a long sigh. "Unfortunately, all of it failed, and you needed to put an end to your grandfather''s suffering." Atlas patted Igor''s shoulder. "I know. I will do this as a Chieftain and a grandson." Igor nodded as determination filled his eyes. Igor clenched his palm, looking very nervous. He kept telling himself to reduce that. "Anyway, I will use everything I have. My strength, my Sword Path¡­ everything." Alex could relate how he felt. Usually, he himself wouldn''t pick a fight he couldn''t win unless he was forced to. Of course, that moment had yet to come because he always prepared before someone forced something like that. Suddenly, Igor turned around and looked at him. "I will bring the blood to you. I don''t have a big request, but I hope you can keep this secret if you go to the outside world." "What do you mean?" Alex was confused. "I would never do that." "Then, I don''t have any more requests." Igor nodded. "We are sick of being in this place after getting trapped for three generations. As long as you can let us out, I will do anything for you as long as I can do it and don''t cross with my tribe rule and tradition." Alex nodded. "I''m not someone who will break his promise. As long as I have promised you something, I will fulfill that promise." "Much obliged." Igor slightly bowed his head to Alex. Even though he didn''t need to be polite to Alex, he felt an aura similar to him¡­ the aura of a ruler. That aura made him humbler like this. "Alright. Since we have discussed it, let''s go there immediately and settle it." Igor stated while pumping his fists. "Indeed. Let me enhance your sword and your armor once more." Atlas nodded. "Sure. I will leave them to you." Igor nodded. "If that Zekhram can fight, this will be easier." "He can only use his hammer to create weapons and armors, not fighting. In fact, I''m only a supporter while you are the main fighter." Atlas nodded before leaving the room to enhance Igor''s sword and armor. On the other hand, Igor talked with Alex about the Sword Path again, answering every doubt he had. Until one hour later, Atlas came back with his wand in tow. "We can go right now." Igor nodded as he walked first toward his armor and weapon, putting them on. The armor looked like full body armor, but a few parts were removed to make sure it didn''t hinder his movement. It was a black armor with some purple-colored flash when it reflected the light. Although the colors made it weird, Igor never cared as long as he could use it without an issue. "By the way, where is he?" Atlas asked. "Two days from here in that direction." Igor pointed his finger to the north. "Unfortunately, you don''t have that teleportation stone around that area." Atlas paused for a moment and turned around, looking at Alex. Without even hearing the question, Alex already knew he wanted him to teleport them. "I want it done as soon as possible, so I will help you." "Thank you." Atlas slightly bowed his head. Igor tilted his head in confusion. Alex rose from his seat and glanced at Nelson, who nodded at him. After that, he snapped his finger and created a Teleportation Array. "This¡­" A surprised expression appeared on Igor''s face, but they already disappeared from the house before he could say anything. 617 The Fight Between Martial Saints "Teleportation Array¡­" Igor gasped as he Sta at Alex. "I''m impressed." He could comment because they had arrived near the actual battlefield after going through several teleportations. "Indeed. Although I have experienced Space Element Array Master for a few times in the past, I still can''t help but get astonished. It''s truly a wonderful ability, especially for teleportation." Atlas agreed. "The distance is nothing like your Teleportation Rune." Alex shook his head. "They have their own strength and weakness after all." "Yes. Correct answer." Atlas nodded before looking at Igor. "Are you ready?" "I''m ready. The body is ahead of us¡­ Maybe we will get there after flying for a few minutes." Igor pointed his head to the north. He then looked back at Alex and said. "I think this is the time we say goodbye." "I will watch from the sideline with my teleportation array in tow. I might not participate in this battle, but I need to know the conclusion. Rather than waiting anxiously and for who knows long. It''s better if I stay around the area." Alex suggested. Igor narrowed his eyes. "This is going to be a dangerous battle, you know." "I know." How could he don''t know as he had experienced it one time in the Lower World? Back then, he wanted to observe the war between human and demon. Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events hit him and almost took his life. If Sherry were not with him, he would certainly die. However, this time was different. He had two Spiritual Weapons that could be used to protect him from a Martial Saint attack, he also had his Teleportation Array ready. He only needed to activate the protective ability from the weapons the entire time, so they could block two attacks before escaping with his Teleportation Array. This action might be similar to the one in the past, but he had more preparations this time. And he would observe a bit farther than usual and only looked at them with his Spirit Eyes. He wanted to see Igor''s Sword Intent and learned a few techniques or skills from him. Besides, to raise a warrior like Igor was very hard. Only a skilled person like his grandfather would be able to handle that. "Still, I don''t want to take a risk by letting you watch this battle," Igor said with concern. "Don''t worry. I have several ways to escape before he could hit me." Alex smiled, assuring him that he would be alright. "¡­" Igor clenched his hands and turned back to Atlas. "We need to go." Atlas let out a hollow laugh and nodded. "Sure." Igor took out his giant sword and flew. Alex kept following them from a very long distance while bringing his two Spiritual Weapons. He activated the two swords as it gradually formed an invisible barrier around him. With this barrier, he should be able to teleport before Igor''s grandfather could kill him, especially since Igor said he could only let out a physical attack. "That''s the guy," Igor said while narrowing his sharp eyes. Atlas didn''t say anything, but the air around him seemed to be a bit colder. Nonetheless, the fight between the three giants would start in a moment. Alex pondered for a moment before saying. "I will wait here." Atlas and Igor glanced at him for a few seconds before nodding their heads. Atlas said, "Alright. If it''s this far, you should be able to protect yourself. Even Igor''s grandfather, Ragna, would need a few seconds to come." Alex nodded and halted his movement, watching Igor and Atlas fly away. Nelson looked at him without expression. "Is this really alright?" "It''s fine. I can use Spirit Eyes to see Igor''s Sword Intent. I feel like I might find my own Sword Path by watching him." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. Nelson pondered for a moment and nodded. "Understood. I will check our surroundings just in case." "Yes. I will leave it to you." After that, Nelson disappeared and went around the area to check whether there was a magical beast nearby. On the other hand, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and observed his surroundings. "Are there any runes or arrays nearby?" Alex pondered for a moment but found no sign. He let out a long sigh of relief. "Phew, there is none that will stop this match." Meanwhile, Igor and Atlas already arrived one hundred meters in front of Igor''s Grandfather. He had a red-colored body as well as fur. He looked like an outcast in the tribe, but none of them dared to voice their discontent. First of all, they would be beaten like how his grandfather changed his face with a ring. On the other hand, Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Igor''s strength. It would be an easy match if Igor were a normal cultivator, but a beast king shouldn''t easily lose, right? Alex thought. Igor took a look at Alex once more to check whether Alex got closer or not. He was the promised one, so if he was killed in this battle, the chance of them leaving here might be zero. He didn''t want to throw away this precious chance. Atlas''s wand shone brightly. It was made of bones with a skull as its head. Inside the skull was a green gem, but it was another type of gem instead of a wind gem. Igor also released his battle instinct and beastly aura as he landed on the ground. After that, the fur on his body started growing and spread all over his body. His sharp teeth also grew a few millimeters, making it look more dangerous. He looked at the red-colored half-men half-lion and released his Sword Path fully. Just like earlier, every action he took, no matter how small it was, would release a powerful Sword Intent that contained beastly aura. Atlas continued floating behind him before stopping one hundred meters away from Ragna. On the other hand, Igor observed his grandfather carefully, not leaving a single detail. The red lion in front of him had eyes, but there were no colors on it. It looked like he could see, but not at the same time. "Grandfather. It''s been a few thousand years since then. I am a coward, so I never visited you in the past few thousand years. However, this time I will fight without running away. Face you and take our tribe back to where we should belong. That''s why I need to win this." Igor narrowed his eyes. *Roar!* The unconscious lion suddenly let out a Heaven shattering roar that almost made their eardrum burst. It was different from Igor. He had a deep connection with this old man, so he thought the old man just revived. Unfortunately, the hollow eyes that did not recognize friends and foe¡­ showed that he was still in that state. With great difficulty, Igor took a deep breath and released his aura while pointing his sword at Igor. "I will bring back my Grandfather''s honor." The two giant tigers leaped forward while swinging their swords. *Bam!* The shock wave created by these two created a small crater. Alex looked at the clash and opened his mouth in surprise. "Seriously? If I am not wrong, he would surely give a good fight that I can observe in a small lace. This would be perfect." Both of them clashed their swords with each other, creating a stir outside. In the clash, Ragna couldn''t find a perfect balance he could disrupt. Instead¡­ Ragna actually released a huge amount of energy and made Igor scared for a second and made a distance with him. However, Ragna actually used this strategy to show that he might have lost his rationality, but his instinct was still there. "Tch!" Like he had expected it, Igor clicked his teeth as he gritted his teeth and shifted his stance. ''Even though that body can use weapons, it''s still not able to handle Spiritual Energy and Arts. I still have the advantage in the long run¡­ The problem is¡­'' As soon as he thought about it, a dark cloud appeared around the area. The already dark sky turned darker, symbolizing Atlas''s Authority. Igor smiled upon seeing this and charged at Ragna with all of his strength. He slashed it down to pin him on the ground. It was effective as he could see the craters around Ragnar''s feet. *Roar Roar!* Ragna let out a howling roar before shifting his stance. The little maneuver allowed him to escape from Igor''s sword and freed his sky. Ragna quickly jumped over Igor''s head and tried to strike him on the back. Unfortunately, Atlas finally revealed his prestige. The dark cloud from earlier released a lightning strike. Because Igor and Ragna actually aligned, no matter who was the target, Ragna would be the one that received this lightning strike. "Rube Sang!" Atlas''s green wand shone brightly like it was controlling the lightning and pinpointed it to Ragna''s position. *Boom!* A huge explosion occurred and swallowed Ragna. On the other hand, Igor managed to escape and appeared beside Atlas. "Nice one." He nodded while observing whether it would give actual damage. *Roar!* Unfortunately, a shattering roar resounded across the region before they saw Ragna brushed the lightning away with his hand. All the remaining lightning that was covering him was also ineffective. *Roar!* Ragna let out another roar after finding both of them and charged forward. "Oh, it''s not very effective." Atlas was a bit annoyed. "I agree," Igor said before leaping forward to hold Ragna again. "Moon Swallowing Beast!" Igor''s sword glowed in white color, and he slashed it downward, shooting out a white-colored shock wave that would soon transform into a white tiger. Both the white tiger and Ragna charged at each other. However, the conclusion came in a sudden. The moment they clashed, the white tiger tried to stop him by biting his neck or whatsoever, but Ragna was faster. He grabbed the tiger''s head and ripped it into pieces. Igor knew Ragna would be able to destroy his technique with bare fists. That was why the attack itself was only a bait to let him appear behind Ragna unnoticed. He slashed at Ragna''s neck as another light shone on his sword. Ragna noticed this and halted his movement before raising his two hands to block the sword. "Light Sword!" Igor completed his swing, but when he looked at Ragna, he frowned and muttered to himself. ''That attack alone is already great, but my grandfather still can block the attack? As expected from the first generation of kings, killing him will be so hard.'' It wasn''t like the sword actually left nothing in Igor''s body as it indeed let out a shallow cut on its skin. But it shouldn''t be affecting his power or whatsoever, so the situation was still in a pinch. Thinking about the possibility of losing in this place, Igor gritted his teeth and let out a roar too. *Roar!* He changed his stance and pushed Ragna back before blasting him away. As if he didn''t feel it at all, Ragna charged once again without caring about his injury. Igor made the same move from earlier to check whether Ragna had a brain or not. Surprisingly, the attack succeeded again, albeit Ragna began checking its hand. On the other hand, Igor retreated back to Atlas. "It''s really hard if we don''t fight seriously and hope to exhaust him after a while." Igor sighed as he looked at Atlas. "Yeah. Give me five minutes." Atlas nodded. "I will set up something." "Alright." Igor raised his hands and looked at the incoming Ragna. The sword shone in white color again, but this time it held more energy. Igor said, "Grandfather. This is the accumulation of my experiences from my training with you and father. Let me show it to you and make you proud." "Beast King Grand Slash!" 618 End of the Figh "Beast King Grand Slash!" The white light turned into a sword wave and flew toward Ragna. Unlike the previous one, this attack might contain the same beast aura as an illusory lion head appeared in front of the sword wave and roared. Ragna saw the lion that was trying to bite him and raised both of its hands and grabbed the white sword wave. It took him a few seconds to barely destroy this sword attack, and that also cost his hand. Unfortunately, this body only attacked the people around him without any instinct or mind. Even with the bleeding on its two hands, Ragna would still attack him with full strength. Igor appeared right beside him and slashed his sword once again. However, Ragna suddenly did something unreasonable. It grabbed Igor''s sword with his left hand to the point it was bleeding all over. Yet, it managed to stop Igor''s sword and his movement. Ragna sent a punch right on Igor''s abdomen. "Sh*t!" Igor quickly stopped it with his other hands, but it was too late. The punch went through and blasted him away. "Gah!" He spat some stomach fluid and flew away. "Boom!" Ultimately, he crashed to the ground after flying for almost a few hundred meters. Igor endured all the pain and rose from his position before jumping forward. Atlas was still in his preparation. If Ragna disturbed him, it would be such a waste. On the way, he also checked his body condition. The punch obviously went through, but the damage was less than he expected. The armor on his body managed to soften the impact from him, especially with the special rune from Atlas. On the other hand, Ragna had been injured a few times, and it was quite worse. He thought, "We can do it!" Far away from the battlefield, Alex furrowed his eyebrows when watching this fight. Although he couldn''t clearly see their figure, he was able to recognize their energy. He was shocked when Igor released the white tiger to attack Ragna. It was a Sword Art indeed and should be able to copy it. However, Alex realized that he lacked something, and that was the Beastly Aura that Igor had. Even if Alex were a Martial Saint and used that attack, the white tiger would still become weaker. If Ragna used his two hands to shred the tiger into pieces, he would only need one hand to destroy Alex''s tiger. Not only that white tiger, but the last lion attack also piqued his interest. Truthfully speaking, it would be far wonderful to have that technique rather than his Blade of Conquest. It obviously released a stronger attack if he used it on the same level. "So that is the Sword Path," Alex muttered to himself. "What are my sword and spear? Looking back when I started my training in the lower world, I used both of them because these two were the only weapons for me. I had no choice other than using them." As if he forgot about Nelson, Alex kept thinking. "I never thought about it deeply back then, and I only thought that these two weapons suited me. I tried using a bow, dagger, and other weapons, but holding a sword and a spear made me feel at home. What is exactly my sword and spear¡­" "Now that I think about it¡­ I got my Spear Intent from the first Golden Tribulation and got my Sword Intent from the second Golden Tribulation. I then proceeded with the fusion far later." Alex pondered for a moment. Although the answer was apparent, he still needed to ask Nelson. "Nelson. Did the previous me use Sword and Spear as well?" Nelson let out a long sigh and nodded. "Yes." "I see. It might be an influence from there." Alex calmly nodded his head as if he wasn''t bothered with it. "Just like how Igor and Atlas described, I have my own experiences, race, element and so on. I should also possess a unique thing that only I had. Even if I would trace it to ten generations of reincarnation of me, they would certainly have a different path. My current problem is to figure out the path." Nelson breathed out of relief after noticing that Alex had come to terms with his reincarnation. Instead of discussing his previous life and thinking about why it would bother with him, Alex chose to accept all of it and wanted his own traits to grow. Lin Xingzhi smiled brightly behind the screen, watching Alex had finally broken from his cocoon. She muttered, "Go. You are not him, but I still love you. Show me the real you." Alex, of course, didn''t have a single clue about the relief of his spirits and others. He kept thinking about his own path before he recalled another word. "Wait, Element?" This word jolted his mind as he felt like he got a big clue about this path thing. "Is the element the answer? I can''t be sure, but it''s one of the clues. I had two elements: Pure Fire and Space Elements. I don''t really know that much about Space Element, though, or maybe I should learn some Space Arts to deepen my understanding of the element first?" Alex looked at the sky, answering his own doubts. Meanwhile, the battle between Martial Saints still continued. Igor might have injured Ragna with his swords repeatedly and somehow managed to cut a few fingers. On the other hand, Igor had no heavy injury other than the numbness on his hand after repeatedly using his Sword Art. Igor glanced at Atlas, who still proceeded in creating a rune that was capable of bringing down Ragna. Ragna''s body was still as strong as ever, even though it was already a few thousand years since he died. At the same time, the body also didn''t die and was absorbing the Spiritual Energy naturally. Igor had a hard time dealing with damage to his body unless he hit the same spot a few times. "As expected from a forbidden technique. If I use it, I will also have the skin as strong as a dragon, but I will walk between life and death every day." He struck a few more times on Ragna''s body and pinned him down before he heard. "I have finished!" Atlas said out loud as he raised his wand up above. "Rigora Almust Lavida!" Chanting the spells, the blue lines on the ground shone brightly. Unbreakable blue chains appeared from the ground and flew toward Ragna and clung on his head, body, and all limbs. *Roar!* Ragna let out a roar while struggling to break free from these chains. However, with all the preparations Atlas had done, the chains should be able to bind a 10-Star Martial Saint without his Spiritual Energy and Martial Arts. "It''s time to put you down!" Atlas raised both of his hands, and the blue lines suddenly projected a certain diagram in the sky. The diagram has a blue color with an appearance like an array but less complex. Igor immediately retreated to Atlas and watched his grandfather with a troubled look. "It''s time to end it, Grandfather." Atlas glanced at his expression for one last time before activating the rune. The giant rune in the sky gradually compressed into one single point, creating a blue light ball. The blue light suddenly shot out a laser and illuminated the area, which was a bit dark, considering the sky was never bright to begin with. *Roar!* It seemed Ragna felt the power behind this light and afraid of this light. Unfortunately, he could struggle all he wanted but was unable to break free. The light fell upon him and burned him alive. Ragna raised both of his hands to protect himself from this light, but it was unstoppable. The light slipped past through his defense and enveloped his whole body. *Roar!* *Roar!* A series of roars resounded across the region. Igor and Atlas closed their eyes for their respective reasons. For Igor, he just lost his grandfather for a good while Atlas had lost a friend. After all, Ragna was one of the first generation leaders. They were the ones who fought those people from Heavenly Continent side by side. Unfortunately, out of the three leaders, two of them were already dead, and he became alone. *Roar!* "!!!" When they were lamenting the fact that Ragna had died for good, a roar jolted their mind as they opened their eyes immediately. In the middle of the field, Ragna had yet to die. However, both arms and one leg were gone. His body was also covered with blood. Surprisingly, even with that powerful attack, the ground wasn''t affected at all. Even the dust didn''t kick up from their places and appeared to be very calm. "He is still alive?" Atlas gasped as his body flinched. He never thought someone would still be alive after getting struck by that rune, especially without Spiritual Energy and Martial Arts. "Atlas, let me handle this." Igor stopped him and smiled. The trace of sadness in that smile was the one that actually stopped Atlas on his track. This was the hardest part for Igor as he wanted to kill his grandfather for good¡­ No, it could only be him who would deal the last blow. He nodded with a solemn expression. "Alright." Igor didn''t bring his sword with him as he walked toward Ragna with a calm face. "It''s time to end this, grandfather." *Roar!* When Igor came close, Ragna tried to bite him, but Ragna punched him to the ground. Ragna, who only had one leg and couldn''t use Spiritual Energy, wouldn''t be able to rise again. Igor pinned him on the ground with his body before raising both of his hands. White light appeared on his hands and gradually turned into claws. In these claws contained a huge amount of Sword Intent and his beast aura. "Unlimited Sword Claw!" He stabbed Ragna''s body with his claws, and the energy from the claws shredded Ragna into molecular levels. Even his fleshes weren''t visible anymore, only his blood. A droplet of tears came out on the corner of Igor''s right eye as he looked up and said, "Thank you, Grandfather." The memories flashed within his mind on how to fight, the happy family because there was no conflict and so on. His father died in the hand of his ''empty'' grandfather. At first, he was angry and hated his grandfather. Yet, these memories prevented him. He closed his eyes again and stood there for a while. 619 Conversation with the Two Leaders Alex arrived on the battlefield after confirming Ragna was dead with his Spirit Eyes. He saw that his energy was scattered and became a part of the energy in the air. "Oh, Are you watching it too from that far away?" Atlas turned around after sensing Alex''s presence. "Yes." Alex nodded while looking at Igor. "Do you think this is the best ending?" "I''m not sure if it is the best, but it is surely one of the best." Atlas nodded. "Hmm¡­" Alex pondered for a moment and stayed silent until Igor moved his body. Taking out the Space Ring that fell to the ground after Ragna vanished, Igor turned around and looked at Atlas and Alex with a smile. "I have completed the job." Atlas came closer and said, "Ragna was a good guy." "Yes." Igor closed his eyes and smiled before tossing the spatial ring to Alex. "This is what I have promised you, the blood." Alex caught the ring and made a weird expression. If he wanted to give the blood, he could just take out the blood and hand it to him. Instead, he gave the entire spatial ring to him. This action showed Alex how she Igor wished Alex could trust him. At the same time, he also wanted to test Alex if he was worth the trust he put in. After all, if the greed took him over, Igor would be very disappointed. Atlas wanted to stop him but decided to watch how the situation unfold. He felt they could trust Alex because he was a different type of person. Although Alex might look like the people in this continent who killed and plundered someone''s belongings, Alex''s aura was very different. He looked like a just leader that wouldn''t betray his followers. This conclusion derived from how obedient Nelson was to Alex. His action was enough to tell Atlas if Alex was worthy. However, something unbelievable happened. Their surroundings didn''t change. Instead, Alex suddenly shouted out loud after finding another thing in the space ring. "This¡­ This is Godly Optic Flower!" Alex gasped as he found a white colored flower inside the ring. At first, he wanted to get the blood alone, but the moment he found this item, his target slightly changed. Igor and Atlas furrowed their eyebrows, doubting his action. "I want to exchange for this flower. You can ask me anything about this flower¡­ Of course, as long as I''m capable of fulfilling that wish." Alex said to Igor. "What do you mean?" Igor had a weird expression on his face as he raised his guard up. "This flower is very important for me to increase my strength." Alex took out a white flower and said. "I can exchange something with you, or you can add another wish as a payment." "To increase your strength?" Igor furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at the flower. It was a rank 8 medicinal herb to increase one''s vision. Although they, animal tribes, never needed it from the beginning, they could give it to Dwarf or Undead." Upon reaching this point, Igor asked. "Why do you want to use this flower?" "They are good for my eyes. I can''t say how beneficial it is for my eyes, but I can assure you it will be the last ingredient to enhance my eyes." Alex answered honestly. "Still¡­" Igor paused for a moment. "Ah. If you are not sure, I can use it in front of you right away." Alex smiled. "It''s not easy to trust someone anyway." "No, no. It''s not like we don''t trust you." Igor shook his head and denied Alex''s claim quickly before turning the conversation around for him. "Actually, this medicine is very good for a member of my family." "A family, huh¡­ It''s fine then. I don''t need it anymore." Alex shrugged and said. "If it''s for your family member, then it''s better to give it to them. Alex''s answer that came without hesitation shocked Atlas like he didn''t lie. Many people could lie with their poker face, but Alex was very different. He might be able to lie with a poker face, but the feeling was very wrong. All they could see was Alex''s sincerity for the three races. Alex added. "Ah, if you don''t want to, then it''s fine. I might have another chance with this flower in the future, so no big deal." He put the warmest smile to show his sincerity. Atlas and Igor exchanged looks, thinking about the same thing. Alex truly didn''t desire it with greed. He might want to get it but from a legitimate way. Although they were stronger than Alex, he wouldn''t necessarily be afraid of them, especially if his identity was like how Nelson described. In that case, they didn''t have any reason not to give the flower to him. Igor nodded. "Actually, you can have it." "Eh? Isn''t it important to your family member?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "It is really important to my family member, but no one needs it. Rather than sitting inside the spatial ring for another few thousand years, you can take it for yourself." Igor told the truth. Even the earlier words weren''t a lie. Alex took this as a test, thinking they just tested him whether he was one controlled with greed or not. There were many scenarios running through his mind in case his greed took over. Unfortunately, it was like the auction item case. Alex was prepared to not possess it, and his sincerity convinced Igor and Atlas. "If you don''t believe me, I can use it right now to prove that I really want to use it to increase my power." Alex smiled. "It''s fine." Igor shook his head. "Then, what do you want in exchange for this flower?" Alex asked. "We don''t want anything. As long as you can let us go home, you are already considered as our benefactor. This flower wouldn''t be enough to repay you." Igor shook his head. "Besides, your swords give me the courage to face my grandfather after these few thousand years. It might be a little bit forced by the situation, but it is the best ending I could hope for." Igor''s smile showed his true feeling as he put his hand to the back of his head, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the emotion. "Thank you." Alex nodded. "Now, now. You still need the blood to complete your weapons, right?" Atlas reminded him. "Ah, yes." Alex infused his Spiritual Energy inside the ring and took out a small bottle of blood. Even though it was only a few blood droplets, Alex could see the enormous energy contained inside it with his Spirit Eyes. "With this, I have finished all the materials." Alex was satisfied with the result. "Hum¡­" Atlas stared at Alex for a couple of seconds before asking. "May I ask one question?" "Sure." Alex nodded politely. He used to treat someone stronger as an elder in his early day, but he didn''t know why he treated them less and less when he slowly got stronger even though they were still far stronger than him. Of course, Old Meanness was different because he was his teacher, Maxwell, friend. "What is your opponent in the outside world?" Atlas asked mysteriously. Alex tilted his head and asked back, "Why do you want to know? I mean, you only want to go back, right?" He was afraid that these races took back their promise and caused a chaotic situation in the world. "No, No. It''s only a curiosity of mine, so you can choose to not answer it." Atlas shook his head before asking it once more. "I am just curious whether the outside world is still the same as it was in the past." Alex thought for a moment, wondering if it was alright to tell them about this. Surprisingly, Atlas took an oath. "In the name of Gaia, I swear not to disclose any information regarding you in any form." "I promise too." Igor nodded. Alex frowned his eyes and turned around, looking at Nelson, who didn''t have any reaction about this. ''You?'' Instead of answering him, Nelson explained the promise. "Gaia is their God. It can be said the existence of Gaia binds them more than the humans and Heavenly Oath.'' Alex didn''t ask for this, but it made him think that it was fine to disclose information to them to a certain level, of course. "I have many enemies." "Many enemies?" Atlas and Igor were surprised. As a peace-loving race, they didn''t really have many enemies unless they considered a few worlds that were aiming at their power as those. "Yeah. The first and the closest one is the Black Devil Sect. The sect that is holding your Blood Gem right now." Alex explained. "Blood Gem!" Igor gasped as he looked at Atlas with widened eyes. "Yes. I asked him to retrieve the Blood Gem for us." Atlas affirmed. "Unfortunately, even with the Blood Gem, the spaceship still couldn''t fly at the moment." "What do you mean?" Igor was never good with this type of thing, so he rather asked. "After activating the ship with the Blood Gem, we still need to do some adjustment, maintenance, cleaning and so on. Looking at how big the ship is and only Dwarf who could do it. It will take a few years before it can fly to the sky." Atlas let out a long sigh. "A few years? Not a decade, right?" "Yeah." "It is fine, I guess. We have been here for a few thousand years anyway, so a few years aren''t a big deal." He shrugged. "There is another problem with it¡­ Two, in fact, internal and external." Atlas warned. "What do you mean?" "The internal problem is how to convince our subjects. I know they are already resigned to their fate to live their whole life in this place. Announcing this information to them might incite their heart a little too much, so¡­" Atlas stopped. "There might be a riot, huh¡­" Igor closed his eyes. "I can see it, especially if we don''t give any good excuse for them to stay still for a few years." Igor could picture it if others used it to incite the mass and created a riot. That wasn''t what he wanted to see. They might be the ruler of their respective race, but it didn''t mean there wasn''t a being that could challenge them. If it suddenly happened at a time like this¡­ Igor shuddered. "Anyway, I believe we are peace-loving races, and they are just a kind of impatience in going home. That''s why we will first spread the rumor about it, and when it''s ready, we will announce it officially." Atlas advised. "I don''t really mind." Igor nodded with a solemn expression. "How about Zekhram? He needs many people to do this." "Yeah. We can only wait for another few years because fewer people know, the better." Atlas nodded. "Alright. I will cooperate with you." Atlas nodded and fell into silence. Igor kept staring at him with a weird expression as they were talking about something privately. Not long after, Atlas asked Alex. "Who are your enemies? If I may ask." Alex didn''t know what they were thinking but answered nonetheless. "Other than the Black Devil Sect, I might need to fight against the Fire God Clan. As for Blackwade, I''m not very sure at the moment." "I see. Such a nostalgic name." Atlas nodded with a severe expression. He had experienced that war, and the brutality of that war still lingered in his mind. He took a deep breath as if he decided something and changed the topic. "In any case, we have gotten everything needed for the weapons. Let''s drop off the Igor first and bring Zekhram to the Soul Altar." Having no reason to reject, Alex nodded his head and created teleportation for them. 620 Barrier After that, Alex used the teleportation array and brought Igor, Atlas, and Nelson to Igor''s house. Igor told him to practice his sword continuously, and the answer would come to him at an unexpected timing. Alex already didn''t care when someone told him to keep trying and would get it when the time''s right. After all, his system always told him so. From her appearance, name, and so on, she gradually revealed herself when the time came. It didn''t mean Alex would stop his training. He just put the thought deep inside his heart. Alex and Atlas then flew toward the Rune Stone again as this time was Atlas''s turn to use his ability. However, he didn''t activate it to teleport to the Undead territory. Instead, he was going to the Dwarf Territory. The rune stone itself was in the opposite direction from where Alex came from. Luckily, it wasn''t a long journey, and they arrived in Zekhram''s house not long after. No one dared to stop or questioned Atlas as his face was already everywhere as the only living first-generation leader. "Zekhram." "Woah!" The dwarf shuddered before turning back only to find Alex, Nelson, and Atlas. He never expected Atlas to come here with them together. "You can use my Soul Altar," Atlas said. "Yes, I know." Zekhram paused for a moment and said, "But I still need to wait for the blood and a few months." "A few months?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes. The souls in your weapons are too weak. Even the rune from Atlas could easily suppress it. We need to fuse the blood first and let the soul nurture itself for a few months before fusing the gems." Zekhram answered. "You can use my Soul Altar for this. It can nurture the soul as well." Atlas replied, not wanting to waste a single second. "Even so, I still need around one or two months to nurture it. The soul power in your altar is too powerful for these weak souls that hide inside the weapons." Zekhram shook his head helplessly. "Well¡­" Atlas pondered for a moment and turned to Alex. "What do you think about it?" "I''m fine with waiting that long. I can use the time to cultivate." Alex nodded and added inwardly, ''Besides, I am here also to cultivate originally.'' His real target was to reach 5-Star Martial Monarch before coming out of this place, but it seemed to be not possible, so Alex abandoned the idea. At the very least, Alex wanted to reach 3-Star Martial Monarch before going to the Heavenly Continent. He might find something useful that could boost his cultivation there anyway. So the reward was greater than the risk. Besides, he would have a lot of information in his repertoire to let him know how to deal with each influence. Hearing Alex''s response, Atlas fell into silence for a few seconds before opening his mouth again. "Alright. Since you have said it''s fine, we will wait. However, I also have an offer for you." "Do you know you can also use my Soul Altar to increase your cultivation?" Atlas asked. "I can?" Astonishment flashed on his face as Alex took a step back, feeling a little suspicious. "Yes, as you expect. I have a request in exchange for it." Atlas admitted it shamelessly. "I want to see whether we can actually cross the barrier. I know that asking you to destroy or whatsoever is a bit too much. That''s why I will be the guinea pig to test whether such a thing is possible." Alex thought for a moment before saying, "It''s possible, but I need to know more about the Soul Altar first." "Alright." Atlas understood Alex''s concern. He was afraid that the Soul Altar wouldn''t benefit him, so he asked. Atlas pondered for a moment to think his words and answered Alex. "Soul Altar is an Altar that we built to host Undeads'' souls. For Undead, who will go to the last slumber, they usually offer their soul to this Soul Altar. "The Soul Altar will keep all of these souls safe and store their energy. A few thousand years ago, I created this Soul Altar to protect all of us. After the gruesome war that took away more than a hundred thousand lives, the desperate me created the Soul Altar to store the energy and souls. "The soul used to create an unbreakable barrier while the energy used to maintain the barrier. However, we haven''t had any fights for a few thousand years. And many people that died went to the Soul Altar. I used a portion of it to increase my lifespan and became known as an undying. "I could only extend my lifespan because of the promise I made with the other two first-generation leaders because it was only me who could use that technique. I promised to watch over the three races in their stead. "Anyway, there is plenty of energy you can absorb from the Soul Altar. As for the souls, Zekhram could use them to nurture the consciousness in the Spiritual Weapons. How about it?" Atlas asked. Alex stared at him with amazement. A person like Atlas would seem to get hurt when the comrades that fought with him to protect their races died. Even so, he was still determined to watch over the rest for a few thousand years. Alex considered his offer and nodded. "Alright. I will accept that deal." Atlas smiled and nodded. "Seeing we have nothing to do, how about testing it now?" Alex asked before he remembered another thing. "Oh, right. Can I postpone using the Soul Altar''s Energy?" "I don''t have a problem testing it now. But why do you want to postpone it?" Atlas found this questionable. Looking at his 9-Star Martial Emperor cultivation, Alex would surely need the help of Soul Altar to break through, and he believed Alex could reach 1-Star Martial Monarch in a few months. Unfortunately, he never knew about Alex''s talent, so he slightly underestimated him. "I need to do something first for a few months as well," Alex answered with a weird expression. "Something?" Atlas pondered for a moment, but the fact Alex didn''t explain that something told him that he didn''t want to say it. Atlas nodded and said, "Alright. It''s your choice." Alex nodded before turning to Zekhram and handing the weapons over. "These are the weapons." Zekhram observed the weapons first and nodded. "Alright. I have received the weapons and will make sure you are satisfied with the result." Alex then turned to Atlas, but the latter looked at Zekhram instead. "Zekhram. I want you to get a few people for the ship." "Don''t worry. I have gotten some, and they will start working on it tomorrow. We can''t get too many people, so I only get a hundred people to help me take care of that gigantic ship. If only I have one thousand¡­" He let out a long sigh. "Besides, you also need to worry about yourself. You have more jobs than me." "Indeed." Atlas nodded. "I need to solve all buildings around the area to make sure the people in this world wouldn''t use it. After that, the preparation of migration and such. It will take a few years if I don''t want someone to know." "Don''t worry. The ship will take longer than yours." Zekhram shrugged. "Haha¡­ Indeed. Work hard." Atlas laughed before nodding to Alex, telling him they could go this time. After getting the confirmation, they flew outside the mine and headed toward the barrier. Just like how he went to the Dwarf from the barrier, it didn''t take too long for him to reach the barrier. Alex examined the barrier again and looked at Atlas. On the other hand, Atlas put his hand on the barrier and put some energy on it. Just like a normal human pushing a wall, it didn''t change anything. "This is a barrier that prevents anything other than humans from entering." Alex smiled as he showed him that he could enter without any problem. Atlas''s body shook when he saw that, convinced that it was really only for humans. "Wait for me, I will change the array a little bit." Alex smiled before going toward the monolith that was erecting the barrier. Nelson also stayed outside with Atlas, and he used it to talk. "I once visited Agathe World when I was on a mission. It was truly a good world to live in. The peaceful situation felt like a good place to retire¡­ of course, I couldn''t stand the environment that much." "If I may ask, could I know his identity?" Atlas asked. Nelson pondered for a moment and shook his head. "Unless you are a God Rank expert, you shouldn''t know about it. It''s for your own safety." "¡­" Atlas fell into silence for a minute before sighing. "Alright." Nelson thought for a moment and said. "No need to worry. My king will solve your problem. However, I want you to promise something." "What is it?" Atlas suddenly recalled a certain thing and asked, "Is it related to that matter?" "Yeah. We have many enemies outside. Although we have been cautious this whole time, I still want to make some assurance. My king won''t take a decade to reach God Stage¡­ So, if we don''t need your help, then it''s alright." *Gasped!* Atlas thought he heard it wrong but still muttered it again. "Less than ten years to enter God Stage?" "My master is different from your standard. He has yet to reach his limit in this world, so he doesn''t need to worry about the time. Only after he reaches God Stage that his speed will slow down." Nelson shrugged. "If Agathe World wants to have protection, then you may come to us¡­ Your power is also something that tempts us as well." "I hope that we don''t have that kind of situation." Atlas shook his head helplessly. Two hours later, Alex came back with sweat covering his forehead. "Fu. I have done my part." "Good job, Young Master." Nelson bowed and greeted him. "Yes." Alex nodded before taking out a wooden token. He embedded a few symbols to the wooden token and tossed it to Atlas. "I don''t have too much time for this, so I can only make some adjustment to let someone come inside by using this token. You can channel your Spiritual Energy there and enter." Atlas nodded his head and acted accordingly. The moment he infused his Spiritual Energy to the token, the symbols glowed and created a blue spherical barrier. The barrier covered Atlas as a whole. "Go toward the barrier and let the sphere do its own job," Alex instructed. Atlas didn''t know a single thing about Array, so he blindly followed Alex''s order. When the sphere touched the barrier, it looked like a bubble that was trying to fuse with each other. Obviously, the sphere behind him slowly closed in. Simultaneously, the barrier that became a door slowly disappeared as it would soon be replaced with the sphere wall behind Atlas. "Go inside!" Alex shouted when he saw the barrier opened up a hole. Without further ado, Atlas hopped inside and entered the barrier. "This is the concept of it right now. If I have time, I can alter all the monoliths and let you guys enter without the token. According to this barrier''s scale, there are more than fifty monoliths, so yeah, hope you can be patient." Alex thought Atlas would be disappointed, but the latter suddenly dropped on his knees. "That''s good¡­ That''s good¡­ With this, we can go home. Ragna, Selram, we can finally go home." Atlas stuttered as Alex heard the sobbing tone. It wasn''t sad or happy, but relieved. It was like the burden that plagued him for the past few years finally lifted up. There was no other joy that could replace it at the moment. Alex and Nelson exchanged looks and smiled, understanding how he felt right now. 621 Spirit Eyes "Ahem. I apologize for my appearance earlier." Atlas coughed and said with an embarrassed tone. "Haha¡­ We don''t really mind." Alex chuckled, brushing the matter off. After carrying such a burden for a few thousand years, watching how his comrades died, and observing the growth of their children, it was normal for Atlas to express it like that. "Anyway¡­ what are you going to do right now? Training or asking Igor for that technique?" "I will be training first and go to him a few months later." Alex nodded. "If that is your decision, I won''t say anything more and simply wish you luck." Atlas nodded before looking at the token in his hand for a minute. He suddenly handed the token to Alex and said, "You have given me the hope that I need. Thank you." On one hand, this token was worthless to Alex as it could only be used on this barrier and Atlas couldn''t open the gate behind him and escape from the Blue-Layered Realm. On the other hand, Atlas handed back the token to show that he would wait until everything had their respective conclusion before thinking about going home. This showed how much trust Atlas placed on him. Alex hesitated for a moment before taking the token. "Then, I will go home first. Have a good day." Atlas slightly bowed his head and only for an instant before flying away. Alex glanced at Nelson in which the latter stared back. "Nelson, do you want to go outside or stay here? I am just going to stay inside the barrier for a few months, so my safety is not a problem, especially after Atlas handed back the token." Nelson thought for a while and said, "I have no job outside other than watching over the continent. It''s better to stay here and ask Njomo to do that job. Although we can trust the three leaders, I still need to observe them as to make sure they wouldn''t have a single bad thought about you." "Eh?" Alex was sure that Nelson was going to leave, but he chose otherwise. Nelson was always a mysterious person in his eyes, and he never understood his train of thought. Nonetheless, Alex allowed him to stay in this place. "Alright." "Thank you." Nelson nodded. Alex didn''t know he was actually going to have a private conversation with the three leaders. This opportunity would allow him to have all the time he needed to have a very long chat with those leaders. Alex entered the barrier nonchalantly before turning back to Nelson and asked, "You are leaving, right?" "Yes." Nelson then clasped his hand respectfully and bowed his head before vanishing into thin air. "Then." "Good luck then." Alex nodded to the disappearing Nelson. Without their company, Alex muttered to himself. "What should I do right now? I will build rank 7 Gathering Array for sure¡­ Wait! I still have Stina here." After hearing his call, Stina came out of his body and bowed to him. "Master, do you have any task for me?" "No. Since you have been sacrificing your training time for my charade, I believe it is time to get your intense cultivation training," said Alex with a guilty tone. Stina should be able to reach 3-Star Martial Monarch by now if she didn''t stop her cultivation for a while. She had been saying it was alright because there were too many events that needed her power, especially the one that was held by the Martial Arts Pavilion. "Master didn''t need to feel guilty. That was my choice." Stina smiled brightly. Having a younger appearance, extended lifespan, and enjoying life with Kyle was already enough for Stina. For Alex, who granted all of these things to her, she didn''t mind such a small thing. "Thank you." Alex smiled helplessly. "Anyway, I am going to draw a rank 7 Gathering Array for you. By the time I reach 9-Star, you should be able to reach 2-Star." "Master is having too high expectations of me. I only have confidence in breaking through after my master reaches 10-Star to be honest." Stina humbly said. "Don''t beat yourself down too much." Alex chuckled before saying. "Alright. Enough of chatting. We have limited time with so many enemies outside of this place." "Indeed." Stina nodded, seeing Alex quickly turn around. She suddenly called him and said something. "Master! I didn''t regret any of my choices in following you." Alex glanced to the side, revealing only his mouth to her. The moment he opened his mouth, two words were echoing in her ears. "Thank you." After that, Alex started creating two rank 7 Gathering Array for himself and Stina. He entered one of them while Stina used the other. They began their training to enter the next stage of cultivation as soon as possible. The world didn''t have any big movement since the three leaders had their peaceful-time in their territory. The Undead King also didn''t say anything about the result to the other leaders as to prevent the information from spreading. Nonetheless, the two leaders also understood the condition. Much to their dismay, they let it go from their heart despite having unbearable yearning. Finally, one month later, Inside the barrier, the energy around Alex''s body began spiking, showing the sign of breaking through. Alex''s eyes were still closed for another few minutes before he suddenly opened his eyes wide, and the energy spiked. The spiked energy created a little shock wave to the surroundings, but nothing changed much. Even the dust didn''t kick up to the air. Alex opened his eyes and let out a relieved breath. He checked Stina first, wondering if she was bothered with his breakthrough. Luckily, Stina was still sleeping inside her Gathering Array in her phoenix form. This was nothing special because Sherry and Kyle said it was better to cultivate in their original form. He then checked his body and was slightly astonished. "I have reached 9-Star Martial Emperor¡­ I know that I need another two months to reach 10-Star and one or two months to consolidate before challenging my Lightning Tribulation¡­ Still, I believe this is already not bad. I also have that flower to evolve my Spirit Eyes to the maximum. Should I continue my training or stop to evolve my Spirit Eyes to the highest level possible?" Pondering the matter for a few minutes, Alex decided to use the Godly Optic Flower first, so he didn''t need to worry about this and continued in consolidating his strength after reaching the 10-Star Martial Emperor stage. He took out a white flower containing a huge amount of energy that was very beneficial to his eyes. Judging from the color, it was similar to the previous lotus that evolved his eyes once. According to the manual, Alex needed to grind this flower first before pouring the water and boiling it. After cooling down, he could drop the liquid on his eyes. He didn''t hesitate any more and followed the original instruction. The grinding only needed Spiritual Energy because while he took out a water bottle from his inventory. There was no record of the need for any special water to boil this flower. Alex finished the brewing process not long after. The liquid itself wasn''t that much left to begin with, only around twenty droplets. In other words, he only needed to use both in each eye. Waiting for it to cool off wasn''t a long and boring process because Alex was never bothered with heat as he was a Pure Fire user. He waved his hand and separated the liquid into two by using his Spiritual Energy. The two liquids, which contained ten droplets each, floated above his head before Alex looked up. As soon as he loosened the Spiritual Energy, a droplet dropped onto his eyes. He blinked his eyes out of reflex but noticed something surprising. The droplet that should stay around his eyes for a few blinks suddenly evaporated the moment he blinked his eyes once. It miraculously vanished into thin air, confusing Alex for a second. However, he suddenly remembered the description of these droplets and dropped it once again. The process repeated until Alex used all the liquid in his possession and closed his eyes completely. The Spiritual Energy that lingered around his eyes suddenly slipped through his eye sockets and worked like magic on his eyes. Alex felt the warm sensation that slowly turned into a tickling sensation. Like a hundred ants swarming his eyes, making him want to rub them, Alex couldn''t open his eyes at the moment if he didn''t want to fail. Nonetheless, it didn''t have a painful sensation like his body refining, so Alex endured it while clenching his hands. Getting used to this feeling was much easier than pain. Alex simply forced his eyes closed, and after around an hour or so, the ticklish in his eyes slowly went away. He gradually opened his eyes and looked at the dark cloud for a few seconds, checking whether his eyes were alright or not. "I have finished the refining, right?" The question flashed on his mind as Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and got the answer to his question. "!!!" His body shook, startled by the sight he saw for the first time. Almost a hundred meters above him was the ceiling of the barrier that protected the portal. Alex could see numerous symbols there suddenly. "Are those really symbols?" He muttered to himself. "It''s like a projection of the symbols that were planted on the monolith¡­" "Is this the power of the highest level of Spirit Eyes?" He shifted his vision a little bit and found another group of symbols not far from here. Those symbols surrounded him, making him a bit startled for once. However, the moment he looked down, he realized the symbols were actually the symbols from his Gathering Array. "I thought it was an enemy array¡­" Alex shook his head and glanced at Stina, who was still sleeping comfortably. He decided to check her with the new Spirit Eyes to see whether something was worth inside it. What shocked him the most was her Space Ring. Unlike the previous time, Alex could somehow see the barrier and items inside Stine''s Space Ring. "I can even see through the Space Ring? Really?" Alex couldn''t believe it himself, but he had seen the real prove with his own eyes. He observed Stina, but the latter had no change or whatsoever. "It would seem that the ability this time was to recognize Array or something?" Alex pondered for a moment and shook his head. "I can''t say anything much about this, but I can slowly unravel the secret behind Spirit Eyes. I should focus on cultivation first." Alex fell into silence before taking another sneak peek on the barrier and the world around him. It was hard to ignore the urge to see the world with his new eyes. Unfortunately, there was nothing different from the usual world he saw. Only the barrier that had something different from him and a clearer picture on the portal tree. He asked himself, "Is the last stage of this Spirit Eyes actually allowing me to see the real appearance of something?" "I don''t have any other explanation than that.." Alex pondered for a moment and shook his head helplessly. "I should really cultivate. At least, I already have a clue on how useful this Spirit Eyes is." He gradually closed his eyes once again and calmed down. Before he could enter his cultivation, two red-colored balls suddenly came out of his body, forcing him to open his eyes again. *Gasp¡ª!" Alex opened his mouth in surprise as he watched the two red-colored light balls turned into two figures. 622 Peak Martial Emperor "Sherry, Kyle," Alex called their name, but utterly shocked by their appearance. Sherry''s figure had changed from a little kid into one that was slightly younger than his appearance. Her white became long enough to reach her waist. Her cute ears became slightly more pointed while her tail turned fluffier. Sherry smiled gently before saying. "It''s been a while, Master." Raising her hand and giving a peace sign, Sherry greeted Alex. However, this transformation didn''t bother Alex a single bit, including the sudden change of temperament. Although the playful side of her was still there, Sherry had matured. Normally, he would jump on him and hug her. This time, she simply greeted him from her position and became slightly conservative. Alex couldn''t help but make a troubled expression when he looked at her outfit. They were a little bit tight for the current her. Not only her body had developed, but her height also increased. This made Sherry slightly sexier, especially since the skirt showed more skin than usual. "Master. She can use my clothes for a while." Stina''s voice suddenly resounded on his ears. Alex was startled and turned around only to see Stina with a set of clothes. "Ah, yes." She had noticed the commotion created by Sherry and Kyle. Hence, she quickly woke up, changed to her human form, and came to Alex. Sherry followed her without any complaint, thinking it would be best to follow her since Alex had given a ''go'' sign to Stina. On the other hand, the two boys, Alex and Sherry, were left alone with this awkward atmosphere. Kyle bowed his head and greeted him. "Master, I have reached the Martial Monarch Stage." "Yes." Alex nodded with a smile as he observed Kyle''s appearance. Kyle''s red hair also grew to the point it was reaching his back. His clothes also became too tight for him, so Alex lent him clothes. Kyle nodded and changed first before coming back with a fresh image. He looked like a growing teenager that slowly developed height and body. Although there was no muscle at the time, his height was comparable to Sherry at the moment. He wore a blue shirt and white silk pants that Alex lent him. "I am still not comparable to Elder Sister Sherry." Kyle shook his head in disappointment. "I''m wondering whether your body grows only after evolution?" Alex observed Kyle up and down. "According to Stina¡­ Yes." Kyle said with an unsure tone. "If that is the truth, I can somehow grow up to Elder Sister form when I reach Martial Saint¡­ Maybe to Master''s level when I reach God Rank." Alex only smiled and patted his shoulder. "I''m happy for you." "Thank you." Kyle offered his sincere thanks to Alex. Alex didn''t know why, but he felt Alicia''s aura within her. Of course, Alicia''s aura in his mind was like how he first met her, albeit Sherry was more mature than Alicia from back then. "Master. I have reached the Martial Monarch this time." Sherry grinned, looking very happy at the moment. "Yeah. I''m glad for you." Alex nodded with a smile. "I want to bother Master with this new transformation, but I realize you are trying to increase your strength hurriedly. So, I won''t bother you with this until you have finished your training." Sherry said, understanding his condition. "Master is going to break through to Martial Monarch as well, right?" "Yes." "Then I will wait until you reach the Martial Monarch. For the time being, I can also cultivate together with Sister Stina and Kyle." "Thank you, Sherry." Alex came closer and patted her head like he usually did. Sherry simply offered him her biggest smile with her tail shaking left and right. "Kyle, are you-" Alex turned around and asked Kyle if he wanted to do the same. But when he saw Stina fixing his hair by tying it into a ponytail, he stopped and muttered to himself. "I will build two then." Sherry accompanied him and watched how he made the array from the side. Although she didn''t understand everything, staying beside him was enough for the time being. It only took a bit more than ten minutes for Alex to create two rank 7 Gathering Array. "Alright. It''s for you and Kyle." "Yes. Thank you, Master." Sherry nodded, noticing that Alex put Kyle''s Gathering Array slightly closer to Stina''s. The same for Sherry, so she was happy with his consideration. "Alright. I will go back to my training first. We will have a lengthy chat after this is over." Alex waved his hand to Sherry and went back to his Gathering Array. Sherry did the same while Stina and Kyle followed after having their own private time. Stina was happy with Kyle''s progress, making her unable to resist the urge to hug him. Unfortunately, their time was altered because they felt bad if only Alex cultivated in this place while they were having a great time. In the end, Stina decided to have a chat with him at the same time as Sherry, in which Kyle accepted. It was only after another month Stine''s energy suddenly spiked. There wasn''t a need to open their eyes to know she had broken through to 2-Star Martial Monarch. On the other hand, Alex kept progressing at his own pace. Nelson and his spirits didn''t report anything to him, so they must haven''t met single trouble this whole time. This peaceful period allowed him to increase his strength exponentially. In the second month, Alex broke through to 10-Star Martial Emperor, followed by Sherry and Kyle. Stina could only shake her head helplessly because these two would pass her soon. To answer her uneasiness, Kyle came closer and grabbed her hand, holding it very tightly. Even without a single word coming out of his mouth, Stina knew Kyle was telling her he would stand by her side to the end of the time. Stina smiled and hugged him. After that, Alex continued filling his Spiritual Energy first until he reached the peak before moving to the consolidation process as usual. Luckily, the energy around this place was bountiful because no one absorbed them. Other than getting circulated in this space, the energy had no big use for these three races because of their different type of cultivation. According to Nelson, the Dwarf needed that miasma to cultivate their innate strength before turning it into Spiritual Energy. Of course, they needed some Spiritual Energy to replenish the energy inside their body, but it wasn''t significant. The Undead were the same. They were, in fact, cultivating Soul Power. For them, the soul was a kind of Spiritual Energy. This allowed them to increase their strength while allowing them to strengthen their Rune Power. Unlike the other races, they were the only one that could use Rune Power that required so much more Mental Energy than forging or fighting. Atlas himself didn''t really have a massive amount of Spiritual Energy inside his body. However, his soul power was too big compared to the normal human outside or even Alex. If the technique increased one''s soul power was not a specific race technique, Alex might ask for an exchange. After all, if he cultivated his soul, there was a chance he could increase the effectiveness of his Spirit Step that required his soul and raised his refining and drawing array speed. It had unlimited use for Alex, yet unattainable. Alex could only sigh helplessly, thinking not everything in this world would be useful for him. At the same time, the Chieftain, Igor, sent a message to the Undead King, asking him to tell Alex that he would wait for him in the place where he fought his grandfather. If Alex wished to learn the secret technique to hide his intent, he could meet him there. All of this came from Nelson''s report that he wrote in a piece of paper. Alex simply grabbed the paper when having a break. It didn''t take too long anyway. After learning the situation in this realm, Alex became more determined in reaching the Martial Monarch as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the consolidation process didn''t take longer than the cultivation itself. Alex opened his eyes again after the third month and rose from the ground while pumping his fist. Finally, after the long cultivation process, Alex reached the peak of the Martial Emperor and soon became a Martial Monarch. However, there was still one problem that hindered him from reaching that stage, and it must be the biggest problem he had seen so far. The Golden Lightning Tribulation. Remembering how terrifying the Golden Lightning Tribulation, when he received the tribulation for Martial Emperor, made him shudder. It was certainly insane as Alex almost failed back then. However, he had enough strength to fight this tribulation. Not only did he have his Original Sword Skill and Original Spear King, but he also had Dragon and Phoenix Aura. The moment he used Dragon Aura and The first step of Spirit Step, his strength would reach more than three thousand dragons. Besides, his Dragon Aura would evolve when he reached Martial Monarch. At that time, he might reach at least five thousand dragons strength. That strength was equal to a normal 5-Star Monarch. Of course, the heirs and heiresses from big influences should be stronger because they could easily get the pill to increase their strength, Alex''s strength was still higher than their strength. At this pace, he believed his strength would reach ten thousand dragon strength with only 5-Star Martial Monarch cultivation. That strength was equal to 1-Star Martial Saint strength. Thinking about this made Alex grin. There were several reasons for it, but the one and immediate reason was the Black Devil Sect. After reaching Martial Monarch, he could train in the Soul Altar. He hoped to reach 2-Star Martial Monarch if not 3-Star. He had no hope about the 4-Star because of the huge amount of energy required to advance, especially with his Pure Fire. If it were Sherry, Kyle, or Stina, they would surely reach 4-Star. Unfortunately, Alex didn''t know whether the Undying King would allow him to bring companions in this process. In the end, Alex took Nelson''s card and said, "Nelson. Can you ask the Undying King if I can bring friends to cultivate in the Soul Altar? I don''t mind if he asks about compensation as long as it''s not ridiculous." "I will ask." Nelson paused for a moment and asked. "Young Master. Have you reached 10-Star Martial Emperor?" "Yeah. I am going to prepare for my Lightning Tribulation right now." Alex answered. "I will go to your side and protect you in this tribulation. You can ask Sherry, Kyle, and Stina to cultivate in the meantime." Nelson replied. "Oh." Alex pondered for a moment and nodded. "Well, it will take a bit longer if I need to process the information that the Lightning Tribulation gives me." "Yes. That''s what I''m worried about. Rather than having them wait for you, it''s better to have me alone." "Alright. I will tell them so." Alex nodded before tossing the card inside his Inventory. "Master, are you going now?" Sherry asked, confirming the conversation that Alex had with Nelson earlier. "Yes." Alex looked at her for a few seconds and nodded. "Can¡­" She still hoped Alex would take her but decided to stop the question. She smiled as bright as possible and said, "May fortune be with you, Master." "Thank you, Sherry." Alex came closer and patted her head a bit longer than usual before looking at Stina and Kyle. "I''m going then." "Yes." Stina and Kyle clasped their hands and bowed their head in unison. These two acted more and more like a couple, and Alex was happy with the development. Alex took back his hand from Sherry''s head and flew away. 623 Lightning Tribulation Part 1 Alex flew a bit far from the barrier toward the Undead Territory. He remembered there was a huge plain that was perfect to undergo his Lightning Tribulation. It was only a few teleportations away from the barrier, so Alex only needed a few minutes to arrive. He opened his Inventory and took Nelson''s card. "Summon." "Young Master." Nelson clasped his hands respectfully as soon as he was summoned. "I think I don''t need to tell you where we are, right?" Alex asked with a small smile. "Yes. I will start patrolling around the area. Young Master can finish the Special Realm first." Nelson said and disappeared. Without Nelson here, Alex quickly took out his blood bottles. Learning from the experience, he was planning to make an additional Special Realm, so even if the first one broke, there was still the second one. Alex even used a rank 7 Barrier Array to create this Special Realm to reinforce its defense. The array itself was quite big. The first one had a hundred meters in radius while the second one had two hundred meters. However, he found out that he had enough blood to create the third barrier, rank 7 Gathering Array and Lightning Rod Array. Even if he needed more monster blood, he could simply ask his spirits outside, specifically Jeanne, since she could extract the blood. He ended up creating the third array with a three hundred meter radius array. This would be his third line of defense since if these three still broke, there was still a huge array that trapped the three races. With how powerful the barriers that were created by multiple Martial Saints, Alex had absolute confidence that this barrier wouldn''t break. Of course, he hoped the barrier didn''t break at all, but better safe than sorry. Alex looked at his surroundings first and asked Nelson. "There is no one around. It should be fine even if you activate it without an illusion array." Nelson reported. Alex nodded and activated the special realms, summoning three barriers in succession. The Gathering Array was also activated by him. "I have reinforced the barrier with my Space Element as well. Back when I challenged my Martial Emperor''s Lightning Tribulation, the barrier couldn''t hold the whole thing and ended up breaking. Now, I will make sure no one will know about this." Alex nodded. Even if it broke, the three races wouldn''t necessarily tell a single soul outside this place. Besides, their target was to go home, so Alex thought it would be fine even if the three races knew about this. Still, Alex might be ninety percent sure about this, but he couldn''t ignore the rest ten percent. For that reason, he added the barrier. However, it would be troublesome if the other influences began their chase to him whether they wanted to attain his loyalty or kill him to avoid future problems. He didn''t know why but wondered about his Martial Saint and Martial God Lightning Tribulation in the future. He might need to hide his Martial Saint Tribulation as well because he wasn''t ready yet to let the whole world see. However, he might have a different perspective for his Martial God Tribulation. That Tribulation would result in him becoming a God, the peak of this world. Even if he let them see his Tribulation, they couldn''t do a single thing. Even his Spirits were enough to protect him at that moment from anyone who wanted to hinder him. The only problem would be if someone actually reached God Stage again in the future. They might blurt that information, making Alex a bit hesitant about it. In the end, he shook that thought off and told himself to discuss it with the spirits in the future. Shaking the thought off, Alex looked at his surroundings and checked his condition. [A gentle reminder for you, Host. You are going to get the last variant of the Gacha System when you reach Martial Monarch.] Alex smiled, knowing the system just wanted to cheer him up by reminding him about the reward. "I am looking forward to it." [Mission: Martial Monarch Stage Reward: Unknown Gacha Type Description: Become a Martial Monarch and unlock every Gacha Types.] "Thank you for the mission. Is there no reward for the tickets or something?" [I can''t disclose it, but Host can look forward to it.] "I see." Alex nodded before focusing on his matter again. "I need to cultivate for one or two days before I can trigger the Lightning Tribulation. As for the preparations, I have done everything and could only do my best." Alex nodded to himself. Alex then sat down in the middle of the array and began cultivating again. After finishing his patrol, Nelson came back to his side and stood by not far from him. He didn''t make a sound or release even a little bit of his presence to not alarm Alex. It was only two days later, the atmosphere started to change. Suddenly, a loud sound appeared in the sky. *Rumble!* Hearing the rumbling sound, Alex opened his eyes and rose from the ground. The dark cloud began gathering above his head, creating a scary entity above him. The air temperature dropped, gradually turning into chilly. Calmness still filled his face as Alex looked up to the sky. He took out his Sword and Spear, preparing to face the Lightning Tribulation. He also released his Pure Fire from the Phoenix Seed. A huge amount of Pure Fire gushed out of his body and circled around him. They looked pretty docile but would attack someone ferociously when Alex ordered to. He activated his fully evolved Spirit Eyes to see if there was something different he could see with his eyes. However, he found out that the dark cloud didn''t have any true form or whatever. It was just a big chump of energy gathered around that cloud. *Rumble!* *Rumble!* The rumbling sounds began reverberated in his ears as blue light began flashing from within. Alex''s expression turned serious as he watched this unfold. The Lightning Tribulation that was always scary for him appeared once again today. He took a deep breath before releasing his domain and covered his weapons with it. He had prepared everything he could, and there was nothing for him to do other than passing this Lightning Tribulation. Alex took a deep breath before saying, "Come!" *Rumble!* As if responding to Alex''s words, lightning appeared from within the cloud. ¡­ At the same time, there was something happening a bit further from his place. *Tremble!* In the Undead Territory, specifically in Atlas''s palace, a vibration shook the entire territory. He, who was sitting on his throne, suddenly stood up and shouted. "Wait! What is this?" A powerful wave of energy suddenly swept the room, jolting Atlas''s mind. "This¡­ It''s coming from the Soul Altar?" He quickly came out of the castle and flew toward his Soul Altar. Zekhram had been waiting for him outside with his forehead covered with sweat. "Atlas. Do you know anything about this?" "What did you do?" Atlas shouted. "I don''t do anything. It suddenly released powerful energy like this." Zekhram shook his head furiously. "We need to take out the weapons first until I can identify the source of this problem," Atlas said with a severe expression. He was afraid this sudden phenomenon might do irreplaceable damage to Alex''s weapons. He had promised him to deliver the sword and spear with perfect quality in exchange for breaking the barrier. However, he couldn''t see Alex if something happened to his weapons. His Soul Altar would be destroyed anyway if they were going home, so Alex''s weapons had more importance. "Understood. I will help you." Zekhram nodded. He had come to this place a month ago after nurturing the soul inside Alex''s weapons. The weapons were eating the souls to nourish itself at the moment, so this sudden problem made him panic. "This is¡­" Atlas observed the Altar and noticed something off. "The soul and energy in the Altar are being depleted? No¡­ To be exact, it is going to the top¡­" *Gasp¡ª* It only took him a moment to realize what would happen after this sudden change. He shouted to Zekhram. "This is not good. We are going to grab those weapons from this place. If I''m going to fix the Altar as it is, the weapons might have some kinds of accidents." "What should I do?" Zekhram shuddered and asked immediately. "I am going to make a safe passage for you. It will only be one or two seconds. You need to grab the weapons within that time." Atlas said. "Understood!" "Sh*t!" Atlas cursed when he saw blue light appear on top of the Altar. There were many white wisps that were hovering around the tower. At the same time, the blue lines on the tower also glowed brightly as it released powerful energy. "Mion Rio A!" Atlas chanted as blue lines appeared on the ground from his feet toward the Soul Altar. The moment blue lines appeared, the souls that were hovering around the tower suddenly disappeared, creating a two-meters hole toward their formation. "Now!" Atlas shouted. Without his shout, Zekhram already knew it was the time. He jumped toward the hole, entering the Soul Altar once again and grabbing the two weapons before retreating outside. There wasn''t much of a distance to begin with, so he somehow managed to get outside the barrier before the blue lines vanished. "That was insane." Zekhram took a deep breath a few times to calm himself down. "There was too much pressure inside the tower." "What is exactly happening?!" Atlas narrowed his eyes. "I don''t know." Zekhram shook his head. "Why don''t you fix-" Before he could complete his words, the blue light that slowly expanded on the top of the Altar suddenly shot to the sky like a laser. "This¡­" Atlas became even more bewildered. "This Soul Altar never becomes like this¡­ Why is it suddenly happening? Does someone challenge Heaven at the moment to make the souls become unrest like this?" "What should we do?" Zekhram didn''t understand what he was talking about and only wished for a solution. He checked the weapons and let out a breath of relief when nothing happened to the two weapons. "I don''t know what is happening, but our objective right now is to stop this phenomenon. I will calm the soul and deactivate the Altar for now. It might be hard but doable. You help me by stopping the others from coming here." Atlas instructed. "Alright." Without further ado, Zekhram vanished into thin air with the two weapons. On the other hand, Atlas looked at the sky and found this ridiculous. The dark cloud circled the blue light like it was creating a portal. However, he also noticed that Heaven seemed to have sucked all this energy for itself. He realized and gritted his teeth. "I can''t stop it like this!" "Ah!" Atlas took out his wand and raised both hands. "Even if I can''t stop it, I will reduce the energy amount as much as possible. Something like this shouldn''t happen for too long. Also¡­" Blue lines began appearing one after another from his feet, spreading toward the tower and enveloping the Altar. It created a five hundred radius circle filled with blue lines before creating a barrier. "Don''t underestimate me!" The blue lines linked with each other, and the barrier suddenly obstructed the blue light. Thirty percent were absorbed by Atlas''s barrier, but it was still far too much. "I will fight with you till the end!" Atlas gritted his teeth and increased the power output. The blue lines shone brightly and began absorbing at least half of the energy. "Come!" 624 Lightning Tribulation Part 2 *Rumble!* As if responding to Alex''s words, lightning appeared from within the cloud. However, his eyes suddenly widened after finding something unexpected that happened in the first lightning strike. He deactivated his Spirit Eyes first, thinking there must be something wrong with the new Spirit Eyes. Yet, the form didn''t change even after seeing it with his normal eyes. The lightning turned into an arrow and contained a huge amount of energy. He never saw energy at this level, at the start of his Tribulation. After all, he always shattered the first one or two strikes with his strength alone. This time was very different. He already felt dread striking on his chest, thinking he would die if he didn''t take this attack seriously. Nelson also couldn''t understand this and wished to help him, except he had no power to do so. "What the heck?" Alex shouted as he clenched both his weapons tightly. *Rumble!* With the last rumble, the lightning struck forth. "!!!" Alex pointed his finger toward the lightning strike, trying to test the water. A red light began glowing on his index finger before he shot a red laser from his finger. "Flame of Extinction." The laser and lightning strike clashed with each other in the sky. There wasn''t a single shock wave that came from this clash because the lightning tried to pierce through the flame while the latter tried to burn it. It continued for a few more seconds. Sometimes the lightning pushed the flame back and vice versa. Alex observed it with his Spirit Eyes and used a little more of his Spiritual Energy to end the fight. *Boom!* A quite big explosion occurred when the two attacks destroyed each other. Alex never thought that there was a need to use his Flame of Extinction in the first wave. He shuddered when the thought of the next nine lightning tribulations appeared in his mind. "This is truly a big problem. I wonder if I can actually finish this Lightning Tribulation¡­" Alex muttered to himself before shaking that doubt because the cloud sent another lightning. The form of this second lightning was still an arrow, making him think if it was a fixed shape. Unfortunately, he had no time to think about it and controlled the soul within his body to step on the ground. "Spirit Step, First Step." The energy in his surrounding began gathering around his body and getting sucked by his soul. He gained a hundred dragons of strength and struck the lightning arrow with his sword that had been glowing red for a while. "Ignition Break!" *Boom!* His Ignition Break caused a massive explosion to weaken the lightning impact on Alex''s body and dispersed some energy from the lightning strike. This action alone allowed Alex to split the lightning into two. When Alex thought about it, the light flashed once again, and another lightning arrow struck down. Alex''s expression turned serious as he watched this lightning seriously. His sword and spear glowed in red color before a fire sparked and covered his weapons. Taking another deep breath, the aura in his body suddenly changed as Alex released a golden aura from his body. The aura rose to the sky before turning into a dragon. *Roar!* Making its presence known, the dragon letting out a loud roar. Alex felt the surging strength inside his body as the dragon began absorbing the energy around and turning it into Alex''s strength. "Dragon Aura!" With this strength, Alex became pretty confident about this strike and slashed the lightning with his sword and spear. "Heaven Light Slash!" "Ha!" Alex roared to get more excited and bring more energy. According to his Spirit Eyes, this arrow shouldn''t last out much longer. Yet, he also felt the same for his Martial Arts after clashing for more than twenty seconds. Even so, he didn''t become impatient and waited until the lightning arrow''s energy slowly depleted naturally in the clash. Only after a minute, Alex realized there was only twenty percent energy left inside the arrow. He channeled more energy in both weapons and pushed the lightning tribulation. *Bam!* The moment it cut the arrowhead, the momentum couldn''t be stopped as it slowly made its way toward the body before splitting the arrow into four. The arrow itself was slightly bigger than his body, so Alex breaking this arrow didn''t really look weird. Alex took a deep breath and clenched his weapons tightly. He didn''t know what would happen next, especially the tenth wave, when the first three lightning strikes already gave him so much trouble. He shook his head furiously before focusing back on the sky, not wanting to be pessimistic. The next lightning strike appeared in the form of a spear, and the color changed into purple as usual. There was no clue about the shape of the lightning, confusing Alex very much. The normal lightning waves would only be a typical lightning strike while the Golden Lightning would have the appearance of a dragon. Yet, the yellow-colored lightning strike was in the form of an arrow while the blue colored lightning was taking the shape of a spear. Alex thought for a moment. ''What the heck with this lightning form? Is there actually someone controlling the Lightning Strike? System?" [I have no clue, Host. Even with my power, I haven''t encountered such a thing.] The sys¡­ No, Lin Xingzhi told him the truth. She was also clueless about this, thinking it was already beyond understanding to have Golden Lightning Tribulation alone. The addition of this shape completely shattered every speculation she had previously. Lin Xingzhi could only bite her lips and lean back on her chair with a sad expression. "What is this¡­" She glanced to the side, watching the sun that was glaring at her. "You are still the light¡­ This Tribulation wouldn''t stop you, and I believe that. Still, what is the secret behind this?" Without a doubt, this would undoubtedly involve Previous Life Alex, but no one could actually ask that question because he was no more in this world. His reincarnation also didn''t have a single clue with the Lightning Tribulation. No answer came to her mind, so she decided to look at the screen again, hoping Alex to finish the Tribulation without injury. At the same time, the fourth wave flew down. Alex had no time to think about it and finally released his Original Sword Skill. "Heaven Light Slash!" "Triple Draws." His strength was already boosted with Dragon Aura and Spirit Step, so this attack contained six Heaven Light Slash with the strength of a 2-Star Martial Monarch. The first two slashes were aimed at the tip of this spear to stop the advance while the other fours struck on the handle right behind it, hoping to break the spear. A shock wave rampaged in the surrounding the moment Alex''s Heaven Light Slash, and the lightning spear clashed. A crater appeared beneath his feet, showing how mighty the lightning spear was. On the side, Nelson clenched his left fist before putting his right hand in front of him, creating a sphere of energy to stop him from blowing away. The dust was also stopped by this barrier. No spirits were with him today, so Nelson had the full responsibility to watch this Lightning Tribulation unfold. He wouldn''t leave a single detail as this was his master''s Tribulation. For him, the bigger the lightning tribulation was, the better. A single reason he thought that way because he believed the stronger the Lightning Tribulation was, the more inheritances he would get. In fact, he didn''t think about the Lightning Tribulation at all. He preferred to think about what kind of inheritance he would get the moment he finished this Lightning Tribulation. On the other hand, Alex didn''t have the time to think about that. There wouldn''t be inheritance if he failed this Tribulation. He might even lose his life in this Lightning Tribulation. At first, he thought about abandoning the Lightning Tribulation if it was too much to bear for Alex. However, he didn''t have any assurance if the Golden Lightning would appear for the second time. He was afraid the Golden Lightning didn''t appear, and he lost the change to get the inheritance. It would be a big loss for Alex because every single Golden Lightning Tribulation was very precious to him as if it was actually tailored for him. Alex had no choice other than completing the Tribulation in the first try. The numb sensation started spreading in his hand as he felt a powerful resistance from the spear, trying to break his sword. He wondered whether it was dumb for him to fight this Lightning Tribulation without his rank 8 sword and spear. The flame in his body rose and turned into a phoenix and stuck the spear from behind. It slowly chipped away the energy from the spear, and Alex finally saw the chance of success. When he saw there wasn''t enough energy to support the entire spear because the energy that was stored had been burned, Alex pushed back and destroyed the spear as a whole. "Fu!" Sweat began covering his forehead as he was dumbstruck with the lightning power. "What is this? There is too much big jump from the third to the fourth strike. It is far more ridiculous than the jump on my Martial Emperor tribulation." He quickly suppressed the numbness on his hand and looked up again. *Rumble!* As if it had a consciousness of its own, the blue lightning flashed once again as another spear gradually made its appearance. The flame around Alex rose once again, creating four hundred firebirds around him before a huge fireball appeared and turned into a phoenix. "Go!" The firebirds and the phoenix flew up while the spear struck down. Alex didn''t stop there. He felt these two were still not enough to be appetizers, so he pointed both of his index fingers and shot out a flame. "Flame of Extinction." At this time, Alex realized that his Hell Inferno was useless in this Lightning Tribulation. He needed a massive amount of energy for it and needed time to prepare. Besides, the amount of concentration required was also no joke. *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* A series of explosions occurred in the sky. Those explosions came from the firebirds while the huge one came from the phoenix. After seeing the effectiveness earlier, Alex made the phoenix strike on the back of this spear while he stopped the spear''s advance with his Flame of Extinction. Unfortunately, if that were enough, Alex would already feel relieved. After clashing for half a minute, his Flame of Extinction started getting pushed back while the phoenix and the firebirds didn''t chip enough energy to break the spear. Alex narrowed his eyes while observing the energy with his Spirit Eyes. The strength from the spear was already a third of its original energy. His sword and spear started glowing before Alex waved them at the same time, releasing two sword waves. "Blade of Conquest!" Another shock wave shook the world. Alex didn''t have a change of expression this time because he knew the energy from his two swords was far higher than the Spear. Even though the energy was depleted faster than the spear, Alex still had confidence that his spear was strong enough. It was only after a minute of clashing, his two sword waves won the fight and cut through the spear. "I have used one of my strongest attacks in the fifth wave alone, can I still do it?" Alex thought about it while catching his breath. He had yet to exhaust his strength, but the possibility ahead already made him tired. He wanted to think about it any longer while wondering what moves he should make next, but the spear already came out and ready to strike down. 625 Lightning Tribulation Part 3 "Can I still do it?" The doubt arose in his heart, but the Lightning Tribulation didn''t allow him to think about it as it sent another Lightning Spear to Alex. Alex looked up and clenched only his sword this time while narrowing his eyes. Spiritual Energy began gathering around his sword before the tip glowed in red color. His Pure Fire started covering his sword and concentrated on the tip, creating an immeasurable pressure on that single point. He pulled back his sword like he wanted to thrust it to the sky. "The lightning spear has the same function as a normal spear, which is to stab. In other words, it has a power amount of piercing power. Even without my Spirit Eyes, I can clearly see it. The only way to counter this is to have another attack with piercing power. I have used my Flame of Extinction to hold it back previously, but I doubt it will work this time since it will be stronger than the fifth strike. I can only use this." Alex took a deep breath and thrust his sword forward, shooting a powerful laser-like attack toward the spear. "Mythical Spear Cannon (Sword Version)." He had once used his Mythical Spear Cannon in front of Atlas when testing the strengthened weapons. The spear shot out a powerful and quite large attack at that time, emphasizing power like its name ''Canon.'' Yet, his Spear Throwing Art that he couldn''t use anymore because it was too weak inspired him once more, and he arrived at this Mythical Spear Cannon. If the previous one was Mythical Spear Cannon (Spear Version) that looked like his Power Throwing Art, this Sword Version was similar to his Spin Throwing Art. Unfortunately, whether it was because this was his Spear Original Skill or any other reasons, he couldn''t combine it with his Original Sword Skill, Triple Draws. The most he could do was to use it with his two weapons alone. However, he didn''t necessarily hate it as he knew the power that came from this Original Skill was far higher than any other Martial Arts, including his Blade of Conquest. The moment he used his Mythical Spear Cannon, the attacks weren''t that big, only slightly bigger than his spear. Yet, the amount of piercing power behind this attack was immeasurable. It clashed with the Lightning Spear and created another shock wave to the surroundings. The Lightning Spear tried piercing the Mythical Spear Cannon while the latter tried breaking the spear, especially its tip. It ended up pushing each other back and forth. Alex didn''t stop there and sent out his phoenix together with his firebirds. *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* The sound of an explosion echoed through the entire Special Realm as the fire from the phoenix started burning the spear again, trying to burn the entire spear. However, Alex found that the firebirds weren''t as effective as the previous. Alex looked at the lightning spear that had yet to be broken despite a minute of exchange. As expected, the energy inside the spear was too much to the point it was ridiculous. He had experienced the different level of Lightning Tribulation, but this was really absurd, making him think whether Heaven actually wanted to kill him. *Bam!* After pushing each other for two minutes, the two destroyed each other, causing a huge explosion that even engulfed Alex. Fortunately, it didn''t do a single thing to Alex as he brushed the explosion like nothing. "That was insane for the sixth strike¡­" Alex sighed. "Normally, I will only use my Pure Fire to strike the Sixth and Seventh Strike alone before going with my Martial Arts. This time is very different, like there was actually someone boosting the Lightning Tribulation." He ended up shaking his head and threw such a thought from his head. "Rather than complaining, I should use that energy to beat this Lightning Tribulation. I don''t know what will happen if I fail this Lightning Tribulation." Closing his eyes for a second, Alex did his best to regain his calm heart. *Rumble!* As if it was undergoing an evolution, the sky flashed in purple color before a sword appeared from within. The sword was made of Lightning entirely and shone in purple light. Its size was very gigantic compared to the spear. Alex thought about Qeigess, the Dragon Prince that had a big body and felt he could use this sword to stab him and use it as a stick to barbecue him. It showed how big the sword he was looking at. Alex took a deep breath while formulating the plan to destroy the seventh strike. If he couldn''t use one attack to destroy it, he just used two. He thrust his sword once more before the Lightning Tribulation came down before creating a phoenix that would burn the sword. As if it was responding to his attacks, the Lightning Tribulation launched the sword at the same time as he sent his attack. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon!" *Rumble!* The three powerful attacks clashed up high. It created another shock wave, but surprisingly, not enough to blow those dark clouds away. Instead, the dark cloud glued with each other as if it had a magnet inside them. Luckily, his Mythical Spear Cannon managed to stop it for a second. Alex felt the power behind the sword, but could still endure it for some time before the lightning managed to break his sword. Hence, the help of his phoenix would be very helpful as it could burn most of the Spiritual Energy inside the Lightning Sword. Alex could only grit his teeth and continue to hold on, depleting as much as the energy he could. At the same time, he clenched his spear and gathered a huge amount of energy. His soul also stepped on the ground, giving him a surge of energy before converting it to his strength. The same as his Dragon Aura. It let out another roar that shook the ground even though Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon hadn''t broken. Alex did something like this because he was convinced that he would lose in this exchange. Even so, the battle between his Mythical Spear Cannon and the Lightning Sword still lasted for a minute before his attack began falling apart. The sword continued to push it and split his attack into two. Alex simply smiled when he watched this. According to his Spirit Eyes, the Sword only had around forty percent of energy left. With his spear gathering enough energy, Alex could concentrate on his sword and accumulated the same amount of energy on his sword. He raised both weapons and waved them, sending six Sword Waves simultaneously. "Triple Draws!" "Blade of Conquest!" The Six Sword waves flew toward the sword with their own blazing flame. The size of the sword made it an easy target and without much energy left, Alex''s Blade of Conquest gradually destroyed it. *Crack!* A sudden cracking sound echoed in his ears as he saw the tip of the sword start to crumble. Sadly, Alex couldn''t let out a single smile because the Sword managed to drain his Sword Waves power beyond his imagination. The battle suddenly became a close fight, where it was hard to predict who would win. Alex''s Spirit Eyes told him that the energy of this attack would be depleted before his sword, but Alex still raised his sword and spear to prepare for the worst-case possible. *Crack!* Another cracking sound resounded across the field, alarming Alex. That broken sound came from his swords, making his heart skip a beat, albeit the Lightning Sword was shattered right after. Alex looked up, dumbfounded. "Is that seriously the Seventh Attack?" The sweat covered his forehead as Alex tried to think for a way to pass this Lightning Tribulation, but couldn''t picture him winning this. Just as he was about to fall into deep thought, the sky sent out another Lightning Sword that was supposed to be his Eighth Wave. Knowing he had no time to think, Alex pulled back his sword and spear at the same time, releasing the same attack simultaneously. "Mythical Spear Cannon (Sword Version)." *Boom!* The first two attacks alone should have insane power. When it was followed by a Fire Phoenix and let it burn the Lightning Sword, it turned out to be ridiculous. The two attacks Alex released managed to hold back the sword for a while, letting the fire burn the Lightning Sword. Yet, it only stayed around for a minute despite using both weapons simultaneously. As soon as the Lightning Sword shattered his attack, he launched his Blade of Conquest coupled with his Triple Draws, sending a total of six Sword Waves. The collision between them and the Lightning Sword was very intense. Alex didn''t want to leave a single detail because even one might determine the fate of this Lightning Tribulation. He found out that the Sword Waves wouldn''t be able to win, so he raised both of his swords and infused his Flame and Spiritual Energy inside it. Alex suddenly leaped toward the Lightning Sword, appearing right beside it. He slashed it six times with his glowing sword and spear. "Triple Draws!" "Heaven Light Slash!" Every single Heaven Light Slash struck on the same spot of the sword, which was a bit further from the tip. Surprisingly, the six slashes managed to shatter a little bit of the sword, making it unstable. His six Sword Waves took this chance to push the sword. That shattered piece suddenly made the sword tilt because it couldn''t handle the pressure from the Sword Waves. The Lightning Sword broke as the Sword Waves moved forward to destroy the rest of its body. Seeing the job had finished, Alex descended to the ground and let out a relieved sigh. "It''s already the Eighth Wave¡­ I can use my Lightning Rod Array to handle the ninth wave¡­ Can I?" With how the thing proceeded, Alex had absolutely no confidence that his Lightning Rod Array could handle this Martial Monarch Lightning Tribulation. No confidence might be an understatement because he was sure the Lightning Rod Array couldn''t even hold a candle against the ninth wave. The proof came not long after when the Lightning Sword that signified as the ninth wave appeared. From the Spiritual Energy alone, Alex was sure that the Lightning Rod Array would explode right away when it tried to contain the lightning. In other words, he needed to weaken the lightning first before using the array, like he did when Mithra guided him in his Martial Lord Lightning Tribulation. Alex proceeded with the same attack again, starting from his Mythical Spear Cannon to his Heaven Light Slash, albeit it only managed to chip away sixty percent of the energy before breaking. The lightning finally made its way toward Alex as the Lightning Rod Array was fully activated. *Bam!* The spark of the Lightning Sword began to spread around. As for the sword body, it stopped right in front of the Lightning Rod Array as if there was an invisible barrier. The Lightning Rod Array gradually absorbed the Lightning from it and channeled it into the ground. Alex also used his Space Element to increase the Absorption Rate by making a few Lightning Rod Array inside the Blue Colored realm. He was sweating profusely while controlling the Lightning Rod Array. Hence, it could withstand the lightning for a whole two minutes. However, the situation suddenly changed when he heard a cracking sound coming from the Lightning Rod Array. His Spirit Eyes immediately locked onto the array and *Gasp!* The lightning from the sword started overwhelming the Lightning Rod Array, forcing it to go over the capacity to cause an explosion. It was at this moment, Alex channeled more Spiritual Energy, trying to hold the Lightning Rod Array. "Come on!" Alex shouted while gritting his teeth, looking very serious in dealing with this. Yet, despite his sword, an explosion occurred. *Boom!* 626 Lightning Tribulation Part 4 *Boom!* The explosion occurred and enveloped Alex. Even Nelson might be engulfed if he didn''t retreat a bit further. However, a bit of unrest crept inside his heart because Alex wouldn''t have this much trouble with the Lightning Tribulation. He had accompanied Alex and learned basic information from his memory. Nelson could absolutely say Alex was already beyond Martial Emperor. If he combined everything he had, including his Pure Fire, Alex might be able to fight against 3-Star Martial Monarch with only 10-Star Martial Emperor strength. Yet, the Lightning Tribulation suddenly became something beyond his imagination and struck at his confidence in Alex. "Young Master¡­ After this will be the tenth wave, the Golden Lightning Tribulation. But does he succeed in passing the trial?" The explosion was such a close match as the lightning almost got absorbed by the Lightning Rod Array. Unfortunately, it exploded first. Seeing the dark clouds were still there, Nelson couldn''t say if Alex won or not. He took a deep breath while praying for his good fortune. "Master should have another way in dealing with the tenth wave¡­" Nelson became unsure of his own statement. Alex had fought with everything he got until this point. Remembering how huge the jump from the ninth wave to the tenth wave, he couldn''t say Alex had a high percent in succeeding this Lightning Tribulation. At most, he would say about twenty percent. It was that high because Alex kept creating miracles as he used his strength beyond his imagination. Nelson hoped that Alex would do it again at this moment and passed the tribulation. The wind swept away the smoke from the explosion, revealing Alex covered with fire. That fire suddenly rose to the sky before turning into a phoenix and let out a cry. Alex panted as he stared at his Lightning Rod Array that had been pulverized by the Lightning. In the last second, he managed to activate his Phoenix Aura and covered himself with his Pure Fire. He decided to strike the Lightning with his bare fists. Of course, after covering it with his Domain. It successfully broke the lightning, and his Lightning Rod Array absorbed the remaining Lightning before exploding. He checked his Spiritual Energy and could say he had been exhausted by the first nine waves. Yet, he needed to destroy the last and the strongest one, the Golden Lightning Tribulation. A great doubt flashed in his mind. "Can I do it?" "I have used every single Martial Art, but none can deal with the last one¡­ I have even used all those techniques simultaneously to barely destroy the ninth wave¡­ Do I have another thing that I can use?" Alex asked himself as he gritted his teeth, looking at the golden flash behind the dark clouds. "System, do you have any solution for this?" Alex asked. Even after a few seconds, there was no single answer from the system. Lin Xingzhi could only grit her teeth while watching through the screen. She also couldn''t think a single way to counter this Lightning Tribulation. Remembering the Previous Alex, there might not be a Golden Lightning Tribulation if he failed this one. He needed to use everything to pass this final test, but even with those, he still fell short. He began recalling every person he encountered from the very first world, Agar World. "Alicia, Firia, Teacher, Master, Elder Mithra, Zwaka, Stina, Six Race Leaders, Lin Xingzhi¡­" He kept muttering each big name that might be able to turn the table around, but not even a single answer was found. Alex began falling into despair, wondering what he could do at the moment. As he continued to recall every name, he stumbled on a single name. "Igor¡­" Alex recalled everything about the Sword Path at this moment like he found a hint to his answer. He still needed to search for an answer after that hint, and he needed to think about it in this kind of situation. No, there might be no other way unless he answered this question. "What is my Sword Path? The one that is only unique to me." This question kept repeating inside his mind until his Pure Fire that had been hovering around him appeared in the corner of his vision. "Pure Fire?" These two words jolted his mind and shook his body. "I¡­ I was born with Pure Fire inside me before I encountered the system and learned that I could use Space Element. As for my Sword and Spear ability¡­ The answer was already there a long time ago¡­ A few thousand years ago to be exact from my previous life." He suddenly grasped something, but couldn''t put it into words. He tried to decipher what he got as quickly as possible as a dragon head gradually appeared from inside the cloud. "According to Igor, I need to go to the basics once again. The basics of my Sword and Spear Art arrived from my fighting style and Pure Fire Element¡­ not Space Element." Alex was convinced it was the answer he sought. The only problem was how he could get the real answer of his own Sword Path. Looking at the Lightning Dragon Head in the sky suddenly enlightened him. "Lightning?" "I have barely destroyed the Lighting Sword earlier because I don''t have another powerful attack. I already have the potential of stronger attack, and that is my Mythical Spear Cannon." Alex opened his mouth in surprise. "I can use every single Martial Art with both weapons this whole time, including the two original skills. I can use Triple Draws with both hands and use my Mythical Spear Cannon with both versions¡­ However, I can''t use my Mythical Cannon with Triple Draws? Why is that? I have never had this problem before¡­ Do I lack something?" When the question presented himself, Alex suddenly looked up *Gasp!* "I said it myself earlier that my basics were Sword, Spear, and Fire. The only thing I missed this whole time was my Fire. My Pure Fire was always covering them. Even if I used my Soul to fuse it, I always used the Sword and Spear separately with my power. "The only reason I couldn''t use¡­ No, I never thought about fusing both of them¡­ I might be able to use them in both weapons, but the thought about fusing both Sword and Spear Art never flashed in my mind¡­ If I could fuse them both and created a stronger attack¡­" Alex gulped down as he thought such a crazy thing at this life and death moment. The answer to his question was obvious after all of these thoughts. *Roar!* The Golden Dragon finally let out a sound after charging its energy inside the cloud for two minutes. In front of this roar, Alex''s heart was beating rapidly as he couldn''t help but smile, facing this dragon. This was his one and only chance. He had an image in his mind, but whether he could produce the same thing or not would determine his success. He took a deep breath as he looked at the dragon that began flying down. He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. "To think I will combine my two Original Skills and my Pure Fire in this situation¡­" Alex undoubtedly gambled his future at this moment. If he failed in creating the same attack, like the one in his mind, he might not be able to get the Golden Lightning Tribulation again. However, he would become the biggest winner if he won this gamble. "Haha¡­ Gacha itself is a gamble. I have been gambling from the start of my journey, I shall gamble this one also¡­ Sys- Lin Xingzhi, wish me luck." Alex didn''t call the system this time, but the real person behind his Gacha System. Lin Xingzhi''s expression turned serious as she clenched her fists, hoping the best for him. He clenched his sword and spear as his flame covered both of them. "The Fire God itself said that Pure Fire is an Absolute Fire. No poison or curse would stand in front of my fire. No Fire was able to best mine whether it''s in terms of firepower or control. That''s why this Fire is called Absolute¡­" Alex finally finalized his answer as the flame in his sword grew even further. The energy for his Mythical Spear Cannon already went to the tip of his weapons, ready to destroy this lightning. However, Alex actually used his Triple Draws first. If this were a normal him, Alex would surely fail in this move alone because the Mythical Spear Cannon would break. Yet, there was something different from the previous one. His Mythical Spear Cannon already started shooting, creating a balloon-like flame on the tips of the blade. However, the two blades were in the move because of his Triple Draws. The flame that was in his two blades suddenly formed into a crescent because of the swing with continuous input from his Mythical Spear Canon and finally formed six crescent blades that looked like his Fire Sword Waves. "¡­And with this fire, I can win against anything, and that is including my own attack." Alex used his fire to be a cover for his attack and combined the three moves into one single move. "Go, Mythical Fire Slash!" This name was derived from ''Mythical'' Spear Cannon, Pure Fire, and His Sword Slash. All of them were representing his three foundations of his fighting style. "With this¡­ I shall become a Sword Saint, and my Sword Path is Absolute Blade Path." Alex used this name because he named his intent Twin Blade Path, but with the addition of his fire, it could only go with the Absolute Blade Path. The new six Mythical Fire Slashes flew toward the dragon. The shock wave shook the earth and blew a powerful wind to Alex and Nelson, who was with them. Nelson jumped to the edge of the barrier before creating a small barrier for him. He suddenly knelt on one knee as tears began to form on the corner of his eyes. "This is it¡­ His Majesty will surely be born anew! The God that is feared by many worlds will finally shake the entire universe once again." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and leaned on her chair. She let out a long sigh as the memories about Previous Alex slowly crumbled in her mind. "You are you, and he is him now¡­ It''s already clear in your path alone that you are different¡­ Goodbye, Alex." This incident broke the last barrier in her heart. The memory of the previous Alex that plagued her from making the next move had finally gone. On the other hand, Alex was still in trouble as he covered his body with Phoenix Aura to protect him from this shock wave. He looked at his Mythical Fire Slashes and became completely speechless. This attack alone might be able to be compared to Leoz''s Fire God Cannon. However, it was when Leoz was a 5-Star Martial Monarch. In other words, if Alex became the same level, even his strongest attack, the one with the full chants, wouldn''t be able to win against this attack. The clash between the slashes and the dragon lasted for one minute before his attack managed to cleave this dragon into pieces and made its way toward the cloud. Luckily, the Special Realm itself was a cylinder barrier with the ground as its base and the sky as its limit. The barrier didn''t break with this attack, and Alex officially finished his Lightning Tribulation. *Pant!* *Pant!* As expected, this was the first time he used such a technique, so he didn''t have enough control to make the power input sufficient. He fell on his butt before he turned to Nelson. "I have finished my jobs¡­ You can do the rest." "Yes, Young Master. Leave it to me." Alex nodded and regained his breathing, starting his cultivation while letting the Golden Lightning do its wonder. 627 Lightning Tribulation Part 5 As soon as Alex destroyed the Golden Lightning Tribulation, it turned away and flew back. The cloud that had released such lightning suddenly got attacked by the remaining one. *Boom!* The explosion blasted away the cloud as golden particles started raining down, brightening the whole Special Realm with its sparkles. However, a portion of the particles stuck on the barrier and somehow¡ª *Crack*¡ª The barrier began crumbling to the ground together after the cracking sounds. Yet, it didn''t stop there and continued to the second barrier. Nelson''s body tensed when the barrier got shattered. ''Will the barrier break again like last time?'' Recalling the scene where Alex''s Special Realm in his Lightning Tribulation shook the entire world, Nelson hoped there wouldn''t be such a thing anymore. *Crack!* He clenched his hands as he looked at the barrier that would soon be destroyed by the golden particles. After a minute or so, Nelson let go of his grip and let out a relieved sigh. There wasn''t a single cracking sound anymore after a minute, so he believed Alex''s barrier managed to hold down the burst. It only ended up with many cracks on the barrier that looked very brittle. If Nelson decided to attack this barrier, he only needed one or two strikes. After another minute, the cracks slowly healed. Nelson glanced at the Gathering Array that Alex made earlier, supplying the energy from its surroundings to heal the barrier. "It seems there won''t be any problem right now. The only thing I need to worry, what kind of inheritance he will get in this Lightning Tribulation¡­ considering he has gone through such a Lightning Tribulation." Nelson muttered to himself. Little did he know it was caused by something else, not the inheritance. The golden particles slowly descended from the air to the ground. Nelson sat on the ground and observed Alex''s condition. Alex remained calm this whole time, like how he received the inheritance for the first time. There wasn''t a huge amount of information or whatsoever that made his brain hurt, albeit all of this only in the front. If one touched his head, they would feel the heat coming from it and pull their hand back out of reflex. Maybe he had gotten used to the torture in his Undying Fire Body refining, so he didn''t let out a single groan from this. However, he had clenched his fists, trying so hard to endure it. Inside his mind, much information came by. Alex looked through it a little while letting all the information come by. He found cultivation knowledge inside this inheritance, starting from their power level to their jobs. It turned out that the requirement of Sword Saint came with them. Unfortunately, the information came too late as he already reached Blade Saint. He continued delving into this information, learning everything he could from it. The difference was the planets around Earth were banished one from a universe like this and had no inhabitants. There might be others in habitats elsewhere, but Earth had yet to find them. On the other hand, he found out that almost all planets in this universe had living beings. At this time, he learned the type of planets that Maxwell explained to Firia. This universe had five types of planets: Lower World, Upper World, Divine World, Abandoned World, and Exiled World. Alex realized he came from the last type, the Exiled World. The story that Maxwell told him where Earth fought many worlds and killed many Gods. Although they ended up losing and exiled from this universe, the history was still there. The first world that he always knew as ''Isekai World'' was a Lower World. In this category, planets that had Martial King Stage as the upper limit were considered as a lower world. And this Upper World was the peak of the Upper World because it had the opportunity to become God, whereas Stina''s World was like a weak Upper World. The third type, Divine World, could host many Gods inside as it was their upper limit. Alex thought this would be where he would go after reaching God Stage, and there was no doubt that the place where Alicia and Firia were staying would be in this category. Alex hoped he could meet them soon. The fourth world was the Abandoned World. It was basically a world where there were no inhabitants left, whether they went extinct or left the world completely. These worlds actually somehow piqued his interest, making him wonder what would happen if he came to those worlds. He could go to these worlds even with the resistance as he could seal his power. As long as he limited his power to the peak of that world, no one would be able to kill him. As someone who came from Earth, Alex still felt a bit weird with the concept of having a long lifespan. He had gotten used to the normal 70 years old lifespan, so he saw himself weird. Alex once wondered if there would be a time when he became bored with everything after spending time too long. It might not be the next few hundreds or anything, but he thought there would be a time, whether it was one thousand years or ten thousand years in the future. He thought about adventuring like this might relieve his boredom. In the end, he shook that thought off and proceeded with the next information. It turned out there was a lot of information about the other worlds from their power level, monsters inside them, and so on. At this time, Alex found out that the information was from many years ago, so some of them might not be applicable. Alex kept looking at the information he got this time and noticed that all of this information was more to the general situation of this Universe. Suddenly, he stumbled on one piece of information. The name of Ligoa came to his mind. It was telling about a world that hosted three races, Undead Race, Dwarf Race, and Animal Race. These three races had many technological advantages and a weird pattern of living. ''This is the identity of the three races?'' Alex couldn''t help but think. Their appearance was similar to the one in the description, so he was convinced that they were coming from a planet called Ligoa. Finding this made him a little excited as he roamed freely inside his own mind. He wished to find certain information. It was the world that the Spirit lived in. He thought he would know about their existence if he searched through his memory, but he suddenly stumbled upon two names: Eulja and Mian World. These two had similar descriptions about his Spirits as both of them were the house of Spirits. Alex was wondering which one would be the house of his spirits and planning to ask Nelson about this. He then continued to the next information. After around four days, Alex slowly opened his eyes. He had finished absorbing all those knowledge and would take some time to learn everything. They were not important to him this for the time being since he would be stuck in this world for a few more years. As soon as he opened his eyes, the first thing that came to his vision was Nelson''s face. "Congratulations, Young Master." Nelson clasped his hands before kneeling on one knee. "Thank you." Alex nodded with a smile as he looked at Nelson from the same level since he was still sitting. "I have a question for you, Nelson." "Please ask anything, Young Master. I will answer honestly if I have it." Nelson nodded. "Eulja and Mian World¡­ Which planet do you come from?" Alex asked. "!!!" Nelson''s body shook for the first time. He looked up with widened eyes. "I see. You must really come from one of these two worlds." Alex nodded, confirming half of his answer with just his expression. "So, which one is it?" "I hail from Eulja. However, there is a misconception about these two worlds." "Oh?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "We actually have the same ancestor with them even though our worlds are far apart. It is also¡­" Nelson didn''t continue. "Are these two worlds connected to my previous life?" "You also hailed from Eulja, but later arrived at Mian World. If I need to say, then both of them are under your banner." Nelson answered. "I can''t say I am fond of having responsibility for my previous life¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "Of course. Young Master can live whatever you want. Just know that we will always be behind you even if you don''t recognize us." "You are just adding the reason I can''t abandon¡­" Alex fell into deep thought before saying, "We will talk about this later." "Yes." He took a deep breath and checked his body. His cultivation had reached 1-Star Martial Monarch at the moment. He recalled the knowledge about the soul. If the Martial Emperor Stage allowed him to separate a wisp of his soul into an unmanned object, Martial Monarch Stage let him use the energy in that wisp of soul. In other words, he might be able to seal his soul inside a token and give it to Rose. The moment she needed it, she could summon that wisp of the soul to fight for her. Alex pondered for a moment, thinking whether it would be nice to give Rose something like that. The only reason she could progress this quickly was that she knew how to work hard without relying on his help. After considering for a few minutes, Alex decided not to give it to Rose for the time being. In any case, he could send the token through the system and Ngina, so he wasn''t worried. At this time, the system sent out its notification in succession. Alex already knew it would be mission-related notifications, so he quickly opened it and saw what kind of Gacha he got this time. [Mission: Martial Monarch Stage (Complete) Reward: Gacha Crystal Description: Become a Martial Monarch and unlock every Gacha Types.] [Hidden Mission: Weapon Saint (Complete) Reward: Gacha Hammers x10 Description: Create your own Path and become the master of weapons.] [Host has finished acquiring every type of Gacha, so the system will be unlocking a Special Mission.] [Processing] [Special Mission: Master of Gacha Reward: Gacha System''s Final Update Description: You have acquired every Gacha in this system. Now it is your turn to spread the love of Gacha to the world. Reward your friends, disciples, subordinates, and those who have worked hard by using the Gacha. Everything will be up to their luck and karma. This function will only be unlocked after Host enters the Martial Saint Stage.] 628 Gacha Palace Part 1 Alex stared at these three missions for a while, standing still as if nothing in the world could bother him. "System, what is this Gacha Crystal?" Alex asked, starting from the first reward. [How about coming to the Gacha Palace? I will answer everything there.] Alex hesitated for a second but saw the second and third rewards. He thought it must be easier for the system to explain all of these inside the Gacha Palace. Having no objection to her request, he opened the gate that led to the Gacha Palace and entered it. "Nelson. I will be going for a while." Alex left a message before closing the gate. "Yes." As soon as he answered, the gate vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, Alex walked forward while looking at all the Gacha Machines and found another machine on the corner. The machine itself was a box with a sphere on top of it. Inside the sphere were hexagonal prisms with a length of one meter. Alex squinted his eyes and found a ball inside these prisms. He was shocked by its size as it was only slightly smaller than a soccer ball. The box below the sphere had a hole that had the exact size as the prisms. "Welcome to Gacha Palace." A woman''s voice was heard from the opposite direction. He turned around and looked at Lin Xingzhi with her usual system girl appearance. "Is that the new Gacha?" "Yes. You have read the name earlier. It''s called Gacha Crystals." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a smile before walking forward. "Please follow me." Without questioning her, he walked right behind her. There was no word uttered until they arrived in front of the machine. "This is Gacha Crystals. It has many special functions that will make you drool." Lin Xingzhi grinned and pointed at the crystals inside the sphere. "The machine will shuffle the crystals inside and shoot one for you. The only way to break the crystal is with the Gacha Hammer." Alex listened to her explanation but felt something was wrong. "But isn''t this like the first Gacha?" "I will explain about that area. First of all, it only can shoot out one crystal at a time." She paused for a moment and crossed her arms. "You might think it is similar since I can just make the machine shoot continuously, but it turns out we can''t do that. As long as the crystal hasn''t broken yet, you can''t continue." "My opinion still stands." Alex nodded. "There is actually one small trick that makes this one very different. First of all, you can use many tickets in normal Gacha, and you will get your reward accordingly. In this Gacha, if you open a total of five crystals, the system will guarantee you a UR item." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "UR item?" Alex''s eyes widened, and his mouth opened. "Are you serious?" Alex was tempted by the offer and thought about it. However, he decided to shake his head as there was another thing that he needed to ask. "By the way, what is this final update thing?" "It''s literally the system final update." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. "Every beginning will have its end one day, and Gacha System will have it when you reach the Martial Saint, though you have unlocked the achievement right now." "It''s pretty useless to get it now." Alex rolled his eyes. "Haha¡­ Don''t say it like that." Lin Xingzhi smiled mysteriously, confusing Alex. "What?" "Everything beginning has an end, but it also means the new beginning. Just like the mission title ''Master of Gacha,'' you have really become its master at this point. You should spread the joy of Gacha to the whole world with this, and it is entirely up to you." "¡­" Alex fell into silence as he somehow felt an underlying meaning behind her words. It took him a few minutes before he found out what it was. "You mean I can update the system myself?" "You are only half right. You can''t update the system as it has the last update already. However, you can add any Gacha you want and use it for other people." Lin Xingzhi grinned, thinking of many bad plans he could use. "For example, you can reward Rose with this Gacha like how you are teaching her right now." Alex widened his eyes. "It''s true that I have taught Rose that not everything will come like what she wants to¡­ Ah, you are telling me that she might not get the reward in front of her eyes, and she shouldn''t be greedy about it." "Yeah." "I see." Alex nodded a few times. If Rose went to search for an inheritance to increase her strength, the inheritance might not suit her. He had been teaching her not to give up and search for a new one. Seeing Rose''s performances this whole time, Alex might create a new Gacha to reward her for her effort. To that case, he still needed another thing. "I want to ask you something¡­" "Sure." "If I invite Rose to the Spirit Nest, she could see the system as well, right?" "Yes." "Then, can I give her a set of missions?" "I believe so after the last update." Alex blinked his eyes a few times before smiling widely. "What are you thinking?" "I want to make a set of missions for Rose. In those missions, she could get dice. And then, I will build a board ranging from number one to fifty. Each number will have different rewards depending on her level." "Ah¡­ I see. She will get a reward according to her luck, and the moment she comes back to the first tile, the reward will reset." Lin Xingzhi nodded, thinking it was an interesting concept. "I can make one for you. After you reach Martial Saint and unlock this function, you can invite her to the Spirit Nest and do this." "Thank you." Alex smiled. "For your information, you can reward a stranger with this system without letting them inside Spirit Nest, you know." "What do you mean?" "Like you can make a set of Gacha that can be used for other people. So when you call them into the real world, you can let them use it once and get their reward based on luck and karma." She crossed her arms and said with a pacifying tone. "You have helped me, so come and receive your reward. Everything is based on your luck and karma¡­ It will also reflect all of your action in this mission. So, the reward will also correspond to your effort¡­ You can say like that in the future." "¡­" Alex was speechless. "I mean, if you give a group a set of tasks, you can know which one of them is lucky and hard-working and which one is leeching off them. After all, I''m sure you won''t use something like this in this world¡­ which means you will be God before you actually use it. I think it is normal." Lin Xingzhi nodded repeatedly. "Besides, you can develop more and more to relieve your boredom since I myself find it quite funny." Alex shrugged. "Well, I don''t know exactly how I will feel about that. I have reached the Martial Monarch Stage before thirty years old and might reach Martial God before forty¡­ I don''t feel like one since I''m this young." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "You will get used to it." Lin Xingzhi shrugged her shoulder, fully knowing about the vision of his previous world. "Right¡­" Alex sighed. "I have one more question." "Tell me." "I have gotten the inheritance from the Golden Lightning Tribulation. However, I feel like the challenge wasn''t equal to the reward." Alex frowned. "I feel the same." She looked down as if she was weighing something. "If we take a look at your first and second Golden Lightning Tribulation where you received Sword and Spear Intent. I think it is normal to be classified as the first two. Not only it has a tremendous use for you in the beginning, but it is also a skill that you need to nurture." "Indeed. If I receive such a thing today¡­ I might not be able to acquire this Absolute Blade Path and become a Blade Saint." Alex nodded in agreement. "Exactly¡­ Then the Alchemist, Array Master, and Forging Master knowledge come to you followed by Element Arts and Martial Arts." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment before realizing something off. "There is actually something different in your Martial Emperor Lightning Tribulation. Do you remember that it was insanely strong as well? Not to the point of this one though." "I certainly remember it." Alex nodded. It was one of the scary experiences he had, and he could absolutely say it surpassed his expectation. However, it still didn''t manage to go beyond his imagination. Yet, the lightning tribulation this time had gone beyond his imagination to the point he didn''t know how to encounter it. If he didn''t have any information about Blade Saint Stage, he would likely fail. Lin Xingzhi replied, "I speculated you have a stronger Lightning Tribulation there because no one actually has their Lightning Tribulation¡­ No, I should say that Lightning Tribulation is not a thing in their vocabulary. The energy will slowly accumulate little by little as Lightning Tribulation is one of the ways to deplete a world''s energy. "Take a look at their world. They might have a limit of 7-Star Martial Emperor, but can you see that they are blessed with magical herbs? I know that you are thinking it might because they never harvest those herbs, but the amount itself is quite abnormal." "So, you are saying the Lightning Tribulation have gotten power up from the excess energy?" Alex asked. "Yes." "But it doesn''t explain what happened here." Alex shook his head. "I know this place is different than the normal one, but it is only a Special Realm that is connected to the outside world. Even the arrays are inside the Blue Colored Realm, it still doesn''t explain." "This¡­" Lin Xingzhi hadn''t gone through every knowledge in his mind, so she was a bit clueless. "Maybe we can find it later?" "Yeah. Maybe in my Martial Saint Lightning Tribulation, the answer to this will be clear. If it''s truly because of this Special Realm, then I might as well not create a special realm at all¡­ I would already reach God Stage anyway." "Fair enough." She nodded. If Alex left this place, no one could take advantage of this Golden Lightning information. Even if they were forced to go outside this world, it would be too late because Alex might have broken through several times. "Alright. Since you decided it that way, how about we open the Gacha now?" "Sure." Alex nodded. "I will use the new Gacha this time." 629 Gacha Palace Part 2 "I will use the new Gacha this time." Alex nodded as he looked back on the new Gacha. There was this red button that intrigued him like it was there just to tempt him. Like how most people would be tempted if there was a single button that he didn''t know what it was for, Alex also wanted to hit this button to see what would happen. Luckily he had a tendency to ask first before doing anything. "Is this the button?" "Of course. You can push the button, and a crystal will appear." Lin Xingzhi smiled. Having her confirmed it was okay, Alex pushed the red button. The machine started glowing as the spheres were spinning inside. A few seconds later, one of the crystals dropped to the box before coming out as if the machine shot it. Alex looked at this crystal that was floating still right in front of the machine. The pure transparent crystal that allowed him to see the yellow and white Gacha Ball inside. The crystal inside shone with white color, making it look special. Lin Xingzhi slowly walked toward Alex as she waved her hand and took out a small hammer from the Inventory. The hammer wasn''t that big as its length was only two times of her palm. In fact, she couldn''t grab this hammer with two hands as it would cover it completely. On the tip of the hammer were two flat surfaces, left and right. The handle was a thin golden rod with a size perfect to be grasped by a normal human. She stretched her hand, giving him the hammer. "You need this." Alex glanced at her, nodded, and smiled gently. "Thank you." Taking the hammer from her hand, Alex raised the hammer and slammed it on the crystal. *Crack!* He didn''t hit it too hard because he didn''t know whether it would break the Gacha Ball inside. His strength was too low to the point it barely touched the glass. Yet, the crystals started breaking, and the ball fell. Alex widened his eyes as he glanced back and forth between Lin Xingzhi and the Gacha Ball. "Fufu¡­ It''s normal." Lin Xingzhi chuckled. "As long as the hammer touches it even with the strength that even a baby wouldn''t feel it, it still breaks." "¡­" Alex was speechless. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, it surely killed the excitement in his heart. Lin Xingzhi waved her finger, and the ball suddenly flew toward her. She didn''t hand the ball to Alex. Instead, she put it in her embrace with the ''G'' symbol facing him and pushed it. The head-size ball slowly opened, revealing the reward inside. Alex squinted his eyes as he wondered what kind of luck he had today. A black bow rose from the ball as if it just came through a different dimension. The bow itself didn''t have any weird pattern and such; only a few parts had green color. A notification appeared in front of him, giving him the name and rank. [Devastator (SR) Acquired.] "It''s not good to spoil Rose too much." Lin Xingzhi warned him. "It''s still rank 7 bow nonetheless while Rose is still a Martial King. If you give her this bow and make her rely on this bow too much, it¡­" "I know." Alex stopped her with his words. "I can put it in the Inventory for the time being. Or maybe I can ask Zekhram to fuse a Lightning Gem inside this and give it to Rose through the Gacha? I can set it to the UR item." "That is a good idea." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Although I''m worried that she might become reckless to complete missions as to get dice from it, the reward will correspond to her power level. So, she should be able to think that this bow is not fated with her if she can''t get it when it''s still there." "That''s what I want to do." Alex smirked. "Though I somehow feel that your common sense is a little distorted." Lin Xingzhi said with a poker face. "You throw away a precious gem like this nonchalantly." "Well, I have gotten a few gems from Zwaka back then and you." Alex shrugged. "The Gacha system has been leading me out of common sense." "Now you are blaming me." Lin Xingzhi crossed her arms and looked away. "Though it''s already not common sense for a normal human to have a system like this." "True enough." Alex nodded. "Rather than talking about this, we should continue breaking the other nine crystals." Alex agreed with her words and pushed the red button again. He destroyed the crystal again with a slight effort, and Lin Xingzhi picked it up again. The ball shone in golden color this time before a scroll came out of this ball. This time the scroll size wasn''t too big as Alex felt it could fit inside the box as long as they squeezed it. "Congratulations. You get one UR item." Lin Xingzhi smiled after looking at the golden color. "Eh?" Alex took a step back while tilting his head, wondering if he heard it right. "This is only the second one, right? I shouldn''t get the bonus yet¡­ Does this mean I''m pretty lucky today?" "Haha¡­ We won''t know for sure." She chuckled. Alex looked at the notification in front of him. [Fire Authority - Fake Version (UR) Acquired.] "Fake version?" Alex tilted his head to the front while squinting his eyes. "This¡­ What is this technique? I don''t know where to start¡­" It was normal for Alex to be speechless. First of all, he never encountered a fake version before, so the sudden appearance of this item startled him. Secondly, Alex couldn''t comprehend how exactly a fake version could attain Ultra Rank in the system, even more so when he got this at Martial Monarch Stage. Suddenly, a ridiculous thought flashed in his mind as he abruptly commented. "If a fake version is this strong, then the real version is a Divine Level Martial Art?" Alex looked at Lin Xingzhi, who only smiled at him, not giving him any answer. "Well, I can say I''m curious about this Fire Authority that has such a high rank. I will check it later after I use all of my Gacha Hammers." Alex then proceeded to the next crystal, and so on. [Rank 7 Monster Blood (R) Acquired.] [Sun Cleaving Technique (SR) Acquired.] [Rank 8 Blazing Crown Furnace (UR) Acquired.] [500x500 Meters Array Paper (R) Acquired.] [Random Elemental Orb (SR) Acquired.] [Gacha Card x1 (R) Acquired.] [Blood Axe x1 (R) Acquired.] [Violet Blue Ganoderma (UR) Acquired.] Alex was pretty happy with the blood even though he could have as much as he wanted. This would only give him more blood stock for the array. As for the Sun Cleaving Technique, it was a pretty nice skill if he could say. Unfortunately, it was still weaker than his Blade of Conquest if it was released on the ground. On the other hand, Alex had the new technique, Mythical Fire Slash, if he wished for a Sword Wave that was able to fly. He ended up tossing the technique inside his Inventory in disappointment. But it changed after he got the next item, which was a rank 8 Furnace. As the system said, the Gacha would guarantee a UR item after using it five times. He thought that the UR he got in the second draw didn''t reset the count, making him feel relieved. He gratefully accepted this rank 8 Alchemist Furnace as it was useful if he wanted to make money. The furnace itself looked like a crown, perfectly reflecting its name. It had golden color with a few colored gems as the decoration. The fire was enveloping the red gem on the lid as it would burst out at any moment. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found out that the gem would really spit fire from there. The furnace would also burn them from the top to boost the refining speed from what he could see. After checking the furnace, he went to the next item, which was Array Paper. As usual, he welcomed every material that came to his way, since there was no telling where he would need them. Just like the next item, Random Elemental Orb, Alex gratefully accepted it and even thought about using it on the Devastator he just got. He hoped to get a lightning enhancement to boost Rose''s power, but he didn''t have any spare rank 7 bow, so he put it aside for the time being. The eighth Gacha was also another Gacha. Alex lifted up his eyebrows as he found it weird, especially in this type of Gacha. Alex shook that thought off as the normal Gacha also gave Summoning Coins, so there was no different. The ninth Gacha was the lowest one in his opinion. No one actually used an Axe, so he just threw it aside and moved onto the last item. The name of Violet Blue Ganoderma rang a bell inside his mind. This medicinal herb was one of the ingredients for a rank 8 pill that could raise one''s talent. It was something that everyone wanted to possess, of course, except for him and Letizia. Pure Element already attained the highest level of talent since birth. If they managed to transform their Pure Fire even further like Alex''s Undying Fire Body, a technique that could refine a Pure Fire user''s body, and The Fire God''s Fire. Naturally, it was hard to find something like this. If Alex didn''t have the system, he wouldn''t get Undying Fire Body while if he didn''t end up in that world and met that Fire God, his Pure Fire would only be a normal awakened Pure Fire. Alex put this in his Inventory and thought about making such a pill much, much later since it was a rank 8 pill. He thought this pill alone was worth a fortune, and it might become the very top item in an auction. "Congratulations on getting three UR items." Lin Xingzhi smiled. After opening all crystals, it was time to part again with Lin Xingzhi. He looked at her with a gentle smile. "I¡­ need to go back. Although I always enjoyed the little time I had here, I still have many things to do." "Don''t worry about me. I will always be with you here. Besides, You have been talking with me from time to time." She waved her hands, and the white door appeared behind her. "I will always be here¡­ and in the future, you might find the real me. I''m really looking forward to that." "I promise." Alex smiled and nodded before starting to walk past the door. "See you later." Lin Xingzhi kept watching the door that had disappeared with a happy smile. "You have many things to do because you want to keep stronger to protect your family. It was the same as the previous you. Carrying all the burden in your shoulder and protecting every single of us, how many worlds had you destroyed for that? "But that uniqueness of yours also pulled many people in. You gathered us who loved you, friends that you could trust your back, a full family that would follow you without hesitation even if it meant death, disciples that idolized you, and followers that were in awe with your light. "Although it was slightly different, like Putri and Evelyn, the reason was still the same. You considered them as your friend and family. Hence, you could give it all to protect them. You had been acting like you didn''t care about Song Yu, but deep inside your heart, you wanted to kill those people from the Blackwade Clan." She closed her eyes for a moment as she didn''t know why she said something like this. "I might be too happy for his advancement since he had reached Absolute Blade Saint, only a single step more to be an Absolute Blade God. I will be waiting for you in Eulja, Alex." 630 Sherry Alex came out of Gacha Palace only to find nobody around him. He searched for Nelson in his surroundings and didn''t manage to locate him. ''Nelson must be patrolling around the area.'' As he said earlier, Alex had another job to do. He waved his hand, taking out the scroll he got earlier from the Inventory. Fire Authority - Fake Version The name alone managed to pique his interest. There was so much potential in this technique as it was only a fake version, but the thought about not finding the real one made him hesitate. "Even if I don''t have the real version, I can use this technique to pass by until I reach God Stage. It''s still a few years though." Alex shrugged, accepting what he got gratefully. He opened the scroll and read the first line. It was the technique''s name again with the creator''s name below it. "Phitrus¡­" Alex muttered his name before recalling a certain person. "Geh. It''s him?" There was only one person with this name that could create a powerful technique like this. He met him in the Phoenix Trial. That''s right. The man was none other than the previous Fire God, Phitrus. Alex blinked his eyes a couple of times, not knowing what to say. "He was a Fire God and created this awesome Pure Fire. I should say as expected of him¡­ To create a powerful technique that could be considered as a UR rank item in his system despite being only a fake. Nonetheless, I should read it now." ''Fire Authority can only be used by someone who has Pure Fire. This technique lets you control the Fire Energy around you and order them around. ''For example, if I say ''Fire,'' then it will create a fire that should have been smaller if I control it in a normal way. By ordering the fire energy around your body, you only need half Spiritual Energy. Isn''t this technique good? If you say it''s bad, then I don''t think there are many good techniques out there. ''This technique will allow you to get twice the result with half an effort. However, the charm of this technique doesn''t end here. The real strength of this technique is that ''order'' word that I have written earlier. ''Controlling the energy around you can also mean for the enemies too. I can make my enemy kneel just with a single order. Of course, I can only control those who have fire. ''Nonetheless, If you have my Godly Pure Fire, this will increase the effectiveness in controlling the fire. You can try it yourself once you have mastered this technique. Before I start formally explaining everything about this technique, I want to challenge you first. I created this technique using a few thousand years of knowledge and mastered it within a few hundred years. The challenge is to beat my record. ''If you are ready to start mastering this technique, you can pour your Spiritual Energy below this, and the formal education will start for you. Anyway, don''t be too tense. It''s already a completed technique, so I believe you can do it.'' Alex finished reading it and found a small circle that only fit one finger. Phitrus might want him to insert the energy from here and start the challenge. Yet, Alex had no intention of doing that. It was true that this technique tempted him very much, but he had several things to do. He wanted to finish the matter in this world first before training this. "When should I begin the training? The technique itself seems powerful, and the creator is that Fire God. It should have a good premise. Although I don''t want to admit it, he might sound so playful, but his technique is strong beyond my imagination." Alex murmured as Pure Fire appeared on his hand. He raised his hand and looked at the glowing red fire. "This Pure Fire itself is truly one of a kind. If the technique requires such a flame, then it might be very powerful. Seven months¡­ I don''t know if this is long or not, but I know I need to succeed in this challenge. The curiosity about the maximum potential of this technique is killing me." Alex let out a long sigh before tossing the scroll to his Inventory again. He thought if he had this technique, he might be able to fight against the Fire God Clan. Yet, he couldn''t be sure since there was still a huge gap. Even if he used this technique, his Spiritual Energy wouldn''t last that long. After finishing the discussion with himself, Alex took out Nelson''s card and asked. "Nelson, where are you?" "I am not far from you, Young Master. I will go back in a minute." Nelson answered. "Alright." Alex nodded. In the meantime, he began observing the barrier around. The long four days had sealed all the cracks on the second barrier, healing it to the previous form. However, Alex knew the first barrier was obliterated easily, and the second barrier managed to hold out barely. Although he might be in a deep cultivation state while receiving the inheritance, he still felt the energy around him. The suction force from the Gathering Array was big enough for his skin to sense it despite having his mind burned. In exactly a minute, Nelson arrived in front of him and clasped his hands respectfully. "Young Master. What are we going to do now?" "First of all, let us remove all the arrays first." Alex smiled. "Understood." Nelson nodded and disappeared again. Alex could follow his shadow and fly in the opposite direction. He deactivated the barrier before burning all the symbols. The destroying process would certainly be faster than the creating process. In just a matter of minutes, Alex managed to erase the trace of arrays, including the Gathering Array. After that, he regrouped with Nelson to the previous spot. "I have finished my breakthrough, so we can go to the Undying King and Zekhram. They should have it done, right?" Alex asked. "I doubt it." Nelson shook his head. "First of all, Zekhram only came to the Undead Race for about two weeks¡­ three weeks if you include the Lightning Tribulation and inheritance time. According to him, he needs a month to finish the process before refining the weapons." "Well, it''s only around one week or so. No big deal." Alex nodded. "We might be able to watch it anyway." "Yeah. Young Master might know more about Forging even though I have your memory. After all, we might know your memory, but with the sudden influx of memory, we also need to take time to learn everything one by one. That''s why I doubt everyone has learned a large portion of your memory. At best, only Mistress Anna and Anya have understood it all." For Anna and Anya, Alex''s memory and knowledge were something worth devouring. The reason was simple. If they didn''t know what he was talking about because they lacked knowledge in that area, it would be too sad for Alex. On the other hand, if they learned it and gave some input when Alex asked them, it would be nice. "Is that so?" Alex nodded. "Anyway, I''m going to teleport us to the Undead Race before coming back here. You will inform me when they start refining since I want to watch." "Why are you staying here, Young Master?" "I will spare some time with Sherry and the others before cultivating for a while." Alex smiled. Nelson fell into silence for a few seconds before nodding. "Understood." Alex then created a teleportation array and dropped Nelson off in front of the Undead Race. Of course, he had the hammer with him since it was always inside the Inventory. Alex then teleported back to Sherry and the others. "Master!" Sherry, of course, was very eager to see him. Even though she was cultivating, she didn''t enter the deep state cultivation as to wait for him. When she heard the footsteps coming from afar, she opened her eyes and rose from the ground. Yet, unlike her usual action where she ran and hugged him, calmness still filled her face as she walked toward Alex. "Congratulations, Master." Alex couldn''t help but smile when he faced this cute little fox girl. Although he missed her usual child-like action, he preferred this one better. It was kind to Sherry''s development. "Sherry¡­" Both were still calm, but the reflex was still there. They came closer and hugged each other while Alex patted her heads¡­ Albeit, he ended up stroking her hair because Sherry was already tall enough to the point he needed a weird pose to pat her in this position. Kyle and Stina had sensed his presence too but decided to act like they didn''t know it. They just wanted to give Alex and Sherry some space. "Master, let''s talk there." She pointed at the huge tree that was used as the portal. "Sure." Alex nodded. They walked together and found a perfect spot to sit down. Alex sat and leaned his back to the tree as he looked up. Sherry came to him and sat on his lap out of reflex. "Ah!" She only realized that when Alex suddenly patted her head. It looked like he was the same. She then leaned back on his chest, feeling the bliss. "I could still remember the place where we met. To think that a fox that I almost killed could sit like this with me." Alex chuckled. "I-" Sherry didn''t know what to say. "I am not saying it''s a bad thing. In fact, I am grateful to have you as my companion. You have saved me multiple times. That forest where I almost got killed¡­ If you were not with me, protecting me with your lives, I might not be able to reach this place." "Master too¡­ I had gotten too comfortable and somehow forgot my initial goal. Just like Master helped me evolve, I also wanted to assist you in your journey. I only realized it in that place where we met Kyle. Along the way, I became a burden for you." "You are not your burden and never will." Alex shook his head. "I didn''t know how many times I almost went insane when I saw you hurt yourself." "I just did what I needed to do." Sherry shook her head. "Besides, Master will always be the number one in my heart. Whether it is the life and death contract that binds us together, or whatever. I won''t care. Nothing would be able to replace Master¡­" Sherry paused for a second. "Master¡­ Am I too greedy to ask this?" Sherry turned around and looked at him with a serious expression. "Can¡­ Can I be the special someone on your side? I don''t wish to have the relationship stay this way¡­ I also want to be like Sister Anna, Anya, Firia, and Alicia. I am happy that I can turn into a human and match Master''s appearance, but that is not enough. If Master doesn''t like my body, I can change it in the next evolution to fit Master''s preference. I want-" Before she finished her words, Alex already kissed her on the lips, only releasing her lips after a minute. He looked at Sherry with a serious face. "You are always my special someone¡­ My past views have hindered me this long and made you worry. I apologize." She didn''t know why, but she wanted to cry at this moment. The tears slowly formed on the corner of her eyes that would fall if she blinked her eyes once. "Master, can I¡­" Alex answered her by kissing her again and proved it to her that she would always be the special someone. 631 Sherrys Evolution The next day, Alex woke up inside the small hut that he made out of rock yesterday. He had all the furniture inside his Inventory, so even though the hut was made of rock, the inside was fairly comfortable. He looked at Sherry on the bed, who, for an unknown reason, turned into her original form. Alex couldn''t help but smile, looking at this cute little fox. Turning around, Alex looked at the door he sealed with a curtain. He came out and searched for Kyle and Stina, only to find them still cultivating. However, they opened their eyes as soon as Alex came as if they knew everything. Stina greeted Alex with a bow while Kyle smiled at him. "Congratulations, Master." They didn''t specify what the congratulations were for, but Alex somehow realized it wasn''t for his advancement to Martial Monarch, but more to Sherry. He thought for a moment and said, "I will be with you guys for a couple of days until Nelson informs me." Stina smiled and added, "And spend more time with Sherry." Kyle didn''t say anything. He might have some knowledge about it, but not experience. Rather than having embarrassed himself in front of Alex and Stina, he chose to stay quiet. "Yeah," Alex admitted it boldly. He had a principle to stay as a human and rejected all those blood that might turn him into something other than human, but he never once thought it was wrong to have another being to be his wife. Although it was unofficial as they didn''t have any ceremony or whatsoever, he regarded Anna, Anya, and Sherry as his. "Master, we have a request." Kyle suddenly broke his silence, looking at Alex with a serious face. "Stina and I wish to stay here for the time being. I know that Master will go to another place after this and might only come back after a couple of months, but I am afraid that I need to stay here and cultivate to follow Master''s cultivation speed." This was the consensus of Stina and Kyle. Having a deep slumber shortened the distance between Alex and them. Stina, who woke up earlier, only managed to reach 2-Star not long ago while Sherry and Kyle were at the peak 1-Star Martial Monarch Stage. If they spent too much time outside, they were afraid Alex would be too strong for them. Usually, they would have a few starts gap and helped him many times. The moment they lost that advantage would be the day they were useless¡­ or so they thought. Alex never cared about it, but he also respected their decision. They were his contracted beasts and his partners, not his slaves. Even if they were his slave, like Letizia, he would still think the best for them. That was why when they asked this, Alex had no need to think about the answer. "Alright. I always hope the best for you." Kyle and Stina bowed their head in unison. "Thank you, Master." "Yes," Kyle and Stina answered without hesitation. They had discussed this matter earlier and thought Alex might be angry and forced them to enter it with him. As he said earlier, Alex just wanted the best for them. In that case, they only had one answer. Alex nodded. "I will move forward with every step you take." "Anyway, you guys can have some time first. I need to check Sherry." Alex turned around and waved his hands. He walked back to the hut and sat on the bed as he looked at this adorable fox. However, when he was about to touch her, Sherry suddenly released a pink flame. Alex pulled his hand back out of reflex, not knowing what happened. He activated his Spirit Eyes and found out that there was a blazing red flame inside her body. "What is this?" Alex narrowed his eyes and remembered the knowledge he learned from the Golden Lightning Tribulation. ''It should have the information about Celestial Fox, right?'' He closed his eyes and roamed his memory for almost half an hour before finding the information. The knowledge inside his brain was still messed up as he had yet to sort them out. "Let me see¡­" Alex read through the information and muttered to himself. "It seems Sherry is undergoing another evolution. Celestial Fox has a hard time finding its mate because they are not worthy of their power. However, if they do find a mate, there are a few possibilities that will depend on their partner. "If their partner is weaker, a seed of Celestial Fox''s Fire will go inside their partner and nurture the Fire Energy inside their body. The original Celestial Fox will be weakened in due time. Of course, this condition will only appear if they have a life and death contract because the Celestial Fox has trusted them with their lives. Even if they are weakened, their partner will surely protect them. There are some rare cases where the partners of the Celestial Fox after acquiring their talent, but it is still rare. "If the Celestial Fox doesn''t trust them with their life, the Fire Seed wouldn''t appear in the partner''s body. This is one and crucial future to have the Celestial Fox not wanted by those power-hungry people. "On the other hand, if their partner is stronger, the same will happen but on the Celestial Fox''s body. There is only Pure Fire that has this qualification. The Pure Fire seed inside the body will nurture the Celestial Fox''s fire. It may not have the same level of Pure Fire, but it will be very close to the point the Celestial Fox wouldn''t feel a single elemental suppression from a Pure Fire user. It may allow them to battle against any Pure Element without being at a disadvantage." Alex finished recalling his memory and could say that he was satisfied with Sherry''s condition. "I see. Sherry is going to have my fire¡­ But my Pure Fire has been strengthened to the level that can make other Pure Fire ashamed?? Doesn''t it mean Sherry''s fire will have more improvement? In fact, she may get to Pure Fire level¡­" There was only joy filling his heart when he thought about it. According to the knowledge, it would depend on their partner, which was him. The only one that qualified was Pure Fire, while he was one level higher than them. If Pure Fire could make Sherry close to it, his fire would allow Sherry to surpass that level. He didn''t have concrete evidence, but the probability was high. "I see¡­ Sherry might become a Pure Fire user as well. No, it can be said she would be the one and only Celestial Fox that has Pure Fire." Alex closed his eyes, letting the happiness creep in his heart. Suddenly, he remembered another thing. "Pure Fire?" Anxiety replaced all of his happiness in a split second when he remembered the Phoenix Seed. When having intercourse, Alex sealed his Pure Fire inside his Fire Phoenix Seed. He was afraid that it would affect Sherry and might even downgrade her flame. Sherry might not mind it, but Alex still wanted the best for her. He activated his Spirit Eyes and checked his Fire Phoenix Seed inside his body, only to be shocked again by its disappearance. Out of reflex, Alex took out his fire and opened his eyes wide when he saw the fire. "This¡­ This is my Pure Fire¡­ Not my Phoenix Fire." He channeled Spiritual Energy inside him to find the seed even though the answer was already apparent. Although he didn''t want to admit, the seed was already inside Sherry. Tears slowly formed on the corner of his eyes, and guilt began filling his heart as he looked at Sherry. "Sherry¡­ I''m sorry¡­ I''m sorry." Alex still remembered the last time tears came out of his eyes. It was when Firia came to the Upper World and left him. And Sherry had become one of his heart''s weak spots. If he somehow weakened Sherry by his own hand, the guilt will always be in his heart. "I''m sorry, Sherry." Alex knelt on his knees in front of Sherry while slamming the bed. "I''m too careless¡­ I should take a look at this knowledge first!" "If I''m not¡­ If I¡­" Alex clenched his hands while looking at Sherry. Suddenly, his Spirit Eyes noticed something strange. What he saw was indeed his Phoenix Seed, but inside that seed was his Pure Fire. He didn''t notice this because the Pure Fire had regenerated inside his body the moment the Phoenix Seed integrated with Sherry''s body. "This¡­" Alex dropped his jaw to the ground. "This¡­ my Pure Fire is still there. Now that I think about it, the Phoenix Seed is storing Pure Fire while releasing the Phoenix Fire, right? If Sherry can melt that Phoenix Seed, will she get my Pure Fire?" There was still hope in his eyes, and the only way to prove whether it was good news or not was to wait until Sherry woke up. This was the problem he created; he bore the responsibility to see it to a proper conclusion. ¡­ A few days later, Alex still sat in front of Sherry, not taking away his eyes for even a second. He had no mood to cultivate these few days since this matter was more important to him. Unfortunately, disappointment filled his heart as the seed had no sign of fusing or melting. At this time, Sherry''s body slowly turned into her human form, revealing her naked figure, and before long, she gradually opened her eyes. "Master?" Sherry looked at him with fuzzy eyes as she slowly rose from the bed. "Sherry¡­" Alex wanted to apologize, but the words stuck on his throat. One part of him wanted to explain the problem, but another part told him to wait until she discovered it first. "Master¡­ Why do you have anguish in your face? I just want to tell you about good news." Sherry stretched her hands to his cheeks and smiled. "Good news?" Alex''s body shook. "Yes." Sherry retracted her hands before raising one in front of him. Her palm was on the top as a pink fire appeared on her hand. "This¡­" Alex widened his eyes. The flame looked like her usual flame, but Alex could feel it¡­ the feeling of Pure Fire. "This Fire is at the same level as my Pure Fire¡­ The first time before the awakening and the evolution." "Yes. I don''t know why, but Master''s Fire came inside him and refined my fire into something like this." Sherry nodded before smiling uncontrollably. "I have another surprise for Master, though." "Another surprise?" "Yes." Sherry nodded and closed her eyes for a few seconds before the flame on her hand blazed intensely. "This¡­ This¡­" Alex dropped his jaw to the ground. How could he not? The fire turned into his Pure Fire that had evolved. "Actually, I want to apologize to Master for stealing your Phoenix Seed. However, the seed seems to have turned into something else. This seed can produce a little amount of Master''s current Pure Fire and let me use it for a period of time." "That''s it!" Alex looked at the seed once more and noticed the difference. He hugged Sherry tightly. "Your Pure Fire has really turned into Pure Fire, and you can even use my evolved Pure Fire!" "Yes." Sherry nodded, not knowing why Alex had such an exaggerated reaction. "I''m glad¡­ I''m truly glad!" Sherry didn''t know why he reacted like this, but hugged him and stroked his back when she felt his hand shaking. Although she didn''t know whether she could give a Sacrificial Element to someone, she knew she would be more useful to Alex. Yet, she couldn''t be fully happy because Alex had no way to prevent his Pure Fire from being found out. 632 The Reason of His Absurd Lightning Tribulation "I''m glad." Alex finally released her after a while. "I thought my Fire Phoenix Seed might weaken you." "What do you mean, Master?" Sherry tilted her head, confused by his words. She just got the exact opposite of that to the point she could proudly say she had become overpowered. Alex forgot that Sherry had no knowledge about a Celestial Fox. She knew she was one of them, but that was it. He explained everything he knew to Sherry and the danger that might befall to her. After a few minutes, Sherry only smiled. "If that is all, I don''t mind. I have a dream, and that dream has been fulfilled. Even dying right now is fine-" Alex put his hand on her mouth, looking at her with anguish. "Don''t say that again!" Sherry was startled when he stopped her from talking, but she didn''t know her words actually hurt him in the process. She looked down, feeling guilty. Even her ears tilted down and her tail curled up. "I''m sorry." "You are one of my most important people. After going through that betrayal, I have been skeptical about it. I want to be sure I don''t make the wrong choice again, and once I make a decision, it will stay forever." Alex smiled sadly before retracting his hand. "So, don''t say it like that." "Yes. I won''t say it again." Sherry nodded furiously. "Alright. We shouldn''t linger around this topic again." Alex raised his hand as he noticed the awkward situation. "Nelson is going to inform me tomorrow or the day after. I have told Stina and Kyle that I want to bring them there if I can use the Soul Altar with all of you. If I can''t, you can stay here and cultivate. What do you think?" "I agree with it." Sherry nodded. "I have no problem in staying since I also want to get used to my current fire¡­ That''s right. Since I have a Pure Fire, how about Master teaching me the technique to evolve my Pure Fire? In that case, I won''t need to rely on the Pure Fire inside the Phoenix Seed again." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. The Fire God didn''t say he couldn''t teach anyone about this. Besides, if he had a disciple that had Pure Fire as well, he might want to make the legacy exist. In that case, it would be better for Sherry to learn the technique too. However, he found one problem. "Sherry¡­ Although it''s temporary, you can use my evolved Pure Fire right now. I think you need to learn the new technique I have got from the system first. It''s a technique called Fire Authority¡­" Alex began explaining about the Fire Authority, convincing Sherry to first learn this technique before evolving her fire. "I see. Master wants me to increase my attack power first. After all, I can temporarily use that Pure Fire. After mastering the technique, I can begin my other training." Sherry thought for a moment. "I understand. I will go according to Master''s plan." "Thank you, Master." Sherry put a wide smile. "Since you are alright, I''m going out first. Besides, you should put on clothes." Alex turned around and left. Outside, the system suddenly informed him. [Host, Nelson is calling you.] "Why is the timing so perfect?" [It''s not perfect. I''m just waiting for you until you finish your business with Sherry.] "¡­" Alex was speechless and asked with a weird face. "Don''t tell me¡­ He has been contacting me for a few days¡­" [No. It is coming from this morning, where you are too focused on Sherry. If you are not awakened in another few hours, I will still give you the notification.] "Oh." Alex let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. Thank you, System." [You''re welcome.] Alex took out Nelson''s card from his Inventory. "I''m here." "Young Master, Zekhram is going to start the refining tomorrow. If you want to ask about the Soul Altar and watch him, it will be better to ask today." Since Lin Xingzhi informed him about Alex''s condition before, he cut to the chase. "Alright. I will go right now." Alex nodded. "I have also understood the reason for your Lightning Tribulation that somehow goes berserk. You might want to ask Atlas for the details." "Noted." "Then, I''m waiting for you." "Sure." Alex then tossed the card into his Inventory before going to Sherry, who was still in the hut. "Sherry. I''m going." Sherry was putting on her clothes while humming, showing her mood right now, and Alex''s sudden appearance startled her for a second. She answered out of reflex, "Ah, yes. Have a safe trip." Alex nodded and created a teleportation array for him. It only took him a few minutes to arrive as he grabbed the hammer and went through the barrier. Atlas opened a portal to his palace as if he had been waiting for him. Alex went through the portal, only to find Zekhram, Atlas and Nelson gathering in this room. Atlas rose from his seat and greeted him. "Welcome. I have heard about your wish to let the other cultivate as well. I myself have no problem with this request¡­ However, I wish for you to listen to this first before coming into a conclusion." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before looking at Nelson. He should have gotten the answer from Nelson if it was this easy, then the story must cause a bit of a problem on their side. "Sure." "If I''m not wrong, you had your advancement a few days ago, correct?" "Yes." "Although I don''t have prior knowledge about this Lightning Tribulation thing, I know that it must have a connection with the accident a few days ago." Atlas nodded. "Ho." Alex opened his mouth in astonishment, not expecting him to say something about this. "As you might know, the Soul Altar is hosting both soul and energy. The weapons need the soul while the energy goes to you¡­" Atlas paused for a moment, creating suspense. "A few days ago, the Soul Altar suddenly experienced something that no one had ever seen before. The souls were rampaging and protecting the tower while the energy within the tower was expended." "Do you mean the tower doesn''t have the energy right now?" "No." Atlas shook his head before telling the story again. "At that time, the energy was concentrated on top of the tower before shooting it to the sky, piercing the sky as the cloud circled around the laser. It looked like a massive hole in the sky. However, this was something normal as the phenomenon would occur every time we called lightning. "The difference was in the souls. We didn''t know why the souls actually guarded the Altar, and I felt the agony within the soul at that time. It was like they were angry at Heaven and attacked it with the Soul Altar. I couldn''t stop it because it was too powerful for me until one time it abruptly stopped¡­" "So you were telling me that my Lightning Tribulation was actually attracting the wrath from the soul and made them shoot energy to the sky. My Lightning Tribulation got stronger because of that and almost killed me. It only stopped because I had finished my Lightning Tribulation?" Alex released his energy. Atlas nodded as he could understand his frustration. He had heard the full story from Nelson and arrived at this conclusion. He had a mixed feeling about this. On one hand, Alex was the one that actually attracted such a thing. If he didn''t undergo his Lightning Tribulation, he shouldn''t have a problem like this. On the other hand, he was ashamed of his lack of knowledge. He didn''t know the Soul Altar would experience something like that even though he took pride as the most knowledgeable being in this realm. Alex also had a mixed feeling. He knew he was in the wrong, but all the frustration suddenly came into his heart when he realized the problem. He was angry at himself because he didn''t know such a thing. However, Alex was very thankful for that opportunity as he only managed to advance to Absolute Blade Saint because of that incident. The life and death problem forced his potential to bloom. "Alright¡­ We shouldn''t discuss this any further." Alex shook his head. "Yeah." The two leaders agreed with each other and ended the conversation before a fight broke out. "Anyway, I still haven''t understood why I need to know about this problem before inviting others to-!" Alex suddenly fell into deep thought as he was enlightened. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I see." "Yeah. The Soul Altar had depleted too much energy a few days ago." Atlas nodded.'' "If I absorb it alone, I can increase my strength greatly. Otherwise¡­" Alex sighed. "I understand the problem. I still choose to share it with the others." Atlas and Zekhram were stunned for a second. Atlas couldn''t help but look at Nelson. He had told him that Alex would choose to share it no matter how small it was without hesitation. After all, it was his nature. Still, seeing the real person said it really amazed him. He thought, ''If he is truly such a person, then it is really the right choice to put the trust on him.'' After getting his answer, Atlas continued. "According to the current energy, you can get into 3-Star Martial Monarch without a problem¡­ or 4-Star probably. But¡­ You have chosen to share it with the other three people. If I need to predict it, all of you can only advance a star before I need to seal the rest of the energy. I need to use it to destroy the Soul Altar itself." "I understand." Alex had no reservation for this since he had a deal about this previously. "One more thing." Atlas raised his index finger. "I hear you want to watch Zekhram working on your two weapons, correct?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "I''m curious about it. Although I''m not mastering this field, I have some knowledge about this." Atlas glanced at Zekhram, who looked down as if he pondered something. Suddenly, Zekhram looked up with a serious face as he asked. "I normally don''t have someone to watch when I''m refining weapons, but I can make an exception for you. Of course, you need to understand the basic information first. Seeing you are knowledgeable about it, how about answering one question of mine?" "Sure." Alex nodded. "Just answer it in general. If I recast a Soul Weapon, what will the process be? For example, will I work on soul first or blood or even the metal first." The answer came into his mind almost instantly as Alex smiled before answering. "Soul, blood, metal, then Element Gem. I''m not familiar with the Soul Altar, so I can only say up to this point." "You are correct." Zekhram nodded. "You may watch." 633 Refining Part 1 "You may watch." Having answered him correctly, Zekhram had no choice other than agreeing to his request. The Soul Altar made the process different from the normal one, but considering he had known the general process, he should know how not to bother him. "Alright." Alex nodded. "When are we going to start?" There is still a half-day before we can begin." "I will invite the other first. The process should only take a few hours, and I can use it once you have finished, right?" Alex asked this question to Zekhram and Atlas. "Yes. You won''t have a problem in using the Soul Altar right after." Zekhram nodded. "There won''t be a problem. Though I hope you can stop when I ask." Atlas added. "Don''t worry. Getting another star alone is already enough for me." Alex nodded. Although it was such a shame that the energy had been depleted since he and the others might be able to advance to 3-Star if not 4-Star Martial Monarch had it not interfere with the Lightning Tribulation, Alex had no complaint even if he only got a slight improvement. "Then, you may call your friends first." Alex nodded. His schedule in this special realm was really packed to the brim. First, he wanted to watch this refining process before cultivating inside the Soul Altar. After that, he needed to go to Igor, learning about his secret technique. He also needed to create a Phoenix Seed again to hide his Pure Fire. Then he needed to practice his Fire Authority before exterminating the Black Devil Sect and taking the Blood Gem with him. He would need to give the Blood Gem and solve the barrier. He might need to practice again to reach 5-Star Martial Monarch before coming to Heavenly Continent. He sighed once before creating a magic circle with a snap of his finger. He then disappeared. As soon as he arrived inside the barrier again, Alex walked toward Sherry. Sherry and the others opened their eyes as if they had expected him to come. Sherry was the one to greet him. "Master. How is it? It''s fine if we can''t, and you should just put the message in the Inventory. You can like write it down and toss it inside." "Haha¡­ I have a Space Element, so I don''t really need to do that. Besides, you can come with me to cultivate." Alex chuckled. He didn''t say anything about the situation in the Soul Altar, especially the fact that he could enter 4-Star Martial Monarch if he cultivated there alone. It would just make Sherry and the others feel guilty. "Really? That''s great!" Sherry''s thought was pure. She only wanted to get even stronger after achieving the Pure Fire level, wanting to ride this wave. Stina and Kyle exchanged looks first to come to an agreement before eventually nodding their heads. "Thank you for the opportunity, Master." Sherry nodded with a smile. "When are we going, Master?" "Right now." Alex thought for a moment and said. "Sherry also wants to explore the other races, right? It''s your opportunity." Sherry was happy that Alex still thought about it. "Yes." "Do you need time to prepare?" Alex asked as he looked at the trio. "No. I don''t have anything with me." Sherry shook her head. "All of our staff is in the Inventory while the private staff is in Stina''s Space Ring," replied Kyle while glancing at Stina. "Yes." Stina nodded. These two had been a couple for a few months already. Stina was quite conservative about it since she wanted Kyle to grow bigger first¡­ Maybe at the level of Sherry. Noticing that the three of them were ready, they turned into golden light before coming inside Alex''s body as usual. Alex then created a teleportation array and disappeared. All of this only took ten minutes, and when he arrived, Nelson and the others were still there. Sherry and the others didn''t come out first before Alex''s called them out. They were afraid that their appearance would be a bother, but it was a different case if Alex was the one to call them. Zekhram and Atlas dropped their jaws when three people came out of Alex''s body. They quickly noticed that these three were not human by seeing their fox ears, tail, or phoenix wing. Alex thought for a moment and said, "As you see it right now, they are not a human like me. If you are asking whether they are acceptable in the outside world, the answer is no." Zekhram and Atlas shook their heads. Although it was true that a flash of that thought appeared inside their mind, it was nothing but a pipe dream. Besides, their priority was to go home instead of lingering in this world that had shed so much blood of their brethren. "There is nothing wrong with them cultivating in the Soul Altar even if they are not a human," Atlas confirmed it first before Alex asked. Zekhram also warned him. "Though I can only allow you to watch the refining process. As much as I want it, I can''t have more than one person to observe me since I might be disturbed." "Don''t worry. I know how we need to concentrate when forging a weapon." Alex nodded with a smile. "Then, we will meet in this place tomorrow. How about asking Atlas for a place to pass the time." Zekhram pointed his finger to Atlas. "Sure. I will lead you to your personal rooms." Atlas nodded. They teleported to another place through the runes. Sherry furrowed her eyebrows for a second, but seeing Alex come in, she followed without hesitation. Surprisingly, Nelson only gave them two rooms as if they knew the relationship. Alex stayed with Sherry while Kyle was with Stina. Only Nelson seemed to have another job to do. ¡­ The next day, the rune also appeared right in front of their door. No one was actually sleeping yesterday, so they noticed this blue gate that suddenly appeared in their room. Sherry and the others waited inside the throne room together with Atlas and Nelson while Alex followed Zekhram to the Soul Altar. This might be the first time Alex looked at the Soul Altar from up close. After going through Atlas''s rune, they arrived in front of the Soul Altar. The Altar was made of a bronze-colored stone. He checked his knowledge about this and found out that the name was Silo Stone. This stone made up a majority of this Altar. It was a rank 6 stone, and he somehow remembered that this stone would release yellow miasma when it was mined. The mine that became the place to live for Dwarfs flashed in his mind. "Ah¡­ So they mined this stone inside that¡­ No wonder." Alex entered this cone-shaped Altar and found nothing underneath this giant tower except forging tools. "There should be some equipment inside this tower, but it has lost its purpose, so Atlas removed it not long ago since I need to use it," Zekhram explained the reason behind this emptiness. Alex nodded his head before retreating a few meters from him and leaning on the wall. "I will be watching you from here. Is that alright with you?" "Yes." Zekhram nodded since Alex even removed his presence. He began focusing on the weapons as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He placed the Sword on a metallic table. If Nelson were here, he would surely recognize this table as he had seen it in Zekhram''s workshop. Beside his table was a podium that held a blue orb on top of it. Zekhram placed his hand on it before blue lights began enveloping the orb. Alex observed the orb carefully and noticed a single blue line running through the podium. It reached the group and activated the runes inside it. From that one single spot, the blue lines spread like wildfire before going through the Soul Altar''s wall. "It is activating¡­" Alex felt it coming when the blue lines reached the wall. It caused a chain reaction as the blue lines inside the wall lit up completely. He looked up while activating his Spirit Eyes and noticed there was a concentrated green aura on the top of the tower, specifically what he considered as a hat previously. That spot began shining and sent a single flash of light toward the Sword. Suddenly as if it had been awakened, a white light appeared and gradually turned into a dragon. *Roar!* The dragon roared and vibrated the entire Altar. There was no change of expression on Zekhram''s face and just pinned the Sword down on the metal table. A few white balls descended from the ''hat'' and flew toward the dragon''s mouth. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and realized what the white balls were. ''Is that a wisp of a soul? They look like the Sword and Spear consciousness I faced back then.'' The dragon ate those white balls until it roared once again. This was the signal for Zekhram to start his refining. A bottle of blood suddenly appeared on his hand as he splashed it on the Sword. Zekhram touched the blood and made a pattern on the Sword. Alex couldn''t recognize this pattern even with his knowledge, so he stored this rose-like pattern in his memory. At the same time, the dragon somehow felt the nourishment from the blood and let out another roar before starting to eat those souls again. It continued for a few minutes as the blood slowly got sucked into the Sword. Only after a few minutes, the dragon finished his meal and flew back to the Sword. Alex squinted his eyes as he saw Zekhram taking a red-colored metal out of his Space Ring. He put the metal on top of the Sword before inserting them into the furnace. The blazing red-colored flame engulfed these two as if it was alive and slowly heated it up to the melting point. After a few minutes, Zekhram took it out and hammered them a few times to fuse them. However, he put them back inside the furnace after only ten hits. Alex thought he could go longer, but he only had knowledge about it. The theory might not be applicable this time due to the Soul Altar. He kept waiting for three hours as Zekhram repeated the same thing over and over again. ''This is right. Forging is really repetition." Alex sighed, recalling how his teacher, Dean Marco, taught him forging. He kept hammering the metal again and again for a few hours, making him bored a little bit. It wasn''t like the pills where he didn''t need to take a long time. And only after another hour, Zekhram began the next step. 634 Refining Part 2 Zekhram finished the longest step of this process. The metal he fused just now had a fire attribute that could contain the Magma Cream that he would insert later. In order to do that, he still needed one more process. Touching the blade once again, the blood that had been absorbed earlier resurface once more. However, he had no intention of using the gentle way again. Instead, he raised his hammer and slammed it down on the blood. Each strike contained his strongest power that somehow shook the ground underneath. Surprisingly, the energy from the blood started to fuse with the new metal. Alex watched this carefully with his Spirit Eyes and observed the fusion between yellow energy from the metal and red energy from the blood. The red energy spread around the yellow and dyed them in their color like a poison. According to his knowledge, there would be a clash between these two energies. Yet, not even a spark of Spiritual Energy appeared in this refining process. Alex couldn''t help but smirk. ''As expected from a planet that contains a unique forging technique. Even my memory doesn''t record such a technique¡­ Or is it a special technique that was created not long ago?" The thought wouldn''t go away, making him want to ask. Luckily, he could calm the excitement down as he continued to observe for another hour before the two energies finally fused into a single red color. As he answered Zekhram previously, the next process would be fusing the Magma Crystal. There were two possibilities to fuse it, but Zekhram used the second way. Instead of creating a hole in the sword to insert the Magma Crystal and combined the energy with the sword, Zekhram raised his hammer and crushed the Magma Crystal into pieces. He didn''t stop there and hit it a few more times. It slowly turned into smaller pieces before Zekhram put it inside a huge bowl where he could grind this stone down into dust. Zekhram poured the dust onto the sword before he burned the sword again. After it started to melt, he struck it again a few times before pouring another wave of Magma Crystal. This process was repeated a few times, like the fusing metal part. Luckily, he only needed to do it for less than thirty minutes until the powder fused completely with the sword. He once again fused it with the blood by hammering them a few times. After that, he re-summoned the Dragon Soul. Red energy from the sword began to appear around the dragon as it flew toward the dragon''s mouth. Another feast began, but it was to fuse the entire energy with the dragon instead of feeding it. Meanwhile, Zekhram squinted his eyes and placed his hand on the crystal behind the smithing table, even though the dragon had yet to finish devouring the energy. The tower glowed once again as the blue light appeared on top of the tower like a few days ago. The power of that energy could be felt even at his position. Alex thought for a moment and ended up walking outside the tower. The tower itself wasn''t that big, so he could still barely see what happened inside even from outside. The tower shone brighter as it suddenly shot out blue light to the sky. The same thing a few days ago happened once again. Dark clouds began gathering on top of the tower and circled around it, creating a hole in the sky that looked like a portal. Before long, the sound of thunderclap resounded across the region before the blue light abruptly stopped. At the same time, the runes created a portal that connected the top to the beneath the ''hat.'' "This¡­ The lightning will strike at that spot and send the lightning inside. The lightning will strike at the sword?" Alex predicted what would happen next. *Rumble!* "It''s coming!" Alex narrowed his eyes as the cloud released powerful blue lightning and struck at the top of the Altar. Yet, as he predicted, it went through the portal and made its way toward the sword. Before he knew it, Zekhram already retreated a few meters back as if he needed to protect himself from the lightning. He thought for a while and realized that the Dragon Soul still stood proudly outside the sword. "Won''t it get pulverized by the lightning?" At the same time, the lightning already struck the sword. Surprisingly, the lightning didn''t pulverize the Dragon Soul. Instead, it pushed the Dragon Soul inside the sword as if it was a hammer that hit its head and forced it to go back. Astonishment flashed in his eyes, and recorded everything of this process. Zekhram slowly walked toward the sword as Alex followed him. Zekhram lifted the sword up and observed it from the handle to the blade. Normally, he would need to take the blade out of the handle first before refining it. But he noticed that the handle would be able to handle the heat, and doing this would make the handle and blade fused as one. Alex finally arrived beside Zekhram as he looked at his current rank 8 Sword. *Gasp¡ª!* The blade itself was black, but the edge was red as if it would melt at any moment. Yet, Alex could somehow see the beauty behind this sword. Coupled with the gray handle, the sword looked very menacing. Zekhram glanced at Alex and asked him. "If I may, I wish to work on the spear first before naming the weapons and any other things we need to do." "Sure. It''s your call." Alex simply nodded his head and retreated to his previous position. Zekhram thanked him first before moving to his spear. The spear went through the same process as the sword. However, it released a Phoenix Soul instead of a Dragon Soul. From raising the soul, casting the blood, and pumping the metal. It took another six hours. While the fusing process from blood, Magma Crystal only took less than an hour. In the end, the spear took the same am out of time as the sword, which was eight hours. After finishing the two weapons, Zekhram presented the two weapons in front of Alex. "Although I''m not the one who created this and only recast it, these are still the best weapons that I handle in my life. I''m truly thankful for giving me this opportunity." Zekhram slightly bowed his head. "Can I name these two weapons?" "Go ahead." Alex stretched his hand and nodded while adding inwardly, ''My naming sense sucks anyway.'' Zekhram was smiling from ear to ear and said. "This sword''s name will be Heavenly Dragon Sword. The Dragon Soul inside it has a powerful strength. It might even increase your strength while using this sword, but if I need to compare its sharpness with the spear, it completely obliterates the spear. "On the other hand, The spear''s name will be Undying Phoenix Spear. The Phoenix Soul is vigorous. Although it might not be able to be compared with the sword, it is still sharper than most rank 8 weapons. However, the main feature of this spear is elsewhere. The Phoenix Soul can create a powerful shield that can easily block a Martial Saint''s attack." "Heavenly Dragon Sword and Undying Phoenix Spear¡­" Alex murmured as he thought, ''If I name these two weapons, it will be like Dragon Slashing Sword and Guardian Phoenix Spear¡­'' He shook his head as he shuddered upon thinking that cringe name, albeit Zekhram misunderstood his action. "Is there anything wrong with the name?" Zekhram furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if he made a mistake. "Ah. I don''t have a problem with the weapons." Alex shook his head and changed the topic. "If I am not wrong, I should drop my blood into these two weapons, right?" "Yes. I don''t know why, but the Dragon and Phoenix Souls seems to like you." Zekhram nodded. "I feel only you can possess these two weapons." Alex cut his hand with his own nails and dripped a droplet of his blood onto these two weapons. *Roar!* *Cry!* Suddenly, the two souls came out at the same time as they enveloped Alex''s hands. The dragon circled on his right hand while the phoenix perched on his left hand. The two suddenly moved toward his back as if it had its target. Alex recalled that he had two tattoos on his back, a dragon and a phoenix. These two tattoos shone brightly and absorbed the two souls. The two weapons suddenly floated as if someone moved it and slowly flew toward Alex''s hand, begging Alex to wield them. Alex gripped both weapons, and the energy from the sword began assimilating with his body. The Magma Cream powder that had been fused with these weapons turned the Spiritual Energy into Fire Element, benefiting Alex greatly. His strength was enhanced, and the flow of energy became clearer as soon as he wielded the two weapons. "This is the first time I use weapons like this¡­" Alex exclaimed in astonishment. "Heavenly Dragon Sword and Undying Phoenix Spear, huh¡­ I''m counting on both of you from now on." Both weapons released their energy as if it was responding to Alex''s words. Seeing he had become an Absolute Blade Saint, he felt there was no need to limit himself with the weapons on the same rank. He had been doing this from the start as to prevent himself from being reliant on the weapons'' strength. He recalled that the requirement for Sword God or the last stage of his Absolute Blade Path would require him to reach God Stage first. At that time, everything would turn different from him. The Spiritual Energy would turn into Divine Energy while the Soul evolved into Divine Soul. His Twin Blade Intent¡­ No, it should be called Absolute Blade Intent right now would turn into Divine Intent. At that time, he was required to assimilate the intent with the universe itself. Alex couldn''t understand the latter part, so he skipped that part for the time being. After all, he only needed to know the requirement to reach Absolute Blade God as the latter part would become his reward. "Go back right now," said Alex gently. The weapons released a weak Spiritual Energy this time as if it was sad. Nonetheless, Alex still tossed them inside his Inventory. "Thank you very much. I really like the weapons." Alex thanked Zekhram. "No, no. I should be the one to thank you for this opportunity. I was stuck in my level previously, but after experiencing this, I have seen the path to go forward." Zekhram smiled as he stretched his hand to Alex. Alex nodded and shook his hand. "Since we have finished, we need to come back." "Sure." Zekhram knew Alex was going to cultivate, so he stretched his hand, asking him to walk first. Both of them then walked back to the castle. 635 Cultivation The two returned to the throne room, finding Sherry and the others a bit bored. They couldn''t be blamed as Alex and Zekhram took more than half a day. "Atlas, we are done here." Zekhram raised his hand, shouting with full vigor. He wasn''t like someone who was tired even though his face already showed such symptoms. Atlas nodded before coming closer to Alex. "Congratulations." Alex smiled and pointed his finger to Zekhram. "Thank you. It''s Elder Zekhram''s efforts." "Since you have finished creating your weapons, will you cultivate right now?" Atlas asked. He purposely didn''t ask anything about the weapons as to prevent Alex from thinking he had ulterior motives. "Yes, if possible." "Don''t worry. The Soul Altar isn''t that brittle. You may bring your friends together with you." Atlas then turned to Zekhram. "What are you going to do?" "I''m going back to my territory to speed up the process back home. We want the spaceship to be ready as soon as possible anyway. Mind take me home?" Zekhram asked. "Sure." Atlas nodded and turned to Alex again. "That''s the situation. You can use the Soul Altar first with your friends. In the meantime, I will bring Zekhram home before observing your cultivation to ensure the Altar has enough energy to self-destruct." Alex thought for a moment and said. "We will wait for you here." He was still in Atlas''s home, so he felt it was a bit rude just to use it like that. "I understand. It will take less than ten minutes anyway." Atlas turned to Zekhram and said, "Let''s go." Both of them went outside by using Atlas''s Teleportation Rune, leaving Alex and the others in this empty throne room. "Congratulations, Young Master." Nelson smiled. "Now, we won''t be afraid of the Black Devil Sect." "We are not afraid, but we still need to be careful." Alex corrected him. "Though I wish to learn about Igor''s technique first, and I also need to condense another Phoenix Seed. At the same time, I am going to learn the Fire Authority first before attacking their base." "It''s fine. We have calculated that the Black Devil Sect won''t come out within a year. On the other hand, Young Master still has more than six months before reaching that one year mark." Nelson nodded. "Alright." Alex nodded before turning to Sherry, who still felt guilty for taking his Phoenix Fire. He simply patted her head like usual, albeit it was harder for him, considering their height didn''t have too much difference now. Not long after, Atlas had come back through the portal. "I have finished sending him home. Now, you can begin your cultivation." Alex didn''t have any objection and followed him. The rest also walked right behind him. Alex thought for a moment and asked, "Can I use Gathering Array for this? I mean, it is an array to increase your absorption speed." "You don''t need to, I guess. There is already a rune that has a similar function, so you can be at ease. At the same time, I''m also not confident what will happen to the tower that was full of Runes got intruded by Array. I''m sorry." Atlas shook his head in disappointment. "Sorry for the idiotic question." "No, no." Atlas waved his hand left and right, telling it wasn''t the case. Alex might know something about Rune, but it didn''t mean he was a master in this area. There were many things he needed to learn about it, so it was normal if Alex didn''t know something. Awkwardness filled the atmosphere, so Atlas decided to end it by changing the topic. "Alright. Since you are here, you can go to cultivate." As soon as he said those words, he disappeared from the Soul Altar, leaving Alex nothing to do other than cultivating. They were inside the workshop from earlier, but all the forging equipment had been taken back by Zekhram, so the room was empty. He exchanged looks with Sherry and the others and nodded before sitting down in a lotus pose. When Alex began absorbing the energy around, the blue lines appeared again and spread from the ground to the Soul Altar''s wall. The top of the tower didn''t release a white wisp of soul. Instead, it released something that couldn''t be seen, AKA Spiritual Energy. The density of the Spiritual Energy became a few times denser, and Alex felt the Spiritual Energy was easy to absorb. This was the first experience for him to have absorbed the Spiritual Energy so easily, making it look like a dream. ''This must be the rune Atlas talking about.'' Alex answered the doubt inwardly while picking up the speed in his cultivation. Sherry also worked on it with a pace only slightly lower than him, considering her fire had become Pure Fire. ''Should I get another set of medicinal herbs for Sherry? She should be able to cultivate Undying Fire Body now¡­" [Of course. You can do it, Host. Let her know the pa- Ahem, I mean, the pain will make her stronger.] This time the system answered him by talking directly into his mind like the usual. However, Alex shook his head helplessly, not knowing whether he should be happy for Sherry or not. The pain was truly unforgettable, and he didn''t want Sherry to get traumatized by it. ''I will ask Sherry after this¡­ After all, I feel that her body alone is equal to me since she is a beast.'' After finishing his train of thought, Alex began his cultivation and absorbed the energy like a black hole. In fact, Sherry and Alex were sucking sixty percent of the rate of Spiritual Energy production by the Soul Altar. Stina and Kyle only got forty percent. Albeit, the time Alex and Sherry spent together, they used it to cultivate. This was why Stina and Kyle could be a little bit stronger than them, so they didn''t really mind about taking the less portion. ¡­ One week later, The first spark of energy came from Stina as she reached 3-Star Martial Monarch. The second came from Kyle, followed by Sherry and Alex. Even so, they didn''t stop absorbing the energy since Atlas had yet to warn them. Only after another day, Atlas finally came to them and activated the blue lines on the tower. These blue lines went to the top of the tower by climbing the wall, and the production of Spiritual Energy gradually became lesser and lesser until there was nothing more. In the meantime, Alex also tried to create another Fire Phoenix Seed but to no avail. Every single Fire Phoenix Seed was destroyed by his Pure Fire as if it was revolting. The Pure Fire told him that they didn''t want to get inside that inferior seed and burned it into ashes. Alex couldn''t comprehend this. He remembered how Maxwell helped him create the seed, and there wasn''t a single restriction. Yet, his Pure Fire was revolting against him right now. There was only one possible reason he could think at the moment. Considering his Pure Fire was barely awakened in the lower world while this one had even evolved, Alex thought the Phoenix Seed also evolved with him. It was the reason why Sherry could activate the Phoenix Seed and released his Evolved Pure Fire. It even regenerated the Pure Fire. Whatever the reason, Alex had one thing clear. He couldn''t hide his Pure Fire anymore. Alex thought for a moment and resigned to his fate. The Fire God Clan already knew about his Pure Fire anyway, so he didn''t mind as the information would surely spread like a fire. The only problem was how to convince Sherry to make her not feel guilty about this. He couldn''t come with a single excuse other than telling the truth, so he would just face it when the time came. It was the time for Alex and the others to wake up. Alex immediately rose from the floor and clasped his hands respectfully. "Thank you for your help." "Your welcome." Atlas nodded. "What are you going to do now?" "I will be staying in Igor''s place for a while before training for another few months. Then, I will leave this realm to finish our business." Alex nodded. "Do you need some help to go to Igor''s place?" "No. I can do it with my Teleportation Array." Alex declined. "Alright then. I will begin constructing the Rune Stones that you need." Atlas nodded. "See you later." Atlas then disappeared while Nelson appeared right before Alex. "Young Master. Considering we have finished most of our business in this realm, I wish to ask for your permission to go to the outside world and start helping others." "Granted. I''m leaving the outside matter to you. Don''t forget that we need more information about this battle." "Understood." Nelson nodded before turning into light. There was no need for Alex to bring him back to the barrier since the spirits could just summon him by using this card that contained a special Space Magic. Alex then turned around and asked. "So, what are you going to do? I''m going to train with Igor for the time being and maybe practice my Fire Art elsewhere. I am afraid the fire will burn that tree down." The tree he was talking about was the portal tree. Although the accident would be low since the fire could be controlled, this technique came from that Fire God, Phitrus, who managed to create this evolved Pure Fire. His technique shouldn''t be a pushover either; hence Alex chose to stay away. "I and Stina will cultivate in that barrier again. I will need to use this time to overtake Master once again since I won''t be much help to Master if I''m weaker." Kyle made a pure smile while Stina nodded in agreement. "What about you?" Alex looked at Sherry. "I will be with them. I don''t know how long Master is going to learn the Sword thingy, so Master can just bring me when you have finished." Sherry smiled. "Alright. I will do just that." Alex nodded before telling others to enter his body again. After that, he created a Teleportation Array again and dropped them off inside the barrier before going to Igor''s place. He stopped using his teleportation when he arrived in front of Atlas''s Rune Stone and proceeded by using his Spatial Gate. Not long after, he opened the gate once again as he had arrived in Igor''s house. "!!!" Igor, not far from that spot, felt the change of energy and thought someone must be in his house. He called out the only person that could create something like this. "Alexander Sirius?" "Yes. I''m here." Alex said out loud. After confirming the person, Igor then appeared in front of Alex. *Gasp¡ª!* "To think you reach 2-Star Martial Monarch this fast. Do you use the Soul Altar to boost your cultivation?" "I have finished borrowing it today. Only for one star, though." "Only one star? You do know that the Soul Altar has too much energy, right? Although you won''t be able to absorb all of them, reaching 5-Star Martial Monarch should be easy for you." Alex then began explaining the thing that Atlas told him, and Igor could only sigh. "Anyway¡­ Considering you are here, you must want me to teach you¡­" Before he could finish his words, Igor was stunned, his jaw dropped to the ground, and his eyes widened. The feeling of sharpness combined with heat brushed his skin, making him notice that Alex already became a Sword Saint. "Congratulations¡­" "Thank you. It''s hard work." Alex nodded. "So, you want to apply this technique right now?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. He already lost the Phoenix Seed, so he needed this to make himself look more normal as to avoid problems. "Alright. You can follow me to the grassy plain a bit farther from this place. No one knows about that place, so we can train peacefully." Igor nodded before pointing in a certain direction. "It''s this way." Alex understood his intention and snapped his finger, creating another Teleportation Array for them. 636 Fire Authority The north of Igor''s house was a huge grassy plain. An array appeared out of nowhere, and two people appeared from within. Alex looked around and could see nothing other than grass. He turned to Igor and asked, "Is this it?" "Yeah." Igor nodded. "This is the largest one. The grass is also special since it can grow without sunlight. We should be able to learn it without anyone noticing, so no need to restrict your power here." Alex nodded, even though he was still confused about why he needed to restrict his power. "First of all, this technique might hide your Intent, but someone with special eyes like yours will be able to see through this technique. Someone even noticed this technique with his senses alone." Igor warned him first. Noticing the hesitation that appeared on Alex''s face, Igor smiled. "Don''t worry. It won''t happen so often. In fact, I only found four people in my entire life¡­ five if I include you." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "If that is the case, then I won''t need to worry." "This technique''s name is Aura Concealment. The details are as follows¡­" He began his lengthy explanation. Due to his nature, Igor had difficulty in explaining things with words. Luckily, Alex''s Sword Mastery and Spear Mastery helped him through this process. They somehow reconstructed the sentences into something that could be easily understood. Alex proceeded with the training according to Igor''s instruction. When he was in the right direction, Igor would give a thumb up. In contrast, Igor would be strict when he made a mistake. Alex was hit a few times by Igor, but somehow the progress went even faster and in less than two weeks¡­ "Can you sense it?" Alex asked as he waved his hand and moved around. "Barely. I can sense it because I know this technique and know you are using it. If I don''t, only special people can do it." Igor nodded with a smile. He was very happy in teaching Alex despite his monstrosity. In fact, it might be the thing that made him happy. Normally, he would train some youngsters in Animal Tribes, but they made him frustrated. That was why when Alex mostly learned everything from him with a single explanation, he was very satisfied. Knowing that Alex had such a talent, he was convinced that the person in the prophecy was truly different from the others. Sword, Spear, Array, Space, and Fire. These five were the only thing he knew about Alex, but normal people would only have two of them. They might be called a genius if they had three. As for Alex, he could only be called a monster in human clothing. Luckily, Igor didn''t know anything about Alchemy; else, he might not want to teach Alex because he would feel so inferior. "Thank you for teaching me this technique, Igor." Alex smiled and thanked him again. Alex nodded without hesitation. "Don''t worry. No one in this world will learn this technique from me, I promise you." "Then, it''s good." "We shall go home then." "You can go first. I will stay here for a little longer." Igor declined his offer. "Are you sure?" "Yes." Alex waited for a minute before creating a Teleportation Array for himself. He nodded to Igor one last time before disappearing. On the other hand, Igor fell to the ground while looking at the sky. There was no grass anymore that could soften the impact, but a Martial Saint wouldn''t be hurt by something like this. He looked around and saw the pitch-black charred ground, grasses that had been burned into ashes, and a huge crater. Nothing alive in a one-kilometer radius due to Alex''s control. Sometimes, he failed to control his fire and burned everything, sometimes it was his Absolute Blade Intent and cut everything, or when both failed, an explosion would occur, creating something this bad. Igor raised his hand to the sky and said, "A person like him is very rare in the world. He will create a storm that shakes the whole world since there is no genius capable of hiding their power the whole time. Still, with our fate in his hands, we can relax... We can go home soon¡­" Meanwhile, Alex already arrived at the barrier and grabbed Sherry before going to another place. It was in the space between Dwarf territory and Undead territory. Nelson said this place would be safe if he wanted to train. "We are going to train here." Sherry looked around, only to find the place was a barren field with some giant boulders around. She could see the open field through the gap between rocks, but she could only see dirt. "You have read the Fire Authority''s manual, right?" Alex asked. Sherry nodded. "Yes." "In that scroll, we can activate it by using our flame in that scroll. The time limit is seven months, so we will support each other and learn from each other. If we still have time, we will try to evolve your Pure Fire." Alex took out the scroll while looking at Sherry. "I understand. I will do my best for Master and me." Sherry nodded. Alex sometimes furrowed his eyebrows when Sherry still called him Master, but she had gotten accustomed to this, and Alex thought it would be fine since Sherry was alright with it. He could ask his wives about this later. "Let''s go!" Their practice finally began. ¡­ One month later, "Phoenix!" Both Sherry and Alex said at the same time as two phoenixes appeared above their heads. "Our progress is quite good, right?" Sherry asked. "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Looking at the situation, we can somehow summon all Fire Phoenix Art with a single command. According to the explanation, we can even summon more phoenixes from our usual limit by the command. At the same time, we need to make them move by a single command while controlling each of them. We need to master these two first." "That''s right. After finishing the internal aspect, we can move to the external aspect. We can start suppressing the enemy with our element in a more efficient way. In fact, we might be able to control their fire element as well." Sherry nodded. "Yeah. Though I''m sure, it will take a lot of energy." Alex sighed. "I understand. If our strength difference is too high, we might have exhausted our energy before controlling it." "Anyway, let''s practice again." "Master¡­ Actually, I wish to ask one thing." Sherry hesitated for a second. "Why haven''t you made your Fire Phoenix Seed again?" ''It comes¡­'' Alex''s heart skipped a beat, wondering how he should respond to this question. He thought for a moment and said, "I have tried it a few times but to no avail. My speculation is that my Phoenix Seed has evolved together with my Pure Fire. It can regenerate my Pure Fire as well, right?" "Yes." Sherry nodded before opening her mouth in panic. Sweats began to appear on her forehead as she said, "Master. I-" Alex shook his head. "Don''t worry. I''m not blaming you or whatsoever. Let us think about this carefully. Fire God Clan knows that I have a Pure Fire Element. That information will slowly spread across the Heavenly Continent. At that time, no one will believe that my fire is ordinary. In that case, I''m fine with revealing this now. I am a 2-Star Martial Monarch right now, and I still have the two weapons to let me run away from Martial Saint. Besides, I still have my Space Element as our trump card and my identity as Absolute Blade Saint." Alex pondered for a moment, but it still didn''t manage to cheer her up. Alex then patted her head once more and said, "Besides, you also have a Pure Fire. I prefer to take the front, so they are going after me instead of you. Maybe it''s my pride as a man, or I simply want to protect you. So, let me be selfish, okay?" Sherry nodded. "I understand. I will surely learn this technique and evolve my Pure Fire. That way, we can even confuse them." Alex nodded. "Thank you. Now, let us practice again." "Yes." The two continued for another month. This month was quite rough because Alex needed to control the Spiritual Energy and Mental Energy simultaneously to summon multiple phoenixes at once. On the other hand, Sherry could somehow master this technique faster than Alex. Even though her Mental Energy wasn''t that powerful, she was still a special beast that governed upon the fire. Alex remembered the tale of Celestial Fox. Its sensitivity was on another level. That was the whole reason why Sherry could save him in the lower world by carrying him for a few days to reach the Acacia Kingdom. He felt a bit challenged by Sherry and practiced even harder and somehow managed to do it after a month of training. Without resting, they proceeded to the next step, which was controlling the flames. They could summon their Flame Arts and surpass the limit by this Fire Authority. But it would be useless if they couldn''t use it to attack or defense. In this aspect, Alex and Sherry were equal. Sherry had her sensitivity, but Alex had control over the fire that he got from Alchemy. Both of them finished at the same time. At this time, Alex and Sherry felt something weird. It might be because they had been practicing together or because their fire was at the same level. Nonetheless, they felt unity. The unity between their flames as if they were calling each other. Alex noticed it when they were cultivating near each of them. It felt like the absorption rate became slightly faster. In this end, Alex became closer and closer to Sherry when they were cultivating. According to his memory and system, the moment Alex''s Fire Seed went inside her body, they were connected. In the end, Alex proposed to cultivate together with Sherry until one time, they found a perfect position. Alex and Sherry sat in front of each other and placed their palms against each other. Alex would make his Pure Fire flow to her body and vice versa, allowing them to cultivate faster. Although it looked slightly like dual cultivation, he needed to cultivate with a pure mind. Besides, they were already (unofficial) husband and wife, so there was nothing wrong about this. By using this technique, they somehow reached 3-Star Martial Monarch in the fifth month, of course, with the help of Gathering Array. Alex also had finished his training with Sherry in the fifth month. And when they finally mastered the technique, Alex took the scroll once again. They looked at the single spot where they could put their flame there. However, Sherry and Alex only stared at each other while grinning. Both had realized that this was only a gimmick. "Master, you should be the one to open it." Sherry smiled from ear to ear. "Alright." Alex nodded as he channeled his energy to his mouth. "Fire Command. Reveal!" The scroll glowed as if it was responding to his command. A fire suddenly appeared on the surface of the scroll, burning every single word there. Not long after, the paper turned blank. There was nothing except a few words that weren''t burned. They were aligned vertically, making it very flashy. Alex and Sherry realized the second word while deciphering the first word. "Ardenti World." Sherry looked at Alex, hoping Alex understood these two words. On the other hand, Alex closed his eyes and said, "Ardenti World. It''s a world where the fire continuously burns. The temperature there is very high because it''s close to the sun. Although it is not suitable for living, it''s a nice place for Pure Fire to train themselves. I know the general location, but we can only go there later." "I see. An adventure again!" Sherry grinned. "Sure." Alex smiled as well. "By the way, what are we going to do now, Master?" "Let''s cultivate for another month before leaving this realm." Sherry nodded. Chapter 637 - Returning to the Group One month later, Alex slowly opened his eyes after closing it for a month. His arms got a little tired after cultivating with Sherry the whole time by placing their palms against each other. At the same time, Sherry also opened her eyes along with a smile. "Master." Alex nodded. "I''m sorry, Sherry. A month is not enough to evolve your Pure Fire." "Don''t worry, Master. It is better to increase my strength first rather than having a half-assed effort." Sherry nodded before standing up and reaching Alex''s hand, pulling him up. Alex nodded. "I''m planning to evolve your Fire after we finished exterminating the Black Devil Sect." Sherry thought for a moment and said, "I leave everything in your hands, Master. No matter how hard I think, I won''t be able to come up with a plan like yours." These words slightly astonished him as Alex quickly shook his head. "No. You just need to have more knowledge and experience." Sherry talked as if she already knew she wasn''t a match to Alex and this was exactly what he thought in the past. It was the start of his Inferior Complex, so Alex encouraged her to diminish that thought. "You have yet to realize all of your potentials. I believe you can see it in the future, so keep trying." "Un." Sherry nodded. "I will keep trying since I have my whole life to chase after Master." Alex smiled and patted her head for a while before saying, "Let''s go then." "Yes." The teleportation appeared once again as Alex and Sherry disappeared from the spot. In front of the giant tree, Kyle and Stina gradually opened their eyes after sensing an aura coming from the front. They quickly rose from the ground and clasped their hands. "It''s been a while, Master." Sherry was inside Alex''s body since the barrier still blocked any beings other than humans. Alex smiled and nodded his hand while checking their progress. Surprisingly, he found out that Stina and Kyle really utilized every single second in the past few months. "To think Kyle has reached 4-Star while Stina has become a 5-Star Martial Monarch," said Alex with his heart full of astonishment. "Of course. Master is going stronger by practicing Fire Authority. We can''t learn that technique as only Pure Fire users are qualified for such a technique. In that case, we can only get stronger by cultivating." Stina answered with a smile. "That''s right. At the very least, our Phoenix Fire that has been strengthened by your Pure Fire is enough to balance our fast progress." Kyle added. "We are going to destroy the Black Devil Sect, right?" Stina asked. "Yes. With both of you becoming this powerful, our chance is close to one hundred percent. Anna and the others are also in 4-Star Martial Monarchs with the exceptional few being mostly at 5-Star or 6-Star, especially Leoz, who is now a 7-Star Martial Monarch. At the same time, I have almost two thousand Gacha Tickets right now, so I can raise their levels again." Alex nodded. "Then¡­" Stina and Kyle nodded at each other before turning into red lights and flying inside Alex''s body. Alex nodded and climbed the tree to the place he was teleported for the first time coming here. He waved his hand and sent a wave of Spiritual Energy to activate the array. Unlike runes, the glow of array came in variety with this one shone in red color. A red portal leading to the Blue Layered realm gradually opened. Alex looked back for a moment and saw the Gathering Arrays that he had yet to erase. No one could come here anyway, so he thought about cleaning these arrays out after coming here again for the second time to remove the barrier. As soon as he entered the Blue Layered realm, he waved his hand again, opening the gate to the real world and closing the portal behind him at the same time. The ray of sun shone a little bit brightly on his eyes as if it was burning his eyes. The change between the dark and gloomy realm to the bright and hot world was too much for him. Luckily, he was still surrounded by forest, so the sunlight didn''t come to him completely, allowing him to adjust his eyes with this sudden light. Not long after, Alex took out Anna''s card and asked. "Anna, I''m here. Where are all of you?" "You can teleport toward the Northeast for a few times before you are inside a vast forest. We are inside there, so you can show us a signal, and we will be there." Anna answered. Alex nodded and rose to the sky, checking the direction before creating the teleportation array. It took him three teleportation arrays to reach the aforementioned forest. Alex shot out a single fire and made it explode after high enough. Three seconds later, Fabio appeared before him and clasped his hands respectfully. "I come to escort you, Young Master." "Aren''t you too fast?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Or the place is here?" "No. We are scattered around this forest, and I happen to be around. With me finding you here, the others will go to our base¡­ Not really a base, though." Fabio nodded before saying his catchphrase. "It''s not like I come here because I want, alright? I just happened to be near." "Yes, yes." Alex shrugged, feeling the nostalgic effect since he hadn''t met him for almost a year. "Lead the way." "Understood. This way." Fabio turned around and flew. They flew for a few minutes until they reached a quite huge plain without a single tree in the middle of a dense forest. They descended with every single spirit waiting for him. Alex descended to the ground and smiled. "It''s been a while, everyone." Sherry, Kyle, and Stina appeared behind him. Anna glanced at Sherry and grinned. "Yes. We are missing you already." "I have a question. Why do you use this noticeable place as the base?" Alex noticed her expression but chose to ignore it for the time being. "It''s simply because there are so many high-level monsters around in this area. In fact, this place is the most deadly place on this continent, considering there are many Martial Monarch monsters around. Not many people come here while we are in the center of the forest. We use this place after killing the forest king." Anna answered. "Oh. I see." Alex nodded. "Besides, not many influences will send their disciples in this turmoil." "Exactly. The continent slowly becomes chaotic, and I''m sure you want to know the information first before having a warm talk, right?" "Yeah. I want to finish this matter as soon as possible." Anna then glanced at Anya in which the latter stepped forward and explained. "The three influences got some clues about the agreement between Ancient Blue Family and Black Devil Sect. Of course, the information came from us, and it was really useful to sow discord on this continent. "The three influences left the Black Devil Sect to us and the alliance between Second Rate influences while storming inside the Ancient Blue Family to squeeze their money." Anya paused for a moment. Alex thought the report had ended, so he asked, "So, the Ancient Blue Family won''t be able to disturb us at the moment?" "No. I haven''t finished the report yet¡­" Anya let out a sigh. "It seemed the Ancient Blue Family had reported your existence to the main family. At the same time, they caught the wind of your existence from the Fire God Clan and connected the dot. They used this to pacify the three influences and made us the bad guy. "They also messaged the Fire God Clan about your existence. Although they couldn''t confirm your existence here, the Fire God Clan still sent out a few people to this continent. Most of them were Martial Monarchs, while the ones leading them were two 5-Star Martial Saints." Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, we are going to fight the Fire God Clan and Blackwade Clan this time?" "You are wrong again." Anya shook her head. "Nicole somehow convinced the Blackwade Clan to break their alliance. At the very least, the Blackwade Clan would stay neutral for the moment. They told Nicole that since they couldn''t check your card, they could only stay neutral for two years before choosing one side. This was reported six months ago." Alex looked down and let out a sigh. "I still have one and a half years. Although I don''t like how they want me to go there, I can understand their worry. They must still think I''m a scam. One and a half years are enough for me to go there. And there is this immediate threat from the Fire God Clan¡­" He kept brainstorming the plan for the incoming Fire God Clan before he glanced at Anya and asked with his sharp eyes. "Anya, what is the purpose of this advance party? Aren''t they too weak for us?" "We have information about it as well. It seemed they were unsure about this information and sent this weak force to test the water. Of course, having no credibility of their information, Ancient Blue Family gave permission for the Fire God Clan to mobilize their force. This way, the Ancient Blue Family could solve the problem of their family on this continent and got a favor from the Fire God Clan. After all, no one from this continent could stand against 5-Star Martial Saints." "I see. Their intention is not to make an enemy of us. Instead, they want to sacrifice us to get the favor from the Fire God Clan. This can only happen after Blackwade Clan break off the alliance." Alex thought for a moment. "And I don''t like this." "Yeah. It will cost us our lives for that favor, so the Ancient Blue Family shall have some pain as well. Though I believe we shouldn''t attack this Family just yet, considering it''s hard for us to attack both influences at the same time. Of course, it will be different if you get Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion to join the fray." Anya smirked. "Still, I''m not sure whether I can convince both influences even with Blackwade Clan''s Supreme VIP Card and my master''s token." Alex was truly tempted to destroy the Fire God Clan while giving some pain to this sneaky influence. "At the same time, I need to watch my back against this Snow White Mountain where Letizia currently is while searching for Senior Sister to know if she is dead or alive. Too many things I need to do on the Heavenly Continent¡­" Anya waited for a moment before raising a suggestion. "Actually, I have a plan for this. Fire God Clan has sent this weak force because they have a leeway to lose this much with unconfirmed news. If they confirm it is us, they want to see whether we have the power to kill those 5-Star Martial Saints again. If we can''t kill them, they will know we are just a paper tiger with a bit of luck to kill their elders at that time. They will use their full force and come to this continent." "You are right. Their intention should be something along those lines after seeing they only have two Martial Saints with a couple of Martial Monarchs. That is already weird in any case." Alex nodded in agreement. "We will have to respond to them in a kind." Anya smirked, thinking a perfect plan for this. "I wish to use your token to kill these two 5-Star Martial Saints and reinforce their fear against us. We will get the time we need to enter the Heavenly Continent and build a relationship with Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion. "I know that this comes with the risk of having more enemies since the Fire God Clan will surely search for help. Nonetheless, we will be in the equal ground, unlike this time around." Alex thought for a moment. "I agree with you¡­ When will they arrive?" "Two weeks from now." "We strike at Black Devil Sect right now, then prepare for the incoming people from the Fire God Clan. Anyone have an objection?" Alex declared. Chapter 638 - Discussion "We strike at Black Devil Sect right now, then prepare for the incoming people from the Fire God Clan. Anyone have an objection?" No one made the slightest movement, let alone opening their mouth or raising their hands. "Since no one has any objection, we are going to plan the attack on Black Devil Sect." Alex nodded. Noticing the atmosphere became too serious, even though Alex just came back, Anna decided to change the topic. "Alex, how about other topics first? Like Rose or Evelyn, we can even discuss Letizia." Alex glanced at the rest and sighed. "Sure. Tell me about Rose first." "Surely." Anna nodded. "Fire God Clan has started investigating the Northern Continent a few months ago. I have instructed her to hide inside the base until they come back to the Heavenly Continent. Our biggest concern right now is whether they are going to Willow Continent to release their anger on Heavenly Sword Sect or not." "And this is becoming another serious topic¡­" Alex rolled his eyes away. Anna shrugged. "I am just redirecting the topic since you might attack them as soon as we discuss the plan. On the other hand, we might lessen your desire to go there for at least a day or so." Alex rolled his eyes away. "Do you think I''m not going to recover my Spiritual Energy first?" "That''s not what I mean." Anna shook her head before continuing. "Anyway, back to the topic. We can redirect their attention from Willow Continent by killing the weak party they sent to us." "I agree with that plan." Alex nodded. "Alright. We have agreed upon this earlier, so we should talk about Rose. How is her progress right now?" "She has reached 7-Star Martial King within a year since she didn''t do anything other than cultivate because of the situation. At the same time, Ngina has been instructing from the shadow to make sure she is progressing in the right direction." "That''s good enough for me." Alex nodded. "I should expect her to reach Martial Emperor Stage within half a year." "I will tell Ngina to give that instruction." "Sure. I should give her more pressure to make her progress faster¡­ Though she can''t be compared to other peers already¡­" Alex shrugged. "Indeed. I''m thinking about having her contact the Blackwade Clan, but I''m afraid there might be more conspiracy in the Blackwade Clan. On the other hand, it''s not necessarily right to make her contact with the western side like that couple, Ruben and Lucia. I feel like Rose might get more trouble than she is supposed to get." "I can relate to that." Alex nodded. "Sadly, Rose doesn''t have a chance to enter the Strength Plateau." Alex sighed. "You broke it back then." Anna grinned as the others chuckled. "Nonetheless, the timing was off, so you could say it was based on luck." "Yeah. Rose can only adapt and search for another inheritance. There should still be some inheritances left on that continent. Ngina can show it to her¡­" Alex nodded. He had known about the inheritances, but nothing actually intrigued him since they were useless. As for Rose, he thought it would still be useful whether it was for a challenge for her or some kind of reward. "I understand. Although we can spoon-feed her continuously, Rose still needs to grow up." Anna then glanced at Anya to arrange a few tests for Rose. Of course, it was all for later after the Fire God Clan left the continent. "Since Rose is fine at the moment, how about Evelyn?" "Evelyn is doing great in the Drunken Pavilion. She has broken through to 2-Star Martial Emperor since she has enough resources and a teacher to do that, creating a gap with Rose again." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Did Old Manness give her something? That speed was certainly not normal¡­" "Yes. He had given her a few things such as Fire Gem and so on. After having knowledge about sword, that old guy actually taught her the elemental aspect. It seems her talent was far more amazing than we had expected since her fire actually gave her more boost than the normal speed, thus allowing her to reach 2-Star Martial Emperor in a short time." Anna paused for a moment. "The moment we come to the Heavenly Continent, she might have reached 6-Star Martial Emperor¡­ Of course, this speed will slow down sooner or later." "I see. I never know Evelyn has a talent in her fire. I taught her everything about the sword, but neglected her fire ability." Alex sighed, disappointed in himself. Anna shook her head when she heard this. "That''s not exactly right. First of all, you had taught her about your basic sword knowledge¡­ And unconsciously, you taught her about everything related to Sword and Fire. After all, you are a Fire User as well. Evelyn just never practiced, thus halting her own progress. When that old guy opened her fire talent, it made a harmony with her sword that had been ingrained by you and exploded, causing her to advance by leaps and bounds." "Is that so?" Alex looked down for a moment. He thought he never taught anything about Fire Element, but everything he showed her somehow related to Sword and Fire. To think his unconscious action still brought Evelyn this much effect, he couldn''t help but be happy for himself and her. "Even that guy was utterly shocked when he saw Evelyn advancing like this¡­ and arrived at this conclusion," Anna added. "Thank you for letting me know." Alex smiled. "At the same time, he also crowned her as the current successor for Drunken Pavilion. She never thought about it and still hesitated to accept it because she wanted to repay for whatever you gave. Without you, she will still be the small princess that might die from that crown prince or be controlled by her kingdom." Alex shook his head. "I simply taught her how to fight back then¡­ And to think she somehow became this big." "Haha¡­ Maybe she will accept it if it means she can help you in the war against the Fire God Clan." Anna laughed. Alex actually found this not funny. He had been creating a line with Evelyn as to protect her from this kind of problem. After all, she would have trouble that he made, this was something he didn''t want. "Anyway, it''s good to see her fine like this. If possible, make sure she doesn''t know that we have this kind of problem¡­" "That old man is trying to do that since he wants to have her focus on the cultivation first until the boost of two talents is used up. At the same time, Evelyn is a clever girl. She will get this information sooner or later, so it''s close to impossible to hide it until we destroy the Fire God Clan." Alex sighed. "How about Letizia?" "As you have already known, Letizia is in Snow White Mountain. Her Pure Element is very suitable in that place. Her progress itself is comparable to you since she only needs to cultivate unlike you, who have so many things to process." Anna shrugged. "I see. I will have the information about the influences on Heavenly Continent right before I go there, so just tell me her general situation." Alex nodded. "If you want her general situation¡­" Anna hesitated, glancing left and right. "What happened?" "She is not in a good spot to be honest." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" "The elders from that place somehow learned about the full loyalty Oath. Her awakened Pure Ice Element alone had garnered her a successor candidate position. Yet, everything vanished after they knew about you. They forced her to give her Sacrificial Element to someone and planned to lock her inside the sect forever since she refused their offer." "Their offer?" "Yes. They wanted her to say your name. A name alone should be fine in the Full Loyalty Contract. Yet, she simply refused even though she was beaten and forced to give the Sacrificial Element. In fact, she had given the Sacrificial Element to them in exchange for them not to know about you." "Why¡­ you didn''t tell me about this earlier?" Alex asked. "What can you do? This happened right when we were discussing in Zekhram''s house." Anna shook her head. "I¡­" Alex knew he couldn''t do a single thing to help her. He thought about asking Old Manness''s help for this, but it would just give his identity away. At the same time, if he used his Space Element here, he might not be able to react fast enough to deal with Martial Saint. He could sneak in and help her escape, but the difficulty was far too great for the current him. "You won''t be able to use the same technique, like when rescuing Evelyn, simply because they marked her with another symbol where she would be killed by that symbol if she came out of her cell. At the same time, if you broke the symbol with your knowledge, it would alarm the entire influence¡­" Anna looked at him while shaking her head. Alex fell into silence, knowing how hard it was to break free after that. The uneasy feeling grew in his heart after listening to how Letizia chose over him other than anything. This was why he didn''t want to have friends in this world. They will be targeted like this. "Even so, I still need to pay them back for this¡­ Maybe also help Letizia from their hand." "I agree. Although the start of how she became a slave was awful, I never expected that she would choose this path." Anya suddenly interjected. She thought it was rare for a person like this to appear, and she could see the shadow of Zark. He was the guy who helped Lin Xingzhi with teleportation back when she grabbed Firia from this world. He had the same full loyalty Heavenly Oath when he met Alex and realized that he would be free after becoming God Stage expert since he was free from his world. Yet, he decided to swear once more in the name of the universe, completely bound him for life. Zark only said he made the right choice, and his mind couldn''t be changed. Anya thought Letizia might become the second Zark, albeit she didn''t know how she actually chose Alex over rather than betrayed him. However, seeing this action was enough for Alex to fight as even the Previous Life Alex always did it. Alex looked down for a moment and said, "We can wait for all the matters on Heavenly Continent until I arrive there. It will probably be a few months from now since I''m planning to train Sherry for a little bit after destroying the Black Devil Sect." "Alright. We can discuss our plan in dealing with the Black Devil Sect then." Anna nodded. Chapter 639 - Eve of Chaos "Well, that''s the gist of my plan." Alex clapped his hands as he finished explaining. The spirits had no change of expression as if they just heard something usual. Anya thought for a moment and said, "We exterminate them in one fell swoop as usual, I guess. Since we have sliced their number into half with most Martial Emperors dying inside that barrier in Martial Pavilion, we should be able to fight them from head-on." "That''s right. All of us have become Martial Monarchs anyway." Anna nodded in agreement. Alex didn''t say anything for a minute before opening his spirits'' status. [Anna (Dark) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 490545/540000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 67/80 (7-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 245656/580000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 64/80 (4-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 412131/550000] [Fabio Fabotelli (Fire) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 225555/540000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 48000/540000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 42678/540000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 65/80 (5-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 19821/560000] [Anya (Light) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 51675/540000] [Artur (Light) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 41167/540000] [Jean (Water) Level: 63/80 (3-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 43675/540000] He had seen this once again and expected it to be this hard, but he needed to do it. Without anyone noticing, Alex asked the system in his mind. ''System. Open all of my Gacha Tickets and use every summoning coin I have.'' [Processing.] [Light Spear (R) x1] [Fire Ritual (R) x1] [Water Bottle (C) x1] ¡­ ¡­ [Summoning Coins (C) x1] Alex got almost two hundred Summoning Coins from his two thousand Gacha Tickets. He had such high hope for this to give him ten to twenty percent of the Summoning Coins as EXP Cards as per usual. [Processing.] [Stallion (C) x1] [Green Slime (C) x1] [EXP Card (R) x1] ¡­ ¡­ [Njomo (R) x1] Seeing he had gotten Njomo''s card, he quickly used it to instantly raise Njomo''s level by one. At the same time, he calculated how many EXP Cards that the spirits actually needed. He was planning to make everyone reach 4-Star, so Alex only calculated seven people. ''Jean and Artur need six rare EXP Cards. Anya, Vera, and Greg need five. Fabio needs four while Anna only needs one. In total, I need thirty-two EXP Cards. I got thirty-six just now, so I can certainly raise their level at once. The problem is what I will do with the other four. I can make Nelson or Leoz level up¡­'' Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. ''I will see whether this battle is so horrible that I need to use this EXP Card or not.'' ''System, use my EXP Cards to raise everyone, except Leoz, Nelson, and Jeanna, level.'' [Processing.] Not long after, Anna and the others felt a surge of strength in their body as they realized Alex had raised their level. Alex looked at them and said, "With this, everyone has become at least 4-Star Martial Monarch¡­ except Sherry and me." Satisfied with the result, he continued, "Anyway, we have our plan ready, and we have Leoz with us. I feel the Black Devil Sect won''t be that hard as long as we are careful. That''s why no one should lower their guard down the moment we fight this sect." The spirits nodded as Anna stepped forward. "It''s fine. We are doing it in the usual way. Attack them from head-on, show our difference in individual strength, manipulate their emotions, kill their leaders, and exterminate the people." Alex nodded. "Yeah. No matter how different our detailed plan can be, the templates will be like that." Alex and the others couldn''t help but chuckle. They had been fighting for so many years, yet their strategy was still the same. No one actually wanted to die, especially the young aspiring disciples of the influence. Unless they were a solid family that would go through life and death together, Alex felt no influence would have this kind of bond, allowing him to take the chance. "Anyway, we will attack them the day after tomorrow. I was too busy this year with cultivation, so I am going to relax for a while." Alex rose from his seat and walked away. He created a small hut for himself a bit further than them. Anna smiled at his back but didn''t chase him. Instead, she was more interested in Sherry in front of them. "Sherry, let''s have a talk." "!!!" Sherry glanced left and right, wondering what she should do. Her face was slightly flushed as she had been keeping the desire this whole time. Even though Anna and Anya should have realized it, it was still a kind of cheating when she never talked about it. "Don''t worry. I''m just going to congratulate you." Anna smirked. Anya suddenly appeared behind Sherry, holding both of her hands and raising her up high. "We can talk there." Anna followed both of them while humming happily. Sherry was a kind of little sister to them, while Alicia and Firia were like equal to them. They had been treated as a little sister by Lin Xingzhi this whole time, so Sherry''s appearance was necessary for them and made them happy. The spirits smiled at the three girls and discussed their roles amongst themselves. ¡­ The next day, Alex was surprised by the disappearance of Sherry. He knew Sherry was near and hiding from him. He didn''t think much about it until the second day. They needed to go to raze the Black Devil Sect to the ground, but Sherry was still acting like this. Alex couldn''t help but look at Anna and Anya. "What did you say to her?" "We-!" Anna and Anya looked at each other and made a weird smile. How could they tell him that they taught Sherry all the things Lin Xingzhi ingrained in their memory. Not only Alex would think Lin Xingzhi weird, he might punish them as well. "Never mind." Alex sighed before looking at the others, especially Sherry. "I''m going to teleport right now." They nodded and went inside either his cards or flame. Alex then created a teleportation array and disappeared from this forest. ¡­ In a sect surrounded by dead trees and blood smell, the disciples were cultivating like none other. The sect master had made an ultimatum to every single disciple in the sect that if they didn''t cultivate as quickly as possible, the sect master would turn them into blood pills. A few disciples didn''t like this practice and complained to the sect elders, especially the ones that were their disciples. Unfortunately, this was the entire sect decision. Even the elders were trying to increase their strength, let alone them. In the middle of the dead forest, a teleportation array appeared as Alex materialized from within. According to his instruction, he should have arrived near the Black Devil Sect, but the moment he turned his head, he dropped his jaw. "I have teleported too close¡­" Alex muttered to himself. A bit further to his right stood tall a few wooden walls that had been erected recently. Alex realized that they were actually unusable for a person like him, and it would seem that there wasn''t a trick behind this wooden wall. Activating his Spirit Eyes, Alex saw no symbols or any other things, so he thought this wall was only to mark their territory. Of course, his eyes had been upgraded to the last level, and no concealment array could hide something from him. After checking the wall, the sky, and the underground, Alex finally confirmed nothing was wrong. He looked up high and its surroundings, not finding a single person nearby. Alex then summoned everyone and asked, "We are going to attack them from him¡­ Nelson, I want you to lead us to the sect master place later." "Understood." Nelson nodded. "I''m going to proceed in creating the array then. With this size and my current power, I should be able to finish one in a few hours. In the meantime, the rest will have to stand by here while Nelson also follows me to kill anyone that might disturb me," commanded Alex as he stared at Sherry for a moment and called, "Sherry¡­ Co-" He wished to say come with him to fix her fl.u.s.tered actions in the past two days, but he couldn''t risk it. In the end, he shook his head and said, "Alright. I will go right now." Alex and Nelson then disappeared. Symbol after symbol planted on the ground outside the Black Devil Sect. A few disciples were patrolling around, but they wouldn''t come back and report their findings as Nelson already killed them. Alex could make his barrier without anyone interrupting, speeding up the process. It would be too late to learn they were dead anyway since Alex should have finished his barrier. ¡­ A few hours later, "We have an emergency." A disciple slammed the door where the sect master was. The sect master wanted to snarl at this disciple, but that thought vanished upon hearing the word ''Emergency.'' He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "What happened?" "We have fifty disciples patrolling around the sect today, but none of them come back. We have checked the situation outside, but none of them come back as well¡­" Sweats covered his forehead while his body was shaking. The sect master released his Spiritual Energy and rose from his seat. "Inform every elder and disciple. Also, ring the bell. They have come to this land, and we shall bury them here." "Yes." The disciple hurriedly ran away. On the other hand, the sect master suddenly felt his feet weak as he thought, "The enemy has really come?" He had put up a tough front in front of a disciple so as to not let him worry. But he knew Alex must come prepared if he decided to attack when they were holing up inside the sect for a year. At first, he thought about the possibility of him being fed up to wait for so long but quickly brushed that thought off. If Alex truly came from an influence that had been hidden for a few thousand years, it was easy to say that the most patient people on this continent were they. "Should I escape from this place?" He muttered to himself as another disciple stormed inside his room. "We have an emergency!" "What? I already know they are coming!" The sect master shouted while releasing his killing intent, hiding his weak self again. "No." The disciple shook his head with a grave expression. "Outside¡­ A barrier has been erected outside!" "What?" The sect master instantly went past the disciple as he flew to the sky only to find a yellow translucent barrier, trapping them inside this place. He looked at the disciples that started panicking upon seeing this array. "Don''t be fl.u.s.tered." The disciples looked up and found the man who shouted earlier turned out to be their sect master. Seeing their sect master high above, they gained a little courage. Not long after, a few elders appeared in the sky, clasping their hands respectfully. "What should we do, Sect Master?" One of the elders stepped forward and asked. However, everyone''s attention was shifted the moment they felt an overbearing heat, scorching their skin. The burnt smell filled their lungs as they realized something was wrong. They quickly turned to the left, finding eight phoenixes fly in the sky before making their way toward them. *Boom Boom Boom!* The sound explosions echoed inside the barrier as it engulfed three hundred people at once. "Enemy Attack!" The sect master shouted as he released his Spiritual Energy, blowing all the smoke from the explosions away. Everyone could fourteen figure up in the sky, looking down on them as if looking at ants. A golden-haired man stepped forward as he took off his mask, revealing his handsome face. "You have been killing many people, and now your retribution has finally come. Are you ready to meet your doom, Black Devil Sect?" Chapter 640 - One Side Annihiliation "Are you ready to meet your doom, Black Devil Sect?" The cold voice somehow sent out a chill in this burning land. The disciples, elders, and even the sect master shuddered for a second as if this word sentenced them to death. The first one to recover were actually the elders as one of them shouted, "Don''t falter. There are only fourteen of them. We need to kill them right now before we see any reinforcement." Those words shook the body of the sect master. He usually ran away from a battle that he knew he couldn''t win while glorifying the battle he could win. This was the only reason why he could reach this position after doing it for almost a millennial. However, these people actually gave him the instinct he had honed in his entire life. The instinct to know whether he needed to escape or fight. His instinct told him to escape from this place, but his conscience asked him otherwise. If he ran away from this problem, the disciples and elders would die, and even he might be nothing but ashes. There was also a barrier that trapped them inside, preventing him from escaping. These two made his escape impossible. In that case, he could only gamble his life as he shouted. "We are going to fight them here. Our numbers are a few thousand times higher than them, so we shouldn''t be afraid." On the opposite side, Alex didn''t attack them for a while as if he wanted to let the Black Devil Sect regain their composure and attack him. "Do you think they can sense our cultivation?" Leoz asked. "No. This is the minimum distance we can have before they can realize our strength. We don''t want to scare them first before killing a thousand people." Anna shook her head. "Anna, Jeanne, Fabio, Vera, and Greg will be marching to the left and make sure no one is alive. Kyle, Stina, Jean, Artur, and Nelson go to the right. Leoz, me, Sherry, and Anya will march forward. Seeing how the sect master actually makes his appearance, we don''t know to search for him, so we can focus on dealing with our firepower." Alex thought for a moment. "This time, I want Leoz, Anna, and Artur to use your True Spirit Body. As for the rest¡­ I might not use your power this time to see whether we can hold a candle against our enemies without True Spirit Body." "Understood." The spirits nodded while the trio raised their weapons. "True Spirit Body." The three of them said the same thing. A pair of horns grew on Leoz''s head as his body began to be covered by lightning. To his left, a pair of beautiful dark butterfly wings appeared from her body as a hundred black butterflies appeared out of nowhere. To his right, a knight with his shining armor raised his sword as if he was the general of the army, boosting his soldiers'' morale. "Thunder Berserker Form." "Dark Butterfly Form." "Heroic Spirit." None of them moved after activating their True Spirit Body according to Alex''s instruction, waiting for a barrage of attacks from those people. No one would think he had Space Element, so he needed to take advantage of this weapon to the fullest. Only after a minute, they saw the disciples, elders, and even the sect master were preparing to unleash their attack at the same time. However, it turned out they were targeting the barrier instead of their group. Alex snapped his finger and appeared behind the enemies and looked at these few thousand people''s attacks. "What?" "How did he appear in that position?" "Wait, don''t tell me!" "Run!" "Scatter. Make sure you are far enough from each other!" The elders and sect master realized Alex''s element and quickly ordered their disciples. With that power, timing, and these attacks, they could easily develop a plan that would give a heavy blow in their force. Alex didn''t overthink about the disciples that started scattering around the area and simply clapped his hands. A small blue circle at the size of a normal human appeared in front of Alex as it suddenly expanded into a huge hole toward the Blue Layered Realm. The Black Devil Sect confirmed what he wanted to do and couldn''t help but smirk, knowing they had minimized the casualty by spreading their force around. Another portal appeared on the sky, raining all of their attacks as if a cloud pouring raindrops. *Boom Boom Boom!* Another series of explosions shook the Black Devil Sect. "The enemies have a Space Element Array Master. Watch your attack, and don''t use it together as it will backfire to you. As long as we fight them smartly, we can win." The sect master shouted. Suddenly, a few powerful attacks came from behind as soon as Alex''s Space element startled them for a second. Stina and Kyle summoned their phoenixes and blasted them toward the disciples on the right. At the same time, they released their true form and turned into a real phoenix. *Cry!* On the right side, Anya also sent her dark butterflies and controlled a hundred people simultaneously, making them commit suicide. "Dark Butterfly First Order. Marionettes." Anna smiled, succeeding in the first blow. As the idiom, ''The first impression is the most important.'' Sherry closed her eyes for a second, breaking the Phoenix Seed inside her body. Alex''s evolved Pure Fire that was stored inside the seed burst out and replaced her normal Pure Fire for a couple of minutes. She looked down on these people as she said with a cold tone. "Phoenixes. Go!" The first word carried a huge amount of Spiritual Energy as three phoenixes suddenly appeared from thin air. The second word made the three phoenixes flying toward these people. *Boom Boom Boom!* The explosions swallowed many disciples, and once you were swallowed, only ashes would remain from your entire body. ''To think a slight confusion cost them so much¡­'' The sect master looked at their condition before he pulled out the sword on his waist, slashing it toward his back. "Blood Slash!" The disciples were clueless, while the elders had a slightly delayed reaction than him. It was only after the sound of three explosions they realized that Alex was still behind them. Unfortunately, when they tried to search for him, Alex already came back to his group. The sect master was the first to be astounded, never expecting to see a dual elements user. He looked around and noticed that many disciples suddenly fell on their knees while covered by sweats. "What is that flame?" The sect master muttered to himself before opening his eyes wide. "Don''t tell me¡­ Is that flame a Pure Fire? No, it''s already impossible to have two elements, let alone the combination of Pure Fire and Space Element¡­ It''s so rare that everyone usually believes it''s impossible¡­" The absurd thought crept into his mind as he dropped his jaw. "The two people could only summon one phoenix each before turning into one themselves. However, that little girl can summon three at once like him¡­ Don''t tell me¡­ He actually has Sacrificial Fire from that little girl?" *Thud!* His heart skipped a beat, wondering what kind of influence they had provoked. Why they came at this particular time, and why only they needed to face this kind of trouble. Thinking about it would be useless since it wouldn''t bring him anything other than death. Instead, he should encourage and manipulate the disciples to make an escape route even if it''s only for himself. "Disciples. All of you shall proceed with my order!" On the sky around the edge of the barrier, Alex had come back while bringing good news. "We have killed almost two thousand of them. I don''t know why but I feel this one is easier than fighting the Joyful Union Sect¡­" Anya nodded in agreement. "I think there is a kind of problem with their high command. Take a look at the expression of their sect master¡­ I have seen his type many times. Do you want to know what kind of type he is?" Alex glanced at her for a second and nodded. "He will sacrifice everything as long as he can survive." Anya narrowed her eyes. "His type is hard to deal with if he has confidence since he will always be careful. However, breaking his confidence, you can see how brittle his heart actually is." "In other words, it''s time to make our way to him while killing as many as we can." Alex nodded. "Let''s go." The spirits nodded, marching together at the same time according to their roles. On the left, Anna''s Dark Butterflies were rampaging, making people commit suicide one after another. Due to the effect of Blood Pill, the time she needed to infiltrate their mind was less than a minute. It could be said that she was killing one hundred people every minute. Fabio and Vera were not pushovers. They did it with their own style, killing the enemies one by one. They might not be flashy like Anna, but their actions instilled a deep fear inside the disciples'' hearts. Jeanne mostly targeted the elders that were trying to command the disciples as usual, preventing anyone from rising a surge of morale. Last but not least, Greg made sure everyone could fight to the best of their ability, not having a single stray attack coming their way. On the right, Kyle and Stina were doing the same job as Anna. Fighting in their original form allowed them to use their full strength while scaring the enemy. After all, Phoenixes only appeared in the legend as one of the mythical beings, scaring them still. Jeanne''s job was entrusted to Nelson for this group. He steadily killed every single elder. Unfortunately, his strength still fell short from Jeanne, and this fight was during the day, he needed more effort to kill the elders, giving the opportunity for a few of them to control the disciples. Artur and Jean only supported them from behind, killing all the disciples that wanted to kill them or escaped their attacks alive. It was different for the middle group. Anya had been increasing everyone''s power with her own power, albeit she was following them to camouflage. Leoz took the front and charged at them like no one business, penetrating deep into the enemy ranks. Alex kept telling him to regroup as soon as he went too deep. Meanwhile, Alex and Sherry kept using their Fire Authority to summon these six enhanced phoenixes to kill them, albeit most of them were shot down by the sect master. To that end, Alex told Sherry to use firebirds instead. Surprisingly, both of them could summon the number they never thought possible before. Over one thousand and five hundred firebirds appeared around them, shining so brightly as if the sun was in front of them. Controlling these many firebirds were hard for Alex and Sherry, so they simply had them charge forward. Most of these firebirds were shot down by the enemies, but every time they exploded, it wouldn''t create a chain of explosions as Alex and Sherry had covered them with their power. On the other hand, they needed ten or so firebirds to kill someone, so they could somehow march forward steadily. Luckily, Leoz was mostly in the middle of enemies, so they didn''t hit him since they attacked head-on. The sect master was sweating profusely, looking at the elders falling on the battle one by one. The moment Alex and the group came closer, he realized that all of them were at least 4-Star Martial Monarchs with the exception of their master and mistress, AKA Alex and Sherry. Their power was also no joke as the elders couldn''t hold a candle even after activating their blood pills. It just showed how powerful Jeanne and Nelson in one on one fight. At the same time, he needed to worry about the weaker disciples. Without having any choice, he took a red pill out of his Space Ring. "If only we didn''t lose one thousand Martial Emperors in the Special Realm." He stared at it for a few seconds before swallowing it. Chapter 641 - A Plan "If only we didn''t lose one thousand Martial Emperors in the Special Realm." Regret filled his heart as he swallowed the pill. He might be the one who didn''t want to accept death the most in this entire sect due to his nature, but he would be the most decisive one after knowing it was futile to struggle. Rather than accepting his death, taking one of them down with him would actually make him feel better. Having gathered enough resolve to do so, he shouted. "All disciples who have the Berserk Pill. Don''t care about your wound or whatsoever, and just think about solely killing them." He was at breaking point despite fully knowing that Alex had Space Element. There was still a single solution if Alex truly escaped with his Space Element. They could just spread out and attack the array separately. They still had a high number to do this, so Alex could still attack them by teleporting inside again, but the barrier would take the full brunt of a few thousand people attacking at once. Unless it were several rank 7 Gathering Arrays as well as millions of Spirit Gems, Alex''s barrier would surely break. The disciples began swallowing their Berserk Pills while Nelson and Jeanne kept killing those who ate the pills. Unfortunately, they could kill a few thousand at once, so the situation finally shifted. "Attack them, but do mind about your attack as to prevent them from using your own attacks!" The sect master roared, pointing his finger at Alex. Alex, behind Leoz, smiled after seeing this situation. He realized what they wanted to do. "I see. Want to bring me down or want to destroy my barrier? My barrier is impregnable since I have poured every single Spirit Gems from my Inventory. I will grab everything I have lost here from your treasury." He followed everything from words to words with the first one to be creating a Teleportation Array. Without saying anything, all the spirits returned to Alex''s side and disappeared. The disciples looked around to search for his position until one of them pointed his hand and roared. "That way!" Behind the barrier, Alex simply looked down on them, taunting them by simply doing nothing. The anger crept inside the disciples'' hearts, but somehow got stopped from blowing up with a single shout. "Stop!" The aura that was never seen before swept the entire area, and those in Martial Monarch realized that this aura contained a powerful 7-Star Martial Monarch Strength. There was no need to think who had this aura since only one person qualified for this. They took a deep breath to calm down and started calming the other disciples down. "Look at those people!" The sect master pointed his finger at Alex. "They are just scared of our Berserk Pills. We can win this as long as we are united and break this barrier." The disciples gradually regained their calm when the sect master himself shouted at them. The sect master observed their expression first, noticing that he finally gained their attention. He continued, "We need to spread out. No matter how our people are killed or how many of your friends have died, kept attacking the barrier with all of your power. Don''t care about anything else since we''re all dead if we don''t break this barrier!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ''The way he moves¡­ Is he ready to sacrifice many people for this? If we are too fixated with him, then the barrier will seriously break¡­'' Anya also noticed this as she observed Alex''s expression while glancing back and forth to see the disciples began spreading around the area. ''If we spread out, there is a chance they are trying to surround us suddenly. There are more than five thousand people using the Berserk Pill right now¡­ and if they don''t think anything about their life, it will be difficult if we are separated. Does it mean we can only fight them separated with the risk of them escaping?'' Alex couldn''t see a usable plan yet. He might be able to get one as long as he had time, but he needed to come up with one in less than two minutes before they started attacking the barrier. Anya took a deep breath as she followed their positioning, wondering if she could find something that could help their situation. The spread was even with their power level also distributed very well. They would need to kill at least ten thousand people in less than one and a half minutes when they were at their most vulnerable. It was a third of their current number, but it should be enough to slow them down. According to the current amount of Spirit Gems that was supplying the barrier, they would need around three minutes. However, if Alex''s group could destroy a third of them, they would need an additional one or two minutes. By the time they broke the barrier, they would pass the five minutes mark and either die or be heavily injured. In this case, they would be exterminated first before they could break the barrier since their progress would become slower and slower, with their number becoming less and less. The only problem would be how they could kill these many people at once without damaging the barrier. Alex and Anya were thinking hard about this. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind. He had almost forgotten about it since he had yet to use this after coming back to this world. "Everyone shall use their True Spirit Body right now. Kyle and Stina, can you control a portion of my Fire Element while using yours?" Alex asked. The spirits quickly obeyed them and released their True Spirit Body. Meanwhile, Stina answered with a nod. "We can, as long as we are inside your body." Alex nodded. Sherry was usually the one to use this, but the Fire Authority had pushed everything to the limit, so both Alex and Sherry had a hard time to do anything with this Fire Art. With Stina and Kyle using his power, he could focus on his sword and spear, specifically the rank 8 weapons he received not long ago. Alex took a deep breath as he said his plan. "All of you will pair with someone. Just pick one in your right. We are going to spread out with these seven pairs and attack them from distance to avoid being surrounded by the enemies. You may attack the barrier if that can kill many people at once. Now, go!" Teleportation Array appeared beneath them as they suddenly appeared right behind the disciples. The disciples noticed this and somehow glanced at them for one or two seconds before sweating profusely as they quickly used their Martial Arts to attack the barrier. Alex and Sherry flew in pairs. Sherry was in charge of supporting him from the back while Alex went for the close combat. He took his rank 8 weapons. "It''s time for you two to show me your might," Alex said to both weapons and the latter released their energy as if they heard him. On his right was Leoz and Anna pair while on his right was Anna and Nelson pair. Despite Alex saying to grab someone beside them, the spirits decided this themselves to make sure Alex was protected. Looking at the intelligence of their current enemy, they might target him and Sherry since both were the weakest while also the leader of this group. The moment the enemy surrounded them, these two pairs would come out to break the encirclement. Besides, Stina and Kyle were also inside his flame, controlling his flame together. "Firebirds!" Sherry summoned more than seven hundred of them at once while five phoenixes appeared above Alex. These were the combination of three people while Alex still focused on his weapons. The blazing flame appeared on his own as if the weapons were the one calling the flame since Alex wanted to use an attack. Noticing this, Alex simply smiled lightly. He appeared in the middle of the enemy as he thrust both weapons to the empty air in the opposite direction. "Mythical Spear Cannon (Power Version)!" With the addition of Mythical Fire Slash, Alex renamed his Mythical Spear Cannon from Sword and Spear version into one that was similar to his Spear Throwing Art, Power and Piercing Version. A huge powerful flame suddenly burst out from both weapons as if it was a laser. Alex wanted to decrease their number as much as he wanted first before he slashed the weapons thrice. "Triple Draws!" "Blade of Conquest." Six sword waves flew once again, killing every single person in its way, albeit it wasn''t very effective. This attack was also followed by the Fire Phoenixes above his head. They began killing hundreds of disciples. However, none of them actually fought back. Instead, they were still trying to break the barrier in the fastest way possible and escaped from this place. Alex let out a sigh. He didn''t know why but the enemies this time were more frustrating than the ones he had fought despite them not fighting back. Whether it was the pressure of time or the loss of his Spiritual Gems, he clearly put more thoughts in this battle. He kept killing them until one minute later, he realized that they failed in their objectives. They still need to kill two thousand people to get that objective, and that ruined their entire plan. Alex swept the entire battlefield to see what other things he could do in this situation and locked his eyes on the sect master. "Leoz, kill that man. You have thirty seconds." Alex pointed his finger at the sect master and said to Leoz''s card to make sure the message was delivered. At the same time, Alex pulled back, confusing everyone. "Sherry, you also need to pull back." He took a deep breath before taking out Fabio''s, Vera''s, and Jeanne''s card. "After my attack ends, you both will use your strongest attack to kill as many as possible." The three spirits didn''t know what he was planning and wondering what kind of attack he wanted to use. Sadly, Anya wasn''t here, so they figured it out too late. Alex already made his distance to get the best result for the attack he wanted to use. "Stina, Kyle, protect me when I use my power. Sherry, go inside my body to take cover later." Sherry opened her mouth in surprise as she shouted, "Master. Don''t!" Alex ignored her words, tossed the weapons inside his Inventory, and created a small fireball above his head. The fireball gradually gained size and released a powerful heat. Everyone, including his spirits, felt the scorching heat and turned around. The spirits could only grit his teeth as if they had failed, while many people realized how terrifying this technique was. "We need to destroy whatever that attack is first!" The sect master shouted, but Leoz appeared in front of him with a grave expression, swinging his giant sword. Chapter 642 - Anna Leoz appeared in front of the sect master, slashing his sword downward. He never thought the situation forced Alex to use his Hell Inferno again. Alex had gotten a mouthful of lecture either from the technique itself or Anna. The technique really consumed almost all of his Spiritual Energy if he wanted to create this powerful fireball. Anna already had a grave expression, ready to lecture him after everything was over. On the other hand, Leoz had a very important mission. Seeing the sect master managed to react and wanted to stop Alex, it was better to kill him first as to create chaos in their ranks. The disciples wouldn''t go to Alex if they knew their sect master was dying. "Thunder Slash!" Leoz''s sword released a powerful yellow lightning, sparking around to make it look menacing. "Blood Slash!" The sect master was also not a pushover as he managed to use his strongest Sword Attack. "Don''t mind me. Go att-!" Before he finished his swords, Leoz used every ounce of his strength and blew him away to the ground. He might be a 7-Star Martial Monarch because of the Berserk Pill, but Leoz was a genuine 7-Star Martial Monarch without one. Leoz even activated his True Spirit Body to boot. In one on one showcase like this, it was easy to see who had the advantage. *Bam!* Blasting him away to the ground, Nelson pointed his hand toward the ground as ten electric balls. They created a spark that linked themselves together before manifesting powerful electricity in the middle of these balls. "Thunder God Cannon." He only used half of his power in this cannon, but it was enough to show his power to the other disciples and grab all their attention. This way, they would forget about Alex''s for a while, allowing him to infuse more and more energy for his Hell Inferno. The lightning was shot out of these electric balls, making its way toward the sect master. Obviously, the sect master used every single of his energy to strike this attack if he wanted to stay alive. "Blood Slash!" The dark red Sword Wave flew toward Leoz''s Thunder God Cannon. This clash gave birth to a mighty shock wave that forced the other disciples to use their energy to hold their position. Unfortunately, the sect master already saw the conclusion. Without a single second where he could use it to escape, his Sword Wave was swallowed by the lightning and made its way toward him. Even the shock wave only lasted for a split second. Not giving up yet, the sect master still raised his sword and struck it again with his sword. "Heavenly Sword Strike!" Leoz thought nothing about this last struggle as he could already picture how the sect master either died or got heavily injured after taking this attack. *Boom!* A huge explosion followed the attack, making the others panic. "Sect Master!" The disciples and elders shouted. It didn''t create a huge hole since it was a different technique than the one he used on the Joyful Union Sect''s soil. However, it still created a massive crater on the ground with the sect master bleeding all over. Even though he came out alive, his eyes somehow lacked focus while his hand dropped the sword. "Sect Master!" They shouted once again, happy to see the sect master was alive. However, Leoz already anticipated such a thing, so he already arrived in front of the sect master and sliced his head before sending it flying to create a more dramatic effect for these disciples and elders. "You bastard!" They couldn''t contain their anger anymore. If Leoz did it casually, they would be scared by his power. However, seeing how Leoz actually disgraced their sect master triggered them. Leoz simply looked at them with a nonchalant expression as if he didn''t do anything big. The disciples and elders around him were ready to attack him, but Leoz simply glanced at his master, Alex. "I have finished both of my missions. I need to go." Leoz said before turning into a stream of yellow light, flying toward Alex. This was the time they realized they had forgotten about their sect master''s master, allowing Alex to finish his move. The other spirits already came back into their own respective card while his contracted beasts already hid within his body. This was literally the attack that contained all of Alex''s power, hoping to kill at least ten to fifteen people at once. He didn''t mind if the barrier broke afterward, but he needed at least to lower their number to three thousand, or they might miss some disciples in their pursuit. Alex smiled as the Spiritual Energy was concentrated on his mouth. From there, he released every bit of that energy to order his Hell Inferno. "Hell Inferno." The fireball with a thirty-meter radius finally popped out like a balloon. All the heat, fire, and mass inside were burst out in every direction. "!!!" Alex was already a 3-Star Martial Monarch, and this attack contained all of his energy. If there were people that could survive from this attack, they would be at least Martial Monarch. All the lower levels couldn''t contain this heat and turned into ashes. This was especially true for Martial Kings or below, albeit there were not many low-level disciples in this place because the Blood Pill managed to increase them in a short time. This giant explosion swallowed everything around him and reached his own barrier. The Space Element inside the barrier began sucking all the fire energy within this explosion, but it turned out the barrier wasn''t fast enough. The Gathering Array kept absorbing all the Spirit Gems energy, so the array could repair itself. Yet, it was also futile. The barrier was gradually burned down by Alex''s power before the entire barrier slowly crumbled. Alex certainly had miscalculated how powerful this attack would be after using it with his Fire Authority. It couldn''t be compared to the one he used to kill Moar anymore. After everything was over, Alex could only see a few people were still alive. They were able to kill around fourteen thousand disciples, but this attack really brought it to another level. He could see there were barely one hundred people left, yet he couldn''t be happy in his heart. Not only did it really take a toll on his body, but he also knew that Sherry was also a stubborn person. In the middle of casting this attack, Sherry entered his body first even though it should be later, only right before he wanted to use his Hell Inferno. As soon as Sherry entered his body, he felt a surge of strength that went toward his Hell Inferno. That could only mean one thing, Sherry was increasing the input on this attack. Due to her having the same Fire with Alex with that Phoenix Seed, she could strengthen this attack even further. If Alex could be reckless by using this Hell Inferno, she could also do the same by infusing her energy to this attack. Yet unbeknownst to them, Anna was ready to scold them for a long time while they were trying to recover their energy. But¡­ For the time being, the spirits came out, including Anna, who glanced at Alex (and Sherry) with a cold gaze. Anya simply shrugged her shoulders as Alex and Sherry had pissed Anna. She might be a very supportive person, but she was also a scary woman. After all, the previous Alex also didn''t dare to make her mad. He didn''t want to fight back since Anna was his wife, but the latter used her butterfly to torture him by making him unable to act the way he wanted to and did anything that embarrassed him¡­ She never did it to the current Alex but was on the verge of it when Alex first used this technique. Anna snorted as she commanded, "Kill all of those bastards at once." The spirits quickly followed her order while Stina and Kyle also felt this immeasurable pressure that forced them to follow her order. At the same time, she grabbed Greg''s shoulder and asked, "Watch these two for me." Greg nodded furiously and came closer to Alex, trapping him inside a green barrier. Anna glanced at him once more before chasing the others. Greg looked at Alex and said, "Young Master¡­ I feel that you have passed Anna''s limit of patience¡­" "What do you mean?" Alex didn''t know a single thing about this and tilted his head in confusion. "I mean, she is really pissed this time, and I feel like she will do something you don''t want to imagine¡­" Greg let out a sigh. "What do you mean? Can you explain it more clearly? I knew that I used my Hell Inferno again, but the situation forced me to do so." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Greg fell into silence before shaking his head. "Anyway, just know that no one will actually help you, Young Master. Even Anya won''t help you¡­" He wanted to say that Lin Xingzhi wouldn''t help him as well, but he didn''t want to say anything about her before Alex met the actual Lin Xingzhi and had a feeling for her. After all, it might disturb his current feelings for her. "Wait, tell me more about it." Alex didn''t know why, but he started sweating profusely. Unfortunately, Greg refused to say anything and waited for Anna to arrive. A few minutes later, everyone had finished killing the remaining Black Devil Sect members. Everyone other than Anna was gathering all the Space Rings they could find before making a bonfire by using the corpses, Blood Pills, and Berserk Pills. They needed to make sure that these three things didn''t pollute this continent anymore. On the other hand, Anna put on a serious expression, staring at Alex coldly. "You know that your Hell Inferno takes a toll on your body, right?" "Yeah." Alex took a deep breath to calm his heart and nodded. "And you still used it¡­" Anna narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms. "But¡­ I was forced by the situation. If I didn''t use it, the enemies would escape. Besides, the spirits had used their strongest attack and ended up in the same state as me¡­ Why don''t you scold them as well?" Anna didn''t say anything. She looked at Greg. "We should have a couple of days before anyone notices that we have exterminated Black Devil Sect. Let us search for a room inside so I can have time to talk it out with him." Greg could only nod and follow Anna while bringing Alex. [Mission: Destroy Black Devil Sect Reward: 50 Premium Tickets Description: This is an old mission that came from the moment you accepted Zwaka''s Promise. You sure have luck, Host.] Alex looked at the notification, but couldn''t be happy as he felt danger from Anna. Someone said that you shouldn''t anger a good person that always supported you, and Alex could somehow understand that idiom. Chapter 643 - Annas Punishment Like how she treated Alex in the previous life when she was angry, she did the same to the current Alex and somehow left a mark in his heart. For a whole day, Anna released her Dark Butterfly to control Alex''s and Sherry''s body. The first hour, Anna brought him and Sherry to a room while smiling evilly. Alex and Sherry couldn''t control their body, let alone having their Pure Fire to erase the binding. Suddenly, Anna took many clothes out of her Space Ring. The clothes were for males and females, so Alex thought the male was for him while the female was for Sherry. Albeit, everything was betrayed when Anna forced him to move closer together with Sherry and stripped them down. In front of Sherry was a butler outfit. Sherry wore the white shirt, black pants, and the black vest. Anna didn''t forget to prepare the shoes and white gloves as well as the one a round half glasses. Anna tried to dress her like an old butler by this outfit. After that, she tied her hair into a ponytail. Sherry placed her hand on her right chest before bowing to Anna. Anna observed her from top to bottom and was satisfied with her own efforts. She then glanced at Alex with a dangerous glint as she grabbed a single piece of maid outfit. Having no ability to say anything, glancing, or signaling everything, Alex was scared still. His consciousness still saw everything. Alex put on the maid outfit along with every single accessory. Anna even put on makeup for him, so he looked like a real maid. Anna made him drop to the ground, put his finger on his mouth, and acted all the way. It wasn''t a scary thing and endangered him in any way, but the impact was so powerful that Alex wanted to seal his consciousness away. He realized everything that Jeanne said about torture and learned how terrifying mental torture is. It could be said that the pain that he had gone through to refine his body couldn''t be compared to this one. After getting satisfied with the first outfit, Anna continued with the second outfit for both Alex and Sherry. At one point, Alex''s eyes intertwined with Sherry''s. Even though they couldn''t speak, give any signal, or blink their eyes, they knew both thought the same thing. It was to end this suffering. Yet, the torture had just started. Sometimes Alex got a male outfit while Sherry also cross-dressed, acting as if two boys loved each other. Sometimes Anna wanted the opposite and made it look like two girls in love. Only after around twenty hours, Anna finally got out of the room, feeling satisfied. She didn''t forget to leave a message for them. Alex and Sherry didn''t look at the message first when her dark energy finally dissipated as they gradually regained the control of their body. Instead, they fell on their butts, leaning on each other''s back. Alex was covered with sweat and wanted to cry but no tears. Sherry didn''t have as much damage as him, but still said, "Master¡­" "Sherry¡­" Alex also called her name weakly as he said, "Let us not anger her again, alright?" "I absolutely agree." Sherry nodded. "Though I can feast my eyes as well with different types of Master. Hehe¡­" Alex fell into silence before letting a long sigh. Other than the mental trauma that Anna gave him, Alex realized one important lesson that Anna might intentionally want him to learn. Having his Pure Fire that could purify any curse or poison might be nice and powerful. However, there was one weakness that Alex still needed to watch out. After releasing his Hell Inferno, he would be in his weakest state. If his enemy somehow controlled his mind in his most vulnerable state, he realized he couldn''t channel even a little bit of Spiritual Energy in his body. In other words, he couldn''t control his Pure Fire to remove whatever method they used on him. At a time like this, his spirits might need to fight him to the death or kill the one that controlled him. He realized how dangerous mind control could be. Much to his dismay, Alex felt the need to thank Anna for this valuable lesson. He felt that fighting his own families and wives would be more painful than having this type of mental torture. Anna didn''t punish the other spirits because she knew Alex would have recalled them before anything could happen. This was especially true when the Inventory could be shared. The others could help with a single summon, so Anna didn''t really have to worry about it. However, Alex was different. He couldn''t be summoned or recalled, so there was no way he could save himself from this type of situation. Sherry also did the same. She might be able to hide inside Alex''s flame, but it required him to be near, and there was no way they would be near for 24/7 for thousands of years. That was why Sherry also needed to know this important lesson. Alex looked at the ceiling and sighed again before glancing over the note that Anna left behind. He waved his hand, and Spiritual Energy carried the note over. Sherry also climbed from behind and put her head on his shoulder, reading the note as well. ''If you try to do something like this again, then expect others to watch all the things that happened in this room too. I will make sure at least the others could see this when I do this again.'' Alex and Sherry shuddered. Sherry was fine since she could feast her eyes with the cross-dressing Alex, but it would be different if the others watched her as well. Alex was far even worse and felt he wouldn''t be able to maintain his pride as the leader of this group any longer. "Well, we still can use half of our strength for this. I will fill fifty percent and you with the other fifty percent. We indeed went overboard by using two hundred percent strength in that technique. Though it was only for that, we could almost kill everyone." Alex nodded. "I understand. I will just pour fifty percent of my power in the future. At the very least, we still have strength left, so Elder Sister Anna wouldn''t be angry. In case she was still planning to do the same, we will have enough strength to escape from her grasp." Sherry nodded furiously. Alex suddenly stood up and changed his clothes while Sherry did the same. "Sherry, I want to rest first. If you want to go outside, you can do it alone." Alex sighed and jumped onto the bed. Even though he sounded fine, the damage was still on his heart, so he wanted to have a good rest first before coming out and meeting anyone. Sherry simply sat on the bed and accompanied him without saying anything. Slowly but surely, Alex closed his eyes, falling into sleep. It might be the first time after a year that Alex finally had a good sleep. They might not need sleep, but it was certainly useful to recover their tired heart. Alex slept soundly for a few hours before he woke up, only to find an empty bedroom. It seemed Sherry had left after he fell asleep. He rubbed his fuzzy eyes and gradually rose from the bed, reaching a water bottle from his Inventory. He didn''t need to drink, but he still felt his throat dry after a sleep despite becoming a cultivator. ''It seems Sherry didn''t leave anything?'' Alex thought as he checked the room. He activated his Spirit Eyes to find everyone''s position before realizing someone was waiting for him outside the door. "Artur, come in," Alex called the name as if he knew who was outside. Not long after, the person opened the door and walked inside the room. "Have you finished your rest, Young Master?" "I''m sorry." Alex nodded and apologized. "Don''t be. It''s normal to be tired. If we, spirits, don''t have the private space inside our Spirit Cards, we might also be tired." Artur smiled. "Where are the others?" Alex asked. "They are inside the ritual room, waiting for you to remove the Blood Gem." "Can you lead me there?" "Your wish is my command." Artur nodded. Alex stood up and stretched his hands, asking Artur to lead the way. They went through a few corridors before reaching a room with a giant gate. The corridor had the same decorations as any other buildings he had visited. Only a simple wooden wall and white ceiling, making him wonder if this world actually had a good sense of decorations. He knew that most buildings actually had a grand front that made even a cheap building look grand. However, almost every building he visited had this bland corridor all the time as if they only focused on the outside, not the inside. The gate itself didn''t have any decorations, except the two red words written on it. ''Blood Ritual.'' Alex read the words and realized it was really Blood Gem. Artur opened the gate and asked Alex to go in. Everyone already gathered inside, looking at the red thing in the middle of the room. Alex was surprised when he looked at a small round thing in the middle of the room and slowly walked closer to it. *Gasp¡ª!* Alex opened his mouth wide as if he couldn''t believe what he just saw. It wasn''t very clear from afar, but Alex could see it when it was in front of his eyes. It was a heart and a living one on top of that. It looked like a human heart and was still beating. He remembered that Atlas said this was created a few thousand years ago and shuddered by a few thousand years old living heart. However, Alex still needed to keep on his promise to bring this Blood Gem or Heart to Atlas, and he wasn''t going to renege the promise. Before closing in, he could see many symbols around the Blood Gem, creating a barrier that locked this Gem inside. Alex thought for a moment and solved the barrier within a few minutes as if it wasn''t a challenge for him. Alex slowly reached out to this Blood Gem with his hand. Luckily, there was no blood, smell, or anything that made it look gross. He checked the Blood Gem with his Spirit Eyes only to find a huge amount of Blood Energy and Souls stored inside. This was a matter that Atlas needed to solve, so he simply deactivated his Spirit Eyes and tossed the Blood Gem inside his Inventory. Still, the energy was truly enormous as even his hand looked like it wanted to melt by the amount of energy alone. He fell into deep thought for a minute before shaking his head, turning to Anna. "Anna, what is our condition?" "We have finished cleaning up this sect, removing everything related to this sect, including the Blood Pills and Berserk Pills. There was also a mountain of corpses in the opposite building, but rest assured, there is nothing like that anymore. We have looked at every nook and corner and confirmed it." Anna nodded. "I see. Then there should be no problem in leaving this place, right?" "Yes." Alex thought for a moment and came to a decision. "There are still two weeks before the Fire God Clan comes to this place. I''m going to use this chance to solve the barrier for those people and return this Blood Gem as per agreement. After that, we will be discussing how we want to intercept them and train a little bit more before going to the Heavenly Continent. Is there any objection?" None of them said anything, even Anna and Anya. Alex then nodded before staring at Anna for a few seconds. "Anna¡­ Thank you for the lesson." Anna smiled gently and said, "No problem. But the note is not an empty threat¡­ just for your information." Alex shuddered as he said, "Don''t worry. I''m not going to make this same mistake unless I need to." Anna didn''t like the latter part, but still let him go. Chapter 644 - Solving the Three Races Problem After collecting the Blood Gem, Alex asked Anna and the others to stay here to see who actually came to this place first. He wanted to see whether they would become hostile, want the Blood Pills, or come for another reason. He didn''t wish to miss any potential enemies that might suddenly stab him from his back. Alex went back to the special realm alone since all the spirits would participate in the observation while killing some monsters nearby. At the same time, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina wished to increase their strength to make sure they were ready for the fight two weeks from now. Having finished all of his business in this place, Alex used his Teleportation Array to go to the Cursed Forest. ''I just got out of this place a few days ago, and I need to go back right now.'' Alex muttered as he remembered the gloomy atmosphere inside. He wondered if his eyes still needed to adjust the darkness again after this time. ''I only need to give this Blood Gem and solve the barrier. It won''t take too long since I have understood the basic principle of the barrier.'' Alex waved his hand, and a gate opened. He already came back a few times, so he didn''t waste any time and entered the realm. The uneven branches and the gloomy sky greeted him again. The Gathering Array he drew almost a year ago was still here. Alex ignored the array for the time being and turned left, walking a few meters until he found a stone hut behind the woods. He couldn''t help but smile to see this still standing. Yet, he waved his hand, and the stone began to crack. If he wished to erase something, he would certainly demolish this building first. The pile of rubbles was thrown away, and every tool inside was extinguished by his fire. Alex glanced at the white sheet and some pillows and shook his head while smiling. The arrays were next. Destroying his own arrays wasn''t that difficult since he only needed to sweep it with his Pure Fire, completely burning the ground. These four arrays had served their functions. Alex couldn''t help but wonder whether he should update his Special Realm with rank 7 Arrays and meet Rose again, but quickly shook his head. It was better not to see Rose for the time being. The current situation forced Rose to develop her power quicker than ever, so he rather sacrificed the time to give her a better future. The process only took a few minutes before Alex headed to the monolith. He observed this white stone and muttered to himself, "Now¡­ I need to see how I can break this array. First of all, I can simply remove the array since this won''t be used anymore as soon as the three races leave this place, so I think I can break it. "In any case, I can solve this quickly since I don''t need to alter or whatsoever. But the three races will be found out if this barrier disappears." Alex thought for a moment and decided. "I can make a token to destroy this barrier. With some little tweaking, this token can be used from the outside. The only problem is the three races, especially Zekhram, Atlas, and Igor, might be suspicious and think I might be lying¡­" Every answer got their own problems, and Alex was genuinely confused with this situation. "I can ask the three leaders about this, right? But I don''t want to go back and forth¡­ I can trust them a bit, but I still can''t see them as an ally. If possible, I want to hand the Blood Gem and solution before leaving the place as soon as possible." Alex contemplated for a minute and shook his head. "I need to see myself first in this picture before thinking about their satisfaction. In this case, I will make a token that can erase the barrier. There are two barriers right now. The outside one that keeps any beings other than humans is easy to solve. But the one that is connected to the Space World is hard. "It requires me to connect the two worlds first, or maybe build an array that is connected to that place. Using that array, I can make this entire array erased from this place, and the barrier that traps them will disappear. The energy that lingers around him will burst to the outside, and it''s enough to make everyone on this continent feel it. "I feel like the situation will turn chaotic. However, they will be able to leave with their Spaceship anytime, so people can only stare at them with confusion. Even if there is a small confrontation, it should be resolved simply by the three leaders." Alex felt that this was the best thing he could do for them and for him. He began wandering around the area to confirm that each monolith had the same symbols to make sure no symbols will stay after the purge of his token. After confirming all of them were the same, Alex began altering the monolith a little bit, creating a few symbols and extending the array to the barrier surface. Without a restriction, he could simply go through and draw it from outside. He took out a blood bottle and smeared it on the surface to mark where the place they could use his token to break the barrier. At the same time, he didn''t forget to add a few circles as if it was a practice target. The altering and linking process only took him three hours before Alex started making the token break this open. He then glanced back to the tree and sighed. "I will probably need two days to work on this¡­ It takes too much time, but the Fire God Clan is still within two weeks, so I''m fine." Alex proceeded with the altering process for the portal tree and made sure that the token could destroy every single array on this tree and teleported them in one piece. Luckily, this process took slightly faster than his prediction as he finished in one and a half days. After the key was also created, Alex decided to recover his Spiritual Energy first before going to Atlas''s palace. "Welcome! It''s been a few months since our last meeting, and to think you have become a 3-Star Martial Monarch, this Atlas feels ashamed." Atlas said in his usual pacifying tone. Alex nodded and greeted him back. "I have finished my job. However, thinking that there might be some ridiculous movement from the human outside, I make the key to break it completely when you place it there as to prevent your races from being found out." Atlas furrowed his eyebrows for a moment before realizing Alex''s real intention. "To be honest, that is a good idea. I shall trust your judgment in this." Alex had prepared several arguments to convince Atlas but was surprised by how cooperative Atlas was. He only said the first reason, and Atlas already complied¡­ This was insane for Alex, wondering how his action wasn''t actually reflecting his title. Yet, he couldn''t shake the reason for this was Nelson. Nelson had several occasions where he could talk with Atlas, and he acted as if he knew everything about them. Alex couldn''t help but think that Nelson might have convinced Atlas and the others before they actually discussed many matters. He ended up shaking his head, thinking it should be fine since Nelson meant no harm. He thought for a bit before taking out the Blood Gem. "This¡­ is our Blood Gem." Astonishment appeared on Atlas''s face before Alex used his Spiritual Energy to hand it to Atlas. "I have finished our agreement." Alex nodded. Atlas then took out five huge stones with many blue lines inside it. All the five stones looked very identical, whether in their size, blue lines pattern, and the energy. "This is what I have promised you." Alex checked the stones and nodded his head, activating the rock with his Spiritual Energy. The stone that was lying on the floor glowed and gradually floated in the air. "You can check them right now." Atlas nodded with a smile as he pointed his finger at the first stone to the fifth stone. "There was a single line that was different." Having knowledge about runes, Alex spotted the difference. It was quite a complex line, but it simply marked the stone series. "I should be able to teleport according to the stones, right? How can I control where I want to go?" "It''s simple. You can try activating one stone, and I''m sure someone as wise as you will understand it." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and placed his hands on the stone, infusing his Spiritual Energy inside. Suddenly, he felt there was a little knowledge that stormed inside his brain, asking him where he wished to go. Alex didn''t know how to control it, so he tried to channel his Spiritual Energy inside his mine to the fourth choice. Before he knew it, he was already several meters away from his original position. He looked at the Rune Stone in front of him and realized he had understood how to use this thing. However, he couldn''t deny that he wished to go to every single continent right now and place all these stones there to make his travel easier. Alex tried it a few times until he was one hundred percent sure he had enough control to do it. "It seems you have mastered it." Atlas nodded with a smile after observing Alex for a couple of minutes. "Do you want to ask something?" Alex pondered and shook his head. "I don''t have a single question right now. Instead, I need to hand one more thing¡­ Actually, two." Two tokens appeared on his hands. The first one was a wooden one with many symbols inscribed on it. The second one looked like it was made of gold and held a more powerful array inside. "The first token is to solve the problem about you not being able to get closer to the portal tree. I am willing to test this token to make sure I''m not lying to you." Alex said before creating his Teleportation Array before asking Atlas''s opinion. He teleported a few times until he arrived in front of the barrier, specifically at the blood mark he left earlier. "You can place the token right on this blood spot and Bam! The barrier will crumble." Atlas was a bit unsure whether to do it or now. Due to Nelson''s explanation, he realized there was no need to doubt Alex''s sincerity. However, the aforementioned person wished to show his sincerity, so he felt it was a bit rude if he didn''t accept this arrangement. He raised the token and placed it on the bloody surface and¡­ *Crack!* Cracks began to appear on the barrier''s surface, revealing many symbols inside the barrier. It crumbled slowly but surely to the ground, and every piece was like a joy that invaded Atlas''s heart. He had been waiting for too long and finally grasped it in front of his eyes. Alex had no change of expression as he took out and handed it to him. "The second token has the same principle. On the tree, you can find the place where you can put the card. I do need to remind you again to prevent you from using it unless you are really ready to go home as soon as the barrier breaks. After all, it will send a sudden Spiritual Energy to the continent¡­ I don''t know whether it can reach the other continents, but it will surely reach everyone on this continent. To have a smooth journey, I hope you break the barrier at the last moment possible." "Don''t worry. We are going to go home after several thousand years. We won''t be too reckless this time." Atlas nodded before mysteriously looking at him as if he didn''t know whether it was a lie or a truth. Alex then nodded and walked to the portal. "I''m going there." "Thank you. Really Thank you." Atlas bowed his head, genuinely thanking him. "We won''t forget about this forever." Chapter 645 - Allies and Enemies Alex simply waved his hand to reply to him while sending a wave of Spiritual Energy to create the portal and leave. "Goodbye." The moment he returned to the real world, he quickly used his Teleportation Array to send him to the Black Devil Sect. He took Anna''s card and asked, "Where is everyone? I want to hold a meeting for what we are going to do next." "I understand. I will assemble everyone in the room where we found Blood Gem, is that alright?" Anna asked. "Yes." Knowing nothing about the building inside Black Devil Sect, Alex immediately agreed. He flew inside the building and waited there alone before Sherry and the other Contracted Beasts arrived with Anna. "How is the journey?" "It''s fine." Alex nodded as he contemplated for a minute. "Anna¡­ Do you know any place where I can create a Special Realm?" Anna furrowed her eyebrows and noticed why he wished to have one, but still asked to confirm it. "Do you want to use it for Rune Stone?" "Yes. I only use two days for all of this, so I think I can go to the other three continents and set up the Rune Stone. As for the Heavenly Continent, we can set up one after we step on that continent." Alex nodded. "The place doesn''t need to be necessarily big since it is only for this stone and enough space to teleport." "I have several locations where you can place it on this continent. However, where are you going to place these stones on other continents?" Anna asked. "I haven''t decided yet on Nilis Continent due to my lack of information. However, I wish to set up one inside my base on the Northern Continent and one around the place I ended up after my first time entering the upper world." Anna pondered for a moment. "I agree with these two places¡­ As for the Nilis Continent, I have one place that is good to hide one. Do you remember when you finished your Lightning Tribulation and stopped to receive the inheritance?" Alex nodded. "I remember it." "There is a cave north of the forest. That was the place where Nelson spent his time while investigating the Nilis Continent. In other words, it was his base. Due to the specific location and growing nature, the place was perfectly hidden. If you can set up a small concealment array there, I doubt nobody will find it." "Alright. Give me a map. I will go there." Alex agreed without hesitation. He never knew the region there anyway since he never took time to stop before going to the Sacred Continent. Anna nodded. "I will have Nelson to make you a simple map after this." Alex nodded as they decided to wait for the other spirits to come, albeit Anna decided to recall a few that were too far from them while the one closer slowly went back to the back while making sure no one followed them. When every spirit assembled, he finally started the discussion. "I have several problems that I need to address. First, the Ancient Blue Family has agreed to lend many warriors from their family to attack us, right? Although they come from this continent, we still need to fight Martial Emperors¡­ I need someone to investigate how many they will bring and their power level." "I can investigate them." Nelson nodded. "Don''t forget to release a rumor about our appearance to make sure they will bite the bait and walk into our trap. As for the specific, I will let you know later after understanding their power level." Alex nodded before addressing the second problem. "After killing these people, there will be a period where I help Sherry to evolve her Pure Fire. I need two to three months for it, I guess. In the meantime, there should be a huge movement on the Heavenly Continent, especially from the Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family." When Alex addressed this problem, the spirits furrowed their eyebrows as Nelson said, "I feel I can watch the movement from Ancient Blue Family before you come to the Heavenly Continent." Alex thought for a moment. Nelson always did this kind of job. The recent one was where he investigated the entire Nilis Continent and Sacred Continent alone, where Alex was in another world. If the Ancient Blue Family was the only influence he needed to investigate, it should be fine. "I understand. I need to count the Ancient Blue Family to you." Alex nodded. "At present, we have three enemies. First is the new one, Ancient Blue Family. The second reason will be Fire God Clan, which is our arch-enemy at the moment, while the last one is Snow White Mountain. Although the last one has yet to be confirmed, I should make them go through some pain¡­" "So¡­ How do you want to deal with this, Young Master?" Nelson asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "Now, there is a chance that Snow White Mountain will discover my identity¡­ I want a close eye on their movement and make sure they won''t know until I want them to know." Alex paused for a moment. "Before solving these three, I think I want to see if we have our potential allies on the Heavenly Continent." "I think we can believe in the Blackwade Clan. As long as you can present the Supreme VIP Card, then they should become your ally." Anna added almost immediately. Alex was stunned as he couldn''t understand where her confidence came from. Only one thing that was capable of bringing such confidence. "Is there a Blackwade Clan outside this world?" "Ah!" Anna was startled upon hearing the question. Even though she didn''t act weirdly, Alex already had his answer. "Alright. I will know about it later¡­ Maybe." Alex sighed. He tried to search the worlds'' information from his inheritances but found nothing that could relate to the Blackwade Clan. He thought since he had numerous information about monsters, planets, and so on. The next Lightning Tribulation might give him information about something like this. "For now, I will believe in you and think the Blackwade Clan as an ally¡­ Of course, only the higher-ups who know about the existence of my Supreme VIP Card. There should be three people, so those three will be considered as an ally unless I find otherwise." Alex nodded. "Then, is there any other one?" "I think Drunken Pavilion can be considered as one," Anya added. "Their leader knows my Master, so I can ask for a favor from him with my master''s token, of course." Alex nodded. "I don''t want to involve them soon, but I will certainly ask for a favor in an important matter." After saying the two influences, the group fell into silence. "I see. There is no more ally on the Heavenly Continent. If we consider our group as one influence, then we can go for a three versus three fight?? I doubt it will escalate to that point, though." Alex shrugged. "Yeah. On the other hand, we can move in the dark and pressure one influence to back out. At that time, we can ask the Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion to pressure this influence." Anya suggested before narrowing her eyes and saying in a cold tone. "The influence I mean is the Ancient Blue Family. They have been too greedy for their approach, and we only pay them back by killing many people from their families. As long as we don''t completely destroy the Ancient Blue Family on this continent, I feel like there is still room for negotiation." Alex thought for a moment and nodded his head. "In that case, the situation will be far better." "Well, we have identified our enemies and allies, so I think we should move on from this problem. We know there will be a major movement soon, but we have yet to know what kind of major movement. It''s better to see first, so we don''t plan twice." Anya stopped the conversation abruptly, feeling that there was no point in discussing it any longer. Alex thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Alright. We should discuss how we want to deal with the Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family in less than two weeks. We have gotten the information about the Fire God Clan power level, but have yet to understand the Ancient Blue Family." "I will investigate it right now since Narman is busy watching the other influences on this continent." Nelson nodded. "Alright." Alex nodded before glancing at Anya. He was too busy in the past two days, so Anya should have thought about the plan first. Knowing his intention, Anya nodded and shared her plan. "First of all, Martial Emperors won''t hold us back unless they are coming in great numbers. However, I believe with enough preparation, information, and traps, we can win this easily. On the other hand, the real problem will be the two Martial Saints. "If possible, we want to kill these two Martial Saints visible but not visible at the same time. We are currently too weak to be compared to the Fire God Clan. That''s why I want to have us appear strong. I want Alex to use your Sword and Spear to block a few attacks from them as if they are nothing. This way, many people can see that you are a powerful person. "Of course, you can act as if you are a bit hurt and try to escape in the end to separate the two Martial Saints they sent to us from their group. I want you to kill them with the token and don''t come back to the battle before I ask you." Anya explained. "Before you ask me?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. If you are too early, they will think you have a trap or whatever. However, if you have perfect timing, a bit tattered appearance like you just have a hard battle, we can demoralize them. We can let go of one or two people from the Ancient Blue Family to tell the tale." Anya smirked. Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Won''t it be known by the influences on the Heavenly Continent¡­ Wait!" While saying the effect, he realized why Anya wanted to let the people from the Ancient Blue Family go back instead of the Fire God Clan. Firstly, those people will inform their family head on this continent. The family head himself shouldn''t go to the Heavenly Continent to inform this to the main family. The messenger should be sent from this family, and by the time it arrives, the head of their main family will understand the reason before sending a messenger to the Fire God Clan. After all of this process, the information will be naturally altered depending on their comprehension level. The detail wouldn''t be possible to be conveyed, but the news about Alex killing two Martial Saints should reach their ears. Knowing such a powerful person hiding in their side, the Fire God Clan will need to rethink their plan and shift their people to the Sacred Continent. At that time, Alex could simply enter the Heavenly Continent through the Northern Continent. He had his Rune Stone anyway, so traveling wouldn''t be a big deal. At that time, they would have a time of peace while making the Fire God Clan panic. They could harass them with a few attacks toward their main clan, so they will recall their people, or he could ask the Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion to attack them at this point of time together with Spirit Nest. There were many possible futures if he went according to this plan, and Anya felt this was their best option. After pondering for a few minutes, Alex finally gave the nod. "We will go according to this plan and make the Fire God Clan miserable. At the same time, I''m absolutely sure that my Pure Fire will be known after this. At that time, the future will be vague again." "Though you can easily convince Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion to take action if they know about your Pure Fire," Anya added with a smile. "Our plan has been finalized." Alex stood up and looked at Nelson with a serious expression. "Nelson, make me a map for your base on Nilis Continent. I''m planning to go there after this." "Understood. Give me an hour." "Sure." Chapter 646 - Putting Every Single Rune Stone in Place After that one hour, Nelson handed him the map and set off to the Ancient Blue Family. Alex said his goodbye to Anna and the others. He didn''t have too much time in this place, so he gave Anna one of the rune stones. Anna promised him to choose the right spot and inform him later. Alex smiled and finally went to the Nilis Continent with his Teleportation Array. The first time he crossed the ocean between Nilis Continent and Sacred Continent was when he was a mere Martial Emperor. This time he could use rank 7 Teleportation Array, allowing him to cross the ocean with only a few Teleportation Array instead of a few tens. Nonetheless, Alex was happy with this progress. He arrived at the Nilis Continent, specifically at the forest where he received the inheritance of Martial King Golden Lightning Tribulation. "According to the map, I need to go toward the North." Alex looked at the map. On top of the forest mark was a cave symbol. It was slightly leaned toward the west, so he decided to fly there since he didn''t know his location and what kind of place this cave was. After a few minutes, he realized that there was a cliff around the area. Nelson said he needed to come to the bottom of the cliff and go through it. It might have many monsters inside, but it should be alright for him as most of them were only Martial Kings. They might be dangerous for the residents of this continent, but not him. Alex descended to this place that was situated between two cliffs. *Roar! Roar!* The two roars suddenly echoed through the cliff as Alex could see two monsters in front of him. One was a 6-Star Martial King lion while the other one was also another 6-Star Martial King Crocodile. These two were fighting in front of him, blocking Alex''s away. Alex didn''t care about these two and simply walked past them. At one point, these two saw him and roared at him. Unfortunately, Alex had no thought about this. He gathered enough energy in his feet by using his Spirit Step and released his Martial Monarch aura. "Spirit Step: Second Step." Alex stepped with all of his might, and the Spiritual Energy that was gathered inside his feet flew toward the two monsters. It didn''t target their soul, but came above their head and showered them with his Spiritual Energy. The result was apparent as the two monsters suddenly fell down to the ground, unable to withstand this kind of pressure. The two even put away their menacing looks and looked at Alex with a sad face. Alex wasn''t surprised by this kind of intelligence as the monsters above the Martial King Stage would have condensed their soul and increased their intelligence. He used this to his advantage by saying with a pacifying tone. "I need to go through here. Is that alright with you two?" The two monsters didn''t have any intention to fight anymore as they nodded furiously in unison. They couldn''t move because of this pressure, so even Alex didn''t say anything, they wouldn''t move. Alex finally entered inside as the gap between two cliffs was no more. It was a kind of dark cave, so Alex used his fire to brighten the cave and went through it. The moment he saw the exit, Alex was surprised to see there was a small hut in front of him. The cave was around one hundred meters underground, so he needed to reach this hut by climbing a steep ground for around fifty-meter height. Of course, everything was solved by flying, and he arrived almost instantly. The hut had nothing wrong according to his Spirit Eyes, and Alex entered the house without any problem. Despite being situated underground, the lightning was still there with a small crystal in the surrounding. Those crystals were Spirit Stones. They were glowing as they were slowly evolving into Spirit Gems, albeit this didn''t pique his interest. However, the moment he thought about Spirit Gems, Alex remembered that he had yet to get the report of their loot from Black Devil Sect''s treasury. "I should ask them about this after I come back. Black Devil Sect should have around ten million Spirit Gems, right? Considering they are one of the top influences in this area¡­" Alex shook his head and took out the rune stone. He entered the hut only to find a single room inside with nothing to hide. "Nelson really did live here? And what is this hut anyway?" Little did he know that Nelson was the one who made this hut. Because he rarely came here unless he needed to hide, there was no decoration or anything. Although he wanted to know more about the hut, he decided to move on by letting the Rune Stone float inside this room. Of course, he didn''t forget to build a Gathering Array to fuel this Rune Stone in case the energy around wasn''t enough to recharge this in an instant and a barrier since there were many monsters outside. With the knowledge inside his brain and the experience in dealing with the barrier inside the Special Realm, Alex finally created a barrier that only Humans could go through unless they had his token. After confirming he hadn''t forgotten something, he then came out of this place. Surprisingly, the two monsters that were fighting earlier acted like they were friends and were respectful to Alex. Whether they were admiring the strong or simply scared of Alex, he didn''t care as long as he could leave. After that, Alex continued his journey to the Willow Continent until he arrived at a certain forest. He slowly flew toward the location where he was teleported for the first time and couldn''t help but shake his head. He sat on a stone nearby and looked at the bright sky. Memories started flowing inside his mind as Alex couldn''t help but sigh. "I was only a Martial Master back then¡­ I only had myself to wrestle this fate. Now, Anna and Leoz, the first two that helped me, have grown stronger than me. And I myself have reached Martial Monarch¡­ I can still remember when I came back to the lower world and thought I could make my teacher proud by showing my strength to him¡­ "Unfortunately, he had passed away. I wonder if he is still watching me from somewhere or he has reincarnated¡­ Still, I''m glad he was my Teacher." Alex smiled while closing his eyes. "Should I come home again? I might not be able to use this portal, but I can still use another portal. I won''t need too much time to learn their position with my current strength and Spirit Eyes." Alex contemplated for a long time before he shook his head. "I have interfered too much there¡­ My little niece should be powerful right now and can protect her family¡­ No, our family¡­ I don''t have too much time either, so I think I need to skip. It shouldn''t be a decade before I reach God Stage¡­ At that time, I might be able to visit it again. I don''t know if I can seal someone else''s strength since I haven''t gotten the way yet, but if possible, I want to bring Alicia and Firia there for once, showing Father-in-law and Mother-in-law that we are happy here." Alex continued for half an hour before he stood up and took out the Rune Stone. He didn''t forget to build Barrier Array, Concealment Array, Illusion Array to camouflage this Rune Stone and Gathering Array to power up the stone. "This should be fine. There are no powerful people or monsters nearby, and they aren''t constructing anything around here." Alex nodded. Thinking about Rose made Alex want to go to the Heavenly Continent right now, but he remembered there was another person that he needed to meet on this continent. ''A detour should be fine. It will be less than a day anyway¡­'' Alex thought as he flew toward the Heavenly Sword Sect, specifically to the nostalgic Ninth Peak. "Elder Charya?" Alex had no reservation anymore and quickly visited either her house on top of the mountain or the mansion they usually met. Yet, none of them had any sign about her, jolting his mind. His heart began beating faster as he wondered whether someone actually took her away. "Fire God Clan?" He looked around the sect and suddenly found a place where many people gathered. It was the Martial Field beside the Sect Master''s island. Alex thought for a moment and decided to take a peek. He looked around and found a Martial King in the area beside the sect master, and when he focused his eyes, he realized that the person was a woman and had a lightning element. Only one single person could fit this description. "Should I meet her? Or just be satisfied seeing her fine?" A dilemma appeared in his heart as he thought for a minute before flying to that place. Of course, Alex concealed his aura to make sure no one noticed him here. There was still this nostalgic pavilion where many people gathered, but Charya decided to have a separate one. She could do it since she was one of the two Martial Kings in the sect. *Knock Knock!* Charya didn''t know that this knock would surprise her and acted as she usually did, thinking it might be a disciple that wanted to inform her something. "Come in!" There was still this energetic aura in her voice, and Alex was happy to know she hadn''t changed. He opened the door and walked quietly behind her. "What is it? Just say it from there, I am busy watching my disciple right now." Charya said while looking at a blue-haired girl on the stage. Charya wondered if the disciple was scared of her as he didn''t talk anything from the beginning. Much to her dismay, she took off her eyes from the stage and turned her head around. She dropped her jaw the moment she saw the person behind him. "You-!" Alex smiled and asked as he walked toward her. "You have another disciple now?" "Alexander!" She was thrilled to find a man that had been successful in his life visited her again. "It''s been a while, Elder Charya." Alex nodded with a smile. "Are we in an event or something?" "Ye-yes." Charya nodded, fl.u.s.tered by this whole situation. "We are in an outer disciple tournament right now. Although the Grand Tournament has passed, we still do this once in five years." "Oh!" Alex nodded, never thinking he had gone this long. "Wait¡­" Charya suddenly stopped him and took a chair out of her space ring, placing it next to her. "Come in and sit." "I can''t be here for too long though, and I also want to inform you something." Alex nodded and took his seat. "Sure Sure. We can talk about your and others'' progress for a while." Charya laughed. "First of all, I want you to have this." Alex handed her a paper. "What is this?" She tilted her head while opening the paper only to find some kind of symbols on the paper. "It''s a map. I need to inform you that there might be another enemy coming here to search for you. If you can somehow escape, I want you to go toward this place and activate the stone¡­" "Stone?" Charya furrowed his eyebrows, not comprehending his words. "Yeah. You will know when you get there and what you need to do is already there, so I won''t explain this to you." Alex nodded. Charya was confused but eventually nodded her head. "I know you won''t harm me, so I will keep this with me for the time being." "And don''t tell anyone else if you can." "Alright." Little did they know, the pink-haired girl had won the match and looked at Charya with a happy face. Unfortunately, the joy of winning disappeared as soon as he saw an unknown man talking to Charya, and she seemed very happy. Uneasiness crept in her heart as she quickly came back to the room to confirm who he was. Chapter 647 - Charya and Layla *Knock Knock* With two knocks, the door slowly opened as a pink-haired girl came in. She appeared to be fifteen years old or something, and this reference only came from Evelyn and Rose. The young girl had this energetic and happy aura around her but turned into hostility when she met Alex. "Master, I won the match just now." She said while walking toward Charya and clasping her hands respectfully. "Ah! That''s right." Charya just forgot that she was watching her disciple today. She was startled as if she didn''t hear someone coming just now. "Congratulations on your win." Alex simply laughed, looking at this young girl. "It''s your third disciple, right? Isn''t she cute?" Charya nodded. "Yeah, her name is Layla. She is a very energetic one¡­ I met her one year ago. I was too bored at that time and decided to go outside to recruit some disciples, just like how that Old Conn brought you here." "Ah¡­ I certainly remember." Alex nodded. "Master¡­ Who is he?" Listening to her master, it seemed that he was also one of the Heavenly Sword Sect people, so she put down her hostility. At first, she thought this person wanted to steal her master. "His name?" Charya chuckled first before answering her. "Not many may know about his appearance, but almost everyone on this continent knows his name." The answer came in the form of a riddle, mystifying Alex''s existence. However, Layla opened her eyes wide, dropped her jaw to the ground and shuddered. "Al- Alexander Sirius¡­" She quickly knelt on the floor and clasped her hands. All the hostility and curiosity turned into reverence in a split second. "Layla greets Senior Uncle." "Senior Uncle?" Alex glanced at Charya. "You have been teaching Evelyn and Rose here¡­ also Putri. Then, Song Yu is your senior sister. With all the titles under your belt, there is nothing wrong with her calling you that. In fact, I am the one who introduces you like that¡­ Haha!" "So, it''s you." Alex rolled his eyes before waving his hand. The Spiritual Energy gradually approached Layla and helped her get up. "Nice to meet you. I''m Alexander Sirius." Layla had yet to understand why she suddenly stood up like this. She glanced at Charya and Alex back and forth, not knowing what to do. "Anyway, you can sit first." Charya took another chair in the opposite direction of Alex. "You don''t mind if she is sitting like this, right?" "Haha, do you think I am a person who will mind?" Alex laughed. He knew Charya was joking since she knew his personality well. Layla was unsure whether to sit or not, but since her master asked her to sit, she took a seat. "By the way, how is everyone''s progress?" "Song Yu is missing currently, but I also haven''t confirmed if she is dead or not." Alex suddenly dropped the bomb and silenced the entire room. He felt the need to address this first. "What did you say?" Charya was shaking as she asked. "You didn''t hear it wrong. I''m still trying to search for her whereabouts. But I know she isn''t dead yet¡­" Alex nodded. He remembered the invisible strings that only he could see. The string of fate between him and Song Yu had yet to disappear, so he knew Song Yu was still alive. He confirmed such a case because his enemies'' strings would disappear if he killed them, so Song Yu''s must have the same condition. "Is that so¡­" Charya closed her eyes and clenched her hands. She was still shaken and tried hard to calm down so as to not appear embarrassing in front of Layla. "Anyway, I will leave everything to you¡­ Can you inform me if you found her?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I will even force her to go back to meet you." Charya made a weak smile. "Thank you." "How about Putri, Evelyn, and maybe that Letizia?" "Putri is good. She has become a Martial Emperor right now. Though I don''t really have much contact with her." "As long as she is fine, I''m happy." Charya nodded with a smile. She was already shaken by Song Yu''s condition, so she really meant what she said. There was nothing that could beat good news like this despite not having contact with each other. "Martial Emperor!" Layla gasped, listening to these two''s conversation. Due to Charya''s strength and her nature, she had once asked about the cultivation from Charya. According to her, the realm above Martial King was the Martial Emperor and to think her senior sister had surpassed Charya. This was truly unbelievable. "How about Rose?" "She is in Martial King at the moment. As for the specific, I don''t know since I''m going to visit her right now." "She is fine, right? Seeing you have many enemies, I feel bad for Evelyn and Rose." "I won''t let any of them die." Alex didn''t answer her but showed his determination instead. "Since you go to such lengths, then I won''t need to worry." Charya nodded. "How about Letizia? Do you have any information about her? Those people from Rainbow Flower Sect really wish to know some information since she hasn''t sent any message. They could be so patient because you said she is still alive." "Letizia, huh¡­ There is trouble in her side right now¡­" Alex sighed. "But tell them not to worry, everything should be resolved in two to three years, and I''m sure those people will be shocked by her strength." "Alright. I will tell them this." Charya nodded. "And Last but not least, how about you? What is your cultivation right now? 9-Star Martial Emperor?" Alex shook his head. "I''m a 3-Star Martial Monarch right now." "Oh." Astonishment appeared on her face, while Layla dropped her jaw to the ground. Seeing her, Charya smirked as she shamelessly asked. "That''s right since you are here¡­ Why don''t you give my disciple a little gift?" "Sure." Alex nodded before looking so confused, wondering what kind of gift he could give. "I¡­ I can''t accept such a gift¡­" Layla''s body was shaking. She was overwhelmed by favor. Even though it was her master asking for her, it didn''t change the fact that Alex was a Martial Monarch, a higher being than a Martial Emperor. His gift would surely bring a catastrophe. "What weapon does she use?" Alex asked Charya. "She is using a sword. This makes training easier for me as well." Charya nodded as she was also a sword user. "You know that my gift might bring problems, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I don''t think so. I''m sure the Great Martial Monarch, Alexander Sirius, has a way." "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue as he smiled. "You are still the same." "I will take that as a compliment." Alex thought for a moment. "A gift that can''t be traced by other people¡­" He thought for a few minutes to see what would be a nice gift for Layla. He didn''t mind giving something since he had many things that were useful to her cultivation, and those were already useless to him anyway. However, everything might be able to bring trouble, except for one thing. Alex suddenly lifted his chair and put it against the wall, facing Charya and Layla. After that, Alex walked toward Layla and said, "Get up." Layla''s body shook as she stood up out of reflex. These few minutes were like hell for her. Charya might not overthink this, but Layla only knew Alex was a godlike being in her eyes. The time he took to think felt like forever. Her hands became cold, causing her body to tense up. "Stand here," Alex said softly before coming back to his seat. He slightly waved his hands and said, "This is my gift for you¡­ Walk toward me, that''s all you need." Charya furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at Alex. "You are not joking, right?" "No. This is really my gift." Charya couldn''t understand what he wanted to give. After all, how could she know there was a gift just by walking three meters forward. Layla glanced at Charya, who nodded her head and took a deep breath. She didn''t know why Alex wanted this, but she just should believe her master. *First Step.* "Ah!" Layla screamed as a sharp pain brushed off her skin before kneeling on one knee. Charya furrowed her eyebrows as she glanced at Alex, who had no change of his expression. He simply waved his hand to cover the whole room with a Sound Insulation Array and placed an illusion array so no one would know he was here. "What''s wrong? Do you not want the gift? It''s only a small price to pay." Alex looked ruthless this time, but Layla could realize there was something behind this. The sharp pain didn''t come from Spiritual Energy. She thought there must be something hidden behind this indescribable pressure. Not knowing why, the question that Alex asked lingered in her mind. ''He¡­ He asked about my weapon¡­ Wait, this sharpness¡­ why does it feel like¡ª!" She suddenly looked up with a dumbfounded expression and found Alex smiling. ''He is testing me as well as giving me the most precious gift for a sword user!'' Noticing her expression, Alex glanced at Charya. "Your disciple is pretty good. She can understand something simple after experiencing it." Charya, of course, couldn''t understand him, but hearing that her disciple could, the worry in her heart disappeared and let Alex do the rest. Layla gulped down as she gradually stood up with a serious expression. She thought, ''Since I need to walk toward him, does this mean there will be something more the closer I am?'' The thought arose at the same time as her courage. Although she was worried, she still stepped forward. "Kh!" She felt the pain and grabbed her right hand while letting out a weak groan. ''I need to endure.'' Her steps were small, but she gradually got closer to Alex. At the first one-meter mark, she suddenly stumbled on the floor and spat blood. Even so, she still rose and walked toward Alex. Little by little, she arrived at the two-meter mark. However, this time her symptoms became worse. Sweats covered her body as strength left her feet. She felt like she couldn''t get up anymore. She looked at her shaking hands and thought, ''If I can''t walk, I just need to crawl. I can still use my hands!'' Having a resolve in her mind, she began crawling toward Alex. Even Alex was surprised by this. This last one-meter mark was a test for her instead of a gift. Like Evelyn and Rose, he wanted to see whether Charya''s third disciple had the heart to pursue the cultivation, and it seemed she had as, after two minutes, she finally reached Alex and touched his knee. "I¡­" Alex patted her head and removed the aura. He had been releasing his Sword Path this whole time. Of course, after separating his Spear and Flame from his intent. "You have succeeded. Now, you can absorb everything you understand in these three meters." "Thank you, Seni-" She couldn''t finish her words as she sat on lotus pose and cultivated. It looked like she received something important. Alex then stood up and walked to Charya, tapping her shoulder a few times. "You have another good disciple." "Of course." Charya laughed. "Although she doesn''t have a tragic past like you, she has a goal that she wishes to fulfill. I can see that burning passion in her eyes back then, and I feel like taking care of her. Do you want to hear the full story?" "No. I still have something to do." Alex shook his head. "Besides, your disciple might leave you again to pursue higher cultivation, you know." "Because I don''t mind, I shamelessly ask for a gift from you." Charya smiled. "Though, I really need to thank you." "It''s something simple anyway. You protected me when I was weak while I just gave something simple when I became strong. Besides, I''m happy now that you can enjoy your life since all of us have gone away." Alex smiled as he went toward the door. "Bye." "Good luck on your journey." Chapter 648 - Rose After visiting Charya, he made his way toward the Northern Continent. He didn''t care about anything other than his base and entered it with his token. Obviously, the person inside would realize there was someone coming inside the barrier. However, this person had absolute trust in her teacher and quickly appeared in front of him a few seconds after he came in. She clasped her hands and knelt on one knee. "It''s been a while, Master." There was this indescribable joy in her heart as she couldn''t help but smile from ear to ear. Alex came to her and patted her head a few times. "It''s been a while, Rose. Let''s come inside first." "Yes." Rose stood up and led him inside as if she was the host here. "To think you have reached this step so quickly." Alex smiled as he walked inside his study room and took his seat. Rose didn''t answer him yet. Instead, he poured tea for him first. "Thank you." "I can''t reach this step without Master''s help¡­ so I''m really grateful to Master." Rose smiled as she stood in front of her. "By the way, I feel like Master has an important job right now." "Haha, you have grown sharper day by day." Alex laughed. "I indeed have a job here and can''t stay for a long time." "I understand. Although I want to share many things with Master, I shouldn''t keep Master here." Rose nodded. "Don''t worry." Alex waved his hand, telling her she was wrong. He spent less than a day until he came here, so there was still more than a week to prepare the fight against the Fire God Clan. In other words, he could stay here to teach Rose for a few days. He might be too busy after this since there would be constant trouble the moment he came to the Heavenly Continent. "I will be busy for the next one or two years and can''t visit you at all. That''s why I will spare a few days to chat with you and see your progress." "Is that true?" Joy appeared on her face, showing how thrilled she was. "Yeah. And I want to apologize for the trouble I bring you." Alex looked at her with a sad smile. Looking at her was a kind of looking at a bird in a cage. "Master, you have warned me previously, and I have answered you that I''m prepared for all of this. That''s why I have been chasing after you this whole time, hoping I can help you with your burden. Please don''t apologize to Rose because this is what I choose." Rose smiled. She uttered her genuine feelings. "Master¡­ Do you know that you look like someone who never cares about others from a stranger''s point of view?" "Me?" Alex lifted his eyebrows and thought. "Yes. Back when our first meeting, I saw Master as someone who thought of me as a tool or something. However, I was wrong. I learned about your personality this whole time and realized that you only thought of that toward a stranger. You unintentionally push away a stranger, but pull in someone close to you. For you, there is only one and zero. One is for your friends and families. There is almost close to no difference in how you treat your friends and families. On the other hand, the zero will keep being zero if you don''t want to get involved or give them the ''one.'' "I am glad to be your disciple, and I realize that your power is not how you do not differentiate your friends and families. Instead, there is an indescribable charm in your action that makes people want to give everything for you¡­ Because they know you have given your all as well," said Rose with a serious expression. Alex was stunned, never expecting Rose to say this. "I just do what I think is right. I have known what it feels like to lose someone, so I don''t want to lose my friends and families. That''s all I do." Rose smiled. "That''s what makes Master so charming to us." If Rose knew about Letizia''s story, she would even point out this example to him. Unfortunately, she didn''t have the system like his spirits, so Rose had no knowledge other than what she experienced. "Master, where are you right now? I mean, you are here right now, but where is your¡­" Rose furrowed her eyebrows, searching for the right word. "I''m still on the Sacred Continent. After a few months, I am going to go to the Heavenly Continent and will be so busy to the point I won''t have spare time for you." "Ah! I hope to enter the Martial Emperor and Martial Monarch soon." Rose sighed. "I am still in the Martial King Stage and need a few months to reach the Martial Emperor Stage. After that, I think I need three years to reach Martial Monarch. The path is too long, and Master won''t need my help anymore." Alex laughed out loud. "Don''t worry about me. You, being my disciple alone, have brought me happiness. I''m really glad that I have a disciple as thoughtful as you, and that is enough for me. Let your Master do the rest for you." Rose nodded. "For the time being, I need to give you a brief explanation about your situation right now¡­ Well, it''s my situation since this is my problem." Alex let out a hollow laugh before explaining everything about the Fire God Clan, Snow White Mountain, and Ancient Blue Family. Rose took a note on every single influence to make sure she didn''t spare anyone coming from those three in the future as long as Alex didn''t forbid her. "Master. Do you think I should become a disciple under any influences on the Heavenly Continent? I might be able to reach you faster." Rose asked. "No. I don''t think so." Alex shook his head. "Heavenly Sword Sect is the limit. I don''t wish for you to be chained down by these influences, so I wish for you to be a rogue cultivator. Now that we are talking about this, I almost forgot about this." Rose tilted her head in confusion as she waited for one minute before Alex continued. Suddenly, a blue screen appeared in front of her eyes. She jumped back a little bit, startled to see something come out of nowhere. "Ma-Master¡­ There is something appearing in front of me. I don''t know what this is." Alex only smiled as if he could see it too. "You can read it." Rose took a deep breath, regained her composure, and read it out loud. "Alexander Sirius invites you to join Spirit Nest¡­ What is this, Master?" "I am inviting you to join my influence. Although I say influence, it''s only me and a few friends. However¡­ I want you to keep this a secret to all people even if you have a loved one in the future." Rose gulped down. "With Alexander Sirius as my Master, can I really have a loved one? My standard has become so high to the point it reaches the sky. And I don''t have anyone that I can call as family other than Master, of course, I can keep this a secret. What should I do to accept Master''s invitation?" "There is ''Y'' and ''N,'' right? It''s yes and no. You can simply touch the blue screen." Rose touched the ''Y'' without hesitation, and the screen suddenly changed. [Processing¡­] [Initializing Gacha System¡­] [Adding the user to Spirit Nest¡­] [Process Complete.] [Welcome to the Spirit Nest, Rose Skewes.] "Eh, welcome? Thank you." Rose was confused by this blue screen. She thought it was alive and unconsciously clasped her hands and bowed. Alex couldn''t help but chuckle. "Anyway, this is my biggest secret that no one except a few people knows." "Don''t worry, Master. I will keep it as a secret even if they torture me." She nodded with a serious expression. Hearing that it was his biggest secret, Rose felt honored because Alex was willing to share something like this. "Since you have joined the Spirit Nest, you will get a notification like earlier if you kill a monster, and I can give you a mission or communicate with you through this. I might be busy, but I can spare a few minutes for this, so I will contact you whenever I can to watch over your progress." "Rose will work hard." "Yes. There is another thing that will surprise you, but I will leave it to later." Alex smirked, not talking about the Gacha he wished to give to Rose. "If you have any questions, just ask the system by saying it out loud or in your mind." Rose nodded with a grim expression. "And now you have officially become a member of my Spirit Nest. Even Elder Charya and Evelyn don''t know about this." Alex smiled. "Really?" Somehow the weight of Spirit Nest grew into an unbelievable height in her heart. Alex indirectly told her that she trusted her more than Evelyn or Charya, and this surely made her happy. "Shall we begin your training now?" Alex recalled everything and knew he didn''t forget anything, so he asked. "Yes." Rose smiled brightly. Rose began her training with Alex, and as expected, he was still merciless. He kept whipping the basics to Rose to prepare for the Bow Emperor Stage and Bow Saint Stage, where she needed to make an original Bow Technique and Bow Path. She never gave up until her body was tattered as she lost consciousness. Alex always healed her after that, of course. At the end of the training, Rose requested for a serious duel with him. Alex thought it was a good idea and sealed his power to the same as her. Unfortunately for her, Alex had his Spirit Eyes, letting him dodge every arrow as he saw the energy flow instead of the real arrow. No matter how absurd her arrow''s movement was, Alex was still able to predict it. After that, his sword and spear alone made him look like two people instead of one. Rose fought bravely, but couldn''t reach Alex. However, after prolonging the fight into one day, Rose was able to strike at Alex with her arrow for the first time, albeit it was still blocked by his sword. Nonetheless, Rose was very happy to see that she still had the qualification to chase after him. She promised Alex to get stronger and finally collapsed to the ground, exhausted. As always, Alex didn''t say goodbye to Rose. He simply left a message to her and took out the rune stone. ¡­ The next day, Rose woke up on her bed, only to find Alex''s message on the table. She rose from the bed, reaching out his message before laying on the bed again. She opened the message and read it. ''Dear Rose, ''I need to go again, and it''s better to go like this. You will be strong, and I assure it. Like you have seen my strength, personality, and other things, I can also see yours. Believe in yourself because you have the strength in your body. If, in the future, you still want to help me, I will be really grateful. ''The question will be, how? The answer lies in the system. I will keep updating you about my status in the system as well as a mission for you from the system. That''s why I want you to keep getting stronger, and one day, you will surely be able to help me. I''m looking forward to it. ''There is one more thing I need to inform you. There is a stone in my study room. I want you to not use this stone unless I give my permission. This doesn''t mean I don''t trust you, but it is not the time for you to reach my place. I hope you can understand it. ''I will always watch over you, and I''m telling you the truth. Alright, I have nothing to say anymore, so I will bid my goodbye right now. ''Alexander Sirius.'' Rose smiled, put the paper on her chest, and looked at the ceiling. "Master¡­ Just wait for me, I won''t disappoint you." ****** AN: Hey, do you know that today is the mark of our first anniversary? To think I have written this novel for a year already. I can keep going this whole time because all of your supports. Thank you very much Chapter 649 - Lin Xingzhi Confirms Alexs Condition Alex activated the Rune Stone and ended up inside a cave. He looked around, only to find darkness and some lighting. Furrowing his eyebrows, he investigated his surroundings. The cave appeared to have a yellowish-white color. If he were on Earth, he would believe this was made of Limestone. Yet, he would be a fool if he said this was Limestone. Albeit, this was still considered as rank 6 stone and wouldn''t become rubble if no one intentionally destroyed it. He activated his Spirit Eyes and found a path in which two signs of energy were discovered. Alex slowly made his way toward there, fully knowing it was Anna and Greg. Anna quickly put down everything in her hands as she stood up. "Alex, have you finished your business? I thought you were only going for one or two days." "Haha¡­ I can''t help it. I don''t have many things to do here anyway, so I chose to spend all of it with Rose." Alex laughed, brushing the matter off. "Well¡­" Anna looked down and nodded. "Do you want to rest first?" "No. I have plenty of rest. The only thing I need now is an information update and the place where we can ambush them¡­" Alex remembered the thing he almost forgot. "I want to open my Gacha as well." "Alright. I have compiled the information and will deliver it to you." Anna nodded before walking toward her and stretching her hand to the left. "I will lead you to the rest area." Alex nodded as they started to walk. He glanced at Anna and asked, "By the way, where are we?" "We are situated on the northeast from Black Devil Sect inside the previous forest. However, we find this place slightly later when Nelson is going to the Ancient Blue Family." Anna paused for a moment. "We are inside an underground cave right now, and this place is harder to find. You will know about the appearance after we come out." Alex never had a problem with where they were staying as long as it was comfortable. Nonetheless, he was slightly curious why this place was hard to find. Suppressing his curiosity for a while, he nodded and looked at the room in front of him. "You can have a nice stay here." Anna nodded before pointing to the passage in her right. "Go this way, and you will find Sherry and the others." "Alright." "Then, have a good time. I will bring you the information later." Anna smiled as she gradually walked away. Alex entered the room, looking at the empty room. He couldn''t blame anyone since this place was their temporary base; in fact, he would only use this room to Evolve Sherry''s Pure Fire before heading toward the next continent. He sat on the bed as this was one of the furniture they bought from outside. "System, I have fifty Gacha Tickets, right?" Alex asked. [Yes.] "Use-" Before he finished his words, the system warned him. [If you want to use the Tickets, you might want to go inside the Gacha Palace.] "Why?" Alex tilted his head in confusion, contemplating the reason. [You have so many Premium Tickets right now, and there is a high possibility you will get the other tickets as well, so it''s better to come inside.] "Oh!" Alex''s eyes flashed, understanding her idea. "Alright. Open the gate." Hearing his order, the white gate appeared again and gradually opened. Alex entered the Gacha Palace as Lin Xingzhi came to him. "Welcome again." Alex thought whether he wanted to use it all at once or opened it one by one. Thinking there wasn''t that much time left, the answer came naturally to his mind. "I will open it at once." "I know." Lin Xingzhi replied with a smile as if she knew Alex would choose this. With a single wave of her hand, the Premium Gacha shone brightly as it gradually shot out twenty boxes. She lifted her hands up, and the boxes suddenly opened up with the Gacha Balls gradually floated in the air. She finally snapped her finger, opening the Gacha Balls simultaneously. It was quite a sight to see fifty Gacha Balls were opened at once. Alex slightly squinted his eyes, noticing a few good items. [Thunderous Spear (SR) x1] [Elemental Orb (SR) x1] ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ [Gacha Card x2] Alex was overwhelmed by the reward this time. He never opened these many Premium Gacha at once, so his eyes couldn''t adjust by the amount of information. He looked through the log for the reward and realized he got five UR items. [Rank 8 Monster Blood (UR) x1] [Fire Core Technique (UR) x1] [Ice Element Orb (UR) x1] [Gacha Hammer (UR) x5] [Luminance Tulip (UR) x1] Alex had no thought about Rank 8 Monster Blood as he could obtain it a bit later. On the other hand, this Fire Core Technique piqued his interest, so he opened it without hesitation. It was a good technique but didn''t suit him. Instead, it seemed to be a good combination for Kyle and Stina. They needed another technique in any case since their current technique wasn''t strong enough to be used in Martial Monarch or Martial Saint battle. Of course, this Fire Core Technique was a Peak Heaven Tier Technique, so they could use it until the end. However, the moment he saw Ice Element Orb, he quickly glanced at Lin Xingzhi with a weird expression. "Are you telling me to go save Letizia?" "Haha¡­ Everything is random." Lin Xingzhi chuckled while shaking her head. There was still a possibility that Alicia might use it, but Alex instantly removed that thought as he knew Lin Xingzhi must treat Alicia nicely. Then, he only had Letizia in this world that could use this kind of orb. Hence, this type of thought was normal. Alex shrugged his shoulder and looked at the Gacha Hammer. "This is an interesting reward¡­" Lin Xingzhi just smiled. She knew that this Gacha Hammer would give him a UR item and four other rewards. It just showed Alex how many Gacha Balls he opened to the point it could give him this kind of reward. "Anyway, I will use it after this." Alex nodded and looked at the last UR item. "This¡­ This is also the ingredient for rank 8 Pill to enhance one''s talent. I only need two more ingredients and skills to make this type of pill. No one in our group actually needs this pill, so I think I will give Rose and Evelyn one each, considering I can make two from a set of ingredients." "It''s your choice. You can sell it as well, but I think giving these two little girls will be more beneficial." She nodded. "Indeed." Alex then started to go through the list of items. He got two Elemental Orbs (SR), ten Summoning Tickets, and Two rank 7 Monster Blood. Or at least, these were the important things for him. The rest of the items were tossed inside the Inventory. "Let''s go to the Gacha Crystal!" Alex looked at Lin Xingzhi and started walking. Like the previous one, Alex shattered the crystals one by one and got one UR item with four unimportant items, except the UR item was also not useful to him. [Blade Cyclone Technique (UR) x1] Alex looked at Lin Xingzhi and sighed. "Use the Summoning Tickets." Even after fifty Premium Tickets, Alex didn''t get anything that could be used against Fire God Clan, so he had no more expectation for the last ten Summoning Tickets. Alas, an SR card startled him. [Neon (SR) x1] Alex quickly summoned him as a translucent guy appeared from within the gate. There was only a single thought in his mind at the moment, and it was, "A ghost?!" "Neon greets Young Master. Let me apologize first to come this late." Neon knelt in one knee. He looked like a person in mid-thirty, but Alex couldn''t see any colors other than blue. Whether it was his eyes, hair, body, clothes, all of them were translucent blue. Luckily, the contrast between each allowed him to see the contour of his face and his body shape. "It''s my fault¡­ I''m not lucky enough to get your card." Alex shook his head. "I think I can''t spare EXP Cards since we have an incoming enemy and might need to use the EXP Cards." "I understand the situation, Young Master. Please think nothing about me. By killing them alone will give me a ton of EXPs, so I can level up naturally." Neon smiled. "Anyway, I will do whatever task you need me to do." Alex contemplated for a moment and said, "You can stay inside the card first. I will give you a mission after you reach Martial Emperor since our opponents are Martial Monarchs and Saints." "I understand." Neon nodded, knowing he would just court death if he were stubborn. He turned into light, flying into the card. Alex then put the card inside his Inventory and looked at Lin Xingzhi. "I have finished all the matters here, I guess¡­" Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Yeah. Though I wish to say a few things to you and each of them is important." "Sure. Please tell me." "First of all, Although I know Anna''s way is not the best way to teach you about the Mind Control Technique, I hope you can forgive her." Alex might have accepted all the lessons and learned it, but his reaction was slightly off. Anna might not be able to see this, but Lin Xingzhi was different. She had been with Alex and understood him the most. Unlike the Previous Alex, the current one had a bad memory with a woman in the past. The fear from the past might resurface at any time, so Lin Xingzhi thought they needed to talk it out. This was one of the reasons she wanted to meet Alex. "Don''t worry. At least, I got a valuable lesson from it." Alex shook his head with a smile. Lin Xingzhi was still unsure about his condition but decided to wait first. She had prepared something that could brighten his mood anyway. "The second matter will be about the Blackwade Clan. I know you have learned they are from the Outside World. However, I wish you not to disclose it to the public as it''s a secret matter, and only three people know about this in their family. Many people here have understood about the world above them, but no one actually understands what kind of concept the universe is." Alex contemplated for a moment and nodded. "I won''t say anything. Besides, I need to see if I can get their cooperation first." "I can assure it." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a serious expression. "At that time, you need to follow my lead so as to not leave suspicion from them." "I will try." Alex agreed. Although he didn''t know why Lin Xingzhi was this serious, this action actually gave him more resolve than when others answered it. "Of course, if you don''t wish to, we can treat this conversation as if it never happened. As I said previously, I will always be supporting you, so controlling you is a bit harsh¡­ I guess." Lin Xingzhi made a little smile. "It''s fine." Alex shook his head. "Their cooperation is more important than this." "It''s going to be a short session though." Lin Xingzhi assured him once more as she stretched her hand, asking him to walk toward the door together. Alex followed her without saying anything, stepping outside the gate after a few seconds. Lin Xingzhi closed the door slightly, but abruptly stopped as she conveyed the last message. "The last matter is good news, albeit I can''t disclose it too much. All I can say is this will come pretty soon in the time you never expect." The door closed as soon as she said the last piece, confusing Alex for a few minutes. "What did she mean by good news? It''s more like a surprise, right?" "Rather than thinking about it, I should bring the Fire Core Technique to Kyle and Stina first," Alex muttered to himself before noticing a paper full of information, lying on top of his bed. It must come from Anna, but Alex decided to save it for later and left the room. Chapter 650 - Alexs and Sherrys Plan Anna said Sherry and the others were a bit farther away from the room. Hence, he turned left and walked through the corridor, only to find them three minutes later. He thought it was quite a long corridor. There was only a big room filled with Sherry, Stina, and Kyle. It would seem they were practicing together. Sherry was releasing her Pure Fire to give a nice environment for Stina and Kyle to cultivate despite not having any Gathering Array. "Master!" Sherry suddenly called his name as she opened her eyes, stood up, and walked toward him. Stina and Kyle greeted him as well but stayed behind Sherry. Alex patted her head before handing the cultivation to Stina. "This is Fire Core Technique. You can skim it first to see whether it suits you and Kyle or not." Stina furrowed her eyebrows, knowing she needed a technique right now due to her strength. Kyle was also curious and read it along with her. "Do I need to train another Fire Art, Master?" Sherry asked while glancing at the scroll in Stina''s hand. "I don''t think so. You have Pure Fire right now, and I will help you evolve it soon. And you have copied every single Fire Art that I know. I think increasing your strength is our priority." Alex answered with a smile. "Though I can''t cultivate more since the enemy will come at any moment. Elder Sister Anna said they had come to this continent a week ago and made their way here." "Nelson must be spreading the rumor since there is no way they know we are here. In any case, we are going to bury them here. I''m going to read the report first and head out to our battlefield." "Do you need my help?" "Not help, but sure, you can come as well." Alex thought Sherry might be able to learn something if she watched him coming up with a plan. Sherry also knew this and smiled happily as her tail was swaying left and right. "Master." A voice came from his right as Stina and Kyle had decided. "We are going to learn this." Alex looked at them and said, "Sure. You won''t have much time though, so I think it''s better to cultivate first. Only after we have annihilated the attackers this time do we have a peaceful time to train." "Yes. That''s what we decided." Kyle nodded. "Alright, then. I will need to go back and read the report. Do you want to come?" Stina and Kyle exchanged looks and nodded. "We are going to be here until the time we need to move." Alex then took Sherry to the bedroom again. Both of them took a seat on the bed and read the report. "Hmm¡­ There are two 5-Star Martial Saints and one hundred 10-Star Martial Emperors. On the other hand, Ancient Blue Family are sending four 2-Star Martial Monarchs and one hundred Martial Emperors, albeit their powers are slightly weaker, with most of them being 4-Star to 6-Star Martial Emperor." Alex read the information and furrowed his eyebrows. "The threat of this attack is only these two people, right?" Sherry pointed her finger on the two 5-Star Martial Saints and asked. "Indeed. Two hundred Martial Emperors aren''t qualified to challenge us. At best, they might hinder us by supporting these Martial Monarchs and Saints." Alex nodded and raised his hand, supporting his chin as if he was thinking hard. "Still, I need to search for a way to have these two follow me instead of fighting all of us." "How about showing your Pure Fire, Master?" Sherry gave a suggestion. Alex shook his head. "They already know I have Pure Fire, so there is no way they will send Fire Element to us, especially since not many of them come here." "Why?" "Even though I am a Pure Fire user and can suppress most of their clan members, I still need a huge amount of energy to suppress them. You may have noticed it yourself that the higher our cultivation is, the more energy required to suppress those at the same level." Sherry closed her eyes for a minute, recalling all those scenes. "I agree. Although it''s not really a big deal if there are only a few opponents, hundreds if not thousands of people might be hard." "Yes. That''s why you might be my trump card in the battle against the Fire God Clan." Alex paused for a second. "I am not going to fight the Fire God Clan before reaching Martial Saint Stage¡­ Maybe 5-Star or something. That''s my rough prediction, of course. At that time, they know I can suppress their strength for a while, so I''m sure they will make a preparation. That''s where you come from." Sherry nodded in agreement. "I will do my best." "Back to the topic, we still need to find a way to separate them." "How about using beauties to bait them?" "If they are youngsters whose brain is filled with l.u.s.t, we can use it¡­ Albeit, it''s a bit uncomfortable for me to use this tactic since I don''t really like having you or any other females in our group to do this." Alex shook his head with a sad expression. On one hand, Sherry was happy about Alex''s feelings. The fact that she said it was her or the other females meant they were so beautiful that they could easily move those youngsters'' hearts. On the other hand, she also felt slightly disturbed by the idea. "Alright. We can search for another way." "I''m planning to have us act as if we are losing," Alex revealed his plan. "As if we are losing?" Sherry furrowed her eyebrows. Although she didn''t know the details, it should be one of Alex''s complicated strategies. "Yeah. In the first blow, we will let them win as if we are retreating. Knowing there are two Martial Saints, we won''t be able to escape. That''s why we are going to separate ways. If they have brains, then they will definitely chase me, who seems to be the leader of this group. "By the time they are chasing me too deep, the others already turn around and strike the Martial Monarchs as well as Martial Emperors and annihilate them. At the same time, I will also kill these two Saints with my Master token in front of their eyes and let go of one of them to inform the Ancient Blue Family." "I see. Master is going to be the bait. I am not sure about this since it will be dangerous. I myself don''t like the idea to be honest." Sherry sighed. "I will be fine since I have two Spiritual Weapons with me. They should be able to protect me from a few attacks. The problem will be the speed and position." "I''m sure everyone can time it well." Sherry nodded without a single shred of doubt in her eyes. "If we are moving this way, I think Master needs another person to accompany you¡­ I believe the others also think the same if they know about this plan. It should be Big Brother Leoz, who is the strongest." "I don''t know." Alex closed his eyes. He thought the enemy wouldn''t follow him if he escaped with the strongest person, considering there was a big chance of it being a trap. "We have an even number anyway, so we can split up into seven directions." "I know. The problem is how to conceal our strength, where we appear weak when we are strong and appear strong when we are weak." This was a problem that Alex needed to solve before thinking about fighting them. If he appeared too strong, there would be a chance that they wouldn''t be baited. If he appeared too weak, the enemy would suspect him as a fool. For a person leading this kind of group that had given many troubles since the beginning, there was no way he was a fool. The Fire God Clan might haven''t confirmed it was him, but it didn''t change the fact that the two Saints coming his way was a fool. They were also bona fide older generations that should have the wisdom to think a simple thing like this. "We can focus on the Martial Monarchs and Martial Emperors, I guess. Combined with my array, the enemy would think we are going to kill them." Alex murmured while narrowing his eyes. "What do you mean, Master?" Sherry tilted her head in confusion. "I mean, we can quickly use arrays to trap them¡­ all of them. I will use my Spiritual Weapons to block a few Martial Saints'' attacks. They will know I have powerful treasures that can stop them for a while. The spirits and you three will also participate in killing as many as possible, making them think we are only targeting them before retreating¡­ And this is where the plot begins." Alex smiled evilly. Sherry also arrived at her conclusion but unsure whether it was right or wrong. "Is Master going to act like you can''t protect us anymore?" "You are half-right. Nevertheless, they have two 5-Star Martial Saints. This gap alone was hard to surmount, as most of us had one whole realm different. Just like how we are able to kill those who are one realm lower than us, they also have this kind of ability. I do have a thought about using it right away¡­ But I am not sure since there is a possibility of them being cautious and dodging this attack. We only have one shot about this, and if we fail, I will need to use the Teleportation Array to escape¡­" "Leading them to know that Master has two elements and both of them are equally dangerous. It will cause turmoil on the Heavenly Continent, and the image of the influences there becomes vague as you won''t know who is an ally or enemy." Sherry added while squinting her eyes. "Yes. That''s why I want to make them one hundred percent believe that they could win. Only if they think like that do I have a chance to take them out by surprise. The distance doesn''t need to be long since we want them to chase me." "But there is still a possibility of them having only one person to chase you while the other helps those weaklings." Sherry presented a problem. "I know. That''s why I want us to retreat together before going to separate ways to shake them off. The leaders think I''m the only one that is important and chase after me. Now that I think about it, having Leoz might be beneficial as well. I have Spiritual Weapons, while Leoz is the strongest in the group. Nothing is more important than the two of us." "How many attacks Master block with two Spiritual Weapons?" Alex thought for a moment before taking out both weapons. "How many attacks can you two block?" The weapons suddenly released their power three times. "Each of you can block three times?" The weapons released their energy once more, telling him he was correct. "I see. I can use the first three times to bait the enemy while the other three will be used as an assurance when we are escaping." Alex thought for a moment. "Master, how about revealing your identity as a Sword Saint? It''s a rare title even for the Heavenly Continent, right?" "That¡­ might be good as well. I can release my Absolute Blade Path and use my Mythical Fire Slash to convince them that I''m a threat and have them focused on me." Alex patted Sherry''s head with a smile. "Good job, Sherry. I am too cautious to even think about this plan." "Ehehe¡­" Sherry was happy that she could help him. "I''m just suggesting little to no advice. Without Master''s plan, I won''t even think of that." "Anyway, I can see the picture of this plan in my mind right now. I think it is the time to assemble the Spirits and have the last meeting before heading to our battlefield." Alex nodded. "I will call Sister Stina and Kyle. Master can head to the main room." Sherry nodded. "Thank you." Alex smiled as he rose from the bed, leaving the room together with Sherry. Chapter 651 - Stand Anew Alex activated his Teleportation Array as soon as all people who stayed behind gathered. Outside, he could only see the green leaves around the surrounding area, not giving a single light to penetrate them. Yet, below the trees were the Underground Cave he stayed earlier. Surprisingly, there was a dead tree that only one person could come in. Normal people wouldn''t think much about a dead tree, more so for the one that had been cut half. Little did they know that this tree hid a tunnel that led to a cave. Alex thought someone in the past made this tunnel to escape from others'' pursuit and let the cave be. He then teleported to the actual battlefield, according to Nelson and Anya. It was situated closer to the Ancient Blue Family. "Young Master." Nelson appeared as soon as he arrived before leading him to the meeting place. Alex nodded with a smile as he followed him into a small stone hut they built as the base of their operation. Inside the hut, Anya stood on a chair while looking at the map planted on the stone table. "Alex!" Anya smiled as she finally looked away after staring at this map for a few hours, searching for the perfect plan. "Do you have a plan yet?" Alex asked. Anya was their strategist after all, so he wished to incorporate her idea as well, but the latter shook her head in disappointment. "I see. I have a plan, and the plan is-" He didn''t continue as he took everyone''s card out and recalled them into the card. A few seconds later, he re-summoned them here. At the same time, those who stayed in the cave also appeared, making the small stone hut look stuffed. "So that is your plan." Anya sighed while the other spirits also furrowed their eyebrows and couldn''t really agree with this plan. "As much as I want to reject it, I can''t come up with a single usable plan. Everything will always end up with those Martial Saints killing us, whether it was because they were not baited, or the Martial Arts inside the token missed its targets. I just can''t let you go alone or with Leoz¡­" "Anya," Alex called her with a sad smile. He hadn''t been able to talk with Anna for a while. He thought it was normal, but he realized that he had unconsciously made a certain distance from her. ''I thought I had gone past it¡­ but the memory really couldn''t be erased¡­'' Anya narrowed her eyes, wondering how he would convince her. "Can I be a bit more selfish here?" Alex glanced at Anna first before answering Anya. "What do you mean by selfish?" "Not long ago, I was punished¡­ I knew I was wrong since it would be really bad if someone took control of my mind. Still, there were many ways to punish me and teach me the lesson. I thought there was nothing wrong, but the past somehow resurfaced in my unconsciousness, making me think it was normal. I didn''t realize the first time I used it, in the fight against Moar, or the second time for Black Devil Sect''s annihilation, I could use this technique because I believed in you guys. I knew that you all would protect me even in a situation like this." Alex paused for a moment before continuing. "Yet, I somehow cowered again after Anna got mad at me¡­ That''s why I want to ask Anna first, why did you use this kind of punishment? Having the knowledge and experience, you should be able to come up with another way to teach me." Alex smiled weakly, looking at Anya with gentle eyes. Yet, Anna could only feel a sharp pain in her heart. ''Why?'' The thought lingered in her mind. She thought she could answer it easily, but it seemed there was something that hindered her. "That''s because you-!" Anna couldn''t finish her words and fell on her butt. Her face was filled with despair. The spirits began thinking about the reason before looking away, ashamed of themselves. Anya didn''t say anything and clenched both her fists before putting them in front of her face. She didn''t wish for Alex to see her like this, and somehow¡­ tears flowed out of the corner of her eyes. The spirits didn''t tell him the answer, but he already knew the answer. "It must be the previous me, right?" No one answered him. The contracted beasts also fell into silence, not stretching their hands in this matter. Alex looked at them again and closed his eyes, remembering Lin Xingzhi. The reason she talked about it when he was in Gacha Palace must be for this. In fact, out of everyone near him, that knew his previous self, only Lin Xingzhi thought him a genuine Alex. She truly cared for him as the Current Alexander Sirius and supported him this whole time without influencing him unnecessarily. Of course, the time where he couldn''t help but let out some tears the first time he met her was an exception. He thought about this possibility when he discussed this war with Sherry. Anna''s body was shaking. She had accepted him the way he was this whole time, but never did she know that her actions still linked up with the Previous Alex. ''I¡­ I have said to him that he is him and the previous him is the previous him. Yet, I am the one who broke this as well¡­ What have I done¡­ I¡­" As tears appeared on the corner of her eyes, Alex already knelt in front of her and hugged her tightly. "I am not blaming you or whatsoever. I know that the previous me had etched his existence in you guys. The memories you had with him should still be in your mind no matter how hard you hid it. "Knowing this does not make me feel anguish or angry¡­ Just disappointed in myself and proud of my previous life''s achievement." Alex shook his head. "That''s why I want to challenge all of you and challenge me as well, to be ourselves and see the person as it is." The spirits closed their eyes and clenched their fists, couldn''t say anything to him. On the other hand, Anna was one the verge of tears this whole time, but Alex stopped it with his next word. "I love you, Anna. That is the truth, and I can say it from the bottom of my heart. I won''t regret saying it. Having the shadow of myself, I know that he is someone that I need to confront in the future¡­ That''s why I swear to you and myself, I will be myself and make you fall in love to the point I''m the only one in your heart." Alex hugged her tightly, and she started crying while saying, "I''m sorry¡­ I''m sorry¡­" He didn''t say anything and simply stroked her hair with a gentle smile. Sherry wanted to come closer and comforted the Elder Sister that had been helping her this whole time but brushed it off after Stina grabbed her hand and shook her head. Meanwhile, Alex looked at Anya and said, "I know that this is the worst thing I can do in this type of situation. We are in a war, and an emotional thing should be avoided, but I also feel that this is a must talk problem." "Yes. This is a necessary topic that should be discussed immediately. You haven''t done any wrong, and to think I have made such a blunder¡­" Anya let out a long sigh, calming her heart down. "I''m sorry, Alex¡­ as your Spirit and Wife¡­ I''m truly sorry." "Alright. Time to drop this matter." Alex shook his head. "I just want to say that I will always be Alexander Sirius, but won''t be the same Alexander Sirius. I hope that everyone can support me while thinking of this in your heart." "Yes, Young Master!" Leoz and the others roared. They always considered Alex as the Spirit King. There was nothing to that end as they kept using his identity to smooth things out and none of them actually contradicted him as a careful person. They used it precisely for plan and deceit to set up the stage. It was just the last one truly hurt as it put too much contradiction. Anna actually harmed him and made those wounds resurface without Alex noticing. If she could turn back time, she would definitely think of a better way for this. The thought stopped after Alex said, "I am not regretting everything that was done in the past, including this matter. After all, the past made our present, and I believed it was a good thing. I wish no one would forget this matter as we will grow together as one family, Spirit Nest." Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi leaned back on her chair, looked at the white ceiling of her room, and let out a long sigh. "I hope this won''t make their situation awkward¡­ Well, someone should be able to fix it soon." Back to Alex, he looked at this heavy atmosphere and said, "Alright. Let''s continue our discussion about this next battle." "There is nothing much that needs to be said. Luckily, you have given a concrete and usable plan since the way I am now can''t come up with a strategy in this kind of mood." Anya sighed while looking at Alex. "We are going according to your plan¡­ Let''s have this as the first change to say that we believe in you¡­ As for who is going to pair with who, do you have the pairs in mind? If you don''t have one, I should be able to come up even in this mood. It''s not a big deal anyway." "I have." Alex nodded. "I will say it from left to right." Alex paused for a moment and made sure the spirits were listening to him. Even Anna wiped her tears and calmed her heart. "Anna with Artur. Anya with Jean. Nelson with Greg. I will be with Leoz. Sherry and Jeanne. Stina and Kyle. Last but not least, Fabio and Vera." Anna''s body shook when she heard her name first. The furthest would be the safest in this plan, and Alex put her there must because of this. Yet, she couldn''t reject him because she knew her mind had yet to calm down. She didn''t wish to risk the plan for her selfish desire. Just like what Alex said, she would put her trust in him more and only be against it if it would really be ridiculous. This time, Alex already thought the line up carefully. The five around him should be able to protect him to the utmost limit. Greg could put on a barrier while Nelson created confusion with his Shadow Art. Sherry could enter his body and give assistance to Alex, while Jeanne''s attack was also nonsensical. Last but not least, Leoz was the strongest out of them and even dared to challenge death. Anya agreed. "Alright. We will go with this plan and formation. I''m sure you already know about our enemy number and their power level, so I will ask another thing besides these two. Do you want to make an array?" "No. The arrays will simply make them hesitant. Their size is only two hundred or so anyway, so I think the normal encirclement will suffice¡­ Even without the True Spirit Body. Though I want Leoz to activate his True Spirit Body since I''m not assured, I will be able to react to Martial Saints moves." Alex had confidence in his Spirit Eyes that would allow him to follow their movements now he had become a Martial Monarch. However, he still wanted Leoz to be his assurance. It wasn''t much, but Leoz should be able to hold one or two attacks with his current strength. "I understand. Then we should also make sure to spare someone to tell the tale and create confusion on the Heavenly Continent." Leoz nodded. "Yeah. Let it be their weakest link to make sure he is too afraid of us because of our power difference." Alex nodded. The spirits nodded. Chapter 652 - Revealing Their Power "Let''s go!" Alex shouted after resting for a day. According to Nelson, the people from the two influences set off two days ago and would only arrive at noon. Alex still had leeway for this and decided to wait. The sun slowly rose to the peak, glaring at them brightly. Nelson suddenly appeared in front of him. "They have come¡­" Alex said, knowing what was precisely meant by Nelson showing up. "To your position." Everyone, except Leoz, disappeared. Alex nodded at him as they rose to the sky together. Not long after, two hundred men gradually appeared from the horizon as Alex narrowed his eyes, and his expression turned grim. The other party seemed to have noticed his presence and stopped not far from here. The ones leading them were a middle-aged man and an old man. Red, shaggy hair hung over a fat, menacing face. His Squinting amber eyes set fiercely within their sockets. The huge muscle of his body made his head look smaller. Yet, the scar on his face made others couldn''t laugh at this type of build. On the other hand, the old man had long white hair and a beard. He looked at Alex with his eyes slightly opened and observed their surroundings as if he knew these two masked men in front of him were their target. "To think you are actually coming here yourself." The old man said while observing their situation. They had known the family wanted to sacrifice them to prove if Alex still had the helper that could kill their elders and young master. However, deep in his heart, he still yearned it to be false, and Alex only had one-time use of the help at that time. After all, he didn''t want to die like this, yet he couldn''t disobey the family''s order. In fact, he even hoped that the rumor about him being here wasn''t true. Unfortunately, the person already came in front of him as he took his mask off, revealing his face. The golden hair was swayed by the wind as this might be the first time he opened his mouth to confront people in the open world like this. "And I am not coming here alone," Alex said as he lifted his hand, signaling the others to come out. "What?!" "He has teammates, and all of them are Martial Monarchs?" "Only Martial Monarchs, we still have a few Martial Monarchs ourselves and two Martial Saints as our leaders!" The people began commenting as soon as Alex''s group appeared. Yet, they remained calm, especially those from the Ancient Blue Family. They said ignorance is bliss, and it was especially true in this situation. "Do you think fourteen people are enough to stop us?" The old man released his Martial Saint''s aura. Alex also released his Spiritual Energy after feeling a sharp pain that was tingling his skin. He smiled a little bit as he activated his Spirit Eyes to the maximum and thought, ''To think the power gap between him and me is still this far¡­'' The sharp pain was truly telling him that the situation would go wrong if he lowered his guard down. Fortunately, he felt that he could withstand their attack a couple of times. ''I have seen the fight between Atlas, Igor, and Igor''s grandfather, and it was awe-inspiring and somehow able to barely keep up with their movement with my previous eyes. And they are still far below them¡­ so my Spirit Eyes should be able to withstand it.'' Alex thought. "You will die here, so that''s a matter¡­" Alex took out both weapons and pointed the sword toward the old man. The old man''s expression darkened. "You better call your reinforcement first because this group of Martial Monarchs isn''t enough to stop me!" Alex smiled as he glanced at Leoz. "True Spirit Body!" Having understood his signal, Leoz activated his True Spirit Body. His original 7-Star aura increased to 9-Star if not 10-Star Martial Monarch. "!!!" The Martial Saints were stunned about this, wondering how such a person could raise his strength like this without consuming a single pill. Still, he was merely a Martial Monarch. The old man took a step forward as he said to his partner. "You go handle that Martial Monarch while I take care of that brat. Watch out for any traps as well." The middle-aged man nodded with a severe expression. He had seen the report that the reason they could kill their 7-Star Martial Saint elders was because of a trap. Of course, the report came from the Blackwade Clan before they called off the alliance. On one hand, that was the only reliable information on their side. On the other hand, it came from another Clan and couldn''t be proved. So, Alex''s identity was still mysterious, and the only way to deal with him was to approach carefully. The middle-aged man took a deep breath as he locked on to Leoz. Alex simply raised his hand and said, "Kill them all!" This was the first miscalculation that appeared in these two Martial Saints'' minds. They thought the two hundred people would be able to hold on long enough until they had finished their talk. However, the first wave of attack turned the situation around. "Fire Phoenixes!" Sherry summoned the first three phoenixes to grab all their attention. The scorching heat alarmed the entire group as they abruptly turned their head toward Sherry. Even the Martial Saints also looked at Sherry, noticing something different from this flame. As someone who had been fighting for Fire God Clan for hundreds of years, he had gotten used to Fire for a long time and easily recognized that Sherry''s flame was also extraordinary. One was a Pure Fire and the other one¡­ "Sacrificial Pure Fire?" The two Martial Saints exclaimed at the same time. There was no other explanation for this powerful flame other than Sacrificial Pure Fire. The Fire God Clan wanted his Sacrificial Element before locking him up inside their prison. However, everything changed when they knew Alex had given his Sacrificial Element. The two Martial Saints exchanged looks and nodded. "We need to kill him no matter the cost." This was something out of his expectation, but beneficial for him nonetheless. Alex smiled evilly as he thought, ''To think they misunderstand Sherry''s power¡­'' "Attack!" Without wasting any more second, he shouted. "Boom Boom Boom!" Explosions occurred in the middle of their rank, but Sherry had no sign of attacking. When they looked behind them, Fabio and Vera were standing each other and crossing their swords while Artur and Anna had already made their respective attacks. For Fabio and Vera, it was their twin element cross sword wave. For Anna, it was Dark cut while Artur just used his Heroic Slash. Sherry created a huge commotion to make them misunderstand, allowing these four used their respective attack and kill a few people already before they hit each other and exploded to kill even more. At the same time, Stina and Kyle also built up their phoenixes to confuse the enemy even more. Those in Fire God Clan easily knew that these two''s Fires weren''t ordinary. "Cry!" The two phoenixes made a resonance with Sherry''s phoenix. They let out a loud cry and flew toward the mass. Unfortunately, they had been ready to intercept these phoenixes after the first attack. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions resounded across the region. "!!!" Sherry, Stina, and Kyle knew that it was none of these two hundred people. Behind the smoke of the explosions, a middle-aged man swiped his hands to the left and created a wind that blew the smoke away. ''To think the Martial Saint appeared and destroy our attacks!'' Anya furrowed her eyebrows. As the strategist, this sudden turn of unexpected events might cost them dearly. Hence, she always needed to predict what would happen and when. She and Alex agreed that these people would attack after a few minutes after the battle when they had attacked Alex once. ''It seemed they were shaken by Sherry''s Fire and shattered our own plan¡­'' Alex narrowed his eyes, thinking it would be hard afterward. "Leoz, can you hold on for a minute or two against this old man?" "Seeing the condition has been derailed from Young Master''s plan, I''m afraid I need to use Heaven Wrath to injure this old man. However¡­" "You are out after using that technique, huh¡­" Alex certainly didn''t like this. He could only block six attacks with his Spiritual Weapons, and he would surely need Leoz from one or two attacks to ensure he could release this attack. "Yes. I can act as if I fall from the sky because I am too exhausted later. They should believe it for a while and will kill me later." Leoz nodded. Formulating the plan as soon as possible, Alex could only think of a single usable plan. "No¡­ I don''t need to escape anymore!" "Young Master?" Leoz was afraid that Alex might do something reckless because of this sudden turn of situation, and his serious face was giving the vibe that he would surely do it. "Don''t mind about those two Martial Saints. Jeanne, Anna, and Nelson use your power to halt the Martial Saints for a minute. The rest will kill those weaklings. Nelson and I will kill this person." Alex shouted. "Trust me!" Anya was the first one to move by raising her staff. "True Spirit Body. Light Butterfly!" A pair of white with golden butterfly edge wings appeared on her back as golden lights connected everyone every single person from the Spirit Nest. Leoz''s energy had a significant increase and alarmed the enemy as his previous 10-Star Martial Monarch aura grew even further and shocked the entire battlefield. "1-Star Martial Saint!" The old man before them gasped as he exclaimed in shock. The surprise had yet to be finished since Alex also made a move and revealed his real strength. "This¡­ This is a Sword Path? No way! He is only a Martial Monarch, and he already has a Sword Path. This is impossible! Even the most prominent genius in our family only reached Sword Saint Stage after becoming a Martial Saint!" Little did he know that Alex actually achieved the Sword Saint Stage before even reaching Martial Monarch. Even without this news, the current Alex should already be targeted by many influences because he was too dangerous to be left alive. ''Pure Fire and Original Sword Path. In fact, he still has the Array Master title under his belt. Not to mention his Alchemy skill, albeit we don''t have more information about this! Still, the Clan has been underestimating this brat this whole time. He shouldn''t be left alive.'' The old man screamed inwardly before letting out loud with another message. "Arman. Kill those people and help me kill this brat. He must be planning something! Using all of his strength right now means he wants to kill us to silence us." "You are absolutely right." Alex smirked evilly as he raised both of his weapons, saying, "Lend me your strength, both of you." The fire started blazing on the two weapons as if they were responding to Alex once again. Alex just released a more powerful fire than Sherry. The weapons channeled him to fuel the Pure Fire and Sword Art even more. "Dragon Aura." "Spirit Step, First Step." Using the two techniques, Alex increased his strength even further, trying to close the gap between him and the old man. He didn''t stop there. Suddenly, the Fire made an unexpected movement by turning into six crescent slashes. Without further ado, Alex used his Triple Draws and Mythical Spear Cannon to fill the energy within these six crescent slashes before they flew forward. "Mythical Fire Slashes!" "!!!" The old man thought he would be the target of this attack as he could definitely feel the Pure Fire even from far away. Anya had enhanced his strength to 4-Star Martial Monarch, his two Strength enhancing techniques allowed him to have seven hundred dragon strength or equal to 7-Star Martial Monarch, and his Spiritual Weapons increased that power even further. And the target of this sword wave was¡­ The old man shouted, "Arman!" Chapter 653 - The Power of Spiritual Weapons "Arman!" Shouted the old man, realizing that the attacks flew toward Arman, who was going to fight with Anna and the others. "!!!" Arman noticed the sudden sense of danger and swung his sword to the right. However, he realized the scorching heat around his hand and the power behind these attacks, forcing him to turn his body and use both hands in order to block it. This had never happened before. After all, how could one believe that a 3-Star Martial Monarch could create something this strong? Although he wasn''t serious as well, it could still be compared with a genuine 8-Star Martial Monarch. He only trained his sword, not element, and because of this, he could realize that this attack held something that was truly ridiculous. "Original Sword Path! Impossible!" Not many people could actually arrive at this step, and those who could actually arrive were either old people who had hundreds of years of experience or a genius. Alex was the latter. If he were inside the big influence, they would nurture him as he had the potential to be an elder class, if not Grand Elder. In fact, they would most likely arrange them to marry someone inside the clan to bind them. However, Alex was simply an unknown person. Even his Spirit Nest still couldn''t be regarded as a hidden influence as no one actually knew such a thing. Even the slightest rumor was fine and might be able to validate the Spirit Nest. Yet, this particular group never had any rumor or appearance in the past. The Blackwade Clan, Fire God Clan, and any other influences had searched their record, but nothing couldn''t be found. In the end, they could only treat him with caution, like how Fire God Clan dealing with him at the moment. They wanted to see Alex''s depth by sending these two elders, measuring his ability so they could act accordingly. Much to their dismay, they needed to say that Alex was simply too hard to be found. This time, Alex had appeared on this continent without any prior notice. And the chance for Fire God Clan arrived to see Alex''s power had come. Arman remembered that his task was to kill Alex if necessary, and this Sword Attack already confirmed his mission. Channeling his Spiritual Energy into the sword, it glowed in blue color as Arman finally felt a little reaction from the Sword Attacks. "One Sword Kill!" *Bang!* Alex opened his eyes wide, surprised what he just saw. ''Did he pull back once and shatter my sword attack in a single swing? That speed was insane!" It was like his Triple Draws but with more power. Alex thought it was amazing, but realized he couldn''t get a single sense from this attack. In other words, the technique he used earlier was his Original Sword Skill. Arman looked at the old man that was supposed to be fighting Alex and said, "He is too dangerous to be alive. Do you want me to make sure he dies first?" "No. I''m going to finish this with my hand alone." The old man shook his head. "You may have the power-" At this time, a series of explosions occurred. Sherry and the others that had yet to release their attack struck them at this particular time when they were too focused on Alex. Alex''s group was using this type of action to make the enemy turn around again and again, not letting them focus on one person¡­ at least, for a while. After noticing this, Nelson clapped his hand once as the lightning sparked between his palms as if it was a bridge. "O'' Ancient Thunder God, What is it that lies within your eyes? O Bright Thunder that splits the Heaven, rumbling tremors that shake the Earth, what pulse beats within your ears? Dwell inside me o God of Lightning as I am Thunder Berserker, Spirit Vessel." As Leoz was chanting, the sky turned to dark, forming vast black clouds. The thunder rumbled inside as a golden light flashed above it. The temperature slowly dropped, creating a chill in the air. "!!!" Anya noticed this technique and glanced at the two Martial Saints. These two should be able to deal with it. The only question would be what kind of price they would pay to stop this attack. An Arm? A broken bone? Or simply no price to pay? Even with this kind of thought, Anya quickly signaled everyone, not to retreat, but lower their altitude. She was planning to use these two Martial Saints as an umbrella as one of them would surely stop this attack. However, the Martial Emperors and Monarchs around them didn''t know a single thing about this. They were just dumbstruck to see a vast black cloud appear out of nowhere as if it was going to have a storm soon. Yet, they couldn''t take off the possibility of it being a Martial Art. Finally, when they thought about it, they realized what kind of Martial Art behind this attack. Norman quickly shouted. "Old Man! He is using peak Heaven Tier Thunder Art! Stop him and kill them already!" The old man simply snorted as he released his own Lightning Element as well. "You are going to challenge me in Lightning? Come back after you have become a Martial Monarch!" His lightning suddenly turned into a dragon and roared at Alex. "With your strength and this Lightning Power, you need more time before you can activate it. I simply need to kill the one who uses it!" "Heavenly Lightning Dragon!" *Roar!* Alex had no change of expression on his face as he raised his spear. Suddenly, it released a Spiritual Energy that gradually turned into a vortex of energy. That vortex expanded until it had the same size as the dragon. The old man furrowed his eyebrows. Looking at this blue vortex made his heart skip a beat. The same as Leoz''s Heaven''s Wrath, this Heavenly Lightning Dragon was also a peak Thunder Art. An attack at this level would certainly involve or change nature in a way like Leoz''s Heaven''s Wrath just now. Alex was slightly surprised by how this Lightning Dragon influenced the nature around him. Pink colored energy started bending in a weird way when this Dragon passed them as Alex realized what kind of attack this was. Not wanting to lose against this old man, he channeled his Space Element to his spear, enveloping the vortex with a stream of Space. ''The dragon can bend space, but it''s only a natural one. If it hits the vortex normally, it will surely break since the vortex will be unstable because of this space bending ability. Unfortunately, he has chosen the wrong opponent. If I have enough Space Energy reinforcing my technique, this wouldn''t be able to break the vortex. *Bam!* The clash between this vortex and Lightning Dragon was heaven-defying, creating a huge shock wave that slightly pushed the Martial Emperors and Martial Monarchs back. The old man was obviously dumbstruck. This Lightning Dragon was his proudest ability that had been helping him to rise. Unless they had a powerful technique or higher cultivation, this technique couldn''t be blocked. Yet, a mere 3-Star Martial Monarch could completely block this attack. ''It''s impossible. He should be using a trick! A trick?'' He opened his mouth wide before looking at Alex''s spear. If Alex really used a shield, there was nothing more suspicious than this spear. Still, a normal spear couldn''t even create a spear, let alone blocking his attack. ''His spear must not be ordinary. Should I proceed in killing him? I know that he still has another trick just by looking at his expression, but how dangerous his trick is something that I need to reconsider!'' While he was thinking about it, a Sword Wave was coming from the right, flying past the old man and landing on Alex and Leoz. Alex raised his sword this time and formed another shield. However, he didn''t use it to block this attack. Instead, he redirected the attack. "You old man, if you are not going to attack them, I''m going to attack them!" Norman was obviously pissed. He was a bit far from Alex, so he didn''t realize Alex''s sword and spear were different. For Alex, he only had another four chances to stop their attacks. And he would surely be no match against these two if they decided to go close combat. ''I need to confuse them and make them think nothing about close combat!'' Alex took a deep breath, thinking about what he could do in this situation. Yet, only one answer to be found. ''Do I need to use my Space Element? I can teleport their attack and use their power to fight them¡­'' There was so much uncertainty in using this technique, but it could confuse his opponent the same as it confused him. Alex gulped down as he looked at another incoming attack from the old man. "I don''t need your help! I can handle this myself! If I can''t kill you with a single attack, then I only need more!" The old man roared as his lightning suddenly turned into snakes. Alex could see that this technique had the same principle with the last one, bending the space of its target, unless a little bit weaker than the dragon. Even so, it was certainly effective to fight Alex''s Spiritual Weapons as it only had four shields anymore. "I don''t have a choice¡­" Alex sighed as he clapped his hands, waiting for the snake to go near enough that the old man couldn''t react anymore. "Spatial Gate!" Suddenly, a portal to a Blue Colored realm opened, stunning the old man completely. He tried to move his snake, but to no avail, as the portal swallowed all of them. ''Space Element?!'' The old man gasped. ''What kind of combination is this? Pure Fire, Array Master, Original Sword Path, and Space Element. Each of them can let you reach the peak, but this young man has it all?'' At the same time, he was also wondering where his attack landed before he finally felt the attack once more but far behind his back, and its target was none other than Arman. "Arman, dodge!" Arman was always interrupted when he was just about to have fun with the spirits. "Tch!" Arman drew his sword again and slashed it diagonally. "Whirlwind Strike!" The sword strike created a huge amount of wind pressure to redirect the snakes in which one of them hit someone, causing a huge explosion and killing a few people. "Incompetent old man." Arman couldn''t contain his anger anymore and flew toward the old man, going to tell him that he would fix his mess. Yet, the old man simply locked onto Alex and covered his body with lightning and said out loud. "I know all the weaknesses you possess right now. You can''t fight me in close combat, aren''t you?" The old man flew forward, leaving Arman behind. "Take this¡ª!" Chapter 654 - She Finally Makes Her Appearance "Take this¡ª!" The old man was going to throw a fist toward Alex, but there was another interruption. "Too late!" Leoz finally finished charging the technique with all of his strength. He stretched his hand wide and roared. Leoz, who had been silent until now, finally released his might. "Lightning God Possession, Heaven''s Wrath!" *Rumble!* A bolt of lightning flew down with its mighty power before it suddenly split into thousands of smaller lightning strikes, coloring the sky with a flash of golden color. Although it didn''t make a huge impact like Alex''s golden tribulation, it was still enough to brighten the sky nearby. This small lightning might not do anything to the old man or Arman, yet both of them looked upward, noticing something big was coming. If these were the disciples from Joyful Union Sect, they might only see a golden flash before a huge explosion shook the world. However, they were still bona fide Martial Saints. The small lightning from earlier was just making a path for the last lighting. The golden flash locked onto the two Martial Saints and made its appearance. "I''m stopping it!" The old man''s pride obviously wouldn''t let this matter go. No matter how abnormal this lightning was, he was also a Lightning User, a 5-Star Martial Saint on top of that. He didn''t have much preparation for this, but he suddenly raised both hands and flew upward. A translucent image of a bird flashed on their eyes as it turned into an armor that enveloped him. The old man simply put his hand on this lightning and stopped it. Of course, his condition wasn''t that much better. His right hand was numb while he felt the crack on his left-hand bone. Although Leoz was only a 7-Star Martial Monarch with a boost to 1-Star Martial Saint, this attack power was still ridiculous, equaling a 3-Star if not 4-Star Martial Saint. He couldn''t imagine what would happen if he grew to his level. Still, the old man preserved, knowing it was his fault to let this happen. Arman thought for a moment. Though the old man was spiteful, he was still a Martial Saint. He channeled his energy to his sword and sent it flying in two directions. One flew toward the Lightning while the other one made its way toward Alex. Alex formed the shield for the third time, blocking this attack. He didn''t stop only at this as he took a token out of his Inventory. He channeled his Spiritual Energy inside the token to activate it. He remembered that a technique called Fire Devil String was sealed inside this token. Although the technique might not be strong enough to kill Manness, it was powerful enough to kill both of these Martial Saints. The token shone brightly as it flew out of his hand as if it had consciousness. Alex realized that it truly had one when he checked the token with his Spirit Eyes. The consciousness was none other than his Master''s consciousness. Unfortunately, he couldn''t appear in this world anymore, so only a little of his consciousness was here. A few hard to see strings suddenly flew out of the token, flying toward the old man who was trying to stop the lightning strike and Arman, who just sent a sword wave. Alex observed the strings and found out they had this powerful Fire Energy deep within them. Yet it couldn''t be seen due to the size of the string. The first one that noticed this was Arman since he had a more relaxed situation. "Whirlwind Strike!" Arman released another wind pressure to blow these strings. Unfortunately, Maxwell was controlling these strings. When they were blown away by the wind pressure, they simply came back with a higher speed and struck him. Arman tried to launch another attack, but his sword was stopped by a few strings while a few others enveloped his body and¡­ *Bloop!* He was shredded into pieces by the strings without any kind of resistance as if the Spiritual Energy that reinforced his body or his clothes that looked like it was made of powerful material didn''t exist. His fleshes were scattered around, and his blood formed a small pool. The goriness didn''t stop here as a chunk of fleshes rained down from above. Alex looked up and found that the strings also neutralized the Lightning Strike. Just like this, two 5-Star Martial Saints died. Alex muttered to himself, "Under normal circ.u.mstances, the strings won''t be able to catch them up since they can simply avoid them. I have prepared to use my Spatial Gate to bring them back here the moment they escape, but it seems I have chosen a perfect timing to release this attack." "Yes," Leoz replied to him before falling to the ground. "To think this long planning will only result in such an anticlimactic battle¡­ Not that I complained about it." "If you didn''t stop them with your Lightning, it would be very hard to have locked their movement and have them in the same place." Alex smiled while helping Leoz to get up and carrying him on his shoulder. "Thank you, Leoz." "Haha, the plan didn''t turn out to be what we expected, especially Sherry''s part, and their expression told me they were on edge this whole time, resulting in them reacting slightly later than they usually did. This was the reason why I could stop that old man with this Lightning Strike." Leoz continued panting with a pale face. Knowing he couldn''t last longer than this, he said, "Young Master, I need to go back to the card before my instinct takes over." "Yeah. Thank you for your hard work." Alex nodded, watching Leoz disappear. The token flew toward him and shone as if his master was in front of him, telling him how proud he was. Alex smiled, clasped his hands respectfully, and bowed his head. After that, the token emptied its energy and fell on his hands. No matter how hard he tried, the token wouldn''t lit up again. Meanwhile, the rest of the group was stunned by the death of two 5-Star Martial Saints. Alex used this opportunity to get closer to them while looking at the group with cold eyes as if he was going to murder them. "No way!" "Two 5-Star Martial Saints died just like that?" "How could that be?! Their opponents were only 3-Star and 7-Star Martial Monarchs. This must be a dream!" They were covered with cold sweats, especially the ones from Ancient Blue Family. They had enjoyed a peaceful time ever since the Fire God Clan arrived. All those influences that were going to attack them shut and hid themselves inside their home, terrified if Fire God Clan would attack them. The Fire God Clan even promised them to take care of this matter seriously after they dealt with the rumor of Alexander Sirius. Unfortunately, their true nightmare just started, wondering what kind of existence they had offended. They could only curse their own main family that wanted to use them to gain the favor of the Fire God Clan. Little did they know that it was a trap all along. Unfortunately, only the people from Sacred Continent''s Ancient Blue Family would suffer because the main family didn''t care this much of a loss. They stared at Alex and realized their fate. The only way to run from that fate was to escape from this place and scatter in all directions. They still had around one hundred fifty people here, so they should be enough to confuse Alex and his group. "Esc-" One of them tried to say something before a powerful Spiritual Energy swept over them as a female voice echoed in the battlefield. "You have angered my husband. No matter if you are forced or not, you are already foolish to challenge him. And do you think I will let you escape from this place?" This voice startled everyone in the battlefield, especially Alex''s group. Alex was stunned to the point his body started shaking. He couldn''t believe she would come to this place and be so silent like this. His Spirits were smiling while only Sherry could put on a big smile because Kyle and Stina had no knowledge about such a beauty. All of them looked up and found a red-haired beauty floating above them. She had long red hair tied into a ponytail as she used to be. Coupled with the blazing red eyes that seemed to have glowed more brightly than the ones in Alex''s memory, her face alone could raise one''s thought. She wore a gorgeous red dress that complemented her fiery body. A shawl covered with fire circled around her hand, running through the back of her body, and appeared on the other hand. She looked perfectly like a fire goddess that descended onto the world to grace her presence to mortals. The red shawl suddenly glowed as the woman lifted her two hands and swung them down, shooting out flames from both palms. No one could react by her sudden appearance as they didn''t know whether it was because her otherworld beauty or her aura somehow pulled them in. The flames encroached upon the lands before it suddenly flared up to the sky. Surprisingly, it twisted until it reached a certain height and tied together on the top, creating a birdcage that trapped everyone within. The bars were made of fire with a width that wasn''t possible to cross with the human body. As the cage was summoned, the female pointed her small hand toward the crowd. "!!!" Alex''s gaze focused on the woman, and felt his Pure Fire reacting as if the woman was calling it. After a slight silence, Alex released his Pure Fire and let it fly to the sky. The woman summoned an orange flame from her hand, shooting right into Alex''s Pure Fire. Alex''s red fire suddenly swallowed this orange flame, but not to devour it. Instead, the orange flame still shone brightly as if the red flame protecting it inside its body. "Flame of Dawn." The woman said softly. To everyone''s surprise, the orange flame that seemed to be protected by the red flame suddenly exploded. The red flame burst out to all directions like a sea urchin before the woman waved her hand. The fiery spikes turned around and charged toward all these people. "All of you wake up! She is a new enemy!" One of them said out loud, waking every single person from the Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family. They pulled their weapons and tried to protect themselves from these many spikes. Many of them were impaled, whether on their vital spots or heads. Each spike carried Alex''s Pure Fire and started burning all the organs around the stabbed area, killing all people who were stabbed. In this move alone, she killed around fifty people, mainly from the Fire God Clan. "Attack!" Although Alex was shocked by all of this, he still gritted his teeth and shocked despite the unbearable desire to call her name. This shock changed everyone''s expression as they picked up their weapons and began killing them according to the plan. They almost forgot to do a follow up to attack them at their enemies in their most vulnerable state. "I have said that you need to pay a price for offending my husband." The woman said coldly from up above as if they were already dead in her eyes, believing the spirits and contracted beasts. She finally turned to Alex. Knowing that she had finished her job, she descended down to Alex''s level and stared at him for a few seconds while smiling gently. Her flame and Alex flames suddenly came out as if a pair finally met once again like their master. It flew and circled in the sky. "Husband¡­ I miss you." The two Spiritual Weapons realized it was their time to act and created a small barrier to protect these two. Alex quickly grabbed her hand, pulled her into his embrace, and hugged her tightly. His hands were trembling while his voice was shaking. Nonetheless, he still called her name and let out his feelings. "Firia!" Chapter 655 - The Reason "Firia!" Alex released all sorts of feelings. Anxious, yearning, hope, but most importantly, love. He hugged her as tight as possible, afraid she would disappear the moment he let go of her. She was one of the two people that he always wanted to see, the reason why he wanted to become stronger. He could face all of these tortures so as to reunite with her one more time. "Husband. I have come back. Don''t worry, I won''t leave you again." Firia hugged him back gently, trying to calm him down. "I will accompany you in this world." "Accompany me?" Alex''s body shook by this word as he abruptly released her and locked into her eyes, dumbfounded. "Yes. I have been training with your Master''s wife this whole time. According to our plan, Alicia will also come back to this place, but¡­ Due to some circ.u.mstances, she decided to stay there, waiting for you to come." Firia answered calmly. She closed her eyes for a while, recalling the meeting she had with Alicia. ¡­ A few days ago, Firia''s training had come to an end. Her master had finally given her permission to visit Alex and helped him. She even had Zark to pick her up to meet Lin Xingzhi and Alicia. Of course, both of them had been waiting for her. Even Alicia stopped her training and waited in the castle. Firia entered the room where they used to meet if they wanted to talk about Alex. Outside the room, specifically on the balcony, two women were chatting over tea. They turned around after noticing Firia''s presence, and Alicia waved her hand, asking her to come. Firia nodded and sat while Lin Xingzhi poured her tea. "To think you have reached 8-Star Martial Monarch this soon¡­" Lin Xingzhi smiled with a slight surprise in her tone. "That''s right. I''m still a 7-Star Martial Monarch right now¡­" Alicia added while pouting. "It''s thanks to Sister Xingzhi. If you don''t help me out and meet my master, how can I reach my current state?" Firia humbly said. "Haha¡­ It''s also thanks to your effort that you can reach this step. You even pass Alex, who is currently a 3-Star Martial Monarch. I know that you want to meet him right now, but I have a plan. Care to hear me out?" "A plan?" Firia and Alicia were surprised. "Yeah. In a few days, Alex is going to fight two Martial Saints with Martial Monarchs and Martial Emperors behind them." Lin Xingzhi told them Alex''s condition. "Do you want us to help him? Although I wish to help him, I know that my strength is not strong enough to help him." Firia asked with great doubt in her heart. Alicia also thought the same. Firia, who was stronger than her, had no confidence, let alone her. "I know. Alex is planning to use Maxwell''s token that contains the Fire Devil Strings technique to kill the two Martial Saints. This will leave Martial Monarchs and Martial Emperors. I want you to make an entrance at this moment. This will allow you to show your progress to Alex as well as make a flashy entrance rather than a normal entrance. Isn''t it more romantic?" Lin Xingzhi smirked slyly. "I don''t really care about the entrance to be honest. I only wish to meet him again. This is why I got stronger in the first place." Firia shook her head. Alicia thought the same before she suddenly noticed something was wrong. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down, leaving Firia and Lin Xingzhi talking among themselves. "Haha¡­ If you want to meet him normally, you will have a hard time finding his base. Our Nelson is the number one spy in Eulja. Unless you have a precise map, it will be hard to meet him. That''s why I also want to use this opportunity so both of you can meet him." Lin Xingzhi explained her reason. Firia pondered for a moment and agreed with her plan. "I understand. I will go according to Sister Xingzhi''s plan." Firia nodded. "Great!" Lin Xingzhi smiled before looking at Alicia. "Actually¡­" Alicia suddenly put on a serious expression as if she had a great problem in her heart. "¡­ I don''t want to go anymore." "Eh?" Firia widened her eyes and opened her mouth. She couldn''t believe what she just heard. "Alicia? What are you talking about?" Lin Xingzhi also furrowed her eyebrows. Alicia had been wondering when she could meet Alex this whole time, and when the opportunity finally arrived, she decided to abandon it. How could it not shock her? "I know you must be confused as to why I choose this option. I have one simple reason. We have been getting stronger so we can assist him, right?" Alicia asked Firia and Lin Xingzhi. Firia nodded with solemn expressions. The answer was obvious. "Certainly." "The same applies to him. He is getting stronger for the sake to meet us." Alicia looked at her with a sad look. "If we appear before him, will he still have this desire?" "!!!" Firia was stunned by her question. This answer was as obvious as the last question. Lin Xingzhi suddenly rose from her seat and hugged Alicia, burying her face under her b.o.o.b.s. "I really never choose the wrong sister!" "Haha¡­ This is the best for me, Firia, you, and Alex." Alicia chuckled. "His desire to get stronger will vanish because his goal has been achieved. The current him can''t seal someone else''s cultivation. In other words, we can''t go back to the Lower World and have a happy life there¡­ all of us. "We will be forced to stay in that world because Alex might feel all of this is enough for him. His current strength is only enough to live either on the Sacred Continent or Northern Continent. Unfortunately, he has so many enemies this time. Even if he still wants to get stronger to solve Letizia''s matter, we will only stop at Heavenly Continent. "I don''t wish for it to happen. We have been separated from him for almost a decade. Yet, the yearning is very unbearable. How about Sister Xingzhi, who has been waiting for him for thousands of years. This is so sad." Alicia shook her head while closing her eyes. She already considered Lin Xingzhi as her sister and Alex''s wife this whole time, and the feeling wasn''t as bad as she felt. Instead, she actually felt happy from the bottom of her heart, like when she heard Alex finally accepted Sherry. "I will stay here with sister Xingzhi and wait for him to come here. This way, he will still have the drive to get stronger, and we will receive the happy ending we hope for. That''s why you go and help him on his journey. Seeing your cultivation speed, you must have your Tribulation to Godhood before him. At that time, you can say you are waiting in Eulja." Alicia smiled. "Then, I can stay here instead of you. Your last meeting with him is full of sadness. That''s why it''s better for you to go while I''m waiting here." Firia bit her lips and looked into her eyes. "No. It''s better if you go to him. Let''s think about this, what kind of reason can we give to Alex to make him believe us?" Alicia asked. "Nothing, right? That''s why I''m planning to say that I have several matters here and can''t meet him for the time being. As for you, you can''t say anything because you have finished your training. It''s only another few years, I can stand it." Firia couldn''t say a single thing to her¡­ "What if we don''t come back and just wait for him together?" "That can''t be allowed. We agreed to meet him long ago, so this plan still needs to be carried. Besides, I believe that if only one of us here while the other is waiting for him out there. We can stimulate his desire to get stronger even more." Alicia nodded. "Still, Sherry and the others can return to his body while the others can enter the card. If I am there in a perilous situation, I might unnecessarily hurt him. After all, his situation is currently far more dangerous than it used to be." Firia furrowed her eyebrows. "If he is only a Martial King, I can say we will truly burden him. However, he is already strong enough, and our existence won''t bring him too much problem with his Teleportation Array. You remembered that Nelson actually accompanied him the whole time in that Special Realm, right?" "Yes." Firia let out a sigh, knowing she had no other excuse to reject this. While they were talking, Lin Xingzhi thought of something. "I need to go somewhere for a few minutes. Wait for me here, alright?" said Lin Xingzhi before flying away. Alicia and Firia were stupefied. They had no important matter today, so Lin Xingzhi''s action was very suspicious. Yet none of them said anything as they simply had another light chat. A few minutes later, Lin Xingzhi came back while bringing a fruit on her hands. The fruit had a star shape while releasing a powerful Fire Energy. "Sister Xingzhi, that is¡­" Firia noticed this fruit as a fire user. "Yeah. This is Star Fruit. It has a very nourishing Fire Energy that even God Stage experts would find it useful. It can boost one''s Fire Talent and Strength. This is a priceless fruit¡­ But I think the reason I bring it here is obvious." She smiled at Firia. "You want me to bring it to Alex for his fourth refinement?" Firia asked. "Yes. At first, I have been storing this to give him one through Gacha since this is the only one I have for his Undying Fire Body refinement. However, I think it''s better to give him now because the situation is getting pretty dangerous. This should be able to increase his cultivation slightly, and the refinement will greatly enhance his strength. He will have more options to face his enemies this way." Xingzhi gave Firia another reason to go. "So that''s why sister Xingzhi asked the others to search around. It''s to find all the materials for his Undying Fire Body?" Alicia asked. "Yeah. After all, each material is very priceless. I even doubted myself to see Alex could get three of them in that world." She nodded. "I have gotten the information about the fifth material, Fire Grass, in a certain world and send the spirits to confirm the rumor and acquire it. But I am still waiting for the result. I can''t go there anyway because of the world''s barrier." "I think we shouldn''t bring them back here and let them stay there. At some point, Alex should be able to seal others'' cultivations with his Unique Space Ability. We can then sneak inside that world and enjoy those worlds with him. In fact, Sister Xingzhi can take the first one. This way, you can start making a move to have him fall in love with you. After this, six of us can enjoy the time with him together in the next world." Alicia smirked. "That is a good idea. It can also speed up the progress between sister Xingzhi and Alex." Firia nodded. "You two¡­" Lin Xingzhi was overwhelmed by emotions. "Like how sister Xingzhi helped us this whole time, we also want to help you." "That''s right. If sister doesn''t accept this, I won''t bring the fruit to him." Firia backed Alicia up. "Besides, we can visit our Agar World to visit our parents and Alex''s Teacher¡­ Though the latter should have been reincarnated somewhere." Tears were swelling up as she never thought the two new sisters were this considerate. "Alright." The three smiled at each other and continued to have a pleasant talk until Firia needed to go. Zark brought her to Alex''s world and teleported her right above him. In other words, she had been high in the sky this whole time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make her appearance. ¡­ Back to the present, Firia suddenly kissed him twice. Alex didn''t know why, but each kiss held a different emotion. "The first one was mine. While Alicia asked me to do it¡­ She is truly missing you, Husband." Chapter 656 - Firia Meets The Other Girls "She is truly missing you, Husband." Alex was stunned with her sad smile, yet a thought arose in his mind. "That''s right. Why did you come here alone?" "I asked her before coming here, and she said she is in the middle of cultivation. She asked me to come here alone to help you because she would require a few years to cultivate. By that time, you might already break free from this world and achieve God Stage. That''s why she decided to wait for you there." Firia answered with the alibi she had prepared earlier. Although it pained her to lie like this, she had agreed with this arrangement a few days ago. "Is that so?" Alex let out a long sigh, not having a single shred of doubt in Firia''s words. "She is fine, right?" Firia understood Alex''s worry in this question. After all, Alicia had gotten that poison one time, and Alex was afraid she faced that kind of thing again. Hence, she put the gentlest smile she could and answered. "As I said, I talked to her before coming here. She was very energetic and cheerful at that time." Alex felt relieved, knowing she was alright. "I see. I am confident to reach God Stage within a decade, so I will just meet her by that time." "Haha¡­ If we are going with your process, five years are the maximum." Firia chuckled. "I won''t lose to you this time though. I will surely become a God Stage Expert before you." "So, you are going to challenge me..." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Of course. You are feeling confident to pass me with this difference, Husband?" She released her Spiritual Energy to make Alex remember that she was an 8-Star Martial Monarch. "No. I quit. I won''t go for the challenge because I only want you to grow without destroying your foundation only for this stupid challenge." Alex shook his head. "I''m not that foolish. Besides, I know about cultivation as well from my Master. That''s why don''t underestimate me." Firia harrumphed. "Anyway, you are not going to join them?" She pointed her finger at the scene behind her. Alex shook his head and smiled. "Anna and the others are strong enough to deal with them. We are in this cage made of your Sacrificial Element. I''m sure it will be strong enough to trap them." "You trust my ability this much? I was never useful for you in the past, you know." Firia grinned. "Don''t say that. Although your fighting with Alicia was a little bit annoying, it colored my day at the very least. I was always alone before, passing my day without anyone. That was why I still felt it was nice." Alex smiled, complimenting her genuinely. "That is not a compliment, Husband." Firia narrowed her eyes before clapping her hands and changing her mood. "There should be another ten minutes before Anna, and the others finish. Do you want to ask something?" "I have two questions. I am wondering why you didn''t tell me that you can visit me again?" Alex asked while glancing upon her eyes. "I almost forgot¡­ Uncle Maxwell actually told me that he would inform you himself, but it seemed he had forgotten about it." *Thud¡ª!* Kai didn''t know why but the past memory resurfaced in his mind where he actually forgot to mention Spatial Gate and Space Plate. "He is a forgetful person¡­ Sigh." "Haha¡­ It''s fine since you can focus on your cultivation rather than waiting for us." Firia shrugged. "True enough." Alex nodded in agreement. "Then, the second question, why at this time?" "To finish my training with my Master first. Even alone in this world, I should be able to sustain myself. Master taught me about Alchemist as well up to God Stage Pill or a pill above rank 8, the Divine Pill. Of course, I can only make rank 8 pill right now due to my cultivation¡­ barely." She paused for a moment before taking out a certain blazing fruit and passing it to Alex. "This is another reason I come here." "This¡­" Alex''s body shook upon the sight of this fruit. "This is Star Fruit. How can you have this?" "You are cultivating Undying Fire Body and need this fruit for your fourth refinement. All the materials you need are very hard to get, so once she has gotten this, she asks me to bring it to you." Firia smiled. She, in her mouth, was Lin Xingzhi. Unfortunately, she forbade her from saying the fruit was coming from her because of several reasons. Due to Firia talking about her Master this whole time, Alex misunderstood her and thought it was coming from her Master. "Thank you for bringing it to me; I truly need it. If I have the opportunity, I will thank her in the future." Firia hid her lie beneath her smile even though she was also crying at the same time. She thought, ''How many lies I need to tell on the first day of meeting my husband¡­'' Alex tossed the Star Fruit inside his Inventory and remembered something. "Do you know about the System?" "Of course, I know. I want to ask you to invite me as a Spirit Nest member." Alex nodded and opened his system, sending an invite to her. Firia chose Yes without hesitation and officially became one of the Spirit Nest members. "That''s right, Husband. I have seen your progress from there and know that you have trouble with money. Master didn''t let me bring any items other than my clothes and weapon, so I will need to rely on you to procure medicinal ingredients while I make rank 7 or rank 8 pills for you. In other words, I will supply the money for our Spirit Nest." She grinned. Alex nodded before noticing something wrong. "Wait, you have a weapon?" "I have now. You already know that there are many different types of cultivations out there, right?" "Yes." The answer was obvious. He learned many things from his knowledge, such as someone that cultivates with special veins and such. Their power was the same as him in the same stage, and both had their own advantages and disadvantages, so there was no point in debating over it. He only knew that there were many different types and learned that he might fight against those types when he reached God Stage. "This is my weapon! It''s also my Spiritual Weapon with Fire Attribute. It can boost my Fire Attribute to attack people¡­ But Master has sealed a portion of its power since this is a Divine Item, so I don''t feel reliant on it." Firia nodded. "That''s good then." Alex had no problem in her Master sealing its power. If he didn''t reach Absolute Blade Saint before all this matter, he might necessarily use his Spiritual Weapons as to stimulate his potential. At this time, Anna and Sherry suddenly appeared behind the barrier. "Alex, we are done and spare the weakest guy we can get." Alex scratched his head for a moment and said apologetically. "I''m sorry. I need to deal with the current situation first." "It''s fine. I will wait here." Firia smiled gently. He waved his hand to open the barrier and nodded to Anna and Sherry before flying toward the others. Meanwhile, Firia came to Anna with a cheerful smile. Suddenly, she bowed her head elegantly. "Elder Sister Anna, I''m Firia. This might not be the first time we meet, but let me say it. Thank you for accompanying Alex this whole time, and I hope that we can take care of him together this time." "Ye-yes." Anna''s body shook, and bowed her head unconsciously. However, her mood was somewhat gloomy, and Firia understood the reason. "I knew your worry, and I did feel it was wrong. Even Sister Xingzhi was worried about it. However, we always made a mistake, whether consciously or unconsciously. Even Alex made many mistakes. At that time, did you forgive him?" Anna opened her mouth slightly, wanting to say yes but had no courage. "I believe he has already forgiven you and brushed it off from his mind. That''s why you can''t be like this anymore because I know it will only sadden him and you. Please act normally again. This is the request from your little sister." Firia smiled. Anna closed her eyes and sighed. "I will try. There is no need to call me, Sister. We only have one big sister, Sister Xingzhi. She is the only one that can be called Sister. Other than that, we should call each other with our names." "Sure. Looking forward to our cooperation Anna." Firia stretched her hands. "Yes. I''m looking forward to it as well¡­" Anna thought she wanted a handshake, but she gave her a big hug instead. Suddenly, Anna noticed something wrong with her words, specifically about that cooperation word. "Cooperation? Don''t tell me¡­" "Sister Xingzhi made us learn everything from that book. So I will really need your cooperation." She grinned. "You¡­ You have been corrupted as well! Do you know that Sister Xingzhi actually gathered all kinds of techniques in the world for a few thousand years, so she can please Alex on the bed when he has reincarnated? She even made us learn that well¡­" "Haha¡­ I don''t feel anything wrong for a wife to please her husband." Firia smirked. Suddenly, Anya appeared with a sly glint. "I heard a very interesting topic just now." Anna was startled for a second and released Firia. Meanwhile, Firia came closer to Anya and bowed to her before straightening her back and smiling from ear to ear. "I heard about your achievement, Anya. Sister Xingzhi said you claimed the second rank for the mastery of this book. I hope you can guide me sometime¡­" Anya grabbed Firia''s hands and raised them as she looked at her with a star in her eyes. "I see, I found a friend on this journey. I have executed a few techniques, and Alex seemed to like it. Unfortunately, Anna always refused to use it despite mastering all the techniques. We can try it soon together since the theory says it will be more effective in doing it with more people." "I''m looking forward to that." "Still, I will let you have tonight with him." Anya smirked while shaking her hands. "Thank you." Firia grinned. "I feel like these two shouldn''t meet¡­" Anna sweatdropped. "What do you mean? Alicia also has the interest to do it, albeit a bit embarrassed. You are just wasting Sister Xingzhi''s efforts." Firia corrected her with a righteous face. "That is unnecessary effort!" Anna screamed, frustrated. "You do know that she actually traveled to thousands of worlds to acc.u.mulate thousands of techniques and compile that book, right?" Amazing and yet¡­ a different kind of amazing. But it was useless since Anya and Firia ignored her words. "Elder Sister Firia¡­" Sherry''s voice resounded as she finally joined their conversation, albeit with a guilty face. Firia smiled and shook her head. She patted Sherry''s head and said. "You did a good job, Sherry. I can see that you have completed your mission well. Besides, I am also happy to have you as my sister. For the time being, you can''t call me without honorifics, and there is only one way if you want to call me Firia." Sherry looked up with a surprised face. She blinked her eyes a few times, realizing that Firia recognized her relationship with Alex. Firia''s words certainly piqued interest as well as she asked, "What is that way, Elder Sister Firia? I will certainly do it!" "Good." Firia nodded while taking out a single book and handing it to her. "I bring a copy with me!" "Wait, that book!" Anna, of course, realized this book, but Anya suddenly appeared in front of her. "As a strategist from Eulja, I deem this book is mandatory for anyone that wants to enter Sirius Household," Anya said righteously. "You are just corrupting Sherry!" Anna shouted. Sherry was startled by the book as her face turned red when she took a glance at the first page. However, a notification appeared for these four. [I and Alicia agree. The rule shall be effective from today onward.] *Thud¡ª!* Anna lost the hope in her eyes as she lamented the pure soul that would soon fall¡­ Meanwhile, Sherry looked up and pumped her fist despite having a blushed face. "I will do it!" Chapter 657 - Return While the girls were busy discussing among themselves, Alex somehow felt a chill down his spines for no apparent reasons. Yet, he couldn''t think of it at the moment as he looked at the scared person a few meters in front of him. "Your family wants to use my life to gain a favor¡­ No, I should say your main family. At the same time, your family will have the help in resolving your current situation here because you are just a useless piece of crap that your family abandoned!" Alex looked at the middle-aged guy in front of him, who was kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy. Suddenly, Alex released his Spiritual Energy. "Do you think your Ancient Blue Family on this continent can defend itself when I decide to attack?" "Young Lord. Please spare my life." The man was shaking as he groveled in the ground and bore Alex''s pressure. He was only a little 4-Star Martial Emperor while Alex was a 3-Star Martial Monarch. At the same time, he was afraid to use his Spiritual Energy in case Alex thought of it as a challenge and killed him on the spot. "I don''t give a damn on your life. Still, I can see you have another value. As long as you take a Heavenly Oath not to say anything about my Space Element, you can go. Don''t forget to tell your family that if they are coming at me for the second time, I will exterminate their whole family. And this is not an empty threat." Alex mysteriously mentioned Heavenly Oath and his Space Element, despite knowing it was useless. "Ye-yes, my lord! With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Tristan, won''t say a single thing about my Lord Power, especially anything related to his Space Element. If I fail to abide by this promise, let the lightning strike me and extinguish my soul." Alex didn''t have a change of expression. "You have sworn the Heavenly Oath, and the moment I see Ancient Blue Family raise their weapons will be the day I extinguish your family. Now go!" "Yes. Thank you, my lord. Thank you, my lord." The man quickly rose from the ground and ran away. Seeing this person flying away, Alex turned to Nelson with a serious expression. "Nelson, I want you to follow that guy and make sure he doesn''t report anything about my Space Element." "Understood. I will kill him as soon as there is a slight hint he is going to say about your Space Element. At the same time, we can humiliate this family too." Nelson nodded and disappeared. Alex still narrowed his eyes and thought, ''According to the information, their family is the same as the Blackwade Clan from the Northern Continent. However, this one is a bit more extreme where they won''t have any connection with the main family because the latter treated them as a dog instead of a family member. ''The Main Family might help them if the other influences want to destroy it, but they shouldn''t care if it''s only harassment. Besides, I will also roam around the Heavenly Continent by that time, and this continent matter won''t influence me in any way.'' "Young Master, what are we going to do next? I know that you are going to train, but how about us? Should we come to the Heavenly Continent first and raise our level with powerful monsters?" A male''s voice came from his right. Alex turned around and found that it was Artur. "That''s my original plan, and hopefully one of you can enter Martial Saint before I go there¡­ But I think that is hard." "Indeed. The strongest of us is Leoz, and I feel he won''t be able to reach Martial Saint in a couple of months unless he takes all the experiences, which is impossible." "Well, evolving Sherry''s Pure Fire is going to take two to three months." Alex nodded. "I will think about it later¡­ But I am sure I will teleport you guys to the Heavenly Continent first after some planning in the base." "Understood." Alex thought for a moment. "Still, are you going to be fine? The difference between Martial Emperor and Martial Monarch is not the same as Martial Monarch and Martial Saint. They are far different, so I''m a bit hesitant in this matter. Unlike the spies, all of you have the chance of being found out." "We should be alright if we follow Nelson," Artur said nonchalantly. "But Nelson will only meet you a few days later due to his current mission." Artur fell into silence and crossed his arms. "How about we wait until Nelson finishes his job? Naturally, the last guy''s fate has been determined since he will surely talk about the Space Element even if the Heavenly Oath binds him. In fact, he might even say and die like that." "I know. I was threatening him with that to make sure it would go last. That way, the Ancient Blue Family will know our power and give some information to the main family. Finally, our misunderstanding game will begin." Alex nodded. "Besides, there are many influences on the Heavenly Continent, and they will soon know that I have given my Pure Fire to Sherry. "At that time, they are going to kill us instead of capturing us. Their patriarch will claim that I have killed their Young Master¡­ It''s true though. Of course, he won''t forget about a huge bounty on my head, especially after confirming I have a backing that can deal with their Martial Saints. "They must surely want to manipulate the rogue cultivators and other influences to entangle in this complicated mess. Even so, only Ancient Blue Family will be the only one to participate in this conquest due to this battle. The other influences will wait and see first since Blackwade Clan, their previous ally, doesn''t participate. "They will investigate me first, and at that time, I will have a more convincing power to confront the Blackwade Clan, telling them I won''t mind if they fight me as well. Of course, I hope the conversation is going well and get their cooperation. I only want to make their First Elder and Third Elder suffer first before I or Blackwade Clan kill them." Alex finally finished his explanation. Artur thought for a moment. "I don''t have a brain like Young Master, but I know the situation will calm down the moment Blackwade Clan announce their stance." "Yeah. The other influences won''t target me because they don''t want to get entangled into this complicated situation. So, the situation will gradually calm down, and the Fire God Clan can only fume in anger since nothing is going their way." Alex smiled evilly. "I have one question, Young Master." "Ask." Alex nodded. "What will you do with Snow White Mountain? When will you save Letizia? As much as I choose not to care about it, her loyalty is commendable. Besides, she is a Pure Ice Element. I am sure she will grow big later and doesn''t seem to be one like Shelka. Is Young Master going to take her under your banner?" Artur asked. Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I will decide after I rescue her. After all, I doubt I will go there before reaching Martial Saint due to how dangerous it is." "I understand." Artur nodded. "I am sorry if I ask you like this since Young Master must want to explain it together with the other spirits, so you don''t repeat yourself." "We are not rushing anyway, so I don''t really mind. Besides, changing opinion twice might give me another idea." Alex smiled and shook his head before raising his hand, telling them to regroup. Alex turned around and saw the women were chatting happily. "Have you finished your matter?" Firia waved her hand to him, asking him to come over. "Long ago." "Really? I thought we were just talking for a few minutes." Firia chuckled. Alex shook his head, looking at all of their expressions. Firia had a beautiful smile on her face to show her good mood. Anya also nodded in agreement while smiling from ear to ear. On the other hand, Anna had a frustrated face as she glared at Firia and Anya while looking at Sherry with pity. Alex looked at the book in Sherry''s hand as Sherry was trying hard to hide it to the point of storing it inside her personal Space Ring instead of Inventory. She tensed up and looked at Alex with her red face. "Ma-Master, we should go home since we have finished." A doubt raised in his mind, but he didn''t say anything. Instead, he agreed with the suggestion and said. "Let''s go back." The spirits went back to the card while the contracted beasts returned inside his body, leaving Alex and Firia alone. "Shall we go?" "Yes." Alex snapped his finger and created a Teleportation Array as the two vanished into thin air. "Good work for all of you. Should we commence the meeting first?" Alex asked. "Firia has just returned. How about having quality time for all these years first? We can wait." Anya answered with a smile while Sherry nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It''s been a few years since you last met her." Anna ultimately nodded her head. "I can compile the information and plan that way." Alex hesitated for a moment, glanced at Firia, and agreed with their suggestion. "Thank you." ¡­ A few hours later, A man and a woman were lying down on the bed as a smile was planted on both of their faces. At first, they were chatting happily about many things until the mood took over. The woman used the man''s hand as her pillow and looked up. "Alex, when are you going to the Heavenly Continent? Are you still going according to the plan or¡­" "I haven''t decided yet. The Star Fruit makes me hesitate once more. Of course, I will eat the Star Fruit first since it will improve my cultivation and strength. After that, I will begin training Sherry. I will decide after that." Alex nodded. "I will also cultivate with you. Remember about Sherry''s Pure Fire, and you can dual cultivate with her?" "Yeah." "I can actually join you because my Sacrificial Fire originated from you. According to the theory, we can increase our speed even more." "That is worth a try." Alex also had the knowledge about it but was still unsure whether it was plausible or not. "You need to tell me your schedule, so I can arrange my schedule." "Your schedule?" "Yeah. I''m going to make pills with all of your Medicinal Herbs and get us some money. Like the one that can increase one''s talent, I can make it too as long as I have the ingredients." Firia nodded. "In the meantime, you can make Array Plates if you want to boost our income." "That is a good idea." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "If you are unsure with one thing, just tell me so I can prepare a Simulation Room for you." "Haha¡­ You are truly a special one to think about that. Even Uncle Maxwell is surprised to know it and create a similar array for me. Of course, for training my Alchemy Skill." Firia chuckled. "It''s nothing but my otherworldly knowledge¡­ Still, to think Firia, who needed my teaching in the past, wanted to take over my job as an Alchemist." Alex smirked. "I was too immature back then and thought I could help you if I learned Alchemy. Unfortunately, I only took more of your time¡­" Firia sighed. "You were not my burden and will never be my burden. That''s what I always think and probably will never change. So, I never care if you are going to make me busy for a year or a few ten years, I will consider it as nothing." Alex smiled. "This was the reason why I fell in love with you despite the first thing I had in my mind was to conquer you, so I could escape from an arranged marriage." Firia smiled while closing her eyes. "Husband, I love you." "Love you too." Chapter 658 - Their Future Course The next day, Alex had recovered completely, no, he looked more energetic than usual. "Alex." Anna bowed to him. Although it wasn''t exactly normal, she appeared to want to mend their awkward relationship even though Alex didn''t mind it anymore. "Good morning, Anna." Alex nodded with a smile before looking at his spirits. "So¡­ I suppose we are going to talk about our next plan." "We heard it from Artur last night, so you don''t need to worry." Anya stopped him. "I don''t have any problem with the majority of the plan¡­ Though I need to see the effect of Star Fruit first because our plan depends on it." "True enough." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "In any case, Nelson will be back in a few days, so I will refine my body first before discussing our plan?" "Sounds good." Anya agreed with him while glancing at the others who seemed not to have any objections. He glanced at Firia first, who said, "Don''t worry about me. I will adapt to the environment." He worried for a second since Firia came to this world not long ago. Seeing the latter want to adapt alone, he finally made his way to his bedroom again despite being there a moment ago. Inside the room, he sat down on the bed and took out the Star Fruit Firia gave him earlier. He activated his Spirit Eyes to see the fruit energy first before preparing himself to confront the pain once again. "This is only the fourth refining process¡­ and I will gain strength in this refining. Although I am pretty happy with the strength, I don''t think I need it for the time being. After all, the Undying Fire Body only increased the percentage of my actual strength instead of gaining a fixed amount of strength. Due to this, I might not receive a huge amount of strength despite the pain¡­ So it feels like I''m torturing myself¡­" Alex sighed. However, he knew that he needed to get it done. After another five minutes, he finally took the fruit and bit it. The first bite tasted like an apple, but he realized all the pieces that had been grind by his teeth acc.u.mulated right above his stomach so as to avoid his stomach acid to process it. It certainly felt weird, as if ants crawling around the stomach area, but Alex still finished the fruit. As soon as the last piece of the fruit fell down to his stomach, the energy that had been preventing them from falling to the acid finally disappeared. Yet, no pieces of fruit fell inside the acid. They were melted before that and turned into energy that gradually spread all over his body, nourishing his tendons. Alex had yet to feel the pain but still prepared for the pain. There was no way this refining finished without it, and as he expected, it truly came five minutes later. "!!!" The pain was all over his body¡­ No, all over his muscle. "Kh!" Firia had come from the distant world. Even though the Sound Insulation was already up, he still didn''t want to show Firia his weakness. Hence, he endured this excruciating pain just by biting his lips and clenching his palms until they bled. This pain was also the start for the Fire Energy to refine his tendons. They flew inside each muscle, not expanded them, but made it stronger and flexible. If it was expanded, Alex might become a muscular man despite not wanting to be one. Whether his experience with pain or his resistance, Alex found himself having no trouble in bearing this pain. In the early second day, the energy in his body suddenly spiked as his cultivation increased, becoming a 4-Star Martial Monarch. It was truly unexpected to have a breakthrough at this point, especially since he had yet to finish all the refining. He continued enduring this pain for another day and kept absorbing the energy inside this Star Fruit. "As expected¡­ I have become an M¡­ Except I still do find them not pleasurable, and I won''t find them pleasurable." Alex shuddered with the thought alone as he slowly opened his eyes after two days without a scream. "At the very least, I have become a 4-Star Martial Monarch¡­ I should have Sherry reach it later." Alex rose from the bed and checked his body. He really wanted to punch the wall, but afraid it would collapse. ''I don''t know my current strength, but it has truly grown by a large margin. I will test it later.'' With that thought in mind, he came out of his room and marched toward the meeting room, where he found everyone present. They also noticed his presence and nodded at him. "Have you gotten something amazing from the refinement?" Firia greeted him with a question while waving her hand. "Yeah. It''s quite nice." Alex nodded with a smile. "So, what is the plan?" Firia asked after confirming Alex''s arrival. They had been waiting for him this whole time, so they were pretty relaxed and could start the meeting anytime. "I will send you guys first to raise your level there. Considering I have become a 4-Star Martial Monarch and soon will reach 5-Star, I will stay here until I finish my consolidation and reach 6-Star before going to the next continent. I know that it might take around four to six months, but the major change there should be as we predict," Alex answered. "Indeed. Even if they are coming to this continent, the spirits already reach the Heavenly Continent while you can use Teleportation Array in case of emergency." Anya nodded, having no trouble with his plan. "I have one trouble though." "What is it?" "I simply need money to establish our influence there. Of course, I''m not going to reveal our presence first. That''s why¡­" Anya turned to Firia. "I need pills to sell on Heavenly Continents. There are many rank 7 ingredients in the Inventory, which you can refine while there is supposed to be some rank 8 pills that you can refine¡­ But I will procure a few more in the Heavenly Continent. Will that be alright with you?" Alex was stunned. Normally, the spirits would use the money he actually made, or they got from destroying an influence. However, everything changed after Firia came. He wasn''t needed anymore, and somehow, he couldn''t help but thought, ''I see. I''m not needed to make a pill anymore. I¡ª!" Alex''s train of thought was stopped when Firia turned around and looked at him. "What do you think, Husband? I won''t take it if you don''t want me to." The question was simple but misleading. He remembered that Firia told him he could rest assured and leave everything about Alchemy to her. However, this question was very contradictory. ''It''s as if Firia is taking the job away from me¡­'' Alex closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and thought about it for a moment. ''I have been making pills for us, and that is the sole reason I learn Alchemy. Yet, Firia is more adept than me right now¡­ Will I still continue wasting my time to practice Alchemy or I can solely focus on Array and Cultivation?'' Alex found it hard to answer this question. On one hand, he could increase everything in his repertoire even if he needed to spare a few months. In this case, he would be able to increase his own worth and even help her produce a huge amount of pills. On the other hand, he might raise at least one star within that time. ''I might never use the pill again because I do not necessarily need it¡­ But do I really want to leave everything to Firia? No, you build a relationship together even if it takes time, that''s why I won''t stop practicing Alchemy even though I know I won''t need it anymore. There might be a time I need to do everything alone like how I teach Rose¡­" Alex opened his eyes and nodded. "Sure. You can take the job but balance it with your cultivation, alright?" "There you have his answer." Firia turned back to Anya, not knowing Alex''s thought process. "If you need anything, just tell me. I should be able to help you regarding Alchemy¡­ Even though I''m still a rank 6 Alchemist." Alex nodded. "I can handle my schedule pretty well due to the harsh training with my master." Firia smiled. Alex looked into her eyes for a moment before continuing the discussion. "After I''m coming to the Heavenly Continent, it will be the time we will show ourselves." "Yes¡­ Though I have a matter that I need to address to you." Anna finally broke her silence. Although it was slightly awkward, Anna still finished her pieces. "There is a gathering between all the influences on Heavenly Continent¡­ Of course, it''s only for junior. I think we can meet Blackwade Clan here to show that we have a little cooperation with them to make other influences hesitate first. "After that, we should be able to see Evelyn here to check on progress. I''m sure you want to know about her progress. Last but not least, there is this thing called sparring between them. I think it is the place where we can kill another young master from Fire God Clan and throw another seed of furry¡­ and also dominance. We need to tell them we are not afraid of trouble, which will make the Fire God Clan search for another ally, giving us valuable time to cultivate. What do you think?" Alex pondered for a moment. "That is pretty risky to be honest¡­ and I don''t have confidence in agreeing with the plan now. I will decide later¡­ By the way, when is it going to take place?" "Two years from now," Anna answered calmly. "I will try to reach as high as possible, and the Fire God Clan''s young master won''t challenge me if he isn''t a fool¡­ unless he has a trump card that can negate my Pure Fire." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I agree with Alex. There are still two years anyway, we can slowly wait to see how it will resolve." Anya nodded. "Well, our plan will be like this. I stay here until 6-Star Martial Monarch while you all are raising your level and money there. We will hold another meeting after I arrive on Heavenly Continent." Alex summarized their meeting. "Please leave the distribution of the pill to me. Unlike last time, Blackwade Clan is monopolizing the market, so I have many ways to get money from them without alarming anyone." Anya added. "Then, any question?" Alex asked and was answered with complete silence. He then turned around and said, "I will start training again. Tell me when Nelson come back, I will teleport you guys. Also, Sherry, come with me. We will evolve your Pure Fire." "Yes, Master." Chapter 659 - Ancient Blue Familys Situation One week later, In front of the grand mansion of the Ancient Blue Family. "Bad news!" A disciple ran toward the mansion with everything he got. It already took almost all of his energy just to fly here at his full speed, because of how important the information was. There were two men guarding the gate and naturally stopped him from entering. "Stop! The meeting hall is right inside, and the elders are discussing today''s matter with the family head. No one can enter!" "I need to enter. Please¡­" The 4-Star Martial Emperor had his appearance tattered like a beggar because of exhaustion. The guards couldn''t trust him too, even though the one in front of them was also an Ancient Blue Family member. "Talk everything to me. I will pass your message to the patriarch." *Pant!* *Pant!* The disciple fell on his knee before the guards exchanged looks and asked. "You might be a family member, but I still need to stop you because this is my job. How about telling me what kind of bad news you have and I will relay it to the family head." The disciple didn''t answer him for a few seconds as if he almost fell unconscious. Suddenly, he had gathered enough strength to mutter a few breaths. "I need to inform the family head about our expedition group." "Now that you say it, I do feel you are pretty similar to one of those people. Speak, I will inform the family head." The guard finally noticed something was wrong. There were two 5-Star Martial Saints in the expedition group, yet they sent this weak guy to relay a message, it shouldn''t be possible. After all, no one could actually fight against Martial Saints on this continent, and the only time they might send someone as a messenger¡­ "Our¡­ Our expedition group is dead! All of them died, including the two Martial Saints." The disciple could only utter two sentences before panting uncontrollably. "What? You are joking. There is no way someone can kill Martial Saints on this continent." "Everything was their plan. They had a way to kill the Martial Saints and somehow released me to inform the Ancient Blue Family that¡­ that¡­" The disciple fell down. However, hearing such breathtaking information, one of the guards caught him, turned him around, and looked at his eyes that seemed to have lost their focus. "Oi! What happened?" After not hearing anything for a few seconds, the guard quickly took out a pill and shoved it into the disciple''s mouth. "It was a healing pill, it should be able to wake him up for a little while." "Ah! Where am I?" The disciple woke up again, but couldn''t move his body. He looked at the guard and somehow remembered all the things before he collapsed. "Explain everything!" "That¡­ That the moment our Ancient Blue Family raises our weapon again, they will massacre us." *Thud¡ª!* This sounded like a joke, but the disciple was too exhausted to even joke. Hence, the guard calmed his mind and realized that if what this disciple said was true, their family would be in danger. A Martial Saint was practically an invincible existence for them, yet this group could actually kill two. Besides, it also meant that they had enough confidence to deal with the main Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family. "The weakest of them were 3-Star Martial Monarch, including their leader, but he was the scariest one because when I took my eyes away for a second, two Martial Saints died. The strongest of them was 7-Star Martial Monarch, but the Martial Saint once said that his power was also equal to 1-Star Martial Saint¡­ If they arrived here, they would¡­" The guard couldn''t say anything, stunned. The disciple continued, recalling every single thing he could say first before revealing Alex''s power and dying because of Tribulation. "We were attacked by only fourteen people¡­ no, fifteen in which two of them occupied the Martial Saints. After that, there was a woman that could kill a fourth of our number with only a wave of her hand. It was scary. "At the same time, the others also had the strength of a hundred men, killing us like killing chickens. Their power¡­ Their power¡­ Cough!" The disciple was coughing a few times as the scene had struck a deep fear in his heart. " "Tell us everything! What is their power? What is their leader''s power to even kill two 5-Star Martial Saints!" The guards became impatient when they knew two Martial Saints were killed. The disciple also thought he couldn''t say many things in his state. In that case, he decided to say only the leader, the fire woman and Leoz because none of them had a huge threat to them. "There was a lightning guy that had 7-Star Martial Monarch, but his attack could stop 5-Star Martial Saint. I literally saw that attack and thought it would kill every single of us if the Martial Saints weren''t there. Meanwhile, the fire woman had a powerful Fire¡­ I couldn''t say many things about her because she didn''t participate in the fight after the first attack that killed fifty of us. "But¡­ as expected, the most dangerous one was their leader, a 3-Star Martial Monarch. He-" Suddenly, a shadow appeared in front of them, and his blade already made its way toward the disciple. The guards raised their weapons because they were still 6-Star Martial Emperor and had the time to react. Yet, Nelson''s sword was still faster, killing the disciple in one slash. Unfortunately, they were too focused on the disciple, so their head was late to look up to see Nelson''s figure as the latter took the opportunity to disappear again after killing the disciple. On the other hand, the guards exchanged looks with sweats covering their heads. Having the disciple that was supposed to give them information died would only mean that they were targeted by those people from Spirit Nest. "You take care of this body, and I will inform the patriarch¡­ They might be nearby, so we need to be careful!" The other guard nodded. ¡­ A minute later, *Bang!* "Family Head¡­ Family Head, something very bad happened!" The guard stormed inside the room, filled with elders and their heads. In the furthest of the room sat a middle-aged man. He had long blue hair and aged eyes as if he had been dealing with terrible things for quite a while. "What is it?" He narrowed his eyes. "What kind of bad news will we have? Our situation has gotten pretty relaxed after the reinforcement from the Fire God Clan arrived¡­ Even though we still need to deal with many things, we can cope with the loss that these influences have inflicted upon us." "I just got information from a disciple that went together with the expedition group." "Oh! Have they finished their job? That''s great. According to the agreement, they will start pressuring the other three influences for us, and we can take everything back from them even with the bonus." The family head stood up while smiling. The elders also started rising from their seats to congratulate the family head, but they were stopped by the next word from the guard. "Unfortunately, all of them had been massacred, including the disciple that passed us this message." The guard gritted his teeth. The room fell into silence as they widened their eyes. Dumbstruck. The family head asked as if he heard it wrong. "Can you say it one more time? There is no way Martial Saints can be killed on this continent." "Yes, Family Head. The Martial Saints were killed by them." The guard started explaining. Their expressions turned from dumbfounded to shock to grim. Even the family head fell on his chair and felt weak. Never they expected, the Spirit Nest could kill the Martial Saints and realize what kind of danger they possessed. Unfortunately, there was too little information about them lingering on the continent. They thought it wouldn''t be a problem since the influences on this continent had no means to fight against those from Heavenly Continent. However, the Spirit Nest seemed to be different, causing them to be filled with despair. Luckily, the guard also added in the end. "The disciple also said that they would only attack our family if we raise our hand on this matter again." "¡­" The family head furrowed his eyebrows. "Who has any information about the Spirit Nest?" All the elders looked down and couldn''t answer him the slightest. They had heard everything from Mio, who encountered them inside the Special Realm. Yet, everything didn''t do any justice. They remembered that the leader was a simple Martial Emperor at that time, putting that mask of him to his identity. And a year later, he had already reached 3-Star Martial Monarch. All people thought at the same time, What kind of speed is this? "If the Spirit Nest truly killed them, we would be foolish to challenge them. On the other hand, the main family might rage upon this matter and wreak havoc in this family¡­ Yet, if we don''t report this matter, they will know it sooner or later, and the problem will escalate even further." The family head was scratching his head as he couldn''t come up with a single idea before remembering the last thing the guard said. "Did you say they will only attack us if we stretch our hand again?" "Ye-yes." "We won''t do anything then." The family head decided. "We will send an envoy to the family since no matter how hard they hit us; our family won''t be destroyed. At the same time, the other influences don''t know that the Martial Saints have died. They shouldn''t know if we send a messenger at this particular time. "However, we also need one person important enough for the main family. I want to go, but I need to handle the family matter. That''s why you need to go, first elder¡­ No, I will ask the grand elder later. This situation also involves Fire God Clan, so the main family will also need to be held accountable by them. "We will surely get killed by them because of this humiliation, but we can redeem ourselves by giving enough information. That''s why we will use this chance to spread our spies to every location on this continent to search for any information related to Spirit Nest." The family head rose from his seat and shouted. The elders thought for a moment and exchanged looks with each other. None of them could present an objection as this was their best option. Hence, the elders nodded and shouted. "We will obey Family Head Roy." "Don''t forget. We also need to hide this information from the other influences for as long as we can¡­ So, those who are here can''t say anything about this outside. I will kill whoever spread this information." "Yes." Chapter 660 - Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family Unfortunately, the situation didn''t stop for the Ancient Blue Family. As soon as they heard that the Martial Saint was killed, the three influences quickly made their way toward them. The harassment began to make this family suffer. Of course, none of them knew why this would happen because they first heard it from a rumor that had been proven to be right. The source of this rumor was none other than Alex. Firia was staying together with Alex this time, allowing Anna and Anya to go to the next continent as soon as possible. Anna and Anya had prepared for some tasks that they usually did as Alex''s secretary, including the management of his contracted beasts. Even though all the N squad, excluding Ngina, had arrived on the Heavenly Continent, Alex still had one spirit that wasn''t a part of their strength yet. It was the last N squad he got, Neon the ghost. After confirming the Ancient Blue Family had sent their envoy, Alex immediately asked Neon to spread the rumor about the death of two Martial Saints to stimulate the continent once more. He might not be able to use him on the Heavenly Continent due to his low strength, but it didn''t mean the same applied to Sacred Continent. Firia''s job was to oversee the whole progress of this operation, refine pills for money, manage the arrays for the three contracted beasts, and cultivate with Alex and Sherry each night. These four jobs made her very busy to the point she had no time to do anything else. Yet, she kept doing it every day with a never-changing smile. She had been practicing to have time to help Alex because she felt guilty about how useless she was in the lower world. That was why helping him felt very good in her heart, no matter how hard it was. Alex repeatedly told her to rest, but she refused. She didn''t want Alex to pass her cultivation. He didn''t know why but felt it was good to not have Alicia here. According to Firia, Alicia had been practicing Array this whole time. She wanted to make sure Firia didn''t defeat her due to her incompetency. Unfortunately, she wasn''t fit to be an Alchemist or a Forging Master due to her element. Hence, she decided to practice the Array. Of course, the resources from Eulja could sustain her progress. Lin Xingzhi even searched for an inheritance that could let Alicia have a Space Element. Although it was only a lesser Space Element that couldn''t be compared to Alex, it was still the same level as Zark''s Space Element. Alex was happy that she thought like this and became a bit impatient to see her. In the end, Alex had a relaxing few months even though he caused trouble everywhere. First was this continent''s Ancient Blue Family. After another two months, their grand elder finally arrived on their Main Family. It was obvious that he was treated pretty badly. Even the Main Family Head almost killed him when he presented the news. Luckily, they knew the Fire God Clan still needed to be informed. Hence, their family head sent the elder back before going to the Fire God Clan. It took them two weeks to arrive at Fire God Clan due to how vast the Heavenly Continent was. Red Sun City, It was a city that hosted a few hundred thousand people. It could be said to be one of the biggest cities on this continent. The city could have a colossal size like this, of course, because of the Fire God Clan residing near it. They lived on the mountain and only used this city for trading and such. The Ancient Blue Family skipped this town and came to the Fire God Clan. The Fire God Clan never expected for Ancient Blue Family''s Family Head to come to their Clan personally. Yet, they still welcomed him because of their previous agreement. Inside a brown colored wooden pavilion, two old men were staring at each other. The tea that had been prepared by the servants had gone cold, but they had yet to utter a single word. Having not much time to waste, the Fire God Clan''s Patriarch, Leo Hinga, decided to break his silence. "Why did Ancient Blue Family Head, Ariele Davi, come here personally?" He furrowed his eyebrows. Davi crossed his arms and released a little bit of his Spiritual Energy, showing how annoyed he was. He thought about getting favor at a low price, but it backfired on him. "Why don''t Fire God Clan explain to me your problem with this Spirit Nest?" "What do you mean?" Leo couldn''t comprehend his question. "Your and my forces were destroyed by the Spirit Nest, and this incurred loss for our sides. I''m asking right now, who is this Spirit Nest?" Davi narrowed his eyes. "I heard your Young Master was killed by them, despite sending two elders. Yet, it seemed you had hidden some information from us, including their power level. I still remember that you said they only have Martial Monarchs¡­ Hence, I agree with our alliance. "Now, they have killed your Martial Saints, meaning they are prepared to fight against you. I don''t want to have them as my enemy because they are still unknown to me. So, I''m going to pull back from this influence and stay neutral." "What?! You have agreed to help us!" "That is because I have agreed to your terms and information. However, it''s different now." "Kh!" Leo gritted his teeth. He originally planned to have Ancient Blue Family involved too, so they would need to face this together. There was this much risk behind this scheme because they had yet to know the depth of Spirit Nest. It suddenly became more dangerous after hearing the scout party was killed. ''Ugh. I need to mobilize the entire family first to chase this Spirit Nest. If the Ancient Blue Family is involved, we can have them protect our back. I can''t send the force to the Sacred Continent now that I have confirmed him there. That''s why I can only wait here¡­ How do I convince him to join?'' Leo fell into deep thought. "I know that I have hidden some information from you guys. That''s why I am going to explain some information you need. You can ask me anything now." Leo made an offer. "If you are playing my trust like this, I won''t participate in this alliance anymore." Davi shook his head. "I''m here only to inform you that your force has gone, and I am breaking off this alliance." "Wait, Brother Davi, let''s talk about it. I know that I am wrong about this. However, I have another offer for you. How about marrying your first daughter with my clan successor. Unlike our first one, this one is even better." "Your second son?" "Yeah. My first son''s talent for cultivation was too big, so he shadowed him too much. However, my second son, Eric Hinga, is smarter with quite good cultivation talent. I want to have him support his brother later, but it can''t go that way after Ryan''s death. That''s why I am asking for your second daughter''s hand in marriage. We can form a stronger alliance with this and also show my sincerity." Davi narrowed his eyes and thought, ''Is this old man insane? This is a good deal indeed¡­ If I can marry off my second daughter, I can easily move the Fire God Clan later. However, I also don''t know anything about Spirit Nest. This is very troubling.'' Davi thought for a few minutes before saying, "Your offer is good. But I still need to decline the offer. There are several reasons. First, I need to know the extent of their influence. It will be troublesome if they have something that can kill many of my elders or if their strength is the same as the top influences here. "Second, I will need to know if they have any allies on this continent. I don''t know how they could convince the Blackwade Clan to break off from your previous alliance¡­ and most probably, they will come to me with the same intention. I am telling you upfront that I won''t make an alliance with you before seeing their offers. "Third, I won''t do anything big since I am going to abdicate my position according to my family law. So, you can only wait for a few years. If you can''t agree with these terms, then we won''t consider the next alliance agreement between our families." "Kh!" Leo gritted his teeth. He wanted to reject an offer like this, but it would mean they had no ally on this continent. After considering for a few minutes, Leo decided. "Alright. I agree. However, I also want to add two conditions. First, even though Ancient Blue Family can''t do anything big, you still need to aid us in the investigation to find the extent of their power. Second, the two kids need to be engaged right now." "Fine. But the Fire God Clan needs to be the one to come to ask for my daughter''s hand in marriage." "I agree." "Then, you need to tell me everything about Spirit Nest." Davi pondered for a moment and decided to tell the information he got earlier. "Firstly, their leader was a 3-Star Martial Monarch. The strongest that my family had seen was one 7-Star and one 8-Star Martial Monarchs. We didn''t know how they killed the two Martial Saints yet." Davi obviously didn''t know about Alex''s Spiritual Weapons because the disciple didn''t explain it. The disciple actually wanted to inform them, but got into a trap first and forced Nelson to kill him. And this worked to Alex''s advantage because of how powerful the Spiritual Weapons were. Leo was struggling to see a piece of information about Alex, but he still said it. "I will explain about their leader''s power. His name is Alexander Sirius, and the first time he was spotted when he entered Heavenly Sword Sect, a weak sect on Willow Continent. He also has two identities: Alchemist and Array Master. His weapon technique is also unique because he used a sword and a spear at the same time. The most important thing is¡­ he is a Pure Fire user." "What?!" Davi rose from his seat, fuming on anger. "You want me to fight a genius like this? No. I am rather fighting Fire God Clan over this boy!" "I''m afraid you can''t. You have gotten involved¡­ Although not deeply, he won''t trust your family anymore." "You tricked me!" Davi finally realized their scheme. As he said, they might not be called as his enemy, but they still had a pretty bad record with them. It would be hard to convince him and create an alliance by marriage. "Hehe¡­ That''s why I''m offering you a second option." "Second option?!" "That''s right. How about having this person spit up his Sacrificial Element to my second son. This way, my son will have the highest talent and a smart brain. This will be beneficial for your clan as well considering our relationship." Leo smirked. It was as he said, the cooperation was good for him. Yet, there was a part of his heart telling him not to take this alliance. The reason was simple. Seeing how Alex could grow up so quickly meant he had numerous cultivation resources that he could use all the time. And how he resolved many troubles in Willow Continent, Northern Continent, or Sacred Continent, this boy would surely have a backing. It would be Spirit Nest, or he had another backing that no one knew. It was so hard to fight against an unknown enemy because there were many things that needed to be considered. "Also, they have a technique to become half-human half-monster, which can be reverted later. This technique can enhance one''s power by a large margin. If we can catch him, both of us can have a copy of this Martial Art." "!!!" Davi obviously had heard about this Martial Art since the Blackwade Clan was actually the one who spread the information. He took a deep breath before saying. "Let''s talk in detail." Chapter 661 - Training Six months after Alex began his training. "Master. How is this one?" Sherry''s voice echoed inside the cave as she summoned fire swords using her Fire Authority. "Yeah. It''s very good!" Alex nodded, looking at one hundred swords floating around the cave. "Indeed. You can summon more firebirds with Fire Authority, but the quality is still subpar with these fire swords." Firia nodded in agreement. "The firebirds are focusing on numbers and flame ability, but you convert it into swords that emphasize speed and penetrating power. If your soul is strong enough, you can summon a few more and imbue your soul into all of them. Unfortunately, one hundred is your limit right now." "That''s right. I''m thinking of making an attack that can go in two different scenarios. I can use their sharpness to pierce them, but if it''s not effective, I can make these swords explode using my soul. It can also be used to suppress a person due to its speed." Sherry nodded proudly. She then glanced at Alex and said in a low voice. "Besides, if Master can use this, his power will be even stronger because he has intent." Alex couldn''t help but smile and patted this girl''s head. "Thank you for thinking of me, Sherry." He managed to break through to 5-Star Martial Saint within one month. He almost broke through to 5-Star anyway after taking the Star Fruit. Yet, the cultivation process and consolidation process took more than three months. In a total of four months, Sherry managed to evolve her Pure Fire. In other words, Spirit Nest had two fires at the same level of fire to that of the Previous Fire God. This was truly frightening, as one of them alone was a threat, let alone two. Their luck didn''t stop here. Alex, Sherry, and Firia had practiced dual cultivation techniques but with three people. Luckily, Firia''s fire was Alex''s Sacrificial Fire, so the technique itself considered her as one. The effect was also no joke as Firia reached 9-Star Martial Monarch within this little time. Sherry had a similar effect and somehow became a 4-Star Martial Monarch, almost 5-Star. Her cultivation was slightly behind Alex due to him having Star Fruit to increase his cultivation. After going through all of this process, they were waiting for Alex to break through to 6-Star Martial Monarch before going to Heavenly Continent. Unfortunately, the consolidation took very long, and before long, they had trained for six months before Alex finally broke through. On the other hand, Sherry used this time to focus on her cultivation as well as creating this Fire Technique. Her effort was truly praiseworthy as she managed to break through to 6-Star and successfully created a technique. Although it used the concept of firebirds, Sherry indeed incorporated a new idea and used it to suit her style. It could be said that this technique was her first original Fire Art. Alex told her to give a name for her technique, yet she asked back for a name, fully knowing he had a bad naming sense. In the end, Firia gave her technique a name. It was called Fire Sword Formation. Of course, Firia could also use the technique since she accompanied her this whole time while Alex focused on his cultivation. Firia looked at Sherry and hugged her from behind. She smiled from ear to ear. "This is good. Elder Sister Firia has been helping me this whole time, or else I won''t be able to create this." "Haha¡­ You need to give yourself credit. This is your effort and strength, so get proud of yourself a little bit." Firia gently said. "By the way, where are Stina and Kyle?" Alex asked. "They are still training. Stina is an 8-Star Martial Monarch while Kyle is a 7-Star Martial Monarch. Unlike you two, they only spend time to cultivate while practicing that Fire Core Technique. So, their cultivation is still higher than you two," Firia answered with a smile. "That fast?!" Alex was surprised. "Of course. You can''t compare their talent after they get the blessing of your Pure Fire." Firia nodded. "There were several cases that my cultivation suddenly increased by leaps and bounds due to your Fire kept getting stronger. Master also confirmed it was the case." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It''s good then. I don''t want to restrict their movement by forcing them to cultivate." "Ah¡­" Firia scratched her head and said, "Actually, Stina is going for full cultivation to extend her lifespan as quickly as possible by increasing her cultivation. She is fighting for Kyle and you. On the other hand, Kyle believed he would also transform like Sherry and reached a.d.u.l.thood to take responsibility for Stina. They can only be this hard-working because they have each other." Alex shook his head helplessly, smiling. "This couple really needs to get a room." "Haha¡­ Kyle might make her remember her daughter, so she only wants to eat him after he becomes mature enough." Firia laughed. "Haha¡­ I can imagine it." Alex nodded in agreement. "By the way, is Master going to learn my technique? I''m pretty confident with this technique." Sherry pumped her fist. "Why not? I will practice it from time to time on the Heavenly Continent. If needed, I can also ask you to enter my body and control my flame and your flame. I will cover them with my Absolute Blade Intent." "Hehe¡­" Sherry was too excited for her first original Fire Art. "Anyway, wake the couple up, and we will go to Heavenly Continent today since I have finally reached 6-Star Martial Monarch." "I will wake them up." Sherry took the initiative and walked toward their room. Alex glanced at Firia with a smile. "Firia¡­ Thank you for the past few months." "I didn''t do anything." "You have done everything." Alex shook his head. Not only did she support all the people here while establishing the report and information with Anna, but she also amassed a total of forty million Spirit Gems by making so many rank 7 and rank 8 pills. However, there was also another thing that sped up their progress. Alex had known this existence for a long time when he first knew the existence was on the Northern Continent. It was something higher from Spirit Stone and Spirit Gem. The stone was called Spirit Crystal. Like the name suggested, its texture was that of a hexagonal prism with two pointed cones on both top and bottom. Each Spirit Crystal was equal to one thousand Spirit Gems, and it turned out to be the normal currency outside this world. Naturally, Anna exchanged the pills with Spirit Crystals and poured everything on the Gathering Array, boosting their cultivation and letting them reach this stage so soon. "Let''s stop talking about this. Thank you is not needed between families. We do everything because we want it. Of course, don''t compare our family with those influences. They have grown so much by taking in too many outsiders, so they need to keep their image and gradually become cruel. "I want our family to not take any outsiders as to prevent everything going that way. Other than that¡­ No, I won''t say anything past this point because I don''t want you to take responsibility yet." Firia shook her head and sighed. "Don''t worry. I won''t let that happen." Alex grabbed her hands and nodded with a solemn expression. "I will trust you." Firia nodded. "By the way, what is our plan?" "I need information from Anna first before deciding anything." Alex shook his head. "Since we are waiting for Sherry, I will explain the current situation on the Heavenly Continent. Firstly, there are seven top influences on this continent. Fire God Clan, Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion, Ancient Blue Family, Snow White Family, Divine Kingdom, and Phantasm Sect. "We have some business, whether it is directly or indirectly, with five influences at the moment. As we predicted, the Fire God Clan can''t do anything to us due to the lack of alliance to protect their family when they leave the continent." "Wait, isn''t the Ancient Blue Family having an alliance with them?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "They have¡­ even revealed your power except for your Space Element. Unfortunately, the Ancient Blue Family won''t have the time to deal with you since their Family Head will abdicate his position in a few years. There will be many internal conflicts from the families¡­ Looking at how ruthless they are toward their branch on this continent, you could say that the battle for this position is very brutal. That''s why they can''t do anything for a few years." "I see. We can use this to our advantage and increase our strength. After that, we can break the alliance off." "They are not an alliance though. According to the spy, they are still waiting for you to arrive on their doorsteps to see whether you have a better offer for them than the Fire God Clan." Firia shook her head. "I see. They are pretty ruthless. After talking about alliance matters with the Fire God Clan, they are still waiting for us and might break off the alliance at any time." "That''s why if we are going to convince them from breaking off the alliance, I''m sure they might betray us as well, depending on the situation. If we are going to proceed with this, we will need several layers of preparations." "Alright. I will take that into account." Alex nodded. "On the other hand, there are also Seven Influences Banquet and a mysterious place. I will let Anna explain this after they arrive." Firia nodded. "Sure." "One more thing. What will you do after reaching 8-Star Martial Monarch Stage?" ''Ah, she must mean about my Array and Alchemy.'' Alex smiled. "I said it before. I will train both even if I don''t need it. After all, who knows it will be useful to me in the future." Firia didn''t say anything about his choice. It was as she said, there might be another accident like coming to Stina''s world again in the future and needed to use every single skill in his repertoire to survive. "Besides, I also need to practice my Space Element later since I am lacking in this aspect. I remember that you say I can seal other people''s cultivation, but the fact that I can''t right now¡­" Alex clenched his hands and sighed. "Don''t worry. I have the technique name, and there should be the technique in your mind. You can train according to that manual." Firia suggested. "Alright." Alex nodded and waited for Sherry, and the others arrived before using his Teleportation Technique. The cost of two people using Teleportation Array at the same time was almost non-existent to him. It used to burden him, but the effect was gradually decreasing until this point. Of course, if he brought a few more, he would feel the burden. And finally, after the long six months, Alex and his group disappeared from the Sacred Continent. Chapter 662 - Two Matters "Alex!" Anya was the first one to spot him. Alex didn''t directly teleport to Heavenly Continent. Instead, he just teleported to the Rune Stone located inside the base. Firia was confused about why they would use the Teleportation Array just to go here, and Alex said he forgot. She wanted to laugh, but couldn''t as she also forgot. In the end, the two teleported using the Rune Stone, directly sending them to Heavenly Continent with single teleportation. "Anya. How is everyone, and where are we?" Alex turned around and looked at Anya. He was slightly surprised to see Anya here. "Everyone is fine. They are killing monsters nearby. As for our place, we are not far from the coast. A very dangerous coast because there is a high possibility for sea monsters to come. In fact, we have encountered two monster hordes¡­ not that we mind. We can raise our level in this way." Anya nodded. Alex crossed his arms and looked at his surroundings. It seemed they were inside a building or something, judging by the rectangle-shaped room and structured bricks. "What is this room? No, we should be inside a building, but I can''t sense anyone." "Our specific location is inside an abandoned village. Due to the strong monsters roaming around and monster hordes from the sea, no one actually lives here anymore. We then use this building as our base. At the same time, I want to ask you to create a special realm for this house alone just to hide this house." Anya explained. "I see." Alex nodded. "Then should I assemble everyone, or we can discuss the plan among the three of us?" "I will only recall Anna back here while the others can continue their jobs." Anya nodded, took out Anna''s card, and summoned her. Anna appeared right in front of him and their eyes intertwined. She looked left and right first before smiling awkwardly to Alex. Yet, the latter patted her head and smiled gently before hugging her. "I miss you, Anna." "Uhm¡­ Yes." Anna took a deep breath to ignore the awkwardness and hugged him back. "Master, I also want to hear the plan. It''s study time for me." Sherry suddenly came out of his body, raised her hand, and grinned. "Sure. Stina and Kyle will follow us as well. You two are free to give any input later." Alex said as two lights came out of his body, turning into two people. "We understand, Master." "Then, we should talk in a more comfortable place." Anya clapped her hand to take their attention before bringing them to another room. Unlike the previous room, this new room had a lot of furniture, albeit mostly chairs and tables. Anya must want to use this as a meeting room. He looked at the big round table in the middle of the room and sat on one of the chairs. "I have many things that I wish to ask, but I want to know everyone''s situation first." "I have compiled all the information about this continent. Firia should have brought it to you." Anna said while glancing at Firia. Alex nodded. "I have read them. However, it''s mostly either Ancient Blue Family or Fire God Clan. How about the other influences?" "They didn''t make a major movement that needs to be concerned. Blackwade Clan continued their investigation on you to check whether your card is real or fake. Drunken Pavilion announced Evelyn as their successor to the world, bringing her to everyone''s attention. However, there is nothing major about this announcement as they are trying to figure her out first. "Snow White Mountain doesn''t have much to do. They are preparing something recently, but we haven''t found anything¡­ Everything should be clear within a year since many Martial Saints are guarding it, so the N squad couldn''t really infiltrate the place. Of course, there are many arrays that protect it as well. In any case, we can ignore them for the time being. "We don''t really have any connection with the Divine Kingdom and Phantasm Sect; I suggest leaving them alone for now." Anya finished her report." "How about their power level? I need to be careful since these two can change our plan." Alex asked. "Divine Kingdom has one 10-Star, two 9-Star, and two 8-Star Martial Saints. They are the strongest of their peers because they are the closest one to this coast. Despite having too many people die, the Divine Kingdom can quickly increase its strength due to these monsters. They can kill monsters and use the money to buy pills. That''s why this Kingdom is the biggest customer for the Blackwade Clan. "On the other hand, we don''t really have much information about Phantasm Sect. The only thing that stands out from them is their Martial Saints. They are learning how to build powerful weapons and armors from their own Spiritual Energy. You need to see it with you to know more about it." Anna finally took her job again and explained everything to him. "Alright, then. Do they have any stances regarding the matter between us and the Fire God Clan?" "Not at the moment. Like the Blackwade Clan, they remain silent and neutral." Anna shook her head. "Then I am going to ask about the Seven Influences Banquet and mysterious places. What are they?" Alex asked with a solemn expression. "I will start with the Seven Influences Banquet. You already know about this one. It''s simply the gathering between Seven Influences genius. I assume the Blackwade Clan''s successor will be there. We can use this opportunity to reveal our identity to him and gain his support by showing the Supreme VIP Card if you think it''s too dangerous to reveal it inside the Blackwade Clan. However, you might need to enter there in the end. "On the other hand, you can also meet Evelyn in this place since she has become the Drunken Pavilion''s successor. And we can show them that we, Spirit Nest, exist." Anna explained the benefit. "Since Anna said the benefits, I will explain the risk. If we are participating, our¡­ No, you will be exposed. We need to be very careful and check whether they have Martial Saints stand by around the area. It will be troublesome to handle them after all. At first, we are thinking about using this opportunity to kill the Fire God Clan representative, right? The current representative is a 10-Star Martial Monarch. Do you think you can handle him?" "If it''s only 10-Star, I can." Alex nodded. "But I will expose my Pure Fire at that time since I don''t have confidence in defeating a 10-Star Martial Monarch with my weapons alone. Due to the fact he is one of the prodigies, I am sure his actual prowess is stronger than reported." "According to Fire God Clan, the current successor is cunning. If you remember the Fire God Clan on the Northern Continent, he will remind you of Grimes." "That smartass?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "It seems I need to kill him as soon as possible before bringing me trouble. I will need to see whether they have Martial Saints nearby since it will be bad if they know we can''t kill Martial Saints again." "Yeah. There will be another problem, though." Anya paused for a moment. "We don''t have the invitation to go in?" "By the way, where will the banquet be held?" Firia broke her silence. "It''s in the Divine Kingdom. So, we are very close." Anna answered. "Then we can simply ask Evelyn or that successor guy¡­ what is his name again?" "Song Jiaoren." "Yeah, this one. I''m sure he is curious about the Supreme VIP Card, so he will surely give me one. This is just give and take." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Sure. We can have one of the N Squad to show the VIP Card and retrieve the invitation for you." "Thank you. I want an official one because I don''t wish to enter by simply saying I''m invited." Alex paused for a moment and sighed. "At that time, I feel like someone will call out to me and mock me before I slap their face¡­" Anna and Anya shook their heads and laughed. The contracted beasts couldn''t understand what he meant though. "Anyway, get the invitation so I can enter legally." Alex shrugged. "And move to the second matter." "Now, onto the second matter, the mysterious place." Anna took a deep breath. "After searching around this place and killing two hordes, we have found a very mysterious place, specifically a mysterious underwater cave. The entrance is on the land, but most of the body is inside the water. We have sent Nelson and Jean to investigate, but they have yet to come back. "Many Martial Saints monsters reside in this cave and sometimes come out to roam on the land. We are cleaning up the nearby area until Nelson finishes investigating the cave. We have no clue what kind of place is this¡­" Alex pondered for a moment and asked. "How long have these two been investigating the area?" "One month. They should have finished the task pretty soon." "I can afford to wait that long." Alex nodded. "Though I can simply teleport us back to the surface in case anything happens." "That can be our solution later. Jean is with us anyway." Alex nodded. Jean was a Water Spirit, so controlling water should be no problem for him. Suddenly, Anna took out Nelson''s card and asked. "What happened? Have you finished the investigation? Alex is with me right now." Anna didn''t say anything more and simply summoned Jean and Nelson. Nelson greeted Alex before asking. "May I proceed with my report, Young Master?" "Sure." "The Underwater Cave is full of treasures. I assume the monsters have been pillaging the area and storing them inside the cave. They already have intelligence anyway, so this is very possible. I don''t know how many treasures are buried in this cave, but it should be able to empty one pocket. If I am not wrong, they might even take the belongings of humans that come here. "It has a very complicated inside. Even with Jean, I still have trouble finding all the passages. We can also safely assume there are many monsters inside this cave, including those who are strong enough to protect their treasures. If we proceed, we might even meet 3-Star if not 4-Star Martial Saint. At that time, I am not sure we can win, considering they are mostly sea monsters." "Alright. The risk is too much." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Still, we can escape from the magical beasts if needed. We will proceed with clearing the cave." "I want to inform you of another thing first before coming into a conclusion." Nelson stopped him. "We have found another thing inside this cave." "Oh? What is it?" "We found a kingdom¡­ A living one. Although it was covered with Illusion Array, Jean managed to sniff it out." Nelson answered. "It should be a living one." "Still, the water pressure there was insane. If the barrier wasn''t there, the humans might only be able to stay there for a couple of hours." Jean added. "Are you confident they are humans?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I''m pretty sure." Jean nodded. "I felt the same aura as your array, Young Master. I believed it was a Special Realm. Only then could they survive." "This is¡­ intriguing. Underwater Kingdom? Is this another world Atlantis? Wait, I have seen one in Stina''s home." "Unfortunately, it''s deeper than the one we encountered previously." Jean paused for a moment. "Far far deeper. Young Master might be able to find another passage, but this is my best ability. I''m sorry." "It''s fine. This is very valuable information. No one knows about this Underwater Kingdom¡­ Considering there is no record about it and none of the N squad find it." Alex crossed his arms. "I will try to see what happens inside this cave. But we should clear the cave first and get as many treasures as we want." "Understood." Nelson and Jean bowed. "We will lead you the way." "It seems we need to summon everyone." Anna smiled. "We will see whether my Pure Fire can withstand the water." Alex smiled, excited. Chapter 663 - Exploring the Underwater Cave All spirits appeared simultaneously by Anna''s summon. The spirits had little information about what they were going to do next, so they looked at Alex mysteriously. Suddenly, Anna stepped forward. "I will explain our current plan!" Anna began explaining the plan until she reached where Alex wanted to discover the Underwater Cave. No one objected to this plan because they also wanted to know about this Underwater Cave. However, there were three spirits that would be greatly restricted by this setting: Fabio, Leoz and Jeanne. These three were the strongest combatants, and having this restriction truly hindered their progress. Besides, Alex and his contracted beast had all fire elements. The same applied to Firia. Alex wanted to test how his Pure Fire fended this disadvantage and decided on the second plan. "For the time being, I will also add plan B for this. I am not confident that everyone could fight underwater, so I want to make a separate team for those who can''t join this Underwater Cave exploration." "What do you want us to do?" Leoz seemed to know he would be one of the people in this group. "Just clear the area around us. There are many high-level monsters around us, right? It''s good to have another source of EXPs." Alex nodded. "My Lightning is restricted to water. I am afraid it will also attack Young Master and the others, so I will probably stay." Leoz said while glancing at Jeanne. "Fire Element is restricted, but I don''t know how powerful the restriction is. That''s why our Fire Element users will test it first." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Where is the cave? Should I use my Teleportation Array?" "It''s not far from us. Only around three hours fly, it should be fine." Anna rejected the idea. "Sure. We can fly there. I am also curious about our surroundings." Alex nodded. "But I need time to build a special realm to hide our temporary base." "We understand." Alex then proceeded with his job while the others waited for him. Considering the size of the house, he only needed a couple of minutes before coming back inside. He only added a Special Realm, an Illusion Array, and a Gathering Array since this place itself was quite hidden. As soon as he finished his jobs, Firia and the others came out. They flew to the sky according to Nelson''s direction. ¡­ Three hours later, Alex looked at the entrance. It was a bit unexpected for him because he could see quite a big hole, leading to the underground pool. The hole itself was quite deep while the water surface was fifteen meters below the ground. Right above the water level, a hole that seemed to be the entrance came into his vision. "That is the entrance, Young Master. Previously, I and Jean walked around two hundred meters before we needed to submerge. Jean could use a water bubble for us to stay. And If I am not wrong, Young Master''s Pure Fire can do the same due to how powerful your Pure Fire is." Nelson came to him and advised. Alex thought for a moment and activated his Spirit Eyes to see the bottom of this pond. It seemed to not have anything underneath, so he quickly jumped inside the hole and landed on the water surface. He looked up and shouted. "Come here. We are going to test our strength." Hearing his orders, everyone jumped into the hole before looking at him. Alex knew he needed to go first, so he quickly summoned his Pure Fire beneath his feet. The fire slowly turned into a sphere that enveloped him alone. He looked at the others and nodded before descending the water. It was at this moment, something crazy started. The water level suddenly lowered to the point it revealed Alex, who just descended into the water. "¡­" Alex was speechless and quickly got off the water as soon as the water level was below his head. His clothes weren''t wet from all of this. "So¡­ I indeed feel my energy draining because of this. From my little observation, it seems that my fire is too hot and instantly evaporated the water around. If I need to maintain that sphere without attacking, three hours will be my limit before my Spiritual Energy runs out." "Sherry has the same cultivation as Master, so she must have a similar case," Sherry added with a nod. "Indeed. We will also need to fight inside this cave and possibly fight 4-Star Martial Saint monsters. If we are on the surface, I have some confidence¡­ But it seems we will avoid any Martial Saint magical beasts this time around." Alex nodded. "I agree. We can go back here later since our purpose this time is to explore and figure the sphere out to see if it''s really a kingdom or not." Firia crossed her arms and said her piece. "I also agree with this scenario. We still have one and a half years before the Seven Alliance Banquet. In other words, we have time to increase our strength. Besides, we won''t have to attack the Fire God Clan before that unless they make a big movement." Anya was also in favor. "Anyway, all of you can try the water first¡­ Starting from Leoz." Leoz nodded and released his lightning. He placed his finger inside the water and closed his eyes in disappointment. "Unfortunately, it will really spread around and¡­ might strike us. I''m afraid you need to be on the Surface Team." Alex shook his head in disappointment. Their overall strength would go down because Leoz was their strongest fighter. Jeanne also did the same, and the lightning spread like Leoz. Although she had expected this, she still couldn''t accept it. Yet, the only thing she could do was to wait beside Leoz. Those who had problems went first. After these two lightning people, Firia proceeded with her Sacrificial Fire. Surprisingly, the effect was also the same as Alex, and the water level started decreasing. But the moment Firia came up, she took a deep breath and sighed. "I can produce the same effect as Alex¡­ But I''m afraid I can only stay around one to two hours only without fighting. It''s taking too much toll on my body." Fabio, Kyle, and Stina descended into the water at the same time. The water quickly went down to the point they could see the bottom of this hole. Alex let out a long sigh as he saw these three might have a problem with this mission. "I and Stina have trouble sustaining the barrier. We won''t be useful enough in this battle, so we will go with the surface team." Kyle reported with a sad expression. On the other hand, Fabio was disappointed in himself as he realized his clothes were wet. "I''m sorry, Young Master." "It''s fine. In other words, five of you will kill the monsters on the surface while we are exploring this cave. If you are going to fight with your Spiritual Energy alone, I am sure you are strong enough to withstand the sea pressure. However, it will still be too dangerous because the sea monsters will be much faster than you. "Only if you can create a sphere like this where you can move freely like you are on the land, can I be assured." Alex sighed. "Unlike me, you guys also don''t have Sky Movement. I can use Sky Step to move around the water like I am on the surface. But you¡­ Anyway, you five can do anything you want on the surface. If Kyle and Stina want to go back to our base, you can. "Anya will be increasing our strength in order to negate the restriction from water pressure. On the other hand, Leoz will be the leader of the surface team. Inform me if anything happens." "Yes." The five cupped their hands and bowed. "The problem will be how we divide our group. Can ten of us come in together?" Alex asked. "There should be some rooms where we can take a breather by simply using Young Master''s Pure Fire to evaporate the water." Nelson thought for a moment and said. "Besides, the cave itself is big since you can imagine how big the monsters are. That''s why we won''t have any problem entering together." "That''s right. I can create a water barrier myself. Without using my Spiritual Energy to boot." Jean nodded smugly. "I am a Water Spirit after all. Water is me; I am water. In fact, my fighting ability will be increased here." "That''s good then." Alex nodded before turning to Leoz. "Then, I will leave everyone to you." "Don''t worry, Young Master. I will surely protect them." Leoz looked back with a solemn expression. He then flew to the surface with the other four. Alex looked at their backs and sighed. He wanted to have everyone, but it seemed to be not possible. Jean came closer and said, "Young Master. We should go in. This is going to take a few days¡­" "That''s right. Can you make a very huge bubble to the point it expands and pushes all the water away?" Alex asked. "I can¡­ but not to the extent of the one in Young Master''s mind. The one that I am planning to make is around this hole size¡­ Around fifteen meters in diameter. More than this will require more Spiritual Energy. Of course, if we come into a room inside, I can expand it a little and fight them without water." "Yeah. I am planning to use that one." Alex nodded. "But bigger¡­" "I am sorry, I can''t help Young Master about this. I also need to consider the push coming from the ocean that fills this cave with water. In the worst case, I can seal the entrance to the ocean while Young Master and Sherry turned the water into vapor. If I roughly calculate the amount in my mind, you might need seven days. This is the worst-case scenario, so it can only go faster. But it will surely take too much energy and dedication." "!!!" Alex opened his eyes and exclaimed in astonishment. "Why can''t I think of this plan¡­" He recalled Leoz and the other here. "Young Master?" They were obviously confused with this sudden action. Alex ignored their confusion and looked straight at Nelson. "I need the map for this Underground Cave. I also need the spots that I can use to evaporate all the water inside this cave." "I can draw you a map and mark a few spots that can be considered as the bottom of the cave, where the water will flow. If we do that, the sea monsters wouldn''t have any water, and their strength will be greatly decreased. There is even a chance to kill 4-Star Martial Saint." Nelson was excited about Jean''s plan. He began drawing the map as soon as he finished replying to Alex. "I, Sherry, Firia, Kyle, and Stina will drain the water with our power. Jean will plug the hole that leads to the ocean. Considering there might be monsters that will come to this place, Anya, Fabio, Greg, and Nelson will be assigned to assist him. On the other hand, each of us will have assistance. "Anna will go with me. Vera will go with Sherry. Artur with Kyle. Vera with Stina. And Leoz with Firia. After we drain the water, we will regroup with Jean. I might reassign the group to protect us from behind and the one who explored the cave." "Understood." Leoz felt relieved since he could join this exploration because there were so many dangerous monsters around. Alex even assigned him with Firia. He swore no harm would come to her. "Let''s go inside," Alex said as he entered the cave, leading the group for two hundred meters before finding a dead end where he could only submerge to go forward. Jean stepped forward and raised his right hand as water circled around them, slowly forming a water bubble and enveloping everyone. He turned around and nodded. "Let''s go inside. Cave Exploration time." Alex nodded as they followed Jean submerged. Chapter 664 - Learning Underwater Tactics "Look! There are three monsters in front!" Alex warned everyone after finding the monsters with his Spirit Eyes. Nelson covered his body with Spiritual Energy before leaping out of Jean''s balloon. Darkness Energy gathered around his sword. "Scree!" Alex could see three sea monsters. The first one was a 5-Star Martial Emperor goldfish and the second one was another 5-Star Martial Emperor red fish. Both of them were chased by 3-Star Martial Monarch black fish. The size of the first two fishes was the same as humans, but the last one was three times their size. Looking at the blood gushing out of their body, the two front fishes would become a meal for the big fish. And Nelson coming out wanted to precisely kill the big fish. ''I can withstand the water pressure, and my attack won''t affect and won''t be affected by this water.'' Nelson thought as he leaped to the front. Alex also came out of the bubble with his two weapons, covering them with his Absolute Blade Intent. He didn''t use his Pure Fire to conserve his power. His targets were the two fishes, planning to kill them in a single strike. However, Artur didn''t forget that this was the first time Alex fought a sea monster. These monsters could fight on the land with their restricted power, but inside water like this, their ability was strengthened. He came out with his sword, waiting right behind Alex. When the two fishes passed Nelson, Alex appeared in front of them, slashing both weapons at the same time. *Fwoosh!* "!!!" Alex suddenly realized that his movement was a little bit restricted due to the water-resistance, while the fishes showed a speed that was beyond 5-Star Martial Emperors. He understood why Artur came out too and changed his stance to focus on a single fish. "Triple Draws!" He struck the golden fish, slicing it into seven pieces while letting Artur deal with the red fish. Alex focused on the black fish instead of the one behind him. ''It seems Nelson wants me to familiarize myself with this new warfare that I know nothing about. I can kill the red fish behind me by using my Sky Movement to jump over water, but it won''t give me time to watch Nelson''s fight. I would rather learn first.'' On the other hand, Nelson slashed his sword downward, sending a black sword wave flying. The fish noticed this and head-butted this sword wave. Just like the clash between metal, it lasted for a few seconds. Nelson raised his hand as shadow erupted from below his feet, making their way toward the fish and locking it down. "I am Shadow Spirit, the king of shadow. Obey me! Sword!" The fish was startled by this black thread and struggled to break free from it. At this time, Nelson unleashed his second attack. His shadow spread around the wall before spiking as if blades were coming out of the wall. "Roar!" The fish released its aura as its skin turned into pitch black. The shadows stabbed the fish on ten different spots, but surprisingly, everyone could hear a clicking sound. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and found out that none of the shadow blades managed to pierce the fish''s skin. He realized once again that this monster was a 5-Star Martial Monarch fish. "Are you trying to steal my technique, Nelson?" Artur''s voice was heard as the real person came behind Alex after killing the fish. "There is no way I''m going to steal a technique." Nelson was still calm and shook his head. After that, he charged toward the fish that was struggling to break free from Nelson''s net. Unfortunately, Nelson already locked him as he added another few chains to keep the fist in one spot. The dark energy gradually rose inside his body until it broke through. His energy and strength were increased due to the darkness. Nelson struck his sword to the fish''s black metallic body, but this time it managed to break through its skin and open its stomach. The water turned red, but Alex could still see them just fine because he was using his Spirit Eyes. "Young Master¡­ You and the others might not have experienced fighting like this. That''s why Nelson is fighting against the bigger one while the others didn''t come to help you with the two fishes except me." Artur swam to his place and said. "There are many methods to fight underwater, but if we are inside the cave, there is one very effective technique." "And that is?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Look at Nelson." Artur pointed his finger to the front. "He used the first sword wave to stop the fish movement before binding it with his shadow chains. After that, he began his true strikes until the fish died. You must know that the fish is superior in water combat. However, sea monsters can''t do anything if they are not able to move¡­" "I see. As long as we take away their movement, they are weaker than monsters on the surface." Alex understood the concept. "Like Young Master''s plan, we thought you already realized this, so we didn''t say anything." "No. I just realized it from your explanation." Alex shook his head, ashamed. "Well, it''s good as long as Young Master understands it." Artur nodded. "Besides, it will be another experience if you are fighting inside the sea. Considering the area, depth, and Spiritual Energy density, we will be swarmed by sea monsters as soon as we come out of this cave. Young Master can use your Pure Fire and Sky Movement to enhance your fighting ability in the middle of the ocean, and if possible, you can drag them out of the water." "In other words, the sea monsters actually rule the world?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I won''t go that far. It''s just we have too much disadvantage fighting inside the water. There are several problems. First, Lightning ability is very restricted because it has the potential to attack your own friend. Second, Fire Ability is also overwhelmed by the water. Young Master''s flame might be able to instantly evaporate the water around you, but it will require a huge amount of energy. These two reasons cause the third reason. "Humans don''t like to hunt them inside the sea because it will be hard, and the chance of dying is high. That''s why the monsters usually multiply continuously to the point the human won''t be able to wipe them out. If we are talking about how many monsters in the sea right now¡­ I believe their numbers are at least one hundred times than those on the land. "That''s why we experienced two monster hordes in this short time. Unfortunately, we might need to move our base somewhere because the people from the Divine Kingdom will notice a drop of sea monsters and send someone to investigate." Artur sighed. Alex nodded his head. "We will wait and see first. If there is an actual need to move our base, we will leave. It''s such a shame since this place has so many EXPs, but who can we blame?" "Indeed." Artur nodded before pointing his finger forward. "Look. Nelson has killed the fish." Alex thought for a moment while observing Nelson. He took a few minutes to kill one monster, even in this darkness that should have increased his strength. ''As expected of a Martial Monarch monster¡­ They are hard to kill.'' He also glanced on his back and found Anya teaching Sherry and the others about underwater battles. It seemed this was their plan all along. "Young Master." Nelson came back to him. "We should continue." "Yeah. Thank you for the lesson. I was too confident with the sea monsters and tried to fight them with shallow strategies." "There is no problem with Young Master''s strategies, it''s just Young Master doesn''t calculate the water''s effect." Nelson shook his head and smiled. "Young Master should be able to fight equally against them right now, and you will kill them easily before long." Alex nodded and came back inside the bubble before continuing. They met many monsters, from a horde of fishes to only one single fish. Luckily, none of them was Martial Saint, allowing Alex and the others to get used to the water combat. Sherry was struggling at first because she could only use her Pure Fire, but after some time, she decided to use her original form and overpowered her enemy with her strength. Kyle and Stina were in a pinch because they only knew Fire Element technique. If they turned back into Phoenixes, they would be suppressed by the sea water. In the end, they chose to fight with their fist, albeit it wasn''t pretty effective. Firia was also suppressed this time, but her master gave her a technique to control her shawl. The fire around her shawl disappeared, and the shawl showed its true appearance. It turned out that the shawl was formed by multiple big strings, and the fire was only there to stick them together. Her master did this to train Firia''s Fire Control and strengthened her fire since each string had a powerful Fire Energy. Firia used all these strings to kill the monsters in front of her. In fact, she looked like she had experienced a battle like this. Alex was surprised at that time, but the joy suppressed that shock. He felt relieved that Firia was already so strong and achieved what she hoped for. They continued marching toward the hole that connected this cave to the sea. Nelson chose the path carefully and only crossed the path where there were not many monsters available. Alex didn''t reject the idea because those monsters could easily be killed as long as they had evaporated all the water. After a few hours, they finally saw the entrance that led to the sea. It was a very big hole with a size three times bigger than their path. "Young Master. I will start sealing the gate and make sure no water can come inside again. In the meantime, you can drain the water around with your Fire. I will take care of all the monsters that come through the hole as well. After there is little to no water, I''m afraid I will be stuck here with the others to protect this gate." Jean crossed his arms and thought. "In other words, I will only move around with nine other people? And most of them are Fire Element and Lightning Element users." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. We can kill Martial Saint with these members alone since their power will be around half of their original power." Nelson added, "Due to the size of the tunnel, we might need around a week to clear all the monsters in the area. If Young Master doesn''t mind, we can start moving to our position." "Wait a minute." Alex stopped him before slowly going toward the entrance. He was curious about what kind of sea he could see in another world. Unfortunately, the reality didn''t meet a single speck of his expectation. He could still see the light from the surface and many sea monsters swimming around, but the light barely reached his current position, and the monsters looked gross. Even so, it didn''t stop him from glancing at the bottom of the sea with his Spirit Eyes. "This¡ª!" Alex gasped as he observed it. "I can see a huge amount of Pink Spiritual Energy that appears to be Space Element. Inside the barrier are also many Pink Spiritual Energy but this type of sign¡­ They are humans! Doesn''t this mean there is a human influence under this sea? What kind of concept is this? Not only is there no record about this influence, but the absurd amount of people having Space Elements baffled me!" "!!!" The others were also surprised since they had no recollection of this. "What should we do?" Firia asked. Alex contemplated for a few minutes. "We are going to clear the cave first before I sneak inside the place. We will see what we can do after that." "Understood!" Jean then released his Spiritual Energy, stood in front of the gate to maintain the barrier that blocked the water, and expanded the barrier. "Expand!" Chapter 665 - Another Space Element? "Expand!" Alex looked at the white barrier plugging the hole and nodded his head. "Everyone already knows about your own position, right?" "Yes. Nelson has told us the path." Firia nodded. "Good. Disperse!" Alex commanded, and the group finally disappeared from their position. He then glanced at Anna. "Let''s go." Anna nodded, and both of them disappeared. After a few minutes of going, Alex fought many monsters together with Anna before reaching the spot. Luckily, they didn''t swarm them at the same time due to the tunnel size. Alex observed their position and noticed they were at the lowest level of the cave, considering he could see many tunnels lead to the upper level in which one of them was the tunnel he came from. "I''m afraid there might be monsters when I start draining¡­ Will that be alright, Anna?" Alex asked. "Don''t worry. Leave it to me." Anna nodded. "I will make sure no one passes me." "I will try to help you later with my sword. I might even increase the range of my fire sphere if we meet a strong fish to make sure we are not fighting it inside the water." Alex said with a grim expression as he looked around with his Spirit Eyes, finding many monsters. "Sure. My Tri Xeta can be useful in this situation." "Good. I shall start then!" Alex exclaimed as he released his Pure Fire and created a sphere three meters in radius. This scorching sphere instantly turned water into vapor at an alarming rate. "Kh!" Alex was gritting his teeth, feeling no better. The speed was indeed quite good, but his Spiritual Energy had it rough. "Are you alright? How about shrinking the size a little?" Anna asked. "No. It''s good this way. My Spiritual Energy might be used up after two hours, but I can replenish them within another two hours by using a Gathering Array. In those two hours, your job is to protect me. Can you do it?" "I believe you should make it to one hour and leave fifty percent of your power for safety reasons." "I know. I have learned my lesson already. I only say the rate of my Spiritual Energy." Alex chuckled. "I won''t repeat the same mistake." "It''s good then." Anna nodded and stared at him for a few seconds. "Al¡­ No, Husband. I''m sorry for that time." "I have said it''s fine." Alex shook his head, telling her he didn''t mind. "I should apologize properly because I was consumed by sadness. I''m really sorry." "Fine. I accept your apology. Then there is no need to think about this matter anymore." Alex smiled. "Yes." Anna nodded before raising her scythe and observing her surroundings. "You don''t need to be this concerned. They shouldn''t come for a while because the water will start dropping from the highest level due to gravity. This rate is quite fast, so there might be some current for the monsters, but they shouldn''t migrate easily without no apparent reason, including this current. In other words, we can relax for a while until the water level drops to half¡­" "It''s fine. I have nothing to do anyway." Anna smiled. Alex nodded and proceeded with the plan. Surprisingly, there were a few monsters coming their way, but Anna stopped them all. Alex didn''t even need to do anything since the monsters were mostly Martial Emperors and some Martial Monarchs. The first hour went without a problem, and Alex had drained quite a bit¡­ Or at least that was what he thought. Suddenly, Anna and Alex sensed a powerful presence coming toward them. But what shocked them the most was when the presence revealed itself, showing a man figure. "There is a human here?" Anna exclaimed. On the other hand, Alex opened his eyes and appeared beside Anna, furrowing his eyebrows. "Who are you?" ''A woman? She is so beautiful. That male is also handsome. Who are they?'' The man raised his weapon. Although he wanted to attack them first, he was stopped by their appearance. He managed to calm down while distracting himself from beauty. "Who are you two, and what are you doing here?" ¡­ A bit deeper inside the cave was a spacious room without single water. Two people, man and woman, stood by in front of a huge array as if they were there to protect it. Even the room was protected by a barrier array to prevent the water from coming in. The male noticed this when he looked outside, finding the water was decreasing. "This shouldn''t be possible!" He exclaimed and pointed his finger at the entrance. The woman furrowed her eyebrows and observed the sudden change. "What should we do?" "This never happened before¡­ Should we investigate it or report back to the elder?" The man thought for a moment and said. "You go report to the elder while I investigate this sudden phenomenon." "Alright." The woman nodded and activated the array that turned out to be a Teleportation Array. The man also took out the token and presented it in front of the barrier, allowing him to go through this barrier. He took the last glimpse of the barrier and only found a dark cave without nothing inside. Nelson already found this barrier, but he would never think this was only an illusion. The room was also in the deepest part of this cave, so Alex''s Spirit Eyes couldn''t spot this place because of the distance. After checking everything, he followed the current to see what could cause such an occurrence. Suddenly, the current stopped, and he could only follow what he could remember before eventually arriving at a certain place where he found two people. One was a black-haired otherworld beauty while the other one was a handsome golden-haired guy. He heard them saying two lines, but his mind was still full of shock. He raised his weapons and shouted. "Who are you two, and what are you doing here?" Alex looked at this brown-haired man that looked very thin. However, Alex could see behind his sword was a powerful Space Element. This might be the first time he saw someone who had Space Element alive. However, he could see this person only had 7-Star Martial Monarch strength. "Who are you?" Alex raised his voice again. "No. You should introduce yourself first!" The man released his Spiritual Energy. Anna also released her Spiritual Energy while raising her scythe. Alex stopped her from making an attack and said. "I''m Alexander. My purpose here is only to explore the cave that seems to be filled with treasures." "So, you are from the surface!" The man gritted his teeth in anger before taking a deep breath. "Then, what do you want to do with this? Depending on your answer, I will kill you!" "That is not a nice word to be said¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and released his Spiritual Energy as well. "I have introduced myself. Wouldn''t it be fair for you to introduce yourself too?" "I have nothing to say to you. Since you have entered this cave and created such a disturbance, then don''t think about coming back alive!" The man turned hostile as he raised his other hand and spread around his Spiritual Energy. Alex could see the difference in this Spiritual Energy before finding they had been enveloped by Space Element¡­ the whole room, to be exact. "Spatial Lock!" "Alex¡­" Anna glanced at him, wondering what they should do. "Should we kill him? Although it''s really surprising to see a Space Element user, I still find something strange about his appearance." "I don''t wish to fight if possible¡­" Alex thought for a moment and said. The man could hear it as well, but he snarled. "Hmph. All those people from Surface can''t be trusted!" "Then, so be it!" Alex decided to kill this person first before investigating his origin. Or he could bring him to Jeanne to extract information from him. "Dark Cut!" Anna decided to make the first move. The dark wave flew toward the man, but he simply waved his hand, creating a portal to the blue layered realm. It sucked Anna''s Dark Cut and the water. Alex suddenly realized he could send all the water here inside this realm instead of drying it up. Nonetheless, Alex appeared behind Anna and swung his sword as the portal appeared behind her together with her Dark Cut. *Bam!* "What?!" The man was surprised that Alex could react to something like this first time as if he knew his Space Element the whole time. ''Should I use my Space Element instead of my Pure Fire?'' Alex contemplated before thrusting his spear. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" He shot out a powerful laser with his spear. But another portal appeared in front of the man, and Alex could see the Space Energy moving behind him. Alex smiled as Anna already disappeared from her spot. It was a simple bait for Anna to go around and struck him from the back. At the same time, Alex jumped to the side without looking back as if he knew there was an attack behind him. Anna activated her Tri Xeta, trying to lower his power. Unexpectedly, her scythe stopped mid-air as if there was an invisible wall behind his head. "Wait!" Alex also realized that his attack was actually aimed at Anna instead of him. He clicked his tongue. ''Tch! Anna can block this attack, but she will be vulnerable to that man. I won''t be fast enough to reach her too¡­ Still, I know that the Space Plate can be used that way, but this man is really strong to trouble me like this.'' Alex faced a dilemma as the only thing that could catch up with this attack was only his Space Element. He gritted his teeth and decided to reveal his elements. ''He won''t be there to tell the tale anyway.'' Raising his hand, Alex released his Space Element. A portal also appeared in front of Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon before another one materialized behind the man. "!!!" The man realized there was a portal behind him and quickly hardened the Space behind him, blocking the attack as if it were a shield. Before he noticed it, Anna already came back. "You¡­ You are also a Space Element User. But how can you use Spatial Gate and Space Plate?" "You have nothing to say to me. Why should I tell you then?" Alex snorted as he raised his palm to the side, activating his Space Plate once again to disturb the space energy that enveloped this room. Alex had already mastered these two techniques since long ago but never thought about using them. "These techniques could only be learned from my place! And the fact that you can use it¡­ You must kill my people and gain the secret!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering. ''I learned these two techniques from my Master¡­ Did Master bring the techniques from this place and escape? Is this the scenario?'' Yet, before Alex could do anything, an aged voice reverberated. "Cease at once!" Chapter 666 - Sunken Island? "Cease at once!" The fight stopped the moment this voice reverberated in their ears. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and activated his Teleportation Array, planning to escape. However, a space disturbance occurred. Like how he used his Space Plate to destroy the Spatial Blockage earlier, there was a Space Plate right beneath his array. It resurfaced and took a part of his Teleportation Array, like taking a single piece from a puzzle, breaking the array. "Tch!" "Young Man. You misunderstand my intention." An old man appeared together with a female. The old man had long brown hair and an average build. He didn''t look aged but also not energetic. However, Alex found a huge amount of Spiritual Energy inside and realized he also had a Space Element. On the other hand, the woman had short purple hair and eyes. Those eyes looked at Alex as if she hated him. "I have no plan of attacking you. These two have their senior brother killed a few years ago when he went for a mission, so please forgive their hostility." The old man said before introducing himself. "I am Hao, an Elder from Freedom Sect. May I know your identity, and there is also another question that I would like to ask if you don''t mind?" "I¡­" Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Anna, wondering if he should escape or not. Unfortunately, he realized that as long as the old man prevented him, he would stand no chance. He sighed and answered him. "Alexander Sirius." He tried to assess the three people in front of him and checked whether he should bring all his spirits here to kill them and escape. On the other hand, he was also speechless on the outside while screaming inwardly, ''Three Space Element Users? Since when did Space Element become so common?'' "A good name. Alexander Sirius. Then if I may ask, where did you get your Spatial Gate and Space Plate? The disciples from my sect shouldn''t go out with manuals. At the same time, they had an oath not to tell anyone about these two techniques. Hence, there should be someone giving this technique. And that person should have ascended long ago¡­ Now, I''m wondering what is your relationship with the Great Elder of Fire Temple, Maxwell?" ''Great Elder of Fire Temple? What is that?'' Alex was dumbstruck. He never heard Maxwell talking about this, so he was wondering what would be the right answer. Upon listening to the great title upon his teacher, he decided to tell the truth. "Master and Disciple." "!!!" The young ones dropped their jaws as if they just heard something unbelievable, forgetting about the hostility. On the other hand, the old man looked at Alex in an interesting way. "I see. To think such a person has a disciple¡­ I''m sure you have a token from him. Can you show me?" Alex thought for a moment and took out Maxwell''s token. The elder also took out a golden token with ''Space'' written on it. Suddenly, the two tokens shone. Maxwell''s token projected a golden word while the elder''s token projected a silver word. They were ''Fire'' and ''Space'' respectively. "It''s real," Hao confirmed with a nod before he said respectfully. "Please forgive these two youngsters from having a hostility against you." Alex looked at Anna, wondering if she had an answer, but the latter could only shake her head. Looking at their confusion, Hao coughed and said. "Since you are a Great Elder''s disciple, I am wondering if you want to visit our place? Or you can leave this place if you promise us to not say anything about this cave?" Suddenly, enlightenment struck his brain. "This cave? Or do you mean the place in the bottom of the sea?" "I see. It seems your master has informed you about this place. So, do you want to come inside?" The elder nodded as if Maxwell''s name bore a great prestige. Alex furrowed his eyebrows after seeing how the elder misunderstood him. He contemplated before choosing to act along with this. "I''m sorry, but Master only told me about the location. He said to seek this place. Unfortunately, he didn''t tell me anything afterward." "I presume it was Grand Elder''s soul, not his real body?" "Yes." "Seeing how you still have confusion, I will clarify a little bit." The elder nodded. ''System!'' Alex screamed inwardly. ''Can you help me with this?'' [I am asking your master about this. Please wait a little bit.] Hao didn''t know about their secret conversation and proceeded with the story. "Ten thousand years ago, the Heavenly Continent hosted all elements. Of course, Space Element was revered there¡­ Until the purge began. So many Space Element users died, and the remaining ones decided to band together. "Of course, everyone had some relationship and managed to pull in a few other Martial Artists. At that time, the Great Elder was also a part of this. He helped us and established the platform. There were also others and decided to make a sect called Freedom Sect. "The reason for this battle was our Space Element, but we could see that there were many other element users who decided to help us instead of massacring us. Hence, we built each element a temple, and the first owner of the Fire Temple was the Great Elder of Fire Temple, Maxwell. There was no sect master in the sect since we usually used a voting system if we had a problem. And the system is running well until today. "Anyway, the elder decided to take on the Lightning Tribulation and became God. We were filled with grief when we found out that he failed¡­ Fast forward to five thousand years ago, he came back to this place, surprising everyone. Of course, it was a joyous occasion for us. "He told us that he wanted to challenge the Lightning Tribulation again and succeeded. We didn''t know whether to laugh or cry because the hole left by Senior was big. However, he left us a message, telling us that someone would come to this place sooner or later. So, it must be you." Hao finally finished his story. Alex thought for a moment. ''Master really came from here, and the person they have been waiting for is me? No, no. Master still had Mithra and Skewes at that time¡­ Did they actually know about their existence and wanted them to come here since they had his token? If that''s the case, old Manness should also come here¡­ In other words, it''s really me.'' Suddenly, the system came back. [I have dragged him with me. So, you can ask anything from him now.] [It''s me, Maxwell. The answer to your question is Mithra. I knew she wanted to chase me to the Northern Continent and even to the Heavenly Continent. However, I wanted to see my wife as soon as possible at that time, so I didn''t wait for her. I told her if she wanted to follow me, she could come to the Heavenly Continent and sought this place. Unfortunately, the calamity fell on her before that¡­] Alex closed his eyes, fully knowing her sad past. "I see. I can also understand why you and she didn''t tell me anything about this." [Yes. Skewes didn''t want to and settled down there, so he obviously didn''t know about this place. On the other hand, you didn''t relate in any way to this place, so I didn''t tell you.] ''Why did Master give her Space Technique?'' [I hoped she could settle down on the Willow Continent and give the book to you¡­ On the other hand, If she decided to follow me, she needed to give the book to Skewes. From my assumptions, she already lost her book before even going to the Northern Continent and troubled Skewes to recover the lost book.] ''The only problem is¡­ Should I follow them, Master?'' [It''s a good place to train your elements. Seeing your current ability, you should learn more about Space Ability, and this place will be the best place. I suggest you enter it since you already discovered it.] Alex thought for a moment and decided. ''Alright. I will be going with them¡­ Can I go there alone, by the way? Or should I come together with the others? And what is the origin of this place and how they end up at the bottom of the ocean?'' [It''s better to go alone. If you are inside, go to the current Great Elder of Fire Temple. He/she should arrange you a place¡­ And you can request him/her to arrange training in Space Temple. I''m sure they will accept you. As for their history, I will tell you later while moving.] ''I understand.'' Alex then looked at Anna. "Go and tell the others I''m going alone." "Young man. I assume you want to explore this cave and take the treasures, right?" The old man interjected before Anna left. "Not exactly, but yeah." Alex nodded. "Can you do this old man a favor and abandon this idea?" "May I know why?" "It''s simple. Those treasures are baits. This is the only entrance for our sect. If people from the land come to this place, they will only search for these treasures and get fixated on it. We can hide our entrance easily." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Tell others to go back and don''t tell anyone about my current situation. Just tell them I need to leave for a while. Anything else, do as you see fit." Anna also got the information from the system and nodded. "I understand. Leave it to me, Master." "Will that be alright, Elder?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He had emphasized not to tell anyone to assure the elder, and Anna also acted along by calling him ''Master'' as in Master and Slave. It made him uncomfortable, but he had no choice. "Alright. I agree with it as long as the woman swears a Heavenly Oath. Although you are Great Elder''s disciple, I still have no knowledge about you and your companion." Anna nodded and swore the Heavenly Oath before leaving the place. "Then, follow me!" The elder was satisfied and led Alex to the entrance. Alex followed him along with the two disciples. [I will just add the detail from that person''s story. At that time, we were surrounded from all directions and decided to escape from the continent, albeit found no path. The last thing and the most ridiculous thing we did was choosing to escape to the bottom of the sea. We were numbered a few thousand back then and had many elements among us. [We took a relatively big island. The Earth Element users moved the island to the sea while the water users sank the island. Space Element Practitioners created a powerful Special Realm to protect the island from the water, creating a bubble that enveloped the entire island. Fire users like me built a heating system as you know how cold the seafloor is. [And so on, it continued until we created a place suitable for living. Of course, we still went to the surface from time to time, but the disciples or elders needed to go through many processes to make sure they were eligible. I actually never informed you because I wasn''t sure whether you would get Space Element while you would keep sharpening your Fire Element. That was why I couldn''t see the point. I chose to come back to that place to get my Space Element, so if you got your Space Element in that world, it must come from that place¡­ So, yeah. There was no need to inform you. Sorry.] Alex sighed and nodded. ''I get the gist of it. I will simply train myself here for a while before leaving. Is that alright, Master?'' [It''s fine. There will be a test to leave that place, but I am sure you can. As for other details, you can ask anyone inside that place.] ''Understood.'' After that, the system returned to Lin Xingzhi''s hand. She had asked Zark to bring Maxwell here as soon as possible, and luckily, he met him with his wife without any trouble. Hence, Zark would bring him back home again after this. On the other hand, Alex arrived at a certain dark room, filled with a Teleportation Array. He followed the elders inside while the two disciples continued guarding the array. Chapter 667 - Great Elder of Fire Temple Inside the Freedom Sect, specifically in the portal, connecting both cave and realm, appeared two men, Hao and Alex. Alex was startled upon seeing this place. First, the sun shouldn''t exist here, but it was very bright inside as if the sun was there. When he looked up, he actually saw a sun and even clouds. Not knowing why Alex decided to activate his Spirit Eyes and realized it was only an illusion. Besides him, he could see many plants staying alive and grass spread around the area, making the scenery look beautiful. Unfortunately, they were surrounded by water, so when he looked around the sky, behind him was only the sea horizon, filled with clouds, looking very imperfect. ''So this is what Master means by suitable for living¡­ If they don''t look at this human-made scenery, it''s perfect since most plants and herbs live from Spiritual Energy. I don''t know if there is any monster around, though.'' Alex observed his surroundings and sighed. "This is where we live. We often hunt monsters on the surface to get their meat, but they are usually done by senior disciples to gather many monsters to last us a year or so." The elder sighed. "It''s not perfect, but bearable. We are just afraid to see another purge." "I can relate that somehow." Alex nodded. "I am an elder managing the daily affairs for this teleportation thing. So, I will be leading you to the Fire Temple''s Great Elder." Alex agreed before asking something he found confusing. "Elder, why does my Master''s token release a different color than yours? Is it simply because of the difference of elements?" "No. Follow me, I will explain it to you on the way." The elder flew to the sky since the island they took was quite large. "It''s based on hierarchy. Normal Disciple, Senior Disciple, Elder, and Great Elder. This token is used for identification. Normal Disciple will have white color, Senior Disciple has a bronze color, Elder like me has a silver color while Great Elder rank has a golden color." "I see." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Do I need to become a disciple of the sect? I don''t really want to be bound by the sect since I have another thing to do." "You can discuss it with the Great Elder. Maybe she will grant you a special one due to your current status, but who knows." Hao shrugged. Alex wanted to ask another question, but he was dumbfounded when he found a mountain far away. ''A mountain? Does that mountain originate from this island?'' Seeing Alex''s confusion, the elder laughed. "I almost forgot you have no knowledge about this place. This place is actually a sunken island. However, we, the generations afterward, don''t mean we are pushovers. We are currently expanding our place by slowly opening up the place and creating a special realm. Although we can sell monster parts on the surface, we still need to find Spirit Stone mine for our own consumption." "I see¡­" Alex nodded before thinking, ''Mining underwater? I only know drilling in a deep-sea in the Oil and Gas industry¡­ If you are looking at the purpose alone, it''s basically the same. Still, I am wondering whether this place or the previous Naga race''s Underwater Kingdom can be considered closer to Atlantis¡­'' "Anyway, this place has become quite big, you know. Although it is not as big as the Heavenly Continent, it has five percent of the size¡­ I guess. And the Fire Temple has moved to this place because this mountain is actually an underwater volcano." "What?" Alex was startled. The number was small, but compared to the enormous size of the Heavenly Continent, five percent might require him a few days to fly from one edge to another. This was simply ridiculous. Besides¡­ ''An underwater volcano. No, it should be Undersea Volcano, huh¡­ It''s truly a wonder of the world. I might never visit a place like this if we don''t go to that cave.'' "You see that huge tower over there?" When Alex lost in thought, Hao pulled him back by pointing his finger toward a red pagoda, not far away from them. "That is Fire Temple." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. It looked like a pagoda in Japan, filled with red colors from the wall to the railing. He wanted to observe more, but the elder already descended to the ground. There were disciples guarding the door, but the elder simply presented his token and showed his status. "Elder!" The two disciples bowed. Hao nodded with a smile and asked. "Can I trouble you two to inform your Great Elder? I know it''s an absurd request, but if you tell her that Fire Authority has come, she will understand." The disciples were surprised at first because they didn''t know the meaning behind his words. Nonetheless, one of them decided to bring the news to an elder inside, and that elder informed the great elder. Suddenly, a woman jumped off the building from the highest floor. She had long red hair like Firia, but that was all. Unlike her, she had a stern face as if she hated everything. Her chest¡­ was quite pitiful and couldn''t be compared to Firia. The other things looked normal though, and he felt this person would actually care for someone despite that look. Unexpectedly, the woman jumped toward Alex and grabbed his shoulders tightly, acting the exact opposite of what he predicted. "Fire Authority? Is this the boy?" Alex was startled, looking at this woman who was observing him up and down. "Space Temple, Hao, greet Fire Great Elder, Viola." Hao bowed to her respectfully. "And yes, he is the one." Stars suddenly appeared on her eyes as she looked at Alex as if he was prey. He then grabbed Alex before jumping to the top floor. "Good Elder. I will talk to you and that woman after I have a talk with this young man." Hao could only shake his head and left. Meanwhile, Alex was thrown to a chair as the woman prepared tea for him, looking very cheerful. "Ehm?" Alex scratched his cheek, not knowing what to do. "You are the disciple of Great Elder Maxwell, right?" "Yes. Though I just learned about this place not long ago." Alex nodded. "He picked me up from the lowest place and became my mentor. I studied under him before becoming a Great Elder two thousand years ago, succeeding the previous Great Elder. He is my benefactor, so I should take care of you well in this place." Viola explained why she behaved this way. "I never know about it. It seems Master didn''t want me to enter this place previously before I accidentally stumbled upon the cave and the entrance." "So, why do you come here? I will train you to the best of my ability. You are already a 6-Star Martial Monarch, so I need to know what I should teach you¡­" "I want to learn about Space Ability," Alex answered her honestly. "Huh?" She suddenly looked at him with a disgusted face. "Why would you bother going to that place? Your Master was corrupted and learned from there as well, even though he was an Alchemist. Besides, I can sniff a powerful fire inside you¡­ In fact, it''s stronger than Mentor. You are a Pure Fire as well, so you should learn more about Fire with me. I can repay Mentor this way." Alex shook his head. "I''m good with Fire Element, so I want to focus on my Space Element." "No, No! Little brother, you can''t get corrupted!" She shook his body repeatedly, trying to wake him up. Alex sighed and uttered. "Fire!" His Pure Fire appeared above his head and sent pressure to Viola, startling her. She stopped and tensed up. ''What is this fire? This kind of suppression¡­ is ridiculous. Even Pure Fire shouldn''t be this much, more so with my 10-Star Martial Saint cultivation!'' She released his shoulder before taking a few steps back, looking at Alex with a shocked face. "What are you¡­ No, should I say as expected of my Mentor to get an absurd disciple like this?" "Now you know it, right? I also have a Space Element, but this one is not developed yet. Hearing the information earlier, I want to train my Space Element for future purposes. How about you say that I have neglected my Space Element because it''s not important and only want to learn it recently?" Alex smiled. "That¡­" She looked doubtful before letting out a long sigh. "Fine. We will go to that woman''s tower later. Firstly, I will explain anything you want to know about this place." Alex thought it was good for him, so he agreed. "I need to know about hierarchy here so as to avoid offending someone¡­ Then, I need to get my own token, right? Besides¡­ I might leave this place, so I don''t really want to be bound here." "Not staying here?" She looked a bit sad when he heard he would leave. "Considering your master''s personality, I know that you are one that won''t stay here for long. I assume you also want to break through this world''s barrier and reach God Stage?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "You are like your Teacher. Even though I am a 10-Star Martial Saint, I have no confidence to reach God Stage. Do you know why?" Alex shook his head. "It''s simple. Before looking up, you need to look down." She paused for a moment. "There is a thin line that is impossible to cross¡­ At least, for me." "What is it?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "This last tribulation is called Divine Tribulation. Its purpose is to judge whether you are qualified to be a God or not. Hence, it''s going to test you from your affinity, mentality, heart, willpower, talent, and many others. The Divine Tribulation doesn''t actually come to you in the form of lightning. But it''s more a kind of test coming from the world itself. "According to Mentor, it comes like an illusion, but it is far higher and more realistic than a normal illusion because you will die for real in case you fail. At the same time, it might even shape the world as if it''s alive. I can''t really explain it, but your master created a lake when he underwent his Divine Tribulation. I have tested myself in numerous illusion arrays, but still can''t pass them despite trying for a few hundred years¡­ That''s why I''m stuck here." She sighed. "Maybe your thought itself is hindering you from achieving a breakthrough." "Maybe¡­ But an elder from this place once tried despite having the same condition as me¡­ He also couldn''t pass all tests inside an illusion array and died on the third strike." Alex looked at her and closed his eyes, not knowing what to say. He was a simple Martial Monarch at the moment and would probably think about it later. In fact, he might even try this illusion test¡­ Or not. After all, knowing too little can also be a bliss rather than knowing too much. It might shake your confidence. "Anyway, this is your token. It''s a special Elder title, or you can say it, Honorary Elder. This title is on name only, so you have no responsibility or whatsoever in this place. If you want to ask someone to teach you, you shall pay an equal amount of it. Your Teacher also had this token back then and paid the Space Temple to learn Space Abilities." Viola threw a golden token to him with fire written on it. Alex nodded. He had more than forty million Spirit Gems or forty thousand Spirit Crystals at the moment, so he was sure he could pay the education fee. "Onto the second matter, the hierarchy isn''t that much from normal disciple to my position. Normal Disciples are for those below Martial Emperor Stage, while Senior Disciples are those in Martial Emperor and Monarch. Martial Saints are Elders, while me the strongest is the Great Elder. "As for your position, you are the same rank as an Elder¡­ So, you can issue a trade between elders or with their Great Elder. Have any questions?" "No. Thank you very much." Chapter 668 - Aileen "Then, do you want to go to the Space Temple now?" Viola asked. "Do I need to know anything else?" Alex asked, planning to be as careful as he could. After all, he might need to face a Space Element Martial Saint. He couldn''t even do anything to escape because of Hao, let alone their Great Elder. He would be screwed if he didn''t know anything. "Nothing. As long as you are respectful, I don''t think you will get into trouble. The Great Elder should also protect you on my behalf. Besides, I will be checking you regularly." Viola nodded with a smile, assuring him it would be fine. "Thank you." Alex nodded. Viola thought for a moment before taking out a token and activating it. She then looked at Alex. "Let''s go." Alex nodded and followed her. They were going toward the portal that he and Hao entered earlier. Alex pondered for a moment and thought they were going back inside the water. Yet, before she activated the portal, Viola placed the token she activated earlier. Alex lost in thought before realizing they teleported to another place, not the water cave entrance. He looked at his surroundings and found a similar scenery except for some spots. It seemed they had arrived. "Great Elder, earlier was¡­" Alex hesitated to say it. ''Is that something like a rune stone? A Teleportation Array that has been adjusted to teleport according to the token. No, the token, in fact, changed the array composition a little bit, and it was the direction. In other words, there should be a few more tokens that she could use to go to another temple. Alex never used this type of Teleportation Array before, despite having it in his memory. He just never had an opportunity to use it due to the distance he needed to cover. "It''s a Teleportation Array. I''m sure you know this already." "I know¡­ But the distance between the Fire Temple and Space Temple doesn''t seem to be that far." Alex nodded. "As much as I hate it, we are neighbors," Viola explained in annoyance. "The farthest one from my Fire Temple is Water Temple. So, I need to teleport two times before arriving there." They flew together for a few minutes before finding a similar temple. Unlike Hao, she didn''t need much formality. By simply making her appearance, everyone instantly recognized her and bowed their heads, letting her go to the top floor where their Great Elder stayed normally. *Bang!* She slammed open the door and entered with Alex. "Great Elder Viola, can''t you be more gentle with the door? It''s almost broken, you know." Alex narrowed his eyes upon seeing this woman. The woman had long braided silver hair. And everything was different than Viola. This woman appeared calm and gentle, while her body was pretty hot. She glanced at Alex before sipping her tea. "May I know what is the reason you come here, dear gentlemen?" "Oi! Are you considering me as a gentleman too?" Viola slammed the table, creating a small crack. "Look at you; it''s easy to make you angry. You should be more gentle. Besides, you even sacrificed your b.r.e.a.s.t to prolong your lifespan¡­" "Aileen!" Viola fumed in anger. She calmed her heart down and attacked back. "Do you think I am afraid of you? You are still an 8-Star Martial Saint¡­ It must be because you need to take care of so many men that your progress is this slow." "I''m still young and v.i.r.g.i.n! Ah!" Aileen forgot that Alex was here. This was their usual exchange between both of them, so she was distracted for a moment. "Aren''t you too? You are far older than me. You must be a v.i.r.g.i.n for life¡­ No, it should be because of your chest that no one finds you beautiful." "Are you going to challenge me, Kid?" Viola released her Spiritual Energy. "I don''t mind, old hag!" Aileen also released her aura. Alex stepped back and leaned on the wall, waiting for them to finish their business while thinking, ''Sacrificing b.o.o.b.s to prolong lifespan? Is that even possible?'' Suddenly, they glanced at Alex and asked. "You! Who do you find more attractive?" Alex was startled at first and somehow got annoyed. He let out a long sigh to make him not look pressured. "Both. If a man only comes closer because of your body, you need to worry about yourself since he might only be after your body, not your heart. In that case, the relationship might not last. On the other hand, your body might give you confidence over others. Still, I can''t think anything about your body. Besides, you might have a harder time searching for a genuine man. "It''s pleasing to see a woman, but only one we know and enjoy having in their company will be a great woman in our lives. That''s why it''s better to know and build relationsh.i.p.s first before asking this question. I''m sure if both of you have a man, then they will answer you genuinely." "¡­" Alex''s answer left these two speechless. Viola couldn''t help but ask, "How old are you, by the way?" "Me? Too much cultivation and other things, so I forget my real age¡­ but it shouldn''t reach thirty yet. Around twenty-eight years old, I guess." "Twenty-eight years old Martial Monarch?" Viola and Aileen were dumbstruck. Viola asked. "Without the full help of influence, it would be hard to climb to the peak¡­ And you are saying you are only twenty-eight years old? What is the influence behind you?! I don''t think Mentor has created an influence out there." "I am from an influence that I created for myself." Alex shook his head "What?!" Viola grabbed his shoulders. She wanted to say something, but the words stuck on her throat. "Mentor?" Aileen realized another thing, before furrowing her eyebrows. "Your mentor was the first Great Elder of Fire Temple, right? What is his relationship between him and that person? And what is the purpose of bringing him?" "Tch!" Viola clicked her tongue. "Mentor is his Master, and I am bringing him here because he wants to learn about Space Ability." "Heh!" Smug appeared on her face, looking down on Viola. "This guy''s vision is as good as his Master¡­ The Space Element reigns supreme!" "Idiot. He is coming here because there is no need to teach him Fire Ability. He has mastered all and doesn''t care about Space Element until today. In other words, your Space Temple is useless in his eyes this whole time." Viola snorted. "Say anything you want, loser." Aileen snorted before coming to him and asking gently. "So, what do you want to learn? I will teach you hand by hand if necessary. That''s right. I don''t even mind to be your mentor¡­" Alex shook his head. "I''m an Honorary Elder, according to Great Elder Viola, and I am not planning to be bound here. That''s why I will pay for all my education fees here." Aileen narrowed her eyes before glancing at Viola, who nodded her head. "I see. It seems you have the same plan as your Master. Still, knowing that your Master is still alive after five thousand years, it''s very good to know." "That''s right. I am planning to share it with the other Great Elders." Viola crossed her arms and looked at her smugly. "My Fire Temple is the only one that can create God, and even he is planning to become one." "He is soon to be my Space Temple''s member, don''t think about it." "What are you saying? He has the same elements as his Master, no, it is more outstanding than his Master. Obviously, he is a member of my Fire Temple. Even if it''s only an Honorary Elder, I will still take the credit." "Elements?" Aileen opened her eyes wide, glancing at Alex and Viola back and forth. "I''m done with this¡­ Both Master and Disciple are monsters." "Anyway, I''m talking to you here to make sure you don''t do anything to him." Viola snorted. "Well, I don''t think I need to worry about you seducing him since I know you will fail." "Hmph!" Aileen rolled her eyes. "Fine. I shall take care of him in your stead. However, I still won''t hold anything back even if you are Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple. The fee is also very expensive. If you can''t pay, you can sell your body, little brother. I will pay in advance even if you ask for an exorbitant price." Alex shrugged. "I should have no money problem, as long as the Great Elder put a fair price." "Of course, I am always just. Or are you doubting me?" "No." Alex shook his head. "He doesn''t need to doubt you because I will be watching you!" Viola interjected. Aileen simply shrugged before recalling earlier matters. "If I am not wrong, you were attacked by the disciple of my temple earlier? I will be punishing the disciples after they have finished their guard duty. Although it''s only a misunderstanding, I am just after all. That''s why they will get their own punishment. At the same time, I will compensate you." "Hehe¡­" Viola grinned as if she knew this would happen. "Anyway, revenge is fine, but they should learn not to classify everyone to be the same. After all, in the great purge a few thousand years ago, we were hunted by those from the surface, but there were still many people helping us, including your teacher. I need to teach them again not to have revenge cloud their eyes." Alex nodded. "I almost wanted to bring this up." Viola shrugged. "Anyway, I have finished my matter. Make sure you do not mistreat him and arrange a house for as long as he needs to¡­" "It''s fine. Considering you are Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple, I will have a house for you and give you a Space Technique as compensation. After all, the disciple was earnestly trying to kill you." Aileen nodded with a smile. "Then I''m leaving!" Viola patted Alex''s shoulder and said, "If she bullies you, feel free to tell me. I will do you justice." "Ahaha¡­ There is no way I will do that. In fact, I might accidentally make him too comfortable in this place." "Hmph." Viola snorted before leaving the room. Aileen then looked at Alex. "What do you want to do now? Want to see your house first?" Alex nodded, thinking he could contact Anna and the others for their next plan. Aileen snapped her finger before a Spatial Gate appeared before them. However, this Spatial Gate didn''t lead them to a Blue Layered Realm. Instead, it led them to another place. Alex was surprised since he didn''t know why the Spatial Gate could be like this. "From my information, you have learned how to use Spatial Gate and Space Plate, right? How about using it right now? I want to see what level you have achieved for both techniques." Alex nodded and created a Spatial Gate first, albeit only led to a Blue Layered Realm. "Hmm¡­ The gate and the realm inside are stable. Can you make a gate that leads to another place spontaneously?" "No." Alex shook his head, ashamed. "It''s fine. I will teach you later about this. I will teach you until you master the Spatial Gate and give you a house to stay¡­ it''s your Master''s house though. Will that be alright for the compensation?" "Yes. Thank you, Great Elder." "Then, try to create a Space Plate." Alex followed her instruction and made one Space Plate inside the Blue Layered Realm. "Make it exist in both worlds." She instructed after observing Alex''s Space Plate. Alex kept following her request to the best of his ability, and this request was the one that allowed him to block someone in the real world. "Make it exist only in the real world." "Create two Space Plates!" "You are an Array Master, right? Make an entire array on the Space Plate and do the previous drill." "Then, create a hundred Space Plates." "Make an array like a puzzle." She kept trying every possible thing to do with the Space Plate and got quite a satisfying result from Alex. "There is nothing much I can point out for this technique. Although you are a bit slow to create the Space Plates, it will be fine after some practice. I will assess your ability after visiting your house. Let''s go." She waved at Alex, asking him to go in before closing the gate. Chapter 669 - Space Element Alex looked around the house with the Great Elder as his guide. The house wasn''t that big. In fact, it looked like his house on Earth. Two-stories house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, except that this house was mostly made of wood. "This is your house, do you have anything you need?" Aileen asked. "No. As long as it''s comfortable to stay, I don''t have many requirements." Alex nodded with a smile. "Then, do you want to fight me? I can probably see your combat style and give you some pointers. After all, you only learn Space Ability this late, so it might only be a support ability for you. That''s why I need to see your full combat ability to make sure I don''t give wrong advice." Aileen asked. ''I think it''s good to end everything today. I can talk with Anna and the others later since I might need a few months in this place. Besides, there are still one and a half years before the banquet starts¡­ I have plenty of time." Alex nodded. "Yes. I will follow Great Elder''s instruction." "Good." Aileen nodded before using her Spatial Gate again to connect this house with her personal training area. She thought about having him call her by her name to make him more comfortable, but she felt it would only have the opposite effect. Hence, she waited until Alex became used to this new place first. They went inside the gate and arrived in a huge dirt field. It was a huge field with its size around 1x1 kilometers. It seemed that he and the Great Elder would have a great fight here. "This is where we fight. The whole field has been protected by Array, so you can go all out." Aileen smiled. "I actually want to have you fight against my disciple instead of me, but he is on the surface right now¡­ Probably come back here in three days or something. He is a quite good disciple and has reached 1-Star Martial Saint, so both of you should have good sparring later on." Her plan was to have Alex and her disciple be a rival to stimulate each other''s potential. Hopefully, his disciple wouldn''t be so petty to think Alex''s age and somehow get jealous about it. "Anyway, Viola said you have two elements, Fire and Space, especially that both elements are stronger than your Master''s. That''s why I will not limit myself in this fight, so come at me with your full power." Alex nodded before releasing his Spiritual Energy as he made a distance from Aileen. He took out both weapons and let his Pure Fire out. This might be the first time he fought with all of his abilities in one on one fight. Aileen took out her weapon that turned out to be a bow and nodded at him, telling him she was ready. Alex leaped toward her while activating his Spirit Eyes. Aileen didn''t do anything and only waited for him to come at her, albeit Alex suddenly felt a faint presence. Checking with his Spirit Eyes, he could see three Space Plates appeared between them, trying to trip him up. The three plates were varied in height. One was on his foot, one was at his stomach while the last one was right in front of his head. Alex leaped and stepped on the highest Space Plate and attacked her from above. "Heaven Light Slash!" "You can perceive the Space Plates with your Spiritual Energy. That''s good." She misunderstood him. Alex might be able to faintly sense the Space Plates with his Spiritual Energy, but not to the point he could locate them. If he didn''t have Spirit Eyes, he might need to retreat. "An expert should be able to feel it from afar. That''s why you shouldn''t use Space Plates easily outside because people will know you have a Space Element." She softly started her lecture while creating another Space Plate above her head, blocking Alex''s attack. Yet, she suddenly realized she had been underestimating him this whole time. Leaping backward, she saw Alex breaking her Space Plate easily. She smiled and praised him once more. "To think you have become a Sword Saint at such a young age. I heard the tale of your master and thought he was the pinnacle of talent, yet you just proved I was wrong. Haiz, there is always a sky above the sky." Alex ignored all her comments and slashed his sword and spear, sending two sword waves. "Blade of Conquest." "Anyway, Space Element is very versatile. You can use its power as if taking advantage of your Pure Fire. Like this." She raised her hands, and ten Space Plates appeared. Each of his sword waves would face five Space Plates at the same time. His sword waves continued, breaking every single Space Plate before stopping on the Fourth Space Plate. "!!!" ''Although I didn''t use my Mythical Fire Slash, I still attacked her with Absolute Blade Path, Blade of Conquest, and Spiritual Weapons. If I used Mythical Fire Slash, she might only need to add a few more Space Plates to completely block it!'' Alex thought, sweating profusely. It would be bad to have his strongest attack destroyed with only Space Plates. "Just like how a few Element Arts can be used at all stages, Space Element Arts can also be used that way. Spatial Gate and Space Plate are an example. If you can master the control of Space Element in nature and draw the line from Space World¡­ or that Blue Layered Realm, you can create a strengthened Space Plate like earlier. "I will ask you this, how many Space Plates do you need to block your attack?" She narrowed her eyes. Alex was startled by the question and thought seriously. "I don''t know." "You don''t know?" It was her turn to be surprised before she shook her head helplessly. To think you are that far behind¡­ I am wondering how you used your Space Element this whole time." "Teleportation Array, Sneaking with Spatial Gate, and Making Array with Space Plate," Alex answered honestly. "I''m done! To think you only use it that way, such a waste of talent." She let out a long sigh. "I could feel something from you using the Spatial Gate earlier¡­ I noticed that the intensity of the Space Element in your body was greater than mine. That''s why I am saying you are wasting your talent. "Fine, I will give you the basics of Space Element first. What do I mean by intensity earlier? Just like how you differentiate normal Fire Element to Pure Fire with the strength, Space Element has a way as well. That is to see the power to pull or suck the Space Element from nature to form your Space Ability. "I could feel that instead of pulling the Space Element nearby, it seemed that they were attracted to your Space Element itself. In other words, you might have around 1.5x more absorption than normal people. After all, the Space Elements naturally gather to your Space Ability in one case, and you can force your Space Ability to absorb them in another case. "This process will be easy since the real problem is how fast you can do it. This will be your homework all the time you are staying here. Are we clear?" "Yes. Thank you, Great Elder." Alex nodded and cupped his hand respectfully. "No need to thank me yet. I will be charging for this additional lesson later." Aileen shrugged, following the rule to the bone. "I will tell you how to absorb the Space Element in the air after this fight since this is the basics." "Understood." "Then come at me again. Don''t forget about using your Space Element." Alex nodded and raised both weapons again. He charged at her with his spear, trying to thrust her neck with it. Aileen simply created another Space Plate to block this spear charge. It was at this time, Alex smiled as he shifted his stance, and the spear started becoming blurry. "Phantom Thrust!" The spear appeared blurry and somehow bent as if it was a snake. It continued toward Aileen''s neck, hoping it would reach her. Unfortunately, it was stopped by invisible barriers, only allowing him to break the first two layers. "That was a good move indeed. Luckily, I sensed some danger from it and prepared a countermeasure. This will be the second lesson. You already know about creating a larger Space Plate, right?" Alex nodded as he retreated once more. "Then do you know that a Space Plate can actually be shaped into anything you want? Don''t be fixated on its name, thinking it will only be a rectangular plate. You can use this technique to create a sphere or a cube¡­ Anything. Of course, its durability will be much lower, but you can simply create multiple of them simultaneously. You can even trap your opponent in an invisible barrier." Alex opened his eyes wide and decided to test it by creating a sphere. He was surprised once again when he succeeded on his first try. Although the energy was unstable, he only needed to practice more. "Oh¡­ You even can make it on the first try. This is truly a waste of talent. I''m wondering why you do not train your Space Element?" Aileen sighed. "Does your master actually not teach you?" Alex shook his head. The first time I met Master was long ago. I had Space Element at that time, but it was too disappointing that Master thought I needed to search for another one." Alex shook his head. What he said was true, and that was why Maxwell said if he got his Space Element, it would come from this place. Of course, that was only his prior thought, and after knowing Lin Xingzhi, his system, and his progress, he didn''t think like that anymore. On the other hand, the last time they met was when Alex was chased by multiple Martial Kings. Maxwell didn''t really have too much time back then, so he only cared about his current progress. Alex also sometimes wished he had more guidance from his own Master, albeit the condition didn''t allow him. If someone asked whether he regretted it or not, he would say no. Only by facing and learning all of these things alone would he progress faster. "Such a shame." She sighed. "Well, Your Master''s biggest strength is Fire Element, so seeing your Pure Fire must get him fixated on it. Anyway, I shouldn''t badmouth others here and focus on teaching you the basics. "You are doing good in your Space Plate already. At least it doesn''t have as much problem as your Spatial Gate. After knowing these basic things, the Space Plate will be your strongest defense." "I can see that." Alex nodded in agreement. In fact, Aileen didn''t move this whole time due to the Space Plate technique. Not only could she generate it again and again, but she could also do it all around her body and her surroundings. The reason she chose a bow must be¡­ "Did Great Elder use a bow because your Space Plate is your main ability?" "Correct." Aileen nodded with a smile. "I am mastering my Bow to kill my enemy while using Space Plate to defend my body. I will be like a moving fortress at that time. "However, there is also another step to this. Just like how you use Intent to cover your Element Arts, you can also fuse one to your Space Plate, reinforcing it even further." She raised her hand and released a few more Space Plates. Alex could see another energy which was supposed to be her Bow Intent. "That is really powerful. I am not confident I can break it¡­ Maybe only two?" "Haha¡­ Don''t forget that I''m still an 8-Star Martial Saint. It''s already ridiculous to break two of my Space Plates." She laughed out loud. Alex couldn''t help but smile, not knowing whether he was happy with the praise or the knowledge about Space. If he had mastered Space Ability from the start, it would surely increase his ability even further. Chapter 670 - End of the Fight Alex raised his spear, pulled as if drawing an arrow, and released a mighty attack from his spear. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" Aileen furrowed her eyebrows and simply brushed it off by creating a few Space Plates. Alex smiled and raised his hand as a Spatial Gate appeared right in front of his attack. He opened another gate behind Aileen. "Hmm¡­ your summoning speed is good, but it''s not enough to match an expert. " Aileen assessed his technique once more. The Mythical Spear Cannon was still making its way toward her head, but she paid no heed. She simply smiled as she summoned a Spatial Gate without looking at Alex''s attack. "You need to have speed like this. Besides, what I demonstrated just now was to make a portal to the Blue Layered realm. You need more speed to make a portal that connects one gate to another instantly. And how about making many portals at the same time? Can you do that?" Alex shook his head. "I never tried it once." "Then, you should try it." She raised her hands as fifty Spatial Gates leading to the Blue Layered Realm appeared at once. And one of them shot out his Mythical Spear Cannon. "!!!" Alex was taken aback and leaped backward. Unfortunately, the attack was caught by Aileen once again because she created another Spatial Gate right before the attack exploded on the ground. This would store the attack once more, and she could release it at another time. "Those Spatial Gates could mask your attack because it would be hard to sense which gate would release your attack. However, there is another thing that can be put into consideration. That is¡­" She waved her hands and created another fifty Spatial Gates, but there was a big difference from the previous Spatial Gates. Unlike the earlier Spatial Gates, these fifty gates didn''t lead to the Blue Layered Realm. Instead, it looked like it was connected with each other. One of them shot out his Mythical Spear Cannon while the other caught it, and it continued a few hundred times in a span of a few seconds. "You can also do it like this. By randomly continuing your attack, you can also confuse your enemy. This technique will be more effective if you are fighting numerous enemies because you can massacre them like there is no tomorrow. "At the same time, you can also attack their leader in the meantime. I usually use this as a support of my arrow, killing many enemies with a single arrow. Still, if you took a close look at these two skills, you should be able to know why we were hunted a few thousand years ago. The history only recorded it because of our ability to make the Space Ring, but this was the real truth. "Space Element is very versatile in terms of attack, defense, and support. Unfortunately, the fight was very crazy back then. It was ten thousand people against five hundred thousand. And the enemies even had two Pure Elements back then. So¡­ Yeah, don''t be blinded by history. We were strong." Aileen explained with a sad expression. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I can see many strategies with this Spatial Gate¡­." "It''s good then. You can even create multiple layers with a set of distance to move your attack to another place, confusing your enemies even further." Alex nodded and thought. ''I wonder if I should ask Rose to come here to get some instruction from her¡­ Her bow is one thing, but if she can have a Space Element and combine it with Lightning Element¡­ This will certainly be good. I will ask her later, maybe after she reaches Martial Monarch.'' When he was in deep thought, Aileen continued. "You can also cut people''s arms by having them enter their hand inside and close the gate. Of course, if they are using some Martial Arts, there is still a possibility of them preventing us from closing the gate. That''s why I don''t do it very often. "I can even teleport a mountain over and blast my enemies¡­ It just... Cutting mountain is not that easy because there is a possibility of the mountain containing hard ore, preventing you from cutting them. Besides, it takes a huge amount of Spiritual Energy to create a big Space Gate. It has the same principle as Space Plates, the bigger it''s the brittle Spatial Gate is and the more Spiritual Energy needed." Alex really had much to learn after this. He thought for a moment and asked. "Great Elder, how can my Master acquire his Space Element here?" "We have our way¡­ But mostly it''s an inheritance from our Elders and Great Elders. Our predecessors normally died in a sitting posture, leaving their inheritances behind. The reason is simple, we need to keep getting stronger, so later, we might be able to return to the surface with our banner and live there without fear anymore. If I remember correctly, your Master acquired it from his own acquaintances, so it was basically free." "If I want to acquire a Space Element, how much will it cost?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "You want what? You already have one and a stronger one than me. Why would you want one? I can''t understand." "It''s not for me." Alex shook his head. "It''s for my disciple." "It''s not really for sale though." "Eh? Really?" "Yeah. Your Master could get one because of his past relationship and status. As for you? Your status is not enough to get one." She let out a long sigh. "I see¡­ That is not possible, huh¡­" Alex shook his head in disappointment. "She also uses a bow¡­ And a genius on top of that. She can practice her bow at the speed that no one has seen before (Because of my Bow Mastery), and she also has a quite strong Lightning Element. That''s why I think it''s good to have a Space Element." "Unfortunately, it''s impossible. Only some extraordinary disciples in this place can receive their inheritance. As for your disciple, I am sure she will also pursue the same goal as yours, so it''s basically impossible. We have our rules as well, so please respect that." Alex nodded. "It''s fine. If she can''t get it, it just means she is not fated with it. No big deal." "That''s good then." She nodded with a smile. "That''s right. How about this? If she can get a Space Element outside by accident, do you think she will be treated the same as me here?" Alex asked. "If she can, then sure. I will probably issue the token for her and teach her. She will surely become another me, later on." Aileen smirked. Alex shrugged. "As long as she can get stronger, I don''t really mind." He only wanted the best for her, and if she couldn''t get it due to circ.u.mstances, then he could only let go of this matter. "That''s right. What are we going to do now?" Alex asked. "Are we going to continue this?" "No. I have seen your techniques and can somehow make your training menu for you. Just make sure you don''t exhaust your Spiritual Energy today since we are going to practice tomorrow in the morning." "I won''t." "Then, I think it''s time to end this." Aileen smiled while raising her bow and drawing her arrow. To his surprise, Alex could see the movement of her Spiritual Energy and realized that she was planning to use her Spatial Gate the moment she released her arrow. "Silver Arrow!" Alex moved to the side as if he knew there would be fifty Spatial Gates around him, making him their target. And the reason he moved to the side was that he realized that the arrow energy went toward his back. However, the arrow went inside one of the portals and attacked him again. Alex continuously dodged each attack as if he knew they were coming. Aileen didn''t say anything and released the second, third, and fourth arrows. She kept adding it more and more, making it hard for Alex to move. Suddenly, Alex created a Spatial Gate, surrounding him and released all the arrows toward Aileen. "!!!" She could only smile upon seeing this. "You are very good. Although it''s not stable, you can already achieve something like this. It also shows your comprehension. Still, it''s not enough." Another Spatial Gate appeared and caught every single arrow before releasing them separately. It was a never-ending cycle until she made another move. "!!!" Feeling the danger coming from his surroundings, Alex activated his Spiritual Weapon and created a small barrier to protect him. Suddenly, his Spatial Gate cracked before it was shred to pieces as if someone ruptured it with their hands. Around a hundred arrows attacked him simultaneously, albeit stopped right in front of him. "Hmm¡­ I never thought you could handle these arrows¡­ I wanted to use my Space Plates to stop them, but it seemed it was not necessary." Aileen furrowed her eyebrows, looking at Alex''s barrier that managed to stop every single arrow from an 8-Star Martial Saint. *Crack!* They suddenly heard a cracking sound, specifically his barrier''s cracking sound. As expected of an 8-Star Martial Saint, his energy alone wasn''t enough to stop this attack by calling the barrier from his Spiritual Weapons. ''My power is not enough to block an attack from 8-Star Martial Saint¡­ At least, she doesn''t have any intention to kill me. I will be too late if she decides to kill me." Alex felt relieved and thought. ''It seems coming here is the right choice because I can learn many things. Mastering these two skills alone might take a few months. I also need to increase my cultivation in the meantime while learning one or two more Space Ability. "Firia said she and Alicia want to meet Father-in-law and Mother-in-law in the lower world, I should also polish my understanding about Space Element so I can seal their power and go to the Lower World." Alex nodded as he pumped his fist, determined to do it. "Anyway, I have given you the basic information about Space Element¡­" Aileen walked toward him before stretching her hand. "How much do I need to pay?" Alex twitched his eyebrows and asked. "I''m not charging you that much. First of all, the house and Spatial Gate are free. You only need to pay for the Space Element Basic and Space Plates. I will teach the rest to you later, but do you want to pay it upfront or not?" "I will pay it right now since I don''t like to be disturbed with this type of matter later." Alex nodded. "Then, the total will be three million Spirit Gems." "Three million?" Alex blinked his eyes a few times. He only had around forty million Spirit Gems, and to think it almost asked for ten percent of his wealth¡­ Yet, he couldn''t think it was a waste of money. There was simply no one who could teach him about Space Element out there, so he nodded and handed the money. "Hmm¡­ You are truly wealthy." Aileen was amazed. "Anyway, I will accept the payment and teach you the basics tomorrow¡­ I want you to settle down first for today." Alex nodded. "Yes. I need to see the surroundings of my house and other things." "As long as you are not saying rude things or whatever, no disciple will make trouble for you. If they are making trouble, I will punish them personally. How''s that sound?" "According to the Great Elder''s arrangement." "By the way, you might get called by the Council because of your status." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Is it related to Great Elder Viola and my Master?" "Probably, I will be there as well." Aileen nodded before reassuring him. "Don''t worry. It''s most likely to have a meeting on how to protect you since you are his disciple." Alex nodded and cupped his hands. "Thank you for the guidance earlier, Great Elder." Aileen waved her hand, creating a Spatial Gate in front of him. "That is your house. I will see you tomorrow." "Yes." Alex slightly bowed his head and entered the gate. Chapter 671 - Their Current Course As soon as Alex went back to his new house, he activated his Spirit Eyes to check whether this place was observed by anyone or any hidden array. At the same time, he was also curious whether his Master left anything in this house. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he looked around, he couldn''t see a single suspicious thing. He then moved toward the garden and saw three nearby houses with no one in it. He was confused as to why they left it empty but didn''t walk around to avoid any trouble. He went back inside and took out Anna''s card. "Anna, how is the situation over there?" "I have informed the others about your current situation. They can understand your current situation and are ready to be summoned if you want to escape from there." She reported while releasing a little bit of killing intent. "It''s fine. I am not mistreated here." Alex reassured her with a gentle voice. "I am trying to practice my Space Element that I have neglected this entire time." "Is that so?" Anna paused for a moment and asked. "Do you need us to do anything? And what is our next plan?" "Hmm¡­ I will probably stay here for a year or so to master my Space Element. I assume we will stay low for the time being. As for when we can make our appearance again¡­ it''s on Seven Influences Banquet. Kyle and Stina can try to break through to Martial Saint within this time. "Also, make sure Sherry doesn''t slack in mastering her new Fire Skill¡­ I will master it while I am here as well. I might only reach 8-Star Martial Saint within these one year because I need to practice other skills, so I will master everything I can." Alex already made a plan for his advancement. Due to the current situation, he wanted to have another two Space Element techniques if possible. It would mean he had five techniques, including the seal realm technique. Then, there was still his Fire Ability, he didn''t have many things to do except mastering the same as Sherry''s technique. Creating a sword and enveloping them by his Intent would give him a boost on attack power. If he combined with Space Elements, it would be scary. As for his Sword and Spear, he had no current objective other than deepening his understanding. He hoped he could reach the last stage Sword and Spear God Stage right after breaking through to God Stage. Last but not least was his power as Array Master and Alchemist. He was planning to get more money from here on because he felt it would be costly to stay here. After all, one technique and basic understanding cost him three million Spirit Gems. He had several pills and arrays he was planning to train as soon as he reached 8-Star Martial Monarch. All of these things would probably make him busy for more than a year. "Alright. I understand your plan of staying there. As long as you are careful, I''m sure you won''t get into trouble." Anna paused for a moment and said. "How about our plan? What do you want us to do?" Alex contemplated for a few minutes. "First of all, I need you to keep killing monsters and search for medicinal ingredients, especially the rare one, because they won''t be available in the market. Firia will refine the pills for the time being. That will give us our money for a while. "After that, I want you to check Letizia''s and Evelyn''s conditions and progress. Evelyn aside, Letizia''s current condition is a bit concerning. Although she won''t be killed, torture and other things are still available. The hardest wound to get healed is a scar on the heart. Just make sure she doesn''t have a trauma as I did, so inform me if anything happens to her. "I also want you to maintain the relationship between us and the Blackwade Clan. Even as a business partner is fine, just make sure you keep it secret from others. I want them to see us as a huge business partner first before revealing my card." Alex finished his order and took a deep breath. Anna thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. We will kill as many monsters as possible to increase our strength and Gacha Tickets. If possible, I will make all spirits reach 1-Star Martial Saint¡­ Without EXP Cards, it will be hard, but I am sure it''s absolutely possible with EXP Cards. Anya and Firia will take charge of the planning here, so you don''t need to worry. "Anya will also handle the training for Stina and Kyle while Firia takes care of Sherry''s Fire Training. I will be in charge of fieldwork. As for Letizia, we have Nano stand by beside her, so we will know if anything happens. Njomo is staying under Evelyn''s shadow this whole time and reports her progress to us from time to time. "Lastly, Nicole takes care of Blackwade Clan matter. Considering their successor, Song Jiaoren, already met her, it should be easier to maintain our current relationship. With how we hunt, use Inventory, and produce income, it should be enough to create an image of being a wealthy influence." Alex listened to her plan and management and knew he didn''t need to worry about them. "I understand. I will leave the others in your hand. Inform me of the progress every month unless there is an emergency situation." "Understood." Anna nodded. "I love you¡­ Anya, Firia, and Sherry too." Alex smiled gently, knowing he couldn''t meet either of them for more than a year. "Love you too¡­ I will pass your message to the others as well." "Yes. See you later." Alex nodded and put back her card inside the Inventory. Looking at his surroundings, he realized that he needed to train hard. "Let see¡­ Creating Space Plates at the same time is hard, and I need to do it fast enough." Alex raised his hands and created the Space Plates one by one. Aileen made it look easy, but it was harder than controlling a few hundred firebirds because he was connecting the real world and the Spatial World, AKA the Blue Layered Realm. The Space Plates slowly formed one after another. Even though he succeeded, he could see it wasn''t stable enough to block an attack. *Crack¡ª!* His techniques started to crack after making five Space Plates. He actually had used this technique to create his array, but he never made one like a puzzle. His heart said that he might be able to create a sturdier array quicker if he mastered this Space Plate Technique. He just needed to know what kind of action would make other people realize his Space Elements so as to avoid them. He began his practice because it looked amazing. He wouldn''t want to waste any seconds after knowing how wonderful Space Element is. ¡­ A few hours later, someone suddenly went to his house, ringing the doorbell. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found out it was Aileen. ''What does she want to do?'' The first thought that came to his mind that Aileen wanted to talk it out with Alex, but it would be impossible. Hence, he confidently came out and greeted her. "Great Elder." Aileen nodded gently. "Do you have any problem with the house? I can change it for you." "No. The house is comfortable for me." Alex smiled before asking. "If I may ask, for what reason does Great Elder visit this humble person?" "It''s nothing. I just want to check on you, so Viola can''t say anything bad, especially about how I mistreat you." "Ahaha¡­ I am fine in this house. My Master once stayed in this place after all." Alex chuckled. She looked at him for a few seconds before taking three books out of his Inventory. "These three books are for Space Element basic, my version of Space Plate and Spatial Gate. You can learn it from this place." Alex received the three books and stared at them for a couple of seconds before thanking Aileen. "Thank you." "You have paid for it, so no need to thank me." Aileen smiled before pointing at the three houses around him. "I am staying in the furthest house, so you can go there to ask me if you have any problems with the technique. The other two houses are for my Disciples. The eldest disciple is Ryuu, a 1-Star Martial Saint. He is a polite kid and a good-natured one that loves his friends and family. "My second disciple is Maya, 3-Star Martial Monarch. She is a bit rash, but pretty tame in front of Ryuu, so if she makes trouble, just go to me or Ryuu. We will handle her." "I understand." Alex nodded. "You can read all three books first for one day and try to understand everything on your own. If you have any questions, you can ask me the day after tomorrow. I will introduce you to my disciples on the third day." "Yes." Alex nodded repeatedly. She kept mentioning her disciples as if she wanted them to meet Alex. She might even have a hidden intention for this, so Alex put his guard up. "Alright, then. I will leave now." "Yes." Alex smiled gently as he saw the Great Elder off. After closing the door, he quickly ran back to his room and started reading the book. He learned that everything about Space Element would naturally be related to the Blue Layered Realm. The Space Ability itself was playing around these two worlds, either connect it or separate it. To achieve the Spatial Gates like Aileen''s, he needed to connect the first Spatial Gates to the Blue Layered Realm. After that, he needed to connect the second gate to the special realm as well. This connection needed to be perfectly linked. In other words, this technique required two Spatial Gates to make it that way. It was a high-level technique, so he was pretty amazed by all the variations he could use to enhance his ability. The same applied to the Space Plate Technique. There were three types of conditions for it. Firstly, the Space Plate wouldn''t affect the world at all if they stayed inside the Blue Layered Realm. If he made them resurface a little bit, it would fall under the second category. The Space Plate would stay in between two worlds, allowing the Space Plates to affect the real world. This was the condition where they could make an invisible shield. Lastly, it was entirely in the real world. In this case, the Space Plate would affect the world directly. This condition perfectly fit the condition when he used it to make an array resurface in the real world by a single snap of his finger. It was already created inside the Blue Layered Realm, so Alex only needed to activate it in the real world. Alex was intrigued by these three books, so he read it over and over again. He didn''t forget to take a note to remind him of the questions he wanted to ask the Great Elder. Albeit, studying would always bring him a surprise. Out of many questions he had, it was already answered just by reading the books a few more times. Unfortunately, not many people had the patience to read the book over and over again, including the people from Earth. Without him knowing, tomorrow came and ended without anything noteworthy. Alex, on the other hand, forgot about the promise and kept reading his book, exploring the wonder of Space Element while practicing the two techniques. Surprisingly, he practiced more efficiently after knowing some basic knowledge¡­ Albeit, he forgot the promise with the Great Elder. *Ding!* The doorbell rang again, and Alex realized his wrongdoing. He quickly got up and headed to the door. "I''m sorry, Great Elder. I was too fixated on the new knowledge." Alex scratched his head and said apologetically. Aileen still put her gentle smile and nodded. "I am just checking you. Do you have any questions?" Chapter 672 - News "I am just checking you. Do you have any questions?" Alex sighed as he took a deep breath before saying. "I have several questions about the Space Element. First of all¡­" He started asking all the questions he had. Of course, he didn''t forget to invite her inside. Aileen was surprised that he only had a few questions. She remembered that she needed to teach her students over and over again and answered their questions numerous times. Suspecting him not read anything, she decided to test his knowledge and only got a shock right after. Alex explained it carefully, and each answer was sophisticated as if he understood what he was talking about. She couldn''t ask him anything or test him again after a few questions. The answers left her stupefied and made her go back to her house without a single complaint. "I will go to your house again tomorrow to introduce you to my disciples. If you have a question and I am busy on that day, you can find my disciples. They should be able to answer any basics. Or if you are going to know about the deeper understanding, you need to wait until I am ready first." "Yes." Alex simply nodded and saw her off. He tried to incorporate the knowledge from earlier to the one from his own understanding, trying to see if he had another question to ask later. ¡­ The next day, Aileen was busy in her room, finishing the morning matter before her room was opened as two people went inside the room. "Ryuu, Maya! You both have worked hard¡­ How was the surface?" Aileen called her two disciples. The male had long black hair and a calm expression. He appeared sincere, but would certainly show his slyness when the time came. On the other hand, the female had long pink hair tied into a ponytail. "Master." Ryuu clasped his hands and bowed his head while Maya ran across the room and threw herself to Aileen, hugging her energetically. Aileen smiled and stroked Maya''s hair before looking at Ryuu, asking for the report. "The surface is pretty turmoil right now." Ryuu''s expression turned serious. "That''s right. There is going to be a bloodbath soon." Maya nodded and released her master. "Explain to me more clearly." Aileen furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms. "Yes. I will explain it to you, Master." Ryuu nodded and recalled all the matters. "Firstly, it seems the continent has another powerful influence that has been hidden this whole time. They are called Spirit Nest." "Spirit Nest?" Aileen was obviously confused with this name because Alex had yet to mention a single word about Spirit Nest. He only told her that he created his own influence. ''Is it him? It can''t be, right? How long and how far an influence can go when it''s built by a little less than thirty years old young man?'' "Yes. There will be a war soon on the continent¡­ And I am sure either Spirit Nest or Fire God Clan will perish in this war. There is a possibility of other influences joining this battle." Maya nodded with a smile. "Haha! They deserve that. Have all those people fight against each other and destroy each other." "Hmm¡­ Our entrance should be perfectly safe. As long as we hide in this place until the storm passes, we might see a new chance for standing tall on that continent once more." Aileen thought for a moment and said. "Out of the seven influences, who else might join this battle?" "We are not sure, but I will explain everything we learn in this mission." Ryuu shook his head in disappointment. "Firstly, it all happened a year ago. The Spirit Nest killed Fire God Clan elders and their young master, creating a turmoil on the Heavenly Continent. "After that, the Blackwade Clan joined forces with Fire God Clan to catch this Spirit Nest, only to find them leaving from the alliance due to the Fire God Clan not being sincere. Not having anyone they could trust their back, the Fire God Clan didn''t come to catch the Spirit Nest. "Later, I found out that the Spirit Nest suddenly appeared on the Sacred Continent, destroying Black Devil Sect. Having known their location, Fire God Clan decided to attack them with only two 5-Star Martial Saints and allied with Ancient Blue Family. However, they were annihilated in a single day. The two Martial Saints were killed by the Spirit Nest''s leader. According to the information, it seemed he was only a 3-Star Martial Monarch¡­ I was stunned and couldn''t understand what method he used to kill them. "End of the story, the Fire God Clan retreated to the Heavenly Continent and stayed low for the time being. It seemed there was a problem with their alliance with the Ancient Blue Family, but we couldn''t find any details about it. As for the Spirit Nest, we can''t track them at all." Ryuu finished his report while shaking his head. Aileen furrowed her eyebrows and thought, ''It''s definitely not him. He is a 6-Star Martial Saint, so it must be someone else. The possibility of them having Martial Saint experts to help them are huge¡­'' "That''s right. I am curious about this leader of Spirit Nest. I still can''t believe that he can kill a Martial Saint even though he has the same cultivation stage as me. Besides, Elder Brother Ryuu is the best¡­ If this Alexander Sirius fights Elder Brother Ryuu, he won''t be able to win without using a trick." Maya nodded furiously, revealing Alex''s name unconsciously. "What did you say?!" Aileen slammed her table and glared at Maya. "Ma-Master?" Maya''s heart skipped a beat as she stepped back out of reflex. "Who is his name? No, did you say Alexander Sirius?" Aileen released her Spiritual Energy, scaring these two disciples. "Hi¡ª! Ye-yes, their leader is Alexander Sirius." Maya nodded furiously while her body was shaking. "I am done with this¡­ Monster will always give birth to another monster." Aileen dropped her head to the table and began sweating profusely. "Master? Why do you have such a reaction after learning the name of Alexander Sirius?" Ryuu narrowed his eyes, confused with her exaggerated reaction. "Do you know about the First Grand Elder of the Fire Temple? The one that came five thousand years ago to learn about Space Element and reached God Stage not long after." "Of course. Without you telling us of his story, his name will be an urban legend for us because he was the only one that became a God from this place." Ryuu nodded. "If I tell you his disciples come to this place, what will you do?" "What?!" Ryuu dropped his jaw to the ground and blinked his eyes a few times. "And that person''s name is Alexander Sirius." *Thud¡ª!* Maya was speechless while Ryuu''s body started shaking as he asked. "Is that true, Master? Where is he?" "He came here a few days ago and now is under my care. I am going to teach him Space Element in the same way as his teacher. He needs to pay a fee for the teaching." She furrowed her eyebrows. "To think he is such a person¡­ I thought about going lenient with him and didn''t overcharge him. If I knew his identity earlier, I would surely charge him more! But now I can''t do anything about it¡­" Ryuu thought for a moment and let out a long sigh. "It seems he is going to bring another problem to our place¡­ Master should know that each temple went with us, and I am sure they are reporting to their respective great elders¡­" "That''s right. That Viola knew about him first, so she must have informed the other Great Elders about it. If they know his identity, this is going to be troublesome for us¡­ It seems all temples will have a meeting soon." She bit her lips, sensing the danger coming from the other temples. "It seems I am going to be summoned by all those elders tomorrow¡­" "Master, should we come with you, or are you going to bring me?" "No. He will stay here for the time being. Those people want to know him first before planning something, and I am sure it will be a big one." "Why?" Maya furrowed her eyebrows, finally turning serious. "He is a 6-Star Martial Monarch now, and his real age is less than 30 years old. He said he didn''t remember¡­ But we usually don''t remember as well because we have been living for so long. He shouldn''t forget about it this early, but knowing this means he has never found age is something that matters. This also means that he doesn''t tell anyone about his age that much, so others don''t know about his real age. When the truth is revealed, they will be shocked to the core, and there might be a major upheaval after that. I mean, who won''t wish for such a son-in-law¡­" Aileen sighed and looked at Ryuu and Maya standing in front of them, dumbfounded. She thought for a moment and continued. "We can increase someone''s cultivation with enough resources, right? All influences must be searching for a method to advance as quickly as him but without a backlash because most people will surely have their potential limited by this method¡­ At the same time, it comes at a high cost. You can say that our entire sect can boost twenty normal disciples to 7-Star Martial Saint, depending on their talent¡­ It will be done within less than a decade, but we won''t have anything afterward. "That''s why major influences won''t use this type of method unless it''s necessary. Their family will also become unstable with those resources flying away. Hence, Alexander Sirius will be one of a kind and naturally be targeted¡­ Did they know about his Pure Fire and Space Element? No, did they know anything about his real power?" Ryuu contemplated for a minute before saying. "No. They know everything from his sword, alchemist, to his Pure Fire¡­ But they don''t know a single thing about him having a Space Element." "Do you know anything about him? I mean, when he revealed each of his power? I am sure it''s not at the same time, right?" "I heard such information, but I couldn''t confirm the credibility. If Master doesn-" "Say it!" Ryuu took a deep breath and nodded. "Firstly, he was only a simple Martial Master, climbing his way to the top with his sword. At that time, he was a disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect on the Willow Continent. If I am not wrong, he revealed only his Alchemist identity, his Sword, and Spear when he was on the Willow Continent¡­ He openly used his Array on the Northern Continent, which was where his Pure Fire was discovered. He¡­ What a guy¡­" Maya couldn''t understand why Ryuu praised him while Aileen nodded solemnly. "It seems you have understood him¡­ slightly. He must be hiding his Space Element until now because he wants to use it against them at the right moment. That''s why he never trained his Space Element and only trained it now. He is really a devil because he will wreak havoc on the Heavenly Continent as soon as he reaches Martial Saint. I''m sure that many people deem him dangerous. Do you know anything about his allies?" "I don''t know about his ally, but I learned that he was the mentor of the current successor of Drunken Pavilion. Besides, the owner of this pavilion was Great Elder Maxwell''s friend, right?" "Indeed. Now we can see he has an ally. If there is nothing wrong with his progress¡­ I''m sure the other Great Elders will use it to¡­ We are going to be busy soon." Aileen rose from her seat. "You two are going to follow me to his house. I am going to introduce him to you. Make sure you act natural and polite to him, especially you, Maya. I know your obsession with Ryuu, but this time is different. Unless you want to spend one hundred years alone in your room, then watch your mouth." Ryuu and Maya tensed up as they bowed. "Yes, Master." Chapter 673 - Alex and Ryuu "Yes, Master." The three of them then teleported to Alex''s house. Alex gradually opened his eyes after sensing three people coming closer to his house. ''It should be the Great Elder and her disciples.'' He thought without hesitation. Only the Great Elder knew his existence, and with the promise she had previously, Alex was able to predict it. He stood up and headed to the door, coming out of the house before those three landed. Looking up a bit, he activated his Spirit Eyes and confirmed that they also had Space Element. On the other hand, Maya lifted up her eyebrows, never expecting a handsome man caused the chaos on the surface. ''He¡­ He is handsome¡­ Even more than Elder Brother Ryuu. But Elder Brother is the number one in my heart. No matter how hard you try to sway my heart, you won''t get it.'' She started her own delusion, picturing what if both Ryuu and Alex pursued her, and couldn''t help but drool at this moment. Luckily, Ryuu and Aileen were focused on Alex. Landing on the ground, Aileen smiled gently and greeted Alex. "I hope you have a great time in this place, Alexander Sirius. Let me introduce you. These two are my disciples." She stretched her hands toward Ryuu and Maya before stepping aside. Ryuu walked forward and cupped his hand. "Nice to meet you. I have heard so much about you from Master and on the surface, o'' Spirit Nest''s leader, Alexander Sirius. I am Ryuu Raichi. You can call me Ryuu." Maya also stepped forward and bowed her head politely. "Maya Ai." Alex furrowed his eyebrows at first, never expecting that they managed to learn his identity. But knowing they were from the surface and must have reported the matter to their Master first, they would be foolish if they didn''t know it was him. Hence, he nodded with a smile. "I am Alexander Sirius. You can call me Alex." Aileen glanced at her disciples first before saying. "That''s right. I am planning to have another discussion with you if you have another question. My disciples will help you with the basics if I am busy, as I said yesterday. Ryuu, I am leaving the matter to you." "Yes, Master. I will not disappoint you." Ryuu nodded solemnly. "Wait, Master! Why do you only leave it to Elder Brother? I am still here!" Maya protested while circling around Aileen. Aileen patted her head and chuckled. "You still need more training before you can teach anyone anything. Firstly, you shouldn''t skip my homework or ask your Elder Brother to finish your homework. Then, you can start paying attention to all of my lectures and read the books carefully." Maya suddenly froze and was sweating profusely. "Master¡­ I¡ª" "You are going to-" Before Aileen finished her words, an elder appeared beside them. It seemed he was this Space Temple Elder. "Great Elder! We have an emergency." "What? Did the Council want to meet me?" Aileen raised her eyebrows and stepped forward, glaring at this elder. The elder stepped back as he nodded profusely. "Ye-yes. We just got the information, and other elders said you might probably here." She let out a long sigh before looking at the three people. "I am sorry. I need to go now. You three can talk first without me." Alex, Ryuu, and Maya nodded. Aileen then snapped her finger and created a Spatial Gate that connected this place to the place in front of the portal. "Tell the messenger to go back and the other elders to continue their job." "Yes!" The elder nodded as Aileen went inside the gate and disappeared. The elder then nodded to Ryuu before leaving them. Alex and Ryuu locked into each other''s eyes, ignoring Maya''s existence. "I have heard so much about you, Alexander Sirius. It is my honor to see you in person." Ryuu smiled and stretched his hand. Alex nodded and shook his hand. "I''m not someone special." "Haha¡­ So young with that many achievements, if you are not special, I wonder if the world still has someone special?" Ryuu laughed out loud before his expression turned serious. "Actually, I want to ask you something." "Please ask." Alex nodded. "I heard that you have attained the highest swordsmanship and reached Sword Saint. If possible, I want to learn Sword Skill for you. Of course, I will pay for it as well, like how you are doing with my Master¡­ Wait, I have a more interesting offer for you. How about I teach you a Space Element Technique, and you teach me swordsmanship. That should be fair, right?" Ryuu offered a barter. Alex thought for a moment and said. "It''s indeed an interesting offer. However, my hands are full with Space Plates and Spatial Gates. In fact, I only learned about the Space Element recently, so I don''t think I need to learn another Space Element for the time being." "That is fine with me." Ryuu nodded. "Or you can start by teaching me while practicing your Space Element Techniques. I can give you some inputs regarding these two techniques. Of course, I will offer advice for free. You can say it''s an additional bonus from my payment." "That is also not a bad idea." Alex thought he could use it to his advantage. By having someone to guide him in these basics, he could finish his training quicker. As much as he hated to say it, he actually needed around four months just to reach 8-Star Martial Saint, and that was only if he was purely cultivated. It was this long because he didn''t have Firia or Sherry with him. At the same time, he needed more than three months to learn every Array and Pill he wanted, thus the first seven months. He only had another eleven months before the Seven Influences Banquet began. He then needed to learn these two techniques and Space Element basics, which required him another few months. If he sped up this process by having Ryuu teach him, he might be able to squish time to learn two or three Space Techniques while training Sherry''s Fire Technique that turned the firebirds to fire swords. Alex had no objection to his idea and nodded his head. "Alright. I will take your offer. When do you want us to begin?" "As soon as possible. But since I just came back, I need to submit a written report to the temple. I need two¡­ No, one day to finish it. I will come to your house again since it''s not that far." Ryuu nodded while pointing at the nearest house. Alex glanced at the house and nodded. He knew the nearest and the furthest houses were Ryuu''s and Aileen''s respectively, so the one in-between must be Maya''s house. "I am fine with this arrangement as well. I will meet you tomorrow at this place. Besides, where do you think we can practice?" "No worry. I can access the Master''s Training Field. Do you know that we have another tower that has been equipped by Space Technique and Illusion Array to have a simulation battle? I will use the Master''s room that only the Great Elder can use. That''s why we can practice without having anyone disturb us. I''m sure you will like the room." Ryuu smiled, feeling he had succeeded in enticing Alex. "Sure." Kai nodded once again before glancing at Maya, who was pouting. Ryuu finally remembered Maya and realized he was too focused on Alex this whole time. "Ah, Maya!" "Ah, Maya, What?!" Maya glared at Ryuu. "You are always like this. You can only train and train to the point you forget about anything. You even forget Maya and Master when you want to train!" "I''m sorry." Ryuu chuckled before looking at this little girl with a smile. "It''s really a bad habit of mine that I am trying to change, but it''s easier said than done. Anyway, how about you go to your house first? I have something to talk about with Alexander Sirius." "Humph." She looked away and snorted. "I am staying here." Ryuu''s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Alex apologetically. Alex simply waved his hand. "It''s fine. I don''t mind." Ryuu then talked a few things to him, and he needed to know how many things his master already promised Alex. After all, he had the same principle as his master, so he didn''t want to cheat Alex and vice versa. Alex answered all of his inquiries, treating it as small talk. Maya kept looking at the two a few meters from them while pouting her face. After another hour, she got annoyed and came closer. "You two never stop talking. If it''s like this, I also want to trade. I can trade a Space Technique with him!" Alex glanced at her, astonished. Ryuu only smiled while patting her hair like his master before saying mean words. "Now now. You need to learn your Space Element first because most of your techniques aren''t stable. Master already warned you multiple times, but you always treated them as nothing. Do you think you can trade and teach him your technique? It''s better to learn from the book rather than someone who has yet to master the technique because there might be many misunderstandings." "I¡­ I¡­" She bit her lips while glaring at Ryuu. Ryuu ignored her and looked at Alex. "If you want to learn technique, we have Martial Arts Temple where we mostly store our techniques there. I can guide you to that place and inform you that you are an Honorary Elder, seeking a technique. The elder there should give you a fair offer after seeing the technique. Your Master also did that, so do you want to try it?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "It''s only a technique, right? I mean, I can only borrow the book, not buy it, no?" "Unfortunately, yes. The techniques here can''t be learned by outsiders. However, your status can only give you the privilege to learn the technique before giving the book back¡­ Of course, you can''t copy it as well. Once the matter is known, there will be an elder that will punish you." "To be honest, I still don''t understand the rule in this place. Can you explain it to me?" Alex asked. Ryuu shook his head and took out a thin book. "This is the rule of this place. You only need fifteen minutes to read it, I guess. I will lend it to you first, and you can give it back to me tomorrow. Does that sound good enough?" "Sure. This will be helpful since I don''t want to have unnecessary problems." Alex nodded, taking the book and storing it inside his Space Ring. "I also want to visit this temple since I''m in need of Space Element Arts. I can know what I need as well after looking at all those arts." "Of course. I will guide you there tomorrow. I am sure you will like at least one of my techniques because I have chosen them carefully, so I am not afraid to bring you there even before our practice starts." Ryuu nodded. Alex smiled and nodded, looking at Ryuu''s confidence. "I am looking forward to your techniques then. I hope they won''t disappoint me." He had thrown many good techniques in his memory because it was not compatible with him. That was why he was wondering what kind of technique he had to be this confident. "Then, I probably have one last question for you. This place is irreplaceable to me. I have realized this after visiting the surface for the second time. Unlike the surface, this place doesn''t love conflicts because we shed our tears a few thousand years ago¡­ However, we are not actually afraid of problems. Hence, I wish to ask this one last question to you, who come here so suddenly with the identity as Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple¡­" "Sure. Ask me anything. I will answer if I can." Alex nodded. Ryuu''s expression turned serious as his Spiritual Energy started leaking out of his body. He looked at Alex and asked. "Are you a threat to this place?" Chapter 674 - Behind the Scene Discussion In the middle of the Freedom Sect stood tall yet another temple. However, unlike the red colored temples, this one was dominated white roses to the point that the red color was hardly seen. Aileen entered the building and headed toward the highest floor. On her left were the elders of Fire Temple, Lightning Temple, and Earth Temple. On her right were the elders from Water Temple, Wind Temple, and Ice Temple. However, there were only two people sitting in front of her. They were the elders from Darkness Temple and Light Temple because the empty seat was her. "Fufu¡­ It''s been a hundred years since our last discussion. It''s really intriguing to see all of you once again." Aileen smiled as she walked toward the middle before jumping toward her own seat and crossing her arms. "So, what do you want for me? I don''t think we need pleasantries, right? So, let''s cut to the chase." Viola looked at the current people and sighed. After concealing themselves for a few thousand years, they had built their strength, and this would be the perfect time to¡­ Responding to her statement, the man from Light Temple rose. He was a bald old man with a long white robe like a priest. "I think you already know what we want to talk about." "As expected, it''s him, huh¡­" Aileen sighed while looking at all of them with a bored look. "Before we are talking about him, you already know about his identity, right?" "Of course. The disciples have informed us¡­ and with the information provided by Great Elder Viola, Alexander Sirius is bonafide Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple and the leader of Spirit Nest." The old man nodded. "Since we are talking about him, then make sure to have his identity in your mind. Since you have, then let''s talk." Aileen nodded. "Firstly, I want you to tell me anything you know about him." Aileen thought for a moment and nodded before starting her storytelling. Of course, she told them everything, including Alex''s needs and his disciple. Everyone listened attentively to the very details to see whether he would bring salvation or doom for them. After around thirty minutes, she finished her story and ended it with a single question. "What is your ultimate goal?" Aileen furrowed her eyebrows. "I only have one goal¡­ No, it should be everyone''s goal." "Return to the surface?" Aileen narrowed her eyes as her eyebrows twitched. Surprised and annoyance filled her heart at the same time, making her unable to express these two feelings clearly. "And how can we do that?" "It''s simple. If Spirit Nest helps us to eradicate two influences, we should be able to establish ourselves on the surface." He nodded. "Only two? We were attacked by all people on that Continent, you know!" "Not all people." He shook his head and smiled. "We still had allies in the past. Although we have nothing currently, have you thought there is a deal between Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan? With our three influences, we can simply wipe the Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family. This way, even if the other three influences attacked us, we will be able to fend for ourselves since it will be three versus three battles. "And you forget something. We have been waiting for this whole time, honing our skills and cultivations. Right now, we have two 10-Star Martial Saints, four 9-Star Martial Saints, and two 8-Star Martial Saints in this room. With this number alone, it''s clear that we can be two influences, so it will be four versus three fight. "If there is a suspicious movement, we can destroy Blackwade Clan swiftly and establish our place firmly¡­ Especially since the boy wants to ascend. If it''s only three influences versus us, then we are not afraid. Although it''s a bit hard, we should be able to manage." The elder nodded with a smile. "!!!" Aileen widened her eyes, never expecting that he had planned to this step. "Still, don''t you think it''s dangerous? Besides, how can we even convince him to take part?" "It''s simple. We can just give him a reward¡­ What do you think the appropriate gift to him, Great Elder Aileen?" Aileen thought for a moment before looking up as if she realized the answer. "You mean Space Element. It''s true that he is searching for a Space Element for his disciple, but he might not take it. He is a man of principle from what I can see." The old man thought and smiled. "It''s simple. We can entice him step by step. Learning that his heart won''t be swayed by some random women, then we will entice them with Space Element. Firstly, we can use the Potential Tower to make a small competition for all disciples. Of course, he can join as well. The reward will be a lesser Space Element. "He is a responsible teacher, so he must want the best for his disciple. In that case, he will seek for the best Space Element. We will give him the chance to acquire it by helping us eliminating two influences. The first will be Fire God Clan, but they are currently his enemy, so we won''t need to request it, allowing us to lessen the request to him. "The second influence will be up to him. If we are able to do this, we can give him the Space Element and teach his disciple Space Element for free until she can master this element. After all, we can''t bring the Element inheritance with us if we are going to the surface. It will be useless, so I rather use it as a bargaining chip. We can even protect her until she reaches God Stage like him. "After that, we can say goodbye to this place." The elder smirked as he had longed to return the surface for long. "Still¡­ Why do you want him to enter the Potential Tower?" "You already know that there are ten floors of Potential, right? It can measure his talent and allow us to promote him. Besides, he won''t take the deal unless it''s something like this." Aileen looked up and sighed. "Ten floors of potential¡­ Each floor will test him by using the power of different elements. Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness, Space, and Mental Element. On each floor, your strength will be limited, and you should use your wisdom to prove that you have an affinity with elements and have profound wisdom. Only Great Elder Maxwell has passed ten floors and become a God. "Maybe¡­ It''s only by conquering the Potential Tower that one has the qualification to challenge Heaven and become a God. Both of our 10-Star Martial Saints have tested and failed at the ninth floor while I only reached the eighth floor." "That''s right. We need to do this right now before it''s too late. Great Elder Maxwell won''t choose someone useless, and you have experienced it yourself." The elder nodded. "Even so, what if he is angry and rejects you right away?" Aileen narrowed her eyes. She might fight this elder if he said he would kill him. Fortunately, the elder smiled and shook his head. "I won''t do anything. I will simply ask his disciple then and let her decide. Of course, I will say it to him directly, and I am sure he will leave the choice to his own disciple. It might be easier to entice her than her master." Aileen slammed and stood up, glaring at this old man. "Are you serious? I won''t do this." "I haven''t told you everything, Great Elder Aileen." He shook his head. "We are different than those people from the surface. We have our own consciences. We won''t force someone to do against their will, including threatening them. This is simply give and take. Hence, I am going to request all of you to vote whether we go with this plan or not? Now!" The Great Elders contemplated for a few minutes before the Great Elders from Ice and Water temples raised their hands. The Great Elder from Lightning Temple also raised his hand. "I want to ask one last question." Viola suddenly opened her mouth as he glared at Licht. "Go ahead." "It''s not a question, but more to a statement. You already know my morals and principles, especially toward my mentor''s disciple. I am going to tell you this first, I will back him up if you do anything underhanded even if it means creating a huge conflict in this place." Viola said while releasing her killing intent, telling him he was serious. "Of course. I have considered everything. If you think I am excessive, you can simply warn me. If I don''t stop, you can beat me hard or even kill me." Licht said with a solemn expression. He dared to bet his life for the hope to live on the surface again. "Besides, we can simply retreat to this place if we fail¡­ Sure, it will come costly, but we can build up our strength once more and try again later¡­ Albeit, I won''t be alive by that time." Viola looked at his eyes for a minute before raising her hands. Surprisingly, the Darkness Elder beside Licht also raised her hand. "I will support you this time, Old Licht. But I don''t think his reward is worth the efforts, it''s too little. I will also add his reward from my own coffers. You have no problem with that, right?" "Of course. You all free to do anything you want. I will take the role of convincing him, so inform me everything you want to do." Licht nodded. The rest of the elders finally nodded their heads. Aileen still had given her confirmation, not because it had been decided. She simply wanted to state another thing. "Firstly, Our Great Elder two generations back had become a friend of Great Elder Maxwell¡­ There was a record only a Great Elder knew, and it only passed to him by the late Great Elder. She said to me to only tell all of you when we want to resurface." Aileen paused for a moment as the others listened to her with confused expressions. She continued, "This place has been longing to make its appearance again, but we also feel tired of relentless war. That''s why I won''t liberate this place from its curse despite capable of doing so. I only have one reason. The current Freedom Sect doesn''t have a united will to go to the surface. When they live in the real world, they will know how harsh the world is and might be scared. Hence, if you ever want to go to the surface, it''s better to take those who want and who doesn''t. "This way, the disciples that have grown tired of fighting on the surface could go back to this place. And those who have grown tired of this place can try experiencing the surface. Everyone has their own belief, so don''t force it on them¡­ As it will become the biggest weakness that will be exploited by the enemies. "The second thing will be to create another entrance somewhere far away so the disciples won''t give the enemies the correct way to go to this place. After all, killing and torture are normal on the surface. Make sure you consider these two points before coming to the surface and if you still go after these two warnings, then make sure you see it to the end¡­ Thus the end of the message." Suddenly, all Great Elders rose from their seats, cupped their hands, and bowed. "We have received the words of Senior!" At first, they were confused, but they realized they had yet to think this far after hearing the profound message. As expected of the only person who became a God. They only had respect in their hearts. Aileen let out a long sigh. "Great Elder Licht¡­ Do you still have the same resolve?" Licht''s body was shaken, losing his confidence. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His expression turned solemn as he answered Aileen with determination. "Yes!" The other Great Elders also turned solemn as they nodded their heads. Chapter 675 - Start of the Training The next day, Alex came out of his house, only to find Ryuu and Maya waiting for him. He silently walked toward them while glancing over Ryuu a few times. He recalled the matter of yesterday¡­ The previous day¡­ "Are you a threat to this place?" Ryuu asked while releasing his killing intent and Spiritual Energy to intimidate Alex. Alex looked at his eyes for a few seconds and realized the reason he asked this question. Ryuu must love this place, so a stranger like him would surely bring a change to this place, even more so with Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple. Still, he didn''t like it when someone asked him this way. Hence, Alex released his Spiritual Energy and killing intent simultaneously. Maya opened her eyes wide, wondering what just happened. Just earlier, they were talking like friends, happy go lucky, but everything changed when Ryuu suddenly asked that question. She looked at their clashes and got utterly shocked. Spiritual Energy wise, Alex''s 6-Star Martial Monarch Spiritual Energy wouldn''t be a match against Ryuu''s 1-Star Martial Saint Energy, yet the difference wasn''t that far. It was easy to see that Ryuu could dominate in terms of energy, but he couldn''t suppress Alex''s energy because of Alex''s killing intent. Ryuu himself had killed many people and monsters, acc.u.mulating killing intent for a few hundred years. Yet, the twenty-eight years old young man in front of him obliterated his killing intent. Maya was far on the side, but she felt a bit weak when she saw this amount of killing intent. ''How¡­ How can his killing intent be this deep? How many lives has he killed?'' Asking the question that would never be answered, Maya tried to stop them but to no avail. Ryuu might have killed a few thousand, albeit mostly monsters, but he had done it for a few hundred years. Unfortunately, in front of him was Alex. Ryuu tried to understand this killing intent¡­ ''A few thousand¡­ No, to release a killing intent this deep??? He must have killed a few ten thousands if not one hundred thousand.'' Shivering from fear, Maya stepped back. ''How¡­ How can a boy in his late twenty kill this many?'' Ryuu was also surprised by this sudden display and thought about retreating out of shock, but he decided to hold on and kept standing in front of him as if nothing happened. Little did they know that Alex''s killing count was over a hundred thousand. It wasn''t from the Willow Continent alone where he killed many monsters and soldiers, it ran back from the day he was in the lower world. He had been killing so many monsters along with those in the dungeons, spanning to thousands, if not tens of thousands. This killing intent wasn''t someone like Ryuu could withstand. Alex glared at him and said with a cold tone, sending shivers all over their body. "It''s better if you don''t do it anymore. I will only say this once. As long as the Freedom Sect doesn''t start, I won''t start anything. If you want a war, I will end everything with a river of blood." Alex was bluffing by warning them to make sure they didn''t do anything stupid, and he succeeded. Ryuu retracted his Spiritual Energy and killing intent as his expression turned normal. "As long as you don''t harm us, I will always act neutral." Ryuu nodded while smiling. "I am looking forward to working with you." ¡­ Alex let out a long sigh and never expected to have that kind of welcome. He arrived at the place and nodded to Ryuu and Maya. "I''m ready." "Sure. We are going to the training place, and my junior sister seems to want to watch our practice. Do you mind?" Ryuu asked softly. "I don''t mind. She can do whatever she wants as long as she doesn''t get in my way." Alex shook his head. His stance was passive-aggressive to make sure that he didn''t come here to flirt or whatever and simply wanted to learn Space Element. "Sure." Alex nodded. He couldn''t see Sword Intent on Maya''s body, but Spear Intent, so he didn''t mind about showing her coming because she wouldn''t get any advantage from this exchange. He might want to restrict himself and only use Sword to ensure the transaction would be the same. After all, he was just playing how the Freedom Sect wanted; it was simply give and take. Ryuu smiled and signaled Maya to follow them as he opened the Spatial Gate. Alex could see through the gate and found yet another temple. However, this temple was blue instead of red, so it must have a different purpose considering the Space and Fire Temples both have a red color. Coming through the gate, he found that the temple was actually far bigger than the one he saw. ''Woah! I didn''t see it earlier, but its actual size is around ten times the size of a soccer stadium." Alex looked at this temple with amazement. "This is our Martial Field. There are four floors for this building, filled with Arrays. The first floor contains around a thousand rooms, which only Normal Disciples use. Of course, the room size is not that big, considering they can''t fight as powerful as Martial Saints. The second floor is for Senior Disciples to fight. There are only fifty rooms inside. "Elders are on the third floor with only ten rooms while the top floor only has three rooms. Usually, Great Elders used it but considering their status, they couldn''t fight a whole day. Hence, these three rooms are usually used for their disciples. We are going to the top floor and occupy one for as long as we need. I have made the reservation after all." Ryuu smiled, explaining all the necessary information. Alex pondered for a moment, wondering if he would encounter another foolish one that challenged him inside the building¡­ He couldn''t help but shake his head in disappointment if that really happened. "Good. Let''s go." He nodded. "Please." Ryuu smiled before flying toward the building for a few more seconds and landed right in front of the entrance. Alex could see so many signs of energy in this building and in front of it, showing how many people were using this building. Alex confirmed it even further by watching this crowd standing in front of the building. Ryuu only waved his hand, asking Alex to follow him. Inside the building, they met an old man working as a receptionist. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw that the one who became the keeper of this building was a 5-Star Martial Saint. "Elder Shi, we wish to open the second room. My Master should have informed you." Ryuu cupped his hand respectfully to the elder. "Oh! You are Ryuu from Space Temple." The elder nodded before taking out a token. "This is the token. Unfortunately, you can only use it for fourteen days because there is another person who wants to use this room. He made the reservation earlier than you. I will transfer you to the third room since it will be available at that time." "Thank you, Elder." Ryuu bowed his head and took the token. "Then, I need to excuse myself, Elder Shi." "Sure!" Ryuu led Alex and Maya to the top floor and arrived at a certain room. Alex looked at the other two rooms and found an array on the door, knowing there must be people inside. Only the third one didn''t have an array, so Ryuu pointed the token to the door before opening it. Alex''s Spirit Eyes allowed him to see a string of energy that unlocked the door. As soon as the door was opened, Maya and Alex entered, finding a huge grassland inside. "This will be our training place for two weeks before moving to another room." Ryuu nodded before glancing at Alex. "What should I do?" Alex thought for a moment and said. "Let''s fight first, only to use our sword. You can use your element if it''s related to the Sword since I want to see your sword capability." Ryuu nodded before stretching his hand to the side. "I will try to limit my strength, so you can look at it carefully." "It''s fine. You don''t need to do that. I am confident enough to stop you." Alex shrugged. "What did you say?!" A shout suddenly came, but it wasn''t from Ryuu. Instead, it came from Maya. "You-!" "Maya, shut up a little bit. I will report you to your Master later¡­" He glanced at Maya with a poker face. "But Elder Brother¡­" "He said it''s fine, then it''s fine." Ryuu shrugged. "Just watch it from the sideline, and you might learn something even though your main focus is the spear." Maya hesitated for a few seconds before biting her lips and flew away. Ryuu looked at Alex while taking his sword out of his Space Ring. "I am sorry for making you wait. Don''t worry about this room because it''s reinforced by Rank 8 Array to make sure no damage to the room." Alex took a deep breath and nodded. He only took his sword this time. Although it was powerful beyond compare, this action could also be seen as Alex looked down on Ryuu. Ryuu''s eyebrows twitched as he started releasing his Spiritual Energy. "I truly respect you¡­ Less than thirty years old but already a 6-Star Martial Monarch. However, I do think you are a little bit arrogant. Spiritual Energy aside, there is still a big difference with pure strength between our¡ª" Before he finished his words, a Dragon suddenly appeared in the arena, sending a thunderous roar. It startled Maya, who was on the sideline while shutting Ryuu up. When he looked at Alex, he saw the Dragon went inside him. This was certainly a support technique, but he still tried to comprehend what kind of technique earlier. "If it''s strength, I am quite strong myself," Alex said with an uninterested face. "You can try." Ryuu closed his eyes, realizing it was a technique to increase his strength. Although he couldn''t see how powerful Alex after using the technique, he was very eager to check it himself. Raising his sword to the sky, Ryuu suddenly appeared in front of Alex and slashed his sword toward Alex''s neck. "Spirit Step, First Step!" Alex increased his strength once more and struck the sword without using anything. It was purely his strength, but Ryuu suddenly lost his grip on his sword. Alex then pointed his sword at Ryuu''s neck while ignoring the flying sword. "I have said. If it''s only Sword and Strength alone, I don''t need your mercy. Yet, you still underestimate me. If you can''t be serious, it''s better if we cancel this strength." Alex''s strength alone had reached nine thousand dragon strength without any enhancement. However, Ryuu''s underestimating him poked his pride a little bit, and he couldn''t help but show what it meant by strength. He enhanced his strength with Spirit Step and Dragon Aura, reaching thirty thousand dragon strength or equal to 3-Star Martial Saint. Ryuu obviously had yet to prepare to face that kind of strength and lost his grip. Maya dropped her jaw to the ground, blinking a few times and questioning whether this was a dream or not. On the other hand, Ryuu realized his wrongdoing and bowed deeply to Alex. "I am sorry for underestimating you. I have brought this upon myself. I am truly sorry." Alex had no change of expression. "Just get your sword, and we will try for real. However, the moment you underestimate me again will be the time I cancel this transaction. Will that be alright?" "Yes." Ryuu clenched his hands. What he just did was the worst to Alex, and felt really guilty after this. At first, he was concerned about Alex''s safety because of their strength difference, but it seemed to be an insult to Alex. After apologizing to him, he flew toward his sword and grabbed it and returned. He then released his Spiritual Energy and Space Element at the same time, locking his focus on Alex. "I will seriously attack you this time." Alex nodded while raising his sword, covering his sword with his intent. "Come!" The two then disappeared from their position. Chapter 676 - Space Element Techniques *Bam!* A loud and powerful shockwave shook the entire field as Alex and Ryuu appeared in the middle of the field with their sword clashing each other. Ryuu finally realized how much strength was inside Alex''s body as he quickly began losing his advantage and leaped backward. Alex didn''t come to him like how their Master stayed composed while facing him. He followed her and started assessing Ryuu. "A good sword, a good strength. However, I feel your Intent is still lacking. I don''t mean the quality, but quantity." "What do you mean?" "Hmm¡­ It is your release speed to be exact. You should be able to release all of your Sword Intent simultaneously but has not enough speed to do it, right?" Alex looked at Ryuu''s sword with his Spirit Eyes. Ryuu''s body shook as Alex was spot on. This was his worst weakness, and Alex got it right on the first clash. "You are correct. My speed is not enough to release the Sword Intent in time. That''s why I usually pair it up with Space Element to buy me time." "Why do you think your speed is not fast enough?" Ryuu looked down, weighing something in his mind. Unfortunately, he couldn''t come up with a single reason. "I have consulted many people, but none of them have the answer." Alex simply smiled. "Haven''t you already found the answer?" Ryuu furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. Alex sighed and asked him. "When our sword clashed, I felt you slightly slid your sword even though your sword didn''t have a curve. We might be a master of the sword, but we still have our own preferences for swords, including the shape. That''s why you can''t exert your full power in your swing. You should be using a curving sword in the past, right?" Ryuu dropped his jaw to the ground and gulped down. "Ye-yes. I used it in the past, but not anymore." "Why?" He gritted teeth and clenched his hands. "It was my family sword¡­ My family wasn''t that big, but they sometimes went to the surface until one point that my father died in battle while my mother was poisoned. Despite containing the poison, my mother refused to tell me a single thing until her body became too weak to even move. "Not long after, she committed suicide with that sword, so I¡­" Ryuu looked down, feeling remorseful. He didn''t plan to say this, but in his heart, he wanted to settle it once and for all since long ago¡­ Only his scared and wounded heart made him unable to pick up a sword like this again and talked this matter. Alex looked at him with a gentle smile. "A wounded heart might heal over time, but if you don''t want to improve yourself, it will be useless. You can still go without courage or determination, but I am sure you will succeed in overcoming it. After all, I had once overcome it with my stubbornness." Ryuu looked down before letting out a long sigh. "Luckily, I met Master at that time and Maya not long after¡­ Before I know it, I can smile again. I think it''s the perfect time to settle the matter of my heart¡­" "You don''t need to force yourself at once." Alex thought for a moment and changed the topic. "Anyway, let''s continue. I need to see if I can sense any troubles in your swordsmanship first before proceeding with your Intent and other things until you reach Sword Saint Stage." Ryuu took a deep breath to calm his heart before raising his sword again. "Thank you¡­ And here I come." Slashing the air, Ryuu sent out an invisible Sword Wave, flying toward Alex. "Space Cut!" Alex had a slight astonishment in his face because he could see a huge amount of Space Element traveling through that Blue Layered Realm. He simply moved to the side, dodging the Sword Wave completely before striking the Sword Wave with his sword. He was curious whether the Sword Wave had a physical form or not, but it surprisingly exploded when Alex hit it as if there was a real Sword Wave. Of course, the explosion was in the Space World, so it didn''t affect him at all. "This is Space Cut¡­ One of my biggest Space Arts. We can send a Sword Wave like this through the Blue Layered Realm and cut something in the real world. It is a very useful ability because you can kill someone without anyone noticing¡­ That is if he/she has lower cultivation than you. Their perception might also be low since it can be felt. "However, I like this Sword Technique, because I can use it in many ways. First, people won''t like it when they need to be wary of invisible skills. I can also use it to distract their attention. Besides, I can simply create a few more gates inside the Blue Layered Realm and confuse the enemy. In other words, it can be my decoy or my main attack, depending on how I plan to use it." Ryuu explained after finding a slight confusion in Alex''s face. Alex nodded in agreement. "This is indeed a good Element Art." "I am planning to let you see all my Element Arts so you can take your pick later. Don''t worry, I have mastered them all, so my technique won''t be sloppy like Maya''s." "Oi, Elder Brother! What are you saying?" Maya pouted but couldn''t say anything because he was right. Ryuu laughed out loud before turning back to Alex. "So¡­ Shall we continue?" Alex raised his sword again as his mouth slightly curved upward. He took a deep breath and was ready to charge, but Ryuu beat him as he closed their distance in a single leap. Before arriving, Ryuu suddenly pointed his index finger toward Alex and raised it slightly. Alex suddenly felt danger from his surroundings, and he suddenly realized he couldn''t move. His Spirit Eyes could see chains coming out of the ground around him, but all of it originated from the Blue Layered Realm. In other words, he was restricted by invisible chains. Looking at Ryuu, who almost arrived in front of him, Alex should know that he was played perfectly by Ryuu, but there was no change of expression on his face. Instead, he smiled brightly as he adjusted his position and slashed his sword. "Triple Draws!" *Bang¡ª!* Ryuu''s sword clashed twice with Alex''s sword as he quickly leaped backward. He realized that only the chain on Alex''s right hand was cut, while the others were still chained. He wanted to take this opportunity to attack Alex, but Alex was one step early as he sent three Sword Waves at him. "Blade of Conquest!" Ryuu furrowed his eyebrows. The Sword Waves were covered with Intent and Element, but he felt it was stronger than he expected. He thought it must be Alex''s Original Sword Skill, so he quickly raised his sword once again. "Twin Worlds Slash!" *Bang!* The cut shattered the three Sword Waves like it was nothing. Alex lifted up his eyebrows as he saw something really interesting. He knew the technique from earlier couldn''t be copied, meaning it was Ryuu''s Original Sword Skill. What piqued his interest was like how Space Cut flew inside the Blue Layered Realm, Ryuu was also holding a sword in that realm along with his original sword to create a stronger swing. In other words, it was like his Triple Draws but the attack from two worlds. However, Alex didn''t stop at this attack and thrust his sword as if using a spear, shooting out a laser toward Ryuu. On the other hand, Ryuu didn''t feel any pressure coming from this attack as he pointed his palm forward. "Spatial Lock!" Suddenly, the space in front of him distorted and created a kind of huge marble, absorbing all the power behind Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon. After that, it disappeared from the real world. At the same time, he also created another sphere and compressed it to small before teleporting right behind Alex. "Spatial Lock. Bomb Version!" Alex glanced at his back and smiled. *Boom!* A huge explosion occurred. Ryuu thought Alex must be injured after this, but all the smoke or the dust kicked up by the explosion were blown away. *Cry!* A loud crying sound from a phoenix shook the entire place as it flapped its wing and blew all the smoke away. Ryuu opened his eyes wide to see Alex standing still while being covered with Fire. He quickly teleported again to escape from Alex''s grasp. Luckily, Alex had no intention of moving as he asked, "Is that all?" "Yeah. I have shown you all my Space Arts. The second one that bound you was called Space Bind Technique, and you have experienced the effect yourself. As for the third one¡­ It was my Original Sword Skill, while the last one was Spatial Lock. As the name implies, I can seal many things inside and throw them inside the Blue Layered Realm. At the same time, I could use the second version, which was to compress the air around us to create a powerful shockwave. It will be better if we insert our Intent to increase its power, and in your case, you can add your Fire Element." Ryuu explained all the moves. Alex thought for a moment. "Those techniques are certainly useful for me to the point I''m wondering which one that I need to pick." "Haha¡­ Although I have mastered all of these, I only have confidence in my Space Cut. Master can use the Space Bind and Spatial Lock better than me. If I am not wrong, she can combine the Space Plates with Space Bind and lock us completely. As for Spatial Lock, can you see my second version? My Master can compress and maintain a few balls like that and create a stronger explosion. Besides, she can even compress others'' attacks and drop it in the center of the enemy. It''s really catastrophic to fight Master with a high number because she is a master in dealing with an army." Ryuu sighed. "I can see that." Alex nodded in agreement. "Maya has a very good technique for escaping. It''s called Space Mark." Ryuu looked at Maya for a bit and sighed in disappointment. "Unfortunately, she can''t teach you because she has yet to master the technique. Anyway, the technique itself allows you to create a mark on human bodies. You can instantly teleport to them as long as they are inside your teleportation radius. "She is learning it to teleport to me or Master if she needs to run away. This technique is not high level, but the usage is incredible¡­ Albeit it''s not really popular because it looks like a thief technique. As for myself, I have never had a need to learn it because I usually kill my opponents. Anyway, it''s a good technique you can consider." At first, he was planning to have Maya to help Alex in order to receive some instructions about Spear since Alex was a master of sword and spear. Unfortunately, she was too playful and didn''t practice seriously. He thought about confining her to have her study like crazy after this. On the other hand, Alex looked down, contemplating over the Space Arts. ''Space Cut is a must since I can combine it with my Triple Draws¡­ If I use it with both hands along with my Mythical Fire Slash¡­ I can release twelve Sword Waves at the same time. Unfortunately, I can''t add Blade of Conquest because it will collide with the Mythical Fire Slash¡­ ''As for Space Bind and Spatial Lock¡­ Both techniques are really interesting. Great Elder Aileen even mastered both techniques, so I feel like I need to see it with my own eyes how she uses that. I might be tempted to choose both even if I need to go bankrupt. ''At the same time, this Space Mark is also useful to me. I can teleport to another person in the area and confuse the enemy even without my Teleportation Array¡­ It will surely play a role in my fight against Fire God Clan¡­ ''Still, I can''t be greedy to avoid not knowing which ability I need to use because I have too many¡­ Anyway, I can think of it later. I will teach Ryuu about Sword first.'' Finishing his thought, he looked at Ryuu and said, "All techniques are tempting to me. But I still need to learn Space Plates and Spatial Gate first, so I will think about it after I finish both." "Sure. You can inform me whenever you want. I can even bring you to the Martial Arts Temple." Alex nodded. "Then, let''s start again?" Ryuu smiled and raised his weapon again. Chapter 677 - A Deal *Sigh~!* "That was insane," said Ryuu as he fell on his butt, panting. "To think there is an abnormal 6-Star Martial Monarch like you¡­ As expected from someone who was recognized by Great Elder Maxwell." Alex looked at Ryuu without an expression before finding Maya coming to Ryuu. "Elder Brother Ryuu, are you alright?" "Of course¡­ I feel fantastic. I have understood my weaknesses and learned many things¡­ In fact, I am very eager to start training right now. If only you can practice seriously too." Ryuu laughed while teasing Maya. Maya wanted to pout, but deep inside her heart, she somehow considered this carefully. She never liked studying. Only this time, she thought it would be nice if she studied well. She realized it earlier when she saw Alex overpowering Ryuu with Sword Technique. Ryuu didn''t fight all out this time because Alex was assessing him. Also, he didn''t underestimate Alex by not using all of his techniques. Instead, he felt a sense of breakthrough in the way of the sword as he listened to Alex''s lecture in the fight, so he couldn''t really release all of his power. Maya witnessed everything and got triggered in her heart. She looked down and said embarrassedly. "I will study seriously from now on." Ryuu, who said it earlier in a teasing manner, was utterly shocked by her response. He blinked a few times and stared at Maya with empty eyes. "Why do you look at me with those eyes?" Maya raised her eyebrows, slightly annoyed by his reaction. "Nothing. If you really want to practice seriously, then you can contact me or Master anytime, we will help you." Ryuu laughed, thrilled with the seriousness in her eyes. She wouldn''t get annoyed if she didn''t mean what she said after all. Maya nodded and said, "Anyway, you should get up first." Ryuu nodded, rose from the ground, and walked toward Alex. "Your understanding of the sword is very deep. I think you only need a little more push to reach Sword Saint stage after overcoming your trauma." Alex nodded with a smile. "I know. It''s my heart that has been preventing me from reaching a higher place! It''s all thanks to you that I can see this problem¡­ No, I should say I have been avoiding this matter this whole time, and only now I want to face it." Ryuu cupped his hand and slightly bowed his head. "I am very thankful to you who made me realize this." Alex shrugged and said nonchalantly. "This is only a transaction. Of course, I will do everything in my power to fulfill it." "Even so, I am still thankful." Ryuu smiled and nodded. "Master might have known this condition of mine, but she can''t say it because she is afraid it will break me. Only you, who don''t know anything about me, could say it to my face bluntly." Alex nodded before thinking. "Do you want to¡ª!" Before finishing his words, Alex looked to the right, finding a Spatial Gate inside the field. Ryuu and Maya quickly realized this Spatial Gate as they ran toward it and bowed. "Welcome, Master." "Good day for you two. How is training? Looking at your condition, it seems you have trained hard." Aileen smiled. "Yeah. I just want to say sorry for troubling you this whole time, Master. You have taken care of me either in the Cultivation Aspect or in the Spiritual Aspect." Ryuu thanked her from the bottom of his heart. "You have come terms with the darkness in your heart?" Aileen gently smiled, patted his shoulders and asked with a soft tone. "Half¡­ I will finish this matter as soon as I finish the training here." Ryuu nodded with a solemn expression. "That''s good. I am proud of you." "Master! I also promise to be hardworking from now on." Maya raised her hand, trying to grab Aileen''s attention. "Hmmm?" Aileen had the same expression as Ryuu earlier and patted Maya''s head a few times. "Good. I have been waiting for that line for one hundred years. I am glad I am still expecting it until now." "And what is that silent earlier?" Maya pouted before glancing at Alex and Ryuu. She couldn''t say that she wanted to practice just to entice Ryuu, right? She realized that Ryuu looked more mature now after his heart calmed down in this fight. He looked like a prince earlier as the raging storm inside his heart was replaced by a bright and calm sea. She had her enjoyment from the fight earlier and would call Ryuu when practicing to have more time with him. Aileen laughed it off before staring at Alex. "What is it, Great Elder Aileen? Do you want something from me?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "It''s nothing. I just want to give you good news." Aileen gently smiled to lessen the burden of talking with Alex and prevent him from knowing the real intention. "I am sure you like it." Alex looked at her with weird eyes, wondering if Aileen wanted to marry off Maya or something along the lines. Fortunately, his worry was proven unnecessary after hearing Aileen''s next word. "There is a chance of you getting a Space Element for your disciple." "!!!" Happiness began filling his heart before it abruptly vanished as he remembered a certain plot. ''Wait¡­ Does she want to say we can''t give it to outsiders? But she says I will surely like the news¡­ It must be something that I can get without getting entangled with Freedom Sect.'' "After discussing with the other elders, we decided to give you the opportunity to go inside Potential Tower one year from now," Aileen announced. The news confused Alex but shocked Ryuu and Maya. "What do you mean?" "I will start explaining this event first. As scheduled, we will open the Potential Tower next year. This is a big opportunity for nameless disciples to impress the Elders and Great Elders. The tower itself can measure your talent and even raise your potential. That''s why it''s called Potential Tower." Aileen explained carefully. Ryuu nodded in agreement before adding. "This was where Master took a fancy on me and asked me to be her disciple. I was a simple nameless person back then¡­" Alex thought for a moment and said. "I still can''t see how this will give me benefits¡­ And why would the Freedom Sect give this chance to me." "I know about your concern, but this tower is always opened at this point in time every three years. We only request you to complete the tower by reaching the highest level of the tower. After that, I will grant you a Space Element, so your disciple can get it anytime in this place. "How does this benefit us? We only want to use you to stimulate the potential of our disciples. You know that sometimes seeing an unknown person might trigger someone, right? We will re-educate the rash ones while taking in the motivated one. That''s why it is beneficial for us. Besides, we also want to know whether your status as Grand Elder Maxwell''s disciple is justified¡­ "Your Master has entered this tower too in the past and completed all ten floors. Do you want to know the legend?" Aileen asked while smiling. Alex pondered and answered, "I can see the benefit¡­ But I want to know the relationship between my Master and this tower first before deciding." "Sure." Aileen nodded and gathered all the records in her mind before opening her mouth. "This tower was built by a joint effort of all Great Elders to measure someone''s potential. It''s filled with complex arrays and trials. Your master is the one and only person who has completed this trial since its creation and become a God. "In fact, I can say that this tower can measure whether you can be a God or not¡­ If you reach the highest floor and conquer the tower, it can even enhance your potential, increasing your chance to transcend to divinity. "I could only finish the eighth floor while Ryuu beat the ninth floor like Viola¡­ That''s why I have many expectations for him. As for Maya, she only reached the eight floor like me. "That''s all the benefit you can get from this tower. Isn''t it interesting? Besides, don''t you want to see whether you can become a God?" Aileen finished her explanation with provocation. "You can stop taunting me." Alex shook his head. "I can see the benefit of me participating in this event¡­ But do you truly want all of that? I feel that you are hiding your real intention from me." Aileen closed her eyes for a second, admiring his sharpness in noticing something like this. "I am not lying this whole time. I will keep the Lesser Space Element for you, so your Disciple can get it when she arrives at this place later. She needs to pay the rest." "Lesser Space Element?" Alex narrowed his eyes as he found this ominous word on his ears. "What do you mean by Lesser?" "I have explained it to you about Space Element, right? It''s ranked by its ability to attract Natural Space Elements in the air¡­ So, a Lesser Space Element is a bit slower than usual." Aileen nodded. "So, you are not planning to say anything about giving me this Lesser Space Element despite knowing that I want the best for my disciple?" "You will only know the Council''s intention after beating the Potential Tower. That''s all I can say." Aileen shook her head in disappointment, afraid Alex would reject him after knowing the truth. Alex thought for a moment. ''It''s true that Space Element is very useful to Rose, but it''s not a necessary thing for her. However, the Potential Tower itself is quite interesting, and I want to test myself. Knowing too much can hinder one''s cultivation and might even create a heart demon inside my heart, especially if I know that I''m not qualified to be a God. ''Albeit¡­ I never cared about it. I once said that talent could give one''s potential to reach the top, it will be one''s effort that can take them to the top. Master even said that if I don''t have enough talent, I can simply get it from some inheritance. If I am not qualified, it will only motivate me to grow even further¡­ If I''m qualified, then I will be very happy because I can become a God later and meet Alicia and Lin Xingzhi.'' His answer was yes, but Alex tried to consider another aspect by asking her two questions. "I want you to answer these questions first. Knowing that you have some hidden intention, can I still back away after knowing it? The second question is¡­ Will I get entangled with Freedom Sect after this?" "For your first question, I can assure you that it is not forced. Just like how you come here, we will negotiate with you as someone equal to us. After all, you are the disciple of Great Elder Maxwell. We will respect your will. As for the second question¡­ Yes and no. Yes, we are entangling ourselves to your matter for our own benefit, and no, you will always be you along with your Spirit Nest while Freedom Sect is Freedom Sect. We are two separate sides." "Spirit Nest? So, you want to get my influence in the mix?" "Yes. However, we are entangling ourselves in your matter¡­ As I said earlier. In other words, our current objectives are aligned, but our end goals are not." Alex thought for a few minutes before nodding his head. "Alright. I will choose it later after defeating the Potential Tower. I won''t be qualified to accept this agreement if I can''t even beat that tower, right?" Aileen didn''t answer him. She only smiled before escaping through her Spatial Gate. "I have informed you what the Council wants, it will be up to you whether to accept it or reject it. For now, you can practice with Ryuu first since I need to take care of my job because of the meeting earlier. I will handle your training tomorrow." Alex nodded as he looked at Aileen going through the Spatial Gate. After she was gone, he glanced at Ryuu. "Ahaha¡­" Ryuu could only scratch his head, not knowing what to do. "Let''s practice again." Chapter 678 - The First Phase of Training After that, Alex and Ryuu began their hellish training. Alex taught Ryuu about the sword patiently, considering he used a new sword. Ryuu was awful when he just changed his sword as Alex was able to easily defeat him in a practice match while leisurely lecturing him. However, Ryuu improved by leaps and bounds as if there was nothing hindering him anymore. As soon as he got accustomed to the new sword, he became trouble even for Alex like their first match. And after a couple of months, he finally mastered the sword and became a formidable opponent for Alex. Of course, Alex only used his sword this whole time, so his real ability was still unknown to Ryuu. On the other hand, Maya also started having her own training session on the sideline. She sometimes asked Ryuu a couple of questions when he took a break between practice. Ryuu also taught Alex back with Space Element''s lesson, starting from the basic to the Spatial Gate and Space Plate technique. Alex''s comprehension speed was insane as he managed to learn it in almost four months. After that, he started learning Space Cut under Ryuu''s guidance. Of course, he wasn''t slacking on his Cultivation aspect. Although he didn''t manage to break through to 7-Star, he was only one step away. Besides, he could settle everything in the last seven months out of his eighteen months here or one and a half years. Aileen also helped him in the process, increasing his progress speed even further. Unlike Ryuu, Aileen was an experienced teacher, she knew what words could comprehend easily and what not or when Alex needed the explanation or when he needed to taunt Alex to stimulate his potential for a moment. Alex was thankful to them for helping him, even though it was only a transaction. Although he still couldn''t seal someone''s strength with his Realm Seal Technique, the technique he used to lock his soul and cultivation inside a special realm created in his heart, he was satisfied with the result because he could see the chance of him doing it. Of course, he still didn''t forget about the matter on the surface. He kept asking Anna to inform him what happened every month, albeit nothing happened in particular. The Ancient Blue Family had yet to accept the alliance, the frustrated Fire God Clan, the waiting Blackwade Clan, and so on. Alex thanked her for the information as he could be rest assured, especially when she heard Firia was one step away to reach Martial Saint along with Stina. Sherry and Kyle were struggling on the 9-Star Martial Monarch. The competitive nature in his heart woke up as he wanted to finish this training as soon as possible. ¡­ Six months later¡­ "Space Cut!" Alex slashed the air with his sword, releasing a powerful Space Cut. Ryuu only smiled and released the same move as their moves collided. An explosion occurred inside the Blue Layered Realm and somehow affected the reality as a crack appeared between Ryuu and Alex. If they created another crack, a small hole leading to the Blue Layered Realm might open. "That is really good, Alex. You have mastered the Space Cut!" Ryuu praised him from the bottom of his heart. He never expected that Alex could master this move within two months. "Haha¡­ You are good too, Ryuu. Your Sword Intent is very intense right now. I think it won''t be long before you reach Sword Saint Stage. I should congratulate you in advance." Alex chuckled. The relationship with Ryuu wasn''t awkward and formal as they used to be after knowing each other for six months. Ryuu had recognized Alex and admired him because Alex still worked hard and worked smart even though he had all the talent he needed. Not only his training was more brutal than him, but his method was also very efficient. As expected from the master of the sword, Ryuu thought. In contrast, Alex felt that Ryuu was really a talented man. Aileen didn''t pour so many resources into Ryuu because she wanted him to be independent. Yet, Ryuu managed to surpass her expectation every time. He managed to reach 1-Star Martial Saint within a few hundred years, despite having no cultivation resources from his master, only Space Technique and Sword Art. Alex could see that his Space Element also became more refined after changing to the new sword. He could somehow picture what kind of original sword path Ryuu would have in the future. He didn''t tell him though, to avoid confusing his mind. "Then, how about this?" Ryuu waved his sword, sending two Space Cuts at the same time. "Twin Worlds Slash!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Ryuu had never used this technique every time they fought. It seemed that the Real World Slash and The Space World Slash produced one Space Cut each, making it more powerful. "I can''t use this technique because I''m not fast enough to gather the Space Element for my second Space Cut. Only after you teach me about the sword and have me use this sword can I finally break past my limit," Ryuu shouted excitedly. "This is why you are the first one who sees this technique!" Alex only smiled upon seeing this attack and swung his sword. "Triple Draws." "Space Cut!" Ryuu could make two, but it was still useless in front of him. Alex could simply make three Space Cuts so the other two could destroy his attack while one struck Ryuu. However, the plan didn''t go smoothly. Right before the two strikes collided, Ryuu detonated his Space Cuts. *Boom!* The explosion caused another crack in the air, and Ryuu laughed again. "As expected¡­ I am still no match against your Original Sword Skill. Triple Draws, is it? That technique is insane as if you are altering the reality itself. Normally, people can only slash one time in a single point of the timeline. Master swordsman who has been mastering a drawing technique might go beyond it, but two is the limit. However, you take it to an unprecedented level." "I am just lucky." Alex shook his head, and humbly said while adding inwardly. ''Really lucky. If I don''t have Sword Mastery, I won''t know that I can do this." "Haha¡­ Luck is a strength. I wish I had absolute luck, so maybe my enemy will have diarrhea before we even fight." "Isn''t it more like a curse?" Alex rolled his eyes away. "True enough. Then maybe a meteor will fall and obliterate them to smithereens." "You will also die if a meteor really comes¡­" Alex sighed. ''Scientifically!'' "Why don''t you back me up a little bit?" Ryuu sighed. "Anyway, I just wanted to show that technique to you because you have helped me greatly." Alex nodded with a smile before raising his sword. "It''s my turn." "Triple Draws." "Blade of Conquest." "Space Cut." Combining these three techniques, Alex released six Sword Waves toward Ryuu. "I have seen this already!" Ryuu smirked as he was going to intercept all of the Sword Waves. However, Alex suddenly raised his hand and twitched his finger. "How about this?" A Spatial Gate appeared right in front of these six Sword Waves before thirty Spatial Gates appeared around Ryuu. "Oi! You are insane like Master!" Ryuu screamed in panic as he tried to calculate where they would appear. On the other hand, Aileen, who was watching them from the sideline while teaching Maya, shouted happily. "Ryuu. It''s not good to curse your Master! But I will take it as a compliment of my element control." Ryuu twitched his eyebrows as he got teased by his teacher and couldn''t find the attacks this whole time. In the end, he gave up and created a barrier around him. If Alex observed him carefully, he could see that the barrier looked like a half-sphere, facing the Spatial Gates. It would quickly expand and trap his attack the moment it came. Unfortunately, Alex''s Spirit Eyes could see everything. He leaped toward Ryuu instead of using the attack from earlier. "Kh!" Not expecting Alex to make such a move, he quickly made a Spatial Gate and escaped from this place. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and scanned the area with his Spirit Eyes before slashing his sword to his left. "Blade of Conquest!" "This time¡­ It''s my turn!" Ryuu smiled as he created a Spatial Gate and attached a wisp of his soul to Alex''s Sword Wave. The moment it came inside the Blue Layered Realm, his soul could sense the locations of Alex''s earlier attacks. "Explode!" Ryuu smiled as he tried to control Alex''s Sword Wave and detonate it. Luckily, Alex didn''t attach his Soul in that attack, so he managed to do it. Suddenly, six cracks appeared around him as he smiled. "You don''t easily attach your soul to attack, right? Why?" Alex thought for a moment before answering. "It''s simple. I use too much Mental Power in my attack, so I''m not planning to waste it unless necessary." "Oh! I can see that. That''s why your control is really crazy." Ryuu nodded in understanding. "Anyway, we have fought too much these few months. I think it''s better to end this never-ending battle and see who is the winner?" "I am just a 6-Star Martial Monarch while you are 1-Star Martial Saint. You are shameless here, Ryuu." Alex smirked, teasing him. "Shut up!" Ryuu snorted jokingly while leaping toward Alex. Alex also leaped toward Ryuu with his sword. Both of them swung their swords at the same time before passing each other. *Clang!* A loud clashing sound filled the room as a shockwave appeared, blowing everything around them away. Maya was annoyed when her books flipped because of this base while Aileen simply held her skirt without erecting a barrier as she wanted to enjoy the breeze. "It''s a draw, I guess¡­" She felt the clash and rose from the ground before teleporting between them and announcing the result. "It''s a draw. I am happy to see both of you make astonishing progress in the past few months. Of course, I am happy that my Maya can finally put some effort into her own training because of you two. "Anyway, both of you don''t really use your real strength, so I''m sure you don''t care about the match itself¡­ Only that last blow contained all of your power¡­ Except, Alex, May I ask why you don''t use your Original Path?" "It''s linked to my fire and spear, so it''s better to not use it." Alex shrugged. "Fair enough." Aileen nodded before glancing at Ryuu. "Although you have gotten accustomed to your sword, keep practicing with it since I can still see some awkward movements in your swordplay. I am sure Alexander notices it too." "I know." Ryuu turned around and walked toward Aileen and Alex before stretching his hand, asking for a handshake with Alex. Alex was more than happy to shake his hand, but¡­ Their hand wasn''t shaking as suddenly the ground was the one that started shaking¡­ *Rumble Rumble!* Chapter 679 - Earthquake In the deep ocean floor, not far from Freedom Sect, a thunderous rumbling sound filled the entire region. It alarmed every water monster in the area and made them panic. This was something that rarely happened before because the ground started to shake and created a huge crack that spread around the ocean floor. Slowly but surely, the ground began to rise as if a mountain began to form in the depth of the ocean. It also created a huge shock wave around the area¡­ And Freedom Sect was one of the places that got hit by this powerful shock wave. ¡­ Inside the Freedom Sect, specifically the new area that had been recently developed. More than two hundred disciples and some elders were working in the building and solidifying this massive landscape to make a reliable and strong ground to expand their area. However, the ground started shaking and kept getting harder. "What is this shaking?" The disciples were startled as they felt to the ground because they couldn''t maintain their balance. "This!" One of the elders in charge of the area realized this phenomenon as he had lived long enough to encounter something like this in the past. "Not¡­ Good! Everyone flies to¡ª" Before he could order the disciple to escape to the air, a huge crater appeared from the edge of the barrier, spreading toward their position. Anyone would be able to notice this crack, albeit couldn''t do anything. They tried to escape to the air as the elder said, but nature attacked first. *Rumble Rumble!* "Not good!" The rumbling noises followed by the destruction of the landmass. The ground around the edge had yet to be strengthened, and this shaking shattered those lands. Not only that, but the barrier also received a powerful shock wave. It should be able to easily withstand a shock wave like this, but those destroyed lands still contained some arrays to create this giant barrier. And when the ground was destroyed, the barrier started weakening as the shock wave sped up the process by shattering them into pieces. *Clang!* This breaking glass sound was followed by a deadly catastrophe as the water burst inside the place due to the difference of pressure between the Deep Ocean Floor and the inside of Freedom Sect. That high-pressure water quickly shredded the weak disciples, mostly those Martial Lord or below, while heavily injuring the Martial King. Martial Emperor and Martial Monarch disciples somehow managed to react and created a huge barrier with their Spiritual Energy. They were happy when they saw the barrier could hold on, but that happiness disappeared the moment they realized they were being pushed back by the water. "Fly to the air! Freedom Sect is huge, so it will take a while before the water fills the entire area. One Elder should go to inform all Temples about this! Those who stay here will try to search for the survivor and help me to fight the monsters that will come next!" One of the elders shouted and woke up the shocked disciple. The disciples nodded while trying to see the powerful wave that flowed inside the barrier. All they could see was water and couldn''t find a single disciple around as if they were swallowed by a dark hole. However, they stopped searching for the disciples after hearing the loud sound coming from the outside. Within the dark seawater, many monsters, such as sharks and many sea creatures emerged. The disciples and elders began to unsheathe their sword as they released their Spiritual Energy. "Prepare for combat!" One of the elders knew his job and quickly went to the Teleportation Array that was protected by a solid barrier and disappeared. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex and the others also felt the ground shaking uncontrollably. He quickly looked around the area while floating in the air. "This is an earthquake!" Alex gasped, finally experienced a real earthquake in the real world. He had once seen this when he wanted to cross the sea heading to the Nilis Continent, but it was so weak. "Earthquake?" Ryuu, who was beside him, looked at him in confusion. "I have experienced this twice, and it''s called the Anger of Earth God." Aileen shook her head before creating a gate, not waiting for the ground to stop shaking. "We need to go to Temple first. If something bad happens, they will inform us first to utilize our Spatial Gate." Aileen entered the Spatial Gate. Alex and Ryuu exchanged looks and nodded, following her inside while Maya was the last to enter the gate. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he could see the tall temple swaying left and right as if it was going to crumble in a bit. However, Aileen didn''t care and flew inside the temple while she kept floating, so she didn''t get influenced by this. Alex also entered the Great Elder''s room and saw many papers scattered around on the floor as shelves also fell on the floor. ''This is¡­ the real Earthquake in another world. However, I don''t feel the Earthquakes that often on Earth, so I don''t know the scale of this Earthquake¡­ But I know this is a big Earthquake, especially when the epicenter is on the seafloor¡­'' Aileen looked down at the messy Temple and shouted. "All elders hear my words. Don''t care about those scattered doc.u.ments and messy situations. Just calm down first and stand by until further order. The building has withstood this phenomenon many times in the past and never collapsed, so don''t worry." "Yes, Great Elder!" The elders floated in the air as they bowed to Aileen. Suddenly, a middle-aged man flew inside the temple and shouted. "Emergency! I am Tura, an elder in charge of the expansion. We have a big problem. The ground has sunk, and the barrier has collapsed. The seawater is filling the area right now. I request for the Great Elder to take action." Aileen narrowed her eyes, pondering for a few seconds before giving her command. "Second to Nine Elder will quickly go to inform the other Great Elders¡ª!!!" Before finishing her words, Aileen gasped upon the sight of water entering the temple, starting to flood it. "How big exactly is the hole?!" "It breaks half of the barrier!" "!!!" Aileen gritted her teeth. "We only have a few minutes left before this place is filled with water and monsters. Those eight elders quickly go and bring the Great Elders to that place! On the other hand, five Martial Saints from 1-Star to 5-Star will come with me while the rest of you go to quell the unrest of our people with First Elder as the leader!" "Yes, Great Elder!" They quickly disappeared with their Spatial Gates. Aileen also created another Spatial Gates to go to the dangerous place before Alex and Ryuu shouted. "I will follow you!" Alex and Ryuu were startled and looked at each other before nodding their head with solemn expressions. "Kids should stay away!" "You must be planning to create a Spatial Gate to redirect the water first, but there is no way you can cover the area. We can help you¡­ like the fifty people you want to bring." Alex nodded and decided to help since his life was also in danger here. He could easily escape by using the array, but he might not be able to continue his study here, so he decided to stay by their side this time. Ryuu nodded in agreement. "Do whatever you like! But Maya should help the others to calm the rest in my stead." Aileen entered the Spatial Gate as Alex and Ryuu followed her while Mia could only pout, watching them leave. "!!!" Alex was amazed by the sight of this catastrophe. He noticed that the ground stopped shaking after a whole minute and quickly went toward the streaming torrent of water. "Spatial Gate!" Aileen, along with the rest, created the gate as big as possible, trying to patch the hole and successfully control the water influx as some areas might still have water flowing around there, but it''s not at the alarming rate like before. However, Alex noticed that there were many monsters that had entered the barrier. He was worried that they might notice and struck them at a time like this. After all, the monsters were filled with Martial Monarch and Martial Saint monsters, considering they were from the ocean floor. "Alex! You said this was an Earthquake, do you know something we don''t know?" Alex almost forgot that this place was relatively weak in science and natural disaster knowledge. They might have a good foundation and stronger materials that could withstand such an Earthquake, but they still didn''t know the reason for an Earthquake itself. "Do you know that the ground is actually moving?" "The ground is moving?" "Yes." Alex thought for a bit, recalling his knowledge about Earthquakes. "Let me explain it in a simple way. Take the example of the Heavenly Continent. They might not stem from the same ground as the one from the other continent. And imagine that if two continents collide, what will happen?" Aileen narrowed her eyes as she never thought about it while Ryuu listened to him attentively. "I don''t know, but something big must happen." "It''s simple. One will go up, and one will go down. The friction and impact that the collision produced were like the force as if two 10-Star Martial Saints clashed. However, we are talking about Earthquake here, so it won''t only be two Saints alone¡­ It will be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Saints! That''s how big the mass and volume that produced this kind of Natural Disaster." Alex tried hard to send his message in a very simple way. Aileen widened her eyes as she was stunned. She never thought there was this kind of phenomenon going under the sea. "This is actually not only happening in the sea, but also in the land. It''s just the one we are experiencing right now has an epicenter in the seafloor close to our place and quite a huge one¡­ There might be some aftershocks later, so we need to stay sharp!" Alex warned her. "Fine." Aileen nodded and bit her lips as she knew what Alex said was correct. She had experienced it twice in her life and noticed the aftershocks he was talking about, so it was enough to convince her. On the other hand, Ryuu admired Alex even more. Not only he had unparalleled talent and strength, but his wisdom was also deep. However, they forgot that many monsters had entered their sanctuary. And they realized their presence due to the sharp decrease in water and turned around. "Scree¡ª!" Many monsters noticed them and attacked them from behind. The elders started protecting themselves, but suddenly another sound appeared around them. From slashing sounds to explosions sounds echoed through the entire place as fourteen people emerged behind them and killed all the monsters that tried to hurt the Space Temple Elders. "We are sorry for being late! The other elders will also come in a minute or so." One of them said. Aileen glanced at them and snarled. "Hmph. All of you are too long! We have been waiting for you here for a few minutes¡­ Anyway, I will talk later because we are facing a serious issue. Licht! Use your brain now, old man! And where is that Viola?" "Viola is handling her volcano that erupts because of this incident." Licht, the Light Element Temple''s Great Elder, informed while thinking about their current situation. "Anyway, I am going to¡ª!" "Wait!" A shout suddenly stopped Licht from talking as everyone''s eyes locked into a young man with golden hair. It was from Alex. "Alex! What are you doing?" Aileen couldn''t help but snarl. They were facing a threatening situation here, and Alex stopped Licht from issuing orders. "Did you say the volcano erupts? Are there any other volcanoes here, and what are their sizes?" Alex interjected while sweating profusely. Licht didn''t know what he was talking about but ignored him nonetheless. "Anyway, I need to proceed with my order first! Firstly, the Space Temple will¡ª!" He was once again stopped by another sound. However, this sound was very different from the sound of humans and so loud as if it wanted to tear Heaven with its noise. *Rumble Rumble!* *Boom!* Chapter 680 - The Problem under the Sea *Rumble Rumble!* *Boom!* Not far from Freedom Sect was a gigantic volcano that no one had ever seen before. The rough size of its mouth alone was several times larger than the one near the Fire Temple. Like how Alex predicted what happened, it was inside the same ring of fire like the one in Fire Temple Territory. The moment the ground started shaking strongly, it must distract the Ring of Fire and force the Volcanoes to erupt. And this volcano was no different. It spewed a huge amount of lava, rocks and other things to its surroundings. The sea monsters tried to escape while the weaker ones weren''t so lucky and were killed almost instantly. Another catastrophe would soon strike the Freedom Sect. ¡­ *Rumble Rumble!* *Boom!* Licht''s heart skipped a beat when he heard this sound before looking at Alex. "Brat! What do you know about it?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He didn''t care about it earlier, and he demanded an answer like this. Alex recalled everything about the underwater volcano eruption and thought. ''It shouldn''t happen like this. Most underwater volcano eruptions usually went unnoticed¡­ But this one shouldn''t like this unless it''s an unusual volcano eruption!'' Looking at Aileen with a solemn look, he once again asked. "How big is the volcano?" "You have seen the volcano in the Fire Temple''s area, right? It''s ten times bigger than that. That is the one near to us." "!!!" Alex gritted his teeth and clicked his teeth. Although their attitude wasn''t likable, he needed to let this matter go as they were in danger. "Usually, you won''t notice an underwater volcano eruption due to the water cooling the lava instantly. However, there are some occurrences where the volcano shoots out not only its material like rocks, but also lava domes, ash, and even underwater lava flows. "The eruption will create a crater that will release a huge amount of lava. The problem is how big the crater will be¡­ Assuming the loud sound, the size of its original mouth and the continuous rumbling sound as if there are many rocks coming toward us, I assume it creates a gigantic crater. And all of those materials will flow to this place and strike at this barrier¡­ And¡ª!" "Enough. Thank you for the information, and I can imagine what will happen." Licht stopped him while sweating. Luckily, the people had arrived, so Licht could finally pass his order to all people at once. "This is my order. Space Temple will continue maintaining their Spatial Gate and reduce the amount of water flowing inside this place. "Knowing about the volcano eruption, there is a high chance that monsters will charge at this place. Water Temple Elders are required to repel all monsters to prevent our barrier from collapsing while your disciples need to direct the water here. We need to start killing the monsters here. Hence I want to weaken them first. Meanwhile, Earth Temple is required to make a solid landscape for us as we are going to rebuild an unstable part before replacing the barrier with a temporary array to patch this colossal hole. "Light and Dark Temple will create an illusion to camouflage the area here. Remember, try to make the monsters think there is nothing around this area¡­ Or make it look as dangerous as possible because of the suction force from the Spatial Gates. "Ice Temple will create a temporary wall to redirect the huge mass coming from the volcano. You don''t need to stop it because it will be too much for you. Just use your ice to create a wall that is enough to redirect them¡­ It''s even more wonderful if we can create a temporary wall using those materials. "I know that Ice Temple can''t withstand the pressure from the sea alone while maintaining the ice wall, so Wind Temple will follow them to support them either in creating a wind barrier to make them comfortable or protecting them from the potential monsters attacks. "Fire Temple is not here due to their volcano, so that leaves Lightning Temple. I want all of you to scatter around the area to kill these monsters. You have the water, use it to your advantage¡­ Just don''t forget to not hit friendly. Now go!" Licht ended his command with a shout. Without saying anything, the people from Nine Temples started working together to handle the situation. Alex turned around while maintaining his Spatial Gate and saw the Great Elder of Thunder Temple. He appeared to be a middle-aged man with the cultivation of 9-Star Martial Saint. Even though he didn''t have a bulky muscle, Alex could see the tremendous power behind his small stature. He pulled out his white metal pole as he narrowed his eyes, looking at monsters on the ground. "Three elders will try to stop the induction a few hundred meters away from this place. Make sure no one is electrocuted in that area. As for the rest, you need to get ready to attack the monsters after my attack. Make sure all the monsters are dead." "Yes, Sir!" The elders from Thunder Temple quickly scattered themselves around the area. Meanwhile, their Great Elder clapped his hand once before electricity ran through his hand, connecting his two hands. He raised both hands as if worshiping something. Surprisingly, the lightning turned into a tree before it struck forth. The lightning flew out of the branch and hit the water. The seawater channeled the lightning and electrocuted the monsters. The tree kept shooting out lightning one after another as if there were a rain of lightning. Some of them were killed, some of them were paralyzed while some of them were fine. The elders began to move and fought those who were still alive while their Great Elder tried to recover his Spiritual Energy as soon as possible because he had too many monsters to deal with. "Don''t forget to reserve your power! The flood must have gone toward the other temples, so there might be a few thousand monsters around the area. Some Martial Saints Elder might be able to handle it, but their number is a bit restricted." "Yes, Sir!" Alex watched them with great interest as he never knew these people. Aileen also had some leeway to answer his doubt. "I will explain their identity. That one is Lightning Great Elder, Riadon. The one in charge of Light Temple and who gave the order earlier was Licht. Meanwhile, the last one that stayed here was Melva. Just remember not to get entangled with that woman, she is a succubus, and I''m sure she will suck you dry." Alex looked at Licht and Riadon, thinking. ''Licht seemed to be the old version of Anya as their brain, and Light Element are the same. Only, Anya was more to support while I don''t know his strength. On the other hand, Riadon is the opposite of Leoz. He uses and controls his Lightning Element very well¡­ Unlike Leoz, who mostly uses his brute strength.'' However, when he glanced at Melva and began comparing her with Anna, she suddenly turned around and gave him a kiss from afar as if she was responding to him. Alex shuddered upon that sight and quickly turned around as if she didn''t see her. He then turned back to the ground and saw almost all monsters in the area had perished. The Water Temple Disciples began their job and controlled the water, sweeping them into one place. They were planning to have the Fire Temple to evaporate the water for them. Unfortunately, they were not present, so they asked an Elder from Space Temple to help them store the water inside Spatial Gate and started moving to weaken the monsters. Still, Alex was amazed by the monsters. He looked at each monster around the area and gasped. He wasn''t shocked by their strength, but their appearance. ''Is that shark? But that huge fifty meters body¡­ Damn, it''s even bigger than Megalodon¡­ However, this monster is known as Deep Sea Shark in the knowledge from my inheritance. The strength is usually Martial Saint, and their king is usually 6-Star or 7-Star Martial Saint. Luckily, there are none of them here, only a 1-Star Martial Saint.'' After the water started draining, the Earth Temple began controlling the dirt around the place and stuck them together to make a surface that could withstand the sea pressure. They carefully strengthened it under the Great Elder''s surveillance. He almost forgot about this person to be honest, because this Great Elder looked very gloomy and had little to no presence. The Great Elder was a middle-aged lady with big eye bags as if she hadn''t slept for centuries. Her bangs also almost hide this bad eyes from her face. However, he couldn''t see why this person had such a condition despite her busty body. After all, her body alone wasn''t losing against the Dark Temple Great Elder, who was supposed to have the most devilish body. Yet, this woman could have this little presence as if she was assimilated with the ground herself. Alex shook his head and turned around before those elders started noticing him like Melva, thinking Aileen must have forgotten her existence since she didn''t introduce her to him. Meanwhile, the Array Masters began creating symbols after symbols to fix the barrier. He then started looking outside with his Spirit Eyes to see those people from Water Temple, Wind Temple, and Ice Temple. ¡­ Outside, right in front of the Space Gate were many gigantic whirlpools, sucking the water at an alarming rate. The people from Water Temple swum in this dark and deep sea as if they were sea monsters. They could feel the presence of monsters around and killed them almost instantly. There were some monsters that were strong, but the Great Elder killed them. This person was the strongest person from Water Temple, a 9-Star Martial Saint. He had long blue hair and a long blue robe. While killing the monsters, he could hear the loud rumbling sounds moving toward them. "Ten Elders will go toward those two Temples and assist them to the best of your ability," he commanded after noticing the dire situation. "Don''t forget not to breathe since the smell sucks." The elders nodded and left his side as they saw a huge amount of rocks coming toward them. They needed to assist them in making sure these many things wouldn''t hit their barrier. On the other hand, the Ice Temple had been protected by the Wind Temple before they decided to freeze the water around them, creating a huge and thick wall underwater. Each wall was aligned with each other as if they had the same mind. However, these people were just connecting the Ice Element that came from their Great Elder and helped her by supplying Spiritual Energy. None of them were slacking or complaining when those things hit them. However, they didn''t direct it as Licht suggested because they found that these materials would only get sucked by the Spatial Gates. They still could search some treasures inside this, so they rather set it aside even if it took more energy. Suddenly, the acidic pungent smell filled their nose, making them want to throw up. Fortunately, the Wind Temple was fast enough to strengthen their barrier to prevent this pungent smell from entering. They didn''t know why, but the Ice Temple decided to praise them. Having seen this situation, the elders from Water Temple stopped for a while and watched from the sideline before they moved to one side of the wall and controlled the water current to help the rock moving. This would greatly help the Ice Temple. ¡­ Alex confirmed that the situation was handled pretty well, and it would soon return to normal. There might be some houses destroyed because of the shock and flood, but it should be fine, he thought. He was wondering whether any influences would move like them in the case of an emergency since most influences he attacked only forced the disciples to hole up in their own haven. Only this time, he could see that there was no pressure coming from each other as they helped unconditionally. It was truly a beautiful scene to see, at least for Alex. After this incident came to an end, Alex looked up as he wondered how the others were doing and hoped they were fine. Chapter 681 - The Situation on the Surface Part I Meanwhile, on the surface right before the earthquake struck the Heavenly Continent. Anya and Firia were talking about their monthly report to send back to Alex. "It should be enough for now. Rose only focuses on her cultivation lately due to the surveillance from the Fire God Clan. It seems she wants to reach Martial Monarch as soon as possible to get that New Gacha from Alex," Anya said while writing it down on a paper. "That''s right. She might reach that stage first before Alex even reaches Martial Saint Stage. She doesn''t have many things to do anyway other than cultivating. Her strength and techniques are mostly in the peak of her realm, and we will only let her learn peak Heaven Tier Martial Arts after she reaches Martial Monarch¡­ Which is solved by the Gacha." Firia nodded. "Sister Xingzhi will take care of the missions, so we are free to do whatever we¡ª" *Rumble!* Just like how the earthquake struck the Freedom Sect, it also shook half of the Heavenly Continent, let alone their temporary base, which was close to the shore. "!!!" The lamps started swaying left and right as Firia and Anya quickly floated a few centimeters in the air. "We need to get the Rune Stone. I''m afraid this house will collapse," said Anya while glancing at Firia. "I will store all the doc.u.ments here and wake up Sherry while you can go store the Rune Stone and wake up Stina and Kyle." Firia nodded and waved her hands, storing everything in her Space Ring first before moving them to the Inventory after everything calmed down. She quickly headed toward Sherry''s room, where she was looking left and right, not knowing what just happened. "Sherry. We are going out of this house!" Firia told her in a manner that couldn''t be rejected. As confused as she might, Sherry still followed Firia. Meanwhile, Anya fetched the Rune Stone that was in the room next to them and woke up the couple. They flew outside of the house before seeing that the houses around them also had collapsed to the ground before their house collapsed. They then regrouped with Firia and Sherry. "This is Earthquake, right? I have experienced it when training with my Master¡­ But it''s not as powerful." Firia asked Anya. "Correct. The power of Earthquakes will depend on the mass and volume of the tectonic plates. I''m afraid that there will be some aftershocks and a Tsunami coming to this place. I''m afraid these rubbles will soon be swept by an enormous Tsunami." Anya nodded. She had more than five thousand years of knowledge, so she obviously had the knowledge about these terms. "What should we do now? Search for a new base and inform Alex?" Firia asked while contemplating their next move. She was also worried about Alex at this time. "For now, I will recall everyone here because the Tsunami will surely bring us a fortune," Anya smirked. "What is this Earthquake and Tsunami you are talking about?" Sherry asked while trying to calm her heart down. She thought God was angry or Martial Saints were fighting in the area. Anya looked at Sherry and the others before explaining, "Earthquake is¡­" After several minutes, she finally finished. "¡­ That''s all about it." "So, this Tsunami might bring many sea monsters to the shore, depending on the size of the Tsunami? Then we will take advantage of this and kill them?" Sherry tried to summarize what they needed to do. "Yeah. Do you want to see the sea right now?" Anya smiled while summoning the others. "Un!" Sherry nodded furiously. "I''m curious about it." Anya looked at the others who nodded their heads before they flew to the sea. "Woah!" Sherry was amazed seeing the seawater slowly went back as if it was pulled by someone. The wet ground started expanding as the water slowly moved away. "Is the big wave coming soon?" "Hmm¡­ Maybe a little longer. It''s formed far in the ocean and takes time to reach here. That''s why we are going to talk about our plan for the time being." Anya smiled and patted Sherry''s head. "We should resolve everything first before informing Alex that we are alright. After that, we need to check if this actually causes a change in the landscape because earlier is like a major one." Firia nodded. "Yeah. We will do so, but we need to make a strategy to kill these sea monsters that will soon come to this place due to the Tsunami. I am sure that the people from the Divine Kingdom will come to this place too, so we are talking about strategy." Anya added. "That''s right. Calculating the distance and timing, we can safely assume that we can only stay like this until tomorrow. We should be able to kill around twenty thousand Martial Monarchs sea monsters¡­ Of course, without our True Spirit Body. The question is, will we?" Anna thought for a moment and said. "We can only see how big the wave is. Meanwhile, Nelson should go toward the Divine Kingdom and inform us of their condition and how many they will bring to this place. After all, the Sea Monsters might trample their territories if they are not stopped." Anya commanded. "Alright." Nelson nodded his head and disappeared. "Call me if you need anything." As soon as Nelson flew off, Anya commanded the others. "We will search for the edge of this Tsunami and start sweeping the monsters from the edge. Leoz and Jeanne will be a big help in this hunt, while Jean can help us weaken their power by controlling the seawater. Sherry and Firia might not have a problem with these monsters since your Fire Element is far superior. "However, I am a bit worried about Fabio, Stina, and Kyle. Fabio might be fine considering you can use your sword, but Stina and Kyle¡­" Anya looked at the couple while furrowing her eyebrows. "Please don''t worry about us, Mistress. We have mastered the Fire Core Technique that Master has given us not long ago. Although we don''t have a big elemental advantage, we can support you by sending all of our techniques to the monsters." Firia waved her hands. "Besides, our fire level is slightly higher than Fabio, so I think we can kill some monsters together." "Alright. Just make sure you are not overworked yourself. After all, we will escape as soon as the people from the Divine Kingdom arrive in this area¡­ Maybe go to another remote battlefield and fight there." Anya looked at Greg. "Greg will stay with me so I can maintain the Strength Support and heal any injuries." "Understood." "Artur will go with Anna. Leoz and Jeanne might not be able to kill everything, so you two are going to kill the leftovers. Remember, leave no one alive." "Leave it to me." Artur puffed his chest. "How about ignoring those and advancing as fast as possible?" Anna asked. "I mean, if we want to get more EXPs, then we can use this plan." Anya thought for a moment and shook her head. "Firstly, the Divine Kingdom might notice the difference between their numbers later and think there is something around this area. I don''t mind if we are found out, but they might find Alex''s place if they do thorough research. On the other hand, if we sweep around the area, we can simply store all those dead bodies inside the Inventory to avoid their suspicion. Of course, this place is a bit far from Alex, so they won''t search for that cave." "Alright." Anna nodded, ready to follow her command. They waited for another one hour before there was a giant wave coming from the horizon. Sherry widened her eyes and dropped her jaw. "Is that the Tsunami? It''s very tall! I can somehow see many monsters inside that wave, but I don''t think there are more than a thousand." Anya furrowed her eyebrows before commanding. "We are going to take advantage of this wave with our True Spirit Body. It has yet to reach the surface, and it has already acc.u.mulated one hundred meters in height¡­ It might even reach three hundred meters as soon as it comes here. Besides, the monsters inside the wave are only low-level monsters while the big ones follow the waves on its tail. We just can''t see it yet unless Alex uses his Spirit Eyes." "Are you sure? How many monsters do you think it will bring?" Sherry asked. Anya didn''t answer her immediately and looked to the left and right, noticing how big the Tsunami is. "I''m sure that even if we fly for two days straight, we still can''t see the end of this Tsunami. And the monsters that come might even touch millions. That''s the rough calculation." "How many of them do you think will be killed?" "Not that many. Around two hundred thousand, I guess¡­ Before those monsters come back to the sea. We are going to use our True Spirit Body and try to kill fifty thousand. I''m sure most of us, if not all, will reach Martial Saints after this." "Don''t worry. We will make sure to obliterate them one by one and not leave a single magical beast behind. Besides, we can sell them to the Blackwade Clan later¡­ Or maybe wait for Alex to sell it himself when he decides to reveal his card to Song Jiaoren." Firia nodded while smirking. "True enough. Alex can use this as his first transaction to elevate his status even further. Just imagine if we kill fifty thousand Martial Monarch monsters and sell their bodies in a single transaction, it will surely create quite an impact." Anya also smirked as if she thought something extreme. "Anyway, we will do whatever we can in this place before thinking about the plan later." She nodded to Anya. "And considering we are fighting for only a day, True Spirit Body is a must to maximize the profit." "Yeah. I''m thinking that way too." Anya nodded. They nodded and flew to the sky. As Anya predicted, the wave slowly grew taller and taller, surpassing even her prediction. The gigantic Tsunami Wave hit the shore directly and broke. The height was nothing like before but the power and destruction now filled this scary wave. It continued and reached the area behind the shore, destroying trees and some abandoned houses in the area. Sherry was amazed by this natural phenomenon as this was the first time she saw something like this. She was fascinated by the waves that could destroy everything on its way, forgetting what the wave originally carried. "Sherry. You can admire it later. We need to leave first." Anya patted Sherry''s shoulder while looking at the appearances of many monsters on the shore. Sherry then looked down and noticed a thousand monsters filled the area while more and more were coming from the ocean. "I understand." They then flew off the area while searching for the edge of the impact so they could start killing these monsters. Chapter 682 - The Situation on the Surface Part II One day later, In the Divine Kingdom, a person stood tall in the highest balcony of the castle. He was an old man with purple hair. There was a scar on his eyebrows, making him appear to be a person with many stories to tell. The red mantle had been too heavy for him recently. Of course, it was a different kind of heavy. As a cultivator, he didn''t feel the weight of this mantle. The heaviness came from his heart. "Your Majesty¡­ No, Grandfather. Please come back to the hall. The shaking has stopped, so we should convene a meeting to discuss what we will do." The person appearing behind him was a blonde male with a mask covering his right eyes. "Haiz¡­ Julius. Stay here with me first. I want to talk." The old man sighed. "What is it, Grandfather? I mean, we should do it fast because¡­" Julius didn''t continue, but his eyes were staring at the town around their castle. Many famous buildings weren''t destroyed, but middle size houses or lower have been destroyed by the Earthquake. They needed to discuss the restoration. "The town needs to be recovered, and there must be a huge change of landscape and the potential of a big wave coming¡­ This mantle is already heavy on my shoulders." The old man sighed. "Grandfather!" Julius''s body shook as he quickly cupped his hands and bowed. "I''m still not prepared to take the throne, Grandfather." "Haiz¡­ I have been holding the throne for two generations. I think it''s time for you to take the mantle. At first, your father will take the throne and be responsible for passing the mantle to you, but he has passed away. You are my child, and very talented. You are already a 2-Star Martial Saint while your mindset is good to be a ruler¡­" The old man sighed. "Grandfather¡­ It''s not like Julius doesn''t want to wear the mantle, but I have promised Father to wear it only after reaching 5-Star Martial Saint. I can''t annul my promise." "And there are still your Brothers and Sisters who are aiming at the throne¡­ I know that you have suppressed them with overwhelming strength, you still need to be careful. I''m sure they will use this disaster for their own personal gain." "I am aware. That''s why I will do my best in the restoration process and ask for Marshall Fudi to accompany me the whole time. I don''t wish to trouble Grandfather for this." Julius sighed, recalling his own brothers and sisters. "Well¡­ I will hold this mantle for a little longer, I guess." He sighed before turning around and leaving the balcony. "Let''s go to the hall. It''s time to discuss with our ministers." "Yes." ¡­ A few minutes later, the duo came to the throne room as the old man sat on the golden throne while Julius stood beside him. "I need the damage report. Speculation is enough." The old man demanded fifty people in front of him. Suddenly, a middle-aged man stepped forward while looking at the paper in his hand. "There should be deaths, but it won''t be that much, considering we have too many Martial Masters. They will be fine even if they are buried under the pile of rubles. The problem will be how much it will cost us to restore the land." "You forget something." The king stopped him before recalling a few matters in the past. "There must be some aftershocks after this and a massive wave in the shore. It will surely bring many monsters¡­" "I have read this in the Imperial Record. May I know about the details, Your Majesty?" Julius asked his grandfather politely. "Let me remember¡­ This is a story of one thousand years ago. Back then, the kingdom was shaken by this incident once¡­ Albeit, the power was weaker than this. At that time, we need around three hundred thousand Spirit Crystals to restore the entire kingdom." "Three hundred thousand Spirit Crystals? Three hundred million Spirit Gems?" The people gasped. Julius stepped forward and asked another question. "That would devastate our treasury, Your Majesty. Not to mention that you said the power was weaker than this one." "I am not finished yet." The king shook his head and stopped them from talking. "Back then, a huge wave traversed toward this place, bringing a few hundred thousand monsters in the coast, south to our kingdom." "!!!" "This will be terrible." "We need to inform the army." "Enough!" The king shouted while releasing his Spiritual Energy. He could relate to why those ministers panicked, but he could see a few staying silent like they had experienced it before. "Firstly, we won''t get that much loss because we will hunt those monsters and sell them to the Blackwade Clan. "This will have the economy start running, and our cost should be covered with this. After all, these monsters will be perfect ingredients for Alchemists and other things while the normal cultivators and other people will buy the end products. That''s why we will utilize our army and have them head to the South Coast to farm the monsters and sell them." "That¡­" Julius was astonished and bowed his head. "Your Majesty is wise. We can monopolize this opportunity." "There is no way we can do that." He shook his head. "Back then, the wave carried six hundred thousand monsters, and this might bring one million sea monsters. If I remember correctly, around fifty percent of them were Martial Monarchs or above." "!!!" The people were utterly shocked once again. The number was insane, but considering the fact that the sea was never explored this whole time, there might be hundreds of thousands of Martial Monarchs inside the sea. Unfortunately, they didn''t know the exact reason why a large number of sea monsters decided to go to the surface. How could they think that the Underwater Eruption was the one that forced them to the surface because of that smell? "Anyway, send fifty thousand soldiers and five thousand Martial Monarchs with a hundred Martial Saints. Have them go to that place and start hunting the monsters. I want them to be as careful as possible, so we won''t lose too much." The king ordered. "Yes. Your Majesty." "For now, we can open our coffer first to proceed with the restoration of our kingdom. Although it will be costly, the economy will go like usual if we fix this mess sooner." "We will take care of it, Your Majesty." "And lastly, inform the other influences to participate in this hunt. I don''t know how much environmental impact we get, but I want you to have the other influences to participate. It''s not because I want to let them become rich like us. We are simply not matched against those many monsters." "I will take care of the invitation, Your Majesty." Julius finally stepped forward. "Good. If you have any questions about this, just ask the old ministers. They should know what to do. I will leave now." The king stood up and left the room. Julius looked at his back and took a deep breath before doing his own job. ¡­ Meanwhile, In the Fire God Clan, They were in the same state as any other influence. Many buildings were destroyed, and panic spread around, so the elders and their patriarch held a big meeting. "I am sure you have been notified of what happened yesterday. We talked about it yesterday, but I will just remind you first. We need to proceed with the restoration of our land, especially our mines. At the same time, we need to assemble our attack forces and have them head toward the southern area near the Divine Kingdom. "We don''t need to wait for the invitation from the Divine Kingdom since their message will arrive sooner or later." Leo, the patriarch, announced. "Patriarch¡­ May I say something?" An elder stepped forward. "Tell me!" "I think Spirit Nest will appear on this occasion¡­ I''m afraid that they will use a situation like this to strike at our influences." "!!!" All people in the room gasped as they looked at this elder for a while before the Patriarch broke his silence. "Why didn''t you tell me yesterday?" "I¡­ I just thought about it last night." Leo smashed his chair as he stood up with solemn expression. "There might be hundreds of thousand monsters on this occasion¡­ We must grab this opportunity to acquire some wealth, but it''s really risky because the Spirit Nest might ignore this incident as a whole and strike at us. "With those many monsters, they only need for us to exhaust ourselves before finishing us¡­" Leo looked down, weighing something in his mind. ''Should I participate or have the whole family go? This will be reckless since the Blackwade Clan might attack us at a time like this.'' "Patriarch¡­ If I may suggest, we can just send our disciples to do this. Of course, we don''t need important disciples, and the number doesn''t need to be that high. Although the profit we can reap is lower, we won''t be bothered too much if we lose them." Another elder stepped forward, suggesting the solution. Leo didn''t immediately give him the confirmation and still thought for the best solution. ''It is true that by doing it, we can minimize our loss in case we are attacked by Spirit Nest. At the same time, we will know that the Spirit Nest is hiding around the Divine Kingdom. Meanwhile, I need to think about the profit¡­ No. Screw profit. If our family can''t destroy this Spirit Nest, we might even get destroyed in the future, looking at the speed of their progress.'' After a few minutes of silence, Leo finalized his order. "Send the disciples out. I will also instruct our spies to watch them closely and try to investigate the Spirit Nest if they truly attack us. If we did not send anyone, but we will become a laughing stock in the Seven Influences Banquet next year. "Hence, we will brace ourselves in this matter and have some useless disciples go there to get us some face and materials. On the other hand, I want the disciples and elders to start taking this matter more seriously as the matter might concern the fate of our entire clan. Are we clear?" "Yes, Patriarch." The elders cupped their hands and bowed. ¡­ The other influences were also discussing the same topic as these two influences. They never thought that another phenomenon occurred with this timing. There is already a storm brewing on the Heavenly Continent, and this matter just makes it worse. They kept complaining about Alex and Fire God Clan. Inside the Drunken Pavilion, Evelyn opened the window and looked outside. "Big Brother Alex¡­ Evelyn has reached the 2-Star Martial Monarch right now¡­ If not because Big Brother Alex refined my potential, I won''t have a burst of potential when I realize my fire talent¡­ I am truly grateful to you. Evelyn can''t pay you back this whole time because I''m too weak¡­ But now Evelyn has the strength and backing to help Big Brother. Just you wait, Fire God Clan, you won''t fight only the Spirit Nest, but you will also fight me and the Drunken Pavilion!" As Evelyn kept saying her resolve, Letizia didn''t have that much of a chance. She was locked inside a prison. Her cultivation might not be sealed, but she couldn''t do anything because she was chained on the wall as it would destroy her wrists if she struggled. However, she still couldn''t do anything other than waiting for the right time to escape. "Mother¡­ I am sorry for being a useless daughter and can''t visit you this whole time." She couldn''t help but recall her memory after the Earthquake. "I hope that you are alright over there. Letizia will surely come back home¡­" Her voice only contained disappointment to herself. She once hoped to be a peerless cultivator, but she felt useless right now. Her determination was gradually destroyed as time passed. She could still increase her cultivation, but it would be over when those people decided to kill her later or even used her as a sacrifice¡­ Whether it was her loyalty or something deep inside her heart, she uttered a single name that influenced her life greatly. "Master¡­ Help me." Chapter 683 - Alex Looks the Hunt from the Sideline Back to the Freedom Sect, Alex was a little exhausted after using the Spatial Gate for so long. He never thought it was this exhausting to maintain a single Spatial Gate for a few hours. "Do you want to change with someone?" Aileen asked before glancing at many Space Temple disciples on the ground. "An Elder usually needs to maintain this for a day before they are qualified to be an elder, you know." Alex shook his head. The reason he was tired didn''t lie in his Spiritual Energy. Instead, it was his Mental Energy that was drained because he never practiced maintaining this technique for this long, so his body had yet to adapt. Luckily, Alex still could withstand this for another two days with his immense Mental Energy. He stared at Aileen and replied. "I''m fine. Thank you for Great Elder''s concern, but I should be fine until the situation is fixed." "Is that so? Just make sure you don''t fall unconscious suddenly, alright?" Aileen looked at his complexion and gave her approval before worrying her disciple. "How about you, Ryuu? How long can you hold on?" "My personal best is twenty hours¡­ But Alex''s training seems to have opened the clogged potential that has been buried by my trauma¡­ So I think I can last longer. I might even reach a day." Ryuu nodded with a smile. "That''s good then. With your progress and Maya''s change of mind, my heart can finally rest assured." Aileen smiled brightly. "Thank you, Master." Ryuu bowed to her. "It''s fine. You are my disciple after all." Aileen waved her hand. She then looked down, watching the people work with the land and informing Alex. "Anyway, we might need almost a day for this, so you can exchange with the others if you are too tired." Alex also nodded this time before a notification appeared in front of him. [Host. Anna wants to talk to you.] "I am still in the middle of this though. I can''t really summon the card and expect everyone to ignore it. I can try hiding them inside my pocket, but I need to touch the card and use Spiritual Energy to communicate with them. I''m sure someone will find it." [That''s why I will be the bridge this time. You can send any message to Anna through me and vice versa.] "That''s good then. What does she want to say?" Alex asked and waited for the system to respond. [It seems they want to take advantage of the Tsunami on the surface. Feeling how big the earthquake was earlier, I''m sure Host knows this will happen, right?] "Yeah. You are correct." [The problem is that there are around one million sea monsters encroaching upon the land. These monsters are never disturbed so they can achieve this number. Anna wants to take this opportunity to kill as many as possible, even if they need to use the True Spirit Body. That''s why they want you to use the Gacha Tickets and EXP Cards later, according to Anya''s instruction.] "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "They can use my Inventory, right? Why would they ask for something like this?" [The problem is they can''t. Even though I have the consciousness of my own, your permission is the last thing that needs to be confirmed before I can do anything. After all, I''m your system, not theirs.] Alex let out a hollow laugh inwardly. "Alright. I will be bored in this place anyway, so I can do something like that." [Gacha Tickets x 541] [This is your current count of Gacha Tickets. Meanwhile, you have a few EXP Cards that you have yet to use. Do you want to use them?] "Sure." [Processing] [Tulip Spear (UC) x1] [Summoning Coin (C) x1] ¡­ ¡­ The system exchanged all of his Gacha and used every single Summoning Coins received from the Gacha. Alex was quite satisfied with the reward and remembered another problem. "By the way, System. Do I get any missions from this? I mean, I have done many things in this place." [There is basically none. You are mostly training and training, so there is no reward.] "Tch. I almost forgot why I called you a useless system back in the day." Alex clicked his tongue. [Love you too, Host.] The reply remained the same, so Alex sighed. "Anyway, can you ask them what they are going to do with the Fire God Clan and the Divine Kingdom?" [Anya is thinking about it right now since they want to take advantage of this Tsunami to increase their levels. Meanwhile, Anya had a safe haven, so she could wait on the back while making the strategy.] "Oh." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Ask Anna to watch out for the Fire God Clan too. Considering the number, Divine Kingdom won''t be enough. There is a high possibility that other influences will join, especially Fire God Clan." [Do you want to kill them?] "Not really. If we are exposed too early, we won''t be able to utilize that huge piece of land as our EXPs source. I want them to watch their movement and see whether they are truly helpful or just watch and see. If my prediction is correct, they will do the same like that incident on the Sacred Continent." Alex contemplated and said. [Then I shall pass this message to Anna.] "Thank you." Alex nodded slightly. [Any other messages do you want me to pass?] Alex contemplated for a moment and said. "Observe the other influences for me, especially the Divine Kingdom. If I am not wrong, the host of this Seven Influences Banquet is them, right?" [Yes. Alright, Anna has received the message.] "Thanks." Alex thanked her once again before focusing back to his Spatial Gate. "Alex. You have mastered the Space Cut right now. Do you want to go to Martial Arts Temple after this? We can search for another Space Element Art for you, and I do have some knowledge about them." Alex looked down for a minute. ''I have many Space Element Arts in my inheritance actually, but I never look at them because I place no importance to them previously. Should I search the techniques from the inheritances instead of going to the Martial Arts Temple? ''Still, I am worried that I will have no teacher to ask about Space Element, so I can only study it alone and will surely need a longer time. I am afraid that I won''t have enough time to practice two Space Arts if I choose them¡­ Meanwhile, I can speed up the process by paying money to Aileen. It seems I will go to the Martial Arts Temple first, choose a book, and have Aileen to teach me. Besides, Aileen will surely suspect me if I ask a technique she never knows anyway. ''I don''t really care about money since I can easily get it back while I can learn those Martial Arts in my memory later. I will prioritize speed this time.'' Having finalized his decision, Alex nodded to Ryuu. "Then, I will trouble you to guide me to Martial Arts Temple after everything is over." "Judging from the situation, I am sure it will be fine after two days. We can go there after some rest." "I have no problem with that timing." Alex nodded before glancing at Aileen. "Great Elder, I will need to trouble you later on." "I can only teach you what I know." Aileen shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Besides, I will be taking payment for that." Alex nodded and continued maintaining the Spatial Gate. ¡­ A few hours later, the system disturbed him once again. [Host. They have killed around five thousand monsters within four hours. Anna will soon ask you to level up someone soon.] Alex nodded and thought that his Spirits were the best. After all, it was hard to kill five thousand Martial Monarchs within four hours unless they use some big moves or their True Spirit Body. Little did he know that Anya already instructed them to use both. [Want me to tell you something?] "Sure. I am bored anyway." Alex agreed nonchalantly. [They are planning to kill fifty thousand monsters in just a day before hiding from everyone else.] Alex widened his eyes first before pondering about the plan. "It''s true that we shouldn''t appear on the continent as long as possible because it will make us more mysterious. This will impact how the Blackwade Clan perceive us, so this plan is working for me." When he was talking to himself, the system sent him a notification. [Gacha Ticket x331] ¡­ [Gacha Ticket x750] "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and blinked a few times. "What the heck just happened?" [I''m just showing you that Jeanne uses the first big move and kills a few thousand monsters by herself. Unfortunately, only around half of them can be recovered to be sold to Blackwade Clan. The rest are charred back or reduced to ashes.] Alex chuckled. "That''s surely like her. Jeanne and Leoz will be very powerful in this battlefield because of their element. My prediction is Leoz will only use his Thunder God Cannon rather than his most powerful technique. After that, there are still Anna and the others. Due to their exhaustion, I think Leoz will stop after reaching 3-Star Martial Saints due to the lack of EXP Cards and how his Berserk thing works." The system didn''t respond any more as if she was waiting for the request to use the Gacha Tickets. "Use the Tickets and Coins to replenish the EXP Cards," Alex commanded. [Processing.] Alex waited until it was completed before he asked. "By the way, can I just ask you to automatically open the Gacha?" [There is no automatic system. You have seen how I manually open those many Gacha Balls, right? I have done it twice today according to your request.] "Ahaha¡­ I''m sorry about that. Though I can see that I''m pretty lucky, no? I mean three hundred Gacha Balls for a few thousand monsters¡­ Isn''t it almost ten percent chance to get a single Gacha Ball?" Alex asked excitedly. [You are wrong. Although I can''t say the exact percentage, it''s less than one in a thousand. The reason you get so much Gacha Tickets is due to the mission. Have you forgotten about your repeated mission again? I think I have explained it previously.] [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Monarch Stage Monsters (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x10] [Mission: Kill 100 6-10 Star Monarch Stage Monsters (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x10] [Mission: Kill 100 1-5 Star Saint Stage Monsters (Repeatable) Reward: Gacha Ticket x25] The system showed him the repeatable missions again. There were still many repeatable missions, but the system didn''t show as it was only to jog Alex''s memory. "Ah, right. I think our Gacha Tickets come mostly from here." Alex laughed. [You are right.] Alex nodded and continued keeping tabs on Anna and the others along with the Gacha Tickets. He kept using the Gacha Tickets and used the EXP Cards according to Anna''s instruction. Finally, after one day, he noticed the tickets didn''t increase in the past three hours, so he thought the hunt must have stopped. He quickly opened the status of his spirits. [Anna (Dark) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 214552/630000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 73/80 (3-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 213112/640000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 71/80 (1-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 378674/620000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 214024/610000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 45175/610000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 45178/610000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 12421/630000] [Anya (Light) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 51675/610000] [Artur (Light) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 4167/610000] [Jean (Water) Level: 70/80 (10-Star Martial Monarch Stage) Exp: 4675/610000] He was surprised that some already reached Martial Saints. In fact, the others could reach Martial Saint Stage with his EXP Cards, but Anna must think about their mental situation and didn''t force them to level up. After all, exhausting and recovering continuously was like dying over and over again. After reaching the exhaustion, Anna must have stopped. "Tell them they have worked hard." [Surely.] Chapter 684 - Negotiation After dealing with Anna''s Gacha request and finishing his job in that place, Alex finally had the chance to rest and recover his Spiritual Energy. However, there were still many disciples working around the area, especially those who took care of the flood. The Barrier had been restored, so Space Temple, Water Temple, Wind Temple, and Ice Temple could take a rest. Lightning Temple also finished their mission after killing a few thousand monsters. After they finished the illusion barrier, the Light Temple and Dark Temple finally finished their job, only leaving the Water Temple and some Space Element disciples to suck the water flooding their place. Meanwhile, Viola apologized on behalf of Fire Temple as they couldn''t help them this time due to the eruption. As soon as they settled everything, they could finally go back to rest. Ryuu said goodbye to Alex and told him to have a nice rest first before going to the Martial Arts Temple since that place must still be a mess. After resting for a day, Alex opened his eyes and came out of his room, preparing himself to go to the Martial Arts Temple. Suddenly, he remembered another thing that needed to be addressed to Anna and the others. He took out Anna''s card and asked. "Anna, how is the situation over there?" "Ah, Alex. Thank you for helping us another day." Anna was startled and thanked him first. "It''s fine. The jurisdiction is on me anyway, so you don''t need to thank me. On the other hand, I want to ask you about the surface condition." "Let me see¡­ According to the testament of the N Squad, only fifty percent of the land on this continent experienced the Earthquake. Well, it''s already big enough to be honest. Anyway, there are four influences hit by this Earthquake. Divine Kingdom, Blackwade Clan, Ancient Blue Family, and Phantasm Sect. The other three are relatively in the north of the continent, so their lands got little to no shake at all." "I don''t know about the Divine Kingdom and Phantasm Sect. But the Ancient Blue Family will suffer quite a big loss because of this, I guess. It might be possible to stop them from allying with the Fire God Clan. As for the Blackwade Clan, is this even a problem for them?" Alex thought for a moment and said. "Yes. I will send the report of the damage later after confirming everything." "Thank you." "Onto the second matter, Fire God Clan has indeed sent their useless disciples to lure us out. They might want to learn our position first because it would take too much time to travel around the continents. Even Snow White Mountain and Drunken Pavilion can''t participate in killing the monsters due to their distance. "That''s why Anya suggests we stay low for the time being to create a grand entrance for you." Anna chuckled, planning to tease him. "Grand entrance, huh¡­ I might need it, but I will skip if it''s embarrassing." "Don''t worry. The Grand Entrance we are talking about is when you are going to sell the forty-five thousand monsters to them in your first meeting." "Forty-five thousand?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. Our place didn''t have many high-level monsters. According to our rough statistic, we killed around sixty thousand monsters, in which half of them were Martial Emperor monsters. On the other hand, we only got around twenty thousand Martial Monarchs with three thousand Martial Saint Monsters. The rest were Martial King or below. Still, this transaction should give us¡­ Never mind, I don''t know the market. Let''s just wait for your meeting with that Song Jiaren." Alex twitched his eyebrows before sighing. "What about the surface condition? Has the water gone yet?" "No. It should be much longer, but it seems the sea level dropped slightly, so the process has somehow sped up." "¡­" Alex was speechless. He almost forgot that they continued sucked the seawater inside their Spatial Gate for a day. If it was only a single person, it might not be possible to influence worldwide, but it was done by the joint efforts of hundreds of Space Element Users. They might even decrease the sea level by a few centimeters. "It must be coming from you, right? What happened there?" "Let''s just say there is a black hole in the ocean floor that sucks the seawater for a day due to some accidents. I''m alright, though. I will send the report to you later." Alex chuckled. "Sure. I will be awaiting your news." Anna nodded before returning to the topic. "Anyway, the water level is only a third from their original height, so it should be clear after a day or two." "Oh. It''s good then. There is also something I want to ask you." Alex closed his eyes. "What is it?" "I want you to check the sea later. It''s fine if you are searching up in the sky because I am sure you can find it." Alex paused for a moment. "Anyway, the earthquake disrupted the Ring of Fire and created a big eruption. The mountain must have spurted out many minerals, so I want you to check and grab all those minerals." "Oh. So that''s what you want. Undersea volcano eruption usually goes unnoticed, so I don''t know. With your information just now, I think I will send Jean there and store all of them inside the Inventory. It''s unlimited space anyway, so we can take everything from there. Meanwhile, Greg will be examining all those stones to check if there are any important materials. After all, it usually has many precious materials and other things." Anna nodded. "Yeah. I will leave it to you. We don''t really need the metal, so we can sell those along with the monster parts later." "Sure. Do you want us to do another thing?" "No. I am good for now. I will inform you if I need anything later." "Then, I am going. I still need to count and organize the monsters we have hunted this time." Alex nodded and threw her card inside the Inventory. He then waited until Ryuu came to pick him up. "Alex, we are going to the Martial Arts Temple." The shout from outside came after another hour, and Alex quickly left his house. Ryuu waved his hand and said. "Thank you for your hard work yesterday. Even though you were not obligated to help, you still helped us in that pinch, so Master will offer you a discount if she teaches you in the future." "Oh. I never thought of that, but I''ll still gratefully accept it." Alex nodded. "Good. Then follow me." Ryuu then raised his hand and created a Spatial Gate toward the Martial Arts Temple. Alex followed him and arrived around the grassland right in front of the temple. Unlike the previous temples, this temple had an orange color. The place was brimming with people even though they only just opened after the incident. "I heard the elder was frustrated when the books were scattered on the ground." Ryuu grinned. "Haha¡­ I can see the frustration." Alex nodded while laughing. The temple itself was around the size of Space Temple, so he was sure there must be many books inside. With those thousands of books, it would be hard work to reorganize them. "Anyway, don''t mention anything about that and let me do the talking. Master also has given her a token, so we are clear." Ryuu nodded with a smile. Alex nodded and followed Ryuu to the inside, finding a very old elder with a huge bag under his eyes. He thought, ''This old man must be the one that Ryuu was talking about.'' "Elder. I and my friend want to go toward the top floor. This is my Master''s token." Ryuu presented Aileen''s token. Having her token meant Aileen had given her permission for the youngsters to go there, so the elder nodded his head. "Just remember. You can only take one book outside." "Yes, Elder." Ryuu nodded and asked Alex to follow him. They went to the top floor as Alex mesmerized by the sight of the bookshelves along with how organized the books were. He wondered if he had time to make something like this in the future when he had settled down. While thinking of it, he had arrived as Ryuu said, "Welcome to the top floor. The Space Element section is over there, but I''m afraid you won''t get anything other than the techniques I told you a few days ago. Because that''s the mainstream but powerful book for us Space Element masters." "I will look around first." Alex nodded and went to the Space Element section, only to be disappointed. Just like he said, he didn''t find a single book that fancied him. After going through the record in his head, he learned that there was a record for Space Bind, Space Mark, and Spatial Lock, in the inheritances. Hence, he decided not to take any and used the knowledge from there. "Haha¡­ It seems nothing catches your eyes." "I will ask Great Elder Aileen to teach me the techniques. Can you bring me there?" Alex asked. "Surely." Ryuu nodded before passing the elder once again to tell him that they didn''t bring back anything. After that, he created a Spatial Gate, and the two went back. ¡­ After arriving at the Space Temple, they met Aileen first by Alex''s request. "So¡­ What do you want to talk about with me?" Aileen asked while checking her doc.u.ment. These past days were tiring for her because she needed to check the doc.u.ment again and again. "I want to learn a few Space Element Techniques, so I want to negotiate the price for you to help me understand the techniques," Alex asked bluntly. "Hmm¡­ I am pretty busy at the moment." Aileen glanced at Alex with a sly glint. "I know. That''s why I say I want to negotiate the price." Alex nodded. "Well, you helped us a few days ago, and your information really saved many lives. So, I won''t treat you badly. Still, I need to know the techniques you want to learn first." Alex nodded. "I am planning to learn Space Bind, Space Mark, and Spatial Lock. Space Bind might be more useful to me currently, while Space Mark can let me escape from my enemies. As for Spatial Lock, I will see whether I can spare some time to learn the third one since I''m not confident enough." She blinked a few times and looked at Alex weirdly. "Are you sure? I know that you have a fast comprehension speed, but it is different from the Spatial Gate and Space Plates you have learned not long ago. This time, you need to learn from scratch, so it might take longer than you have expected¡­" "Really? I am going to leave after another year¡­" Alex lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "Are you even serious?!" She raised her voice a little bit. "I know that you might use the standard of Fire Element Art, but Space Element Art is harder than those arts, alright? And you actually don''t need to learn that long due to your Pure Fire. If normal people learn Martial Arts, they need years while some geniuses need months. That''s why I am afraid you might only be able to learn one technique even with my help. "Anyway, I will just take care of the first payment, and if you still want to learn the second technique, you can pay at that time." Aileen sighed while shaking her head. Alex contemplated for a moment and nodded his head. "Sure. I want to learn Space Bind." "Space Bind, huh¡­ I myself use Space Bind, so my understanding is deeper. I will blatantly say the price. It will be six million Spirit Gems or six thousand Spirit Crystals. Do you have that much money? I have discounted the price though. The price is high due to the speed of your growth and how many variants I can use with this technique." "I will take it." Alex waved his hand and took out a Space Ring, filling it with Spirit Gems. "This is the money." "Oh. You even pay in front. I''m impressed." Aileen widened her eyes in amazement. "I will handle my work today, so I will start teaching you tomorrow. Meanwhile, if I can''t teach you on a particular day, Ryuu will take care of it. Is that alright, Ryuu? This money is for you too, so you need to work hard. Haha¡­" Ryuu could only scratch his head, embarrassed. Chapter 685 - Training The next day, Alex began his training with Aileen. As usual, they were going toward the field with Ryuu and Maya. "I hope you don''t mind if my disciples are watching us." Aileen softly said, looking at Alex, who stood in the middle of the field. Alex thought for a moment. Ryuu aside, Maya didn''t have anything with this training. After all, Aileen must want Ryuu to learn what she thought and learned where he needed to teach Alex on a particular day. Aileen smiled as if she knew the question in Alex''s mind. "I need to supervise Maya these days since I want to see how big her determination is. I am just afraid that she will become her past self and say she is bored." "Master. Trust Maya a bit more." Maya pouted and looked at her with teary eyes. "You should earn my trust then. Do you think I don''t know how much you slack and how much you beg your Elder Brother Ryuu to hide that fact? I know everything about my disciples. You are talented and powerful, so I want to see you at the top, assisting Ryuu in managing the temple after I retire." Aileen sighed and shook her head. "Eh? Isn''t it enough for me as long as I get stronger? Why do I need to handle those boring jobs? I can''t stand those papers." She pouted. "This is why I can''t trust you. Cultivation is a boring and tedious path. If you can''t even handle this type of job, you shouldn''t think about marrying Ryuu. I''m not handing him to you." Aileen shrugged. "What do you mean? Why do you sound like a mother opposing his son''s marriage? And to your other disciple on top of that." Maya lifted her eyebrows, looking very annoyed. "Anyway, I won''t give you a blessing for this if you are not diligent enough. Unless you want to elope to the surface¡­ No, do you think you can escape even on the surface? I only want the best for you." Aileen thought for a moment and said. "You two are going to the potential tower half a year later along with Alexander. Will that be alright?" "Yes. Just like how Master or even Great Elder Viola, we will try again and again." Ryuu nodded with a solemn expression. "That''s right. Always ask this question to yourself! Have you found the limits of your abilities? Even though your technique, body, cultivation, and mentality aren''t complete?" Aileen paused for a moment before pointing at Ryuu and Maya. "People who are naturally better than you have been different from you ever since they were born. It''s impossible to turn that around, no matter how hard you work, how well you strategize, or who your teammates are¡­ "You can complain about that once you have actually done everything you possibly can." Aileen smiled brightly as she gave a thumb up. "Rather than despairing and giving up because you are not a genius, believe that your strength is not limited to this, and to continue on the path straight ahead of you¡­ It may be harsh to say so, but¡­ "Today might be the day to grasp the chance to let your talent bloom, maybe tomorrow, the day after, or next year, or maybe even when you are a thousand years old. I''m not sure if physique has anything to do with it, but if you think it will never come, it probably never will. "That''s why I want both of you to take every chance present, including this training. Because there is no saying it will be completely useless to you. You might even get enlightenment, but if you don''t attend this training or stop trying to improve yourself, I have said it myself, that is where the clock of your world dies." Aileen had the need to say this, so his disciples didn''t get discouraged after watching Alex. Alex lifted his eyebrows in astonishment. Although her personality was like this, Aileen was really a good teacher. "Master." Ryuu bowed his head and cupped his hands respectfully. He had experienced it himself when Aileen asked him to be his disciple. Meanwhile, Maya bit her lips and realized what she had done wrong this whole time. "I''m sorry, Master. I will try to reach the ninth floor this time." Aileen smiled gently and said, "I just want to say that you won''t know how big your talent is until you die. That''s why don''t waste it. I will always stand behind you." "Yes." Alex nodded in agreement. The word choices might be different, but Alex had conveyed the same thing to Rose and Evelyn. She turned back to Alex and apologized. "I''m sorry to say something like that in this training session." "It''s fine." Alex waved his hand. "Then, should we start?" "Yes." "Have you read the book yet? I want to know about your view first." Alex contemplated for a moment and recalled everything he learned from the memory. "Space Bind. A technique to bind someone by creating a chain with the Space Energy inside the Blue Layered Realm. This chain is very effective in stopping anything in that realm while you can connect to the real world to bind someone or something." "That''s right." Aileen nodded. "There are many variants for this Space Bind. My favorite is to use it with my Spatial Gate just to make my enemy think I need a gate to use it. Besides, they will be visible if I bring them to the real world to make it even more obvious. The enemy will usually focus on what they can see when it''s right in front of their eyes, so I can use another Space Bind in the Blue Layered Realm to make a sneak attack. "There are many more, but I want you to practice creating a single chain first. I will let you learn the variants after you can create thirty chains like your Spatial Gate. Are you up for the challenge?" Alex nodded with a smile. "Of course!" "Then let''s start." The two began their training with Ryuu and Maya observing their movement. Ryuu was amazed by Alex''s comprehension speed because Alex managed to create thirty chains in just two months. No, it was actually easy to create thirty chains if you already knew how to make one. However, it was a different matter if one needed to control it. The technique used too much Mental Power. Alex only smiled upon this challenge. His Mental Energy was far beyond their imagination due to his fateful encounters and pills. At the same time, he had been training Alchemy this whole time, so his control of Mental Energy was perfect, and the amount of energy was crazy. Yet, Aileen still couldn''t understand how Alex had such a speed. It didn''t matter whether he had learned about the basics of Space Element as it didn''t increase his speed too much. Unfortunately, her question remained unanswered, and she also didn''t want to ask Alex because she respected his privacy. Albeit, the cost of it was a little bit of her sanity. She was completely stunned when she saw Alex mastered most of her variants in another month. The only variants Alex had yet to master were those that combined with other techniques that Alex didn''t study. In the end, Aileen could see the hope of Alex finishing another two Space Arts within his stay here. Alex was grateful to her and asked her to teach him about Space Mark. Aileen agreed to teach him to the best of her ability, but only offered a very low price that she would say after Alex mastered the technique. Maya sometimes gave Alex some advice as it was still useful despite how incomplete her understanding was, but Aileen denied most of them because she could see the flaws behind her understanding. Of course, Alex was still thankful to her and decided to show a bit of his understanding of the spear. Unfortunately, there was too much uncertainty, and with Maya''s incomplete understanding, Alex decided not to take the risk and only practiced the very basics of this ability. He would only use the escape ability until he mastered another variant. Nonetheless, the relationship between Alex and Maya became pretty good to the point she proudly said that Alex was the number third after Ryuu and Aileen. Obviously, Ryuu came first. Alex thought he would just treasure the memory because this might be the last time he met them. At the very least, he got a few people that he could call friends in this world. Lastly, Alex wanted to learn about Spatial Lock from Aileen. She had been waiting for it after the failure earlier. She taught Alex everything about this technique. In front of this enthusiasm, Alex accepted and learned everything. He felt that Spatial Lock was more powerful than he expected, and he should learn it before the Space Mark, albeit it was futile to regret it. He kept studying under Aileen and got shocked when she compressed his Pure Fire. At one time, Alex was wondering whether he could compress his own Hell Inferno and released it in a more mighty way. Unfortunately, he abandoned the idea when he realized that his control over Space Element was still too low. Unlike Alex''s frustration, the three were also frustrated because Alex was still disappointed despite having that much talent. They knew Alex had Pure Fire, but they didn''t know Alex''s Space Element was, in fact, beyond their imagination. Alex could learn Space Element this fast because he had a Unique Space Element granted by his System, Knowledge about Space from Earth, and the memory he got from the inheritances. These three somehow contradicted each other, but still gave him the answer he sought. Yet, Aileen could only smile despite how much she was frustrated about Alex''s talent. She simply wished to see another person reach the tenth floor this time, even if that person was not her disciple. Ryuu and Maya might get motivated by him and pursue higher cultivation. She didn''t know whether it was possible or not, but she was already happy knowing her disciples didn''t see him as a limit. Instead, they treated him as a role model that they needed to surpass. Finally, he finished all his training perfectly, leaving Aileen speechless. She only wished him luck for the Potential Tower and asked him to prepare for it before leaving the scene. Ryuu said she must want to fill the necessary forms for us to join, so he asked Alex to go back until the time arrived. It was only a week or so anyway, so Alex agreed and trained in his house quietly. ¡­ Six months later, "Alex! Let''s go to the Potential Tower." Ryuu''s voice resounded through the entire house. Alex himself went out of his room and replied. "Alright. I will be ready in a moment." He had been training so hard in the past six months. Anna had informed him of the situation on the surface, and he was quite satisfied with it. Fire God Clan had lost so much face this time and endured the humiliation because they didn''t bring a big force to help the Divine Kingdom. On the other hand, the Divine Kingdom somehow learned about the Spirit Nest''s existence on that shore, but they didn''t do anything. In fact, they were wondering whether to give Spirit Nest the invitation for the banquet or not. Sadly, many disagreed with that plan because Spirit Nest was too mysterious and dangerous at the same time. Alex didn''t mind though, because he was happy with many minerals from the sea. Even Greg said there were a few rank 8 metals that could be fetched for a high price. As soon as he came back to the surface, he would become rich to the point he wouldn''t think about the twenty-five thousand Spirit Crystals he lost for all the fees he needed to pay in this place. His heart wasn''t that sour because he broke through to 7-Star Martial Monarch to boot. "Only a few months, huh¡­ I''m looking forward to seeing everyone again." Alex smiled as he walked toward the door, finding Ryuu and Maya in front of his house. "Sorry to make you wait." "It''s fine. Let''s go. Master has gone first to meet the other Great Elders." Ryuu waved his hands as a Spatial Gate appeared, and the three went inside. Chapter 686 - Potential Tower "We have arrived," said Ryuu after going through the portal, looking at the white temple in front of him. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see what kind of tower was known as Potential Tower. However, he was disappointed when he saw so many symbols around the area, jumbling around each other. ''What is this array? I can see many arrays inscribed in the tower, but the placement doesn''t make sense.'' Alex thought while looking at Ryuu''s and Maya''s happy expressions. "We will need to wait until the Great Elders arrive. This tower is always open for Elders, but this time, the students finally get the chance." "Hmm? Always open for the elders?" Alex glanced and furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. They encourage the disciples this way, like saying, "If you want it, come and get it with your effort." Ryuu nodded. "Besides, the elders should have refined their power to a high degree, so it will be more satisfying to see their performances. Of course, I''m not saying the test is related to the Cultivation Stage, but the elders should have more wisdom than disciples, right?" "I can understand what you are saying." Alex nodded. "Just say that they have more possibility of success." "Yeah. That''s correct." Ryuu nodded. "Anyway, no matter if I have 1-Star Martial Saint cultivation or your 7-Star Martial Monarch cultivation, the chance to succeed in that tower is the same¡­ Albeit, there is one thing that can increase your chance of success." "That is¡­" "Experience. Know yourself, know the tower, and you shall succeed." Ryuu smiled. Alex felt he had too little information about this Potential Tower, so he asked. "Ryuu, can you explain this tower a little bit?" "Sure. I will tell you everything I know." Ryuu nodded. "This tower was built by nine first Great Elders. In other words, your master is also involved in the creation process. Why do you think there are nine temples in this place?" Alex contemplated for a moment before he looked at Ryuu as if he had figured out the answer. "That''s right. We will be tested by the tower, and every floor will contain each element. The order of the elements is random, so you shouldn''t expect me to say what element you will get first. I myself don''t know." "Wait¡­ Nine? The Potential Tower has ten floors, right?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "You are right. I heard this from my master, but there is simply no element on the tenth floor. Of course, this comes from a record. As for whether there is an element or not, we don''t know because Great Elder Maxwell refused to tell us back then." Ryuu shook his head and sighed. "So, I should climb the tower as high as I can?" Alex asked. "Yeah. I want to tell you about my experience, but Master said you shouldn''t know first." Ryuu closed his eyes. Aileen had instructed him to not say anything unnecessary to Alex because she wanted to witness whether Alex really had the potential of being a God or not. There was once a doubt about Maxwell and thought he passed the tenth floor because he was one of the people who created it. Different from him, Alex still had no clue. She wanted to see whether the tower was a real deal or not. However, having him go inside without preparation also didn''t bring him justice, so she allowed Ryuu to tell Alex to a certain extent. "It''s alright." Alex nodded. "Anyway, I will explain how this tower works first. The Great Elders usually tell the disciples before opening the Potential Tower, but the explanation is not full. I can tell you to a certain extent if you don''t mind that is." Ryuu studied Alex''s expression to see whether he was dissatisfied or not. "I would love to hear the explanation." Alex agreed without hesitation. Ryuu looked at him in astonishment before coughing. "Ahem. Firstly, each floor will give you a riddle. You need to answer the riddle to proceed to the next stage. At the same time, you can''t break the illusion because you will be teleported outside as soon as you break the illusion. I have seen a few occasions where the tower actually did it, so this warning is a real deal." ''A riddle on each floor, and my mission is to solve the riddle? However, it will be hard to pass it if I can''t break it. After all, illusions are never effective against me due to my Spirit Eyes. If I need to seal my Spirit Eyes¡­ No, I should be able to use it as long as I don''t break the illusion.'' Alex thought and nodded repeatedly. "When I first entered the tower, the elder wanted to see all of our potential from heart, cultivation, element, will, or even wisdom. That''s why you are required to use your power and wisdom in this tower if you want to reach the peak." Ryuu looked at Alex with a solemn expression. "I am fine with the test since I also want to see if I have a brain that I can be proud of." Alex nodded. "Anyway, this is the first time I experienced this type of trial, so I''m looking forward to it. Not that I want to be arrogant though." "We understand your character, Alex." Ryuu nodded and glanced at Maya. "You are not someone who is arrogant and reveals your power right and left. That''s why we are not offended by that." "I have learned it in a painful way though." Alex smiled as he recalled how he acted in the lower world. "I also want to warn you about another thing. Although this is only an illusion, just make sure you are not too deep inside the illusion, alright? It will be hard for you to dispel the illusion, and the tower will expel you after the time limit. I mean, you shouldn''t think too hard about the riddle because the answer might be in front of you. If you encounter a problem, just take a deep breath as you usually do." Ryuu gave another piece of advice. Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Don''t worry. I will be careful." "Good." ''Still, to think the elements will come in random order.'' Alex thought while using his Spirit Eyes to observe the tower. ''That must be the reason for how horrible the layout of this array. No, I should say it''s starting to make sense if I think the nonsense symbols placement is to make a random order. There is also one array that tests one''s element, so I am sure of this. ''The problem is how to measure my talent? Seeing I have two elements: Pure Fire and Space Elements. Then, I have the possibility of encountering these two on the first two floors, I guess? After all, this should be the easiest for me.'' Alex scanned the tower from top to bottom. "Look!" "It''s the nine Great Elders." "Uoh!" Not long after, nine Great Elders appeared to the sky, slowly descending on the tower. "Who will give the speech this time?" Viola asked. "Whose turn is it?" "It is my turn." Licht stepped forward. "Disciples, I want your attention please." Licht stood on top of the tower along with the other elders, looking at the disciples in front of the tower. The disciples started gathering around the tower, including Alex, Ryuu, and Maya. "As usual, we will open the Potential Tower for the disciples again. Use this time to test your limit, challenge your limit, and surpass your limit. This is a precious chance for you to be noticed by Great Elders or Elders. That''s why don''t waste your talent and slap us that I''m worthy to be your disciple. We will see everyone''s progress and result from outside." Licht paused for a moment before looking at the other Great Elders. "Does anyone want to say something?" They shook their heads and asked him to continue. He then nodded and started talking. "I won''t say much, but I''m still required to inform you about the rule here. Firstly, no one can attack anyone because you will be expelled from the tower. We will usually learn about the qualification from the outside, so it''s easy to see you attacking someone if you are out of the tower. "On the other hand, I also want to enforce you from not breaking the illusion. The tower will create a Teleportation Array by itself if you finish your task inside the illusion. Last but not least, use everything you have in this tower, and we shall meet again later. Now, go inside the tower!" Licht finished with a wave from his hand. The gate began to open as the disciples got excited to go inside. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and waited. "I will go last, Ryuu. If you want to go first, you are free to go. But I can''t stand the crowd that much¡­ I mean, it will feel very cramped if you enter that tower with a few thousand disciples at the same time. "Haha¡­ I can understand your worry." Ryuu laughed. "The others are doing it as well, so it''s not you alone. We usually wait for fifteen minutes, and many should have reached the second floor. After the first floor, we won''t be disturbed anymore because we are deep inside the illusion." "That''s right. No one would take advantage of our body from the second floor." Maya nodded furiously. "I can still remember where someone dared to touch my ass when I was a normal disciple. Master took me in after that, and nobody dared to do it again. Unfortunately, I didn''t know who did it because I was inside the illusion. If I knew him, I would surely skin him alive." Ryuu chuckled before looking at Alex. "We will enter in fifteen minutes, are you alright with that schedule?" "Yeah." On top of the tower, Licht furrowed his eyebrows, observing Alex with his own eyes. No matter how hard he tried, Alex looked like a normal disciple. He didn''t have an aura of an expert to show dominance over others, so he somehow doubted Aileen''s claim about how genius he was. Nonetheless, Aileen had told Alex that she would tell everything if Alex finished the Potential Tower, so he would make the appearance at that time. "Old Licht. I have warned you! Dare to do anything underhanded, I will surely fight it out with you." Viola''s voice resounded from his back. "I know. I also want to see the power of that man in front of this tower. After failing more than a hundred times, I have given up on challenging this tower, so I myself want to see hope appearing right in front of my eyes. Maybe I will find my answer." Licht nodded as he turned around. "Fufu¡­ Alexander Sirius is like a family of Space Element. He is really good to my disciples, so I will back him up. In fact, why don''t you let him go, Viola? You have no b.o.o.b.s and talent to teach him due to the fiery personality of yours. And you are old." Aileen smirked and joined their conversation. "Aileen. Do you want to die?" Viola looked at her with a cold gaze. Unlike her usual fiery temper, her tone was murderous and scary at this time, making the others feel chill down to their spines. "Unlike you, I still have a few thousand years ahead of me. Of course, I don''t want to die." Aileen shrugged. "Well, well. You both should stop right now and settle your boob conflict another time." Licht sighed and walked back to the other Great Elders. "Elder Melva, I want you to help me create an illusion later if that person really beat the entire tower." "Sure. I''m quite interested in this boy anyway because I can see that he is hiding too deep. I''m afraid that he actually has the power to kill a 1-Star Martial Saint with his 7-Star Martial Monarch." Melva smirked while licking her lips. "Don''t you dare to seduce him, Succubus! His master is still Great Elder Maxwell," Viola snarled. "I''m just saying my opinion. He is too young to fit my taste anyway¡­" Melva shrugged and looked away. "Anyway, let us see what will happen to the disciples right now." Licht nodded and waited. Chapter 687 - The Riddles Alex was observing the Potential Tower for fifteen minutes. He also saw many other Great Elder''s disciples like Ryuu and Maya. Most of them were pretty strong according to his Spirit Eyes, but he had no intention of fighting them. He simply wished to finish the tower without causing any trouble¡­ Well, only one trouble in the end. Suddenly, an array appeared beneath a person sitting on the lotus pose. He suddenly disappeared. "!!!" Alex was confused at first, but he found a sign of energy on the second floor. "I see. That person has beaten the first floor." "Correct. If you fail the test, you will be teleported outside the Potential Tower. The tower will then glow according to the color you were in." Ryuu confirmed. Alex nodded before more and more disciples started to go up like popcorn. "I think it''s time to enter?" "Indeed." Ryuu nodded and led the way. When they reached inside the tower, Alex was stunned to see nothing other than bricks for the floor, wall, and ceiling. There was no entrance to the second floor, so they really needed to teleport to reach the next floor. "Just sit wherever you want, the Array will be activated, and you will go inside the illusory world." Ryuu smiled before Maya pointed at an empty spot. Alex and Ryuu followed her and sat near each other. "Then, I wish you all the best." Alex smiled gently. "Yeah. I''m not going to lose against anyone else." Ryuu nodded with determination. "Hmph. I will break my record and reach the ninth floor this time." After that, the three closed their eyes. ¡­ Alex felt his consciousness had entered the illusion world. The heat started enveloping him as the scenery gradually changed. He opened his eyes only to find an unfamiliar world filled with flame. "Where is this?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes right away to see if there was a clue for his riddle. After all, he didn''t know what his riddle was. The hot burning magma flowing around, the reddish-orange sky, and the burning flame jumping around made him think this was hell or something. Suddenly, golden words formed in the sky. ''Put the Source of Fire in the right place, and the gate shall open.'' "Source of Fire?" Alex twitched his eyebrows as he couldn''t understand the meaning behind these words. "Isn''t the source oxygen? Do I need to infuse the Oxygen to somewhere? But where? I need to search around this place first." Not knowing what to do, he began to fly around the area. It turned out that he was inside the mouth of a giant volcano. The heat didn''t affect him the whole time, due to his special physique granted by his Pure Fire. "What should I do? Is the mouth of this volcano the right place?" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "Maybe there is an entrance or whatever around this place. If not, I can start looking inside the magma." He began flying around from the foot of the volcano to the top, but everywhere was only a barren ground before his Spirit Eyes picked up something. It was a small trace of energy in the middle of the mountain body, so Alex went around the mountain to see if there was any entrance to that place. Luckily, the trees were only on the foot of the volcano, so he had no problem with his observation. However, he didn''t see a single entrance in the body, so he thought there must be a tunnel around it. After another few minutes of flying around the volcano, Alex started becoming impatient. "Where is the entrance? Honestly¡­" Not knowing why he suddenly remembered what Ryuu said to him before a trace of enlightenment appeared in his eyes. "The answer actually lies in front of my eyes¡­ Don''t tell me it''s really inside the magma?" Alex flew toward the scorching magma and activated his Spirit Eyes. Luckily, there was no monster here, so he didn''t need to deal with them. He gulped down and jumped inside the magma, descending down until he reached the same level as the weak energy he sensed earlier. "!!!" He was stunned by a cave entrance in front of him. "To think it''s really here. Anyway, I need to go inside." Alex entered the cave without hesitation. Of course, it was filled entirely with magma, so he was swimming in this place like a fish with a thin layer of Pure Fire blocking the heat from burning his clothes. At the end of the cave, he found out something impressive. It was an altar that couldn''t be melted by this temperature, so Alex thought. ''This must be the right place. However, what is the Fire Source? Isn''t it air? Do I need to use my Spatial Lock and compress the air before throwing it on to that altar?'' The altar was a huge pillar without any decorations around it. It also had no single hole, so Alex was curious about where to put the ''key'' in the right place. He knew this pillar was the answer, but he had yet to finalize the answer. "But it will surely explode, so I am worried that it will destroy the altar and consider me failing this test¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and came closer to the altar, trying to see whether the materials were strong enough to withstand the impact. Touching the materials and stroking it gently, Alex could feel the materials behind it. "This is Scorching Earth Rock, a rank 7 rock. It should be enough to withstand the explosion if I don''t compress too much air." Having decided what to do, Alex swam to the surface. He raised his hand as pink energy gathered above his head, gradually turning into a pink sphere with a few meters radius. "Compress!" Alex channeled his Spiritual Energy to the sphere as it gradually shrunk until it was at the size of his palm. He looked at the sphere and nodded his head, feeling the control and energy compressed inside was stable. He swam back to the altar and looked around it once more. "The energy is surely coming from inside the altar. The problem is where to throw it? Should I throw it blindly?" Alex thought for a moment. He had no clue, so he ultimately threw right at the pillar. "Boom!" The sphere that compressed the air disappeared, and the air trapped inside it expanded like crazy and created an explosion. "!!!" Alex gasped when he saw the pillar broke into half, despite the fact that the explosion wasn''t too big, and it was made of rank 7 materials. He simply couldn''t understand why would such a pillar get destroyed like this. "I''m speechless. To think I am going to fail in the first round¡­ So embarrassing." Just as he resigned to his fate, he felt another wave of energy brushing his skin gently. "Wait, what?" There was actually another podium on top of the pillar¡­ broken pillar. It was also built by the same material, and there were a few weird symbols on top of the podium. "I have not failed?" Alex came closer to the podium and wondered what these symbols wanted him to do. He activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the energy leaking from the podium. It made his heart skip a beat as he suddenly realized that the energy flowed along the cave, but it flew down instead of going to the surface as it was chasing something. Alex glanced back and forth before deciding to come out of this place, following the energy. The energy kept heading down as if this place was an endless tunnel filled with magma. He had no problem with this heat, so he was happy if this actually led him to the entrance of the next phase. However, two red lizards suddenly came to his vision. "What is the riddle? Isn''t it just a brawl?" Alex clicked his tongue when he saw the two lizards wanting to kill him. He took out only his sword after realizing that the two lizards were only 1-Star Martial Monarchs. "Triple Draws!" "Heaven Light Slash!" Alex had no mercy and split these two lizards into half before continuing until he reached the bottom. "Hmm? The light goes inside, but I can see powerful energy below this place. I think I should dig down until I reach it. I assume it will be an item or something because the shape and energy don''t really resemble that of a gate." Alex thought for a moment and started working. "Phoenix Aura!" He turned his Phoenix Aura into a shovel and dug the ground as if he was scooping a pudding. He dug for a few minutes before finding a small red jade containing powerful flame energy. "This is the source of the fire? Ah, This is another world. There is no way the air will be only the fuel for the fire. I bet I can make fire with my Spiritual Energy alone in the space that is supposed to have no oxygen. This is a blunder." As he was complaining to himself, the jade suddenly glowed brightly before it started absorbing the magma above them like a black hole. It was sucking all the magma down until it dried. "What?" Alex was startled and blinked his eyes a few times. "Are you serious? So, this is the key, and I need to place it in that altar that I accidentally broke?" He quickly flew upward and went inside the cave. Without the magma around here, this place looked pretty dark. Yet, it didn''t bother him as he made his way toward the podium and placed the jade on top of it. The pillar then started glowing and created a Teleportation Array not far from him. Alex went inside there without hesitation and activated the array. "The next mission will be related to Space Element, I guess." Alex nodded as he closed his eyes for a second before he found out that he couldn''t breathe, and the place became cold. He looked around and furrowed his eyebrows. "This¡­" He found himself inside an underwater cave with many stalagmites and stalactites around the area. The golden words appeared again to give him the next riddle. "The water fills almost the entire world. One day, there will be a day where the world will once again be enveloped by the water and no lands suitable for humans to live in. What will you do to live in this place?" "Ehm¡­ Isn''t this an easy riddle?" Alex thought for a moment. "However, I don''t want the previous incident to happen again. So, I will go around this place first, and maybe I can find some clues to answer this riddle." Not wanting to repeat his past mistake, he swam around the area and mesmerized by its beauty. Although it was pretty dark, Martial Monarch had no problem with this as if it were bright like a day. He looked around and stumbled into an entrance that led upstairs. "This is the path toward the next floor?" Alex contemplated for a minute and tried to see if he could find anything in this entrance. Unfortunately, there was nothing wrong with the path, except the translucent yellow barrier that seemed to prevent him from going further. "Can I just break this barrier? Judging from its power and energy, it had enough strength to resist a couple of attacks from me." Alex took out his sword. "Still, I believe the riddle wants me to drain all of this water, so the land becomes suitable for humans to live in. The land must be the ground below me. In other words, I might need to suck this water with my Spatial Gate or evaporate it with my Pure Fire." Alex placed his hand on the barrier, supporting his body as he thought what way he would use to drain the water. Suddenly, he felt a wave of energy coming around his hand before he looked at the barrier with his Spirit Eyes. And what he saw was quite surprising. "Now, I am sure what to do!" Alex smirked. Chapter 688 - His Choice "Now, I am sure what to do!" Alex smirked. Alex found out that the water was actually illusory generated water. The moment he slightly pushed the wall, the water got drained a little bit. Even if it was the size of his water bottle, it was still a big clue for him. "The push is light, but it drains a little bit of water in this cave. In other words, my main task is to drain water for sure. I have three ways of doing it in this place. Firstly, I can strike the barrier with my attack, and this barrier will calculate my force and strength behind it before draining the water corresponding to my attack. "The second way is to maintain the Spatial Gate and drain them. The problem is I am not sure if I can create a Space World within this illusion. Which means, the last method is the most effective one but energy-consuming. It''s to evaporate all the water around the cave with my Pure Fire like what I did last year." Alex thought hard on what he wanted to do. What he did first was to check whether he could open a Spatial Gate, but it seemed the Blue Layered Realm couldn''t be connected to this Illusory Realm. "It seems I can only strike this barrier while using my fire to evaporate most of the water. Still, just like the previous one, it seems the test itself consists of brawl and riddle, and we need to use both every single time." Alex thought for a moment and muttered to himself. "I still haven''t gotten enough information, but I will try to solve the future test with this in mind." A giant sphere of Pure Fire appeared on top of him and started burning the water. However, Alex suddenly felt something wrong after two minutes. The water was pressed by the vapor in this enclosed space due to how much vapor on top of the water, creating a huge amount of pressure. If he continued doing this, he would most likely get crushed by that pressure as the pressure would gradually grow. "Hmm¡­ This is basic physics. On Earth, all cooking tools usually have a hole in their lid to let the vapor outside because if it acc.u.mulates enough pressure from vapor, it will blast the lid away. This is the reason the water got slightly pushed, and I didn''t get something like this when I burned the cave water because there was a hole connecting to the outside¡­ I need to stop this and do this in a normal way." Alex let out a long sigh as he raised his sword and thrust it toward the barrier. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" "Boom¡ª!" The attack exploded as soon as it touched the barrier. And the water level started dropping. "Wait. What? That single attack is for that much water?" Alex was stunned when he saw the water dropping almost a meter. "If I know I can do such a thing, I don''t even need to drain this water with Pure Fire." Alex shook his head and began his attack. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" "Blade of Conquest." "Triple Draws." Alex kept attacking until the water was completely empty, and the barrier vanished. Before going upstairs, Alex was pondering about this test. "Is it really a riddle? I mean, it''s that easy to drain all the water, and the puzzle isn''t that hard like the previous one. Wait, if I didn''t accidentally push the barrier, I wouldn''t realize this possibility. I might even think there would be a secret passage or key and go in a circle." Alex gasped. "I see. The first riddle was to search while the second riddle had already given you the answer." Alex nodded, convinced with such a reason and continued his way toward the next floor. The temperature started to go down as Alex climbing up the stairs, and the Ice Element was gradually increasing. And when he reached the third floor, he found himself surrounded by snow. Not far from him was a land free from snow, with some blue pillars standing tall, circling around the area. Alex went there without hesitation. He was surprised that these stone pillars were actually ice blocks. Each of them contained four pictures from top to bottom. Before looking closely at each pillar, he found two empty boxes with a sign in front of them. "If you can remake your past like the one shown inside the Ice Blocks, which one will you choose? Pick two ice blocks here, and the choice must come from the bottom of your heart." Alex read the words out loud before looking at the two empty boxes. To call them boxes might be a bit weird, considering they were like a drawer without a door. There were some spikes every few centimeters. Alex suddenly realized that the Ice Blocks shape were matching the drawer. "I see. I need to go through all these ice blocks and choose two." Alex walked toward the first one and saw a green-haired woman in the picture with her sword. "This is Putri?!" Shocked by what he saw, he unconsciously touched the ice blocks and got absorbed into the world within the ice. Inside here, he couldn''t do a single thing, including talking. He could only observe what happened as if he was watching a movie. The scene was when Alex and Putri visited Zwaka''s place, trying to increase their power, specifically the night when Putri wanted to talk with him. "Alex, can we talk?" Putri asked with a smile. This time, Alex suddenly activated his Spirit Eyes and looked at his surroundings as if he felt something was wrong. He stumbled on two familiar life energies. He was stunned. "Senior Sister¡­ I feel your fiance has been cheating on you with your friend. Don''t be angry first, and follow me. Remember to remain calm!" Alex saw Putri wanting to rebuke him, but quickly walked outside toward Eric''s room silently and put his ears on the door. Putri looked at him angrily but still put her ears on the door. "Ah¡­ Ah¡­ Ah! Good Eric! Keep moving your waist!" "Haha¡­ You are the only woman in my life, my Princess. Just look at that innocent b*tch who waits for marriage before doing anything! She would never know we are only using her this whole time. Hahaha." Putri was stunned when she heard Mega''s m.o.a.ns and Eric''s laughter behind the door. Tears started flowing out of her eyes as she stumbled on the ground. Alex looked at her expression and grabbed her from behind, dragging her back to his room. There, she fell down and cried. "Why?!" "I want to get stronger to grasp everything I want!" Putri screamed while clenching her hands. The story progression became very absurd after this point. Putri became stronger by leaps and bounds, but also crueler. In the tournament, she revealed Mega''s Scheme and ruled the tournament because Alex didn''t participate in it. After that, he killed Mega and made Eric do her bidding like a slave, and she decided to live that way. Alex closed his eyes for a second and sighed before returning to the real world. He took another glimpse at the four images and understood their meaning. "I see. The four images are raising her strength, revealing the scheme, killing Mega, and having a happy life with Eric¡­ That''s f*cked up." Shaking his head once again, he went to the next four ice blocks. This time it was Evelyn''s turn. The twist was Evelyn started as his disciple, not Rose. Their relationship grew closer as time passed by until they reached Heavenly Continent, where they fought trouble after trouble together and gradually loved each other. However, Evelyn decided to stay in this world and didn''t become a God. Alex was devastated at that time to the point it pulled the real Alex out of that scene. "What¡­" Alex became speechless. "I am with Evelyn? No, no. Evelyn is like my little sister. In fact, I have been treating her like one because she looks like my little sister. What am I thinking right now? I will just see reality and solve this puzzle first. The four images this time are becoming my disciple, training with me, helping each other, separation¡­ Next!" Alex shook his head and continued to see the world within the other six ice blocks. The order went like this: Song Yu, Rose, Charya, Letizia, Song Jia, and Shelka. In Song Yu''s story, the four images were going to the ship to the Heavenly Continent, Alex preventing her, becoming her fiance, and living happily. It was not a ridiculous twist like Putri and Evelyn, so he put this one on hold even though his heart was bitter because he felt he would disappoint his wives if he chose this block. After that, the four images were about Rose. She became the disciple like the real storyline, then helped him fight Fire God Clan, and almost died. In the last image, Alex saved her and reached God Stage together and lived with her afterward. Not that much different than Song Yu for the ending, so he put this on hold also. The fifth person, Charya, had a twist where Alex became her disciple. He then knew her better and helped the Sect to reach the top before living happily ever-after. Alex indeed felt Charya a bit pitiful and wanted to know her more. But it was not to the point, he wanted to have her as his wife. He could only shake his head and sighed before going through the sixth person, Letizia. They still had their master-servant relationship, and she had been serving loyally for a long time. Alex didn''t know why, but he gradually became fond of her and fell in love. He then decided to marry her. In the end, Alex decided to relinquish the master-servant relationship since they didn''t need to do anything. "Ignoring the marriage, I pretty much like the ending. I want to free her from this restraint, so she can choose her path. But I''m still afraid that she will be the second Shelka and betray me again." Alex sighed in a sad look and looked at the last two ice blocks. The girl was Song Jia this time. It started when she saw her n.a.k.e.d. She asked him to be her fiance, and he agreed to take responsibility. However, Alex still destroyed the Joyful Union Sect to break the engagement between her and that Raku. Ultimately, they lived happily ever after. Lastly, it was Shelka. Alex knew her plan from early on and tamed her. Eventually, she became his slave, and she was actually happy about it. She helped him in almost everything, and ultimately, she became like Anya, his strategist and wife. Alex gasped and stumbled on the ground. He couldn''t stomach the last scene and had the urge to shatter the ice block. He took a deep breath to calm his heart down. "What the hell? All those stories are messed up. The one who makes the twists in the stories are surely brutal. First of all, I can''t actually picture Putri becoming bad and living happily with Eric like that, so this one is out. As for Evelyn¡­ This one is the most neutral even though there was a separation. "As for Song Yu, Rose, Charya, Letizia, and Song Jia, these five are literally the same. Raising strength, helping each other, and becoming my wife. To be honest, I don''t really like it when it comes to this matter¡­ Alicia is enough in this scenario. Yet, the last one is Shelka. I can''t even think about how I can live with her like that, especially with that betrayal stuck inside my memory. "If I choose Evelyn to be the first block, then who will I choose for the second one that is neither Putri and Shelka?" Alex fell into deep thought. He closed his eyes and looked into his eyes, wondering which one he actually wanted to choose between the five women. Chapter 689 - Choosing the Blocks Alex was pondering over this matter for a few minutes, but the answer still didn''t come. "Who should I choose? I only can choose one, which is Evelyn, because her story is neutral." Alex scratched his head, hesitating for something stupid. "This is the hardest choice in my life. Even though this won''t affect my future or past, the riddle wants me to choose from the bottom of my heart. This is ridi¡ª" Before finishing his sentence, he suddenly realized something absurd. "From the bottom of my heart?" "I can''t choose any of them if it''s coming from my heart. However, I still need to put the Ice Blocks inside the two drawers. Wait¡­ Can these tall Ice Blocks be the only blocks in this place?" Alex gasped and widened his eyes before looking at the drawers. "Why would there be four images in each block? And why is the shape itself weird? It has some curves separating each image as if it''s intentional. I almost forgot my statement earlier. This illusion is trying to test my Martial Prowess and Wisdom. Then¡­" Alex grinned as he took out his sword from the Inventory and came to Putri''s tall Ice Block. "Ha!" He slashed the Ice Blocks in front of him into four, with each containing a single image. He took out the image where Putri raised her strength because he loved to see Putri get stronger. "I can simply get this small Ice¡­ that can still be said to be an Ice Block. I want to get the second image where Putri reveals Mega''s scheme, but I love to see her get stronger more. That''s why I will choose the first image." He separated the image from the rest and let the three small ice blocks there before going toward the second picture. "This will be Evelyn¡­ Now that I think about it, Evelyn is the most neutral story, but it''s also the hardest one to choose. I don''t know if I want her to be my disciple¡­ But I am sure it''s nice to train her, and she is very talented. "On the other hand, I don''t like to see Evelyn and me helping each other. It''s simply because this is my trouble, and I feel like I have owed her too much, especially that loyal side of her. That girl has a brighter future ahead without me¡­ I guess. Lastly, I don''t know what to say about my and Evelyn''s relationship in the end, but I can say that it is a relatively bad ending. So, I think I will choose the second one, the training image like Putri''s." Having decided what to do, he cut the Ice Block again and took the second image, albeit he couldn''t say he was satisfied with this answer. He shook his head, placed a block beside Putri''s Ice Block and went to the third person, Song Yu. "Senior Sister¡­ I think I will only prevent you from going to the ship. You have helped me enough, so I don''t want you to suffer anymore. No, it''s one of my biggest regrets for not stopping you from boarding the ship to the Heavenly Continent." Alex took a deep breath and took the second image and placed it beside the other two. This time, it was Rose. "Rose¡­ I love to see everything about this part. However, I really want to see me living together with Rose in Eulja. Of course, as a master and disciple. I will choose this one, I guess." "The next person is Charya. I have a Teacher and Master, so I won''t choose the first image where I become her disciple. That''s why I will choose the second one too because I''m a bit curious about Charya." Alex nodded and placed both blocks on the ground. He wanted to finish separating eight small Ice Blocks first before rearranging them. Looking at Letizia''s image, he couldn''t help but touch the pictures first with a sad expression. "You have been mistreated this whole time because of me¡­ One thing that I want to change is to release you. This is only an illusion, so you won''t betray me. This is why I can choose the last image easily. It''s not like I don''t believe you, I am just scared to have another person betray me again." Alex took a deep breath and headed to Song Jia''s ice. He didn''t know what to do with this Song Jia because he didn''t know many things about her. But there was one thing that he wanted to do. "I don''t know many things about you, but I am sure I still want to destroy the Joyful Union Sect even if I don''t know you. And destroying your engagement with Raku is simply a bonus. This sounds a bit rude, but it''s really the only thing I want to do." Alex shook his head and headed to the last ice block. "¡­" Alex looked at Shelka''s images and fell into silence. "Do I still need to choose a single image from here? I feel like not doing it. First of all, the four images are taming her, enslaving her, helping me, and becoming the second Anya. I don''t want all of them, especially the last part. She is powerful and smart, but she is like a double-edged sword. I don''t want to get betrayed again." He didn''t like all the images in this block before realizing something absurd. "Wait? Do I really need to cut one from her? Can''t I just get the second one from the others? This is a test from the bottom of my heart, right? I don''t really want to take a single one from her. It''s to the point I am repulsed to it, unlike the others. "If I can take the second one from the other blocks, then¡­" Alex smirked as he slashed his sword toward the ice. "Begone!" He used the back of his sword to shatter the ice into pieces before turning around as if nothing happened. "Now, which one should I choose for the second one?" Alex thought for a moment and came to Evelyn. "Maybe¡­ I actually want to take you as my disciple like Rose. After spending a long time with you, it''s like I somehow regret when Old Manness brought you away from me. Even if you had a Master and Teacher at the same time, I don''t think it will feel bad to be your Master while Old Manness is your Teacher." He stared at the image for a minute before taking it out. He then started rearranging the Ice Blocks and created two tall Ice Blocks matching the one in the drawer. After finishing the preparation, he took another glance at the Ice Blocks to see whether he would regret his decision. However, he still felt that his choice was the best, so he proceeded to put the two blocks inside the drawers. The words are written on the sign suddenly changed. "Acknowledging your wish as the one coming from your heart. Opening the portal to the fourth floor." Alex looked at the sign and couldn''t say he was happy with this choice. Although he had chosen his answers, he felt he would do it differently if he had a choice. "I should stay focused on." Alex shook his head and looked toward the blue colored Array not far from the sign. He entered the array and disappeared. ¡­ On the fourth floor, A mountain filled with giant rocks was created by the Array. Alex appeared on the ground and looked around, only to find stones without any trees in his surroundings as if he was in a barren land. "Where is this?" Alex thought for a moment and activated his Spirit Eyes before finding something weird. The ground suddenly contained a Spiritual Energy far higher than the usual one. Suddenly, ten spikes came out of the ground and flew toward Alex. "!!!" "Boom!" The sound of an explosion echoed across the region. If there were a spectator, they would think Alex was too late. However, the rocks suddenly got sliced a few times before it fell down to the ground. When the dust settled down, Alex''s figure became apparent. He was holding his sword and spear at the same time. A few golden words appeared again. "After draining all the water on the second floor, the world has become barren. After all, water is the source of life other than Spiritual Energy. Even if cultivators can go without eating or drinking, how about the babies? They have no ability to do it, so there won''t be any reproduction. What will you do?" Alex narrowed his eyes before the ground started attacking him again. Ten spikes flew toward him while a huge wave of rock appeared as if it was water. "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue and slashed all of them with his sword. "Scram!" "Boom!" The rocks fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. Alex was still wondering what he should do. "First of all, this is no doubt an Earth Element test. Still, no water, huh? Do I need to search for water around here? Or do I need¡­ Wait, I have many water bottles, water gallons, and water tanks. However, it is still not enough to fill the entire place with water. And I''m not a Water Element User." Alex crossed his arms. "I see. I know the goal, but I don''t know where to start this time¡­" Alex sighed before he sensed a movement underground. A needle suddenly shot him right on his face. Alex used his Phoenix Aura to block that attack before looking at his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes. "What should I do? I need water, but where can I get it?" He took a deep breath and asked himself. Another threat appeared as the ground started rising before turning into a golem-like creature in the size of a human. "This golem has so much energy. It''s like watching a 5-Star Martial Lord in front of me." Alex muttered to himself before he sensed a flow of energy as the golem started moving. Surprisingly, the golem leaped toward him as if it was a real human. Alex used his sword and struck the golem. Although his sword wasn''t a Spiritual Weapon in this illusion, it was still a rank 8 weapon. The moment it clashed with the golem, it split the golem into half as if he was cutting butter. "I kill it just now with my Absolute Blade Intent because the golem has an autonomous movement. Even fighting a monster is harder than this since they can at least move according to their instinct." However, as he assessed the golem carefully, the ground started shaking as fifty golems like earlier appeared. "Seriously?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Do you seriously want me to solve the riddle under the assault of these golems?" Without hesitation, he started moving around while cutting the golems one by one. Suddenly, their hands turned into a drill or a sword as they were ready to fight Alex. Unfortunately, Alex''s sword and spear were too sharp, and these golems were no match against him. He had no trouble in killing the fifty golems and thought for another minute before the golem army appeared once again. "Seriously? Is there going to be more if I kill all of them? There are already more than two hundred golems in this third wave¡­" Alex was sweating before he flew to the sky. "I can''t kill them for the time being and think about the matter in the sky. They seem to rely on the physical aspect, so they won''t be able to catch up with me unless the golems can fly." Alex nodded before the golems showed him another trick. They were raising their hands as Earth Spikes appeared from the ground, aiming toward him. "This test is so annoying!" Alex roared as he was rained by Earth Spikes from the ground. At first, he thought he could create a simple barrier to block the underground, but he realized that the Spikes had powerful energy inside them. It was at this moment Alex realized that the spikes were actually the same golems with different shapes. In that case, he would waste too much Spiritual Energy if he decided to block them with his barrier. "I can''t do much, so I will just fly around the area to see if I can find a clue." Alex thought as he kept avoiding the spikes. Chapter 690 - The Fifth Floor A few minutes later, Alex was still flying around while avoiding the attacks from the ground. Luckily, the golem had no intelligence, so Alex had no trouble for the time being. However, he really needed to solve this riddle quickly. "What should I do?" Alex tapped his head a few times with his finger while looking at the ground. Suddenly, he remembered a certain matter. "Wait! If there is no water on the surface, can''t I just get one from the underground? It''s called groundwater! It is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and rock. It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations. "That''s right. Even if I evaporate all of the water on the surface, whether it''s the sea, river, or lake, there is still groundwater. The riddle doesn''t tell me that I need pure water, so groundwater is the answer. I can purify them with my Pure Fire if it''s not enough." Alex had gotten his answer but met another problem. "Still, how can I dig the ground like this? The golems will surely aim at me." Alex thought for a moment and muttered to himself. "Can I kill all of them except one? Will they multiply? I should kill one first to test." He pointed his finger toward one of the golems as Fire appeared around his finger. "Flame of Extinction." It wasn''t a powerful fire attack but still contained enough power to destroy one of the unintelligent golems that couldn''t avoid any attack. "Done!" Alex nodded to himself before waiting to see what would happen. And he could only click his teeth in the next minute as he saw four golems come out of the ground." "I see. I can''t use this tactic, I guess¡­" He started thinking of another strategy to dig the ground under the attack of those golems. Alex shook his head and started searching if he could find or create a terrain to his advantage. It was after another few minutes, he suddenly found something interesting. Underneath a vast barren ground was actually energy. This blue colored energy was masked well by the ground''s green energy. If the golems that were distracting him were actually stronger, he might not find this spot. "Still, the water is too deep. I need to dig around a few hundred meters while being rained by the attacks from the golems." He thought for a moment before grinning. "I almost forgot what I came here for. I have been practicing Space Element for a year, isn''t it for this?" Realizing what he needed to do, Alex flew down to the ground. The golems looked down and aimed at him again, but Alex simply smiled as he already started digging the hole. Without Alex in their vision, the golems could only start walking toward the hole and aimed to the bottom. Many Earth Spikes flew down toward him, but a circle, perfectly sized to the shape of the hole, appeared above him. "Spatial Gate!" Alex smiled while digging. Of course, this place still couldn''t be connected to the Blue Layered Realm, but Alex had the solution for that. He didn''t create a Portal toward the realm. Instead, there was another portal on the surface, aiming at the ground. This way, the golems couldn''t hurt him until he finished his job. "Keep digging!" Alex scooped the rocks as if they were butter, gradually closing his distance toward the water. It was only after another three minutes that he finally arrived right above the water. "I should make a small hole first to test. I don''t want all the water to burst out of the ground¡­ Well, groundwater normally doesn''t have high pressure, so I don''t need to worry." Alex took a deep breath and pierced the ground gently and made a hole. The brown-colored water slowly flowed out of the hole. "Objective has been completed." Alex smiled before he suddenly heard a weird sound. *Crack!* "What is that?" Alex couldn''t see the crack on the floor beneath him because of this muddy water. Suddenly, the ground crumbled, and the water burst out of the hole. "What-blurb!" He couldn''t finish his words before he was pushed back by the water. It continued until Alex reached the surface. However, he found a troubling matter. "This is not good. There are still many golems on the surface. I need to be ready to fight them as soon as I arrive at the surface." Yet when he arrived at the surface, he couldn''t find a single golem around the hole before he was launched to the sky by the water. Not long after, he sensed Space Element behind him and turned around, only to find a Spatial Gate behind him. "!!!" Alex realized that it must be the gate to the fifth floor. He entered there, and the scenery changed. "Where is this?" Alex asked himself while still floating in the air. The surrounding was filled with grass. Looking around the area, he didn''t find a single structure or a tree. Not long after, the golden words appeared again. "The answer is in the sky." "That''s it?" Alex was stupefied when he read the golden words. He still searched for some clues with his Spirit Eyes before Spiritual Energy seemed to start flowing out of the ground, flying to the air as if something was absorbing it. Suddenly, the Spiritual Energy formed a layer far above the sky. "What is that?" He furrowed his eyebrows before looking around, only to find that his path was blocked by another layer of energy. He took a deep breath and slashed his sword toward the side. "Blade of Conquest." A sword wave flew toward the energy layer and exploded as if it hit something hard. "Boom!" After taking the full brunt of that explosion, the layer of energy seemed to have no change as if nothing hit it. Alex took his sword once again and slashed it with his strongest attack. "Triple Draws! Mythical Fire Slash! Space Cut!" He chose to use these three techniques so early because he wanted to see whether the barrier could be affected by power, element, or another realm attack. "Boom boom boom!" A series of explosions echoed across the region. Alex used his Spirit Eyes and got disappointed once again because there was no change in the barrier. He looked up and found that the layer of energy started moving down. "Is the sky falling or something? I will be crushed by the sky that falls down? It''s ridiculous." Alex shook his head and laughed. "The answer lies in the sky, huh¡­" Although he didn''t want to admit it, the answer should truly be in the sky. He slashed his sword three times again, sending the same attack. The six Sword Waves flew to the sky and cut through the layer of energy, creating a small hole that soon got plugged. Alex took a deep breath and muttered to himself. "If I want to pass the layer, it seems I can create a hole and slip past this layer. After that, I might reach the highest point. Is it the riddle this time?" The layer of energy kept coming down, reducing his time to think. He had no choice other than to test his hypothesis. Using both his sword and spear at this moment, Alex flew to the green layer before slashing it with all his might. A hole appeared in front of him and already started regenerating at speed visible with n.a.k.e.d eyes. He narrowed his eyes and halted right in front of the layer of energy as the hole was already too small for him to pass. He tried to touch the energy with his barrier and felt as if there was a translucent metal in front of him. "The barrier is not that strong, but the regeneration is too powerful. I need to be right in front of it first before creating a hole in this barrier." Alex crossed his arms while observing it for a little longer. Unfortunately, he didn''t have any other clues, so he decided to use this existing plan and reached the sky. He slashed the barrier again with all of his might, creating quite a large hole on it and passed the barrier. "Is that all?" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at the barrier that continued moving down. He shook his head and flew upward before he saw another barrier coming down. "What?" This barrier was the same as the previous one, so Alex kept going by slashing and going through the barrier without any trouble. However, he suddenly met the same layer of energy that had been trapping him from four directions. "Is this the highest height?" Alex thought for a moment and tried to attack it. Sadly, nothing did damage this energy, like how he tested on the surface. "What now?" While questioning himself, the barrier appeared again and started pushing downward. "!!!" Alex was alarmed and made a distance before slashing the barrier again. "What do I lack to solve this problem? I have reached the sky, and there is no other clue. My Spirit Eyes also don''t give me any hidden clues like always¡­ I thought I only needed to continue until I reached the space, albeit it''s only stupid thinking of mine¡ª! Wait, Space? Not outer space but Space Element!" While he was thinking about the exit, he remembered that he just used Space Cut out of reflex despite knowing it couldn''t be used due to the lack of connection to the Blue Layered Realm. "Why would I¡­ No, I have certainly felt the Space Energy around and created a portal to that place. In other words, there is a Space Realm in this place, albeit only a replica. However, it still means the answer lies in the sky. The reason there is no secret entrance or any other clues is that the clue is already enough." Alex''s expression turned serious. He raised his hand and gathered the Space Element around him to create a single portal. Yet, he found another surprise. The portal was toward a Red Colored Realm instead of a blue one. There was also a certain kind of energy blocking the entrance as if it was trying to stop Alex from entering. "I only need to destroy it then!" Alex raised his sword and sent another Sword Wave toward the Red Realm. But¡­ "Boom!" The same thing as the barrier on his four directions occurred again. This layer of energy didn''t take single damage or whatsoever. Alex contemplated for a moment. "There are two possibilities. I need a stronger power to destroy this barrier, or I don''t meet all the criteria. And I feel it''s the latter. "The problem is, what are the criteria?" Alex glanced at the vertical barrier and flew toward it. He created another portal right on the barrier, but to no success. There was still that layer of energy preventing him from entering. Yet, Alex didn''t give up because he needed to test the portal to another barrier. He looked up and came closer to the barrier and opened the gate right in front of it. Surprisingly, the layer of energy suddenly disappeared as if it was not there in the first place. "This¡ª" Before he could finish his words, Alex saw that the translucent barrier had gone through the portal and the layer of energy appeared again. Alex smiled. "I can understand the riddle now. The barrier is the sky, so if I want to come out of this place, I need to go through this barrier with my Spatial Gate. The problem is the time limit. I can''t move my barrier, so I only have a split second to go through the barrier. I wonder if the Great Elder can move her Spatial Gate at will?" Alex shook the question off his head and focused on the barrier. He waited for a moment until another barrier appeared. When it made its appearance, he quickly made a portal even from afar, allowing him to make his own preparation. "3¡­" "2¡­" "1¡­" "Go!" When the barrier started closing in, he began counting before using his Sky Movement to step in the air to increase his speed for even a little bit, and he finally passed the gate. Chapter 691 - Space Element Test As soon as he passed the gate, he arrived in a place like the previous floor. The difference was there were many trees around him, unlike the previous barren land. Suddenly, a dark cloud started forming into a massive entity. The thunder started clamoring around the area. Alex narrowed his eyes while observing his surroundings with Spirit Eyes. He thought, "I am on the sixth floor right now. There are only four elements left, and this time is surely Lightning Element judging by the cloud above me alone. Still, Lightning huh¡­" As usual, the golden words appeared before his eyes. "The thunder comes before lightning, but the answer lies in between. Go seek the path of Heaven and Earth." Alex frowned upon seeing the riddle and couldn''t help but comment. "What the heck is this riddle? No, I should say that this might be the first riddle that has more mystery behind it." He thought for a moment as the thunder became louder. Knowing that he only had a little time to think before something big would happen, he muttered to himself. "Thunder comes before lightning is a natural phenomenon. However, what does it mean the answer is between them? Is there something between them? I don''t recall a single thing from my knowledge. "Besides, there is still that last sentence. Seek the path of Heaven and Earth? Is there any path like that?" He was utterly confused by this riddle. Looking at the previous riddle, he realized that each word contained a clue, but this time the answer he sought must be quite exceptional. He could see this from the word choices of this riddle. *Rumble!* A thunderous sound echoed across the region before Alex looked up and found powerful energy inside the cloud. The powerful energy formed a bolt of lightning inside before striking forth. Alex was wondering whether he should destroy it or avoid it due to the experience he had on the previous floor. In the end, he decided to avoid it by leaping to the side. However, something ridiculous happened. Right before the lightning hit the ground, it turned and chased him as if it had a consciousness. Alex turned around while flying backward before he decided to stop and raised his sword. After measuring the energy inside the lightning, he waved his sword and released a powerful Sword Wave. "Blade of Conquest." The Sword Wave and Lightning clashed against each other, resulting in an explosion. He leaped backward as he found something was wrong. Although it was already too weak to kill him, Alex was still surprised to see the Lightning could win against his Blade of Conquest. This was especially true when he saw the Lightning that seemed weaker than his Blade of Conquest shattered his attack. Alex thought for a moment before letting the attack him. This time he slashed his sword with Heaven Light Slash and completely destroyed the Lightning. "Thunder and Lightning¡­" Alex looked up as soon as he destroyed the lightning and tried to find anything between both of them. He thought he could find something with his Spirit Eyes, but it was futile. Other than the lightning flash, he couldn''t find another clue. "Or maybe the real lightning is in the Space Realm?" He thought for a moment before raising his hand and channeling his Spiritual Energy. "Spatial Gate!" Yet, another attempt failed as the Spatial Gate couldn''t be summoned. There was simply no Space Element around the area like the previous floor. He thought for a moment and looked left and right, wondering if he had something he could use. "Other than the field being 250x250 meters wide, I can''t see anything else." Alex narrowed his eyes, but before he could do anything, the lightning flew down once more. He tried to avoid it again to see whether it chased him again or not. As he expected, the lightning followed him again, so Alex had no choice other than striking his sword toward this lightning. "Triple Draws and Heaven Light Slash!" These two techniques shattered the lightning in an instant, but he suddenly looked at his hand and realized the power behind the lightning became stronger. "So, is this like a time limit or something? The moment I can''t pass this floor within the time limit, I will be expelled?" He muttered to himself before flying around the area while staring at the cloud. "The black cloud is the most suspicious right now. Although I can''t see anything abnormal inside the cloud even with my Spirit Eyes, I feel this cloud will be the clue." The next bolt arrived after another minute and flew to Alex. Having troubled with the lightning that gradually increased its power, he decided to flee from the lightning as long as possible while thinking about the solution. Unfortunately, the lightning speed was faster than him, so he needed to destroy it after another minute. He continued flying for another few minutes and started becoming frustrated. "The answer lies between the Lightning and Thunder, but I can only see the flash of the lightning before the actual lightning strikes forth¡­ Wait, a blue flash from the lightning? Is that the answer? Should I go inside the cloud first to see the flash, or do I need to strike it right at the flash?" After contemplating for another minute, he nodded. "I will try the second option first. If nothing happened, I would try risking myself inside that black cloud. Still, I need prediction and precision to strike at the flash." Alex took a deep breath and flew right below the cloud as he waited for the lightning to start to appear. He waved his sword a few times when the flash appeared, but to no avail. His accuracy and timing were too off as he couldn''t hit the flash a single time. Even so, Alex didn''t give up and sent a few more Sword Waves before one of his attacks finally hit the flash. This was not a simple flash without a body. Instead, the real body was the lightning itself traveling around the cloud. The moment his attack hit, a series of explosions occurred behind the cloud and blasted him away. "!!!" He was startled for a second and flew down a little bit. Looking up right after, he found that the Dark Cloud was dispersed before slowly trying to fuse once again. At this time, there was no lightning that he could exploit, so he could only think about his next move. "What shall I do to pass this floor? Earlier, there was nothing behind the cloud, no portal or whatsoever. However, the proof that I can do something as ridiculous as that means there is a chance for this to be the answer." Alex contemplated for a few seconds before he narrowed his eyes. "I might have missed something. And there is still that second sentence. What does it mean to seek the path of Heaven and Earth? This is simply an illusion world, not a real world. "If this is a real world¡­ Wait!" Alex gasped as he focused on his Spirit Eyes to see the cloud. When he didn''t find a single clue inside the cloud, he looked down and finally saw what he needed. "This is really the meaning behind the second sentence. Heaven means Sky, while Earth means Ground. The sky is related to the first clue where I need to strike the flash between Thunder and Lightning. The earth is related to energy underground." He descended while observing the energy. The shape of the energy indicated an item or something from its size and characteristic, but Alex chose to be careful in dealing with something like this. He started digging the hole and realized there was a very thin line connecting him and the ball. "I didn''t notice this." He thought for a moment, and the lightning struck forth. Without waiting for the answer, he quickly came out of the hole and prepared his sword. Due to how close the ball with him now, he somehow realized there was another string connecting the ball with the lightning. "Don''t tell me!" Alex gritted his teeth in annoyance as he shattered the lightning strike. He then looked at the palm-size transparent ball and realized why the lightning chased him. "This ball produces that energy to make me a Lightning Rod." Although he wanted to destroy this ball right now, he restrained his hand and flew to the sky. The ball started glowing brighter as he flew closer to the cloud until he stopped right in front of the cloud and raised the ball to the point it touched the cloud. It didn''t have any reaction, and Alex realized that he needed to use it another way. He waited for the right time before throwing the ball to the flash. His timing was perfect and impeccable after the training to strike the flash earlier. Suddenly, the ball shone and the clouds dispersed to the side, creating a huge circle in the sky. Light flew out of the ball and created a powerful reaction not far above it. Alex smirked as he saw a portal being opened. Without wasting a single second, he decided to go through the portal and arrived on the seventh floor. The portal immediately closed itself as soon as he arrived. Alex was stunned by what he saw next. "This¡­ Isn''t this a Space Realm? Although the realm is red, I can feel a powerful Space Element around this place. In other words, Space Element is my Seventh Test¡­ I don''t know if I should be happy or not. "On one hand, I can reach this stage, which is good. On the other hand, to have Fire Element first while Space Element seventh, does the tower indirectly insult me that I still have a long way to go in the way of Space Element? Well, I can''t really complain though. I still have many flaws and need more practice." Alex sighed, shook off the idea of insulting him, and started looking around. Walls and walls filled his vision. The red path looked like it was dyed by blood and made it look eerie. Still, Alex put his poker face, not afraid of something like this. Instead, he was waiting for the golden words to appear before moving. After another minute, the golden words finally appeared. "Which one is our reality, and which one is our illusion? The two worlds can''t meet but can influence each other. Reach the end of this labyrinth and find the portal to the Eight Floor." Alex narrowed his eyes before glancing at the four paths he could try. Thinking for a moment, Alex imagined a sword to appear. It wasn''t his usual sword, but a really ordinary sword. This sword had a use for him as Alex stabbed it right in the ground on one of the paths. He decided to walk to the path on his left after he couldn''t find a single clue with his Spirit Eyes. "I can only try I guess." Alex took a deep breath and walked inside it. Turning to the left, turning to the right, he kept advancing like crazy in this three-meters wide path. Suddenly, he found energy moving around. It was invisible for the n.a.k.e.d eyes, but he had his Spirit Eyes. He was surprised to see a minotaur shape energy carrying a huge club moving toward him. Not wasting a single second, he took out his sword, preparing to fight. Yet, the minotaur walked past him. It literally walked past him as if Alex wasn''t in his way. Alex was confused with this matter too, but he quickly recalled the first sentence of the riddle. ''Which one is reality, and which one is the illusion? Does that mean I am in reality right now while the minotaur is in the illusion? Still, there is no way the riddle will be this easy. I assume the minotaur might have something to do with this test." Having no clues on what was going on, he decided to proceed toward the end of this path. Of course, he left his swords in every single path he had gone through to make sure he didn''t go to the same path twice, especially dead-ends. This test took him around ten minutes before he finished exploring the entire western area from his original position. In the end, he only found a dead end without a single clue there. He even checked it with his Spirit Eyes and left with disappointment. "I need to try again in another direction." Alex shook his head and walked back. Chapter 692 - Fighting a Centaur As soon as he returned to his original position, he stabbed another sword to the North Passage and started exploring. In the middle of his exploration, he found another monster shaped energy that passed through him as if he was air. However, unlike the bull''s body like Minotaur, this one seemed to have four feet like those of a horse and a human body. "A Centaur?" Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I will note it down in my mind first." He continued exploring the maze while trying to use all of his skills. However, Spatial Gate seemed to be off limits in this place because he couldn''t call it despite this much Space Energy around him. "It sucks not to have that technique, but I can still use other Space Techniques like Spatial Bind and Space Plates. But¡­" Alex raised his hand and used his Space Bind. The chains formed into a real chain in this realm as he furrowed his eyebrows. "As expected, this is a Space Realm. Even if I use the Space Cut, I''m sure I will create a real Sword Wave. The problem is¡­" Alex, this time, released his Blade of Conquest, and he could only see the Energy flying forward. He clenched his fist and destroyed the Sword Wave himself. "It seems the function is still the same. What is in the real world will affect the real world, and what is in here, or Space World, will affect whatever in this place. And I can understand why the riddle says that both can influence each other. The only problem is to search for the portal to the eighth floor." Having formulated his plan, he proceeded deeper and deeper before he arrived at the end of the path and saw something amazing. There was a glowing vortex in front of him with a small core in the middle of the vortex. His Spirit Eyes was telling him that the energy mostly connected to the other realm, making him hesitate. Alex thought for a moment and sighed, "I don''t know what this is for, so I think I will go back first and search for the other two paths before deciding my action." With that thought in mind, Alex tried again from the start and went to the path on his right earlier. As he predicted, he once again met another creature. This time, he was surprised when he saw an elf. Luckily, it didn''t attack him, and Alex could proceed safely to the end and found another dead end. It had a big difference from the first dead-end that didn''t tell him anything. He found out that there were golden words on the wall, so he came closer to read these words. "Kill the Four Holy Knights, and you shall have the key to the next floor. If you defeat them without reading this sign, then you are unlucky because you are not careful. Having failed to see your opponent first without any information about them is rash. Hence, the next floor will be your doom. "However, if you bring the tusk in the North Passage and place it in front of this sign before defeating them. You won''t get any trouble on the next floor." Alex narrowed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. "It seems I am lucky because I choose to check the other paths first. This floor might take two or three times the usual time I use to clear a floor, but I think this is the most educational one." Alex smirked and quickly went toward the last passage. Just like the sign said, there was a palm-size tusk in the last place. He picked the tusk up and ran toward the third passage. Along the way, he met the fourth creature, which was a skeleton carrying a wand. He passed it without care and went to the sign before placing the tusk in front of it. Suddenly, the floor started glowing and the words written on the sign replaced by another one. "Both Realms are real, whether it''s the real world or space world. You need to wary against a being who can live in this Space World for a long time because it can be considered one of the world''s dangerous beings. If you want to fight the four holy knights, go to the Southern Passage and activate the Space Element by touching it." Alex narrowed his eyes and took note of these words. Although it didn''t serve any purpose to him, he thought it was new knowledge to him since there was nothing like this in his inheritances. "Anyway, I have finished this side mission. Now I will go to the second passage and fight those four creatures." Alex nodded and ran back to the energy vortex. Before doing anything, Alex took a deep breath and contemplated over the riddle first to check whether he was on the right track. "I don''t see anything that can be misinterpreted¡­ If I take the fact that this test doesn''t know my Spirit Eyes, they must know that I can''t see the beast. Or at least, a normal person won''t be able to see them unless they touch the vortex. That''s why I will pretend that I don''t know them and think whether I miss a single clue." Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. He then glanced at the vortex in front of him and stretched his hand. He touched the core with his index finger, and the vortex shone brightly. It illuminated the entire realm as his vision turned from red to blue, no, it should be the realm color. Not long after, a thunderous roar echoed across the entire labyrinth. "This is¡­ The realm suddenly changes; no, it''s replaced. I am in the same realm as those beasts now." Alex frowned and glanced at the top. Unfortunately, he couldn''t go to the sky to see the entire maze because there was this energy preventing him. However, he realized that the situation would start getting complicated after this point. Taking out his Sword and Spear, Alex began walking. The Centaur that seemed to be guarding this passage appeared right in front of him, clenching his two-handed sword. A sharp Sword Intent came out of the Centaur along with the sword and alarmed Alex. It then charged at Alex and swung his sword. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and struck his sword with his rank 8 Sword. To his surprise, the Centaur suddenly pushed him back. "I am losing in strength?" Alex was stunned and retreated a few steps. He could only see the energy from the Centaur, but couldn''t discern his cultivation. The only thing he knew from that exchange was that the Centaur had 10-Star Martial Monarch raw strength. "Dragon Aura. Spirit Step!" Alex didn''t hesitate to activate two techniques that boosted his strength and charged at the Centaur. "I can''t waste my time against you because I don''t want to fight you with the other three." Noticing the three energy signs moving toward him, he decided to end this battle as soon as possible. "Heaven Light Slash and Triple Draws!" Suddenly, the Centaur showed an unbelievable speed as it struck all six attacks in a split second. At the same time, it sent another slashed right from his right. "Not good!" Alex glanced at the attack and activated his Phoenix Aura to create a powerful fire armor and a few Space Plates to block it. The Centaur smirked as it continued its swing, shattering all Alex''s Space Plates and fire armor in a single swing. It even went toward Alex''s neck. "Seriously?" Alex immediately shifted his stance and blocked this attack with his Sword and Spear, albeit he got blown away. "That is not a 10-Star Martial Monarch Strength anymore. It''s already far higher than Ryuu''s! This test is insane." He took another deep breath to calm his heart and raised his hand. Releasing his Original Blade Path, Alex became serious. Alex then leaped forward while his hand was still pointing at the Centaur. Suddenly, twenty chains appeared in the other realm and circled around the Centaur. Yet, the Centaur could still move its body around and tried to break free from the restrain. Of course, there was no way Alex would let him free. Many Space Plates appeared around the Centaur''s body, especially around his arms to prevent him from moving. Meanwhile, Alex''s weapons started glowing as he flew to the Centaur and slashed him a few times. "Roar!" The Centaur roared and watched Alex cut his body, albeit¡­ Alex passed the Centaur and twitched his eyebrows. "Seriously?" He turned around and found that the Centaur had broken free. Although there were a few cut wounds in his upper body, it could only hinder him a little. Alex bit his lips and thought, ''In that instant, the Centaur shattered my Space Plates and Space Bind before shifting his body a little bit to avoid vital areas. The Centaur raised his sword and acc.u.mulated powerful energy around the sword before releasing it with all of its might. "You want to challenge me in that aspect?" Alex smirked as he used everything he got and sent his Sword Waves. The Centaurs also sent a powerful shock wave through the ground and collided with Alex''s Sword Waves. Unfortunately, the Centaur underestimated Alex for once. Behind his Sword Waves were many powerful techniques jumbled into one. They were Triple Draws, Mythical Fire Slash, and Space Cut. The three techniques were used with his sword and spear, creating twelve Sword Waves covered with his Absolute Blade Intent. Although six of the Sword Waves broke, the other six were still going toward the Centaur. Surprised with the result, the Centaur quickly slashed his sword to break Alex''s Sword Waves, albeit¡­ "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions resounded across the labyrinth as the Centaur made its appearance. Unlike the first time, he lost one of his hands and many deep cuts on his body. It wanted to roar once more, but Alex wouldn''t let him as he appeared right beside him with all of his strength. "Triple Draws. Heaven Light Slash. Space Cut." He changed Mythical Fire Slash with Heaven Light Slash because it was better for close range. Besides, he also had another plan as soon as he saw the Centaur lose its hand. Half of these twelve Sword Attacks were going toward the other hand while the rest aimed at his swords. Having lost its powerful arm, the Centaur gritted his teeth as he realized he couldn''t keep up with Alex''s attacks if he only had one hand. Even so, he didn''t give up and tried his best to fend all these twelve attacks. Yet, it was still unreachable. Alex cut another hand and blew his sword away before sending the Centaur''s head flying. The body slowly fell down to the ground, but no blood was spilled as the Centaur suddenly disappeared as if it was an illusion. Unfortunately, he had no time to care about it and quickly regained his breathing. As he was about to turn around, the other three Holy Knights finally arrived. The first one was a Minotaur, a bull that could stand up like a human. It carried a huge club with its right hand. This monster seemed to be a similar type to the Centaur and would truly trouble him again. Meanwhile, the second monster was an Elf. However, her hair was white, and her skin was purple, revealing her identity as a Dark Elf. She raised her bow and drew an arrow, aiming it at Alex. Unlike the muscle type, she seemed to be a silent type where she sniped with the bow. Luckily, his Spirit Eyes should be able to counter the movement of her arrows, preventing her from ambushing him. The last monster was a skeleton holding a staff. It wore a long black robe that made this skeleton somehow look graceful. Alex didn''t need to think about this monster and classified him as a Lich. He needed to get ready with the Dark Element attack. If it were a curse or poison, he wouldn''t need to worry because his Pure Fire could destroy them. Alex finally turned around and looked at the three monsters. "This is going to be troublesome." Chapter 693 - A Hard Fight "This is going to be troublesome." Alex squinted his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Looking at their weapon, the Minotaur will fight me in close combat while that Lich will support him with its Dark Element. On the other hand, the Dark Elf would try to assassinate me the moment I leave my back open." "It''s really hard to fight, especially considering their strength could be higher than Ryuu. If only I can see their power¡­" Alex clicked his tongue as he saw the boundless energy reside in their body. The amount of energy was similar to those in the 9-Star Martial Monarch, like the Centaur. However, they should be troublesome and had some hidden power like the Centaur''s extraordinary strength, Alex thought. The three creatures didn''t let him think any longer and attacked him. The Minotaur appeared in front of him, showing the speed at the same level as him. Meanwhile, the Dark Elf shot him with her arrow to give cover fire. Alex looked at the last monster who was gathering all Dark Energy around him. The situation was dangerous, especially for him, making him wonder whether Ryuu would be able to solve an assault like this. "Pure Fire." Having no choice other than fighting with his full strength, he utilized his Pure Fire and Dragon Aura. He leaped toward the Minotaur while avoiding the arrow before slashing his weapons right in front of the Minotaur. The Minotaur was not a pushover and swung its club toward him. Unfortunately, Alex already had preparation and summoned all the chains and Space Plates to stop his movement for even a split second. "Heaven Light Slash." Alex combined the attacks with his Space Cut and Triple Draws, summoning twelve attacks. He was sure that was enough for the Minotaur until he saw a Dark Aura coming from beneath its feet. "Dark Claw!" "Moo! Grand Slam." The Minotaur also struck Alex. A few dark spikes came out of the ground and destroyed half of Alex''s attacks before the Minotaur shattered the other half. It didn''t stop there as the swing forced Alex to summon his Space Plates and Phoenix Aura. Luckily, its strength was a little bit weaker than the Minotaur, so these two techniques were enough to block the attack, albeit the force still blew him away. The Dark Elf didn''t let this chance slip and appeared not far beside Alex and released her arrows. "Flame of Extinction." Alex also used his attack and shattered the arrow. Luckily, there was a big difference between her element and Alex''s Pure Fire, allowing him to survive from this arrow''s assault. The Minotaur advanced once again and struck Alex with its giant club. Alex glanced at the Dark Elf and the Lich first before he smirked. The Minotaur club was easy to dodge, but the problem would be if the Lich helped the Minotaur once again. Hence, Alex swung his sword and spear simultaneously, but in different directions. The first one was toward the Minotaur while the other one was toward the Lich. "Mythical Fire Slash!" The Lich saw these three Mythical Fire Slashes and felt the Three Space Cuts. He put his hand on the ground and created the spikes earlier, but formed multiple layers to make sure it had enough strength to block Alex''s attack. Unfortunately, the Lich underestimated Alex''s strength, or maybe overestimated himself. Those several layers of Dark Wall were not enough to stop Alex''s attacks. It kept advancing until everything was broken, and the Lich unleashed a dark attack from his hand. The clash created a shock wave that somehow got dampened by the Space Element around. Meanwhile, the other attacks from Alex were shattered by the Minotaur. Alex already predicted that his attacks would be like this and struck once more at the Minotaur''s weapon. "Heaven Light Slash!" Obviously, Alex was still losing in terms of strength as the Minotaur blew him away. Seeing this, the Dark Elf drew her arrow and shot Alex. Little did they know that this was within Alex''s calculation. After seeing how her arrow got easily destroyed by a single attack, Alex realized there was a big difference in strength between these three creatures. No, he would say there was a big gap in their specialization. The Minotaur and Centaur had an unbelievable strength that would be troublesome if they fought together. Meanwhile, the Dark Elf had very little presence and made a little sound when moving, making her hard to track. Alex didn''t care about this as he locked the Dark Elf by using his Spirit Eyes. As long as he knew her position, her power wasn''t that powerful as the Minotaur and Centaur. On the other hand, the Lich''s techniques were mostly for support purposes. It wasn''t packed with strength. If it wanted to create a powerful skill, the Lich needed time like how the first time he blocked Alex''s attack. Knowing all of their characteristics in the first exchange, Alex formulated a new plan in his head and made sure he could kill one of them in the next exchange. At the very least, he had experienced how it felt to fight with the Centaur, giving him an image of what he needed to do. And his first target was one of the weakest but the most important role, the Lich. As soon as he was blown away, Alex created hundreds of Firebirds. He wished he had mastered Sherry''s technique and turned them all into swords to create a stronger attack, but he had no time to regret it. He sent all of those Firebirds toward the Lich. Meanwhile, he created a few Space Plates in front of him to block the arrow from the Dark Elf. Seeing this condition, the Minotaur suddenly appeared right in front of the Lich and blocked all of the Firebirds with its giant body. "Moo!" "Boom Boom!" Alex rained them down with his Firebirds without mercy. When it was over, the Minotaur was almost charred black, but his energy was still strong. At this moment, it was easy to see that the Minotaur only got physical injuries. "What a tough monster," Alex complained before smirking. "Though, I can simply change my target. I will show you the advantage of having two elements." Little did they know that one of the Firebirds had yet to explode, and it carried Alex''s Space Mark. He realized soon after that he could actually use this technique despite the explanation of Space Mark telling him he could only create a mark in living beings. It turned out that the explanation itself was wrong. What it meant by living beings were the ones that were created from the real world, not Space World. This was why a single Space Element user couldn''t use it. This underestimated technique was elevated once more to the point Aileen wanted to learn it. This was a variant but not a variant because the Firebirds were like living beings for him. However, Aileen thought that he could actually make a Space Imprint on their weapons or arrows and teleported. Alex still had yet to master this technique due to the limited time, along with the trial and error process. It wasn''t like Aileen didn''t practice for years to create a single variant of her Space Technique. Hence, Alex could barely imprint a Space Mark on a single bird. But that was enough for him because, at this time, he could utilize it by teleporting right behind the Lich and Minotaur. "Die." As soon as he appeared, he slashed his weapons at the Lich and Minotaur. "Mythical Fire Slash." The Sword Waves appeared again. The Lich and the Minotaur realized that their positions were aligned. If the Sword Waves killed the Lich, it would immediately fly to the Minotaur. They shifted their bodies, trying to avoid, if not destroy Alex''s attacks. But¡­ "I''m sorry, but I can''t have you move!" Alex raised his hands and summoned chains and Space Plates to bind them. "Moo!" The Minotaur roared as he used every ounce of his strength to move his body. Knowing that he couldn''t save the Lich, he jumped to the side in order to save his life. The Lich was struggling for his life as he summoned another wall to block these attacks. Albeit, it was already hard for him to fend half of Alex''s attacks, let alone this full-power attack. The Sword Waves cut the Dark Walls and finally sent the Lich''s head flying. The skeleton body immediately lost its energy and fell to the ground while the head still had some energy. Meanwhile, the Sword Waves continued its way toward the escaping Minotaur. "Boom!" The Minotaur was a bit too late because of the surprise attack and decided to sacrifice one of its arms to escape. He grabbed his club from the other hand and jumped toward Alex. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting the Minotaur to attack him right after. "No! He wants to help the Lich!" He instantly realized the Lich was still alive when he saw the Energy on the Lich''s skull and leaped toward the Lich. He and the Minotaur slashed their weapons at the same time with the Lich''s skull right under them. Alex used his Dragon Aura and Spirit Step to increase his strength and stomped the skull. However, before he could do so, the Minotaur kicked the Lich''s skull toward the Dark Elf, asking her to take care of him. Alex didn''t let it happen and created Space Plates to stop the head mid-air and let it fall down. The Dark Elf then released her arrow toward Alex, which once again was blocked by his few Space Plates, albeit this time the arrow was a little different. The arrow exploded and released a dark cloud. "A smokescreen?" He snorted as he could see everything with his Spirit Eyes. He summoned a few chains to bind the Dark Elves and sent one Firebird equipped with his Space Mark. Seeing Alex wanted to kill the Lich, the Minotaur utilized his strength once more. "Grand Slam!" If the Minotaur had two hands, Alex might be scared, but he only had one hand. The Minotaur couldn''t push him even if he used all of his strength. Suddenly, Alex felt pain in his abdomen before he realized the Minotaur actually kicked him and blew him away. The Minotaur then ran toward the Dark Elf to help the Lich creating his body again. Alex, of course, didn''t let them do so. The Firebird that he sent earlier finally reached the Lich. "Space Mark. Activate!" He, who was blown away, appeared once again above the Lich''s skull. In front of him was the bound Dark Elf, and behind him was the raging Minotaur. Even so, Alex stomped the Lich''s Skull and shattered it into pieces before sending many Firebirds toward the Minotaur to slow him down as he made his way toward the Dark Elf. But stopping the raging bull was easier said than done. The Minotaur still charged at him with full speed without caring for the injury he got from the Firebirds. Albeit, that raging head missed a single Firebird, and it cost him his life. As soon as that particular Firebird arrived, Alex teleported behind the bull and slashed his weapons. "Mythical Fire Slash!" The Minotaur was taken aback by this attack and quickly swung his club backward without looking, albeit the strength wasn''t comparable to Alex''s twelve Sword Waves. It split the bull into half and disappeared. Alex then looked at the Dark Elf. She stretched her hand toward the Minotaur and the Lich as if she was sad. She glanced at Alex for a few seconds before creating an arrow in her hand. At first glance, she looked like she wanted to fight to the last breath, so Alex raised his weapons, but¡­ *Stab¡ª!* She used that arrow to pierce her own heart and died. Before falling to the ground, she looked at Alex mysteriously and disappeared. Meanwhile, Alex fell on his butt and let out a sigh of relief. "That was hard. How can there be such terrible creatures like that in Illusion?! The difficulty was far too different than the other floors." Chapter 694 - Light and Dark The fight drained more than a third of his Spiritual Energy, and with the addition of the continuous usage from before the previous floors, Alex had only less than a third of his Spiritual Energy. Hence, he decided to take a break for an hour. "I never thought that I would fight like that." Alex shook his head before finding a green gem on the floor. It was dropped by the Dark Elf judging from the location. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and took the green round gem. "According to the sign, they would give me a key to the next floor. So, does that mean this is the key?" His Spirit Eyes didn''t tell him anything besides the fact that it contained powerful energy. He sat on the floor and looked at the ceiling. "I still need to complete the other two elements before fighting the last floor. According to Ryuu, there is no element on that floor, so what is the riddle there?" Alex couldn''t predict the riddle at all as the only thing he could do was to recover his Spiritual Energy. Alex wondered if this place had a timer or not and sighed. He forgot to ask Ryuu about this. No, this question didn''t appear in his mind. "It seems I can''t stay too long here. If I am in the middle of Lightning Tribulation, the Lightning won''t let me have the chance to recover my Spiritual Energy. Although this is a different tribulation, I still can''t be here too long." Alex recalled that they were trying to recreate their own version of Divine Tribulation, the last tribulation to ascend to the God Stage. After recovering for about an hour, he managed to reach forty percent of his Spiritual Energy and decided to continue his test. He stood up and started walking to the first passage, where he didn''t find anything. No matter what, there must be a clue to put this key, and he might have missed it. He was going to recheck the passage and went to the eighth floor. A few minutes later, Alex was still wandering around the maze and had yet to find the entrance. Despite searching carefully with his Spirit Eyes, there was no secret entrance or whatever in the dead-ends until he finally found the last dead-end. Whether it was his Spirit Eyes playing him or it was a reality, he could see an energy sign behind the dead-end. It was right behind the wall, so he was frustrated. He ended up taking out his sword and struck the wall. However, nothing happened to the wall, not even a scratch. Alex twitched his eyebrows and wondered if he needed to turn around and search from scratch. "If only Spatial Gate works here, I can bypass a wall like this in no time." Alex gritted his teeth before he remembered the riddle. "Wait, both worlds can influence each other, right?" He straightened his body and waved his sword. "Space Cut!" The Sword Wave flew toward the wall and obliterated it. Alex could have such an idea because he found out that the energy in front of him was actually thinner than the other walls in his surroundings. Little did he know that he could simply use his Spatial Gate here. Due to how he checked that he couldn''t use Spatial Gate despite the tremendous amount of Space Energy, Alex forgot the fact that he had changed the world by touching the vortex''s core. And there was nothing like this previously because the key actually absorbed the wall energy, making it thinner, so Alex had an easier time and gave him a signal. Luckily, there was no defense mechanism that sent him out because of this, and Alex might probably not know about it for eternity. The wall that had been obliterated led him to another room like a hidden room, and he found another vortex there. Unlike the first vortex, this blue colored vortex was, in fact, a portal to the next stage. Beside the vortex stood tall a podium where Alex could place the key, and he put the key down without hesitation. The energy that sealed the vortex disappeared. Alex passed the portal and stepped on the eighth floor. The moment he stepped on the next floor, he was shocked by the blinding light and forced him to close his eyes. It was too bright to the point he couldn''t force his eyes open. In the end, he kept closing his eyes and only relied on his Spirit Eyes to look at his surroundings. No monsters came to his sight, so he was a bit relieved as he waited for the golden words to appear, but he realized he couldn''t see right now. Suddenly, a high-pitch voice resounded across the entire floor. "The light is the one illuminating the world from darkness. Yet, too much light would blind one''s eyes. At this point, where would humans live if they can''t see anything? And how could they even search for their house without looking? Search the portal to the next floor. There won''t be any monsters on this floor, and you will recover your Spiritual Energy depending on how much time you need to go to the next floor." "!!!" Alex was surprised by the condition right now. If he knew there was no monster and the tower would recover his energy, he wouldn''t waste an hour on the previous floor. Even so, he didn''t regret it. His careful personality wouldn''t let him go unless he was certain about it. This was why the ones that played the biggest part in his growth were actually the spies. Their information let him make a decisive decision and advance faster than anyone else without being scared of trouble. If he didn''t have them, he couldn''t imagine where he would be right now. Alex shook his head and sighed. "Anyway, I will do my best and search for the entrance to the next floor as soon as possible. I hope I can recover most of my energy, if not full recovery." With that hope in mind, he began thinking about how to find the entrance. "Hmm¡­ The normal answer will be to feel it, right? Maybe using my Absolute Blade domain to sense it or something, but if this place is huge, it will take a long time. I wonder if my Spirit Eyes can see the portal energy. Anyway, I can only start searching now." Alex summoned his Firebird and let it stay here because he would know he came back to the original spot by using his Space Mark. After that, he flew to a random location that wasn''t far from his Firebird because it would explode if he were too far. The exploration started as Alex was searching in all directions with his Domain and Spirit Eyes, albeit he couldn''t sense nor see a single thing. He decided to explore deeper in one direction until he reached the edge. Whether he was lucky or not, he could see a vortex of energy. "To think I found it this early." Alex entered the portal without hesitation. The brightness that forced his eyes closed suddenly disappeared, and he knew he had gone to the next floor. The Spiritual Energy started filling his body up, recovering all the energy he spent on the seventh floor. With the addition of the energy he recovered on that floor, his Spiritual Energy recovered to eighty percent. Alex was ready for another fight. He then opened his eyes, only to find complete darkness. "Where am I? I can''t see anything." Alex thought for a moment before recalling the element. "I see. This must be the Dark Element floor. I need to pass this stage before I can reach the last floor. Still, Darkness huh¡­ I can''t see a single thing in this darkness." He thought for a moment and used his Fire to light up the area. However, the bright flame could only light up a few centimeters of the ground. It was very surprising since his flame could usually cover quite a big area. It seemed that the darkness was a kind of swallowing the light. The same occurrence happened as something whispered to his ears. "Just as the complete light would blind everyone and make them unable to live. Complete darkness will also make someone crazy like there is nothing real in this world, only darkness. In the darkness, which one is actually real and fake? Answer this question, and the path shall open for you." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and took a deep breath. "A complete darkness¡­ Do you think this is a black hole? Though there is no gravity pulls in this place. Joke aside, it means I can''t rely on my eyes again, right? I still have Spirit Eyes and Domain¡­ Wait?!" He suddenly felt something was wrong as the Domain that he used earlier was gone. He tried to release it again but to no avail. "My domain is sealed? That means I can''t sense my surroundings?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows before releasing his flame as strong as possible and brightening the area slightly. "Fu." It took him a quite amount of Spiritual Energy, so he wasn''t planning on doing that. Besides, he had completed his objective. He only had one path in his front, whereas the other paths were blocked by a wall. He thought, ''Although I don''t know the answer to this riddle, I still need to walk forward, right?'' Alex thought for a moment, nodded his head, and started walking. Suddenly, a creature crept in the darkness, flying toward Alex at fast speed. Unfortunately, Alex could see the sign of energy and slashed it like nothing. The creature didn''t have the strength like the one he fought on the seventh floor, so he kept advancing. There were more and more monsters coming toward him, but they all died in Alex''s hand. Normal people would surely get in trouble for this, but they just had the wrong opponent. Alex''s Spirit Eyes allowed him to walk in the darkness, and no one would be able to sneak attack him. He could only walk forward anyway, so he kept walking blindly while recalling the question over and over again. However, the last two sentences confused him. He asked himself. "Which one is real, and which one is fake? Maybe it''s a kind of physiological question? I heard that when someone can''t see something that attacks them, their sense will abruptly feel like you have been attacked from multiple directions even though there is only one real attack, if not none. "It''s more like a fear state. That''s why they are restricting the Domain in this place, like how they restrained my Spatial Gate on the seventh floor. Luckily, I have Spirit Eyes, so I have nothing to fear. The problem is how I will find the path?" Alex sighed and pondered the question a few more times, but the result was still the same. There was no path or whatsoever, and he had walked for more than fifteen minutes. He also fought some creatures along the way, and all died the same way as the first one. Suddenly, he saw a huge sign of energy in front of him and thought this must be it. He followed the path and arrived at a blue circle that appeared out of the darkness. It didn''t glow or anything, but the scenery behind that gate allowed him to recognize it was a portal to the next floor. He then realized the problems. "This riddle only wants to trick people. With a mentality like that, they will feel walking for fifteen minutes is like fifteen days with their sense of time going off because of the darkness. That''s why normal people will usually get trapped here and why the riddle says complete darkness can make someone go crazy¡­ Or at least that''s what I think. The answer to this riddle is only my path is real. As long as I believe I am walking in the right path and advance in the right way, I can finally reach the goal." Alex smiled and finally answered all nine elements'' riddles. He was a bit proud of himself and went to the next floor. Chapter 695 - The Situation outside the Tower Outside Potential Tower, the Great Elders were watching the disciples coming out of the tower. A blue light shone brightly, and when the elders saw it, a trace of astonishment appeared in their eyes. It turned out that the one that shone was the Ninth Floor of the tower. The disciples below were stunned when they saw this. "What?! Someone has reached the Ninth Floor?!" "Who is it?" "Space Temple''s Ryuu? Dark Temple''s Amelia? Or Fire Temple''s Daphne?" The excitement was also transferred to the Great Elders as their hearts started beating rapidly, especially the three Great Elders. They were wondering whether it was their disciples or the others. This excitement was mixed with anxiety. On one hand, they wished their disciple was the one who came out. On the other hand, they wished their disciple didn''t come out yet and only came out after reaching the highest Floor. Their eyes glued on a platform next to the Potential Tower, where the Tower usually teleported them outside. It was a small white platform without any interior, and they gulped down the moment an array appeared on the platform. "Who is it?" They thought while looking at each other. Suddenly, a female appeared out of the array. Everyone would think it was either Dark Temple''s Amelia or Fire Temple''s Daphne. Aileen became dejected after seeing her figure before she was stunned. The woman that appeared turned out to have pink hair tied into a ponytail. She was wearing a one-piece white dress with some pink stripes. "That is¡­" Aileen gasped as the other Great Elders became speechless. "No way!" "This¡­ This is impossible!" "Really?" "She can reach the ninth Floor? Has the Potential Tower become so easy?" "That is Maya Ai from the Space Temple!" The disciples were utterly shocked by her appearance as well. Their bewilderment was justified because Maya Ai was known as the laziest Great Elder''s disciple and rumor said that Aileen had given up on persuading her. Yet, the same person had just reached the Floor that only a few people were capable of. However, Aileen suddenly teleported to her front and hugged her tightly. "Are you really Maya? You have reached the Ninth Floor?" "Master¡­ You are suffocating me." Maya patted her back a few times. "Ah!" Aileen was too excited just now and quickly released her. She calmed down a little bit and asked. "Have you really reached the Ninth Floor?" "Of course." Maya nodded with a smile. "At first, I was not sure as well. I just remembered that Alex''s teaching about the spear and somehow became my strongest weapon for this tower. Unfortunately, I failed not long after entering the Ninth Floor. If only I trained myself more." "Good child! You are a good child." Aileen hugged her once more as she pictured Alex in her mind and thought. ''That person is really a godsend. To think that Maya can achieve something like this¡­ Ah, I can retire after Ryuu reaches 7-Star Martial Saint, I guess. Maya will be supporting him. I shouldn''t be a cheapskate to Alex. I will come up with something later.'' After calming down her excitement, she snapped her finger and appeared on top of the tower, regrouping with the other Great Elders. She smiled smugly. "Hehe¡­ To think that my Maya can reach the Ninth Floor!" "Hmph!" Viola and Melva snorted and looked away while the other Great Elders were staring at Maya curiously. "Great Elder Aileen, this is truly surprising to see your disciple reach the Ninth Floor. I don''t mean I''m underestimating her in any way of course." Licht squinted his eyes and stared at Maya. Maya twitched her eyebrows and hid behind Aileen. "Great Elder Licht! I hope you don''t scare my disciple away." Aileen smiled brightly while releasing her aura. She was filled with joy and anger at the same time. Maya was scared of Licht because of his brain, so she needed to stand up for her. "I don''t mean to be offensive. Still, to see another disciple reaching the ninth Floor makes me happy." Licht shook his head. Not long after, Amelia, Ryuu, and Daphne came out in succession. The shock shook the Freedom Sect once again. Usually, Ryuu would rank third after Daphne and Amelia, but today, he managed to pass Amelia. Although it was unclear how their progress, they usually used the time to measure their talent. Hence, Aileen was the biggest winner in this event. Aileen was smiling this whole time, looking at the other Great Elders with contempt. The event was supposed to end after these three came out of the tower, but¡­ To everyone''s surprise, the Great Elders didn''t end the event yet as if they were waiting for someone. The red-haired girl behind Viola whispered to her master. "Master, why haven''t the Tower closed yet? All of us have come out." Viola glanced at Daphne and shook her head. "I haven''t told you this yet. But you can say that we are still waiting for someone." "Someone?" Daphne tilted her head in confusion. "Just wait, and you will know." Viola smirked before glaring at Licht. "Great Elder Licht, I hope you still remember our agreement, right?" "I won''t do anything bad. I am ready to lay my life for this." Licht said with a solemn expression. Viola looked into his eyes for a few seconds before nodding her head. "Then, I will wait." Only the Great Elders knew about this matter. Even Ryuu and Maya only knew that they were waiting for Alex, not the deal that Licht wanted to talk about. They were waiting for another hour and made the disciple confused. But that confusion turned into an uproar when the Potential Tower shone in blue light. "This?" Daphne was utterly shocked. They were on top of the tower, AKA, the tenth Floor. Seeing it was light up, it meant someone reached the Tenth Floor. "Someone reaches the Tenth Floor?" "You are wrong, Daphne. Look at the tower as a whole!" Viola said with a serious expression. "!!!" Daphne''s body shook before she flew off the tower, and she dropped her jaws to the ground when looking at the tower. "This is¡ª!" The Great Elders closed their eyes as their expression turned grim. Meanwhile, the disciples around the tower fell into silence. They never saw something like this in their entire life, and that silence turned into an uproar not long after. "What?!" "The entire tower shines?" "No way? Normally the tower will only shine on one particular Floor to let the others know they have reached and been defeated on that particular Floor. This¡­ This shouldn''t happen!" "Do you mean there is someone who can light up the entire tower?" "What does that mean?" "Whatever it means, we will know it as soon as the person appears on the platform." "That''s right." Unfortunately, when they turned to the platform, four Great Elders: Melva, Licht, Viola, and Aileen had stood in front of the platform. As soon as the array appeared, Licht and Melva raised their hands and created a sphere. It was acting like a curtain to prevent anyone from spying. "What?" "Who is the one that can light up the tower?" "That''s right. We want to know that person as well!" The disciples were raging, but could only shout from afar as there was no way they could fight the Great Elders. Meanwhile, Daphne was looking at the middle-aged Great Elder from Thunder Temple, Riadon. He looked at her along with the other Great Elder disciples and sighed. "I shall explain it to you. First of all, do you know why the Potential Tower would shine like that?" They thought for a moment and shook their heads before Ryuu realized something. "Someone reaches the tenth floor?" "Close." "Someone beat the Potential Tower?" Maya opened her mouth wide before recalling Alex''s figure while the others were speechless. Riadon took another glance at their expressions and nodded. "If we reach the eight Floor and get defeated, we will be recognized as someone who has passed the eight Floor. However, there is another saying about this and one that somehow hit our mental hard, so we don''t use it anymore. "The saying came from a few thousand years ago. They were classifying those who managed to lit up the eight Floor as someone who had beaten seven floors. Depending on how someone looked at this matter, they would likely feel better knowing that they had reached the eight Floor, right? It would boost one''s confidence, and the training might become even smoother when hearing that." The Great Disciples nodded in agreement while the disciples fell into deep thought. Ryuu agreed with his statement. He would rather learn that he had reached the ninth Floor because he knew that he would reach the Tenth Floor after that. However, if he learned that he only managed to beat eight floors, it would mean that he had another two stages to go. It might even hurt his self-esteem. And the others also realized this. Riadon sighed and continued. "Anyway, that is the history of the tower. As for the real reason, why would someone light up the entire tower¡­ Let''s take it to another perspective. If you have reached the Tenth Floor, the top Floor will shine, only the top Floor. Because you have failed on the top Floor while there is no proof if someone says he/she has beaten the entire tower. "This trick was once used by a disciple and got caught red-handed that he was lying. We once believed it, but everything changed when Great Elder Maxwell appeared before us and beat this tower. "The tower shone like this as well, and he explained it to us that only someone who had beaten the tower would light the entire tower. At the same time, he told us not to seek the tower''s secret no matter how curious you are. We, of course, obeyed the advice of Great Elder Maxwell. "Rather than learning about the truth, we would be better searching for the way to let someone beat the peak again." Riadon paused for a moment, so Ryuu and the others could swallow all the information first. "A way? Is there really a way to conquer that hard tower?" Daphne asked while sweating. Riadon looked at the rest and realized that they were also curious. He glanced at the other Great Elders whether it was alright to tell them, and they nodded, so he continued. "We are not really sure about this, and even if we say a way, it''s simply raising one''s chance to beat the tower. It will depend on your wisdom and talent again. "After looking at this person, we have realized something. People can only have one element, right? Then why could this person and Great Elder Maxwell beat this tower?" Ryuu suddenly realized because he knew Alex personally. "Dual Elements!" "!!!" Daphne and the others widened their eyes. "The tower itself usually tests you from the easiest to the hardest for your element. No matter how hard we try, we will have our arch-enemy. Like Fire and Water, Water and Ice, Fire and Ice, and so on. Not long ago, we suddenly realized something absurd. What if we have two elements? Does that mean we can fight our weakness with the second element? "Just like how people who have mastered their weapons would have a better chance to advance higher. We think that if we give an additional element to someone, she can reach even further. And today, we are convinced. Once again, this is not a sure way, but it surely increases one''s chance to reach the top Floor and might beat it. "I am afraid after today, we might have a joint event with the other temples to create someone that can withstand two elements and have enough talent to nurture both elements and the weapon. As for who they are, it will probably decide in the next Council Meeting¡­ To think we will hold the Council Meeting a few times within this short time." Riadon sighed. "Still, I somehow want to see if this will really succeed as it will also open our horizon." The others gasped at such an explanation. "Now, our job is to wait until Great Elder Licht finishes his business." Riadon looked at the white sphere. Chapter 696 - Potential Towers Purposes and Alexs Cheat Sheet Meanwhile, on the top floor one hour ago, Alex just entered after beating the ninth floor. He was startled by the sight as he entered something like a throne room. The red carpet led to the majestic golden throne, some full golden armor that looked like they were alive, and tidy golden pillars. Alex looked left and right, wondering where the Golden Words were. He waited for another minute before the golden words appeared. "Sit on the throne." There were only four words and somehow baffled him. Looking at all previous riddles, this one didn''t look like a riddle. Instead, it was ordering him to reach that golden throne. Of course, Alex didn''t immediately step forward. There was no telling that this was actually a riddle that he needed to solve. "Maybe there is a secret passage that leads me to the real throne? Or I might not need to do that and simply walk straight to the throne." He crossed his arms and contemplated while looking around with his Spirit Eyes. However, there was nothing suspicious in the throne room. "What should I do? Should I simply go straight? But there is a chance for it to be a trap and activate these golden armors that will attack me." Alex leaned his back on the wall and started looking for a secret entrance by using his hands. Albeit, a layer of energy suddenly appeared, preventing him from going to another place other than walking on the red carpet. "I have no other choice." Alex sighed and stepped forward. As soon as his foot stepped on the red carpet, the array activated, and the pressure started gathering around him. Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he felt the pressure that wanted to rip him into shreds. He gritted his teeth and released his Spiritual Energy along with his Pure Fire before starting to walk to the Throne. "Is this challenging me?" He thought while looking around. The armors didn''t move, so it slightly made him feel relieved, and he somehow thought about something absurd due to this. "Wait? I have been solving the riddles until now¡­ What if there is actually no riddle on the last floor? No, I should say that the riddle is that there is no riddle, and I''m just overthinking this." Alex contemplated for a moment and glanced at the throne. "I will get my answer up there." Having decided what to do, he gradually walked toward the throne while enduring the pressure. It seemed that the pressure wasn''t that powerful, so Alex somehow managed to reach the throne without difficulty. He looked at the throne for a minute before sitting on it. "Hoho¡­ To think there is finally someone that can sit on this throne again after that old fox." A blue shadow suddenly appeared in front of him and turned into an old man. "Old Fox? Are you challenging me, Old Ri?" Another person appeared, and Alex was stupefied when he saw that person. "Hmph. You are the Old Fox!" The second shadow ignored him and looked at Alex with a smile. "Yo. We have met again¡­ To think that Freedom Sect is really useless. Even my disciple can reach this place faster than them." "Disciple?" The old man had a face of surprise. "Of course." He shrugged. "It''s already ten thousand years, and no one can actually finish the trial we have set. How can I not say useless?" Alex quickly rose from the throne, cupped his hand, and bowed respectfully. "Alexander Sirius greets Master." "Haha¡­ Good!" The second shadow, Maxwell, laughed while sweating inwardly. He never expected that his disciple was the reincarnation of the ''Alexander Sirius'', and somehow, he didn''t dare to announce that his disciple was him. Alex''s previous achievement was that terrifying. "I left a piece of my soul here after I conquered this tower five thousand years ago. So, yeah. This soul is connected to my real body." The old man twitched his eyebrows. "To think that he is really your disciple. I don''t know whether I need to be happy or not." Maxwell shrugged before saying to Alex. "Anyway, there are still a few old men here that built the tower with me ten thousand years ago. However, they are staying asleep because we have agreed to only have one of us to guide the new blood since it''s not normal to have someone beat the tower. Though, I make my appearance because it''s you. Just say it''s a special case, and I''m not supposed to be here anyway." "You Old Fox." The old man snorted. "I will be explaining the situation for him, but I will give you the chance to ask him first." Maxwell thought for a moment and shook his head. "I will go later since I don''t have that many important questions." The old man looked at him for a while and nodded. "Alright. I will introduce myself first. I am Ri Xheo, the first Great Elder of the Ice Temple. Back then, the first Great Elder of Water Temple appeared when your master came here, so he wasn''t here anymore. Anyway, I shall explain this tower first for you while leaving the God Stage stuff to Old Maxwell." Alex glanced at Maxwell first and nodded his head. "This tower''s purpose is to have someone experience all the elements in this world while the last test is a simple strength test. I feel that you can withstand it without any problem, so I won''t say much about it. "What I want to talk about is your trial. After getting the memory about what happened in your trial, I can conclude that you are literally a monster scarier than your master. "The first floor was to test your perception. We wanted to see whether you had the vision and the necessity to explore something unknown. Though I was surprised as to why you could finish it that fast. Anyway, on this floor alone, I could see that you are a careful person. Normally, people would jump inside the magma without checking the surroundings, but you chose to have a fruitless investigation before storming inside the magma. Knowing that you had no prior knowledge about this tower, I can only say that was truly remarkable. "As for the second floor, the water world. It was similar to the first world, but we wanted to test you whether you could think that the situation might not be as complicated as you thought it would be. However, I can say that you were pretty lucky. "The Ice memory wanted you to stay true to your heart. I will say bullsh*t when someone says you sometimes need to give up your life to protect someone you love. I was a selfish person and always believed that I lived for and together with my loved ones, not died for them. That way, I would have a brighter future. If it were something hopeless, my family would rather die alongside me despite how I said they needed to leave. Well, they took that stubbornness from me. "Anyway, on to the fourth floor, Earth Floor. We wanted you to think outside the box, and the digging was the right answer. After all, we wanted the disciples to know that there are many ways to survive as long as you learn more and more. In other words, this was a test of knowledge. "The fifth floor, Wind Floor¡­ I had nothing to say about this floor other than to see your adaptability and reaction speed for the next floor, Lightning Floor. On this floor, we wanted to teach you that everything might not appear in the front. There might be someone behind your back that would backstab you in the back. So, you need to be careful at any time and could react to any plots. "The Space Floor one, I could only say my condolences. The monsters were adjusted with your talents and strength. After knowing that you had Sword, Spear, Alchemy, Array, Pure Fire, and Space element, the monsters were adjusted carefully. Of course, the monsters that lived inside the Space World or Blue Layered Realm truly exist, so you should be careful if you meet them. "Meanwhile, the Light Floor wanted you to not rely only on your eyes. You still have many things to your advantage, and I can say you used them well as you reached the next floor in no time. "The next is the Dark Floor. Its only purpose was to train your mentality. You couldn''t be afraid in every situation and should keep your cool. I saw that you were bravely advancing the tunnel that easily and reached this floor. "As you might already know, the riddle of this floor was that there is no riddle. Sometimes, you didn''t need to think much and solved the trouble with your strength. Though your strength alone has been abnormal. "All in all, this tower wanted to teach you about Strength that can be used in any situation, to always keep your calm, be confident, Element Control, and be true to yourself." Ri finished his explanation with a smile before taking his Space Ring. "This is my Space Ring, so there are mostly Ice Element things inside. This is also another teaching, so you shouldn''t expect that all you needed will come to you as it is. Sometimes you won''t get it even after trying hard." Alex cupped his head and bowed as he gratefully accepted the Space Ring. "Thank you, Elder Ri." Old Ri waved his hands and smiled. "I''m going to go back to my slumber then." Seeing the disappearing Old Ri, Maxwell came closer. "I can''t say many things about the Divine Tribulation because every person will have a different Tribulation, unlike the Usual Lightning Tribulation. I can only suggest you go to Ascension Island when you feel like you want to break through. "There is a huge altar with many pillars surrounding it, and you need to stand in the middle of that altar. It will then trigger the tribulation for you. What makes everyone wonder is the fact the island has no actual shape because the island''s geography will always change when someone has a breakthrough. But don''t worry. The only place that won''t change is the altar. "Besides, only peak 10-Star Martial Saint can go to that place, so you can''t accompany your little wife when she undergoes her tribulation. Do you understand?" Alex nodded. "I trust Firia." "Good." Maxwell nodded. "Anyway, you don''t need to worry about the Divine Tribulation that much. As long as you prepare whatever you can and do your best, the result will follow." "I understand, Master." Alex nodded solemnly. "Anyway, I don''t think I can give you any other advice for your development. Instead, I want to ask about your condition. Are you well?" Maxwell asked with a smile. "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Though I am currently fighting against two influences." "In my era, there were five influences on the Continent: Blackwade Clan, Snow White Mountain, Fire God Clan, Phantasm Sect, and Ancient Blue Family. Which are your opponents?" Alex thought for a moment. "There are two additional influences on the continent, Divine Kingdom and Drunken Pavilion. Master''s friend, Elder Manness, is the founder of Drunken Pavilion. As for my enemies¡­ I am openly fighting the Fire God Clan at this point while facing the Snow White Mountain and Ancient Blue Family in the dark. I haven''t decided whether to fight these two as well." "Fire God Clan, huh¡­ That clan has too much pride, so I don''t think you will have a problem if you are careful enough in inciting their rage. You can even ask for help from Manness. Just ask him if he has changed his wet pants, and he will help you, trust me." Maxwell smirked. "As for the Snow White Mountain¡­ I heard that your Pure Ice Servant got her Sacrificial Element taken by someone else, right?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "They must be planning to use that forbidden technique to call their Ancestor. That''s why you better destroy that ritual, so you won''t have a hard time later. They don''t want a slave because of this, even if she has a Pure Ice Element. Usually, they will need to use around five years for that." "!!!" Alex opened his eyes wide. "So, they caught Letizia to sacrifice her?" "Yeah." "If she hasn''t gotten imprisoned, I am afraid that they have successfully put their ancestor in her body." Alex didn''t know whether to be happy or sad. To think her slave status actually helped her. "Still, she has been imprisoned for two years. In other words, I still have another three years to resolve this matter." "Good. Just destroy their ritual, and their ancestors will disappear. Though you might take the full brunt of their anger." "At least, Letizia is going to be safe because they don''t know that I''m her master." Alex nodded. "As for the Ancient Blue Family¡­ They are the most logical ones as they measure everything from benefits. As long as you can give them some benefit, they will simply sit on the sideline." Alex thought for a moment and bowed. "Thank you, Master. I am more confident now." "Good." Maxwell smiled. "I think it is better for you to go out now." Without waiting for Alex to reply, Maxwell waved his hand as Alex slowly disappeared. "Let us meet again after you reach God Stage." Alex cupped his hands and bowed once more. "See you later, Master." Chapter 697 - Negotiation "See you later, Master." Alex took a deep breath and finally realized that he had teleported to somewhere else. He looked around and found he was inside a barrier or something with four Great Elders inside. "Hello, Young man. I am Licht, The Great Elder from the Light Temple." An old man stepped forward. Alex didn''t know this old man until Aileen introduced him. "He is the one who wants to meet you." Viola nodded. "Don''t worry. If he wants to do anything, I will beat him up." "Hello, little monster. I am just watching from the sideline." Melva waved her hand and smiled seductively. Alex retracted his gaze from Melva almost spontaneously and stared back at Licht. "I am Alexander Sirius. Nice to meet you, Great Elder Licht." He didn''t say he was a disciple and went straight to his normal status, drawing a clear line between him and Freedom Sect. Licht narrowed his eyes and nodded after a while. "Good. I want to talk to you about the Potential Tower. First of all, I want to confirm whether you have beaten the tower completely or not." "I have¡­ I even met Great Elder Ri Xheo," said Alex with a solemn expression. "!!!" The four Great Elders were taken aback. They had prior knowledge that Alex didn''t know anything about Freedom Sect, let alone that particular individual. Seeing him blurt out his name only made them convinced that he truly beat it. "I see. The first Great Elder from Ice Temple, Ri Xheo." Licht nodded. "Alexander. I don''t think you want to hear any pleasantries, right?" Alex nodded. "Let''s cut to the chase." "Fufu, a serious man, my type." Melva joked. Viola and Aileen rolled their eyes. "Hungry Grandma." On the other hand, Licht and Alex ignored them and proceeded with Licht saying. "Let me give you an offer first. Because you have finished this Potential Tower, we have agreed to give you a Lesser Space Element as a reward. However, I am offering you another way to acquire the best Space Element that Space Temple can offer." Alex narrowed his eyes. "At what price?" "I want you to annihilate two big influences on the surface. This way, we can come back to the surface without worry." "Two influences? Are you insane? There are seven influences out there, and I need to destroy two just to get a Space Element? I can''t see anything other than extortion." Alex raised his voice. Of course, he wanted to destroy the Fire God Clan, and the entire Freedom Sect should know about it. However, none of them knew about his grudge against Snow White Mountain or Ancient Blue Family. Alex was known as someone who would attack if someone stepped on his tail. However, he was by no means a maniac who would kill without apparent reason. "Our Freedom Sect has the ability to contend with two influences or three if we use everything we have. Although there are still five more influences in case we eliminate two, we still can hold on against those five influences if we are hiding in our sect. Not long after that, they will realize our true strength, and there is a possibility of one of them joining forces with us. In that end, we can say our position there will become stable. "Of course, having this power will also make others think we want to dominate the world, but we have no intention to do so. We can simply start spreading our disciples around to disperse our strength. "And we know about your relationship with the Fire God Clan. You can say that you have fulfilled one of the objectives if you destroy the Fire God Clan, and you only need one more. We will also help you if you want to destroy the Fire God Clan and another influence with all our strength. "Besides, we can grant you more benefits if you think that our assistance and the most powerful Space Element we have are not enough for you." Licht raised his hand and looked very confident. Alex thought for a moment. Whether it was because he solved so many riddles earlier or his true nature all along, he could see this matter differently. He said, "Let see¡­ There is no assurance that I will destroy the Fire God Clan. I don''t care about your ambition, but surely that there is still a chance of you being the ruler of this entire world. You can say this now, but it will be different in the future after you gain power. "Even if you say that you won''t do it, it doesn''t mean the others won''t, especially when the Freedom Sect can contend with three influences at once. And there is no telling when you will backstab me." Alex paused for a moment as Viola and Aileen wanted to rebuke him. He simply raised his hand and stopped them. "We won''t ever do it? I can still say the same thing. Anyway, my point is there is no balance in this deal. You don''t know how high the price I need to pay to destroy a single influence and what I will bear from it. Now, tell me why should I accept your proposal?" Rose might not have a Space Element in this world, but it didn''t mean she couldn''t get it later. That was why the enticement of Space Element wasn''t that big. As for him, the moment he destroyed the Fire God Clan, there might be someone who might want to take revenge or something. It wasn''t really possible if he left the world, but it would be troublesome if they tried to manipulate things behind the scene. Unlike the other continents, the peak power was on the Heavenly Continent, so he was a bit refraining himself from killing them because this would be his place until he reached God Stage. "I know that if you create a ruckus on the other continents, you can hop over another continent as they won''t be able to chase your cultivation speed. However, it will be different if there is us in your back. We will back you up on this continent, and I am prepared to use my life on the line. Even if you want me or the other Great Elders to swear a Heavenly Oath to you, I won''t mind. "Even if I need to make a full loyalty Heavenly Oath, I am ready. However, please don''t do it to the future generations and leave this to our heads only." Licht said as a representative of the Council. Alex narrowed his eyes before he was startled by the sudden appearance of his system. [I think it''s a good choice to use them, Host.] ''What do you mean?'' Alex asked in his mind. [Fire God Clan aside, the one we are going to destroy most likely is Snow White Mountain. However, there is no telling about the future. If we are not going to destroy them in the future, we can simply give it to them. Of course, if you are allowing the Freedom Sect to destroy them, it will mean you have forgiven them to a certain extent. You then need to think about karma and stuff.] [You can ask Freedom Sect to kill them, not torture them such as r.a.p.e and other things, considering they were mostly women. As for benefits, I don''t think you can get many things from them. Not because it''s bad, but because they are too low for your level. Your Inheritances are the best.] ''Suppose I take their offer, everything doesn''t really make sense, and all I want is to reach God Stage. Even if they offer me benefits, I only need to reach the Martial Saint Stage before becoming a God.'' [I know. That''s why you can have them to fulfill a few of your promises. You can hold that promise for now and say it later, depending on if you need it or not. If you don''t need it, you can say they can''t attack this person or can''t touch this influence and so on.] ''True enough. If they don''t agree with that because they don''t know what I will do in the future, I can reject them. After all, they know my cultivation stage and my real age. True that my cultivation speed gets slower and slower, but it will still be less than a decade before I reach God Stage with this pace.'' Alex thought for a moment. [That''s right. After that, you can have your disciple in their place for training, as this is what they owe. Full training, not only Space Element, but the bow and Thunder Element.] The system was trying to help him brainstorm this deal because Anya wasn''t here. Besides, it would be better to settle this once and for all at this moment. Alex contemplated for a while before thinking. ''Five wishes are enough, I guess? And I can have Rose to inherit this deal. Besides, I can seal my power and appear again in this world in the future, so I will obliterate them if they do anything to Rose. She is under your jurisdiction after all.'' [You can certainly do that. Besides, we are capable of razing this whole world to the ground if we want.] Alex took a deep breath and looked at Licht. "Heavenly Oath? I am sure that you have investigated me. You won''t need to wait for long before I reach God Stage and leave this place. In other words, that Full Loyalty Oath will only bind you for a few decades at most. Do you think it''s really useful to me?" Others might think he was arrogant, especially after seeing how Alex confidently said he could reach God Stage easily. But they couldn''t say it as well, because he might really have the ability to do so. Licht bit his lips as he couldn''t do anything about this as Viola and the others would stop him if he threatened Alex. Even if he had their corporations, a person like Alex might have a trump card. That was why he didn''t dare to make Alex his enemy. "However, I will state my terms first. Seeing how you want me to destroy two influences, I can''t agree because I am not a person who will destroy someone with just the slightest enmity. Hence, I will change the term. Fire God Clan aside, I might fight another influence later, but the one who will destroy them is you, not me. "Secondly, I want you to take care of my disciples in her study later. Not only the most powerful Space Element you have, but also her Bow Mastery, Thunder Element, and Potential Tower. You shall aid her until she reaches God Stage, and you can''t force her to do anything she doesn''t want. "Lastly, I want you to promise me five things that I will only say in the future. And this promise can be inherited to my disciple," Alex stated his three terms. In fact, he never really cared what would happen in this world, he only worried about a few people in his life. "One more thing, you need to decide it right now like how I decided this spontaneously. Licht looked down, contemplating the matter while the other three Great Elders were sweating inwardly. They were wondering what kind of person in front of them. He was young but very terrifying. They were convinced that no matter how Licht wanted to manipulate the conversation, Alex would return it more harshly. In other words, in this battle, Licht lost. On the other hand, Licht finally looked at Alex with a serious expression. "I will agree if you promise me that the wishes won''t harm my Freedom Sect." "Unless you are in the wrong," Alex added again, stopping Licht to gain momentum. Licht gritted his teeth and sighed. "Deal." Alex then stretched his hand, and they shook hands. Licht could only sigh and scream inwardly, ''This little freak.'' The other Great Elders then were invited and made their own Heavenly Oath about the agreement, including Alex. Chapter 698 - Post Potential Tower "Since we have agreed with the deal, I am going back now," said Alex while glancing at Aileen. "Sure. I will be back with Ryuu and Maya later, and thank you personally." Aileen nodded with a smile. As for Viola, she sent a thought transmission to Alex and asked. ''Did you meet your Teacher there? I heard from him that I would meet the first Great Elder there.'' ''Yes.'' Alex didn''t nod and kept looking at Licht. "You can go back first. The rest of us need to talk about this and dismiss the disciples after this, so we can''t accompany you." Licht tried to make a poker face even though he was super pissed. Aileen then snapped her finger and created a Spatial Gate for him. "Here you go." Alex smiled and went through the gate. "Thank you." As soon as he arrived in front of his house, Alex''s expression turned serious as he entered the house. "What should I do now? I have six months left here, but I think I have learned what I want to learn." Alex couldn''t come up with an answer until he decided to call Anya. "How is the situation over there?" "We are having a good time here. Not only the Divine Kingdom seems to be aware of us here, but they also are not trying to investigate us simply because they don''t want to get dragged in the complicated relationship between us and the Fire God Clan. To be honest, they are just afraid because the Ancient Blue Family hasn''t moved yet, considering you have fought them on the Sacred Continent. That''s why they are playing wait and see card first." Anya replied. "How about the rest?" "There is nothing big except the fact that there is a slight difference landscape on this continent. It''s due to the Earthquake of course. The Fire God Clan is hiding in their home this whole time and gets criticized." "I see." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "Do you need my help on the surface?" "You can just rest there. We are preparing to attack the Fire God Clan when you return to the surface." "I mean, I have learned what I need to learn, and I can practice the rest on the surface." Anya thought for a moment and answered. "It''s still better for you to stay there. Although the situation is under control, we don''t really have a big base on the surface, so you might need to take some time to make one. Of course, only in your spare time." "Seriously?" Alex suddenly worried about them not having a roof this whole time. "Don''t worry about us. We are staying in a nice comfy house far from civilization." Alex thought for a moment. This wasn''t exactly a safe place because there was still a chance for him to get attacked by the Freedom Sect. However, he would get distracted as soon as he entered the surface. So, this was a little bit hard to call for him. "Alright. I will stay here and return with my strongest strength." In the end, Alex decided to stay in Freedom Sect. "Sure. Give me an update when you are going back six months from now." "As your order Ma''am." Alex smiled. Alex then tossed Anya''s card back to the Inventory and waited for Aileen to come back as he thought about his future action. "I will reach 8-Star Martial Monarch within these six months while training my Alchemy Skill and Array Mastery. I am afraid that we will need a powerful strength against the Fire God Clan. "As for what Pills and Arrays, I am going to think about it now." Alex paused for a moment and thought. "There are many pills that suits me. Though I also need to work out with Firia. Maybe I should ask her what pills I need to train for? After all, she has become a rank 8 Alchemist. "Meanwhile, I need to learn the Illusion Array, Simulation Room, Barrier Array for the starter. As for Teleportation Array, this will be useful if I need long-range teleportation. Not only it has a longer distance than the Spatial Gate, but the Spiritual Energy needed is also lower. This is not my main priority though. "All in all, if my prediction is correct ¡­ Depending on my previous and current progress, I can say that I will master two pills within one and a half months. Luckily, it won''t take too long for the arrays because I have gotten used to them already, and the symbols are relatively the same, only the number of symbols is different. That''s why I am confident in mastering them within two and a half months, not three months. "I will use the rest of the two months to raise my cultivation. It''s not like I am abandoning my cultivation in the first four months with my training, so I should be able to reach peak 7-Star Martial Monarch after those few months and breakthrough in the fifth month. The last month is simply extra training. I can also add some Space Element training menu in between." Alex thought for a moment and nodded, satisfied with the schedule. When he thought that, he realized there were people outside his house. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and knew it was Aileen and the others, so he quickly came out of his house. "Great Elder Aileen, Ryuu, and Maya." "You are really one of a kind. To think Licht couldn''t even twist his own words. He had underestimated you this whole time and thought that you had yet to experience many things in your life because you are too young. Whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, he lost in the argument." Aileen smiled. Alex scratched his head and said embarrassedly. "Haha¡­ Overpraise." "No. It was really a good show." Aileen waved her hand. "Anyway, I am here because I want to thank you for my disciples'' progress. Not only Ryuu, who usually ranked third in the younger generation ranking, finally reached the second rank, Maya also reached the Ninth Floor. Truly, thank you very much." She cupped her hands and bowed slightly. Ryuu and Maya also followed her action with a smile. Alex was taken aback and quickly helped her up. "It''s only a transaction between us. Great Elder has taught me about Space Element with everything you have, so I should pay you back by teaching Maya seriously. As for Ryuu, it''s his talent that let him reach that stage." "Haha¡­ You are really¡­ If you are not Great Elder Maxwell''s disciple, I will snatch you away. No, I should say I want to marry you if you are younger." Aileen laughed abruptly. That showed how much Aileen actually admired his power and intelligence. If she learned Alex''s past, he wouldn''t dare to believe it because he had changed so much. Alex shook his head. "Anyway, I am going to stay here for another six months even though I have learned everything I want." "Sure. You can stay here for as long as you want. Besides, we can have some exchange with Space Mark because it''s a really intriguing topic. I never expected that the unpopular manual actually has such an effect. Now my imagination is endless and eager to test them one by one." Aileen pumped her fist. Maya pouted and crossed her arms. "You only know about Space Mark because I have learned this technique. If not, you might not have an interest in it." Aileen patted her head and smiled. "That''s right. Our Maya is the best, especially since she starts taking the training seriously. Your talent is by no means lower than Ryuu''s, but you are too lazy. I am waiting for you to be the best and replace me in the future." Maya looked away, embarrassed of her past. Ryuu only cupped his hands and bowed. Aileen then turned back to Alex. "Anyway, I will give you a token later and a certain insignia, so you know which ones are our spies. They will surely aid you on the surface." Alex nodded. "Thank you." Aileen thought for a moment before asking. "So, what do you want? With your talent and that deal, there are many people that hold interest in you, you know. You can even take them as your bride, especially Viola''s Disciple, Daphne. She was totally bewildered about your strength and wanted to know like a hungry beast. Though that is precisely the reason why she is called the number one of the younger generations." Alex maintained his poker face while waiting for Aileen to stop laughing. "I never thought about that kind of relationship, so I need to reject it." "Don''t worry. We know what to do. No one learns about your identity yet and will never learn, I guess. Anyway, Licht has handled the situation, so no matter if you train here for a few months or a few years, you won''t get discovered." Aileen nodded, assuring him with a smile. "Thank you." Alex glanced at Ryuu. "Congratulations on your new ranking." Ryuu clasped his hands and smiled. "Thank you, Alex. Though I can''t be compared to you, who beat the entire tower." Maya pouted again. "Why would no one actually remember me this whole time?!" Ryuu and Alex laughed it off while Aileen sent a thought transmission to Alex. ''We won''t ask you about your experience in the Potential Tower because Great Elder Maxwell has warned us in the past.'' ''Hmm?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows and recalled the real purposes'' behind each mission. From his knowledge, the test might be different for each disciple, but the purpose is still the same. That''s why if they know the purpose, they might be able to beat it. Maxwell and Ri Xheo didn''t tell him anything or simply forgot to tell him that he couldn''t tell his experience to others. But like master like disciple, Alex also forgot to learn the truth about Freedom Sect. There were a few things he couldn''t ask Aileen, albeit he could only sigh. ''There is one more thing I want to ask.'' ''What is it?'' Alex asked. ''We are planning to have someone get another element in their body. There is only one reason we dare to do this. You and Your Master have beaten the tower with two elements, so we think if two elements can actually help¡­'' Alex thought for a moment. It was true that his Fire was actually helping him inside that tower, especially with his firepower, while his Space Element''s support ability truly aided him from time to time. Although there were some severe cases where he couldn''t use some abilities, it still raised his chance to victory. Albeit¡­ He remembered that he needed to fight powerful monsters because he learned too many. After considering several factors, Alex answered, ''I do think having two elements will help you overall. However, the user still needs to practice and keep up with the other element. We also need to see his affinity for that element. ''If he/she can train two elements at the same time along with the weapon, he/she will certainly have a higher chance to succeed.'' Alex nodded with a serious expression. ''Yeah. We came up with the same hypothesis. That''s why we are going to use this year''s evaluation to search for a disciple, no matter if they are a Great Elder Disciple or a normal disciple. We will nurture their strength. After all, we don''t dare to have the old one here. Not only is there a risk of that destroying their long foundation, but we also consider their fighting style. ''Youngsters like you who have high cultivation and not many experiences are very welcome. After all, you can be reckless and try to search for a new fighting style that suits yours. Anyway, I just wanted to ask you about it. Now that we are done here, I need to leave.'' Alex nodded. Aileen then patted Ryuu and Maya. "Let''s go back." They nodded and followed her through the Spatial Gate. Aileen and the others went back as Alex returned to his bed. He wanted to recover his Spiritual Energy first before enduring the hellish training. ¡­ And then finally, after six months of training, Alex once again stepped out of his house with all of his equipment, ready to return to the surface. Chapter 699 - Back to the Surface Six months later, After a nice session of training, Alex had reached 8-Star Martial Monarch. He didn''t forget to learn two pills: Sun Strength Pill and Abyss Soul Pill according to Firia. As the name implied, it was the next version of his strength and soul pill, which he abruptly took in the process. He felt that his strength wouldn''t lose against a 2-Star Martial Saint at this point. Meanwhile, the other pills would be managed by Firia because she had learned many pills, including the pill that could raise one''s talent. Alex wanted to make that pill and gave Rose one while selling the others. He didn''t forget about the four arrays too. Everything was going according to the schedule, and no one was left. In the meantime, Aileen also visited him from time to time as they discussed Space Mark. Due to how advanced Aileen''s experience and knowledge about Space Element was, Alex somehow managed to create at least ten marks at the same time. This would be very useful in the upcoming battle. Alex took out Anya''s card. "Anya, I am going out today." "Noted. I will meet you right in front of the cave as our plan." "Well, there is a problem. It seems that they are going to escort me until I am out." Alex talked with an unsure tone. "It doesn''t matter. They are striking deals with you not long ago, so we should show our face as well. Though, it will only be me, Firia, and Leoz that will welcome you. We can''t show all of our strength, can''t we?" Anya smirked as she thought about showing their dominance. "Don''t you think it is unnecessary?" Alex asked and furrowed his eyebrows. "It''s necessary for us. After all, you have been under their care these past eighteen months. Although it''s not really important, just say that this is a courtesy." Anya persuaded him. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Do as you like." "Thank you." He then put her card inside the Inventory again and made sure he didn''t leave anything inside. At first, he wanted to leave a wisp of his soul, but he refrained himself. He thought that Evelyn might come to this place and trained here, but he didn''t know when she would come. If the Freedom Sect had resurfaced, she wouldn''t get this message. Hence, it would be better to say it to her through the system. After finishing all the matters inside the house, Alex then walked outside the house and found the three people that had accompanied him for the past one and a half years had been waiting outside. "I''m sorry for making you wait." Alex smiled and nodded. Aileen waved her hand, telling Alex it was fine. "Anyway, are you really going to leave?" "Yes. I need many important things to do on the surface." "Alright¡­ Still, your cultivation speed is insane. I remember that the first time you came here, you were only a 6-Star Martial Monarch, and you had reached 8-Star Martial Monarch without a problem." Aileen narrowed her eyes and sighed. Alex laughed inwardly. If he didn''t have anything and only cultivated, he might be able to advance 3 stars within a year. It was already too low for the current him, considering he could advance one star in a month previously. "Are you going to participate in the Seven Influences Banquet?" Aileen asked. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes. I need to go to that banquet no matter what, especially if I want to keep my end of the bargain." ''This guy.'' Aileen squinted her eyes and took a deep breath. She still kept smiling as to prevent Alex from noticing anything. "I see. We can''t really help you with this matter. However, we have many spies inside all those influences. If you have the insignia that I gave you months ago, you will know our spies and can order them as you like, including passing the message to us. If they don''t believe you, you can simply give them the token, and they will obey right away." Alex nodded. "I will remember it." "Anyway, I just want to say that if you have any problems, you can come to us. After all, we are relying on you right now." "I understand." Alex didn''t reply that he would rely on them. Licht must ask her to say it because he could say that it was a part of the promised five wishes or something along the lines. They might not be able to trick him, but Rose was different. That was why he wasn''t planning to ask their help unless it was the time to uphold their agreement. He wanted to have his record as clean as possible. Aileen sighed inwardly and realized what Alex was thinking. She thought, ''I have said it to him, Old Licht. It seems you won''t win against this guy, especially if you are at a disadvantage.'' "I am going back then." Alex nodded. "Ryuu and Maya will escort you to the surface." Aileen smiled and pointed her hand toward Ryuu and Maya. "Haha¡­ Let me see you off, Alex." Ryuu smiled. He couldn''t be more impressed with a guy and somehow had Alex to be his role model. "Hmph. It''s not like I want to accompany you, alright? It''s simply because of the benefit that you brought to this place. If not, I won''t even accompany you." Maya crossed her arms and looked away. Although Ryuu and Aileen were the number one and number two in her heart, Alex undeniably became the number three. Not only had he helped her for her cultivation and weapon, but he had also helped Aileen and Ryuu. Hence, she had a certain affection with this person called Alex, of course, not a romantic one. When Alex saw her acting like a tsundere, he couldn''t help but recall the ultimate tsun-tsun couple, Fabio and Vera. These two would surely have a symphony with her¡­ Not that he could say it though. Alex smiled and nodded. "Then, I am in your care." Aileen then waved her hand and created a Spatial Gate toward their Teleportation Array. Ryuu stretched his hand and asked Alex to go inside the portal before activating it. Aileen waved her hand with a smile, seeing them off. As soon as they arrived in the previous water cave, the two disciples that were guarding the gate bowed to them, especially to Ryuu and Maya, as they realized these two. Ryuu smiled and said, "Good work you two. I am bringing our guests out, so please watch the gate for us as we will come back soon." "Yes." They cupped their hands and bowed simultaneously. Ryuu then led Alex through the cave until he arrived at the previous hole where Alex came one and a half years ago. As Anya said earlier, Anya, followed by Firia and Leoz, were standing right above the ground. Ryuu and Maya noticed their presence and were shocked. They were astonished when they saw two 1-Star Martial Saints and one 4-Star Martial Saint. "I am back." Alex appeared before them without waiting for Ryuu and Maya to react. "Welcome back, Alex." Anya and Firia said at the same time, signifying their status. Ryuu and Maya were shocked once more. They looked at each other and sent a thought transmission. ''They are¡­ Alex''s wives, right?'' ''It seems to be that way.'' Maya nodded furiously. ''Now that I can see why he never had any interest from those women in the sect. His wives are so amazing.'' ''Yeah.'' When they were thinking about it, Alex already finished talking with Anya and Firia and turned around. "These two are Ryuu and Maya. They have been helping me inside the sect." "Thank you for helping our Alex." Firia smiled gracefully. "No. It''s us who should thank you." Ryuu hurriedly regained his bearing and thanked them. "I think it''s time." Alex smiled at Ryuu and Maya. "We shall meet again if the opportunity comes." Ryuu nodded his head while Maya waved her hand awkwardly. Alex then flew away with the others. "By the way, how is the situation on the continent? When are we making a move?" Alex asked while flying. "No need to hurry. The Seven Influences Banquet will only start in two weeks. We can go there in a few minutes with your teleportation anyway." Firia assured him with a smile. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Then, how about the ticket situation?" "You mean the invitation? We acquired them from the Blackwade Clan not long ago. I am planning to inform you after this¡­" Anya sighed. "Well, the problem will be who will accompany you for this banquet¡­ Or are you planning to go alone?" Firia asked. "Hmm, I don''t know what this banquet is all about to be honest." "This banquet is simply for the talented younger generations to show off their power," Anya answered him bluntly. "Well, show off is the right word, I guess." Firia scratched her cheek and made a weird smile. "They will have a set of events for you to show off your power¡­ Albeit, this is only about your other power like Poem, Alchemy, and so on. After that, they will move toward the battle event where they could challenge one another." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I heard that the current successor of the Fire God Clan has a brain. It will be hard to anger him." "If you want to kill him, that is¡­ But our priority is to have a nice chat with the Fire God Clan and for you to see the other geniuses from other influences. You might be able to see whether they are a threat or not." Anya added. "True enough." Alex nodded in agreement. "Killing that guy will only be a bonus." "Yeah. Seeing how you act with Song Jiaoren will also make the Ancient Blue Family think twice whether to cooperate with the Fire God Clan. After that, we can start pressuring them and have them not participate in the battle against the Fire God Clan." Anya smirked evilly. "True enough. Evelyn is going to be there, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Though she will be accompanied by hand-picked disciples, and it seems she has so many suitors in the Drunken Pavilion." Anya laughed. Alex shrugged. "If she has taken a liking for a guy, I will surely give her my blessing." "You will meet one of them in the Seven Influences Banquet, and it will be from one of their disciples." Anya sighed. "Is this going to be the ''You are not qualified to be with her'' again?" Alex twitched his eyebrows in annoyance. "I suppose." Firia rolled her eyes as she said, "If you can have Song Jiaoren to stop him, he will naturally stop. Unless he is a fool or something along the line, you can simply shame him with Evelyn and kill him afterward. Don''t worry. It will be so clean that no one would know." "Isn''t it easy to know since he offended me or something?" "And do you think that Manness will care about it?" Firia stuck out her tongue. "Drunken Pavilion is not like other influences. The elders are only responsible for their branches all over Heavenly Continent, so you won''t need to worry about it. With your status, that Manness won''t make trouble." "That''s right. Although he is a son of an elder, we can simply eliminate that elder, considering that elder is only a 6-Star Martial Saint Elder. Leoz will be powerful enough for him¡­ Or maybe level up Nelson and have him assassinate him. Although we are not fighting the Drunken Pavilion, it doesn''t mean we are easy to bully. We need to make a clear conscience with that Manness too." Anya grinned evilly. "Anyway, we can talk about the rest when we arrive." Firia clapped her hand and stopped the conversation. "I know that, but I am curious about one thing. How do you acquire the Invitation from Song Jiaoren?" Alex asked. "Oh that." Anya recalled the report and started telling him. "Nicole was in charge of it, and the process was like this¡­" Chapter 700 - Preparation for Seven Influences Banquet "Nicole was in charge of it, and the process was like this¡­" Anya started telling him the story. ¡­ Two weeks ago, inside Song Jiaoren courtyard, the person in question just came back from the meeting of their family. "Fu. Tomorrow will be the time to go toward the Seven Influences Banquet. There are many things I need to do in this Seven Influences Banquet." Song Jiaoren sighed as he changed his clothes to something comfortable before starting his cultivation. As soon as he changed, he suddenly felt a presence outside his room and shouted. "Who are you?" No one would actually disturb him in his room unless they were his close family. However, he couldn''t recognize this Spiritual Energy at all, so he raised his guard to the maximum. A female voice resounded across the door. "Please, don''t say such a thing. I am coming here again to pass you the words of my master. Haven''t you waited this whole time for it?" "This voice¡­" Song Jiaoren suddenly remembered this voice and furrowed his eyebrows. "Spirit Nest?" "Correct." Nicole slowly opened the door and made her appearance. "So, you have chosen this time to make your appearance¡­ To think that we couldn''t catch a single person despite knowing you are there¡­" Song Jiaoren sighed. "Doesn''t Young Master Song Jiaoren want to invite me in? This talk will be a bit long after all, considering it will be about the Supreme VIP Card." A smile appeared on Nicole''s serious face. Song Jiaoren thought for a moment and nodded. "Fine. Come in." Nicole walked slowly inside the room and reached a couch. "Then excuse me." "So¡­" Song Jiaoren walked toward the window and leaned back. He recalled that this woman was so weak before, and within a few years, she managed to reach Martial Saint was already incredible, making it look incredible. There was her espionage skill to boot. To think that such a talent was under the Spirit Nest, it made him more curious about the person called Alexander Sirius. "My master, Alexander Sirius, wants to meet you in the Seven Influences Banquet. However, he doesn''t have an Invitation." Nicole stopped as Song Jiaoren could speculate the rest. "So, you are just passing that message. It''s easy then. Just tell the guards that I am inviting him inside." He raised his hand and somehow thought Alex was a fool because he sent his subordinate to a dangerous place like this for that message alone. "Of course. If it''s that easy, I won''t be here. Unlike a normal person, my master doesn''t want to have trouble. Suppose that he can say that you have invited him inside, the guards won''t believe him¡­ Especially since no one actually knows our Spirit Nest. At the same time, there is a possibility of someone witnessing such an event and embarrassing my master, like saying he is a beggar or something. "We will be insulted that way. Hence, we are not going the normal way." Nicole smirked slyly as she glanced at the paper on his table. "What do you want then?" "We simply want your Invitation there." Nicole pointed her finger at the paper. "Ho¡­" Song Jiaoren narrowed his eyes, leaking a bit of his aura. "If I am giving you this, then how can I enter the banquet?" "Haha, Young Master Song Jiaoren loves to joke. Your fame has been spread all over the Heavenly Continent. The guards will surely give you a pass even without the invitation." Nicole chuckled. "Do you think that is enough? There is still a chance of me being embarrassed when someone knows that I don''t have the invitation." "Then I can only say that Young Master has wasted a very big opportunity." Nicole smirked. "A very big opportunity? Although you are mysterious, I don''t think you are qualified to say it to my face!" Song Jiaoren twitched his eyebrows. "I know that you have been trading with us¡­ Around a few ten thousand Spirit Crystals. But that''s all." "In the end, you are underestimating us again." Nicole shook her head. "Do you think we will trade everything with you?" Song Jiaoren''s face was distorted a little bit. "I am not allowed to say the specific, but I should be able to tell you this. The amount we are going to trade will be far higher than the loss the Divine Kingdom suffered during the previous incident." Nicole smirked, threatening him. "!!!" Song Jiaoren opened his eyes wide and thought. ''Divine Kingdom has suffered the most because of the previous incident. According to the report, the loss exceeded their first speculation, and she said he could offer far more than that? Still, her cultivation has risen to the same level as me, 1-Star Martial Saint, within a few years¡­ Is she telling the truth?'' He couldn''t immediately accept them and didn''t need to give Spirit Nest a face because he had yet to determine whether the Supreme VIP Card is really in their hand. However, this deal was truly interesting. "The Divine Kingdom has suffered five years of their revenue, and you are telling me you can trade far higher than that?" He narrowed his eyes. "Of course. That is our strength. The Blackwade Clan and the Divine Kingdom weren''t the only ones that took advantage of the previous incident¡­ We were the biggest winner." "Ho." Song Jiaoren''s heart skipped a beat, and quickly regained his bearing. "I didn''t even see your Spirit Nest when we were fighting those monsters, and you are saying you were the biggest winner?" "Do you think we will let you observe us just like that? How do you think we have been hiding this whole time?" What Nicole was true. Song Jiaoren didn''t know whether this Spirit Nest was a new influence or not. Alex might be their leader, but their sudden progress and such made him think there was actually a huge amount of resources poured into Alex and this person. That was why he couldn''t dismiss the thought. "Suppose I give you the Invitation, what and how will you contact me at that time? There is also a chance that you might even want to embarrass me later." Nicole shook her head. "We have no assurance for you. If you trust us, we will contact you. Else, we will just see whether anyone would take the deal. After all, the Blackwade Clan might be able to monopolize the situation to a certain extent, but if we choose to emerge, you might want to think twice." He thought for a moment, grabbed the paper, and threw it to Nicole. "This life is a gamble. Whether I win or not, I will place my bet on the Spirit Nest. I want to rebuke many of your arguments, but I don''t want to delay this matter any longer. If Spirit Nest doesn''t have the Supreme VIP Card, my Blackwade Clan won''t wait and fight you." "Fufu¡­ Young Master Song Jiaoren is indeed a man worthy of his reputation. I know that my negotiation skill is far from perfect, but you still decide it this way." Nicole stood up and bowed slightly. "Since I have fulfilled my task, I will excuse myself." "Wait!" Nicole stopped and turned around. "Does Young Master need anything, or do you want me to pass a message to my master?" "¡­" Song Jiaoren didn''t answer her for a minute before saying. "If the Spirit Nest abandons you, come to this place. I will surely get you a position within this clan." "As a retainer of my master, I am thankful for such high praise regarding my ability. However, I need to decline your invitation. After all, my master is the best, and that won''t change," said Nicole with confidence before she disappeared from his room. Song Jiaoren let out a long sigh as he looked outside his window. He wanted to cultivate earlier, but it seemed his mind wasn''t fit to cultivate right now. "Spirit Nest, huh¡­ Let''s see what you got. I''m looking forward to this year''s Seven Influences Banquet." ¡­ "That''s what happened a few weeks ago," Anya explained. Luckily, Nicole wasn''t here or else, she would be embarrassed. Alex then opened his Inventory and found the invitation before closing it again. "This will be interesting." ¡­ He wasn''t the only one who thought that way. Inside the Snow White Mountain, a woman sat down while looking at the snow outside. "This year''s Seven Influences Banquet will surely be interesting. They have looked down on us for too long. I will reverse all their thoughts with this Sacrificial Element. Just you all wait." Unlike the Snow White Mountain, Fire God Clan had a gloom atmosphere. "What should we do, Patriarch? Are we not participating in this year''s Seven Influences Banquet?" One of the elders asked. "Our reputation has been greatly hit by the Spirit Nest a few times. If we don''t join, where can we put our face?" The Patriarch gritted his teeth. "Still, Second Young Master will be in danger if he participates." "I know. Eric is a smart man. I will leave two 8-Star Martial Saints elders with him, along with two rank 8 Teleportation Array Plates." Leo gritted his teeth. "Two rank 8 Teleportation Array Plates?" The elders were shocked by his statement. It was considered as a life-saving treasure even for Fire God Clan, and Leo wanted to have Eric bring two¡­ This¡­ "What? Do you have any objections? If we are not coming to this year''s banquet, our name will be tarnished. With such a name, our economy and reputation will be gone, and the disciples might even start leaving the clan. This is a heavier blow than the two rank 8 Teleportation Array Plates." Leo roared, shutting all the elders up. Although they didn''t want to admit it, Leo was right. They had no choice other than to do this, and it was only a single influence that forced them to make such a decision. They never knew the extent of Spirit Nest power, so they could only prepare for the worst. Unfortunately for them, all of this was within Alex''s calculation. The elders had no choice other than agreed with such a proposal. The wealth of a clan could be restored over time, but when the clan started declining, the situation would only become worse after that point. "Call Eric here." ¡­ At the same time, Drunken Pavilion also had the same topic. Evelyn was kneeling in front of Manness along with the other disciples. "All of you shall go to the Seven Influences Banquet." Manness rose from his seat and announced. "Yes, Pavilion Master." They answered in unison. He then walked toward Evelyn and smiled. "Evelyn¡­ If my prediction is correct, I am sure that man will be there." "!!!" Evelyn opened her mouth in surprise before it turned into a giant smile. "Really?" "Yeah. After watching Maxwell, I am sure he is far more monstrous than him. There is no way he would let this opportunity pass." "I can really meet big brother Alex¡­" Evelyn was so happy to the point she unconsciously stood up and pumped her fists. "It seems this time Seven Influences Banquet will be amazing. Give me a report after you come back, alright?" Manness smirked. "Like master like disciple, both of them seemed to create a huge mess first before leaving (this world)." "Yes." Evelyn nodded furiously. ¡­ In Phantasm Sect, especially inside a tower near the sea. A man smiled as he changed his clothes while humming happily. "Are you sure you want to follow me to the Seven Influences Banquet?" The question was targeted to a woman behind him. She looked at him with a smile. "Yes. Are you curious about why I want to follow you?" "Hmm, not really?" "Then what if I say it''s because of a man?" She smirked, teasing him. "So, your heart holds such a man¡­" The man wasn''t angry or happy. He stared at the woman and asked, "Are you going to leave my side then?" "Fufu¡­ I am just teasing you. Our relationship isn''t like that, so you don''t need to worry. I have pledged myself, or have you forgotten about it?" "No way. Unfortunately, only a few elders that are close to me accept this¡­ Wait a bit more, alright?" "I know their worry. That''s why I am going to prove myself that I am worthy." She grinned. "Oh, you little girl." Chapter 701 - Pre-Banquet Two weeks later, Inside an inn right in front of the banquet would be held, Alex was looking outside of his window from the very top floor. "I wonder if there is going to be an action or something¡­" Alex sighed and recalled a certain story. "Normally, I would be asked to perform something before they start shaming me. Unfortunately, I don''t really have a talent for poems and such¡­ As for Alchemist, I doubt they are going to host an Alchemy Competition, considering it would take too long." "You only need to slap their face and beat them brutally in the fighting, especially if that Eric Hinga goes to the stage. However, I heard that he is going to attend alongside two 8-Star Martial Saints, so it will be hard for us to kill them." A woman''s voice resounded behind him as Anna made his appearance. After some considerations, Alex chose not to have so many people accompanying him, especially when he realized that the war would happen in a few years. Only Anna, Leoz, and Neon ended up following him. Anya and Firia were holding the fort back in the forest. "True enough. Well, I am here just to see the other geniuses and meet Song Jiaoren. If our situation is not complicated like this, I won''t come to this banquet." He sighed. "We have been killing monsters for so long, and Neon can finally release his strength as a 5-Star Martial Monarch. Luckily, he can catch up due to the fact it is easier for SR Spirits to level up than UR Spirits. So, you can ask him without hesitation if you need some information. He is a Ghost Spirit after all." Anna walked toward him and looked outside. "Yeah. Leoz is also here to be my bodyguard." Alex nodded before furrowing his eyebrows. "What are you watching?" Anna paused for a moment and grinned. "Are you searching for a scene where a man gets trampled by a carriage, which turns out to be a young master''s carriage, and the man fights back and slaps the young master?" "Oi, don''t say it like that." Alex shrugged and pointed out his finger at a certain person walking toward the banquet hall. "That is¡­" Anna was slightly surprised and found a familiar blonde guy followed by a few people and elders. "I see. That is Song Jiaoren." Alex nodded. "Yeah. Our true target." "Are you going to meet him with your mask?" Anna asked with an unsure tone. "I mean, your face is already all over the world, including this continent, because the Fire God Clan decided to spread the information about you. I think it is futile to put on your mask. I am sure that everyone will also recognize you." "Yeah. There is no one who would put on a mask for a banquet like this except me. So, I think I won''t put my mask on and never again." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "Do you need me to accompany you?" "For what? If it''s for other guys to hit on you and bring me troubles, I will go alone. It''s not like I don''t want you to accompany me, but our situation is a bit complicated." Alex let out a long sigh. "I don''t want to get more enemies after this before solving the Fire God Clan." "This is just my curiosity, but¡­ When are you planning to attack the Fire God Clan?" Anna asked. "When I reach 5-Star Martial Saints, I guess. If I don''t have all of you, I will attack them only after I reach 8-Star Martial Saint. But it is far different when you are with me. All of you can reach 10-Star Martial Saints before I reach 8-Star Martial Saint. I feel like I am still useless." Alex sighed. "If we don''t have your system, we won''t have that strength." Anna shrugged, even though the real reason was because they only regained the strength they sealed before becoming his Summoned Spirits. After Song Jiaoren entered without much problem, it was Evelyn''s turn to show up. She was followed by a few disciples behind her, but there were two extraordinary disciples. The first one was a female who seemed to be a master of a sword, while the other was a male. Without much thinking, Alex realized it was him, the one that pursued Evelyn. Alex squinted his eyes, trying to see this man, albeit got slightly disappointed. He seemed to have a rash but scheming personality that could be taken advantage of. He quickly ignored the man and smiled upon seeing Evelyn. "To think that little girl back then has grown." "Fufu, Evelyn is one of the top beauties in this continent, you know. Many young men are waiting for her to grace them with her love before Evelyn''s strength overtakes them." Anna chuckled. "They won''t have a chance after that." Alex shrugged. "I just wish for a man who has a genuine feeling for her. Nothing else." "Then, why don''t you take her as one of your wives?" Anna grinned, teasing Alex. Alex didn''t answer, or he refused to answer. Not even a word was coming out of his mouth until the next influences appeared. "That is Snow White Mountain." He immediately furrowed his eyebrows when he found a woman with light-blue hair. There was only one reason for him to have an interest in her. "I see. That female is the one who gets Letizia''s Sacrificial Element. Does she know that her elders will sacrifice her later? In any case, I will make sure to ruin the ritual three years from now." "You should probably meet Letizia while you are at it. After all, it has been a few years since she first locked up." "Yeah." Alex nodded in agreement. "I will visit her first before I ruin their plan¡­ Maybe plant my Space Mark, so I can forcefully save her if they decide to kill her." "Noel is watching her, so she will inform you if something happens to her." Alex nodded and watched the next group, led by a fierce young man. The first impression he gave was that of a ferocious beast. He never thought that someone from the Ancient Blue Family would be something like this. "That is the current successor of Ancient Blue Family, Rio. He would be the first candidate to be the Family Head in a few years. Unlike the other influences, Ancient Blue Family let them become their successor as soon as they reached 1-Star Martial Saint." Anna introduced him. "This Ancient Blue Family seems to be unique?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Usually, the Ancient Blue Family would let their successor fight among themselves. This is to make sure that their next head will be strong and have some brains. However, there is also a lack of disciples because of this. There were many deaths every time this happened. That''s why they always think about benefits first and somehow become easier to be controlled." "Hmm¡­ I think it is best for us to wait until that person becomes the family head then? After all, we can easily scare him. I can ask Song Jiaoren and Old Manness to persuade him altogether and have him concede." Alex smirked as if he had already formulated the plan in his head. "It''s up to you. However, it''s better to wait and see first. The Ancient Blue Family is not stable right now, and it will be worse when they just elect a new head." Alex nodded. "By the way, what is exactly the requirement to be their family head?" "Simply reach 2-Star Martial Saint without getting killed," Anna said nonchalantly. "I see." Alex closed his eyes. "After becoming the official successor, nobody can touch this person?" "Yeah. He will be protected by the family, and anyone who wants to take revenge will experience worse than they can imagine." Anna nodded. Alex thought that the trade with Song Jiaoren would determine how he can bribe the Ancient Blue Family. "Well, we can also have the Ancient Blue Family to act according to our will, such as inviting the Fire God Clan to make a big war only to find they are deserted by their ally, Ancient Blue Family. After that, we can thoroughly exterminate the Fire God Clan." "Yeah. It will be a nice psychological attack as well, minimizing our loss." He then took a look at another influence. "That one is the only successor of Phantasm Sect. Their cultivation is unique since they can form their own weapon from their blood. This is a unique specialty only to their disciples. Of course, only Senior Disciples and Elders are qualified to learn the technique." "That is truly unique. How is the strength of their weapon? If they are powerful¡­" Alex fell into silence. "It is related to the strength of their soul, but it can be compared to rank 8 weapon if their strength is strong enough." Anna narrowed her eyes. "That''s why we often sold our Abyss Soul Pills toward them directly, instead of Blackwade Clan, to maximize the profit. Of course, if the weapon is broken, they would suffer a terrible injury." "They are a neutral influence, right?" "Yeah. There is no big movement from them, especially toward the fight between us and the Fire God Clan." Alex nodded with a solemn look and noticed a person behind him. She was wearing a big head with a veil hiding her look. However, Alex sensed familiarity in her. Anna didn''t realize this and said to Alex, breaking his curiosity. "They have come, so we should enter as well." He nodded and recalled Anna back to the card as he walked toward the entrance. Two guards were waiting in front of the banquet hall and quickly stopped him. "Halt! Who are you?" They couldn''t see Alex''s face due to his mask, but they saw a white paper in his hand. Although the name was Seven Influences Banquet, they also invited a few small families and wanted to see if there was a hidden genius among them. The seven influences could recruit them if they took fancy of their strength. That was why they realized Alex must be one of them. However, they found it rude to enter after the Seven Influences, making them think, who the hell are you? Alex paid no attention and gave the invitation to them. The guard took the invitation and checked whether it was a real invitation or not before letting him in. A female maid bowed to him as she said, "Welcome, Esteemed Guest. I will guide you to the Banquet Hall." Alex nodded and followed the maid. The hall itself was huge, considering they hosted so many people at once and would host a fighting competition. Yet, it was still filled with tables for the time being for the sake of the real banquet. "I will lead you to your seat." The female maid stretched her hand, asking Alex to proceed to his right. Of course, this type of action would invite much attention, especially Blackwade Clan''s Song Jiaoren. Alex chose this timing because the Fire God Clan had yet to arrive. Hence, he quickly searched for Song Jiaoren and found them in the very front sitting alone at his table. There was an empty chair, but no one seemed to dare sit on that chair. Only after realizing Alex had come, Song Jiaoren stretched his hand as if he was asking him to sit there. Alex nodded and ignored the maid as he made his way toward Song Jiaoren. The other participants were stunned, making the room silence while the maid had cold feet. There were two women that widened their eyes when they saw this mysterious masked man before many started realizing his identity. Albeit, Alex had arrived and sat in front of Song Jiaoren. This was the man that had been haunting the entire Heavenly Continent and his peaceful day, Song Jiaoren smiled inwardly as he wanted to see what he got. He cupped his hands politely and made a big smile. "We finally meet." Alex nodded and took off his mask, revealing his handsome face along with his golden hair. He cupped his hands and smiled. "I have been looking forward to meeting you for the past few years." *Hiss~!* Chapter 702 - Blackwade Clans Secret "I have been looking forward to meeting you for the past few years." Alex cupped his hands and smiled. *Hiss~!* Although his portrait had been spread all over the continent, no one recognized his face with a single glance. It took them a minute before one of them muttered. "Is that Alexander Sirius?" "Alexander Sirius? The leader of Spirit Nest?" "That mysterious influence that is rumored to be the eighth big influence?" The people started talking among themselves, but for Alex and Song Jiaoren, the commotions were insignificant. Both of them were studying themselves and had yet to utter a single word after the greeting. "I want to talk about many things¡­ But I suggest it''s better if we talk privately, don''t you think so?" Song Jiaoren asked with a smile. "True enough. I am sure you are sitting here because you are waiting for me, right?" Alex smiled while glancing at a few private rooms that had been filled with people from Seven Great Influences. "Indeed. Let''s go to Blackwade Clan Private Room. I will ask all of them to go out first while we are talking." Song Jiaoren rose from his seat and stretched his hand, asking Alex to follow him. Alex nodded and followed him upstairs as the previous maid guided them. She never thought that the person she guided earlier was a big shot. As soon as they arrived at the private room, Song Jiaoren said. "I apologize to all of you, but can you leave the room first? I want a private space with this gentleman." No one dared to raise an objection because they knew what Spirit Nest was. With the two leaders talking to each other, they would just invite their deaths if they stayed inside. However, the moment they opened their door to go outside, a young girl suddenly appeared and ran toward Alex before clinging to his neck. "Big Brother Alex! Hehe¡­" "Evelyn?!" Alex was startled to see Evelyn this aggressive. "It''s been so long since the last time we met." Evelyn grinned before glancing at Song Jiaoren, who simply closed his eyes. "Are you good in the Drunken Pavilion? Did Elder Manness bully you or something?" Alex asked worriedly. "No. I am fine. Master has been teaching me patiently this whole time, and it''s thanks to your past training that I can reach 5-Star Martial Monarch at this speed." Evelyn released her hands and puffed her chest as she was proud of herself. "That''s good." Alex nodded with a smile. "Although I want to talk more with you, I have another thing to do. Can you wait for a little bit? I will talk to you later." "Fine." She pouted and walked back. "I have many things to share with big brother Alex." Alex waved his hand to her before his smile faded as he looked at Song Jiaoren with a serious expression. "I have heard about your relationship with Drunken Pavilion''s Evelyn, but this is the first time I see it. It seems you are more intimate than the report." Song Jiaoren checked Alex''s expression. Alex didn''t answer him and simply took out his Supreme VIP Card. "!!!" Song Jiaoren narrowed his eyes and asked. "May I check it?" Alex nodded and placed the card on the table. Song Jiaoren took out his card and placed it near Alex''s Supreme VIP Card. The two cards started glowing in red color, making Alex somewhat confused. He vaguely remembered that it was blue when Song Yu checked it, but to think it suddenly changed. Alex started becoming nervous as he wondered if something was wrong with his card. "Red?!" Song Jiaoren gasped as he looked at Alex with a shocked face. "This¡­ I am sorry for my previous rudeness, Sir Alexander." Alex tilted his head in confusion and asked. "Why are you calling me, Sir?" "For a normal VIP Card, they will shine in Blue Color. However, there is a strict instruction from my family that if someone has ever met a person holding this red card, they need to be respectful." Song Jiaoren answered hurriedly. ''System?'' Alex asked inwardly as he remembered that the system would lead him in this situation. [It''s not my time yet. Just act like usual.] Unfortunately, he got an unsatisfactory response from her. Alex scratched his cheek and asked, "So, what is this card all about?" "I am afraid I can''t say anything about this because I am yet to know whose card you possess. May I know where you got this card?" Song Jiaoren asked politely. [My wife gave it to me, and she is not from this world. Say it that way, Host.] Alex twitched his eyebrows but still followed her instruction. "My wife gave it to me, and she is not from this world." "!!!" Song Jiaoren perfectly understood this meaning and cupped his hands politely. "You are indeed the holder of our Supreme VIP Card. However, I would like to check whose card is this, and I need to check it with the main clan. Will that be alright with you, Sir?" "Why do you need to check it?" "As you already know that there are many worlds outside this world, our clan is merely a branch clan. The main clan is the one that has given a few Supreme VIP Cards to other people. That''s why I wish to confirm the original possessor of this card. After all, we have been specifically instructed to act according to the card holder because they have their own characteristics." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and asked. "I have checked this card before, but it shone in blue color." "I assume you checked it with the Blackwade Clan in the Northern Continent, right?" "Yeah." "Then, their cards can only identify a normal VIP Card. Even in our clan, there are only a few cards that can recognize your Supreme VIP Card, and mine is one of them." "I see." Alex thought for a moment and asked the system. ''Should I accept this invitation?'' [If you want to have their cooperation, it''s better to do it early.] Hearing the answer, Alex nodded. "Fine. We will go to your clan after this banquet. Will that be alright?" "Thank you for your precious time, Sir." Song Jiaoren bowed to him. Alex was startled by his sudden reaction and asked the system. [Blackwade Clan originated from outside this world, and their power is strong with many God Rank Experts inside. I can''t say many things and your connection with you, but I can still explain a few things.] "Tell me what you can." Alex nodded. [As long as they are not a fool, a branch like them won''t dare to hurt you due to that card. The main clan has a decree about the treatment of Supreme VIP Card holders. If they raise their hands against you, the Supreme VIP Card holder can activate the card. The main clan will realize and send their expert toward the branch and exterminate the clan.] [The real status of Supreme VIP Card holders is that of an Elder in their main clan. That''s why the Blackwade Clan in this world is so scared of you and needs to be polite.] [Of course, it is not easy to get a Supreme VIP Card from the main clan. There are many ways to get this card, but mostly they needed to turn the fate of the entire clan on their rise. Even in the whole universe, there are only six of these Supreme VIP Cards.] "Such a precious card¡­" Alex was astonished. "To think I got it in the lower world and it was classified as a Rare Item to boot¡­ I am impressed." [The system deemed it was a weak and useless card that didn''t possess a single power. That was why it was ranked so long.] "I can relate that. You are always this way, after all." Alex chuckled inwardly. "Anyway, I can understand how big this card is." Song Jiaoren looked at Alex with a weird expression and thought. ''It''s my blessing to meet such a person in this life. According to the record, Alex could ask for a person and elevate their status in the main clan. I will try to serve him to the best of my ability and hope he can make me enter the main clan out there and become a God Rank Expert. Song Jiaoren. This is your once in a lifetime chance, don''t waste it.'' For a branch clan, it would always be a dream to enter their main clan. In fact, only him, his father, and his grandfather know the existence of the main clan. If they knew that he could serve a person holding a Supreme VIP Card, they would be overjoyed and asked him to serve him well. He clenched his hand and nodded before recalling Alex''s conflict against the Fire God Clan along with the treacherous First and Third Elders. He would surely report this incident to his father and grandfather as soon as he returned to the clan and have them executed. Meanwhile, Alex didn''t know what he was planning since Lin Xingzhi didn''t tell him about it. She wanted Alex to decide it himself in the future. "Is there anything you want me to do, Sir?" Song Jiaoren asked politely. "First of all, call me Alex. I feel troubles will come to me if you call me Sir. After all, my status is only the leader of Spirit Nest while you are the young master of Blackwade Clan. Can you do it?" Alex asked. "As you will, Sir¡­ Albeit, I would like to ask you to spare me because I will still act like this in private." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. ''To think I get something like this right after meeting the rumored Song Jiaoren. If only you can inform me before this, System.'' [What are you complaining about? There is nothing much that needs to be changed in your plan, right? Don''t make me the bad girl.] ''As you say¡­'' Alex sighed inwardly before he noticed another person coming to the great hall. He had long red hair with a graceful appearance. The maid guided him to the upstairs, signifying his status. "That is Eric Hinga. Although he has been hidden under his brother''s talent, he is harder to deal with than his brother." Song Jiaoren introduced him. "I heard you have some conflicts against the Fire God Clan. Should I kill him?" "Do you think it''s possible? He has two 8-Star Martial Saints." Alex looked at him. Song Jiaoren fell into silence. "It will be hard because those elders will surely come to his aid. We have brought our elders as well, but I doubt we can kill him on this opportunity. And considering how his brain works, I am afraid he still has another trump card that makes him confident to come to this banquet." Alex stroked his chin as he fell into deep thought. "We will go to your place first before discussing this. I will let him have his moment this time." "I understand." As soon as Eric entered his room, the walls and ceilings around them suddenly moved as if it was swallowed by the floor. It turned out that the room itself was made of soft material, and it was folded in such a way that they could open it. This way, there was no so-called room and let the participants enjoy the banquet with each other. To his surprise, beside his room was the Phantasm Sect room. His eyes met with the current successor of Phantasm Sect, Astennu. However, his attention was distracted by the woman on his side, which gave him a sense of familiarity. He activated his Spirit Eyes out of curiosity as he sensed that the woman had the strength of a 3-Star Martial Monarch. Suddenly, Astennu sent a thought transmission to him. ''Someone wants to meet you, Alexander Sirius. In fact, she is coming with me just to meet you, and she said you are a careful person, so I will say this first. I am not someone who wants to fight you, that''s all. You will regret it if you don''t meet her, so if you are interested, you can come to Izakura Inn, a bit farther from this place. We are staying on the top floor.'' "!!!" Chapter 703 - Song Jiaoren and Eric Hinga "!!!" Alex immediately locked his eyes on Astennu. ''She is coming for me?'' There wasn''t a single person coming to his mind. Seeing there was a sense of familiarity in her, she should be someone he knew, but he knew everyone had a good life, except¡­ "!!!" Alex opened his mouth slightly as he never expected to have such an answer. He knew the conditions of all his acquaintances, but there was a single female that he didn''t know. It was Song Yu. Now that he thought about it, he could see that the energy inside her body was similar to that of Song Yu''s. A blue sword was inside her body when he first saw with Spirit Eyes, which threw his mind. If he erased that sword and thought for a moment, he was certain that she was Song Yu. He didn''t know how she ended up with Astennu, but at the very least, he knew she was alright after seeing her current strength and Spiritual Energy. ''To think I meet with Senior Sister this way¡­'' Alex chuckled inwardly before replying to Astennu. ''Sure. I will be visiting you tonight.'' ''Sir?'' Song Jiaoren noticed Alex''s change of expression and furrowed his eyebrows. ''Nothing.'' Alex shook his head. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very thankful for your visit to this Seven Influences Banquet." Suddenly, a woman''s soft voice echoed in the room as people started looking at the stage. A silver-haired girl slowly walked toward the stage. She wore a white ceremonial uniform coupled with a long white robe. Even so, it didn''t manage to decrease her gracefulness. Instead, it boosted her charm even further. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and realized she was a 1-Star Martial Saint as well. Song Jiaoren didn''t know whether Alex knew this person or not, so he introduced her. "She is the crown princess of this Divine Kingdom, Elizabeth. It could be said she is the most talented person among the princes and princesses. "From what I know, she single-handedly made the other princes and princesses submit under her. That''s why the king decided to have her become the Crown Princess¡­ And probably, she will be the absolute queen of the Divine Kingdom. Many people are trying to be her suitors, but none of them can get her heart. "At that time, she simply said none of you are qualified to be with me. After that, there are not many that dare to try impressing her. However, there is still one opposition coming from Prince Julius. He is also a wise man and able to stand toe to toe against her because the King''s faction supports him. Unfortunately, in individual charm and characteristic alone, she is still far ahead from Julius." Song Jiaoren explained. "Mhm. I am not really interested in the Throne feud. I know they are fighting, considering the old-fashioned king wants his son to succeed the throne and doesn''t want to see a woman sitting on the throne. Meanwhile, her faction wants her because they are completely subdued by force. From talent and character alone, I can say that she will become a better Monarch than that Julius¡­ As for whether who would win or lose, I don''t really care." Alex nodded without any change of expression. He just showed that he had no interest in her. He already had prior information about this from his spies and paid no attention since they would be busy with other things. With Alex''s status alone as the Supreme VIP Card holder, he could destroy the Blackwade Clan and the Divine Kingdom easily, let alone the fact that his wife was the one who gave him the card. There was only one possibility. Alex''s wife was a God Rank Expert. Elizabeth couldn''t be compared to that person. Song Jiaoren thought they could have Julius as the king while marrying Elizabeth since she will be a powerful expert in the future¡­ Albeit, she couldn''t be compared to God Rank Expert. Hence, he didn''t mention it again. Unlike him, Alex was more interested in another thing. ''Elizabeth? Don''t tell me that this Divine Kingdom is actually alternate England?'' "For the first part of this banquet, let us have the performances from our Divine Kingdom first." Elizabeth, who didn''t know their conversations, smiled and continued the event before a few dancers came to the stage. Elizabeth then walked out of the stage while taking a glance at Alex. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondered why she glanced at him and thought, ''It seems that I need to watch the Divine Kingdom closely after this. Well, Nicole is in the Blackwade Clan, Ngina is with Rose, Nano is in Ancient Blue Family, and Neon is with me currently. As for the SR spirits, Noel and Nicky are in Snow White Mountain, Noah is in this kingdom, while Njomo and Natalie are in the Fire God Clan. ''Should I ask Neon to stay in this kingdom?'' Alex thought for a moment and decided to observe the situation first. He had a whole day to observe her intention after all. After finishing his thought, he watched the performances quietly until Elizabeth appeared again. "The purpose of this banquet is to have the younger generations show their talents. That''s why if anyone wants to show their talents in front of everyone, please come to the stage." Elizabeth smiled before glancing at Alex again as if she was inviting him to go to the stage. Alex paid no attention as a man raised his hand. "Alright. Let''s have this gentleman here to perform something for us." Elizabeth still maintained her smile before giving the time and place for the man. However, something unexpected happened. As soon as he entered the stage, the next thing he said was a complete bullsh*t. "I would like to ask a question first. All of us here are well known in the world, but one person is different from all of us. He suddenly appeared out of nowhere and made a mess. I am wondering why he would even appear in this banquet?" Without him saying the name of that man, everyone could already guess who it was as they stared at Alexander Sirius. They knew this action was completely challenging Alex''s authority. "You¡ª!" Elizabeth wanted to stop him, but another unexpected thing happened. Song Jiaoren stood up and shouted. "So, you have chosen death? Daring to question Alexander Sirius from Spirit Nest, it seems you are also trying to provoke us, Blackwade Clan?" "What?!" Everyone, including Elizabeth, dropped their jaws, never expecting Song Jiaoren to stand up like this. He simply snorted. "You are just a clown that doesn''t know anything. I think this bullsh*t talent show is not worthy of everyone''s time. How about we skip this and begin the fighting competition right now? That is the main event, right?" Elizabeth had no words to answer. She would never expect Song Jiaoren to become this aggressive. On the other hand, Alex was watching the show in complete silence before Evelyn also rose from her seat. "Indeed. I think this banquet is boring. Rather than watching someone perform his talent as a clown, I think it''s better to have a fighting competition right now. Seeing he is 5-Star Martial Monarch, how about fighting against me, lest you say Young Master Song Jiaoren bullying the weak?" Evelyn looked at the stage coldly as she released her killing intent. Phantasm Sect didn''t do anything. However, Astennu was laughing inwardly as he was watching something amusing. He glanced at the woman and sent a thought transmission. ''To think the situation becomes interesting like this¡­'' ''It is his charm.'' The woman answered while smiling behind her veil. Elizabeth tried to calm down the situation. "I think everyone should calm down." "We are completely calm, Princess Elizabeth. Just take a look at my friend, Alexander, he is completely cool with all of this. However, I can''t take this insult. I am by no means disrespecting you, but I certainly can''t sit idle when someone dares to do this in front of me." Song Jiaoren then glanced at Eric Hinga. "No. I think I should say thank you for inviting such a clown. What do you think, Eric Hinga? Are you up for a round?" Eric Hinga narrowed his eyes. Without anyone talking about it, they already knew that the only reason why a ''clown'' could act that blatantly must be because he had a backing. And the only one that qualified and had a grudge with Alex would only be the successor of Fire God Clan, Eric Hinga. Of course, there was no way he would admit it. He simply smiled and looked at Elizabeth. "This is the banquet hosted by the Divine Kingdom. It''s not nice to suddenly move the schedule forward. I will let the Princess handle this matter." Elizabeth released his Spiritual Energy as she was annoyed to the core. Looking at the man on the stage with killing intent, she asked, "So, what do you want to perform? If you don''t have anything, you can go out and never come back." Song Jiaoren laughed and praised Elizabeth. "Princess Elizabeth is indeed a woman of a character. Now, this event is asking for someone to perform their talents. The problem is, I wonder if there is anyone who wants to perform their talents?" He also leaked his Spiritual Energy and killing intent in the room, making no one dared to perform. Elizabeth looked at Song Jiaoren. "How about we end it right now, Young Master Song Jiaoren? Can you please give me some face?" Alex released his Spiritual Energy a little bit and glared at Song Jiaoren. To everyone''s surprise, he suddenly fell into silence and cupped his hands to Elizabeth. "Since Princess Elizabeth has said so, how can I not give you?" *Hiss~!* All of them knew that Song Jiaoren decided to retreat because of Alex, not Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth used this chance to calm the situation down. "Since the situation has been settled¡­ How about we continue the event? Don''t worry. If this situation happens again, I won''t have them leave anymore because they won''t be able to leave." The people gulped down. Elizabeth was really pissed this time to the point she didn''t mind killing people that dared to make a ruckus. Her aura was ready to fight even with the other big influences, but she was still smiling and continued. "Whoever wants to show us their talents, please come to the front." After this incident, there were three people coming to the stage. Unfortunately, they couldn''t perform their best because they were performing under the intense glare from Song Jiaoren, Elizabeth, Alexander, Eric Hinga, Evelyn, and Astennu. Elizabeth was forced to move the schedule forward and hosted the fighting competition right away. "It seems that everyone is eager to see the fighting competition. Let''s start the last event for today''s banquet then." She smiled as she snapped her finger before a barrier enveloped the arena. "This is a rank 8 Barrier Array that we prepare for today''s fighting competition. That''s why you can use all your power without worry. So, who wants to fight?" The hall became silent before Song Jiaoren stood up once again. Alex was confused as to why he would stand up like this. ''What are you doing?'' ''I am going to fight Eric Hinga.'' ''Are you planning to kill him?'' ''I want to kill him if possible. However, I am only a 1-Star Martial Saint while he is a peak 10-Star Martial Monarch, close to Martial Saint. That''s why I am afraid it''s impossible to kill him, but I have another plan.'' ''A plan?'' ''Yes. I might not be able to kill him in a single strike, but I can heavily injure him or do some irreplaceable damage. My elders would protect me anyway if his elders interfere.'' ''But how about your face or your clan''s face?'' ''It''s completely insignificant. If my clan knows about this, they will shut up as soon as they know about the Supreme VIP Card. Besides, our face can be reclaimed by destroying the Fire God Clan. This might be some foolish action in your eyes, but this is also the time for me to prove that the Blackwade Clan is supporting you. Besides, won''t it become easier for you to convince the Ancient Blue Family this way?'' Alex narrowed his eyes. As Song Jiaoren said, if the Ancient Blue Family knew that they would fight against Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan, they would need to think twice before joining forces with Fire God Clan. With the addition of Drunken Pavilion, they would think the Fire God Clan had been surrounded by three big influences and would certainly finish the discussion. Song Jiaoren looked rash, but he had done his homework and thought before he made his decision. This was certainly astonishing. Alex thought for a moment and sighed. ''Do what you want.'' ''Thank you.'' Song Jiaoren nodded and leaped to the stage. "Oh, Young Master Song seems to want a fight. I wonder who you want to challenge? I need to remind you first that anything can happen in the battle." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "Thank you for your warning, Princess. I also apologize for my rudeness before." "Please don''t mind." Song Jiaoren nodded and glanced at Eric Hinga. "Young Master Eric. How about we have a round on the stage? I always want to see the Fire God Clan genius that has been shadowed by their first young master. Or everything is simply a lie?" Chapter 704 - Picking a Fight with Alex? Really? "Young Master Eric. How about we have a round on the stage? I have wanted to see the genius from the Fire God Clan that has been shadowed by their first young master. Or everything is simply a lie?" The taunt resounded across the hall as everyone looked at Eric. "Young Master." The two 8-Star Martial Saint Elders were looking at him. "Fighting against him is my fault. However, seeing that Blackwade Clan is indeed siding with Spirit Nest, we will need to show our prowess as our reputation has taken a huge hit not long ago. If I don''t take this fight, our clan might even start declining as soon as the information spread. To think I have been checkmated with a single misstep. I have miscalculated the relationship between Spirit Nest and Blackwade Clan." Eric narrowed his eyes and released his killing intent. "If Young Master go to the stage, there is a possibility¡ª" Before the elder finished, Eric shook his head and said. "No. Song Jiaoren won''t be able to kill me in this fight. Besides, I have a treasure from my father¡­ I mean, the Patriarch. Rather than getting bullied on the stage, it''s better to strike back. After all, the Blackwade Clan would suffer a big hit if he lost against me. "Not only does he look like he is bullying me, but he is also losing miserably. That''s why I will accept this fight. You two should watch out against Blackwade Clan''s elders. Make sure they won''t come to the stage later." The elders looked at each other and nodded. "We understand." Eric smirked evilly. "If I manage to cripple Blackwade Clan''s status, I can surely break the alliance between Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest. This way, the Ancient Blue Family would have more assurance to ally with the Fire God Clan and destroy the Spirit Nest with us." Song Jiaoren and Eric Hinga. Both were having their own intention in fighting, and once they lost, they and their influences would surely be in trouble. Who would win? Everyone wanted to see it as well. Eric stood up and glanced at Song Jiaoren. "Since Young Master Song Jiaoren wants to guide me, how can I not accept?" The audiences gulped down as they never expected Eric to accept the duel. They looked at Eric, who flew toward the stage and looked at Elizabeth. "I would love to fight Young Master Song Jiaoren, but I am afraid there might be someone pulling some tricks on me, I wonder what should I do, Princess?" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and glanced at Alex. His Pure Fire was already spread together with his picture, so she knew what Eric meant. "As Young Master Eric Hinga said, I would like to request you to not release your Pure Fire, so the fight could proceed without any problem. What do you think, Mister Alexander Sirius?" Elizabeth asked politely. "I won''t do anything." Alex shrugged. "Then, with mister Alexander''s assurance, the fight can be held. I hope I don''t need to use my hands because of interference." Elizabeth put another warning to Alex. Alex didn''t care and yawned, watching Song Jiaoren and Eric Hinga enter the stage. At the same time, Evelyn also walked toward Alex with her senior brother and senior sister. "Big brother Alex." Evelyn thought this was a nice time to visit Alex, considering there was no more Song Jiaoren. "Oh, Evelyn." Alex thought this was also a nice time to have a conversation with her since he needed to visit Astennu later. "How are you?" "Hehe¡­ I am closing in with Big Brother Alex. Only three stars more." Evelyn grinned as she flaunted her 5-Star Martial Monarch strength. "It seems you are confident in challenging me," Alex teased her with a smile. "I am confident." Evelyn puffed her chest before she added. "In fighting against Big Brother Alex for twenty rounds." Everyone widened their eyes. Alex was only an 8-Star Martial Monarch while Evelyn was a 5-Star Martial Monarch. The three stars difference could be said to be huge but also not. Evelyn was a genius at a different level that could defeat 6-Star Martial Monarch with ease due to her high-level swordsmanship and Fire Element. That was why she should be able to handle 8-Star Martial Monarch for a few hundred rounds. Yet, she said she was confident to fight Alex for a short twenty rounds? Alex ignored their shock and smiled. "Oh. To think Evelyn can talk like this. Should we have a match?" "Big brother wants to bully Evelyn?" Evelyn pouted. "I was saying that only if you didn''t improve like crazy. But knowing big brother Alex, I am sure you have evolved to something absurd. I am afraid I won''t be able to handle ten rounds." Alex patted her head and laughed. "Haha¡­ I am not a monster like what you described. You should be more confident in yourself." Evelyn smiled. "Hehe¡­" Looking at how intimate Alex and Evelyn was, the senior brother was filled with jealousy. He had been following Evelyn and treating her well. He was also a famous person in the sect, and many women wanted to be his. Only Evelyn was different. She had strength, talent, and beauty. She was a godsend for him. That was why he couldn''t contain this feeling anymore. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and walked forward before trying to hug Evelyn. "It seems you have taken care of my Evelyn this whole time. I, her boyfriend, shall thank you for your effort." He smirked. However, before his hands reached Evelyn, the latter already disappeared, so he fell down to the ground. "Lecher. Who is my boyfriend? You are not qualified." Evelyn snorted. "You¡ª!" Alex sighed inwardly as he felt it was coming. "The eighth big influence? Don''t joke with me. Do you think I believe there is such a thing? You only fight against the Fire God Clan to gather attention. Look at the situation of the continent, and everyone will know that Spirit Nest is always hiding. You must be afraid of the Fire God Clan!" He shouted directly at Alex. On the other hand, Alex didn''t say anything and simply looked at Evelyn with a disappointed expression. "Seriously, him? Let me guess his identity. He is the son of an elder or something?" "Ye-yeah." Evelyn nodded furiously as if she was scared. She had seen this type of expression on Alex''s face before. Alex was really pissed by this direct confrontation. "A son of an elder, but why is he retarded?" Alex facepalmed. "First of all, he can''t even study the situation properly. Then he is asking me to kill him by saying this directly to my face. Lastly, he seems to be not afraid that I will kill him." "Mhm¡­ Mister Alexander, how about we call this a day? I will apologize on his behalf." On the other hand, the woman behind Evelyn seemed to notice something. "What? Why are you scared? I am not like you. This is how big I love Evelyn." "Scared? First of all, are you sure you can represent the entire Drunken Pavilion? If you can''t even speak for them, you should shut up and know your place." Alex sighed. "How big is your love? Then are you telling me that fighting another influence while you can''t even stand up for your own influence would do you any good? I can only see a retarded love." "What did you say?!" He grabbed Alex''s collar in anger. "Let me guess again. He has so many pursuers that want to be his women, but he said he gives up on all of them just to pursue you. Hence, you shall respond to him by becoming his woman?" Alex glanced at Evelyn. "How can big brother know?" "I learned a lot from ''Literature'' books." Alex shrugged. "Well, you will have a hard life if you are with him. Who knows when you will be abandoned if he finds another one." "That''s why I am rejecting him this whole time. He is a pest." She pouted. "Say¡­" Alex looked at Evelyn. "If I kill him here, would Elder Manness pursue me?" "Master won''t," Evelyn answered without hesitation. "Junior Sister¡­ Don''t pour more oil." The Senior Sister sighed. "I am Angela, Master Manness''s first disciple. I would like to apologize for this incident. I will be sure to educate him after this. No matter what happens, I am sure killing is not a good solution, since his father will surely chase you. He is still a 6-Star Martial Saint after all¡­" "It''s big brother''s choice." Evelyn shrugged. "I am sure that Master might kill that elder as well¡­ But he can also let you finish that Elder by yourself. I am sure big brother won''t have a hard time against 6-Star Martial Saint, right?" "You know me well." Alex smiled as he knew Leoz could fight against that 6-Star Martial Saint since he had reached 3-Star Martial Saint. Although there was still a gap of three stars, everything would be solved by his EXP Cards, so he wasn''t worried about it. It seemed the system also ran out of patience by sending him a notification. [Mission: Kill this idiotic person Reward: 5 Premium Tickets Description: Kill this person and let your presence is known, especially to the Ancient Blue Family.] ''Oi! How can the reward be so big when I only need to kill a single 10-Star Martial Monarch?'' Alex asked. [I didn''t give you a mission after all the events under the sea, so this is the freebie I can give you. Besides, I am sure you understand the mission, right?] ''Of course. If Evelyn can cooperate with me, I can make it look like the Drunken Pavilion is siding with me. This way, the battle would be three versus two on the surface alone, scaring the Ancient Blue Family. In fact, they might immediately back away from the alliance. After losing their only ally, Fire God Clan would start declining, and we will then strike at them.'' [Fufu¡­ I am ready to give you more and more missions, Host. Of course, this is the only exception. The rest of the mission will be hard for you to achieve.] ''I am looking forward to it. Just make sure the reward is worth it.'' [Don''t worry.] Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "Since you have challenged me, I think it''s time to act." Evelyn opened her mouth in astonishment. "It seems I lost my bet against Master." "Lost your bet?" "Yeah. I am betting whether someone from Drunken Pavilion will be killed in this event or not." Evelyn nodded. "It seems Master already knew this would happen." "What did you say? Do you think I will lose?" The senior brother glared at Evelyn. "Let''s bet as well. If I win, you are going to be my woman and will do anything I order you for!" Evelyn looked at him coldly. "I won''t be able to win anything in this bet since you will die. Though I still think it''s a good bet, so I will take this ridiculous bet." "I will fight you after this!" He became angrier and shouted to Alex before walking away. Alex sighed and looked at Evelyn. "Why did you even accept that bet?" "Ehm¡­ I think you are not addressing the current problem?" Angela scratched her cheek. She also had Manness''s instruction not to do anything, but she still wished nothing would happen. Unfortunately, it seemed this conflict was inevitable. "It''s fine, Senior Sister. There won''t be anything wrong with this fight. Besides, Master also wants to kill that Elder, considering he is amassing money illegally and taking away our profit. I think Master will use this chance to eliminate him." Evelyn assured Angela. "I know that, but¡­" Angela only wanted to trade and gathered more money for Drunken Pavilion, but everything seemed to revolve around fighting. She had been faint-hearted about this, and it was also the reason why Manness felt he couldn''t let her be his successor. "Senior Sister¡­ You are kind, but most of the time, people will only take advantage of your kindness. If you don''t do it, I will do it." Evelyn sighed. Alex was watching these two happily. Chapter 705 - Song Jiaren Vs Eric Hinga From one surprise to another, this was one of the battles that everyone had been waiting for. Even Elizabeth''s eyes glued to the arena as she was ignorant that another exciting match would happen right after this. Not only her, but Song Jiaoren and Eric had their own focus stuck to the person in front of them. Song Jiaoren took out his sword and smiled. "Are you ready?" Eric released his Spiritual Energy as his spear appeared in front of him. He grabbed the spear, and the blazing flame gushed out on its tip. Stomping the ground with his spear''s butt, Eric announced. "Whenever you are ready." This was a blatant challenge for Song Jiaoren, but he didn''t buy it. He only pointed his sword toward Eric and smiled. "I am looking like I am bullying you. So, you can make the first move." Eric didn''t say anything more and disappeared from the area. Everyone was looking for him left and right, only to find him a few meters behind Song Jiaoren. "Undying Flame Spear." He thrust his spear and shot out a red ball containing a huge amount of Spear Intent and Fire Element. However, Song Jiaoren already noticed his movement and coated his sword with Sword Intent before slashing his sword backward without even looking. "Myriad Sword Strike." The sword split the ball into two without any resistance, passed Song Jiaoren from his sides and exploded as soon as it crashed into the wall. "Boom!" Song Jiaoren smiled and turned around, taunting Eric. "Are you using your strength?" "I''m just afraid that you can''t take on my strength." Eric snorted. The two individuals released their Spiritual Energy to their surroundings before both of them disappeared. "Myriad Sword Strike!" Song Jiaoren made the first move this time by waving his sword toward Eric''s neck. Eric shifted his spear and let his sword run through his spear''s body before blowing it away. He then thrust his spear a few times. Song Jiaoren didn''t lose his sword, so he parried all these thrusts effortlessly. They continued their clash and made it look like an epic battle. Alex somehow thought he could do it more quickly after entering the Potential Tower. He remembered where he was forced to end the battle as soon as possible when he fought the Space Monsters. It would be troublesome if he were surrounded by four of them, so he finished the Centaur with all techniques in his repertoire. This battle would probably be the same had he entered the stage. Albeit, he couldn''t do something like that in a big battle due to how big the consumption of his Spiritual Energy. He decided to see what kind of trick Song Jiaoren had in his sleeve. When he thought about it, Eric released a powerful Fire Energy from his body. Alex was curious because this type of energy was stronger than what he predicted. However, he soon found his answer after activating his Spirit Eyes. "To think he has a trump card like that¡­" Song Jiaoren slashed his sword at his arm, planning to heavily injure his right hand. *Clang!* Suddenly, a clashing sound between metal resounded across the hall. It was a sound that shouldn''t exist, considering the sword should cut the hand. Noticing this hardness, Song Jiaoren glared at Eric and gritted his teeth. "To think you are hiding armor underneath your clothes¡­" "Hmph! Everything is fair in war." Eric snorted as a red metallic armor was revealed. Alex closed his eyes and shook his head. "An armor, huh¡­ That must be the reason why he put on extra clothes. It''s to hide that armor and use it at this moment." Now that the armor was revealed, they realized that Eric was seriously going to take down Song Jiaoren in this battle. "Die!" "Cross Dimensional Slash!" Song Jiaoren still managed to react and passed him again before Eric suddenly spat out gastric fluid from his stomach. Despite the fact that he didn''t actually take any damage, that force alone made his stomach uncomfortable as if he was punched in his stomach. Song Jiaoren looked at him with a cold gaze. "You can use everything in your Space Ring, but none of them can defeat I, Song Jiaoren." "Do you think so? Fire Dragon Armor, activate!" The armor initially covered most parts of his body, including his neck and limbs. However, the moment he activated the armor, it released energy that protected his entire body. In other words, Eric looked like he was wearing a full-body armor. Eric gritted his teeth as he charged at Song Jiaoren again. The clashes between them continued yet again. *Boom Boom Boom!* In the meantime, Evelyn was studying the battle closely before she commented with a frown. "That Song Jiaoren is going to lose like this." "Why do you think so?" Alex asked with a smile as he also predicted the same. "It''s clear that Eric still has another trump card. Despite his acting and such, it''s clear that he is waiting for the right moment to reveal his trump card." "Yeah. I don''t know what his trump card is and who he prepared it for, but I can see that due to how calm the Fire God Clan''s elders." "Does big brother want to help Song Jiaoren? You can suppress him with your Pure Fire¡­ Or you can even use it to halt the two elders for a few seconds and have the elders from the Blackwade Clan rescue Song Jiaoren. It won''t be considered as you helping Song Jiaoren that way." Evelyn suggested. Alex shook his head and smiled. "You little devil. It seems I have trained you to a scary level." "Hehe¡­ I am just thinking about all possibilities as a careful person. Big brother Alex has trained me this way." "Don''t say it like that. It looks like I was training you in a lewd way." Alex twitched his eyebrows. Evelyn stuck out of her tongue. "This girl¡­" Alex shook his head before saying, "Although Eric Hinga has stronger equipment, they still have one star difference, especially with one of them being a Martial Saint and the other was a Martial Monarch. This difference was big, so I think Song Jiaoren will have time to find a chance to strike back. Of course, this is only if his opponent doesn''t use his trump card." "If it''s big brother, what will you do?" Evelyn asked. "Me?" Alex smiled and pointed his hand toward the stage. "I will simply strike the weak spots a few times. If you are looking carefully, Eric''s movement gets restricted when he uses that armor. And I will simply attack every spot where his armor couldn''t reach. It''s true that the energy is hard like the armor, but it''s still energy. "If I strike at the same spot a few times, the energy will become disarray. Eric will absolutely protect that area for a moment. That is the chance where I strike at the other spots or his body armor itself, creating an illusion that I attack him blindly. Eric won''t know which area I am targeting. "Then, as soon as he leaves the first spot unguarded, I will strike at it again." Alex smiled as if he was translating what in Song Jiaoren''s mind. Even Angela behind him was startled by his words. She could finally see why Alex had once taught Evelyn. "I see." Evelyn nodded repeatedly. In the arena, as Alex predicted, Song Jiaoren started suppressing Eric again after getting used to his movement. *Slash!* *Slash!* Within a hundred rounds, Song Jiaoren somehow managed to injure him in a few areas after breaking through his Fire Dragon Armor. This was certainly surprising until Song Jiaoren finally managed to get the better of him and struck his sword. "Myriad Sword Strike!" Song Jiaoren thought he would be able to injure Eric at this point before continuing his attack to do some irreplaceable damage to his body, but all his plans crumbled when a shield appeared on Eric''s hand. *Clang!* The lightning around his sword suddenly disappeared as if it was dispelled by something. Song Jiaoren realized what just happened and glanced at the shield. This split-second confusion earned Eric a perfect chance to thrust his spear. "!!!" Song Jiaoren immediately launched himself to the air and landed a few meters away from Eric. However, he was pushing the wound on the side of his stomach. "Heh¡­ I have predicted there might be some relationship between Blackwade Clan and Spirit Nest. That''s why I am bringing this Lightning Suppressing Shield with me." Eric laughed. "Though I had indeed underestimated your relationship with Alexander Sirius. To think you would go so far earlier, albeit everything is working for me perfectly." "You Bastard!" The two elders from Blackwade Clan quickly leaped toward the stage, only to find themselves stopped by the two elders that Eric brought. On the other hand, Song Jiaoren gritted his teeth and thought. ''Lightning Suppressing Shield. As the name implies, it is a shield to repel my Lightning Element. It''s one of the highest treasures in Fire God Clan, considering it was created using a lightning Dragon Scale as the material, like his Fire Dragon Armor. ''I can simply back away after this, but¡­ I need to do an account with my family because I have smeared the family reputation, and I couldn''t fulfill my promise to him.'' Song Jiaoren glanced at Alex. ''What should I do? I still need to defeat him no matter what. I can handle his Rank 8 Spear and rank 8 Fire Dragon Armor, but that shield will be hindering me.'' As he formulated his plan in his mind, Eric attacked him again with his spear. Song Jiaoren was forced to fight him while thinking, resulting in several injuries. Eric knew that Song Jiaoren was in his wits'' end, so he was planning to end this as quickly as possible before he could come up with a strategy. Injuring him in different areas was also his strategy. The people were dumbfounded when they found Song Jiaoren getting suppressed like this. Although it was due to the rank 8 Lightning Suppressing Shield, Eric was able to predict it nonetheless. In other words, Eric was smart enough to look ahead and prepare everything before coming to this banquet. "Song Jiaoren is going to lose¡­" Everyone was thinking the same thing, including Elizabeth. However, she felt the thing was not so simple and looked at Alex, making sure he didn''t make a move in this match. Although she was curious about this person, she still needed to maintain her neutrality. Yet, to her surprise, Alex looked at the match without any interest. Little did he know that Alex was actually trying to understand the Lightning Suppressing Shield with his Spirit Eyes before a smile appeared on his face. "!!!" Elizabeth was startled when she saw this and stared at him intensely to make sure he didn''t do something foolish. Chapter 706 - Alexs Help Evelyn narrowed her eyes. "Big brother, he is going to lose, you know." "I can see it." Alex nodded. "I think you should help him. If he loses this match, there will be too many consequences, especially for you." Evelyn warned him. "Don''t worry." Alex smiled as he patted her head. He had been activating his Spirit Eyes and found out that the shield had a fatal weakness. ¡­ Song Jiaoren was panting on the stage as he was trying to search for a way to win. Suddenly, Alex''s voice resounded in his mind. ''You are still waiting for a chance to win, right?'' Song Jiaoren was surprised by this sudden thought transmission and had the urge to glance at Alex. However, Elizabeth might pick something if he acted strangely, so he decided to reply calmly. ''I''m sorry for this display.'' ''I can relate to your situation. He seems to have prepared everything to fight you, and that''s what makes him confident in accepting your challenge. That''s why I am going to give you a way to win.'' ''A way to win?'' Song Jiaoren''s heart skipped a beat. He was already in a hopeless situation at this point, and Alex could give the chance to overturn the situation just like that. This simply bewildered him. Although he didn''t want to accept this, he had no choice. ''May I know the way to win?'' ''Can you see there is a small white circle on the bottom part of the shield?'' Song Jiaoren quickly searched for the white circle and found it. ''Yes. I found it.'' ''The shield is made from Thunder Tree Root that has the ability to repel Lightning Element. However, the effect has been diluted by other materials. That is if the creator of that shield is a mediocre Forging Master. From what I see, the creator of that shield was a powerful Forging Master and Array Master. He inscribed a special array in that root and enhanced the performance of the shield. That''s why if you destroy¡­ No, even a slight crack will ruin the entire array. Do you know what I mean?'' ''The shield will be useless, and it will be the time for my counterattack.'' Song Jiaoren widened his eyes as he took a deep breath and smirked. It seemed Alex was really an extraordinary person. As expected from a God Rank Expert''s husband, he thought. Song Jiaoren released all of his Spiritual Energy and Sword Intent. Eric thought Song Jiaoren didn''t use his Lightning Element simply because of the shield, but he was mistaken, and that would cost him this match. "You are going to lose." Song Jiaoren raised his sword and disappeared. He was moving at his fastest speed and arrived in front of Eric. "No, you won''t win against me!" Eric thrust his spear. Looking at this, Song Jiaoren bent down and slashed Eric from the bottom. "Myriad Sword Strike." "Hmph." Eric snorted as he blocked Song Jiaoren''s attack with his shield. Suddenly, he felt that the force was far more powerful than all of his previous attacks. And that sword blew his shield away. Song Jiaoren saw the chance and slashed his body, only to be blocked again by the Fire Dragon Armor. "You won''t be able to win against me." Eric laughed when he saw Song Jiaoren couldn''t do anything against his armor. Even so, the latter only smiled and continued with similar attack patterns. Striking the bottom of the shield to blow Eric''s defense away, Song Jiaoren made other people think it was his last struggle. Even if Song Jiaoren lost, he would still be a great person. Everyone knew it, and that was precisely why they couldn''t bear to see it. Song Jiaoren lost to someone weaker, but with three treasures from Fire God Clan, especially in this stage where one should show their true talent instead of equipment. Yet, there was simply no rule that stated something like that, so they couldn''t exactly force Eric to abandon his weapon and armor. "Young Master!" The elders gritted their teeth as they couldn''t bear the prideful Blackwade Clan to get humiliated like this. ''It''s fine, two elders. Believe me and my choice. Just make sure that the two elders from Fire God Clan not to interfere later.'' Song Jiaoren''s voice resounded in their mind as their body froze after noticing his arro¡ªconfident tone. The elders could do nothing but sighed as they waited patiently for the good news. Song Jiaoren kept striking the same spot over and over again. Eric was still laughing because he thought Song Jiaoren was testing the strategy again and again, until finally¡­ *Crack!* The cracking sound bewildered those in the arena. Elizabeth could hear it vaguely, but she was sure something was cracking. Eric also heard the sound, but he was confident it was Song Jiaoren''s sword. Meanwhile, Song Jiaoren smiled upon hearing the sound as if he was listening to a peaceful melody. Lightning started sparking around his body as he slashed the shield once more from the bottom. "Myriad Sword Strike!" Song Jiaoren roared and struck the shield once again. At this time, it wasn''t a small sound anymore. Instead, the bottom part of the shield was completely shattered by that strike. There was no need to listen carefully because everything happened right in front of their eyes. The lightning that was supposed to be repelled was still hovering around Song Jiaoren''s sword while Eric''s broken shield was blown away again. ''I found his weakness.'' Song Jiaoren thought as he looked at Eric''s hand, specifically the area after his wrist. He recalled what Alex said earlier and couldn''t help but impress by his observation. ¡­ A minute ago, Alex sent another thought transmission after seeing the abnormality around the bottom area. ''Keep it up a bit more. As soon as you are able to break that shield, aim at his hand, specifically his wrist. No matter if it''s full body armor, that part couldn''t be protected by the same amount of energy as his body. It''s simply because his hand and fingers movement will be restricted too much. That''s why if you attack that spot with your strongest attack, I believe it will be able to penetrate his Fire Dragon Armor.'' Upon hearing that, Song Jiaoren was utterly speechless while keeping his barrage of attack. And when the shield broke, he was excited as his chance finally appeared. Song Jiaoren didn''t miss this chance and waved his sword. "Blackwade Clan Secret Swordsmanship, Sword of Dawn!" His sword was shining in blue color as the sword struck at Eric''s wrist. Not expecting this attack, Eric had no time to react and put more energy around his wrist to temporarily harden it. "Argh!" He screamed out of pain while watching how Song Jiaoren sent his hand flying. "Young Master!" Fire God Clan''s elders turned around. "Stop!" Blackwade Clan''s elders were already informed by Song Jiaoren and appeared in front of them to make sure they couldn''t interfere. "You stop us from interfering, so you should also know how it feels." As the situation up there started getting heated, the arena was also in its climax. Not wanting to waste this chance, Song Jiaoren decided to cut another hand. However, Eric was able to react first and channeled all the Spiritual Energy to that area to make it as hard as he could get. Song Jiaoren wasn''t surprised by this and decided to blow him away. "I lose!" Eric couldn''t endure it anymore and quickly shouted. Elizabeth then appeared between both of them while facing Song Jiaoren. "Young Master Song Jiaoren is a man of might. Even after facing such a challenge, you still manage to overcome it. Unfortunately, I believe it is time to end this battle. Don''t you think so?" Song Jiaoren stared at her for a minute before letting out a long sigh. "Such a shame. His brain can handle all the scheming, but his body is not. I am afraid that a villain like him will usually turn their tail when they know they are in a hopeless situation." He didn''t forget to throw an insult before leaving the arena as the two elders finally rescued Eric. They wanted to kill this Song Jiaoren, but the two elders would kill them before that, and they would also get more enemies, including the Divine Kingdom. "Good work." Alex smiled. Song Jiaoren nodded calmly, but he didn''t forget to thank him with a thought transmission. ''Thank you for your help.'' ''It''s fine. We can''t kill him in this banquet, but we can still make the Fire God Clan suffer.'' ''Yes. I will immediately spread the information, so the Fire God Clan can start declining.'' ''Well, I still have a fight after this, so you can judge how to spread the information afterward. Anyway, try to recover your Spiritual Energy first.'' ''I understand.'' Song Jiaoren nodded before taking a few pills and closing his eyes. Meanwhile, Alex rose from his seat and looked at Evelyn''s senior brother with a calm expression as if he was looking down on him. This was an insult in his eyes and quickly leaped toward the arena before pointing his finger toward Alex. "I, Adrus, want to challenge Alexander Sirius for a duel. Do you dare to fight me?" "Big brother Alex¡­" Evelyn looked at him with a guilty expression. She felt bad that Alex somehow ended up with this mess because of her. "I will be fine." Alex smiled and patted her head before flying to the arena. Of course, he didn''t forget to send a message to her. "Don''t forget to do what you need to do." Alex landed on the arena with a small smile. "You bastard! I will show the world that you are only a coward like your Spirit Nest! If you don''t have the backing of the Blackwade Clan, you won''t be able to rise this fast." Adrus started spouting nonsense. ''Hmm¡­ Why do I get a retard while Song Jiaoren got a scheming opponent? Though I should be grateful because this one won''t bring me too much trouble like Eric Hinga.'' Alex thought. His heart was conflicted. On one hand, he loved to fight all these cliche opponents because he only needed to eliminate them once, and it would end. On the other hand, there was not much satisfaction in defeating them. If he didn''t want to show his strength to pressure the Ancient Blue Family, he wouldn''t even accept the fight. "I¡­ No, we, Drunken Pavilion, won''t do anything in case someone dies in this battle." Evelyn''s voice resounded across the hall. The people gasped when they heard the stand of Drunken Pavilion. ''Doesn''t this mean Alex has the backing of Drunken Pavilion to the point they would sacrifice an elder''s son?'' Everyone had the same question in their mind. Everyone¡­ Except for Adrus. The blood rushed into his head as he roared. "What did you say?!" "Accept it. This is the will of the Pavilion Master." Evelyn snorted as she pointed her finger toward Angela. The latter then took out a single scroll and presented it to everyone. Alex simply smiled as if he already knew about the scroll. In fact, he already received the information a few days ago from his N squad. Manness wanted to take advantage of him to resolve the corruption elder in the pavilion, and he accepted it because their objection was aligned. It was to sacrifice Adrus for their own benefit. "You have been abandoned by your own influence." Alex smiled, taunting the insane Adrus. "You Bastard! You are going to die today. And I will make sure that bitch won''t be able to think anything except me¡­ Don''t worry, I won''t break her so soon since it won''t be fun!" Adrus released his Spiritual Energy and killing intent. A sword appeared in his hand as he gulped down a jar of wine. This was the special Martial Art from Drunken Pavilion. Drunken Style. Alex also released his Spiritual Energy and both of his weapons. "You may start!" Elizabeth could only start this battle when the two men were glaring at her. "Die!" Adrus charged without hesitation and slashed his sword toward Alex. Meanwhile, Alex smiled and activated his Spirit Step and Dragon Aura at the same time, boosting his power to a high degree. He swung his sword from the top and¡­ *Bam!* Chapter 707 - Killing the Clown *Bam!* The conclusion came in a sudden, where Alex suddenly released a strength that shouldn''t exist in the body of an 8-Star Martial Monarch. Alex pushed him back before pinning him to the ground with his strength alone. "What?!" The people were utterly speechless. Adrus was by no means a weak person. His strength alone was one of the highest of his peers. Yet, Alex still completely overwhelmed him with a huge difference. When everyone dropped their jaws to the ground, Evelyn was giggling as she said. "As expected, big brother Alex is hiding his strength. That Adrus can fight a normal 1-Star Martial Saint. Even if he isn''t at Eric Hinga level, he is still powerful. Yet, he couldn''t handle a single swing from big brother. That would need a strength of 1-Star¡­ No, 2-Star Martial Saint. "I have known that big brother also cultivates his strength, but to think it''s to this extent." Evelyn sighed. "This would mean my confidence is only around fifteen rounds." On the other hand, Adrus was still struggling to break free from Alex. He gritted his teeth and stomped the ground, creating a huge crater on the stage. The height difference before and after the stomp was quite significant, and Adrus used that to leave Alex''s suppression. After spouting such a claim, Adrus was already getting into trouble in the first exchange. Without even anyone addressing it, Adrus already became a joke in this entire hall. "You Bastard!" Adrus roared and released all of his Spiritual Energy, wanting to turn everything around. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and watched how this Adrus would attack. He remembered the hardship when he fought the monsters in the Potential Tower and thought Adrus was pathetic compared to them. The Centaur and Minotaur had extraordinary strength and a sense of friendship. Their skin was also powerful since they could even block a full barrage of his Pure Fire Element. The Elf couldn''t do anything against him, but her concealment and assassin ability were top class, while the Lich was really powerful support. On the contrary, Adrus''s couldn''t be compared to them; neither his strength nor strategy. Alex raised his hand, looked at his sword, and thought. ''That strength alone is around 1-Star Martial Saint, but my strength is close to 3-Star Martial Saint after boosting it with Dragon Aura and Spirit Step. I assume this is the effect of the rank 8 Strength Pill¡­ He might have swallowed it, but I doubt there are many Perfect Purity Pills. That''s why the effect can only have him reach that stage.'' Adrus slashed his sword forward and shot out a powerful Sword Wave. ''Even though I want to threaten the Ancient Blue Family with my power, it''s not like I can really show all my power against all of them, right?'' Alex took a glimpse of it and thought. He wondered whether to use his Pure Fire in this battle. In the end, he decided to end this battle quickly to assert his dominance. Pure Fire started gushing out of his sword as he slashed his two weapons toward this Sword Wave. "Heaven Light Slash!" "No way!" Adrus opened his mouth in surprise. As someone who released the attack, he certainly knew how powerful that attack was. Yet, Alex shattered it into pieces with a single swing again. Alex thrust his spear and shot out a beam from the tip of his spear. "Mythical Spear Cannon." "!!!" Adrus leaped to the side as fast as he could, avoiding Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon. His body had yet to react because he would never expect Alex''s strength to be this powerful. "I¡ª!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and thought Adrus wanted to surrender. Hence, he appeared in front of Adrus and slashed his weapons. "Triple Draws!" Alex attacked him from six different directions, wondering whether this Adrus had the speed to parry all these attacks. "Serpent Sword Dance." To his surprise, Adrus''s movement suddenly became fluid as he parried all the attacks one inch from his body. "Ho." Alex was slightly astonished. It seemed that he still had some abilities to back his claims. On the other hand, Adrus gnashed his teeth, never expecting he needed to use all of his power and Original Sword Skill to block Alex''s attack. Little did he know that Triple Draws and Mythical Spear Cannon were actually Alex''s Original Art. Except¡­ Triple Draws looked very normal compared to any other attacks as long as it wasn''t used together with other Martial Arts. Meanwhile, his Mythical Spear Cannon looked like Fire Manipulation, considering it was shooting a beam. The only difference between them was Alex had yet to use all of his power and simply took advantage of his extraordinary strength. Alex continued his attack by summoning ten fire swords above his head. Although the number couldn''t be compared to Sherry''s, the strength was far more powerful than her, considering he had his Absolute Blade Intent. Adrus gritted his teeth and leaped to avoid these swords that would soon shower him. At this time, Alex smiled as he successfully made Adrus get overly conscious of his fire swords and didn''t see the kick that was coming toward his stomach. *Bam!* The next thing he knew, Alex already blew him away straight to the wall before shooting him with his fire swords. "Argh!" Alex activated his eyes and saw that Adrus''s energy was still going strong and noticed that there was another set of energy that was stimulating all of his energy. The smoke was blown away by his Spiritual Energy alone as Adrus roared. "Curse you! You are the one who forced me to use the Heavenly Raging Pill! I will bring you with me to death!" "That is not possible." Alex shook his head and slashed his swords six times. "Triple Draws." "Mythical Fire Slashes!" "Hmph! My strength is now equal to you! Do you think I can''t destroy this?!" Adrus harrumphed before he struck at these six Sword Waves. "Serpent Sword Dance!" Adrus used his Original Sword Skill once again and swung his sword back and forth. Because he didn''t make a large swing and instead many small swings, he could strike all the six Sword Waves more than fifty times before they reached him. Albeit¡­ "What is this? Can''t they be stopped? Why can''t I destroy them?" Adrus remarked out loud before it turned to be his last remark as Alex''s Sword Waves cut him into pieces. "Boom!" The Sword Waves exploded and shook the entire hall, especially the barrier that was protecting them, but soon they dropped their jaws when they noticed the state of the barrier. Although it was nearly impossible to spot it, Elizabeth still saw that the barrier was thinned slightly because of those explosions. If she checked the Spirit Crystals that she used to maintain this barrier, she would realize that she had lost big from this attack alone. After all, Alex''s Pure Fire wasn''t just ordinary. It also had a burning effect. It was a flame after all. She looked at Alex and turned serious. Alex had no change of expression as he had predicted this would happen. Adrus was a strong opponent if he fought seriously from the start, but he just chose to underestimate him from the beginning. Alex didn''t let this go and kept pressuring him to make him unable to use all of his strength, and it was pretty effective, considering he could win this easily. He reached out to his Space Ring and tossed it to Evelyn. He took another glance at Adrus and thought, ''It''s a fight between two Original Skills with Pure Fire and a single Original Sword Skill. It would be weird if you can stop it.'' Alex nodded to Elizabeth and flew toward his seat where Evelyn and Song Jiaoren waited. "As expected of Big Brother Alex." Evelyn grinned and assured him. "Don''t worry. We will handle the rest." "Thank you." Alex smiled and patted her head. Song Jiaoren only cupped his hands with a smile. He never expected that Alex was this powerful. If he were the one who fought Eric, he wouldn''t end up pitifully like him. What he was thinking right now was if he fought against him¡­ Would he be able to win? Song Jiaoren shook the thought off his head and sighed. He had decided to follow Alex to get a chance to move to the main clan, and he also needed to talk about it to Alex sooner or later, so Alex didn''t feel he was cheated by him. Meanwhile, the reactions from others were also quite extraordinary. Eric Hinga was already leaving this banquet due to his injury, but there was a disciple watching this extraordinary battle. He panicked and left the hall almost immediately. On the Ancient Blue Family side, the potential Family Head candidate, Rio, was already discussing with his elders. "Then, what should we do now?" The elder asked. "My bestial instinct is telling me that man is seriously dangerous. He must also hide his strength this entire time¡­ And the way he looks so composed this whole time means he has been planning for this banquet for a long time. I should say that he is very confident in his plan. I think I will need to advise the family head to reconsider our alliance with the Fire God Clan." "Why?" The elder narrowed his eyes. "It''s simple. We don''t know the extent of Spirit Nest¡­ And from our information, the Spirit Nest always calls him ''Young Master''. In other words, there will probably be a peak Martial Saint behind them. That''s why they are so confident in this battle." "10-Star Martial Saint¡­" The elder gasped. "Yeah. The best thing we know is the fact that his influence isn''t really that big. If not, he would already use it in those fights against other influences. Let''s see¡­ He must have a group consisting of elites that are trying to reach the pick before he becomes the head of that influence." Rio narrowed his eyes. "!!!" "As you just realized, there is a chance for him to destroy an influence in Heavenly Continent to be the next head of that alliance. Remember what he told the branch family when we clearly helped the Fire God Clan to fight him on the Sacred Continent?" Rio paused for a moment. "He told us not to cross our line. I assume that he doesn''t really want to fight us if necessary and only target¡­ No, because the Fire God Clan is enough. "Besides, he seems to have planned all the way to the demise of the Fire God Clan, starting from the alliance between him and the Blackwade Clan and that Evelyn from the Drunken Pavilion. If we are fighting those three with only the Fire God Clan, then it''s not possible to win." Rio sighed. "I see. Although the Fire God Clan has offered us big time by letting the second young miss marry that Eric, it''s not worth the exchange, considering he always razed the entire influences to the ground if they were his enemies. Besides, that Eric also lost his hand, so¡­" The elder didn''t continue. "Indeed. Rather than having this gamble with overwhelming odds, we better stay quiet for a while. I should also start consolidating my foundation in the family while trying to reach 2-Star Martial Saint as soon as possible." Rio nodded. "I understand." At the same time, Astennu was laughing inwardly as he found this development pretty interesting. He glanced at Alex before sending a thought transmission to Song Yu. ''He is really one of a kind.'' ''Yes, he''s always been.'' Song Yu asked. ''Are you going to participate in this mess?'' ''No way. I need to handle all the matters about you first¡­ And I also don''t like fighting in this chaotic situation. We better lay low for the time being. Besides, I am not sure if I want to help him or not.'' ''Sure. He doesn''t need help from me anymore, so I will just pray for his well-being inside the sect.'' ''Hehe¡­ You are going to meet him after this banquet, you know.'' ''Yeah. I am looking forward to it.'' As the discussions were still going on, Elizabeth still needed to continue the banquet and had no choice other than ignoring those discussions. Chapter 708 - Elizabeth The fighting competition still continued, but most of them weren''t paying attention to it anymore. It couldn''t be helped, considering the first two battles of this competition were too intense. Those who were fighting to get noticed could only wipe their tears away as they returned to their seats. Elizabeth still did her best, but she felt it was better to end the banquet as soon as possible. "Since there is no one who wants to fight anymore, we shall end it with the performance of our dancers. Before that, I would thank all of you for coming to this humble place and participating in this banquet. I hope there will be more interesting events in the next Seven Influences Banquet." Elizabeth smiled as she walked away. She didn''t forget to glance at Alex with interest as he was the culprit that made this entire banquet a mess. After a few minutes of performance, the beautiful dancers finally left the stage as all of them started rising from their seats. "What would you do after this?" Song Jiaoren asked. "I have something to do. I will meet you tomorrow at the west gate, and we will head the Blackwade Clan." Alex nodded with a smile. "I understand. Then, I will excuse myself." Song Jiaoren cupped his hands and bowed. Without anyone knowing, Astennu and the woman had gone without a trace. In fact, they were among the first one that left this banquet hall. Alex couldn''t find them and decided to visit them right after this. As for Evelyn¡­ He was still wondering whether to let Evelyn meet Song Yu or not. Evelyn didn''t know that Song Yu was missing, so he ended up not asking her to accompany him. "Big brother Alex. I want to talk more with you." Evelyn pouted. "I am sorry¡­ My schedule is a bit tight." Alex scratched his cheek. "I am sure we can talk in the future." "I understand." Evelyn looked down, a bit sad. "I will go back with big sister Angela then." Alex nodded and watched her leaving the hall. When he was about to leave, he suddenly felt a presence coming from his right. A silver-haired princess made her appearance in front of Alex, looking at him with a smile. "May I borrow your time, Mister Alexander?" Alex narrowed his eyes. On one hand, he wanted to reject this invitation because he needed to meet Astennu. On the other hand, there was a possibility of the Divine Kingdom joining the war if he didn''t make time to talk to her. He wasn''t scared of her; he just didn''t want any unnecessary extra trouble. "If Princess can talk here, then sure." Alex ended up not giving yes or no to her. "Certainly. This matter is important but also not that important." Elizabeth nodded her head gracefully. "I wonder what does mister Alexander think about my Divine Kingdom?" "My? Princess''s words are certainly not light¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. The current monarch of this kingdom was still her grandfather. Yet, she already treated it as her own. There was also Julius standing on her opposition. Hence, Alex wasn''t wrong by saying that her words might invite some misunderstanding. "I think I shouldn''t mask my intention anymore¡­" Elizabeth sighed. "Please." Alex nodded. "What can I do for you to help me ascend the throne?" Elizabeth asked with a serious expression. "!!!" Alex was slightly surprised. He learned that she was capable of taking the throne, but it seemed he had overestimated her¡­ Albeit, there must also be another factor that she considered to the point she asked this question. "I can be your wife or whatever to gain your support. As you know yourself, I am able to control the majority of power in this kingdom, but there are still many oppositions in my way. I am confident in taking all of them over within ten years, but there is one variable that might overturn my situation¡­" Elizabeth stared at him. "Me? Spirit Nest? No, I think it''s my war against the Fire God Clan." "Mister is right." Elizabeth nodded. "War would invite instability inside an influence, especially in the middle of ascension. That''s why the percentage of me ascending to the throne drops from one hundred percent to thirty percent. That''s how big this factor is." "Still, I don''t think there is a need for you to offer that kind of price, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Am I not beautiful in your eyes? Or am I not smart enough for you? Or are you afraid of me plotting on your back?" "Not at all. Many people will surely be charmed by you, but I apologize, I won''t be one of them." Alex shook his head. "Besides, I have another proposal for Princess to consider, and I am sure this suits me more." "May I hear the proposal?" She looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping and asked. "It''s nothing complicated. As long as Princess doesn''t interfere in this war, I also won''t interfere in your kingdom¡­ Especially with Prince Julius. And just like you, I am also confident in winning the war." "!!!" Elizabeth clenched her palms after getting surprised by such an offer. She thought, ''His proposal is indeed attractive. What I am most afraid of is for that brother of mine joining hand with another party to overtake me. Looking at the war situation, I can see that Spirit Nest has been preparing for this war. ''If Prince Julius makes an alliance with the Fire God Clan and gets destroyed, I am able to get the crown in an instant. On the other hand, as long as I accept this offer, he won''t make an alliance with him. The problem is¡­ There is still a probability of the Fire God Clan winning the war. Although it''s slim, it''s worth consideration. ''From what I see earlier, I can see there are three influences that Fire God Clan might approach. First will be this kingdom¡­ Or me. The second will be the Phantasm Sect. But this influence seems to be neutral for most of the time, so I doubt they will join this battle and break their neutrality. In other words, they might approach Snow White Mountain. ''I heard that they just got Pure Ice Element users not long ago, and the one that came in the banquet was the Sacrificial Element user¡­ With these two talented individuals, Snow White Mountain might join hand in hand with Fire God Clan. For Fire God Clan, they can stop the decline and get stronger with marriage, while Snow White Mountain can get some resources from them.'' "How is it, Princess?" Alex smiled. "As expected of Young Master Alexander, it''s hard for me to reject this deal. I somehow regret that I don''t manage to capture your heart. Seeing your strength and actions, I am sure I can make the Divine Kingdom be the best influence with you as my king." Elizabeth smiled seductively. "I am afraid that is not possible." Alex shook his head. "So, do you want to have a written contract?" "No need. I believe Heavenly Oath between both of us is enough since I am sure Young Master Alexander will fulfill your promise. And I and my faction will stay neutral." "¡­" Alex was a bit annoyed in his heart. She purposely said that she and her faction would stay neutral, so she couldn''t promise that her brother Julius might interfere, whether by joining hands with the Fire God Clan or by participating as a third party. "Of course, I will do my best to keep the entire kingdom in check, albeit my power is also limited. So, I will apologize in advance." Elizabeth smiled. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I guess we have a deal?" They both shook hands and made a Heavenly Oath. After that, Elizabeth added, "I want to warn Young Master Alex to be careful against Fire God Clan. They might come to the Snow White Mountain for an alliance. After all, if they win the war, they will be able to absorb your Spirit Nest, Fire God Clan, and Drunken Pavilion. And I shouldn''t forget about the Ancient Blue Family since they might join the war after that alliance, making it a three versus three battle." "Don''t worry. I have everything under control." Alex smirked. He didn''t say anything about his trump card, AKA, the Freedom Sect. He was planning to threaten the Ancient Blue Family with his Spirit Nest and the three influences. "Then, I have no worries." Elizabeth nodded. Alex nodded back and started walking away, but he suddenly remembered a question and halted his step. "I want to ask one question to you." "Please ask. I will answer your question to the best of my ability." "Are you not afraid that I might decide to rule the world after this?" Alex smirked and continued. "Your kingdom might become one of the preys, you know." "I can only offer myself as your wife while offering my kingdom as your territory then." Elizabeth smiled. Her meaning was clear to Alex and made him chuckle. He left the hall while waving his hand. "I don''t want to fight you as my opponent. It''s scary." "No, no. I should be the one who says that." Alex sighed and headed toward the inn that Astennu told him earlier. On the way, he took another glance at the hall and thought. ''At the very least, I know that the Divine Kingdom won''t interfere in this battle. Judging from Elizabeth''s attitude, she won''t be the one to start the war in case the Divine Kingdom really moves. That was why he was fine with only Heavenly Oath. Unlike in the past, the current him can learn whether that person will search for a way to tell someone or not. In addition, he also made sure that everything he told her wasn''t a big secret. ''Still, that princess is really a scary one. Her brain and strength are like Shelka, but she is not the type who will take a huge risk just to fulfill her ambition and potentially harm me in the process.'' Alex let out a sigh of relief. ''My chance in defeating the Fire God Clan has increased once again.'' After walking for a few more minutes, Alex reached the promised inn. Luckily, there was no one foolish enough to tail him from behind or send assassins to him when he was on the way. That was why he could reach this place without too much time. Entering the inn, he quickly went upstairs as if he was a regular of this inn. His destination was the top floor, and it turned out there was only a single room on that floor. The door was suddenly opened from the inside as if they knew Alex was coming. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes first to check whether this was a trap or not before stepping inside the room. "Welcome to my place, Alexander Sirius." Astennu''s voice resounded across the room. Alex looked at the man and nodded with a smile. "Thank you for inviting me." "No, no. I am just fulfilling her wish. Though I admit, I am very interested in meeting you." He smirked before stretching his hand toward the couch in front of him. "Please sit." Alex looked at the sitting Astennu and the standing veiled woman and sat down. "Thank you." "I am Astennu from Phantasm Sect. Nice to meet you." "I am Alexander from Spirit Nest." "As I said earlier, I want you to meet someone." Astennu glanced at the woman and introduced her to Alex. "She is¡ª" Before he could say her name, Alex stopped him. "No need for introduction." Alex smiled and shook his head before glancing at the woman beside him and smiling at her. "It''s been a while, Senior Sister Song Yu." She was taken aback as she never expected Alex would still recognize her despite her change. Song Yu smiled and took off her veil along with the robe that camouflaged her real body. Alex could see her face again, her blonde hair, her tiny figure, and her cheerful expression. Song Yu smiled from ear to ear as she said, "We meet again, Junior Brother!" Chapter 709 - Astennu and Song Yu "We meet again, Junior Brother!" Song Yu finally revealed her appearance and smiled. "Yeah. It''s been a few years." Alex nodded. "I was worried about you, considering you were plotted by the third elder of your own clan." "Haha¡­ It was true. But I could meet him because of that incident." Song Yu glanced at Astennu mysteriously. Alex didn''t know why, but the look in her eyes was that of a maiden in love. Thinking for a moment, he decided to ask, "May I know the relationship between Senior Sister and him?" "I am¡ª!" Astennu was eager to answer this question, but Song Yu beat him to it. "I am his woman¡­ No, you can say it''s girlfriend, considering his elders have yet to accept me." "I will surely force them to accept, even if I need to use force," Astennu added with a pout. Alex opened his eyes in surprise and blinked a few times. "Seriously? Well, seeing Senior Sister happily say it, I don''t have any qualms." "Hehe¡­" Song Yu giggled embarrassedly. "Though I am curious as to what happened to you after that incident." "Who wants to explain it? You or me?" Song Yu glanced at Astennu. "He is your Junior Brother, right? You can tell him the full story if you trust him." Astennu shrugged. "Alright." Song Yu nodded with a smile before starting her story-telling. "A few years ago, I was plotted by the third elder and almost died. Luckily, the fourth elder used all of his strength and let me get away. The journey was unpleasant because I needed to fly for a long time while fending the monsters. "Long story short, I somehow managed to fly as long as possible before I passed out in the middle of the ocean. It seemed I wasn''t that far from the Southwest of the continent and swept away to the shore. "At that time, Astennu was strolling around the beach and found the unconscious me. He did it for fun, though. And¡ª" "Wait!" Astennu stopped her immediately and corrected her. "Why did you say it was for fun? It wasn''t." "You said so yourself. Besides, I could see that you really did it for fun." "Fine. You can say it was for fun, but you should add that it was for fun, and that was the best decision he had made in his entire life." Astennu pouted. "He said so himself." Song Yu chuckled and continued. "Anyway, Astennu brought me back to his home and nursed me without the knowledge of the elders. Not long after, I woke up and finally met my savior. "He always stayed alone in his entire life in that house, so I was the second resident. Well, he never treated me like a slave or did something bad to me. Instead, he nursed me back to full health. We somehow became friends despite the awkwardness from the start." Astennu closed his eyes and smiled, recalling the scene in his mind. "Yeah. Though I found out that she was actually coming from the Blackwade Clan, and it made me very awkward, considering there were many oppositions from having connections outside the sect." "Let''s continue with the story." Song Yu stopped him. "In the end, I tried to repay him by helping him with anything like chores or whatever and without knowing it, I fell in love with him. He treated me with gentleness and full of sincerity, despite being a young master in a huge influence¡­" "I didn''t know at first whether it was love or something and decided to play along with it. Until one time, the elders found out about her, and I realized I had fallen in love with her for a long time." Astennu gently smiled as he looked at Song Yu''s face. "I still remembered that day where they dragged me and almost executed me¡­ You came and helped me to the point of risking your life as well¡­ Nonetheless, they ended up releasing both of us and decided to approve in one condition that I needed to reach Martial Saint as soon as possible. I believe I am able to do that." Song Yu nodded. Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "I see¡­ I am also happy for Senior Sister." "Hehe¡­" Song Yu scratched her head, embarrassed. "By the way, how is Master, Putri, and the others?" Alex thought for a moment. "Elder Charya already knew about your condition¡­ Maybe I will send her a letter about your well-being, including your relationship, of course. She will be thrilled to know about this." "Indeed. I want to inform her myself, but I am occupied with the condition, so I can only refrain myself from going there. And please don''t tell Master about my relationship with him first. I want to tell her myself and visit her with him." Song Yu smiled at Astennu, who smiled back. "Alright. I will just tell her that you are alive and living a good life for the time being." Alex nodded. "Thank you." "As for Putri, she is still with the Blackwade Clan. Her strength has only reached 5-Star Martial Emperor due to the lack of resources. Seeing that I have a big war with the Fire God Clan, I purposely don''t give her any resources, so she can stay there for a bit longer¡­ After having betrayed and such, I really wish she could also be like you right now. Anyway, Song Jia took care of her while learning how to lead a clan herself." Alex sighed. "Indeed. She is a good girl that deserves better. You don''t need to worry about her for the time being. After I consolidate my power in this influence, I might bring her here and hope she has a good life on this continent¡­ While Song Jia¡­ I am really proud of her as her sister." "I understand. I leave it in your hand." Alex nodded. "As for Evelyn¡­ I don''t think I need to tell you, right?" "Yeah. Since she has become the Drunken Pavilion Successor, I can track her movement better than anyone I know." Song Yu nodded. "How about Rose?" "Rose is¡­" Alex was slightly afraid to tell her about Rose. If he needed to rank the ones who were the closest to him, it would be Rose, Evelyn, Putri, and Charya. Considering she was his disciple and Astennu was still listening, he decided not to talk about Rose. "Rose is fine. I am taking care of her." Song Yu noticed his dilemma and nodded in understanding. "I understand. As long as she is happy, I am also happy." Alex nodded before he recalled another thing. "That''s right. Elder Charya has another disciple." "Really?" Song Yu was surprised and happy at the same time. She must be lonely after her two disciples left her side and went to the Northern Continent, so Song Yu was thrilled after knowing there would be someone who was accompanying her right now. "I have given her some enlightenment, so she shouldn''t die in the process unless she is a fool¡­ But I have tested her once, and she seems the one who will live long." Alex nodded. "Haha¡­ Though you shouldn''t say it that way." Song Yu chuckled. "Anyway, I am coming here just to check Senior Sister''s condition. Now that I have completed my objective, I think it''s time for me to go." Alex nodded and stood up. "I think you forget a few things." Astennu suddenly stopped him. "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "First of all, we haven''t talked about the business yet. Considering you are going to fight the Fire God Clan, don''t you fear that we are going to join this war?" Astennu smirked. "You can try¡­ I don''t like it when I need to destroy my Senior Sister''s happiness, but if push comes to shove, I will still do it." Alex sighed while glancing at Song Yu. "It seems that I have underestimated you this whole time." Astennu was surprised with his confidence, but it seemed Song Yu''s Junior Brother was extraordinary like in her mouth. "As for us interfering in a battle like this¡­ I don''t think that is possible unless you are threatening our existence. If you can promise that your fang won''t reach Phantasm Sect, I assure you that I will do everything in my end to stop my influence from participating." "That''s good then." Alex nodded. "My target is Fire God Clan. If there is another influence that joins forces with them, I can only burn them down." Astennu understood Alex''s meaning. As long as Phantasm Sect didn''t come in their way, they wouldn''t be hostile either. "I understand. I will relay your message to the elders. There are two elders that are following us, so they should also be able to back my claim up and shut the sect up. "Besides, I don''t have time to fight you because I have more important things to do." Astennu looked at Song Yu with a smile. "I want to resolve this situation as soon as possible and marry Song Yu." "Hehe¡­" Song Yu smiled and scratched her cheek, embarrassed. Alex smiled upon seeing how they acted. "I wish you luck." Astennu and Song Yu nodded. "Thank you." Alex then stood up and left the room. "I will leave then." Song Yu decided to see him off in front of the hotel. After saying their goodbye one more time, Alex finally went back, not toward his inn, but Evelyn. *Knock Knock!* Evelyn heard the knocking sound but got surprised that it was coming from the balcony. However, she immediately opened the door without hesitation after feeling the Spiritual Energy. "Big brother Alex, welcome." Alex nodded with a smile. "Are you staying here alone?" "Yeah. The others have their own rooms. We are going back in two days. Do you want to talk about the matter of Adrus? Master has planned this for a long time, so I don''t think there will be any trouble coming to you." "No. It''s fine. Rather than talking about Adrus, how about talking about you? How are you in the Drunken Pavilion?" "I am good. I¡­" Evelyn started talking about all her experiences inside the Drunken Pavilion and how she managed to reach this stage. However, she was stunned as soon as she heard about Rose''s cultivation and realized that her effort was still not enough. At the end of her story, she suddenly asked. "That''s right. Big brother, do you know about the Ancient Ruin?" "Ancient Ruin?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. It will open pretty soon." "No. I mean, I know there is an Ancient Ruin, but I am still searching for information about that Ancient Ruin." Alex shook his head. "So, that''s what you mean." Evelyn realized. "This Ancient Ruin is a top-secret, so it''s normal for you not to know about this. Considering you are going with that Song Jiaoren, I think he will tell you about it. Well, since I have mentioned it, I shall explain it to you." Alex nodded. It was true that his Spirits already knew about the existence of the Ancient Ruin. However, no matter how hard they searched for the other influences, they couldn''t find any information related to it. Hence, they never mentioned it again because they didn''t want Alex to take a risk. In fact, they were also unsure whether the other influences would send their disciples to this ruin. Evelyn thought for a moment. "In every single influence, they have held this secret tightly to the point there won''t be more than five people knowing this secret inside the influences. Do you know why all influences'' heads would have 10-Star Martial Saint or even reach God Stage?" "Isn''t it because they choose the strongest?" Alex asked. "No. The only reason is this Ancient Ruin. Even my Master doesn''t know the extent of this Ancient Ruin despite having entered it once. He said that the only reason he could reach 10-Star Martial Saint was because of this Ancient Ruin. He got an inheritance and started building up his strength according to the inheritance." "Ho?" Alex was astonished as this topic certainly piqued his interest. "The only reason many people are clueless about this is that there is an entry limit. Only ten people can enter this time while three influences get two spots after making a back deal." Evelyn paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "And inside of this Ancient Ruin, we can find¡­" Chapter 710 - Ancient Ruin "And inside of this Ancient Ruin, we can find God''s Inheritances," Evelyn said with a solemn expression. "God''s inheritances?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. Master said there are a few Gods dead inside that place, and each of them is giving their inheritances to the future generation." Evelyn nodded. "Master also said this. Your master also entered this place." "!!!" Alex was surprised to hear that his master, Maxwell, had entered this place. There was still another problem. With this world power level, there should be no problem in having someone reach 10-Star Martial Saint, but it would be impossible to have Gods in this world because they would be expelled no matter what. "System, do you know something?" [Look at your memory about this world, and you will understand the answer.] Alex didn''t understand why she said it, but he admitted he never read the information about this world. He closed his eyes for a second before opening it again wide. "Big Brother?" Evelyn tilted her head in confusion. Alex looked down, stroked his chin, and fell into deep thought. ''According to my memory, this place is supposed to be a world with many God Rank Experts like Eulja. However, it was once attacked by another planet and had a huge clash. Most of the Gods died while the rest decided to use their power to control the World''s will. ''Their only wish was to seal the world and lower its power level. This way, a battle this big wouldn''t occur again. It seemed that the Dwarves, Undeads, and Beastmen only came to this world after this war and didn''t know a single thing about this war. ''Meanwhile, to seal the information about this war that might destroy the world and cause another massive destruction in case their descendant would avenge them, they decided to make this type of rule.'' Alex could relate this story to the Ancient Ruin because Evelyn just explained the meaning behind Ancient Ruin. If not, he wouldn''t know that this story actually related to it. "I see¡­ This is a good opportunity." "Yeah." Evelyn nodded with a smile. "If big brother Alex participates, the Fire God Clan might not have the courage to send their experts. In case they participate, you can simply kill them and take their position." Alex thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "By the way, who is the one that gets two spots?" "Drunken Pavilion, Divine Kingdom, and Ancient Blue Family." "I see. Are you going with your senior sister?" "Yeah. Master wants us to enter to raise our strength and, if possible, change big sister Angela''s mindset." Evelyn confirmed. "Then the Divine Kingdom''s representatives would be Prince Julius and Princess Elizabeth while Ancient Blue Family would be Rio and their second miss," Alex muttered to himself. Evelyn heard it as well and agreed with the lineup. ''But the problem will be how the Freedom Sect doesn''t know about this¡­'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ''No, that''s not important. The fact that my Master knows about this can also be interpreted that the Freedom Sect also knows. However, their condition doesn''t allow them to enter this Ancient Ruin. I can only think of it like this.'' "Then, do you know anything about this Ancient Ruin?" Alex asked. "Master has told me a few things. The first thing is the inheritance from God Rank Expert. And the second one is the time limit." Evelyn paused for a moment. "There is no time limit inside the Ancient Ruin to be honest¡­ Because we are usually bailed out before even reaching the time limit. However, Master said the utmost limit one could stay was around one year." "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He never joined an event that would take him more than a few months, so this one certainly intrigued him. "What kind of test is inside there?" "Ancient Battlefield." "Ancient Battlefield?" Alex closed his eyes. "Like how there are inheritances from God Rank Expert, there are also enemies that are trying to kill us. And those enemies will range from 5-Star Martial Monarchs like me to 5-Star Martial Saints. It might become stronger if we have a higher cultivation base or older age. That''s why Younger Generations would be the one who explores this Ancient Ruin." Evelyn explained carefully. "I see. Isn''t you the one that has the most potential in getting the inheritance?" Alex smirked. Evelyn was even younger than him with that 5-Star Martial Monarch strength, so he thought she had the most potential. "Haha, you should also consider battle prowess. If we include everything, big brother will be at the top." Evelyn giggled. "Anyway, what is the other thing that Elder Manness told you?" Alex asked, changing the topic. Evelyn tapped her forehead, trying to recall the conversation. "The third one is about monsters. They are very dangerous and deadly. Luckily, we are entering that by using our soul, so we won''t actually die in that place. But Master had once encountered an invisible monster. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn''t beat that beast. In fact, he couldn''t see how powerful that beast was." "!!!" Alex''s face was distorted when he recalled a certain type of monster. ''Is it Space Beast? The monsters that are living inside the Space Realm? Wait, if they knew about the beast''s existence¡­ What if they actually learned it from this Ancient Battlefield? Did that mean Freedom Sect actually knew about this place? Or did the Ancestors hide that fact?'' Having no other clue, Alex decided to shake the thoughts off until he entered that place himself. "How about the test itself? How can we receive the inheritances from God Rank Expert?" "We will get thrown inside a Special World called Ancient Battlefield and need to survive there for a period of time. From time to time, we will have a certain event happening. We need to take advantage of it. Master met a God Stage Expert and received his inheritance after surviving for six months. That''s why I assume the monsters are many, and they are strong." Evelyn took a deep breath. "I see." ''I will be staying inside there for as long as I can and receive the inheritances.'' Alex nodded before he realized something was wrong. "Is the world linked up with each other? Or does each of us enter a different world?" "I think we are in the same area. Master wants me to meet up with Senior Sister by using a token after all." "If that''s the case¡­" Alex looked down and stroked his chin. ''Should I regroup with them? Or should I go and fend for myself alone?'' The most logical thinking would be fighting together, but he would need to restrict his strength, especially his Space Element. On the other hand, fighting together would allow him to preserve his stamina and Spiritual Energy. This was indeed a hard choice. ''I will decide after I go there, I guess¡­'' Alex thought and looked back at Evelyn. "Do you know anything that we can take advantage of?" "The world will constantly change, so there is no point knowing about it. According to the record, a few people arrived inside a human''s settlement from a kingdom to a village. Normally, the kingdom also fends help for those people, but they ultimately collapsed under the horde of monsters. That''s why Master said the only one that you could rely on is yourself and those who are close to you." "I see." Alex nodded and thought, ''Close to me, huh¡­ I wonder whether I can summon Anna and the others there, but seeing it''s an illusion world, it means I can''t do it. The only thing I can do is to fight against those monsters alone. I just hope that those monsters will give me EXPs and Gacha Tickets like the ones in Heavenly Sword Sect''s Battle Tower.'' "Do you want to be together with me? Or are you going with that Song Jiaoren?" She asked. Alex shook his head. "I have no plan for now, but I will probably go alone." "Are you sure?" Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows, worried about him. "Yeah." Alex nodded. ''Hopefully, there is also a chance to use Space Element, so in the worst case, I can escape to the Space World.'' "If that is big brother Alex''s choice¡­" Evelyn looked down and nodded with a sad look. "Don''t worry. I will be alright. I am the one who needs to worry about you." Alex patted her head. Evelyn pouted. "I think I have told you everything I know." "Then, I think it''s time for me to go. Dawn soon will come anyway, so I should get ready to go to the Blackwade Clan." Alex nodded. "Fine." Alex patted her head a few more times and left. ¡­ As soon as he entered his inn, he summoned Anna with a serious face. "Should Leoz and I leave your side for the time being?" Anna asked instantly. "Before that, I want to give the inheritances I got from Elder Ri Xheo to Letizia. Will that be alright?" Alex asked. "What is your reasoning?" Anna obviously frowned. Although she thought Letizia favorably, it wasn''t to the point she would give an inheritance of Ice Great Elder just like that. "I am thinking about preparing her for the next war. We still have around three years before that Ancestor appears again, so I want her to increase her strength first. I feel that she might become another factor in this war. After all, the moment I ruin the ritual, she might be targeted. I might need to save her. Nonetheless, she would participate in the war. I wanted to give it to Alicia at first, but she already had all the resources she needed." Alex sighed. "True enough. She is the only Ice Element User you know, and it is Pure Ice Element to boot¡­" Anna contemplated for a minute and sighed. "Fine. We can give it to her. She won''t be able to do anything to us in this world anyway¡­ Meanwhile, we can simply crush her if she decides to betray us outside of this world." Anna nodded and believed in Eulja''s strength. "Yeah. We can also crush their morale and bait the Snow White Mountain." Alex nodded. "It''s your choice. There is also Ancient Ruin, but she won''t participate in it. With only Sacrificial Ice Element, the elders from Snow White Mountain must want to win some in this Ancient Ruin, so their Ancestor won''t be that disappointed." "Yeah. We can''t do anything to them right now." "Then, what will I and Leoz do after this?" Alex pondered for a moment. "As expected, I can only have you go around and raise your level. I don''t know whether I can bring you inside the Ancient Ruin, so our only option is to use every opportunity to raise your level." "I understand." Anna went back to the card and had someone summon her together with Leoz. He then decided to retire for the day. ¡­ The next day, Alex said goodbye to Evelyn as he made his way toward the west gate, preparing to meet Song Jiaoren. It was easy to find him since he could simply look around with his Spirit Eyes and approached a Martial Saint followed by another two Saints. Song Jiaoren waved his hand at him, acting as normal as possible in front of the elders. They decided to have a front of two business partners, so they were acting as equals. The two elders also had no problem seeing this and let this go, despite wondering since when they actually had this type of relationship. "Have you finished all your business in this city?" Song Jiaoren asked. "Yeah. We can go to the Blackwade Clan right now." Alex nodded. This journey would take very long, considering Alex would never use a few weeks just to travel. Unfortunately, he couldn''t afford to reveal his Space Element for the time being and decided to follow the group. "Very well." Song Jiaoren nodded and glanced at the two elders as they summoned a flying ship. "This is our Blackwade Clan''s Flying Ship. Its speed is twice as fast as 5-Star Martial Saint, so we should be able to arrive at the clan within two weeks. I also have another thing to discuss when we arrive at the clan." Alex nodded. He realized that the one he wanted to talk about must be the Ancient Ruin. They then boarded the ship and flew to the horizon. Chapter 711 - Letizia Inside the Snow White Mountain, specifically on the lowest floor of their prison, Letizia was closing her eyes, trying to do whatever she could. Even if she was locked here, she was still able to gather Spiritual Energy around, advancing her cultivation little by little with the hope of becoming strong enough to escape from this place. Even so, it didn''t glorify her messy appearance. With chains in her neck, hands, and feet, she couldn''t move around too much from the ground. There was also an array in her stomach that made her skin uglier. Suddenly, she opened her eyes when she felt something smooth touching her and opened her mouth as soon as she saw a black cat stroking her head on her thigh. "Have I started hallucinating?" Letizia questioned herself while staring at the cat with her fuzzy eyes before she recalled a certain incident in the past. There was also a certain animal that suddenly appeared in front of her, and it was in a place that one would never expect to sneak. Recalling that animal and a certain figure, Letizia opened her eyes wide. She looked at the black cat who was carrying a Space Ring in her mouth. "You¡­" Letizia wanted to shout but refrained herself. Although this place was only guarded outside the prison, it was still not wise to make a ruckus. She took a deep breath and whispered as low as possible. "Are you Master''s pet?" The black cat nodded before summoning a piece of paper, wanting Letizia to read it. ''I am Noel, Master''s Shadow Cat Spirit. I have been with you since long ago, and Master also knows your situation. However, we are still lacking the power to oppose the Snow White Mountain, let alone freeing you from that restrain. They will know about this and prevent us from escaping.'' She read inside her mind and nodded in understanding. She was indeed Alex''s burden because she got trapped in this ridiculous prison with many restraints. There was once a hope that Alex would save her, but the thought vanished when she realized everything was unrelated to him. She didn''t know why the Snow White Mountain knew about her Loyalty Oath, and because of her inability, she got imprisoned. The black cat took out another paper while storing the other one. ''Master wants to free you from this place, but it will only happen in around three years. He decided to do so after seeing your loyalty¡­ Even though you had once a chatterbox and reduced you to a slave, you had changed. He even thought about freeing you from the oath despite many oppositions. That''s why you should wait until the promised day comes.'' Letizia closed her eyes while gritting her teeth. ''I seem to have troubled him in many ways¡­ No matter what I did, it would become trouble in the end. Even then, Master is still thinking about me¡­'' ''Even though Master wants to free you from this place, you should also get stronger. He lets you take your own revenge on this influence that has mistreated you. That''s why he sent me to give you this Space Ring.'' Noel leaped toward her hand and placed the Space Ring on her hand. Letizia channeled her Spiritual Energy and opened her mouth wide, never expecting that the items inside the Space Ring were this much. Not only Spirit Crystals, but also many Ice Element items that could enhance her cultivation and power. Without knowing why, her tears fell from her eyes as she looked down. Even after suffering this much, her Master still cared about her and even gave her this Space Ring. Could she ever repay him? "Meow." Noel patted her tight before giving the last note. ''Only you can fight for yourself, so get as strong as possible and fight for yourself.'' Letizia nodded and noticed that Noel wanted to disappear. "Wait!" Noel turned around and stared at her. "Can you tell him, Thank you¡­ for the Space Ring and saving my life? I certainly won''t disappoint him this time." Noel didn''t think too much, nodded her head, and disappeared without a trace. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex also got a message from Noel together with the translation from Nelson. Alex smiled and nodded. "Sir. There is one thing that I want to talk about¡­" "Hmm?" "Do you know the Ancient Ruin?" He asked. "Ah. I know what you mean." Alex nodded. "I am going to participate this time. The Fire God Clan will either die trying or not sending anyone. They will start declining at this rate." "Since Sir has known about this, then I don''t have anything to say." Song Jiaoren nodded with a solemn expression. "What are we going to do next? I mean, as soon as we arrive at your clan?" "Sir can rest in my courtyard first. Don''t worry. I will hide your presence from the first elder and the third elder. I will probably head to discuss it with my fat¡­ I mean, Patriarch and Grand Elder." Song Jiaoren corrected himself. "Even though it''s not related to you directly, the first elder and the third elder must be plotting something against you as soon as they know your existence. That''s why we will eliminate them first." Alex thought for a moment. "Sure. I won''t interfere with your decision." "However, I might need to verify your card once again and present the proof to the Patriarch and Grand Elder. Will that be alright?" Alex nodded. Song Jiaoren fell into silence before he remembered another thing. "That''s right. What does Sir want us to do for Song Yu and the fourth elder?" Alex closed his eyes. Song Yu probably didn''t need anything from him with her relationship with Astennu. As for the fourth elder, he wasn''t someone he knew, so why would he want to do something for him. Hence, he shook his head. "Nothing. It''s fine as it is." "Then, we will wait until we arrive at our clan. Do you need something for these two weeks?" "It''s fine. I will just cultivate," Alex replied. "Before that, I feel that we also need to talk about the transaction for materials, pills, and other things." "!!!" Song Jiaoren almost forgot about this because he was too shocked by Alex''s Supreme VIP Card. Nicole had said this to him before, so he nodded with a serious expression. "Sure." Alex tossed a Space Ring toward him and asked him to check. Because there were too many items that needed to be traded, inside that space ring actually contained many Space Rings. Song Jiaoren needed to check them one by one. Alex closed his eyes for a few hours before he noticed Song Jiaoren was gasping. "This¡­" His expression was becoming more and more distorted as time passed. The first few Space Rings couldn''t do anything to him, but as he checked more and more Space Rings, he realized there were too many Space Rings that he needed to check. If all of them contained the same items as the other Space Rings, then¡­ Song Jiaoren was shocked by the thought alone, but he still had underestimated him. Counting the monster parts alone was already taxing to his heart due to its number, yet there was another surprise attack behind it. In the next Space Ring, he found a huge amount of rank 7 and rank 8 pills. Although their number wasn''t that big, their value was far more than enough to reach a few hundred thousand Spirit Crystals. At that time, he thought he couldn''t get more surprised than he had right now. It was at this time the minerals and metals appeared inside the Space Rings. These items came from the eruption of a huge underwater volcano. Alex was satisfied with the amount because the Freedom Sect also started gathering the minerals after realizing what kind of materials the volcano had spurted out. The number was astonishing and somehow made Licht wondering whether to go back to the surface or stay underwater. There was no way that they would get these many materials on the surface. That was also why Song Jiaoren got shocked by the amount. "This¡­" Song Jiaoren scratched his head, wondering what to say. "What is it? Do you not have the ability to trade these?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "No. That''s not it." Song Jiaoren shook his head hurriedly. "I am just surprised by the amount. Suppose I roughly estimate the value of all these items. In that case, it should be around one and a half million Spirit Crystals. That alone is equal to a few years of our gross revenue. Of course, this offer is the lowest amount I can offer. I guess the real value will exceed two million Spirit Crystals." "So, this is a good deal, correct?" "A good and big deal. No, I should say this might be the biggest deal we have ever had¡­" Song Jiaoren shook his head. Alexander had given nothing but surprises. Even though they might need to open their treasury a little bit, they would be able to sell them all twice or even thrice of the original price in a few years. He looked at Alex again and realized how terrifying the Spirit Nest was. On the other hand, Alex was pretty hyped about the money. He wouldn''t need to care about Spirit Crystals again when cultivating and could squander it without caring. "I will handle this transaction myself, so Sir doesn''t need to worry that you are getting undeserved payment." Song Jiaoren assured him. "I trust your judgment." Alex smiled and thought another thing. ''How much money do the Seven Influences have? Considering these two million Spirit Crystals alone were considered to be a century of earning¡­ Well, considering they are a few thousand years old influences, I assume they have around twenty million? Since they also need to take care of their members and control the city.'' Alex could arrive at that thought because he was bound to destroy Fire God Clan and probably Snow White Mountain. That was why he was wondering how much wealth he could get later. "I will then excuse myself." Song Jiaoren nodded and left him in the room. "If you need anything, just call me. I will need to calculate the transaction first." Alex nodded. Song Jiaoren then left him alone. This small ship had enough rooms anyway, so no one actually made a ruckus and waited patiently. ¡­ Two weeks later, Alex and Song Jiaoren arrived at the Blackwade Clan. They were situated inside a huge city that Alex somehow was unable to see the other edge. Alex calmly watched over the city from the ship as the townsfolk seemed not bothered by this sight. "That is our mansion." Song Jiaoren pointed his finger toward a wide mansion in the center of the city. In fact, the mansion''s size alone was able to rival that of a huge city. "A city inside a city?" Song Jiaoren heard Alex''s remarks and explained. "This city is our business place. Well, you can treat it as a sect inside a city." "I see." Alex nodded in understanding. Not long after, they arrived at the mansion, entering inside without any restriction. Song Jiaoren asked them to bring him inside his own courtyard where Alex could come out without raising any suspicion. Alex looked around and found only one sign of energy. "Elders, you can go inform my father and grandfather first. I will meet them after I finish my business." "We understand, Young Master." The elders nodded and took all the disciples away. They also had a special instruction from Song Jiaoren, which was to isolate the disciples until he had finished his discussion. It was to halt the information from spreading. After that, Song Jiaoren stretched his hand with a smile. "This way." Alex nodded and followed him. They went outside his courtyard and headed directly to a special room that almost no one knew about, especially after building a secret entrance to that room. Of course, Alex didn''t forget to see his surroundings as he didn''t want to get trapped here. Finally, they found a thick wooden door at the end of the corridor. Song Jiaoren pushed the door open, entering the room with Alex. To his surprise, the room was neat and beautiful, making the person who stayed here feel relaxed. "I will be finishing the verification process. May I borrow your card again?" Song Jiaoren asked politely. Chapter 712 - Song Tao "I will be finishing the verification process. May I borrow your card again?" Song Jiaoren asked politely. Alex took out his Supreme VIP Card and handed it to Song Jiaoren. The moment Song Jiaoren turned around and walked toward a certain direction, he noticed something absurd that his heart refused to believe. "That¡­" Alex dropped his jaw to the ground, never thinking that he would meet this device again in this world. In the corner of the room, a certain device in the shape of a block sat down on a wooden table. Next to the box was another device with a screen on it. There were also two more devices, but Alex already realized what they are in a single glance. ''Aren''t that a computer along with a mouse and a keyboard?'' Alex blinked his eyes a few times. Next to the computer was a glass box with a certain symbol. Song Jiaoren put the card inside the glass box, and the symbol glowed brightly, revealing a red color of the card and a symbol made of that red glow. Song Jiaoren was mesmerized for a while before he took a look at the screen. A catalog appeared on the screen as he kept scrolling down until he reached the bottom of the page. There was the same VIP Card with a symbol the same as the one that the glass box showed him. He then clicked the image and checked the authenticity. Unbeknownst to them, the world out there was in an uproar. ¡­ In a certain room far far away from the world''s Alex currently in. A woman and a middle-aged man were sitting face to face with serious expressions. The man looked very eager to talk while the woman was calmly talking with her assistance. The woman was Lin Xingzhi. She was confronting this excited old man¡­ And how this happened? It started from an hour ago¡­ ¡­ One hour ago¡­ In Eulja, Lin Xingzhi rose from her seat and called Zark. "Milady?" Zark appeared almost instantly with his Space Ability. "They will soon know about his reincarnation, so I think this will be the perfect time to meet the old friend." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "Blackwade Clan, is it? I will bring Milady there." Zark nodded. "Wait a minute. I will call Alicia to take care of Alex in the meantime." "I understand." Zark bowed politely and teleported them to the Ice Phoenix Tribe. "Hmm? Do you want to say something?" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows after noticing the strange expression on Zark''s face. "I am just happy that Master will soon reach God Stage¡­ Though I believe we won''t be able to hide this for long, and Master''s past enemies might come to him." "Don''t worry. Unlike the previous us, our influence isn''t restricted only to Eulja. We have expanded so big, so Alex won''t need to share the burden along. However, I am just worried about another thing. The fact that he has reincarnated means¡­ No, never mind." Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh. "I understand. Destroying a few worlds doesn''t mean much anyway." Zark nodded. "However, if Blackwade Clan knows about his existence, I am afraid that he will come to him." "Him? Oh, that guy¡­" Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Anyway, he is not our enemy. Considering his characteristic, he will just cause small trouble¡­ and will increase our strength to protect Alex until he reaches the peak again." "I understand." After talking with Zark, she then went to Alicia and told them what to do. Alicia happily accepted the job and headed to the castle while Zark and Lin Xingzhi disappeared from Eulja. ¡­ Somewhere far away, on a certain planet stood tall a building filled with glasses. If Alex were here, he would think this building was like a modern city building. The height alone was one hundred stories high. On the top floor, a red-haired middle-aged man stood near the window and watched the world outside. He looked like someone in his late thirties with a red vest and formal black and white suits. "To think our clan has become this big." Suddenly, someone slammed the door open, entering the room in a rush. "Patriarch. We have an emergency." The middle-aged man turned around and found a young lady entering his room. "Silvia. What happened? For my assistant to have this kind of appearance, it is not pleasant to see." The middle-aged man furrowed his eyebrows. "We have just gotten the signal for our Blackwade Clan''s Supreme VIP Card." She said while panting. "Is that so? Are they coming to our world? Just prepared the banquet as usual, and I will greet them later." "No¡­ You do not understand." She shook her head furiously. "¡­" The middle-aged man fell into silence before he realized what she meant. "Is there any Supreme VIP Card Holder that needs our help? We will prepare the disciples and help him/her." "No. You misunderstand. We have just scanned a Supreme VIP Card." "Oh. I thought you had something important to tell me when you came in a rush like that. It turned out to be that case." The middle-aged man sighed as he grabbed the teacup and sipped it to calm his heart. "And if I tell you that it''s the Spirit God''s Supreme VIP Card?" *Clank!* The room fell into silence after the glass fell and shattered on the floor. The middle-aged man looked at her and blinked his eyes a few times like a broken robot. The silence continued for a minute before he asked, "What did you say?" "It''s true. We have gotten the information about Spirit God''s Supreme VIP Card." "Which Spirit God?" "It''s the one and only Spirit God of Eulja. Eulja won''t need our help at this point, and we know they are not threatened by any worlds. That''s why the fact that Spirit God''s Supreme VIP Card appears is¡­" The middle-aged man was shaking as he gasped. "The Spirit God has come back? Wait! The Supreme VIP Card should be in the Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi''s hand. She wouldn''t give it to anyone, and the fact that we haven''t heard about an outstanding God Rank Expert from Eulja¡­" Suddenly, another person also came in. It was a huge muscular man wearing a military uniform. "Patriarch. Nature Goddess wants to meet you. She has been waiting outside. Should we let her enter our world?" The middle-aged man''s expression turned dark. "Of course, invite her in right now." ¡­ Back to the present, The middle-aged man was staring at Lin Xingzhi, who was calmly drinking her tea. "It''s been a while, Mistress Lin Xingzhi," the middle-aged man greeted her politely. "Has it been one thousand years or two thousand years since we last talked?" Lin Xingzhi looked at him with a smile. "Ahaha¡­" The middle-aged man scratched his head, embarrassed. "Does your visit today concern¡ª!" Before he finished his word, Lin Xingzhi nodded. "That''s what I want to talk about." "Then, Sir Alexander Sirius really has come back?" The middle-aged man stood up in excitement. "Don''t get too excited first. He is not the same person you are thinking of¡­ And probably won''t become the person in your head. Not that I care though, since I love him whether it''s in the past or the present." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Does he not get his memory back?" "From my speculation, it seems he refuses to insert the memory of his past life to the current body. Though his quirks and characters are still the same¡­ Just a bit milder because he is not plagued by his strength anymore. But I can say his strength is still the same or even better¡­" The middle-aged man fell into silence before letting out a long sigh. "I see." "Still¡­ To think that you are still excited even after a few thousand years¡­ I still remember when you first met him, you were still a little boy, Song Tao. Now, you are looking like a middle-aged man." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Please don''t tease me, Mistress. This appearance suits me the most, especially if I want to handle the matter in this big clan. If this displeases your eyes, I can return to my original appearance." "Haha¡­ You were blessed with that merchant brain of yours and created this big Merchant Clan in a few thousand years. I think your wealth already surpasses us?" "Meeting him was the luckiest thing I had in my life. If he didn''t help me, I wouldn''t even be able to struggle my way up. He was a mentor and a big brother figure to me." Song Tao shook his head. "As for my clan¡­ I don''t want to boast, but I should have the same level of money as your Eulja¡­ But if you are adding your Father''s, the Time God, and Sir Alex''s personal coffers¡­ I am just a mere pebble." "Well, he often got all the resources after destroying many worlds, so it was normal to have that many personal belongings¡­ I only had a portion of it though. The rest would be for the current him to handle." "The only place that only he knows where it is¡­ Encore. I believe his friend or you can say his rival is searching for it these few thousand years." Lin Xingzhi shrugged and refused to talk about it. "In any case, I want to talk about his matter." "I understand. Does Mistress want me to do something?" Song Tao knew her stance and didn''t pursue the matter further. "I only want you to hide the fact that he has reincarnated. The ones who handle Supreme VIPs are your trusted subordinates, right? Just control them for a while¡­ Although his cultivation speed will suffer after entering God Stage, we can somehow boost it with enough resources. If he can receive the inheritances of his previous life, it will be better. That''s why I want to hide this matter, so his past enemies won''t search for him too soon." "I see. Friends and people loyal to him naturally gathered around him because of his unique charm, but he also made many enemies back then. Even when he eliminated some, there were still many of them coming at him. It was only stopped after he sacrificed his life, and all of us who he helped stood up together." "Yeah. Unfortunately, not many of you are around now. That''s why I want him to get stronger first. I will try to guide him around to the worlds that don''t have their influences. As long as we have a hundred years, no one would dare to attack him and Eulja." "I understand. I will make sure no one knows about his reincarnation." Song Tao nodded in a solemn expression. "One more thing. I won''t call our past allies because I don''t know whether they are still allies or not, especially since most of them have their descendants take over their influences. If they are neutral, then so be it. If they are still friendly, I won''t mind having their help. But if they are hostile¡­" Lin Xingzhi released her killing intent. "Don''t worry. My Blackwade Clan will help you monitor them. If they have any suspicious movement and have a certain deal with us about him, we will inform you." Song Tao nodded. Lin Xingzhi nodded. "You are a bit different than the rest after all." "Haha¡­ Everything is about give and take for me. He has saved my life a few times and helped me build everything from scratch, it''s time for me to repay him. Besides, my debt to him is infinite, so I will always be his ally." Song Tao laughed with a sincere face. Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes with a smile. "You are really a unique one¡­ Anyway, that''s all I want to say. I will leave immediately." "I understand. But If I may ask, I wonder what is his situation right now? I really want to meet him again, even if it''s not the same." "Hmm¡­ He is fine. Just destroying some influences¡­ Maybe he will destroy some worlds when he becomes a God Rank Expert. Anyway, he is an 8-Star Martial Monarch right now." "I see. That''s certainly like him." Song Tao chuckled. "Take care then." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand as Zark created a Teleportation Array, and both of them disappeared. Chapter 713 - Alicia Back inside the Blackwade Clan, Song Jiaoren''s calm didn''t last for long. As soon as he got the name of Alexander Sirius, he was utterly shocked. There was supposed to be no one in this world that would have this Supreme VIP Card, but there was the same name, Alexander Sirius, in the database. It made him wonder whether they were the same person or not. However, he remembered that his wife actually gave him and thought it must be his wife that had the original name, and it changed to his name after she gave it to him. Although he wasn''t aware of the real power of the Supreme VIP Card, he already learned a few things from his Father and Grandfather until he was sick of it. Nothing ordinary was in their conversation. That was why as soon as he saw Alex''s name on the screen, he thought the wife loved him so much to even change the original name of the card. If Alexander actually got a scratch in this place, his wife would¡­ Song Jiaoren shuddered over the thought alone. His body tensed up, and he turned off the computer before making his way back to Alex. "I¡­ I have confirmed your identity, Sir." Song Jiaoren knelt on one knee as he presented Alex''s card respectfully. Alex was slightly surprised by his action, but he saw the system''s notification. [It''s normal for him to act that way, Host.] ''Should I play along then?'' Alex asked inwardly. [Yes. The more respectful they are, the more advantage you can get while negotiating with them.] ''I see. Thank you.'' Alex wasn''t aware that Alicia was the one operating the system. If he knew, he might even ignore Song Jiaoren and talk to her. On the other hand, Alicia was smiling playfully as she would have her fun with Alex soon. After listening to the system''s instruction, Alex took the card and smiled. "Thank you." Song Jiaoren rose from the ground and bowed politely. "Since everything has been confirmed, I would like to inform the Patriarch and Grand Elder about this. After all, it will be better if they know about this as soon as possible, so we won''t waste Sir''s time." Alex nodded. "Alright. Let''s proceed according to your plan." "I understand. There is a guest room inside my courtyard. Let me guide you there." Song Jiaoren stretched his hand, asking Alex to follow him. Alex didn''t hesitate and started walking for a few minutes until he arrived inside the guest room. It could be said that the guest room alone was a kind to a single courtyard. Its size was huge, and the atmosphere was peaceful. He thought this must be the highest quality guest room in this place. "Do you need anything for your stay? I will immediately arrange the maids to serve you." Song Jiaoren asked. "Nothing. I don''t need anyone. I would rather have a peaceful time here alone." Alex rejected him. "I understand." Song Jiaoren nodded and left him. As soon as he left, Alex glanced toward the corner of the room and called, "Nicole." "Young Master." Nicole emerged from the wall as she smiled seductively and knelt on one knee. "Have you been well this whole time?" "I am fine. Thank you for worrying about me." "Then, do you know anything about the first elder and the third elder?" "I think they will be taken care of today or tomorrow," Nicole said with confidence. "Why do you say so?" "Song Jiaoren has been investigating them after hearing that you have a Supreme VIP Card. Of course, he also has been trying to communicate with his Father and Grandfather. Although they don''t believe him, they still take a precaution against the two elders. That''s why if the moment they move, these two elders wouldn''t have the time to react." "I see." Alex thought for a moment and said, "Do they have other accomplices?" "I have checked all the elders and other leaders in their ranks, but I haven''t found a single clue. There is no weird behavior either. So, I think it''s only them." "Alright. Go to Song Jiaoren now and check their conversation. Song Jiaoren aside, I am still not sure whether the two old men will act or not." "I understand. Even though it''s considered taboo to put a scratch on the Supreme VIP Card holder, the human heart is really wondrous. I will make sure of their intention, and hopefully, they have no bad thought on you." Nicole nodded solemnly before vanishing into thin air. "I finally finished all the matters. I only need to wait now." Alex sighed before the system appeared again. [You still have one important matter.] [Premium Ticket x5] Alex was slightly startled. The system usually did not remind him about this and let him have his time. That was why the sudden aggressiveness was quite shocking. "Fine. Use my Premium Tickets." Alex had no thought about this and used the tickets nonchalantly. Suddenly, the system girl appeared, albeit today was a bit different. Instead of brown hair, it was purple hair. Instead of Lin Xingzhi, it was¡­ "Alicia!" Alex dropped his jaw and blinked his eyes a few times. "It''s been a while, Alex." Alicia smiled while she carried the white box to him. "You¡­ How can you be here?" "What? You don''t want me here?" Alicia pouted. "No, no." Alex shook his head furiously. "Haha¡­ I am just joking." Alicia chuckled as she put down the white box. "Sister Xingzhi is not here for the time being, so I am replacing her. Though because you choose this option, I can only stay in this world for fifteen minutes." "Ah¡­ I should have come to the Gacha Palace." Alex fell down as he regretted his earlier choice. Alicia only patted Alex''s head and smiled gently. "It''s fine. I will become the system for today, so we can chat later." "Really?" "Yeah. I am taking a break from my training." Alicia nodded. "That''s good then." Alex then rose from the ground and felt relieved. "Still¡­" Alicia suddenly hugged him tightly. "Husband, I really miss you." Alex closed his eyes and hugged her back. Without saying a single word, they knew how much each other missed them. They hugged for five minutes and released all their emotions before Alicia looked up and kissed him. "I heard that Elder Sister Lea has a kid already¡­" Alicia said as she rested her head on Alex''s chest. "Yeah. I met her already." "We can still meet them, right?" "I am still practicing my Space Element. Sooner or later, I should be able to seal my strength along with you. After that, we and Firia can visit that world again." Alex nodded. "I am looking forward to it. Besides, you need to reach God Stage first since I can''t go to you right now." "Don''t worry. I will be visiting you soon, and it won''t take too long, I promise¡­ Though forgive me if the little girl has become a teenager." "Well, I can''t play her chubby cheeks." She chuckled. "Don''t worry. There is still a possibility of Elder Sister Mia to have a kid," Alex joked. "Don''t push yourself alright?" "Yes." Alicia thought for a moment and changed the topic. "Alright. I think I shouldn''t talk about this any longer since I have a few things I want to talk about. Firstly, it''s about Letizia." "It''s not like I am like her or love her¡­" Alex immediately explained his stance, so she wouldn''t misunderstand. After all, giving her that Space Ring could easily be interpreted as giving it to a new lover. Alicia chuckled upon the misunderstanding Alex had. "I''m not talking about that. What I want to say is... She seems to be loyal to you, so I think you should clear your relationship with her immediately. If she still wants to follow you when she reaches God Stage, I don''t mind taking her and teaching her. She will be a powerful force in Eulja anyway." "Oh, that¡­ Who knows? She seems to have an attachment to her mother in this world, so I will think about it later. Though I believe giving her that message is probably fine¡­ Or not. She must be practicing right now, so it''s better to not distract her mind first." Alex nodded. "I will leave the timing in your hand." Alicia nodded. "That''s right. I have passed Firia right now because she is a bit too busy and reached Martial Saint before her." "Ah. It seems I have¡ª!" Alex felt guilty, but Alicia stopped him by closing his mouth with her hand. "It''s fine. I can be this fast because I don''t have anything to do. Sooner or later, I will need to search for a planet to train myself alone as to gather experience. I don''t want to have a high cultivation base but no prowess. Meanwhile, Firia gets so many experiences in this world while raising her strength. To think you have endured this type of process this whole time¡­ I''m sorry." "Don''t be sorry. I chose to do this myself." Alex smiled gently as he put his right hand on her cheek. "You also have suffered so much because of me, so you should sit there and relax, I will come to meet you soon." "Hehe¡­ That''s right. We haven''t opened your Gacha. Let''s open it first, and I will go back after that." Alicia felt that she only had two or three minutes left. Alex thought for a moment and agreed. He opened the box on the ground and touched the first ball as a scroll emerged from within. [Array Paper (SR) x1] He continued with the other four in succession. [Water Tank (R) x1] [Rank 8 Monster Blood (SR) x1] [Heaven Piercing Bow (UR) x1] [Heaven Splitting Sword Technique (SR) x1] "¡­" Alicia fell into silence before she apologized. "I''m sorry. I give you a water tank¡­ That useless thing." "It''s fine. A certain woman gave dozens of them." Alex shrugged. "Though I can get three SR and one UR in a single five times draw¡­ This is amazing. The Array Paper must come from rank 8 monster skin, so I should be able to create a rank 8 Array Plate with it. On the other hand, I don''t think I need the Sword Technique right now because all the techniques in my repertoire are strong enough until I reach Martial Saint or beyond." "This bow must be for Rose then." She pointed at the purple bow. "Yeah. I have put the rank 7 bow in Rose''s Gacha, so this will be the next weapon I will give." Alex nodded and stroked his chin as if he fell into deep thought. "That''s good then. She is a good girl that always follows your words, you know." "Yeah. She is a good girl. I hope she won''t follow it blindly like a robot." Alex nodded. "You shouldn''t worry about that. What you are teaching is right, so the chance of it happening is very low." Alicia nodded before she realized that her body started to disappear. "I think it''s time for me to go." Alex looked at Alicia and sighed. Alicia kissed him for one last time as she said, "We shall meet again soon. At that time, we can enjoy ourselves until we are bored¡­ Just kidding, I won''t be bored with you." Alex closed his eyes and smiled. "Yeah. I also won''t." He grabbed Alicia and hugged her tightly. Even if her body disappeared, he wanted it to disappear in his embrace. Alicia also recognized his feelings and hugged him back with a smile. After Alicia disappeared, Alex let out a long sigh, hoping it would last longer. [What''s with the sigh? Even though I don''t have a body in front of you, we can still talk this way. You don''t have anything to do anyway.] Alex chuckled as he nodded. "Haha¡­ You are right." They then started talking about many things from the matter in the lower world, his current world, and so on. It was a refreshing feeling for Alex because it had been a while since they last talked. Alicia also relieved her stress from training and immediately went back as soon as Lin Xingzhi returned. Chapter 714 - Song Jiaorens Plan Meanwhile, on the other side of the Blackwade Clan''s mansion, three people were discussing a matter of importance in a quiet room. "I have confirmed everything, and it''s indeed his Supreme VIP Card." Song Jiaoren nodded with a solemn look. "What are we going to do now?" "If it''s truly a Supreme VIP Card, it will be troublesome." Song Ping, Song Jiaoren''s father, nodded his head while stroking his chin. "You two haven''t realized the true terror of the Supreme VIP Card. My Grandfather or your great-great-grandfather was sent by the family to open the branch in this place. I often heard the stories when he was there. It was around five or six thousand years ago, I guess. There was a man that helped the Blackwade Clan to rise." Their grandfather, the grand elder, said in a pacifying tone. "Why do you talk about this, Grandfather?" "Because that person had destroyed many worlds. Take our world as an example, the moment he came to this type of world, billions of people would lose their lives. He didn''t know many things about this person, except his name¡­ Alexander Sirius." "!!!" Song Jiaoren and Song Ping looked at each other, thinking the same thing. "Do you think they are the same person? But the person in your story should be a God Rank Expert¡­ Not, a Martial Monarch." "That''s right. It might be a coincidence." The two agreed¡­ No, the two refused to believe such an existence was Alex. "I am also not sure myself, but there is no assurance that someone can change their name for their card¡­" He sighed and looked at the two mysteriously. "What should we do, Grandfather?" Song Jiaoren asked while sweating. Although his grandfather didn''t explain everything, he could somehow understand the severances of this matter. "It''s to help him, of course. You want to go to the Main Clan, right? I know that you can do that after you reach God Stage, but you might not have a high position. It''s better if he nominates you and goes to the main clan before reaching God Stage. You can grow more that way. In any case, no Supreme VIP Card holder would have a low status. After all, who can participate in the life and death of the main clan where there are so many experts? Even if the card is his wife''s card, his status is still far more amazing. That''s why if you really want to go, I won''t have any qualms." Song Jiaoren looked down and fell into deep thought. On the other hand, Song Ping patted his son''s head. "I have seen the report about this Alexander Sirius. It''s not like he is a fool or something, so I think it''s a good idea to help him in this world and ask him to nominate you. Besides, his Spirit Nest is also strong. Rather than having such an opponent, it''s better to have him as your friend. If it''s not possible, then it''s better to be his follower. You can live on your own after you reach the main clan anyway." "But¡­ How about the clan? I realized I was too excited about this and forgot about the clan. If I were gone, who will take my position?" Song Jiaoren asked with a worried expression. "Don''t worry. We will handle this situation well. There is still your younger sister. Although she is a woman, she is quite capable. As long as I pour my heart in teaching her, she will do just fine." "Grandfather¡­" Song Jiaoren widened his eyes. "I understand. I will try to follow him in this world and talk about the nomination thing after our relationship has gotten better." "Sure. You are a smart child, so I am sure you will be alright. Just make sure to learn his character first, so you don''t unconsciously offend him." "I understand." Song Jiaoren nodded before changing the topic. "There is another thing I want to discuss." "Sure. Do tell us." "Do you remember the matter about the Fourth Elder?" Song Jiaoren asked without any expression. However, the two in front of him suddenly turned serious. "Do you mean the first elder and the third elder?" "Yeah. They have known the existence of the Supreme VIP Card in his hand. I have been keeping close eyes on them, so they are laying low right now. However, I am sure they are trying to come up with a plan, so I want to eliminate them as soon as possible before they can do anything." Song Jiaoren nodded solemnly. "Still, this is a tricky problem. On one hand, we can''t justify how these two elders die if people know we kill them. On the other hand, there is a chance of them risking the entire family life by confronting that Alexander." Song Ping closed his eyes, pondering over the matter. "That''s why I want to talk it out. I am still wondering whether we should release the news about the Supreme VIP Card or not." Song Jiaoren asked. "The problem is¡­ We don''t know whether the clan members will believe it or not. After all, we have been keeping it secret this whole time. If we suddenly announce it and kill the two elders, there will be many oppositions. Even if I can kill them with my 10-Star Martial Saint Strength, the clan will start to decline since there are only a few people left with strength 7-Star or above." "I know, Grandfather. That''s why I also have another trump card." Song Jiaoren smirked as he gave Alex''s Space Ring to them. "I have estimated all the items inside the Space Ring, and it could reach two million Spirit Crystals. If we sell them over the years, I am sure we can get more than five million Spirit Crystals easily." "!!!" Both of them widened their eyes as they checked the Space Ring and were utterly speechless. "This¡­" "This transaction, how they plotted against the Fourth Elder, and the release information about the Supreme VIP Card. I am sure these three are enough to fabricate them. Besides, I have won the majority of the elders, so they will surely support me." Song Jiaoren nodded with confidence. "If we are releasing these three pieces of information in a single meeting¡­" Song Ping closed his eyes for a second and explained. "Firstly, the transaction is really great. If we can get a few million Spirit Crystals, it can put the burden on the two elders and strip them of their positions. As for the loss of the Fourth Elder, we don''t really have enough evidence for this, so most of the elders won''t believe it. "And we still need to deal with the Supreme VIP Card. Not only this might also get the attention of other influences, but the clan members might also become unsatisfied as to why we keep the information to ourselves." Song Ping revealed every disadvantage they would get. Song Jiaoren smirked as he explained his plan. "That''s when we are announcing his name as the representative as Spirit Nest. We will put all the blame about Fourth Elder on the First Elder and the Third Elder to fabricate them from allying themselves with the Fire God Clan. After all, it''s easy to manipulate their thoughts as long as we ask them why only the third elder came back. "At that time, the Spirit Nest decided to give us some face because of the Blackwade Clan from the Northern Continent. However, the third elder needed to kill the Fourth Elder as well to erase the evidence. There might still be some dissatisfaction with the other elders, but we can simply say we are willing to use one million Spirit Crystals to raise our clan strength. We still get a few million anyway from this transaction, so I think one million is more than enough to gain Alexander Sirius''s trust and solve the grievances he has in this clan." "It seems you have thought everything¡­" Song Ping smirked. "It''s really a shame that you can''t be the Patriarch after me¡­" "Don''t worry, Father. If I become a God Rank Expert and gain status in the main clan, I won''t forget about this place. I might even be able to get more and more people from this place to train inside the Main Clan. After that, I can send you resources and other things." Song Jiaoren assured him with a smile. "I, Song Jiaoren, will still fight for this clan even if I am not here in the future." "Good son, good son." Song Ping laughed out loud as he patted his shoulders. "I will handle them if they are trying to resist. In fact, the moment they resist, we can mobilize the other elders and kill them. Our reputation will get smeared a little bit, but we can restore it pretty soon." "Yeah, Grandfather." Song Jiaoren nodded. "Besides, Ancient Ruin is going to open soon. With the addition of Alexander Sirius, I am sure the Fire God Clan won''t dare to come. Suppose they are coming; they will die anyway." "I see. Are you going with him inside the Ancient Battlefield?" "I don''t think so. Judging from his attitude and battle prowess, I doubt he will go along with someone else. Hence, I am thinking about forfeiting this chance to give my little sister a chance. After all, we need her to be a 10-Star Martial Saint in the future." Song Jiaoren smiled. Song Ping was startled by his decision. "Are you sure? This is a chance that will only come every five hundred years, you know." "I know. I will apologize to Alexander Sirius myself for this and make sure Ling''er not to be rude to him." Song Jiaoren nodded. "Of course, I will accompany him to the entrance of Ancient Ruin while explaining my own reason. Besides, I am sure everything I can get inside that Ancient Battlefield, I can get it better from the Main Clan." "Ren¡­" Song Ping was filled with worry. "Aren''t you putting too much risk on this matter?" "I am ready to gamble my future in this matter, Father. Please let me do it." Song Jiaoren smiled. "In addition, we can also remove the Fire God Clan from this continent, so this is a big chance for us. That''s right, I want to add another thing. I heard that after defeating the Joyful Union Sect, he decided to give a huge amount of wealth to the Blackwade Clan in the Northern Continent. I am sure I won''t be treated badly." "I understand. This is for the sake of confirmation. Are you sure he is a Supreme VIP Card holder?" "I am sure, Grandfather. You can check the log itself after this." Song Jiaoren nodded. "Father should also see it. This way, you can be more confident in your son." "It''s not like we are not confident, we are just worried." Song Ping shook his head. "Anyway, I will talk with your mother about having your sister as the future patriarch." "Thank you, Father." Song Jiaoren cupped his hand and bowed his head. "What thank you? I am not your father for nothing." "Since Song Ping already has a role for tonight, I will go to our clan treasury and grab some items to help us in the fight tomorrow. After all, it''s better to do it in tomorrow''s meeting to show our commitment to this." "Thank you, Grandfather." Song Jiaoren cupped his hand again. "I will handle the talk with Alexander Sirius about this." "Alright." The two nodded at the same time. Song Jiaoren then rose and bowed his head. "Now, I will excuse myself. Good night, Father, Grandfather." "Good night, (grand) son." ¡­ Unbeknownst to them, there was a single woman that was listening to their conversation. She had hidden her presence this whole time to ensure their intention, and the result was quite satisfying, at least, for her. Knowing that the conversation had finished, she decided to return to Alex''s side. Inside Alex''s courtyard, he was talking with Alicia before Nicole suddenly appeared in front of him like a ninja. "Master." "Oh, Nicole¡­ Wait a minute, Alicia." Alex paused for a moment and asked Nicole. "How is it?" Chapter 715 - Speechless "How is it?" "The card seems to be effective. They won''t attack you at all and will support you on every occasion. Song Jiaoren is betting on you to get you to nominate him to the Main Blackwade Clan." "Is that so? I know there is a Blackwade Clan out there, but this is surprising. To see he wants to go there by my nomination¡­ It means he wants to go there before reaching God Stage. But can I even nominate him or something like that?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "It''s an easy task for a Supreme VIP Card holder. However, you need to contact the main clan first." "If I want to do that, I need to reach God Stage first, right?" "Indeed. However, Young Master has an extraordinary cultivating speed. I am sure you can get there in around five to ten years. For Song Jiaoren, he might only barely get another star within that time, so I believe you can fulfill the promise." "I see." Alex looked down and crossed his arms, pondering the matter. "I want to see what he will do first. If he won''t do anything, isn''t that my loss?" "Certainly. For the time being, they are planning to eliminate the first elder and the third elder. Not only will it protect you, but it also proves their stance to support you. Secondly, they will announce the Supreme VIP Card, but nothing about you being the holder, I think. I will need to check this one tomorrow. The last thing you need to know is about the Ancient Ruin. Well, since Young Master wants to go alone, I don''t think this is very important." Nicole shrugged. "What is it?" "Song Jiaoren has given up his slot to his younger sister since she will be the next patriarch." Alex narrowed his eyes, recognizing the meaning behind these words. "I see. Song Jiaoren has truly bet his life with this. If he wins, he will be the biggest winner. If he loses, it''s over." "Yeah. This also means that we can use the Blackwade Clan as long as we are in this world." Nicole nodded with a solemn face. "I understand what you mean¡­ But I only want to destroy the Fire God Clan and do some damage to Snow White Mountain. After that, I don''t need Blackwade Clan''s help anymore." Alex thought for a moment. "Well, an ally in this world doesn''t sound too bad even if it''s only as a business partner. Besides, I can also make Rose be protected by the Freedom Sect and Blackwade Clan after I leave." "You shouldn''t forget about the Drunken Pavilion, Young Master." Nicole reminded him with a smile. "I don''t know about the Drunken Pavilion. I only know that Evelyn will surely protect her." Alex said mysteriously. Seeing how Manness''s act, he didn''t know whether he would still take care of Rose. After all, Manness just used him to solve the internal problem of Drunken Pavilion. "I understand. I will leave right now." As soon as she said that, Nicole disappeared. Alex realized why she left in such a hurry and turned around, finding someone behind his door. *Knock Knock!* "Come in." Alex waved his hand and opened the door with Spiritual Energy. Song Jiaoren cupped his hands first before entering the room. "Sir¡­ We have a problem in our family and will solve it soon. I am sorry to trouble you, but I would like to request you to not leave this courtyard tomorrow." Alex glanced at him, fully knowing what they wanted to do. "I understand." "We will handle your transaction after we finish this problem. However, Sir must know that the transaction is too big, so we also need time to calculate everything and prepare the money for you. If Sir doesn''t mind, I would like you to wait for a few days." "Don''t worry. I don''t have any plan for the time being." Alex nodded with a smile. "Though I might leave the Blackwade Clan and stroll around the city." "If that is the case, I will be your guide." Song Jiaoren smiled calmly. "Haha¡­ I will take you up on that offer." Song Jiaoren nodded and continued. "I would like to inform you about another matter." "Do tell." "I am going to pass my quota to fight inside the Ancient Ruin to my younger sister, so I can''t help Sir inside the Ancient Battlefield." "It''s fine. I am planning to go alone in that place anyway." "I understand. And one last thing that I want to ask is when will we attack the Fire God Clan?" Song Jiaoren''s face turned serious when he entered this topic. "Not too soon¡­ In three to five years. It will be bad if we attack now anyway." Alex shook his head with a calm expression. Song Jiaoren thought for a moment and realized Alex''s attention. "I see. If we fight the Fire God Clan now and somehow eliminate them, they will become the symbol of martyrdom, and the disciples of that clan will fight to the death. Even if we attack them now, we won''t escape unscathed." "That''s right. Even if we kill a thousand of them, we will suffer eight hundred." Alex paused for a moment. "I want to weaken the Fire God Clan first by making them decline like this for a few years. If we put more and more pressure on them, I think many disciples will leave their clan. "Seeing the tension between us and the Fire God Clan, the disciples should know that they might lose their lives if they stay, so three to five years are ideal for me." Alex nodded before adding in his heart. ''Well, I am also going to reach 5-Star Martial Saint first before fighting them to make sure I am not useless there.'' "As expected of Sir." Song Jiaoren was admiring Alex''s wisdom. He knew he wasn''t the smartest person in warfare since there was Princess Elizabeth, but it seemed even she couldn''t hold the candle against this Alexander Sirius. "Still, there is a huge possibility of the Fire God Clan allying with other influences. Phantasm Sect never showed any interest in this area, but the Snow White Mountain, the Ancient Blue Family, and the Divine Kingdom might join them. Even if we get the support of Drunken Pavilion, it will be hard." Song Jiaoren furrowed his eyebrows. "Don''t worry. The Divine Kingdom won''t interfere." Alex assured him. Song Jiaoren widened his eyes and opened his mouth. He blinked a few times and got shocked once again. "The current Divine Kingdom is indeed still ruled by their king. However, fifty percent of their forces have been under Princess Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the king and Prince Julius only have the rest fifty percent. I am sure Princess Elizabeth can handle this situation unless the king and Prince Julius bet it all and act recklessly." Alex nodded. "I understand. Then the problem will be Ancient Blue Family and Snow White Mountain." "I think Snow White Mountain will join their alliance." "If that is the case, the Ancient Blue Family will certainly join their alliance. I am not sure whether the Drunken Pavilion will still fight together with us in this type of situation." "I am aware. That''s why I am preparing for another trump card. After I reach Martial Saint, I am planning to scare the Ancient Blue Family away." Alex smirked evilly. "What do you mean, Sir? I am not sure whether we can scare them away. Even if I and the Drunken Pavilion come with you, I doubt we can convince them to back away." "Are you thinking I am planning to have a three vs. three fight?" Alex smiled mysteriously. Looking at this smile, Song Jiaoren thought for a moment and dropped his jaw to the ground. "Are you planning to involve the fourth influence to join us?" "Correct. As for the fourth influence, I am sorry, I can''t tell you just yet." Alex nodded and closed his eyes. He thought, ''How can I tell you about Freedom Sect this soon. They are basically my trump card.'' "I understand. If we have four influences, the Ancient Blue Family might back away. No, we might even be able to have them play along with us as long as we pay them high enough. If they can fake their alliance and back away right before the big war starts, the Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain will be surrounded by the four influences. "And with Sir''s Fourth Influence, we can scare the enemy and weaken their prowess by showing our strength difference. With this physiological battle alone, our forces will be able to destroy the two influences easier because they are low in morale. This way, we can win the war while minimizing our loss¡­" Song Jiaoren fell into silence as he suddenly looked at Alex with his eyes and mouth wide open. "Don''t tell me¡­ This is your plan all along?" Alex smirked. "I have been fighting this way this whole time. If I don''t minimize my loss, I won''t be able to fight the Southern Kingdom, Mount Hua Sect, Joyful Union Sect, or even Fire God Clan in the Northern Continent continuously. Besides, I am going only with a few elites capable of fighting thousands of people." Song Jiaoren gasped. ''So, this is Alexander Sirius. No wonder so many influences have been razed to the ground while the Fire God Clan has this kind of problem. If Blackwade Clan actually becomes his enemy¡­'' He decided to shake that thought off because he already decided to be his ally, or even worse, follower. Even so, he didn''t feel it was humiliating. From talent, strength, brain, connection, and composure, he had nothing that could beat Alex. "I understand the grand plan." Song Jiaoren nodded and thought, ''With this, I won''t need to be scared of them allying with Snow White Mountain or even Ancient Blue Family. It seems the Fire God Clan meets the opponent that they can''t afford to offend¡­ If I can get closer to the Spirit Nest or this Fourth Influence¡­ I think I can set up a different type of measure to protect the Blackwade Clan in the future.'' "Anyway, is that all you want to talk about?" "Yeah. I want to remind you that we can go to the Ancient Ruin next week. Since our Blackwade Clan is relatively closer than the other influences, we will arrive within a few days at most." Alex thought for a moment, wondering whether he should go with Blackwade Clan or not. In the end, he accepted the invitation because he was already a guest in their place. "I will leave it to you." "I understand." Song Jiaoren nodded, rose from the floor, and bowed to him politely. "I will excuse myself." "Alright." Song Jiaoren then left the room only to hear a woman''s voice from his right. "Big Brother?" Song Jiaoren glanced to his right and found a blonde-haired woman walking toward him. Her hair was still wet as if she just had a bath. "I heard that you have a guest¡­ Considering you discuss something with Father and Grandfather secretly, this guest should be someone very important." "What are you doing here then, Ling''er?" He asked. "I am just wondering who big brother''s guest is¡­" Song Ling''er looked at the door behind him and realized she could find the guest inside there. She was intrigued to see a guest could make this sudden change in the family. "Father and Grandfather had a severe expression when they left earlier, so I am curious. He/she is staying in the most honored guest room in your courtyard to boot." "You are curious?" Song Jiaoren noticed how his sister looked at the door behind him, so he walked toward her. He put his hand on her sister''s shoulder and asked her to walk. "Let''s go then." Song Ling''er nodded with a smile and followed her big brother. However, she was surprised that he passed the door without opening it and continued walking down the hallway. "Big brother¡­ That''s the room, right?" Song Jiaoren only smiled and forced her to continue walking. "Continue¡­" "But that''s the room¡­" Song Jiaoren still forced her before she suddenly struggled. Song Ling''er wanted to leave his grasp but to no avail. "Brother¡­" "Let this big brother educate you first before you could see my guest." Song Jiaoren smiled evilly. "Eh? I.n.c.e.s.t is a big no, big brother!" Song Ling''er screamed with a pale face. "Which big brother wants his own little sister? This is why I should educate you. Your mind is filled with those things!" Song Jiaoren continued dragging her somewhere, and the peace came again. Chapter 716 - Killing the Pests The next day, Song Jiaoren summoned every single elder in the clan to have a clan meeting. No one dared to be absent because the one who invited them was Song Jiaoren''s Grandfather, Song Hun. Although he had retired for long, many still knew his strength, and the elders feared this old person. Song Ping sat on his seat as Song Jiaoren stood beside him. "Thank you for coming in this short notice." Song Jiaoren opened the meeting as soon as he noticed no seat was empty anymore. "Young Master. I don''t mean to be rude, but can you please cut to the chase? The longer we are neglecting our job, the worse it is." One of the elders asked politely. "I understand. I will keep it simple then." Song Jiaoren nodded, looked at Song Ping, who gave him a ''Go'' sign. "I have only two things to announce. It''s about our VIP Card. "I assume¡­ All elders must have known about our VIP Card, right?" Song Jiaoren paused for a moment. "All elders should have their own card to prove if the opposite party really has our VIP Card. However, there is another trick for this VIP Card." "!!!" The elders opened their eyes wide, curious about what he wanted to say. Seeing that the Patriarch was calm, they knew it was the truth. "There is actually another rank above our VIP Card, and I assume all elders have heard about it even from the rumor." Song Jiaoren nodded and continued. "Don''t tell me¡­" "The rumor is true¡­" The elders gasped as some of them rose from their seats. Song Jiaoren raised his hand, stopping them from commenting. "That''s right. The Supreme VIP Card actually exists. In fact, we are simply a branch clan." "A branch clan?" Song Jiaoren nodded without a change of expression. "Yes. Our Main Clan is outside this world, and the one who has the authority to produce the Supreme VIP Card is only them. Our Main Clan is filled with God Rank Experts, so I assume I shouldn''t say many things about them, right?" The moment they heard God Rank Experts, they were stupefied. "If one holds a Supreme VIP Card, they can be treated like an elder in the Main Clan¡­ In other words, our status is far below such an esteemed person. That''s why! I want to say this to all of you. If the person, who has our Supreme VIP Card, calls our main clan, there is only one result." Song Jiaoren paused, creating tension before he released his aura and narrowed his eyes. "Clan Extermination." "Young Master. Is that true?" One of the elders asked. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Song Jiaoren, haven''t told a single lie and will only tell the truth for this meeting." Song Jiaoren proved it with his action almost immediately. The elders were stupefied by his decisiveness. But it also showed how serious this matter was. They gulped down and stayed quiet, listening to what Song Jiaoren had to say. "There are two elders that are targeting the Supreme VIP Card holder, and thankfully, we realize it before it is too late. First Elder, Third Elder, what do you have to say?" Song Jiaoren glared at them. "What? Do you doubt us, Young Master?" The first elder rose from his seat and slammed the table. He looked at Song Ping and cupped his hands. "Patriarch. Is this your meaning? If not, I implore you to stop Young Master from slandering me. I have been loyal to the Blackwade Clan, and I can''t stand someone insulting me after so much effort." Song Ping didn''t say anything while Song Jiaoren continued his speech. "Then, I want to ask the Third Elder. Why would only you escape alive from the disaster in the Northern Continent? Can you please tell us the story again?" Song Jing gulped down. He started telling the story again only to find Song Xu shaking his head. Unlike the first one, the elders could pick more flaws when they heard it for the second time. Song Jiaoren smiled upon finding this and asked. "Then, I would like to ask why Elder Song Jing could return safely? How about Elder Song Yi, Our Fourth Elder? And how about the people of our Blackwade Clan from the Northern Continent? "According to my information, everyone is alive. How about Elder Song Jing explain this to us?" Song Jiaoren asked with a smile. "I¡­" Song Jing started sweating as he tried to find a good explanation. "How could I know? I ran away as soon as possible." "Is that so? I have investigated the Blackwade Clan there, only to find that Elder Song Yi also boarded the ship together with you." After hearing Song Jiaoren''s argument, the elders started whispering with each other, having their own unique thoughts. Song Jing glanced at the First Elder, who was looking away, abandoning him almost instantly. Song Jiaoren noticed this slight movement and smirked. "One more thing. I also found out that you immediately came to the First Elder''s courtyard before reporting your status to the family. According to the rule of the family, such an action is forbidden. "I am sure that you, as an elder, should know it as well, right? However, why would you actually ignore the rule and head to the First Elder''s courtyard first?" Without even saying anything, the elders behind them realized Song Jing and Song Xu had a connection behind the scene. They stared at the two elders, waiting for their arguments. However, Song Xu decided to abandon the ship and smiled. "Young Master, you jest. Song Jing wanted to kill me because I once had a.d.u.l.tery with his wife because she seduced me. I have no part in this matter." Even if he needed to lose some face, he needed to prove himself innocent. Song Jiaoren smiled even wider and stated. "Is that so? Then I would like to know why your relationship seems to be good. Besides, I know that you have killed the Fourth Elder''s sister. "If Elder Song Yi was Elder Song Xu''s enemy, Elder Song Jing didn''t need to kill him because they had the same grievances. Now you have conflicted yourself, Elder Song Xu." Song Jiaoren smirked. Although he didn''t lie from the start, he didn''t say he couldn''t make things up. However, he still managed to make a solid argument, cornering both Song Xu and Song Jing. The whispering behind them became even louder. "There is also proof that Song Yu, the heir of the Blackwade Clan Family from the Northern Continent, died in the process. And considering the grudge between Fire God Clan and Alexander Sirius and the bond between him and Song Yu, I am wondering what is the relationship between the two elders and the Fire God Clan?" "I don''t have any relationship with the Fire God Clan." Song Xu slammed the table and denied it immediately. What he said was the truth, but it was already too late to deny it because he had been trapped inside Song Jiaoren''s trap. The rest of the elders could also see this situation. No matter how hard Song Xu and Song Jing defended themselves, they would still have a missing part that was convincing enough to shut them all. As the two elders were about to shout, Song Jiaoren declared. "These two elders have a conspiracy inside the clan." Song Ping then took out a Space Ring and declared. "I have seen everything inside this Space Ring. The owner of this ring is the current Supreme VIP Card holder. Inside this ring is more than five million worth of Spirit Crystal. "The two elders not only want to grab the Supreme VIP Card to enjoy the status, but they also want to possess this Space Ring. However, their action has brought disaster to the Blackwade Clan. If not because of our esteemed guest''s graciousness, our clan will have been exterminated by now. That''s why I, Song Ping, the Patriarch of the Blackwade Clan, strip Song Xu and Song Jing from their status." *Hiss~!* The room fell into silence. Song Ping used this chance to create another uproar. "We also will use one million Spirit Crystals to increase our clan strength. I promise you as a Patriarch." The elders were amazed. Song Ping''s promise was certainly not light. "Everything has been revealed. Song Xu and Song Jing have raised a conspiracy within the clan and have a connection with the Fire God Clan. Because this is the only reason why these two suggested the previous alliance with the Fire God Clan to hunt down a certain person long ago. Hence, the two shall be removed from their title and executed." Song Ping declared out loud. Song Xu and Song Jing opened their eyes wide, never expecting the situation to turn out like this. The Patriarch and Song Jiaoren didn''t let them to even defend themselves. And by spewing half ''lies'' and half truth, they had declared to execute them. Song Jing released his Spiritual Energy and shouted. "No, no! It was the First Elder. He only used me and gave me Vein Poison Powder to kill Song Yi and Song Yu." Song Jing was in despair, and the fact that he revealed their secret, it also removed the chance for Song Xu to explain. No one would actually believe him after all this mess. There was still one escape route for this situation. "Shut up, you idiot. If you don''t want to die, fight!" Song Xu roared as he released his Spiritual Energy. Even after falling from grace, Song Xu was still a 9-Star Martial Monarch nonetheless. "I will take care of the Patriarch. You grab Song Jiaoren. We can escape¡ª!" "Ah!" Before he finished his words, Song Jing screamed out of pain before his body fell to the ground. There was a hole on his left chest as big as his heart. It was at this moment, Song Xu realized another attack coming from behind. He turned around and saw a giant beam coming toward him. "Sh*t!" Knowing that he couldn''t avoid it, he sacrificed his right hand to dodge this attack. "Song Hun!" The figure of an old man appeared inside the room. He wielded a red spear that enhanced his Fire Element. This blazing spear was one of the treasures he took from the treasury last night. It could be considered as one of the strongest weapons in the world. That was why he could kill the third elder only with perfect timing. Song Hun looked at Song Xu and snorted. "I have been treating you nicely this whole time, and this is how you repay my Blackwade Clan? Song Xu, you traitor!" "What traitor? You are the one that has framed me?" Song Xu shouted out loud. "You still dare to say something like this after all the proofs are out? Die, Song Xu!" Song Hun leaped toward him. Song Xu took out his sword, striking Song Hun''s spear, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and noticed that he was stabbed from behind. "Song Ping¡­" Song Xu slashed his sword again, blowing these two away with his last struggle. Song Jiaoren also noticed this movement and instructed out loud. "Create a barrier to protect the building. Make sure this traitor doesn''t escape." "Yes, Young Master." Although some of them were still not convinced by Song Jiaoren and co. They had no choice other than helping others because they were in the minority. The elders were positioning themselves around the room and erected a translucent white barrier. This was to make sure that their clash didn''t affect the outside world. "Sword Singularity." Song Xu''s body became weaker after getting injured in two positions. Song Ping and Song Hun knew that Song Xu was no longer a threat. They kept him inside the area and started wearing him out. Song Jiaoren and the other elders were waiting. It could be a shame to lose 8-Star Martial Saint and 9-Star Martial Saint within a single day, but the one million Spirit Crystals were enough to replace them and even made them stronger. Finally, after five minutes, Song Xu fell to the ground, lifeless. Song Hun beheaded his head and sighed. "It''s easier than I expected¡­ Not that I complain." Chapter 717 - Another Plan for the Ancient Ruin Alex closed his eyes and deactivated his Spirit Eyes. He had seen enough and decided to go back by traveling through the Space Realm. He didn''t say anything and cultivated inside his courtyard. He even canceled his plan about strolling around the area, considering there was nothing to see in the city. A few days later, Song Jiaoren returned to the room and greeted Alex. "Sir Alexander, I apologize for making you wait for a few days." Alex waved his hand with a smile before he sensed another presence and activated his Spirit Eyes. There was another energy standing outside his room as if it was waiting for something. The energy was coming with Song Jiaoren, so he must know. The question he wanted to ask was why this person was waiting outside of his room. "Sir Alexander, we have counted everything, and we will buy them for 2.5 million Spirit Crystals." Song Jiaoren didn''t realize his confusion and continued with the topic, taking out the Space Ring and handing it to Alex. Alex nodded and grabbed the Space Ring with a smile. "Thank you." "No, no. This is my job." Song Jiaoren smiled and waved his hand. "We have also eliminated the First Elder and the Third Elder because they are planning to kill you. On behalf of my family, I deeply apologize." "It''s fine. I know that you also have stopped them for a few years." Alex glanced at the door and asked. "I want to ask something. I wonder who is the person you bring today?" "Ah!" Song Jiaoren glanced at the door and scratched his head, embarrassed. "It''s not like I am hiding it for you. I have said that I won''t participate in the Ancient Ruin since my sister will be the one who goes, right? That''s why I am bringing her here first and introducing her to you, so there won''t be any misunderstanding." Alex finally remembered. A few days ago, he saw Song Jiaoren was approached by a person, and now that he looked at the energy, it was indeed the same person. "I see. Well, I certainly don''t have the mood to deal with the misunderstanding, especially for those who think brawl first before talking." "Haha¡­ I am the same. Hence, I would like to introduce my sister first." Song Jiaoren glanced at the door and called her name. "Ling''er! Come in." "Yes." A soft voice resounded across the room as the girl made her appearance. She smiled toward Alex and bowed to him. "I am honored to see your excellency." Alex was uncomfortable when she called him that. He had gotten used to being called Young Master or Master, but he had yet to get accustomed to other formal things. Even so, he didn''t show it in his face and kept showing his calm face. "This is Song Ling''er. She is a 9-Star Martial Monarch, almost breakthrough to the last level of Martial Monarch. Our father is the same, but she is from my second mother." Song Jiaoren introduced her. Alex nodded, fully knowing her identity due to the information that Nicole got from here. He stretched his hand and smiled. "Nice to meet you. I am Alexander Sirius. As you know, I am the current leader of Spirit Nest." Song Ling''er observed Alex for a while and nodded her head. "The name of Alexander Sirius is like thunder reverberating in one''s ear. I am honored to go to the Ancient Ruin with such a person." "You jest. I am just a simple 8-Star Martial Monarch, no more, no less." Alex smiled. "Anyway, I would like to apologize in advance for her character. I have taught her many things, but it is hard to change one''s character." Song Jiaoren sighed. "What do you mean, Brother? You didn''t even let me sleep for a few days, and now I am tired like this." Ling''er pouted. "This is her character¡­" Song Jiaoren sighed, embarrassed. In front of this serious Alex, he couldn''t just act so casually, especially with Alexander''s status. Even just to prove her sister''s character already made him sweat inside. He glanced at Alex, wondering whether he would be angry or not. To his surprise, Alex was smiling. Little did they know that Alex loved to see brother and sister had a nice relationship because he only experienced it for a few years before everything changed on Earth. Little did he know that his sister was far worse than Song Ling''er. If she was here, who knows what she would do. Alex kept his smile and gentle expression while looking at these two. Song Jiaoren suddenly had a weird thought as he glanced at Alex and his sister back and forth. Before his imagination went out of control, Alex added, "There''s nothing like what you imagine in your mind." "Ah!" Song Jiaoren became embarrassed and sad. He was embarrassed since Alex just saw through him. He was sad that it would seem Alex didn''t find Song Ling''er charming, even though her beauty was on par with the likes of Evelyn or Elizabeth. At the same time, the girl was somehow hurt by the lack of appreciation from Alex, albeit she didn''t dare to show it on her face. Song Jiaoren had told her everything from Alex''s status, Supreme VIP Card, his wife, the Main Blackwade Clan and so on. Although she had a hard time believing it, she had no choice other than to believe it. It was already absurd for a mysterious man to appear and rise through ranks so quickly if he didn''t have those qualities. She was wondering how to help her family and decided just to let her brother take control. "Anyway, Song Ling''er will be the one who enters the Ancient Ruin. I will be accompanying you in your journey of course, but I will only watch from the outside." "I understand." Alex nodded. "Then, we will excuse ourselves and prepare for the Ancient Ruin. I will come here three days later." Song Jiaoren and Song Ling''er stood up and cupped their hands before leaving the room. After they left, Alex took out Anya''s card and asked. "Anya. Do you mind filling me about the Ancient Ruin?" Hearing Alex''s voice, Anya immediately replied. "Sure. What do you want to know? Or Shall I explain from the start?" "From the start please." "Alright. Ancient Ruin is known as a useless ruin by the people because the seven influences hid the fact about the Ancient Ruin. Inside there, you will meet a certain array that will teleport your consciousness to the Ancient Battlefield, where you fight many monsters from thousands of years ago." "Wait!" Alex frowned after finding something was wrong. "Will teleport my consciousness to an Ancient Battlefield? Does this mean I will be going with my soul? It''s not an illusion then. And what is the deal with monsters from thousands of years ago?" "I will explain everything. First of all, you are going to fight with your soul. There is an array there that would help you to construct a real body with your soul. I think you know about the name of the array, right?" Anya asked. "I know. It''s Myriad Soul Body Array. The array will try to form an astral body with your soul¡­ However, this array is classified as a Divine Array, or you can say Rank 9 Array." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait¡­ The fact that this world was a Divine World with many God Rank Experts¡­ Now, I understand the concept." Anya smiled and added. "That''s why there is something that you need to know. This fight is like all or nothing. If you grab many things with you and somehow get killed by the monsters there, then you will get nothing. Hence, people should know when to quit." "I understand about that and the fact that this array is something like this¡­ The Ancient Battlefield must be a real place." Alex frowned. "That''s right. After investigating the area, we have realized the Ancient Battlefield is a huge place underground. Only those arrays in the Ancient Ruin that could teleport people to that place." Alex suddenly thought something ridiculous. "Can I bring Firia inside?" "I don''t know. You might want to check it for yourself. However, I do need to warn you that the place is surrounded by Divine Array, so you should be careful if you want to try. I know that you are planning to have Firia inside¡­ And if you really can go there with your real body, you will be able to summon us as we will fight alongside you. "But there are several warnings that I need to address. First, if you enter the place normally, even if you die, you might only retain some internal injuries that can be healed over time. If you are coming with your real body, you might die there." "I know." Alex nodded his head. "That''s why I am thinking about going with my real body. Remember the fact there are settlements inside that place? I assume that place is holding more than what we actually know." Anya fell into silence. "They are real humans¡­ and the fact that they are there for thousands of years, they might also hold artifacts and other things from God Rank Experts¡­" "Yeah. I think it''s worth the shot. As long as I am careful, I will probably be fine. I have Space Element to help me after all." Alex smirked. "That is still far too dangerous," Anya complained. "I am just trying to maximize all the efforts. How about this? I am going to sneak inside the place while Firia will represent me as the Spirit Nest''s representative. We will go together and check whether they are giving us EXPs and Gacha Tickets. In that case, I will summon all of you. If not, I can still escape inside that Blue Colored Realm. So, you won''t need to worry about me." Alex smiled. Anya thought for a moment. His proposal was indeed tempting. ''The Space World itself is different from the normal world¡­ If you are hiding there, I am sure that no one will be able to endanger you. Considering they are unable to rupture the Space that leads to that world. However, you have said that there might be a chance for a Space Beast to appear there, so I am not sure whether to let you go like that." "How about this? I will leave that place as soon as I know I won''t be able to fight any further? I can enter that place with my real body means I can also escape from there." Alex tried to convince her. Anya closed her eyes and sighed. "I understand. Since you are very adamant about entering it, I will trust you in this matter. But I want you to do three things first." "What is it?" Alex smiled after he succeeded in convincing Anya. "Firstly, you need to check the Ancient Ruin yourself. We are not capable of discerning the arrays inside that place, so I want you to make sure you can go and leave that place whenever you want." "I understand. There are a few days left, so I can go there to check. No, I will be checking that place after I end this conversation." Alex agreed without hesitation. "Then, you need to go back here first and ask Firia about it. Knowing that you are going to risk your life while she is protected by the array¡­ I am sure she will be a bit hurt to hear it. As long as you can convince them, I won''t stop you anymore." "Firia, huh¡­ I want her to get anything we can get inside that place while adding experiences under her belt. It seems I really need to convince her first and can''t wait until everything happens¡­" Alex sighed and nodded. "I understand. I will go there after this." "The last thing I want you to do is to take Sherry, Kyle, and Stina with you. Even if you can''t sneak inside the barrier, they will surely help you. And because of their connection with you, the array will consider you as one being." "Alright. I will go to your place." Chapter 718 - The Array "Nicole, I am going out." Alex glanced at the corner of the room before using his Teleportation Array to go toward their base. A few minutes later, Alex already arrived in front of their base and met Anya and Firia. Firia was in the base for the past few days since she was refining some pills. "Alex¡­ I want to reject you since I need to think about your safety and the fact that my master is a God Rank Expert, but¡­ I think there is no need for me to reject you, right? You are very adamant about it, so I will just respect your decision. However, if I deem the situation is not favorable, can you promise me to teleport back to the surface? Just like how I believe in your decision, can you also respect this wish of mine?" She smiled gently, looking at Alex with hope. Alex was surprised to see Firia giving the ''go'' sign just like that. He had prepared several arguments to persuade her, but it seemed none of them were useful. He closed his eyes for a second and thought. "I understand. I will go back as soon as you say so. But¡­ Suppose I find a way out, I would like to refuse and try my best." "Alright. We have a deal." Firia nodded. "Now what you need to do is to check the array inside the Ancient Ruin. I know it must be a Divine Array Level, but altering or bypassing it shouldn''t be a problem even for you, right? Even though you are only a rank 8 Array Master at the moment, I am still confident that you can find a gap. I will be waiting for your good news here." "Yeah. It shouldn''t be that long to understand the reason. But I might need a bit more time if I need to alter it or something." Alex smiled before creating a rank 8 Teleportation Array. He waved his hand and disappeared. He still had the map for the Ancient Ruin and set a Teleportation pretty accurately. Usually, he would need to fly one or two hours before arriving at the place, but it seemed he had almost arrived, only five or so minutes of flying. In the middle of the forest stood a white building. The building itself was like a single-story house with that pointed roof. However, it was all white, whether it was the pillars, the walls, or the roof. Even after a few thousand years, the building didn''t have any signs of aging. Instead, it looked like it was just built not long ago. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and checked his surroundings. "According to the information, there is no problem entering the building itself before five hundred years pass. Nelson has checked this place and found nothing suspicious other than a platform that had an Array to teleport them. "There is also protection from a rank 9 barrier array to make sure no one ruined the portal to the world below." Alex thought for a moment and walked around the building, observing every single thing that caught his eyes. As soon as he lowered his vision, he found a trace of Spiritual Energy and realized there was an array, not too deep underground. However¡­ "The depth is not too deep, and the size is not that big. I think it is the main array that teleports people to the bottom. Meanwhile, the symbols that I have been observing from the start are a rank 9 Barrier Array that protects the teleportation array and the Myriad Soul Body Array. Still, it''s really impressive to see these many symbols." Alex let out a breath of amazement. He stroked his chin and stared at the symbols. "The symbols needed in rank 1 Array are ten symbols. It then leaps to fifty for rank 2 Array. Continuing these two, it becomes one hundred, one thousand, five thousand, ten thousand, and finally, my rank, one hundred thousand symbols. But the Divine Rank Array takes another step further and reaches millions. It needs around one to ten million symbols¡­ To see it with my own eyes is indeed amazing." Alex suddenly shook his head and sighed. "I need to study the array first and seek the gap before I can admire these rank 9 Arrays and probably study it for myself later." Entering the building, Alex found the platform almost immediately. He took a look at it and checked whether he was missing or something. Nevertheless, the biggest clue was the array underneath this place, and he was planning to dig the ground after checking everything. "Hmm¡­There is no abnormality inside the building. Except for the many symbols around and the fact that the altar is blocked by a barrier, I can''t find a single thing. Beneath the ground under me, there is a huge array under me. However, the concealment array is also a Divine Rank Array. It''s truly hard to see it even with my Spirit Eyes. I might need to focus all my attention on learning all the symbols there¡­" Alex thought for a moment and summoned Neon. "Young Master." Neon cupped his hands politely. "Go search around our area. Make sure no one is around, including monsters. What I am going to do is very taxing, so I won''t be able to sense them." Alex commanded. "Understood." Neon then vanished into thin air. Alex then dropped on his knees and opened his eyes wide, trying to see the symbols underground. On one hand, the sight of the symbols was very vague, making it terrible for his eyes. On the other hand, he couldn''t dig down without studying it in case the array would break or something, and he had no way to fix it. He patiently crawled around. His head almost touched the ground as if he was trying to sniff the ground. It was a pitiful appearance, but Alex had no care about it. The wonder of the array and the symbols beneath the ground mesmerized him. A few hours later, Alex finally rose from the ground and looked up as he let out a long sigh. "That was very taxing. I am sweating all over right now¡­" "Although the array itself is hard to see, I can somehow understand the meaning of each symbol due to my knowledge. This array contains around five million symbols divided into cl.u.s.ters. Each cl.u.s.ter contains one hundred to two hundred thousand symbols. I have located where I need to change, and it should be fine if I dig around that area and change those parts. This will allow me to enter and exit freely¡­ "The problem is there is a possibility of Space Monsters to come out through this gap. It will be catastrophic if that happens¡­ I wonder if I should close the gate first after entering the realm or not. Still, the promise with Firia is hindering me from making that decision, not that I complain. I think I will just let it go. Even if the Space Monsters go out of this place, it will probably be in a small number. "Although I will dive inside that place for a few months to a year, I can still check the gate from time to time. It is not like traveling would be an issue for me." Alex nodded, agreeing to his own plan. "Alright. I will leave it at that. Time to work." He then started his job by digging the ground carefully, so he didn''t break something. It turned out there was a small room inside the ground. There was no decoration or whatsoever, making it look like a dark cave. Luckily, he didn''t need any light since he could see all the runes from their energy alone. Almost a day later, Alex finally went back to the surface and leaned on the building. His body was covered with sweat as he was panting. "That was really hard. To ensure that I didn''t break anything, I needed to speed up and focus all of my attention just to change a single symbol. And I needed to change around ten thousand symbols just so I could slip in." "Anyway, I have finished my job. As long as I enter it with my Spatial Gate, there should be no problem. After that, I can leave my Space Mark there, so I know where to go back. In that case, I will need a token and give it to Firia, so I can find her later." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I will recover my Spiritual Energy first before going back." After another two hours, Alex finally stood up and called Neon back as he teleported to their base. He gave a token to Firia and told the plan. Firia made sure to keep it, and in the worst case, they could talk with each other through the spirits. He remembered that he couldn''t exactly leave the flying ship later, so he decided to call Sherry, Kyle, and Stina, hiding them inside his body. Meanwhile, he also teleported Firia and Anya to the forest near the ruin. Finishing his business, Alex finally returned to the Blackwade Clan and waited for another day. The next day, Song Jiaoren walked into his room and smiled. "Sir Alexander. We are ready to go." Alex nodded and followed him. He actually didn''t need to follow them since he wasn''t going to enter in the first batch. However, it would be weird for Song Jiaoren if he didn''t come together, so he needed to do it no matter the hassle. The flying ship had been floating above the Blackwade Clan mansion, ready to set off any moment. Alex and Song Jiaoren flew to the sky and entered the ship. To his surprise, the Patriarch and the Grand Elder seemed to not want to meet him since they were nowhere to be seen. Little did he know that the situation might become awkward if they met Alex, considering the star that wanted to get closer to him was Song Jiaoren. If they met him, he would be more conscious of them rather than Song Jiaoren. It might seem to be rude, but that was the best solution for them. Song Ling''er greeted him as soon as he boarded the ship before they guided Alex to his room since they had nothing to say. As soon as they arrived, Alex flew down along with Song Jiaoren and Song Ling''er and met all the geniuses of their generations. As he predicted, the Fire God Clan didn''t send a single person to this ruin. Not many people knew about this anyway, so there wasn''t any damage to their reputation. Evelyn immediately ran toward him. "Big Brother!" "Evelyn." Alex smiled and patted her head again before looking at Astennu and Elizabeth. The two only cupped their hands as a greeting gesture. He could also see Snow White Mountain''s heiress and Ancient Blue Family''s heir. "Haha¡­ It seems we are the last one to arrive." Song Jiaoren laughed to lessen the mood, albeit it wasn''t taken well by the others. He then turned serious and announced. "I am not going to participate today. My sister will be replacing me for today''s occasion." The people widened their eyes as they were wondering whether this man was insane or not. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and to think that Song Jiaoren wanted to abandon it just like that. Or his sister''s love already reached his head enough to make him crazy. There was also a possibility that their family didn''t know this, so they thought this was the case. However, Song Jiaoren also made a confirmation. "Don''t worry. My family already knows about this decision. My sister is also a talented person, so I will just give this chance to her." "Are you that confident?" One of them asked. "Haha¡­" Song Jiaoren didn''t answer the question and only shrugged. Alex looked at him and added. "Well, I also won''t go with this batch." "What?!" They opened their mouths in surprise while Song Jiaoren shouted. "Is this because of me? I¡­" Alex only looked at him with disgust. He shook his head while sighing. "Of course not. My wife will be attending this one." "Your wife? Where is the honored person?" Song Jiaoren asked while Evelyn thought it was Anna or Anya. He simply pointed to the right as a woman walked toward them. They glanced at the direction and were surprised. Chapter 719 - Going Inside the Array A woman slowly walked toward the crowd. She had long red hair tied into a ponytail. Contrary to her fierce blazing red eyes, she looked at the crowd gently. The gorgeous red dress complimented her body well, and with a red translucent shawl circling around her body, she arrived beside Alex and threw a smile. After training with God Stage Expert, Firia also built up some aura that was clearly different than those of mortals, giving her an aura of an otherworldly beauty or a goddess. "I have come, Alex. Sorry for the wait." And the same goddess greeted Alex with her gentle and soothing voice. "I have just come. You are the one who has been waiting for me." Alex smiled gently. Although it was apparent that her strength was a peak 10-Star Martial Saint, they felt this woman hid more than they could imagine. Even so, her appearance really took their breath away. The guy like Song Jiaoren even gasped before he patted his sister''s shoulder and chuckled, thinking it was no wonder there was no excitement from Alex when he met her. "So, this is Evelyn¡­ The one that you have been talking about." Firia glanced at Alex before walking toward Evelyn. "Nice to meet you. I''m Firia Merona¡­ Wait, I should call myself Firia Sirius, shouldn''t I?" "It''s just a name." Alex shrugged. "Fufu¡­ For you, it''s just a name. But for me, it''s a status and my pride." Firia chuckled. "I¡­ I¡­" Evelyn didn''t know what to do when this beauty suddenly approached her. She thought it would be Anna or Anya, but never she expected it was a different one. "I am Evelyn¡­ Big brother Alexander''s¡­ What am I again?" "What a cute girl." Firia smiled gently before teasing her. "I heard you even proclaimed to be his woman when you misunderstood someone''s intention." "Ah!" Evelyn became red, embarrassed. It could be said that thought brought her joy, but when someone, especially Firia, said it, she was overwhelmed with guilt. Noticing the situation, Alex tugged Song Jiaoren''s hand and asked him to continue the meeting. Song Jiaoren took a few deep breaths to calm his heart down before he started the event. "Ahem. Anyway, all of us have gathered here, so how about we enter the Ruin now? I think the barrier has been dispelled." The others finally woke up from their trance and nodded. Elizabeth glanced at Alex mysteriously for a few seconds before sighing, while Astennu seemed to have overcome Firia''s charm. It seemed he really fell in love with Song Yu, making Alex assured. "That''s right. Shall we go inside?" Alex looked at Firia and sent a thought transmission. ''As expected, I should ask you to wear a veil or something?'' ''It''s fine. We are not as weak as we used to be. Besides, this can also scare away other women who have a thought on you. Meanwhile, do you think the guys here are qualified to pursue me? If they dare, I will just torch their influence.'' Firia chuckled inwardly. ''After hiding for so long, I think it''s time to show ourselves to the world. Isn''t that your intention before entering the Heavenly Continent?'' ''True enough.'' Alex walked inside the ruin right beside her and observed the change in the others. Firstly, he didn''t need to worry about the Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion, and Phantasm Sect. Fire God Clan wasn''t here to begin with, so there was no way they would target Firia. Besides, they must realize Firia was a Sacrificial Element user once they saw Firia because they had known Alex''s Pure Fire. Unfortunately, his presence alone already scared them, making things easier. On the other hand, Snow White Mountain was filled with women. Unless they knew Firia''s secret, they would certainly have no bad thought for the time being. The only problems were Rio and Julius. Rio could be easily solved by trading with the entire family. Even though he looked barbaric, he still acted according to benefits. In that case, the real threat would be Julius. He had been glancing at Firia this whole time before Elizabeth went between them, blocking his vision. Alex was wondering if he tried to do anything funny. From his reputation alone, Julius shouldn''t be that type of person¡­ Albeit, L.u.s.t is still one of the deadly sins. Alex just kept a note and decided to observe Julius for the time being. After arriving right in front of the platform, the group finally stepped on the platform. There were ten circles in the array as a symbol that only ten people could enter. Each representative went to their own circle before they activated the array. ''I will be waiting for you.'' Firia sent a thought transmission before she disappeared. The array was sending their body probably to the previous cave underground before recreating their body with the Myriad Soul Body array. This was also the reason why there was no point in waiting here. Alex could kill them though, but they would probably be protected by the array, so it was useless. Even if he somehow altered the array and killed one of them, it would only raise a weird confusion and might ruin his entire plan. Hence, he decided to go according to the original plan. As he thought about this, the barrier then erected again, barring any other entry. Only Song Jiaoren and Alex were left outside as they looked at each other. "Since they will only come out far later, I think we should go back first?" Song Jiaoren asked. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "But I won''t go back to the Blackwade Clan. I have another matter to do, so I think this is goodbye for now." "I see. I would leave first then." Song Jiaoren cupped his hands and bowed politely before flying to his ship and returning to the Blackwade Clan. Meanwhile, Alex''s expression turned serious as he summoned Neon. "Young Master. Do you want me to tail that Julius? I feel it will be a troublesome opponent, especially if he actually forgets about his dignity and tries to catch Mistress¡­ After all, they only know there are only ten people there for this period of time. Even if he can''t approach her inside, he might be planning something later? And possibly joining the war." Alex shook his head. "I am going to tell Elizabeth about it. She is a smart woman, so I am sure such an action won''t escape from her eyes. More so, that Prince Julius might lose the support of his own grandfather, the current king. There are only two possibilities if that really happens. First, the king will support Elizabeth to be the queen, and Julius can''t do anything. We find the right time and assassinate him if he is still targeting Firia." "And the second one?" "The king simply retired and let the two fight. Julius can''t be compared to Elizabeth. After telling the matter to Elizabeth, he will most likely get executed. I will also try pulling some strings later." Alex smirked evilly. "As expected of the Young Master. I apologize for my lack of ability to discern your true intention." "It''s fine. Besides, I have another mission for you." Alex paused for a moment. "Go to the Fire God Clan right now." "Fire God Clan?" Neon widened his eyes, never expecting to hear this name coming out of his mouth. There should be no problem with this Fire God Clan, especially in a time like this. They needed to control their situation first before thinking about this. Alex noticed his expression and smiled. "I am afraid that the Fire God Clan will pull a trick on us." Neon''s expression turned serious as he looked down, falling into deep thought. "The Fire God Clan, or at least, their higher up, knows about the Ancient Ruin, right? And the fact that we are here to replace them¡­" Alex released his killing intent. "This is the perfect time to ambush us. They can camp around the area and decide to ambush us as soon as we are out. Besides, we will go out at a different time, so there is a low chance from other influences to know they are ambushing us because most of them have gone home." "!!!" Neon opened his mouth in surprise. "I understand. I will keep track of their movements." "Yeah. If possible, you can call the other Spirits to destroy their plan and retreat." Alex nodded. "Ask Njomo or Natalie to summon you inside the Blackwade Clan. I am going inside now." "I understand. May fortune be with you." Neon nodded and disappeared. Alex then went outside and walked northeast of the building for a few meters before he stopped on particular plain ground. There was nothing special about the ground, and no one would be able to know the specialness of this ground. However, this was exactly where the hole he created previously. Pointing his palm to the ground, he created a Spatial Gate beneath him, and he fell down the Space Hole. Inside the ground, a huge place filled with sky, green scenery, and clouds created peaceful scenery before a hole suddenly appeared in the sky. The ground itself had a height of a few hundred meters, so Alex could feel the fall as well. Because he didn''t want to attract attention, he decided to descend to the ground before observing the situation. "Hmm?" Alex looked around and stroked his chin. "Judging from the situation and the atmosphere, this looks like the one in Freedom Sect. It''s like a huge underground cave with illusion arrays to cover this whole area with scenery like the one on the surface. This is indeed fascinating, but I need to know Firia''s situation first." Alex pulled out Leoz''s card and asked. "Leoz. How are you doing? Is Firia alright?" "Yes, Young Master." Leoz was tasked to immediately come out to protect Firia as well as become the contact person. "What is the situation in your place?" "We were teleported inside a village earlier¡­ but when I checked around, I found a huge castle not far from here. Also, Mistress Firia asked whether she should activate the token or not?" Alex thought for a moment. "On one hand, the castle seems to be a human settlement that holds power inside this place. On the other hand, we are short of information from geography to power rankings in this place. I want to go there immediately, but I don''t think it will be a good choice to use the Teleportation Array. I might accidentally bump into a group of people, so I will fly, I guess." "Where are you, Young Master?" "In a forest or something¡­ I have checked my surroundings, but there is no monster around me. "Summon Nelson and have him check the castle¡­ I am going there and searching for the information by asking the villagers after I arrive." Alex commanded. "Understood." Alex placed his hand on the ground and planted his Space Mark. However, he was unsure whether he would feel it again after a few months, so he decided to take up another measure. He dug a one-meter deep hole and buried his token there. He didn''t forget to make a Gathering Array to power up the token and left a few Spirit Crystals. The token will release weak energy continuously for a few months, so he could simply search this place again with his token. "I have marked this position. All that left is to go toward Firia and regroup with the spirits. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle are also with me, so I should be fine even if I need to fight a Martial Saint monster in this area¡­" "Of course, Master," Sherry replied eagerly. "I haven''t fought for a long time, so I am going to destroy everything in your way." "Yes, Master." On the other hand, Stina and Kyle were calm. Stina had reached Martial Saint, but Sherry and Kyle hadn''t, like Firia. They were hoping to break through not long after entering this place, so there might be a few people that would undergo Lightning Tribulation this time. Alex nodded and flew away. Chapter 720 - The Village Chief After finishing everything he needed to do, Alex opened his token and realized two forces were trying to pull his token as if there were magnets around it. The first one was right under him, the place he buried his token. And the other one was northwest from his position. This was Firia''s token, so he flew toward this direction. He didn''t forget to activate his Spirit Eyes to ensure there was no one around. He didn''t want to get spotted first before knowing what happened around the area, so this precaution was normal. A few hours later, Alex finally felt the force in his token increasing, so he knew Firia was nearby. He flew for another few minutes and found two signs of energy. The first one had loving fire energy while the other one had rampaging lightning energy. "Alex!" Firia shouted after noticing Alex''s presence nearby. "Yeah, I am here. Sorry for the wait¡­ We are lucky not to be separated that far." Alex nodded. "What are we going to do?" Firia asked. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and checked his surroundings. They were in the middle of a plain. It seemed Firia chose this location specifically. Although it was easy to spot people in a grass plain like this, it was the same for Firia. She could easily spot strangers that might have some thoughts about a new person in this area. They could escape after that. On the other hand, the jungle or something similar disturbed the vision because it had many obstacles. Although it was a good hiding spot, fighting in an unknown and complicated terrain would never be a good option. "What do you know about the Village?" Alex asked. "We don''t know anything yet because I believe it''s better to wait for you. I am going to put on my veil right now." Firia answered while taking out a white veil. It was better to not show her face first, lest they would get into trouble. Unlike the real world where Alex had his confidence, this place was still uncharted territory for him, so she didn''t want to risk it. "Alright. Let''s go to the village¡­ No, I will probably go to the village with someone else and pretend that I am injured. After that, I can get some information. If we are alright in the village, you can enter as my partner who wants to bring me home." Alex revealed his plan. Firia nodded. "We shall wait here." "No. Let''s go to the forest. I will make sure it''s safe first before going. And I will summon Anya later." Alex smiled and guided them into the forest. After ensuring them with his Spirit Eyes, Alex summoned Anya to think about the plan. "All of you wait for me¡­ Since Leoz is the strongest, he will remain here¡­ That''s why I will bring¡­ Fabio with me." Alex thought about his spirits and summoned Fabio. "Cut some of your sleeves and make it look like you are hurt. We have plenty of Monster Blood here, so use it as well." "What is my job? Will I be the one who carries you, or will I be the injured one?" Fabio asked. "I will be the injured one, so you need to carry me. Besides, I can ask them more questions with that type of condition, so try to make it more dramatic." Alex nodded. Fabio looked away and said, "It''s not like I want to act like this, alright? I am just following your order." "Alright. Shut that tsundere moment for the time being, unless you want to get some punishments from me later." Alex twitched his eyebrows, annoyed. Fabio shivered and nodded furiously. "I will try." "Good." Alex nodded and jumped to Fabio''s back. Before he flew away, he asked one last question. "Do you know their power level?" "There is a Martial Lord among them. But I think he is the strongest." "Good. I will seal my cultivation to Martial Grandmaster first. If I can seal Fabio''s cultivation, that might be better, but he can still play the role of my bodyguard???" Alex nodded. "I understand my role." Fabio''s expression turned serious as he ran through the wood and arrived at the village a few minutes later. ¡­ In the village, the situation was rather peaceful for them. Even though it was a small village, the building was made compact with bricks as the main components. The people were talking with each other harmoniously before Alex and Fabio suddenly arrived in front of the village. "Help! Please help!" Fabio shouted in the village entrance before he fell on his knees, spitting monster blood that he had stored in his mouth earlier. The villagers were shocked and immediately surrounded them. "We should help them first¡­ Call the Village Chief." One of them shouted. "That''s right. Someone, go call the Village Chief, no, we should bring them first there." One of them slipped away and brought the Village Chief with him. "Bring them to my house. I will handle the rest." The Village Chief only spared a glance before he went back. Fabio and Alex twitched their eyebrows, wondering whether this Village Chief knew something. From how they acted, he shouldn''t know about this yet, but the way the Village Chief acted really intrigued them. Fabio tried to carry Alex but almost dropped him before two villagers came to them. One of them carried Alex, who was closing his eyes, while the other helped Fabio walk toward the Village Chief. After settling the crowd down, the Village Chief finally came to them while releasing his Spiritual Energy. He said with a cold tone. "No need for your pretense. Speak, why would the two of you come here? I know that you are not hurt¡­ And the fact that you are pretending to be hurt when the time has yet to come¡­ Are you the challengers this time?" Fabio furrowed his eyebrows, and Alex finally rose from his bed, acting completely normal. "How do you know?" "It''s simple. If you go to the castle near this village, it''s my son''s castle. My son is an earl of this territory, so he knows more than I could imagine. He has told me something about challengers¡­ And the fact that you are arriving today, it only makes my prediction true." The Village Chief snorted. "I see. I thought our act was pretty good, but it was not needed¡­" Alex sighed. "Well, we just want some information about this place." "I will ask all of your questions, but you should leave this place as soon as possible." Alex looked at the village chief for a few seconds before nodding his head. "I understand. My first question is, what do you know about the challengers thing? What do you mean that the time hasn''t come yet?" "I need to talk about this place first then¡­" The Village Chief nodded. "This place was built a few thousand years ago¡­ You could say that we were the followers of Gods and Goddesses a few thousand years ago. When they sealed this place and other things, they made us protect this place from the invasion. "I don''t know the exact details, but they said every five hundred years there would be ten people chosen to come to this place. These ten people were the signs of the battle approaching¡­ You coming here is aligned with the five hundred years mark, and before this, there won''t be a single monster in this place because people must have exterminated them while the new one has yet to go through the portal. "Those people outside are scared and believe you are hurt because they believe today is the day, and you are hurt because of the new monsters¡­ Unfortunately, they don''t know the truth yet. If you go to the main kingdom, you might find something you are searching for because you are the key to open the Gods and Goddesses inheritances. "Suppose that you are going there and are recognized as the challenger; they might want to make a deal with you¡­ Something like offering you their support in exchange for the chance to enter the inheritance palaces. Once again, I don''t know the details, so you may want to go to the Main Kingdom." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. "I see. It seems we really need to know more information first before tricking someone." "I can give you a recommendation letter to my son and have him give you another recommendation letter to the people in the capital city. This way, you can gain more access to information. However, I want you to not involve my son in any way possible." "Why? Doesn''t this world want¡ª!" Before Alex could finish his word, the Village Chief shook his head and sighed. "I am his father. If he is going to the front line, I don''t know whether he will come back alive or not. I don''t want him to die, so this is a selfish wish of mine. Even if he begs you, please reject him. In exchange, I will also answer all your questions with all my knowledge." Alex paused for a moment and looked at Fabio. "I understand." "Thank you." The Village Chief bowed his head a little and asked. "What is your second question?" "Why do monsters only appear every five hundred years?" "I only know they are coming from the center of this entire place. If you want to know the details, I believe you should ask the people from the capital. However, I once heard from my son that these beasts could actually multiply itself, and after a certain number arrived, the protection would be undone and released. These monsters will be the nutrient for everything inside this place. Don''t ask about the inheritances as well, I don''t know the answer." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He just wanted to ask about the inheritances, considering it was their main objective here. "I am planning to fight those monsters alone. What do you think about it?" "I don''t want to be rude, but I need to say this." The Village Chief paused for a moment and raised his voice. "You are insane." "You¡ª!" Fabio clenched his fists while Alex raised his hand, stopping him. "Why do you say so?" "There are millions of monsters that will be summoned during the span of one year. There are four major influences in this place, and each of them usually has around one hundred thousand soldiers¡­ And they have already constructed forts around that area as well. So, I think it''s better to go there instead of the capital city if you want to fight monsters. "However, that place will be most likely to fall because they never managed to hold on for a few months before retreating back. If you are going to fight alone, you can go there immediately, but if you want to cooperate with the influences to grab the chance of inheritances, I suggest you go to the capital city." "How about their power level? The monsters and our forces?" "All are Martial Emperors or above." Alex opened his mouth in surprise. "This might be bad¡­" Even though he and his group were strong, they couldn''t fight against millions of monsters, especially with Martial Emperor strength. And there must be many Monarchs and Saints monsters. Even if they used all of their strength, including the True Spirit Body, he doubted he could go past one hundred thousand monsters a day. After that, they needed to retreat and recovered their strength. However, this would probably be a good place to search for EXPs and Gacha Tickets unless those monsters didn''t give them anything. Suppose this was true; Alex might probably summon only Leoz and Nelson as his and Firia''s assistants in this place. Alex thought for a moment and decided. "I will go to the capital first." "I think that is a good idea." The Village Chief nodded. "However, I believe you shouldn''t trust someone easily in this place. Although they might offer you benefits, there were some people that got tricked in the past and lost their lives. That is my piece of advice." "Thank you." Alex nodded. Chapter 721 - Different Place Different Culture "Thank you." Alex nodded. "Do you have another question?" The Village Chief asked. "How about the other influences? What are they called?" "All of them are Kingdom. Zealous in the east, Evvy in the north, Lush in the west, and we are under Plide of the south." Alex contemplated for a moment and shook his head. He thought some questions were too specific, and there was no way the old man would know, considering he didn''t know much. "I will go to the capital city first. Thank you for answering my questions." "If you can, don''t kill anyone and leave this area. I am sure that you are far stronger than me¡­" The Village Chief sighed before handing Alex a letter. "I understand," Alex assured him once again before unlocking the seal of his cultivation. He then looked at Fabio and nodded. "Let''s go." They both then went outside the village without anyone noticing and regrouped with Firia. "Why do you come back this early?" Firia furrowed her eyebrows. If everything went according to the plan, Alex would only call her a few hours later. Alex shook his head and smiled. "The plan just went too well. The Village Chief answered all my questions. Although I don''t know whether we can believe him or not, we can assume they are the truth. Using this assumption, we will try to move along with our original plan. If there is any hole in the information we will get in the future, we know that one of them must be lying." "I see." Firia looked down while thinking. "In that case, should we call back Nelson?" "No. I have another mission for Nelson and probably for him alone. We will wait until he finishes his mission." Alex nodded, tossed the recommendation letter to Inventory and called Nelson. "Nelson! Take out the recommendation letter, go to the Earl, and ask him for another letter to the capital city. If he asks anything, just say that you won''t bring him and the letter came from his father. And your identity is a challenger." "Understood," Nelson replied and stated. "The Earl is a 2-Star Martial Monarch, so he is pretty strong." "Do you have a problem?" "No." Nelson answered instantly and disappeared, sneaking inside the earl mansion. Inside the study room, the door was pushed open as a male walked inside with the recommendation letter. "Who are you?!" "A challenger." Nelson simply asked before giving the letter to him. The Earl glanced at the letter and realized it was coming from his father. He rose from his seat and looked at Nelson mysteriously. "Don''t think anything weird. I only want information." Nelson said coldly, leaking his Spiritual Energy. "!!!" Feeling the difference in Spiritual Energy, the Earl finally calmed down and realized he couldn''t see Nelson''s cultivation stage. There was only one meaning. Nelson was far stronger than him. "Alright. Considering my father gives you the recommendation letter, I will answer your questions." "Firstly, I want a recommendation that can link me to the people in the capital." "That can be done. I have it with me right now." He wanted to go on this journey, so he already prepared and hoped to have a challenger appear in his territory. That was why he could simply take out the letter and tossed it to Nelson. Nelson checked the validity of the letter and nodded. "I have received the letter. On to my questions. First, I want to know the safest way to the capital city, the map of this place, and the way to participate in the fight against the monsters." "I understand." The Earl didn''t think anything and answered his question one by one. "First, I will give you this map first. Our Kingdom is located in the east of this place while our position is the far east of that place. In other words, this place is in the perimeter of this huge cave. "If you want to go to the capital city, I can guide you according to this red line." He pointed his finger at a red line on the map. "There are no monsters or whatsoever, and you won''t even meet any settlement around. "As for how to participate in the fight, the fact that you are a challenger yourself is already proof for them to let you join. There are three ways to join the war. First, you can join me as my retainer. I will then let you meet the king and talk about this yourself. Second, you can participate as the second party¡­ There are some mercenaries inviting people to fight against the Monsters, and they are under the direct order of the king himself. However, you won''t be related to the royal family. "Lastly, you can go alone without anyone helping you¡­ Maybe you can meet the king after presenting the letter in your hand. It''s proof that the king asked to give if we encounter any challengers. However, the fact that they are coming from the royal family, you need to be extra careful because sometimes the ones who get the letters might be the princes and princesses. "If they get you, they might pull some strings to get you on their side. There might be even some back dealing and stuff." The Earl finished his explanation. Nelson thought for a moment and asked another question. "What is mercenary?" "They are an independent group that can roam around the area. They are trusted by the Mercenary Guild in all places. Well, there are some advantages and disadvantages of becoming a part of the mercenary camp. That''s why the first option is the safest one." Like how the Village Chief knew it, the Earl indeed wanted to go to the battle and received some inheritances. Nelson recalled Alex''s intention and smiled. "I am grateful for the recommendation letter, but I will choose the fourth option." "The fourth option?" The Earl narrowed his eyes, not knowing what he had in his mind. "Create my own mercenary group¡­" Nelson smirked evilly. "What?! Do you think you can do it? There are many people wanting to create a mercenary group, but all of them failed because they are not strong enough to build one. They need to pass many challenges and trials from the guild itself before they approve your guild." Nelson looked at him coldly, not saying anything. "The safest option is coming with me. I can even introduce you to the king, and they will surely help you enter the inheritance palace a few months later." "That''s enough." Nelson suddenly appeared beside him, pointing his sword at the Earl''s neck. "I have promised your father not to bring you there. However, if you are going to threaten me or something, I won''t hesitate to slice your throat no matter the consequence." Before the Earl could say anything, Nelson already disappeared. Although he wanted to ask a few more questions, it wasn''t possible because the Earl was too obsessed with the inheritance trial. Nelson immediately returned through teleportation, of course, by using the card. Alex summoned him back right in front of him. "I am sorry, Young Master. I am not capable of extracting more information from him. He is a bit too obsessed, so I have no choice other than retreat. If we can rush toward the capital now, we should be able to best him and finish all our preparation before anything could happen. The map is over there, and the route seems to have no human settlement and is rare with humans, so I think we can follow the path." Nelson apologized. "Thank you. That''s plenty." Alex nodded. For someone like him, the path he prepared must come from careful consideration as to not let someone spot him because the challenger could be snatched by other people. That was why Alex could trust this map. "Besides, we need to check the monsters soon to see whether we should summon everyone or not." "Alex, do you think we can separate for a while? You can go to the capital and search for information while we are heading to the battlefield to see if they give us EXPs and Gacha Tickets?" Firia asked, volunteering herself to be part of this. "Who do you think I am?" Alex smiled and created a small symbol on his hand. Before she could say anything, Alex already teleported them. He looked at her and said. "I am a Space Element Array Master. Traveling all these distances is easy for me, so don''t think about risking your life." "I am sorry." Firia closed her eyes and smiled. "Anyway, I want Nelson to investigate the royal family as soon as we have arrived there. If possible, search for some clues about what they want to offer if we are willing to cooperate with them." Alex paused for a moment. "Firia and I will try to create a Mercenary Guild. Considering the answer that he has given us, we can take advantage of this status to participate in the battle legally. At the very least, they won''t confuse us with the enemies. Leoz will be our bodyguard." "Understood." Nelson and Leoz nodded their head while Fabio already disappeared after being called back to the surface. Alex then teleported them again according to the route before they arrived in the capital city. Considering they needed to go through those guards, he decided to sneak inside the capital city with his Spatial Gate. Firia put on her veil, covering all her face. Meanwhile, Nelson already disappeared, going on his mission. Before Alex could say anything, Nelson already contacted him. "Young Master. I have found the Mercenary Guild. It''s not that far from you¡­ If you see the castle, just follow the route, and you will find the building on your right." "Understood. Thank you." Alex glanced at the two and nodded. "Let''s go." The trio then walked toward the castle and found the building almost immediately. No wonder Nelson contacted them that soon. They entered the building and searched where they could register themselves. "There it is, Alex." Firia found it and pointed her finger toward the counter. Alex''s eyes followed her direction and saw a counter with three people inside it. This scene reminded him of the time when he wanted to register as an adventurer. He nodded to Firia and walked toward the counter. Out of the three, he simply chose the one that served no one at the moment. "Welcome. How can I help you?" The receptionist bowed her head and smiled. "I want to create a Mercenary Group. Is that possible?" Alex asked. Suddenly, the receptionist''s face turned annoyed. "This again? Do you think because the land is going to be swarmed by monsters, they can simply use the Mercenary Group to be their backer?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, ignoring her nasty mouth. "I heard that I only need to pass some tests¡­ So, what is the requirement to create a Mercenary Guild?" "Look at you¡­ You are too young to do this! You are just going to die as soon as you enter the battlefield." She snorted. Alex started to get annoyed. Firia was waiting for him to take care of the business. She had seen everything in Alex''s memory from the system, and she realized how annoying it was when you tried to be humble but got looked down instead. "Do you think we should just go back and fight them alone? It''s not like we really need to be a mercenary group, right?" Firia asked. "True enough. I am just thinking of fighting them legally, but it was never an option." Alex shrugged and turned around. Suddenly, a guy walked toward them. "What is this? A little brat wants to play mercenary?" Alex became more and more annoyed as time passed. He was wondering what the heck was wrong with this place. He somehow thought that the royalty to be as bad as these people, especially after recalling the Village Chief saying to not trust anyone in the capital city. "We are leaving." Alex ignored the guy. He wasn''t a hot-blooded person anyway. Even the receptionist, a mere Martial King, and this guy, a 2-Star Martial Monarch, he thought nothing and just wanted to leave. "Still¡­ If you are going out there, it will be such a waste for a beauty like this¡­" The guy suddenly looked at Firia''s b.o.o.b.s vulgarly. "Why is this always happening?" Alex sighed while Leoz grabbed the guy''s hand as he couldn''t control his rage anymore. He released his 5-Star Martial Saint aura and looked at the guy. "That''s it. I can''t endure this humiliation anymore!" Chapter 722 - Their Next Course "That''s it. I can''t endure this humiliation anymore!" Leoz glared at the man and released his killing intent. The sudden pressure alarmed everyone in the guild, especially someone upstairs. A bald guy was sitting calmly while going through the doc.u.ments in front of him. Yet, this sudden ruckus happened. He immediately dropped everything and roared. "Who dares to disturb the situation in my Mercenary Guild?!" Alex turned around, saw the man, and frowned. The guy glared at Leoz with killing intent. "You are the one who disturbs the peace! Do you think your 5-Star Martial Saint strength can protect you?" Alex suddenly heard many voices coming from around him. "As expected from a newbie, he doesn''t know anything about this." "But that guy is still a 5-Star Martial Saint, you know." "It''s still nothing compared to the guild master. He is an 8-Star Martial Saint." "But do you think the guild master wants to offend someone like that for a mere 2-Star Martial Monarch?" "Hush! Even though he is only a 2-Star Martial Monarch, his father is the leader of Tiger Mercenary, a bona fide 6-Star Martial Saint, you know." Alex could only sigh, wondering everything actually went out of his expectation. From the very start, the Village Chief knew their acting. Meanwhile, they got this problem immediately after arriving in the capital city. "Guild Master! This guy dares to hurt me! Please get me justice!" The guy shouted. Alex, on the other hand, looked at the guild master with a calm face. "So, what are you going to do? We are literally coming here, wanting to create a mercenary group. However, not only did we get rejected by your staff without proper explanation or whatsoever, but this guy tried to molest my wife. I will act according to your action." "Are you threatening me?" The guild master became angrier. To think a mere 8-Star Martial Monarch dared to lecture him like this. "I am simply saying everything like your staff over there." Alex shrugged, not scared of the 8-Star Saint Monarch in front of him. Even the guild master suddenly halted his advance and looked at Alex mysteriously. "Is that true?" "Anyone who is not afraid of him can testify." Alex looked at his surroundings and realized that most of them feared this young man. "You! How dare you! Do you know who my father is?" "It''s only a 6-Star Martial Saint, right?" Alex looked at Leoz nonchalantly. "Do you think you can remove this so-called Tiger Group for me?" "If the strongest is only 6-Star Martial Saint, I should be able to kill him. As for the rest, it will be troublesome." Leoz replied with a logical answer. The people were wondering how arrogant he could get. To think they thought about destroying the famous Tiger Mercenary. It was simply insane. However, Leoz''s next words turned them silly. "I don''t know their exact number and locations, so it will be troublesome. What if there are some remnants that will try to kill you? I need to kill everyone in Tiger Mercenary to make sure there is no future threat." "Hiss~!" The people drew cold breaths. "Anyway, I won''t cause any trouble in this guild again¡­ But I will take this person along with me. Does that sound alright, Guild Master?" Alex asked. "Hey! Do you know who his father is?" "I just heard it from those people." Alex shrugged. "I am sorry, but I think I need to interfere! No one can bring anyone from the Mercenary Guild in front of my eyes." "Are you serious?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You are still ignorant! There will soon be many monsters roaming around the world. There is no way I can let you simply kill those who will fight." Alex wanted to say another thing, but Firia suddenly grabbed his hand and shook her head. Her action made him think again before he let out a long sigh. Noticing that he changed his mind, Leoz threw that guy toward the guild master. "I am really disappointed in the Mercenary Guild and this kingdom¡­" Alex shook his head before turning around. "I will simply leave this kingdom." "How dare you talk like a big¡ª!" The guy tried to rebuke him but got stopped by the guild master. "If you still want to continue¡­ This hand will be the one that cut your tongue!" The guild master released his strength and clutched the guy''s jaw as if he was trying to crush it. At the same time, he looked at Alex and remembered his face, wondering who he actually was. He also glanced at the receptionist who rejected a person like Alex, especially the one that created all this mess. That person was shaking before falling on her butt. On the other hand, Alex noticed another guy with 2-Star Martial Saint strength, sitting on the corner of the Mercenary Guild while having a happy expression as if he enjoyed the show. He took a note of that guy''s face and Spiritual Energy while leaving the building. He made sure that no one followed him and left the capital city. "Alex¡­" Firia looked at him worriedly. Alex shook his head. "Haiz¡­ That was my mistake. I got a little bit excited there and forgot our original intention." "I never blamed you. After looking at your memory, I learned how harsh you were treated, so I could relate to why you would react this way. On one hand, you didn''t want to be arrogant despite having powerful strength. On the other hand, the people saw you as a pushover." Firia smiled gently, telling him he was never wrong. "I should also research this kingdom first¡­ I never had a chance because I only opened the portal to this world a few days ago." Alex sighed, realizing how important the information was. Everything was always going according to his plan because the N Squad gave him almost every information they could get. But this time, Alex had no clue about this place. He thought this was the right choice, but it turned out it was a mistake. "It''s fine. We can''t be prepared for everything, so a mistake like this is normal." Firia comforted him. "Thank you." Alex nodded with a smile. "Now, what should we do?" Alex thought for a moment. "We will wait for Nelson to finish his investigation¡­ Maybe a day. According to the Village Chief, the monsters will come tonight¡­ We can at least afford to spend a half-day waiting for the investigation. If there is really no hope about this place, we will simply go to the front line by ourselves." Firia closed her eyes, contemplating for a minute. "I understand. I will follow your schedule¡­ This is my trial after all." "We also need to think about your Lightning Tribulation along with Sherry''s and Kyle''s. I wonder whether this place can hold a Lightning Tribulation¡­" "It can." Firia nodded without hesitation. "I heard from Master that as long as there is a sky, even if it is an illusion, the Lightning Tribulation will appear. In fact, it will alter the illusion itself according to our need." "I can rest assured then." Alex let out a breath of relief. "Besides, this is supposed to be my trial, right? I am excited to do this." Firia pumped her fist. "This might be the first mission that we can go together with me standing beside you, not behind you¡­" Alex closed his eyes, not saying anything. However, the pictures about everything that happened in the lower world flashed in his mind. It was true that he had never fought alongside Firia in an adventure like this. He didn''t know why, but he got a little excited as well. They then waited for Nelson to come back, only to find him bringing bad news. "Young Master¡­ I am afraid that the situation is not in our favor. Firstly, there are two people that seem to have gotten teleported inside this Kingdom. Although we don''t know their identities yet, there is already a signal that has been transmitted in their treasures." "Don''t you think it is Fabio and Alex?" Firia suddenly came up with names that were a bit hard to believe. "This would probably be the case, considering you have met the Village Chief." Alex shook his head almost immediately. "No. I think one of them is Nelson. Considering the Village Chief position, do you think he has the qualification to inform the king? It is different for that Earl! He has all the right to send this message. It is even more possible after rejecting him from coming with us." "I see." Nelson looked down, stroking his chin. "Then, should we worry about the second person?" "No." Alex shook his head. "I would like you to remain in this kingdom to search for more information along with how the king chooses to act, but there is a possibility of me summoning you in the front line. Are you fine with it?" "Yes. I will always prepare myself to make sure you can summon me at any moment." Nelson nodded with a serious expression. "It''s not that serious. I just want to investigate first this time before acting on my own again." Alex sighed. "I understand." Nelson took a note in his mind before informing him of the second information. "There is also a chance for the Tiger Mercenary to move against you. I heard the rumor about what happened and investigated it. Although the guild master had warned them, they might not take it seriously." "If they come at us on the battlefield, I will exterminate all of them." Alex''s expression turned cold. "Alright. You should go back to the city first. We will head to the battlefield right now according to the map." "There is another thing, Young Master." Nelson shook his head. "The kingdom and any other kingdoms actually have around two hundred thousand Martial Emperors or above. The first one hundred thousand is to weaken the monsters and reduce their number while the rest is used as a reinforcement. "However, this doesn''t mean the kingdoms are stronger than the influences on the surface. Their strongest person is only a 9-Star Martial Saint. I think the Gods and Goddesses in the past turn them into something like this. "They can easily reach Martial Emperors due to the bountiful energy and their body constitution, but it''s hard for them to reach the top. That''s why they want to use this chance to search for a way to break through their limitations and reach God Stage." "I see." Alex nodded in understanding. "They are going with their younger generations that should be around our level because they have a higher chance to receive the inheritance and utilize it¡­ In other words, they are pretty desperate to get this inheritance." "Yes. Besides, they must want to leave this place, considering they have been trapped for thousands of years by this Divine Rank Array. They want to get rid of the array as a whole and escape¡­" "Indeed. That''s what I will probably do the moment I reach God Stage. I will make sure to do it before the world expels me." Nelson agreed. "Besides, we should also think about their development in Array Mastery. They must already have the layout of the array itself¡­ The only problem is they don''t know the real solution yet. After all, they don''t have knowledge like you, Young Master." "Haha¡­ I can''t picture myself creating a hole in a barrier without the knowledge from my Golden Lightning Inheritance." Alex chuckled. "Then that concludes my report. After this, I will check their strength progress, Tiger Mercenary, and the Royal Family. I will make sure each of them is covered within a day." Nelson looked at Alex with confidence. Alex smiled. "I am counting on you, Nelson." "Yes." Nelson bowed to him and disappeared. Alex then looked at Firia and Leoz. "Let''s go." A teleportation array appeared, and they vanished. Chapter 723 - The Fortress and the Pillar In the land near the border where the fort was erected to fight against the monsters, three figures suddenly appeared in its perimeter. "Do you think they have a tall and strong wall to hold the monsters?" Alex asked. "No way. They can simply destroy the wall with their strength and number. In fact, they might only have that fortress to host those people for a while." Firia shrugged. "Although most monsters don''t have the ability to fly¡­ No, they don''t know how to fly, their physical strength alone is enough to jump a few hundred meters." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "In that case, how will they retain the monsters from rampaging the area? With millions of fighting four hundred thousand, many monsters will breakthrough in just a day or so." "I don''t know. I had seen some fights when I was with my master, but I haven''t seen one with a scale like this." Getting no answer from Firia, Alex decided to take Nelson''s card out. "Nelson. I want you to search for their war strategy if possible." "Understood." Nelson''s voice was calm as if he already predicted this request and was planning to get it even without order. Alex, as the leader, obviously smiled to have such a partner in this fight. He then looked at Firia and Leoz. "Leoz will go toward the front line with me while Firia will search for a base around here. I have checked that there shouldn''t be anyone a few kilometers around us." "I understand. I will try to get a nice place for us to stay." Firia agreed with the arrangement. Although she wanted to follow him, it wasn''t the best chance to do so, especially since they screwed up because of her not long ago. Alex knew it was unintentional, but he just wanted to be more careful because they had arrived on the battlefield. "Where are we going, Young Master?" Leoz asked. "According to the map, there is a fortress not far from here. I am planning to infiltrate the fortress first and not do anything. We are purely watching from the dark to see their movement. I don''t want to meet any other people again, lest they misunderstand me and cause a problem." Leoz nodded. "Then, are you also going to the center of this place where the monsters are born?" "Yeah. Though I will only watch it from afar." Alex confirmed with a calm tone. "I just want to determine what kind of place it is and how the monsters come out." "Understood. I shall accompany you as your bodyguard." Leoz bowed to him before the two flew to the sky. Firia waved her hand while smiling before she turned around and started searching for a nice location. A few minutes later, Alex found a fortress in the middle of the grassland. It was quite a huge fortress as he saw a huge amount of energy there. "As expected of one hundred thousand soldiers." Alex narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean, Young Master? Are all of them inside the fortress right now?" Leoz tilted his head in confusion. "I don''t think so. Mostly, it will be around fifty thousand¡­ Assuming they are not in the perimeter of the fortress, they must have gone to the battlefield, preparing themselves there." "I see. Though the fortress may be big, it is not capable of housing one hundred thousand people at once." Leoz nodded in agreement. "No, no. That''s not what I mean. Anyway, let''s go inside the fortress and watch them from the dark." Alex shrugged and created a Spatial Gate to the Blue Colored Realm. They didn''t immediately teleport inside, but they decided to proceed manually inside the Blue Layered Realm until Alex stopped and opened another gate inside the fortress. "We are here," Alex said while glancing left and right, confirming they had arrived in a safe place. They were inside a dark alley with two buildings surrounding them. It seemed that most of the buildings around here were military barracks or something. He could say so because he found all houses around the area were similar. "I will wait here, Young Master." Alex looked at him and shook his head. "I am not going anywhere. I will probably peek around this area before traveling around within the Blue Layered Realm." "Is that so?" Leoz smiled and nodded. Alex then walked toward the edge of the dark alley and peeked at his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes first. He noticed that the two houses were empty, so he had no need to worry he would get spotted by someone from the houses. On the other hand, the city was bustling with people, all soldiers. He took another look, wondering if he could find a special building or something, especially one that he could see the entire fortress without being suspicious. Unfortunately, it was only wishful thinking. This fortress was indeed built just to host people for a period of time. It wouldn''t be a problem if it were destroyed later. Leoz also found the answer from Alex''s expression alone. He approached him and shook his head. "All the people around the area wear the same uniform. If we assume they are soldiers, I think there won''t be any normal citizen inside this fort." Leoz shook his head. "Although I am not good at strategy, I realize that the wall of this fortress is only built without any proper care. I can even blast it without any trouble." "I see. So the wall is only for decoration." Alex stroked his chin and thought for a moment. "Let''s search for another spot to see whether there are any mercenaries around here." "Are we going to be one of them?" Leoz furrowed his eyebrows. "No. I will try explaining my reason later." Alex opened the Spatial Gate to Space World, and the two vanished once again. On the other side of the fortress, Alex found many soldiers around the area. However, he found a few people wearing casual clothes and realized they were mercenaries. After checking the four corners of the fortress, Alex finally disappeared from this fortress, making his way to the center of this place. "Young Master. Why didn''t we act like one of the mercenaries?" Leoz asked. "We actually could act that way. However, it would be different if I need to count Firia for this plan. Besides, I don''t really like mercenaries that much." Alex shrugged his shoulders. "And in the worst case, they might ask us for our identity. Considering we couldn''t create our own group, it would become troublesome later. That''s why I rather leave. I have said it, right? I won''t have any contact with the people around the fortress." "I see." Leoz closed his eyes, following Alex without saying any word. They were flying for about one hour, realizing how far the fortress was from the actual battlefield. However, he soon realized that the fortress was indeed constructed in a perfect place. In the middle of the place, there was a colossal pillar standing from the ground to the sky. "This is¡­" Leoz narrowed his eyes and asked Alex to lower their altitude, so no one spotted them. Alex nodded and kept advancing with caution. When they became closer and closer, Alex realized how big the pillar was. From the diameter alone, it was close to the entire Freedom Sect Space Temple territory. His Spirit Eyes allowed him to see what was behind this pillar. "Seriously?" Alex took a deep breath, calming his heart down. "Young Master?" Leoz furrowed his eyebrows. "You should know about the Potential Tower, right?" Alex asked. "Yeah. I saw it from your memory." "There are around fifty floors inside the pillar this time, and all of them contain around a hundred thousand monsters. In other words, there are five million monsters inside there; all are Martial Emperors and above." Alex sweatdropped. "!!!" Leoz opened his eyes wide. "Should we call everyone here right now?" "I don''t know." Alex shook his head. "I think I will stick to our original plan. If these monsters can bring us EXPs and Gacha Tickets, I will call them. If not, I will simply hide inside the Space World." "I understand. I hope they bring us some EXPs." "Same." Alex shrugged. "From my calculation and such, I think we can kill around a few hundred thousand monsters easily for six months. I think that is enough for you to level up, right?" "Yeah. With their power level, I am confident I can reach 7-Star Martial Saint or even 8-Star Martial Saint in this place." Leoz confirmed. "The rest will probably reach 4-Star Martial Saints¡­ At least, it won''t go below 3-Star Martial Saints." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "After that, I can utilize the Gacha Tickets and level you up with the EXP Cards," Alex added with a smirk. "Indeed. But you should know that we have a level capacity which is one whole realm above you. At the same time, we won''t be able to break through to God Stage before you can reach that stage." "I know. I will try to reach Martial Saint as soon as possible. I only hope that I can find something useful inside this place." Alex nodded. "Still, won''t Mistress Firia''s cultivation will be hindered at this point? Sherry, Stina, and Kyle can safely stay inside you without any problem and can become a Martial Saint. On the other hand, Lady Firia won''t have time to cultivate. The same applies to you, Young Master." "No. I am not going to fight the monsters continuously¡­ Anyway, I will tell you the battle plan after confirming the monsters." Alex stopped talking and checked the sphere with his Spirit Eyes as they had gotten close enough. There were a few places leaking energy from the inside, and when he lowered his vision, many soldiers had been stationed at the bottom of that place. ''It seems the soldiers already know the place where they are going to appear.'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ''The array is powerful and colossal. It is easy to see that the leaking part will be broken first. However, is there such a different amount of Spiritual Energy inside that place? I can see the leaking energy is very dense¡­ Now that I think about it, the density of Spiritual Energy inside that pillar is far stronger than the surrounding area.'' Leoz didn''t disturb him at this point, protecting his safety from any other threats in the area silently. Alex closed his eyes. ''I have many questions, but I am sure a few things. First, a hole will appear in that area, and the monsters will start to come out. However, the fact that there are only a few thousand soldiers in front of that place and the low population inside the fortress means¡­'' "Many holes will appear at the same time. If we can search one hole that is not occupied by the army or mercenary, we should be able to use that place as our battlefield." Alex muttered to himself. Leoz heard it as well but didn''t say anything. "We are going to check the perimeter. Follow me." Alex flew to the side, going around the huge pillar. Just as he predicted, they found a few places leaking a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. The soldiers realized this as well and surrounded it. "Now I can see why one hundred thousand soldiers are enough for a few months. The monsters won''t be released in all directions simultaneously. They have their own places, and the soldiers and mercenaries will handle each hole for a long time." They kept flying before they found another fort. "Young Master¡­ There is another fort there. We have traveled for two hours, so I assume it''s from another influence." Alex frowned and sighed. "Every leaking place has been occupied by soldiers¡­ What should we do? Should we go around and check every single place? It will probably be midnight after finishing a whole trip¡­ Inform Firia about this, and we will continue the search." "Understood." Leoz nodded and disappeared. Chapter 724 - A Simple Solution After that, Alex and Leoz continued their search. Hour after hour passed, but they didn''t find a single open space they could exploit. Alex was on the verge of his patient as of now. The moon kept rising higher and higher, telling him how much time he had left before the gate opened. "Young master¡­ I am afraid there won''t be any empty spot for us." Leoz had refrained from telling this, but he had no other choice because their effort would only be for naught. Alex gritted his teeth. He knew this already. The kingdoms wouldn''t leave such a gap carelessly. "Haiz¡­ We only have two options now." Alex sighed and paused for a moment. "First, we can join one of the armies that have been stationed around the area. I don''t know if you notice it, but do you remember that they actually have a different number depending on the place?" "Now that I think about it, yes. They do have different numbers. Though I couldn''t see the Spiritual Energy leaking from the space, I could still feel it even if we were far away. Every time I felt a strong Spiritual Energy brushing my skin, the number of soldiers stationed was far higher." "Indeed. We have identified around forty possible holes around the area. All of them have a minimum of five thousand soldiers, while eight of them have ten to twenty thousand soldiers." Alex nodded and stroked his chin, falling into deep thought. "If we assume that there will be a bigger hole appear in those eight areas, everything will make sense." "Maybe we can sneak inside those eight areas? There is nothing wrong with having more fighters, especially with my 5-Star Martial Saint power." Leoz''s words were brimming with confidence. "It is true, but our objective is only to see whether they are considered as normal monsters by the system." Alex reminded him. "That''s why I think it will be better to sneak inside the smaller one and retreat if necessary." "I understand. We might be able to get some information as well." Leoz nodded. "Still, I think we need to know their strength first because I am not sure whether they have someone stronger than me or not." "Some of them have, some of them don''t. We are going for a group that doesn''t have someone stronger than you. It must have the lowest difficulty, and they might act a little polite to you. As soon as we know they are hostile against us, we will abort the mission." Alex nodded. "I thought you said you were not going to have another interaction with those people?" Alex shrugged. "I wanted to rely on Nelson, but not that I have calmed a little bit, I think I will have Nelson to investigate the other kingdoms and see if they are friendlier than this kingdom. If that is the case, we can simply change spots and help that kingdom while completing our objective." Leoz thought for a moment and recalled the first thing Alex said. "That''s right. Didn''t Young Master say there are two options? What is the second option?" Alex smirked slyly. "We simply go inside that hole and swipe the enemy inside. Considering their number, the hole, and the monsters, I believe we only need around one or two hours before we can enter the pillar." "Why is Young Master so confident about this? Have you forgotten about the fact that even Manness feared this place?" "No. In fact, I have noticed why Elder Manness got scared in the past." Alex nodded. "I have said there are fifty floors inside this pillar, right?" "Yes." "I could see ominous energy every five floors. I feel that the true opponents are inside those floors. Meanwhile, there are only Martial Monarchs monsters as the highest on the first floor. I think our group does not fear these monsters, right?" "If it''s all of us, including Anna and the others, using our True Spirit Body, I believe it''s just a simple task. However, we only have You, Lady Firia, me, Sherry, Stina, and Kyle. Six of us might get surrounded easily¡­" "I have a plan. After that hole is opened, we can rain them down by using my Spatial Gate¡­ Wait! Why can''t I think this earlier? Isn''t the real solution simple? I can enter the hole and create a Spatial Gate. Due to this, we will be able to handle them by ourselves without interfering with others!" Alex''s expression brightened, finally realizing the most and efficient solution. "Congratulations, Young Master." Leoz smiled and bowed his head. "I believe this is the solution we need in this situation." "We will try to kill a few monsters first before going back to Firia." Alex nodded with a smile, still feeling happy with this solution. After all, he was the master of Spatial Gate. If he wanted to create it small or big, it would be up to him. In other words, he could control the rate of monsters coming outside the gate. "Understood." Leoz looked at the sky and said, "There is probably a half-hour left before midnight." Alex and Leoz then waited patiently before a thunderous sound echoed across the region. They immediately stood up and looked at the pillar. A giant hole three hundred meters wide appeared on the pillar as monsters emerged from within, charging blindly to the front. "!!!" Alex was surprised. This place was one of the weakest places in the surroundings. Yet, it had a hole this big. The size alone allowed around thirty monsters to come out simultaneously. "Young Master. I feel there is something wrong inside the pillar." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and activated his Spirit Eyes. There was a sudden influx of Spiritual Energy coming from the pillar. All of them started assimilating with this place, increasing the density of Spiritual Energy in the area. With that kind of change alone, it would probably increase their cultivation speed. At the same time, Alex found that the soldiers started killing the monsters. The monsters released a Spiritual Energy into the air. He recalled the Battle Tower in this case. "This¡­" Alex made a weird face as if he thought something absurd. "I think this place will soon be a nice place to cultivate, especially if those monsters keep releasing the energy to the air. Anyway, we should probably go after another fifteen minutes when the situation starts getting out of hand." Leoz nodded and waited for another fifteen minutes before Alex summoned his Spatial Gate to silently enter the battlefield. The other gate appeared near the hole, and Alex ordered. "Attack them normally. Don''t release too much and expose ourselves." Leoz then clapped his hand and created a small lightning bolt between his hands. "Thunder Break!" The ball flew inside the gate, only appeared again right in front of the monsters. Once it hit a body, it sparked and electrocuted a few monsters around it. Unfortunately, because of Alex''s order, it wasn''t powerful enough to kill the monsters. However, he had fulfilled his objective since the main attack was Alex. Alex slashed his sword three times and released three Sword Waves, albeit inside the Space Realm. "Triple Draws." "Space Cut." The three Sword Waves cut the electrocuted monsters, killing seven monsters simultaneously. [EXP+ 100] [EXP+ 100] [EXP+ 300] ¡­ ¡­ [Gacha Ticket x1] "Hmm?" Alex''s expression brightened when he saw the notifications. He quickly closed the Spatial Gate before anyone could notice and let out a breath of relief. "I am glad." "Yeah. This is indeed good news. At least, after so many wrongs in this place, we get this one right." Leoz smiled from ear to ear. "Still, the EXP is a bit too low¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "No way! It''s already considered high, you know." Leoz shook his head. "First of all, Young Master is only an 8-Star Martial Monarch, giving you more EXPs. Secondly, these EXPs will need to be shared for SR and UR spirits. Thirdly, if I am the one who kills them, I will only get a messy twenty or less EXPs. That''s why I am going for higher-level monsters, but it''s hard to find them." "I see¡­ It seems I have put too much work on your shoulders, Leoz." Alex apologized. "No, no. I am not saying it is burdening me. In fact, I love this kind of job since this is the best thing I can do. I just want to inform you how hard it is to level up¡­ That''s why I said I might need a few hundred thousand monsters with the strength of the Martial Emperor or above to level up two or three times. In the future, it might even be more." Leoz sighed. "Thank you for your hard work. Let''s go back first and wait for Nelson''s information before we decide what to do next." Alex smiled and created another Spatial Gate. "Understood." Leoz followed him inside the Spatial Gate and regrouped with Firia. A few minutes later, "¡­ That''s what happened." Alex finished telling their condition to Firia. "I see. You are planning to create a gate yourself for our use. Because you are in control of that gate, you can decrease or increase the rate of monsters coming out of the gate or even close the gate entirely. It will be the perfect plan for us, considering we are a third party in this place." "Yeah. That''s what I think too." Alex nodded and took out Anya''s card. "Tell everyone that I will probably summon all of you here within a few days after I confirm everything." "So, we can raise our levels there?" "Yeah. This might be the fastest way to increase your levels." "Sure. I will prepare everyone to get ready. Do you need Nelson to control the surface?" "No. I want all of the UR Spirits to be here. We can give the surveillance to the N squad." "I will erase everything in this base then since we are going for a while. We can''t be careless." Anya chuckled. "Thank you. I will meet you soon." "Yeah." Alex then tossed Anya''s card inside the Inventory before looking at Firia, who seemed to want to say something. "What is it?" "Nelson has given us a little information earlier. The first thing he investigated was the Tiger Mercenary group. They are searching for you right now in the capital city, except it is futile because you are no longer there. They also said they are going to kill you if they find you, no matter if it is on the battlefield or capital city." Firia said coldly. "It seems sparing him was my mistake¡­ We should kill him no matter the consequence and simply leave the city." "If we do that, the Mercenary Guild will be involved and probably with the Kingdom itself. That''s why sparing him wasn''t a mistake, so don''t blame yourself." Alex shook his head, comforting Firia. "We can kill them later. Do you remember that the guild master said they were going to fight as well? It will be the perfect time for us to ambush them." Firia closed her eyes for a bit and sighed. "Anyway, is that all the information?" Alex asked. Firia shook her head and continued. "He is investigating the royal family right now. He found out that the name of the challenger in this kingdom was Astennu, while the other one was unknown. After that, he was convinced the other one was Nelson himself." "Fair enough. I don''t hold any grudge with Astennu, so I will let him handle his problem alone." Alex shrugged. "Nelson is also investigating what kind of treatment will the Royal Family give to Astennu." "Sure. It''s important to see how valuable we are in this place. The wording could be better, but that''s about it." Alex nodded in agreement. "The last thing was a bit mysterious." Firia hesitated for a few seconds before saying it. "According to Nelson, if they managed to pass this ordeal, this place would be filled with Spiritual Energy like in the past. At that time, it would be a perfect time to increase one''s cultivation. You can say that this place will be like Heavenly Sword Sect''s Battle Tower." "That''s good then. We can raise our strength as well as spirits." Alex smirked, pumping his fist excitedly. Chapter 725 - Information After understanding the most important thing about the monsters, Alex and the others waited for Nelson to finish his investigation. Another half-day passed, and Nelson returned. Alex summoned him in front of three people as they looked at Nelson with a serious expression. "Have you gotten all the information?" "Yes," Nelson reported everything he found inside the capital city. "First is about the Power Level of the Plide Kingdom itself. They don''t have that much strength, considering most Martial Saints are around 5-Star to 6-Star Martial Saint. Despite having so many Martial Saint, they don''t have the opportunity to break through to another level." "Is this related to the information you sent yesterday?" Alex noticed the hint and asked. "Yes. Does Young Master notice the different energy around here?" Alex looked up, observed the Spiritual Energy around him, and looked back at Nelson. "There is nothing in particular. Although I can see that the quality is lower, the quantity is very high. I don''t mean that it''s not pure or whatsoever. Instead, it is a kind of Spiritual Energy that is restricting one''s to not pass the limit. "For example, Stina''s world has the same energy, but the quality is only enough to reach the 7-Star Martial Emperor. Now that I think about it, the Spiritual Energy around the area only allows one to reach 6-Star Martial Saint or so¡­ That''s my speculation." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and fell into deep thought. "I believe it''s their restriction because the monsters won''t be able to break through that level as well." Nelson nodded in agreement. "I can finally see the reason." Alex touched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "They can break through their limit only at this time because of the combination between this natural Spiritual Energy and the Spiritual Energy coming from the monsters and the pillar itself. This raises a huge amount of Spiritual Energy quantity and allows the others to advance their cultivation¡­ "The pillar itself has the same amount of Spiritual Energy, albeit it is compressed inside. As soon as holes begin to appear, the energy inside will be overflowing to outside¡­ In this type of arrangement, only humans will be benefited¡­ Besides, having monsters close to a God Rank is dangerous because it might break the balance of this world. "I think that is the reason why the Gods and Goddesses a few thousand years ago limited this place''s cultivation level. With the human having some 7-Star to 9-Star Martial Saints, they will have the chance to stop the monsters." Alex finished his train of thought. "That''s basically it." Nelson agreed with him. "They might have many Martial Saints, but none of them can reach the peak because the Gods and Goddesses wanted them to stop the monsters without breaking the balance." "Then, a person like that Guild Master or the strongest one in the Plide Kingdom seems to have undergone this period for a few times, so their strength has increased to this level." Alex looked down, thinking about something. "How is their younger generation?" "They are basically similar¡­ Maybe, a bit higher than the surface''s younger generation because of the previous reason. They are hovering around 2-Star to 3-Star Martial Saint," Nelson reported. "Their personality, and how is their intake against Astennu?" "They are very appreciative of Astennu, and the first thing they do is welcoming him with a banquet. It seems they are going to negotiate with him to bring them inside the pillar, so they can receive a part of their inheritances. From how they act, I can see this is not the first time they did it." "Good enough for me¡­ Not that I will appear in front of them though." Alex nodded and ignored them. "As for the technical progress, like Array Mastery, especially about the research in the array around the pillar¡­ I can''t see much due to the time limit. However, I can say that they have many rank 8 arrays, but no rank 9 array." "That''s right. Where is the place to enter the pillar?" "I don''t know anything about this. I only know that it will open after six months¡­ And we will have another six months to conquer the pillar and get the inheritances." Nelson shook his head in disappointment. "Six months, huh¡­ Before that, there is one remaining question in my mind. When are they going to move to this area?" "I don''t know. If we take the fact that this place is going to be swarmed by monsters in a few months, I think they will start moving around that time until they can reach the pillar itself. In other words, we can set up an underground base and lure the monsters inside before killing them. We can wait until the promised time and sneak around." "Oh! That''s a good idea. But we will need to see the development first because there is no assurance that they will move that way." Alex thought for a moment before summoning Anna, Anya, and the others. They greeted him as usual, but Alex wanted to cut to the chase by asking them a question. "My only question is how many monsters we can kill a day for six months before doing any other things." "Hmm¡­ I have seen your memory and realized what you want to do." Anya nodded and thought for a moment. "First of all, I think we can open a portal, small enough to only let a single monster pass at a time." Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "This is our best strategy, I guess¡­" "Yeah." Anya gave her approval. The others were still confused about what they were talking about, and Alex decided to explain it. "I will just use numbers as our example. If we kill five monsters a minute, we can kill three hundred monsters in an hour, right? Then we can kill more than seven thousand monsters in a day. Considering the rate of monsters coming out of the pillar, we need around three days before we clear the entire first floor. "Of course, five monsters a minute are too low. If I predict the number, we should be able to get more than twenty thousand monsters on the first floor alone, AKA, around twenty to twenty-five percent of their original number. If we calculate that rate with their total number, we can kill more than one million monsters in this period. "However, this method is very repetitive and boring. Not only are we going to fight in the same place, but we will also fight the monster together." Alex put a warning in the end. "That is pretty boring." Jeanne nodded in agreement. She didn''t know whether they had the patience to do so. Hence, Alex added. "That''s why I want all of you to enter your True Spirit Body the moment we reach the fifth floor. I can see that the monsters on this floor are relatively stronger, so we can utilize this floor more." "You should also add that this number can go lower because the monsters will start getting stronger and stronger¡­ There might even many Martial Saint monsters around, forcing us to lower our pace or close the gate for the time being." Anya presented another problem. "Yeah." Alex nodded. "There is still a chance of the armies collapsing¡­ That''s why if we take everything in our calculation, five hundred thousand monsters will be our lowest number." "What is the strategy then?" Firia asked. "We have fifteen people in this place, including Sherry, Stina, and Kyle. I want to split us into three groups, and each group will handle the gate for a day. We rotate this every day." Alex nodded. Firia closed her eyes and nodded, picturing how Alex''s plan would turn out. "We can save our Spiritual Energy and such while giving some experiences for me and the others, especially Sherry and Kyle." "Yeah. We can use the remaining two days to cultivate and advance¡­ Considering you, Sherry and Kyle are on the verge of a breakthrough; I can simply split the group into two with six members each later." Alex nodded with a smile. "Besides, Nelson can search around in those two days." "I understand. I only need to search around the area, especially those forts anyway, so I don''t need that long." Nelson gave his input. "Who will group up with who?" Anna asked. "The first group consists of me, Sherry, Greg, Jeanne, and Artur. The second group consists of Firia, Anna, Nelson, Fabio and Vera. The last group will be for Anya, Leoz, Jean, Kyle and Stina." They each thought about this group and nodded, showing their approval. "Still, you are going to maintain the gate as well, right? Aren''t you overworking yourself?" Firia asked with a worried expression. "That''s why I have Sherry and Jeanne. They will be the group''s main attack, while Sherry will have more chances to gain experience in battle. On the other hand, Greg can protect me even when we are not in battle." Alex smiled, assuring her. "Your group is the most balanced, and I feel you can balance your cultivation and training. As for the third group, Anya can''t fight, but Leoz is there. If she uses her support skill, it won''t be a problem." Alex explained that he had considered everything carefully before giving his opinion. Even Anya didn''t have any qualm about this arrangement. He looked at their expression and found they had no more objections, so he said, "I will now create a portal toward that pillar¡­ It sucks when you know that you can''t pinpoint your own Spatial Gate." Alex talked from experience. Though he could summon a Spatial Gate that let him travel for hundreds of miles, he had no ability to pinpoint his location unless he had marked that place with another Spatial Gate. However, it was normal because not even Aileen could do such a thing. The Space Element might be powerful, but they also had their own limitations. Besides, it needed more control over elements than any other element. He was planning to train this ability in this chance. Alex raised his hand and created a Spatial Gate toward the Blue Layered Realm. This was a normal gate that he was planning to connect to later. "Now everything is set, I will create another gate inside the tower, so I might need to enter it. But fret not, it will be over in an instant, so I think I won''t have any problem." Alex smiled as he disappeared, teleporting himself toward the pillar. He needed to make the gate inside the pillar before connecting it with the gate in their temporary base. So, he really needed to enter this place to make sure he pinpointed the location. Alex searched for the hole and sneaked inside the pillar, only to find many monsters staring at him. The interior of the pillar was pitch black as if it was trying to convince him there was nothing there. No wonder the monsters immediately went outside of the pillar. Even though many things came to his mind, he still didn''t forget about his objective and went as deep as possible before landing and creating a small Spatial Gate. He went through it, baiting the monsters to come inside. The size itself was around seven meters, fit only for one monster at a time. As soon as he returned to the others, Sherry, Greg, Jeanne, and Artur already raised their guards while the others were doing their own things. Alex smiled and took out his sword and spear before the first monster came out. Alex immediately snapped his finger, creating a giant Sound Insulation Barrier to prevent the soldiers from noticing the ruckus they would make. He looked at the gate that had changed from a portal to Blue Layered Realm into a dark place, containing many monsters inside. Suddenly, Anya realized another thing. "Alex, why don''t you make a Special Realm to hide us and this battle?" "Yes. I am planning to do so, but I will do it tomorrow in my off time." Alex nodded. "It won''t be a huge Special Realm anyway, so it won''t take too long." Anya then nodded, falling into silence. "Now! It''s time to hunt." Alex then smiled. Chapter 726 - Boring Fights "Ha!" Sherry sent another barrage of Fire Swords, the evolved Firebirds skill, overwhelming the 8-Star Martial Emperor monsters. "That''s your one-hundredth monster." Alex nodded and smiled upon seeing Sherry''s control over her fire. Although there was a lack of Sword Intent, it was, by no means, weaker than your average attack, especially for those 10-Star Martial Monarchs. Alex was watching her like a coach, assessing her ability and giving some tips while he was at it. To be honest, Sherry''s fire ability was already far above average. If he wasn''t an Alchemist, he might already lose in terms of Fire Control. That was why Alex advised her while incorporating Alchemy Fire Manipulation. It was the most effective set of training to let one improve their control. Hearing Alex''s voice, Sherry reduced the monster to ashes with her fire before preparing for the next monster. The next monster coming out the gate was a giant beetle. Sherry immediately tried melting the beetle''s hard carapace with her Pure Fire. Luckily, it was only another Martial Emperor monster, so it posed no challenge for the time being. Sherry killed it in a matter of seconds. Repeating this process over and over again, the day passed. Just like Sherry, Firia also underwent the same training to gain experience from killing monsters. She had the least amount of experience in combat, so Firia didn''t reject the idea. In fact, she appeared very excited to fight these many monsters. The same applied to the third group, specifically Kyle and Stina. Stina aside, the main focus in this group was Kyle. Even though he was a reincarnated person, he had no memory of his previous life. Hence, his fighting prowess was considered as the lowest in this group, despite having 10-Star Martial Monarch strength. After three days of killing, the rate of monsters coming out gradually decreased until sometimes they needed to wait for a few minutes before a single monster came out of the gate. This only happened on the last day, and Alex decided to enter the tower and caused a stir to grab the monsters'' attention. According to Nelson''s report, this incident baffled the soldiers. They were ready to fight many monsters only to find it became easier than the record. Unfortunately, they wouldn''t know the reason why this event turned like this because Alex had created his Special Array, covering a small region. The Special Array had some Gathering Arrays for cultivation, Sound Insulation Array, and Illusion Array to camouflage the realm. This way, not only the monsters wouldn''t be able to break through this barrier, but the people outside also couldn''t find it. Alex had a perfect spot to train the group. After they killed all the monsters on the first floor, nothing happened on that day. The change only started when midnight came. A large booming sound startled the entire battlefield as the pillar shone in bright red, illuminating the world. They had no choice other than closing their eyes due to how bright it was. Luckily, Alex could still see what happened through his Spirit Eyes. The energy on the first floor was forced to go out before the second floor collapsed to the ground, replacing the first floor. It could be said that the original fifty floors had become forty-nine floors, with the first floor had the size of two whole floors. Alex was impressed and scared at the same time. He realized that the monsters would rage inside the pillar because of that sudden change and stormed outside the pillar. Sherry, once again, became the main attacker while the rest watched her from the sideline, only moving when Sherry needed help. This pace continued for several days until the third floor came. To their surprise, the third floor didn''t come immediately. Despite watching over it throughout the whole night, there was no shift inside the pillar as if it was waiting for something. Alex and the group were baffled because they didn''t know when the floor would collapse. Only after two days the tower finally made the change. Luckily, there was no change in the monsters, so Alex didn''t have any plan change. At this point, Nelson''s investigation finally bore some fruits. He learned that the monsters had a certain time limit for each floor, and it would continue to increase. They needed around three weeks from the start of this event before facing the first giant hurdle in their path, the fifth floor. According to Nelson''s report, the fifth floor had important monsters such as peak Martial Monarchs¡­ And there was also a chance to fight invisible monsters on this type of floor. Of course, it would only appear on the higher floor, and Alex knew it wasn''t an invisible monster. Instead, it was a Space Monster. According to Nelson, they would only reach floor twentieth before the portal to the inheritance palace opened. Alex didn''t know what kind of portal it was, but Nelson told them Firia had the key to open the door. They were startled at first before Firia recalled the scene when she teleported. She indeed came into an illusory realm where she got a golden key. She didn''t know what it was, but she still took it because it flew to her hand and stuck. When she tried to think about it, she couldn''t summon the key, making her confused. In the end, Alex shook his head and let it go. At the very least, if they were stuck in something, they knew Firia would be the clue. At the same time, Alex felt something was wrong. If they only reached the twentieth floor before the inheritance palace, they wondered whether to keep killing monsters or go to the inheritance place. Knowing it was far dangerous to head there, Alex decided to go to the inheritance place while the spirits kept watching the gate. The moment he realized he couldn''t beat the trial alone, he would need to summon everyone. Anya proposed to have Leoz and Anna as his additional bodyguard beside Firia and the contracted beasts, and he accepted. On the other hand, Alex was a bit sad because he couldn''t take advantage of the monsters to get all the EXPs and Gacha Tickets he needed. He still remembered his repeatable missions where he could get a certain number of Gacha Tickets from killing a hundred monsters. Even if most monsters were Martial Monarch or lower and only gave him one Gacha Ticket every one hundred kills, he was confident he could kill more than five hundred thousand. That alone would give him five thousand Gacha Tickets. He still got on with the normal way. It might not be comparable to those from the system, but he should still receive around one thousand to two thousand Gacha Tickets. Besides, he still had a higher mission where he could kill those in the same ranks or the Martial Saint Stage, giving him more Gacha Tickets. His original prediction, he would be able to get ten thousand Gacha Tickets from this event alone. If he added the levels that his Spirits would receive, he kept smiling for a period of time. Unfortunately, it seemed the world didn''t want him happy because he would need his Spirits later¡­Or at least, that was what he promised. Nelson also had one last important report. It was an investigation about the other challengers. As they expected, the unknown guy from the Plide Kingdom was Nelson. The Earl must have reported him to the royal family, and they desperately searched for him but to no avail. Alex only laughed upon this matter because he didn''t care about the Plide Kingdom as long as they didn''t stand in his way. As for the Evvy Kingdom in the north, they seemed to have contact with Julius and Elizabeth. Although the two didn''t like each other, they had no choice other than teaming up in this weird and dangerous environment. Even Elizabeth knew better about it. Meanwhile, Lush in the west had gotten three people: Rio, Evelyn, and Angela. Alex decided to keep an eye on this kingdom because of Evelyn. He just wanted to make sure she was treated well inside the kingdom, albeit he had no chance to confirm everything due to time and other problems. Lastly, the Zealous Kingdom had the rest of the people, except Song Ling''er. He was confused about why her name wasn''t on the list. Although he doubted she would run into danger, he still thought of some possibilities. Her brother, Song Jiaoren, might become submissive to him because of the card, but he also needed to show some sincerity. As long as he met her in the future, he didn''t mind helping her a little bit¡­ Or Firia would help her because he wasn''t supposed to be here. After around sixteen days, the fourth floor started releasing the monsters. Alex had no change of schedule and let the others do the rest. The monsters were still weak as they only found a couple of Martial Monarch monsters while most of them were Martial Emperors. Alex and the others already became bored since the monsters didn''t pose any challenge. It wasn''t really a useful experience for Firia and the others because they didn''t really fight back before dying in front of them. Even Alex and his spirits began joining the battle as they let the three rest. Finally, the long three weeks passed, and they finally killed all the monsters. The pillar shifted once again. The time for the real battle was about to begin. And Alex became excited to see whether they had something special with this fifth floor other than stronger monsters. Chapter 727 - The Conclusion of the Fifth Floor Alex and the others started becoming tense, especially Alex''s group, because the third group had done their part yesterday. In other words, Alex''s group will fight today. He glanced at Sherry and the others, noticing there was a sudden influx of Spiritual Energy in their surroundings. Squinting his eyes, he discerned everything with his Spirit Eyes. Spiritual Energy came from the gate, showing the different amounts of energy on this particular floor. "Master?" Sherry tilted her head, worried about him. "Have the others stand by near the gate as well," commanded Alex while taking out his weapons. Sherry nodded and called everyone without hesitation. A moment later, the group assembled in front of the gate, waiting for the monsters to come out. However, a bright flash appeared on the front line. Alex narrowed his eyes, trying to look at what just happened. There was a giant monster that was easy to spot even from this distance. That monster just spewed up a bright flame while the soldier started fighting against it, along with the other monsters that came out of the gate. Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Although he couldn''t see their average level, that big one was still there. He found out that the monster was a 3-Star Martial Saint. "This is going to be troublesome¡­ We should prepare for the worst. It seems I have still underestimated this tower." Alex took a deep breath, and took another look at his strategy, revising it on the spot. The others finally came to him, only to find Alex yelling at them. It wasn''t like he was angry at them, but the situation had simply gotten serious. "I am going to split our group into two this time. There is no change for the first and second groups. However, I want Leoz and Jean to come to the first group while the rest go to the second group. Each group will hold for a day, but be ready to use your True Spirit Body. Depending on the difficulty of this floor, we might use it soon." Just as he passed the order, a monster came out of his gate as if he heard his shout earlier. The group had no time to think, especially with a 2-Star Martial Saint monster in front of them. He thought for a moment and decided to stop the connection between this portal and the one inside the pillar. The portal then turned blue. Alex and the others raised their weapons, looking at this Martial Saint White Tiger. "The second group can rest first," Alex shouted before commanding his own group. "Leoz will be the main attack. We will try to kill this tiger in under thirty seconds." "Understood." The group nodded and instantly surrounded the white tiger. Leoz appeared right before the white tiger and slashed his sword as lightning started sparkling around it. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" The lightning sword wave flew toward the tiger. The latter was trying to grab it with its teeth. Alex and Sherry summoned their Fire Swords and attacked the white tiger from the two sides. The white tiger obviously noticed it and changed his plan. It stopped thinking he could stop Leoz''s attack and tried to escape. However, Greg blocked his escape route by creating a translucent green barrier to trap all of them inside. Not only that, Artur and Jean appeared and struck the two front legs of this tiger. "Tch! This is why I don''t like fighting against a huge opponent¡­ They are too big to be split into half in a single slash." Artur complained after noticing that his cut was only able to cut half of the tiger''s legs. Jean was also in the same situation but didn''t complain. Instead, it was Jeanne who suddenly decided to rebuke Artur by slashing the other two legs. Jeanne had been sneaking around the tiger and chose to attack it from its blind spot. The two short swords of her didn''t look like the usual ones because she covered it with her golden lightning, creating an illusory form and extending the blades long enough to cut the two legs. "This is why you should use your Spiritual Energy." "And do you think wasting it right now is a good idea?" Artur rolled his eyes. *Boom Boom Boom!* At this time, Alex''s and Sherry''s Fire Swords had finally transformed from baits into the main attacks, scorching the white fur until it became black. Leoz''s first attack also arrived and made a deep wound right beside the tiger''s head. The location was between his head and the right leg, so the tiger suddenly lost its strength and tilted to the right. Leoz took this chance and appeared from the opposite direction, sending another Thunder Spirit Slash to behead the white tiger. The tiger couldn''t even struggle in front of these people, but it could be said it was justified since all of them except Alex and Sherry were Martial Saints. Alex took a deep breath and called the rest of his team, discussing this matter. "What do you think?" As much as he wanted to ask the others, Anya seemed to be the only one who could come up with a good strategy except him. Hence, he threw the question to Anya. "If Martial Saint is the standard of the monsters on this floor, I am afraid the army there won''t be able to hold for long." Anya shook her head. "The fact that they are still looking confident and save their reserve army in the capital, I believe the average strength of the monsters is lower." "Since you said it''s lower, what is their average strength?" "Around 3-Star Martial Monarch with hundreds or thousands of Martial Saints." Alex looked down and fell into deep thought. "The previous four floors had the average level of 1-Star to 3-Star Martial Emperor¡­ To think this one has a one whole realm different¡­" Anna and the others could also understand why these two were furrowing their eyebrows. With that level difference, it would be troublesome, especially when they entered the fiftieth floor. "Should we use our True Spirit Body and try to aim at killing twenty thousand of them in a day?" Anya asked with a dangerous glint in her eyes. "We can indeed get many monsters that way, but I believe we can separate them into two days. I will keep connecting and disconnecting the gate from time to time. I am satisfied to have only fifteen thousand each day for a span of two days. The remaining days that we can''t use our Spirit Body, I am satisfied even if we can kill an additional five to ten thousand monsters before the monsters run out." Alex nodded. "It will give a burden to your body, you know." Anya furrowed her eyebrows. "Still, I think it is worth the effort. The monsters on the tenth floor must be stronger than this, so we should take advantage of what we can at the moment." Alex smiled. "We can try another strategy if this doesn''t work out." "I understand." Anya sighed and let Alex do what he wanted. It was a good plan nonetheless. After getting the confirmation from Anya, the others also nodded their heads to show their approval, and they separated into two groups again. Leoz, Jean, Greg, Jeanne, and Artur activated their True Spirit Body simultaneously. "True Spirit Body!" Their bodies started glowing before any additional features appeared on it. Alex and Sherry still couldn''t get used to this breath-taking sight. Not only their strength and appearance changed, their aura that signified their existence also changed. "I might be going a bit easy, Young Master," Leoz warned him. "I know." Alex nodded and patted his shoulders. "It''s better for you to not lose your mind. You are already far stronger than 5-Star Martial Saint anyway¡­" "Thank you." Leoz smiled and raised his weapon. Alex then turned to the gate and connected it with the previous gate before enlarging it, allowing five monsters to come out at a time. "Sherry and I will keep the two busy with our Fire Elements. Greg should watch our back. Jean and Artur will fight together while Leoz and Jeanne will take one each. Remember to help each other to end the fight faster. We will use this strategy as our base strategy for now," Alex commanded as they took their own positions. Alex and Sherry summoned their Fire Swords and started bombing the monsters with them. Meanwhile, Leoz took the strongest one as his opponent. Although it looked like the bear was the strongest one, its strength was still lower than the previous tiger. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" Leoz cut this 1-Star Martial Saint Bear with his Sword Wave before they started having their fight. Jeanne and the others also did the same, killing their opponents as fast as possible. They somehow managed to double their killing rate even though their opponents had a higher cultivation base. It just showed how powerful the True Spirit Body was. Alex was full of joy after he got around thirteen thousand magical beasts in a single day before he let the second group take over. Although the result wasn''t the best, he indeed almost reached it. When the second group took over, they managed to kill one thousand more than them due to the fact that they had one more person than Alex''s group. Nonetheless, Alex didn''t really care about this number because they got many Gacha Tickets and EXPs during this time. Checking at the soldiers, he realized they lost a fifth of their original numbers. Alex was baffled at this point, but Nelson said the soldiers inside the base had arrived to reinforce them, and they had a higher average cultivation base than the one fighting right now. At the same time, he also found out that Song Ling''er already joined the battle together with the Zealous Kingdom. She was teleported in an area far from the human settlement, so she kept wandering around the area with utmost care. Nelson informed him that she had finally arrived at the battlefield, neither as the Mercenary nor the army. Because she was clueless, the army managed to invite her to join since they probably suspected her as one of the challengers. They wanted to send her back to the capital city, but the latter refused their offer and stayed as one of the fighters. Having no other choice, the leader of that army agreed and took her in and made sure to protect her. Alex wanted to look into this matter, but he was too busy to maintain the gate, so he only let the matter slide after knowing that Song Ling''er was alright. He then continued killing the monsters without True Spirit Body, acc.u.mulating a total of forty thousand kills on this floor alone. It raised suspicion from the army, but they couldn''t search for the reason as well because they were too occupied by the current situation. In fact, they were pretty happy about it because they didn''t need to sacrifice more soldiers, keeping their number high. And thus, how the fight against the monsters on the fifth floor concluded. Chapter 728 - Lightning Tribulation Turns out to be Easy "Master¡­ I am sleepy." Sherry looked at Alex with her fuzzy eyes as if she hadn''t slept for years. Although it was possible to do such a thing as a cultivator, most still chose to sleep because it often reset their mind. "Sleepy? Are you going to evolve?" Alex asked as he approached her. "I think so¡­ The Spiritual Energy in my body is rampaging. The only thing to calm them down is to sleep, allowing my body to adjust this state and advance to Martial Saint." Sherry nodded before she fell down. Alex caught her and lowered her body gently. "Don''t worry. Just take care of your body." Sherry nodded and entered her deep slumber. At the same time, Kyle also fell asleep in Stina''s embrace. Both turned into a small fox and phoenix. Alex decided to protect them inside his body, waiting for them to reach Martial Saint. After that, he looked down, falling into deep thought. He knew the exact reason why this happened. It started last night after they finished killing the monsters from the fifth floor. The Spiritual Energy released by the pillar and the monsters enriched the entire cave by a large amount. Sherry and Kyle, who were on the verge of a breakthrough, felt the impact the most as they immediately fell to the ground and started cultivating. Since they only had two groups at the moment, there was no change in their plan since both groups each had their members go down. The next day, they didn''t do anything in particular. Alex started thinking about the future as he realized something important. Firia would soon need a Special Realm to hide her presence on the battlefield. After all, the Lightning Tribulation would gather both armies'' and monsters'' attention. He ended up making another Special Array in his day off, so Firia could undergo her Lightning Tribulation there. Nonetheless, she accepted because she had reached the peak after intaking the Spiritual Energy like Sherry and Kyle. Fortunately, she didn''t need to consolidate her strength because her foundation was solid, considering she had been under the care of a God Rank Expert from Martial Master. He didn''t forget to make a Lightning Rod Array for her. Firia refused it at first, saying she didn''t need such a thing, but Alex insisted persistently. He didn''t want her to get hurt just because of some sloppy mistakes. She finally agreed after some persuasions. The reason she didn''t need it was not because she was arrogant. She simply never used it in the first place because of her master. The group then started fighting again, until the tenth floor appeared. After completing the ordeal of this floor, Alex finally achieved a breakthrough, advancing his cultivation to 9-Star Martial Monarch. At the same time, Firia also felt her Lightning Tribulation coming. Anya noticed her condition and asked Alex to accompany her, letting the spirits take charge of this process, also with Stina. He thought for a moment and agreed with that suggestion and made sure there was nothing wrong with her Lightning Tribulation. Firia leaped toward the other Special Array along with Alex before she stood in the middle of it and began cultivating until she triggered the Lightning Tribulation. To their surprise, the Lightning Tribulation only came a day later. The black cloud gathered right above her as the thunder shook the ground. Firia released the Sacrificial Element from her body as her Fire Shawl also flared up. She looked at the black cloud gently and stated. "Come!" *Rumble Rumble!* The first Lightning Strike flew down. Surprisingly, the one that had a change of expression was Alex instead of Firia. He was utterly shocked by the Lightning Tribulation. "Seriously?" Alex expected her Lightning Tribulation by forming the image of his previous Lightning Tribulation, and it became very powerful. Yet, it didn''t even satisfy half of his expectations. If Alex needed to speculate the exact number, it was around thirty to forty percent of his original expectation. Firia didn''t hear his rumble as she was already focused her entire attention on this Lightning Tribulation. She pointed her finger toward the Lightning Strike but didn''t do anything afterward. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and activated his Spirit Eyes, wondering whether she used a technique or not. Suddenly, the Spiritual Energy concentrated on her fingertip. The first thought that came to his mind was Firia shooting a laser-like attack from her finger. However, Firia still didn''t attack until the Lightning finally reached the tip of her finger. "Spark!" The Spiritual Energy burst out of her finger and blasted the Lightning into smithereens. Alex widened his eyes, blinking a few times. It could be said that Firia managed to destroy it, but he could also say Firia actually dispersed the Lightning to the ground by using that technique at a perfect time. The image of him destroying his Lightning Strike this way¡­ Couldn''t appear in his mind as he expected. The power of his Lightning Strike was far bigger than this, making a technique like this unusable. Firia might start using her strength to destroy the Lightning completely sooner or later. As many thoughts came to his mind, Firia destroyed the second and third Lightning Strikes with the same technique. But Alex managed to catch a single thing. In the third strike, there was a little spark from the Lightning that touched her finger. Firia dispelled that force instantly though. Alex then continued to watch her from the side as the Lightning became blue. Things started to get serious, and Firia finally released her attack for the first time. The fire from her shawl concentrated on her right hand as she waved her hand. That fire turned into a giant hand and shot upward. "Absolute Hand." This red-colored hand caught the Lightning as if it was grasping a stick. It squeezed the Lightning until it evaporated the entire Lightning. Alex''s expression already became bland as he had predicted this would happen. It wasn''t like the Lightning was stronger than his Lightning, so he just enjoyed the scene in front of him. The fifth Lightning Strike struck forth. Firia lifted up her eyebrows as she suddenly raised another hand, creating the Absolute Hand with both hands. "Absolute Hand." The two hands grasped the Lightning and squeezed it as if trying to dry the water from a wet cloth. Not only the power behind that hand was horrendous, but the scorching fire also helped the burning process, destroying the Lightning in a matter of seconds. "How I wish to have a Lightning Tribulation that easy¡­" Alex sighed. "Well. Rather than thinking about that, I need to know what I will become after getting slapped or squeezed by that hand. Wait, it''s not me, but her enemies. Firia never used this technique even once in the fight since she mostly attacked the monsters from a distance. Hmm, I think they will burn into ashes, not letting even their skeleton to remain." Firia thought for a moment and took a deep breath, observing the sixth Lightning Strike. "Absolute Blaze Ball." She clapped her hand as a few fireballs appeared, hovering around her. The moment the Lightning Strike came out, the ball flew one by one, hitting it continuously. Alex had seen this attack before and felt pretty sorry for the monsters. The first fireball started burning the monster while the second one turned them into charred black. The third one burned the flesh while the next one started spreading it before their bones and internal organs got burned by the fifth one. Just like last time, the five fireballs flew in succession. First, it clashed with the Lightning from the front, reducing the speed of the Lightning. The second one flew toward the Lightning body while the third one hit the tail, burning these two areas, reducing the strength of the Lightning itself. Alex watched the fourth and fifth balls obliterate the rest of the Lightning. It was finally the turn of the Purple Lightning. Alex watched this with great interest because this was the last stage since Firia didn''t have the so-called Golden Lightning Tribulation. The seventh strike came down, but there was still no change of expression on Firia''s face. She had yet to get pressured from this Lightning Tribulation. Alex even thought he might have unnecessarily worried about her. Firia summoned the fireballs again and shot the Lightning down without much problem. However, she suddenly changed her strategy when the eighth Lightning Strike appeared. She raised her hand and waved it, creating a fire wave. The first thing that came to his mind was the attack was similar to his Sword Wave, only to find it was far from it. The moment it hit the Lightning, it neither exploded nor clashed with the Lightning. Instead, it suddenly bent elastically, wrapping the Lightning with its gentle embrace¡­ Or maybe scorching embrace. "Red Sun Mantle." This so-called Mantle actually burned the Lightning slowly, and when it reached Firia, it only had around a third of its power left. Firia simply used her Absolute Hand and destroyed it. When the ninth strike came, Firia gently smiled and looked at Alex. Alex could only scratch his head, embarrassed. As she said, she didn''t need a Lightning Rod Array. Yet, she still used it because Alex had made it for her. How could she not use it when her husband worried and made it specifically for her? There was no sadness because he didn''t trust her. Only happiness and warmth filled her heart. She bent down and touched the Lightning Rod Array gently, activating the entire array. The Lightning was absorbed almost instantly because Alex made a few Lightning Rod Arrays, connected with each other. He didn''t know Firia had this kind of weak Tribulation, so he miscalculated the number. When their eyes intertwined, Firia chuckled and whispered, "You are such a worrywart." Alex looked away to hide his embarrassment before Firia turned serious again. The final strike flew down, and as expected, it was a normal purple Lightning. Alex had no excitement for this because he knew the Golden Lightning was the most insane thing he had ever met. Firia raised her hand as the fire on her shawl gathered above her head before turning into another fireball. Suddenly, she clapped her hand and summoned yet another fireball between her two hands. Alex had seen this technique when he first met her. She used it together with his Pure Fire, but this time, she only relied on her own fire, making Alex curious. Firia didn''t notice the change on Alex''s face and shot the ball to the other ball, causing a massive reaction between the two. The first ball swallowed the second one while the first one burst out, and as a result, the second one also popped out like a sea urchin. "Flame of Dawn." Firia controlled the fire movement and flew toward the Lightning. This sudden burst created more than a hundred fire flares, hitting the Lightning from every direction. If this was a fight between normal people on Earth, the Lightning was like a guy who protected his head and crouched on the ground while the fires were like bullies that came to kick him. Luckily, the image was very vague because the fire emitted a beautiful after effect as if it was a firework. The Lightning gradually became thinner and thinner until it vanished into thin air, and the cloud began to disperse. Firia looked at Alex and winked her eye, signaling him she would enter the breakthrough process. Alex smiled and nodded. Unlike him, who needed to undergo many painful processes, Firia didn''t have any reaction in this process, receiving everything she got from the Lightning Tribulation before advancing to Martial Saint. The next day, she finally opened her eyes and greeted Alex again with a smile. "I have reached 1-Star Martial Saint now." "Yeah. I can see it." "So, how is it?" "I wish I can have that easy Lightning Tribulation." Alex actually had a picture in his mind where he beat that Lightning Tribulation without much problem. "Fufu¡­ I have seen your Lightning Tribulations. Although it was hard to pass it, you got something equivalent." Firia chuckled. "Anyway, let''s go back. We have been slacking for a few days, so we should help the others." "Agree." Chapter 729 - Kyles Requests Firia finished her Lightning Tribulation, and they went toward the group, helping them again. As expected, Firia''s strength increased exponentially because she just leaped from Martial Monarch to Martial Saint. Alex, on the other hand, was still the same as ever, struggling in the 9-Star Martial Monarch. Three months later, Nelson appeared before him as they were waiting for the next floor to come up. "Young Master. I have grave news for you." Nelson hesitated for a second. "There is a change of schedule; it seems." "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" "I have once said that we might only reach the twentieth floor after six months, right?" "Indeed. I do remember that information." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "However, we will soon deal with the nineteenth floor." "Yeah. I am worried about this as well because I am afraid that the pillar has changed because of us. Just like the first time we came here, I don''t want to fight something unknown like this." "That''s the problem. Because of the sudden change of this event, those kingdoms have moved up their schedule. Their reinforcement will come in a few weeks to a month. By that time, we might reach the twenty-fifth floor¡­ And the moment the inheritance place opens up, we might reach the thirtieth floor." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "By the looks of it, it isn''t necessarily bad for us. The problem is what those people will do because of this sudden change and what kind of huge phenomenon the pillar will show us for the last six months." "That''s what I am worrying about right now." "Just inform me when the royals come and what they do later. I will respond in any kind." Alex nodded, thinking about his next move. "I will be able to reach the 10-Star Martial Monarch with the help of the twenty-fifth floor. If you are still unsure, you can sneak inside their reinforcement right now¡­ But I doubt there will be much information you can get from them." "True enough. They won''t necessarily discuss anything important at a time like that." Nelson looked down and fell into deep thought. "I will be staying for now and go according to the Young Master''s plan. I hope that Young Master can reach 1-Star Martial Saint in this place¡­ Or even further." "Haha, I hope that as well. But you know that I need to consolidate my power first, right? I don''t have enough time." Alex sighed. "Then." Nelson bowed to him and disappeared. Alex sighed and opened his system. [Gacha Ticket x3421] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x1] [Gacha Coin x0] [Gacha Hammer x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] "Hmm¡­ I have many Gacha Tickets right now. As expected, I can acc.u.mulate this much after killing more than two hundred thousand monsters, even though the rate has become lower and lower as I increase my strength." Alex wondered whether he should use it or wait until he returned from this place. [This is not the first time you get this much. In fact, you have gotten this many Gacha Tickets on a single occasion. But you always used it twice, so it never reached a number this high. Though, you can open it right now and save some EXP Cards. Isn''t it good to know how many EXP Cards you will have as an assurance later?] What the system said was reasonable. If he knew he had some assurance, it might lift some burden in his mind later. "Sure. Use everything like usual." [Processing.] [Summoning Coin (R) x1] [Super Cleaving Axe (UC) x1] ¡­ ¡­ After opening his Gacha Tickets, the system immediately opened every single Summoning Coins he got from the earlier draw and to his surprise, he managed to get 93 Rare EXP Cards. Alex wanted to be happy, but he also couldn''t say he was thrilled by this number. This was probably the most EXP Cards he ever had. Unfortunately, he still remembered that the Spirits needed six to seven EXP Cards to raise one level. It couldn''t even increase his spirits by two levels. "Still¡­ I shouldn''t complain about this. It''s still better than nothing. Anyway, the main way to raise their level in this place is by killing monsters." Alex shook his head and remembered another thing. "I almost forgot this one. How about the reward for completing this pillar? Don''t you have it for me?" [Mission: Beat the pillar Reward: Gacha Hammer x5 Description: Show them who''s the boss.] He became speechless the moment he read the description. "What do you mean to show them who is the boss? Who actually do you want me to show it?" [Plide Kingdom.] "Wait. What?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "I only have a problem with the Tiger Mercenary while I don''t really care about the Kingdom itself. Besides, there is a possibility of me destroying them first before we enter the pillar." [There is still that Guild Master. Once it''s broken, it will never go back perfectly. Besides, the Earl was also annoying, so just slap them with your power.] "Oi." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Even if I beat the pillar, only Firia will make her appearance since I am not supposed to be here. If I show myself here and the other people realize, they might want to know the secret and other things, and the situation will become unpredictable." [Just do your best. The real mission is to beat the pillar.] As if losing in an argument, the system answered half-heartedly. "You are running away." Alex rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I think it''s time for me to regroup with the others." He then walked toward the group and resumed their planning. When he was on his way, there was a sudden movement coming from his body. The fire started gushing out, enveloping him in its embrace. Two figures emerged from his body, taking the form of a fox and a phoenix. "Sherry, Kyle." Alex recognized these two and sensed their power had reached Martial Saint. "Congratulations, both of you." "Thank you, Master." The two finally flew in front of him and turned into their human form, bowing their head politely. Sherry had the same appearance as it seemed she had taken fancy of her current appearance. On the other hand, there was a qualitative leap in Kyle''s appearance. His previous teenage body turned into a young a.d.u.l.t, similar to Alex''s current appearance. Alex felt that the image of him being his early twenties was the best, so he chose this one. That was why this sudden transformation blew his mind. The wind swayed Kyle''s long red hair as Kyle tried to fix it by tying it into a ponytail. His teenage body had become taller than Sherry''s height and reached the same height as Alex. Although the muscle wasn''t really apparent, the body felt very compact, and in fact, there should be some abs behind his clothes. Of course, Kyle didn''t forget to put on these clothes as he already felt his new appearance beforehand. "Kyle¡­" Alex scanned him up and down. "What is it, Master? Do you want me to do something for you?" He hesitated for a second before he shook his head. "No. I just think there will be a certain person that can''t wait anymore." Kyle smiled gently and pumped his fist. "I know. I have made her wait this long¡­ Master, can I request two things from you? I know that I shouldn''t request this, but¡­ Please. I beg of you, Master." Kyle suddenly fell to his knees and placed his head on the ground. Alex was startled by the sudden emotional scene as he could clearly hear his shaking voice. He immediately helped him get up and smiled. "Don''t say it like that. Just say your requests; I will try to work it out." "First of all, I have made her wait for thousands of years. Although I don''t have the memory of being with her, I do have my current memory. After thinking for a long time, I have realized my feelings for her. To tell her that the past is the past and the present is the present, I would like for Master to lead our wedding ceremony." "Oh?" Alex was amazed by this request. "This wedding ceremony isn''t like what you think. Because you have become our master, we only want you to witness our exchange of marriage oath. I learned this tradition back in that world¡­" Kyle looked down, wondering whether Alex would accept or not. Alex patted his shoulder and smiled. "Sure. There is no way I have a problem with that. We can even do it now." "Thank you, Master. However, I believe we can postpone it until we have finished our business here." "Sure. I will let you choose the time. Just inform me later." Alex nodded. "What is the second wish then?" "When Master becomes a God Stage Expert and can seal our cultivation as well. I would like for you to seal our cultivation, so we can visit Ellen. I am sure Stina is missing her, and I also want to tell her about this." "Ah! There is no way I can reject something like this. You have been helping me this whole time." "Thank you, Master." Kyle made the biggest smile he could have ever made before he flew to Stina. Obviously, Stina couldn''t endure herself any longer and leaped toward his embrace. Alex and Sherry looked at this and smiled. "Maybe we will hold our marriage later when we reach Eulja? Together with Anna and Anya." "Really?" Sherry widened her eyes and opened her mouth, feeling thrilled. "Yeah. I promise." Alex patted her head. "Do you want something too?" "I don''t really have anything. I don''t even need a big party like the one you held in the lower world. As long as people like Big Brother Leoz and the others come, I am already happy. Of course, we need to talk it out first with big sister Anna and Anya. I don''t want my wish to make them sad after all." Alex couldn''t stop smiling, looking at this girl. "Let''s go back then. Since Kyle has run first, the others must have known that we are on our way. We shouldn''t make them wait." "Un!" Sherry nodded with a smile, revealing her white teeth. ¡­ As soon as he returned, Alex had some talks with the group about the pillar. It seemed that the group decided to wait and see first until they got further information from the four kingdoms. Nelson accepted the request and kept a close eye on them. Finally, after another month, one big thing occurred. It was the appearance of the grand one hundred thousand soldiers from the four kingdoms. They came together with all challengers to let them get used to the environment first. Nelson immediately sneaked inside their army, trying to squeeze all the information they possessed. According to them, the tower would undergo a huge change after the six months period, and monsters from five floors would come out at the same time, roaming around the world. Their mission is to get inside the pillar before the entrance is closed. That was why the reinforcement came with this timing. They were planning to break through the enemy rank and entered the place before retreating a little bit and counter-attacking after reorganizing their rank. Alex got a good grasp of their intention and planned to sneak inside with his Space Element before anyone could reach it. After all, they would be swarmed by monsters, so it would be a perfect cover for him and Firia to enter the trial. As for the spirits, they would try to kill as much as they could until Alex summoned them inside. Although it was such a shame to let those many monsters pass, Alex''s safety was their priority. Most of them had raised their level by one anyway, so they should have barely reached their target with the EXP Cards. With that thought in mind, Alex kept hunting the monsters, killing as many as possible. The moment they beat the twenty-fifth floor, Alex immediately fell to the ground, breaking through to 10-Star Martial Saint. One month later, another big occurrence appeared as the pillar suddenly shone brightly as if it was going to transform. Chapter 730 - Infiltration The pillar shone brightly, illuminating the dark night sky. Alex opened his eyes and stood up, activating his Spirit Eyes to see what happened. "Alex?! How is your advancement?" Firia looked at him with a worried expression. "It''s fine. I have reached 10-Star and stabilized my cultivation a few minutes ago." Alex nodded, assuring her while observing the pillar. As he started focusing his attention on the tower, the ground started trembling. *Rumble Rumble!* Alex furrowed his eyebrows and looked below them. "The ground? But I didn''t see anything in the past few months with my Spirit Eyes. Did I miss something that I shouldn''t have?" The moment he uttered this question, the ground started shaking uncontrollably, and a loud rumbling sound followed right after. In front of the pillar, a thirty-meter wall rose from the ground, circling around the pillar. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and tried to see anything different from it. "I can see a few doors in that wall¡­ There are three doors in my sight, and I can barely see a different change of color in each door. They are red, green, and blue." "That''s it? Is there any special Energy surrounding them?" Anna asked while furrowing her eyebrows. "I don''t see it anywhere." Alex shook his head. At this time, many holes started to appear around the area, and Alex could see that there were five floors that had this sudden change. "This is going to be troublesome." Alex watched how the monsters easily surrounded the entire pillar. Firia fell into silence before she recalled a certain matter. "That''s it. The color!" Alex tilted his head in confusion, wondering why she became excited. "Do you remember that I go to the illusory realm first before coming to this place to receive a key?" "Yeah." Alex nodded before he also realized the problem. "The key has a color in it?" "Yes. Mine is purple!" Firia nodded furiously. "Nelson! Go to their surroundings. Seeing there is a wall circling around the pillar, I bet there are many doors there. If we are able to spot the one with the same as Firia''s, I am sure she can open it!" Alex nodded with confidence. As he said this, the armies also shifted their movement, moving around the wall as if they were thinking the same thing. Nelson could see it in this darkness and nodded his head. He flew around as Alex was waiting for him to come back and told him where to go. Meanwhile, Alex turned to his spirits and asked. "So, I am planning to wait for a little longer while waiting for Nelson''s information. This way, the monsters will fill up the battlefield. At that time, I will use my Spatial Gate and sneak inside with Firia." "Are you planning to take us there? I mean, I know that it''s hard to pinpoint the location of your Spatial Gate¡­ So, I am thinking about bringing us there to break through their rank. I can stay here and re-summon them after you enter the gate." Anya asked. "I think it''s fine. If I come with you, they might realize about our group. You must remember that they have people from the surface. Firia and I are enough to do this. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle will help us anyway." Alex shook his head, rejecting the idea. "So, you want to use her as a camouflage. Giving that Sherry and the others can use your ability if they are in your body, they can make the others think there is only one person in the middle of the enemy range." Anya nodded as he realized his plan. "Well, I can only use Fire Element in this case because it will be suspicious if I use my Sword and Spear. They will notice the cut¡­ Although the ground has been dyed red and corpses are everywhere, I don''t want to reveal a single flaw." Alex added with a sly grin. "I understand. How about this Portal?" Anya asked while pointing at the Blue Colored Spatial Gate. "I can connect the gate late, whether it''s with the one inside the tower or the one that I will create later. Just know that I might summon you as soon as the situation starts getting dangerous, and it might happen as soon as I reach the door." Alex warned them with a serious expression. "Don''t worry. I will take care of the group and prepare them, so they are ready in any kind of situation. If you don''t understand anything inside, you can ask the system or me. We will try to explain everything we know." "Thank you." Alex then looked at Firia, wondering if she had any objection. "I will leave it to you." Firia nodded. Alex then created a Teleportation Array, appearing not far from the Purple Gate with Firia. "There it is¡­" Alex pointed his finger and said. "Don''t use your Fire for the time being. Leave it to me and the others first." Though she didn''t really like the idea, she still nodded, not stopping him from continuing their best plan. There are around a few tens of monsters in the area¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as the monsters started noticing him. "We will breakthrough through this place. Follow me!" As soon as he said that, a few hundred Fire Birds and Fire Swords appeared around him, raining the entire battlefield. No matter whether they were wolves, crocodiles, or any other monsters, all of them were roasted by his Pure Fire. "Boom Boom Boom!" A series of explosions shook the battlefield. It wasn''t the loud sound that actually startled the soldiers nearby, but the location itself. Everyone who had the sight of these explosions would drop their jaws to the ground because the explosions were in the middle of the monsters, close to the gate itself. These Fire Element Art blasted all the monsters nearby, causing a big stir in that place. The lush Kingdom saw this and fell into confusion. "How can there be someone there?" "Looking at that place¡­ Whoever there must be aiming at the purple door?" "Now that I think about it, there is one more person that the Plide Kingdom can''t grasp¡­ Is that the Unknown person?" "But according to the challengers, Miss Evelyn and Angela, the challenger is a woman. Doesn''t that mean they have a wrong report?" When they were in a panic, Evelyn and Angela could see the scene as well. Among the noticeable Fire Expert on the surface, only one person had an ability like this. It was Alex. However, Alex was not supposed to be here because Firia took his place. In other words, this fire came from Firia, and by the looks of it, Firia had Alex''s Sacrificial Element. "This is big brother Alex''s Sacrificial Element. Although I''ve never experienced it, I still can feel the familiarity of this fire¡­ I am sure of it. It''s big sister Firia!" Evelyn nodded furiously as she kept watching how the explosions destroyed the monsters around. "Still, I can''t understand how she can reach there alone and at this speed." Angela furrowed her eyebrows. "I think I haven''t told you anything about big brother Alex. Do you know that he casually gave me two Teleportation Array Plates without blinking? There is only one method that you can reach that place. Big sister Firia is his wife after all." Evelyn had a mixed feeling. On one hand, she was happy that Firia could enter the gate without any help. On the other hand, deep inside her heart, she also wanted something like that. Angela had the answer after the clue Evelyn gave but didn''t say anything when she noticed her expression. In the Evvy Kingdom, Elizabeth and Julius also saw this as their expression turned serious. Elizabeth clenched her hand and thought with a smile. ''It seems the Spirit Nest is deeper than I can imagine¡­ I have got a huge deal with that Alexander. Such a shame that my beauty is nothing in his eyes. We can really build the Divine Kingdom as the strongest influence together. Alas, my Divine Kingdom seems too small in his eyes¡­'' On the other hand, Julius needed to rethink his plan again after knowing that the Spirit Nest could do something like this. With a background like this, he needed to fully understand them first before initiating a negotiation. Song Ling''er also thought the same thing and shook her head with a smile. "It seems my brother has made the right choice." The giant and thick gate were opened, symbolizing that Firia was the first one to enter the trial. Seeing how she entered and other things, the officials from the Evvy Kingdom laughed. "Haha¡­ That Plide Kingdom is a fool. They never expect to meet a fake and leave a person with a high skill alone." "That''s right!" On the other side, Astennu frowned. He had heard many achievements from Alexander himself, but he never saw any reports about his wife as if she just appeared out of nowhere. However, her performances in this place could only be described as amazing. He stroked his chin and fell into deep thought. "Is she their secret weapon? Is the Spirit Nest fostering her from the start, or does she hail from another influence? If it''s the latter, the Fire God Clan seems to have made a wrong choice¡­ After all, a normal influence won''t be able to train someone like this." He was also wondering about the rumored tenth person that didn''t align up with the information. With this, he assured that the Kingdom seemed to not trustworthy, so he might need to think of another plan in case he entered the tower. Little did he know that Firia had actually entered the Plide Kingdom. If the Kingdom and the Tiger Mercenary saw her face, no one would be able to imagine what kind of face they would make. Unfortunately, the fourth kingdom was in the opposite direction, so they didn''t know what just happened. ¡­ One minute ago, Alex and Firia kept advancing as fast as possible and arrived right in front of the gate before the monsters could swarm them. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw nothing particular in the gate, so he had no clue how to open it, despite Firia having the so-called key. No matter what, they still needed to enter, so Alex commanded. "Firia! Go to the door. I will buy you time as much as you need." Firia was a bit unsure whether she could open it or not, but the clue was already there. She had no choice other than advancing, especially since Alex was buying time for her. She also paid no heed in this situation. The moment she arrived right in front of it and started wondering how to summon the key, her chest suddenly shone as a golden key with purple stripes emerged from within. The key flew automatically toward the keyhole and opened the gate by itself. Firia was surprised by this and watched how the door opened before shouting. "Alex, I think we can enter." Alex glanced back and nodded his head. He turned around and leaped toward the gate as Firia followed him. The gate then closed once again, and the monsters began regaining their original intention. Chapter 731 - People Behind the Scene The blinding light forced them to close their eyes. However, Alex still kept being vigilant as he knew whatever could happen in a situation like this. Firia also raised her Fire Element to see whether there was someone around her or not. A few seconds later, the light dimmed down and got replaced by darkness. "Where is this?" Firia furrowed her eyebrows, scanning their current position. There was no door behind them despite going through one earlier. There was only a hard stone blocking the path to go back. Surrounded by the wall, Alex tried to look further and noticed something different. "I have found something, but I don''t know whether this is what we are searching for or not¡­" "What is it?" "If we follow the only path we can, which is the front, we will meet staircases to go up. I can see a violent Spiritual Energy there." Alex informed her with a calm expression. "Do we have any other choice?" Firia asked. "Let me look around first." Alex didn''t answer and kept looking with his Spirit Eyes, wondering if he had missed something. Firia also looked around, not letting Alex do all the work. The wall behind them surprisingly held a few words, ingrained on it. "Alex¡­ Look behind you." "!!!" Alex thought it was an enemy attack and immediately turned around, only to find a few words. ''Shall you want to obtain what the Gods and Goddesses had in the past, go to the center tower where they resided¡­ Your time limit is two weeks for the whole trial: The first week is to go to the checkpoint and the other week is to pass the second one before you arrive at the Tower of God. Go forth and show your strength! The timer will start as soon as you finish reading this.'' "!!!" Alex read it out loud, so Firia could hear it as well, but because of what he did, the words shone. A red blood-colored number appeared within the wall. 168:00:00. 167:59:59. "Let''s go. There is no doubt that we need to climb the staircases." Alex warned. "I have checked everything around the area, including on the top and bottom." "I understand." Firia nodded and followed Alex upstairs. The staircases weren''t that long and high, so they managed to climb it within a minute, of course, without flying. A new world appeared in their vision after coming out. The staircases suddenly closed itself as if it was alive. Knowing that they couldn''t go back, Alex checked their surroundings once again, noticing many energy signs around them. They had a similar posture as monsters, so Alex classified them as dangerous, considering most of them were 7-Star Martial Monarch or above. "That must be the center tower." Firia pointed her finger toward the tall tower far on the horizon before realizing the change in Alex''s expression. "This place is surrounded by monsters. We need to sneak around to pass them before finishing this one¡­ As much as I want to kill them, I want to see what kind of trial this is." "I understand. I will cooperate with you." Firia nodded. Alex then summoned Nelson without hesitation. "You see the tower over there?" Alex asked while pointing at the tower. "Yes." "Your task is to lead us there without the monsters around noticing us. Can you do that?" "It''s easy." Nelson smiled with confidence. "I can see that the monsters are quite powerful around the area, so I think I need around one hour before I can reach that place. I hope Young Master lets me go first to check the entire place." "Sure. Do what you think is right. Firia and I will stay here." Alex nodded, and Nelson disappeared into thin air. "What are we going to do now? Wait?" "Of course not. I want to kill some monsters around to see whether they are real or not. If they are, I can summon the other spirits and kill all of them before we go to the second one near the time limit." "What if the others know about our situation? It will be troublesome, you know¡­" "True enough." Alex nodded, falling into deep thought. "How about if I go ask someone to keep a close eye on the surface to see if there is anyone coming in? We might leave this area first and just go straight to the tower after that." Firia agreed this time. "Sure." Alex then leads Firia to the weakest monster around here. It was a 7-Star Martial Monarch White Serpent. Alex killed it without trouble. [EXP+100] Both of them immediately had an idea as soon as they saw this notification. They said at the same time. "If there is no problem with the trial, we can summon everyone except one person here and kill these monsters until the other influences intrude this place." "We will wait for an hour then." Firia nodded. "Yes." Alex nodded. After another hour, Alex waited for Nelson to give him the signal before summoning him again. "Young Master. I have checked everything in your way¡­ This place doesn''t possess that much danger, considering there is no trap or whatsoever, only monsters. In other words, we can eliminate them as much as possible before going to the second stage." Nelson confirmed their next course. "I want to check the end first, is that alright?" Alex asked. "I understand. I will lead the way." Nelson nodded and guided him along with Firia toward the end of the place. It turned out that the place was a swamp covered with fog. When he turned around and checked what filled the place, he found many swamp monsters like crocodiles. Nelson skillfully guided them, knowing when to fly and when to run. An hour later, they arrived right in front of a tall wall, circling around the tower. Alex couldn''t help but comment. "Why does the trial have the same appearance as the one outside? A tower and a wall like this?" "I don''t know." Nelson shrugged while Firia looked away. "Still¡­ This entrance is so strange? Although I can''t see what is inside yet, I can watch the movement of Spiritual Energy. I bet there are some words again around here. We can read it later." Alex nodded before summoning every single spirit except Anya. He took Anya''s card and apologized. "I am sorry, Anya. You need to watch our progress there¡­ Do I need to send Nelson to you?" "No need to apologize. I am fine here. My mission is only to see whether another person has entered the pillar, right? It''s easy to watch them from afar." Anya said softly, understanding the situation. "Yeah. I have blocked the connection of my Spatial Gate for the time being, so there won''t be monsters coming out of that place." "You don''t need to worry about me. By the looks of it, they need around two or three days before they can break through these monsters. I have taken a look at their tactic and realize this¡­ So, you only have around this much. Unfortunately, you can''t use the True Spirit Body as well, so¡­" "Even if there is no True Spirit Body, the benefit alone is far better than the one we have been doing. This place is surrounded by 7-Star Martial Monarch monsters, so we need to use it to our advantage." "Oh!" Anya''s expression brightened. "Make sure to kill many of them, alright?" "Sure." Alex smiled and looked at his spirits. "Because Anya is there, we will separate the group again like before when we only have two groups. In other words, each group will have seven members. Although our objective is to kill as many as possible, make sure you act cautiously because this is by no means land that we have information about." "Understood." They shouted in unison as they split up. Unbeknownst to them, their actions were actually watched by a few people. The one that was the most excited was an old man with purple hair. He looked like someone who just passed their middle-aged, so he wasn''t that old. "This is¡­" "Oi! Who is the one that arranges the trial this time? Look at this? There are supposed to be two of them, and now it becomes fourteen¡­" Another guy shouted. "Still, I can''t see how they can bring people¡­ I mean, the entire trial this time has been coated by Space Element Array, right? I mean, Divine Array. It should not be possible to bring someone even with a Teleportation Array." "That''s right. But the fact that they¡­ No, he can bring them in is still apparent." "Yeah. Does he have a weird technique or something?" "How about the Space Element? He must have a Space Element, right?" "I watched the situation outside the tower not long ago and only found that this guy had only Fire Element. Besides, I can sense three beings inside his body¡­" "Don''t focus on him! Can''t you see that the woman has a trace of Divine Aura? From the power alone, I feel it''s coming from a high ranked God¡­" "But we have closed the entrance to this world. They shouldn''t come from the outside!" "You need to be clear about that one. We only close the entrance for God Rank Expert. As for those below that stage¡­ I don''t think I need to say it." "I know that, but we have no news about another race coming from another planet¡­ The only thing we know was the one from a few thousand years ago. Three races came here with their ship." "True enough. That person informed us about it when he underwent this trial and met us¡­" "What should we do now?" "We should observe them first. Seeing their movement, I know they are going to fight the monsters around here for a week. I am wondering what kind of secret they hold." "Yes. I do think we should observe them." "I have confirmed his power. It''s indeed a Space Element¡­ It means he has two elements. It was like that guy a few thousand years ago¡­ Who was his name again?" "Maxwell." "Yeah, Maxwell. He was a talented one that had undergone a reincarnated cycle, and to our surprise, he even retained his previous memory." "Anyway, we shouldn''t talk about him for the time being. Our problem is this guy¡­ Actually, I am sure that whatever he did, it was through the Space Element." The purple-haired old man nodded with confidence. "You are the one who put the Divine Space Element Array, right? No one should be able to break through that array, especially those who are not a God Rank Expert, let alone he who has yet to reach Martial Saint Stage." "As much as I hate this situation, I remember an old tale¡­ There was once a guy, having a weird Space Element. That power was otherworldly. Despite having ranked lower than a normal Space Element, that guy can go toe to toe against a Pure Space Element. From what I heard, that guy''s name was Smett, one of the highest-ranking Gods, a God King. People knew him as Dungeon God." "What? Do you mean that this guy has the same power? Or does he his inheritor?" These souls of Gods and Goddesses roared, not believing such a thing. "Even at our peak, we only have rank 5 God. Are you saying that he is the successor of a Rank 1 God, AKA, a God King?" "I don''t believe it as well, but the power fits the description¡­" The purple-haired guy nodded. "Hey, I am thinking about taking this child with me¡­ Will that be alright?" "What are you planning?" "I want to make a transaction with him. You should know about the Space Monsters inside my realm, right? I am thinking about having him to defeat them and kill their mother. We are planning to annihilate them, so I think this plan is good." "I see¡­ That is indeed a good idea. Our plan in erecting this place is to hold them until they died¡­ But there is no one qualified to kill them. I think this guy is the right choice¡­ Haiz, I wonder if there is someone who can destroy my realm too¡­" "I hope too¡­" "If they die, we can release our descendants and let them experience the outside world¡­" Chapter 732 - The Power of Quenching Without knowing what happened behind the scene, Alex''s group started killing the monsters like crazy for about three days before Anya warned that the people started coming inside the pillar, and Nelson confirmed not long after. Alex decided to return to the end of the first stage and headed toward the second one. "Thank you everyone." Alex smiled. The Spirits cupped their hands and bowed before Anya summoned them back to the outside. They then walked toward the words planted on the wall, reading it. "Danger! Outside World''s Nature." Alex and Firia tilted their heads in confusion. Alex glanced at Firia and asked, "I know there is a danger, but what does this Outside World''s nature?" "Something related to the outside world? I can see that there is nothing wrong with nature here¡­ I mean, they are completely the same as the outside world despite being artificial itself." Firia looked down before she realized something. "Don''t tell me¡­" "What? Did you realize something?" "I think?" Firia hesitated for a second and asked. "Can you look down and see whether there is something there?" Alex didn''t understand her intention but still scanned the underground with his Spirit Eyes. "!!!" He gasped as he saw a path underground. It was a bit far ahead, so he needed to advance first before going down. The tunnel seemed to lead him right below the tower, bewildering Alex. "This is¡­" "I can see a tunnel there." "I know it." Firia''s eyes turned sharp. "This might be the reason why these four words don''t make sense¡­ Well, I am a perfectionist, so I just felt weird when reading these words. Then I read the first letters of each word, and ''Down'' became a word. Don''t you feel it''s weird?" Alex scratched his head, embarrassed. He didn''t think it was weird, especially since he had many experiences with this. The most memorable one for him was the Potential Tower since he only needed to understand the meaning instead of the words, so he thought this was normal. "I apologize¡­" "Never mind." Firia stopped him and shrugged. "We should go through this place." Alex nodded and walked to the entrance with Firia and noticed the interior. He could see many paths inside with mud walls separating each path. "This looks like a maze?" "Indeed. Since we know about the real entrance, should we search around this area until we reach the goal? We have a week anyway." "Sure." Alex nodded and walked inside the maze. Suddenly, a storm of Spiritual Energy appeared before him and entered his body. "Kh!" The sudden influx of Spiritual Energy was a bit hurt for Alex as he instinctively gritted his teeth. "Alex?" Firia furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing what Alex experienced since she had yet to enter the maze. "Wait a minute. This maze is weird¡­" Alex stopped her while checking his body. [Host, this is the power of quenching¡­ Ask Firia about it.] "!!!" Alex frowned and asked. "Firia. Do you know the power of quenching?" "Power of quenching?" Firia opened her mouth in surprise. "I know it. Why are you asking me this question? Don''t tell me¡­" "According to the system, this maze has the power of quenching. I want to know what it is¡­" Alex nodded and stepped outside once again. "The power of quenching¡­ It''s just a common name to make it easy to understand. The real name of this technique is Yaentai Quaon. I don''t know where that name comes from, but that''s the name." Firia hesitated for a second. "This is a technique involving Divine Power. You can see there is a different type of energy inside me, right?" "Yes." "Just like your consolidation process¡­ I also need to consolidate my foundation because the fast-paced cultivation will ruin one''s foundation. However, I needed to return to your side as soon as possible, so Master used this power. "Of course, this was not possible for her alone. She invited Uncle Maxwell and two other God Rank Experts to use their Divine Power for this technique. This one allows me to cultivate without worrying about the consolidation process because everything has been stuffed inside, or you can say they are already consolidated by this power." "What? Really? Still, I can sense that power inside you. Wouldn''t it be detrimental to you?" Alex asked, worried about her. "Don''t worry. It''s not as you think. I can simply dispel this power after I reach God Stage, so it''s not a problem for me. This power is only effective to mortals like us anyway." Firia shrugged. "So¡­ Do you think I should enter this place?" "If there is indeed the power of quenching inside, I believe this is a good opportunity, especially since your strength is in the 10-Star Martial Monarch, where you need to consolidate your power. Considering it starts affecting you right on the moment you step in, I am sure that power is spread around the maze. If you can go around and collect that power while cultivating, I believe you might be able to fully consolidate your foundation and breakthrough." Firia nodded. "Of course, there is a risk about this technique, which is that the people who use this technique will be weakened for a period of time. That''s why not many Gods would use this type of technique." "Breakthrough to Martial Saint?" Alex raised his eyebrows. He couldn''t say this didn''t tempt him, but¡­ "Doesn''t it mean everyone will know about the Golden Lightning Tribulation?" "Take a look at your current situation¡­ Your Golden Lightning Tribulation has been known to the whole world back when you were a mere Martial Grandmaster and a Martial King. Suddenly, it disappeared without a trace. I think they have some suspicion about it already¡­" Firia glanced at Alex carefully. "I know that¡­ But it is still far dangerous because I won''t know what kind of danger will befall after this, and our situation might turn out very different than our expectation¡­" Alex sighed. "If this is the last Lightning Tribulation, I can do it. But this is the second last since I need to undergo the Divine Tribulation later¡­ Although I don''t know whether I will have another Golden Lightning Tribulation, I need to be careful." Firia looked down, thinking about it. "Fair enough. I was too excited and didn''t think this through. If you actually released that Golden Lightning Tribulation here, your allies might even betray you just to know your secret¡­ There is also another possibility, which is fear, but I doubt it. If they know about this, they might even make that alliance again, and it will be Spirit Nest versus the Seven Influences¡­ Maybe except Blackwade Clan." "Yeah. That''s what I am talking about. I don''t want to risk it. After all, I have been careful this whole time." Alex sighed. Firia nodded, understanding his thoughts. "Still, we need some solutions. Judging how you acted earlier, there is a high possibility that you will call the Tribulation Cloud¡­" Alex checked his body and confirmed what she said. "I certainly feel that way¡­ Does this mean I can''t enter this place?" "There is also another possibility. You can simply enter the maze as quickly as possible before you challenge your Lightning Tribulation inside the tower. No one can see it, right?" "Indeed." Alex nodded with a solemn face. "I can see that there is an invisible wall above the wall, preventing us from flying. So, the only thing we can do is to complete this maze through the legitimate way¡­ Seeing how there is an entrance, I am sure that the trial is something like you are too focused on the tower instead of the real entrance of that tower. "I mean, what if there is no entrance to the tower¡­ Or the one that we can see on the surface? It will lead them to despair, especially with this kind of time frame. When the time almost ends, they will start having weird thoughts and pressure." Alex explained it the way Potential Tower taught him. "Yeah. I can feel that as well¡­" Firia nodded in agreement. "Still, this is our only option, huh¡­" Alex stroked his chin, falling into deep thought. "I guess." "What if there is a soul residing in that tower? Wouldn''t I be screwed if they know about my secret?" "Not really. They are only souls and won''t possess too much of a problem for us. My Shawl is a Divine Weapon, so it can destroy the soul if necessary. How about asking your system?" [You don''t need to worry, Host. There is also a certain will inside those quenching powers, but you can eliminate it with your Pure Fire. Although your strength has yet to reach God Rank, you can still kill the soul if you want, especially with your Pure Fire. They are nonetheless the Evolved Pure Fire from one of the highest rank Gods. After you reach God Rank, you can simply dispel that power.] "I see¡­" Alex checked his body and found the wisp of will inside that power. He eliminated it by burning the will with his Pure Fire. "I will go then. Although it seems dangerous, I feel I will get something precious inside this place." "Sure." Firia smiled gently. "Let''s go." Alex stepped in again and felt the power coming inside him. Firia frowned as she experienced the same. "As expected, it''s indeed the power of quenching, but the strength is not comparable to my master, so it won''t do anything to me¡­ How about you? Can you bear the power?" "Yeah. I should be able to bear it for a few minutes¡­" "A few minutes? This power seems to be stronger than I expected¡­ Normally, you should be able to handle it for a few hours. Now I am wondering how many Gods actually used this technique." "We have no time to think about it. Our priority is to search for a way to get to that underground tunnel." Alex brushed the matter off, feeling the sense of emergency. Firia didn''t say another word and tried to complete the maze by running with Alex. However, no matter how hard they searched, they were nowhere near that underground tunnel. Alex''s condition began worsening, making Firia worry. "Should we go back right now? If only we can bypass this stupid wall¡­" Firia gritted her teeth. "Bypass it?" Alex suddenly realized something important. Unlike the other places, he didn''t see any Space Elements around the wall. "Why didn''t I think about this before?" "Alex?" Firia tilted her head, confused by his action. Alex took out his sword and struck the wall. "Heaven Light Slash!" The sword shattered the mud wall, albeit it instantly regenerated as if there was no damage before. "What are you doing?" Firia asked. "I just noticed that there is abundant Space Energy in this place, including the invisible barrier above us and the tower itself. However, the wall doesn''t have anything like this, only this regenerative ability. I can see it with my Spirit Eyes, so I am sure about it. I might not last long, so I am planning to go straight to the entrance with this¡­" "But you can''t use Teleportation in this area, right?" "Who says I want to use that technique?" Alex smiled evilly. "I only want to create a Spatial Gate and use the wall to connect it¡­ Although this can only bypass a single wall, we can still advance far quicker toward the entrance in a straight line." "!!!" Firia''s body shook, never expecting Alex to have such a plan. "I see what you want¡­ That is indeed a good plan. Let''s go with it." Alex smirked and placed his hand on the wall, creating two Spatial Gates, on the front and the back of this wall. "Let''s go." As soon as the two Spatial Gates were connected, Alex passed it, and he just succeeded in defeating the system. Firia followed him without hesitation as they continued toward a certain location where Alex abruptly stopped. "Alex?" Firia gasped as she looked at Alex clutching his heart. "Don''t worry. I can still go on¡­ I have wanted to advance as soon as possible, but this is the first time I don''t want a breakthrough¡­" Alex let out a long sigh as he created the Spatial Gates again. Chapter 733 - Preparing for the Lightning Tribulation "It''s right here." As soon as he reached above the entrance, he immediately struck the ground as hard as possible, destroying the ground and entering the tunnel. Knowing that Alex was on the verge of a breakthrough, she immediately helped him floating as they descended to the ground gently. "Your foundation is rock-solid, and with the assistance of Undying Fire Body, you are getting a terrifying boost from this power¡­ I have realized that it''s not the power of quenching that is the main boost to your cultivation. Instead, it''s the Spiritual Energy around. Have you noticed that the Spiritual Energy became denser as we killed more monsters?" "Yeah." Alex gritted his teeth, answering Firia''s question. He didn''t forget to check around the area with his Spirit Eyes, not finding any suspicious energy around. "I think it''s safe to break through here¡­ I need to adjust that power and cultivate a little bit more before I can trigger Lightning Tribulation." "I think the moment you adjust that power, the Spiritual Energy around you will naturally get sucked inside your body, increasing your cultivation at an alarming rate. Luckily, this is only your consolidation process¡­ It will be dangerous if this is your normal progress because it will surely ruin your foundation, especially if it''s not treated soon." Firia nodded. "There is a bigger area ahead. We should walk there first. Considering this place is linked to the sky and filled with Illusion and Space Element, it can somehow be used as a Special Realm. If I can trigger the Tribulation before the others come in, they won''t know my Golden Lightning¡­ Still, I will add another layer of Special Realm as a precaution. That''s my limit." Alex sighed. "Looking at your condition, you are not in the condition to create a Special Realm, no? I will carry you around while you draw symbols around the area. You can then focus on two things, the array and holding back that power." Firia suggested. Although he was a little bit embarrassed to have Firia carry him, he decided to go along with it since it was indeed the best option he got. "Understood." Firia then carried him on her back, heading toward the bigger area. To their surprise, the tower was far beyond their imagination. Golden pillars, a golden floor, a huge chandelier far in the ceiling. Everything looked massive and glamorous, unlike the dark stone tunnel. Firia and Alex shook their heads as they couldn''t get mesmerized by this. They began working on the array together. ¡­ Meanwhile, the Gods and Goddesses were stupefied when watching how Alex found the entrance and entered the main tower. "This¡­" The purple-haired man scratched his head, embarrassed. "I have certainly made some precaution in the test¡­ But I have never expected to have a Space Element user to come to this place¡­ So, embarrassing." "Indeed. I don''t know whether this is good news or bad news. On one hand, I can certainly say that they are the strongest candidates out there. On the other hand, having cheated their way here is really not a pleasant thing to see." "How can you say that? They didn''t cheat their way here. I will say they are smarter than anyone else." A few Gods started favoring Alex''s intelligence and the bond that he shared with Firia, while some had a more traditional way of thinking. Nonetheless, they still had another problem. "Looking at the other candidates, they will only appear here in another week at the earliest, so what are we going with the two? Do any of you want to greet him?" "Wait a minute. We shouldn''t meet him first." "Why?" "He is currently cultivating, trying to advance to Martial Saint. By the looks of it, the outside people manage to clear the thirtieth floor before this place open, so there is so much residual energy filling this place. In addition, just look at how these two people killed so many monsters within three days, increasing the energy even further." "I see. I don''t know whether this is a blessing in disguise or not, but I absolutely sure it is for the other candidates. I think that the people outside will feel the increase and will have a breakthrough outside. The only problem is those who will undergo their Lightning Tribulation." The purple-haired guy smirked. "This place has been covered by my Special Realm, so I can still channel the energy from within to let the world send its Lightning Tribulation. Besides, the tower was built by Divine Materials. He shouldn''t be able to destroy it." "Now that I think about it¡­ It''s indeed as you say. We can rest assured then. And who is going to guide him here after he finishes his Lightning Tribulation?" "I will be the one." The purple-haired one raised his hand. "I am going to make a deal with him, so I will be the one who greets him. I will bring him here first to meet you guys, so one of you can explain a little bit about this tower. After that, I will bring him to that realm to kill those monsters." "Alright. Since this is the case, we can only wait then." "Yeah." ¡­ The Gods and Goddesses kept watching Alex from behind the scene, wondering what kind of stunt Alex would make next. On the other hand, Alex was having his peaceful time, cultivating without any care in the world. Firia observed his condition, especially concerning the power of quenching. ''Hmm? The will inside that power has gone, leaving only the pure power from that¡­ There should be no danger to him. As soon as he controls the remaining energy, the Spiritual Energy that has been absorbed together with that energy, he will probably trigger the Lightning Tribulation soon.'' Firia squinted her eyes. She started looking around the entire tower. There were not many decorations despite having this grand tower. She thought, ''There is no suspicious aura at the moment. Even this Divine Blazing Shawl doesn''t notice anything in its surroundings, so I assume nothing is wrong with this tower. The problem is Alex''s Golden Lightning Tribulation. I wonder whether someone is watching us this whole time and will make his appearance when he/she sees Alex''s Tribulation. ''No¡­ What I am worried about is that will inside the power of quenching. I have never seen anything like that, and even Master said it was impossible to do it unless someone had a certain intention. I decided to stay silent since Alex could burn that will. However, there is a possibility of someone having some intentions toward the people here¡­ ''Still, there is a possibility¡­ Hmm, this world has closed its gate and limited its cultivation to 10-Star Martial Saint. Considering it is only a soul, its strength will have deteriorated even further, especially after the passing time. In other words, Leoz should be able to fight it with his True Spirit Body. And in the worst case, the others can join the fight, and I will destroy the soul with my Divine Blazing Shawl.'' Firia closed her eyes, wondering if she was careful enough in handling this. ''Sister Xingzhi. Is this alright?'' [I don''t know. The reward in this place must be great, considering this place is where many Gods and Goddesses died. If something happens, I will try my best to help you¡­Or send some help there. If there is a big problem where Alex might die, I won''t hesitate to send the army and enter that place even if I need to destroy this world.] ''I see¡­ Although it''s not according to the plan, I think this is necessary. After all, it''s hard to get information about worlds that have many God Rank Experts.'' [Yes. Even Nelson, the number one spy in our place, has trouble with this type of world because of various reasons. That''s why I want to make him learn about the danger he will face upon entering God Rank Expert. After all, the future battles are not between influences anymore, but worlds. A certain mistake might destroy our Eulja, the home for billions of Spirits.] ''I understand that part. As much as I don''t want to fight, Previous Life Alex had so many enemies, and they might bite us before Alex reaches that stage. Should we hide him inside Eulja?'' [No. I don''t think he will like it. Besides, I plan to travel to many worlds. Not only to search the other materials for his Undying Fire Body, but also for him to get stronger secretly. Of course, I won''t be accompanying him all the time because our enemies might suspect something.] ''Fair enough. With so many worlds around us, we might stumble upon a priceless treasure there.'' [Yeah. I am planning to have you and Alicia to get stronger as soon as possible.] ''I won''t¡ª!" Before she finished her words, she noticed the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy coming from Alex. [The Lightning Tribulation is coming. He should be fine, so your task is to watch out for any enemies sneaking around you. I will be out and watch from here and ask Zask to stand by.] ''I understand.'' Firia nodded as her expression turned serious. Meanwhile, Alex finally finished the consolidation process and couldn''t help but admire how powerful the power of quenching was. Although it might be because of how dense the Spiritual Energy is, letting him cultivate at speed beyond his imagination, he still couldn''t ignore the fact that these few months of tedious process reduced into one day. Alex checked his body, finding no problem in his body and cultivation. "Although the power remains in my body, I have erased the will from earlier. I don''t know whose will that is, but that person won''t be able to do anything using that power. I will try to research this Yaentai Quaon. It should be somewhere inside the ridiculous amount of knowledge in my mind. This can wait since the Lightning Tribulation is my current problem. Now that I have a clear mind for this, I start thinking that this Special Realm won''t be enough to mask the aura of my Golden Lightning¡­" "Should I try to go around and create another layer? But I have triggered the Tribulation. The only way to do it is to make it while facing the Tribulation." Alex thought for a moment and decided to do it for his safety. *Rumble Rumble!* The rumbling sound of the lightning reverberated in his ears as he looked upward. Despite him being inside a tower, the ceiling suddenly turned into a cloud as if it was already there all along. "This¡­" Alex frowned. "This is the first time I undergo my Lightning Tribulation inside a building. From the technical aspect, It''s still possible to undergo Lightning Tribulation underground or underwater. The world will still send the Lightning Tribulation. However, if it''s inside a building, he/she needs to go out because the Lightning Tribulation is in the sky. "Fortunately, this tower reaches the sky here, or it''s equivalent to this cave''s ceiling. That''s why the ceiling becomes the sky right now¡­ The only problem is whether the tower can withstand the shock wave later." Alex looked around and sighed. "I hope I can make another layer of Special Realm after this." Alex took his Spiritual Weapons and channeled his Spiritual Energy. "I hope you two are ready to fight with me." As if they were responding to Alex, they released their Spiritual Energy to the surroundings and enhanced Alex''s fire. Alex smiled and nodded. He glanced at Firia, signaling he would start at any moment. "Go do it. I will protect you," Firia said softly. Alex nodded again and looked up. The clouds started gathering above his head. Because the space was pretty small, the cloud created another layer, just to stuff the remaining cloud. However, Alex saw no change in the Spiritual Energy, making him think it was fine. One thing that he found odd. The energy from this cloud was higher than Firia indeed, but it was less than two times. He thought it would be like three times or higher according to his memory. It seemed the lady luck had come to him for this Lightning Tribulation. He smiled and raised his weapon, stating. "Come!" Chapter 734 - Easy Lightning Tribulation? "Come!" *Rumble Rumble!* The cloud released its first strike as if it responded to him. Alex''s expression turned serious as he released his Spiritual Energy before he frowned. ''What is this?'' Alex was baffled by the strength of his Lightning Tribulation. He gritted his teeth and struck the Lightning with his normal strike with only his Spiritual Energy and Absolute Blade Intent. *Bang!* The loud sound echoed inside the tower, but the Lightning was obliterated with that strike alone. Alex opened his mouth in astonishment, not believing what just happened. He thought, ''Is this some sort of illusion?'' [No. It''s what your Lightning Tribulation is supposed to be. Have you forgotten how you deal with your Lightning Tribulation from Martial Master to Martial King?] He never expected that the system would talk to him in this Lightning Tribulation, so he asked. "Is there something wrong with my Lightning Tribulation?" [I wasn''t sure before this, so I never told you about it. However, looking at this Lightning Tribulation, I finally understood what was wrong with the previous two Lightning Tribulations.] "!!!" Alex widened his eyes, surprised. [Both places had no knowledge about Lightning Tribulation, and the fact they didn''t follow the same power level made it more obvious. I speculate that due to the lack of Lightning Tribulation in the two places, the energy for it had been stored for a long time. That was why when you underwent your Lightning Tribulation, it became far stronger than it was supposed to be.] "So, you mean because this place still follows the same cultivation rule, they have exhausted the power?" [Yes. Even if a normal person cultivates in the previous two places, they will find the same problem as you. It''s just you were the first one, so you can consider it as your bad luck¡­ On the other hand, this place won''t have any other problems, so go all out and release your anger toward this Tribulation.] "You don''t need to say it. I will¡­ Besides, I haven''t made the Lightning Rod Array." Alex paused for a moment. "It won''t be a problem I guess." With that thought in mind, Alex looked up again, watching how the second lightning was formed. *Rumble Rumble!* The second lightning was similar to the first one. Alex increased his strength by using his Spirit Step and covered his sword with fire. He struck the lightning without his Martial Art, after noticing the Lightning''s strength with his Spirit Eyes. He, once again, destroyed the lightning strike. Alex raised his hand and looked at it for a few seconds. ''As expected, it''s really as the system said¡­'' Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Alex found a problem with this theory. "That''s right. What about my Inheritances? If I don''t challenge a stronger Lightning Tribulation, won''t I get something lesser than the previous Golden Lightning Tribulation?" [That shouldn''t be possible. I have checked everything about your Golden Lightning, and I think each inheritance gives you the most important things to you at that moment.] "Is that so? I don''t have anything to worry about." Alex smirked as he looked at the third lightning strike. "Dragon Aura!" A translucent dragon soared from his body to the sky, increasing Alex''s strength greatly. The cloud then shot out its lightning, trying to destroy Alex. Unfortunately, Alex still felt no pressure behind this Lightning and struck it with only his strength. The lightning was completely useless and disappeared as soon as it got split into two. Firia also noticed this sudden change of his Lightning Tribulation, but Lin Xingzhi informed her to focus on her task. On the other hand, Alex didn''t know whether to be happy with it or get disappointed because of the lack of challenge. Seeing the third strike end, Alex watched how the yellow flash behind the cloud became blue, and he started getting serious. His Pure Fire covered his sword before the sword began glowing with red color. Alex took a deep breath as the fourth strike came closer. "Heaven Light Slash!" Alex waved his sword and spear simultaneously, hitting the Lightning from two directions. If this followed the previous two Lightning Tribulation Magic, he might need something like Fire Phoenix along with this technique. Yet, this one vanished after it depleted its energy to protect itself from Alex''s Heaven Light Slash. "This is so easy¡­" Alex murmured to himself. He shook his head almost immediately, warning himself not to underestimate his own Lightning Tribulation no matter how easy it is. "Come!" Hearing Alex''s challenge again, the fifth lightning struck forth. Alex took a deep breath and raised his hand, but nothing happened. Firia was bewildered by such an action and was about to warn him, except she suddenly saw the Lightning get stopped by something invisible. Although she couldn''t see it, her sense still picked its presence. After pondering for a few seconds, Firia found the answer and smiled. "I see. With his Space Element becoming more polished, Alex''s strength will grow exponentially." She just realized that Alex was using his Space Plates to block this Lightning. Although he only managed to create thirty Space Plates, everything was covered with his Flame and Absolute Blade Intent. It turned into something more special with the fact that it was invisible, AKA, hiding in the Space World. "Fu." Alex took a deep breath as he tried to hold the Space Plates as long as possible and chipped away the Lightning''s strength before it finally disappeared in the 25th Space Plate. "It''s not powerful, but if it''s stacked together, I can block it¡­ My control is still too weak to summon fifty Space Plates like Great Elder Aileen." Alex uttered these words without care anymore. Though he might be disappointed because the challenge was far subpar than the previous two Lightning Tribulations, the relief could cover everything. Alex smirked and challenged the Lightning Tribulation again. "Next!" The cloud didn''t hesitate and released another lightning. Alex still had no change in expression as he summoned ten Fire Swords and launched them toward the lightning. Obviously, they hit the lightning, sending another round of shock wave. This time, Alex''s smile disappeared as he summoned his Space Plates again. The Lightning destroyed all the ten swords. Alex had predicted this and chipped the lightning''s strength again with his Space Plates. Just like how Alex dealt with the previous strike, it lost all its energy when it hit the 20th Space Plates after getting hit by his Fire Swords. This might be the easiest Lightning Tribulation he ever faced. It might be due to how extreme the previous two were, but Alex still couldn''t believe that he just finished the sixth wave without a problem. "This is good." Alex smirked as he summoned his Phoenix while waiting for the next purple lightning. *Rumble Rumble!* The sky color changed again, and the seventh wave struck forth. Alex took a deep breath and sent his Fire Phoenix before creating Space Plates again. The Phoenix hit the lightning from the side while the remnant fire began burning it. At the same time, the power of the Space Plate stopped the lightning for a minute, giving Alex precious time to lower its strength. After he felt confident with the current state, he released his Space Plates and swung his weapons. "Heaven Light Slash!" *Boom!* The lightning seemed to create an explosion this time but didn''t affect him in the slightest. "Space Plate is indeed a useful technique. Although the individual strength of each plate isn''t that great, as long as I can create multiple of them, I can stop any attacks¡­ Besides, I can let the Spiritual Weapons protect me with their barrier while focusing on my Space Plates. To think I have come this far." Alex couldn''t help but smile. He remembered how he didn''t know how to control his fire before his teacher taught him. There was also a time where he didn''t know a single thing about Alchemist and Array. He trained hard to master both. After that, he started learning more and more techniques and increased his strength. To think that he almost reached Martial Saint, it was something special for him because there was only one more Tribulation before reaching God Stage. He pumped his fists and looked up. "Come!" The eighth wave flew down. Its strength was stronger than the previous one, but it didn''t have any abnormality. Alex took a deep breath and pulled both hands back before thrusting it upward. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" Both weapons released a beam, heading toward the Lightning. The clash lasted for a minute before Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon got destroyed. Alex didn''t have a change of expression as if he had predicted such a result. Instead, he smiled and jumped into the air, slashing both weapons three times. "Heaven Light Slash!" The six strikes destroyed the lightning almost immediately. Only when he landed on the ground once again, Alex suddenly clapped. Firia tilted her head for a second before she smiled, realizing the meaning behind Alex''s action. "Such a sneaky one¡­ Even I almost missed it." Alex couldn''t hear her words due to the distance, but he still activated the two arrays he just drew. The first one was the Special Array, adding another layer to his defense, while the other one was a Lightning Rod Array. If one observed him carefully, there were a few empty bottles lying on the ground. It was proof that Alex had been using them this whole time. His movement was smooth, making the clash between him and the lightning the main attraction. On the other hand, the battle went easier than usual, allowing him to direct his focus in creating these arrays. Everything was drawn by his Spiritual Energy. As soon as the ninth wave struck forth, the Lightning Rod Array shone brightly, attracting the Lightning. Alex simply jumped to the side, watching how the Lightning got dispersed by the array. Alex''s expression turned serious as soon as the ninth wave ended because this was the moment where he needed to be serious. The Golden Lightning usually had power far stronger than the other ones, so he needed to be careful. Taking a deep breath, Alex planned to use his strongest attack right off the bat. *Rumble Rumble!* The thunderous roar echoed as a golden flash brightened the tower. Alex squinted his eyes before slashing his two weapons forward when he saw the cloud release its final attack. "Triple Draws." "Mythical Fire Slash." "Space Cut." These techniques started to become his best combination attack after knowing Space Cut from Ryuu. He looked at the clash between his attack and the Golden Lightning as it released a powerful shock wave, shaking his Special Realm. However, the conclusion came in a sudden. The combination of these twelve Sword Waves slashed the Golden Lightning into many pieces, continuing its path toward the ceiling. Although the Golden Lightning''s strength was not low, it was still not comparable to these combinations. "Oh, wait! Can this tower withstand my attack?" Alex sweatdropped, noticing what he had done. He immediately teleported as soon as he succeeded in breaking the Golden Lightning. He appeared again right under the ceiling as he created a Spatial Gate connecting to the Blue Layered Realm, sucking his own attack. "Fu." He let out a breath of relief. "I never expect there will be a time where I need to protect my own Lightning Tribulation¡­" Alex didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, he was protecting the tower itself, not his Lightning Tribulation. On the other hand, it was also in that way. All his memories about the Golden Lightning were a challenge, and he never met one this weak before or¡­ "This might not be good. This one might not be a challenge, but there is one more of this. Now that I have used every technique in my repertoire, I need another trump card to fight the next Lightning Tribulation, or I will be doomed." Nonetheless, he had officially finished his Martial Saint Lightning Tribulation as he looked at the cloud dispersing. He descended to the ground and looked at Firia. "I am going to get the inheritance, so I will leave everything to you." "Don''t worry. I am ready for it." Firia nodded, assuring him with a smile. Little did he know that he miscalculated the number of people that had been watching him this whole time. Chapter 735 - Previous Alexander Sirius "What?!" Exclaimed one of the Gods with a loud voice. "This is ridiculous!" The others understood why he would have such an exaggerated expression. All eyes met, asking the same question in their mind. The room fell into silence until one of them took the lead by asking the question out loud. "What is that Golden Lightning? Is there anyone who knows about this?" None of them uttered a single word afterward, not knowing a single thing about the Golden Lightning. This was the first time they saw a Golden Lightning Tribulation. "Let''s just be honest. No one knows about this, right?" The purple-haired guy squinted, observing their expressions. Everyone acknowledged without hesitation to advance the talk a bit faster. "What are we going to do then? The fact that his tribulation is not normal than the others remains¡­" "Indeed. Just looking at the strength of his tribulation, it''s already close to three times more powerful than a normal person. All of you geniuses who reached God Stage in your prime couldn''t even manage to trigger the Lightning Tribulation that strong. Even mine reached, at most, one and a half times stronger." The purple-haired man nodded. "True enough. And if you look at his strength, I am sure he can fight a 3-Star Martial Saint equally. Do you remember how he destroyed the first three Lightning Strikes? He simply used his strength. If I am not wrong, his strength is most likely around thirty thousand Dragon, the standard of 3-Star Martial Saint." "I doubted him first. I thought he was a Body Cultivator, but with the way he handled his weapons and his elements, I could say that he is both. He cultivates his body and Spiritual Energy perfectly. I also noticed that his intent is different than that of a Sword Intent or Spear Intent." "Now that I think about it, no one in the world, even outside this world, would use two different weapons because there might be a clash between the two intents. However, I remember there was a certain person who managed to do that." "Don''t tell me¡­" The Gods and Goddesses remembered a certain figure in their memory. "Impossible. Are you saying that he is his inheritor?" "But how about the Space Element? That one is closer to the Dungeon God, right?" "Don''t ask me something I don''t know. This is just mere speculation of mine. Seeing how he used his Sword and Spear just reminded me of that person who helped us sealing this world''s strength." "Are you talking about that person?" "Who else that helped us? There was only a single person. For him, it was a mere help because he was coincidentally there, but it was a huge help for us." If Alex or any of his group heard this, they would know that not only Alex saved Kyle and the Supreme in his previous life, he also helped this world as a whole. On the other hand, these Gods and Goddesses had yet to believe that Alex was related to the Spirit God until one of them realized something was wrong. "Now that I think about it, aren''t the people beside him weird? I am not talking about their behaviors. I am talking about their race." "!!!" They widened their eyes. "You are right. They don''t feel like humans¡­ I had once read everything about the Spirit God after he helped us. The Spirit God resided inside a world called Eulja, the house of Spirits. Though I never saw spirits with my own eyes, I don''t have any other explanations." "But don''t the spirits have a non-human body?" "In normal condition. But I believe there are high-ranking spirits, and all of them have a humanoid body. If he is related to the Spirit God, do you think they will let him alone with low ranking spirits?" They couldn''t say anything since the answer was obvious. "If he is related to the Spirit God, someone should greet him¡­ No, we all should greet him. To think that the powerful Spirit God decided to have him train in this world, this is nothing but our honor." The purple-haired man nodded with a solemn expression. "That''s right. Since he is undergoing his advancement, we can greet his wife first, so she can explain it to him." They nodded in unison, knowing this might be the best thing to do. If one of them didn''t come, the other party might consider it rude. Knowing that the person they dealt with had a connection with the powerful Spirit God, they didn''t dare to treat it lightly. "Is everyone ready?" The purple-haired man glanced at everyone''s expression before he created a Spatial Gate for them. "Let''s go then." They nodded and followed him to the main tower. ¡­ Firia was still looking out for any potential enemies while waiting for Alex to wake up. She didn''t know what to do inside this tower anyway, so it was also useless to search around since Alex''s Spirit Eyes would be better to handle this type of situation. Suddenly, a Spatial Gate that Alex used to create appeared out of nowhere. Firia frowned and released her Sacrificial Fire as a few people passed through the portal, looking at her. Her Divine Blazing Shawl immediately showed a reaction. Firia gritted her teeth, knowing that all of them were a divine being. Even though they were only souls, their power was still far stronger than she could imagine. ''Sister Xingzhi!'' Firia screamed inwardly. She looked at these twenty people with anxiety. If there were only less than ten of them, Firia was sure they could do something about it. And yet twenty people emerged from the Spatial Gate. There was no way Firia knew about their conversations before, and the sudden appearance made her feel the worse. It was normal for her to call for help instantly. [I am working on it. Buy time for me. I will also summon the spirits.] As soon as she said so, the ten spirits suddenly appeared around Alex while Firia regrouped with them. "True Spirit Body!" The spirits used their ultimate technique without hesitation, raising their weapons while glaring at these people. "Who are you?!" Anna shouted, trying to buy time. "They are really spirits!" One of them exclaimed in surprise, looking at the un-human features that suddenly appeared on their bodies. "!!!" Anna and the others were alarmed by the fact they knew about Spirits. There was no doubt anymore. In front of them were the Gods and Goddesses that knew something about the worlds around them. Anya shouted. "Be ready to fight. We are leaving here. Our priority is Alex." "Understood." They roared, releasing their Spiritual Energy. Anya also summoned the Light and enhanced their power. Suddenly, the purple-haired man scratched his cheek and said, "This is simply a misunderstanding. We don''t have any intention to fight. Please don''t leave." The Gods and Goddesses circled them because they wanted to have them stay, so they could talk about their connection with the Spirit God. However, Anna and the others couldn''t see anything other than a threat upon this action. Just like what the purple-haired man said, they misunderstood them. Due to the lack of information about this place, this type of misunderstanding was very normal. "Ehm. This is really a misunderstanding. We only want to talk about something with you." The purple-haired man sighed, wondering how to convince them. Due to the lack of time, he couldn''t make a better plan to greet Alex. This was why many big influences preferred to have the opposite party send a notice if they wanted to come. Unbeknownst to them, an object appeared above his head. It was a half-circle metallic made of pure gold. There was a single blue gemstone in the center of this metal, glowing in blue ocean color. Although it wasn''t on Alex''s head, this object looked like a majestic crown nonetheless. On the other hand, Alex suddenly opened his eyes only to find himself trapped inside complete darkness. He looked left and right and realized that his feet didn''t even touch the ground. There was simply nothing here. Suddenly, a white wisp appeared right in front of him before gradually turning into another him. "Eh?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering whether this person in front of him was really him. His surprise didn''t stop there. The body in front of him suddenly opened its mouth and said, "Hi. Future me." Alex widened his eyes and checked whether he heard it wrong or not. "Future me?" "Haha¡­ It really feels weird to see my own future self. As much as I want to talk with you, our time is limited. I myself also couldn''t stay like this for long because I don''t want to affect you. Before you ask anything, I will introduce myself first. I am Alexander Sirius, your previous life. That''s right. People know me as the Spirit God." Astonishment filled his heart, never expecting to hear something like this. "This must be an illusion." "It''s normal to be confused. However, believe me first because there is not much time. The guys outside misunderstand something, and a battle might break out any moment." The past Alex raised his hand, creating a screen that let him see the outside situation where the spirits activated their True Spirit Body. "This¡­" "I am here just to tell you that I am going to borrow your body for a minute or two. After that, I will disappear. I don''t want to affect your judgment or anything because of me since I am supposed to be dead. There is something I want to convey to the others for one last time. "And I can appear here because I have sealed myself inside this technique called Spirit Crown. It''s basically the ultimate technique that symbolizes you as the ruler of the spirits. I won''t talk much about it, since you should also get the knowledge about it from this time Golden Lightning Tribulation. "If you want to talk more with me, you will know how to do it when you receive the knowledge from the Divine Tribulation. Whether you are going to meet me or not, it will be up to your choice. If my mission is completed, I will soon disperse and have no connection with you anymore. "However, I would like to request one thing. I believe they have overcome my death and fall in love with you¡­ Well, it''s from your memory though. I want you to love them and care about them without me influencing you. "They have said it to you before. You are you. No matter how big I was in the past, you should choose what you want to do. I will only provide you with knowledge, along with other things. Whether you want to do it or not, it''s up to you. "Of course, this is different from them. They are the most amazing women in this universe and will always be for me. I think you also feel the same way, right? Even more so with Firia, Alicia, and Sherry. That''s why if you truly fall in love with them, please don''t differentiate them just because they were my wife in the past. That''s my only request." Alex was stupefied with this sudden speech. He never thought that the previous him was a bit chatty like this. However, he also felt the concern in his eyes and expression. Hence, he replied to him with his sincerest answer. "You have said it yourself. I am not you, and I live in the present. The past won''t matter. I will only strive for a better future." The past Alex smiled. "Ah, I really want to talk more with you, albeit this is the limit. I am going to borrow your body for a while before disappearing. It can also be the last farewell for all of them because I will hide this memory so that the system won''t be able to record this conversation. Thank you in advance." Without waiting for Alex to reply, the previous Alex had occupied Alex''s body as he said. "All of you can stop now. They are not our enemies. Little Leoz! When are you going to become a scholar?" "!!!" Chapter 736 - Previous Alexander Sirius Part II "All of you can stop now. They are not our enemies. Little Leoz! When are you going to become a scholar?" "!!!" The spirits turned around, noticing that Alex had woken up. "Alex. We need to leave this place!" Anna must have said those words out of desperation since she didn''t notice the change in Alex''s word and soon realized there was a crown above his head. "That crown¡­ And that phrase¡­" Leoz was the first one to notice. He never thought he could hear that annoying phrase again. It was the phrase that Alex used to say to him. Though it annoyed him most of the time, when Alex fell in battle, he couldn''t help but miss that teasing of his. Tears streamed out of his eyes, falling down uncontrollably. It wasn''t his character to be this weak. He had promised him to get stronger, but meeting him again like this just made it unbearable. "Master! I am glad to see you again." Leoz fell on his knees, kept crying like a baby. "Look at you, how can you become a snotty brat again? Previously, you were a beast before becoming a brat like this. I have told you to become strong, or have you forgotten our promise?" Alex shook his head before glancing at the other spirits. He didn''t forget to whisper something in his mind. ''Xingzhi. You are always worried about me but fret not. The situation is under control, so don''t bring those guys here, especially that Korzan. He will nag everything.'' [Is that really you?] ''Just for a while. I haven''t said goodbye to all of you yet because last time was very troublesome. Besides, you are already charmed by the future me. Hehe, I am proud of myself. Anyway, I can''t talk much. I am just happy that all of you can move on.'' Without waiting for Lin Xingzhi to reply, Alex smiled. "Anna, Anya. Has Xingzhi corrupted you? Nah, it is a foolish question since the answer is obvious. "Fabio, Vera. Have you got over that annoying act? Jeanne, Jean¡­ You two can just do what you love. Don''t mind other people''s opinions. Greg! You should open your armor sometime! I know that you are stuffed inside. "Artur. Are you still bothering the others with that justice of yours? Not that I hate it though. And Nelson! Just make sure you don''t appear so suddenly in front of me, alright? It''s scary you know!" Alex paused a bit. His greeting was unique but hit the bottom of their heart. Even so, there was still one thing that he needed to convey. "Nonetheless. All of you are unique, and I am not asking you to change because that''s what you are. And I am happy to see you all well like this." This time, all spirits fell down on their knees. Just like Leoz, they couldn''t hold their tears and cried. "Master!" Alex closed his eyes. As much as he wanted to shed tears, he still had another thing to do. He looked at the Gods and Goddesses who were clueless about this situation. "It''s been a few thousand years since we last met." Alex smiled before he sensed the trouble in this tower. "I see. It seems the damage to this world is still there. However, the Space Monsters don''t seem to be connected with the others. Who is the one in charge of the Space Monsters again?" The Gods and Goddesses trembled upon hearing that and couldn''t answer Alex immediately. Alex only sighed and knew something like this bound to happen. The blue gem on the crown suddenly shone, illuminating the entire tower. An overbearing pressure enveloped the tower and woke up all of them. "This is Divine Pressure!" "Anyway, just answer my question. I can''t maintain this for long." "Ye-yes." The purple-haired man stepped forward. "I am the one who maintains the Space Monsters." "What about the other elements? How many elements are there?" "There are seven excluding my Space Element." "It''s not possible then. As much as I want to liberate this world, the other seven are connected. If we can''t kill them at the same time, they are bound to know and rampage. This is not good progress. I guess I can only let this continue." Alex sighed. "No, no! Your Majesty, Spirit God, had helped us when we needed it the most. We should take care of our own problem." "Well, your Space Realm is different, right? I will help you to destroy that monster, lessening the burden of this tower. Just give your Space Knowledge to this body as the payment. I will leave the detail to you since I only have a little energy left." Alex shrugged. "Ye-yes." The purple-haired man nodded. Alex then whispered to Lin Xingzhi again. ''There is a reason for me to appear. Although I have promised myself that I won''t appear again, I still have one important thing to do. That beast can''t sit still anymore¡­ Although we still have some time, the seal is going to be broken soon. ''The future me will take the task to destroy that beast. I hope you can guide him to the peak again. I know he will fight that beast because it will ruin our home. That''s why please help the future me as his system and his wife.'' [You¡­] Alex ignored her and sighed. "I think it''s time for me to go. I have said everything and have fulfilled my last objective. So, this is my last goodbye to you guys. I hope you take care of yourself and don''t forget to not say anything to the present me." "Alex!" Anna shouted, stretching her hands as if she was trying to grab him. "Haha¡­ You have already moved on, so don''t lament on me anymore. Goodbye, all of you." Alex''s body began to shine as his will started to dissipate. Alex suddenly fell unconscious. Anna and Anya immediately caught him, not letting him touch the ground. His crown also vanished into thin air. "You were always like this. Come and go as you please¡­" Anna smiled despite the tears that kept falling down. Anya closed her eyes and sighed. "Don''t worry about us. You have become our number two now!" Despite being filled with sadness, her voice carried her resolve. She had truly moved on. The present Alex finally took over his body again as he gradually opened his eyes. ''Hmm?'' "Alex! You have woken up!" Anya smiled and kissed him on the lips. "You made us worry, you know. To think we almost fought against so many Gods and Goddesses." "I am sorry." Alex smiled gently. "It''s our honor to greet you, Sir Alexander." The purple-haired man led the others to greet Alex. "Looking at this greeting, it seems the past me has controlled everything." Alex sighed. "Please think nothing of it. He only said goodbye and a present for the last meeting." Anna shrugged while wiping her tears. "Uoh!" Jeanne also leaped toward him and clung on his neck. "Master! I love both masters!" Alex didn''t know how to react to this matter. On one hand, he knew that the previous him must appear because he needed to do something important. On the other hand, he was afraid that the others might have a different opinion after seeing him again. He took a deep breath and asked. "What are we going to do now? I know that the people in front of us are not enemies, right?" "Yes. We have been trying to say it''s only a misunderstanding. However, it can''t be blamed because our number and appearance alone are enough to invite a misunderstanding. Nonetheless, everything has been resolved." The purple-haired man nodded, giving his best smile. "Is that so?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I am sorry, but I think I will need a bit more time to solve my problem." "We know. If you have finished the problem, you can activate the array beneath the floor. It will send you to the top floor, or you can say it''s a floor above the ceiling." He nodded and pointed upward. Alex nodded with a smile. "Thank you." The Gods and Goddesses then returned with the Spatial Gate. Alex then looked at his companions before glancing at Firia''s figure on the side. She knew about Alex''s previous life a long time ago, but when she saw the person in question, she had a weird feeling in her chest. She suddenly knelt on her knees, hugging Alex from behind. "No matter what happened to you, I will always be with you." Alex took a deep breath and smiled. "Thank you." "Anyway, can any of you give me some space a little bit?" Alex asked. "Yes, Master." Leoz and the others retreated a few steps. Anna and Anya also released him, waiting for him to say anything. "Master?" Alex was startled to hear everyone calling him Master as if they forgot about the way they called him. He thought this was because the previous Alex''s appearance made the situation not the same anymore. Leoz smiled and shook his head as if he knew what Alex was thinking. "It''s not what you think, Master. We didn''t call you Master because of him." "Then what?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "It''s your Spirit Crown. I don''t know if you notice it, but you just wore a Spirit Crown. That is the symbol of our ruler, the Spirit King. Only after you reach God Stage do we call you Spirit God." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I am a Human though. And there is no guarantee that I will accept this title." "We know." Nelson nodded. "Even so, it''s our obligation to call you Master as long as you wear a Spirit Crown. That''s the one thing that we can''t compromise." "What? Still, Young Master isn''t that bad. Besides, I just got the crown from the Golden Lightning Tribulation¡­" "Well, there are several ways to call you like My King, Your Majesty, or Milord." "¡­" Alex was speechless. "Even if I order you to call me Young Master?" "According to our rules, it''s considered a capital crime. And the only punishment is death. We will be very happy to offer our lives at that time." Leoz simply smiled. Alex sighed. "I knew it. Everything won''t be the same anymore. Well, it''s only a title, so no big deal, I guess. I also have reached the Martial Saint Stage, so I am ready for this. Even so, I hope that none of you force me to become the Spirit King." "Of course." Leoz nodded. "It''s your choice. However, I believe Master will love Eulja." The others also nodded in agreement. "Since Firia visited there in the past, and Alicia is still living there, I will try to look at it first." "It''s our honor." "Anyway, drop this formality stuff. I feel that you all become too formal." Alex sighed. "We understand. We are just too shocked to see him, so we might need some time to adjust ourselves." Leoz nodded while the others agreed. "Fine then." Chapter 737 - Information After calming the others down for a few minutes, Alex suddenly came to a realization. ''Wait a minute. From the Supreme, Kyle, and this one, did my previous self actually have a connection with this world?'' [He sometimes wandered alone, so this world must be one of those that he helped on a whim.] ''I see. Considering everything has been going smoothly, I don''t have any complaints about it. It truly helped me from time to time, like how Stina became my ally and such to how we didn''t need to fight against many Gods and Goddesses.'' Alex let out a sigh of relief. [Well, I need to do a few things, so I won''t be able to help you for the time being. Want me to call Alicia for you?] ''She must be training right now, so I don''t want to bother her. I will be fine in this tower, and I don''t think I will need much help for now, except with the Gacha later, but that can wait.'' After finishing the matter with his system, he then stood up, looking at his spirits. "Anyway, I am who I am. I won''t impersonate someone even if that someone is my previous self. I just want all of you to know it, and if you are fine with it, please continue to support me." All spirits dropped on their knees, cupped their hands politely and shouted in unison. "We will follow Master to death." Firia took a few minutes to process everything, but she couldn''t contain her smile any longer after seeing the unquestionable loyalty that his spirits have. She remembered how Anna and Anya reacted to the previous Alex and knew that these people supported him because it was him, not anyone else or because of his title. Even if the Spirits from Eulja didn''t acknowledge him, these ten people here would still follow him. Alex then took a deep breath and asked. "Now that we have finished our business, I am going to activate the array. Since no one is outside right now, how about following me? I think those people won''t mind." Anna and Anya looked at each other, nodding in agreement. "We understand. It''s better to finish this as soon as possible and join the battle again. We only need a few ten thousand more to gain another level. And with your Gacha Ticket, all of us should reach 3-Star Martial Saint. If we are lucky, we might even reach 4-Star Martial Saint." "Yes." Alex nodded in agreement as he looked down with his Spirit Eyes, finding the huge array that covered the tower. He couldn''t see this array before because it was covered with the maze. Even when he entered the tunnel, he was too busy handling his Lightning Tribulation. Now that he had prepared everything, he channeled his Spiritual Energy as the floor started glowing. "Teleportation." The array engulfed everyone in the tower with light, sending them to the floor above the ceiling. Alex gradually opened his eyes from the blinding light and noticed that they arrived in a black room covered with bricks. Brick floor, brick wall, and brick ceiling. There wasn''t a single decoration in the room, so Alex didn''t need to pay a single detail to his surroundings. Just like how they promised to leave first, the God Rank Experts left one of their friends inside the room, and it turned out that he was the one in charge of Space Element. He looked at this purple-haired man and nodded. "Welcome to our humble palace. My name is Shakdi, a Rank 5 God." The purple-haired man introduced himself. Knowing that he was still clueless about God Rank Expert, he searched around his memory about all the things related to God Stage. ''God Stage or Martial God Stage is the same as Martial Saint Stage or the other stages below. There are only some slight differences between them. First, God Stage Experts don''t call themselves a 1-Star God Stage. Instead, they use rank, starting from rank 10 as the lowest. ''Just like the 10-Star Martial Saint, Rank 1 God, the peak of God Stage Expert, is often called as a God King. ''At the same time, God Stage is a realm where they finally transcend their mortal body and build their divine body. This body won''t age and will follow the mortal body''s current appearance when they finish their Divine Tribulation. ''Nonetheless, there is nothing much that can differentiate the God Stage from other stages, excluding the fact that everything about you is Divine. Just like a soul becomes a divine soul, and so on¡­ I can search for more information later.'' After recollecting the information in his mind, Alex then looked at Shakdi and greeted him back. "Nice to meet you. I am Alexander Sirius." Because of the previous action, Alex stayed as humble as possible but didn''t lower themselves as a junior. Instead, he acted as an equal business partner. "As much as we want to greet you, it seems we have created a misunderstanding earlier, and I apologize for that." "It''s fine. It is also our fault to arrive at that conclusion. Anyway, should we get to business? If possible, I would like to finish everything as soon as possible." "I understand." Shakdi nodded and stretched his hand, asking Alex to follow him. "This way. I will explain everything in that place to make it easier." Alex nodded and followed him together with his group. "As you might already know, our world once got invaded by many powerful beings, including many gods. That place was filled with God Stage Beasts and mostly filled with monsters, causing no one born in that place other than monsters. "Just like how this world connected with a few other worlds, we somehow got connected with that world as well, resulting in a great invasion. A few million monsters were coming to us, and which five hundred thousand of them were Martial Saints. "We tried our best to maintain the order and fought back. Unfortunately, their number and strength were too high, causing our strength to decrease at a certain period. In the end, we decided to seal our world to prevent these monsters from coming, especially their God Stage monsters. "Fortunately, we met the Spirit God and had his help in severing the connection and sealing our world. Of course, the price was also high for this. Around one hundred God Rank Experts back then, including us, sacrificed their lives to seal the world. "Twenty of us here were picked by the majority to watch over the seal inside this tower and guide the future children. Yeah. Spirit God granted us this opportunity as well since we would also not be here if he didn''t help us. "As you might already know, the Spirit God had six¡­ No, seven elements from fire to elementless. However, there was one that didn''t fall under the category, the most unique monster in the universe, a Space Monster. "For this, the Spirit God decided to make a separate seal for them. As for why we had something like this. After severing the connection back then, there were still too many monsters roaming around the world, and this created the seal. "To prevent it even further, the Spirit God decided to seal them in Underground Place like this, so when they succeeded in breaking through the tower, they wouldn''t know that they were inside a cave." Shakdi let out a long sigh. "Hmm¡­ I get the gist of it." Alex nodded and fell into deep thought. "There is one thing that I almost forgot to mention. We lost not because of our number and strength alone. There was another reason for how monsters could rule the entire world. It was the fact that they had parent monsters. "They controlled every single monster with a single roar, giving us trouble from time to time. You can say that they were the leaders. And the original seven had a connection between each of them as they could send a signal to each other and acted together. "That''s why I would like if there is a future where seven geniuses come here and obliterate them at the same time, so the other monsters couldn''t rampage and destroy the seal inside the tower. Unfortunately, the opportunity had yet to arrive." Shakdi paused for a moment. "Judging from your tone, do you want me to do something about it?" "To be blunt. Yes. As I said before, the Space Monsters are not connected with the other seven monsters. That''s why we can kill them right now." Shakdi admitted without hesitation. "Seeing how long you have been waiting, why don''t you ask someone in the past?" "We tried to ask geniuses in the past, but not a single of them succeeded." Shakdi shook his head in disappointment. Every time a peerless genius appeared, they would fall in battle against the Space Monsters. "They are simply not strong enough. I don''t know if you have encountered a Space Monster or not, but I could say that the Space Monsters are far stronger than normal monsters." "I have fought them once inside an illusion. And I can confirm what you say." Alex confirmed along with a nod. "There are fifty thousand monsters inside the Space Realm roaming around there with a single leader, a 3-Star Martial Saint. Luckily, their strength has been decreasing because of getting trapped for a long time. However, this one should still be able to fight a 5-Star Martial Saint easily." Shakdi warned, glancing upon Leoz. "Don''t worry. If it''s only that strong, we should be fine. The problem is how we will fight the rest. They are still fifty thousand monsters, and killing them will take time. Is there any terrain, or is it just a plain blue-colored realm?" Alex asked. "I will show the realm itself for you later together with the other realms." Shakdi nodded. "Sure. I can get more pictures of it." "That''s right. How long will this take, and what kind of reward will I get? You don''t expect me to work for free, right?" "Of course. I will offer you my knowledge and understanding of the Space Element. I don''t know if you have realized it or not, but your Space Element is different from a normal Space Element. However, I can''t say much about it due to my lack of understanding. I don''t want to mislead you anyway, so I can''t talk more than this. Meanwhile, my knowledge is full of basic understandings, so you can work your way with that knowledge." "It''s enough for me. Space Element is my worst subject, so this reward is tempting for me." Alex nodded. "I offer this deal because I know that you are going to enter with fourteen friends, including the three presences inside your body. Together with your innate strength, I can say that your chance of killing the Space Monster is the highest." Shakdi nodded. "As for how long it will take, it will purely depend on you." "I understand." Alex nodded. "By the way, I would like to inquire something from you if you don''t mind." "Sure. Just ask me." "How do you know the Space Monster? They are very rare that not many know. Even on the surface, they only know about invisible monsters, instead of space monsters." At first, he thought it was due to the knowledge of Spirit God. But everything changed after looking at how clueless Alex was, so he couldn''t help but ask. Alex thought for a moment and answered with another question. "Do you know about the Freedom Sect?" "No." How could he know? There was no one know about it on the surface, so no one actually gave him the information about them. "I learned their existences there. They used to live on the surface before the great purge of Space Element users." "Ah! That accident. Now that I think about it, someone once told me that there were survivors among the Space Element Masters, but they didn''t know where they disappeared. Calculating the amount of time and other things, I believed the first people who joined that sect must have fought against the Space Monsters alongside us." Shakdi nodded. "I have the same thought." "Anyway, we have arrived." Chapter 738 - Their Plan "Anyway, we have arrived." Shakdi showed Alex a thick wooden gate in front of them. "Behind this door is where we usually reside." Alex looked at the door with his Spirit Eyes, finding the rest nineteen people inside. However, he also found an additional eight energy signs inside. ''If my speculation is right, the additional eight come from the gates for each realm.'' Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Since this is the case, should we go in?" "Sure." Shakdi smiled and opened the gate. All the previous figures stood side by side as if they had sensed them behind the gate. They cupped their hands politely and greeted them. "Welcome." "The Spirit God truly saved this world, including the billions of people inside, so I hope you can understand our action," Shakdi whispered to him. How could they act rude to someone related to the Spirit God himself? Although they didn''t know whether Alex was the Spirit God himself or not, it was still apparent that the one possessing Alex earlier was the Spirit God. That alone was enough to respect Alex as they respected their benefactor. In addition, the reactions from the spirits signified his status. Alex didn''t answer Shakdi, not knowing what to say in this situation. "Do you mind if they stay in our talk?" Shakdi asked. "It''s fine. I am with the others as well." Alex smiled, glancing at his group. "That''s good. Well, I will be the one to talk most of the time, so¡­" Shakdi shrugged and pointed at the whole room. Alex finally took his eyes away from these nineteen people and observed the room. The room was similar to the one before, full of bricks. However, there were eight doors inside this room. Red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, transparent, and pink. Each door signified the elements behind them. His target must be the one behind the pink door. He looked at the door with two stone pillars attached to it as a support of the gate. Noticing this action, Shakdi smiled and began his explanation. "As you might already know, the red door is full of fire monsters, the blue door is full of water monsters, and so on. And the one I am talking about is the pink door. This door sends you to another location, a bit far from here, but also underground." "If I may ask, where is the location? You said the monsters were trapped underground, right? They must still be somewhere in this world, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. I want to confirm something first. You come here through that pillar, right?" Alex nodded. "Actually, the gate itself transferred you to another underground cave, which is this place. You can say it''s a kind of neighboring cave. The same principle applied to these eight gates. Each of them is located around us, but considering their size, you can say it''s pretty far from us." "And every place is linked with each other," Alex added. "Yes." "I see. Just like you said, if we kill a beast from one of the seven elements, the others will notice and breakthrough this gate. Although I can see how much illusion and space element to hide this gate, they must be able to feel each other through the gate, which they will use to locate the gate." Alex thought for a moment and said. "Correct." Shakdi nodded. "If all the monsters gather in one place and breakthrough from this place, there is a possibility they will find the main entrance and kill millions of people from the four kingdoms. After that, they might resurface and bring a catastrophe to the world. That''s what we don''t want to see." "I understand. I won''t do anything foolish. That''s right. Knowing that it is space monsters, how long can we stay inside the Blue-Colored Realm?" "Blue-Colored Realm huh? The general term for it is Space World, so I think it''s better to use that terminology, so the people will understand you easily." Shakdi paused before answering his question. "As for how long you can stay, normal people can''t stay for long, but Space Element masters can stay there as long as he has enough Spiritual Energy. However, since the request is coming from me, I will envelop you with the special energy of mine and let your team stay there without worrying about the time limit." "Special Energy?" Alex tilted his head in confusion, wondering if there is such a technique in his knowledge. "This is my Original Skill, coupled with my Divine Soul. I can create a layer of energy that can protect you inside there." "Ah!" Alex scratched his head, realizing he couldn''t copy that technique. "I will draw the energy from the tower to maintain the suit for as long as possible, so you don''t need to worry. If you kill the monsters like how you did in the swamp, I believe you can finish all of them within four months." "Four months? That''s a lot of time, considering it''s only fifty thousand monsters¡­" Alex thought for a moment and looked at Anna. "We can kill up to five thousand monsters per day without using the True Spirit Body. However, we are facing space monsters here, and in unknown terrain, so two thousand a day is a maximum." Anna nodded. "Well, they should also have a stronger cultivation base, so around one thousand a day, I guess." "It''s around two months to three months since we need to be careful." After reaching an agreement with Anna, he looked back at Shakdi. "Ahaha¡­ I have decreased that number after seeing your strength, and to think it''s still not fast enough¡­ Anyway, I won''t mind if you can do it at that speed, but please be careful since they are strong. Meanwhile, I believe you need one month to absorb my knowledge and understanding." "I understand. We will just do our best in this matter and don''t need to care about the time." Alex nodded. "That''s right. Can you teleport us back after we finish everything?" "I am afraid not." Shakdi shook his head. "After you enter here, you can only return six months from now since the tower will do the rest. As much as I want to help you, it''s impossible for us." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing that he couldn''t raise his spirits'' level. "But don''t be disappointed first. The Spiritual Energy here is so dense, so you should be able to gain another star within that time." Unfortunately, Shakdi didn''t know that the spirits couldn''t raise their strength with Spiritual Energy. At this time, Anna sent a thought transmission to him. ''We should be able to ask someone on the surface to summon us. Although it''s a shame that we can''t fight here anymore, we can start working with our grand plan.'' ''Indeed. Our target is the Ancient Blue Family this time.'' ''I understand. That Rio must have reached 2-Star Martial Saint inside this place, and he will soon become the Patriarch. At that time, the situation in their family won''t be stable, and we can use that chance to threat¡­ Ahem, negotiate with them.'' ''Yeah. Just search for the spies from Freedom Sect about the details. Tell them that I will go two months after we return. After that, tell Song Jiaoren to meet me. I will handle Elder Manness. Of course, tell the Ancient Blue Family that I will come to them and have a secret talk. Knowing their disposition, they wouldn''t leak this news.'' Alex nodded. ''I will consult the rest with Anya and you later.'' Alex agreed and looked back at Shakdi. "If you don''t mind, I want to know why there are so many monsters coming out of that pillar? From what I can see, there are around five million monsters¡­" Shakdi let out a long sigh. "This is one of their special characteristics. The monsters can breed a new monster, creating an infinite number of monsters. Each realm can only hold fifty thousand monsters while the rest are teleported to the pillar and let the humans there kill it every five hundred years." "Now I can see why monsters rule that planet." Alex nodded with an understanding look. "Yeah. You can say this is our way of birth control. Imagine if that five million monsters and four hundred thousand from here breakthrough and reach the surface¡­" Shakdi''s expression turned grim. Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "The world might be ruined. The people might stand up against these monsters, but if I take the birth of new monsters to the picture, everything will be for naught." "That''s right. Unlike this world system where the world expends its extra energy to create monsters, these monsters are far different." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I will try to help as much as possible. I don''t want that to happen after all." "Thank you." "And one last thing that I need to know is the terrain inside the Space World." Shakdi thought for a moment and asked him to follow him to the pink gate. "I will open this gate for a few seconds, so please take a look carefully." Shakdi gulped down and clapped his hand, activating the array of the gate. This pink wooden gate suddenly became translucent as the wood vanished into thin air. Shakdi then channeled more Spiritual Energy to create a small hole in the middle of the gate. "This¡­" Alex peeked inside, astonished with what he saw. Inside the blue-colored realm were a few Spatial Gates, leading to a different space. However, if he looks closely, there is grassland in the closest Spatial Gates and a rocky mountain in the next one. Shakdi felt the leaking Space Element and immediately closed the hole again. "The Space Monsters don''t have a uniform species. For example, the water element will mostly be fish and so on. However, the Space Monsters are closer to a human form. "There are monsters that have pointed ears. Or there are bulls with human bodies or half-human half-horse creatures. Each of them has different living environments, so it''s hard to say the terrain itself. I can only say that each Spatial Gates contains one thousand to two thousand monsters each. If I remember correctly, there are thirty-three gates inside." Alex lowered his eyebrows, frowned. Just like how the illusion portrayed them, they were most likely the Dark Elves, Minotaurs, and Centaurs. "This is going to be a troublesome one since we need to adapt to each characteristic. Luckily, they don''t have a high number." "Indeed." Anya joined the conversation. As usual, where there is planning, Anya will be there. "Are they living together all the time?" "No. From my observation, they only had tribal groups with one hundred to two hundred monsters each." Shakdi shook his head. "How about the parent? Where is it? I think I can kill him first before dealing with the rest." Alex said, knowing that the day had yet to end, so he didn''t want to waste the True Spirit Body. "Only by closing all the Spatial Gates that the Spatial Gate leading to their leader would open." "That''s a shame." Alex sighed. "Nonetheless, it''s not that different. I will try to close each Spatial Gates within one or two days and move to the other ones. From what I can see and sense, the Spiritual Energy is quite rich inside. I believe I can recover our strength much faster." "Yeah. We are harvesting the Spiritual Energy released by the monsters outside to power up the entire system, so the Spiritual Energy is distributed to this place as well." "I get the gist of the condition. I don''t think I have a problem with entering the portal." Alex nodded and looked at his group. "Is everyone ready to enter?" "We are ready." "Then let me help you." Shakdi clapped his hand again and summoned a few spheres. These pink spheres swallowed Alex and the others, coating them like slime before it vanished into thin air. "This is my Space Suit that can withstand the energy inside the Space World. Even if you can''t do it, you just need to come back here, and I will open the gate immediately." Alex nodded with a smile, assuring him once again before standing in front of the gate. "Then, may fortune be with you." Shakdi opened the gate again, and the other God Rank Experts cupped their hands, wishing him luck. Alex and the others finally entered the Space World. Chapter 739 - Dark Elves As soon as he entered the Space World, he wasted no time to head to the closest Spatial Gate from him and arrived in a grass plain. The scorching orange sunlight warmed their body, the breeze swayed their hair, and the tall grasses hid half of their body. Alex and Nelson immediately bent down their body instinctively. The group instantly realized and fell to their knees, using the tall grass as their cover. Nelson appeared beside him and asked. "Master. I am going first." "Wait a minute. I will check our surroundings with my Spirit Eyes." Alex activated his Spirit Eyes, scanning all four directions. "We are safe for the time being. You go and search for a settlement nearby and check their number. After killing them, we might use their place as our base." "Understood. It shouldn''t take too long if the world isn''t that big." Nelson nodded and disappeared. Alex then waited with the other spirits until Nelson came back. Ten minutes later, Nelson returned with a serious expression. "The situation is not too good. There are around one hundred and twenty people inside the first settlement I have found. All of them are Dark Elves in your memory. Now that I think about it, Space Monster doesn''t necessarily categorize as a Space Element user, right?" Alex shook his head. "They are just like normal monsters, having their own respective elements. However, they are comfortable living inside the Space World and feel like living in hell when they stay in the real world. This difference classifies them as a Space Monster. Assuming that they couldn''t use Spatial Gates like this, the parent monster is the one who has created these Spatial Gates. That''s why I even offer to fight it first." Nelson thought for a moment. "In this case, our situation might not be as bad as I thought. I was worried at first since there were fifty thousand Space Element monsters that we needed to fight. If it''s like this, they won''t stand a chance. After all, we are fighting on equal terms here." "That''s why I am confident that we can finish this one as soon as possible. Just make sure you remember their characteristics. If everything is aligned with the information from the illusion I saw in the Potential Tower, we will proceed with caution." Alex added. "Yes. The only problem is they are staying in a forest with giant trees, making the place a bit dark. Considering their elements and attack patterns from your memory, I believe we should lure them to this place where they have nowhere to hide." Nelson suggested after careful consideration. "That''s a good idea. I will leave it to you." Alex nodded. "Yes." Nelson then disappeared again. He went toward the first settlement inside the forest, searching for a route that he could exploit. "I still have my True Spirit Body, and with this dark environment, my strength increases. I should be able to kill a few of them before luring them to Master." Taking a deep breath, Nelson arrived at a certain house with two 5-Star Martial Monarchs inside. Nelson took another look at their appearance. Purple skin, white hair, daggers on the waist and bows hung on their wall. ''I should test their strength first and see how good is their assassination skill.'' "&%(&$(!" The female dark elf let out a voice. The male became confused and answered her with a gesture. Nelson furrowed his eyebrows as he couldn''t understand what they said. ''As expected from a monster. Despite having a colony, they can''t seem to talk.'' He summoned his sword and emerged right below them, waving his sword toward their throats. The two Dark Elves managed to react and pulled out the dagger, blocking Nelson''s sword. Albeit, this was the time where Nelson showed his prowess. The dark energy gushed out of his body and enveloped his sword as he revealed his real strength. "!!!" Shock ran through their heart and face. Unfortunately, they couldn''t do anything like the moment they realized, their head already turned around, flying in the air. Nelson slashed his sword again, blowing away the blood that stuck in his sword. ''Their reaction is good even though it''s the perfect ambush. Unfortunately, they are coming from a planet full of monsters to the point they are classified as monsters themselves instead of a race. I heard there are worlds that have a race like them¡­ They can''t stay inside the Space World though. Anyway, I will simply lure them and confront them head-on since their strength isn''t that great in a direct confrontation.'' Nelson thought and disappeared again. He realized all of that in that single exchange. Although they managed to block his sword, they didn''t have the strength to back it up. At most they used that chance to retreat, thus the reason why Nelson killed them instantly. On the other hand, he noticed that the group seemed weaker than he expected, with strength mostly in 3-Star Martial Monarch. Taking another deep breath, he continued his path and killed another ten Dark Elves, severing their heads for his use. After that, Nelson brought all those heads and roared, alarming every single Dark Elf inside this settlement. Their villages consisted of many tree houses, not connected with each other, even though they should have lived here for a few thousand years. Hearing the sudden roar, all of them came out, finding Nelson on top of the building. He threw the heads to the air and slashed them into pieces before pointing at the strongest person in this settlement. "&$&*($!" The leader seemed to give them an instruction and glared at Nelson as if he wanted to kill her. He pulled his bow and aimed at Nelson. On the other hand, Nelson simply shrugged and left the city. The leader, obviously, pursued him like crazy with their entire population. "Master! I am bringing them here." Alex widened his eyes and stood up. His group knew what to do and followed him, looking at Nelson, who appeared from the horizon and bringing more than a hundred Dark Elves. "This is our great opportunity. Use this chance and deal with a strike they wouldn''t ever be able to recover. After that, I will lead the group." Alex ordered Anya while taking his sword out. He made sure that no one escaped with his Spirit Eyes. The moment they entered the attack range, Nelson immediately turned around and raised his hand, creating a black fog. The people thought it was going to be used as a smokescreen to escape, but four shadows emerged from within the smoke, slashing their weapons. "Heaven Light Slash." "Thunder Spirit Slash." "Cross Lightning Slash." "Heroic Slash." Alex, Leoz, Jeanne, and Artur released their attacks, killing ten people at the same time. Greg raised his shield and created a spherical barrier, trapping them inside. Jean then made his move. Torrential water circled around the barrier, rising higher and higher until it enveloped the entire barrier. Spikes started coming out of the water. With this combination, there was no way that the Dark Elves could escape. Meanwhile, Anya was smiling behind everyone as she had done everything she could, including increasing the group''s strength. After that, Anna summoned her butterflies, Nelson turned around and began assassinating them one by one, Fabio and Vera also began their combination attack while Sherry, Stina, and Kyle began their omnidirectional attack, creating chaos so the group could take advantage of it. Seeing this, Firia didn''t want to lose and flew to Alex, requesting his Pure Fire. "Flames of Dawn!" The fireball shot out many flames, raining around ten of them for each enemy, burning them into ashes. Within those attacks, Alex realized that none of the Dark Elves were still alive. It was true that the combination attacks were successful, killing them in a minute. However, he couldn''t say he was happy about it. First, there wasn''t a single strong enemy. Their strongest person was only a 7-Star Martial Monarch. At the same time, he and his group consumed a considerable amount of Spiritual Energy. Alex let out a long sigh. "I know that you guys are excited¡­ But you shouldn''t waste Spiritual Energy like that. From what I see, only me, Sherry, Stina, Kyle, Anya, and Nelson didn''t use too much energy¡­" "!!!" The group suddenly realized after Alex told them. They felt thrilled with Alex''s condition, so they subconsciously wanted to make sure the first battle together went very well, albeit it seemed the battle was a bit unsatisfactory for him. Anya walked toward him and smiled gently. "They were too excited because of you. Well, I will be reprimanding them, so we can continue our progress now." Alex stared at her eyes and sighed. "Nelson." "Yes. I will search for another one." Nelson nodded and disappeared. He looked at the corpses on the ground with complicated emotions. These Dark Elves were killed before they could say anything. Although it was also the fact that his strength was far above them and there weren''t that many Dark Elves at once, he still felt that these one hundred monsters should be able to fight them for a few minutes. He was wondering whether he overestimated them or not. Alex didn''t know the answer yet, so his guard remained up, not wanting to let the enemies catch him off guard. With that resolve in mind, he began his killing spree. ¡­ A few fights later, Alex realized that the first group was composed of weaklings. They lived in the border that had less Spiritual Energy. When he ventured deeper and deeper inside their territory, he realized that their average cultivation base got stronger and stronger until their weakest one became a 6-Star Martial Saint, with the strongest reached as high as 1-Star Martial Saint. This was a surprise for Alex. Luckily, there were around two hundred left Dark Elves left inside the Spatial gate. If not, Alex might have a problem dealing with this situation, albeit it was still not good for him. Nelson returned with a grim expression. There wasn''t an important fight before this, but looking at Nelson''s expression, he suddenly felt something bad. "Nelson¡­ How is the next settlement?" "If I estimate the number of each Spatial Gate, I believe the next settlement is the last one." Nelson sweatdropped. "What do you mean? Shouldn''t it be the second last?" Alex frowned before realizing his meaning. "Unless¡­" "Yes." Nelson nodded. "It has the size of two settlements. I have a rough estimate of their number, but It''s quite high; around two hundred fifty people inside. And I have found their leader; a 2-Star Martial Saint. I believe this won''t be an easy battle for us, especially since I know that this leader seems to be an intelligent one." Alex''s expression darkened as he asked Anya to come up with a plan. "Do you think it''s possible to assassinate them? We have been killing them with our True Spirit Body, making our progress go smoothly¡­ But the moment our True Spirit Body is gone, I am afraid it won''t be that easy anymore. Even those people in the first settlement might need around an hour to solve." Anya closed her eyes, falling into deep thought. "That''s a good idea. Do you think you can assassinate the leader? I also can use my Space Element as one of the assassins. As for the rest¡­ I don''t think any of them are good for assassination." "I am afraid I can''t assassinate that Dark Elf. They had a good reaction time for something like this, and I am also a 2-Star Martial Saint like her. If we want to assassinate people, it''s better to go for the low-level ones. Of course, this will only be effective for a while¡­" Nelson shook his head in disappointment. "I see. I and Nelson will assassinate as many people as possible until we are found out. After that, we will lure them toward the grassland nearby and kill them in one fell swoop. There might be a big battle for this, but we will do the usual." "That''s the only way I guess." Anya sighed. "You inform the others then." Alex nodded before looking at Nelson. Nelson nodded and led him inside the village. Chapter 740 - The Leader of Dark Elves A few minutes later, Alex and Nelson sliced the throat of two Dark Elves simultaneously. "We have killed ten of them within these few minutes." Nelson furrowed his eyebrows, checking the presence around them. "Their number is still a problem¡­ You said that the enemy leader seems to have intelligent, right Nelson?" Alex asked, looking around as well with his Spirit Eyes. "Yes. I have checked her behavior and other things. She is far different than the others." Nelson nodded without hesitation. "In that case, we might fight an organized battle against this Dark Elves." Alex frowned, thinking of a plan to fight them later. "Still, we should have two people fight against this person while the others hold the rest," Nelson suggested. "No. It will be three people: You, me, and Leoz. We will utilize Anya''s support, Greg''s barrier, Jeanne''s powerful ability, and Anna''s butterflies. I am sure we are capable of stopping two hundred of them, especially since you are still able to maintain your True Spirit Body." Alex nodded. "I am afraid it won''t last for another hour." Nelson''s face was distorted. "It''s enough if everything goes according to the plan. They are Dark Elves that specialize in the assassination, dark element, and archery. I have seen plenty of their strategy, and I am sure the strategy in my mind is enough to end the battle quickly. They are not that strong to begin with." His voice was filled with confidence. Alex didn''t think he would fail in this place because another thirty-two more Spatial Gates are awaiting him. "I understand. I will trust Master''s judgment. Let''s kill a few¡ª!" A sudden roar stopped Nelson from talking. Their eyes intertwined and nodded, peeking outside the house. A Dark Elf suddenly came out of her house, looking at the kneeling elf in front of her. She looked majestic and scary at the same time. There was no difference from the others, such as her white hair, developed body, smooth purple skin, and so on. However, Alex saw that her eyes were completely white, and there was a spark of purple energy hiding in her eyes. Alex frowned and scanned her body with his Spirit Eyes and didn''t see anything, including her eyes. There was nothing wrong with her, creating confusion in Alex''s mind. "This is not possible. Her eyes are different than those of normal Elves. There is a chance of her having another energy inside¡­Looking at the color of her energy, she should have Lightning Element. I will watch out for this one first while trying to figure out those eyes. Wait¡­ Don''t tell me that the eyes are actually a Martial Art or something?" Alex fell into deep thought before they heard another roar from that elf. "Master!" Nelson appeared in front of Alex and slashed his sword forward, deflecting a beam of lightning from below. Without releasing his Spiritual Energy, his Spiritual Weapon had already released a barrier to protect him from the lightning. "We have been found out." Alex clicked his tongue and looked at the leader with his Spirit Eyes. "I see. It''s the latter. Those eyes are coming from a Martial Art or something. To think that they could also do use a Martial Art¡­ I thought they could only use element manipulation." "Master!" "I know. Let''s retreat." Alex took another glance and noticed someone in front of the queen. ''It seems she knows about us from the kneeling guy.'' *Roar!* The Dark Elf released another roar as they started chasing Alex and Nelson. "Sherry. Control my fire and create a diversion. Make sure you slow some of them down so we can ambush those in front." Alex instructed while running. Sherry answered him with her actions as thirty swords appeared above him. Alex immediately coated them with his Absolute Blade Intent as Sherry sent them toward the Dark Elves. *Roar!* Another roar echoed through the forest as the Dark Elves picked up their bow and released their arrows at the same time. The targets were the Fire Swords. "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue. "This might be more troublesome than I imagined." Alex could only complain and keep running while trying to distract them. Luckily, the Dark Elves seemed to not have that much advantage with Nelson and Alex. No matter how they tried to ambush them by attacking them from different angles, the two acted as if they knew they were coming. After running for another minute, they arrived at the grass plain nearby. However, Alex still kept the pace to make sure they didn''t have an opportunity to return and hide behind those trees. "!!!" The leader seemed to notice a nearby presence. She roared once again, and the Dark Elves halted their advance before going into circles and looking at their surroundings. "As expected." Alex let out a long sigh before summoning another thirty Fire Swords, albeit it got struck by another volley of arrows before the swords could reach them. "We can''t slack off¡­" Alex took a deep breath and sent six Sword Waves at the same time. "Mythical Fire Slash!" Those six emerged from the smoke and cut some people that tried to block it. At this time, Anna and the others showed up. As they appeared, the Dark Elves took another step further and released their arrows as if they knew their location. "Sherry, Stina, Kyle, come out. Take care of those arrows. The others can start killing the rest while Nelson and Leoz will follow me to handle that leader." Alex shouted. The group immediately dispersed as the trio beasts didn''t use their full strength. Instead, they used something like their firebirds to knock all those arrows. Anna and the others used this opportunity to launch their attacks. Alex then appeared right in front of the leader by using his Space Mark and waved his sword. "Spirit Step and Dragon Aura!" With the two techniques, his strength was capable of rivaling 3-Star Martial Saint. For 2-Star Martial Saint like her, it should be enough. The leader gritted her teeth and blocked the attack with her bow, albeit got blown away by his strength. Unexpectedly, she wasn''t also a pushover. The moment they got a little distance, she activated her eyes again, shooting a powerful lightning beam toward Alex. "¡­" Alex looked at them without a change of expression because his Spiritual Weapons released another shield. He could use this shield six times, so he didn''t need to worry about this and kept advancing. At the same time, Nelson and Leoz appeared next to her. "Shadow Slash." "Thunder Spirit Slash." The two attacked her from two different directions, forcing her to block one of the attacks and let the other one hit. *Roar!* She roared again as her lightning started shining in blue. She raised her hand and blocked Nelson''s attack with her bow before glaring at Leoz and shooting another beam attack. *Boom!* Leoz slightly widened his eyes, never expecting to get this kind of counter-attack. Even more so when she attacked him instead of the sword. In other words, she didn''t need to handle Leoz''s 5-Star Martial Saint strength because she had blown him away. Alex took this chance to attack her again by using his strength. "Heaven Light Slash." Coupled with Triple Draws, Alex should pose a problem even for her, albeit the Dark Elf suddenly raised her left hand and formed an arrow. Using her arrow and bow, she tried to block all Alex''s attack before retreating again. Alex didn''t let her escape and used Space Plate to stop her movement. Unlike the invisible Space Plates, these Space Plates appeared with their physical form. After all, they were inside the Space World. Noticing this technique, the leader wanted to turn around, but Alex kept her with his Space Bind. Those few white wh.i.p.s appeared from his Space Plates and locked her in place for a second. Leoz used this chance to attack her from the front. "Master. This woman is dangerous. Just now, she released an attack equal to 4-Star Martial Saint. Let me be the main attack. She got a better of me earlier, but not this time." As he said so, Leoz tried to kill her with a single swing, but the leader immediately freed herself by cutting Alex''s Space Bind with her arrow. She used her bow to block Leoz''s slash and somehow shifted her stance to allow her to use the momentum. However, neither Leoz nor Alex panicked because of this. Instead, Leoz made a complete swing, sending her flying as fast as possible. "It''s your turn." Leoz smirked. "Hmph." Nelson had been standing by for this and appeared to kill this elf. Leoz said all those words just to mislead her because all three of them were the main attack. If they failed, they would immediately become the decoy. This would keep repeating until the enemy died. Alex thought of this strategy for the whole group, but three of them were enough to execute it. He smiled as well and thought Nelson must get her in that position and speed. Nelson slashed his sword forward before widening his eyes. The Dark Elf couldn''t dodge the attack, but it didn''t mean she couldn''t do anything. Her left hand that was holding an arrow suddenly threw the arrow covered with lightning as if a bow released it. The attack was fast and deadly, heading toward Nelson''s head. "!!!" Nelson clicked his tongue and shifted his head a little bit. Even so, he still finished his swing. "Shadow Slash!" Unfortunately, the direction was off because of the earlier arrow but still sliced her left hand. The Dark Elf gritted her teeth and summoned an arrow with her mouth, holding it with her teeth as she drew the arrow. It was a ridiculous form, but all of them knew she would shoot another powerful arrow. Alex didn''t want to let this happen as he leaped toward her and used his Triple Draws again. The Dark Elf only smirked and released another lightning strike again instead of her arrow. Alex didn''t flinch even at this situation and released his shield again to block everything from her. *Boom!* "To think I need to use the shield multiple times just to fight a single opponent¡­ As expected of a Space Monster I guess. Despite having 2-Star Martial Saint strength, she could go toe to toe with Leoz." Alex exclaimed. Unbeknownst to him, a little smile appeared on his face. "She can''t handle me." Leoz corrected Alex and charged at the woman again to prove it. Having no chance to dodge it, she parried Leoz''s barrage of attacks with her bow, resulting in her hand covered with blood. The wounds were pretty deep, and Leoz was sure that she couldn''t draw her arrow again. Without anyone knowing it, a gate appeared behind her as a Sword Wave flew out of the gate, slashing her right arm. Leoz looked to the left and saw Alex summoning his Spatial Gate. Using this as another diversion, Leoz leaped toward the girl and planned to finish her with a single slash, albeit the girl''s eyes shone. "Heh¡­ I know you will do that." Leoz smirked. Unexpectedly, Leoz stopped from his full speed and raised his hand as he summoned a few lightning balls, restricting her movement. At the same time, Alex also summoned her Space Bind to stop her movement. *Roar!* The Dark Elf roared again, creating a noise so that her subordinates could hear her. Without both of her hands, she couldn''t block these three anymore and would only lead her to death. That was why it was better to create a diversion herself. And she succeeded. A few people immediately turned around and shot an arrow toward Leoz and Alex, disregarding their lives because Anna appeared right after they shot and sent their heads flying. Greg appeared at this moment and created a barrier between them, stopping each arrow. Nelson also moved from behind and pierced her heart. He let out a sigh. "That''s enough. You should die now and don''t embarrass us even further." Chapter 741 - The Second Place After killing the leader, all Dark Elves suddenly panicked as if they couldn''t do anything more. Alex and the others seized this chance and defeated them. A few minutes later, Alex killed the last Dark Elf and let out a long sigh. "We are finally done." "Yeah. Although the battle was not that hard, the sudden appearance of this monster surprised us." Nelson nodded and glanced at the leader, trying to find anything inside her body. Unfortunately, there wasn''t a single trace of belonging in her body, so Nelson thought it must be in her house. "Master. I need your permission to search her house. I believe that Martial Art is inside her house." "Sure. We will recover our Spiritual Energy first." Alex nodded. As soon as Nelson disappeared, Alex raised his two weapons, checking their Spiritual Energy. "You two have worked hard. Try to recover your energy first." The weapons released their energy again to respond to Alex as they began absorbing the energy nearby. At the same time, all of them sat down and tried to recover their energy. A few minutes later, Nelson returned with a scroll. "Master. I have found this inside her house." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and took the red scroll from him before opening it. "Lightning God Eyes¡­ A Divine Technique that allows one to control Lightning with your eyes." Alex widened his eyes. "This is a Divine Technique! To think there is something like this inside this place." "Yeah. I assume it came from the fallen God a few thousand years ago." Nelson nodded before adding. "The way she handles the technique might not reach that level yet, but it can be considered as one of the most powerful techniques in the current world. If not because of the limitation in this world, she might be able to unleash the real might of this technique." "Now that you say it, no wonder she could blow me away. It really hurt despite our difference in strength." Leoz came to him and sighed. "This must be someone''s possession¡­ Most likely one of the Gods and Goddesses outside. Should I give it back to them? Nah, we should keep it. They won''t know anyway." Alex shrugged. They had taken the trouble in killing the Dark Elf, so why would he give it back? "I agree. It''s better to give Rose instead." Anna joined the conversation. "Yeah. I plan to do that. Maybe one of the Jackpot for her Gacha." Alex thought for a moment and said. "That''s a good idea. She will have one rank 8 weapon and this Divine Technique. Although she could only unleash a portion of its power, it should be enough to protect her in this world." Anna nodded in agreement. "We will rest for another two hours before we head to the second Spatial Gate. Unlike this time, we can''t use our True Spirit Body anymore, so take your time and kill the enemies one by one." Alex ordered before closing his eyes, returning to his cultivation. The others stared at him for a few seconds before going back to what they had been doing before. They didn''t want to let Alex be the only one to recover all of his Spiritual Energy. ¡­ After that, they went toward the second Spatial Gate, finding a vast sand area. Alex furrowed his eyebrow, wondering what kind of monsters living here. "Hmm¡­ From my speculation, the Spatial Gate is adjusting to their living environment. Like how the Dark Elf will freely roam the grassland at night and stay in their house during the day, this place must also be connected to the next monsters. Still, it''s already night, and I can''t predict what kind of monsters will appear here." Alex thought for a moment and checked what below the sand. "Are you going to check whether there are scorpions or not?" Anya walked toward him, asking the obvious question. "Yes. That''s the only one I can think of. Unfortunately, I don''t find a single one in this area, so I think we should explore the area together, so I can keep watching the underground." "Maybe something like a mummy or a minotaur? I don''t know if they are living here, but I just can''t put away the image." Alex looked up and nodded. "Whatever it is, we shall check it first. Let''s move out in a single direction. Artur! Choose!" "Ye-yes!" Artur roared and pointed in a single direction. He pointed at where his instinct told him to go, so Alex knew that there must be something around there. After flying for half an hour, Alex finally saw huge tents with an oasis, full of water, in the middle of them. Alex halted his steps after finding this settlement because he was dumbstruck upon watching the Spiritual Energy around this place. "This¡­ This is not a Dark Elf, but it is close to that monster." "What monster?" "From their energy shape and such, they are most likely minotaurs." Alex took a deep breath. "To think we will meet them in the second Spatial Gate, this will be a big fight." Alex narrowed his eyes. The spirits didn''t say anything, knowing fully well how hard to fight a minotaur. Alex alone fought a single of them with difficulty. Even if their cultivation gap was like this, it might be hard to bring them down like those Dark Elves. "We need a strategy for this." Anya nodded, recalling the fight he had in the Potential Tower. "Yeah. First of all, we don''t have the True Spirit Body right now, so we are mainly fighting them with ranged attacks. I, Firia, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina will be the support, wearing them down with our fire. Nelson, Jeanne, Artur will be the assassins, killing them one by one without taking a risk. Leoz will be our vanguard, luring them from one place to another. You are the strongest here, so I don''t think they will match your strength, but be careful. "As for Jean, Fabio, Vera, and Anna, they will attack them from afar. I don''t know if they have great control of their mind, so Anna will try to use her butterflies to control one of them. Having an army like this is good too, especially in a situation like this. We might even use it to fight the next Spatial Gate. Greg will be our buffer. Make sure that no one is hurt." Alex commanded, giving all of them a role. "I will be supporting you guys from behind like usual and check if we need a change of strategy," Anya added with a smile. "Yeah." Alex smiled back. "Understood." "Nelson. Check their number, and we will have Leoz grab their attention." Nelson nodded and disappeared. Alex thought about something ridiculous. "Say, their body is strong right¡­ What if we level up Leoz to 10-Star Martial Saint?" "It''s not the time yet." Anya instantly rejected the idea. "After this, we need to start pressuring the Ancient Blue Family to stay away from the war. However, Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion, and Freedom Sect will also know our hand if we bring Leoz there." "Why so? I am not planning to bring him anyway since he will be my trump card. I will only let him show his strength when we fight against the Fire God Clan." Alex shook his head. "I know that, but there is another thing you need to consider." "What?" "The unknown." Anya narrowed her eyes. "We know that Leoz''s strength will be restrained as soon as he reaches 10-Star Martial Saint, and he can only advance to God Rank only after you advance as well. This is the problem. Having Leoz too long in this world with that kind of strength where he is supposed to breakthrough but chooses not to, there is bound to be some problem, including the one coming from the world itself." Alex widened his eyes and fell into deep thought. ''True enough. Once he reaches the pinnacle should know that they must carry on as soon as possible. If the world recognizes Leoz and forces him to advance to God Rank Expert, we don''t know what kind of conclusion will it reach. Will Leoz be expelled from the world as a God Rank Expert? Will the world itself erase Leoz as a heresy? Or is there another kind of scenario? There is too much uncertainty.'' Seeing that Alex understood their problem, Anya smiled and added, "That''s why it''s fine to have him as a 7-Star or 8-Star only. Judging from his leveling speed and your cultivation speed, I assume we will be able to reach that stage together with you." "No. He is currently a 6-Star Martial Saint, but it''s far from being a 7-Star. I think I will stop this plan for the time being. Although I can remove Leoz from the party, so the EXP won''t be shared, there are too many cons." "Indeed." Anya nodded before suggesting, "How about you make us 3-Star Martial Saint right now? All of us have reached 2-Star Martial Saint not long ago, so the EXP Cards should be able to do the rest. From what I see on the first Spatial Gate, we might only feel half of our EXPs even after killing all of them. That''s why I think it''s good to raise our level now." "No." Alex shook his head. "I will only use the EXP Cards when we need them the most. For the time being, we only need to be careful, and they will crumble. No matter how strong their body is, our strength is far stronger." "If that''s what you want¡­" Anya sighed, looking at Alex mysteriously. "I just want to remind you that convincing the Ancient Blue Family will require strength and wealth." "I know. You have seen my memory, right? Do you have an objection to my strategy?" Anya shook her head. "Nah. Sorry for this idle talk. I simply want to make sure of your intention first because we know your memory but don''t know your heart. Now that I know how you think about each approach, I have formulated the plan after we finish our business here." "That''s good then." Alex nodded before noticing a sign of energy in front of him. "Nelson. How is it?" Just like how the previous Alex said, Nelson appeared right in front of him, scaring the others away. On the other hand, the guy in question had no change of expression. "Unlike the Dark Elves, there are only fifty or so minotaurs. It took me a while because I found another one not far from here, and they also have fifty minotaurs. I believe this is the average number of their settlement." Alex nodded and glanced at Leoz. "We don''t need to play anymore. You have one task. Go bring them here." Leoz smirked and flew toward the settlement. He looked at these many silk tents. It was sloppy craftsmanship, but Leoz had no time to care about this. He searched for a guy in the settlement and waved his sword toward him. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" The lightning sword wave flew toward the guy, who didn''t bring his weapon. "Moo!" The Minotaur was a 3-Star Martial Monarch, so that sword wave sliced him into two, despite being able to notice it before it struck him. Because of the roar, the other minotaurs also came out of their tents or stood up from their positions. They took out their weapons, which seemed to be a war hammer. Leoz took a glimpse of their conditions and frowned. There were many weapons scattered around the area, thinking it must be coming from the Gods and Goddesses era because they had been rusty. Yet, the minotaurs seemed to love this war hammer so much since everyone chose it despite having so many weapons. "Roar Roar Roar!" A series of roars echoed across the settlement, knowing that it was the sign of chase. Leoz took a deep breath and sent another Thunder Spirit Slash again. This time, they could react, but their strength was still too low, so Leoz killed another of them. After that, he snorted and flew away with a smug on his face. Chapter 742 - The Minotaur "Roar roar roar!" The roars from the minotaurs echoed from the horizon as Leoz led them toward Alex and the others. "Get ready." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, not releasing his Spiritual Energy yet. They waited until they were fifty meters in front of them before Alex and Firia made their appearance. They flew to the sky and held hands, connecting their Pure Fire and Sacrificial Element. Firia created a ball and inserted her Sacrificial Fire inside, releasing them in a single burst. "Flame of Dawn!" The torrential fire rained toward the minotaurs. "Moo!" One of them roared, alarming the entire group. They suddenly raised their hands in unison, trying to protect themselves with their strong body. Alex already saw this and asked Firia. "Aim at their stomach or legs. I don''t mind if they don''t die because the damage will be far lesser if you aim at their arms." Firia nodded and controlled all the torrential flames, lowering their targets a few centimeters. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions shook the entire desert, causing the ground to vibrate. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to check their condition because he knew that the minotaurs should be stronger than those Dark Elves. "Some of them are injured, some of them somehow react to that attack and block it with their hands. Kill the injured first. We are going to rain them down again with Fire." Alex commanded as he summoned his firebirds instead of his fire swords. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle summoned theirs as well, totaling one thousand and five hundred firebirds. As soon as Alex rained them down, he only targeted those who were not injured by his attack previously, bringing down their physical abilities as much as possible. On the other hand, the assassination squad appeared from the left of the battlefield, killing every single injured minotaur they found. It was pretty effective because most of them couldn''t react to the new attacks, so the squad killed them either in one or a few rounds. Alex then continued raining them down until a few of them decided to leap toward him. At this time, Fabio, Vera, and Anna attack them as the second wave, killing those that got hurt by the firebirds. It was very effective because they couldn''t do a single thing. Every time they wanted to break through this formation, the firebirds would go their way and explode. On the other hand, the fire attacks kept raining them down from above. Until they finally killed all minotaurs within twenty minutes. It was pretty fast, right? Unless Alex and the others needed to recover after this due to using an extraordinary amount of Spiritual Energy. Alex sat down and took a deep breath. "This will be hard because there is a possibility that the leader of this place will be very powerful." "I am afraid we won''t be able to finish them in a single day, especially if we need to do this over and over again. One and a half days if we fight the same number as yesterday." Firia nodded, picturing how they conquered this place. Alex shook his head and looked at Anna. "How is it?" "They don''t really have a strong mind, so I guess I can control them. However, I can only use it on seven Martial Saint monsters." Anna nodded, giving a thumb up to him. "That''s enough. With seven Martial Saints, we can make the war more convenient." "Yeah. We will proceed like this then?" "I don''t have a better plan at the moment, so yeah. We will have Anna to control seven Martial Saint. I don''t mind having 1-Star Martial Saint, but you need to have perfect control of them." Alex stared at Anna''s eyes for a few seconds before turning his head away. "If that is your desire, I can only control three more. You don''t want something like soldiers, right? Instead, you must want to have some minotaur leaders." "You know me well." Alex smirked. "If possible, don''t do anything reckless. I don''t know whether they have the intelligence or not, but there is something different than the one I faced in the Potential Tower." "They seem a bit weaker though, but I am not sure. I need to observe them a bit more before drawing a conclusion. On the other hand, I will check whether they are qualified to help us through this journey." Anna nodded. "If you want to do this, we should bring one of the Dark Elves with us." "No. I want someone who can struggle in front, so we will have an easier time." Alex shook his head. "Sure. I will do it." She nodded. "I will search for the monsters myself." Alex smiled and waited for another few minutes, recovering his Spiritual Energy as much as possible. After that, they headed toward the next settlement not far from this place and destroyed them in one hour or so. They continued their way toward and killed every single minotaur in their way, except a few that Anna found exceptional. It turned out that it wasn''t that hard to capture a minotaur because they had lower intelligence levels than dark elves. Now that it came to this, Alex finally got a few minotaurs to sacrifice in the front line to help Leoz. It was until the last settlement where they needed to fight one hundred fifty minotaurs at once that Alex finally changed his strategy. "So, are we going to keep using this strategy or change it like when we fought against those Dark Elves?" Anya asked. "Using the same as Dark Elves¡­ I, Nelson, and Leoz will be the one to fight the boss. I want to separate him from the pack, but I don''t think I can¡­" Alex sighed. "How about using your Spatial Gate? If he doesn''t go in, we can push him inside," Anya suggested while thinking about the rest of the minotaurs. It would be hard for them to fight against the one hundred and fifty minotaurs with only twelve of them. "Come out." Alex summoned Sherry and the others as they flew out of his body. "We will do the same thing. However, I will try to kill it faster. I didn''t use my energy before, so this time, I will go all out." No one complained about this and nodded. They then stayed as Alex looked at Nelson. "I won''t go there. I will wait for you patiently and lay an ambush with Leoz. When the time comes, we will try to kidnap him." Nelson looked up, forming the battle situation in his mind before he realized Alex''s plan. "I understand." He disappeared from the ground and headed toward the settlement, luring every single minotaur in there. Meanwhile, Alex and Leoz moved a few meters forward and hid under the sand as Alex made a protective sphere there. Nelson did his job right as he returned with all the minotaurs inside the next settlement, especially with their leader behind them. The timing and positioning were perfect for Alex as he kept looking at the position of their leader. Anna and the others showed themselves as they were the main offense. However, Nelson instantly disappeared from the front, going around them and heading to their back. Alex saw everything and snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array right behind the boss. He summoned the Spatial Gate in front of him, so the monster would run through it, albeit he was smarter than he thought. The moment he saw Alex''s Spatial Gate, he immediately stomped his right foot on the sand, forcefully stopping his momentum. Nelson had regrouped with Alex and Leoz, slashing his sword together with them. "Heaven Light Slash." "Shadow Slash." "Thunder Spirit Slash." "Moo!" The minotaur clenched his war hammer and swung it backward, clashing with their attacks. Unfortunately, he lost in momentum and power, resulting in him getting blown away by this attack. Alex smiled when he saw the minotaur enter the Spatial Gate as he set it a few hundred meters away from the location since he might interfere with their battles. Alex and the others followed the minotaur through the gate, trying to kill it as quickly as possible. "Go attack him from two different directions. As soon as you see an opening, kill it." Alex said with a solemn expression as he summoned fifteen Fire Swords, sending them flying toward the minotaur. "Moo!" The latter seemed to be angry because it couldn''t see his kin. He charged toward Alex before swinging his hammer to his left and tilted his head to the right, attacking a shadow with his horn. Leoz and Nelson appeared at the same time as they couldn''t advance due to this movement. Alex didn''t say anything and flew together with his Fire Swords. The minotaur struck most of the Fire Swords with his hammer, but when he wanted to hit Alex, the latter had disappeared. Nelson and Leoz attacked him once more, forcing him to stop moving. Alex then made his appearance on the minotaur''s back, swinging his weapons three times. "Mythical Fire Slash." "Space Cut." Just like he said previously, Alex was planning to use everything he got from the beginning. He watched the twelve Sword Waves flying toward the minotaur before Nelson was blown away by the sheer strength of the minotaur. "No, you don''t!" Leoz gritted his teeth and released all of his strength, including his lightning, to ensure that the minotaur couldn''t use its hammer. However, the minotaur could still move since Nelson failed his task. "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he watched how the minotaur suddenly used Leoz as the center, going around him to avoid Alex''s attack. He narrowed his eyes and summoned a Spatial Gate, sending his attack to the other battlefield and killing some monsters. Nelson then gritted his teeth and jumped toward the minotaur, slashing his sword at his eyes. "Shadow Slash!" Alex glanced at Leoz, asking him to attack the minotaur as well. Leoz nodded and retreated a few steps back before slashing his sword. "Thunder Spirit Slash." "Mythical Fire Slash." Alex used the same technique without the Space Cut, slashing toward the minotaur''s right foot. With this, there were three attacks heading toward his eyes, body, and foot. The minotaur bent down, raised his foot, and swung his hammer. Alex watched this and smiled, knowing that the minotaur would survive this way. Unfortunately, Alex had his Space Element. He snapped his finger, creating four Spatial Gates in which three of them were used to capture the three attacks and the last one was used to release all of them toward a single spot, and that is his neck. "Leoz, Nelson!" Alex suddenly shouted and leaped toward the minotaur. "!!!" Realizing that the minotaur was still able to dodge this, they immediately synchronized their movement with Alex and struck the minotaur to keep him in one place. "Moo!" The minotaur roared and utilized every ounce of his strength to blast them away. And he even succeeded in this, only to find himself couldn''t dodge the combined attack. The three attacks sliced its neck, killing in the spot. Alex breathed out of relief. "Luckily, the movement of this minotaur was simple and predictable. And with his body not as flexible as the Dark Elf, we could kill this one pretty fast." "Yeah. I am sorry that I am not strong enough to hold him back." Nelson felt guilty since Alex should kill it with his first attack if he held him in place. "It''s fine. I used it as a diversion anyway to make the Minotaur think I don''t have a plan to kill him with Spatial Gate, albeit he seemed to have far lower intelligence than the Dark Elf. It is really hard to fight against an intelligent being." Alex sighed. "Yes. That''s why we need a plan after plan in dealing with a single Fire God Clan. Besides, I hope that the parent monster of this realm doesn''t have any bodyguards or else, it will be the hardest fight for us." Nelson nodded. "Yeah. We also need to make sure that he couldn''t escape with Spatial Gate." Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "Anyway, I can think about this later. We will help the others first." "Yes." Chapter 743 - Space Destroyer Wolf Alex and the others finally moved toward the group, killing the minotaurs one by one until they finally finished within two hours. Alex fell on his butt and relaxed for a bit. "The leader didn''t seem that powerful since his intelligence was very low, and he didn''t have any Divine Technique like the previous one. We were just unlucky to meet such an opponent first." Alex mumbled while looking at the sky. "Indeed. Still, we have another thirty-one Spatial Gates before fighting the last boss." Firia nodded and sat beside him. "I know. We should be able to wrap it up within three months as the latest." Alex nodded. "For now, recover your Spiritual Energy first before moving to the next one." "I want to ask a question first." Firia hesitated for a second. "Can we close the Spatial Gates after killing every monster inside?" "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, falling into deep thought. "That''s a good idea. I will try it later." "Sure. We can make sure that we don''t leave a single monster or some monsters sneak inside that place." Firia nodded with a smile. "Yeah. We need to be extra careful since we need to conquer all Spatial Gates before the last gate opens¡­ Now that I think about it, it seems the catalyst to open the gates is the fifty thousand monsters inside. If we close the Spatial Gate, there won''t be any monsters sneaking inside, and we don''t need to search all over again." "Yeah. That''s what I mean. So, that is possible, right?" "I don''t know. According to the theory, yes. But I need to know the level of Spatial Gate to forcefully close it." Alex nodded. "Alright. I will leave everything to you." Firia rose from the ground and walked away, recovering her Spiritual Energy. The same applied to everyone since they used quite a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. The minotaurs just refused to die, so it was hard. On the other hand, Alex flew toward the gate before he fully recovered. Looking at this gate, a thought crossed his mind. He stretched his hand and tried to manipulate the Space Element from within to check whether he could control it or not. He focused his entire being just for this moment, and suddenly, the portal shrunk slightly. "It seems I can close the gate. Although it will be hard to close even a single gate, the safety is worth the effort." Alex then flew back and started recovering his lost energy. Only after three hours the group finally went outside the Spatial Gate, and Alex closed the gate. He then went toward the first portal and closed it as well before heading toward the third gate. Just like that, Alex''s journey in defeating the entire fifty thousand Space Monsters began. ¡­ Two months and two weeks later. "Leoz!" Alex shouted as he swung his sword, blowing away the centaur''s sword to create a single opportunity for Leoz. Without wasting a single second, Leoz appeared before him and split the centaur into two. "We will go back now and finish this one as soon as possible," Alex ordered as he created a Spatial Gate toward the others before killing the rest of the centaurs. He had been killing so many types of monsters in this place, starting from moving trees as the third type to this centaur as the last creatures in this realm. Alex and the others began getting used to fighting the absurd strength from the Space Monsters, including their special characteristics. They somehow managed to speed up the process by two weeks from their initial guess. Unfortunately, only some of them managed to reach the next level. Alex sighed and opened the status. [Anna (Dark) Level: 73/80 (3-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 456118/640000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 487925/670000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 546776/630000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 233446/630000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 252775/630000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 110021/630000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 73/80 (3-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 472423/640000] [Anya (Light) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 15467/630000] [Artur (Light) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 45547/630000] [Jean (Water) Level: 72/80 (2-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 96554/630000] As much as he was disappointed with the result, he was pretty satisfied when he saw the spirits had reached, at least, 2-Star Martial Saint. This was an easy task for him to use the Gacha Tickets. [Gacha Ticket x760] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x1] [Gacha Coin x0] [Gacha Hammer x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] "Well, it''s lower than my expectation, but that''s not the problem. With my EXP Cards, I can raise their level by one. And if I stretch it myself, I can somehow level them up another one and set their lowest level at 4-Star Martial Saint. Now that I think about it, if I only increase Anna''s and Jeanne''s level by one while I don''t do anything with Leoz, I think I can level the rest up to 4-Star Martial Saints. "Even though the UC EXP Cards only give ten thousand EXPs, I can still level up two people with my current amount, let alone after I use my current Gacha Tickets." Alex pondered for a moment before he glanced at Leoz. "Master?" Leoz tilted his head in confusion. "Leoz¡­ What do you think if I don''t increase your level and use them for the others?" Alex asked. "I don''t have any problem. In fact, you should do it. Our current situation doesn''t need us to have a high-level Martial Saints, so it''s better to raise the group''s overall strength instead of mine." Leoz shook his head with a smile. "Albeit, I want Master to save up some EXP Cards later because there might be a need to use it." "Are you talking about when you reach 10-Star Martial Saint?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and asked. "Yes. I think we might need to use the EXP Cards to fill our EXPs until they reach maximum." Leoz nodded. "I see. I will save some¡­ Now that I think about it, I haven''t gotten the UR EXP Cards again." Alex thought for a moment. "No, I could say that I don''t really get Summoning Tickets lately." "It must be due to the increase in items. After all, a UR item alone is already rare, let alone UR EXP Cards. You need to get the Summoning Tickets first before getting the card itself." "I know, but it still feels bad." Alex let out a long sigh. "Anyway, I will use my Gacha first and level you up." Leoz nodded and walked away. "System." [Processing.] [Sky Wine Jar (UC) x1] [Heavenly Mud Brick (UC) x1] ¡­ ¡­ [Sky Torching Spear (R) x1] After that, the system used every single Summoning Coins and gave Alex twenty-five rare EXP Cards. "System. Raise their level until they reach 4-Star Martial Saint. Are the EXP Cards enough?" Alex asked. [Yes. That is enough. You will only have 1 EXP Card left after that.] "Sure. I don''t mind. Just do it." Alex nodded without hesitation. [Processing.] [Complete.] [Every spirit now has reached 4-Star Martial Saint, except Leoz.] "Thank you." Although he wasn''t happy that he couldn''t kill more monsters outside, reaching 4-Star Martial Saint like this already satisfied him. At the very least, they had completed their objective. [You are not going to utilize the EXP Cards for the last battle? I thought you were going to use it and kill the monster with a barrage of attacks.] "No. I have calculated it. Considering the monster is only a 3-Star Martial Saint with the power of 5-Star, we won''t have that much problem since our group has reached 4-Star Martial Saint. And we still can use our True Spirit Body, making each of them equal to that monster." [I see. If you are confident in that, I think it''s alright. After all, according to the statistic, you have killed 49,999 monsters in this realm. That''s why you only need to fight one last monster, and you have finished your mission.] "Yes." Alex smiled before adding. "Besides, if I do that, it will feel like dying and reviving all over again. I don''t like for them to have such an experience even if they say they can endure it." [That''s good then.] Lin Xingzhi smiled behind the screen. Alex, on the other hand, was wondering whether there was a shift within the realm since the last monster should appear after killing all these monsters. He shook his head and sighed. "I will recover my strength first before checking the monster." After recovering all of his energy, he and his group then left the Spatial Gate, only to find nothing other than the gate they just went through. Alex didn''t pay attention this time as he closed the gate carefully. The answer to their question appeared as soon as Alex closed the gate. Another gate appeared out of nowhere, releasing a dense aura of Space Element. "This is¡­ Who creates a place with a huge amount of Space Element like this? This is like the Space World itself, and to build it, they must be so adept at Space Element." Alex frowned as he found the Spatial Gate and checked it. He gulped down and entered the Spatial Gate in front of him despite feeling the ominous energy from the inside. The others followed him as they took out their weapons and raised their guard up. To everyone''s surprise, there was no scenery inside the place. No, in fact, the scenery was completely blue like the Space World. It could even be said it was the exact copy. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and thought. ''I think this monster loves the environment of this Space World. However, he needs to seal himself inside one of the Spatial Gates to give everyone a place to live. That must be why he chose to create a Space World within a Space World. Although it is only an illusion, it''s still better than nothing.'' When Alex thought about this, a wolf suddenly appeared out of nowhere and looked at Alex angrily. He noticed the Space Element inside Alex, so he locked onto Alex. The spirits immediately spread out while Greg appeared in front of him, trying to protect Alex. They were waiting for his order. Alex took a deep breath and thought, "Should I assume that I am fighting Aileen at the moment?" Alex walked slowly toward his friends, patting their back and leaving his Space Mark on everyone. Due to this action, the wolf hadn''t moved yet, trying to learn what Alex would do in this situation. Fortunately, he already finished drawing the Space Mark and returned to his original position. ''He seems to have intelligence. Considering his action and those eyes, I wonder if he can use every single Martial Art related to Space Element¡­ Wait, now that I carefully observe his body. He seems to be a Space Destroyer Wolf. This is a rare species that only loses to the Space Beast. The comparison is the same as Phoenixes and Sherry. One is an expert, while the other one is a master. This is going to be hard.'' Alex also found a pink ball inside his body. He didn''t know what this ball was, but he saw a huge amount of Space Energy. Looking back in Zwaka''s palace, he realized that this ball was the inheritance from that Space God. "Be careful against his trick," Alex warned everyone before taking out his weapons. "I will handle all his Space Techniques, but I think I might miss some of them. That''s why you all need to prepare for the worst." "Understood." The group nodded as they released their Spiritual Energy. The wolf howled as loud as possible before charging toward them, except this time, a Spatial Gate appeared right in front of him, swallowing him as a hole¡­ or so he thought. Another Spatial Gate appeared behind Alex as the wolf emerged from within, attacking Alex from behind. "!!!" Chapter 744 - Killing the Space Destroyer Wolf Another Spatial Gate appeared behind Alex as the wolf emerged from within, attacking Alex from behind. "!!!" Alex immediately turned around and slashed his sword at the emerging wolf. At the same time, Sherry, Stina, and Kyle released their fire above them and rained them down to the wolf, so Alex could retreat from this. Yet, Alex had a better way of handling this monster. He went around the monster, forcefully closed his Spatial Gate, and summoned a few tentacles to strangle him. "Space Bind." Leoz and Nelson, as usual, reacted first as they were Alex''s partner in fighting a boss monster like him. "Shadow Slash." "Thunder Spirit Slash." Just as they were about to swing their weapons covered with their respective elements, the same tentacles suddenly appeared around them and prevented them from completing their techniques. It turned out that the monster could also use the Space Bind. Alex gritted his teeth, noticing there were also a few ones coming toward him. The moment the monster got the advantage, Firia and the spirits surrounded them, trying to shoot it down with their elements. Unfortunately, the wolf took one step ahead and released his Spiritual Energy before sharp waves coming from his claws. These sharp waves cut Alex''s Space Bind, and the wolf decided to retreat by creating another Spatial Gate. ''To think this guy uses Space Cut with his claws, and it''s not only the claws in his paws but also his legs too¡­'' Alex gritted his teeth and summoned another Spatial Gate right in front of the wolf Spatial Gate. He saw that the wolf''s Spatial Gate actually connected to another gate a few hundred meters away from here, so he prevented him from going that way by coating it with his own Spatial Gate that connected with a gate only two meters away from it. Not only that, each of them cut all the tentacles that restricted them before Alex charged at this wolf first. "Mythical Fire Slash." Two fire sword waves flew out of his swords, making their way toward the wolf only to get obstructed by a giant sphere. This pink balloon caught his Mythical Fire Slash and compressed it until it was gone. ''Spatial Lock?'' Alex was dumbstruck. Never did he know that the wolf could actually use so many Space Element Arts and mostly came from the Freedom Sect. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. ''Wait a minute. The Gods and Goddesses know the existence of the Freedom Sect, right? I mean, not the sect itself, but the people since they have fought together in the past. ''If my speculation is true, all the techniques that this wolf has must come from the Gods and Goddesses, no it should be that Space God. In other words, the Space Element Techniques in Freedom Sect actually came from them? Or maybe they were a common Martial Arts in the past? If that is the case, I need to assume that this guy could actually use all the Space Element Arts in Freedom Sect''s Martial Arts Pavilion. ''Although I only grab some of the most useful ones, I believe there might be another combination that I don''t know¡­ Hopefully, not.'' Alex sorted his thoughts before instructing. "Don''t use a ranged attack. I believe this guy will be able to use a Spatial Gate to make it complicated for us. Even if I try to match him with my own Space Element, I won''t be able to because there is a gap between him and me in terms of understanding. After all, he has the inheritance from that Space God in his belly, and I think he has comprehended everything inside it." "!!!" They stupefied for a second, halted their attacks, and took out their weapons. Sherry came out of his body with her original one-meter body, preparing herself to fight against this monster. Meanwhile, Kyle and Stina already flew to the sky in their phoenix form. Although they couldn''t use their fire, their talons were strong enough to injure this guy. However, one person knew that she couldn''t fight in this case. It was Firia, and Alex knew this. "Firia. Become our support like Greg, prepare to create a shield to protect us." Alex instructed her. At first, he wanted her to watch the gate or stood by on the sideline, but he thought it was too cruel. So, he decided to give her another role. Firia also knew this and nodded without hesitation. It was a lie if she said she didn''t like this, but she also didn''t feel like complaining. She knew her weakness in this battle, so she retreated a few step backs and regrouped with Greg. Her master once said that she needed to experience many things to know what she lacked, and this must be it. The only thing she could do right now was to grit her teeth and search for a way to overcome her weakness, of course, after the fight. As she thought about various things, Alex''s group already closed in with their weapons. Before they could attack this guy, he created Space Plates all over him, hindering their advance. However, the group''s strength was higher than he expected. They simply smiled and released their Spiritual Energy. "True Spirit Body." The moment the true spirit body was out, the Spiritual Energy fluctuated strongly in the area, causing a little shock wave to their surroundings. "Heaven Light Slash." Alex struck the barrier with his sword. "Dark Cut." Anna made a crack with her scythe. "Eternal Life Connection." Anya linked all of them and raised their strength. Everyone used their own unique technique and destroyed the barrier in a single swoop, albeit the Space Destroyer Wolf was also not a pushover. It only glanced at Alex as if he didn''t do anything special despite breaking the barrier and came toward him. He needed only a split second to escape by creating a Spatial Gate under his feet. "I won''t make it." Alex clicked his tongue and stretched his hand, realizing that he couldn''t close the gate fast enough. He then summoned his tentacles, trying to catch the wolf. The wolf snorted and destroyed those tentacles again with his Space Cut before going through the gate. Alex didn''t waste a single time and created fifteen Spatial Gates in the land and the sky, giving each of them a gate to go through. "!!!" Suddenly, he noticed something different in the gate and shouted. "Slash everything right in front of the gate." They were confused by his instruction, but as soon as they approached the gate, they felt something was going to stop them right on the other side of the gate. It was at this moment they slashed whatever it was according to Alex''s instruction. Even Anya swung her staff to destroy this. It was when they crossed the gate, they finally saw tentacles being cut. It was the Space Bind that the wolf used to prevent them from coming. Fortunately, Alex could sense it from afar along with the vision of his Spirit Eyes that was telling him there was another energy right in front of the gate. They smiled and crossed the gate without much problem, finding the wolf who glared angrily at them. Alex took a deep breath and checked a path where he could keep the wolf in check. Of course, that kind of thing was hard to find since it was basically the wolf''s weakness. Alex decided to think about this as he fought against the wolf. ''Can I kill him if I am attacking recklessly?'' Alex thought for a moment. It surely left a gap in his defense because the wolf must haven''t thought that Alex would do such a thing, but Alex needed to make sure of everything first. Alex observed the battle, trying to find anything that he could use. The wolf always sneakily escaped from them and pulled one trick after another just to stop them. Luckily, his group never had any problem with this type of thing and kept pressuring the wolf. Wounds after wounds were inflicted. Despite being shallow, the number of wounds had been draining the energy from the wolf. Although it wasn''t to the point he would drop dead in a matter of minutes, they could do it for a few hours until he died. On the other hand, Alex and his group hadn''t used much Spiritual Energy because they only used their weapons to fight the wolf. It might not be an effective way to attack, but they had no choice because this guy had been strengthened by the Space Element Arts. It couldn''t be said that this 3-Star Martial Saint wolf that had the power 5-Star anymore. Instead, it could be classified as more than that. Alex even doubted that a 7-Star Martial Saint could fight against this wolf before he was tricked and killed by the wolf. ''Ah, I should level up Leoz before¡­'' Alex sighed inwardly. ''Never mind. Even Leoz alone needs a few hours to kill a monster this tricky. No wonder it is called a unique monster. Besides, this is a good experience to see how a Space Element Master fights. I can use this as a reference for my future fight.'' With that thought in mind, Alex smiled and advanced without much problem until he suddenly saw the wolf staggering as if he almost lost its balance. "Leoz, Nelson, follow me," Alex said without hesitation as he leaped toward the wolf as if he was disregarding his life. However, the two didn''t have any doubts in their hearts that Alex knew something. It was at this time Greg suddenly tugged Firia''s hand and asked her to move along with him, following these three. On the other hand, Alex charged at the wolf from the front while the other two attacked him from left and right. "Heaven Light Slash." "Shadow Slash." "Thunder Spirit Slash." These three tried to strike him in three different spots. The wolf didn''t let them attack him easily. He roared, sent sharp waves from all of his claws, and summoned tentacles to stop them. Just like the trio, the wolf wanted to kill them in this chance. Alex smiled upon seeing this as his Spiritual Weapons raised a shield in front of him, blocking the Space Cut. On the other hand, Jeanne, Fabio and Vera appeared right beside Alex, cutting every single tentacle. He ran past these techniques and struck the wolf. The same applied to the others. On Nelson''s side, Firia created a flame wall and burned the Space Cut entirely while Jean, Anna, and Artur cut the Space Bind. Nelson ran through the wall of flame that only burned the enemy and had no effect on the allies and struck the wolf. As for Leoz, Greg formed the shield in front of him. With Stina, Kyle, and Anya destroyed the tentacles, Leoz could go through the wolf''s defense and slashed his sword. "!!!" The wolf realized what just happened and tried to jump backward, avoiding these three attacks. Alex, of course, didn''t let this happen. He had been faking this last charge for this moment. "Space Plate." "Space Bind." Alex smirked as he created Space Plates behind the wolf and Space Bind to lock his four legs. At this time, Leoz and Nelson arrived at the wolf''s side and sliced the wolf into two, with Nelson and Leoz cut half of that giant body with their long swords. Of course, they aimed a bit higher since Alex said there was a ball inside his stomach. "Ao!" The wolf howled in pain and disbelief because he never expected that a moment of surprise could kill him. He never expected that the three seeming reckless guys turned out to be the cunning attacks. He took another glance at Alex before finally closing his eyes. Alex took a deep breath of relief, and stared at the wolf, undisturbed with the blood flowing out of its body. "You are the most troublesome opponent I have ever had. Still, I am thankful for this experience because now I can understand how a Space Element Master will react in a life and death battle. Next time, I will kill them quicker than this¡­ Farewell." Chapter 745 - Going Outside Alex closed his eyes for a second before he ordered his spirit. "Can anyone cut its belly? There should be a round ball inside there with the size of a normal human head, so be careful when you cut it open." Jeanne walked toward the wolf after listening to his order, opening the wolf''s stomach with her short sword. Her movement was fast but precise. As expected from a master of torture, she knew exactly where she should open it. She had been training so hard this whole time to know all monsters and races anatomy, so she would be the perfect person for this job. After cutting some parts, the wolf''s flesh started glowing, signifying there was something shining behind that. Jeanne knew this was the thing and cut it carefully to avoid scratching it. Alex watched how this pink round crystal slowly got extracted by Jeanne. Checking the ball with his Spirit Eyes, he understood the characteristic of the Space Element surrounding it. This was the culmination of what the Space God had when he was alive. The Space Destroyer Wolf couldn''t swallow the entire energy due to the difference between principle and other things. "I see¡­ Despite not being able to absorb this crystal ball entirely, the wolf became strong enough to learn the techniques along with its understanding." He muttered to himself, walking closer to Jeanne. "Master. This is the Space Ball¡­ Or should I say, Memory Crystal?" Jeanne handed him the glowing crystal to him. Alex nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Jeanne." "Alex, what are we going to do now? Since we have used three months, if we calculate how long we need to get inside this place, I think we only have three months to do this¡­" Anya whispered and glanced at the spirits. "I don''t think we need to pick a fight with those Gods and Goddesses. I mean, we can cultivate there since the Spiritual Energy is denser there. As for you guys, there is no change of plan, so I think it''s fine if you go to the surface." "Yeah. I don''t want to be stuck in here for three months when we can do many things." Anya nodded and added inwardly. Firia smiled from the sideline, knowing why the spirits helped him this much. She thought, "They must want the progress goes smoothly and as quickly as possible. This way, Alex will reach God Stage and go to Eulja.'' On the other hand, Alex only acknowledged her intention. "I will leave the surface''s matters in your hands. Also, please make sure there are no Fire God Clan when we leave this place. You can coordinate with Neon since I have tasked him personally." "I understand. Then we can leave all of you here." Anya nodded before thinking something. "That''s right. I think it''s better to go to Rose. She is already a Martial Monarch, so I think I will try teaching her a few things, including our affairs. And when you return to the base, you can ask her if she wants to learn in Freedom Sect." Alex thought for a moment and felt it was a good idea. "Alright. I think Ngina will summon you and head to the Heavenly Continent with the Teleportation Stone?" "That''s my plan." "I don''t have anything to say to her at the moment. Maybe I will just say it to her directly after I return." "Sure." Anya nodded, took out Ngina''s card, and talked for a minute. She then signaled everyone to get ready as they bowed. Alex also waved his hand, watching them disappear. He then looked at Firia and the others. "We are going back to the main tower and cultivate there. Seeing all of you are at the peak of 1-Star Martial Saint. I think we can use these three months to reach 3-Star Martial Saint¡­ As for me, I will probably only reach 2-Star since I need to absorb this." "We understand." They nodded. Alex then made a Spatial Gate to the portal before closing all the Spatial Gate inside this Space World. He made sure that he didn''t miss a single Spatial Gate. After checking one more time, he headed back to the original portal and activated it, signaling someone outside to open the sealed gate. Not long after, Shakdi opened the gate again with a shocked expression. He never thought that Alex really did it and looked at the glowing crystal on his hand. "Congratulations for clearing this place, and thank you very much." Shakdi immediately bowed to him politely. The other Gods and Goddesses also noticed their appearance and quickly came to them to give their thanks as well. Alex smiled. "Well, everything is fine. Though I wish you can inform me that there was a Space Destroyer Wolf inside this place." "Space Destroyer Wolf?" Shakdi and the others were dumbfounded as if they didn''t know anything about this. "Yeah. It''s a 3-Star Martial Saint with the power of 5-Star and equipped with your understanding in Space Element. It was a hard fight." Alex nodded with a serious expression. The group was stunned by his statement. Obviously, they knew about the Space Destroyer Wolf, but they didn''t know it resided inside this place. "It''s the parent monster for this realm. Don''t you know about it?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. Shakdi let out a sigh, disappointed in himself, and answered. "I am sorry. We didn''t know anything about it. We only got help, and everything was sealed inside. We didn''t know which one was their parents." "Well, it''s already ended, but you might want to warn the future generations that might solve this problem for you to be careful." Alex nodded. "We understand and will surely inform them before going inside." Shakdi nodded furiously, not wanting to make such a mistake again. "Since I have finished the task, I can take this, right?" Alex asked, raising the ball in his hand. "Of course. That is a memory crystal. I have put everything I know in that crystal, so if your excellency absorbs the energy, I will be honored." Shakdi stretched his hand, letting Alex have it. "Besides, I don''t think that is enough, and I am sure that the others will also give you more rewards. Please don''t reject this." Alex tilted his head in confusion as he listened to what Shakdi had to say. "Since we can''t really give you a Divine Tool, whether it''s a weapon or any other things because it will disrupt the balance of this world. We should be able to give you many rank 8 items. After all, our strength is not enough to seal a portion of the Divine Tools'' strength to camouflage it as a rank 8 item just like the little mistress has," Shakdi said while glancing over Firia''s shawl. Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Firia, who nodded her head. "I understand. We will gladly receive it. And if possible, we want to use this tower to cultivate. Is that fine with all of you?" "Of course. This place has been getting richer and richer. We can even make a rank 8 Gathering Array for you to reach 2-Star if not 3-Star Martial Saint." "I will take that offer then." "Sure. Please follow me to where we store our weapons." He stretched his hand as if telling him to go together. Alex and the others followed him before finding a thick wooden door. When they came inside, Alex picked a few items that he fancied. Firia, Stina, Sherry, and Kyle also took what they wanted. The Gods and Goddesses were pleased with this because Alex and his group really did a big favor for them. "We are thankful for the items." Alex smiled. "No, no. The pleasure is ours." Shakdi shook his hand. "Let me guide you to your room here. I am sure Rin has made five rank 8 Gathering Arrays for you." Although Shakdi was confused when he didn''t see Alex''s companion, he knew they were still alive since he had heard how the Spirit God behaved. If this young man didn''t even shed tears for his comrades, there was no way the Spirit God would take him in. Seeing Alex acted normal like this, he must have teleported them somewhere. Alex knew what he was thinking and answered. "I have sent them outside this Ancient Battlefield. Unfortunately, I can only do so with them alone, not the ones with me right now." Shakdi''s face became red. As expected from someone who got chosen by the Spirit God, his perception was something. "That''s right. I have questions for you." Alex asked while glancing at the Gods and Goddesses. "Please ask." "How is the situation out there? I mean, you should be able to observe whatever inside this place, right? Not the tower, but the entire trial." "Yes. We have seen everything. There are ten challengers like usual. However, only five people managed to get inside this tower, together with their companions. They are training inside the tower right now, and some of us are there to supervise their training." "May I know who they are?" "They have introduced themselves as Evelyn, Angela, Elizabeth, Julius, and Song Ling''er." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What happened to the others then?" "They are outside the tower. Usually, they will only be able to cultivate barely for one star, but they pass that limit easily because you have killed many monsters outside and nourish this tower''s Spiritual Energy. Of course, I don''t think I have seen anyone that surpass 1-Star." Alex nodded. "Is that so¡­ How about the five inside this place?" "They are pretty good, especially one person. If I need to rank them here, the first will be Evelyn, followed by Elizabeth, Song Ling''er, Angela, and Julius. As for their progress, only Evelyn has mastered a peak Heaven Rank Martial Art while the others are still trying to comprehend it. As much as we want to give Divine Technique, we still have our own rule." Alex nodded. "I understand. I don''t have any more questions." "Let me guide you to your room then." Shakdi nodded and walked for a few minutes before they arrived at a spacious room filled with arrays. Alex and the others entered the room before Shakdi left them alone. ¡­ In the Northern Continent. Ngina summoned the spirits after leaving Rose''s side. He then cupped his hands and bowed to them. Anna smiled and greeted him. "It''s been a while, Ngina. How are you and Rose?" "We are fine, Mistress. Rose is cultivating right now. Do you want me to wake her up?" "Sure. We want to have a long talk with her, and I think she will be happy with this." She nodded. Before Ngina disappeared, Anna added. "I have the best news for you. Alex has gotten the Spirit Crown." Ngina widened his eyes and dropped his jaw as he couldn''t say anything. "That is true. I know that you are shocked as we were, but can you call Rose here?" Anna smiled, patting Ngina''s shoulder. "I-I understand." Ngina repeatedly nodded as he disappeared with excitement. Suddenly, Nelson halted his step and said, "I will leave first." "Nelson?" Anna tilted his head in confusion. "Why are you in a hurry? Isn''t it fine to talk with Rose first?" It was at this time that Anya understood Nelson''s thought as she gasped. "Are you¡­" "Yes. I have several things to do. If you don''t mind, can you tell Master that I can''t be summoned later and don''t say anything to him for the time being?" The group was confused, not understanding what Nelson wanted to do. However, the shocked expression on Anya''s face gave them a feeling it was something big. They didn''t have any complaints though, since Nelson always worked to the bone in the dark for Alex, and this must be one of those things he always did. "I understand. The N Squad has been covering the whole Heavenly Continent anyway, so it''s fine to do your own things." Anya gave confirmation. "Thank you." Nelson clasped his hand and disappeared, heading somewhere else. Anya then let out a long sigh before saying. "Let''s go inside first." Chapter 746 - Roses Mission As soon as he entered the room with Firia and the others, Alex asked them to go ahead as he had another thing to do. They nodded with a smile, walking toward their own Gathering Array. Alex didn''t forget to check it with his Spirit Eyes to confirm that everything is safe. Watching how they sat down and activated the array before cultivating, he then turned serious. "I will go to Gacha Palace. I have gotten the reward from beating the trial, right?" [Mission: Beat the pillar (Complete) Reward: Gacha Hammer x5 Description: Show them who''s the boss.] [Although you haven''t gotten out of this tower yet, you have indeed beaten the tower.] Alex smiled, having the same logic with the system. "Can you open the gate?" [Of course.] The white gate appeared, gradually opening itself. Alex took another glance at the others before stepping inside the Gacha Palace. Little did he know Firia raised her lips as if she was happy to see Alex went there. Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi had been waiting for him inside, smiling and bowing her head gently. "Welcome. It''s been a while since you''ve visited this place." "Indeed. It''s been a while." Alex nodded with a smile. "I think I don''t need to say what I am going to do, right?" "Of course. First of all, I want to congratulate you on reaching Martial Saint. The same goes for the others." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and said, "There is one thing I want you to hear." "What is it?" "Even if I need to choose, I will choose the present you." Lin Xingzhi said with a serious expression, telling him that she had come to terms with the death of her late husband. She wanted to say this for a long time, but she felt it wasn''t sincere enough if she said it through the system. Hence, she took this chance to express her feelings. These words stunned Alex. He took a deep breath and smiled. "Thank you. However, I also know how big the hole he left behind. That''s why¡­ Can you please wait until I come to Eulja? I will settle this once for all." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and waved her hands, calling the Gacha Crystal for him before summoning the Gacha Hammer and handing it to him. Alex gently grabbed the hammer and nodded as they slowly walked toward the Gacha Machine. He shattered the crystal with the hammer, revealing the ball that was trapped inside. The ball was opened automatically as soon as the ice shattered and summoned an orb. [Elemental Orb (SR) x1] Alex then kept shattering the crystals one by one. [Water Tank (R) x1] [Rank 8 Monster Blood (SR) x1] [Sovereign Slayer Sword (SR) x1] [Heavenly Golden Mushroom (UR) x1] The moment he saw a UR item on the list, he was dumbstruck. He knew that he would get a UR item, but he didn''t expect it to be this medicinal herb. "This¡­" "It seems you are satisfied with the reward this time." Lin Xingzhi smiled, watching his excitement. "Of course. This Heavenly Golden Mushroom is the last ingredient I need for that heaven-defying pill! I can give the ingredients to Firia, so she could make a pill." Alex nodded furiously before he glanced at Lin Xingzhi and asked. "Are you the one controlling the reward?" "I have said I don''t have the authority. Everything is random." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "No. What I mean is the reward for the Gacha itself. I am also the host for Rose, so I am wondering if you can control what kind of item you can give¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and let out a long sigh. It seemed she had decided. "You can say that I am controlling the item, but I am also not at the same time." "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head. "Other than the things that directly connected to the system such as the Summoning Tickets and so on, they are coming from your own warehouse. I just split them according to your cultivation base. In other words, I am simply giving what you have in your previous life." "¡­" Alex didn''t know what to say that all of this was what he had in the previous life. Now that he knew about it, he was wondering whether he was fine to receive it or not. In the end, Lin Xingzhi added, "Don''t worry. This is also the will of your previous life. He must have told you that he can only provide you with your needs, but you need to choose whatever do you want with them, right?" Alex nodded and sighed. "It seems I can''t win against that guy. To think he has thought this far¡­" "Fufu¡­ Even if you have the same items, I know you will have two different choices. I assure you it is true since I have been watching you from the beginning." Lin Xingzhi smiled gently like a maiden in love. Alex didn''t know why but this smile really cheered him up. "Yeah. You are right." "Anyway¡­ You need to be careful in your Divine Tribulation. You need to think about everything and choose what you want to do. Whatever the choice is, I will always stay beside you even if it means my doom." "Please don''t say that. I promise I will get stronger so it won''t happen." Alex gently smiled, placing his hand on her cheek. She also held her hand gently before saying. "I think I shouldn''t occupy you any longer. I will wait patiently here." Alex nodded. "Yeah. Wait for me." They then walked as slowly as possible, savoring the few seconds they had before reaching the gate. Lin Xingzhi suddenly grabbed Alex''s hand as she kissed him on the lips. Alex was surprised at first, and before he realized it, their lips were already apart as she took a step back. "This much is fine, right?" Lin Xingzhi smiled. Alex smiled back, turned around, and walked toward the gate while waving his hand. "I will be visiting you if I get more Gacha to open." "I am looking forward to it." She nodded before waving her hand to close the gate. Alex watched how the gate disappears and went to his gathering array. Meanwhile, the spirits and Rose also had a good talk with Rose. They were sitting in the main room, facing each other. "It''s been a while, Rose." "Yes, Elder Sister Anna, Elder Sister Anya." Rose nodded repeatedly. She had been calling them with Elder Sister, of course, according to their instruction even though their status as her master''s wives didn''t allow her to disrespect them like that. "How are you? Is there anyone making trouble for you?" Anna asked. "No. I have gone outside more than ten times as soon as Elder Sisters removed the ban to go outside. Other than some pests that I can solve, I don''t have any problems. Even other influences won''t touch me as long as they know my status¡­ Not that I flaunt about it." "Good. You have been completing the missions too, so I am happy to see your improvement. After all, to think that the weak little girl from back then can reach 3-Star Martial Monarch this fast¡­" Anya smiled. "No, no. It''s only because of Master. In fact, if I didn''t have this equipment, I wouldn''t be able to have this type of prowess. If I didn''t have the resources from Master and a safe place to live, I wouldn''t be able to train this fast. And if I didn''t have his guidance and help, I wouldn''t become the person I am now." Rose shook her head, fully knowing that Alex was the key to her success. Anya could see that she was neither arrogant nor humble. She was simply sincere with her feelings. "I would like to give you one last mission¡­ If you can finish this mission, I will allow you to join us and help your Master in the Heavenly Continent. How about it?" Rose''s eyes widened as she suddenly dropped on her knees, kneeling in front of Anya. "Please give me that mission." Anna and Anya looked at each other and smiled. Anna helped her up and sighed. "You little girl¡­ You are overreacting." "I¡­ I am just happy that I can help Master. Hehe¡­" Rose scratched her cheek. "It''s not like you are going directly to help him in the fight you know." "I am ready for anything. Even if I can''t do it now, I can learn how to do it." Rose said with determination. "Since you are like this, I won''t beat around the bush." Anya paused for a moment as Rose gulped down. "You are going to the Freedom Sect to train yourself for two years and beat the potential tower there. If you can do that, we will let you participate in the meeting and help Alex." "I will try my best." Rose repeatedly nodded as she swore she would succeed in this mission without fail. "In that place, you are going to get a second element. Your mission is to master the technique and learn how to fight with both elements. Alex has arranged it all for you, so I don''t think you will have a problem there. Just focus on training this time." "Master did?" Rose opened her mouth in surprise. "Fufu¡­ I will be teaching you all our affairs if you succeed. And there will probably be a big war after this, if I am satisfied with your performance, you may participate in that war and defeat your master''s enemies. So, try your best, alright?" "Yes. Rose won''t disappoint Elder Sisters." "Good. We are going to wait for Alex in our base on the Heavenly Continent. However, you may not go out during this time and wait for Alex to come back. Are we clear?" "Yes." "Then shall we go?" Anna smiled and led the ground to the teleportation crystal. They placed their hands and took care of the Spirit Crystals needed to teleport all of them. In an instant, they arrived in a small dark cave, barely suitable for living. Rose was surprised at first. Alex''s base in the Heavenly Continent was far worse than the one he had in the Northern Continent. She thought this must be the work of his enemies, forcing him to live in this place. Hatred grew in her hearts as she swore to pay them what they had done to her master that had been taking care of her since she was a small girl that wanted to commit suicide. "Don''t take it seriously. This is only our temporary base since our last place is ruined by one million monsters." Anya shrugged. "Besides, Alex doesn''t really return to this base, so this is enough for the time being." "Uh¡­" Rose looked down as she wanted to shed her tears now. "I have been living in luxury this whole time, not knowing that Master has this kind of life¡­ I am sorry." "Well, if you measure Alex with wealth, we have several million Spirit Crystals, so we are not exactly poor. Don''t be sad, alright?" Anna patted her head while smiling. "Un¡­" She nodded, albeit still looked sad. "Alex will be coming back to this place in three months. For the time being, I think I can train you with all your techniques, or the others will also help me with it. However, I want to warn you. You know that your talent is not the best, right?" "I am aware of it. I know my talent is low if Master didn''t impart something in our first meeting. My lightning was also the same had I not refined the Lightning Gem." "I will be searching for that rank 8 pill to solve this problem. On the other hand, you are going to use these three months to raise your combat experiences." "I understand¡­ And can I¡­" Rose wanted to request something, but she decided to shake her head. She wanted to learn about Alex''s affairs since she had three months, but she realized her mind might get fixated about it for the next two years. It might also cause her to not reach the expectation, so she decided to focus on what she could do. Noticing this expression, Anya smiled. "Let''s go then." Chapter 747 - Leaving Three months later, two days before Alex returned to the surface, Alex woke up from his cultivation. "These three months were beneficial." He opened his eyes before standing up, finding Firia also waking up. "Alex. How is your progress?" "I have absorbed the memory crystal completely, but it seems I have underestimated it since I needed to use it for around two months." Alex sighed. "I see. Your cultivation hasn''t advanced to 2-Star Martial Saint because of this." Firia observed his cultivation and sighed. "Anyway, I am happy that you have reached 3-Star Martial Saint this time. As for me, I will slowly catch up to you¡­ Maybe after mastering my Spirit Crown¡­" "Indeed. Don''t worry. We still have two years before we need to create a ruckus in the Snow White Mountain. Maybe another year to fight both influences." Alex nodded. "Yeah. That''s my plan." "We will wait for another two days then." "Before that, I want to ask something from you." "Sure. What do you want me to do?" "Can you refine the Revolving Heart Pill?" Firia slightly opened her mouth before her expression turned serious. She closed her eyes, falling into deep thought. "I have practice with my Master, but I don''t know if I can get the highest possible result." "How about trying to use my Simulation Room to test it?" "Sure. I have seen what your Simulation Room can do, and I think I am not that far to reach perfection. However, I don''t have the ingredients with me." "Don''t worry. I just got the last ingredient three months ago. I wanted to say this to you but decided to wait until we left here. Well, since you have woken up, I think this is a good idea." Alex smiled. "That''s great. I will try to recall everything about it now while you create the array." Firia nodded. Alex then walked a bit further and started drawing symbol after symbol. It didn''t take him long before he finished, and Firia had been waiting for him. Alex took out the ingredients and placed it inside the Simulation Room together with the Spirit Crystals. Firia walked inside, sat down, and activated the array. Alex didn''t say anything and watched how she woke up several times during this time. From her expression alone, he knew she succeeded, but the result wasn''t like what she hoped for. Only after going through trials and errors, Firia''s mood gradually improved. She even made a big smile for the last five times. "I have mastered it. I am confident I can bring three Perfect Purity Revolving Heart Pill." "Sorry for troubling you." "It''s fine." Firia took a deep breath. "I will recover my Spiritual Energy and calm my heart first before proceeding with this." "Sure. Take your time." "That''s right. Who do you want to give these pills to? From what I know, it will be Evelyn and Rose. But how about the last one?" "Evelyn has a high talent in the sword to begin with, so I am sure that this pill will benefit her. As for Rose, she is already strengthened by the Bow Mastery Card and Lightning Crystal. If I don''t support her with numerous resources, I am afraid she will lose against Evelyn in terms of cultivation speed. However, this should fix Rose''s problem. And for the third one¡­" Alex paused for a moment, piquing Firia''s interest. "Who is it?" "I don''t know yet. There are three candidates that I can give or sell. First will be Song Jiaoren. Seeing his actions toward me, I think I can reward him with this. Unfortunately, he won''t be that loyal to me since it is only for benefit. "The third one will be Song Ling''er. The principle is basically the same. If I give this, I will gain the complete support of the Blackwade Clan in this world. However, I don''t think I need more than our current situation, since everything is under control. "Then it will leave for the third one, Astennu," Alex said mysteriously as if he was telling it wasn''t for him. Firia also realized this and thought who would possibly receive the pill. "Ah! Is it for your Senior Sister?" "Yeah. You can say this is the last present from me as well as my congratulation gift for their marriage that will happen sooner or later." "Now that I think about this¡­ If I calculate everything from benefits, she doesn''t necessarily deserve this super rare pill. However, if I put your feeling and relationship in the calculation, well¡­" Firia sighed. "How about we see the other candidates first? For example, that Elizabeth?" "It''s true that I might buy her cooperation if I give this to her. Let''s say that she might become the fifth influence that will fight with us. However, I am afraid I don''t need to do this since it''s enough if she can stay silent in her territory since four influences are enough since we can count Freedom Sect as two influences." Alex answered from his point of view. "What about the Ancient Blue Family and Snow White Mountain? Never mind about the Snow White Mountain. Letizia doesn''t need one because of her pure ice, while no one is qualified to receive this kind of pill from you." Firia narrowed her eyes, releasing her killing intent. "If you are thinking about buying Snow White Mountain''s loyalty, it''s highly possible. Due to the fact that they couldn''t sacrifice Letizia, they ended up with the second choice. If we give this to her, it might be able to close the gap a little. However, I don''t have a plan to do that and will never have." Alex also leaked his killing intent. "It''s fine. As for the Ancient Blue Family, I don''t think it''s required to buy their cooperation with this. We have enough Spirit Crystals and cards to play anyway." Firia shrugged before she found herself in a dilemma, not knowing what to do with the pill. "I thought about auctioning it, but it will just invite chaos. As for our group, you don''t really need it since your Sacrificial Element is upgraded when I evolved my Pure Fire. As for Alicia, she is already close to Pure Element anyway, so there is no point in doing this. "As for Sherry, Kyle, and Stina, they have the same condition as yours. Hence, I don''t really have anyone to give." Alex sighed. "True enough. I don''t want to be rude, but I think it will be a waste if you give it to Putri." Firia thought for a moment as a thought crossed her mind. "How about storing it first? We won''t know if you end up giving it to someone in the future? I know that you won''t think this as precious anymore, but maybe you can trade it with some resources and trick some people for it in the future?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a few minutes before deciding his choice. "I guess I don''t really have that much choice. I will follow your arrangement. Rather than spending it all in the present, it''s better to store it for now. Who knows what I will get in the future." Firia nodded with a smile before walking away. "I will prepare myself then." Without waiting for him, she already sat in her Gathering Array and summoned her cauldron. She summoned all six rank 8 medicinal ingredients, starting from Violet Blue Ganoderma, Bluedrasil Berry to this Heavenly Golden Mushroom. She tossed all ingredients at the same time and used her fire to refine it. Alex was amazed by watching her. When they were in the lower world, he still remembered how she asked him to teach him about Alchemy. To think that her Alchemy Skill had surpassed him, Alex felt happy. He felt proud instead of jealous. In fact, he wanted the others to know that his wife could do something like this. He kept staring at her, observing her expression and how she handled the ingredients. From gentle fire to fierce fire, Firia controlled everything completely, and before long, she had moved to the impurities process. At this point, the fire completely overpowered them. Normally, they needed to squeeze the impurities out of the herb, but Firia used her Sacrificial Element to burn it completely. Although the effect wasn''t as powerful as Alex, it was enough for Firia to speed up the process by a large margin. Not long after, three light blue pills flew out of the furnace as Firia caught and threw them into their Inventory. After finishing their business, including the Revolving Heart Pill, Alex and Firia went out of the room and headed toward the Gods and Goddesses. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle, of course, hid inside Alex''s body. "It seems you have absorbed the memory crystal completely. Congratulations." Shakdi smiled and cupped his hands. "It''s thanks to Senior. I feel I can utilize my Space Technique better than ever." "No need to be humble. I thought you might need to bring it home because you couldn''t absorb it in one go, but it turned out I was wrong. I could feel you have finished in two months." "I am just lucky," Alex humbly said. "Luck is the most powerful weapon in this world. If someone has absolute luck, he will be invincible." Shakdi laughed. "Albeit, there is no such thing called Absolute Luck." Alex didn''t say anything. His luck wasn''t good, but also wasn''t bad when he recalled how he got his Gacha Items. Average might be the best word. "That''s right. I am wondering if I will be transported to the same area as the challengers later." Alex asked Shakdi, who was supposed to know this type of matter. "Now that I think about it, there are indeed eleven challengers this time, even though ten are the limit." "I am sneaking inside the array. Although I am not capable of drawing a Divine Array, I can still somehow manipulate it so I can enter." "Oh! No wonder." Shakdi realized and felt it was pretty normal for Alex. The Spirit God must have taught him about this. "If that is the case, you won''t be counted as one of the challengers. Instead, you will be considered as a citizen of this world." "What will happen when the time limit has arrived?" "You will be teleported outside the pillar like how the citizens in this place. In other words, you need to make your way back alone. I can''t leave this place, so I can''t really help you with that." "It''s fine. If I am teleported outside, I can go back alone by going through the gap I created a year ago." Alex nodded. "If that is the case, I can only wish you luck in your journey." Shakdi cupped his hand. Alex then glanced at Firia before he sensed the Spiritual Energy gradually becoming turbulent. "It seems it is going to start. The teleportation process will be one hour later, so be careful." Shakdi nodded. Alex then thought for a moment. "Now that I have this strength, I have forgotten by the fact that I haven''t killed that Tiger Mercenary¡­ Should I kill them before leaving this place?" He couldn''t say yes because he might need to call Leoz for this. He ended up sighing. "I think I will let this one slide¡­ They are not capable of coming to the surface anyway. Unlike the previous case with Shelka, I am sure that nothing can help them this time, so I will just spare their lives once. It''s not that bad to have your hand clean instead of covered with blood." After deciding their fate, Alex sighed and waited until the tower shone in golden light. Firia''s body gradually turned into golden particles as the body created by the array had reached its limit. "I will be waiting for you at the gate. As for the pill, I will give it to Evelyn for you." Firia shouted before disappearing. Alex also disappeared. He didn''t forget to cup his hands to the Gods and Goddesses, showing his gratitude. As soon as he returned to the outside world, he found many monster corpses that hadn''t been disposed of. He didn''t want to create a commotion, so he immediately slipped away using the Spatial Gate. He also wanted to test how precise he could utilize the Spatial Gate, and to his surprise, he reached almost perfectly at the bottom of the hole he created without using the Space Mark. He waited for a moment, so the others wouldn''t find him before going upward. Chapter 748 - Evelyn Outside the Ancient Ruin, every single of the challengers appeared on top of the stone platform, looking at each other with observant eyes. There were two people that became the center of attention. First was a woman that was supposed to be the most favored one by the most mysterious person on the continent, Firia Sirius. Yet, the same person didn''t appear in the tower, leaving the other perplexed. There was no way Alex would have such an ordinary woman. Even her appearance was something that could be described as Divine. That was why they couldn''t understand why Firia would actually fail in this tower. The most shocked one was Song Ling''er. Considering her brother had been cooperating with Alex since a year ago, she might need to rethink their decision. She might not know the reason why Alex gave this chance to her, but the proof she couldn''t enter this could be said as Alex''s mistake as he couldn''t make a logical judgment. It was better for Alex himself to go there because he would have a high probability of entering the tower. Song Ling''er observed Firia''s expression with a complicated mood. ''Anyway, I will need to tell my family about this. If that Alexander Sirius can throw away such a precious chance, we might need to think twice before accepting his request.'' Song Ling''er thought before sighing. ''A pity.'' Elizabeth had the exact same thought with Song Ling''er. However, she was more lunatic. She furrowed her eyebrows and thought, ''Why would someone like him marry her? Although I can indeed say she is a beauty that surpasses me or Song Ling''er or Evelyn, it''s not that much. If we bring our talents into the picture, I am more worthy than her. Unfortunately, that person has chosen her and the way he talked back then¡­ He won''t change it. Haiz, a pity. If only I can get him, I will have the entire Heavenly Continent in my hand.'' As for the second person who gathered their attention, she simply baffled by the whole situation. She was none other than Evelyn. She had become the most favored one in that tower, and even a few Gods and Goddesses were asking her to practice their skills and give their items away. Yet, Evelyn just chose whatever suited her even though she could take it all. And the same Evelyn had the same thought as Song Ling''er, albeit more to worry. She was worried Firia might feel bad about this and did something that made Alex unhappy. ''Maybe I shouldn''t tell this to big brother Alex? I think it''s fine to lie that Big Sister Firia entered the tower and received some kind of inheritance? This will certainly please big brother Alex. I should also talk about this with her, so she knows I will help her resolve this situation.'' Evelyn swore in her heart before nodding her head. She completely ignored others'' opinions about herself and chose to think about what Alex would do. In the end, everyone could only shake their heads and rise from the stone platform. They began walking together to the outside while observing what kind of change they had after training for a half year. At the same time, Evelyn stopped Firia with a serious expression and told her senior sister to go ahead. Firia tilted her head in confusion. "What do you want?" Evelyn gulped down and sent a thought transmission. ''Big sister. I am afraid big brother Alex will be angry about this¡­ I will help you if you want.'' ''Lying? What do I need to lie?'' Firia was clueless about their misunderstanding because Alex had been on her side this whole year, so there was no type of misunderstanding in her head. She furrowed her eyebrows and replied, ''Little girl¡­ Have Alex told you about lying? If not, it seems the little girl has become a bad girl¡­'' ''No, no. That''s not what I mean.'' Evelyn hurriedly shook her head and explained. ''I didn''t see big sister anywhere in the tower, so I thought I should also tell big brother Alex that you had passed. This way, big brother won''t be mad at you.'' ''Ah! Are you talking about me failing?'' Firia realized and widened her eyes in surprise. Evelyn nodded and looked down. Although it didn''t feel nice to lie to Alex, she needed to do this and consider it a white lie. Firia was amused when watching her reaction. To think that the little girl misunderstood this kind of thing, but when she thought about it, she thought it was normal to get confused. She ended up patting her head and smiled. ''It''s fine. You don''t need to worry about it. Since you are thinking about Alex, this big sister will give you a reward.'' She took out the light blue colored pill and handed it to Evelyn. ''This is for you. Eat this, and I am sure you will soar in the sky.'' Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows and stared at the pill. The moment she smelled the aroma, she gasped and dropped her jaw to the ground. Her hand started shaking as she wanted to return the pill to Firia. ''This is too precious. There is no way I can accept a Revolving Heart Pill. Not only the ingredients are super rare, the one who can make perfect purity pill level is even more scarce. ''I have heard that one pill can fetch for more than a few million Spirit Crystals. It''s better for big sister Firia to consume it.'' Evelyn''s face was pale, and she was stuttering. ''This big sister is an Alchemist. I don''t want to brag, but this elder sister''s skill is even better than your big brother. That''s why you should accept it. This big sister doesn''t have a need for this pill because it won''t increase my talent. On the other hand, your talent is a bit low. Even though Alex had opened all your potential and somehow reached the same talent as the other successors, you need more than that.'' Firia shook her head. ''I¡­ But I am not his disciple¡­ In fact, I don''t even know what kind of relationship I have with big brother Alex right now. It''s better for Rose to have this since she is the official disciple.'' Evelyn still tried to reject, thinking it was better to give it to those who were close to Alex. She just felt she wasn''t worthy of getting this kind of pill. Firia was amazed by her character. She gently smiled and placed her hand on top of Evelyn''s hand, covering the pill. Just as Evelyn thought Firia finally took the pill back, Firia pushed her hand to her mouth, shoving the pill inside her mouth. ''Now you have swallowed it¡­ Even if you are trying to hold the effect back, you can only do it for one hour. It''s better for you to go back with your senior sister and return. I am sure you will finish refining the pill in your return journey. Just like Alex, I also have a high expectation from you.'' Firia smiled and patted her head a few times. Evelyn didn''t know whether to be thrilled or scared. On one hand, she was happy to get such an expectation from Firia and Alex. On the other hand, she still thought it was best for Firia or Rose to swallow it instead. To force her to leave, Firia sent her last transmission. ''I didn''t fail. There were a total of twenty Gods and Goddesses. Why do you think only a few of them greeted you?'' Upon uttering this question that shocked Evelyn, Firia walked toward the exit and brought her together. As soon as she went outside, Firia''s expression turned serious as she leaned on the wall, looking at the heirs and heiresses from other influences going away. Evelyn and Angela were the last ones to leave, except Firia. As expected, Evelyn still looked at Firia with a dumbfounded expression. She just realized what happened inside that tower and why Firia was nowhere to be seen. Firia shook her head and said with a thought transmission. ''Don''t tell anyone, including your Master, alright?'' Evelyn took a deep breath and nodded furiously. Firia waited and checked to see if everyone had left, only to find Alex make his appearance first. "Alex!" "I have checked our surroundings, and there shouldn''t be anyone around this place. We are good to go." Alex nodded, thinking it was better to talk in the base instead of this place. "How about the hole?" "Don''t worry. It didn''t take too long to patch it, so there won''t be anyone coming out of this place like Shelka''s case. Unfortunately, I can''t kill that guy¡­" Firia chuckled. "Do you think she can touch me? His hand will burn before he can touch me." Firia shrugged. "Anyway, let''s go back first. Rose must be in there, and you are going to be busy this time." "Yes. I still need to cooperate with Manness and meet with Rose. If possible, I want Rose to get her Space Element." Alex nodded in agreement. "Good. Let''s talk in the base." Alex agreed and snapped his finger, creating a teleportation array. A few minutes later, Alex had arrived at their base, walking through the dark cave maze before reaching it a few seconds later, of course, with his Space Element. As expected, the first one who greeted him was none other than Anya. "It''s nice to see you back." Alex nodded. There was one question that he wanted to ask this whole time. "How is the situation in Fire God Clan? Their strength and their allies." "Their situation isn''t really good. However, you can expect something from one of the top influences that have been standing tall for a few thousand years. They are still retaining most of their power with the power of money." "They must have searched for allies." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. They have approached all influences for this. The Drunken Pavilion and Blackwade Clan declined instantly while Phantasm Sect remained neutral. As for the Divine Kingdom, they are still waiting for Elizabeth and Julius to return, especially Elizabeth, since she held the highest power in the kingdom. "The only ones that have favorable thoughts about this are Snow White Mountain and Ancient Blue Family. The only problem is they are playing wait and see for the moment. Snow White Mountain will join if the Ancient Blue Family joins this alliance and vice versa. In the end, they are waiting for Rio since they are sure Rio will become the new patriarch. In other words, if we want to act, we will act as soon as Rio becomes one since he would have less power at that time." Alex nodded in agreement. "I have the same thought. I will visit Old Manness first and get his cooperation before going to the Freedom Sect. We will go there in two to three months." "I understand." "That''s right. Have they sent someone to ambush us during this Ancient Ruin period?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "They had tried to assemble the people for that, but our N squad spread fake news to make their force in disorder. That''s why the plan got canceled." "Nice." Alex was elated with the news. Either they sent their forces or not would impact the Blackwade Clan in a bad way. If they sent the force but returned empty-handed, the disciples would create a ruckus inside. On the other hand, if they didn''t send someone, their force wouldn''t be organized because there was no huge plan like this. "True enough." "One more thing. How about Letizia?" "She is quite good. Her cultivation has increased by leaps and bounds. Since no one visited her, she could cultivate peacefully. We could attack them according to our schedule." Alex nodded. "Let''s do it. For now, I want to talk with Rose. It''s about time she gets her second element." "I have told Rose about that matter. You can just say hi to her ins¡ª!" Before she finished her words, the aforementioned person had come. This light-blue wavy hair girl ran across the cave after noticing the figure she missed so much. Without much thought, she leaped toward him while screaming. "Master!" Chapter 749 - Rose "Oh! Rose! It''s been a while." Alex opened his arms, catching Rose. Although he was a bit surprised that Rose showed this much happiness in one go, she is nonetheless his cute disciple. He still treated her like a little girl even after these few years. "To think that your strength has increased even further from the last time I visited you." Alex stroked her hair gently. "Hehe¡­" Rose felt pleased when Alex praised her. It was hard-earned praise since Alex didn''t praise her so often unless she got a big achievement. "How are you?" "I am fine. Elder Sister Anna and Anya have helped me this whole time, and the others also have taught me from time to time. I feel like I can do more if I try." Rose grinned. Alex shook his head with a smile. With his Spirit Eyes, how could he didn''t know that her Spiritual Energy was exhausted? She must have trained hard in this period. "Well, I want to discuss something with you. Maybe after you recover your energy." "Don''t worry. I can recover my energy even when I am talking." Rose pumped her fist. Alex looked at her expression for a few seconds before agreeing to her request. "Sure. Let''s go inside first and make ourselves comfortable." Rose nodded and led Alex inside while humming. When they arrived, everyone took a seat. It was at this time that Rose finally noticed an unfamiliar person beside Alex. Noticing this gaze, Alex introduced her. "She is Firia, my wife." "Ah!" Rose immediately stood up, walked to her, and bowed her head. "I am Rose Skewes. Master picked me up on the Willow Continent." "Fufu¡­ Pick her up eh?" Firia glanced at him, planning to tease him, but Rose misunderstood her intention as her face became pale. "This¡­ Master is¡ª!" Firia chuckled as she stopped her. "I know. Since you are Alex''s disciple, here is a gift for you. The ingredients came from him though." Rose furrowed her eyebrows, looking at the unfamiliar pill that had the same color as her hair. "This is¡­" Unlike Evelyn, Rose had been cultivating this whole time, so her knowledge was limited. This was also the reason why Alex sent her for a mission. She would know what knowledge she was lacking and learned according to it. Unfortunately, it didn''t cover rank 8 pills. "This is a Revolving Heart Pill. It can stimulate your heart and increase your talent," Firia explained in a simple way. "Ah!" Rose blinked a few times, not believing what she heard. "Alex has been pouring many resources for you, but you must feel something is clogging inside your body, right? Even though your foundation is rock solid, your talent is hindering you from increasing your cultivation even further. If you are overly relying on resources like this, I am afraid there will be a time where your cultivation halts." "I¡­" Rose couldn''t say anything. Everything Firia said was true, and she had already known it as she currently faced such a situation. She had been enduring all of this until now because of Alex, but she knew that she might reach a bottleneck at one point. That was why she was so happy to know that she could help Alex before reaching that bottleneck. And suddenly, one thing that could overturn her fate appeared before her; moreover, it came from Alex''s wife. "Take it. You should be able to refine it within a month." Rose took the pill with her shaking hands. No words of gratitude could express her feelings right now. She was just a daughter of commoners that almost became a s.e.x toy, but everything changed after Alex appeared. Her words were filled with light and love once again, not only from her master but also from the people around him. When she was about to kneel to express her gratitude, Alex and Firia already appeared beside her, stopping her from bending her knees. They smiled. "No need to do such a thing. I am your master. It is my duty to take care of you. Besides, you have endured so much because of my problem. This is something you deserve." "That''s right. You should think about yourself more. If not, I shall teach you basic common sense. Don''t forget. You are the first official disciple of Alexander Sirius." Firia smiled. She intentionally said official disciple because it wouldn''t include Evelyn and Putri. This showed Rose''s true status. As for whether Rose would become too prideful or not rely on their teaching. "Rose¡­ Is glad that she met Master back then." Rose couldn''t help but shed tears from all this warmth. "You little girl." Alex sighed with a smile, patting her head until she calmed down. In the end, Alex brought Rose to her room alone, so they could talk privately. "Master¡­" Rose thought for a moment before taking out a cup and a tea she specifically brewed for Alex. She had prepared for something like this. "I am sorry for being too emotional earlier." "It''s fine. I still remember how you endured all my hellish training and didn''t express your thoughts freely¡­ Looking at you now, I am really proud of you." Alex smiled. "No, no. Rose could only reach this step because there were enough resources and didn''t need to do anything like Master." Rose shook her head. "Well¡­ I want you to go somewhere for me." Alex scratched his cheek, not knowing whether it was a good idea to send Rose alone. "Do you mean Freedom Sect?" "How do you know?" Alex was amazed before realizing that the spirits must have told her about it. "Elder Sisters told me a few months ago. I have been preparing myself for this." Rose nodded while pumping her fist. "That''s right. I want you to go to Freedom Sect to get a Space Element. After that, you are going to train until you beat the Potential Tower. This is my upper limit since the continent will change completely at that time." Alex nodded with a gentle smile. "I am ready, Master. I will complete this in a way that I won''t disappoint Master." "Good. Now you should absorb the pill first." "Master¡­ Can we talk more after this?" Rose looked at him with a serious expression. "It''s been a while since I last talked with Master, so¡­" "Sure." Alex smiled. "You should be able to finish this within a month. We can talk for one or two days before we go to the Freedom Sect. Is that fine with you?" "Un!" Rose nodded repeatedly. "Then I will leave you here first since I still have something to do." "Yes, Master. Please be careful." Rose cupped her hands while smiling from ear to ear. Alex waved his hand and left the room before going to Anya and the others. "I am going to the Drunken Pavilion now before Evelyn returns from her journey." "Sure." Anya nodded. "Come back soon." Alex nodded and summoned Sherry, Stina, and Kyle. "The three of you can stay in the base." "Do you need Leoz to accompany you?" "I don''t think so. I will just convince him with my words and be done with it." Alex shrugged. "I will summon all of you if the situation is not in my favor." "Alright then." Alex then snapped his finger, teleporting to their headquarters where Manness lived. Although it was easy for him to meet Manness if he went to the Drunken Pavilion, he didn''t want to create a commotion. Hence, he summoned Ngina, who lost his job recently since Rose started staying in their base. "Master." "I want you to inform that Old Manness that I have come. I want to meet him, so he needs to search for a way that I won''t gather any attention." Alex asked. Ngina nodded and disappeared. Alex chose this particular timing to show that he didn''t enter the Ancient Ruin. There was supposed to be no suspicion about his Space Element, so he should be clear with this meeting. He stared at the city from the outside, waiting for Ngina to return. There was nothing to see in the city anyway. ¡­ Meanwhile, Ngina sneaked inside the city, passing through house after house until he arrived in front of a grand building. This building couldn''t be considered a restaurant because it had the size of a football stadium on Earth. Ngina entered the place without hesitation, camouflaging as a lizard that ran on the wall while observing the current situation inside. It turned out that the people who were eating and drinking in the Pavilion were in a lotus pose. They were cultivating because the wine and the meal helped them in their cultivation. It was at this time Ngina realized that these people were the students from Drunken Pavilion, whereas the real restaurant must be elsewhere. Unfortunately, he ignored these people and headed deeper inside the building. Although it wasn''t as big as the Blackwade Clan mansion, it still had half the size. Ngina found many people with stronger cultivation bases inside. He kept going until he sensed a powerful Spiritual Energy coming from inside a certain pavilion inside. There was no doubt this was Manness''s home. Without further ado, Ngina sneaked inside the room and released his Spiritual Energy while saying. "I am bringing the word of my master, Alexander Sirius." "!!!" Manness sensed and heard him as he rose with his wine gourd in his hand. "Who are you? To think there is someone who dares to intrude this place! Still, Alexander Sirius huh¡­" Manness was angry at first because his drinking time was interrupted, but Alex''s name calmed his heart down. Seeing this reaction, Ngina finally returned to his original body, revealing his lizard skin. "Pleasure to meet you. I am Ngina. I am here to tell you that my Master is waiting for you. Although it''s easy to enter this place, Master doesn''t want to gather attention here." "What does he want?" Ngina thought for a moment. "I think it''s fine to say this. My master wants to talk about the cooperation between Spirit Nest and Drunken Pavilion." "Hmm¡­?" Manness thought for a moment, noticing that the situation seemed to be decided. He had been following the news about Spirit Nest, so he could somehow know that the Blackwade Clan had agreed to this. If he wanted to reap the benefit from this war, he needed to enter one of the sides. His only problem was whether to adhere to what he promised to Maxwell or not. He closed his eyes for a few minutes, looking at the pros and cons. In the end, Manness sighed and answered, "Good. Where is he?" "Outside the city." "There is a forest north here, I will go there in five minutes. Tell him we can talk there." Ngina nodded with a solemn expression and disappeared. ''Old friend huh¡­'' Manness let out a long sigh. ''That old friend has left me for a few thousand years, and he wants me to take care of his disciple after that long? Anyway, I should meet him first.'' ¡­ With Manness''s instruction, Alex already arrived at the entrance of the forest with Ngina. He found someone flying toward him and cupped his hand politely. "Elder Manness." He ignored the greeting and walked inside the forest. "It''s better to talk inside this forest, lest someone spot us." Alex nodded and followed him inside the forest. After walking for a few minutes, Manness suddenly sat down on the ground, summoning his table and his wine. Alex then greeted himself once again, albeit got stopped by Manness. "Just cut to the chase." Manness narrowed his eyes. "You and I don''t have time for pleasantries, so tell me what you need and why I should help you? Don''t say it''s because I have the token. I already know that, and despite that, I am still asking this. You should be able to understand what I mean, right?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. It seemed this old man wanted to reap benefit from him. He took a deep breath and decided to use magical words from his master with a serious expression. "Elder Manness. Have you changed your wet pants?" Chapter 750 - Different Reactions "Elder Manness. Have you changed your wet pants?" The moment Alex uttered that magic line, Manness''s expression was distorted as it filled with anger. His Spiritual Energy started leaking as his face became red. He put down the wine and slammed the table, splitting it in half. "What did you say?" Alex didn''t have a change of expression and faced Manness calmly. There was only one thing that kept him confident. It was the fact that Manness didn''t let out a single killing intent during this period. In other words, Alex knew Manness was embarrassed, and the magic line was pretty effective. "I only need to say it once before Elder Manness skin me alive." Alex shook his head with a slight smile. "The only one who always said that line was your master¡­" Manness took a few deep breaths, calming his heart down before saying with a deep tone. "I will help you this time. I have several conditions." "Please do tell." "First. I want to listen to your strategy about this." "Certainly." Alex nodded. It was completely normal to know about the strategy first before helping him. He helped Alex with his influence after all, so he needed to see the cost and whether this was a suicide mission or not. Alex began telling his plan from how he wanted to convince the Ancient Blue Family, cause a ruckus in the Snow White Mountain, and deal with the Fire God Clan. Of course, the Freedom Sect was still known as an unknown fourth influence. Manness closed his eyes for a few seconds, calculating the plan and their losses. "The plan is feasible, and it''s where I won''t lose many people." "Good." Alex nodded and smiled inwardly. "What is your second condition?" "I want a share. Nonetheless, this war is the biggest so far, comprising several big influences. The losses will be immense, so it''s hard to convince the mass and might even make our influence unstable." "I understand," Alex answered as if he already had a thought about this. "I will give you twenty percent." "!!!" Manness clenched his fists and roared. "Are you kidding me? Do you think I can stabilize my clan after that?" "You listen to me first." Alex raised his hand with a stop sign. "First of all. I am the one who starts everything. Even if you are not going, I can still defeat them. Secondly, my Spirit Nest might only have a small group, but they are elites capable of killing thousands of enemies. This is a fact and the reason why I could kill many people in the past. "Besides, you can choose to watch from the sideline like the Divine Kingdom. I only give this number because you are my master''s old friend. If not, the least I can give you is ten percent." Alex paused for a moment, staring at Manness, who wanted to blow a fuse. He then said his last piece. "Last but not least, this twenty percent is coming from a total of Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain." "What?!" Manness dropped his jaw. He thought this twenty percent was coming from the Fire God clan alone. Although the money from them would be huge since it was coming from thousands of years influence, it wasn''t enough to appease the entire influence. However, it was different if he would get twenty percent of share from two influences of the same level. It was more than enough to get him by and stopped the entire influence with absolute control. "I have stated my best offer. It is futile to negotiate." Alex stated with a stern voice. "You come to this place alone and negotiate with me like this¡­ Do you think you can get away with just like this? I can kill you here and now before giving your head to the Fire God Clan. I believe I don''t need this type of high-risk plan¡­ Don''t you say?" Manness smirked as he released his Spiritual Energy. On the contrary, Alex remained unfazed. In fact, he even smiled at him and said playfully. "That''s a good idea. To reap more benefit from the Fire God Clan and weaken them even further. By presenting my head and having my Spirit Nest act like I am dead, they will trust you. The only problem is that if you dare to pull the real head of mine? You can see what will happen to you and your influence." Alex''s last sentence sent a chill down to his spine as his body shook once. Manness closed his eyes and sighed. "You are really that bastard''s disciple. Fine. I am in." Alex smiled as he finally got his objective. "Then please come to the Ancient Blue Family three months from now. It will be a perfect time for the Blackwade Clan to move as well." "Fine." Manness drank his wine until it was empty before flying away, leaving Alex alone in the forest. Ngina appeared not far from him, cupping his hand toward Alex. "What are we going to do now, Young Master?" "At the very least, Elder Manness has joined our side. For the time being, I will send a note to Song Jiaoren to convince his father to participate in this. Then I will send Rose to Freedom Sect and request some Elders from there. And we can negotiate with the Ancient Blue Family." Alex thought for a moment and answered. "I shall stay here to make sure that old man doesn''t stab you from behind." Alex nodded. Even though he was his Master''s friend, he couldn''t trust his back on this person completely after knowing his personality. He agreed with Ngina as a precaution. "I will leave it to you." Ngina cupped his hands again before vanishing into thin air. Alex then took out Nicole''s card and said, "Proceed with the plan tonight." "Understood." After Nicole replied, he decided to return to the base. On the other hand, Nicole stayed silent until night came, where she infiltrated Song Jiaoren''s courtyard once again. Noticing this type of presence and knowing it was almost the time, Song Jiaoren recognized this presence and said, "If you are going to talk about this, come inside." Nicole smiled and opened his room. "What does Sir Alexander want?" "The time has come to pressure the Ancient Blue Family. We are planning to go there in three months. We hope that the Patriarch or Grand Elder himself can come." Nicole smiled. Song Jiaoren thought for a moment. "I know. It is not easy for us to have our Patriarch just go like that and these three months seems to be satisfactory for us. I understand. I will talk with my fath¡­ the Patriarch about this." "The place will be the Ancient Blue Family. We will meet you there." Nicole nodded. "Do you want me to do anything special?" "No. As long as you attend this negotiation, we will take care of the rest." Nicole nodded gently. "Then I will convince them after this." Song Jiaoren nodded, waving his hand as if telling him to leave. Nicole smiled and slightly bowed to him before flying away. Meanwhile, Song Jiaoren fell into deep thought. "This is the turning point. If we stop the Ancient Blue Family right away, our chance to kill Fire God Clan is better. As for whether the Snow White Mountain wants to join the fray or not is completely insignificant." Song Jiaoren stood up and prepared to head to his father''s room, discussing this matter with his father and grandfather. ¡­ The situation became peaceful for them, while the Fire God Clan was completely exhausted dealing with the bad rumor surrounding them. To stop the Fire God Clan from ambushing Alex, the N squad had released many bad rumors about the Fire God Clan, making the unstable family even more unstable. Even with their money, the disciples kept leaving one by one. On the contrary, the Phantasm Sect got an influx of new disciples, mostly from the Fire God Clan. Knowing that the Phantasm Sect was the most neutral sect, they would surely have no chance of being swallowed in this storm. However, the Phantasm Sect didn''t necessarily accept them. They did several tests and only accepted the best of the best. They were deserters anyway, so when Phantasm Sect experienced the same thing, they would surely escape again. That was why they kept the best and planned to utilize them for as long as they could. Of course, Song Yu played a big part in this because she would know whether the opposite party was lying or not. The moment they lied, the sect would not accept them. This accident increased the favorable impression for her, and Astennu was happy with it. Finally, one week passed, Song Ling''er had returned to the Blackwade Clan Mansion and immediately headed toward her brother, only to find him being together with her father and grandfather. Song Ling''er didn''t know whether to say this in front of these three, but since they had assembled, she chose to settle it once for all. "Big brother! Father! Grandfather! We need to rethink our decision to ally with Spirit Nest." Song Ling''er screamed as she walked inside. "Ling''er?" Song Jiaoren and the others tilted their heads as they couldn''t understand why she suddenly said so. Song Jiaoren stood up and greeted her. "You have come back. Why don''t you rest first?" "No! This is more important." She shook her head. "Let me tell you my story¡­" Song Ling''er didn''t give them time to react and told her story, including Firia''s sudden appearance and the result. "To think that Ling''er can get the inheritance from those Gods and Goddesses, I am happy," Her father said while humming. "True enough. It seems she will be able to lead the clan just fine." Her grandfather nodded in agreement. Song Jiaoren smiled and nodded. "It seems I don''t need to worry about this clan anymore and can go to the main clan peacefully." Song Ling''er was baffled by their reactions. She had told them Firia''s failure and the fact that Alex made a mistake. Yet, their nonchalant expression frustrated her as if they didn''t believe her. "Why don''t you believe me?" Song Ling''er screamed while clenching her hands. "This is a huge matter." "It''s indeed surprising, but you are wrong in one part." Song Jiaoren sighed and decided to explain. "I have mistaken?" "Yeah. Let me say this from the start. First of all, Sir Alex''s wife was able to enter the pillar before anyone else, right?" "Yes." "Then, the trial has a time limit of two weeks?" "Yes. The total is two weeks." "How about you think like this? What if she managed to enter the last tower before anyone else? Just like how she appears in the midst of monsters and enters the pillar a few days before you." Song Jiaoren smirked as he glanced at the two old men. "I am sure Father and Grandfather had noticed this, right?" "Indeed." They nodded with a smile. Song Jiaoren then looked at the confused younger sister and patted her head. "This is why you need to be more observant. You shouldn''t come to a conclusion this easily and think it through. It seems Grandfather needs a long time to teach you¡­" "What do you mean, Brother? Am I wrong?" "Yes. Let''s talk about this from another perspective. Father. How many Gods and Goddesses there, and how many of them visited you back then?" "A total of twenty, and all of them visited us at the same time." "Grandfather?" "It was the same for me." "Can you see Ling''er?" Song Jiaoren smiled. Song Ling''er fell into silence as if she grasped something but couldn''t put it into words. Song Jiaoren decided to blurt it out. "If we go with my scenario. There should be twenty of them visiting you, but the fact that there were only several of them, there was only one thing." "She had entered and met the Gods and Goddesses. Most of them were handling her as we couldn''t be compared to her." Song Ling''er gasped as she realized what happened in that place. Song Jiaoren patted her head again. "That''s right. This is why we will follow his words. Do you have any objection?" Song Ling''er could only look down and shook her head. Chapter 751 - Freedom Sects Stance Three weeks later, Rose had finished absorbing every bit of energy inside the pill. Alex could see the flow of her Spiritual Energy and realized the effect was far better than he expected. Unfortunately, there was nothing to see for him because even his Spirit Eyes couldn''t discern how much the effect was. The only thing he could do was to wait until Rose cultivated for a month or two. As promised, Alex spent two days having a pleasant talk with Rose from small things like how she spent her days to big things such as their next plans. She told Alex that she had permission to help him if she managed to beat the Potential Tower. As much as he wanted to stop her from joining, he realized that the bird finally needed to use her own wing to soar in the sky. In the end, he agreed with Rose''s request. On the other hand, Rose felt refreshed after talking about everything with Alex. Just like how Alex sometimes enjoyed his life, being able to talk to him like this relaxed Rose. After they sorted everything out, Alex then used his Teleportation Array to go to the southern part of the Divine Kingdom, where the cave resided. "Such a big hole¡­ And it''s full of water." Rose was amazed by the hole. Due to the tsunami, the hole was completely covered. He still remembered where they needed to go to the surface first before Ryuu and Maya could see the spirits. "That''s right. The entrance is inside this place. I have remembered the place, and we should be able to go there without meeting any monsters." Alex nodded. "Let''s go." "Yes." Rose followed Alex and covered her body with Spiritual Energy to prevent the water from making her clothes wet before jumping into the water. Alex led her through the cave and arrived at the entrance after a few minutes of swimming. The two people guarding this place realized Alex''s presence, so they slowly approached him. Alex knew they needed to check his identity, so he took out the token and activated his Spiritual Energy, showing the golden Fire Symbol. The two disciples immediately opened the gate for him. "I am sorry, Elder. I didn''t recognize you earlier." "Good job. You two should be careful no matter what." Alex shook his head and acted friendly. "I am going to enter the sect." "Please." The two disciples let Alex in as one of them guided him to the portal while the other closed the gate. Alex then activated the array and teleported with Rose. He didn''t forget to leave a message to both of them. "I won''t be long." They didn''t understand his words but chose to store it inside their brain. They didn''t doubt Alex because his strength already reached Martial Saint. Although there were many problems to have an elder like that, sometimes they needed an exception. On the contrary, Alex chose the Space Temple as his destination because Aileen would be the one teaching her. "Master¡­ That tower¡­" Rose pointed her finger at the Space Temple as she never saw a building with this design. "That''s our destination." Rose said nothing more and observed their surroundings until they arrived at the bottom of the tower. "This is the Space Temple." Alex smiled before two disciples stopped him from going. He simply showed his tokens before the two disciples let them in. Without paying attention to the other elders, Alex climbed the stairs to the top floor and knocked on the wooden door. "Come in!" Alex pushed the door while holding Rose''s hand, pulling her inside. "It''s been a while, Great Elder Aileen." "!!!" Aileen was busy with her works, so she didn''t pay attention. Only when she listened to this familiar voice that she finally looked up with a shocked face. "Alex!" Alex smiled and nodded. "I have returned with my disciple." "Disciple?" Aileen raised her eyebrows and shifted her look to the young girl beside him. She was utterly shocked when she saw Rose. Not only was she a 3-Star Martial Monarch, but her Bow Intent was also beyond her imagination. "This is my disciple, Rose Skewes. As promised, I come with my disciple, so she can get the Space Element and train here. I hope Great Elder can guide her¡­ Just don''t steal her from me." Alex teased her. If she knew Rose''s talent after getting the Bow Mastery, she must want to steal her. "What did you say? Are you looking down on my Ryuu and Maya? They are strong too." Aileen pouted before sighing. "Albeit¡­ Compared to you, they are still nothing. To think that in this short time, you can reach 1-Star Martial Saint¡­" "Haha¡­" Alex scratched his head before saying. "Anyway, my business here is to send her here and discuss our grand plan." "Ah! Are you going to attack them now? Even us can''t mobilize our force that fast¡­" Aileen furrowed her eyebrows, having a complicated expression on her face. "No, no. I can only tell you the rough date, but it is after Rose has finished her training here. Considering the Potential Tower will open every three years, she has roughly two years in this place. Within that time, I want her to learn Space Element¡­ Maybe you can teach her about Bow yourself¡­ But once again, don''t steal from me." Alex shrugged. "I only have one Master in my life, and it won''t change," Rose grabbed Alex''s shirt and said with a sad look. Alex smiled and patted her head. "I understand. Since this is within our cooperation, I will arrange it all. I need to inform the council first, so we can discuss it together later." Aileen paused for a moment. "I will send you to your previous house first, so you can give her a house tour while I am calling the council over. Will that be fine?" "Sure." Alex nodded. Aileen nodded her head and walked outside her room. She looked at an elder not far from her and sent a thought transmission. ''Elder Ma. Take care of my matter for today, I have an urgent matter.'' After giving the message, she returned and snapped her finger, creating a Spatial Gate for them to go through. Alex and Rose blinked, and the scenery changed. Rose looked at the house in front of her and glanced at Alex, waiting for his decision. "I will be leaving you here." Aileen waved her hand and went somewhere with her Spatial Gate. Alex nodded and entered the house with Rose. "Let''s go inside." "Un!" Rose nodded with a smile as she was wondering what kind of house Alex stayed in for a while. Alex just showed some parts of the house he used and created a rank 8 Gathering Array. Not long after, all the Great Elders appeared in front of the house, of course, by Aileen''s Spatial Gate. Alex came out of the house alone and looked at them with a smile. "Where do you want to discuss this matter? Or do you want to discuss it inside? It won''t take too long anyway." This was certainly unexpected. They looked at each other and nodded. Alex then led him to the backyard, where the group decided to sit down on the grass without thinking. As expected, Licht was the one who negotiated with him. "I only have a few things to say." Alex cut to the chase without offering any greeting, and the Great Elders didn''t particularly care about this anyway, so he continued. "First. I want to borrow Great Elder Aileen and one 10-Star Martial Saint to help me threaten the Ancient Blue Family. "If we pass this hurdle, we might only need to fight Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan. With the help of Drunken Pavilion and Blackwade Clan, they shouldn''t be able to do anything." Licht closed his eyes for a second. "Do you want to use her Space Element to threaten the Ancient Blue Family?" As expected, Licht realized his intention. Alex smiled and explained. "Knowing that you are going to resurface, it means you won''t hold back and hide your Space Element. That''s why I choose to use it first. It can also make the allies that I have the backing of Space Element experts¡­ Or even more. This way, they won''t betray us." "When do you need them?" Licht could agree with Alex''s plan since it was indeed a good idea. "Two months from now." Licht then glanced at Aileen and Viola, asking their opinion. Aileen nodded. "I can go at that time. Although I am only an 8-Star Martial Saint, my Space Element should be able to scare them. We just need to cooperate to make a deep impression within their hearts." "Sure. As much as I hate to cooperate with this woman, I will go according to this plan. Meanwhile, Elder Licht can start the preparation." Licht nodded and looked back at Alex. "You heard them." "Yes. They are enough." Alex nodded. "When are you going to start the war?" "Two years from now. I want my disciple to beat the Potential Tower first." Alex smirked. "Ho!" Licht narrowed his eyes as the others looked astonished. It was a bold claim from Alex. They looked at Rose, who was standing in the corner, scanning her up and down. Rose flinched for a second because of these stares, but she had her resolve. She stood tall and looked back at the elders, telling them Alex''s disciple wasn''t a pushover. "Don''t scare my disciple like that¡­ I just believe she will beat the tower." Alex smirked. "I haven''t told her a single thing about this place though." Licht thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I will go according to your plan. Aileen and Viola will go with you two months later while I will gather all the disciples who want to migrate while leaving some to maintain this place. Do you know the specific date for this? I want to know the deadline to make it easier." "I don''t have a deadline. I am thinking about fighting them after I reach 5-Star or 6-Star Martial Saint. Although it''s hard, I believe I can reach that stage within two years if I push myself to the limit. Besides, I have a few things to do on the surface to ensure our victory." Alex shrugged before taking out a token. "This is my token. Just activate it when you reach the surface, I will be able to sense it." Viola was the one who took it since Viola was careless with this type of thing. "I will be teaching the basics for your disciples first within these two months¡­ Since she also has a bow as her weapon, she is my friend." Aileen nodded. "Thank you. I will leave her in your hand, Great Elder Aileen. Though I need to apologize in advance if Maya gets disheartened once again." "Hmph!" Aileen snorted. "She has been training like crazy, so it won''t happen." "Is this all?" "Yeah. If I discuss the details now, it might change depending on how the others react later. It is best if I observe a bit more and plan accordingly." Alex nodded. "I see¡­ Since you are coming here, how about staying for a day?" Viola asked. Alex glanced at Rose for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No. I will be returning to the surface after this." "Alright then. I shouldn''t keep you any longer." Licht cupped his hand as he brought the other elders and exited Alex''s house, leaving only Rose, Alex, and Aileen inside the house. Alex introduced her. "This is Great Elder Aileen. She is a bow user with a Space Element. I have no worry about your bow anyway, so focus on your Space Element if possible." "I understand, Master." "Then, I will leave her to you, Great Elder." "Sure." Alex took another glance at Rose''s face before using his Spatial Gate to leave. Aileen was stunned. The stability and power behind the Spatial Gate were far greater than she expected him to be to the point she muttered. "Monster." Little did she know it was coming from the inheritance inside the Ancient Ruin. Chapter 752 - Freedom Sects Representatives After returning to his base, Alex locked himself inside his room, cultivating to the next level. It shouldn''t be that far away, so he wanted to be a 2-Star Martial Saint first before negotiating with the Ancient Blue Family. Firia and the others didn''t disturb him this whole time as they also had something to do. They were wondering how much they needed to give so the Ancient Blue Family can stay silent. From a million Spirit Crystals to a few million. From a five percent share to twenty percent share of the loot. They thought everything they could, wondering if Alex had an idea how much they would be able to buy the Ancient Blue Family. Fast forward to two months later, Alex finally finished his cultivation. As soon as he walked outside the room and met the others, he showed his 2-Star Martial Saint cultivation with a smile. "Alex!" Anya came to him with a few doc.u.ments in her hand. "I have finished my cultivation. Great Elder Viola and Aileen should probably arrive today or tomorrow, so I will fetch them before heading to the Ancient Blue Family. Well, the Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion should have arrived by now." "Yeah. Since you have a Space Element, you don''t need to calculate the traveling time, so it''s fine to arrive at the last minute. As soon as the two Great Elders activate your token, we shall inform the two influences to meet us in the inn that I have booked." Anya nodded in agreement, handing a few doc.u.ments to him. "What is this?" Alex asked. "Who is going to accompany you? I think it won''t be appropriate if no one accompanies you in an important meeting like this?" Alex smiled as if he had chosen this person a long time ago. "Nelson! I can use his stealth ability to make an impact¡­" However, Anya was troubled upon this answer. She had promised Nelson not to say anything regarding his disappearance, but Alex just wanted him. Nelson was one of the first candidates when she thought about this, but it seemed she needed to convince him to take another person. Noticing the distorted eyebrows on her face, Alex tilted his head, thinking she would reject his idea. "I am sorry, but Nelson is unavailable. He is leaving for a secret mission for this, so I think he won''t be able to accompany you in this matter. Can you change to someone else?" Alex became even more confused. "A secret mission?" His eyes were demanding the answer from her, but the latter couldn''t give it. She sighed. "I can''t tell you yet, but I assure you this is a very important mission." "¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "All the more reason I need to know this." Anya contemplated for a few minutes while thinking about the overall situation. The reason she didn''t tell him was that it wasn''t assured that the negotiation would go well, so it was better to hide it until everything is confirmed. Yet, it seemed today she needed to tell him. "This is still not fixed, but I will tell you¡­ Only you." Alex didn''t know what kind of mission he had, but he almost fell on his butt after hearing the details about the mission. It was sent by a thought transmission, so only Anya and Alex knew about this. It showed how low the probability of this mission was, so it was better not to let everyone know, lest they were disappointed later. Alex could understand why she didn''t want to talk about it. He thought for a moment and sighed. "I understand. Let''s change a person. I will have either Leoz or Jeanne for this." "Your reasoning?" "I can use Nelson''s strength as a deterrent, but I don''t think it will be that effective since the other influences will attend with their 10-Star Martial Saint. That''s why I am going to have Jeanne. By taking advantage of her tiny figure, I can mask her as a child to show that even a kid in our Spirit Nest has reached 4-Star Martial Saint." "That''s a good idea. I, at first, wanted you to bring Leoz, but it seemed Jeanne would be a better option." "Well, I need her to act on her part¡­ So, I am still hesitating for this¡­" Alex scratched his cheek as he was a bit uncomfortable about it. "Ah!" It took her an instant to realize Alex''s real plan. "If you want her to act like your sister or other relationsh.i.p.s¡­ You might want to do something more intimate to show her attachment to you. In that case, you are worried about us getting jealous over a simple thing like this?" "I am not worried about that¡­" Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "Alright. Since you are fine, just tell Firia and Anna about it. I will tell Jeanne about my plan." "Sure." Anya nodded before taking out Jeanne''s card and summoning her. "I think I shouldn''t explain too much, right Jeanne?" "Yes." Jeanne nodded before appearing next to Alex and hugged his hand. "This is what I should do, right?" "Yeah. That''s basically your role. Make sure there is no woman approaching as well." Anya gave a thumb up. "Don''t worry. I am his bodyguard this time, including that kind of bodyguard." Jeanne made a cheeky smile. ''She must be thinking of some tortures if anyone dares to get close to me¡­'' Alex thought with a complicated expression. He shook his head and regained his calm. "Anyway, we are waiting for the Freedom¡ª!" Before he could finish his word, he was surprised to sense a Spiritual Energy coming from the room behind them. It was Anya''s study room, where she planned everything. Anya and Alex realized where this Spiritual Energy came from and stormed inside the room, finding the token had been lit. "I am going," Alex said almost immediately. "Sure. Be careful in negotiating, and don''t make him extort us too much." Anya nodded with a smile. "Don''t worry. I won''t let them have their own way. That''s why threatening is a more correct term for this." Alex smirked. "Unfortunately, I can''t add Nelson to this negotiation because it''s not finalized yet." "Yeah. Anyway, you shouldn''t let them wait any longer." Anya waved her hand, telling him to leave. "I will handle everything when you are away." "Then, should I go to my card?" Jeanne asked. If she went like this, it was just adding the burden to Alex''s body, so she thought she needed to go back. Alex shook his head. "It''s good to show you to the Freedom Sect as well. Not only will they know about our strength, but the others will also more likely believe if you are coming with me, not mysteriously appearing out of nowhere." Listening to Alex''s words, Jeanne nodded obediently and thanked him. "I am going." Alex smiled at Anya and created a teleportation array according to the direction the token pointed at. A few minutes later. Alex had arrived in the cave since the two seemed to wait for him here. In front of him were two beauties together with a calm man. Yet, Alex furrowed his eyebrows when facing him. The females were naturally Viola and Aileen, but the man was none other than the Lightning Temple''s Great Elder, Riadon. "If you don''t mind, I am coming here as an assurance that Great Elder Licht sent to protect the two ladies. If you need me to do anything, just say it to me, and I will surely do it. The main problem is to make the Ancient Blue Family step back. That''s why if the two Great Elders are enough, I will make my appearance." Riadon cupped his hand politely as if they were two equals talking with each other. Alex narrowed his eyes. The real reason was probably the first one. There was no way a person such as Licht wouldn''t know that Viola and Aileen weren''t enough. However, Alex couldn''t arrive at this conclusion because the Freedom Sect couldn''t trust him. ''Wait! He doesn''t seem to lie¡­ Did that Licht not tell this to Riadon and made him believe these two are the only cases? No. I think he trusts me about this matter. The ones that he can''t trust are the other influences. He is ensuring their safety because even if the Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion turn on them, they still have the strength to fight. ''On the other hand, they will be completely hopeless if the Spirit Nest is also betraying them. Licht will be doubting us now if Rose isn''t staying in the Freedom Sect at the moment¡­ I don''t have a complaint about this, but it surely makes me uncomfortable.'' Alex sighed before agreeing to his request. "I will leave them to you." "Sure." Riadon nodded before noticing the kid beside Alex. He was perplexed when he saw Alex brought a kid instead of an elder from his influence. However, his opinion vanished the moment he saw her strength. ''Impossible!'' Riadon screamed inwardly. ''Looking at her body, she is most likely less than twenty years old. Even if she has passed that age, it won''t be that long. Yet, she has reached 4-Star Martial Saint. This is insane. But what is more surprising is her element! ''Even my lightning element is trembling upon seeing her as if we meet a king right now. I want to bow down to her. What kind of monster does the Spirit Nest groom?'' Riadon sweatdropped. He didn''t know Jeanne''s identity. How could he know that the kid in front of him is an old Spirit? She also possesses an identity as a Lightning Spirit. In Eulja, she can be considered as the lightning itself. It might not be that much, but her element can be considered equal to the Sacrificial Lightning element in her True Spirit Body. Riadon would never know that the Spirit could choose their own respective body. If they wanted to grow up, they could, but Jeanne had chosen otherwise, resulting in her appearance. It was already beyond Riadon''s imagination. As for her element¡­ Lightning Spirit isn''t a concept here, so there was no way he could understand the principle of her body. "Since three elders have come, I wish to go toward the Ancient Blue Family right now. I hope that the three elders are not tired after your journey." Alex didn''t care about whatever in his thought and proceeded to the business. "Ah, yes." Viola, who seemed to be the calmest one, answered Alex. She had been handling Alex for one year, so Licht also agreed to let her take care of everything. The only message Licht passed was to follow him and fulfilled his need because, in terms of planning alone, Alex might have surpassed him. As much as she didn''t want to believe that, the explanation had been given, and she knew she wouldn''t be a match in a mind battle. "By the way, how is Rose?" Alex was curious about this for a while. He thought it would be fine to have an idle talk for a bit. "Rose is a monster¡­ This is a compliment, not an insult. Her bow foundation is rock-solid. In fact, she might have surpassed me at this time. If she trains for a few more years and attains Bow Saint Stage, she will surely surpass my Bow Technique. As of now, I don''t dare to teach her about Bow since it will only ruin her foundation." "How about her element training?" "She is learning the basics right now. Ryuu and Maya are helping me when I am away like this, so her progress is quite fast, not as fast as you though." "Do you think she can complete her training within two years?" "Hmm¡­ That''s hard to say. She has less understanding than you, and her control over Space Element isn''t too great. If I push her to the limit, she might be able to learn Space Plate, Spatial Gate, Space Bind, and Space Mark within these two years." "That''s good. I am glad to leave her in your hand." Alex smiled before Jeanne came from behind and tugged his hand, showing a little bit of skinship with Alex. At the same time, she wanted them to know how she relied on Alex. Noticing this, Alex nodded to her and created a teleportation array. He smiled at the three Great Elders and said, "Let''s go." "Teleportation." Chapter 753 - Before the Grand Meeting They teleported a few times before arriving at the empty field outskirt of the Ancient City, where the Ancient Blue Family resided. The others didn''t really care about the details, but Aileen was surprised, not by the town, but by Alex''s precision. Even she couldn''t make precision teleportation like him unless she knew the exact details, directions, and terrains. Yet, Alex had this kind of prediction a year after leaving the sect. Insane might be an understatement for him. Now she understood why a 4-Star Martial Saint young girl seemed to be attached to him. If she added Rose to the picture, she was scared to think about the extent of Spirit Nest''s power. ''How many people are like him or her in the Spirit Nest? I wonder what will happen if the Freedom Sect chooses to be their enemies¡­ Seeing how many geniuses in their place, I am sure they have more powerful elders in their influence. Luckily, the Freedom Sect has allied with this super influence.'' Aileen thought as her heart beat rapidly. If they knew what kind of insane thought Aileen had, Viola and Riadon would agree with her. They might even put a drastic measure, including informing Licht. If they truly did that, Licht would probably have someone to stay on Alex''s side, just like how the alliance with marriage works. Unfortunately, Aileen had no way to think about this as she calmed her heart down, readying herself for a business talk. Alex glanced at Aileen and asked. "I wonder if Great Elder Aileen can create a Spatial Gate to a precise location if you know my position with my token?" "I can." She nodded without hesitation. "Well, I can also stay inside the Space World, following you around. As long as I am not near the people, they shouldn''t be able to sense me. When you want me to appear, I will then create a portal and come out with Viola. As for Great Elder Riadon, he should be able to stay a bit longer. "I will book an inn room and place my Spatial Gate there, so if he can''t stand inside that place, he can always go back to the real world with that Spatial Gate." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I will go according to your arrangement. As for an inn, I have booked a few rooms. You can use one of them since one is for me while the other one is for the meeting room." "Should we join you?" "No. It will be better if you only show your presence in front of the Ancient Blue Family. The Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion will know anyway." Alex shrugged, waiting for another question, but it seemed she was no longer confused. "Let''s go. I will lead you to the inn." They nodded at the same time as Viola and Aileen put on a veil while Jeanne simply walked while hugging his hand. To everyone''s surprise, someone suddenly appeared in front of them as soon as they arrived in the city. Alex instantly recognized this person and asked, "Nano. Lead the way to the inn." "Understood." Nano turned around and stretched his hand, asking them to follow him. "This way." Alex and the others followed him. They had suppressed their aura, so they didn''t cause a disturbance and walked according to Nano''s path. Alex realized later that Nano was actually walking while avoiding any places that might cause a problem in their plan, so he thanked him later. A few minutes later, they arrived in a grand inn with a golden door as its entrance. There was no need to say anything since Nano suddenly pulled out a token that seemed to be the identity token as a guest in this hotel. No one stopped them, and they headed to the highest floor. Nano showed them their rooms, and Alex entered the room in the middle. There wasn''t anything to say about the building itself other than the word extravagant. It seemed to be an inn for elites, so the decorations and other details seemed to be made from expensive materials. Albeit, Alex didn''t really care much and sat on the chair while Jeanne took the seat in front of him instead of beside him. "Master. Did I do anything excessive before?" Jeanne asked with a worried expression. Alex shook his head. "No. You did great. Thank you." "Master. Should I inform the other two?" "Yes. Have them come to our meeting room." Alex nodded before heading toward their meeting room. He spared no glance in spending this much since he had more to make it up. Alex sat on one of the main chairs, where he could face the two behind this round table. Luckily, the chair was large enough, so Jeanne suddenly walked in front of him like her own sister. "Should I sit anywhere else?" "No. It should be fine. Well, if we meet Ancient Blue Family later, you might need to stand up or rest your arms around my neck." "Understood." Jeanne nodded. Not long after, Nano informed him that the two influences were heading toward his position. Alex waited for them with his eyes closed. It was only after two guys walked on the top floor, he opened it again. He started stroking Jeanne''s head like a brother before greeting the two people with Jeanne. "Thank you for coming, Young Master Song Jiaoren and Patriarch Song Ping. Please come in." He intentionally left the door open, so they knew where to go. The moment they entered the room, the duo cupped their hands and greeted him. "No, no. It should be us who need to thank you for your hospitality." Jeanne lifted her skirt a little bit for a greeting and remained silent. Of course, her previous action was noticed by the duo. They never expected there was a 4-Star Martial Saint this young and acted intimately with Alex like a sister. If she were more monstrous than Alex, the Spirit Nest would be extraordinary. "If you don''t mind, can you serve the tea, Jeanne?" Alex asked with a smile before noticing Manness had arrived on the top floor. Jeanne also poured the tea for him, albeit only one cup for Manness since he came alone. "It''s good to see you, Elder Manness." Alex cupped his hand, greeting him like he didn''t know any shrewdness. Manness was clicking his tongue inwardly, knowing that all of this was an act of Alex. However, he indeed couldn''t ignore Jeanne as he maintained his silence not to show his weakness. The same applied to the Blackwade Clan. They were waiting for Alex to open the meeting and wanted to end it immediately before the damage broke their heart. "The Ancient Blue Family has known our presence here. I will ask for the current patriarch to let us enter their mansion to talk. I think he will be accompanied by the previous patriarch." "It still won''t help them from this checkmate." Manness snorted. "Yeah. He should be able to choose which one is better when I heard how he rejected the Fire God Clan''s proposal because the risk was too great. That''s why I am confident in ''persuading'' him. My only concern is his greed." Alex narrowed his eyes. "True enough. Although the current patriarch still doesn''t have much support, he should have grasped some power from the previous one. In other words, he can negotiate with us, but it won''t be too high." "Do you think a million Spirit Crystals can buy their loyalty?" Song Jiaoren asked. "I don''t know. It can be considered as a few decades'' worth of revenue¡­ But their family will be threatened by our presence the moment the Fire God Clan disappears¡­ Probably with Snow White Mountain. After all, no one will be able to stop us later." Alex shook his head. "How about the Heavenly Oath? If we can swear not to touch his influence, I think it won''t have any problem." Manness stated his solution. "No! I am going a bit further." Alex shook his head and waited for a few seconds before giving his own opinion. "I will promise them to disband the alliance and doesn''t threaten any influences for a few decades to show them that our true targets are only the Fire God Clan and those who side with them." "In that case, I think you might want to promise to stay neutral. Spirit Nest is always unknown for us, so if you stay neutral, there won''t be a threat to any other influences." Song Jiaoren suggested before realizing what kind of absurd request he just made. However, Alex thought this was a reasonable request. "Alright. If the war has finished, I will disband the alliance and stay silent unless they are bothering me." "I agree with this solution. Our Blackwade Clan will follow your instruction," Song Ping stated as the patriarch. "However, I would like to request you one thing, Sir Alexander." "!!!" Manness lifted his eyebrows, wondering if he misheard that the majestic Song Ping called Alex with Sir. He blinked a few times and realized it wasn''t a dream, nor was he hallucinating. This would mean¡­ Manness kept staring at him in this conversation. Alex ignored his stare and nodded. "Since that is the case, please do tell me your request." "Father!" Song Jiaoren wanted to stop him, but Song Ping felt if he said it at this particular time, it would be more valid than the one in Song Jiaoren''s plan. So, he ignored his son and continued with his thought transmission. ''I wish for you to nominate my son to the Main Blackwade Clan.'' Alex didn''t say anything as he had expected this. Still, he also felt troubled with the request because of the uncertainty of this matter. After thinking for a while, Alex nodded and replied with a thought transmission. ''I will promise you that I will nominate him to the main clan. However, I can only nominate you when I actually arrive at that place, so you need to wait." ''We have prepared for it. Besides, I believe Sir Alex won''t need too long.'' Song Ping nodded and bowed his head again. Meanwhile, Song Jiaoren didn''t know whether this was a good idea or not. In the end, he accepted the shameless word that was attached to his back. Even though he couldn''t listen to their conversation, Song Jiaoren already knew what kind of thing they talked about. "If you need anything, just call me. I will surely complete it." Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "I understand. Just make sure that you are prepared to go there." "Thank you for Master''s word. It will remain on this one''s heart." Song Jiaoren smiled and bowed. ''But you don''t mind if I give your Blackwade Clan only ten percent of shares from both influences, right?'' Alex asked. ''Yes. That is completely fine.'' Song Ping had great expectations for his son. Even though ten percent was big, it couldn''t be compared to the future of his son. Not only would he become a respectable God Rank Expert, but the wealth that could be brought to their family and other things were going to appear one after another. Alex squinted his eyes for a few seconds, observing Song Ping''s expression before nodding his head. "Alright. We have come to an agreement. As for Elder Manness, you are satisfied with the twenty percent of loot, right? You also didn''t need to spend a single penny on this occasion." Manness nodded. "Good. We are going to meet at this place tomorrow morning before facing the Ancient Blue Family." Alex concluded the meeting with only a short session because he had been building up the relationship and plan for a few years already. These three also had no objection and left the room before taking another glance at Jeanne''s and Alex''s scariness. They wanted to ask about the fourth influence, but it seemed they had no need because they could sense two 10-Star Martial Saints aura coming from another room. They thought the first one would be Alex''s backing while the other one came from the fourth influence. This misunderstanding allowed Alex to persuade them without saying anything. The night soon came, and Rio, the current patriarch, had retired early. He was exhausted after dealing with so many matters, but he was stopped by a single letter in front of his door. He took the letter and saw something written on it. "Tomorrow morning." Chapter 754 - The Ancient Blue Family Part I The next day. Inside a small room with a wooden floor, completely surrounded by walls with only a single door as a decoration. Four people were sitting before the round table, facing each other. The other four decided to stand right next to them as they were only accompanying those who sit. "Thank you to Family Head Davi for granting this visit despite the short notice." Alex obviously greeted him first by cupping his hands and throwing some flowery words. "Spirit Nest has been sending letters to me for a few weeks already, and I assume this must be the reason, right?" The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes, observing Alex with his keen eyes. He had spiky long blue hair running down to his waist. His no sleeves shirt exposed his muscular body, causing his skin to release a certain youthful radiance. Yet, anyone could feel a mysterious feeling, telling them not to underestimate a person such as him. Despite having the cultivation of 9-Star Martial Saint, this person had been sitting on the leader seat for more than two hundred years, only a little bit to reach 10-Star Martial Saint after his father. "Yes. I apologize if Family Head Davi doesn''t like this kind of thing, but we are also bound by our situation, so I hope Family Head can forgive me." "No need for these pleasantries. Looking at Song Ping from Blackwade Clan and Manness from Drunken Pavilion, I don''t think you want to bother with this kind of pleasantry, right? So, let''s cut to the chase." Davi shook his head before he released his Spiritual Energy, "Depending on what you say, I will join or not join the alliance with the Fire God Clan." Song Ping and Manness immediately neutralized the pressure before Davi decided to retract it. They hadn''t reached the core of their meeting, so it was better to sit still after getting his momentum from this. "Certainly. Since Family Head Davi has spoken, I shall not make you wait." Alex smiled upon the pressure and gently placed his hands on the table, talking in a relaxed manner. "Sure. I am wondering¡­ What does Alexander Sirius, leader of Spirit Nest that is currently in a war with Fire God Clan, have to say." Davi smirked. "In the business meeting, it''s required to know the opposite party personality and characters. Hence, I won''t beat around the bush." Alex paused for a moment before slyly grinning as he made the offer. "Family Head Davi, when you met with the Fire God Clan Patriarch Leo¡­ How much did it cost him to buy your loyalty?" These words shook the entire room. Alex had heard numerous reports about this Davi. His mind might not be filled with business and such, but it didn''t mean he thought like a saint. In his perspective, everything would be decided after calculating the pros and cons, including the benefits he would receive. Alex dared to say such a thing because he knew Davi had this personality and had been living in this type of environment for a long time. However, these words certainly couldn''t be taken lightly by the other two on his side. The right one was a male that he had met a few times. Although the beastly aura in his body was still too light compared to Davi, it was refined and had a big room to grow. The man was none other than Rio, the current Patriarch of the family. Unfortunately, he couldn''t lead this meeting because his prestige was still not enough. On the other side, the blue-haired beauty was not light either. Despite her strength only reaching 10-Star Martial Monarch, there was a mysterious aura enveloping her. Alex saw nothing but Spiritual Energy swarming her, signifying the result of her training. It seemed she could almost advance to 1-Star Martial Saint. This beauty was none other than the second young miss of the Ancient Blue Family, the one that almost got married to the Fire God Clan young master, Rena. "What did you say?" "You dare insult our father?" The two roared at Alex before they stopped upon sensing Davi''s Spiritual Energy. He raised his hand as if he wanted to slam the table. Yet, the index finger and thumb touched each other, creating an ''O'' with three fingers facing the normal way. He gradually rubbed the two fingers against each other and laughed excitedly. "At the end of the day, warfare is nothing more than a job whose sole purpose is to obtain great riches, wouldn''t you say?" These words shook the room once again, changing the tense atmosphere into confusion. "Certainly." Alex smiled lightly and asked with a serious face. "Hence, I, Alexander, asked, exactly how much was promised to you, Patriarch Davi?" "Haha¡­ Honestly, I am not too sure either." Davi placed his hand on top of the table and rested his cheek on that palm. He raised his other hand as if he didn''t care about this. "But Leo''s proposal was to have my daughter marry that guy''s second son. It was a good deal considering he was planning to have you spit up that Sacrificial Element of yours. "At the same time, he also proposed to split all of your treasures, including those Martial Arts that could transform you into half-beasts and change back¡­ Of course, everything will be split 50-50." "¡­" Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds and realized the ambition. "You have overestimated me. I don''t have anything other than some money that I acquired recently from the Blackwade Clan. This is my offer to you. I will give you one million Spirit Crystals and promise not to harm a single member of The Ancient Blue Family. I am prepared to make a Heavenly Oath for this." "Are you joking with me?" Davi narrowed his eyes, releasing his killing intent. "The moment you have destroyed the Fire God Clan. Your swords will aim to my neck. Even if you are not, there are others that will do that. Do you think I am a fool that can''t discern such a thing? What I want is a long term promise, not a shallow promise like that! Considering your cultivation speed and progress, I assume you are aiming to become a God Stage Expert, right? The moment you are not in this world, there is no guarantee that the Ancient Blue Family will be able to live in peace!" His short term goal was to stabilize this family that had been weakened due to the Patriarch Selection, while his long term goal was to prosper the Ancient Blue Family. That was why Alex''s promise was nothing but empty words. Alex furrowed his eyebrows but didn''t have a change of expression. This was still within his calculation. "I agree with the Patriarch''s words. Then, do you want to propose something?" Davi smirked and slammed the table. "Mine is simple. The Fire God Clan promised me the prosperity of this family by having my daughter marry their successor. I want the same!" "!!!" Song Ping and Manness were startled at first, never expecting that Davi would propose this bizarre condition. It was obvious that he wanted to make Alex his son-in-law. ''Hmph. Do you think it''s easy to pressure me? There are only three of you here¡­ We will only be fighting on equal terms if my family joins the Fire God Clan''s side. Rather than a fight that will bring me too much loss with a low probability of winning, I will rather join another side and annihilate the Fire God Clan. Isn''t this a perfect solution? Besides, Alexander Sirius is known to be loyal, so my family will get more than the Fire God Clan can give.'' Davi snorted inwardly. "I am afraid that is not possible." Alex smiled and shook his head. "Would you mind changing your condition?" "Listen here. You might not understand me enough, so allow me to say this, Alexander Sirius. When it comes to doing negotiation, I have never in my entire life budged a single inch from my offered price." Davi''s voice was filled with confidence that he had built up since he was a young a.d.u.l.t. Alex knew that he wasn''t lying and turned serious. "Then, I shall reveal one information first. I have given my Sacrificial Element to my wife. Besides, I already have several wives, so it will be too much to take another one. Before I need to get serious, I think it''s better for Patriarch Davi to change your condition or else¡­ I might probably let you experience the first time in your life what it means to know your limit." "Ho! Your words are not light." Davi released his Spiritual Energy and killing intent. "Are you threatening me?" "An end is just another beginning. The moment the negotiation ends, then there will be a new beginning." Alex''s smile caused excitement from Song Ping and Manness, knowing there was a fourth influence in Alex''s back. Davi''s expression became colder as he said, "The pointless haggling ends here. Even if there are three of you here, only two of them are capable of fighting me. Unfortunately, you don''t have any reinforcement that can help you here. Do you think I haven''t checked and tightened my defense? I know you only have these people here¡­ What? Do you want to target my son and daughter? This is always the tradition of the Ancient Blue Family. If they are strong enough, they will be better to run away or die. "Let''s see¡­ You have said something interesting earlier¡­ Since you are threatening me here¡­ Do you think you can escape from this place or even bring me down in the midst of my territory? If I don''t get what I want today, you can stop thinking about leaving here." Davi snorted, looking at these people with a solemn expression. "Ridiculous!" Song Ping and Manness stood up and shouted. They couldn''t take this anymore. They had stayed silent this whole time because they believed in Alex. However, they never expected that Davi was this shameless. Not only did he offer a ridiculous condition, but he also threatened them. Before they could do anything, the applause from Davi stopped them for a few seconds. "Now the cards are on the table. All that remains are two choices. Will you choose to be my son-in-law and form an alliance? Or will you and the others here fight us?" Davi said with a snort. He knew that it was impossible to kill Alex even in the middle of their territory, so he only planned to get a good grasp of his ability on this occasion. That was why all these talks were necessary. "It seems this can be turned out this way. I have no choice other than forcing you to submit then." Alex activated his token and smiled as he released his killing intent. "Patriarch Davi. Do you think I need to care for the likes of you? You are overestimating yourself. What? Do you think you can handle us with Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain?" "Hmph! You have three influences, while I also have three influences on my side. Although the war will cost me quite a bit, I don''t believe you will win." Davi snorted. Alex would be thinking the same if the Snow White Mountain successfully transferred the soul of their ancestor to that girl, albeit he wouldn''t let them succeed. Besides, Davi also didn''t know about this fact, so Alex still gained the upper hand. He smirked and slammed the table. "I have three influences? Are you kidding me? Or have you become too old to recognize it? Do you think I am that idiot who will fight you like this? Let me tell you something. I never pick a fight that I can''t win!" The moment he uttered those words, two Spatial Gates were opened not far behind Kai. Two women, 8-Star Martial Saint and 10-Star Martial Saint emerged from the first one while a cool middle-aged man walked through the second one. "If you think three are not enough, how about four?" "!!!" Chapter 755 - The Ancient Blue Family Part II "If you think three are not enough, how about four?" "!!!" The female voice reverberated in everyone''s ears. Because of this type of situation, Aileen thought it would be wise to come out only with Viola while Riadon needed to come out alone. Hopefully, Davi would think that Riadon came from another influence or Alex''s Spirit Nest. This way, there would be three 10-Star Martial Saint, one 9-Star Martial Saint, and one Space Element user. This line up would certainly scare anyone away. "I was wondering when you were going to come out." Alex smiled and cupped his hands. "Fufu¡­ You are negotiating with them, right? Unfortunately, this guy is still unable to see the depth of your Spirit Nest¡­ Well, I might probably do the same If I were in his position." Aileen shrugged while smiling. As for the rest of the people, they were utterly shocked by this. Never they expected to see two 10-Star Martial Saints and one Space Element user like this. After the great purge, there was little to none Space Element master. Even some would probably have died under the constant power struggle to obtain such a person. Yet, there was someone who managed to cultivate until 8-Star Martial Saint in front of them. How could this not shock them? ''This? Is this what he meant by the Fourth Influence? To think the Spirit Nest and this fourth influence would reveal a Space Element Master¡­ This is something huge. All influences want someone like her since she has grown to this level. However, it will be hard to bring her over. In other words, she must have grown up in this Fourth Influence. What kind of influence are they to stay silent and let such a talent grow?'' Manness was baffled, thinking every possible scenario in his head. On the contrary, Song Ping''s confusion was filled with praise. He just thought that Alex was really a mysterious person because he was able to connect with such a person. ''My son is indeed lucky and wise. He might have overcome the gamble of his life. Since this is the case, I will lead the Blackwade Clan to help him in this world.'' The dumbstruck Davi tried to regain his calm at this moment. If they were facing this lineup, they wouldn''t be able to trap them inside the Ancient Blue Family due to the Space Element woman. Not only that, there would be a possibility of an army coming here through her gate. This way, the Ancient Blue Family would be extinguished first. Even if they tried to inform the other influences, they wouldn''t be able to withstand their onslaught before the reinforcement came. Davi finally realized Alex''s true intention. Alex wanted to extinguish the Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan from the roots. The only way to do it was to lure every single one of them and eliminate them in one single sweep. However, this wasn''t possible due to the fact they didn''t have enough men, and it would be hard to fight that would involve a few hundred if not millions of people. It would be different with the presence of the fourth influence that everyone knew nothing about. Not only were they dangerous, but they also possessed the element that could bring or trap an army. Now that he thought about it, Alex must have known about this. He remembered when he said he would force him to change his condition, and it turned out to be this way. ''Sh*t.'' Davi screamed inwardly. How could he know there is another influence on this continent? Even after searching for such an influence for hundreds of years, they never found them. Only one possible scenario came to his mind. They were hiding inside a Special Realm that no one had knowledge about¡­ Even so, it was almost impossible to hide that kind of place under the nose of Martial Saints, but it seemed they were far better than the average ones because they could hide for such a long time. On one hand, Davi wanted to take advantage of this even further, especially concerning Alex, who managed to know such an influence and looked very friendly. On the other hand, he had lost that opportunity after threatening him. He gritted his teeth. ''My plan was perfect¡­ To think all it takes is the appearance of these people to overturn the whole situation. I have fallen from the best possible future to a beggar-like future.'' Rio and Rena retreated a step back and waited for their father to respond. Alex then turned around and sat back. "Now¡­ What does Patriarch have to say?" Davi was in a pinch. He had nothing to say at the moment since his brain couldn''t work under this pressure. ''I need to buy time first and search for the best option¡­'' "Why don''t all of you have a seat first?" Knowing what to do, he asked. He then turned to his son and ordered. "Bring me some chairs!" "Ye-yes!" Rio had no other choice than going, but Aileen stopped him with her voice. "You don''t need to bother. We are coming here simply to assist our friend in his problem." Aileen said and stood behind Alex with the others. Even Riadon nodded to Jeanne as if he was trying to be polite to her. ''Father¡­ That 10-Star Martial Saint¡­'' Rena sent a thought transmission. Of course, Davi didn''t let go of such a detail. ''Just looking at how they stand behind Alex instead of sitting down already signifies his status. Despite saying they only want to help a friend, it''s easy enough to see that Alex''s status is higher, along with that 4-Star Martial Saint kid. And if such an influence actually has two 10-Star Martial Saints¡­ What kind of power does the Spirit Nest have? ''Since they didn''t know about my father, I thought I could threaten them with an empty lie. Unfortunately, we have been caught in his web¡­ And my father has become a God Rank Expert. We have no way to ensure our family livelihood the moment they know about this.'' Davi gritted his teeth. ''What? Grandfather is¡­'' ''Yes. Reaching God Rank can be considered as a blessing and a misfortune. They can be considered a blessing and pride since there will be a member of the influence out there. However, don''t you think it''s strange that those God Rank Experts actually never returned to this place as if they have died out there?'' ''Then Grandfather¡­'' ''We don''t know yet. But from what he said, the God Stage Expert couldn''t return to this world. Even if he wants to send a reinforcement from outside, he needs power and prestige from another world to send such a thing. Your grandfather is already so old, so I doubt he can reach far. ''On the other hand, that Alexander Sirius has reached this point despite being less than forty years old. That alone will guarantee him as a genius. And there will be a chance for him to come back¡­ It''s not directly, but it''s enough to send a few people to us or even bring a few people to be a God Rank Expert. That''s why I was forcing you to marry him. ''Unfortunately, everything is gone. If only I know more about his influence and this so-called fourth influence¡­'' Diva bit his lips until blood flowed. He had been beaten by a single young man called Alex. In fact, he had been dancing in his palm this whole time. First, Alex acted humble to raise his dominance, and he succeeded in doing this. The result was that threat. After pushing him that high, he smacked him down like a fly. With no more card to play, he had no choice other than surrender. Not only he couldn''t demand an exorbitant amount, but Alex also wouldn''t trust them. In other words, the chance of his daughter to get closer to him had gone to dust. ''What a devil¡­'' Diva took a deep breath and answered. "I apologize for my rude behavior from earlier." "Now that the situation has escalated like this. What is your demand, Patriarch Davi?" Alex looked at him with a cold gaze. "Since you have offered us a second chance¡­ I only need one and a half million Spirit Crystals, and everyone''s promise not to hurt anyone from the Ancient Blue Family for a hundred years. You don''t need to be our protectors; we only want you to let us alone. As for the payment, I will not say anything regarding this incident. Besides, it''s already futile to say anything to them since they don''t know they have been checkmated this whole time." Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at the other parties. "I think it''s fine." Song Ping nodded. "I have known Patriarch Davi for a long time, and I am sure he is someone who knows what is good for them." "Fair enough. I am here just to help an old friend''s disciple." Manness shrugged. "We don''t have a problem as well¡­" Aileen nodded with a smile. Their ultimate goal was to resurface and live like in the past. As long as Alex agreed to one thing, it was better to follow him¡­ Or so what Licht told them. Alex nodded. "Sure. Since everyone has agreed to this, let''s conclude this meeting." "Fufu¡­ I have another suggestion." Jeanne sat on Alex''s lap and raised her hand like a child, stopping Alex. However, this cute kid suddenly turned into a devil the moment she uttered her next words. "How about we torture them first?" Alex chopped her head gently. "I know that you like such a thing, but we shouldn''t do it." "No. That''s not what I mean." Jeanne shook her head furiously. "What I want is to have the Ancient Blue Family act like this never happens and join their alliance." "!!!" Alex realized her plan. "By luring them into having an all-out war against us, we will break their hearts by showing the fourth influence and the betrayal of the Ancient Blue Family? This way, not only will they mobilize all their people, but they also get weakened by this crushing truth." *Gasp¡ª* It was everyone''s turn to gasp as they never thought about this possibility. "Isn''t that nice? I wonder what kind of face they will make at that time?" She smiled like a devil child. It even sent a chill down to their spines. As expected from a torture specialist, Alex thought. Jeanne could think something like this because she only wanted to torture them. Just like she said previously, the best torture is the one that breaks one''s spirit until they are completely blank. Killing them is only a relief. Alex was speechless as he patted her head before glancing at Davi. "So, you want us to be a double-agent?" Davi narrowed his eyes. "Since there is a better plan, I am ready to pay the price as well." Davi thought for a moment before recalling a certain matter. Although it was considered disgusting, he had no choice other than to beg Alex. "Actually, I have one request." "Ho?!" Chapter 756 - The Ancient Blue Family Part III "Actually, I have a request." "Ho?!" Alex squinted his eyes, wondering what kind of request he wanted. Davi pondered for a moment and said, "I think I should start with this first. Do you know why we are interested in your martial arts that could change one''s to a half-beast?" Alex shook his head before throwing his speculation. "Is it related to your family? No, I should say that there is this beastly aura coming from all the members of the Ancient Blue Family." "That is correct. What we are practicing is closely related to monsters¡­ Mostly beast type monsters." "!!!" Alex suddenly realized something after hearing this statement. That something was inside Davi, Rio, and Rena. He found out that there seemed to be another energy coming from them. It was hard to see earlier, especially since Alex was still clueless about it. Now that he saw it again, he found the energy. If the Spiritual Energy had a golden color, the other one has lighter golden color. It was hard to see because the energy seemed to have been diluted several times. "There are two different energies inside your body¡­ And your son and daughter seem to have the same one, albeit a bit weaker¡­ This kind of Spiritual Energy shouldn''t exist in the human body because I can feel that this energy does not come from a human." Alex paused for a moment. "!!!" Everyone in the room, except those from the Ancient Blue Family, gasped as they just heard something new. "There is nothing wrong with our body though. The two energy simply can coexist in our body and function as a normal Spiritual Energy." Davi glanced at the others and said to Alex. "Since you have found out, would you mind going to another room to discuss this matter?" This must be the Ancient Blue Family secret, and they didn''t wish to disclose it to outsiders. It was different for Alex since they needed to tell him if they wanted him to help them. Hence, Alex decided to follow him. "Sure. But one of them still needs to accompany me. You can''t expect me to trust you fully, right?" "¡­" Davi thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand." Alex took a glance at the others and pointed his finger at Viola. "Can you accompany me?" He chose Viola because her mentor was Maxwell. At the very least, it should be fine to have her accompany him. Besides, he could also make them think that the Freedom Sect was someone under him. Having no time to think, Viola agreed happily. It was proof that Alex trusted her more than anyone else here. Of course, Aileen would realize it, but later. "Sure." Davi then ordered his son and daughter. "Since this is the case, I would like to leave first with Alexander Sirius. If you don''t mind, please enjoy our delicacy for the time being." Davi opened the room and guided Alex to a room, a few rooms next to them, to ensure no one could listen to what they wanted to talk. Alex even added a Sound Insulation Array to let Davi talk. "Thank you for your Sound Insulation Array." Davi nodded with a solemn expression. "Let''s cut to the chase. There should be another blood running in your vein. From my understanding, this came from a unique monster that has attained its human form and intelligence. Seeing how weak the current energy is, I believe it should be around one of your ancestors." Alex blurted everything out in a single breath. "You are correct." Davi didn''t know whether he should be happy or not. He had seen the report and observation from his own son, so this kind of thing surprised him and scared him at the same time. Alex was truly the apex of the younger generations in this era. "Our ancestor fell in love with a female lion who attained her human form." "So, what is your request regarding this problem?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Our ancestors created a technique and sealed it in our holy land. They said, when the bloodline has become weak, we shall go there and retrieve the technique. I believe this is the time we should go." Davi nodded. "I don''t see any need for me to go there. You can simply send your own genius to get the technique." Alex shook his head. "I know. Unfortunately, that place is restricted with so many arrays. In the last place, there are our ancestors will guarding it. The moment we try to get it, it will attack us and repel us. Besides, our strength will be limited to 2-Star Martial Saint¡­" "2-Star Martial Saint?" A surprise appeared on his face, wondering how coincidence everything. However, he suddenly remembered that the Patriarch Selection for the Ancient Blue Family was to reach 2-Star Martial Saint and¡­ "This is the reason behind your tradition?" "As expected of you¡­" Davi admitted defeat once again to this young man. "We have been holding this tradition to prepare the younger generation to get the technique. Unfortunately, they have failed since my grandfather''s generation. That''s why I think it''s better to have outside help. And you ¨C who is the strongest among your peers ¨C would be a perfect candidate. Now that the opportunity has arrived, I would like to request this from you." "It seems only one person can enter there." "Yes. With the setup of our tradition where only the strongest can become a Patriarch, we will have the new Patriarch to get there. My son, Rio, is supposed to go there, but when I found out he couldn''t enter the Tower within the Ancient Ruin, I gave up." "Can you tell me what the technique is first? I need to know what kind of thing that requires me to put myself in danger after all. If you can''t say it to me, it''s better to abandon that thought of yours." Davi knew he was going to ask this and answered. "Certainly. The technique is called Two Races Union. According to the record, the technique can stimulate the monster blood''s potential by using human blood. Of course, you need the human blood to be powerful and the monster blood to be weak. "That''s why the blood needs to be diluted for several generations. With our current situation, I believe this is the right time to get that. The monster blood will gain strength equal to the human blood and ultimately fuse the two energies, enhancing our power even further. Of course, this requires a few steps and time. At most, only the next generations will enjoy such a privilege." Alex furrowed his eyebrows as a thought came to his mind. ''Now that I think about it, Sherry can be considered a monster¡­ I have been calling her a beast because I feel bad about the former terms. If Sherry conceives my child¡­ Will the two energies clash? ''Sherry could get my fire, but not my energy. If this is the case, I should enter and study that technique for a period of time before giving it back to Davi. Maybe I will know what will happen when a human has a partner with them and the change they bring?'' Not knowing what to say, Alex remembered that he had his system. ''System, do you know anything about this?'' [Just like you know. The energies won''t clash, but they also won''t fuse. This is why not many people would take monsters as their partner. You can say that the child won''t be able to release its full potential. From my knowledge, I believe their ancestors were God Rank Experts, so their strength regressed on their child.] ''¡­'' Alex didn''t know what to say. ''It seems I need to get this technique as well. Maybe I should get a copy?'' [No need. You can read the technique once, and everything will be stored in my database. This way, I can make a copy and give it to you.] ''Really?'' [Of course. I am just utilizing the spying system that always records everything you see¡­ You used to hate this system though, because you didn''t get privacy.] ''Ahaha¡­ I have gotten used to it now, so I don''t complain. But it seems the system has finally become a useful system, no?'' [Are you going to insult me again with that useless system thingy?] ''I am just joking.'' Alex chuckled inwardly. ''Anyway, I am relying on you since this will be our future.'' [Albeit we don''t know whether the technique can be used or not.] ''As long as there is a clue about it, I will try,'' Alex said with determined eyes. Sherry is his wife. He would spare no effort in creating the best future. [I understand. Good luck then.] ''Yes.'' After talking with the system, he finally broke his posture, where he appeared to be pondering the matter. He looked at Davi and said, "Sure. I can fulfill this request of yours as an additional payment if you can become our agent." He widened his eyes as if a ray of hope illuminating Alex. No one in 2-Star Martial Saint would be able to defeat Alex in his eyes, so Alex would be a great help in this matter. "I would like to request an advance payment for this time. As you know that the Patriarch has changed, we need to do it as soon as possible. I will handle my family member, and you can enter a special place without anyone noticing it. I will take full responsibility for this." Davi nodded with a solemn expression. "Before that¡­ I would like to ask you one question." "Please." "Were your ancestors God Rank Experts?" Alex asked. "!!!" It was a very long long ago record, but they indeed had such a record. Unfortunately, it was already aged, so they only had a single paper that mentioned this matter. Not many people knew about this in their clan, let alone the other influences. Yet, Alex managed to speculate something like this just by learning the request. At this time, a thought arose in his mind. ''Rather than having a fight against a peerless genius, it''s better to get into his good side.'' At this moment, he was convinced that it was better to please Alex. He would commit to fulfilling Alex''s request. "Yes. You are right. There was a sharp decline after our ancestors, but it wasn''t that much of a problem. Only after when an accident from a few thousand years ago occurred that there was no longer God Rank Expert and Divine Items in this world. Including those in our treasury¡­ Everything vanished mysteriously." Alex closed his eyes. ''That must be when my previous life sealed this world¡­'' "Since you have agreed to this request, let''s go back and complete our Heavenly Oath. We can open the realm in a week. If it''s fine with you, you can stay in this mansion." Davi stretched his offer again, but to no avail. "No. It''s better if I leave first. Don''t worry. I will return a week from now and inform you through the usual way." Alex nodded. Davi could only sigh and nod as if he had expected this. It seemed the previous actions really blew all of his trust away, and he needed to experience the backlash this time. "I understand. I will prepare everything for you." Alex nodded. He planned to have the N squad investigate the matter first, checking whether this was only a trap or not. If this were a trap, it would be the time where he eliminated the Ancient Blue Family first, even if it meant only using the power of Freedom Sect and Spirit Nest. It might cause an unforeseeable future, but it would be better than having a knife pointed at your throat all time. "Sure." Alex nodded and stood up. They then returned to the previous room and completed the Heavenly Oath according to the terms they proposed earlier. Of course, Viola also used another Heavenly Oath, so she didn''t blurt it out to the Freedom Sect. Nonetheless, that information was pretty useless for them anyway. Even if the Ancient Blue Family got stronger, it wouldn''t be that strong. After finishing all their business, the group finally left the city, leaving only Alex and the Freedom Sect in the inn. Chapter 757 - The Ancient Blue Family Part IV After settling everything, Alex and the others returned to the inn. Because he was still suspecting the Ancient Blue Family, he decided to call the Freedom Sect not long after they came back to the inn. Aileen, Viola, and Riadon sat in front of him while Jeanne stood behind Alex. "Thank you for your help." Alex cupped his hands and smiled. "It''s fine. This is also to fulfill our dream." Aileen shook her head. "Are you going to return tomorrow?" "Yes." Aileen nodded. "We are planning to set off first like a normal person before finishing the rest of the journey with my Space Element." "Since Great Elder Aileen needs to teach my disciple and Great Elder Riadon needs to accompany her, may I borrow Great Elder Viola for a moment?" Alex asked. "!!!" This request took them by surprise. They never thought Alex needed Viola for whatever reason. Alex simply smiled as Jeanne found his decision strange. She asked with a thought transmission. ''Master. Why do you want to ask her? Our Spirit Nest is strong enough to solve your problem¡­'' ''I have two reasons. First, I want to see whether they are wary of me or not. If they trust me, Elder Viola won''t have a problem accompanying me. Secondly, I can''t trust the Ancient Blue Family yet. There is still a chance for it to be a trap. Hence, I need a 10-Star Martial Saint with me. ''Elder Viola is more suitable. Not only did she listen to the conversation, but she also knows my master. This way, we will be able to hide our strength for a little longer. As for the Ancient Blue Family, we should be able to escape with her strength and my Space Element.'' ''I see.'' Jeanne agreed with Alex after hearing the reason. Aileen''s answer surprised him a little bit. "Sure. We don''t have a problem. Viola also wants to see you, her mentor''s disciple." There wasn''t a single shred of doubt in her face as she decided this spontaneously. In other words, they trusted him with their back, relieving his doubt. "Yes. I am wondering what kind of lifestyle you have this whole time." She nodded with a smile. "Riadon will accompany me back since it''s better to talk about this alliance with Licht. I think we don''t have any more plans after this other than the war itself, right?" "I think so." Alex nodded with an unsure expression. "Anyway, if you need help, just inform us. We will help you to the best of our ability." Aileen said while Riadon nodded in agreement. "Thank you." The trio then returned to their room, waiting until everyone had left. The next day. Alex saw off the other two influences before going separate ways with the Freedom Sect. Aileen and Riadon also flew in another direction right in front of the city. Alex could see a few energy signs around them and smile. These people must be from the Ancient Blue Family. They must want to see what kind of relationship he had with this so-called influence. Having Viola with him seemed to be effective since they would think he had a bodyguard. There was no way two influences in an equal term would lend their 10-Star Martial Saint away. Aileen obviously hadn''t found out this fact when she agreed to his request. Even if she knew about this hidden intention, she didn''t mind because Alex brought hope for them to live on the surface again. Hence, as long as Alex didn''t do anything excessive, she didn''t really mind. Meanwhile, Alex flew toward another direction. "By the way¡­ I didn''t ask this question yesterday, but where are we going for the rest of the week?" Viola asked, glancing at Alex''s confident face. "We are going back to the inn and staying there for a week. I have extended the stay in the morning to make them think I would go back to that inn¡­ Little do they know I have returned there just after this." Alex smirked evilly. "This way, they can search for us anywhere and won''t be able to find us. The most dangerous place is also the safest¡­ Have you heard that idiom?" "!!!" Viola laughed out loud, feeling satisfied. "Now I can see why Licht got played by you¡­ You are a daredevil. When are you going to open your Spatial Gate?" "A bit more, so they can make sure we are leaving." Alex nodded. "Sure. I will play along with you." After arriving in a certain direction, Alex took another glance on his back, finding nothing but empty air. He then created another Spatial Gate and entered the Space World with Jeanne and Viola, heading toward the inn. "Haha¡­ I never thought that these guys could be easily fooled." Viola laughed as soon as she reached the inn after a long flying session in the Space World. "If you don''t mind, just use this room as you please. I am staying here as well, but I might cultivate this whole time." Alex nodded. "You can''t rent two rooms anyway since they will suspect you to have another intention." Viola nodded before lying on the bed. "If you don''t mind, can you tell me how you met your master?" Alex thought for a moment and talked about it. He only told her about his master Maxwell since there wasn''t much to talk about it. Viola could only shake her head when she realized that Alex grew up alone without anyone''s assistance. As for his Spirit Nest, there were many rumors about them. Many even thought that the group didn''t exist, and it was only Alex''s fabricated lie. Alex didn''t really care about it. If the leaders were wise, they wouldn''t pick a fight with someone unknown because there would be too many potential risks. Hence, Alex didn''t bother with confirming the group until recently. Their talk didn''t last for even half an hour before Viola couldn''t ask anything that wasn''t a secret. Alex then waited until next week. Viola also waited patiently without bothering Alex. Finally, when the week passed, Alex sent another letter to the Ancient Blue Family, asking whether he had finished the preparation, and the latter gave permission for Alex to enter the mansion. Alex, Jeanne, and Viola walked toward the mansion before sneaking inside this place to not cause a ruckus according to the direction that the guards gave them. Davi personally greeted him and guided him inside the secret passage so Alex could trust him. He entered this secret passage in a house near the gate of the mansion according to Davi. It seemed the secret passage was different from the other passages because Alex could see many energy signs underground. However, he paid no heed because their cultivation was too low, so they weren''t ambushers. Following Davi through the underground passage for a few minutes, they found a thick wooden door at the end of the corridor. Rio and Rena had been standing there for a long time, waiting for them to arrive. Alex checked their expressions to see if they had any objections about him going inside this trial. After all, Rio was supposed to be the one to enter. Luckily, he found not a single clue about their dissatisfaction. Rena was completely fine to begin with, and Alex had blown her pride away with the way he handled the matter. As for Rio, he already knew the fact that he couldn''t be compared to Kai. In fact, Davi had arrived at the same conclusion as Song Ping regarding Firia''s matter in the tower. Since Alex had given the chance to Firia, he must be powerful enough to consider such a blessing as something that could be easily given away. If such a person would help them recover something they needed, he had no qualms. Like his father, it was better to see the family''s benefit instead of clinging to his pride. Both of them cupped their hands and greeted Alex politely. It seemed they had a talk in the past week concerning the previous matter. Even the way they talked was so polite. "Greetings, Mister Alexander Sirius." Davi glanced at them and nodded. "I know that you can''t trust us, but I don''t prepare any ambush to get you. You can even check the area around to see whether I am lying or not." Alex shook his head. "I have checked them¡­ There is no place that one can take advantage anyway. However, I will still ask the two of them to guard the gate. I hope you don''t mind, right Patriarch Davi?" "Of course." Davi nodded before taking out a black token with red patterns. "This is the token to enter our secret place. Only the person who holds this token will be able to enter, and we only have a single token." Alex nodded and took the token before looking at the gate and beyond it. "Hmm¡­" Alex paused for a moment, glancing at left and right. "There are many rank 8 Arrays in this place. However, it seems there is even a stronger one. Although it''s still a low level, this array is a Divine Array, or you can say a rank 9 array. Though I can still see a few broken arrays in the area¡­" Davi could only sigh. Everything was laid on the table in front of Alex. "You are absolutely correct. Many arrays broke when the world transitioned and abandoned its God Rank Experts. However, I don''t know how much it is true because of the lack of record." Davi shook his head. "Fair enough." Alex nodded without much interest. He already knew this world used to be a Divine World where many God Rank Experts resided. "There is no problem with the Special Realm itself since we have entered more than ten times." Davi shook his head, assuring him once again. "I know. I have checked the arrays myself, and they are quite stable from what I can see. The only problem will be how much I can spend in this place." "There is no time limit basically. You can stay as long as you want until the owner kicks you. Many Patriarchs used this chance to increase their cultivation, including me. Rio is supposed to experience the same, but everything will be resolved if you manage to get the technique for us." Alex glanced at him for a few seconds and nodded. "I will do my best." Davi then waved his hand, activating the arrays and the door. Alex watched the door opening itself from inside. It sent Spiritual Energy as if asking him to come in. He was the holder of the token, so obviously, he felt the surge of the Spiritual Energy. ''It''s already rare enough for the patriarchs to enter this place¡­ It seems the Spiritual Energy inside is very dense, rivaling the one in the Ancient Ruin¡­ I might be able to enter 3-Star if not 4-Star in this place depending on how long I stay inside.'' Alex thought and sighed. Since the Ancestor was still there, he doubted he could practice for a long time since he wasn''t a part of the Ancient Blue Family. He shook his head and stepped forward, entering the barrier while raising his token. The token absorbed the barrier energy for him, letting him through. He took another glance at the barrier filled with misty fog before getting his resolve again and walking inside. ''Jeanne, Great Elder Viola, I am going.'' ''Yes!'' Both of them replied at the same time while observing his condition to ensure he wasn''t hurt. After Alex entered, Davi waved his hand again and locked Alex inside. "The ancestor should be able to open the door from the inside¡­ As much as I want to accompany you here, I am unable to do it because of many matters in the family. For this, I will have Rio and Rena to accompany you." They furrowed their eyebrows, looking at this smart man. He even dared to use his son and daughter as a guarantee. Even so, they didn''t lower their guard down and let Davi walk away to handle his business. ¡­ Inside the mist, Alex looked left and right to check his surroundings before the token glowed. Chapter 758 - The Ancient Blue Family Part V Arriving in a strange world completely blinded by mist, Alex took a glimpse of his surroundings, finding nothing but white translucent particles. "Where is this?" Alex muttered to himself while activating his Spirit Eyes, trying to see the mist through. Unfortunately, he only found himself surrounded by the golden color of Spiritual Energy. "There is simply nothing but energy here. I don''t find a single object or living beings." Suddenly, the golden token in his hand flashed a bright yellow color, illuminating the entire fog. "Wait! This light seems to be absorbing the energy instead, and everything is stored inside the token." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before examining the token instead. "I can see the array inside this token, but I don''t seem to have the knowledge behind it. According to my previous experience, there are two possibilities. "First. I don''t have the knowledge because even a thousand people can''t even cover the entire universe and absorb all their knowledge, let alone a single person. After all, the universe is too big for us to understand¡­ Or at least, that''s what I learned back on Earth. "The second reason would be the lack of understanding of a new array. I assume that the knowledge imparted to my head came from a few thousand years ago. It was also the reason why I couldn''t know some of the knowledge in this world. They were just too outdated. "Though I am still thankful since most of the knowledge seems to have not changed that much. The only thing I need to do now is to learn what kind of array this is¡­" As Alex uttered those words, he observed the array inside the token with his Spirit Eyes, finding every single symbol inside. Unfortunately, what he could find was limited. "I know most of these symbols and their use, but it''s hard to grasp the usage of this array. I only know one of them, and it is to absorb this mist filled with Spiritual Energy." Alex contemplated for a moment, wondering what he needed to do inside. The token was still glowing and chomping the Spiritual Energy as if it was alive, so he thought about a possibility. "Anyway, I can gather Spiritual Energy from here. From my speculation, I can seem to use this token to gather the Spiritual Energy around and use it to enhance my power." Suddenly, a deep voice resounded across the region, startling Alex with its pacifying tone. "That''s right. To think there is a talented son-in-law in my Ancient Blue Family. It''s been a few thousand years since I could see a man of your caliber. This is truly a pleasant thing to see." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, released the shield from his Spiritual Weapons, and scanned the area with his Spirit Eyes. It was at this time he finally found another source of energy. This green-colored ball slowly descended to him and approached him with a gentle energy. However, Alex didn''t miss what this energy called him just now. Son-in-law? The Ancient Blue Family''s son-in-law? Why would this energy call him with such a title? "¡­" In the end, he remained silent because he felt this problem might not be as simple as he predicted to be. As the energy got closer and closer to him, Alex could finally see its true form that had been covered by the mist. It turned out to be a middle-aged man with the same aura of Shakdi and every other God and Goddess in the Ancient Ruin. "Are you¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and raised his defensive stance. "Ho! A sharp sense and fast reaction speed. Raising your guard in an instant after facing an unknown despite being in your home field. Truly remarkable." This green-colored translucent man nodded with a satisfied expression. "Let me introduce myself first. I am Choong Duy. The founder of the Ancient Blue Family. I was a former rank 9 Array Master. What is your name?" Alex checked his intention first before giving his real name instead of a fake one. "Alexander Sirius, and I am just a mere outsider.??? "!!!" Choong Duy also noticed the hidden meaning in his words and frowned. "What? A mere outsider? Did those bastards in the Ancient Blue Family let go of such a genius? Seeing your cultivation and sensing your age alone makes me tremble in fear. Yet those guys¡­ Who is your spouse? I will ask my wife to beat her!" "As I said before¡­ I am a mere outsider. I don''t have a single relationship with your Ancient Blue Family. The pat¡­ The former patriarch asked me to go inside this place and get the inheritance about the promised technique." Alex shrugged. He showed no fears against such a powerful soul. He had seen plenty of them in the Ancient Ruin, so another one wouldn''t be a problem. At the same time, he could simply kill him with the help of his spirits. "What?! Did my clan decline so much to the point they want you to come in? No¡­ When I met the previous guy who came in, I knew that he wasn''t a simple man. Yet he asked you to enter¡­" The man seemed to have noticed a different answer that lies behind the intent of Davi. "I see. It''s not that my younger generations are unworthy¡­ It''s just you are too outstanding." Alex didn''t agree nor disagree. "Still¡­ What kind of condition did they promise you to get inside this place?" "Nothing. This is just an extra condition from me." Alex shook his head. "Hmm? Do you have trouble outside?" "I have¡­ But I don''t think I need to tell you, right?" "Fair enough. Even if you satisfy my curiosity, I can''t even do anything. In fact, the world will just erase this soul of mine." Choong Duy nodded before glancing at Alex''s weapons. "Though you are really a man filled with mystery. If I am not wrong, the weapons in your hands are Spiritual Weapons. They are weapons that have a will residing inside them. "This kind of weapon shouldn''t appear in this world and all those around our world¡­ Along with the worlds that connected with us. And yet you have the weapons¡­ This is very strange. Wait! I think there is a world that has such a technique to create a Spiritual Weapon. The world that only has three races." "!!!" Alex never thought that the man instantly recognized the weapons and those from the special realm on the Sacred Continent. "Now that I think about it, I can sense something similar to Array. If I am not wrong, this is called Rune in that world. What is your relationship with that world? I know that the two worlds shouldn''t be connected, so are you an intruder of this world? No, have the world got invaded?" Choon Duy released a part of his Spiritual Energy. Although it wasn''t enough to pressure Alex, it was enough to show him how serious the matter is. Alex simply shook his head. "I helped them, and this is how they repaid me." "You have no connection with them then? Wait! I heard that there were remnants of them on the Sacred Continent. They were just a peace-loving race that would only act if they were bullied, and that happened a few thousand years ago¡­ Did they make the weapons for you?" "Yes." "I see. From what I understand, you need another race''s blood¡­ Monster blood can be a replacement, but they need a high enough intelligence to do so. Seeing how you can react so fast¡­ There is only one place that meets your requirement. It''s the world that is connected to the Northern Continent. And from what I can see, there are Dragon and Phoenix auras inside those weapons of yours¡­ What a lucky guy." When he was talking like this, Alex felt uncomfortable. It was like that this man had a boundless knowledge that was enough to pry him open. He might be able to stop him from blabbering as long as he released his Spirit Crown that seemed to have a huge impression on those Gods and Goddesses, but it would also blow his identity away. In that case, he ended up letting this guy run his mouth. "You are indeed a man with many mysteries inside you?? To think that my Ancient Blue Family couldn''t have you, such a shame¡­ That''s why I have a proposal for you?" "Hmm?" Alex frowned. If this were about a marriage thingy, he would reject it instantly. As for the others, he would look at the pros and cons first. "How about a marri¡ª" "I refuse." Before the man said with that carefree smile of his, Alex rejected him with a serious expression. "If this is what you want to talk about, I would like to continue what I need to do and recover the technique as soon as possible." "Tch!" The man shrugged. "Fine. Joke aside, I have another proposal for you." "What is it?" "Follow me first." Choong Duy shook his head and flew away. Alex had no other clue, so he followed him a bit farther to make sure he could react to any possible action. Choong Duy also understood his intention and sighed in disappointment. Whether he was disappointed because the Ancient Blue Family couldn''t have this guy or the fact that he didn''t trust him yet, it was still a disappointment. After flying for so long, Choong Duy suddenly rose to the sky, escaping from the mist that surrounded them. Alex also followed him to the sky and saw the entire region with his eyes. The look was spectacular. The ground was filled with dirt. The scenery was green because of the grass, but there wasn''t a single tree living inside. The white mist covered the entire region, except the place that he had gone through before. He finally noticed that the token also dimmed down after leaving the mist area. It seemed that the token only reacted to the mist. "Let''s go to that place." Choong Duy pointed his finger at something in Alex''s back. Alex turned around and finally found the only tree inside this region. ''Huge!'' This was the first impression he had when he looked at the tree. He had seen the world trees twice, or at least that was what they claimed. However, their size couldn''t be compared to this. The branch that pierced the sky and the leaves that beat the cloud, it was a magnificent tree that couldn''t be compared to any of the trees in the world. "That''s the only tree we can grow in the past few years. Follow me first¡­" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and opened his mouth in surprise. ''The tree is alive? It''s not an illusion.'' He didn''t say anything and followed Choong Duy to the tree before a green dragon flew out of the tree and greeted him with a gentle voice that was not befitting its form. ''Welcome home, Darling. Is this the guy?'' The dragon then turned into a human form. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he watched the green dragon gradually changed its appearance into a beautiful young woman that appeared to be 27 or 28 years old. She had long light-green hair, running through her back. Her dragon wings were still there, but it soon vanished into thin air as if it shrunk to emptiness. "Welcome to my humble home. Still, I can''t help but sense a familiar aura within you." She squinted her eyes, scanning him from up and down before Choong Duy gave the explanation. "He is not from the Ancient Blue Family, Chavel. However, he seems to have a connection with your world." "Ah! Now that you say it, I can sense the dragon aura inside him and a phoenix aura along with it." Chavel covered her open mouth with her hand. "The aura I sensed earlier must come from the Dragon Strengthening Technique from my Royal Family. I see¡­" "Chavel¡­ It seems we have a lot of talk with this guy. For now, let''s invite him first to our house. I also want to request something from him." Choong Duy stopped her and flew to the tree. "Sure." Chavel gently nodded before smiling at Alex. "Please come in." Alex was curious about this and followed them. Chapter 759 - The Ancient Blue Family Part VI Five minutes later. Inside a small house hanging on the tree, Alex looked at Choong Duy with a serious expression. In front of him was a cup of green tea that Chavel had cultivated underneath the tree. "This is a tea that Chavel cultivated and brewed. There is no poison in it, so you can rest assured." Choong Duy stretched his hand before sipping his own tea. Alex knew that there wasn''t a single poison inside with his Spirit Eyes. He took a glance at Chavel, who was busy preparing a meal and finally sipped his tea. Not long after, Chavel brought them a full course meal of vegetables and meat. Alex could understand the vegetables, but he couldn''t see where the meat came from. It was a standard meal but seemed to have been polished to the perfect degrees. Maybe he should say as expected from a woman who was living for a few thousand years. [For your information, I can also cook a meal at this level.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows and asked inwardly. ''Why are you comparing yourself with her? Don''t tell me you are jealous? Please, I don''t like the NTR tag.'' [You are too serious right now, so I just want you to relax a bit. This woman must come from Stina''s world, so I think you should mention something about that world.] ''I know. That''s my plan.'' [Then, I will leave you alone again.] Alex took a deep breath before looking at Choong Duy with confusion before his wife explained it. "I picked this vegetable this morning while the meat comes from a rank 8 monster that we caught a few days ago." Choong Duy smiled and added praise to his wife. "Everything is amazing, especially the taste." Without waiting for Alex, Choong Duy already started eating with a face full of smiles. He didn''t care if Alex wouldn''t eat it because it would mean he had another portion to eat. Chavel also didn''t care about his manner and simply smiled, watching him eating her cooking. "Eat first. After that, we can talk." Choong Duy shrugged and pointed his finger at Alex. Alex sighed and started eating. He wasn''t a gourmet himself, but it was indeed one of the delicacies in the world. He didn''t eat that much since becoming a cultivator unless he planned to enjoy his time and relax his mind. Most of the time, it was only tea or a wine, not a meal like this. He elegantly ate the whole meal. A few minutes later, Chavel brought the dishes to the sink and washed them, leaving Choong Duy and Alex facing each other. "Since you are not my Ancient Blue Family member, let''s go with this scenario. You can ask me one question, and I will ask you one question. None of us can lie, but we can also choose not to comment if it''s too private. Of course, we can''t disclose what we talk about outside this place. How about it?" Alex had no problem with this and agreed. The two then made a Heavenly Oath to ensure the other party they told the truth. "You first." Alex nodded and uttered a must-ask question. "Who are you and your wife?" "I am Choong Duy, the founder of the Ancient Blue Family. Duy in my name means blue, so you can see why I chose such a name¡­ As for my wife, I think you are familiar with her world. As you know, there is a secret passage that leads to that world. "I never know about such a passage if my wife doesn''t tell me. She originally came from that place and went to this world through that passage. It was already a long time ago¡­ Well, she lost her right to succeed the throne, so she came to this world to try herself. "In the end, she became a God Rank Expert as well as my wife. I never regretted having a wife such as her. In fact, I am blessed until now." ''As expected¡­ That''s why she could sense the Dragon Strengthening Technique. Although that technique has been polished further by the Supreme, it still couldn''t leave its root.'' Alex nodded and let Choong Duy ask him a question. "I have the same question as yours." "I am Alexander Sirius¡­" Alex paused for a moment, stopping himself from saying anything related to his previous self. Instead, he would tell a little story he had in Chavel''s world and this world. "I have been traveling through worlds around¡­ Well, most of them due to lucky encounters. "And yes, I have come to her world once and end up having two phoenixes from there. Not that I can''t show you though since they are not with me. That world has six races and a limit up to 7-Star Martial Emperor. With this information, I am sure you can believe me. I currently have an enemy that I need to defeat, so I come to the Ancient Blue Family to stop them from interfering¡­ After all, we also have small friction before." "!!!" Choong Duy''s expression turned serious. He pondered for a moment and nodded. "Why are you here?" "As you already know, I am just someone who wants to see my family prosper. Of course, I am also guarding that technique. Although we have died for so long, the existence of this realm is maintaining our soul and¡­ You know how boring this place is when you live for a few thousand years inside, so we start gardening and such. Even my wife has practiced her cooking from a poison that could kill millions to one that can please billions," Choong Duy said with a smug expression. "You can say this is our retirement life. Until we have found a guy that can take our technique away, we will enjoy our time here." "¡­" Alex couldn''t say anything about poison cooking as he recalled when Alicia and Firia gave him the exact thing. "My turn again." Choong Duy glanced at his wife as if asking her what she wanted to ask. However, the latter simply winked her eyes cutely before saying. "Don''t worry about me. I will join you later. You can ask him whatever you want first." He nodded and asked Alex. "What are you going to do with our technique? Will you really give it to my family?" "Yes. I am a man of my word. I have promised them to get it from you, so I will give it to them if I get it." Alex said with a solemn expression. "Now my question is, how can you stay alive for so long? I know that you are a Divine Array Master, but your element and the function of the array doesn''t match up." "We got help from Shakdi¡­ I mean, this world Space God. He made us this Special Realm along with the basic function. As for this tree¡­ We have grown it up for several thousand years. With some care and a few rank 8 items, we somehow mutated this tree and evolved it to rank 8 tree." "Oh." Alex nodded in understanding as he thought, ''Now everything has linked up. His wife came from Stina''s world. With the timeline and such, I could see she was born far before the Supreme. At that time, the portal must still be hidden from the world''s attention. ''In fact, there might be a few more people coming from that world, but stay hidden in this world. And the reason why the people in this world could know the portal''s existence¡­ Someone must have blurted it out. Maybe after a series of torture.'' "What will be your stance against the Ancient Blue Family now?" Alex frowned and answered with his principle. "I will only kill my enemy." Choong Duy closed his eyes and nodded. "It seems I need to send some letters to the current patriarch. Anyway, let''s continue. Your turn." "I don''t think I have another question in my mind. As long as I know that you are not dangerous to me, everything should be alright." Alex shrugged. "I should have expected you to have this kind of personality." He scratched his head and said, "Let''s get down to the business then." "Sure." "Since there should have been 14 generations after me¡­ I think it''s enough time to do this. You know that technique is required to have weak beast blood, right?" "Yes. Though I can also interpret it as powerful human blood." Alex said mysteriously as if he was drawing another concept in his mind. He wanted to check whether this technique was useful to him or not. After all, it would be too sad if his child with Sherry needed several generations before they could use this technique. "You may also interpret it that way. I want you to help them stimulate their blood and achieve fusion. To do this, you require a rank 9 array, which I will give you later." "Are you kidding me?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "You need Divine Energy to activate the array. And from what I understand, I might need to control the array until they have finished refining their body." "I can seal a portion of my strength, so I can activate the array. As for the latter part, I would require your assistance. I will give you instructions on how to control the array." Choong Duy nodded before thinking about his reward. "I can give you the token as payment." Alex tilted his head in confusion. "You should be able to see it. This token can absorb the Spiritual Energy around, and the mist outside this place is the condensed Spiritual Energy. In other words, you can gather all the mist to increase your cultivation. In fact, this is how all patriarchs can increase their strength to solidify their standings. "Since you are an outsider, I can''t give it to you unless you agree to my request. Of course, we need you to defeat one of us here if you want the technique. Although I don''t know how much it will give you, all those people should be able to reach 4-Star Martial Saint. "I think you should have no problem reaching 3-Star Martial Saint, considering you have a bigger requirement to advance. How about it?" Alex didn''t answer him immediately and thought. ''It''s tempting indeed. From what I can see, I should be able to reach 3-Star Martial Saint within a month with the help of the token. And I should be able to reach 4-Star Martial Saint within another year. I think this is enough to face the Snow White Mountain¡­ ''The only problem is their ancestor soul. I believe it will be formidable enough to stop us from destroying the ritual. The only thing that can fight her is my strength and my Spirit Crown. ''From the information stored in my head, I can enhance my Spirit Techniques. This can also be applied to my spirits. First, I can enhance them and their technique¡­ Albeit, I can only do it for one person. There are several more uses¡­ But it''s only applicable to low-rank spirits. In other words, it can only be used when I am in Eulja. ''As for my own techniques, I can amplify my own Spirit Step. Since I haven''t reached God Stage yet, I can only amplify the technique to a peak Heaven Tier Technique. Only after I break past the mortal stage can I finally make that technique to reach Divine Technique. Well, That''s the only technique I have¡­ ''Though I can also borrow a single element from my spirit. It seems Anya''s technique has been enhanced by this Spirit Crown to get that attribute. Unfortunately, the borrowing power won''t be as powerful as Anya''s. ''At most, I can borrow an element for a day, and I won''t be able to use it again for a month. At the same time, I will also understand a portion of their understanding of the technique itself¡­ ''In fact, it''s the reason why the previous me was able to use all elements despite having none himself. He developed this ability to stand on top of Eulja and changed the way of their thinking. ''Yeah. I think this Spirit Crown will be useful for me in the upcoming battle. 4-Star Martial Saint and the Spirit Crown Technique¡­ This should be enough.'' Having come to a decision, Alex nodded his head. "I agree!" Chapter 760 - Fighting Cavel "I agree." Alex made this decision because he liked the conditions. "Good. You should be able to operate the array anyway, and it will only take a week for one go. Since my wife and I will go at the same time, you should be able to finish within a week and enjoy the reward." Choon Duy nodded with a smile. Alex felt something odd and uttered his confusion. "In that case, are you going to teach the array master how to do it?" "No. They are going to replicate your technique. Before going to use this, I will explain everything in the note so the current Patriarch can prepare it, including the Array Masters from the family. They will watch how you do it. Everyone who can do it can test it on themselves. "After all, if they were born from the family, they should have the same problem. As for the ones who aren''t, they can test their technique with the family members. It will be my matter after that, so you don''t need to worry." "Alright. I can do it. To exchange that week and one-month cultivation for one star¡­ It''s indeed worthwhile." Alex nodded in agreement. "Good! Now I will explain about the test. It''s simple. You just need to beat me in one on one or just make me recognize your strength. Of course, I will be limiting my strength to 2-Star Martial Saint. From what I can see, I might need to even increase my strength to 3-Star Martial Saint in order to fight you." Choong Duy scratched his head, embarrassed. To think he would feel he needed to have a stronger cultivation base just to fight a junior, everyone would laugh at him. However, Alex felt nothing about it. Due to the constant fight with stronger opponents, Alex grew numb to this kind of thing. Chavel suddenly returned to the table and sat down, looking at Alex with a gentle expression. "I will be your opponent this time." "Eh?" Choong Duy and Alex widened their eyes at the same time. "What? You don''t want to fight against a woman?" She narrowed her eyes. "No. I never have a problem in that case. I only feel that your husband will be angry because of that." Alex denied it almost immediately. Even if the person in front of him were a peerless beauty, he would cut her down, just like Shelka and other girls back in the days. On the other hand, Choong Duy closed his eyes with agony in his face. "How many years have we lived together? Are you going to stop me now?" Chavel glared at him and released her killing intent. "No¡­ I am just wondering why you would want to fight him? Is there any reason?" "He knows the technique from my family. Hence, I am going to teach him how to fight with his own power. This technique can only be known by the royal family¡­ So, whoever created the technique you have right now, must not know about this technique. You can consider this technique as my payment. "After all, if you can beat me, it''s the time we depart from this world and go to the cycle of reincarnation." Chavel nodded. Alex pondered for a moment and agreed. "There is no way I will let a chance like this go, though I am mainly fighting with my weapons and doubt I will use this technique." "Don''t worry. Even though the technique is low level, I have strengthened it, and you can also use it with your sword or spear since I am using it with my spear. This technique is called Swallowing Heaven. I will use the technique later, but it can be considered as a peak Heaven Tier Technique. "Of course, the true technique is a Divine Technique. Unfortunately, you need Divine Power if you want to use it at Divine Technique level." Chavel explained her technique carefully. "I understand." Alex nodded. "Are there any conditions in the fight?" "As long as we are alive and well, there is no rule. Just use your strongest power, and I will respond the same." Chavel pondered for a moment. "How about I tell you a secret if you can make me release my 3-Star Martial Saint Strength?" "Hmm?" Alex tilted his head and asked, "What kind of secret?" "A secret of your enemy. Just tell me your enemy, and I can tell you their secret. Or I can even tell the Ancient Blue Family to help you in this fight." She smirked. Alex thought for a moment and said, "I have two enemies. Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain. What kind of secret can I expect?" "How to control the Fire God Clan or the secret of Snow White Mountain''s founder¡­ I can give you that secret." "If you are telling me about the anger of the Fire God Clan or the fact that the Snow White Mountain''s founder wants to reincarnate¡­ I already know it." Alex sighed. "Eh?!" Chavel widened her eyes as she blinked a few times. "So, you already know¡­" "Yeah. Although I don''t know the specific reason for the Fire God Clan, from my observation, they should have a cultivation technique that influences their anger. It''s like the flame itself is related to their anger. "As for the Snow White Mountain¡­ I have a Pure Ice Element friend. However, she is captured right now. Luckily, they have yet to know about my relationship with her, so she is still fine. Her Sacrificial Element has been transferred to another person though, and it''s most likely to make their founder possess that body instead of my friend." Chavel sighed. "You have truly known everything. I don''t have anything I can give you, so I will just fight you to the best of my ability." Alex nodded. "Before that, I will create an array to store our soul and energy along with the technique to control the array. Wifey, can you send a letter about what we want to do and the secret of this place? Just say that they can use this place as a training place since I have created a rank 9 Gathering Array here. Don''t forget about the other messages that I want to pass." Choong Duy rose from his seat and glanced at Chavel. "Sure." Chavel also rose from her seat and said to Alex. "Please wait a minute." Alex nodded and waited for a few minutes before Chavel returned. "Let''s talk first since my husband is still doing his business. I am wondering what kind of person is leading the Dragon Race right now?" "I don''t know him well since I am mainly staying with the Phoenixes." Alex shook his head. "However, I believe he is a good guy, brave, and powerful. His son is filled with strength while his daughter has wisdom on par with him. I believe they will be quite a pair to lead your race." "That''s good then." Chavel smiled from ear to ear. She had been away for ten thousand years, so she was worried about her. Unfortunately, she couldn''t return due to her body, and when she learned about the devastating news that her realm experienced, she was weakened for a few years. Luckily, Choong Duy was there with her, accompanying her to pass that hard time. When she learned that the world had chosen to separate themselves from the Northern Continent, she finally felt relieved. At that time, she wanted to thank the Supreme for liberating the anguish of that world. "How about the Phoenix Race and the other races? I would like to know them as well." "The previous phoenix queen is with me right now, leaving her daughter in charge of the kingdom. Well, it''s only been a few years, and I should be able to go to that world again in the future. Hence, everything is fine¡­" Alex started explaining about the other races'' conditions. Chavel kept smiling this whole time, feeling nostalgic. Alex observed her expression this whole time and knew that she still loved her world so much. Unfortunately, she didn''t have the power to go there. In the end, Alex was curious about one thing. "Were you frustrated by the result that you couldn''t attain the throne back then?" Chavel looked up and contemplated for a minute. "I felt frustrated back then, but I never hated them. I loved them, and I still love them right now. Even though the six races often fight with each other, they are just protecting their root, and I can understand that. "Even I will kill Gods and Goddesses that dares to destroy my place no matter the consequences." There wasn''t a single trace of doubt in her eyes, expressing her genuine feeling. "I see." Alex nodded. He could relate to that feeling since he would do the same. "Alright. Everything is ready. You should go around the tree first and absorb all the Spiritual Energy with that token. Meanwhile, Chavel and I will find a place to fight you. Unlike the others in the past, I believe this will be a big fight, so we need to prepare it. Will that be fine with you?" Choong Duy asked with a smile. "I understand." Alex nodded and followed them outside before all of them focused on their respective task. He flew around the area with his Spirit Eyes and token, looking and absorbing the Spiritual Energy around him until not a single chunk of mist could be seen. Alex had sucked it dry. The only thing he needed to do was to come out of this place and bring back the token with him. After finishing his task, he flew toward Choong Duy and Chavel. Choong Duy seemed to have modified a plain ground with some walls to prevent shockwaves from destroying this place. He even made an array to do that. Chavel didn''t have any objection because of the same feeling. The field they had cultivated for a few thousand years contained their memory, so even if they were to reincarnate, they hoped to see this place still as it is. Alex could understand that and landed on the ground gently before looking at Chavel. Unlike the previous one, she had changed her clothes. Her tight green shirt and long pants had replaced her previous loose and comfortable clothes. She tied her hair into a ponytail and carried her spear with her right hand. The spear seemed to be a rank 8 weapon as well, but it wasn''t special like Alex''s Spiritual Weapon. Her gentle atmosphere had changed to a fierce and full of fighting spirit as she looked at Alex with an energetic smile. "I won''t hold back." "I am the same." Alex nodded before taking out his weapons. "The rule is simple. No killing or doing any irreplaceable damage. Although we are only souls, we can injure or get injured and die in the process. Hence, make sure you pull out in the last blow. The arena should be enough for you, so you can fight to the best of your ability." "Wait a minute. I have a condition." Alex looked at Choong Duy. "Sure. What is your condition?" "I am going to fight with my full power. But can I expect you guys to keep it secret? Knowing that you are going to follow me to the outside world, though it''s only for a moment, I am still worried. I have too many bad memories with this type of thing." Choong Duy and Chavel nodded their hearts. "I, Choong Duy (Chavel), swear with my name and my wife''s name to not say anything that happens inside. If I disclose even a little bit of clue to the people outside, may I get separated with my husband (wife) for eternity and have no chance to reunite, and may we get reduced to nothing and never reincarnate. Heaven and Earth! Please bear the witness of this oath!" Both of them swore at the same time. Alex never expected them to promise like that, but he knew how they trusted him in this matter. Alex took a deep breath and released his Spiritual Energy. Chavel also did the same and pointed her spear at Alex. After checking the two, Choong Duy shouted. "Start!" Chapter 761 - Fighting Chavel Part 2 "Start!" Alex''s and Chavel''s eyes flashed as both of them leaped toward each other with their weapons clashed against each other. "I am going to make my move first." Chavel smiled. Suddenly, a gust of wind brushed her hair before a tornado appeared out of nowhere. And both Alex and Chavel were in the tornado''s eyes, surrounded by the sharp wind that had been covered with Chavel''s Spear Intent. It seemed that the tornado would rip them to shreds if they forcefully escaped from this tornado. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the energy flow. Behind the huge grey tornado were a few energy balls, ready to shoot something toward him. "Tornado Prison!" She grinned as those balls released arrow-shaped attacks from all directions. It penetrated the tornado and headed toward Alex. "¡­" Alex had no change of expression during this moment as if he already knew they were coming. Even Chavel got slightly surprised by Alex''s conduct. Although it was one of the weakest attacks of her, she always used it to check the opponent''s level. If they were calm like Alex, she usually needed to run away because something was bound to happen from such a guy. However, she couldn''t do it this time. The only thing she could do was to defeat him. Hence, she used another technique on top of this technique. "Wind Thrust!" The wind energy around her gathered around her spear tip before she shifted her stance and thrust her spear. Alex smiled as he waved his sword and spear, blowing Chavel''s spear away. "Heaven Light Slash!" "Kh!" Chavel gritted her teeth, feeling the extra strength inside Alex''s body. Even though he was only a 2-Star Martial Saint, his strength was comparable to those of 4-Star Saints. But it didn''t mean she was planning to lose just like this. She utilized the power of her dragon to stop Alex from moving before using her Dragon Strengthening Technique to overpower him. Alex saw this and activated his Dragon Aura, startling Chavel and Choong Duy with such a majestic view. And yet the time for him to release his other move had come. Alex smiled again and stomped the ground with more strength, gathering the Spiritual Energy around. "Spirit Step!" This technique allowed him to increase his strength even further. Although it wasn''t that big, it was still enough for him to beat Chavel in strength. "!!!" Choong Duy and Chavel were shocked. Chavel was the proud Dragon Race. Her strength was second to none due to that powerful body, and yet, Alex suppressed her completely. They couldn''t comprehend. Even so, Chavel didn''t let her guard down as she only needed to wait for the attack coming to Alex that was only a few meters away from Alex. At this time, the arrow-shaped attacks stopped mid-air as if something was there, and they couldn''t penetrate it. Chavel and Choong Duy realized this kind of energy and widened their eyes. "Space Element! And this technique is Space Plate!" After knowing what happened to the Space Element wielders, they thought it was impossible to see another Space Element in this world again, but Alex just destroyed that expectation. No wonder why he wanted them to keep it secret. The whole world would target him if he didn''t have enough protection. "That''s that. I still need to fight this battle with all my strength, or the tradition will become invalid." Chavel shook her head and removed her spear from Alex before clapping her hand. More and more the previous attacks were created outside the tornado. Alex didn''t say anything and simply pointed his finger toward the tornado, sending a small Pure Fire toward it. As one would expect, the tornado became a fire tornado in an instant. "You have two elements? Wait! That''s not important." Chavel shook her head as she found Alex used his strength weirdly. "This is only giving me an advantage. Fire won''t be able to burn wind, and I will use it against you. Prepare yourself!" Alex shook his head, telling her she was wrong. "Fire indeed can''t burn wind, albeit everything has an exception." "!!!" Chavel recognized his main element and gasped. "Don''t tell me! You have¡ª" Before she finished her words, the flame tornado seemed to get smaller and smaller before it was reduced to nothing. "Pure Fire!" Chavel and Choong Duy exclaimed in shock. They never thought that he would have these two elements at the same time. Although the Space Element looked artificial, they didn''t question because they felt how strong the elements were. "Two elements and this strength¡­ Haiz, my Ancient Blue Family is not fated with such a person." Choong Duy shook his head in disappointment. "Anyway, it seems that the current era will be revolving around this little guy until he reaches God Stage." On the other hand, Chavel had a different feeling. Her smile became even bigger as if she became excited. "Good, Good! This is what the Younger Generation should have! I like you, so I will release all my strength from the start!" The wind started surrounding Chavel''s body, creating a wind armor that covered her whole body except her head. Looking at this, Alex didn''t hesitate to stop her by thrusting both weapons. Chavel simply smiled and clashed with him. Although this technique couldn''t enhance her strength, it was able to improve her agility, so she had no problem in keeping up with Alex¡­ At least until she found something odd in Alex''s technique. "This¡­ You brat. You dare to use a weapon breaking technique on me?" Chavel smirked, excited to see what kind of surprise Alex would bring after this. Alex learned this Weapon Consuming Technique long ago. Unfortunately, his opponents were rarely strong enough for him to use this technique. There was simply no need to use such a technique because they would die before the need to use it. Chavel was different. Her strength and technique were on a whole different level. To beat her, he might need to use this technique. Albeit, Chavel seemed to understand this technique''s principle, allowing her to repel this attack without her weapon taking any damage. "Since you are like this¡­ Don''t blame me for taking this even further!" Chavel roared as her aura raised. Her round green eyes slowly shrank into sharp eyes like those found in dragons. "I will show you why I could become a Dragon God!" Alex tried to see through this technique with his Spirit Eyes, wondering if he could copy such a technique to let Sherry or the others learn it. "Beast Fusion Technique! First Gate!" "!!!" Alex suddenly noticed the sudden flash from his right side. He instinctively slashed toward it, but suddenly he was blown away. "Now that I think about this, I can give you this technique." An idea flashed in her mind before she deliberately increased her cultivation to 3-Star Martial Saint. "I will give you this technique if you can beat me when I am in this stage." "What is the advantage of the technique?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You say the former phoenix queen is with you, right?" "Yes." "If she learns this technique, she will be able to stimulate her strength even further by fusing the Spiritual Energy to her body. This is the only technique that allows me to best my husband." "I still can''t understand¡­ But it looks impressive." Alex nodded. "It''s simply the fusion. We have our original form, but we will lose our human form if we transform into that form. Hence, I created a technique to utilize our original form''s full strength and fuse it into our human form. You can say that this technique is able to increase my power by half." "Oh?!" Alex narrowed his eyes. ''One and a half times stronger¡­ That is tempting.'' "The principle is to fuse our Spiritual Energy to our flesh. Just like what I did earlier, I used the first gate out of three gates in this technique. The first gate only gives me twenty percent of my current power, and if you notice, my eyes have turned into dragon eyes. "If I use the second or third gate, my limbs will start to transform into that of a dragon along with my wind in the third gate. Even if we can show a part of that, isn''t it the best to utilize it rather than having it as a decoration? That was the inspiration I had when creating this technique. "However, it doesn''t stop there. It also increases your control in your element, allowing you to fight a higher level without a problem. I choose my spear to combine this technique since it suits my style. As for your phoenixes, they need to search for their own style after mastering this technique? How do you say that?" Alex contemplated for a moment. ''The technique might be useful to Sherry as well. If the effect is like this, I should accept this challenge¡­'' "It seems you have come to a decision." Chavel smirked as she raised her strength even further. "Beast Fusion Technique! Second Gate!" "Third Gate!" "3-Star Martial Saint!" Since Alex had agreed, Chavel also increased her strength by a star. As she explained earlier, her limbs indeed changed as her wing flapped. Alex took a deep breath, not wanting to lose. "Dragon Aura!" "Phoenix Aura!" "Spirit Step!" Alex also had several power-ups. First, he increased his strength with Dragon Aura and Spirit Step before covering his body with Phoenix Aura, just like how Chavel used her wind as body armor. He also released his Absolute Blade Intent, suppressing her Spear Intent. "What is this?!" Chavel was stunned. She never saw an intent swallow another intent unless they had a huge gap. They should be on the same level and would only clash against each other. However, Alex''s intent seemed to be different than the norm. Looking at his spear and sword, she suddenly realized something. "You! You have fused your intents! Interesting!" Chavel didn''t hesitate and charged at Alex, trading blow after blow with Alex. It was at this particular time that Alex learned Chavel''s movements. "Kh! Her strength is obviously on par with mine. It seems I lack something to be at a disadvantage like this¡­" Alex realized that no matter how hard he fought back, Chavel managed to move one step ahead of him. "This is instinct. Every monster has this kind of instinct. Its effect¡­ I don''t think I need to tell you about it, right?" Chavel smiled, kept attacking him with her spear. ''True enough. If I am not wrong, this instinct allows her to predict my movement. I see. This is the reason why she moves one step ahead of me. She simply knows what I am going to do as if she sees the future. Of course, it''s not at that level¡­ It''s closer to a level of prediction.'' Alex thought while defending himself against these relentless attacks. "I am sure that you can get used to this kind of attack pattern if you have enough time. But who is so foolish to let their opponents get used to it?" Chavel roared as she pressured Alex even more, trying to create a gap in his defense. Alex also noticed that his speed slowly decreased as his reaction speed became slower and slower as time passed. "If you don''t have anything to escape from this situation, you will lose!" Chavel grinned as if she was planning to end it here. ''It seems I have no choice.'' Alex sighed inwardly. Since the people here wouldn''t say anything about what happened here, it should be fine to use it. "Spirit Crown!" Alex smirked as a golden crown appeared above his head, enhancing his Spirit Step for a split second and increasing its efficacy. "That crown¡­!" Obviously, the two recognized this technique since they were the same generation as Shakdi and the rest. There was no way they wouldn''t be able to recognize the crown that their benefactor wore. "Spirit God''s Spirit Crown." Even though she was surprised, Chavel had yet to loosen her strength even a tiny bit. And yet Alex''s strength seemed to have grown stronger than expected. With her mind reacting a bit too late, Alex blew her a few hundred meters away. "Who says that I have lost?" Chapter 762 - Fighting Chavel Part 3 "Who says that I have lost?" Alex looked down with a neutral expression. Chavel on the ground was flapping her wing to clean up the dust on her body before looking up with a dumbfounded expression. Choong Duy also had a similar expression and completely forgot that his wife was blown to the ground. "You¡­ You are¡­" The couple had no doubt about that technique, and the memory about it is still fresh in their mind. They never thought that they could see this technique again with their eyes. They quickly flew toward him and cupped their hands. "We greet the benefactor." "¡­" Alex had expected this before, but the fact it wasn''t him made him a little bit uncomfortable. "He is he. I am not your benefactor." "!!!" The couple realized the hidden meaning behind his words. Still, there was no evidence about his connection to the Spirit God. They only remembered that there was only a single person that had the Spirit Crown in Eulja. Since Alex only reached 2-Star Martial Saint recently, it was plain to see that Alex really wasn''t the Spirit God. However, it didn''t mean that Alex didn''t have a relationship with the rumored Spirit God. Just like Shakdi and the others, the atmosphere around them became awkward, wondering what to do when they saw someone related to their benefactor. Alex knew what they were thinking and shook his head. "You don''t need to treat me like that because I am not your benefactor. It''s fine if you treat me like before and continue our fight." Choong Duy and Chavel looked at each other and nodded. "We understand. Since it''s your wish, we will continue the match like before. We apologize if we offend you in any way." Alex shook his head. "This fight isn''t related to Eulja." They nodded again as Choong Duy returned to the ground. As for Chavel, she raised her spear and calmed her heart down. No matter how hard Alex told them to act normally, it was impossible because they just met someone related to their world''s benefactor, the one who saved billions of lives in this world in the past. Alex could only sigh and raised his two weapons. "Come!" Chavel took a deep breath and leaped toward Alex. "Ha!" Their blades began to clash again, creating a powerful shock wave to their surroundings. Luckily, the array was able to absorb everything without having a single crack. At the same time, Alex stayed quiet for the time being, testing Chavel''s strength. She seemed to not hold back against him, but the lack of her voice seemed to make the situation awkward. Alex took a deep breath as he roared and struck Chavel with all of his might. "Where is the energy from before?" "!!!" Chavel gritted her teeth. As much as she wanted to do it again, she was a bit too shy after knowing Alex''s identity. "Fine. Let''s settle this fight quickly." Alex sighed and released all of his Spiritual Energy. Chavel also poured her Spiritual Energy into her spear before it created a translucent golden dragon. "This is what I want to show you, my original technique that can be used like any other technique. However, this requires talent in spear and Dragon Strengthening Technique. "After all, I am using that technique to recreate this dragon. Everything else is the culmination of my years of experience. I don''t have my Spiritual Weapon, so I can only perform it with my own control. It will be different for your weapons. I am sure that the wills in your weapons will be able to control this dragon and help you in the battle. "You can consider this attack as two living dragons that will help you in the battle. And it might be able to reach Middle Tier Divine Technique if you use it with Rank 9 Spiritual Weapons. You might already know, but Divine Technique is also divided into three like all the Martial Arts: Low, Middle, and Peak Tier Martial Arts. "So, I believe this technique will suit you even more, and I will be honored if you use this technique in your journey." Chavel smiled politely. Alex twitched his eyebrows. As much as he wanted to comment on her sudden change of personality, he nodded and said, "That technique¡­ I somehow understand the basic principle about it. Maybe you don''t need to teach me and just fight me long enough, so I can copy it." "Eh?!" Chavel blinked her eyes a few times. Of course, she had no idea about Alex''s Sword and Spear Mastery, so she never knew that he could copy a technique with his observation alone. "You can try first and see what is going to happen later." Alex smiled as he observed Chavel''s technique with his Spirit Eyes. "Let''s resume our fight." Chavel didn''t know what to do and decided to follow his instruction. She channeled more mana to her spear as the dragon soared to the sky before hovering around her body. Alex''s expression turned serious. He could see the amount of Spiritual Energy in this dragon. If he tried to strike her, the dragon must move its body to protect her. At the same time, the head would charge at him and help her in directing his movement. And if he had two dragons because of his two weapons, together with his Pure Fire¡­ Maybe he could create a very powerful attack with this. Alex became excited as he made the first move. The Spiritual Energy gathered around his spear as the fire started covering its tip. He pulled the spear before thrusting it toward Chavel, shooting out a powerful laser-like attack. "Mythical Spear Cannon." Chavel didn''t have a change of expression seeing this attack as she controlled her dragon. The appearance itself looked very similar to the eastern dragon, one without wings. It moved its giant body in front of Chavel and opened its mouth, swallowing Alex''s attack. Alex checked its attack and realized that his Mythical Spear Cannon slowly got weakened inside its belly before it completely vanished. "Interesting. Although it''s only a simple Mythical Spear Cannon, it''s still one of my Original Skill." Alex smiled. "I didn''t use my Intent or Flame anyway, so I should say as expected...?" Chavel didn''t hesitate and leaped toward Alex. The dragon accompanied her on her right, ready to charge in if Alex tried to attack her. Alex then raised his hand and summoned a few Space Plates, wondering if the dragon gets stopped, would Chavel also stop? As expected, after learning about Alex''s Space Element, Chavel already realized the few Space Plates hanging in front of her dragon. Hence, she simply made the dragon open its mouth and swallowed the Space Plates in succession. "This¡­" Alex blinked his eyes for a few seconds. He was still quite in disbelief. The Space Plates were wide enough to stop a full-size human, but it was still considered as a snack to this dragon. Chavel simply smiled as she made her way toward Alex. Alex glanced left and right, seeing how Chavel planned to attack with her spear while the dragon wanted to swallow him. "Space Bind!" Alex summoned many tentacles around the area, binding the dragon to the ground. As for Chavel, Alex waved both of his weapons three times. "!!!" Chavel widened her eyes as she shifted her spear and received the attack instead of attacking him. She never thought that Alex has something like this. This was Alex''s Triple Draws. With the six attacks launched simultaneously, even someone as experienced as Chavel had a hard time to deal with it. "Ha!" Chavel tried to block some of the attacks with her spear handle as well, but one of the attacks was still connected, making a shallow cut on her cheek. She had no choice other than retreating a few meters and regained full control of her dragon, breaking the invisible tentacles that bound it. "That is truly a dangerous move. Six strikes at the same time¡­ If they are just some people with a high cultivation base but low skill, they would die at that moment. Still, I feel something odd from that technique." Chavel squinted her eyes. Alex shook his head. "You can try again. My objectives are to defeat you and get this technique since it''s a pretty interesting technique." "Then I will get serious." Chavel nodded and summoned her wind element, covering the dragon with it like how she covered her body. ''The dragon has full body armor right now¡­'' Alex took a deep breath and asked, "Why don''t you fuse your wind to the dragon itself? Won''t it become stronger that way?" "Yes. It will grow stronger, but my mental power is not enough to keep it. You already know that my mental energy stored in this soul is not much, so I am afraid I won''t be able to show you something like that. Instead, I will focus on my Spiritual Energy just like this one." Chavel answered honestly. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It''s already pretty strong. If you are getting stronger, I might not be able to best you." "You jest." Chavel smirked as she charged at Alex again with her dragon. She wanted to use another move with this wind armor, albeit Alex seemed to have another surprise for her. The moment he raised his hand, he summoned the tentacles again, trying to bind the dragon to the ground. However, the wind suddenly rose and cut every single tentacle, freeing the dragon even before it got bound. Even so, Alex didn''t stop and sent another technique to stop the dragon. "Spatial Gate!" The moment the Spatial Gate opened out of nowhere, Chavel smirked as she said, "This technique is a must-have technique for a Space Element user. I know that you will use this technique eventually." She poured more energy into the dragon, increasing its size. Alex didn''t want to lose and increased the size of his portal, but Chavel didn''t let him. She attacked him from the opposite direction with her spear. "Heaven Light Slash." "Wind Slashing Spear." Alex''s strength seemed to be equal with her now that she had adjusted her strength and stopped being surprised. Chavel stopped his sword, so Alex could only attack her dragon with his spear. The situation became complicated for Alex, but he still had no change of expression. Three crescent-shaped flames appeared in front of him as he swung his spear three times, filling these flames with power and intent. "Mythical Fire Slash." This was his combination technique formed by two of his original skills. Its strength couldn''t be doubted anymore. The moment the dragon swallowed the fire, it seemed to burn and cut the inside before appearing again from the tail of the dragon. "That''s a scary technique. You will have a qualitative leap in your Spiritual Energy the moment you reach God Stage¡­ You might be able to evolve that technique to Mid Tier Divine Technique if not Peak Tier¡­" Chavel exclaimed. "Yes. That''s the combination of my original skills." "No wonder." Chapter 763 - Fighting Chavel Part 4 "Yes. That''s the combination of my original skills." "No wonder." Chavel smiled. She knew that the fact Alex had two different original skills from looking at his Mythical Spear Cannon and Triple Draws. And the fact that he could combine his Sword Intent and Spear Intent made this kind of approach possible in her mind. "Now that I think about it, you have reached Spear God level, right?" Alex asked. "Yes." He thought since they were exchanging moves like training, he wanted to know more about her experiences as someone who reached Spear God level. After all, the knowledge in his memory was simply an ideal theory. He needed something like this to get a deeper understanding. "Do you want to learn about it?" Chavel asked. "Yes, if possible." Alex nodded. Despite talking like this, Alex and Chavel were still trading blows. He still absorbed every knowledge that he understood from Chavel''s Swallowing Heaven. On the other hand, Chavel was surprised by this person. Not only that his strength was extraordinary, his understanding was very deep. In fact, Alex might not need a long time to reach Sword God and Spear God level. He simply needed Divine Energy and got used to it. Because of that, Chavel smirked and explained everything. "Since it''s like that, I will explain it while we are at it. Firstly, people, who know what kind of requirement they need to be recognized as a God Level Weapon Expert, tend to treat their path lightly. "Take the example of my spear. Spear Intent, Spear Domain, and Spear Body. These three things are the basics of the spear. If you don''t have a solid foundation, you won''t be able to reach far in this path. However, if they know about the requirement to reach Spear God level, they will simply skip this process. "What do you think the requirement is?" Chavel asked with a sly smile. Alex pondered for a moment and answered, "Divine Spear Technique?" "You are half correct. There is something more than a Divine Spear Technique." Chavel shook her head. "That is the requirement indeed, but that technique doesn''t need any Spear Intent, Spear Domain, or even Spear Body. You simply need to create a technique, and you can be recognized as a Spear God." "Still, it''s weird. People will only skip everything and become a Spear God as soon as they get Divine Energy." "That''s it. A good teacher will always hide about the requirement of Spear God level until the last minute. Even I need to discern your level first before saying this. Luckily, your foundation is very deep and solid, so you won''t have a deviation in this path. As for those people, they will just get greedy and ruin themselves." Chavel nodded. "I can''t see where the problem is. Knowing that you won''t need those three basics, you¡­" Alex suddenly fell into deep thought before gasping. "As expected, your experience is plentiful to recognize it before I start explaining." Chavel smiled and admitted defeat. "Let''s see the other two stages first. Original Spear Technique and Spear Path. You need these three basics to complete these two processes. "For what? This is the foundation of your Divine Technique. Even though I said there is no need for the three basics, you can reword it as you treat it like air. Fusing your Sword Intent and Domain with the universe itself. Fusing your Sword Body to your Divine Body will grant you the power to control the Sword Intent and Domain that have been fused to the universe. "In other words, everything is your sword, including the air. That''s why the strongest Sword God out there can split a small lower world into half with a single slash. Of course, I only heard two people doing it. First was Peerless Sword God. "He had honed his Sword to the absolute degree and reached God King Stage. With these two qualifications, he cut a small lower world into half, killing every being inside it. I have said it myself; you will get a qualitative leap in everything the moment you shed your mortal body. "We are called God not for nothing. As for the other one is the Spirit God. I don''t need to tell you the details, right?" Chavel smirked and continued. "Anyway, the first requirement to create the Divine Technique has been completed at this point. Now we are looking at your Original Spear Technique and Spear Path. "What kind of spear do you want¡­ Everything has been answered the moment you learned about your Spear Path. As for what kind of technique you want to make¡­ You must have experienced it when you created your Original Spear Technique. "Thus, you shall be born as a Spear God the moment you create the Divine Technique itself. And it won''t be a failure or a shallow technique like those who want to skip the process." Chavel finished her explanation with a smile. "I see." Alex nodded, absorbing the knowledge from her. "Of course, you have the ideal technique right now. Not only can it be combined with your Divine Technique later, I believe you can combine both again to create a more powerful move. And with that instant three slashes¡­ It''s going to be an insane technique." "I will try." Alex knew the requirement to reach that level, but now that he learned it from Chavel, he could say that he might be able to create the best Divine Technique for him. "Good. I believe you can create one that suits your style." Chavel nodded with a smile. It seemed that talking about this lessened the awkward atmosphere from before. "Let''s continue this long fight then¡­" Alex''s expression turned serious as he channeled his power to his spear, creating a string of energy hovering around his spear before disappearing due to the lack of power and control. Chavel obviously sensed this and gasped as she looked at his spear. Although it was still rough on the edge, the technique was there. They simply talked for about thirty minutes, but it seemed that Alex had learned this technique from her. She remembered what he said earlier as she muttered to herself. "Copy huh¡­ It''s impossible unless¡­ No, it''s impossible even if you have a deep understanding of the spear. No one has ever been this monstrous¡­ Or should I say, as expected from someone related to the Spirit God?" Alex didn''t pay attention to her remark and kept pondering his current situation. He had brushed away the matter about God Level and focused on this technique. Choong Duy, who was watching this battle from the start, couldn''t speak due to the absurdity that Alex showed from the start. Since the two focused on each other, he slipped away to his house and wrote another letter. When he returned, he found Chavel and Alex staring at each other from a distance. Chavel was panting due to the excessive usage of her soul and energy, but there was still a considerable amount in her body. As for Alex, he remained calm even though he had been multitasking this whole time. And yet Choong Duy could see the excitement behind his poker face. It seemed he loved the technique. He silently sneaked around them and continued to watch from up close. "Let''s end this with one last move," Chavel said while panting. "Though I can only use it for a few seconds, I don''t want to limit myself in this last exchange. I want to see whether your technique or my technique is stronger. Can you fulfill this request of mine?" "Can your soul withstand the burden? You need enough strength to help me in that task, you know." Alex looked at her worriedly. "It''s fine. I only need to send a wisp of my soul inside to help with the process¡­ As for Divine Energy, I think my husband has more than enough for the whole family." Chavel shook her head. "In fact, this is why the requirement is to defeat only one of us." "I see." Alex nodded with a serious expression as he raised both of his weapons. "Triple Draws." "Mythical Fire Slash." "Space Cut." Alex released twelve Sword Waves simultaneously, flying toward Chavel. The latter closed her eyes, focusing her attention and channeling her energy to the spear. Suddenly, the dragon appeared again. However, unlike the previous golden dragon, the color this time is green. The dragon contained a huge amount of Wind Energy, allowing every person to notice its overbearing presence even without Spirit Eyes. The dragon swallowed Alex''s twelve Sword Waves, and surprisingly, the torrential wind inside the dragon was trying to shred his attacks to pieces. Alex widened his eyes, seeing his attacks weakened as it penetrated deeper into the dragon''s stomach. However, the conclusion came in a sudden. "Boom!" A huge explosion occurred in the dragon''s stomach, releasing a scorching heat that would burn one''s skin. As for the dragon, it was burned by the fire. It was Mythical Fire Slashes that exploded, destroying the dragon as a whole. But he still had his Space Cut heading toward Chavel. After having her attack destroyed, Chavel was left with nothing but a weak soul. She had reached his limit and could do nothing to this attack. Choong Duy stepped in at this moment, trying to block Alex''s attacks with his array. Unfortunately, his chance to act cool disappeared when he saw Alex''s Spatial Gate appear in front of him, swallowing the attack and teleporting it to an unimportant place. "¡­" Choong Duy was speechless. He just wanted to protect his wife for one last time. "Fufu¡­ Husband, what are you doing?" Chavel chuckled, teasing him with a tired expression. "I¡­" Choong Duy just lost his face, not knowing what to say to his wife. On the other hand, Alex was completely cool with it as he said, "You are going to use your energy and soul after this¡­ It''s better to have it as much as possible." That was the reason why Alex stopped his own attack. From his point of view, Choong Duy and Chavel would seal their remaining energy inside a token. Since he didn''t know how much they would need to fuse the energy for every single member in the Ancient Blue Family, he simply chose the best option available. Chavel had a good laugh as she hugged her husband. "I think it''s time for us to go." "Yes." Choong Duy then gave everything to Alex. "Take these. They are the letters to the previous family head since he will need to act for this matter, not the current patriarch. I have told them everything I want, but I want you to give the blue one as soon as you come out of this place. "As for the scroll, it''s the technique to control the array. And yeah, you will get ten of the Divine Array. You can take one as another form of payment. As for the other nine¡­ Two of them will be known to the entire family. You can give the other seven to the former patriarch so he would have a backup scroll. "After all, there is no telling if they have an enemy inside the family. It''s just a backup. The technique is not that hard. With your comprehension speed, I believe you can master it within a day. In that time, the patriarch should have gathered all Array Masters in the family." "I understand." Alex nodded and stored everything in his space ring first. "These are from me." Chavel gave Alex the Beast Fusion Technique and Swallowing Heaven. "Although you don''t need the latter, you might still need it in case you want to read it." "I think it''s time¡­" Chavel suddenly stopped talking as she looked at her disappearing. She hugged her husband one last time and kissed him. "Husband. I am glad I met you in this life. If only we can get together again in our next life." "I hope the same. Even if the potential for it is only one in a billion, I won''t stop believing it." "Me too. Unfortunately, every single memory and emotion is erased when we reincarnate¡­" Choong Duy could only grit his teeth as he hugged her tightly. They poured their energy inside another token as their body slowly turned transparent. Chavel smiled gently as she looked at his eyes. "If we truly meet again, I want a child." "Absolutely. I won''t make you lonely." "I love you." "I love you too." The two kissed again before they turned to Alex with a smile and said, "Thank you." And disappeared. Chapter 764 - Letizias Condition "Thank you." Alex clasped his hand, seeing them off for one last time. Although it was a business relationship, they still helped him too much. The last thing he could do was to see them off. He was wondering whether he needed to make a grave for them or not, but he chose not to because the Ancient Blue Family would surely take care of it. After calming his heart down for the earlier scene, he walked toward the gate. He didn''t spend much time inside. If he remembered correctly, he spent was likely less than a day since he didn''t need to solve a riddle or something as Choong Duy appeared by himself. Alex took another glimpse of the area and thought, ''Should I utilize the rank 9 Array in this place to cultivate here? I might probably reach 3-Star Martial Saint faster than I am supposed to, but it means the Ancient Blue Family will suspect me of something like taking someone''s belongings. ''No, wait! I can simply say this is the reward they provide to me for bringing the technique to the family. Besides, isn''t it normal for the previous patriarchs to use this place as their cultivation place? In exchange for this cultivation place, I can simply say about the array process. ''I think that''s what I can do. The two seniors seemed to intend it to be that way.'' Alex stroked his chin gently, looking down to the ground as if there was an inspiration there. The answer came in front of a notification. [Host. I think it''s best to utilize this rank 9 Gathering Array. It will be more effective to absorb the energy inside your token rather than rank 8 Gathering Array. Besides, the Ancient Blue Family is bound to rise to a greater height. If they are too petty about this, I think it will be best to eliminate them.] "Fair enough." Alex nodded and checked the entire array with his Spirit Eyes, searching for a symbol that put a time limit inside. "There it is!" Alex found and flew toward that symbol, examining it further. "From the drawing of this symbol, I seem to have two months inside this place. After absorbing that token and another full month, I might not be able to reach 4-Star Martial Saint, but I won''t be far from it." "In fact, I might be able to reach 5-Star Martial Saint before I wreak havoc on the Snow White Mountain and save Letizia¡­ Now that I think about it, I should send some information to Letizia about my plan, so she can prepare herself for this." Anya''s and Noel''s cards appeared on his hand, floating above his palm. He took Anya''s card first and asked, "Anya." "Alex! Do you need something? You should be inside the Ancient Blue Family''s secret place, right? Do they trap you or something? Jeanne hasn''t reported a single thing to me." Anya''s voice filled with anxiety. He was inside the enemy''s territory after all. "Calm down. I am fine." Alex smiled and replied. "I want to ask you about Letizia''s condition." "Letizia?" Anya was perplexed at first. She couldn''t understand why Alex would talk about her at a time like this. Still, she answered to the best of her ability. "From the looks of it, she has managed to use it wisely. "Maybe it''s due to the experience she had inside the Snow White Mountain, but her ice seems to have grown stronger than ever. Her cultivation also has increased by leaps and bounds. Of course, it''s only due to your resource and that inheritance." "What is her cultivation base?" "7-Star Martial Monarch. Due to the restriction and her position, she can''t make a breakthrough right now since Snow White Mountain will know about it. Hence, she is lying low while practicing Martial Arts. I assume the moment we rescue her, she would be able to become a Martial Saint." "That''s good. Although I am not sure about her practicing Martial Arts considering the shackles placed all over her body, I think it''s fine." "Yes. Noel is watching her all the time. Besides, the shackle is only restricting her movement to a certain distance, not binding her completely. And I can see a huge improvement in her sword. I believe she can reach Sword Saint Level before we free her, and to think she doesn''t have Sword Mastery¡­ I think her talent in the sword is as amazing as Evelyn while her Pure Ice leaves her to dust." "Good. I will be relaying some messages to Noel later since we need her to act her part for another two years. I will try to have her increase her power as much as possible. As for whether she will follow us or not in the future, I will let her choose." "Do you need anything else?" "I am going to spend two months inside this place, so tell Jeanne not to be anxious and have her inform Viola about it." "Understood. I will take care of it." Alex then put down Anya''s card and lifted Noel''s card. "Noel. It''s me." "Nya!" The black cat seemed to be surprised since the master itself was talking to her. "I have a job for you. Tell this to Letizia¡­" ¡­ Inside the Snow White Mountain''s prison, Letizia was waving her sword from one spot to another. The chains that shackled her wrists, knees, and neck might hinder her movement, but it couldn''t stop her from improving, especially after gaining hope from Alex. This might be the first time she got so motivated. Not only would Alex save her in the future, but she could also pay the people in Snow White Mountain back. She waved her hand to the left, only to get stopped by the chain. "Kh!" She gritted her teeth but didn''t complain. Instead, she regained her focus, shifted a little to the left, and completed the move. The tower itself didn''t have any window that let her know how long time had passed. At first, she was depressed because she wondered how long it had passed and when she would be able to meet another person she knew. And yet that kind of expression was nowhere to be seen. She only knew that Alex would come in two years. No matter how long she needed to wait, Alex would definitely come. And that was what matters in her heart. Suddenly, a black cat came to her and leaked out of her presence to grab her attention. "Hmm?" Letizia turned around and glanced at the black cat standing in front of her. "You are Master''s pet¡­ Seeing that you are here, do you need anything from me?" Noel nodded, brought a paper and pen, and started writing Alex''s message. Letizia wiped the sweat on her forehead and bent down her body to read the message. "I am going to tell you Master''s message?" She blurted everything in the paper word to word. Noel nodded for this because it was like she was helping Alex to communicate with Letizia in real-time. "I understand." "You should know that you have escaped death, right?" Letizia nodded furiously. "Yes. I might have lost my life two months ago if they don''t know about the Loyalty Oath. I am eternally grateful for that." Noel paused a bit, sending all the messages back to Alex. Of course, Anya was there as his interpreter. "Hence, I have another plan for you. Reach Sword Saint first and peak Martial Monarch, so when you are out there, you can breakthrough almost immediately." "Yes. That''s my plan. But I don''t know whether it''s alright to reach Sword Saint or not¡­" Letizia paused for a moment. "There were a few people who were visiting me from time to time and will continue to do so. I can barely hide my cultivation from them, let alone my Sword Path." Noel sent the message again, including the confirmation about her claim. It was indeed a problem if they knew Letizia was improving by leaps and bounds. Alex''s message stopped for a while. At first, he wanted to give her the technique that the Beast King taught him, so she could hide her Sword Path, but it seemed it was impossible. Since he had promised the Beast King not to teach anyone from this world, he wouldn''t break his promise. Hence, there was only another thing he could do. "Then the only thing we can do is to wait until the time is right. You can keep progressing like this but just don''t breakthrough for both stages. I think we will have a spare time of a few months after your rescue, so I believe you can enter both Martial Saint and Sword Saint Stage." "I understand. I won''t disappoint Master." "As for my plan, I am going to rescue you first before ruining their ritual. If you know anything about it, please tell me." "I only have some knowledge about their location and what kind of ritual it is¡­ The location is in the Snow White Valley near the mountain itself. There is a hidden passage that leads to that ritual. I will draw it for you." Letizia asked for a paper from Noel and drew the map. Although it wasn''t good, it was enough for them to go there. Noel suddenly pumped her paw with a smug smile as if telling her to leave it to her. It seemed she would be the one who sneaks inside that place. Considering how Noel can go unnoticed this whole time, Letizia has no doubt she will succeed. Hence, she continued. "They ask me to cultivate in that place. Although I could increase my cultivation by leaps and bounds, I felt something odd in my body and started having a dream. And because of that dream, I hallucinated and accidentally informed them about the Loyalty Oath. I am sorry for my mistake." "It''s fine. I will check your body first when I go there. I assume that there is a wisp of that ancestor soul inside your body." "I arrive at the same conclusion. But I think it''s not that much after some time." "It must be in slumber because you are not intaking that soul and energy. In other words, I will have an easier time destroying that wisp of soul. Just hang on a bit longer." "I understand. From what I understand, the ritual will take a few hours to complete, so Master doesn''t need to rush things." "Noted. Anything else?" Letizia thought for a moment and said, "Since this ritual is a matter of importance but needs to be dealt with secretly, they won''t have too many people guarding it. However, they are still far stronger than average. "From my speculation, I believe there will be one 10-Star, two 9-Star, two 8-Star, and ten 7-Star or below, but 5-Star will be the lowest." "That might be a bit problematic." Alex thought for a moment and thought he would need the help of Freedom Sect, camouflaging them as someone from Spirit Nest. Leoz should be able to take care of the two 9-Star Martial Saints, and he might only call Viola for help to handle their 10-Star. After all, showing another 10-Star or Aileen might be a bad move here. The enemy would be wary and prepare something in advance. As for the two 8-Star and the rest, his other spirits should be able to hold them back for a few minutes. In fact, he could do it as well and have Letizia to destroy the ritual. Well, he should be able to use Swallowing Heaven at that time. In other words, he could fight three people at the same time. If he added his Spirit Crown to the calculation, everything should be fine. "I understand. I will prepare everything. But I think there will be another turn of events, so I want you to reach Sword Saint first before the ritual if it''s possible. I will leave the timing for you. Just make sure you are not discovered. As much as I don''t want to have you in this situation, I am afraid you might need to fight as soon as you get released." "Please don''t apologize, Master. I am happy that I can get my revenge this soon." Letizia clenched her fist, showing her resolve. "Alright. Take care of yourself until then. See you later." "Thank you, Master." Chapter 765 - The Letters Two months later. Alex gradually opened his eyes, feeling refreshed after cultivating for a long time. After that discussion with Letizia, Alex got an additional motivation due to her being pumped to do her part. There wasn''t a single shred of doubt to destroy the Snow White Mountain. At first, he thought she would have a kind of attachment to the Snow White Mountain. Even if there were only a few people, Alex might think a little bit about her feelings. Of course, he would still kill them, albeit with a little bit uncomfortable in his heart. He felt relieved after knowing there wasn''t a single person who seemed to care about Letizia. Even Noel confirmed that she didn''t really have any good friends inside. All of them turned their back the moment they knew she was someone''s slave. It was at that moment she knew that no one actually befriended her. They simply wanted to take advantage of her kindness and talent for their own benefits, unlike Alex, who always helped her the moment she needed. In fact, she grew to like this status because she knew that Alex would never treat her that badly, no matter how low her status is. Unlike those hypocrites, she would not hesitate to draw her blade if Alex wanted to kill them. It might be the first time she felt she could do anything from the bottom of her heart when someone wanted her to do it. Alex might not know about the depth of her loyalty, but he knew that Letizia wouldn''t betray him for a short period of time. After recalling that, Alex finally took a deep breath and rose from the ground. "I think two months have passed. It''s time for me to go back." The gate that he hadn''t used for two months came to his vision. He checked everything, especially the letters for Davi. After that, he touched the array and activated it, creating a hole in the barrier where he could go through. "!!!" Jeanne and Viola were the first ones to notice his presence. They had been waiting for him and knew Alex would soon appear, so they recognized his presence faster than anyone else. Even though it was anyone else, it wasn''t like there were many people to begin with. Other than these two, only Rio and Rena are waiting for him. They found Alex''s strength increased to 3-Star Martial Saint within these two months. They had known the fact that it was a place useful for cultivation, and now they saw the effect, Rio was a bit jealous. However, that jealousy was replaced by a sense of urgency when he heard what Alex said next. "Can you help me to call the former patriarch Devi? I have some business with him. And yes, it''s related to your technique." Alex smiled at them since these two might be the first two that would have their bloodlines fused. Rio nodded to him, but Rena grabbed Rio''s hand, stopping him from calling the patriarch. They had one important job before calling the patriarch. It was to confirm whether he succeeded or not. Rio instantly realized the hidden meaning of her action and clasped his hand to Alex. "May I know¡ª" "I have succeeded. Now call your father." Alex stopped him from uttering those pointless ramblings. The duo looked at each other and nodded, leaving them in a rush. Alex then looked at Viola and Jeanne. "Sorry for making you two wait here for me." "It''s my job." Jeanne grinned and pumped her fist. Viola chuckled because of her action and replied to Alex. "Yes. We have no problem." "Are you going to leave after this, Elder Viola?" Alex asked. "Yes. I have finished my job, so I need to return. Do you need me to do another thing?" "Actually¡­ Yes." Alex was a bit embarrassed to admit it. "But it''s for two years later." "Oh. In that case, I will return first. Just send a message to me, and I will go to you. I still have your token anyway, so I can give you a signal as soon as I return here." "I understand. Thank you." "Hehe¡­" "In that case, I can send you back. After this, I will stay in this place for a month, and the preparation for it is a day. So, I will send you back if you don''t mind." "Sure. I can make them think I am there to protect you anyway." Alex smiled, feeling grateful to this person. Not long after, Davi and his two children returned to this place. Sweats ran through their faces as if they were rushing with their fastest speed. "Do you¡­" Davi still couldn''t believe that Alex succeeded, but the confident expression on his face told him he told the truth. Alex knew that Davi could only come to this place since the information about this place was slightly restricted. That was why he took out the letter first before confirming the matter. "Read this first." Davi nodded as he opened the letter and widened his eyes. ''Duy is blue, hence, Ancient Blue Family. Hello there, little brat. I know that you are old now, but hear me out first. The person in front of you, Alexander Sirius, has finished the task and gotten the technique. ''However, there is still another thing he needs to do with that technique. It''s to fuse the blood of the first two people. And as you might know, there is nothing inside that place, so it''s better to not ask him for anything, since he didn''t receive anything as well. ''After this, you shall gather every single Array Masters that the clan has, and they must be a rank 8 Array Master. For such a grand clan, you should have at least five Array Masters of this level, right? ''All of them will watch him performing the technique to control the array to fuse the blood. I have given him the instruction, and it''s hard if you don''t have anyone to show it at least once. In other words, be grateful to him because he will show you a demonstration. ''After this, have those Array Masters perform the same thing. Of course, it''s better to start with weaker disciples, so the clan won''t lose much. They can get used to the feeling and master the technique. You can then perform the technique on all the members. ''He possesses my token that has my Divine Energy to activate this rank 9 Array, and it should be enough to fuse everyone''s blood. If every single person has fused the energy, I want you to burn the record about this array together with my token. These two items don''t have any function anyway, and if the enemy gets it, the Ancient Blue Family will be threatened. And yeah, after the blood is fused, your body will grow stronger, and it will continue forever, so don''t cling to these items. ''I also gave him a few backup arrays. You are smart enough to show weakness and trap family''s traitors with this trick, right? I will let you do it and cleanse the Ancient Blue Family. ''Anyway, I don''t want to talk too much on this occasion since mostly you will be relying on Alexander. I give you one day to prepare everything. ''And you can use my token to enter this place in the future. Let the realm recover for ten years, and you can send someone every ten years to enjoy the benefit of cultivating inside the rank 9 Gathering Array. Don''t forget to not touch anything of my possession, especially the house. Heed these words, and the Ancient Blue Family will rise in the future. ''Last but not least, if you can''t be his friend, then don''t be his enemy. This is my last and most important warning to you. The moment you break it for whatever reason, the moment my Ancient Blue Family ceases to exist because he is a man that can destroy this world.'' Davi was stupefied when reading the letter. As much as he wanted to doubt this letter, he knew Choong Duy must write it. After all, only he himself knew the first sentence of the letter. And when he got warned a few times about the items, he had no choice other than complete it. He might be curious about Divine Items, but his Ancestors'' wills still toppled that curiosity. On the other hand, he knew that Divine Items wouldn''t last long in this world because they would either be ejected from this world or destroyed. At the end of the message, he was perplexed when Choong Duy warned him strongly about Alexander Sirius. In fact, the tone of his words looked like he was scared. He couldn''t help but wonder what kind of person Alexander Sirius is. Staring at Alex''s eyes for a few seconds, he clasped his hands before saying politely. "I shall guide you to your courtyard while I prepare everything. Please follow me." Rio and Rena were stunned. This might be the first time they saw their father this polite. Little did they know that the threat Alex possessed was too much for ''a single family'' to handle. ''You two little brats. You should be respectful to him too¡­ Unfortunately, I can''t tell you the reason now, but making him your enemy is the last thing you want to do.'' Davi warned them through the thought transmission. The duo had no words and completely froze in their position, albeit none of the people around them paid any attention. They simply followed Davi, who guided them to one of the courtyards for guests. Alex, Jeanne, and Viola entered the room before he said to Viola, "Great Elder. I have checked the surroundings, and I believe this will be the best chance to go." Viola was surprised at first when Alex asked her just after they went inside. "Don''t worry. There is a Sound Insulation Array in this place, so the people outside won''t be able to hear us. As for Davi, I am sure he will be busy for a day." Alex assured her with a smile. Viola thought for a moment and agreed. "Alright." Alex then created a Teleportation Array, and both of them disappeared, leaving Jeanne to watch the house for a while. A few minutes later, they arrived in front of the cave again, watching their reflection on the water surface. Viola then stepped forward before turning around to say her goodbye to Alex. She didn''t forget to ask him. "How about giving me a token?" "What do you mean?" "I mean. My token. With this, you only need to activate the token, and I will know. I am sure you can make it right?" Alex contemplated and nodded after thinking about the pros and cons. At the very least, Viola and Aileen were the most trusted people in the Freedom Sect, so he had no problem giving her a token. He took out a rank 8 wood and cut it into two with his sword, shaping it as elegant as possible. He then inserted a rank 8 array inside the token before asking Viola for two drops of her blood for both tokens. The arrays then glowed for a few seconds before it turned off. Alex then activated the token in his right hand and watched how the token in his off hand glowed. He then nodded and handed the token in his off hand to her and kept the other one to himself. "Thank you." Viola nodded with a smile as she slowly submerged inside the water. "And see you later." "Yes. Thank you for your hard work, Great Elder Viola." Alex watched until she disappeared before going back to the Ancient Blue Family. "Master. What should I do now? Should I go fighting monsters and get experiences¡­ Or should I wait with you? Wait! I think I should do the latter. No matter how you trust them, I can''t be at ease. In fact, you shouldn''t bring her home for the time being." "It''s fine, Sherry. Choong Duy was someone even more careful than this Davi. As long as Davi still pays attention to Choong Duy and Chavel, I won''t have any problem." "Still, let me stay with you." "Sure." Alex smiled and patted her head. Chapter 766 - Starting the Fusion In the middle of the room, Alex sat on the floor while reading a scroll. Jeanne was playing around while watching Alex''s movement to make sure she could fulfill his every need. However, he had begun his study a few hours ago and remained in that position ever since. Jeanne didn''t think it hard. Since that technique was something that could control a rank 9 array, it was normal for him to take that long. In fact, it would already be abnormal if he could master it. As expected from Master, she thought. Little did she know that the technique itself was nothing extraordinary. In fact, Alchemy Skill might be harder than this skill, albeit the Alchemy and Array Mastery were two different things. Even their fundamental skills were different. For a normal Array Master, it would be a hard thing to do, but Alex finished his study after a few hours and continued to try it himself. The next day, Alex finally took a deep breath and stored the scroll inside his space ring. The Array Masters from the Ancient Blue Family might need it in the future, so he would need to hand this over after finishing his task here. Suddenly, a soft and humble voice echoed across the room. "Sir Alexander." ''This voice¡­'' Alex seemed to have figured this voice out and rose from the floor. He pushed open the door, found a lady in front of him, and thought. ''As expected, it''s Davi''s daughter, Rena.'' "Is it time already?" Alex asked gently. "Yes. My father has prepared everything in the hall. I shall guide you there." Rena nodded and acted politely to him. She seemed to have a lengthy talk with her father last night since the change was too extreme. Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Jeanne, asking her to do her part as well. "Master¡­ Are you leaving now? Do I need to call Elder Viola?" She asked, slowly making her way toward Alex. "No. I can handle this." "Can you bring me then? Don''t worry. Jeanne will behave." Jeanne asked Alex with very innocent eyes as if she had nothing to hide. Alex looked up like he was pondering over something and nodded with a smile. "Alright. Let''s go together." "Un!" Jeanne nodded and smiled from ear to ear. With this, Rena must think Elder Viola still stayed inside. Although there was already a drastic change to how Davi acted toward him, he still needed to be careful, thus the assurance. "Please." Alex looked at Rena and stretched his hand, asking her to guide him. At the same time, he thought, ''After this, as long as I return without informing them they will think I have superb skills, or Aileen might have taken me away from them, instilling fear in their heart because there wouldn''t be any safer places for them to hide since I can go back and forth without anyone noticing.'' Rena nodded, turned around, and began to walk. "Please follow me." The two then followed her, walking across many corridors until they found a huge and thick wooden door. Alex furrowed his eyebrows after noticing a few energy signs. ''Hmm? Seven Martial Saints? Still, there is only a single high-ranking Martial Saint here with the others being less than 6-Star Martial Saints." Rena pushed open the door with her strength and asked Alex to come in. Alex then entered the hall and furrowed his eyebrows. The hall itself didn''t have anything grandeur. The floor was made of stone. The pillar had a blue color but looked a bit brittle. The ceiling might be the grandest one here since it had a huge dragon statue hanging. Rena then clasped her hands and went back to her father. Alex scanned the people around and found out that other than the five rank 8 Array Masters, there were only Davi and his son. If he counted his daughter in, there were only eight people from their side. Rena whispered something to Davi before he nodded and asked her to step back. "Welcome. This is the hall where the ancestors often cultivated. Although it has been repaired and maintained well, I am sorry for the old display. I thought since we are going to watch the ancestors'' technique, we need to hold it in this place," Davi stood up and stated. Alex looked at the chair that Davi sat on a moment ago and didn''t find anything extraordinary. The same applied to the others. They were standing on the side, waiting for Alex to come. "It''s nothing. I am thankful for Patriarch Davi to not tell anyone about this yet. I will feel pressured if I need to perform in front of many people." "Good. I heard that you could do two people at once, so I will have my son and daughter to test it." Davi smiled gently. He had three reasons for choosing both of them. First, he had confidence in Alex and believed he would succeed in this. He had this kind of thought after realizing how much the ancestors praised him. Hence, he gambled it all. The second reason would be about the power inside the family. If they succeeded in doing this first, he didn''t know how long it would take for the Array Masters here to master the technique. The elders might unite and overthrow him because of this since only a few elders held the ancestors deep inside their hearts. The third reason was his family condition. Not only would the elders be convinced by the fact that they were the ones that deserved such a thing the most, but he could also investigate any trace of a betrayer since they wouldn''t lay low if they knew about this matter. He then finally risked it and chose both his children to do it. Alex looked at Rena and Rio to see whether they were ready to do this or not. To his surprise, both of them had a serious expression as if they were ready even if they met their doom today. "The process might be a little hurt, so I hope you can withstand the pain," Alex warned for one last time. "Don''t worry. They have been training this whole time. A little pain won''t be much of a problem for them." Davi answered with confidence. Rio nodded in agreement while Rena said, "We thank you for your concern, Sir Alexander. However, we ask you to believe in us as well. We won''t have a problem with enduring pain." Alex stared at their faces for a few seconds and nodded. "Alright." "What do we need to do?" Rena asked. "Strip!" "¡­" Rio immediately looked at Rena and worried about her, but Rena made a swift decision and started undressing. She then looked at Rio, confused why he hadn''t removed his clothes yet. "It''s obvious he asks this to move the energy in a more efficient way. Do I need to scream just because I''m showing some skin? I might die if someone wants to assassinate me when washing myself." "I understand." Rio nodded, took a glance at Alex''s expression and stripped his clothes. Davi had the same opinion as Rena the moment he heard Alex''s request. In fact, he was a bit supportive about this, since Alex might take fancy of her body, and they could deepen their relationship after that. Unfortunately, the only thing that flashed in Alex''s mind was, ''This girl seems to have been trained well. She could stay decisive even after that.'' "That''s enough." Alex stopped them after the two removed their top. He then looked at the rank 8 Array Masters and found three old men and two old women. "Five of you can also come here to observe more closely. As long as you are fifty meters away, it won''t be a problem." The Array Masters looked at each other and nodded, following Alex''s instruction by leaping toward him and stopping fifty meters away. With this distance, they could learn the technique more accurately. Davi then raised his hand and asked Alex if he could go there as well. Alex nodded, and Davi immediately appeared in the midst of the Array Masters. Alex then took out two Array Plates and rolled it on the floor. Both of them are 25x25 meters in size. The Array Masters were convinced it was the reason why Alex asked them to stay fifty meters away. Jeanne tugged Alex''s hand before leaving the Array Plates again. She watched the Array Masters, making sure they wouldn''t do anything to him in this process. As for Rio and Rena, Rio was showing his six packs body and faced Alex with a serious expression while Rena concealed her b.r.e.a.s.ts with her hand. Her expression was calm even though she was hiding her embarrassment. It was the first time she showed some skin like this. Luckily, there seemed to be no vulgar intention behind Alex''s stare, making her feel relieved. Alex then pointed his fingers to the left and right as he said, "In the center of the Array Plate, you should be able to find a circle symbol with a crescent moon inside. Sit inside the circle with a lotus position. So, I can start." Rio walked carefully to make sure he didn''t fold the Array Plate because of his recklessness and caused him something he would regret. He arrived at the circle and stood for a few seconds before finally sitting down according to Alex''s instruction. Rena, on the other hand, became even more embarrassed. Although it wasn''t intentional, she got the position closer to the elders and her father. This made her feel even more awkward. The only thing she could do was walking slowly under their stares before Alex voiced his concern. "All of you can watch from behind. This process needs a calm heart. If you are staring at her like that, it will simply make her uncomfortable. Of course, you can''t watch it from the front as well. If you want, you can go to the other side and watch the male more closely or both of them from behind. Your choice." Alex warned them. Rena had a mixed feeling inside. She felt great to hear Alex voicing out her concern, but at the same time, she knew there wasn''t a single trace of feeling when he said those words. It seemed her body wasn''t attractive enough for Alex to even put a shred of feeling in his heart. ''With that woman as his wife, I guess this is natural.'' Rena thought after recalling Firia. She glanced to the side and found all people had moved to the back. Taking a deep breath and calming her mind, she sat down inside the circle and waited for Alex''s next instruction. Alex checked both of their conditions first, including their Spiritual Energy with his Spirit Eyes. Their energy didn''t waver, so it was perfect to start the fusion now. "Try to set your mind like when you cultivate. Go as deep as possible." Alex instructed. Rio and Rena nodded and followed Alex''s words. It was a bit hard to enter the deepest cultivation state with so many people watching, but their current state wasn''t that far from it. Rio had the most advantage in this situation because he wasn''t embarrassed by his current clothing. On the other hand, Rena seemed to be lacking compared to Rio. Well, Alex couldn''t help it since the situation would even be more awkward if he did it alone with her. At the same time, her talent was slightly inferior to Rio, so there was no way the two would have the same. "Now release your Spiritual Energy and follow the direction of my Spiritual Energy," Alex said before sending a thought transmission to the others. ''The higher their talent, the easier to do it. Please watch the guy''s progress and compare it with the female later.'' The people, including Davi, nodded with a solemn expression. Rio and Rena then released their Spiritual Energy as a signal to start the fusion. Alex took a deep breath and released his Spiritual Energy too. He took out the token and activated it. "Now, let''s start." Chapter 767 - Fusing the Energies "Now, let''s start." As soon as Alex said it, the token released its Divine Energy. Everyone in the room could sense two streams of energy. It wasn''t Alex''s control, but something different. ''Two Seniors left their last piece of their Divine Soul to activate these two Array Plates by using their Divine Energy stored inside. However, Senior Chavel is weakened, and I believe this will be the last time she could activate this power. That''s why you are going to work only with Senior Choong Duy, so you can only do it one at a time.'' Alex didn''t forget to instruct them with a thought transmission. Even though they wanted to ask something, they decided to hold their curiosity since Alex shouldn''t be disturbed. It must take a lot of their attention to just speak to them like this. How could they ask their questions? Davi might even kill them on the spot if they ruined this fusion ritual. Alex used his Spiritual Energy to guide the Divine Energy to enter the Array through a certain symbol and said, ''Remember this symbol. This will be the place to enter the Divine Energy. If you let it enter another symbol, the Array itself might get ruined.'' Before Davi and Jeanne realized it, the five elders seemed to have taken out their book and started writing. They even recorded Alex''s instruction word by word and didn''t forget to draw the symbol. With Alex''s back facing them, they could focus on the array instead of his face. The Divine Energy then spread through the entire Array Plate, coating every symbol with golden color. Alex added, ''This process will flow naturally. Just make sure it goes undisrupted and have the circle where these two sit to be the last one. Other than that, there is no order." As soon as the Array became fully activated, Alex raised his hand. The Spiritual Energy and the Divine Energy flew upward and enveloped Rio''s and Rena''s Spiritual Energy. "Follow me the movement of the Spiritual Energy closely," Alex warned not only the Array Masters but also Rio and Rena. "Move all of your Spiritual Energy wherever my Spiritual Energy goes." Rio and Rena couldn''t reply at this moment because they would break the focus. Still, both of them were surprised when they felt this gentle warmth enveloping their body. It was as if someone pulled them into their embrace. However, Rio didn''t think it was disgusting. In fact, he couldn''t picture Alex hugging him since he lost his ability to think for the time being. As for Rena, she simply enjoyed this warmth and focused on where the Spiritual Energy flowed. Alex then moved it toward their right foot. The brother and sister released all their Spiritual Energy to that particular area. ''This is the first step. You need to fuse every bit of the energy from those residing in the Meridians, Blood Vessels, Tendons, Bones, Flesh, and Skin. You need to follow this order strictly.'' This time, Alex instructed with his thought transmission again. ''Look closely.'' Alex''s Spiritual Energy suddenly clenched their two energies and started compressing them to make them in the same place with the help of the array. This process was similar to force another type of gas to fill a single container. After finishing the merging of the energy inside the Meridians, he then did it several times until everything changed. Suddenly, they felt something odd. A grey smoke leaked out of their feet. ''This is the impurity due to the clash of the energy inside their body. Although the quantity is low, you still need to expel it to perfection. Just like how Alchemist needs to purge the impurity to create a high purity if not perfect purity pill, this process needs the same care. ''After this, you use the array to stitch both of these energies together, forcing them to fuse.'' Alex controlled the energy and trapped both energies inside the Divine Energy. Just like what he said, there was a little trace of the Divine Energy that forced them to stick together before they started mellowing a bit and fusing with each other. Alex waited for a bit more before moving to the right leg. He repeated the same process, including the impurity and the stitching processes. He was very patient for this to ensure the success of this process. Luckily, it didn''t require a huge amount of energy, so he was quite relaxed when doing it. After the whole right leg finished, he moved to the left foot and left leg before going to the hands with the same order. Hand first before moving to the arm; Right first before going to the left. Finishing their four limbs, Alex''s energy headed toward the stomach and filled their entire torso area. There wasn''t any difference in the process in this area other than the impurities. It seemed this area had the most impurities since it was leaking five times the amount of all limbs combined. This process alone took two hours to complete. ''I almost forgot to mention it to you, but make sure you don''t fuse the energy inside the organs because they are the last one, and you need to do it together.'' Alex gave his instruction while moving the energy toward their head. Rio and Rena still responded very well. In fact, they enjoyed this feeling and wondered whether Alex was joking about the pain. There wasn''t anything uncomfortable in the process at all. Both of them even wanted to enjoy this feeling longer. Alex didn''t care and continued, fusing the energy in their head. This time, they felt like someone massaging them there. It felt even more amazing. ''The next step is the most important step. Like all you know, organs are delicate and produce energy in our body, especially the heart, so if you fail to do the organs, it will limit or even ruin someone''s potential. Hence, I suggest you to not play around in this step. Since there is some time before the head is finished, you may ask a question. Each of you has one chance and do it one at a time starting from the left person.'' The first one seemed to be one of the two females. She looked at the others to see their opinion since she was a bit scared to ask a question, lest she distracted him. However, the other guys nodded, including Davi, telling her that he would take responsibility for it. She then nodded and asked. ''Is there any side effect?'' ''I don''t know if you can classify this as a no, but there is certainly an after effect. Their cultivation base will decrease, considering I remove a portion of their energy in the form of impurities. Let''s take the girl as an example. She seems to be close to Martial Saint, so I think she will need another few months to years of cultivation to trigger her tribulation instead of a week. ''Of course, there is also benefit from this. Because of this, I don''t know whether to say this as a side effect or not. Considering the two energies have fused, she will gain more power despite her cultivation decreasing. And you will find her Spiritual Energy to burst out more vitality, especially in the Beast Blood Part. ''As you might already know, this technique will stimulate the beast blood by using the human blood. And it will only happen after finishing the energy fusion, so you might want to wait there to see the effect. After all of this, you can consider whether this is a side effect or not.'' They widened their eyes and got confused as well. Even Davi somehow felt it wasn''t a side effect. Instead, it was a blessing. The way Alex said it made him believe that they would have more room to grow. ''When will the pain start?'' The second person asked. ''As soon as I start the fusion in their organs. It will last until the end. The pain will start like a tickle before increasing as time passes.'' ''Is there any consequence if we fail the energy fusion?'' ''You can''t try again on the same person. Well, this part is simple. As long as you have enough control of the array and your Spiritual Energy, you should be able to handle it well. The real challenge will be when doing the organ and stimulating the blood since the energy will start rampaging. Just watch it later.'' ''Then how about consequences in the stimulating process or the organs? Will they have an internal injury, or will we have one?'' ''From what I understand, there is one when you are stimulating the blood. There is a chance of an internal injury, but it shouldn''t be that much. They should be able to recover in a month. As for the fusion process, the array has some safety measures. It will simply turn off and cancel the whole situation. Since you are going to repeat from the feet, you can''t try it again, as I said earlier.'' The fifth one took a few seconds to think about his question. ''Will we need extra treatment after this? We, as in, us. Three of us here were born in this family, so we have the same bloodline as them. That''s why I don''t know whether we are qualified to treat them. As for the other two, they are fully human recruited by the family.'' ''No. The Array itself will handle the separating process of your Spiritual Energy. Hence, you might need more energy than usual, but it shouldn''t take too much energy. I only need around ten to twenty percent of my Spiritual Energy. As for you¡­ Might be twenty to thirty percent.'' ''Thank you.'' The Array Masters then thanked him simultaneously. Davi, who was listening to their conversation from the start, couldn''t help but smile. It seemed he struck gold by letting Alexander Sirius go inside the array. Even though he was a bit disappointed since Rio couldn''t get the energy inside the Special Realm, he and the family got even far more than that. Alex kept utilizing the array for another ten minutes before his eyes flashed. "Get ready for the pain!" Rio and Rena quickly clenched their hands, preparing for the pain. The Spiritual Energy flowed toward all their organs from top to bottom. They had no choice other than separating all their energy to those organs with the same amount. Alex clasped his hand and controlled the Spiritual Energy to fuse the different areas. There were seventy-nine organs in a human body, and Alex did it at once. This would require a huge amount of concentration. He even forgot to instruct them. Luckily, they could respond after feeling him spreading his energy to those organs with the same amount. Rio was startled by the tickle all over his body, creating wonder in his head. He had prepared for the pain, and yet he got a tickle like this. He felt Alex played him. However, he realized that the tickle seemed to change and gradually increase its intensity, shutting that thought deep inside his mind. Rena, on the other hand, wanted to move her body, especially around her heart and lung. She wanted to touch her b.r.e.a.s.ts because she felt something odd. Unfortunately, she could only endure this at the moment and bit her lips. The moment the pain came, Rena didn''t know whether to feel relieved or not. On one hand, she was happy that she didn''t need to scratch that area to lessen it. On the other hand, the pain seemed to be harder to endure. Alex didn''t say anything and focused on his task. The Array Masters were astonished upon Alex''s control. No wonder the ancestors asked him to perform it for the first time. They felt confident to handle one person, but the most they could do was around one hundred organs. It was far behind Alex''s control of energy. At the same time, they admired how Alex did everything perfectly. If they knew Alex only practiced the technique for a day, they might bang their head to the wall. Suddenly, both Rio and Rena screamed at the top of their lungs. "Aahhh!" Chapter 768 - The Result "Aaahhh!" The pain intensified almost immediately. It didn''t do much earlier, but it jumped straight to be pierced by a nail from an ant''s sting. Alex said no more and focused on his task. It might be due to the experience of pain himself that he thought this level of pain was nothing extraordinary. If they couldn''t even withstand this pain, they might die after feeling the pain from the Undying Fire Body''s refining. However, it seemed they were not a pushover. After experiencing the pain for several minutes, they gradually adjusted their breathing, so they could endure it better. Their screams died out to the point they only let out some groans during this process. "Ho?" Alex smirked as he kept refining their organs according to the technique. Rena seemed to be the one adjusting better. ''She seems to have something more even though her talent is lower than Rio. Not that I care about them since I will probably leave this world before they can rise.'' Alex stayed quiet the whole time. The elders watched him even to the slightest movement, but they knew there wasn''t anything to do in this process other than maintaining the energy. At this time, another question appeared in their mind. ''What if the other party can''t withstand the pain and pass out?'' They would surely ask this question to Alex after this. A few hours passed after the start of the organ refinements. Even Alex was covered with sweat. The consumption might not be that much, but it really took him full of concentration doing two people at the same time. Jeanne increased her surveillance even further to keep these people in check. Just like how she knew Davi measured everything from benefits, she knew that Alex''s worth was far higher than these two''s worth. Luckily, the moment the organ had completed, there wasn''t a single suspicious movement coming from them. Alex then clapped his hand, raising the energy to a whole different level. "This will be the last step. It will be far more painful than the previous one but last shorter. Prepare yourself," Alex warned them and inserted the Spiritual Energy inside their body. The newly combined energy started doing their wonder. Because of the different types of energy, the moment they entered the blood, the latter started expelling them. "Argh!" The two screamed again. Alex took a deep breath and channeled his Spiritual Energy to suppress the blood with the help of the array. He looked left and right to see their conditions first before focusing on Rena, who seemed to have a problem with this situation. He poured more Spiritual Energy and eventually his Pure Fire to suppress the blood. Because of this, their fused energy slowly entered their blood as if washing the blood to get used to the new environment. Alex still didn''t do anything special to stimulate their blood, creating confusion among the Array Masters. They were afraid that the moment all of the energy managed to enter, the process would be finished. They were wondering when the stimulating process would start. Considering what Alex said, this process seemed to be the stimulating process, but they couldn''t sense any power up in their strength. Luckily, no one spoke a single word for half an hour because Rio and Rena had been screaming this whole time. Suddenly, Alex opened his eyes, feeling the change in their blood. "Looking at your conditions, the energy almost fused with you. After this, I don''t care what you are doing, but make sure you stay awake the whole time. If you don''t, everything up to here will be for naught. After all, this step will determine how pure your energy will be." Alex shouted to the two. Even though the two were still screaming, they understood Alex''s words and did whatever they could to stay awake, including preparing their hearts. After another few minutes, Alex clapped his hand as the array glowed brighter. ''This will be the final stretch.'' Alex said to himself as he finished inserting all of their energy into their blood and let it out of his suppression. Without Alex''s warning, everyone in the room knew this would be it. The energy burst out of their body before a golden aura appeared and covered them. Not long after, a portion of it summoned a translucent golden dragon, soaring to the ceiling. "Come back to me!" Alex clicked his tongue and released his Spiritual Energy to catch these dragons. Noticing Alex''s energy, the dragons turned hostile toward him, glaring at him as if they wanted to engulf him. Rio and Rena peeled their eyes wide, glancing at Alex. He had been helping them from the start, so they tried to control the dragon so as to not attack him like an ungrateful bastard. However, they seemed to have little to none control over this dragon. "Don''t waste your time. These are not your dragons. These are simply a projection of the dragon blood in your body. Seeing the guy''s dragon is soaring faster, he is indeed having a better talent, albeit not that different. Anyway, I will force the dragons inside your body. Be prepared!" Alex roared as he utilized the array. Five chains suddenly appeared on a certain symbol within the array, clutching the dragon completely. Because he was helping two people at the same time, the number of the chains he needed to control was ten, along with the other process he needed to do at this moment, it started taking a toll on him. "Just go back, you newborn lizard!" Alex screamed, annoyed by their resilience attitude. He had been trying to pull them back to the body for a few minutes, but the dragon still had half of their original distance. Even so, there was nothing for him to do except continuing this action. He endured this process for another few minutes before the dragon began to lose its energy. It was at this time Alex''s eyes flashed. Another chain appeared from the symbol next to the previous symbol. However, this chain had a pointed tip, unlike the previous chance. And its purpose was obvious. The moment the dragon showed its weakness, Alex released it, impaling the dragon head with this thing. As one would expect, the dragon was killed by the strike, and its Spiritual Energy slowly returned to the blood with the help of the chains. Alex took another glimpse of their condition and realized that their breathing seemed to have slowed down. In other words, the process had been completed. He turned off the array with a single wave of his hand, and the room became dark again. Davi and the elders wanted to leap toward Rio and Rena, but they couldn''t do it because of Jeanne. She would surely attack them before they could make a move. Besides, the two were still in their cultivation, and Alex hadn''t declared it complete. Not long after, Rio''s started glowing, and when everyone saw it, it turned out to be his aura. His Spiritual Energy was leaking due to the lack of control. Even so, it didn''t stop his excitement. He rose from the ground and released his Spiritual Energy completely. "Ah!" Rio shouted out loud before glaring at his father and the elders. "This¡­" Davi was stupefied. Although it was dim, Rio just let out an aura similar to that of a dragon. It had a similarity with the dragon from before. Rio, on the other hand, didn''t notice this change. What he realized was the strength behind his current energy. Although his cultivation base regressed a little, he seemed to have powered up by a great amount. He was even more confident in challenging a 3-Star, if not 4-Star. Out of curiosity, Rio raised his hand and waved it to the side, sending a ball of energy toward the wall. When everyone saw it, they were surprised by the power behind it. They never heard Rio was this powerful. Suddenly, a shadow flashed before the wall as it destroyed the attack with its barehand. Everyone thought it was Davi, but the real person didn''t move even a single step, getting mesmerized by the power. *Bam!* "Can you stop doing that? We are in the Ancestors Room. If you are going to destroy this building, you might as well challenge the entire family." A female voice resounded across the room. "I am sorry." Rio instinctively uttered his apology because of this voice. It naturally came from his sister, and he also knew that she was pissed by his action. At a time like this, he often apologized because it would solve the problem faster. "Hmph!" She snorted and sighed before walking toward Alex. Rio realized what she wanted to do and came beside her, walking together. Jeanne thought they wanted to attack Alex, so she went before them. Alex shook his head and patted Jeanne''s shoulder to calm her down before throwing his uninterested gaze toward these two. Davi and the elders didn''t know what to do as they were planning to stop these two youngsters in case they did something rash. However, the action of these two stunned them completely. Only Alex seemed to have realized their real intention. Rio and Rena turned out to be bowing their head almost ninety degrees. They shouted in unison. "Thank you for your hard work." "I am just fulfilling my job. Besides, you two must realize that you are topless, right?" Alex stopped them. "!!!" Rena was the first one to act as she looked toward Rio and slapped him. "Kya!" Now that they had finished their evolution, Rena had gained her embarrassment. Just before, she didn''t care if Alex saw her topless because she was prepared to face death if they failed this process. And since everything went well, she lowered her guard only to realize something embarrassing. It was a kind of natural reaction to slap someone that saw her, but Rio was the closest one to her, so she slapped him. At the same time, she hadn''t gotten accustomed to her new strength, resulting in her blowing Rio away more than she intended to. *Bam!* To think that slap blasted him to the wall, it was unthinkable. But Rio also had another complaint to her, as he said while falling down to the ground. "You said to not destroy anything, and now you are like this¡­" Rena had no time to talk back and immediately wore a shirt to cover her body. She scratched her head and looked at her father, "This¡­" Davi had a scary expression right now, but the result seemed to calm him down. "I will take care of it." Knowing they were fine, one of the array masters approached Alex and asked. "What will happen if they can''t endure the pain?" "It''s simple. Their potential will be limited due to how much energy is fused in their body. Now that I know that your ancestor is a dragon, I can see a trace of dragon aura in your body. I believe this technique is coming from the dragon, right?" "Ye-yes." Alex then shouted to Rena and Rio. "Hey, you two. Use one of your techniques. I know you have one or two techniques that you can''t use properly." Rio and Rena looked at each other and nodded before asking their father''s permission. When the latter nodded, they raised their hands and shot out a dragon. "Dragon Soars to Heaven." It didn''t take too long before everyone noticed. Before, they could only summon a puny dragon, limiting their strength for quite a bit. Although the strength was pretty standard for Heaven Tier Art, the real strength of this Art was peak Heaven Tier. And when they summoned it again, the dragon suddenly turned into a fifteen-meter long dragon, bursting out vitality. Although they felt it was somewhat lacking, they realized it was due to their control and the fact they were not familiar with the current energy. "We¡­We can use this technique?!" Rio and Rena exclaimed in astonishment. "That is the result. As long as they have familiarized themselves with this new energy, they would be able to use the technique to its fullest potential. As for those who are limited to the current situation, their strength will increase only a slight amount, depending on their result." "I see. Thank you." The elder bowed to him before the other four also did the same. Chapter 769 - Davis Promises "Thank you." Davi also sent his thanks to Alex and even slightly bowed his head to show his sincerity. It was hard for a person of high status to bow their head, let alone the Family Head of Ancient Blue Family. ''Hmm¡­ Is it really his feeling, or is it because of the letter? Never mind. At least I know that he won''t attack me for the time being.'' Alex thought and nodded his head. "I was just doing my part." Davi nodded and looked at his children. "How do you feel now?" "We are fine, Father. I might be able to fight 4-Star Martial Saint if I push my limit, but if I manage to control this energy, I believe I can fight them on equal ground. The same applies to Rena since our talent isn''t that much different." Rio answered with a gentle smile before clasping his hand toward Alex again. "That''s great." Davi patted their shoulders and hugged them for a few seconds before returning to Alex. "I am sorry for this display¡­ But it seems we have an unfinished business¡­ May I ask you to leave this room first together with me so we can talk?" Alex didn''t answer him immediately. Instead, he took out a scroll from his Space Ring and threw it toward the Array Masters. "This is the technique I used earlier. It is a bit hard, but since you have watched how I performed it, you should be able to understand this technique faster." Davi was slightly confused because there wasn''t a single mention of Alex giving the technique in the letter. He only knew that Alex would teach them how to do it. Seeing this much favor from Alex, another idea appeared in his mind. "Let''s go." Alex stretched his hand forward, asking him to lead the way. Davi and Alex then left the room, wanting to have a serious talk outside. Alex created his Sound Insulation Array and halted his step, taking out a few Array Plates from his Space Ring. "These are the backup arrays. I think my part has finished after giving these to you." "Yes. However, I would like to extend my thanks to you after this." Davi smiled. "I feel like the condition of me being part of your play in this war is not equal to the one you gave us. Hence, I would like to add another condition from our side. "I want to promise you that none of the elders, including me, will have their energy combined before you leave this world as a God Rank Expert." "Ho?!" Alex narrowed his eyes, never expecting Davi to give such a promise. "I don''t recall you are a person like this¡­" "No, no. I have calculated everything. Looking at your strength and cultivation speed, I am confident that you will become a God Rank Expert within a decade. So, it''s not that long for us. At the same time, we can experiment with the technique and master it to perfection by testing it with lower level disciples. "This fusion can elevate our status even higher since we will be able to utilize our latent talent. And I know you are still wary against us, especially since we are a threat to your plan. That''s why no elders will undergo something like this for the time being. It''s our commitment. "And¡­ This is my internal problem, but I guess it''s necessary to tell you. We are trying to move against the people who want to ruin our family with their corruption. Hence, we want to take care of our internal problem first before looking upon the broader world. "I think ten years will be the perfect time for my Ancient Blue Family. And if you need any help from my family¡­ As long as it doesn''t require a huge number of human resources, we will gladly help you." Davi paused for a moment before revealing his biggest factor. "As you might already know, I am a person who is looking at benefits before everything else. And I simply see siding with your side for the time being won''t bring my family a disaster. I also know the fact that you won''t attack a neutral influence without apparent reason¡­ In other words, I simply take away that reason from you." Alex looked up and sighed. "Fair enough. But since you are this sincere, you don''t mind if I say my request now, right?" "Certainly." "You know I have a disciple and some friends, right?" "I promise you as the former family head. I will also have Rio to swear a Heavenly Oath for that. We won''t attack your friends and disciple." Alex looked at him for a few seconds before nodding. "Alright. Since that is the case, I won''t be your enemy. But you need to remember, my network is vast, so you better watch out your movement." "Of course." Davi ignored this threat because he would have no time to deal with this threat due to the complexity of his matter. "Now that I think about it, you can even use the whole act as a part of the alliance to recognize the betrayer in your family. Two years should be enough for the Array Masters to get a good grasp of the array, if not mastering it." Alex gave a piece of advice. "!!!" Davi gasped, never expecting Alex could think something like that in a brief moment. "That''s right. Those who are trying to usurp and not happy with the family tradition will surely show their true color if we retreat without any apparent reason. "And I can pacify the family with the news after finishing these traitors¡­" Davi took a deep breath and blinked his eyes a few times. He admitted defeat to Alex. "Now I can see why you are classified as a disaster that will destroy our family if we make a wrong choice¡­ I understand. I will act my part, and thank you very much." Alex waved his hand, telling him that he didn''t do much. He entered the room and asked Jeanne. "We are going back to the courtyard." Davi heard this and improvised. "Five elders, I will leave Rio and Rena to you. I will guide our esteemed guests to their courtyard, so they can have a good rest." All of the people inside the room clasped their hands, giving their thanks to Alex. However, the latter already walked away with Jeanne and Davi. "Master¡­ What are we going to do now? You have officially become a 3-Star Martial Saint, and I think you are not far from 4-Star. Are you going straight to 5-Star this time?" Jeanne asked as soon as they entered the room. "No. I am mastering my Spirit Crown first. Maybe one of you can share your element with me and increase my strength even further¡­ But we will see whether this technique suits me or not. After all, the past me could do something like this because he had no element. I don''t want to ruin my Space and Pure Fire just for the sake of this." "I understand. This Jeanne will surely accompany Master if you want to test it." Jeanne smiled. "I don''t want to brag, but¡­ Only Jean, Mistress Alicia and Firia can be compared to me in terms of elements. Mistress Anna and Anya are unique, so they can''t really be compared. I believe it''s good to borrow a strong element because it will push you to the limit, allowing you to master it faster." "We will talk about it after we return to the base. Seeing my strength catching up with all of you, do you think you can slack off?" Alex smirked. What he said was true. Alex only 1-Star away from them, and the group would feel useless if they let Alex catch up just like that. However, Sherry also remembered a few things. "Don''t worry. We have enough Gacha Tickets to do another level up, and if we calculate by the EXPs coming from the war later¡­ I think we have no problem in reaching 6-Star if not 7-Star Martial Saint. And if you add the Gacha Tickets coming from that war¡­ Leoz might be able to reach 10-Star if you focus on him." "No. By that time, Leoz will probably stay in 8-Star or 9-Star. I want all of you to reach the goal at the same time, so I will refrain myself from giving Leoz EXP Cards." Alex shook his head. "Fair enough. I will just follow Master''s commands." Jeanne smiled and raised her two fingers, making a peace sign. ??Well, I hope I can reach 5-Star if not 6-Star after the war. That way, I would only need four years to reach 10-Star and undergo my tribulation. Wait, I can do it faster because I don''t need to train any Divine Technique, Divine Pill, or Divine Array. I simply can''t train them due to the lack of Divine Energy. Even my Simulation Room can''t handle something like this." Alex shook his head and sighed. "You can practice it elsewhere. In fact, Eulja is a better place for you to practice." "We will see." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, it''s time for us to leave." Jeanne nodded. "I don''t have anything to bring, so I can go anytime." Alex then created a Teleportation Array and sent them toward their base. An hour later. Alex sat on the chair, facing Anya with a calm expression. "That''s how it is." He just finished re-summoning Anya, so she could see his memory as to not trouble himself from explaining everything to her. "I get the gist of your plan. Though I want to warn you about the Spirit Crown." "Is there any problem with the crown?" "At the moment? No. In the future? Yes." "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, trying to understand her meaning. "You should know that most God Rank Experts recognized that crown, right?" "Ah! I see." Alex instantly realized her concern. "Yes. Those who had seen the outside worlds in the past would recognize you with a single glance. This also applied to those who are not in this world. Spirit God is a well-known name even now, so you might want to hide it in the future until you are strong enough. In fact, your two elements, skills, and connection with us already bring too much attention from the worlds around us. Luckily, none of them realize your identity yet. "If they know you are here, people will swarm you like crazy, from your friends, neutral people, or even your enemies. Eulja might be strong, but if they need to defeat many worlds at once, we will be defeated. "Hence, I believe you should think about changing your name, controlling your strength and hiding your Spirit Crown," Anya said with a pained look. She didn''t want to do this if they had an option. Due to the lack of presence of the Spirit God for a long time, she simply had no clue what the others were thinking about Alex. Hence, she needed to ask Alex all of this until he got strong enough. Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "I understand your concern. Haven''t I done it all this time? I might probably need another name other than Redna Xela¡­ My reverse name. As for my strength, I will use my fire first so people will think about the former Fire God, or I can reveal my Space Element to remind them about the Dungeon God. "As for the Spirit Crown¡­ It''s my trump card. I am not using it unless necessary. Besides, you, spirits, will be more recognizable. Of course, they must still think I am dead. And these five thousand years means their surveillance will be severely lacking. "Hence, I think we can move together for a few years¡­ Albeit not in a great number. I will try cultivating as quickly as possible while enjoying the time that we have. Well, I will set my target to Rank 5 God for this. I think I will be able to fend myself off with this strength." Anya stared at him for a few seconds before nodding her head. "Alright. Since that is the case, we will go according to your plan." Chapter 770 - Training Part 1 The next day. Alex woke up after recovering his Spiritual Energy. He was a bit tired after handling so many businesses outside, so he rested his mind to prepare for the training. "Hmm?" Alex looked around and found Anya writing something in the main room. "Anya. I am going out." "Do you want to practice?" Anya asked. "Yes. I am going to master the Spirit Crown¡­ And the cave restricts my movement, so¡­" Alex nodded. "It''s fine. Do you want me to accompany you?" "You don''t need to. I am going to create a Special Realm around here." "Alright. Since this place is fine for us, I think you should only create a training space outside." "Yes." Alex then turned around and walked away. "I am going then." "Be careful. I will check on you later." Alex waved his hand and went to the surface. Not far from him was a dense forest with tall trees. He thought this would be the perfect place to arrange his Special Realm. Taking out the blood from his Inventory, he spread it around and used it to draw symbols. Alex didn''t make a huge one since he didn''t need that much space, so the construction itself only took him three hours. He then added an Illusion Array and a Gathering Array. Two hours later. "Activate." As soon as Alex ordered, a translucent barrier shot out to the sky before the Illusion Array camouflaged it. "With this, the preparation is finished," Alex muttered to himself before taking out his sword, looking at the trees around him. He waved his sword and sent a Sword Wave, cutting all the trees around the area. After that, he raised his hands and used his Spiritual Energy to lift the root. With this, he finally got himself a 100x100 meters training field. He went to the center of the array, stored all the wooden logs here, and sat down on the ground, recalling all the information regarding the Spirit Crown. ''This technique has three parts. The first part allows me to make my Spirit Techniques, Spirit Eyes and Spirit Step, more efficient. However, the moment I can make them as such, I need to use them together with the Spirit Crown. In other words, as soon as the Spirit Crown is out, I will use both techniques automatically. ''This doesn''t really hinder me because I won''t use the crown unless I am fighting someone. And the longest fight I have ever had is around almost a day, which was the fight against that Space Monster. ''However, dealing with the subordinates actually took longer for me, so I guess this will be useful to deal with those too?'' Alex thought as he roamed inside his mind. ''Well, it is not that hard. I first need to get used to activating both Spirit Techniques for a whole day. ''I usually used them only when I wanted to attack or defend someone. Like how I used the Spirit Step to enhance my strength or Spirit Eyes to see every energy movement¡­ It will be hard to use it continuously because it will require not only Spiritual Energy but also my focus¡­ Well, the only thing I can do is to try again and again until I succeed.'' With this thought in mind, Alex finally rose from the ground and activated his Spirit Eyes and Spirit Step at the same time. The flow of energy started coming into his vision. In fact, they were flowing toward his body due to the usage of his Spirit Step. ''Now that I try this, do I need to hold the energy from the Spirit Step inside my body or do I need to release it and repeat?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He felt a bit uncomfortable because of the excessive amount of Spiritual Energy inside his body. He tried to search for any information regarding this technique, and it turned out to be the former. Because this didn''t require him to do anything other than suppressing the energy inside his body, Alex decided to train his body by walking around before increasing his pace. As expected, Alex felt awful, even only with walking. However, he needed to do this because he knew a fight wouldn''t let him standstill. No matter how hard it felt, Alex continued this kind of practice. After a few days, Alex never thought he was stuck in this stage. If he stood still for a whole day, he could actually use the two Spirit Techniques for a whole day. And yet, he would fall to the ground after less than twenty hours if he walked around. In the end, Alex took a whole two weeks to finally master this step. Alex felt thrilled since he had cleared the first stage. The next step of this training would be running around before playing his sword and spear, then using his Martial Arts and treating it like a real battle. Despite falling down and on the verge of collapsing so many times, Alex gritted his teeth and continued. Even when Anya came to check him, he only talked to her while training this technique. Three months later. "Mythical Fire Slash!" The Sword Wave flew to the wall of the Special Realm, only to get swallowed by a Spatial Gate. Alex stood tall in the middle of the field, checking his body. "This is good! I have succeeded in keeping my Spirit Step and Spirit Eyes for a whole day while simulating a whole fight. After this, I only need to add the Spirit Crown and utilize the technique. After I get used to it, I can be considered as mastering it." Alex pumped his fist before activating his Spirit Crown. He then started his training again. Luckily, he only needed another two weeks to master this technique. He was surprised because he felt the energy consumption for Spirit Eyes and Spirit Step were cut by half in the end. Alex became more excited because of this. Although he couldn''t use it easily, the technique was indeed able to be one of his trump cards. "This is good! No wonder this can be considered as a trump card. At the same time, I still have two other parts that can boost it even more." Alex grinned as he recalled the second part. ''The second part of this technique will allow me to enhance my Spirit Step and Spirit Eyes. My Spirit Eyes is already a pinnacle, but I can evolve it into Divine Eyes with this technique. The usage is mostly the same, but there are two benefits that I will get. ''First. I can utilize this to destroy any Illusion Array, including Divine Illusion Array, with a single glance. In other words, Illusion is nothing but a mere glass for me. As for the second use, I can see everything related to a person, including their constitution. ''I never use this because there are only humans in this world¡­ Or that is supposed to be like that. However, I will be able to use this to my advantage if I decide to travel between worlds. No one will be able to hide something from me. ''As for the second technique that I can reinforce is my Spirit Step. The same as the Spirit Eyes, this technique will change its name to Divine Step. Firstly, it can enhance the Spiritual Energy and turn it into Divine Energy. ''I know the fact that Spiritual Energy needs to be converted into Divine Energy first, so the Gods and Goddesses might be able to influence the Spiritual Energy in nature, but they won''t be able to use them like a Divine Energy. ''If I have this, my advantage will be very clear as soon as I reach God Stage. Well, I can also increase the spirits'' techniques. Though I believe the previous me has enhanced their strength. Meanwhile, I can only enhance it once a year, so this will be hard for me. And I need Divine Energy to upgrade Heaven Tier Art to Divine Art. ''Such a troublesome requirement¡­ Well, for the time being, I can enhance a weaker technique¡­ There are some weaker techniques in my memory, so I will use them. It''s a Spirit Technique anyway, from Spirit Slash to Spirit Jump.'' Alex took a deep breath before utilizing the technique. His body began to glow, and the ground started shaking. He looked at one of the techniques and read it thoroughly before utilizing the technique to see any chance of improvement. The moment he found it, the technique would guide him from the start and show him a better and complete technique. Alex never thought such a technique existed in this world. If this technique could enhance a normal Martial Arts as well, not the Spirit Techniques, this Spirit Crown might already be in someone''s possession. No wonder the spirits revered him. This technique and the fact that he brought peace to the Spirit World were enough to gain their full support. Unlike humans who would betray him easier than any races out there, the Spirits are the exact opposite. For the first week, his chance of upgrading a technique was very low. Even though he only upgraded some Profound Tier Techniques, he only managed to upgrade it one out of a hundred. And each time he simulated the upgrading process in his mind, it would take him a day. That was why this part took him so much time since he could only upgrade two low tier techniques within a week. He wondered whether it would take him a year to upgrade a Heaven Tier Technique in this case. Alex didn''t dare to think and practiced it. Of course, everything was only a simulation in his head. Because he could only upgrade a technique per year, he didn''t dare to complete it and upgraded some random techniques. Hence, every time he found a solution to upgrade the technique, he would stop there and try again. He increased his difficulty to a higher level as soon as his success rate reached as high as ten percent. He felt he wouldn''t be able to reach one hundred percent to upgrade a technique like this, so he moved on rather than wasting his time. As expected, when he tried a higher tier technique, it required more time. Alex could only grit his teeth and cultivate in his rest time. Finally, he broke through to 4-Star Martial Saint in the middle of his training. Even so, the advancement didn''t hinder him a bit as he kept trying to master the Spirit Crown. The hurdle became higher and higher as he advanced to Earth Tier Spirit Technique and Heaven Tier Spirit Technique. The time consumed is also even longer. Alex had time anyway, so he maintained the ten percent probability result. At least, he thought this would be a perfect percentage to stop. When he entered the Heaven Tier Spirit Technique, he was blown away by the study about Divine Energy. Due to the lack of Divine Energy, Alex decided to use his Simulation Room to try producing energy close to the characteristic of the Divine Energy itself. The system also took part in the creation process, describing what it felt to have Divine Energy. Of course, the end result was somewhat lacking compared to the Divine Energy, but it was perfect training for Alex. After all, there was not a single person who could train with Divine Energy before reaching God Stage other than him. He could even say that the energy produced was half Divine Energy. For the Heaven Tier Art, he chose none other than his Spirit Eyes and Spirit Step. He simulated everything inside his Simulation Room, like how he mastered the pill in this place. A single use of this technique required him three days to process and searching for a way to have the technique breakthrough. Due to how long it took, Alex thought he could enhance the Spirit Crown itself, but he simply felt nothing when he tried it. Even though he was disappointed, he didn''t take it to his heart and practiced. Finally, six months later¡­ Chapter 771 - Training Part 2 Six months later. "Ha!" Alex was surrounded by light. He seemed to be fighting something even though he closed his eyes. Suddenly, the light turned into a rainbow color from golden, and Alex immediately rose from the ground. "I have finally succeeded in enhancing my Spirit Step." Although the end result was unknown, and the process was fuzzy, he still managed to upgrade the Spirit Step to Divine Step. Even if he had the Divine Energy now, he wouldn''t need a long time to upgrade this. And he even mastered the technique for Spirit Eyes before this Spirit Step, so he had fulfilled his goal. Alex waved his hand, going out of his Simulation Room. "It took me six months¡­ Still, I am wondering why I can use Spirit Techniques? Aren''t spirits the only ones qualified to use such a technique?" This question arose in Alex''s heart when he was training this second part. First of all, he had been using Spirit Techniques despite being a human himself, and this Spirit Crown quickly baffled him. The system answered the doubt last time by saying it was due to the past him that he was able to use Spirit Techniques, but Alex felt that wasn''t all. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he thought, he couldn''t reach the real answer. In the end, he threw away this thought before it came back as soon as he finished the training. "Wait. I might be able to know about it there¡­" Alex remembered about a certain place that the previous Alex told him. It just added another reason why he needed to go there. Without taking a rest, Alex continued to the next part, the last part. "This is it. I need a spirit to practice this technique¡­ Since the others are hunting monsters as usual, only Anya can help me for the time being. However, knowing that I can get a certain level of understanding, it''s better to have every element in this part. At the very least, I will get knowledge about other elements without training it myself. "The Spirit has six elements. Fire, Water, Earth, Thunder, Light, and Dark. By the looks of it, I will have Fabio to be the fire, Jean to be the water, Greg to be the earth, Jeanne to be the lightning, Anya to be the light, and Anna to be the dark. However, I know that every spirit seems to possess different characteristics despite having the same element. "For example. Vera has Ice instead of water like Jeanne despite falling into the same category. Anya is a support light element, while Artur is an attack based. The same applies to Nelson and Anya. One can manipulate shadow; one can manipulate people. Should I just learn from others? "I can only borrow one element per month¡­ Considering the timing, I think I will barely succeed in mastering every single spirit. There are ten anyway, and each technique only lasts for a day. This time, I only want the understanding of other elements, so I think I don''t need to control it that much. "Then, I can learn Chavel''s Swallowing Heaven in the meantime. The sooner I complete this training, the longer my time to cultivate. Alright. With this, I will call Anya first, who is in the base right now." Alex nodded and summoned Anya here. "We are going to train." Anya smiled. "Although you will get some knowledge about this, you can ask me anything, including control. This way, the training will be more effective." "Yes. I was just about to ask you. Thank you." Alex nodded with a smile. "Let''s try it then?" Alex nodded, closed his eyes, and summoned the Spirit Crown. Anya smiled when watching the Spirit Crown floating above Alex''s head and looked at the guy who wore it. The blue jade in the crown suddenly shot out a light, heading toward Anya''s head. Alex closed his eyes as much as he could due to the sudden influx of knowledge from Anya. "Kh!" He never thought that the knowledge would go toward him as soon as it connected. And it didn''t even show any signs. It just flowed naturally like water after finding a slope. Anya didn''t say anything this whole time. She might not experience Alex''s pain, but it still felt weird to have something copied and sucked from your brain. Although the method was different, the principle of the Gacha System was similar. Anya had experienced something like this in the past, so she never said anything to the Gacha System about Alex''s memory. It was useful anyway. After one minute, Alex opened his eyes and smiled at Anya. "Are you ready now? I will be teaching you everything about the light element." Anya paused for a moment and smirked. "Light element is¡­" She began her lecture for a few hours before Alex started experimenting with the Light Element, from the healing ability to her support ability. Alex was surprised at first when he felt his energy and strength drained when he used Anya''s support technique that usually raised his strength by a large amount. To think the side effect was weakening her¡­ Alex was stunned. It might also be the reason why a spirit would always protect Anya at that time. They knew Anya was at her weakest in that state. He thought about considering this before he asked her to use this ability, but Anya rejected him. She wanted him to believe in her and her judgment, promising him that she wouldn''t use the technique if she knew someone would target her. Alex ended up agreeing with her request and let her decide what she wanted to do. After a day passed, the copied element disappeared, and Alex lost his light element. "I think it''s time for me to go. Although I want to talk with you, your training is more important. I will have my time after you have finished." Anya grinned as she waved her hand while walking away. "That''s right. I will handle whose element you will learn next. I think I have a perfect order for your training purpose." "Sure. I will leave it to you." Alex nodded with a smile before taking out the Swallowing Heaven from his Inventory. "Since I only used the first day of this month, I could practice this technique for the rest of the month." Alex read the scroll. Although he had somehow learned this technique by watching Chavel, he felt he would still get new information when reading it. And it turned out he was right. "It seems the technique itself is the evolution of the Dragon Strengthening Technique. The Supreme had succeeded in evolving it to a living dragon aura, but this technique is on a whole different level. "The living dragon aura becomes even more like a living dragon. It can be controlled, and if I use my weapons'' consciousness, it can be considered a true living dragon. "And from what I see, the barrier that those guys can provide is weaker than the skin of this dragon. In other words, if the two consciousnesses decide to protect me, they can have the dragon covered me. "Then, I can finally use this technique to its fullest potential as long as I have rank 9 Spiritual Weapons. After all, this technique is a Divine Technique." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, determined to master it. ¡­ Five months later. "Attack me!" *Roar Roar!* Two translucent red dragons flew toward Alex, trying to swallow him. Alex, on the other hand, used his Mythical Fire Slash to cut these two dragons. "Fu!" He took a deep breath and stroked his weapons. "Thank you for today. I think I and both of you have mastered this technique." The Spiritual Weapons released their Spiritual Energy, feeling delighted from Alex''s praise. They had been training this way and tried everything. He could make flame armor or even fused the dragon with his element like Chavel. Unfortunately, he couldn''t infuse both his Pure Fire and Space Element into the dragon simultaneously. If not, it might become the strongest dragon. "It''s a shame, but I think it''s considered a bountiful harvest." Alex paused for a moment. "If I fused the dragon with my Pure Fire, it would simply reduce everything to ashes due to the strength of my fire. At the same time, the Space Element dragon is a bit more complex. "It could send someone to the Space World as long as it swallowed them. However, they are very brittle due to that. I have tried to strengthen it but to no avail. In other words, it''s unique, but it also has a limit. Such a shame." Alex shook his head in disappointment. "Anyway, I also trained my element ability from Artur, Nelson, Anna, Leoz, and Jeanne. Those sessions really gave me a different point of view for each element. No, my view might have been distorted because I have Pure Fire and Space Element. Both are too unique to be compared to normal elements. "After this, I will train Earth, Water, and lastly Fire. And not only that, because I have enough time to train, I should be able to reach 5-Star Martial Saint within one or two months. After that, I will practice for another few months before going to Snow White Mountain. It should be four to five months if I remember correctly. In other words, I have at least another six months to cultivate. "Then calculating the distance and the condition between Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan, I need to wait for another six months before attacking them¡­ I don''t really care though, since I should be able to enter 6-Star Martial Saint by then." Alex looked up and smiled. "Just a bit more to reach God Stage. Wait for me." [Yes, Host.] "¡­" Alex intended to say it to Alicia¡­ But Lin Xingzhi seemed to be on the list as well. "That''s right. I still need to use the Gacha and level up everyone¡­ I will do that at the last minute, I guess." "That''s right. Do you have any mission?" [Mission: Stop the ritual Reward: Dart x3 Description: They dared to sacrifice Letizia in the past. If not for her relationship with you, she would have lost her life. This is an insult, so destroy them.] [Mission: Destroy Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan Reward: Premium Ticket x30 or Gacha Coin x20 or Gacha Hammer x10 Description: Time to settle the score.] "Hmm? This is the first time I can choose a reward¡­" [It''s not. The reward will be random just like the whole system.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. The system seemed to know how to hit his nerve. He took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, Premium Tickets are good, and I will get thirty of them. Gacha Coins are the same. Although it is similar to the Premium Gacha, there is still a bonus reward and a higher percentage of the reward. As for Gacha Hammer¡­ I don''t know what to say. I am tempted by the guarantee of two UR items, but I think I can get more from Premium Tickets¡­ We will see it in the future." [You are not fun, Host. You can''t get angry anymore.] "I can¡­ But you should say I have matured instead of fun¡­" Alex sighed again. [Sure, sure.] Alex looked at the notification and shrugged before returning to his training. It was another hellish session where Alex learned elements from Greg, Jean, Vera, and Fabio. As expected, the most useful knowledge came from Greg. Alex got knowledge about materials related to metals and stones along with his shield ability. It might be useful if he wanted to see the quality of the materials. Last but not least, Alex had finally broken through to 5-Star Martial Saint. And with the rest of his time, he wasn''t that far to start consolidating his power and reach 6-Star. Six months later. Alex finally rose from his seat, checking his 5-Star Martial Saint strength before smiling. "There are only a few days left. I should assemble everyone and do the work." Alex walked inside the base and activated the token to send a signal to Viola. Chapter 772 - Information Update Inside the bright and warm cave, Alex met with all his UR spirits, except Nelson. Of course, Firia and his contracted beasts also participated. "I think I don''t need to say the purpose of our meeting today, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. Anna and the others nodded their heads. How could they forget about it? In a few days, Alex would take the first step in this chaotic war. "Yes. Firstly, I want to tell you the information update first. After killing a huge number of monsters, all of us have become 5-Star Martial Saints. As for Leoz, he has become a 7-Star Martial Saint. "With the Gacha Tickets we have right now, I believe we can raise everyone''s level by one. Hence, we might be able to fight the Snow White Mountain with 6-Star Martial Saint Stage strength. There are not many people to begin with, so I believe we can take them on." Alex looked down and opened his system. He hadn''t opened his system for a while because of his training. [Gacha Ticket x3420] [Premium Ticket x0] [Dart x0] [Gacha Card x1] [Gacha Coin x0] [Gacha Hammer x0] [Summoning Ticket x0] [Summoning Coin x0] "Fair enough. These many Gacha Tickets would surely give me more than sixty rare EXP Cards." Alex nodded before glancing over Firia and Sherry. To think both of them managed to reach 5-Star Martial Saint. They and Kyle also managed to catch up with Stina, so basically, they had the same cultivation stage. "Yes. At the same time, some of us are close to level up, so we don''t need a full seven EXP Cards. Hence, I believe some of us will be able to reach 7-Star instead of 6-Star. As for who it is¡­ I will let you decide." Anya nodded. "Alright. We are going to use this meeting to decide it. Before that, how are you all? Is there any problem you have right now?" Alex smiled. Anna and the others looked at each other and nodded. "We are fine. We don''t have anything to do other than killing monsters, and there is no problem right now." "That''s good. I am sorry for making you do all this." Alex scratched his head. "No, no. It''s our pleasure to do so." Alex then turned to Sherry and Firia. "Good job, you two. Firia almost reached 6-Star, while Sherry is not that far either. I believe you can reach 6-Star within a few months." "Said someone who caught up with our cultivation." She shrugged. "That''s right." Sherry nodded furiously. "Even though I have the same Pure Fire, Master always did something like this." "Ahaha¡­ I am just lucky to have met that couple two years ago." Alex shook his head and smiled. What he said was true. If Alex didn''t meet Choong Duy and Chavel and got their token, he wouldn''t be able to reach 5-Star Martial Saint this fast. Sherry pouted, and Firia patted her head before saying. "In any case, your glory is our glory; there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, I am happy with the progression since I can see you becoming a God Rank Expert faster." "Thanks." Alex nodded and glanced at Stina and Kyle. "How are you two? I think I have given you the technique for that, right?" "Yes. We have mastered it within these two years." Stina and Kyle nodded before standing up and releasing their Spiritual Energy. Suddenly, flames started covering their hands and feet before a pair of wings appeared on their back. Kyle said, "This is the technique. After using this, we can utilize our blood like how we were in our original form. The strength is also included. "In other words, this might be the perfect form for us, where we can utilize both appearance and strength at the same time. In fact, I feel even stronger when I use this technique¡­" "I am the same." Stina gave the confirmation of Kyle''s claim. "Sherry too!" Sherry also showed him her transformation. She seemed to be the same as when she attained her human form in the beginning ¡ª Fox tail and fox ears. However, Alex also noticed her eyes became slightly sharper and released a powerful aura. "How does this technique work anyway?" "There are three transformations in this technique. The first transformation is to gain the strength of our human form. However, the symbols are different. I mean, for me and Kyle, we have these hands to transform. As for Sherry, her eyes become fox eyes. "The second transformation is to grasp our element. The same as before, our feet are the symbols this time while Sherry has her ears to appear. As for the last one, it is to boost our strength. As for the symbols¡­ You can see the rest." Stina explained carefully. ''Sherry''s tail and their wings¡­ I see.'' Alex narrowed his eyes and nodded. "I am sorry for having you train and fight only. I can''t provide you with vacation currently." "Haha¡­ It''s fine. If we reach God Stage, Kyle wants to ask me for a honeymoon¡­ Maybe we will have another kid by then¡­ Kyle is a beast, you know." Stina chuckled while Kyle gasped, never expecting Stina to blurt it out. "¡­" Alex had no words to comment and changed the topic. "Your nightlife aside, there will be more opportunity if we reach God Stage. However, we need to finish our battle first before we can have a peaceful period to increase our strength. Hence, let''s start our discussion." None of them said anything as their expressions turned serious. "First will be about the Freedom Sect. Do you know anything about Rose''s progress, Viola, and their situation?" Alex asked Anya. "We have been engaging in information exchange with them this whole time. Rose should be facing the Potential Tower right now¡­ And maybe have finished her training. Her strength has increased to 7-Star Martial Monarch. However, her biggest advancement is her skill. She is already on par against that Maya, who have become diligent and reached 9-Star Martial Monarch." "I see. Rose is good now. Maybe we can teach her about our problem and see whether she wants to reach God Rank Expert and come with us or stay in this world." Alex nodded. "Fair enough. She has been chasing you with that intention, so I guess she will come with us. The only problem is to catch up if she truly wants to help you." "Haha¡­ I am her teacher, so I will protect her. However, I believe she can reach very high." Alex nodded. If one observed him carefully, his tone and smile were filled with pride. No one said anything regarding that matter and simply continued. "Viola seems to want to go to the surface along with Rose. Considering this is your informal request, she wants to be Rose''s guide to deal with the other troublesome matters. After all, that Licht must want to ask her some questions if he knows about this deal." "According to the timing and such, I believe Rose is leaving the Potential Tower today or tomorrow, depending on her talent. I have never cared about whether she can beat it or not to be honest¡­ She is my disciple, so of course, I want her to be the best. And this Potential Tower is the perfect trial for her to reach that step." Alex agreed before asking for another confirmation. "How many days before the Snow White Mountain starts their ritual?" "Three days." "We have time to wait for these two then." Alex nodded. "Yes. As for the Freedom Sect themselves, they have informed everything to their disciples, including the war. A third of their force will stay there because they are afraid and don''t want to leave their comfort zone. Meanwhile, the rest are ready for this war to take their freedom back. "From the report, they have around thirty thousand disciples that can be deployed. If we take their elders into account too, we will have three hundred Martial Saints, three thousand Martial Monarchs. The rest will be either Martial Emperors or Martial Kings. "They should be able to go at any moment notice because of the huge number of Space Element Masters there¡­ This was the reason why Space Elements were hunted in the past¡­ They are too convenient." Alex closed his eyes and thought. "I don''t care about that. If Freedom Sect wants world conquest, Rose might be the person to stop them. If they don''t have such an aim, they will have more friendly relationsh.i.p.s with the other influences. "In the future, the other influences will also have Space Elements in their rank. At that time, I don''t need to care about this world anymore. "After all, in the past, they could unite to fend off those magical beasts, so I believe they can do it again." Anya also believed such a thing. In fact, she knew a few reasons for a world to unite, but most of the time, they united because they had the same enemy. And with this kind of bound, there would be a chance for the unity to be restored. Hence, Alex indeed didn''t need to care about this world again. He wasn''t the one in charge of it anyway. "I understand. What do you want to know next?" "Letizia''s condition." "She is ready to break through to Martial Saint and Sword Saint. Noel said there is going to be someone checking her today, so I believe she can break through to Sword Saint today and the other one when we have rescued her." "That''s good." "How about a way to destroy the process?" "There are two ways. First, we kill the Sacrificial Ice user. This way, they will have no body for their ancestor to possess. The only way is to have Letizia, but the latter is already with us by that time. As for the second way¡­ We need to let the ancestor possess this person first before killing her. Her soul will also dissipate if we do it like this." "How about the array? They need an array, right?" "No. The ancestor''s soul is hiding under that place. Noel said that the place is a huge stone platform with a few pillars surrounding it. If we don''t kill their ancestors on this occasion, I believe she might turn against us. There is also no confirmation of her knowing the Spirit God." "Alright. I choose the second way. With her possessing someone, she can only utilize the strength of that person. Even her Divine Soul must be restricted to some extent¡­ In fact, Letizia might be able to beat her at this point." Alex nodded with a smile. "Regarding that matter¡­ Letizia seems to want to kill her. That person has done nothing but mocks her when she realizes Letizia''s status. Hence, the resentment is quite deep." "Fair enough. We need to handle the other elders as well, so I guess we can leave this matter to her." Anya thought for a moment. "With this, we will have sixteen people in the group¡­ My limit is fifteen, so if I exclude myself, this will be my limit." "Limit?" "Yes. I can only increase the ability of fifteen people with my True Spirit Body, so I don''t know what to do if Rose is here¡­" "You need to remove Nelson too." "That''s right. How come he takes so long¡­ And he is even hiding some matters from me." Anya scratched her head. "It''s fine. Let him do whatever he wants." Alex waved his hand, stopping her from raging. There was not a single time where a betrayal flashed in their mind, so this matter wasn''t a big deal. "Fine. As for who fights who will be decided later when we know who are going to participate from their side." "Yes." Anya agreed. Alex then waited for another three days. Viola came with Rose this time, but the latter couldn''t follow him in doing this secret mission because she was still too weak. Rose accepted to watch the house, albeit reluctantly. After that, the group then teleported to Snow White Mountain. Of course, the spirits had returned to their respective card, and the contracted beasts had gone back to his body. Hence, only Alex, Firia, and Viola teleported there. Chapter 773 - Letizia La Scola "Great Elder Viola, Firia, can both of you wait for me here? I will sneak inside the prison to rescue Letizia. The process will occur in one hour, so I will match that time to free her. They won''t be able to do much anyway since their ancestor is far more important than her." Alex asked the two women. "Alright." They were in a secluded part of a mountain where Alex couldn''t find a single monster or human within a few kilometers, so they had no problem in waiting here. After settling this, he entered his Spatial Gate. Because there were a few Space Element Restrictions in this place due to the array, Alex slightly altered that so he could enter without anyone noticing. He then traveled to the deepest layer through his Space World. Inside the Space World, Alex opened his system again, specifically the status of his spirits. [Anna (Dark) Level: 77/80 (7-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 214552/630000] [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 77/80 (7-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 213112/680000] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 378674/670000] [Fabio Fabotelli(Fire) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 214024/670000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 45175/670000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 45178/670000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 77/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 12421/680000] [Anya (Light) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 51675/670000] [Artur (Light) Level: 77/80 (7-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 4167/680000] [Jean (Water) Level: 76/80 (6-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 4675/670000] Alex had raised their strength before coming here and surprised them with their strength even though he had chosen this way. He then took a paper from his inventory, read it and tossed it inside again. "Hmm¡­ I have chosen Anna, Jeanne, and Artur to be another 7-Star Martial Saint beside Leoz¡­ According to the information, there are going to be one 10-Star, two 9-Star, two 8-Star, eight 7-Star and two 6-Star Martial Saints¡­ "Noel just gave me the information though¡­ Anyway, I will have Viola handle the 10-Star. Leoz and Jeanne can handle the 9-Star while Anna and Artur handle the 8-Star. Jean, Fabio, Vera will handle three 7-Star. Anya will support us, and Greg will stay beside her. "As for the remaining enemies¡­ Kyle and Sherry can handle the 6-Star. Meanwhile, I, Sherry, and Firia will handle the 7-Star. The problem is there are three more people that need to be dealt with. The two 7-Star¡­ I can''t certainly leave Anya unprotected at this point, so I can''t use Greg to handle one of them. "Haiz, if only Nelson is here, I can have him fight, and Greg stops the other one." Alex scratched his head and sighed. Suddenly, he thought of something and smirked. "As expected¡­ I might need to pull a trick here." ¡­ A few minutes later, Letizia suddenly opened her eyes, noticing the Spiritual Energy fluctuation in front of her. "Master¡­" Not knowing why, she uttered his name, despite sensing nothing other than energy. Yet the person she called suddenly appeared within the Spatial Gate he made before her cell. "Master!" Alex smiled at her and waved his hand with a carefree expression. "Have you been well?" "Thanks to Master." Letizia shook her head, closed her eyes, and smiled. "For now, I want to congratulate you for becoming a Sword Saint. It''s indeed a hard journey, isn''t it?" Alex looked at her with a gentle expression. Her hair was a mess, and her clothes were tattered. "Ah!" Noticing Alex''s gaze, Letizia''s face became red as she looked at her clothes. She might be a bit embarrassed about her appearance since she showed some skin, but the real reason was that she hadn''t taken a single bath this whole time. She couldn''t move, and there wasn''t any water to do that. In other words, she is stinky. At the same time, she had been sweating due to her training¡­ "We have many things to do, but I can only free you five minutes before the ceremony starts. Do you have a problem?" Alex ignored everything and asked with a gentle tone. "No." Alex nodded and took out a water gallon along with a cloth. "I think you can wipe yourself first. You can take a bath after returning from this place." "I-I understand." Letizia nodded furiously, immediately taking the water gallon from him. Cultivators never needed to drink or eat, so they never carried water along with them. Luckily, the system had given him a huge amount of water¡­ Even though it was like a drop in the ocean, he finally used his water for the first time. Alex didn''t know why, but he felt fantastic. In the future, he might be able to use all of his water. Letizia took a glance at his expression first before creating an ice wall between them. She then took off her clothes and started wiping her body, albeit a bit embarrassed with Alex waiting behind the ice wall. On the other hand, Alex turned around and leaned on the ice wall. "Are you going to return to Rainbow Flower Sect after this?" "Eh?!" Letizia opened her eyes wide. She thought for a moment and said, "I don''t have the heart to return before I have my revenge against this influence. Those people, who I considered friends and allies, turned their back on me at that time¡­ My heart can''t cultivate in peace if I can''t solve this problem." Alex nodded as he had expected something like this. Hence, he continued, "Then what?" "Then what?" Letizia tilted her head. "I mean, after completing your revenge, what are you going to do?" Letizia looked down, wondering what she would do at that time. "I think I will return to the Rainbow Flower Sect for a month or so. After all, I won''t be able to stay there anymore since my cultivation will regress. "After settling everything with my mother and sect, I wish to follow Master." Letizia clenched her fist. "Follow me?" "Yes. I wish to serve you for the rest of my life. I don''t know why, but I feel I won''t ever regret this decision." Letizia looked up and smiled. There had been a strange feeling inside her heart, telling her to do this. And when she told him about it, that uncomfortable feeling turned into relief. "Why do you think you won''t regret it? I have many enemies. And with you saying you want to serve me¡­ Doesn''t that mean you want to continue to be my slave? This way, my enemies will also search for you¡­ And something like this will happen again." "It''s true that Master had and has many enemies. But I knew they were the ones who made you their enemies, so Master only treats them like how they treat you. And in some cases, you made an enemy because of the people you hold dear. "That''s why I wish to serve someone like you, and I believe this is coming from the bottom of my heart. Even if I need to use a Universe Oath to swear my loyalty, I don''t mind." "¡­" Alex didn''t say anything. Universe Oath is an Oath above the Heavenly Oath because this oath will take place in every world, including the outer space itself, instead of a single world from the Heavenly Oath. Zark swore this special oath to him. And to think Letizia wanted to do the same, Alex was baffled. "Why?" Letizia leaned her back on the ice wall and reminisced. "I had experienced what it meant to be a leader for more than three decades¡­ And it was when I became your slave, I started thinking about what it meant to follow someone. "Will I be able to lower my pride? Will I be able to be happy to follow someone? And many more questions appeared in my mind. However, I realized this a year ago¡­ For the first time in my life, I felt that it''s alright to follow someone to the end¡­ Maybe a few disciples in the Rainbow Flower Sect had this feeling for me¡­ But I am certain I have this feeling for you¡­ "I was reckless and useless. I deeply regretted it. If turning back time allowed me to fix my relationship with you so I can follow you, I will surely take that opportunity. If it''s you, I don''t mind¡­" Suddenly, the ice wall submerged to the ground, revealing the n.a.k.e.d Letizia kneeling in front of him. The timing was just right when she was wiping her clothes, so she couldn''t help her appearance. She said, "Master¡­ Would you allow this slave to follow you by your side?" Alex, on the other hand, had mixed feelings regarding this matter. "This is a matter that will decide the rest of your life you know? A few thousand years from now or even a few hundred thousand years¡­" "I know. Unless Master throws me away, I have prepared myself to follow you forever. I know I am still reckless and useless¡­ But¡­" Alex thought for a few minutes and finally gave her his answer. "Alright." Letizia opened her mouth in surprise as she looked up. Forgetting about her current appearance, she suddenly made an oath. "I, Letizia La Scola, swear my unending loyalty to my master, Alexander Sirius. May the world and the universe be my witness." Suddenly, Spiritual Energy rose from the ground, enveloping her body. That energy then entered her heart and created a small symbol inside. When everything was over, Letizia fell down to the ground and kneeled on one knee. "Servant Letizia greets Master." Alex scratched his head and sighed. "Then I will be direct¡­ I think I won''t be able to stop you from calling me Master, so I will just command you right here and right now. Never call yourself Servant or something along the line. You are Letizia¡­ Even if everyone treats you as my slave, I treat you as my own, so never say you are a servant or a slave. If you are trying to lower yourself¡­ Subordinate is the maximum you can go. "Secondly, I won''t forbid you if you decide to go somewhere or choose to marry someone and live in peace. At that time, I will give you my blessing. And the last thing I want to say is¡­ Welcome to my Spirit Nest." Alex took out a coat and put it on her as he extended his hand to her. Letizia couldn''t help but smile. This was one of the reasons why she decided to follow her. She took his hand and said, "Yes, Master." Suddenly, a blue screen popped out. [Welcome to the Spirit Nest. I am Good Luck Gacha System¡­ I shall teach you everything you need to know about Spirit Nest and this system after dealing with the matter at hand. However, I want you to know it''s hard for Alex to accept someone in his life because he will surely protect that person with his life on the line. That''s why you should know the weight you are carrying right now.] Letizia was stunned at first, glancing at this screen and Alex back and forth. Her expression gradually became serious as she clenched her fist. Alex knew that Lin Xingzhi had said something to her, so he turned around and said, "If you are done, you should finish wiping yourself and get ready." "Ah! Yes!" Letizia nodded and created the ice wall again. After a few minutes, she wore new clothes that Alex gave her earlier. It was a white shirt with blue stripes. There were even some ice crystals embroidered on this shirt. She wore a plain white short skirt. She wore an ice crystal hairpin and tied her hair into a ponytail. Her blue sword hung around her tight and completely changed her appearance from a beggar to a princess. "It suits you." Alex nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Master." Letizia smiled. [Alex¡­ It''s time to open the shackles. Noel said they are going to start in a moment.] After receiving the notification from the system, Alex then touched the shackles in her neck, wrists, and ankles. Alex clapped his hand and created a few more symbols on them simultaneously. Of course, the arrays couldn''t withstand this type of power due to the additional symbols and broke. "Let''s go." "Yes." Chapter 774 - Revival of the Ancestor In the depth of the valley covered with white snow was a lake that couldn''t be frozen by the temperature. There was a white platform in the middle of that lake as if it was floating on the water with a few pillars circling on the edge of this round platform. Sixteen people stood on the platform, wearing the same white outfit with a weird flower pattern. The youngest out of them slowly walked toward a stone table in the middle of it. "You are going to receive the inheritance of the ancestor and be reborn after this baptism, and your talent will be the same as a Pure Ice Element if not surpassing her. However, you must stay awake for the whole process¡­ Can you do that?" An old woman walked toward the young girl and asked. "I have been preparing myself for today. That question is unnecessary." "Then lie on the table, and we will start the ritual." The young girl nodded and looked at the table covered with symbols before lying down on it. She looked up and couldn''t help but remember a certain someone in her memory. She was blessed with such talent even though she was just a mere ant from Willow Continent. Even the elders ordered her to befriend her and made her as comfortable as possible, even if it meant she needed to serve her. How could she, the first talent of Snow White Mountain, do that? Unfortunately, she couldn''t do anything due to her weak strength and low importance, so she could only follow their order and did whatever Letizia wanted. Unlike Letizia, who had experienced two different perspectives, she had been living at the top for as long as she remembered. How could she become someone''s servant? Five years ago, a chance appeared when that lowly person actually revealed her identity as a servant. It was the best day of her life because Letizia''s life changed drastically. The elders that had been backing her scorned her and stripped her of her rank. The friends she made from the sect looked at her with disdain. She even sped up the process by sharing more rumors about Letizia, such as a S.e.x Slave. In the end, the elders decided to grant Letizia Sacrificial Element to her and locked Letizia. She became the first one to mock her the moment she entered the prison. When she could finally be reborn, she gazed at the blue sky far above the cliff. Clenching her fists, she thought, ''I will make sure your life will be more miserable than what you have right now! As long as you don''t die, I can send you to the brothels and become a cheap s.l.u.t there.'' Of course, the elders had no knowledge about this thought. They merely thought of her as an object to resurrect their ancestor and bring glory to the sect. "Elders, are you ready?" The old woman asked with a serious expression. "Yes. We are ready. The array is also functional." "There is no shortage of energy here. We are good to go." The elders answered the old woman. "Rhione¡­" "Yes, I am ready, Sect Master." "Good!" The old woman nodded before she shouted. "Let''s st¡ª" *Crack!* "!!!" An elder suddenly felt something cracking inside her mind as she shouted. "Who dares to trespass my Snow White Mountain?!" "¡ªart?!" The sect master furrowed her eyebrows as her words just got interrupted by a 9-Star Martial Saint elder. "I am sorry for yelling, but my seal in that slave''s shackles just vanished." "What?!" Not only the sect master but everyone in this place was utterly shocked. Rhione, the youngest one, even stood up as she looked at the elder. "There has been no big movement recently¡­ How can someone sneak inside our prison?" The elder closed her eyes in confusion. "Is there anyone who visited her recently? Does she still have a friend here?" "I visited her three days ago, but her appearance was a mess, and her cultivation didn''t progress. As for her friend¡­ I think everyone has abandoned her." Rhione was the first one to open her mouth. The sect master ignored that fact because she knew how Rhione treated Letizia this whole time and concluded. "There is an intruder in this sect then. Still, to think someone managed to get past our defense¡­ This is atrocious." "No, Patriarch. If there is such a high-skilled person, only one possibility will remain. That person must be Letizia''s master. Considering he or she has been waiting this whole time and only acts now, I believe that person must know about this ritual and be afraid of our power. Because this is the only time where we can''t help anyone¡­" "Fair enough. This means her master shouldn''t be a person with a high skill¡­" The sect master thought for a moment and ordered. "We should proceed with the ritual¡­ But there must be someone from here to go there to catch these two. Elder Hanny and Wei will lead the other elders to catch these two and make sure they can''t escape from this place." "But there will be a hole in the array¡­" The two elders looked at the array with a worried expression. They knew they were chosen because they were the weakest, but it didn''t mean they could easily leave their post. "Elder Hua and Elder Mian will take your position as well." The sect master glanced at the two 9-Star Martial Saint elders before saying, "I will be doing the synchronization." The two 9-Star elders looked at each other and nodded. "Alright. We will handle it. Still, we think sending one of them is enough." "No. Although the opposite party seems to have a weaker cultivation base, that person still has the advantage after planning for a long time. I don''t want them to escape, so I will have these two to catch them. However, if I send more, we will be in trouble because it''s hard to handle the array." The sect master shook her head. "¡­" The two elders thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright." The 7-Star elders had no other choice than obeying the order and leaped toward the sect to handle this matter. Little did they know the two people they were searching for had actually arrived not far from this place, completely hiding their presence. ''The most dangerous place is the safest place¡­'' Alex thought for a moment as he watched how the situation revolved without any change of expression. He then looked at Letizia, who seemed to carry some hatred to these elders and warned her. ''Don''t leak your intent away, lest they notice us.'' Letizia looked at Alex for a few seconds before nodding. ''Yes, Master. I am sorry.'' Alex shook his head, pointed his finger behind them, and said, ''Our reinforcement has arrived.'' Nine figures suddenly appeared behind them, taking their breath away. The spirits didn''t say anything nor move from their position. Instead, they nodded to him and remained still. Viola, who was supposed to be the strongest here, was taken aback because she couldn''t sense their presence. She was in utter shock. If people under Alex were monsters like this, she simply had no word how to express this sudden information. On the other hand, Letizia knew a few of them, but she couldn''t find someone that completely changed her fate, Nelson. As much as she wanted to be surprised, her excitement disappeared due to the fact that the system explained it to her. As for Firia, she already knew about this surprise anyway. ''We will wait until their ancestor has taken over the body and end it all. The first thing we should do is destroy all the pillars on that platform. They are the ones supplying the body and the soul with nourishment. After that, all of you will get into your respective part. Great Elder Viola will handle the 10-Star Martial Saint while I give you a chance to kill the one who makes this mess and the one who scorned you this whole time, Letizia. Your strength is superior to her, even though her cultivation base is higher. Just be careful about the tricks that the ancestor will pull. I will help you as soon as I am done with my opponent.'' Alex sent transmission thought to all of them. They nodded. ''Hmm¡­ Killing all elders will only give a sharp decline, and the disciples will soon go separate ways¡­ So I don''t think it''s wise to kill all of them." Alex thought for a moment and raised five fingers. "Kill five of them¡­ One 8-Star and four 7-Star Martial Saints. This should be enough to make them angry to the point they will ally themselves with the Fire God Clan until one side perish. With the help of the Ancient Blue Family, this battle is ours." "Master. I have a question for you." Sherry suddenly came out and asked. "Can I use that transformation technique? After all, this won''t be the last time we meet them." "It''s fine. The Ancient Blue Family should have known of that technique, and with the fact that they are busy dealing with their own problem, I don''t think they want this technique. And there is not much information about this technique for either the Snow White Mountain and the Fire God Clan." "Then who will kill the other four beside you?" "Anna, Sherry, Fabio and Vera. In addition, Letizia will kill their ancestor." The groups nodded as they watched how the process went. The elders and the sect master activated the array until it glowed bright gold. The Spiritual Energy rose out of the pillars and flowed inside her body, followed by the energy from the lake. Meanwhile, inside Rhione''s consciousness, the aforementioned person was still looking around, only to find darkness. Suddenly, a bright blue soul appeared before her and turned into another lady with short hair. "Who are you?! No, are you the ancestor?" Rhione gasped and asked. "Oh! An intelligent little girl with a top-notch talent such as Sacrificial Ice. If that foolish girl could tell the elders about her master, she would have this opportunity. Unlike you, she is not a smart person!" The girl nodded with a smile, completely praising Rhione. To hear such praise from the ancestor of Snow White Mountain, Rhione couldn''t hide her grin. "Thank you for such praise, Ancestor." "Good. You also have a humble personality. I like you already. Girl, do you want my inheritance?" The female asked with a gentle expression. Rhione immediately bowed her head and said, "Yes. Thank you for your guidance." The female nodded and patted her head. "Now, I am going to impart my knowledge to you. The process might be a bit hurt due to the huge amount of information, so I want you to withstand it." "Yes. Junior knows." "I will start then." The female nodded as she channeled Spiritual Energy to her. Rhione immediately sat down and started cultivating while screaming in pain. "Argh!" "Endure!" The female kept inserting the Spiritual Energy into her for thirty minutes. Noticing the stop of the Spiritual Energy, Rhione gradually opened her eyes as she heard. "Congratulations. You have succeeded." "But I don''t see any difference, Ancestor." "Take a look at your body." Rhione tilted her head and raised her hand only to find nothing. "Eh?!" She thought when she realized no matter what she did, she couldn''t see anything other than the ancestor. On the other hand, the ancestor still pinched her between two fingers, looking at the blue pill, AKA, Rhione. "Congratulations, little girl. You have become the pill that this ancestor needs to revive." "What?! Ancestor, you are joking right?" Rhione still believed in her ancestor, only to find her getting brought into her mouth. "No, no. This can''t be. Ancestor!" Rhione was still in denial even though the female didn''t reply to her. Without wasting a single second, she swallowed the pill. "Noooo!!" Her shaking and a terrified voice echoed in the female''s mouth and lung, only to disappear the second the mouth closed. At the same time, Spiritual Energy began gathering around the female body as she laughed. "Haha¡­ This is good! I have finally gotten rid of that nuisance. Since I inherit your memory as well, I will make sure that Letizia experiences something worse than hell." As she shouted inside, her soul began to disappear as she returned to Rhione''s body. "Good work for all of you." A voice suddenly echoed across the platform as Rhione''s body slowly rose from the table. "Ancestor!" The sect master and the elders kneeled and clasped their hands. "We are happy to see you back." "It has been eight thousand years¡­ It is a shame that I can''t get that Pure Ice Element girl, but this girl is not that bad. And with all my skill¡­ Our Snow White Mountain will become the peak of this world." Rhione laughed as she looked at all of them. "Get up." "Yes!" All of them stood up and waited for her to say anything. "Make sure no one knows about my revival." The ancestor said before sitting in a lotus position. "I will stay here for the time being to reco¡ª! Not good!" Before she finished her words, several attacks were launched, aiming toward the pillars. *Boom Boom Boom!* Chapter 775 - Letizia vs the Ancestor "Boom Boom Boom!" The explosions shook the platform before everyone noticed where the explosions occurred. Soon after, the pillars began to break into half and crumble to the ground. Some even sank to the bottom of the lake, creating a large wave around that area. Alex made his appearance, followed by Firia, Letizia, Viola, and the contracted beasts. He said, "What a joyous occasion to meet all of you here. Should I congratulate the so-called ancestor for her revival? Or should I congratulate myself because I can wrap this matter before it becomes big? I am confused." "Fufu¡­ Master is the best. Of course, we should resolve everything while it is small. We don''t want to waste our time after all." Letizia''s voice shook the elders, the sect master, and Rhione''s body. Alex granted a special privilege to her to talk big at this moment to anger them. And Letizia was more than happy to comply. "Who are you?" "Wait! This voice¡­" "It''s that sl*t''s voice." "You mean that slave?" Many comments echoed, but Alex simply brushed it as he said, "What do you mean by that? I don''t know any slaves here. I only know that you have treated my person badly and even went as far as taking her Sacrificial Element. I am very angry because of this matter." ''Master¡­'' Letizia smiled when she heard Alex''s words. He even denied her slave status in front of these people and elevated her status to one of his people. When the smoke disappeared, they finally saw all the figures floating above them, looking down at all the elders. The ancestor, who had gotten Rhione''s memory, instantly recognized Alex and Letizia. "You¡­ You are the leader of the Spirit Nest, Alexander Sirius. And the one beside you is Letizia La Scola!" "What?! Alexander Sirius?" Obviously, Alex''s name was even more fearsome than Letizia''s, so they were shocked by his name instead of her appearance. "Why are you here?!" The ancestor yelled before realizing his earlier speech. "That¡­ That Letizia is your servant?!" "What?!" Of course, the elders and the sect master had the same shock as her. They glared at Alex with a complicated expression. On one hand, they didn''t want to associate with this person because of his reputation, especially about him being the troublemaker. On the other hand, they considered him a dangerous person due to his mysterious influence, the Spirit Nest, and his growth. "I have been searching for her this whole time, specifically when you took her away from me back when she just arrived at the Northern Continent. To think you dare to touch my person¡­ How can I not be angry?" Alex smiled, not releasing his killing intent. They gasped. They had been searching for his information, including his first appearance in the Willow Continent. There wasn''t a single influence that had a grudge against him escaped unscathed. They were either destroyed or declined. And this person finally stepped in their territory, claiming Letizia as his servant. "Alexander Sirius. We don''t have a conflict with you! Why would you trouble yourself to come here? If you are pretending to be that girl master because you fancy her, it''s better if you bring her away right at this instant. You can play with her body all you want!" The ancestor made an offer. If Alex indeed were pretending all of this, it would be the best choice he would have. Not only would he not get in a conflict with Snow White Mountain, but he could savor Letizia''s beauty. Unfortunately, Alex''s objective was completely the exact opposite of what she offered. He wanted to anger the Snow White Mountain, kill the ancestor, and have them ally with the Fire God Clan. In other words, all he said was the truth. "For what? To let you recover yourself and make an alliance with the Fire God Clan and Ancient Blue Family to defeat my side? No need to pretend, I know that all of you want my wealth and the Spirit Nest." Alex snorted. The elders widened their eyes, never expecting Alex to know such a secret. They had been dealing with all of this in secret to the point it was only the people here who knew such a thing. And yet, they didn''t realize that Alex already knew about this. "Presumptuous!" The ancestor shouted. "You can say many things, but slandering my Snow White Mountain is not one of them. Since you have presented yourself before me, then don''t think about leaving!" "That''s what I want to say. Do you think you can recover yourself without the pillars that are supposed to channel the energy for you?" Alex released his killing intent. "My intention is clear. A God Rank Expert like you shouldn''t exist in this place." "You!" The ancestor gritted her teeth. As much as she wanted to kill this boy, she didn''t have the ability to do so. Rhione''s body was still a 2-Star Martial Saint and a mere Sword Emperor. She hadn''t reached Sword Saint yet, so how could she compare herself with Alex, who was a 5-Star Martial Saint and a Sword Emperor. Even with all of her knowledge and skill, she wouldn''t be able to handle him, let alone when she just possessed this body. "You are the source of Letizia''s suffering, so she will end it with her own hand." Alex snorted as Letizia appeared before him, releasing her Spiritual Energy and Sword Path. "This!" All people from Snow White Mountain opened their jaws. "Since when did she become a peak Martial Monarch and a Sword Saint? She was a mere 3-Star Martial Monarch and barely a Sword Emperor back then!" Letizia didn''t say anything as she released her killing intent. "You are not qualified to know." "Hahahaha!" The ancestor abruptly laughed in this tense atmosphere as if she had lost it. However, she smirked and released her killing intent as well. "Do you think a few of you can defeat us? Even though I see a 10-Star Martial Saint together with you, the rest are trash. Since you have come, then don''t think about leaving! Grab that Alexander Sirius and Letizia for me and kill the rest!" "Yes, Ancestor!" The sect master and the elders roared as they released their Spiritual Energy and weapons. "True Spirit Body!" Suddenly, nine people flew across the lake, heading toward each of their respective opponents. "You are not qualified to grasp our master!" Jeanne sneered as she waved her sword against the 9-Star Martial Saint. "Kh!" Even though Jeanne was a 7-Star, this ambush and the True Spirit Body allowed her to get past her defense. Luckily, she had experienced this kind of thing many times, so she could react to this surprise attack. "Don''t underestimate me, you little brat!" "Tch!" The sect master tried to attack Jeanne from afar before a flame swallowed her from above. Viola looked down at her and pointed her palm as she just shot the flame. Suddenly, the flame gradually shrank before freezing when it reached a certain point. The ice shattered, and the sect master looked up, roaring at Viola. "I will kill you!" The same as Viola, the others also went toward their respective enemy. Alex came to Letizia first and patted her shoulder. "I am leaving her to you." "Yes. I won''t disappoint you." Letizia nodded, looking at Alex who slowly moved away. "Hmph! You little born chick! You shouldn''t look away!" The ancestor suddenly appeared behind her. An ice spike rose from her palm, ready to pierce Letizia''s stomach. She needed to ensure Letizia''s safety as well since she still needed her Sacrificial Element. After all, the Sacrificial Element will disappear when the Pure Ice user dies. Letizia also understood this and smiled. A blue armor appeared, covering her body. "!!!" The ancestor widened her eyes as she watched how her ice was destroyed by the armor. She even recognized this technique as she thought, ''The ice is known as the hardest ice in the world and became the peak defense for all Ice Element users... This is the Absolute Ice Body. Even though she can''t utilize it to its fullest potential, it was enough to defend the earlier attack.'' Before she could think more about this technique, Letizia unsheathed the blade on her waist as she turned around and waved it toward the ancestor. As expected from a few thousand years old monsters, even with limited strength, she managed to react well by taking out her weapon and let the sword blow her away. "You need more than that to injure me! Na?ve!" Letizia smiled upon watching her trash talking. "I am wondering if God Rank Experts love talking about useless things like you¡­ Or maybe you are just too special, I mean, an idiot who talks too much?" "You!" The ancestor suddenly realized a sudden drop in the temperature as it brushed her left arm and face. "Not good!" Ice began to form on that area, especially the one that ran from the side of her lips to her right eye. "Gah!" The ancestor spat out blood as she muttered with hatred. "Sword Path!" Letizia smiled. This was the path she chose after experiencing many things. She named it Untraceable Ice Path. This would allow ice to be formed whenever she swung her sword, albeit with a slight delay. However, that delay was necessary to make it untraceable. She might need to thank the people here since she could only come up with a powerful path only because of their treatment. "What''s with that smug, you brat!" The ancestor released all of her energy, revealing her 2-Star Martial Saint power, and slashed forward. "Phoenix Beak!" An ice phoenix flew out of the sword, heading toward Letizia. On the other hand, Letizia still had no change of expression as she waved her sword, creating a Sword Wave. "Ice Oscillation Wave." "Boom!" The moment the sword wave hit the ice phoenix, it exploded, almost cutting the phoenix into half. When everyone thought it would be over, another wave of invisible attack did what the previous Sword Wave couldn''t do. That attack was formed by freezing the air around and blew it with a simple shock wave from the sword, making a powerful invisible sword wave even though it was only a wind pressure carrying her Pure Ice Element. Not only that, the phoenix that had been cut into two suddenly shattered. "That is my Sacrificial Element. Do you think it can harm me?" Letizia released her Spiritual Energy, giving an elemental suppression on the ancestor. Alex told her not to focus on the ancestor alone since this would be her first fight after a few years. He simply worried she wouldn''t be able to handle the ancestor because she tried helping the others. And they were strong enough anyway to deal with their opponents. That was why the suppression was far more powerful than it was supposed to be. Even with the difference of two stars, Letizia managed to make the ancestor slightly bend her knees. "Curse you! Do you think this can restrain me? I have said it to you, little girl. You don''t have the necessary knowledge and experience to face me. If that guy has your ice element instead, he would be able to defeat me. But you? Dream on!" The ancestor shouted as she clasped her hand. A few patterns suddenly grow on her body. On her arms, legs, or even face, a few curving symbols appeared before it suddenly glowed red. "Blood Ice!" The suppression suddenly vanished into thin air before the ancestor looked at her with a straight posture. "You think I don''t have a technique to face someone like you? I mastered such a technique long ago." "You talk too much." Letizia shook her head and slashed her sword, sending the same technique as earlier. "Ice Oscillation Wave." "Hmph." The ancestor snorted and turned serious. She slashed her sword as well, doing the same as Letizia. "Phoenix Beak!" The same phoenix flew out of her sword, but this time the phoenix had red color as if it was colored by her blood. "Boom Boom!" The same collisions appeared as Letizia''s attack hit the phoenix two times, only to find that the phoenix emerged from the smoke and made its way toward her. "Die!" Chapter 776 - Alexs Fight "I will be your opponent." Alex appeared before a 7-Star Martial Saint elder with a smile as if she was a dead person. "You! This is blasphemy. How dare you do this to my sect?! I will kill you here." The middle-aged woman snarled as she took out a green sword. Alex didn''t say anything more and pointed both his weapons toward the elder. He activated his Spirit Eyes, observing this person''s green energy that seemed to be a Wind Element. And with the freezing temperature in this place, she would practically have two elements¡­ Unfortunately, Alex was her opponent. "Snow Whirlwind." The elder waved her sword diagonally, releasing a torrential freezing wind toward Alex. "¡­" Alex observed the wind with his Spirit Eyes and activated his Spirit Step and Dragon Aura. With this additional strength, Alex released his own attack in the form of a fire phoenix. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." As usual, he always used his Fire Authority to enhance his fire-based attack, including this one. Its strength had become far higher, matching an attack from 7-Star Martial Saint. "Boom!" The red hot heat clashed with the freezing wind. Normally, the heat would brush away with this wind and the temperature. And yet, the conclusion came as a complete surprise. The phoenix circled around the freezing wind and burned the wind itself, warming the snow until it evaporated. When the wind reached its weakest state, the shock wave coming from Alex''s strength that had been boosted by the two techniques suddenly cut open the wind, neutralizing them. It was at this time, Alex leaped toward the elder and slashed his sword forward. "Kh!" The elder parried this attack with her green sword, only to find the strength difference between them. "This power! No!" The elder realized that Alex''s strength was as monstrous as his Pure Fire. At first, she thought it was normal that her ice lost because of his Pure Fire, but Alex''s strength alone was equal if not surpassing his Pure Fire at the moment. Alex used this chance to blow her away as far as possible to get their own fighting space. After all, the fight here would surely be a big fight, and their priority target would be him. If that happened, the spirits would have no choice other than helping him, and Alex certainly wouldn''t want to see something like this. Hence, he distanced himself from the others, having confidence in winning this one on one battle. "Elder Rui!" One of the 9-Star Martial Saints shouted as she leaped toward her. She had the advantage due to her two stars difference strength, so she wanted to help the elder and dealt with Alex, but Leoz suddenly appeared not far from her and slashed his big sword. "Thunder Spirit Slash!" "!!!" The elder opened her eyes wide, never expecting Leoz to have this strength. She looked at his horns and tried to deflect this attack. "Twin Blades!" She took out another sword from her space ring and used her strength to block this attack, only to find herself got stopped completely by the person in front of her. At the same time, the other 9-Star Martial Saint elder looked at their ancestor and the sect master. The ancestor seemed to gain an advantage in fighting Letizia with that blood ice, but the sect master was equal to Viola. Because of this, she thought about assisting Elder Rui to capture their boss. "Thousand Ice Spike!" She trusted her sword toward Jeanne''s neck. The ice spike began to form one after another as if it was growing from the sword. "¡­" Jeanne didn''t say anything and blocked this attack with her two short swords, but she realized it pushed her back. She soon saw the elder turned around, heading toward Alex. Because of this, she shifted her body to the right and spun her body to use that inertia force to gain momentum before she launched herself by stepping on the ice itself. The elder suddenly glanced at her right and slashed her sword, only to find it blocked by Jeanne''s short sword. "You are not qualified to interfere in Master''s fight." Jeanne smirked as she pointed her other sword toward her neck. "Ethereal Lightning Body Second Charge, Bullet!" Lightning started gathering around her sword and released a small ball at lightning speed. "Tch!" The elder clicked her tongue as she tilted her head to the side, avoiding this attack. However, her advance also came to a halt, and Jeanne blocked her way toward Alex. She looked at Anna and Artur, who seemed to be able to control their enemies more efficiently since it was only a one star difference. Meanwhile, Alex glanced at the others'' conditions before looking down at the elder who was on the ground. He just buried her in the snow by blasting her into it. However, he saw a stream of energy flying to the right and made a curve before ultimately heading toward him. When the attack pierced through the snow mist, Alex could see a snowball coming toward him. He released his shield instead of an attack after learning the true nature of the attack. As soon as the snowball hit his shield, a few powerful wind shock waves flew out, trying to cut Alex. Alex didn''t have a change of expression when watching this as he raised both of his weapons, thrusting them downwards at the same time. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" The elder summoned a few wind blades as they flew toward Alex''s two laser-like attacks. The Mythical Spear Cannon that had been strengthened by his Pure Fire and Absolute Blade Intent tried to pierce through these wind blades, but as expected from a 7-Star Martial Saint. The attacks halted for a few seconds before it dissipated. "Is an elder this weak?" Alex muttered to himself. He remembered how hard he fought when he entered Martial Saint, but he almost forgot that the ones he fought were abnormal monsters. In other words, it wasn''t the elder that was too weak, but the monsters were too strong. And for Alex, who had been catching up with all those powerful beings, this elder in front of her got suppressed pretty easily. But as one would expect from someone like her, she stood back without a single injury, looking at Alex with the intention to kill. She couldn''t win against this monster in human clothing without this kind of intention. Alex would seriously become their biggest threat as soon as he became an 8-Star Martial Saint. She had no doubt that he would become invincible at that time. She even thought that their ancestor couldn''t catch up with Alex''s growing speed. Even though it was blasphemy to think that way, she believed it was best to think it like that to face Alexander Sirius. Everyone who had faced him so far would suggest something like that if they still desired revenge. Alex''s expression turned serious when he realized the killing intent. She seemed to have prepared to disobey her ancestor''s words to bring him alive. The elder suddenly jumped toward him and swung her sword. "Wind Breaker!" Alex squinted his eyes as he noticed the hidden torrential current behind this powerful wind. And the moment it almost reached him, the wind split up into five, trying to cut him to pieces. "Triple Draws." Alex didn''t find this troublesome because his Triple Draws and two weapons were just too awesome. The sword and spear blasted the five winds and the elder''s sword. "!!!" The elder dropped her jaw. This technique always gave her an advantage when fighting someone. Although the attack itself wasn''t that powerful, the number should be able to take the enemy by surprise. And yet, not a single of them managed to reach Alex. This might be the first time for her. After all, she created this technique as the condition to move to Sword Emperor. In other words, her Original Sword Technique. Watching her expressions, Alex didn''t let her go and tried to send a counterattack by summoning a few fire swords in his surroundings. It had even been enhanced by his Fire Authority. "Die." Alex smirked as he made his sword fly toward them. He couldn''t be harmed by this fire anyway, so it was a good move for this. "Don''t underestimate me!" The elder gritted her teeth, getting angry over his relaxed expression. She swung her sword and created a wind sphere. Feeling the strong breeze, he used it to blow him away and let the swords attack her. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions hit the wind sphere before the intense flame burned the wind bit by bit. Alex knew he couldn''t fight for too long because the people must have noticed the battles here by now. Hence, he raised his weapons, slipped between the gap of the wind where his fire burned and waved his weapons, releasing six sword waves simultaneously. "Mythical Fire Slash." "!!!" The elder got shocked once more by this powerful attack. Alex''s previous attacks had been stronger than the norms, but this one was the strongest one she had ever seen. "Wind Breaker!" Knowing that she couldn''t escape unscathed, she chose to deflect these six powerful sword waves with her winds altogether. Alex simply smiled as he watched her hit the sword waves with her wind. The intense heat immediately burned the wind, making it easier to cut. Due to the original powerful cutting power of this technique, all six sword waves destroyed her wind. "Not good!" The same applied to her. She took on the farthest one because she didn''t want to be situated between the sword waves, but she realized it was the right decision when Alex''s sword wave, the one that she parried with her own sword, started pushing her back. Behind her was a wall of fire, and in front of her was this sword wave. On her right was Alex''s other five sword waves. Only on her left had nothing. Hence, knowing that the sword wave would kill her if she didn''t move, she let it cut her right hand before she grabbed the sword with her left hand and leaped to the left. Alex smiled as he also thought the same. He came to that direction and waved his sword. "Heaven Light Slash!" The elder widened her eyes. Now that she lost her main hand, she wouldn''t be able to contain Alex''s strength. And when she glanced at her back, she knew Alex would launch her to the sword waves. "I only have one chance¡­" The elder gritted her teeth and swung her sword. She planned to use this swing to fake her movement. If she could stop the momentum for a split second and launched herself to the sky, she might not escape unscathed, but she would definitely survive. That was why she used every ounce of strength she could gather in her off hand and swung it. It was at this time, Alex smiled like a devil as he knew what she wanted to do. Just like how she needed a split second to escape, he also needed a split second to kill her. "Space Bind." "Space Plate." Tentacles appeared in the space world, binding her off hand. At the same time, the Space Plates stopped the sword with its body. This sudden restriction stopped her for a split second. Even if she could instantly destroy both attacks, she wouldn''t survive. Alex smiled and completed his swing, splitting the elder into two. "This¡­" The elder noticed at the last second what kind of sorcery Alex used to stop her movement. However, she couldn''t say anything before she fell down from the air. Meanwhile, on Letizia''s side. "Blood Phoenix Bleed!" The ancestor released another red-colored ice phoenix toward Letizia. "Ice Oscillation Wave!" Letizia did the same technique to destroy this phoenix, albeit barely. Because of this Blood Ice, she couldn''t gain the upper hand in this battle. "Hmph! You are pretty good. It''s a shame that I am stuck with this body instead of yours. Never mind, you are going to be miserable after this because¡ª" Before she could finish her words, she turned around and slashed her sword. "You want to make her miserable? Have you asked my permission?" A man''s voice echoed as he struck her sword, blowing her to the ground. "Boom!" "Master!" Chapter 777 - Letizias Fight "Hurry up!" One of the elders that had been tasked to go to the prison shouted at the numerous elders and disciples from the influence. She never expected something would happen in the ritual place. Hence, she gathered all the people she could find and headed toward there. "Is this the same person¡­ No, is this Letizia''s master?" The other elder tasked here asked her. "I don''t know, but there is the ancestor, the sect master, and two 9-Star Martial Saints elders¡­ To have created a ruckus like this¡­ I am afraid there are a few people too from their side. That''s why I am bringing many people there." She shook her head while sweating. "Anyway, with these many people, we can only arrive in another five minutes¡­ Should the elders rush there? We can reach there within three minutes." She thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Three elders will stay here to guide the disciples while the rest follow me! We are going to help the sect master." "Yes!" They nodded and increased their speed. ¡­ On the battlefield. "Boom!" "Master!" Letizia opened her mouth and called Alex in surprise. She never thought Alex would appear in this battle just after five minutes of fighting. It was either he fought the elder with some risky moves to speed up the battle or due to their difference of strength. Nonetheless, it was surely good news to her. "We can''t fight for too long. At most, another three minutes before their reinforcements come." Alex warned her and looked down. "I will help you kill her." Letizia didn''t realize the hidden meaning behind these words. However, Alex intended to let Letizia kill her because of his promise to let her have revenge. "Ice Lances!" Gritting her teeth, the ancestor stood up and summoned a few spears made of ice. They flew out of the grounds, heading toward Letizia and Alex. "Fire Swords!" Alex raised his hand and summoned the swords with the same number as the spear. "Boom Boom Boom!" Another series of explosions resounded across the region. Knowing the current condition of their ancestor, they shouted, worrying about her. The sect leader was especially loud. "Ancestor! Someone. Go help the ancestor!" Unfortunately, no one could answer that call because none of them had a thought of breaking through these people. Even those who Alex chose to kill had already been covered with wounds and blood. Even if they risked it to go there, they felt they wouldn''t be able to reach the ancestor before their enemies killed them. It wasn''t because of their strength. All of them knew that these people only tried to buy time for Alex and Letizia to kill the ancestor. If they sacrificed their hands or whatever, the enemies still could respond because they never whole-heartedly attacked them. "Tch!" "Does anyone have a treasure to sacrifice?" She shouted in this hopeless situation. However, how could they have such a treasure where all of them needed to be stored inside the treasury? No one was bold enough to steal something from there, especially since the ancestor just resurrected today. Unfortunately, now it also became their greatest despair. Alex nodded at Letizia, asking her to follow him. The latter watched how he shortened the distance between him and the ancestor before flying behind him. "You bastard! Just take that girl away, and we won''t interfere in your war against the Fire God Clan!" The ancestor screamed as she struck Alex''s sword. That clash created a massive crater beneath her feet before she felt a blazing aura coming from that strike. "Tch! Dammit! Sword Saint!" She glared at Alex and noticed how her skin got burned by the heat carried by the intent. She regretted having such a body like this. In fact, Letizia''s body was much better to possess. Even if she needed to pretend to be his slave for a period of time, she could simply run away the moment she reached God Stage. This might be the biggest miscalculation of her¡­ No, the Snow White Mountain ever had. The heat started forming fire and burned the snow around the area despite the cold temperature. The ancestor already knew about his Pure Fire element, but she never thought it was this powerful. And with a Pure Ice Element servant, no wonder he could become the most dangerous person in this world. When Alex pinched her like this, Letizia appeared on her right, slashing her sword. "Ice Oscillation Wave!" The ancestor ground her teeth and summoned a thick ice wall before covering her body with powerful ice armor. Just like Letizia, she also understood this technique. The original body seemed to have attained high-level armor, at least around Letizia''s level. Letizia''s Ice Oscillation Wave managed to shatter the ice wall but unable to continue, leaving only her Sword Path to cut the ancestor. Unfortunately, the ice armor blocked her Untraceable Ice Path. The two didn''t stop and attacked her again with their weapons from her front and behind. "I am going to show you what it means to be a God Rank Expert!" The ancestor suddenly released a more powerful Spiritual Energy, far surpassing her rank. She knew she couldn''t escape from these two if she didn''t use her all. *Clank Clank!* She completely blocked Alex''s powerful strength with two slashes before blowing Letizia away. "What?!" Letizia dropped her jaw, never expecting the ancestor to have this kind of power left. "She is burning her lifespan." On the other hand, Alex muttered to himself as he observed how she utilized the blood in her body. It must be related to the Ice Blood, he thought. "Since we still have time, I will try to wear her out first and search for an opportunity. Looking at her condition and current energy, I don''t think she can utilize this for a long time." Alex and Letizia kept attacking her and wounding her to lower her strength. The ancestor fought well, but the powerful fight only lasted for a minute due to the strength difference. No matter what, Alex was too powerful for her. "Not good!" Suddenly, she realized she reacted slightly late. "Heaven Light Slash." Alex used this chance by enhancing the technique with his Triple Draws, launching six attacks simultaneously. "Ha!" She burned her lifespan even further, just to gather enough strength to block this attack. Veins started bulging out on her face and hands and somehow succeeded in blocking this attack, only to find herself trapped by Alex''s power. Letizia realized her turn had come and appeared behind the ancestor. "No. You won''t!" The ancestor summoned a thick ice wall again, surrounding her body except for the part where Alex stood. Letizia and Alex smiled at the same time as the heat suddenly enveloped its surrounding, melting a portion of the ice. Letizia saw this as a chance and released everything she had. "Ice Oscillation Wave!" Not only the sword wave, but her ice path was used to cut this ice. Even if it couldn''t destroy the wall completely, it was enough just to penetrate a single line where she could complete her swing. *Crack!* The cracking sound echoed in their ears as the ancestor realized her aim and leaped to the side. Letizia didn''t care about her attack at all and simply wished to have that single line to cut her from the back. Not only that, as soon as she focused on Letizia''s attack, Alex''s eyes flashed a dangerous glint as he completed his slash, cutting her arm. At the same time, Letizia''s attack also slashed her back, albeit a bit shallow. Even so, the blood flowed out of that wound and dyed the clothes red. The ancestor grabbed the sword and ran for her life. Unfortunately, with that kind of wound, she couldn''t outrun Alex as the latter suddenly appeared in front of her, swinging his sword. "I won''t die here!" She gritted her teeth and struck that sword to create a chance to escape. It was at this time, Alex pulled another trick. The sword might aim to blow her away, but Alex''s spear abruptly moved at his highest speed, creating three blows on the sword body. "What?!" The ancestor screamed as she just realized what this guy did. He completely used the sword and his powerful strength to blow her away, and that spear''s purpose was to send her sword flying from her hand. With this, not only would she fly toward Letizia on her back, she had no means to block her again. Everything had been calculated by Alex, including the lower strength in her off hand. "You bastard!" Nothing she could do would change this situation as she flew toward Letizia. She turned around and created her Ice Armor to block her attack even if it meant gravely injured, but she suddenly felt an overbearing pressure from behind, suppressing her from using such a technique. "You bastard! No. I don''t want to die!" She glanced at her back as she couldn''t release her skill enough due to this suppression. And what she found utterly shocked her. With the golden crown with blue jade in the middle and this powerful pressure that restrained her above his head, there was not a single God Rank Expert who wouldn''t recognize such a person, especially in this world. "To think I actually want to do all those things to the Spirit God''s servant¡­ I deserve death¡­" She turned back to Letizia, completely resigning her fate. Knowing that she had confronted the world''s savior this whole time and knowing that she would die in this exchange, she felt relieved and guilty at the same time. She closed her eyes and let Letizia cut her into two. Her anger turned into serenity as she uttered her last word. "I have chosen the wrong side¡­ You shall be proud to become his people¡­ Uh, I am jealous." Letizia didn''t understand the meaning of her words, but she still said, "No need to say it. I am proud to be his serv¡­ subordinate." Alex couldn''t say anything when he looked at the ancestor. He just utilized his Spirit Step Second Step to restrain her by sheer pressure from the Spiritual Energy and his Spirit Crown to amplify that effect. But that last expression of her made him unable to be happy in this fight. She must have realized his identity since she was one of the Goddesses of this world. And not a single God and Goddess seemed to treat him badly when they realized his identity. He wondered whether he should kill these people or not, but one of them indeed had fallen just now. Alex took a deep breath and sighed. "Never mind. Snow White Mountain is already on my target list, and I shall cut my enemies." He looked at Letizia before observing his surroundings, realizing that out of the five targets, four of them had been killed. The last one was Anna''s target that seemed to be struggling with all her might to not die. At this time, Sherry appeared and helped her kill that person, and as expected, she couldn''t last a minute. After checking they had completed their objectives, he saw numerous signs of energy coming from the horizon, with a few of them just jumping off the cliff a bit farther from here and would arrive in a few seconds. "We are leaving!" Alex shouted. The spirits looked at him and realized his gaze that locked on the reinforcement and retreated. The contracted beasts were the second to react before Firia and Viola retreated. "Do you think you can go?!" The sect master roared as blood flowed out of her eyes. "We can." Leoz came to the rear and raised his hand, creating a few lightning balls that circled in front of him. The lightning started sparking as it shot out a powerful yellow-colored laser toward these people. "Thunder God Cannon!" "!!!" They were utterly shocked when they saw this powerful move. The sect master and the two 9-Star elders had no choice other than using their most powerful move to block this attack. "Boom!" Chapter 778 - Return "Boom!" The explosion shook the entire Snow White Mountain. Not only it created a huge shock wave to the surrounding, but the thunderous sound also reverberated in everyone''s ears. *Rumble Rumble!* The thunderous sound seemed to be followed by a rumbling sound, which obviously didn''t come from that Thunder God Cannon. The elders immediately realized what just happened and looked at the mountain, watching how the snow that covered their mighty mountain suddenly fell down, causing an avalanche. "!!!" When the smoke disappeared, the sect master and the two elders were in shock. That attack just now was a few times stronger than their most powerful attacks. If that attack hit them, it would probably have heavily injured them. Even so, it was not the time for them to be amazed. A normal 7-Star Martial Saint shouldn''t be able to materialize that kind of attack under normal conditions, so they knew Leoz must have utilized almost all his energy in that attack. That''s why the sect master didn''t waste even a single second and commanded. "One elder is going to inform the group behind us to have a few of them stop the avalanche and have the rest to follow us. We shouldn''t let them escape after doing this!" "That''s right. We shouldn''t forgive them after they killed our ancestor!" "Kill!" The group was enraged, despite watching how Alex''s group disappeared after that attack. They simply had another assurance they could use, and one of the elders asked the sect master for it. "Sect Master. I would like to ask your permission to activate the Great Array to trap them here." "If that kind of attack is launched again, it will require too many resources, but we certainly can''t let them go like this. Go to the Array Room and activate it. We will see whether they are faster or we are." The sect master nodded. That elder nodded and flew to the sky while the others began their chase. Meanwhile, Alex and his group had gone too far with his Space Element. "Master¡­" Even though she had seen it once, she still couldn''t believe that Alex had two elements, with one of them being Space Element. However, it also made her worry because Letizia obviously knew about the array that covered the entire Snow White Mountain. If Alex escaped just like this, they would surely suspect him for having such an element, so she said. "There is¡­" "I know there is an array." Alex stopped her with a calm expression. "I have found it the moment I enter this place, and I have found its location. Remember how the elders need to go check the prison manually instead of informing them with a token or something?" "Yes." She nodded. "There must be a requirement to enter the valley¡­ No, it might be related to the ritual itself. They need to go there manually if they want to activate the array. With our normal pace, we indeed wouldn''t be able to leave the sect since the array is covering a vast area. "However, you should know about our reputation out there. It is nothing extraordinary if we can escape. In fact, it will simply raise our reputation even further." Alex explained carefully. "I see. I am sorry for disturbing you." Letizia nodded and stepped back. "It''s fine. You are free to voice your opinion since I want someone, not a thing that can only nod and comply." Alex shook his head before looking at Viola. "With this, I have fulfilled the condition for Snow White Mountain to join the alliance as well as fulfilling her revenge. I will send you to the Freedom Sect after this and have Licht arrange an army." "Alright. We are going to wait in front of the cave when the time is near." Viola nodded. "Yeah. You can come with that Spatial Gate since it shouldn''t require a huge amount of Spiritual Energy to use the Spatial Gate." Alex nodded, remembering how the elders and disciples used their Spatial Gate to suck all the water from the ocean when the Earthquake struck. "That''s the plan. How long do you think the war will start?" "Six months to a year¡­ And this one is going to be big because the Snow White Mountain is going all out. If the Fire God Clan is also the same, it will be troublesome because we won''t escape unscathed this time." Alex sighed. "Fair enough. That''s why you want the Ancient Blue Family to be your agent right?" Viola smirked as she just realized why Alex''s plan. "Yeah. I want them to have confidence in war, so they won''t bring everything with them. If the Ancient Blue Family can successfully raise their confidence, it shouldn''t be a problem. After all, there must be many Array Plates, Pills, and Weapons in their treasury, so it will be a hard fight." Alex nodded with a smile. "Everything seems to be according to your plan. You are really a freak." Viola shook her head in defeat. "I don''t know why, but your master seems to be mediocre compared to you." "Overpraised. I am just a careful person." Alex shook his head. "No, it''s still an understatement. You have raised their hope high only to drop it with a harsh reality. You are a devil." Viola raised her hand and gave up. "High? That is not high enough." Alex grinned. "Another plan?" "Yeah. But I won''t tell you for the time being." Alex nodded. "Whatever. You are like the mastermind of the biggest evil force you know. Scheming everything until it is to your liking and kill them in despair." "No matter what you say, it''s the best option while lowering our casualties." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, let''s go back." "Sure." Alex used his Teleportation Array to send them to their base. Unbeknownst to them, they just managed to anger the sect master until she spat blood. "Sect Master?" The elders'' faces became pale as they saw how their mighty Sect Master fell on her knees. "We have let the Fire God Clan wait for too long. Answer them¡­ No, I will go to them immediately. Make sure the Ancient Blue Family joins too." The sect master stopped them from coming to her. She had been releasing her killing intent this whole time due to this accident. She etched Alex''s appearance in his mind and made sure she would kill him in this war. "Ye-yes!" The elders nodded furiously. "Should we still pursue them or arrange a big investigation?" "No!" The sect master shook her head. "They will just become the prey of the Spirit Nest. For now, I want all of you to prepare for the war." "Understood." They soon closed their gate and became busy. ¡­ On the other hand, Alex was sipping his tea in their base and relaxed his mind. He looked at Letizia, who brought him the tea. She seemed to assume her position immediately as soon as they arrived at the base. Or it might because she felt guilty since this accident only happened because Alex wanted to save and avenge her. Alex didn''t care for such a thing. He sighed. "Now that I have sent Elder Viola back, do you want to say something to me?" Letizia''s body shook and bowed almost ninety degrees. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Master. And I also want to apologize that you get caught in this mess because of me." "It''s true that my priority is to save you, but I also have another mission¡­ Well, I think allowing you to have your revenge and finishing my own objective is like two birds in one stone. So, you don''t need to feel guilty about it." Alex shook his head and calmed her with his gentle smile. Letizia was touched once again when she heard how Alex''s priority was to rescue her instead of a big mission. It also meant that his people were more important than any other mission. "Anyway, this is our base. Since you have officially joined our Spirit Nest, ask the system to explain everything about the system. After that, ask Anya about the current condition of our Spirit Nest. If you have finished these two, you can start cultivating and trigger that tribulation." Alex nodded. "Understood." "What are you going to do after this?" Anya asked. "I want to send a letter to the Ancient Blue Family." Alex smirked as another good plan flashed in his mind. "I will tell you about it later." ¡­ An hour later. Rio had finalized the meeting and soon returned to his room. However, he suddenly felt a presence coming from his room and raised his guard. He took out his weapon and slowly walked inside his room, only to find a male standing near the window as if he was waiting for Rio. "Who are you?!" Rio''s senses were tingling the moment he found this man. He didn''t know why, but he could sense that this person wasn''t a human. "I am here to pass my Master''s message." Nano bowed his head and tossed the letter to him. Rio took it and glanced at it for a split second, but when his gaze returned to that person, the latter already disappeared. Rio took a deep breath and opened the letter carefully. This is Alexander Sirius. I am going to be brief. Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan should approach you soon and talk about the alliance. I want you to raise their confidence¡­ In fact, you can simply say that your family can finally fulfill its wish because of you as a genius. With that high morale, I want you to say that you have figured out my Spirit Nest and tell them that the Spirit Nest only has less than twenty people¡­ Or at least, that''s the number that will go to war. In other words, the battle will become three versus two. I have presented proof in the other letter, and you can use it to your advantage in this negotiation. Those who think they will win will surely have their back open¡­ I am sure you understand this. Yes. I want them to think that way and lower their guard. I believe you can, especially since the Snow White Mountain is full of anger right now. You don''t need to worry about the Divine Kingdom and Phantasm Sect. I can assure you they won''t join, so you won''t have to bear more pressure in this negotiation. Thank you for your help in advance. Alexander Sirius. "..." Rio was stunned and amazed at the same time. The Ancient Blue Family would surely get exterminated if they joined this alliance because of a plan like this. He shook his head and sighed before taking the letter to his father. A few minutes later, inside a room where two people faced each other with a few papers on the table. "I give up. There is nothing that can save Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan. With this plan, Alexander Sirius has taken the greatest threat in this war. Of course, we need to play our part in this." Davi paused for a moment and asked. "And what is your opinion of how he sent us a message like this?" "I have only one word. Scary," Rio said with a serious expression. "With a highly skilled person like that, Alexander Sirius might be able to kill one of us without being noticed. Even if that person is so powerful like you, he can simply use poison and weaken you before ultimately killing you." "That''s right. Still, I have a feeling that there are a few truths in this letter. The Spirit Nest might indeed be a small influence, and they have never existed in the past. In other words, Alexander Sirius has successfully deceived everyone this whole time¡­ "And I believe this influence will go with him as soon as he leaves this world. A real leader should know when to back off and wait patiently¡­ Luckily, I did the same. It''s not good to have a conflict with Alexander Sirius in this era." Davi let out a long sigh. "Yes. Since Father is going there, I will handle everything in the family." Rio nodded with a serious expression. "Good. I will handle these letters first." Davi took the letters and left the room. Chapter 779 - Discussion One month later. Under the pavilion where the Fire God Clan''s leader met the Ancient Blue Family''s head, two people seemed to be discussing an important matter. "This needs to be stopped! Those guys are going to destroy this continent if we let them free like this." An old woman slammed the table. Normally, the people from Snow White Mountain tended to have a cold personality or at least a neutral personality because of their disciplines. Unfortunately, the woman didn''t have that kind of patient due to the stress from the previous incident. "Clan Head Leo! You want to fight Spirit Nest together right? Fine! I will join your alliance." "Yes. However, you need to calm down first. I know how frustrating it is to deal with the Spirit Nest¡­ Even our Fire God Clan paid a huge price for underestimating that person." Leo, the leader of the Fire God Clan, raised his hand and waved it a few times, asking her to stop her action. "We can talk about this when the Ancient Blue Family''s Davi comes. During this time, I want you to calm yourself." "Fine." The woman sneered as she rose from her seat and walked around the pavilion, watching the green scenery and fishes in the pond. A single influence had played them to this current state. Two hours later. Davi walked inside the garden and watched the woman''s frustrated expression and the disappointed expression from Leo. "To think Liza has arrived first even though the invitation comes from the Fire God Clan." Davi walked in a cheerful voice. "Oh! You have come! We want to talk about something important today, and it will be in secret. Hence, I apologize for the lack of banquet for this discussion since I can''t afford to make the situation worse." Leo stood up and smiled. "Hmph! The invitation came from me, old man. I only asked Clan Leader Leo to deal with it." Liza sneered before glaring at Leo to start the discussion as soon as possible. "Since that is the case, I am wondering what kind of incident you experienced to even invite me here." Except for the notice about the talk, Davi didn''t get any information about what Alex did. Alex had two reasons for doing this. Davi would look less suspicious, and his action would flow more naturally. "The Spirit Nest attacked her a month ago, so I have sent the invitation to you as soon as possible because we need to deal with the Spirit Nest right now, lest they will become the threat of this world¡­ And I believe it won''t be long." Leo nodded with a serious expression. "Ho?!" Davi narrowed his eyes. "I have sent the proposal to you¡­ So, I want to formally invite you again. Will you join our side and defeat Alexander Sirius along with his Spirit Nest?" Leoz asked and stretched his hand. "Hmm?! You have known me for so long, so I am sure you know what I want right?" Davi frowned, trying to act as greedy as possible like how he usually did. "I know. Since I can''t say anything about the Sacrificial Element and my own son, I have prepared a separate reward. You must know that our opponent wouldn''t be only the Spirit Nest right?" "Yes. From what I have found until today, the Blackwade Clan and the Drunken Pavilion seems to have joined his side." Davi nodded. On the other hand, his inside was burning with disgust as he snorted. ''You are going to be played when the fourth influence appears. At that time, your death is nothing but assured.'' "That''s why I have this proposal. I will take half of the original loot while the other half is split among you two." "Bullsh*t!" Davi smacked the table as he glared at Leo. "We only get a fourth while you get half? Are you kidding me?" "That''s right. This is an equal alliance. I don''t agree with this split!" Liza also rejected the idea. "That''s why I have prepared another condition for this fight." Leo suddenly released his killing intent as he said coldly. "My Fire God Clan has a grudge against this Spirit Nest the longest. That''s why we are going to mobilize everything, including our treasure. Even if we are broke after this, I won''t mind!" ''It''s come.'' Davi thought. Alex seemed to have expected something like this, so he sent that letter. ''Now the problem is how angry Leo is right now? If the resentment is too big, even with all tricks at my disposal, I doubt I can stop him. Should I probe him?'' Davi looked at Leo for a few seconds before asking. "So, you are going to bring all your treasures for this fight?" "Yes. We have several many Array Masters as well. Although half of them have defected, the other half remains in this family and have prepared to fight to the end." Leo nodded. "That''s why no matter what price I need to pay, Spirit Nest will go down in this fight. Because of that, I want fifty percent of whatever we can get from the three influences, including the disciples!" "Disciples?" Davi narrowed his eyes. "Yes. My Fire God Clan has been declining for the past few years, so I need a new batch of disciples. I will recruit a few disciples from those three influences and enslave the rest." "So, you are aiming at the Spirit Nest''s people? I know they have many powerful youngsters¡­" "Hmph! You are a greedy bastard. Your greed is bigger than this King of Greed Davi." Liza snorted. "Oi, old woman. I am not a King of Greed. I simply see everything from pros and cons, including the benefits. I just do the most logical thing to do." Davi shrugged as if he wasn''t offended by her words. "Anyway¡­ If we manage to capture all those people, we will split them among ourselves according to the previous proportion. Our Fire God Clan will also have the right to choose first." Leo stopped them and continued. "I don''t like it." Davi glared at Leo. "This won''t benefit my influence that much. I want the split to be at least forty to thirty to thirty. Since you have sacrificed that much, I don''t mind giving you the forty along with the right to choose first." "!!!" Liza narrowed her eyes. As expected from Davi, his greed knows no bound. "No. I have calculated the proportion carefully, and I believe that it is already too high for you. Unlike my influence, the two of you only need to mobilize your elders and disciples. The Blackwade Clan and the Drunken Pavilion must be the same since they will only mobilize at maximum half of their number." Leo shook his head as he wouldn''t budge on this offer. "You don''t know this yet, but I also have calculated that my proposal is the best¡­ No, we can even have this one¡­ Forty to thirty-five to twenty-five. I will be the thirty-five." Davi nodded. "Oi! Are you kidding me?!" Obviously, the one who couldn''t take it anymore wasn''t Leo, but Liza. "Let me finish first." Davi stopped them before his eyes flashed a dangerous glint. "My son, Rio, has managed to fulfill our long wish and become the strongest beastly power cultivator. It has been spread among the family, so we can get a result soon. "As for Rio himself, who was the first to become this, his strength has improved thirty percent. I believe he can even fight against 4-Star Martial Saint on equal ground. Imagine if I bring five thousand of them at once or even more?" Davi grinned. There was no need for him to continue because Leo and Liza could imagine it themselves. Davi would be a force to be reckoned with, so him asking for a larger cut seemed to have some basis. The only problem would be Snow White Mountain. After having five of their elders and their ancestor killed, what kind of price would they pay to bring the Spirit Nest down. Liza gritted her teeth as she slammed the table. "I will only bring half of my force because that guy is so cunning. I am afraid they will attack my influence when I am not there! I am fine with that share since this is the maximum I can spare for this war." She didn''t know why, but the ancestor''s face flashed in her mind. Even though she was unwilling to die, the ancestor died with a smile on her face. She was baffled because of that and thought there must be something wrong. Hence, he suspected the Spirit Nest doing something hidden. At the same time, not many people knew it was their ancestor that died. Most people only knew that Rhione died and Letizia defected from the influence. As much as she wanted to risk it all, she couldn''t do it because of that particular reason. Davi was slightly disappointed by Liza''s reaction, but she seemed to have calmed a bit. It was a shame that they couldn''t destroy the Snow White Mountain thoroughly, but half¡­ It wouldn''t be too bad. With the Space Element, they could trap everyone and hit the remaining people of Snow White Mountain there. On the other hand, if he incited too much from Liza, he would become suspicious. Hence, he could only give this report to Alexander Sirius later. Knowing this, he finally opened his trump card for this discussion. "I have one piece of information that will surely pique your interest." "What is it?" Leo frowned. Davi smirked as he placed a paper on the table, letting them read the information. The two read it carefully before their expression gradually turned solemn. "Is this true?" "Yes. Do you think I didn''t do anything for the past few years? I have been investigating him as well, including his friends on the Willow Continent. With only a few elites, I believe he won''t be able to withstand the power of the three influences. If you bring more people in this war, I believe we can suppress the other two influences quicker." Davi grinned. Little did they know that the information on the paper was the information that Alex wrote himself. He knew what kind of information that could be revealed and which one couldn''t. Davi hoped that the Snow White Mountain would take this bait to make the cleaning process go quicker. The two thought for a moment before Liza suddenly asked. "I want to confirm it again. Are you sure that this information is right?" "Yes. And I have confirmed it by seeing that Alexander Sirius in person." Davi smirked. "What?!" Leo and Liza stood up as they looked at Davi with a shocked expression. "You should know about my principle in doing something like this. I always welcome everyone to make a deal with me. Unfortunately, that guy will give me only Spirit Crystals and peace for a century¡­ Such a cheapskate." Davi snorted as he saw the doubt within these two people, so he added. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Davi, didn''t tell a lie just now." "This is to let you know that I am not joking with you. Compared to what you two offer, this seems to be more profitable for me. Besides, with this kind of strength, I don''t have a huge percentage of winning. That''s why I am taking this invitation of yours." Davi smirked. He didn''t include the second part in his Heavenly Oath simply because he lied in that profitable theme and the probability of Alex winning. Of course, he didn''t tell them about the extra condition as well. After all, lying and not telling everything are two different things, and he just did the latter. However, these two people recognized that Davi didn''t lie about the trade and Alex''s strength. "If that were the case, I can lend you two-third of my Snow White Mountain since I still need the rest to protect the influence." Liza was the first one to buy it. Although she wanted to doubt Davi, that Heavenly Oath really had a huge impact. As for Leo, he only nodded. "Alright. I will go with that." "Haha! Let''s profit together. Anyway, since we have agreed to do this, we should pose the bounty on Alexander Sirius''s head along with the other influences." "No need." Leo shook his head and placed a paper on the table. Chapter 780 - Playing into Alexs Hand "No need." Leo sneered as he tossed a paper onto the table. Davi and Liza peeked at the paper before reading it. The extermination of the Fire God Clan will be held in six months. Unrelated people please leave the city because this will become the main battlefield. If you still don''t leave when the war comes, don''t blame someone else if you die in the process. Even if you are alive, this city wouldn''t be a place to live after this war. This is the last ultimatum from my Spirit Nest, so I hope you all can adhere to this warning and leave the city. Alexander Sirius. Davi and Liza opened their eyes wide. They never expected to see the Spirit Nest openly saying the time they attack. In this case, the Fire God Clan will have time to prepare everything in this place. At the same time, if the people followed this warning and left the town, the Fire God Clan could tear those buildings down and build arrays all over the place. Davi felt something was wrong when he saw this. ''The timing is aligned with what that Alexander Sirius said¡­ But it doesn''t feel like him to announce something like this. With his style, he should be playing with a surprise attack to lower their casualty¡­ Or did I miss something?'' Davi frowned, not knowing what Alex thought about this. Alex''s figure was still lingering inside his mind as he knew Alex was not a person like this. In other words, this was nothing but another plan of his. The problem would be what kind of plan he hid behind this announcement. Davi thought for a moment and shook his head as he couldn''t come up with a plan despite knowing everything about this attack. He only needed to act his part and watched how the situation unfolded. "I see. This is an act of foolishness. It seems he is acting too confident that he can beat us. No, I should say this is certainly like him. Look at how he foolishly embarrassed me. I will certainly beat this guy in this war." Davi smacked the table, making a frustrated face. "This announcement has been spread to the citizens before we know about it. So, there is an influx of people leaving this city¡­ Not that I mind though. Since he dares to act like this, I will make this city a fortress and bury him inside this city." Leo grinned. "When does this announcement start spreading?" Davi asked. "A month ago. In other words, we have five months to organize our force and make some traps." Leo nodded. "How about the Divine Kingdom and Phantasm Sect?" Davi asked. "They are jerks. That Elizabeth managed to acquire two-third of the entire kingdom''s power not long ago. And I think it won''t be long for her coronation¡­ Maybe after the situation of the continent stabilizes after this war, I think we can see a queen from the Divine Kingdom." "Oh! If I am not wrong, she is one of the people that managed to enter the tower inside the Ancient Battlefield¡­" Davi nodded. "Well, that lass is indeed a terrifying one. So, that means she has rejected the alliance from you?" "Yes. Not only did she reject it, she even stated to be neutral during the war and gathered many of my citizens. With those people, she could start spreading the people in her territory to flourish all those territories." Leo gritted her teeth. He still remembered how Elizabeth refused him, and it made him very frustrated. "Well, since she is no use for us in this battle. How about the Phantasm Sect?" "You already know about their reputation right? The moment I came to them, their sect master rejected it without a chance of negotiation. And from my spy, I heard there is an internal conflict between the young master and the sect master. "Unfortunately, I can''t take advantage of them since both of them have the same thought of never participating in a war like this and stay neutral. And it''s not the matter about taking the sect master''s seat, so it''s not easy to influence him, especially with our lack of time." Leo shook his head. Davi''s eyes flashed as he remembered how Alex said everything had been taken care of. It seemed Alex had done something to these two influences that made them didn''t or unable to participate in this war. "We have this city anyway, so I am sure we can win since you have decided to go all out," Davi assured them and smiled. "How about you, old woman? Do you have any opinions regarding this matter?" "No. I only want the layout of this city and where you are going to place the trap. With the city this big, I believe we can take care of more than five hundred thousand people at once." "A half-million¡­ Fair enough." Davi nodded. "Since everyone from Fire God Clan participated in this war, it should be one hundred thousand¡­ if we calculate those Martial Kings or lower. I can bring forty thousand people at once while this old woman said she would bring seventy thousand people." Davi''s number seemed to be the lowest, but no one complained because they knew Davi''s family tradition. With a tradition like that, it is perfectly normal to have a lower number. However, it also came with a positive in which the survivors were elites. "So, in total, we have two hundred ten thousand soldiers." Leo nodded with a solemn look. "Yes. Now let''s calculate their number. Assuming that the Blackwade Clan and the Drunken Pavilion lend half of their number, which is fifty thousand each¡­ They have a total of one hundred thousand. "In addition, the Spirit Nest only has elites in their ranks, so it shouldn''t be a problem. The only problem is their money. Will they use their money to hire loose cultivators? If that is the case, we should expect a few ten thousand more, especially with the Blackwade Clan''s wealth¡­" Davi thought for a moment. "Yes. We have utilized our network to get another thirty thousand people from those loose cultivators. Fortunately, I put a condition that all they get will depend on their efforts." Leo nodded. "Oh! If that is the case, you don''t need to open your treasury yet and pay them with the money you get from those three influences." Davi nodded. "Yes. Though we need to pay them some, so they know we won''t break our promise." Davi looked down and pondered the matter. ''At first glance, Alexander is at a disadvantage. Even with that fourth influence under their Spirit Nest, their number will still be lower than them. However, if there are more Space Element Masters in that influence, the one in disadvantage is this side. ''Space Element Master is known as an Army Destroyer not for nothing¡­ And with me leaving this alliance at that time¡­ I see. They will get nothing but despair when the time comes. The old woman will surely try to break through and leave before seeking Alex''s forgiveness. ''But it is different for Leo. His strength will surely vanish from this continent with their two supports leaving him. Haiz, I pity you Leo. After knowing you for a long time, you seek your own death¡­ Especially when it''s only your branch that was seeking their death. ''If you can let go of that past, I am sure your influence will stand proud among others¡­ Such a shame.'' Davi closed his eyes and sighed. He started lying and praised Leo. "Haiz. A young man with that kind of talent will eventually fall because of his recklessness. I pity such talent." "True enough. If he didn''t do something unforgivable to my Snow White Mountain, I will forgive him and take him under my wing. I can even match him up with the top talent and beauty of my Snow White Mountain." Liza shook her head and sighed. Despite how they were mad, they recognized Alex''s talent and power. Unfortunately, that kind of person turned out to be their enemies. "Anyway, I will give you the layout and the plan at a later date since I need to start preparing first with the other elders." Leo glanced at Liza. "Sure. As long as I know about that, I can mobilize my disciples freely. Besides, a defensive battle is more advantageous in general, so I am up for it." Liza nodded with a solemn expression. "Still, there should be three 10-Star Martial Saints in their ranks. I will handle the expert from the Spirit Nest myself. How about you two?" Leo asked. "I have a little grudge in the past, so I will fight that old drunkard." Liza snorted. "Then I will handle the Blackwade Clan." Davi shrugged. He didn''t really have any grudge since he always acted with benefit, so he didn''t move that much and created trouble. "How about their force?" Liza asked. "I will handle the Spirit Nest and the mercenary. If the Spirit Nest indeed comes with only a few people, I will send a portion of my force to both of you," Leo said. "I think it will be the same as their leaders, I will handle the Blackwade Clan, and this old hag will destroy the Drunken Pavilion." "Alright. With this, the plan has been finalized. Do you want to add another condition with this plan?" "No. I can smell money from this, so I don''t really have a problem with this plan." Davi nodded. "I have the same opinion as him." Liza agreed. "I understand. The Fire God Clan will take care of the rest and inform all of you at a later date." Leo nodded and ended the discussion with a clap. "Alright. Since we have finalized our agreement, it''s time for me to go and prepare for this. I should be able to arrive one month before the war to familiarize myself with the landscape of this town." Liza nodded. Davi agreed with what she said. Although cultivators could fly to the sky, sometimes they needed to fight on the land to take advantage of the landscape. Hence, an influence usually had at least a third of their force to stay on the land. "Yes. I will take care of everything. Thank you for accepting this invitation." Leo nodded and stretched his hand. "I am sorry, but I can''t see you off because I am afraid there is a spy in the town." "Don''t worry. I know about it." Liza waved her hand, saying it was not a big deal, and flew away. Leo then glanced at Davi, wondering if he wanted to stay a bit longer or not, but it seemed the latter had decided. "Never mind. I should prepare my force too." Davi sighed and flew away. He took another glance at this city and thought. ''You two are playing in his hand this whole time, and you can''t recognize it.'' Leo looked at his disappearing back and called someone''s name as soon as Davi disappeared from his vision. "Elison." "Yes, Sir." A figure appeared on his back as he kneeled on one knee. He wore a full black suit that covered everything except his eyes. "Follow that Davi and report everything he did." "Sir¡­ Do you mean¡­" Elison was certainly taken aback by this order. After all, it meant Leo didn''t trust Davi. "I don''t know about that old hag, but I know she won''t betray me at this time. As for that old Davi, he is the most versatile in changing heart. There is a possibility of him inviting Alexander Sirius again to tell them about this and ask for a higher reward from them. "That''s why I want to know everything about him and make sure he doesn''t betray me. After all, that person has met this Alexander Sirius once." Leo released his killing intent. "Understood. I shall follow every movement to the best of my ability." Elison nodded and disappeared. Leo then looked up, watching the blue sky. Alex''s face appeared in the form of illusion as he thought. "I will destroy you and that arrogance of yours. My Fire God Clan is not a pushover." Chapter 781 - Alexs Cards in Hand The moment Davi returned to the Ancient Blue Family, specifically his study room where he sat on his usual chair, a shadow appeared before him, not letting him even to talk to anyone yet. And that shadow was none other than Nano. "Greetings. I am Nano, Master Alexander''s subordinate." Nano slightly bowed his head. "!!!" Davi pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering if he had started hallucinating or not, but it seemed to be the latter. He took a deep breath to calm his heart down. "To think my Ancient Blue Family is this easy to be infiltrated." "No. This place is hard to be infiltrated. There are many places that I need to turn back because I can''t pass the security here. Fortunately, my skill is enough to come here." Nano shook his head. "So, what do you want to do now that you are here?" "That is my question." Nano smiled as he asked. "I am just coming here to confirm your participation in that discussion." "As expected¡­ It seems I can''t hide anything from him with a person like you here. Anyway, I will write everything about the previous meeting." Davi waved his hand, asking him to leave this place. However, Nano rejected the idea and looked around. "There is a mole following you." "A mole?" Davi suddenly realized what he meant and smacked the table. "That guy! Someone who can follow me without being noticed¡­ This person seems to be skilled." "Not necessarily. He is indeed coming here, and I believe his purpose is to confirm whether you have betrayed the alliance or not. However, he is not following right behind you. There is even a delay of one hour, so I assume he wants to come here first before starting his own investigation." "Do you want me to get rid of that spy?" "No. That spy is necessary for you to gain the trust of the Fire God Clan. At the same time, I am afraid he won''t go too far and follow you everywhere since your family security is good. At first, I wanted to make a scene as the representative of the Spirit Nest and talk about this thing with you and have you offer another price if we want your cooperation¡­ But I think it won''t be necessary." "Why?" He narrowed his eyes. He had the same idea earlier, but he didn''t know whether Alex would take it. Hence, he planned to wait for Alex''s side before using this plan¡­ But the opposite party seemed to have another thought. "It''s simple. With your family power, it''s hard for us to infiltrate. If we combine with the fact that this kind of conversation requires a heavy guard, it will make us suspicious if we let such a person watch our conversation." "Do you mean like we are letting him watch? And he will suspect we are acting?" "Yes. For such a conversation, not many people should be able to enter. But if we don''t let him watch us, he will suspect your credibility to that alliance. Even if my master put a dissatisfied face, it''s still suspicious. "And you have just agreed with their alliance. The moment we come, they will suspect you almost immediately. That''s why rather than having a talk like this, it''s better for you to act normally. We also won''t contact you until the war starts." Nano nodded with a solemn expression. Davi looked down and agreed with what he said. "Alright. We will go according to your way. And I will write everything down and put it here before leaving. I believe you can take care of the rest right?" "I understand. I will leave you first." Nano nodded and disappeared like he never existed. Even his aura and presence vanished without a trace. Davi tried to regulate his Spiritual Energy, only to find nothing around his room. As expected, that spy was indeed scary like Rio said. He shook his head and started writing the details about the discussion. Later that night. Alex got the information and discussed it with Anya. "What do you think?" Alex asked with a smile. "Everything is going according to our plan." Anya nodded. "We have predicted that they are going all out this time because of the resentment. The only thing we need to watch out for is probably their fire." "Fire of Emotion huh¡­ It will become more powerful if the person releases more emotion. And the extermination of the family will be the trigger to take out the most powerful flame in their cultivation. They won''t be able to live anyway if they don''t use it, so they will certainly fight us with that flame even if they die after that." Alex sighed. "The Snow White Mountain seems to be more careful than we expected¡­ As expected from an old hag, after killing their ancestor, it seems she can still calmly promise the Fire God Clan." Anya sneered. "Not necessarily. Not many people know about that ancestor, so I think it''s a normal thing to do. In fact, two-third of their power is already stretching a bit. It''s only working due to our agreement with the Ancient Blue Family. And the resentment of mine toward them because of Letizia is normal, so it''s already lucky for us to have her mobilize that number." Alex nodded. "Still, even with the Ancient Blue Family leaving the alliance at the start of the battle, our number is practically similar to them. So, it''s going to be hard." Anya sighed as she read the paper thoroughly. "I know. Nelson is working for our trump card, but I don''t think I will add it to my plan. After all, we don''t know whether they will come or not. And Nelson also can''t be contacted because of the agreement." Alex nodded with a disappointed expression. "Fair enough. For the time being, our only problem is the arrays that they will set up. What do you want to do with them?" "I think I will recall all the N squad and have them scouted the Fire God Clan¡­ Maybe leaving one in Blackwade Clan, Snow White Mountain, Ancient Blue Family, and Drunken Pavilion. Other than those four, everyone will observe the Fire God Clan and, if possible, recognize all the arrays'' locations. "At that time, I can check which one is their core and shatter it before the fight or when we appear there. We can buy time for as long as we need, so the N squad can go everywhere and destroy them." Alex smirked evilly. "The N squad is trained to efficiently sneak inside an influence, but I am afraid they won''t be good enough to recognize arrays, and it will be hard to destroy the core without being noticed." Anya shook her head, wanting to reject his idea. "That''s why I want many of them to observe this. They can draw right? I want to use that drawing to recognize the array before making an array plate that can destroy the core." Anya widened her eyes and leaned back. "So that''s what you want. Now I can see the plan. However, if they are fighting with their Array Masters too¡­ They will be able to reconstruct the array almost immediately." "Just spread blood all over their arrays. As I said, we can take our time in dealing with them. Even if they need one minute for one array, I can halt our advance for an hour or so. The problem is for how long we can do this unnoticed." Alex narrowed his eyes, entering the core of the conversation. "Half an hour¡­ Probably. More than that is risking our lives. Since we will get the layout of their arrays and other things from the Ancient Blue Family, we can focus on them and make it more efficient. If we put a few more spies into their rank to work about this, I think it will be more effective." Anya nodded. "Ah! We can ask fifty people from each influence that are prepared to sacrifice themselves to destroy the array." Alex nodded. "And one or two spies of ours can check whether there is something hidden for even the two influences. In that case, we can advance without concern about that. "Yes. We will need to handle their Array Masters as soon as possible too¡­ Oh wait. We can utilize the Space Element cultivators from the Freedom Sect." Anya grinned, thinking something good. "I see. Ask them to teleport the spies to a specific area so they can finish their job faster. Although it''s a bit risky, the Space Element users should be good enough to escape unscathed." Alex nodded. If Davi actually heard their conversation, he might spurt blood, not believing what kind of plan they had in mind. Just with a single glance of the matter, they could formulate a plan at this level. They even took care of their distribution of power and deployed them where they needed to be. On the other hand, Alex seemed to not care about this trivial stuff. Instead, he continued about the plan. "Sneaking a few people inside there won''t be a problem even with the spies from the Fire God Clan. What I need to know is how big their treasury is¡­" "Fair enough. From what we have found so far, we know they have Teleportation Array Plates. I think these Array Plates are the most dangerous because they can escape from our place. How about utilizing the Space Temple for this?" "Hmm¡­ I am not sure. On one hand, they have the power to overturn the battlefield. On the other hand, I don''t want them to be idle outside the barrier that will trap the enemy from using Teleportation Array Plates." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "It''s alright. I think our force will be strong enough to handle our enemies. The only thing we shouldn''t let them do is escaping. If they escape, there might be a potential threat. Of course, it''s not you, but I am worried about Rose. Even with the declining Fire God Clan¡­ It''s too risky because there might already be a few main clan''s members that have escaped as the last resort if they lose." Anya nodded. "Fine. I will need to create a Giant Special Realm to trap them before asking the disciples of Space Temple to supply the Space Element, so the Space Element inside the barrier won''t be able to leave the place. In other words, the city will become our only battlefield. "The problem is we need too many people to sustain the Space Element. And the fact that there is a high chance for the enemy to destroy the barrier. If we want to retain the array, we will need too much Spirit Crystals. "So, I am thinking about stationing more disciples there, so they can teleport all incoming attacks. In other words, this battlefield will be isolated from the rest of the world." Alex sighed. "That''s a good plan for me to be honest. And with all of that, I believe we can''t expect the Space Temple to fight on the battlefield." Anya agreed with this plan. "Yeah. I think a few elders, including Great Elder Aileen and her disciples, can still fight with us. I think that is enough for the time being. The Fire God Clan mostly have Martial Emperors or below anyway, so I think we don''t need that much effort." Alex nodded. "Yes. And all of us are going to use our True Spirit Body from the beginning. With the battle progress and the number of enemies, I believe we can level up once there¡­ I mean, everyone if we use the Gacha Tickets." Alex thought for a moment. "Alright. That''s our plan. I will leave the details to you." "Yes. Are you going to train?" "I am planning to reach 6-Star before the war, along with Firia and Sherry, so I can''t play around for the time being." Alex nodded as he walked away. "Alright. Leave everything to me and do your job. I will ensure that our spirits will end up as at least 7-Star Martial Saint by the war''s end. After that, we only need three levels from becoming a God Rank Expert." Anya nodded, waving her hand with a smile. Alex also waved her hand and returned to his room. Chapter 782 - Last Meeting In the middle of the warm and comfortable room, Alex gradually opened his eyes, finding two beautiful women by his side. They were none other than Firia and Sherry. Cultivating together seemed to give them a faster speed than cultivating alone because each of their flames attracted Spiritual Energy not only for themselves but also for the others. Of course, it could only be this way because Firia''s Sacrificial Fire and Sherry''s Pure Fire were granted by Alex''s Pure Fire. Alex took a deep breath and smiled, watching how the two beauties opened their eyes. "Good morning. It''s been five months since I need to take care of the planning. To think the three of us managed to reach 6-Star Martial Saint." "Sherry and I are able to reach it two months ago while you are just finished consolidating your power and broke through to 6-Star a few days ago. Still, I couldn''t believe that we could do this even in the consolidation period." Firia sighed, impressed. "Well, I am consolidating every five stars, and during this period, I can''t use Spirit Crystal or Gathering Array because what I need is the natural Spiritual Energy, not the one from Spirit Crystal or forced by the Gathering Array. However, it''s a different case if the Spiritual Energy is naturally attracted because of cultivation. To say it in plain words, you can consider it as a win-win trade. "I took the Spiritual Energy that was attracted to you, Sherry took mine, and you took her. It could be used with only two people, but since the three of us could do it, why stuck with two?" Alex grinned before rising from his bed. "Anyway, it''s time to go out. I believe we only have a few days left before the war starts." Sherry and Firia looked at each other and smiled as they rose from the bed and followed Alex. As soon as he pushed the door open, Anya''s figure came to his vision as she crossed her arms. "?!" Alex was surprised and instinctively asked. "How many days left?" "There is still a week. After noticing your breakthrough, I have been waiting for you to open this door." "Ugh¡­ Sorry." Alex scratched his head, embarrassed. "I have made you wait for too long. How are others'' conditions?" "They should be able to reach 7-Star in the upcoming war without any problem, and this is without EXP Cards. With EXP Cards, I think we have no problem in reaching 8-Star¡­ Probably." Anya calculated everything, but she wasn''t confident since it just barely qualified to reach 8-Star. "That is good enough. Where are they? Have they returned to the base?" "Yes. They are waiting for you in the main room. Stina and Kyle have woken up not long ago while Letizia has been waiting for you since three days ago." Anya nodded. "How about the other forces?" "Yeah. Most of them have gathered around the perimeter, so they are waiting for us. As for the Freedom Sect, they have gotten close enough that a single Spatial Gate should be enough to teleport them there. They should make a perfect entrance for this." Anya smirked. "Nice." Alex nodded. "How about the arrays?" "We have gotten everything we need. These are the drawings. I think a week is enough for you to make a perfect counter for them. If that is not enough, we can ask a few Array Masters from other places." "I don''t think so. To counter this, it mostly relied on Space Element. After all, the purpose of this is to break the core. Unless you cause great destruction upon the array like how normal people do, it''s hard to break only the core without big aftermath." Alex sighed. "That''s right. I want to ask you this, but why won''t we spread the blood only? I mean, won''t it be able to confuse the array?" Anya asked. "No. That''s why the core of the array is important. You can say that it is the one that separates the array from the rest. Only if the core is destroyed, the other parts of the array would be able to fuse with the blood." Alex shook his head. "I see." Anya nodded, understood why he wanted to destroy only the core. "And if we destroy the array in a normal way, it''s easy to repair the array since most of them are still preserved. That''s why you want to do all this." "Yes." Alex nodded. "Anyway, we shall hold the last meeting before going to the battlefield. And how is Nelson doing?" "He should be able to manage¡­ Albeit barely. I don''t know if he can arrive before the war starts though." Anya sighed. "Well, we are rushing them, so I can''t blame it. And Nelson is resourceful, and I am really thankful to him." Alex patted her shoulder. "Let''s go." "Yes." Anya nodded as she, Firia, and Sherry followed Alex to the main hall, where all Spirits, contracted beasts, and Letizia awaited. ¡­ *Creak!* The sound of the door opening filled the room as they sensed a few presences from the outside. Everyone in the room instinctively stood up and bowed. "We have been waiting for you, Master." "Come on. Let''s just forget about this formality and stuff." Alex sighed and thought. ''Now that I am here, I realize that only Anna, Anya, and Firia who don''t call me Master. Even Sherry has gotten used to that and refuses to call me by my name. I wonder if my name will be forgotten because they call my title instead of my name in the future¡­'' "Alex." Anna sneaked behind him and called his name. "We have asked the two influences and successfully made them infiltrate the Ancient Blue Family. They have regrouped with the N squad there and know their job well. The same applied to the Space Element Disciples from the Freedom Sect. They will be teleporting the spies to the traps'' locations and bring the spies out of that place." "That''s good. In other words, there should be no more traps, and this will be a full brawl fight." Alex nodded and took his seat. In the room was a huge table with Alex''s seat on the front and the others on the side. Anna and Anya obviously were on his right and left, followed by Firia and Sherry. After that, the others sat in random order. "After this meeting, we shall go to the battlefield to assure our allies. And I want them to see us as a mere group of elites that can be trampled by numbers before the Freedom Sect makes their appearance." Alex nodded. "We understand. And how would you like to position us?" Anna asked before glancing at Anya. "I have taken care of that. There will be three front in this fight. Since the Snow White Mountain also has a grudge with Manness, we will let the Drunken Pavilion handle them while Blackwade Clan handles the mercenaries from their side. Even though they don''t have a leader, their number is more than enough to hold the Blackwade Clan back for a few hours. "On the other hand, the Freedom Sect will come with us to hit the Fire God Clan from the front. Riadon and Viola will take care of their clan leader, Leo. You all must know their fire will become stronger and stronger. Hence, I want to have you pair up to kill a single elder or disciple." Anya proposed with a thoughtful look. Alex thought for a moment and said. "I don''t doubt about the positioning, but I will separate us to the three fronts. I want Letizia, Fabio, Vera, and Jean to go help the Drunken Pavilion. Letizia''s Pure Ice element is very powerful in this front, so I want you to focus your strength to suppress their element." "We understand." Not a single one of them complained, especially Letizia. This might be the perfect battlefield for her. Not only could she have her own revenge, but she was also not powerful enough to be the main fighter. "By the way, where is Rose?" Alex asked Anna. "Rose is still in her room. It seems she is going to break through at any moment, so I think it''s better to let her stay for a few more days." "Alright. It''s good for her to reach the 9-Star Martial Monarch before the war." "Yeah. I think the Potential Tower really opened her eyes as her potential bloomed even further after that test. If I am not wrong, she got the first Great Elder of Lightning Temple, which suits her the most." Anna nodded with a smile. "That''s good." Alex nodded before returning to the topic. "I will pick up Rose later, so let''s return to the topic. I want Leoz, Jeanne, Artur to help the Blackwade Clan. With this kind of strength, I believe this one will end faster than any front. After that, you shall aid us in defeating the Fire God Clan." "Yes." The trio nodded their heads. It could be said that they were the top three in terms of fighting prowess, so Alex''s request was obvious. They wanted to use their strength to speed up the process. The mercenaries will surely lose their will to fight if they see the difference in strength. "And I want the rest to follow me. I, Firia, Sherry, Kyle, and Stina will be able to suppress their fire due to our strength. However, I don''t think we will do it that much because it will take too much energy. So, I want to suppress like a hundred of them, but only Martial Monarch. This way, the Fire God Clan will soon crumble if we do it a couple of times. "Anya will do the usual with Greg protecting her. And Anna will use her butterflies to take care of the enemies. Since this flame of emotion will get stronger as the emotions overwhelm them, it also means that Anna''s butterflies will be able to take control of their bodies easier." Alex grinned evilly. "How about Rose?" Anna asked. Alex had given missions to all of them but missed one person. Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "Anya¡­ Can you take care of her?" "Alright." Anya nodded. "It seems you are a doting master." With her on Anya''s side, she wouldn''t get injured because they would be far away from the battlefield. At the same time, Greg would surely protect her. "I just think that her bow is more useful from a distance. Besides, this is the biggest war we have ever experienced, so there is no way I am letting a greenhorn join us in the frontline. Letizia is different because she has personal grudges with the Snow White Mountain." Alex shrugged. "Fine. We will leave it at that." Anya smiled. "I will ask one last question. Do you want to add something?" Alex asked. None of them opened their mouths before Alex rose from his seat. "Since no one has an opinion, let''s go." They stood up and walked closer to Alex before Anna halted her step. "I will watch over Rose." "Alright." Alex snapped his finger, created a Teleportation Array beneath their feet, and the group disappeared from the base, leaving only Rose and Anna there. A few minutes later, they arrived in a town not far from the battlefield. The town seemed to have been abandoned due to this war as they didn''t want to receive the aftermath since it would be a big war. The same applied to all nearby towns. With six influences fighting in the Fire God Clan City, nothing could be predicted. Alex looked around and checked the town with his Spirit Eyes, finding not a single person in the town. "I will make the Array Plates here. Anya will deal with the diplomatic issues with the Blackwade Clan and the Drunken Pavilion. Jeanne will follow her." Alex nodded. "Alex. This is the token to give the Freedom Sect signal to mobilize their army." Anya gave him a golden token. Alex took it and nodded. "Alright. Thank you." Anya smiled. "Alright. Everyone can finish your own job now." Alex waved his hand as he walked toward a random building in his front. Chapter 783 - A Surprise A week later. More than ten people gathered in a single room. They were supposed to standby since the dawn had come and the promised day had arrived, but these ten people were sitting in a room as if nothing mattered. A man with black hair stood in front of them and glanced at them. "I am the representative of Spirit Nest, and these two are my companions. Thank you for coming here, Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion, and Freedom Sect. I am going to be brief since we are going to proceed with our mission tomorrow." The others in the room nodded their heads with a solemn look. They took a deep breath and asked, "May we know what and where will we go tomorrow?" He nodded and took out a map. When he stretched it and let everyone see, they recognized the map almost immediately, since it was this city''s map. There were many markings all over the map, filling a third of the map. And they were mostly situated on the outer ring of the city. "As you might already be aware, this is the map of the city. The red markings you see are the Arrays. I have the Array Plates to destroy their arrays, and you will throw the monster blood on the top of the arrays. I think this explanation is good enough. Anyway, this is the list of the arrays along with your name. Freedom Sect will help you in bringing you everywhere. After you have finished your mission, we will meet again outside the city." Nano handed them a few papers along with the Space Rings. Each representative took the rings and paper before heading out. They couldn''t really talk too much in this situation. Luckily, they had given a specific mission and enough explanation to execute, so it wouldn''t be a problem. When everyone left the room, one of the companions came closer and whispered. "Nano. Do you think they will do their job right?" "No way. I have no trust other than everyone in the N squad, so we will check everything to make sure everyone did their job. Luckily, checking them would only take one or two seconds, so it won''t take too much time." Nano nodded. "If only we had enough numbers to destroy everything¡­ If we only have another twenty people with us, I think we can do it without their help." "It''s fine. Everything has been calculated by Mistress Anya and approved by our Master. We will simply execute it." Nano waved his hand. "Alright. An hour before we start destroying and another hour before the war break out¡­" "Yeah. Everyone will get busy soon." Nano nodded and rose from his seat before the three of them disappeared. Just like how Nano and the others had a secret meeting inside the Fire God Clan City, the three leaders also had the last meeting before going to the war. "As you said, we have confirmed that the Spirit Nest only has less than twenty people. No matter how strong they are, they won''t be able to defeat our people." Leo grinned as he couldn''t wait to kill those people. ''Haiz. You don''t know the plan of Alexander Sirius¡­'' Davi closed his eyes in disappointment. "That''s right. I will make sure he pays for everything he did." Liza, on the other hand, had the same confidence as Leo. "Since it''s like this, I am going to capture the Spirit Nest first, so we can end this battle faster." Leo nodded with a solemn look. "The sun will rise within an hour, and I believe the disciples will get ready in another hour. Make sure that they don''t get the upper hand by utilizing a surprise attack." "I guess we should go to our position now." Davi shrugged. Leo had been observing him this whole time but to no avail. As much as he hated it, Leo finally considered Davi as one of them. "That''s right. I want to request one thing from you guys." "What is it?" Leo and Liza furrowed their eyebrows. "I simply want to start the war. You know my people right? They seem to be pretty pumped up for this, so I think I want to utilize it to gain the upper hand. Since Fire God Clan is the focus this time, I apologize for asking something like this." "Oh! Such a simple request. Our Fire God Clan doesn''t have a problem since it will be awkward to rally the disciples with an opponent like the Spirit Nest. I will let you start." "Fair enough. My Snow White Mountain isn''t a barbarian like yours." Liza shrugged. "In that case, I will leave first." Davi nodded. "I will try to hit them hard first before dragging them inside the town where we use the arrays to fight them." "Yes." Leo and Liza nodded at the same time. Davi then waved his hand and flew away. ¡­ One hour later. Alex stood in front of his little group of elites, sandwiched by two giant influences along with the numerous disciples of the Fire God Clan together with the mercenaries they recruited. "Hmm¡­ Around three thousand Martial Monarchs and thirty thousand Martial Emperors¡­ I guess the rest is Martial King or below. From the looks of it, the number is around the same as the Freedom Sect." Alex gazed upon the huge number of energy signs inside the city. "Yes. If we also calculate their mercenaries, they have an addition of two hundred Martial Saints, two thousand Martial Monarchs and the rest are Martial Emperors. In total, they have thirty thousand." Anya nodded. "Well, they will be fighting the Blackwade Clan, so you don''t need to count them. Although the Freedom Sect could only spare a small number, they are elites. As soon as the Ancient Blue Family leaves the city, we will enter together with the Freedom Sect before activating the array." Alex nodded. "Yes. I think everyone is ready." Alex looked at the flag in the middle of the Blackwade Clan and Drunken Pavilion. He told them to change the flag into blue if they finished their preparation, so Alex smiled as he raised both hands, pointing at each influence. "Go!" Just like that, a few figures appeared beside him. They were the ones he stationed in the other influences, which would only make it grander. After all, Alex only had less than ten people left in his rank, and they were supposed to take on more than a hundred thousand people on their own. If that wasn''t insane, then no one knows what is insane. Seeing this, Leo obviously began to fume in anger. He rose to the sky and shouted out loud. "Alexander Sirius! Why did you separate your little force again?! Are you looking down on my Fire God Clan?!" Even though it was from far away, the voice resounded across the region as it had been enhanced by his Spiritual Energy. Alex also did the same, but his tone was more relaxed. "I don''t know what you are talking about. But if you want to take it as me looking down on you, I don''t really mind. To be honest, I really respect you because this is the first time I need to raise an army to this scale. It surpassed my previous record in my war on the Willow Continent." "Hmph! You are still arrogant. Just look at you! We have more than one hundred thousand here, but you?! You only have less than ten people! I will destroy you here and enslave those women. I will make them experience something worse than death, and everything is because of you." Alex narrowed his eyes and released his killing intent. "If you are provoking me with that, I can say you have succeeded to do so. That''s why I am going to beat you to the point you can''t even hit me back!" "Hmph! With that puny number of yours? Come here. I am not afraid of you!" "Then, I will show you what it means to be scary. Don''t worry. I am not the same person as you. I won''t enslave other people because I will kill them here and now." Alex took a deep breath and shouted out loud. "Blackwade Clan, Drunken Pavilion. Listen to me. If any of you dare to r.a.p.e or enslave the people here, I will be the first one to be your enemy! I don''t mind being called a tyrant, but I am not someone who enjoys such a sight. I am not someone who will torture a person if I don''t need to, and I dare to say that the count is still below ten." "Ho?! Such an admirable speech¡­ That is if you can defeat me!" He snorted. Suddenly, a voice echoed in his mind. "Master. Everything has been taken care of." Alex was startled at first, but he soon recognized Nano''s voice before smiling. "Why are you smiling?" "It''s simply funny. Now that I think about it, I believe our conflict shouldn''t escalate to this if you held your greed. If you didn''t send those people to me just for the sake of my Sacrificial Fire, we wouldn''t need to face each other today." Alex chuckled. "I will make you regret becoming my enemy." Leo clicked his tongue while releasing his killing intent. He couldn''t admit such a thing. "No. You." Alex snorted as he raised his right hand, signaling to get ready. Leo also raised his hand before pointing his index finger toward Davi since they had agreed to let him go first. Davi looked at this and smirked. "All people from my Ancient Blue Family. Look at those guys from the Blackwade Clan. They have been living in luxury, not knowing how to fight this whole time. And now! Look at us! Who is the strongest in the continent?" Davi roared in front of his Ancient Blue Family. "Ancient Blue Family!" The men and women shouted in unison, shaking even the ground. "Who is the fighter that has been polished to the highest degree?" "Ancient Blue Family!" They shouted again, trying to burst the enemies'' eardrums with their voices. "Now the time has come. Follow me!" Davi shouted out loud, took his sword, and flew toward the Blackwade Clan. The Blackwade Clan raised their weapons as they planned to butcher these people. They looked at their leader standing in front of them while crossing his arm. His back looked very gallant and dependable. With a Clan Leader like him, something like the Ancient Blue Family didn''t need to be feared. They smiled, raised their fighting spirit, and roared. Each family head looked at each other while releasing their killing intent, but the moment the distance between them shrunk to a few meters. Both of them roared. "Ancient Blue Family!" "Blackwade Clan!" "Ooh!" With the shout of their two leaders and the incoming enemies, they were eager to fight them. And the two leaders shouted again. "Cease your actions! Let them pass (We won''t fight)!" "¡­" Chapter 784 - Fear "Cease your actions! Let them pass (We won''t fight)!" "¡­" Everyone was stunned when they heard about these orders from their respective leader. As much as they wanted to believe it, they couldn''t¡­ Until the Song Hun, the former clan head, made his appearance and released his Spiritual Energy to suppress the people from the Blackwade Clan. "They are not our enemy for today. Cease your action and let them pass." Song Hun glared at the entire Blackwade''s family members. Since the strongest fighter of their family, the 10-Star Martial Saint, had personally acted, they had no choice other than lowering their weapons. Seeing them like this, the Ancient Blue Family remembered what their family head said earlier and put down their weapons. "This is not for your sake." Song Ping, the clan leader, snorted. "It''s for our sake. But since I have passed this place, my role is over. I won''t do anything past this point." Davi sneered as he flew away. Song Ping and Song Hun didn''t spare another glance on him and let him pass, not afraid of them from making a sneak attack. The entire battlefield was stunned. With the Spiritual Energy and killing intent filled the entire area, the battle was nowhere to be seen as if they already had an agreement before this war. ''Agreement?!'' Leo widened his eyes, remembering how Davi acted. Although he had bad-mouthed the Spirit Nest, he never said he would attack them. Instead, he redirected all the topics to their plans. "!!!" It was at this moment he realized how Davi fooled him. Veins started coming out of his skin as he glared at Davi with killing intent. "Davi, you bastard!" "What?!" Davi halted and looked back. "Listen here. I have never promised to join hands with you. You are the one who thinks that way, and I truly didn''t lie back then¡­ Of course, only for that part. After all, not telling everything is not considered lying, right? You are a wise man Leo. However, no matter how smart they are, they are bound to make a mistake at some point. The problem is this mistake will cost you everything." "You bastard! I will kill you!" "Sure¡­ You can try to kill me when we meet in the underworld¡­ That is after a few more thousand years. Hoho¡­ I still want to live for that long after all!" Davi laughed as he turned back to his Ancient Blue Family. "Men! Let''s leave!" "You!" Leo gritted his teeth. Liza, on the other side, widened her eyes as she couldn''t believe what just happened. To think that Davi just betrayed them right off the bat, no, it might be more appropriate to say he was never on their side this whole time. Alex smiled at this point, observing everyone''s face. Fear, Anxiety, Confusion, and many more emotions mixed in their face. He wouldn''t let this chance go and shouted. "Hahaha¡­ As expected from the Fire God Clan. You are truly confident in fighting us that you don''t check your comrade first." "You bastard. Do you think you can kill all of us here? Even without the Ancient Blue Family, our strength is still evenly matched." Leo roared, trying to lower Alex''s stance, so the people from his side could hear. He tried to raise their morale that it wasn''t over, but Alex laughed again. "What is funny?!" "I said it earlier. I am not the one who will regret my choice, but you!" Alex smirked as he took out a token and channeled his Spiritual Energy inside. "Is our strength evenly matched? Is that because I only have a few people on my side? Then how about I bring them here?" "What a speech. As expected of that person''s disciple¡­ To think that the Fire God Clan didn''t learn their mistake from the past. I heard that your master caused a big ruckus to their clan a few thousand years ago." Viola''s voice shook everyone on the battlefield. They looked around to see where the voice was coming out, but they found it right behind Alex. It was impossible because there was nothing behind him until they found a blue gate that appeared out of nowhere. It slowly grew to a giant gate, ranging fifty meters in radius. At the same time, a few more gates also appeared alongside this Spatial Gate, with many people coming out of that gate. "What is that?!" Everyone was able to see those gates and had no memory about that gate until someone jogged their memories by saying, "That¡­ Is that the legendary Spatial Gate?!" "The legendary Spatial Gate? But don''t you need a Space Element Master to use such a technique? I thought they were extinct after that purge. Even the survivors were exterminated on sight." "No matter what you say, it is undoubtedly the Spatial Gate in the legend!" Leo''s body shook as he watched numerous people coming out the nine gates with a single person leading them. "Fire Temple." "Water Temple." "Ice Temple." "Earth Temple." "Lightning Temple." "Wind Temple." "Light Temple." "Dark Temple." "Space Temple." Each Great Elder named their own affiliates before raising their Spiritual Energy and shouting. "¡­ Are ready to fight!" That shout shook the entire city and everyone''s heart. Only a few of them recognized what they said earlier. Nine elements. This was the basic element of this world, and almost everyone was born with these elements in their body. And to think Alex summoned them just like that¡­ Even to the point of calling the three rare elements: Light, Dark, and Space. No one would be able to keep their face calm after watching this kind of scene. However, there is still one important question lingering in their mind. ''Where did Alex get all of these people?'' No matter how hard they turned their brain, they couldn''t arrive at an answer. The only thing that is close to the real answer would be that these people are Alex''s subordinates, which the Spirit Nest had hidden for so long. "Hoho, this old man has no word for this. To think we can make a grand entrance like this and bring down the enemies'' morale at the same time. This Licht admits defeat." An old man slowly moved toward Alex with a smile. Alex didn''t have a change in expression and asked, "Have everyone in their position yet?" "Of course." Licht nodded and raised his hand, shooting out a white light to the sky before it burst like a firework. Suddenly, a fluctuation of Spiritual Energy shot to the sky, covering the entire battlefield and trapping everyone inside it. Since the Ancient Blue Family had left, they weren''t trapped here. In fact, the moment Davi watched many people appear alongside the array, he already realized the future of Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain had disappeared. "Family head¡­ That¡­" One of the elders appeared beside him, looking at the barrier with a fearful expression. Even his body was shaking uncontrollably. "It''s the execution ground. Even if we go there to help the Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain, only family extermination be the result. I have settled everything in the back, and the real person who brought back the technique was that young man, Alexander Sirius. It''s best for us to lay low for the time being and strengthen our family. And have our envoys contacted the Phantasm Sect and the Divine Kingdom. Although I can say that kind of alliance wouldn''t last long, it''s better for us to prepare for the worst." Davi shook his head. "I understand." "Shall they come to our doorstep with weapons in hand, we will fight to the bloody end." Davi let out a long sigh before flying away. On the other hand, Liza, who had become one of their allies, became pale. She never expected to have this kind of surprise that scared her out of her life. There was only a single reason why everything became like this. Letizia. In her desperate moment, she searched for Letizia''s figure, thinking she could stop this by talking with her. Unfortunately, her figure was nowhere to be seen. Alex also didn''t let them think as he signaled Licht for the next step. "Space Temple''s disciples. Spread out and protect the barrier with your Spatial Gate. Make sure the enemy can''t destroy our barrier." Licht shouted. Around a thousand disciples suddenly flew toward the barrier before standing right in front of it. They raised their hand and summoned the same Spatial Gate like they used for transporting their people. Even a fool could understand Licht''s intention. A barrier could be easily destroyed by attacking the barrier above its capacity or wearing it out until it exhausted all of its energy. However, with the Space Element Disciples teleporting every single attack coming to that barrier, they could do neither of those. With everything messing up their mind, Alex didn''t give them a chance to recover. He clapped his hand and enhanced the voice to the entire battlefield. Manness and Song Ping realized this signal as they stretched their hands to the sides. "Surround them!" The people from these two influences immediately moved around, circling the city to trap them inside. Licht saw this and ordered all Great Elders. "Fire, Water, Lightning, and Wind Temples will be our main fighters. Make sure you kill every single of them. Ice and Earth Temple will form a wall to ensure the protection of our Space Temple Disciples. Light and Dark Temples will provide support for all temples. As for the elders, you shall assist your own Temple before going for your respective mission." "Understood." All elders nodded and followed Licht''s order. Alex didn''t order them because he didn''t really know them and their strength, so he didn''t say anything. "You bastard! Have the mercenaries face the Blackwade Clan and hold them back for us. If they don''t dare to comply, say they won''t live past today even if they surrender! Instead, they should fight with us if they want to live because we still have our traps." Leo shouted in anger. "Ye-yes." The people surrounding him nodded their heads and flew toward the mercenaries. Liza, on the other hand, shouted toward the Drunken Pavilion, specifically Letizia. "Young¡­ Young Mistress Letizia, I am sure there is a misunderstanding between us. Let''s talk about it first." Unfortunately, not a single person replied to her. Even the spirits that accompanied Letizia only smirked, watching this idiot¡­ No, she couldn''t be considered an idiot since she simply didn''t know everything regarding Letizia and Alex. She could be said to be an ignorant and unfortunate person¡­ But it was enough to change her fate in this place. Whether it was a pity or not, Letizia suddenly presented himself on the battlefield, looking at this person. Even though she had been there for long, no one would approach her as the master that taught her. She didn''t feel anything wrong back then, but she soon realized it was because of their ancestor. When she set her eyes upon this pitiful person, she simply snorted and said coldly. "I remember the time when you said you want to kill my master. This is good. My master is here. I thought you were someone of her word¡­" This was nothing but a blatant provocation and insult to Liza. Naturally, she couldn''t take it anymore, especially after being ignored for too long. "You b*tch. Just because that man favors you doesn''t mean you are special. He just wants your body and Pure Ice Element. As soon as he has no use of you, he will simply throw you away!" Liza roared in anger. "At that time, I will simply disappear from his life, even if it means taking out my own life." Letizia shook her head and smiled. Her expression told everyone that she meant every word she said earlier, and somehow it scared them. "You¡­ You are insane." A Pure Ice Element would surely become the world''s peak power. And yet, a person like that had this kind of loyalty to him, and they could even see it was coming from her heart. Just like how Alex recognized her as one of his people, she also recognized her status and had no shame in revealing it, and her replied was¡­ "No. You don''t know him enough. Alex watched this and couldn''t help but smile. However, he was soon startled when the system sent him a notification. [Host. Look at your five.] Alex didn''t understand what she meant, but he turned around. This action piqued everyone''s curiosity as they also turned around, following Alex''s line of sight. But¡­ Not in their wildest dream they would see something like this. A huge clump of metal floated in the sky, moving toward them a bit slowly because they almost reached them. This chump of metal had been designed in a particular form that looked elegant. Coupled with the blue lines that covered almost every piece of this ship, this thing was everything but ordinary. On top of this thing stood tall four men, but only one of them could be considered as a human. One of them had animal ears, tails, and a hairy body, despite having a body structure like that of a man. The one beside him didn''t have anything extraordinary except the fact that he looked very short and his pointed ears. Only the last one seemed to be scary. He wore a huge black robe and a staff, but the moment he took off the hood, only a skull could be seen. Even the hand that took off the hood was that of a skeleton. "A spaceship!" Chapter 785 - Nelsons Trump Card "A spaceship!" This ship stunned everyone on the battlefield, whether enemies or allies. Not a single of them could hide the shock in their eyes, of course, except the spirits. No one actually saw a spaceship before, while Alex also only visited a spaceship once. And he thought this world only had one place that had a spaceship, which was the dock within the Special Realm in the Sacred Continent where the three extraterrestrial races were trapped. Even the contracted beasts were surprised at this since they never saw something like this before. The concept was the same as the flying ship of this world, but it was made of metal instead of wood. To bring such a ship alone would require a huge amount of Spiritual Energy, and yet this time, they used metal that was far weightier than the wood, with very large size to boot. No one could comprehend how such a thing appeared in the sky. However, the moment they saw the four people standing on top of the ship, many people recognized what was going on, albeit different people had different focuses. The first one came from Rose, Letizia, and Sherry. They recognized Nelson''s figure as one of the Spirit Nest''s members. Yet, they still couldn''t comprehend why that person would bring such a ship to this place, and they had sealed the entrance to boot. The second person who was utterly in shock was Song Hun, the current Grand Elder of the Blackwade Clan, Song Jiaoren''s grandfather. He might not be one of the people standing up against races like them, but he had heard their tale. After all, the one that sacrificed himself as the leader who sealed these three races was his own grandfather. "How?!" Song Hun glanced at Alex and flew toward him. "Alexander Sirius. Why would you¡ª" Alex took a glimpse of his expression and sighed. "I know the history behind this race. They only want to return to their home, and I agree with it. Well, my subordinate wants them to help us, and here they are. Don''t worry. I will take responsibility if they are hostile to this world even if I need to kill them myself." "Still¡­" "I know, but did they attack you first or did you attack them first? I believe it was the latter, but I don''t know whether you have it in your record or not. Well, I am not sure about them coming, but I will take responsibility later." Alex patted his shoulder. Song Hun gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "Only this time. If they don''t leave immediately from here, I will kill them even if I need to pass you." "It''s fine. You won''t be the first one to expel them from this world. I will." "I understand." Song Hun let out a long sigh before going back to his position. Alex then glanced at Aileen and asked. "Can you make a Spatial Gate for them? Do you need my help to make it wider?" "No need. Since you want them, I will bring them in." She waved her hand before glancing at two people, asking them to follow her. It was Ryuu and Maya. They then flew toward the barrier close to the spaceship and positioned themselves like a triangle. Aileen took the middle top, Ryuu took the bottom left, while Maya took the bottom right. They clapped their hands simultaneously before a gate slowly formed and turned into an enormous triangle gate. Another portal then formed outside the barrier, leading the spaceship inside. At this time, Leo had finally regained his bearing and shouted. "Not good. Attack those three. We can''t let another enemy come!" His shout reverberated in everyone''s ears, raising a sense of crisis not only to the Fire God Clan but also to the Freedom Sect. "We need to protect them," Licht commanded as the eight Great Elders appeared in front of Aileen and her two disciples. "Attack!" More than ten thousand people attacked this colossal portal at the same time, trying to destroy this attack or hit the ship outside. The eight Great Elders prepared to erect a barrier to hold these attacks, but suddenly a staff came through the gate. It had a silver handle without any decoration. However, the peculiar thing was its head. It had a small red bead as the center. Although it was only a thumb-sized bead, the power it contained was nothing but extraordinary. Kai, of course, recognized this bead and laughed. The staff suddenly stopped and created a huge translucent barrier in front of them. "Boom Boom Boom!" Those ten thousand attacks rained this barrier with its might. The sound produced by the attacks was loud and created a powerful shock wave. And yet, when the wind blew the smoke away, they found the barrier was still intact, even though some cracks were visible. "Thank you for the thought, but I believe we should be protecting ourselves. And also, thank you for creating this portal for us." The deep pacifying tone echoed before the barrier slowly turned into blue lines that covered the whole area. The staff then absorbed those blue lines before flying back to the skeleton''s hand. As soon as they turned around, they saw the ship slowly enter the battlefield. And those four people flew past them and headed to Alex. "Master. I am sorry for taking this long." Nelson kneeled on one knee. "And I apologize for leaving your side for too long." "You were like this in my previous life, right? You always sneaked outside and proceeded with your own plan in the dark to help me. You were just a bit unlucky because Anya recognized your plan and had no choice to talk about it, especially since we are in this world¡­ You can''t really leave my side without telling a single person anyway. And Anya needed to tell me about this because I forced her¡­" Alex sighed. "I am really sorry." "Still¡­" Alex smiled, bent down to help Nelson up, and patted his shoulders a few times. "Thank you for doing all this. I am sure it was hard for you." "The effort was nothing. I also wanted to apologize because I took out many materials from the Inventory¡­" Nelson looked down. "Yes. We have many materials inside our storehouse, but it is not enough for everyone. Considering our skill has grown rusty due to the passing time, Nelson''s offer was something that we couldn''t reject. He would provide us with many materials, and we shall hone our skills back to create a huge amount of armor and weapons, including our battlefield. "In other words, the three of us will fight alongside you today. The Dwarves have made good weapons and armors for the Beastmen to attack them. And, of course, they have been strengthened by the Undead as they will also be the support in this battle. After this war ends, we shall give all the armors and weapons to you since they have lost their purpose. We are peace-loving races after all." The dwarf leader laughed. "Haha¡­ Since this is coming from the Dwarves, there is no way I can reject such an item. Besides, Nelson was truly doing me a favor. Not only can I get rid of those materials that I won''t use, but it also turned beautifully into powerful objects." Alex smiled gently. "How about the ship? It''s powerful, but can they withstand many attacks? I am afraid it will have a hard time if all those people attack it at once." "There is nothing that can destroy it in this world. Because of the powerful materials, design, and runes, it became a powerful rank 8 artifact, only got upgraded once more with the blood stone, resulting in it becoming a Divine Artifact. I believe we won''t have a problem returning to our homeland." The Undead King nodded. "That''s good. In that case, our beastmen can fight in the frontline without worry. To fight for our benefactor for one last time, we are honored." The Beast King laughed before looking up and roaring. This roar was even stronger than those coming from the leaders. The people were in utter shock once again when they saw Alex having a nice conversation with those people. They had never seen anything like this, not even in their wildest dream. All leaders needed to regroup with Alex, wondering what he wanted to do. Alex looked at their expression that demanded an explanation. He observed the scared expressions of almost everyone on the battlefield, but it turned out it affected the allies as well. A surprise attack wouldn''t be possible at this point, so he scratched his head in frustration. "Argh! I never added this to my plan since I wanted to use it in the middle of the battle because no one would think more than they needed to in the middle of the war, but¡­" Alex took a deep breath and asked. "Never mind. What I want to ask is who wants to side with these people?" Song Hun and Song Ping obviously looked away. With their past grudge, they could endure the fact they were fighting alongside them, but they would never accept to work together. As for Manness, he was a shrewd guy, so he wouldn''t have an unknown race to be beside him. As for the Freedom Sect, they had no choice to accept. Luckily, they didn''t have prior experience with these guys except the one from the record. Alex thought for a moment and said, "I am going to lead them then. Do the three of you have an objection?" The three in his mouth were none other than the three races'' leaders. They shook their heads without hesitation. "No. To fight under you is an honor for us. However, we won''t fight any enemies who have surrendered." "Fine by me. Although it''s already too late to take advantage of this situation, we can still take advantage of their fear. Besides, the traps have been disarmed, we will use that confusion to get the first strike. Drunken Pavilion will hold the Snow White Mountain back. Blackwade Clan will handle the mercenaries and eliminate them thoroughly and help the Drunken Pavilion. As for the Freedom Sect, you are going to target those powerful guys and their leader. These guys and I will penetrate their ranks and kill all their important people." Alex explained his plan. They thought for a moment and nodded their heads. "Since that is the case, we will assume our position. Please give a signal, so we can advance together." Alex nodded, watching these people fly toward their own posts. "Great Elder Licht. After dealing with these two influences, you are the one who needs to clean up the Snow White Mountain. None of us will intervene even further. And I want you to not enslave or r.a.p.e them, but just kill them." Alex glared coldly at Licht. Licht obviously understood his intention. He nodded with a solemn expression. "This Licht will guarantee you that they will die painlessly. I won''t torture them like such. Even if I found my own disciple to do such a thing, I will be the one who cut him down." "Alright. Since everything has been resolved, it''s time to start." Alex nodded. He scanned all the leaders to check their condition before he raised his hand, shot a fireball to the sky, and had it explode. "Boom!" This explosion indeed woke everyone up, whether they were enemies and allies. Even Leo, who couldn''t believe Alex had a connection with them, had no choice other than treating him as a monster with so many personal connections. "Men, on me!" Alex, Riadon, Song Hun, and Manness shouted at the same time before entering the city from the air, albeit a bit slowly so the others could catch up. "Ooh!" Watching how their leaders reacted, they had no time to think and followed behind him. "Activate the arrays!" Leo shouted and thought. ''Die, you fool!'' Unfortunately, after more than ten seconds, the arrays weren''t activated yet, raising the doubt in Leo''s heart as he asked out loud. "Where are the arrays?" "The arrays¡­ The arrays!" One of the Array Masters stumbled upon the array when he checked it and was surprised to see it. It was at this time, Alex smiled as he shouted. "This is the third time I say it. As I said earlier. You are the one who is going to die." "Everyone!" Riadon, Song Hun, and Manness shouted out loud while releasing their killing intent. "Kill them all!" Chapter 786 - The Start of the War "Kill Kill Kill!" With the roar that shook the entire battlefield, the normal people from the Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain became pale, especially the mercenaries they hired. The disciples from the Fire God Clan thought they should leave right away since some of them got invited by their friends to leave the influence. They thought they could still fight alongside the Fire God Clan, somehow won this fight, and the clan elevated their status. Unfortunately, everything they wished for was nowhere to be seen. With all these people and their power, this might be considered a one side massacre at this point, let alone evenly matched. However, they suddenly remembered what Leo just said. At least half of them realized that Davi''s words held some truths. If they didn''t do anything, the enemies would trample them and kill them without mercy. There was nothing they could do to stay alive other than fighting for their life. Even those people hailing from Snow White Mountain who fell on their butt after feeling helpless slowly rose on their feet, watching how the incoming enemies killed the disciples of their sect. Despair, rage, and the desire to live mixed in their heart and the result was none other than desperate. Seeing this kind of face, Liza and Leo obviously didn''t let this go. "People of Fire God Clan (Snow White Mountain). If you don''t fight for your lives, the enemies won''t let you live past today. In that case, we are going to break through from this place with our lives on the line. Everyone, go! I shall be right behind you!" "Ooh!" The roar of more than a hundred thousand people echoed. It seemed that the people in this Heavenly Continent were better than he expected. With that rallying call just now, more than two-thirds stood back up on their feet. "Seriously? If this is Willow Continent or Sacred Continent, at least half of them won''t do a pointless struggle and drop their weapons¡­ Or have I cornered them too much?" Alex muttered to himself. Anya appeared before him and said. "When an influence draws close to its hour of demise, it will surely unleash a level of strength that far exceeds all expectations in an effort to fight back. In other words, the war where one side perishes would be an atrocious war where blood will only be washed away by blood. "You haven''t met this type of influence in the past. Firstly, the influences from the Willow Continent didn''t meet this kind of criteria, except the Zhou Kingdom. Even them, it also had a similar ruling power as the Blood Devil Sect. It didn''t have loyalty. One influence that was close to what Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain have was Joyful Sect. "They utilized their bond to release more strength in their body, but we were lucky because they were a bit corrupted. Their minds enjoyed too much pleasure, so they got scared of this kind of annihilation. However, the Fire God Clan has fire-related to their emotions¡­ I think it''s safe to assume this will become a gruesome fight. "After all, unlike the influences in the past, they couldn''t run away to another continent to get stronger as this continent is the strongest. In other words, their backs truly touched the corner. That''s why this is my last warning to you. Since you have walked in this path, you shall see it through." Anya explained all of this with a solemn expression. Alex widened his eyes for a few seconds. This might be the first time he saw this expression on Anya''s face. The narrowed eyes filled with resolve sent a shiver to Alex''s spine. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and asked. "If I become a tyrant, will you accompany me?" "Such a foolish question. You can ask Anna, Alicia and the others. Our answer will be the same. Shall that time arrive, we will follow you even to the deepest part of hell." Anya smiled. Alex took a deep breath after hearing her answer. His weapons appeared in his hand as he clenched them tightly. "It seems you have your answer." "Yeah. I won''t make an unnecessary fight, but shall they have a thought to my family, even if I am going to fight the whole universe, I shall cut them down." Alex smiled and turned around. "And this Fire God Clan will be the first one." Anya smiled and nodded. "Be careful." "Greg. Protect her for me." "With my life, Master." Greg nodded. "Beast King. We are going to sneak around from the ground. All of you shall follow me when I suddenly fly upward because that will be our targets." "Don''t worry. Everyone has been strengthened with weapons and armor, even the Undead also boost our strength. There is nothing we fear." "Good." Alex took another deep breath before flying down and running on the ground. "All of you! Follow him!" The beast king roared to all beastmen. *Roar!* A series of roar resounded across the region as they descended to the ground. Alex noticed the incoming presence from behind and smiled. At the same time, six people appeared beside him. Alex didn''t need to take a glimpse of their face because he already knew who it was. "Sherry, Firia, Kyle, Stina. You four will become the tip of the spear with me, suppressing everyone coming our way. Anna will search for a good opportunity to summon her butterflies while Nelson will assassinate our target." "Understood." They nodded. Although only two to three thousand from the beastmen participated, their strength was extraordinary. Alex wanted to use their strength to become a spear that could penetrate deep inside their territory and struck at their heart. "Let''s go!" Alex shouted. "Ooh!" Leo noticed this and roared. "Look at those people, especially that Alexander Sirius. He is the cause of this war, and he is going to present his head to us. You must hate him, right? This is the time for you to kill him. First Elder to Tenth Elder will select three thousand elites to reinforce our defense in that direction. When he arrives deep inside our ranks, we will bury him here." "Yes, Patriarch." Those ten elders disappeared, assembling the disciples to fight. Alex, on the other hand, roared as he thrust his sword, killing a disciple from Fire God Clan. "Come then! Let us see whether I die or you all die!" "You monster!" The disciple uttered his last word on Alex. Unfortunately, Alex paid no heed and threw him away. "Argh!" "Gya!" "Kek!" "This suppression!" "We can''t get too close to them due to the suppression." A series of screams presented on the battlefield. Most of them were dying screams, but a few of them were people who realized the power behind Alex. They saw Alex in the very front with his Pure Fire covering his body. With that kind of fire, the area around him, especially in front of him, had a suppressing effect. If they were too close, they would soon immobilize if their strength was too low. In other words, they would be slaughtered like a pig. However, what was terrifying was the four people beside him. Sherry and Firia were on his right and left, giving a bigger area of suppression. Stina and Kyle also did their job in this suppression, but they were a bit limited since their flame wasn''t strong enough to give an absolute suppression like Alex. It was the beastmen'' turn to act their part. They slaughtered everyone that Alex and his friends had no time to slaughter, making sure the place they penetrated had no enemies alive. "Kill them!" "Even if I can''t use my Fire, I shall cut you down!" Many people shouted at Alex, but the latter still had no change of expression, killing the enemies one by one and advanced as quickly as possible. "Fire Swords!" Alex summoned his Fire Swords and launched them in all directions, trying to create a commotion in their area. The beastmen smirked as they swung their weapons to cut the enemies down. Because of the suppression, they had the luxury to talk. At this time, the beast king appeared beside Alex. "Young Human Alexander¡­ What are you going to do with their elders? I can handle their 9-Star Martial Saint, but that''s it." "As long as you can handle the first elder, I will take care of the rest." Alex then glanced at his teammates. "Anna and Nelson will handle the second and third elders. Firia, Stina, Kyle can get their own opponent. You can give me and Sherry two enemies with Fire Element. They won''t be our enemies even with two of them." The group nodded and gazed upon the sky, where the elders were waiting for him. They were just right outside where Leo stood, but Alex had another different thought for this kind of formation. He took out a token and channeled his Spiritual Energy inside it. The one that held the other part of the token noticed it and smirked. "Crazy bastard. Fine. I shall play along with you." The beast king, on the other hand, was looking at Alex with mixed feelings. The past him was just a mere Martial Monarch that just broke through. But a few years later, he had become one of the peak powerhouses on this continent, and his cultivation reached 6-Star Martial Saint. Insane might be an understatement. Still, for whatever reason, he respected Alex from the bottom of his heart because of the strength and potential he possessed. "I, Beast King, shall accomplish my mission." The beast king nodded and regrouped with his people. Not long after, Alex jumped to the sky after throwing a gaze on a particular spot. It was pretty easy to break through to this place, but he knew the next wall they needed to pierce was formed by many Martial Saints and Monarchs. Alex needed to deal with them first if he wanted to escape from the enemy encirclement. "You brat. Do you think my Fire God Clan will be destroyed today? No. It''s your Spirit Nest. As long as I kill you, your people will crumble!" The first elder was an old man with a white robe. His hair had turned white, and his complexion was full of anger. He really wanted to butcher this Alex brutally. "Hmph! I only need to get behind you to send Leo''s head flying." "His name is not something you can casually call!" He roared. "Do you think I am afraid of your Pure Fire? Sorry, but your fire won''t be effective because I have a Lightning Element!" He released his Spiritual Energy with Lightning Element summoned along with it. "All elders. Follow me to kill that brat. The disciples will surround them and kill those filths." Alex didn''t move when he saw the ten elders coming. "Hmph!" Just like the elders, seven shadows appeared to help Alex. Chapter 787 - Alexs and His Group "Die you bastard!" The first elder roared, trying to strike Alex with his sword that was covered with lightning. Alex didn''t say anything because he¡­ And probably the first elder, noticed the presence coming from behind Alex. *Roar!* The roar was followed by the appearance of the beast king, who struck the first elder''s sword and pushed him to the side. "Tch!" The first elder clicked his tongue before shouting to the two 8-Star Martial Saints behind him. "Second Elder, Third Elder." "Leave it to us!" The two elders raised their weapons before two shadows appeared before them and struck their weapon. They had no choice other than blocking the attack, albeit getting pushed because of the momentum. When they got a clear glance of the person, the two shadows turned out to be a woman with butterfly wings and a handsome man enveloped by dark energy. "You shall not touch our king." Nelson snorted. "Do you think we care?!" The second elder, Anna''s opponent, roared and slashed his sword forward. Anna snorted. Dark energy began to gather around her scythe as she released a crescent darkwave from her scythe. "Dark Cut." "!!!" The second elder noticed the power behind it and utilized his wind energy to disperse the dark cut before he suddenly got pushed back. "What?! Impossible. I am 8-Star Martial Saint while you are only 7-Star." "Unfortunately, our people are far stronger than that¡­" Anna smiled. Of course, there was no way she forgot about the help of her twin, Anya. Despite being so far in the back, her light magic was still linked to them, giving them strength. A trivial 8-Star wouldn''t be a problem for Anna. And yet, the latter suddenly raised her hand and summoned a huge plate of darkness in the sky, covering the sky. Everyone on the battlefield was confused as to why such a thing appeared far in the sky. "I don''t know what you want to do, but I will not let you." The second elder shouted, slashing his sword to the sky and releasing a small ball toward Anna''s Dark Curtain. "Wind Bullet." The moment it hit the Dark Curtain, it shattered the black plate so easily as if it was glass. The second elder immediately turned his gaze to Anna, wondering if it was a trap to distract him. However, the person in question actually didn''t do a single thing after summoning that plate. "What are you¡ª" When the second elder was about to ask, the vision gradually turned darker as if something covered the sky. He turned his gaze again to the sky, finding the giant spaceship right above them. "What?!" Anna smirked and shouted to Nelson. "It is not comparable to the night, but I think it will give you an advantage, right Nelson? Make sure you kill him as quickly as possible." "Yes." Nelson nodded. The dark energy surrounding his body suddenly expanded, and the amount was tripled. "Dark Emperor!" As soon as Nelson uttered those words, he disappeared from the battlefield. "Where is he?!" The third elder, his opponent, immediately looked around as this spaceship actually distracted him for a split second, resulting in him losing Nelson''s position. Suddenly, he sensed a thin presence behind him as he turned around, trying to slash that presence. The presence turned out to be Nelson, but because of the empowerment from the dark along with Anya''s ability, his strength was far higher than Anna''s. With this strength, he struck the third elder sword, blowing him to the ground. *Bam!* The sound shook the entire Fire God Clan as they couldn''t believe their third elder just got blasted to the ground. Soon the third elder''s voice resounded across the region as he said, "Attack that thing on the sky first." Since it was granting Nelson power, he needed to destroy it first because he felt he wouldn''t be able to fight Nelson in that state. Hearing their elder''s command, they immediately shot another barrage of energy toward the ship. *Boom Boom Boom!* The explosions occurred so suddenly as it actually happened before reaching the ship. When the smoke was blown away by the wind, revealing the ship. They found many blue lines forming a barrier that stopped their attacks. And most surprisingly, it didn''t suffer even a single scratch, proving the barrier''s defense. "It''s futile. You won''t be able to destroy that barrier, let alone the ship." Nelson snorted, looking down on the third elder. Anna, on the other hand, also had a big fight with their second elder. Their clash produced a shock wave that blew away many people in their surroundings, but it didn''t stop the ten elders from coming to Alex. At the same time, Firia, Stina, Kyle also appeared and stopped three of 7-Star Martial Saint Elders that seemed to be not Fire Element cultivators. "Move!" The three elders tried to push them away and headed to Alex. Firia summoned her fire and shot out a laser toward her opponent. Stina and Kyle revolved their fire, covering their hands and feet and forming a pair of wings on their back. "Beast Transformation. Third Stage." "Ha!" The duo leaped toward the elder at the same time and struck them with their claws. On the other side, Alex and Sherry also appeared in front of their enemies. Unlike the rest, they had two enemies, so their enemies thought they could kill Alex before the situation turned worse. Alex and Sherry smirked as they released their fire at the same time. ¡­ When everyone''s focus was taken by the fight, a Spatial Gate appeared right between those fights and Leo. "Fufu¡­ I think this is the best time for us to act¡­ Don''t you think so, Viola?" "Hmph! The signal is for me. You can go back now." Viola snorted. "No can do. Since I have a debt to him and his sister for motivating my Maya, I should assist him here." Aileen chuckled before glancing at the three thousand elites that were planning to stop Alex. "I shall handle these guys, so you two can fight that one without interference." Leo glared at them and gritted his teeth. He never thought that his opponent would be two 10-Star Martial Saints. "Do you think you can fight me just because there are two of you?" "Of course. There is nothing more fulfilling than your head since as far as I remember, your influence was the most brutal when our people ran for our lives. That''s why this is the time I am going to kill you." Viola smiled. Riadon nodded in agreement. The record about that annihilation was well preserved, so they couldn''t help but feel more bloodthirsty than usual. "Riadon. You are going to support me." Viola glanced at him. "Fine. As long as he dies, I won''t complain." Riadon nodded. "Hmph! No matter what, you are still in the middle of my force. Even if you have a Space Element master, I am not afraid." Leo snorted and raised his hand. "Attack them!" The disciples turned around and shot out their attacks toward them. Aileen smiled as she watched these attacks. "One thousand from all directions? Fine by me!" As soon as she uttered those words, a small Spatial Gate appeared behind Viola and Riadon. It grew into a human-size gate but stopped growing afterward. Everyone couldn''t imagine how it would absorb all their attacks. Even the Spatial Gate she utilized earlier to bring the ship in shouldn''t be able to protect them from all directions attacks. Hence, they were sure these would hit them pretty badly. It was at this time Aileen smiled evilly as she snapped her finger. "It''s time. Expand." The Spatial Gate suddenly grew at a fast speed, turning into a sphere that completely protected them from these attacks. "What?!" When they were about to get shocked by this fact, Aileen''s Spatial Gate had vanished into thin air. As for Aileen herself, she summoned another Spatial Gate and made another gate, facing it toward the Fire God Clan. "I am giving these back to you. Enjoy!" "What?! Our attacks are coming back to us! Protect yourself!" One of the guys saw it and shouted, alarming the battlefield. The disciples then noticed the incoming thousands of attacks and put a barrier to defend themselves. *Boom Boom Boom!* Aileen watched these explosions without a change of expression. In fact, she took out her bow the moment the explosions occurred and pulled three arrows made of Spiritual Energy. "I will show you why the Space Element is feared by an army," Aileen said coldly as her expression turned severe, as if her previous actions never happened. It seemed the trigger was her bow. "Heaven Penetrating Arrow." She released the three arrows, only to be absorbed by three different Spatial Gates. After that, Aileen raised her hand, pointing toward the disciples before more than fifty smaller Spatial Gates appeared within their rank. Suddenly, arrows started coming out of those Spatial Gates and got absorbed in another one after killing clueless disciples. "Argh!" "What is that?!" "The arrows are appearing mysteriously." "How do we close these gates?!" The disciples were in confusion, but Aileen''s arrows were still piercing their bodies, killing a few of them. It continued for a few more seconds before one of them managed to react and struck the arrow. "Don''t be afraid. The arrow might have penetrating power, but we have been strengthened with rank 8 weapons that Clan Leader Leo has graced us to win this war. As long as we are careful, we should be able to deal with this attack!" A Martial Saint shouted out loud after destroying an arrow. Alex felt that this might be it and stretched his hands. "Don''t make them comfortable. Spread out and kill those people." "!" The beast king''s second and third in command immediately executed Alex''s order and led the beastmen to spread out. "Don''t let them gain an advantage." "Assist that Space Element woman." The confusion arose once again as Aileen smirked before shooting a few more arrows. The disciples were obliterated because of the ruckus created by the beastmen. "We need to help them." The elder in front of Alex exclaimed when he realized the situation. "I am in front of you¡­ Do you think I will let you go? Oh, wait. Your target is me¡­ And now that I am standing before you, you are going to leave me?" Alex smiled while revolving his Pure Fire. "Kh!" The two elders suddenly felt an overbearing pressure emanating from the fire. It was like they just met the king and wanted to kneel before him. However, they resisted the urge to use their Spiritual Energy. "Let''s deal with him first. We are still two people." Alex took another glance at Sherry, who had started the fight with those two while suppressing them. He nodded and flew toward these two elders. Chapter 788 - The Other Side Just like how the situation in the center of the battlefield became pretty heated due to Alex''s group, the edge where the Freedom Sect advanced slowly also became heated. "We don''t need to go too fast. Kill them all and reserve your energy because we will go to another place after this." Licht commanded, watching how the Great Elders led their elders and disciples to trample the Fire God Clan. As he expected, the Fire God Clan couldn''t mobilize most of their elites due to Alex''s interference. This led him to stay low and used this strategy. The enemies had lost around five thousand people in the span of thirty minutes. Even though it wasn''t that much, he felt great with that number because the casualty suffered in his side was still less than a thousand. On the other hand, what concerned him was the army beside him. The Undead Legion. This was an army composed of a few hundred undead. Despite their comrades charging toward the core of the enemy ranks, these undeads didn''t do a single thing as if they only stood there to watch them. It was at this time the Undead King, Atlas, suddenly made his move. "It has been thirty minutes, and the one next to us has given us enough resources to create our army. My little skeletons, help me with this¡­ And since there might be some disgust from them, we won''t resurrect the people from their influences." Atlas nodded and flew to Licht since he seemed to be the one in charge. "What are you doing here?" Licht frowned. The other person had a dark element, so his light element should be effective against him if he turned out to be an enemy. However, Atlas only shook his head and asked. "Do you want to do something about the corpses?" "Corpses?" Licht didn''t know why he asked such a question, but Alex looked friendly to this person, so it was better to treat it with caution and honesty. "Yes. I am going to burn them after this, while taking back the people from my influence." "In that case, can I have their dead bodies?" "What do you want to do with them?" Licht frowned, feeling something ominous coming from Atlas. "I want to insert my past comrades'' souls and resurrect them for the duration of this war. I feel they want to have their own revenge before I send them to the cycle of reincarnation. Hence, I would like to ask about the possession of these bodies." "So, you want to create an army of the dying?" "Only for this war." Atlas nodded. "They will be extinguished after the war ends, and you can do anything you want after that." "¡­" Licht thought for a moment. As much as he wanted to ask Alex regarding this matter, the latter was too busy dealing with his enemies. Hence, he decided it by himself. "Alright. Only for this battle, and you shouldn''t touch the people from my influences. I will also talk to Alexander Sirius when we meet." "I understand." Atlas nodded and signaled his army to move. The moment they arrived at the pile of corpses, Atlas and the skeletons rose their staff. The red glow coming from Atlas''s staff brightened the area, but many streams of white light suddenly came out of the staff, specifically on the red shard. Licht furrowed his eyebrows when seeing this white light. "This¡­ This feeling¡­ Presences? Wait! Are those lights souls?" Licht dropped his jaw. The skeletons around Atlas only summoned around three streams of lights, but Atlas was definitely a monster. After all, he managed to summon a hundred times more than them. In other words, Atlas managed to produce and control three hundred souls at once. Of course, even though it was ''Produce'', the souls were their past comrades that had died in the past. They simply summoned them after storing them inside their staff from the soul tower. However, it was also due to the shard of blood stone that he could do something like this, albeit no outsiders knew about this fact. The souls began to enter their respective body, reviving around two thousand people at once. Of course, this was temporary, and they didn''t know anything about the past lives since the information only came from the soul, not the body. Hence, the moment they rose from the battlefield, they kneeled toward Atlas. "This is¡­" The Great Elders noticed the fluctuation of the Spiritual Energy and turned their heads, only to find something absurd was going on behind their back. Licht also noticed their movement and raised his hand, asking them to stay silent. With such an occurrence, there was no way they could stay silent, but since Licht thought it as nothing, they nodded and charged again. Atlas, on the other hand, flew toward Licht and smiled. "I am sorry for such a display. But we have finally gotten our armies. With this, we can start launching our attack alongside you. We will also secure the corpses later to make an invincible army. Then, I will go to my position." Without waiting for Licht to answer, Atlas already flew toward his original position with the skeletons and his army. He raised his staff and pointed at the people from the Fire God Clan. "Kill them!" "Ra!" They roared as the army advanced at fast speed. Since they had died, there was no need to reserve their strength. Although the strength was a bit low for them to use, it was enough to create chaos within the enemy. "Oi?!" "Why are you attacking us??" "We are on the same side!" "Argh!" Many people got killed in the first charge due to the confusion. After all, how could one think their comrades would attack them at this point. They didn''t have any difference from the living, except their fighting style, but most people didn''t realize it because they were too occupied with the thought of their friends betraying them. It was until a person recognized the difference and shouted. "Don''t panic. They are not our people because they are supposed to be dead. In other words, the enemies are taking advantage of our comrades and making them attack us. "This is ridiculous. Do you think we can swallow this and let them use our own comrades to kill us? Everyone in the Fire God Clan, listen to me. We shall cut these enemies down and allow our comrades to rest. "That''s why we need to activate our Fire God Body and use the Berserk Pill. This way, even if we die, they won''t be able to take advantage of our bodies and make us attack our own people!" Atlas furrowed his eyebrows. This shout was the last thing he wanted, but since the enemies had said it, they could only attack them without reviving the army. The Fire God Clan disciples, on the other hand, were completely enraged at this point. They never thought that the enemies would do black magic to do this to them. The fear in their heart was completely replaced by hatred as they let out their flames. The flames burned stronger than ever. Even the people were close to becoming berserkers. And that wasn''t all. The flames ignited once again and turned dark red as if it was colored by their blood. "Fire God Body, Activate!" "And Berserk Pill!" "Argh!" The people began to scream like madmen as strength surged inside their bodies. "Kill Kill Kill!" "Kill them!" The previous person laughed out loud. "This is what happens when you anger us. Now you shall face our wrath! Kill them all!" They charged toward them, and the moment they met the dead bodies, they destroyed their bodies without any hesitation. It was at this time that blue lines appeared in the sky before turning into a straight line and formed a shape of a sword. A hundred swords were born in the sky as they suddenly flew toward the disciples and killed at least seventy people. Atlas''s figure appeared before them as he raised his hand and said with a deep voice. "Do you think this puny trick will hold us? No matter the tricks, a Martial King will always be a Martial King. Do you think you can challenge a Martial Saint?" The previous person gritted his teeth because he saw Atlas drawing the same pattern on the sky after saying all that. "Attack! Kill him! His strength will be nothing if a thousand of us attack him at the same time." Atlas didn''t say anything and raised his other hand. "Charge!" The army then charged toward them, but before they clashed, Atlas sent another wave of those swords, killing more than fifty people. Licht couldn''t believe what just happened and gritted his teeth because the enemies on his side also used their Fire God Body and Berserk Pill. Although he knew the enemies would use such a thing, Atlas made it faster. "Never mind. It''s better to finish this as soon as possible." Licht sighed and continued commanding the Freedom Sect. ¡­ On the other side of the battlefield, the Blackwade clan surely had a good time. Their advance was rather smooth because the mercenaries were too weak without a leader. Not only was their strength ordinary, but they also couldn''t use Fire God Body and Berserk Pill¡­ At the very best, they could only use Berserk Pill. Even though they said they wanted to break through this hopeless situation, they simply couldn''t see an opportunity. At the same time, running for their lives was also not an option due to the Special Realm. If they were going to hit the array, those disciples that were standing by in front of the barrier would teleport their attacks and send them back here. On the other hand, they could strike the spaceship since it was a large target, but they didn''t know whether it was destructible or not because the Fire God Clan couldn''t destroy that thing despite so many of them making a direct hit. Because of these reasons, Song Hun advanced while laughing. If they didn''t have an agreement with the Ancient Blue Family, he would need to fight that Davi. "Haha¡­ Maintain this speed, and we shall wipe them out within two hours." Song Hun laughed. "Father, we have killed more than ten thousand¡­ But our army also suffers a quite big loss." "How many people have been killed by enemies?" Song Hun asked his son, Song Ping. "Three thousand and five hundred people. Even though they don''t have a leader, they are still a strong opponent if they banded together." Song Ping sighed. "And they don''t have Fire God Body and Berserk Pill¡­" Song Hun furrowed his eyebrows. "Let''s decrease our pace from now on. I am not sure if we will escape unscathed if we are advancing like this. We have shown them our strength anyway, so the battle after this won''t be that hard." "I understand. I shall arrange the army." Song Ping nodded and disappeared. Song Hun let out a long sigh while looking at Leo in the middle, the battle between Snow White Mountain and Drunken Pavilion, and those people from Freedom Sect and unknown races. "Our win is nothing but assured, so I think it''s time for me to go all out to ensure our family won''t lose too much. After all, it will be hard to raise the disciples again and recruiting won''t do them justice." Song Hun nodded and took out his sword. Song Ping appeared once again as soon as he saw this sword. "Father¡­ Are you going?" "Yes. I am going to lead our force from the front to minimize our loss and raise our morale. We need to be careful against the Fire God Clan because they will use many things in this battle, especially Arrays." Song Hun nodded. "Array Plates¡­" Song Ping thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I should move our troops to prepare for such a thing." "I leave it to you, Son." Song Hun smiled and flew to the front, hacking the enemies one by one. Chapter 789 - Leos Plan On the other hand, the last place on the battlefield also had a great moment. "You old bastard. I am going to kill you today!" Liza roared as she sent a few ice blocks toward him. Manness didn''t say anything and kept dodging it. "This is so like you. You can only dodge my attacks this whole time!" Liza kept mocking him. Manness sighed. "Yes. But in the end, you lost to me in our last fight even though I was weaker than you." "You bastard!" Liza gnashed her teeth and attacked him again. As they had their own fight, Leo also had a hard time fighting against two 10-Star Martial Saints. "Prism Array!" He threw an Array Plate toward Riadon, who was flying toward him while swinging his sword. Riadon''s sword struck the barrier, and the lightning that covered his sword sparked, flowing to all directions and hitting a few disciples at the same time. Since Leo was trying to buy time to build a plan to break through this place, he was better to kill some disciples to weaken the Fire God Clan as a whole. At the same time, Viola summoned two torrential flames from left and right. Leo took a glimpse of their path and slashed his sword one time, striking these two flames and stopping their advance. After that, he also summoned a fire dragon, albeit only the head, toward Riadon. He was stopped by the Prism Array that turned into an invisible wall, so the moment the dragon almost reached him, Leo deactivated the Array Plate and let the Dragon swallow him. Of course, the Array Plates immediately broke and fell down. However, the dragon managed to swallow Riadon alive. "Spark." Lightning began gushing out of the dragon before it shredded the dragon into pieces. Riadon then raised his sword, planning to release an attack, but he suddenly saw Leo smiling and noticed something wrong. "Bam!" Leo pointed his finger with a smile. Riadon glanced to his four and found an array plate aiming at him. Suddenly, the array turned into a sword and flew toward him. "This is Saint Sword Array!" Riadon exclaimed in surprise, wondering how many rank 8 Array Plates in Leo''s possession right now. He had been using more than ten this whole fight, but Leo didn''t feel pressured at all. He believed Leo still had another card on his sleeve, so he decided to proceed cautiously by destroying this sword first. "Lightning Tree." The moment he struck the Sword coming from the array, his lightning suddenly leaped out of his sword, bouncing on the surface of the sword and struck the Swords from many directions like a tree rot. However, not only Leo, who actually managed to send a surprise attack, when Riadon struck the sword, he realized four fire circles appeared diagonally from Leo. "Hm?" Leo took a glimpse of their location and clicked his tongue. "Scorching Fire Prison." Viola smirked as the four fire circles burst out flames, burning Leo to crisp. Suddenly, a powerful shock wave shook the Fire Prison and blew the fire away from Leo. He seemed to slash his sword to create a powerful shock wave to escape that. "As expected, the Fire God Clan is really monstrous." Viola furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, this might be the power of your emotion, right? Although you don''t show your emotion, I can sense your raging heart. Still, the longer this fight be, the more disadvantage you will get." "Hmph! Save your pointless rumblings, man-woman!" Leo snorted, looking at Viola''s flat chest with contempt. "You will be defeated even without that." "What did you say?!" Viola would always be angry when they insulted her b.r.e.a.s.t, and to think Leo would bring it to the next level. Viola summoned a giant fireball before shooting out a laser that might even melt the hardest metal. "Do you think you can stop me?" Leo snorted as he took another Array Plate from his Space Ring and activated it. "That array¡­ It''s a Teleportation Array Plate!" Riadon exclaimed as soon as he saw the array embedded on it. He realized Leo had been preparing for this, including the insult to Viola. "Aileen!" Viola instinctively shouted since Aileen knew more about the Space Element. Unfortunately, since she had asked her to focus on the other people, Aileen couldn''t react fast enough. When she turned around, she found only Viola and Riadon standing in the air. "Where is that guy? By the looks of it, he hasn''t died yet." "He used the Teleportation Array Plate earlier." Viola gritted her teeth. "Do you know where he goes?" "I am afraid I can''t track him. However, he should be somewhere on the battlefield. Even if he causes the ruckus in the Special Realm barrier, his strength alone won''t be enough to destroy it. In other words, he is either hiding or going to another battle." "Where?" "That''s your problem. I don''t know where he goes." Aileen shouted in frustration. ¡­ Just like how Aileen said, the other battlefield, specifically the battle between Manness and Liza, caused a commotion. "Blank Slash!" A fire that was neither hot nor cold flew toward Liza. "Hmph! Freezing Field." Liza raised her hand and sent a powerful ice wind toward the slash. The fire slowly got suppressed by the ice before it vanished. "Your element is inferior to me. If not because of your dirty trick, you won''t be able to defeat me at that time." Liza snorted. "You better surrender right now and make way for me. Won''t it be better if you aim at the Fire God Clan alone?" "I am afraid that is not possible. This is the last time I agree to that brat''s words, so I will do it to the very end. I am going to stall you here until they finish their battle." Manness shrugged. "Still, I never expected you are holding that grudge even until now¡­ It''s been a few hundred years, you old hag." "Hmph!" Liza snorted and raised her sword, sending a torrential ice wind toward Manness, trying to freeze his body even a little to decrease his fighting ability. Manness scratched his head, took out a bottle of wine, and lifted the liquor with his Spiritual Energy. "Do you know why my influence is called Drunken Pavilion?" "You are just a drunkard. It''s already a good enough name for an idiot like you to create a name like that." "You are merciless." Manness shook his head and sent the alcohol flying before he channeled his fire to the alcohol. After that, he sent another Sword Wave behind the fire. Liza furrowed her eyebrows when she saw Manness burned his liquor. "Wait! That''s fuel?" Manness lifted his mouth a little bit as the alcohol-fueled fire suddenly broke through the cold wind that Liza sent and covered his Fire Sword Wave. "Just die, you old hag. The sooner you die, the better. After all, you don''t need to watch how your disciples get killed in this battle." Manness sighed. "When are you going to stop underestimating me?" Liza ground her teeth and struck the Sword Wave with her sword. At the same time, the cold icy wind started gathering around her sword, and it spun like a fan to blow off this fire. *Bang!* The sound of this clash was like two metal clashing, but it sent an overbearing pressure and powerful shock wave to their surroundings, especially when the fire burned the ice and the ice froze the fire. Manness and Liza still had the same expression as they glared at each other. They jumped again and tried close combat. When their swords were about to clash, another presence suddenly appeared as a shadow emerged out of thin air. And that shadow also slashed forward. "!!!" It was obvious that this shadow target was Manness. "Drunken Sword Snake." Manness suddenly used all his power to strike the two incoming swords, not letting even a single of them hit his body. *Clang Clang!* The first clicking sound was normal since it came from Liza, but when Manness felt the second sword, he was shocked by how much power behind it and realized who just threw such a strike. "Leo! Why are you here?" "I defeated them. It''s time for you to accept your death." Leo snorted and kept attacking him, trying to injure him as much as possible with this surprise attack. Liza took advantage of this and attacked him together. "I won''t be defeated!" Manness gritted his teeth and traded blows with them. However, as expected, he could only buy time in his fight against Liza, and now, with the interference from Leo, wounds started to appear in his body. "No. You are strong, but you are not capable of killing them. You must be using a Teleportation Array Plate to arrive here!" Manness shouted as he kept blocking the attacks. "Whatever. I only need a few minutes to kill the weakest 10-Star Martial Saint with this old hag as my partner." Leo mocked him and made a few more wounds on his body. "An opening!" Liza suddenly found an opening and planned to use it to cut one of Manness''s arms. However, an overbearing pressure suddenly enveloped her, reducing her speed and strength greatly. "This¡­" *Clang!* Manness didn''t know what happened, but he parried the attack and blew the sword away by using that confusion. Not only that, he threw another strike toward Liza, pushing her back. It was at this time, Liza found the source of the problem as she glanced in another direction, finding a woman who was utilizing her element to suppress her. "You b*tch!" Letizia found Manness got attacked not long ago, so she thought she needed to help him even if it meant exhausting all her Spiritual Energy. After all, Alex surely didn''t want Manness to die just like this. Even though it was different from their plans, she didn''t regret it and put everything to suppress her, even for a few seconds or minutes. "You are not strong enough to suppress me to the point I can''t fight back!" Liza snorted and slashed her sword downwards and vice versa. Each swing released five spikes that flew out of the sword, trying to impale her. Since Letizia was putting all her energy to suppress her, so she couldn''t fight Manness together with Leo, she shouldn''t be able to avoid these spikes. "Kh!" Letizia gritted her teeth. She should be able to shift her body a little bit to avoid vital areas, but that was all. She had prepared to take on these attacks. Of course, Alex would surely not leave someone like her on the battlefield without protection. Jean suddenly appeared in front of her and raised his hand before a wall of water formed. "Exquisite Water Body, Third Characteristic. Buoyancy!" The moment it struck the water wall, the wall suddenly stretched to the back but was unable to be pierced by the ice as if it was very viscous. The ice suddenly slowly melted as if it met hot water instead of normal water. Jean smiled upon this sight as he glanced at Letizia. "Are you alright?" "Yes. Thank you for helping me." "You have made a good judgment by helping that Manness. How long do you can hold your suppression?" "Fifteen seconds." "Three seconds are enough. Keep your Spiritual Energy high enough for the long battle." Jean nodded. "Ho¡ª"Just as she was about to ask How, Fabio and Vera appeared behind Liza, slashing their swords toward her. "Twin Element Slash!" They used their usual couple combination technique, releasing a cross slash made of fire and ice. "!!!" Liza obviously noticed their appearance and turned around. She should be able to handle this attack easily if she was in a normal condition, but this suppression was hindering her. She ground her teeth and released all of her Spiritual Energy, burning the suppression even for a few seconds. "No, you won''t! Break!" She shouted out loud, burning away a huge portion of her Spiritual Energy to block the attack and the suppression. After that, she struck Fabio and Vera, blowing them away. "This is not good!" Letizia felt her suppression had been lifted from her, but Jean raised his hand, stopping her. "It''s alright. My master should also know this condition and obviously send the two¡­" As he uttered those words, a Spatial Gate appeared as Viola and Riadon emerged within the gate, glaring at Leo. "Found you!" Chapter 790 - Peak Fight A few minutes earlier. "Where is he?!" Viola shouted at Aileen. Since she was the only one who had a Space Element around her, so she thought Aileen must have the answer. Unfortunately, Aileen shook her head. "I don''t know. My ability is not that omnipotent to the point I can track where he goes. If he goes to the Space World, we can easily track him, but with that Teleportation Array? I can''t see where he goes. This is why the Space Element Array Master is more dangerous than a normal Space Element Master." "Then, where are we supposed to go?" Viola ground her teeth. "He shouldn''t be heading to our disciples and¡­ Never mind. I believe he is going to head toward either Snow White Mountain or the mercenary." "Great Elder Aileen!" Suddenly, a shout came from a bit farther away. When Aileen and the two turned their heads, they found Alex, who was fighting the two elders, pointing toward Snow White Mountain''s direction. "He is going toward the Snow White Mountain. I believe he is going to eliminate Elder Manness right now because he can use his death to break through this situation," Alex said out loud. He saw the movement of the Space Energy earlier and found that the energy shot toward the Snow White Mountain. In that instant, he realized Leo''s plan and warned the trio. Aileen then nodded and appeared before Viola and Riadon. "I am going to plant a Space Mark on you first. If he runs away again, I can immediately go to your position and create another Spatial Gate for you. Even for Fire God Clan, they won''t have that many Teleportation Array Plates." Viola and Riadon nodded, feeling the touch of her hand in their back followed by the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy. After drawing the mark, Aileen then clapped her hand and sent them there before joining the fight again. ¡­ "Found you!" Viola grinned as she looked at Leo. "Tch! It''s faster than my expectation¡­ It must be that Space Element woman." Leo gritted his teeth and flew back, trying to create a distance between them. Manness also got time to breathe before he looked at Viola and Riadon. "We are going to fight that Leo again. Since the situation is not according to the plan, I am going to assist you from time to time by throwing attacks at her. Well, it won''t be that much because I am not familiar with your fighting style," Viola said while looking at Riadon, who slowly flew over Manness. "Sure. As long as it can help me, I don''t mind. Besides, like my wounded body, she also has used a huge amount of energy earlier. I can handle her alone if it''s necessary." Manness nodded. Viola and Riadon then turned their heads, furrowing their eyebrows upon the sight of Leo. They noticed a slight difference in his Spiritual Energy. "This is... Has he used his last resort?" Riadon muttered to himself. The fire started covering his body as his eyes began to lose their focus. "Even if I am going to die, I will surely kill both of you today along with that brat." Leo roared. After getting his plan ruined again and again from the alliance, array, to this one, Leo realized it was not possible to win without killing these three 10-Star Martial Saints. Even if they somehow killed these three, they would be too exhausted to breakthrough. The Blackwade Clan was also making their way toward them. In other words, it was close to impossible to escape from this execution ground that Alex had prepared. Leo decided to risk it all since as they said, he would get more and more disadvantages as time passed. "Tch!" Viola clicked her tongue and warned. "It might not be possible to help you. We need to focus on killing this old bull first before we can do anything." Manness nodded his head. He could see that his fire got disturbed by Leo, so he knew this might be Leo''s last fight. The only thing he could do was to hold Liza back for a moment. At least, she shouldn''t interfere in their fight until Leo died. "We also can''t help you to fight that Liza. We can attack her due to the suppression, but now that she is like this, we can only leave her to you." Jean informed him too. As soon as Manness nodded, Jean took Letizia away together with the tsun-tsun couple. Leo glared at them and tossed one of his rank 8 Array toward Jean and Letizia. "One Thousand Swords Array!" The array glowed and summoned a thousand swords in an instant like its name implied, surrounding Jean and Letizia from all directions. "Tch!" Jean looked at the array and searched for a way to escape, but he suddenly found Viola appeared right behind the sword formation. She clasped her hands before a powerful stream of fire formed and turned into a tornado in a second. Jean leaped toward Letizia and summoned another sphere to block in case there were some swords that didn''t get pulverized by this flame. To their surprise, Leo didn''t have any intention of attacking them. The moment everyone''s focus locked on the flame tornado, Leo appeared right behind Viola with his sword. "Die, you woman," Leo said with a cold gaze, swinging his sword toward Viola''s neck. "Blazing Defying Slash." Viola only took a glimpse of his action before finding another presence coming to her. Just when his sword almost reached her, another sword struck it, stopping it from cutting her. "Lightning Tree." The lightning started going rampage in order to make Leo drop his weapon, but Riadon miscalculated Leo''s current power. Even with his Lightning Tree, he suddenly felt the sudden push in his sword. "I am the one losing? Not good!" He realized that the target was Viola all along, so he immediately grabbed Viola with his hand and threw her away. At the same time, he also got pushed back by the sword and regrouped with Viola. "Sorry. It looks like we have underestimated him." "Yes. Thank you for saving me earlier." Viola nodded. Even though she was thrown away, Riadon made sure that she was going toward Jean and Letizia. They couldn''t afford Leo attacking them. "Don''t stop me!" Leo roared. His rationality had become so low to the point he started screaming like a beast. It was like the last bit of his rationality sent through to his instinct, so he could act according to the best scenario. "Be careful of his array. As long as we hold long enough, he won''t be able to think like a human again, and it will be the time we kill him." Riadon warned her. "I know." Viola nodded. "I might as well fight him in close combat." "Your main ability is in your control over fire¡­ With his strength and combat ability, I am afraid you are not his match in close combat. Better back me up." Riadon shook his head. "Fine." Viola shrugged. Riadon was a cool guy, and almost no one knew about his mind. Yet, this kind of guy warned that openly. It would mean that the enemy this time was extremely dangerous this time. "Crimson Fire." Three pillars of flame suddenly turned into a human-shaped fire, holding a ball which also made a fire in their hand. As the name implied, the fire turned from an orange-red fire to crimson. "I will go all out and have one of them to assist us while the other two assist the other guy. If possible, I want him to help us as well." Riadon took a glance at Manness''s condition and nodded. "Suit yourself. Just make sure that you don''t use all your Spiritual Energy." "Sure." Viola nodded and headed to the space between Manness and Leo. Leo, on the other hand, clenched his fist before throwing another Array Plate to the sky. "Sky Slaying Spear Array Plate." Riadon widened his eyes, watching how the array turned into a giant glowing blue spear. If such a spear struck the ground, it would leave craters up to ten kilometers away in all directions. And the aim of the spear was none other than Viola. She could dodge this in time, but they still had the second problem. Behind her was Drunken Pavilion''s disciples, so if they got hit by that, he didn''t know how many people would die. Luckily, Evelyn was forbidden to participate in this battle, so he didn''t need to have an additional worry. However, it didn''t mean he could be free of worry. If many disciples were killed, the Snow White Mountain would start pushing back. The Fire God Clan will obviously send another portion of their disciple to help, breaking through the Drunken Pavilion''s formation. Hence, they only had one solution. Riadon muttered to himself. "I need to block it." Viola noticed his movement and locked her eyes on Leo before sending a powerful attack to him with her fire doll. "You won''t hinder him!" "¡­" Leo didn''t say anything. He only ground his teeth and struck the fire with all his might. Meanwhile, Riadon raised his off hand and summoned his lightning. The lightning turned into a tree before it created a circle right above the tree. "Riadon! Are you going to use that technique?" Viola shouted. "I need to use it. That array is one of the peak rank 8 Array in terms of strength. He even coated that spear with his fire and Sword Intent. And the fact that you pushed him back with that lousy attack of yours already showed how much energy he put in that technique. "If I didn''t use this technique, we are going to lose this battle. And Aileen won''t make it to this place before the spear hits." Riadon shook his head. The giant tree of lightning spread its power before the circle above it absorbed everything, turning them into a single bolt of lightning. "Seraphim Gate Open!" The circle glowed brightly before it shot all the lightning in the form of a laser. Of course, Riadon was still smarter than everyone''s expectation. He deliberately flew a little bit more, so he could aim the spear from above and hit the Snow White Mountain''s disciples in case he managed to destroy it. Seeing this action, Leo instinctively changed the direction of the spear toward Riadon. "Hmph. It seems you still retain your rationality." Riadon snorted. The spear flew toward him, clashing with the lightning. A powerful shock wave shook the entire battlefield as they never expected two powerful moves to collide like this. The shock wave destroyed buildings upon impact, sent disciples flying, and swept any kind of attacks in the vicinity away. Jean clenched his fist and muttered. "That technique¡­ It''s on par with Leoz''s Thunder God Cannon¡­ It might not be as powerful as Leoz''s ultimate technique, but it was only a Heaven Tier Technique. And the fact that Leoz''s ultimate technique was a Divine Technique¡­ It''s crazy. To think there is a human with this kind of ability¡­" "What?!" Letizia opened her eyes wide, wondering if she just heard it wrong. However, Jean didn''t bother with her and called Fabio and Vera. "I think both of you need to boost that technique." "You want us to exhaust ourselves?" Fabio frowned. "I will also aid with an extra effect later. If we can use that technique to obliterate a portion of an enemy''s disciples, it will be worth it." "Fair enough. I think it''s time for us to show off. You are going to take the responsibility if Master asks though." Vera nodded. "And it''s not like I do this because of your request, alright? I just think it''s the best way to help Master." Jean nodded, ignoring the tsundere line. Fabio and Vera then disappeared before making their appearances on the right and left sides of the clash while raising their hands. "By the blessing of Spirit God, permitting the marriage between Fire and Ice. We shall offer you the best dance in your palm as a Fire and Ice. Opposite but inseparable. Fire and Ice World''s Lotus." Chapter 791 - Leos Death "Fire and Ice World''s Lotus." Fabio''s fire flared up before circling around the spear. The same applied to Vera''s ice. The ice that was supposed to be solid flowed like water. When the Fire found the tail of the ice and vice versa, the two elements slowly fused together, creating something even stronger. With this kind of power, the fused element shrank to the point it became a collar to the giant spear. And as soon as the two elements touched the spear''s body, the flowing element grew vines all over the spear''s body. A lotus appeared on the vine. It was a very unique lotus. With half of its color red and the other half was blue, it became the symbol of the union between Fire and Ice. It was then followed by the second, third, and fourth¡­ Until the lotuses covered all the vines. When everyone thought it was over without anything serious happening, the lotuses suddenly exploded, starting from the spear''s butt to the spear''s head. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions resounded across the region. The people around it felt a very weird sensation. They thought it was cold, but the coldness felt like it was burning their skin to crisp. They also felt it was scorching their skin, but the fire was actually freezing their body. This kind of effect was very effective in lowering the durability of an attack. And the situation turned out according to their earlier expectation. The spear''s handle cracked all over before it shattered into pieces. The spear now left only its head. And faced with the difference in power from Riadon''s technique, the spear''s head was shattered by the lightning before it headed toward Leo and ultimately those disciples from Snow White Mountain. Of course, as Jean said earlier, he wasn''t going to observe this situation from afar. Instead, he appeared right above the Snow White Mountain disciples, who were shocked by four powerful attacks. "Exquisite Water Body, Fourth Characteristic. Conductivity." Jean smirked as he summoned a huge bubble on top of the disciples and made it explode. That huge water turned into droplets and fell like rain. At the same time, the lightning arrived and swallowed Leo before it hit the disciples. The water droplets that had yet to fall to the ground, conducting the electricity stored in that powerful attack. It conducted to the point it sucked the Lightning Element from the lightning itself like a magnet. "I am a Water Spirit. And my true spirit body allows me to change the characteristics of my water like the viscosity earlier. Now, I have increased the conductivity of this lightning. The stronger the lightning, the stronger the electricity it conducts. I used it normally with my Sister or Leoz, but this man also created a technique similar to them. Enjoy the might of the conductivity." Jean smirked. Like he said, the water itself didn''t do any damage to the people. However, as soon as lightning passed them, it stole around a third of the power of the lightning itself and spread the power in a very large area. Some of the disciples noticed the water droplets and shook their bodies. Unfortunately, their body couldn''t react fast enough to avoid this. *Zap!* "Argh!" "Gya!" In a single instant, many began to scream out of pain. For low-level disciples like those in the Martial King or lower, they died the moment the water transmitted the lightning. For those in the Martial Emperor, they were close to death. For those in the Martial Monarch, they got heavily injured, while those in the Martial Saint Stage got injured as they felt numb all over their body. This showed the power of Jean''s conductivity as well as Riadon''s full power Lightning attack. Not only that, the moment the laser hit the ground, it penetrated the ground to one hundred meters deep with a thirty meters radius. And for Leo, who was swallowed by the lightning, his fate remained unknown until the smoke cleared. "Ha!" A huge roar shook the battlefield as the shock wave coming from the sound blew the smoke away, revealing Leo inside it. "Impossible!" Everyone in Alex''s group, including Riadon and Viola, shouted in shock. Even though his body was covered with wounds, Leo still managed to stand like he wasn''t injured. "Kh?! Does this mean I am still inferior¡­" Riadon ground his teeth. His Spiritual Energy was almost empty because of the attack earlier, so he was not in a condition to fight Leo. Fabio and Vera had the same condition as they retreated to Jean''s side. "Jean. What are we going to do now? That guy is still not dead!" "No!" Jean suddenly realized what was going on. Leo might be able to act like it''s nothing, but his red pupil indicated that he just swallowed a Berserk Pill. In fact, he must swallow it before it hits his body. Using it together with his Fire God Body, he somehow blocked the attack. However, his strength shouldn''t be comparable to what he had before. "We need to kill it before he can recover!" "You don''t need to say it." Viola was the first one to act. He had known the power behind Riadon''s ultimate technique, and she believed Leo must die from that attack. In that case, she was convinced that Leo should be heavily injured right now. And there was no way she would let this chance go. She and her three fire bodies suddenly appeared in Leo''s four directions. Each of them shot out a laser toward Leo to finish him off. "Scorching Crimson Fire Prison!" Viola used the same technique as earlier, where she summoned four circles that shot out fire, but this time with her real body and three clones. The power behind this attack couldn''t be compared to the previous attack. The moment the four fires hit, it was trying to burn Leo''s body to ashes. *Roar Roar!* Leo, on the other hand, unleashed another series of roars before swinging his sword to destroy the body. That swing destroyed the three fire bodies as they were on his left, right, and front. Viola was safe in the back. "Impossible. Is he a monster?! He is still not dead even after all of this?" Viola gnashed her teeth as she prepared for another attack. "No. It''s over!" Suddenly, Manness''s aged voice echoed in everyone''s ears. "!!!" They found Manness flying toward Leo from behind before swinging his sword. "Blank Sword." Leo turned his head around and tried to block it, but his body moved too slowly due to the wounds. Manness''s swing severed its head, sending it flying. "You old bastard!" Of course, Liza followed right behind him. She never expected that Manness would suddenly fly toward here as soon as they found the fire bodies disappeared. And the moment he saw the direction he was flying, he realized his motive. Hence, the moment Manness killed Leo, it would be the perfect time for him to heavily injure if not killed Manness. She swung her sword, aiming at his neck. "Saint Fire Hand!" Unfortunately, Manness was not alone. Viola, who had prepared another attack to kill Leo, decided to use that attack to cover Manness. It didn''t matter who killed who anyway, so she used this chance to support him and attack Liza at the same time. "!!!" Liza gritted her teeth before the giant hand grasped her, trying to crush her to death. It was at this moment Viola''s fire hand gradually turned into an ice statue before it was shattered into pieces. "Freezing Field." Liza panted after destroying the fire hand while looking at Manness, who turned around, and Viola, who was ready to send another attack. With more than fifty percent of her disciples were either dead or heavily injured, Liza was completely on her wits'' end. ¡­ In the meantime, Alex was still clashing with these two guys. Even though Alex only had 6-Star Martial Saint cultivation, his strength and Anya''s boost should make him surpass even 7-Star Martial Saint¡­ That is if the opponents didn''t use their last resort, Fire God Body and Berserk Pill. "Tch!" Alex clicked his tongue and made his distance. "These guys are so annoying. That Fire God Body reduced almost all of my Suppression while that Berserk Pill strengthened them to the point they couldn''t feel suppression, pain, and other things. This is really hard to win¡­" Alex glanced left and right, noticing that his people also had similar situations. Even Nelson slowly lost his advantage after they used those two. Anna, on the other hand, tried to control her opponent''s body with her butterflies, but to no avail. Her opponent specialized in spear and centralized his power with speed. Every time her butterflies came closer, he would strike them with his almighty spear. Of course, Alex and the others decided to buy time until the Berserk Pill lost its effect, and they started becoming crazy due to the Fire God Body. But at this time¡­ The sky suddenly turned blue, followed by a flashy yellow color. Not long after that, Fire and Light Blue also appeared to color the sky above Snow White Mountain. Alex tried to see what happened, but it was too far, even with his Spirit Eyes. "What is going on?" "I don''t know. However, I am sure that the last two colors came from Fabio and Vera. They are using their ultimate technique." Anna shouted. "What?!" Alex gritted his teeth. This wasn''t in their plan at all, so he knew something ridiculous must be going on over there. As much as he wanted to join them, he couldn''t go due to these elders that used their Fire God Body and swallowed a Berserk Pill. In this case, he needed a longer time to deal with them. So, the battle over there should end before he could go. Anna also knew about this and added. "I don''t know what''s going on, but we need to step up our game and kill these bastards. You can call Jeanne to explain the situation, but I am sure the fight is so hard that they won''t have time to reply. Hence, I believe they are going to end the fight over there." It was at this moment the red and light blue color disappeared from the sky, followed by the blue color. In other words, the yellow color dominated the sky. Alex didn''t know why, but he instantly recognized the yellow color. For a technique at that caliber, only 10-Star Martial Saint would be capable of utilizing it. And if yellow represented Lightning Element, that attack must come from Riadon. That was why he made a new plan. "We should use everything and kill these bastards right now. Have the beastmen retreat and call Aileen to regroup with us." Anna didn''t know his plan but still executed it. He asked whoever close to her and asked them to deliver the message to the beastmen''s second in command and third in command. "We are changing our strategy. I will be getting serious now." Alex smiled before a crown appeared and floated above his head. "Nelson. I need your element!" "Understood. Please copy it away!" Nelson nodded, glancing at Alex''s Spirit Crown. He might not be able to use the Spirit Crown easily after leaving this world anyway, so it would be good if he could use it in this world. It was considered a practice. Alex nodded and revolved the Spirit Crown before a red translucent string that couldn''t be cut connected the blue jade on his crown with Nelson''s heart. After that, dark energy slowly flowed toward the jade, turning the blue jade into black. "Dark Element¡­ No, Shadow Element¡­ Fuse!" Alex gritted his teeth, trying to assimilate Nelson''s shadow element to his fire. The pain was extraordinary, but Alex didn''t let out a single groan. Even his fighting ability wasn''t reduced. He endured the process for a minute before his fire gushed out of his body. Alex controlled it and made it flow toward his hand, forming a single blazing fire on top of his hand. The black jade then glowed slightly as the red fire changed its color into black. "Success!" He muttered to himself before looking at the two elders back. "Now, I will demonstrate the power of my Pure Shadow Fire!" Chapter 792 - Alexs Power "Now, I shall demonstrate the power of my Pure Shadow Fire." Alex smiled, holding a black flame in his hand. This was the first potential that he had seen in the Spirit Crown. It might be due to the fact that his previous life didn''t have any element in his body that he couldn''t do this, but Alex managed to assimilate the element of others to his own element. However, it didn''t come that nicely. Even though it gave Alex tremendous power, he also needed to pay some price. When he thought about that, his expression turned solemn as he raised both hands. "Shadow¡­" The moment he uttered that word, the two elders'' shadows rose and formed a human shape. Sensing the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy, they glanced at their back, only to find a black human body without any feature wanting to grab them. Without having time to think, they hacked the black body, splitting it. "Ra!" The two elders roared before charging toward Alex. Alex raised his hand again, summoning the same shadow behind them, trying to catch them. And like earlier, they immediately slashed the shadow, not allowing them to do anything. Alex smiled upon watching their action as he tweaked the shadow. The moment they slashed it, it turned into tentacles that would restrict their movement. This was the same technique where Nelson restrained his opponents, but Alex didn''t stop there. "Space Bind." He added a few more restrictions to these two with his Space Element. Since he was going to end this war as soon as possible, he didn''t hesitate to use his hidden trump card at this point. And with how the elders had gone berserk due to the Fire God Body and Berserk Pill, the last restriction he placed upon his Space Element vanished. "!!!" The two elders realized they couldn''t move, saw the black tentacles, and tried to slash it. However, they soon realized they couldn''t move even an inch due to an unknown reason. Hence, they released all their Spiritual Energy before sensing another type of binding things that were attached to them. As they were going to cut it, Alex appeared right in front of one of them with his sword in his main hand, thrusting it like it was a spear. "Since the elders have gone insane, if everything is like what I predicted, I will surely kill them," Alex muttered to himself and continued to describe how the battle progressed in his mind while doing the same actions. "The moment they notice my binding techniques, they will try to cut them off. I will then appear before them by using this advantage. After losing most of their rationality, they should try to block my attack first. And at that time, I shall cut them down with¡­" Alex did the same action as the situation turned into the way he said. It was at this time, Alex''s sword and spear moved at a fast speed, throwing three strikes at the same time. "Ra!" The two elders noticed it. If they still had their rationality, the other one should have stopped at least one of his weapons. However, Alex had been waiting for this and immediately cut one of them down. "Heaven Light Slash." Of course, his weapons were covered by a dark flame this time, giving a more powerful blow, especially with the shadow created by the spaceship above them. This kind of force wouldn''t be able to be blocked by a mere elder who lost his mind even though he became stronger. "Just die." Alex snorted as he saw the elder suddenly release fire energy to block his spear while taking the full blow of his sword with his own sword. His sword might be able to parry his attack. But the moment his fire barrier clashed with Alex''s spear, it was cut cleanly, breaking the barrier like it was glass. Not only that, the two remaining slashes from his Triple Draws went toward his main hand, cutting it before blowing the sword away with the third strike. Alex then clenched his sword tighter, utilizing every ounce of his strength to draw another strike with his sword that was parried. And its purpose was none other than taking the elder''s life. It might be his instinct or whatsoever, but the elder tried to catch Alex''s sword before blocking it with his fire barrier. "A nice move¡­ Albeit it''s too weak to handle this last attack." Alex didn''t see this as a threat and cut the barrier, the hand, and finally, the elder himself into two. "Heaven Light Slash." "Ra!" However, killing one elder meant giving the other elder time to free himself and charge him. Alex turned around and sighed. He made his shadow rise again, but this time, when the elder wanted to cut it, the shadow changed into a black fire. The flame then brushed away by the sword, and the wind pressure forced the flame to jump onto his body. Alex smirked upon this. By assimilating his fire with the shadow, he strengthened his power and granted it another ability. He could easily turn a shadow into flame. If it collided with his original flame, it would become another boost that strengthened that flame. Hence, Alex didn''t hesitate and summoned his normal firebirds, sending them directly to the elders. "I may have the suppression power by assimilating with the shadow, but my fire gets a bit stronger. And for someone like you who can''t be suppressed, this is more suitable." Alex simply smiled as the elders erected the barrier to prevent the bird from hitting him. However, at this time, Alex summoned a few Spatial Gate, swallowing around thirty firebirds before opening another Spatial Gate inside the barrier to burn the elder. And obviously, the moment his Pure Fire made contact with that black fire, it flared up and mixed together. The stronger fire started burning the elder''s body. Yet, Alex felt it wasn''t enough. He raised his sword again and slashed forward, releasing a single Sword Wave toward him. "Mythical Fire Slash." Of course, the color was also black. He found that the elder hadn''t died because the Spirit Eyes was telling him how the elder''s Spiritual Energy was still strong. That was why he sent another attack. And the moment it hit the barrier, the sword wave shattered it into pieces and made its way toward the elder. The elder released all of his Spiritual Energy, trying to cut it with his sword. But Alex raised his hand and summoned the tentacles again. "Space Bind." "Hah!" However, the elder this time seemed to have reserve energy. The moment the tentacles appeared, it was blown away by the sudden burst of energy. And the result¡­ The elder completed his swing and struck the Sword Wave with all his might. "¡­" Alex used a Spatial Gate and appeared right behind the elder, sending the head flying. "!!!" The elder couldn''t react and realized it too late. This was also one of the benefits he got by getting Nelson''s shadow element. It lowered his presence even further. In fact, this was the reason why Nelson could sneak inside many influences. "Huft. It''s finally over." Alex let out a long sigh. "To think the fight will take this long¡­ Never mind." Alex shook his head, looking around to see who would need his help soon. "The beast king needed more time to fight that 9-Star Martial Saint Elder. Nelson and Anna will be the best options for me, but the opponents are 8-Star Martial Saints¡­ Should I use my new technique?" Alex pondered for a moment and nodded. The Spiritual Energy suddenly erupted from his weapons as his Dragon Aura began to infuse with the Spiritual Energy and turned into two fierce dragons. "Roar!" "Since Nelson''s opponent is a Fire User, it''s best to use only my Pure Fire for this." Alex nodded and flew toward Nelson with the two dragons following him. "Go! Kill him for me." Alex commanded the two dragons. "Roar!" Nelson, on the other hand, noticed the incoming presence and glanced to find the dragons. Since Alex was going all out, he knew what to do. He channeled all his power to his sword until it was covered by dark energy and swung his sword with all his might. The elder again struck his sword, but Nelson pressured the elder even further, not letting him create a distance. As one would expect, the elder also noticed the incoming dragon and glanced to see what kind of technique it was. However, Nelson raised his off hand and created a giant claw, sending it flying to cover his vision from the dragon. Alex saw this and smiled as he asked the two dragons to move on top of the wall and below the wall. "Roar!" "Tch." The elder clicked his tongue and decided to retreat by flying toward the other side where he wasn''t surrounded, but Alex suddenly appeared in that direction. If Alex was a normal cultivator, the best option was to fly in his direction and kill him. Unfortunately, Alex wasn''t. If he were to go there, Alex would hold him back for one or two seconds, letting the dragons and Nelson strike him. Hence, the only option remaining was to hit one of the two dragons. The elder bent his knees a little to increase the force in his legs before jumping at his speed. "Spear Spiral!" He spun his body to create a powerful piercing force and penetrated the dragon. Unfortunately, the dragon wasn''t like how he expected. It had been imbued by Alex''s Pure Fire. Piercing its body meant going inside his Pure Fire. "Argh!" The elder screamed, feeling the scorching heat that was trying to burn his body, his Spiritual Energy, and even his life. He endured and endured until he broke through. Unfortunately, his obstacle had yet to end. "I predicted that you wouldn''t go toward me because I was still stronger than the two dragons." Alex smirked and slashed his sword. "Heaven Light Slash." "Kh!" The elder once again outdid himself by striking Alex''s sword at the last second, but this was his second mistake. He should run away by sacrificing something from his body if he wanted to live. It was just¡­ With his current state, it wasn''t possible for him to think that way. The moment he got stopped by Alex, the other dragon caught up and swallowed him. "Argh!" "Nelson. It''s in your hand." Alex shouted. "Leave it to me." Nelson nodded, appearing right before the elder and having completed his motion. He just needed to strike the elder along with the dragon to kill him, but he suddenly found that the elder still managed to move and tried to block him. "You won''t. Shadow Bind." "Space Bind." Alex also helped him. As expected, the shadow rose again and shackled him. But its strength and durability were far better than Alex''s since he was the master of shadow, not him. And with the help of Alex''s Space Bind, they stopped the elder for a split second, and that split second was fatal, especially with the enemy right in front of you. "Die." Nelson moved at fast speed and passed him as if he was teleporting there. "Assassinate." The sword might be too fast that even the body wasn''t fast enough to notice it had been cut. It took the body half-second before the blood flowed out, and the body fell down. Nelson took a deep breath after delivering the killing blow and went toward Alex. "Thank you for your help, Master." "It''s fine. I am the one who needs to thank you for this element. Anyway, rather than talking about this, we should take care of our matters first." Alex nodded and looked around, searching for his next target. "You go help the Beast King. I will help Anna. And don''t forget we are going to retreat after this." "Shouldn''t we take advantage?" "Of course. That''s why we are retreating." "Young Master¡­ Do you want to do that?" Alex answered him in the form of a smile as Nelson''s expression turned serious. Chapter 797 - Meeting A few hours after Alex and Letizia returned, the war finally stopped. Nelson returned with Space Rings, where Alex split according to their agreement. Luckily, the thing that Alex or Song Hun feared didn''t happen. They wrapped this war with one last meeting between Alex and Licht. "What are you going to do right now?" "We are thinking about making our own sect around the former Fire God Clan''s territory." "Ho?" Alex narrowed his eyes and asked. "Aren''t you a greedy one?" "I am aware, but this place is important to us. Although it''s dangerous, it is still near the center of the continent. We can go anywhere we want without much problem." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Whatever. I don''t really care where you are standing as long as you are not my enemies. I am tired of fighting in this world, so I want to cultivate peacefully until I reach God Rank, but¡­" Licht nodded with a grim expression. "We understand. We have agreed not to do anything for the time being. And since we need to rebuild the sect from zero, it will take a long time." Alex looked at his expression for a minute and walked away. "Then, it''s time for me to return to my own home. And with this, you are you. Whatever you do won''t be related to me." This was the way Alex ended their deal. He indirectly told Licht that he wouldn''t help him even if they got into trouble with the Blackwade Clan and the Drunken Pavilion or even those who didn''t participate in this war, the Phantasm Sect and the Divine Kingdom. And there would be a little chance for him to interfere in that matter in the future. Licht also knew that they didn''t have that deep relationship with Alex and wondered whether there was a gap they could exploit to make a relationship. As long as Alex stayed in this world, it would be troublesome if they created a mess with another influence. Because the moment Alex joined the fight, they would seriously be destroyed. And the fact he also knew about their place under the sea¡­ It would be troublesome. That was why the council agreed to remain low and build their sect as long as Alex remained in the world. In the end, Alex left and talked with the other two leaders. "Everything is done. They are giving us a free ride to our respective influence after this. What are you going to do now?" Song Hun smiled. "I will also return to my own home. I have finished all the problems in this world, so I don''t really want to get involved again unless it''s necessary." Alex nodded. "In any case, you are going to be famous after this." Manness smirked. "Most of it will be infamy." Alex shook his head. "Fair enough." Song Hun nodded before adding, "If you need any help, you can come to my Blackwade Clan." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, knowing that Song Hun''s intention. He just wanted to make sure that Alex fulfilled his end of the bargain. That was why Alex only nodded. "Yes." Manness didn''t give the same response. Instead, he seemed to want to sever his relationship with Alex¡­ No, it must be his teacher. Knowing his personality, Manness must have been living under the shadow of Maxwell and want to be free for it. Even though they were friends, it was already over a few thousand years since they last met. It was normal for this so-called friend to have another thought in his mind, along with the pride. Alex closed his eyes and didn''t say anything to him. He had his own life, and the relationship between them only came from Maxwell. If his teacher wanted to do something about this, he would. Unfortunately, he seemed to have known about this and chose not to do anything. In other words, even if they met next time, it would be a meeting between strangers. Alex slightly bowed his head and said, "I thank you for helping me in this matter. I will surely remember this for the rest of my life." Song Hun understood the meaning behind his second sentence since it was directed to him. As for Manness, he thought of it as nothing. "Anyway, I think it''s time to return." "Indeed. My son and daughter must be nagging me right now, wondering what kind of battle we had." Song Hun laughed, patted Alex''s shoulders a few times, and flew away. "Boy¡­" Manness, on the other hand, finally opened his mouth with a solemn expression. "Don''t run your mouth about that line. If I know about it, I will kill you no matter what." "I know. I am not the type who blabbers such a thing. Even I realized from the way my Master said it, he probably knew it was for a one-time thing." Manness looked at him for a few seconds before leaving as well. Alex then finally returned to his group and used his Teleportation Array to return to their home. They arrived at the meeting room, and somehow the situation wasn''t really as expected. The atmosphere became a bit gloomy as most of them were afraid that Alex had thought of this. Only Anya had a relaxed expression. Noticing this situation, Alex smiled. "Why are you all being so gloomy? I am fine. Besides, there are a few things I want to announce after this." Even though he said all of this, the group still had an awkward expression on their faces, so Alex decided to change the topic to lift up the mood. "Rose¡­ How are you? What do you think about the fight earlier? Are you sure you want to follow me still after knowing this will happen again in the future?" Rose''s body shook. Although she had killed many people, it was the first time where she witnessed two influences were massacred. She didn''t know why, but her feet went limp in the middle of battle. Luckily, Anya calmed her down and said a few things to her. To that end, Rose realized what kind of burden that Alex carried. And to think he had been doing this while protecting her just for her to have an easy life, Rose was filled with happiness and guilt at the same time. He was happy that the only Master in her life cared about her. However, she hated herself for not realizing it until now. After hearing Alex''s question, she suddenly rose from her seat and looked at Alex with a serious expression. "I¡­ I don''t know¡­ On one hand, I thought that Master was a bit excessive since you decided to kill all those people. On the other hand, I realized that Master did it because there was something in your mind¡­ No, I should say experience. I¡­ I¡­" Alex suddenly appeared in front of her and hugged her, stroking her hair gently. "It''s fine, Rose. It can be an excuse or just a justifying reason, but I indeed felt the same betrayal that almost cost me my wife. Albeit, I indeed feel it''s a bit excessive." When Alex said that, Firia suddenly had a melancholy, thinking about Alicia. Alex paused for a moment and continued. "Do I feel remorse? Yes. Do I regret my action? It''s a no. If you think your action is right, then don''t hesitate and do it. If anything happens in the future, Master will take care of it for you." Rose closed her eyes, hugged Alex, and somehow cried like a child. "Master¡­" She remembered the person that wanted to r*pe her in the past. Although she had killed him due to the hatred, when everything had been resolved, she felt empty. Despite having her revenge, it couldn''t bring back her parents. Alex became the pillar in his heart, acting like a Master, a big brother, and a father in her life. Revenge might give you satisfaction for one time, but it couldn''t solve everything. And if they actually brought more people to subdue her to the point she needed to kill their whole family, would she be able to do it? The answer would be no. Yet, when she now thought that their enemy would poke her master, and new family, the Spirit Nest, she felt remorse. Alex wanted to teach this to Rose indirectly. One could do bad things, but they should stick to the principle. Alex killed people because they were his enemies that would endanger his family. But Alex never killed people just because of some petty things. In his life, Alex also never stole a single thing, whether it was a normal encounter or an auction. Rose realized that the moment when there was once, there would be second and third. Hence, Rose figured out what kind of principle she had been holding until now and would stick to it. This time, there seemed to be a weight in her heart that got lifted up. The fuzzy and mixed feelings gradually disappeared from her heart as she slowly released her hand. Looking up to see her Master''s face, Rose slowly opened her mouth. "Master¡­ I am glad that I met you back then." Alex smiled and patted her head. "You silly kid, you have told it to me once." "Hehe¡­ Even if you want me to say it a hundred times, I doubt I will tell you a different line." Rose smiled from ear to ear. Alex wiped the tears on the corner of her eyes with a smile. He then gradually stepped back and returned to his seat. Rose turned to everyone and bowed her head. "I am sorry." "Haha¡­ This is our Rose!" Leoz laughed out loud. Since they had the same elements, Leoz had been training her from time to time, so he was like a mentor to her. When he saw Rose finally smiled again, he finally felt relief. "That''s right. Rather than this gloomy atmosphere, how about we have a party." Anna nodded before taking out many food and wines from the Inventory. "I''m in." Leoz nodded and grabbed the wine. "Before that, I am going to announce another thing. Letizia is going to the Willow Continent to visit her home, so I am planning to bring her there." Alex announced. "Master¡­ Don''t we have that stone?" Leoz tilted his head in confusion. He thought Alex was planning to teleport her to the Willow Continent himself, so he thought it would be a waste of time. "Well, I am planning to visit there as well." Alex glanced at his girls and said, "I also want to enjoy myself first since my heart is not ready for cultivation right now. That''s why I want to ask Anna, Anya, Firia and Sherry¡­ Do you want to accompany me to tour around the world?" "!!!" The women, except Anya, were surprised. They never expected Alex to ask them this. As for whether they wanted it or not, of course, they wanted it. "I''m in." Anya was the first since she already knew this plan. "I''m too!" "I will go!" "Yay, a trip with Master." Alex nodded with a smile. On the other hand, Letizia had a mixed feeling inside. Since Alex also planned to come to Rainbow Flower Sect to meet her mother, she was wondering whether she should go first as to clear up the misunderstanding before it happened or just follow Alex. She didn''t dare to be recognized as Alex''s wife even if it was a misunderstanding because she had been learning her master''s personality. Alex seemed to have a strong principle about his love life, so she didn''t want to displease him when everyone thought about that. Alex, on the other hand, never thought about that thing. He simply wanted to meet her mother because he felt responsible for everything that happened to her life, especially with the Snow White Mountain. On that day, Letizia didn''t have the heart to cultivate since she was worried about this misunderstanding. After telling about the plan, Alex then raised a bottle of wine and said with a smile. "Now¡­ Let''s party and have this gloomy thing go away! Cheers!" "Cheers!" Chapter 798 - Gregs Appearance The party lasted for a few hours before everyone returned to a serious mode. At the very least, the atmosphere wasn''t that gloomy anymore. Letizia and Rose could also fit in the group completely. After that, Alex finally held the meeting concerning the next matter. "Anya, you can start." Anya nodded and listed their problems. "First. We need to know which ones are enemies and our allies." Alex thought for a moment and glanced at the spirits. "Who do you think will be our enemies, allies, and neutral parties?" "I don''t think anyone is foolish enough to be our enemies. But I have a strange feeling against the Drunken Pavilion. It''s better to watch out against that Manness and have one of the N Squad supervise Evelyn. I am afraid if he indeed becomes our enemy, he will try to grasp Evelyn first." Anna answered with an unsure tone. "Fair enough. I am sure that if my Master is here, he will feel there is something different from Manness. We will classify him as a neutral party first but under supervision." Alex agreed with Anna. "Anyone else?" "I don''t think Phantasm Sect will bother us for the time being, so we don''t need to worry about them. In addition, Song Yu is there. Although I doubt Astennu will do something bad to her, let''s just have one of the spies there for safety reasons," Anya added. "Alright. The Blackwade Clan is our ally in this world because they are expecting us to fulfill the agreement." Nelson was the one who answered this time. However, he suddenly thought something was wrong with one particular influence. "I want to watch the Freedom Sect myself." "Ho?!" "With two people on your side there, I doubt they are doing anything soon. But I need to confirm their intention, especially when you are leaving this world. I am sure that Letizia and Rose will be troubled if they are doing something big. Besides, our job is to follow you as soon as you leave this world, so we can''t watch over the two ladies after that¡­" Nelson sighed. "Alright. Do you need help there?" "No. I alone will be enough." Nelson shook his head. "I have been resting for too long due to the agreement with the three races, so I am going to work harder now." "You are always like this. If I don''t have the system that can connect me to you, I bet I won''t be able to contact you at all, and suddenly you will come with a huge army to help me." Alex smiled and closed his eyes. "Still, thank you Nelson, for doing all of this for me." Nelson lifted his lips a little. "No. It''s my pleasure, Master." Alex nodded and continued. "Anyway, this leaves the Ancient Blue Family and the Divine Kingdom¡­" "Ancient Blue Family¡­ I doubt they will do something for now, so I guess we can just let them for the time being. As for the Divine Kingdom, that Elizabeth seems to be plotting something. It''s not the one that harms us, but it will surely benefit the Divine Kingdom. Well, I hope my intuition is wrong, but let''s investigate it first." Firia looked down and played with her hair as if she was thinking hard. After collecting their opinions, Alex closed his eyes for a minute before opening his mouth. "Nelson will be in charge of Freedom Sect. Natalie will supervise the Blackwade Clan while Noel checks the Phantasm Sect. Noah will keep the Ancient Blue Family in check. "Nano, Ngina, and Nicky will investigate the Divine Kingdom. And lastly, Njomo will stay within Evelyn''s shadow while Nicole and Neon focus on Manness and the Drunken Pavilion. If anyone thinks you have the ability that suits one influence, you can comment now, and I will change it for you." Not a single N squad said anything. They had been trained to do everything by themselves, and with them working in a group, they would surely not leave anything. Even Nicole, who had been dealing with the Blackwade Clan, didn''t say anything. After all, she didn''t really need to contact them anymore, so it was pointless to stay there. Instead, she was better to put her ability to use in the new post. "Then, it''s decided." Alex nodded before continuing to the next matter. "After this, I will be leaving the base for two weeks. So, the rest of you are free to do whatever you want. "I will be using my Gacha Tickets after this, but won''t touch a single EXP Card. Letizia can immediately return to the base after settling your business with your home, while Rose can do anything she wants. Whether you want cultivating or training, just ask the others to help¡­ Make sure you think about their schedule as well." "Understood." Letizia and Rose nodded with a serious expression. "As for you guys¡­ Do you need anything? Or do you want me to do something?" Alex asked with a smile. Anna and Anya smiled and gave a thumb up. "We are good." "Anya said you are going to focus on your Alchemy and Array Mastery again, is that right?" Firia asked. "Yes." "In that case, how about some practices with me? I don''t want to brag, but I think I can give you some help regarding Alchemy." "Sure. I will be relying on you." Alex nodded before reminiscing. "I still remember where you want to learn Alchemy from me, and now you are going to teach me¡­ How time flies¡­ I bet Alicia''s little nephew has become a young girl right now." "Haha¡­ We plan to visit there after meeting with Alicia¡­ Well, it won''t take that long to the point that she will look older than us." Firia chuckled. "Can Sherry follow too?" Sherry asked. "Of course. You are originally from there, so if you don''t tag along, who will? Besides, I think I have some leads for me to seal your cultivation¡­ With some training, I am sure I can do it, but let''s leave it after I reach God Stage. Is that alright with you?" Alex nodded. "Yes." Firia and Sherry answered at the same time. Alex then glanced at Stina and Kyle. "And I probably can''t distance myself while controlling this technique, so I will probably go together with you." "We don''t really mind, Master. We just wish to visit her. If she is well, we are good." Stina answered on behalf of them. Alex nodded and glanced at the spirits. "Then how about you?" "Since Master is going to learn more about Array Master, especially with those combat arrays, I am ready if you want to have a spar." Leoz smiled and pumped his chest. "Thank you. At that time, I will call you." "We also want a honeymoon. It''s been a while since we last enjoyed ourselves." Fabio and Vera requested Alex''s permission. "Alright. I don''t want you to work yourself to the bone, so if any of you want to have some relaxed time, just let me or Anya know, so we don''t suddenly feel amiss." Jeanne and Jean exchanged looks and nodded. "We don''t need anything. It''s fine to stay here for a couple of days for us." Even without them saying their real intent, Alex knew that these two would probably have their role play again. Not that he wanted to see it though. Alex agreed to their request as well. "Master¡­" Greg suddenly raised his hands before putting them on his helmet. He then slowly put off his helmet, revealing his true appearance. Alex widened his eyes as this was the first time for him to see Greg''s real appearance. However, what he saw was truly a surprise to the point he dropped his jaw to the ground. "You¡­ You¡­" Alex''s body and voice were shaking. A womanly and innocent face, long green hair, big round glasses, and small nose and lips. These were the features of Greg''s face. Greg then climbed his armor up as it was actually too big for him because his body looked like Jeanne''s. He seemed to be a ten years old kid. However, what shocked him the most was his clothes. A blue shirt with a neat white vest, but the bottom that paired up with this top was actually a white miniskirt. Alex became speechless and facepalmed as if he just got a shock of his life. "Ah¡­ I think I won''t have a shock even if a meteor falls down tomorrow¡­" "I¡­ I am sorry! I will hide this appearance again." Greg immediately tried to go inside his armor again before Alex stopped him. "Wait. I never said that." "Well, Greg is a Metal Spirit from Metal Clan. Due to the lack of women there, they actually dress someone like a girl to fulfill their longing. And Greg is one of them. Well, I can say that he quite enjoyed it¡­ But too shy to admit it or show it to other people, thus resulting in his armor." Anya added while looking at Greg. Alex scratched his head and looked at Greg, who was shivering. "Listen to me¡­ You are free to follow what you prefer. If you don''t want others to see this appearance, you can hide yourself inside your armor, but if you don''t really mind, then you don''t need to change your way. Instead, keep sticking to it and let them change the way they see you." Greg widened his eyes and remembered a scene of a few thousand years ago. Although he didn''t use the same words, Alex was still Alex. They both said the same thing. He couldn''t help but smile after recalling the scene. "Still¡­ I don''t mean to be rude, but I am still surprised by how diverse you all are." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. "Diverse? Do you mean our ability?" Anna tilted her head. "No. A secretary type, a perverted genius, a muscle brain, S&M twins, Tsun-Tsun Couple, a reliable guy, a righteous guy, and a trap." Alex was wondering whether his previous self actually had a weird fetish or it was just that those who followed him were the ones unique. "What?" The spirits opened their mouth in surprise while calling themselves with Alex''s naming out of reflex. Even they knew which titles they had. They looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting. "Pfft!" "Haha¡­" The previous Alex actually helped them without thought. So, when everyone gathered, Alex would surely comment something like this. And yet, not a single of them thought it was weird because Alex was the weirdest of all. "¡­" Alex stayed silent for a while before he continued. "Anyway¡­ How about you? Greg, Nelson, Artur? Do you need anything?" "No. I just want to show you my appearance, and I am relieved that Master didn''t think much about it." Greg shook his head with a smile. "Well, I only know you are Greg. As for your appearance¡­ Do you think your appearance will change your name?" "No." "Then, why would I overthink it?" Alex shrugged before moving to Artur. "How about you?" "I don''t really have a request, and I am pretty content with what I have now. So, I will remain on the base for a few days before hunting monsters again." Alex nodded and glanced at Nelson. "Well, there is one, and I wish for Master''s well being. And if possible, I want Master to be prepared." "Prepare?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. I am still not sure, but I think we will have a problem soon. Not from the inside, but the outside." "Outside? Do you think there will be an invasion?" "I don''t know yet, and the possibility is low, but it''s better to be prepared. If there is nothing within a year, I guess this is just me overthinking the matter." Nelson shook his head. "Well, I can see if the three races might come again to have their revenge, so I will prepare myself for the worse. That''s why I am adding a few more things to my repertoire." Alex nodded. Nelson replied. "Then I don''t have anything to add." "I will go to open my Gacha then." Alex rose from his seat and added. "We will set off tomorrow, so it''s time to end today''s meeting. See you later." Chapter 799 - Gacha As soon as he returned to his room, he opened his system, specifically his mission. [Mission: Destroy Snow White Mountain and Fire God Clan (Complete) Reward: Premium Ticket x30 or Gacha Coin x20 or Gacha Hammer x10 Description: Time to settle the score.] "Hmm. Which one is my luck today¡­" Alex was humming while tapping the mission. The notification suddenly turned into a blue ball before projecting a ticket, a coin, and a hammer above it. It changed continuously as it was rolling the Gacha. After a few seconds, the clicking sound of changing started getting lower and lower while the changing speed also got slower until it stopped on one item. [Congratulations on getting Gacha Hammer x10.] "It''s the hammer, huh¡­ I don''t really mind though. Besides, I am able to get two UR items from this. I hope it''s not like the previous time I used the Dart Gacha¡­ Ugh, I don''t want to think about it." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. The darts actually got one SR and two R items. Even though he worked hard to complete the mission, which needed him to stop the ritual that the Snow White Mountain held. At the very least, this time, he would get two UR no matter his luck. "Open the Gacha Palace," Alex commanded. The white door appeared as soon as he commanded, and Alex pushed the door open, finding Lin Xingzhi, who was about to open the door. "Ah!" She opened her mouth in surprise before chuckling. "It seems you are pretty eager this time. Usually, you would wait until I opened the door." "Well¡­" Alex scratched his head. "I opened the door without thinking." "So, it has become your instinct. It seems I am pretty lucky to have you want to meet me on an instinctual level." She grinned as if she just won. "Wait. What?" Alex was taken aback, wondering where the conclusion came from. "I¡­ I do want to see you, but I don''t think it''s not at that level yet¡­" She stuck her tongue playfully before walking toward the Gacha Crystal. Alex looked at her back and couldn''t help but smile. He couldn''t comprehend her actions. Sometimes she acted mature, sometimes she acted in a playful manner, and some other times she acted like someone in his equal. Yet, everything resulted in something good for him. ''Did¡­ No, she knows me well¡­" Alex scratched his head embarrassedly before following her. As soon as he arrived at the machine, he tapped the button and summoned a crystal for him. He shattered the crystal with his Gacha Hammer and repeated the process ten times. [Deep Frozen Crystal (SR) x1] [Rank 8 Monster Skin (SR) x1] [Water Tank (R) x1] [Dragon Glaive (R) x1] [Spear Mastery (UR) x1] [Berserker Blood (R) x1] [Jade Bloodla Ganoderma (SR) x1] [Ice Jade Technique (R) x1] [Sky Piercing Rapier (SR) x1] [Rank 9 Monster Blood (UR) x1] "Hmm¡­ Now, let''s see what kind of items I get this time." Alex muttered as he went through the first item. "Deep Frozen Crystal¡­ What is this¡­" Alex tried to fetch the information from his memory before Lin Xingzhi explained it to him. "This is a powerful crystal that can boost one''s cultivation because it has the ice energy close to that of a Pure Ice Element. It has been sitting for a few thousand years in the deepest part of an Ice Region, absorbing a huge amount of ice energy to be like this." "That sounds like something that I can give to either Alicia or Letizia." Alex glanced. "I don''t think Alicia needs one." She paused for a moment. "Because she is utilizing all of her time to increase her cultivation, she has reached 9-Star Martial Saint, far above you and Firia. And this Deep Frozen Crystal is effective for those in Martial Saint. "Seeing how this can increase one''s cultivation, I am afraid Alicia''s cultivation will get unstable with the sudden increase. Hence, I personally think she shouldn''t get any help other than Spirit Crystal. Well, our inventory is also taking a huge hit because we help two people increase their cultivation¡­" Lin Xingzhi sighed. "It''s not that much though, since neither of them is a God Rank expert. It only took me fifty million Spirit Crystals to increase their cultivation." "Fifty¡­" Alex dropped his jaw, forgetting the fact about the Deep Frozen Crystal. "Fifty million Spirit Crystals?" "Well, it''s like forcing someone to increase their strength while making sure their cultivation is not ruined. Fifty million is a low price to pay. If I want to create two God Rank Experts, I will probably need a few hundred million, if not a billion. I will need to consider our treasury at that time." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "A billion?" Alex blinked his eyes a few times as he never expected it would cost that much to increase his level. Considering he also forced himself to cultivate with the help of Spirit Crystals¡­ It would mean he needed to cost the same number. However, Lin Xingzhi dropped another bomb. "Well, there is an expense for her to learn about Array Mastery from rank 1 Array to Divine Array, together with Firia¡­ I think we can safely double that number¡­" "I¡­" Alex scratched his head, wondering what to do. He thought he had gotten plenty of sum after getting forty million Spirit Crystals from the two influences, but it looked like a penny. At the same time, his group still had him, Firia, Sherry, Kyle, Stina, Rose, and Letizia. How many Spirit Crystals he needed for them to reach God Rank Expert¡­ Just the thought alone scared him. "Ah, I haven''t told you this." Lin Xingzhi almost forgot something. "Now that you have reached closer to the world''s limit, you will find yourself limited by the world''s rule. In other words, it will be hard for you to cultivate. "Hmm??? Let''s make an example with the knowledge from the Earth. You can think of cultivating is like a marathon for a car that needs years to complete. At first, your car will have the best engine and cultivate at a very fast speed. "A few years later or when you reach higher levels, you start slowing down because of some trouble in your engines or any other things because what the arena and you do. Now that you almost reached the finish line, your engine has grown rusty and old. "There is no way to increase its speed again unless you ask someone to drag you with their car. But since the difference in specs, it requires a huge amount of energy to carry you to the finish line." "So, that someone is Spirit Crystal?" Alex thought for a moment and let out a long sigh. "How much do you think I need, along with the others?" "I don''t know. Since you have been using many Spirit Crystals from the start and cultivate a portion of it with the natural energy, it might require only a few million Spirit Crystals. The same applied to the others since your cultivation base is not that different." Lin Xingzhi explained. "I see. In other words, I need more money." Alex glanced at her. "Yeah. Maybe you can sell a few Array Plates for it." "Or should I sell that pill?" Alex smirked. The pill he mentioned was none other than the pill that could fix one''s talent, so it should be worth a few million Spirit Crystal. Lin Xingzhi paused for a second and shook her head. "I don''t think so. There is another use for that, and I will tell you after you reach God Stage. After all, it''s strictly related to that." "I see¡­" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Then I can make Array Plates, especially Teleportation Array Plates, while Firia helps me with pills." "Oh, Teleportation Array Plates¡­ Although their values would eventually decrease because more and more Array Plates like that will come, especially with the addition of the Freedom Sect, I think it''s a good plan. Not only can you milk it when it''s hot, but you can also be seen as someone generous and scary at the same time." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "And there won''t be that much difference between the other influences and the Freedom Sect. In other words, I can lower the gap that has been created by Space Element," Alex added another reason. "Yeah. That is good. You should act before the Freedom Sect uses this plan." "No. I doubt they will use it. First, they will be seen as prey in the other influences'' eyes. After all, they were once cornered and escaped underwater in the past. If they use that as an excuse and somehow get a rein on them, the situation would probably go out of control. "That''s why you can make it a casual thing first." Lin Xingzhi grinned. "Of course¡­ Get some money while you are at it." Alex gave a thumb up while smirking. "I will probably do that for our main income. Anyway, let''s take a look at the next item first. And I will try to pay you back for the resources that Alicia and Firia used." Lin Xingzhi pouted. "I thought you were going to pay for it with your body¡­ Just kidding. I won''t mind if that were the case though. You will get three meals a day, a billion for your salary, and can do anything you want." "Oi¡­ Are you trying to get a pet, a CEO, or a husband?" Alex rolled his eyes. "The third one is the best." Lin Xingzhi stuck her tongue out before glancing over the items that Alex got earlier. "Next is rank 8 Monster Skin¡­ That''s good. We just talked about Array Plate, and the ingredient for Array Paper comes." Alex twitched his eyebrows after seeing how fast she changed the topic. He let out a sigh but with a smile. "It''s only one. I probably need more than that. As for the third item¡­ As expected, it won''t be perfect if there is no water in my Gacha¡­" Lin Xingzhi let out a hollow laugh. "It wasn''t my fault. I am just an operator." Alex shrugged and saw the next two items. "A glaive and a Spear Mastery¡­ I don''t have use for both of them, especially the glaive. As for the Spear Mastery¡­ I might be able to use them in the future." "Are you going to trade them? Now that I think about it, your Undying Fire Body is still not completed. With your usual way, you will absolutely make a trade. In exchange for that precious material, you will give them an unparalleled talent." "Well¡­ That is good but not a good idea. On one hand, he might feel suspicious later. On the other hand, it''s certainly worth the effort. If we choose carefully about that, they might become an ally for me in the future. Well, it''s hard to see someone''s heart." Alex nodded but sighed at the same time. "True enough. I think it''s better to give them to the spirits¡­ I mean the spirits in Eulja. There are many spirits that don''t have talent but work really hard with a good heart. It''s the most wondrous item coming from the system anyway, so let''s look at it in the future whether it''s possible or not." "Agreed." Alex nodded. "Then, there is this Berserker Blood¡­ I won''t infuse another race blood into my body, let alone a Berserker and a Rare Rank item. As for this Jade Blood Ganoderma, I think it is one of the ingredients for a pill¡­ Well, I will leave it to Firia later. Ice Jade Technique is also a low tier technique¡­ A Low Heaven Tier." "As for the rapier, you don''t use it. The most important is this Divine Monster Blood¡­ No, it''s more common to say it''s Divine Beast Blood. Well, it can be used for a Divine Array later." Lin Xingzhi added lightly. "Yeah." Alex nodded and sighed. "Well, it seems my luck sucks again today." "Don''t mind. You can get it next time." Lin Xingzhi chuckled. Alex didn''t answer her and looked at her for a few seconds, making her a bit confused. Suddenly, he grabbed her shoulder and patted it a few times. "It will take a bit more to reach God Rank, so wait for me." "Yes." Lin Xingzhi smiled before slightly curved her lips, asking for a kiss from him. Alex scratched his head but still kissed her. "See you later." "Yes." Alex then walked away, leaving the Gacha Palace. 800 Returning to Willow Continen Alex returned to his room and watched how the gate disappeared into thin air. He then scanned the whole room and noticed not a single of them there. ; "Now I am alone in this room¡­" Alex muttered to himself and sat on his bed, looking down as a certain matter flashed in his mind. ; "Killing huh¡­" ; "Who can I actually kill? It didn''t flash in my mind before, but when I took another look at all my previous battles. The soldiers from the Southern Kingdom, or the disciples from Joyful Union Sect, all of them only followed the order from the higher up¡­ ; "Should I spare them? But what if they become someone like John? It might not affect me soon, but how about a few hundred years later? A thousand years later? They might become strong enough to the point they are called a Peerless Genius. And at that time, they might come to bite me¡­" ; "However, if I kill them, they have their own families that are waiting for them back home. Some of them might also have a peerless talent¡­ Ugh, am I overthinking about this?" Alex laid on his back. "They are not like those people from the Zhou Kingdom or Black Devil Sect¡­ With how they killed to get stronger, I didn''t feel anything from them now. What should I do?" ; The system didn''t say anything. Instead, she sent a notification with only a single thing on it. ; [Gacha Sovereign (Title)] ; "¡­" Alex opened his mouth in surprise. Not only the notification startled him, but it also gave him inspiration. "I see¡­ I can see our relationship with my title. I didn''t use this thing for a long time because I thought it could only be used for one person at a time. ; "Now that I think about it, I can see this in the middle of the battle. If the strings classify them as enemies, it means they are harboring hatred and might come back for me. If the strings are white, it means they are scared of me and choose to become a stranger in the future. ; "Why didn''t I think about it earlier?" Alex gritted his teeth. "Although the effective range wasn''t that far and it took a long time to verify them, it could leave innocent people to see tomorrow¡­ I have said it to Rose¡­ Take care of the one in their back first, such as their leader, before taking the lesser problem. ; "If I took the life of the king of the Southern Kingdom in the past and killed the soldiers that had red strings¡­ I think I can spare a few thousand of them." ; Alex gradually closed his eyes as if something moved in his heart. It seemed the uneasiness from killing the two influences affected him deeply. He seemed to have decided it in his heart after taking a look at this. ; "Enemies¡­ I will keep killing in the future. Even if I need to kill millions, if not billions, I will kill. I will create a reputation where people will fear me, so my name alone can protect my family even if I am not there. However, in this action, I also won''t kill innocents¡­ Punishing them might be more suitable." Alex took a deep breath as the weight had been lifted from his heart. ; Alex couldn''t help but smile and closed his eyes to sleep. "I will relax for a few weeks first before doing anything." ; Alex finally fell asleep. ; The next day. ; Alex opened his eyes, realizing that his body had been moved. Someone even put a blanket on top of him. ; When he looked to the left, he found Sherry snuggled his arm. Looking at this, he suddenly checked the whole room but found no one else. ; "Did she sneak in? Still, I should be able to sense her¡­ Or was I that tired yesterday?" He fell into deep thought. If he could sleep like that so easily, it would be bad if he had a single sleep outside, but there was also another possibility. He just trusted the others to protect this place, so he wouldn''t need to worry about the outside world. ; Thinking about that, Alex smiled and slowly rose from his bed, leaving Sherry alone on the bed. He then headed outside, walking around to find Anya. ; Anya, on the other hand, stopped handling her job after sensing his presence and smiled. "It seems you have resolved the problem in your heart." ; "Yeah." Alex smiled. "Sorry for making you worry." ; "We are helping each other, and there is nothing wrong with that. Besides, I only gave you some advice instead of a solution." ; "Everything matters. It''s because of those, I can see the matter with a clear vision. In any case, thank you Anya." ; "In that case, I will accept the thanks. Well, I think you don''t need to say thanks to your family because it''s the natural thing to do. It makes us a bit distant instead." ; "Yeah. I can understand that¡­ Still, if it''s a big thing, I guess we still need to say it." Alex smiled. ; "Anyway, when are we setting off today?" ; Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Before that, where is everyone?" ; "Everyone has their own job. As for those who are going today¡­ Firia is in her room, busy with Alchemy. Anna is training Rose outside. I don''t know where Sherry is, but Letizia is preparing a few things to give to her mother." ; "Well, Sherry was with me in bed earlier. She seemed to sneak inside." ; "What?!" Anya opened her mouth in surprise. "She has surpassed me in terms of shamelessness¡­ To think she thinks about sneaking in when you are too tired. No, I will discipline her after this." ; "Ahaha¡­ It''s fine. Anyway, we are going to go around the world without directions and stop in a good place or something to relax. And I think I won''t bother visiting cities because troubles might ruin our good day, especially those who have d*ck but no brain." Alex shrugged. ; "Sure. We can go to the beaches, mountains, or other places. In fact, spending times like a picnic seemed to be more fun for me." Anya agreed with his plan. ; "That''s good." Alex nodded before turning back. "I am going to call Anna. Can you get Firia and Letizia here?" ; "Sure." Anya rose from her seat and stored her works inside the Inventory. ; After gathering the people here, Anna led them to the Teleportation Stone. ; Letizia was surprised at the sight of the stone. It was a floating stone that seemed to be powered by the blue lines on its surface. ; "You haven''t seen this one?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ; "I have heard about it, but I haven''t seen it." Letizia shook her head. ; "Anyway, there are five stones like this in this world. Each of them is located on every continent, so we can go to another continent with single teleportation. Just pour the Spirit Crystal and activate the rune¡­ How about you try it right now?" Alex stretched his hand, asking her to touch the stone. ; "Eh? I think Master should be the one¡­" Letizia looked down. She was afraid she would break this stone because she knew the worth of the stone itself. ; "It''s fine. Just use it." Alex shook his head, grabbed her hand, and placed it on the stone''s surface. "Channel your energy inside." ; Since she had touched it, she closed her eyes and channeled her Spiritual Energy according to Alex''s instruction. ; Suddenly, information came into her mind, telling her what to do. She opened her eyes in surprise. "This¡­" ; "The first information is about the cost of the transfer. It''s calculating the number of people in this room, together with the range to another stone. After that, you can choose which stone you want to go in your mind." Alex nodded. "How about you try it now?" ; Letizia hesitated for a second before nodding her head. She then poured Spirit Crystals to the floor as it started getting absorbed by the stone. The information then came to her mind as she selected the stone according to the information Anya gave. It was supposed to be the stone in the Willow Continent. ; "Good. Activate the stone now." Alex nodded after seeing the stone lit up. ; Letizia poured more energy into the stone before the light swallowed them, teleporting them to the Special Realm in the Willow Continent. ; When she opened her eyes, she was shocked after arriving in a strange area. ; "This is a forest?" ; "Yes. I made a Special Realm here to hide this stone. We are located not too far to Heavenly Sword Sect, but I don''t think I have a matter with them." Alex shrugged. At first, he wanted to meet Charya to inform her about Song Yu, but he decided to let her handle the matter herself. ; He wanted to see what kind of expression Charya made when she suddenly knew Song Yu had finally found a man. Unfortunately, he couldn''t see it. ; "I understand. I have memorized the map, so we should go to the east." Letizia nodded. ; "Yeah." Alex then walked outside the Special Realm with his token before turning around. "You can enter all my Special Realms with my token, so just get it from the Inventory. I won''t be able to accompany you on your return journey since I will still be spending my time with them." ; "Yes, Master. After I have finished my matter, I will go back to the Heavenly Continent, awaiting your next plan." Letizia nodded. ; "Then, let''s go." Alex snapped his finger, teleporting them using the array. Although he couldn''t pinpoint the location, Letizia immediately realized if they almost arrived, so they changed to flying. ; ¡­ ; One hour later. ; Alex stood in front after seeing the Rainbow Flower Sect on the horizon. Their place was close to the harbor that led to Nilis Continent, so Alex found the sea behind it. ; "It''s a good view from here. The town seems to be brimming with people as well." Alex squinted his eyes. ; "Now that I think about it, I think it''s that time already¡­" Letizia thought for a moment and muttered. ; "Time for what?" ; "The disciple enrollment. In any case, I can have someone guide us so as to not make a big drama over there since there should be one or two elders overseeing the process." Letizia nodded and felt relieved. She thought she needed to sneak in with her power just to go back home, and she was afraid no one recognized her because she had changed. ; Alex looked at her for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I will follow you from behind this time. Still, it''s been a few years since you last met with your mother¡­ Isn''t it nice to finally go home?" ; Letizia widened her eyes for a few seconds before she smiled from ear to ear. "Yes!" ; 801 Meeting the Family Letizia guided Alex carefully as not to draw any unnecessary attention, leading him toward the gate of the sect. Alex also asked the girls to wear a veil. As soon as they arrived there, Alex saw a curved gate with many flowers in different colors as decorations. It perfectly fit and looked elegant with the white pole. Next to the gate, a middle-aged woman was sitting in front of a long queue, writing down their names and other things. Letizia''s lips curved as soon as she saw her face. "Ah. It''s Elder Min." Alex didn''t say anything because he actually wasn''t curious about the latter''s identity. So, he said, "Let''s go then." "Yes. This will be easy since Elder Min often took care of me." She nodded with a smile, walking toward the elder. In the wannabe disciples'' perspective, what she did was a kind of cutting the line. One of them seemed to be a bit hateful when she saw this as she immediately stopped her by standing in front of her. "Ah¡­ Here we go again." Alex whispered to the girls, wondering if they wanted to see something interesting or not. However, he soon realized that the girls had been watching intensely. Letizia, on the other hand, only looked at the woman in front of her and ignored her, making her way to her elder. "Hey. You can''t cut the line!" She shouted while gnashing her teeth. "Even I, the daughter of Sunri, can''t even cut the line!" The shout indeed gathered a commotion as many people began to look at Letizia. However, they gasped upon the sight of her as if there was something pulling them in. Letizia had changed. Her temperament, her appearance, her maturity, everything. After getting so many treatments, she had changed to the point that not many could recognize her from the first glance. "¡­" Letizia looked at Alex, apologizing for this commotion. At that time, another shout imbued with Spiritual Energy shook the entire line. "Who dares to cause a ruckus in my Rainbow Flower Sect?!" The shout came from Elder Min, who was a top Martial Lord in this continent, so it surely gave a certain impact to everyone in the line as many of them stumbled and fell to the ground. "So strong!" "She is this strong with a shout alone." "So, this is the top Martial Lord." "Rainbow Flower Sect is so cool." "That girl who cut the line will get trouble no matter how beautiful she is." As one would expect, the elder immediately appeared right before them. She first looked at the girl who stopped someone and recognized her. "Greetings, Elder. I am Rina, the daughter of Sunri. I am just stopping someone who dares to cut the line." After getting the impact, the girl politely introduced herself to the elder. Suddenly, tears appeared on the corner of her eyes, streaming down on her cheek. The people were in utter shock, never expecting someone that strong to suddenly cry in front of them. "Is that you?" Letizia was surprised at first as she never expected Elder Min to recognize her, but it wasn''t important. She smiled at her and nodded. "It''s been a few years, Elder Min." And yet, their shock only intensified as the elder walked toward that person and fell on her knees, clasping her hands to greet her. "Young¡­ Young Mistress Letizia, I am glad that I see you again." Letizia gently smiled, lifted her finger to control the Spiritual Energy to help the elder up, and said. "Letizia has come home, Elder." "Young¡­ Young Miss¡­" Elder Min was overwhelmed with emotions. Her appearance, her voice, her temperament, nothing resembled Letizia in her memory, but the feeling of someone who took care of her since young was still accurate. There was no doubt the person in front of her was Letizia. She couldn''t help but smile, even with tears flowing out. "Please let me be the first to say this. Welcome home, Young Miss." "Yes, I am home." Letizia gently nodded. The scene was breathtaking¡­ For a different reason. The wannabe disciples began to realize who Letizia was. "She¡­ She is the daughter of the sect master?" "Didn''t she go to the Northern Continent to pursue cultivation?!" "No way, doesn''t this mean she came home with a strong strength? What is her strength?" "There are rumors about the Northern Continent having many Martial Kings and even the one above them, Martial Emperor¡­ What is her cultivation base now?" Everyone was stunned, especially the girl who stopped her. She just thought she could stop her as to get a good grace from the elder, and yet, it was nothing but a ticket to hell for her. Elder Min wiped the tears on her face, closed her eyes for a few seconds, and took out her sword, heading toward the girl who stopped Letizia. Seeing this, Letizia only shook her head. "I just want to go peacefully, so there is no need for bloodshed." Suddenly, Anna and Anya clicked their tongues as they expected that the elder would kill that girl. "Anna¡­ Shouldn''t she kill them? Not only did she stop Letizia, she even dared to shout at her." Anya asked with her bloodthirsty comment. "No, no. It''s just trash trying to act cool. There is nothing wrong with that." "Well, let''s throw her out of this city¡­ Oh wait, there is a sea nearby. We can throw them there." Anya grinned. "But we can''t throw trash to the sea, or else what happened to Alex''s planet will occur again in this world." Anna shook her head. "But humans are biodegradable according to the knowledge there." Anya smirked. "Ah! That is true. Alright, let''s throw her out." Anna nodded in agreement. "Gah!" A chop suddenly fell down upon their heads. Alex knew that these two were only joking, but he saw the girl had fallen on her butt with a pale face. Letizia chuckled when she heard the joke and grabbed the girl''s hand. The latter thought she was just saved before a strong force pulled her in and launched her to the air. Letizia threw her toward another direction, opposite the sea direction, with her Martial Saint Strength. As a result, Letizia completely launched her like a bullet. "Let''s settle it like that. Even if she somehow stops, she will have some broken bones due to the wind pressure. And she won''t be able to participate in the test anyway since I throw her far away. She can''t go back here for a short period of time." "As¡­ As expected of Young Miss¡­ Even the sect master doesn''t have a power like that despite being a Martial King. Does this mean Young Miss has reached the Martial Emperor Stage?" Letizia shook her head. "What?!" Elder Min dropped her jaw, not believing she had this kind of strength with Martial King''s cultivation¡­ Unless she wasn''t¡­ "!!!" It was at this time, she realized and looked at Letizia with a shocked expression. "Young Miss. You have reached the stage higher than the Martial Emperor, a Martial Monarch?" Letizia smiled and shook her head again, but this time, she added. "One level higher." "!!!" Her legs went limp as she fell on her butt, pointing her finger at Letizia and exclaiming. "Mar¡­ Martial Saint? The one that is rumored to be the peak cultivators in this world?" "Everything thanks to Master. Not only did he save me from the brink of death, she even gave me this power." "Master?" Elder Min almost fell unconscious before she found something wrong. "But why did you say Master as in Master and Servant instead of Master and Disciple?" "Didn''t Elder Min see it in the past?" "Wait. What?!" The memory of Nelson appeared and threatened Letizia to make a full loyalty contract flashed in her mind before her vision turned to a young man not far behind her. "He¡­ He¡­" "Yes. That is my Master, Alexander Sirius. If not because of him, I might have died without being able to do anything like coming home. Well, I think we have gathered too much attention here, so I want to go back and meet my mother. Can I trouble you to guide me?" "But with young miss''s strength, you won''t have the problem to go there. And Sect Master will surely recognize you." "But I need to deal with many people first before I can meet my mother. I just want to have a peaceful return here." Letizia shook her head. "I¡­ I understand. I will have Elder Ni to take over this place as well." Elder Min tried to run or even fly with her staggering body. She hadn''t recovered from the shock that Letizia brought but still forced her to fly as quickly as possible. Not long after, Elder Min had arrived at the testing site and asked the elder to take over her position. She also told the news about Letizia, and the elder immediately overjoyed and took over the position. At that time, Letizia and the others appeared right behind Elder Min, who was about to fly back to the entrance site. "We are here. Let''s go inside first." Letizia smiled. "Ye-yes." Elder Min immediately guided them inside. Now that she had a calmer mind, she realized that for Letizia to have accepted her status like that and even showed it to the people around, Alex must be one of a kind. It was no doubt that Alex had reached a higher state than her, especially with the kind of progress he showed in the early days. Still, to think that Rainbow Flower Sect would have a Martial Saint, Elder Min couldn''t stop smiling. She led the Letizia toward the main building where her mother often held a meeting. Many disciples greeted Elder Min along the way but not recognized Letizia. However, the latter didn''t care. Whether she would be exposed or not, she only hoped that it would happen after Alex left the Rainbow Flower Sect so as to not bother him. ¡­ Meanwhile, in the meeting room, Letizia''s mother, Cecilia, sighed while reading the paper in her hand. "Is there any astounding disciple this time around?" She asked. "We hope there is one. The hole of Young Miss Letizia left is too big for us to cover." The elder shook her head. "Yeah¡­ At first, some people think they can''t touch us because Letizia is going to the Northern Continent. However, some travelers don''t know any Letizia. There is even a rumor of her death without getting a name for herself." "That''s right. Pure Ice Element is very tempting but also very dangerous." "Are you implying that my daughter is dead?" Cecilia narrowed her eyes and released her killing intent. "No¡­" The elders started panicking. Cecilia was still their Martial King after all, so no one dared to say something against her. "Besides, that person brought her there¡­ So, there should be nothing wrong." She remembered the Martial King that brought Letizia there. That was why she believed that Letizia was still fighting to increase her cultivation. However, the door was suddenly pushed open by Elder Min. "Sect Master! Letizia¡­ Letizia is¡­" Elder Min had a complex emotion. Although it was all related to happiness, she was too excited to the point she stuttered. This created a misunderstanding in Cecilia''s mind. Emptiness and pain struck her heart as if the world just got destroyed. She stood up as tears came out of her eyes. Looking at this misunderstanding, Letizia decided to appear without waiting for Elder Min to give her the news about her coming. Cecilia saw a woman appear. Her eyes and hair were slightly different due to her cultivation, and her aura looked gentle and calm. However, the most important thing was the fact there was a sudden familiar feeling creeping inside her heart as she realized. "You¡­ You¡­" Letizia smiled. "It''s been a few years, Mother." "Letizia!" 802 Mother and Daughter Cecilia leaped toward Letizia, only stopping right in front of her before she hugged her. "You¡­ You have changed so much¡­ You must have experienced so many things¡­ It has been hard for you, my child." Cecilia hugged her tightly as she burst out all the emotions in her heart. "I am sorry for worrying you, Mother." Letizia gently hugged her back. "It''s great that you are home now." "Yes. Though I am afraid I won''t be able to be here for long." Letizia closed her eyes. "What?!" Cecilia pushed her back a bit, and her hands moved to her shoulders as if she just heard it wrong. "What do you mean?" "I am here to settle some businesses for my Rainbow Flower Sect before I need to go to continue my mission. Besides, I am not coming here alone. Master also wants to meet you." Letizia glanced outside, where not a single person to be found. Alex gradually made his appearance with a smile. "It has been a long time since the last time we met face to face." "You¡­ You are Alexander Sirius." Not only Cecilia, but the other elders instantly recognized Alex. His name and figure would forever be etched in their memory because he was the hero of the Willow Continent. However, only a few elders that followed Letizia knew about her being Alex''s slave. They didn''t tell anyone about that, so one of the elders suddenly stood up. "Master? Why are you calling him as if you are his slave?" "Because I am and I have been even before the great war started." Letizia smiled. There was an arrogance behind that smile of her as if she took pride in being someone''s slave. And obviously, a few elders couldn''t endure that. Even though they were indebted to him, this kind of humiliation was something they couldn''t accept. Besides, Letizia should have been accepted by an influence in the Northern Continent as well, so they obviously couldn''t swallow such an insult. "You Bastard!" "How dare you to¡ª" 803 Holiday Under the blazing sun that shone upon the white sand, Alex leaned his back on a small chair that he had altered a bit to look like a beach chair in a sense. The front¡­ As expected, it was certainly not like something in his mind. The journey was very different than he had expected before. Of course, everything came from the honeymoon he had with Alicia and Firia. They had fun back there, going around and enjoying everything that the place could offer. As for this one¡­ They still enjoyed what the place could offer, but everything turned into something ridiculous. In the first week, they were enjoying their time on the mountain near Heavenly Sword Sect, doing hiking and camping things. Anna and Anya wanted to recreate the camping in Alex''s mind. At first, they really went like normal humans, climbing the mountain with their own feet and sought the path to climb the mountain. The group enjoyed such a thing. Although there were some monsters along the way, they could beat them in an instant. Everything started going in a different direction when they arrived at the mountain''s top. First, Alex forbade them to use things from Inventory because he wanted to keep it as fun as possible. Everyone agreed to it, but the moment he wanted to build a tent, he realized that he couldn''t make one. At least a good one for everyone to stay. At the same time, none of the girls also could make such a thing. Firia obviously had no prior knowledge. They thought they could just cut a few trees and made a wooden house, but as expected, it turned into a weird shack like their base on the Northern Continent. Anna and Anya said they were the one managing the construction, not the constructor themselves, so they finally resigned themselves by having a pre-constructed wooden house as their tent. Of course, it was the work of the spirits, not themselves. Still, Alex didn''t care about that and continued having fun with the girls and explored the mountain. It might be the first experience for them to see around the mountain like a normal human, so it truly became a wonderful experience. At the very least, this activity was very successful, if Alex needed to say. Only one thing that bothered his mind. It was the size of the mountain. The mountain was so tall to the point that the snow covered half of its body. Yes, you heard it right. The mountain was that tall. And an accident happened where their activity caused an avalanche. And as expected, because of the huge amount of snow actually above them since they stayed on the body where it wasn''t that cold, the avalanche was extraordinary. Alex decided to burn it with his flame, but due to the wide range area of the snow, he needed to stop all of it, only to find that the snow above them started melting. The water then flooded their house and somehow destroyed their fun. There was a legend around saying that a Water God dwelled on that lake. When Alex and the others visited there, as expected, they met with the Water God. They thought they could have a peaceful time here after taming the Water God. Alex should have no problem in defeating it anyway, but when he actually found out that the Water God was actually an eel, Anna and Anya suddenly jumped toward the eel after defeating it. Due to the slippery skin, they somehow made it into a living slide that could change its shape however they liked it. Luckily, the eel seemed to have intelligence as it worked perfectly like how they hoped for. Still, the picture in Alex''s mind was shattered once again. He thought he would have a good time fishing or hovering around the water with a boat. But they somehow ended up doing all of it with the help of the eel. This monster reminded him of those monsters that he met inside the cliff a few years ago. They were very obedient and easy to communicate with. Nonetheless, despite being disappointed after failing to have the experiences in his mind, he was quite satisfied with it because everyone had fun. Even Alex did some sliding with the eel that somehow turned into a slippery roller coaster. After one week, Alex decided to give the eel three Spirit Crystals that were supposed to be equal to three million Spirit Stones. The eel had been entertaining them for a week anyway, so he gave that crystal to let the eel gain a few stars. It shouldn''t disrupt the balance since the eel was only a 1-Star Martial King. And finally, they arrived at the last place, the beach. They wanted to play with the sand, like making a huge sandcastle or bury someone in the sand with only the head stuck out. Unfortunately, they got frustrated before long and decided to use their Spiritual Energy to create a castle or dig a hole. Alex twitched his eyebrows, wondering what he did wrong. They thought about exploring limestone caves around the area. They found some caves, but it wasn''t made of limestone. Alex could understand that and decided to go along with it. It was at this time he got another shock. The first cave they went in had a powerful beast that protected some treasures from the human it killed. Alex killed it and took the treasures even if it wasn''t his intention. In the end, it became treasure hunting. The last cave was the most horrendous. They met a small bandit group that claimed themselves to be a pirate. They were ogling the beauty of the girls, and Alex decided to destroy them. In the end, they got more treasures with all things that the pirates had stolen in the past. Of course, it wasn''t like he was someone with a good will, so he didn''t bother to spread the wealth around the area even though he knew they must have been robbed by this group. After that, he decided to stay away from the treasure hunt¡­ Ahem, exploring the caves and asking the girls just to enjoy the beach. Another shock came when they decided to play surfing. Anna and Anya explained the concept to them, and the girls liked the concept. They decided to make a surfing board that they personalized themselves. The first time was a success. With a good balance from the training of their cultivation, they handled the surfing board so well as if they were a pro. However, things turned ridiculous at this point. Sherry was the first one that turned this into a sport battle. Because she didn''t want her fur to get wet after coming inside the water, she sped up the surfing speed before the wave swallowed her. Of course, the increase of the speed was caused by her Pure Fire. In other words, she simply used the fire to push her forward. And somehow, she managed to continue along the way without the wave and enjoyed it as it is. In fact, it looked like water skiing but without a boat pulling you. Sherry even went against the wave that somehow launched her to the sky. Still, no matter how Alex complained about having something abnormal, he certainly enjoyed it because Sherry asked him to try it himself. The other girls also got pretty pumped up and competed against him. Anna and Anya couldn''t use Fire Element, but they got by with their Spiritual Energy. Finally, on the last day of their trip, he decided to take a break by enjoying himself on the beach chair. He watched the girls from this place under a big umbrella. Sherry looked very cute when she put on her white bikini. It suited her well, especially with her fox ears and tail. Anna and Anya seemed to have a matching pair. One side had a white color, and the other side had black for each piece. As for Firia, she had a modest red bikini. It looked like she was an innocent angel, but with that seductive body of her, it turned into a deadly weapon. Still, Alex closed his eyes and smiled. "These three weeks were fun." [Yes. It was fun¡­] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "I know that you can see what I see, but I think it''s better to not see something like this." [I apologize for that. I wasn''t planning to comment at first, but there is something I want to give you. Look at the box that I put on the Inventory.] "Huh? A box? But aren''t you supposed to have no direct contact with the Inventory?" [No need to thank me. I added Alicia to the Spirit Nest a few days ago.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "But isn''t she¡­" [Say no more. Just open the box. We worked hard for this.] Alex couldn''t understand her and proceeded to the Inventory, finding the box in her mouth. He took it out and opened it and found pictures of two people. "This¡­" Alex grabbed the first picture. It was a picture of two girls. The first one had light blue hair, wearing a blue bikini with white stripes pattern. She smiled brightly while making a peace sign. The second one was a brown-haired woman. Unlike the first girl, she wore a one-piece white dress that was perfect for a summer dress. She gently held an umbrella for both of them, making the same peace sign with her other hand. "This¡­ This picture is Alicia and you." Alex took a glimpse of the other pictures inside the box and found that these two also took a photo that matched every scene they had for the past three weeks. [Fufu¡­ We truly worked hard for it. How is it? Do you like it?] Alex scratched his head, embarrassed. If he thought it this way, it was a bit unfair since he couldn''t give the same experience for the two. Never he expected them to have it this way. The best answer he could give her¡­ No, them, was the one coming from the bottom of his heart. Alex said with a smile. "Yes, I love them." [Great! I will not say anything later then.] Alex couldn''t stop smiling before the girls found him giggling while looking at something. They suddenly appeared right beside Alex and got surprised by the pictures. Although the technology didn''t really match with cultivation, especially those that polluted the air, some items were very useful. Cameras were one of them. The girls decided to drag Alex into the water after finding these pictures, so he could enjoy the last day of their trip to the fullest. And this was the mark where the vacation was finally over. Alex and the girls then returned to the base. 804 Another Problem Just After The Holiday In the Divine Kingdom, a certain rumor spread among the citizens. "Hey, do you know the Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain have been extinguished from this world?" "What? Seriously?" "Of course. There is no need for me to lie to you. I have heard it from the palace. You know that I work there, right? The queen herself has declared that everyone will be executed if they are making trouble to him." "That much?" "No. I think the queen didn''t exaggerate it even a little bit. In fact, I think she is still hiding a few reports." "What?" "Do you know that every single Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain that participates and stays in their influence get killed without mercy? And now our queen also becomes someone that will slay us if we invite danger to the kingdom just because of him¡­ It''s as if he is coming from Heaven, doing everything that somehow influences the others to kill for him." "Indeed. From what I understood, I think he is someone like a Divine Being that was rumored to live in the past. They were strong that no one dared to go against them. Seeing how he has slain all of them, I think no one in this world can''t be slain by his weapons." "Yeah. Even Saints are no match against him, I wonder which one is his next target?" "There is no doubt he will be going everywhere and killing some Gods and Goddesses next." "True enough. He is truly a slayer so scary to the point our queen is afraid." "A slayer huh¡­ Since his next goal is to kill Divine Beings, won''t he become a Divine Slayer?" "That is a good analogy." Their talk happened in a tavern, so many people also somehow eavesdropped. Before long, the rumor reached all ears in the Kingdom. The same happened to the other influences. They were talking about Alex''s scariness. Many of them called Alex as Harbinger of Death because wherever he went, death followed right behind him. Every influence that picked a fight against him would only turn to dust. In another place, people were calling him a Battle Emperor. He was a peerless genius in a Martial Way, and his plan worked very effectively. Not only that, he was known for being good in Alchemy and Array as well. Not only that the Array could trap the enemy and attack them at the same time, but his pills could also help him in the battle. At the same time, knowing his other identity as the leader of the Spirit Nest, it became even more glorious. He looked like an emperor who never lost a war. These three titles described him best. Little did they know that there was death lingering in the air that they would soon face. Even though it had yet to reach them, the door to the afterlife had been opened wide. "To think there is something like this¡­ What exactly just happened for us to experience something like this just after settling down." Licht gritted his teeth. "I don''t know as well. I have seen the gate, but it is more complicated than I think. I don''t think I can stop the gate even with a Spatial Gate. There is a Space Disturbance around the area that prevents us from using our Spatial Gate. In other words, we can''t seal the portal by using our Space Element." Aileen beside him shook her head with regret. "But we won''t be able to hold on for long at this rate. And we don''t know how many monsters will come from that gate¡­" Licht furrowed his eyebrows. "How about asking for help?" "Help? We won''t get any standing if we ask help when we just settled down here." "No. I am talking about asking help from that person¡­" Aileen glanced at him. "What?!" Licht was startled, but his expression turned serious in a sudden before he looked at Aileen with a grim expression. ¡­ They were not the only ones troubled. As soon as he returned, Alex was hit by a gloomy atmosphere. The spirits seemed to have gathered in their base, and Nelson had returned to the base. Even a fool would know that something happened and it was something big. Anya furrowed her eyebrows and asked. "What happened?" Nelson gave her a paper for her to read. Anya grabbed it with a serious expression and sensed Alex coming closer to read it together. Their expression turned grim when they arrived at the important part. "Are you serious?" Alex opened his mouth in surprise. "Yes. Because it was very close to the center of this continent, Freedom Sect was the one to be affected first." Nelson nodded. "How about the other influences?" "They are still unaware of this matter. And the Freedom Sect won''t be able to hold them for long. I believe they are going to inform the other influences, including us at this point." Alex thought for a moment and asked Anya. "What do you think?" "This is a matter that might destroy this world." "Thought so¡­" Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. "Master. What happened?" Sherry asked with a worried expression. "There is a portal that leads to another world. It seemed my previous self had sealed it in the past, but something went wrong with the portal. It is open again. Although the world''s barrier is still intact, there are still many 10-Star Martial Saint Monsters that will come out of the portal." Alex explained. "Indeed. If there are that many, we will be screwed." Anya nodded in agreement. "The location¡­ Is it in the Ancient Ruin?" "The portal is above the Ancient Ruin, but I think the Ancient Battlefield below them shouldn''t be affected yet. Still, they are the ones who maintained the seal, so I believe they also try to do something about this." Nelson nodded in agreement. "What I am going to do now¡­" Alex thought for a moment and looked at Tasha. "Seeing things turn to be like this, we might need to hold a meeting with all influences to handle this matter. Within that time, I am going to have a talk with those Gods and Goddesses in the Ancient Battlefield." "But the other influences are still wary against each other. How should we persuade them?" Anya narrowed her eyes. "We will start with the Blackwade Clan first. I will have the help of Great Elder Aileen to teleport Song Hun and Song Ping to the Ancient Ruin to let them see what happened with their own eyes. If it''s them, they should believe it and help us." "I see." Anya nodded and thought. "Then we go to the Drunken Pavilion after that." "No." Alex shook his head. "We will convince either Ancient Blue Family or Phantasm Sect first." Alex shook his head. "They? Why?" "It''s simple. Elder Manness is not someone who will be easily convinced. Rather than wasting so much time with him, I need to go to the easier targets first. We have some dealings with the Ancient Blue Family. Seeing how this accident will threaten the entire world, I am sure they are going to accept it. "If Rio and Davi are worth their reputation, they will surely not let the monsters go rampage. Not for the whole world, but for their family, thus my reasoning. "The same applies to the Phantasm Sect. They are a neutral influence, and I know it. But this war is not against another influence in this world. Instead, we are fighting monsters from another world. They should accept this offer. "After that, I will go to the Divine Kingdom. Their Elizabeth is a smart one, so I believe she can understand the threats that these monsters bring. The moment a few of us collapse, the world will be ruined, including her kingdom. "As someone who wants to make her Divine Kingdom be the best unless she is insane to think that she will use these monsters to erase all influences and make her Kingdom stay, she should accept this offer. "Of course, as the biggest piece to convince them, I am going to have Freedom Sect cooperate with me by lending their Great Elder Aileen." Anya thought for a moment and nodded. "It seems we can only do this. Besides, we don''t know how to close the portal." "That''s why I am going to the Ancient Battlefield. I have sneaked inside there anyway, so I am glad I did that in the past." Alex smiled before looking at Nelson. "Why do you think the portal is opened now?" "I don''t know yet. But I think they sense something weird and force the portal open. As for the details, I am afraid I don''t know." He shook his head. Alex looked down and said, "I understand. Go to the Freedom Sect to talk about this. Have them stalled the monsters to their best ability. In return, I will be the one that convinces the other leaders to bring their force to help. "Within that time, I will sneak inside the Ancient Battlefield to know the cause. And after that, I will meet the other leaders and convince them to participate in this matter. Hopefully, this thing can be repaired." "Then, what is your mission for us?" Anya asked. "Firia will do the negotiations for now. Since most of their people, especially their younger generations, have known Firia face to face, I think she will have the most convincing power beside me. Leoz, Jeanne, and Artur will accompany her as a bodyguard. "Anna will manage our whole schedule while Anya will take care of the detail in each plan. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle will follow me to the Ancient Battlefield for extra protection. Nelson will send all the invitation letters about us coming to negotiate after informing the Freedom Sect. "The rest of the spirits will stand by in this base with Rose. Make sure that you know everything about the situation and other things before we create a more concrete plan." Alex finished explaining his plan. "Understood." They nodded. "That''s right. We need approximately one or two weeks to convince other influences. If the Freedom Sect can''t withstand that long, it will be problematic for us. If needed, those who standby here can help them." "Yes." "Then, our plan will start now." Alex nodded. Without saying anything, they proceeded with their own job. Alex thought for a moment and realized there wasn''t anyone that transported Nelson. "I think I will bring you to the Freedom Sect with me and have a small talk with Licht myself." Alex glanced at Nelson. "Yes. Thank you, Master." Alex nodded. Sherry, Stina, and Kyle went inside his body, residing in his flame. Seeing this, Alex snapped his finger, creating a Teleportation Array before the two disappeared. A few minutes later, they arrived within the Freedom Sect, looking at those busy disciples. Alex grabbed one of them. 805 Coming Back to the Ancient Battlefield "I will need Great Elder Aileen if I want to unite the other influences. Normally, people won''t unite that easily, and an alliance is also not something that extraordinary because they pursue benefit. However, this time is different. There is an easy way to unite people, which is to have a common enemy," Alex stated while staring at Licht''s eyes. "So, you want her to teleport the other influences here so they can witness themselves what happened here?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Bullsh*t. If that were the case, the first thing they will do is to suspect us. Fire God Clan caused no trouble in the past, and when we just occupied this area, this happened." Licht glared at him. Alex remained calm. He waved his hand to tell him it wasn''t the case. "I will handle that problem. However, I need your full cooperation. In any case, I won''t be able to cultivate peacefully if they are roaming the world." "Kh!" "Besides, you have been underwater for too long. I bet you don''t know where the monsters come from¡­ Anyway, the other influences also have some clues if they see this, so they will absolutely agree." "Master¡­ Let me handle this. You can proceed in your mission." Nelson stopped him. Alex was in a hurry, so he thought the matter of handling Licht could be covered by him. Alex took another glimpse of Licht''s and Aileen''s expressions before nodding his head to Nelson. "Alright. I will leave it to you." Nelson nodded, appearing right between him and Licht to stop the latter from approaching Alex. Seeing how desperate he was, he should want to grab Alex to talk, but there was another mission that was far more important. Alex immediately used his Teleportation Array to go to the Ancient Ruin. "What is that?" However, the moment he teleported, he found a huge black portal in which the monsters were coming. "From my prediction, these monsters are not from this world. Do you know anything about this portal, System?" [There are only two things that I am certain.] "And that is?" [First, the monsters are not from this world. Second, it''s the same as those monsters that we met in the Ancient Battlefield.] "As expected, to understand this issue more, I need to make a trip to that tower and meet the Gods and Goddesses there," Alex muttered to himself. [Yes.] "Alright. Although I have covered the hole, I should have no problem entering that again. It will probably take a few minutes to open it again. The problem is the monsters. Sherry, Kyle, Stina, I will be counting on you." "Yes." The trio whispered inside him in unison. "I can only risk it huh¡­" Alex clicked his tongue. He saw a few monsters coming toward him, but in the corner of his eyes, he found the Ancient Ruin along with the last hole he used. Alex gulped down and took out his sword while putting his spear not on his hand but hanging it on his back. He would surely need his hand to alter the array, so it wasn''t a problem. "Let''s go." Alex cut a few monsters along the way where the trio controlled their own flames to fight against these monsters, helping Alex from inside his body. Alex kept advancing toward the Ancient Ruin, and as expected, the portal was right above the sky. Luckily, the previous spot was a bit farther from the ruin. "Still¡­ I never expect it is still giving this much influence." Alex gritted his teeth, feeling the Space Energy around the area. It was too concentrated for him to the point it was hard to control his own Space Element. Besides, he saw numerous monsters coming his way as if they knew his position. Firebirds and Fire Swords began to appear around him before the trio controlled it to shoot those monsters. *Boom Boom Boom!* The explosions scattered around the area, creating a few layers of smoke to mask Alex''s presence and cover their visions. Alex made sure to observe their situation with his Spirit Eyes. He placed his hand on the ground, sensing the barrier with his Spiritual Energy. "This is it. I am going to start now. Protect me." The flame rose as they responded to him with actions instead of words. Seeing this, Alex smiled, feeling assured. However, when he tried to infuse his Spiritual Energy and Space Element to alter the Special Realm underneath the ground, the Space Element got brushed by this overbearing pressure coming from the portal. It swept the Space Element like a wind. "Kh!" Alex punched the ground when he noticed that he lost too much Space Energy on the first try. "This is really going to take a while." Sherry suddenly came out of his body while glaring at the incoming monsters. "Master¡­ You can take as long as you need. I will be protecting you no matter what." After saying those words, Sherry turned into her original form and charged toward the enemies. "Sherry¡­" Alex widened his eyes, not expecting Sherry to be this decisive. Stina and Kyle also appeared beside him. "Master. We are going to help Sherry. I don''t think we need to summon the others because from what we have seen, none of the monsters is high level yet. Most are Martial Monarchs. So, please take as long as you need." Alex clenched his fist before nodding with a solemn expression. "I am counting on you." "Yes." Looking at their back, Alex knew that he needed to solve it as soon as possible. However, he also needed to seal it back as soon as he entered. He took a deep breath and channeled his Spiritual Energy again. This time, he tried to preserve as much as possible but to no avail. Not a single Space Element left when the Spiritual Energy arrived at the array surface. The Special Realm contained so much Space Energy to even block the Space Disturbance, so there was no way he could alter the array without his Space Energy. That was why he was stuck, wondering how to deal with this. Suddenly, his Spiritual Weapons released their Spiritual Energy, trying to tell him that they had a solution. Alex furrowed his eyebrows before he channeled his Spiritual Energy to his Spiritual Weapons. Suddenly, there was another suction force from them before an image flashed in his mind. "Ah¡­ I see." Alex muttered to himself before channeling even more Spiritual Energy to his weapons. The Spiritual Energy didn''t form a shield. Instead, it soared to the sky and turned into a dragon. It was then duplicated since the Spear also did the same. "Swallowing Heaven." "Fire Enhancement." Alex used his Fire Authority to imbue these dragons with his Pure Fire. The two dragons then circled around him to use their body to block the Space Disturbance. Not only that, the dragons opened their mouth wide, sucking the Space Element from the surroundings. "My Fire can burn anything at this point¡­ But I have forgotten that fact. It seems these two notice that I can use my flame to burn something that doesn''t even have a form. It''s not a Pure Space Element, so it can be burned." Alex squinted his eyes, seeing the phenomenon. "Hmm?" Alex suddenly noticed the difference. "The Space Energy around here suddenly gets thinner. With a little bit more, I should be able to start working." At this time, Alex suddenly had an idea and shouted. "Sherry, Kyle, Stina. Return to my body right now!" The trio heard the shout and glanced back. Exchanging looks with each other, they nodded and pulled back while slowing down the monsters. After a few more seconds, Alex then channeled his Spiritual Energy imbued by his Space Element. "Kh!" Even though it was already lowered by a huge degree, he still had a hard time controlling his Space Element. However, he couldn''t waste this precious chance that the two weapons gave him. He persisted step by step, creating and fixing a few symbols so he could enter. And finally, after a long five minutes, Alex made a hole and immediately jumped in. Yet, he didn''t let himself fall down. Instead, he activated his Spiritual Energy to float right below the array. "Some monsters might also use this hole to sneak in. I need a few minutes to seal the entrance." "Then, that is easy." Sherry made her appearance again. But this time, she only used her Beast Transformation to fight. Alex proceeded to seal the entrance. The process had the same difficulty as the previous one due to the Space Energy that leaked from the hole. Alex only gritted his teeth and finished his job after a few minutes. "Fu¡­" He wiped the sweat on his forehead, never expecting it would be this hard to enter this place. "We are going to that pillar again, enter the tower." Alex nodded and created a Teleportation Array. Not long after, he arrived not far from the tower, but he sensed something was wrong. "What is this?" Alex squinted his eyes. "The tower is releasing a massive amount of energy. This shouldn''t happen because the portal from the inside is not opened yet." Not long after, he found many people around the area that seemed to be investigating the cause. Alex paid no heed and flew toward the pillar. He looked at the people around the area before touching the tower while floating in the air. "Hey, who are you?!" A person flew toward him. He was a middle-aged man with 5-Star Martial Saint strength. Alex looked at this brown-haired man and asked. "Are you in charge here?" "Who are you?!" He became even more vigilant when Alex asked that question. Alex released his Spiritual Energy to pressure this man. "I need to know if you are in charge here first." The brown-haired man gulped down, never expecting there was a young man with a cultivation base stronger than him. "If you are still hindering me, I shall cause a ruckus here," Alex warned him. The brown-haired man gritted his teeth and shook his head. "I am not." "Then do you know anything about this tower? Did something happen to this one before?" "I can''t say anything regarding that because I don''t have any permission to say it. Even if you kill me, I won''t answer." "Then get the person in charge here. The Tower is leaking all over, so it will be dangerous soon." "Who are you to even req¡ª" Before he finished his words, a young man with a cultivation base of 2-Star Martial Saint appeared. "There is no need. I am here. Why would a person stronger than him visit this area yourself?" "You are the one in charge?" "I am the second prince of Evvy Kingdom. I have been tasked to investigate what happened to this tower. There are a few representatives from other kingdoms as well, but they are on the other side of this tower." "I need to know what is happening here and try to solve it. I am afraid the world will turn into chaos if I don''t fix this." Alex said, looking at this blonde-man. "I see¡­" He closed his eyes for a few seconds. "The world huh¡­ By any chance, are you not from here?" Alex paused before nodding. "I see. There was once a person that was supposed to be a challenger¡­ But never made his appearance. Can I safely assume it is you?" It would be troublesome to explain it, so he decided to nod. He was already half right anyway. "Yes." Before he said any more words, the tower reacted and summoned a few words right in front of them. ''We are occupied right here. Please make a hole or search for a place to meet us. We need your power at the moment.'' It was at this moment, the prince suddenly dropped his jaw. He was fixated by the words before gulping down. "Can¡­ Can I call the other representatives here too?" 806 Meeting Shakdi Again "I need to know what happened here first." Alex looked at them without an expression. "Let me explain it to you." The first prince that he met stepped out. "We also didn''t know how it happened. Firstly, this began only a few days ago. As the obligation from our kingdom, each heir should stand by at the border to gain experience. "A few days ago, the pillar suddenly lit up in purple. I saw it with my own eyes. And a powerful shock wave shook the surroundings." Alex thought for a moment. "That shock wave¡­ It might be due to the leaking Spiritual Energy." "Yes. That was what we expected too. Although we are still in the middle of the investigation, we have ascertained that the shock wave came from that. However, we don''t know why this phenomenon would happen." "Do you perhaps know something about it? I have heard that someone appeared the first and made his appearance, but I never saw him again even until the portal to the outside world closed. If my assumption is correct, then you must have visited somewhere beyond that place¡­ That should also be the reason why the record about the Gods and Goddesses there didn''t match up." Alex looked at the princess, who seemed to question him. He squinted his eyes before shaking his head. "It''s true that I know more than you know. However, if I need to explain it to you, I need a long time to do that. That''s why I am planning to enter the pillar first before talking about that. Because there might be something, I don''t know about this phenomenon." The princes and the princess stared at him for a few seconds. As much as they didn''t like how things turned out, they didn''t dare to act recklessly, considering Alex was a 6-Star Martial Saint. "Can I request for you to bring me in?" The princess asked. "!!!" The princes looked at her, never expecting her to make the first move. When they were about to request the same thing, Alex stopped them with his hand before looking at the pillar. "What do you want me to do?" The tower reacted again, sending a few words. "Please bring them in. But only the representatives. If that is not much to ask¡­" "!!!" They got another shock when they saw the response seemed to be polite. If the one talking to him was a God or a Goddess, they shouldn''t talk this way because no matter how powerful Alex''s current strength is, they were still God Rank Experts. This way of talk made them think Alex must come from an extraordinary background. Somehow, they felt relieved since they didn''t make any ridiculous demands. As the words stated, other than these four, none of them should accompany him. "Second Prince¡­" The previous 5-Star Martial Saint looked at his prince with a worried expression. "This might be a trap." "Enough. I have decided to enter. There is something bothering me here, so if I can solve it as quickly as possible, it will not only solve my uneasiness, but it will also quell the unrest within our territories. Luckily, the citizens have yet to know it, so I am going to solve it even if it means going inside something uncertain." The second prince shook his head. "Still¡­" "Are you still putting me, the second prince, in your eyes? If yes, stand down now." "I¡­ I understand¡­" "I am sorry for the ruckus." The second prince politely clasped his hand to Alex. "Please let me follow you inside." The others also did the same. Seeing this, Alex decided to go inside with four of them. He looked at the tower with his Spirit Eyes. ''Now that the tower is leaking its Spiritual Energy, I can see it better than the previous time. This pillar is only for trapping the monsters... If I want to get teleported to the trial phase, I need to find the array which should be in the place where the previous gate is.'' Alex thought before looking at the four people. "Follow me." Alex flew toward the previous door he entered and looked around to see the Teleportation Array. He went closer when he found the lead and arrived at a certain spot. He channeled his Spiritual Energy inside, making a small array right beneath his feet. "Come in." The princes and princess exchanged looks and gulped down. Although they were prepared, they were still scared to see what happened inside. Whether it would be a trap or something from Alex, they wouldn''t know. Even so, the moment the group came inside, they immediately found the same tunnel like last time. Or at least, some of them had experienced this due to becoming the challengers'' aids before. "I will not go back to wait for you, so make sure you can keep up with me." Alex didn''t look at them and started running. They didn''t have time to think about it after seeing Alex took off like that. Their instinct immediately moved their body to chase after Alex. Alex didn''t say anything through the entire journey as he simply passed the swarm. Even if there were monsters hindering him, they died even before they could do anything because Sherry and the others rained them with fire techniques. Of course, from their point of view, they were defeated by Alex. Alex, on the other hand, didn''t care what they were thinking because he only wanted some explanations from those people. But since they wanted to bring these representatives, these four people should have some roles to play, so he agreed to their request. Not long after, they arrived in front of the second trial. Alex blasted the wall and headed straight to the tower while keeping his eyes on the underground tunnel. The moment they entered the underground tunnel, those who followed the five people who managed to enter this place surely recognized it. "This¡­ This is the tunnel that leads to the inside." The princess exclaimed in surprise, not because she was shocked about the tunnel, but because Alex smashed his way toward him. Even the entrance was broken by his fist. Before, she followed Evelyn and her Senior Sister. They didn''t do anything like this and explored the area without giving up. When they were able to reach this place, no word could describe their joy. It was at this time she finally felt what it meant to be special. Alex kept heading toward the tower without losing his speed, and before long, he arrived in the center. "This was where the Gods and Goddesses met us last time." The princess remarked with surprise. "To think we only need two hours to reach here¡­" Alex didn''t say anything and snapped his finger. An Array appeared on the ground, swallowing them. "Is this¡­" The princess wanted to say it was a trap, but the words stuck when she arrived at a certain room. Alex went through the corridor and pushed open the gate at the end of the corridor, revealing to a grand sight. "I am sorry for taking my time." Alex apologized when he saw the disturbance of Spiritual Energy in the area. "This place¡­ Ah!" The princess saw the Gods and Goddesses she met previously. That shout certainly took everyone''s attention before they found Alex in front of the group and greeted him with a polite bow. "Sir¡­ I am sorry that I can''t pick you up." Shakdi immediately came in front of him after asking someone to take care of his matter. "Sir?" They dropped their jaw to the ground, not believing what they just witnessed. Alex didn''t have any change of expression and asked. "What is going on?" "The seal is weakening¡­ No, I should say that the energy coming to break the seal is strengthening. After it reached the capacity, the portal finally was opened." "The portal to that world, right?" "Yeah. I think they are planning to invade us again. However, we don''t know what we can do at this point. None of us have the ability to fend them off anymore. Besides, knowing that the planet is a Divine World, 10-Star Martial Saints wouldn''t be a problem for them. You can expect even a few hundred to a thousand coming to this world if it takes too long." "Why would such a thing happen? Was this because I killed the Space Element Monsters?" "That is absolutely not." Shakdi shook his head with a grim expression. "From what I saw, the energy influx came from that world, not this world. "In other words, they were the ones planning to come. The tower had been sealing the entrance, but there seemed to be another trigger to open the gate. Unfortunately, I don''t know what the trigger was." "With the cause, we can prevent this from happening. But since it has started, let''s focus on the fixing first. How do we close the portal?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "We don''t know yet." Shakdi shook his head. "Currently, we are trying to stabilize the tower. I do think we can stop the portal from growing, but I can''t see any means to close the portal completely." "Are you kidding me? There will be millions of monsters coming out of that portal, you know." Alex''s face turned grim. "I know. That''s why we are as desperate as you are¡­ No, we are more desperate than you." "Ah! I am sorry for my outburst earlier." Alex realized that these people genuinely wanted to protect this world to the point of closing its entrance to either this world or God Rank. "No, no. I know your concern as well. I would like for us to brainstorm the idea. And I believe whatever the conclusion we get, we need the power of the four kingdoms. That''s why I asked you to bring them here." "I see." Alex thought for a moment, looking around the area with his Spirit Eyes. "This disturbance is really giving me an uncomfortable feeling. Although I can see that the Space Beasts have been exterminated, there seems to be energy flowing into the seven other gates." "The leakage seems to have reached this place." Shakdi gritted his teeth, but when he checked the wall, he found nothing extraordinary. "If I am not wrong, there are beasts inside these seven portals, right?" "Yes." "I have certainly seen the disruption in these walls, gathering little by little Spiritual Energy from scratch. And If I remember correctly, the monsters inside are connected with each other and¡­" When Shakdi heard about this, he nodded his head, telling Alex that he remembered it perfectly. However, Shakdi also arrived at another conclusion that was far from the norms. "Wait¡­ The monsters inside?" Shakdi was bewildered as he never thought he would get this idea. And yet, he couldn''t brush it off because it was a solution where they could get the best ending. However, this mission had a very high risk, so it was all or nothing. The problem would be human resources and the fact that this will cause too many unnecessary deaths. Shakdi''s face turned grim, wondering whether he should do it or not. Alex squinted his eyes and asked. "It seems you have a solution. Mind to tell me?" "I indeed got a solution just now. However, this might require a large sacrifice, and the process will be very hard¡­ No, I think it won''t be that hard, but the fact there will be many monsters makes it very difficult. Is that fine with you?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Tell me about it." "The plan is like this¡­" 807 Brainstorming "Do you mean the monsters inside are used as their connector or something?" "Something like that." Shakdi nodded. "However, there is another thing that we can take advantage of." "And that is?" "The fact that there is a connection between them, I think we can seal the portal if we kill the monsters inside." "Then let''s go." Alex took out his weapons. "Wait, wait! There is a problem." "What is it?" "The tower can''t handle that many visitors, so only a few can go inside. However, they need to fight against fifty thousand monsters at the same time, making it almost impossible. Although you can go from one portal to another, the other monsters will notice and try to break through these gates. At that time, you can consider this tower is gone, and the calamity will come to this world." "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "It seems there is another problem that we need to solve." "Yes. The fact that the parents can command the monsters, they are most likely to sacrifice their own kin to destroy these gates." "But you said we couldn''t bring that many people?" "Yes. I said that. And I know the fact that we can''t fight those monsters while protecting the gate with that number. That''s why I have another plan, but it''s too absurd." "Elaborate." "I want to bring more people inside the tower," Shakdi said with a serious expression. "Are you insane? If that is your plan, you are going to ruin this tower." One of the Gods shouted after hearing his idea. Even the others were also surprised, never expecting Shakdi to think of such a plan. "That''s right. Shakdi, you should think about it more." Another God furrowed his eyebrows. "What happens if you bring more people?" Alex glanced at them. "There is only one way to bring more people. We need to open the seal of this tower." Alex''s face turned grim. "Ho?!" "What?!" This time, the princes and the princess were the ones to be surprised. They had been protecting this tower for a long long time. And if such a case happened, everything they did would be pointless. However, Shakdi suddenly raised his hand, stopping all of them from talking. Everyone was confused by his action, but they realized the moment they gazed upon Alex. Alex seemed to be in deep thought, calculating the plan in his mind. After two minutes, he looked at Shakdi with an amused expression. "This plan is crazy, but at the same time, it''s interesting." "What?!" Everyone dropped their jaw to the ground, including Shakdi. He had expected Alex to reject it, but it seemed he had seen the essence of this plan. "In case we can''t defend them, the monsters will destroy this tower, and the portal won''t be able to be closed again. "Second, we need to deal with human resources. How many people do we bring inside, and how many people do we bring to defend outside? Seeing how it will be rampaged by monsters, there is a huge chance that the blood will flow like a river outside of this tower. "Besides, we also need to kill the remaining seven parent monsters within a short period of time because it''s the only way to close the portal with the tower''s power. And the moment it''s closed, it will be eternal as long as the tower is here. "You can say it''s a gamble. If you lose, you lose everything. If you win, this world will be saved. That''s why I said this plan is crazy but interesting at the same time." Alex finished his explanation. Shakdi nodded in agreement. "This is the only way unless you have so many geniuses that can protect the portal from thousands of monsters despite being outnumbered up to five hundred times." Alex thought for a moment and looked at the Gods and Goddesses. "What do you think of this plan?" They exchanged looks and shook their heads. "As much as we want to say something, this might be our last option. The truth is¡­ We would like to hear your opinion regarding this matter." "My opinion?" Alex paused for a moment. "For me, I can simply rush to God Rank, but it also means I need to leave my friends here. And I think it will only be a matter of time before this world gets destroyed. I am not someone who will let my friends die, so I will surely help to fix this." "Then, assuming we are choosing this option, what do you think we need to prepare?" Shakdi nodded while looking at Alex. "Rather than asking me this question, it''s better for you to answer this first. How long do you think we need to prepare, and what will happen within that time?" Alex shrugged. "Fair enough." Shakdi paused and thought. "Three years. If I need to calculate the number of enemies, morale, and supply, three years is the maximum capacity. Within that time, humans won''t be able to stop their advance because there are too many monsters filling this world. "The monsters will also flock to this place the moment we open the arrays. Of course, the majority of them will come to this place instead of the surface. That''s why we need many preparations to protect the tower before we let the monsters enter and fix this mess." "Three years huh¡­" Alex fell into deep thought. "Within that time, the people on the surface need to hold on. I am afraid that even with the help of all influences, we won''t be able to hold on. Should I get the alliances to move those people from the Northern and Sacred Continents as well? "I don''t think the war will accommodate people below Martial Kings, so I think only these two should participate. It''s hard but feasible if it''s only three years. The allowed limit will be two million monsters¡­" Alex seemed to be calculating everything in their plan. The rest stayed silent, afraid to break his concentration if they made a sound. It continued for a few minutes before Alex suddenly said. "I think our success is pretty big, depending on how much they are willing to unite." "Would you share this idea of yours? If needed, I can do whatever you want as long as we can solve the problem." Shakdi carefully looked at Alex. "First of all. The surface will be attacked by monsters for three years. This is something big that requires all experts around the corner." Alex mentioned the first problem while adding another thing in his head. ''Well, this is also an exp farm for me. I might even be able to increase their levels to either 9-Star Martial Saint or 10-Star Martial Saint within these three years.'' "Listening to your tone, I believe I have a role here, right?" "Exactly so." Alex slyly smiled. Since the latter already told him to use him as much as he wanted, he wouldn''t hold back anymore. "I will be bringing the leaders of all influences to this place and ask you to convince them to participate in this war. As for those people from the Northern Continent or Sacred Continent, they are easy to convince anyway, so I won''t say much regarding this matter." "I understand. I will surely convince them, especially with my identity as a God Rank Expert. Besides, most of the leaders should have met us in the past since they also joined the ritual. My word should influence them." Shakdi nodded. "In the meantime, I want the place around the pillar to become a fortress that can hold a million monsters for one week." Alex glanced at the three princes and one princess. They suddenly became tense as they gradually nodded their heads. "I will certainly convince my father¡­ I mean, the king of my kingdom to participate in this. I can assure you that we will bring all humans around the area to construct a fortress and a great wall to hold those monsters." The second prince said. "That''s right. I will convince mine as well. I believe if the four kingdoms unite, we can create such a thing. We can simply ask for free labor by making free of tax for a few years." The princess nodded in agreement. "Fair enough. According to the legend, this tower is the one protecting us, including all Elders here. That''s why I swear upon my name that I shall complete this task." "Yes. This is the time for the four kingdoms to work together." They immediately clasped their hands politely, knowing that this was the turning point. "Thank you, Child." Shakdi smiled before giving them two items. One was a token, while the second one was an item customized to them. "Take these two items with you. The first one is the token to convince your family while the other one is a reward for each of you." "Ah! This¡­" They were overwhelmed by this. They only thought about survival earlier, so they never expected Shakdi to give them something. With this, they would be even more pumped up to do their job. Alex ignored them and continued. "Three years later. I will bring a team of elites from the surface to this place. Considering they are going to concentrate their forces here, I think we can make a hole to proceed." "In that case, we can deactivate the tower, so all of you can go in." Alex thought for a moment. Although they lost two influences, with Alex''s Spirit Nest and the new sect, Freedom Sect, there should be seven influences there. He looked at the seven gates and nodded. "Since I have cleared the Space Gate, there are only seven more, which is equal to the seven influences on the surface." "You want them for each gate?" "Yeah. I will discuss it later with them. In any case, since the four kingdoms will know more about the fortress that they will construct after this, I would like to ask them to use all their power to hold on. "Seeing the enemies'' power, I believe they will send more than ten 10-Star Martial Saint monsters, so we need to fend them off here. In other words, all 10-Star Martial Saints will be fighting the monsters here while only those who are 5-Star Martial Saints or lower go inside this tower." Alex let out a long sigh. Shakdi could understand why he wanted only those 5-Star or lower could go inside. At first, they thought they could bring them in, including their 10-Star Martial Saint. However, it was too reckless because they were fighting against time. If the monsters know about their arrival, the parent monster will likely hide. In that case, finding them will become very hard. And the fact they are going to kill them at the same time, it becomes far harder. That was why Alex separated them that way. There were only a few 3-Star Martial Saints monsters inside anyway. And their capability wasn''t as powerful as a Space Element monster. Hence, the plan is doable. "How many do you plan to bring?" "Two thousand elites from each influence. Half of them will remain outside while half will go inside. They should be able to protect the gate from fifty thousand monsters inside¡­ Considering there are seven gates, each gate only has seven thousand monsters. "I believe we have enough strength to protect the gate." Alex nodded with a serious expression. 808 Convincing Elizabeth "There are a few detailed plans, but I don''t think I can cover all of them right now. Hence, I am going to unite the other influences first and bring them here. We can then talk about it." "Sounds fair." "At that time, the rulers of the four kingdoms should arrive here, so we can talk about this." Alex glanced at them. "I think it''s easy to convince them." The second prince nodded. "It''s settled then." Alex took a deep breath. "In that case, are you going back after this?" "Yeah. We might need to sync our time later when I bring them here." Alex nodded. "Alright. As much as I want to help you, I don''t think I can help." Shakdi sighed. "I need to remain here to ensure the portal does not become bigger." "Yeah." Alex then turned around and asked them to follow him again because they needed to walk back. They didn''t need any words because they understood Alex''s intention. They nodded to him, asking him to guide them outside. "Then¡­" Alex glanced at Shakdi and the others before making his way back. The group followed the same path like previously, maintaining their speed until they came out of the pillar. As soon as they saw the blue sky again, they then looked at Alex, who waved his hand and said, "Alright then. Convincing them to participate in the next meeting might take me one or two weeks, so you should prepare before I arrive." "Yes. Thank you for your help," they said in unison. Alex then flew away. Meanwhile, their guardians appeared again, looking at them with a worried expression. However, the group seemed to have the same thought, and the same speech as all of them said at the same time. "I am going back. There is an emergency." Of course, Alex didn''t know this. He simply felt lucky to have such understanding heirs from the four kingdoms because they thought with their brains. Alex then arrived at the previous spot where he dug the hole. Before that, he suddenly fell into silence, watching the array. "What¡­ What if I am making a tunnel underground? It might be a bit long, but I can bring those people safely¡­" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "No. I will suggest it to those leaders to have their disciples make an underground tunnel. In the meantime, I should start negotiating with the other leaders." After realizing this, he summoned the dragons again before opening the array. It seemed he had gotten used to this situation after two times doing it, so his speed was faster than before, and the gate was more stable. Not long after that, he arrived at his base and met Anya. "Anya, how is our condition?" "Ah?! So fast?" Anya was startled, expecting him to go for another few days. However, she quickly regained her calm and explained. "For now, Firia is with Aileen and Song Hun discussing the matter with the Divine Kingdom. I think they are in the middle of negotiation right now. Of course, she has managed to persuade the Phantasm Sect, but they need time to prepare." "Hmm¡­" Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "I will let her handle this then." ¡­ In the Divine Kingdom, specifically in the middle of their throne room, the three people were meeting the current ruler of the Divine Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth. "So, you want my cooperation from something that is caused by not my influence?" Elizabeth squinted her eyes, looking at Aileen. Firia raised her hand and stopped her. "They are not at fault too. Because this is coming from another place." "Is there any proof?" "No." Firia shook her head calmly. "I only want to state this one. If we lose, your kingdom will also perish." Suddenly, the system gave her a notification. [Firia. Alex is giving you a trump card for the negotiation.] "!!!" Firia slightly widened her eyes before taking a piece of paper from the Inventory. Elizabeth immediately furrowed her eyebrows and raised her guard because she didn''t know what Firia''s plan was. However, when she saw a paper, she was confused. And as soon as Firia smiled after reading the paper, she seemed to have a strange feeling, knowing there would be something happening soon. Hence, she took out her sword and asked. "Why are you smiling?" "This is just a message from my husband. He told me to take this one out when the negotiation is not in my favor." Firia lied, using Alex as her shield. Of course, the writing came from Alex. "Hoh? Your husband." And that was what made Elizabeth more curious. "Yeah. He simply wants to ask you¡­ Why do you think the Gods and Goddesses disappeared from this world in the past?" "!!!" The words echoed inside the room, shaking everyone''s heart. Even her grandfather, who was trying to find fault in her governing, couldn''t help but choke. "What did you say?" "The question remains the same." Firia smiled. Many people began to look down, falling into deep thought. They were high ranking people in this kingdom, so they knew many things, including the legends. And they had once stumbled upon a mysterious disappearance of the Gods and Goddesses. Firia also connected her knowledge and this question as she immediately thought about what to say. "Don''t you think it''s weird to find those Gods and Goddesses suddenly disappeared? What kind of reason would such beings vanish without any apparent reason?" Firia smirked. "Are you telling me that there is a connection between their disappearance and this incident?" Elizabeth squinted her eyes. "No¡­ Is this also his lie?" "It''s not his lie nor his plot. This is the truth. I am sure that the Royal Family knows something about it, right? And didn''t you meet¡ª" "Stop!" Elizabeth gritted her teeth. Such information shouldn''t be revealed to anyone other than the royal family, so she didn''t let Firia say it. Although Firia found it nothing but a mere piece of information, she also had no obligation to say it. She simply wanted to threaten her because she knew Elizabeth would stop her from talking. On the other hand, Elizabeth also found the question to be the truth. She remembered when only a few Gods and Goddesses appeared when she was in that tower¡­ And was convinced that Firia must have something to do with it. ''They might be souls, but they were former Gods and Goddesses. Did she and Alexander learn something from them because of the special treatment?'' Elizabeth stroked her chin with a solemn expression. "How about this¡­ My Husband is waiting for you on the battlefield. You can go there first to check the situation and ask him about the answer yourself. I believe he has known something new right now." Firia paused. "And as I said, if we lose, Divine Kingdom will also perish." The ministers wanted to rebuke her, but they stopped, knowing it was indeed the truth. Seeing the Freedom Sect and Blackwade Clan behind her, half of the power already gathered around them. Besides, Firia also told her that they had gotten the confirmation from the Phantasm Sect. With them, they had enough power to represent the world. ''Still, we don''t know anything about this portal, so how can we suddenly mobilize all our forces without any reason? Besides, the problem is not too big at the moment, making it hard to convince the crowd.'' Letizia wiped her eyes a few times, thinking hard about this matter. "I realize how hard it''s to move, but I am sure you will be convinced as long as you meet my Husband." "Hmm¡­ Meeting the Divine Slayer huh¡­ It''s true that his reputation is too big as he killed many people under God Rank. If he is leading this, he might be able to slay all our enemies.'' ''Pfft! Divine Slayer¡­'' Jeanne sent a thought transmission to Firia. ''When we were in the Blackwade Clan, they were calling Master Battle Emperor because of his brilliant strategy and the fact that he had yet to lose despite fighting so many influences. ''And when we were in the Phantasm Sect, they thought him as a Harbinger of Death. Because they didn''t want to get killed if they didn''t comply, the sect leader was pressured to accept. They are too hilarious.'' Firia also found his unique title not long ago since she just got back from their honeymoon. Although it sounded badass, it was too embarrassing for Alex. There was even a period of him getting angry because they teased him with those titles. Luckily, the news came while they were on honeymoon, so Alex couldn''t punish them yet. And the moment he returned, he met this problem. Firia still had no change of expression as to not change the mood of Elizabeth. Instead, she pressured her more by saying. "We are planning to meet the Seven Influences. I believe we can ask the Ancient Blue Family since you also know how they operate. As for the Drunken Pavilion, I don''t think I need to say anything, right?" What she said was true. After reaching this point, if they didn''t agree to come, the only influence that didn''t come would only be them. At that time, they might be scrutinized by the whole world. Hence, Elizabeth decided. "I understand. I will go with you to see the situation." After persuading Elizabeth, Firia continued to the next place, convincing each influence''s leader to make their decision. Davi was a bit hard to convince, but luckily, it ended without them agreeing on anything to him. If they still asked for a trade with a problem like this, they would be seen as hypocrites anyway, and it was something Davi didn''t want to see. However, as one would expect, Manness was the most annoying of all. He looked fed up about this problem and wanted to stay in his sect. Firia used the other influences as well to pressure him to go to the battlefield until he agreed. And just like that, Firia managed to grab everyone within three days. Aileen opened the gate to the Freedom Sect before heading toward the battlefield where Alex stayed. He was standing on a cliff where he could see the general situation of the battlefield. Far in front of him was a huge dark portal that seemed to be connecting to an ominous place. It gave powerful energy to the point they felt repulsed just by watching the energy. Their instinct told them to not go through that tunnel because it would be the day they die. Around that portal, they got a sight of more than thirty thousand monsters, going back and forth as they fought against the disciples of Freedom Sect. "That is the Ancient Ruin." Elizabeth pointed her finger to a white building below the portal. They recognized the building as well and was surprised to see that the ruin was reduced to piles of rubbles. It seemed Shakdi decided to risk it all and abandoned the Ancient Ruin, so they could focus on maintaining the tower as to prevent more monsters from coming. They needed to adjust the rate of the monsters so they didn''t outnumber humanity by much. "This is just a small portion of them. From what I know, there will be around a few million if we don''t solve this matter as quickly as possible." "A few million?" The representatives dropped their jaw and blinked a few times as if they heard something ridiculous. The moment he sensed them, Alex turned around and smiled. "Thank you for coming here. And yeah, what she said is completely right. I am here to discuss what we need to do to close the portal that has been unsealed again after a few thousand years¡­" 809 World Alliance The one that was troubled the most was Aileen. She wasn''t their Freedom Sect since the one who handled the management was Licht. Hence, she interrupted them by saying. "I am sorry, but I would like to call the real representatives first." Alex glanced at her and nodded. "Please." Aileen nodded and used her Spatial Gate to disappear for a few minutes before another Spatial Gate appeared. Only Licht emerged from that portal as he said, "Great Elder can''t participate because I need to send her somewhere. Please forgive me." Alex shrugged. "Never mind. We are going to talk about this portal." "You said that there is a relation between the Gods'' and Goddesses'' disappearance with this portal¡­ Is this true?" Elizabeth was the first to step up and asked. "Yes. The problem is where do you want to hear it?" "Of course, it''s¡ª" Just as she was about to say "Here", Alex stopped her with a hand gesture and a smile. "There is another option, in which you hear it from themselves." Alex continued, shocking everyone''s heart. "Are you saying we can meet Gods and Goddesses right now?" With Elizabeth''s question, they thought Alex''s Spirit Nest might be hiding a God Rank Expert. Alex nodded but immediately corrected their thinking. "Didn''t you meet a few of them not long ago?" "Do you mean the Ancient Battlefield?" Elizabeth exclaimed in surprise. Everyone was also baffled because they could see the Ancient Ruin had been reduced into a pile of rubble. Even with them, they were not strong enough to activate the array. "Impossible. We can''t go there right now." Davi remarked with a loud voice. "Why? Is it because of the Rank 9 Array?" Alex smiled. "!!!" They were speechless this time. Normally, they called the array surpassed rank 8 Array with Divine Array because they were special arrays. But seeing how Alex treated those arrays as only one step further than their previous array¡­ No words came to their minds. "It''s only a Special Realm made by rank 9 Array. As long as you have knowledge about it, you can enter easily." Alex shrugged. "You can enter?" "Yes. And I wanted to ask you whether you want to hear it from them or from me?" The answer was obvious. It would be better to listen to the sources. And yet, the bomb that Alex dropped just now was too big for them to recover in a short time. However, Elizabeth seemed to have noticed something absurd as she asked with a loud voice. "You¡­ Don''t tell me¡­ The one that first came inside the pillar was you? No, it should be Firia Sirius¡­ Wait! Since you can enter the array as you wish¡­ You¡­ You also came and helped her to meet those supreme beings¡­" "Anyway, I have promised them to enter the tower again with all of you in tow because they want to request help from you guys to solve this problem. And we are going to collaborate with the people inside that place. What do you think?" Alex asked with a calm face, wondering if he needed to negotiate or threaten them after this. However, he seemed to have underestimated how much the God Rank Experts changed everyone''s view. It was enough to incite the curiosity and greed in their heart. "If you are going to that place, then I don''t think I will have any complaints." Song Hun nodded with a smile. "I will be going with you." The rest also thought the same. Even if they didn''t answer, it was obvious they were raring to go. "Good. Let''s go then." Alex smirked before looking at Firia. "Can you help the others with our preparation? This will be a long fight for us. They are fighting the monsters over there." "Sure." Firia nodded and flew away. With this, only seven people remained. "I am going to open the hole around their barrier and let you guys in with my gate. During the altering process, I need you to guard me." "Don''t worry. This old man will protect you to the best of my ability." Song Hun nodded while taking out his sword. The rest also took out their weapons, ready to go. "Before going, I am going to brief you on our current condition." Alex stopped them first. "I just want you to know the scale of what we will be experiencing from now on. She must have said that it''s better to talk to me first to know whether you are participating, right?" "Now that you mention it¡­" They almost forgot about it because of the lure of the God Rank Experts. Some of them had seen those people in the past, and they knew the wisdom and benefits they would get by meeting these people. Hence, they thought this was an unimportant topic. However, Alex wanted to know whether they were prepared to lay down their life just to fix this problem or not. If they didn''t have this kind of resolve, he needed another plan. "I am sorry. It seems we have been too rude." Song Hun took a deep breath and continued. "It''s obvious that this matter will shock the entire world. That''s why you must be asking us to settle the resolve right here and right now. In that case, it will be better to listen to what you have to say first." Alex nodded. "To be honest, there will be a few million monsters coming out of that portal. Probably, a third of them will be either Martial Monarch or Martial Saints." "¡­" They widened their eyes, never expecting to be that much. "Yeah. Of course, it''s stable right now, so you don''t need to worry about it right now because the rate of monsters spawning from that place isn''t big yet. However, I am sure that the weaklings are entering this place to probe our territories first. "After that, the boss of these monsters will come to this place." Alex''s expression turned grim. *Gulp--* One of them gulped a bit too hard to the point it resounded in everyone''s ears. "What I want to do is to have you bring all your forces to stop them in this place for three years. Even if we can''t eradicate them, it''s enough to hold them back until the portal is closed. And I know that our seven influences are not enough to fight them. "And as much as you want to blame me for killing the Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain, you can''t. It''s simple. You don''t know my identity, and the fact that I know more than you are enough reason for you to say nothing. "That''s why I am thinking about involving the people from the Northern Continent and the Sacred Continent. For them, it will be a great opportunity. For us, they have a great number of Martial Kings and Martial Emperors to fight these monsters. "Still, three years is a very long time. I believe we will have so many sacrifices at this point, and every influence will get weakened at this point. That''s why I would like to have an alliance between seven influences that will last for a century¡­ Except me, of course." Alex smiled and finished his explanation with a nod. "The World Alliance¡­" Elizabeth exclaimed in surprise. Although it was a name that she thought of on the fly, it was a name befitted their current situation. "Still, I have another problem with this alliance. It''s already hard enough to make an alliance between two influences, and you want¡­" Alex let out a sigh, knowing how smart and skeptical she was. He stopped her again with confidence. "I know how hard it''s¡­ That''s why we don''t need any complicated agreement." "A simple agreement¡­" They thought for a moment before they realized Alex''s true aim. "Yes. The moment any alliance uses spy or attack another influence, they will be besieged by the six influences and razed to the ground." Alex said with a serious expression. "!!!" Suddenly, the memory of him being Harbinger of Death rang on everyone''s mind, knowing that there would be no one left alive if such a thing happened. That was why his name brought so many pressures to this alliance, making it more realistic to come to fruition. Albeit, his existence brought a flaw to this argument. "But¡­ You said your Spirit Nest is an exception. May I know what is the reason?" Elizabeth asked. "After reaching God Stage myself along with the others, we are planning to leave this world. That''s why it''s a bit useless for us." Alex nodded. "In that case, this alliance is nothing but an empty agreement. If there is someone who can oversee the agreement, it will be you¡­ As much as we want to brag, we believe we are not qualified to raise an alliance. The moment you are gone, no influence will uphold this agreement." "You are truly a smart one¡­" Alex gently smiled and let out a sigh. "Still, I want to show you something." Alex snapped his finger, surrounding himself with Space Element. Suddenly, his Spiritual Energy is sucked into something along with his soul. His cultivation base decreased to the point it reached Martial King Stage. "Check my Cultivation and my Soul." The group furrowed their eyebrows and checked, only to find something so shocking. "This¡­ Both your Cultivation Base and your Soul are at Martial King Stage." Alex snapped his finger again to unseal his power and nodded. "As much as I don''t want to use it, as you have witnessed earlier, I can seal my power. The world will only recognize me as a mere Spirit King. In other words, even if I leave this world, I can come back." The group frowned, knowing that Alex showed them that he could still uphold the agreement even if he reached God Stage. They understood what this meant and realized it was impossible to break this agreement if Alex decided to oversee the world. In that case, there was no need to be scared if an influence broke this agreement. They would be besieged not only by the other influences but also by a God Rank Expert. It was something far scarier than facing the other influences. With this, Alex sealed the deal. "I, Elizabeth, will agree to this alliance." Elizabeth was the first one to react. "Still, if only I were born in the Willow Continent instead, I would have a long time to seduce you¡­ Fufu¡­" "Give it up. Nothing will change." Alex shrugged. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She had told him about becoming her husband, but it was already a pipe dream from the start. On the other hand, Song Hun also agreed to this alliance. Seeing this kind of ability and Alex''s knowledge about Rank 9 Array, he must have some connections with God Rank Experts. He had no reason to not accept this alliance anymore. Besides, it would be good because Song Jiaoren needed to go to the main clan during that time. After another hundred years, he should have gained a stepping there and might bring fortune to the clan. Seeing these two agreed, the others also agreed. "Then it''s time to go." Alex nodded, asking them to follow him. ¡­ A few minutes later, they arrived in the same spot where Alex created a hole with the group spread out to protect him. "Spatial Gate!" Alex opened the gate after creating a hole. Since he only made a small hole because of the time and his usual habit, the Spatial Gate was also for one person. That was why they were going to retreat and enter one by one, with him being the last one. The people realized this and retreated from the furthest people. One by one gradually came inside the portal and fell to the Special Realm. When Alex''s turn came, Sherry and the others summoned the fire to protect him while he entered the portal, but suddenly¡­ A powerful Shockwave cut the portal, slashing the portal into two. At the same time, Alex suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach area as he flew and crashed to the ground a few hundred meters away from the Ancient Ruin. *Bam!* 810 A Mysterious Guy "What is it? Where is Alexander Sirius? He should be behind you, right?!" Davi asked while glancing on his back, not finding a single person. "Yes. He should be right behind us¡­" Song Hun nodded. "Don''t tell me¡­" Elizabeth suddenly gasped as she exclaimed with a shocked expression. "Don''t tell me¡­ He is betraying us? Does he want to trap us here while he takes over the world by using the monsters? And everything turns out to be his scheme¡­" "!!!" The group was startled, but Licht suddenly said, "I think that is not the case." He didn''t know there was a place like this under the Ancient Ruin due to the long stay underwater, so it certainly surprised him. Because of that, he became even more vigilant than he had ever been. As a result, he kept a close look on the Spatial Gate. "I saw the Spatial Gate is broken. As you might already know, I have an 8-Star Martial Saint with Space Element in my sect, and I have certainly seen her ability. The Spatial Gate itself can be cut or destroyed as long as you know its weakness. And what I saw earlier was exactly that." Licht corrected them, trying to calm them down. "Then are you saying there is a monster outside that attacks him? And it only happened as soon as I came in?" Song Hun frowned. "Or the monster might have been hiding from us this whole time and planned to attack him? Either case, that monster is surely intelligent." Licht''s face became pale. "We need to help him." "But how?!" Elizabeth gulped down. "I don''t know." Licht shook his head. "I believe we need a Space Element master to cross the barrier. Unfortunately, I have sent Elder Aileen to another place¡­ And there is no way we can cross this barrier without her or Alexander." "¡­" The group became pale. On one hand, it would be dangerous to this world if Alex died because of that sudden attack. On the other hand, they were afraid their influence got attacked while they were absent. Suddenly, Song Hun got another idea after scrambling all the information Alex gave earlier. "Seeing the way he talked¡­ I think we have another solution." The group immediately locked their eyes on him. "We need to go to that pillar. He must have gone there since he said we could cooperate with the four kingdoms. With the timestamp and other things, I believe he just met them a few days ago. I don''t know if we can do it, but it''s better to try something." Song Hun clenched his fist. "I think we should separate our force. Since we can safely assume that Alexander Sirius got attacked, we need a few people to wait here while the rest go to the tower." "I will be staying." Licht made a decisive decision, followed by Song Hun. "Same for me." "Then, four of us will be going to the tower to search for a way to escape from this place." Elizabeth nodded. Having another person to stay here would be detrimental, so she needed to cut the conversation and get going. The rest nodded in agreement. They couldn''t waste a single second on this, so it would be better to go with her. "Let''s go." They then went their own way, hoping for Alex''s well-being¡­ Albeit the situation outside seemed to be a bit bad. ¡­ *Bam!* It came too sudden to the point he didn''t have the chance to react. Alex immediately stabilized his body and activated his Spirit Eyes, looking at that attack. To his surprise, what he found was a human. He had white hair, a small nose and a gentle curving mouth. His attire was full of white that appeared to be a military uniform. Still, the most noticeable thing coming from him was his eyes. His eyes were golden, but what made it unique was the clock in his eyes. There was a twelve hours clock. He never saw eyes like him and was purely shocked by that. His Pure Fire rose and enveloped him. ''What is this green color in his body? And what are his eyes?'' Alex frowned, assessing his situation. ''Still, a 10-Star Martial Saint huh¡­ This is going to be hard. And with him attacking me, I can safely assume he is my enemy. And he should have made an appearance himself in the war¡­ No, there should be no hidden influence in this world except Freedom Sect¡­ Don''t tell me¡­'' "You¡­ You are from that world?" Alex immediately confirmed that the guy in front of him came from a world filled with beasts. [Host¡­ I believe he has one of the rarest elements in the world. The same as your Pure Fire or Special Space Element.] Alex frowned and muttered. "Time Element¡­" [Yes.] When Alex was contemplating, Lin Xingzhi had another thought of this matter. In the Spirit World, she leaned back on her chair, pondering over this matter. Suddenly, the butler, Korzan, appeared in the room. "Milady. I have informed the army to head there." "Wait, Korzan¡­ From what I see, his Time Element is far too low for a person at such a level. And those eyes¡­ Where do I see it again¡­!!!" Lin Xingzhi tried hard thinking about this matter before a certain memory appeared in her mind. "Don''t tell me¡­" "Milady? I think this is very bad. Even if we need to break our rule, I believe¡ª" Korzan stopped when she saw Lin Xingzhi''s annoyed face. He heard her muttering, "Those eyes¡­ Why would he appear¡­" Seeing this, he decided to stop and waited for Lin Xingzhi to think this through. Lin Xingzhi continued being like that before the memory of Alex appeared in her mind. She recalled that, and somehow it clicked with the current situation. She felt her body weak and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Cancel it." Suddenly, Lin Xingzhi gave her an order. "Eh?" Korzan acted as if he didn''t hear it just now. "We won''t go there." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. Her face became pale. "But Master¡­" Korzan stopped the moment he saw blood dripping down to the ground. Lin Xingzhi clenched her fist too hard to the point it bled. He knew there must be something behind this matter and chose to trust his Master and Lin Xingzhi. "I understand. I will have the spirits to standby for the time being." Lin Xingzhi could only close her eyes. Whether their enemies from many worlds or this person that suddenly came to Alex, they had another big crisis in hand. And to ensure Alex could grow to solve that problem¡­. She needed to watch this. Even though she realized that the person wouldn''t kill him, it still pained her to the point blood flowed out of her mouth. ¡­ Alex, of course, didn''t know this matter. He simply stared at the person in front of him, wondering why he didn''t continue his attack. In that case, he decided to ask first. "Who are you?" "Who I am is not important. What is important is your strength. I was planning to test your strength, but it seems you are too weak for me right now," said the mysterious man. ''Why he attacks me? And there should be another reason why he targets me¡­ Is he really coming from that world?'' Alex glanced at the portal. "Hoh¡­ To think you dare to take your eyes off from your opponent." The mysterious man leaped toward him. Alex used this chance to attack him with both weapons three times. "Heaven Light Slash!" The mysterious man looked at these six attacks with an amazed expression. He smiled and drew his sword again, but he suddenly disappeared as if he went through Alex''s body. "!!!" Alex opened his eyes wide. Not only was he surprised as to why that person disappeared, but he also felt the pain coming from three spots on his body. His body seemed to react even slower because the blood just flowed out of the wounds. ''What?!'' Alex just got a shock in his life. Despite having activated his Spirit Eyes, he couldn''t see through the attacks. ''What just happened?'' Even the two weapons also didn''t know what happened, so they didn''t erect a barrier. The same to Sherry and the others inside his body. Their flames rose in his body, but Alex stopped them. He knew Sherry wanted to go out. However, he certainly couldn''t let Sherry go out because the enemy might target her instead. ''Master!!'' Sherry wailed as if begging him to let her out. ''Stay in my body for the time being. Before I know what just happened, I won''t let you out.'' Alex answered while glaring at the mysterious man. "Why are you targeting me?" Alex gritted his teeth. "Looking at how you dress and the information about the world filled with monsters¡­ The two of you are not matched. Who are you?" "Heh. That''s right. I am not from that world." "We don''t have any grudges. So, why are you trying to kill me?" Alex was lying in the second half. Even though the mysterious person attacked him, he didn''t carry a single trace of killing intent as if he had another intention of doing this. That was why before he summoned his Spirits to help him, he asked the system. ''Do you know anything about this?'' [I don''t know anything about him¡­ Seeing he is only a 10-Star Martial Saint, he isn''t powerful enough for me to know his name.] ''¡­I will go all out, I guess.'' Alex took a deep breath and summoned Leoz and Jeanne by taking out their cards behind his back. Seeing this, the mysterious person leaped again toward Alex without answering his question. Alex gritted his teeth and activated his Spirit Crown. He then proceeded to use his Phoenix Aura and his barrier to block this attack. At the very least, he should be able to know what happened with his Spirit Eyes. "Heh¡­ Paradox Slash." The mysterious person attacked him with many slashes at the same time to the point it was far more than Alex could use with his Triple Draws. And those slashes struck the barrier and destroyed it before making its way toward Alex''s chest. *Zap!* "Gah!" Alex spat blood. He somehow managed to stop the attack with both weapons because he knew where the strikes were going due to his barrier buying the precious split second. However, the sword still managed to create a swallow wound on his chest. It was at this time, the two spirits appeared as they were going to make a sneak attack. "How dare you?!" The two waved their weapons toward this person. "Delayed Slash." The mysterious guy waved his sword a little, but magically, the slash went through his back, pushing Leoz''s and Jeanne''s swords away. "What?!" The two spirits were obviously shocked by such a thing. They didn''t know what was going on. Nonetheless, their instinct told them this guy is dangerous. "True Spirit Body!" "Oh?!" The mysterious guy glanced on his back. "Didn''t you say not to take your eyes off your opponent?" Alex took this chance and struck him. "Heaven Light Slash!" The mysterious guy still managed to block Alex''s attack, but that slight movement wasn''t enough to kill the force behind the attack, resulting in him getting blown away. Alex knew how dangerous this person was and immediately summoned every single UR spirit in his way. "Master (Alex)!" They opened their eyes wide. They never thought Alex would be injured like this. "Haha¡­ Now I can see your identity." The mysterious guy laughed. "Still, I will see whether you are qualified or not¡­ And luckily, I have brought my friends too." Just like that, five people fully covered in black appeared behind him. "Now¡­ Let''s see what you got." 811 Each Sides Perspective "What do you mean?" "I don''t know if you have known it or not, but according to our information, the guy in front of us is related to the Spirit World. Seeing so many high-level spirits amongst them, I am afraid this guy is someone extraordinary." "The Spirit huh¡­" The mysterious guy thought for a moment and smiled. "If I remember correctly, the previous Spirit God¡­ No, wait!" "Young Lord?" "Ah, I see. So that''s how it is all along." The mysterious guy smirked. "Do you trust me?" "Young Lord?" "Answer me. Do you trust me?" "Ye-yes. With every cell in my body." "Then, beat them up!" "What?!" The leader was startled upon this request. He suddenly remembered why this person wanted to come here. It started a few days ago in a rundown house where they usually met. "Young Lord¡­ This is the information about the Spaceship that we saw not long ago." The man handed a paper full of information. "Hmm?" The mysterious guy furrowed his eyebrows. "So, there was an interesting war like this, and the spaceship seemed to be one of the allies. Have you confirmed the information about this leader like figure?" "I don''t know. I can''t find anything besides the fact that his companions seem to have cultivated a technique that can boost their power after transforming a few parts of their bodies into animals." "Then¡­" The mysterious guy finally finished reading it and looked back at his subordinate before dropping the paper unconsciously. "Young Lord?" Obviously, such an action guaranteed a weird face coming from that man. He looked at his master that seemed to have witnessed something outrageous. "Ha¡­ Haha¡­. Hahaha¡­" Suddenly, he laughed out loud, creating more and more confusion. And yet, his subordinate didn''t ask and waited for him to calm down before he asked. "What happened? Why would you laugh like that?" "The time is moving again." "The time?" He tilted his head before remembering a certain matter that sent a chill all over his body. "Young Lord, do you mean¡­" "Yes. It''s not that long, but it''s certainly moving again." He picked up a mirror and looked at his own face. "My time is moving again. It seems he is the piece that I am looking for." "Are you going to that place?" "Of course." "For what reason? Are you going to make him your subordinate?" "No. He is indeed one of the keys, but I will still beat him up. And in case I am disappointed, it''s better to kill him myself. There is no need to be fixated over a broken ''key''. We can simply search for another one." "Still, he must be something else if he can move your time again." "I don''t know. At the very least, I am going to test him myself." "It''s fine. I don''t mind. Every key is precious, but at the same time, they are not. That''s why I shall gamble all of it every time I meet a key and throw them out if they do not meet my expectation. Even if they are going at me in the future, I don''t mind running away. Because if it means the time can be extended, then I will have more time to find my wife. At that time, I will cross whatever tribulation is coming to me." "¡­" The guy fell into silence. His wife¡­ is his only motivation to keep going. He wanted to become a God Rank Expert or an influential figure because of his wife. For the sake of finding his wife, this guy became an absolute madman. However, it is also because of that loyalty that he could follow him with all his heart. "Well, I guess I need to borrow a small ship from that old man to go to this world." He scratched his head. "Ahaha¡­ Yes. Unfortunately, I can''t help you with this matter." "Fine. This will take a while." "And it seems their world is attacked by that world¡­ The one that is filled with beasts." "Oh! Maybe we can disguise ourselves as one of them. Well, if he is worth my time, he should be able to see through something this simple." "I understand." The man paused before saying the last piece of information. "There is one more thing you need to know." "What is it?" "It''s better for us to go together. I am afraid, but this guy has a Space Element. There is a chance of him escaping or fighting calling his teammates. That''s why¡­" "Fine. Bring all your friends. We shall head out tomorrow." He nodded, rose from his seat, and left the room with a troubled face. Recalling this, the guy didn''t know what to say to his Young Lord. "Young Lord. I would like to ask it one more time. Are you sure?" Offending the Spirit World would be a tremendous offense that his backing wouldn''t dare to take. And yet, the mysterious guy only said. "The time is still the same. None of us will die anytime soon. You should have known my ability, right?" "!!!" The men in black glanced at him and nodded their heads. The leader then signaled them to move out. "Hold their people back. Let the Young Lord do whatever he wants." "Yes, Sir!" They leaped. While they were conversing, Alex was also planning to do something. On one hand, he wanted to escape first to ascertain his identity. On the other hand, he was worried about the people that went inside just now. If they had many thoughts, it would be troublesome because they couldn''t really delay their plan. "Master¡­ Who are they?" "I don''t know." Alex shook his head. "At first, I thought they were on the same side as those monsters, but it isn''t the case. I think we should fix this troublesome thing first before we can proceed with our plan." "How about creating another portal on that hole? I believe we should get more reinforcement in this situation. Our opponents are either 9-Star or 10-Star Martial Saints. Even with our strength and number, it''s still hard to beat them." Anya gritted her teeth. "I know. Still, that guy cut my portal earlier. The time needed to bring the reinforcement¡­ I doubt we will have that time. As long as we kill one of them, we should be able to create an opportunity." "I understand." "Seeing that guy is targeting me, I will handle this person myself. Even though our gap is big, I should be able to contain him. By using that, you guys need to get rid of the rest." "Making yourself a bait?" Anya frowned. "His obsession in me is too great. It''s better to do this, so all of you can focus. If needed, I am ready to use the EXP Cards." "¡­" Anya fell into silence and nodded. "Alright then." ¡­ At the same time, there was another party that seemed to have their own discussion. "Milady. I have canceled all your matters for today, and the spirits have also returned home." Korzan nodded. "Korzan¡­ Do you doubt my decision?" "No¡­" Korzan, previous life Alex''s right-hand man, paused for a moment before letting out a long sigh. "A little bit." "I know that it''s hard to swallow. However, there is something you need to know first. Come here." Lin Xingzhi waved his hand, asking him to come closer. Korzan walked carefully. Before he looked at the screen, he looked at Lin Xingzhi''s hand first. "Milady. Your hand¡­" "It''s fine. I just clench it a bit too hard earlier." "¡­" Korzan fell into silence. She said it was a bit too hard, but he could see that it penetrated too deep to the point he could see bones from the wound. From this alone, he realized that Lin Xingzhi didn''t want this more than him. In other words, there must be something serious going on. Since Lin Xingzhi didn''t want it to be treated, Korzan decided to look at the screen. It was at this time, he saw the picture of that man, especially his eyes. "Those eyes¡­" Korzan opened his mouth in surprise. "You should know that my Father is the former Time God, right?" "Yes. However, his excellency didn''t have these eyes¡­" "Because he chose another path. My father told me when I was a child. There were two paths to awaken one''s time element. First would be a huge emotional fluctuation. As you know, people usually realize their elements and unintentionally awaken them before five years old. "However, if one possessed Time Element and got a huge emotional fluctuation without him knowing his own element along with other conditions¡­ He would awaken the second path. "My father awakened his Time Element normally. Because of that, his Time Element got strengthened, and he became a master of time manipulation. On the other hand, the second path would be the awakening of Time Eyes." Lin Xingzhi explained with a troubled look. "Then, this young man has awakened his Time Eyes?" "Yes. The ability of Time Eyes is different for each person. And because of this awakening, the power in his Time Element will be weakened. That''s why he needs Sword to complement his time ability." Lin Xingzhi paused. "If everyone is different, then milady¡­" "From all the information that I got from my father, his eyes seemed to resemble one type of eyes." "And that is¡­" "Eyes of Death. Its ability is a bit complicated, but there is one thing for sure. It can calculate someone''s lifespan." "!!!" Korzan opened his eyes wide. "I see. Master shouldn''t meet this person in a normal situation. There must be something going on for a person like him to visit our Master¡­" "Yeah. I am still unsure whether what I am thinking is true or not, but no matter how hard it is, I need to watch this fight to its conclusion." "Still, I believe milady will still visit this guy after this fight." "Hmph! Although he doesn''t have an intention to kill my husband, he still attacks him. That''s why he should pay the price. Besides, he should have guessed Alex''s identity by now. Even so, he still uses himself as bait¡­ In that case, I should pay a visit to this person, right? Maybe ''correcting'' him a bit." Korzan smiled, knowing she was planning to beat him into pulp. "Seeing this scene, I believe the time is near. Alex needs to get stronger as quickly as possible because there is no telling what will happen in the future." "I understand. We should be able to get his home plane easily, and I will personally work on this." Korzan nodded before asking another question. "By the way, if I may ask, what is Milady''s prediction about this problem? No, what is this problem itself?" "Korzan¡­" Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes for a few seconds before a chilling killing intent leaked out of her body. "Do you want to lose your Master twice? I have no plan to lose my husband twice. Even if it means I need to lie to my own husband or he will be angry at me for eternity, I am still not prepared to lose him twice." "!!!" Korzan didn''t know why, but he somehow understood the real meaning behind her words. Even now, he still occasionally has a nightmare about that accident. If not because of that incident, their master would still work as the Spirit God. "Still, even if he is different¡­ Master is still with us. This Korzan is ready to offer his life at any moment, let alone lying. Even if I need to go for eternal torture, I shall keep this a secret." "Remember. Tell no one about this. Even Alex asks personally, you shall never tell the truth. Only you and I can know this matter for the time being. When the time comes, I will tell Alex the truth myself." "I understand." Korzan nodded with a solemn expression. "Then may I request another thing from you?" "What is it?" "I would like to watch Master''s battle with my own eyes." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi thought and nodded. "Suit yourself." 812 Another Round *Roar Roar!* A series of roars resounded across the Ancient Ruin. Alex and the mysterious guy glanced at the monsters, and every single person on their side struck the incoming monsters. At the same time, Alex and the guy seemed to have the same idea. The moment they killed the monster coming their way, these two slashed their swords forward. "Mythical Fire Slash." "Blade Rite." The two sent their Sword Waves. The guy seemed to produce a very powerful Sword Wave that seemed to be able to bend time around it. Alex''s Mythical Fire Slashes were affected almost immediately. The moment it clashed with his Blade Rite, the Sword Wave slowly shrank as if it never existed. No, the Blade Rite was turning back the time and made the Sword Wave go back in time to the point where Alex had yet to use it. However, the Blade Rite suddenly broke as if it was cut by something. "!!!" The mysterious guy never expected that because he believed he managed to destroy Alex''s attack. And yet, he felt a sharp and overbearing pressure coming toward him. He instinctively slashed his swords many times. "Paradox Slash." "!!!" He was shocked again when he slashed the empty air. He seemed to have cut something invisible, and it wasn''t just one. Because of this, he raised his guard, knowing Alex wasn''t a joke. *Roar Roar!* Two dragons appeared from Alex''s weapons and roared in the sky. ''I don''t know what happened earlier since that attack was very weird as if he skipped time¡­ Now that I think about it, his ability is time, right? What kind of ability is that?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ''Looking back at what happened¡­ That Delayed Slash seemed to symbolize its characteristic. ''The man cut that place before but only made it appear after Leoz and Jeanne showed themselves. In other words, he has known they are here. On the other hand, his Paradox Slash is something similar to my Tripe Draws. ''It can throw multiple attacks in a single swing. My Triple Draws can only make three slashes for each weapon, while his Paradox Slash is able to get more¡­ Let''s see¡­ Isn''t it like ten of them?'' Alex thought while observing his ability. ''Still, time ability huh¡­ What kind of ability does he possess?'' When he thought about it, the guy appeared right in front of him. Alex used his Spirit Eyes to follow his movement, but he was surprised by the amount of strike in that single instant. *Clang Clang!* After two clashes, all that left was more injuries on Alex''s body. At the same time, the guy already passed him. Alex checked his body. Luckily, he had his Phoenix Aura that had turned into armor, so the wound wasn''t too deep. He took another deep breath while facing the guy. "All of you will focus on my armor. Whether it''s a fire armor or my Phoenix Aura, make sure I have something to protect my body. I don''t want to have a huge wound and lose too much blood." Alex informed the three contracted beasts. Suddenly, a monster appeared between them, heading toward Anna. However, both Alex and the mysterious guy immediately waved their Sword, releasing a Sword Wave. And as expected, the clash was equal. Alex had been using his Spirit Crown and Fire Authority to boost his power. At the same time, Anya also increased his cultivation base temporarily by using her usual support ability. "This will be a hard fight, and I don''t know if I can win or not." Alex took a deep breath while lifting his finger to create many Spatial Plates to hinder his opponent. The guy also felt something in front of him, but he could barely tell where and what they were. He furrowed his eyebrows. Alex and the guy leaped toward each other. The guy was avoiding the Space Plates. However, his aim was no that. Suddenly, a monster appeared between them, trying to attack someone past them. Alex immediately recognized his intention. He was planning to use that monster to attack him. Because of that, he decided to do the same as they slashed their sword at the same time. Because both of their visions were covered by this monster''s large body, they thought they were able to make a sneak attack. Little did they know, whether it was Alex''s Spirit Eyes or the guy''s Time Eyes, both of them seemed to be able to see through this monster, focusing their vision on each other. The moment they slashed the monsters into two, their swords collided and created a shock wave that blew the body away. "!!!" The two seemed to be surprised by their own actions. In that clash alone, they had the same thought. ??He could see me?'' Alex immediately leaped back to create another distance. The first strike where he wounded him was one of the worst attacks that might not be possible to be blocked¡­ Or at least, that was what he felt for the time being. Whether it was coming from the gap in their cultivation base or his time ability itself, Alex still felt the danger of challenging him in that clash. "What should I do?" Alex thought for a moment while looking left and right to see an opportunity but to no avail. He didn''t have anything to take advantage of and sighed. "It seems I can only clash with him for a few more minutes to see any opportunity while learning about his ability." Having decided what to do, Alex leaped toward the guy with both weapons. Despite his objective, Alex wasn''t reckless at all. He kept his distance to make sure the guy didn''t use the same technique and injured him again. Of course, the task of maintaining his distance fell upon his spear. When the mysterious guy tried to get closer to him and his spear didn''t make it, he immediately used his two Dragons to ram him, albeit both dragons got cut with his weapons. That strange ability was something Alex needed to take down if he wanted to win against the person in front of him. Still, he was pretty lucky because his opponent is a 10-Star Martial Saint while he is a 6-Star. If he were to fight him while he was 1-Star, the gap would be higher even if the guy only had a 4-Star Martial Saint cultivation base. Normally, he would be able to fight even if his enemy was stronger than him. And this mysterious guy was the same. Yet, if they were asked, could they defeat the weakest God Rank Expert? The answer would be no. It was because of the huge qualitative leap from a mortal to a divine being. That was why the 10-Star Martial Saint got his ability limited by the current cultivation base. If not, Alex might be more miserable than now. And with this, ten minutes had passed. Alex''s situation became a bit worse, but he seemed to have completed his objective. "Ah! I can finally see it." Alex smirked. "I think I have grasped your ability. You can see something¡­ But it''s not me. There is also another time where your vision is blocked. Even though you somehow can see me, I am sure it''s not my figure. Instead, there is something else that indicates something that allows you to figure out my move." "¡­" There was no need for an answer. Alex already knew he was right because his expression turned serious. *Clap Clap!* The guy smirked while giving Alex applause. "To think you have grasped the ability of my eyes in just a few exchanges¡­ I am impressed." "Now, you have finally talked." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "We don''t have any grudges. Yet, you come here from another world, suddenly attacking me. Who are you? What is your objective?" "Have you fought so many idiots to the point you ask this pointless question?" "No¡­ I am just testing whether you are an idiot or not." Veins bulge on their heads, knowing that the enemy before them is the pain in the ass. Alex sensed his spirits and knew they were still alright. Although it was a bit rough for them, they made good progress. The guy took a deep breath. "Still, I will give you a hint of my objective¡­. If you don''t become stronger as quickly as possible, you are going to die." "¡­" Alex''s expression turned grim as he asked. "What do you mean by that?" "It''s as I said. You are too weak to live." "Then, let''s see whether I have the power or not." Alex smiled as he channeled his Spiritual Energy to his Spirit Crown, utilizing his Spirit Step and Dragon Aura to enhance his strength. The flame rose even further as it was also fueled by Sherry and the couple. Despite saying this, Alex knew that he could not defeat the person in front of him even with Anya''s support. That was why the only way to close the gap was with the help of his Contracted Beasts. His Pure Fire started scorching and heated up the air. That hot air brushed his skin as he noticed that his Pure was no joke. Coupled with his Space Element, Alex might be able to defeat him even with a stronger cultivation base and Time Element¡­ But as long as he carefully approached him, it shouldn''t be that hard. "Heh¡­ Your Pure Fire is strong, but it can only burn something that is used for a period of time. Or at least, it should have a physical body. It doesn''t matter whether it is visible or not. Still, it is useless against my Time Element. It won''t be able to burn time!" The guy smirked. "Say no more!" Alex slashed his weapons forward, sending twelve Sword Waves. "This again¡­" The guy sent the same Sword Wave to block this attack. But like their previous clash, Alex''s Space Cut was still able to break through this attack, making their way toward the guy. The guy slashed the remaining attacks. "Paradox Slash!" "It''s futile. You won''t¡ª" Before he finished, he saw Alex opening his Spatial Gate as if he wanted to escape to the Space World. The guy clicked his tongue and leaped toward Alex with all of his strength. "Acceleration!" "!!!" Alex swung his spear to the left, feeling the hit. However, the guy''s figure never appeared in his vision. Instead, that guy seemed to have teleported to his right side. This confused Alex, but before he knew it, the pain appeared again. This time, it originated from his arms and stomach. "Gah!" He spat another mouthful of blood, never expecting he got cut again. Not only that, but his Spatial Gate was also split into half. He gritted his teeth, knowing he must catch this guy off to create a Spatial Gate. Taking another glimpse of that guy, Alex lifted his finger as many tentacles appeared around that guy. "Space Bind!" "Delayed Slash!" The Sword cut every single tentacle again as the guy leaped forward. Alex created another Spatial Gate to escape. However, the moment the guy almost cut him, he suddenly let go of his control over the Spatial Gate and turned around with both weapons in his hands. Smiling, he swung both weapons at the same time. "!!!" The guy immediately recognized Alex''s movement. It was to bait him, and he realized that he was in a pinch. "I won''t make it!" "Heaven Light Slash!" "Paradox Slash!" *Clang!* What was shocking about this was the fact that only one clicking sound reverberated in their ears. "Kah!" Alex spat another mouthful of blood as his waist got another injury. But this time, he smiled. "Impossible!" That guy also spat blood. Two wounds appeared on his right arm, two on his chest, and one in his left arm. Alex panted as he smiled, looking at this guy. This was the first time he managed to land a clean hit, so he said, "Now that I have seen through your move, how about another round?" 813 Another Round? Are You Sure? The mysterious guy somehow halted his step and glanced at him. "Do you think those techniques can help you defeat me?" "It''s true that our gap is high, but you are still a 10-Star Martial Saint, not a God Rank Expert. The chance is still there." Alex took a deep breath and added inwardly. ''Although the chance is small due to my injured body, as long as I know what to use as the main attack and bait, I should be able to get the best of him¡­ Ah, if only I have mastered a few more arrays, I can make my attack more diverse to the point it''s hard to see which one is the bait or the attack¡­'' "Then, I will show you what it means to have Time Ability." The mysterious guy smirked as he leaped again. Alex thrust his spear toward him, so he could maintain the distance. However, he found out that the guy was using his time element again. "What is this?!" Before long, he suddenly realized something was wrong. The guy, who was parrying his spear, suddenly moved faster and slid his sword on the spear body. ''No! He is not the one faster. I am the one getting slower!'' It was at this time Alex realized what was going on. Yet, the clash had ended as the guy passed him. Two more wounds appeared on Alex''s body. Blood started dripping out. The pain began to cover all his body, but it was still endurable for him. "You won''t be able to defeat me, and this will be the place where you fall." The guy closed his eyes as if he just won. "Is that so?" Alex smiled. As soon as Alex uttered that question, a wound appeared on his arm, covering his hand with blood. "!!!" The guy turned around, finding this unreasonable. However, he soon realized what just happened when he saw Alex was covered with his Pure Fire. "I can''t burn your time element with my Pure Fire earlier because your techniques are purely influencing you. There is not enough time for me to burn it. Unfortunately, this one is sticking around my body. Even if you have Pure Time Element, it still won''t be able to withstand my Pure Fire." Alex smiled, moving his body like normal. ''To think that his Fire can react that fast¡­ And that ferocity, this man might prove to be the main key that I have been searching for. I should push him again, hoping he will unleash his full potential.'' The mysterious guy smiled. "Why are you smiling?" "It''s simple. Do you think I only cut you twice?" The guy suddenly used his Time Element again. "Delayed Slash!" The slash that had been frozen in time emerged, trying to cut Alex''s from behind. Yet¡­ *Crack!* The attack stopped after cutting a few Space Plates. Alex looked at him again and asked, "What did you say again?" Alex also utilized his Pure Fire with the trio''s help. He channeled his Spiritual Energy to the dragons and weapons, powering them up even more. The two then leaped toward each other again, slashing their swords at the same time. *Clang!* The clicking sound reverberated in their ears, but the Spiritual Energy and their intent still passed each other''s sword, creating a shock wave that somehow made a crater on the ground. They were only ten meters in the air, so it was pretty normal. In fact, most of the fight between Martial Saints would cause something like this. Alex thrust his spear toward the guy''s head, but the latter seemed to have realized this move. "Delayed Slash!" In just a single swing, he somehow saved a portion of that to create this Delayed Slash and the other half to attack Alex''s sword. It was amazing, but Alex already knew about it. That was why he thrust his spear. It immediately pierced through the Slash before it was fully activated. "Deceleration." "Pure Fire!" The guy activated the technique to slow down Alex, but the latter burned it with his Pure Fire. At the same time, Alex finally made his move. "Space Bind!" "Hmm?" The guy glanced over the feeling of incoming objects. He immediately raised his other hand. "Blade Rite." Just like how a Sword King could utilize his hand or other objects as a sword, the guy used that ability to send a Sword Wave to cut his tentacles. However, Alex didn''t stop here. He created a Spatial Gate to swallow this attack and allowed his tentacles to grasp the guy. At the same time, another Spatial Gate appeared right above him as Alex leaped back. "Hmph!" The guy only snorted when he saw this. He only activated his Time Element, and before long the Sword Wave disappeared. At the same time, he cut the tentacles with his sword. Alex created another Spatial Gate, so he could escape, but the guy immediately leaped again to prevent it. ''He is not going to escape¡­'' It might be due to him having seen it once, he could tell that Alex wasn''t really going to escape with his Time Eyes. The moment Alex turned around, he immediately activated his technique again. "Acceleration!" "!!!" Alex opened his eyes wide as a few more wounds appeared again. "He read me? Or did he know that was a bait?" "Mythical Fire Slash!" Alex sent a Sword Wave before leaping in the opposite direction, creating another Spatial Gate. "Blade Rite." The guy sent his Sword Wave to catch up with Alex, but he already knew there would be another Spatial Gate that absorbed his attack. That was why the guy used his Acceleration technique and flew together with his own attack before destroying the Spatial Gate himself, so his Sword Wave could fly toward Alex. "!!!" Alex was startled, never expecting the guy to use this kind of approach. He immediately activated his Spiritual Weapon to form a barrier. The two dragons also returned back to him, trying to pummel this guy if he dared to come. The guy furrowed his eyebrows. Alex was in his front, but the dragons came from below and his right. If he used his Delayed Slash again, he could only cover one of the dragons and Alex. After all, the swing would be for a single line, not like how a bird flying. ''I see. He also has understood my slash¡­ Interesting. Let''s see what you''ve got!'' The guy smiled, still heading toward Alex. The moment he arrived in front of Alex, he immediately swung his sword. "Delayed Slash!" Alex didn''t care about what he thought and struck him. The strike went as planned as his sword, and one of the dragons got stopped by that Delayed Slash, but the dragon from below was let loose, ready to swallow him. It was at this time the guy suddenly slowed down the dragon as he stepped back. Alex hadn''t seen this kind of thing yet and would never expect for him to slow down the dragon¡­ That was if Alex didn''t have his Spirit Eyes. He kept watching the flow of energy and noticed his Time Element was about to reach the dragon. Hence, he channeled more Spiritual Energy to the dragon. Originally, it would already have an overbearing Pure Fire inside its stomach, but Alex reinforced the outer appearance with his Pure Fire. The Dragon is now covered with Fire. Alex didn''t know at this time that he was progressing with an insane speed. It might be due to the stronger enemy, life and death battle, or someone who was beyond his understanding. Nonetheless, Alex kept creating one move after another that originally he could make but lack of opportunity. It was only at this battle Alex realized that and unleashed the potential he had been stopping. And the way he handled his every attack became even more refined. "Die!" The dragon opened its mouth wide, trying to swallow the guy. "This is a good one, but it still can''t reach me." The guy simply smiled. He grabbed the scabbard on his waist and swung it like swinging a sword. "What?!" Alex widened his eyes. He never expected this because none of the people he met in the past had this kind of fighting style. That was why he forgot, no, not paid attention to the scabbard on his waist from the beginning. He frowned and clicked his tongue. ''To think this is the one that made me fail to attack him¡­'' The dragon was cut into two with the scabbard alone. Alex clicked his tongue and struck him with his spear, only to find the guy to block it again with his sword. Even so, he pushed him back as far as he could before retreating to a safe distance. ''How should I do this? My attack is working, but neither of them can hit him. Unless I am prepared to get a few wounds, I won''t be able to hit him. The problem is, how should I do it without getting injured? I will be dead before I can kill him at this rate. ''And another concern is his ability¡­ If I don''t have my Spirit Eyes, I am afraid I won''t be able to react fast enough to cover all my vitals with my flame.'' Alex took a deep breath, searching for a way to attack him. ''Should I use Space Element? Pure Fire? Or my weapons?'' He needed something that could catch him off guard. Something that could hinder him for even a split second¡­ "!!!" Alex suddenly remembered what this place is. They have been fighting in the middle of Ancient Ruin filled with beasts. Although most beasts were avoiding them because of the scale of their fights, some of them were still charging toward them. A monster came to the corner of his vision. He immediately activated his Space Element and made Space Bind, summoning a few tens of tentacles. The monster was a giant boar, which had a perfect size to do this. The moment he saw Alex raising his hand, he became vigilant because he didn''t want to get restricted by the tentacles. Unfortunately, the tentacles only appeared around the boar. It strangled its feet, so it fell down. Using that kind of weight and its momentum, Alex threw the boar toward the mysterious guy. "!!!" He glanced slightly to the left after noticing the big incoming object, but Alex had disappeared by using that line of sight. ''How did he disappear just like that?'' He split the boar with his Sword before looking for Alex. Little did he know Alex actually hid behind that boar. Alex knew a little bit about misdirection, and he used that boar to make the guy looked to the left. The moment the black part of his eyes moved, he followed it until he reached behind the boar. By that time, the guy wouldn''t find him. When he saw the boar got slashed, he used that chance to appear right before him, swinging his sword down. "Acceleration!" The guy''s action was completely unexpected as he suddenly used his technique to increase speed. Yet, the one who felt the sudden increase in speed was Alex. "!!!" Alex''s swing was too fast, but that precisely the reason his attack missed its target. ''He used Acceleration to me while using Deceleration to himself, so he could make me miss the target? And with that single chance, he will¡­ Sh*t!'' Just like how Alex predicted. The moment his attack missed, the guy used his Acceleration again, and he used it on himself. From max speed to zero, from zero to max speed¡­ Although this seems to be the basic skills of Time Element, it was so deadly if it was used at the perfect moment! And Alex was experiencing it right now. The guy smiled as he struck Alex again. Alex spat blood as more injuries appeared on his body. "Now¡­ Are we going to have another round?" 814 No U Alex clicked his tongue. ''What the heck is his objective? Why would he suddenly come to this world and attack me? From all things that happened in this world, I don''t think my name and existence are known by many worlds yet. ''Never mind. I need to hinder him until the rest defeat those men in black. If possible, I want to defeat him, but it will be very hard. Anyway, I shall have Jeanne to extract information from him.'' Alex thought before taking a deep breath. He checked his injury. His blood loss was a problem, but he should have a pill that could replenish his blood. The problem would be whether he could eat it in front of him or not because he knew the mysterious guy wouldn''t let him. ''Wait! Should I just find an escape route to the Space World? Although it might be bad if I escape from this place because who knows what these guys will do, I can still attack him from the Space World like how I use my Space Techniques to influence reality. ''His eyes might be able to follow me, but I noticed that his reaction was slightly lower when I hid behind the boar. In that case, I will gain a tremendous advantage the moment I hide inside the Space World. Defeating him might not be impossible. I will only need to find a way to go there.'' Alex nodded inwardly as he had finished making his plan. The mysterious guy seemed to use the time to study Alex''s ability. They didn''t know why, but both of them thought the same thing. ''He is the most amazing person I have ever fought!'' However, this thought raised another fighting spirit in their heart. They wanted to beat the other party themselves, not kill because the mysterious guy found Alex useful while Alex still needed information from him. That was why not a single of them actually released killing intent from the start to finish other than to startle their opponent. The shockwave kept shocking the area as the rest of the people seemed to have a great fight among themselves. Although Alex''s Spirits gained an advantage with their number, the men in black had gotten used to their attack pattern and removed that gap by utilizing their stronger cultivation base. Alex and the guy took a deep breath before they leaped forward. "Heaven Light Slash!" "Acceleration!" Alex summoned his six Sword Slashes while the guy used his Acceleration. The result should be like the first clash where the guy cut Alex, but this time, Alex had got the hang of it. On top of using his Triple Draws, Alex created a few Space Plates to stop his movement. His opponent immediately waved his scabbard to destroy the Space Plates, but Alex was one step ahead this time. "Space Bind!" "!!!" Noticing the surrounding tentacles, he changed his target from the Space Plates to the tentacles. And Alex''s relentless attack had yet to finish. "Ah! I have seen it through your Martial Art now! No matter how powerful the dragons are, they are still a Martial Art. As long as I return their time to before you create them, they will¡­" The dragons began to dematerialize and vanish into thin air. "Disappear¡­ Just like this." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. After having so many surprises, he was sure he wouldn''t get surprised by what this man did in the future. That was why he immediately used every ounce of his strength and pushed the guy back. Unfortunately, the guy''s physique seemed to be a bit stronger than Alex because he was the one pushing Alex back. Because of that, Alex chose to lose in this exchange and used the force to launch him back. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" Alex thrust his sword, shooting a big laser toward the guy. "This is not enough." The guy shook his head after witnessing the power of Alex''s Original Spear Skill and waved his sword. "Blade Rite." The Sword Wave, along with its shock wave, cut Alex''s attack before he found himself getting startled the moment the attack was completely cut into two. Behind the attack turned out to be Alex''s spear. He must have thrown it after using this technique with his sword. No, it should be precisely the reason why he used the sword instead of his spear. "Kh!" Because he just swung his sword, it took him a while before he could react. Luckily, he had held his scabbard this whole time and used it to block the spear. ''If I don''t have a scabbard, I might get injured for that one¡­ It might even take my ear if I dodged it. What a scary¡ª'' When he was thinking how scary Alex''s attack was, the owner of that attack appeared right above the spear, swinging his sword. "What?! How?!" The guy immediately spun his body, so his scabbard could block this attack. "Heaven Light Slash!" As expected, Alex wouldn''t let this chance go and struck him with all of his strength, blowing him to the ground. "Fire Sword!" He and Sherry summoned their Fire Swords, resulting in one hundred Fire Swords. Alex then coated the sword with his Intent while Sherry rained them down to the mysterious guy. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions occurred on the battlefield. Still, none of the people there actually believed that any of those hit the guy. Even Alex immediately turned his vision forty-five degrees to his left, finding the man somehow rolling his body on the ground. It seemed he used Acceleration to roll too, making him the fastest rolling man. Unfortunately, Alex had prepared the follow-up. The moment he found the guy, the two dragons immediately appeared from his left and right, leaving him only one escape room. Alex appeared right above him, the only escape route he had. "This is still not enough." The guy smiled. He had once removed these Dragons, so he simply needed to erase it once again. Alex also smiled as if he had predicted this move. He raised both hands and summoned three Spatial Gates. The first two Spatial Gates swallowed the dragons before the guy could erase them, while the last one summoned them back right in front of Alex. *Roar!* "Not good!" The dragons swallowed the guy and exploded. The explosion also engulfed Alex, but his Pure Fire wouldn''t let him get hurt from something like this. At the same time, he tracked the Spiritual Energy inside the smoke. He was surprised to see him uninjured, or at least, that was what he saw with only his Spiritual Energy. When the wind blew the smoke away, the guy seemed to create a shield to block the dragon from swallowing him at the last minute. Then he returned the time of that explosion, preventing it from bringing him down. The guy took a deep breath and punched the ground with his fist, raising his body to the point it flew toward Alex. He adjusted his position and swung his sword. "Acceleration!" Alex utilized his Spirit Nest and swung his sword according to what he saw. *Clang Clang Clang!* A series of clicking sounds reverberated in their ears. It might be due to his position, the strikes he threw earlier were fewer than the previous one. And it was what allowed Alex to receive the attacks completely. "I have gotten used to your speed. Now, it''s time for you to be hunted." Alex smirked and leaped toward him. "Let''s see you try then." The guy smirked. The two started clashing again. From Martial Arts to Elements, from Elements to Physical Prowess, they tried everything they could to gain an advantage. And yet, the battle came to a halt. Not a single bloodshed occurred for another five minutes due to them getting used to their opponent''s ability. Alex didn''t know why, but he felt something changed inside him. He never lacked powerful opponents, he just never faced them head-on like this one. And this was the one hindering his progress. That was why this battle increased his battle prowess to another level by evolving his technique and combination. ¡­ Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi behind the screen was watching the battle intensely. Korzan couldn''t take away his eyes from this fight and unconsciously remarked. "So, this is the Time Element. One of the rarest elements in our universe. Then, Sir¡­" "No. This is just a basic version of Time Element. As expected, you gain some, you lose some. That boy gained the Time Eyes but lost most of his Time Element power. If my father were to fight Alex, he could simply turn Alex''s body into that of a child or an old man, making him unable to move. "There is also a skill that can stop Alex''s time, preventing him from escaping. Of course, it can be stopped by Alex''s Space Element and Pure Fire, but he has yet to know that is possible." Lin Xingzhi sighed while shaking her head. "Milady doesn''t want to inform Master about this?" "No. Korzan¡­ Can''t you look at it?" "What is it?" "Alex''s ability is growing faster than we can imagine. Maybe I was too fixated with Alex to the point I don''t want him to get injured beyond his capability. However, I unconsciously restricted his ability to grow." "Ah!" Korzan opened his mouth, just realized it. "In fact, the precious experience is a life and death battle. Alex knows that the moment they get captured, they will be put in great torture and may even die. Or at least, that is what he thinks. That''s why he is trying to break his own cocoon to turn into a beautiful butterfly. "Just watch this battle silently. No matter if he loses or not, this is the perfect time for Alex to grow his ability even further." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and leaned back. Korzan listened to her shaking voice. Even though it was for Alex, she still felt pain. Whether it was an obsession or not, what is wrong for a wife hoping for her husband''s well-being? Korzan knew how much Lin Xingzhi suffered for the past few thousand years, so he understood why she was acting like this. The only thing he could do was to stay silent. ¡­ In the meantime, the battle between Alexander and the mysterious guy escalated to another level. Alex threw his spear again after using his Mythical Spear Cannon. However, the guy seemed to have realized Alex''s intention and perfectly blocked the spear. "Hmm¡­ Losing your spear this early? Are you¡ª" "I am sure." Alex''s voice suddenly resounded in one of his ears as Alex appeared right before his spear and grabbed it while slashing his sword. "I have seen this attack already." The guy clicked his tongue and stopped Alex''s attack with his sword. "Yeah. But how about this?" Alex smirked, channeling his Pure Fire to his sword. The Pure Fire spread on the sword''s body, making its way toward the guy''s hand. "!!!" The guy infused his Time Element to his sword to stop the fire from spreading, but the fire only burned even stronger after engulfing the Time Element. He clicked his tongue and swung the sword with all his might. Alex got pushed back, but his objective was already completed. The fire would cover the sword. Even if it couldn''t burn the sword completely, it should be able to prevent him from using it. And as he predicted, the guy threw the sword without hesitation before getting another one from his Space Ring. "Throwing your sword this early? Are you sure?" Alex threw the exact line he said earlier. "No, you!" The guy smiled. Alex suddenly felt a sharp pain on his right arm as another wound appeared again. ''Impossible. I didn''t see anything before.'' Alex widened his eyes, wondering how such an attack could land on his body. The guy simply pointed his finger while smiling like a sly fox as if everything had gone according to his plan. He then asked with a bit of an evil tone. "Do you think I have used all my strength to fight you?!" 815 Space Vs Time Alex frowned, wondering if what he said was true or not. ''He is still holding back? But do I need to slow down my pace to study this man again? Or is it just an empty threat? I often used something like this, so my enemy thinks I still have another trump card. Because they will most likely make a mistake in this situation¡­ Still, what if it''s true?'' He arrived in a dilemma. Even though they had been fighting for half an hour, their position returned to square one. Of course, Alex had been trying to lure him either to the Ancient Ruin or the army far from here. But none of it mattered because this mysterious guy stopped him from going in all that direction. In fact, it was the one that seemed to be restricting him from going all out. Yet, if that guy were holding back this whole time, he would lose sooner or later. A thought suddenly came across in his mind. It was a simple but daring plan, but Alex couldn''t contain his smile. The guy squinted his eyes upon that smile. ''Does he have another trump card too? Or that smile is only to bluff me and make me think he has one?'' When two smart men doubting each other was the time mind battle began. Nevertheless, his objective didn''t change. He stepped forward and slashed his sword. "Blade Rite." Alex looked at this incoming attack along with the pressure it brought. He took a deep breath and jumped forward with both hands in front, making the other guy think he would destroy the Sword Wave. ''He is going to destroy that attack? There is only one technique that he can use to destroy that¡­ Wait! No, he is not going to destroy it. He is¡­'' When the mysterious guy thought of it, he became aware of Alex''s real plan. A Spatial Gate appeared before Alex, swallowing his attack. The guy immediately raised his guard to search for the incoming attack and returned its time. However, Alex smiled as he summoned five Spatial Gates in his surroundings, confusing him as to which one would summon his attack. ''Which one? No. I shall cut everything!'' The guy gritted his teeth and used his Blade Rite again, cutting the five Spatial Gates into half before lowering his vision. He found out Alex was summoning another Spatial Gate for him to go through. ''No, you won''t!'' "Acceleration!" The guy stomped the ground and released his full speed, heading toward Alex to prevent him from escaping. It was at this time, he suddenly felt a fluctuation of Spiritual Energy above him and realized it was a trap all along. Alex left the control of his Spatial Gate and slashed his sword, sending a Sword Wave that cut through his own Spatial Gate. At the same time, the guy''s Blade Rite appeared from above. Without anyone realizing it, the two dragons from Alex''s Swallowing Heaven also made their appearances from left and right. The guy, on the other hand, looked at his surroundings. His current speed didn''t allow him to stop and change direction. In fact, this must be Alex''s scheme by trapping him with those five Spatial Gates and using his fastest speed to catch up. However, Alex miscalculated one thing. The guy looked up, finding Alex behind his own Blade Rite and smiled. "Deceleration!" He forcefully used the maximum output from his Deceleration on himself, killing his momentum almost immediately as if his time stopped for a second. That technique allowed him to make a very long distance between him and the attack due to his original speed. Even Alex was surprised by that. "I found you!" The guy smirked, stepped on the ground once, and leaped toward Alex with his speed. "!!!" Alex, who was following the guy''s movement, had himself cornered once he predicted it wrong. The flame rose =to protect Alex from the incoming attack. "Paradox Slash!" The same multiple attacks struck Alex''s barrier and armor. At the same time, he made a few Space Plates to hinder that attack while using Space Bind to stop the attack completely. "Ho?!" The guy was amazed. "Although my attack is not as powerful as yours, this was my strongest attack. To think you have the ability to stop it without your weapons¡­" Alex didn''t say anything and leaped back. He immediately checked his body. ''Ugh. Sherry and the others just used too much power to block that attack. The Spiritual Weapons also used two shields. I have lost that much just with a single strike¡­ Still, if I don''t use it, that attack might become fatal to me. This is turning bad for me.'' ''Master¡­ I think I know how to beat him.'' Sherry suddenly sent a thought transmission. ''You are not going to say you want to use Hell Inferno to destroy this place along with him, right?'' ''At first, I thought of that, but I realized he would be too fast for Hell Inferno to be activated. Hence, I think we still use Hell Inferno.'' ''Oi!'' ''I know. But I am not planning to use Hell Inferno here.'' ''Not here? Then where¡­'' Alex thought for a second and smiled. ''Ah. I see. Thank you for your idea, Sherry.'' ''I am glad I can help Master.'' Alex suddenly smiled. "System, use all my EXP Cards to the Spirits. We should have enough for each spirit to gain one level, right?" [Yes. But are you sure, Host?] "Yes. Leoz will probably be the closest one to 8-Star. Even if he levels up, there is still 9-Star and the rest of 10-Star. At that time, I should be able to catch up within the next three years since I am confident in raising my cultivation to 9-Star within that time. "Although I need to learn about Alchemy and Array Mastery, I think I can still reach 8-Star even with all of that training. In the worst case, I can make them leave the Spirit Nest for a bit, so they don''t get any EXPs. "And I believe this fight is very important to me. Not only can I scare that person away, even if I can''t kill him. It gives me time to investigate his ability and identity, so he doesn''t harm Rose and Letizia when I leave." [I understand.] [Processing¡­] [Complete.] Suddenly, the spirits got a power-up as their Spiritual Energy was filled again. This sudden phenomenon immediately took everyone''s breath away. "What is that? Why did all of them suddenly get an increase in their cultivation base? Increase? Or should I say they have a breakthrough just now?" The men in black widened their eyes. Although the spirits didn''t know why Alex suddenly used the EXP Cards, they still took the enemies before them as their priority, beginning their relentless attack. It gradually became one-sided because of the shock. Not only that, but they also had used a portion of their power, so it was a bit hard for them to maintain this fight. When everyone in their confused state, Alex already made a Spatial Gate escape in the real world. "!!!" The mysterious guy opened his mouth in surprise. As much as he wanted to help his comrades, Alex was still his priority. Yet he realized that if he didn''t bet it all here, Alex would surely escape to the Space World. "Acceleration!" He used his Acceleration to the maximum. Alex was astonished and panicked. He threw his Spear in panic, hoping to hinder him. The guy didn''t use his Deceleration and let the spear fly past him. Seeing Alex''s expression, he was sure that Alex didn''t think he had this kind of speed¡­ Only to find that he was fooled. Alex''s panicked expression turned into a calm as he smiled as if everything was going according to his plan. It was at this moment the guy realized everything was a trap. Alex confused and slowed his train of thought for a moment by that sudden breakthrough. In fact, his people might have hidden their real power to begin with, just like him. He then turned around and saw Alex appear above his spear using his Space Mark before entering a Spatial Gate. Because of his momentum and delayed thinking, he let Alex escape into the Space World, only leaving him that smug smile of his before he entered. "No! I won''t let him go away!" He gritted his teeth and released all of his Spiritual Energy, and spread it all around the region. Even if this would drain his Spiritual Energy, he needed to grasp Alex first. This was the reason why Space Beast was feared. They were fighting inside the Space World, where they could see their enemies while the enemy couldn''t see them. At the same time, they had their own specialty that made them dangerous. That was why the cultivators were troubled. Not only they needed to spread their Spiritual Energy and Intent to check their position that would require a huge amount of Spiritual Energy, but their reaction time was slightly reduced because they couldn''t see them. Even so, the mysterious guy was adamant to not let Alex get away. He closed his eyes to find Alex, albeit once again, he got played. When he sensed his Spiritual Energy got reflected, it was right before him. "!!!" He instinctively raised his sword before finding himself blown away by the power. ''Impossible. That Alexander got me again.'' He thought while using his Deceleration to stop his movement, so he had time to react and launched him back up. Alex didn''t let him do so and pursued him. When the guy stopped mid-air, he thrust his spear. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" "Tch." The guy clicked his tongue and created a barrier in front of him. Alex saw a huge amount of energy behind this shield, but he realized that the shield itself had the same energy like his Deceleration. The moment his Mythical Spear Cannon hit the shield, it slowed down to the point the tail caught up, resulting in an explosion due to the crash with its own body. "What?!" Alex widened his eyes. "That is not a barrier, but a concentrated plate of Deceleration. My Mythical Fire Cannon is like a long stick filled with energy. Because the head was stopped, the butt arrived first and collided. If he could use something like this, I can''t use an attack like this again¡­ A Sword Wave¡­ might still be possible." The mysterious guy, on the other hand, leaped toward Alex and struck him with his sword. Alex stopped him with his sword, but the other guy had another intention as he smiled and said. "I have found you! And I won''t let you go now!" "¡­" 816 Weird Ending Alex would be a bit too much if he got away due to him being in the Space World. In fact, the mysterious guy was slashing the air in other''s perspective this whole time. If there were no shock wave in each clash, people would think him insane. The mysterious guy was looking at Alex with great interest. However, there seemed to be a doubt in his heart. ''He has been improving so much during the fight, but if I keep this up, I might not be able to return to my world. I think I should finish this as soon as possible¡­ The problem is whether I should defeat him or escape.'' He thought while sticking to Alex. Alex realized the difficulty in using his technique against someone in the real world. It seemed the Space Beast was rather special because they used to live inside this Space World and fought from the Space World. When he tried to use his attack, most of his attacks were either stopped by the Space World or the Real World limitations. At the same time, the guy kept his back facing his comrades. Alex thought he would sacrifice his comrade if the attacks slipped past him, but he realized it wasn''t the case. He believed Alex wouldn''t attack him with a long-range attack because it might hit the spirits. Hence, Alex didn''t gain much of an advantage despite being in the Space World. After knowing this, Alex suddenly thought something ridiculous. Because of that, he decided to return to the real world. "Hoh?! To think you chose to return here." The guy smiled. "It''s better than the guy who talks like a gay." Alex snorted. The two twitched their eyebrows. "Still, since you choose to fight against me in this world again¡­ I will make sure you can''t return to that Space World." The guy smirked. "¡­" Alex frowned. "If you have the ability, you can keep me in this world instead of the Space World." "Hmph. Then I will let you see it!" The guy leaped toward him using his Acceleration. He arrived right in front of Alex and swung his sword. At this time, a very thin layer of Spatial Gate appeared right before the sword struck him. Due to its size, Alex certainly could make a Spatial Gate that small and stabilize it within an instant. It might not fit even a fist of a human, but it certainly was a perfect fit for a thin but sharp sword. And most importantly, Alex opened another gate similar to the size right on the guy''s main hand, trying to cut his arm. Alex didn''t have that kind of thought. He simply wanted to connect the Space World to the Real World as quickly as possible and thought, ''Ah, I can build a small one only to let through a small attack like a thin sword.'' As for his concentration¡­ After training so much with much harder tasks like Alchemist and Array Master, Alex had gotten used to it. He might not be able to summon many Spatial Gates right now, but a few should be possible, thus the two thin Spatial Gates. As a result, the sword suddenly returned to its owner, trying to cut his own hand. "Acceleration!" The guy felt something was odd, so he immediately used his scabbard to block his own sword. And he didn''t use force behind it, so the sword launched himself at his comrade in his back. "Young Lord?!" The men in black were obviously flustered to see that their Young Lord, who usually fought against stronger people, lost in the hand of a mere 6-Star Martial Saint. The guy didn''t say anything for a few seconds, looking at Alex, who was going to come at him. The moment he looked at his subordinate, he was shocked. The time on his head changed. But that change was the one that made him worry. It might be due to Alex''s transformation, or there might be another cause that could change the time. But neither of them was something he could brush away just like that. He checked on everyone''s time and realized they had the same amount of time. In that case, he gritted his teeth and ordered with a grim expression. "Jiu! We are leaving!" "Young Lord?!" The leader of men in black was startled. They could still fight them at least for another thirty minutes, but he wanted to leave so early? He couldn''t comprehend the meaning behind this order. "Your time is five minutes right now!" "What?!" He certainly understood what it meant. The guy simply told him he would die in five minutes; this was certainly insane. That was why he thought there must be something going on that could make his lifespan turn into five minutes. ''Reinforcement?'' "Come back here. We will retreat!" The mysterious guy clapped his head and used most of his Spiritual Energy to use his technique. "Deceleration." Only Alex''s Pure Fire could break free from this, so this was pretty effective for the spirits. Using that sudden stop, they immediately leaped toward the portal. As much as Alex wanted to chase them, he saw the same energy as Delayed Slash and realized he needed to break it. "Leoz!" Of course, the moment he broke it, he burned the time element that surrounded them and shouted. "I understand!" Leoz raised his hand and summoned a few lightning balls. They connected with each other and released a mighty attack. "Thunder God Cannon!" Because they were together in one place, Alex thought it would be a good time to kill them altogether, but they seemed to be better than Leo or Liza. The moment they saw Leoz''s Thunder God Cannon, the seven guys appeared and struck it at the same time. It wasn''t a random spot. Instead, they chose right in the middle of that cannon, and the laser-like attack got dispersed in all directions due to that extraordinary pressure in the middle. By using that, they could cross the portal safely since Alex and his spirits wouldn''t come just to get stung by Leoz''s attack. They then arrived in a place filled with green scenery, but couldn''t relax just yet because they needed to get away from this place as soon as possible. The mysterious guy used his Time Element again to slow down these monsters as they flew away, finding a small ship that brought them here. They entered the ship and flew away. "Young Lord ¡­" The leader came because of his doubt. "It''s inevitable¡­ Still, I see one interesting man. If I am not wrong, the Spirit God used his life to seal a beast in his past life, right?" "Yes." "Hmm¡­ I don''t know if this is related to that ancient being or not, but I will look at it in the future. Still, I wonder what kind of key moved earlier to change your lifespan to five minutes¡­ Reinforcement? But they are inside a strange place, no? It''s weird, but I don''t have time to think about it." The guy thought for a moment. "I don''t know if the relationship of this person with the Spirit God, but he might be the main key to solve the problem." "You should worry about yourself, Young Lord. Isn''t he the one you can call the Main Character?" "Haha¡­ Saving the world as the main character, it''s bullsh*t. Humans are selfish creatures. Even if he saves the world, it is not because of the greater good. Just like how I am risking my life to make him evolve, he must have something to protect or another objective. In any case, it''s not for everyone''s safety or something." "Still, I am worried that he will find you in the future. And what do you mean by risking your life to make him evolve?" "It''s fine. My eyes allow me to see my own lifespan. However, if there is a key that disrupts the normal flow, it has the power to change that. Just like when I was a weak person, I decided to hide when I saw my lifespan shrunk, as you already know. Anyway, it''s too complicated to explain. You only need to know that I decide to trust these eyes. "As for the second matter¡­ It''s simple. At first, I plan to see whether this guy is at his peak or can be polished again. And it turned out the guy had an intriguing fighting style, but it was still unknown to him. "From the looks of it, that guy used to think like this, ''I have an absolute plan that can topple everything.'' And when I saw how those Spirits broke through, I was certain that he must have relied on them a lot¡­ I mean, A LOT! "I believe he has become too comfortable with his current lifestyle. With subordinates exceeding my level, I would have them fix all my problems that would require their power. Meanwhile, I will be killing the opponents of my level¡­ Unfortunately, all his capability and quality didn''t allow him to have a hard fight where he needed to awaken his potential or think of a creative way to use his ability." "So, he got too relaxed to the point he couldn''t unleash his potential?" The man in black furrowed his eyebrows. "Yeah. And I believe he used so many new attack patterns and abilities in our fight. The proof is the fact that I can see his lifespan increasing. Whether it''s him escaping or surviving, it''s still good progress." "I see. We are truly in a bind¡­ On one hand, we might lose our lives because of the Spirit World. On the other hand, if we didn''t do this, we would lose our lives sooner or later." "That''s why I decided to risk my life. Anyway, since he has grown so much in our exchange alone, I don''t need to worry about him for the time being. If I help him from time to time, his anger toward me should be pacified unless he is someone too petty." "Young Lord¡­ You looked like a hero just now." "Hmph!" The guy shrugged. "It is simply my selfish desire. I couldn''t count how many times she helped me in the past¡­ Is it wrong to have her again in the same life?" "If you believe it is wrong, then it is wrong. If you believe it is right, then it is right." "Fair enough. Anyway, I have used too much Spiritual Energy, so I will recover first. If that guy is someone so close to the Spirit World, someone from there might probably come to me sooner or later. In the meantime, I will advance to God Rank first." The guy waved his hand and left the room. ¡­ As they had a peaceful return journey, Alex was suffocated by the worries from others. "Master!" Sherry was the first to come out and hugged him as if he was going to die. She kept calling his name while shedding tears. The other spirits were the same, but Alex managed to calm them down by changing the topic. "Do any of you know anything about that man?" "I don''t know about his identity, but seeing he has Time Element, you should ask Sister Xingzhi instead of us." Anna shook her head, disappointed. "Yeah. It''s nonetheless one of the rarest elements in the world." Anya nodded in agreement. "I see. As much as I want to ask about it, I think I should go to the¡­" Before Alex finished his words, he saw a few figures approaching them. "Yo!" Alex raised his hand, feeling awkward. Not only was his body full of wounds, but he had used so much of his strength in the battle earlier. "What happened here?" Manness frowned. "I will explain later. By the way, why are you here?" "We are worried about you because you might have an accident outside." Manness shrugged. "I see. Thank you." Alex nodded. "In any case, I still need to go down again¡­ Or have any of you met the Gods and Goddesses?" "We met them, but we didn''t have time to converse." "Ah! I am sorry." Alex scratched his head, embarrassed. "Anyway, Let''s go inside again. I will be going with you this time." They didn''t say anything and simply looked at his injured body, wondering if he could still move. Alex ignored them first and looked at his spirits. "I don''t have a problem right now. Just ask Firia to make me a pill to recover when you go back." "No! I will be going with you." Anya shook her head. Her ability should be able to heal him faster than Firia making a pill. After all, most of the injuries were shallow and superficial. She believed she only needed to close the wound without any additional treatment. "Then, I shall follow you too for your protection," Leoz added. Seeing how the two wouldn''t be easily convinced because of this, he decided to agree before the others started showing their interest to follow him. "Alright. Only the two of you can follow me. The rest can return!" As much as they hated it, they could only nod their head. The four that just came out were dumbstruck, never thinking they would see Alex in this state. "Let''s go down first." Alex nodded and went to the hole near the Ancient Ruin, creating another Spatial Gate to go through. The spirits were escorting him until he entered the Special Realm, not wanting to see Alex got ambushed like earlier. Although there were many things they needed to talk about the sudden attack, they could discuss it after this. And just like that, the battle between Alexander and the mysterious guy ended. Who won? No one knew. The people inside were flustered as well when they saw Alex''s wounds, but it started to close because of Anya''s healing ability. They decided to go toward the pillar while Alex told them what just happened. 817 Talk Not long after Alex arrived, they went toward the pillar where Alex used his Space Element to bring them to meet the Gods and Goddesses, of course, with the representatives of the four kingdoms. As soon as they arrived, they were bombarded with questions, especially about how Alex could receive such injuries. Still, they were never expected to have another world that needed to be watched, but Alex assured them that if they could close this portal, those people shouldn''t come to this world again because a few of them were very close to achieving God Rank. And he promised he would see what the real reason they attacked as soon as Alex left this world. Hence, they decided to drop the matter and focused on the monsters first. Alex decided to sit on the side while receiving treatment from Anya, where he could also talk about this matter. When Anya uttered her question, Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. It was also in his mind this whole time because it was too fast for the guy to leave. "True enough. I don''t know, but I have understood a few usages of my Space Element. In fact, all of it was coming from what I have understood this whole time. Do I lack something?" Anya fell into silence. She leaned back and let out a long sigh. "No. I think this is our fault." "How so?" "Because we are too strong, your opportunity to challenge the limit is only a glimmer¡­ Now that I think about it, there were only a few occasions where you fought alone, right?" Alex looked up, counting all those occasions. "Hmm? Only some tournaments¡­ And the one that helped me the most was Mithra¡­" "Ah. She was the one who helped you attain Sword Body and your Martial Lord tribulation." Anya remembered such a person. She was Maxwell''s former friend, and Alex also used her element to bring her into the cycle of reincarnation. How could she forget such a person? "Yeah. The rest¡­ I don''t know. Only a few trials from Stina''s World, Teodross''s trial, and Potential Tower. I don''t think I have fought alone besides that time?" Anya facepalmed, sweating profusely. She looked frustrated as she said. "Ugh. Now that you mention it, we fought many people, but most of the time, the leaders behind them would be killed by either Leoz or Jeanne¡­" "It''s fine. Everyone, including you, wanted to see me safe and sound. I have nothing to say but thank you. Everything was my fault." Alex shook his head. He never realized this. It might be due to the N squad''s perfect information network or his extraordinary spirits¡­ Nonetheless, he realized he never had his plan go wrong. It was as if everything went according to his way. No way he would understand everything. His N Squad might claim to be the best in a lower world like this, but they wouldn''t be able to say the same in the face of many worlds, especially Divine Worlds. This might be the first time he felt very helpless, wondering why he didn''t realize it until now. He took a few minutes to calm down before he opened his mouth, changing the topic. "I have a lot of reflecting to do, but I will do it later. For now, I want to discuss the appearance of that man with you." "I¡­ I understand." Anya hesitated at first, but that hesitation disappeared the moment she saw Alex''s determined face. "Have you asked the system?" "Yeah. She didn''t tell me anything." Anya furrowed her eyebrows. ''Time Element is one of the rarest elements in the universe, so I don''t really have that much information about them. If Sister Xingzhi didn''t tell him anything, it was either she didn''t know or she refused to tell him. It is probably the latter since Sister Xingzhi''s father was the former Time God. Still, seeing there is no notification¡­ It means I don''t have to worry about hiding anything and discuss to the best of my ability, right?'' Alex looked at her with a gentle expression and asked. "It seems you know something." "I don''t know that much because there is practically no research about it. Even the Time Element art is considered a rarity. How do you think there are many Martial Arts or Element Arts in the world?" Alex contemplated for a few seconds before he stared at her with sharp eyes. "Original Technique?" "That''s right. Take an example of your Triple Draws and Mythical Spear Cannon. They are original techniques that can''t be used by another person in a normal condition. However, there is no saying that the person itself can''t copy such a movement, right?" "Ah!" Alex nodded in agreement. Although he suspected there must be some relations between the Martial Arts with the Original Techniques, he had yet to realize the detail before Anya explained. "That person tries to copy and imitate it to the highest degree. Of course, something that is not yours won''t be yours. Hence, you only need to make it your own by mastering it in your own way. Because of that, the Original Techniques become Martial Arts. "After that, since that person can learn it, then other people can master it too. At that time, it will be the start of the generalizations as it gradually becomes a genuinely proper Martial Arts that anybody can use. "Of course, there are some cases where the generalizations increase or decrease the power from its original. It depends on who is the first person copying such a technique. If it''s a genius, he might get a solution to make it stronger. If it''s a normal person, he might downgrade it. "After thousands of years, the number of techniques increases to the point it is now. And I believe this world has history from hundreds of thousands of years that they might not be aware of." Anya finished her explanation. "I see. So, that''s how Martial Arts were born." Alex nodded with a calm expression. "Still, there are times that you can''t copy it, right?" "I don''t think so. Even Pure Element Arts can be copied, let alone normal elements. It depends on whether you have the qualification to do it or not. And take a look at your Sword Mastery or Spear Mastery once again. "After understanding many techniques and deepening your knowledge about it, I believe you can copy someone''s original techniques. You just need a bit longer than the usual one." Alex thought for a moment and opened his mouth in amazement. "I think I can." He had a hunch while recalling the memory about his past opponents that either used spear or sword. And it turned out, he might understand their move if he observed them using it for days or months. "Still, I am not planning to copy one because I have too many techniques already. Only after reaching God Rank that I will need Divine Techniques. But for now, I don''t have any plan in getting another one." "I can relate." She nodded. "By the way, what are you planning with that mysterious guy?" "Hmm?" Alex frowned, thinking about it seriously. This matter was his biggest concern. Although he didn''t bring any ''Ship'' to come here, he surely had come to the other world and gone through the portal just to meet him. And yet, he couldn''t ascertain his identity and objective. He didn''t want to have any enemies as soon as he reached God Stage, so it was troubling him. "First¡­ I want to know about the Time Element. Do you know anything about it?" Alex asked this question because he couldn''t get much information from the knowledge that he got from the Lightning Tribulation. That was why he decided to ask her. "I don''t know much, but I can assure you that his time ability is not that powerful." Anya nodded. "Not powerful? Are you serious?" Alex opened his eyes wide. Anya smiled and told the story about the previous Alex and Lin Xingzhi''s father. How the old man turned Alex into a kid and slapped his ass countless times to the point it was uncountable. "Seriously?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Yeah. However, it turned out that father-in-law wasn''t against your relationship with sister Xingzhi. He only wanted to make you frustrated, so you can go stronger. Of course, he also wanted to have some fun himself." Anya shrugged while chuckling. "¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "That must be very embarrassing." "Yes. Well, I won''t say anything more because it was your past memory. But those techniques were the ones that father-in-law used when he fought you. It took you a very long time before you reached God King Stage and became equal to him. Only at that time, he stopped spanking you." Anya nodded with a serious expression. "Never mind then. Listening to all those techniques¡­ I understand how his Time Ability is not on par." Alex nodded. "Yeah. That''s why I think he must have a reason as to why he suddenly came and returned so anticlimactically." "Do you have any idea for what reason he came to me?" "I am afraid¡­ No. Time Element is very weird, weirder than Space Element. I can come up with one thousand reasons, but it might not be his reason. So, rather than assuming too much, it''s better to investigate his identity first as soon as we reach God Stage." "Alright." Alex nodded. "I will have Nelson take care of it." "You can even move the spies from Eulja, you know." "As I said previously, even if I have this Spirit Crown, my mind and body have yet to accept such a title. Besides, I know that the spirits from Eulja respected me because of my past, not the current me. That''s why I might visit there, but I won''t use their power." "That sounds like you." Anya smiled. "Then, I have one thing I want you to know." "What is it?" "Just enjoy yourself and do what you want." Alex was surprised to hear those words but still smiled while closing his eyes. "Yeah." "For now, I will wait and see the progress. If that man wants to harm my family, I won''t hesitate to annihilate him. Still, I think he has another reason to do it. Despite being the offender, he seems to have no intention to kill me." Alex frowned. "Another intention? Did he not release any killing intent?" "Yeah. Other than when he wanted to startle me, I think he didn''t release it no matter how dire the situation was." "This is weird." Anya looked down, falling into deep thought. "Let me see what kind of trope that usually comes around this time¡­" "Trope?" Alex stared at Anya with a weird face. "I mean¡­ What you have experienced all this time¡­ Don''t you think at least half of them are according to a trope in those stories you learned in your previous world?" "Ah?" Alex scratched his head, not knowing what to respond. "Let''s see¡­ Maybe sister Xingzhi has a secret admirer? And because of jealousy, he attacked you? Even if it wasn''t sister Xingzhi, maybe Alicia? Alicia must be training in another world to accumulate experience right now, so there might be someone there that got entranced." Anya''s eyes flashed a dangerous glint. "I don''t know if you are joking or not right now¡­" Alex chuckled. "Never mind. In that trope, all of them will show even a glimmer of emotion, but his¡­ He was purely thinking about another thing." As they were talking about this while joking, Shakdi suddenly intruded their personal space with a guilty expression. "Ehm¡­ Excuse me. We need to trouble you to decide what kind of course we are going to choose." Alex looked at his body and noticed that his wound had fully closed. He glanced at Anya and nodded, asking her to come with him to discuss this. 818 Next Plan "We have decided to enter the gate according to your plan. Because of the situation, the Freedom Sect and the Divine Kingdom have promised to build a tunnel toward this place. At that time, we will rely on you in creating a hole, so everyone can enter." Shakdi informed him about their meeting. Alex nodded. "Leave that matter to me." "The remaining influences will keep the monsters in check. And you shall not bring any 10-Star Martial Saint monster down." "Why?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "It''s simple. Their 10-Star must have a connection with the hosts there. If we kill them, they will know. That''s why we will only kill those monsters after we kill the remaining seven parent monsters here." "Alright. I can guarantee that my Spirit Nest won''t kill it." Alex nodded. "Still, three years is the limit. Any more than that, the morale and our resources won''t be enough to stop them. At the same time, from what I have understood, the monsters coming here are relatively weaker monsters. "Seeing that the other world is a Divine World, 10-Star Martial Saint is nothing but a grain of sand on a beach. The longer we take, the more monsters we need to face. Hence, it''s better to settle it within three years." "Yes. That''s our plan right now. No matter what sacrifice do we need to make, we shall kill the seven parent monsters within three years." Shakdi nodded with a serious expression. "Besides, just like your plan, we will only have those 5-Star Martial Saints or below to enter. We have fought them in the past, so we know they are going to concentrate their force here, so the elites coming from seven influences will surely be able to hold them for several days." Alex nodded. "How many days do you think everyone can hold on? I am not saying they are weak, but if they need to fight against twenty or thirty 10-Star Martial Beasts, I think it will be insane, right?" Shakdi glanced at their expression and nodded. "Yeah. And I believe they can safely hold the enemies back for a week. More than that, the loss will be too big." "In that case, we shall clear it within a week. It''s not like the seven gates have a difficulty like the Space Gate, so I believe it won''t be that hard. Of course, I am not underestimating them." Alex smiled. "The problem is who will enter each gate?" Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Anya. "Anya." "I believe the Lightning Gate suits the Divine Kingdom the most. Although most of the monsters here have powerful strength, with how organized they are, they will most likely bring them down with a good strategy. "The Ancient Blue Family will take on the Earth Element. They have a powerful defense, you have an overbearing offense. Don''t tell me you can''t fight them, right? "Freedom Sect will take the Light Gate. I know that you have many experts in light elements, so they are most likely to understand the monsters behind this gate. The Dark Gate will be put to Phantasm''s Sect. I don''t know about your weaponry, but since you have a good weapon from your heart, it means your heart is strong. Illusion won''t work on you while Curse can be broken as long as you make some preparations. You have a strong heart to resist the curse to a certain degree anyway, so good luck. "Lastly, Blackwade Clan will take on the Elementless. To be honest, this is the most concerning thing. Although the monsters here don''t know how to use Element, their physical ability is far beyond the other gate. You have a huge wallet, so if you equip your people with good items, I believe they can take this gate down. Besides, you will surely get more if you kill those monsters outside, right? So, don''t be a cheapskate." Anya finished assigning everyone''s task. And yet, not a single of them could say anything. The people from the four kingdoms or Shakdi himself were confused by their actions. If he probed why they became like this, they would certainly say Alex is a monster. He perfectly described everyone''s strength and how the fight should go in an instant. No, it was Anya, instead of Alex. They were wondering if the plans they had seen in the past came from Alex or her. If it turned out those plans came from both of them, no wonder the Spirit Nest could destroy Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain. "Thus, the distribution. Do any of you have an objection?" Alex smiled. He took pride in their shocked expression because everyone knew how powerful his wife was. The six influences thought for a moment and shook their head. "We are perfectly fine with the arrangement." "Then I will tell you what we will do when you challenge the tower." Shakdi nodded and continued. "First of all, I am going to turn off the tower. Without any protection from this tower, the monsters will surely come here. However, it''s a necessary thing because we need that energy to close the portal later and seal the entrance completely." "At that time, our four kingdoms shall be the strongest shield for the tower." One of the kings added with a nod. "Yes." Shakdi nodded. "I am leaving it to you." "If that is the case, the monsters will be going to this place, right? Then I think it''s better for the disciples on the surface to start cleaning up the monsters before making their way toward this place. What do you think?" Alex asked. "Yeah. That''s my plan. We will pincer them from two sides and thoroughly eliminate them." Shakdi nodded in agreement. "I want to inform you about one thing then. All the people from my Spirit Nest will be going with me inside. Of course, I will bring some Array Plates for you guys so I can still help despite not being with you." Alex smiled. He was going to practice Array after this, so his Array Plates could still be considered training. That was why he didn''t mind sharing them. In any case, they would be a perfect rank 8 Arrays anyway, so the other influences surely wouldn''t reject it. "Now that I think about it, your Spirit Nest¡­ Isn''t it a small group of elites? Before coming here, I took a glimpse of their power and noticed the weakest were 7-Star¡­" Elizabeth glanced at Alex as she appeared to have some doubts. "Do you want me to send them to help you?" Alex smiled. "No¡­" Elizabeth wanted to say yes, but she couldn''t say it due to the fact it looked very selfish. Their number was already too few to begin with, so taking a few more from them would be considered as making trouble instead. "I am planning to do that though." Alex smirked. "You can say that our Spirit Nest has some secrets about the Space Element. A few of them can teleport to any of our members, so if I see you have a problem in defeating your opponents, I might send them to help you. Besides, I don''t think the monsters in the Fire Gate will be a trouble for me, so three days is enough for me." The group furrowed their eyebrows. Shakdi smiled, never expecting Alex to have this kind of confidence. And yet, he precisely knew he wasn''t boasting, especially after destroying the monsters in the Space Gate. He was very weak back then too. "I believe it''s better to receive his solution. I don''t care about your pride because the world will be destroyed if we lose this war. I hope the rest can accept this. If you want to hate someone, you can hate me because I am the one forcing you to accept this condition." Shakdi helped Alex in persuading them. "How can we¡­" The other leaders were startled to see Shakdi acting like this. A proud Space God turned into a humble person in front of Alex. They couldn''t comprehend Alex''s secret that allowed him to do such a thing. "We¡­ We understand." In the end, they agreed to put their pride down. "I will send Letizia to aid the Water Gate. She is a Pure Ice Element, and I believe three years later, she should have reached at least 3-Star under my tutelage. Leoz will be helping the Earth Gate. He is the most powerful guy in terms of attack power. "Jean will be helping the Lightning Gate. Although his element is water, he is a bit special because it won''t conduct electricity. I believe this should make your team stronger. As for the Light¡­ I will just send you Artur. He is a special guy. A bit dumb, but he is strong and understands the matter clearly. I believe he can help you. "As much as I want to send Nelson to the Dark Gate, Anya will be more suited than him. She can remove poison and curse. But because of her ability, I will assign Greg with her as her personal bodyguard, so you guys don''t need to worry. "Lastly, Jeanne will go to the last one. She will surely act her part. If she doesn''t, I will be super ''Nice'' to her. Just make sure you don''t mess around with her, especially throwing an insult about her stature. You are going to experience pain. I certainly guarantee you it won''t be a simple pain." Alex smiled. "These people will surely help you more than enough, so the rest won''t probably go unless the situation turns wrong." The rest thought for a moment and nodded. Since Alex wanted to lend them his elites that seemed to have extraordinary power, they gladly accepted it. "It is settled then?" Shakdi asked. They looked at each other, confirming they didn''t have any more questions or objections, so they nodded their heads at the same time. "Then, follow me. I will guide you to the tower''s treasury. You can choose anything you deem useful for the battle. As for the remaining ones, I will distribute them after we finish this problem. At the same time, the four kingdoms might probably come to the surface because they have served their purpose¡­ As their ancestor, I feel relieved because I know my descendants can see the real sky and sun. I have troubled them too much for the past few thousand years." Shakdi sighed. "No, no. Please don''t be like this. This world wouldn''t be safe if all seniors didn''t fight in the past. It is our duty as your descendants to protect the world." The kings immediately tried to soothe the sadness in Shakdi''s eyes. "Thank you. That''s why I want all of you to go to the real world after this. And please take care of them¡­" Shakdi looked at the four kings first before turning to the other leaders. However, before they replied, Shakdi had one last announcement he needed to make. "After this, I will seal this tower Rank 9 Divine Array. Unless you have the necessary knowledge about it, you won''t be able to break it. At the same time, it''s better, so no one has thought about using this to disturb the peace. "And since you have gotten yourself comfortable with the trial¡­ I will try to see whether it is possible. Just come back when the next trial comes, the answer will be there." Shakdi certainly controlled the conversation because as soon as he finished his explanation, they had arrived in their treasury. "Now pick your items." The group started roaming around, asking Shakdi so they could bring such an item. Of course, they tried so hard to suppress their greed for this time alone. After another hour, the group finally left as Shakdi suddenly said. "In that case, I will teleport you to where you belong." Shakdi clapped his hand and summoned a Teleportation Array, sending them either to the four kingdoms or the surface. 819 Arrays Of course, he didn''t forget to bring Letizia and the others who were fighting the monsters with Freedom Sect. They went straight to the meeting room and discussed their next move. "The spirits will be in charge of defeating the monsters for the time being. And make sure you level up a lot because I plan to go straight to God Rank after this battle. I just hope there won''t be any incident before going up," Alex stated his first task. "I will take care of their deployment and make sure they will be at least 9-Star Martial Saint when the three years come." Anya nodded with confidence as if she had planned everything. "I will leave everyone in your hand." Alex smiled at her before stating his second plan. "Sherry, Stina, and Kyle will be cultivating like usual. Just a bit more to reach 7-Star. I hope you can enter 8-Star if not 9-Star before the battle." "We understand. We shall work hard so as to not betray your expectation." "Firia will be making a few pills to help the alliance. You are currently the best Alchemist in this world, so I want to make a contribution a bit more before leaving this place. After all, I want Rose and Letizia to have a good time after I leave this place." "Alright. That''s right. Do you want to learn Alchemy during these three years?" "No. I don''t plan to learn Alchemy. Instead, I am going to learn Arrays first since I know I need to increase my attack a bit more because I don''t know whether the mysterious man will appear again or not." Alex shook his head. Firia stared at him for a few seconds and nodded. "Alright. We can practice Alchemy together after the battle ends." "That''s my plan." Alex gave a confirmation before staring at Letizia. "Since I am practicing some attack type arrays, you are going to be my practice partner. And I also want to train you as well as to see your current progress. I hope you can reach 3-Star if not 4-Star Martial Saint during this period." "I understand. I will not disappoint Master." Letizia nodded. "As for Rose¡­ You will go to the battlefield every other month. I want you to understand the power of your Bow, Lightning and Space Elements on the battlefield. After you master fighting an army alone, then you can focus on your cultivation." "Yes. I didn''t really have much time to fight against another person when I reached the Northern Continent, so my skill might have gone rusty. I will sharpen it once more, Master." Rose nodded with a determination filling her eyes. "I am counting on you, Rose." Alex finally finished assigning everyone a role, so he stood up and stated out loud. "Today''s meeting is over. You can retire for the day and start doing your job tomorrow." "Hmm¡­ Even though I know I want an attack-type array, I don''t know which one to get. Firstly, I can build up my foundation in mastering the attack type array, so I won''t have that much problem in mastering the rank 9 array in the same type. However, I want one that can be enhanced with my Pure Fire and Intent, so I believe it''s better with one that has a physical body. "I can also learn all the peak rank 8 Arrays with that type, but I also need to consider whether they are compatible or not. If I can''t use them in the fight, it''s better to not practice it. As for the rest of the arrays, I can simply learn them or understand their principle, so if my enemy is an Array Master, I know how to handle him. "Still, the battle between Leo and the Freedom Sect has truly opened my eyes about Array Master. I usually think that my attack has always been good due to my Pure Fire and Intent, but I realize that I can actually use Arrays to increase my performance. And the fight with that mysterious guy just raised my need even further. "Although I don''t know who he was, where he came from, or why he attacked me, I am glad that I could raise my combat ability using that battle." Alex let out a long sigh before continuing. "For now, let''s search for an array first." Alex closed his eyes and pried upon the knowledge inside his mind. It was like a giant whirlpool that contained all sorts of memories he didn''t master. Although he knew it was wrong, he didn''t have time to learn them because he was too busy to do it. Because of that, he changed his plan and intended to learn it after reaching God Stage. At that time, it wasn''t like he needed to do so much stuff like this anymore. Alex browsed all the knowledge inside his mind, wandering in the sea of books for half an hour before finding his first scroll. "Hmm? Sky Spear? The sky spear consists of eight hundred thousand symbols, consolidating its rank as a high ranking array. Hmm¡­ I know that the rank 8 Array consists of one hundred thousand to one million symbols with one hundred to three hundred thousand known as low rank 8 Array, three hundred to six hundred thousand known as mid rank, six hundred to nine hundred thousand known as a high rank array. The last one hundred thousand can be considered the peak rank 8 Array. "This array will construct a blue spear made of Spiritual Energy that can be equal to a High Heaven Tier Art. If I use my Pure Fire and Intent while using it, it can increase its attack power. And what is terrifying is the speed and the piercing power of the spear, it is hard to dodge and have a ridiculous penetrating power¡­ And if I combine it with my Pure Fire and intent, it will be even more powerful. "The problem is the complexity of the symbols. Although I recognize most of the symbols, it''s hard to make them because they are too diverse. Normally, I will create all the matching symbols and place them like a puzzle, but because of this one, I need to concentrate in one place and spread it. "There is another solution, which is to make this one as an Array Plate, but if I fight against a quick opponent, he or she will cut the array plate first before it can be activated. "That''s why I will be relying on my Array Plate to make this one in the battle. Still, I don''t like the fact that I need to bring the Array that I draw in the Space Plate to the real world first because it can''t be activated inside the Space World. If I can, I would already blast everyone with that strategy. "Never mind. I should focus on what I can do first. If I want to make an array like this with my fastest speed, it will take me around five minutes. It''s already considered fast as the normal Array Master needs ten to fifteen minutes. That''s why they mostly need a low rank 8 Array to buy time since it''s easier to build. "However, I don''t need that because I have my elements and weapons. They can''t beat me before I complete my array. And I even construct it inside the Space World, so no one knows about it. Although it''s a bit hard to construct one while moving at high speed, as long as I can get used to it, I believe I can make one as if my body naturally draws the symbols. "Alright then. With all of this consideration, I will proceed in learning this Sky Spear Array. I can treat it as another Mythical Spear Cannon, right? Of course, it''s more powerful than it." Alex smiled after reading the scroll and considering whether it was worth it or not. "That''s right. How many do I need to master? I might need a binding array as well, because Space Bind and Space Plates are not enough to chain up that guy. If I add another one¡­ I should be able to win this time. In that case, I should add one binding array and one more attack array to my repertoire." Alex nodded and kept searching for the one that suited his taste. Not long after that, he found another attack array. "The second array will be this Saint Explosion Array. This one is a hard one because it has nine hundred thousand symbols. And what it only does is an explosion only in the array area¡­ However, it also means I can make a powerful explosion as a trap. I have all the time I need because I construct it inside my Space Plates anyway, so I don''t really have any problem in stopping the progress and bait my enemy inside there." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. After settling the second attack type array, he moved on to the next array he wanted to learn. He stumbled upon a certain interesting array called Sphere Chain Array. "This Sphere Chain Array is the peak Rank 8 Array, consisting of one million symbols. The moment it''s activated, the person inside it won''t be able to escape unless they have the power to break the array. "But what makes this array unique is the fact that it''s similar to the one called formation. If many arrays are linked together and become a part of a whole array, it''s called formation. It''s slightly different from the Special Realm with Gathering Array and Illusion Array because if one of them gets destroyed, the others will be fine. "However, if one of the arrays inside a formation breaks, the formation will fail¡­ However, a formation also has its own advantages. The fact that it is acting like one, you can control that array more accurately without wasting too much time. "And in this array, there are around a hundred smaller arrays. Each of these arrays will release a chain. The usage itself is a bit complex, but I think this is perfect as training before I learn Divine Array." Alex thought for a moment and nodded, satisfied with his own choices. He browsed a bit more but didn''t meet any array he liked. He started reading the scrolls carefully, memorizing everything about the information in his head. The papers on his table slowly got painted with black ink, covering it with many symbols. It was Alex''s way of practicing to make sure he could draw such a symbol until it was perfect. He kept doing it until tomorrow, and when the sun came out again, he finally left his room. 820 Progress Alex fought Letizia with only a sword, trying to see her progress in the sword. After that, he gave her a few pieces of advice and told her he would come every few days to check on her progress. He then left her alone and began his training. This might be the longest training he had ever faced because it took him a whole half-year to first create the three arrays. And it took him another half year to master it to make it combat-ready. Of course, Letizia became Alex''s guinea pig for these arrays. Luckily, Alex used his Simulation Room to create a battlespace that could replicate such a battle. With this, Letizia also got a precious experience. She always tried to land a hit on his body while Alex used everything in his repertoire. Nonetheless, the fight lasted pretty long due to Alex could only use his array to attack. In the end, Letizia died many times in that Simulation Room. What made Alex surprised was the fact that Letizia seemed to think nothing of her death in the training. Instead, she looked very eager to fight Alex. As a result, she often thought of something new to defeat Alex. Whether it was intentional or not, what Alex did was precisely like the fight against that mysterious person. Facing overwhelming odds to unleash one''s true potential, it was a unique but useful approach to the point he wished to experience it when he was only a Martial Master. At the same time, when Alex used his array, specifically his Sphere Chain Array, he ended up in a very troubling situation¡­ In a different meaning. The chain wrapped Letizia''s body in every corner, binding her to the point she couldn''t move. However, the bulging area slipped out of that chain, creating a very erotic situation. Alex didn''t know what to say at that moment. Of course, Alex didn''t let her go and continued using it to its fullest potential. In the end, she was wrapped and ended up like a cocoon. Finally, one year has passed. Letizia was able to master her sword to the point she reached Alex''s level but, in a sense, where Alex had reached the mortal aspect of the sword. If he became a God Rank Expert, he would become far stronger than her. Even so, Letizia was very grateful because this was a feat she would never hope to achieve. She didn''t know why, but the foolish things she did in the past became the most precious memory of her. Because if she didn''t have that attitude, she might not be someone close to Alex. Alex, on the other hand, didn''t understand what Letizia thought about the whole matter. He himself never felt he wanted to follow a person for the rest of his life, so he didn''t know how she felt. Still, the smile on her face that looked pure and had no resentment behind it made Alex feel happy too. Alex didn''t forget to check the war situation. It didn''t take too long before they realized that the beast might be waiting for their boss to give an order. They had promised Shakdi to not lay their hands on the 10-Star Martial Saint monster yet, so they continued fighting the normal monsters. Even if that beast came to the battlefield, they would only fend it off. After settling the first issue, Alex decided to go for the second stage of training. He was planning to increase his cultivation from 6-Star to 8-Star within two years. It was impossible at first glance, but Alex had reached 6-Star a long ago, so he almost broke through to the 7-Star. And it turned out he was right. In only five months, Alex managed to advance to 7-Star Martial Saint. And with more than one and a half years to cultivate, it was more than enough for Alex to reach another level. That kind of progress was terrifying in the eyes of the mass. Most people in this world didn''t know they needed to consolidate their power anyway, so it was pretty hard to raise their power through Spirit Crystals alone. Hence, the geniuses might have the ability to advance faster, but they wouldn''t be as abnormal as Alex. In the meantime, Sherry and the others had reached 7-Star, making their way to 8-Star Martial Saint. Even if they were not going to be able to 9-Star, they wouldn''t be far from it after these three years. And due to Firia''s Alchemy, the pill supplied by the Spirit Nest really helped many people. They recovered their Spiritual Energy faster and healed their wounds in an instant. After all, her pill was a rank 8 Perfect Purity pill. It was very hard to make, but her success rate was one hundred percent. Of course, Alex also started making Sky Spear Array Plate and Saint Explosion Array Plate. The Saint Explosion Array Plates were a hit on the battlefield. They simply needed to place it on the ground and activate it from a distance when the monsters arrived. Alex even specifically made a very big Array Plate since the explosion area was only inside the array. And just like that, many saint monsters fell in the hand of this array. Although some of them wanted to ask or buy some additional plates from Alex, they didn''t dare to antagonize him with his current strength. With one wrong move, his Spirit Nest might chop your heads. As for his Sky Spear Array Plate, they were used to fight high-ranking monsters. There were a few monsters that were either 8-Star or 9-Star, and they used this one, injuring it heavily. Although it was also an effort to stop them from moving, it was worth the effort because even a group of 5-Star Martial Saints could take down such a monster. Nonetheless, the situation on the battlefield settled down. And in fact, turning in their favor due to the additional help from the Spirit Nest. Alex''s titles such as Divine Slayer, Battle Emperor, or Harbinger of Death were almost replaced by a new title, Omnipotent. Alex surely didn''t care, and the spirits kept charging the enemies without looking at such a rumor. And not long after, the people started getting used to those items and began to treat them as normal items. Thus, it became the failure of the rise of the new title. Though, the real person who received such a title was still in the middle of the training. When Rose returned from the battlefield and brought such information, Anya laughed out loud, teasing Alex with the new title. Unfortunately, the same happiness and warm atmosphere didn''t happen in another place. In the Drunken Pavilion, a woman with long black hair hopped on a big rock near the pond of her courtyard. Sadness, anxiety, and longing were mixed in her expression. Under the night sky, she gracefully tied her hair into a ponytail to prevent the breeze from messing with her hair. The water on the pond became slightly wavy due to the wind, but it still gave a clear picture of her face reflected on the water. The lady looked at the dark sky and let out a long sigh. "Not long after this¡­ What will I become? Master doesn''t have an heir worthy enough to lead the sect, so I need to watch over the sect in the future. This is the only thing I can repay Master for his kindness and for taking care of me for the past few years. "But I never thought it would be this sad to be chained down¡­" The lady closed her eyes as tears flowed out of her eyes. She remembered a certain person that seemed to be able to do whatever he wanted or visited wherever he wanted. Even though he had the burden of a leader, he had the freedom to do many things. She aspired to be someone like him, but it was all for naught. The shackles on her feet could never be removed in an ordinary way. "Am I wrong to have such a wish? I have been with him for a long time before that incident¡­ But the longer I know him, the longer our distance¡­ Is it wrong to fall in love with someone? Is it wrong to fulfill one''s duty and promise before talking about love? Is it¡­ Wrong for me to fall in love with my own mentor? He is not my teacher nor my master, I don''t break any taboo. "Still, the way he sees me is just like that of an elder brother, why? Why wasn''t I born a few years earlier? Why didn''t I choose a different path that guaranteed me freedom? Master said, "I can be the strongest person in the world", but I know that the promise bound me to this place. If only there is someone who can replace me¡­" She always had time to think about this because it actually gave her peace of mind. Sitting on a rock near the pond, looking at the moon reflected on the water, and reminiscing the past memory threw the stress from the cultivation away. Suddenly, she remembered a certain line coming from him. "No matter how low the probability is, it will never reach zero unless you give up. So, even if it''s one in a million chance, I will gamble it all in that one." The woman slowly opened her eyes as a thought came across her mind. "That''s right. Master needs a worthy heir, right? If there are two worthy heirs, doesn''t it mean one should lose their right so the other can become the next master? "Senior Sister is a powerful cultivator and a talented one on top of that. Her talent might not be the best, but she can rival those geniuses from other influences. The only thing that makes her unworthy is her heart. She is too soft. "In that case, if I can turn her into a worthy heir by changing her heart, doesn''t it mean I can be free from this task? Can I continue to pursue my cultivation as well as my heart? Although it might be a long journey, it might be more fun for me. "As long as I don''t give up¡­ Yes. If I don''t give up, I can still chase his back. I don''t know what the future will hold¡­ Whether he still sees me as a younger sister or not, I will not give up. I will continue chasing him, so in the end, I can say that I won''t regret it no matter the result." The woman seemed to have found the answer she had been seeking for. Joy and determination fully replaced the previous expression. She rose, jumped off the rock, and started walking to her own path that she chose. She smiled and muttered. "Future¡­ I challenge you right now." 821 The Situation Kai slowly opened his eyes after cultivating for a long time. He looked at his body and checked his cultivation. "Hmm? There is no problem with my cultivation after breaking through to 8-Star two weeks ago. I truly barely reached this stage¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. Suddenly, he sensed Anya''s presence coming from outside the room. It seemed she noticed that the time for him to wake up had arrived and decided to see him. "You can come in, Anya," Alex called her and smiled. The door slowly got pushed open, revealing a woman''s figure. "Everyone is ready to go to the tower. Tomorrow is the day, so we can make some preparations for tomorrow." Anya handed him a few papers. Alex nodded and took the papers. "What is our condition?" "Rose has reached 10-Star Martial Monarch. Letizia became a 3-Star Martial Saint not long ago. And the rest except the spirits have reached 8-Star Martial Saints. Leoz, Anna, and Jeanne are the only ones who have advanced to 10-Star while the spirits reached 9-Star long ago. Do you want to have those three to fight outside the tower?" "Hmm¡­" Alex looked down, pondering. "Leoz and Jeanne are essential to this fight because they need to watch over the rest of the group¡­ But I believe we can station someone from the N squad outside, so the others can teleport. What do you think?" "That''s a good idea. We can have Nicole to do that." Anya nodded. "Let''s go then. We have prepared everything we can. The only thing to do is to kill those monsters." Alex paused for a moment. "How about the monsters? How many 10-Star Martial Saint monsters have gotten inside this world?" "There are a total of thirty 10-Star. It''s going to be a hard fight because the fight is going to be bigger than ever. If possible, I want the spirits all to reach 10-Star Martial Saints while cleaning those monsters. At that time, we will hide until Firia and I ascend. I don''t think Sherry and the others need to pass the tribulation, no?" "Yes. They will only need to have a long hibernation to become a Divine Beast." Anya nodded. "I am envious." Alex chuckled. "Don''t mind them. I know that you can reach God Rank easily even with the tribulation. I am sure that the Divine Tribulation will have the same difficulty as your Martial Saint''s Lightning Tribulation¡­ Easy." Anya smirked. "Thank you. Anyway, let''s get going. The monsters might haven''t attacked us, but they might be building up their strength to attack the tower." She nodded and guided him to the meeting room. It seemed everyone also had finished their cultivation as they were already present before Alex came to this room. "It''s been a while since our last meeting due to my cultivation, but this is the day where our counter-attack begins." Alex smiled. "Still, who is going to follow you and who are staying behind?" "Yes, Master." The two clasped their hands and bowed. "As for the rest, we are going for the same distribution that we have agreed before." Alex nodded before snapping his finger and creating a Teleportation Array. "In that case, let''s go." The group disappeared from the base and made their appearance in the middle of the grass plain, not far from the battlefield. In fact, they could already see the other influences, including their battle from here, so they decided to fly. Anna furrowed her eyebrows and informed Alex as soon as he recognized which camp in front of them. "Alex, they are from the Divine Kingdom." "Good. We can ask where Elizabeth is and meet up with the others." Alex nodded and sped up, only to find himself stopped by a few people. "Who are¡­" However, Alex wasn''t a small name again like in the past. Instead, his name and face had been etched forever in their memory. Hearing his name was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. "We apologize. Sir Alexander Sirius, I am the captain of the Royal Guard, Abraham. May I ask for what reason your excellency to come here?" "I just arrived, and this place was the closest, so I decided to go here to meet with your queen." "If that is the case, her majesty is inside. She is holding a meeting right now, but I am sure she will have the time to meet you. If your¡­" "That is enough. I will just wait here. You can inform her since it''s better for me to not intrude on your meeting." "I¡­ I understand." The captain nodded. As much as Alex said to not intrude the meeting, he felt asking their queen to come to meet him was ruder. And yet, only him could be qualified to ask such a thing, so he immediately flew to the queen''s camp. Not long after, Elizabeth came out alone, looking at Alex with a serious expression. "We have just gotten bad news and good news. Which one do you want to know first?" "Good news." "Everything is ready, including the tunnel. As long as you make a hole and use your Spatial Gate, I believe we can enter the Ancient Battlefield." "And the bad news?" "The Space Element is too thick there because the portal keeps influencing it. Hence, the barrier is harder to break. I am not sure whether you can break it¡­ I have confirmed it with the Freedom Sect''s Space Temple, so I am sure about it." Alex thought for a moment. "I will check the barrier after this. And see whether the Space Disturbance has become too much for me along with how much Space Element needed to make a hole there. If it''s impossible to break, we will wait until the tower lifts the power according to the original plan." "What if they don''t open it?" "The time is tomorrow. If they don''t open it, I will break it open. Besides¡­" Alex glanced at Nelson. "Yeah. As Master feared, the monsters are also digging a few tunnels. The same as us, they are trying to break the barrier and enter that place." Nelson confirmed with a grim expression. "What? Are they digging a few tunnels? Where?" Elizabeth was shocked. They didn''t get information like that despite watching them closely, so how could Alex get such information? "Have you seen a few giant monsters that don''t move for a few months?" "Yes. There are a few of them like that. I have even seen them when going to the front line¡­ Wait! Don''t tell me." She gasped and stepped back. Her face turned pale as she came into a realization. "Yeah. They have a few monsters going under those monsters and create tunnels. Then those monsters hide the entrance. In fact, I believe they already have a small monster city underground." Alex nodded. "What? A small monster city? How did we not notice this? Why didn''t you tell us?" Are you sure you are not making it up?" "You can check it later, but even if I told you, you wouldn''t be able to do anything. Not only will you charge deep in their ranks, but you also need to face more than a million monsters. Besides, even with force from the Sacred and Northern Continents, our number is only a million while they have at least three million. If your opponent size is two times above you, it has become too hard to specifically find some of them are missing." Alex smiled. This information came from the papers Anya gave earlier. "¡­" Sweats started covering her face, knowing how big this matter they currently faced. She gulped down and asked, "What should I do?" "Nothing. Just make sure that all the soldiers here move according to our schedule and thoroughly exterminate our enemies. As for what will happen¡­ We might probably need to race with the monsters if I can''t open the barrier today." Elizabeth paused for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I shall inform the other leaders about our condition right now." "Please. And I also need to go to our own tunnel right now to check it." "Then should I call them, so we can have a meeting there?" "Good idea. Ask them to go to the tunnel after this and meet me." Alex nodded. "Want me to guide you to the tunnel?" "It''s fine. The tunnel is in this camp, right?" "Yes. It''s there." Elizabeth pointed her finger toward a huge 15-meter radius hole. "Then, please excuse me." Alex nodded and flew toward the hole, followed by the rest of his group. The tunnel seemed to have been decorated a bit. And Lamps were scattered across the tunnel, illuminating the darkness. Alex walked straight and found the barrier a few minutes later. However, he noticed that the Space Element in the air kept increasing. "Hmm?" He immediately furrowed his eyebrows the moment he saw the barrier. His Spirit Eyes spectated the clash between this Space Element that caused a Space Disturbance with the barrier. It was trying to destroy the barrier, so he realized this was going to be tricky. "Alex¡­ Have you found anything?" Anna asked, seeing Alex halting his footsteps. "The monsters are using the Space Disturbance¡­ No, I should say they are controlling it to attack the barrier. This might be the reason why those people closed the barrier tight." Alex squinted his eyes, contemplating over their next course. "Is it possible to break it and go through?" Alex didn''t answer her for several minutes until the rest of the leaders arrived. They stumbled upon the troubled look on Alex''s face and glanced at the spirits, wanting an explanation. Suddenly, Alex turned around, facing all of them with a solemn expression. "It''s impossible. If I am using my Space Element, the monsters will notice it. I am afraid they will attack us relentlessly at that time." "How are we supposed to do this then?" Elizabeth asked. "The second one. We will wait until they open it from the inside. Then we shall race with the monsters with our Spatial Gate. I am sure that those people inside are planning to cause a Space Disturbance inside, so not many monsters can come with the help of Space Beasts. At that time, it will be a full brawl." "What will be our distance with the monsters if they are coming?" "If I am not wrong, it should be half of the distance then our frontline to the portal." "It''s going to be rough, but still doable. Although it will come with a great cost, one week is the limit, I guess." "Yeah. We will make a counter-attack during that time." Alex nodded with a solemn expression as if he was planning to kill many monsters at that time. "Alright. Let''s return first, so the monsters don''t find us." The group nodded as they returned together, preparing their respective forces. ¡­ The next day. Each influence had brought their own force right in front of the tunnel. Each leader was in front of them, accompanied by their respective younger generations. When they saw Alexander coming to the tunnel, they greeted him with a smile. "This is the day¡­" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "My Spirit Nest will take the front spot. Will that be alright?" "Of course." Song Hun nodded. "We will follow the order of you negotiating with us in the past. In other words, the Freedom Sect will be right behind you, followed by Blackwade Clan, Phantasm Sect, Ancient Blue Family, Divine Kingdom, and Drunken Pavilion. The size of the tunnel is not that big anyway¡­ So, we need around five minutes for all the people to come in." "Yes. There will be two Spatial Gates inside. First will be my Spatial Gate that will connect the tunnel to the Ancient Battlefield. And the second one will be a Spatial Gate connected to the pillar, so I want to ask you¡­ Are you ready?" Alex smiled. They didn''t know why, but seeing the confidence in Alex''s smile made them smile as if they knew they would win. This might also be how Alex maintained his people''s morale despite the disadvantage. "Yes." "March!" 822 Time to Hun Alex, in the front, halted his steps and waited for the people inside to open this place. "Do you think they will open it, Alex?" Anya furrowed her eyebrows, looking at the array that seemed to have nothing behind it. "They will." Alex seemed to be confident about this even though they didn''t have any contact with them for the past few years. "If you are that confident, then treat it as I never asked." Anya still had another doubt, so she asked. "What do you think will happen when the barrier is opened?" "I believe Elder Shakdi will only open the barrier in one area. This will limit the rate of monsters coming in and direct them to a place where there won''t be any lives. I believe it''s the reason why they choose this place to build the underground tunnel." Alex nodded. "But they are still at a disadvantage because the beast might encircle them the moment they arrive." "It''s the reason there is a fortress. Besides, even if some intelligent beasts order the monsters around, I doubt they can make too many movements due to the number of monsters." Alex shook his head. Anya thought for a moment and agreed with his words. Alex and the group waited patiently for a few hours before he sensed a fluctuation of Spiritual Energy coming from the barrier. He glanced over the barrier with his Spirit Eyes and muttered. "It''s coming." "!!!" The group''s expression turned serious as they kept their eyes peeled. Not long after, the barrier suddenly pushed away from the Space Element before it gradually opened slightly. Due to their position, Alex immediately opened their Spatial Gate with the same size as the tunnel itself and shouted out loud. "It''s open now. Move out!" Alex''s voice echoed across the tunnel, sending his message to the entire force before he and his group went inside. The Freedom Sect followed them almost immediately. Alex searched for Aileen on the other side and asked. "Please open another Spatial Gate." "Sure. Leave it to me. Oh right. My Maya and Ryuu are participating in this war, you know. They are with the group right now, so you can''t meet him." Aileen smiled. Alex thought for a moment. These two guys made a huge impression in his life, but they had something more important to do, so he only walked toward the gate while saying, "Give them my regards." Aileen couldn''t stop smiling as she kept maintaining the portal, asking the disciples that just came here to pass the gate. However, that peace didn''t last long. The sky that had ten percent of it opened suddenly had two spots around it cracked. The magical beasts began to fall down from that place one by one while loud footsteps resounded in everyone''s ears. The other influences also started rushing, knowing if they didn''t cross the gate as soon as possible, they would be attacked by the monsters before arriving in their position. Meanwhile, Alex was accompanied by four old men while watching the pillar. "Sir Alexander, may I know how many monsters are coming?" "There are three million right now, in which thirty of them are 10-Star Saints. Don''t worry. It''s only going to be a week long, and the enemies might probably go in with only half of their force unless they want our force on the surface to obliterate them from behind." "I see. In that case, I think we are capable of doing that. Just make sure we watch out for their 10-Star, we should be safe, right?" "Yes." "I understand." "In that case, I will leave this place to you all." Alex smiled. "Yes. Please leave it to us. This will be the last fight from us in this place, so we shall protect this place to death." One of the kings pumped his fist in his chest. Alex nodded with a serious expression before glancing over the other Spatial Gate that was transferring the Divine Kingdom''s people. Noticing this, he opened the Spatial Gate on his side, so the spirits and the others could enter because he would come inside later. It was peaceful during this time, and he liked it. However, a giant gate suddenly appeared on the battlefield when he was about to enter. He halted his step and turned around. The gate was double the size of the one he made, and it seemed to bring a huge amount of energy in this situation. And the monsters began to emerge from within the gate before howling to the sky. "Enemies spotted! Everyone! Raise your weapon!" One of the kings shouted as loud as possible using his Spiritual Energy. Words then appeared right before Alex''s eyes as the pillar suddenly shone. ''Please come in. We have activated the tower to create a Space Disturbance.'' Alex read the words and nodded as he entered the pillar. The pillar then shone, creating a few holes on its surface. The Spiritual Energy that was used to trap monsters was released outside. And this energy, of course, contained massive Space Elements. The Spatial Gate from the monsters suddenly cracked, baffling everyone and even the monsters. The few monsters that seemed to be responsible for creating the gate decided to roar before closing the gate. At the same time, they retreated a few hundred meters back before giving another signal for the monsters to come. The battlefield soon got filled with monsters, roaming around while staring at them like a predator. "This is the moment of truth. Soldiers! As long as we can hold on for seven days, we shall become the world''s savior. That''s why¡­ We are protecting the tower to death!" The king roared from the sky. "Ooh!" The soldiers had their morale raised. It looked majestic and loud, but Alex couldn''t see this for future references. Instead, he and the others had arrived at the bottom of the tower and opened the gate to the inside. Shakdi had been waiting for them in the middle of the hall as he said, "Follow me." "We have returned with all of the people," said Alex while walking with Shakdi and all the representatives. As expected, all influences brought all their younger generations, such as Song Jiaoren, Astennu, and so on, as their leaders inside this tower. Evelyn met him earlier, but she only nodded at him as if she had something in mind. Song Yu also participated in this because her hearing would be useful in this situation, ensuring there wouldn''t be any enemies that would ambush them. Song Jiaoren also gave his greeting to Alex together with his little sister, Song Ling''er. It seemed these two had grown tremendously. "I understand. Still, I want to warn you one last thing before giving you an item." Shakdi''s expression turned serious. "The monsters inside don''t know anything about the outside world. However, the moment we open the gate, they will receive a signal and go to the door. "They, who know nothing about the door this whole time, will surely charge at you and breakthrough. On one hand, you don''t need to search for the monsters anymore. On the other hand, you need to look out for their ferocity. "The monsters will surely do anything to break out. Well, if they break out, we can somehow handle it, but more than fifty monsters out, it means they succeed. We are only souls that have no fighting power after all." They listened to Shakdi''s words attentively, swearing they wouldn''t let the monsters break out no matter the cost. After that, Shakdi took out seven tokens. These were unique tokens. Each of them had a rectangular shape, but with a crystal in the middle. Seven circles were circling around that big crystal with one of them shining. "At first, we are wondering if we should wait for seven days to do it, but I believe your strength is enough to eradicate the monsters. Hence, we built these tokens. The shining circle means your token, while the dim ones are the others. "If you have succeeded in subduing the parent monsters, you can channel your energy to the shining one, so the other knows you have succeeded. The other tokens will have one of their circles shine as the symbol. "Do it until all of you finish your own job, and all circles lit up. After that, pour all your Spiritual Energy into the big crystal. If all of you pour it together within five minutes, the crystal will make a countdown from five minutes. The moment it reaches zero, you kill the parent monsters. Are we clear?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It''s a good device. And I believe if we can finish this ordeal as quickly as possible, our help will be tremendous for those people outside." "Yeah. That''s why¡­ May fortune be with you." Shakdi smiled and clasped his hands. All of them clasped with respect before Shakdi signaled his friends to open up the gate. "Open it from the Elementless Gate!" It seems Shakdi wants Alex to be the last one to enter. Whether he has another concern or because he believes Alex can solve the problem faster than anyone else, Alex didn''t care at all. Those people began coming inside the gate. After all of them entered, the next gate was opened. The process repeated until everyone came inside. He found himself surrounded by a hot floor. Fire gushed out of the crack on the ground. He immediately asked his group whether they would be alright in this type of environment, and they said yes. So, Alex kept his focus on the surrounding with his eyes, checking whether there were monsters around. It took them a full five minutes before a loud roar echoed in their ears. "There are monsters in our north¡­ Around one hundred monsters." Anna reported. "There are two hundred coming from our right." Nelson also spotted the enemies. "And there are another two hundred from our left. In any case, I, Rose, and Anna will handle the one-hundred one. Sherry, Stina, Kyle, and Nelson will take care of those on our left. Firia, Nelson, Fabio, and Greg will handle the right one." "Understood!" The group acknowledged the order in unison, shifting their position to receive the incoming monsters. Alex watched how those many monsters approached them. The group looked at his back, waiting for his order to attack. Suddenly, he turned around and grinned. "Ladies and gentlemen¡­ It''s time to hunt." 823 Roses Training "Yes." Rose nodded. One hundred meters in front of her were one hundred monsters coming toward her. Most of them were 10-Star Martial Monarch or 1-Star Martial Saint, so it shouldn''t be that hard for Rose to kill them as long as she caught their guards off. Rose squinted her eyes, channeling her Spiritual Energy to both bow and arrow. Red light covered the bow while her arrow turned into a purple light. Lightning started to spark before spreading around her body. "Lightning Butcher." The arrow flew like a bullet, the shockwave pummeled the ground, and the rubbles kicked up to the air. Yet, that kind of powerful attack suddenly got absorbed into a Spatial Gate that appeared out of nowhere. "Spatial Gate!" Rose raised her main hand, influencing the Space Element in the area to create twenty Spatial Gates near the monsters. *Roar Roar!* The monsters realized this technique, but due to not experiencing anything, they continued their path toward Rose. A smile appeared on her face as the arrow she released earlier came out of the nearest gate to her, piercing the head of a monster before going inside another gate, only to find it appear on another one. The process repeated. Alex squinted his eyes and asked. "How much energy did you use?" Rose looked down first and answered as she tensed up. "Sixty percent?" "Sixty percent¡­" Alex frowned. "It''s good enough for your level, I guess. You can kill fifty monsters with those sixty percent of your energy, and you only need sixty percent of your Spiritual Energy. You can use the remaining forty percent to escape." "That¡­" Rose wanted to explain, but words stuck in her mouth. Just as he said, there were too many flaws in the technique she used earlier. "It''s fine. I just realized it not long ago too, so I will share my experience with you. Or do you choose not to hear it?" Alex glanced at her. "No¡­ I am ready." Rose shook her head furiously. "Please teach me, Master." Alex looked at her expression for a second before raising his hand toward the monsters. Soon, many Spatial Gates appeared. Unlike Rose''s Spatial Gates that had one-meter in radius, these Spatial Gates were only a few centimeters, just a bit bigger than the arrow itself. "Second, your gates will lose their sustainability in your last gate. In other words, you are simply using the arrow twenty times and just losing the arrow you have used more than half of your energy to release it. Isn''t it a waste? Instead of using it that way, you can recycle it, making it infinite. At the same time, you can add a few more arrows, such as a weak arrow to be the bait, another powerful arrow for an additional attack, or a fake arrow to confuse the enemy. "I know that my Space Element is a bit faster in terms of activation than your Space Element, but that''s the best one that the Freedom Sect has. I can''t do anything about it. And even if it''s not as strong as mine, you can calculate the Spatial Gate itself from its angle and other things. "This will be your main task for now. Make a single arrow last forever. And with more Spatial Gates in your repertoire, your job shall be easier. "Lastly, you can throw a few fake Spatial Gates itself. If you can hide one gate behind your back, you can channel Spiritual Energy inside it and let it leak to one or a few Spatial Gates. Yet the true one is the one that doesn''t have one. Just make it oblivious, and I believe your opponent will have a hard time to fight you." Alex smiled, finishing his advice with a pat. The rest of the monsters were obliterated by Alex''s Spatial Gates. "Yes, Master. Rose will certainly improve." She nodded with a serious expression. Alex couldn''t contain his smile. He remembered the first time he met Rose. She was so small back then and innocent. Even though she now had a more developed body and height, Alex still looked at her like a kid he met back then. Even with their height almost the same, he somehow ended up loving patting her head. Rose didn''t really mind since she felt close with Alex this way. Him patting her was like her parents. They loved to do that, so when Alex did this, she felt safe, secured and happy. "Anyway, take your time to improve. You are still too young." "No, no. I need to improve myself again so I can catch up with you!" Rose pumped her fist with a smile. "Improve? Never mind catching up to me, you''re enthusiastic enough and ready to beat me." Rose only revealed even a bigger smile when Alex said that. Alex then turned to the vast field while patting Rose''s head. "We have been going for a few hours and killed almost a thousand monsters. They came from all directions¡­ Luckily, they had their own tribe, so they didn''t come in a thousand or more. It made a whole thing easier. And I can focus on training you. I wonder, how are the other battlefields?" "Ah! I have contacted the spirits stationed in each gate earlier. They¡­" Anna came to him, starting to explain the condition to him. In the Lightning Gate, Jean was looking out the entire Divine Kingdom. "Flood!" Jean summoned a huge amount of water to flood the entire area. It was impossible, but the amount itself could hinder the movement of the monsters. At the same time, his water didn''t conduct electricity, so the moment the monsters got trapped inside his water, they only had one option. Die. The Divine Kingdom destroyed them in an instant. Elizabeth glanced at Jean with an excited expression. ''To think someone that strong is Alexander Sirius''s subordinate. It''s truly insane. In addition, almost all of his followers are stronger than Alex himself in terms of cultivation base. ''I have gotten so many supports in my kingdom, but that''s only because I have strength and wisdom. They fear me and choose to follow me. But Alex¡­ Without his power, I am still sure they will follow him. I wonder what kind of person can do something like that.'' Elizabeth was contemplating. As much as he wanted to understand more about Alex so as to know the reason why he had this kind of relationship, it might be misunderstood by Jean and complicated the whole situation. ''And seeing how he is so loyal to his wives just makes him more charming. Still, I wonder if he is someone like those people? The ones that can say they can abandon a thousand women, so she must accept them as their husband¡­'' Elizabeth closed her eyes before smiling. ''Now that I think about it, I am raising my strength and influence, so no one can control my fate¡­ And the kingdom is just a bonus. ''I simply don''t believe that I am just a political tool and need a black sheep to lie to them that I have someone I love. Rather than waiting for it or doing it that way, I am better to wrest my life or sell my soul to the devil to get power.'' That thought put a smile on her face before she shook her head and regained her focus. She found another group of monsters coming, so she prepared to face them. ¡­ On the other battlefield, specifically Jeanne''s battlefield, the Elementless Gate. Jeanne was laughing while slaughtering the monsters in the middle of their rank. "Haha! Just die you bastards. I want this to end as quickly as possible!" Jeanne roared. Song Jiaoren and Song Ling''er exchanged looks and made a weird smile. Jeanne was the first one in charge of their enemies. They somehow managed to block the enemy''s advances with their force, but Jeanne made it far easier. "Brother¡­ Are you going to be that powerful?" "Her cultivation is 10-Star, right? The same as grandfather¡­" Song Jiaoren sighed. "Yes." "Then, it''s not me who needs to answer that question. You are." "Me?" "Yes. You are going to be the next clan head, so I have a great expectation from you. I wonder if you can fight like that?" "I am not very sure. Her ability is stronger than Grandfather''s. At the same time, she also has that technique that turns her to be a beast, giving her more power. So¡­" "Anyway, don''t lose hope. This big brother will practice as quickly as possible. Maybe, I can visit you again in the future. Even if I can''t visit you because of my cultivation, I will still write letters from time to time. That''s why I hope you continue working hard." Song Jiaoren patted his sister''s shoulders. "I won''t disappoint you." She nodded. "Alright. Let''s return to the battlefield. There are another two hundred monsters coming from our right." "There is also another one from our left, Brother." "You grab one hundred people and eradicate those on our right. I will stop the one on our left with fifty people. As soon as you have finished, get over to my position as we will eliminate them together." "Understood." The two then returned to their positions. It seemed the current younger generations were pretty strong as they could handle it better than expected. Yet, they couldn''t be happy because the hardest part came with their target. After fighting for a few days of fighting, the people started getting exhausted. They had been killing five thousand monsters in the past two days and realized they needed a bit more than two thousand to finally conquer this place. Alex finally opened his eyes after resting because they had no opponents left. It turned out that the last two thousand monsters were coming together with their parent monsters. "Master¡­" Rose called him with a calm expression. She saw a huge mammoth leading the pack of monsters. Even without his Spirit Eyes, he could see that the mammoth was the strongest because it was the parent monster. He stood up, thought for a moment, and said. "I have an idea. I and the others will handle the monsters while you take down that mammoth for me." "Master¡­ Do you think I can? I am still a 10-Star Martial Monarch while that mammoth is a 4-Star Martial Saint." "Don''t worry. Believe your Master. Do everything you can to beat that mammoth." Alex smiled. "I understand." Rose nodded with a solemn expression and thought. ''Master has placed so much expectation on me, so I can''t betray his expectation. I will surely kill that mammoth.'' Anna came to him and sent a thought transmission. ''Alex, are you crazy? Rose can''t fight an opponent at that level currently.'' ''I know, but I want her to realize her weakness and try to overcome it in this fight. I will step in if the situation turns serious. I promise.'' ''Still, it''s a bit excessive for Rose to fight that monster.'' ''I know, but I fought against a 10-Star Time Element master while I was 6-Star. Our situation was similar, so I wanted her to fight against it. Besides, Rose''s Lightning had a ridiculous amount of piercing power, and her footsteps should allow her to avoid the mammoth''s attacks. It''s not like I am sending her to a suicide mission¡­'' Alex sighed. Anna paused for a few seconds before she decided to agree. ''Fine. You can do whatever you want. Just make sure that you are not too far away from her, so you can help her at any moment.'' ''Sure.'' Alex then turned at the monsters and smiled. ''You are going to be a monster that helps my disciple get stronger.'' 824 Roses Power At the same time, Alex shouted. "We are going to penetrate from the middle to create a way between Rose and that mammoth. After that, you can start surrounding them and push them back like how we usually do." "Understood." The group shouted and waited. Rose clenched her bow tighter. It seemed she became tenser as the monsters got closer. Yet, Alex didn''t say anything despite noticing her situation. She didn''t want Rose to be too reliant on him, so she needed to figure out what she should do. The five minutes limit was approaching. Alex''s array had almost finished, and the monsters had almost arrived. Alex and Sherry summoned their Pure Fire, pressuring all those Fire Element Monsters. Although they didn''t focus on pressuring them, the natural suppression was enough for them to slow down their advance. And that helped Alex to finish his array. "Sky Spear Array!" A blue spear appeared above the array. Only with one order from Alex, the spear would hit the monsters, blasting them to smithereens. Yet, Alex summoned his dragons first, tripling the number of attacks he planned to release. "Charge!" Alex shouted as the three attacks flew. He and the others followed right behind the attacks. Rose looked at the spear hitting the monsters and obliterated it like it was nothing. Her heart began beating rapidly as she pulled her bow while continuing on her path. She glanced at Alex, who had no change of expression, and took a deep breath. Just like this, the group could penetrate their enemies. The two dragons also widened the path they could take while the rest of his spirits and contracted beasts helped the path to stay open. When the spear and the dragons were about to arrive at the end of their ranks, Alex made them explode. *Boom Boom Boom!* The explosions engulfed many monsters at once. Rose emerged from within the smoke, heading straight toward the mammoth. *Roar!* The mammoth charged at Rose, wanting to crush her arrogant. It swept its trunk from the left, trying to hit the hand Rose used to pull her arrow. Rose simply took a glance and activated her technique. Lightning sparked around her boots as she used all of her strength to stomp the ground before using it as a force to arrive right below the mammoth''s head. She aimed at a specific spot and released her arrow. "Lightning Arrow!" The mammoth skin also glowed at this point. The arrow was struggling to pierce the skin and dimmed out after several seconds, exhausting all of its energy. "Tch!" Evelyn clicked her tongue. She continued making her way out of this giant mammoth and arrived behind the mammoth. "Lightning Arrow!" "The skin is too thick¡­ And if my sense was not wrong, the mammoth used its technique to coat its body part with extraordinary thick and hard skin. Unless I shoot it in the most unexpected place¡­ Never mind, I will find its weaknesses first." Rose shook her head and leaped to the air. Five arrows appeared on her right hand as she pulled them at the same time. The moment it released, only one arrow went straight at the monster while the rest curved a bit, hitting a different spot. *Roar!* The mammoth finally finished moving its giant body and swung its trunk again, but Rose never expected that it was too fast. "What is that speed?" Rose exclaimed in surprise while covering her body with lightning. She spun her body to change her direction and stepped on its trunk, launching herself to the sky. She created another five arrows and released them randomly, trying to find the body''s weakness. Rose flew around the mammoth while shooting her arrows continuously. Unable to accept this, the mammoth turned around and pointed its trunk toward her. He spurted out fire from the two holes on its nose, trying to hit Rose down. And yet, this kind of attack was easily dodged by Rose. She kept raining the mammoth with arrows, hoping that one of them would at least stick. At that time, she knew she could focus on that spot. After five minutes, she realized that the strategy wasn''t working. She decided to strike on a single spot instead of five with those arrows, thinking she might not put enough strength on it. Hence, the struggle started. She struck the mammoth with her original technique that allowed her to take control of her arrows. But she only found only its eyes and tail were the softest. Hence, she decided to change her strategy and shot another arrow. When the arrow was only two meters from the target, a Spatial Gate appeared, swallowing this arrow. Another Spatial Gate appeared right before its eyes. *Roar!* The beast roared when its right eye got pierced by Rose''s arrow. Rose truly angered at this time as its body suddenly clad in fire. The fire flared up and formed into a few cyclones that charged at Rose. "¡­" She gritted her teeth and flew away to avoid these cyclones, but it kept following her to the end of times. ''What should I do?'' Rose asked herself. The fire almost hit her. ''Dodging is impossible. At the same time, I can''t shoot at it because the moment I turn around, it will hit me. One hit will be fatal for me¡­ No, I should let it hit somewhere to destroy these attacks. But where?'' Rose looked around. She wanted to use the beast itself to be her shield, but it would probably be too dangerous in her current state. Hence, she changed her target to the easiest target. She suddenly dove from the sky and landed on the ground. Taking another glimpse of the fire cyclone, Rose''s feet began to spark. "Lightning Step!" The prediction which one would come first truly helped her this time as she kept dodging it in succession. Those fire cyclones that hit the ground exploded, but Rose already passed them, so the fire or the shock wave didn''t catch her. At the same time, Rose pulled her bow and shot out a few more arrows. She utilized her Spatial Gates and let the mammoth confuse. It seemed the mammoth was extraordinary. The moment he realized he had been surrounded by the Spatial Gates, it swept its trunk again. Just like how the mysterious guy cut Alex''s Spatial Gate, Rose''s gates were obliterated. "What?!" Of course, this was the first time Rose saw something like this. But due to her condition, she suppressed the shock and leaped in another direction, shooting one thousand arrows to see whether there was a weakness. Seeing those many arrows trying to penetrate the skin, she suddenly released something that she never tried. "Can I do it?" Rose couldn''t contain her smile. Her green bow suddenly glowed blue before a pair of wings appeared on the two ends as if it was adding the shape to increase its power. Five arrows then appeared on her hand as she pulled her bowstring. However, if one took another close look, they would notice that Rose didn''t use all of her arrows at the same time. "I am just a simple girl with a straightforward thinking, but I can also think one thing or two." Rose smiled and released the first arrow, sending the other one in a split second. She continued until she succeeded in releasing five arrows in succession. The arrows looked like a snake that crawled straight toward the mammoth, specifically its tusk. ''My original technique is a guided arrow that I can control according to the program I set before releasing it. However, I try to do it in a rapid-fire this time¡­ And the result.'' Rose squinted her eyes. The mammoth coated its tusk with another layer of fire and struck the ''Arrow.'' It was counted as one because the second arrow hit the first arrow''s butt. The third, fourth, and fifth arrows did the same, creating a long thin stick. To Rose''s surprise, the shock wave produced by this clash was the strongest so far. Realizing it might be her strongest attack so far, she pumped her fist and observed the clash. *Crack!* A crack appeared on the tusk before the arrow shattered it and hit his body, creating an explosion. Rose couldn''t help but smile as she finally found a way to hit it. "If I use it again, I¡ª" Before she finished her words, the mammoth emerged from within the smoke and charged at her, swinging his trunk toward Rose. She widened her eyes and raised both hands, trying to coat her body with lightning, but¡­ "I won''t make it." The trunk struck her. "Gah!" The pain followed by numbness was felt by Rose as her body flew because of the momentum. Out of desperation, she checked her hands and gritted her teeth. ''It''s not broken, but too numb. I can''t move it.'' It was at this time, the master finally made his move. "That is good enough, Rose. Well done." Alex appeared in front of Rose with his back facing the mammoth. Spiritual Energy stopped her momentum and gently placed her down. Seeing the interference from Alex, the mammoth erupted in anger. It roared and charged at Alex. "Master!" Rose wanted to feel relieved when she saw her master, but the mammoth didn''t let her, so she wanted to inform him. Alex only smiled and snapped his finger. "It''s fine, Rose." As he uttered those words, an array emerged from the Space World, revealing a whole big array. Rose opened her mouth in surprise. She had indeed felt the fluctuation of Space Energy around that area, but she never expected it was an array. It turned out that her master was luring the monster to that place. "Saint Explosion Array." The red array shone when the mammoth stepped on it. The mammoth realized this and tried to escape, but the array had been activated. *Boom!* A huge explosion occurred. The explosion itself was very unique. Despite having a loud sound, it didn''t create a shock wave to its surrounding, breaking the physic itself. At the same time, it didn''t create smoke in the sky. Instead, it made a huge flame pillar, marching its way toward the sky. *Roar Roar!* The mammoth seemed to be alive under the scorching fire. Rose peeked and found out that the mammoth had lost its fang and ears. The body was charred back, and it seemed to be almost dead. "Master¡­ It''s going to die." Her face became pale. In the meeting, she listened to Alex saying they couldn''t kill the monsters if not together, so she didn''t understand why Alex killed it. "I am not killing it." Alex only shook his head. His Spirit Eyes was telling him that the mammoth still had a bountiful enemy. Although some parts were destroyed, most of them were outer injuries, so he knew the mammoth still had enough strength to live for even a year. "Is that so? Is it only an outer injury?" "Yes." Alex nodded and summoned another array that he had been creating after finishing the Saint Explosion Array. The moment it was set up, Alex activated it. "Sphere Chain Array." Around a hundred chains emerged from a small array, circling around the monster. The mammoth soon became a cocoon made of chain and restrained it until Alex felt it was over. At the same time, he took out the token and handed it to Rose. "Since you have injured the mammoth so much to the point I can finish it this easily, how about informing the others that we have finished? You just need to channel your Spiritual Energy to the shining circle." As expected, there was only one shining circle because they were the strongest group out there. Rose gulped down and took the token carefully. She then followed Alex''s instruction, only to find there wasn''t a change in the token itself. "Thank you." Alex smiled, knowing it had been transmitted to others. 825 Closing the Portal The Divine Kingdom managed to beat the Lightning Gate a few hours after Alex finished. Jean was repelling the enemies'' attacks, so the group could swiftly kill the monsters. And with how his water couldn''t conduct electricity, he could flood them to restrain their movement. Elizabeth coordinated her subordinates well, almost to perfection. The Ancient Blue Family was the third one. Although it was hard to break the Earth Element monsters'' defense, the family seemed to have undergone a transformation due to Alex giving them the array to mix their blood. At the same time, Leoz, the strongest out of the ten spirits, was with them. It was normal for them to be the third. The fourth place was Blackwade Clan. And as everyone would expect, Jeanne was the biggest factor they could do something like that. In fact, Jeanne alone managed to kill a few hundred monsters to a thousand, whereas most of the people only got two to four monsters. The monsters inside the elementless gate might be strong, but it was still nothing in Jeanne''s eyes. Song Jiaoren decided to attack with Sherry as his core and succeeded. The problem would be the Water Gate, Light Gate, and Dark Gate. Letizia was struggling. She wasn''t as powerful as Alex in terms of cultivation base. Even with her Sword Technique, she was still unable to get an advantage. Evelyn and Angela were doing their best, helping Letizia in her struggle. Alex offered to help her, but Letizia refused, asking Alex for another day. And finally, she managed to subdue the parent monster, albeit barely trapping it inside an ice cube. The Light Gate was not that different. Even though Artur was strong, their opponents relied on blinding light or illusion. Artur was immune to something like that because he had the same element, but it affected the rest of the disciples greatly. They were struggling to fight those many monsters with less than half of their numbers. Still, Artur took the lead and blasted the monsters to smithereens. The Light Temple and Dark Temple helped neutralize the illusion as they proceeded in killing more and more monsters. After two more days since Alex subdued the mammoth, they finally managed to catch the parent monster. As for the last gate, the Dark Gate, this was the most severe. Anya couldn''t move at all due to the number of people affected by curse or poison. Phantasm Sect was struggling with their might to the point Alex sent Nelson and Anna to help regarding their opinion. They finally regained their ground with the addition of two people, striking back with the two as their leads and subduing the last parent monsters. "No. I don''t know if I can kill it in a single hit, so I will just leave it to Master." Rose shook her head. Although it had been severely injured, Alex was the safer option, so she didn''t want to risk it just because she wanted it. Alex stared at her for a few seconds and nodded his head. Grabbing the token, he poured his Spiritual Energy into the token, waiting for the others to respond. He waited for a minute before the token shone, projecting a number. 60 59 Alex instantly recognized it was the time to kill the monsters. "Alright, in a minute, we are going to kill them." Alex nodded before glancing at the spirits. "We will discuss the next battle after regrouping with the others. There are thirty-four 10-Star Martial Saint monsters, so I am a bit worried." The group nodded their head, glancing at the time that had turned to 30. It continued counting down. Alex raised his sword when there were three seconds left. The fire began covering the sword, ready to cut the chain and the mammoth into two. He had another reason why he attacked the mammoth brutally. Due to the fact that he needed to keep it alive for a few days inside an array, he needed to supply his own Spiritual Energy to it, so he didn''t want the mammoth to struggle inside the cocoon and just accept his fate. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ 0! Alex waved his sword, using his Triple Draws and Mythical Fire Slash at the same time. It looked a bit too brutal, but Alex didn''t want to risk it and became a failure. The Sword Waves split the mammoth into half, along with the chain and the array. [EXP+ 100] He had an absolute measure as to whether the monsters died or not. And when he checked his entire notification, the other six EXP notifications seemed to appear as well. "Hmm¡­ It seems they are handing the matter to us because they are afraid they can''t take it down in one hit. Anyway, our job is done." Alex informed, looking around to see what would happen now that the parent monsters died. Yet, nothing happened for a minute until someone opened the gate again. A sound reverberated in everyone''s ears no matter which gate they came in. "The monsters have been defeated. Please come out!" Alex glanced at the others and used his Teleportation Array to be the first to arrive. "What are you going to do?" Alex found Shakdi outside the gate while the rest were a bit farther from him. "We are going to activate the tower once more. This place is still full of energy anyway due to many monsters being killed a few years ago. I will use that energy to close the portal and completely seal the entrance. "The monsters that can influence the entrance are no more, so I believe there won''t be a single portal appearing in this world anymore." Shakdi nodded with a smile while glancing at the gates. The parent monsters were the monsters that could influence them because they seemed to have a direct connection with those on the original planet. With them gone, the monsters wouldn''t be able to transmit any more power to here, let alone creating a portal. In other words, they had succeeded in repelling the monsters. Alex nodded. "There is a single job left for us then." "Yes. As soon as we close the portal, we can start killing the monsters. I believe this world has enough power to eradicate them." "Still, with so many monsters dying just like that¡­ Humanity will get its populations reduced to a great degree since fighting three million monsters is easier said than done. At the same time, the economy will also be ruined, especially with how many monster parts that can be used for medicine and other things." Alex sighed. "Yes. The economy will collapse, but I believe it''s still far better than having our home destroyed." "I agree. But I won''t be a part of the new society that will soon be created after this." Shakdi widened his eyes a bit and gently smiled. The reincarnation of the Spirit God, if he didn''t become a God Rank Expert, who will? Shakdi clasped his hands and bowed. "Then, I, on behalf of the Gods and Goddesses in this world, thank you. Our world won''t forget this or your effort in the past." "It''s my pleasure." Alex stretched his hand, shaking Shakdi''s hand. The rest of the Gods and Goddesses also shook Alex''s hand gratefully. "By the way, you don''t mind if we start the process first, right?" "Yeah. I am waiting for my teammates to return too." Alex nodded. Shakdi then walked forward and signaled his friends to take on the position. Out of the twenty people, sixteen of them stood upon the eight gates that had been shut down, and the rest stood in the middle. The four exchanged looks and nodded with a solemn expression, sending a gesture that they would proceed now. An array suddenly emerged from the floor, starting from a smaller array that enveloped only four of them to a larger array that connected everyone. Alex stepped back outside the array, watching how the symbols spread all over the tower and shining in golden light. It looked majestic. He activated his Spirit Eyes to see how the energy flowed around the area, only to find it was sucked by the wall of the tower. Following the golden symbols, the stone wall that had been clad with gold finally revealed its appearance. And it turned out behind the golden layer was a green jade. Alex investigated his surroundings and found a huge amount of energy coming from forty-five degrees on his left, realizing it must be the energy from the Ancient Battlefield. He almost forgot the fact that this tower was located in a different place than the Ancient Battlefield. And the pillar was the one connecting the two places. The tower kept sucking the energy until it covered the whole tower before shooting it upward. In front of everyone here or Ancient Battlefield, there seemed to be nothing happening. But for those on the surface, a white light pillar emerged from the ground, piercing the sky. Some of the elders remained on the surface to lead the forces to move, but the moment they saw this phenomenon, they were dumbstruck. "What is that?" "A white pillar?" "No. It must be a Spiritual Energy¡­ I can feel it." "But what kind of thing can release a massive Spiritual Energy like that? This is insane." Suddenly, another white pillar penetrated the cloud from above, heading toward the huge portal. It swallowed the portal along with the Ancient Ruin. And yet, they somehow saw something beyond belief. "Wait. Did you notice that the portal shrinks?" "Huh?" "Look! The portal keeps shrinking. The monsters coming out of the portal are also obliterated by that light." 30 meters¡­ 20 meters¡­ 5 meters¡­ 1 meter¡­ All people rejoiced when they saw the portal vanished into thin air. And the elders who remained on the surface immediately shouted, remembering the instruction from their leaders. "The portal has been closed. It''s time for us to strike! All disciples, attacks!" "Ooh!" They started marching. With most monsters coming to the Ancient Battlefield, they got the upper hand in this battle, pushing the monsters back. Meanwhile, Alex was watching the entire process from the shining wall to dim again. Shakdi and the others finally turned around, looking at Alex. "We have closed the portal, and this tower will maintain it for a few days. If we eliminate all those beasts, there won''t be any connection between the two worlds, so please." Shakdi bowed his head. Alex nodded. "Leave it to me." Not long after he said that, the group started coming out along with his group. Alex brought the spirits to have a strategy meeting before going out of the tower. 826 Mutual Probing "Indeed. Not only do we need to handle those monsters, but there are also still three million waiting to be slaughtered. This will be a very long fight, spanning for at least a month." Anya nodded. "Yeah. The problem is whether those 10-Star would come to us or stay in the back. If they come, it will be easy. If not, we need to pull them in or go there by ourselves." Alex nodded while scratching his head. This matter had been troubling him since a few years ago. He thought it was easy to kill those thirty-four monsters, but it was different if he took the three million into account. "As expected, we should start fighting back. I am sure that because of the portal, they will realize that the connection to their original world has disappeared. They must be panicking right now." Anya fell into deep thought after giving an input. "If that were the case, they will either search for a way to go back or slaughter us first before returning." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. We can then kill the monsters bit by bit, luring those 10-Star in and killing them one by one." "In that case, we need to spread out." "How?" "Each of us only needs to focus on our respective 10-Star. Each 9-Star Spirits who can fight will take two 10-Star monsters. Those who are 10-Star will focus on one monster. I want you to pull them in and kill the monster as soon as possible so you can move to help the others or take on another one." Alex commanded. With this, Leoz, Anna, and Jeanne would take one at a time while Jean, Nelson, Fabio, Vera, and Artur fought against two to hold them back. Anya was in charge of their support, and Greg was in charge of being her protector. "I will also take two 10-Star. As much as I want to let others join, I will see the situation first. For now, focus on getting the lower level ones like 9-Star monsters. If the monsters are not a big deal, I will inform you guys, and you can fight against 10-Star as well." Alex glanced at Firia, Sherry and the others who had no chance to fight. "We understand. You are sure a worrywart." Firia gently nodded and smiled. "In total, we can fight fifteen 10-Star monsters at once. If we include the other leaders, we should be able to fight twenty-two monsters. We have no other choice other than letting the rest handle the other twelve if they move." "Understood. How about our True Spirit Body?" Anna asked away her doubt. "Don''t use it for now, but you can immediately activate it when fighting the 10-Star. We have been saving this for an occasion like this, so you can go rampage. In the worst case, I can level up a few of you to 10-Star to fight against the monsters, but I hope we don''t reach that step." They ended up agreeing to his command. "Letizia and Rose are staying on the back, alright?" Alex then glanced at the two girls that seemed to be left out. As much as he wanted to give them an important role, their strength had yet to reach that level, so he didn''t want to send them to death. The latter also understood his concern and weren''t stubborn with it. They simply nodded with a bitter expression. "Let''s go." Alex nodded and returned to the main area, finding Shakdi making a portal. Shakdi glanced at him and said, "This is the portal that will send you back. Considering the situation has stabilized, I can spare more energy. Of course, there is also another thing that this tower can do." "That is¡­" "We can release a bit of Spiritual Energy we store from the Ancient Battlefield. This way, the disciples will have a good amount of supply of Spiritual Energy, allowing them to recover faster." Shakdi nodded. "I see. It''s a good idea to the point I might use it myself." Alex smiled. "Anyway, our priority is to kill those monsters." "Yes. As much as we want to help you in this fight, we can''t use our ability outside this tower or the World''s Will will notice it and purge our souls." Shakdi shook his head in remorse. "It''s fine. We should be fine outside." Alex reassured him once more before glancing at the gate. "Then, can we leave now?" "Yes. I know that you won''t come back and you don''t have any interest in our treasures¡­ That''s why¡­" Shakdi clasped his hand and bowed, followed by the other Gods and Goddesses. "Thank you for saving this world." "It''s true that I have no plan in returning to this place, but don''t thank me yet. We haven''t solved those monsters outside." Alex turned and started to walk toward the gate before glancing at them. "Well¡­ Take care." They smiled and closed their eyes, reminiscing how Alex saved them in the past. Whether it was the past him or the current him, both of them had their own charm that made one want to follow them. Sadly, they couldn''t, due to their limitation. Alex didn''t think much about their feelings and went through the gate, finding himself teleported to outside the pillar. The monsters were rushing to the tower from the horizon as if they were going berserk. Alex looked around and searched for a leader in this place. "Alexander¡­" Hearing someone''s voice, he turned around and asked the person. "Former Patriarch Davi. What happened here?" "I was about to ask you the same question." "Ho? Is it related to me? No, it should be related to the pillar?" "Yes. When the pillar shone, the monsters started to be restless as if they were angry over something. At that time, they began marching in a more reckless way to the point their 10-Star joined the war itself, leading them in the front." Davi let out a long sigh. "And I was about to go there myself to fight one of them." "¡­" Alex fell into silence and nodded. "I will try to handle as many 10-Star Martial Saint monsters as possible. You can focus on your task and try to help my people when they are fighting those 10-Star monsters." "I can command the disciples to surround them to let your group kill those monsters." Davi nodded. "I will also inform the other influences before going to the battlefield." Alex then turned to Nelson and signaled him to go. After receiving the order, Nelson vanished into thin air, going to talk face to face with other leaders. Alex then glanced at the monsters and commanded. "Except Letizia, Rose, Anya, and Greg, spread out." With a single command, all people except those four leaped toward somewhere. Anya hit the ground with her staff a few times before a pair of white butterfly wings appeared on her back. "True Spirit Body. Light Butterfly Spirit." A light appeared in front of her chest before it flew toward Alex and the others, including those who went to another place. Alex took another look at his cultivation and smiled. It might be due to the current progress of his cultivation, he sensed that his power didn''t increase one star from Anya''s power. Nonetheless, it was still 9-Star. A bit farther from him, another mammoth was looking at their direction intensely. And it was a 10-Star monster instead of the previous 3-Star. Whether it was due to knowing that Alex murdered its kin or because of the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy Anya emitted, the mammoth pointed its trunk toward them and shot out a fireball. "True Spirit Body. Fortress Form." Greg activated his True Spirit Body as well and stomped his shield to the ground. A green barrier appeared out of thin air, receiving the fireball. It then stretched a bit before closing its entrance like a pouch. The fireball exploded, but not a single shock wave or heat felt on the battlefield because of the barrier. "Kh!" Davi gritted his teeth, ready to charge. Kai raised his hand to stop him and pointed it to the monster on the left. It was a 10-Star Leopard. "You can handle that one. I will kill the mammoth and¡­" Alex glanced at the 10-Star next to the mammoth, a giant white snake. "That snake." "Are¡­ Are you sure?" Davi furrowed his eyebrows. He didn''t mean to underestimate Alex, but even if he could skip-rank fight, it was hard to fight 10-Star monsters with his 8-Star strength. However, Alex simply shook his head and smiled. "Let me. Just clear the monsters around it, so I can fight both of them without any problem." "I¡­ Understand." Davi hesitated a bit before accepting Alex''s request. "Men! Look at that mammoth and snake, give a way, so the Divine Slayer can slay them!" The disciples were startled, but since most of them consisted of disciples from the Ancient Blue Family, they recognized this title and glanced at Alex. The moment they got a sight of him, a few leaders shouted in unison. "Let''s do this! Kill those bastards and let our Divine Slayer slaughter them!" "Ooh!" With that shout, the disciples were fired up. "Alex. Your influence is so strong¡­" Anya smirked, teasing Alex. "Hmph!" Alex snorted and shrugged. "Anyway, it''s rude to not return their kindness, right?" He lifted up his hand, summoning a giant array that he had been building until now. A spear appeared out of thin air as it flew as soon as it was formed. "That is Sky Spear Array¡­" Davi sweatdropped. He remembered that Alex was an Array Master and thought, ''How? I know his identity, but he didn''t use his array in the previous war. So, I couldn''t understand why he decided to use it now. ''Did he think Fire God Clan and Snow White Mountain were too easy? Or he didn''t practice such an array before?'' Davi didn''t know whether to call Alex a freak or a monster. He could do almost anything. If he showed that he could make weapons like Forging Masters, he might want to just go into seclusion until Alex left this world. Alex, on the other hand, paid no heed and launched his Sky Spear Array toward the mammoth. "Die!" The spear flew at fast speed. "!!!" The mammoth widened its eyes, never expecting to find such a powerful attack from the get-go. He quickly tilted his head and struck the spear with his tusk, creating a powerful shock wave to their surroundings. The clash lasted for a few seconds before the tusk destroyed the spear. Yet, the mammoth couldn''t say he managed to stop Alex''s attack completely because blood started dripping on its tusk. It seemed the gum connecting the tusk was slightly dislocated. Alex didn''t stop there and waved his sword toward the white snake near the mammoth. "Mythical Fire Slash!" Three Sword Waves flew to the snake, cutting all monsters in its way. The snake spat out poison toward the attack, trying to melt it, but Alex''s Pure Fire burned the poison almost immediately. Because of this, the snake bit the Sword Waves to stop it. Yet, Alex''s Pure Fire still influenced the attack, burning a bit of its fangs and melting those sharp fangs into a bit dull. Davi thought he was just flaunting his prowess, but he realized it wasn''t the case. He exclaimed inwardly, ''He¡­ He is planning to take on these two¡­ He was completely serious when saying those words earlier! Since this is the case, I should also kill my enemy so as to not let an 8-Star hog all the glory, making me an embarrassment in the eyes of others.'' Davi leaped toward his own enemy. Alex found this and smiled. He floated above numerous disciples from the Ancient Blue Family, glaring at the two monsters as he raised his hands. "Come!" Just like how Davi thought, the two were provoked and charged at him. *Roar!* 827 Killing Two 10-Star Monsters Behind the army, Rose didn''t want to take her eyes off her master, believing that she would improve to see how Alex fought monsters above his ranks. "Master¡­" Rose clenched her fists and put them on her chest as if she was praying. Alex wasn''t aware of this as he was too focused on the monsters in front of him. He simply waited for the two monsters to come in a while watching how the soldiers were pushing back the monsters to protect Alex, who was fighting the two monsters. Albeit none of the soldiers were fast enough as the two monsters had arrived. And yet, there was no disappointment in Alex''s eyes. Instead, it was filled with a smile and joy because two giant arrays appeared on the ground. Alex himself was floating three meters above the ground so he could see his surroundings, due to the size of the monsters that varied. "Saint Explosion Array." Alex smiled and activated his array. Two explosions occurred as it turned into a flame pillar, roasting the monsters inside. What made these two arrays even special was that he made the array big enough to trap around fifty monsters inside each array. *Roar Roar!* As expected, the weaker monsters immediately screamed in pain because they couldn''t withstand the heat. And the screams slowly died down as those monsters burned to death. Alex didn''t stop there. Two dragons appeared and circled around him. If he used too many arrays, he might exhaust his Spiritual Energy first because the consumption was crazy. That was why he prepared to fight close combat after making this surprise attack. "Surprise attack won''t really work again in the face of an intelligent beast¡­" Alex muttered to himself while looking at the first Saint Explosion Array. That mammoth was a Fire Element monster, so he should be the one injured the most from this. Alex decided to attack the mammoth first before the snake could help him. Alex took out his two weapons and waved them toward the mammoth. "Mythical Fire Slash." Alex used a huge amount of his energy. Sending two horizontal Sword Waves toward the fire pillar, but he didn''t use it while floating in the air. Instead, he landed on the ground first and used the technique. "His feet?" Rose exclaimed in surprise, never expecting that he wanted to stop his movement first. Anya only smiled while observing Rose and thought, ''It seems she doesn''t understand Alex''s real intent.'' Even so, Anya didn''t say anything first, hoping that Rose could figure it first. The mammoth found these sneaky Sword Waves and lifted up its feet, stomping these small Sword Waves. Even though Alex''s Pure Fire was stronger than his Fire, this didn''t mean that his physical body was weaker. Taking another glimpse, Alex threw his spear toward the mammoth who was struggling to destroy Alex''s Sword Wave. "Master!" Rose shouted, looking at Alex, who was about to get swallowed by the snake. And yet, the latter didn''t even respond and stood still, letting the snake swallow him. Rose''s body shook when she saw this, but Anya simply hit her head with her staff. "Ah!" Rose was startled and turned around, finding Anya pointing her finger toward the mammoth while smiling as if the snake didn''t swallow him. When she saw this gesture, Rose followed the direction and found Alex appearing before the mammoth. "!!!" Rose and the mammoth were startled to see Alex appearing. Alex paid no attention and struck the eyes with his spear. "Heaven Light Slash!" The mammoth quickly protected the eyes with the eyelid while tilting his head to hit Kai with its tusks. Unfortunately, the moment the mammoth closed his eyes, the chance appeared. Alex turned around, seeing the incoming tusk. He avoided it and looked at the mammoth. "Mythical Fire Slash!" This time, he didn''t hold back anymore because this was the biggest opportunity he got during this fight. He used both Triple Draws and his Space Cut in this technique, trying to cut either the mammoth''s head or its tusk. He knew that the mammoth would do something if he aimed directly at his head, so he decided to use this opportunity where it tilted its head to make him unable to avoid it. "!!!" The mammoth seemed to realize this and panicked. His Fire started covering the tusk to strengthen it, but Alex''s Pure Fire suppressed at least half of its power. Suddenly, the snake emerged behind him, trying to use its head to blow him away. Alex glanced behind him and struck the right side of its mouth. "Heaven Light Slash!" The snake widened its eyes, realizing he was baited by Alex. "Shaa!" He let out a scream, and his body was pushed to the left, but the snake still held on and moved toward the mammoth, biting the Sword Waves to destroy it. Alex didn''t stop there and landed on the snake''s body, starting to cut him. "Shaa!" Despite feeling hurt, it didn''t release Alex''s Sword Waves and destroyed it. And yet, it couldn''t feel happy because he encountered another problem. The shattered Sword Waves didn''t disappear. Instead, it turned into a few streams of light, flying away like an omnidirectional attack. "¡­" Rose closed her mouth with her hand and couldn''t say anything. She was truly speechless by Alex''s control on the battlefield and couldn''t help but exclaim. "Amazing." "You haven''t understood all the reasons why he made such a move," Anya commented. "Eh?!" Rose widened her eyes and tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean?" "First, he used his Sword Waves to stop the movement of that mammoth. Knowing it had pride in its strength and weight, Alex had predicted that the mammoth would destroy his attack. Yet, it failed because he underestimated Alex''s power. "Second, the moment the mammoth stuck in his place, Alex decided to make the enemy unable to move. He pressured the mammoth into that state by threatening the mammoth that he would cut its eye. "Of course, the real reason why the second point could go so well because of Kai''s Space Element, specifically Space Mark. You saw it too, right? Kai threw his spear and teleported after going inside the snake''s mouth? It''s too camouflage that the snake has defeated him, and due to that, the mammoth would be too slow to dodge Alex''s attack. "After that, Alex used his strongest attack to make the mammoth choose either his head or his body. However, it''s not his true intention. He should have known that the snake is coming to him. Seeing how intelligent they are, the snake would surely come to help the bull. In that case, he had a perfect chance to strike the rushing snake. "The moment he completes these steps, he uses another trick¡­" Anya pointed her finger toward the shattered Sword Waves. Rose observed them and realized that the energy from the Sword Waves was still too strong, resulting in it to fly to all directions the moment it shattered. *Boom Boom Boom!* As one would expect, the attack would injure or kill monsters around the explosion areas. With this, she finally understood why Alex chose to move like this. "Master is killing the weaker monsters as well¡­ I see." "Yes. It seems you have understood his real intention. Even though this is the battle between him and the two 10-Star monsters, they are still in the middle of the war nonetheless. Of course, he needed to kill those beasts." Anya nodded. "I¡­ I have learned. I was too focused on the two 10-Star this whole time while Master actually saw the entire battlefield. Not only did he take advantage of his ability, but he also didn''t forget the whole picture." Rose closed her eyes and clenched her fists. "You are missing another thing, Rose. The fact that you are still within the enemy''s rank can become a double-edged sword. Alex utilizes this carefully. What is his situation now?" "Eh?!" Rose thought it was already abnormal for Alex to think all of that in the middle of the fight, but she soon realized there was another trick. "Those 10-Star monsters are a kind of leaders of these monsters, so it will depend on the bosses themselves. "If they don''t care about their comrades and subordinates, they will attack Master even if it means sacrificing the others. If they are not, this will be a huge advantage because Master can restrict their strength to a certain degree and the lower level monsters are afraid to interfere with their bosses'' fight. The most dangerous places sometimes are the safest places." Anya smirked and nodded. "Correct. Nice for you to understand that." Letizia didn''t say a single word during this time. Although she could predict a few points, she couldn''t figure everything out. And Rose was Alex''s direct disciple, so it was better for Rose to answer instead of her. Still, it didn''t mean she chose not to learn anything. In fact, she made sure to remember this lesson, so she could do the same thing in the future. When the ladies were talking, Alex''s fight progressed very far. The mammoth had both his tusks destroyed by Alex while his body was covered with wounds. The white snake wasn''t any better. However, Alex also had used a considerable amount of his Spiritual Energy in this fight. "Shaa!" The snake charged at him again, trying to swallow him. Alex threw his spear again that had been imbued by Space Mark. Seeing this, the snake hesitated for a second before finding the mammoth grabbing that spear with its truck. It continued to swallow Alex. Alex only smiled as if he had prepared everything for this. He snapped his finger as another array appeared. Numerous chains emerged and locked the head, hindering it to even move. The mammoth immediately dropped Alex''s spear and tried to rescue the snake with its trunk. But as the mammoth had predicted earlier, the spear had been imbued by Space Mark. The moment it struck the ground, Alex activated it to appear right below the mammoth. "Mythical Fire Slash." Alex smirked and sent a powerful Sword Wave its leg, sending the giant head flying. He then moved to the snake, using the same move to kill it, but the snake managed to move its body, rolling it around so the entire body could wrap Alex. Alex only lifted his finger for this as he used a few techniques at the same time. They were Space Bind, Space Plates, and the Sphere Chain Array to stop the snake from moving. At that instant, he put the snake out of misery. "Huft¡­ I have used a bit more than half of my Spiritual just to fight these two monsters¡­ That is ridiculous." Alex gritted his teeth, not happy with his current achievement. Still, he found Rose and Letizia looking at him with awe, so he smiled since his hidden intention of keeping them here had paid off. And yet, he couldn''t relax just yet, especially when he found another 10-Star monster coming toward him. He spotted another one not far from behind it and couldn''t help but exclaim. "I am so popular." The two incoming monsters were a red ape and a white rhinoceros. They seemed to be stronger than the two, but he knew he wouldn''t have any problems in dealing with these two. Alex glanced at his right as a lightning bolt flew past him. The lightning bolt hit the red ape that seemed to have less defensive power. A tiny figure suddenly appeared next to him as Alex smiled and greeted her. "What is the situation over there?" "I have killed two monsters as well and somehow come to this place. Since this is the case, I would like to assist you in this fight. Will that be alright?" "Of course." Alex nodded. "You are fighting in the front, I shall support you." "I understand." Jeanne nodded and leaped toward the two monsters. "Ready to die, you idiot monsters!" 828 After Battle At the same time, the group managed to push back because of the spirits. Not only were they stronger than their respective leaders, but they were also specialized in fighting many at once. Anya was helping with their strategy, ensuring they would be able to hold on. One day became two days. Two days became two weeks. And before long, one month passed. If one were asked which influence led them to the victory, Spirit Nest would be their answer. But they were asked who contributed the most? Anya''s name would appear in the discussion. Not only did she control their energy consumption, but she also managed their deployment to ensure that everyone didn''t fight without sufficient energy. Despite fighting continuously for a whole month, they still managed to control their body to kill the monsters. In the third week, the reinforcement from the surface finally finished eliminating the monsters outside and made their way to the Ancient Battlefield. With the monsters getting pincered from two sides, they soon collapsed, especially with the lack of their leaders. The battle finally ended after a long forty days. Roars of victory shook the ground on that day to the point it was heard by neighboring towns, hundreds of miles away from the battlefield. But what made everyone shocked was the fact that Alex and his group disappeared as if they never participated in the battle. Even those Space Element masters couldn''t track him down, confusing the entire battlefield. Some told others Alex didn''t want any reward from the monsters he killed because he was selfless. Some said that he had received the reward from the Gods and Goddesses since he was the closest to them. Some even said that he only made his appearance from start to finish because he knew the continents were facing so many problems that most were not aware. He made his appearance to solve that issue, and with the problems that had been solved, he disappeared again like how his influence had done for the past few thousand years. Nonetheless, on this particular day, Alex gained another title from the entire world. A Hero No one could deny that Alex was the one who saved the world. Without his group, they would be exterminated here and then, leaving them with one choice, hide." As much as they were confused by Alex''s action, they still held gratitude in their hearts that they would remember forever. And the news spread to other continents, including the Willow Continent. One month later. Inside the Rainbow Flower Sect, Cecilia heard the news as she hummed cheerfully while brewing tea for herself and the elder that used to follow her. "You have heard the news, right?" "Yes." "I could proudly say that Letizia has etched her name into world history¡­ Do you hear me? World history! It is not a sect''s history, but world history. Every person in this world will surely hear her name and etch it in their hearts." "But I believe Alexander''s name will shadow her name." Cecilia pouted and snorted. "Even so, because of the little number of the Spirit Nest, she will also be remembered. Even those people who ascended in the past couldn''t achieve this feat because their action couldn''t influence the whole world." The elder shook her head with a smile after seeing Cecilia''s face full of pride. She simply added, "We are going to get busy now." ¡­ At the same time, Charya also heard the news and drank wine for a whole day. She couldn''t contain her smile during this time. "Master¡­ I know that you are happy, but you should take care of yourself. Don''t drink too much." "Isn''t it fine? This is for a special occasion." Charya pouted to her own disciple. "Besides, even though he only taught you for a brief moment as a ''Gift'', I know that you are happy deep inside your heart. Just drink with me tonight." The girl turned red and fell into silence. "To think I have sheltered a guy like this, I don''t know what to say." Charya laughed and kept drinking until she collapsed. ¡­ When the world rejoiced by this news, Alex was not aware of such a thing before Anya knocked on his door, waking him up from cultivation. "Alex." Alex gradually opened his eyes and glanced at Anya with blurry eyes. "What is it?" "Do you know that you are known as a hero now?" Anya smirked as if she wanted to tease him. "A hero? Such nostalgic terms." Alex shook his head. "In the lower world, you were teleported to that place only to receive such treatment and fail to become a hero. Yet, you become a hero in this place where you do nothing but slaughter¡­" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "I didn''t kill these many people in the lower world. Meanwhile, I have killed hundreds of thousands of people in this world. And yet these people call me a hero, that is insane." "Haha¡­ You know what. Many people began to solve the truth and arrived at a weird conclusion. The Zhou Kingdom and Mount Hua Sect deserved such a finale because they were doing something extreme that involved so many innocent lives. "Joyful Union Sect was condemned when rumors of them cultivating so many innocent children came to light. The same applied to the Blood Devil Sect. They used human lives like a tool. "The Fire God Clan had corrupted this world for a long time while the Snow White Mountain planned to conquer the whole world by using the Pure Ice Element to awaken their ancestor. "These reasons¡­ It was pretty ridiculous, but when they connected it to your achievement, they believed you are the hero of this world. This is hilarious." Anya laughed out loud. Alex facepalmed, not knowing what to say. "Well, history is written by the victor. We destroyed the Zhou Kingdom and Black Devil Sect because of our promise to Zwaka. We reduced Mount Hua Sect to that point because they attacked us. "The same applied to the Joyful Union Sect who wanted to enslave us like a tool. As for the Fire God Clan, they had been our enemies for a long time because they wanted my Pure Fire, while Snow White Mountain got dragged into this whole mess because of Letizia. "If you look at our perspective, all of those are selfish reasons, not a single one of those can be called the deed of a hero." Alex shook his head. "Haha¡­ It''s because of your contribution to fighting those monsters. With a single unintentional action, the whole world thought of you as a hero." Anya grinned. "I simply didn''t have any interest in their reward, so I chose to return. After all, I needed to deal with them for a few more days, such as a party for our victory and other similar things. I didn''t have time to do that, so I came back here." Alex shrugged. "Do you want me to spread the rumor of our real intention?" "Do you think it will affect people''s opinion?" "Nope. They will just condemn the new opinion." Anya laughed. "Never mind. What do you want to report? I am sure that you don''t wake me up just because of this, right?" "Yes. There is another thing that I want to tell you. After calculating the amount of EXP Cards, I believe we have gathered enough EXP Cards for the others to level up to God Stage. However, I believe there will be a change in the system¡­ You might want to ask her yourself about the details." "I understand. Recall everyone back. I am a bit disappointed because I didn''t get any reward for saving the world this time." Alex sighed. "Fufu¡­ Don''t be like that. I believe you will get a reward when you reach God Stage. In any case, you should be worrying about your Divine Tribulation instead." "Yeah. I am preparing myself. How about Rose and Letizia?" "Letizia is going to break through soon while Rose is doing a mission outside. I am in charge of training them." "I will leave them to you then." Alex nodded and asked. "Do you have anything more for me?" "No. I believe that''s all I wanted to say." When Anya was about to turn around to leave the room, Alex stopped her. "Wait a minute. Come here first." "Hmm?" Anya halted her step and tilted her head in confusion. "I want to test something." Alex waved his right hand to call her and repeatedly tapped the bad together with his left hand, telling her to sit next to him. Anya didn''t know his intention but still walked forward and sat beside him. Alex gently grabbed her right hand and placed his other hand to gently pull her face against him. He then made their foreheads touch each other. Anya was baffled, thinking Alex must want to do it. But suddenly, she felt a fluctuation of energy in his body that slowly seeped inside her mind. "Don''t fight this energy. They are carrying my Space Element." The moment Alex said ''Space Element'', she realized what Alex wanted to do. She immediately lowered her guard and let Alex do whatever he wanted. He channeled his energy through her hand, going toward her heart. The energy formed a gate that slowly sucked her power and her soul inside. Her cultivation started going down at a rapid rate. Martial Monarch¡­ Martial Emperor¡­ Martial Lord¡­ Martial Master¡­ Foundation Stage¡­ Alex gradually opened his eyes when he managed to do it. "You can open your eyes now." Anya followed his instruction before checking her body. "This¡­" "Yeah. I have sealed your strength to Foundation Stage." Alex nodded. "There are two parts to this process. First, I need to synchronize my element with your brain, telling your brain to accept the flow of my energy inside you. "The second one is the actual sealing Space Element that allows me to seal your strength like how I seal my strength." Alex smiled. "That''s good!" Anya was thrilled. "Yeah. Although it''s hard to control, I believe I can use the time I have left to master this technique. As soon as I become a God Rank Expert, I will go to Eulja and bring Alicia to meet our family." Alex nodded. "Well, I won''t be accompanying you¡­ Sherry can, but I won''t." "Why? I would like to properly introduce you to everyone. I want them to know you, Anna, and Lin Xingzhi." Anya shook her head. "I am good. I am sure Anna and sister Xingzhi have the same opinion as me, so please don''t persuade us. Unless it''s your parents, I won''t meet them. And the one that could be considered as your father figure has passed away and must have reincarnated somewhere, so it''s better to not dwell like someone who kneels a few times in front of someone''s grave. Rather than that, it''s better to grab the reincarnation and kneel in front of the real ''father''." Alex looked at her serious expression and knew he couldn''t persuade her. "Alright. I will respect your opinion. And I will bring Stina and Kyle to their world to meet their daughter. After that, we can finally be free from the restraints for a long time." "Yes. At that time, we shall have a few years long honeymoon." She grinned. "Haha¡­ Sure." Alex nodded. "That''s right. I have one more question before I go back." Anya''s expression turned solemn as this thought had been lingering in her mind for a few days. "What is it?" "Will you go back to Earth when you have a chance?" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting such a question. He thought for a moment and answered honestly. "I don''t have a plan currently. There might be a time I might visit my hometown, but I believe the time is not near. Besides, I don''t have any more attachment to that world, so¡­ unless there is an important occasion, I won''t go there." 829 God Title? "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head. It was true that they fought three million monsters. However, it didn''t really feel that way. Maybe because the whole world fought together as one, protecting the world like protecting their home, the fight didn''t feel it was that hard. Alex remembered that when Jeanne came, the fight became so easy to the point he felt surreal. However, he forgot one fact¡­ The fact that his Spirits were far above normal, especially with their True Spirit Body and Anya''s support ability. Their strength was so strong to the point normal 10-Star monsters couldn''t hold a candle to them. Yet, Alex didn''t feel the battle was anticlimactic. No matter how powerful his spirits were, the fact that they fought three million made the whole fight tiresome. "If you don''t feel that way, then it''s fine." Anya smiled, even though she still felt it. The anticlimactic battle she was talking about was the fact that she didn''t feel anything toward the monsters. Even after five thousand years fighting in the front line, she would have an unsure feeling because millions of people would die the moment Eulja went to war. That was why every time she won a war, she still felt pity and uneasiness in her heart. Yet, it wasn''t reflected on this one. Whether it was due to their enemies being monsters instead of humans or not, she chose to shake that thought off. "Anyway, you can continue cultivating." Alex looked at Anya leaving the room and tilted his head. He was confused about her action today but decided not to pry about her privacy even though she could see his memory because of the system. "I will just keep going because it''s only two stars more¡­" Alex shook his head and closed his eyes, regaining his focus. The world slowly became quiet, literally. Due to the lack of absence of conflict, the world finally let all the rumors die. The tension between each influence was cleared for a period of time. It seemed the Gods and Goddesses also asked the other influences to put away their hatred for the time being. At the same time, they gave the four kingdoms in the Ancient Battlefield to set foot on the surface after a long few thousand years. The hope became a reality, and that day became the mark of a miracle. All of them kneeled in front of the Ancient Ruin to give their thanks to the Gods and Goddesses that had been protecting this world without anyone realizing it. And with the four kingdoms emerging to the surface, the other influences started recruiting them to become their disciples. After all, they were the closest kin of the Gods and Goddesses. If they were not going to recruit someone like that, they would be foolish. On the other hand, no one actually found Alex or his strong friends, shrouding them in a mystery. His name slowly turned into an urban legend from world history. A hero that would work hard from the bottom and help the entire world. He became a role model in the disciples'' minds, especially those who saw him in the battle. Alex kept cultivating during this time and finally advanced to 9-Star Martial Saint a year later. At that time, Firia had already reached 10-Star Martial Saint, making her last preparation to become a God. After a few more months, Firia finally consolidated all of her power. Her body was also suitable to reach God Stage. He immediately teleported them, together with all people in the base, to see her off. The destination was the coast in the southwest region. A very tall cliff surrounded that coast. Right before the cliff stood tall a red gate that separated the cliff from the array on it. Alex understood this was the place where we needed to separate. As much as he didn''t want to separate from Firia, he needed to let her go. "Alex¡­" Firia called his name with a smile. Alex smiled back and put his hands on her cheeks. "Unfortunately, this is the maximum where I can send you." "Don''t worry. I have been working hard for today, the Divine Tribulation won''t beat me. After this, I am going to return to Eulja. I don''t know if Zark is waiting for me or not, but my body will be strong enough to withstand the zero pressure in outer space, so I should be able to return to the Spirit Nest with my two feet." Firia shrugged. Alex nodded. "I understand. I want you to be careful in challenging the Divine Tribulation. And I will be waiting here until you ascend." "Yes. I am waiting for you in Eulja, where we can return together to meet Fathers and Mothers." Firia smiled brightly. "Of course. Without any pressure on my shoulders now, I can focus on what I want to learn. Besides, I need to learn a few Divine Pills and Divine Arrays as soon as I ascend." "Yes. With your power, you should be able to understand them pretty soon¡­ Maybe a year or so?" "Anyway, today is your big day. Go ahead. I am rooting for you here." "Why don''t you cultivate instead? Even though I am already at the bottleneck, I need to cultivate for a few more days to trigger the Divine Tribulation¡­" "What kind of a husband am I if I don''t watch your Divine Tribulation?" Alex shook his head. "Besides, it''s only a few days." Firia smiled helplessly, knowing that nothing would change this man''s mind. She then decided to not waste any more time and said goodbye to the spirits and others. After that, Firia entered a small Teleportation Array that would send her to a small island where she could undergo her Divine Tribulation. The legend said this place could only be entered by a peak 10-Star Martial Saint that almost reached God Stage. At the same time, there was no way to go back from this island. Despite it being a small Teleportation Array, the truth lies underground. There were too many symbols seeping around the rock underground, and many Arrays protected them to make sure no one ruined its foundation. As for the location of the island, it was still unknown. Some said it was inside the sea. Some said it was in the center of the five continents, ensuring that the place was untouchable by the humans. That was why every time someone attempted this, they would go to this place. Yet, because of the importance of this place, no one dared to claim it was theirs. After all, if they knew that someone actually ascended, it should be coming from their place. At that time, the influence would lose their only 10-Star Martial Saint and get attacked by so many enemies at once. Hence, it was better to let this array be a neutral area that not a single person could claim it as their own. Hence, this place was completely untouched. It seemed after being sealed by the Spirit God, this place was a kind to a key. If they chose to unseal the world and become a Divine World again, they would be able to do it as long as they used that island. As for how to liberate the seal, only the Gods and Goddesses in that tower might know. As long as they deemed it was dangerous to even attempt such a thing, this world would never see the day they could become a God Rank Expert and stay in this world at the same time. Alex, on the other hand, didn''t really have any interest in knowing such a future was possible. After all, he didn''t plan to return to this place anymore unless it was necessary. After thinking all of that, he finally closed his eyes, waiting for Firia''s Divine Tribulation to start. It took her five days before Alex to see a cloud gathering in a certain area. "That¡­ That is the last Divine Tribulation. It seems she has passed the other nine. If she passes this, she will ascend to the God Rank." "But doesn''t she need to transform her body to Divine Body first?" "Yeah. I think it will take a few hours at most, depending on your ability." "I see. And I think we need to think up a name for your God Title." Anna glanced. "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head. "It''s as I said, we need to come up with a title, befitting your God strength. Remember why we call others with Time God, Dungeon God, Death God, and other names? They were actually titled because of their ability. Dungeon God had created too many places to increase one''s strength and kill many, so he was tilted as such. Time God was the master of time, so he was crowned by that name. The same as Death God, who understood things about Death and Reincarnation. "I am actually Moon Butterfly God while Anya has Sun Butterfly God. Leoz is a Thunder Berserker God. The others have as well, but I think the name is pretty simple because it''s related to their Spirit Race." Anna nodded. "Though Vera might need to change her title because Alicia will be taking her title, Ice Phoenix God." The group was thinking the same thing when Anna mentioned this topic. They wanted Alex to be known as the Spirit God again. But it seemed the other person had already decided his own title if needed to be. "If I need a name, then I will just be called Gacha God." Alex shrugged. "¡­" Although they had predicted that Alex would choose something like this, they still felt hopeless despite wanting to beat him. "What?" Alex tilted his head. "I mean, I have been getting stronger by my Gacha System. And I can even grant my Gacha to other people. At the same time, isn''t it interesting to see people opening Gacha themselves?" "Are you going to trick them by giving a huge prize that they couldn''t refuse but with a very low percentage? That way, you can get so much money." Anna rolled her eyes. "Oi! I don''t have such a plan¡­ Yet." "¡­" "What? If you are hoping for me to get my previous title, Spirit God, I will not do it. As I said in the past, I won''t follow my previous life''s footsteps because I will always be me. If I take that title, I am not sure if I am still myself or not." Alex explained with a serious expression. "That''s just our wish. But the title is not as important as the person itself." Anna shook her head and smiled. "Fine¡­" Alex suddenly felt a huge fluctuation of energy in the sky. Without him realizing, Firia had finished her Divine Tribulation and was in the middle of remolding her body. Alex thought for a moment and decided to continue talking before he saw a pillar of light coming from the horizon. Without doing anything, he already knew that Firia had ascended. He stretched his hand to the sky and smiled. "Wait for me in another year or two, we will meet again." Alex then looked at his spirits and created a Teleportation Array. "Let''s come home, shall we?" He snapped his finger, and the group disappeared from that place. Meanwhile, right outside the world, Firia found a white-haired man with a butler outfit. "Zark¡­" Firia nodded with a smile. "Milady, let me escort you to Eulja." The guy humbly bowed his head. "Sorry for troubling you." "It''s my pleasure. Besides, Master is going to ascend soon, so I am thrilled to come back here." "Such a reliable guy." "Thank you for your praise." "Let''s go then." "Yes." Zark snapped his finger and summoned a Divine Teleportation Array. 830 Cursed Water She was walking toward Alex, seeming to have no soul in her body. Her eyes looked like a dead fish as if her soul had left her body. Staggering¡ªShe somehow managed to reach Alex''s room. Alex opened his eyes, utterly confused. He didn''t know why Sherry appeared here, but her action made him realize something was wrong with her. Not knowing what to do, Alex tried to come to Sherry and ask her why she became like this, but the latter only passed out right before him, turning into her small fox form. It was at this instant that Alex realized she was going to undergo her tribulation. At the same time, the pressure started coming to his heart, knowing that there was a time bomb inside his body. Firstly, Sherry might transform to Divine Beast before he came out of this world, causing many problems to the point it triggered Lightning Tribulation itself in this place. Hence, he needed to go to the Divine World first before Sherry transformed. And to do that, he needed to ask how long he had left. According to Anya, the transformation process took a very long time, depending on the strength of the beast itself. However, it wasn''t like how the human would need a longer time to condense their Divine Body if they had too much power in their repertoire. Instead, Sherry would have a faster time compared to normal beasts. The record said that the longest a Divine Beast ever took to evolve was one hundred years, whereas the fastest being five years. Yet, Sherry had a Pure Element that had been evolved to the highest degree. It would be impossible for Sherry took a whole five years just to evolve. She might even transform into Divine Beast within a month, and the people would only get shocked and be done with it. Because of this, Alex decided to focus on his cultivation even further. Not long after, Stina also came to him in the same state as Sherry, followed by Kyle two months later. Alex also had finished his cultivation during this time and started proceeding to the consolidation process. As expected, the speed was very low. Firia took around eight months just to consolidate her strength, so he must need around nine to a year to finish this. Even so, the fire still lit brightly in his heart as he proceeded. As he had expected, Alex took around two months to finally finish his consolidation. At that time, he decided to leave his room, meeting his spirits that seemed to have no job during this period. All of them were already so close to having max EXP, so Alex didn''t really have any jobs for them. That was why he immediately thought of another thing. [Processing¡­] [Anna (Dark) Level: 80/80 (10-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: 700000/700000 (Require Host to become a God Rank Expert to proceed to the next level)] "¡­" Alex widened his eyes and checked the others'' statuses, only to find them having the same requirement. On the other hand, the spirits noticed the sudden change of their experiences along with Alex''s presence. "Master!" "Alex." "I have finished consolidating. I am going to challenge the Divine Tribulation right now, but I want to see Rose and Letizia first." "Both of them are inside the base right now because you are going to finish your cultivation this month and next month. They want to see you off before chasing after you," Anna replied. "Can you call them for me?" "Sure." Anna nodded and left. In the meantime, the system gave him another notification. [Mission: Reach Rank 10 God Reward: Divine Gacha System \u0026 Gacha God Title Description: It''s time for you to be the provider of this amazing system. You are going to be promoted to be the master of this Gacha System from a host. You can grant this wonderful ability to people who are worthy, and let the love of Gacha spread all over the world.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows, wondering if what he saw was the truth or not. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took another look at the notification. "I won''t say anything about the description first¡­ But I certainly want an explanation about this Divine Gacha System and Gacha God Title." [Gacha God Title is the title birth of your desire to be called Gacha God. This title allows you to become the Master of this system yourself and appoint a manager to handle the idle tasks. At the same time, the people you grant this ability can access the Gacha. It''s also applicable to the world itself.] "Can you give me an example? And the way you explain¡­ Ugh, don''t tell me¡­ The previous Dungeon God was the owner of this system?" [I didn''t know back then, but as soon as I received the manual about this Divine Gacha System, I realize it is the case. Now that I have the information about this, I will explain what kind of things that the Dungeon God did in the past. Will that be alright?] "Please." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. [Firstly, the Dungeon God seemed to have the ability to power up someone by using this ability. Of course, he granted it to someone worthy in his eyes. It didn''t need to be the same Gacha style like the one you or Rose have right now. It can be something else, such as gambling. Maybe, card?] "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Cards? Oh, wait. I seem to understand the concept. For example, I grant them the ability, such as poker? They can draw cards to receive a certain benefit¡­" [That''s basically it. However, the details of such an ability will need to be discussed further.] "Yes. It''s an interesting concept to be honest." Alex nodded. [Yes. Anyway, the Dungeon God used this system to create many powerful individuals. Maybe you can do it too, but we will see it later.] "Well, I have done it! Although it''s half-baked power, Rose still uses Gacha power." [True enough.] "Still, I can''t see how it can benefit me¡­ I mean, if I am going to create many powerful individuals, I need a huge number of Spirit Crystals, right? Along with weapons and pills to supply them." [The second usage will be the solution. Knowing that you can grant someone such a thing, it can also mean that you can use it to empower a whole world¡­ The previous Dungeon God used his ability to create a world with dungeons and grant this Gacha-like ability to them.] [Firstly, he created a power system to get monsters and other things from another world or that world itself, like the lower world¡­ Then, using that kind of service, the people will come flocking these dungeons, hunting those monsters down. With that, you can absorb a portion of the Spiritual Energy produced by those dying monsters to maintain the dungeon itself while using the other portion to create Spirit Crystals.] [If you are harvesting from multiple worlds¡­ You became the previous Dungeon God, who was known for his wealth. That was a rough concept, so it would depend on you whether you would make one or not. Besides, isn''t it nice to only sit around and do nothing but still getting millions of millions of Spirit Crystals?] "That is truly tempting, but we can discuss this one later too. If possible, saying Harvesting is a bit weird for me¡­ Basically, the concept is I will help them in increasing their strength while they are going to give me back a portion of energy to create money, right?" [Yes.] "An interesting concept¡­" Alex nodded. [And there is another thing you will get with this title.] "And that is¡­" [The strings that are attached to everyone are hard to see. Unless you are truly looking at them, it''s hard to find them. Hence, the system grants you the ability to see an aura instead. The coloring is similar. White means Neutral. Black is an Enemy. Red is for a person harboring hate and the like toward you. Green means a Friend, while Blue means you have tied some kind of karma with them¡­ Of course, it doesn''t mean marriage. There are other relationships as well.] Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "This will be easier to see." [Yes. The aura itself is like a layer of cloth covering a whole body. If you use your Spirit Eyes, you won''t see this aura so as to prevent you from getting a sneak attack by them.] "Nice. Beautiful stuff." Alex approved of this ability. The granting ability was surely fun to play with, so he would certainly give one to someone or to a world in the future. And that was why he became more curious about the other thing. "How about the Divine Gacha System?" [Because you are the master now that can grant your ability to others, this Gacha System is the way. And as you can expect, you will be granted the whole treasury that built up this very system.] "Wait a minute! Before you are going anywhere, I need to ask one question!" Alex twitched his eyebrows as if he became annoyed. "How much water do I have?" [There was once a world that had been abandoned due to the extreme temperature. The previous Spirit God decided to take all the water on that planet¡­ It has the same characteristics as the Earth, but many times bigger.] "No way! Please tell me it was a joke!" Alex gritted his teeth. "I have been getting so many of them¡­ And yet, it turns out that I haven''t gotten even a drop of the ocean?" [Don''t worry, Host. You have gotten enough to make a lake if you combine all the water bottles, gallons, and tanks.] "¡­" Alex was on the verge of cursing, but he held back because a thought came to his mind. "Wait a minute¡­ What if there is a world on the verge of an apocalypse or on the verge of extinction? If I create a power system in this world and use that useless water as a reward, won''t I become rich?" [There are many flaws in your concept, but that is feasible, especially with the fact they are going to need it and treat it as treasure.] Facepalmed. Alex had no more words to say. He had a mixed feeling with the water right now, but the system added another thing. [You can use the Spirit World to get more water. And use it for a reward in that kind of chaotic world, they must be so valuable in that world, so it''s a free cost high reward. What do you think? I am sure you are going to love water bottles now.] "¡­" Alex fell silent. 831 Triggering the Divine Tribulation Alex finished all his talk first before he glanced over them. "I am sorry for making you wait." Rose shook her head and smiled. "No problem. I am happy to see Master smiling earlier, so I am glad that Master got a good thing." Alex was slightly surprised to hear her saying that and immediately hugged her before patting her head. "Haha¡­ You little girl. You have your way with your mouth now." "Hehe¡­" "Anyway, I call you here to see whether you want something from me. To be honest, you two don''t need me anymore because you have everything to grow up¡­" "Master wants to abandon Rose?" Rose turned around with a sad expression. "There is no way I am going to abandon you. I just want you to grow up and become independent." "Can''t I be like this forever?" Rose pouted. "Just kidding." Alex smiled over her cute expression and said, "I won''t be able to shelter you forever, so it''s necessary for you to grow independent. Besides, you are not planning to live with me forever, right? You will have your own family in the future, so¡­" "Eh?! I just want to live with Master¡­ That''s right, I can be Master''s¡ªgya!" Alex chopped her head and looked at her with a serious expression. "Rose¡­ There is a line that shouldn''t be crossed." "Tch." Rose clicked her tongue before shrugging. "I know about it. I was just joking. Besides, I can choose if I want to stay alone or have a family, right?" Alex widened his eyes and nodded. "At the very least, I wouldn''t be like those people who marry someone off just for the sake of something greater. You can choose your own path, and I won''t stop you unless it''s forbidden." "Hehe¡­" Rose grinned. "Since Master wants to grant me my request, I shall be shameless a little bit." Rose paused for a moment, making everyone wonder what kind of wish she would ask. And yet, the moment she opened her mouth, they were stunned. Rose simply said, "I wish that Master can live forever. Master is like an older brother and father figure to me, so I am satisfied if I can live like this forever¡­ No, I will also work hard to ensure this can last forever." Alex looked at this innocent and sincere little girl. He had been fostering her since she was a small child, but to think she had grown up to even say something like that. "You need to work hard then." "Of course. Just you wait, I am going to surpass Sister Letizia and become a God Rank Expert before her." Rose grinned. Alex patted her head gently and turned to Letizia. "You have been challenged, what are you going to do?" "If Young Lady Rose wants to surpass me, I can let her¡ª" "Besides, you are like an elder sister figure for her¡­ Are you going to distance yourself?" Alex''s voice sounded like he was angry, but his expression looked so sad. These two somehow stabbed Letizia''s heart, making it very painful. "I have said it myself in the past. Don''t call yourself a slave nor treat yourself as one. You are one of my people that is closer than my friend. So, don''t distance yourself¡­" Anna furrowed her eyebrows and nodded. She had been troubled with this for a while because she felt like Rose seemed to slowly lower herself even further. And that somehow made them uncomfortable. After all, only Rose, his disciple, could follow him. Neither his friends nor allies can follow her or join as part of Spirit Nest, so her being like this made it awkward for everyone. Alex only cultivated this whole time, so he didn''t know it yet. She planned to tell Alex about this, but it seemed Alex had realized before he left this world. Letizia''s body was shaking as she looked down. She closed her eyes for two minutes before a smile appeared on her face, looking at Alex and Rose. "It''s my pleasure. I won''t lose." ''This¡­ This is a family.'' Letizia thought and smiled. ''Since she calls me Elder Sister, I will be one then. There is no way that this elder sister will leave her alone in this world¡­ Although I can''t lose in terms of cultivating, I can slow down my pace a bit¡­ At the very least, I won''t ascend too fast, so I can watch over her a bit longer. Maybe, I can ascend when she is 8-Star or 9-Star Martial Saint. This way, no one can threaten her in this world. Not that I can say to Master or everyone else though¡­'' Alex stared at her and smiled. "Take your time¡­ You are a part of my Spirit Nest now, not my Spirit Nest''s slave." "Yes, Master. I was wrong." Letizia nodded. "Then, do you happen to need anything?" "No. I don''t need anything. We have enough resources right now, so we should have no problem for the time being. Although there are a few missions to hone our skills, most of our time will be spent on cultivation, so I don''t think I need anything." Letizia shook her head. "Is that so? Well, if you need anything, just inform me through the system." "Yes." Letizia nodded. "Then, I think it''s time for me to challenge the lightning tribulation." Alex rose from his seat. "Master, I wish to watch you."------+ "What will you do to go back? It''s quite a long journey, you know." Alex tilted his head before looking down as if he had thought of something. "That''s right. I have many Teleportation Array Plates in my Inventory, so you can use them to return. Judging from the distance, I can say that you need three Array Plates. Remember, if I don''t see the number of my Teleportation Array Plates decrease by three, I will¡­" Rose and Letizia gulped down as they immediately reassured this doting person. "Don''t worry. Although I was poor in the past, I know how to squander now." "I will protect Rose, so the safest route is Teleportation Array Plate. Even if she doesn''t want to use it, I will force her." Letizia nodded her head. "Yes, I am leaving her to you, Letizia." "Yes, Master." Letizia smiled and bowed her head. "Eh?! Master is not going to trust Rose?" She pouted. Alex smirked and teased her. "If you can go independent that is¡­ You need to grow up first, little girl." "What¡­" Rose smiled, and the group decided to talk for a few more minutes. After that, Alex teleported all of them to the same coast they saw Firia off. Alex looked around and sighed. "It''s been three years since the last war, I have truly spent a long time in this world. Though, I don''t regret it because I could get stronger, meet many people, and become mature. I have many things that I want to say, but for now, I shall focus on the last challenge in this world." Alex''s expression turned serious as he crossed the gate and stood in front of the array. Looking back at his group, he waved his hands. Suddenly, the spirits returned to the cards, leaving only Letizia and Rose there. Alex smiled and closed his eyes as the array teleported him to an unknown area. He looked at this weird area and muttered to himself. "Where is this?" There were many trees in his surroundings, but many of them bent in a weird way to the point he was wondering if these three were alive. Yet, the green leaves proved to him they still had strong vitality. "The trees are tilting more than fifty degrees with some weird curves here and there, but they have no problem from what I see." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and looked down, finding a sand path that led him to somewhere. It looked very artificial as if it was inviting him to go there. Hence, Alex started walking forward, following the path. After a long one hour walk, he finally came out of the woods and found a huge lake right in front of it. The lake looked weird as well. Although the size itself was only a few kilometers, there seemed to be an island in the center. "That must be the place where I can cultivate to trigger my Divine Tribulation." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and stopped his step, noticing something weird with his surroundings. "There are a few cliffs around the area, but it looks like it has been broken artificially. Not many reports about this, so I don''t know why there are so many cliffs. Besides, Firia didn''t want to talk about it because every person''s Divine Tribulation was different from others. "And there are a few records saying the more you know, the more unpredictable the Divine Tribulation is¡­ Hence, it''s better to proceed as long as I know the route." Alex nodded and flew to the center of the island. He contemplated for a moment and sighed. "I can''t use arrays in this tribulation. Not only does the World''s will not allow it, but I also don''t know if I will have Lightning Tribulation except from the last one." Alex shook his head and took a deep breath. "From what I know about the clue, there are connections between all elements to this Divine Tribulation. In other words, I might be facing many things that I might not be aware of. Luckily, I should be immune to illusion due to my Spirit Eyes. "As for the other elements, I believe my Pure Fire is enough to burn them down. Since this is unknown, both of you¡­ Can you protect me while I am cultivating?" Alex didn''t know whether this Divine Tribulation understood sneak attack or not, so he asked his two weapons to create a shield for him. Seeing this sturdy shield, Alex finally calmed himself and sat on the ground. ''You, who wants to defy this world''s common sense and challenge me to become a God, are going to face a challenge. I am this world''s will, and I shall be the one testing you if you are qualified enough for the entire world lending its energy for you to reform your body and energy. If you succeed, you shall be granted strength that you won''t ever know. If you failed, there is no road other than perish.'' Alex got this message while cultivating and somehow understood the concern. Even so, he wasn''t distracted and continued his cultivation. Three days later, Alex finally felt awfully full of Spirit Energy. Even though he wanted to breakthrough, there was a weird feeling that he experienced that was different from the usual feeling he got to trigger his Lightning Tribulation. It was as if he somehow got struck continuously by immense Spiritual Energy. *Rumble Rumble* The moment the rumbling sounds echoed in his ears, Alex opened his eyes and activated his Spirit Eyes. The Spiritual Energy seemed to be working weirdly since the rumbling sound, allowing him to understand what was going on. "I see. So, this is what it means to be the Divine Tribulation¡­ No, I should say the World Tribulation because the world is the one challenging me. The previous cliffs earlier and probably this lake came from the previous Divine Tribulation. "In other words, the world changed the landscape of this island to fight Firia. In that case, I should get ready too." Alex nodded and raised his weapons. "Let''s do this." The moment he uttered those words, the world responded in kind. The lake water suddenly rose, forming into thousands of needles. This was like what happened when the sand on the beach got lifted up and formed into needles. They were basically uncountable. And those needles suddenly flew toward Alex. "!!!" 832 Divine Tribulation Part 1 "!!!" Alex stepped forward, summoned the two dragons and controlled them to cover him with their body. The water needles only hit the dragons to find themselves becoming vapor because of the Pure Fire coating the dragon. At the same time, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and looked at his current condition, wondering what would be the restriction of this Divine Tribulation. "For the time being, I am sure that escaping to the Space World is not a thing. At the same time, it''s impossible to direct any attacks with my Spatial Gates. Still, I can use my other Space Elements ability, except the Spatial Gate and Space Mark. "I will focus on my main weapons then. Meanwhile, I should see what kind of problem I am facing currently¡­" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It seems the first stage is related to the water element. In that case, I shall be careful¡­ Seriously?" When he was about to look around the lake because he was afraid there was another thing coming toward him. And it was big¡­ very big. He almost forgot the fact that this was a small island. The moment he stepped upon this island, he could already smell the scent of salt coming into his nose, so he knew he was near the sea. On the other hand, he found nothing around this island, except the fact that this weird landscape could be changed if needed. Hence, the moment he saw a huge wave coming toward the coast, he was utterly shocked. "Seriously? Fifty percent of the lake''s water has been vaporized due to the last attack, and they are going to fight me with a bigger wave? And I bet that huge tsunami will replenish the water in the lake before attacking me again. Hence, I need a solution." Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "I can''t destroy it with my power if I want to conserve my energy, so I should be fine if I fly and let the wave pass." Alex nodded and looked up, finding nothing that would stop him from going upward. He leaped to the air, floating at the height that the wave could never reach and trained himself. The tsunami seemed to be coming from his right alone as it swept the entire island just like that. While he was at it, he took another glance at the island and the horizon. Although it was nothing special, the lake had been refilled because of that tsunami. He saw the water turned into needles again, aiming at him. At the same time, he found another wave building up on the horizon. "If my prediction is correct, the Potential Tower seems to have understood the meaning behind the tribulation. That''s why I need to do something against this water. The problem will be, how?" Alex fell into silence as he thought something ridiculous. "I wonder if I can just evaporate all the water here?" "Nonetheless, if it doesn''t work, I can search for another solution." Alex pointed his palm toward the lake as the two dragons entered the lake, draining it like crazy. At the same time, he summoned many firebirds that would help him to clean the entire spot. The dragons drained the water as if it was the hole inside a bathtub. Alex consumed a bit of his power, but it wouldn''t lead to a problem for him. "Two minutes before the tsunami refills the water, so I can''t fail." Alex gritted his teeth before he started seeing the water level go down. The moment he could see the bottom of the lake, he immediately sent thousands of his Firebirds toward the lake, covering the whole lake with explosions. And the purpose was to speed up the process of drying the lake and ensure everything is drained. *Rumble!* Suddenly, another rumbling sound echoed in his ears as he turned to the sea. The Tsunami lost its power to continue and got destroyed, becoming a normal wave that wouldn''t reach this island. He narrowed his eyes and nodded. "It seems my speculation was right. With this, the first stage should have been cleared." *Rumble Rumble* And yet, the moment he tried to relax, he heard another rumbling sound. He looked around the island, only to find nothing. *Bam!* A loud sound of an explosion echoed across the island and alarmed Alex. He looked down and found the bottom of the lake crumbled. Whether it was due to his explosions or the world, he immediately searched if that would result in anything with his Spirit Eyes. Burning red-colored energy was leaking through the ground and burst out. "!!!" Alex immediately leaped to another side. He looked to the side and found magma beside him. "That was close. Although magma can''t hurt me, there might be something inside there that can ruin everything for me." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and searched through the magma, wondering if there was a solution for this. "What should I do?" Alex couldn''t see anything that might be the source of trouble. At the same time, sulfuric gas started filling his lung as he immediately blocked it by surrounding himself with a barrier. "What did I do in the Potential Tower¡­" Alex tried to recall the scene, but he was already greeted by the fire coming from the burning magma. The fire turned into serpents surrounding him. Even though Alex could suppress the snake a little bit, it would require a huge amount of Spiritual Energy. Hence, he leaped around to see whether there was some useful information in his head. Meanwhile, the serpents were trying to bite him. They couldn''t injure him with fire alone, so the world wanted to destroy him by shredding him into pieces. Alex didn''t pay attention to this and checked his surroundings instead. The test might be the same as the Water Stage. It was something that could be easily found, and it was powerful. "There is nothing under the magma. In fact, the magma looks like it is artificially created because I can see the ground under the magma. "Do I need to jump inside the lava?" Alex tilted his head. Even he found this trial ridiculous, but Alex didn''t hesitate. He jumped inside the lava and activated his Pure Fire. This kind of degree of heat wouldn''t harm him anyway. "If the serpents return to the magma, they will be assimilated, so I should be fine inside the magma," Alex muttered while using his Spirit Eyes to see the condition on the surface. As he predicted, the serpents melted, and its energy vanished as if there was nothing since the beginning. Coming to the conclusion that the key to solving the second stage was inside the magma, he tried to reach the deepest part, only to find the bottom was only a few meters below the lake''s bottom. He thought it would be like a mountain that had thousands of meters deep hole, but Alex noticed it wasn''t the case to the point he found it very fishy. "This magma should have a connection somewhere unless it''s artificially created. If that is the case, I need to find the one that produces this magma." Alex nodded and walked around the magma. "How I wish I can use my Spatial Gate here to drain all this magma away." Alex sighed and kept walking inside the magma. As soon as he came inside the it, nothing happened anymore, so he could leisurely walk around without bothering to watch out. "Lightning Tribulation is easier than this since I only need to destroy the lightning." Alex sighed. "What if I can blast this magma away and spread it around the island? If it''s reproduced, it is not the answer then. If not, I might be able to beat this stage." Alex nodded and thought for the perfect ability to solve the issue. As much as he wanted to use his Hell Inferno, the technique used too much power. And this was still the second stage. There was no way he would risk it from the get-go, especially with the fact that he would die if he failed here. "Which skill can cause a huge explosion to blast all this magma away?" Alex thought for a moment and found a perfect one. He raised his hand and started creating symbols after symbols on his Space Plate, releasing it as soon as it was completed. "Saint Explosion Array!" *Boom!* That array appeared near him and blasted all the magma away for a split second. However, it didn''t create a tall flame pillar this time because the magma contained its power. Yet, it was enough for Alex to understand the source of the problem. There was a palm-sized red crystal on the ground. He didn''t see it when the water dried, so it must be related to his current predicament. "That stone¡­ The energy is camouflage within the magma, so I won''t be able to see it this whole time. At the same time, it''s hard to see inside the magma because everything is red. I have stumbled upon many rocks when walking blindly around this area, so I might have stepped on these crystals without noticing it." Alex said crystals because he believed more was planted on the ground, so he didn''t wait and created an array that could blast half of the lake. To ensure that he didn''t use all of his strength, he toned the explosion down. "It is enough to lift it up one or two meters because I can scan and roughly remember the positions. I only need to use my domain to double-check later. In the worst case, I can ask the system to make a copy of their position." Alex shrugged and activated the array. *Boom!* Another explosion occurred, and he could see the ground filled with air but surrounded by magma for a second before the magma closed it again. "There are two more." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and muttered to himself. "Is this the one responsible for the serpents? There were six serpents if I am not wrong¡­" "With these three, I will beat the trial as soon as I find the other three." Alex nodded with determination as he immediately moved and took the jades. After getting the two crystals, Alex did the same to the other side and collected the other three crystals. As if it was responding to Alex, the magma slowly disappeared along with the stones in his hand. Alex took a deep breath and prepared himself by looking down for a few seconds. And yet, the ground turned out to be the most shocking thing he got today as a spike rose from the ground, trying to impale Alex''s head. "!!!" 833 Divine Tribulation Part 2 The ground, at the same time, rose again, creating a few mountains in all directions. "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue and waved his weapons. "Mythical Fire Slash." He used the Triple Draws as well to launch six Sword Waves, cutting the mountains on its body. The peak soon crumbled due to the inclination of the cut and fell to the ground. "What is it this time?" Alex muttered to himself while observing the ground with his Spiritual Energy. "Now I feel like I understand why this place is weirdly shaped together with the terrain." Alex noticed this while watching how the six cliffs formed because he cut six mountains that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "I see. The Divine Tribulation itself is not coming from the sky¡­ At least, not in this stage like the usual Lightning Tribulation. Instead, this is the challenge from the world itself as if I am fighting against it. And because of that, the world can weirdly shape itself, so it will transform the island as it wants to. In other words, this place is specifically created to let the world manifest according to everyone''s Divine Tribulation. "The island and the environment were created by all those people who had undergone their Divine Tribulation in the past," Alex muttered to himself. The energy coming from the ground was far more bountiful than he expected, and it flowed intensely to the six mountains. After cutting the tops of these six mountains, the energy had accumulated enough to launch something, and Alex noticed this. "Swallowing Heaven!" He summoned two dragons from his weapons, making them fly toward the mountains and swallowing the earth. The moment it reached their stomach, the ground and the Spiritual Energy powering it was burned altogether. Unfortunately, Alex could only swallow two of the tops of the mountains before the others shot out powerful energy at him. The Spiritual Energy turned into a spike that rose to the sky at fast speed. "!!!" He was a bit shocked by the speed itself and barely dodged it by shifting his body. "Are you serious? What is that speed? It''s like the ground is strengthened by that Time Element guy with his Acceleration!" Alex sweatdropped as he remembered what Anna said and doubted. "Is the difficulty really as low as my previous Lightning Tribulation? That anticlimactic Lightning Tribulation?" From the way he saw this matter, it didn''t look like it. Instead, it might be the hardest one he had ever seen. Still twisting his body to dodge these four spikes, he waved his hand to cut them, breaking free from the restrain. *Boom Boom Boom!* A series of explosions filled the atmosphere with a burnt crisp smell lingering in the air. Alex didn''t find anything in the ground, so he thought he should clear the area first with his firebirds, so he could find something. And yet, it was just his wishful thinking because the moment the smoke disappeared, the only thing he could see was the same mountains with only a bit rougher surface due to the small explosions. "It doesn''t do much¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "I don''t have that much expectation since this is the weakest attack I have ever had that is relying on my control alone. Still, I thought I could find a clue with this." He wondered what he could do at this point. Since he was in the sky at the moment, he took another look at the surrounding of the island. "The sea has nothing special. The forest around the coast also has nothing. Only the main area turns into six mountains from a lake. From how the Divine Tribulation appeared for the last three stages, it only affected the lake area alone. Is the range of Divine Tribulation only reached that far?" Alex thought for a moment. "If that were the case, I can focus my investigation on this area." "For now, I should assume my speculation is right." Alex nodded and took another look at the mountains with his Spirit Eyes. "Since that is the case, should I cut all these mountains? It will take a bit more Spiritual Energy than I have expected, but it should be fine." Even though he said it was a mountain, its shape was relatively close to a hill instead. And it had a few hundred meters in diameter with the height only reached one hundred meters. Of course, the height stopped increasing because Alex cut the tip, so that was the reason he called them mountains. He believed the mountain could go a bit higher if he didn''t do it. Thinking about this, he suddenly recalled what he did earlier. "That''s right. I should cut these mountains instead of destroying them. After cutting them, I can teleport them to the sky, so it can destroy themselves with the momentum¡­ Wait, I can''t use any Teleportation thingy during this period." Alex gritted his teeth, realizing how versatile his Teleportation ability was and how he relied on it this whole time. He took a deep breath and raised his hand. Since the first plan couldn''t be used, he still had another plan. Symbols after symbols appeared on the sky as Alex prepared his array. At the same time, the mountains were preparing to strike again. Alex found that Spiritual Energy was concentrated in twenty areas instead of six like the previous one. And with the same concentration, Alex was assured that they were making the same attack as before but with more numbers. "I am not that easy to beat!" Alex smiled as a blue spear formed above the array. He waved his hand down, and the spear moved down as if it was going to penetrate the Earth itself. Suddenly, those energy spots vanished without a trace, and a new energy spot appeared. "That¡­ That energy is the accumulation of those twenty spots. This is going to be bad." Alex clicked his tongue, seeing the concentrated energy that was in the middle of the six mountains. He coated the spear with his Absolute Blade Intent and Pure Fire. "Sky Spear Array! Destroy!" As if it responded to his attack, the ground rose again, creating the seventh mountain. The mountain might not be huge, but it contained the most power, especially when it also started absorbing the energy from the other six monsters. "Since you want a frontal confrontation, I will destroy you!" Alex''s expression turned serious as the spear struck the new mountain. *Bang!* A huge shockwave shook the entire island. Many plants in the forest got blown away by the sheer pressure while the other six mountains were crushed. Without the Spiritual Energy from before, the mountains lost their ability to withstand this kind of attack, so it started crumbling and turned into piles of rubbles. On the other hand, the seventh mountain was still going strong, opposing Alex''s spear with all of its might. *Crack!* "No way!" Alex watched this confrontation himself, but never expected that the cracking sound he just heard came from his own spear. Not wanting to lose, Alex gritted his teeth and used a bit more of his Spiritual Energy. "Swallowing Heaven!" The two dragons descended to the mountain, trying to swallow a portion of the mountain. And yet, two spikes with the same speed of what he experienced pierced them. "Hmph! They don''t have a physical form." Alex snorted while smiling, seeing that the dragons only let the spikes enter their mouths and finding it disappeared because his Pure Fire inside the dragons had burned it. The mountain got bitten on two sides as a portion of energy got swallowed. Because of this, the mountain was the one starting to crack, especially on its tip. Alex poured a bit more energy into the spear and pushed it as hard as possible. "Crush it!" *Crack!* The moment its tip was shattered, destruction followed. The spear finally won and pierced its body, sending six giant cracks to all directions that stretched to the bottom of the mountain. After that, the body began to be shattered, and the rubbles flew away. Alex watched solemnly as the mountain slowly turned into a crater. *Boom!* The spear ended it with a bang, turning it into another lake with no water and an island in the middle. "Huft." Alex took a deep breath. Although he wasn''t sure earlier, he realized that the seventh mountain was the key to beat this stage. That was why he could use all these attacks just to crush it. And the movement of Spiritual Energy underground ceased, showing that Alex''s speculation was right. When he was about to descend, he suddenly got pushed from behind, blowing him away to the ground. "Gah!" Alex never expected there was something behind him. He immediately stood up and looked at the sky, finding a huge amount of Spiritual Energy inside in the sky slowly marching toward him. "¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and commented. "What is this? This looks similar to the one I have experienced in the Potential Tower. But since I can''t use my teleportation or Spatial Gate, the answer doesn''t lie in the sky. I need to search for it right now." He investigated his surroundings while keeping the energy on the sky in tab. Although the speed wasn''t that fast, the energy generated a huge amount of wind energy that might shred him if he carelessly passed it. "The crater is alright. Nothing is extraordinary. The forest is the same as before. As for the sea¡­ It''s too far, and the energy from¡­ Wait." Alex stopped as soon as he found four other walls in his surroundings. It separated him from the sea. In fact, Alex already couldn''t go to the forest because it had gone past him. "I am trapped inside a region. Each test should have a certain kind of solution. There must be something I can do to pass this." Alex thought for a moment before he waved his sword, trying to cut the barrier itself. "Mythical Fire Slash." The Sword Wave flew like normal, but when it reached the top barrier, it suddenly bounced back to forty-five degrees to the left, flying toward the barrier in his right. Alex dropped his jaw because he noticed another thing from it. "The wind pressure is so strong to the point it can deflect my Sword Wave? If I only send my fire there, it will only find itself deflected¡­ No, I can certainly see that a portion of its energy was chipped away when it bounced as if it was shredded. This¡­ I think my flame can burn it, but because of this strong gale, not only it won''t integrate with the wind, but it will also disappear before reaching it." Alex sweatdropped, wondering what he should do. "Is there no way to destroy that wind barrier?" Alex frowned. With nothing to find from his surroundings, Alex looked at the ground, searching for something that could destroy the wind barriers that would soon rip him into pieces. However, he suddenly came to enlightenment when he looked at the ground. Not knowing why, but he felt like the ground was the answer. He descended on the ground after floating ten meters to the sky. "This¡­ Can I seriously do this?" Alex hesitated for a second. "I think I have ten minutes before the barriers reach me. I will do it." The moment he landed, two dragons appeared around his body, staring at the ground. "Swallowing Heaven!" Alex called the name of his move, but he sighed when he ordered them. "But¡­ Now can only swallow ground. Go!" "¡­" The dragons had no thought about it and swallowed the ground vertically for fifteen meters. Alex then turned its direction to the left as if he was mining horizontally. "If I am not wrong, the wind barriers are only on the surface. I should be able to escape from the Underground. In fact, I believe this is not suitable to be faced head-on like usual. Instead, I should know when to escape." Alex nodded as he kept drilling until it reached the wind barrier. It was supposed to be inside the range, but there was nothing in that area. A smile appeared on his face as he said, "Gotcha." 834 Divine Tribulation Part 3 Seeing how the dragons didn''t get destroyed proved that there were not any more barriers underground. He followed the tunnel and peeked outside, finding himself surrounded by sand. "I am on the coast right now." Alex looked at his surroundings, ensuring that no more barriers were coming to him. "That wind barrier is not supposed to be destroyed?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Anyway, now that I am out, I only need to be careful. Wait a minute, I think each test actually has a meaning behind them, just like how the Potential Tower was built. Even Teacher agreed to the explanation. "If that were the case, then the first stage would be how I adapted to a new environment, especially the sea and the lake. If I couldn''t adapt, the lake would continuously attack me until I die. After that, I need to be daring to choose my action because if I hesitate, I will just be trapped inside a dilemma. "The third stage is to test my strength. Even if I have the determination to go forward, it will be useless without strength. While the fourth stage wants me to know when to fight and when to escape." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "The Divine Tribulation is like a continuous story to have me learn what I should do¡­ Now that I think about it, I will go to outer space as soon as I ascend. It means I will face a new place and challenge¡­ I see, it''s preparing me for this." Alex frowned. With this thought, Alex finally leaped to the surface, watching how the wind barriers destroyed themselves. He returned to the center while thinking about the next riddle. "What will I do after I escape?" Alex thought for a moment and smiled. The answer was obvious. "I will¡ª" Before he finished his words, an immeasurable pressure hit him, pinning him to the ground. "Kh!" Alex gritted his teeth. "As expected, it will be elementless. After escaping, I will train myself! This pressure is meant to be my drive to get stronger." Alex understood the meaning of this fifth stage but didn''t know how to clear it. He looked around only to find himself being surrounded by this pressure. Even if he went to the coast, he would be trapped inside this pressure. "I only have one thing to do!" Alex punched the ground, trying to create another hole. *Bam!* It created a small crater instead because this pressure made him unable to control his strength. "I can adjust it first before¡­" Alex suddenly fell silent as he felt something change in his body. "What is this?" The pressure didn''t come to his body alone. Instead, it was enveloping his entire body together with his soul. A thought crossed his mind, making him gulp down. However, he chose to try it because he had nothing to lose. His soul sat on the white cloud, absorbing the energy as if he was cultivating. "Argh!" Alex screamed out of pain. Although he felt stronger, the pain was as if someone was grasping his heart tightly. It was hard to breathe and made his limbs feel limp. He fell on his knees, enduring this pressure. However, he suddenly got confused as to which part of him was getting stronger. On one hand, the soul was the one absorbing the energy, but it also released its energy to his body. "If I am not wrong, the latter part of the Divine Tribulation will prepare oneself to form all those Divine Things. From what I see here, this Elementless stage wants to reform either my soul or body." Alex took a deep breath, calming himself down from this pressure. When he was able to do that, he finally saw what was happening inside his body. The soul was refining the energy from this pressure to turn it suitable to refine his body. All he needed to do was to withstand this pain until everything was over. "I can endure pain just like the usual," Alex muttered to himself before sitting on a lotus pose. The feeling was as if he was sitting under the waterfall. However, the pain was not comparable to what he experienced with his Undying Body Refinement. He let his soul do the work. His scream stopped, and the pain diminished until one point he opened his eyes, feeling refreshed. "I have gotten stronger, but this is still not a Divine Body. I need to prepare the Spiritual Energy and Soul as well while solving the riddle. To be honest, a lot of work must have been put into this Divine Tribulation. Now let''s continue the story." Alex smirked. "After I get stronger, I will test my strength¡­" When he said those words, he suddenly felt the temperature going down instantly. "This must be¡­" Alex gritted his teeth, having no time to react. Water particles suddenly surrounded him and turned into ice, freezing both outside and inside his body. "Argh!" The freezing ability was too powerful for Alex, and the temperature was very low to the point it was burning him instead of feeling cold. And it was only his skin feeling that. As for the air inside his lungs and other areas, it also froze to the point it almost killed him. However, his Pure Fire started revolving and warmed his body before gushing out of his body to melt the ice. "As expected, the story is like this. Overconfident is a no-no. The world is attacking me where I least expected¡­ In fact, the air in my body froze first, making me unable to react." Alex gritted his teeth. Although this was the easiest stage so far, it was the one that dealt the most damage to his mental health. He sweatdropped and still let the fire cover him lest the world attacked him in another way. But before he could do anything, the world turned dark as he couldn''t see a single thing. Then a few lights came to his vision, turning into his memory in the past. The memories about Sandra, John, Alicia, Firia, and many others. Some were sad, some were happy. Alex felt nothing when watching this because he believed in what he had experienced. It was true that his past looked dim, but he felt grateful to it because that past allowed him to reform with a stronger mental fortitude. He watched these screens that seemed to want to bother his mind before he found a single figure appearing before him. It was another him. "Yo! It''s been a while since we last met." The other Alex waved his hand with a smile. "It''s been a while?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth in surprise. "You are the previous me." "Yes. I used a part of my power because I found the situation was quite dangerous. The Divine Tribulation will be much stronger if you have many things in your repertoire. I have predicted this and embedded a piece of my soul to warn you." Alex nodded. "I know. From the way I experienced it, it''s really like that. The one that almost killed me was the Ice Stage, but I would never fall on the same trick. That''s why I am covering my body with Pure Fire¡­ And I think I can cover all cells in my body with fire to prevent me from getting frozen like earlier. I believe those Gods and Goddesses possess this kind of ability, so I know my mistake and won''t repeat it." The previous Alex nodded with a smile. "That''s good. I was a bit worried when that Ice Stage came, but couldn''t do anything. Anyway, this Dark Stage will be trying to influence you. As long as you are prepared, your mental energy won''t have any problem." "Now that you mention it, this place must be trying to strengthen my Mental Energy and soul." Alex stroked his chin while looking down. "In that case, I will be careful." "That''s good. Since you know what to do, I will be going now." The previous Alex turned around, ready to disappear. However, before he realized it, a sword pierced him. "Gah!" He turned around and saw the current Alex was the culprit. And yet, he smiled instead of feeling betrayed. "Since when?" "From the start," Alex said with a serious expression. "My previous self has told me that I will be in charge and he won''t bother me again. That''s why I know he won''t appear like this, especially with the current situation. If you appear when I withstand the Golden Lightning Tribulation, I might believe it, but it''s not this stage. "You said it yourself, this Dark Stage is going to influence me. Aren''t you trying to do that this whole time?" The previous Alex only smiled and closed his eyes as Alex''s sword split him into half. "Excellent." As soon as he killed the heart of this illusion, the previous him turned into a light that seeped inside his body, refining his soul. Alex gritted his teeth, ensuring that soul wouldn''t be a part of his personality. In other words, he only accepted the energy, not the personality. His Spirit Eyes confirmed that it was only energy. After five minutes, he opened his eyes again. However, the moment he looked up, he found himself in another place. Why was it another place? Because the world didn''t look like the one he was in a minute ago. The crater and mountains disappeared, the forest spread all over the area, and he found a hut not far from him. "This must be an illusion." Alex was convinced in a single glance. "At first, I wanted to believe I was teleported to another place, but it wasn''t the case. I couldn''t use my Space Element that much during this test, so no way the world gave the Space Stage as my tribulation." Alex nodded and looked around with his Spirit Eyes before he doubted himself. "Wait. My Spirit Eyes allow me to break any illusions¡­ Don''t tell me it''s not an illusion, but a different place instead?" Alex gulped down, beginning to believe this was a Space Stage. And yet, it became another doubt because the ground suddenly rose, creating an earth spike. Waving his sword, he cut the spike. Feeling the cut, a strange sensation rose in his brain. "There is no Spiritual Energy coming from that spike. It shouldn''t be possible!" A few more spikes were coming, only to get chopped by Alex. He didn''t get this test at all. "What is the element?" Alex thought for a moment. "As much as I want to believe it is a Space Element, it''s not. I am sure because of that earlier attack. It has a feeling but doesn''t have Spiritual Energy. In that case, there must be another trick. I need to figure it out." Alex decided to step forward and stumbled because of the uneven ground. This confused him because it shouldn''t have anything like this. The image of the previous place appeared before him as he remembered the slope continued for a few more meters. To confirm his suspiciousness, he walked for another few meters, realizing that the terrain in his eyes slowly turned, reshaping into a brand new world. The small house was still there, but it was in the middle of the crater. He couldn''t help but continue the story in his mind. "From the Darkness Stage, I know that it''s an illusion. After getting beaten to a half-dead state by the Ice Element, I will experience an illusion where I question myself, or so the legend said. "And what if I come back alive?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He had a few potential answers but didn''t know which one was correct. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I will search it one by one." 835 Divine Tribulation Part 4 "The fourth answer is about Light Reflection. Something like water reflection in the asphalt road or something like that, but at a far higher level¡­ This is a magical world after all." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "Though I said that, how do I stop something like this? I can''t just create a big umbrella, right?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what he should do. At the very least, none of his Martial Arts could cover this entire area. "Is there anything I can use within my inventory?" Alex asked himself while opening the Inventory. He went through the list and found silk clothes in it. "I think I need this. As long as I have a big enough cloth to cover the entire island, I should be able to stop it if the fourth answer is correct." And yet, he stopped when he was about to start. He found that there was no barrier in the sky, so if he could get closer to the sky, even a small cloth could cover a huge area with its shadow. Realizing it, Alex flew to the sky as high as possible. This might be the first time he flew this high because he noticed that the oxygen was thin and the pressure was low. Luckily, the body of a cultivator could handle this as long as it wasn''t destroyed by the atmosphere or outer space. In the end, Alex stopped after reaching five thousand meters above the ground. He took out a cloth the size of a king-size bed and stretched it with his Spiritual Energy, covering a quarter of the island with darkness. It was at this time he was convinced that the answer was correct because the area that was covered in darkness suddenly turned into the original landscape of the island. Alex immediately pulled another three clothes to cover the entire island before noticing something shining on the ground. He descended to the ground and took the shiny thing without hesitation. It was a piece of metal with green dots all over its silver body. The metal released Spiritual Energy, but it might be due to the movement of the Spiritual Energy around the island, he missed this stone. Everything was confirmed when the projection actually got elevated. "This¡­" The ground was right on his neck as if he was buried inside the ground, but the real ground was the one he was stepping on. Hence, he was a bit curious about this rock and wondered whether he needed to destroy it to complete the challenge. ''This rock is called Mirage Rock. It can reflect a shining light to anything that had been programmed into this rock. Because of this useful ability, many people wanted it, albeit the supply was too rare.'' Alex thought, thinking it was a bit of waste to destroy a precious stone like this. Alex crushed the stone with his fists, unraveling the illusion. Disappointment filled his face, but he soon regained his composure while looking at his surroundings. His Pure Fire was protecting his body this whole time, so it wasn''t like he let his guard down. However, Alex felt a bit weird when he thought about the ninth tribulation. "If there is no Space Element Stage during my Divine Tribulation, there should be another thing that replaces it. The problem is¡­ What element will replace it? I understand that there are many elements in the Universe, but I don''t know about this world. "The Potential Tower has nine elements, but I think none of them will appear in this ninth stage while Lightning will certainly appear in the last one because I am sure it''s the Lightning of Baptism." Alex looked at his surroundings, watching any little change that happened. Suddenly, a strange gust of wind surrounded his body. Alex glanced at the wind but found that unlike the normal wind. He saw a darker color with his Spirit Eyes, making him realize it wasn''t a wind element. Alex tried to burn the wind with his Pure Fire but to no avail. He channeled even more energy into it and finally scorched the wind as burnt smell lingered around the area. On his right, the ground started moving as if it was an ocean wave. "What? A moving ground? This shouldn''t be possible." Alex exclaimed in surprise while giving another close look at it. He didn''t forget to use his Intent and Domain to search for an incoming attack, but nothing was found. "What should I do? I don''t even know about this element." Alex looked down. "The first thing was wind while the second one was earth, is there an element that can use these two?" He sorted his memories by multiple elements to see if there was an element like that. However, he stumbled upon one element that was different from the rest. The element could manipulate many elements even though it was only one element. At the same time, it was like a jack of all trade, master of none. It was strong, but it was hard to be the strongest unless you used many tricks by manipulating many elements at once. And he knew this was the element when he found the next description. ''Nature Energy is suitable to nurture Spiritual Energy. However, I can''t see how this test will benefit me like the past few stages." His expression turned serious as he thought about the story as well. "If this is like a real storyline, after my soul gets stronger¡­ No, I should say that the enemy or the mastermind will use a strategy where he confuses my mind, which is the eighth stage. "After that, I realize that I don''t have enough power to deal with the mastermind and gain power from the basic, which is my Spiritual Energy. In that case, how it can increase my power¡­" Alex looked down, finding Spiritual Energy hovering around him. "This¡­" In one article, he read that the Nature Element user was not dangerous because of the manipulation of all elements in nature. Instead, it was deadly because they could manipulate the Spiritual Energy itself. Just like air carried oxygen, carbon dioxide, and so on. The Spiritual Energy carried all elements in them, resulting in a mass disaster. He wouldn''t let it occur by burning everything away. "Hell Inferno!" Alex gritted his teeth, infusing a huge amount of Spiritual Energy to the fire, letting them run rampant. It also burned all the Spiritual Energy and used it as fuel. When Alex felt the condition became unstable enough to maintain it, he activated the Hell Inferno to the fullest, causing a huge explosion that swallowed the entire island. *Boom!* Luckily, the island itself was too far from nearby continents. If it were not the case, they might even see the sky turned red for a few seconds. The island that was filled with stones, broken mountains, and plants turned into a giant crater with nothing. Alex''s figure still stood in the center of the crater, but he looked up and chuckled. "I lose!" As soon as he uttered those two words, his body started shaking uncontrollably as it was like everything in his body was sucked out and replaced by a new one. The Spiritual Energy itself was already fused with all his body parts, organs, and even his blood. When everything was sucked out and replaced at the same time, the pain couldn''t be comprehensible. "Argh!" Alex screamed to the sky, feeling that the pain was similar to his body refining. He thought he was glad that Firia was able to beat this trial because he knew how strong of a woman she is. The torture kept going on for one hour, replacing all Alex''s Spiritual Energy with the one that suited to receive the baptism and turned to Divine Energy. It might be the first time in a long time where Alex couldn''t withstand the pain and continued screaming. And yet, if it were someone else enduring this, the foam would come out of their mouth while they would lay down on the ground like a zombie. Little did he know that his torture was far stronger than Firia or anybody else because of his two special elements and Undying Fire Body. Someone might already fall unconscious and die if they experienced this, but Jean might love it. At least, Alex withstood this pain excellently before he sat on a lotus pose to consolidate his new power for another hour. He then opened his mouth and checked his body. "I do feel stronger. In fact, I feel I only need a single move to kill a 10-Star Martial Saint right now¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed something. Thunder reverberated in his ears as Alex lifted his vision, seeing the dark sky. Golden light flashed from here and there, signaling Alex this would be his last Golden Lightning Tribulation. However, the lightning didn''t strike immediately as if it was waiting for something. "That is the lotus!" Alex exclaimed in amazement when he saw a giant white lotus with all petals closed in. "According to the knowledge in my brain, there is something special about this lotus. This is the measurement where it determines someone''s potential. There are ten petals in total, and if one can open it all, he/she has the qualification of becoming a rank 1 God, or it''s usually called God King. "There are some occasions that those who only opened up to nine petals managed to break free from their limit and became a God King, but it was only a genius among genius. In fact, those who managed to open nine petals alone could already be considered a peerless genius¡­ "Well, if I want to protect my family, I need the strongest power. I don''t know if I can do it, but I will do everything until I collapse." Alex pumped his fist as he swore to do his best. He didn''t say he would break the lightning like the usual way because he knew that the lightning was unbreakable. The lotus was supplying the energy from the world itself, so it was impossible for someone to exhaust the world''s strength. It was also the reason why people couldn''t destroy an Upper World or Divine World like cutting them into half or crushing them. Even Gods and Goddesses didn''t possess a qualification to destroy them except they ruined the world and made every single living being in that world extinct. Different from them, the Lower World contained far less energy than these two worlds. Those God Kings had the qualification to destroy the world if they used all of their power, like the tale about the strongest Sword God cutting a lower world into half he heard from his spirit. That was why his target of this last stage of Divine Tribulation was to make the Lightning use as much energy as possible because the more it used, the more the petals bloomed. Thinking about this made Alex tense a little bit since his future was on the line. He took a few deep breaths, preparing himself. He clenched the two weapons as two dragons hovering around him. The Spirit Crown also floated above his hand as he instinctively activated both Dragon Aura and Spirit Step. Symbols after symbols appeared between him and the sky as Alex finally said, "Come!" The golden light flashed once more before a bolt of lightning turned into a dragon and descended to the ground. Alex narrowed his eyes, watching the power behind this golden lightning. "So, this is the lightning that will transform my body into a Divine Body. Lightning of Baptism." 836 Divine Tribulation Part 5 The lightning dragon descended the sky with its mighty roar. Alex waved his hands and summoned a huge fire phoenix alongside a hundred Fire Swords coated with Absolute Blade Intent. *Cry!* The phoenix let out a loud cry before following the swords, striking the lightning from head-on. *Boom Boom Boom!* The loud explosions filled the island, but Alex''s focus was somewhere else. The first petal of the lotus suddenly bloomed. And yet, the explosions didn''t stop only to hit it. The residual fire scorched the entire lightning, chipping its energy away bit by bit. His Spirit Eyes were telling him that the dragon''s head was pushed back a bit, but the flow of the Spiritual Energy into that dragon looked weird. The head should have flowed differently, but this time the Spiritual Energy flowed like it was on its body. The doubt quickly got answered when the Spiritual Energy underwent some changes, creating a new head. "I see¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I have blown away the head, leaving only its body. If the dragon has flown a few hundred meters, I can make it reset by burning or blasting its head and entire body. This way, I can restart it all over again while making the lotus bloom." "Still, there is another saying that I can''t use the same technique twice because it will be less effective." Alex thought for a second and took a deep breath. "I will do everything in order. Since I know the lightning dragon wants to hit me, I don''t need to be careful and release all my attacks." Alex nodded and leaped to the sky, striking his sword on the dragon''s head. "Ignition Break!" *Boom!* He might have stopped using this move for a long time, but it was indeed one of his Heaven Tier Techniques. He didn''t hesitate in using this and glanced at the lotus, finding another petal bloom. "Well, the more the petal is, the harder to make it bloom¡­ I should use a low level technique first to use it." Alex narrowed his eyes and found that the dragon had recovered. "Phantom Thrust!" He thrust his spear to the incoming dragon and pierced through the dragon, blowing the head as if it burst like a balloon. Alex glanced at the lotus and found out that it was not enough to bloom it, so he added his sword in the mix. "Blade of Conquest." A Sword Wave flew toward the dragon, pushing the lightning blade even further. And finally, the third petal bloomed. Alex nodded and looked at his weapons, wondering what he should do next. However, he suddenly had a crazy doubt in his mind. "I have used Blade of Conquest with my Sword, but can I try another one with my spear? Will that be counted as a new one or the same one?" At first, it managed to blow away the lightning for a few meters, but this time, it only lasted for a meter. He realized that the world didn''t allow him to repeat himself. "In that case¡­" Alex suddenly stepped on the air and leaped again toward the dragon as he threw one hundred thrusts within a few seconds. "Hundred Spears!" As a result, the dragon''s face got disfigured. He didn''t stop there. Since it was already disfigured, it was better to destroy it with his Weapon Consuming Spear. His thrust was precise and deadly. If he used this as a weapon instead, he would have broken it already. However, the dragon only got pushed back for a few meters while still having a fifty-meter body. Alex didn''t pay attention to it as he only focused on the lotus. The fourth petal finally opened up, leaving only six more to go. Alex thought for a moment and realized that if he couldn''t use it twice, it shouldn''t be a problem if he used two at the same time, right? He squinted his eyes, looking at the dragon and thrust both sword and spear at the same time. "Mythical Spear Cannon!" The two weapons released laser-like attacks, hitting the dragon. Alex observed carefully with his Spirit Eyes to see whether this attack proved to be effective or not, but when he noticed that the fifth petal finally bloomed, he smiled. "Let''s go!" He poured a bit more energy before the lightning dragon destroyed it. The head soon recovered its form and continued its way toward Alex. However, Alex didn''t immediately use another technique. Instead, he let it descend for a bit further before an array appeared on its track. Alex smiled as this was one of the arrays he prepared earlier. "Saint Explosion Array!" *Boom!* The huge explosion formed a fire pillar and clashed with the dragon. Alex narrowed his eyes when he noticed that the sixth petal didn''t open. "It is close to opening¡­ I am sure of it." Alex leaped to the sky, emerging within the fire, and struck the dragon with both weapons. "Heaven Light Slash!" As much as he wanted to use his Triple Draws here, he didn''t dare to risk it because he might not be able to use it anymore, even though it was only a supporting technique. The clash created a shockwave that someone flared the fire even more from the wind pressure emanating from it. Without wasting any time, he used this momentum to test another technique. It was not an attack technique, so he wanted to use this momentum that kept the dragon at bay to test it. "Space Bind." A few space tentacles emerged from the Space World, circling around the dragon. Alex added another twist on this technique and poured more Spiritual Energy into it along with his Pure Fire. The tentacles began emanating Pure Fire while clenching the tightness even further. He looked at the lotus and saw the increase of the energy, meaning that this strategy was a success. Because of that, he chose to add another one. "Swallowing Heaven!" Alex summoned the two dragons and made them bite the dragon, refining the energy in their body. Alex looked at this scene as if watching cannibalism, but he still kept doing it. It was at this time he noticed that the dragon released certain energy that also chipped away the energy from his Swallowing Heaven. And before long, they were gone. Alex was a bit disappointed to see it, but he was consoled by the fact that he managed to open the seventh petal. The Space Bind immediately lost its effectiveness, but it had served its purpose as Alex''s guinea pig. He activated another array. "Sphere Chain Array." The arrays appeared along with the chains, chaining the dragon with those hot chains. However, he suddenly noticed another thing. It might be nice to wait for this, but he was afraid that the progress was too slow. If he kept this up, his Spiritual Energy would lose too much energy, so he only planned to use this array like how he used the Space Bind¡ªOnly to stop the dragon for a few seconds. The moment he had enough distance, Alex raised both hands, creating a giant fireball above his head. After fighting with all those nine stages, Alex had spent around forty percent of his energy, especially with that Hell Inferno earlier. And now, he used another Hell Inferno with only twenty percent of energy because he needed the rest of forty percent to prepare for the worse. He threw the hell inferno to the dragon as it exploded, sending a powerful shockwave through the area. There was already no plant or anything on this island, so it didn''t blow many things except the surrounding seawater. Alex narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Come on! Open that eighth petal!" The remaining fire kept burning the dragon while the chain slowly disappeared, but the petal finally opened. "I have been waiting for it!" Alex grinned and summoned his one trump card. "Sky Spear Array!" The array summoned the spear, but it was a red spear instead of a blue spear. Alex infused his Pure Fire Energy here by using his Fire Authority and coated the entire giant spear with his Absolute Blade Intent. He just learned it when he used it on the Earth Stage, so he chose to use it at this time because he had experienced how powerful it was. Alex made a gripping motion before swinging his fist upward as if he was pushing the spear with all his strength. And as expected, the power of this red spear was extraordinary. The tip of it was able to melt the dragon because of Alex''s Pure Fire while spurting fire on its butt as if it was a boost. Even so, Alex had poured a huge amount of Spiritual Energy here, and he unconsciously utilized the power within the new energy that resided in his body. "Haaa!!" He roared while doing his best to hold on until the ninth petal opened. Alex immediately waved both his sword and spear at the same time, releasing twelve Sword Waves at the same time. He had been waiting for this. This was his strongest attack that contained his everything. The Triple Draws that he reserved was also for this moment. The twelve Sword Waves released its strongest might with the last strength he had left. It was fine even if he used it all in this as long as he was able to open the last one. "I need to become a God King if I want to protect my family! Don''t you dare to stop me!" Alex shouted out loud, staring at the dragon with his fierce eyes. "Breeaaakk!" The Sword Wave cut through the dragon, pushing it a few hundred meters back. *Pant¡­ Pant¡­* Alex looked at the sky and found that the lotus had finally bloomed to its fullest. He stared at the sky with a smile, but he somehow didn''t feel satisfied as a doubt crept inside his heart, making him feel empty. He might have made the lotus bloom, but¡­ "Will this be enough?" The scene where he met his previous self flashed before him. At that time, he noticed the change in Lin Xingzhi. Even though it was only for a brief moment, she seemed to be anxious over something. And the sudden appearance and how she refused to answer his question about the time element guy, he knew she must have been hiding something. He didn''t know about it, but he knew the way to know. He only needed to get stronger, strong enough for everyone to trust him that he could do it. And due to that desire, Alex gritted his teeth and looked at the dragon and waved his weapons. "Mythical Fire Slash!" He summoned all the twelve Sword Waves, stopping the dragon with the little energy he had left. He noticed that the lotus could still increase its energy. That was why he had another resolve in his mind. "I have said it before, I will continue as long as I can stand. If I don''t have energy, I will use my body and strength to push it back!" Alex roared and charged toward the dragon, striking at the same spot where the twelve Sword Waves hit. It looked like the twelve Sword Waves fused together with his sword, but it was not the case. "Gah!" Alex felt the power of the dragon and spat blood, but he still channeled the little bit of his power to his sword. His eyes blurred, and his consciousness became fuzzy. It might be his instinct, but the Spirit Crown suddenly revolved like crazy, pouring a bit more Spiritual Energy to Alex, but this energy wasn''t really a Spiritual Energy. It was a kind of transition energy from Spiritual Energy to Divine Energy. Alex let his instinct take over and pushed back the dragon. The new energy gradually fused the Pure Fire Sword Wave and the Space Cut into his sword before it coated the blade as if they were one. Alex muttered and completed his swing. "Three¡­ Purities¡­ Slash." 837 Bon Voyage Alex''s slash was nothing like the other he had in the past. He was like ten percent of rationality and ninety percent of instinct. It might be his desperate will or the potential that had been suppressed this whole time, Alex somehow managed to create an original technique that was far above anyone could comprehend. It combined his Pure Fire, a Special Space Element, and his Absolute Blade Intent. Each of them contained immeasurable strength. His Pure Fire had awakened and evolved to the point it reached the former Fire God level. His Special Space Element was the same element that the previous Dungeon God possessed. And last but not least, his Absolute Blade Intent reflected the power behind the Spirit God, the only one who managed to combine Sword Intent and Spear Intent. Looking at this, each of them was the quality of the former God Kings. But the current Alex managed to combine it into a single Martial Art¡­. In fact, this couldn''t be called Martial Art anymore. Instead, this was a Divine Art. Alex just couldn''t utilize it properly because of the lack of Divine Body to wield it, Divine Soul to fully fuse them, and Divine Energy to fuel the strength. Even so, this was clearly the strength close to that of a God. When he swung that blade, space distorted the Spiritual Energy, creating an immeasurable pressure that cut the dragon into two. The Intent coated every single thing, adding the sharpness of that blade. And when the cut struck, it left a trace of Pure Fire, burning the residual energy of the dragon. The sword strike continued toward the sky, trying to cut the sky itself, but still untouchable. Alex looked up and smiled helplessly. "It still can''t reach huh¡­ Even though it was only twenty meters left¡­" If his eyes were not blurry and his consciousness was not fuzzy, Alex might notice that the lotus was cracked. Unfortunately, Alex couldn''t catch that tiny detail as his eyes focused on the lightning that soon recovered. The lightning struck forth as nothing hindered him again, hitting Alex with its overbearing power. "Aaahhh!" Alex screamed as hard as possible. The pain started from inside his body. It was like a hundred sharks chewing his heart and other organs, but he noticed that they immediately got reconstructed in the instant the other disappeared. And it was brimming with power. "This is Divine Body!" Alex clenched his fists before finding that he couldn''t do it anymore. It wasn''t because he didn''t have strength left. Instead, he caught a glimpse of his hand missing as if it had been cut cleanly by a sword, but the next second it appeared again as if it was new. The bones, the blood, the muscles, everything disappeared and was replaced by the new one. However, Alex noticed that the moment his hand appeared again, it was formed by fire instead of Spiritual Energy. The reconstruction process continued in the order of Divine Body, Divine Soul, and Divine Energy. The most torturing part was his soul and energy. Unlike the Divine Body that got replaced one by one, the other two were replaced as a single entity. The process continued for four hours before the Golden Lightning dispersed to the whole world, startling all the people in this world until Alex got a notification. [Mission: Reach Rank 10 God (Complete) Reward: Divine Gacha System \u0026 Gacha God Title Description: It''s time for you to be the provider of this amazing system. You are going to be promoted to be the master of this Gacha System from a host. You can grant this wonderful ability to people who are worthy, and let the love of Gacha spread all over the world.] [System will undergo maintenance to upgrade itself to become the Divine Gacha System.] ¡­ Right in front of the gate, Rose was holding hand with Letizia, witnessing how their master became a God. It was breathtaking but also felt painful. In front of them was the immeasurable wall that they might not be able to surmount, but at the same time, they were proud to have such a person as their master. "Big Sister¡­ We need to get stronger¡­ Far far far stronger than this." "Yes. This is not our limit. We should let him know that when we meet again. Shall we return and start training right away?" "Un!" Rose nodded and took another glance at the golden sky. "But before that¡­" Letizia understood what she wanted to do and straightened her back while looking at the source of the light. They bowed and shouted in unison. "Bon Voyage, Master!" In the Blackwade Clan, Song Jiaoren and his father immediately looked at the golden sky in silence. The sky was shining like this for a few minutes already as if Heaven felt joy because the king had ascended. Song Ping glanced at his son and said with a serious tone. "Son. I think you are the best gambler in this world." "I am just very lucky, Father. Still, to think the real identity of the genius who created a golden sky in the past was actually him¡­ Should I say as expected?" Song Jiaoren smiled helplessly. "I believe in his morality, so I am sure he will keep his promise. When you reach the main clan, I hope you can study and become our pride." "Don''t worry, Father. I will¡­ Even if I become the main clan''s people, my home will always be here." Song Jiaoren patted his father''s back with a smile. However, for Song Ping, it was the warmest pat on the back he ever had. He smiled and couldn''t help but cry. "I am blessed to have such a good son and daughter. If only your mother is still with us¡­" Song Jiaoren''s eyes became watery as well. He said, "I am also thankful to Mother for giving birth to me with this wonderful family." "Shall we visit your mother''s grave next time?" "Sure. I will accompany you¡­ No, Ling''er should come too." Aside from his status as the patriarch, Song Ping was just a normal father like any other. Song Hun decided to trust him because he knew where to point his sword and where he should become a shield. Song Jiaoren had been living under him, so of course, he understood and took pride as his son. While the two were sharing their joy and tears about the good news Alex brought, the Divine Kingdom was having a mixed feeling, especially Elizabeth. An old advisor accompanied her watching the golden sky on the castle''s balcony. "He is a unique guy with extraordinary strength. I don''t know if I was too attached or not, but I didn''t regret choosing this kingdom over him¡­" Elizabeth smiled helplessly. "The Divine Kingdom is lucky to have a person like you, Queen Elizabeth." "Haha¡­" She chuckled and looked at the sky, raising the wine in her hand. "Although it''s a brief moment, I indeed had an interest in you. That''s why¡­ Goodbye¡­ and Bon Voyage." The advisor could only close his eyes and decided to watch silently. The same applied to Song Yu, who watched this phenomenon with Astennu. "That is my Junior Brother." "Alexander Sirius, huh¡­ I think he is the only one that can create such a sight when he is becoming a God." Astennu smiled, pulling Song Yu into his embrace. Song Yu smiled and rested her head on his body as she said with pride and joy. "I have gotten the approval from half of the elders, so I am going to work hard after this, Junior Brother¡­ That''s why you should do the same." And last but not least, the one who got the most impact from this was none other than Evelyn. "There is no way I can do something like that when I ascend¡­ Even if brother Alex accepts someone as his woman, he won''t look at their power, it doesn''t mean that they will allow themselves to be protected the whole time¡­ Just wait for me, big brother Alex, I will keep chasing you, and we will see what kind of future I will have." Evelyn said her pieces and returned to her courtyard, finding Angela. She walked again, training her like how Alex trained her to make Angela stronger in mentality. Everyone in the world also had their own thoughts about this, but no matter what everyone said, this won''t disappear from their memory and history. Alex, on the other hand, finally opened his eyes. His breathing was also stable. Raising both hands, he checked his strength and was astonished. "This power¡­" He stretched his hand to the front, and the Spiritual Energy around him started to move as if they were overjoyed and wanted him to control them. He suddenly remembered the fact that becoming a God was the same as fusing his power to the universe. God Rank Expert could only use the Divine Energy from their body because no place could supply Divine Energy. Whether cultivating or recovering, they needed to convert the Spiritual Energy first to Divine Energy with their body. This was a setback for a God such as himself, but it also came with a benefit. They could control the Spiritual Energy in the air as if it was a part of their body. Although Alex couldn''t control it precisely, he understood the principle. As long as he trained his control, he should be able to fight using it. He then tried to release his Divine Energy to the air, and the ground started cracking from the sheer pressure alone. "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and thought. "So, this is Divine Energy. The power itself is far stronger than I could have imagined, but the problem is¡­" Alex wanted to know whether he could hide such power with his technique. Although he was able to do it with his Spiritual Energy, he wondered if he was able to do it with his Divine Energy. He channeled his Space Energy to his heart, creating a gate that sucked his soul inside. To his surprise, the Divine Energy was also sealed inside along with his soul. "Hmm? The Divine Energy is following my soul, and now I am a person with only a Divine Body?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "This might be a bit dangerous if I am inside a Divine World because God Stage Expert might be able to kill me. However, I should have enough time to release this power again. "At the same time, if I go to the Upper World like this one or the Lower World, I can manipulate the energy in the air to fight. Besides, none of them should be a match of my Divine Body because I can see the strength is beyond belief." Alex gulped down as he punched the air in front of him with all his strength. And the result was shocking. If his Divine Energy could crack the ground by just covering his body with it, his punch created a huge trail on the ground as the shock wave continued running on the ground and swiped the sea. "Oh! Wow!" Alex didn''t know what to say. He was wondering what kind of power his soul had, but he decided to wait for it because he didn''t have anything with him at the moment where he could utilize his soul prowess. However, he was curious about a certain thing. It was his Absolute Blade Divine Intent. After upgrading into a higher rank and assimilated with nature itself, he was wondering what kind of power it had. "I have too many things to experience after this." Alex scratched his head. Suddenly, the Spiritual Energy covered him as if the world asked him to leave immediately. Alex understood this and showed no resistance, waiting for the world to transfer himself to outer space, especially with the Space Energy lingering around him. But there was something he realized right when he was about to get teleported. "The Space Energy suddenly gets too thick? Wai¡ª" 838 Isekai-ed Again? "This is¡­" Zark opened his mouth in surprise. He then lifted his head and looked at the horizon. "If I am not wrong, there is a Black Hole in this direction, but I believe it''s very far from here, so how can there be a Space Disturbance, especially when Master is ascending? I think Master was swallowed as that thing is bringing him somewhere¡­ I will check it first then." As much as he wanted to figure this problem out, he tried to follow the Space Disturbance and found it arriving at a certain planet. He took another look at it and noticed Space Element coming from another direction that seemed to lead him to another one. "There are two planets connecting with each other? But this planet is a Lower World while the other one is an Upper¡­ No, Divine World." Zark furrowed his eyebrows. "I can''t go inside to the world where Master is, but I can infiltrate the Divine World. Should I go or should I retreat and report?" However, he found another problem with the Divine World and decided to retreat to Eulja. Inside the castle, specifically Lin Xingzhi''s room, where she used to control the system, two women were talking happily as they met again but ended up stopping when they realized Alex''s condition. Zark pushed open the door while sweating as he looked at the two women. "There is a problem." "I can see it." Lin Xingzhi nodded but laughed in the end as she said, "To think he will experience the same thing again. Pfft!" "Milady, I believe the situation not as you think." Zark shook his head with a serious expression. "What do you mean?" Firia asked, starting to get a bit concerned with Alex. "Master is going to another world due to the Space Disturbance, but I believe this Space Disturbance is caused by the connection it has to another world." "Another world? Does this Lower World have a connection to another world?" "Yes. And it''s the Divine World." "Oh?!" Lin Xinghzhi''s cheerful smile disappeared as she narrowed her eyes. "And if it''s only a normal Divine World, I can simply brush it off. Then I remember another thing." "And that is¡­" "The Divine World is where Lady Alicia trains." "Devil World?" Lin Xingzhi and Firia exclaimed in surprise. "Yes. I have rechecked the connection, and it''s indeed strong enough to cross outer space and arrive at that world." Firia looked at Lin Xingzhi. "Sister Xingzhi, I think you sent Alicia to that Devil World, so she could take her own revenge, right?" "Yes. I have gotten the source of that Green Devil Poison and realized it came from that world, specifically the Green Devil Tribe. Seeing how this world opened another gate toward another Lower World, I am sure that the poison came from that place. "Shall we go to that place as well?" Firia asked. Lin Xingzhi wanted to go to that place immediately but remembered about the appearance of that time element guy. She hesitated and bit her lips. "It''s better to wait for him here." "Why? If I am not wrong, the strongest devil there is rank 7 God. Although the Green Devil only has one rank 9 God, they will be in trouble if they face that rank 7." "That''s why I sent a helper to Alicia. Things are going to get messy soon, not because of this world, but another thing. The only way is to have him grow as quickly as possible." "But do you not want to see him? You said it yourself that you want to go around in another world." "I might say it that way, but do you think I chose the world without any consideration?" Lin Xingzhi smiled helplessly. "What do you mean?" "That world has Fire Sun Grass." "Fire Sun Grass¡­" Firia heard it somewhere and recalled what it truly was. "That medicinal herb is for the fifth refinement of his Undying Fire Body!" "Yeah, that''s right. Of course, I want to spend some time with him, but I still know my priority." Lin Xingzhi gritted her teeth. Firia looked down before asking in a low tone. "Then what is the trouble you are talking about?" Lin Xingzhi didn''t answer her. Instead, she decided to go around it by saying, "I am sure that with all the information he has right now, he will arrive in similar speculation. And if he goes to that place, he will have his answer, so I want to wait until he arrives at his own conclusion before explaining everything." Firia furrowed her eyebrows. "Fine. I won''t say anything more. Besides, he can spend some time with Alicia there since I took my own time in that world." Lin Xingzhi was a bit sad, but she nodded. "Thank you." "Then, we need to provide information to Alex about that world and lead him to the Devil World. After going there, they can return to this place." Firia nodded and looked at Zark, "That''s right. You were supposed to bring back Alicia too, right?" "Yes. I was about to go there after meeting with Master, but because of this, I returned here first." "Alicia also hasn''t finished her revenge¡­" Firia looked down, feeling troubled. "Yes. The Green Devil Tribe is a bit sneaky, and our spies are limited on that planet, so we can''t do a full world''s check because the other worlds might be watching our move if we mobilize that many people." Zark nodded. "Then, we are going to let Alex and Alicia solve this. Alex should have the others, so I am not worried about him." "Indeed. If it''s them, they should be able to protect Master well." Lin Xingzhi, who was in deep thought, finally opened her mouth. "For now, I want all the information about this world. I will be giving it to Alex after this¡­ Well, I don''t know if he has this information in his past knowledge, so just in case." "I understand. I shall prepare it for you." Zark then left the room. Before long, he appeared again with a few documents and Korzan. "Korzan?" "Milady, I would like to ask Zark to investigate the Space Tunnel that connects the two worlds." "Ho?" "I don''t know why, but the Devil World wouldn''t open a Space Tunnel that easily. Because Master was in the lower world that seemed to have experienced that world''s invasion in the past, I checked a few things regarding that world." Korzan put on a serious expression. "What is it?" "They searched for a Sun Moon Seed in that world." "Sun Moon Seed!" Firia opened her mouth in amazement. As expected from an Alchemist, she immediately recognized what it was. "It''s a Divine Rank seed. The Sun Moon Seed would become a Sun Moon Tree where it would only produce two fruits. The Sun Fruit and Moon Fruit. Just like Yin and Yang, these two fruits were suited for a couple to advance their cultivation." "Yes. That was why I believe they were searching for something important." Korzan nodded. "So, do you want Alex to grab it?" "If possible. On one hand, I can understand that Master wants to rush to Lady Alicia. On the other hand, this mysterious thing that made the Devil World move must be extraordinary." Korzan paused. "The Red Devil and Purple Devil ate those two fruits in the past, allowing them to immediately enter rank 8 God without the need of cultivating. So, I think there is a chance that this thing will benefit master as well¡­ And the fact that we can''t mobilize too many people at once, Master is the best person." "A Rank 9 Ingredient is called a Divine Ingredient for a reason. The Sun Moon Seed was one of the rarest, so I could understand why a whole world moved in the past¡­" Lin Xingzhi stroked her chin gently as she tried to come up with an idea. "I will convey this matter to Alex and see whether he wants to do it or not. The decision is in his hand. What do you think?" "It''s enough." Korzan nodded. "Though I believe Master will ask about Lady Alicia''s condition first before deciding. If he knows that she is alright, he will surely set up a time limit and search for it. Nelson and the other N squad might help as well." "Nah. They can''t be bothered. They will simply torture the devils for the answer." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Anyway, I shall convey the information to Alex." "Yes. Thank you very much." "Then I think it''s time for me to go to investigate the Space Tunnel. I will see whether I should sever the connection by myself or not after seeing the actual fact." Zark added before leaving the room with Korzan. Firia and Lin Xingzhi exchanged looks as the former said, "We should see what happened to Alex first." She nodded and looked at the screen. ¡­ In the meantime, as Lin Xingzhi said, Alex finally arrived at the exact same scene. He was teleported into a very familiar place. It was inside a grand room with a red carpet stretching from the door to the stairs leading to the majestic seat covered in golden decoration. A man sat on the chair, looking at the people in front of him. However, Alex couldn''t observe even more as he was clutching his chest because of unbearable pain. He immediately used his Space Element to seal his cultivation. Martial Saint¡­ Martial Monarch¡­ Martial Lord¡­ Martial Master¡­ Foundation Stage¡­ When he reached the foundation stage, the pain finally disappeared. He finally could see his surroundings, finding four people beside him. One of them was male, while the other three were females. They wore some sort of school uniform, but it was close to that from the Earth. He was dumbstruck, recalling all things that happened when he was coming to a different world. When his vision lingered around the room, he found many soldiers and old men whispering to each other. Out of five of them, only him had different clothes, so they must think it weird. He didn''t know why, but this nostalgic scene truly made all the past memories resurface. The group finally recovered from the dizziness after the travel as they glanced left and right, finding what just happened. At this time, the person who sat before them rose and said in a pacifying tone. "Welcome, Heroes. I have summoned you to this world because the devils want to eliminate humanity." Alex smirked and thought. ''It has the same setting too!'' 839 Starting from Zero? "Where are we?" The group started panicking because of this unfamiliar scene, but Alex could only laugh inside. He had gotten teleported like this twice. The first was when he was at his lowest point, while the second time when he just reached God Stage. This was hilarious because he could see things from two perspectives. The former him would not be panicking like this but thought many things about his surroundings. And yet, the current him couldn''t think anything but enjoyable. Still, he was perplexed about the earlier situation. He didn''t understand why there would be a sudden influx of Space Energy right when he was about to ascend. ''Is it because of this summoning?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Meanwhile, the king noticed Alex''s different style of clothing but ignored it as he greeted the four and explained. "I know you are confused, but we really need your power to save humanity. That''s why we have summoned you from another world." "No! We don''t want this!" "Send us back!" They started screaming in denial, but there was one person that seemed to be confident. It was a man. Just like John, he appeared to be eager about this new world, treating himself like a hero. He walked forward and said, "I understand your point, but we don''t have even the slightest bit of information about this world. We don''t know what to say or how to act¡­ Besides, can you even send us home?" The king widened his eyes in surprise before answering him. "I am afraid we cannot. The teleportation is only for one-way teleportation." "What?!" "How can you be so irresponsible?!" The girls were angry while the ministers stared at them with scorn. They only restrained themselves because they thought they were the heroes. If not, they might even rebuke them. "I understand. I will first explain everything about this world so you can accept it." The king nodded. The king started talking, but Alex ignored him because the system sent him a notification. [Divine Gacha System Activated!] [I can finally reach you again, Host.] ''Oh! Do you know anything about this? I noticed the influx of Space Element earlier and realized it was a Space Disturbance that somehow sucked me inside. Well, it only happened because the world was going to teleport me.'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [I have been investigating it, and this is something that might interest you.] ''Oh? What is it?'' [The world that is connected to that world is a Divine World called Devil World. Because of the constraints placed by the world, they will most likely send only a Foundation Rank. And at most a Martial Master to that world. But what is more shocking is their identity and their objective.] Alex lifted his eyebrows as the matter slightly piqued his interest. Alex squinted his eyes. As to not let the others notice, he restrained his killing intent for a moment and asked. ''Tell me more about it.'' [Because of their distance, the Devil World seemed to have made a connection in the past to get a Sun Moon Seed. I am sure you know about this seed.] ''I know about that seed. Anyway, assuming that they indeed made a connection with that world, are you saying that they somehow dropped the poison there and preserved it for a few thousand years. Then, it got into the hand of the bad guy and almost killed Alicia because of it?'' [Basically.] ''Well, I don''t really mind helping this world then. Though I don''t really want to kill that much because I will only target the Green Devil Tribe.'' [Alicia is currently in that world, trying to take her own revenge. I have sent an aide to help her and will send you the report about her progress. Well, it is supposed to end before you are coming, but they were too slippery according to Alicia, and she might need another two years to complete.] ''So, you want me to go there and help her? I will though, but why didn''t you tell me about this earlier?'' [Alicia wanted to train to get experience. At the same time, she also wanted to take her own revenge. She said You, her, Firia, and everyone had been saddened by that experience, so she wanted to finish this matter with her own hand because she was the main victim.] ''I see¡­ But how about the world itself? Do you have any information about it?'' [I am compiling the information, but I will tell you the basic one first. The world has a rank 7 God as the strongest, while the Green Devil Tribe has a Rank 9 God as their leader. Alicia will solve the Green Devil Tribe alone, but her aide will help her in case trouble happens because the aide is rank 6 God.] ''I see. At the very least, you are sending a higher one.'' Alex''s worry lessened. [Yes. That''s why I let her go.] ''Alright. I will be going there and helping Alicia. This coincidence wants me to help her, so I will go there immediately. Well, I will just close the gate that connects the two worlds while I am at it since this is the only reason why I got this coincidence.'' [Yes. I will fill you the information about the Space Disturbance after some investigation. In any case, there is another thing that I need to tell you.] ''Right. You said you were going to tell me about their identity and their objective. You have told me the former, so¡­ What is their objective?'' [I believe just like the previous time, they want something similar to Sun Moon Seed. In other words, there is a Divine Grade Item that could move the entire world in your current world. It will be just a mystical item in this world, but in their hands, it will be far higher.] ''They move because of a Divine Grade Item¡­ It seems this item is extraordinary. Just like the Sun Moon Seed, they won''t be able to grow unless you feed them with Divine Energy, which is lacking in that world¡­ Still, it''s considered as one of the peak Divine Grade Items. So, can I assume that it is also one?'' [I believe so. That''s why I want to ask you to stay in that world to search for it. As you might already know, our movement will be monitored if we send a few people there. However, you are not on everyone''s radar, so you are free to explore.] ''Well, I can spare some time¡­ Maybe three months in this world. After that, I will go to the Devil World and help Alicia. After we complete all this, we are going to return to Eulja, so we can meet parents-in-law." [Yes.] ''It''s going to take a little longer, but I guess it can''t be helped.'' [Firia is also fine here, so you don''t need to worry.] ''Alright then. I will leave everything to you later. Besides, this is a perfect time to get used to my Divine Body, Soul, and Energy. After that, I can learn a few Divine Arrays and Pills, consolidating my position as Rank 10 God.'' [Indeed. Good luck, Host.] ''That''s right. I almost forgot the fact that you have ''Good Luck'' in your name¡­ Is it still there?'' [No. This is not the Good Luck Gacha System anymore, but the Divine Gacha System. You don''t need that good luck anymore because you will have the authority to control the storage of this Gacha System as a Master of this system. The others are the ones who need that luck.] ''This is really amusing in a sense. Never mind, I will play along with this charade first before leaving this place and search for that Divine Item.'' [Yes.] Alex blinked a few times before turning his focus on the king that had been talking for a while. After another few minutes, the king finally asked the soldiers to bring the crystal in. ''Ah, this must be the crystal that will give us the ability to see the status. Still, I am now curious about my current status. Unlike my former self, I have become a God, literally.'' Alex chuckled inwardly. At this time, the boy placed his hand on the crystal, signifying him to be a hero. The status was also similar to that of John''s, but the template itself was a bit different than the one he had long ago. Suddenly, a voice echoed in his right ears as it contained a slight worry. "Hello, my name is Liliana. May I know your name? Since we can''t escape this, we might as well know each other, right?" Alex took a glimpse of her appearance. She looked like a cute girl, at least prettier than the other two girls. Her blonde hair reached her hips, and judging from her body, she looked like a high school student. Since Alex had decided to play around for a while, he smiled. "Hello, my name is Alexander." "Oh! Are you a foreigner too?" "What do you mean?" "I am currently studying in Japan due to my parents'' work. Well, I see your hair looks like it''s dyed, but I can''t really say it like that. My parents are a hairstylist and a fashion designer, so I know that the color is natural." "Ah, yes. This is my natural color. And yeah, I am not from Japan as well." "That''s great. I never thought I could meet someone from outside, especially in a situation like this. Can I ask you something?" "Ask away." "Are you cosplaying? And is the color of your eyes natural too?" Alex thought for a moment. "My eyes are natural. Well, you can say that I am cosplaying." Even though he was not. Still, the way he dressed himself looked like someone from Ancient China but with a more modern style that made him appear cool. It was also the reason why she approached Alex. He was too different from the norm, so he might be a bit special. Besides, Alex was far too handsome than the current hero or anyone else in this room. Alex, on the other hand, noticed the white aura coming from her body. This signified that she wasn''t someone that he knew in his previous life, so he just considered her as a stranger since he would be living tonight or tomorrow morning. However, he noticed a slight hatred coming from the so-called hero. ''Ah! This boy must be the same Hero, the one with H and Ero¡­'' Alex laughed inwardly, wondering if every hero was like that. Even so, he never cared about him because the hero would never be able to oppose him. After all, he realized the fact that the energy was too thin and had a fluctuation of the world''s will. He could induce it now that he had reached God Stage. ''I can control the energy around me, but it''s better to use my physical ability in this world. In fact, I think I can destroy this castle along with the town with a single fist now,'' Alex thought. "Lili, come here. Place your hand on this crystal." The boy, whose name is Gareth, commanded as if he was the one in charge. Liliana furrowed her eyebrows and peeked at Alex, but the latter only smiled and stretched his hand. Little did they know that Alex thought, ''If it''s going according to the book of cliches, I will break the crystal the moment I place my hand on it.'' Joy filled the room as Lili became a Light mage. Alex only nodded at her and walked toward the crystal. The hype was there as everyone gained hope when watching this so far, but like how Alex said that this experience resembled the one he had long ago, his status was very SIMILAR to the one he had as well. Name: Alexander Sirius Job: Commoner (A person who got dragged to another world) Rank: 0 Level: 1 STR: 1 AGI: 1 VIT: 1 DEX: 1 INT: 1 "Pfft!" 840 Bye When everyone was stunned to see Alex''s status, the guy himself was laughing as if he found a very good joke. ''Do you have anything to say, System?'' [It''s entirely true¡­ You are basically dragged to this world, so it''s true. And your Divine Soul and Divine Energy are completely sealed while your Divine Body is assimilating with the world, so there is no way the crystal can trace that.] ''Fair enough. Still, it''s really hilarious. Back then, I accepted everything because I didn''t have any self-confidence, but this time, I accepted this because this is funny. I wonder if their reaction will be the same.'' As he expected, the first one to joke was the hero. "Hahaha! What is that status? You are even weaker than a baby! What are you? A baby inside a pregnant woman that has yet to be born?" Alex glanced at the hero with a smile. "At least, it''s better than you." "Ridiculous!" Alex thought for a moment, wondering if he should change his plan right now. Judging from the current situation, it seemed to be the perfect time to leave this castle. It took him a few seconds before glancing at the king. "Since I am not related to this, then I can leave this place, right?" "Presumptuous. Watch your tone!" The ministers finally couldn''t take it anymore. They wouldn''t do anything to the hero and his companions, but Alex was trash. There was no point in protecting trash. "Haha! You are a loser." The hero laughed, pointing his finger toward Alex. "A loser huh¡­ When was the last time I thought myself a loser¡­ Twenty years ago or twenty-five? Haiz, I didn''t keep track of my own age, let alone this." Alex let out a long sigh. "Twenty years ago?!" Liliana opened her mouth in surprise, looking at Alex with a huge shock. Alex''s appearance was that of a high schooler¡­ Yet, he said twenty years ago? She couldn''t believe it. Alex smiled and said, "That''s right, little girl. My age is far above you to the point you can call me a father instead. Never mind, I don''t have any child at the moment." He then looked back at the king and asked, "In any case, I am leaving here with or without your permission. Goodbye." He thought of playing around with the clich¨¦s here, but he realized he could break the clich¨¦ itself by acting like this. If he followed it, it would be predictable, so he wanted to spice it up like this. He then turned around, starting to walk toward the thick wooden gate. "Wait! It''s better for you to wait here first and see the situation. I know that you are upset about your status, but there must be a way." Liliana stopped him from going as she stood in front of him. Liliana couldn''t understand why but Alex''s way of speaking and acting looked like her own father. The warmth and his big hand felt very comfortable and reassuring. Unfortunately, the time was too short as Alex stopped and continued walking. "Wait! There must be something wrong with the crystal. How about taking a rest in this place first for a day?" The king stopped him. Whether he had another intention or not, he would be the only one who knew. Alex ignored him and kept heading toward the door, but a middle-aged man suddenly appeared right before him. He had spiky blue hair and wore a full body armor knight, leaving only his head to be exposed. He looked at Alex with a stern expression and warned him. "It''s better to accept his majesty''s invitation. You must be upset, but it''s better for you to calm your head and rethink your decision." "It''s fine. I am completely calm. And I don''t have any business here??? Since you want to close the gate that the devils use to come to this world, then I will close it for you." Alex smiled, patting the man''s shoulder before going around smoothly. The middle-aged man was surprised by Alex''s movement. Not only was it without one waste movement, but it was also so smooth to the point he couldn''t react. He gritted his teeth and turned around, trying to grab Alex''s shoulder. Alex shifted his body to the left and stopped the man with a single finger while leaking a bit of his killing intent. "It''s enough. Don''t try to stop me." Suddenly, his feet lost their strength as he fell on his knees after feeling Alex''s killing intent. ''That killing intent¡­ How many did he kill? A thousand? Ten thousand? No, it''s far beyond that!'' The middle-aged man sweatdropped, wondering what he should do. On one hand, this might be the best time to kill Alex because they didn''t want a serial killer like him. In fact, he somehow believed that Alex might look younger than he actually is. On the other hand, Alex said that he was going to close the portal. For a person of his caliber, Alex might have the ability to close the portal. However, it was different from others'' perspectives. They never expected the middle-aged man to be kneeling in front of him. He was the captain of the palace guard. The position was always meant for someone strong. But even for a person like him, he kneeled in front of Alex with a pale expression. "Anyway, don''t stop me again. And if your kingdom is unpleasant to my eyes, I might destroy this kingdom first before closing the portal." Alex said coldly. "Presumptuous!" "How dare you?!" "General Bright, Kill him! We can''t let a person like this alive!" Alex looked down at the middle-aged man before turning around. "That''s it. I have said what I need to say. It''s time for me to go." "Wait¡­ You¡­ You¡­ What are you?" The middle-aged man stuttered. The answer came in a very weird way as Alex said, "My race is still human." "Race?" "Knights. Surround him!" One of the ministers shouted. Alex didn''t care about it as he opened the door without hesitation, finding two people outside. The first person was a male with a white uniform while the other one was a female wearing a maid uniform. However, the female looked like she was just beaten up by the male as he was still dragging her by pulling her hair. Alex couldn''t understand the reason until he found a black mark on his clothes. "I am sorry, Your Highness. It wasn''t intentional! Please forgive me." The girl pleaded. She didn''t cry or anything but only asked for forgiveness. However, Alex was startled when he saw her appearance that reminded him of someone. And the fact that he could see the blue colored layer surrounding her, symbolizing that he knew her. The man in front of him looked at Alex and the kneeling Bright before noticing they were surrounded by soldiers. "I apologize, Father. I was about to enter, but this maid spilled the drink onto my clothes." The man looked at the king before squinting his eyes at Alex''s figure. Alex ignored him and looked at the girl. "Young girl¡­ What happened?" He decided to ask the girl. Whatever the case, he should have known this girl of her previous life, so it would be better to ask her first. After all, her appearance reminded him of Mithra, the one that helped him on the Willow Continent. "I¡­I¡­" "Who are you?!" The man walked even closer, placing his head right in front of Alex as if he was challenging him. "Crown Prince¡­ Don''t!" The knight behind Alex was still struggling to regain his power, but Alex twitched his finger first, controlling the energy around them to free the maid and having her stand beside him. He glanced to the side and asked, "Tell me." "I was preparing the meal for the heroes but slipped and accidentally spilled everything I carried." The young girl explained with a pale face. "Ah, we are in this kind of world anyway." Alex nodded. "By the way, is your name Mithra or something?" "Ye-yes." The young girl''s body shook, never expecting Alex to know her name. All the people that had gone to the audience hall would surely be a big shot. Yet, the same person knew her name. It was her being honored and immediately answered. "My name is Mithra." ''As expected, it seems the name won''t change even if you reincarnate¡­'' Alex thought. [Yes. That''s how I found you. Though a few people know about it more than I do as they are learning the meaning of Life and Death.] ''I see. Still, I have karma with her. Since her previous life helped me to achieve Sword King, I will help her in this life. The previous her liked traveling, right? I will just have her as my guide in this world. Teaching her a little so she can fend herself won''t be a big deal, I guess.'' [It''s your choice, Host. But I think it''s not a bad choice.] The prince seemed to have lost his patience as he snarled. "How dare you ignore me like that!" However, the knight seemed to have recovered as he grabbed the prince and pulled him away, standing between him and Alex. No one felt his killing intent earlier, so they didn''t realize how dangerous Alex is. Luckily, Alex hadn''t yet done anything to him as if he wasn''t interested in it. Alex asked the little maid, "Hey, girl. Do you like an adventure like roaming around the world?" "Eh?!" Mithra flinched for a moment before nodding timidly. "Ye-yes. That''s my dream." "In that case, do you want to travel with me? It won''t be too long, but I believe you can continue on your own after that. What do you think?" Alex asked with a smile. "What dream? You won''t be able to escape from this place! Especially after smearing all this to my clothes! Guards!" The prince shouted. "Anyway, what is your answer?" Alex asked with a smile. "I¡­ I¡­" "Catch him!" The prince finally ordered the guards. The king and the heroes seemed to be watching this in shock because everything escalated so fast. And they still didn''t know why Bright fell down and tried to protect the prince right now. It was like Alex''s existence was something higher than himself. When the guards stepped forward, Alex snapped his finger, controlling the Spiritual Energy around him to stop all the guards. "What is this?" "I can''t move!" The guards were confused as if there was a layer that stopped them from moving. This could be considered magical because it was weird to the point they thought it was Alex''s attack. However, they had witnessed themselves how Alex and the other fours just got summoned. They had a record that their previous world didn''t have power like them, but the people themselves have a very high potential. That was why they were confused. Alex, on the other hand, asked the girl again. "It''s fine to say anything you want. If you want to stay, I won''t force you. But if you want to follow me, let''s travel around the world." "I¡­" The girl looked down for a moment. "I¡­ I am an orphan, so I will go with you¡­ I might be executed anyway." The girl''s expression looked pitiful as she had accepted her death earlier. That was the reason she only begged mercy instead of crying. Alex patted her head and took her hand. "Let''s go then." They started walking as if nothing mattered. "You! Kill him! Bright!" The prince didn''t know why, but Bright actually restrained him as if he was scared of Alex. "This is where you belong now. Whatever you choose, it''s your own decision. You can be the so-called heroes, and I won''t care anything about it. But if you are standing in my way, there is nothing but death." Alex released a killing intent, surrounding the entire room. He then found a balcony near the door as he took Mithra flying. 841 The Wonders of the World The other ministers were placing their hands on their necks as if they couldn''t breathe while the soldiers fell on their knees, exhausted. The prince also had the same state as the two girls. Not only his clothes, but his pants now had drenched in something. "What is that?!" "Your Majesty¡­ That person¡­ That person must have killed more than a hundred thousand people. Since he has left this place, I suggest you don''t do anything against him. I am afraid no one can handle him." Bright immediately informed him while stuttering before finding Lilian was alright. "Take a look at her, she didn''t receive that killing intent earlier and was perfectly fine because she talked to him earlier. "I believe he is a person that knows boundaries. If we don''t do anything, he won''t do anything as well. And the fact that he can control his killing intent to whom he wants to receive, I am not his match. I believe not even the general of the north can take him." "You¡­ You¡­" The king was speechless. He also had fought many battles in the past, so he could somehow understand what Bright was saying, but they still had their pride. Liliana gulped down as she had mixed feelings from earlier. She couldn''t understand how such a warm person actually did this? Killing more than a hundred thousand people? If he were on Earth, he would already become the most notorious killer, and all countries might have put a bounty on his head. She couldn''t help but mutter. "Who are you really?" She glanced at the hero, who was still trembling in fear and shook her head. ¡­ Meanwhile, the person who caused all the ruckus stopped in the middle of the plaza and looked at the maid. "Uhm¡­ Can I know your name?" Mithra politely asked because she understood how powerful Alex was to make the entire hall tremble. "Well, I will ask you again. Are you sure you want to follow me? I only saved you earlier because I find you amusing." Alex asked. He couldn''t say he helped her because her previous life helped him, couldn''t he? Mithra looked down and remembered Alex''s words back in the castle. She realized that if she tried to go alone after this, the kingdom might pursue her and put her in the trial. In that case, it would be safer to follow him no matter how dangerous he is. At the very least, she might be able to get stronger under him even if she needed to go alone in the future. After contemplating for two minutes, Mithra''s expression turned serious as she looked at Alex''s eyes without flinching. She gritted her teeth and bowed her head. "Please let me follow you." "Sir Alexander¡­" Mithra politely greeted him even though her hands were shaking. She knew Alex just saved her, but to calm herself in front of a great person was easier said than done. Even so, she still tried to act like nothing happened as she didn''t want to displease Alex. "Now that we are here, do you know about the currency and any jobs to get any coins? Possibly an instant one?" Alex asked. "Coins are divided into four: copper coins, silver coins, gold coins, and platinum coins. The latter will always be one hundred times the former. As for the job¡­" Mithra contemplated hard. Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, realizing that the coins system was similar to the previous one, so he didn''t need to adapt anymore. "As for the job, I have a perfect one. There is an Adventurer Guild. My father was an adventurer, and he told me about the system there. Unfortunately, Sir can''t become an adventurer because you need time to get missions that bring more money. However, there are two more jobs that you can consider¡­ Albeit they are a bit dangerous." "Oh! Tell me. No one in this world can kill me anyway, so feel free." Alex said nonchalantly. If this word came from others, she would certainly not believe him. However, Alex just defeated all the people in the throne room with a single glance, nobody could do something like that. That was why she decided to tell Alex. "The first job is a butcher. They are the ones processing meats for this entire kingdom to go to restaurants. Some meats are delicious, and adventurers sometimes receive a bonus income through this." "Hmm¡­ A butcher¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "When was the last time I ate anyway? Never mind, I wonder if there is a dragon in this world? And are they delicious?" "A dragon?" Mithra opened her mouth in surprise. "They are like a mythical being to us, the one that stood on the pinnacle of this world. The ones that are actually holding up the devil invasion because the portal is said to be opened in the Dragon Valley. I heard it when many people in the castle talked about it." "I see. That will be my final destination. Still, since they are the ones keeping the balance in this world, I won''t kill them." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, what is the other job?" "It''s killing demons of course. It''s just like a commissioned adventurer¡­" "A mercenary?" "What is that?" Mithra tilted her head in confusion. "Never mind." Alex shook his head. "I have no plan in meeting the devils yet. Anyway, we can search for food later while I have water that can flood this entire world, so we are not in dire need of money. I want to ask another thing then. Do you know anything mysterious in this world?" "I don''t know really much about it, but my father often told me stories about the four wonders of this world." "What are they?" "The first is the sea that can''t be mixed. In the east of this kingdom, there is a two-colored sea that stretches to the horizon as if there is a thin line that is separating them." "Hmm¡­ Is it the same case as that one?" Alex muttered as he recalled there was a sea like that on Earth. It was in the Gulf of Alaska. The sea can''t mix because of the difference in salinity and density. "Still, one of the seas is formed by melting glaciers¡­ In that case, is there any cold island past that?" "Eh? How do you know? It''s rude for me to ask, but Sir came from another world, right? I couldn''t realize it earlier because many things were going on at the same time, but now, I can see that Sir is not from here." "I just know a few basic things." Alex shrugged. She contemplated for a moment and nodded. "Yes. There is an island made of ice, and it''s said to be very cold." Alex nodded as he had expected earlier. "Still, I don''t think there is anything I need in that sea because it''s scientific. For a Divine Grade Item, it should cause something magical even if it doesn''t have Divine Energy around it¡­ So, what are the other three?" "There is a boiling lake¡­ The lake never became cold, and the legend said it has the healing ability. Unfortunately, if they are staying too long, they might die as well. And there is a smell lingering around that area. People said it''s the smell of rotten egg." "This time is the Geothermal System, huh¡­" Alex shook his head in disappointment. "There is a chance for it to be something, but I will go to this place if I am stuck." Before Mithra could continue, Alex suddenly thought something as he asked his system, ''That''s right. Can I call my spirits here?'' [You can try, Host. But the world should be feeling repulsive to the spirits because of their power. If you can''t do it fast enough, I am afraid they will be expelled first.] "That is not good¡­ I was planning to have Jeanne torture the Devil. I wonder if I should go to those devils, bring them to the other world, and question them there?" [Even though only Foundation Rank or Martial Master can enter this place, I believe they have a Martial Saint if not God Rank Expert standing by, so it''s risky.] "True enough. After getting the Divine Item, they will certainly not let a Martial Master carry it around. They will send God Rank Expert so he/she can protect it until the final destination." Alex pondered the matter and decided. "I will try to solve this myself then." Seeing Alex glance at her again, she continued, "The third place is the Phoenix Spring. The legend said that phoenix tears could be used as a healing item to the point it can restore limbs. And there is a place where the phoenixes usually bathe. This place is called the Phoenix Spring. "It contains the fluid of the phoenixes themselves. Legend said that it could heal every wound as long as the person is not dead." "Hmm, that is certainly interesting. Although I doubt it is the one I am searching for, it doesn''t hurt coming to that place. Where is that?" "Far on the west, there is a nest of phoenixes. The place is hard to reach that even one of the peak warriors in this world failed to reach that place. At the same time, it''s heavily guarded by the phoenixes." Alex smiled. The phoenixes would bow their head the moment he showed his flame, so he didn''t need to be scared. "We can go there, but I want to know about the fourth place." "The last place is the Immortal Cave." "Immortal Cave?" "Yes. The legend said that this Immortal Cave could turn someone into an immortal. Of course, it is related to age. If one severs their head, they will still die." "Alright. Then where is that cave?" "No one knows." "What do you mean?" "Many have been trying to find this place, but none of them succeed in finding it. People believe it''s only an urban legend spread by rumor in the past, but some people believe that. My Father believed that as well before he died in his search." "Ehm¡­ I am sorry for your loss." Alex scratched his head. "It''s fine." Mithra fell silent for a few minutes before opening her mouth again. "My father once said to me that there are two places that might know the answer. The first is the unending desert, while the other one is the phoenix nest." "Phoenix nest? As in the one on the west?" "Yes. Though, it''s only a rumor." "Let''s go there then." Alex nodded. "This is the most magical thing I have ever heard, so it''s a waste to not go there." "Eh?" "How far is it from our current place?" "It''s three months by horse." ''I can do it within a few minutes with my Divine Body, but I need to lower my speed because I don''t want Mithra to be shredded by the wind pressure alone. Even if I can cover her with the Spiritual Energy, the energy is too thin to handle my speed. It''s going to be a week just to go there if I calculate correctly. ''In the past, I became an adventurer first before going to the forest and meeting Alicia there. Should I follow the same route again? Well, I don''t think I need to go to the Adventurer Guild, but it''s fine to go to a forest. ''I can start training Mithra a bit while comprehending the memory I got from the Golden Lightning. I guess this trip will take two weeks to complete.'' Alex thought and glanced at Mithra. "So, are you up for an adventure?" "Ehm, yes?" Mithra hesitated for a second. "Let''s change your clothes first. And I will train you during this trip." Alex smiled. "There is a carriage in the west gate if we are going to that place." "Nope. We are going on foot!" 842 A Naive Child A young girl wearing a cute white blouse and blue mini skirt walked cheerfully toward a golden-haired man. The man was sitting in a lotus pose, closing his eyes. She waited for him to finish without making a sound. "You are not going to say anything?" The man gradually opened his eyes, looking at this young lady. "I don''t want to disturb you, Sir Alex. Besides, I only want to inform you that I have finished my practice." "Hmm¡­ It''s faster than I expected. Good job." Alex nodded. Alex brought Mithra to the west before finding a good mountain to train. Within these seven days, Mithra could reach the Tempering Body last stage, which was awesome. Alex took months to reach this stage after all. Of course, she could become this strong because Alex forced her to take a medicinal bath to raise the speed of her training. At the same time, he made her run around the mountain, so she knew how to move her muscle. The uneven ground forced her to understand the balance of her body and refined her muscle naturally. About her constitution, especially the will of this world attached to her soul, Alex erased it with his Pure Fire. He could even remove the will in Alicia''s and Firia''s families, but they told him they didn''t want their families to ascend. Not only would it destabilize the kingdom, but they also didn''t want to see their families in danger. It was enough for them as long as they could visit them once in a while, knowing they were safe. However, Mithra was different. Although he didn''t plan to bring her with him, he only removed the will because it would hinder her qi later on. He looked at Mithra''s body that soon started producing qi. Alex wondered how much he could power up her ability within these three months. If he took out the Spirit Stone, she would reach Martial Master without a doubt, but he didn''t plan to use it on her. That was why he decided to let her the power of the peak of this world. She would stop cultivating later anyway and enjoy the world, so he would give her the power to have a slow life. It wasn''t a big deal. "That''s right. What is your status?" Name: Mithra Job: Commoner Rank: 1 Level: 131 STR: 399 AGI: 379 VIT: 355 DEX: 412 INT: 121 Mithra let him look without hesitation. Since the power system was kind to his world, Alex knew that she was going to have a breakthrough soon. He stared at her for a few seconds and said, "Since you have almost reached Qi Gathering Stage, it''s time for us to go to that phoenix nest. How about we do one last test? If you can descend this mountain within three minutes, I will give you a present." "Really?!" Mithra''s eyes blinked, feeling fire up. "But Sir Alex, I want to let you see this first." "Hmm?" *Bang!* The tree burst as if something exploded inside. "Hehe¡­ I can do this too!" Mithra grinned. Alex had no change of expression, knowing that the girl had been practicing on top of his own training menu, so he wasn''t surprised by the fact that she managed to destroy that tree. However, the girl was a bit too simple. Alex pointed his finger upward, asking her to look up. "Wawa!" The girl was surprised to see that the tree was actually falling on her and ready to attack it again. Alex decided to do it first and flicked the air, creating a weird pressure that destroyed the tree along with the ground and everything behind it, creating a new trail on the mountain. "What?! What is that?" The girl opened her mouth in surprise. Although she knew Alex was strong, she certainly felt something wrong with the move earlier. Alex didn''t use any energy or whatsoever. He created a shockwave just by his strength alone, and it could create an effect as ridiculous as that, she wondered how many years she needed to catch up with Alex. "Can I have that as my present?" Mithra''s eyes brightened. "No." Alex shrugged. "Your body is not strong enough." Mithra pouted. "Well, since this is coming from Sir Alex, I am sure that the present is very big. I am going to give it my all." "Alright. Your three minutes start now!" The moment she heard the signal from Alex, she ran as fast as possible. She had been running around this mountain for about a week, so she had gotten familiar with the terrain. Running this fast was nothing to be proud of. However, there was a steep cliff as her biggest obstacle. If she went around, she might be able to barely make it, but Mithra exceeded his expectation by jumping off the cliff. The reason she dared to do this was due to a few trees around this cliff that she could use as a stepping, allowing her to descend the cliff as quickly as possible. After that, she went around the wood, treating the trees as an obstacle course. She avoided everything like how she did in training and kept running toward the bottom of the mountain. The moment she arrived, she found Alex was sitting on the ground as if he had been waiting for her this whole time. "Master¡­ When did you actually come down?" "Just now. It only took me a single step anyway." Alex smirked, teasing Mithra. "I¡­" When she was about to say anything, she noticed a loud sound coming from outside the forest and looked at Alex with a worried expression. "Sir Alex¡­" "As you expect, there is a battle right outside the forest. And I am looking at it now." Alex glanced to the left, finding a luxurious carriage fighting a horde of goblins. "Ah, how nostalgic. The first time I went out of a forest, I met my wife fighting the orcs, precisely like this." "Eh?" Mithra widened her eyes. "Are you going to save them then?" "Not really. Judging from the direction, they are most likely going toward the kingdom. Their objective must be to meet those four heroes. Well, I met her two months after leaving the castle, so the timing was slightly earlier than I expected." Alex then looked at her. "I will let you choose whether to save them or not." Mithra looked down, pondering the matter. From what she knew, Alex never wanted to become a hero that saved people just because they got into trouble. However, she was a bit different since she was just a humble commoner. Her parents often helped people before they died, so she nodded. "I want to save them." "Then you can save them if you want. I am not going to do anything." "Me?" "Yeah. You have hunted many monsters during the training in the mountain, so it''s time for you to put that training into practice." Alex nodded before taking out a red sword. This was a Rank 1 Sword that might be a bit over the top for this world, but nonetheless, it was one of the weakest swords he had with him. Mithra was a bit surprised and took the sword from Alex''s hand carefully. "This is your gift." Alex smiled and patted her head. He wondered what kind of people were the ones in the carriage and the knights surrounding it. He also made sure that the sword was flashy that people could take fancy off in a single glance. If they actually thought about getting it, it would be a perfect occasion for Mithra to work on her mental fortitude, so she didn''t try to help people blindly. After all, Mithra would still think a bit lowly of herself due to her humble personality. Mithra was moved by Alex''s generosity and nodded her head to Alex. "I will be helping them." "Yeah. Be careful." Alex smiled before lifting his finger once. He controlled the Spiritual Energy around Mithra to restrict her movement a little bit. She must be thinking that it was because she hadn''t gotten accustomed to the sword that she moved a bit differently. She would be injured because of this, but the knights and whoever inside the carriage would realize it was the best time to get the sword. Mithra would also be too exhausted to even wield her sword after fighting that many goblins. "Ha!" She finally made her appearance in the battle, starting to cut the goblins one by one. "I will help!" The scenario was like how Alex had experienced. Mithra had an important position in taking down the monsters. They fought for about thirty minutes, and as expected, Mithra was worn out. Her hand was a bit numb at this point. It turned out that the one coming from the carriage was a male with long blue hair. His appearance was handsome, and his movement was elegant. He finally turned to Mithra and thanked her. "Thank you very much for your help." Mithra gently smiled. "It''s fine. I just came out of the forest before finding this situation, so I thought it would be nice if I help." "Haha¡­ I apologize that I can''t really fight due to my weak constitution." The guy smiled. "I am envious of you. I really want to have a strong body too." "I am sure you can." "Really? I can''t even swing a sword, you know¡­" The guy weakly smiled, grabbing a sword before letting it fall down. "Aiya, I really don''t have the strength." "Your sword looks like it''s heavier than you¡­ How can you even lift it?" "It''s because I have been training!" "Really¡­ Can I try to hold your sword too? I might fall together with the sword this time." "No way. This sword is lighter than you think." "Really? Can I try it?" "Sure." Mithra gently handed her sword, trying to support the gentleman in front of her as to not let both him and the sword fall. At this point, Alex already facepalmed while shaking his head. Handing your weapon? That is the last thing you want to do with a stranger. Such a naive child, he thought. "Oh!" The guy managed to hold it even though his hand was shaking. "I can truly hold it. I wonder what kind of training you have? Even in my family, no one let me hold a sword. That''s right. You must have an extraordinary job!" "No-no. I was just a commoner working as a normal maid not too long ago. I am sure you can." Mithra smiled from ear to ear, trying to encourage him. "I see¡­ You were a maid before¡­" The man nodded and took another glance at her condition. Her body was covered with wounds, and her body was covered with sweat. Judging from the looks alone, he could understand that Mithra had exhausted a huge portion of her strength. Meanwhile, Mithra didn''t think much about her body condition because Alex would be able to heal her just like when they were training. At the same time, the knights had been helping her fight the goblins, so they thought it would be fine to lend the sword for a while. Suddenly, the knight captain, the one that was a bit stronger than her, slowly walked behind her before hitting the back of her head as hard as possible. *Bang!* "What just happ¡ª" Mithra was in shock as her consciousness suddenly became fuzzy. Red-colored blood suddenly flowed down her head, reaching her eyes and dying her vision. She fell on her stomach. "Prince¡­ Are you sure about this?" The captain asked. "She is just a maid, and her strength is too low. She must be a normal maid that got lucky when she became an adventurer. It was an honor to protect this prince earlier and gave this treasured sword. Looking at the quality of this sword, it can be classified as a National Treasure." "No¡­ That is my sword¡­" Mithra stretched her hand, trying to shake his right foot. Alex facepalmed and shook his head as he muttered. "Oh boy. Here it comes." 843 Lecturing Mithra However, it seemed this world had its own way. Like when he was in the castle, there was actually a drama with the prince coming inside the room, dragging a maid, and wanting to execute her. It turned out that the girl was Mithra''s reincarnation. And then, in the forest, he only stopped for a week to raise Mithra''s skill. At the same time, her body resilience was also going up. This was a necessary stop because Alex could go faster this way because she should be able to handle a faster speed. From the journey that might take him a week, he might only need five days to reach that place. After that, this carriage didn''t carry a princess. Instead, it looked like it carried a prince and a cunning one at that. Well, he could somehow understand because the one helping them was Mithra. Unfortunate to Mithra, the prince wasn''t grateful for the fact that he was helped. He saw Mithra covered with wounds and exhausted. Her status was also nothing great. Although her strength was a bit powerful, she was too naive to think it was a trap. In fact, he had been watching her this whole time, especially the sword. And as someone like him, he obviously understood the sharpness of the sword. When the chance finally appeared before him, he decided to use it. She was a maid anyway, a normal one at that. No one would be coming to save her because she must have separated herself from the current household. If not, there was no way the noble would give a national treasure level sword like this to a mere weakling. The only answer was the sword coming from a lucky encounter. That was why he seized this sword from her by using this trick. He was ungrateful, yes. But who knows this? No one other than the knights. As long as he forbade them to say anything, he could get away with this. "I think it''s time for me to come out¡­" Alex wanted to leap but stopped when he saw Mithra stretching her hand to grab the prince''s foot. "Please don''t. That is my sword¡­" Mithra''s consciousness was already fuzzy, but she couldn''t lose the sword the day Alex gifted her. Rather than thinking about her life, she was focusing on the sword. "Take¡­ my life¡­ or anything. But not that sword¡­" The prince looked down and stepped on her hand. "Argh!" "This sword is too good for a lowly maid like yours. It''s better in the hand of this prince!" He snorted. Mithra lifted her vision and locked it at the sword, trying to grab it with her other hand. "Since you want the sword that much, I will kill you with the sword." The prince smiled, raising his sword as if he never had any problem in carrying a sword. "What is this?" "Haiz¡­ This is why I hate to help people now." Alex sighed. "There are many ungrateful bastards out there." With a single snap of his finger, the Spiritual Energy lifted the prince''s foot on Mithra''s hand, flipping him over while the sword fell right before his penis. On the other hand, the Spiritual Energy lifted Mithra up. "Who are you?!" The knights turned around, noticing the incoming person and yet, the latter had arrived in front of Mithra before they realized it. He took a pill and healed all her wounds in an instant. "Sir Alexander¡­ I am sorry." Mithra let out a tear as if she had done something unforgivable. "You do what everyone should do. Unfortunately, human nature is different. I have seen the light in their heart, but I have seen more darkness in the human heart. That''s why I have only a few friends but a thousand enemies. "If you still want to help people after this, help one that knows the meaning of the word grateful. And make sure they are not exploiting you. It''s fine not to live for yourself, but don''t be too fixated on it. "There were a few hints that you could understand to not let your guard down. The moment you lose your sword with so many strangers will be the time you face death. And if he said the family doesn''t let him hold a sword, why the knight beside him let him hold it. If he is weak, the knight should be able to take the sword back before he even snatches them. "Well, you won''t know if they are lying or not, even I don''t know in the beginning. As long as you are careful, you can catch these clues yourself. Remember this well. And I believe I am also too excessive for you to learn this in a hard way." Alex lectured her with a gentle expression. Mithra bit her lips and cried even more as she felt very useless at this moment. She said, "I am sorry¡­ I am sorry¡­" "Never mind, let''s sol¡ª" Before he finished his words, the prince shouted while pointing his sword toward Alex. "Who are you?!" "Right. I should take back the sword first¡­ It''s my present to her anyway." Alex glanced at him and snapped his finger again. The sword started shaking before it slipped out of his hand and floated toward Alex. He then handed the sword again to Mithra. "This is the sword. Make sure you don''t lose it anymore." Mithra looked at the sword and nodded repeatedly. "My Sword! Kill him!" The prince gritted his teeth. "This is the second lesson. No matter how cunning you are, if you can''t even stay composed, you are bound to make a huge mistake. That''s why people train the heart first before training the mind." Alex smiled. One of the knights charged at him, swinging his sword toward the neck. Alex didn''t move an inch and let the sword hit his neck. ''Got him!'' The knight thought. Unfortunately, his expectation was destroyed the moment he heard a clicking sound and saw his sword breaking into half and pierce the carriage. Alex then turned around and flicked the knight''s forehead¡­ Helmet. The flick didn''t look strong, but the moment it connected, the head was blown away, and the iron helmet shredded into pieces. The headless body fell to the ground while the blurt spurt out of it was contained by the Spiritual Energy. "What?!" The shock didn''t come only from their group, but also from Mithra. Although she had seen how powerful Alex''s strength was, it was still a sight to behold, especially the trail on the ground that had been destroyed by the shock wave alone. Alex didn''t have much patience, so he waved his hand and controlled his Spiritual Energy to force their body to explode. Everyone, except two people, the captain and the prince. "What just happened¡­" The prince fell down and pointed his finger toward Alex. "You monster!" The knight captain gritted his teeth and ran toward the prince, looking at Alex with fear. "Your excellency. We know we''re wrong, please let us go this time. This person is the third prince of the Wales Kingdom, so if your excellency kills him, the entire kingdom will chase you down." "Sir Alexander¡­ I think it''s best to drop the matter here¡­" Mithra tugged his hand with a guilty expression. She didn''t want Alex to get into trouble like this because of her mistake. However, Alex only smiled. "I have destroyed many kingdoms far stronger than your kingdom. Do you think I am afraid of your kingdom? What a joke." He grabbed a sword on the ground and said, "I will be showing you what it means to be a swordsman." Alex appeared before the knight captain while swinging his sword from above. "If you don''t want to cut something, even the thinnest leaf won''t be cut." Just like how he described it, the sword that was supposed to cut the knight captain into half suddenly smashed him like a hammer. It pounced him into minced meat. "And if you want to cut something, then cut everything, including Heaven itself." Alex swung the sword again, creating a shock wave that cut the prince into half. However, Mithra unintentionally looked up, finding the cloud split into two. This was the most shocking thing she had ever seen in her life, and she believed nothing would replace it pretty soon. Alex looked at her and let out a sigh. He sorted out his thoughts first while waiting for her to recover from the shock. ''I have gotten a few pieces of important information. The first is the place where I can find all the treasures that my previous life left for me. I don''t know if I will get it or not, but I think I will go there since there is another important thing that I should get there. I don''t know what it''s though. ''Then, there is a beast terrorizing the entire universe. The location of the seal¡­ It seems the previous me wants me to get stronger than him without following in his footstep. That''s why he only gives me knowledge, not memory. ''The seal seems to be weakening due to the passing time and my reincarnation, so I need to reach God King Stage as soon as possible to fix this problem¡­ Now that I think about it, that guy who attacked me back then said something about lifespan, right? It''s as if he can see other people''s lifespans¡­ ''Don''t tell me¡­'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. ''The beast itself is strong, stronger than a God King. If not, my past self won''t lose against it. However, the fact that the mysterious person came to me made it look like he knew how long the lifespan I have left. ''I don''t know his objective, but I think he was traveling to go around the world to gather all strong people to stop the beast, and I somehow met him. Still, I think I should go to that person again to know about the full reason. Who knows, I can learn some information¡­ ''That''s it then, let me calculate my current course as soon as I go to outer space. First, I will go to the Devil World and bring back Alicia. Then return to Eulja and visit parents-in-law in the lower world. Then I can visit Stina''s World. Then, I go to that place called Encore or my previous life''s treasury. ''There is also my promise to Song Jiaoren. I guess the Blackwade Clan is next. Just dropping by is fine though. Only after that can I go to finish the promise with the former Fire God to get the full version of Fire Authority. This technique has been strengthening my technique since I first got it. If not, I might have a harder time defeating my opponent¡­ ''Finally, I will have time to spare with anyone else¡­ Haiz, it''s indeed a long journey.'' Alex sighed and noticed that Mithra had calmed her mind and waited for him, who seemed to have lost in thought. "Yo¡­ It seems you are fine now." "Yes. Thank you for your concern, Sir Alex." She nodded before glancing at the aftermath. This would bring trouble to Alex if he left it this way. Alex noticed it too and destroyed all evidence with his Pure Fire. Even the blood on the ground evaporated. Still, as strong as might be, he couldn''t return the ground as it was, but it wasn''t like others could understand it with that alone. They would only think there was a great battle around this area and didn''t know what kind of battle it was. "Done. Let''s go? We need to go to the Phoenix Nest this time." Alex smiled and grabbed Mithra''s waist. "Yes." Mithra was slightly embarrassed, but that soon got replaced by fear because the speed was far faster than when he brought her to the forest. Of course, no teleportation so she could withstand some pressure later in her training. 844 Luan Bird The purpose of this was to help Mithra adjust the change of center of gravity every time Alex stepped on the ground. Since he didn''t really have much time to do this, he decided to use this kind of unconventional method. For Mithra, it was a challenge and torture. "Sir Alex¡­ Although I am not in a place where I can say this, I want you to know that it was really hell¡­" "Don''t worry. Unlike the time you got tricked, this training wouldn''t cost your life." Alex brushed it off. "Fair enough." She struggled to get up and somehow rose while staggering. Suddenly, she lost her balance and fell down, but she instinctively took another step on the right to prevent her from falling. At the same time, she realized that the step was solid to the point she managed to stand back up with that one step alone. "I¡­" "Well, it''s just training. The effect is just a fluke, so you need to train a little bit more to get a good balance. At the same time, it''s time for me to teach you about footwork. I never trained my footwork, but I created one after fighting so many times. However, you can''t do this because you don''t have enough experience to do so." "That''s why you want me to learn footwork?" "Yes. Most strong people actually create their own footwork to prevent their enemies from noticing what kind of footwork they are using. After all, if they learn your footwork, they can move one step ahead and destroy your entire movement." "I understand." Alex nodded and looked at the mountain. "This mountain will be perfect for me to teach you. You need to constantly move your feet according to the footwork while climbing this mountain. Of course, I don''t mean to give you something hard and unpredictable since this is just simple footwork. You can refine it later when you have gotten enough experience." "Yes, Sir." "Still¡­ To think you have Darkness as your element¡­" Alex let out a sigh. "I don''t know what kind of ability your element has though." "Eh?!" Mithra opened her mouth in surprise before everything turned into confusion. "I have an element? That is impossible. I tested it once in the past, and it turned out I didn''t have a single element in my body. That''s why I can''t become a Mage." "I¡­ I want to have my element." Mithra hesitated for a second but wanted to follow in Alex''s footsteps. Since the one teaching her was the latter, she wanted to be the same as him. Alex then nodded. "I will awaken your element when you have reached the Qi Gathering Stage." "Yes." After confirming her desire, Alex then showed her basic footwork. It consisted of ten basic steps to refine her movement even more. It was simple enough for Mithra to remember it after a few tries. She then replicated it while trying to reach a bit farther and succeeded after a few more minutes. Since then, they started climbing the mountain. There was a path they could use to reach the top. According to Mithra, this path seemed to be used by the adventurers who wanted to have the Phoenix Spring. And yet, not a single one of them was able to get it because the phoenixes that protected this one were one of the strongest beings in the world. Alex asked if Mithra was scared to do this, but the latter only shook her head. After knowing Alex for a while, she learned many things. Just like how she didn''t want Alex to get into trouble with the kingdom because of her, she realized it was her looking down on him. He was far mightier than them, so if he said it was fine, Mithra immediately agreed. They climbed the mountain steadily. If Mithra didn''t practice her footstep, they might already reach the top within a few hours, and yet, they only managed to reach halfway in a day. When they become closer to the peak, they should feel cold due to its altitude. But it was different for this Phoenix Nest. The closer they are, the hotter it is. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found a few signs of energy at the top. "There are at least five phoenixes on top of this mountain. What do you think?" Alex asked Mithra. "Sir is not scared of them, so there is no reason for me to be scared." "I might just be overconfident you know." Alex smirked. "If that were the case, I have accepted everything, including my death. I have steeled my heart to follow you, Sir, so I won''t regret it even if I die during this journey." Mithra smiled from ear to ear, showing she wasn''t afraid of death. "Haha¡­" Alex patted her head a few times. "Decision is hard to make, but once you make it, you should see it through even if it means your doom." "I will remember your words." Mithra nodded with a serious expression. The two continued to the top and finally felt the scorching heat coming from the top of the mountain. "This¡­" Mithra watched the top of the mountain in amazement. There was grass everywhere and a huge bird nest. There were five red birds that seemed to be a family washing their body in the water pond. However, Alex noticed this was not a phoenix. Not only was their body not made by fire, but they also had a different intensity of flame in their body. "This is not a Phoenix¡­ They are Luan Birds." "Luan Birds?" "Yeah. From my world, they are considered a mythical bird related to the phoenix. For this reason, it''s also called a Phoenix at times. However, there seems to be a unique one among them." "Do you mean the blue one?" She asked. Out of the red birds, one of them actually had blue skin, making it look eye-catching. "Yeah. Still, let''s go to check them." Alex nodded and walked toward the birds while glancing at the spring. The Luan Birds found this disturbing as they suddenly flew toward Alex with a menacing glare. They even summoned their fire and cried as if asking Alex to leave. "Hmm¡­ They don''t want to attack us." Alex nodded and decided to converse with them. "Excuse me. I know that you are disturbed by me, but I am searching for something here¡­ Do you think you can make way for me?" *Cry!* They looked even angrier, but Alex had dealt with Sherry and Kyle in the past, so he could somehow understand their cries. He then summoned his Pure Fire, creating an overbearing pressure on them. "Wu?!" Shocked by this Fire as they wanted to kneel in front of him, the birds panicked and looked at each other, wondering what to do. "Don''t worry. I just want to check something. If I find the thing I am searching for, I can exchange it with you." Alex assured them he came not to steal but to exchange. "You can even try to absorb a bit of my flame to enhance your flame¡­ How is it?" "Ga?!" The birds were shocked. They realized how powerful Alex''s Fire is. The moment they absorbed even a little portion of it, they would evolve to a greater being. That was why they hesitated and exchanged looks at each other. "Ga Wu!" One of them stepped forward as he shook his head. It wasn''t to reject Alex''s offer. Instead, he looked at his son while flapping his wing a few times. The son was none other than Blue Luan. It might have understood the weirdness of it and thought it was a disease. The father Luan wanted Alex to cure him instead. "Sir Alex¡­" Mithra seemed to understand it and called Alex''s name with an unsure tone. She hesitated because she didn''t want to get tricked again, but she could sense it this time that these birds were sincere in their request, making her pity them. "Ironic, isn''t it? Sometimes, monsters that are acting with their instinct most of the time are gentler and more trustworthy than a human¡­ Our own kin," said Alex with a sad expression. Mithra couldn''t say a single thing as she understood that well because of the experience a few days ago. "Your son is not sick but special. It might be due to his ancestor, but he has an ice element that is countering his fire element. That''s why he looks like this. And I feel the energy has yet to fuse, so it sometimes creates a clash within his body, causing him immense pain. Isn''t that right?" Father Luan nodded repeatedly. He then pointed to everything on his side while trying to say, "You can take everything here as long as you cure my son. I don''t want him to be in pain anymore." Their expressions filled with sadness. Even Father Luan let out tears in the corner of his eyes. "The curing process is not hard, but it takes time because your son needs to fuse the two elements in his body, harmonizing the two elements. I have a practice for that¡­ I think¡­" Alex thought, trying to ram all the knowledge he got from the Lightning Tribulation. It was a kind of Martial Art called Element Harmonization. When there are two elements with the same rank in one''s body, they are bound to have some friction between them. There are two ways to solve this. One is to eliminate one of the elements while the other one is to harmonize them. Alex never had this problem because the Pure Fire took control of the Space Element. And the fact that his Space Element was born because of the system, the Pure Fire felt it was his brother instead. On the other hand, the blue Luan was a bit special. Alex could burn one of the elements, but he had a way to give him a benefit, and he planned to do that. "How about this¡­ Since you want me to cure your son, he will need to follow me while I am in this world. I don''t have a mount to fly around the world anyway. The reason as I said earlier. If you trust me with your son''s life, not only I can solve his problem, but I can increase his strength. To prove that, I can lessen the pain first." Alex smiled and walked toward the blue Luan. The blue Luan looked at his father for a second before lowering his head. His father had begged Alex to save him, so he shouldn''t waver at this point. Alex channeled his Pure Fire inside his body, suppressing the two elements for a period of time. The weak blue Luan that had troubled even to stand suddenly stood on his two feet before flapping his wings and flying to the sky. "Ga Wu!" The Luans spread their wings in unison and shouted, feeling happy to see him flying in the sky. However, the blue Luan suddenly fell. "Ga!" The other four started panicking, but Alex immediately waved his hand, controlling the Spiritual Energy to gently land him on the ground. "I said it earlier, it''s only for a period of time¡­" Alex shook his head before asking the Luans. "So, how is it?" 845 Journey He looked at Alex and spread his wing before bowing its head. "Ga Wu!" "Don''t worry. I am not someone who takes back his promise. It''s only going to be three months anyway, so he should be visiting you sooner or later." Alex assured them with a smile. "Ga Ga Wu!" "Sir Alex¡­ How can you understand them?" Mithra couldn''t help but ask. Alex seemed to have the ability to talk with animals despite his powerful strength. "What you people call monsters have their own intelligence. Some are smarter, and some are not just like humans. And I have experienced something like this in the past, so I can somehow understand what they are saying." Alex explained with a shrug. "He is telling me that I can only grab the item when his son is fine three months later." Alex then turned his head back to Father Luan and said, "I don''t mind about the condition, but you are fine if I take a look at what you have, right?" He nodded and moved to the left, giving way for Alex to approach their nest before guiding Alex to his secret stash. They were herbs from around the mountain that he plucked to cure his son, while the items came from the adventurers that challenged them in the past. Alex looked at them one by one without his Spirit Eyes, so he might be able to recognize their appearance himself without their energy. He understood a few, but they were only low rank tier herbs. He rechecked them with his Spirit Eyes, finding nothing but disappointment. He let out a long sigh. Father Luan panicked for a second, thinking that nothing impressed Alex. This way, his son couldn''t be treated, so he asked, "Ga Wu Ga Wu?!" "I am searching for something¡­ I don''t know what that is, so I am searching blindly right now. Do you know the Devil that appears in the Dragon Valley?" Alex asked. "Ga Wu? Ga Ga!" "You don''t know, but you have a certain pact with the Dragon Valley?" "Ga Wu." "It''s related to the desert far from this place." This piqued Alex''s interest, and asked, "Can you tell me more?" Father Luan nodded and continued. "Ga Wu Ga Wu." "There is a secret palace inside the desert, and only the Dragon knows about the location? And the way to enter it is to use Luan''s blood." Father Luan nodded. "Ga Wu." "The pact was made by your Grandfather a few hundred years ago. I see, it''s old then. I wonder if the Dragon Valley still knows about this pact¡­" Alex pondered for a moment. "Ga Wu, Ga." "Don''t worry. If it''s only a drop of blood, it won''t injure your son." Alex ensured him. "Besides, I can blast that place open even if it''s not enough. I am far stronger than you think after all." "But we have someone who will send us now." Alex glanced at the Blue Luan with a smile. "It won''t take too long. It will probably take two weeks." "It''s not going to be training anymore?" Mithra wanted to be happy but somehow felt empty. The training was torture, but she felt it was the most fulfilling days she had in her own life. It was the first time she used all her energy for a clear goal. Alex smiled and patted her head. "I have a different training menu for you after this." "I understand!" Mithra looked up and smiled. ''Why are you smiling, little girl?'' Alex twitched his eyebrows and turned back to Father Luan. "That''s why we will be going today. I will let you send your goodbye today and go tomorrow." Just like his words, the Luans were stroking the Blue Luan with their cheeks, saying they will miss him. The Blue Luan felt blessed and responded to them. It continued for a few hours as the sky turned dark. Father Luan asked them to sleep together because they didn''t want them to feel cold. Alex took their offer when he saw Mithra''s expectant gaze and slept together with them. It might be the first time he used an animal''s body as his pillow, but it certainly didn''t feel bad. The next day, they flew off the nest as soon as the sun rose. Alex suppressed the element in the Blue Luan''s body, letting him fly without pain. He happily brought them on his body, soaring to the sky. They waved their hands to the Luans until they couldn''t be seen anymore before Alex decided to start the training. Alex flew with the Spiritual Energy to the front and said. "I have a practice for you. I am sure you can do it while flying like this, so listen carefully." He began teaching the Blue Luan how to harmonize the two energies as the latter listened to him attentively. It took him a few hours before he could revolve the energy according to his will. Even though the effect was small to the point it could be ignored, the Blue Luan was very happy because he knew the pain would go away within three months. After that, Alex then returned to Mithra, looking at her training her footwork. Blue Luan said it was alright to train in his body because he was strong, so she trained while waiting for Alex to finish. Alex only smiled and stopped her. "Ahem. Let''s stop for now. What I am going to teach you is basic swordsmanship. Unlike the footwork where you focus solely on your foot, you are going to pay attention to your sword as well. "If you can complete this, I am sure you are able to acquire the basic but most important thing for a Sword Cultivator, Sword Intent. Are you ready?" "Yes." Mithra nodded with a serious expression. "There won''t be any rest from now on. I am going to train you until you are drenched in sweat and become stinky." Alex chuckled before training her. ¡­ A few days later. In the previous kingdom, a guard suddenly intruded their meeting room where the king gathered the hero to celebrate their improvement. *Bang!* The soldier pushed open the door and shouted. "Emergency." The King furrowed his eyebrows. He had especially invited many nobles to come here with their daughters to seduce the real hero, but this sudden event made him annoyed. He furiously shouted, "What is it?" "We¡­ We have spotted the phoenix flying not far from here¡­" "What? The Phoenix? The one that is having their nest not far in the west?" The king gasped while the guests sweatdropped. "Send the alarm and call all powerful warriors in this country." "We have confirmed it''s the one because what we found is the one and only Blue Phoenix. However, the captain said we don''t need to fight the phoenix because there are two people riding on its back as if they have tamed the phoenix." "What? The Blue Phoenix? Who are riding on its back? We need to know about their identity and invite them. They will be the strongest force in our kingdom!" The king immediately ordered albeit the soldier fell silent, making the king angry. "What are you doing? Immediately execute my order!" "I am afraid that is impossible. The captain said the one riding the blue phoenix are the fifth person and the maid¡­" The soldier only told him the code without knowing their name because the king wanted to keep the matter secret. However, this infuriated him even further as he fell down on his throne, feeling weak. His face became pale. The ministers also knew about them, but the ones that were shocked the most were the four people summoned here. Liliana gasped and closed her mouth in surprise. ''Is him¡­ Ahaha¡­ Does Earth actually have someone that is strong? I have been learning many things about this world and that Phoenix is said to be one of the strongest creatures in the world. And yet, he tames it so easily. If I go back to Earth, I will surely search for the hidden power.'' However, the hero was filled with hatred at this point. He should be the one shining at this point, but Alex ruined everything. ''That bastard, I will kill him!'' The king called one of his ministers to his side and said with a helpless tone. "Cancel every plan we have against that person." "Your Majesty, are you serious?" "Can''t you see it yourself? The Phoenixes are one of the strongest. Someone who can tame them and use them as his mount should be even stronger. If we are going to fight against those two, it''s better to fight those devils." "Maybe we can invite them back here?" "It''s impossible. I will kill that damned son of mine. He is ruining our image in his eyes." The king gritted his teeth. Even though Alex was bound to leave no matter what, he still needed someone to blame. If not, his heart couldn''t rest. That prince would have another hell after this¡­ On the other hand, the nobles around the kingdom looked at the king with a sly glint. "Your Majesty. If I may ask, what is happening here? The Royal Guard from earlier seem to know those people¡­ Did Your Majesty know about these two that can ride the Blue Phoenix?" "That''s right. If you know such a person, you need to introduce us as well." The nobles banded together, trying to get the information about these mysterious people. The four summoned people were limited, so they thought they could try their luck with these two. The king would soon have a ''great time''. Meanwhile, Alex was watching the capital city with Mithra, asking. "What do you think about this city? You have been working in this city, right?" "Yes. I was just a maid¡­ Our job is to take care of the daily necessities in the castle while dressing as good as we can to impress the royalty. Many people dream of getting the royalties to bed them and pregnant with their kid to get more affection from the royalties and live in rich. "My father was an adventurer, but my mother was a maid. I had this job because of my mother, who passed away because of sickness. She couldn''t contain the grief after losing Father. So, I can only follow in her footstep and use her connection to be one of the maids. "Still, I didn''t dress up that nicely because I didn''t want to attract them. I wanted to have enough money to travel around the world to see this world with my own eyes. Now that I look at it again from the sky, the city is beautiful indeed. However, I notice there are some darkness around the city¡­ The slums that I used to live in." Mithra looked at the city with a sad expression. "Ga Wu!" The Blue Luan glanced at her and asked her not to cry. Alex also patted her head and said, "After this, you will have the strength to do what you want¡­ Just make sure that you do not drown in your own power and kill people without thinking. Because you will become the person you hate to be." "Yes. I will always remember this word." She nodded. "Come on. Don''t be sad. You took a bath yesterday¡­ Ian, you should know how stinky she was, right?" "Ga Wu!" The Blue Luan nodded. Alex named him with whatever name he had in thought because it was hard to call him Blue Luan all the time. "Don''t tease me." Mithra pouted. "Haha¡­" "Ga Wu!" The gloomy atmosphere was soon replaced by laughter, but that wasn''t bad at all. And their journey continued for a few more days. 846 Killing Devils Like Killing Chickens The creature had a rotten body, and he could even see bones in some parts. There were two pointed horns on his head, and their body seemed to get burned when they were dying. The flame was black and seemed to only work to decompose them, so the enemies couldn''t study their anatomy. The weathered veteran beside him turned and inspected him. "How old are you, son?" The man didn''t remember his name. It was hard to recall anything while watching the other army, but he certainly knew that this old man was wobbling around his army and the army on his left. Another swarm of devils emerged from within the gate, starting to rampage in the front line. The man''s face turned pale as he felt tired after fighting all day long. "Son?" the veteran said with a firm voice. "How old are you?" "Twenty, Sir. Anyway, you need to go back. The devils are going to swarm this area soon." The veteran ignored his concern and asked again, "And what is your name?" "Ai¡ª" Before he said his name, a red dragon flew over them and released its breath, burning all the devils away. "D-dragon!" ''That''s right. This is Dragon Valley. They have been stationed here to aid the Dragon Valley to keep the devils in check and not destroy the world. "I am¡ª" Since there was an intervention, the bearded man decided to introduce himself first, but to no avail. *Roar!* The dragon roared in pain as its giant body flew back and crashed to the ground. A grey colored devil appeared among them this time, looking at the battlefield from the sky. "Pathetic. To think they can''t even pass this place after three months¡­" *Roar Roar!* The dragon rose and charged at him again, only to find himself flying away and crashing in a nearby huge rock, dragging a few humans to death. "Shut up, you lizard." "Impossible." Even the old man was in shock this time. "That dragon is a rank 9, which is the peak of this world. To think a dragon like that is toyed by this devil¡­ Are we going to lose this place soon?" *Cry!* Suddenly, a blue-colored bird covered with flame appeared, and everybody on the battlefield recognized it. "The Blue Phoenix?" "Even the Blue Phoenix can''t fight this devil." "But it''s the one and only Blue Phoenix in this world¡­" "Can''t you see how easy it is for that devil to blow the dragon away? The Blue Phoenix will be in the same state soon." "Wait, who is that on its back?" One of them noticed the two people riding the Blue Phoenix. The devil flew toward Ian, trying to kill it. However, Ian only floated in the air without a change of expression. The devil thrust his hand, trying to pierce the skull of Ian. "Die!" A translucent golden barrier suddenly appeared, protecting Ian from the devil. The two people on his back stepped forward, standing tall on top of Ian''s head. A voice resounded through the battlefield, surprising anyone because it was a young man''s voice. "To think they send a Martial Master this early¡­ I am impressed." "A Martial Master? How can you know that term?" The devil widened his eyes. No one in this world should know about the Martial Master, but to think a man knowing them presented himself before him. This man must be extraordinary, he thought. "You don''t need to know that. I only want to know what thing the devils want to get from this world¡­" Alex looked down without a change of expression. "Hmph. You are not qualified to know." The devil snorted, sensing no Spiritual Energy from Alex. After that, he summoned a black flame from his fist and punched the air, channeling the fire toward Alex. "Watch out!" The war veteran shouted. Alex raised his hand, coated his hand with his intent, and waved it down. In an instant, the black flame split into two, and the shock wave took the devil''s right arm. "Argh! What is that?!" The devil clutched his bloodied arm and looked at Alex. His confidence suddenly disappeared because of the previous attack. ''There is a human this strong? I need to inform you of this.'' "!!!" Alex saw the devil turning around, so he immediately leaped and appeared before him, kicking him toward the ground. *Bam!* Without anyone realizing it, the devil already crashed to the ground, creating a huge crater. The soldiers and the devils were shocked, and the battlefield fell silent for a minute. Alex walked toward the devil and looked down, asking, "What is your target of this world?" "Who are you?!" The devil gritted his teeth, looking at Alex hatefully. "I suggest you tell me everything I want to know unless you are ready to get destroyed, including your soul." Alex narrowed his eyes, demanding the answer from his tone alone. "You won''t get anything from me!" Alex twitched his eyebrows and stomped his right foot, crushing it until it looked like paper. "Argh!" The devil screamed in pain, looking at Alex with fear. "Say it now." Alex squinted his eyes before using his fire to burn his hand. "Ah!" "Argh, stop!" "Please stop." The devil''s voice kept echoing on the battlefield as he was tortured by Alex. "I will talk¡­ I will talk¡­ Just please let me die." The devil couldn''t contain it anymore. Alex kept healing him with his pills every time he wanted to die only to torture him again. "Talk!" Alex said coldly, waiting for two seconds but heard no answer. He burned his foot again. "Argh! I will talk! It''s a black flower and white tree. I don''t know anything else other than that." Alex didn''t believe the devil and tortured him a few more times, and the answer didn''t change. Alex then decided to kill him. Seeing it had ended, Ian and Mithra finally joined him. At the same time, a few important looking soldiers, including the veteran from earlier, walked toward him. Alex glanced at them and asked, "What do you want? And where is your leader¡­ What I want is a Dragon Leader." "Wha-what do you want?" The soldiers became wary against him. If they gave away the position, it would be disastrous if a person as strong as Alex came there. However, three giant dragons flew in the sky, approaching the battlefield. *Roar Roar!* It roared as if it was trying to search the opponent that trashed the dragon earlier, only to find Alex controlling the energy to gain their attention. Ian flew to the sky to confront the dragon and cried, telling them to cease their action. The dragons were surprised to see the rumored Blue Phoenix with their own eyes and decided to talk with him. The talk lasted for three minutes before Ian returned to Alex''s side, telling him those dragons wanted to meet him, especially talking about the cooperation in the past. They wanted him to visit their king, but the condition was a bit unstable due to the incoming devils, so they were going to eliminate them first before escorting them. "I see. Thank you." Alex nodded and smiled. "That is easy then." "Sir Alex?" "Sorry, Mithra. You won''t have the chance in this." Alex walked toward her before disappearing. The next instant, blood spurt from all directions like a fountain, raining the ground. Even without his Divine Energy and Divine Soul, Alex could still handle this much without a problem since his opponents were still Foundation Rank, not even a Martial Master. It shocked the entire battlefield once again, thinking if God actually descended and helped them. Before anyone realized it, Alex already took Mithra and hopped on Ian''s back, asking him to fly toward the dragons. Ian nodded and flew to the sky before asking them to escort them. The dragons sweatdropped and nodded repeatedly. They wondered whether it was right or not to invite such an existence to their home. However, it would be better to escort them rather than having him search for it. Nothing good would come in the latter case because Alex might kill a few dragons just to get the position, and this would only lead to a grudge between Alex and the dragon race. The result? Dragon race''s complete annihilation. They flew for a few minutes before finding a huge cliff, stretching for almost a kilometer. Alex could see a waterfall one hundred meters in height alone, but he certainly didn''t miss the hole behind the waterfall. "I see. An old trick." Alex muttered to himself. The group flew past the hole and arrived in a different world. It looked like a different world because the previous green scenery turned into barren land. A few dragons flying around the sky made it look scary for a normal human. "Sir Alex¡­" Mithra glanced at him. "Don''t worry. I won''t do anything." Alex smiled before he recalled what he saw around the gate. "The portal looks like a blackhole¡­ I can''t see anything past it, so it''s completely unknown what kind of scenery I will get the moment I get there. "At the same time, I believe it contains a Divine Rank Teleportation Array to connect the two worlds¡­ Not necessarily Teleportation Array, but something similar to it. Still, the only way to close the portal is to break it with strength or disassemble the array one by one. Well, there is the third option in which the Devil World stops their invasion, but I think that won''t happen unless they have succeeded in their objective. "Disassembling will take too much time, so I think I need to release all my power to destroy the portal. It will be a single attack, so the world won''t try to force me out. After that, I will use that portal to sneak inside the Devil World." Alex let out a long sigh. "Sir Alexander¡­" Mithra tugged his hands because he seemed to be in deep thought. She wanted to tell him they had arrived, but in the end, she could only point her finger. Alex''s vision followed the direction and found a giant white platform that seemed to be filled with Spiritual Energy. There was a silver dragon resting on it but soon opened its eyes after noticing the incoming three dragons that he sent earlier. At the same time, he found Ian along with Alex and Mithra on his back. He gradually rose on his four feet, looking at Ian with a solemn expression. "So, this is the dragon king¡­" Mithra exclaimed in amazement. 847 Negotiating "Uhm." Mithra nodded, trying to contain her excitement. She couldn''t embarrass Alex while they visited this place. One of the three dragons that escorted them sped up. He seemed to inform their king about the situation on the battlefield and Alex''s strength. A shocked expression appeared on the dragon''s king face as he took a glance at Ian, specifically the one on his back. There seemed to be a string of energy coming toward his head, and Alex checked it was a kind of Spiritual Energy that he needed to do a thought transmission, so he accepted the energy. ''Welcome, Human.'' ''Ho? You can speak in our language?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows. This matter piqued his interest because it was not easy to see a dragon have this ability before even reaching Martial Master. Even Sherry could only talk after reaching Martial Lord. ''I have accompanied the first hero in this world back in the day and learned human''s language. It''s just I can''t really speak with my mouth because you will only hear my roar from it. Luckily, I have the ability to send telepathy to another person. We can talk.'' ''Since that is the case, it will be easier.'' Alex nodded. ''You know my purpose here?'' ''I have heard from my assistant earlier. You want to go to the Immortal Cave?" The dragon asked, watching how Ian descended on the ground. Alex leaped to the front of him. ''Yes.'' Alex looked at the dragon with a serious expression. ''As much as I want to guide you to the location, my hand is tied with the devil invasion. The scale is already too big to the point it has threatened the whole world. I need to protect my entire race and save the world while I am at it.'' ''But why me? The human just summoned the hero, you know.'' Alex shrugged. ''I have heard about that. And that''s why we are cooperating with the humans to stop the invasion. However, the hero coming here is still too weak. A weak hero is useless because he might die in the process. Besides, it will take time to cultivate a powerful hero to fight against those devils.'' ''So, you are choosing me?'' ''Yes. Your power is far stronger than mine¡­ According to what I have heard from my subordinate. And looking at you right now reminds me of the time I faced death. I have accompanied the hero in the past to save the world, so my instinct has been honed to that degree. Rather than depending on the hero that might have died in the process of growing up, I choose to abandon all thoughts and ask you. You have slaughtered all those devils in an instant, so I know your power is extraordinary.'' ''You want me to slaughter those devils for you, including the ones on the other side?'' The others were staring intensely, wondering what kind of conversation they have right now. ''This place is my ancestral land. It can be considered a sacred place. Unfortunately, because of the invasion, we can only escape to this place, breaking the taboo. If you can complete this task, I shall guide you to that place.'' ''As much as I want to reject you and torture you to get the information, I will play along with your plan. Besides, I think you need to know about this first. I will be living in this world only for three months. My purpose is to search for a Divine Item that the devils might want to possess. As long as I get it, I will be able to stop them.'' ''So, you want to go to the Immortal Cave because there might be a connection with that?'' ''Yes. After that, I will then close the gate.'' ''Still, I can''t trust you just yet. The fact that you know about this and your strength, I can''t still fully trust you.'' ''It''s simple. If you go to the human kingdom, they will know that I have come together with those heroes. In that case, I think I have cleared my name, right? We have two different worlds, and you should have the information about my world¡­'' ''Yes. The previous hero said that your world doesn''t have magic or anything similar. That''s why it''s impossible to have a power like people here. But if you are coming here, you should have no power.'' The dragon king started to doubt him. ''I know your concern, but I am sure that the previous hero was a normal citizen. Do you think a commoner would understand the kingdom''s secret?'' Alex smirked. The dragon fell silent. ''It is as you said, the hero said so. In that case, I shall gamble upon this chance. How do you want to settle this?'' ''It''s simple. You help me find the Immortal Cave first, and I shall close the portal three months later. I won''t be going to many places because I need to train the two behind me for a while.'' The dragon thought for a moment. ''It''s a bit risky on my side, but very well. I shall gamble this. I agree!'' ''Good.'' Alex nodded, satisfied. The dragon seemed to not accept because of Alex''s persuasion alone because Alex could see him glancing at Ian a few times. They were considered as the one and only and had been protected this whole time, for them to entrust Ian to him, Alex must be extraordinary and trustworthy. ''Haiz¡­ Even with me helping him, the hero won''t be able to defeat them. Luckily there is someone who is so powerful like this helping us. He is a double-edged sword, but it''s better than nothing.'' The dragon thought and sighed inwardly. ''When are you leaving?'' Alex asked, not hearing the last thought of his. ''We can go anytime. In fact, the sooner the better.'' ''Still, don''t you think you are a bit too mean to the hero? You are supposed to help him in protecting this world, but you actually give the responsibility to someone else this early.'' ''Haha¡­ If he is a hero that will protect this world, he won''t mind all of this because he will surely protect the weak. However, the world has summoned heroes a few times, and I have seen darkness coming from them. Jealousy, Envy, Greed, Lust, you name it. They are the victim of that, and it''s the power of the dragon king that can stop those heroes from ruining the world.'' Alex nodded. At the same time, a ridiculous thought came into his mind. ''Sometimes, you can be regarded as a hero because you are strong to save the world. For example, killing the demon king that is said to be the strongest existence in the world. ''The masses might love the hero because a hero is a role model. However, the kingdom surely couldn''t appreciate this. The moment the hero thinks it''s time to destroy their kingdom, they will try thinking of a way to control that power if not eliminating him. Whether it''s cowardice or just greed, it''s indeed such a tragic story. ''I think those heroes that he is talking about are those who almost reach the pinnacle but drown in their power. They will do everything in their power to keep everything going according to their way, and it will be at that time the dragon king decides to stop them even if it means killing them. Only those who don''t possess such a thing are able to live to see the peaceful world.'' Alex then turned to Ian and Mithra, asking, "We can go to that place anytime, when do you think the best time to go there?" "Ga!" "Tomorrow." The two seemed to have the same answer. They must have realized that the sun is going to set soon, so it will be better to start the journey at dawn. "You heard that." Alex glanced back at the dragon with a smile. The dragon simply nodded before asking his subordinate to lead Alex to a guest room. He guided them to a treehouse. The size was enormous. It seemed the place itself was for the living dragon, so everything was too big for them. However, Alex didn''t really mind because this was a fresh experience. After that, the dragon left them alone, wanting to ask his king about the details. Alex, on the other hand, looked at Mithra and Ian. "Mithra can start cultivating now. Because you have officially reached the Qi Gathering Stage, you should be cultivating right now. It won''t take too long because I am helping you, but you need to focus. I will make sure to smack your head if you have a thought in your mind." Mithra''s face turned pale as she nodded repeatedly. Back when she was on Ian''s back, Alex didn''t stop in making her swing her swords. His request was to swing until she collapsed. Even with her hands bleeding all over, Alex still paid no attention and kept looking at the compass. It was hell because of what happened to her, but she thought it was reasonable because no one had ever reached Rank 4 Foundation Stage within two weeks. At the same time, Ian''s body slowly recovered as the two elements began harmonizing with each other. It was a blessing to him because the pain decreased so quickly. It was still a bit painful if Alex didn''t help him suppress the two elements, but he believed he could fly in the sky with this pain. Alex continued the training until the sun was finally up. He came out of the house as soon as the dragon king came to the house. ''Good morning. I hope you enjoyed your stay here.'' ''Yes. I pretty much like it.'' Alex nodded. ''In any case, let''s go right now. We don''t want to delay any longer, right?'' ''If I may ask, will you stay in this place after going to the Immortal Cave?'' ''You want me to stop them if necessary?'' Alex narrowed his eyes. He killed a Martial Master yesterday while the dragon king itself was only a rank 9 Foundation Stage. If the devil didn''t come back, I believe they will send more Martial Masters to this world. That won''t be a problem, but this world has no means of dealing with those people. ''That''s why they want to kill those invaders to show them who''s the boss. At the same time, He wished to get the information coming from them because the Divine Item is certainly not one in this world.'' Alex smiled. ''That is the reason I chose today.'' "Mithra, Ian, come out right now. We are going to set off in a few minutes." Alex shouted to the two. "Let''s go, shall we?" The dragon nodded and spread its wing. *Roar!* 848 Possibilities He, on the other hand, hopped on Ian''s back as if he couldn''t fly. The dragon king didn''t care about that much because Alex''s movement was far faster than everyone could think. After all, even when he was prepared for it, he didn''t realize before Alex suddenly appeared in front of him from Ian''s back. His speed alone might be far faster than Ian''s flying speed. Even if he needed to pass some obstacles, he would arrive first. Mithra kept glancing at the dragon king, curious about what made the dragon different from the rest. Although she could somehow understand he was stronger than anyone else, she just couldn''t think that was all. Alex, on the other hand, tried to sort his memory again. A black flower and a white tree. The devils aimed for these two Divine Items, making him wonder what kind of items they were. "There are a few items that hit the list from vague information like that¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows, wondering if he missed something. "Even though they are called the devils, many of them still have Fire Element or Light Element, so it''s impossible to track down what they want. "But if I only consider those who have the advantage to cultivation, I can narrow them to four items. The first is a Divine Light Tree. Just like its name, the tree is releasing white light. The body of the three can be used as a handle of a weapon because it''s durable. The leaves are quite useful, which could grant one''s boundless strength, but if one drinks the boiled water with the Divine Tree''s root inside it, they will gain enormous energy. "Their efficacy might not be comparable to that of the Sun Moon Tree, but it should be able to give two-third of what the Sun Fruit and Moon Fruit could give. I wonder if I should drink this, so I can get stronger as soon as possible. "The second possibility is White Ash Tree. Unlike the previous one, this tree is very advantageous to Fire Element users. The tree can produce a huge amount of White Ash when fully grown. And I should be able to reach rank 9 God immediately if I eat the pill with that White Ash as an ingredient. "I currently have no power to create this pill, and I think I shouldn''t worry that much because either way, the tree needs to grow first to produce that. A tree like this should be hidden because it will be in the eyes of God Rank Expert with Fire Element. "Anyway, the white tree should be either of those two. As for the Black Flower, it''s either Heaven Night Flower. It''s a very poisonous flower, but it can be considered a Divine Medicine because if one can withstand the poisonous attribute, they can withstand any type of poison. Well, I don''t need this because of my Pure Fire, but that doesn''t mean the others not. Out of these four, he really wanted this flower because it would help him, especially fighting a stronger opponent. Alex finished coming up with the possibility and finally checked his system. He didn''t need to worry about the reward of becoming a God because he already witnessed the aura covering people'' bodies. The only thing he had yet to test was the Divine Gacha System. As for that, he decided to stay away from it first and focused on his spirits. Taking out Anna''s card, Alex was perplexed. [Anna (Dark) Level: 80/80 (10-Star Martial Saint Stage) Exp: -/- Description: Please go to somewhere that allows a God Rank Expert to be born.] "System, will they stay like this until I go to the Devil World?" [Yes.] "¡­" Alex sighed. "Will they get a new feature or something?" [Yes. Unlike the previous leveling style, they will be absorbing the energy instead. Still, it will be much faster progress because they are simply gaining the strength they used to have.] "Can you tell me what rank they were before sealing that power to help me?" The system stayed silent for a minute before saying. [I will only give the hints for three people. Which one do you want to know?] Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Never mind. I will ask them together because I don''t want to show favoritism." [Fine.] As he was disappointed by the result, Alex continued the journey, flying for a few days before the dragon opened his mouth. ''We are going to enter an endless desert. The Immortal Cave is buried there.'' Alex looked at him and asked, ''Do you have any information about the Immortal Cave?'' ''I don''t really know much because this is far more ancient¡­ If I am not wrong, this was coming from three thousand years ago. There was a strong person that had powerful strength. It was said that this person could split the sea and cleave a mountain. There is no such thing even if you tour around the world though. ''So, I don''t know if this is true or not. In any case, the strange person died without any offspring. It seemed it was the price he needed to pay for his strength.'' Alex thought for a moment. The description was like the Divine Light Tree, but he remembered that the White Ash Tree shouldn''t bloom yet where the leaves turned into ashes because of the lack of Divine Energy. Hence, there was still no telling which tree this was. ''How do we enter the cave if it''s buried under the sand?'' Alex asked. Although he could just smash it, he didn''t want to use such brute force. ''Digging is the only way because it was built to bury that tree so no one can grab it. As you might already know, such a thing can bring destruction everywhere because it will surely incite the greed of every living creature in this world.'' ''That means you too?'' ''Yes. But I know my place, I am not strong enough to snatch it from you, so I won''t do that. Although I say I want it, I just want to use that strength to push the enemies back to the other side. After that, even if I need to die, I will be satisfied.'' Alex didn''t care about his resolve or everything because they might change after he experienced that power for a long time. In the meantime, he decided to rack his brain to see what kind of thing he could use to dig the sand. Soon they reached the desert, but as he expected, the extreme cold brushed everyone''s skin. The dragon had a thick scale, so it didn''t feel anything. The same applied to Ian because a part of his element was an ice element. But Mithra was different. She felt cold, especially when moving at this speed. Alex found this, summoned a barrier and used his Pure Fire to increase the temperature while using his Spirit Eyes to scan the area alone. There were many creatures living beneath the sand, but he realized it wasn''t a problem because they were far weaker than those devils. In fact, Mithra alone might be able to win against them. The group continued flying toward the northeast before Alex picked up a sign of energy on the horizon. "That is¡­" ''Yes. I think you have seen it, but not far from here is where the Immortal Cave is.'' The dragon nodded as he sweatdropped. Although he talked like he expected Alex to see that, he couldn''t believe that it only took him a glance to recognize the place. This was beyond his understanding. Alex didn''t care and took another look at it. The Spiritual Energy coming from it had a trace of Divine Energy. However, the world didn''t recognize it as one because of its size. ''It seems there is one of the things I need to find inside the Immortal Cave.'' Alex nodded with a solemn expression. ''In that case, I shall help you dig the entire hole. It will take only half a day, I guess.'' The dragon offered his help, but Alex only waved his hand, telling him it was fine. ''I can dig by myself, and I believe it will be far faster to do it that way,'' said Alex confidently. ''I understand. If you still need my help, please don''t hesitate to ask.'' "Ian, Mithra, I am going first." Alex then rose from his position and flew faster than the two of them, reaching right above the Immortal Cave faster than anyone else. He pointed his finger and created a Spatial Gate, slowly moving it toward the ground. And as he had expected earlier, the gate swallowed every single grain of sand at a fast rate. Alex only needed to control the Spiritual Energy around to hold the sand from collapsing on him. This might also be the plan of the one burying this treasure in the past. With this type of sand, they would fall to the hole if there was no supporting building toward holding them. This would make the treasure harder to get. Unfortunately, this was but a simple matter to Alex. The Spatial Gate was far too useful for this as he had already created a deep hole before the two arrived. It continued for a few more seconds until Alex stopped right before he swallowed the Immortal Cave itself. There was a huge sandstone that acted as a gate. He could see a pattern of an array that was acting like a token. This was a simple array because it only needed specific blood to open this. At the same time, the array couldn''t increase the hardness of the sandstone, so unless the person built this with weak material, they simply needed to destroy it. According to his Spirit Eyes, the plant was under this gate. If he smashed this gate, the rubbles might damage the tree. Even though it was a Divine Rank Tree, it didn''t have enough supply of Divine Energy, so it was at its weakest state. Alex thought for a moment before flying back to the surface where he and Ian exchanged looks. "It''s your turn, come here." Alex waved his hand. Ian nodded and slowly moved toward him, peeking inside the hole. Mithra and the dragon king did the same and never expected it was this easy to find it¡­ Albeit, unbeknownst to them, the common sense in their mind had been shattered by Alex this whole time. Alex paid no attention to that because Mithra should become the strongest person in the world that could do anything she wanted, so he only focused on Ian. "Can you see it, Ian?" Alex pointed his finger toward the circle in the middle of that sandstone. "You can drop your blood there, and everything will open." "Ga Wu!" Ian flapped his wing, flying to the center of the hole. He looked at his wing for a second and bit it until a single golden drop of blood fell down right inside the circle. As soon as it touched the circle, it immediately recognized its blood and started a mechanism for this cave. *Rumble Rumble!* Alex decided to go down and brought Mithra with him. He wanted to bring the other two as well, but they were too big for this, so he decided to ask them to stay. The rumbling sound kept echoing through the hole as the gate was slowly opened, revealing the golden floor. The room itself was just a simple small room without any tunnel leading to anywhere. He then finally moved his vision to the white tree before him. "This is¡­" 849 Returning The shout echoed across the hole, coming into the dragon''s ears. "Ye-yes. However, due to his strength, he abandoned his element." "Now I see." Alex nodded. "It''s already incredible to not die after consuming this tree. Of course, the ones that can be consumed are those leaves. However, a Divine Tree like this is far more powerful even though it''s in this state. As a result, he lost his ability to produce an heir." [Host, you can store this tree inside the Inventory, and I will plant the tree in Eulja. I should be able to grow it to its peak sooner or later.] "Fair enough." Alex nodded and placed his hand on the tree before it disappeared. "Eh?!" Mithra dropped her jaw when she saw the tree disappear. "Sir Alex?" "Don''t worry. It was me. In any case, as long as I can get the other item, the Devil World will target me instead of this world. At that time, I can destroy the portal." Alex nodded. "In that case, I shall accompany you to the next place." Mithra raised her hand. "The problem is where¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "After listening to all your legends, I can''t pinpoint any location of the second item." Mithra looked down. She hadn''t thought about it because of the previous excitement, and it made her feel sad. "Anyway, let''s go first." Alex patted her head and leaped to the surface before releasing all that sand he excavated a few minutes ago. "With this, my job has finished." The dragon king looked at Alex for a minute without saying anything. "I know. I will surely close that portal after three months." Alex sighed. "Anyway, I need to search for another thing. I have two suspects currently, so I will just explain it to you. If you have heard something like this, please tell me." The three nodded their heads in unison. This was the last piece he needed to save the world, so there was no way they would miss even a single word. "The first is Heaven Night Flower. This flower can only bloom at night and release a mighty poison miasma around it. The surroundings will be pitch black because of the miasma, and all lives are taken away due to the poison. "The second suspect is Void Flower. This flower has the ability to cause a Space Disturbance¡­ Well, it''s hard to say, but it can assimilate the Day and Night. To put it in a simple word, the flower is sucking energy from its surroundings to stay alive during the day while releasing the purified and stronger energy during the night. "Have any of you heard about these two phenomena?" Alex asked. "Eh?!" Alex widened his eyes. "Why are you looking at me as if you think I won''t have any answer¡­" Mithra pouted. Alex smiled embarrassedly and patted her head. "Sorry, sorry. What do you know about these two?" "I am not really sure, but back when I served the royal family, I heard a strange rumor around the castle." Mithra paused for a moment and gulped down. "They said there is a flower that turns someone into a skeleton and blooms even brighter during the night. Because of the danger, the flower was thrown away¡­" "Royal Family?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. He didn''t really want to have any business with them, but it seemed he needed to because the way she described it perfectly fit the description of Void Flower. This was the top of his list, so he needed to negotiate with the royal family. At the very least, he needed to know where they threw away the flower. "Such a flower is hard to be destroyed, so I think there is a chance of it having survived after getting thrown away." ''You are going there?'' The dragon king asked. ''Yes. I am not a bloodthirsty person. I won''t torture an innocent for information, and I mostly do trade just like how I deal with you." Alex explained, while shrugging. "By the way, the devil back then was an enemy, so I tortured him." The dragon king closed his eyes. He had seen how Alex did the whole thing and realized he still upheld his principle. In that case, he decided. "How about this¡­ I can bring you to that kingdom of yours. There are three kingdoms, but the only one summoning a hero should be that kingdom, right? If I am there, I should be able to easily persuade them." "Is that so?" Alex squinted his eyes, feeling a bit reluctant to get a favor from someone. "Don''t worry. You have helped enough, so let me help you a bit." The dragon king smiled. He liked Alex''s personality, ruthless to the enemy and warm to friends. "If that were the case, then I don''t have any reason to reject it." Alex nodded. "If needed, I can give them something as a payment anyway." "Sure. I think it''s better to go now." The dragon king suggested. "Since we need one week to arrive there." "Indeed. Let''s go then." Alex nodded. Considering everything, they needed more than a month to travel around the world, making Alex a bit frustrated. He wondered if he should just use his Teleportation Array, but he decided not to. Ian could train harmonizing faster if he was distracted like flying. He needed to concentrate on two things at the same time. This was the training course Alex prepared for him. The same applied to Mithra. She ran around Ian''s body while swinging her sword according to Alex''s instruction. Although it was still a rough diamond, Mithra was really talented. If not, she wouldn''t be able to reach Sword King and tried to follow Maxwell in the past. In fact, if she didn''t get the cube that turned out to be her downfall, she might be able to reach a far higher level. The journey went smoothly because they flew around the cities to avoid problems and finally reached the kingdom within seven days. ¡­ Just like before, the city was thrown into chaos the moment he appeared¡­ Or at least, those who were in the city wall because they had the front view. "Emergency!" The soldier pushed open the door and rushed in like a week ago where the king had a meeting with his ministers. However, there was no hero this time because they were training in the field nearby. "What happened? Did the hero party encounter some problems?" The king rose and asked with a firm tone. "No-no. I have heard they are coming back here safe and sound." "Then what is the emergency? Are you joking with me? Know your position!" "No. There is a huge problem outside the city." The soldier shook his head. "Explain!" "Why can''t you say that the person his majesty talked about returned to this place?" A voice suddenly resounded from outside the room before the hero made his appearance, entering the room with hatred all over his face. The soldier could only look down and gritted his teeth. "We have returned to the palace because we have heard the fifth person making a ruckus outside the city." One of the females snorted. "What is happening here?" The king narrowed his eyes and stared at the soldier. However, the soldier couldn''t answer because the hero already ran his mouth. "He is returning because he can''t handle the pressure outside." ''Just stop insulting that person.'' The soldier wanted to beat this hero very much because he kept spouting nonsense even though he didn''t understand the whole situation. "In that case, let''s greet him here. We should be able to reach a compromise. Call him here!" The king immediately ordered the soldier. "But Your Majesty¡­" "Just shut up and call him here!" The soldier didn''t know what to do anymore and decided to follow the order while thinking, ''Ah, I am going to die today.'' The king gained his confidence again before a loud roar shook the entire capital. It was loud and clear for everyone to know whose roar was that. There was only a single creature that was capable of doing that, and they were dragons. ''What is this? Why is there a dragon? Did that person return with a dragon this time?'' Doubts emerged almost immediately in the king''s heart. ''But the dragon is fighting those devils in the Dragon Valley, and they are not really on friendly terms with the Phoenix. How can they come here with this timing? Is there any loose dragon around?'' The king suddenly realized why the soldier wanted to stop him earlier as his face turned pale. He rose from his seat and ran to the balcony, finding two huge creatures hovering in the sky. They didn''t fly too high, so the hero must haven''t seen this with his own eyes. That was where he got his arrogance. And yet, to think for such a stupid reason he managed to make him a bit arrogant, he instantly regretted. Without wasting a single second, the king put down his red robe and any other things that hindered his movement and leaped off his balcony. He jumped from one rooftop to another, trying to go to the city wall as quickly as possible. When he reached the wall, he was stupefied by the sight of a dragon and a phoenix flying side by side, looking very annoyed. Alex was sitting on top of Ian''s back since he was in the middle of tutoring Mithra. It was at this moment he knew he fuck*d up. And when he found the dragon, he seemed to recognize him, especially the pattern and the color of his scales. Alex glanced at the king with a cold gaze before letting the dragon king do whatever he needed to do. ''O'' human king, I have seen you in the past and to think you have become so arrogant to not meet this king¡­'' The tone was full of anger as if he wanted to destroy this capital city himself. ''I have brought you a distinguished guest that can save this world, and you make him wait because of the stupidity of yours. ''Should I raze this kingdom to the ground before you realize this? Your kingdom might be strong, but if you think you can stop my Dragon Valley and the Phoenixes, you can try.'' The king didn''t move nor speak as if his soul flew out of his body, but he finally opened his mouth after a minute. "I¡­ I AM SORRY!" 850 A Yandere? The scream echoed almost to all ears in his surroundings. People had been shocked by the appearance of these two creatures slightly turning their heads, only to find their king bowing his head while apologizing. They didn''t know whether to be shocked once more or thought this was a dream. Unfortunately, the dragon king seemed to be not satisfied with this and narrowed his eyes. ''There is something I want to say about this, but I won''t prolong this talk because we have many things to do. I want to ask you where you threw away that dangerous flower?'' ''Eh?'' The king opened his mouth in surprise. He tilted his head in confusion, not knowing why the dragon king wanted that dangerous flower that could kill a powerful being. ''Are you going to use the flower for the war?'' ''Yes.'' The dragon king didn''t lie. It was indeed to fight the devils, but he needed to give it to Alex, so the latter could help them in a war. ''So, where is it?'' The king turned paler as he stumbled and fell on his butt. ''I¡­ I¡­'' ''I what? I don''t need your excuse. What I want is an answer!'' The dragon king roared again. ''I threw it to the sea that can''t be mixed.'' ''What?!'' ''The nearby field couldn''t hold that flower anymore because it kept killing people coming around that area. Because of that, I decided to throw it into that sea.'' The dragon king closed his eyes and informed Alex about what was going on. ''That''s the case.'' ''Ask him when he threw it.'' The dragon nodded and asked. ''It was a few weeks ago,'' The king replied. Alex thought for a moment. ''The flower itself shouldn''t be possible to be extinguished by a mortal body. There is a possibility that a fish eating this flower will end up dying, but it''s going somewhere. I think we should go to the sea and search around an area where we can find many dead fishes.'' ''I understand. Luckily, it was only a few weeks ago. If it were a year ago or more, the area would become too unpredictable.'' ''Yes. I will¡ª'' Before Alex finished his words, a loud voice echoed in his left ear. "Haha¡­ Here you are!" Alex turned left and found the hero along with his companions. Liliana was hugging her own body and couldn''t look straight as if she didn''t know how to face Alex. It seemed she had tried to stop the hero from going here, albeit another failure. "Don''t think you can run now. I might not be able to compete with you back then, but I can reach rank 1 within two weeks. I am a genius!" The hero made a smug smile. "Annoying." Alex clicked his tongue and called Mithra. "Kick his ass for me!" "I understand." Mithra nodded and leaped to the city wall, glaring at the hero with a cold gaze. "What?!" The hero twitched his eyebrows as he glared at the king. "You have summoned me to this world, begging me to save your world. And this is how you treated me?!" Alex facepalmed, losing hope in the so-called hero. "Just shut up a little bit!" Mithra leaped toward him, trying to punch this hero in the face. "You were a little maid not long ago, and you are this arrogant now? I will teach you what it means to have strength!" The hero shouted and drew his sword, slashing it downward to make her step back. Mithra moved acrobatically, adjusting her hand to not hit by the sword. At the same time, her right foot had struck the hero''s left foot. "Kh!" Pain spread around his ankle as his body shifted to the right because of the pain. The hero gritted his teeth, trying to hit the girl, but before he knew it, her foot was already right in front of his face, sending him flying with a single kick. The hero flew, rolled on the ground, and stopped fifty meters from them. "Oi, girl. Why are you using your kick? Are you trying to charm people with your underwear?" Alex shouted. "But you said I shouldn''t be ashamed when people see that? Because an assassin might come when I am bathing¡­ I can''t certainly be embarrassed and tell them to go away, right?" Mithra answered innocently. "That''s what I said, but I also taught you Swordsmanship for you to be more elegant! Or at least you should wear pants!" "But they are too restrictive." "There is a short pants, you little kid!" "Uh¡­ I will try it later." Mithra looked down, feeling down. "Maybe when I can finally buy clothes¡­ Sir has trained me until I collapse, so I don''t have any time to buy clothes¡­" "Anyway, just make sure you don''t make the same mistake after this." Alex scratched his head. "But Sir¡­ I won''t have my sword when I take a bath, right? The assassin will kill me, and I can''t use my sword, what should I do? They will see me naked¡­" "Are you seriously asking that? Since they have seen you and want to kill you¡­ You can torture them to get information before killing them." Alex answered with a serious tone. "Then, this hero guy has seen my panty, but because he has no plan in killing me, I shall only torture him to get information as to why he wants to pick a fight with you, Sir." Mithra''s expression turned dark as she let out a hollow laugh. "First, I need to make him unable to see anymore¡­ Then, I need to cut his legs so he can''t escape¡­ And¡­" "Wait, what?! Stop!" Alex facepalmed. After training her for the past few weeks, he never saw this side of her. In fact, it never came to his mind. Yandere¡­ A scary curse that made him speechless. If she met Jeanne, the situation might be catastrophic. He still remembered when Jeanne told him that she cut people''s dick and shoved them into their own mouth while killing them. If Mithra had the same character as Jeanne, it would be bad for this world. "If you are going to go that way, I will stop teaching you!" "Ah!" Jea¡ªAhem, Mithra corrected her posture and expression before bowing her head to Alex. "I am sorry, Sir. I got carried away." Alex let out a sigh of relief. "After all, if Mother were more proactive toward Father and kept him from going, she wouldn''t lose him, and I would still have a father. And she wouldn''t fall sick and so on¡­" Mithra''s expression turned dark again as if that incident broke something in her heart. "¡­" Alex was speechless. She had told him about this, but her expression was calm back then. It took him a minute before he realized everything. She had been restraining herself this whole time. And that calm was the calm before the storm, not the calm on a sunny day. He might be able to control the battlefield with his mind, but his eyes couldn''t see through the emotion in that poker face. Even back in the upper world, he couldn''t really read their emotions when they put a poker face. If he didn''t have the information network from the N squad, he might have overthought many times. In Mithra''s case, he could only shake his head and waved his hand, controlling the Spiritual Energy to pull her back to his side. He patted his head and smiled. "It''s fine to let go of your emotion from time to time, but don''t go overboard, alright?" Mithra''s expression turned normal as if nothing happened. She looked at Alex and nodded. "I understand." Alex sighed, wondering if the previous Mithra actually had a yandere like personality. It would be scary to see it to be honest. "In any case, I have gotten everything I need here," said Alex while glancing at the dragon king. ''I understand. Since this is the case, I will help you until you get both things you want if it means you can save this world.'' The dragon king then glared at the king. ''I have seen everything about you¡­ Although I am thankful for the soldiers you place on the frontline, it''s still far from enough to handle those devils. ''If you think you are on top of the world, then you better head to the front line two months from now. You will be able to see what kind of existence you have offended.'' The dragon king let out a long sigh. The hero in the past hailed from this kingdom as well, but the king in charge back then was the current king''s grandfather. He was wise and gentle, knowing when to embrace powerful people like a friend and when to point his sword. And this made him even more disappointed than the current one. The dragon king spared no more words and turned around, flying toward the so-called sea that can''t be mixed. He had asked Alex to follow him because he knew the direction and a place where he might need to pass before throwing the flower to the sea. Alex agreed and asked Ian to follow him. Meanwhile, those in the city wall had complicated emotions. The two girls looked at the hero and shook their heads, never expecting that the person they looked up to was garbage. The king could only look down because this one mistake made the relationship between his kingdom and the Dragon Valley turned awkward. He looked at the unconscious hero and wanted to throw him away from this city wall. But he also wondered whether the maid back then concealed her strength this whole time, or Alex just trained her into someone like that in this short time. Either way, he had almost lost everything, so he didn''t have any plan to make something big. On the other hand, Liliana put her hands on her chest, looking at Alex with longing. She had so many feelings mixed inside her heart. To think the person she talked to back then was a person that could threaten the entire kingdom just like this¡­ It was just too insane. She closed her eyes and decided to get stronger so she could return to Earth. At that time, she wanted to journey all over the world, trying to see whether the Earth had many mysterious secrets that could power up a normal person to one like Alex. Alex and the others were already far away, but she suddenly saw Alex glancing back, followed by his sound ringing on her head. ''Good Luck and Take Care.'' She couldn''t help but smile, remembering this word along with the one he said to her in the throne room. ''Kindness, huh¡­'' ¡­ After this journey, they flew toward the sea according to the dragon king''s direction. There seemed to be a city around the sea whose sole purpose was to observe the sea and unravel its secret. "Master¡­ This is the first time I have seen something like this." Mithra pointed her finger to the ocean. The left side was a bit greenish-blue, while the other side was a deep blue. They were separated as if there was a thin wall that made them stop merging with each other. ''I have seen it on the internet, but I have never seen one with my own eyes. Still, to think I am finding the other world''s version first instead of my own hometown, I don''t know if I should laugh or cry.'' Alex smiled and closed his eyes. "Don''t be too excited with just this. If you have strength, you can go wherever you want to enjoy this kind of scenery. I have been visiting many places that can''t be described with a simple word in my journey, so I believe you can do the same. Work hard." "Yes. I will work hard." Mithra nodded furiously. "Alright. Let''s start by following this line." Alex commanded. 851 The Flower In the middle of a bustling city, a child carrying a basket full of flowers ran around the city, selling the flowers. The colors varied and even a black one was there. "Anyone want to buy a flower for two copper coins?" The boy asked around, but not a single of them spared even a glance. He was only a small boy, a bit younger than Mithra, but he was strong. No, he needed to be strong. "Anyone, please buy a flower for two copper coins." He continued running around, finding not a single person buying his flower. Dejected, he slowly walked his way toward his house, finding a middle-aged man sitting on the bed. He put down the basket of flowers and fixed his white hair before putting on the biggest smile as if his sad look was a lie. *Cough Cough!* The middle-aged man coughed up blood as he looked at the young boy who did everything he could during the day. "Father, are you alright?" The little boy asked. "I am sorry, Ellas. To think I would become the burden. Your mother has left us because I can''t do anything now¡­" The man looked at him, disappointed in himself. "I am fine. Ellas will continue working hard until Father recovers." The little boy smiled and pumped his fist. "I will try to work it out somehow. When Father has recovered, we will show mother that leaving you was the worst thing she could have ever done!" The man smiled and patted his head, moved by the resilience shown by this boy. The boy decided to go every single day, selling flowers. Meanwhile, Alex didn''t check the city when he came. In fact, he didn''t even come close to the port or even took a look with his Spirit Eyes and headed toward the sea immediately. "Alright. Let''s start by following this line," Alex commanded. Since the king said he threw it into the sea, there should be somewhere nearby because a Foundation Rank monster shouldn''t be capable of living for too long after swallowing a Divine Item. That was why he believed the flower was in the bottom of the ocean, and he needed to search the sign before diving. "Sir Alex, we have found three fishes floating on the water surface near each other," Mithra informed him, who was sitting in a lotus pose and closing his eyes. He gradually opened his eyes and rose, nodding to Mithra to thank her. Ian flew toward the spot before Alex jumped into the sea while activating his Spirit Eyes. He swam to the bottom of the ocean without any problem and looked around, finding nothing but pitiful monsters. They tried to attack him, but he killed them in a single hit. Sighing, he swam to the surface and returned to Ian''s back, asking them to fly to another place. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a moment. "Although the weight of that flower is not that big, I think the flower will still sink to the bottom of the ocean, so I think it''s not possible unless there is a third party. Whether it is intentional or unintentional¡­ Unintentional?" Alex seemed to have realized something and patted Mithra''s head, telling her good job while asking Ian to go to the town. "I hope the flower is still there." Meanwhile, behind the dock in the harbor, the young boy was staring at the flower that just blew him away. "What just happened?" Ellas furrowed his eyebrows. "That black flower¡­ I remember I got it floating around the sea, so I took it before Father got injured. What is happening right now?" The flower before him was floating in the air, releasing some sort of charm as if asking him to come closer and touch him. "Do you want me to touch you? Can I gain power if I touch you?" The boy muttered as he slowly stepped forward. He stretched his hand with a bland face. It seemed his soul was already charmed by this flower. When he was about to touch the flower, a hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, stopping him from touching the flower. "Young Man¡­ It''s better for you to not go past this." The young boy looked at the golden-haired man and snarled. "Shut up. I need power!" "Why do you need power?" Alex asked. His calm voice tried to soothe the boy''s heart. "You don''t know anything! Not a single thing. Do you know how harsh it is for my father to be betrayed by my mother as soon as he got injured?" The boy shouted and tried to push his hand to touch the flower, but Alex didn''t budge even an inch. Instead, Alex slapped the flower away. "What are you doing?!" The kid got even angrier, not realizing Alex just saved his life. "Listen to me, Kid. I am here because you possess that dangerous flower. Since you are the one who found it, I will grant you one request. Whether you want to be rich or revenge, I shall grant it." The boy''s body shook as he heard Alex''s words. He needed money the most because he wanted to take his father to a doctor. But words stuck in his mouth. Revenge flashed in his mind, but there seemed to be something he actually wanted from the bottom of his heart. It was the most important thing he held dear, and it was¡­ "I just want my father to be healthy again," the kid answered from the bottom of his heart. His tears were swelling up in the corner of his eyes. "Ellas!" Suddenly, a voice resounded in everyone''s ears as they looked at the source, finding a middle-aged man approaching the boy before hugging him. "You silly boy!" "You are¡­" Alex looked at the man. He had noticed his presence since long ago but didn''t realize his identity until he recalled what the kid wished again. He took another look at the man with his Spirit Eyes. There was black energy in the man''s arm and leg, sucking his energy away to the point he was crippled. And yet, this man managed to drag his body to this place. It was quite a surprise. "Are you his father?" "Yes. Thank you for stopping my son, Sir." The father nodded. "Still, your injuries are related to the flower, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. The father opened his mouth in surprise, but the one who was shocked the most was Ellas. "What?" "Since the boy wishes to help you, I will restore your full health while taking the flower into my custody. What do you think?" Alex asked. The man glanced at him and Ellas before nodding his head. "I understand." "Father? Is what he said true? Was the flower the one injuring you this whole time? That means¡­ I¡­" Ellas''s face turned pale. Just like Alex predicted earlier, the fisherman caught the fishes in the sea, and the flower was somehow stuck on the net before reaching the ocean floor. At that time, the fisherman immediately threw it away because he thought it was a waste. It was on the shore, and the boy found it. Surprised by the weight of the flower, the boy brought it home and showed it to his mother and father. And not long after that, his father turned into like this without apparent reason. His mother left their side a few days after because she couldn''t stay with a disabled person because she had a long life to go, leaving only Ellas and his father in the house. Ellas didn''t know about this and tried to fix anything. Meanwhile, his father also had no reason for saying everything was his fault. After all, his love for his child was immeasurable. "Looking at your muscle, I can see that you are a strong person. The father only sighed after Alex found out. "Yes. When Ellas brought the flower home and presented it to me, I was happy. But one night, I found that Ellas acted crazy and saw the flower floating above him. I tried to save him and used my body in exchange¡­ And this is the result." Alex smiled and nodded. Even the dragon king and Ian slightly nodded their head, showing their respect to this man. Ellas''s tears flowed down, feeling all the guilt. "Father¡­ I¡­" "Silly kid. I only want you to smile forever¡­ How can I bear to see you cry like this? Do you know that the happiest moment in my life is not when I became strong or married your mother, but when you were born into this world?" The guy smiled, weeping Ellas''s tears. Alex sighed and walked toward him. He gathered enough Spiritual Energy and channeled it inside his body, creating a torrential wave that ripped the sucking force from the flower. "The flower has stayed alive because it keeps sucking your blood. I am taking it out now, so you don''t need to worry about it anymore." The father felt the warmth of the Spiritual Energy as his power started recovering. "Thank you, Sir. I think I have recovered my previous strength." The guy kneeled before him. "I don''t know how to repay you for this. I was the mayor''s guard captain but was kicked out after getting inflicted by this, and I have spent all my money. I really can''t pay you for this." "I have simply fulfilled the wish of the boy. Despite having the chance for riches and revenge, the boy loved you more than anything else. He is a good son." "Yes, of course. I have never once felt disappointed in my son. He is my pride and joy." The man smiled as big as possible. Alex waved his hand and grabbed the flower before taking another look with his Spirit Eyes to confirm everything. He found the Divine Energy in this and was satisfied with the result. He threw it inside his Inventory, asking the system to plant it somewhere else. "Since I have fulfilled his wish, it''s time for me to go." Alex raised the two kneeling men. "You are a good person, and I am sure that your son will have a bright future with you as his father. Hence, I will give you one last thing." He put a pill inside the boy''s mouth. The boy didn''t know what it was, but he felt he couldn''t open his eyes. The pill was also trying to expel something from his body as the smelly odor started lingering around the area. "That is¡­" Mithra stared at it with amazement. She had experienced it at one time. It was Alex''s gift because she was able to train for seven days straight. She took the pill at the same time and expelled all the impurities in her body, becoming the most stinky girl alive at that time. That was where her teasing came from. Still, the effect of that pill was extraordinary. His muddy skin got cleared a bit. Because he originally had tanned skin, it remained there, but it looked so smooth like chocolate¡ªbrown and sweet. Mithra was wondering why Alex would give the pill to the boy as an extra reward because she realized that Alex was someone who only traded according to the deal. ''I have something to tell you later.'' Alex sent a thought transmission to the girl before taking out a water gallon and pouring it to the boy to wash away those filths. "This¡­" The father was amazed and had no words to express. "Rich and revenge can be achieved if you have enough strength. However, you shall never go on the evil path, slaughtering innocent and feeling nothing. With a father like him, I believe you can reach a higher level, so I wish you luck on your journey." Alex said his last piece before flying to the sky again with his companions. The father and the boy looked at him until they couldn''t see him again before kneeling once again. 852 Alexs True Strength "I said it earlier. It was just a bonus to him. I am fond of a relationship like that, and in fact, you should try to befriend people like that because they are most unlikely to betray you. Of course, there is a chance they prioritize their family to the point of betraying you, but I don''t think the case is that common." Alex nodded. This was what he wanted to say earlier. "So, I should befriend him after this training?" "It''s up to you. I only said it was his type that valued his family and friend that you should befriend, so whether you want to be his friend or not, it''s entirely up to you." Alex shrugged. "I understand. I shall keep your word in my mind." Mithra nodded with a solemn expression. "By the way, since we have gotten the two items, what are you going to do?" "Training you and Ian of course. I still have around one and a half months before the promised day, so it''s better to step up my game." Alex shrugged. "I will keep up with you." Mithra pumped her fist. "Yeah. I will make you Qi Manipulation Stage within the time. After that, it will be our farewell." Mithra suddenly fell silent, feeling a bit sad. Although it was only a brief moment, the journey felt like it had been going for several years. Because Alex was rushing many things, they had gone to many places and created many memories, so hearing the word goodbye was a bit sad. "Sir Alex, can I ask you one thing?" "Sure." "Does the portal lead to another world?" She tilted her head. "Yes. I have traveled to many worlds¡­ Let me see, I have visited five worlds, including my home world." "Then is there any strong person like you?" "Yeah. There are many, but because I have just gone through another level of cultivation, I haven''t seen anyone with the same stage as mine¡­ Well, it is considered as a high ranking person because only a handful of people can have this strength." "That is so cool. Do you think I can go to another world as well? No, can I follow you?" Mithra asked. Her heart was excited with adventure, but Alex shook his head, turning her down. "It''s impossible. You have no strength to deal with what is coming. If I tell you that you are simply an ant that can be crushed with just a blow of wind, do you believe me?" Alex glanced at her. "I believe you. Seeing Sir Alex''s strength, I believe you can do that. I can still feel the boundless power inside you, and you are still holding back this whole time. One flick is enough for you to blow away my head." Michelle nodded. It took her an instant to decide this. "I am going. No matter what it takes, I will surely go." "Then you should reach Martial Master before anything else. If you are not careful in another world, you will end up dying. And I won''t be there helping you, so you should pay attention to your own situation." Alex patted her head. Ian and the dragon king fell silent when they heard about this and had their own thoughts. Alex paid no heed and patted her head, cheering her up. "What do you want to do after this depends on you. I won''t tell you what is bad and what is not." Alex smiled. Mithra nodded her head. "I will train hard." "Why don''t you prove it to me now?" Alex grinned, teasing her. However, Mithra didn''t say anything and took out her sword, starting to do her daily practice. ''If I may ask, will there be a chance of other portals being opened from another side?'' Hearing the dragon king''s question, he shook his head. ''I don''t know. This one''s a bit special because the devils know about those two items. As for the rest, I haven''t met another portal in this world, so I can''t examine it. And I don''t have any plan in doing that.'' The dragon king could only shake his head in disappointment. Alex''s strength was far too extraordinary for him to even think about it. Though, he didn''t really want his power, but his cooperation in searching for another portal around the world. Albeit, he seemed to be not qualified to talk to him. It was a pure coincidence from Alex that everyone went away. With that troublesome thought in mind, they had arrived in the Dragon Valley and went back to the guest house, training Mithra again. ¡­ Three months had passed since the first time he came to this world, and it was the time he left this world to help Alicia. He asked the others to get away from the portal because it would be very dangerous. And not a single soldier was near the portal. He had killed all those devils emerging from the portal anyway, so they had no problem in evacuating this area. On the other hand, the dragon king, Ian, and Mithra were looking at him with a serious expression. "It''s a goodbye, everyone. Thank you for making this trip easier and fun." Alex glanced at Ian. "You have recovered from the so-called illness. In fact, your harmonized element is a powerful combination. As long as you train it, it can be your strongest strength, so just don''t use it for bad things, alright?" "Ga Wu!" Ian nodded repeatedly. "Mithra¡­ You have reached Qi Manipulation Strength. Since I have also given you a few pills to increase your strength even further, I think I can say you are one of the strongest people in this world. Maybe you want to try to beat the dragon king from time to time." Alex laughed. The dragon king could only look down as he could really picture it happen. Mithra looked down and curved her mouth. Tears almost fell out of the sockets of her eyes because of this separation. "The beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning. Since it''s ending right now, you should start a new beginning." Alex smiled and patted her head and asked Ian and Dragon King to fly away. They seemed to go toward those many spectators on the horizon that decided to watch this phenomenon. The king who summoned him was also watching this with great interest. He even bought the prince, the hero, and his companions. Alex closed his eyes for a second and used his Space Magic to open the gate that sealed all his cultivation. The moment the door was opened, the Divine Energy and Divine Soul immediately enveloped his full body. It also increased the uneasiness inside his heart, but it was not comparable to the one he had a few months ago, baffling him. But he didn''t have time to waste as he only had one chance to destroy this gate because the sky above him turned dark. "Lightning Tribulation huh¡­" Alex narrowed his eyebrows. The world was trying to weaken him first before expelling him out, but Alex only coldly said, "Don''t mess with me. I only need one strike, and I will leave this world. Besides, don''t you feel pity that your world will be destroyed by those Devils?" *Rumble Rumble!* As if the world''s will didn''t hear it, the rumbling sound started echoing around the portal area. "What is this? The world is mad at that person?" The king exclaimed in confusion. Liliana put her hands on her chest, hoping for the best for Alex. Alex looked up and roared. "Are you going to challenge me? Do you want me to destroy this world?" The Pure Fire gushed out of his body, brightening the area. His Pure Fire burned the wood beneath him and turned them into charcoal. It might not reach the sky, but it stretched more than a few hundred meters. *Rumble!* The lightning tribulation seemed to be scared of him, especially after noticing his power. If Alex was a normal Rank 10 God, they might be able to expel him, but he had a Pure Fire in his possession. If he willed it, the world''s will might also be extinguished by that flame. *Rumble!* The thunder echoed once more, but the sound was gentle as if it submitted to Alex. "What?!" The dragon king dropped his jaw, never expecting to see this. He never saw Lightning Tribulation, but he knew it came from the world itself. And yet, Alex scared it. This¡­ What kind of concept is this?" Ian and Mithra also watched this phenomenon without saying anything. Mithra was wondering what kind of existence Alex is, and she planned to unravel it by traveling between worlds. She swore it today. Meanwhile, Alex kept his eyes peeled to make sure that the Lightning Tribulation didn''t mess with this. "Now that I think about it, I don''t have a Divine Sword¡­" Alex scratched his head. [You can use one in your Inventory. You have unlocked the Divine Gacha System, so no need to hesitate to use everything in it.] The system notification was like thunder reverberating one''s ear. It sent a shock down to his spine because he would never think it would be free. He chose one sword that seemed to be able to replace his current sword. He channeled his Divine Energy into the sword, trying to feel the sword. Then he inserted his Absolute Blade Intent and fused it with his Divine Energy. His Pure Fire and Space Element began to fuse as well, creating extreme torrential energy that could create a huge disaster. Although he had yet to be able to condense his Absolute Blade Divine Intent, the power of this attack was already far too great. The last step he needed to do was to concentrate on maintaining this. "Dragon Aura." "Spirit Step." The two increased his strength even further as Alex was ready. Unlike the huge Pure Fire that covered his body, the aura surrounding the sword was too small to be even compared with him, but no one knew that the hardest one was not to make a big one, but a smaller one. He needed to compress it again and again to make this small containing a powerful strength. Alex pulled his sword back, creating a ripple around his sword just by moving. He took a deep breath and finally flew toward the portal. "Three Purities Slash!" 853 Meeting a Rank 10 God This was the Divine Sword Technique he created during his Divine Tribulation. It was the combination of his elements, intent, and Divine Energy. He called it Three Purities Slash. The moment it was released, it bent space as if it was water. Everyone could see the ripple effect caused by the sword energy. Not only that, his Pure Fire sparked, burning everything. In the bottom, it burned the ground, melting the ground into molten lava. In the middle, it burned the portal and created a Space Disturbance. Meanwhile, his Divine Intent got the help of his Divine Energy and split everything into two. A deep cut started to appear on the ground, stretching over miles away. Even the people watching far away immediately evacuated when they noticed the cut on the ground while getting shocked. Unfortunately, the surprise didn''t stop there. Alex''s Sword seemed to cut the space itself, causing them to find the portal seemed to be not aligned. But it was not the main concern. Their vision raised for a bit more, and they saw the cloud split into two as well as if he cut Heaven itself. At the same time, the Pure Fire contained on that slash burned the remaining cloud in their surroundings, creating a perfect blue sky. "What is that?!" The hero fell to his knees, watching how powerful Alex''s strike is. He looked at the king with a desperate look and asked, "I will have that power too, right?" Unfortunately, the king could only stumble and fall on his butt, shaking. He put both of his hands on his head as he muttered. "What did I just do? Did I want to oppose someone like him? Am I crazy?" The hero already got his answer from his action alone and fell into despair. As for the king, he glared at his own son. If he treated the maid better and Alex took fancy of that maid, they would be able to get some benefits from such a strong person. Albeit the only one that got benefit was the maid. But the Blue Phoenix and the Dragon King seemed to protect her, so the kingdom might be destroyed if the two joined hands. The king''s face turned ugly as he wanted to kill his own son that ruined such an opportunity. He suddenly remembered his status only having 1 point and came to a realization. It was not his strength that low, it was too high to the point the crystal couldn''t measure it. He watched how the portal slowly deteriorated and shrank. Alex entered the portal and sent a thought transmission to the three journey companions of him. "I don''t belong here. Don''t worry. I will go to another side and crush the portal from the other side, so they wouldn''t attempt something like this anymore." Mithra fell down and cried. Despite knowing the gap between him and her, she never expected that Alex said see you later instead of goodbye. It meant Alex hoped to meet her again and believed she would be able to catch up with him. This was the highest honor she could ever get. "Ga Wu!" Ian let out a loud cry before looking at Mithra on her back. "You¡­ Want to accompany me?" She stuttered in confusion. "Ga Wu! Ga Ga Wu!" Ian repeatedly nodded as if telling her he wanted to see him again and repaid him in the future. "But Sir Alex said it is too dangerous to go with your main body because you are hunted in another world." She worried about him. ''If that is the case, I have a solution. There is a magic that can turn one''s appearance to a smaller size, so I believe it can turn him into something cute like a normal blue bird instead.'' The dragon king offered a solution. "Ga Wu?!" Ian looked at him with a star in his eyes. "Ga Wu!" ''You''re welcome. But the success will depend on yourself, you know.'' "Ga Wu!" Ian was eager to try it because he believed he would succeed before glancing at Mithra. "You want to ask your parents first? Sure. Let''s go! Even if we need to grovel for a year, we are going to get their approval!" Mithra nodded as Ian turned around. She didn''t forget to wave her hand to the dragon king. "See you later. Ian and I will go to the Phoenix Nest first." The dragon shook his head helplessly, looking at these two excited youngsters. The two already flew away before any other people recovered from the shock. And the Dragon King also decided to return to his home since everything was over. On the other hand, Alex had another trouble coming in front of him. The moment he arrived at the Devil World, as he had expected, he was immediately surrounded by numerous devils looking at him with a dangerous glint. The shock wave from his attack earlier seemed to travel through the Space Tunnel and blew them away. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to check whether they had Rank 10 God or above in this expedition or not. In the end, he sweated a bit when he saw the first Rank 10 God a bit farther away from this place. It seemed he had not noticed yet, but there was a Martial Grandmaster reporting to him as the man rose from his position. He knew that he would be coming here. "Who are you?!" The devil asked. The other world was not supposed to have a man powerful enough to create such a reaction from the portal, so they were bewildered by the appearance of this new man. He glanced at his back and saw the other end of the portal. "I have promised to destroy this gate, so I think I need to kill him first before I can do that. Luckily, the enemy is only a Rank 10 God, not Rank 9. The difference between one rank among the Gods was huge, so he didn''t really want to fight someone''s above his level if not necessary." Without wasting a single second, he took out Anna''s card to see what happened to her since this world should be able to contain God Stage. [Anna (Dark) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/999999] Alex immediately took all of the other guys as well. [Leoz (Thunder) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/999999] [Nelson (Dark) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/1200000] [Fabio Fabotelli (Fire) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/2000000] [Greg (Earth) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/1500000] [Vera Fabotelli (Water) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/2000000] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/999999] [Anya (Light) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/1200000] [Artur (Light) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/1500000] [Jean (Water) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 0/1500000] The first thing he noticed was the disappearance of the level capacity. After that, he found their EXP was also different, making him wonder. "Why does the level disappear? And why are the Experiences needed to level up different?" Alex asked. [It''s simple. God Rank Expert needs no level, and they will be relying on their ability to increase their power again, but considering they are slowly absorbing their power back, it would mean this time it will depend on themselves. They might be able to reach their previous strength or break their limit.] [As for their experiences, you are asking what was their former strength, right? It can be used as an indicator as well. They need to cultivate inside the card just like you now, and you can speed it up by using Spirit Crystals. Well, we can talk about this in detail later¡­ You should finish your business first.] He knew it because the Rank 10 God from the devil side would appear anytime soon. Since he didn''t want to make a huge mess, he decided to put on his mask. And it would be better to not move with a huge number of Spirits because there might be spies roaming around this world. If they recognized he brought so many God Rank Expert spirits, they would be suspicious and report that Eulja might be planning to do something big. That was why he only summoned Leoz with him and gave him a mask. "How is your new body?" "I am glad to get this Divine Body back. It''s been a while, so I need to get used to this first." Leoz nodded and glanced at the puny devils that were scared of Alex. "Master, there is a big one coming." "Yeah. Let''s destroy this place soon before going somewhere." Alex nodded. "I understand." "I will take the Rank 10 God to measure my current power while you are cleaning up the others before destroying the portal behind us." Leoz thought for a moment and agreed with him. "Understood. Because this is your first fight using Divine Body, I might help you in the middle of the battle." "Sure. I will be careful, so you don''t find the need to protect me." Alex nodded with a smile. A moment later, a purple devil descended from the sky, looking at Leoz and Alex at the same time. "What?!" The devil was obviously shocked to see two Rank 10 Gods coming out of nowhere and planning to attack us. "Who are you? For what reason, two Rank 10 Gods invade this world?" This black-haired devil asked while maintaining his dominant tone. He was there to supervise them, so he knew he still had a chance to win. Unfortunately, Leoz decided to use his True Spirit Body from the very start because he knew the danger coming from the devil in front of him. "Tch¡­" Seeing the pressure coming from Leoz, the devil immediately raised his guard to the maximum. "Leoz, are you sure you are using your True Spirit Body now?" Alex whispered to him. "Yes. Not only do I need to watch out for any problems coming to you, but I also need to work out my body too." Leoz said while stretching. "By the way, do you have any technique to destroy the portal?" "Hmm¡­ I think my ultimate technique can close it. After all, my ultimate technique is my original Divine Art. I only tone it down this whole time, so I believe I can destroy the portal as long as I pour half of my strength in it. But Master, you have spent a third of your energy to destroy the portal on the other side. Are you sure you can fight this Rank 10 God by yourself?" "I don''t know, but I want to check if my strength is powerful enough to contend with the opponent at the same level, especially in my current condition." Alex nodded. "I understand. I shall standby beside you as soon as I clean the rest of these devils." "And you know why we are here, right?" "Yes. I believe we can do everything, albeit not all of us can be summoned here to avoid suspicion." "I only plan to summon Anna, Anya, and Nelson during this time. Jeanne will remain on standby unless it''s necessary. If possible, I don''t really want to kill so many Gods in this world because it will be eye-catching." "I understand your plan from your memory as usual. The only thing I want to know is whether Master will practice first before confronting them or immediately wreak havoc on their Green Devil Tribe?" "I will probably practice myself first and understand how Alicia fights. I plan to fight their Rank 9 God together with Alicia since this is our problem." Alex smiled. "What are you whispering this whole time? Since you are not going to say anything, I will make you spit it out!" The Rank 10 God gritted his teeth and charged at Alex. "Leoz, some of them have run in that direction. They are going to inform their leader¡­" Alex pointed his finger to the west. "Understood." Leoz immediately leaped. "He realized?!" The Rank 10 God sweatdropped as he clashed with Alex. 854 Killing the First God A clicking sound echoed in the battlefield, but more importantly, it was followed by a rumbling sound. The ground crumbled, creating a huge crater right after the sound. "!!!" Both of them were surprised. ''He can match my strength?'' The devil furrowed his eyebrows. ''His power is extraordinary? Now that I think about it, the devil has stronger power in raw force because of their constitution. It seems I need to go all out.'' Alex narrowed his eyes and thought once more. ''For now, I need to seal my Spirit Crown and Space Element along with my spear because they are my trump cards and can be said my identity as a former Spirit God. ''Swallowing Heaven is a Divine Technique, so I believe I can finally release its full power right now. The same applies to Dragon and Phoenix Aura. After that, I think the only things that can fight against him are Mythical Spear Cannon and Triple Draws.'' Alex was really at a disadvantage because he didn''t have many Divine Arts he could use right now. "For now¡­" Alex leaped back and stretched his hands to summon a dragon. He felt a very distinctive control for this dragon as he felt he could move the dragon by his thought alone. This would really help the control of this ability. At the same time, he should be able to gather enough energy to the mouth of the dragon and spit-up an attack. Alex smiled. "Swallowing Heaven." "Phoenix Aura!" That was not all. The Phoenix Aura appeared and coated his body before it moved toward the dragon, covering it with a layer of armor made of fire. "Go!" The dragon flew toward the devil while roaring. The latter only glanced at him and waved his sword, releasing a green sword wave. The moment it hit the dragon, it turned to a torrential wind that was supposed to rip the dragon into pieces, but¡­ What he got was exactly the opposite. Alex''s Swallowing Heaven ate the Sword Wave and burned the wind until nothing left. "What?!" The guy leaped toward Alex and struck him again, trying to see if he still recklessly controlled the dragon to kill both of them at the same time. And it turned out it was true. Alex was crazy enough to have the dragon swallow them, albeit it stopped because the devil already escaped. "I see. To think my opponent is a Pure Fire Element. This is a very rare element to the point I can''t see how such a person is unknown." The devil narrowed his eyes, trying to probe any information from Alex. Alex only smiled. "You are going to die anyway¡­ Just like those people who saw my Pure Fire." The devil raised his sword and waved it down, creating multiple wind blades while wondering whether Alex was bluffing or serious. The dragon kept chasing the devil until, at one moment, he disappeared. It was supposed to kill the dragon at this point, but Alex simply smiled. "But unfortunately, I have seen someone faster than you." The Phoenix Aura formed a shield on the dragon body that blocked the entire attack before channeling it in another direction. The dragon stopped, and its head spun around to swallow the devil, but the latter already prepared and struck his sword. It was at this time Kai suddenly appeared right behind him. He waved his sword toward his neck, trying to send it flying. The devil gritted his teeth and released his wind to move his sword faster than the limit, striking the fang and the sword almost at the same time. He used that momentum coming from the two attacks to gain a large distance between him and Alex. ''This is a tough opponent. If I go all out, the other Gods might appear to help me, so I should buy time instead. It''s not like this is my fault to begin with, so nothing to be ashamed of.'' The devil took a deep breath and raised another type of stance. Alex narrowed his eyes. This purple devil was wearing only pants. It had similar features as a human, except the fact it had a third eye in the middle of his forehead, making him a bit creepy. He used a long green sword that matched his tall body, which was two times Alex''s height. On the other hand, Alex was using a sword that he randomly picked from the storage. ''Don''t worry. I have been maintaining the advantage, but this way, he might call the other devils. I don''t know about the battle between Gods, but if they are like what I thought, this battle might be big enough to create a wave of energy that could be felt by the entire world. In that case, I should kill him first before the others notice it.'' Alex took another deep breath before sending his Swallowing Heaven again. The devil disappeared again before Alex found him at the same place. He was trying to cut the dragon again, but Alex didn''t let him. It was at this time the devil finally showed one of his tricks as the Divine Energy around his sword flew in another direction. Just as everyone thought his sword would hit the dragon, but the real attack was that wind. Alex prepared to intercept that wind before finding something was wrong. The wind blade itself was coated by many layers, and he realized what he wanted to do. The wind blade kept penetrating the dragon. Those many layers were to exhaust the Pure Fire, so it would not be able to adapt the entire system with the new fire clashing with it. That is why my strength can hit it. Just make sure you adapt first, see the information, and fight a grand battle. And somehow destroyed the dragon. Alex appeared again before him, striking him from behind. But the devil seemed to understand where they were attacked. "!!!" Alex tried to retract his sword at the last second because he found the little gesture coming from the devil. And it turned out he was right. Before he could do anything, the devil turned around and slashed his sword. "Go away!" The devil launched Alex to the ground, creating a huge crater. He released a few Sword Waves, trying to injure Alex heavily. Seeing so many Sword Waves coming toward him, Alex pulled his sword and shot out a huge laser to the sky. "Mythical Spear Cannon." It engulfed all the incoming Sword Waves, allowing Alex to regain his ground. He then summoned another dragon and charged together with it. "It''s useless. You won''t be able to beat me." The devil swung his sword again after killing the dragon, trying to pounce Alex away, but Alex had another trick this time. Three Swords from three different directions suddenly appeared. "What is this? This attack is weirder to that of a few moments ago!" The devil sweatdropped. "Triple Draws!" The devils struck the first one and decided to shift his body to avoid the other two. He gritted his teeth, not allowing him to be trampled just like that. His arm was still on the move toward Alex''s stomach. "!!!" Alex activated his Phoenix Aura to create two layers of armor to block this attack, but he was still blown away by this fist in the end. However, the devil didn''t escape unscathed as he just realized that his hand was bleeding all over. Some spots were even charred black. To think Alex dared to trade the injury with another injury. He must be confident in inflicting greater damage than him, and it turned out it was true. Alex didn''t really sustain any damage while his hand was covered with blood. Both of them seemed to have the same thought as they leaped at the same time. They had a few hundred clashes within a few minutes, creating crater after craters in every single attack. Alex kept track of his battle and could already picture the incoming reinforcement. Leoz seemed to have killed all the lower level devils and waited for Alex to finish his fight. At the same time, he observed the surroundings to make sure there was not an ambush around. Knowing he didn''t have much time left, Alex thought for a moment and searched for a way to beat him before reinforcement came. He thought about calling Leoz or other spirits, but he decided to fight alone because he wanted to get used to his Divine Body''s strength. It sounded dumb but necessary for him. He ended up trading another few hundred blows with the devil. His body got many injuries, but the devil seemed to be a bit worse. Still, it had been thirty minutes since the start of this fight, so he believed he didn''t have much time left. ''I need to beat him immediately.'' Alex gritted his teeth when a thought came into his mind as he cursed, ''I think there is no choice. This is the best thing I''ve got in my current state.'' Alex summoned his dragon again, doing the same trick. "Hmph! The same trick won''t be able to get me again. You are boring. I think I don''t even need help from other people to finish you before fighting that guy." The devil snorted while swinging his sword to stop Alex''s sword with the same Divine Art. However, a sudden gust of wind slowly enveloped him as if he had done with this boring fight and wanted to kill Alex right now. Albeit, he didn''t realize Alex suddenly used another Martial Art. There were a Space Element and other things in the mix, telling him that he had been holding back this whole time. "Do you think I am only this much? You are overestimating yourself." Alex grinned and finished his swing. "Fighting you is hard, especially at my current condition. If I have a few more Divine Techniques, I believe I can beat you without this, but I don''t care anymore. I don''t want to be surrounded even before completing my own objective, so just die." His blazing sword released a Sword Wave that destroyed everything around the area because of that Space Ripple. "Three Purities Slash!" "!!!" The devil, who met this slash with his sword, felt an overbearing pressure that would lead to his demise. The wind around his body got distorted and burned to nothingness. "Impossible!" He exclaimed in surprise. "I have created a few layers of wind to ensure that the Pure Fire won''t be able to burn them simultaneously¡­ Why? Wait! This is¡­ Space Element!" He finally felt the fluctuation of the Space Element rippling around his wind. Due to the distortion, Alex''s Pure Fire slipped past his wind, burning all layers of his wind. Alex''s Absolute Blade Intent didn''t manage to cut through the sword but was able to crack it. It seemed he only needed to upgrade it to Absolute Blade Divine Intent, and he would be good to go. Still, with the Pure Fire and Space Element destroying all the devil''s defenses, the sword attack was finally connected. "No!" The devil screamed as he felt the energy coming to him and slashed his body. The blade still cut the ground and burned the sky as well. And if one took a look at their surroundings, it was practically a disaster. If this were the Fire God Clan City, it would have been destroyed thrice. *Pant pant!* The sword touched the ground, supporting Alex to not fall. This was the first time he used this much Divine Energy after ascending and to think he would already use eighty percent of his Divine Energy. This was insane. It would mean that he needed around half of his Divine Energy to kill an opponent at the same level. Even so, he still needed many Divine Arts to consolidate his attack power, and that would be what he was going to work on from now. Alex looked at the aftermath and glanced at Leoz. "This won''t be good. Deal with that portal now!" "Yes, Master." Leoz nodded and clapped his hand as the lightning covered his body. 855 Alicia Leoz closed his eyes, channeling half of his Divine Energy to this attack as he chanted. "O'' Ancient Thunder God, what is it that lies within your eyes? O Bright Thunder that splits the Heaven, rumbling tremors that shake the Earth, what pulse beats within your ears? Dwell inside me o God of Lightning as I am Thunder Berserker, Spirit Vessel." Alex lifted his vision after hearing the rumbling sound and was literally shocked by what he saw. The black cloud had a sense of familiarity as it contained purple lightning instead of Leoz''s yellow lightning. "This is¡­ Lightning Tribulation?!" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting to see Leoz calling the Lightning Tribulation. "Using my body as a Spirit Vessel, I am channeling my power to call the Lightning Tribulation. No, I should say the World''s Will. You might have no memory about it, but this is the technique I received when you strengthened my Thunder God Cannon. It connected me to the world''s will effectively, thus giving me this result." Leoz explained while smiling. Alex had no words about it. He never knew that it was when Leoz finally became a dependable young man that Alex rewarded him by upgrading his ability. The current him could only be impressed by the power of this technique. Leoz focused back on his control and clapped his hand, calling the Lightning itself. "Lightning God Possession, Heaven''s Wrath!" Just like how people thought that Heaven was the sky, the so-called Heaven''s Wrath was the Lightning Tribulation coming from the world. Still, due to the world classified as a Divine World, this technique brought more power than it would ever do in the previous world. The lightning bolt formed and struck forth. Alex saw the portal emitting more energy because it sensed the incoming lightning but to no avail. With the world taking action, nothing would be able to prevent it! The purple lightning burned the portal, gradually turning it into smithereens. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to watch this, observing the energy flow so as to catch the thing that built the portal. It led him to an underground array that seemed to be built inside an underground room. When he was about to destroy the ground, the lightning from Leoz''s attack slipped through the ground and connected to the array. By the looks of it, the array itself was a formation, containing a few arrays to connect two worlds while maintaining stability. With the arrays starting to get burned, he closed his eyes, knowing that his promise had been delivered successfully. "Since I have finished my objective, it''s time to go to Alicia. Still, I need to know where I am right now." Alex thought for a moment and glanced at Leoz. "How are you?" "Summon." "Master." Nelson clasped his hand as a greeting before cutting to the chase. "It''s best to leave this place first." "Sure. You lead. It''s not like I can use my Teleportation just like that because I don''t know the terrain in our surroundings¡­ I don''t want to suddenly teleport to the center of a city." Alex nodded and stretched his hand, asking Nelson to go ahead. Nelson thought for a moment and nodded. "Please follow me." Alex nodded. Unlike Firia, Alicia was not a member of his Spirit Nest, so he couldn''t ask her to summon the spirit on her side. So, he needed to know her position first before doing anything else. He followed Nelson for around thirty minutes before arriving in a desolate forest. "Master, I think we need to camouflage ourselves as a devil. If I am not wrong, there will be a God Rank expert roaming around this area soon, and he will be able to find us at a single glance," said Nelson while putting on a serious expression. "How?" Nelson also didn''t have an answer. Appearance-wise, they could easily camouflage as one, but energy-wise, it was easy to tell if they didn''t have their energy. "I believe Young Master should wait in this place while I am gathering information about our position. Since Lady Alicia is searching for the Green Devil Tribe, I believe they are going to the most powerful continent where the Gods reside. I believe we can start our search there." Nelson offered a suggestion. "Sure. I am perfectly fine. If you think that is the best we can do, then no need to hesitate." Alex nodded. "For now, try to conceal yourself first and put on this mask. Unless it''s something special, I don''t think the devil will ask you to take out your mask. At the same time, you should change your clothes to a long-sleeve one, so they won''t be able to see your skin." Alex agreed with his suggestion and changed clothes before he realized Nelson had disappeared. He then started his own investigation of his surroundings, making sure there was not a single devil nearby. ¡­ In a nearby area, there were two bodies lying in a pool of blood. Their body was that of a devil, but one could see that both of them were females. Alex found this area not long after starting his search. "There is not a single living being nearby," Alex muttered while looking around. "Should I search the corpses? Who knows there is something valuable or a map in their possessions¡­ Wait!" Alex took another look and realized there was an array in their body, and if he took another look at them, they seemed to be alive. After breaking the concept of the array, he realized that the woman on the left seemed to be stronger than he expected and her energy was far more than him. Next to her was also a powerful being that seemed to have the same cultivation as him. This was something he couldn''t understand, considering each God Rank Experts were treasures. "What are they doing? The array¡­ Did they actually put it themselves to make them look dead? Or the enemy did it to them?" Alex tried to comprehend the intention, but to no avail until he completely understood the concept of this array. "There are two arrays on their bodies. The first array is called Union Death Array. It''s an array that puts someone in a half-dead state. If the master of this array is them, they can wake up anytime. If they are not, only those who take control of it can wake them up. "The second array is called Devilization Array. According to my memory, this is a special array from this world. The devils seem to use this to increase their subordinates. It''s a special array that could turn one into a devil, starting from their energy. Welp, on Earth, you can say it''s selling your soul away to the devil¡­ In a sense." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before a small wolf came out of his body, gradually turning into a beauty. "Master!" Sherry hugged Alex and called his name with a low tone because she knew what happened outside. "Sherry?" Alex widened his eyes. "Yes." Alex took a look at her body and realized it was already a Divine Body as well. He said, "Congratulations on achieving a breakthrough." "Yes, thank you, Master. Actually, I finished as soon as Master arrived in this world, but I decided to wait because you were fighting someone. I was going to wait for a little bit more until you reached a safe place, but I felt something from the two down there." Sherry pointed the two devils on the ground. "Huh?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "What did you feel?" "I feel a sense of familiarity. And my nose seems to recognize their scene¡­ No, I should say one of them." "One of them?" Alex couldn''t understand her and asked. "Can you elaborate?" "Hmm¡­ How should I say this? I don''t know who she is, but I should have known her in the past because my nose said so. I don''t know what Master is thinking and don''t receive any of your memory, so only you who are supposed to recognize her." Sherry shook her head in disappointment because she couldn''t help Alex with this. "No, I think that is enough for you." Alex patted her head. "Well, you can return inside first because things will go rough from now on." Sherry nodded and disappeared. "See you later, Master." "See you later." Alex nodded before falling into deep thought. ''Now¡­ What should I do about this? There is something that I need to check first before going there, but¡ª" Before Alex''s thought ran wild, the system seemed to have noticed it earlier than him as a notification immediately appeared. [Host. I think the situation is not like what you think it is.] "What do you mean?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [Take a look at their cultivation once more.] "It''s Rank 10 God and the other one¡­ I don''t really know whether she is a Rank 8 God or a Rank 7 God because I have never seen them. I can''t compare it." [It''s good enough. Then how about you take a look at your energy and compare it to you and your spirits.] Alex felt something wrong and took another look at them, comparing their energy to Anna and the others, and it shocked him to see they had a similar energy. Every species seemed to have a different set of energy, or it could be said as flow. The energy flowing inside the spirit had a pattern, the energy flowing inside the devils or even Sherry also had a pattern different from that of a spirit. But what he saw from them was actually the one that the spirits have. This baffled him because he certainly remembered that Alicia and a helper came to this world to fight the Green Devil Tribe. Anger started coming out of his eyes as if he wanted to murder someone before Lin Xingzhi reminded him once more. [Host. I know you are angry, but please calm down and listen to me this one time. Take a look at their body, and you will see no wounds in their body. At the same time, they also don''t have internal injuries. Firia has learned Alchemy, but do you remember what "she" has learned?] The anger quickly dissipated when he realized it and couldn''t help but comment. "So, she makes the array herself? What is the purpose?" [I don''t know. Maybe you can ask her yourself with a thought transmission if you are unsure whether to approach her now.] Alex took a deep breath and decided to follow the instruction. It seemed that she had a plan in her mind to fake her own death, so he decided to ask her first before coming to her. The woman twitched her finger because what she heard was truly ridiculous. She heard¡­ "Alicia." 856 Two Ice Phoenix Queens As soon as her name was called, Alicia got a reaction because this voice resembled the most important person in her life. Alex could see that the array slowly disappeared as if she reacted to his call, and without a doubt, the woman was Alicia. Without wasting a single second, Alex appeared before her. "Husband." Alicia gradually looked up as her appearance slowly crumbled, revealing her true look. Tears started to swell up in the corner of their eyes before they remembered there was another person beside them. The same as her, her devil appearance suddenly disappeared, showing her long blue hair and beautiful face. "Ilumi greets Master. It''s my honor to see you, Master." The woman called Ilumi kneeled on one knee. Her voice was cold and aloof, but he could sense the happiness behind it. "What are you doing here?" Alex nodded to her and asked. Alicia thought for a moment and sighed. "Let''s go out of this place first." "Alright." Alex agreed, and the group went deeper inside the forest. He took out Nelson''s card and said, "Nelson, I am going to recall you back since I have found Alicia." "Understood." Alex summoned him again because his ability might be needed in whatever she wanted to say to him. "There is a town near this forest. We are staying there for a while, so I guess we can go there." "In that case, we can sneak in with my Spatial Gate," Alex suggested. Alicia and Ilumi exchanged looks before nodding to his suggestion. They entered the Spatial Gate and went toward the town. Alex could see the bustling town, but then he realized it was not like the town he had ever visited. Despite having so many devils inside, it was quiet. Not a single devil was talking. The best they could do was whispering. "Why are they¡­" Alex frowned, glancing at Alicia. "I have just come back from this place, and according to them, they can only talk inside a building. It''s a weird custom, but it''s a special one in this town." Nelson was the first to answer. "How long since you first arrived at this place?" Alicia was a bit surprised and asked. "A few minutes?" Nelson tilted his head. "As expected from Nelson, I have heard of your reputation, but to think to this extent¡­" Alicia smiled, fully impressed by Nelson''s ability. "Thank you for your praise, Lady Alicia." Nelson bowed politely. "Ah, there should be an inn in this direction. We are staying in the furthest room on the third floor." Alicia noticed the slight movement and hurriedly informed Alex. He nodded and led them carefully as to not get caught by someone. Alex also decided to look around the town with his Spirit Eyes to see whether they had strong people and noticed many Martial Monarchs and Martial Saints around. Alicia helped Alex in creating the Sound Insulation Array before looking at Alex with teary eyes. "It''s been so long¡­" Alicia still tried to put her smile even though her eyes couldn''t lie. Alex immediately hugged her tightly, not wanting to let it go. They had separated for more than a decade. Although Alicia had been talking to him from time to time through the system, it was still a rare occasion. The longing they felt this whole time was released simultaneously. Nelson and Ilumi decided to walk a bit further to give them a room. Alex didn''t mind the smell of blood and let it stick to his clothes because Alicia just was lying down in a pool of blood a moment ago. He didn''t mind the saltiness of her tears. Everything just couldn''t beat the bitterness they endured until they finally met again. It continued for several minutes before Alicia gradually pushed him away and looked to the side. "Let me change my clothes first." Alex also decided the same because the blood also stuck on his clothes. "Still, I never think I would meet you in that situation. I almost blew up." Alex sighed. "Never mind, I should have done this first." Alex sent an invitation to Alicia, and she accepted it right away. She changed to a long sleeve white shirt and knee-length blue skirt that seemed to complement her light blue hair very well. He couldn''t help but touch her hair because of this and looked a bit sad. "Do you remember that I have become a Spirit now?" Alicia gently stroked her hair and looked at it. "This is the result of it. It''s fine. I pretty like the color as well, and if you don''t like it, I can dye it." "It''s fine. As long as you like it, I don''t really mind." Alex smiled and hugged her from behind. Alicia nodded and whispered something to him. "Ahem, I have seen your memory as well¡­ And if you want, I can use my illusion array to transform this place into something you want. Then, I can also change my clothes to¡­ What do you say again? Cosplay?" "Pfft." Alex almost burst out laughing. "Never mind about that." "But you are tempted; I can feel it." Alicia made a smug smile. Alex didn''t answer her nor deny it. He changed the topic instead. "Anyway, what were you doing earlier?" "It''s bait, but let''s call the two first." Alicia smiled before looking at another room where Nelson and Ilumi waited for them. "I am sorry for making you two wait." Alex nodded and found that the two had prepared a table and four chairs for the discussion. He stretched his hand as they sat down on their own chairs. Ilumi took out a map from her Space Ring and started explaining the condition. "This is the map of this world. There are three big continents in this world, and the three have the same amount of strength. In other words, there are one Rank 7 God, two Rank 8 God, seven Rank 9 God, and fifty Rank 10 God in this continent alone." "Hmm¡­ That is quite a large number." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "By the way, what is the strength of Eulja?" Ilumi didn''t answer him. Instead, she looked at Alicia first. "Although we both are Divine Worlds, there is a tier as well. In this world, three Rank 7 Gods are leading it. This is the lowest one you can get to be considered as Divine World. If I am not wrong, the world you lived in until now is considered as a middle grade because it had Rank 4 God assume the command. And the last one is the high grade because it has Rank 2 God in command." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "But if I am not wrong, Eulja has¡­" "Yeah. It''s considered high grade as well, but they are a special one because we have a Rank 1 God protection. Those who get the protection of a God King will surely become prosperous. Back then, Eulja had you and Time God, so it was respected and feared by many. "After all, if two Rank 1 Gods attack a high-grade Divine World, they will annihilate them, and no one would think it''s weird. Well, this is more to the history of Eulja, so I think you should ask "her" for this." Alicia decided to stop. Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "I understand. Let''s go back to the topic then. With all these Gods protecting this continent, I doubt we can settle this easily, right?" "Yeah. That''s why I was pretending to be an injured woman, precisely in a half-dead state. The Green Devil Poison Tribe is searching for a body to test their poison, so I am going there to sneak around their base. "They will surely help me and bring me back. At that time, I can sneak attack them and possibly kill their Gods. The problem will be the remaining Green Devil Tribe and their record. If they are not eliminated, the poison supplied by this tribe won''t ever end. "I have made my preparation though, because I heard you were going to return." Ilumi stared at her for a moment and felt the need to address the reason, so she said, "Lady Alicia was a bit impatient because of it and took this risk. If possible, I would like Master to stop her right now." "Ilumi!" Alicia slammed the table and glared at her. She didn''t want Alex to know about this because he would be angry. And she was right, Alex narrowed his eyes, fuming in anger. "If myself is the one harming you, I think it''s better to stay in that world for another few years¡­" "Wait, Alex! Let me explain¡­" "I know. You don''t need to." Alex shook his head. "I don''t want someone to risk their lives just because of the time that can be extended, especially my own wife." He looked down and clenched her fists until it bled. He was also mad at himself. Alicia bit her lips and placed her hand on Alex''s. "I am sorry. I forgot that you prioritize us more than time. I was too excited to meet you¡­" "I apologize too." Alex shook his head and let out a long sigh. He looked at Ilumi with a smile. "Thank you for telling me." "You''re welcome. I know that I can''t control my queen, so I could only rely on Master." Ilumi nodded. "Now that you mention it, I think there is someone who wants to meet you!" Alex decided to change the topic again and summoned Vera. Just like how she met Alex for the first time, she walked toward Alicia and kneeled on one knee. "Vera Fabotelli greets Your Highness, Ice Phoenix Queen Spirit." Alicia immediately helped her up and smiled. "Ice Phoenix Tribe has been helping me this whole time. I am indebted to them. I always want to meet you because I have so many things to learn from you." "It''s my honor to teach the queen as well as Master''s wife." Vera smiled. "Can I call you Vera? You can call me Alicia too. Instead of having a formal relationship like this, I would like us to become a sister instead as people from the same tribe." Alicia smiled. "U¡­ I understand." Vera nodded awkwardly before she looked away. "But it''s not like I want to do it, alright? I just think it''s the best choice because you are Master''s wife." "Here it comes! Lady Vera won''t say something like that if she doesn''t like the person!" Ilumi added. "Ilumi! You brat! You dare to tease me now? Should I spank you again?!" Vera pouted¡ªFace red. "I am scared, my Lady. But I am under Lady Alicia right now, so I am afraid I can''t offer you my butt again. Besides, I am currently stronger than you, Lady Vera." Ilumi grinned as if she had an evil plan in mind. "Ugh! I can still ask that old hag to punish you. And when I gain my previous strength, I will beat you up!" Vera looked away. Alex and Alicia smiled because this might be the first time they found that Vera, the former Ice Phoenix Queen, had this intimate relationship with someone in the tribe. In fact, Alicia heard that she was actually more friendly than she could think, but she just never had a chance of meeting her in person. And seeing her like this only reinforced the truth even more. Vera suddenly glanced at Alex and had an idea as she came to Alex. "Master¡­ How about you ask Ilumi to come? She is like a child, and I think you will like to tease her. She only appears cold and aloof on the outside, but she will start sobbing like a child when you start spanking her." Ilumi''s face turned pale, and she looked at Alex while rising from her seat. "Master¡­ You are not going to do that, right?" "Fufu¡­ I have been with Master for a decade while you are staying in Eulja this whole time." Ilumi became even more scared, but Alex only chuckled and said, "Haha¡­ You two are acting like sisters. I am glad that Alicia has been in the care of a tribe like this. Thank you." The two suddenly fell silent, mesmerized by his words instead to the point they could only look away and scratch the back of their head embarrassedly. 857 Plan "Ah, right." Alicia nodded. "The Green Devil Tribe surely wanted a good body to experiment, so we wanted to come to their base to kill their Gods. Even if I am not able to fight their God, Ilumi will do it in my stead. "The problem will be the remaining devils in this tribe. As long as they are not removed, the poison will still be known to any devils in this world, so I am going to massacre the entire tribe to prevent the information about the poison from spreading. "Of course, this was a hard choice even for me, especially after knowing your opinion as well. However, I have found something interesting in their tribe that makes me decide to do this. "First will be Devilization Array. Although many high ranking devils have accessed this array, the Green Devil Tribe seems to be planning something. They are using poison to create a stronger devil, and this devil contains the same Green Devil Poison in their body. "So, you can say that they have a stronger ability than their peers and if you kill them, the Green Devil Poison will spread, allowing the tribe to get even more ferocious." Alicia''s expression turned serious as she hated what happened to her because of this Green Devil Poison. "There is around ninety percent of the tribe that is actually agreeing to this matter, so I am going to act fast and destroy them." Alex thought for a moment. She said she wanted to use the formation to trap them, and Alex felt they were going to succeed, depending on the strength of their poison. In fact, that was the only thing they needed to be watched out for because the only thing that could defeat Ilumi would be their poison. But that weakness disappeared with the appearance of Alex and his Pure Fire. Alex nodded. "I think we can do this, but there is no need for you to pretend." Alicia narrowed her eyes. "If I am not wrong, your Pure Fire can now solve any kind of poison, right?" "Yes. I have evolved my Pure Fire to that level, so we can storm in." Alex nodded. "What is their power level?" "One Rank 9 God and two Rank 10 Gods. The rest can be easily killed by Rank 10 God, I guess." Alicia glanced at Ilumi as the latter nodded to confirm her information. "Still, I am sure that the Green Devil Tribe has enough people outside their tribe, so it''s hard to exterminate them." Alex looked down and stroked his chin. "I know, but I have the information. There will be a tradition in the Green Devil Poison that needs to be participated by every single member of the tribe. It''s the selection of their next-generation leader." "Oh, wow! So convenient." Alex exclaimed in amazement, half-joking. "We decided to do it because the leader said someone would need to fight each other with their poison to be eligible to receive his seat, so I thought it was perfect," Ilumi added. "Oh!" Alex nodded. He first thought it was plot armor that gave him a convenient situation to pass, but it seemed he was wrong. Alicia had been working hard for this, so he apologized inwardly. "That''s right. Alicia. Do you have a Space Element?" "No. I am sensitive to the Space Element, but Spirit can''t have two elements at the same time, especially an element coming from something, not a spirit." Alicia shook her head. "Then, your formation is not formed by a Special Array?" "Unfortunately, yes." "How about if we upgrade it now? When is the selection of the patriarch?" Alex asked. "It''s going to be another year because all those elders are trying to eliminate each other first before the competition even begins." "If we attack them at that time, I believe we will be able to wipe them out. And with your Divine Array and my Simulation Array, we should be able to mask all battles inside the formation." Alex nodded. "One year should be enough to learn a few Arrays and one Divine Art." Alicia looked down, falling into deep thought. She looked at Ilumi, who nodded her head and decided to agree with this. "Alright. We will wait for another year until everything is ready. In the meantime, I can help you in increasing your Array Mastery." "Then, I will be relying on you." Alex smiled and nodded. "Which arrays do you want to practice though? Do you have something in your mind?" "Yes. I am planning to learn my Simulation Room, an Illusion Array, a Barrier Array, One attack type array and one binding type¡­ Never mind, I won''t go with the binding type. Instead, I am going to practice one Divine Art and one Teleportation Array." "Master¡­ Are you still going to practice your Space Element? I mean, since you are going to hide it for a while, I think you can practice another thing instead." Nelson asked with a concerned face. He could only ask this because he knew about Zark. But Alex didn''t know a single thing about him, so he shook his head. "Yes. I am hiding my Space Element, but it doesn''t mean I should slack off. As much as I want to practice a Divine Fire Art, I believe Teleportation Array is better for me." "I understand. I can''t help you with the Teleportation Array, but I should be able to teach you the rest¡­ At least I can offer you some tips and tricks. And one more thing, a Divine Array is different than you think." Alicia''s expression turned serious. "You need to find one that suits your level because if you practice one that is a bit too far from you, it will seriously drain your power, especially with the fact that you can''t use Spirit Crystal to power them up." "Now that you mention it, the Spirit Crystal only produces Spiritual Energy while Divine Arrays need Divine Energy. In that case, won''t it be too hard for you to maintain the formation?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows, thinking Alicia wanted to play with her own life again. "Nope. I have a few Divine Items in my possession. Although it''s only a low rank Divine Item, they are pretty useful to fuel this formation. And I believe not a single Martial Saint can break this." Alicia shook her head. Alex looked at her and nodded. "Alright. I will believe you in this area. Well, I need to practice my Alchemy skill again¡­ Haiz too many things to do at once. And now your power has surpassed me, what am I going to do?" "Why don''t you stop practicing Array and Alchemy for the time being and focus on your Cultivation?" Alicia asked. "That will definitely be a no. I am going to master them all because this will be important in the future. Besides, by having many techniques at once, I can hide some to create and a new persona, so the enemies won''t recognize me. Isn''t it the time where I need to be careful?" Alex glanced at Alicia. "True enough. Alright. Forget that I asked." Alicia thought for a moment. "Since I can produce Array Plates, I can start earning money in bulk, so you don''t need to worry about my cultivation resource. Firia is the same. In that case, you will be the one trying to get your own cultivation resources." "Hmm¡­ We can just rob the Green Devil Tribe for our cultivation resources for the time being." Alex shrugged. "True. We can do that. In that case, we have time to spend since you yourself know there are too many things you need to do, right? You can start practicing between them." Alicia suggested. "That''s the only way, I guess." Alex nodded. "By the way, who is going for this mission? Are you going to call everyone else?" Alicia asked. Alex thought for a moment. "I, you, Nelson, Ilumi, and Anna. Ilumi is to kill the rank 10 God while Alicia and I kill their leader. Anna and Nelson are supposed to kill the remaining devils." "It''s still tough, I think. We are far stronger than them¡­ That is for sure, but it''s hard to fight so many Martial Saints at once. Do you know how many of them there? They have around twenty thousand Martial Saints. Even though God Stage is far stronger than Martial Saint, it''s not to that point." Alicia was concerned about this. "Really?" Alex felt a bit too powerful when he reached God Stage, so he never realized he had made a small mistake in his calculation. He adjusted his plan. "In that case, we will have Leoz and Jeanne as the backup. I don''t think I will summon more than this because I don''t want our battles to be too eye-catching to the point the others know it is us." "I don''t have a problem then." Alicia nodded. "Ilumi can also help others after killing the Rank 10 God." "I think it''s better for me to watch your battle instead of helping. Lady Alicia is strong, and Master Alex is stronger, but I am still a bit worried to see you both facing the Rank 9 God. Although Master Alex can handle their poison, it''s still hard because we are fighting in an enclosed space." Ilumi shook her head. Alex narrowed his eyes as he seemed to understand her meaning. "Do you mean they are going to release the poison in the air?" "Yes. Master can burn the poison, but if they are spreading it in the air, this is going to be hard for us because Master needs to burn the poison with your Pure Fire¡­ Which means you need to burn all the air inside the barrier." She nodded. "It''s a bit dangerous if that is the case for various reasons. Because of that, we should snatch their antidote as well. It won''t go that well, but it should be enough to buy time." "Yes. I have the same thought. In any case, we will do our best to defeat a Rank 9 God. I will be in the front because his poison won''t work against me, and Alicia will be on the back, supporting me with her arrays." Alex decided before looking at Ilumi. "You can observe, but you should also kill a few people in our surroundings. Just ensure that there is no devil interfering in our battle while preventing them from using poison. After all, I need to purify the poison if everyone else gets inflicted by it." "I understand. They have many poisons that can affect God Rank experts, so I will be extra careful." Ilumi nodded. "In that case, I should also snatch a few poisons while doing the investigation." Nelson grinned. "Alright. In that case, we should stop the meeting since we have discussed everything." Alex nodded and glanced at Nelson. "You can appear a bit later than us since I believe you should steal all their poisons when we are distracting them." "Understood." "Sure. I will give all the information we have gathered during the past few years." Ilumi nodded and grabbed Nelson''s hand as they sneaked outside the room, leaving Alicia and Alex inside. Alex and Alicia exchanged looks, knowing they were being considerate for them, a couple that hadn''t met for more than a decade. Alex looked at Alicia, and the latter looked back. They walked closer as Alex gently pulled her into his embrace. The two smiled and started kissing passionately and reached the bedroom. The details are omitted¡­ 858 Training Alex lowered his head and kissed her forehead as the latter seemed to have woken up because of this action. "Hmm¡­" Alicia slowly opened and looked at Alex with a smile. "Good morning." "Good morning." Alex smiled back while stroking her hair. "Are you going to practice right now?" "Well, that''s my plan since the time is a bit tight with the current program." Alex scratched his head embarrassedly. As much as he wanted to have a few more days of quality time with Alicia, he needed to set his priority right. "I know that you are going to finish this faster because you want all of us to reunite." Alicia gently put her hand on the bed to push her body up. "Let''s go then. I will keep up with your training." "Ehm¡­ Are you sure?" Alex looked concerned while glancing at the bed as if he asked her to rest for a bit more. "It''s fine." She shook her head as she patted his chest. "Let''s go. I will teach you the basics of Array Mastery, specifically for Divine Array, because there is a huge difference. Well, I know that you have the knowledge in your head, so I will probably explain the summary alone." Seeing her determined face, Alex finally walked out of his bed, following her from behind as they both put on their clothes before going to a table. Alicia then started her explanation about Divine Array and what he needed to do to quicken his speed and so on. It was quite a sophisticated technique even for himself. And it was true that he had knowledge about that in his memory, but he might need to dig it up and master it in a few weeks. However, Alicia helped him and made him master all the things she told him within a week. This tremendously aided Alex''s understanding of Divine Array, albeit he also realized in this session the fact that he couldn''t use a peak Divine Array just yet truly disappointed him. He understood that his strength and concentration were not strong enough to control the array without affecting his fighting ability, but he might be able to use it by creating a formation. In the end, Alicia managed to stop him, so he didn''t ruin his foundation in this Divine Array. Just like how he wanted, they started practicing the first array. One of the most important arrays needed to create a Special Realm, Illusion Array. For this, Alicia had a suggestion. The array was called the Sun Moon Reflection Array. It basically used the light coming from the sun to create an illusion that could blend with their surroundings. And since the moonlight was basically a reflection of sunlight by the moon, it boosted the Array, thus its name, Sun Moon Reflection Array. Of course, the reason he learned Illusion Array first was because this was his basic necessity. He struggled at first but soon became an expert in using it. After that, they continued to the next array. His Simulation Room. This array was a special array for him because this was the array that helped him the most to go through any training. Alicia and Alex rejoiced as they tried the Simulation Room themselves. Because she participated in the creation process as well, she somehow managed to alter the Simulation Room a bit to something close to a love hotel from Earth, and both of them released their desire there under the pretense of celebration. The third array would be like the foundation of a Special Room, a Barrier Array. Alicia had a suggestion for this, but Alex had another array in mind. It was called the Black Tortoise Array. Just like how the legend described the black tortoise, this array created a hard shell to protect himself while having the chance to summon a chain to bind their enemy as if it was a snake. He couldn''t practice so many arrays at once, so he was satisfied with this one because he didn''t need to practice a binding array. Alicia could also understand why Alex was so adamant on this array. The training of these three arrays took them around four months, and Alex couldn''t help but feel surprised, noticing that he had been training for four months. Just eight more months before they could meet¡­ Alex always had this thought before sleeping, so they really hoped there was not a single problem again that took away their time. After mastering this array, he finally had the chance to learn a divine rank Teleportation Array. This was ridiculously insane because it could penetrate the world''s barrier from the inside to the outside, not the other way around of course. With this array, he should be able to leave this world without any problem like before. He would be put away to somewhere near the world that had no Space Disturbance. And the range of this array itself was incomprehensible. At the very least for those Rank 8 or below. For the distance of thousands of light years away, if they didn''t have this, it would be hard for them to travel. Some of the God Rank Experts usually used a spaceship to travel because it would be equipped with a Teleportation Array to make their way toward the destination faster. In fact, he could travel around the world with a single portal now. The only weakness of this Teleportation Array was the fact that they needed to pour their Divine Energy into the array. They could travel far and fast but required a huge amount of energy. Spaceships usually dealt with this problem because they had a system to go through all these troublesome calculations and flew through space at a very fast speed. Alex wanted to see it by himself when Alicia talked about it. It turned out she hadn''t seen it yet, so they were planning to experience it when the time came. If possible, with the others as well. Finally, the last array he wanted to learn was an attack type array. It was known as Five Executioner Array. It was simply an array of summoning. He could summon five swords using this array and controlled it. Each sword had an extraordinary ability, but if he combined them all together and released it at the same time, the attack would be tremendous. Alicia was about to suggest this array as well because she knew about Alex''s Absolute Blade Intent. Each of these arrays took around one and a half months. In total, he used around eight months just to master these five arrays, but whether he was disappointed by the result or not, he would probably say no. With the last four months in front of them, Alex started racking his brain to develop a training schedule. First of all, he needed to learn the First Divine Sword Art after reaching God Stage, albeit not a single of them was interesting enough for him. He then moved onto the Spear Divine Art and found the thing he was looking for. This technique allowed Alex to slightly increase the length of his blade while giving an attack like that of Heaven Light Slash. Inspired by a Spear God that lost to an archer that was only an inch away, he created this technique to surpass that distance. He then looked down and pondered something. Swallowing Heaven, Dragon Aura, Phoenix Aura, Spirit Crown, Triple Draws, and Mythical Spear Cannon were Divine Class Techniques. And to top it all, Alex''s Three Purities Slash was off the chart. He used that original Divine Sword Technique to crown himself as a Sword God. However, he learned about the meaning of the spear during this period, allowing him to finally achieve a breakthrough in his spear. He thanked the new Divine Spear Technique called One Inch Spear. Although the spear extended more than an inch because it was inspired by the one-inch difference, it was called One Inch Spear by the creator. He only needed around one month to master this technique, but he was surprised by the gain, making him have close door cultivation for another two months to finally evolve his Absolute Blade Intent to Absolute Blade Divine Intent. He finally succeeded in turning everything into Divine Things from Body to Intent. On the other hand, Alicia''s improvement seemed to be extraordinary as well. After discussing arrays with Alex, just like how Alex understood Alicia''s point of view, she also learned Alex''s unique view about arrays. She was busy during this whole time just to perfect something in her mind while cultivating, so Alex didn''t catch up. Sherry also appeared during this time, but she stayed out for a while to leave Alicia and Alex to have some time alone. Alicia had asked her to join and not mind that business, but she was adamant about letting Alicia have her time just in this world. Alicia was thankful to her and somehow remembered the small fox that carried Alex from the battlefield back to the Acacia Kingdom. If not for her, Alex would have died there. She was blessed to have a family like this, even though she was a bit skeptical to see Alex with another woman, AKA started his harem, but after going through many things, she felt nothing bad about it. It was true that they wanted some affections, but when they didn''t receive the attention they deserved, the other sisters decided to give her quality time with Alex. Luckily, Alicia was also one of those types. Her jealousy vanished and was replaced by a sense of camaraderie, and fully accepted his relationship with Firia. And after meeting Lin Xingzhi and everyone else, she believed she had nothing to say other than calling them sisters. Of course, Alex called Anna and Anya, introducing them to Alicia. In fact, this was the first thing he did before starting their training. It seemed they had been talking behind his back through his system because the three looked like they had been talking with each other for years. However, Alex didn''t really mind this one because he could see that the three were happy. Having finished all the jobs, Alex finally returned and decided to use the last month to make a plan to destroy the Green Devil Tribe and disappeared from this world without anyone noticing¡­ At least for a few months. One year had passed, and Alex came out of his room after a series of training in his Simulation Room. He found Alicia sitting on a bench near the door and walked toward her. "Good morning." "Good morning." Alicia gently smiled. "What are you thinking?" Alex asked after finding a troubled look on her face. Alicia thought for a moment, wondering whether to say it or not, but it seemed she had decided to discuss it before it was too late. "Alex¡­" "Yes?" "Have you been holding back because of us?" "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. A weird feeling suddenly rose in his heart, making him uncomfortable. "I mean¡­ You have met many people in your life, especially beauties. Take a look at Evelyn, Rose, Song Yu, Putri¡­ But none of them managed to move your heart despite the fact that they had moved many hearts, intentional or unintentional." Alex was stunned by her question. He didn''t know where this question came from, but it certainly shook him to the core. "How about we discuss this first¡­" Alicia closed her eyes. Although she seemed to be reluctant to talk about this, she had to. She patted the bench a few times, asking Alex to sit beside her. In the end, Alex ended up sitting there. 859 Conversation "Yeah. Well, I indeed feel a bit disturbed about this, but I want to see your clear view on this matter. After all, we are building a family, so I want to know your opinion as well. Maybe we can reach a consensus." Alicia nodded with a slightly pained look. "I have been selfish this whole time, so I would like to ask you again. Have you been holding back this whole time?" "Ehm?" Alex scratched his head, not knowing what to say. He thought for a moment and said, "Look. I already have you, Firia, Sherry, Anna, Anya, and¡­ Lin Xingzhi, albeit I haven''t met her yet. I am just afraid that I bite more than I can chew and somehow can''t spare any time with all of you. In fact, I have been selfish as well by choosing multiple wives." Alicia looked upward and sighed. "There is also Letizia¡­ Ahem, there might be more in the future, especially if you are doing world travel." "Well, I will be asking all of you to accompany me, so there won''t be anyone bothering me again." Alex shrugged. Alicia thought for a moment and recalled whatever she had seen the last time she visited to see Alex''s progress through the system. "You have considered Putri as half-disciple because it was too forced, but I don''t really have any complaints about her, considering your relationship was never moved to that way." Alicia nodded, recalling how Putri first considered him a little brother before viewing him as her master. Unfortunately, she couldn''t keep up with the progress and was stuck in the Northern Continent. "Still, there is something amiss with your relationship with Song Yu. I am not talking about her since she has already found her other half but before that. I had seen the record and noticed that you had been distancing yourself from her. It was like you were drawing a line between you." Alex looked down and sighed. "I have no words. Senior Sister is pretty and caring, but the relationship between us can''t really be described with simple words. Like me, I believe she is drawing the line on herself, so yeah, it won''t happen, let alone now that she has someone she loves." Alicia stared at his eyes for a few seconds before accepting the answer. "How about Rose?" "Don''t even think about it." Alex narrowed his eyes, declined the idea instantly. "Well, you are like her elder brother and her father at the same time, so I won''t say much about it. Rose is a good girl, and if you have an option to adopt her as your daughter, will you do it?" Alicia asked. "I don''t know. A daughter, huh¡­ Even though it''s adopted, it''s a bit weird. I am not saying I am against it, but it is¡­ Ugh, how should I say this? It''s complicated." Alex shook his head. "Still, I can understand how my Teacher felt about me." "But that is¡­" Before he finished correcting her, she cut him. "Are you going to say it''s only a matter of master and servant? I know that Letizia thinks about it that way, but I am sure that you also feel the fondness coming from her, right?" She asked. "If you want her anytime, she will give everything to you, you know. It''s just she is afraid you don''t want it, so she never mentions it." Alex looked away. Her words were completely right. "And how about Evelyn? She is far above Letizia, you know. She openly showed her feelings, and so on, when you were in the upper world. Don''t say anything about her reminding you of your little sister. I know you thought that way before, but when she grew older, you slowly saw her as an individual because you realize that everything was only your perspective and realized yours was wrong." "Ugh¡­" Alex had no words to say. He always felt it was enough to have them, but when Alicia said it right on his face, he didn''t have any reason to give. "Well, Evelyn will stay there anyway." "True enough. As innocent as her, she will surely repay that Manness and become the leader of Drunken Pavilion. Albeit, you don''t know how scary a woman is¡­ Well, I just hope that the incident about Shelka, that pure wind element Elven Princess, would never happen again." Alex nodded. "Then, I would like you to promise you one thing." Alicia grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. "You said that you wanted to travel to other worlds with us, so no more women come close to you, right?" "Yes." "With this, there are still Evelyn and Letizia. I want you to promise me that when the time comes, I don''t want you to hold back because of us. No matter how hurt it is to have another sister, it''s more painful if we don''t have the one we love in front of us. Even the separation of a decade is hurting me, so don''t hold back for us. We will also openly protest if we don''t like someone." Alex widened his eyes, never expecting to hear these words from Alicia. "I understand." Even though he didn''t know why Evelyn was included, he decided to show a bit of himself to Letizia when they met again. Despite their first encounter, Alex was indeed fond of Letizia. She is smart to begin with, but her immature personality in the past reduced her to a slave. But he believed that the current Letizia was ten times if not a hundred times better than the past her, and that was the thing that attracted him. Albeit, everything seemed subpar if one compared it with the affection coming from Evelyn. In the past, Evelyn indeed saw him as a hero who saved her in the past and taught her how to get stronger. But over the years, she saw Alex as someone that she would like to spend time with, and her fondness grew even more from then. Alex was skeptical about this because of how she viewed him in the past and somehow decided to use it as a line that separated him and her. In any case, he promised Alicia that he would treat them better from now on, even if they were not his women. "Fu¡­" Alex let out a long sigh, calming his head down. "I am sorry to bring this matter to you." "It''s fine." Alex shook his head with a smile. Alicia nodded before rising from the bench. "You can rest here first as I call Nelson and Ilumi to discuss our plan against the Green Devil Tribe." Alex accepted it and sat down for thirty minutes, sorting his emotion and thoughts before going to the main room. To his surprise, Ilumi was the only one there. "Master." Ilumi greeted him with a bow as soon as she noticed his presence. "Where is Alicia?" "She is contacting Nelson and writing the report because Nelson seems to get something important," Ilumi answered. "Ah! I volunteered to deal with the report, but Lady Alicia told me to wait here¡­" Alex couldn''t help but smile at how she corrected herself and how¡­ She actually put her hands on her butt as if protecting them from spanking. It seemed Vera''s influence was already too deep in her heart. Even though the person in question was not here, she still acted like that. "Haha¡­ It''s fine. I won''t punish you just because of that. Besides, Alicia said it herself that she could handle it." Alex nodded and sat in front of her. "Ehm¡­ Master?" Ilumi was a bit uncomfortable when Alex stared at her this whole time. "Sorry. I was just curious about Alicia''s life when she was in Eulja." Alex apologized. "Lady Alicia''s life?" Ilumi looked down, wondering if it was alright to tell him. If Alicia didn''t tell him, wouldn''t it mean stepping over their bound to tell Alex about it? "Alicia has told me some of them, but I would like to know from another perspective as well. How do you feel and so on." Alex waved his hand, trying to fix the misunderstanding. "Ah! In that case, I can tell you. I was her last instructor before she became independent. The first instructor was my younger sister. She was in charge of her cultivation and such¡­ At the very least, she would discover all the basics. "The second instructor was an elder from the tribe that taught her about Array Mastery according to her request. Then the last one is me." "I see." Alex nodded. "What did you teach her then? Something like Battle Experience? Or all the things about Divine Being?" "It''s basically a fighting instructor. Because she fights with her element and array, I train her about all those things in general and how people fight with it." "Thank you for teaching her." Alex bowed his head. "No, no. Master. Please don''t lower your head." Ilumi panicked and tried to help him up. Alex smiled before asking again. "How was she? It must be hard to teach her, right?" Ilumi looked down and replied honestly. "To be honest, it was tough to teach her in the beginning, but Lady Alicia was really hard working. Every time I gave her time to rest, she would reflect on all the matters that happened during the practice. "I heard from the other instructors as well that she had many notes about herself that she always put all her weaknesses and things that needed to be fixed in that note. You can say it''s like Alchemy notes that one put down all their findings from mistake to solution. This one is basically the same, except it''s about Lady Alicia herself and her cultivation journey. "So, I couldn''t deny it was hard to teach her, but her determination made us want to teach her again and again. It was like no matter how many times she asked, it would be fine to answer her because we knew how hard she worked for it. And she also had the necessary talent to improve. "If I need to conclude everything I and the other two instructors within one, then¡­ We are proud to have her under our tutelage." "I see." Alex smiled. "Well, there is one thing that I should mention. Because Lady Lin Xingzhi told her to come to the house once a month to see your condition, she worked very hard during the other days. You could say she worked tirelessly, so she could make up that one day different." Alex could clearly understand why Ilumi told him this, and he couldn''t help but feel touched. Alicia worked hard to match Firia''s progress and the lost time when she was sleeping in that Box of Time. On the other hand, Firia could get all the necessary information because Alex gave her a few books about cultivation, so her time in the lower world was pretty bountiful. That was why Alicia worked this hard to catch up, and her cultivation already reached the peak of Rank 10 God, mostly because Firia stayed with Alex in the Upper World while she was cultivating in Eulja. "Right. Can you tell me more about it?" Alex asked, wanting to know Alicia more during her stay in Eulja. After all, Alicia had already seen his progress through the system, so he needed to know more about her. Maybe he would ask her again later. Ilumi was glad to talk about it. As they talked about her, the person in question finally turned up after sorting all the information from Nelson. She put down a few papers on the table before looking at Alex. "The situation is a bit interesting, so you can choose what to do during this period." Alicia smiled. Alex saw her smile and realized that she wanted to do something naughty. He looked at the paper and raised his eyebrows. "Interesting." 860 Investigation "As you have read it, yes, they have closed their perimeter because of the nearing competition where they fight to become the leader. During the past year, there are already three elders killed by another elder." "Wait a minute, you have said that you killed the previous leader by messing with his poison?" Alex stopped her, noticing an important piece of consideration. "Yes?" Alicia tilted her head in confusion before realizing what he meant. "Ah. You think the Rank 9 God has died?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "No. The one dying was a Rank 10 God. They have this custom that the next leader can only be chosen from Martial Saint while those who have become a God Rank Expert can''t participate in this and to nurture the next leader. The Rank 9 God is still there." She corrected him. "So, that was why you were saying Ilumi needed to kill only one Rank 10 God, even though they were supposed to have two Rank 10 Gods." Alex finally understood the conversation they had a year ago. He didn''t pay any intention to it because he could discuss it again in the planning session, so it was normal for Alex not to know about it. "Yeah. That''s why the chance is big for us." Alicia nodded. "With them closing their border, we can sneak inside and kill them off guard. Well, I doubt a surprise attack could easily kill a God Rank Expert, but I believe we can get one of his hands or something." Alex thought for a moment and agreed. "Alright. If you want to have it that way, we can do it right now or tomorrow. They are trying to prepare for the competition, so their eyes won''t be on us." "That''s what I am talking about." "How is Nelson by the way?" Alex asked. "I am afraid he can''t really get any information from their surroundings. He could only get around the forest because he will be found out if he comes closer. The God Rank Experts have used their senses to scan the entire tribe so as to prevent any outsider from coming in. "In fact, he got this information from the disciples in the surroundings, so it can be inaccurate as well," Alicia explained, reminding him that everything could be fake news. Alex understood how hard to sneak around him because of the heightened sense from his Divine Body. That was why Nelson was unable to sneak around them. It was also the reason why it was hard to get information in a Divine World. This information made him fall into deep thought for a while before deciding. "We can go tomorrow according to our plan. You and I shall kill that Rank 9 God as quickly as possible because we would be able to react if this turned out to be a trap." "I understand. I shall follow your words." She nodded. "By the way, I would like to ask you whether you have an idea to pass through the poison?" "Depends on their terrain." "What is the terrain?" "There is nothing to say about this other than the forest. You can enter from whenever you want." Alicia shrugged. "Alright then. In that case, we will enter tomorrow. I will prepare my Pure Fire and ensure the safety coming from the poison. By the way, how do they release so much poison in the forest without it being spread to the atmosphere?" "From Nelson''s perspective, they are using a barrier array as the container." "So it''s like a few layers thing¡­ The outside world, a barrier, a poison, a barrier again, and finally their headquarters¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. Only a few can enter, but from the information, no one has entered to celebrate this because the competition has not come yet. Hence, this is the best time to eliminate them without needing to deal with the other potential enemies," Alicia said with a serious expression. "I can understand that. And do you know how they compete with each other?" "It''s a battle of poison and prowess. Why do you ask?" "If they only rely on poison, I would be able to handle them because I know that they are only good at poison. However, suppose there is also a combat prowess competition. In that case, this is going to be difficult because we might not be able to overpower him." Alex sighed. "It''s fine. I believe our strength is enough to destroy them." Alicia smiled, assuring him. "I hope so." Alex nodded. "Nelson is to stand by in front of their barrier while observing those disciples that are patrolling around the area. After that, he can join us after burning many things from the treasury." Alex nodded. "That''s my plan. If we sneak in, they would be targeting us. Nelson then can camouflage to get inside their treasury, making sure they don''t bring any poison with them." Alicia nodded, agreeing with Alex. "Don''t worry. I will take care of that." Alex nodded. "Now there is another problem that we need to discuss. Because of the terrain and such, I can sneak inside by using my Spatial Gate, but I don''t know if they have Space Element or not, so I am going to go around the barrier to check on them." "Should I accompany you?" Alicia asked. "No. I am going to have Nelson to bring me around." Alex shook his head. "Alright. I will prepare the other things while you are investigating it." Alicia nodded. Alex nodded before taking out Nelson''s card. "Nelson. How is the situation going? Are you free right now?" "I am free, Master. I am just going around the area since I can''t enter this barrier due to the poison. They have a nasty poison this time." Nelson answered with a bit of a weak voice. He had been investigating not only the Green Devil Tribe but their surroundings, starting from the town and those neighboring cities. "I am going to summon you back here, so you can guide me around that area. I need to see if I can sneak inside using my Space Element or not." "I understand." Alex immediately summoned him before saying goodbye to Alicia and Ilumi. Nelson then guided him toward the forest where they first met Alicia. "This forest is quite wide. Its size is twice the Fire God Clan City, so I believe their town is around the size of one." Alex nodded and activated his Spirit Eyes. The first thing he saw was obviously the energy coming from the barrier. It was a Divine Array indeed, so it was pretty hard to break. However, he noticed that it only contained a Barrier Array. There was no Illusion Array or Space Element, so it was not as strong as the Special Realm. He believed he could enter the barrier right away by using his Space Element alone. "The problem is¡­ Do they have a Space Element Master, if not an Array Master?" "I am afraid I can''t investigate that." Alex glanced at him before looking up, finding the golden energy that surrounded the inner barrier. "I see. The energy from there is Divine Energy." "Yes. As you can see, I can''t go inside there unless I want to be found." Nelson nodded. "For how long has it been up?" "Since a year ago. I don''t know yet, but I noticed a few very strange things during this past year. First, I found that Divine Energy gradually spread around the forest as if they were preparing to meet something or someone." "So, are you telling me it is a trap?" Alex asked. "There is a possibility, but it is low. In the past, you have seen this place and found no energy around, right? After a few days, it suddenly goes up, so I think it''s not for us." "Hmm¡­ In that case, this third party must be aiming at the competition because it will be the time where everyone gathered." "I have the same thought. That''s why I believe this is a good time to attack. Although the help is welcomed, it will only become our trouble because we will be found out by this third party. On the other hand, we need to be careful of their poison and preparation, albeit incomplete because they are using this barrier to prevent outsiders from coming in." Alex looked down and stroked his chin. "This is going to be troublesome." "What are we going to do, Master?" Alex didn''t answer him and looked at the miasma in front of him. Firstly, even though Alex said it was miasma, it was not visible with naked eyes. Fortunately, his Spirit Eyes could pick the energy from a poison that could affect God Rank Experts. He thought it would be hard to move past this poison without any protection or Space Element, so he believed that the Green Devil Tribe had the ability to fend their enemy off with only this, allowing Alex to attack during this time. Because it was incomplete, they wouldn''t have time to rearrange everything, and there might be some arrays or anything else that hadn''t been completed yet to the point it ruined everything that needed those things. That was a very welcoming situation, but it was a bit unlikely. Either case, Alex was planning to attack them tomorrow. He glanced at Nelson and leaped to the left. "Follow me. We are going to check all directions. If there is a devil near the portal, tell me." "Understood." Nelson nodded and followed Alex without hesitation. He sometimes suggested he moved to the side when he noticed incoming presences. Of course, Alex''s Spirit Eyes allowed him to see them as well and reacted accordingly. The two then continued as Alex drew all the concepts of this array and finally returned to the base with Nelson. "How is it?" Alicia asked. "The poison is the problem. There is a chance that the inner barrier will be retracted and let all the poison come inside. As they are the Green Devil Tribe that has a long history with poisons, they must have enough antidotes for themselves, so I am planning to get rid of the poison first or create another layer of barrier that can stop the poison from spreading." "How about making the medicine ourselves?" "It''s not enough time." Alex shook his head. "That''s right. You can plant your Divine Soul into armor or token, right? How about planting one, so you can use your Pure Fire to protect us if they are planning like what you said a moment ago?" Alicia offered a solution. This was an interesting way to prevent the poison from coming to their body, but it was also risky because he needed to fight a Rank 9 God while using my Divine Energy to control the area. "That''s the best solution." Alex nodded. "But I certainly weakened a bit because I needed to spare my attention to a few people." "Indeed. Can your mind withstand that?" "Of course. Well, this fight is a bit harder, so I look forward to it. Alicia, I want you to support me using the array and ice element. I will let you decide how to attack him." Alex pointed his finger at Alicia. "Sure thing." Alicia nodded. "Ilumi and Nelson still have the same mission." "Understood." Alex then took out a few cards from his Inventory. They were Anna, Jeanne, and Leoz. They were going to take part in this battle, so they needed to be included for the details on how they would fight tomorrow. At the same time, Alex also needed to discuss their battle plan with Alicia, considering he never fought together with her. Although they had the advantage of fighting the Rank 9 God together, it wasn''t really that much because this was their first time. Thus, the day ended with so many conversations. 861 Clearing the Area "As we planned yesterday, I am going first inside the barrier. Even though the poison looks like covering the whole forest, it''s by no means many poisons. In fact, there are only a few poisons in the air, and I have found all their spots. I am going to remove those first, so we will not need to worry about this." Alex looked at the group. "I understand. We will hide and observe the barrier in the meantime." Anna nodded before looking at Alicia. "As expected, it''s better to split up to check the surroundings, making sure there is no visitor or something else." "Yeah. I will go with Ilumi. You go with Nelson in the opposite direction. Leoz and Jeanne shall stand by here and prepare to move in any given time." Alicia agreed and looked at the rest. They had no problem and nodded their heads. Alex created a Spatial Gate and entered the barrier first before the group split up. Inside the blackish green miasma that could only be seen by Alex''s Spirit Eyes, the person himself activated his Spirit Eyes. He had noticed a few concentrated spots where the poisons gathered, so he knew they were the sources of this poison. When he was about to move to the first spot, he noticed a few disciples roaming around the area. And as he expected, their strength was stronger than those in the Blackwade Clan. "To think they use Martial Monarchs as a mere patrol guard¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head before taking out a Divine Sword and Divine Spear. The Divine Sword had this blue crystalline color that smeared all over its body, including the handle. However, there were white stripes in the handle to let Alex hold it comfortably. There seemed to be a quality leap from a Rank 8 Sword to this Divine Weapon, and he felt that this sword could snap a Rank 8 Sword in half within a few clashes. On the other hand, his Divine Spear was coated in gold. There was nothing special on the handle, except a red gem imbued right below the spear''s blade. The blade had this black and green that seemed to be complimenting the spear''s beauty. During the training, he tried many weapons in his Gacha Storage and stumbled upon these two. The length and the power were top-notch, and they were easy to use because it reminded him of the two weapons he used to wield. Five devils came into his sight as Alex took a deep breath, appearing before them. "Who are you?!" The devils shouted and raised their weapons, but Alex''s speed was faster than they expected. Their eyes couldn''t catch up with his movement, resulting in Alex going past them. The three devils were shocked by Alex''s power and immediately went into their formation, thinking Alex was a Martial Saint. The first one came from the front with his hammer, looking confident with his strength. The second devil ran toward his left with his sword while the last guy leaped a bit further and released his arrow, planning to escape to inform the elder. ''Good combination, but¡­'' Alex slashed forward. The devil in front was completely shocked by Alex''s strength because he was spinning from Alex''s swing alone, but before he could react, Alex already sent the second slash, sending his head flying. He then used the spear on his left to do the same, but the opponent seemed to have understood Alex''s strength in that instant and shifted his stance. The moment Alex''s spear struck his sword, he used it to launch himself backward to avoid direct confrontation with Alex. Unfortunately, Alex was one step ahead as he swung his spear. "One Inch Spear." A reddish light flashed in his vision, but before he knew it, his vision already flew to the air as if his head just flew out of his body. He looked down and noticed it was true, thinking in his last breath. ''Impossible.'' As for the three arrows coming from the other way, Alex stepped the ground a bit harder than usual, exerting immeasurable pressure that contained his Divine Energy. "Spirit Step, Second Step." The pressure crushed the arrow along with the devil, pinning both to the ground. Alex appeared beside him and killed him. "Hmm¡­ That is quite nice. This might be the first time I fight a Martial Monarch with this power, and I can say that Martial Saints might be able to resist me once or twice before I claim their life. The distance between Martial Saint and God Stage is indeed so big, maybe this is why they are called Mortal and Divine." Alex shook his head and smiled, satisfied with his strength. He then burned their corpses before making his way to the first spot. His Pure Fire had been coating his body this whole time to prevent the poison from coming inside his body, so Alex could move in this place without any concern. He arrived within a minute, finding the big flower, excreting poison mist. It had four big petals with a huge round mouth in the middle. However, he noticed that the color miasma was blue if he looked at it with naked eyes, and found one white flower that transformed its color into transparent. This was indeed dangerous, he thought. Without wasting a single second, Alex stored these two flowers in his Inventory and used his Fire a little bit to burn the concentrated poison around this place. Alex then headed toward the second spot, where he met a small tree that seemed to be releasing the poison from its leaves. "Can I bring the tree with me?" Alex narrowed his eyes when he felt a restriction from storing this tree. [You can, Host. Just dig the tree first and separate it from the ground. Remember when you took the tree in the lower world? There was no dirt around there, so you could instantly store it.] "Ah?!" Alex never realized it and looked at the ground with his Spirit Eyes. He used his Divine Energy to raise the three from the ground, wiped the dirt stuck on the roots, and stored it inside his Inventory. "That tree and the previous flower are Rank 8 poisonous plants. I have noticed there are around ten plants in this area, and I believe with all those combined, it can really affect a God Rank Expert. Especially from the arrangement. "I didn''t understand it yesterday. But I have found that none of them has the same element. Instead, it''s more like a different element that can amplify each other. No wonder it''s so dangerous." Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "It''s really dangerous to fight a powerful poison master because of this. Luckily, I have evolved my Pure Fire according to the previous Fire God. I am really grateful to him." Alex then started running again until he received all those poisonous plants. During this, he met a total of two hundred Martial Monarchs. It was not really a big fight because Alex didn''t even use five percent of his power. Well, mostly because he didn''t dare to use his full power unless he wanted the enemies to find out. Before regrouping with his group, Alex decided to stay and came closer to the inner barrier to check what kind of city inside this barrier, albeit it seemed to be shrouded by Illusion Array. He might be able to see the shape and energy, but he couldn''t discern what kind of structure and their original color, leaving him disappointed. Still, he found something ridiculous inside the city. It was a small place hosting around ten thousand people, but he found out that their average strength was very high. At the same time, they were a bit camouflaged by this Divine Energy that permeated the entire space, so Alex shouldn''t pry it even further because it would alarm their God Rank Experts. He took a deep breath and thought for a moment, finding a need to adjust his plan. After another five minutes, he went back to his original location and used his Spatial Gate to cross the barrier. It took him more than an hour to get all those, but he finally returned to the outside, finding the entire group already gathered again. "There is nothing in our surroundings that will disrupt our plan," Alicia reported. Anna nodded in agreement since they had investigated the whole forest one last time. "We also haven''t moved from our spot." Jeanne raised her hand, telling him that they hadn''t used their strength yet. "I have taken care of the poison. Although it''s still covered with the miasma, it will be diluted to the air the moment the barrier dissolves. I will also keep an eye on you to make sure you are not poisoned." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Then our job has finished, right?" Alicia asked. "It''s time to fight those people." "Indeed. There are around ten thousand devils inside. The number is small, but they are experts because I have seen their cultivations¡­ The average is Martial Emperor to Martial Monarch. I bet this tribe doesn''t have many devils to begin with because most of them are dead because of the poison they made themselves." Alex shrugged. "True enough. We will need to be careful about this. If possible, you can inform the places that release a concentrated poison, so Nelson can get rid of it. His Shadow should be able to contain the poison in a single bowl, so he could proceed to give it to you during the fight and destroy it with your Pure Fire." Anna glanced at Nelson. "I understand. I can make a few shadow spheres to handle that." Alex thought for a moment and released Sherry from his body. "Do you need my help, Master?" Sherry asked. "You should go with Nelson instead. Your Pure Fire is the same as mine, so you can burn the poison yourself." "You don''t want me to burn this whole forest to remove the poison like the original plan?" She asked with a confused expression. Alex sometimes changed his plan in the middle of the plan itself, but she didn''t find anything that could make him change his plan. "We can deal with the poison later. Even if they are trying to release it inside, it won''t affect us for some time. We can start working at that time." "I understand." Sherry nodded before turning into a small white fox, hopping on Nelson''s shoulder. "I am in your care." "It is my honor, Lady Sherry." Nelson nodded. "Since when did you become this polite? I remember it was still the same when I was a Martial Saint." "You might not know about it, but normally a God Rank Expert needed to be addressed by Sir or Lady. Well, this is just my line of work. I don''t want to change the habit so as to avoid being rude unintentionally." Nelson explained. "Is that how it works?" "Yes." "Then, alright. It''s not like I have a problem with how you call me¡­ But you are still acting the same, right? It''s a bit uncomfortable if you start acting formally." "Of course." Nelson nodded with a smile. "Shall we go?" "Yes. I am in your hands." Alex then looked at Ilumi. "Alicia and I will sneak attack their Rank 9 God before blowing the matter up. You are going to stay away from the spotlight until the Rank 10 God appears and strikes him." "I understand, Master." Ilumi nodded. Alex rechecked his plan to avoid any hole before creating another Spatial Gate. "Let''s go then." The group then walked inside. 862 The Devils There was a house with a blue roof in the middle of the city. People sighted an elder walking toward the balcony, seeming to meet someone else. "Elder¡­" The two walked inside the room and sat down before the younger one glared at him with a serious expression. "Fufu¡­ It''s been a while since our last meeting. I have been occupied by something recently and can''t visit you." The elder chuckled. His expression was gentle and his tone was calm. "I still can''t understand you, Elder. You have been working for this tribe to the bone, but you yourself have no sort of ambition. Even if it means disobeying the rule, I am sure you can become the leader yourself. I believe you can do a better job than the previous leader who idiotically died by his own poison." "Hyohyo!" The elder chuckled again. "I am just following the rule. If we can''t even follow the rule, why would the ancestors bother to create it? Isn''t it for the stability of our tribe?" "It''s true, but I still disagree with this rule." He shook his head with a serious expression. "You are our strongest devil, and your poison is unmatched among the tribesmen. Instead of becoming our leader, you stay in your position, waiting for the next generation leader to appear. If I were you, I would have become the leader long ago." "In that case, why don''t you break the rule and become the leader right now? You have seen it yourself that the current candidates are not that strong to begin with, so you visit me to be their leader because you are worried that they will lead the tribe to ruin, right?" "Elder is right. I indeed visit you to persuade you again. After all, you are our Rank 9 God. Your wisdom and charisma are what make us like you." The devil paused for a moment. "If I were to break the rule here, you would stop me. Isn''t that right? "Yes. I will stop you since you have already become ineligible to be the leader. Still, I have placed too much work in your hand¡­ And I believe that your potential is even bigger than mine. I am looking forward to the day you become a Rank 8 God and bring pride to our tribe." "I am honored to be praised that much by Elder, but I am still worried about the fact that we are in this dire situation because of the sudden loss of the leader." "Do you remember how he died?" The elder''s eyes suddenly turned sharp, startling the devil. "What do you mean? He was meddling with his poison and somehow got killed. It''s not a rare case for our tribe because there are many people dying from their own poison, so what are you implying, Elder?" "Do you mean there is someone targeting us now?" "I am not sure, but I believe the previous leader was murdered by using his own poison." "Do you want me to search for that person? Or is this the work of an influence? Now that you mention it, we have friction against two places." The devil thought and realized all the movement that this elder made since a year ago. "Don''t tell me¡­" "Yes. I have been preparing myself for this, and that''s why I have been covering this whole city with my Divine Energy. Unfortunately, I have yet to find the rat, so I can''t act recklessly." "Since Elder couldn''t find the rats here, can we safely assume there is no rat in this tribe? Instead, I believe they are outside the barrier." "That''s what I am thinking as well. You must have noticed the incident a year ago, right???? He asked. "Which incident?" "The one in the forest. You were the one who found it." "Ah!" The devil looked down with a serious expression. A year ago, he found a trace of two people hitting the ground and some footsteps around the area. Although Nelson had covered the ground and other things, they didn''t know that the forest had its own arrangement. Just like how an ice cube could ruin the poison to the point it killed its master, the poison that was not poisonous was covering the whole forest. He noticed it was slightly different from the original position, so he knew there was someone trespassing the forest. "It started from the ground to outside of this forest. But the two bodies should be lying on the ground, and the poison around the forest doesn''t harm anyone because its true purpose is to track the change in the air." "Well, there are two possibilities. They were not dead and left the forest their own because of something, or there was another person carrying them outside. Nonetheless, we can''t really track to that very detail." The elder nodded. "I see¡­ That''s why you erect the barrier and poison. And I believe you also recalled all the spies in the world to help you in this process." "Yes. They will be hiding around the city and release the poison on my signal." The elder nodded. "I assume there is an influence targeting us, so I need to ensure the safety of this clan. I hope you can help me during this time." "Normally, we wouldn''t need to call the spies we planted on the other continents, but the situation became too serious¡­ And if I were them, I will attack this tribe when the competition starts." "I have the same thought. Because of the nature of the competition, they will be most likely to attack right after the competition because many of our Martial Saints will lose their lives during the competition, and most of them will have exhausted their energy." "I see. You are calling the spies to act as a replacement while using the potential leaders to be the baits. I am impressed once again by your wisdom Elder." The devil clasped his hand and bowed politely. He stared at the elder, full of admiration. "I really wish that Elder become our leader. Even if I reach Rank 8 God, I really like to serve as your second-in-command." "Hyoho! Don''t say that. Becoming a tribe leader will take most of my time. I rather work as a normal elder and guide the juniors. Besides¡­" The elder fell silent. "Elder?" The devil tilted his head in confusion, not knowing why the elder suddenly fell silent. "Fufu¡­ Besides, I can control everything in the dark. Just like this, I can trap them because I have been staying out of the spotlight this whole time." The elder grinned and pumped his fist as if he was enjoying this. "That''s why I am not suited to be the leader of this tribe." "I see¡­" The devil nodded. "Then, how is the progress of Elder''s preparation?" "The poisons have been made, and I only need to wait until the time is right to distribute the poisons to our spies, so they can hide all around the city." The devil nodded. "In that case, I shall play my part as well. I will be assembling a few elites to get ready for an ambush." "Yeah. The moment they are poisoned, we will destroy them with your help." The elder nodded. "I leave it in your hand." "Don''t worry, Elder. You have been helping me since I was a kid, so it''s time to repay you." The devil nodded with a smile. Although neither of them said it, they knew that their relationship was like a teacher and a student. There was an unconditional trust between them. "Thank you. I will distribute the poisons to the spies two weeks from now, so they didn''t use it before I instruct them. Although they are our spies, they can''t be trusted fully after all¡­" The elder sighed, looking at this matter with a disgusted face. It seemed he really disliked people that he couldn''t fully trust. And the devil smiled because the elder trusted him completely. He clasped his hand and bowed again. "Then I will take my leave." "Yes. Take care." Before he could rise from the floor, three shadows emerged from the dark. The two just noticed them because Alex used his Teleportation instead of walking through the Space World. Because of this, they managed to sneak past the Elder''s energy. Alex used his Spirit Eyes to locate the biggest energy. Because the elder had been hiding his energy, he didn''t know, but the slight fluctuation that he let out when he became too excited, Alex realized that the two God Rank Experts were in the same place. At that time, the only thing they needed to do was to ambush them by teleporting from within the gap filled with poison to the house. "What?! Elder¡ª" The devil rose and called his claws covered with green liquid. However, the liquid suddenly became frozen as a sword struck him. "Undefeated Claw!" "Heavenly Ice Sword." A beautiful woman with a white mask that covered her eyes struck the claw. The shock wave immediately destroyed the entire house, but the woman managed to slip her attack through the claw. "Kh!" The devil never expected this strength and realized that the woman''s strength was far above him. He could even sense the elder''s cultivation, but he felt nothing from the woman. In other words, the woman was a Rank 8 God or even higher. If an attack coming from such a person landed on his body, it would be very dangerous, so he shifted his body, directing the sword to the side, albeit still managed to take his arm. The devil gritted his teeth, enduring the pain, especially with the fact that his arm got frozen when it was hit by the residual of the ice. At the very least, the sword didn''t hit his body, else his organ might be frozen by the ice. In the meantime, Alex and Alicia had free reign. The collapsing house didn''t hinder them even for a second, and the elder was the same. A green sword coated with strange liquid appeared on his hand as he struck the incoming person''s sword. "Devil Poison!" The elder smirked because the liquid immediately flew toward the incoming person. "I have been prepared to meet all of you, but I should praise you that you have just gone beyond my imagination by attacking us this time. And only a Teleportation Array can sneak behind my energy¡­ Whether you have a Space Element or not is not important because the liquid will melt your skin." Unfortunately, the incoming person was Alex. Before the poison could even touch his skin, his Pure Fire covered his body and burned all those liquid droplets. "What?!" The elder widened his eyes. But the shock didn''t come only from the poison, but the intent he just felt. "A Sword God?" Because Alex only used his Sword, he immediately thought Alex had reached a Sword God Stage, but little did he know that it was already far too dangerous for him to think that way because this would be the perfect time Alex used his technique. He planned to massacre the entire tribe, so he didn''t need to worry about hiding it for the first time as only those in the room could watch him using it. Hence, he released his Space Element along with his Pure Fire to coat the Sword before infusing it with his new Absolute Blade Divine Intent. The strength contained in this was far above when he had yet to attain a Divine Intent. A smile appeared on Alex''s face as his sword slid down the elder''s sword as Alex completed his swing, releasing a powerful sword strike. "Three Purities Slash!" 863 Fighting a Rank 9 God The sword bent space and burned it, creating a powerful shock wave on par coming from the one next to them. "What is this?!" The elder sweatdropped as he never expected to have someone of this caliber sneak inside their house like this. The opponent was clearly a Rank 10 God, but the attack exceeded his own strongest attack. That was why he couldn''t understand the enemies. Still, the thing that shocked him the most was the fact that none of the enemies was a devil. "A human?" The elder furrowed his eyebrows, trying to deflect this Sword Wave, but Alicia noticed this and clapped her hand. "Frozen Myth." The surroundings suddenly froze before creating an ice mountain from left and right, trying to stop the elder from deflecting the sword. "Kh¡­ No!" The elder shouted unwillingly, but he had no choice other than blocking these attacks from left and right because he might be killed the moment he got stuck inside the ices. He moved his body slightly to the left and let Alex cut his right arm. He was very decisive. Even so, Alex spun his body and kicked him because the devil was about to spat out something from his mouth. Considering his identity, it was obviously a poison. He blew the elder away, watching how the elder stopped the bleeding and took out another sword while looking at the two. "Who are you?!" He shouted, creating a loud noise that echoed all over the town. In addition, with how the building collapsed, the town focused immediately changed to him. The devils saw how their Rank 9 God and Rank 10 God lost their arms before they knew it and found the three offenders. Obviously, the three people must be God Rank Experts themselves, but they were not scared. "O'' my mighty Green Devil Tribe. All assemble and kill these three bastards. I will create an opening for all of you to kill them, and I believe we can start the competition right now. Hereby I announce that the one who has the biggest contribution will become the leader." The elder shouted. The devils were stunned for a second, but they immediately roared, taking out of their weapons and preparing themselves to kill God Rank Expert. No matter how hard it was to kill a Rank 10 God with their mortal body, they might still beat them with this number. Even the original candidates of this leader competition immediately left their house and rose to the sky. "There will be another adjustment to the plan." Alex glanced at his surroundings and sighed. He had asked Ilumi to hide for a bit but realized it would be better to ambush them together. And looking at how ten people alongside their few hundred followers standing in the air really made him rethink his plan. Three figures suddenly appeared this time. Anna carried her scythe and summoned her butterflies while smiling at those coming from the north. Alicia suddenly clasped her hand and raised it as an array appeared. "Activate!" A circle of light shot to the sky, covering them with an invisible barrier. Without anyone saying it, it was surely a Special Realm, considering Alex''s Space Element and the array. In other words, the enemies were planning to defeat them with only their small group. Alex looked around and found more than one thousand Martial Saints, but he thought nothing of it and focused on his objectives before restarting the battle with the old devil. "You want to kill me? In your dream." He snorted and released his Firebirds, raining them down in all directions. *Boom Boom Boom!* "Ah!" "No!" A series of explosions followed by crying sounds from devils filled the city. The elder gritted his teeth and shouted. "Stop it!" Although this looked random, Nelson took this as a mark that Alex gave to hunt the poisons. The elder also thought nothing because he didn''t know about Alex''s Spirit Eyes and charged at Alex to stop him from killing the weaker devils. At the same time, Anna, Leoz, and Jeanne had started killing the devils that tried to charge at them. With their overwhelming power, it was an easy task. They avoided most of the attacks from those thousands of devils while killing a few at a time, decreasing their number safely. Screams and wailings echoed continuously, bleeding the elder''s heart. "You bastard!" The elder gritted his teeth and struck Alex with his sword. He blocked the sword with his own Divine Sword but soon realized his strength was inferior to him. *Bang!* Alex flew away because of the force. Alicia saw this and created a sphere of ice, freezing the air and turning them into two mountains. This was the same move earlier, but she infused more Divine Energy into it. The two mountains tried to crush him, but the elder simply waved his sword, blasting the two mountains with a shock wave alone. "You could hit me because you took me by surprise! In a head-on confrontation like this, you won''t be able to defeat me!" The elder snorted. "You talk too much." Alex appeared right after the elder blew the mountains away. He swung his sword, only to find it was blocked by the elder. Still, he smiled upon this and channeled his Spiritual Energy. "One Inch Spear." "!!!" The elder saw the flash and retreated back, feeling something dangerous from it. His blood flowed out as he noticed that the technique managed to graze his cheek. "I have calculated everything. Even if you do everything you can, you won''t be able to live to see tomorrow." Alex smiled and pointed his sword toward the elder. "Do you think I have not done my own preparation?!" The elder snorted as he raised his hand, shooting a green firework. "Go!" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at the town, wondering what his plan was, but a devil suddenly appeared near him covered in sweat. "Elder¡­ We couldn''t find any poison." "What?!" The elder widened his eyes. Alex smiled at this point. "Haha¡­ Go? Do you mean, go kill yourself?" "You Bastard!" The elder couldn''t understand why there was no poison. Although it was normal to think it was Alex''s scheme, they should be able to find some. It was at this time he remembered when Alex first rained the city with his fire. He had spread the poison all over the town to ambush the enemies from all directions as well as to take a precaution that the enemy knew about some of them. However, he could never imagine there was someone who could identify all of them. The elder looked at Alex like looking at his archenemy. "You¡­ You are the one¡­" "Hehe¡­ I have prepared everything as well." Alex made a smug smile before two people appeared next to him. Both of them were Rank 10 God. The elder couldn''t understand how so many Rank 10 Gods gathered in this city, and they all reported to the person before him. "Master. We have destroyed everything." Nelson nodded. "You¡­ You are not a devil! But why are you attacking us? We have never had a conflict before!" The elder gritted his teeth. "Directly? No. But I have once almost lost my wife because of your Green Devil Poison." Alex narrowed his eyes, looking at the snake next to the elder. He could see that the Green Devil Poison that almost killed Alicia came from the snake beside him. In other words, the elder was the one creating this poison. But considering he was also a successor of someone, it would be either him or the previous master of this snake poison technique. Nonetheless, the flame of hatred would cover his heart as long as this threat remained alive. Even if it meant getting too much bad karma, he found it was worth it. "Green Devil Poison?" Alex thought for a moment and decided to get some information from him, so he told him a few clues. "Hmph! You might not remember it, but your world once invaded our home to get Sun Moon Seed! Only because of that, some of the Green Devil Poison were left behind and almost killed my wife. Even if we don''t have any direct conflict, I won''t let such a thing spread." "Sun Moon Seed?!" The elder widened his eyes, never expecting to hear that from Alex. He was only a child at that time and his master, the previous wielder of this Poison Art, gave him the Green Devil Poison. And he somehow participated in the invasion. It was a true pleasure for a little boy like him to see so many people die because of the poison. It gave him a sense of importance. Unfortunately, whether it was intentional or unintentional, it also became his doom, no, the entire tribe doom. "No¡­ Impossible¡­ I have sworn to protect this tribe with everything I have, but to think I bring an enemy like this unintentionally!" The elder gritted his teeth. "So, you are the one!" Alex''s face turned dark as he charged toward the devil. "Tch!" The elder clicked his tongue and faced Alex. "One Inch Spear." "Heavenly Poison Blade." The two clashed, creating a shockwave that somehow blew a few buildings. Alex then stepped the air while clashing like this, creating an invisible pressure that tried to crush the devil. "Ha!" The devil released a portion of his Divine Energy to scatter the pressure away and used the residual energy to break free from Alex before waving his sword again, releasing a few sharps green blades. An ice wall formed in front of Alex and stopped the blades, albeit the blue ice turned green and slowly melted. It showed how toxic the poison blades were. "One Inch Spear." A red light flashed as the next second that light cut the wall. It was also long enough to reach the elder. Alex had tested the range, and he was surprised to see it could stretch for over three hundred meters despite named as One Inch Spear. Although it was because of the condition, it was still too crazy as a comparison. "¡­" The elder raised his sword and blocked this, but the light was stronger than he expected. It spun his body. Alex then appeared before the elder and waved his sword, blowing the elder to the ground. *Bam!* "Elder!" The younger devil shouted even though his body was covered with wounds. Ilumi seemed to have finished her battle with this distraction as she emerged from behind and sent the devil''s head flying. The elder gritted his teeth, looking at Ilumi and Alex with hatred. Because Alex grabbed his attention from the beginning, he didn''t check Ilumi''s cultivation. But to think she was a Rank 7 God. It was completely beyond his imagination. "Master, I have finished my task." Ilumi nodded. "Good job. You can help the four over there." Ilumi agreed and helped them, but she didn''t head over them. Instead, she made sure to stay near Alex and Alicia to protect them at any given time according to what she said back then. "There must be a misunderstanding between us. If you hate us because of the poison that I unintentionally brought, please let the tribe go and just kill me." The elder looked at Alex with a tired expression. "Elder!" The tribe was moved by the elder''s sincerity as they were filled with rage to see the elder''s condition right now. Alex narrowed his eyes and snorted. "There is still a chance of that poison being spread, so I am not going to spare a single Green Devil. After all, poison is one of the most dangerous weapons in the world as it can kill someone without them noticing it. And I wouldn''t want to have an invisible enemy like that." "You¡­" The elder gritted his teeth and raised his hand, summoning a green snake. "If you want it that way, I will kill you!" "Green Devil Poison Illusory Snake!" 864 Cooking? Alex narrowed his eyes. The snake was green. This twenty-meters long snake seemed to be very ominous because he could see the huge amount of poison circulating inside the snake''s body. "Green Devil Poison¡­" Alex thought for a moment and finally realized. The Green Devil Poison was indeed a Divine Poison that could kill someone either instantly or gradually. Maybe back then, the elder wanted to torture the loved one, so he created or brought the Green Devil Poison that killed slowly. Nonetheless, the Green Devil Poison itself originated from Martial Art¡­ A special Martial Art. "This is the Green Devil Poison''s true body. Our tribe has combined all the poisons in the world to create the strongest poison called Green Devil Poison. Since you don''t want peace, then I shall bury all of you here." The elder snapped his finger as the snake widened its mouth, spitting a huge liquid from its mouth. Alicia tried to create a barrier array to block this, but Alex stopped her and summoned his Pure Fire before deciding to avoid it instead. "Alex?!" Alicia furrowed her eyebrows. Alex remained silent as he pointed out to the barrier far from them. Due to the angle of the attack, the poison seemed to hit the barrier, creating a huge hole. It kept melting at a fast rate. The poison miasma between the two barriers flowed inside as the elder laughed. "Haha¡­ Since you choose to refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit, I will let all the poison I have prepared to fend off the enemy to kill you! Unless you have an antidote, you will be killed even if you are a God Rank Expert." "Pfft." Alex chuckled. "What is funny?" Alex didn''t answer him and pointed his finger toward the hole. "Sherry. Take care of that hole for me." "Understood." Sherry flew toward the barrier and released her fire to burn all the miasma before spreading them inside the gap. "No way!" The elder seemed to have noticed it as well and opened his mouth in shock. He pointed at Sherry and shouted. "Kill her! You need to kill her first!" The devils turned around. Despite losing half of their number already, they still fought bravely because of the elder''s earlier speech. Sherry only glanced for a second before focusing back on the barrier. Three shadows emerged between Sherry and the masses. "Where do you think you are going? Unless you kill us, you won''t be able to hurt anyone." "All of you are weak." "Capture a few of them alive, so I can get a few information later. Nelson requested it too." Nelson didn''t follow them. Instead, he started massacring the devils from behind. The trio looked at this and nodded. "Let''s start too." Alex and the elder saw this as they had their own thoughts, and it seemed they had the same thought. The snake released a few more liquid droplets and scattered them around. Alicia created a few layers of barrier array to stop this because she was sure that the poison would melt the array. And she was right. The poison broke a few layers, but she managed to freeze the poison droplets because of the ice element she imbued inside each layer. "If that is the case, I will start with you!" The elder looked at Alicia as the snake blew a green tornado out of its mouth. If one were hit by this tornado, their body would surely melt until nothing left, so Alex decided to appear between them. He waved his hand as his Pure Fire gushed out of his body, confronting the tornado head-on. And as one would expect, Alex''s Pure Fire burned the poison completely. "It seems my Pure Fire is stronger than your strongest poison." Alex smirked, trying to agitate the elder. "Kh¡­" The elder gritted his teeth, looking for a way to mess that smirk of his up. Unfortunately, Alex was one step ahead. He was the one creating the array this time as five swords floated above it. Not only that, but he also coated the swords with Pure Fire and Absolute Blade Divine Intent. "Go!" The swords flew toward the elders. The snake released another tornado, but it couldn''t melt the sword due to the Pure Fire. "This is impossible. A Pure Fire can''t render this strongest poison useless." The elder seemed to talk based on experience. He must have fought against a Pure Element. Even if it was not a Pure Fire, it should have a similar characteristic and knew that the poison could still affect a Pure Element. "Nothing is impossible." Alex smiled. The elder tried to move the snake, but the swords pierced the snake first, burning a portion of the accumulated poison energy in the snake. The devil flew to the sky along with his snake after noticing he would gain an advantage in the sky. The snake circled around him as he checked a way to hit Alex. In the end, they clashed a few more times in the air. Alicia helped Alex this whole time, preventing the devil from landing even a single hit on Alex''s body. The elder found it annoying but had no power to change it because he knew this pair seemed to have understood how to fight together. Alex would surely stop him from going to Alicia while attacking him, and Alicia would defend him on any occasion. It was a simple but very effective plan. *Bang!* Another shock wave shook the city as Alex and the elder clashed before retreating. "It''s useless. Just accept your death." Alex snorted. ''I never knew that you were going to use poisons scattered in the city and the one in the gap between barriers, but luckily, I had calculated them.'' Even though it was luck that helped Alex to have this smooth battle, he wouldn''t show it to his face because the elder would use it against him. "Since the situation has become like this, then I shall become ruthless too!" The elder snarled as he raised his hand, looking very desperate. His snake suddenly flew to the sky and opened his mouth, spurting green liquid and miasma to the air. "This is¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. It was poison indeed. The liquid itself wouldn''t be too troublesome because they could avoid it without a problem, but it also created the miasma. If this spread all over the city and covered it with poison, it would be troublesome because either he or Sherry needed to purify this. "You are underestimating me too much." Alicia snorted and clapped her hand, creating an array at the size of the city itself. "This is a barrier array¡­ No! There are two layers¡­" Alex noticed something special from her array. This array itself was the same as the one he learned not too long ago, but he was confused by the second layer of this array. "Alex! Send your fire to the array!" Alex didn''t understand the reasoning behind it, but he trusted her. A phoenix soared to the sky by a single wave of his hand, hitting the array. Suddenly, the phoenix turned into fire and coated the entire array. "Let''s start cooking, shall we? First, add the alcohol!" "Huh?!" Alex was bewildered. Despite having become an expert, her cooking skill seemed to have not changed. As much as he wanted to rebuke her by saying it is oil, he stopped after finding what happened next. As soon as the liquid hit the array, the fire flared up to the sky. This was like when people cooked and poured alcohol, so the fire soared. Flambe it was called. The liquid was vaporized instantly, and the residual flame burned the mist coming from it. The elder fell silent, watching how it was not effective. At the same time, the fire also hit the snake and burned it. He controlled the snake to escape from that place and gritted his teeth, looking at Alex and Alicia. ''Wow, I am full of admiration right now, Chef Alicia!'' Alex sent a thought transmission. ''Hehe¡­ I am not someone who needs your protection anymore. I can proudly walk beside you this time.'' Alicia smiled. ''Yeah. But your cooking skill still sucks. Are you still capable of cooking a poison like Firia? Just look at that one! You are cooking with poison instead of oil¡­'' Alex joked, teasing her with a poker face. ''Shut up. I don''t have time to practice cooking. Maybe when I have time, I can travel to other worlds and learn about cooking. I will make sure you say it''s delicious at that time.'' She snorted. ''Haha¡­ I am looking forward to it.'' Alex then looked at the elder and summoned two dragons. "Swallowing Heaven." The two dragons locked their focus on the charred snake, looking at it like finding a delicacy. "Since Alicia is cooking a snake this time, go boys, eat your fill! Tonight''s main dish is Poisonous Snake cooked Ala Flambe!" Since he started joking, it was better to do it all the way. The elder gritted his teeth and made the snake fly, confronting the two dragons even with the five swords with it. Alex controlled the two dragons, overpowering the snake with Alicia''s help. He could confront the elder this well because he didn''t need to concern himself with the poison in his surroundings because Sherry took care of everything. If he needed to say who contributed the most during this battle, he would say Sherry without hesitation. She had used a huge amount of Divine Energy to fight those devils alone. She didn''t need to, but she decided to burn all the poisons they used, letting the spirits destroy the enemies faster. Sherry also used this chance to train her control over her Pure Fire with this new body of her, so it was a win-win situation. The elder also knew this, albeit even with all those people, none of them could touch Sherry because of those monstrous four people. And yet, he also couldn''t help them because of Alex and Alicia along with the observing Ilumi. Even if he could defeat Alex and Alicia, he would surely be defeated by Ilumi. The best chance he got was to capture either Alex or Alicia and used them to gain peace with the opposite party, albeit the cost was too great. "Never mind¡­ There is no other way." The elder gritted his teeth and took out many poisons from his Space Ring as he swallowed everything. He then released green energy from his body before his muscle bulked up and his Divine Energy sparked. His eyes turned red, and his hair spiked up. "¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Although the poison could weaken or kill, he also knew that there were bound to be some poisons that could enhance one''s abilities. Just like steroids on Earth, it was classified as "Medicine" but it was also harmful to one''s body. In this case, the elder decided to sacrifice his life to either kill him or capture him. Alex surely wouldn''t let him and controlled the two dragons to suppress him. "Since I used this, there is only one conclusion that would happen. I will win!" The elder appeared between the dragons and grabbed their teeth before throwing them away. He then looked at his hands that got burned by the Pure Fire hidden behind their teeth. Even so, he felt nothing and continued flying toward Alex. "!!!" Alex waved his sword and released the red light. The devil still found it hard to destroy this attack and somehow stopped on his track, but Alex knew that he just barely stopped him. Seeing this situation, Alicia came to him. "Alex¡­ Can I?" Alicia asked as she looked eager to show him something. Alex was not sure about it, but he nodded his head since all of the devils would die here. He was curious about it anyway. Alicia smiled as her blue eyes glowed a little bit as a pair of ice wings appeared on her back. "True Spirit Body. Ice Phoenix Queen Divine Ice Form." 865 Killing the Elder The surrounding temperature dropped almost instantly the moment that pair of ice blue crystal wings appeared. Alex furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the fact that this was something different than what Vera had. After all, Vera couldn''t do something like this. It was obviously something that he would ask after this battle. Alicia glanced at the devil with her glowing eyes that seemed to release a portion of the cold here. "First Divine Ice Form, Frozen World." She raised her hand as the air above it turned into an ice crystal. Suddenly, the ice itself released a powerful shock wave, carrying the extreme cold. Everything ran by this shock wave started turning into ice, startling all the devils. ''Before a Spirit King appeared to rule over the spirits, there are six tribes that call themselves the ruler of each element. One of them is the Ice Phoenix Spirit, and their ruler is the Ice Phoenix Spirit Queen.'' Ilumi gave a brief introduction about what happened. Alex nodded as he could finally understand why Alicia released such an overbearing pressure. He wanted to know about the other rulers as well, but he realized that the elder seemed to have lost his patience. He covered his body with Pure Fire and nodded to Alicia. The elder had recovered from his shock and gritted his teeth, knowing what kind of person in front of him. "You¡­ You are a Spirit! We have never set our foot to the Spirit World, so your argument is invalid." The elder gritted his teeth. It would be the most foolish move to invade the Spirit World because it was under a God King''s protection. At the same time, the Spirit God''s former influence was too big, scaring almost all Divine Worlds out there. "It''s useless to reason with you." Alicia shook her head as she raised her hand again, creating a small blue light on her palm. "Snow White Blizzard." Snow started forming above them and falling down. The temperature became colder and colder. "Domain huh¡­" Alex noticed the first technique she used was to create an ice domain, and this technique to amplify the domain. The third one would probably be the main attack, and the elder also knew this. He flew toward Alicia with the snake. Alex clenched his sword, ready to take this guy on, not letting him get past him. However, Alicia simply said, "Can you take care of the snake?" Alex took another glance at her before flying toward the snake with his two dragons. "Swallowing Heaven." He hadn''t used this despite having summoned it, and now that he could focus on this, he would definitely finish this snake within this instant. Obviously, the Pure Fire immediately burned the snake bit by bit. The elder noticed the difference and slightly glanced at the snake to see if he could help, but it was at this moment Alicia finally made her move. "Second Divine Ice Form, Blessing of Ice." The technique created a small shock wave, but the elder didn''t find anything different in his surroundings. At the same time, Alicia wasn''t someone who would play with a technique like that. ''What is it? There must be something hidden.'' He gritted his teeth and looked around, wondering if he missed something. Without knowing Alicia''s hidden blade, he continued his way toward Alicia since the best way to stop something like that was to kill the user herself. However, little did he know that the moment he passed the blizzard, so many snowflakes fell upon him, and each of them was sharp like a razor blade. "!!!" The elder widened his eyes, watching how they actually cut his skin. Green blood began to flow out of the wounds, covering him with blood. A translucent green barrier shrouded the elder''s body to protect his body from the sharp snowflakes, but this was exactly her plan. "Third Divine Ice Form, Ice Executioner." A sword slowly formed in the air, freezing anything around it. The elder raised his vision and waved his sword upward, releasing a green Sword Wave. Alicia squinted her eyes and finally slashed the sword down. A shock wave shook the city again before each attack influenced each other. The poison inside the Sword Wave came inside the sword, trying to melt it. At the same time, the sword tried to freeze the Sword Wave as a part of it had been frozen. It continued for a few more seconds before each of them destroyed each other. "Ho?!" Alicia raised her eyebrows, never expecting to have this kind of effect, but the elder suddenly bowed and spat blood. It came out of nowhere, making people think it was due to him overexerting his power. Yet the miscalculation disappeared the moment the elder glanced at the side, finding his snake died in Kai''s hand. "Impossible. The record said this poison snake couldn''t be extinguished." The elder gritted his teeth, not wanting to believe it. "It''s simple. Your poison is nothing in front of my fire." Alex came to Alicia''s side with a poker face. "You¡­" The elder had never been mad like this to the point he was the first one to charge in rage. Seeing this, Alex played along with him. The two clashed again for several minutes while Alicia was creating an array on the ground. "One Inch Spear." Alex used his technique again, pinning the elder to the ground to create a massive opportunity for Alicia. Alicia obviously noticed this and appeared on the ground, placing her hand on the frozen ground. "Soul Binding Array!" Alicia activated the array she made during this fight, creating so many chains from the array. It flew toward the elder and chased him. The elder narrowed his eyes and flew around while avoiding the chain, but Alex kept making it hard until one point the chains finally caught him. With a single feel, he was convinced that the chains were restricting his soul instead of his body, so the only way to break free was to channel his Divine Energy to the soul and blasted them. "Ha!" He shouted as the chains got destroyed by something invisible, but he noticed another incoming attack from Alicia and got shocked by the insane amount of power behind it. "What the heck is that?" "Too late." Alicia harrumphed and used her technique, not letting the elder escape. "Fourth Divine Ice Form, Queen''s Palm." Suddenly, the snow disappeared as if they were never there to begin with. However, Alex managed to see the flow of energy and found out that the snow coming from Alicia''s energy was sucked into her hand. Even Alex was surprised by how much energy she concentrated on that palm. Alicia didn''t care about it and released all the energy into a single giant blue hand, flying toward the elder. "This¡­" The elder''s heart skipped a beat. He could sense how powerful it was, and took a deep breath, calming his heart down. "Although I haven''t reached the Sword God Stage yet, I am not far from it. I will wrest everything in this attack and let you see everything that I have accumulated during my journey." A green aura leaked out of his hand, covering the blade. He slashed forward with all his strength and released a gas like sword attack that covered the palm before moving to its back. Nonetheless, the attack was still not powered by a Divine Intent, so Alicia''s attack began to freeze all the gas as it dropped to the ground in the form of droplets. The ice also took a lot of damage as it was melting all over, so the devil released the same attack that destroyed Alicia''s ice sword. "Green Devil Blade." The Sword Wave split the palm into two before heading toward Alicia. It was at this moment that he realized something was missing, no, someone was missing. Alex smiled and knocked the half-palm away, revealing himself. Space Element and Pure Fire had covered his blade as he finally swung forth. "Three Purities Slash." It turned out that the palm itself was a distraction. To think that Alicia used that powerful attack only to let Alex take all the glory. The elder gritted his teeth and struck the sword without using any Martial Arts because he knew he wouldn''t make it if he used any techniques. Only a poison that was soon neutralized by Pure Fire and his Sword Intent that soon got overpowered by Alex''s Divine Intent covered his sword. The ground started shaking by the sheer amount of this attack alone as the Fire and Divine Intent ran through the ground, hitting and cracking the barrier. "I won''t lose!" The elder shouted and used all his strength to repel this. "Ha!" Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, Alex''s attack was far too strong, much less without his other arm that had been taken away by this same attack. The conclusion came in a sudden when the elder''s sword suddenly snapped. "No!" The elder roared as the Sword Wave exploded instead of cutting him into two. The Spiritual Energy immediately swept the smoke produced by the explosion, revealing how the elder was still intact and alive. When Alex was about to attack him again, he realized that the energy was already too weak, and the elder''s consciousness should have been blurry. The body slowly fell to the ground, hitting the ground with his back. Alicia appeared before Alex, looking at how the elder fell. "No, no. I am not willing." The elder stretched his hand to the sky, never expecting that the whole tribe died. Excluding Ilumi, all of them were only a Rank 10 God. And yet, they had the ability to destroy the whole tribe. This was something insane. Not a single poison was working because of Alex and Sherry. In fact, it was due to the two of them they managed to win this battle. The poisons around the town would have killed them while heavily injuring Ilumi. But Alex''s Spirit Eyes could see those Rank 8 or Divine Poison around the area and dispatched Sherry and Nelson to handle them. That was the biggest plan that would usually kill tens of thousands, but it was rendered useless. After that, Alicia''s transformation shocked him the most. He was unwilling to recognize the fact that they couldn''t do a single thing to their opponents and see them massacring the tribe. Alex and Alicia were also too abnormal as their strength was above their peers. Although he could see that their strength was equal to him if they fought separately, it was pointless rambling because there was no enemy sane enough to fight alone unless they were very confident. Besides, his ability was lower than a normal Rank 9 God since he was more specialized in poison, not fighting skill. He took another glance at Alex and Alicia and gritted his teeth before his hand suddenly fell. The elder had died. Alex and Alicia looked at each other before the former asked, "Can you explain the things about the spirit to me?" "I will do so after we deal with this devil. A day should be enough to cover everything you want, and we will return to Eulja after that." "Yeah. That''s probably the best. And we can meet "them" after this." Alex smiled. Alicia nodded in agreement. "I really miss them. I wonder if they are going to beat me since I look far younger than them." The cheeky smile full of teasing appeared on her face as though she planned to tease her family after this. "Haha¡­" Alex could only laugh before glancing at the terrified devils. Having lost their God Rank Experts, the devils turned pale, knowing that nothing would help them anymore. "I am sorry, but I can''t leave any of you alive as the last thing I want to do is an assassin with poison," Alex said according to his experience. 866 A Warm Meeting That was also the reason why God Rank Experts were gems for a Divine World. The battle only lasted for an hour before all the ten thousand devils fell in battle. Alex closed his eyes, raised his head and let out a long sigh. As much as he didn''t want to kill the remaining devils, he needed to because they were different from normal enemies. Their poison was too dangerous to be left alive. Alicia slowly flew toward him, looking at him with a gentle expression. Worry and anxiety bothered her heart because she was the reason Alex destroyed this tribe and killed the ten thousand devils, despite knowing that the elder was supposed to be the only one they needed to kill¡­ "Alex." Her voice was soft and soothing. "Yes?" Alex gradually opened his eyes and glanced at her. "I am fine. I have done this a few times, so you don''t need to worry about me. Besides, we need to clean up here, making sure that we don''t leave anything that can lead to us behind." Alicia glanced at the group and nodded. Considering her status, if she wanted the others'' help, she only needed to ask the spirits to do so. But that thought never arose in her mind because they were already in her heart. Alex and Sherry burned all the corpses along with the poison while Alicia dissolved the barrier that the tribe used. To think that this barrier became the weapon that trapped themselves, it was hilarious. Nelson erased all traces behind, making the battlefield look like it had been shattered by God Rank Expert''s strength alone. So, any spies that would come here would think that this tribe had been attacked by several God Rank Experts, including a Rank 8 God. And this would surely incite many suspicions to other devils whether only in this continent or another continent. In other words, they would have their own civil strife while the real culprit had gone. It took them a whole day to clean up alone, but it was worth it. Alex and the group returned to the inn they stayed before and rested there. Alex was sitting in a soft red chair, staring at Alicia with a smile. Anna and Anya were present as well, while Sherry stood and hugged Alex from behind. "This might be the first time we''ve met, Anna, Anya." "Yeah. We have been talking from time to time, but I guess this is the time we''ve officially met." Anya nodded. However, Anna was the first spirit Alex summoned, and he had introduced her to Alicia in the past, so Anna only smiled. "It''s been more than a decade, I guess. To think that you abandon your humanity and become one of us¡­" "Is that so?" Anna nodded with a smile. "Before that, let me introduce myself again. I am Alicia Van Rizertia¡­ Well, my homeworld doesn''t have this kind of custom, but I should introduce myself as Alicia Sirius." Alicia wanted to thank them, but she realized that they were only helping their husband, so she didn''t need to say thank you. Anna and Anya also knew that and said nothing about it. There seemed to be something clicked in their mind before Anya decided to liven up the situation with her question. "In one thousand ultimate techniques, which one do you prefer?" "One thousand ultimate techniques?" Alex tilted his head in confusion, glancing at Alicia and wondering if she knew about this. On the contrary, Alicia''s eyes lit up as she answered without hesitation. "Mine is the 254th." "Hmm¡­ To think you love that one. I like the 500th. By the way, Anna is a bit shy, but she turns out to have two. The 599th and 801st." Anya ignored Alex''s question as well, so he looked at Anna, demanding the answer. However, Anna had gotten embarrassed by Anya, so she looked away, afraid to lock her eyes with Alex. In the end, Alex raised his vision and looked at Sherry. "What are they talking about?" "Ehehe¡­" Sherry scratched the back of her head, not knowing what to say about this. "I think Master shouldn''t know about this. This is a girl''s secret." The moment he heard the word secret, something clicked in his mind as he finally understood what they were talking about. He could only shake his head in defeat. In that instant, the two seemed to get even more fired up talking about it. Alex coughed up, lowering their excitement. "Ahem!" "Ah!" The two girls smiled weirdly before gently stroking their cheek embarrassedly. "Anyway, I would like to ask about all the things I need to know about spirits, including the six rulers in the Spirit World." "Where do I start¡­" Alicia looked at Anna and Anya, asking her to correct her words if she was wrong before proceeding to her explanation. "To put it in a simple world, there are five grades of spirits. Low, Mid, High, Noble, and Ruler classes. If we take a look at the grading of the system, all your Common, Uncommon, and Rare ranked spirits were grouped in Low to High class respectively. "Some of your SR rank, like Ngina, are still considered high classes. Nicole and the others that have humanoid form can be considered Noble Class but barely. Most of the spirits in UR rank are Noble Class, except a few ones. "Anna and Anya are considered Ruler Class. Although they haven''t inherited their title to govern Light and Dark Element, they can be considered one. If I am not wrong, the current rulers of Light and Dark Element are your parents, right?" "Yes." Anna nodded. "Father is the ruler of Light Element, Light Fairy Spirit, while our mother is the ruler of Dark Element, Night Butterfly Spirit. Well, we inherited our mother since I am Dark Butterfly Spirit while Anya is Light Butterfly Spirit." Anya added. "As you know, there are six elements that a spirit would grow with. Each element will have their respective ruler. Jeanne is the current ruler of Lightning Element. Although her strength is a bit low at the moment, she will get the rank back after regaining her previous strength." "There are two more rulers, but I doubt you know any of them, so we will leave it at that." Alicia shrugged. "So, you are considered as one, right?" Alex looked at Alicia with a serious expression. "Yes. You can say so. Wait a minute¡­" Alicia suddenly noticed something amiss and couldn''t help but exclaim in surprise. "Alex has taken three rulers as his wives. Although Anna and Anya haven''t inherited the title yet, their parents already want them to take over. "Although Jeanne currently doesn''t have an interest in marrying you, the other two rulers might come to you to have a hand in marriage." "Wait, so the other two rulers are females?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Nope. The first one is your butler while the other one is an old man. Well, they can offer their daughter or something." "I think the first one won''t¡­ But the other guy might truly do it." Anna nodded in agreement. "Eh?! Why are you not including me?" Jeanne suddenly sneaked outside before pouting. The group turned their heads to Jeanne as Alex twitched his eyebrows, knowing that trouble had come. "How about it, Master? I can be your bride as well¡­ What? You want to say that you are going to jail? Don''t worry. I am a few thousand years old, so I am legal." Jeanne made a sexy pose with her childish body while joking with Alex''s knowledge. "And your true attention is¡­" Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "Maybe we all can start having S\u0026M pl¡ª" "Alright, you go back first!" Alex recalled Jeanne to the card and prevented her from coming out. "Pfft." Anna and Anya chuckled as they both knew that Jeanne was just joking. Alicia suddenly dropped a bomb but said it in a playful tone. "By the way, sister Xingzhi has bought all the equipment for that." Anna and Anya rose from their seat and hugged each other, looking at Alicia while sweating. They screamed at the same time. "Are you serious? No! She won''t hold back even for the first time. She looks gentle, but she is a sadist inside." "Hahaha¡­ I am joking." Alicia laughed hard. Since they were in the mood earlier, she decided to come up with this and got a good view of their expressions. It was precious. "Huft¡­" Anna and Anya finally sat down while wiping the sweat. It might be a joke on Alicia''s side, but Anna and Anya were truly scared just now. However, the matter didn''t stop there. A blue screen popped out of nowhere, saying. [I have though.] "¡­" The group fell silent, widening their eyes to the maximum. It was at this moment they knew they f*cked up. [Just kidding.] "You are not fooling anyone! Because we can''t hear your tone, we don''t know if you are joking or not!" Anna stuttered while rebuking her. [So, you don''t want it to be a joke? Alright¡­ I will buy it from Blackwade Clan. They are the biggest merchant around our planet, so their equipment must be the best.] "Oi, oi. Are you mistaking them as an online shop?" Alex commented with a weird expression. [Well, we can propose it to them if you want. Let''s see¡­ Teleportation Array might not be able to send the package between worlds, but if we have the cooperation of the undead and their Teleportation Rune that can send something at a wider distance, I believe they can create a branch in many worlds. And they can start the delivery program. That is just a concept though.] "Let''s stop at this, shall we? Stop! Okay?" Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know that a spaceship must be too expensive to make, but I won''t comment farther than this." [But you are going to meet them sooner or later to inform them about Song Jiaoren. I think this will be the perfect time to suggest something like that. And you must want a perfect Divine Sword and Divine Spear for you, so I think they can help that as well.] "Alright, alright. Let''s talk about this at a later date. For now, let me finish the discussion about the spirits, alright?" Alex let out a long sigh. [Fine.] Anna and Anya exchanged looks and chuckled. Alicia was smiling and Sherry was humming. They all knew that Lin Xingzhi deserved this, so they let her flirt around like that. 867 Outer Space "Anything else I need to know about the spirits?" Alex asked. "Hmm¡­ There is another spirit world beside Eulja and had your protection in the past, but they are not really that loyal to you, so I think it''s better not to go there," added Anna with a serious expression. "Well, Eulja alone has already blown my mind, let alone this one. I am not planning to go without fully considering everything." Alex assured them with a smile. "In that case, I won''t say anything more about it." Anna dropped the topic. "And I want to know about your previous cultivation, will that be alright?" Alex asked. "Hmm¡­ Our previous cultivation huh¡­" Anna thought for a moment. "You can say that we are powerful, but not as powerful as the previous you. You probably have already speculated about our previous rank, so I am not going to answer that question." "I see¡­?? Alex nodded. He could already see a few of them have the same amount of experiences, so he believed they had the same cultivation previously. And with a few calculations, he somehow understood their rank, but seeing they refused to say it, he didn''t delve deeper. "In that case, I want to know about the rulers, such as their personality and jobs." "Our father is very weird¡­" Anna glanced at Anya, who seemed to agree with her. She turned back with a weird smile. "Well, he is probably going to burn you if he meets you. You can say that what will happen when you let light through a magnifying glass? It''s going to burn." "Don''t worry. You will be fine since you are a Pure Fire element user." Anya waved her hand, assuring Alex. "Is that the case?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Well, he was very protective in the past. But as long as you are hiding behind mother, you will be fine," Anna added. "Anyway, they were the ones helping you with your Spirit Crown, so you might want to visit them at one point. Besides, Alicia has become Spirit as well, so I believe it''s good to help strengthen her technique with the special ability of the Spirit Crown." Anya pointed her finger toward Alicia. "Yes. With their guidance, I believe you can master it in a short time." Alex thought for a moment and agreed. "Alright. I will visit them at one point. After all, they are my in-law too." "Hehe¡­" Anna and Anya grinned. "How about Jeanne? What kind of ruler was she?" "Ahem¡­ Since you want to know about me, I shall tell you." Jeanne appeared again while pumping her fist as if saying her time had come. "I am the respectable ruler that every Lightning Spirit adores. They haven''t raised any complaints about me since I started ruling. You can say that I am the best." Jeanne looked very proud, but Alex somehow couldn''t picture her being the best ruler. But if that were true, he would be very impressed. "Let us translate it for you." "The Lightning Spirits don''t adore her. Instead, they fear her. You might know her torture, so you can see why the Lightning Spirits are scared of her, right? And that is precisely the reason why no one dares to raise a complaint until now. You can say that she is the scariest." "True. She likes abusing her subordinates, telling them to have a round with her if they don''t complete the job. In any case, if we are going to rate everyone from one to ten. We will rate her one. My father will be seven while my mother is nine. Alicia¡­ Well, we can''t really judge her since she is new, but Vera was eight. "As for the last two, the fire ruler is a role model, so he is ten. But the earth ruler is somehow problematic like Jeanne. You see¡­ His ability is related to plants, and his favorite plants are those that can only be raised in the morning¡­ Literally. "I mean, there are a few plants that can only grow in the morning and rot during the night, so¡­ People call him a weirdo." Alex facepalmed. He should have expected this before asking them this question. His Spirit Nest alone had so many "special" spirits, so he should know that the world full of spirits¡­ should be a world full of weir¡ªAhem, "special" spirits." "In any case, I will probably visit them one by one. Although I don''t know anything about the Spirit World, it has been alongside me from the beginning, especially you guys. So, I don''t really mind." Alex smiled. "Anyway, I have nothing to ask other than this." Alex nodded. "By the way, since we have a packed schedule ahead of us, what are you planning to do while you are still a Rank 10 God?" Since Alex wanted to drop the topic, Alicia started another one with a question. "That''s a good question." Alex nodded. "I plan to learn two Divine Sword Arts, one array, and Alchemy. It''s going to be a long¡­ Probably one to two years before I start cultivating to reach Rank 9 God. Of course, it''s not like I am slacking in my cultivation. I will still cultivate during the break." "That sounds about right." Anna agreed. She usually planned his schedule, so her agreeing to this would be the best "go" sign he could ever get. "Well, do you have any more questions?" Alicia asked. "No. The only thing I want to do is to reach Eulja and reunite with everyone." Alex put on a genuine smile. Alicia glanced at Anna, Anya, and Sherry with a slight grin. Knowing what she was thinking, they agreed. Sherry then slowly lowered her head and whispered in his ears. "Are you sure you only want that now?" "!!!" ¡­Let''s say Alex worked hard that night¡­ The next day. "Alright. Time to head back to Eulja." Alex had finished everything in this world and decided to go home after recovering his Divine Energy. He had learned the Divine Teleportation Array, so he should be capable of bringing them home. Since this was his first time, only Alicia and Ilumi were present with him while the rest either hid inside his body or returned to the cards. Alex snapped his finger, and a Teleportation Array appeared beneath them, teleporting them to outer space. He was mesmerized by the sight of outer space. This was the first time he saw this scenery, so it was obvious that he was entranced. The Devil World was a gigantic world. Although he didn''t know what kind of sight he would get if he looked at Earth right now, he really wanted to compare the Earth to this planet to grasp a general size of a plane. Unfortunately, he couldn''t do it for the time being, so he released his curiosity by looking at the Devil World. Unlike Earth, the Devil World seemed to be filled by half water and half land, making it pretty balanced. However, there was one thing that he didn''t pay attention to when he was inside this world, which was the moon. There were two spheres revolving around the planet, so he knew it must be the moon. They were near each other. Alex scratched his head, wondering why he didn''t pay attention to it. Now that he thought about it, all the words he visited in the past only had one moon and one sun in the sky. The time was also similar to that of the Earth. But the Devil World was different. He didn''t think much about it because he was occupied with Alicia, but a day was certainly more than twenty four hours. It was around thirty or so hours if he remembered correctly. Nonetheless, he wouldn''t want to visit this place again, but a question still lingered in his mind. "By the way, how do we calculate a day? It''s not like we can''t call twenty four hours a day, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. We usually check how long a day for the world we visit. After that, if we have a deal with someone in that world or from another world, we will follow the time where the promise is made. For example, if I want to meet you one thousand days from now on and the promise is made in the Devil World. We will multiply the days with the hours. And we can calculate it with our own timing later." Alicia explained. "One more thing that you need to pay attention to is the fact that the rule only applies to those who know it¡­ Mostly for Divine Worlds. After all, you can''t expect a brat from an Upper World or even a Lower World to know about this and follow this rule, right?" Anna added. "Yes." "And we know nothing about a month and a year here. We settle everything with days as a measure. If you want to think of one thousand or so days as three years, then it''s fine. But you will trigger many people who know about this concept since it''s the norm." Anya covered the rest. "I see. I will be careful about that. Still¡­ This is beautiful." Alex said while looking at the Devil World before turning around to see outer space. He could see many dots in the corner of his eyes as they were planets. It was very far to the point that a mortal needed to look through a telescope. With his speed alone, he might be able to go to the nearest planet within days, while everything would be resolved within minutes by the Space Element Array Master. They were the most sought after jobs after all. He then felt everything in space. The no air certainly would kill a mortal as their body wouldn''t be able to endure this for a long time. On the other hand, the Divine Body had no problem or whatsoever. If he could be honest, he would be able to withstand this for years. There were many theories about outer space zero pressure on Earth, but none of them worked on his body, so he was glad. He tried to move his body then, finding it was slightly slower due to the lack of gravity. However, if he treated this as flying instead of floating, he could move like usual. Alex looked around for a few more minutes, feasting his eyes until it was full. Alicia and Ilumi didn''t say anything and waited for him while smiling. After that, he let out a sigh and said. "I think it''s time to go. I can see it again later." It took Alex many Teleportation Arrays before he could finally reach the world. He looked at the world from outer space and smiled for a few minutes before deciding to enter. 868 Eulja "This¡­" Alex raised his eyebrows. "This is Eulja. Well, it''s the Central Continent. Where we are going is not that far from here." Alicia nodded before the ten spirits came out of his cards, kneeling in front of him. Although Alex wasn''t the previous Spirit God, but his reincarnation, they still needed to greet him. "Welcome home, Alex (Master)." Alex didn''t know how to answer them as it wasn''t like this was his house all along. It might be for his previous self, but not him. Before he could say anything, a person was approaching fast as if she knew Alex had arrived. She had long brown hair, gentle green eyes, and an alluring smile. She wore a long green dress and descended softly to the ground. The plants and grasses around them seemed to be swaying left and right as if they were dancing because of her appearance. Alex fell silent when he saw the woman, and the latter was also the same. None of them said anything, including the spirits, allowing the two to have this wordless conversation. There was this feeling they shared but couldn''t be described by words. She was the first one that helped him rise on his feet when he was at his lowest point, and there was no word that could describe how thankful he was to her. "I have come, Lin Xingzhi." Alex smiled at the woman. This might be the first time he called her name from face to face, as he usually called her with system instead of her name because he wanted it to be special. "Yes, I have been waiting for you." Lin Xingzhi nodded gracefully while smiling from ear to ear. She had been waiting for this to happen and never expected it to unravel before her. There was a time where she almost gave up because she had been searching for a few thousand years, but she didn''t and finally met him again before anybody could have him. After all, if she met Alex when someone was already by his side, she decided to not come into his life just to ruin his current life. Luckily, Alex just came to another world as she immediately detected him. Even Alicia and Firia didn''t have this privilege. Lin Xingzhi slowly walked, closing the distance between them before stopping half a meter away from him. At this point, Alex didn''t know what to do. There were many words he wanted to utter, but every single one of them stuck in his throat. There were many actions he wanted to take, but his body froze. Alex''s heart shook by the words. Her tone told him that she genuinely thought that way, despite waiting for a few thousand years. He didn''t know whether he was loyal and patient enough to do that if it was him. She had been staying with him the longest, and the moment he felt her in his embrace, he couldn''t help but hug her back tightly and close his eyes. "Yes. I have made you wait." Without them noticing, tears fell out of the corner of their eyes. "If this is the one thing that you need to do, then I also have one." Alex smiled, looked at her, and slightly raised her head, kissing her on the lips, albeit they couldn''t do it for too long, considering the others were watching. "Fufu¡­ We can continue later." Lin Xingzhi chuckled while glancing at the spirits. "It''s been a while everyone." "Yes." The spirits clasped their hands and bowed to her. Anna and Anya hid behind Alicia as they were scared of Lin Xingzhi. "Why are you hiding Anna, Anya?" "Ugh!" Anya''s body shook and looked at Anna, asking her to tell what was going on. Anna didn''t want it but ended up doing it anyway. "I mean, you are going to bring all the toys and equipment if we are going home, right?" "Ahaha¡­ You are still thinking about that? Of course, I was joking. I never bought one." Lin Xingzhi covered her mouth with her hands while laughing. "Really?" "Can you promise that you tell the truth?" "I promise." Lin Xingzhi smiled before glancing at Firia, who arrived a minute later than her. "You can ask Firia." The two turned their heads and found Firia nodding her head, giving them a confirmation. Finally, they could relax and show themselves. Alicia and Firia didn''t know how much they suffered from Lin Xingzhi''s little experiment, so they tilted their head in confusion. On the other hand, Lin Xingzhi glanced at Alex and said, "Sherry, I know you are there." Sherry came out of her body before bowing her head. "Ye-yes. Nice to meet you." "Why are you bowing your head? Come here. Let me hug you." Even though she said that, she was the one coming closer and hugged her. "You have gotten big. To think you are the same little fox that Alex met in that forest¡­ Still, I really want to thank you for saving him back then." After releasing her, she said, "Since everyone is here, it''s better to go to the castle first. Let me lead the way¡­ It''s only a few minutes from here." The group nodded and flew to the north. In the middle of the forest, he could see a majestic castle. It was above a cliff, so none of the woods actually covered it. Alex looked at the white castle and saw how it didn''t have any wall, allowing him to see the interior inside. There was a huge bridge that connected the castle, so they were going there first. Many fountains were scattered around the area and created a synergy with the plants in their surroundings. It didn''t have many decorations, but it was very beautiful and comfortable just by looking at it either from close up or far away. At the end of the bridge was a thick white metallic door where two people stood tall in front of it. They quickly appeared before Alex and kneeled down. The first one was a middle-aged man with spiky red hair. He had sharp red eyes, slightly pointed ears, and muscular bodies, but the strange thing he found in this guy was the fact that he wore a butler suit. He remembered when the girls said one of the rulers was his butler, but he didn''t want to immediately jump into that matter since he wasn''t sure about it. He turned to another middle-aged man next to him. It appeared that he didn''t wear a butler outfit. Instead, it was like a military uniform specifically for ceremonial occasions. His hair was also red like the other guy, but his body was slightly skinny. "I, Korzan, greet Your Majesty." "I, Zark, greet Master." Alex tilted his head and glanced at Lin Xingzhi, asking for an explanation. "You two¡­ I have told both of you to wait. He is confused now." Lin Xingzhi sighed. "Ahaha¡­ Milady, we couldn''t help ourselves." The butler scratched his head embarrassedly. "This guy is Korzan. He is the one maintaining this world''s balance and every task. Since our place has no monster, we need to go on an expedition to gather all the monsters'' parts. He is also in charge of that area. Well, you can say that he is the president of this world, so if you have anything you want in this world, just ask him. "And as you might already realize, he is the Fire Element''s ruler, Magma Spirit, Korzan. In any case, you can dump every problem to him." Lin Xingzhi introduced him with a shrug. "Ahaha¡­ Milady, you are quite merciless to me. Well, I have a team to maintain the order, so it''s not like I am the only one. Either way, yes, I am Korzan, and I will be handling every matter that Your Majesty finds troublesome." "Can I also change my title? I mean, the way you call me." "That is troublesome. And I am afraid that I am useless in this area." Korzan sighed. The group immediately laughed, knowing that Korzan wouldn''t call Alex other than Your Majesty. "Never mind then." Alex sighed before helping him up and stretching his head, shaking Korzan''s hands. "I will be relying on you." "With pleasure." Korzan nodded with a smile. "And this one is Zark. If you have a place you want to go, you can call him. He might not look like it, but he is a Rank 4 God, specializing in Space Element. He will bring you everywhere you want, and you can even ask him to teach you about Space Element." Lin Xingzhi introduced the second person. "I am afraid I can''t help Master much since the Space Element of the Dungeon God was too complicated. I can give a few instructions about the basics, but that''s all." Zark shook his head as he didn''t want Alex to pin on an empty hope. Alex helped him up and shook his hand as well. "I will be relying on you." "Yes, Master." "There are many people working in the castle, but just seduce any maids here, okay?" "Ah! I didn''t mention that the maid here came to work because the Spirit God was charming, and they were tasked by their family to come to his bed. Well, I need to watch out now." Anna facepalmed. "There are around one hundred Noble Class tribes that sent their finest daughter, no?" "Indeed. After all, the Spirit God never had an heir before, so they want one before anything else, afraid that he will leave them again." Alex''s face turned weird. "Haha¡­ You don''t need to mind them if you want. There is also another reason why they are offering their finest daughter to work in this place. They will be provided with resources and teaching if they are working here, so it''s an opportunity for them as well. Besides, many men are present too, so you don''t need to overthink it. "I have also made sure that not a single man would doubt you like those people in the upper world. Well, if they know what is good for them." Lin Xingzhi explained, but her tone gradually turned dark. "Anyway, I believe it''s better to show his majesty room first before we can continue the talk." Korzan stretched his hand, pointing at the castle door. "Yeah. Let''s go inside first." Lin Xingzhi nodded. Alex then followed them, finding three women and one man inside. They immediately kneeled the moment they saw the group. The women were very beautiful as they might even rival those peerless beauties in the upper world. Even though they wore a maid outfit, they seemed to have a pattern and style of themselves, maximizing their respective charms. After all, the first one had cat ears while the second and the third ones had a pair of horns and a glowing tail respectively. On the other hand, the male dressed up neatly. He appeared to be a Martial Saint, but his aura was clearly stronger than that to the point Alex believed he almost reached God Stage. "They are still trainees here, so their strength has yet to reach God Rank. Only when they reach God Rank that they will become an official here." Korzan introduced them before asking Alex to continue. "Yeah." Alex nodded and started walking, but he didn''t forget to say. "Good work all of you. Continue working hard." Both the trainees and Alex''s group couldn''t help but smile upon hearing him. The trainees were fired up as they finally witnessed the king returning to this place once again while the group was happy because Alex still had the same habit unknowingly. The group continued to Alex''s room as the inside shocked Alex to the core. 869 Bedroom On the opposite of his position was a giant white door that was different from the rest. He then found five doors on the left side and another five on the other side. He didn''t know the purpose of the doors, but he decided to learn about the room first. But to his disappointment, there was nothing other than the bed and doors, confusing him beyond belief. "Ah! This room was renovated not long ago according to Anya''s suggestion." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "¡­" Alex was speechless before glancing at Lin Xingzhi and Anya back and forth, asking for an explanation. "Why are you pulling me into this?" Anya stepped back as if she didn''t know anything about this. "Then do you remember how you wish the master bedroom would be?" Lin Xingzhi made an evil smile as if everything was already in the bag. "Eh?" Anya looked down and tried to remember. It was a hundred years ago when they started getting tired of searching for Alex''s reincarnation. At that time, Lin Xingzhi was sleeping in her study room, tired after a long fruitless investigation. Anya came to her room and accidentally woke her up. "Anya?" "Sister Xingzhi¡­ If you were tired, you should sleep in your bed." "Ah!" She just realized that she slept on the table before letting a long sigh. "I am just a bit too tired recently¡­ I wonder if he really has left us, considering we have been searching for five thousand years, but without even a single clue. "Even if we find him with another woman, I don''t really mind and stop my investigation. I just want to move on, but the way I can''t find him like this¡­ It''s just so frustrating." "You must be tired, how about you rest first. Maybe one good sleep will refresh your mind." Anya gently smiled, helping her up. Lin Xingzhi looked down, fell into deep thought, and agreed with her, starting to walk to her bedroom¡­ But ended up in the master bedroom. It seemed she really missed him and got too frustrated recently. "That''s right. How is the progress?" "Mhm? There is no clue as usual; well, the investigation will still continue." ''Still?!'' Anya furrowed her eyebrows upon hearing this word as a weird feeling creeping in her heart. "This can''t do!" Anya screamed, walked toward the bed, and flipped it over, not letting Lin Xingzhi sleep there. "Anya!" The latter never believed Anya just did this. "What are you doing?" "I am going to erase everything in this room." "Stop!" Lin Xingzhi grabbed her hand, stopping Anya from her weird rampage. "What are you talking about?! I did not!" Anya didn''t buy it and tried to free her hand from her grasp, but Lin Xingzhi tightened it. Anya released her Divine Energy at this point as an immense pressure started enveloping the room along with the entire castle. "Don''t you dare?!" Lin Xingzhi gritted her teeth and released her power as well. Without her realizing it, the clash between these two powers had destroyed a portion of the room, cracking everything and blowing a few decorations. "Hehe¡­ You have destroyed the room." Anya smirked. Lin Xingzhi immediately noticed it and toned down her power. Anya took this moment of hesitation to grab her wrist and throw her to the door. At the same time, she released her Divine Power again, decimating every piece of furniture in this room. "Are you insane?! Do you think that because of your status, I won''t do anything to you?! This room¡ª" Lin Xingzhi grabbed her back and restrained her to the ground. However, before she finished her words, Anya smirked and said, "This room contains memories about him? That is a strong word coming from someone who has given up. "You said the investigation would still continue. I know that you subconsciously thought it was not possible to search for him. If it was the usual you, you would still have enough energy and didn''t lose hope even if you were tired. "That''s why it''s better for this room to disappear if that''s what you are thinking. I would rather get a new room, so even if he is not the same as the one five thousand years ago, I can create a new memory with him. "One side of me wants him to come back, but if that is only bringing more misery in the process, I would rather have the new him. Because no matter how different he is, I know that I will be charmed by him again and again. After all, even if he has different personalities and characters, his soul is that of light and won''t come to the dark side. His kindness will remain. "I destroy this place because I want a new place where I could create joyful memories, not a place for me to lament about him. "I will make a bigger room than this. I don''t care how many wives he will have in the future, so I will make a more splendid room with that fact. In fact, a few more won''t hurt because I can create a bigger room, so we can do every position, place, and many other factors. "If there were a few more wives, then there will be many different combinations. I will make sure that he is not bored here for tens of thousands of years. If you have given up, then give me that authority. I will search for him without giving up." Unknowingly, Lin Xingzhi''s tears streamed out of her eyes. Listening to Anya struck her deep. Anna and Anya must have frustration as well, but she had become the first one to give up? She lowered her body and cried, "I am sorry." Anya saw this as an opportunity and tackled her up before raising her body and hugging her. "We are in this together as sisters. If you think sometimes it has become too hard, please share with us as well. We might not be able to help, but we can listen to all your problems." "Yeah. Sorry." Lin Xingzhi didn''t know why, but the tears she shed earlier just cleared her mind. "Let''s seal the room and renovate it when we find Alex." "Yeah." Anna appeared not long after because of this and reprimanded both of them. Anya finally opened her eyes, remembering why this room actually became like this. She sweatdropped and knocked her head while sticking out her tongue. "Teehee." Alex and the others didn''t know and kept looking at her for an explanation. Lin Xingzhi took a step forward and explained. "Let me give you a brief introduction to the room. This is the master bedroom where we can do everything, while the door in the opposite direction is your personal room. At the same time, the other doors lead to our personal rooms, so the limit is ten. "Well, Anya said she doesn''t mind to see you having many wives, so I tried to incorporate that by watching all the encounters you had so far. In other words, the ten doors actually came from me, Anna, Anya, Alicia, Firia, Sherry, Rose, Letizia, Putri, and Song Yu. Unfortunately, the last two people were out, while Rose and Letizia are still on hold. "Of course, each door has their own Spatial Gates, so you don''t need to worry about the size. As for why the size of this room alone¡­ It''s because Anya wanted you to try everything. You could make illusion arrays here, making us roleplay or having another place to try. Well, we can talk about the details later since the others are still here. "Yeah. That''s the gist of it. For now, the six rooms are for those who are here, while the other four are empty." Alex twitched his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes, staring at Anya. "Ugh." Anya looked so small at this point as she just wanted to dig a hole and bury herself there. "Ten, huh¡­" "Of course, you have the control of everything. If you want to have more, we will see whether we can accept them or not. However, if you don''t want, we can treat the empty room and fill it with a simulation room for so many reasons or the baby room in the future." Lin Xingzhi assured her. "Family is built by two sides, so yeah, either we prove you choose or you provide we choose. The situation is either of these two, and I am sure we can reach a conclusion. "As for the details, it''s too complicated to explain it here since if you love someone and want to be with her, we might reject her at the start, but there might be a chance as well. Anyway, it''s too complicated." Alex sighed. "I am fine with all of you here already." "Haha¡­ I am just saying it first. By the way, suppose there were a thousand techniques, places, positions, and other things, just how many possibilities do you think it has? Anya has discovered it before me, so I need to step down right now." Lin Xingzhi grinned and glanced at Anya. "No! You are killing me." Anya ducked her head down with her heads clasped behind it as if she didn''t want to hear or see anything. "It''s over Anya¡­" Anna bowed her head and gently smiled as if she wanted to help Anya. "Anna¡­" Anya saw the ray of hope, but Anna struck her down again, teasing her. "You will always be the helpless pervert of the family." "Nooooo!" Anya leaped toward Alex and hugged him from behind. "Ugh, I can''t be a bride anymore. But since I have become your wife in a sense, I don''t need to think about it, right?" "Anya¡­" Alex paused for a moment. "I have accepted everything about you. At the very least, I know about this soon, else I might get shocked by your sudden transformation¡­ It''s fine. You are my wife. I will accept all your love." "Noooo!" Anya fell into despair as her image, which practically nothing worth protecting, had vanished. In fact, the first time she appeared, her pure image had already been shattered by herself. Although it might be due to her longing for affection, the past couldn''t be erased just like that. Everyone laughed. Of course, they were joking¡­ Probably. Lin Xingzhi then continued to the last and the most important thing. She pointed her finger to the empty frame on top of the wall above Alex''s room''s door. "There is a frame there, and I wish to hang our family picture there. What do you think?" "That is a lovely idea." Alex smiled and nodded. "Milady, I have gotten a very high resolution camera from the most advanced country. I should be able to take a good picture with this." Korzan took out a camera from his Space Ring, doing his job as a simple butler instead of a leader. "Then we can arrange it in a few days." "How about we do it now?" Alex asked, raising the doubt in everyone''s heart. "I mean, I just want a picture where everyone is having fun instead of a formal family picture. That''s right. I have seen a garden near the gate, I think it''s a lovely garden. How about we sit down and relax there?" They looked at each other before nodding their heads. ¡­ The next day. Alex had finally finished moving in before leaving through the master bedroom where he glanced at the picture hanging on top of the wall. It was the picture of him, Alicia, Firia drinking on a cool table, Sherry playing with a butterfly, Anna and Anya flying around with their wings, and Lin Xingzhi bringing some food for them like a picnic. Nonetheless, everyone was having fun in the garden in the castle. He couldn''t help but smile and look at it for another few minutes before leaving the room. 870 A Compass "Ehm¡­ I can call you Korzan, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. Please call me so." Korzan nodded humbly. "Then, Korzan. Where do you think I need to go?" Alex asked. "I mean, now that I have come to Eulja, I think I should do a few things, right?" Korzan was a bit sour when Alex said he has "come" to Eulja, not returned. Nonetheless, he being here already brought joy to his heart, he shouldn''t ask for more. The main task he needed right now was to have Alex call this home in the near future. "There is nothing you need to do. Although a few have known your presence here, it''s still not official yet, so not many spirits know that you are here. You should be able to do many things you want without meeting them for one or two years. "In the meantime, we can create several plans to avoid your information from being spread out, considering there are many enemies that might come here the moment they learn your information. Hence, the other rulers know that we should avoid making full contact for the time being." Korzan nodded, assuring Alex. "I see." Alex fell into deep thought. "I wonder how many enemies did I make in the past?" "I am not sure myself, but I believe there are at least two God Kings." "Wow?" Alex widened his eyes and scratched his head. "Can I safely assume that this world hasn''t been destroyed yet because Father-in-law and I protected this place?" The father-in-law in his word was none other than Lin Xingzhi''s father, the Time God. He talked about many things with Lin Xingzhi last night and ended up doing nothing except talking, but he felt that was the most important thing to do. During that time, he just had fun with the girls while getting to know them, especially Lin Xingzhi, better. "Yes. However, one of your enemies in the past had fallen in the battle against your home planet, while the other one had their cultivation destroyed. From what I heard, he passed away a thousand years ago." "I am still in danger, right?" "Yes. A few thousand years have passed, and just like how you are raising your strength, your weaker enemies increase their strength until they reach God King. To be blunt, you still have two God Kings as your enemies. I don''t know if there are hidden ones though." "Hmm¡­" Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Why did they not destroy this planet after I died?" "Despite having many enemies, you still had friends and neutral parties behind you. If they destroyed this world after you sacrificed yourself to seal the beast that might destroy this universe, then the neutral parties would surely move." "There are a few ways to increase your strength." Korzan hesitated for a second. "The first way is to use a Spirit Crystal Mine and build a Gathering Array there. Although it''s not very effective, it''s still better than using Gathering Array here." "I might probably do that." Alex nodded. "What are the other two?" "The second is to use pills or medicinal herbs." "There are many pills and herbs that can be used to increase one''s strength drastically. I might use my Gacha System to get Spirit Crystals and buy everything that can help me. Can you search for a perfect world for this?" "I believe the world that is suited like this is a world undergoing their transition." "Transition?" "As you might already know, a planet has its own age. After reaching a certain age, the world will evolve into a greater world. For example, a Lower World will evolve into an Upper World. During the transition, or you can say the evolving process, the world will become unstable. "Many will start evolving, and portals to another world will open. In any case, the original people from the planet will need strength to protect themselves. With that chaotic environment, I am sure you are able to harvest crystals in a win-win situation. Hence, my suggestion." "That is a good idea. For now, search for a world like that." Alex nodded. "I understand. I shall immediately proceed with the search after this." "Then, how about the third option?" "The third way is to receive someone''s inheritance. Some Gods still retained a portion of their strength and planned to give it to the inheritor." "I am a bit skeptical of this one." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before remembering certain information. "Ah, I see. I should go there." "Your Majesty?" Korzan tilted his head in confusion. "Nothing. Don''t mind my mumbling." Alex waved his hand, telling her it was fine. "In any case, the second option might be the best option." "Yes. You still have two Divine Herbs to use while you also need to complete your Undying Fire Body refinement. Milady has been searching for a clue of their whereabouts¡­ It''s hard, but I believe she has found at least one. You might want to discuss it with her later." "Alright. Korzan paused for a moment and asked. "If I may ask, are you going to return to that world now?" "I am planning to do it soon, maybe in two or three days. I want to familiarize myself with the situation here first before returning there. It''s not like there is any difference between going now and a few days later." "In that case, I would like to show you something." Korzan stretched his hand, asking Alex to follow him. He nodded and started walking through the corridor before going around the confusing castle and arriving in front of a thick white gate. "What is this?" "This is our archive." Korzan smiled and opened the door for him. The room was spacious, filled with books. Millions? Tens of millions? No, it might be around a few hundred million books that have been stored here. "Wow?!" "During the last few thousand years, we have been searching for you. And during that time, we end up finding more and more worlds a bit farther away. We collect every book they have, and it somehow ends up this much." Korzan scratched his head embarrassedly. "From what I see, it has been sorted." Alex looked around, finding shelves named cultivation, martial arts, mathematics, and so on. "Indeed. We have all the knowledge here, but we can''t really make a technology suitable for cultivation. There are some, but it''s too hard to implement them in this world. And we might need to have a breakthrough of technology to create a modern society that doesn''t go against nature and pollute the Spiritual Energy. "In any case, I am afraid there won''t be something like that within a thousand years." Korzan kept walking straight before a glowing light grabbed their attention. Alex narrowed his eyes when he saw this light. The moment he passed all the bookshelves and arrived in the middle of the archive room, he was stunned. There was a blue projection stretching around a few hundred meters. "This is¡­" "As I said earlier, we have discovered many planets along the way, and we create a tracking array to know their position. And as long as we have another one here, we can calculate the distance and their direction from us." Alex looked at this projection, containing a few thousand if not tens of thousands of balls that seemed to be symbolizing a planet. They were varied in size. Some were big, some were like a dot. He saw Korzan walking to the center as he pointed his finger toward the biggest one in the center. "This is our planet, Eulja. If we take a little bit of the energy in this place and create an array to connect it with another planet, we can use those things as a compass directly to the planet." "Is this technology?" Alex asked. "Yeah. There are some, and this is one of them, albeit this one was prioritized because of its useful function." "I can see that." Alex nodded in agreement. If he were here, he would also ask for a map like this. Korzan then looked around the area and tapped a few worlds, revealing their name and basic information. However, his face slowly turned ugly as if he failed what he wanted to find. "Well, well. This is really a surprising guest you''ve brought here." An aged voice echoed as an old man slowly descended from the upper floor and kneeled in front of Alex. "It''s my wish to finally see you again, Your Majesty. I am glad that after five thousand years, you can come back to this place." "I am his reincarnation, but I am not him." Alex shook his head. The old man widened his eyes. He brushed his brown hair as if it was a habit when he was falling into deep thought. He then looked at Alex and clasped his hand, "I, Mirhan, pledge my loyalty to Your Majesty." "!!!" Alex was surprised by this sudden turn of events. The old man in front of him wasn''t really that tall, mostly around two-third of him. And his body looked very thin to the point he might fall with a single push. Still, the old man suddenly pledged his loyalty to him¡­ Never in his wildest dream there was a scene like this. "Unlike a few people who have pledged their unwavering loyalty with Universe Oath, my loyalty is to the person that I deem worthy. And I believe my eyes are still sharp, so I believe your majesty is still fundamentally the same. You will still love your family and friends, and this is enough for me." Alex tilted his head in confusion. "I might not be someone like that, you know." "One look is enough for me, especially since nature is dancing in joy around you. Let me introduce myself again. I am Mirhan, Nature Spirit. Because of my identity, I am able to control a portion of nature itself, so my ability is suited to maintain all these books, preventing them from rotting. I might not be as strong as Milady Lin Xingzhi, but I am still strong enough to maintain this whole library by myself. If you want to know something, I will immediately grab a book that you want, so no need to hesitate to call me." Alex raised his eyebrows and helped the old man up with a smile. "I am thankful for your loyalty, and I won''t betray your trust. Glad to work with you again, Elder Mirhan." "Hoho¡­ Just call me Old Mirhan, Your Majesty. This Mirhan can''t take you acting this polite to me." Mirhan chuckled. "Yeah. Nice to meet you, Old Mirhan." "Yes." Mirhan then glanced at Korzan before realizing what he wanted. "Since you want a planet, which planet are you searching for?" "I was going to find the lower world called Agar World. That was the planet''s name where His Majesty raised in power." Korzan answered. "Very well." Mirhan nodded and headed toward a single ball and looked at the information. "This is it." "As expected of you, I am still wondering how you can memorize these planets'' position." Korzan sighed in defeat while glancing over these few tens of thousands of planets. "I can memorize all these 371,938,139,594 books and their position. Do you think a few planets like this can hinder me?" Mirhan shrugged before taking out a compass from his Space Ring. He extracted a portion of energy as the array inside the compass shone before suddenly pointing in a new direction. He then handed the compass to Alex. "This is the compass, Your Majesty. You only need to follow this compass, and you should be able to find the planet. If you want to go back, you can push the red button on the bottom, and it will reverse the flow of energy, making the compass pointing at Eulja." Alex looked at this wooden compass and checked the red button. "Ehm, thank you." "You''re welcome." 871 Undying Fire Bodys Materials "It''s my pleasure to help you." Mirhan bowed politely. "With this, you can go there without coming to the previous upper world," Korzan informed him. "Yes. I will be going there in two days." Alex nodded before glancing at Korzan, wondering if he only wanted to show this place and the compass. "Let''s go back, shall we?" Korzan smiled. "Then¡­" Alex clasped his hand toward Mirhan before leaving together with Korzan. Mirhan bowed his head until he left the room. Korzan led him to a room where all the girls gathered. "I have done what I need to do. I shall do my work now." "Thank you." Alex patted his shoulder and nodded before glancing at the six girls. They were in the dining room where they could use it for a meeting place for the time being. Luckily, it was a round table, so they could see each other pretty easily. He sat on an empty seat between Alicia and Lin Xingzhi. "How is everyone?" "We are good. Just need to sort some things before cultivating again." Anna nodded. It had already been more than a decade since they left this planet, so they must have a few things to do. "How is the preparation?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "It''s good. Anyone want to leave with me in two days?" Alicia and Firia obviously raised their hands since they were the purpose of coming back to that world. Sherry also raised her hands since she wanted to see those people again and showed them her current appearance. On the other hand, Anna and Anya remained still while Lin Xingzhi asked, "Zark can teleport you there." "It''s fine. My power should be enough." Alex waved his hand, assuring they would be fine. "Alright then." "Besides, I have one question to ask you." Alex squinted his eyes. "What is it?" "I don''t have any idea how the spirits can level up." "Ah!" Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Let''s see Anna''s status, shall we?" [Anna (Dark) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 30000/999999] "The monsters won''t bring you any more experience points because the spirits can''t level up anymore using that. Instead, they can only gather EXPs from cultivation. Although this comes with a big disadvantage where they need to have a long cultivation session to regain their strength, they might be able to break through their previous stage. "In other words, there is a bigger chance to breakthrough to Rank 2 God or even God King. This is the biggest benefit that far surpasses the disadvantage." Alex nodded in agreement. "From what I have learned, there are not many Rank 1 God or God Kings, right?" "Of course, we don''t need to worry about those that are far away since they are not an immediate threat, so we only need to watch out these fourteen God Kings." "New God Kings¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. He remembered that many God Kings seemed to have died because of the battle against Earth, so the previous Alex didn''t have the strength to kill the beast and had to seal him by sacrificing his own life. "In any case, we are grateful to see that not many of them are angry at me right now." Alex sighed. "Yeah. For the time being, we will try to hide you until you reach Rank 5 God, so you really need to work hard. We might need to start journeying to many worlds to search for a few Divine Herbs to increase your strength earlier." "Sure. I will settle everything first before going to other worlds." Alex thought for a moment. "Back to the topic, I remember that you said Anna and the others could raise their EXPs by using my Spirit Crystal, right?" "Yeah. You can try taking out a Spirit Crystal and Anna''s card." Alex followed her instruction. "Then channel your Divine Energy to Anna''s card." Alex channeled his energy, only to find Anna''s card glowing before absorbing the Spirit Crystal in his other hand. He then took another look at her status. [Anna (Dark) Level: 81 (Rank 10 God) Exp: 30001/999999] "¡­" Alex widened his eyes. "One point?" "Yeah. What can you expect? Do you think it''s easy to level up after reaching God Stage?" She shrugged. "Well, there is still good news about this. At the very least, I know that Eulja will be protected by many God Kings in the future." Alex smiled. "Indeed. We can start farming Spirit Crystals and pour them into cultivation, allowing Anna and the others to reach the pinnacle. At that time, not a single of your enemies will dare to harbor an ominous feeling against you." Lin Xingzhi smirked evilly. "Yeah." "Though you need¡­ Maybe a billion Spirit Crystals to level them up to Rank 1 God?" "Wait. What?!" Alex widened his eyes before coughing. "Are you serious?" "Yeah. Well, the total amount of Spirit Crystals that Eulja possesses might be able to level up Anna to God King if necessary, so you can rest assured. We still have enough trump cards." Considering how Lin Xingzhi calculated them, it seemed that the experience points needed for each level wouldn''t be linear anymore, making it hard to predict. "Alright. Time to search for money then." Alex sighed. "I have asked Korzan to search for a world to activate my Divine Gacha System, so I am waiting for him later. I hope you cooperate with this." "Don''t worry. I will do everything possible." Lin Xingzhi changed the topic after finishing the talk about Spirit Crystals. "I would like to bring up a matter regarding your Undying Fire Body." "Korzan told me that you should have at least found one item¡­" Alex''s expression turned serious. "Yeah. I have found the fifth material, Fire Grass." "Where is it?" "It''s in a cultivation world that you are very familiar with." She smiled. "That world?" "Nope. A similar one, but this world has something called Martial Spirit. You can say that it is an inborn strength that one possesses¡­ Hmm, how should I say this?" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment. "To put it simply, they are like the people from Phantasm Sect, but inborn." "Ah! That kind of world." Alex immediately recognized this type of world. "Where is it?" "It is in the hand of a young boy from a good family. Well, he is trash." "Wait, wait!" Alex stopped her and asked. "Let me guess; his family is prominent only in a city that is known to be the weakest. And he actually has a talent higher than anyone else but can''t use it at all. And his family treats him coldly." "Well, his family is not treating him coldly since they have gone. The young boy is living with his uncle along with his little sister." Alex facepalmed and chuckled. "Is the boy the MC of that world? Never mind, if he is like this, his talent is good but not that good, especially compared to his little sister. Still, the MC of a certain world huh¡­" "Well, you are a kind of one too, you know. Nonetheless, this is real life. You can''t expect all the plot armors coming to you." "That''s why I always emphasize information gathering. I am simply not that confident to deal with something that I am not unfamiliar with." Alex sighed. "Anyway, that is the condition of the boy who possesses the Fire Grass. It seems to be an inheritance from his parents. In fact, that is the reason his parents died." "Hmm¡­ I don''t like robbing someone even if I can kill them with a single wave of my hand." Alex thought for a moment. "What should I trade?" "You can think about it later since we can go to him after finishing your matter." "In that case, I propose for sister Xingzhi to be the only one accompanying him." Alicia raised her hand in confidence. "I agree." Firia nodded without hesitation. "Uhn." "I think it''s the best choice." "Yeah." Anna and Anya seemed to agree as well, signaling Alex a certain thing. "You guys¡­" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows. "I don''t want to monopolize him." "We know. Although you have been with him this whole time, you are in the form of a system. That''s why I want you to spend Alex not as a system, but as Lin Xingzhi, his wife. But it doesn''t diminish the fact that you are his system, so we will only allow this one time." Alicia smiled, trying to persuade her. She wanted to give her more, but Lin Xingzhi would most likely reject the idea, so this was the borderline. "Well, it''s true that I have spent at least more time with all of you here in person, but I haven''t done anything to her. If you agree with this, then¡­" Alex glanced at Lin Xingzhi and asked her with a smile. "Would you accompany me?" "I''d love to." Lin Xingzhi couldn''t thank the girls enough for their consideration. Alex then hugged her. It seemed he also needed to prepare a plan for their honeymoon here. Their original objective might be the Fire Grass, but it didn''t mean they couldn''t have a few days or months of freedom to enjoy the time together. Besides, it might be a good idea to refine his Undying Fire Body there because no one was strong enough to bother him. "Since it''s like that, I have found another clue about the next material, the Undying Blaze Root. We are trying to track them, but the progress is a bit slow. At the very least, we have narrowed the suspect from a thousand worlds to only three worlds. By the time you have finished refining the fifth material, we might have finished our investigation¡­ So, you might want to go there immediately. Of course, along with everyone." "That is a good idea." Alex nodded. "I will be leaving the investigation to you." "Sure." "Then I think we should end it here and prepare for the journey to Agar World." Alex smiled. Alicia, Firia, and Sherry nodded their heads. "Alright!" They then ended the meeting, returning to their own jobs. Two days later. Alex met the three girls in front of the castle as Lin Xingzhi and the others saw them off. Alex and the three girls started their journey to the three girls'' home planet with Alex''s Teleportation Array. He had no intention to stop along the way and finally arrived in an hour. It was a very long trip. If he used the technology from Earth, he might need a few thousand years to cover the distance. Nonetheless, he arrived at a green planet. He just realized that not much water could be seen on the surface. In fact, the planet seemed to be thirty percent filled with water while the rest are lands. If the world didn''t have war or anything and kept reproducing, they might use up all the water on the planet and go extinct. Alicia and Firia seemed to have no particular feeling about this. By the time it happened, their family might already have a few hundred generations. At that time, it was better to focus on the family in Eulja instead of this place. Even if the need arose, they could transport the water that Alex had. Since he had dried the whole planet in the past that was way bigger than this, his supply wouldn''t run out soon even after filling this planet. Alex activated his barrier, enveloping all four of them. "I am sorry, but I need to seal your cultivation here because I am not sure I am able to seal it fast enough later." "Sure." "Go ahead." "I''m ready." The three replied as Alex nodded his head and started sealing their power. He then snapped his hand and teleported them inside the planet. "Now, where are we going to end up?" Alex smiled as he disappeared along with the other three girls. 872 Uncles Return He then looked up, scanning his surroundings. But what he found was shocking. In front of him was a throne with someone sitting on it, and he was familiar with this guy. To the side of this guy were two old people with a shocked expression. He then looked at the red carpet and the purple wall as if he realized what kind of setting he was in. A few soldiers that seemed to be not humans surrounded them with their spear pointing forward. Alex scratched the back of his head and sighed, looking at the middle-aged man before him. "It''s been a while, huh¡­ Zhar. Wait. Did I spell it right?" "Yeah. You are right." Alicia nodded. "They know our Demon King?" "Protect the king? They might be assassins." "Who are you?!" The soldiers were glaring at the group. "Still, am I really fated with a throne room?" Alex was bewildered. It was his third time to be teleported to the throne room, and he started getting sick of it. "You¡­" Zhar seemed to recall someone in his mind before gasping. "You are Alexander Sirius! No¡­ I should say the Fire God." Zhar rose from his seat, wondering if he needed to kneel. "Ahaha¡­ To think you still remember me. Well, we only met a few times in the past." Alex laughed. The demons were confused, not knowing what to do. Alex''s name was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears, so they stood still while waiting for the others. "Anyway, I am not going to do anything here. I am here to visit my home, so you don''t need to pay attention to me. I will probably disappear again in a week or so." Alex waved his hand and turned around. "Well, I will go ahead so as to not bother the demon king." "¡­" "Let''s go now." Alex smiled at the girls. Since they didn''t really have any connection with the demon king, except for Sherry, who met him together with Alex, they decided to follow him. "Wait!" Alex halted his step and turned around. "There is something big going on with your home." "Something big?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Your niece''s power has grown too strong, so many people are debating on how to control her, lest she is going to take over the world." "Oh?!" Alex remembered giving her a wind gem, but she promised him not to use her power mindlessly unless she wanted to get punished by him. "Has she done something wrong with her power?" "Not really. Except breaking all the records you set, she doesn''t do anything other than enjoying her time." Zhar shook his head. "And why would they pay attention to her?" "So, who wants to control my niece?" "A new kingdom. After the Zircodina Kingdom lost its power, the kingdom was ruined. Their queen decided to go to the Acacia Kingdom to avoid any further confrontation. And it turned out she was betrayed by a few people in her kingdom, and they decided to build a new kingdom. "They summoned a hero to gain more bargaining power. Since they will look bad if your niece attacks the hero and the new kingdom, they don''t do anything, considering the hero has yet to do anything other than leveling up. "However, we have found that the hero is a murderer and a psychopath, albeit can''t do more because we haven''t gotten enough proof to justify the reason we killed him." "I see. Now is not a hero made from H and Ero, but this evil spawn¡­ Well, I will get more information by returning to the Acacia Kingdom." "There is one more thing. It seems the so-called hero and the new kingdom is trying to make a political marriage with your niece. The meeting date is today." "Hmm¡­" Alex thought for a moment and looked at the girls. "Considering the distance, we might probably need five minutes to run, right?" "Yeah." Alicia nodded before asking Zhar. "Do you mind if we create a little destruction outside this city?" "Hmm?! Your power is above me, so I have no control over you. But if you want to do that, I can''t thank you enough for not destroying this city." "Then, we will bid farewell now." Alex threw a small strength pill to him. It was a rank 1 pill, so the effect shouldn''t be that strong and make him overpowered. "It''s a strength pill. Treat it as my thanks for the information." "How about we race to that place instead of using my Teleportation Array? The first to reach the kingdom will be the winner. And the winner can get a reward. I am still thinking about the reward though." He and the girls then left the giant door and found a balcony where they could leap outside the city. The girls'' expressions brightened as they were pretty fired up for this small competition. Zhar and the others obviously followed him and opened the window to watch them. But it was at this moment four loud noises shook the entire city. *Boom!* If one took a look at the source of the sound, they would find four craters created because of the sonic boom. Their speed was already above the speed of sound, so it was normal to create a sonic boom. They used their fastest speed to run to the other side of the world, checking how long they needed to take to go to the opposite of the world. ¡­ In Acacia Kingdom''s throne room, Carollus was sitting on the throne, looking at two people in front of him without any expression. Meanwhile, Raymond was making an angry face, trying to scare the two people away. At the same time, Maria seemed to be present here, overlooking the entire situation. It might be due to the fact that this matter was a human race matter, she decided to oversee the entire negotiation while taking neither side. But there was one person who had a sour face. She was the former queen of Zircodina Kingdom, Rieze. Besides her was a beautiful young girl that looked at this meeting without any expression. While standing behind her were her father and mother. In the middle of the room, a middle-aged man was bowing his head slightly as he proceeded with the discussion. "It is my honor to be present here in front of the Saintess, the Wind Saint, and especially, His Majesty, Carollus. "I am Ravan, coming here to give you good news. It seems that our hero has fallen in love with the Wind Saint, Alexa Van Rizertia, so I would like to represent my kingdom to ask for the Wind Saint''s hand in marriage." The young man next to him smirked while still looking down. The first time he met her was when he was a Rank 7. After killing many people, he tried to kill the rumored Alexa, but every single time he failed. Because she promised Alex to not cause a problem, she let him go, but he kept fighting her. Knowing that he couldn''t defeat her, he was planning to poison her but to no avail. In the end, he decided to do this. Since Alexa was a beauty as well, it was better to pin her on the bed like how she needed to be. Using the power of the new kingdom and the hero''s status, he needed to strike this deal. Alexa usually put on a cold and aloof expression, so many people imagined how beautiful she would be if she just smiled. Carollus narrowed his eyes and didn''t beat around the bush. "Rejected." If the one talking like this was any other ruler, they might not be able to use this kind of tone. But Carollus had the protection of the Fire God and Alexa, so no one dared to have a thought of his tone. "Your Majesty¡­ I hope that you rethink your decision." The ambassador tried to negotiate. "They are matched by Heaven. Don''t you think so?" "No, not at all! How do you even know Heaven matches them? Even my Alexander doesn''t say anything about it¡­ Are you a God?" Carollus rejected him again even more harshly. The ambassador started getting pissed. When he pulled Alex''s name here, everything was different. Although Alex hadn''t appeared for a decade, he still appeared when the Acacia Kingdom had trouble. So, many people believed that Alex would appear again if the kingdom faced a problem. This made many people hesitate to pick up a fight against this kingdom. The hero used this timing to warn Carollus as well that he would become stronger in the future, strong enough to rival Alexa. "Your Majesty. Our hero could become a Rank 7 within a year and became a Rank 8 with another year. In the future, he will be able to reach Rank 10. As you might know, I believe that only those who were summoned from another world have the possibility to reach Rank 10. And they have the power to grant the qualification to reach Rank 10 to other people, like how Fire God did in the past." Carollus'' expression turned grim. Only the dean knew the details of ascension, so he was also troubled over this matter. He remembered that Alex told him that he couldn''t easily return to this place, so if what he said was true, then it would be troublesome. He couldn''t allow the hero to reach Rank 10. Still, the last thing he wanted to do was to marry Alexa to this murderer. He was biding his time to investigate and get enough proof to show the world that Alexa killed the hero for a reason. So, he intended to buy time as long as possible. "Rejected. Alexa''s husband is not decided by me. Her uncle has specifically said that her other half will be her own choice, so I am going to respect it. If I couldn''t even respect the words of our Guardian God, who should I respect?" Carollus snorted. "You can scram now!" "Sir¡­" Suddenly, a loud commotion seemed to take place outside the room before someone pushed the door open. "Haha¡­ I was waiting to listen to your conversation, but to think there is still an old man who has a childish dream like that, it''s very funny. And what you are uttering right now is pure gibberish. He is qualified to be the husband of my niece? How about I throw him outside this world first to see if he can survive in a harsher environment. Anyway, Uncle, a good tone just now. Yeah, throw them away!" The man laughed before glancing at Alexa. "Yo, little Alexa. This uncle has returned, where is my hug?" *Thud¡ª!* 873 Im Home "Who are you?! This is the meeting between the two kingdoms!" The hero shouted, rebuking Alex with a strong voice. "Is Acacia Kingdom allowing anyone to interfere with the matters of the country?" Contrary to his expectation, the first one to move was the king, Carollus. He appeared next to the hero, grabbed his head, and glared at him while saying. "You are freaking right, you piece of shit." *Bang!* He pushed his hand to the ground until the floor cracked. No matter what anyone said, the king was still a Rank 8 fighter while the hero was a Rank 7. Even if the hero had an extraordinary physique, he still had the advantage of a surprise move. ''Uncle?'' Seeing the king''s action, the ambassador finally realized the missing detail. The way he said it made it look unimportant, but it turned out to be something they needed to pay attention to. There were only two people who could call themselves Alexa''s uncle. The first one was the king''s son, while the other one was the ascender, Alexander Sirius. He had seen the king son, and his appearance was nothing like him. "Let see¡­ I have seen many interesting things while I am out there¡­ It seems there is a psychopath wanting to take advantage of my niece. Is that true?" Alex smirked. The atmosphere felt heavy right now even though Alex didn''t do anything. The ambassador turned pale and immediately kneeled on the ground. "O'' Almighty Fire God, this mortal had eyes but failed to see your great presence. I hope that you can forgive us." "What?!" With the confirmation of the ambassador, everyone fell silent, never expecting they would be able to witness when their Fire God descended. "What Fire God?! I am not convinced!" The hero twisted the king''s hand, rose from the floor, and pulled the sword on his waist, waving it toward Alex''s neck. Alexa narrowed her eyes and appeared before Alex, trying to smack this sword away. However, Alex''s hand patted her head as if telling her it was fine. "Look! This is how I will kill your so-called God!" "Alex!" Lea and Raymond called out his name. Alex glanced at the sword with a poker face and let it hit his neck. The sword snapped in half as the tip of the blade flew toward Lea. He then raised his hand and flicked the air, sending a shock wave to blow this piece away, but he poured a bit too much strength into this. The shock wave pushed the sword to the wall and broke both into pieces. *Clang!* The soldiers dropped their swords as if they just witnessed something unbelievable. "Little Alexa¡­ I am still waiting." Alex smiled and ignored the whole situation. "The last time I saw you, you always wanted me to hug you¡­" "Eh¡­" Alexa snapped back into reality before pouting. "I am not a kid anymore." "Ho?! Trying to become a little mature eh?" "I am already old enough to get married, and Uncle is still treating me like a child. In fact, my appearance is the same as Uncle right now." Alex shouldn''t have that much age difference with Lea, but they realized that despite ten years having passed, Alex''s appearance was that of him they saw last time. As expected from a God, they also retained their youth. "You¡­ You¡­" The hero gritted his teeth. Fear began to rise in his heart and eyes, looking at Alex while shivering. Even so, he still needed to take another action unless he wanted to die. "What a God? You have killed far more than me! You are just a ruthless God that doesn''t care about us, mortal." "At the very least, I am not like you who love to kill a human. Answer me then, when you are killing someone, which expression you have and what feeling you have?" The hero was tongue-tied. From the information that Zhar possessed alone and the killing intent this guy possessed, he already knew the answer. He must be smiling and feeling thrilled. "From what I see, you must have killed more than a few thousand humans¡­ When did you get summoned into this world?" Alex smiled as if he knew the answer. "What is the meaning of this new kingdom? To think they let someone like him go rampant, much less to have the audacity to propose to my little niece. I am starting to question your integrity. In fact, I am wondering why you would summon a hero?" "There¡­ There is a good reason behind this¡­" The ambassador tried to explain, but Alex cut him off. "Let me guess¡­ Since you get the kingdom from her, you must think that you have a low strength compared to other kingdoms and decided to summon a hero. Don''t you know that a hero should only be summoned when the world faces danger?" Alex kept spouting bullsh*t, albeit all were spot on. Meanwhile, many people were having their own thoughts about Alex. Maria was clenching her fists in this situation, watching how Alex acted this whole time. Even she couldn''t be compared to the hero, especially his growth. Although she believed that the hero was actually killing people instead of monsters to increase his experience points so he could level up faster, she didn''t have enough proof. If not, she might have started opposing the hero. In fact, this was the only reason why none of them could actually kill the hero yet. The hero was the face of the country, but he was also the symbol of the world. Many legends about heroes had spread and instilled into the people''s hearts in this world for many generations. The best chance to kill the hero was by relying on the other two races, but if they killed the hero, there would be a huge clash between the human and the other races. Hence, the Acacia Kingdom and the Holy Kingdom waited and gathered all the information they could find until they had enough to label the hero as a villain. That was why when she saw how Alex acted, she had mixed feelings. On one hand, she was glad to see him again. On the other hand, he looked a bit more arrogant now. Since he could do anything he wanted in this world, he might do it, but the people wouldn''t look favorably after that. And the Acacia Kingdom might be scrutinized for having a person like him to be their Guardian God. Still, there was one question that she wanted to see the answer, but couldn''t. ''How will Sandra feel if she sees him right now?'' She ended up shaking his head since the answer would be troublesome. Sandra never got close to a man again because of her trauma. And because she decided to not marry for the rest of her life, Sandra told her that she wanted to follow her. So, there was nothing but bad things would happen when the two met. ''The honest man back then has finally grown up like this, becoming the pride of everyone. Haha, as one would expect from a God¡­ Well, he has his own life, and I also have my own life. I wish for the best¡­ Wait, I want to ask for a blessing from God to another God? Am I insane?'' Not just her, Rieze also had a complicated thought right now. The person they abandoned had become a God. She wondered what if he became the Zircodina Kingdom''s Guardian God instead of the Acacia Kingdom? The kingdom would absolutely stand with their head high, not ruined by some traitors. Well, the least she could do right now was smiling because the Acacia Kingdom decided to hire her instead of executing her for all the crimes she committed during the war. The Zircodina Kingdom was a thing in the past for her right now as she decided to do anything to flourish this kingdom instead. Carollus also didn''t spare anything and made her a marquis. It seemed he recognized her talent in managing the country, thus making use of it. If Alex had a say on this, he would certainly give a thumb up to Carollus. He believed that Rieze was suited to a leader instead of a queen. She could take a certain responsibility, but she wasn''t fit to lead a country. Rieze only learned this after her kingdom got ruined. At the very least, her teacher was still able to have a nice retirement life and decided to take care of the house for her. But there was one person that had a very weird thought. She was Lea, Alexa''s mother. The last time Alex appeared, he turned Alexa into something like this. Of course, she was happy that Alexa became strong, but she got bored quicker than anyone else because there was nothing she couldn''t do. As a good daughter, Alexa never showed it on her face, but Lea believed the frustration was built up in her heart. Whether she was conscious about it or not, she could only hope the best for Alexa. Now that Alex came for the second time, she wondered what kind of ridiculous monster Alex would create. Maybe she needed to talk about it after this and asked Alex to not give anything to Alexa. She might be the only one that wanted to chase their Guardian God away. "Anyway, let''s ask the new king, shall we?" Alex smiled before glancing over the open gate. Everyone followed his line of sight, finding no one. However, three seconds later, a woman walked in, dragging a middle-aged man by his neck. The woman had long blue hair and blue eyes, but everyone still remembered her face. Alexa''s beauty couldn''t be compared to her as they were two different levels. Of course, it was due to this mysterious aura that she exuded that took one''s breath away. The hero was stupefied when he saw her, thinking how a woman could be this beautiful. She had won the previous small competition and asked Alex to come here while she went to the Zircodina Kingdom. As for the other two¡­ They got a punishment where they were required to stay in their house until they resolved everything. Much to less their dismay, they followed the punishment, considering Alex promised them a big family party with Rizertia Family and Merona Family. Even after maturing during this whole process, she was still the person they recognized. She gently smiled and put down the guy in her hand. "This guy said he wants to take over the world by using the hero. And he has been grabbing many people in secret for the hero to slaughter them without having difficulty. His ability is one thing, but the majority of his level comes from this. "I have asked Alex to handle the situation here, but I say he gets eight out of ten, I guess. Well, it has truly been a while since I last came home. I have broken everyone''s heart, including my husband at that time. So, I come back here to tell everyone that I am alright. "And because of the worry you have to bear this whole time, I have brought this guy, so you can resolve all the problems here. I hope that everyone can forgive me." She then walked toward Alexa. Her appearance was too shocking to the point no one actually made a sound. "Hi, little niece. How are you doing?" Alexa was not the first one to react. It was Raymond. He dropped to his knees; eyes covered with tears. "Alicia¡­ Welcome home." "Yes. I''m home, Father." 874 Handling the Matter "No, no. It''s my fault." Raymond shook his head and hugged his daughter tightly while crying. They were wondering which one was the parent and which one was the kid, considering Alicia acted so mature. "Father¡­ You have grown old." "You have too, albeit it doesn''t reflect on your appearance. Still¡­ You must have experienced many things. I am just glad that I can see you are doing well and smiling like this¡­ I really have a good son-in-law. Alicia closed her eyes. If she didn''t, tears might flow out of her eyes. The wrenching pain in their heart finally disappeared and the warmth of family embraced them. "Anyway, you shouldn''t put such a display father, we are still in the throne room." Alicia smiled and released him. "Let''s settle this business first, alright? I have gone to our home and asked someone to make a big party for us." "Yeah." Raymond wiped the tears and slowly rose from the ground before bowing his head to Carollus. "I am sorry for my display earlier, Your Majesty." Although they were brothers, in this throne room, they were still a subject and a king. Even Carollus'' son needed to call him Your Majesty instead of Father. Carollus was taken aback and glanced at the king from the new kingdom. "Ahem, I would like to restart the meeting again after having this train of emotions." Alex nodded and pulled Alicia to the side while Alexa seemed to follow him wherever he went. He patted her head and looked at the hero and the king. "So, I would like to ask what is the real reason for this disturbance?" "You are a God, right? You should know about it already if you are watching your people properly." The hero snarled. He didn''t care anymore because he might die in this kingdom since the king would blurt everything out. "I have realized that you are just someone who is stronger, not a God." "¡­" Alex and Alicia exchanged looks and laughed. "Haha¡­ How is it to have your real identity exposed?" The hero grinned. The soldiers and the ministers gasped, never expecting that Alex wasn''t a God. "I see. If we are not Gods, then what are we?" Alicia asked with a dumb look as if she was trying to mock this hero. "I am not sure. I have checked my own status in another world, but they can''t really read God''s strength." Alex shrugged. "Suppose I was not a God, then what of it? Shall I punch this so-called new kingdom? Don''t worry. I will only punch once." "Are you serious? You know your strength is capable of destroying a city of this size in a single fist, right?" "What can I do? They won''t believe me." And the fact that Alicia brought him to this place within a few minutes, he could already see through their strength. It would be foolish to anger these two whether they were Gods or not. The king immediately kneeled in front of him and asked. "Please forgive my kingdom. I will do everything you want. Please don''t kill me." "Then tell us everything." Alicia narrowed her eyes before exerting an overbearing pressure that made them hard to breathe. Everyone felt this, including Raymond. Alex only glanced at her, knowing that she needed to display this power to instill fear within their hearts. If the ministers thought they could harm the royal family by spreading lies about their current status, then this energy was the one convincing them. After a few seconds, she snapped her finger, retracting her power. "You may speak." "Ye-yes. This one was filled with greed and summoned a hero from another world. Because the hero wanted to get stronger quickly, he decided to ask me to prepare many people for him to slaughter." The king blurted it out. "What did you say?!" This certainly shocked people, but the one who shouted earlier wasn''t someone from the Acacia Kingdom. Instead, it was the hero. "You were the one proposing that idea to me!" They started blaming each other and told everyone their secret without realizing it. The ambassador had dropped to his knees as if he had accepted his death. It turned out the hero had killed more than seven thousand lives from weak to strong to increase his strength. This was unacceptable for most people as they started protesting, asking Carollus to execute them. "Ahem!" The king stopped them and gave his decree. "I have decided. The hero will be placed in our trial for all the deeds he has done. Meanwhile, I will ask for the cooperation of the Holy Kingdom to resolve the matter with their king. "Both of them are guilty. As you have heard earlier, we will start investigating all the areas they spoke about earlier. After that, we shall have his own citizens to judge this matter. What do you think, Saintess?" "Your Majesty, Carollus, is wise." Maria gracefully bowed her head. "My Holy Kingdom will cooperate with your kingdom until this matter ends." "Umu." Carollus nodded and looked at Rieze. "I shall place this matter in your hand, Minister Rieze." Rieze opened her eyes wide, never expecting she would have this chance. She immediately kneeled on her knees and said, "I thank Your Majesty. This Rieze won''t disappoint you." She was overwhelmed by the favor that Carollus gave. Not only could she take her own revenge on those who betrayed her, but she could also free her previous kingdom. As for what would happen next, it wasn''t her jurisdiction anymore. Even if the citizens wanted her back as the ruler, she decided to stay in this kingdom as a minister. The hero and the king turned pale as they rebuked at the same time. "We refuse! We¡ª" They kept blabbering everything, but Alex decided to create a Sound Insulation Array while Alicia made the barrier array that locked them. Alex thought for a moment and decided to make a move. He created a Special Realm in their body and had all their strength absorbed. "I have sealed both of your power, so you won''t be able to do anything from now on." Alex then took out two papers and drew an array there before tossing both papers to Carollus. "This paper is the key to their seal." Carollus raised his eyebrows, realizing why he would make the keys. He bowed politely and thanked him. "One more thing. As another punishment, I shall create a lock, so the kingdom can''t summon another hero easily. It will need all three kingdoms'' approval." Alicia added. "I shall give my seal later. Make sure to protect the seal carefully." "We understand," Carollus and Maria replied. "Guards! Take these two away!" The guards came in and apprehended both the king and the hero. As for the messenger, he glared at Carollus and bowed to him. "Your Majesty, my sin is too big for me to bear. Still, I would like to ask for your forgiveness. Even if I can''t escape death, I wish to have a peaceful death." Carollus furrowed his eyebrows. Although the rumor said how deep his involvement in this incident, there was no rumor of him killing anyone. He thought for a moment and decided on his punishment. "Your punishment will be death to poison. For now, Guards, bring him as well." The ambassador kneeled, conveying his gratitude before leaving the room with the guards. Seeing everything had been resolved, he announced, "With this, I announce that the meeting has finished. All people are to leave." Alex glanced at the ministers as if telling them to leave. Without much choice, they decided to follow the instruction, wondering if they needed to bring presents to Alicia and Alex. "Alicia!" As soon as they disappeared, Lea jumped to her and hugged her. Alicia smiled and hugged her back. "To think my sister already has a daughter, I am sorry since I couldn''t participate in your wedding." "Say no more. You were fighting for your life, so you shouldn''t think about it." "That''s right. Where is sister Mia? Does she have a husband already?" "Ehm¡­ No." Lea looked away with a frustrated expression. "She doesn''t have any interest in this matter. Although this is an excuse, she still says that Alex is the reason. You can say that he is too handsome and strong, so none other people can sway her heart. Father is also troubled with that matter, right?" Raymond felt her gaze and scratched the back of his head, letting out a hollow laugh. "Yeah. She is into magic research right now. Well, I won''t enforce my ideal on her, so you don''t need to worry. I have it enough with only you." "Hehe¡­ I am still thankful for that though. Because of that, I can have the best husband for me." Alicia smiled. "Well, she promises she will adopt a son or a daughter as her successor. I don''t know what to say regarding this matter, but if she is fine with it, I will only approve." "That sounds like her." Alicia nodded. "There is nothing wrong with that. It''s not like she needs to keep the bloodline pure, right? After all, she won''t succeed the house." "Is this my fault?" Lea looked down. "Of course not. If Sister Lea also thinks this is the right thing to do, then it''s fine." Alicia thought for a moment and changed the topic. "In any case, I have come home earlier and asked a few servants that you ask to maintain the manor to prepare for a party. Firia and Sherry are managing that. And yeah, Merona Family will be there also." "That''s good. We shall have a warm party." Lea repeatedly nodded, happy with the idea. Carollus flinched and kept glancing back and forth as if he was feeling lonely. "I haven''t forgotten about you, Uncle." Alicia finally looked at him. "I am always grateful to you, especially the part where you forced Alex to be my fiance. You are also welcome to come to our party since you are a part of our family." "Since that is the case, I will immediately go there." Carollus nodded repeatedly. "That''s right. Have you found the crown prince yet?" "Him¡­" Carollus twitched his eyebrows. "He is crazy, saying that he doesn''t want the throne." "They ended up fighting for a few days because of that," Raymond added, giving a clearer picture. "They agreed to have his own grandson to do the job. And after giving birth to a son, he is traveling around the world with his wife while leaving the kid in his hands. Ugh, thinking about it makes my blood boil. Even if I am not his parent, I want to hit that kid once¡­ No, I shall punch that kid when he comes home next." "I will have his own son watch, so he won''t become someone like his father." Carollus agreed. As expected, the synergy between these two was as strong as ever. Alex and Alicia nodded in approval before the latter searched for Rieze and Maria. It seemed both of them had left since they were not part of their families. She originally wanted to ask both of them to attend as well, but it couldn''t help if the two had left. "Husband¡­ Should I invite the demi-humans too?" Alicia asked. Alex frowned, recalling all of his experience with the demi-humans. They were exactly the same as his spirits, weird. "No. I think that is a bad idea. I will just give my regard later." "Alright." Alicia paused. "Then, could you send us to the Rizertia Mansion?" Alex snapped his finger and created a Teleportation Array, enveloping Raymond, Lea, and Alexa. In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the Rizertia Mansion. 875 A Long Journey They were pretty reluctant at first before a servant who seemed to know Firia blew the matter up. Since their Goddess had returned to the mansion, they started doing their job at full speed¡­ Even given their 120%. When Alex returned, they worked even harder since his face was completely the same as the statue. Since it took a long time, Alex visited his teacher''s grave first in the academy. He sat down while bringing the wine. "Teacher¡­ It has been a long time. I don''t know if you have reincarnated or not, but I hope you have a nice next life." Alex didn''t know whether he wanted to meet his teacher again or not. After all, it would be awkward to call someone younger than him a teacher. There were still many who called someone younger a teacher, but all of them had an extraordinary strength since birth. Hence, it wasn''t weird at all. Alex only wished the best for his teacher, poured the wine over his grave as the tradition for the deceased from this world, and left. Alicia, Firia, and Sherry waited for him in the garden while supervising the condition for the party. "By the way, how long are we going to stay here?" Alicia asked. Alex thought for a moment. He hadn''t considered this. "How long do you want?" "Not really long? It''s good to see them, but staying here for a long time just makes it hard to leave." "I agree with Alicia. I will probably stay at my parents'' house, so I think three days is the best." "Sherry also thinks the same. Well, I don''t have anyone in this world other than Master, so I will probably go with Master." "Hmm¡­ Alicia is going to stay in the Rizertia Mansion while Firia will be living in Merona House. Sherry and I will visit the demi-humans and have a chat with them, considering I haven''t visited them for a long time." Alex let out a long sigh. "Alright." Alicia and Firia nodded in agreement. The sun started to set, illuminating the world with an orange sky. Merona House was the first to arrive. Alex immediately grabbed Firia and greeted them. "Hello. Thank you for visiting." "Young Man, there is no way I won''t visit my daughter." He glanced at Firia who was hugging her mother with a huge smile on her face and patted his shoulders. "I don''t care what your status is, but I am glad to see her again, especially her smile. Thank you for protecting her smile." Alex nodded. "She is my wife. Of course, it is my job to make her happy." "Agreed. Please continue protecting her, alright?" "Sure." Seeing both men went to the garden, Firia brought her mother to follow them. Alex then waited for the Rizertia Family to appear and greeted them with Alicia. Mia and her mother immediately hugged Alicia when they saw her again. They felt relieved to see her alright, considering how broken their heart was when they witnessed Alex sealed her. Mia had grown older with some wrinkles here and then. Even Raymond had a few white hairs, but it was a part of nature. And Alex had no intention to turn them into immortal or prolong their lives. And luckily, both families understood that and didn''t ask for such a thing. They felt it was alright to die right now after confirming both of their daughters alive. When the Royal Family came, Alex found someone in the wheelchair. It was a traditional wheelchair made of wood, but it was perfect for someone like him. He bent down and smiled. "Grandfather Bryan." "Alex, huh¡­" Bryan smiled. It was hard for him to open his eyes because of his age. In fact, he was supposed to die from old age when the doctor told them about the strength of his muscles and other things. "Grandfather¡­ This is Alicia." Alicia also came and greeted him with her soothing voice. Bryan stretched his hand, wanting to feel her. Alicia grabbed his hand and placed it on her cheek. Bryan then started feeling the warmth of her face and smiled, "Your appearance hasn''t changed at all, but I am glad that you are so mature now. I am really proud of you¡­ Nevertheless, I am just glad that you are alright now." "Yes, Grandfather." Alicia smiled as tears appeared in the corner of her eyes. She had been so close to her grandfather in the past, so she was sad to see him like this. "Alicia has grown up, so Grandfather doesn''t need to worry about me anymore." "I feel relieved." He paused for a moment and returned to Alex. "Boy¡­ Thank you¡­" "What thank you? We are family, and Alicia is my wife. I will heal her no matter what it takes. Grandfather doesn''t need to worry anymore." "Yeah. I shouldn''t worry anymore." Bryan nodded. Alicia then grabbed the wheelchair and pushed it to the garden, a bit farther so it wouldn''t be too loud for him. "Has grandfather eaten yet?" "I have. Don''t worry about me. I just want to watch all of you from the side." Alex thought for a moment and saw Alicia''s worried face before patting her shoulder with a gentle smile. Seeing this, Alicia nodded and started the party. Of course, the one that took everyone''s breath away was Sherry. They never found a monster turn into a human, let alone a beautiful girl like her. Mia grabbed her like a sister and made sure she couldn''t escape as she examined her body. No one thought of them as a Divine Being at this party. They were simply the son-in-law of the two families, the third daughter of the Rizertia Family, the proudest daughter of the Merona Family, and the one and only Sherry. And they never cared about their status as long as they had fun with the family. Unfortunately, they couldn''t party all the way because they were worried about Bryan''s condition. The next day, Firia returned to Merona House and had a warm talk with her family while Alicia went to Rizertia Mansion and spent the entire day with her family. Alexa, on the other hand, came to Alex as she found out Alex''s plan. She wanted him to take her to the demi-human territory as well. And he agreed since he had nothing better to do. He visited the perverted Elven Queen once more, the elder Druid who was supposed to have a better morning wood¡­ The elder dwarf who bragged about his daughter, the centaur who was curious about his strength, and the giant who couldn''t fit in due to his size. It was a fresh experience for Alexa since her father forbade her to come to other territories since it might be considered trespassing. She took this precious chance to know more about them and looked at the magnificent Divine Tree. After more than a decade, the Divine Tree had flourished once more and protected the demi-human like usual. They stayed a night there before Alex decided to go around the world, bringing Alexa to visit the demon territory without anyone noticing. They didn''t forget to manipulate the Rank 9 Array that the Dungeon God created in the past. It was the array beneath the Zircodina Kingdom that Alex saw when he first returned here. Alicia tweaked the inside a little bit and placed three arrays acting as keyholes. He handed two of them to Carollus and Maria, asking them to treasure them. And since the kingdom would surely have trouble, she decided to give the third key to her father instead, telling him to give it to the new ruler and explained the concept. All three received it gratefully and would use these keys wisely. Alicia spent her third day with her grandfather, doing whatever he wanted to do. In the end, she told him story after story until the day changed. Finally, the third day had arrived, and it was the time for Alex and the others to return. All people from Merona Family, Rizertia Family, and Royal Family gathered together in the previous garden they held a party. Alexa was pouting the whole time because she might not be able to meet him again, but she didn''t say anything and simply waved her hand. "Then everyone¡­ Our time is up, so it''s time for us to return. I hope we can meet again like this¡­ At that time, let''s have another party, alright?" Alex smiled and snapped his finger. The seal in his body vanished as his Divine Strength had returned. He then looked at the girls and said, "This might hurt a little bit, but we should be fast enough before the Lightning Tribulation finds us." The girls nodded as Alex unsealed their cultivation. All of them released a huge amount of Divine Energy as the three families could feel it with their entire being. This was something different than magic power, and the amount wasn''t something they should touch. "This is Divine Energy. I can''t say much about it because it will only cause a misunderstanding in this world, so I will leave without saying anything." Alex nodded and used his array to teleport them to outer space. "Then, goodbye, everyone." Alex, Alicia, and Firia waved their hands as they disappeared. However, the family in this world still had their own problem. Bryan stretched his hand before putting it down again. "I am glad that Alicia is alright and leads a happy life. She is still a cute and honest girl that can bring joy to one''s heart, including mine. I am really glad that Alex has become a great husband for them, and I hope that their happy life will continue until the end of time¡­ "Ah¡­ How I wish Heaven grants me the ability to see their face one more time¡­" Bryan paused for a long time. "And now¡­ To my family besides me, a golden word of advice from an old man who has experienced many things in his life. "You don''t need to trust your vassal completely. Standing on opposing sides occasionally is fine too. But simply be aware of each other. They will understand your weakness, and you should know about it and grow even more. I believe that is also a form of ruling. Fofoh, well, not that I had ever experienced that. "And then, become the rulers that won''t let their subjects suffer. Whether you are governing upon three thousand people or three million people¡­ I might not be the wisest ruler, but I believe what I said today is true." Bryan paused again before saying. "Ah¡­ But still¡­ What a long journey it has been¡­" "¡­" "¡­" "!!!" All of them immediately fell on their knees and cried. "Father." "Father!" "Your Majesty!" Raymond and Carollus hugged him. "To us, you were the greatest ruler, Your Majesty. Thank you for everything you have done¡­ Thank you, Father." They were not the only ones facing this. In outer space, Alex waited for a moment along with the girls. He poured wine for all of them and raised it. He had seen his condition with his Spirit Eyes and realized he had already passed his time. His strength and magic power were no more to the point he was like a living dead if not for the fact he was still able to talk. Alicia, on the other hand, recalled every memory of the past, and he certainly played the biggest part in it. Despite becoming a ruler, everything changed when he put down that red mantle and became a good grandfather at home. "It was one hell of a journey, wasn''t it? Grandfather¡­" 876 Song Tao It took them a few minutes before Alicia told them she was fine. Alex slowly released her and took another look at her expression. Alicia tried her best to smile and acted like nothing happened. "What are we going to do now?" "The plan is to visit Stina''s World, but neither Stina nor Kyle have woken up, so I think we can skip this one." Alex thought for another plan and decided. "I will probably go to the Blackwade Clan first." [In that case, bring me as well. We can also ask them to make weapons for you. A custom made one.] Lin Xingzhi appeared out of the blue, but Alex considered it carefully and agreed with her plan. "Alright. Let''s go back to Eulja first." "Sure." The trio nodded as they disappeared again. Not long after, they had arrived at Eulja, entering the castle. Lin Xingzhi met them in the corridor. "Since you are going to go to the Blackwade Clan, I believe we shouldn''t come along with you. After all, this discussion is pretty serious." Alicia suddenly stepped back. This wasn''t a consideration for Lin Xingzhi and purely her concern. "I shall call Zark to bring us there." Lin Xingzhi seemed to agree with her decision. "Alright." Alex nodded. "You three can rest first." "Before that, I want to know where are you going next?" Firia asked. Alex pondered again since the plan had changed. "I have two destinations right now; it is either to go to "Encore" or get the half-part of Fire Authority." "I think we should get the Fire Authority first. I don''t know where the Encore is, and I don''t plan on following you to that place. After all, this is a special place where both of you can meet." Lin Xingzhi suggested. "I see¡­" Alex nodded. "I have the general locations for both worlds, so I can go there alone." "Sure. I will return first after dealing with the Blackwade Clan." "In that case, I will have a break first. We can go there tomorrow. Maybe you can send a message or something?" Alex tilted his head in confusion, not knowing how the Blackwade Clan worked. "Sure. I will arrange everything." Lin Xingzhi then turned around and left. Alex and the girls decided to return to their room. The next day, Alex opened his door and found Lin Xingzhi waiting for him outside. "Let''s go then?" Alex asked. "Yeah." She nodded and led Alex to meet Zark as they disappeared from Eulja. Since Zark was a powerful God Rank Expert and had been using this for a few thousand years, Alex paid attention to him controlling the Space Element, hoping he could learn anything. Thirty minutes later, they arrived at the Blackwade Clan. "We must have triggered their defense system." She smirked. "It is always fun to poke on their alarm system because they will start panicking." "Milady, you should do it in moderation." Zark twitched his eyebrows. She always did it every time she came to the Blackwade Clan. Alex tilted his head in confusion before deciding to look at the world from the outside. Unlike all the worlds he had seen, he couldn''t find any water in a single glance. He tried to move around and found a huge pool of water that could be seen from the space. "This planet is filled with ninety percent of lands. The Blackwade Clan uses this place as their headquarters because they can mine everything from this planet, considering it''s filled with many minerals. At the same time, it also has enough resources in the surrounding planets. "You might not be aware, but if you take another look at the planets surrounding Eulja, you will find they are green planets. That''s where we usually plant our medicinal herbs. Well, you can say that our main source of income is selling medicinal herbs. "The nature of the spirit itself is close to nature, so yeah, we can speed up their process. In fact, your Divine Herbs can be harvested within a few years. As for minerals and Spirit Crystals, the majority of them come from the trade." Alex listened to her and nodded. He never paid attention to Eulja since he had so many things to do. "On the other hand, the Blackwade Clan is a market empire around here. And their majority incomes from Forging and minerals. They do sell herbs or pills, but they can''t be compared to those two. "Anyway, their wealth is at the same level as us. Although most of them are invested in many other industries, they are still one of the richest influences." Alex thought and asked, "Do we have alchemists?" "Not much. We are selling materials only. And you can say that there are many alchemists that want to join our influence due to this, but they can''t enter this haven." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "We only want to use them to train our own alchemists instead of coming from outside." "I see." Alex nodded before noticing someone coming. A middle-aged man flew toward them and bowed his head. "We have been waiting for you. Please follow me." The group nodded and entered the planet, arriving in front of a room. "Patriarch, I have brought the visitor." "Umu, you can go ahead and proceed with your task. I will talk to them." The middle-aged man then disappeared as the three walked inside the room. A red-haired middle-aged man stood near the window and watched the world outside. He looked like someone in his late thirties with a red vest and formal black and white suits. "How I wish you can stop doing that¡­" "I have sent you the letter before though." "Yeah, yeah. The letter huh¡­ There are only freaking three words in your letter. How do you want me to know if you only said, "I am coming."? You tell me¡­ I almost got a heart attack this time since you might bring huge trouble to us so suddenly." "I won''t do that." "still, I need to be careful, alright?!" The middle-aged man let out a long sigh. Lin Xingzhi was smiling this whole time, watching how this man looked outside without paying attention to Alex. Alex tilted his head, confused about all this. Feeling his gaze, she decided to not play around and said, "I am coming for two things." "What is it?" "I want to get two weapons, a sword and a spear. I want them custom made, and I have brought the sample. If possible, I want the souls in the weapons to be transferred as well. Can you do that?" She asked. "It is possible, albeit a bit costly. But since you are asking for a sword and a spear, you must want to give it to him. He can be considered a co-founder of this Blackwade Clan to the point that if he wants to take half of the assets of this clan, I will give it to him. "And yet, he doesn''t grab anything. Instead, protecting me and helping me during the hard time. Obviously, I will do it for you, free of charge." The middle-aged man nodded. "I will prepare the best thing you will ever have." "How long will it take?" "I need to consider the power of the soul as well." "Both of them are Rank 8 weapons." "I need to level them up to Rank 9 before fusing the soul¡­ Do you want me to recast the weapons or simply make another one?" "Which one is faster?" "The latter." "Alright. You can make a new weapon to host their souls. However, I would like to request another thing." "Sure. Give me all the information, so I can build two weapons close to the ideals." The man nodded. "He has a Pure Fire Element and Space Element. I want to embed the highest quality of these two gems to his weapons." "I have the perfect stones for that, but I only have one for each of them. There is a place where I can buy it, but¡­" "I know most of your money goes back to the investment, so Eulja will be paying for that. You can grab another pair." Lin Xingzhi immediately covered the payment as if it was nothing. They were talking about a few hundred million Spirit Crystals here. Fortunately, Alex wasn''t aware, so he still hadn''t made a single noise. "Alright. I will send my right-hand man to purchase it. Calculating the time to upgrade the souls and other things, I will need three years to complete this weapon. As long as you take care of the two stones, you don''t need to pay for anything else." "Are you sure?" "I said it earlier, he was my benefactor." "Alright then. I can only thank you for this." "Uhm." The man nodded. "Then, what is the second matter?" "Do you know Musee World?" Lin Xingzhi asked. This was the name of the upper world Alex lived in for years. "I know. If I am not wrong, I have a branch in that world as well. Does Sire go to that place?" The man furrowed his eyebrows, subconsciously releasing his killing intent. "Do you want me to eliminate the clan there?" "You can''t go any more wrong than that. Well, it''s true that there was a pleasant memory about that place, but they helped him in the end¡­ Unconditionally on top of that. Hence, my husband promised them to let their most talented person train in this place." Lin Xingzhi explained the promise Alex made with Song Jiaoren. "I understand. Since they help Sire, I will help them as well. There is a new batch of disciples next year, so I am going to send someone soon to grab that person. Who is this person?" "He is the son of the current patriarch there, and he goes by the name Song Jiaoren. He is a promising young man, and I think he has the potential to reach Rank 4 God if not Rank 3 God." "Ho?! To think there is someone who can make you view him in high regard." "I am just saying if he is properly trained. In other words, your clan will need to take him seriously. It is a sort of gamble though." "Training him is possible, but I can''t really justify the reason. In any case, he needs to go through the usual thing in my clan, and we will see after that." "Sure. I will leave it in your hand." Lin Xingzhi nodded as she finally finished talking about the two matters. "And now, I want to talk about the payment." "I said it earlier! I don''t need any payment as long as you cover the cost of the two stones." "Are you sure?" "I am sure!" "Even though I have brought the payment already¡­" "What do you mean?" "Song Tao¡­ How about you turn around and see who is behind you?!" *Thump!* His heart skipped a beat, getting a bad premonition. He had been talking this rude to the guest because he was angry with Lin Xingzhi''s playful character. And this was something normal, considering how often she visited this place. In fact, she also asked him to help with the investigation of Alex''s reincarnation before. So, yeah. They had become pretty close. However, the moment she said there is a special guest, he instantly realized the situation. He turned around and found a golden-haired man sitting there without saying anything this whole time. "Look, I have said that you won''t regret it. I bring my husband here because he needs your help. Since you were acting like that, I decided to make you pay by completing the discussion by myself, not him." Lin Xingzhi laughed. "I bring my husband with me." Song Tao rushed and fell on his knees as he turned pale. "Sire! I am sorry for my rude actions!" 877 His Rival? Alex raised his eyebrows and stared at this proud man suddenly kneeling in front of him. Lin Xingzhi asked him to not say anything because she would handle everything, but it turned out it was for this. ''He is Song Tao, the patriarch of the main Blackwade Clan. He is Rank 2 God, known as Metal God. His eyes for minerals might be the best for all the Gods we have discovered. You have the gist of the relationship between him and your past self, so I think I don''t need to explain it again, right?'' Alex glanced at Lin Xingzhi as he listened to her thought transmission. Watching a Rank 2 God that could be the leader of a big influence kneeling like this gave complicated feelings to his heart. "I am his reincarnation, but I am not him." Alex shook his head. "So, you don''t need to call me like that again." "No can do, this is a matter of principle." Song Tao''s face was firm. Alex thought for a moment and realized it must be because of this principle, the Blackwade Clan issued the Supreme VIP Card. So, Alex needed to find a way to resolve this situation without hurting his pride. "I understand, but I would like you to stop kneeling now. As you know, I don''t have the memory of my past life and have no intention to get it, so I don''t know the full extent of our relationship in the past¡­" "It is nothing for me, Sire. My feelings for you remain the same no matter what." Song Tao raised his head and clasped his hands. "Besides, I am still a Rank 10 God, you know. Who knows how long it will take to reach Rank 1 God." Alex sighed. "That''s why I want to repay you Sire, I can help you until you reach your peak again. This time, this Song Tao is not useless anymore and can certainly help you." Song Tao smiled. Alex scratched the back of his head. He never thought that Song Tao had this deep loyalty. "I understand. But can you treat me as a reincarnator instead of him?" Song Tao furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Lin Xingzhi who nodded her head. "If that is what you want, I can try, Sire¡­ I mean¡­ ehm, how should I call you?" "Just call me with my name." "¡­" Song Tao tilted his head and called him. "Sir Alex. That is the best I can do. Sir in my world is considered below Sire. I am afraid I can''t call you without any honorifics." Alex closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Alright. Since that is the case, I won''t say anything more. However, I would like you to drop that honorific when we are talking with someone else." Song Tao instantly recognized his aim and assured him. "I understand. Your identity is a sensitive case, so I will refrain myself when that time comes." "Thank you." "No, no. It is my pleasure." "Since the deal has been made, I think there is nothing to say anymore, right?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Lin Xingzhi. "His name is Kubard, A rank 1 God known as Palm God. You can say that he was your rival and friend at the same time. He always compared himself with you and acted passive-aggressive, but if there were an enemy you needed to fight, he would fight together with you. Well, your cultivation had surpassed him for a big time in the past, so he couldn''t help you exterminating that beast." "Why is it a bad thing if I meet him right now?" "Considering your strength, he will surely ask you to marry his daughter." "¡­" "And I am sure you can''t escape from him because he will pester you to death." "¡­" "Even if I fight him, he is shameless enough to move all the planets under his command to capture you and have you marry her. And¡ª" "Stop, stop!" Alex raised his hand. "In other words, he is a pain in the ass, right?" "Yes. In fact, he has been searching for your reincarnation this whole time." "For what? You asked him?" "No. He wants to make you his son-in-law before your memory awakens. At that time, he will have the last laugh¡­ Or that''s the situation if you are captured by him. He wants to win against you even if it''s a very shameless thing to do." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "And if we are fighting against him and all the planets under him, it will bring all the attention from nearby worlds, so they will immediately recognize me," Alex muttered with a low voice and sighed. "Yeah. That''s why I would like you to run away from him first until you have reached Rank 5 God, if not Rank 4. At the very least, you will have the right to reject him along with all the excuses possible. And I am sure I can solve everything without causing a ruckus." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "And this is related to the second thing I want to talk about." Song Tao stopped them. "It seems he has some suspicions with how you act recently, Lady Lin Xingzhi." "I have heard the report. That''s why I am going to lay low by visiting some worlds with Alex¡­ And if possible, not a Divine World, so he can''t enter that world." "But can you enter an Upper World?" "I have my way. If I remain in Eulja after doing all these things, I will just get his attention. I am sure that he has already suspected that I have found Alex''s reincarnation, so I want you to direct him to somewhere far away. And with the missing me, he won''t know and believe you." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "Well, you can simply marry his daughter. From what I have heard, she is a talented girl and a beauty. Her strength has reached Rank 3 God as of now, and people say she has the highest chance to succeed his position in the future." Song Tao tried to give a suggestion before finding Alex glaring at him. He sighed. "It''s not possible, isn''t it?" Alex nodded. "No one can predict the future. We still have an empty room back home, and if pushes come to shove, I will just fight it out with him." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "Say, Husband¡­ What do you think about a new sister?" "¡­" Alex rolled his eyes away. She chuckled, knowing his characters. At the same time, Song Tao also realized the similarity between the current Alex and the past him. "For now, I will do everything I can while waiting for the storm to go away." Alex shrugged. "I understand. I shall help you and release some rumors about it. When he realizes it, he will surely come to me, so I will say you are far away from here. To avoid his attention, Lady Lin Xingzhi has gone to your side instead of bringing you here because he knows what will happen. "And if he knows about your weapons, I will simply say that it is the lady''s work. She wants to give him a present when he reaches God Stage, thus I will hand it to Eulja if he is persistent. That way, he shouldn''t have any reason to not believe me." Lin Xingzhi and Alex exchanged looks and nodded. "Sounds good." "I will be relying on you, ehm¡­" "Please call me Song Tao, Sir. If you add an honorific on mine, I shall call you Sire again or maybe other things¡­" "I will be relying on you, Song Tao." He repeated himself, using his name directly. "Yes. Please leave it to me." Song Tao nodded. "Since we have resolved everything, I think we should leave now." Lin Xingzhi let out a sigh. "As much as I want to let him see your world, I shouldn''t do things that can give away any information." "Now that you mention it, looking at his strength, he is still a new God Rank Expert, huh¡­" "Yeah. I haven''t even brought him to see all the places in Eulja because I don''t want the Spirits to realize it for now." "I know how complicated it is if my identity is discovered, so I don''t really mind." Alex smiled, assuring her. "Do you want me to send a few humans to be his bodyguards? This way, the others won''t be able to find anything." "I think it will be fine. As long as our Spirits don''t really use all their power, they won''t be discovered. After all, our Martial Arts are not really different from those of general Martial Arts. They won''t realize it." "Alright." Song Tao nodded before glancing at Alex. "If you don''t mind, you can look at the monitor placed in every highest building in all continents. We have gotten the highest resolution camera to do this, and I believe Eulja has them too, right?" "Yeah. It''s in the Light Ruler, though. Considering he is the one maintaining the defense of the planet." Song Tao obviously knew this Light Ruler and knew why Lin Xingzhi hadn''t let Alex visit him for the time being. "Then, I think this is my time to shine." He went back to his table and opened the drawer, finding a piece of crystal. He put the pink crystal on the table and activated it. "Is this¡­ Memory Crystal?" "Yes. As you might already know, we and technologies can co-exist. All the images captured here come from the cameras, but we have incorporated the system itself with a Memory Crystal, allowing us to have only one thing that can pollute the Spiritual Energy. As you know, computers can pollute them as well. "Even if it''s small, we have been using too many, so we don''t want to ruin this world. Our scientist made an innovation. By connecting a Memory Crystal to the system, we can watch over the cameras as well from here." Song Tao explained. "I see." Alex nodded and finally took a look at the screen projected by the crystal while thinking, ''As expected, after leaving the world and seeing the broader universe, those things in science fiction do exist. Although they need to incorporate them so as to not ruin the Spiritual Energy, it is still amazing.'' He watched the screen with great interest. The screen started changing, from the mountains to settlements. Alex kept looking at this until he found something that intrigued him. "What is this?" He pointed at the blue gate that looked like the portal to another world like those in Musee World that was connected to Stina''s World and the lower world where Mithra lived. "This is a Gate to travel between worlds. You have seen it as well, right?" Lin Xingzhi was the one explaining things to him. "Most Divine Worlds don''t have monsters on their planet, so they usually travel between worlds if they want to kill monsters. "At the same time, some are actually making an influence in that world and establishing themselves with the locals. "This way, they can get hidden talent, money, and so on. We have it as well, but a bit farther from the castle." "Is there any place I can go with my current strength?" "There are two other Divine Worlds we have connected to. The first world is our Vassal while the second one is a world filled with monsters." "I see. I might go there when the time comes since I am curious." "Sure. I can guide you to the portal at that time." Lin Xingzhi nodded before rising from the chair. "Do you want to see more?" Alex looked at the screen and shook his head. He didn''t find anything that amused him other than the portal, so he also rose from the chair. "I will go back now¡­ Thank you." "Yes, Sir. Have a nice trip." Song Tao nodded and clasped his hands. 878 Fire Authority "Yeah. I have a rough direction for it, so I will probably be fine." "I see. Then you take care of yourself. I am not sure what kind of world it will be, so you should watch out and summon the others if needed." "Sure. Thank you for your consideration." Alex nodded before turning to Zark. "I leave her to you." "Yes, Master." Zark bowed politely and created a Teleportation Array. Lin Xingzhi waved her hand until she disappeared. Alex nodded and waved back. After they disappeared, Alex turned around, looking at the far horizon. "This way, I guess. Since it''s pretty far, I probably need a day to reach that place, considering I need to use a Rank 9 Teleportation a few thousand times. Haiz¡­ I can finally see how big the universe is. "If a Teleportation Array can send me one light-year, which is around three hundred thousand kilometers, it''s a few thousand light-years away from me. I wonder how long I need to travel to head to a planet a million light-years away. Huft¡­ "There is a theory that I can solve that distance if I can enter the Black Hole. I need to ask Lin Xingzhi about this later." Alex thought for a moment before finally teleporting himself toward that direction. Just like how he predicted, he created around four thousand Teleportation Arrays before finally arriving at a world of his target. And he was a bit exhausted. Considering a Teleportation Array didn''t really need much Divine Energy, he managed to do it in one go. Still, he might need to rest for a bit after entering this planet. "If only there is a combined Teleportation Arrays¡­ Well, I should say Teleportation Formation. I believe a grand Formation with ten Teleportation Array can send me a hundred light years away instead of ten. And there is this warp gate¡­ It contains around a thousand Teleportation Arrays, or that was what I saw earlier." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose while glancing at this red planet. This planet was slightly bigger than the Upper World and had bountiful Fire Energy inside. When he searched for the atmosphere of this world along with the will that protected this world, he could only see a thin atmosphere as if this world was on the verge of dying. He shook his head and entered the world. His vision soon filled with lava and the flash of fire that was hopping around from one hole to another as if there was a magnet pulling them. He smelled the air and noticed it was filled with sulfur. Luckily, a molecule like this couldn''t affect his Divine Body, so he didn''t care about it. Then, his eyes met a giant mountain far to his left. Alex took out the scroll again and read it once again. "This technique allowed the former Fire God, Phitrus, to become unrivaled to those who wielded fire. After all, this Divine Technique can control them with just a single command. Now that I have reached God Stage, I can finally see how scary this technique is¡­ "I don''t know how many people I can suppress at once, but if it''s able to affect the others to the point they can''t do anything, then I don''t think I will lose to any fire cultivators again. "And I should use the Fire Authority to activate this scroll to reveal the position." Alex thought for a moment and commanded, "Fire, Arise!" Alex''s Pure Fire suddenly seeped inside the scroll before the latter glowed. The scroll seemed to be pulling him somewhere, but he couldn''t tell where the scroll wanted to bring him. "As expected, the technique is in this world, but I need to get closer first, so the scroll can guide me." Alex sighed and decided to fly around to recover his Divine Energy. After that, he started his journey aimlessly, hoping that the scroll would react soon. Three days later. "!!!" The scroll suddenly moved slightly to the left, showing the way to the original technique. Alex immediately turned around until the scroll changed direction again, adjusting the target position. This piqued his interest, considering he was near the volcano. "Ehm¡­ Don''t tell me." Alex squinted his eyes and activated his Spirit Eyes. There was this glowing ball inside the volcano''s stomach. "I guess it can''t be helped." He flew to the top of the volcano and dove down as if jumping into the water. This was not a problem for him as he kept doing it without any problem until he saw a tunnel. The light was also there, so he followed the path. Due to the pressure inside, the lava didn''t fill this entire cave with magma, allowing Alex to walk. At the end of the cave, there was a glowing monolith with many words written on it. He activated his Spirit Eyes to better see this situation, checking if there were any traps around it. However, the energy from the stone didn''t go anywhere, so he believed this place was safe. Alex started walking toward it before the stone lit up once more, startling Alex. "As expected, this one has a trap." Alex sighed and checked his surroundings to see what would happen to this place. Suddenly, an image of a middle-aged man appeared in front of him. "Heya, it is me, your favorite Fire God, Phitrus." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. He never had any favorite Gods, so he was slightly amazed by how shameless this Phitrus to jump into a conclusion like this. "This is just an image of me recorded by the Memory Crystal in that stone over there. And the words written on it is not the technique itself. The inheritance is this image of mine because I will be explaining to you how you can master the real Fire Authority. "Since this image can only be opened by my Godly Pure Fire, I am sure you are the one I have been waiting for, Alexander Sirius. "Haiz, you should have become my disciple instead, but to think you rejected it in the past. I was very disappointed at that time. Well, it didn''t really matter since you turned up to me for one last time." "¡­" Alex frowned, noticing his speech was a bit weird. However, he couldn''t see what was weird. "In any case, this technique allows me to govern over Fire. Even if I am only a Rank 10 God, I can suppress a Rank 5 God and kill him before he can do anything about the suppression. This is also the reason I can reach the pinnacle, so you should use it carefully because many will covet this technique. "Without further ado, I will explain my technique. "This Fire Authority is the embodiment of your Pure Fire. In other words, your avatar. There are two stages for this Fire Authority, Summoning and Fusion. This is my Avatar." The Fire arose from within the image''s body, turning into a giant. The giant was made of flame and ten times taller than a human. He had a long beard and had a fire spear in his hand. The Pure Fire in his body grew restless as if something was bothering it. "This was just a shred of my avatar that I left behind. If it was the real one, you might have kneeled when it made its appearance. I called this Avatar, Flame Lord. As you can see, I can control the Flame Lord itself, using that spear of his. I was a Spear User in the past after all. Though, to be honest, the power of the spear is not that great, you see. So, I don''t really recommend it. "The only weakness of this technique is the consumption. It''s so big, so it will be hard to fight in a continuous battle. Well, this Divine Technique can be considered a peak one, so you can expect the battle efficiency. "And the second form is this¡­" The Flame Lord gradually shrank before coming into his body. Suddenly, his appearance changed due to the appearance of armor. It covered his body and legs only, but he felt it would be able to extend to other parts of his body as well if needed. "This is the Fusion Stage. In this stage, you can wield the ability of the Flame Lord. Well, I haven''t told you the usage¡­ So, I will tell you now. The Flame Lord can wield my Fire to the highest degree. Or you can say to my absolute potential. "Although a part of its power loses in this Fusion Stage, this form is more leaned to combat, especially high-speed battle, so I preferred this form." Alex looked at it with his Spirit Eyes, noticing that the power of the technique was compressed a little bit. Although it wasn''t as powerful as the giant size, the fire was more stable and fluid. If the giant form needed some moments to use it, this one didn''t need to wait at all. Besides, with a body that big, it would become the target, so he also thought the Fusion Stage was better. "This is my Fire Authority. And as I said earlier, you need to first form the Avatar of your flame before working on the fusion. For this, you need an image to keep the form up. I think you won''t be able to achieve fusion soon because it will be pretty complex, so I hope you can learn about this First Stage first. The details are like this¡­" 879 Temporary Return However, everything did not look as terrifying as an eruption would be. The lava flowing on the mountain body was no longer hot despite being out just for a few seconds. Not long after, the mountain started shaking before the mouth began to crumble, burying everything underneath. This might happen when a big eruption took place, but this eruption was strange as if it was man-made. Fortunately, there was not a single person on this planet witnessing this strange phenomenon. Light flashed from the volcano before a huge explosion occurred, destroying the body along. A red fire rose from the bottom of the volcano and turned into a fox with two tails. The fox was translucent, but one could still see its eyes were slightly redder than the rest. The fox roared to the sky, summoning a tall fire pillar. There was a shadow inside that pillar and slowly ascended as if a UFO picked it up, but the pillar disappeared as soon as the shadow reached the fox''s eyes. The golden-haired man slowly opened his eyes, witnessing a shocking scene. "This¡­ What happened to this planet?" He asked in shock while looking at the greenish orange ground that couldn''t flash anymore. This place was supposed to be surrounded by flame, but he couldn''t see any of it. All the memories that happened for the past few months came back to him as he realized what happened. "Seriously? I absorbed all the Fire Energy on this planet to create the Avatar?" Alex murmured and snapped his finger, creating a Teleportation Array that would send him to anywhere in this world. But as he expected, the previous flame that could jump from one to another was nowhere to be seen, leaving only the orange surface that was burned by the sun. "The Avatar needs a huge amount of Fire Energy. It can be said that the Fire God wanted me to train in this place because he knew I would exhaust this planet''s energy. And considering the place and distance to the sun, this planet was not meant for the living, so he didn''t think much about it. What was in his mind was Sherry. She also had the same Godly Pure Fire, but she wouldn''t be able to learn Fire Authority without this planet. [I can help you find a planet like this. In fact, there are many planets like this as only Pure Fire can use this type of planet for their cultivation.] "Is that so? Then I don''t need to worry." [Sure. I will check the age, the energy, and other things there to get a very similar one, considering the technique might require it.] "Yes, thank you." Alex nodded. He then turned around and looked at the fox. Sherry had been the strongest beast that could control fire like him, so it didn''t take him too long to create an image of her, albeit with another tail. He didn''t know why but felt something was missing when he created a wolf with a single tail. It might be due to him using two weapons, so he got fixated with the number of two. Nonetheless, it wouldn''t bring much effect to the skill. "Well, I wanted to create a nine tails fox, but I couldn''t create a vivid image. I didn''t know their elements, living style, and so on. At the very least, all the images I have about Sherry allow me to create something like this." Alex smiled. "If I need to name this Avatar¡­ It should be Celestial Fire Fox¡­" [As usual, your naming skill sucks. Sherry is a Celestial Fox, and you only named the avatar with the addition of Fire in the middle of her race.] "¡­ You want to name it?" [It''s your technique. Why should I think of a name¡­ Unless it''s the name of our kid, I won''t say anything. After all, I can''t let you name him like your alias, Redna Xela.] "¡­" Alex let out a long sigh and said, "Never mind. The name is not bad. As for my name, you can call me Nyx. It''s better than Redna Xela." [Fine.] Alex closed the notification and took another look at his surroundings. "Such a shame, this planet won''t be able to recover its energy again. To think I have exhausted the entire planet''s energy¡­" He shook his head and sighed. "Still, the energy didn''t go to my cultivation in the early process, but when I completed the Summoning stage, all the absorbed fire energy improved my energy¡­ Probably the excess of it. This was the reason why I needed a year to complete the first stage. Such a benefit." Alex was also surprised by the effect of the avatar. He raised his hand, and the fox opened its mouth, shooting a fireball to the horizon. The moment it hit a mountain, it exploded, engulfing the entire mountain. "Oh, wow! One shoot." Alex raised his eyebrows. "I can control the avatar like moving my own body, so this one is powerful. With the addition of Swallowing Heaven, I suddenly can summon so many beasts¡­ "Either way, I also need another planet like this to fuse this giant avatar." Alex sighed, looking at this thirty-meters tall fox. "What a big fox you are¡­ Surely will become a target. I should go to the Encore first to see what I need to do and achieve this Fusion Stage." Alex nodded and teleported himself to outer space, finding the red planet turned to orange. He then looked around, calculating the direction and the distance between him and the encore. [I believe you should go back here first. I will give you some information regarding the black hole. This way, you can reach that place much faster.] Alex contemplated and agreed to her. "I think that is the best." He immediately turned around and went toward Eulja. As soon as he arrived, Lin Xingzhi and the others had been waiting for him. "I am back." Alex nodded and glanced at Firia, "I am still wondering if you can use this Fire Authority as well¡­" "Sacrificial Element is not the same as Pure Element. It might come from that, but it''s different." Firia shook her head. "Is that so¡­" Alex was disappointed. "Anyway, let''s go back first." They nodded and returned to the castle, heading toward the usual dining room where they discussed everything. "Before I start, I want to inform all of you a few things." Lin Xingzhi''s expression turned serious. "As much as I want to let you stay here, you have been on this planet for a year without doing anything. Hence, I am planning to give you each a mission. The Spirits will accompany you, of course." She glanced at Alex and asked, "What do you think?" Although it was good to have nice peaceful days to cultivate here, they indeed needed to move their body a little bit, polishing their fighting skills. After all, they were not like Anna and the others who had thousands of years of experience. "I agree." Sherry, Firia, and Alicia nodded in agreement. Alex would probably be busy for a long time since he will receive something big from the Encore. Not only that, but he also needed to consider the fact that he spent a year just to master the first stage of his Fire Authority. And after that, Alex still promised quality time with Lin Xingzhi in another world, so they realized it would be better to work and increase their cultivation because Alex might surpass them soon. Seeing the girls decide to do it, he sighed and gave the sign of approval. "By the way, do we complete a mission together or¡­" "All of you are going alone. You shall lead a group to a certain planet and finish the mission. This way, I can train your judgment ability and leadership." "Sure. We are ready." "As a reward for this quest, Sherry will get two worlds that have abundant Fire Element to learn Fire Authority. You can ask Alex how to practice it as well after this. For Alicia, I have prepared a special accessory that could boost your Ice Element. On the other hand, I haven''t prepared anything for Firia, so you can ask me something." "We don''t really need a reward though, but since you are giving us this opportunity, I only want one thing, a new furnace I guess." Firia took out her Alchemy Furnace and sighed. It was slightly broken due to how much she used it. "The place that you will be going is surrounded by Alchemy. I want you to win the competition there, so I am sure you will find a good furnace. For now, I will provide a good Alchemy Furnace for you to win the competition, medicinal herbs and some money. The rest will depend on your skill." "If that were the case, it would be more fantastic." Firia smiled, feeling pretty pumped up. "I want you to establish and get a name for yourself." "I understand." Firia nodded. "As for Alicia, you need to go to a similar competition and establish your identity as an Array Master. Don''t use your Ice for the time being." "Alright. I will do my best." "Last but not least, Sherry. I want you to conquer a world full of monsters with one thousand spirits under your command. Because of the number, you only have a month to finish this task. I want to see the degree of your leadership because I am sure Alex would be able to clear this planet without using their own strength." Sherry widened her eyes and sighed. This was not her good point, but it seemed Lin Xingzhi was adamant to train her ability, so she agreed. "I will try my best." "Good. In this case, I shall continue the matter about outer space. As you might already know, there are two types of holes, Black Hole and White Hole. This is closely related to Space Element and the corresponding Array. Anyway, this is not my place to explain this because Zark will know more about this. And without further ado, Zark, can you help me?" Lin Xingzhi glanced at Zark, who had been waiting this whole time. "Yes," Zark said calmly while walking to the front. Anna and Anya were not here from the beginning, so they didn''t really need to repeat the learning process. However, this type of thing piqued All people''s interest. "Please." Alex stretched his hand, asking Zark to start. Zark nodded and raised his hand, creating two images. One was full of black, while the other one was the exact opposite. He then started explaining. "There are¡­" 880 Astronomy Cultivation Version "You might know about Space Disturbance, right? It''s where the Space Element concentrate. The Spatial Gate itself is a Space Disturbance but in a smaller scale." "So, the Black Hole is a Space Disturbance?" Alex squinted his eyes and stroked his chin. "You can classify it as such, but I will explain this one first. When the Space Disturbance level has reached a certain level, it will materialize itself, turning into either a Black Hole or a White Hole. In fact, the planet we are in was created by the Element Disturbance as well. "When the Fire Element concentrated in one place, it created a star or you can say a sun if you are close to it. A concentrated water element will form a huge blue planet. Depending on how much the impurities and other things, the planet can be an ice planet or a suitable living place like Eulja and any other planets. "And yeah, it can be considered that the Earth Element Disturbance, it will create a planet full of minerals. Sometimes, they bound together with other elements, creating a balance between Earth and Water. "As for Light and Darkness Element are massive elements in the universe. Some of them are just like Earth Element, confusing the Space Element, thus giving birth to White Hole and Black Hole. These two are connected to each other. "For example, do you know how the Gods and Goddesses sealed Planet Earth to that junk galaxy?" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "It is simple. They created a huge Space Disturbance and mixed it with Darkness Element. After that, they will send another wave of Space Element along with Light Element, connecting the two galaxies together. "It might be impossible to move the whole planet by themselves, so the Gods and Goddesses bound together and pushed it inside, sending the planet away. That was the gist of the situation. "After that, they stopped the Space Disturbance and closed the portal. In other words, you can say that the White Hole and Black Hole around us are leading to somewhere. You can enter another galaxy using a giant Black Hole and arrive through the white hole. If you wish to return, you need to remember the direction and other stuff, so not many people are leaving this galaxy." "This is an intriguing topic." Alex looked down and contemplated. "What will happen if there is a Light Element Disturbance or Dark Element Disturbance? Is it going to be a Supernova?" "As for Darkness Element, it is properly distributed, and the most it can do is to create a small black hole that absorbs everything. Only when it has absorbed enough Space Energy, it will be the Black Hole that could send people to a long distance." "Oh, wow?!" Alex widened his eyes in surprise. "This is new knowledge to me." "Since Master can see the flow of energy with your Spirit Eyes, I am sure you can see that there will also be many other energies hovering around the Space Disturbance, right?" "Now that you mention it, the Space Disturbance indeed absorbed all those elements. It was a small portion though, so I didn''t really get bothered with it." Alex nodded. "That''s it! Proportion. An element disturbance can''t really be created artificially in normal circumstances. It''s because we need the right proportion for it to complete. I don''t know if you have this knowledge, but there are many planets that failed to form due to the failing proportion, and all the God Rank Experts tried to create such a phenomenon but utterly failed due to the same reason. "Only due to the Teleportation Array, they could create a Space Disturbance. The nature of Space Element is to absorb or release from the real world to the space world and vice versa. This is the only reason why it can be disturbed manually. The Space Element is the one naturally absorbing most of the part. "When the Gods and Goddesses sealed planet Earth, they didn''t do it in an instant. The Black Hole to another universe could only be operated after charging it for three hundred years. You could simply see how hard it was to create a tunnel like that. "And if we take a look at the portal that the Devil World used, I am sure it took them a few decades to create a portal like that. They needed the portal because if they sent a spaceship toward that place, which should be able to resolve the issue faster, they would be found out by another Divine Worlds, leading to a huge argument. "So, to hide the intention, the Devil World used ten thousand Teleportation Array, artificially created a Space Disturbance. They then let it absorb and even filled it with more Energy to build the portal." Alex closed his eyes and nodded again. He couldn''t say anything in this regard because the knowledge was sophisticated. Zark made it look easy, but it was due to his simple words. If he talked like a scholar, it would be a disaster for his brain. "I can somehow understand the concept of the elements building the universe along with the Space Disturbance that can create a tunnel between two worlds. But I am wondering if you have any explanation for the Array that summoned me to this universe?" Alex asked the question that intrigued him the most. Zark pondered for a minute before answering. "I don''t have the exact answer, but I am sure it lies in your Space Element. The Dungeon God''s Space Element was too complicated for a normal Space Element user like me to understand. I am sure you can understand it better in the future, so I won''t go too deep into this matter. "But if I were the Dungeon God, I would create a Teleportation Array that transported you to another world¡­ Maybe to a nearby Black Hole toward this galaxy and created another array to protect the body to go through that tunnel and used the Teleportation Array from destination to pick you up. Something like that." "Ah, it''s a feasible concept, but it''s a bit too abstract. If my Space Element indeed stemmed from the Dungeon God, the future would be interesting." Alex nodded before recalling a certain matter. "There is one thing that baffles me. How about the time? From what I know, if I am here, somewhere else can move a few times faster than my time, right?" "I am not sure about it. Space Element is the most useful element, but Time Element is the weirdest. Not many people can have this element, let alone mastering them. As for the explanation, I think we should ask¡­" Zark glanced at Lin Xingzhi, whose father was the Time God. Lin Xingzhi sighed and started explaining. "I don''t know myself, but I think the time flow is actually the same. The reason why you think that there is a different flow of time is mostly due to the distance between the two planets. For example, you need a few thousand light-years. Even with the fastest speed, you need a few thousand years to travel there, which means the thing that you see is a thing from a few thousand years ago. "However, from my father''s perspective, time flows the same. If you can travel as fast as possible to that place, the time will be the same again. So it''s like the illusion and reality concept. In one place, it''s an illusion, but in another place, it''s reality. I can''t really explain much since I also don''t understand." "But my father said this once, ''When there is a huge Time Element Disturbance, there will be a space where you can see time flows differently. In that special place, you could see everything happening as if watching a movie. And he believed, even if he had all the time in the world, he wouldn''t understand one percent of it." Alex tilted his head in confusion. Although he got a few answers, there were many doubts in his heart. At the very least, it explained the concept a little bit. If it were physics, it would be a long explanation that involved mathematics and so on. If it were cultivators, they saw from the element''s perspective. Which one was wrong? he believed both were right. "I see. Since there is not much information to begin with, let''s move on." Alex wrapped that discussion. After all, the Time God was famous as the master of time, and no one could rival his knowledge about time. If such a person didn''t even understand a glimmer of the real concept, there would be no one who could explain it to him. "Sure. Where did we stop earlier¡­" Zark recalled the discussion and picked it up again. "Right, Proportion and Space Disturbance. I heard that Master had seen the portal in the Blackwade Clan, right?" "Yeah." "We can easily create a portal by using a formation. There are five general categories for this portal. The first is a super short portal for anyone to go around the world. It is comprised of five arrays and allows you to teleport to anywhere in the world, even with a planet as big as us. "After that, the short portal. It allows you to go around the planets. Maybe to nearby asteroids or the natural satellites like our moons. You name it. "As for the third one is a medium-range portal that lets you teleport to anywhere in our solar system. Unlike the short portal that is constructed from ten arrays, this one has a hundred. "The fourth is built by one thousand to ten thousand arrays. This grand formation will teleport you to all the planets near our surroundings. Not many people use the ten thousand one because the enemy will target this portal, causing a Space Disturbance in our own territory, so yeah, most of the portals are around one thousand to five thousand. "The fifth one is the forbidden portal. It has a hundred thousand to a million Teleportation Arrays. As you might expect, they will surely break the formation and create an artificial black hole. If that thing is planted in your world and explode, you can say goodbye to most of the population. Only God Rank Expert can survive the pressure inside the Black Hole." Alex repeatedly nodded as he could imagine something like that. "It can also be a weapon¡­" "Yeah, but there is an unwritten rule that stated no planet should use something like this. If they use this, they will be chased down by all planets around them." "I see." Alex nodded. "If we are the one using it, we will be getting swarmed by at least a few God King, huh¡­" "Yeah. So, please don''t think about it. And there is also a chance that we are getting absorbed by such a thing unless we can control it ourselves. In the past, it took around fifty thousand God Rank Experts to close such a thing. You can imagine how many worlds participated in the battle." "Uhn, Yes." Alex waved his hand, telling him it was fine. "I will never do such a thing." Zark stared at him for a few seconds before feeling relief. "Anyway, the reason why I ask you to return is to use the Tier 4 Portal to send you as far as possible, so you can go to Encore as quickly as possible," Lin Xingzhi interjected. "Ah, I see. The distance is indeed a bit too long, but considering the secrecy and other aspects, I guess I can see why my previous self hid it this far." Alex nodded. "I will be relying on you." "Sure. Let''s go then." 881 Rival After remembering everything and showed Alex a bit of improvement, Alex finally departed from Eulja using the Teleportation Array. He arrived somewhere in outer space, completely oblivious to his surroundings. He tapped his forehead once, trying to calculate the distance and direction to reach the Encore. However, he suddenly noticed a gigantic creature coming toward him, forcing him to see what it was. "Seriously?" Alex couldn''t help but smile weirdly. It was a Spaceship that marched at high speed, crossing this outer space. He would probably not die if he got hit by such a thing, but he decided to step aside, considering it was flying three times his speed. After that, he put on his mask and a black cloak so as to avoid anyone from seeing his face. "In many stories, there will be an arc where someone or the MC almost got run by a carriage, but to think I will be facing a similar experience¡­ But with a Spaceship instead¡­ I wonder what I should say regarding this matter¡­ "I want to be excited to see another scene from stories, but it''s a freaking spaceship." Alex shook his head and let out a long sigh. Activating his Spirit Eyes, he checked on the spaceship to see what kind of people boarding such a ship. After all, it was a gigantic ship. The length alone stretched for about five kilometers. It was five times bigger than the one he found in the Dwarf Territory. He shuddered the moment his gaze fell on the ship, finding around a hundred people were stronger than him. If it wasn''t moving a few times faster than him or even stopped before him, he might be in trouble because they would check him or something. However, he noticed there were two people on top of the spaceship talking with each other. The first one was a middle-aged man with long spiky white hair. His body was similar to that of Leoz, but he radiated a stronger aura than him. In fact, Alex found that the energy inside his body was equal to Lin Xingzhi. Meanwhile, the one talking with him was a young lady. She had long black hair tied into a twin-tail right around her neck and ran through her chest. She looked like a gentle lady, but her strength was something else. Alex realized they were there because the energy was outside the spaceship, but the moment the man found his gaze, he shuddered. ''This man is dangerous!'' He thought while using his teleportation array to disappear again. Meanwhile, this got the attention of both people. However, the two saw the mysterious man was currently using his Teleportation Array, vanishing from their sight. Her grandfather didn''t reply before pinching the bridge of his nose. A troubled face appeared on his face as she realized there must be something wrong with the man from earlier. "Father¡­ What is wrong with him?" She asked while tilting her head. "Ugh¡­ I didn''t know why, but that man reminded me of my past." He touched the big scar on his face that stretched from his forehead to his right eyes to his right cheek. "Do you know what our destination is?" "It is to Eulja and Blackwade Clan, right? You said you want to find my idol, and these two people know more about him." "Yeah¡­ I haven''t told you this, but I got this scar from him." "!!!" The woman was slightly surprised. He never told her the answer when she asked about this scar, and the fact that it came from her idol, she realized it must be hard for him to tell her that her idol actually hurt her father. She looked down and apologized. "I am sorry." "Haha! You definitely misunderstand something. Do you think I am sad because of this scar?" "You don''t?" "Of course not! I am thrilled. This scar was proof that I had fought the scariest being I had ever encountered." He smirked, making a face that looked like he wanted to fight someone. "I also have a confession to you as well." "What is it, Father? Don''t tell me you want to kill him?" She gasped and turned pale. If her father wanted to kill her idol, she didn''t know what to do. "You are like your mother, always overthinking something like this. She almost divorced me when she thought I was cheating even though I wasn''t." He shrugged. "It''s better than nothing." She pouted. "Haha¡­ True." He took a deep breath and prepared his heart, telling the truth about what happened a few thousand years ago. "I always told you that I fought him when we were both a Rank 10 God, right?" "Yes. I always loved that story. You fought him and somehow ruined the entire planet because of how awesome the fight was. I started idolizing him back then, so I agreed to this farce of yours." "Yeah, but it is actually the true story." "Hm?!" She narrowed her eyes and asked, "So, Father won?" "No, no." He shook his head. He always told her that his rival won, but it was not the truth. "I lost miserably. I wasn''t even his opponent. In fact, I couldn''t touch even a single string of his hair." "What?!" Her jaw dropped as she was completely baffled by the confession. "There was no epic fight and something like that, only one side annihilation. I was overconfident of my ability and tried to fight him, but everything about him made me shiver, and the last thing I knew, he already created this scar. "After that, I tried to chase after him on every occasion, trying to defeat him, but our gap started getting bigger and bigger. "The last time I found him was when I heard that his wife got heavily injured by someone and created a huge war against them. "I joined his side even though he didn''t know me. And we managed to destroy four worlds with our combined force. However, he never presented himself during the war¡­ Do you know what he did?" The female thought for a moment and shook her head. "He probably sneaked inside and killed the one who did it himself." "Nope! He found that the group had a backer and eliminated the backer along with all the influences under their command. In that war alone, he destroyed ten Divine Worlds." "What?! Ten Divine Worlds? Were the opponents too weak for him? Wait, since it was a case like this, the backer should be far stronger than the actual influence that created this situation¡­" "Yeah. That''s why his reputation became well known after this battle. Even the Rank 2 God in the past like Death God, Battle God, War God, and the others cowered before his presence. They had challenged him in the past but rendered to be useless to the point they would simply leave when they heard his name." "¡­" The female furrowed her eyebrows and squinted her eyes while asking, "So, the part where you had a big fight against him and ended up becoming a rival and a friend was a lie? Also, the fact that you and he fought together in that war was a lie?" "Ugh, yes." He let out a long sigh. "That''s why if you have a different opinion, this will be the last time you can get away." "You have told me the stories about him again and again since I was a kid to the point I have grown to idolize him, now you are saying to back down for this¡­ Isn''t that a bit mean? Even though I haven''t seen him or anything, I am really curious about it. Well, how about this¡­ We can meet him first and see whether we can get along. If not, I will leave and be done with all of this." "Eh?! But this will be the last time where you can back down." "Hmph! I can annul this at any time, unless you want to face the wrath of Mother, especially with these fake stories." She narrowed her eyes, pressuring him. Chill ran down to his spine as he agreed. "Fine. I shouldn''t say this first before this¡­ Huft." "Hehe, it''s your fault. Still, we haven''t talked about the young man from earlier. It was rare to see you getting fixated on another person like that." "That man, huh¡­ If you don''t want to marry him, how about marrying this one instead?" "Huh?" She made a weird face as she glared at her father while releasing her killing intent. "Can you be more serious about it?" "I am absolutely serious. The fact that my scar was tingling meant that this man was extraordinary. Even though his strength was only a small Rank 10 God, there was something deep inside him that actually scared me. He reminded me of that God back then¡­" "Who?!" "The one that once reduced a Divine World into ashes, the Fire God, Phitrus." "He was once a God King too, right? If I am not wrong, his strength was on par with Time God and Spirit God at their peak. In fact, he was known as the Spirit God''s mentor, just because the Spirit God refused to have a master." "Yeah. That was him. When he helped the Spirit God, he burned the entire Divine World and reduced it into ashes. No Fire users dared to stand in front of him unless they wanted to commit suicide. In just a single glance, the latter could kneel." "There is a Rank 2 Fire God around this area, right? How is his strength compared to him?" "I have met this Fire God, and I believe if the former Fire God was a normal size human, this Fire God was simply an ant. Even a Pure Fire element could only endure to not kneel in front of him, but if he wanted to take their life, it would be an easy thing to do. His Fire had reached the pinnacle after all, surpassing the Pure Fire itself." "That is certainly something I want to see. Unlike Father, my element is plant, and I am more of a doctor myself." "Ugh, now that you mention something about the plan, I remember that I need to face that old witch." "Old witch?" "The one and only Time God''s daughter, God King, Nature Goddess." "But the fact that you want me to marry the reincarnation of Spirit God meant that you have prepared for this, right?" "Yes, but if I push her to the corner, that witch will surely kill me. Although we are both God Kings, her strength is above the rest. Although they won''t do something reckless like making war with me, it will only happen if I don''t push it too much." The middle-aged man scratched the back of his head. "I have seen how she destroyed a world by causing the Spiritual Energy disturbance, causing them not able to cultivate. She simply watched them while smiling as all God Rank Experts kneeled in front of her, asking to forgive them." "And there are still many experts in Eulja. Even four Divine Worlds under me are not able to best them. The best they could do is to stall time." "That strong? So, you want me to marry the Spirit God for his power?" "Nope!" He shook his head. "As a rival, I absolutely want to win. Isn''t it the greatest win when you have your rival call you father-in-law? Guahahahaha!" "¡­" She was speechless. "So, you brainwashed your daughter for a petty reason like this?" "What brainwashed? I only told you about your father''s grand tales." He smugly claimed his innocence. "Yes, yes. Whatever you say. Anyway, we will arrive at Blackwade Clan in a few days, right?" "Yeah. Let''s go inside." "Sure." Unbeknownst to them, the one they were talking about was actually the young man they saw earlier. What would they do when they actually realized that? 882 Inside the Black Hole "Are you serious?" Alex looked at the giant black hole, eyes wide open. The special trace to locate the encore was telling him that it was inside this black hole. He came a bit closer before suddenly feeling the sucking force. He was still far from the black hole, but it seemed the pulling force was really great like how he learned it on Earth. "What should I do?" Alex looked left and right, searching for a White Hole. "According to what I understand, I can return through a White Hole, but I don''t see one near me. Well, considering the power in these two holes is too great, I doubt they will be so close. Still, I can''t really go beyond this point without any preparation, can''t I?" When Alex thought about this, the system suddenly solved the issue. [I can send you the compass to Eulja, so you don''t need to worry, Host.] "Ah, the compass huh¡­" Alex pondered for a moment. "The compass will continuously be pointing toward the one that had the mark, right? What if I am too far?" [The compass is using the energy to link up with the energy around and connecting them according to the direction, so there should be no issue.] "I see." [Still, to think Encore is beyond this place. No wonder no one can find it.] "I agree. By the way, are you searching for it too?" [I do investigate and follow the information about it, but I am not actively searching for it. After all, I have been specifically instructed not to do that because it will just be a waste of time.] "I see." Alex nodded and looked at the black hole again. "I am still not very sure about it. Even if I can return, I still don''t know what I will do if I meet any extraterrestrial on another side." [We will head there immediately if you are in danger. Zark is standing by right now because we are not able to accompany you due to a certain promise.] Alex let out a long sigh while gathering his resolve. "The only way is to go there, I guess." After a few minutes, Alex came closer as the pulling force started getting stronger and stronger. When he reached a few light-years away from it, he realized that he needed to exert a bit of his power if he wanted to get away from this. However, he had a mission on the other side, so he didn''t resist and got sucked into the black hole. Looking at this pitch-black hole that even light couldn''t enter, Alex simply stared at it, mesmerized by its beauty. It might be creepy, but no one from Earth could actually see a black hole from up close, let alone entering it. Hence, he stepped forward and entered. Before entering the black hole, two notifications popped out. [Judging from the course and other things, I am sure they will be going toward Eulja and Blackwade Clan. If you meet them again somewhere, just make sure you act as you don''t know them and absolutely don''t use your sword and spear at the same time. Have a nice day.] "Eh, what?!" Alex shouted, but the sound couldn''t travel in outer space. If not for the spaceship''s barrier, the two couldn''t talk at all. And when Alex talked with Lin Xingzhi and other people in outer space, mostly it was due to the thought transmission or the barrier. And with this sudden bomb dropped right above him, Alex entered the black hole, unable to force himself out again. "Wait! What do you mean by thaatttt!" ¡­ An overbearing pressure suddenly hit him as Alex''s eyes became sharp. However, he couldn''t see anything in this pitch-black hole as his body kept drifting somewhere. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found out that this was a tunnel of energy. He could see many branches around the tunnel as if they were leading to somewhere. This was the first time he experienced something like this, but what made him confused was the fact that he couldn''t see the end of this tunnel. In fact, the branches around him were asking him to enter them. "Hmm?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering where all these branches would lead him, but the feeling in his mind told him that it was not yet to leave this black hole. He restrained his curiosity and kept observing what happened inside the black hole. The pressure started getting stronger as stronger, and the branches started to appear one by one. The pain started spreading all over his body, but he kept waiting. Five minutes passed, and Alex still couldn''t find where he wanted to go. His hands had gone numb due to the pressure. "This black hole is insane. One time is not a problem, but the pressure will keep increasing over time. I don''t know why, but this is seriously going to be bad if I don''t go out soon." Alex wondered if he should take a break for a while before going inside again. Still, he couldn''t just rest and enter again since a white hole would be accompanying him instead of a black hole. "I need to endure I guess." Alex could only sigh and kept enduring the pressure coming to him. "System, do you know when I can go out?" Alex asked but found no response. He furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if the system couldn''t hear his thoughts. But suddenly, a white light flashed on the corner of his eyes. It was like the branch from earlier, but it was something special to Alex. It took him two hours of enduring this pressure, so he immediately used his Divine Energy and tried to reach it. The force inside the black hole kept pushing him away, but he could get closer and closer as time passed. "Reach it!" Alex gritted his teeth and touched the white hole. Suddenly, the sucking force turned into a repelling force as it pulled him out of the black hole and threw him away as fast as possible. "!!!" The pressure was no joke. Although there was no air, so there was no air friction that stopped him. Still, flying at this speed generated a bit of pressure, and there was this big asteroid floating in front of him. "Are you kidding me?" Alex gritted his teeth and took out his sword. The asteroid was quite big, around a hundred kilometers in diameter. He slashed forward, using his strongest move to slice it into two while trying to stop his momentum with his Divine Energy. "Three Purities Slash!" The slash distorted space and released fire by using Divine Energy as a fuel. The Divine Intent softened the asteroid as the sword strike cut it into two. Alex then punctured his sword on the asteroid surface and tried to stop his momentum. However, the asteroid was actually coming with him due to the no friction. He gritted his teeth and took back his sword before finding a planet was actually on his way. "Are you serious? There is a freaking planet in front of me!" Alex shouted in distress. This was his first time using a black hole and got launched by the white hole, so he needed time to think about his whole situation and grew accustomed to this. And finally, an idea arose in his mind as if a ray of hope illuminating the dark world. He opened a Spatial Gate that would teleport him to a different location. If he did this a few times, he would have enough time to stop himself by using his Divine Energy. Alex tried this for five minutes until he finally stopped. "Seriously? How fast did I fly earlier? Because of the pulling force, I was going at who knew how fast. I couldn''t see at all inside there. And due to the repelling force from the white hole, my speed increased again. That was the source of my pain, I guess¡­" Alex sighed, realizing that he couldn''t feel the pain anymore. He then started looking at the area and sensed the direction of the encore. It took him a moment to sense the direction again. But before he continued, he decided to call his system first. "System¡­ Can you hear me?" No response. "Is this part of the agreement?" He asked again but to no avail. "I can''t get through?" Alex gulped down. He was here in a place that he knew nothing about, alone without help. "Should I call the spirits?" Alex murmured before shaking his head. "No. I should go first and call them later if I find a problem that I can''t solve with my strength alone." He let out a long sigh before following the direction in his head. It was quite a journey, but he didn''t really mind. Teleportation after Teleportation Array was used, and Alex felt he was getting closer. However, he had used it more than ten thousand times, so he decided to take a rest on one of the planets nearby. He made sure that no one was living there before resting. In fact, he couldn''t sense any living beings around here. Even so, he still needed to keep going. After around a day, he pushed himself again toward a single direction, hoping he would meet the encore as soon as possible. Luckily, his efforts didn''t go to waste as he finally arrived after a long one and a half days journey. There was a white planet, completely white as if it was made of calcium or silver. On the surface, he found a single giant building on it, so he decided to go there because his sense was telling him that was it. He used his Teleportation Array to appear on the planet''s surface and looked at the giant building in front of him. The building looked like a ziggurat with several layers from bottom to top. There were also four towers in each corner as if it was protecting the building. Alex went around the building and found staircases that led to the inside, so he approached it while looking at the surrounding with his Spirit Eyes, assuring his safety. And when he was right before the stairs, he halted his steps, hesitating once more. "Come in." A voice suddenly echoed from the inside as a figure appeared before him. The figure was a man with golden hair. His facial expression and body figure were very familiar. After all, he was¡­ "Yo, we meet again, future me! I have been waiting for you this whole time. Come in, I want to talk about a few important things you need to know." 883 Talking with the Pas Alex furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting to see the previous him. He saw him turning back and going back inside. With a bit of suspicion, he climbed the stairs while paying attention to the surroundings with his Spirit Eyes. "Don''t worry. The system won''t be able to function here." The previous him assured him. Alex even became more suspicious about him as he found a table and two chairs sitting in the middle of the building. The top of the building wasn''t really that big, so he wasn''t surprised by the small room. He took another look at the previous him using his Spirit Eyes and found out that the guy was only a soul left behind by the previous him. And it was too weak to do anything to him. "Haha¡­ If I am in your position, I will be suspecting that my previous life soul wants to do something." The previous Alex laughed as if he sensed the Spirit Eyes and glanced at him while smiling. "And the first thing that my own soul wants to do is¡­" "Getting inside my body and taking it over." The current Alex and the previous him answered in unison. "Yep. You are really my reincarnation." "What do you want to talk about?!" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Many things, but the main issue is about your¡­ Ehm, this is not right. I also can''t say it''s my reincarnation. Let''s just call it our reincarnation. After all, I am still you even though we are different." The previous him laughed again. "!!!" Alex''s face turned serious when he mentioned the reincarnation part. "Come on. I know that we are the serious type, but when you have been sitting here for a long time, that type has become boring. I know that you are deep inside an easy-going guy." He shrugged and took the seat before pointing at the chair on the opposite side, asking Alex to sit. Alex hesitated for a second but still took the seat, staring at him intensely. "First of all, I need to say this first. The system won''t be functional here, and Lin Xingzhi can''t listen or watch our conversation." "Wha¡ª?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "How do I know about the system? Well, that old man informed me." He smirked. "Anyway, I will call you Alex, and you will call me Alexander to make it easy. And I don''t have any intention of using any name that is not mine because this will be the talk between me and me." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I don''t have any objections. It is not really that important." "Well, it''s important you know. I have been so lonely here, and when I was living in Eulja, everyone called me Spirit God or Your Majesty. They must want me to forget my own name." He pouted, acting not like his own age. "I think they were just respecting you¡­" Alex corrected him. "I can¡­ relate to that." Alex nodded. "Still, I can''t understand why you know the system¡­ Are you¡­" "I am not spying on you, of course. Hell, do you want me to spy on you? Ugh, cringy. Maybe, when everyone said f*ck yourself, I can do it in a sense, but let''s not go to that topic." Alexander laughed before recalling a certain person. "I learned the system''s existence from a person." "From a person?" "The previous user of course." "The Dungeon God?" Alex squinted his eyes, trying to see his expression to know the answer. However, the past Alexander nodded without hesitation. "I got the system from him and placed them around Eulja. Considering she was trying to search me the moment I died, she would surely find this, the system called Gacha System." Alexander smiled. "In other words, this was all your arrangement?" "You can say that." He nodded before finding that the current him didn''t have any change in his expression. "You are not angry to know that your life until now has been under the control of someone?" "Under the control of someone? I don''t think so. You can affect my life a little bit, but I believe the Gacha System and the Lightning Tribulation are the only ones. The rests are my life and my decisions." Alexander nodded before continuing. "Anyway, I want to talk about your reincarnation¡­ And I think I should tell you about this place first¡­" "I guess." Alex nodded. He had no knowledge about his current position, so he was quite in a bind. "This is the Trash Can. Your home is around that direction." Alexander pointed his finger to the right and slightly waved it. "Home?" Alex tilted his head in confusion before he realized what the previous him talked about. "Earth?" "Exactly." He nodded with a smile. "No one wants to come to this place, so it''s better if I put everything here. So¡­ What do you think? Do you want to go home?" Alex gulped down. The pain started filling his heart as his feet just wanted to go home, visiting all the regrets he had on Earth, but he couldn''t nod. "That was my home. I might visit there in the future, but not at the moment." "I see." Alexander smiled and approved the answer. He must have recognized another place as his home since he called Earth "was" his home. "Then, I can proceed to my original intention in reincarnating myself a few thousand years after I died." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. "The reason must not be so simple. No, the answer is simple, but the preparation is not." "Yes. You''ve got it. There are only two reasons, kill the beast and take care of the wives." "The beast huh¡­" Alex looked down and stroked his chin. "I have vague information about it since I''ve got it from the inheritance, but I am afraid I don''t know anything about this beast with the amount of information I currently have." "Yep, it''s not enough. Hence, I am going to tell you here right now." He nodded. "The beast is like none other. I don''t know about the reason he attacked us, but I know that he wanted to destroy us." "Where did he come from?" "I don''t know, but probably from another universe. It came to this place from another galaxy, so its strength was very strong. Even I couldn''t compete with it." "His strength?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Now that you mention it, your strength was supposed to be one of the highest in the universe, right?" "Galaxy, not universe. I might be strong here, but I might be an ant in another place. And from what I understand, his strength might have surpassed that of a God King." "Hmm?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What is the strength beyond God King?" "I don''t know. You tell me." Alexander shrugged. "Though I believe I could still kill him if I had all the other God Kings to fight him. But the beast might have realized that and came prepared. He first sent a weapon that could kill Gods first, giving it to the people on Earth. "He manipulated those people to do everything possible to create a commotion in our rank. So, we needed to destroy the Earth first, albeit eight of us were killed in the process. The last one beside me died from a sneak attack from the beast." The current Alex contemplated the matter and found something was missing. "Why did you not participate in that war?" "I was stopped by father-in-law." "Father-in-law? Whose father?" "Lin Xingzhi''s." "The Time God?" "Yeah. I don''t know if you have known this, but there was once a Time Disturbance in the past. As the master of the time in our peers, he went there and learned about the past and the future along with all the possibilities of them. I don''t know the concept as well, so I just took it for granted at that time. "And I still remembered that he wanted me to not participate in the war because my strength was necessary to put a stop to the great destruction in our universe." Alex squinted his eyes as if he felt something weird in this conversation. He ended up not finding it and continued the topic. "What did he see?" "Oh come on. You should call him, father-in-law too!" "What did father-in-law see?" Alex immediately corrected himself, not minding about it. After all, Lin Xingzhi could be considered his wife too, so it was nothing to be embarrassed to admit it. "He saw me sacrificing myself to the next generation to fix this issue. And I needed to send my reincarnation to five thousand years in the future. In other words, only you could solve this issue." "Hmm? This is like a hero story¡­" Alex couldn''t help but comment. "Indeed. But it is only a matter of perspective. I had never once thought that I was a hero, or even in the future. I simply wanted to live peacefully with the girls." "I agree." "Hence, I took this mission and sacrificed myself. So, my reincarnation, which is also me, can take care of them in my stead." "In your stead? Don''t joke. You have said it yourself that even though we are different, I am still you. So, you should correct your sentence to: So, the future me can take care of them. It''s better." The ''me'' was obviously meant to emphasize that they were the same. It was not reincarnation or anything else. Instead, it was simply an individual called Alexander Sirius. Alexander couldn''t help but smile. "As expected of me." Alex shrugged and looked away, slightly embarrassed to listen to how the past praised him. "In any case, I want you to kill that beast for me." "How?" "It is to reach the next level, the stage after God King." "But won''t the galaxy expel me? In fact, why did the beast¡­ Wait!" "Yeah. The beast also restricted his strength to God King. He somehow manipulated it, so the Divine Tribulation couldn''t find his strength like the special Space Element." "Still, I need to pay the price and disappear from this galaxy." Alex narrowed his eyes before shaking his head. "No¡­" "Yeah. It is your decision. You can seal your strength once again when that time comes. The question is, when you can reach the next level, will you abandon everything and head to the more powerful galaxy¡­ Probably with everyone else, or¡­" Alex fell silent for a few minutes. He took this seriously, but no matter what he thought, there was only one ending and a true answer. "I know when to stop. Why would I risk my life and others'' just to get stronger? I get stronger because I want to reunite with my wives, so since I have this power and opportunity to protect them and live in peace, why would I abandon it away because of strength?" Alexander smiled as if Alex''s answer was the same as him. "Exactly. That was what I believed in when I was alive. The only reason I became a God King was to live peacefully with Lin Xingzhi, Anna, and Anya. Because those fathers-in-law stopped me, I decided to trample their pride by defeating them. Since I had achieved it, I didn''t desire more." Alex nodded in agreement. "I might be an ant in another universe, but if they really come, that will be the only time where I should break my limit and head to a stronger universe. As long as there is no threat that will ruin my family, I will simply live with my family." "Haha¡­ It''s because we are a family guy." He gave a thumb up. "Anyway, you need to kill that beast even if you need to become something stronger than God King stage. This is the only way to solve the impending doom that this universe will face. Failure won''t be tolerated." "I have a question." "Ask away." "Why five thousand years?" 884 Encore When he heard the question, he only smiled and answered. "That''s when the galaxy can start getting their strength back. Normally, I can say that I am just following the direction, but do you know about the time principle?" "Hmm?" Alex squinted his eyes as his expression turned serious. This was the only thing that still remained a mystery in the galaxy, so he obviously wanted to know that. "Time is just like branches. There are multiple possibilities that can happen at one moment. For example, in the current situation, we have taken the middle path from five branches of the future. "We will continue moving forward until the junction appears. It will create another five possible futures, and we need to choose again. And the situation will repeat again and again. "So, father-in-law wanted me to choose the timeline myself, and I chose this one because the galaxy would give birth to many more God Kings. How many God Kings are there right now?" Alexander asked. "More than ten." "That''s it. And what kind of thing can influence the future? There are many things. For example, if you make another enemy that wants to kill you, disasters, increasing your own cultivations and so on. There might be those that benefit you and change your future for the better, but those negative things also remain. "In other words, even if I chose this timing, I would have no way of predicting what would happen. That was why I decided to increase all your repertoire during your journey, such as the former Fire God, my mentor, Phitrus. There is also a Golden Lightning Tribulation and Gacha System with Lin Xingzhi behind it. "You can say that these are my allies. As for my enemies and other neutral parties, I won''t involve them because I can''t trust them. You should have realized that it is hard for you to trust someone, right? But the moment you trust them, you will trust them with your life." The previous Alex smiled as if he just nailed it. It was true that they were allies. His Godly Pure Fire obviously came from his mentor, the Lightning Tribulation came from himself, and the Gacha System came from the Dungeon God. As for Lin Xingzhi, she should be representing the Time God. And the fact that he could do something like this purely because of the Time God. "I calculated everything and chose the one with the biggest probability. As for whether you could kill the beast or not¡­ I am not sure myself. I only hope so." Alexander shrugged. "I will do my best." Alex nodded. "Well, this was not my first choice though. At first, I wanted to make it earlier and searched for a way, so the Earth wouldn''t help the beast, but it was futile. The weapons had become too strong, and we should kill those who wield them as soon as possible. "They might have no weapons, but the beast''s power knew no bounds, so I am afraid that he might get another pawn. There won''t be any weapon or artifact, but their strength should be strong. If that happened, they would surely appear the moment the beast destroyed the seal. And that time wouldn''t be too long." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "In that case, I can utilize the power of this Gacha System to power up the spirits. If we have another ten God Kings, we should be able to win." "I thought that as well, but the Dungeon God once said to me that the enormous cost was not something anyone could bear. Father-in-law asked him if it was possible to increase their strength with Spirit Crystals, but he told us that even if all the worlds participated in the war concentrated their resources on him, it was impossible." "That is¡­" Alex paused and opened his system. "Rank 10 God to Rank 9 God needs a million EXPs or a million Spirit Crystals¡­ The increase of each level should not be linear like the previous ones, so how much do we need to create a Rank 1 God?" "A few hundred billion. And just for one." "¡­" Alex widened his eyes. Although he asked it, he believed that Eulja''s Spirit Crystals were around a hundred billion. And they were considered as one of the richest. "This¡­" "That''s why it is not possible for a long time." "I can understand¡­" Alex nodded in agreement. "It seems I need to try the Spirit Crystals mining with the Gacha System." "Sure. It''s a good system that gives a win-win situation for both parties." "Alright. I will try." Alex contemplated and found another question. "Do you have any advice for me?" "I have interfered enough in your life, so I should disappear soon since I have finished my mission. But if you need one, then my suggestion is to not use the Spirit Crystals so soon to level up your or other spirits'' strength." "Why?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Do you know about the half cultivating method?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as it was the first time he heard it. "It is a method that allows you to consolidate your foundation every five stars." "Ah!" He instantly recognized it. Lin Xingzhi never gave him a name for that, so he thought it was just common knowledge. It seemed the method also had a name. "Since you already know about it, then it is easy. There is one flaw with this method." "That is¡­" Alex fell silent, waiting for him to explain. "It can''t be used for God Rank Expert. For example, you can''t just consolidate everything at the Rank 6 God stage and be done with it. Instead, you need to properly condense your Divine Energy in each stage. And if you overuse Spirit Crystals, your future will be limited. And only with this technique you can bypass that restriction." "The leveling system in the Gacha System has a similar thing. If you overuse the Spirit Crystals, the EXPs needed for the next level will increase and so on. The amount of Spirit Crystals you need to level them up will become more and more ridiculous. "It will be better if you use Divine Herbs instead of Spirit Crystals, and don''t forget about consolidating in each stage. This will surely give the lowest possible EXPs for next levels while maintaining the cultivation speed." "I see. In that case, it will take a bit more time for me to cultivate." Alex let out a long sigh as he knew the future would become more troublesome. He suddenly rose from his seat and walked to a corner of the room, and stayed there for a few seconds. "Because of that, I want to show you something." The floor below his feet suddenly shone as he disappeared. Alex realized there was a small teleportation array there, and when he inspected it, he saw energy leaking from underground. It was at this time he knew that there was something below this place, and it had been sealed so perfectly to the point his Spirit Eyes couldn''t see it. In fact, it might be the previous him who sealed him, considering he knew how the Spirit Eyes actually worked. Hesitating for a few seconds, Alex finally stepped on the same floor and got teleported underground. He immediately checked his surroundings, only to find himself surrounded by a wall. At the same time, the previous him had been staring at him this whole time. "Took you longer than I expected¡­ It seems the future me is more cautious than I think." He smiled. Alex didn''t answer him. Instead, he looked around and saw through the white brick, finding a giant array underneath and above his head. "It is a safety measure. Come in." Alex nodded and followed him through the corridor. At the end of the hallway, he found a thick metal door and somehow opened itself when the previous him stepped not far from it as if there was a sensor around there. He ignored it for the time being as he entered the room. The room definitely stunned him as Alex was gasping in amazement. "This¡­" "This is where I store everything." Inside the room were five giant doors. Although there was nothing special on these doors, one would be able to find a huge amount of energy sealed inside these doors as Spiritual Energy leaked out of the door. "The first door is where I cultivate my herbs. In other words, it is my garden. You can find many things inside, from Rank 1 medicinal herbs to Rank 9 divine herbs. You can take everything and hand it to Lin Xingzhi, so she could take care of them in Eulja. And you can even give some of them to the spirits to increase their strength¡­ Well, it is your choice. "On the second door, I store every single of my weapons and pills. You can say it is my treasury. There are many weapons you can get up to Divine Weapon, but I suggest to not take them because none of them is custom made for you. "Instead, I suggest you take their own materials to incorporate them into your own custom-made weapons to create a weapon stronger than anyone else. "The third door is where I keep all my Spirit Crystals. As you might already know, I had destroyed many worlds. Their Spirit Crystals, Spirit Gem, and Spirit Stones were for me to keep. In total, there are around seventy billion Spirit Crystals inside." *Cough Cough!* Alex dropped his jaw as if he just heard something unbelievable. "Can you say it again?" "It is not a big deal. Eulja has more than this." The previous Alex simply shrugged as if it was nothing special. "Besides, the Dungeon God was the richest ever lived. If you have any trouble financially, there is a map inside this place leading to the treasury of that old man. So, you can raid that place in the future¡­ Let''s see¡­ You might need rank 5 strength if not rank 4 to complete the test. "As for the fourth door, this is a special room made by father-in-law himself. Since the others had contributed earlier, he gave me this room. It was a special altering time room, and he even needed to break taboo to make this room. "It allows you to slow down the time in a specific area, in this case, the room, so you can cultivate faster than anyone else. Ten years here is equal to one year outside. And I probably need to explain it again because I feel that my explanation earlier is somewhat lacking as if I am underestimating the power of time. "There are a few types of Time Ability. One, they can temper their own times. You can say that this person can accelerate and decelerate as they will. It is a pain in the ass, but it is a pretty useful ability. The second type is altering other''s time. The effect is the same as the previous one, but it''s affecting other people. "The third time will be altering the world''s time, and it will continue to upgrade to the galaxy''s time or even a bigger one. And you will realize how hard it is to change the time. Just imagine whether you have the strength to alter this galaxy for even one second¡­ It will take a ridiculous amount. "Father-in-law broke a taboo and created this room. And he was weakened due to that and fell in battle against those from Earth. The last thing he asked me to do was to care about his daughter and protect her. So yeah, that lies on your shoulder now. "Anyway, I am sure you can get at least a star inside this place¡­ Just don''t bring others here because the time will return to normal again. And finally¡­ The last door." Alexander walked toward the fifth door as if it was something special. Alex gulped down and stared at him intensely. On the other hand, the previous him had this serious expression as if this was something very big. But what he said next shocked him. "This room has my collections of thousands of porn magazines, videos, pictures, and so on¡­" "¡­" "Just kidding¡­" 885 Past Scene "¡­" "Just kidding¡­" Alex was speechless. He never thought that his previous self could joke something like this, especially with that serious face. He took a deep breath and shook his head, regaining his focus back from the earlier joke. "Ehm¡­ What is inside that?" "Before telling you what is inside, I am going to explain some things here first." He waved his hand, pointing at the other four doors. "First of all, you can take everything you want inside these four gates. However, there is a limit to that." "A limit?" Alex squinted his eyes. "Yes. You can only take everything from one gate to every single star you have. In other words, if you choose to get all the money inside the third gate, then you can''t take something from another gate. Only if you reach Rank 9 God, you may come back here to get another one. And it will repeat until you get all of them." Alex looked down and thought. "Why though?" "I just want to see my own judgment." Alexander smiled, hoping that the current him could make a good judgment, so he could place Eulja and all the families in his hand. Alex also arrived at a similar conclusion, but the most important thing he noticed was the fact that he could already get one of them right now. In other words, the past him had already started judging his decision ability. "I see." Alex then glanced at the fifth door as if he was trying to get that one. "This fifth gate is something off limit. If you are still too weak by the time you need to face the beast, you can finally open this gate." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You are not going to tell me?" "Nope. I know your feeling. I was also pissed off when someone hid something like this, but this was something necessary." Alex fell silent for a few minutes as they stared at each other as if they were thinking something. In the end, Alex nodded with a sigh. "Alright. I won''t say anything about the fifth gate for now." "Good!" He nodded and asked, "So, which door do you want to choose first?" Alex contemplated for a moment and pointed his finger at the fourth door." When the previous him saw this, he smiled and said, "Interesting choice. Do you mind telling me the reason why you choose this door?" "I still need to practice Alchemy and Array since it''s a very different style between a Rank 8 array and a Divine Array. The same applies to Alchemy. Since I can get ten years, I better consolidate my power first before cultivating higher. "And there are still my Martial Arts. I have a few in mind, but I need time for those techniques. At the same time, my own Divine Spear Technique has yet to be created, so I am planning to consolidate my foundation as a God Rank Expert first before doing anything else." "Yes." Alex nodded before looking away. "Well, I also have one more reason¡­" "And that is¡­" "I am confident that I can learn everything within ten years while having enough time to reach Rank 9 God. This way, I can open one more gate, right?" Alex smirked. "Heh¡­" The previous Alex made the same smirk as if they thought alike. "Then what will you choose next?" "I can''t say right now because it might change later, but I will choose either the first door or the third one." He nodded and approved his choice before waving his hand. An array emerged from the door and melted as the door gradually opened from the inside. "When I activate this, you can feel it, and your ten years are there. The room is spacious and the wall is thick, so you can just destroy them if you can. As long as it is not completely destroyed or combine with another room, it won''t affect the time flow." Alex nodded as he walked toward the door, finding a dark room. He couldn''t see the end of the room, so he knew that the room should be enough for a little rough treatment. "Thank you." Alex glanced at him as he smiled. "Get stronger, will you?" "Of course." The door soon closed as Alexander raised his hands. Two arrays appeared, activating the room. However, this also took quite a big power from his body as it gradually turned translucent. "Haiz¡­ I don''t have much time." He sighed while taking out two papers. He wrote a few things before placing one of them inside the fifth gate while the other one on the floor. "This is my last message for you. Treasure and protect them¡­ Future me." His body began to disappear as a scene flashed in his mind. Five thousand years ago. In the middle of outer space not far from Eulja stood one person and one creature. That person was none other than Alexander Sirius. His golden hair was swaying even though there was no wind around them while his golden eyes were emitting light. The golden crown on his head was shining brightly as the blue gem in the middle of it was releasing Divine Energy. He looked at his tattered clothes and injured body before taking a deep breath. In front of him was a giant beast that couldn''t be described in a simple word. The body was that of a dragon, but the head was that of a snake. His arms looked like bear''s, but his feet appeared to be a phoenix''s talons. His wings also came from another species which looked to be a vampire bat, but he had two pairs of wings, whereas the other one looked like a bird''s wing. "Haha¡­ To think there is someone like you protecting this world." The beast laughed while staring at Alex. "Shut up, you monster. You better go back to where you belong." "Hmph! I have praised you, but your power is still too low for me." "My power might be lower than you by a great margin, but you can''t use the majority of your power when coming here. So, it is only a battle between two God Kings!" Alexander looked at him with his Spirit Eyes, knowing how powerful this monster was. Even if there were three of him, he might not be able to cut this monster down when he used his full power. "As expected, you could see through me. You are the first one to be able to see through my power. Forty God Kings have died by this hand, but none of them was as strong as you. In that case, let me see whether your power can stop me." The beast smirked. A Fire flared up and covered his feet. Metal clothed his two hands. His feathers wings began to produce white light, while the vampire wings produced the black light. At the same time, his body emanated water while his head released a powerful wind gale. Alex narrowed his eyes and noticed how powerful each element was. "Hehe¡­ I have merged my body with all those beasts that are supposed to be the strongest in terms of their elements from another universe. In other words, you are fighting against me, who currently has all six major elements. Do you think you stand a chance even if the majority of my power can''t be used?" "Six major elements huh¡­ I have nothing to say about that because I am familiar with them myself¡­ In fact, I am thankful that you are not a ridiculous monster. It will become a problem if you have Space or Time element or even other elements." Alex only smiled while clapping his hand once. A circle appeared behind him and created a hexagram where four corners were connected to the circle''s line. In each corner of the hexagram flashed a color. They were red, blue, yellow, green, white, and black, whereas there was a single translucent golden circle in the middle of the hexagram. "Hoh?!" The beast furrowed his eyebrows before raising both of his hands. Alex also raised his hand as the diagram behind him shone. The fire appeared on their hands as they shot it at the same time. Both of their flames were red, but the clashed between the two made it orange. Both flames were trying to swallow each other, but neither of them succeeded, making a torrential flow that gradually turned into a giant ball and exploded. *Boom!* The explosion was like that of a sun appearing before them, but soon it disappeared due to the lack of oxygen here. The channel of their Divine Energy had also been cut, so there was no way the fire could survive. Not wanting to lose, both of them sent their second element which was the water. Just like the flame, both of them were equal, canceling each other element. It was different when the third element struck forth. For the third one, Alex decided to use his earth element instead of his lightning. Meanwhile, the beast decided to use his paw. It seemed both of them were trying to have a fist clash for the third round as they leaped toward each other, covering their hand with their respective elements and throwing their fist. *Bam!* The clash produced a shockwave that blew away the asteroids around them. However, the beast smirked this time as he pushed Alex back as his metal clothed paws managed to destroy Alex''s rock stone. "Kh!" Alex clicked his tongue as he knew he had lost in that earlier exchange. "Haha¡­ Element is my forte, so you won''t be able to win!" The beast laughed. Alex spun around and waved his hand as if he was throwing something. From his palm, lightning flew toward the beast and turned into a lightning dragon, trying to swallow this beast. The latter simply looked without any interest while releasing wind power. But this was not a normal wind power. When it engulfed the dragon, it started melting the dragon. "¡­" Alex couldn''t say anything because he had realized it with his Spirit Eyes. "Haha¡­ This wind of mine came from the Nine Color Snake, so it carries its poison attribute as well. I don''t have six elements, but seven." "¡­" Alex watched his dragon got melted to perfection before he gritted his teeth and sent the last two elements at the same time. These white and dark balls flew forward while spinning. The beast raised both hands as something covered both his paws. It was as if there was a ball with a face in each paw. When he waved them forward, the balls expanded, and the mouth opened up, swallowing the two balls. The white creature swallowed the dark element while the black creature munched the other one. Alex widened his eyes for a second. "It can negate the explosions of both elements?" Alex murmured as he never thought that the beast in front of him could do something like that. There were not many people that could do it, so he was slightly surprised to see a beast using such a technique. "Heh! It seems this is my win. Time to see what kind of technique do you have to be confident in stopping me!" The beast roared and charged toward Alex, feeling confident in facing Alex, especially after destroying all his elements. "Not necessarily so!" Alex smirked. A golden sword appeared on his right hand while a silver spear showed itself on the other hand. "!!!" The beast widened his eyes as he raised both hands to block this attack. Alex jumped forward and waved both weapons. "Kh!" The beast looked at both hands as his white and black creatures were destroyed by that single swing. "You¡­" "You have been underestimating me this whole time, so why don''t you keep looking down on me? This way I can get the advantage¡­" Alex smiled while pointing his sword at the beast. "Who will win? We won''t know until one of our heads fly!" "¡­" 886 Sword and Spear Possession "You damn right!" The beast smirked as he looked at Alex''s expression. "You have done a great number on us, so I will be the one to stop you on behalf of the others who sacrificed their lives to create this opportunity." "Heh¡­ They are just a mere sacrifice." "Your action and your words don''t match. If you thought of them as a mere sacrifice, you wouldn''t kill them. You simply knew that you wouldn''t be able to win unless you eliminated them first. Your power might be above the God King stage, but it is simply one rank above it. You wouldn''t be able to win against ten of us, so you used Earth to cause this commotion to eliminate them." "And do you think I care?" "Of course. For someone like you who wander around like this, this galaxy is just one of your targets of conquest to prove your might. It is simply a petty reason to start all of this. After all, I am sure you have an inferiority complex, and many think of you as trash. You only started slaughtering millions just to say that you are the strongest here, not in that place." Alex smiled as if he had seen through the beast. "As expected, you are aware there is another place that is far more powerful than this galaxy. I will give you once in a lifetime proposal. Serve me, and I shall spare everyone in this galaxy. When you reach my place, we can cooperate to get stronger. A place like this doesn''t suit you." "Don''t joke around. My strength doesn''t come from this. They are the embodiment of how much I want to protect my family. I have no intention in following you just to get stronger." Alex shook his head and raised both weapons. "I can''t comprehend. You have a weak mindset. We get stronger to prove our might, not to protect. Only when we are the strongest we can protect someone!" The beast roared. "I and you won''t be able to meet each other''s eyes. We have a different opinion, so I am not going to say anything to your ideal¡­ Still, I am the strongest here, so I will protect them." Alex leaped toward the beast with his weapons. The beast also did the same. They clashed and passed each other, releasing another shockwave that shook their battle. On the other hand, both Alex and the beast had a graze on their right cheek. The beast raised his hand and summoned three elements. The metal formed a huge spear, the wind covered the spear''s head, and the fire boosted it from behind. "Spear Ultima." This three elements spear flew toward Alex. Alex watched how the Spiritual Energy in their surrounding got distorted due to this spear. "This¡­" Alex took a deep breath and channeled his Divine Energy into the diagram behind him. The white and black color on the diagram shone as the white light covered his sword and the black light wrapped the spear''s blade. The cross sword wave, black and white, flew toward the spear, hitting right in the middle. This immediately caused the worlds around them to get blown away as well, leaving their orbit. Seeing that the energy was exactly the same, Alex and the beast disappeared at the same time. The beast waved his claw while Alex swiped with his sword, albeit Alex got blown away again. "That one is an amazing technique, but if I keep you close like this, you won''t be able to use it." The beast seemed to recognize Alex''s technique and classified it as dangerous. "Hmph!" Alex snorted and thrust his spear at his throat. The beast kept blowing him away, but Alex didn''t care about it and kept throwing himself against the beast. This kind of exchange continued for half an hour as neither of them actually managed to injure each other. "It is useless. My stamina is better than yours!" The beast laughed. Alex gritted his teeth as a red aura appeared on his sword while a green aura covered his spear. "Twin Element Slash! Scarlet Green Version!" The beast covered his paws with metal while using the black and white creatures to gnaw this sword strike. However, Alex''s strength was stronger than this, immediately shattering the two creatures. Alex found this and turned around while waving his sword because this might be the last chance he could ever have an opportunity like this. And yet, the beast seemed to know about it as well as he already made a preparation beforehand. The fire and wind fused and struck Alex with a tornado, forcing him to block it with his weapons. The momentum pushed Alex back for a few hundred meters before he stabilized his body and raised his spear. This time, all the colors, including the middle circle, shone. The middle circle identity was none other than his Elementless attribute. It appeared on top of his spear before summoning the other six elements. This attribute merged the six elements by letting the six elements enter its body. Maybe because it was one without an element, it could host any elements it wanted. However, it was bound to have a clash inside it, especially with six elements living together there. Alex then thrust his spear as the six elements burst out together. "Hexagram Fusion. Burst!" "What?!" The beast widened his eyes and created the same three elements spear to hit Alex''s attack. The clash was brief as the winner immediately decided as Alex''s six elements pierced through the spear. The beast gritted his teeth and raised his hands to block this attack with his hands. *Boom!* An explosion occurred, but Alex soon found out that the beast had been blown away a few hundred meters as well. "You bastard¡­" The beast gritted his teeth. "To think you can combine your six elements! You need to die!" "You as well¡­ Your element control is better than mine. If I don''t have my Divine Intent, I won''t be able to control these elements at all." Alex let out a long sigh. "To think you use your fire element at the last minute to blast you away to avoid the impact." The beast and Alex had the same serious expression. Alex tried to rile up his opponent, so he would make an opportunity for him to attack, but the beast also realized his strategy and didn''t buy his trash talk. "I will see if you can keep doing it." The beast smirked and charged at him. "After all, that attack''s consumption must be high!" Alex clicked his tongue inwardly as it was the truth. He wouldn''t be able to use it again and again. The only chance was for him to create an opening during this close-quarter combat. And yet, three hours had passed. Instead of creating an opportunity, he was the one injured. No matter his strategy, the beast was stronger than Alex. These three hours, in fact, ended up strengthening him. After watching Alex''s elements fusion, he slowly realized how to control his own elements. He then started making a counterattack, injuring Alex again and again. "This is over. You have no more advantage against me." The beast said with a sad tone. It was regrettable to kill him, but Alex would surely become a danger to him in the future. "Because you made me evolve to a stronger being, I will kill your family painlessly and keep their body intact." He raised both hands to the front and created a circle with his two paws. Six lights gathered in the middle of the circle, creating an immeasurable pressure. Alex also felt this. Once this hit him, he would surely die, considering his current condition. "I say it again. This is over. Farewell!" "This is not over¡­" Alex panted before he released his Divine Intent to the maximum. "This is not the right time to lose my life! I have sworn that I will protect them." "You won''t be able to¡­" The beast mocked him, looking at his last struggle. The people around them had been driven away, so they wouldn''t become Alex''s weakness. Even Lin Xingzhi, Anna, and Anya were forced to return to Eulja because they were not even Rank 3 God at this point in time. He was pretty rough for it, but he didn''t mind. Even if he watched them crying, he had steeled himself to fight this beast to the bitter end. "I¡­ Am not a strong person. And I can say that I don''t have that much emotion. If a fight is decided by emotion, I would have died thousands of times. However, I had seen many people surpass their limit when they were driving by emotion¡­ "And when I asked them about it, I realized that we were not talking about emotion. Instead, it was resolves. With this, I will challenge myself to surpass my limit for one last time even if I need to sacrifice my life!" Alex roared as the Divine Intent burst out once more. "What is this?!" The beast was pretty shocked. He had never seen anything like this. The Divine Intent finally got color, and it was red and black, complimenting each other as if they were representing Alex''s bloodlust. His sword and spear also turned into the same black and red color as if they became a cursed weapon. His hair started turning black. His white eyes turned black as well, while his black eyes became red. His energy surged as he roared. "You two have been trying to take over my body, but everything will become a mess if I die here. How about making a deal with me?" If Lin Xingzhi were here, she would instantly recognize this transformation. The ones that he was talking to were none other than the consciousness of his sword and spear. The ones that kept making him go crazy. However, for the first time in his life, the two seemed to respond to his feelings, abandoning the clash between them during his journey. "We need to kill him first! No matter which forms we end up in the future, none of us will erase each other''s existence until we are both recovered perfectly. We, who have been fighting each other, should know that neither of us will break this promise!" The two consciousness responded to his feeling as a symbol of a sword appeared under his right eye while a symbol of a spear formed under his left eye. "Sword and Spear possession! Sacrifice Version!" The black and red energy covered him before the shock wave coming from the power-up blew it away, revealing Alex''s current appearance. He looked at the beast and pointed his sword while saying, "I have made you wait. It''s time for round two!" The beast smirked as if his instinct were asking him to fight this man with all his ability. His smile became even bigger to the point it was a bit creepy instead as he said, "Marvelous!" 887 The Fall of the Spirit God Alex gritted his teeth. This was obviously stronger than his Spear Technique. After all, he just barely merged the elements using his elementless attribute and his Divine Intent. However, the beast was different. Not only he fused it perfectly, but four of the elements were stronger than his elements. It was clear who was in the advantage. Even so, Alex only gritted his teeth and channeled everything into his spear. Unlike the previous six colors, there was an additional red and black this time, symbolizing his Divine Intent. This eight-colored attack flew out of his spear, meeting the six elements fusion, creating a rainbow explosion that brightened the area. It was far bigger than the sun in their surroundings. When he saw they were canceling each other''s attack, Alex immediately flew to the side and waved his sword without anything special, releasing the black and red sword wave. "This¡­" The beast was stunned as he recognized the identity of the black and red sword wave. This was exactly the energy from the two consciousness to the point they sacrificed their life to release this attack. Because they had been clashing with Alex and taking his energy this whole time, their strength was that of a God King. In other words, for this short moment, Alex''s strength was equal to three God Kings, giving him a huge opportunity to defeat the beast. Not wanting to let this slip by, the beast dodged the attack and appeared right before him, throwing a punch at him. "!!!" Alex blocked the punch with his weapons, but it still pushed him away¡­ far away to the point he hit one of the planets. His speed was far too high to the point it defied gravity and denied the existence of the atmosphere on that planet. The beast looked at his fist and noticed it was bleeding. It was obviously from Alex''s weapons. ''He is dangerous!'' The beast thought and flew toward Alex, trying to kill him. However, Alex jumped to outer space once again and struck him with his spear. He found out that the claw was covered by the fusion of six elements while his spear only had that black and white energy. The beast smirked as he thought he had won. And it turned out he was right. The spear blade was shattered, but Alex didn''t give up there. He shifted his body and directed the spear to the side, so the beast would hit the planet instead. "!!!" *Bam!* As he predicted, the beast struck the planet, creating a huge crater that was visible from outer space. It was so huge to the point it covered half of the planet. "!!!" The beast felt danger from that and leaped to the side, albeit it was too late. "One Sword Kill! Blade of Extinction!" The single cut brightened the entire planet. And within a single blink of an eye, the planet was split into two. The entire planet was cut to two! The planet itself was smaller than Earth, a bit closer to a dwarf planet instead. Still, it was something amazing to cut the world itself. And the beast was feeling it right now as Alex just cut both of his right wings. "Die!" He didn''t stop there and chased this big ''devil'', thinking this would be the perfect time to gain the advantage. The beast used this opportunity to move away from the planet before aiming both hands toward Alex, who ended up getting inside the planet again. "Gehenna Ray!" The six elements fusion had finally completed as the beast released its full power. "!!!" Alex opened his eyes wide and raised both hands to use his sword to block this, but he was immediately pinned to the ground, unable to escape. "Kh!" Alex gritted his teeth until it bled, but it still couldn''t help him to escape. With the hard decision, he leaped to the side and sacrificed his left hand to stop this attack while he escaped. *Boom!* A huge hole appeared on the two half-planets that Alex cut earlier as the attack penetrated both of them. Alex charged at him again with only one hand, and the two started fighting like this for a few more hours. Unfortunately, no matter how Alex tried, he still couldn''t best the beast. His energy gradually became empty. The beast was not much better, but he obviously had the advantage here. "It is futile. You won''t be able to defeat me. Let me praise you for fighting me this long. I have even used all the reserves in the seal of my body completely just to kill a single person. You are indeed the closest being to reach the next step, but unfortunately, you need to die here!" "I won''t die here!" Alex shouted as he channeled his energy to the sword again but failed. "Look at your condition, you can barely utilize your energy. Within a few minutes, I will kill you!" The beast snorted, looking at Alex''s tattered body. Alex gritted his teeth as he couldn''t let himself down like this. The two consciousness seemed to feel the same as him as they channeled the last bit of their strength to the point they would be weakened for thousands of years due to this. He raised his sword and released his feelings and couldn''t help but smile. "To think that the worst enemies in my body will become my biggest allies in this battle. I don''t know how to thank you guys¡­" The two consciousness released a little bit of their energy as if they were saying, ''Kill him in this last strike. We will resume our fight thousands of years later.'' "Yeah, you are right." Alex smiled. The black and red energy sparked, releasing all their power. The six elements gathered again as the elementless, and this energy kept them intact for one last attack. Alex''s determination astounded him, but he immediately reacted by covering his paw with the element''s fusion. "One Sword Kill! Condemning Blade of Extinction!" "Gehenna Gauntlet." Both of them leaped at the same time and struck each other at the same time before passing each other. The clash created a huge shockwave that could be felt from one thousand light-years away. A huge sword wound appeared on the beast''s chest as blood flowed out and floated in the space. If it were a bit deeper, he might be the one to die. Unfortunately, Alex had no strength left to do that. His sword cracked before it shattered. The pieces floated in outer space. "I am not done!" Alex roared. He took out another sword and turned around, ready to deepen the wound to kill that beast, but the latter was one step ahead of him. He had been in front of him when he turned away and pierced Alex''s chest, crushing a portion of his heart. "Gah!" Alex spat a mouthful of blood as the beast knocked the sword away. "Just die. It is over!" "To think¡­ Father-in-law is right¡­ I will meet my end here. Luckily, the others are not here." Alex stuttered as he looked at the beast with fuzzy eyes. His hair was still white, but his right eyes had returned to normal. The sword and spear symbols under his eyes were nowhere to be seen. They had exhausted all their energy, so they fell into slumber. Alex didn''t even have Divine Energy anymore to keep fighting. His Spirit Crown that was hovering and channeling its power was half-broken, barely maintaining itself with the last bit of its energy. "You are a strong opponent." Even though the beast killed him, he respected Alex''s strength and his resolve. In this battle, he learned Alex''s personality and determination. "You are truly worthy to know my name. Remember this name in the afterlife, I am Orthus. I shall remember your name as well, Spirit God, Alexander Sirius!" "Heh¡­ Do you think this is the end?" Alex stretched his hand toward the beast as if he wanted to attack him. "Stop your useless struggle." The beast snorted, paying no heed to Alex''s hand. "We are going to postpone this battle." Alex smiled as a metallic emblem appeared on his hand. There were two important parts of this relic. The symbol of an hourglass and a tower. They carried green energy and pink energy respectively, as Alex activated this artifact. The Spirit Crown shone brightly, using the last bit of its energy. Alex smiled and channeled the energy to the relic. "Upgrade!" Although Alex said upgrade, it was more like releasing the relic latent ability. "This is the special relic created by the Time God and Dungeon God themselves, even if it meant sacrificing their lifespan and a huge portion of their power. You won''t be able to escape from this place." He smiled and activated the relic. "Wha¡ª!" The beast was taken aback. He thought Alex had no more trump cards, but it turned out he was wrong. "You bastard! You know you can''t beat me from the start and decide to use your life to seal me." "You are too strong. Even if I use this artifact from the start, I won''t be able to trap you. I need to wear you down until you are slow enough to react to something like this." Alex smiled as Space and Time energy started enveloping them. "Noooo!!! This seal can only stop me for a period of time. As soon as I figure it out, I will break free from this seal and destroy this entire galaxy!" "Yeah. At that time, I will stop you again." Alex smiled as he pulled out from the beast''s hand. The hole in his chest was too huge for him to recover, and his heart was almost crushed. However, seeing the energy started trapping the beast made him happy. "I have lived by the sword and contributed to the building of an era. Moreover, to be able to die in order to protect my loved ones just as I desired¡­ And in my final days, I was even able to set up everything for the next era. I have no regrets left¡­ At last, I go to where my fallen friends, father-in-law, comrades await¡­" His eyes were blurry as he started hallucinating. Besides him were an old man with long white hair tied on the back and a middle-aged man with a tower symbol under his right eyes. Both of them were smiling at him as if telling him, ''Good job. We are proud of you.'' Alex smiled as he muttered his last words. ''Xingzhi, Anna, Anya¡­ I love you¡­ forever love you¡­ Take care of me in the future, okay?'' 888 Inheritance On the other hand, the current Alex was gasping inside the tower, on four. "This¡­" Alex gritted his teeth. The pain was all over his brain and eyes, but there was this feeling inside his heart. The feeling of emptiness. It was as if he just lost something important. When he saw the last scene, he subconsciously let out tears. "Don''t¡­ Worry¡­ I will be the one finishing your score, not for the universe, but for my wives and every spirit in Eulja." It took him a few minutes to calm himself down before he found two scrolls and a paper on the floor. He reached the paper first as it seemed to be the most important thing and read it. "By the time you read this letter, I won''t stay in this world anymore. In other words, there is only one Alexander Sirius in this world and that is you. Besides this paper are my Divine Techniques. The scroll on the left records my Original Sword Technique and Original Divine Sword Technique, Twin Element Slash and One Sword Kill. "You can master it, but it doesn''t mean you should. There is only a single reason why I said this. It is about compatibility. I don''t need to say anything about this since you should be able to understand yourself. "On the other hand, there is only my Original Divine Spear Technique, Hexagram Fusion, written in the other scroll. I know that this technique might look like it requires six elements, but it doesn''t necessarily look that way. For example, you can combine six different things whatever it is. "Well, what I want you to do is not to create your Original Divine Spear Technique by copying my technique, but you can take it as a reference. Or completely go in another direction. This is only a suggestion. "And since the first one has techniques while this one only has one. I add one more thing. It is about the Sacrifice Version, Sword and Spear Possession. As much as I hated my two consciousness, I still wanted to be their friend, so I created this technique. "This technique allows you to strengthen your Divine Intent to another level. It won''t be enough to develop intelligence, but it will surely act as another strength in your Sword and Spear Intent. "The only way to cultivate this is to have two Intents at the same level because it requires the two intents to clash, thus giving you a burst of strength. However, this will require a huge amount of Sword Qi¡­ Yeah, you heard it right. This is the energy to activate your intent and other things. "Anyway, the Sword and Spear Possession is my ultimate technique. Since Lin Xingzhi must have asked you to deal with consciousness, you should be able to wield this ability to the best of your ability. "There is a planet called Roksah World. This was where I got inspired by this technique. If possible, you could start from the bottom in this world and cultivate your Sword Qi to the maximum and learn how they used this Sword Qi¡­ Well, since it is us, we should call them Sword Qi and Spear Qi. "Oh, right. I forgot to say this, but when the Time God saw the future possibilities, he also used a reverse search technique, not at himself, but on me. All that knowledge in the previous Lightning Tribulation originated from ourselves, including all the past us. "I was not sure what the technique was, but it allowed me to get the knowledge from ten generations ago. Well, the knowledge is old, but I believe at least half of them are still usable, so don''t waste it. And don''t forget to thank your ancestors¡­ Wait, they were not ancestors, since they were us from previous generations¡­ Well, just thank yourself! Pfft. This sounds funny." "Anyway, that is all I want to say. Good luck to you, future me." Alex closed his eyes as he looked at the ceiling with a complicated expression. "You are still trying to support me even when you are like this¡­ Thank you." There was this newfound determination in his heart. He didn''t want to disappoint himself or the previous him. Since Alex had done everything to create this opportunity, he made another resolve and opened the first scroll. Twin Element Slash is a technique that allows one to wield their element to the highest degree by using another element to boost them. In other words, this technique has unlimited potential. Just imagine if you have six elements, you can use Fire and Space Element to create a special slash. But if you change it to Fire and Water, that special slash will have a different effect. Unfortunately, this requires one to have multiple elements, at least four. I doubt myself can even get that much due to all the preparations I have made, so just seal this inside Eulja''s treasury. This is also an Original Sword Technique of mine, so I doubt anyone can learn it except myself (including myself from the future). This text was followed by a series of instructions about the technique, and Alex just skimmed it through to understand its content. He realized that it was not compatible with him, considering he only had Pure Fire and Space Element. Instead of using them together, he would rather fuse them. However, it was different for this Original Divine Sword Technique. One Sword Kill is an overbearing Divine Technique that can be ranged as one of the most powerful Sword Techniques. Although it is weaker than the previous Sword God Divine Technique, it should be able to cut a lower world into two¡­ Albeit, it is only for small lower worlds. As for the Sword God, he could cut twice as big as the planet in my memory. Anyway, it is not that much different, especially if I combine all my elements, so don''t mind. By the way, the planet called Roksah is the world where the Sword God was born, so learns much there, okay? Anyway, let''s call it a day and I shall explain the form and other things with the pictures below. Just like how it was written, there were many drawings on the bottom of the page. It was like the ones for Twin Element Slash, but it was more sophisticated. After reading it once, he took a break to understand what was written on it. He believed that this One Sword Kill suited him, not as an Original Divine Technique, but just as a normal Sword Divine Technique. He then started reading the second scroll. This technique is called Hexagram Fusion. Inspired by the hexagram technique that allows one to control multiple elements, this technique allows the usage of Divine Intent to merge them. Of course, if you have fused your own elements, then there is no need for this technique. It''s just I have a concept about the elements and how they work. If you follow the instructions below, you will be able to control your elements better. That way, you might be able to create a perfect Original Divine Spear Technique and advance to Spear God level (If you haven''t created one that is¡­ If you have, then just treat this as another spear technique). Alex still read through the conceptual for this spear technique and understood the element manipulations for his weapons. He believed he could create a perfect Spear Technique for his advancement to Spear God Level. On the other hand, the explanation continued. This part was filled with the explanations about the Sword Qi. Sword Qi is a kind of personalization of your Sword Intent. Just like how you are able to cultivate, the Sword Intent can as well. However, this is due to the strength of your soul. In other words, the Sword Qi is your soul cultivation. The details of the technique are right below, so try it. Alex widened his eyes when he read this. He never expected to see his soul finally had a great function. Before, he only used his soul for Spirit Step, but it seemed it finally had a use. However, he realized that when he had used up his Sword Qi, he wouldn''t be able to use Sword Intent. In other words, he needed to pay attention to the current energy. Still, he had Void Flower. Although it needed a few more years to cultivate according to Lin Xingzhi, this might be his greatest boost in this one. Alex only regretted one thing. Why didn''t he learn this when he was just a Martial Master? This way, he might have completed the cultivation process. But then he realized the time would take too long. And all the Sword Qi he produced might end up becoming a Divine Sword Qi. Nonetheless, he didn''t know what would happen unless he tried it. As for the Sword and Spear Possession, it was exerting the power of soul to stimulate the Sword and Spear Qi. He could somehow understand the concept, but he needed a bit more time to understand it. He hoped he would be able to create this weapon qi as quickly as possible. Looking at these two scrolls, the ones that he could learn and use directly would be this One Sword Kill and the possession. The other two were slightly a bit worrying to be put as his strength. He shook his head and let out a long sigh. "Anyway, it is good to have more trump cards. The beast was so strong back then, and I don''t know his current strength. For now, I shall make this One Sword Kill as my own and create my Divine Spear Technique and achieve Spear God Stage. "Besides these two, I want to learn a Fire Art that will compliment my Fire Authority. There is one technique called Sun Descent. It is basically a domain Fire Art and with the help of my Fire Authority, I will enhance it even further to the point that no enemy can withstand the power of my fire¡­ Well, it''s not to that extent, but at least, they won''t be comfortable fighting me in that domain. "Meanwhile, what I really need is a Divine Space Technique¡­ maybe two. There is this Reality Sphere. This is the Divine version of Space Plate, but in a sphere form. I can make it flat and use them as an Array Preparation, though, I have another purpose for learning this technique. "It is for the second technique. I want to learn Space Compression. This is usually a low tier technique because it should be one of the first things I need to learn, but this is a bonafide Divine Space Technique. This allows me to compress other elements as well. "In other words, if I compress my Pure Fire to the highest degree, I will be able to create a super powerful bomb¡­ Haiz, this one looks nice." "There are still Pills and Arrays¡­ Well, I only plan to learn a binding array, which I don''t have in my current situation. It is called Sword Prison Array. It summons many swords at once and creates a complicated formation. Unless the enemy can destroy this, they won''t be able to move easily with my current strength. "As for Alchemy, I plan to learn a few basic things about rank 9 pills, including knowledge about all rank 9 pills. As for the pills, I have two candidates for now. They are White Ash Pill and Soul Regenerating Pill. Both are important to me right now¡­" 889 Training "Alchemy and Array might take me a year to learn everything. As for the two elements¡­ Yeah, it will probably take another year for them as well. The problem will be creating the Divine Spear Technique. "In addition, I need to learn how to produce weapon qi to cultivate the Sword and Spear Possession, and there is still that One Sword Kill. If I calculate all of them together and the others, I might need three years for this. "So¡­ It will take me five to six years, I guess¡­ And since I am consolidating every single stage now, I might need two years to reach Rank 9 God. And the last two years won''t be enough to reach Rank 8 God. I will try to create Sword Qi and Spear Qi during this time and cultivate them as a side mission." Alex recalculated one more time, but the timing was the same, so he nodded and started practicing. The first thing that he learned was the array. Because it looked to be the easiest thing, albeit it was still a Divine Array. It took him two months to master it. Alex paid no heed and started learning all the basic things he needed to know about Divine Pills. It took him more than half a year, longer than he expected, but he didn''t mind going that extra mile, so he could grasp the pills better. After that, he tried to make White Ash Pill and Soul Regenerating Pill. The latter pill was easier due to the fact that all ingredients were in his Inventory. He recreated all their features and practiced to make the pill inside his Simulation Room. The Soul Regenerating Pill was usually used to heal the Divine Soul. It could be considered as one of the most needed pills for God Rank Expert, but it was also known as the most common pills. Alex never thought about making a fortune during this whole time because he knew no matter how hard he produced pills, it wouldn''t be able to beat Eulja''s whole revenue. He decided to rely on the power of his Gacha System to get the money he needed for everything. He then proceeded to the next pill. Different from Soul Regenerating Pill, this White Ash Pill needed White Ash Tree as its ingredients, the tree that he got from the lower world. He planned to harvest this tree and created a concentrated White Ash Pill to increase his power. Well, he was not that greedy. He planned to share the three with Sherry, Kyle, Stina, Firia, and Fabio, so they could cultivate as fast as him. Though, it might probably need time to cultivate enough ashes to do that. Much to his disappointment, he continued to practice two Space Element and one Fire Element Techniques. The first would be his Fire Element, the one that he felt confident the most. Just like its name, Sun Descent, Alex created a ball that scorched the entire area. The Fire Authority enhanced it even further to the point it started melting the ground that Alex prepared for this place. Because of that, he chose to practice the technique inside his Simulation Room instead, as to not ruin this awesome room. After that, he proceeded with the Reality Sphere and Space Compression. He mastered the Reality Sphere in a short time due to his proficiency in Space Plate, but when he moved to the second technique, Space Compression. He realized how he needed a good understanding of each element, including the Spiritual Energy. He needed to learn all of it so he could compress them in the most efficient way. To his surprise, he needed a year just to master this technique, whereas the other two only needed half a year in total. After these two elements, he finally started his sword training. Since he only planned to learn about the One Sword Kill, he realized that it was harder than it thought. First of all, he had absolutely no clue as to how to incorporate this technique into his Triple Draws. This One Sword Kill was literally one hit one kill. This required him to use his speed and power to the limit. His Triple Draws didn''t allow such a thing due to the fact that he needed to draw the blade three times. Normally, the triple draws actually took a portion of its original power, but with the total of three attacks, it would give a huge boost to the technique it amplified. Yet, this technique didn''t let his Triple Draws do its job. Once he held back for this technique, it wouldn''t activate. Hence, this one might be the only technique that rendered his Triple Draws useless. Nonetheless, the technique itself was already so overpowered, so he didn''t really need Triple Draws. He still needed to make it his own, though. After all, this technique was the previous him Original Divine Sword Technique. To copy and master the original was a hard thing to do even with his Sword Mastery. The plan was to master this technique within six months, but it stretched to one year due to the difficulty. Alex wasn''t mad at this. Instead, he was thrilled to know the strength of this technique. If he combined this with his Mythical Fire Slash, he might be able to power it up a little bit more. Still, it wasn''t the main thing he wanted to do. He had been dying to try the Sword and Spear Possession. He learned all the requirements and started cultivating his soul. But it was so hard because his soul was already a Divine Soul. Although he knew that it would be so worth it later because the Sword and Spear Qi produced by the soul would be very strong, he still felt helpless with difficulty. In fact, this was harder than any other technique he learned during this time. It was only after a year that he finally started producing his first Sword Qi. Unlike Alex''s black and red qi, his qi had a golden color, matching his hair and eyes. However, he stopped cultivating right after he had started cultivating the Sword Qi. He only had one reason. The fact that he needed to reach Spear God Stage first before starting everything held him back. Because of that, Alex immediately learned about the elemental manipulation in the Hexagram Fusion. It indeed gave him a new concept about element manipulation. And just like his previous self predicted, it became the foundation of his next spear technique. When he hit the door with his technique, it created a huge dent while fire started bursting on the other side, melting the door slightly. After that, he never tried to use that technique again unless he wanted to break this room. He decided to proceed to master the technique and called it Twin Fusion Spear. As he always did, he never made a good name for his technique. This name originated from the Hexagram Fusion, where he added two elements and called it twins along with the spear because it was his Original Spear Technique. Nonetheless, he finally reached the Spear God Stage. As much as he wanted to continue his practice to produce the Spear Qi this time, he refrained himself and cultivated. After all, it took him seven years in total to do everything before his cultivation time. Not wanting to drag it any longer, he began his cultivation to reach Rank 9 God. He was surprised at first because he never thought he needed a decade just to reach Rank 9 God. But considering how much he got powerful right now, he felt nothing about it. His foundation had become very solid, so his speed would become far and far quicker later. This time, it went as he expected because he only needed two years to reach Rank 9 God. It was one year of full speed cultivating and one year of consolidation. And as much as he wanted to continue, he stopped again and focused back to produce his Spear Qi. Unfortunately, the difficulty was as much as the Sword Qi. It took him a year to produce the first Spear Qi, and the amount was minuscule. Although he was a bit disappointed, he decided to go to the Roksah World to learn an efficient way to increase his Sword and Spear Qi. And finally¡­ A long year of cultivation had officially finished. The time element lingering in the room had disappeared, so he knew he needed to leave. He took another look at the room before leaving. A paper on the floor came into his vision as he recognized it must be another message from his previous self. "I have unsealed the gate for you, so you can take everything inside a room as long as you physically open it. I wish you could keep your promise by only taking one every time you advance a stage, but it doesn''t matter anymore. It''s your choice now. "And without you knowing, I have planted a cheat code for the system, ensuring that the system won''t be able to get the memory in this place. Well, the Dungeon God gave me the trick himself, so I knew how to do it¡­ But don''t ask, I have no intention to say it as well. "Fret not, even if you think or recall everything that happened here outside this place, the system still can''t record it. "I wanted to talk about so many things with my future self, but I realized my time had come to an end. I apologize that I couldn''t talk about Lin Xingzhi, Anna, Anya, and even your new wives. I am sure we will praise them like there is no tomorrow¡­ But I was fine without doing it because they are in our hands. "In any case, I want to remind you once again of this promise. Kill that beast! If you are still unable to kill that beast despite reaching the next stage of the God King, run away with everyone. Even if you need to be labeled as a coward, just run away. "As much as I want to say we can sacrifice ourselves again to settle the score, I don''t want all of them to mourn our death again. So, no matter what, you need to live! "That''s all. I wish you luck. From me to myself with love." Alex took a few seconds to close his eyes as he muttered. "Thank you, me. I will say it again. I won''t disappoint you!" After that, he opened his eyes, gradually walking toward the first door with only his hands. And as expected, the door opened, revealing the so-called garden. 890 A Deal The room itself was larger than he expected to the point he believed he could make a small city with this garden alone. All different types of herbs were here, starting from Rank 1 to Rank 9. This was something surprising to Alex because this was the first time he saw a garden this big. Even the one he saw in Zwaka''s palace was not this big. He found a note on the floor, and he realized it was everything about the herbs in this place, including how to harvest all these herbs. He even found the two other ingredients he needed for White Ash Pill. Due to the size of this garden, it took him three days to carefully store them away. After that, he checked his Inventory again to check everything before leaving the garden. "This will surely boost everyone''s strength." Alex nodded and looked at the second and third groups. "Because he is no more, I can easily open the door for each gate, but I am not someone who can easily break promises, especially to myself. It might be foolish because I can get stronger faster, it is a matter of principle." Alex shook his head and bowed his head to the five doors as if he was thanking them¡­ No, the one who built them. He then returned to the surface with the teleportation array and wiped the table and chairs clean. He smiled and left the tower. Before jumping out of this world, he took another look at the temple and said, "Goodbye and thank you." Alex teleported to outer space before he found himself in a dilemma. To the north, he would be able to find Earth and return for a few days or a month. But to his surprise, he had no expectation or desire to go there. Instead, he only wished to return to Eulja as soon as possible. He ended up shaking his head before using the sense in his head to search for a black hole. Experiencing all the things he saw in the black hole, he finally returned to the original galaxy. And the first thing that greeted him was the notification from the system. [I can finally reach you.] "Ah, yes. I am sorry. It''s been a year since I first went to the black hole." Alex scratched the back of his head. [Yes. I don''t know why, but you feel different.] "Ahaha¡­ Don''t ask." Alex let out a hollow laugh as if he wanted to hide the fact that he used ten years to cultivate in that place. Although the room affected the time, he still aged for another year during the time inside that room. Lin Xingzhi must feel the difference because Alex had undergone numerous changes during that time, including when he received the memory of the last fight. "Anyway, I think it is time to go to that world, so I can refine my bones." [Indeed. Please return to Eulja first, so we can go there together.] "Sure. I want you to tell me about what happened during this whole time, alright?" "Alright." Alex then immediately used his Teleportation Array to send him to Eulja. Unlike the previous time where he used the teleportation formation in Eulja, he needed a longer time to reach Eulja. "Finally, I have returned." Alex smiled as he watched the Eulja from outer space. As soon as he entered the planet, he was greeted by Lin Xingzhi, who had been expecting him to reach sooner or later. This time, she wore a long white dress tied with a black ribbon on her waist. "How are the others?" She nodded and stretched her hand. "We will talk on the way." Alex nodded. ¡­ A year ago, not long after Alex went to Encore, the Blackwade Clan was surprised by the appearance of a God King, the Palm God. Luckily, Song Tao had received information from Lin Xingzhi about their appearance, allowing him to handle the situation the way he wanted to. When he arrived, Song Tao immediately asked this father and daughter duo to come to his office to talk. The atmosphere turned tense when Song Tao and the Palm God, Kubard. "So¡­ Do you have that much free time to come here?" He narrowed his eyes. "There will be many implications if you are staying for too long on this planet. As you know, my clan is just a merchant, so we take a neutral stance." "Hoh? Did you say that after considering your relationship with Eulja?" The two glared at each other. The self-proclaimed rival had been following the information about Eulja and Blackwade Clan, so he obviously knew more than one would expect. This was normal though, considering he had been chasing Alex for a long time. "I also have known about the fact that the two of you have been contacting each other. Haha¡­ I have sent most of my spies here after all. Don''t try to trick me, you old fox." "As expected from the famous stalker." Song Tao snorted. This was not the first time he visited him, so he also knew about his suspicion about Eulja. "Say, how much do I need to buy the information about my rival, Alexander Sirius''s reincarnation?" "I don''t sell that information because I don''t have one." "Don''t joke around. I have visited Eulja earlier and found out that Lin Xingzhi has gone somewhere far away." Song Tao narrowed his eyes. This was exactly their plan. However, he decided to make it look like he didn''t want to give the information so as to make it more believable. "I have said this, and I will say it again and again. I don''t have any information regarding that." "Song Tao¡­" Kubard narrowed his eyes. "I don''t like fooling around. If you are wasting your time on this, I won''t move later. Let''s say, how about I am staying here for a whole year? I will surely create a huge mess for you." Song Tao rose from his seat, looking very angry. "Stop getting fixated on a dead man. The Spirit God you know is no longer here!" Kubard snorted before pointing his finger toward his daughter. "Look at this daughter of mine. She can be considered a peerless genius considering how strong she is despite her young age. He won''t be losing anything by marrying my daughter. In fact, he will also get my support." "Do you think a person like him needs your support? He will be stronger than anyone else right now. From the record, even though the new God Kings have been born during the past few thousand years, they were nowhere near the previous generation of God Kings. "If you take a look at the record about the Fire God, Dungeon God, Sword God, or even Time God, you will know it is true. And if you compare yourself with the Spirit God, you are just like a newborn chick." Song Tao snorted. "Nonetheless, we are still at the same level. We will get stronger and stronger." Kubard shrugged. "Even Lin Xingzhi doesn''t dare to claim she will become as strong as her father, and you say you will?" "I don''t say that, but I will keep getting stronger no matter what it takes. And with the addition of my strength, Lin Xingzhi should be able to protect the current Alexander. My daughter also has the potential to reach God King. If you think about it that way, won''t it be worth it to marry my daughter?" "You should know about the Spirit God''s vision regarding this matter, right?" "Of course, but that is when he was strong. Now he is weak, and I am shameless enough to take that opportunity. First come first served." Kubard shrugged. "You¡ª!" "And my daughter loves him you know. She has been idolizing him since young." Kubard looked proud, even though he was the one who influenced her. "Just tell me, and I will immediately leave this place. I can promise you something too." When he thought about this, he realized he could take advantage of this promise to help Alex. Since Kubard already knew that Alex had reincarnated, there was no point in hiding it anymore. He smiled inwardly as if he thought something brilliant. "Fine. You give me these two stones, and I shall tell you what I know." Kubard narrowed his eyes and looked at the drawings he presented. "I have one of them, and I think I can buy the other one. I see¡­ This must be for him!" "You can think however you want, but since you have promised to leave, you are not allowed to stay here and all planets in my surroundings after learning about this information." "Fine!" "And don''t tell Lady Lin Xingzhi about this. Else, I will be in trouble." "She will know, but I will surely tell that she won''t bother you." Song Tao closed his eyes and thought for a moment before he told him about all the things Lin Xingzhi wanted him to tell Kubard. Not only would he chase these two away, but he could also get the materials needed for Alex''s weapons. He dared to do this because Kubard was not one of the people who would spread the information about Alex, so he was safe to blurt this information. When he learned about Alex, he immediately rose from his seat and took his daughter away. "I will send the stones to you in a month." He then left, but it didn''t stop there. His daughter noticed this as well and asked, "Father¡­ He was lying." "I know." He nodded. "However, if you know Song Tao a bit more, you will realize that not all of them were lies. He has his own conscience regarding this matter. From what I know, he has at least a Space Element. And he will surely take that chance to learn Array. "I see¡­ He is trying to get a new path to get stronger. And the fact that he is out is probably true. So, we will try to camp out near that area and send the spies in all directions." "I understand. I will contact Mother for this." "Uhm!" He nodded and took her away, boarding the spaceship. ¡­ "That''s how the situation was resolved." Lin Xingzhi finally finished explaining everything. "I see." Alex nodded. "How about the others?" "During this¡ª" Before she could explain, two streams of light came out of his body at the same time. It turned out to be red light balls as both formed a human figure. "Master. We apologize for taking this long." Both of them kneeled before him. Alex was baffled to see the first thing they did was kneeling in front of him. He helped them up and shook his head. "I am glad that you have finished your evolution. But judging from your aura, it seems you have gotten something special, right?" "Yes. There are two reasons for this. The first is due to Master''s power-up. If I am not wrong, it is called Fire Authority or something?" Stina nodded. "Yep, you''re right." "The Fire Authority influenced us and raised our strength altogether. Albeit, the process was a bit slow. And the other reason was due to Kyle''s memory. Maybe it was a miracle, but my and Kyle''s memories were shared during this period of time." "So¡­ Are you still Kyle?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and asked Kyle. He was afraid he wanted to assume his previous identity. "Just like Master has chosen to live as a new Alexander Sirius, I have decided to live as Kyle. So, please call me Kyle, Master." Kyle nodded. He looked very different¡­ personality-wise. Although he tried to get accustomed to it, it was still a long way to go. Nevertheless, Alex was happy to see their well-being, considering he had spent ten years in Encore and found no clue when they were going to wake up. "Anyway, let''s go inside first, and we can talk about our future plan, including your visit to your daughter." "Yes." 891 War "First of all, I should say this first. It''s a good thing to see both of you again." Alex smiled. "Yeah. Thank you, Master." Stina and Kyle bowed their heads. "We have got completely overtaken by you, though. We are ashamed." "No, no. You don''t need to worry about that." Alex waved his hand. "I am sure the others also haven''t broken through to another level." "Actually, Alicia has. Only her." "I see. There is one then." Alex nodded before recalling something. "By the way, before this, I have stored many herbs inside the Inventory. Have you checked it?" "Hmm?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head before raising his hand. A blue notification appeared, followed by the panel for Inventory. She then found so many herbs had just been stored inside and looked at Alex with a dumbfounded expression. "This¡­" "You must have realized where it was coming from, but I won''t say anything right now," Alex warned her first. "I understand." Lin Xingzhi nodded, knowing it must come from Encore. Although many questions flashed in her mind, she chose not to open her mouth. "You can use this to power up the others, and I am sure this should be enough for others to catch up with my cultivation." "I am not very sure. There is also a process to completely absorb the herb. It might be giving EXPs to them, but it takes time." "Alright. I don''t really mind time because we still have time. Meanwhile, I am going to increase my strength as soon as possible." Alex said with a serious expression. When they saw his expression, Kyle and Stina fell silent, wondering if it was still alright to ask him to visit their world. They ended up deciding to visit her later after Alex solved all the problems, but Alex offered them again. "So, when do you want to visit your daughter? If I can choose, it will be right now because I still have the time. And after that, I can start cultivating. It won''t take too long, I guess." The couple looked at each other and thought the same thing. They clasped their hands and bowed their heads. "We thank you for Master''s generosity." "Good." Alex nodded. "We can go tomorrow. Lin Xingzhi will distribute the herbs first while you can control your current new power first." "We understand." They nodded. Lin Xingzhi then rose from her seat and stretched her hand. "Since you two are new here, let me guide you to your room." They had nothing to say about the offer and immediately took her hand. They followed Lin Xingzhi outside while Alex sat on the chair, facing down. It had been a tiring ten years for him, so he felt like resting. Yeah, memory. There seemed to be a gap in his memory that she couldn''t see no matter what. And the only one who might be able to do it was the previous Alex. She sighed in defeat. That was the man''s privacy, and since he had gone such a length to do it, she wouldn''t ask about it. The next day, Alex''s mind felt refreshed. All the training he had to endure during the past decade started becoming translucent in his mind. At the very least, he wouldn''t recall such a thing unless he thought it hard. After that, they gathered inside the room again as Alex asked Zark to accompany them there. "Master. This is the compass." Zark brought along a compass that had been set on Stina''s world. Alex nodded and grabbed it while asking, "Do you want to go inside too?" "I don''t understand." Zark shook his head. "I want you to accompany us during this time. After finishing the matter, I want you to bring them back to Eulja while Lin Xingzhi and I go to that world." "I see. In that case, I shall also come inside the world. I won''t be seen during your stay that time, or I can return here and bring you back when you give me a signal." "Nah, it''s better to go together." Alex waved his hand together before Lin Xingzhi handed him another compass. "This is the compass to go to that world?" "Yeah. The world is called Miorea." Alex nodded and put it inside his Inventory for the time being. Zark then clapped his hand and summoned the array as he activated it upon Alex''s nod. It didn''t take too long, and Alex immediately erected a barrier right outside the planet, sealing all their power. Lin Xingzhi raised both hands with a surprised expression and checked her body. "So, this is how you feel when your power is sealed. To think I will experience something like this¡­ It''s a bit disgusting to suddenly lose your power because it feels a bit empty, but it''s not that much." Alex glanced at her before looking at Stina and Kyle and learned that Lin Xingzhi was a special case. It seemed due to her losing so much power, it felt very different for her. Zark proved that she told the truth because he understood what she meant. Although it wasn''t quite like her, it was similar. "I see. This is an intriguing space element. There is this special space inside our body that can contain our soul and Divine Energy. A technique that can make a world inside one''s body¡­ Such a spell does not exist, but this technique can be considered one, albeit only a pseudo technique. "It can create one, but it''s just a kind of special realm. Not a world itself." Zark shook his head. "I wonder what will happen if someone is able to create a world inside themselves and create a new lifeform. This is how heaven-defying¡­" Alex paid attention to all Zark''s rambling because Zark might be the one with the highest achievement in Space Element in Eulja. If they could create a world inside their body, it would be insane. The world itself was made due to the Disturbance that needed a lot of energy, so it wasn''t possible to see a God Rank Expert created a world just yet. "Anyway, it''s nice to see you are having fun with this sudden feeling, but I am going to teleport us right now," Alex informed them and used his Teleportation Array this time. "And I hope I won''t teleport us to another throne room. I have gotten sick of it." In the blink of an eye, the scenery came again. The pain started spreading from his chest to his entire body. He had experienced this a few times, so he had grown accustomed to it and activated the sealing without much problem. They checked their surroundings and found themselves surrounded by skies on the horizon. There was a direction where they found a city, but this was enough for Alex to recognize this place. "This is the flying continent¡­" Alex exclaimed and checked whether there was an angel nearby. "By the way, Alex, I have been wondering, but why are you sealing all of our cultivation? Isn''t Martial Emperor the limit of this world?" "I don''t have much control over this. I need to improve it for the time being because it is taking my concentration to seal many people at once. And the simplest way is to seal everything instead of adjusting it to Martial Lord." Alex sighed in defeat. He found this weakness when he sealed the three girls'' power when he visited Agar World, their home planet. "I see." Lin Xingzhi nodded before glancing at Stina. "Since it''s better to fly than using a Teleportation Array, do you know the direction?" "I know. It is this way." Stina pointed her finger toward the sun. "With our current speed, it will probably take a few hours." "Sure. We can''t really place any more burden on Alex, so he can easily maintain his control." She nodded before tugging Alex''s hand. Alex nodded and said, "Let''s go." "Who are you?!" When they were about to take off, they heard a sound coming from the city. It was another angel that seemed to be going for a patrol. Since Stina was well-known in this world, she instantly appeared before him and said, "It''s me. Due to various reasons, I somehow end up here. I plan to immediately leave this place and head back to my castle." "Y-you are her highness Stina. It''s rude of me." The angel immediately kneeled in front of her. "Umu. I have returned to this place just now, so I hope you won''t say anything to your king yet as I am planning to visit him a bit later." "Ehm¡­" The angel had trouble agreeing as he looked away as if he wanted to say something. "What is it? You can''t keep the secret?" "N-no. Since your highness has just returned, there is a problem in your territory." "What?!" Stina furrowed his eyebrows. "What had happened when I was away?" "Ehm¡­" "Speak!" "The Phoenix Continent is fighting the humans and elves right now." "!!!" Even Alex and Lin Xingzhi turned their head upon hearing this as if they just heard something interesting. Alex helplessly shook his head and muttered. "Oh boy. This again. When we visited the family in Agar World, they also had a conflict with this. Even though it was only around a decade or so¡­ Wait, a decade? That is far enough time to start a conflict like this. It seems my sense of time has been shattered by cultivation¡­" Lin Xingzhi heard his murmur and chuckled. She winked her eyes as if telling him that they wouldn''t participate in this matter and let the couple solve it. Alex shared her opinion and nodded to watch the show. "Due to the recent conflict between the previous Supreme, Alexander Sirius. The human king started harboring ominous feelings upon the Phoenixes. The hatred sparked when the elf saw how their genius princess got too obsessed with him. "And when she actually chased him, the elven princess''s life crystal that had been showing her life energy shattered. In other words, she died in another world. "The humans then devised a plot to get the Elven King joined them and succeeded. With the crystals had been returned to the former owner, the king had been using it to increase his power, so it was hard for the phoenixes to fight back. That''s what I have heard from the city. It seems to be a rumor, but people are saying it''s coming from our Wise King himself." Stina furrowed her eyebrows and asked again. "How is her condition?" "Her Majesty Ellen has been heavily injured from the joint force of the Elven King and the Human Sovereign." "Is there any treaty with the other races?" "The human managed to make a treaty with the Sea Race and Angel Race. The Dragon Race kept their neutral stance and decided to stop the war when Her Majesty Ellen got injured. They thought it would be best to not kill any leaders during this war. "They seemed to have some sentiments with Alexander Sirius. But I am afraid they can''t participate more than this." The guard shook his head in disappointment. He never thought he would see war again in this life. "Good good good! That Shelka had tried to endanger my master by bringing some useless pricks. And now they are going to aim for my daughter?" Stina was on the verge of blowing up. However, Kyle patted her shoulder, telling her to calm down. When she turned around and snarled at him, he saw a scary face from Kyle. "This is interesting. They are not allowed to kill any sovereign, right? Since that is the case, I will return the favor by not killing the Elven King and Human Sovereign. But I will use their human castle as coal and their World Tree as a branch to heat up this world a little bit. For now, let''s go back to our home, okay?" The guard turned pale, wondering if it was alright to tell them this. He might need to inform his king about this to see what he could do. 892 Rebirth "Master¡­ I am sorry for losing my exposure. And he is also¡ª" Stina immediately tried to become dignified in front of her master, the one she owed so much. Alex only shook his head and smiled. "Family is the number one. I will probably like Kyle if something happens to my family, so let''s check your daughter first." Hearing this, Kyle tried hard to calm himself and bowed to him. They then disappeared simultaneously, leaving the clueless angel behind. Not long after that, they had finally arrived at Phoenix Continent, flying above them and heading straight to the castle. "Where is my daughter?!" Stina shouted, trying to alarm the entire castle. One of the elders instantly appeared as soon as she heard the sound but dumbstruck by the sight of Stina appearing before them. She kneeled in front of her and let out tears as if she just saw a saint. "Her Majesty has finally returned." Stina shook her head and replied. "Only for a few days to a week. I need to go somewhere again. Where is Ellen? What is her condition?" "She¡­" The elder looked down, wondering how to explain this. "What the humans and the elves did?" Stina released her killing intent, surrounding the entire castle. "Her Majesty Ellen has reached 3-Star Martial Emperor, but because of our fault, her cultivation has gone. If Your Majesty wants to kill us, please kill us. We deserve death." "Ah¡­ How wonderful today''s weather is? It''s a bit cloudy and windy. Tonight will be so dark. It''s perfect to light up a torch to brighten the world." Kyle opened his eyes wide. There was no killing intent in his words, but everything he said was true. "Kyle¡­" Lin Xingzhi''s soothing voice resounded in everyone''s ears. The elder thought she was going to stop Kyle, but it was only five percent right. "Just make sure to leave some, so they can reproduce themselves so as to not destroy this world''s species. And there is that woman who had a certain relationship with Alex in the past. Except her, you can do whatever you want." Kyle heard it and questioned her, "Lady Lin Xingzhi, it''s rude for me to ask, but is there a need to spare some of them? I understand about that woman, but¡ª" "Has revenge clouded your judgment? Alex is a human too, and some elves are good-natured like the ones in the world where Alex met Alicia, Firia, and Sherry. Just put enough fear to make sure they don''t want to antagonize your family again." "!!!" Kyle bit his lips and took a deep breath. "I apologize. I will surely remember your words." "I understand." Kyle then glanced at Stina, and the latter stared at the elder, asking her to lead them. The elder instantly rose and went inside the castle. Going through a few hallways, they ended up in front of a giant room sealed from any other place. *Bang!* The elder pushed the door open, revealing a woman resembling Stina sitting on her bed with a sad look. When she heard the door open, she uninterestedly turned her head. Stina was terrified by the looks she was giving. It was the face of someone who had given up on everything. Something in Kyle''s heart just broke as he staggered and fell on his knee right before the bed. He held his daughter''s hand and cried. "Ellen¡­" Light gradually returned in Ellen''s eyes as she muttered in a low voice. "Fat¡­her?" "Yes, this is your father. This is your useless father who couldn''t even protect you from something like this." Stina teared up as she fell on the floor. "Mother is there too?" Ellen tried to turn a bit more to see Stina but unable to see her as her eyes were hollow. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and noticed something more important as he abruptly exclaimed. "Y-your wings¡­" "!!!" Stina drew a gasp as she ran toward her, placing her hand on her back. "Where is your right wing?" Alex glanced at the elder and asked, "What has happened?" The elder gritted her teeth and finally told the truth. "There is a big war against the two influences. When Her Majesty led our force to strike them back, she fell on her ambush. A few elders died, and her majesty got her cultivation removed and one her wing cut. If not because two elders sacrificed their lives, she wouldn''t be able to get away." "Kyle¡­" Alex called his name as soon as the elder finished. "Master?" Kyle turned his head with a dreadful expression. "Tonight. Leave no one alive!" Alex knew that there were many innocents and good people, but this hatred couldn''t go away. Whether he would be regretting it in the future or not, he didn''t care. The wing was a kind to a symbol of identity for a phoenix. And if that was taken away, it was like taking a horn from an ogre that had two horns. No wonder Ellen was reduced to this state. The anger that he had contained this whole time had broken through the cage that held it in. He walked toward Kyle and placed his hand on Kyle''s head, revolving the seal he placed on him. His power gradually returned to Martial Emperor, and the message was pretty clear for him. However, Lin Xingzhi interjected before they could do anything with that strength. "Wait a minute. I don''t want to hinder you anymore, but there is one more important thing to do." Alex and Kyle felt her gaze was not directed at them. Instead, it was on Ellen. "The Phoenix has rebirth ability, right?" "Yes. But it''s merely restarting our life over, and she needs strength to do that. However, there is a big flaw in the rebirth technique." Stina gritted her teeth and turned around, slightly pulling up her shirt to show a few scratches on her back. "We will start again, but our body is not. When I was undergoing my rebirth process, I realized that I would have the same adult body. Only my memory and age were reset." "I know, but there is one thing that is capable of solving that¡­ No, I should say one person." Lin Xingzhi glanced at Alex. "!!!" Stina widened her eyes and realized what she was talking about. She rushed to Alex and kneeled, placing her head on the ground. "This might be this slave''s selfish wish, but I wish Master can grant this slave''s selfish wish." Kyle even let go of his daughter and did the same as Stina. The method she was talking about was the second rebirth from Alex''s Pure Fire. Just like how it was going with Kyle, there was a chance of her restoring her former body by using Alex''s Pure Fire, let alone the Godly Pure Fire from Phitrus. Seeing this, Alex bent down and helped them up. "What Slave? I don''t know anything about that. What I know is that I have two family members that need my strength. Since that is the case, I should help, right?" "Master¡­" "That is if she is willing though." Alex glanced at Ellen. Ellen heard this as well and saw her parents. She tried to reach out the edge of the bed and begged Alex to do it, but she had become too weak to do so. Alex then walked toward her and sat on the bed, asking. "Now, Ellen. I am sure you have realized what is going on, but I will explain it to you once again. "The thing is... My Pure Fire might be able to restore your body, but that kind of thing can only happen for those that have Master and Servant Contract. In other words, I will be your master. Of course, I don''t plan on having you as my servant and let you do whatever you want in this world just like how your parents wish for. Even so, the identity is still there. What do you think?" Not having the strength to kneel, her body bent down as she asked. "Please, let me serve you, Master." Her complexion turned better as she got the will to live again. Alex patted her head and smiled. He bit his finger and smeared her forehead with his blood as he closed his eyes. Sensing the energy trying to come inside her, Ellen let it do whatever it wanted. The little shred of her energy responded and submitted to this energy. Only with this that the Pure Fire could finally flow. "I, Ellen, shall serve you as your servant." Ellen smiled as she entered the life and death contract with Alex. Alex channeled his Pure Fire, and her forehead started glowing. Ellen began to absorb the Pure Fire and Alex''s Divine Energy. However, Alex didn''t have such a thing right now, so he gathered all the Spiritual Energy as a replacement for his Divine Energy. And this was also to let Ellen stay away from Divine Energy that might upset this world. Warmth feelings started enveloping her body as she slowly floated to the air. Alex''s Pure Fire flared up and turned into a cocoon, hiding her inside. This process took two hours before the cocoon cracked. "!!!" Stina and Kyle anticipated greatly, but they were afraid that it couldn''t restore her wings. Nonetheless, they would never blame Alex and even thank him for putting in such efforts. However, Alex could already see what was going on inside the cocoon. It might be in the form of energy, but Alex could see a pair of wings inside there. When it cracked, Ellen leaped out, revealing her current appearance. It had no difference in particular, only her wings that looked different. Unlike their usual orangish-red flame, she had an unusually red fire that looked like Alex''s Pure Fire. This certainly baffled everyone, but when they thought he had become a Divine Being before attempting this, it made a little sense. They then continued to see Ellen, who was stark naked due to the flame melting all her clothes. At the very least, she had no more visible injuries on her body. Alex also checked her inner strength and found nothing wrong. Hence, he concluded that it was a success. "There is no abnormality in her body anymore." "Ellen greets Master." Ellen kneeled on the bed, completely unaware of her current appearance. "Master! Thank you!" Stina and Kyle shouted as they felt overjoyed and moved at this moment. "I will let your family have a talk first." Alex waved his hands and brought Lin Xingzhi and Zark away. "I will be going to the little courtyard I had in the past." Ellen stretched her hand toward Alex but ended up retracting it. She then kowtowed a few times, showing her thanks until Alex left the room. It was at that time Kyle and Stina threw themselves at her, couldn''t contain their sadness, anger, happiness, and many other emotions they had contained in their heart. "I am sorry for worrying you two," Ellen gently said as she felt guilty for making such an appearance earlier. The two then had a great chat. ¡­ After settling everything, Kyle was the first to arrive before him. "The sun is almost set, it seems you are ready." Alex looked at him without any expression. "Yes, Master. I am really grateful to you for saving my daughter. If needed, this life is yours to take." "Let''s not talk about that anymore. As long as your family is fine, I am happy too." Alex shook his head before his expression turned serious. "Anyway, there are many innocents in the two territories." Kyle bowed his head. "But I have no intention in telling you to spare them. Rather than thinking of a million bystanders, I am rather taking care of my family members." Alex''s expression turned serious. "Leave no one alive." "I shall light up this World Tree as a bonfire for you!" Kyle clasped his hand and disappeared. 893 Wrath "A bonfire?" Alex asked while sipping his wine on that couch, relaxing his body from training. "Indeed. Beautiful, isn''t it?" Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Just for entertainment purposes, yes, it''s beautiful. But when you know many people died there, it''s not." Creak. Someone pushed open the door of their courtyard and searched for them. Alex glanced at his left, finding two women walking toward him. "Stina, Ellen." "Master." Considering Ellen also had turned into Alex''s contracted beast, she also started to call him Master. "Is that Kyle?" Stina glanced at the flash in the dark sky. "Yeah. Do you think I am too cruel?" Alex asked with a poker face. "There are many people who have nothing to do with this, but I have decided to kill them." "It''s how we have been surviving this whole time. It''s the usual thing, so why should I think about it?" Stina shook her head. "I am just thankful that Master only let Kyle do this to the two that are attacking the phoenixes. I will feel weird if you ask him to destroy this world itself." "Nah." Alex shook his head while adding inwardly. ''If I am someone like that, I might kill all the Devils in that world before returning to Eulja because many Devils are going to be involved after the elimination of the Green Devil Tribe.'' "In any case, as long as Master is fine, I am fine too." Stina nodded. He stared at her expression for a while and let out a long sigh. "Anyway, let''s move on to the next topic. How are you, Ellen?" "Thanks to Master, I have got a second chance to do this. Mother also has told me about many things, including about Father. Ellen is very thankful to Master." Alex sighed. Looking at her, the previous Supreme suddenly popped out in his mind as he furrowed his eyebrows. ''Now that I think about it, my previous self didn''t seem to go to this world without a reason! And the upper world where I trained to God Stage was the same. He must have gotten the foresight about the future and laid down all the groundwork. ''The Supreme and other people¡­ The problem is¡­ There are numerous possibilities, right? How can he be so sure I will be going here? ''No. Should I say that is the reason why I was born on Earth after five thousand years? He must know that the only place I would go was Agar World. And from that world, I didn''t have any other world to go to except Moose World, the upper world. ''Everything now makes sense. He had calculated everything and laid the groundwork. In fact, it might be the reason why the Supreme seemed to have expected me to come.'' Alex fell silent for a few minutes as he once again admitted defeat to his previous self. ''I really can''t waste this life¡­'' "Alex?!" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head in confusion. "Ah, I am sorry. It''s nothing." Alex shook his head before continuing. "Anyway, I am glad you are alright, Ellen. Don''t need to care about the burden as my contracted beast and just live your life freely." "Yes. Mother has said the same thing." Ellen smiled and bowed to him. "Still, as long as you are here, I shall serve you as much as I can." "For now, I think you should calm the entire castle because they are worried about you." "You don''t need to worry. I have made a statement for that, and the elder who came with you will help me spread the information. The situation will become calm soon¡­ Maybe in two or three days." "In that case, I won''t need to worry and enjoy my stay here." "Please." Ellen raised her hands as if she was checking them. "Actually, my strength has returned to Martial King due to Master''s ability. And the power is consolidated well. I shouldn''t have a problem achieving a breakthrough to Martial Emperor soon and regain my former cultivation. If it''s strength, I believe the me now is stronger¡­ Well, only after I reach 1-Star Martial Emperor that I will have enough strength to surpass my previous self." "That''s good." "Thank you." "Still, I am wondering what is happening there¡­" Alex turned around and looked at the horizon. ¡­ "Ah! Save me!" "Kill him! Hurry up!" "Attack!" Many wails echoed in the city, containing hatred in their voices. The fire was everywhere, razing everything to the ground and reducing humans into ashes whether they were innocents or not. Kyle stood tall above the city, watching how his fire extinguished these many humans. He saw many guilds appearing one after another, followed by the royal guards and the king. They looked at Kyle standing above with a terrified expression. They had been fighting him for an hour, but nothing could hit him. He suddenly disappeared. The next thing they noticed was the sound echoing in their ears as they lowered their vision, finding Kyle punching the ground. Cracks started to appear and spread all over the city. The city itself was around twenty kilometers in radius, but it was swallowed by a crater made by Kyle''s punch, sinking the city. "What is this ridiculous power?!" The humans were terrified. Kyle looked around to search for two people. The first one was a woman with two elements. As soon as he found her, he appeared in front of her while releasing his killing intent. "You are Lilian, Master''s former comrade. I will give you two minutes. Leave this city along with your guild, and no harm shall fall upon you. If not, then everyone will die here!" "You¡ª" Lilian gritted her teeth. She was the one accompanying Alex during his stay in this world. Never once a scene like this appeared in her mind. ''Why?!'' "Master treasures his friend, so leave. And the reason why Master didn''t reduce this kingdom to ashes in the past was simply that he gave them mercy. Unfortunately, they didn''t treasure it and attacked my daughter." Kyle snorted and flew again, ignoring anything she said. He then grasped the king''s neck as soon as he found him and floated right in the middle of the city. "Who are you?!" The king tried to resist him, but everything he did couldn''t affect Kyle. He grabbed his hand but couldn''t move it too. "You cut my daughter''s wing and fought against the phoenixes, and you are asking who am I?" Kyle released his fire, burning the king starting from his feet, slowly raising to his legs and body. "This is just a misunderstanding¡ª" "And this misunderstanding results in this catastrophe. No matter what you say, nothing will change right now. You and everyone in this city will die." Kyle''s fire rose to the sky before creating a giant phoenix above them. Cry. The phoenix let out a loud cry, making one feel chill all over their body. "I haven''t used this for a long time, but this is my current strongest technique." Kyle released the phoenix as it dove down right to the center of the city. "Phoenix Descent." The entire city brightened as it was engulfed by a giant explosion. Ruby had felt danger and brought everyone in her guild to escape, but when she saw this, complicated feelings crept into her heart. But more importantly, she was confused. No one could predict someone as strong as Kyle would attack this city under Alex''s name. If his servant was this strong, how strong he is right now?" The question would remain unanswered forever because those who saw the city reduced into ashes in a single technique feared him to the point they trembled to just even hear his name. After the human''s city, the Elven Kingdom became Kyle''s next target. He exactly did the same. Torching the tree, burning the entire city, and bringing the king as if they were in the middle of a trial. But no one was lucky enough like Lilian and her guild. Every single elf in this place died under Kyle''s merciless fire. Even the world tree turned into charcoal. Only despair, fear, unwillingness, and¡­ regrets filled their heart. They had heard about the war obviously, but none stopped it. Because of that, doom descended upon them. Kyle took a deep breath as he finally calmed down, looking at the city he just burned. "My job here has finished, but I still need to kill those soldiers that are camping around the continent and end this." Kyle sighed and disappeared, heading back to the Phoenix Continent. ¡­ Far away from the two kingdoms. The priest that guided Alex to the human''s town stared at the glowing sky outside his house. He let out a long sigh as his eyes glowed as though he was possessed by someone. "The humans have decided to smear the king''s name¡­ And invited the doom upon themselves. Whether the human will go extinct after this or not, I can''t do anything. The same applies to Elves¡­ Well, considering they have planted many spies on all continents, I am sure they won''t go extinct. Anyway, let''s make this your punishment from inviting God''s Wrath." He closed his eyes, recalling a scene where he presented himself in front of the king to stop him from doing something stupid. Three years ago. Inside the throne room, the priest walked on the red carpet. "I welcome you, the priest who guided the Supreme, Alexander Sirius." "It''s my honor to meet you, Your Majesty." The priest bowed and greeted him like a noble. Even though he was a human, he didn''t have any more loyalty due to him living in that place for too long. The king frowned and misunderstood him, thinking that the priest was actually arrogant because he once guided Alexander Sirius. However, he tried to suppress his killing intent and asked. "I would like to ask one question." "Your Majesty¡­ If you are thinking about attacking the Phoenix Continent, I implore you to stop thinking about it right now. The moment you attack the Phoenix Continent, the consequences will be too high for you to handle. "At the same time, you shouldn''t harm the people he knows because they are his treasures. And their relationship is not something like ''I have them as my hostages, so you should follow my command.'' "Instead, it''s something like ''That you better do. If anything were to happen to the ones he knows, you will be the first one made to answer. If there is even one scratch on them, this entire country will be made to answer¡­'' "I don''t mean to threaten Your Majesty, but that''s what the World''s will told me. I swear that I don''t say anything other than the truth." The priest bowed his head. "Wha-!" "How dare you?!" The ministers started causing a ruckus, but the king immediately stopped him. "Wait!" The king released his killing intent as he snarled. "Just you wait! Now that I have gotten the crystal that can let me increase my strength, I will make sure he regrets it when he comes back here! One human can''t handle the relentless attack from a kingdom. No one shall kill him! I will show him that I will stand at the top in this battle, and I will decimate those phoenixes! Mark my words!" The priest stared at him without any expression and bowed his head again, turning around and leaving the throne room. ¡­ The priest then opened his eyes again as he let out a long sigh, watching how the World Tree turned into a bonfire, and the human castle changed into a grill. "What you are challenging is not a human, foolish humans. You are challenging the scariest God out there, Alexander Sirius." The priest let out the last sentence before the glow dimmed down, and he regained control of his body. He clapped his hand and prayed. "Oh! Please forgive those innocent people that have their fates tied into this corrupt kingdom. Let those humans that are currently in another continent know what people mean by fear and harmony, so they won''t suffer another catastrophe like this again." 894 Goodbye "Good work¡­ Well, I shouldn''t say this since this is your family matter. Nonetheless, there is bound to be some friction coming from other races. The remnants of Human Race and Elf Race will surely plot against the phoenixes. Whether the other races accept them or not is their problem. After all, some might be scared upon this news, and some are determined to eliminate this threat." Alex advised. "I understand. That''s where I come in." Stina smiled as she seemed to have planned everything out. "Since that is the case, I won''t need to worry about this then. We will be staying in this world for a week." Alex announced and looked at Ellen. "For now, restore your strength first. If you have gotten stronger than anyone else, no one can bully you." "Thank you for your words, Master." Ellen nodded with a serious expression. "Then, I guess our family will return first to let you enjoy your time. Do you need anything?" Stina asked. "Nope. Lin Xingzhi and I might be touring around the world. The ones that are going to be busy are you three." "Ahaha¡­" Stina didn''t deny it. But she thought nothing of it and felt happy doing this because it would help their daughter. It was also the first time they reunited, especially with Kyle having his past memory. "Uhm¡­ Can I request something?" Ellen looked down while playing with her hair. Her face was red. "Of course," Stina assured her with a smile. "I had slept together with Mother when I was a child, but I want to feel what it is like to sleep together with your mother and father at the same time. Is this request childish?" Ellen looked down as she was completely embarrassed. Stina and Kyle exchanged looks as they both smiled at the same time. "Of course not. It''s your Father''s fault to not be present in the past. I can''t accompany you for a long time this time as well, so I will fulfill every request you have. No need to hold back." Kyle patted her head and stroked her hair. "Hehe¡­" Ellen gently scratched her cheek. "I don''t have many wishes, and as long as father and mother are fine, Ellen is happy." The two smiled, bowed again to Alex, and left the room. Lin Xingzhi stared at them until they left while saying, "Isn''t it nice to have a family like that?" "Can you wait a bit more for this?" Alex smiled. "I want to resolve everything first before having a kid." "As long as you don''t leave so suddenly, I don''t mind even if you don''t want to have a kid." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I have increased my strength this whole time just for this, so I don''t want to waste it by having you suddenly disappear on me." "Haha¡­ I won''t. You can even check everything about me with the system. I have no secret to hide from you." Alex chuckled. Alex smiled and lifted her up as they went inside, enjoying the passionate night. ¡­ The next day, the other races still had no clue what was going on, especially when their spies spotted the huge fire that burned all humans and elves that attacked the phoenixes. They immediately investigated secretly while sending the information to their respective influence. However, Stina was one step ahead as she already arrived before the dragon king. "This is¡­ A rare guest, indeed." The dragon king couldn''t sense her cultivation as hear immediately struck his heart. Considering Stina''s strength, she must have gotten too strong to the point he couldn''t see her cultivation, so he became cautious and asked politely. "Is there anything I can help you with? "It''s my deepest regret for what happened to your daughter. As much as I wanted to help, I couldn''t act easily. But if you take an offend for that, please limit it to my life alone. After all, that is my decision." Stina looked at the dragon and shook her head. "My daughter has recovered. It''s all thanks to my master. Considering you are the ones that are preventing the humans and elves from killing my daughter after getting seriously injured, I would like to offer my thanks. After all, I won''t be able to meet my daughter again if you didn''t save her." "I am simply doing my duty as one of the rulers in this world. I don''t wish to see a continent fall." "Unfortunately, there are already two kingdoms falling into the depth of hell," said Stina while releasing her killing intent. After following Alex for a long time, her killing intent had multiplied to almost a hundred thousand. The moment it spread around the room, everyone was startled and wanted to fall down as their feet went limp. "Do you have any opinion regarding that?" "I¡­" The dragon king gritted his teeth. This pressure alone ordered him to say the opposite thing he just said. Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything other than comply. "I have no objection. After many warnings from other races, the humans and elves still started an attack toward them to the point it almost claimed the Phoenix Queen''s life. "If they were to fall because of that, it meant they invited their doom themselves. No one would say it was something bad because they only received their own retribution." Stina stared at the dragon king and nodded. "Still, I am curious as to why you would rescue my daughter¡­ I am sure the one you said earlier is the only reason, right?" The dragon king hesitated for a few seconds before nodding. "Yes. Actually, I want to pay my debt to Alexander Sirius for reforming my son. Considering his growth, he can replace me in a few decades. "That''s why I can understand your feelings if you see your proudest kid get beaten up like that. So, I don''t wish to say anything regarding this matter anymore." "Fair enough." Stina nodded. "In any case, the reason I am here is to announce that I will be visiting this world from time to time. If my Ellen suffers again like this one, I won''t think of you as comrades again. In other words, this is a warning, shall the dragon bare their fangs upon us, your fate will be the same as elves and humans. This is not an empty threat. If you don''t believe me, you can check on them, and you will know no one could replicate something like that." "I shall remember this." The dragon king endured this and bowed his head. He then roared as loud as possible. "This is the highest decree that I will give as the ruler of this Dragon Continent. If you are going to target the Phoenix Continent, I shall be the one who will claim your head!" This sound was loud enough to alarm all the dragons in the surroundings. And that would only start to spread to the entire continent. Stina nodded and clasped her hands. "In that case, I shall take my leave today. I will send you something later as thanks." The dragon king sighed and let her leave. Stina then moved toward the Angel Race and Sea Races, talking about the same problem. They thought about it seriously due to Stina''s strength. They first promised her to not touch the Phoenix Continent as long as they didn''t harm them first. Of course, Stina''s words couldn''t be believed just because she said that. They indeed were startled upon that flash in the dark sky yesterday and asked their subordinates to investigate it. However, after meeting Stina, they changed their plans as they were the ones planning to investigate to see what kind of scary thing was waiting for them there. When they arrived, they drew a long gasp as they couldn''t believe what just happened. Everything had turned into ashes, including the big building such as the castle and many guilds or even the World Tree. It was at this moment they realized what it meant to anger Stina. Because of that, they immediately declared to not touch the Phoenix Continent to prevent their races from extinction. After settling everything here, Stina finally returned and enjoyed their times as a family. Meanwhile, Alex and Lin Xingzhi toured around the world for a honeymoon. They didn''t need something big and extravagant. Simply hiking with normal human strength and enjoying the moment was enough for Lin Xingzhi and Alex. They had fun for a week and enjoyed it very much. Meanwhile, Kyle and Stina also did their jobs as parents, trying to fulfill everything that Ellen wished for. Little by little, the awkwardness of having Kyle turning into a father figure for her finally disappeared, and they acted like a nice little family. Alex also felt happy when he saw them. Although he wouldn''t be able to prolong this, he believed he could do it in the future, especially after he solved everything. Seven days passed in a blink of an eye. Alex and Stina met the couple again, saying goodbye to Ellen. "Father, Mother, you don''t need to worry about me again. I won''t waste this precious chance." Ellen smiled while waving her hand. They exchanged looks and hugged her again, knowing it would be at least a decade before they could meet her again. Ellen then turned to Alex and bowed. "Master. Thank you for this precious gift. May fortune bless you with its presence." Alex looked at her and couldn''t help but pat her head. "Thank you." Even though Ellen was supposed to be older than him, he couldn''t just think it that way. "I am going then." "Yes, Master." Alex nodded and glanced at Zark, who disappeared as soon as they arrived here. It seemed he was doing his job. Alex didn''t know what kind of job it was though. Nonetheless, Alex released the seal for all of them as Zark immediately teleported them to outer space. "Since we have finished the matter here, I shall bring Lady Stina and Sir Kyle back to Eulja." Zark bowed politely to Alex and Lin Xingzhi. "I am leaving them to you, Zark." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand and watched them disappear. They then exchanged looks and nodded. "Let''s go then." Alex took out the compass and used his Teleportation Array to send them to this world. Not long after, they arrived in front of the world as Alex asked. "What is the capacity of this world?" "It''s Martial Saint. And you don''t need to create a barrier for me because the Divine Body alone is enough to handle this environment." "Sure." Alex nodded and sealed her strength again. "It''s time to enter this world." "Yeah." With another Teleportation Array, they entered the world, starting their journey in another world. 895 Meeting "Elder, there is one thing that I want to ask." The male asked. He had short blue spiky hair and blue eyes. Wearing a red shirt and a long black robe made him look more robust. He appeared to be only seventeen years old. The elder glanced at him and nodded. "Ask away. You are the disciple I have chosen, so no need to hesitate." The elder was a female. Although he called him elder, she looked like she was only one or two years older than him. She wore a pink dress and tied it with a blue linen shawl around her waist. "Thank you." The man clasped his hands respectfully and asked. "Is there any doctor in the sect?" "Big brother!" Another female, slightly younger than the man, shouted while clenching her fist. She understood the reason why he asked that was because of her. The elder glanced at this woman with long purple hair. Her name was Xue Ning. She tagged along because she didn''t have any family back home. After all, she was an orphan that her brother, Xue Lang, decided to adopt. The elder was a bit surprised by the exaggerated reaction from Xue Ning and frowned. "We have another elder in charge of Pills. He is the most knowledgeable person about medicine. However, I can''t really help you to meet him." "Is there any way to meet him? I want him to take a look at Xue Ning''s condition." "Only Inner Disciples are qualified to meet him. Even so, it''s hard to meet him even at that. There is only one way if you are in a hurry, become an Inner Disciple and a noticeable one. This way, many elders will see you favorably, and at that time, you might be able to set up a meeting with him." Xue Lang gritted his teeth as he certainly couldn''t take it. "Don''t worry. I have taken a look at your sister''s body. She shouldn''t have a mishap anytime soon." She smiled. The fourth person finally joined the conversation. However, only the male could see her due to her being only a soul. She had long black hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a kind of white uniform, but it looked easy to move with that clothes. ''Your sister is too strange. There was a rumor that her body is blessed by Heaven, but I can''t remember what it was. You might want to keep getting stronger and head to another continent. I am sure the answer lies there.'' She sent a thought transmission. ''Is that so?'' ''Remember the one visited you a month ago? If I didn''t repel her, she might take your sister away. There is also a chance that they know about the origin of your sister, but it''s riskier than having her with you because the rumors I heard in the past certainly didn''t lean toward good.'' ''But you said she might come back?'' ''I understand. As soon as I enter the sect, I will do my best to get stronger.'' He then nodded to the elder and sighed. "I will become an inner disciple as soon as possible." "I hope so." The elder nodded. "Is this the way?" "I think so." Suddenly, they heard two people''s voices as they were flying above them. They traveled with foot anyway, so they could see the two figures by raising their vision. The two were Alex and Lin Xingzhi. Lin Xingzhi suddenly spotted the group of four and immediately tugged his hand, asking him to stop. Alex also found them and nodded. The group of four panicked when they saw the two descending to the ground and walked toward them. "Who are you?!" The elder took out her sword and stood in front of Xue Lang and Xue Ning. Alex raised his eyebrows as he didn''t expect to see such a reaction. ''These two guys are bad news. They are stronger than the one coming for your sister a month ago,'' The soul warned Xue Lang. ''What? What should I do?'' Xue Lang screamed inwardly as he hid his sister behind him. There was only one reason for two people appeared before them at this point. It must be his sister. But they also encountered a problem. Alex was wearing a white mask this time, only letting them see his golden hair and eyes. Lin Xingzhi was the same. She covered her face with a veil and dyed her hair green. Nonetheless, they looked very suspicious in Xue Lang''s eyes. ''This is the guy?'' Alex asked Lin Xingzhi. ''Yeah.'' Alex then nodded and waved his hand with a smile. His mask only covered the upper half of his face anyway, so they still could see his smile. "I want something from you guys. But I am not someone who will steal since I am a man of principle, so I want to trade it." "How dare you to treat my sister as an object! I won''t let you touch my sister!" Xue Lang gritted his teeth. He couldn''t contain his anger anymore because the last one that came also acted as it was something inevitable. He didn''t like how they looked at her just because of her talent and made it look like she was just an object or a treasure. "¡­" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Pfft!" Lin Xingzhi only laughed because she thought something ridiculous. She thought, ''This guy must have met an elder that wanted to take his sister elsewhere.'' Alex facepalmed. ''Ugh. I forgot there was a scene like that most of the time when I read stories.'' ''Exactly.'' "Anyway, listen to me first." Alex sighed and waved his hand. The elder finally calmed down and assessed their current situation. She realized that the people before her were very strong. Seeing the elder''s reaction, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see whether they had the thing he wanted. However, he found energy forming beside Xue Lang and realized it was a soul. He thought, ''No wonder I can feel a presence there.'' ''Indeed. There seems to be a soul attached to the boy. Her peak strength is around Martial Saint I guess.'' Lin Xingzhi confirmed. ''6-Star Martial Saint.'' Alex gave the details and immediately retracted his Spirit Eyes. ''Xue Lang, this is not a good situation. The guy has spotted me. In fact, he must have seen through everything about me.'' The girl gritted her teeth and feared that the man might take her away because of this. Before anyone could say anything, Alex said, "I only want one thing. It is Fire Grass." "Fire Grass?" The group became confused. ''Haiz, is there any different terminology for that? We have rushed toward here after knowing they have left their home.'' Alex sighed inwardly. ''I think so. You might want to describe it a bit more.'' Alex nodded and explained. "The grass is special. It has a huge amount of Fire Energy. The grass itself is not too thin, and the length is more than three humans combined. I want that grass." ''I am sure he is talking about your Sun Grass. The one that your parents brought home before they died.'' The soul informed him. Xue Lang frowned. Obviously, he wasn''t someone that would hand over something like that so easily because it was the last thing that his parents gave him. Because of that, he said, "We don''t have the thing you are searching for." Alex scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Listen to me. I simply want to get that because it will boost my cultivation. And I won''t take it for free. That''s why I will grant you three wishes. Of course, I have the right to stop you when the wish exceeds the value of the grass. "And don''t lie to me, do you think I can''t see what is inside your Space Ring?" Alex yawned as if it was something he could easily see. However, it was just a bluff. He couldn''t see the thing inside the Space Ring even with his Spirit Eyes. ''Three wishes?'' The soul thought for a moment and warned. ''I think this deal is worth it. How about you test him first?'' The soul didn''t hide anymore because it was pointless to do so in front of an expert like Alex and Lin Xingzhi. And Xue Lang certainly understood what she meant by testing him. He took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes as he said, "If you can cure my younger sister, I agree to trade." "Hoh?! You are a smart one, aren''t you? This way, you will get four wishes from me." Alex shrugged before glancing at his sister. "Hmm¡­ Extreme Ice Body¡­ It is not an illness but something far greater than that." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "This world has a different system after all. Instead of an element, they have a unique physique and Martial Spirit." Alex nodded, noticing a blue Luan inside the girl''s body. "Extreme Ice Body and Ice Luan Spirit. I don''t know about the power level, but I certainly know it sounds like a powerful innate strength from the name alone." He then started tapping his forehead and recalled every single knowledge about these two things. "Ah, I see. Extreme Ice Body is a unique body that can manipulate super cold ice. For comparison, it''s like a Phoenix''s fire. At the same time, this Ice Luan Spirit will enhance her ice control, making her a peerless genius. There are many techniques that can control the ice and cultivate it, but the good one is rare because one needs a tranquil heart. "Considering the amount of energy in her body, she must have suffered from the cold. And it has become a bit more frequent recently. Though, there is a strength that is currently suppressing the ice power for the time being." "Tranquil heart?" Xue Lang drew a gasp. He never thought that he was able to see through everything in a single glance. The power that suppressed the ice was the soul''s strength. "Yeah. She can''t fall in love and other things. In other words, she will just become a cold and aloof lady¡­ Well, that is a good explanation. If it''s me, I would say she will simply become an emotionless robot." Alex shrugged. Back when he read this kind of story, he never liked those techniques that took away one''s emotion. It might be good for many people, but he liked his ability to express something. If he didn''t want to show his emotion, he had enough control to hide it away. Hence, he explained it that way. "Emotionless Robot?" Xue Lang widened his eyes. "Yeah. That kind of technique must be common here." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Well, there are some techniques that don''t need something like this. I know a few techniques that can train her physique¡­ Well, he also knows it." "I want that!" Xue Lang shouted. "We are not a saint that will just give it to you, you know." Lin Xingzhi glanced at him with cold eyes as if telling him to change his tone and words. "!!!" Xue Lang realized it and gritted his teeth. "If you are able to cure my sister, I will trade with you. You can even take it as one of my wishes." Alex and Lin Xingzhi realized how sly this guy was. Normally, the people in the stories would say he would give the grass to them instead of one of the wishes. He remembered Alex''s condition and decided to utilize it. Nonetheless, Alex agreed since he wasn''t a person who would steal easily. "Alright. We have a deal." However, this situation wasn''t that simple because there were three people staring at them from the sky. Alex and Lin Xingzhi had been ignoring them this whole time, but they seemed to have lost their patience. "No one can snatch Extreme Ice Body from us!" 896 Solving Problems The group immediately raised their vision, finding three people far from them. One of them was the elder that was trying to grab his sister. It seemed she had returned with reinforcement this time. The three of them glared at Alex and Lin Xingzhi. "She will become the disciple of my Snow and Ice Palace! No one can snatch her!" The elder exclaimed while releasing her killing intent. "If I were you, I wouldn''t release such a killing intent, you know," Alex said with an uninterested expression as if he thought nothing of them. "What did you say?! You dare to lecture me?!" The elder gritted her teeth. However, another one stopped her from going berserk as she said, "We just want the Extreme Ice Body. I don''t know who you are, but our Snow and Ice Palace is far stronger than you can imagine. And we have the ability to content her physique as well." "Well, I already made a deal with the kid, so I am going to fix her physique." Alex shrugged as he walked toward Xue Ning. "Yo, little girl. What do you think about the trade earlier? Your brother wants to save you, you know." Xue Ning flinched and glanced at her brother. ''Xue Lang¡­ I think it''s better to trust the guy here. From what I have seen, this guy is even stronger than my peak strength. These three people won''t be able to do anything to your sister.'' The soul warned him again. ''Really?'' Xue Lang hesitated for a second before nodding his head. Seeing this, Xue Ning bowed her head slightly. "Then, I would like Senior to cure me." "It''s not a cure. I am simply letting you cultivate your physique." Alex gently smiled. "Stop! There is no one who understands the Extreme Ice Physique better than my Snow and Ice Palace. Just take a look at that guy, he is a suspicious person who won''t even take off his mask." The elder shouted. "That''s right. We can let you become a peerless expert in an instant if you come with us." "Choose wisely, little girl!" Alex sighed and shrugged again. "Yeah, keep talking. What is your technique? Let me see my cliche collections book. Your technique must need a tranquil heart that does not allow her to have an emotion. And your palace master must be an eccentric one that might seal or erase her memory because it will be the fastest way to acquire a tranquil heart." The elders fell silent for two seconds before they started shouting again. And that silence was all it took for Xue Lang to realize it was true. "You are simply harming my sister!" Xue Lang roared to the three elders. "Do you even realize you are the one harming your sister?!" The elder didn''t want to lose and began rebuking him. "That''s right. Your sister will die as soon as the strength that is suppressing her ice disappears. The ice will kill her from the inside." Xue Lang gritted his teeth, unable to deny their claims. In the end, he realized that he wanted to keep his sister by his side while trying to search for a way to save her. Unfortunately, that was harming her in the process. If what the elders said were true, the best option would be to send her to Snow and Ice Palace. However, Alex stopped him from thinking like that. Under normal circumstances, his sister would be taken away right at this instant. Fortunately, Alex was here. He looked at Xue Ning and asked. "This is your life. You choose." "I¡­" Xue Ning looked down and realized that her brother was looking at her. Her brother would always be everything for her, so she clenched her fists and said, "I still want to be together with big brother." "That''s your answer." Alex smiled and patted her head. "It seems we need to kill that man first!" The elders shouted in anger. One of them raised their hand, calling a snow crystal on their hand. She then raised it as it shot an attack toward Alex. Seeing this, the soul that resided in Xue Lang materialized before them when she realized that the man didn''t pay attention to this. Little did she know, Alex was perfectly aware of her action and simply ignored it because it wouldn''t be able to hurt him. She then realized something was wrong. The ice started to melt as an intense heat emanated from behind her, forcing her to turn around to check what happened. Howl. A red fox made of fire appeared from Alex''s feet as it grew to thirty meters height while melting the attack. ''This¡­'' the soul and the elder were dumbstruck. They never expected to see something like this. To be honest, even the soul couldn''t sense Alex''s real power. She knew he was stronger than her peak, but she couldn''t see the extent of his power. The fox then howled again and turned its head upward. A fireball suddenly appeared and enlarged until it reached a hundred meters in diameter. The heat emanated from that alone was enough to melt the ground they were standing on, but because Alex had enough control, they didn''t even feel the heat. However, the elders were different. They felt the ball was trying to burn them alive, not realizing that their clothes had started melting. "Destroy that attack first!" They shouted as they immediately used their techniques and shot the ball, but to no avail. All their attacks instantly got vaporized, leaving them speechless. "Only Martial Monarchs but dare to raise your hand against me?" Alex narrowed his eyes before asking Lin Xingzhi. "Should I kill them?" She thought for a moment and shook her head. "It''s fine. It''s not like there is a strong one in this world, and I don''t think there is a Divine World close enough to this place. And¡­" She pointed at her face, telling Alex that they had a mask for this. No one would realize they did it. Even if they tried to attack him again, they wouldn''t know his face. "I see." Alex nodded and snapped her finger. The fox then raised its paw and struck them, blowing them away. After that, he recalled both the fox and the sun as if he just finished dealing with them. Still, the shocking thing that happened for Lin Xingzhi was the fact that Alex was playing with three Space Rings in his hand. "Those three rings are¡­" "Yep. Their space rings." Alex grinned. "Ah, you are extending the punishment. Though, I don''t think that is necessary." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I mean, it''s alright to punish them, but this is not the way. Taking another look at them, they are stark naked and without their Space Rings. I am sure they won''t have any clothes with them right now. With their strength, what will they do?" "Ah!" Alex finally realized the meaning of his actions and sighed. "Should I return it to them?" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment. "It''s fine. You don''t need to. But I want you to realize this first. I know that you are thinking about the consequences, but you are not used to thinking about cause and effect. Hence, I will let this be the thing that will remind you about it." Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds and nodded. "I understand." The thing they were talking about was none other than killing. With their strength, they would kill people and snatch their clothes first before going back to their influence. And Alex realized it too late and kept this matter in his heart. "Anyway, I think it''s better to finish our matter first." "Yeah." Alex then turned around again, facing the girl and placing his head on her head. He inserted his Pure Fire inside Xue Ning''s body, dissolving the sword power. While doing so, he glanced at the soul that just materialized. She clasped her hand politely and bowed. "I am sorry for showing my meager skill in front of an expert." "It''s fine. You are trying to destroy the attack in my stead even with your weakened strength." Alex waved his hand, telling her that it wasn''t a big deal. He realized that both the soul and Xue Lang had a sword as their Martial Spirits. A Martial Spirit was a kind of their heart''s personification. It functioned like the skill that was being cultivated in Phantasm Sect. It came from their heart and would stay with them to the end. In other words, it was the source of their strength. While they were in the midst of talking, the elder just couldn''t look at Alex. Her eyes were glued to what happened to their surroundings. The ground was melting and cooled down, the grasses were torched, but the flame immediately disappeared when Alex retracted his technique, and many more. She questioned herself, ''What did she just witness?'' Never in her wildest dream, she could see something like this. Alex himself didn''t care about this and proceeded in his task as he asked again. "Do you have any recommendations for the technique?" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked back. "Do you have any choices?" "Two actually. The first is Nine Yin Cultivation Body. This will allow the user to create nine extra energy forces in her body to build up her second foundation. In other words, she won''t be crippled unless someone destroyed both sources. "The other one is Yin Empress Cultivation Technique. The first one can give a second foundation and energy, but it is slower in pace. As for this one, it will increase her cultivation speed as it nurtures the physique itself. It will focus on the physique alone." "I think the first one is good enough. Remember that she has an Ice Luan? It will require a source of strength as well." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "I understand." Alex nodded and released his strength. "Little girl. This is going to be hurt, but you need to endure it while following my directions. How much you can get will depend on yourself." "Please, Senior. I will withstand everything." Xue Ning nodded and gritted her teeth. She looked at Alex with determined eyes as she seemed to be tired of getting protected. Alex looked at her expression for a few seconds and finally melted the seal. As the elder said, the ice that had been suppressed until now burst out of her body, trying to attack her and Alex. Lin Xingzhi waved her hand, erecting a barrier, so the cold didn''t freeze them. Alex used his Pure Fire to suppress the cold, but it was only so she could withstand the pain. When he thought she was ready, Alex started guiding her according to the manual in his mind. As expected from knowledge coming from ancient times, it was surely powerful. He could understand many cultivation techniques from different types of power levels due to the knowledge of his past lives that had their own worlds to live. The freezing ice gradually formed into something like an image of a Blue Luan appeared on her back. Cry. The Blue Luan suddenly looked at the ice and stopped the growth of this ice by itself, allowing Xue Ning to start controlling the Ice according to Alex''s guidance. The ice gradually got suppressed and died down. Xue Ning''s complexion became normal, and her breathing became stable. After that, a blue ball appeared on her right hand as it absorbed the residual ice in the air. This was the first force of her ability that would turn to be her second foundation. After a few hours, she finally opened her eyes as a Blue Luan image appeared again. Cry. 897 Wishes And this might also be the first step he took to be a master. A flash of memory couldn''t help but flash in her mind. It was a scene where she asked the previous Alex about his ability. She asked, "Why are you not incorporating your ability with another world''s cultivation? I mean, you can do it with your Sword and Spear Qi, but can''t you do the same with your element?" "Nah." Alex shook his head and raised his vision, looking at the sky. "In fact, I wish I didn''t have this element, so I could focus on only one or two elements at a time. Right now, I can use every element like an expert, but I am a master of none. "In my heart, I wish that I have only one element like my mentor, so I can take it to another level. What is it called again? Godly Pure Fire? Yeah. That''s it. "My attack pattern is unique, but when I fight against someone who understands me, he will know my ability and adjust to it. At that time, I will surely lose." Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows. Her expression said she wasn''t convinced. "So, what do you think is the best combination for you?" "Maybe one or two elements. Considering I have my Sword and Spear at the same time, two elements will be my limit to master something, no matter the time. If we consider the color representing each element, what do you think if we mix many colors at the same time? "Instead of making it more beautiful, it will simply mix with each other and become black¡­ A completely one color. And that is my current situation. "Of course, if we are talking about me, my black is so dark that no color will make it darker anymore. But believe me, if I need to choose a rainbow color or black, I will choose the former. "For example, I have this red color that represents the fire element¡­ If I want to enhance it, I will simply drop more red paint on it, making it shine brighter. "That''s why I am a bit envious of your situation. You only have one element, allowing you to reach the peak with it¡­ Unlike me who will have his foundation ruined if I add another color on it¡­ Not that it matters though. "In any case, that''s just my wish. Instead of getting all the things possible, I want to master only a few things and make sure I reach the peak with those things." Alex smiled and let out a long sigh. Lin Xingzhi fell silent and sighed. She realized the fact why her Father, his mentor, and a few were still stronger than him despite having the same strength. They had been increasing their knowledge about their ability for a long time, knowing every nook and corner and applying that knowledge in their battle. "I will heed your warning then and make sure I master this ability can only be used because it is me who is using it," Lin Xingzhi smiled mysteriously and answered with a hidden intention. "Yeah. I am looking forward to it." Alex nodded. Unfortunately, he couldn''t see her becoming the peak of Nature. The current her could only let out a long sigh. Luckily, she never needed to ask Alex to not get any more elements as he would end up like the previous him. And she believed with the way Alex described it, the current Alex who only mastered two elements would stand a chance in defeating that beast. She looked at the current progress of Xue Ning and commented. "I think it should be fine right now. The Ice inside her has calmed down. She should be able to deal with the rest." Alex glanced at her and nodded. The sky had turned dark as well, so they might need to make a camp first. However, Alex looked at the man first and said, "I have done my part." "Y-yes." Xue Lang repeatedly nodded before he thought about something. He realized that he still had two wishes and decided on one of them. He kneeled in front of him, placing his head on the ground. "Please make me your disciple." This certainly shocked the soul beside him and the elder. "Impossible." Alex also rejected it outright without even thinking about it. ''I think that is impossible, Xue Lang. If I tell you the truth, your talent is far too low compared to your sister. There is simply no chance to have him as your master.'' The soul shook her head. "I can even give you everything I have." Xue Lang kept kneeling, ignoring the advice. He realized how much power he actually needed to protect his sister. Alex could guarantee it if he really became a disciple of such a great master. "Enough. It''s impossible. I don''t see one''s talent or anything, but it''s simply whether there is karma tying us or not." Alex shook his head. "Little guy, you don''t understand the weight to become his disciple." Lin Xingzhi sighed. "You are smart, but if you are too smart, you will think everything can be resolved with your brain. In other words, you are overthinking everything." Alex agreed with her statement and reminded him. "I have said it myself, If the wish exceeds the value of the flower, I will tell you. And this is it." "If you are thinking about getting stronger, I think he has a way¡­" Lin Xingzhi smiled. Alex tilted his head, confused by her words. Sensing his gaze, she smirked and said, "We can reform your talent, so you can cultivate even faster." "!!!" Both Xue Lang and Alex were startled by her statement. Alex certainly realized what she meant by that. It was the Revolving Heart Pill. This pill could stimulate one''s heart and enhance their talent. He had given this pill to Rose and Evelyn and stored the last one inside his Inventory. Never in his thought that he would give it away on this occasion. Nonetheless, he didn''t really have a use for that. He nodded and took out the Revolving Heart Pill. "Still¡­ I am wondering if I am too generous here¡­" "Fufu¡­ We are just going for a honeymoon here while getting Fire Grass. There is nothing wrong with that." She giggled before sending a thought transmission. ''Besides, you have made his younger sister stronger, and if you make him stronger, won''t it break the cliches? I wonder what kind of thing we will see in the future.'' ''So, that''s your real intention for not stopping me¡­'' Alex snorted but thought that the idea wasn''t that bad. He indeed wanted to see what kind of future this would lead to. He looked at the pill in his hand and said, "This is Revolving Heart Pill. It can increase your talent with a very big leap¡­ And this pill only affects your cultivation speed, not your Martial Spirit or any other things inside your body. I can trade this one with one of the wishes." ''You should say you just want to get rid of that pill¡­'' Lin Xingzhi smirked. ''If I want to get rid of it, I can think of a better way, you know.'' Alex pouted inwardly. ''I mean, I can simply make it as a reward in my Gacha System. I haven''t established my first ''source'' of income, but Korzan will surely find it soon.'' ''No, no. Think about it this way, seeing how generous you are, this little guy will surely be thankful to you. Although it''s only an investment, he can be our ally in the future¡­ Of course, we can only wait for him to grow before ripping something like this. But if he is ungrateful and wants to scam us, we can eliminate him at that time.'' ''Hmm, something like an investment, huh. Now that you mention it, if I give this pill as a part of the reward, no one will see me directly. Well, I help people not for their gratitude, but since there is a bonus for helping them, why not?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows, somehow agreeing to her view. ''Yeah. As you might already know that the number of our enemies is more than you can imagine. And if in the future, they are trying to attack us or something, there will be allies popping out of everywhere, helping us.'' At first, Alex couldn''t see it, but when he took into account how the loss of the previous Alexander Sirius affected Eulja, he was able to understand why she suggested this. If not for the fact that the Spirit God saved the whole galaxy, Eulja might have experienced a ruthless skirmish that might even destroy the whole planet. He didn''t plan to go anywhere, but preparing for the worst-case scenario seemed to be good as well. He had nothing to lose anyway. After considering a few more aspects, he agreed to her statement. "Yeah. I can give you this pill." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "This¡­" Xue Lang hesitated for a few seconds before the soul advised to take it. She warned him not to be too greedy because it would ruin his life. After taking the pill, he didn''t swallow it right away. Instead, he clasped his hands toward Alex and asked politely. "May I use my third wish right now?" "Sure." Xue Lang then turned around, pointing his finger at the soul. "I want to use this wish to fulfill her wish. I have promised to restore her body, but I realize that there is no guarantee I can do it. Hence, it''s better if I use it this way. After all, I have been indebted to her this whole time." Alex had no change of expression as if he had predicted it. ''Hehe¡­ As expected, this guy will use it on her. Just take a look at this, there are already three harem girls as his companions.'' Lin Xingzhi laughed behind them. She seemed to enjoy this scene very much. ''Pfft. Are you insulting me or something?'' Alex also chuckled but thought she also wanted to tease him, considering he met everyone except Anya in the lower world. ''Maybe.'' ''Should I break them apart? There are many lines I can use, you know. First, I can say I have fallen in love with one of them and take them to a Divine World. Second, I can say you are not worthy of her and make him leave.'' Alex decided to tease her as well. ''Hoho¡­ So, you want to be a villain.'' ''If I want to do it, I will surely pursue him and kill him with all the strength I have. Not sending some low-level minions and letting him grow his strength.'' Alex shrugged. ''I don''t care about my face after all.'' ''Haha¡­ Indeed. You were not born and raised in that type of world where the face is important, so I could see it that way. Anyway, what are you going to do with the third wish?'' ''Hmm.'' Alex fell silent and stared at the soul. "Restoring one''s body is easier said than done. First, she needs a body strong enough to contain her soul. And it must also be compatible with her Martial Spirit. In other words, it''s too much of a hassle, so I guess I will reject this wish." "What?!" Xue Lang widened his mouth while the soul only smiled as if she had expected it. "Well, that''s how it is. I don''t have the materials to do it and have no time to gather that." Alex shrugged. "So, change your wish." Xue Lang gritted his teeth and thought of another way to bend his wish. However, he soon realized that he couldn''t come up with another wish, whether related to the soul or any other wishes. "I¡­" 898 Talking about Future Plans "How about this, you can give the Fire Grass first to us, and we will give you a token. We are going to stay here for a year due to various reasons, so you can activate that token when you know what your wish is." Lin Xingzhi offered a solution while smiling. Alex hesitated for a few seconds before nodding his head. "Yeah. We will stay here for a year." Due to him becoming a God Rank Expert, he realized that everything took much more time than he thought. If he calculated everything and placed it for his body refining, he might need a few months to complete the refinement. After all, it took him less than a month to refine his body because he had a mortal body. "I understand." Xue Lang accepted it because the soul managed to persuade him. "Then, what should we do now?" Lin Xingzhi looked at Alex, but the latter only stared at Xue Lang. Realizing his intention, he took out a red burning grass. He received the grass while handing him a wooden token. "If you have decided what you want for the last wish, channel your energy into that token, I will have the induction." Xue Lang nodded and stored it carefully. "We are going to wait until this little lass finishes her cultivation first before searching for a place to cultivate." Alex nodded. "I-in that case, how about staying inside my kingdom? I can provide two seniors a good place to cultivate." The elder suddenly opened her mouth, even though she didn''t talk this whole time. Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "Nah, we are good. We will just get our own place. We certainly don''t want to get involved with any influences." "¡­" The elder looked down but still bowed politely. "I understand. That is a shame, but if two seniors have any need, you may come to me. I will do everything to satisfy two seniors'' needs." Alex and Lin Xingzhi exchanged looks and smiled. Not only this boy, but this older female also seemed to want to take advantage of them too. Unfortunately, Alex had no desire to entangle himself with another royal family. They then made a tent, so they could rest. However, Lin Xingzhi went a bit extreme this time. Instead of a normal tent, she bent down and placed her hand on the ground. "Earth¡­ Can you rise for me and turn into a small house?" Lin Xingzhi smiled as she felt a vibration underground. A few stone pillars pierced through the ground, becoming the house''s foundation. After that, a series of bricks started coming out. Alex didn''t need to do anything this time and simply watched the wander." Lin Xingzhi and waved her hand toward the three people. "See you tomorrow." Although Alex looked like he went inside the tent, his energy was enveloping the entire battlefield. Hence, he would surely know if someone decided to attack them. "Are you sure about all this?" Alex asked. "I am sure." She nodded. "Either way, we won''t give anything that will change the entire balance of this world. After the little lass wakes up, we are going to bound her with a Universe Oath, so she won''t say anything about the technique." "Seeing the expression of that little boy, I believe he has quite a background. There is a trace of killing intent in him as if telling me he has someone he wants to kill." Alex narrowed his eyes. "No. We are not going to kill anyone in this world. If he really wants to kill someone, I can recover that soul''s strength for a moment with my Nature Element, so she can do it in our stead." She smiled. "Well, we have destroyed the cliches, right? Normally, the guy will get stronger and have the older one as a wife. Then he will reunite with her sister again and get together with the soul, especially after reviving her." "Yep. This time, he can get stronger easily while his sister is with him¡­ Also, getting stronger. Looking at this situation, the older one might make a move first, trying to tie him close with her. The problem is whether the male is wise enough to use the power we have given or not. One misstep, he will become the whole world''s target." "Indeed. His talent now is top-notch. If we include his sister in the package, he will surely become the most dangerous duo. Not that I care about it." Alex agreed. "Anyway, I have gotten another benefit in coming to this world." "Hmm?!" "Do you know my next plan?" "You haven''t told me yet." "I am planning to hide my cultivation and sneak inside the planet that gave birth the Sword God in the past." "Sword God?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head, thinking it was just a stage. She soon realized that Alex was talking about that person all along. "You mean that ''Sword God?'' The one that reached the pinnacle of Sword Skill?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "I want to learn about Sword and Spear Qi. And the best way to do it is to start from the bottom to learn the foundation first. Well, I have gotten some information about it, but I just want to see it with my own eyes and learn more." "You mean it''s not enough?" "Yeah. That''s it. I need to produce more Sword and Spear Qi as soon as possible, so I can make a foundation for that. On the other hand, I am worried about the others." "Don''t worry. I have asked Korzan to take care of that. He is responsible for rescuing them before any mishap happens." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand, assuring him. "Alright then." "Anyway, your plan is quite risky, you know. That world is a Divine World with Rank 3 God as the highest. After the fall of the Sword God, they didn''t have any more Rank 1 God to replace that position. Still, it will be dangerous because people might realize your existence." "What do you think about my sealing magic?" Alex asked. "I certainly can''t recognize you. Maybe you want to dye your hand and put on makeup, so no one can recognize you. As for your voice¡­ That''s the only thing I can''t help." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "I have a few that can change one''s voice, but all of them can be easily detected by technology." "Now that you mention it, there is indeed something like that." Alex nodded. "Haiz¡­ Science indeed harms cultivation while the latter can''t be described by science as it broke the natural law." "Indeed." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "In any case, you will need to hide yourself there." "I understand. I will do my best." Alex nodded. "Well, I should probably be there for at least two years. At the very least, I will try to stay in that place until I reach Rank 8 God." "Indeed. There are many opportunities in that place. Just make sure you don''t use both sword and spear at the same time. And since you want to start from the bottom, you shouldn''t go to the weakest continent." Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Why?" "It''s simple. We can take the example of the Heavenly Continent and Willow Continent. You will have a bigger opportunity in the former because their understanding is much better than the Willow Continent. Of course, the risk is higher, but I don''t think it''s a problem for you." "Well, I don''t want to take a risk, but I will see whether I can conceal myself or not." Alex nodded. "Sure." She nodded. "And make sure you control your strength." "I know. Although the Space Element can seal my cultivation, soul, or even intent, it can''t seal my current strength or Divine Body. I will only use it if needed." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "I wonder how low I can seal my cultivation for this? Martial King?" "I think Martial Monarch is a good stage. A peak one of course. You can fake it in the future, saying you just broke through to Martial Saint, thus letting out such power. And there is a big difference if your Sword and Spear Qi is too strong. Have you started producing them?" "Yes." "Can you show me?" Alex nodded and raised both hands, releasing an immeasurable pressure. Lin Xingzhi facepalmed, sighing. "This is bad. The Qi is too strong. Due to the Divine Energy, it has grown close to Divine Sword and Spear Qi. It will probably go well with that setting, but if a powerful person shows up, he might realize a trace of Divine Energy in your qi." "I won''t use it unless for killing." "That''s fine then. This planet will surely not let us off and inform other planets about your existence if they find your real identity." "What is my relationship with the former Sword God?" Alex asked. "Neutral." Alex sighed. With that kind of relationship, it would indeed go in that direction if they knew his identity. "Anyway, we should wrap this talk soon because everything will rely on how well you conceal yourself." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Yeah. I still have a year for that anyway." Alex nodded. "I think I will close it with this question¡­ Should I join an influence?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes and hesitated. This was a hard question. On one hand, Alex might be discovered if he joined an influence there. On the other hand, he would have low progress if he didn''t join one. "I think they won''t care much about low-level disciples. As long as you don''t make a ruckus, I think it''s fine to join one with a new identity. Or you can search for a shield." "A shield?" Alex thought for a moment and realized what she meant by that. "I see. You want me to save a damsel in distress and use her and her family to be my cover?" "Yes." "¡­" Alex facepalmed. "In stories, they usually appear out of nowhere. They don''t need to search for one, and it will come to them almost every time. And now, I need to search for one¡­ Haiz, I don''t know if I should be grateful or feel humiliated." "Haha¡­" Lin Xingzhi only laughed. "That''s a good one, eh¡­ Searching for a scene to be a hero. Well, I think you can use her to get more information¡­" "Yeah. I will probably do that. Alright, even if I don''t want it, I need to do it." Alex nodded. "Sure." Lin Xingzhi smiled. They then rested for a few hours before feeling a breakthrough happened near them. It obviously came from Xue Ning, who finally finished cultivating the new technique. She rose from the ground and checked her body, realizing how powerful she had become. "This¡­" Her brother and the elder arrived in front of her and were shocked by her current stage. "You¡­ Have you reached Martial Grandmaster? The same as me?" The elder exclaimed in surprise. "I think the last bit of energy from before allows me to have a breakthrough. But I don''t think I will have another one like this in the future. It''s a one-time thing." She shook her head. "Besides, Elder is a high ranking Martial Grandmaster." The elder fell silent, not denying that claim. The need to cultivate rose in her heart while looking at Xue Lang, who seemed to have also broken through. Unlike his sister, he didn''t have such a flashy breakthrough, but advancing a star could be considered insane enough. In other words, this pair of brother and sister were both monsters. She needed to tie a close knot with them. However, Alex and Lin Xingzhi appeared before she could do anything, checking on Xue Ning''s cultivation. "Hmm¡­ I think it has become stable." Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see the energy within her body. "Thanks to seniors for allowing me to have this opportunity." Xue Ning clasped her hands politely and bowed. "Nah. I am just fulfilling my side of agreements." Alex waved his hand. "And since I have finished, I shall leave first." "Remember, it''s only for one year." Lin Xingzhi reminded Xue Lang again before she and Alex flew away. 899 Body Refinemen They soon decided to continue their journey with their own complicated feelings. Meanwhile, Alex and Lin Xingzhi wandered around and arrived at a random forest and landed there to think about where they should cultivate. "You are going to use the Fire Grass first, right?" "Yeah. After that, we can go around the world and just enjoy our time." Alex nodded. "It''s good then." She nodded while clapping her hand. It transmitted a certain signal in the form of a shock wave. Alex couldn''t comprehend it other than the little amount of energy he saw with his Spirit Eyes. Lin Xingzhi soon smiled and pointed her hand in the opposite direction. "There seems to be a huge cave in that direction." "What did you just do earlier?" Alex nodded while asking. "Nature is alive, you know. It takes me a thousand years to learn the gesture and a kind of language, but I can comprehend what they are saying. When I asked them about some places to live, they kindly replied to me with that direction," Lin Xingzhi explained. "So, the first energy wave is the technique to ask your question?" "Yeah. I used the shock wave to ask anything. The grasses here, the trees, the earth, the wind and many more things. What you think is a natural disaster usually has their own consciousness." She smiled. "I see. Respect nature¡­ I guess this saying is certainly true." Alex nodded in understanding. "Well, that saying is intended elsewhere, but I guess you can use it in this context as well." She nodded. Alex only smiled and followed the direction she pointed at earlier. "Let''s go." "Sure." "By the way, what part are you going to refine now?" "It''s bones. This will improve my strength greatly like the previous refinement, the tendons. If I complete these two and use Spirit Step and Dragon Aura, I think I can match Rank 8 God''s in raw strength alone. As for whether I can defeat a Rank 8 God or not¡­ I am not really sure. "After seeing the gap between the Rank 10 God with Rank 9 God in the Devil World, I am confident that I can beat a Rank 8 God with the way I am now. However, I will be heavily injured in the process. "Of course, if I am fighting a fire user, they will just kneel in front of me due to the Fire Authority. As for the others, I will need to fight hard. I just hope that this body refining will elevate my strength to a new height." Lin Xingzhi looked at him and nodded in agreement. "By refining my flesh, my internal injuries recovery will be boosted. This will surely help me in many ways. As for the skin, it is for outer injuries. Wait a minute, don''t you know this already?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I have read it once, but never think more than that. Other than becoming the manager of your system, I also need to take care of a few problems, so I can''t just sit in front of the system and observe you." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. "I see. Else, you will become a NEET." Alex teased her. "Pfft¡­ I don''t mind becoming one, though. I can do whatever I want during that time." She smiled. "I guess I can push all the works to you since you have returned." "Wait. What?!" Alex widened his eyes. "No, no. I certainly don''t want that. I have my hands full with my cultivation alone." "Fufu¡­" She chuckled. "Well, I am already a God King, so I can spare a bit more time for other stuff like this. Anyway, we have arrived." She stopped and looked at the cave entrance. Alex immediately scanned the entire cave with his Spirit Eyes, finding no energy inside it. "The cave is about fifty meters deep inside, and there should be nothing in our surroundings." The two nodded at each other and entered the cave as Alex covered the cave with Illusion Array, and Lin Xingzhi patched the entrance with dirt. Alex snapped his finger as his Pure Fire appeared and flew toward the end of the cave, brightening the entire cave. "By the way, we need an air if you want to cultivate, you know." Lin Xingzhi reminded him again. Although Cultivators didn''t really need air for a period of time, they still needed an abundant amount if they were cultivating. They simply couldn''t be bothered by that during the cultivation, so they might need a hole to circulate the air. However, Alex had another solution. He made two Spatial Gates, one on the inside and one on the outside, circulating the air back and forth. At the same time, another concealing array had been placed to hide this Spatial Gate, allowing Alex to not get disturbed during this process. Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi started shaping the stones using her power to make a livable home for a while. Alex then went toward the deepest part of the cave, took out the fire grass, and sat on a lotus position. "Haiz¡­ More pain." Alex let out a long sigh. "It has been a while since I last refined my body, but it seemed I would be reminded about the pain again." As much as he wanted to skip this, he couldn''t only do it. He swallowed the grass and started circulating the energy. The grass melted in his mouth, and the Fire Energy burst out to the point it came out of his body, covering it with fire. This fire began burning his body for an hour or two. This process would never take this long, but since he had become a God Rank Expert, it was bound to happen. He waited for a few hours before it had grown accustomed to the hardness of his body. At that time, the fire flared up before disappearing as if it was never there before. However, Alex could feel it¡­ The feeling of the fire crawled into your skin, then into your flesh, before entering his bones. The pain began to spread all over his body as it started its refining process. As much as Alex had prepared for this, he never expected that refining his Divine Body would lead him to more pain than he had ever imagined. "AAAAHHHH!" Alex screamed out of pain. Lin Xingzhi even stopped for a moment and stared at the darkness. She knew about the Undying Fire Body a bit from Alex and his former friend. However, she never expected that Alex would scream like that despite having gotten used to it. This proved that there might be something that he first experienced for the first time during this refining. And it turned out she was right. What Alex experienced was new to him. Unlike the previous refining, the refining this time took a few processes. First, the fire would burn his skeletons into ashes, making him a human without bones. He even wobbled around a bit for a few seconds before it created another set of bones. Unfortunately, this set of bones was only a mortal bone. He needed to direct his Divine Energy to stimulate the fire energy coming from the grass to strengthen it, allowing him to transform the bone into one that suited the Divine Body. After all those processes, he still needed to fight the fire energy overbearing ability. He could stop the pain by using his Pure Fire, but it would surely end up winning. Because he needed to endure all this process at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel the pain several times more than he first expected. Still, it took a lot to defeat the man called Alex. Alex soon regained his breathing and grew accustomed to the pain. His pain tolerance increased exponentially during this process. As much as Lin Xingzhi wanted to call him a masochist, she needed to let him complete his body refining first. She simply watched him during this whole time while using the energy around her to erect a barrier, so no one would enter this place. It took Alex a whole month before he stopped screaming, but Lin Xingzhi felt nothing about it. She believed that Alex would beat that pain as soon as possible. And she was right. When Alex stopped screaming, he never screamed again even a single time. He might let out a groan every now and then, but it was not as extreme as the past ones. "His situation has become stable." She nodded after sensing the energy covering his body. "His friends took him a hundred years in the past¡­ Although it had passed my original calculation, Alex should be able to refine his body to the maximum within only three decades¡­ Well, he almost passed the two decades mark soon, so there was no point in saying he needs two decades." Alex kept cultivating and felt the embrace of the energy inside his body. Finally, Alex opened his eyes after a long seven months. "Ho?!" Lin Xingzhi sensed it and immediately headed over to his direction with a smile. "You have finally woken up." "Yeah. The strength I got earlier was insane. I might need to consolidate my situation first, but I am confident in beating a Rank 8 God." "That''s good." She smiled and nodded. "For now, consolidate your own strength first. I will be guarding you for another few weeks." "After I finish this, let''s go around the world, shall we?" Alex apologized as well because it took him twice the time he predicted earlier. "You don''t need to worry. Watching you is enough for me¡­ Hehe, it''s not like there is any difference between watching you from the screen and here." She grinned. Alex nodded, feeling grateful for her understanding. He then closed his eyes again. It took him another week to consolidate his strength, but before he opened his eyes, Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows when she saw the token that they gave a few months ago lit up. ''This¡­ I think I will go this time.'' Lin Xingzhi decided and left a note for him before going toward the direction of the token. It took her only a few minutes to reach Xue Lang, but what she saw next completely shocked her. Never in her imagination, she would think that there was a huge disturbance where Xue Lang activated the token. She saw many people dying, including someone who wanted to take Xue Lang''s life. It was at this time, she decided to step in. 900 Turning Around the Situation In the middle of an arena that seemed to host a Martial Competition, Xue Lang stood in front of everyone, looking at his opponent, who had been crippled by him. "You¡ª" The opponent glared at him and shouted. "You are going to die! Do you know who I am?" Xue Lang snorted and kept staring at his opponent with cold eyes. "You tried to use an aphrodisiac on my sister and tried to kill me? Do you think I don''t dare to kill you?" "No, you won''t!" The voice was coming from the special seat in the arena. It was an elderly that seemed to be an important figure in this place. "Do you think I will let you?!" A middle-aged man appeared and stopped him. "Father!" The elder that brought Xue Lang to this place shouted, looking at the middle-aged man. "Don''t worry. He is the subject of my kingdom, so I won''t let any harm fall upon him." The middle-aged man nodded with a smile. "It seems the royal family has grown this big to the point it wants to change the way of my sect." The elder snorted. "Hoh! I am just standing up for my subject. After failing to control both brother and sister, you are going to eliminate them just like that? I don''t think so." He smirked. "To think there is a corrupt elder in my sect¡­" Another old man suddenly appeared with a long sigh. "I have been doing my duty as a sect master for almost a hundred years. And to think I have never suspected my best friend has fallen this low¡­ Grand Elder, just surrender. I won''t kill you." "Haha?! Do you think you are great because you are protecting them? They are soon going to leave this sect because you can''t contain that strength. At that time, do you think our enemies will forgive us for what that Bastard Xue Lang did? He has killed many enemies in the past. Unless he destroys all of them, this sect will be destroyed in the future." He shouted. "Rather than waiting for that, I will use his life to settle everything." "You are insane!" "What? You are saying I am insane? No, it''s you! Do you think he will return when he steps to our neighboring continent? No, he will die. How many do you think have gone to another continent and have come back? I can even count them in one hand. And all of them are crippled." The elder shouted in anger. "You¡ª" "What?! You can''t talk back because it''s true. I will remove this devil from this sect and offer his sister to them." He laughed out loud. "You won''t succeed. And do you think they will forgive our sect? Besides, my sect is not a coward, so I will fight until the end. The one who will get the last laugh will be me." The sect master snorted, never bothering to sugarcoat his words. "Hmph! You don''t realize how big the threat is." He rolled his eyes away. "What did¡ª" Before the sect master could finish his words, he found his heart stabbed by an ice sword. "This¡­" The woman didn''t care about him, pulled back her sword, and chopped his head. The elder and the one stopping the elder petrified. "Ah! Sect Master!" Xue Lang roared as his sister appeared beside him. They both looked at the woman who was so strong and immediately recognized her identity. "I have given you the chance to join my Snow and Ice Palace, but you didn''t treasure it. Instead, you embarrass my influence and the elders." She released her killing intent, surrounding Xue Lang with this. Xue Lang, who was just a mere Martial Grandmaster, obviously couldn''t move his body. His sister somehow resisted this, but it didn''t mean she could run or whatsoever. Because of this, the soul that hid inside him materialized, knowing the situation had become dangerous. "So, you are the one¡­ To think there is a Martial Saint hiding behind you¡­ But seeing your current condition, you won''t even be able to use even Martial Monarch Strength, let alone your former strength." The lady snorted while looking at the soul. She then glanced at the one who stopped the elder and pointed her finger toward him. At this time, a few more people appeared and bowed politely. "Demon Finger Sect greets your excellency." "Radiant Sword Sect greets your excellency." "Red Rose Sect greets your excellency." "We shall assist your excellency in eliminating this sect." Soon numerous people appeared in their perimeter, surrounding the sect. "This¡­" The middle-aged man gasped as he observed his surroundings. "Hmph! Why did I do something like this? It''s obviously because he had offended someone he shouldn''t offend." The elder snorted with confidence that his choice was never wrong. The female seemed to not care about his opinion and released another ice attack with the intention of killing him. However, the soul interfered and blocked the attack. "Tch¡­" She immediately felt her hand numb with just taking that attack as she glanced at Xue Lang. "Bring your sister away. I will hold her back." "No!" Xue Lang gritted his teeth and took out a token. He channeled his energy into the token and saw it light up for a moment. However, it didn''t do anything until it died down, disappointing everyone. "Wait. No!" Xue Lang didn''t understand why the light disappeared as his hope vanished in his heart. He thought he could use his wish to kill everyone here, but it turned out the token was fake. After getting their objective, the couple must have left far away. They never promised them they would come back, so it was normal for something like this. Unfortunately, it became his nightmare at this very moment. "Hmph!" The female snorted and killed the middle-aged man with her overpowering strength. It was not a fight anymore because the man couldn''t even block that attack and died. "Father!" After killing the middle-aged man, she looked at Xue Ning. "To think you have gotten something that can control that physique, and it even allows you to cultivate it without the tranquil heart. I will extract that information from you and turn you into my palace''s puppet. This is the price for not being obedient and following the elders from my palace." "You! I''d rather die than giving up on this!" Xue Ning gritted her teeth, took out a dagger from her Space Ring, and tried to kill herself. However, the female didn''t let her do that and arrived in front of Xue Lang. "Then I will torture him first before killing him. I will make sure he experiences something to the point he will regret being born. And everything is because of you. When you two meet in hell, he will hate you because you choose something like this." As soon as she heard that, Xue Ning halted her movement. Xue Lang clenched his teeth and slashed forward. At the same time, the soul also returned a bit late because her strength was nothing compared to the female. "No, you won''t!" They struck at the same time from two different directions, but the female only waved her ice sword, blowing the soul and Xue Lang''s weapon away. "It seems you want to die first¡­" The female raised her sword. "No!" The soul jumped, trying to protect Xue Lang from the slash. His sister, on the other hand, tried to take her own life because of this. However, their movement suddenly stopped under pressure that appeared out of nowhere. Even the female had her movement stopped. Suddenly, a woman with brown hair appeared out of nowhere. "Hmm¡­ This is a surprise. To think a Peak Martial Monarch will come to this place¡­ I wonder how strong this Snow and Ice Palace is¡­" Lin Xingzhi''s eyes curved upward, telling the others she was smiling. "Who are¡ª" The female asked, but Lin Xingzhi blew her away without even doing anything. "I don''t want to hear your answer." She shrugged and looked at Xue Lang. "So, what is your third wish?" Lin Xingzhi''s voice was firm, making Xue Lang unable to say anything other than the wish. "I-I want to kill her and everyone who is aiming at my sect, including the Snow and Ice Palace!" "Hmm¡­ That is impossible!" Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I don''t do any killing for the wish. Even if my husband comes here, he will reject it too," she said nonchalantly. "Though, I will grant you the wish in another form. It is¡­" She glanced at the soul and placed her finger on her forehead. Soon, the Spiritual Energy around the area gathered and went inside her body. It had never happened to her before. In cultivation, they always heard how they needed to absorb the Spiritual Energy. However, Lin Xingzhi turned it around and made the Spiritual Energy rushing to enter her body. Nonetheless, she felt powerful energy coming into her soul, allowing her to restore the strength of her previous self for a few minutes. "You should be able to fight in that form for ten minutes. I think I don''t need to explain it, right?" Lin Xingzhi smirked. "This Junior thanks her excellency." She clasped her hand before taking out her sword. It was a golden sword with red markings everywhere. "Listen to me, my disciple. I will show you what it means to become a Sword Saint." She glared at the peak Martial Monarch and released all of her strength, including her sword intent. "This is¡­" The female was in shock. "This is the strength of Martial Saint! Not good!" A thick ice wall rose from the ground, blocking the soul to strike her. Unfortunately, she didn''t have the need to go around this wall anymore. "Death Sword, Blood Wave." The sword glowed in reddish color as the soul slashed horizontally, releasing a blood-red sword wave. It struck the ice wall and cut it down within a second before striking the one who summoned the ice wall. "What?!" The female was in shock before she realized what kind of power was hitting her right now. "This is¡­ This far surpasses that old man who had 4-Star Martial Saint strength at that time!" "You didn''t say anything much and let others say anything, so you should also die in the same way." She snorted and closed her eyes, fully knowing the strength of her Sword Wave. And just like that, the Sword Wave cut the female into two and exploded. "Judging from her strength, she must be the palace master of Snow and Ice Palace. With the loss of their master, they will soon have civil strife for the next master¡­" She nodded before looking at the three influences that wanted to kill them earlier. Her killing intent had locked on them as the three leaders turned pale. 901 Children The sect turned into a river of blood. However, it wasn''t the blood of the disciples of the sect that were supposed to die after getting surrounded by many. Instead, the blood originated from those people who came to this place. They died under the onslaught of a 6-Star Martial Saint. Most of them were Martial Masters and Martial Grandmasters, so they had no strength to escape from the pressure alone, allowing the disciples from the sect to assist her from a distance. Xue Lang and Xue Ning also participated in this, taking revenge on those who had died without reason. Even the elder whose father got killed became a brutal killer, taking their life as compensation. After a period of time, the Martial Saint finally lost most of her strength and took a rest. Lin Xingzhi glanced at the brother and sister first as if telling them that they owed nothing to each other before leaving. Xue Lang felt regret while Xue Ning wished to have a powerful strength like Lin Xingzhi. Whether they would become an expert or not, it would depend on themselves. After all, she and Alex had broken Xue Lang''s cliches by giving him and his sister a kind of plot armor. Lin Xingzhi then returned to Alex''s side, finding Alex remained still. She patiently waited for another two weeks before Alex finally opened his eyes. "It seems you have done." Alex smiled as if he knew that Lin Xingzhi left a few days ago to settle the promise. "You too." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "In any case, we don''t have anything more to do, so we can spend the rest of the time enjoying ourselves." "Yeah." Alex then raised his hand and activated his Spirit Eyes, checking his body. "Hmm¡­ My cultivation increases slightly, but it can''t be compared to the boost in my strength." "That''s good." She smiled, feeling happy for him. "I wonder if I am born in this place, will I become stronger than I am right now?" Alex muttered. "I don''t think so. First of all, we will need to see your Martial Spirit. If it is either a sword or a spear, you won''t be able to use both because no matter how you try it, you will be focused on your Martial Spirit. And this world doesn''t give you an element, so you won''t have Pure Fire from the start." She shrugged. "Fair enough. I will just rely on an outside power then." Alex nodded. "For example, Sword and Spear Qi." "There is something I need to warn you first. If you are going to that world, make sure you use only your Sword. As for your element, make sure to seal that Space Element of yours. I think you shouldn''t use your Fire Authority as well." "I know." Alex nodded with a serious expression. He planned to safely reach Rank 8 God during this training process and take the custom-made weapons from Blackwade Clan after finishing his business there. "Ehm¡­ You need to calculate the shock wave produced by this fist alone, you know. It will surely obliterate the cave and the environment behind you." "I can contain half of the shock wave. And if I position myself to the inside, the shock wave will only travel through the hard rock behind me. It won''t give much effect to our surroundings other than that," said Lin Xingzhi while walking toward the wall behind Alex. He thought for a moment and nodded. "I am only going to punch you with my raw strength, alright? I don''t have any plan in using any kind of energy or Martial Arts." "Sure." She waved her hand, asking him to hurry up. Alex then took a step backward, pulled his fist, and took a deep breath. "Here I go!" Lin Xingzhi raised the Spiritual Energy around them to create a barrier that contained the shock wave. When Alex''s hit her palm, a thunderclap echoed, and a shock wave appeared and hit the wall behind her, crushing it. Huge cracks appeared here and there, creating a crater on the wall. "I have indeed felt your strength. It''s really at Rank 8 God level. As you already know, everything in God Rank is not linear anymore. It won''t be as simple as you have a dragon strength in 1-Star Martial Lord and have two dragon strength in 2-Star Martial Lord. "The strength in the God Rank Expert can be like this. You have ten thousand dragon strength in Rank 10 God, but you might have fifty thousand dragon strength when you reach Rank 9 God. I have felt it just now and realize that your strength is equal to a normal Rank 8 God. I hope it will stay ahead like that because the Undying Fire Body will continue to evolve along with your body." Lin Xingzhi explained and nodded. Alex took a deep breath while using his Spiritual Energy to make sure the cave didn''t collapse. "I understand. Thank you for testing my strength. I have more confidence right now." "Sure. Since we have finished all our matters here, shall we go?" She asked with a smile. "I would love to." Alex stretched his hand, palm faced upward, asking Lin Xingzhi like a knight escorting his princess. Lin Xingzhi took his hand before hugging his hand as they left the cave. And just like that, Alex and Lin Xingzhi started their tour around the world, enjoying everything fun in this world. He took her to the sea and turned it into an aquarium as they walked around in the seabed. Of course, they chose shallow water, so the sun could still pierce the water. The monsters didn''t dare to do anything against them because Alex had been releasing his killing intent while they were taking a walk there. In fact, most of them became docile while only a few decided to escape. Nonetheless, Alex had no intention to harm the environment, so he didn''t kill any of the creatures inside the sea. After that, they picked up a fast monster and climbed a mountain as if they were riding a horse. Of course, they gave them some herbs as payment for their service even though they were monsters. Alex was the one guiding her this whole time because he didn''t want to repeat the same mistake as he did during his honeymoon with Sherry, Firia, Anna, and Anya. Everything went wrong at that time, so he decided to incorporate that experience for this. The result was pretty satisfying, considering how Lin Xingzhi couldn''t stop smiling during the process. Alex himself also felt happy to see that expression and enjoyed it himself. Under the shining moon, Alex and Lin Xingzhi decided to lay down on the grass, feeling the cool breeze while watching the stars. "Say¡­ What do you think about children?" Lin Xingzhi suddenly asked. "Eh?!" Alex widened his eyes and looked at her face. "I have answered this, right? I will think about it after erasing the future threat." "No. I don''t mean that one. I just want to listen to your view about children in general. After all, there are already six of us beside you¡­" "Ah, I see. You are worried if we have too many children, I can''t really pay attention to all of them?" "Yeah. It''s a bit sad at that time. And there will be a chance that the family will fall apart due to a conflict between children. That is something I don''t wish to see." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Back then, I didn''t think of this because everything happened so fast. Before I knew it, I had lost you." Alex paused for a moment and let out a long sigh. "Children, huh. I don''t have any thoughts in particular. It''s true that I don''t plan to have many children since there will be so many even if I only have one from each of you. "Strength is necessary, but I don''t want to force it upon them. If they don''t want to cultivate, I won''t say anything about it as long as they don''t regret their decision. "And I have no plan to rule Eulja as a monarch. Instead, that position will be empty permanently so that Korzan can do his job as an administrator. This way, the children won''t have any thought for the throne." Alex answered to the best of his abilities. "Not the cleanest answer, but it''s not that bad, considering you answered my question in a fly." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Maybe we can distance ourselves from Eulja for once and live in a situation where the children understand that they need to work with each other to get happiness." "Sure. We can do that. Nonetheless, it will only happen in a long time, so let''s take our time to plan." Alex nodded. "Yep. By the way, what if there is a guy trying to take your daughter away?" "I will let him as long as he loves her genuinely." Alex nodded. "Then, what if your daughter decides to have a harem for herself?" "¡­" Alex fell silent as he couldn''t believe what she just asked. "I mean, you have multiple wives. Although I am not a woman who can love multiple men, there is bound to be someone like that. And if you make a policy about monogamy, they will see you as a hypocrite father." "Hmm¡­" Alex scratched his head, thinking about it seriously. "I will try to understand her. As long as she doesn''t fall completely to the path of lust, I won''t say much. She and her husbands will need to be responsible too. Well, I will impose all my rules on her, so she doesn''t just do it just because of a wimp." "Ah, you are going to teach her your principles and such?" "Yes, basically." "Well, I was just asking, but since you have thoughts like that, I don''t need to worry, I guess. Whatever happens in the future, let''s face them as a family, okay?" "That''s a given." Alex smiled and kissed her. After the long talk, they continued their honeymoon to all parts of the world. They often returned to check Xue Lang and Xue Ning, curious about what they were doing and their current fate. Xue Lang decided to lead his sect during that time and took over the continent. Meanwhile, Xue Ning raised her strength to match Snow and Ice Palace''s power as fast as possible. It seemed their current target was to destroy that influence. And due to the civil strife taking place in that influence, Xue Lang and Xue Ning were able to have a peaceful time for a while. Alex and Lin Xingzhi then left the world after staying there for a whole year. Outside, Zark had been waiting for them, surprising both of them. "Zark?!" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "I don''t know how, but the Palm God has sniffed out a bit of our plan. It seems Master shouldn''t return to Eulja for a while because he is laying low just to catch you. I have brought the mask a dye for your hair. "The contact lenses to hide your eyes color are here too. Last but not least, I have brought you the compass to that world, so you can go there immediately. As for Lady Lin Xingzhi, I will bring you inside after going around to camouflage where we are coming from." "I see. The situation is not really good, huh." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Yeah. We should lay low first because I can''t see his daughter for a while, so it''s a bit suspicious. For now, Korzan is waiting for your return. We have also dispatched a few experts to help Lady Sherry, Lady Alicia, and Lady Firia for an emergency, so they won''t be approached by the Palm God to investigate Master''s location." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes for a moment and nodded. "I understand. Thank you for your reports. Let''s go then." "I understand." "Before that, can I know some basic information about my destination?" Alex asked. "Ah, right. This is the basic information." Zark handed a paper to Alex. 902 Not My Lucky Day-Wait! Smiling, he waved back until they disappeared before reading the paper. Name: Roksah World Capacity: Rank 3 God Continents: 5 (Current target is Aelus Continent) Time: 60 hours a day (One day in Eulja is thirty hours, so twice this world. One year in Eulja is 360 days, a bit more than that of Earth, considering the time for each day.) Gravity: Five times of Eulja Influences in Aelus Continent: 3 (Current target is Unsurpassed Blade Sect.) Other than the basic information, he also found a few maps, including the shape of the continents. His target, Aelus Continent, had a shape that looked like a ''K.'' "Hmm. Now that I see this information, I haven''t really understood everything about Eulja. Anyway, it''s not that far from Earth, so I don''t really need to say much about it. However, my current destination is two times longer than Eulja. If I am just a normal person, I will surely need to adapt to the current situation. "And I haven''t thought much about gravity because of my powerful body, but I have realized it''s similar to Earth, so I don''t really care. This planet, which has powerful gravity, will surely be a bit hard to move¡­ For a normal person of course. But I guess they will be stronger than your average person. "Anyway, this information doesn''t really affect me as long as I know the timing to go back." Alex nodded his head and looked at all the items Zark handed to him earlier. The first was a kind of burned skin that seemed to be a part of his camouflage. He could use the mask that covered only the top of his face to cover this burn wound. When people asked for it, he could just say he got a wound like that, so they wouldn''t suspect him anymore. He put that on, and to his surprise, it fused with his skin. He felt he only needed to pour his energy to take off that mask, so he didn''t need to worry about it sticking to his face forever. He then proceeded with the dye, smearing everything on to his hair. It was like water, so there was no trouble putting it alone, especially since the Spiritual Energy directed everything. As for the contact lenses, he didn''t have much experience with this but tried to put it on his eyes. After all that process, Alex''s appearance changed completely. His hair had turned red, matching his fire color. The golden eyes were no more. Instead, his blood-red eyes made his appearance look horrible, especially with the burned part. It would surely scare someone and incite their sympathy. Alex used his Teleportation Array and headed toward the world. It took him a few days to reach that world. He then searched for a huge ''K'' on the planet and used his Teleportation Array to sneak inside without much care. "Ugh!" Alex fell on top of a tree as he immediately used his Spirit Eyes to check his surroundings. "There is nothing around here." He let out a sigh of relief before fixing his position and landing on the ground. "First of all, my target is Unsurpassed Blade Sect that will open recruitment soon. I will go there to learn about Sword Qi and Spear Qi. But considering the sect of that level, I will need someone''s recommendation, unless I want to use my power for the test¡­ "No, I might need to have a test as well, even if I have a backing. The real advantage a backing gives me will be the assurance of my identity. In other words, I need to save a damsel in distress¡­ Haiz, to think I will do this again after completely ignoring this in the Moose World. "Never mind, I will get a backing first and learn some basic Sword Qi and Spear Qi. But won''t it be too suspicious? There might be a chance they will suspect me coming from another world when that time comes, I surely won''t have a great time. "In that case, should I kill someone to get the information? It surely won''t be that hard to procure something like that, right? Or is there any general store where I can trade a technique like that? Nah, this world is similar to Moose World, a cultivation world. The influences must be restricting the flow of those techniques. "What should I do?" Alex contemplated for a few minutes before an idea finally appeared in his mind. "I can watch other people using it first and recreate it with my Sword Mastery. After I have understood a bit, I can settle everything. "Or I can hide the fact that I can''t use my Sword Qi and search around their Martial Arts to understand about Sword Qi. "Either way, I will need to practice this Sword Qi without asking any advice from everyone." After another few minutes, Alex ultimately chose the second way. "Alright. The second one will be much faster. I will pretend and sneak inside to the place where they have their Sword Techniques. "If possible, I can rescue someone important that has the intention of joining Unsurpassed Blade Sect, so I can hide my identity¡­ I can only pray for this, I guess." Alex sealed his cultivation to 10-Star Martial Monarch. "Still, I have heard that Sword Qi is a kind of my Sword Intent cultivating¡­ I am still curious since my Qi haven''t really done anything. They haven''t made a connection with my intent, so I don''t know much about it." Alex sighed. He prepared everything once more and took another glimpse of his surroundings. He was surrounded by tall trees in all directions. The light didn''t really come to the ground as the leaves covered it, but Alex could still see his surroundings perfectly. Suddenly, he noticed a presence coming from underground. Taking a look at the ground beneath him, he found a huge energy moving, targeting him. He could see its movement and immediately raised his weapon. This huge monster was a 2-Star Martial Saint, so it needed his full intention. He simply wanted to kill this worm-like creature in a single strike and be done with it. However, a few more presences suddenly came into his sight as though they were following this monster. "From what I see, there are three people coming here. Two of them are 1-Star Martial Saints, while the last one is an 8-Star Martial Monarch. Hmm, I will hide first then." Alex sighed and stepped outside a little bit. He then found three humans appearing in his line of sight as they halted their movement. The first person was a female with long white hair. To his surprise, the girl seemed to be blind as she didn''t even open her eyes. She wore a black suit with a long black robe, covering a part of her sexy body. She was the one that had 8-Star Martial Monarch strength. As for the other two, they were both males. The first one had long red hair, wearing clothes similar to the one the female wore. As for the other one, he looked fierce, especially with many scars on his face. His body looked robust as well. "The worm is hiding underneath us," said the female while taking out a bag and pouring the powder inside it. "I understand. Goryuu, go to that side. Make sure you don''t touch the ground as it will sense you." The first male asked. The second male nodded. "Sure. We can''t lose this opportunity because if we kill this worm, we will have enough qualification to take the test of Unsurpassed Blade Sect." "!!!" The one who got surprised was Alex. He never thought he would hear that name coming out of their mouths. Either way, he smiled, knowing that this was his chance. He hoped that the team would have trouble facing the worm, so he could help them and get their gratitude. However, he decided to increase his cultivation to 1-Star Martial Saint to match their cultivation. After all, it wouldn''t make sense if he could cut such a monster with only 10-Star Martial Monarch. It would just attract attention to him, and that was something he didn''t want right now. The group then proceeded according to their plan with the lady and the first male standing on the ground and the other one floating in the air, ready for a sneak attack. As if it was disturbed by the powder, the worm finally made its appearance. It didn''t have eyes and feet, making it look like an earthworm. In addition, the bridges between each joint were visible to the point Alex needed to classify it at once. When the worm came to the surface, it immediately sensed the girl and the first male as it looked toward them, opening its mouth that contained thousands of teeth. It charged at them, trying to swallow them. The first male gritted his teeth and leaped forward, striking the worm''s hard head to stop it. "Young Lady!" "I understand." The female nodded and seized the handle of the sword hanging on her waist. She walked to the side of the worm and leaped forward, waving her sword in a zigzag turn. "Void Blade, Z Slash." A line with abrupt alternate up and down turns appeared in the worm body as blood began to flow out of that wound. ''Ho?!'' Alex widened his eyes as he never thought that an 8-Star Martial Monarch could be this strong. However, he also noticed a different type of energy behind her Sword Intent as if it was the one powering her attack. In fact, he could see a layer of translucent blue light that was surrounding her sword. This was certainly not her Sword Intent or Martial Art, so Alex immediately recognized it. ''So, that is the Sword Qi.'' With great interest, he watched the female keep moving at high speed to injure the worm. The speed was beyond his imagination because Alex was never that fast when he was a Martial Monarch. The attack was precise, but he felt something wrong with that movement, albeit he couldn''t discern it as of yet. After several minutes, the female started to pant. ''It seems the high-speed movement is taking a huge portion of stamina¡­'' Alex also checked that her energy went down to only thirty percent of her original energy. Meanwhile, the man that kept tanking the worm didn''t stop during this whole process. His condition was not much better than the female. However, the worm''s fate had been sealed long ago. The first male immediately used a huge portion of his energy and struck the worm from the bottom, lifting that huge head to the air. He then struck the body to prevent it from falling down and escaping underground. The second male who had been waiting this whole time finally got his turn. He landed on the ground and went around, passing the lady as if it was to ensure her safety since he couldn''t do it if he went from another direction. He then leaped to the front, heading toward the worm and the first male with full strength as if he was going to end this in a single blow. "Good. Finish it Goryuu!" "Yes, Young Lady." Goryuu leaped and took out his sword, preparing to use the technique that he had been saving for. ''Haiz¡­ Today is not my lucky day¡­ The worm will surely die.'' Alex sighed inwardly. But to everyone''s surprise, the second male indeed slashed forward, cutting the worm. But he did it in the most spectacular way. He intentionally went from behind the first male and waved his sword, splitting the first male into two before killing the worm. "!!!" 903 A Strong Girl His upper body flew to the air as his eyes couldn''t comprehend what just happened before dying. ''Now, this is something interesting.'' Alex narrowed his eyes. He couldn''t help but remember the betrayal that he got on Earth. He was lucky to keep his life and finally got his revenge, but that man indeed had died, unable to take his revenge. "Goryuu!" The young lady screamed in disbelief. "Why did you kill him?! No, that can wait¡­" "Hehe¡­ Not only are you beautiful, but you are also smart. But do you think you can win against me, especially in that state?" Goryuu grinned. "Thanks to the second young master to think of this master plan! He ordered me to kill you, but he didn''t say I can''t have fun first, right?" The young lady took a deep breath as she conjured her Sword Qi. Goryuu also raised his stance, knowing that he would certainly need to fight for a few minutes before subduing this little lady. After all, her attack power alone was something hard to handle, even for a 1-Star Martial Saint like himself. To his surprise, the young lady suddenly turned around and ran away. "Wha¡ª" Goryuu immediately chased her while trying to calm himself down. Seeing this situation, the young lady smirked before leaping to the sky and landing on a tree. She stepped as hard as possible to the point it crushed the tree and launched her back toward Goryuu. Goryuu obviously didn''t foresee this matter and gritted his teeth. "Void Blade. Thunder Strike." She moved like lightning toward Goryuu as a thunderclap echoed. Before he realized it, the young lady already passed him, leaving a deep wound sword on his chest. Blood started dripping out of the wound, but the man didn''t scream out of pain. Instead, he laughed as if everything went according to the plan. The young lady certainly felt it too as her hand was shaking. Importantly, she lost her sword. Looking a bit further away, she found her sword flying for a few seconds before piercing the ground. "I have followed you so many years. Do you think I don''t know your technique?" He grinned. ''Targeting my sword? No, he targeted my hand earlier.'' The young lady gritted his teeth. Because of the impact produced by the clash of the sword earlier, he managed to numb the lady''s hand. In other words, he intentionally let her cut his chest just to stop her from using a sword again for a period of time. Even so, the young lady remained calm and took out two swords, one in each hand. The young man only smirked as he swallowed a pill to heal the wound on his chest before leaping toward the lady. "Hehe¡­ I will make sure you have a nightmare before killing you!" Clank. He struck her sword with his sword, but the lady still resisted by summoning lightning from her body. Goryuu immediately created a distance and took a deep breath. "The one that is allowing you to use all those high-speed movements. However, you have used too much energy, and I believe this will be your last attack. I won''t let you hit me anymore." "You can try." She gritted her teeth and disappeared. She only had one chance to survive this ordeal, but that chance was too low. Goryuu could keep up with her movement, albeit barely. He struck her swords to stop her momentum and punched her stomach to blast her away. "Gah!" The lady spat blood as she was blown away, rolling on the ground. A weight suddenly fell on top of her, and she found Goryuu was sitting on top of her stomach while piercing his sword right beside her face, grazing a bit of her cheek. "I''ve got you!" He smirked. "Why are you doing this?! No, who do you serve?" The guy smiled and took something out of his Space Ring. "Before that¡­" "Mmhmm!" Goryuu placed his hand on the young lady''s mouth, stopping her from talking. However, the real reason was to make her swallow the medicine he hid in that palm. She instantly realized what kind of pill she just swallowed. Her face became pale as she found her strength leaving her body. Soon enough, all her body stopped moving. Goryuu licked his lips vulgarly and smiled. "Haha¡­ Don''t worry. I don''t like using aphrodisiacs because breaking someone as composed as you are more enjoyable." "You¡ª" The young lady furrowed her eyebrows. "Do you think that brother of mine can protect you from my father?" "That is enough, Young Lady Aria. None of you have realized that even your brother is just controlled by someone else!" "!!!" As soon as she heard it, she instantly grasped the whole picture. "Grayfig Family!" "Hehe, as expected for the wisest of Cypress Family. Your brain is really extraordinary." "Grayfig Family find me a thorn in their eyes and decide to use my brother''s jealousy to kill me. And you¡­ You must be coming from Grayfig Family." "Hehe, that''s all there to it. I should have introduced myself, right? My real name is Novus Grayfig. This is the name that will hold you before you die!" "Novus Grayfig¡­ Novus Grayfig, the eighth son of the Grayfig Family that is rumored to die a few years ago?!" "To think there is still someone who remembers my real name. Whatever. Your family won''t have the chance to rise again after losing you, and I won''t be held accountable¡­" He smirked and ripped off her clothes, revealing that smooth skin of her. The young lady fell silent and looked away as if she was going to resist everything he would do to her. "I will never forgive you scumbags!" "Just shut up and moan with pleasure! I, Novus, shall handle the rest." Novus made a vulgar smile as he bowed down, trying to enjoy her boobs. " It was at this time, Alex appeared next to them, swinging his sword. "!!!" Goryuu turned his head and widened his eyes. He instinctively grabbed his sword, but Alex''s movement was too fast, sending his head flying before he could react. "Who¡ª" Alex used enough force to not only slice his throat but also blow his body away. He then looked at the lady with a calm expression. "Are you alright?" The lady heard Alex''s soothing voice and hesitated for a few seconds. "I am fine, thank you." "That''s good. I was flying around here before finding this¡­ But considering he had the same cultivation as me, I needed to wait for a perfect time to kill him in one move." Alex nodded. "Why are you lying?" She asked with a calm expression, trying to move her body. "Lying? I don''t know what you are talking about." "You had been waiting even before we fought the Earth Shaking Worm." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes as he never expected that this girl knew about it. "I am sorry, but I seriously don''t understand your words. I just came here." "I am grateful to you for saving my chastity, but I need to make it clear first." "Chastity? I saved your life¡ª" Alex stopped talking before he realized what she meant. When she looked away as though she wanted to resist whatever he did to her wasn''t for that reason. The real aim was to recover her body even when the male raped her and found a way to kill him. That was why she said chastity instead of her life. She never had any intention of dying, even if she needed to go through hell. What a strong girl, Alex thought. "Even without you saving me, I will find an opportunity to kill him. And because I am blind, my perception is stronger than any others, allowing me to find you from the start. It''s also the reason why I can find that worm underground. "That''s why I know that you had been waiting in the dark this whole time. I had assumed that you wouldn''t show yourself¡­ But considering you appeared and killed him, I realized that you must have an aim for saving me. "I want to make this clear first, or you can simply kill me or rape me. I don''t care," Aria said without any change of her flat tone as if she didn''t hope for anything. "Hoh?!" Even Alex couldn''t help but feel impressed by that sheer determination. "What if I say I want to use you to destroy the Cypress Family?" Alex smirked, releasing his killing intent. "¡­" Aria fell silent for a few seconds before sighing. "Then you can try. Even if you torture me, I won''t make a single move against my family." "Even though your brother wanted to kill you?" "He is just a foolish man, but even so, his strength is something else. Even if I have authority over my family, I will leave that family in the future and become an expert that has freedom. That family head position can just go to him." Alex certainly didn''t understand the complex matters she had with her family, but he knew something. He wouldn''t be able to force this girl to do something. Still, Alex hadn''t given up yet and said, "Do you think you can keep that strong facade forever? "I have this subordinate that can torture anyone to confess everything. I wonder if you can keep that up later?" Alex let out a hollow laugh as if he planned to do something vicious. He even added, "And I will make sure you will have at least a hundred men devouring you before you die¡­ Ah, right. Your senses are sharper than normal, right? It means you will taste pressure more than anyone else¡­ Fufu, I wonder how long you can stay calm¡­" The girl didn''t answer him immediately and sighed. "Mister¡­ I don''t know who you are, but don''t say something you don''t mean it. Since you have recognized my heightened senses, you must know that you shouldn''t release that killing intent earlier. I know that you don''t mean to do something vicious to me. "I know since young that there are two types of killing intent. One that really wants to kill me and one that is used to threaten me. The one you let out earlier was the latter. That''s why I am asking what you want for saving my chastity¡­" She paused for a moment before continuing. "Besides¡­ Even if that''s true, with these blind eyes of mine, I don''t need to see how ugly he or "they" you spoke of are when going through that hell¡­" She didn''t forget to insult Goryuu, who died earlier and smiled, opening her eyelids to show Alex her grey, lifeless, and blind eyes. 904 Got Played She fully meant what she said as though it was something ordinary. "Pfft¡­ Hahaha!" Alex laughed out loud. "Something funny? No, it is different. What are you laughing at, Mister?" She closed her eyes again and furrowed her eyebrows. "Nothing. Just like you said, I didn''t mean to say that. I just wanted to test you." Alex smirked. "Tested me? For what? Even though I can sense that your strength is only 1-Star Martial Saint, I feel you are stronger. The way you speak and the way you move¡­ Everything is brimming with confidence as if killing Goryuu is anything but hard." "I want to make a deal with you." "A deal?" She looked down for a few seconds before raising her head again with a serious expression. "Before that, I want to know whether it will affect either my future and my family." "I don''t really know about your family, but it will surely affect your future. Whether it''s good or bad, it will depend on your cooperation." Alex smirked. "My cooperation, huh¡­" She still hesitated and asked, "Despite knowing that you have saved my purity, you want to trade something depending on my cooperation¡­ This is the first time I have encountered someone like you." "I mean you no harm. The previous threat was only to test your composure and heart. I acknowledged that if I made a trade with you, you wouldn''t be someone who would blurt the secret out." "You are so easy to please¡­" "Nope. I simply know that even if you give away the secret, I will have enough backup plans to get away from the situation. As for you, trust me, it''s better to not know it." "¡­" She thought for a moment before sighing. "I understand. Although I can''t accept it right now, I can negotiate this deal with you." "Good. I have a few demands. First, I heard you want to join Unsurpassed Blade Sect, right?" "Yes. Are you a disciple there? Or are you someone who wants to join the sect as well? Looking at your cultivation, it''s the latter, correct?" "Yep, you are right. I want to join the sect too, but I don''t know how." Aria paused and took a deep breath before explaining the enrollment process. "There are two ways of joining the sect. The first will be the enrollment process that will be held a month from now, and the second way is to have a connection with someone who is going to enter or already enters the sect. "Considering your sneaky way to make a deal with me, I guess your identity is not something that can be easily known, so you want me to guarantee your identity¡­" She analyzed the situation and explained it. "You got it right. I want to use you as my cover." "It''s branded like that, but I won''t say I am coming from Cypress Family. Instead, I am following the woman called Aria. That''s all there to it." "I can understand that, but my family won''t escape either if you do something bad. Unless¡­" "Yeah. I won''t do anything much in the sect. I simply want to train there." Alex nodded. "Train, huh. If that were the case, it won''t be a big problem to do that. And even if you want to do something, you need a long time to increase your cultivation. By that time, there might be a new agreement between us." "I like the way your brain works. Seriously." Alex was impressed by her. It was easy to talk because he could understand him without a long explanation. "Before that, I want to confirm another thing." "Ask away." "Will Unsurpassed Blade Sect get destroyed in the future?" "Nope." "I understand. Before accepting this, you don''t mind if I ask about what kind of benefit I can get, right?" "Sure. Well, I am a simple man. You want strength, I will give you strength. How is that sound?" "Strength? Although I acknowledge you are strong, it doesn''t mean you are qualified to teach me, right?" She suddenly released her Sword Intent, showing she had attained Sword Saint with only 8-Star Martial Monarch. Alex already knew that she was a Sword Saint and had calculated that she would show it to him. Hence, he also showed her his intent, but in a very weak way, so she didn''t realize it was a Divine Intent. Alex''s intent instantly restrained her Sword Intent as though it was an oppressor. Although she was in a weakened state, she realized that the intent Alex showed was at a different level than her. And the fact that he used only a bit of his energy to show their difference was enough to convince her. "I understand. But are you sure you want to make a trade with a blind girl like me?" "Isn''t that good enough? You won''t see my appearance too, so you can''t describe anything other than my voice and a few other things." "It''s very convenient for you, huh." She nodded. "I understand. Since I don''t see a future where my family or the sect will be destroyed, I agree to your terms." "Good." Alex nodded and placed his finger on her forehead, channeling his Pure Fire to burn all the medicine''s efficacy. Having back her ability to move, she slowly rose from the ground and looked at Alex with a complicated expression. "What did you do just now? Never mind, it''s not my place to ask. Still, thank you." "You''re welcome." Alex paused for a few seconds before letting out a hollow laugh. "I thought you were going to use that sword to attack me, but it seems I was mistaken." "I have agreed to this trade, so there is no point in my slaying you. Besides, I know that you have yet to lie during the negotiation, but it doesn''t mean you have said everything. Either way, I have decided to trust you in this trade." She shook her head. "That''s great. You are currently a perfect candidate for this, so I just hope I don''t need to kill you and search for another one." Alex shrugged while adding inwardly, ''You are the first candidate though, so you are the current perfect candidate.'' "Thank you for the praise. Still, I need to explain a few things for you first." "Sure." "First of all, do you know the reason why I hunt an Earth Shaking Worm?" "No." "There is a recommendation letter that the sect sent to my family. They allow us to send one talented person to become an Inner Disciple of the sect. Do you know the worth of an Inner Disciple? And what kind of existence is allowed to become one?" "No." "Only Martial Saints are allowed to become an Inner Disciple, and your talent is to be tested, so the sect doesn''t waste your resources on you. After all, there were some Martial Saints that couldn''t become an Inner Disciple because their talent was too low." "That''s why they only send recommendations for those who are talented. My family got it, but it was only for one person, so there was a little competition like this. My task is to kill an Earth Shaking Worm within the time limit. If I am able to do so, I will get the recommendation." "Is that also the reason why you got betrayed?" "Yeah. My younger brother wants it as well and knows that I will win, so he plans to eliminate me. Unfortunately, it seems the situation is not that simple. I will explain it later because you will get mixed into this problem if you follow me to the sect." "Trouble, huh. If I can avoid it, it''s best, but I will face it if I can''t. Of course, the credit is going to you." "The brighter the light, the more people will be blinded by it. By having me shine in the spotlight, you can roam around without a problem. However, just like that Goryuu, one might approach me, you know." The way she talked looked like she was confident in her charm even though she was blind. However, Alex shared that opinion. Even though her eyelids were closed all the time, it didn''t mean that she was ugly. In fact, Alex found her beautiful along with that body, so he was a bit worried about this. "I see." "Well, I don''t have any intention of dressing myself beautifully using those fancy clothes. I will probably wear a dark coat like this. If that can''t solve the problem, I can wrap my chest tightly so my body doesn''t look endowing. As for my face¡­ Should I wear a mask?" Alex never expected her to be this understanding, but he felt grateful for it. "Thank you. The mask is not necessary for now because you won''t be in the spotlight for a while. If you get famous, you can start using a mask. We can even use a person as a scapegoat if they turn into radicals and spread rumors about it." "Ah! We can kill one of the pursuers and spread the rumors of my face getting ruined because of that." "Yes. On one hand, I will give you the spotlight for your power. On the other hand, you will face that kind of rumor." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I don''t mind. I can lie to my family about it as well, if the promised strength is given to me. Besides, the more I get famous, the closer I get to my goal." She nodded. "In other words, this is a win-win situation for both of us." "I agree." "Maybe you will be one of my pursuers in the future¡­" She smiled, trying to tease Alex. "I already have wives." "Ah, sorry. I was joking." "Never mind." Alex shook his head. "Anyway, let''s continue the topic. You said there are several things that I need to know about your situation, right?" "Yes. However, I would like to say something before proceeding any further¡­ Mister, I have noticed that you are not someone from here, aren''t you? No, I should say you are someone from outside this world. Am I right? I can see it when you are this clueless about this world." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes as he finally realized why Aria actually asked him if he knew this and that instead of explaining everything from the start. It was to test his knowledge about this. "It seems I am right." Alex then released his killing intent, and she could feel that it was a genuine one. "So, what do you want to say?" "Nothing. Since I know you are from the outside, I would need to teach you about many common senses in this world and general knowledge about each sect, so you won''t be suspected. Don''t get me wrong. I want to do this for myself. If the sect deems you suspicious, I will also get the punishment. I don''t want to die with you, so I will teach you everything you need to know until our agreement has become invalid. If you want to treat this as something special, we can treat this as a payment for saving my purity." Alex fell silent and couldn''t help but praise her. "To think I have been outplayed, this is the first. As expected of another world, I am impressed." Alex even felt that they might be able to come up with a better strategy if they thought it together with Anya. "Once this is over, how about you leave this world and come to join my world?" "Ahaha¡­ Please stop with the jests. But as a cultivator, I am grateful for those words. Maybe if the future path is aligned and that offer remains the same, I might consider it." She smiled. "By the way, let''s go back to the topic, shall we?" "Alright." 905 Her Circumstances "Everything went well until my father decided to hold a competition because he couldn''t choose one of us. After all, I may be stronger than my brother, but because I am blind, people may look down on me, ruining the chance that this recommendation gives. Yeah. That was the reason for this small competition. "Even after knowing it was a trap, I still chose to do it, thinking it was a gamble. If I die here, I lose and vice versa. I had set up several traps if my brother ordered many people to chase me down, but it was useless because I never realized the real assassin was right beside me. "That''s why if you are going back with me today, my brother will surely target you. And the people of the Grayfig Family will also start approaching you. In other words, you will become the center of attention all of sudden." She explained the second problem. Alex looked down, stroking his chin a few times before asking. "If I become famous here, will it reach Unsurpassed Blade Sect''s ears?" "I am not sure myself. I think, as long as you don''t make a big move, they won''t notice you. And I can start a rumor about you as my protector." "I see¡­ Now that I am thinking about it, how do I even enter the Unsurpassed Blade Sect? Although you are guaranteeing my identity, it''s not like the recommendation letter allows me to enter together with you, right?" She paused for a moment and nodded. "Yes. You need to undergo the trials with me. Well, I also need to undergo the tests with a slightly higher starting point, but I think we will do it together. So, if possible, stay close to me." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright." "Don''t worry, it''s going to be alright. Because I have reached 8-Star Martial Monarch before even getting inside the sect, my starting point is high. In fact, I might become an Inner Disciple before long. I might be a candidate with the highest strength¡­ But let''s not be too proud because I heard that there were two people that immediately became an Inner Disciple after finishing the tests." "I don''t really care about that since I have no plan in getting involved with the sect problem." "In that case, I don''t need to worry then." She nodded. "Oh, by the way, I need to know your age first. They will surely test your age to see your cultivation talent." "I am in my forties," Alex answered immediately. "Most of the Martial Saints are around one hundred years old. That''s the genius age in the sect." She paused for a moment as a thought came into her mind. "Are you a Young Master whose family concentrated their resources for you? If that is the case, then your foundation won''t be stable, and you will¡ª" Alex placed his hand on her mouth and let out a long sigh. "I am not like that, and my foundation is stable, so you don''t need to care about that." "Is this the wonder of outside worlds?" "It''s not, but you can treat it that way to simplify our talks." Alex shrugged. "¡­" She furrowed her eyebrows. Every knowledge in her brain wanted to deny his claim, but she couldn''t say it. When he touched her, she inspected her bone, and it seemed he told the truth about the age. If that were the case, what kind of monster was in front of her? Was it right to make a deal with him? Still, deep inside her heart, she believed it was an interesting deal. To be taught by such a genius, she might reap something that she would never expect. Once again, she remembered Alex''s offer and put it as one of the most important memories in her mind. "Well, I shouldn''t ask about it anymore then." She nodded before moving on. "The third matter is about my father. Since I am bringing a stranger, there might be some opposition from the family, so I want you to not say anything and let me deal with it. You can simply stay in my courtyard and hide there for three weeks." "Alright. I am used to lying low." Alex agreed immediately. "Then, one more thing¡­ Although my brother wants to kill me even right now, please don''t show any hostility, alright? Instead of killing him, I rather stay away from the family, which I can only do after getting admitted." "That''s your family problem, I won''t interfere as long as he doesn''t come personally to kill me." Alex didn''t forget to put a warning for it because he wasn''t a good person. "In that case, I have nothing to say." She nodded. "Last but not least, can I know your name? Ah, my name is Aria Cypress. You might have heard it earlier." "I am Nyx." Alex gave her his alias. "It''s not your real name, huh." She sighed before shaking her head. "Never mind." "Since you have finished, I have two demands." "Sure. Please tell me." "I want to learn about Sword Qi." "Sword Qi is the basic in this world, so I am planning to teach you. Since you have deep attainment in the way of the sword¡­ Even though it''s from another world, I am sure you won''t need a long time to grasp it." "Then my second demand is¡­ I hope you don''t pry much about my identity." "It''s my nature to question everything and become a bit sensitive¡­ But I will try to not pay attention to that detail around you, but I am sure to pick up a few things about you, you know." "As long as you don''t openly search for my information or investigate me." Alex nodded. "In return, I will teach you a bit." "Then that''s a deal." She smiled and stretched her hand, asking for a handshake. "Hmm? Ah, right. You are from another world, so you might not use a handshake to seal the deal. My bad." "Nah. I still use it." Alex shook her hand, feeling the roughness of her hand. Girls who wielded weapons usually had nothing like this. Even Evelyn and the others took care of their skin carefully. Besides, the skin of a cultivator wasn''t that easy to get into this state. "Ah, I am sorry that my hand is not lady-like." She apologized to Alex. "It''s fine. You must have swung your swords thousands of times every single day to make even a cultivator''s skin become like this. I admire your determination¡­ And from what I see, it must be for your high-speed movements. Although this is just what I have observed so far, the way you use those movements are the same, so you must have programmed it first before using them." "!!!" She opened her mouth in surprise, never expecting Alex to see through her movements within a brief moment. But she also felt a bit happy because she might get something useful if she learned from him and used this chance to explain her sword style. "Yes. Those high-speed movements are taking a toll on my brain, so I programmed them to make it easier to use." "I understand the concept. You use many patterns, so it''s hard to discern, and that''s something I should praise you for." "Thank you." "Anyway, let''s get going." "Ah, yes. We can talk more in my house." She nodded. "Before that, I need to go back to the worm again to collect the corpse." Alex nodded. "Let me help you since your energy hasn''t recovered yet." She took Alex''s hand as he helped her to go to the worm''s body. She stored the corpse and let out a breath of relief. "Do you want to go back now or recover first?" "May I trouble you to carry me to my home?" "Hmm?" Alex was a bit surprised. Although he asked for it, he believed that the lady would choose to recover because the distance should be a bit far. "Reason?" "To handle my younger brother. I can''t tell you about it, though." Alex thought for a moment. Aria wasn''t someone who acted on a whim, so there should be a plan for that. Considering it would benefit him if she could handle her brother, he decided to help. He bent his knee and stretched his hand to the back. "Then, excuse me." She fixed her attire first before taking Alex''s invitation. She then pointed her finger to the left. "The city is that way, three days of flying." "Sure." Alex then flew out of the forest, heading toward that direction. To ensure the secrecy of his identity, he didn''t use the Teleportation Array this time like planned from the start. Because she measured it with her power, they ended up arriving earlier. This might be the first time Alex felt the time difference. She said three days, but it was like six days for him. Luckily, the sun was right above them, so they didn''t need to visit the city during the night so as to avoid rumors of him having a relationship with Aria. He scanned the entire city with his Spirit Eyes, finding three 10-Star Martial Saints. If this was the Moose World, the upper world where he trained to be a God, something like this would be unimaginable. After all, only the leaders of each big influence had this cultivation. However, he had seen a much higher limit when he arrived at Eulja, so something like this couldn''t surprise him anymore. Instead, he felt it was normal because even these people couldn''t become a Core Disciple in the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. "I think you can let me down." She said as they approached the city. "Ah, yes." Alex nodded. She had been recovering during the past few days, so her current energy was about eighty percent. It should be enough to handle most of the problems. She looked at the city a few kilometers away before leading Alex inside with a smile. Alex followed her without saying anything. The town was brimmed with people even from the outside as many people were trying to enter the city. Aria, of course, didn''t need to wait as her reputation was already well known in this city. The guards immediately let her in before stopping Alex in his tracks. "Stop! Who are you?!" "He is with me. Can you let him pass?" She asked with a smile. The guards were bewildered because they clearly remembered that she brought two people with her when coming out of this place, but none of them was in sight. Meanwhile, only this young man was staying beside her, so it was no wonder it piqued their curiosity. Still, since Aria had opened her mouth, they immediately gave way for Alex. Alex then entered the city under Aria''s name. "Hmm¡­ There are only three families in this city, right?" Alex whispered to her as they walked inside the city. "Yes. They are from the third family, the current city lord, so you can say they are neutral. But it will surely reach the ears of the higher-ups of their family. Don''t worry. They won''t do anything, no, I won''t let them do anything." "Alright, then." They arrived in front of a big mansion a few minutes later. However, the moment they entered, Alex smelled trouble, especially when he saw three people coming toward them. ''Let me handle this.'' She quickly sent a thought transmission. 906 Change Alex fell silent for a while before giving his confirmation that he wouldn''t do anything. He looked at the young man that seemed to be cut out of the rest. His hair was white like Aria''s, so he must be her younger brother. "Oh, you have returned, sister?" He put on a genuine smile as if he was happy to see her alive. If he didn''t know that this person was the one who wanted to murder his sister, he might not suspect him. "Yes. A good person helped me." She smiled before letting out a long sigh. "I think we should stop acting like this, Adrian. I know that you were the one sending the assassin. I am going to the meeting room where Father is. I believe he will suspect you too." "I don''t know what you are talking about." She shook her head as she couldn''t withstand his acting anymore. A blue token appeared on her hand as she threw it to him. "!!!" Adrian was obviously shocked. "This¡­" "You want it, right?" She made a gentle smile. "That is my proof as a successor. You must have one too since we ought to fight for it, and the one who has both will become the next head of this family. However, I have no intention to lead the family." "What did¡ª" Adrian stared at her with empty eyes as he couldn''t believe whatever she said. "That is the truth. Actually, Father has known about it as well. Back then, I agreed to hide the fact that I never had any intention of getting the family head position because of you." She smiled. "Me?!" He was dumbfounded. The previously hidden intention vanished from his mind as only confusions filled his brain at the moment. On one hand, he doubted everything she said. On the other hand, the token she gave him was genuine. "Yes. You are blessed with talent. At the very least, our cultivation speed is the same. Father might praise me for my decisiveness, but he told me that in terms of managing our family, you are far better. You reward people who work for you and keep everything under control. Because of that, I kept pretending to be the successor, so your talent could bloom. After all, only because of our rivalry you could become a splendid person like this." "Do you think that all these words can sway me just like that? All of these are lies!" He shouted, not wanting to believe it. However, Aria knew he was shaken and walked toward him. "Father made this test to see whether you could kill your own sister. Unfortunately, you couldn''t pass the test." "Lies. Everything is a lie." He shouted. His hands started shaking. "My beloved younger brother, since when did your heart start to change?" She gently asked. At that time, he was approached by a person. It was the second Young Master in Goryuu''s mouth. Many things happened, and because of his help, he could stand toe to toe against his sister. Their father didn''t say anything about this, so he thought he had accepted this. He then started to trust the second young master and had a good relationship. However, he couldn''t diminish the rumors about him had changed for both better and worse. On one hand, people said he became more capable. On the other hand, he was too ruthless to lead the family. And he suddenly remembered how many people he had killed to get into his positions right now. With all those faces flooding his mind, he noticed that most of them were talented people in their generations. It was at this time he realized what had happened. "I¡ª" Adrian drew a gasp as he stared at his sister in disbelief. "Grayfig Family." "The one that you asked to kill me was the rumored eighth son that had died, Novus Grayfig." "What?!" Adrian dropped his jaw to the ground. He stared at his sister, knowing that she didn''t lie about this. ''Hmm? The reason why you know you can convince me¡­'' Alex finally realized. If everything was true, then the reason behind her confidence would be¡­ ''Yes. My brother indeed wanted to kill me, but he didn''t hate me. In the past, he hated Grayfig Family to the bone because they killed our mother, but everything changed over the years. Although he kept his appearance as the one who hated that family, he seemed to like them too. ''Unfortunately, the Grayfig Family was really sly. No matter how hard I tried to search for any information regarding the cooperation between my brother and them, I would never find it. At one point, I thought they had nothing to do with it. Only after meeting that Goryuu I realized they had been pulling the string this whole time. ''And the one that turned out to be a sly fox was their useless young master, the second young master. He had no aptitude in cultivation and was labeled as a waste, but if I think about it now, it seems he has been hiding his ability this whole time, planning to sweep our family clean by using my brother.'' She sighed inwardly. ''At least, my brother seems to have finally realized it.'' ''I see.'' ''On the other hand, I want to ask whether you are still with me or not.'' ''I like smart people, but I don''t like scheming ones.'' Alex answered seriously. ''Haha¡­ I am also a schemer, you know. Or is it because I am a woman? Should I take pride that I can make you think that way, maybe because of my body or charm?'' She asked jokingly. ''Nah. The fact that he has been doing this for years, his plans are almost completed. Even if I am switching sides right now, he will just try to use me instead of cooperation.'' ''Such a cold guy. How can you even have wives?'' ''What? You have started joking with me now? Are you trying to flirt with me?'' ''¡­'' She fell silent as it could be interpreted that way even though she had no intention of doing so. ''I am just trying to get closer with my future boss. Well, that''s just a possibility, and the chances are rather low.'' Alex shrugged as he watched how Adrian sorted his thoughts and turned grim. "I¡­ I did many horrible things to this family without knowing it? Not only I decided to believe in the Grayfig Family, but I had also killed many future experts¡­'' He looked at Aria, trembling. "So, you have finally understood that everything you have in the past few years is harming our family?" She furrowed her eyebrows before raising her hand, wanting to slap him. "What a foolish brother." He gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and clenched his fists. Everything he did was for his family. That was what he thought. Unfortunately, what he actually did was exactly the opposite of that. Even if his father killed him right now, he wouldn''t resist, much less to his sister beating. But to everyone''s surprise, Aria waved her hand down. However, she used it to hug him instead of slapping him. "What a foolish brother you are¡­ Truly a foolish brother." She smiled. "Even if you are foolish, I still love you as your sister. It''s still not too late to change, and I believe we can overcome this. "I know that you are better than that. I still remember when you were a kid, you punished the third elder''s son because he unjustly hit a normal disciple. It created friction in the family, but it allowed Father to finally take action against all unjustified bullying. "There was also an instance where you gave a reward to a normal disciple and second elder''s son for standing up against other families. "It was something I couldn''t do, trust me. That was the reason why Father saw you as the main successor instead of me. You have talent¡­ And you have made me believe it, now you need to believe it too¡­ I believe in you, Adrian." She smiled, telling him everything was fine if he changed now. Those words were hurt. They struck his heart deeply. He remembered a few years ago, he loved his sister and family. Even though they were still rivals, he never thought about killing her. It was until that second young master appeared, his heart started to change, turning him into a more ruthless guy. He realized that he had been manipulated this whole time. Suddenly, when they had this peaceful time, the two people beside him who had been silent until now took out a dagger and rushed toward both of them, trying to kill both Aria and Adrian. As Alex expected, these two must realize that Adrian couldn''t be controlled anymore and decided to kill both him and Aria. Alex let out a long sigh before he appeared beside one of them while swinging his sword. Both of them were 1-Star Martial Saint, so they were quite strong. The moment Alex appeared, the first guy reacted and changed his direction. He struck Alex''s sword instead, trying to save his hand from being chopped off. Unfortunately, he underestimated the man called Alex. His body was still Divine Body, so the strength was far from a normal Martial Saint. The moment the two swords clashed, Alex overpowered him and blew the sword away before cutting both his hands to stop him from killing Aria. He then kicked his feet, making him stumble to the ground. Seeing this, the second guy kept rushing toward the brother and sister who were still in their world. The same happened to the second guy. Alex used his fastest speed to appear next to this guy and tried to cut his hand. Because of that, the guy decided to stop Alex, albeit the result was the same. Alex successfully blew his sword away and cut the guy''s hand. However, this one was more resilient than the other guy. Knowing he stood no chance against Alex, he sacrificed that hand and shifted his body to the side before taking another sword with his off-hand. Unbeknownst to him, the threat didn''t come from Alex alone. Adrian spun around with her sister, trying to protect her with his body. At the same time, he took the guy by surprise and cut his other hand. "Aa-aahhhhh!" Finally, the adrenaline stopped rushing into their heads as they realized what just happened. The pain started spreading and jolted their brain, making them scream. "To think I have been used this whole time¡­" Adrian gritted his teeth and looked at the two guys. "The Grayfig Family must die." 907 Settling Down Alex was amazed by the sudden transformation. He thought Adrian would be one of those guys that actually backstabbed their sister at the last moment, pretending to change to lower her guard. At that time, he planned to interfere, though. But fortunately to him, he didn''t need to do that. ''Such a complicated family¡­ At the very least, it''s not going to be ruined by such a person¡­'' Alex thought, observing the situation. Adrian glanced at Alex and realized he was the one saving his sister. However, he ignored him for a moment and faced his sister with a serious expression. Before saying anything, he took out the same token as the one she gave earlier and handed it together with her token. "This is yours. I am not qualified to be the Patriarch. I am afraid that I will repeat the same mistake, and I have also tried to kill you. Besides, I have officially failed Father''s test." "Silly boy. Father indeed gave you this test, but the judge of the mission is me. And my final judgment is you succeed. Congratulations, Adrian. You will be the next patriarch." She gently smiled. "But¡ª" "That''s my final judgment. It''s absolute." She paused for a moment, feeling the anxiety coming from Adrian. "You indeed made a mistake, and I believed those who you killed along with their families couldn''t forgive you. But you need to live on bearing that mistake in your shoulder, so you don''t make the same mistake. "The weight in your shoulder will be heavier than ever now you have become the only candidate for the position. That''s why I am glad that you haven''t fully lost yourself in the dark." She smiled. "As for me¡­ I am still aiming to be an expert that no one can underestimate even with my blind eyes. That''s why I am going to take the recommendation letter from Father. Consider it a payment for me this whole time." Just like that, she shoved back the tokens into his hands before leading Alex to her courtyard to hide him there. Before she left, Adrian called her one more time. "Sister¡­ This time¡­ I will do everything in my ability to make the Grayfig Family suffer. I will not let them touch you during this period. Thank you and sorry." Listening to him, she smiled and waved her hand without facing back. She kept going until she disappeared from his eyes. At the same time, Adrian stared at Alex''s back with a mysterious expression before looking back at the two spies from the Grayfig Family that wanted to kill them. They would surely suffer before dying as Adrian planned to torture them for information and attacking them. Meanwhile, Alex smirked when he watched how these two made up. "I wonder whether your brother can handle the Grayfig Family well¡­" "Don''t worry. He should be able to handle them well, albeit he will surely get beaten after this." She chuckled. "That''s my idiot younger brother¡­ What can I say?" "Yeah. It will be either tonight or tomorrow. I am sorry for dragging you into this." "I have agreed to the terms. If they come, let me handle them." Alex shrugged. "It''s fine. I plan to meet my father after this and have him increase the security. Keep your sword sheathed for now." She shook her head. "Because I bet they are going to attack us during the journey to Unsurpassed Blade Sect. It will be at that time you shall unsheathe your blade. After we enter the sect, they won''t easily make a move after all." "Hmm¡­" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright then. But I don''t think I will show my strength when there are many people from your side, you know." "Don''t worry. I have another plan for that, albeit it will be a bit costly." She sighed. "A sacrifice?" Alex asked. "Yes. Since we are going to be accompanied by my family experts, I will be using a body double, so the Grayfig Family will target the caravan instead. And I will make sure that my brother targets the main pursuers, eliminating all of them. Meanwhile, we are going to sneak around until we arrive at the sect." Alex thought for a moment and asked, "How about we target them instead?" She furrowed her eyebrows before shaking her head. "No. He is going to be protected by a few Martial Saints, mostly above 6-Star Martial Saints, so it''s impossible. The least I can do is to use this chance to weaken their strength¡­" Alex let out a sigh. He wanted to destroy them because he didn''t want a potential enemy tailing on where he didn''t notice. Martial Saints were like ants to him, but at the same time, he couldn''t do it because he had sealed his strength and chose to live this way. "Alright." "Besides, this friction is going to intensify when we enter the sect, and I am curious why you know the Grayfig Family have an invitation." "Your family got one; why couldn''t they?" Alex shrugged. "Fufu¡­" She chuckled before they finally arrived at her courtyard. It was quite a remote courtyard, but space was bigger than what he saw from the start, so she must have chosen this place because she got more space to train. At the same time, there were many wooden dummies around the field, half of them were cut. "Ah, I forgot to clean this up." She panicked for a moment and cleaned the place up by storing everything inside her space ring for now. "There is no servant that comes to this place?" "I usually have one, but I asked them to leave me alone before I found information about the Earth Shaking Worm. So, I rushed toward the forest and forgot to settle everything. Besides, this place is quite remote, so you can wander around this place without a problem." "It''s alright." Alex waved his hand and inspected the place with his Spirit Eyes. Even though she said it was quite remote, he found a rank 8 Gathering Array. There were a few more things that he noticed, but it wasn''t as big as the Gathering Array. She then led him toward the main room, where she talked to the people who came here. "This is the main room. I will make you a tea first before going to my father. Is that alright?" Alex didn''t reject her. He stared at her this whole time, watching how she moved smoothly around this place as if she could see them perfectly. Alex could sense the Sword Domain as the generalized position, but if many things gathered in the same place, even he would be confused. However, Aria certainly didn''t get confused by that, so it made him wonder how powerful her senses are. "That''s right. One more question. What if my father wants to meet you?" "Can I reject?" "I will reject it for you then." She nodded. She then left the room, leaving Alex alone. Alex thought for a moment and summoned Njomo. "Can you stay hidden inside her shadow?" He looked at Alex for a second and nodded before vanishing. [I have returned here. It seems you have gotten an interesting person to work with. To think you even invite her¡­] "Oh?!" Alex was startled to see the blue screen suddenly appear in front of his eyes, but soon recovered. "Well, you have gone through my memories, right?" [Indeed. I can say that she has huge potential. There is a certain world that can fix her eyes, but they are too remote, so it''s hard to go there. At the same time, it''s not like a normal surgery will affect her because the eyes need to be completely fused with Spiritual Energy.] "Let''s not talk about her eyes. I want to talk about her potential. What do you think?" [I approve of her calmness and abilities, but she still needs to work hard. Final Judgment: She has a huge potential.] "Yeah." Alex nodded before sensing someone was coming. "Hmm? That Aria shouldn''t come back this soon¡­ Talk to you later." [Alright.] He activated his Spirit Eyes and found a man coming toward him. At the same time, he found this energy was similar to the one he saw earlier. Because of that, he decided to not move and waited until that person opened the door. Creak. The one who appeared was none other than Adrian. However, his right cheek was like that of a squirrel as he seemed to have just been beaten by a certain someone. Still, Alex felt that this guy had a clear mind again as he didn''t feel any weird sensation coming from him, which usually brought him trouble. "We have met again. I am sorry for barging." Adrian clasped his hand politely. For whatever reason, Alex had saved his sister''s life, so there was no way he would be rude toward Alex. "Come in." Alex nodded while observing his expression. "Do you want to talk about something?" "Yes." He nodded but didn''t come toward Alex. Instead, he stood still in front of the door and asked, "May I know¡ªNo, this is not important. The more important thing is¡­ I want to thank you for saving my sister''s life and stopping me from doing something that I will regret for the rest of my life." Alex raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "I was just passing by at that time, so it was pure luck." "Even so, I still need to thank you." "Then I receive your thanks." Alex nodded. He then stared at Alex for a moment and asked, "May I know what kind of thing happened during that time?" "Have you asked her?" "She probably won''t tell me anything." "Then I will do the same. I am not trying to hide anything, but I will give you a clue, and this is the truth. It''s something you shouldn''t know." Alex smiled. Adrian closed his eyes and gritted his teeth before nodding to Alex. "I see. In that case, you don''t need to tell me anything." Alex nodded. "I don''t know your true intention, but since my sister has trusted you, I won''t say anything much. Even though she praised me earlier, her eyes for people are better than mine, so if she trusts you, it means you are alright. That''s why¡­" He slightly bowed his head. "Please take care of my sister in the Unsurpassed Blade Sect." "Ho?!" "From your attire and power level, I can assume that you are either a disciple there or another person who wants to join the sect. Considering you are beside my sister while hiding in this room, you must be the latter. And I have seen your ability, so I know that you will be entering the sect with my sister." Alex sweatdropped as he thought. ''I wonder what the difficulty of this world is in a video game? Not about their power level, but their intelligence level. I assume that the Agar World where I met Alicia and the others was Easy, and the upper world after that was Medium. This one was hard, I guess¡­ Considering all of them seemed to be able to guess everything with little information.'' Alex didn''t know what kind of future he would have if he were teleported to this world first. "I have said my pieces. I am sorry for taking your time¡­" He apologized again. But before he left the room, he asked one more thing. "Uhm¡­ Can you say I am sorry?" "Ehm, no. You better do it yourself because this is your family''s problem. An outsider like me has no right to participate." Alex shook his head. He could only sigh upon hearing his response and nodded while closing the door. [You would surely get obliterated if you grew up in this world. You wouldn''t have enough time to handle the trauma in your heart and other things before dying.] "True." Alex let out a long sigh. [There is no "Try Again" function too.] "Shut up." Alex smiled. 908 A Long Nigh "It''s fine." Alex waved his hand. "You must be tired, I think you should rest first. You must have a huge debate earlier¡­" "Debate, huh. Certainly." She nodded. "Before that, I need to tell you a few things. First of all, my father won''t investigate you or instigate someone to fight you. In other words, you shall be exempted from everything and the elders who make a move against you will be punished accordingly. "Secondly, I have received permission from my father to let you stay in my courtyard. He was convinced earlier because there were not many rooms in this place, but I somehow succeeded in persuading him. Your room is beside mine. I will show the way later. "Third thing is about the Grayfig Family. You don''t need to worry because my father is going to handle everything inside this family. I will explain everything to you tomorrow, including the Sword Qi. Unfortunately, you can''t go to our library to search for our techniques since you are not one of us. "Last but not least, my father wants me to tell you that no sexual activity is allowed here." "¡­" Alex fell silent for a few seconds before asking. "The fourth point is the same as the second point¡­" She shrugged. "That''s my father." "Whatever." Alex nodded without any change of expression as if telling her that he didn''t have any intention of doing that. She nodded. "Then, follow me." Alex rose from the floor and followed her through a wooden floor, going across a building before finding a small pavilion there. As she said, the room was pretty small as it perfectly fit for only one person. But to his surprise, he found the room to be bigger than he thought. The design helped this small house look big on the inside. "Your room is this way." She went through another door on the opposite side of this house as they found another small house like this behind it. "I usually used that house for training, since right behind this house was the training field that had been strengthened. If we are going to fight or something, it will be good to hold it there." Alex nodded as they entered the second small house. "I will be getting my clothes first from here." She went toward the bedroom and stored all her clothes inside her space ring before letting Alex in. He twitched his eyebrows when he found a pink room. Despite her nonchalant attitude, it seemed she was more feminine than he imagined. "I am sorry for the display, but I guess you can use this room to rest." She stretched her hand, asking Alex to come in before looking away embarrassedly. Alex scanned the room first before entering. He never had any problem with such an environment as long as the room was usable. "Sure. Just make sure that you don''t give my identity away while in this state." He shrugged. "Don''t worry about that. You are the only one who will know it¡­ Wait, this sounds wrong. Never mind, my mind is too tired to correct it. Anyway, see you tomorrow, Nyx." She waved her hand and left the house. At the same time, Alex looked at her with a complicated expression. He had nothing to say about her attitude and such, but he knew something they didn''t. He knew how desperate a human could be when they realized their ending was near. The moment he saw this, he looked at her house and let out a long sigh. Alex shook his head and settled down everything needed here. After a few more hours, the moon finally rose to the sky, enveloping the world with darkness. ''Haiz, this is going to be a long night¡­ Literally.'' Alex thought. Not only the night was supposed to last for at least sixteen hours, but he also needed to handle a certain thing that would come tonight. He then checked the situation, including Aria with his Spirit Eyes before sitting on the rooftop while closing his eyes to wait. And as he expected, ten people came to this place. All of them were Martial Saints ranging from 1-Star to 4-Star. That''s right. The only thing that Aria and this family forgot was the chance that these people decided to kill Aria instead of going back. Even if they were going to purge them from the beginning, they would have realized the fact that these people might have a person in high level as their backing. And it turned out Alex was right. Whoever actually informed them must be aware of the whole situation as he/she might be higher than Adrian in terms of status. "It seems this guy is very dangerous¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and thought about the second young master of the Grayfig Family. He rose and looked at these ten people. "To think all of you have been this desperate¡­ No, since there is no strong person in your rank, it seems the higher-ups in your operation have decided to sacrifice you to settle this disturbance. "There is a guy!" One of them pointed at Alex as he was surprised to see someone protecting Aria. "But there should be no one protecting her right now because all of them are going to blockade the mansion instead of protecting someone." "But the proof is right before us¡­" "Don''t falter. He is only a 1-Star Martial Saint." Alex smiled as he snapped his finger, summoning a Sound Insulation Array. He didn''t want any outside forces to come in while he killed all these guys. "It seems you want to die¡­" Alex sighed before taking out his sword. ''It has been a long time since the last time I could only use my sword.'' "So, who is going to die?!" Alex smiled. "Two of you stop him. We are killing that b*tch Aria." The 4-Star Martial Saint ordered. Two 1-Star Martial Saints nodded as they flew toward Alex. They waved their weapons, trying to occupy Alex''s attention before the group could move in to kill Aria. Little did they know that the weapon in his hand was a Divine Weapon. With their strength, they couldn''t get a rank 8 weapon and stuck with rank 7. Alex''s Divine Weapon could destroy rank 8 in a few rounds, so this kind of weapon was like a paper for him. His sword started emanating his Intent as he waved his sword horizontally. "Die!" The two shouted. "No, you." Alex shrugged and struck the first guy with his sword. To everyone''s surprise, Alex cut through the sword before killing the first guy, and his sword made his way toward the second person, killing him in the same way. And just like that, the two people fell in battle without even a trace of fighting. "!!!" "What just happened?" The guys drew a gasp as they couldn''t believe two people died without even being able to stop one strike from a 1-Star Martial Saint. Alex smiled as he recalled the reason why he asked Njomo to hide inside Aria''s Shadow. There were three reasons exactly. The first reason was sure because he couldn''t trust her completely yet. It was normal because he just knew her a few days ago. The second reason was to spy on her, especially when she reported everything to her father. Alex certainly realized that there would be an attack from the information alone, but he didn''t investigate any further because it wasn''t his obligation. Besides, Aria reminded him to not participate in this. Thirdly, it was for her protection. After getting everyone leveled up to Rank 10 God, he used his remaining EXP Cards to help all N squad reach Rank 10 God. Even though his prowess was low, he was still a Divine Beast that should have no problem in killing Martial Saints. Alex only utilized the second reason this time and sighed. "Whatever, she is useful to me, so I will protect her in the meantime." The group gritted their teeth and decided to attack Alex together. They sent eight attacks simultaneously and from all directions to confuse Alex. "Oi, oi. You are going to wake up the little girl in the house¡­" Alex commented while raising his sword. "Break." His sword slashed every single attack that came at him while using his Intent to suppress the power, so they didn''t explode. However, it seemed Aria would wake up from something like this due to the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy that the eight attacks brought. Alex didn''t play anymore and started his killing spree, cutting them in one or two moves. It was a massacre as they couldn''t even touch Alex with their strength. Bang! The door was slammed open as she finally came out using her pajamas as she looked around, only to find corpses on the ground. She then used her Spiritual Energy to scan the area and found Alex standing above her house, so she immediately flew to him. "You¡ª" She had a complicated expression as she faced Alex, who seemed to have killed ten people in less than thirty seconds. "How did you know?" "Let''s just say that I excel in information gathering." Alex smiled mysteriously. "I don''t want to handle this matter, so you are the one who needs to clean this up. And I will give you this one clue. The majority asked to strengthen the security for the outside threat, right? But there were a few that suggested that at the start. Don''t you think it''s weird to strengthen their defense for outside threats first before dealing with their internal matters?" As Alex said this, he smiled and returned to his house. "You are smart, but the enemies have penetrated deeper than you can imagine to the point they could even fool you. Just like that guy who wanted to rape you said, you didn''t realize the fact that you were dancing on someone''s palm this whole time¡­ Not exactly like what he said, but I am sure you know what I mean. Anyway, good luck. I will be protecting you during our agreement, so you could rest assured." "You¡­" Aria was speechless. She wanted to say something to him, but the condition didn''t allow her to do so. He checked all the corpses by touching them and realized that all of them died without being able to use all their power. In other words, this fight was Alex''s complete victory. When she found 2-Star Martial Saints'', 3-Star, or even 4-Star Martial Saints'' corpses, she was stupefied. Alex''s strength was far more extraordinary than she imagined. In fact, he might be hiding his real cultivation, and it might be at her father''s level. However, she knew that her father wasn''t capable of doing this. It was at this time, she furrowed her eyebrows. "God Rank Expert?" "Should I bury them here to avoid any problems or ask Father to send people to settle everything here?" Aria thought for a moment and remembered what Alex said. "There might be an elder acting as a spy for Grayfig Family. There are a few suspects¡­ As expected, I should bring this matter to father alone at this point of time, so everyone will be surprised the next day, and we can investigate which one is the traitor." Having a decision in her heart, she bowed toward Alex''s house as if conveying her gratitude. She then gathered all the corpses and went toward her father''s room. Alex looked at her actions through the windows and smiled. "At least, she can learn quickly and make a decisive decision. Take this experience in your heart, girl. I am sure you will only get stronger from this point on, I guarantee it." 909 Sword Qi "Apprehend them!" "Investigate that area!" Alex could hear many roars inside this big mansion. As he had expected, Aria''s father certainly made his move as soon as he heard all the assassination things from his daughter and immediately went to apprehend the people while forcing them to abide by their investigation. That was also the reason why he said it was going to be a long night. "I wonder how can someone sleep for a long sixteen hours¡­" Alex murmured as the difference of time confused him. [Night life is also longer, you know.] "¡­" Alex facepalmed. "I am not going to comment anything on that." [Fufu, anyway, the situation here has gone under control, so you don''t need to worry about us and train there. That guy has also left, but I can''t really make any movement during this time to make it less suspicious. I will be updating our status from time to time since I will be a bit busy from now on.] "I understand. Don''t worry about me." Alex nodded before looking outside his windows while thinking how long he should stay in this world and until what point. "Never mind, I should be able to feel whether that is the right time to leave or not in the future. It''s probably going to take at least three years, but I am sure the situation over there will be stable again at that time." Sighing, he then returned inside and closed his window, trying to pass the time with cultivating. The next day, he sensed someone coming to his house and quickly opened his eyes. He then walked to the front while activating his Spirit Eyes. After confirming the person outside, he then opened the door and greeted her. "Good morning. You look like you don''t have a good night." "Thanks to you." She let out a long sigh. "Still, I am thankful. To think our second elder and third elder have an agreement with the Grayfig Family. Our family has indeed been playing in someone''s hand this whole time. Thanks to you, our family can survive this ordeal." "I am still wondering why you can''t suspect your own elders?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Oi, oi. Do you think it''s easy to investigate them openly? This family doesn''t hold a true monarchy that lets the family head do whatever he wants. To make sure that none of them are banding together to rebel, it''s necessary to give them a bit of extra space." "Albeit that extra space is the one that cost you everything." "Yeah. Before it becomes everything, you have saved us. That''s why I would like to thank you. Is there anything you want for this?" "Nah, I am good. I have an agreement with you, so your safety is on my priority list as well." She stared at him for a while before nodding her head. Well, it''s not like I need sleep, and my mind is refreshed now that I have eliminated the threats inside the family. Shall we move on to the original plan?" "Yeah." "Sure." Alex nodded. "This way." She stretched her hand to the door on the side that led to the stone field that had been reinforced by an array, making it perfect for practice. "By the way, the credits are going to my brother, so everyone can accept his previous behavior." "Hmm?!" Alex thought for a moment and agreed with that choice. "So, you can say that the reason he changed in the past was due to eliminating the threat inside the family? And to do that, he didn''t mind being hated by family. That sacrifice will surely touch many people in the family." "Something along the line. At the very least, my brother should be able to take on the position at any moment, albeit he plans to join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect before it." "In that case¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Don''t worry. The recommendation letter is still for me. He wants to challenge everything from the start to show that he has changed for the better. In other words, we might meet my brother in the sect." She glanced at Alex''s expression. "I understand, but I need to warn you first, his safety is not my priority. And don''t try to risk your life during that time to take advantage of this agreement, so I will help you. I can''t afford my identity to get known for the time being." What Alex meant was his real identity. If this world knew about him, it would spread to all worlds in its surrounding. At that time, not only he but Eulja would also be in danger. "Don''t worry. He should be fine, and I will help him from time to time without you. Besides, Young Master Nyx must have a big identity to hide his God Rank strength." She smiled as if she had seen through Alex''s strength. "God Rank Expert, huh. I don''t know how I should feel when the one I invited to join my influence is too smart. It somehow scares me because I won''t know what you are thinking." Alex glanced at her and didn''t deny her of his strength. "Still, I will make it clear. Now that you know my real strength, one wrong move, I might accidentally destroy your family." "I understand. I am just curious to see what kind of person would send a God Rank Expert like you, moreover, you look like a young master or such according to your strength and age. That''s why I can''t comprehend your action to come to this world. You should be cultivating in your own world for better protection." "I have my own reason." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, it''s better to train." "I understand." Since Alex didn''t want to talk about it, she decided to stop to get any information from him. They then walked toward the field as she stepped forward and turned back at him. "I am going to show you Sword Qi first and what is the difference between it and Sword Intent." Alex nodded and stepped back to get a better look. He wondered whether his Sword Mastery could help him on this as well. "First of all, this is Sword Qi." She released the same energy that she used against the worm and spread it, so Alex could feel it. It was a strange feeling for him. ''This Sword Qi¡­ It''s sharp like Sword Intent, but it can actually injure someone in the process. However, I don''t think it can weaken an enemy''s attack like Sword Intent.'' "So, how do you feel?" She asked with a smile. "It''s different from Sword Intent, but I feel something strange. It''s a kind of Soul and Spiritual Energy. The Sword Intent is like our soul, while this Sword Qi is the energy. But¡­" She widened her eyes, never expecting Alex to learn this much just by feeling it for a few seconds. She believed there was no one who could do it as fast as him in this world, so it certainly surprised her. Even so, Alex''s answer wasn''t perfect, and she decided to complete it. "You are right in that comparison part. However, you miss one point. Unlike Soul and Spiritual Energy, we can use this Sword Qi to fuel the Sword Intent, making it sharp enough to injure someone or even materialize an attack with that." "Ho?!" Alex thought for a moment. He had expected the first half but was quite surprised by the other half. "Materializing an attack?" "Yes. Just like how you conjure a Martial Art with Spiritual Energy, you can conjure an attack with the Sword Qi, albeit you need a container for that." "And that container is the Sword Intent," Alex answered. "You''re right." She nodded. "However, the Spiritual Energy originates from the Heart, right?" "Yeah. After cultivating, it is absorbed by the heart as it turns into our own." "However, the Sword Qi is not from there. Instead, it''s our soul that converts the Spiritual Energy to Sword Qi with the help of Sword Intent." "Turning the Spiritual Energy to Sword Qi with the help of Sword Intent," Alex repeated in a low voice before he suddenly realized what was going on. "I see. It''s a kind of coating and fusing our Sword Intent with Spiritual Energy. The soul is the one stabilizing it and harmonizing it. Then, the Sword Qi is born." She drew a gasp, wondering what kind of monster Alex was. This might be the first time someone understood the concept without a full explanation. She even doubted the fact that he had never learned Sword Qi. Unbeknownst to her, Alex already had Sword Qi and Spear Qi. Unfortunately, it wasn''t derived from cultivating like the ones in this world. Instead, it came from the fruit of the technique called Sword and Spear Possession. Even so, Alex had been observing it for a while, so he certainly knew one or two things about it. "But converting the Spiritual Energy to the Sword Qi is easier said than done. Even the Peerless Sword God in the past said he only mastered it in three days, so I guessed you need a bit more time to do that." She warned him, hoping that he actually needed more than three days or else she might faint from shock. "What should I do to convert them?" "You need to release your Sword Intent and assimilate it with the Spiritual Energy around. If you succeed in transforming the energy, you may begin to absorb them and make them your own." Alex nodded. "Should I do it now? Or do you want to explain more things?" "I will let you try first to know how it feels." Hearing the confirmation, he then sat on the ground in a lotus pose before releasing his Sword Intent. The moment she felt this, she realized once more that Alex was really a God Rank Expert. As much as he wanted to hide it, he couldn''t hide the fact that his Sword Intent was far stronger than her. She was a Sword Saint, so it was obvious what Alex''s level was. ''Hmm? Although I don''t know much about God Rank Experts, I have heard the fact that they need one more process to convert the Spiritual Energy first into Divine Energy before assimilating it with his Sword Intent.'' She didn''t say this because she never experienced it, so she didn''t want to give him misinformation without checking it first. As she expected, when Alex began releasing his Sword Intent and assimilated it with the Spiritual Energy, it clashed, creating a spark around the area. Aria was forced to retreat a few steps so she didn''t get hit by those sparks. "By the way, I want to ask something. Is there any record about someone combining the intent and Spiritual Energy with their element as a catalyst?" Alex asked while maintaining his focus. "No. You shouldn''t do that. In this case, your element is considered as impurities. There is a benefit in doing that, but it''s not worth it if you see the disadvantages it will bring." She shook her head while feeling the energy around to check whether Alex used his element or not. She couldn''t see, so she only relied on her senses to check. Fortunately, Alex had yet to do it and asked first. Knowing the answer, he nodded and continued. He tried to assimilate it with his Sword Intent but soon realized that the Sword Intent was killing the Spiritual Energy as the two levels were not the same. ''Is there something wrong with this?'' Alex furrowed his eyebrows before recalling to the sliver of his Sword Qi and Spear Qi he had. "Ah, I see. How about this?" Alex realized the fact that his Sword Qi and Spear Qi contained Divine Energy instead of Spiritual Energy. In that case, he pulled all the Spiritual Energy and converted it into Divine Energy first like how he cultivated it, but he immediately released it to the air instead of absorbing it. "This¡­" Aria sweatdropped. 910 Training However, she didn''t shout or whatever because she knew Alex was concentrating. She didn''t want to break that focus but was still thinking. ''He is not in an enlightenment state, right? How can he be such a monster even in a normal form? What will happen if he is enlightened? It''s going to be a disaster.'' Alex didn''t know her thought, no, he just didn''t have time to think about that as he was currently mixing his Sword Intent with the Divine Energy. Luckily, Aria was smart enough to realize that he was a God Rank Expert who sealed his cultivation away or else she might be triggered at this moment. And it was fortunate that he didn''t play dumb earlier. To his surprise, there was a balance of these two this time. The Divine Energy was not overbearing and pushed away the Sword Intent while the latter was not powerful enough to extinguish the Spiritual Energy. Still, the fusing process took too long because Alex didn''t know the efficient way to fuse them, especially with the current intensity of energy he had. It would be much better if he actually did this with Spiritual Energy since it shouldn''t take this long and changed everything when the Divine Tribulation baptized him. There was no point in crying over spilled milk. He simply chose to not care about his cultivation speed of Sword Qi and Spear Qi at this point. At the same time, he was curious whether the Sword God actually left an inheritance in this world or not since he might be planning to acquire it. Of course, he planned to give some of it to Aria and let her be in the spotlight. Anyway, he shouldn''t have this kind of thought for the time being and continued to fuse more and more energy to see which way could succeed. It was basically trials and errors this time. Thirty hours passed, and the sky turned orange, but there was no sign of him moving and succeeding. Aria unconsciously pumped her fist and thought, ''Two days more.'' On one hand, he wanted to see Alex''s real capability. On the other hand, if his potential was bigger than the Peerless Sword God that achieved God King Rank in the past, she would be too shocked. That was why her heart was filled with complicated emotions at this point. She waited for a few more hours before she suddenly opened her eyes. Even though she couldn''t see anything, it was enough to express the shock that she experienced right now. "This is¡­ Sword Qi!" She opened her mouth in amazement while trembling. "This is impossible¡­ He doesn''t even need a day to achieve this?" She forgot to keep it in her thought and subconsciously shouted out loud. "I can clearly hear you, you know." "Ah?!" She instantly covered her mouth with her hands. "Help, huh." She thought for a moment and nodded before changing her attitude. "Boss, I am wondering where I can start working in your influence¡­" "Oi, oi." Alex gradually opened his eyes and stopped cultivating. Since he had understood the principle of turning the Divine Energy into Sword Qi, he could replicate it again, so it was fine to stop for a moment. "Hehe. I can''t help it. For whatever reason, I can only see you as a monster that surpasses the Peerless Sword God in this world, so I think it''s fine working for you if I am chasing for benefits." She grinned. Alex shrugged. "Ugh? You don''t want a subordinate? Then, how about a disciple? Can I worship you as my master, or maybe you want my body as the exchange for teaching me?" said Aria with a playful tone. "Enough of that." Alex sighed. "There is a difference between working in this world and my influence. After you reach God Rank Expert and travel between worlds, you will gradually learn my name, and you will surely know the weight of what you said earlier. At that time, you need to think carefully and choose." "Hehe, you are very mysterious, Nyx. I am even curious at this point, wondering what your real name is." She smirked. Alex didn''t say anything regarding that. Aria also understood that and stopped at that point. "Anyway, I think you will be fine if I leave you, right?" "I will be doing it for three days to see whether I can improve this condition. After that, come back here. I plan to teach you all the things you want to know about the sword. I want to make your ability good first, so it''s even more believable when people see you in the spotlight." "I am just a figurehead, huh. Not that I reject it though." She nodded. "I understand. Since that is the case, I will return in three days." "Yeah." Alex nodded. "By the way, how should I call you?" "You are the one guaranteeing my identity, so just call me with my name." "I understand. You can call me Aria too. See you in three days, Nyx." "Sure." Alex nodded. After she went back, Alex started his training again. He hadn''t absorbed any Sword Qi earlier, so he wanted to go all the way this time. He began with the assimilation process before absorbing the Sword Qi inside his body. To his surprise, his soul immediately reacted to this as it approached the Sword Qi. His soul was a kind of his clone, so he wondered what he would do in this situation. Feeling the sharp Sword Qi, Alex''s soul still waited since it would only move according to Alex''s direction. On the other hand, the latter tried to feel the energy first to see what he could do. Unfortunately, as he expected, his soul couldn''t do anything. His current soul was that of a Martial Saint, and it was obliterated by the sharp Sword Qi. Because of that, he opened his seal and let out his Divine Soul to take over the current soul. At this time, the Sword Qi finally got its match. It tried to destroy the soul but realized it had the power to resist it. After that, Alex tried to embrace the Sword Qi, but nothing happened. The trials and errors began again before he tried to make his soul cultivate like the usual him. The soul sat down on the ground in a lotus pose before absorbing the energy around it, which, in this case, was the Sword Qi. And it turned out he was right. The soul was capable of cultivating. "This is truly a long process¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "First, I need to turn the Spiritual Energy into Divine Energy first before assimilating it with my Sword Intent to turn it into Divine Sword Qi. After that, the soul can absorb it. The problem is everything gives my identity away as a God Rank Expert. If there is someone strong enough to learn about my soul, I can say goodbye to this mission. Well, I have gotten the way to cultivate the Sword Qi though, so I won''t lose much. "However, I might be able to get a better cultivation technique in this world, so I shouldn''t leave yet. That''s why I need to work hard to maximize the profit with the little time I have, and I think I should be fine as long as there is no invasion that alerts the entire planet to make all their God Rank Experts release their energy. "And I think I have one mission in this world. If that Peerless Sword God left an inheritance, I am going to take it." Alex smirked. "I will ask Aria if she knows anything about it." Alex nodded and returned to his cultivation. After a whole day trying a few tricks, he chose one method that allowed him to gather faster than any other method. Not only that, but he also decided to change from cultivating his Sword Qi to Spear Qi. When everyone was around, he could only cultivate Sword Qi, so he needed to make sure that his Spear Qi wasn''t left behind. With this determination, he dedicated the rest of his time to Spear Qi. Luckily, the method was not different from the Sword Qi, except it used the Spear Qi. And three days has finally passed. Aria returned with a black and white training outfit that allowed her to move easily. She seemed to be pumped up to train with Alex. Not only she could learn a thing or two from a peerless genius, but she could also see the depth of his strength. When she saw him again cultivating his Sword Qi smoothly, she didn''t know what to do with him anymore. After that, their training together began. Aria showed every move in her possessions, and Alex debunked it in a single glance. They even used a spar to see Aria''s ability, albeit Alex deciphered everything and could even replicate the move if he wanted after a few tries. When she saw Alex using her techniques, especially the high-speed movement she was proud of, she was speechless, classifying him as a freak. Not a normal person could replicate one''s techniques just by seeing it a few times. Although he didn''t use any Sword Qi in the process, it was still surprising enough. At the very least, Alex taught her a few things to improve in those high-speed movements and connect every single movement as if it was a dance. In the end, she even called that set of movements Bletz Sword Dance. Bletz seemed to be their ancient language for Lightning, so it was perfect for her Sword Dance. They stayed for three weeks inside the Cypress Family, and no one even came to bother Alex. And according to her, her father wanted to thank Alex for saving and teaching her daughter, albeit he could only hide that idea for the time being because Alex didn''t want to meet him. Unaware of his identity, he didn''t dare to approach Alex easily, especially after the warning his daughter gave to him. Because of his interference, his son could actually return to the right path. And he even helped the entire family from the Grayfig Family. When the day they needed to leave came, Aria came to him with a smile. "Nyx, we have everything ready, including the bait. We are going to leave with them at the moment before separating at one point. Don''t worry, these people are trustworthy, so it should be possible to fool them." Aria smiled with confidence. Although she knew that Alex would be able to eliminate the Grayfig Family, she never mentioned it ever since because she didn''t want to be reliant on Alex''s strength. Alex checked everything first before nodding his head. "My father will surely find you this time, but don''t worry, it will be fine. Besides, my brother has gone a week earlier because he is taking the normal route to enroll, but we have dispatched numerous small parties consisting of Martial Saints over a few days, so we are prepared to ambush them." Alex nodded. "I am not going to participate in that matter." "I know you would say that." She smiled and stretched her hand. "Let''s go." "Sure." Alex paused for a moment before asking. "By the way, what are we going to do with the enrollment? I mean, I haven''t gone through the details since we can do it on the way." "It''s nothing complicated. With the recommendation letter, we will be prioritized. I will explain the details on the way." She nodded. "Alright then." Alex and Aria then went toward the main entrance. 911 Going to the Sec The speed that this monster would be able to pull was faster than your average monster. In fact, they chose specifically the fastest monster in the Martial Saint Stage. And Alex could find an array that powered up the carriage to float, making it a weightless carriage. Because it stayed on land and not floated in the sky, the power consumption was also low. This might be the most efficient way to transport people instead of having a floating ship in the sky. Except, there were forests and towns along the way, making it hard for land transportation like this to cross. He wondered if this carriage could float only when they needed it, but nonetheless, there was still one more important person that he needed to meet before getting inside the carriage. It was a middle-aged man, almost looked like an old man, facing directly at him. His eyes still held the fierceness just like the good old day as he tried to observe this mysterious man that had saved his daughter. Aria had requested to leave without anyone here, but it was impossible. At the very least, he should be present to see off the carriage and a few other things. Alex also had adjusted his power to a 6-Star Martial Saint instead of 1-Star, or else it would become suspicious on how he could fight against ten Martial Saints. He clasped his hands and slightly bowed to him, showing his respect to Aria''s father and the head of the Cypress Family. The latter found what he meant and let out a long sigh. "I am not your match in terms of like this¡­ Such a powerful young man." "Father." Aria also bowed her head to her father while smiling. "We will be going in a few minutes, and I believe everything is prepared, right?" "Of course. This is the recommendation letter for you." He handed two tokens and a letter to her. "This is the proof identity of our Cypress Family and the token of Unsurpassed Blade Sect. The elder in charge of the enrollment will surely instruct you on what you should do next." "I understand. I shall show this to the elder." She nodded. "Although it won''t be as much as you, I am sure he can follow you for a special admittance, albeit won''t get your kind of luxury. It can be said it''s a kind of tagging along." He nodded. "Alright." She smiled and hugged her father. "Father, I will miss you." "Don''t worry about me. Just make sure you keep getting stronger there. You and Adrian will always be my pride, and make sure to whip his ass if he turns bad again." "¡­" Her father fell silent while sweating inside. "You girl¡­ Who do you take after, really¡­" "Of course, it''s Mother. You were often beaten up by her in the past. I will surely get stronger and pay everything Grayfig Family has done in the past." She smirked. "Haiz. You can let your brother do it because I know that you want freedom the most. However, exempting you from arranged marriage is the most I can do." "It''s fine. At the very least, it won''t hinder me during this time. When I return, if I say the sun rises from the north, the elders won''t say it rises from the south." She grinned. "Haha, sure. Try to reach God Rank as soon as possible. I don''t know why, but your mother''s last words told me that the world would soon become turmoil." "I heed Father''s words." She clasped her hand politely. The father then looked at Alex while narrowing his eyes. There was a sense of mystery coming from this man. Not only was he able to see through the plot coming from the elder in the day he actually came to this family, but he also had this mysterious aura surrounding him, telling him that he needed to be careful against this man. At the same time, the mask that covered only the upper part of his head made it look like he was a man with stories. Nonetheless, he shouldn''t be that ungrateful for what he had done to this family. He took a deep breath and stretched his hand while smiling. "I am grateful for what you have done, especially concerning my daughter. So, I would like to leave my daughter in your hand." Alex twitched his eyebrows as if he felt a hidden intention in his words earlier. Knowing what to do, he chose to clasp his hand and nodded. "I will surely take care of her safety." The man looked at his hand and smiled, knowing how careful Alex was. He left his daughter in his hand to show whether he had a special attachment to his daughter. Unfortunately, Alex only confirmed her safety, telling him that he didn''t have any special feelings for his daughter. At the same time, if he shook his hand, he could sense his age from his bone alone. Although it wouldn''t be that accurate, he could still see how old he was compared to his daughter. And this would also show him the difference in their talent. And Aria also knew this. She even thought what her father would say that the one in front of him was a forty years old God Rank Expert, he might go insane. "Then, Father. It''s time for us to leave." She smiled and asked Alex to come in. Alex nodded and got in after her before the father waved his hand and closed the door for them. "Be careful, Daughter." "Yes." She smiled, and the carriage finally started moving. "You are very careful, huh." She pouted. "I don''t know what you are talking about." Alex played dumb while sealing his cultivation again to 1-Star Martial Saint. "The sect will surely check your cultivation, you know. Do you think you can easily fool them with that sealing technique of yours?" "This hasn''t disappointed me even once." Alex smiled while thinking, ''It could even fool many worlds, so it wouldn''t expel them or send Lightning Tribulation toward them. There is no way a world like this has the power to sense it.'' "Since you are that confident, I won''t say much then." She nodded. "Now, onto the details. We still have a few hours before leaving this carriage to set up the trap. My body double is waiting for me there along with the additional guards. Well, the current guards are waiting for us outside the town right now." "Sure." "According to the letter my brother gave me, there will be around a thousand people, with most of them coming from great backgrounds, participating in this enrollment process. During that time, only a hundred to two hundred will be accepted, depending on their performances. "As for the test, I am not sure myself, but there is a clue regarding this test. First, it will test your talent to wield a weapon. The second test will be a battle royal. We are going to find something during this time, and those with a certain of points or ranks are qualified to take the third test. "The third test itself is unknown. It depends on the elder in charge. During the past enrollments, some were blessings and gave them many advantages early on, while some were misfortune and held them back for a year or two. "Still, whether it was misfortune or blessing, you could easily differentiate a true talent among the current batch of disciples. I believe they use that to check something like that, and luck is also a part of strength." "I completely agree with the luck part." As a Gacha Master, no one would understand how much he relied on luck. "Then, I would like to know a bit of backstory about you, so when people ask me, I can give the same answer." She smiled, trying to prepare everything. Alex widened his eyes as he never thought of this. This girl was surely one that made thorough preparation before doing something. He nodded and started explaining his circumstances. "I am Nyx, an orphan. I have been training in a certain master during my childhood. According to my master, he was one of the peak masters in this world, but because I didn''t have strength, I couldn''t know his true strength, but despite my strength, I still believed I couldn''t fight him at all. "After passing away, he asked to join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect because of my talent in the sword. I didn''t know whether he was a loose cultivator or someone coming from a sect, so what do you think?" "Alright. We will have the backstory as such. Knowing too much is also suspicious, so it''s enough for me. The rest will be on you." She nodded. "We can say that on the way to the sect, you met me and saved me. Because of that, I tried to repay you by leading you to the sect and did all this." "Alright then." Alex agreed with the backstory with her. "Actually, I would like to ask one thing from you." "Sure. Ask me anything, I will tell you if I know it." "Did the Peerless Sword God leave a legacy?" "The Peerless Sword God?" She widened, never expecting Alex to have such an aim. She even wondered whether his true aim was this. Even so, she had no intention of lying. "Yes, he left a legacy¡ªa few in fact. Three of them are inside the Unsurpassed Blade Sect since he was an alumnus there. While there were two for the whole world." "Ho?!" He narrowed his eyes. "I will tell you about those in the sect first. The first thing he left behind was his sword. It could be said that the one who could lift that sword would be the leader of the sect and reached the top of the world." "Since he was a God King, I am sure that the Sword is a peak Divine Weapon. Even the passing time won''t reduce the sword''s sharpness. However, I have no intention for that." Alex nodded. He had two reasons for not aiming that sword. First, he already asked for a custom-made weapon from the Blackwade Clan. Second, he would gather too much attention during the process. "I understand your point." She nodded in agreement. "The second thing is a Sword Cave." "A Sword Cave?" "Yes. It''s a kind of cave with a huge amount of Sword Qi. He broke through in this cave, so when people came in, it would be easier to comprehend Sword Qi." "Oh, there is such a thing? This is a good place to train." He nodded. "What is the third thing then?" "The third thing is the Sword Stone." "What is the use of the Sword Stone?" "This is a kind of giant stone with Sword Qi engraved on it. This Sword Qi contains powerful Martial Arts that the Sword God used in the past. That was why many were trying to comprehend the things inside to wield his Martial Arts. It was said that the Martial Arts had been polished to such a degree." "His Martial Arts?" Alex stared at her in amazement. He heard the tale about the Peerless Sword God. In terms of swordsmanship, even his previous life couldn''t handle him. Even though both could cut a small world, he was able to cut a bigger one than his previous life. To train his Martial Art, this might be his chance, Alex thought. "This one is interesting." "You might be able to do it if what you have shown me during the past few weeks were true." She rolled her eyes. "What are the two things he left for the world?" "They are¡­" 912 Arrival "Ah, I see." Alex nodded in understanding. "All of them are giving the rewards, so they can invite the talented people there. Well, the three can combine or each year they can hold a contest of their own¡­ Nonetheless, it is only a place where one searches for fame." "Indeed. The second place is the Sword Pavilion. This one is a bit special. The Peerless Sword God said that many people still couldn''t have access to cultivation, so he founded the Sword Pavilion to handle that. "This Sword Pavilion is a bit weird. There is no one who handles it, and the three influences have agreed to not handle it and repel those who want to make it their own. However, there seems to be someone who controls the entire pavilion because it gives people Cultivation Techniques and Martial Arts if one manages to beat the trial." "Trial?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes. The Pavilion always opens every ten years, and it judges someone by talent instead of cultivation. That''s why whether you are weak or strong, you will have a different set of trials that suits your current strength. This allows many people that are known as trash to emerge and become a powerhouse." "I see. That is a good place." Alex nodded. "The three influences are sending their disciples to compete too, and I think we can join in another two years." She thought for a moment, calculating the time since the last opening. "Since there is no limitation, have you entered that place?" He asked. "Yes. I have once. Because the age limit is a hundred years old, I have entered it twice. The first time I got guidance on how to fight people without looking. And yes, that is a technique that enhances my senses. It''s a special technique that suits blind people the most because they have been relying on their other senses since the start. "As for the second time, I got another guidance about my high-speed movements. Unfortunately, it wasn''t perfect during this whole time before you guided me to perfect it and turned it into a full complete dance." She smiled. "I see." "That''s also where I was recognized by the people to the point they sent me this recommendation letter." "It''s your talent." Alex nodded. "Your talent reminds me of someone in my world. She is a Sword Genius." "Ho?! To think there is someone you hold in high regard. And I am honored to be seen as the same as her." She smiled, feeling a bit better. "Though, you are still a freak." "I have heard that a lot." "Good luck." Alex nodded. "By the way, there is something bothering me." "Hmm?" "Why do you sound like you are talking to me as if I am a child." She pouted. "Although normally people think of someone with lower cultivation as their junior, I am still older than you, you know." "You have said the answer," Alex smirked. "Is that really the reason?" "Not really. I just have grown accustomed to this kind of style while teaching someone. You can say it has become a habit." "I don''t know whether that is a bad habit or a good habit." She sighed. "Nyx, you said that I need to see many worlds first before thinking about joining you, right?" "Not exactly, but something similar to it." "How about we make a bet? This is a bet between us." "Hoh?" Alex smirked. "Before you leave this world, I will make you change your opinion about me and think of me as someone equal. It might not be in terms of cultivation, but something else. I don''t know what it is, but it''s something like that. If I win, please tell me your real name. If I lose, I will join your influence in the future." Alex widened his eyes, never expecting her to make such a bet. "The terms are against me, you know." "Well, it''s not like I will use your name for anything." She shrugged. "Ah, right. I will make sure you don''t treat me as a little girl again. That''s the terms." "I guess that is fine." Alex shrugged. "Hehe¡­" She smirked. "Are you ready to lose?" Alex shrugged. "Lose and win won''t matter." Aria couldn''t understand that but still got fired up. She added this challenge was not to challenge Alex to be honest. This challenge was for herself. With a wall this big, she needed to improve tremendously during this period of time, so it was a good goal. That might also be the reason why Alex said Lose and Win won''t matter. After agreeing to the bet, Alex looked outside the window and realized that the monster seemed to have been trained that it could bring them without someone monitoring them. Still, Alex wasn''t really blown away by this because he had a few spaceships that could travel in outer space at a very high speed. That alone was enough for him to not get surprised by any transportations. "By the way, I want to ask you something." "Sure." She nodded. "What do you want to ask?" "Are there any people in the Grayfig Family that have connections with the three sects? Or at least, God Rank Experts?" "I don''t think so. But concerning how manipulative their second young master is, I feel like they will soon have one. From my information, he is the one attending the enrollment today, so I need to eliminate him as soon as possible." She nodded. "Want me to eliminate him? He is a potential threat to my identity as well." "But I don''t think I can find a place to kill him." She shook her head. "And he is not foolish enough to get into a trap like that." "Certainly. There must be some sort of rules in the sect, and he will surely take advantage of those rules." "Yes. There is a non-killing rule inside the sect. As for outside the sect, it''s free for all. Of course, most disciples don''t have grudges to kill others easily, but I think there are many cases about this. That''s why the sect is a place for elites who can survive. That might also be the reason why the sect employs the favorite disciples instead of personal disciples." "Hoh?!" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Favorite disciples are a kind of the face of an elder. They are given a few more authorities, but the elders don''t have permission to make them their personal disciples. That''s why if they are killed by someone, no elders can''t complain. And everything will be placed under the trials of all elders inside the sect, and the sect master will conclude it." "I see." Alex understood a portion of it. In other words, it was a kind of personal disciple but with many restrictions upon them. "At the very least, we will be fine as long as we stay inside the sect." Alex nodded. "Yeah. The problem is that we have to be extra careful as to not get ambushed." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. He wondered whether he should summon all the N squads except Nelson here, but because they can''t level up anymore without cultivating, he is hesitant to do it. He might be summoning the other Rare Rank N Squad like Njomo, but only them, he thought. Not only was there a chance for them to be discovered, but they also couldn''t keep up with their cultivation. ''I will deal with everything with Njomo for now. Maybe I will summon one or two before making a shift for them, so Ngina, Nicole or even Nelson can focus on cultivating. As much as I don''t want to do favoritism, this is needed.'' Alex thought while sighing inwardly. They kept going for a few hours before they arrived in a forest. To go through this forest, they needed to fly above it by pouring more Spirit Crystal, but the entrance of this forest wasn''t really surrounded by trees, so it would be fine to ride a bit more. And this became a perfect place for the exchange. They were stopped by a few people, including Aria''s body double. The girl looked exactly like Aria, but the guards with her were far stronger than the one originally came with them. This would surely allow them to fool the enemies. "Lady Aria. We have been waiting for you." The girl politely bowed. "I am sorry for giving you all a dangerous job." She came out of the carriage while apologizing. "Please don''t apologize. Without the Cypress Family and Family Head, we would have died long ago." She smiled. "We want to pay them back by doing this, and there is no hard feeling among us because Master asked us instead of ordering us. In other words, this is all voluntary. And we don''t have any plan in dying." "I understand. I will leave it to you." Aria smiled. "Yes." "By the way, where is the ambush that Adrian has set up?" "They are in a city three hours away from here, and they will keep up with us while moving. We have stationed a few people to send a signal to them as soon as the ambushers appear." "I see. Don''t die, you hear me?" Aria nodded with a serious expression. "Yes, Young Lady. We will return safely." She smiled. "The original guards are to stand by inside this forest, so they won''t be suspicious of us. If they are not coming back within the time limit, all of you need to go back to inform my father." "Yes, Young Lady." "Then, it''s time for me to go." She nodded, taking out a Teleportation Array Plate. She activated it and teleported with Alex. They then proceeded according to the original route. It took them around five days to reach their destination, and Alex kept using his Spirit Eyes during that time to ensure no one found them sneaking around. Aria also covered herself with a long coat that covered her body and hid her face with a mask. If Alex utilized his God Rank''s speed, they might arrive in one day by flying, but it would be hard to utilize it. Not only would it blow his cover away, but Aria might also not be able to keep up with that pace even with his help. Or the pressure coming from that kind of speed might be a bit too much for her unless he covered her with Divine Energy, which he didn''t want to use. Even so, the journey wasn''t as boring as Alex expected because Aria kept talking about any information in this world, cramming every common sense they had in this world to make sure Alex could blend in. Alex kept listening to her and talked about the sword to pay her back for this lecture. Aria might not be able to practice them for the time being, but she would know what she needed to do as soon as they entered the sect. Five days had passed, and Alex saw a huge bustling city on the foot of a mountain range. In those mountain peaks, he could see many God Rank Experts staying there, enjoying the rich Spiritual Energy. However, there was one thing that caught his eyes. It was a giant red gate. According to Aria, that was the entrance of the Unsurpassed Blade Sect, and it seemed the gate could check someone''s age. That was the first thing they needed to do since the elders in the enrollment process needed to confirm their age to see their talent. Alex and Aria then went inside the city. 913 Two Elders The city wasn''t really that big, even though it was a city that was on the bottom of the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Behind the giant gate they discussed earlier, they saw two elders confirming every single disciple that enrolled this year. However, there was a line where only those who got recommendation letters could come. And it was occupied only by a single person. Considering the timing of the enrollment, it showed why only a few people got this technique. Still, the man who was currently discussing his entry with the elders in charge was a young man with long blue hair. He had this gentle expression that one would feel he was a gentle person when they met him. However, there was this expression that the elders could see behind her smile. Even so, they finished his process as if they didn''t notice it and asked him to come inside the sect and waited there. The young man politely clasped his hands and bowed. Alex furrowed his eyebrows immediately as he sensed killing intent leaked out of Aria''s eyes. "Is that guy the second young master? What is his name again?" "Gasha, Gasha Grayfig." "As expected, he is hiding his cultivation this whole time." Alex nodded. "He is a 2-Star Martial Saint." "2-Star¡­" She gritted her teeth. "When I am strong enough, I will kill him." "Your choice." He shrugged. "Thank you. At least, this confirms that I need to be extra careful in dealing with him." "Yeah. Just make sure you do it fast." Alex nodded. She nodded. "Anyway, we will need to pass that gate first and ask the female beside the gate to issue the card to show our age. After that, I will give them a recommendation letter to the elders. Hopefully, the elders are nice, not the ones who are full of themselves because they have authority." "I agree. It''s easier to see an elder that is easy going. They are easier to approach after all." Alex nodded. "With your strength, you must have a disciple, right? And from the way you taught me, I felt that you have grown accustomed to teaching someone. I am envious of your disciple. After all, I might be able to improve further if I have more time." She smiled. "Overpraised." Alex shook his head and replied humbly. "I only have one disciple. Well, I am also a kind of mentor to another one, but yeah, I think that''s all." "Still, it''s fun to practice sword with you. I mean, you are easy going and easy to approach, so I have never felt like holding anything back when asking a question to you. Of course, the training part was certainly hellish." She smiled. "Now, now. You want nostalgia here?" Alex glanced at her with a smile. "Ahaha, I apologize." She smiled and stretched her hand to the front. "Let''s go." "Yeah." A few minutes later, they arrived in front of the giant gate. Aria approached a young lady beside the gate while clasping her hands politely. "Excuse me." "Yes. Do you need anything? If you are going to participate in the disciple selection, you can start lining up. But if you have a recommendation letter from an elder, you can pass it to me, and I will help you process it." She smiled. Alex narrowed his eyes when he saw this blonde hair girl talking like this. Her strength was equal to him, Rank 9 God, but he didn''t know there was a type of God like this. Not only was she a beauty, but she also seemed to wear an illusion type array that covered her face. ''Undercover?'' Alex thought. ''Still, I have never expected that there will be a Rank 9 God to help new disciples¡­ I wonder if she is a special case or something?'' "I am Aria Cypress, and I have a letter of recommendation here." She smiled. "Well, I would like to ask for help a little bit. Because of certain circumstances, I would like to bring someone with me. And I can assure you that he is even more talented than me." "Oh?! The elder recommendation is something only one person can use, but if he is like what you are saying, I think I can inform the elder whether to give special permission or not." She read the letter before nodding her head. "I understand." She nodded. "What should we do?" The female then glanced at Alex before she opened her mouth in surprise. His 1-Star Martial Saint strength indeed shocked her, but there was this strange feeling in her heart, telling her that the man in front of her was dangerous. At the same time, she felt the observing gaze of this man that seemed to have seen through her disguise. This was the first time she saw someone like him, so she thought for a moment and nodded. "First of all, I would like you to touch the pillar." She smiled. Aria nodded and placed her hand on the pillar as around the touched area shone as soon as the lady placed the paper on the pillar before reading it. "Hmm¡­ Aria Cypress, 61 years old, 9-Star Martial Monarch. From the aura alone, you must have broken through not long ago. You might even reach Martial Saint before seventy years old. I am looking forward to your growth." She nodded before glancing at Alex. "Can you place your hand too?" "Before that, I would like to request you to keep this a secret. At least, can you not make a ruckus here?" "Oh?! You are a 1-Star Martial Saint, but I indeed feel that you are not your average man¡­" She thought for a moment. "Alright. I promise you." Alex then placed his hand on the pillar. She then placed another paper on the ground and read it. She drew a gasp and wanted to shout, but her hand immediately covered her mouth like how she promised. She glanced back and forth as her hands were shaking. "Now, I understand why you asked me such a thing earlier. Alright. Since that is the case, I will give you permission to enter through the special way. Let me inform the elders first, alright?" Aria and Alex nodded at the same time. ''By the way, what is your true age?'' Alex read the paper earlier and sighed. ''It''s 47 years old.'' ''You are a freak. 47 years old God Rank Expert, I don''t think I have heard anyone come close to your achievement.'' She glared at him. Alex shrugged. The same with the fact that the earlier female didn''t know Alex''s true strength, Aria also didn''t know that Alex spent the last decade training all of his ability, showing little progress in his cultivation. If she knew that Alex could reach Rank 8 God, if not Rank 7, what would she do? Not long after that, the female returned and guided them to the elders. "This is Elder Gian and Elder Illevis. They are the ones in charge here." She smiled, introducing two elders, one male and one female. "Greetings, Elders." They both clasped their hands politely. "It''s fine, it''s fine. I was surprised earlier to hear something crazy, but I see¡­" The female elder nodded. "Welcome to the sect. Elder Gian¡­" "Sure." He nodded. "This is your token." There was only one token that was handed to Aria. However, this meant Alex was left with empty hands. Considering the fact that the female earlier only told the woman before him, only the woman knew about his true worth. "Elder Gian. We, Elders, have the special privilege to make one disciple enter with a special rule in exchange they will enter our peak, right?" She smirked. "Yes¡­ Wait. Do you mean?" He widened his eyes and glanced at Alex. Although he knew that Alex was a Martial Saint, he didn''t know his exact age. It was true that a Martial Saint under a hundred years was something, but it certainly wouldn''t be too surprising. And he also kept track with the one she fancied on, Aria Cypress. Her talent was indeed one of a kind, so she must be doing this to satisfy the girl and thought nothing of Alex. He ultimately shrugged. "I don''t care anymore. Your choice." "Hehe¡­" The female elder grinned as she handed the token to Alex. "Welcome to the sect. After this, you can go in by following the route on our right." Alex and Aria nodded as they clasped their hands, ready to walk away. "Wait! Although I have confirmed your identity, I still need to see your real appearance, so I can recognize you. At the very least, I will recognize one of you, the rumored Lightning Sword Princess, Aria Cypress." He stopped them from going any further. There was still this one procedure where he needed to check their identity. "Actually, the recommendation letter is from me." The female elder beside him smiled while raising her hand. "So, I think he wants to confirm whether you are her, right? At the very least, with you covering the back of your head, only Elder Gian and I can see your face." "Not I want, but we NEED!" He corrected her while she stuck out her tongue. "Oh, you have such a title?" Alex glanced at her curiously. "Ahaha, I can''t be proud of my title." She smiled weirdly before nodding to the elders. "I apologize for my rudeness. There were several reasons why I needed to do this." She put down the mask, revealing her face and her greyish blind eyes. She smiled while trying to look by following the direction of the sound coming from the elders to face them. "Is this fine, right?" "¡­" Elder Gian sucked a cold breath. Although he had prepared for it, it was truly breathtaking when he saw her. He never expected a blind girl to have such prowess that could be said higher than her peers. No wonder she could succeed twice in the Sword Pavilion. "I am sorry for asking you, but yeah, I have confirmed that you are the one that caught my attention in the past. Congratulations on coming here. When you have become an Inner Disciple, please come to my peak, alright?" She smiled. "¡­" "Is it hard to accept even though I was the one giving you the recommendation letter?" Elder Illevis asked. "I am grateful for Elder''s gracefulness, but I need to apologize. I would like to ask a question first before deciding." "Sure." She put on the mask again before asking. "May I know what Elder''s peak is? And I would like to know whether¡­" "I can accept male disciples in my peak, right? My Peak is Sword Blossom Peak. Although it emphasizes the beauty of the sword, I still have many male disciples, so you don''t need to worry." She waved her hand as if she already knew what Aria wanted to know. In fact, he really wanted to see whether the man beside her was capable or not. Still, considering he was younger than her and had higher cultivation, it would be her benefit to receive the two in her peak. However, the same as Aria, she asked Alex, "I am sorry, but I would like to know the face of this gentleman here? I am wondering why both of you wear a mask together¡­ Are you a couple?" "Nope." The two answered at the same time with a flat tone. Although Aria often joked about it, she was never serious, especially after knowing Alex''s wives. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It''s nothing big, but I would like to keep this a secret." "It depends." Alex nodded and finally put down his mask, showing a huge burn mark that covered his right face, around the right eye. It made him look horrific. *Gasp!* They instantly realized why he wore that kind of mask, and the female elder immediately let out a long sigh. "I apologize. Although this is a rule, seeing you two, I should give you something. Well, I will give you something as soon as you arrive at my peak since I don''t really bring anything with me right now." 914 A Small Town "No, no. It''s fine. And I have said it myself, I can only give you when you enter my peak. In other words, you need to be an Inner Disciple first. Though, this guy is already qualified, but let''s talk about it after looking at the test." She smiled. "I-I¡­" She glanced at Alex, who nodded his head. "I understand. I shall do my best." "Good." The elder seemed to be able to get some information from how reliant she was on Alex, making her want to possess Alex even more. Without a doubt, the one in control in this group was Alex, but the one leading everything was Aria. Since she could get Alex by pulling Aria, who she accidentally saw in the past, there was no way she wouldn''t utilize it. Alex observed the elder''s behavior and narrowed his eyes. He didn''t know why, but the male elder looked like the Seventh Elder, the one that brought him to the Heavenly Sword Sect in the past. Meanwhile, the female elder looked like Charya. Although she wasn''t as wild as her, their style of doing things was similar. He didn''t know whether to laugh or cry at this point. At the very least, he would need to handle two people that he had experienced with, so there should be no problem. If the elder were like Aria or that second young master, Gasha Grayfig, he surely wouldn''t have a good time. ''I think it''s time to go.'' Alex informed Aria with a thought transmission. Aria didn''t make any gesture other than clasping her hands. "Then, Elders. I shall come in first." "Sure." She waved her hand until they disappeared from her sight. "Are you sure she is worth it for you to sacrifice that quota?" The male elder couldn''t wait anymore and ask. "The elders in charge of enrollment will change every single time. That''s why we will get the benefit of choosing a disciple by letting such a special admission. At that time, it might be a bad year that you can''t find a single talented disciple while the other time you are lucky that you have the luxury to choose. And after a few times doing this, this is the best choice I would ever make." She grinned. "Is that girl''s talent really that big? Well, we can''t really snatch other elders'' disciples that have a recommendation letter, but I guess you can do that as well¡­ Since you don''t regret it, I shall choose the highest talent during this enrollment, and you won''t be able to fight against me over a disciple." "Hehe¡­ You can try. I will absolutely not regret it." She stuck her tongue as they continued their job. Meanwhile, Alex and Aria walked across a bamboo path across a pond. There they found a certain sign. Go forward to continue. The sign wanted them to cross the river and walked through a bamboo forest, so he checked the forest, not letting a single sign escape. Unfortunately, he didn''t find anything, so he thought it must be a false alarm. "Let''s go." Aria nodded as the two walked forward before finding a small town inside. It was certainly a small town filled with people. When Alex saw their cultivation, he knew they were the disciples that were supposed to be together with them. In total, he could see around sixty people inside the town. Although it looked like a town, the size itself was like that of a village. The entrance was also made of wood as they found an elder sitting outside the entrance while basking under the sunlight. "Excuse us, Elders." They politely greeted the elder. The elder was very old and looked like he was someone who was enjoying his life in a wooden chair that could swing back and forth. "Welcome to the sect. I need to see your tokens first," He said in a low voice. Alex and Aria handed their bronze tokens to the elder. "Hmm?!" When he saw Aria''s token, he didn''t have any special reaction, but the moment he saw Alex''s token, his lips curved. He glanced at Alex and closed his eyes again before giving back the tokens. "The trial will be started in two days. You can go inside this place and go to the left to stay in your lodging until the time comes. I will activate your token now." The two tokens suddenly showed as they showed a certain number. When the two grabbed their tokens, Alex immediately asked Aria to ask the elder about the reason behind the number. "I am sorry, Elder. I would like to ask what is the purpose behind this number." "It''s simple. To pass the test, you will need a certain amount of points. There are items you can exchange inside with those points, so use your point wisely." He smiled. "I see. Thank you, Elder." "Another thing. There is a number on the back of your token. That''s your identification number that will act as anything from your room number and other things." Alex and Aria flipped the token and saw different numbers. 87 70 "Hmm¡­" Alex glanced at Aria''s token and sweatdropped as she almost drew the ''lucky'' number. "Oh, I almost forgot. You can''t stay together in one room to fulfill your passionate night, you know¡­ Haiz, this is the rule that pains my heart¡­ They are trying to break "Youth" that should be the symbol of our new generation." The elder grinned as he teased them. "Nope. We are not like you are talking about, Elder." The two answered at the same time and with the same tone. "Look, you are perfect." "No. I will seriously fall into despair if I am with him." She shook her head. ''I almost got a heart attack when I heard about his cultivation for the first time. He would surely shock me even more, so I am planning to understand his standing first before joining his influence in the future¡­ Probably.'' "No, no. I already have wives." Alex waved his hand, telling him he was wrong. "Ah, wives?!" The old man looked at him with surprise. "I see. I have found a man of cultures. For a young man to say wives, you must love them. I see, I see. And a harem on top of that¡­ Young Man, I have taken a liking of you as another man of culture." "Huh?!" Alex twitched his eyebrows, asking himself. ''What the heck is this old man talking about? Is he really a Rank 4 God?'' "Hyo-ho! Don''t be shy. I have cultivated the art of pleasure. Come learn from me, and I shall teach you the art of the pleasure that can make this woman love you in a single night." The old man looked at him with a serious face as if it was a matter of life and death. "I politely decline." Alex shook his head while sweating inside. ''This old man is insane. He must be that kind of old man that is trying to touch young girls'' butts.'' ''This young guy must be a closet pervert. Hehe, when the girl rejects you for a few years, you will beg me to teach this art to you.'' He laughed inwardly before letting out a long sigh. "Haiz. This is why many kids don''t appreciate their youth. "Many of them have raped women or can''t control their lust. But I have seen your eyes and know that you are different. Listen to me, little guy¡­" The old man opened his mouth and took a deep breath as if he wanted to say something long. ''This¡­ Is this the legendary super long and useless old man''s talk?'' Alex sweatdropped as he didn''t want to stay here for a few hours. "Well, I want to tell my story when I was a youth like you, but back then, a young man rejected me, telling me that I was a fool. And it turned out, he was truly a man of culture, and we got along pretty well in the past. Truly a magnificent memory. When you come to me, let''s talk about it, shall we?" The old man laughed. ''No thanks.'' Alex was already fuming inside. He decided to bow his head and said, "Thank you for the thought alone, Elder. If there is nothing else, we would like to see the town first." "Haiz, you two are boring. Well, off you go." He let out a long sigh. Alex immediately dragged Aria away as they entered the town. ''What should we do?'' Aria looked around, finding a few people watching them. Well, their outfit indeed attracted attention, so they couldn''t help it. ''It''s better to go inside the lodging area and stay there until it starts.'' Having the same plan, they immediately went toward the lodging area, finding a huge building with extravagant decoration. The building itself looked like a mansion, but it stretched very far. Alex immediately activated his Spirit Eyes and checked the building, only to find a few people inside. "There are not many people inside. I think we can talk a bit outside here before checking the town." "Sure. What do you want to talk about?" "Actually, there is nothing. I want to ask you to check the town with me to see what kind of thing they give to newbies like us." Alex shrugged. "Ah! Well, I don''t have anything to do to begin with. Let''s go check this small town then?" "Sure." The two then started checking the town and found something amazing. It was not an item or anything else. It was the fact that this town was trying to sell a few Divine Items, starting from the furnace and other things from Forging to Array, or even the Divine Weapons, or the raw materials. The prince ranged from fifty thousand points to eighty thousand points, depending on the grade. After going around for a few hours, they seemed to gain some kind of understanding of what the town was all about. "I think this town is the cheat they give us," Alex exclaimed with confidence. "Cheat? If you are talking about the secret power-up that will increase our strength in short times to give us an advantage from early on, then I agree with you." She nodded. "Yeah. That''s it." Alex nodded, forgetting the fact that he had gotten too used to that kind of term. "I think the necessary point to pass this test is around seventy thousand to one hundred thousand. Above that, the point doesn''t match with the advantage." Aria gave her opinion she got after observing the town. "Indeed. They seem to want to test us of our ability. If we give a strong performance and gather points faster than anyone else, we can exchange it here and get the advantage. Many might haven''t seen this, but have you noticed the detail of the elder''s clothes¡­ Ah, forget about that. I apologize to not think it through before asking this." "Elder''s clothes?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "I am sorry¡­" "No, no. It should be me who should apologize. Anyway, I will tell you what I saw earlier. The elder also gave us the rule of this town because I saw six words on his clothes." "Hmm?" She tilted her head in anticipation. "No fighting is allowed in town." Alex smiled. "Ah!" She nodded, understanding the meaning behind it. "Although it looks like it''s just a basic instruction while waiting in this town, I believe it holds a different meaning. If we gather points fast enough, we can stay in this town while being protected by the rule. At that time, we can cultivate faster than anyone here without being bothered by others." "Yes." Alex grinned. "Anyway, I think it''s better to check our room first. We can discuss this again tomorrow." "I understand." 915 Sword Cave When morning came, Alex met up with Aria right in front of the lodging area. "Nyx. Are you ready for today?" Aria greeted him with a smile while fixing her hair and putting on her mask. "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Still, there are a total of eighty-three people with a letter recommendation. Their strength is ranging from 5-Star Martial Monarch to 3-Star Martial Saint. Most of them are in 7-Star to 8-Star Martial Monarch though." "I see. We have the advantage for this test then." She nodded. "We will only need to wait for the elder to explain the test, I guess." "Yeah. According to the elder we saw at the entrance, it will start two days from now. I don''t know whether it has started or not, but let''s check the town first." Alex nodded. "Sure." She nodded. The two then walked toward the center of the town, finding many people waiting for the test. Alex didn''t forget to check their number to see if they missed someone or not because it would be a clue to what they would do. Luckily, the number remained the same as he asked Aria to stay around there and wait. An hour later, an elder appeared. It was the same female elder they met in the registration area. She looked at the entire town and shouted. "We are going to start the test right now. Come to the center of the town to hear the explanation first." The participants immediately gathered in the center as the elder nodded. "Since all of you are here, I will start explaining all the tests you will have during this enrollment process. There are three tests which are according to our usual rules. The first will be to see your Sword Talent. "All of you need to go through the real Sword Cave as fast as possible. If you go through it fast enough, you will be getting points, enough to buy a special privilege. I will talk about that later. "I will be explaining things you need to know about the Sword Cave. First of all, as you might already know, you will have a big benefit if you start cultivating inside the cave. It affects everything, so you don''t need to worry about your weapons. Whether it''s a spear, bow, or whatever, you will feel the effect. "There is no time limit here, so you are free to do anything during the test. If you decide to finish the first test, you will find an elder whom you can talk about the special privilege. The privilege is about the real test in the third test. I am sure you know that the third test will be unknown, so we give you the opportunity to know it beforehand, but this information can only be obtained with the points you get from the first test. "Basically, you will get one point for every monster below Martial Monarch you kill and ten points for every 1-Star to 5-Star Martial Monarch you kill. One hundred points for every 6-Star to 10-Star Martial Monarch beasts you kill. And lastly, every star in Martial Saint stage is worth ten thousand points. "After you get enough points to pass the second stage, you may go and finish the third stage. The overall time limit is seven days. Whatever you can accomplish during this will depend on you. And you can even go back here to exchange the points at every checkpoint, so good luck. By the way, the second checkpoint needs thirty thousand points to pass. "There is no rule other than the no-killing rule in the second test while the other two is imposed that no one attack or does any harm to other parties. Use your wisdom and strength to prove that you are worthy of being here. That''s my advice." "And some of you might be wondering where the other disciples that enter the sect without a recommendation letter like you? The elder in charge there will only start to explain this when all of you have started. So, let''s get started." She smirked and snapped her finger as a giant Teleportation Array glowed beneath their feet. Everyone was shocked to see its appearance and gasped. "This¡­" Even Aria felt something was wrong and looked down, wondering what Array it was. As an Array Master, Alex scanned the entire Array with his Spirit Eyes. He had been deciphering this since the beginning because they must have drawn it last night since he didn''t find this when they came in. He immediately grabbed Aria''s hand. "Eh?! Nyx?" She was surprised by his bold action, but before he could respond, they had vanished from that place. The moment the participants realized, their visions were dark and sharp qi suddenly enveloped them. "Where is this?!" "Wait?! This must be the Sword Cave!" "Where do we need to go?!" "I can barely move." "I think there is only one way to go. It''s to go forward." The group immediately checked their surroundings and found it was right. Since they had realized their mission, they immediately ran forward. "Hmm?!" Aria still felt Alex''s hand this whole time and asked embarrassedly. ''Nyx?'' ''Sorry. The Teleportation Array earlier will surely mess up our position, so I hold your hand to make sure we are not separated.'' Alex replied before releasing her hand. ''Oh?! Considering we have a clear mission this time, should we also run forward?'' She asked, listening to the footsteps that kept getting farther and farther. ''No, it''s fine. I am curious about something.'' Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the energy in his surroundings. It was indeed weapon qi, coming from many types of weapons. However, what baffled him was the fact that he could only see the energy, not the sources. There should be the source somewhere, so he was curious about it. ''What is this something that can pique your interest?'' ''Although the power that is suppressing this cave is pretty balanced, the truth is¡­ The Sword Qi in this place is more refined than the others. It might be because of their name or the Sword God himself, so I want to know the origin of this Sword Qi. There is no way it will continue to produce this type of qi with just a breakthrough.'' ''I see. Still, there is a chance that we will be too late.'' ''No. Whatever the reason, the time we need to beat is not that short. I have said it myself. This energy is suppressing the participants, especially if we get too worked up. That''s why it''s best to maintain pace while conserving our energy. Do you remember the fact that we need to gather seventy thousand points after this?'' ''They want to use this cave to exhaust us?'' She noticed it after getting the clue from Alex. ''If we are too exhausted, we might be killed by the monsters. And the fact that she is saying that we can''t kill anyone during the second test, not forbid any kind of attack, it means we can hit people and steal their points.'' ''Yes. I have the same conclusion. That''s why we need to conserve our stamina as much as we can. And I am planning to kill many people since I have fancied a few things in the towns.'' ''Are you going for a shopping spree?'' ''Not that much, probably only one or two and under your name so as to avoid any direct confrontation.'' ''I see. I don''t really mind. You can use me as much as you want, but if there are any excess points, can you give it to me?'' ''Hmm? I don''t mind. It''s not like I am planning to hunt just to meet the bare requirement. I will be hunting for a period of time and will buy according to the points I get during that time, so if I have some points, you can use it. Probably for your brother?'' ''Yes. He might not be able to get some benefits from this, so I am planning to give a few items to him.'' She nodded. ''Sure. I don''t really mind.'' Alex nodded. ''Thank you.'' ''Let''s go then. We need to pick up the pace and learn the truth behind the third test. After that, I will know how long I need to spend for the second test.'' ''Understood.'' She nodded and surrounded her body with Sword Intent to lessen the burden. Alex did the same and started running at a certain speed. As they expected, the group was already too far ahead because some of them decided to fly or run as fast as possible, but they didn''t care about them. What Aria cared about was Alex''s opinion and waited until he talked again. Meanwhile, Alex kept using his Spirit Eyes to search the source of the qi that enveloped this cave. Three hours passed, but they saw a few people dropping on the side, completely exhausted. They must be those who used their full power from the start, so Alex and Aria kept running without looking at them. ''Since we have seen three people, we will soon find a few more people. However, it means that the majority of the group remains there.'' ''Yeah.'' Alex nodded. ''Anyway, are you exhausted yet?'' ''No. I am good. I haven''t even used twenty percent of my power to pass this test, so we can still go at this pace.'' ''Alright then.'' The two kept running without saying anything until they saw the main group, who seemed to have slowed down because of this. And as expected, they could barely see people, so there was no way they could see Alex and Aria coming from behind. The only time they realized would be when they were close enough to them unless they used their extra energy to check their surroundings. Fortunately, Alex and Aria had no need for such a thing. Aria had a good sense other than her eyes, so she didn''t have trouble sensing people around, while Alex had his Spirit Eyes that made him able to see everything perfectly. They passed a few people and, before long, the entire group itself. ''Their number is not matched. I guess there are still a few talented people in the front.'' ''I agree. Most of them are probably Martial Saints.'' Alex agreed before he picked up something. ''There is something wrong.'' ''What is it?'' ''I can finally see the source of energy, but this one only fills the Sword Qi, not the others.'' ''Still, it''s your main objective, right?'' ''Yes. If you notice, there is an array that hides a path, making us think there is a wall there. But if we put enough force, we can slip inside the Array. Do you want to take a detour or go first to achieve something great?'' Alex asked. ''I have no need for an extra achievement even though you want me to be in the spotlight. Since the main group is still behind us¡­ Probably an hour, we can take a detour first and speed up later. I feel like going with you is the best option, so yeah, I will follow you.'' ''Alright then.'' Alex nodded and held her hand again as the two ran like that for two minutes before Alex suddenly pulled her to the side without anyone noticing and disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, Alex and Aria suddenly felt an immense Sword Qi coming from the end of this cave as they released even more energy to withstand the strength. They walked for a few minutes before finding a blue light and immediately approached it with precaution. A sword stabbed on a platform came into their vision. It was a beautiful sword with a golden handle and a long silver blade with blue patterns. ''Divine Weapon!'' Alex narrowed his eyes. 916 Dawnbreaker ''Hmm?'' Aria tilted her head. She couldn''t see either the energy and the sword''s beautiful appearance, so it was such a shame. Suddenly, a light ball was formed on top of the sword before turning into a child. He wore a cute short and a shirt with black stripes. The tall circular magician hat made him look very cute. "Welcome to my humble abode. I am the sword over there, and my name is Dawnbreaker. You can call me Dawn." He smiled from ear to ear. "You can say that people might find this place if they have enough sensitivity toward the change of Sword Qi, so I am a bit surprised to see both of you coming here." "There is someone there?" Aria was confused. She could sense the sword, but it was the first time she felt something like this. At the same time, Alex also remembered a certain thing. "Are you this sword consciousness?" "Ah, I almost forgot that not many know my real name. Anyway, I was the sword that the one you knew as Peerless Sword God wielded." He grinned as if he was proud of it. "And you can say that I am its consciousness, but I prefer the term of the Sword Spirit." "The sword of the Peerless Sword God?" Aria opened her mouth in surprise. "Hmm? I have noticed this from earlier, but are you blind, girl?" "Ye-yes." She hesitated for a second before taking off her mask, allowing him to see the condition of her eyes. "I see. That is a shame, but I can see a great future from you. And I feel that you have found your path, so believe in your path." "Thank you," Aria answered with a bit of a hesitant tone. It felt weird to be praised by a sword. He then glanced at Alex and pointed his finger. "Hey, you. Do you want to be my next master?" "!!!" Aria immediately turned around while opening her mouth in surprise. If the sword was indeed the sword that the Peerless Sword God had in the past, it could be said the peak Divine Weapon. To wield such a blade would surely invite many things, from fame, glory, or even pursuers. Unfortunately, Alex was a person who didn''t have a need for this thing. But whether he accepted it or not, it would depend on his heart. After all, the temptation of wielding the sword was far too good. "Nope. Not a chance." Alex shook his head, blatantly rejected the sword. "Eh?!" The sword looked at him with a weird expression as if thinking how foolish he was. "I am a powerful sword, you know." "I know, but I have my own sword." "Hey, I am a Sword Spirit born from an original sword technique, you know. I can help you fight." "Wait, wait! I have sensed a bit of your Sword Qi since I am a Sword myself. It''s so powerful that I can''t help but feel surprised. That''s why I want you to be my next master, and I shall support you to the best of my ability." "Yeah, I don''t doubt that. But I can''t do it." Alex shook his head with a long sigh. "Just like you said to her earlier, I already have my own path, so I am not planning to abandon it." "Is that the reason why you have Spear Qi?" He narrowed his eyes. "Eh?!" Aria drew a gasp as she was baffled by the sword''s statement. ''Spear Qi?'' "Sword Qi¡­ And Spear Qi¡­" He looked down, falling into deep thought. Suddenly, he remembered a certain person in the past. "Don''t tell me, you¡­" Alex immediately appeared in front of the sword and closed his mouth, making Aria curious. The sword was going to say his identity, so to shut him up just like that made her pout. "Mhmmmhmhmm (I won''t say anything)." The sword looked at Alex pitifully, asking Alex to release him. After hesitating for a few seconds, Alex finally released him and walked back. "To think I would meet you again, but you feel different¡­" "I am not him." The sword narrowed his eyes and sighed. "I see. I can summarize what happens, but it''s still unbelievable to see you again. Well, I won''t say anything about your identity, and I understand why you don''t want to be my next master." "If you only want to talk about this, we will return immediately." "I know you have a test. I am the one suggesting it, you know, so I will be giving you a reward for finding me. As expected, I am still curious what will happen if you are the one wielding me." He grinned. "No thanks." "Tch." He let out a long sigh. "Anyway, your reward is twenty thousand points and a special prize from mine." Suddenly, Alex saw a wisp of energy coming to him and immediately burned it with his fire. "Ouch! Hot, hot!" He screamed and glared at Alex. "What is that flame earlier? Wait! That intensity. Why do you have Phitrus''s Godly Pure Fire?! That''s the only fire that can burn me." Alex shrugged. "This is the second reason why I don''t want to have you. Within two minutes, you have blurted out so many secrets. I wonder if I should burn you right now." "Ah! I won''t say anything anymore, dear sir." He raised his hands as if telling him he gave up. "What I wanted to give you is a wisp of my power. I can nurture the consciousness of your weapons for you." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I think I don''t need it. You can give it to her, I guess." "Hmm¡­" He narrowed his eyes. "Well, not many of what I have will entice you. And even fewer that will suit you. Since that is the case, I will just give the points to you and give the special reward to her¡­" "Sure." Alex nodded and handed the token. With a single touch of his energy, the zero on the token turned into twenty thousand. After that, the sword looked at Aria. "You have a good talent in the sword. Although it''s not the best, I am confident you are one of the top talents. Anyway, it''s only your sword. There are many talents that need to be considered, including your cultivation speed and other things, so I won''t say much. "And because you are blind, I have something suited you. I don''t have any plan in giving you this at first, but since the almighty person beside you has given his reward to you as well, I will give it. Go and touch the sword with your forehead." "Ye-yes." Aria was still confused with everything, especially with Alex, but she tried hard to not show it and acted according to the instruction. The moment her forehead touched, certain energy flowed inside her head and moved toward her eyes. "Hmm¡­ I have given you the qualification to use one technique, but the rest will depend on my former master. If you find his remaining soul in one of his inheritance palaces, he will understand that energy. What will it do? I won''t tell you. But it will surely make you happy." "Thank you." She nodded. "Still, to think you are with him out of all people. You are blessed." He grinned and gave her twenty thousand points as well. "Luck?" She tilted her head in confusion. "Since he doesn''t want you to know, I won''t say anything unless I want to get burned. Just get stronger, and you will know everything." He nodded. "Now go. May fortune bless you with presence¡­ Wait, it''s already blessed you. Gahaha!" The sword waved his hands and saw the two leaving. ''Thank you.'' Alex didn''t forget to give his thanks to the sword with a thought transmission. ''You are really not him, but it sounds like you indeed. I know that your true aim is to strengthen your Sword and Spear Possession, so I can only say good luck to you.'' ''Yes.'' Alex smiled and came out of the secret cave as they continued their journey. Aria kept glancing at him, swearing to get stronger and know more. The curiosity was killing her, but it wasn''t like her goal changed. She wanted to be a peerless expert, so she needed to get stronger either way. Because they got distracted by that cave, they needed to catch up. To their surprise, Aria felt a bit more comfortable in facing this suppression and informed Alex. "I think we can go a bit faster. The suppression feels a bit less than before." "Hmm?" Alex immediately thought it was the work of that Sword Spirit, especially when he asked her to touch the sword with her forehead. That energy remained in her body, specifically her eyes. Although he didn''t know what it would do to her, it wasn''t like he couldn''t remove it. Just like the sword said, his Pure Fire was able to burn that energy before it completed. Knowing that, Alex and Aria continued for a few more hours, passing many people. They even passed the so-called Gasha Grayfig, who was in fourth place. Unfortunately, he became the sixth when the two passed him. Not long after that, they finally found the light, meaning the time in the cave would soon come to an end. ''Nyx, do you think we should stop here and try cultivating?'' ''It will depend on whether we can go back here or not. This is a kind of psychological test. You have many options but can''t win everything.'' Alex thought for a moment. ''Still, we have the luxury to stop the contest, but the more we wait, the more people will pass here. At that time, we can''t get a good hunting place as well.'' ''Ah. The main test will surely be the second one because it won''t be easy to reach that many points. We have gotten twenty thousand, but we might be able to get a few things in the town, so I guess we can skip this one.'' ''That''s my plan.'' Alex nodded. ''With this, we are fourth and fifth.'' ''Yeah.'' The two came out of the cave, instantly sensing a presence in their left. The presence came from the elder that was in front of the town a few days ago. "Hyo-ho. To think I would meet you two again. And as expected, you two are still together. I don''t know if I have put too much expectation on you two, but to think there are already three people in front of you... I am speechless." 917 Teacher He observed Alex and Aria for a moment before asking, "Anyway, with the timing, you are rewarded seven thousand points, and if you want to buy the information about the third test, I will retract five thousand points from your reward." "Excuse me, Senior. I want to confirm it once more. You can''t attack anyone in the first and third tests, right? And there is no additional rule, right?" "Yes. Except for that, you are allowed to use everything you have, including your brain and knowledge to get the points to reach the third test. As for your second question, yes, we don''t want to restrict the disciples with a bunch of rules." He nodded. "I see. That''s something relieving to hear." Alex smiled inwardly. Alex and Aria exchanged looks as Alex just got an idea and sent it by thought transmission. ''How about only one of us paying for this and let the other know? Maybe we can use this opportunity to give the information to your brother and allow me to share the information for a certain amount of points. This way, he will also get some benefits.'' Aria widened her eyes. The idea was shocking, but it was lacking compared to the other one. She simply couldn''t believe that Alex abandoned the idea and gave the opportunity to her brother, even though she had gotten all these benefits just by following him. She remembered how the sword actually told her how lucky she was when Alex approached her. She thought it must be because of this. If she followed him, there would be much more benefits she could get and not only her but also her family. ''Thank you.'' ''So, what do you think?'' ''I will follow your decision. And if that is the case, I will pay the fee since this is for my brother.'' ''No need. I have another idea. Besides, you are not powerful enough to gather the additional five thousand points by killing in the second test.'' ''I¡­'' Alex didn''t wait for her and immediately grinned while saying. "Yes, please retract my points¡­ Only my points." "Oh?! We have an intelligent one here." The old man also made the same grin as he stretched out his hand, asking for his token. After Alex handed him his token, the old man''s face was filled with astonishment as if he just witnessed something absurd. He looked at Alex and Aria back and forth before letting out a long sigh. "I give up. I need to take back my earlier word about you. "It turns out I am not overestimating you. Instead, I have been underestimating you this whole time." The old man certainly realized why they could get twenty thousand points in their token. They must have met the secret organizer of this event. "This is your two thousand points, but the girl needs to stand back a little since she can''t hear." However, Alex made a big brain move by taking out a memory crystal. When the old man saw it, he facepalmed. "I have been beaten by a youth¡­ Such a monster." "There is no rule other than fighting?" Alex grinned. "Indeed." The old man nodded. Alex decided to do this because he wanted to have secret protection among the sect. And this old man who seemed to be a Rank 4 God would be perfect for that. At the same time, there wasn''t anyone here, so his identity was safe with only this old man. There was a chance that the other elders knew about it, but in a big sect like this, the last thing they wanted was to get a certain talented disciple snatched under their nose. In that case, this old man would surely keep the secret for the time being. He might be able to utilize Aria for this, but the old man seemed to have marked him instead of her. As much as he wanted to hide it, he decided this course of action would be better. "Since I have gotten the points, I will get straight to the point. The last test is a kind of reward. If you get to the third test, you will be able to perceive the Sword Stone for three days." "Are the days included in our time limit?" Alex asked. "The third test time is two days, and it''s not related to the overall time." "I see. I can utilize this full week then." Alex grinned. "I know what your aim is, young man. Since you remind me of a certain daredevil in the past, I will give you additional information as a special reward. There is a teleportation array hidden near every entrance of the test. You can travel anywhere using that and don''t need to care about the Spirit Crystal usage." The old man smirked. "Oh?! This is certainly an interesting piece of information. I will utilize it well." Alex nodded with a serious expression before he went outside the Sound Insulation Array. "I am looking forward to your achievement, young man. Still, I am asking if you are interested in studying under me. Not only your talent, but your brain is also top-notch because you are the first one to discover this. Albeit, it seems you don''t have the heart to stay in the spotlight¡­" Alex only smiled, not answering his question. "Haiz. This is why I hate the unknown; they are hidden experts that are far stronger than your famous people. Though, it''s certainly exciting if you know one of the hidden experts. Since that is the case, to hide yourself well, I won''t say anything about your identity. Besides, hidden experts can only grow in someone''s shadow¡­ Oh, now that is interesting." He suddenly recognized why Aria was with him. "Good luck to you then. Let me see how far you can reach the sky¡­ I wonder if you can replicate his achievement." Alex narrowed his eyes before shaking his head. He threw the memory crystal to Aria. "This is the memory crystal. Watch it and stay here for a moment until your brother catches up. Hand him this and tell him the plan." "Are you hunting alone?" "Of course not. I am planning to go with you." Alex shook his head and handed him his token. "If you channel your Spiritual Energy here, you will know my general position. Go there and we will meet. The time limit is tonight." "I understand. I believe my brother can come out of this cave within that time." She nodded and remembered they only needed eight hours to come out of the cave. Even if it was a bit different, it shouldn''t take that long. "In that case, tell your brother that he needs to go there if the situation goes wrong." Alex pointed at the wall. "Channel his Spiritual Energy there and make sure no one notices him." "I understand. Thank you for doing all this." Aria nodded with a smile. After giving all the instructions, he leaped off the cliff. Yeah, a cliff. They were above a cliff this whole time, and the bottom was filled with trees and many monsters. He couldn''t see the end of this place, so he knew this place would be filled with at least a hundred thousand monsters. It was a perfect place to get points. "Make sure you use the token to absorb a bit of the monster''s Spiritual Energy to raise the count." The old man shouted before Alex disappeared. "Thanks." Alex nodded and disappeared inside the woods. He then looked at Aria and sighed. "I don''t know whether you are fortunate or unfortunate." "I am fortunate." Aria smiled confidently, remembering the sword''s words. "Since you believe that, I won''t say anything then." He closed his eyes. "This world is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. And you will find there are more of these guys when you are stronger. This is why I don''t want to die yet because it makes this world far more interesting. "And one piece of advice for you, little girl. Keep a man like him close because when he succeeds, he will become a dragon soaring in Heaven. But if he fails, he and the others will go deeper than hell itself." "I know. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. As long as he stays hidden as long as he needs, he will surely succeed. And I will be the light that will blind the surroundings." Aria smiled. The old man only smiled and asked, "Do you want to become my disciple then?" "Eh?!" Aria opened her mouth in surprise. "He is surely not one who wants to be restricted, but you are different. Although having the recommendation is making you go to a certain peak, it doesn''t mean you can''t be my disciple. I don''t have any favorite disciple at the moment." He smirked. "Besides, I don''t have a peak as well, so I can just get lodging in whatever peak you belong to." "Ehm¡­" Aria hesitated for a second. "I am afraid I can''t accept your invitation even if I want to. I might be the light, but it''s just artificial light. I need to find my own source of light first before anything else." The old man smirked. "No wonder a guy like him wants you. Besides, there is a hidden meaning behind my invitation. With me loitering around you, I can monitor him as well." "¡­" Aria fell silent as she sweatdropped. It was good that she didn''t accept him earlier, or else Alex wouldn''t get the privacy he needed. "Anyway, I will give you this token. If you need my help, activate this token, and I will come." Aria caught the token and thought for a moment before bowing her head. "This life-saving effort from Senior will be engraved in this junior''s head. If there is something that Senior wants me to do, please don''t hesitate to ask me. As long as I can do it, I will help." "Haha, to think you have caught my intention again. Well, you don''t need to worry about that. With the way you act around me, you are surely clueless about my identity. Consider this as a special prize for getting me interested in you as well. My name is Ravagera." "!!!" Aria was shaken when she heard his name. "You are Elder Ravagera? The ''Ravagera?'' The one who was said to be the teacher of the Peerless Sword God?" "Hyo-ho. It''s the disciple''s duty to surpass his teacher, and he perfectly did that. Unfortunately, it was such a shame that your disciple passed away before you¡­ I just wanted to see whether there would be another person like my disciple, so I tried to test both of you. Now I could see that the potential is there, so I want to see whether it can grow." "¡­" Aria was speechless. She just rejected the invitation from the one who led the Peerless Sword God to be the first and only Rank 1 God from this world. Still, even if she knew his identity earlier, she wouldn''t accept his invitation. Knowing that the sword spirit knew Alex''s real identity, Alex must be a big shot as well. It might not be compared to the Peerless Sword God, but he must be well-known. It made her more and more interested in this person who called himself Nyx. "I have felt the Sword Energy in your eyes, so I guess you have gotten his recognition as well. That''s why I talked like this. Else, I will be treating you just like a normal disciple." The old man waved his hand. "Anyway, I won''t participate in the business of young people and let you grow alone since that is the way to let you become the strongest." Aria clasped her hands. "Thank you for Senior''s praise. I will do my best to fulfill your expectation." The old man nodded while Aria looked at the forest and clenched Alex''s token tightly as her heart was filled with excitement. 918 Train of Thoughts However, at this point, he remembered the fact that he could go to the third test by using the Teleportation Array that seemed to be connected to each other. In other words, he could just use it and teleport to either the third test or the town. Because of that, he changed his strategy and started killing at a random area, especially where he found a group of magical beasts. The first target was a kind of wolf pack consisting of a hundred 6-Star Martial Monarchs with 9-Star Martial Monarch as their leader. *Howl!* Alex''s expression turned serious as he checked his surroundings to see if there were monsters that moved due to that howl. Unfortunately, none of them went toward him. "Such a shame. I can kill them too¡­ Anyway, it will give me ten thousand points if I only eliminate this group¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "It''s so easy to get the amount to buy those items back in the town. Well, for a normal disciple, they might need to band together¡­ At least, a group of ten to clear this area, so they will only get one thousand each. That''s why my strength is so unbalanced in this process, not that I complain about it." Alex smirked and jumped toward the wolves that were charging at him. "This is the first time I use it, but I really want to try it." Alex raised his sword and channeled a portion of his power, so he only used ten percent of the real technique power before slashing his sword horizontally. "One sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." "!!!" The wolves'' instinct immediately rang in their head, telling them to run away. However, Alex already gathered enough energy and released a Sword Wave, cutting twenty wolves in a single slash. "Hmm?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "This¡­ Although I am only using Spiritual Energy and only use ten percent of its real power, this power has around a quarter of my Mythical Fire Slash. Seriously?" Alex just couldn''t believe that this technique was stronger than the fusion of his original sword technique and spear technique. However, considering that this sword skill was a bonafide Divine Sword Art, it could be said that his original techniques had been stretching that far to the point it reached not peak, but it should reach Mid Level Divine Technique. "Now that I have tested it, I shall finish the rest first." Alex smirked and started his killing spree. With his Divine Body, the pack didn''t last even two minutes before all of them died under Alex''s merciless sword. He then channeled the Spiritual Energy in his surrounding to activate the token as it absorbed a bit of energy from the monster core. After that, he saw his balance rose. 32100. "From what I know, Aria will probably buy a weapon for her brother and pills. If both of us can only buy two to avoid the suspicion, I think it''s best to let her know that she can only buy two swords for herself and her brother. "As for her brother, the information alone will surely give him thirty thousand points even if it''s depreciating sooner or later¡­ Wait a minute, we can make him trade as well. Maybe fifty thousand points won''t be too big for him. "I see¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "It should be fine to give him the token¡­ And there is also a possibility of someone stealing tokens to buy some. Nonetheless, the elders will see that someone too. "I also need to consider the third test. Considering it is a reward where I can perceive a certain Sword Technique, I need to know whether it will blow my cover away. I will check it with my Spirit Eyes first later. In total, our group can only get around thirty hundred fifty thousand points. It is equal to three thousand and five hundred 6-Star to 10-Star Martial Monarch. "I will ask if that number is too big for our ability with Aria first. Still, if it''s this easy to get points, I might have an excess of three to four days, so I will spend all the time cultivating in the Sword Cave to raise my qi level. "Hmm? To generalize the idea, the Sword Qi is ranked from Rank 1 to Rank 8 like Alchemist with the Rank 9 called Divine Sword Qi. And because my Sword Qi is a Divine Sword Qi, my position will always be a Rank 9. The problem is the amount. According to Aria, the amount I possess is only equal to Rank 2. "Considering it will be harder and harder to raise the Sword Qi, I think it''s better to gain enough qi to reach Rank 3''s amount in the cave." Alex let out a long sigh because he had too many things he needed to consider at this point. He took a few more minutes to think it through before he went hunting. Of course, he didn''t forget to burn all the corpses to make sure that no one knew that a single person annihilated these many monsters. Unlike the first big group, he didn''t encounter a group of that size again for another ten hours, making him a bit bored to search for them. If not because of his Divine Body''s heightened senses and Spirit Eyes, he couldn''t find them this easily. However, Alex was an overpowered character in this test, and he had accumulated around one hundred thousand during the first ten hours. After another two hours, he sensed someone coming toward him. It was none other than Aria who seemed to be happy after everything that happened earlier. "Nyx. I am sorry for making you wait." She couldn''t contain her smile at this point. "Did you scam a few people first before coming here?" Alex glanced at him with a teasing smile. "We were not scamming people. With the proof you have given us in the form of a memory crystal, no one can imitate our way of doing. Because we are cheaper, we were able to gain many customers while lying that the information can''t be spread mouth to mouth, and that was the exact reason why we used a memory crystal for this instead. "The people buy it for now, and my brother has gotten three people to spend a total of ten thousand points for the information. I think he can hit seventy thousand before he can''t do this anymore. And I have told him to increase his strength first inside the Sword Cave until the time is up before going to the third test and get the additional three days in the third test. "To think it''s this easy to earn points, I have never thought of such a thing." Aria panted after explaining everything excitedly. "If you have a business in your mind, you should be able to think it through. At least, I need to hone this type of thinking because when I started cultivating, I could only depend on myself to fill my stomach." Alex shrugged. "Ah¡­" Aria opened her mouth in surprise before looking down. She realized that even though she was blind, she had the full support of her father, so she could build up her strength and hone her talent. If what Alex said was true, he must have suffered greatly during his early days. And it might also be the reason why he could become a God Rank Expert this fast. He had been getting everything by wrestling his life away. Another kind of admiration just bloomed in her heart. "Anyway, here is the deal¡­" Alex began explaining the plan he thought earlier from start to finish. And when she saw Alex''s points, she became completely speechless. They might be able to gain enough quota by tomorrow night, and she completely agreed by having her brother buy everything for himself except a Divine Rank Sword. A Divine Rank Weapon was something too expensive for their family to get, so they couldn''t pass this chance. Alex didn''t have an interest in getting them because the Divine Weapon was only a low-rank Divine Weapon, it was nothing compared to Dawn Breaker they met in the cave. After discussing their plan, they continued their hunt while Alex gave the opportunity for Aria to accumulate experience for her new sword dance. He also wanted to see the power of the energy that the sword spirit gave, but it seemed to have no function at the moment. It was such a shame, but Alex kept going until they finally met their quota within two days. Alex then decided to go back to the exit of the Sword Cave, where he met the same elder that had been waiting for them to return. Unfortunately, this time, only Aria returned while Alex tried to slip by using his Space Element to enter the Sword Cave. Only after passing the old man did he finally make another gate and wait for Aria near the exit. Meanwhile, when Aria returned to the town, she was holding two tokens. One was her, and one was Alex''s. As expected, Alex''s token contained two hundred thousand while she only had one hundred and fifty thousand. According to Alex, this would certainly pique the interest of other elders, but she had prepared for it. After all, Alex would reveal his Space Element if he brought her inside the cave, so he didn''t do it and instead asked her to do this. With the note Alex gave to her about the medicinal herbs that he wanted, she immediately went to the only shop in the town. And as she expected, no one came to this shop. The town itself almost had no people in it. Those in the towns were either beaten up by monsters and decided to recover here or those who were strong enough to gather enough points. "Excuse me, I would like to buy." Aria found an old clerk lazing around at the counter. "Oh?! The first customer? Sure. What would you like to buy?" He nodded. "I want to buy that herb." She pointed at a blue herb in the drawer behind the clerk. "It''s fifty thousand points. So, are you going to use it to improve your cultivation or make it a pill?" "I am sorry, I can''t really say it." Aria shook her head while handing the token to the clerk, but before he grabbed the token, A woman suddenly went inside the shop and shouted. "Wait¡­ That herb, I want it!" Aria glanced at them and stayed silent for a few seconds. Behind her were two men that seemed to help her. "What?! The thing this young lady wants will always arrive in this young lady''s hand. If you don''t want to let it go, you better watch out of this young lady in the sect." She looked at the masked Aria with contempt before fixing her blue hair. "¡­" Aria was speechless. This woman looked like an idiot and acted all mighty. She might be able to do that because her strength was 1-Star Martial Saint, while the two behind her were also the same. Compared to Aria''s 9-Star Martial Monarch strength, she indeed wouldn''t be able to fight them. However, she wasn''t afraid because Alex would surely solve the issue inside the sect. Still, she saw too many problems ahead and remembered Alex''s instruction. She looked at the shopkeeper, who seemed to be an elder too and nodded. "I don''t want this anymore." "Hmph!" The lady looked at her mockingly as if looking at a poor and weak person. "Are you sure?" "Yes, I am sure." She nodded. "I will buy different herbs." "Herbs?" The elder tilted his head. "Yes. I need two Divine Herbs. Green Blood Ganoderma and Fire Rafflesia." "It''s for one hundred and ten thousand points." "Here." She handed the token. "Thank you for your purchase." "¡­" 919 Ugh The girl was speechless. She had gathered enough points to buy a single medicinal herb to make a pill out of them, but the two men behind him also helped her in the process. However, the woman in front of her was able to buy two of them? This was insane. How could a lowly girl like her be able to gather enough points like that? Unfortunately, Aria had no intention of dealing with this girl. She simply let go and bought the two other herbs since Alex had given her the instruction to not buy the others wanted, so he gave four medicinal herbs that he wanted to buy. After the transaction was completed, she then thought for a moment. She might be able to return to the cave right now and buy other things a few days later, so without further ado, she nodded her head politely. "Thank you." "No problem. It''s rare to see someone who can fork out so many points in one go, especially on the fourth day." The clerk smiled. "No, no. It''s not my effort alone." She shook her head. "Is that so?" The elder only smiled, not buying her words. The reason for that was due to the fact that the points inside the token couldn''t be transferred to another token unless an elder helped them. There was only him in this town and that old man in the first test''s exit. The old man might help her, but it made him believe that this girl had huge potential because that elder wouldn''t act this kind if he didn''t see the potential. If he didn''t help this girl, that means the girl managed to kill so many monsters in four days. This possibility would be more insane because the girls could simply steal others'' tokens in the first scenario, which was faster. Whatever the case, there would be a huge talent coming to the sect, so it was good. "Good luck in your cultivation, girl." He waved his hand. "Thank you." Aria nodded, ignoring the three stunned people behind her. She remembered their faces first and planned to inform Alex about this as they might try to disturb them in the future. She then walked toward the center of the city and used the Teleportation Array to move toward the cave before entering. Not long after, Alex found her coming, so he grabbed her hand to show his position. ''This is me.'' ''Ah, Nyx. I have bought two herbs for you. However, there was an accident before that.'' ''An accident?'' ''Yes. There was a group that wanted to buy the same herb, so I immediately let the herb go and buy the others.'' ''Ehm¡­ Don''t tell me you bought it just like that? I mean before they even bought them yet?'' He asked. ''Yes. Is there a problem?'' She tilted her head. ''How many people have you actually conversed in your whole life?'' Alex was confused. It was practically a slap in their face at this point, and they would surely come back to haunt them if they were petty people. ''Then tell me how they acted?'' He asked. Aria started explaining the whole accident without hiding anything as if nothing was wrong. ''Haiz. No wonder. I don''t mean to be rude. Maybe because of your personality and disability, you have become a good and humble person. But how about this? You want to flaunt your wealth and status in front of a person, but it turns out that the person in front of you is actually richer and more prestigious?'' ''Ah?! I will feel uncomfortable.'' She looked down, finally realized what she had done wrong. She should go out first and wait for the group to leave before buying the herbs. Looking down on her? She practically didn''t mind that. ''I am sorry.'' ''Never mind. Since you have told me this early, I will know in case something happens. It''s not like I can change anything anyway.'' He let out a long sigh. ''But because it would be suspicious to buy more, I only bought your herbs and decided to buy my shares a few days later.'' Alex thought it was not that different because the elder in front of the cave would know, but she must think that since he had practically shown himself to that person, it was fine to see her going back and forth there. Besides, they could go toward the third test immediately from the Teleportation Array in the city, so they wouldn''t meet the old man again. ''Well, it''s fine, I guess.'' Alex nodded. ''Anyway, let''s go to that hidden cave and train there. There shouldn''t be many guests there.'' ''I understand.'' The two then made their way toward the cave while making sure that no one noticed them. When they arrived, the sword spirit looked at them with a weird face. "Why are you two coming back here?" He was taken aback since they should be hunting instead of going to the Sword Cave. "Is it because you miss me?" "We just want a place to cultivate here." Alex shrugged. "Besides, since you are the source and the one controlling the energy around here, the energy is more concentrated in this place." "So, you want to increase your Sword Qi?" "To put it bluntly, yes." Alex nodded. "Well, it''s not like I have any problem with it. You can absorb or train here." He shrugged. "It has been a few hundred times we are doing this, and only a few manage to find this place, it''s not like we are going to have another guest this year." "That''s a flag, you know." Alex glanced at him. "Tried to say it every time we hold an enrollment like this, and you will grow numb to it when you only get two people every one hundred events. Do you still think it''s a flag? And you are talking like that hateful man, so can you stop it¡­" The sword spirit must be talking about the Dungeon God. "¡­" Alex listened to him and couldn''t help but say, "My condolences." "Anyway, if you want to train here, you may train here. I want to see how monstrous the current you are." He grinned. "That''s right. How old are you right now?" Alex fell silent this time as talking to him was different from talking to Aria. The latter didn''t know that the difference in time existed between worlds, so his age should be less than half of what she knew. "And don''t you dare to lie, I know that the gate outside can''t really convert your true age." Alex shrugged. "I don''t want to lie, so I will just stay quiet about it." "Hmph! As expected, you are a hateful fellow." He snorted. "Well, I have seen your strength, and I am sure you can reach Rank 3 Sword Qi in this cave. It shouldn''t be hard for you. As for the girl¡­ Just refine your energy even further since you have reached Rank 8 Sword Qi." Alex nodded and went toward the corner before sitting in a lotus pose and closing his eyes, beginning his cultivation. Aria was dumbfounded when she realized there was a time difference between worlds and wondered what his true age was compared to her. If the world actually had one hundred hours a day, the difference in their age wouldn''t be that great. If it were the opposite, it would show how monstrous Alexander was. Either way, she believed it was better to not know about it and put the thought in the corner of her mind. The two started absorbing the Sword Qi around the area, but Alex also gathered the Spear Qi to nourish it as well. Meanwhile, the sword spirit kept looking at Alex to check his strength and only shook his head. ''Since he is coming here, it seems my lord will be overjoyed. I wonder if they are going to fight again this time¡­'' The training lasted three days before Alex decided to go with her to the town this time, slipping past the elder using his Space Gate. Of course, he sent Aria away first, else she would know this trump card. After another hour, they finally met again. "Let''s go to the town." "I understand." Aria nodded as she activated the Teleportation Array. When they arrived, the town had become busier than ever. Many people stuck around as they tried to buy anything possible to boost their strength. Meanwhile, Alex and Aria still had two hundred and forty thousand points in total. Since they needed to set aside sixty thousand points, they still had one hundred and eighty thousand to spend. Aria led him to the town''s shop, where they met the same elder. "Hmm?! To think I will meet you again." The elder smirked. Alex narrowed his eyes and checked his cultivation. ''Rank 5 God, huh.'' It wasn''t as powerful as the old man in the first exit, but it wasn''t that far. "I have returned, Elder. I would like to purchase another thing or two." She nodded. He then looked at the masked guy behind her, he realized the reason she could bring back that many points. Although he had seen plenty of Martial Saints, especially 1-Star Martial Saints, this masked man was cut above the rest. He even wondered which one was the leader. Was it the woman or was it the man? since the woman was the one handling everything? "What do you want to buy?" He smiled "A weapon." "The only stocks are those in the corner over there. Let me show you then." He smiled and led them to the corner of the shop where they found various weapons. Alex observed the elder carefully. On one hand, the elder needed to accompany them, or the weapons here might be snatched when he wasn''t looking. On the other hand, he must want to check the capability of the two of them. When Alex looked at the weapons, he noticed the difference between them, which was reflected in their prices. He saw a few strong ones, but the final decision was on Aria''s hand, so he only waited for her to finish her assessment. Aria was troubled by this because she couldn''t see. The only thing she checked was the aura that the sword gave, allowing her to see the length and the energy contained in it. "Elder¡­ May I touch the swords?" She asked. "Touch the swords? I am afraid I can''t let you do that unless you buy it." The elder shook her head, not knowing the real reason. "Haiz¡­" She let out a long sigh. She then found a good sword that had a shape similar to her own. The energy was also more bountiful than the others as she asked, "How much is that sword?" "Hmm? You can see it yourself, it''s eighty thousand¡­ Wait, you can''t, no, you are blind?" The elder suddenly realized and gasped. "Wait, how do you know about the medicinal herbs a few days ago?" "The two herbs have a unique energy and match the description for their own energy. After examining their shape with my Spiritual Energy, I know that the two were the ones I was searching for." She answered with an innocent tone. "¡­" The elder''s face was dumbstruck. He never saw someone like this. To have that kind of sensitivity at this age was something amazing. "Haiz¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head as he picked up a sword and gave it to her. "This one is better." "Eh?!" She tilted her head in confusion. "The one you chose earlier has only neutral energy while this one has Lightning Energy. It suits your element perfectly. The difference is little, but if you train enough, you should be able to differentiate them in the future." Alex explained the reason. "It might be a bit hard to control it while using Sword Qi, but it will give you more strength than the neutral one." "Uhm¡­ Thank you." "And this one is for your brother." Alex handed her another weapon, which contained a water element. 920 Peerless Sword God "Hmm?!" The elder was confused now. It was a norm to cultivate both element and weapon at the same time, but the woman in front of him was clearly not cultivating them at the same time, especially with how clueless she was about elemental swords. "Do you not train your element?" "I am training my lightning, but most of them are for body parts. My control is still sloppy because my Martial Arts are a bit unique than the rest and require a huge amount of concentration to keep it up for a long time," Aria answered him. Like she said, those high-speed movements alone were already hard to control because she moved too fast. That was why she created a program to make her movements easier. However, it wasted the potential to use the Lightning power on her sword, much less a Lightning Element Sword. Fortunately to her, she met Alex, who taught her and perfected the style, allowing her to slightly grasp the technique easier. If she trained hard enough, dealing with a weapon like this wouldn''t be too hard for her. The elder couldn''t understand this but still nodded his head. "Alright. The total price is one hundred seventy thousand points." Aria handed over Alex''s token that had two hundred thousand points on it. He extracted the points from their token. "Alright. It''s sold. Although you won''t be able to use the swords'' true power due to your current strength, you will still be able to overpower someone who has a Rank 8 Sword. Just make sure that you are careful from revealing it because people might try to take it away from you." "I understand. Thank you for your advice." Aria stored the weapons inside her Space Ring and clasped her hand politely. "And take this with you." He gave her a pill. "Take it, and I am sure you will be able to reach the 10-Star Martial Monarch." "Is this Energy Pill?" "Yeah. Coming from 10-Star Martial Monarch monster core. It was refined by a Rank 9 Alchemist, so it should be fine for you. Take it as an apology for not knowing you are blind." "I have heard that the outside world is full of greed and other scary things, but the elders around me are warm and generous." Aria received the pill gently. "We are generous because this is only a test for all of you and also see the talent in you. When you have entered the sect, you will know how fierce the competition is to the point you will need to gamble with your own life. That''s why we allow the talented wannabe disciples to get a bonus, so they could start closing the gap they have with the current disciples. Still, when they are grading you later, they will know about your talent, including the one behind you from the points alone." "They are grading our points?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Oh?!" Alex closed his eyes and nodded. "Are you her protector or something?" The elder asked. "You can say that." "Well, whatever, I guess. Just make sure that you prioritize cultivating instead of your lust." The elder shrugged. "Anyway, the time limit is only a few minutes left, so you should go now." "¡­" The old man certainly misunderstood their relationship, but he already went away, so they couldn''t correct him. "What should we do?" Aria asked. "Go to the third test, of course." They nodded and walked toward the center of the town. Due to the time limit, the ones standing here were those who failed. But to his surprise, he only saw around twenty people here. ''If I assume monsters managed to kill some, there should be at least half of the original number remaining. It''s quite a big number I guess.'' Alex thought while walking beside Aria. When they arrived, Aria immediately activated the array and sent them to the third test. In a blink of an eye, they arrived on top of a white platform surrounded by a giant green field. He immediately checked his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes, finding no sign of monsters. Instead, the only thing he found was two groups of people. The first group was standing in the sky, watching the second group that was sitting in front of a giant stone in the center. "That is Sword Stone." Aria pointed her finger. "Should we go then?" Alex asked while using his Spirit Eyes to see the energy inside the Sword Stone. As he expected, the Sword Stone seemed to have a nourishing effect on their qi, whether it was a Sword Qi or Spear Qi. He could see there were five giant chunks of energy inside the stone. ''Those are the Martial Arts, I guess?'' When he looked deep inside those, he found a string of Space Element that connected each energy ball with each other, realizing what would happen later. ''I don''t see how the Sword Stone will lit up, but I can see there is a trial place where I might need to do something to gain the Sword Art. ''But it also means that I can concentrate on getting inside that place to get one or two Martial Arts from the so-called Peerless Sword God.'' Alex thought with a smile. He and Aria then walked off the platform and headed toward the Sword Stone. They saw around a hundred and fifty people around it. Aria smiled when she saw her brother was there. When the elders in the sky found the two, they suddenly smiled. "Elder Rava, I want to brag a bit, those two will go to my peak, you know." The female elder who was in charge of the registration area smiled. "Ho? Is that so?" The old man only smiled and nodded his head without making any comments. Since he wanted to see what kind of entity Alex would become in the future, he didn''t make any suspicious movement this time. "They are both good disciples." "Indeed." The female elder also didn''t want to brag too much because the one who came with her in the registration area might want to snatch them. "Anyway, I think they are qualified to immediately get Inner Disciple Status, right?" "I guess so. And they seem to be a lover or some sort. Why don''t you just give them a single house, so they can bond together?" He giggled while moving his fingers back and forth as if he wanted to grab something perverted. However, the real reason he wanted them together was to make Alex and Aria increase their relationship. He had seen in Alex''s eyes that he didn''t really care about the sect, so he wanted to bind him using the one he chose to cover his presence, Aria. This should solve the problem of his intention in the long term. As long as there was no mishap, their relationship would surely continue to grow. "Since that is your advice, I shall abide then." She nodded politely. "Wait, the disciple that I have chosen is good too." The one coming with the female elder in the registration area snorted before pointing at a young boy on the ground. Little did he know that his identity was something special. "Oh! I have seen that boy too. His talent is also superb, but from what I have seen, that boy is the girl''s younger brother." "Wha-?!" The elder opened his mouth wide, never expecting that. "Fufu, let''s get along in the future, Elder Gian." Illevis smiled from ear to ear as if she won this battle. "Ugh!" Never in his wildest dream that he expected something like this. "Well, this generation of disciples has many talented people. I am anticipating how many can rise to the top," Elder Ravagera said while stroking his chin. "That''s something I can agree with, I guess." Elder Gian nodded. "Anyway, let''s observe if there is a peerless talent in this generation." "Yeah. While the elders were chatting, Alex and Aria had gotten their spots and decided to sit next to each other. ''When you are trying to perceive something, don''t focus on the intent. Instead, focus on a different type of energy. It''s hard to find, but I am sure you can do it.'' Alex reminded her first before closing his eyes. Listening to Alex''s instruction, she also started cultivating. Alex poked the stone with his energy and controlled everything perfectly as he slipped through people''s energy on the outer layer that tried to understand the five lumps of energy before arriving right in front of the Space Element''s energy. He then enveloped that energy as it immediately transferred his consciousness into a special space inside the Sword Stone. Of course, it was only his soul that got sucked to this place as he immediately looked around with his Spirit Eyes. Suddenly, a shadow appeared in the corner of his eyes as he immediately frowned the moment he saw through this shadow. The strength alone matched his full strength, a Rank 9 God, but he realized that this was not as simple as it seemed. The man had short black hair with a face that had no excitement as if he was a doll. No, it would be more accurate to the term of boredom. Still, he found something deep within this man and a sense of danger. He instinctively summoned a sword from his energy and raised it as he activated his Spirit Eyes to see the movement of his opponent''s energy. It was at that time the man in front of him raised his hand as a sword formed in his hand. He then jumped toward Alex and thrust his sword toward Alex with a speed that Alex had never seen before. Because of this, Alex clenched his teeth and avoided it. This might be the first time he needed to do something like this, so it was a bit surprising to him. Even so, he focused on his aim right now and slashed his sword forward. The man glanced at Alex and blocked that attack with the sword''s handle, specifically with the sword''s butt. They were moving with Rank 9 God''s speed, not Martial Saint. To block that attack precisely like that in this kind of speed was something amazing even for Alex. Because of Alex''s current position, the man kicked his abdomen, albeit got blocked by Alex''s sword. Using the force, Alex stabilized his body and took this fight as if it was a life and death battle. He used his eyes to the limit, trying to read the movement of the energy that would be reflected on his body movement. With this concentration, he decided to challenge the guy head-on. It wasn''t like he would die if the man killed him, so he took this chance to try his best, especially after knowing how refined the movement of the other party was. "Here I go," Alex muttered and jumped forward. The man did the same and waved his sword without the use of Divine Energy or other things. It was purely his Sword Technique. With a clash like this, Alex could understand the power difference between him and the man. With a movement this refined, he could guess who this man was. It was none other than the Peerless Sword God. However, whether this man was his soul or just a personification, Alex couldn''t see it even with his Spirit Eyes. They then kept changing blows after blows without care before suddenly, the man moved faster than ever. "This is it." Alex tried to block it with his sword. If he succeeded, he might be able to attack the man with the next attack because of the drawback of a big move like this. To his surprise, the sword managed to pierce the left side of his abdomen as blood started dripping out of the wound. Alex couldn''t believe it and instantly leaped backward before the sword cut him into two while holding the wound with his left hand. The man, for the first time, laughed and looked down on Alex. "I thought you were capable of following my moves? You insignificant piece of shit!" 921 Alex vs Sword God "¡­" Alex was dumbfounded when he heard what the man suddenly said. This man that obviously not from the people outside, attacked him without any reason. If it were just a robot or a doll to test him, it obviously wouldn''t talk like this. "Kh." Alex gritted his teeth, glaring at the man. "You¡­ Are you the so-called Peerless Sword God?" "Don''t talk too much, reincarnation of Spirit God." He clenched his sword even tighter and said. "I am not patient enough to handle your boring talk." [If that soul is really that person, it''s better for you to fight him immediately.] ''Do you know him?'' Alex asked, never expecting that the system suddenly informed him. [He was a peculiar man. On one hand, he could be said as your most hated rival, but at the same time, somehow, you both were "friends" that could share each other''s joys and sorrows with. That''s why he remained neutral most of the time and only fought against you if needed¡­ Like this time. So, I believe you should fight him seriously because it would be the best option to handle him.] Alex couldn''t understand her, but he knew he needed to fight from the Sword God''s face alone. If he delayed it by asking another question, he would surely attack him without stopping. Because of that, he formed a spear in his other hand and took a deep breath. "Since that is the case, it''s better to step up my game." "Looking at you, you are only his reincarnation, not himself. In that case, let''s see whether your strength is real or not!" He shouted and leaped toward Alex. Alex saw this and matched his movement. They both swung their sword, creating a powerful shock wave from clashing alone. However, Alex had a clear advantage here as he immediately raised his spear, thrusting it toward the Sword God''s neck. "Double Blade." The Sword God decided to step up his game as well and used the first Martial Art to inform Alex that they needed to fight seriously. *Bang* Alex narrowed his Spirit Eyes to see what kind of Martial Art he used, but to his surprise, the energy moved too fast as his Spirit Eyes could only barely capture what just happened. The Sword moved faster than he expected as it oscillates back and forth to create smaller Sword Waves to the left and right simultaneously. Those Sword Waves gathered together in the end and exploded, blowing both spear and sword away. After that, the Sword God waved his sword, trying to cut him down. It was at this time Alex realized that his speed was no match against the Sword God''s, so he devised another plan and used the momentum that blew his weapons to spin them around and attacked back the Sword God with his Triple Draw while shifting his body a little. When he saw the six swords, the Sword God used the same technique as earlier, but he copied it three times. "Double Blade." Alex felt his blades getting push back, but because there were six attacks, the power was insignificantly weaker. Still, the Sword God''s initial plan had succeeded as he shifted his body back to create enough distance to avoid those six blades before slashing Alex from the right side. Alex hit the sword from above before Divine Energy suddenly sparked from his spear. "One Inch Spear." The spear suddenly had an additional length and kept growing to pierce the Sword God''s hand. Seeing this, the Sword God bent down to avoid the spear as his sword slid on the spear''s body to cut Alex from below. Alex immediately put his sword on the way before locking the Sword God''s weapon with his two weapons. They tried to push each other''s weapons to gain an advantage but realized that their strength was equal. Due to that, the Sword God decided to step back this time to reset the match. They then stopped for a few seconds as they regained their breath and simulated all kinds of movements they would make next. Alex was the first to jump forward as he waved his Sword, releasing a Sword Wave to attack him. "Mythical Fire Slash." The Sword God narrowed his eyes and raised his sword before waving it down. "Hell Lion." A purplish-black tiger suddenly came out of his sword, marching toward Alex''s Mythical Fire Slash. Before it arrived, the tiger suddenly stood on its feet and used its two paws to rip Alex''s attacks apart. "Seriously?!" Alex widened his eyes before summoning two dragons that flew and bit the lion from the side. "Swallowing Heaven." With the dragons containing Alex''s elements, the tiger soon started becoming translucent. It was at this time, Alex could see what behind it, finding the Sword God had sheathed its sword. However, this was the most terrifying moment for Alex as his instinct was screaming at him. He leaped to the air as he barely escaped alive and saw his dragons and his tiger were slashed into two. "Purgatory Sword." Alex released the amount of the attack it produced and decided to send one back. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction!" The Sword Wave this time had the power surpassing the Mythical Fire Slash itself, even with the Triple Draws. "What a nostalgic move¡­" The Sword God, for the first time, opened his mouth before spinning his sword and struck the Sword Wave. "Absolute Blade." "!!!" Alex found that the Blade of Extinction was cut into two in an instant as if it wasn''t even a challenge. "That Blade of Extinction is one of my strongest attacks¡­ Is that his Original Divine Sword?" [Alex¡­ I think you have a misconception about the God King.] "Misconception?" Alex tilted his head. [Although there are not many records about the God King, there is an unwritten requirement to be a God King.] "An unwritten requirement?!" Alex gasped. From the sound alone, it seemed to be an epic requirement. [Yes. It''s to master what we know. Like my father, for example. He mastered the Time element to the point no one could rival him. Or even your previous mentor, Phitrus, who evolved his Fire to the absolute degree.] [And just like them and all the other God Kings, the Peerless Sword God had mastered the way of the sword to the absolute degree. The moment he achieved that, he created the second Divine Sword Art that symbolized his true strength.] *Thump!* His heart skipped a beat when he listened to the last part. "The second Divine Sword Art? And it was only created when he achieved God King Stage?" [Yes. It''s rumored that it''s the purest sword form that was able to cut everything, even Phitrus''s Godly Pure Fire or even my father''s time!] "What?!" Alex couldn''t help but yell. If the technique could cut fire, he could imagine what kind of attack it was. However, there wasn''t a single image appearing when he tried to make an image of him cutting time. [And that sword technique is called Absolute Blade.] After hearing this, Alex somehow wondered what kind of thing he would master to the absolute degree in the future, but he decided to focus on his fight first. "Thank you. That''s good information." Alex smiled and landed on the ground. This time, he realized that no matter how hard he tried to create an advantageous situation, his opponent was able to counter everything while turning the overall tide. This might be the first time he saw an opponent at this level. He remembered the time element guy. If he didn''t make him realize his shortcomings, he might not be able to fight the Sword God this good. "Your skills have no taste¡­" The Sword God opened his mouth with a serious expression. "So, when do you plan to show me your original Sword and Spear techniques? Or are you not confident in your strength?" "¡­" Alex fell silent. "What?! Do you think I don''t know about whose space element you have in your body?" He snorted. "If you think your Space Element can ruin this place, leave now." Listening to his words, it seemed the Sword God had confidence in his own place. "Use everything you have! Nothing can''t break me because my sword will cut everything down first!" The Sword God stomped the ground as he finally utilized his Sword Qi and Intent to the highest degree. It even sent a powerful shock wave just by standing in front of him. Alex realized that the Sword God probably had only utilized half of his power. The Sword Intent then enveloped his Sword Qi before fusing with his sword. The beautiful sword became even more pretty when the patterns on it shone. The patterns then spread to his hand before to his entire body. "Memoire Sword." Seeing this strength, Alex took a deep breath as he summoned his Spirit Crown. This allowed him to automatically boost his strength using the Spirit Step. At the same time, a dragon and a phoenix soared to the sky. He didn''t stop there. A figure of a fire fox appeared behind him as it summoned a giant fireball in the sky, creating a domain that suited Alex''s style and suppressed his enemy a little bit. "It''s time for round two." Alex smiled. Both of their energy clashed with each other, showing their dominance. "Three bastards'' strength in one¡­" The Sword God muttered in a low voice before shouting. "Whether that''s enough or not, I shall test it." As soon as the clash of energy disappeared, the two disappeared as they swung their swords. "Absolute Sword." What the Sword God used was his strongest attack. "Three Purities Slash." Responding to him, Alex also used his Original Divine Sword Art. The moment their swords clashed, it shook the entire realm despite having no depth, floor, or even wall. As Lin Xingzhi said earlier, his Absolute Sword cut Alex''s Sword Intent, Space Element, and Pure Fire. However, Phitrus''s Godly Pure Fire was still something that could be considered absolute. It burned the Sword Energy inside that attack earlier, neutralizing each other. To his surprise, the Sword God suddenly leaped back. Alex wouldn''t let him stabilize his body and immediately chased him while thrusting his spear. Meanwhile, the Sword God moved at light speed as he already sheathed his sword once again. "Purgatory Sword." Alex widened his eyes when he saw the Sword Wave and decided to strike it instead of the Sword God. "Twin Fusion Spear." This might be the first time he used his Original Divine Spear Technique, but he believed this was the perfect time to utilize it. The tip of his spear only contained Space Energy, but it was concentrated to the point it easily bent the space around it. Unlike the Absolute Blade, this attack didn''t contain that "Absolute" that was capable of cutting through anything. That was why this might be the first time to use this attack. When it touched the tip of the Sword Wave, the Space Energy immediately bent the Sword Wave, turning it into a weird shape. At the same time, that Space Element also bent the space behind the Sword God as if it was trying to channel the Pure Fire. It was like how Alex managed to send his fire through the gate when training. The latter noticed that and gritted his teeth, trying to avoid this but was too late. The fire struck him on the back, forcing him to step forward in order to not fall. "Kh! This flame¡­ I can certainly remember how powerful this flame was¡­" He gritted his teeth before smiling while looking at Alex. Alex, on the other hand, was still struggling in order to destroy the Sword Wave. It took him one second before successfully destroying it. If the Sword God weren''t hit by his flame, this one second would prove to be fatal. At the same time, grazes after grazes started to appear all over his body as he realized that the residual energy from the Sword wasn''t completely neutralized. The Sword God grinned as he looked at Alex with his killing intent. "Interesting!" 922 Four Purities Slash Alex also did the same. Because of the earlier attacks, they decided to prolong the battle by fighting with only their weapons. Using this chance, Alex utilized his Sword Mastery to the maximum, trying to rip the biggest benefit he would get in this fight. The Sword God seemed to have realized that and decided to increase his power. Alex gritted his teeth, and when the Sword God slowly got the upper hand. He tried to try a few things and refined his movement even further during this battle, so he could match up with the Sword God''s movements. Even so, they kept fighting against each other for a long one hour until they exhausted most of their power. Many wounds covered their bodies, but their focus was still as strong as ever. Alex took a few deep breaths as he tried to calm himself down and slow their pace down. He learned a lot in this fight to be honest. Even his Sword Qi and Spear Qi got a breakthrough, achieving Rank 4. "It seems you haven''t learned many things yet." The Sword God looked at the giant fox behind Alex that had been maintaining the sun. "Anyway, it''s time to finish this fight." Alex checked his body conditions and nodded. The fight would be concluded in either one move or a few more rounds. Their body wouldn''t last that long anyway. Knowing that, Alex raised his sword and spear before moving forward. The Sword God matched his movement and made the first move. "Hell Lion." The same lion flew out of his sword, making its way toward Alex. "Swallowing Heaven." Alex countered it again with his two dragons to bite the wolf from the two sides. However, the Sword God actually leaped toward its back and stood on top of the wolf, riding it toward Alex. When he saw the two dragons coming, he waved his sword back and forth a few times. "Double Blade." The energy that was released by the sword knocked the two dragons away. Alex slashed his sword horizontally, aiming at the lion''s head and the Sword God himself that was luckily aligned at the moment. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword God suddenly used his feet to lift his body a bit to the air as he jumped off the tiger. The tiger died because of this attack, but the Sword God actually made a surprising move. Alex instinctively dodged to the side despite seeing the Sword God''s figure. "Purgatory Sword." This Sword Wave was horizontal and bigger than the previous ones. It ran through the ground and slashed the fox and the giant fireball into two. *Boom!* When the giant ball exploded, it produced a lot of smoke and scorching heat, but the Sword God seemed to be fine. This was also the reason why Phitrus decided to make it as his armor instead of a giant avatar like that. It was easy to destroy. After having his advantage disappeared, Alex decided to play this one step further. He waved his sword again. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." As soon as it flew out of his sword, a Space Gate suddenly appeared in front of it, swallowing the attack. This would surely give him the opportunity to attack the Sword God. Unbeknownst to him, his opponent suddenly stomped the ground as he moved at a speed that was never seen before, surprising Alex. He arrived right before the Space Gate and the Sword Wave and struck them both. "Absolute Sword." The two techniques were split into two without any power to fight back. Alex clicked his tongue. He never expected that the Sword God had been hiding his power this whole time. No, he must want to make him think that this was his full speed. All just for this moment. He sacrificed everything to seal Alex''s Space Power, making sure he didn''t use any of his techniques. "That''s not enough." Alex snapped his finger as he prepared a backup plan. An array appeared out of thin air as it summoned five swords that immediately flew toward the Sword God. "Five Executioner Array." The five swords then fused together and created a more powerful attack that was capable of surpassing his Mythical Fire Slash, albeit barely. "It''s still not enough." The Sword God snorted and cut it down with his Absolute Sword. However, it wasn''t Alex''s true aim. He suddenly placed his hand on the ground as two arrays suddenly appeared, one beneath the Sword God while the other one was on top of him. From the bottom array, around a thousand swords emerged from within before flying toward the top array. When it struck the array, it then produced a few more arrays, stacking on top of it. "Sword Prison Array." The arrays then produced an immeasurable pressure that even made the Sword God fall on his knees. Alex then used this chance to send his Blade of Extinction again toward the Sword God. Noticing that he would die if he didn''t solve this array soon, he closed his eyes for a second before opening it wide. His eyes were glowing at this moment as incomparable Sword Intent and Sword Qi flowed out, causing a small disturbance. It was like a Space Disturbance but more complicated because the Sword God cut every single element in that single moment. This disturbance was enough to break the array and set him free. He then rose from the ground and waved his sword. "Hell Lion." Alex widened his eyes when he saw this technique again. It was far stronger than the same technique he used a few times previously. When he tracked the reason, it turned out to be his eyes. The energy that flowed out of his eyes was infused into the Hell Lion, strengthening it. Because of this, the tiger managed to clash with his Blade of Extinction. It wasn''t an easy clash as the Sword Wave pushed the tiger back. Alex saw this movement and decided to jump forward. He believed that the tiger would break his attack apart, so he planned to make a follow-up attack. The moment the tiger ripped it to shred, Alex was already right behind the Sword Wave as he thrust his spear toward the weakened tiger. "Twin Fusion Spear.'' Alex planned to use this spear to hit the tiger and had his Pure Fire attack him from behind as his Spear kept moving forward to pierce him. This way, he would have two directions attack. But to his surprise, the Sword God was fast enough to recall his tiger, making Alex hit nothing. At the same time, his attack wouldn''t be activated because he never hit anything. "You lose¡­" The Sword God smirked as he took another step back. It was the same move he used to create a small distance to launch his Purgatory Sword. "This attack of yours is indeed powerful. Not only it contains the Godly Pure Fire and the Unique Space Element, but the Divine Intent is also one of a kind. Unfortunately, you might have missed a single weakness in this attack, which is¡­" "Absolute Sword. Purgatory Sword Version." The Sword God launched his Sword Wave, but using the drawing technique his Absolute Sword possessed to create a more powerful Sword Wave that was capable of cutting anything. When it touched Alex''s spear, the bending space was suddenly cut as it struck his spear. Because the space element disappeared, the Pure Fire couldn''t go through the gap and hit him from behind. At the same time, it even broke the tip of his spear. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and immediately retracted his spear. "Kh!" "That''s the biggest weakness. If I destroyed the Space Element that contained and channeled your Pure Fire, it wouldn''t reach me." The Sword God looked at him with a serious expression. Alex let go of his spear and created a new one. "I am still curious what your intentions are. There is something wrong with your movement¡­ If you wanted to kill me to force me out of this place, you would put more energy into it. You didn''t do anything like this and decided to fight me with only weapons." "Hmph! My goal is beyond your understanding." He snorted. "If you can beat me, I will tell you about it in a way even you can understand it." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "I will end this in one last round. Whether you die because of it or not¡­ It will depend on your skill." "Hmph. Skills are the last thing you want to mention in front of me." He snorted as he sheathed his sword again. "Absolute Sword. Purgatory Sword Version." The same powerful attack flew toward Alex. Seeing this, Alex gathered all his elements in his sword while thinking. ''I can only do it once with my current energy. If not because I have gained the minimum requirement, I won''t be able to do it. Either way, I will only have one chance.'' Alex jumped forward as he slashed the Sword Wave with his spear. "Three Purities Slash." Since the Twin Fusion Spear wouldn''t work, he decided to gamble it all with his full power from the start. As expected, his Divine Energy, Divine Intent, and Elements combined into one and clashed with this Sword Wave. "Ha!" Alex couldn''t help but shout in a spur of a moment as he cut down the Sword Wave. However, the Sword God was actually behind his Sword Wave this whole time with his sword sheathed. "This is the end." He looked at Alex without a poker face as he drew his sword. "Absolute Sword." Alex should know that this was a trap that had no other way to escape. His drawing speed was something faster than even the slight move he had for a split second. With him targeting to cut him into two, no matter how hard he tried, it would still cut him into two. Alex should fall into despair at this point because he undoubtedly had lost. However, no one could predict Alex''s plan. He, instead, smiled when he found the Sword God stood there as if he had been waiting for him. "Your Three Purities Slash won''t be enough to stop this attack." The Sword God snorted as if his victory was assured. "Three Purities won''t be enough¡­ In that case, I shall level up one more." Alex grinned as his sword started emanating a blue and gold aura. "Sword and Spear Possession!" "!!!" The Sword God widened his eyes in surprise. He realized that it might only last for an instant, but that attack had certainly reached that boundary. "Ha!" "Four Purities Slash." With the addition of this technique that created energy from the sword itself, Alex managed to combine and create the four purities that his sword needed to level up once more. *Boom!* This kind of slash was one of a kind as it shook the entire realm, making it unstable. Luckily, it managed to withstand the powerful energy coming from this clash. When the shock wave disappeared, it revealed two figures with their backs facing each other, showing that the match had been concluded. Alex suddenly fell on his knees as he spat a mouthful of blood. He didn''t have enough strength to even lift up his sword, so he could only grit his teeth, feeling frustrated. "Excellent." The Peerless Sword God smiled as he glanced a bit upward before stretching his other hand to his severed arm. However, he only grabbed the sword not his arm. Whether it was his pride or his habit, he wouldn''t let his sword fall to the ground as long as he could grab it. "What excellent¡­ I don''t have even a little bit of energy to lift up my sword. If you decided to kill me, I would have died by now," Alex said while panting. 923 Explanation "¡­" Alex fell silent and observed the Sword God''s expression, finding the change in his attitude absurd. He still remembered how the Sword God called him an insignificant piece of sh*t. And he could see how the Sword God actually praised him. "What?!" He narrowed his eyes. "Do you think it''s weird to act like that to make someone use all his strength without holding back?" "¡­" Alex hesitated for a second, but with the other party''s expression had turned better, he decided to ask. "Was all of that fake?" "Not really. I did hate you in the past, and I just couldn''t meet someone who I didn''t recognize face to face. To talk to me, you need to make a name worthy first, and you have just proved your worth." He shook his head, telling Alex the truth behind his actions. "So, I am qualified now?" "Barely. I can see a lot of potentials in your techniques, but I am still concerned for your future¡­" He shook his head. "Although part of it comes from the one you need to defeat, I still worry about your future techniques. For example, there is something missing in your Sword and Spear Possession. "The former you could achieve mastery because the consciousness of his intents was so strong that it could boost him to an unprecedented level. But look at you, you have completely dissolved the consciousness. No matter the case, you won''t be able to utilize the maximum power of that technique. Tch, even though he got the inspiration from me." "He¡­ I mean, the previous me got the inspiration from you?" Alex widened his eyes as he remembered the fact that Alex didn''t really have a good relationship with the Sword God. "What?! Is it incomprehensible for you?" He smiled. "Despite having so many Rank 2 Gods, there was only ten Rank 1 Gods in the past. On one hand, those Rank 2 Gods couldn''t really understand the view we had. "Although many of us hated each other, they were the ones that understood us the most¡­ Which is why I wept tears when I heard that all those Gods actually died under the scheme of that beast and when the Spirit God was slain by the beast itself. My body couldn''t help but tremble with rage. "At that time, I personally slain everyone from Earth that had even a little bit of cultivation in their body. Yeah, I was the one leading the last operation, including the expelling process. With the last bit of restriction, I, too, had injuries that I couldn''t heal and decided to pass away in this world while leaving some inheritances." The Sword God smiled while looking up as if he was reminiscing the memories of the past. "Indeed. There are two things in my mind after looking at your techniques. The first will be the weapons'' consciousness. Since the intent can''t be used, you need the replacement. This way, it will surely boost the power behind the Sword and Spear Possession. Of course, you need to increase the amount of your Sword and Spear Qi, but it only affects the time limit, so you can take your time with it. "As for the second way¡­ It''s simply to create a Pure Qi." "A Pure Qi?" "Yes. Have you felt that your Sword Qi couldn''t actually merge with the other energies such as your elements or Divine Energy?" "Indeed." Alex nodded before he realized what he wanted to say. He immediately opened his eyes wide, staring at the Sword God. "Don''t tell me; you want me to¡­" "Yeah. I want you to create the same qi as mine, the Pure Sword Qi. Unlike an ordinary Sword Qi that contains every piece of elements and other things contained in the air, you will create a Sword Qi that is purely Sword Qi¡­ In other words, it will be elementless." "A Pure Sword Qi¡­" Alex sweatdropped. "I believe any of those who actually became Rank 1 God had something beyond Pure Element. Once I met a God King known as Bow God, and yeah, he cultivated a similar type of energy like my Pure Sword Qi. I didn''t know what its name was, but it was something powerful indeed." He nodded with a serious expression. "Still, doesn''t it look inappropriate for me to learn this? Not that I decline it though." Alex scratched the back of his head. Considering the Sword God cared about his planet, it would surely weird for him to make Alex learn instead of the people in this world. "What? Since you don''t decline it, just learn it." He shrugged. "There was only one person that I deemed worthy of my Pure Sword Qi and became the Sect Leader of my Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Unfortunately, he stuck on Rank 2 God as he was too reliant on my Pure Sword Qi, unable to make something of his own. "Different from him, you already have Fire God''s Godly Pure Fire, Dungeon God''s Unique Space Element, and the Spirit God''s Sword and Spear Dual Wielding. These three should have been engraved deeply in your skills, but it seems you have harmonized them well. In that case, it will be a trick that only you can use. "That''s what I see in your Spear Technique, the one that had a delayed attack of your fire. It was something amazing, but at the same time, it wasn''t. That was why your Sword Technique impressed me the most. The moment you fused four types of energy inside, I was mind blown and thought, "Why don''t we add one more?" "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows as he asked with a hesitant tone. "You are not going to tell me to create Pure Sword Qi and Pure Spear Qi and fuse them to create Five Purities Slash, right?" "That''s exactly what I want you to do. I bet it''s going to be powerful." He nodded with confidence. "Just take a look at it, your technique contains three purities for the time being: the fuel, which is the Divine Energy, the boost, which is the elements, and the blade, which is your two intents. In addition to that, you have created the fourth purity, the consciousness. For a second, the weapons that should have no consciousness were forced to awaken to create a small consciousness. That was what your Sword and Spear Possession did earlier. "You can use the Sword and Spear Qi to become the fifth purity, but since you are at it, why don''t you just create the stronger one? I bet your achievement is going to be bigger than me¡­" He shrugged. "Ehm¡­" Whatever the reason, he felt a bit happy when the Sword God praised him that much. After all, it was praise coming from the man who mastered the way of sword. "I know how you bastard feels right now. I want to request something from you when you have resolved everything. I know all this because your previous life visited me before he died. Anyway, my request is simple. "When everything is over, I want you to make a person in this world your disciple. I am not talking about a real disciple. You only need to teach my Pure Sword Qi to one person in this world, but I want you to choose a person with the highest talent, and you can''t snatch him from this world. "As much as I hate to say it, your eye for talent is better than mine. That''s why when the disciple comes, I will make him my disciple." "I see. You want me to groom someone until he or she is ready to be your disciple?" "Yeah. I want you to put all your heart into this because I don''t like a half-baked one." "Alright. I can do that after I have resolved everything." "The second will be to protect this world if it happens to make an enemy that it can''t afford. You only need to do it once." "Hmm¡­" He narrowed his eyes, a bit hesitant to agree to this request. "Of course, if it is too big, you don''t need to rescue this world. I just want you to use your spare strength to protect this world once in the future. At the same time, I will give you one more payment." "What is it?" Alex''s expression became serious when he heard an additional payment. Everything the Sword God gave would surely be good, so he had big anticipation. "It''s not for you though." He shook his head and found a slight change in Alex''s expression. He then waved his hand, creating a small window. The figure inside that window was actually Aria. "She is the one with you, right? I have seen her talent, and yes, she has indeed a peerless talent, one that rarely appears in this world. If she is groomed well, she will be able to go against those old guys at the top of the sects. "As expected of your eyes should I say? Anyway, I am sure you want to snatch this girl from this world, so I will be grooming her for you. I won''t be teaching something hard since I will only give one or two of my techniques to her. In addition, you are free to teach the Pure Sword Qi to her. How is that?" Alex closed his eyes and felt it was a pretty good offer. "Alright then. I will agree to your offer." "Sure. But before meeting her, I will teach you the essence of my Pure Sword Qi." The Sword God took a deep breath and started explaining. "First of all, the Pure Sword Qi is simply stripping any other energy from the Sword Qi. "If you take the process of the creation of your Divine Sword Qi into account, it simply takes one more process. It''s a kind of expelling impurities in the Sword Qi. This is easier to practice when you already have Divine Sword Qi for two reasons. "First, the impurities inside your Sword Qi is not that much because most of them have been removed when you turn the Spiritual Energy into Divine Energy. The second reason is that it won''t be automatically converted when you have your Divine Tribulation¡­ Which sucks. "I am sure that you have only gotten the Sword and Spear Possession technique when you have reached God Stage. Correct me if I am wrong." "No, you are completely right." Alex shook his head. It seemed that his previous self had predicted this himself, and it might be because he knew about it that he only gave this technique on that planet. "Still, I am curious about one thing. You said that my previous self learned this technique from you." "It''s my Sword Eye. Unlike your Spirit Eyes, my Sword Eyes are capable of two things, and you have seen both of them. The first is the burst of energy and the second thing is the possession to increase one''s abilities by using a huge amount of Sword Qi. It''s a kind of fusing two bodies into one. You have seen how powerful it is, albeit it takes too much power." "I see. That''s a good technique to be honest." "You can''t use it though, or it will clash with your Spirit Eyes. Well, suppose you want to abandon your Spirit Eyes. In that case, I don''t really mind because I will be able to paint the reincarnation of the Spirit God in my color." He grinned evilly. "No thank you." "Anyway, the expelling process is a bit hard. You will need to have a huge amount of concentration, and the time you need to take to create this type of Qi is very long. It can even delay your cultivation." 924 New System "In that case, I will start explaining. First, how to expel the other energy in your energy? You might already know this, but your Divine Energy actually contains not only your Pure Fire and Space Element but also other elements, albeit they were in a smaller portion to the point you won''t even notice it. "There is a world that can easily describe this. It''s a kind of separating molecules inside each energy. I don''t know if you know the word of molecules, but either way, this is the entire process." He took out a paper and let Alex see it. There were seven steps drawn in each part. Alex could see the reason for each step, but like the Sword God said, it was very time-consuming. It was easier to create one altogether instead of turning them into one. That might be the reason that the previous Alexander Sirius gave him the knowledge inside Encore. "Remember it well because it''s something necessary. And I don''t advise you to start forming the Pure Sword Qi inside this realm. Although I am proud of my creation, it is certainly not perfect. After a few minutes, Alex''s Sword Mastery had helped him in understanding the whole process. "I don''t know about your Spear Energy, but since you are the type of guy who thinks a spear is the same as a sword, I guess it won''t be that much different." The Sword God shrugged. "I have understood them." Alex nodded. "I will try converting it later." "Alright then. Let''s go meet the little girl you have chosen." He nodded and created a special gate to travel within his realm. Aria suddenly felt two presences and immediately raised her guard. "It''s me," Alex assured her with a gentle tone. "Ah! Nyx!" She called his name in impulse. "Pfft! Nyx she said¡­" The Sword God suddenly laughed out loud as he simply couldn''t help but impress by how messy his naming skill was. "Your naming skill is as suck as mine. Hahaha¡­" "¡­" Alex wanted to rebuke him but decided to stay quiet for the time being. "Who is the one beside you?" Aria asked while glancing over the source of the sound beside Alex. "Rejoice, little girl. I am going to perform a magic trick for you." He smirked and came closer. Aria felt this and glanced at Alex, asking for his explanation. "It''s fine, I guess." As soon as she heard his response, she nodded and lowered her guard again. Aria then felt an overbearing pressure coming from that hand, stimulating the energy inside her heart. It felt like her eyes were burning, but she didn''t dare to say anything before Alex said something. After all, Alex should be able to see what happened. If he had no problem, then she should just endure it for the time being. After a whole minute of enduring the pain, the energy had stabilized as the Sword God suddenly said, "Open your eyes." Unaware of the reason behind the order, Aria gradually lifted her eyelids as many colors came into her eyes. Even though it was dominated by black, it was still the most colorful thing she had seen. She lifted her vision a little bit and found a young man. Unlike the usual her that knew nothing about color, she only knew that she could finally see someone''s figure. When she glanced a bit to the left, she saw a masked person smiling at her. It was at this time a surge of emotion flowed in her heart as she realized what just happened. "This¡­This¡­I can see?" Because she never saw anything before, her eyes still looked weird as they were not fully open. At the same time, her vision was covered by tears. "This¡­I can see people''s figures, and I can see colors¡­Whatever the colors are¡­They are¡­beautiful." Her tears flowed out uncontrollably as she couldn''t hold the excitement from seeing the world around her for the first time. Everything had been pitched black for her, and because of that, she had almost no interaction with the outside world, making her common sense slightly distorted. When she was introduced to this, there was joy in her heart before she suddenly dropped to her knees, completely exhausted. Alex immediately went toward her while looking at the Sword God. "It''s my Sword Eye. I have explained that my Sword Eye needs a huge amount of energy. And because she can see for the first time, she can''t control it yet, thus taking a huge amount of energy." He shrugged. "I see. That is fine then." He nodded. "Eh?! Sword Eye? Isn''t that the technique¡­" "It''s my technique, little girl. I don''t know whether you have saved a world in your previous generation to get this kind of luck, but yeah, I am granting a technique that no one has in this world: my one and only Sword Eye. If you need to thank someone, thank yourself because you can meet this guy and make him interested in you¡­ Hem? That sounds wrong?" He glanced at Alex. "Does that mean sexually?" "Not at all." The Sword God shrugged. "Either way, the fact that this guy decided to have a deal with you is something huge. I will be imparting two techniques to you. The first is this Sword Eye. Although it''s not impotent that allows you to see continuously, you will be able to see the world for a period of time. At my peak, I can use this for sixteen hours straight if I use it conservatively. "Taking into account that your talent is good and has gotten the approval of the one beside me, I assume you can at least reach the ten hours mark in the future. Either way, it''s something good for you, I guess. "At the same time, this Sword Eye can enhance your physical ability even further. Of course, it is a lot of work, but yeah, you will learn this technique." Aria listened to him attentively, even though she couldn''t stop crying. At the same time, she was overwhelmed by the favor Alex had given. At this point, she had decided to join his influence in the future no matter what people said, and the third reason actually reinforced that belief. The third reason was that she could see the Sword God''s appearance earlier. Because of that, she kneeled and placed her head on the ground. "This¡­ This is my honor¡­ To meet your¡­ Excellency¡­ Peerless Sword God." She stuttered but managed to complete saying his title without stopping. "I am just a soul now, not the Peerless Sword God, you know." Alex twitched his eyebrows while making a very weird look. Obviously, the Sword God found the scorn in his face and shrugged even though he knew he had fought Alex earlier with all his strength as a Rank 9 God to match Alex''s strength. "Anyway, that is the technique I will give you. And because I have promised this guy to give you two, I am still wondering which technique should I choose¡­" The Sword God scratched his head. First of all, Alex might want to wait for Aria to reach God Rank first before teaching her about the Pure Sword Qi. That was why she wouldn''t be able to use his Absolute Sword. In that case, that left either Purgatory Sword or Hell Lion. In terms of attack alone, the Purgatory Sword would suit her more than the Hell Lion, considering she had Lightning Element. However, it was his Original Divine Technique, so there was no telling that she could master it. After all, that technique was similar to Alex''s Blade of Extinction. Because Alex copied the technique from his previous self, he was able to almost perfect it, albeit it was untouchable for him because of the difference in experiences, memories, and other things. On the other hand, Aria might not have Alex''s talent, so it was close to impossible to make his Purgatory Sword her own. ''By the way, I won''t have any more Sword Mastery, huh?'' Alex asked Lin Xingzhi as he wanted to use it on Aria, so she could master the Sword even faster. It could be said as an investment, but he believed it was something he needed. [Responding to Host''s wish, Divine Gacha System shall evolve once more.] [Processing.] [0%] [50%] [100%] [Divine Gacha System V.2 (Beta)] "¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he couldn''t understand what she meant by this. "Care to explain?" [It turns out that there are many items that the system generates itself like a Mastery Card or an Element Orb. That''s why the system has a backup plan for that and allows you to use the Gacha once more. The Gacha is basically the same as your good old day since the Gacha Palace hasn''t been taken down yet. However, the currency is different.] "Different?" [Gacha Point: 0] [Gacha Coin: 0] Alex then opened all of his Gacha and realized something different. "Is this a generalization?" [Yes. You won''t need any Gacha Card, Premium Ticket or whatever it is. You will only have Gacha Point and Gacha Coin. How to get them? It''s simple. Gacha Point is working like the normal ticket, and you will get one point for every one person that is able to get Rare Rank or Super Rare in your storage.] "Seriously? I will need a huge number of items, you know." Alex frowned as he saw that if he wanted to use the Gacha, he needed a hundred thousand points. [Not necessarily so. The fact that you are targeting a Lower World that is currently in transition that allows them to possess this system, you won''t need something like Rank 8 Weapon or something. Instead, you will only need Rank 1 to Rank 5 items. I think after that, we can make the system completely disappear from them. And don''t forget that you have gotten a kind of tax from them using the Gacha in the form of Spirit Crystals. In other words, it will probably only cut around thirty percent to fifty percent of your income.] "I see. And if it''s a new world like that, most of the items needed are Rank 1 to Rank 3, which won''t cost much, making the cost even lower." Alex understood the situation. [Yes. And there is this Gacha Coin, which functions as the Premium Ticket. You might need one thousand coins for each Gacha, but you can get one point from every single UR item, or you can say every time the people get the jackpot. Although the chance is far lower than yours, the fact that there will be millions of people competing, I think it won''t be hard to get those fifty points.] "I agree. What is the reward for my Gacha then?" [Because you have no more use of the items that are regulated as common commodities, the reward will shift to only those that are specifically created from the system. Although it doesn''t have the function to open in a batch to get an additional benefit, and it''s hard to open even once, the reward is absolutely worth it. For example, you will have a bigger chance to draw a Sword Mastery.] "That is truly tempting. To create many talents at once¡­" [Yes. The Dungeon God also created an army of a thousand with peerless talents. That was why he was so feared in the past¡­ Second only to you.] "I see. I will try to create that kind of world as soon as possible." Alex nodded before looking back at the Sword God and Aria that seemed to have come to an agreement. 925 Purgatory Sword "I have decided to teach her my Purgatory Sword. If it''s not working within three days, I will just give her knowledge about my Hell Lion," said the Sword God nonchalantly. "Three days for an original technique?" Alex narrowed his eyes, wondering if this Sword God was insane. Even he needed a long period of time to master his own previous life''s technique, let alone Aria. "Don''t worry. There is a thing called affinity. Her Lightning Element actually suits this technique the most, and if she can just accomplish a little thing, I will give her the technique. The rest will be up to her¡­ Well, it will be different if you help her though." He smirked as if challenging him. "We will see. It''s not like I need the technique, but training together seems fine." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Do you want me to give you personal advice for your Sword Training?" He tried to tease him this time. Alex maintained his calm face and shook his head. "I am good." "Tch. You are not fun." "You are the one who suddenly gets so chummy after all those things." Alex let out a long sigh when he recalled the fact that they were not allies. In fact, they often fought against each other with the intention to kill. "The past is the past. When you die, you will realize many different things." He brushed the matter off with a laugh. "¡­" Alex fell silent and gave a space for their training as he also wanted to start understanding the concept of Pure Sword Qi. He didn''t have the intention to try it here though. Thus, the hellish training from the Sword God began. They might be only in the form of a soul, and the body needed to practice it again after they knew how to do it, but there was one advantage in training this way. They wouldn''t be exhausted because the realm was supporting their energy usage and stamina was never a thing for the soul. Alex kept glancing over, watching the training for a few minutes before training for an hour. It was to keep track of Aria''s progress and saw whether there would be something he needed to add to increase her understanding. Still, the Sword God really lived up to his name. There was nothing he could say because everything he taught was perfect. He truly attained the peak of the sword in the past. Alex actually started admiring his passion for the sword and how easy he explained all the things concerning his technique to Aria. One would say that the genius acted and thought differently, but there was an ability that many geniuses were lacking. The ability to easily teach others. This Sword God really made a good teacher in terms of teaching, Alex thought. Meanwhile, Aria kept moving her body as though her life depended on it. Alex and the Sword God had nothing but admiration of her will. After the second day passed, Alex finally found a slightly faster way to create Pure Sword Qi and decided to consult it with the Sword God. They then started breaking it even further and made a very long talk. The latter seemed to be very happy when there was someone who could talk to him about the sword as deep as that. But to their surprise, when Aria listened to their conversation, she suddenly made a breakthrough. Not cultivation breakthrough, but understanding. She grasped a little bit of the Sword God''s Purgatory Sword and decided to train it that way. And finally, she reached the stage where the Sword God deemed her to be successful in cultivating the Purgatory Sword. "To think you have reached this stage in just three days¡­ Your comprehension speed might be comparable to me," he said in amazement. "I am just lucky enough to listen to what both of you discussed earlier and realized the way to utilize my Sword Qi more effectively." She shook her head, didn''t dare to accept the claim. "Then, should I say as expected of your eyes for talent?" The Sword God glanced at Alex while grinning. "Nope. I was lucky that the first person I met was her." The Sword God shrugged before giving her two memory crystals. "These two are my Sword Eye technique and Purgatory Sword technique. Remember every single detail and make sure that the techniques are only for you, not anyone else." "Yes." "I will transfer the memory in the crystal to your brain. Don''t forget anything." He then placed his hand on the crystal before transferring the knowledge by using his Divine Energy. Alex did this too when he showed the information from the old man. He transferred the knowledge from the crystal to her brain. After that, Aria sat in the group and tried to absorb all the things she got while the Sword God walked toward Alex. "There is one thing I want to warn you about." He looked at Alex with a grim expression. Alex''s body began to tense as his face turned serious. However, what he heard next surprised him. "Don''t waste your time with my other inheritances. You will only waste your time." "Eh?!" Alex stumbled and almost fell when he heard that. "I mean. There is nothing you can learn from me because you already have your own path." "Well, I am curious about your Sword Pavilion though." "That place, huh¡­ I have given it to my assistant to manage, but I guess he is still doing a pretty good job." He nodded. "I guess you can go there if you want to increase the amount of your Sword Qi. It''s not that much, but I guess it can increase the speed by two or three times." "That''s what I am searching for." Alex nodded. "I am going to convert everything first and reach Rank 5 before going there." "I see. Are you going to aim for Rank 7 there?" "How long can I even stay?" "It''s half a year. Reaching Rank 6 is an easy way in that place. I am not giving you the key to enter the place instantly, though. You need to acquire everything by yourself. I wonder if you can''t even solve the mystery of my pavilion, can this be considered I am smarter than you?" "Who cares." Alex shrugged. "Smart is relative. If you are judging the talent and brain of a monkey on how to swim, they will believe they are an idiot for the rest of their life. "True enough." The Sword God shrugged. "I won''t impose you any longer. Just wish you good luck. I hope you can achieve your goal¡­ I guess for you, it''s not to protect the universe, but protect all things you hold dear¡­" "Yeah. Saving the universe is just an afterthought." "Yep. That personality hasn''t changed." After waiting for a few more hours until Aria had finished, they were finally ready to return. "Anyway, as long as you don''t create a ruckus, I think you will have no problem. At the same time, you can even use the Purgatory Sword to have her stay in the spotlight." "There is nothing flashy such as a shining stone or something, right?" "Don''t worry about that." "In that case¡­" Alex glanced at Aria as she clasped her hand and bowed politely. "Goodbye." The light started enveloping them as their consciousness began to disperse from that realm and entered their body again. Alex gradually opened his eyes and noticed that there wasn''t a single person around the Sword Stone. "It seems you have awakened. There are still twenty minutes though. Do you still want to continue?" The female elder suddenly appeared next to him and asked. From the way she talked alone, he realized that she wasn''t aware of what happened inside. That was why he decided to play along by letting out a long sigh as if he was so disappointed in himself. "Haiz¡­ It''s impossible. I can''t get anything." After getting her view broadened by Alex, Aria seemed to have realized Alex''s true aim and followed his action. However, instead of playing ignorant, she decided to take the spotlight. "I think I have gotten something. I am still nowhere enough, but I think I know the name of the technique¡­" The female elder suddenly widened her eyes and went toward her, shaking her back and forth with excitement. "What is it? What is the name of the technique?" "It''s called Purgatory Sword. Do you happen to know something about it, Elder?" "Great disciple! Great disciple! Haha¡­ The Purgatory Sword is the Sword God''s Original Divine Sword Technique. You are such a lucky girl." Aria opened her mouth as if she was surprised. "Can you show me?!" The elder asked, wanting to confirm whether she told the truth or not. After all, the technique called Purgatory Sword was common knowledge. The only way to know whether she was talking the truth or not was to have her demonstrate it. "I don''t know if I can¡­" Aria slowly rose from the ground and took out her sword, including the scabbard from the space ring. She then stepped her right foot forward and placed her hand on the handle of the sword as if he wanted to draw the sword. Suddenly, a shock wave came out of her stance alone, carrying a sharp qi inside. The shock wave brushed her skin and the surroundings, creating a powerful but calm breeze. "This¡­ This is the Sword Stance of Purgatory Sword in the legend." The elder fell on her knees. "You¡­ You have truly¡­" "I think I only learn about one percent of it¡­" Aria let out a long sigh. "One percent is good. It''s good." The elder laughed as she immediately focused on Aria instead of Alex. Alex, on the other hand, was pretty happy with the development. This way, he could move around stealthily. And with the fact that she could understand this, the elder would surely protect her. Alex decided to take advantage of the situation. ''Tell her about the incident you have experienced during the test.'' Aria caught Alex''s intention and opened her mouth. "Elder. Have he and I passed the test?" "Passed, passed. You both have passed. In fact, both of you are qualified as an inner disciple and can immediately have all the treatments." She repeatedly nodded. "Really?" Aria looked at her with an expectant look despite her closed eyes. "Yes, of course. It has been decided that way. The only thing you need to do is to come to my peak and get the token, and you will be set. You can have a nice environment to practice this Godly Technique. I am sure that the Peerless Sword God will be smiling upon you." "A nice environment, huh¡­" Aria furrowed her eyebrows, looking slightly concerned. "Hmm? Is there a matter you have in mind? Tell me about it, I will try to solve it for you." "I don''t know if I can trouble Elder just like this¡­" "It''s fine, it''s fine. I have nothing to do anyway." "Actually, I once met a group of three, one female and two males. All of them were 1-Star Martial Saints. Because we had an interest in the same herb, I decided to let go of the herb. I acted a bit indifferent about it because I never really conversed with many people, thus resulting in my lack of common sense. That''s why I think I have offended that person¡­" "Hmm¡­ I don''t remember such a group, but since the incident happened inside the store, I could ask the elder in charge of that store to know about this matter. I will then warn her to not take action unless they have prepared to face my wrath." The elder nodded. "Is that so?! I am glad¡­ I am just worried that she targets my family instead of me¡­" "Don''t worry. There is a rule inside the sect to not harm the secular families unless the other parties have a bad intention first. If you are abusing this too, then expelling is the only path. So, you don''t need to worry." "I see." Aria nodded with a sigh of relief. Unbeknownst to the elder, Alex was smiling inwardly as if everything had finally been resolved. 926 Five Places Aria repeatedly nodded, agreeing to whatever she said. She was just happy to have solved the problem she created a few days ago and didn''t burden Alex that much. "Shall we go then?" "I understand." Aria nodded while glancing at Alex, who also nodded her head. Elder Illevis watched their interaction and smiled inwardly. She wondered what they would do if they realized they needed to live in a single house. Not many people were able to get something from the Sword Stone, and almost all of them got it after meditating in front of the Sword Stone for years. In other words, Aria''s talent was one of the best, if not the best in the current generation. However, she had no plan in announcing it, lest the other peaks would try to snatch her. At the same time, she didn''t really think any less of Alex. His talent in sword might be lower than Aria, but his cultivation speed was far too monstrous. At just the age of 47, he managed to become a Martial Saint. He might even reach God Rank under seventy years old. If this happened, there would be a big chance for him to reach Rank 2 God. With Alex and Aria in her peak, the Blossom Sword Peak was bound to rise. She needed to make sure there was no one who could disturb it. While thinking about it, Illevis then led the way to her peak. It was quite a long journey because the sect was so big. Even if Alex used his full power, he might need a few minutes to reach it, but because he couldn''t show his power, it took him three hours before arriving at the peak. They saw many peaks on the way, along with the disciples and peak masters peeking on them. "There are a total of sixteen peaks in my Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Among the rest, my Blossom Sword Peak claims the top five position, albeit in the last position. That''s why I am sure you won''t regret choosing my peak because it happens to be one of the best." "Thank you for Elder''s consideration and the recommendation letter." Aria thanked her. "It''s fine. Your talent is the one giving you this opportunity." She smiled. "Just make sure that you don''t show your strength very often because people may get jealous. If that happens, they are going to start targeting you. It will be either you join me or you perish." "I will put Elder''s words in my mind." They continued for a little longer before arriving at the peak. Alex found a big building on the very top and realized it must be the elder''s house. "Peak Master. You have finally returned." One of them greeted her while the others bowed to her while glancing at Alex and Aria, observing their reaction. "Umu. It took a while, but yeah, this is my lucky day." She grinned and called a single name. "Melvie." "I am here, Peak Master." A young lady suddenly walked toward her as she bowed her head politely. "Do you need anything from me?" "Yeah. Since you are the favorite disciple, how about giving them a tour and sending them to their house? It has been arranged, right?" "Yes." She gracefully nodded before realizing someone''s stare. She took a peek at who it was, and it turned out to be Alex''s and Aria''s gazes. She knew about this type of gaze. "Aiya¡­They are really extraordinary. It seems you two have guessed who I am¡­" "The lady in front of the gate a few days ago." Aria nodded while Alex stayed silent. It piqued the others'' interests at this point. Some were elders that had been dealing with all the matters for the peak while some were their assistants, so they knew that the sect master asked Melvie to be the lady to scout talented people. Despite using a perfect measure to hide her identity, the two managed to guess it right away, albeit only one of them gave the answer. That was why in terms of perception alone, they might be the best of the new batch. "Nice to meet you. I am Melvie. And yes, Peak Master has said it herself, I am the current Favorite Disciple of Sword Blossom Peak." She smiled. "I will be giving you a tour of our peak and the entire sect before showing where you will stay for the night. Is that alright?" Aria was in charge of talking here, so she immediately clasped her hands. "This junior gives her thanks to Senior Sister." "Good." She then clarified again with the peak master. "Do you want to add anything, Peak Master?" "Give the inner disciple tokens to them." "Yes, Ma''am." She smiled before looking for the one in charge of the tokens and asked her for two tokens before handing them to Alex and Aria. "Here you go." "And make sure you don''t create trouble for now. I will be heading toward Elder Agya after this." "Alright. I will take care of everything. I can use your name to scare them away, right?" "No. For now, use your own name for that. If there is anything, just tell them they are the new disciples." "¡­" Melvie fell silent for a few seconds as she realized that this course of action would create a misunderstanding inside the sect. On one hand, the favorite disciple gave a tour around the sect personally. On the other hand, it was on her personal accord. There would be people thinking they were powerful for a newbie, but when they checked their strength, they would think otherwise. It seemed that the peak master didn''t want all the things they could see in them to be known for the time being. She abided by that instruction and nodded. "Alright. I will be going now." "Yeah. Take care. The rest of you should also go back to your work." Illevis waved her hand. "Still¡­ It''s a bit weird to have you going around with a mask¡­Do you have an idea on how we solve this? After all, it will create quite a disturbance." Aria furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Alex. Alex gave the confirmation, and Aria took off her mask. Her eyelids were still closed so as to not invite sympathy from others. "Is this fine?" "Of course. Thank you very much." Melvie nodded with a smile before glancing at Alex. "I apologize¡­ This is something I can''t take off in front of many people¡­" Alex decided to open his mask a bit, allowing the others to see the horrendous burn mark around his right eye. *Gasp¡ª* The people sucked a cold breath as they couldn''t believe what they saw earlier. "There are many things that can heal the skin. Do you want¡­" The peak master wanted to make an offer but stopped half-way. "This is something like a reminder for me. I apologize if this makes all of you uncomfortable." Alex smiled gently, hoping that the others could understand. "Ehm. I guess it''s fine. Some often wore a half-face mask, so it won''t mean anything if you wear that. You don''t need to show it to others as well and just let me do all the talking if someone wants to check you. Or you can just show the tokens and be done with it. As for your appearance, this big sister also likes a mysterious person, you know. It''s so sexy." She tried to comfort Alex. "It''s fine." Alex gently smiled. "In-in that case, let''s set off." She nodded her head and stretched her hand while leading them outside to fly again. Inside the hall, a commotion burst out as they looked at their peak master, confused about the reason she gave these two youngsters such a treatment. "They are pitiful children but talented people. Can''t I show a bit of care to the disciples? I have been doing it this whole time, right?" When they heard it, they nodded their heads. Illevis certainly knew that some of them were untrustworthy because they were the spies that the other peaks sent, so she didn''t want to talk much about it. Meanwhile, Alex and Aria had arrived on the bottom of the hill as Melvie started explaining. "First of all, there are several things you need to know about the sect. There are five places that you will eventually visit. The first is the arena. No killing or crippling is allowed inside this sect because of the "if you have a grudge, settle it outside" rule. "The second will be the Blade Tower. Not only does it offer you the best quality weapons, but it also has the stock of pills and array plates. I am sure you will need it at some point. The third will be Sword Cave and Sword Stone. It''s the inheritance palace. Other than the time close to the enrollment, you can stay there for a period of time, depending on the points in your token. "As for the fourth one, it''s Martial Arts Pavilion. You can get any kind of weapon arts. There are even many Divine Arts there. Although it''s not as popular, we also have many Element Arts, albeit most people are focusing on the Weapon Arts. "Last but not least, it is the place where you can search for points, the marketplace. In the middle of the marketplace, you can find a mission board where you can choose your mission. No one can abuse their own identity here, including the inner and core disciples and even me. You need to wait in line, even if it means you are behind a thousand of outer disciples. Do you understand?" Alex and Aria nodded. "I will explain their details while we are on the way." She started flying toward one of the places and kept talking. "This is the arena. It''s mostly for you to challenge someone. I think there is nothing I should add except this one. You have the right to reject a challenge. That''s all." An hour later, they arrived in front of the Blade Tower. Just like she said, there was a huge collection of weapons, pills, and array plates. There were even raw metals and medicinal herbs there. He wondered if there was a peak tier medicinal herb that had the effect like Void Flower, albeit found nothing. After looking around inside the tower, they skipped the Sword Cave and Sword Stone because they had been there. She only added the cost to practice in that place. They then went toward the Martial Arts Pavilion. Unfortunately, they could only stay at the entrance because they had no permission to enter. The last place would be the marketplace. Just like what Alex predicted, he saw a giant mission board that contained thousands of missions to satiate the need of so many disciples. But what surprised him was the fact that in front of the mission board had a real market where people traded. "The market is a bit strange," Alex exclaimed in surprise as if he noticed something wrong. "I don''t know what makes you think that, but yeah, this market is a special one. It sells many things, including the materials for the missions on the board. The disciples often brought back the missions'' materials and sold them here because they would make more money if someone decided to take on the mission and immediately buy it from them. "It might sound weird, but that''s the world. Sometimes, points are not more important than Spirit Crystals. And if you want to get big cash, you can get a huge amount of the materials and sell it just slightly above the marketplace. Considering the time you need and any other things, people might decide to buy it from you instead of going on a mission. You can say it''s like trading your wealth with points. Can''t help if we were born rich." She shrugged. "Interesting." 927 House Nonetheless, he felt there would be a huge use of this market, so he wanted to observe it first before making his decision. "You can see there is a huge number of requests per day, and there is a chance that you take a mission that someone has unintentionally finished during their own mission and so on. I don''t have anything to say other than saying my condolences, so yeah, good luck on that." Melvie shrugged. She was concerned about Aria, but with Alex beside her, she should have no problem in getting a mission. Alex wasn''t a fool to begin with, so they might be stronger if they fought together. "Do we have a quota or something? Like we need to get a certain number of missions in a period of time." "Nope. You are completely free. Just make sure that if you are taking too long, you won''t be able to upgrade your status from inner disciple to core disciple. After all, the sect will only provide resources this way. Unless you have a huge backing behind you that is capable of forking out millions of Spirit Crystal, I doubt you can reach God Stage that easily." "Fair enough." Alex nodded with a serious expression. To boost his cultivation speed, he had already forked out tens of millions of Spirit Crystal. And there were Sherry and the others, so he was completely broke when he was in Moose World. In fact, he was pretty poor when coming here. Unless he took the Spirit Crystals inside Encore, he wouldn''t have the capital to buy something expensive. That was the reason he used the advantage of a newbie to buy some expensive medicinal herbs. "Well, there is also a special mission. Peak Masters are the ones released such a mission to a specific person. At that time, they are usually coming to you guys personally to discuss the place. Although most won''t reject the mission, there are some who like to kill their own disciples, so there were some who rejected it in the past. We have no one rejected the mission yet just for your information." Alex and Aria exchanged looks as if thinking the same thing. It was obvious that Melvie was trying to tell that the Sword Blossom Peak wasn''t a bad guy. Either way, they would only see whether it was such a thing. "But won''t there be troublemakers?" Aria asked. "They can''t force you into a challenge in the sect." "I understand." Aria nodded while Alex kept furrowing his eyebrows as he seemed to have felt something was amiss. "Anyway, you have everything here, so all you need to do is to show your talent and think it through. You need both talent and brain to reach the top in this sect because the sect won''t babysit you." "There is one thing I would like to know. What if we meet other sects that create trouble for us?" Alex asked. "Well, this is my personal advice. You know that the Memory Crystal can record anything, right?" "Ah! I see." Alex nodded. "You want me to record everything¡­ No, I should say that I need to start recording when I meet people. In that case, this recording will be my defense." "Yes. But unlike us who are utilizing the Favorite Disciple system, they have personal disciples and such, so there must be a few people who are off-limits. I really suggest you guys not to really pick a fight against them, but dead men tell no tales." Aria furrowed her eyebrows as she understood her meaning. If something happened and the other party wanted to kill them, they just needed to fight back and kill them. If no one knew they killed them, they would be fine. Suppose someone knew. In that case, you can only get a punishment from the sect or flee from here. "We understand." Aria nodded before glancing at Alex, wondering if he had any other questions. After he saw Alex shaking his head, she continued. "I think that''s all. We know where to practice and where to get points." "In that case, should we go to your house now? Or do you want to visit another place?" "Actually, I have one person that I want to meet before this¡­ But I don''t know if I can." Alex shrugged as he didn''t really care about this and decided to tag along. It wasn''t like they were wasting a day or two just for this visit. "Where do you want to go?" "I want to visit my brother." "Ah! The one that Elder Gian brings in¡­I guess you can. I will help you with the process." Melvie nodded. "Elder''s peak is that way." They nodded and flew again. After another thirty minutes, they had arrived at the peak. Alex found something far different than their own peak. It was that there was a giant array enveloping this peak. When he scanned it, he realized it was an array that had the ability to increase gravity. "This is Mountain Strength Peak. They are focusing on offensive power, including their own body. In terms of offensive power, they might be the second strongest in the sect, only second to the first peak that has been reigning as a champion this whole time." A few disciples then rose to the air and greeted Melvie. "May we know is there a reason for Senior Sister Melvie to visit this peak?" They asked politely. "Peak Master Gian brought a disciple yesterday, right? His sister wants to meet him, so I brought her here. Can you pass the message to him?" "They are still having a conversation about his training¡­So, I guess it''s impossible to meet him right now." "Then can you pass the message to the peak master instead? I believe he will give some time for them to meet." She smiled. "Uhm¡­ Alright." The disciples agreed to it because of Melvie''s reputation. Unlike the others that were cold and aloof, Melvie was one of the few disciples that were easy-going, so people like her more than most of the other Favorite Disciples. When she asked them like this, they had no choice other than to do it. A few minutes later, Adrian suddenly flew out of the peak and shouted. "Sister!" "Adrian." She glanced toward Adrian and smiled before opening her hands. However, Adrian suddenly stopped right in front of her and looked away embarrassedly. "What are you doing, Sister? Are you going to embarrass me? We are grown up, so don''t treat me like a kid." "¡­" Aria fell silent for a while before awkwardly pulled back her hands. "I guess it''s fine then." Her voice was filled with sadness, but it seemed she indeed needed to stop treating him like this. "Well, I only want to check you, and I am glad that you are doing fine." "Uhm, yes. Thank you for Sister''s assistance in the test. I would have nothing to gain if it''s not for Sister." She then took out a sword and handed it to him. "This is your sword. I might not be able to visit you for the time being, so I want to give you this sword first. At the very least, this will protect you better than me." "Ugh¡­" Now he felt bad for not receiving his sister''s hug. He thought for a moment and said, "That bastard is in the peak next to me. Since Sister is a bit far away, you don''t need to care about him because I will be his opponent." "Is that so? You have become so dependable." "Your dream is to become an expert, right? So, you should just aim at your goal and don''t think about anything else. I will take care of everything for you¡­ This is my duty as your brother and the next patriarch of our Cypress Family. It''s also my own way to redeem the bad thing I have done to you, sister¡­" He bowed his head. "Hehe. I am glad that you have changed. If mother were here, she will surely be proud of you. May fortune bless you with its presence, Adrian." "Yes, Sister. Thank you very much. I will treasure this sword and use it to cut our enemies." "In that case, I think it''s worth it to come here. Before you do anything, make sure to reach 1-Star Martial Saint first, alright?" "Yes. Peak Master said the same thing." "Then, we are leaving now." "Yes. Take care, sister." He nodded before glancing at Alex and bowing his head again without saying anything. After that, they flew back to the Sword Blossom Peak. Adrian saw them off until he couldn''t see their back and returned straight to the building on top of the peak. He saw an old man waiting for him and waved his hand. "Have you finished your business?" "Peak Master¡­ You promised to train me, right?" "Of course. There are two reasons. First, I can show my superiority to that Illevis if I can train the brother of her favorite disciple and show her that he is stronger than his sister. Second, you also have a lot of talent yourself. The blazing fire in your heart might dim down, but I can feel that it has become even more stable than ever. That''s why I am going to train you to be the strongest." "I understand. I shall do it. No matter how hard it''s, I will endure every training you give. If my sister walks ten steps, I will walk one hundred. I will use this sword that she gives to show her that I am the head of my family." "Not a perfect determination for me, but I guess that''s enough. Shall we start?" He smirked evilly. "Please take care of me, Peak Master." He bowed with a solemn expression. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex and Aria had arrived in front of their house after two hours of flying. To their surprise, Melvie only showed them this house and said, "This is your house. Yep, you are staying under one roof. Ahem, you are a man and a woman, so there might be an accident¡­Ahem, whatever, it''s not like there will be someone spying on you or listening to your moans. Anyway, this is the key and goodbye." "¡­" Alex and Aria were speechless. This might be the reason why she wanted to show them the other places first. She misunderstood that Alex and Aria were a couple, and they would be having s*x every now and then and chose to retreat as soon as she handed the key. The house itself was not so big. Definitely not as big as Alex''s house in the Heavenly Sword Sect. However, the field behind the house was far bigger than Aria''s mansion. It seemed the disciple could use that big field for all kinds of training. They could create a small pound and pour water or make practice dummies. Or even a fight against someone. This house would be perfect for people to go training. He looked at this not decorated wooden house and checked it using his Spirit Eyes. After finding there was nothing suspicious inside, he exchanged looks with Aria. "You have a problem with this?" Alex asked. "You are interested in me?" "Nope." "Then, is there a need to ask? Not that I don''t mind if an accident does happen though. After all, I will be the biggest winner according to the Sword God." "¡­" Alex was speechless and immediately walked inside the house, wondering. ''What kind of bullsh*t that guy said to her?'' 928 Overall Situation "It seems this house is indeed a one-person house." Alex let out a long sigh. "Well, the house is pretty big, so I will be sleeping here¡­ Not that I really need sleep, but I guess if it''s cultivating alone, it''s fine. You won''t make too much noise anyway." She shrugged. Since Alex was a kind of her employer, she suggested this. "Nah, it''s fine. There is a storage room inside, so I will be using that instead after cleaning up that place." Alex shrugged. "Actually, I have already placed the bed and any other necessities. "Ehm¡­ Seriously?" "Yeah. Want to see it?" If she said she wasn''t curious about it, she would be lying. After all, Alex was a God Rank Expert. In terms of seniority, he should be the one using the bedroom. However, Alex never really cared about that and let her use the bedroom while using a storage room instead. She felt bad about it. On the other hand, Alex simply thought that the storage room could be considered comfortable enough. He remembered that he had been using a dark and cold cave longer than he used a real bedroom, so compared to what he had endured this whole time, a storage room would be perfect for him. Of course, necessities like a bed and other things had been prepared inside his Inventory because he often used it, so when Aria entered the room, she realized that it had become a room that could be used for a small bedroom. "Ehm¡­ I think I will use this place instead. You can use the original bedroom." "Nah, it''s fine. You are the talented one here. If you stay here instead, I will be a bit suspicious, especially if someone checks us." "¡­" Aria fell silent for a minute and ultimately nodded her head. "I understand. If you feel comfortable, we can switch." "Don''t worry. Compared to where I have been living, this place is quite nice." Alex shrugged. "So, what are we going to do now?" She asked. "Should I aim for Martial Saint first?" "Yes. I want you to break through to Martial Saint first before taking the first mission. Well, you have an Energy Pill. That should be enough to reach 10-Star Martial Monarch. Assuming that you will be training with me, I think it won''t take a year to have a breakthrough." "Are you sure? I usually take one or two years just for a star¡­" She furrowed her eyebrows, not believing what he said. "It will depend whether you are determined enough to improve." "I am. Just¡­ Are we going to practice my Purgatory Sword or Sword Eye first?" "I will be lying if I say I don''t have the desire to learn the Sword Eye first, but I will follow your advice. After all, the Sword God said that your skill with the sword is second only to him." "He obviously didn''t want you to think he is below me by any means. He is a sore loser." "Fufu. He knew that you would say that, so he told me that you lost against him." "¡­" Alex was speechless. The Sword God was indeed a poison. "It''s just a close match. If I have mastered everything in my repertoire, I won''t have any problem destroying him." She smiled as if everything was according to her plan. "As expected, you must be an important person. Although I am doubting your age, your identity is indeed very special. With how you are talking about him this casual, it must mean that you have somehow a relationship. The only problem will be what kind of relationship it is¡­ "Since he had died a few thousand years ago, I guess you have met his soul in another place. It makes me curious, but since you are not going to say anything, I won''t pry deeper. It''s just I want to say this to you. I will make sure to win the bet." "Try it." Alex shrugged with a smile. "You are smart but lacking common sense." "Ugh¡­ I am sorry about that. I have created trouble for you." "I guess it''s fine. I will be teaching you how to be careful during this time. And there is one thing that I find troubling." "What is it?" "All of them were saying they would protect you. They never said anything regarding your family. It might be true that as long as you are inside the sect, you won''t have trouble. And if the disciple targets a family outside the sect, they will receive a punishment. But no one is saying their family outside is targeting your family. If it comes to this, it will just be a brawl between two secular families. It can''t be considered breaking the rules." "Ah?!" "See? You are still naive. And there is a chance that your brother is on the list. Either way, I won''t be helping you regarding this matter. The only way for you to solve everything is to get stronger. Are you prepared to complete some hellish training?" Aria gulped down and nodded. "I am ready. Please take care of me." "For now, you can use the Energy Pill first. I will be staying here until you have reached 10-Star Martial Monarch." "I understand." Aria didn''t complain that she didn''t have time to get used to her new environment. It was like her courtyard. There was nothing to do other than training. After getting Alex''s instructions, she went straight to her new room and swallowed the pill. Meanwhile, Alex opened his system. "By the way, there is already Sherry and the others using the Gacha System, right?" [Yes. Rose is getting lucky not long ago.] [Gacha Point: 1] [Gacha Coin: 0] "Hmm. That''s right. How are the girls?" [Anna and Anya are cultivating in Eulja right now and have reached Rank 9 God due to the supply of medicinal herbs. The experience can be increased by the usage of pills and medicinal herbs, so we are using it to boost everyone''s cultivation.] "That''s good. I have no problem here too. I am still unsure whether to summon the N squad to investigate the world because I have no plan in going out that much." [Do you have a plan?] "I am thinking right now." Alex let out a long sigh. "There is nothing that piques my interest other than Sword Pavilion, but it will only open in another two years. Within that time, I need to go out once in a while. After all, I can''t make them think I am a spy that suddenly disappears." [You are going to make a scene?] "Yeah. Probably a suicide scene¡­ Not exactly committing suicide, but maybe sacrifice myself to fend off enemies." [That girl can certainly act for you, but I think you might want to have another person to watch that scene to make it more believable. After all, they are considering both of you as a thing.] "You are not jealous?" [No way. Is there a need to be jealous? As long as you are not obsessed to the point you have forgotten about your original wives, I won''t say anything. Besides, there are still spaces inside our bedroom.] "Anyway, I have no plan in doing that. Anyway, how are Alicia and the others?" [I have sent Alicia into a freezing world since it''s too far from its star. She is fighting against many monsters there while increasing her strength. My task is pretty simple. I want her to conquer that world for me.] "I see. The power level is not that high, right?" [Don''t worry. I don''t give impossible missions.] "That''s good then." [As for Firia, she has a separate mission with her master. I don''t intervene unless necessary, and the content of the mission is also unknown to me.] "Well, she has taken care of her this whole time, so her safety should be guaranteed. Now that you mention it, I haven''t visited my master after reaching God Rank. I should probably visit him soon." [I don''t really mind. I have explained your current situation to him, and he is fine with it. Besides, I have been giving the report to him about your progress, so he focuses on helping Firia right now. Well, you might want to visit him after completing your objective there.] "Yeah. I will probably do that." Alex nodded. [As for Sherry, she is in a beast world, trying to learn more about herself. As much as they are similar to a human or a spirit, Sherry needs to face this herself. I have asked her first about this, and she said she wants to get stronger by going to the basics.] "Since she agreed, I won''t say anything. Besides, she is going to be training in a fire world." [Yes. We have found a planet that is suited for the Fire Authority cultivation. It will go either to you or Sherry, depending on who is first. As for the second world, we have found a clue but need a bit more time. I think we should find the third one within five years. At the same time, we have gained a clue about the world where we can plant the Gacha System.] "I understand. I will immediately use my power to plant the system after visiting my master." Alex nodded. "How about Rose and Letizia?" [Letizia has broken through to 9-Star. I think she will become a Goddess in two years of that world''s time, not your current world.] "I see. That''s good then. Zark will pick her up, right?" [Yes. Considering she has an affinity with Alicia, she can train in the Ice Phoenix Tribe for the time being before becoming Alicia''s assistant, so she understands more about Ice Element. If the Pure Ice element can be utilized perfectly, I think she might be the ice version of uncle Phitrus.] "Nice. She is a talented one and can be taught, so I am glad." [You need to face her without drawing a line, you know.] "Ugh. I know." Alex looked away. [As for Rose, she doesn''t have any problem too. Maybe she will be able to become a God Rank Expert two years after Letizia. This is just a prediction.] "How is her overall strength?" [I think she has no problem. Despite having 2-Star Martial Saint strength, she is able to fight against your average 4-Star. I think she can win against 5-Star Saint with some special condition.] "That''s powerful. As expected of my disciple." [You didn''t teach her that much, considering she uses a bow instead of a spear or a sword.] "It''s not like she needs one. The Bow Mastery is the biggest cheat." Alex stuck his tongue. [Anyway, I have been giving Rose and Letizia a few missions they need to do to hone their fighting skills and other things.] "Alright. Thank you for doing that. I don''t have time to supervise it." [Don''t worry. It''s not like I have a lot of jobs with Korzan taking all the jobs. I am more like a supervisor of this world instead of a ruler. I will just be waiting for you to take the role from me.] "Ahaha." Alex could only laugh. [There is one more thing. It''s about Evelyn.] "Oh?!" [According to Letizia, she has been inquiring about your information from time to time. She also has successfully made her senior sister¡­ Angela, was it? To be the sect master candidate instead of her. I think she will chase you.] "I am not against the idea, but I just don''t want to repeat the same mistake as I did in Shelka''s case." [I will be supervising her for you and make sure she doesn''t fall to that path.] "Yeah, thank you." 929 Mission This might be the first time Aria experienced the full experience of hellish training. It was different from what she received in the Cypress Family mansion. After training, every muscle in her body was sore to the point she almost lost her ability to move. At that time, Alex didn''t let her go and made her cultivate until the muscle pain disappeared and repeated the same process. This way, they wouldn''t waste a single minute. Not only did the training consume a huge amount of energy, especially when she tried to understand the Purgatory Sword''s concept, but it also needed a lot of mental strength. Most people usually said they practiced until they dropped, but not many of them actually repeated such a thing for weeks, months, or even years. They simply needed time to relax. Alex did the same as well, but he had a clear target for his training. If he needed to complete the training set in three hours, he would try to break his limit and complete it in two hours. He repeated the process every single day until he finished his training. And this was the essence of Alex''s hellish training, breaking the limit. Aria didn''t complain this whole time and just endured the pain until she began to feel numb about it, just like how Evelyn and Rose felt. Quickly, four months had passed, and it invited the curiosity of the peak master and Melvie. They decided to check on them because four months were certainly not a short time. Alex and Aria met them by the gate when they noticed their presence. Of course, Aria was covered by sweat. "Ara?! You two sure are having fun, eh?" Melvie smirked, teasing Alex and Aria. "Fun, huh? It''s certainly fun to see your strength increase." Aria smiled. Of course, she would be feeling happy when she realized that her strength a few months ago was just a mere 8-Star Martial Monarch. After getting Alex''s training, her strength increased by leaps and bounds, and now she had become a solid 10-Star Martial Monarch. Although the Energy Pill contributed as well, the biggest leap was surely her battle efficiency. Unlike a few months ago, she now had enough control to fight someone with her lightning continuously. Not only by using those high-speed movements, but she also could use her lightning to add a few more directional attacks or even strengthening her Martial Arts. "May I know what is the reason for Peak Master and Senior Sister to visit us?" "It''s nothing special. I told you a few months ago that the peak master can assign someone a mission, right?" "So I have heard." Alex calmly nodded. "But if I remember correctly, we have the right to reject the mission." "I think it''s better to come inside first." Aria stopped Alex from talking and invited them in. "Sure. As expected, you are more thoughtful than the guy." Melvie smiled while glancing at Alex with teasing eyes. Alex only shrugged. "You can also change your clothes first." Illevis nodded. All of them then entered the house. After bringing the tea for the two, Aria decided to change her clothes first while Alex faced these two. "How are you doing? Have you got accustomed to life in this sect yet?" "If it''s this house, then yes. I am not sure about the sect." "Well, both of you haven''t really gone out during these few months, so I guess that''s about it." Illevis nodded while thinking about something. "I am wondering when you are going to take your first mission?" "After Aria reaches 1-Star Martial Saint." "Is that so?" She narrowed her eyes, realizing that Aria was only one step away from the Lightning Tribulation. Although she heard that the elder gave an energy pill to her, it was still too fast. She predicted that she would need, at least, a year to reach Martial Saint, but Aria seemed to have surpassed that prediction. If her cultivation speed was this fast, she might have reached 1-Star Martial Saint in her fifties, not seventies. With that kind of calculation, the only factor that changed the cultivation speed to the monstrous degree would probably Alex. That was why she got curious about it and visited here. She narrowed her eyes and checked Alex''s cultivation, finding him on the edge of 1-Star Martial Saint. Alex didn''t forget to change his strength, of course. He was planning to change it to 2-Star Martial Saint a few days later in fact. "It seems that you have something special that can increase one''s cultivation in a short period of time." She narrowed her eyes. "And I think you have used it on your own body. However, one thing that surprises me is the fact that I can feel how solid your foundation is. In other words, it won''t be a crappy technique or something." Alex narrowed his eyes. The only thing he did was to heighten someone''s talent to the highest degree by breaking the limit again and again. This way, they would start absorbing the Spiritual Energy and increasing their proficiency in their skills quicker. Other than that, he didn''t do anything else. "Even if that is the case, may I know what is the reason for Peak Master and Senior Sister coming here?" Alex paused for a moment and continued. "Is it to know what kind of training I have given to Aria?" "Nope. It''s not that. Because I am a God Rank Expert, I often went to other worlds, so I certainly knew that there will always be a way for someone to increase their cultivation speed. Unfortunately, the method didn''t suit us. "Although your technique that seems to suit us is tempting, I have another thing to say." She stopped Alex from making a baseless conclusion. "The sect is experiencing a shortage in medicinal ingredients for pills. Most of them are either plants or monster cores. "The plants are planted in the garden at every single peak, so we are in shortage for monster cores. The sect was going to issue a mission for a big hunt. However, there were some oppositions about this, asking for it to be handed to only a few people for every peak. The peak masters are the ones in charge of the recruitment." "So, you want me to go for this mission?" "Yes. You and Aria. Because this is your first mission, Melvie is going to tag along to supervise you." "Won''t this direct hatred and jealousy from other Inner Disciples to us?" "Nope. No one knows about this yet other than peak masters. And since I have given the mission to Melvie, she is the only one who knows about it other than me in this peak." "In that case, why us? If you give this mission to other disciples, you will get a higher return." "It''s simple. I have checked the points you got and the time you needed. It turned out that you were faster than I could even imagine. From my perspective, you seem to have the ability to kill a hundred 1-Star Martial Saint beasts without having any problem. If it''s placed on someone''s hand, I doubt they have that kind of power. "Hence, I want to entrust this mission in your hand. Melvie will handle all the higher-level magical beasts. If it''s compared to her usual mission, she won''t get that much, but it''s a perfect opportunity for you." The elder smirked. Alex fell silent for a few seconds before glancing at his right as Aria had finished changing clothes. "You haven''t explained what it''s in us." "It''s simple. You can gain experience and money at the same time. The sect will be buying whatever you get with five percent above the market. You can kill a hundred thousand and get five percent. I am sure it is high, right?" "A hundred thousand is impossible, you know. Especially, we need to know the time limit." "Indeed. The time limit is only a month." She nodded. After changing her clothes, she then sat beside Alex and faced the two. "May I know the place?" "It''s called The Blood Island." "Blood Island?" Aria furrowed her eyebrows. "This is a dangerous island where the three sects fought against each other in the past, right?!" "Yes. It''s as such. After the emergence of the Peerless Sword God, we haven''t really had any big fight like that. Hence, the island is filled with monsters now. It''s also the time to clean it up again, so this will be a perfect time for everyone." Illevis nodded. Aria looked at Alex, not understanding the whole concept. Alex thought for a moment and had difficulty accepting it. On one hand, they might get a good amount of Spirit Crystal. On the other hand, their ability would be exposed. If he wanted to make them misunderstand, he was planning to have Aria as the lead. Unfortunately, that plan was for when Aria reached 1-Star Martial Saint. The current her had enough explosive power to kill 1-Star Martial Saint easily, but it was hard for her to fight against 2-Star or even 3-Star in her own accord. That was why he needed to step in. And he could easily find monsters with his Spirit Eyes, but it was impossible to use it under supervision. Unless Melvie spectated from afar, she would surely note their fighting style down. At the same time, he couldn''t make it as a condition as well because Illevis would suspect him of doing something bad. "One more question." "Go on." "When is it?" Alex asked. "It''s going to be the day after tomorrow. It''s not that far from us, so you can go tomorrow." Aria asked with a thought transmission. ''Are we going to do it?'' ''This is a bit complicated. Your skill is good enough to face monsters one by one, but if it''s a group of monsters, it will be hard for you. Well, it depends on your performances because I don''t know the extent of your current strength against a group of monsters. Besides, unlike the previous hunt we did in the test, I can''t use my Fire for the time being,'' Alex answered. ''I see. I am not confident as well, but it''s not like we need to be separated, right? You can just stop the magical beasts with your power while I am killing them under the guise of my training.'' Aria offered a solution. ''I believe rejecting this is a bad move, especially since we haven''t done anything in the past four months.'' ''I guess we can only go this route.'' Alex sighed inwardly before he gave the answer to Illevis and Melvie. "We will do it." "That''s good. Melvie is going to come again tomorrow to pick you up. If you meet other peaks'' disciples, Melvie will handle that." Illevis smiled. "You only get the monster cores, and we will buy every monster core from you." "I understand." Alex nodded, knowing that the money would go to Aria as an investment. Since the Sword God didn''t want her and she herself had agreed to come under him in the future, an investment like this wouldn''t be so bad. "And I want you guys to be prepared. The sect master is rather suspicious, so I assume there will be something big going on soon. It can be next week, next month, or even next year. But I bet it won''t be too long, so you should start preparing yourself." "Is that like a threat to this sect?" Aria asked. "Nope. It''s a kind of opportunity. The sect master himself has hinted at it." "I understand." Aria nodded. "Then, let''s meet tomorrow." Melvie smiled and waved her hand while bringing the peak master outside. "Let''s go back, Peak Master." "Yes. I will trouble you in this matter." She smiled. Alex and Aria saw them off before exchanging looks. "You can rest for today." Alex smiled. "I don''t know why but that''s the best sentence I hear ever since coming to this sect." She stuck her tongue out and ran away. 930 Blood Island Alex paid no intention to it since it was her choice. He simply went outside and met Melvie. "Have both of you prepared?" "Yes." Aria nodded while putting on her mask. "You two are such weird people, eh? I can understand Nyx''s circumstances, but I am wondering why would you wear a mask, Aria?" She asked. "Nothing in particular. Probably because I don''t want someone''s sympathy." She smiled. "Such a shame. Your face is beautiful, but I guess you have your own thinking." Melvie sighed and asked, "Let''s go then." "Yes." Aria and Alex then followed Melvie. Alex went through everything she told him about this Blood Island. It was a place where many Gods and fighters from the three sects died when there was a great war between the three. It was a complete mess according to history. Many normal people were turned into a soldier by the sects and got exploited to fight them. It was said that a river of blood was formed there, and it flowed to the sea. There was even a red sand beach on the island due to how much blood was shed in that war. Alex was pretty curious about this island and wondered whether this island had something hidden within it or not. After all, there were many God Rank Experts killed on the island, so there might be a buried treasure somewhere. The possibility was low, but it should be fine to hope. ''By the way, I have a question.'' Alex suddenly sent a thought transmission to Aria. ''What is it?'' ''Why can we go easily to the island? Is it because the Unsurpassed Blade Sect won the war?'' ''Nope. This place was the place where the Sword God name resounded across the world for the first time. He obliterated an elite team from each sect in the past and decided to end this war. ''He truly ended the war but didn''t choose to win the war even though he had the power to do so. When he reached the peak of God Stage, he declared that this war would be neutral territory. Every ten years, each sect can take care of this island in rotation. It''s rumored that the grave of the Sword God himself is here, but no one has found it yet.'' Aria explained. Alex looked at her in amazement. ''So, they are trying to find that grave?'' ''Yeah. There is a mission to find the grave, but I am sure that the Sword God knew it as well that people would truly try to find his grave, so he hid it.'' ''I wonder what kind of thing I can get from this?'' Alex smiled. ''Are you going to search for it?'' ''Oh. I will help you then.'' She nodded in agreement. If it was paying respect to him, she wanted to do it also. After all, the Sword God had given his Sword Eye and Purgatory Sword to her, so this was something she must do. Knowing her real intention, he nodded. ''Sure.'' "By the way, Senior Sister, how do we finish this mission? And I would like to know what kind of role you are playing for this mission." Aria asked. "I am not doing anything." She took out two tokens and handed them to them. "This is my token. I will probably sit down on the coast and wait for you guys. Well, I will probably check you both after a period of time, but it''s just to track your progress. Of course, I will follow you on the first day to make sure you can handle the monsters on this island." "I understand. Is there any information about the island itself? Like the monsters'' power level and such?" "Because we have cleared them periodically, the monsters in that island are only ranging between Martial Monarchs to peak Martial Saints. As you might know that the island is divided into three, right?" "Yes. Outer Island, Inner Island, and Core Area." "Yes. I think you both will probably do fine in the Inner Area. The most powerful monsters there are only 4-Star Martial Saints. Even if you can''t fight them, escaping from them should not be a problem. Or you can buy enough time for me to arrive. Well, considering the island''s size and my speed, I will probably take a minute before arriving on the other side of the island." She shrugged. "By the way, is this a mission only for Aria or both of us?" Alex suddenly asked. "Hmm?" Melvie thought for a moment to answer. "It''s for both. You are a group to be honest. Other than the five percent more Spirit Crystals, you will get one point for every single monster you kill, no matter whether it''s Martial Monarch monsters or Saint monsters." "I see." Alex nodded. "We have no obligation to help other people, right?" "None. The world is cruel. Think about your own safety first." She shook her head with a serious expression. Alex narrowed his eyes when he saw her expression. It seemed Melvie wasn''t like someone he predicted her to be. She was more down to earth and selfish people behind her smile. Instead of teaching people to help each other, she wanted them to prioritize themselves first. She looked like someone with a backstory. Alex put her on his "be careful list" and focused on his mission. "Do you have any tips for us?" Aria asked like a newbie. No, it was to make the fact that they were just newbies even more believable. "I have two actually. First, you shouldn''t trust someone easily. Second, it''s fine to rely on someone else, but at the end of the day, your body is the perfect one to rely on. That''s two." Melvie smiled before she asked a question. "Do you think my advice doesn''t suit my appearance?" Alex didn''t answer this while Aria took a few seconds before nodding her head. "I don''t mean to be rude but to put it bluntly, yes. From what we saw a few months ago, Senior Sister looks approachable. So, I think of two possibilities. It''s either something happened in the past few months or Senior Sister hid it this whole time." "That''s true. Now I know why Peak Master places importance on you. However, I simply act like this because I believe there is no need for me to act that way. After all, you can have everything when you are strong, but when you lose everything, the pain will be more hurtful." Aria fell silent while Alex seemed to understand what she had experienced in the past. It was probably a betrayal. "Because you are a future expert, I just want you to know about this and don''t believe people easily. I don''t mind if you include me in that list if it means you can get stronger." Melvie made a meaningful smile. Alex closed his eyes and sighed inwardly. ''She must have been betrayed and lost everything in the past and rose back up with her own strength. It might also be related to her current position since she only showed this to us. Since she didn''t mind, I will put her on that list too. After all, there might be a chance where she chooses to not help us and let us die. It''s not like she can win against me though.'' "Thank you for your advice, Senior Sister. I saw another family control my family, so I could somehow understand what Senior Sister said." Aria nodded with a smile. "Haha¡­ You don''t need to think much about it. As long as you are careful, you will probably be fine." Aria accepted her words and continued flying without any more talking. They arrived a day later, where an island came to their vision. To their surprise, the island looked eerie. There was a kind of miasma spreading on the island, creating a reflection in the sky. It even made the sky orange even though it looked so bright not long ago without this island''s influence. When they lowered their vision, they found a red sand beach. Even though it didn''t have a smell after getting washed away a few thousand years, the sight of it still made one want to puke. According to Aria, the monsters in this world were born from Spiritual Energy. Of course, it couldn''t be anywhere. They needed a pure Spiritual Energy without any impurities within it, so when people built a house or even a city, the monsters couldn''t be born there. But to Alex''s surprise, the island was indeed contaminated by the blood, so he couldn''t understand why this place had the ability to produce monsters. That was why he immediately activated his Spirit Eyes to check what was going on. Red-colored energy suddenly filled his eyes, and it covered the entire island, from the coast to the center of the island. Of course, with his eyes, he couldn''t see through this quite large island entirely, but he managed to grasp the gist of what this island was all about. ''This island is bad news.'' Alex informed Aria. ''What do you mean?'' ''I don''t know if the people know about this yet, but the energy surrounding the island is ominous. It is controlled by killing intent. It''s probably because this is the place where many people lost their lives, so we need to be careful inside this island. One slight mistake, we will be consumed by that evil intent.'' ''Is the sect going to sacrifice us or something?'' Aria asked while furrowing her eyebrows. If that were the case, was this staged by the people because they didn''t want her and Alex in the sect? ''I am not entirely sure about this, so I won''t say anything. Make sure you create a mental barrier to lessen the killing intent. If you are heavily injured, call me so I can protect you from this type of energy.'' ''I understand. For the time being, I shall trust no one other than you. I don''t know if the sect wants to kill us or not, but let''s explore the island first. I feel this island will lead us to the answer.'' ''I agree. Try not to be separated.'' ''I understand. Is there anything you want to add or how do you even find something like this?'' ''I am a God Rank Expert.'' Alex only answered her question like this. ''Besides, I can''t really see or feel anything beyond this point. If we want to know more about the island, it''s better to go toward the core. I believe that place holds the answer, considering the energy flow that seems to go toward the center of the island.'' ''In that case, I will require your protection in case we are going there.'' ''Yeah. Don''t worry about that. You are safe beside me.'' ''If only you say it in a more romantic way, I am sure there will be many girls falling for you.'' She teased him to lighten the mood. Alex only laughed as he couldn''t even say something like that to his wives. It wasn''t because he was embarrassed or something. Instead, it was due to him having a constant threat that the wives might be in danger every time. And with the fact that his strength was still low, he couldn''t say that line. ''Anyway, follow me as soon as we enter. We will hold out in the outer forest for a week before going to the inner forest for another week. I will explain the plan later.'' Alex said as they landed on the red sand beach. 931 Fighting Together ''Let''s go.'' Alex informed Aria and asked her to run beside him, not behind him. Aria nodded and ran forward, matching his speed. Doing his job, Melvie decided to watch them from the air. She maintained a distance between them, so the monsters would notice them first instead of her. Alex kept going forward and found the forest right near the coast. He entered the forest without changing his direction and ignored the monsters that were supposed to be outside his range of detection even though he could see them using his Spirit Eyes. After around a minute, Alex found one right in front of them. "9-Star Martial Monarch in our front. You can fight this one." "I understand." Aria nodded and released her Spiritual Energy to sense the monster. It turned out to be a snake monster. Its width was around three meters, but the length was about twenty meters. With a big body like this, it was the perfect target for Aria. "I have spotted it," Aria informed him as she placed her hand on the handle, ready to draw her sword. The snake opened its mouth, trying to swallow her. Aria flicked her sword to shift it to the side, preparing to pull out her sword to ultimately kill the snake in a single slash. She jumped a little bit higher to match the snake''s head. As one would expect from a monster, its instinct was strong as it predicted it would die. To prevent it from dying, the snake closed its mouth and decided to hit Aria with its thick skin. This was where Aria smiled. Everything was going according to her plan. The sword had shown a bit of its blade, but Aria suddenly sheathed it back, landed on the ground, and jumped toward the snake''s neck or around that spot since snakes didn''t have a neck. "!!!" The snake realized that the first movement was a fake, and she planned to kill it with this second movement. It tried to lower its head to stop the blade, but Aria''s movement was too fast. She drew her sword and slid it on the snake''s beheading its head in a single slash. "Ho?!" Melvie widened her eyes, starting to get interested in what Aria had shown. That fake movement was gold. If there was no movement like that, the snake could only be killed after several rounds and a few times using Sword Arts. However, Aria decided to end it in a single slash. It allowed her to conserve her energy. If she could keep this up, killing a few thousand a day wouldn''t be a problem. Although the level difference played beautifully in this exchange, Aria''s sword style was indeed one of a kind. She decided to write it down on a paper because there might be something more to show her later. "I have killed it in one strike," Aria reported. "Understood." Aria nodded and put every single Alex''s advice in her fighting style while beginning to follow him again. "Nonetheless, it''s a good strike. Good work." Alex''s voice sounded happy and couldn''t help but put a smile on Aria''s face. It was hard to get praise from Alex because he always nitpicked every single detail, but when he praised someone, it was genuine praise that led one to smile. "Thank you." Aria thanked him before finding a monster to their right. And it was certainly a group, not an individual monster. "To my right." "Sure. Let''s go." Alex nodded and informed her of the number. ''Five 7-Star and one 8-Star Martial Monarch. Make one-second distance from me. I will get their attention first, and you shall handle the killing.'' ''Yes.'' She nodded and slowed down until they had around twenty meters. It shouldn''t be a problem for her to shorten this number in one second. She could do faster, but she thought this distance was perfect. As soon as he found the monsters that turned out to be a kind of turtle species. He released a bit of his killing intent to grab their attention. The turtle immediately panicked for a moment before noticing there was only a single person there. Their heads stuck out proudly as they were going to fight Alex. Alex released more of his killing intent and his Martial Saint energy to scare the turtle, forcing them to have a slower reaction speed. He did this to create an opportunity for Aria. Of course, after the hellish training from Alex, she could somehow understand which way she needed to go and what kind of actions she needed to take. Aria went to the right until she could see four 7-Star turtles aligned. Lightning sparked in her boots as she leaped toward them at lightning speed. "First Dance. Z Swing." Aria swung her sword from right to left to behead the first turtle''s head and left to the right to separate the second turtle''s head from its body. It repeated once more to kill the third and fourth turtles. Due to the distance between each other, she needed to use her full speed to make sure they couldn''t react. Normally, making zigzag slashes like that would take an enormous amount of energy, but Alex had refined that movement to lessen the burden in her hand. It was by using her off hand to slash in the opposite direction. At the same time, the movement of her wrist shifted the burden from her wrist to her arm. And as soon as she cut down four turtles, Alex smiled and used the confusion that Aria brought to appear in front of the 8-Star Martial Monarch turtle and cut it down. When the last turtle saw it, it tried to swallow Alex, but he shifted his body, spun, and kicked the turtle on its chin before slashing the neck. Within a few seconds, six turtles had died without being able to do anything. Alex immediately used his Spiritual Energy to find their monster cores and collect them. Melvie sucked a cold breath as she couldn''t believe what just happened. Aria''s movement was already surprising enough because she could handle four turtles only three stages below her in just one movement. But Alex''s assistance by manipulating their attention and reaction speed by his killing intent was magnificent. He seemed to have understood the monsters perfectly or, more accurately, how they worked. She then remembered the fact that these two managed to get 350,000 points in only a few days. It required them to kill at least four thousand monsters. And it seemed to be not a fluke. She opened the paper again and noted it down. Unfortunately, she couldn''t see Alex''s real strength yet because the monsters were not his match. In fact, Alex only used a minimal amount of energy in that killing intent as his attack was purely physical. In other words, Alex could kill them even more efficiently than Aria. "How is it?" Aria asked. "Not bad. But you need to watch out for your momentum too. If you are too fast, you won''t be able to stop in time, and the enemy might use that chance to surround you." "I understand. Unless I want to escape, I won''t be going this fast." Aria nodded, taking every single Alex''s input. "Good. Let''s continue." Alex then led her to another place filled with 9-Star Dogs. Their height alone reached two meters, so it wasn''t your average dog. As expected, Alex asked Aria to do the same as the turtle while Alex released his killing intent to grab their attention. "Waf!" The dogs charged at him, four from the front and three from each side. Because of this, Aria decided to handle the right flank that was closest to her. "First Dance. Z Slash." In one move, she slashed the three dogs on the right side as Alex watched her movement and understood that he only needed to handle the one in his front. Because of that, he stepped forward with his sword, facing four dogs simultaneously. The four dogs leaped toward Alex simultaneously and used either their teeth or paws to strike at him. Alex took a deep breath and slashed his sword, hitting them right at their teeth and paws. He simply decided to overpower them by using his strength and Divine Weapon. However, the other three dogs had turned around and were about to strike him. Alex kicked the first closest dog while cutting down the second one. When the third one jumped toward him, Alex only ignored it and killed the one he kicked earlier. As for the third one, it couldn''t reach him as Aria cut it a meter before it hit Alex. "Good work." "Thanks." Aria felt a bit happier when she didn''t hear a single complaint from Alex. It seemed this one was a perfect score. "Oi, oi. You guys are sick." Melvie couldn''t help but exclaim as she approached them. Alex and Aria decided to take a break and looked at her. "Even though they were only Martial Monarch monsters, you two just killed them like killing a chicken. Most disciples could only kill them in a few strikes." Melvie raised her hand in amazement. "Anyway, do you want to move toward the inner island?" "We are probably going to stay in this area for a while." Alex shook his head before glancing at Aria. "How do you feel? I mean, moving that fast." "If you include the killing intent in the area, it certainly makes one tired faster. Still, I think it''s fine to go for two or three more hours before checking my condition." Aria waved her hand, telling Alex she was fine. "That''s good then." Alex nodded. Although he didn''t say it, he realized that the killing intent was decreasing their attack power and disrupted their movement, making them subconsciously use more energy for their attack. However, their power was a bit too big, so Aria had yet to notice. "I see. I thought you were going to the inner island right after this instant, but I guess you are careful enough to not fall into a simple mistake like that. Well, most people have difficulty adapting to such an environment, so they use a few days to adjust their state. No, you two are too weird to even be able to move like that right after entering the island." Melvie sighed. Alex and Aria didn''t care about her praises. When they heard that the others actually entered in the same state, they realized that this was just something normal. In other words, the sect didn''t have an intention to kill them. They could finally feel relieved. "By the way, how long are you planning to stay here?" Melvie asked. "Probably seven days," Alex answered. "We are not planning to get used to it. Instead, we want to make it feel like this is our home before moving to a more dangerous place." "I see. I can relate to your choice, so I only wish you luck." She nodded and thought for a moment. "I will stay with you two probably for another two hours before going to the coast earlier. I will check on you on the third or fourth day and next week before you go to the Inner Island." Aria nodded. "Then, I think it''s time to get going again?" "One more question." She stopped them. "How long have you fought together?" ''Tell her it''s been three years.'' Alex didn''t want to make it suspicious, so he chose this. "It''s been three years since I formed a group with him." She smiled. "It was a secret from my father though, or else he would get angry." "I see." Melvie nodded. "Then, let''s go." 932 How Do You Fight? This way, Alex and Aria had even more freedom to move around the area as Alex wanted to check what kind of secret this island held. He knew that the island wasn''t supposed to be able to permeate this type of killing intent to its surroundings, so he knew there might be something in this island that created this effect. He wondered if it was related to the Sword God, but he couldn''t see it in another two weeks because he needed to lower Melvie''s suspicion. With that thought in mind, Alex often let Aria fight alone, giving her a precious experience. Alex kept criticizing her every mistake, and eventually, the mistakes never appeared again. Aria''s movement became even more precise and sharper. After a week, Alex knew that they had grown accustomed to the environment, making sure that this wouldn''t bother them in the slightest. Aria also showed him that she could defeat six turtles they killed on the first day in a single slash. It just showed what kind of monstrous progress she had during the past few days. When Melvie checked them, she was completely stupefied by Aria''s change. It was too different. Just like Rose and Evelyn after the hellish training, what they lacked the most was experiences. With enough experience, Aria should have no problem killing a 2-star Martial Saint. She could also fight a 3-Star Martial Saint toe to toe despite being a 10-Star Martial Monarch. As soon as they got the confirmation from Melvie, they headed toward the inner area. And as they expected, the energy surrounding it increased. If their ability got suppressed ten percent by the killing intent in the Outer Island, they would get double of that. Fortunately, Alex and Aria had rendered this ten percent effect completely useless. So, when there was an additional ten percent, they only felt that ten percent. If it were other people who only got used to it, they would at least feel a fifteen percent restriction. Aria understood this after Alex explained his plan and felt the benefit. When they met their first opponent in the Inner Island, Alex immediately leaped backward. It was a 2-Star Martial Saint Lizard, so he planned to have Aria handle this alone. "Aria. Kill it." "I understand." She nodded and checked the lizard before the lightning started sparking all over her body. "I might need to use eighty percent of my power." "It''s fine. Let''s use this chance to accumulate experience to make you even stronger." Alex smiled. "In that case, I have no worries." She smiled and leaped toward the lizard. Aria smiled as she became even faster when the lizard''s hand almost reached her by pouring a bit more energy to her lightning element and feet, resulting in her fastest speed. Realizing that she couldn''t aim at its head because of the slap, she followed the direction of the hand and aimed at the other side of its body, slashing the right side of its abdomen. "Ugh¡­ I used it wrong." She gritted her teeth and blamed herself because she almost slipped when she landed on the other side. "One more." "Second Dance. Flash Strike." She appeared right behind the lizard before it was able to turn around and struck her sword on it. However, the lizard''s instinct was sharper than she predicted. It only shifted its body before sending its hand again on her path. "Sh*t!" She gritted her teeth as she couldn''t avoid it because of her high-speed movement. Fortunately, Alex had improved this move and turned it into a dance. If it was the past her, she wouldn''t be able to use the next move before she landed on the ground, but this time, she managed to do it and pointed her sword at the lizard''s hand. "Third Dance. Spinning Star." "Roar!" The next instant, the lizard felt immeasurable pain as it saw its palm got pierced. Aria looked at the hole on the lizard''s hand and sighed in relief. The lizard obviously didn''t want to let her have such a feeling. It immediately threw its other arm as if it predicted Aria managed to create a hole in its palm. Looking at the giant hand that almost struck her, lightning suddenly connected her body to the ground as she used that connection to stabilize her form and swung her lightning sword. "Fourth Dance. Lightning Draw!" She sheathed her sword first before drawing it at lightning speed, cutting the palm into two. The lizard screamed in pain but still released another attack with the first hand. Unfortunately, Aria didn''t want to create more opportunities and leaped toward the lizard''s body with her sword sheathed. "Heavenly Lightning Claw." It was the same sword draw as her Lightning Draw, but the lightning movement was different. Instead of concentrating in one spot, it went to left and right, creating three slashes next to each other as if there were three swords cutting the lizard at the same time. The blood started flowing out of the wounds as the lizard took a step back, knowing that it had lost too much blood. Aria used this chance to release her last attack. "Fourth Dance. Lightning Draw." She used this technique to slice the lizard''s neck. She then used its body as a cushion for her to land before glancing at Alex. "I am sorry." She apologized. Although she said she would go with eighty percent of her power, it didn''t mean to use excessive Spiritual Energy. Her consumption was still around twenty percent of her Spiritual Energy, but it was already beyond her expectation. She thought she could kill the lizard with only ten percent, but the lizard moved perfectly, forcing her to change her form again and again. "It''s fine. I have expected such a thing since the gap between you two is big. In fact, I expected you to use thirty percent of your Spiritual Energy." Alex waved his hand as if it was not a big deal. "I don''t know if I should be happy because I have beaten your expectation or should I feel sad because you put the bar too low." Aria sighed. "It''s up to you." Alex shrugged. "I will take that as a compliment then." She nodded before feeling the lizard. "Still, to think I can kill a 2-Star Martial Saint monster now¡­The hellish training is indeed powerful, even though it''s painful and tiring. I am glad to keep practicing without complaining." "My training is simple. You only need to break past your limit again and again. For example, I give you a chance to run as long as you can and allow you to raise your hand when you think you are at your limit. At that time, I simply ask you to do one more lap. If you can do it, I will make you another more lap. This will keep repeating until the end of time." Alex shrugged. "Indeed. Although it was not running, I had felt that you were doing it intentionally. I tried to keep doing it and realized that I would slowly get used to it and made my limit even higher. It''s a kind of torture, but the effect is apparent." She nodded. "Of course, this training is not suited to normal people, and I can solve any kind of injury with a pill, so there is no side effect with this training. However, if you have a low mental strength that will make you keep going, it''s futile because you are just a quitter." He shrugged. "I wonder if your disciple actually underwent training like this too¡­" She asked. "Yes. She was much younger than you though." He nodded. "What is her strength?" "Above you, of course. I won''t say the specific as it will destroy your confidence." She pouted before smiling. "It''s really fortunate to have you as a teacher. Why don''t I worship you as my Master now?" "Nope. I won''t accept it. I have too many problems already, so I will solve this issue first before thinking of accepting another disciple." He shook his head. "Well¡­" Aria looked around and decided to change the topic after knowing that Alex held a big principle about his responsibility as a master. That was why it was hard to have him accept you to be his disciple. She then asked, "By the way, I am wondering if you can show me how do you fight a group of monsters without using your real power? I mean, your body is a Divine Body, right?" "Me? Sure. Let''s search for a group of monsters." Alex nodded and headed toward another direction, where he found a total of ten 3-Star Martial Saint wolves. They immediately charged at him. Suddenly, a dragon appeared next to him and flew toward the monsters, trying to swallow them. Most of them jumped over it while two of them got swallowed by the dragon and disintegrated by the Pure Fire. Meanwhile, the wolves that had leaped to the air realized their mistake when they saw Alex already swinging his sword. "Mythical Fire Slash." That single Sword Wave flew to the wolves and killed all of them before it got disintegrated because Alex didn''t want to catch people''s attention. "That''s how you do it¡­" Alex glanced at her, who dropped her jaw. "I made them move according to my way. Of course, they need to be in a position where they can''t avoid this. With eight wolves jumping together side by side and had the same strength, I believed they had the same height when they jumped. "Then, I started swinging my sword and adjusted the aim in the last second, so the wolves didn''t have enough time to avoid it. Also, with the dragon''s giant body, the wolves couldn''t see my movements, so they couldn''t predict or see my attack." Alex explained in a simple way. Aria knew that Alex didn''t use his Divine Body or anything extravagant, but it turned out that the gap between them was so big. Not to mention the fact that Alex''s age was so young to the point she could be his aunt instead. "I am wondering what kind of hell you have seen during your journey." Aria sighed. On the other hand, she sympathized with him. To have this kind of experience and thinking, he must have gone through a lot and absolutely a lot of killing. "It''s nothing special." Alex shook his head. "Well, I don''t really need your answer, but I need to thank you. I learned a lot from seeing what you did alone." She smiled. "It''s fine. We better start moving again." Alex shrugged. "Sure." The two then disappeared again, moving toward their next destination. 933 A Sword To their surprise, the killing intent was concentrated here. Unless you were a God Rank Expert, you would find yourself in trouble to just stay alive in this area. The killing intent itself lowered their strength twice more than the Inner Area. Alex would probably be fine there, but Aria was a different case. Either way, he knew that the killing intent originated from the core area and probably the center of this island. The people might already know about it, but it didn''t change the fact that they couldn''t find the exact reason. And this one made him even more curious to the point he wanted to go deeper right away. Unfortunately, he still had Aria with him, so he decided to play along with the schedule they had. When the two weeks almost passed, they had killed around five thousand monsters. If the sect would pay them a bit higher from the market, they might need to pay them around one million Spirit Crystal. It should be enough for months. Alex stood above the tree, watching the situation in the core area. Aria walked toward him and asked, "Do you want to go there? I will be fine here. Thanks to you, I can fight 2-Star Saint monsters without a problem while standing toe to toe against a 3-Star Saint monster. As for the 4-Star, I don''t think they can kill me if I decide to run away." Alex glanced at her and thought for a moment. "I do feel interested in whatever the cause of this massive killing intent, but I am still wondering if I should bring you with me or not. There is a chance that this will be a big opportunity for you, so I am contemplating it right now." "Bringing me? I think I shouldn''t go because I will only be a burden for you." She shook her head, rejecting the idea. "Well, I can come and leave after confirming what it is, but I will try to understand as much as I can during that time." Alex stroked his chin while he kept glancing at Aria again and again. "It''s fine. You don''t need to mind. Also, with me being here, I can say that we are separated to kill more monsters. You are already mysterious, and only I know your identity. That''s why I believe they will think you are a kind of shadow, making them focus on me." She smiled, trying to convince Alex. "Thank you for the consideration, but I am thinking about the chance of you getting whatever it is to create another typhoon in the sect." Alex nodded. "I guess you are too weak for that." "Yeah. They will question me instead of protecting me." She nodded with a smile, knowing what kind of fate she''d have if she had something she couldn''t protect. "Now go. Just tell me what it is because I am curious about it as well." She smiled. "Take out my token." She nodded and took out the token he gave back in the exit of the sword cave. Alex grabbed the token and handed her a new one. This token had not only a tracker function but also a transmission function, allowing Aria to give signals to Alex in case something happened. "If you are in danger, channel your energy to this token. If you think you will die in one second or I won''t be able to reach you before you die, pour the energy twice. And with this token, I will know your location, so yeah, this is the only thing I can give you right now." "That''s fine for me. Thank you." She smiled. "Then, I will go first." Alex waved his hand and entered the core area. Aria kept watching his back until he disappeared in the horizon before going in another direction to kill some more monsters. "Yeah. Be careful." "You too." Alex nodded and leaped toward the core area, flying straight to where the energy originated. To his surprise, the deeper he got, the more life was taken away. He realized that the trees around them had no leaves and all the leaves on the ground were either half-decomposed or withered away. Even so, Alex kept marching forward with his Spirit Eyes. He made sure that no one was around him, so they didn''t coincidentally meet or sense each other. Alex even thought about summoning another N squad for this but realized it should be fine unless there were another God Rank Expert in the area. The journey took two hours before Alex could finally see a giant ball of red energy underground. "This¡­" Alex sucked a cold breath and halted his step just to observe this ball. However, he soon sensed a presence coming from his right and glanced to see whether it was a human or a monster. When he realized it was a horse, he used the power of his Divine Body and struck the 8-Star Martial Saint horse, killing it in a single slash. "The energy is not Spiritual Energy, but a pure Killing Intent. Can something extract that amount of killing intent?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [I am not very sure, but there is a possibility it is coming from an object instead of a living being.] "You are not talking like that type of thing, right?" Alex twitched his eyebrows and remembered a certain weapon that would exist in every single story. The one that was related to killing. Some sort of blood or killing weapon. [Yes. I am talking about that. With the amount of energy, I doubt any human can take it without going insane. That is including you.] "¡­" Alex fell silent. That was true, so he didn''t correct her words. Instead, this sword piqued his interest. Despite the overbearing description, in every story, the weapon wouldn''t do anything to him unless he touched it or something. Even so, he asked Lin Xingzhi first, not wanting to make the same mistake as he did back in the lower world where he watched the war progression despite knowing how dangerous it was. "Just like the consciousness where you told me it was bad to have them stay alive, do you have any information about this?" Alex asked while recalling every bit of his memory to see if he had any knowledge related to this kind of phenomenon. [I think it''s fine to see it as you can simply burn the killing intent with your Pure Fire.] "Ah, I see. I almost forgot about this since I couldn''t use this much with Aria beside me." Alex nodded and immediately enveloped his body with Pure Fire. And it turned out his flame was very effective. It burned the killing intent in his surroundings. His body was finally free from the pressure. "This feels nice." [If you are going there, there is a high chance that you will lighten the killing intent that pressured this island.] "Yeah. I found it a few days ago that the killing intent was actually just recycling. If I burn everything here, it will disappear. However, it will bring me a lot of attention. Even though I can escape by using my Teleportation Array, the world will surely go crazy and make a full-fledged investigation. I am afraid they will find me, so I won''t do it." Alex nodded. [Agree.] "And the killing intent must have originated from the people of the past that used this island to fight against each other. That was why it could be so bountiful and strong." Alex nodded while thinking about how he should approach this sword. [Are you really going?] "Yeah. I want to feel this killing intent because I never know there is a type of killing intent that can lower one''s strength. Although there is an accumulation of thousands of people dying on this island, I still want to see this strength, so I can put my own enemy in this situation, giving me a big advantage in a fight." [Oh, I see. That''s fine, I guess. But make sure you don''t burn or destroy the situation.] "Yeah." Alex nodded and scanned the entire area, trying to find the entrance, but it was hard to find. The place itself was still within the forest, so it was a bit hard to see his surroundings with how absurd the energy was. In the end, Alex took a deep breath and kept following the current of this killing intent until he found a tree that had no different than any others. The killing intent was sucked inside the tree, making Alex curious. He tapped the three and used the Spiritual Energy to inspect the tree before smiling. "This tree is dead. And the trunk is empty, so this is only an empty figure to hide this type of thing. Knowing that, he pushed the three to the side without a problem as there was no root to begin with. He then found a hole that was perfect for a normal human to go in. He jumped inside the hole and waved his hand to use the Spiritual Energy to move the tree again, closing the entrance. It took him a few seconds before landing on the ground. "Hmm. It''s not that deep." Alex commented while using his Spirit Eyes to measure the killing intent. It was a kind of limestone cave without an entrance. The hole earlier was completely artificial, so the oxygen in this cave was pretty thin. Even so, Alex didn''t really need oxygen since he could freely travel in outer space. What he needed was the answer to what he perplexed at the moment. At the end of the cave, he found a big room where everything began. As soon as he reached the room, he found a black sword that had a similar shape to the one he saw in the Sword Cave. However, everything shiny was replaced by a dark and red ominous color. As if responding to him, the sword released its energy and a certain shadow formed right before it. The figure was a female kid at the same age as Dawn Breaker. Instead of wearing cute clothes, this one wore slightly revealing clothes and had a pair of horns on her head. She glanced at Alex with her blood-red eyes before brushing that black hair with her hands. "To think there is someone who can find me¡­ I wonder if you are that competent or other people are just too incompetent. Mister, do you want to be my Master?" 934 Contrac Alex widened his eyes when he found her and let out a long sigh. "A Sword Spirit." "Oh?! You know me? I think my previous Master has never publicized this." She narrowed her eyes. "Well, it was a few thousand years ago, so I don''t really know. In any case, my point still stands. Do you want to be my master?" "Since you are a Sword, it''s normal for me to accept your invitation. Unfortunately, I have my own sword, so I can''t really accept it." He shook his head with a calm expression. "You can''t expect me to accept this kind of answer, right?" She narrowed her eyes. "First of all, let''s discuss this first. I know that the Sword Spirit has enough intelligence to converse with me, right?" Alex shook his head. "If you want to chat with me, isn''t it a gentleman''s way to take off his mask first?" "Indeed." Alex took off his mask, revealing his real appearance. "Who are you?!" She tilted her head. "You don''t know me?" Alex frowned. He thought this sword was related to the Sword God, so he took off this mask to have a conversation. "Nope. I never met you." She became confused after this question. ''Do you know anything about this? Did the Sword God only have one sword?'' Alex asked inwardly. [Yes. From what I know, he only had one sword, the one you met in the Sword Cave. "I should introduce myself then. I am Nyx. May I know who you are and who was your previous master?" "My master was once called a mad blacksmith." "Hmm. I am sorry, I don''t know a single thing." Alex shook his head in disappointment. He should bring Aria here since she might understand a bit more about this blacksmith. "Since you don''t know, I will just introduce my name. I am Moonlight Blood. My master created me in this place and died right after. His skeleton was already decomposed long ago. And I believe the essence of my body was blood." "Blood, huh?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and could imagine that when the war took place, the blacksmith collected the blood and hardened it to make the sword before him." "Since I have introduced myself, may I know your answer? I have realized that you are completely fine in this environment, allowing me to barely gauge your current strength. I am afraid you are a God Rank Expert, right?" She asked. "There was also a time when you burned the killing intent." "As I said earlier, I have my own sword forged right now, so I can''t be your master." Alex shook his head. "Then can you take me out of this place? From the day I was born, I never saw the outside world. The only thing I had was a fraction of memory carried in the blood." "I think that''s also impossible. I don''t know what kind of thing will happen if I take you from here." Alex shook his head. "You have been maintaining the killing intent this whole time, right? If I take you away, I am sure it will clear up. I don''t like staying in the spotlight, so I can''t really bring you with me." Alex explained why he rejected her. "I see. Then if I can separate myself from the sword, can I go with you? I am bored here, so I want to see the outside world. And I can even help you in a fight because I can control energy, especially killing intent." She thought for a moment. "If I separate myself, the flow of the killing intent will continue because the medium is the sword, not me." Alex narrowed his eyes and checked whether it was true or not. He found that the killing intent indeed went through the sword, not the Sword Spirit, but the problem would be whether she could go out or not. "I can separate myself since My consciousness is the crystal inside the sword''s handle." "But how am I supposed to trust you? And it''s not like I have any plan to save you. After all, I can''t just act because I give sympathy. There will be too many consequences in my actions that I might regret in the future." Alex shook his head. "Mister. Before you said another word, I would like to thank you." "For what?" "For talking to me without lying. I am born with the bad essence of humans, so I could understand if they wanted to kill, lie, or something along the lines. Everything was connected to the killing intent, and I knew you have been telling the truth this whole time." She smiled. "It''s not like you have any visitor other than me." Alex shrugged. "Hehe. It''s true. Mister is the first one to find me here." She paused for a moment and asked. "Before that, can I ask you a question?" "Sure." "What is your purpose of coming here? I was the real reason for the war. They wanted to find the truth about this killing intent circulating around here and turned into a big war. After that, the killing intent became more and more bountiful until it enveloped the entire island. It was at that time my master created me." "Even though you were born after the war happened, you seem to know a lot." "I was a lesser consciousness before, staying in the original sword, so of course, I have been witnessing everything ever since." "So, consciousness can grow into a Sword Spirit?" "Not really. Unless you know the technique to nurture consciousness, you won''t be able to meet a Sword Spirit." She shook her head. "You said that you had your own sword, right? With your current knowledge, I can help you grooming the consciousness and turning them into a Sword Spirit in the future. What do you think?" "That''s a bit tempting. Unlike another Sword that offered the same thing, you had less presence, so not many knew about you, allowing me to move more freely." Alex looked down and contemplated it seriously. "But¡­" "But, what?" Alex took out his spear along with his Spear Intent. "You are actually a Spear User? No, this kind of level¡­ I believe you are using both?" "Yes." "This must be your substitute weapon, right?" "As I said earlier, my weapons are still being forged." He nodded. "If this is the case, why don''t you let me reside in your Sword? And the two others in your spear? I can turn them into a Spirit like me. Since it has two consciousness, the strength will be stronger. Of course, I am already far stronger than those two combined." "Hmm? Do you know anything about forging?" "A little since my mind has been opened long ago. Although I can''t create a weapon or something, my eyes can figure out the quality of weapons. Well, you can say that bringing me with you will do more good than bad. After all, I can stay quiet inside your sword and talk to you without summoning myself like this." She smiled. "There is one thing I am concerned about." Alex was still hesitating. It was true that there might be a big advantage to get her help to nurture the consciousness because, unlike the previous Alex, the one that had consciousness wasn''t his intent but his weapons. He learned that it didn''t bring that much of a disadvantage. ''What do you think?!'' Alex asked. [It''s your choice. But yeah, I understand the part where the Sword Spirit is not as dangerous as the Intent''s consciousness. Of course, you need to make a pact with her first because this one doesn''t think of you as her parent, so there is a chance she will try to control you in your most vulnerable moment.] Alex nodded. On one hand, he would have a helper and increased his strength even further. On the other hand, it was a kind of double-edged sword for him. Lin Xingzhi advised to make a pact first to diminish this effect, but he didn''t know whether a Sword Spirit could be bound by a contract. "How about making a contract?" Alex asked with a smile. "As expected, it''s not that easy to make you believe me. Well, I certainly understand the concept of the contract from a portion of my previous master''s memory. However, there is one thing that can bind more. It is called Universe Oath. Do you happen to know it?" "Oh?!" Alex narrowed his eyes as he never expected to hear those two words from her. "Yes." "With this contract binding us, I think there shouldn''t be a need to suspect each other, right?" She smiled. "Before that, I would like you to give me a name, so I can bind myself in a contract." "But isn''t your name¡­" "It''s the name of the Sword, not me. We are a different entity. I was born because of his obsession with his daughter that created my persona. He nurtured me like his deceased daughter that just came back to life, even though we were clearly different. But I guess, a portion of her soul was actually residing in me, allowing me to evolve from normal consciousness to a Sword Spirit." "In that case, are you the first Sword Spirit in this world?" Alex asked. "I have no idea. I was born around thirty thousand years ago, so there might be a few more in the past." [I don''t think there was one, Alex. I remember that the Sword Spirit only became a general term when the Sword God introduced the Dawn Breaker.] ''I see. There might be some that like her, but I guess, since I found her before anyone else, she is the first.'' Alex shrugged before opening his mouth. "Your name is Eve because you are the oldest one." "Then, I shall take the name of Eve." She nodded and continued. "With the name bestowed by my new master, I, Eve, shall make an oath with the grand universe as the judge. I, Eve, shall accompany my master until the very end. If he wants me to disappear, then I will vanish from this universe. If I did things that make him sad, let your judgment fall upon me." To his surprise, the Universe took this oath completely as if Eve was a real being. The energy enveloped her body as how it should be. "I, Alexander Sirius, accept her vow and promise to not misuse her power. I shall treat her as my comrade, friend, and family. With the universe as my witness, I promise that I won''t mistreat her." "Ah?! You don''t need to." Eve was a bit surprised when she heard Alex also making an oath. At the same time, she was a bit touched. It was the same feeling like when she was first born. The joy in her heart was immeasurable. She then waved her hand, opening the sword''s butt before a small red crystal flew out of the handle and landed on her hand. As Alex had checked earlier, the killing intent didn''t follow the crystal, so the killing intent surrounding the island was caused by the sword alone. Suddenly, energy started filling her body as a certain weird feeling crept inside her. She let the energy flow and smiled. "I see. This is Master''s power. Now I know why you can burn everything. And the other one is more mysterious than I can imagine." She felt Alex''s Pure Fire and Space Element in amazement. Still, she was a Sword Spirit, so the one thing that she impressed the most was Alex''s Sword Qi. After several months of converting the Qi, he managed to replace every single Sword Qi into Pure Sword Qi. And this kind of power enveloped her, making her existence even stronger. "Your Spear is also enveloping me. I feel weird because I can sense how natural it is for me to wield the spear intent. So, this is my Master''s power." "Well, nice to meet you." "No, no. It''s my pleasure to meet someone unique like Master." She smiled. 935 Bye "Yeah. But let''s talk about you first. I can see that you have several power-ups, so are you alright?" Alex asked while holding the small crystal in his hand. "You don''t need to worry about me. I might need a few months to get adjusted to this power, but I am sure I can become even stronger. I am wondering what kind of weapon will be my host in the future, and there is probably one more thing I want to ask you." "Hmm?" Alex frowned. "What is it?" "It''s something simple. Because I will become your Sword Spirit, there is a fusion process needed. And you also need to move the consciousness over to the spear since I will take over the sword." "Oh." Alex fell silent as he was asking Lin Xingzhi about it. [There shouldn''t be a problem. We can ask Song Tao for that. I can go there and ask him myself while you send her real body through the Inventory.] ''That''s great.'' [It will take an hour for the preparation. You should finish your business soon.] ''Alright.'' Alex looked at Eve and asked her opinion. "I am going to send you to where my sword is being forged in an hour. What do you think?" "Sure. The sooner I fuse, the longer the time I can use to make myself comfortable." She smiled. "But where is the sword?" "It''s in another world." Alex smiled. "Still, I want to ask you once more, I believe the moment you fuse with my sword, you can''t go anywhere else again like when you are in the form of this crystal, right?" She looked at her real body in Alex''s body and nodded. "I have prepared for it, and since you say it''s in another world, I have no more complaints. I want to see everything with my own eyes. That''s the only wish I have because of staying here for more than ten thousand years. Besides, I am a Sword Spirit, my purpose is to help my master cut all his enemies. I wonder what kind of thing I can cut in the future." "Then, we have no problem here. There is a big chance that I will face the strongest being ever known, so prepare yourself." Alex smirked. "I am looking forward to it." "There is one more thing I want to know. Since you have noticed my two elements and intents, what other things are you aware of?" "I am not sure. The intents alone might be my strongest weapon, and from your perspective, I believe I need to handle or even fuse them together, right? I will try to do my best. I think I won''t put much thought into exploring the new power before mastering this new body." "I see." Alex nodded. "By the way, what is this crystal called?" "It''s my Core. The previous master called it a Spirit Core. The only way to gain this form is to create your own core, so I will be helping my two seniors to create their own core." "Then, it''s time to talk about my objective, right?" "I only have one. I want to see the object that is controlling this killing intent and learn how to control it." "Control it?" "Yeah. This killing intent can suppress one''s ability, so I want to learn how to do it." "Oh, that! It''s simple. There are more than ten thousand people buried here. If you circulate their blood and killing intent, it will create this thing. If you are doing it alone, I don''t know if you will make something similar." "So, it''s impossible for me." Alex frowned, knowing that it wouldn''t be possible to create something like this by himself. After all, it required more than ten thousand people to make something like this. "I guess so. The ten thousand people I am talking about were Martial Saints or God Rank Experts. It made the whole situation even more impossible." She nodded. "Although it will be great if you have something like this, I am afraid you will be swallowed by the malice inside, so I don''t really recommend it. I don''t want to lose my master again as soon as I follow him." Alex closed his eyes. He completely understood her. "Of course, if Master uses the sword behind me instead, you will be able to do it. Albeit, I believe there is an upper limit for this sword. I don''t know, but if there is someone twenty times stronger than Master, I think he won''t feel anything." "Twenty times? Well, the strength gained every time a God Rank Expert advance is exponential, so I guess the limit is around Rank 5 God if not Rank 4¡­ It''s enough to make you qualify to be one of the top people on this planet, but I guess it''s not really beneficial for me in the long run." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I don''t really understand what Master was mumbling about, but I guess you have understood the whole concept. Besides, the sword is only circulating the energy around, so it doesn''t really produce this type of strength. If in the future there is someone who makes this energy disappear, it won''t appear again." "That''s a shame." Alex repeatedly nodded his head. "I guess that is enough for our conversation." "Before that, can I try something?" She stopped him. As soon as Alex nodded, she released her energy and before long, she suddenly produced Sword Qi. Alex looked at her in amazement, only to find himself shocked by her once again when he saw the Sword Qi turned into Pure Sword Qi. "So, this is the energy. It''s not that different than my whole existence." She sighed. "Eh?" Alex was confused about her mumbling for a few seconds before using his Spirit Eyes to assess the whole situation. It was at this time he realized that Eve was formed from a Pure Sword Qi. Only because of his elements that she became "Impure." Other than these two elements, she was a Pure Sword Qi. He then realized that the Dawn Breaker had an abundant Metal Element, so it must be the Sword God''s element. "This is intriguing." Eve fell into deep thought and looked at Alex. "I have noticed there is a difference between my energy and Master''s." "Because you don''t have a real body, which is a sword. You can''t produce something similar. And do note that the Sword needs to be a Divine Weapon, so it can produce Divine Energy. Let me show you a little bit." Alex opened his seal again and released his Divine Energy. "This¡­ I have thought that Master''s strength is special. It turns out you have been sealing it this whole time. If that is the case, the killing intent will only work on someone five times stronger than you." "Rank 8 God? No, since my strength can rival a Rank 8 God, the limit must be Rank 7 God. Even so, the sword is so sharp, so I guess it won''t need to lower their opponent''s strength and just overpower them." "Yes. Anyway, I will try to have a Divine Weapon as my body first. Maybe, in the future, I can help you create this energy and either store it inside my body or have you absorbed the energy." Eve smiled. "Yeah, thanks. Is there anything you want?" Alex asked. "Nope. I just wish to discover many things that I can''t see during the past ten thousand years. Will that be too big for a dream?" "Not really. The future journey will be filled with boredom, so we can go around and see whatever interesting we can find." Alex shook his head. "Then, that''s good. It will be a fun journey ahead." She smirked. "Yeah. I am looking forward to working with you." "It should be me saying that. Who knows how long I will be here before someone finds me?" She smirked. "That''s right. I want to see how Master does a few things since we won''t meet for a few months until I have integrated with my new body." "What do you want me to do?" "The first thing is what you called Pure Sword Qi. I want to see how you produce it and absorb it to your body." "Sure." Alex sat down and closed his eyes. Not long after that, he produced the Divine Sword Qi and absorbed it into his body. "I see. The flame is a bit special, no?" "Yeah. Rather than using the natural force to expel all kinds of impurities in the Spiritual Energy, I am using my flame to burn every single impurity. This way, I only need to expel the fire energy, allowing me to create the Sword Qi faster. Can you control my fire?" "If I am near you, I can...to a certain extent. But it still requires a certain degree of mastery." She nodded and stretched her hand toward Alex. Alex suddenly felt that something was calling his flame. He could easily suppress this feeling if he wanted to, but since Eve was about to show it to him, he gave the permission to move his flame. When it arrived at her hand, it then started circling around her like a baby. "I can do this with your Space Element as well, but everything requires your permission. Of course, everything is only related to the Sword. How much I can exert will depend on how much energy you channel to the sword and how powerful the sword is¡­" "Oh." Alex nodded. "I felt it earlier, so it wouldn''t be much of a big deal. As for the strength, I am sure it''s one of the finest swords out there." "Alright then." "How about this?" Alex suddenly used one of his techniques, Swallowing Heaven. The dragon then went around her, so she could feel it. "Ah, this is the so-called Martial Art. If I have fused my real body to the sword, I believe I can control the dragon to the point I insert my own consciousness inside it. I am not sure if I can use your strength in this form or not. I mean, even though I can control a bit of your fire, I can''t really summon one that is powerful enough to protect you." "So, you are a kind of a pilot." Alex fell into deep thought. "You can only utilize whatever I use." "Yes. This dragon seems to be able to turn its body into a scorching sun, but that''s all about it. I can''t really use it to let out a fire breath or something." She shook her head. "There is a huge benefit, but I guess, nothing is perfect. It still has a limitation." "I am sorry." "No, no. This is not your fault. Not even me can use my power without a consequence, so don''t think much about it." Alex shook his head. "How about we move to the second thing? You said you want me to do a few things, right?" "Yes. The second thing is about your ability to control and fuse all of these into one." "I usually use a Sword Art for that because I don''t know if I can do it. I mean, sure, I can fuse elements, Divine Weapon Qi and Intents. But I can''t fuse more than that." He recalled his Sword and Spear Possession and sighed. "I don''t mind. I want to see what you can do with the current situation first. We can improve the situation bit by bit in the future." Alex nodded and controlled his sword to exert and fuse all the powers, allowing Eve to have a good look. "It''s a bit hard to fuse them together, so I will probably need to take time to fuse them instantly. If I happen to succeed, I am sure you don''t need to worry about it anymore because I will be providing you in an instant." She smiled. "That''s good." "That''s all. You have already proven the third thing I wanted to see earlier." "I see." "I am going back first then." "Yeah. See you later." She nodded and went inside the crystal. 936 Story [I guess, a Sword Spirit can''t be classified as a living creature even though they can think and speak like our equal.] "Indeed. That''s a sad truth. Just like how they are treated as a part of a weapon, the Sword Spirit isn''t really much different, I guess. Either way, she will be my partner who will help me, so I will not treat her like an object. [Those who can think are living beings, I guess.] "Yes. Even if people find it odd, I won''t care much about their opinion." Alex nodded. [Haha. It''s not that weird. Some people might think of her as a tool, but who cares about them?] "Yeah." [By the way, since you have gotten a Sword Spirit, the Sword can be delivered to you sooner than we have predicted. If we assume that the integration process takes several months like how she thought, you could receive in another two or three months, I guess. The time differences.] "Alright then. I will be looking forward to seeing the sword." Alex nodded. He remembered that the consciousness needed to be nurtured first to Divine Consciousness. However, Eve originated from many God Rank Experts'' blood and Divine Weapon, she didn''t need any kind of nourishment and could be integrated into the weapon as soon as possible. In fact, the whole thing could be finished in a few days. Either way, it wasn''t like he wasted too much time since he might use five years in Eulja just for this training. It was quite a long run, but he needed to do it. Alex was thinking how nice the Time Room itself was because he could train ten years while only one year passed. It was a perfect place to raise one''s strength, but he realized the concept of time was more complicated than he could ever think. And the fact that the Time God paid a dear price for using such a technique, he couldn''t really ask for another one. Since there was no remnant other than the sword, Alex decided to go back to Aria because it wouldn''t be good to be away from her for too long. He didn''t forget to place the tree to how it was supposed to be and followed the direction of his token that pointed directly at his other token''s direction. It took him an hour just to avoid any unnecessary fighting before finding Aria fighting a 3-Star Martial Saint beast. Wounds had covered its body, so it wouldn''t take too long before it fell, but Aria''s state looked not much better than the beast. The lion roared and charged at her again, but she managed to cut it with one last slash. She then fell down while stabbing her sword to the ground, holding it to support his body. When she spread her Spiritual Energy, she looked to the right and said, "You have returned." "Yeah." Alex nodded and appeared beside her. "You have fought against monsters like this?" "I challenged a 3-Star Martial Saint. Although I needed quite a big portion of my Spiritual Energy, I was able to kill it without an injury, so I thought to fight a 4-Star Martial Saint monster. It turned out to be more horrible than I expected it to be." She sighed. "Anyway, have you finished your business?" "Yeah." "Did you find anything?" "Yeah. I found the cause as well." "Really?" She was astounded for a few seconds before regaining her calm. It was not a surprise to get such a reaction. After all, Alex just said that he understood the cause with only an hour or two, even though no one could solve it in ten thousand years. "By the way, I want to know about how the Sword God became famous on this island." "Sure. I will tell you while I am recovering my energy." She nodded, sat on the ground, and asked Alex to protect her. "It was ten thousand years ago. Having a stalemate for far too long, the three sects decided to create a war among themselves to see who was the strongest. "The young Sword God joined the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. His talent bloomed even further, and when he finally took part in this war, he killed five 5-Star Martial Saint when he was only a 1-Star Martial Saint. Of course, he was bedridden for two months because of the injuries, but that itself was a huge achievement. "The elders began to favor him, but to their surprise, Elder Ravagera had become his teacher when he was unnoticed. When it was revealed, they finally recognized the power of this pair of teacher and disciple. "Since they had nothing to hide anymore, the sect began pouring the resources to him as well. And it was at this time his talent showed its might. Despite having a late start, he managed to become a God Rank Expert within one hundred years, surpassing the fastest record. "He then began killing the other God Rank Experts from other sects, and before long, he had become the strongest, capable of killing the other sect masters and destroying their sects. But to everyone''s surprise, he suddenly decided to not participate in the war. "He said, ''Seeing the three sects keep fighting like this has shaken the entire world and turned the world into a planet filled with despair and blood. At the same time, killing and destroying the other two may not be a good option. One can only peak when there is enough competition. That''s how I become stronger, so I am ending this war and starting a new area.'' "After that, the sects decided to make a peace treaty and had a competition itself every few years. One could kill there, but not a single person could hurt even a single hair to someone who gave up. If they didn''t abide by this, the other two sects would kill that person and whoever tried to protect him/her. "There were a few things that had begun because of that revolutionary, but that was the biggest thing. When the Sword God had become a Rank 2 God, the World then focused on its expansion to nearby planets before eventually he became a God King." Alex listened to the story and nodded with respect. "Still, this island had turned into this, and no one understood the principle. Even the Sword God turned around while shaking his head. No one knew whether he had an idea or not because he didn''t clarify if he could solve it or not. That''s why I couldn''t help but doubt your claim." "I can see that, but I want to ask for another person''s identity if you don''t mind." "As long as I know their legend, I might probably know it. After all, I ask my mother to tell me all types of stories, including legends of the past." She nodded with confidence. "Then, I would like to know about the Mad Blacksmith." "¡­" She suddenly stopped what she was doing and raised her vision in disbelief. "Are you seriously asking me that? No, where did you hear that title?" "The place that has been maintaining this killing intent." Alex shrugged. "Seriously?" She fell into deep thought. "The Mad Blacksmith was the world''s enemy in the past." "The world''s enemy?" "Yes. He seemed to be obsessed with something and planned to revive someone. He killed many people, mostly powerful people, and turned them into living deaths by using forging. There wasn''t much record to begin with since the three sects might want to hide it. Unfortunately, none of them succeeded. In total, he had killed more than one million people." "Hoh?" Alex thought for a moment before adding. "He wanted to revive his daughter." "Was the one who turned this place into a living hell like this actually him? Have you met him?" She rose from the ground, grabbed his shoulder, and shook him gently. "I didn''t meet him, I met his creation. I couldn''t say he succeeded, but he indeed created a persona." "Really?" "Yeah. Though I can''t really tell you the details. If you want to know what it is, she is a Sword Spirit." He smiled. "Eh?! A Sword Spirit?" She looked down for a few minutes as if she realized something important. "In the past, the Sword God said he took inspiration from someone to create the Sword Spirit¡­ Don''t tell me, the reason he didn''t say anything about this island was not that he couldn''t find anything, but because he knew about it that he didn''t want it to be disturbed." ''But she said I was the first human she met.'' Alex then thought if there was another record out there about her, and he knew about it. He then understood the whole situation. She didn''t lie to him because the Sword God really never met her. "I see. That answers most of the questions." "Now I can understand why the Sword God hid the truth. He had used the research of the world''s number one villain to strengthen himself. I can''t really blame him." She nodded repeatedly. "Yeah. Anyway, can you keep this a secret?" "Yes. But I want to ask¡­" She paused for a moment, hesitating to ask a question. "Is that really the real reason for this whole situation?" "Not really. The real reason is a Divine Sword. I can say that the Divine Sword is one of the peak Divine Weapons. That is the one controlling the situation. No, I should say circulating the madness from that war continuously until now." "So, is this the remnant of killing intent by the experts back then?" "Yeah. Because of the passing years, I can''t really feel the malice behind it, so I guess it has died long ago, leaving only an empty shell like this." Alex gave a confirmation. "I see. I think I shouldn''t check that out, right?" "It''s better to remain clueless unless you are confident you can fend off everything by yourself, it''s better to not know about it because no one will try to question you about this. And you won''t have the need to act clueless." Alex nodded. "Yeah. That''s what I am thinking about. I won''t ask anything then. At least, I know that there is a secret here, and there is a chance for me to know about it." She smiled. "That''s good. Although I want to tell you about it, I shouldn''t say too much and have you learned about it yourself. After all, this secret may kill you." "Uhm. At least, I understand a little bit to pacify this curiosity of mine, so it''s not like I will become a person who is killed by my own curiosity." Alex smiled and nodded. Chapter 937 - Talk After talking about this island''s secret, they began increasing their killing speed as they planned to have at least five million Spirit Crystals in this mission alone. Half of them would be used to increase Aria''s cultivation, while the other half was used for Alex to reach Rank 8 God as soon as possible. It wouldn''t be enough, but he should become a bit closer. This made Alex think a little bit. If he chose to cultivate all days, he would be able to reach Rank 8 God in three years as long as he had enough crystal. And it was supposed to be around fifty million Spirit Crystal to boost his strength. He remembered that his previous self had tens of billions, but with how this was going, he might need around a half billion Spirit Crystals just to reach Rank 6 God. After that, the cost would become higher and higher until he cost a few hundred billion just to level up one rank. That was why most of the God Rank Experts preferred Divine Herbs or Pills to increase their strength instead of the Spirit Crystal. Not only would it be more effective, but it was also more cheaper. The reason Alex bought the medicinal herbs in the training shop was for this. Whenever Melvie checked them, her expression became less and less as if she just treated them as a special case that couldn''t be measured by a normal parameter. Their killing method was far different than any others she had seen so far, so she couldn''t comment on anything or help them by giving them some advice. The only thing she could do was to report what she had witnessed during this one month and waited for the peak master''s reaction. Meanwhile, Alex and Aria managed to kill around ten thousand magical beasts during this one month. Every time Alex saw a person, he would warn Aria and went around to avoid any kind of contact. On the last day, he met up with Aria not far from the coast. "We have finished the mission with flying color. I am sure the peak master will be surprised with this." Aria nodded with a serious expression. "Don''t you want to hide?" "Of course, you will be taking the spotlight. I am sure that she will be in disbelief in your power, but if you show that you can fight a 3-Star Martial Saint monster, I believe it is enough to convince them. And don''t forget about your current progress with Purgatory Sword. As long as you have these two, you can take the spotlight." Alex shook his head without having a change of expression. "What about you?" "I will be considered your mentor or something and the one who becomes your bodyguard until you are a God Rank Expert." "Oh, I will play along then." She nodded. "You don''t have any plan in giving the reward to your brother, right?" Alex asked. "I once thought about it and realized it would be better to not give him. After all, he is already under the care of Elder Gian, so I don''t really need to care about him for the time being. And I am sure he will grow even stronger after facing many difficulties." Aria answered honestly. "I see. He has a Divine Weapon as well." "Yeah. In the future, I won''t be beside him to take care of his matters, so I shouldn''t pamper him too much." Alex fell silent for a few seconds before asking. "You are not blaming me?" "If you are talking about the fact I will go to you when I have enough strength because this is a promise of myself, you don''t need to think about it. After all, this is my personal promise. It''s not because of you, but my own wish." She shook her head. "I have told you about it, haven''t I? I want to be an expert that has the freedom to do whatever I want. And this is what I want." "Then, I won''t say anything." Alex smiled. "Hehe." "There is one more thing I want to do with this quest." "What is it?" "Ask the elders to sell only half of the monster cores to the sect while the other half will be sold to the Sword Blossom Peak." "Ah, it''s to not make us too extraordinary from the start. With half of these cores going to the Sword Blossom Peak, they will be the one giving us money. And if they are going to send it to the sect, it will be under their name." "Yeah. This is a win-win situation for them. After all, they want to keep you in the Sword Blossom Peak no matter what. By using this situation, it is a kind of indirectly telling them we want to stay in Sword Blossom Peak, not other peaks." "I understand. Let me take care of the negotiation. I won''t make the same mistake as the one I made in the test." "It''s fine. The problem has been solved anyway." "Even so, it still haunts me. That''s one of my biggest mistakes." She shook her head. The reason it could be considered a big mistake was due to Alex''s existence. Offending a powerful God Rank Expert would be the last thing she wanted to do, let alone if that person would be her future boss. Alex stayed silent when he saw this determination in her expression until the latter said, "Let''s return." "Sure." Alex nodded and flew to the coast. Aria took charge of the conversation this time, telling all the plans as if she was in charge of this whole operation and Alex was just her helper. After asking a few questions, Melvie nodded and agreed to let Aria negotiate the term with the peak master herself. They then returned to the sect. Alex went back first to make it more believable that Aria was the one in charge, not him. They knew that he was a kind of the one pulling the string, but with this, it should be enough to say that he was preparing Aria in his own way and would soon become her bodyguard or subordinate. When he entered the house, he immediately asked Lin Xingzhi about Eve''s condition. "How is she?" [The sword has been formed and Eve''s body has fused inside the sword, so you don''t need to worry about her anymore. It will take one day for the last integration before she can start adjusting to her body and new power.] "I see. It''s good then." Alex let out a long sigh. [By the way, the sword is still unnamed. Do you happen to know a good name? Well, Eve asked me to have you bestow the name of the sword she will be living in. By the way, I will give you the memory crystal about the sword.] Alex nodded and took out the last item that just got inside the Inventory. He channeled his energy to the sword as a certain moving image like a video appeared in his mind. It was a sword floating above a small white platform. The sword had a black handle covered with some golden stripes. The blade looked very beautiful but ominous at the same time. It might be due to Eve''s influence, but Alex couldn''t help but feel impressed. The blade was red, but the edge was black, making an illusion that the sword was glowing. Even though Eve wasn''t a part of the Divine Weapon he found in the cave, she still carried a portion of killing intent, so it must be the reason why the sword looked this way. "It''s beautiful. I can feel that it''s tailored made for me. I am sure it will suit me." [I will take the beautiful part and inform Eve about it. I am sure she will be glad to hear such a thing.] "Ahaha¡­I still have a sense of what I can do and I can''t do, alright?" [You are just overthinking it. Do you think we consider every single woman, humans or not, as your woman or something?] "I am just afraid." Alex sighed. [Haha. Don''t worry about it. Besides, I will be sending the sword in two months of your time.] "I understand. I want to see the real form." Alex thought for a moment. "And maybe the blade name can be Crimson Night." [Crimson Night¡­ Well, it''s better than most of your naming, I guess it''s fine.] "Haha, nice." [And if you take too long there, the others might reach Rank 8 God before you.] "It won''t take too long. Besides, I will become even stronger." Alex smiled. He had gotten Eve and the Sword God''s Pure Sword Qi, so his prowess alone would be far stronger than it used to be. If he considered that the Sword Qi might reach Rank 7 before he left this world, it was enough for other Gods to judge him as a threat. [I know that you are working hard there. Besides, it''s not like waiting for a few years is that unbearable since I will be wasting your thousands of years after everything has finished. No, we will.] "Yeah. Despite having made you wait for a long time for me to reach God Rank Expert, I need to make you wait even longer." [None of them think that way. We only believe that you are sacrificing yourself to protect us. That''s all about it. And concerning this problem, it''s not your own problem. As soon as you reach Rank 5 God, I will be contacting the other Rank 1 Gods that can help us in the future. After all, the reason you lost a few thousand years ago was due to you fighting that person alone. If I inform the other Gods first and have them prepare for what will happen, we can prevent many things even if the beast uses the same trick.] "I will be leaving this matter in your hand since I don''t have enough time to settle it. And remember, since the beast looks like a sly one, there is a possibility that there are Rank 1 Gods siding with the beast. If they infiltrate us, there is a big consequence." [I understand.] "By the way, what was the beast''s previous tactic?" [The beast cultivated the Earth first by giving the power that we called a weapon to kill Gods to them. To our surprise, there were around seven God Kings on Earth alone, so it was a big battle. And with the beast taking charge of the whole operation, our force didn''t have enough hand and chose to sacrifice their lives to bring those God Kings down.] "Is that so¡­ Then I need to start using the Divine Gacha System as soon as possible. At least, I want our Eulja to have four or five God Kings first as an assurance." [I will tell Korzan to increase the scale of the investigation then.] "I leave it to you." Alex nodded. Chapter 938 - Martial Saint Over the next few days, Aria seemed to be busy. Considering she needed to show her progress to be recognized by the peak master and the others even further, she couldn''t escape from this. Alex decided to stop the training for the time being until she had finished all her problems. Meanwhile, he focused on cultivating. Although it required him five years, he calculated it with Eulja''s time, not this world''s time. If he needed to calculate it with this world''s time, he required around two years. And he never stopped cultivating every day ever since he got into the sect no matter how tired he was after training Aria. Finally, a few days had passed. Alex didn''t come out from the residence all the time, but he still understood a few things happening outside since Njomo reported him once a day. Aria had fought 1-Star to 3-Star Martial Saint monsters in front of the elder, showing her fighting prowess. And when they were alone, she showed the progress of her Purgatory Sword. The peak master was satisfied when she saw Aria''s progress was beyond her imagination. After all, that move was the Sword God''s original Divine Sword Art, so the technique was hard to copy or made it her own. However, the moment Aria wielded it, she saw a possibility of her succeeding it. In other words, this might be the first time someone was learning the Sword God''s Original Sword Art because those who usually succeeded in the past only learned his Dual Blade, Hell Lion, or something similar. No one mastered this in the past. If she took care of Aria, there might be a chance for the peak to contend with the First Peak that had been reigning as champion this whole time. That was why she only showed what was necessary to settle down the elders while keeping the rest a secret, making sure that the First Peak didn''t snatch her. A few days later, Aria returned to the house while having a smile on her face. "I have succeeded. I''ve gained the peak master''s and the elders'' trust." Alex stayed silent, not knowing what to say. On one hand, she was doing this because of his order. On the other hand, this would also become a great thing for her in the future. "You don''t need to mind about it." She shook her head, knowing what Alex was thinking. She looked up and sighed. "When I was a small and weak child, many looked down on me because I couldn''t see. Despite the strength of my parents, it couldn''t stop the rumors in the family, saying I was a cursed child. "That was why I learned everything necessary, including this sense of mine through bitter training. My father has always told me he loves me, while my mother took care of me and made sure I didn''t give up. When I reached the peak of the younger generation and caught up with my brother''s progress, I shut them up. "It was at that time I realized¡­Standing at the top felt nice. Not only could I satisfy those who put a high expectation in me, but I could also stand on top of those who bullied me. More importantly, I could finally enjoy my peace." She hesitated for a second before changing her thoughts. "Maybe it''s a bit different. What made me happy was the fact that you could use everything in your possession to make your family proud. "Although your case is not really the same, it''s something similar. So, I just can''t contain my smile." She smiled at Alex. "Is that so? I should thank you then." Alex nodded with a smile. "By the way, there is one thing I want to ask you. When are you leaving?" She asked. "I mean, it''s not like I want you to go or something. I just want to prepare for it." "After I advance to another level. If my guess is right, it''s around two years." "I see." She nodded. "Don''t worry. I will try to make you at least 5-Star Martial Saint by that time." Alex smirked. "And the training is going to be harder from now on." "Are you going to turn me into a monster?" "Nope. I am just turning you into a masochist." "What is that?" "It''s just a term for someone who loves pain." "Ehm¡­" She suddenly made a weird smile as if she couldn''t understand what he just said. "Don''t think much about it. Every single cultivator has a certain degree of this." "I hope you can use a different term, you know. It''s not like I love pain." "Neither do I. Fine. Just say that you have a pain tolerance." Alex shrugged. "Yeah. That''s better." "Anyway, let''s start training again." "Understood." After having the conversation, the two went back to their training. Since she had been recognized by those people, he started increasing her training so as to keep up with that expectation. This training could be continued for a long time because the peak master had given her permission to increase her strength as quickly as possible before revealing it. And she believed Aria would be able to reach God Rank Expert under one hundred years old. Even though this was Alex''s effort, she could claim it so as to prevent anyone from snatching her, telling she was the one more suited to teach her. Thus, one month had passed, and Aria finally triggered her Lightning Tribulation. Out of curiosity, Alex decided to stay and watch, wondering how she faced the Lightning Tribulation. As one would expect, she destroyed the first and second wave with just her strength alone. As for the third and fourth waves were handled with high-speed movements. It was just pure speed and power since she didn''t use her Lightning Element to handle the two waves. Only when she faced the fifth and sixth, she used her Lightning Element. It wasn''t really much of a problem for Aria to handle this type of lightning. But when the purple lightning came, she finally became serious. She released her Lightning to the highest degree and unleashed a strong Sword Wave. That strong attack destroyed the seventh and eighth waves. Things started to get real because Aria felt the need to weaken the Lightning Tribulation first before hitting it with the Sword Wave. With enough effort, she finally destroyed the ninth wave. If only golden lightning were to appear, there might be no one who could challenge it. Even Aria, the one he had taught in this world, couldn''t face it. After all, he perfectly understood how dangerous a Golden Lightning could be. Well, considering the fact that his previous self broke the taboo to send the knowledge to the current him, he could understand why it was far stronger than a normal Lightning Tribulation that could even shake the entire world. He wondered what kind of fate he had if the Golden Lightning Tribulation made its presence here. It would turn the world upside-down to the point the three sects wouldn''t mind having another war just to get that person. Alex sighed when he thought about it and kept watching over her tribulation. As soon as Aria saw the last lightning strike, she went all out and utilized her Sword Qi well, obliterating the tenth wave. She struggled a bit earlier because she conserved her stamina like how a careful person would do. She still remembered how Alex taught her how to live below your means. Although it would have another meaning for normal humans, it held a special meaning for Alex. What he truly meant by that sentence was to fight someone while holding back until you can see the whole strength of your opponents. In other words, if she kept using the lowest amount of energy possible to handle someone, they would start increasing their power, allowing her to assess the situation even further before defeating her opponent. That was why when the tenth wave appeared, she didn''t mind holding back again because nothing would happen to her after destroying this one last strike. The sky turned bright again as Elder Illevis went to the bottom of the mountain and congratulated her personally. She just couldn''t believe that Aria could advance two times ever in five months. Unfortunately, she had pledged to not asking for Alex''s cultivation technique because not only would he leave, but Aria would surely follow. If the other two sects got this, it would be far worse than having your own people snatching from you. Clap. Clap. Clap. Alex''s applause echoed as Aria bowed her head to him. "Thank you for giving me this chance. I have never thought I can truly become a Martial Saint this fast." She smiled. "It''s all thanks to you." "Nope. I am just providing the method. Your will and perseverance are the ones that grant you this opportunity." She smiled. "You make me embarrassed." "By the way, how do you feel?" "I am great. The fatigue from earlier has disappeared as well, so I won''t have any problem even if I need to start practicing again after this." She pumped her fist. "In fact, I am pretty fired up to increase my cultivation even faster." "Haha, I like it." Alex nodded before looking at his right. A few seconds later, the peak master made her appearance. "To think you have indeed become a Martial Saint this fast. It''s really surprising." She nodded with a serious face. "Thank you, Peak Master. Thanks to Peak Master for giving me the chance to cultivate peacefully this whole time I can reach this step this fast." She smiled. "No, no. That''s all your effort." She shook her head. "Anyway, I am here to congratulate you. So, here is your present. I want you to keep aiming even higher." She sensed the thing in Peak Master''s hand before realizing it was a pill. "This is¡­" "This is a Lightning Seed Pill. This pill can enhance your Lightning Element and increase your cultivation at the same time. It''s a peak Rank 8 Pill." "This¡­Am I really deserved all this? I didn''t do anything for the past few months, so it looks like I am just taking it for granted." "No. Those who are talented deserved more. Of course, it doesn''t mean those who are slightly less talented don''t deserve this, but talent can''t be measured. At one time, you can be at the lowest of the lowest, but the next day, you can be the most talented person in the universe. Showing a great reward for the winner is a must, so the disciples can become even more motivated to reach higher cultivation." She smiled. "In that case, I will take it." Aria nodded and gently took the pill before storing it inside her Space Ring. "Thank you, Peak Master." "Umu. Since you have received it, I will be leaving again." She nodded, turned around, and flew away, but she didn''t forget to take another look at Alex, who was very mysterious with a complicated thought. Chapter 939 - A New Mission After becoming a Martial Saint in just a few months, her talent was deemed to be one of the strongest in Illevis''s eyes. Upon knowing it, she gave her a few million Spirit Crystals, wanting her to take the opportunity to cultivate even faster. Aria, of course, had no intention to reject it. She simply received the Spirit Crystals and brought them to Alex. But to her surprise, Alex didn''t take even a single Spirit Crystal, letting her use all of the crystals. Alex was a God Rank Expert, so he needed far more than her. And the fact that he took half of the reward they got from the previous mission made her think he needed money. Alex only told her that they would split if the money came from their joint efforts. If it were her alone, he wouldn''t touch her money. Having this agreement, they proceeded in their training, planning to show even more progress, so Illevis would come again and give more resources. After another three months, Alex released his strength to 4-Star Martial Saint while Aria had officially become a 2-Star Martial Saint. This progress alone baffled every single elder in the peak. They wanted to visit Aria, but the peak master decided to stop them. Not long after that, Illevis decided to visit her personally to ensure her foundation. After all, she couldn''t afford to see Aria''s foundation ruined because she wanted to see her cultivate faster. When she arrived with Melvie, Alex and Aria received them well. Alex sat in front of Melvie while Aria faced Illevis. "May I know what Peak Master wants?" Aria asked with a smile, trying to be as warm as possible. "I just want to see your condition. But it seems no matter how monstrous progress you have, your cultivation still can''t beat¡­" Illevis stopped talking but staring at Alex. "Nyx has been helping me this whole time, and he is on a different level from me. Even so, I am still planning to catch up to him." She smiled as if declaring her rivalry. "That''s good then." Illevis was satisfied with her determination before falling into deep thought. "Peak Master. I have a good suggestion." Melvie suddenly opened her mouth. "Hmm?" "Do you know my family?" "Of course. I have met them several times." "Actually, I have a friend in another family. Her family is also an ally of my family for a long time, so I have known her since childhood. Because of the circ.u.mstances, she gave birth a few decades ago." "Is that child the one you recommended to me last year?" "Yes." Melvie nodded. "She is a bit over fifty years old, but her strength has reached 1-Star Martial Monarch. Despite having the resources from her family, which was supposed to be a merchant family, her talent was still top-notch." "What are you suggesting?" Illevis stopped her, not wanting to prolong her business with Aria and Alex for another few hours just to listen to her story. "From what I have heard, her child wants to take a test to increase her power even further by accepting the power of their ancestor. Unfortunately, the place is a bit dangerous. It''s a kind of a place like Blood Island''s Inner Island. So, I am wondering if I can have both of them escort them. Not only can they get a good amount of resources from my friend''s family, but I can encourage the talented kid to join this sect." Melvie smiled. Illevis blinked her eyes a few times before falling into deep thought. "This is interesting. First of all, why did your friend''s family have such a weird place for the inheritance?" "No, no. This is inside a Special Realm." "I see. Do you want them to go to protect that kid and inspire her if possible?" "Yes. That''s the gist of my plan. And I believe my friend doesn''t have any problem with this." Illevis stroke her chin a few times and looked at Aria. "What do you think?" "I think it''s good. It''s true that we can increase our cultivation faster than anyone else, but if we don''t balance it with fighting experiences and other things, we won''t be able to become an expert." Aria accepted it according to Alex''s instruction. "True enough. You will also get a good reward if the request comes from a merchant family." Illevis then glanced at Melvie. "But do they want to have her escorted by us?" "Of course. She is currently asking me to put on a request on her behalf. The task is for people in 1-Star to 5-Star Martial Saint." Melvie nodded. "What kind of challenge will they have in this mission?" "Well, they will have a problem with monsters, but there is a chance that other families want to take it as well. Using the blood of my friend''s daughter, they can open the inheritance for themselves. Unfortunately, her parents and other things are busy handling all those families, leaving one influence that might appear in the mission." "Who are they?" Aria was the one who asked, showing she had an interest in this mission. "They are bandits. It''s a famous gang called Divine Tiger Gang. They have been terrorizing so many people. Their leader is a 5-Star Martial Saint, so there is a chance that they will be coming for you. But I think it won''t be a problem, right?" Melvie stared at Alex intensely. With how abnormal Aria''s fighting power is, Alex shouldn''t be that far from her. In other words, there would be a huge chance that Alex could fight the leader alone. It would be best if he and Aria could fight together, but there shouldn''t be a need for that. Alex took a few seconds to answer. "Yes." "That''s great." Melvie smiled before looking at the peak master, asking for permission. "I personally don''t have any problems with such a mission as long as they agree with the mission. Besides, for a bandit at that size, we need escorts from their family too because I don''t know if these two can fight the whole group with just two of them. After all, the opponents are not monsters that are easy to kill." "Don''t worry. I have given the statement that she will need to bring at least twenty Martial Saint with her to avoid being surrounded by the group. With her character, she will at least prepare thirty Martial Saints and seventy Martial Monarchs. It will be a huge convoy." "I see. The whole convoy is to ensure that this child can go to the inheritance place while these two will focus on her well-being." Illevis understood her plan and nodded in agreement. "Yes. The payment is four million Spirit Crystals for a mission that only needs around a week or so. What do you think?" Aria and Alex exchanged looks before nodding their heads. "We accept." Aria smiled before asking. "By the way, is there any other person joining us?" "Nope. This is only for you. I want to have another person, but he is currently on a mission, so I can''t really recall him back." She shook her head. "In that case, we don''t have any problem." "Good. You can head to the family tomorrow. It will take you three days from here, and the place is around four to five days of flying. It''s not really a secret place, but just make sure you are not bringing trouble upon yourself." "Yes." Aria nodded. "This is my token and my letter. You can give this to her, and she will accept you." Melvie handed a wooden token and a white letter as if she had predicted that Aria and Alex would accept this. "I understand. May I know the information about the family first?" She snapped her finger as a few papers appeared on her hand and gave it to them. Alex took it before passing it to Aria. "I will learn the information today and head over there tomorrow." "Sure." Melvie nodded. "Since you have accepted this mission, give this to her if you think the kid is a talented person." Illevis didn''t forget to give them her recommendation letter for this young kid. She doubted Aria''s eyes for talent, but Alex seemed to be a real deal. After all, he wouldn''t be with her except he found her talented. So, he let them choose whether this child was worth it or not. Either way, it wouldn''t shake the fact that these two were more talented than her. After finishing their business, Illevis and Melvie left the house. "Peak Master. Do you think they will do well?" She asked. "You were so confident earlier, now you are worried?" Illevis glanced at her with a slight smile. "As far as ability is concerned, I don''t have a single doubt they will finish this mission. However, I don''t know if they will serve as a good motivation to the little girl that I have considered as my little nephew." She let out a long sigh. "You know¡­They act a bit too mysterious, making it hard to approach them." "I can understand you. I do feel them that way, but at least I know Cypress Family. As long as the guy is attached to the girl, it lightens my stress a bit. For now, we will see whether they will bring a positive influence or their light will cast a shadow in many people''s hearts." "I see. This sect has fierce competition. Even I need to gamble with my own lives to reach this point. If these two existences can shake their hearts, they are not qualified to take the top spots." She smiled. "That''s all about it. For now, we will wait and see. After all, it''s not even a year since the first day they came." "True enough. But those two have become much stronger. I wonder what will happen in a decade." The peak master only shrugged and returned to the mansion. Meanwhile, Aria gave the rundown about the information. "The requester this time is Alcea Luezar from Luezar Family. The mission is to protect her daughter, Nella Luezar. The strongest person is their grandfather, a Rank 5 God. However, he can''t really make a move because he is suppressing many influences right now to prevent them from getting the inheritance. "Due to that, the family only set low-level people so they won''t be too noticeable, making it hard to find them missing inside their mansion. That''s why the mission is only for 1-Star to 5-Star. The big threats in this mission should only be the bandits or powerful monsters. "I see. It''s hard to stop a few influences at once, so I believe they can''t really spend so much on this mission even though this is very important. Probably they can spend one or two powerful Martial Saints, but I doubt there will be more. And in this information, it''s briefly explained that we can''t get anything about the inheritance." She briefly explained the information while reading the rest. "We don''t need the inheritance for now. Having too much is not that good, so it won''t matter. The problem will be how long¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "And the enemies." "There is a bandit group in the area that is rumored to be under one of their enemy''s influence. They have three hundred people among themselves, and I think there might be people from the family that is controlling the bandits. I don''t know their strength." Alex fell silent before smiling. "You have gotten better at analyzing things." "Thank you. It''s all thanks to you teaching me." "For now, there is nothing we can do other than preparing. Do you know the path?" "Only the destination. We can come up with the path, I think. Even if they have an original path, we can just lie and tell them we saw a bandit around that area." She shrugged. "It''s not that easy, but if the letter can give us the power to negotiate, it will be good. So, here is the plan¡­" Alex smiled and started explaining. Chapter 940 - A Scheme When the next day arrived, Aria and Alex went toward this Luzear Family. The journey didn''t take too long, but they ended up taking another stroll in a nearby forest. "Are you sure about this?" Aria asked. Her face was full of doubt. "We had discussed it yesterday. There are a few perfect spots to ambush the group, so it''s better to set up traps around here first before arriving there." Aria could understand the reason he was doing this was to not use his full power, but the possibility of this failing was very high. "Don''t worry. If these Array Plates are not used, I will be the one taking care of them. You can go back to the sect first." "No, no. I am not worried about that. It''s just a few hours of work, so it doesn''t really mean anything. What I am concerning is the probability of them having a God Rank Expert." Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "Nope. There won''t be any God Rank Experts. You don''t know anything about them. If a God Rank Expert makes a move, many will notice it, so whether it''s from the Luzear Family or their enemies, no one will send a God Rank Expert. There might be 8-Star or 9-Star Martial Saint, but I am not really sure about a 10-Star Martial Saint. Either way, if we can solve the situation with just traps, it will be good." "I doubt it though. Why don''t you just save the money to buy the Array Plates for cultivation?" She sighed. "Haha, you start budgeting me now?" Alex smiled. "You can do whatever you want with your money. It''s your money anyway." She shrugged and looked away. Alex smiled and kept placing the array plates for another hour. "Let''s go." Alex walked to her after finishing his job. Aria nodded and started flying again. It took them another six hours to arrive in Middle City. They went in without much of a problem and immediately headed toward the Luzear Family. As they expected, the mansion looked like her Cypress Family, just a bit bigger. They found two people holding a spear, waiting in front of the gate. When they approached them, they crossed the spear and asked. "Who are you?!" "We are disciples from Unsurpassed Blade Sect. I am here to take a mission from the Luzear Family, specifically madam Alcea Luzear." Aria showed her disciple token and Luzear Family token to let them know it was a legitimate request. "¡­" The guards exchanged looks before one of them went inside while the other one said, "As much as I want to let you inside, we need to ask the madam first because of the current situation." "It''s fine. We have been briefed about it as well." Aria gently nodded. What made the guard hesitate was actually their masks. They couldn''t really identify them because they didn''t show their faces, increasing the possibility of them being fake. Not long after, a middle-aged lady walked out of the mansion and found two masked people. "I am Alcea Luzear. Are you who I am waiting for?" She asked while furrowing her eyebrows. Aria took out the letter from Melvie. "My name is Aria Cypress. This is the letter from Senior Sister Melvie." She took the letter and opened it right away. After reading the letter, she glanced at them back and forth as if she couldn''t believe what the letter told her. "Melvie is my childhood friend. Although the path we take is different, I still trust her words. Since you two are the ones she sent, I will trust her. Come in first to meet my daughter, and I shall explain the plan." Despite saying so, she had yet to move to her position. "Before that, can you take off your mask? The letter has told me about your disability, but I want to check it first because there is a chance that you are an impostor. After all, our situation is not in good condition." "I can, but I don''t know if he¡­" Aria took off her mask but felt Alex didn''t need to. "Since I have confirmed it, I won''t say anything. You can put your mask back on. Sorry for asking you to do that." "No, I think this will be perfect." Aria decided not to put on her mask again for a few reasons that she and Alex had talked about. "Alright then." She nodded and invited them in. After making a few turns, they arrived in a room with three people inside. The first one was a young female that seemed to be Nella Luezar. The second one was another youth with 6-Star Martial Saint strength, while the last one was a 9-Star Martial Saint middle-aged man. "These two are the escorts that will help you during this mission. They are Aria Cypress and Nyx. The lady is a 2-Star Martial Saint that can fight against a 5-Star Martial Saint while the other one is a strong 4-Star Martial Saint that has the ability to rival that of the girl." Alcea introduced them, believing it would make everything smoother. "Ho?!" The middle-aged man observed Alex and Aria before the hair on his hand raised without any apparent reasons. "Since that is the case, I don''t have a problem. Besides, it''s better to have them with us rather than a full-fledged 8-Star Martial Saint." "Yes." Alcea nodded. "Millman, I will be leaving these two in your care." "I understand, Madam. I will do my best to make this campaign successful." The middle-aged man nodded with a solemn expression. "Good. This is Millman, the leader of this entire operation." She introduced the middle-aged man to Alex and Aria. They shook his hand with a smile. Meanwhile, the young lady brushed her light red hair gently, not knowing why Millman accepted them. "Mother, isn''t our force enough to reach the palace?" "Our force might be enough, but their mission is to ensure your safety while the group is to make sure everything can proceed according to the plan." She shook her head. "¡­" Nella fell silent and kept staring at Aria, wondering what was so special with this blind woman. Alex was also wearing a mask that made him too mysterious. "I can take care of myself though¡­But since mother has gone all the way to do this, I will just accept this one." "Yeah, thank you, dear." Alcea smiled. "This is Andre, the second-in-command for this operation. He is originally the one ensuring her safety, but with both of you here, he can go fight those bastards instead." "Nice to meet you." Andre stretched his hand to Aria and shook her hand before looking at Alex. Alex shook his hand too, but to his surprise, he suddenly felt the other party clenched his hand tightly. Alex sighed inwardly, knowing this would happen. However, there was another thing that made him concerned. In the middle-aged man''s body held dormant green energy that seemed to be a poison. Meanwhile, there was a trace of the same energy in the young man''s hand, so this made Alex curious about this young man. Why would he act this brazen when he could just stay quiet for a while? If this plan were sabotaged, the situation would turn worst. "I don''t know why you are clenching my hand this tightly¡­But if you are going to challenge me or something, it''s better you piss off." Alex narrowed his eyes. The atmosphere became tense. Andre had been their retainers for decades, so they just couldn''t believe what Alex said. "I am sorry, I just want to see your strength. After all, the introduction was a bit too hard to swallow." Andre gently smiled while putting a bit more energy into his hand. "In that case, don''t blame me." Alex sighed. Suddenly, he accelerated and grabbed Andre''s elbow before breaking his hand until it bent weirdly. "Argh!" Andre screamed in pain as he fell down and held his hand while glaring at Alex. "Oops, I just wanted to see the strength of the great 6-Star Martial Saint. Unfortunately, you are just a waste who can''t even understand the course of your action. I am starting to worry now." Alex looked down on him, surprising every person in this room. "Nyx!" Aria sweatdropped as she never expected it turned this way. He taught her to swallow everything, so they didn''t make a problem, but this was the exact opposite of what he said. At the same time, Alcea, a Rank 10 God, pointed her hand toward him while the middle-aged man took out his sword. "You¡­What did you just do?!" Nella gritted her teeth and helped him up. "Why would you do something like that? Depending on your answer, I might need to send a corpse to my childhood friend¡­" Alcea glared at Alex while releasing her killing intent. Alex looked at her before moving to the middle-aged man. "You are poisoned." "Stop lying!" The middle-aged man obviously didn''t believe him. Alex thought for a while. He obviously couldn''t tell them he had the ability to see the energy in his body, so he knew about it. He remembered how many characters in many stories acted like a doctor, so he said, "When I shook your hand, I realized from your pulse that you are poisoned. If you are not convinced, you can puke the area near your abdomen with a silver needle and see it for yourself." The middle-aged man''s body shook before glancing at Alcea, wondering what the madam had to say. "Bring our Elder Po here and ask him to check your body. I will be watching these two people. If it''s not as he said, I will solve this with my own hand." "I understand." The middle-aged man nodded. However, when he was about to leave, the youth suddenly turned pale as he took out something from his Space Ring. Because of what happened earlier, Aria had been on the full alert. When she realized the youth was moving, she activated her lightning element to arrive right next to the youth, cutting his hand that seemed to take out a pouch before kicking the man to the wall. Of course, as an expert, Alcea didn''t sit by and tried to stop her before cutting Andre''s hand, but Alex caught her hand and said, "Look at what he takes out!" When she heard that, she looked at the leather pouch and used her Divine Energy to grab the pocket. As soon as she was distracted, Alex disappeared once again before a scream filled the entire room. "Argh!" They immediately turned their head and saw two spears impaled Andre on his two shoulders, preventing him from moving. "I am sorry, I don''t like to grasp someone''s neck and ask them to tell the truth. Instead, it''s better to immobilize your hands first using this method." Alex said coldly before pointing at the bag in Alcea''s hand. Nella gritted her teeth and shouted. "Why did you do that?" "Nella!" Alcea stopped her before looking at the pouch. Because of her position, Nella obviously didn''t see this pouch since it was in her blind spot, but when she looked at the pouch, she fell silent, realizing it wasn''t this simple. "Change of plan. Nella, you bring Elder Po here while the rest can''t leave this room until everything is confirmed." Nella hesitated for a few seconds before rushing to bring the requested person. After five minutes of waiting, she brought an old man carrying a case that seemed to be filled with his tool. "Madam, do you need me?" He asked before finding Andre. "Oh no! Do you want me to heal him?!" "No!" She shook her head and pointed at Millman. "Check his body, especially his stomach." The old man walked toward Millman while keeping his eyes on Andre, wondering what just happened here. He inserted five silver needles on Millman''s stomach before three of them turned black. "This¡­He is poisoned. The fact that it only reacts with three means that it is in the dormant stage, so there won''t be any symptoms." *Thump!* Chapter 941 - Nella Luzear When the elder said so, the atmosphere turned cold as Alcea could already understand what was going on. She glared at Andre and directed her killing intent to him. "Wait a minute." Alex suddenly stopped her and went between her and Andre. "What are you doing now? You have just proven to me there is a traitor, and now you are stopping me? I am not going to kill him first until he gives me all the information I want." Alex shook his head before looking at the elder. "The reason I did all of this was indeed due to the poison. However, I wouldn''t act like this if he didn''t provoke me first." "So, you want to kill him yourself?" "Nope." Alex shook his head. "There are two traces of poisons on him. The first one is on his hand, so I assume he must be poisoning Sir Millman not long ago." "Did you do anything with me today, Millman?" Alcea turned around. Millman thought for a moment before remembering something. "I indeed discussed the entire plan first with him to understand what we needed to do. When I did it, he brought wine, so it wouldn''t get too boring. I didn''t think at that time, but this one was the most suspicious." Alcea nodded and turned back to Alex. "And the second one?" "He¡ª" Alex suddenly heard him start talking and immediately stopped him from saying another word, sticking the handle of his spear in his mouth. "It''s in his mouth." Not daring to take a risky approach with poison, Alcea ordered the elder to remove the poison. The elder nodded and proceeded carefully before finding the poison bag under his tongue. Andre turned pale. He never expected that all the plans suddenly went to smoke with the appearance of Alex. He thought by provoking him and making him react a bit unreasonably, the others would pay attention to Alex more than him, so he did it. To think it wasn''t the case, and Alex turned around the situation. After that, he even realized there was a poison bag that he could bite to commit suicide and prevented him from doing so. "This one is Graten Poison, from a monster called Graten. It seems to have been processed to the point it will burn down the organs or even the entire body itself. Considering the concentration, if one touch this poison after being used, it could melt their hand as well." The elder furrowed his eyebrows before looking at Alex. "May I know how you know there is a poison bag in his mouth?" "Experience. I often did a mission like this, and eighty percent of it contained a betrayal like this. Well, I can''t really say if it was a betrayal or something, but there was always a mole." Alex glanced at Aria, who seemed to understand what he meant. Even when he came to her family, there was a case like this, so she could only sigh. "After checking his pulse and his body, I checked every corner that might contain a poison and found a poison bag under his tongue, so I had been wary of him." "I see." The elder nodded. "I will get the antidote for Millman first, and I shall place this poison here so as to not make the situation even more complicated." When the elder left, Alcea looked at him with a serious expression. "Since you are the one solving this incident, I am going to ask this. How do you want to solve this issue?" "Of course, I will leave it to the Luzear Family." Alex smiled before stepping aside, stretching his hand as if telling Alcea to go ahead and interrogate him. "You are weird." She narrowed her eyes. "But thank you." "You''re welcome. I am just doing my job." Alex then walked toward Aria and stood by there, watching how the situation would go. Nella, who just learned all of this, recovered from her shock and stared at Alex for a while before asking her mother. "What should we do with the current mission, Mother?" "The inheritance is a must. But since they know about our plan, we need to change our plan or make a detour." Alcea nodded before grabbing Andre. "I am going to interrogate him first to get more information. Millman, you stay here, so Elder Po can detoxify the poison. Nella, bring the two to the guest room first. We will hold another meeting tomorrow." "I understand." Millman bowed and stepped back. "Yes, Mother." Nella nodded and watched her mother leaving before turning to Alex. "Haha, young man, you are good!" Millman laughed and patted Alex''s back. "I am not a poison expert, so I don''t know what kind of poison in my stomach, but without you, I might die tomorrow because of this poison." "It''s nothing. I just love being careful." Alex shook his head. "Good, good! Careful is nice." He nodded. "There is only one thing that makes me confused. Are you really a 4-Star Martial Saint? Not only have you discovered something like this, but you also succeeded in stopping Madam Alcea. The strength of a God Rank Expert wasn''t something that could easily be blocked, you know." ''Of course, it''s because Nyx himself is a God Rank Expert.'' Aria thought but stayed quiet as to not give any information to them. "I sensed that Madam hadn''t made the resolve to kill us, so if I poured all my energy into my grip, I could stall her for a second. That was why I immediately explained the reason that could stop Madam Alcea." Alex shook his head and humbly answered. "I see. I would start panicking if I were you. Youngsters these days are indeed extraordinary." He nodded in understanding before feeling a glare coming from another direction. He instantly realized and covered his mouth. "Oops. I have talked too long. For now, we will process this situation first, so you can rest in this place first." "Then, let me guide you there." Nella immediately opened her mouth, not wanting to get interrupted again. Alex and Aria exchanged looks and nodded before following Nella. ''Even I can''t feel this¡­'' Aria sighed in defeat. ''I mean, my enhanced senses are still weaker than your ability. Is that your innate ability or is it because you are a God Rank Expert you can sense something like that?'' ''It''s true that when you have a Divine Body, your sense is strengthened. That was why the madam immediately stopped when I pointed at something. Luckily, she had a cool head this whole time, or I will need to use my strength to block any of her attacks. And yeah, experience matters too.'' ''I will leave it at that.'' She changed the topic. ''By the way, what will happen to this mission now?'' ''They will come up with another plan.'' ''I know, but won''t it make your traps useless?'' ''True. But it means there is another chance to overturn the situation. I will see their plan first and make an adjustment there if needed. Of course, I will be negotiating with them.'' ''I guess you didn''t predict that there would be a culprit in that room.'' ''Yeah. It was purely me acting according to the situation. You could even keep up with the situation before I instructed you.'' ''Hehe. I believe you are someone who moves if there is something. Seeing you like that, I better trust you instead of them. After all, I know you more than them.'' ''You are not afraid that their God Rank Experts will kill you after killing me?'' ''Do you have a plan to die?'' ''Nope.'' ''Exactly.'' ''¡­'' Alex was speechless for a second before sighing. ''You little devil.'' ''You are younger than me.'' ''Fine. Junior Devil.'' Aria smiled. At the end of the corridor, they saw a thick wooden door, and Nella turned around and said, "This is your room. Before coming in, I would like to give my thanks to you. If you didn''t do anything, I would have died tomorrow. And I want to apologize for yelling at you without knowing to understand the context." Alex saw her bowing her head before helping her up. "It''s fine. I can understand your reaction. After all, we are just an outsider in your eyes. Even though we have the introduction letter from Senior Sister Melvie, we are just a mere Junior Disciple." "Thank you for your understanding." She nodded and opened the door, revealing a huge room with two doors facing each other inside. "This is a dual room. Miss¡­Aria can use the room on the left, and Sir Nyx can use the one on our right. The facility is basically the same. If there is something, we will leave the letter on this room, specifically on this table." Nella walked toward the table in the middle of the room. "Thank you for your hospitality." Alex nodded. "I wonder if Unsurpassed Blade Sect has many people like you." Alex didn''t answer her. He simply had no answer to that since his knowledge about the sect was shallow. "That is something you can find after you join the sect in the future." Aria smiled. "Is that so? Because my element is equal to my technique in spear, I am still considering whether to join Unsurpassed Blade Sect or Thousand Elements Sect." Nella sighed. Alex fell silent. He always believed there was no right path or wrong path. Lin Xingzhi, Alicia, and Firia mostly used their elements, while he and a few others used their weapons more than elements. Although his path could use both powers together, the focus and fighting style was different, so Alex couldn''t really say anything about this. "The answer lies in your heart. I¡­No, no one has the answer to your question. They are connected with each other, but they have their own fighting style and compatibility. If you feel that you are more suited to Thousand Elements Sect, then go ahead and choose it. But if you feel otherwise, it''s good to join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Don''t let anyone influence you, and you will be fine." Alex gave his piece of advice. Nella looked at him in admiration. "Before, others always said that their sects were the best, so I needed to join their sect. Even my mother said I needed to join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect because her friend is there. I don''t know why but they are less convincing when I compare them to you. "Choosing my own path and believing what I want to do. That makes me want to join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect, even though you just said to not let anyone influence me. You are sly, Mister." Nella smiled. Alex shrugged. "I didn''t promote the sect, and you might find it disappointing when you arrived at the sect." "Hehe¡­If I have a senior like you, I think it will become interesting. Not only will my future have tense situations like earlier, but I can also have a person to idolize." She smirked and looked at Alex. "Hmm¡­What is the line again? I have heard it so often when those females idolize disciples from my family. Ah, right. Do you need a wife? I can warm the bed for you." "¡­" Alex looked at her, wondering if this girl had a screw loose in her head. "And there is a case where the other party is a female that has a reputation for having a line of men waiting for her to take their hands. So, I am wondering if I am the one saying that to Mister, what are you going to do?" Nella smiled as if she thought something sly. "Besides, I have often heard the situation in Unsurpassed Blade Sect from my mother, so I know that not many are like you." Alex shook his head and let out a long sigh. "Pfft." Aria laughed before teasing him. "Nyx, I love you. I can warm your bed and give birth to a bunch of children." "I will triple your training in the sect after this. Don''t expect you can rest before you collapse." Alex glanced at her with a serious expression. "¡­" Aria''s body shook as she became tense. As for Nella, he replied with action. He took off his mask, showing a portion of his burn mark on his face. "!!!" Chapter 942 - New Plan "!!!" She drew a gasp when Alex let her see his burn mark. Aria obviously never knew about it because she never saw it, and her Sword Eye had yet to be trained, so he couldn''t see Alex''s real appearance. However, it was obvious that seeing Alex''s face was quite a shock to Nella, so she realized that Alex might have experienced something more painful than her blindness. Nella realized what she had just done and immediately apologized. "I am sorry." "It''s fine, you don''t really need to mind about it. I just want to show you that the joke isn''t really that great to me, so if you can, please help me to stop with that kind of joke." Alex gently smiled and put his mask on. "I am sorry. It might not be much coming from me, but I don''t think it''s much important. If you find someone that truly loves you, they won''t care something like that burn mark." Nella tried to comfort him, feeling bad with the fact that her joke forced him to reveal that appearance. It must be so hard and traumatic for him. Alex nodded. "Thank you." "Either way, your skill is still a real deal. My mother said that Miss Aria''s skill could be compared to you, albeit on a smaller scale. Is that true?" She asked. "In a sense, yes." "I see. Despite having high cultivation like this, my fighting power isn''t that great. I can''t really fight against a 2-Star Martial Monarch." She looked down. People often told her how she was a genius to reach 1-Star Martial Monarch in fifty years, but everyone only recognized her cultivation speed, not her battle prowess. When she asked about it, they quickly changed the topic with a weird expression. Of course, she knew how hard it was to fight someone above your level, but Alex and Aria made it look easy. Alex rendered Andre, a 6-Star Martial Saint, useless with his power alone, while Aria cut his hand in the most unexpected time, allowing a 2-Star Martial Saint like her to strike him. "There is nothing wrong with it. Prowess isn''t necessarily the right answer. You can pressure your enemy with your cultivation alone, and there are many ways to take advantage of your high cultivation in your peers." Alex shook his head. "Thank you." Nella nodded before taking out a paper and rolling it out on the table. "This is the map of the region. My destination is this Mount Moja, specifically at its peak. The inheritance can only be opened by me, and I am the only one who can enter also. "The problem will be the bandit. Our first assumption is there will be a peak Martial Saint during the attack, so we have Millman to act as a guard force. It''s enough just to have me enter there, and we will win because the place can''t be opened anymore, and the inheritance is with me. Unless they can destroy my family, there is nothing they can do. "Your mission is to protect me during the journey. Even if the opponents have an overwhelming number, you need to bring them there." Alex touched his chin while thinking. "By the way, I want to ask. Why do you not use a Teleportation Array? It''s easy to teleport there." "I don''t deny that it''s easy, but the enemies will probably have an ambush there. That''s why the first wave will be around a hundred people with powerful opponents to weaken our force before annihilating our main force in the inheritance place. "If the opponent is only a single family, our family obviously won''t lose. But our current enemies are a joint of three families. That''s why it takes all of our resources just to stop these three from directly interfering. "And if we teleport there, I am sure they have placed traps, so this is the only course of action that we can take." She sighed. Alex thought for a moment and said, "I see. If we can''t destroy the first wave, there is a possibility that they will join the other group and ambush us there. But if we can annihilate this first group while conserving our force, there is a high possibility of winning." Nella looked at him with a shocked face, never expecting Alex to see through the essence of their first plan in a single glance. "We can probably make a detour, but if they know about it, the first group will stop waiting for us and return to their original camp. This way, there is no chance of you getting through them." "Ye-yes. You are very smart." Nella praised him honestly. "I don''t know why but you look like a perfect person to marry for. I mean, you are strong and smart. And I have never heard about your reputation, so I believe you are not from a wealthy or prominent family. This way, if you are getting married, you will take the other party''s surname. I don''t mean anything, but many are marrying their daughters to a fat middle-aged man or an ugly bastard or a playboy to make a relationship among two families, but you are different from them." Alex sighed and chose to ignore her blabbering. "Anyway, I have understood the earlier plan. Even though there will be a change of plan, I am sure it won''t be that big." "I am not sure myself. Mother sometimes used an underhanded tactic to the point some people, including my father, were angry about it. Well, no one pursued the matter to her because her tactic would always be effective, so no one was shameless enough to rebuke the tactic." "I see. Preparing for an unknown for tomorrow." Alex nodded before looking at Aria. "What do you think?" "This is not my forte, so I can''t really say much other than changing the path and ambush them since they are chasing us," Aria commented. "Well, I have another plan, but in the end, I am nothing but an outsider, and my task is to bring you to safety." Alex shook his head. Nella wanted to say something but stopped. "For now, you can rest for today while my mother is handling another matter. If you¡ªNever mind. Please enjoy your stay and don''t wander around for now to avoid you from being spotted." Alex nodded. "Thank you for the information." "You''re welcome." Nella walked toward the door but halted her footsteps right after opening the door. She then turned around and bowed her head. "Please take care of me during the mission." Without waiting for the answer, she ran off. Since there was nothing to do, Alex and Aria decided to spend the rest of the day cultivating since that would be the fastest way to waste time. However, Nella returned as soon as night came. "Knock Knock Knock." Alex opened the door and asked. "What is it?" "My mother wants you to join us in the previous room to discuss the plan." "Alright. I will call Aria first." Alex nodded and went to Aria''s room without a care as if something like this didn''t even matter. In any case, it looked like a man walking to the girl''s room, but how he acted certainly raised an absurd idea in her mind. When he came with Aria, they found her face red. "Is there any problem?" "No-no." She repeatedly shook her head and turned around, walking toward the room as if running away from the embarrassment. "Naughty child." Since she teased him earlier, Alex couldn''t help but comment. "Ugh." Nella looked down and walked even faster. It seemed she was a girl who often "attacked" someone, but she would cower and couldn''t do anything when the opponent struck first. When they entered the room, there was only Alcea and Millman this time. It seemed she didn''t choose any replacement for Andre. "You have come." She nodded. "Firstly, I want to thank you for catching a traitor earlier. Your observation skill is indeed powerful, and you look like you know something about medicine. Anyway, let me move on first because we lack time right now. I will give my thanks after this mission." Alex and Aria nodded while walking to the table, where they found a few pieces on the map as if they had gotten a new plan. "They are going to ambush us in this area." She pointed out an area within the only forest they would need to cross before reaching their destination. "There are one hundred bandits waiting for you there. Their leader, the 5-Star Martial Saint, will appear too, but more importantly, a 9-Star Martial Saint will appear. As you might already know, the bandits are under a certain family. Even though they claim they know nothing about it, the information network of a big family like us can''t be underestimated. "My point is, we are going to strike and annihilate them here. Because they are trying to use the poison to eliminate the biggest threat in this operation, we can be assured that they will be taken aback when they realize Millman has no more poison in his body. "That''s where we are going to strike them. Unlike the normal plan, we are going to bring more carriage than we are supposed to and hide people inside them using a Concealment Array. With this, we can send around another fifty people or so. "Unfortunately, if there is a single God Rank Expert inside the carriage, the enemy will know because that''s how big the power contained in Divine Body. "Anyway, the plan is to annihilate the first one hundred with a hundred fifty people. After that, we will break through their ranks and have Nella go to the inheritance palace. Any questions?" She asked. Alex looked at the map and furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a bit unsatisfied with the current plan. "Do you have anything to add, Young Nyx?" Alcea felt Alex was a bit special after the show she had just seen early in the morning. "No, no. The plan is good, but I feel there is a better plan. Of course, this costs a bit more money, but I don''t think the Luzear Family will mind, right?" "Ho?! I am listening." "Teleportation Array." "¡­" She didn''t understand his plan immediately, but when she thought more and more about it, she was shocked how the plan would impact their overall situation. "You little devil." "Is that a praise?" "It is. Or should I throw my daughter as a prize?" "Wha?!" Nella looked at her mother with a weird face, but more importantly, she had yet to get recovered from Alex''s teasing earlier. And she didn''t forget how she teased her with something like this in the morning. "I am just saying, I don''t mind if it''s true though." She had the same opinion as Nella after realizing Alex''s plan. Aria was laughing inside, seeing how popular Alex was. In fact, she started thinking that the reason why Alex wanted her to be in the spotlight was to avoid anyone trying to match their daughter or granddaughter with him. "You are strong and smart. Although your plan will cost money, we are known as a merchant family, and Nella is good at managing money. Isn''t that perfect?" She shrugged. "Pfft!" Aria couldn''t contain her laugh anymore. She also knew the reason why they shared a house when the others weren''t. Illevis wanted to use her to bind Alex that seemed to have no loyalty to the sect. Alex twitched his eyebrows before sighing. "I hope that madam can go back to our main topic." "Come on. You are no fun. I mean, the plan has been finalized with that one word of yours, you know." "In that case, may I return to the room to rest for the battle tomorrow?" "Oh! Nella, take a bath right now. I will bring you special clothes for tonight!" Alex was speechless. "This is the first time that there is a mother like you. Usually, there are too many old sly foxes around me." "People know me as a witch." She smirked. "Can I change my mind and reject this mission?" Chapter 943 - Eves New Form After that, they continued discussing it for an hour, and Alcea was working on the detailed parts. Alex and Aria decided to stand right in front of the wall and stopped participating in the discussion. After all, they had shown what they could do today. If they showed more, it would be too troublesome when they returned to the sect. While watching them, Aria asked Alex with a thought transmission. ''Nyx. I can''t understand one thing. Can I ask you?'' ''Sure.'' ''Why are you carrying a spear? If I am not wrong, that spear is a Divine Weapon, right?'' She was perplexed by this because it wasn''t normal to bring a few types of weapons with them, especially if they didn''t use them. Hearing this question, Alex realized she was talking about the spear he used to stop Andre from biting the poison bag to kill himself. He then explained. ''It''s not a big deal for me. Even though I handle my sword very well, it doesn''t mean my knowledge is limited only to a sword.'' ''Hmm?'' She tilted her head in confusion. ''Then do you have a Spear Intent as well?"'' ''You are missing my point. What I want to explain to you is that you shouldn''t focus on one thing. Learn your enemies, and you shall win. If I know the range of the spear, the power of a Divine Spear, and other things, I can understand how much power I should use to deflect, block, or clash with the spear. ''The same applies to other weapons. I can show you that I bring Divine Bow, Mace, and any other things. I use them to learn everything I need to know, including how to defeat them. ''For an example. I used my spear to stop that Andre, right? It was simply because I knew that the spear had a perfect length to do since if I insert a sword inside his mouth, he will kill himself with my own sword.'' ''Ah?!'' She was shocked. This was the first time someone had explained this to her. All she knew from childhood was that she didn''t need to learn anything other than the sword because it would waste her time and a person who could succeed in cultivating two weapons at the same time has yet to be born according to her family. However, with Alex''s explanation that told her to know them more to defeat them, she could understand and relate to what he meant. Alex had a different thought about it, and that made him strong. If she could defeat someone with another type of weapon in the most efficient way because she understood how they worked, it would be the most amazing thing to do. She felt ashamed at this point, thinking that Alex might be able to use a spear at a high degree of proficiency. And it almost hit her heart because she thought Alex was far more monstrous than she thought. Alex, on the other hand, had prepared this explanation since the beginning. After all, he surely wanted an excuse that could be used to play dumb in case something like this happened. Of course, he didn''t tell her a single lie. He indeed studied other weapons to increase his knowledge about them. That was why he could come on top every single time. It wasn''t just because of his overwhelming power. Knowing what to expect from the opponent and how to defeat it played a big part in this matter. ''I am sorry.'' ''What for?'' Alex was baffled by the sudden apology. She shouldn''t have something to apologize for, so he was afraid if this would affect her heart in this mission. ''Nothing. I just want to say sorry for a dumb question like that. I will be working on this type of knowledge since it can be applied to fight those element users and any other types of cultivators. If I have enough understanding of them, I can beat them in an efficient way. It''s a kind of learning how the monsters will act¡­To think I didn''t know about this until now, I am ashamed.'' She looked down, blaming herself. ''You are doing just fine. This will take time after all. Even my disciple hasn''t learned this since I am planning to cram the knowledge when they reach God Rank Expert since those who have reached this stage are a kind of master of their own fighting style.'' Alex shrugged. He told the truth this time also. With the knowledge from the inheritance, he could understand most parts for other weapons. He learned this when he spent those ten years inside the Time Room. ''I see. I will put this aside for now since you said so.'' She nodded. ''Yeah. You can focus on your cultivation for now because this is the most important thing you need to do. When you reach Rank 10 God, you will realize how hard it is to advance to Rank 9 God. That''s why expertise and knowledge are more important at this point. And with the big gap between each Rank, you need at least to be at the top of your own rank. In other words, if you are a Rank 10 God, no Rank 10 God can defeat you. This is my first motive.'' ''I understand. I shall work on it. Thank you for the advice.'' Alex smiled, knowing that the problem had been resolved. After discussing this, Aria fell into deep thought, so he was the one focusing on the planning. Alex chose to not say anything after this because the major plan was already according to his most effective tactic, while the minor details were something that could be adjusted during the campaign itself. The discussion went for another hour before they finalized the plan. Alcea didn''t forget to ask Alex about the details, but Alex politely declined to say anything about the plan because it didn''t really matter. She could only accept that answer reluctantly and dismissed everyone from the room, so they could go according to the schedule tomorrow. Alex and Aria then returned to their room. Since their room was separated, Alex used this chance to finally have a full conversation for the mission with his Sword Spirit. "Eve, are you there?" Alex took out his new sword. The sword released its energy before a black ball emerged from it and turned into a figure. Unlike the previous style, her clothes had changed into a black gothic style princess, albeit her figure remained the same. "I am here, Master." "How are you doing inside the Inventory?" "That place is a separate space from this world, so at first, I am baffled with it. I have seen the space inside the Space Ring as well, so I know that the one in the Inventory is better for me. It''s more spacious and comfortable, albeit I wish Master could bring me in your waist or something, so I can see the outside world," Eve explained. "I see. Well, this world is special, so I guess I can do that. However, I don''t know whether I can carry you with me the whole time because I need to hide my identity most of the time." "I understand. It isn''t really that much different being in a cave, but it''s better than being stuck there. I just hope that Master can take me out from time to time." "I can do that." Alex nodded. "Then, I don''t mind staying in the Inventory." "For now, you don''t need to. You have a scabbard, right? I will use it and carry you along with me. However, since no one knows about the Sword Spirit, if possible, don''t show yourself without my permission." "Sure. I can still see the world that way and send a thought transmission to Master to talk from time to time." She nodded, hesitated for a second, and apologized. "Master, I want to apologize for something."Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-new-form_51885255061194652 for visiting. "What is it?" "Do you remember the fact that the original consciousness is the result of Dragon and Phoenix Energy?" "Yes." "Because I am an entirely separate entity, I don''t have that kind of energy. In other words, in your spear later, it has a concentrated Dragon and Phoenix Energy. Meanwhile, I only have killing intent and bloodl.u.s.t. If you are using that, I can enhance it even further to scare your enemies." "So, why did you even apologize to me? Was it because of the Dragon and Phoenix Energy?" She nodded. "It''s fine. I don''t really mind that. I have something I want to test, but I guess that can wait." "I came to this world two weeks ago, and all we did was adjust my current state with the new weapon and increase the synchronization between us to efficiently use my power. We haven''t really tried your Sword Techniques." "Yeah. I am wondering what kind of power you will have if I use that." "Ah, you have told me about this technique. It seems I can turn into a dragon because of this technique. And due to your elements, I can control the dragon like it''s my own body and mimic a dragon''s ability like using your Fire Element to breathe fire or something else." She nodded, explaining what she might be able to do. "I see. That''s kind of useful in a fight." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "There is one more thing, I guess." She hesitated for a second. "You should know that the energy from a Divine Weapon can be used, right?" "Yes. It''s quite big for a power reserve, allowing me to not use all of my power just to use one technique." "Actually, when I am in the Dragon State, I can use the sword''s energy or your energy to be a flying dragon. You can hop on my back and relax. Of course, since Master can use Teleportation Array, I am not really that important, but when you can''t use it, I think I am a better way for transportation since my speed is a little bit faster than you. Well, I can see the world in that state, so I don''t really mind." She smirked. "Win-win situation, eh?" Alex smiled back. "I don''t really mind. I know for the fact that there are cultivators who are using their Sword to fly, albeit not in this world. Either way, flying with my own Sword Technique doesn''t sound that bad." "Hehe. That''s great." "Anyway, this might be the first time I will use you to kill." "Yes, please use me to your heart content. With this new body, I doubt there is something that can shatter me. In fact, I can destroy a Rank 8 Weapon in one or two strikes with the help of your power." "That''s something I love to hear, albeit it''s better to not show your power this early. After all, it will incite the greed of many people. I don''t want to get into trouble." "Yes, sir!" "By the way, how are the two consciousness?" "They have been nurtured according to my way. From what I can see, they are already a strong consciousness, considering they are coming from a Martial Saint expert. If I am not wrong, you can use the spear in six months of this world''s time, and the Sword Spirit will be formed in one year. Although they will have a figure like mine, they still have little control of their strength, so it''s better if you are a bit patient to handle them." "The time is not too bad. I will be staying in this world for another one year and four months, so I guess I will have a perfect pair of weapons for me." "Yes, I can assure you they will be ready by then. I will also help them after Mistress Lin Xingzhi sent the spear here." "Thank you." Alex nodded. "It''s fine. I am doing it because I like it." She smirked. "After all, these two are like my son and daughter¡­Or should I say they are brother and sister? Either way, they are twins." "Considering your age that is far above me, I guess you can become their parents, but in terms of figure, it''s more to a brother and sister." "I shall be their elder sister then." "Good." Chapter 944 - Little Witch The next day, they proceeded with the entire mission as if they never knew anything about the traitor. Of course, due to Andre being absent, one person became his body double and acted like him. Only the five people knew he was a fake. Alex looked at the carriage that seemed to be pulled by a Rank 10 God Beast. This was far more than what the Cypress Family had. Aria stared at this in amazement, swearing in her heart to provide a carriage like this for her family in the future. Meanwhile, Alex had an image change by carrying a sword in his waist. Aria didn''t really mind much because she couldn''t see this image change, so the impact was rather low on her. While there were no others who were as close as Aria, so they wouldn''t realize this small change. To suit the sword, Song Tao personally made a scabbard. It had a few red and pink gems that could supply the energy to the sword, allowing the Sword Energy to recover faster. Meanwhile, the base color was black with a golden colored edge, making it look a bit fancier. When Nella saw him, she considered him as a masked hero that protected her in this mission. After all, Alex looked s.e.xy and handsome if she ignored the burn mark, and his gentleness improved his image even further. She wore a white shirt and short pants for this, so her movement didn''t get hindered. "How are you doing today?" She greeted them with a warm smile. "We are good, thanks for asking." Alex nodded. "Our carriage is in the middle." Alex nodded. There were a total of eleven carriages lining up for this expedition as they were supposed to be the "resources" to appease the ancestors. And they looked like a giant box filled with food, wines, and jewelry, so no one thought much about it. With Nella leading them, they arrived in front of the carriage and looked at Alcea, who was waiting for them next to the carriage. "Everything is ready, and there is no change of plan. I will be leaving my Nella in your hand." She smiled. "We will protect her to the best of our abilities." Alex nodded. "Your mission is to escort her for about three days, wait for her to finish the inheritance in another five days and escort her back. Are we clear at this point?" "Yes. Will there be any reinforcement from the enemies?" "Nope. I won''t let them make any move. And the bandit is the only influence outside they can use without destroying the public opinion. If they dare to use their own influence, I will make sure they will be the most hated influence in this world." She smirked evilly. "Ahaha¡­" "Anyway, I will reward you after everything is over. Will that be fine?" "Yes." Alex nodded. There were two reasons she wanted to reward them when they finished. First, the mission carried a huge risk, so if they gave it to them now, the bandits might kill and take their belongings. This way, they unnecessarily strengthened their opponents. The second reason was to see their performances and give them a bonus. This would surely allow them to create a good image for talented people like Alex and Aria. "I wish you three good luck." She then looked at Nella. "Take care." "Yes, Mother. Wait for me to bring good news for you and Father. Tell him that the news I will bring will definitely shock him to the point he can''t work and just think about it." "Fufu, sure." After that, Nella entered the carriage and waved her hands, asking Alex and Aria to enter the carriage. Alex and Aria clasped their hands first, showing their respect to Alcea before coming inside. The interior didn''t look that much different than what Aria had, but he knew the speed was probably the main difference. "Then, Mother. Off we go." She waved her hands as Alcea gave the sign to set off and watched how her daughter disappeared from her vision. At the same time, she didn''t forget to pay attention to the guards for a moment to check if there was something missing, but luckily, she found nothing and returned to the mansion. During the first day, Nella asked many things about the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Unfortunately for her, Alex and Aria didn''t have extensive knowledge about the sect itself as they just joined in less than a year. This made Nella even more impressed. This mission should be important, and these two managed to grab the favor to do this mission. It meant the elders or even the peak master looked at them as a very talented individual. She also asked about what they had done and their lodgings. Nella became even more surprised when she learned that Alex and Aria stayed under one roof. Of course, they hid the fact that Aria was training under Alex at the moment. Last but not least was the test, they told her their experience regarding this because the tests would be different every time. This piqued Nella''s interest in joining the sect even more. She understood that if she was talented enough, there was a chance for her to do anything she wanted. A long day finally passed, and the carriage didn''t rest for the night because the beast had no need to rest like a normal horse. They were strong enough to carry them for a whole month without a rest, so the journey took less time. When the second day arrived, Alex''s face turned serious since they entered the Gola Forest. This was supposed to be where the enemies attacked them. Alex opened the window and looked outside with his Spirit Eyes while Nella searched for the enemies in the opposite direction. Of course, his new sword was near the window, and Eve must be enjoying the view since she kept talking to him about the trees, houses, road, and so on. Their conversation lasted for another two hours before the carriage suddenly stopped. "Here they come," said Alex while looking at one hundred people running down the mountain to crush the entire group. "How many are they?" Aria asked. "There are seventy people above the mountain while the other thirty are trashing our frontline. To make it more believable, Nella went outside and stood above her carriage. Alex and Aria followed her to block any incoming attack while she shouted. "What is this? Who are you? State your name and affiliation! Do you realize that you are attacking the Luzear Family?" "What are we doing here?" Suddenly, a middle-aged man''s voice resounded in everyone''s ears as a 9-Star Martial Saint made his appearance in the air. "Of course, I know that we are attacking the Luzear Family. Little Princess, please come here, and I will kill you painlessly. We need your blood." Alex looked at this man and remembered what Nella told them yesterday. The blood of the main lineage of the Luzear Family had a special effect. And those who came to an age, which was when they entered Martial Monarch, their blood could trigger the inheritance place. It was only effective for a single year. That was why there wouldn''t be this tense situation other than this time. Of course, the inheritance should be worth the hassle. According to the information from Melvie, their family''s ancestor was the rival of the Peerless Sword God, a Rank 2 God. His spear shook the whole world like the Sword God. Unfortunately, the clan declined because of this inheritance. They simply put too many resources every time just for inheritance. Whether what they got was something good or not, it would depend on their talent, and most of them failed during their training to pursue the greatest spear in this world. Nella was one of the challengers and could be considered as one of the highest talents after generations, so they put their hope on her and used the resources needed for this. That was why Alcea didn''t even mind when Alex suggested the use of Teleportation Array. The enemies understood this well and didn''t want her to succeed since she would be a threat to their influences in the future. The middle-aged man glared at Nella and raised his hand. "I will give you ten seconds. Choose. Surrender or you will die a horrible death! There is no time limit for this, so I guess my one hundred brothers here can play with you first before collecting your blood. Hahaha!" "You bastard!" Nella gritted her teeth and released a firework to the sky as a distress signal. "Don''t be. We have gotten the information that you won''t have any reinforcement within a few hours. Do you think your one hundred men are capable of withstanding our attacks?" The middle-aged man suddenly released his Spiritual Energy, showing his cultivation. At the same time, a few others showed them as well. "What?! They have three 7-Star Martial Saints, three 6-Star, and the original leader of the bandits, a 5-Star Martial Saint?" One of the guards exclaimed in surprise. "Hahaha! We have prepared more than you, Young Lady. Even if you can flee from us, you will only be surrounded by a bigger group than this. Let me kill you painlessly if you don''t want to be humiliated before you die." The middle-aged man laughed evilly. "Millman!" "Yes, Milady." Millman appeared next to her and bowed with respect. "Leave no one alive!" She released her killing intent. "Men. You hear the order! Become a beast and kill those bastards! We have the same number. Let''s show them the power of the Luzear Family!" Millman rallied the war cry. "O-Oh!" The men immediately energized again. "Unfortunately, you only have one hundred people. And only one 9-Star Martial Saint and two 7-Star Martial Saints. The rest are below 5-Star. Well, since you have chosen your own path, I won''t let you die that easily." He smirked while licking his lips. "Unprepared? Who?" Nella tilted her head in confusion. "Oh, you mean I didn''t prepare for something like this?" "Hmph. You are arrogant. Since that is the case, I will enjoy my time in breaking you!" "Is that so? Let''s see if you can." She smiled and snapped her finger. This one snap turned the situation around as the boxes on top of the carriages exploded, revealing an additional fifty people. At the same time, this one had one 7-Star and two 6-Star Martial Saints with them. "Wha¡ª" This shocked both enemies and allies because they never heard of this. They only knew that this box was supposed to be filled with things to appease their ancestor. And everyone had been fooled by the fact that they could use Space Ring to transport this just with Alcea announcing it was a part of the tradition. Before they were recovered, another group of people appeared behind them, having a higher ground. They soon spread out as they planned to pincer them from two sides. "There are another one hundred people behind us. They have one 8-Star and two 7-Star Martial Saints in their rank." The bandit informed out loud, face turned pale. The 9-Star Martial Saint obviously couldn''t understand this and immediately took out a stone from his Space Ring. "I still have this. I will kill that Millman first since he is poisoned! Die" As he shouted, he crushed the stone with his two fingers. The energy from the stone should react with the poison and trigger a series of reactions inside his body, but Millman just stood there without having any change of expression. "What?! Why didn''t he get affected by this stone''s energy? Did that bastard fail to poison him? Where is that bastard?" He looked around and couldn''t find Andre. It was at this time he realized that their plan had been disclosed, and his face turned pale. "My mother is known as a witch. Then, I, as her daughter, will take up the same name. And there is one thing that makes a witch fearful in the town. It''s because we are known as a tactician that is far scarier than those old foxes who schemed against each other." She smirked¡ªeyes filled bloodl.u.s.t¡ªand ordered. "Kill them!" Chapter 945 - Arias Strength "Kill them!" "Ooh!" The morale of the people from the Luzear Family rose to the sky. Even though they didn''t know what just happened, they realized that everything was according to Nella''s plan. The reinforcement was coming from behind or the extra people hiding inside the boxes. In fact, those people had been staying there since last night, waiting for them to be carried along with them. As for the reinforcement, Alcea was the only one who knew them, in fact, only the leader. He asked the leader to assemble one hundred men without her knowing who they were, making this something like a different operation. This way, even if there were another spy, they wouldn''t be fast enough to react. He used the Teleportation Array Plate to teleport them inside here, waiting a little bit far from them so as not to alarm the enemy. As soon as he saw the distress signal, he immediately headed over there with one hundred people. Ultimately, the battle escalated to such a height. This wasn''t one hundred versus one hundred people anymore. Nella had two and a half sizes of the original number. And with this kind of rallying cry, the explosive morale wasn''t something that could be underestimated. After all, the people got one thing absolute. It was the assurance of Nella that everything was under her control this time. The moment she ordered out loud, they shouted and leaped toward the enemies. Millman took out his sword and headed toward the 9-Star Martial Saint. "This is what you get from underestimating our family. Since you want my lady to die in a brutal way, don''t expect me to give you a peaceful way."Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-strength_51904917153051431 for visiting. "You Bastard!" He gritted his teeth, looking at Alex and Aria, who were supposed to take care of Nella. Noticing they were only 2-Star and 4-Star Martial Saints. He ordered the original leader of the bandit group. "Ballac, she only has two guards. As long as you capture her, we can win this. I will stop them here." "Understood." A bald, middle-aged man with a tattoo on his head flew past the encirclement. There were two disciples stopping him, but he managed to slip past them, heading straight toward Nella. "Millman!" The leader of the hidden reinforcement shouted as he worried about Nella''s well-being. Millman only looked at Ballac for a second and shook his head. "Let him be. If he manages to capture the young lady, I will kill myself immediately." "?!" The leader and his enemy obviously didn''t understand his reasoning, but seeing how he was so confident in the strength of the two youngsters, he hesitated for a second, ready to jump back if things went south. Little did he know that Millman had this confidence because he found these two overpowering Andre, a 6-Star Martial Saint, so effortlessly. Ballac wouldn''t have a chance to catch Nella when they were protecting her. Nella looked at Alex, who seemed to be waiting for Ballac to come in and retreat a few steps back to not be his burden. Alex, on the other hand, focused his Spirit Eyes on this Ballac to calculate his ability before saying. "Aria, cut him down for me." Aria was shocked for a moment before smiling. This would be the perfect chance for her to impress Alex since it was almost unheard of for a 2-Star Martial Saint winning against a 5-Star Martial Saint. She pulled out her sword and released her lightning, not wanting to underestimate her opponents. When her lightning sparked, she suddenly moved as fast as lightning, flying straight toward Ballac. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." She appeared right in front of Ballac while swinging her sword. "Fourth Dance, Lightning Draw." Ballac widened his eyes in surprise because he never saw a 2-Star Martial Saint had this kind of speed before. This was already beyond his wildest dream. He gritted his teeth and placed his scimitar right in front of him, trying to block this. But to his surprise, the strike blew him away, stopping his momentum. Even her allies like Nella or Millman were quite surprised to see this. They expected Alex to make a move instead of her, but it looked like Aria was enough to handle Ballac. Ballac gritted his teeth and charged at her again, knowing that he should put this little girl in her position first before going to Nella. "Die." He slashed his scimitar downward, sending a Sword Wave toward her. If Aria dodged this, she would endanger Alex and Nella, so she had no choice. Aria took a deep breath and shifted her sword to the side. Her sword suddenly moved up and down, followed by the forward movement when she jumped right to the Sword Wave. The up and down movement became more intense and struck the Sword Wave. To everyone''s surprise, the Sword Wave cracked before it was shattered by Aria. "First Dance, Z Slash." She smiled and continued her swing toward the sender, Ballac. "What? That sword¡ª" Ballac gritted his teeth, finally realizing why she could overpower him this whole time. And when he stopped the sword once again, he was blown away a few meters. He stabilized his body and glared at Aria. "That sword is a Low Rank Divine Weapon. Who are you? There is no way a disciple like you will be provided a Divine Weapon from that Luzear Family." "!!!" When his voice resounded in everyone''s ears, they halted for a split second just to look at Aria and Alex. If the weapon Aria had was a Divine Weapon, the bandits might have no way to defeat them. However, they were already surrounded by too many disciples of the Luzear Family, there was no way to escape without sacrificing anything unless Ballac managed to grab Nella. "Ballac. Just focus on getting that Nella Luzear. As long as we can grab her, they will cease their attack. We can even get their weapons as a ransom." The 9-Star Martial Saint shouted. Hearing this, Ballac smiled, looking at this blind girl. He realized how to handle her. He raised his sword once again before releasing another Sword Wave. However, he didn''t aim at her this time. Instead, it was going toward Nella and Alex. If she were the only one who was stronger than the 4-Star guy, she would follow that Sword Wave just to block it. And he was right. Even though the reason was different, she indeed felt and headed toward the Sword Wave, trying to stop it from reaching Alex and Nella. It wasn''t because she was stronger than Alex. Instead, Alex had left this matter to her hand, so it wouldn''t be good if he were involved in fighting the 5-Star Martial Saint. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." She appeared right before the Sword Wave, but Ballac had predicted this as he already arrived right next to her before she even struck the Sword Wave. "Die, woman." "¡­" Alex found that Aria didn''t have any experience in this situation and knew that Ballac would surely hit her. Deciding to help this once, he channeled his energy to his right foot before stepping his right foot forward. "Spirit Step, Second Step." The energy turned into an overbearing pressure that tried to crush Ballac to the point he needed to hold out with his speed alone. This lowered the speed quite a bit, allowing Aria to block the attack before getting blown away. "Tch. Since you are joining this fight too, I will kill you first." Ballac glared at Alex. He was situated between Alex and Aria while Nella was behind Alex, so this might be the best chance to go for Nella instead of Aria. Thus, Ballac released all his Spiritual Energy, preparing to pass Alex with his speed. However, Alex simply said, "Aria, don''t play around anymore. Give me your best strike." "¡­" Aria fell silent for a second before deciding what to do. "Playing around? Hmph! You are just bluffing. After turning the situation around, I will play around with that woman before killing her!" Ballac shouted. "No, you are the one going down." Aria took a deep breath as she poured a huge amount of Spiritual Energy into her Sword. "This is the end of you." "Hmph! Try me." He snorted before jumping straight toward Nella instead of her. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." Aria used her Lightning Step again to appear a bit farther on his left, trying to cut him down. "There you are!" He smirked and slashed his Sword, releasing another Sword Wave toward her. This type of attack would bound to hit her due to its speed, but what Aria wanted to use was something different than the one she had used previously. "I don''t have the requirement to unleash its full potential, but this one is enough to kill you." The Spiritual Energy sparked, and Aria drew her sword at speed faster than any of her usual drawing speed, creating a powerful shock wave just from the sheer speed. "Purgatory Sword." She unleashed the Sword Strike she had been charging for. The Sword Energy struck the Sword Wave, destroying it in a split second before making its way toward Ballac. "What is this?" He obviously never saw someone in Martial Saint use a Divine Technique, let alone Sword God''s Original Divine Technique. Aria was supposed to not be able to do this if not because of Alex''s advice. He had been telling her to downgrade the original technique first to comprehend it from part to part. Although the power wasn''t comparable to its fullest potential, its strength was still far above any other Peak Heaven Tier Techniques. Ballac gritted his teeth and tried to stop this Sword Strike with his strength, albeit he soon realized the indescribable force behind this Purgatory Sword. "No!" He wanted to escape from this attack, albeit it was too late. The only way he could do it was to use his off-hand to use the Sword to buy a split second to move his body to the side. Unfortunately, the power behind the Purgatory Sword was so great that it cut his off-hand in the end. "Argh!" He screamed in pain before assessing the situation. Aria was panting and sweating after using that technique. It seemed to have taken a toll on her body. It was at this time the 9-Star leader shouted. "Ballac! What are you doing?! I want you to grab that Nella for me, not handling that woman. You need to do it quickly because we can''t hold it anymore." Listening and hesitating for two seconds, Ballac roared and swallowed a few pills. Suddenly, his aura spiked even further as he officially became a 7-Star, almost reaching 8-Star. "Argh! You are forcing me to do this." Alex could see that his life force was drained by the pill. In other words, when the pill effect ended, he would die. Aria narrowed her eyes, feeling the incoming danger. She instinctively returned right next to Alex and Nella before leaping toward Ballac, so he wouldn''t be able to attack them without passing her. Alex raised his sword without pulling her out of the scabbard while whispering. "Time to fight, Eve." "Aye, sir." When she arrived in front of Ballac, she swung her sword, trying to stop Ballac on his track, even though she could feel his 8-Star Martial Saint''s strength. "Second Dance. Flash Strike." "Move out the way, woman!" Ballac slashed his sword, striking not Aria, but her sword. This way, the blow that she felt on her hands was tremendous, forcing her to shift her body over. Unfortunately, Ballac''s strength wasn''t like before. He pushed her to the ground with that strength. "Gah!" She endured the pain that soon went away due to Ballac ignoring her and heading straight to Nella as if he had not a long time to live. "Die!" He shouted as their distance only remained ten meters away. Alex suddenly appeared between them with his hand on the handle, ready to draw her. "Don''t get in my way!" Ballac roared while swinging his scimitar, planning to strike Alex like how he handled Aria. Looking at this, Alex released his killing intent and smiled. Chapter 946 - A Potential Betrayal? "Die!" The bandit waved his sword at Kai, trying to pin him to the ground before grabbing Nella. Seeing the strength of the bandit, who seemed to be far more powerful than Andre, she stepped back subconsciously, afraid of getting caught. "No, I won''t let you!" The leader of the reinforcement shouted and tried to fly toward him, knowing it would be the end of them. He just hoped that Alex could protect Nella with his body so he could grasp her and protect her. Unfortunately, one person attacked him, keeping him on this battlefield. "No, you won''t go anywhere." "You bastard! Millman. You need to save Young Lady!" He shouted. Millman glanced at Alex''s expression before noticing how calm it was. With that kind of expression, he looked like someone who thought Ballac''s power was insignificant. Since he was the only one who had witnessed his power, he remained calm and stayed put for a few seconds just to see how it was going to resolve. "Millman!" On the other hand, the leader started panicking. It wasn''t weird to see him acting that way. After all, he never saw Alex''s real power, even Millman only saw a portion of his power, and it was enough to defeat a 6-Star Martial Saint effortlessly. Since Ballac was his opponent, he might need to be a little bit serious, but that was all. Thus, he tried to believe in Alex and waited for this one strike to see whether he needed to break through and help Nella. It was at this moment Alex broke all sorts of threats by just swinging his sword. The sword then split into three as if Alex was using three swords at the same time. "Triple Draws." Alex believed in Eve''s power along with this new Divine Weapon, so if she said two attacks would be enough to destroy a Rank 8 Weapon, then it would probably be enough. When the raging bandit passed him, he suddenly stopped. His head suddenly flew to the air while his scimitar snapped into two. ''That''s too easy, Master.'' Alex ignored Eve''s thought transmission and sheathed his sword again. With how relaxed he was, the whole battlefield turned silent as if they just witnessed something beyond their imagination. "Impossible." Nella behind him exclaimed in surprise. Although she was just a 1-Star Martial Monarch, she knew how powerful a 4-Star Martial Saint was. The bandit might have been injured by Aria, but it was still not the excuse to die with just that exchange alone. Millman and the others looked at Alex in disbelief. "That attack¡­The first strike was to hit the spot where the blade and the handle are connected to stop the momentum of the scimitar. The second strike hit the same area, snapping the blade. And the last strike killed Ballac himself. This guy¡­real?" The leader of the reinforcement exclaimed in surprise as he couldn''t believe what he just saw. However, the person in question only looked at Millman in the sky and pointed his finger toward him. "Ah!" Millman instantly realized and shouted. "Kill them all. There is no more threat to our Young Lady." "Ooh!" Meanwhile, Aria had recovered and walked toward Alex, looking down. "I am sorry, I messed up." "Nope. You did a good job. The last one was just something beyond your means." Alex shook his head before adding his own harsh opinion. "Still, have you forgotten our job?" "Eh?!" Aria furrowed her eyebrows before realizing what he meant by those words. Their mission was to protect Nella, but her action was completely the exact opposite of that. Although there was Alex standing in front of Nella, it was still just an excuse to think about it like that. In fact, Alex kept adjusting his position, so Ballac kept in a straight line to make sure he needed to defeat him first before being able to grasp Nella. As for her? She only thought about impressing Alex. Although she had moved every here and then, it was just for the major points. She needed to keep her position better, so Ballac didn''t have the chance to aim like that again. "I am sorry." "As long as you understand. A different mission has a different approach, so you need to be careful." "Yes. I will do my best not to repeat it again." She nodded. "That''s good. Go back to the carriage and recover your energy, I will take over the job here." Alex smiled. "I understand." Aria thought for a moment before looking at Nella. "Do you want to join me inside the carriage?" She realized that this was another test from Alex. If she were going back, it would be better to go with Nella. It meant they would have two layers of protection, one on the outside while the other one on the inside. Alex turned around and smiled at Nella. "How about returning to your carriage first? This battle will be concluded within twenty minutes." Although reluctantly, she followed his advice and came inside the carriage. Alex kept observing the situation with his Spirit Eyes, ensuring that everything was going according to the plan. After the war had been settled, he opened the carriage again and called Nella. "We are done here. It''s better to open the window, so you can discuss it with your subordinates." Millman came to her and talked to her from the outside. "Young Lady, there are around thirty people who can''t participate in the next battle. But considering we only need to handle two hundred people, I believe we can do it with this number. So, we are going to open up the path for you first, so you don''t need to rush toward the inheritance place." "Good work. Since you have used too much Spiritual Energy, rest first here for half a day before continuing the journey. I will be waiting in this carriage." "I understand." Millman nodded solemnly before staring at Alex for a few seconds and going back without saying anything. Nella could understand why he did that, so she turned around, facing Alex. "You are strong. To think you can defeat someone far stronger than Andre that effortlessly." "It''s nothing. That bandit leader had been injured by Aria. Even though his strength had risen to a ridiculous degree, he had lost a certain degree of his intelligence. That''s why I can kill him in a single move." Alex shook his head, replying humbly. "Even so, it''s still useless unless you have a powerful strength. From what I can see, that weapon of yours is a high-level Divine Weapon, right?" Alex stayed silent for a moment before he decided to lie. "Yes. This one barely reaches high-level Divine Weapon. It should be a mid-level Divine Weapon if not due to its overbearing sharpness." "Still, I need to thank you for earlier. I might not know what technique you used earlier, but it was protecting me. After all, the reason you struck the blade twice was to stop his swing, so it wouldn''t go forward no matter what that had the possibility of injuring me before using the last one to claim his life." Alex was slightly astonished by her observation. It wasn''t the exact same, but it certainly was his rough objective for each swing. The only thing she didn''t know was the fact that his weapon could snap that sword in two strikes, thus the reason for the first two strikes. Aria furrowed her eyebrows and sighed. She realized she did a poor job in the mission as she was too focused on Alex''s instruction. While recovering her Spiritual Energy, she decided to reflect upon her mistakes, so she could become stronger and wiser in the next battle. Alex only smiled when he realized that both Aria and Nella were not arrogant. They realized their mistakes and did what they needed to do. Unbeknownst to him, the show that he presented to Nella unintentionally today stuck in her memory, influencing her even further to go to Unsurpassed Blade Sect. "If I am not wrong, there are around sixteen peaks inside the Unsurpassed Blade Sect, right? What is your peak?" Nella asked. "Are you staying in the same peak as Aunt Melvie, in the Sword Blossom Peak?" "Yeah." Aria nodded. "It''s not like the relationship between each peak is good, so yeah, you need to be on the same peak to get a special mission like this." "I see. I thought you knew Aunt Melvie before joining the sect." Nella nodded. The answer was already obvious, but she just simply wanted to confirm whether there was something special about them. It turned out that the only relationship between them was based on talent. "We are not. We are just lucky to receive her favor." Aria shook her head. Nella fell silent, not buying it. She thought for a moment and changed the topic. "Anyway, it''s better to discuss tomorrow''s plan. What do you think about our current condition?" Alex paused for a moment and tugged Aria''s hand to see what she had in mind. Aria was surprised at first and explained. "From our condition, we have around two hundred twenty people to fight against two hundred people. Assuming everything is safe, we should be able to win this whole situation by a large margin. "I will probably make you stay in a far place while the battle takes place. When everything is resolved, I will bring you there." "Assuming everything is safe?" Nella furrowed her eyebrows. "What are the problems?" "I only have one. Betrayal." Aria pointed out the only problem she feared. The event that took place in the past really affected her heart. "Hmm." Nella''s face turned serious, remembering the words that her mother told her last night. ''My mother said to check whether there is a betrayal or not, especially with how many additional people we have added." "It''s possible." Alex nodded in agreement. "The only pieces that can be trusted, according to my mother, are the ones she handpicked since Andre already told her there was no more spy in the rank. As for the fifty people inside the boxes, they are the special guards of our family. As for the special reinforcement, my mother only told her trusted subordinate to form a group of a hundred. Their identities are not clear, so I assume there might be a spy among their rank." Nella let out a long sigh, facing a troublesome situation. "So, we can expect a betrayal here?" Aria asked Alex. "But why didn''t they do it now¡­Ah, never mind. "They simply had not enough manpower to cause serious damage to the entire group. In that case, they must be waiting for the real big group in front of the inheritance place." "Do you have any suggestions? My mother said that I need to make a decision when that time comes." She asked Alex, who seemed to be good at planning like this. "There is nothing. No one can identify their real intention, so those who attack you are enemies." Alex shrugged. "That is the only possible plan, huh." "Yeah. Make them treat others as their enemies until they are proven otherwise." "Actually, there is one more thing. But I guess it won''t be accepted by you because we will be endangering her." Aria raised her hand. "Hmm?! Let''s hear your plan." Nella stared at Aria with a serious expression. "It''s simple. We won''t do anything right now. Since we are supposed to stay far away from the battlefield, we will approach them sneakily, so when the betrayal happens, you can make a rallying call to the rest of our own forces to fight back. Unfortunately, because I don''t know how many are actually a traitor, this will bring you a big disadvantage." Aria offered a solution. Alex could understand why she said those words earlier. She wanted to make Nella a bait and a leader at the same time to overturn the situation. It was the complete opposite of their missions, but he knew it was the one with the highest possibility of winning. Of course, without him using his real power. Alex sighed and looked at Nella, leaving the choice in her hand. Nella understood the gaze and thought about it seriously. "I¡­" Chapter 947 - Look The next day, the group went toward the inheritance place without any hitch. They arrived at the foot of the inheritance mountain in the morning, where the fog was just cleared out of the mountain, giving a majestic view of the mountain itself. Alex, Aria, and Nella came out of the carriage before looking at the mountain. Nella confirmed it was the right mountain as she felt something was calling her. "That is the mountain. You guys can go to the peak first because the door is around that area." Nella nodded before staring at Millman. "You need to stay alive and be careful." "I understand, Young Lady. I will do my best." He nodded before preparing the disciples to climb the mountain. Aria turned around, asking something from Alex with a thought transmission. ''What do you think about this?'' ''It''s not good.'' Alex sighed. ''There are three different groups consisting of seventy people each. It seems they know that we have killed all those people that first ambushed us, so they are going for a different strategy.'' ''Should I say something to Nella Luzear?'' ''I will say it.'' Alex suddenly tapped Nella''s shoulders and whispered. "Ask your subordinate to scout the area first. If possible, only those who are from the original escort group and do it secretly." Nella didn''t know why he wanted this but still believed in his words because of the strength he showed yesterday. She went toward Millman and asked him to do what Alex wanted, and the latter followed her command. Not long after, the scout went back without no one knowing, finding three different groups in the mountain that would keep making surprise after surprise when climbing the mountain. If this happened, his group wouldn''t last long, considering there was a chance of betrayal. After everything was ready, Millman led the group to climb the mountain. Out of wariness, he wanted to leave a few people for extra protection, but Nella declined it, saying that Alex and Aria were enough for her. Since he also had seen how Alex and Aria killed Ballac, he ultimately agreed, albeit reluctantly. Alex and the others looked at them, climbing before Alex''s expression turned serious. "Here we go. In five minutes, they are going to meet the first group, followed by the second group and the third group. With this kind of shock they endure, the betrayal will be more effective." Alex sighed. "Sacrifice is necessary in this case. As much as I want to reduce it, it''s not possible if we fight against many influences. Unfortunately, I don''t have the strength to overturn the situation by myself." Nella shook her head while clenching her fists. Aria knew that Alex was enough to destroy them, but he couldn''t do it to avoid blowing away his ability. Little did he know that if Nella were someone important to him, even as a subordinate, he wouldn''t mind doing something like this. If Letizia were the one in Nella''s position, Alex would destroy them. That was why it wasn''t so easy to be someone important to Alex. As for Nella, she tried hard to remain calm, knowing that there would be many people who died just for her to go to the peak of the mountain. In the midst of it, she suddenly thought something. "Nyx¡­What if we stick to the original plan?" "The original plan?" Alex was confused for a second before asking, "Do you mean you want to climb the mountain while they are fighting?" "Yes. There is a possibility of them separating a portion of their force to catch us here, so rather than waiting for them, it''s better to go around the mountain and climb from that direction. The mountain is big, but we should need only two hours before reaching the opposite direction. Well, I have one Teleportation Array Plate, so I think we can use this too. It''s a rank 8 Array Plate." "If you are going to use that, then I suppose we can. However, we need the right timing, and you might want to use it to go right toward the inheritance place, you know." "I am not good at teleportation, so I don''t have the perfect control to go there." She shook her head. Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "I think I can use it for you and send you right at the entrance, but I think the enemies will soon split their forces when they come in contact with our force." "True. They are going to send a few here while some are going to protect the gate, so I can''t come in." Nella nodded. "If you can do that, then that is the best. If we can use my position to bait them as well, it will separate their force, allowing the group to make a counterattack, especially if there are really traitors." "Hmm¡­So, you have decided to use my strategy?" "Yes." She nodded. "This time, we will use the Teleportation Array Plate to make more impact on them." "I see. I don''t really mind if that is the case." Alex agreed. "Thanks." She smiled before taking out the Array Plate and giving it to him. "I need the entrance position," Alex asked while looking at the mountain. His Spirit Eyes already detected a suspicious where the energy in this mountain gathered. And that energy created a tunnel and stopped somewhere around the top, so he knew it must be the entrance. However, to show that he didn''t have something special like Spirit Eyes, he played dumb and asked her instead. Listening to his question, Nella opened a map and put it on the ground. She pointed at an area on the top left corner. "This is us. The entrance is about here. So, it''s better to move to the top of the mountain first before going down. I think it will take at most two seconds to go there and twenty seconds to open the gate just for me. I can use the Array Plate, but I don''t have enough control over distance, so I will accidentally teleport far more than I am supposed to." "Don''t worry. I have enough control." "That is surprising to be honest. How can you even control that? If I am not wrong, you need a huge amount of resources to either use many Teleportation Array Plates or ask a Space Element Array Master to help you." "The latter. It was my master." Alex shrugged. "Oh?!" Nella''s eyes brightened, seeing Alex''s value became even bigger. Space Element Array Masters were scarce even though they were not hunted down, so one Array Master usually had a prestigious name in one''s clan. Alex didn''t care about revealing this because Aria knew that it was just a lie, and he wouldn''t meet Nella anymore after finishing this mission. "Anyway, since I have the general position, I will teleport us to the top of the mountain but slightly lean to the gate, so they won''t have enough time to catch up." Alex nodded. "Ye-yes. What should I do?" She asked. "Nothing. Just stand there. We are going to move at the right time to change the tide of the battlefield." Alex smiled. "When is that?" "That¡­" ¡­ While Alex and Nella discussed their plans, Millman climbed the mountain halfway before finding seventy people coming toward them. "Men! Prepare your weapons!" He shouted, ordering everyone to take out their swords. "And prepare for anything possible. There might be an ambush ahead." Although they didn''t understand why Millman said that, they followed his instruction. Not long after that, the enemy group came into sight as one of them shouted. "Enemies!" The one leading them was a 9-Star Martial Saint middle-aged man with a long brown beard. He looked at Millman and smirked. "You have done a great deal to us, so I come to pay you back." "Lucent from Siko Family." Millman gnashed his teeth before taunting him. "Hmph! Did you think we were not prepared?" "No, I wanted to tell you that no matter how prepared you were, you wouldn''t be able to beat us." Lucent shook his head before raising his hand as another group appeared. The one leading them was another 9-Star Martial Saint that Millman happened to know as well. "Lazar from Gran Family." He remembered that there were three families becoming their enemies during this time. Looking at the appearance of the Gran Family, he was convinced that the third family sent their people also. After all, the bandit group was under the Siko Family, not the other two. And he was right. When he was about to shout, the third group came into his vision as another 9-Star Martial Saint appeared. "Airi from Khan Family." He gritted his teeth. Facing three 9-Star Martial Saints alone put them at a disadvantage even with their number, so Millman tried to come up with a solution and shouted. "Two of you are to inform the young lady to rush toward the top." The two 6-Star Martial Saint behind him nodded, turned around, and flew down the mountain. However, another two people came into their way and cut them down in the most unexpected timing. These two were the subordinates under the reinforcement leader''s command, two of the three 7-Star Martial Saints he bought. "What?!" Millman dropped his jaw before calling out the reinforcement leader''s name out loud. "Kain!" When he looked at Kain, he found out that he was as shocked as him, not knowing why they suddenly moved like that. Before they could recover from the shock, another fifty people suddenly slashed their weapons down to their nearest allies. "Argh!" Clank. A series of screams filled the battlefield as they died unjustly. Because of Millman''s order earlier that asked them to take out their weapons, some of them managed to parry it, but there was still half of them died due to this. The fifty people immediately separated themselves to avoid the sudden outburst of Millman. With this, the battle became less than one hundred fifty people against more than two hundred fifty people. They also had a big advantage in terms of cultivation alone. Millman could feel the morale dropping crazily and gritted his teeth because he never expected something like this to happen. Even Alcea didn''t say anything about this. Little did he know that Alcea indeed knew, but she only told Nella. After knowing the odds, she asked Nella to rush toward the top of the mountain. Obviously, Nella changed her plan because of Alex''s influence because the plan required her to sacrifice all the people Millman led, even Millman himself. And yeah, as one would expect, the disciples of the Luzear Family subconsciously dropped their weapons, knowing that they would die here. "This is impossible." "Don''t give up! Our Young Lady is still waiting for us." Millman shouted, trying to raise their morale once again, but the betrayal, their loss, and the current situation looked very dim and destroyed their morale. At the same time, the enemies had enough men to spare to even send a portion of their force to Nella and the top of the mountain. "Millman! Our current situation is my fault. I will be holding them back while you bring our young lady back to the city. This mission is as good as lost. The only thing we can do is to send the young lady back, so she can try again in the near future. There are still a few months for the time limit." The reinforcement leader gritted his teeth while looking at his subordinates. He didn''t need to ask because he could already understand the reason just by looking at his current subordinates'' expressions. There was no need to spare a word. "Are you planning to die here?" "Yes. I don''t dare to show my face again, so I will die here and make all these bastards pay!" He nodded while showing his killing intent. "Heh?! Do you think you are capable of escaping from this place?" Lucent snorted after successfully positioning his group behind them, not allowing any of them to breakthrough. "¡­" Millman bit his lips before shouting. "Men, this is it. Even if you need to die, keep moving forward. We will break through their encirclement." "O-oh!" There were only around thirty people letting out their voices while the rest lost hope. However, those people who had lost hope were the ones finding the miracle that Nella had been working on. "Look!" One of them shouted while pointing at the top of the mountain. Chapter 948 - Destroyed Them "Look!" A disciple pointed his finger to the sky above the mountain, finding three people looking down on them. They were none other than Alex, Aria, and Nella. "What?!" The enemies exclaimed in surprise simultaneously while Millman called her. "Young Lady!" Millman realized that the young lady had predicted this and sneaked past them. Because of the traitors, she couldn''t say anything as they would plan accordingly. And with how she showed herself, she planned to raise their morale. In other words, she wanted both her and this group to win. As soon as he noticed this reason, Millman shouted. "This is it! Our young lady already knows about those traitors. If you are truly the proud disciples of the Lazear Family, pick your weapon and show your might. If the enemy is twice of us, each of us simply needs to kill two of them. Let''s overturn this situation and offer this victory to the young lady!" "O-oh!" This time, almost everyone rejoiced as they looked at the enemies with killing intent. As Millman predicted, Siko and Lazar shouted at the same time. "Airi. Bring all your forces to head to the entrance. Hurry up! We can''t enter the inheritance place if she managed to enter first, so you need to stop her!" "That''s right. She can use a Teleportation Array Plate after she finishes, so you need to go." The 9-Star Martial Saint Airi nodded her head and turned around. "Follow me!" "Look. Our number is not that much different right now! Let''s kill them." Millman knew that the only thing he could do was handle the people here because they would only be stopped again if they tried to breakthrough. Alex and Aria should be able to buy enough time since they only needed to buy time for a few seconds. "Kill them!" The great clash finally began as Nella''s figure had disappeared from the sky. ¡­ Nella found the entrance and descended to the ground, looking at a cave entrance sealed by an array. Nella immediately bit her thump and placed it on the seal. "I, Nella Luezar, the daughter of¡­" Alex and Aria looked at the horizon where they spotted those people from Khan Family. After around ten seconds, they landed on the ground. Airi, who was responsible here, instantly jumped toward Nella, trying to stop the ritual from opening the gate. "No, you won''t!" Airi gritted his teeth, trying to pierce Nella''s heart using the spear. This way, she would acquire her blood as well. However, Alex suddenly appeared in her way. "You are just a 4-Star that has enough luck to defeat a 7-Star Martial Saint. Move!" Airi roared as her spear started glowing. "Whatever happens, don''t turn around and head straight to the cave. We will be fine since we are going to run away after you come in." Alex informed Nella while pulling out his sword. "Triple Draws." The three simultaneous attacks made their appearance again, trying to cut down Airi. The first one and the second were heading toward her spear while the other one targeted her head. She suddenly felt an intense fear as if the death god wanted to bring her and halted her movement. However, Alex''s first two strikes already landed on her spear, breaking it. The third strike still continued, but Airi managed to react fast enough to use the handle to block it, albeit she saw it cracking. "!!!" Instinctively, she leaped back and changed her spear. "Impossible." "Open!" Nella followed Alex''s instruction and managed to open the entrance. She immediately entered the gate, but she remembered that Alex had a low chance of escaping from them, so she threw a Teleportation Array Plate at him. "Use this. If it''s not possible to come back here when I finish, then head straight to my family because I will be using another Teleportation Array Plate to go there." Alex was surprised by her thoughtful nature and grabbed the Array Plate, but before he was able to thank her, the gate already closed, leaving no chance for Airi to catch up. "You are not going away!" Realizing that she had failed, Airi wouldn''t leave these two alive since Nella deemed them important enough to give them a precious Teleportation Array Plate. Instead of running away, Alex smiled and struck her new spear with his power alone, blowing her away right back at her group. "What?!" She widened her eyes. Even though she had known Alex was strong from the first blow, she never expected a 4-Star Martial Saint could blow her away like this. Alex made sure that Nella had gone inside and smiled. "Since she can''t see us now, it''s time to kill these people." "Are you sure? We will be questioned, you know." Aria furrowed her eyebrows. "If she didn''t give this Teleportation Array, we would be in that situation. Fortunately, she gave this to us. We can simply say that we use the Teleportation Array to teleport not far from here and use the traps I have set up to kill these people. It cost me a big amount of money, so we can ask for more compensation." Alex grinned, planning to suck this Luzear Family dry. "Ehm¡­Why do I feel that you are a bad guy right now?" Aria twitched her eyebrows before shaking her head. "Well, I know that you are planning to use some of it to increase my strength, so I don''t have the right to complain. Since you have decided, there is only one thing to do." "Do you two think you can defeat us? Know your position, brats!" Airi shouted while pointing her spear toward them. Alex smiled and released a portion of his seal. His cultivation rose from 4-Star to 9-Star Martial Saint, shocking Airi once again. "Know my position? No, you are the one who needs to know your position." Suddenly, a dragon from Spiritual Energy appeared, hovering above his head. ''I will leave her safety to you, Eve.'' Alex asked Eve to protect Aria. ''I understand, Master. It''s not my forte, but against these people, it won''t be a problem,'' replied Eve while controlling her dragon body to go around Aria. "Fight to your heart content. The sooner we finish this, the sooner I can burn their body and create a mess somewhere to make our excuse believable." Alex commanded. Aria nodded and looked at the enemies. "I will make you regret for underestimating us!" Airi raised her spear. "Attack them. We have the number advantage." Alex looked at them and poured more Spiritual Energy than usual before stepping his right foot forward. "Spirit Step, Second Step." The immeasurable pressure fell upon them as some of them suddenly dropped down to the difference of their cultivation. Aria saw this and covered her body with lightning. "Spirit Step, Sixth Dance. Lightning Rabbit!" She ran with a larger step to make maneuvers easier as her sword began cutting those who fell down as if a rabbit were jumping from one person to another. Those who felt this pressure were unable to react to this movement, so they just watched their comrades fall one by one. Airi saw this and tried to stop her, but the dragon suddenly breathed out fire, stopping her advance. The intense heat immediately permeated the battlefield, forcing her to leap back just to avoid it. When she looked at her hand, she was surprised to see there was a small black spot on her skin. As she was about to blow out, Alex appeared next to her with a smile. "I am your opponent." "!!!" Airi raised her spear as Alex slashed his sword right at her neck. Suddenly, his blade expanded, almost slicing her throat. Due to her good reflex, she managed to throw herself to the side just to avoid this attack. Alex didn''t stop and attacked the fallen her before those who were beside Airi tried to stop Alex. Looking at their movements, Alex stopped his attack and slashed these four people first as they were only 3-Star Martial Saints. Airi used her hand to launch herself into the air before landing a few meters from Alex as she never saw someone like him. Not wanting to waste a single second, Alex already predicted where she landed and unleashed a Sword Attack. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." Unlike his usual light red Sword Wave, this one was in blood-red color. However, one could still feel the heat coming from it. This Sword Wave had been dyed in Eve''s color as she infused the Bloodl.u.s.t and Killing Intent in the Sword to strengthen the Sword Wave. Alex was astonished for a moment before looking at Airi, who had no way to escape other than breaking this attack. Unfortunately to her, the strength of this Sword Wave was far stronger than anything she could imagine. In fact, the force behind it was close to Divine Ability. When it hit her spear, everything was cut cleanly, including her, who was behind the spear before the Sword Wave disappeared according to Alex''s will. He just didn''t want to let Millman and the others saw this attack, lest they would become even more suspicious. "Impossible." Airi let out her last word before falling to the ground. Alex looked at her for a second before killing the rest with Aria. After five minutes, they had finished their jobs. Seeing this entire mess, he used his Pure Fire to burn all their corpses and evaporate their blood so as to not leave any clues. As for some craters here and there, he left it alone, showing that Alex and Aria fought them bravely just so Nella had enough time to go inside before escaping in Millman''s perspective. Well, if Nella were the one seeing this, she would think Alex and Aria needed to fight the enemies first before they had a chance to escape. Either way, both reasons were good enough. With Alex showing that he killed a 7-Star Martial Saint, close to 8-Star, Millman and Nella would believe if he could kill Airi with the help of traps. After that, he checked Aria''s condition that seemed to have used half of her strength. Considering the enemies'' strength, it was to be expected. Alex only asked. "How do you feel right now?" "I am good. Because of your help, I am in better shape while killing twenty people with higher levels than me. This is indeed a good training since I can understand their attack patterns, especially when I start getting conscious of how their weapons worked." She nodded with a smile, ignoring her fatigue. "That''s good then. I will check the situation once more. You can go in this direction, and I will catch up later." Alex pointed toward the east. "I understand." She agreed and immediately flew away, knowing there wouldn''t be any more enemies in that way. Chapter 949 - Ancestor A few minutes later, Aria looked to her left, finding Alex had caught up. "We don''t have any problem, right?" "Yes. I should have burned everything, including a small blood droplet, so I am sure they won''t have anything to track us." Alex nodded. "Where should we create a new battle scene there? And don''t you think it''s better to use their body and place it in this new place to make it more believable?" "No, I don''t recommend that. If you investigate their bodies, it''s easy to tell how we kill them. The moment we say we used the traps to kill them, they will realize we are lying. I know that we can try to smear everything about them, but it''s hard to manipulate it to a perfect degree. Rather, I will just smear monster blood around the area and coat it with water. In terms of energy, they are not that different from humans, so as long as we use red blood, we can camouflage them as human blood." Aria thought for a moment and noticed how clueless she was in this situation. She took a mental note about this and nodded. "I understand. I will be following your decision since you are more experienced than me¡­Now I am wondering what the heck have I done this whole time? You are far younger than me, but your strength and experience far surpass me." "Haha, we just have a different life. That''s all." Alex shrugged. Aria fell silent for a few seconds before sighing in defeat and changing the topic. "Anyway, where will we create a new battlefield aftermath?" "A bit farther from this location because we will make it a bit bigger because it won''t be logical to kill a 9-Star Martial Saint with seventy people with her by small traps. Since Millman and the others can''t see this, it should be far away." Alex nodded. "We will travel around fifteen minutes. It should be enough." "Alright." She nodded. Alex and Aria flew according to Alex''s plan and arrived in a deep forest with huge trees surrounding them. This would be the perfect place to place traps, so he immediately commanded. "You go around and cut these trees while leaving your marks everywhere. I will do some explosions here and there." She nodded and moved to the spot, beginning to work on the perfect battle. Alex did the same and created many explosions that blew trees away. He did it to the very details, including how his fire burned the trees. It looked far worse than the aftermath in front of the cave, but at the same time, it appeared to be natural as if there was a big battle here. Smearing the monster blood on the ground, stones, and trees, Alex finally finished decorating this place and regrouped with Aria. "I have done according to your instruction. What do you think?" "It''s good enough. We will be waiting for a day or two to make the others think we have used our time to escape, trap, kill, and recover." Alex nodded. "How about those people? Do you think they can win?" "Absolutely. Sitting here alone is enough to make the enemies grow restless as time goes by. After all, they are worried whether Nella has managed to enter or not. With that aftermath and the missing people, including us, they won''t be able to confirm it. This will give Millman a good advantage to take the situation unless he doesn''t believe us." "I see. We will wait then." She hesitated for a second before asking, "What do you think about the inheritance of the Luzear Family? Their ancestor indeed followed the Sword God in the past, and he was able to reach Rank 2 God, so I wonder if you are interested in it." "Nope." Alex shook his head. "It will give me more troubles than necessary. Besides, he is a Spear User, right?" "Yeah." Alex lied at this point because it surely piqued his interest. He wanted to know the difference between wielding a sword and a spear, especially from a Rank 2 God. However, he knew that there would be a weird bond between him, the Sword God, and the Luzear Family if he went there, so it would be best to make a line here. ¡­ Meanwhile, half an hour earlier, when Nella just entered the cave, she found nothing but darkness in the cave. There was no light or whatsoever that could lead the way, but Nella didn''t panic. Instead, she used her Spear Domain to scan her surroundings before feeling the pressure coming from the Spear Qi flowing inside the cave. ''Mother said this is a kind of test to see whether I can go to the end of this path and meet the ancestor¡­'' She started walking according to the path she sensed without hesitation while thinking. ''Anyway, there is something bothering me with that Nyx. I feel like there is something more in him to the point my business sense is tingling. Well, there is a high possibility of me joining the sect, so I can know about him more and whether to forge the relationship between my family and him.'' While thinking about this, a light ball appeared in front of her as if it wanted to follow her. She hesitated to follow this because it might also be a test from her ancestor, but the light ball suddenly formed into a human figure, smiling at her. "Welcome to my humble abode, little girl. May I know who you are?" She was dumbfounded seeing this but immediately bowed and introduced herself. "I am Nella Luzear, 87th generation and the current patriarch''s second daughter." "I see. So, the last one coming here was your¡­" "Yes, it''s my brother, Kevin Luzear." She nodded. "That''s good to know then. Follow me then." He waved his hands as blue light suddenly brightened the whole cave. ''The walls are emanating blue light?'' She furrowed her eyebrows, but her feet had begun walking. They didn''t talk for a few minutes before she found light coming from the exit of the cave. When she crossed it, a majestic room came into her vision. There was a huge palace inside the cave room. ''Huge? The cave alone is around a few kilometers, while the building is a fifth of that. I can see trees here and there, so it must be a garden, but more importantly, I can feel the boundless Spear Qi in this place.'' She gasped and looked around. "I see. You are that type huh, not bad. At least, you are not rash." He nodded and stroked his long bird. Since he had arrived in this place, he finally turned into a middle-aged man that was in his prime. His muscular body was still visible, and there was this fighting aura emanating from his body. "Nella Luzear greets the Ancestor." "Good. Because you were not sure if I am your Ancestor, you didn''t greet me earlier. It means you have the necessary heart to remain calm in every situation." He assessed Nella''s personality and kept nodding his head as if he was satisfied with it. "Still, fifty years old Martial Monarch, huh. Not bad." "Thank you for the praise even though I don''t deserve it." "Anyway, there is something bothering me. Before we enter, I hope you don''t mind me asking this question first." "Ye-yes. I will answer Ancestor''s question to the best of my ability." "My question is simple. Who were the man and woman coming with you? Although I couldn''t see them due to the barrier that keeps me living here, I could still feel their presence and energy." "Ah?!" Nella never expected this question to come out of his mouth and instantly apologized, thinking they shouldn''t come because they disturbed him. "I apologize if they have caused a disturbance in your abode, but they¡­" "No, no. You misunderstand me here." He corrected her before she could finish her words. "I just want to know who they are and their relationship with you simply because I am curious about them, not because they have disturbed me." "I see." Nella felt relieved and explained. "They are Nyx and Aria Cypress from the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. My mother, Alcea Luzear, informed her friend to post a mission so the sect could send a few disciples to escort me. As Ancestor might already know, we were always targeted during this time, including me." "Yes, I know. It''s a kind of selfish wish of mine, but I want the latter generations to think about overcoming these difficulties and coming out at the top. Do you think I am too cruel?" "No. Ancestor only wants us to grow even stronger. There is nothing wrong with that." Nella shook her head. "Anyway, it seems you don''t have any relationship with them." "Currently, yes. They are only bodyguards after all." "Currently?" He caught the hidden meaning and asked, "So you do have a plan to¡ª" Nella nodded. "There is something different about these two from the usual disciples, so I am a bit curious about them because I feel they are far extraordinary for an inner disciple. My Mother has shown this concern as well and asked me to observe them." "I see. In that case, let this old man say something to you. Do whatever you can to forge a relationship with them. No, whatever the case, grab that boy for the family. Or if you can''t do that, make sure not to become his enemy." He looked at Nella with a serious expression. Nella was amazed by her ancestor. Alex was indeed different and even brighter than Aria, but it wasn''t this much, so this kind of request baffled her. "What? You don''t understand?" The ancestor scratched the back of his head and explained. "You must know my relationship with the Peerless Sword God, right?" "Yes." "Then do you know what are the things the Sword God has left behind?" "His Sword, Sword Cave, Sword Stone, Sword Pavilion and Sword Arena." "That''s right. Those are the five wonders of this world. I felt the presence of his skill in the woman''s body, so my prediction is that she has managed to grasp his sword technique. And only his Divine Sword Techniques that I can strongly remember, so that woman is someone extraordinary." "What?!" Nella dropped her jaw to the ground before sweating. "That''s not all. The boy is more outstanding. I don''t know why but I feel the energy of a Sword Spirit in his sword." "A Sword Spirit?" This time, she got confused with the new terms. "There are not many who know this, but there is another kind of entity called the Sword Spirit, or in general, they are known as the Spirit residing in a weapon. In the past, only the Sword God managed to create a Sword Spirit that resided in the Sword he left behind." "Then, do you mean he has the Sword?" She fell down as her feet couldn''t withstand the pressure of this matter. She never expected that these two were this extraordinary. If she knew about it, she would treat them differently. "No, I doubt he has the sword because I can feel that the Sword Spirit is different than the one I know." He shook his head. "It must be another Sword Spirit. You, later generations, have been feeding me with information from the outside world, so I know there is not a single Sword Spirit other than that kid, but I guess there is another one born in this world. Even the Sword God could only form a Sword Spirit when he was a Rank 5 God, so this kid must be extraordinary. Whether it was his inheritance or his hard work, all of it was irrelevant. You know what I mean?" Nella''s body started shaking as if she just heard the information that would shake the world. There might be another God King rising at this moment, and it was still hidden from the world. If that was the case¡­ Her expression suddenly turned serious. "Anyway, I don''t think I need to tell you what you need to do, right? There is a possibility of killing him before he grows up, but a mysterious guy is usually more dangerous than what he shows, so yeah." He let out a long sigh. "We better move on to your training first before we discuss this. Come on in." Chapter 950 - Marriage A few days later, Alex and the others had gathered in front of the cave''s entrance. Millman had fought hard and somehow won despite losing around a hundred people. However, the enemies lost more, and a huge portion of the spies that the other families planted had been extinguished, so this might be the cleanest state of the Luzear Family. After getting the information from Alex and Aria, Millman checked the aftermath and was convinced that both of them managed to kill Airi and her subordinates. There was a possibility that the Khan Family might use this to open war against them, but Millman already assured them there wouldn''t be such a thing. The first thing he did was to make sure that he was the only one investigating the battlefield, so no one realized that Alex and Aria had killed them. To get away from Airi from this place, they used the traps to deal with them, which surprisingly devastated them more than they hoped for, leading them to a decision where they fought back. Alex and Aria told the same story until Millman believed it one hundred percent. Millman then solved the entire situation before resting in front of the cave. Due to the possibility of Nella escaping with Teleportation Array Plates instead of a normal way, the other families decided to not send any more reinforcement, not that they could do it¡­ The group waited for a few days, and the gate was opened. Nella finally made her appearance and smiled. "I have made all of you go through hell¡­" "Young Lady." Millman and the others immediately kneeled on one knee and clasped their hand politely. Alex and Aria found something different from Nella. Unlike her previous temperament, she seemed to grow a bit more. Not physically, but mentally. Still, the one thing that stuck in their mind was the symbol on her forehead. There was a small tattoo on her forehead that looked like a spear, albeit a bit shorter. Even so, it created a unique charm on her face, especially with her calmer temperament. "Nyx, Aria, I would like to offer my thanks because you two were the reason why we won this fight." Alex and Aria nodded. "Of course, the warriors here and those who have fallen on the battlefield are our reason too. I am thankful for all of you, and I will make sure that the family of the deceased won''t be treated wrongly. You all are my pride." Nella smiled. "Oh!" They shouted energetically as if they had never fought a tiring battle. "Since no one will probably ambush us again, let''s set off to our home." She smiled. "Millman." "Yes, Young Lady." He nodded and shouted. "Men! Rise up. This is our triumph return." "Oh!" The group immediately packed up. They flew toward the city with the same pace while keeping their vigilance. Fortunately, there wasn''t a single enemy appearing in their way, so the group managed to return without any more casualties. As soon as they arrived in front of the Luzear Family''s mansion, they were greeted by Alcea''s warmest smile and bow. "Thank you for coming back alive despite going through the worst. Please go in and rest to your heart content. I will handle the rest myself." "Yes, Madam!" Nella suddenly walked toward Alex and Aria before offering to guide them to their previous room. Alcea was surprised by this, but she understood that something must have happened, so she didn''t stop her daughter. The difference in Nella''s appearance and temperament also didn''t escape from her eyes, so she only let her daughter do whatever she wanted to do and investigated it later. When Alex and Aria had settled down in their room, Nella immediately left them alone, wanting to talk about it to her mother, especially regarding their reward. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and felt something was wrong in this matter. He didn''t see there was a change in the energy flow inside the mountain, so he had no knowledge that the master of the mountain actually sensed him from inside. "Nyx, what do you think about this mission?" "Suspicious." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Of course, I am sure that the Luzear Family will handle everything regarding the three influences cleanly, making sure we are not involved, but I am concerned in one thing." "What is it?" "The change of Nella. I don''t know why but she feels different as if she is planning something." "Do we need to escape and abandon the reward? I don''t really mind though. Besides, we had gathered all the traps we have set before during the two days we decided to hide for our "Plan," so I believe we can use the Teleportation Array Plate she gave us before to escape from this mansion." Aria suggested. "I know, but I don''t mean something like that." Alex shook his head. "Have you noticed the spear mark on her forehead?" "Yes." "It contains a boundless Spear Qi, including Divine Spear Qi. I assume there is a big secret in this mark¡­" Alex thought for a moment before giving an example. "Firstly, there is a chance that this Spear Mark is a kind of Sword mark in the Sword Stone. These two people had a certain degree of friendship, right? So, there might be a connection with that." "Are you saying that Nella has acquired the full inheritance of the Luzear Family''s Ancestor?" "Probably, but I don''t have the necessary information to claim something like that." "Then, what is the second possible thing?" "The Ancestor actually possesses her¡­But this one is most unlikely for various reasons." Alex fell silent while adding inwardly, ''Of course it''s impossible. I would be able to pick it up with my Spirit Eyes if that were the case.'' "The problem is¡­Are you going to give her the recommendation letter?" She asked. Alex thought for a moment before handing the letter to her. "If she has the motivation to enter, I don''t really mind, but it''s not me who will give her, it''s you." Aria instantly realized why she needed to be the one giving the letter. She put a teasing smile. "You don''t want to create a misunderstanding? Oh, almighty hero Nyx saved the princess and overturned the whole situation where her country was almost destroyed. Not only did he win the war, but he also brought more and more things to the country and the princess. Thus, the princess is going to marry the hero and live happily ever after." "Do you want a chop on the head?" Alex released a bit of the pressure before Aria stopped talking and stuck out her tongue. "Alright. I will be asking if she is interested and give the recommendation letter to her." Alex nodded. "Then, you can rest first until we get the reward and immediately return to the sect. You will start your training again in mastering the Purgatory Sword before moving to the third step, your Sword Eye." "I am looking forward to it. I really would like to see your face and everything¡­I am really curious for so many years." She smiled and nodded. "I don''t mind if you torture me more¡ªGya!" "That''s not a torture. It''s training." Alex chopped her head. "The effect of the training is good, but there is a side effect. You might get used to pain in various ways." "¡­" Alex didn''t continue and returned to his room to start cultivating to pass the time. A few hours later after the discussion, Nella came to the room. Alex and Aria noticed her presence and were about to greet her. However, Nella suddenly leaped toward Alex''s door and opened it, finding him not far from the door. Sensing this, Aria halted her steps and smiled as if there would be something interesting happening at this moment. Out of curiosity, she sneaked out and tried to eavesdrop on their conversation. Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at Nella while thinking, ''Ah, here it comes. What kind of thing does she want to talk to me about?'' "Nyx, I would like to personally thank you for your help during the entire campaign. I have seen your contribution, and much less to say, it''s the biggest out of everyone. That''s why I would like to know if you have something that you want. If it''s within my limit, I won''t hesitate to give you, including¡­" She looked down and blushed. ''So, that''s how it is¡­'' Alex sighed inwardly and wondered how they could arrive at such a conclusion. "I don''t have anything I want right now, but yeah, I still need a huge amount of resources, so I will be thankful if you are giving me more Spirit Crystals." Alex decided to ignore it. "Eh¡­You only want that?" She widened her eyes before thinking. "Ah, you must haven''t understood the Spear Seal on my forehead. This is the symbol of the highest inheritance rank. This will allow me to understand more about Spear and any other things around it, including the Divine Technique that my ancestor used. So, I am sure you know what kind of person you have just escorted, right?" "Oh?!" Alex nodded. "The reward I want remains the same. It''s still the Spirit Crystals. After all, the resources I get will be split with Aria, so yeah, I need more to increase my cultivation." "Ugh." Nella didn''t know why but she felt a bit hurt when she heard this. Although she didn''t know whether Alex had an interest in women or not, it still disturbed her how he was so normal in front of her. Her beauty was one of a kind to the point she could boldly claim that she was more beautiful than Aria, but the latter always came out of his mouth. "Is there any problem?" "Yes. There are two actually." She nodded with a serious expression. "Hmm?! Is that so? Then I guess I will be settled with medicinal herbs instead. I am sure there isn''t a problem with this one, right?" "That''s not the main problem, though." She gently scratched her cheek embarrassedly. "The first problem is that I am questioning your gender. I mean, you can literally ask everything, including me¡­And I am sure I have hinted at it¡­" "I am a man. There is nothing wrong with that. And please don''t expect us to be l.u.s.tful since not all of us are like that. It''s true that I appreciate beauties, but I don''t have a desire to possess them easily." Alex shook his head. "I don''t mean to be rude, but that''s my answer." "Ugh." She looked down. "Mother said that I had many admirers, but it seemed the one I needed the most was unattainable. No, it must be what those admirers think about me? Ehm? Ugh." "Lady, I don''t know what you are thinking, but it''s best to forget that objective." Alex sighed while adding inwardly. ''I still need to settle the matter with Evelyn and Letizia. Too much of a problem.'' [Pfft. Even if you accept those two, there are still two more spots that can be filled in the bedroom.] ''You seem to be enjoying my suffering.'' [Your suffering is the dream of most people, you know.] ''And what? There will be a huge problem if there is a war between family members, so even though I am accepting all of you, I am trying to keep it small to make sure the possibility is minimal.'' [It''s a matter of education. Do you think we are that easy to accept polygamy? Nope. What do you think is the easiest reason for the world to unite as one? It''s simple. They just need one enemy and one simple objective. For us, the enemy is those who want to destroy the family, while the objective is to keep the family going even if we need to sacrifice a little bit. After all, we know that you have sacrificed more in terms of physical.] ''Whatever, let''s talk about this later. I need to somehow make sure that this girl doesn''t think that way first since I don''t want to make a mess in this world.'' [Fine. Good luck.] Alex could only shake his head against Lin Xingzhi before looking at Nella. "There is actually a third problem." Nella suddenly thought of something good. "There will be a problem with our cashflow if we give the reward according to your contribution, so we would like to decrease it a little bit and throw a bonus. And the bonus is me¡­ "Do you happen to need a woman with marriage in mind?" "¡­" Chapter 951 - Witch and Little Witch "¡­" Alex was lost, wondering whether this female could actually be convinced or not. He had told her a minute ago, so he thought she wouldn''t talk about it anymore, but it turned out she wasn''t like Aria, who listened to him. He almost forgot the fact that Aria followed his words because of the agreement while there was nothing between him and Nella. "I said it already¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "I don''t have any plan regarding that for the time being." "That''s¡­" She looked down with a sad expression as if Alex just wronged her. "That''s a no, I guess." "Yes." Alex nodded. "I see. I will ask my father to distribute the reward other than the Spirit Crystals. I don''t know if we can replace everything with herbs, but I believe there will be some Array Plates and weapons to cover the cost of your traps." She sighed. "Then, much appreciated." "I will return first." She walked down while feeling down before remembering something. "That''s right. There will be a huge auction one year from now. One of our plans is to give you one item from the auction, no matter what it is. You can consider this as a part of the reward." After explaining, she handed her a token and a letter to him. "This is the golden token for our VVIP customer while the letter acts as an invitation. You can come if you want and vice versa, but I hope you can come." Nella then bowed to him once again before leaving the room. Alex nodded and stored them in his Inventory while watching her back. As soon as she came out, she found Aria waiting outside the room. Before she could open her mouth, Aria showed a recommendation letter and gave it to her. The moment she saw the seal, she realized it came from the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Surprised, she looked at Aria with her mouth wide open as if asking her, ''Is this the recommendation letter?'' Aria smiled and nodded. Confirming the letter''s real identity, she gently nodded and whispered. "Thank you." "You''re welcome. The one who issued that letter was the peak master of the Sword Blossom Peak, the peak where Nyx and I live." The sadness disappeared as this letter brought another kind of hope to her heart. As if she found another plan, she smiled and left the room. "Oh, my heart." Aria then teased Alex with what just happened. "Stop it. I feel there is a hidden intention regarding that matter, so I obviously will draw the line." Alex sighed. "A hidden intention, eh?" "Do you think her feelings were genuine?" Alex looked at Aria with a serious expression. "If you say yes, I am going to marry you off tomorrow." "¡­" Aria fell silent and shrugged. "Fine, fine. I will stop. Anyway, we have gotten what we need, so we will return to the sect after getting the reward, right?" "Yeah. Recover your energy since we are going straight to the sect to continue your training." "I understand." During the night, Nella came again while wearing a slightly s.e.xy outfit while handing Alex a Space Ring. "There are ten million Spirit Crystals, ten Rank 8 Array Plates, four pairs of sword and spear, and ten medicinal herbs. This is the only thing we can spare. That''s why we give you the extra auction item. Considering this auction is a huge one, the items will be good, so I am sure there will be something that catches your attention. I will be waiting for you one year from now." Alex calmly nodded his head and took the Space Ring as if he didn''t notice her outfit. "Thank you for the reward. It far surpassed my expectation." "Of course. Although it''s just a potential, I may become a Rank 2 God in the future, so that alone is enough to thank you for all of this. Still, do you want to reconsider me as a bonus? You will get a rich and talented wife, you know." "Nope." Alex shrugged. "¡­" She sighed. "We have finished dealing with the three families too, and according to our information, only those who came with us during the mission know about this, so they don''t know it yet. In addition, no one knows your contribution other than Millman, me, Mother, and Father. I believe you won''t get any trouble from the three families." "Thank you, I appreciate it." She then nodded before leaving the room. Alex then sat on the bed before a blue notification appeared in front of him. [Fufu, one more heart has been broken. Rip in peace, love.] "So, you want to tease me too?" [Because it''s too funny. I can see that she is not genuine, so I will be shameless enough to say something like this. Still, this type of rule always sucks. People will see you as trash when you are at the bottom, and those who flock on you when you are at the top just want your talent and abilities, not you.] "Yeah." [I want to inform you that we have gotten a clue for the next Fire World where you can use it to enhance your Fire Authority once more. This one is a bit unique, so prepare for a huge fight. If I am not wrong, it''s related to its own sun¡­Anyway, why don''t you just absorb the sun''s energy?] "It''s different. I will be lying if I say it''s not formed by Fire Energy, but it''s still hopeless. I have no way to absorb it because it''s formed due to a huge disturbance in the past. The energy is far more turbulent than what I need." [Either way, you haven''t forgotten to visit your Master, right?] "Of course. I will go there as soon as I leave this world." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I will visit him after this, but there is something more important that I need to do. I am required to go to Encore once again before visiting him." [Is it not settled yet? I can''t really access your memory about this. I have done everything I can, but I simply have no clue, so I have stopped doing it a few months ago.] "You can say it''s the work of the previous master of this Gacha System. Anyway, don''t think much about it. Let''s consider it a secret between both of me." Lin Xingzhi paused for a second before understanding what he meant completely. [In that case, let''s move on to the next topic. Considering it''s almost ten months out here since the last time I have given you the report, I should talk about this first. There are a few bad news and good news. Unlike the usual way, I will report the bad news first.] Alex narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Please." [The first bad news is¡­I have noticed a crack in the seal the previous you used. In other words, the beast would come sooner or later. And the problem is the fact that we only have less than one hundred years left.] "I will work even harder from now. Are the hundred years¡­" [It''s Eulja''s time.] "We don''t have a long time." Alex nodded. "For now, I will increase my prowess first, so when I reach God King Stage, I won''t be weaker than my previous self. In case I can reach the next stage after that, I will beat the beast according to the plan." [I believe in you. The second bad news is about the Palm God. I don''t know what he is thinking, but he is trying to do something weird during this period, so I might become a bit busy dealing with this matter for the moment.] "I know. You need to be careful since I can''t really do anything right now." [Sure. Let''s move on to the third one. It''s regarding Sherry. Sherry has become the princess of a beast kingdom there due to various reasons. When I wanted to bail her out, she asked me to stop and let her do this. She also asked me to hide it, but I couldn''t.] "May I know the reason?" Alex took a few deep breaths to calm his heart down. [The Beast God in charge of that world is a God King. He must know that Sherry is with you, so there won''t be anything big regarding marriage. Our Eulja also has prepared for a war against that world if something happens.] "I see. Keep her safe for me and update her status from time to time. Tell her to not forget to cultivate the Fire Authority." [Yes. She said she wants to control the Beast World to help you in the war, so that''s the reason she chose to take this risk. I apologize for not telling you sooner.] "It''s fine. She is my wife, not a doll. All of you too. In fact, I like how all of you can act without me making the decision. As long as it''s for the family, I won''t say anything unless it''s something too big." Alex answered with a very deep meaning. [I understand. I will tell her that you have approved her action. Alright, enough with this depressing news. Move on to the good ones. First of all, Letizia has officially become a God Rank Expert. According to her, Evelyn and Rose will follow suit before you return from that world.] "Has she joined Eulja?" [Yes. She is currently with the Ice Phoenix Tribe.] "I see. I will visit her when I return. And say congratulations to her for me." [Sure thing. Then, the second good news is about Alicia and Firia. Both have made remarkable progress. According to my information, Alicia has finished her task and met Firia. They then finish Firia''s mission together. What is surprising is their combat skill. Despite having opposite elements, the two elements are in harmony. Well, you can see them when we reunite in Eulja.] "I am looking forward to it." [Third news. I don''t know if it''s good news or not, but Anna''s and Anya''s grandparents want to meet you. They have prepared everything necessary.] "I understand. I will make time as soon as I have finished everything." Alex nodded. [That''s all. You have worked hard in this world, so you should have a rest.] "Alright." Alex nodded and the blue screen disappeared. He took a deep breath and thought about what he needed to do after this. ¡­ The next day, in front of the Luzear Family''s mansion stood four people. "Then, thank you for the hospitality." Alex and Aria clasped their hands to Alcea and Nella, who saw them off. "Yes, take care and thank you for the help," Alcea replied with a smile while Nella only waved her hand and remained silent. Alex and Aria nodded before leaving the mansion, heading straight to their sect. Meanwhile, Alcea glanced at Nella. "So, how do you feel when the man rejects you first?" "It''s sour obviously. I have never placed any importance on all my suitors'' feelings, but now I have felt it myself. Although it''s mainly about his uniqueness according to the ancestor, it''s not like everything is all about it." "How about you cry on my shoulder? Here. You used to cry in my hug." She smirked. "It''s enough, mother. It will only be a few years." She grinned as if she had a plan ready while taking out the recommendation letter. "Oh! You are really my daughter." Alcea smiled and looked at Nella, knowing her plan. "I am still going to confirm it, but are you sure you will join the Unsurpassed Blade Sect just for this?" "The ancestor said that no one recognized Sword God''s talent, but when he was known, not everyone would be put on his eyes. For a merchant, All-in is a gamble, but there is sometimes that we need to do it. Besides, I have claimed boldly that I am your daughter, your little witch." Alcea and Nella smiled at each other and said the same line. "The person who our eyes have set for won''t escape from us." "Still, you will need to practice hard, you know." Nella raised her hand as a Spear Energy revolved on her hand. "I am more than up for it." They looked like they had decided to gamble, but little did they know that Alex also had a time limit in this world. Whether she was fast enough or not, no one could tell. Chapter 952 - Trouble Inbound A few days later, Alex and Aria had returned to the sect and immediately handed the proof that they had completed the mission. Happy with their achievement, the peak master immediately let them rest after a long journey. And as Alex promised, he helped her in the training of the Sword Eye. This eye was peculiar for him because this was the first one he had found with a similar characteristic with his Spirit Eyes. However, the Sword Eye didn''t necessarily exert the same technique like his first and second steps. The Sword Eye had three main functions. Sword Barrier, Sword Pressure, and Sword Enchantment. All of them required great control in one''s Sword Qi. To create a Sword Barrier, Aria needed to acc.u.mulate the Sword Qi in her eyes and sent it in one direction. It looked like a shield instead of a barrier, but this was something powerful because the Sword Eye had enhanced her eyes'' ability when she used it, meaning she could see the world at a slower speed like his Spirit Eyes. The Sword Pressure had the same principle as the Sword Barrier, but the Sword Qi would be placed on top of the enemy, giving a sharp pressure as if there was a rain of swords from above. It would fit perfectly with a domain that could lower one''s enemy, but Aria had yet to learn a technique like that. Still, the most powerful one was the Sword Enchantment. Unlike the first two, this one directly strengthened her attack power to the greatest degree. Alex had seen this in his fight where the Sword God would have his Sword Qi spiked up every time he almost hit him. This would increase her attack power. The moment she had the ability to control it at will, her attack power might become the strongest in this sect. Alex felt the boundless prospect coming from this technique, but he knew that Aria was interested in not any of these. Instead, it was the most basic thing from the Sword Eye, the ability to see the world. Even though it was only for a brief moment, she felt happy just to know the world was so beautiful. However, she didn''t use this excessively because Alex was very strict in her training. He only let her see the world for two seconds before closing her eyes again. Aria didn''t raise a single complaint about this because she could feel that her strength rose every day. Waiting for another few months to a year wouldn''t be much of a sacrifice when she had endured tens of years. Three months quickly passed by and Aria managed to use the Sword Barrier perfectly and worked her way for the Sword Pressure. Alex sat on the ground while leaning on a tree as his body acc.u.mulated the Spiritual Energy nearby to increase his cultivation. "Nyx, I am ready. Do you think you can check my progress?" "Sure." Alex nodded and stared at her for a few seconds before throwing a rock at her. Aria gradually opened her eyes. A sword mark miraculously appeared on her eyes, becoming the symbol that she managed to cultivate the Sword Eye correctly. And that Sword Mark was the medium to channel the Sword Qi from her reserve to the eye. An invisible barrier appeared right before her, protecting her from the stone. In fact, the Sword Qi shattered it into dust. "What do you think?" "Yeah. That''s perfect. It can be activated sooner since we tested it yesterday. Now, time to test the second ability, the Sword Pressure." "There is something I want to show you because I feel this Sword Pressure is a bit special." She thought this out yesterday, so there was this desire to show it to Alex. "Sure, go on. I will feel it myself." Aria nodded and closed her eyes again. She then opened her eyes at speed far faster than the first one. The Sword Qi released from the Sword Eye gathered on top of his head in a split second before it created a bigger impact than the past few months. That pressure even created a small crater on where Alex sat. "Interesting." Alex smiled and waved his hand, dispelling the pressure. "Instead of using it continuously, you decide to use it one single time to create a burst of Sword Qi." "Yes. I got inspiration from your step. I don''t know what it is called, but when I remember your technique, it always reminds me of the sudden burst of Spiritual Energy that contained enough power to pin somehow to the ground." "A good¡ª" Before he finished his words, his mask suddenly got cracked before loosening in his face, falling down slightly. Since Aria still used the power, or in other words, opened her eyes, she caught a glimpse of Alex''s face. Of course the artificial burned skin was still there, but Aria wasn''t disgusted or anything. It wasn''t like she didn''t know anything about this despite being blind, she could see that the mark didn''t suit the skin of the rest of his body, so she knew it must be Alex''s burned mark that he always wanted to hide. She fell down on her knees and subconsciously stretched her hand with a sad look. Touching the burn marks, she opened her mouth. "I don''t know if I should be grateful or not, but I know you don''t deserve this. Have you ever thought about healing this wound? If it reminds you of your past, how about you have someone to carry that past together with you, so you don''t mind this burned skin to be removed." Alex was slightly startled by her remarks and her actions. It was subconsciously, so Alex only sighed and gently grabbed her hand. "It''s fine. Maybe it will happen in the future, but it won''t happen in the near future." Alex smiled while putting her hand down. "Is that so? Such a shame. I don''t know the other guys'' faces, but I feel like you are quite a charmer, you know. That''s why it''s such a shame to have this on your face." She smiled. "Have you said it to yourself? If you take care of your skin a bit more, I believe you can charm many people." Alex smiled. "I don''t have any intention of doing that, but thank you for the compliment." "Anyway, turn it off first because it requires a huge amount of Sword Qi." She nodded and gradually closed her eyes. "Anyway, you have a long way to go to master the Sword Eye. I feel like there will be a problem happening soon." "A problem?" "Yes. It''s regarding your brother and family." "What?! Did something happen to them?" "I was about to ask you that. When was the last time you contacted them?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "After we returned from the escort mission." "Hmm." Alex thought for a moment. "Is there any problem? Are they in danger?" "I am not sure yet. First of all, I haven''t heard anything regarding your family. You remember that you did once offend someone, right?" "Yes. You told me there is a chance that the woman would target my brother or my family instead of me." "I don''t know whether she has given up or not, but if it''s the latter, I am sure around this time will be the perfect time she acts." "This time?" "Yes. No matter how hard the peak master and the others hide our information, some people can dig it up. I don''t know the identity of the other woman, so I am not sure of her capability. But if she is a bigshot, she must already know something about you, including your brother and family. "And she must be following your movement. With how the peak master protects you, she must be hiding this whole time, working up the plan. Well, I don''t know if she is petty or not too. "Either way, in the worst-case scenario, she will notice your achievement in the past two missions and your cultivation progress. There is a chance that she will feel threatened by it and choose the extreme measure. "I mean, just take a look at you, in less than a year, you have reached 3-Star Martial Saint, almost 4-Star. In the near future, your progress will surpass that of her backing, so she is afraid that you will take revenge when the time arrives. "That''s why she might be trying to make a move during this time, ignoring the peak master''s warning." Alex''s face turned serious. "I am surprised that you have put so much thought into it. I don''t even have time to think about this and¡­I remember that you won''t be putting your nose in my matter, right?" "It''s to hide my presence. It doesn''t mean I won''t give you advice or analysis." Alex shrugged. "After all, I still need you." "Say it again in a more loving way, especially to that Nella, I am sure it will seal the deal." Aria smirked. "You are still joking at this point?" "Trying to calm myself down." Aria shook her head as her hands were shaking. She grabbed Alex''s hands and bowed. "Thank you." "Anyway, that''s as far as I can intervene. The rest is up to you. If you are going to fix your problem, you need more strength." Alex shrugged. "Of course. Should I do your hell training twice as hard?" "Nope. You shouldn''t. It will either break you or kill you. This is not a matter of will anymore. Your body is the one giving up." Alex shook his head. "I see. Then, do you know what I am supposed to do?" "I can''t give you a concrete answer, but I guess you can warn them about this. I don''t know if I am just afraid of something unknown, as a careful person myself, but this calm is like the one before the storm. I don''t like it." Alex shook his head. "Alright. I will be contacting my family and my brother. Maybe I should ask someone to investigate this matter?" "No need for someone to investigate it. You can''t ask anyone regarding this because we don''t have any relationship with the others in the sect. Before the other party makes a move, we can''t do anything." "I see. I will focus on strengthening myself then." She nodded. Alex nodded and decided to start the training again. Suddenly, he felt two presences above his head and found two people before his body became tense. The first person was a man. He had green eyes and green hair. He appeared calm, but his energy, presence, and face looked like someone he had met. The second person was a female. She had long black hair tied into a side ponytail, letting the hair rest on her neck and run through her chest. Her face was gentle, but she was actually a Rank 5 God. When their eyes intertwined, Alex felt an immeasurable pressure in his heart as if the woman just saw through him. ''Holy¡ª'' Alex gulped down. Chapter 953 - Negotiating He had seen these two separately, but not in his wildest imagination would he see these two together like this. The male was the mysterious guy that attacked him in the upper world, right when the monster world attacked. As for the female, she was the one standing on top of the spaceship with the Palm God, his daughter. When their eyes met, Alex could feel that these two noticed something from him. The man suddenly whispered something to her before disappearing from the air. Alex pushed Aria away while grabbing his sword. The instant he appeared, he sensed the same mysterious technique as the one he handled previously. "Acceleration." After getting some knowledge about time from his previous self, he could finally see the attack. To his surprise, the latter used his Divine Body to attack him, trying to see the real strength of Alex. Noticing this, he jumped an inch from the ground and used that force to blow him away like how a Martial Saint should be. "Nyx?!" Aria shouted his name before glaring at the new person who suddenly attacked him. She raised her sword and appeared right next to the mysterious guy. "Deceleration." He glanced at Aria and used his Time Element to slow down her high-speed movement before catching her blow without any problem. "What?!" Aria widened her eyes before realizing she was blown away in Alex''s direction. "Who are you guys?!" Alex caught her and shouted as if he didn''t know them. The mysterious guy smiled and jumped toward him. Alex grabbed Aria''s waist and raised his weapon before he sensed the woman right next to him. He gritted his teeth and tried to jump away, but without him noticing, he suddenly lost the strength in his leg. ''What just happened?'' Alex asked inwardly before finding needles on his legs while falling to the ground with Aria. At the same time, the man also had a few on his hands, stopping him from moving. "That''s enough. Your plan is bad, so stop fighting." She sighed at the mysterious guy''s man before looking at Alex. "What is the point of that burn mark? I am not sure whether you know me already or not, but I will introduce myself first, I am Silvia Hermeth, nice to meet you, Nyx? Or should I say¡ª" Alex already swung his sword, making her unable to say another thing because she needed to avoid it. "Fufu. So, that''s how it is. If you don''t stop me, your real name will be revealed. If you stop me, I know your real identity. A hard choice, huh?" She smiled as if she just saw through him. Alex, on the other hand, expelled the needles that tried to block the flow of his blood and used his Pure Fire to boost his legs, getting some distance from them. Aria didn''t shout or say anything regarding his real name. She had expected "Nyx" wasn''t his real name, but since he didn''t have the intention to say it, she made that bet. "Before you do another thing, how about we have a talk first on how to resolve this problem. Well, it''s certainly my lucky day." She smiled. "And don''t try to play the fool because I can inform my father at any moment. If you think that fake mark can protect you, then you are underestimating my ability as a doctor." [This Kubard is a sly one. The reason she is there must be because he knows that you will eventually come to this place to learn about Sword Qi and Spear Qi.] ''What should I do?'' [Negotiate with her. If it''s not working, I will try to talk with Kubard since they have found you. If it''s not possible, Eulja is ready for a big war.] Alex took a few deep breaths before he put down Aria. "Let''s go inside first." He thought their appearance would be a big thing, so it would be best to go inside as to not get any attention from other people. She smiled and nodded. Alex brought them inside before Aria immediately chose to make tea for them. Alex looked at the two with a serious expression. "You don''t need to be this serious. I am different from my father. Still, I wonder whether the one I am talking about right now is with Alexander Sirius or Spirit God?" She narrowed her eyes. Alex thought for a moment. "Alexander Sirius." "I see." She glanced at the time guy and introduced him. "He is Navin. My Father''s new disciple. He told me that both of you have met in the past." Navin nodded with a calm expression. "I am just escorting you while searching for someone. Since there is a particular person, I am just checking his movement to know whether that is him or not. After all, only a few people can be calm by my Time Element for the first time." "¡­" Alex glared at him. "He pretty much hates you, it seems." She smiled. "I don''t have an excuse. Unfortunately, I can''t say anything regarding my reasons. If you want to fight me, I will accompany you. If not, I am fine as well. For now, I will be waiting outside." He rose and left the house. Noticing Alex''s gaze return to her, she smiled. "I am sure that you don''t know the purpose of my visit to this world. In a sense, my father knew that no matter what you did, you would need Sword and Spear Qi, so instead of searching aimlessly, I should come here and wait. Of course, we have talked it out with the three Rank 3 Gods in this world. I am visiting the sect to search for someone, and it turns out my luck is out of the chart today." Alex remained silent. "Let me see, with how my father acts, I am sure you are wary against me, but I am not that unreasonable. It''s true that I idolize the Spirit God, but it might not be the same for Alexander Sirius. Well, you can say I have been trained by my father to marry the Spirit God, but we have agreed to let me see the real person first before deciding that. I think what we should be negotiating is regarding that. Don''t you think?" Alex looked down and opened his mouth. "What do you want?" "That''s not very nice, you know. How about letting me see your real appearance first? The burn mark is fake, and your hair is dyed. After that, we can talk earnestly. What do you think?" Aria placed the tea on the table before saying. "I will excuse myself since I believe this is not my place to intervene." "Oh?! Another wife material?" She smiled before realizing her eyes. "Your eyes¡­Can you let me take a look? I am a doctor, so I know what type of eyes that can be cured and one that cannot." Aria''s body shook before glancing at Alex. "Go on." Alex nodded. "And she is not my wife." Silvia smiled, didn''t comment, and placed her hand on top of Aria''s eyes. Channeling her Divine Energy, she scanned her eyes before smiling. "I think this one can be cured. There are indeed some defects in your eyes, but I can certainly cure you. Unfortunately, I need a few medicinal herbs to nurture your eyes first before treating it." Aria opened her mouth, but no words came out. The thing she hoped for had finally blessed her with its presence, but when it really came, she didn''t know whether she should take this choice or not. "Well, we can talk about it after I talk with him." She patted her shoulders. "I understand." Aria nodded and left them alone. Alex then put off the burn mark, regretting that he shouldn''t let go of his mask even though it was just for less than a minute. "What do you want?" "Such a handsome face." She stared at him while smiling. "Well, since you asked me what I want, there are a few things. I want you to be my husband, I want your seed, I want you to date me now and so on, but yeah, everything is like that. I am sure you don''t like it, right?" Alex clenched his fists and nodded. "That''s why I am not going to push you into the corner. I am sure you don''t want to have a big war against my father, right? Although we might lose, you will need to face many risks just by knowing you are alive. The easiest way is to marry me, but that option is not the best. I don''t like using a threat as well, so I want both of us to think of the solution. "But let me say my piece first. I just want us to have a go first for a while. After a certain period, if it''s not possible, I won''t say anything and convince my father that it is not possible. What do you think? This is a pretty good solution, right?" Alex thought for a moment and shook his head. "I don''t have the resolve to do that." "Resolve, huh. I almost forgot that the most well-known behavior from the Spirit God was to be responsible for everything around him no matter how important they were. I see, that''s one point that I love and one of the biggest reasons why I idolize him." She smiled. "In that case, how do you want to solve this?" Alex thought for a moment, having no solution at the moment. "This is hard, you know. I mean, you should give me some chances too." She sighed. "And I ask you sincerely. As much as I don''t want to use the threat of my father, I still desire to know the current Alexander Sirius myself. Besides, even if it''s not possible between us, I think I would love to have a friend like you. I can protect you or my father will help you in the future. With his help, you will have two God Kings, stopping any others to think of attacking Eulja." "There are two reasons why I don''t like the idea." Alex sighed and chose to explain. "First, I am not fond of having someone who thinks of relationsh.i.p.s as business and calculates everything from benefits and loss. Second, I don''t like to be forced anymore." "I see." She closed her eyes for a second and smiled. "In that case, I would like to ask Mister Alexander Sirius to give me a chance to know you more. If in three years we know that it''s not possible, I will give up. Of course, you can use Eulja''s time for these three years. "I would love to see how you act and do things, and I promise to not hinder you or something that will risk your identity. After all, not everyone is destined to be married. Besides, it''s not like I can simply leave this world after discussing the terms and agreements with this world, right? I still need to live here for a period of time. I can create a new identity as well." Alex never thought that the person in front of him would step back like this. From what he heard about this Palm God, he would do everything possible just to have him as his son-in-law. And he would most likely force him in the process. "That¡­" Alex still hesitated. [Why don''t you accept it? It''s not like you have something to lose. And I have asked all the spies regarding her information. Her words are credible, and her personality is trustworthy. From others'' perspectives, she is one of the most talented people in the universe. Achieving Rank 5 God within three hundred years old.] "Well, I should talk about myself first, right? I have told you my name and my father. As for my strength, I am a doctor, specializes in acupuncture. I can literally save anyone as long as they do not die. I am known as a Light Goddess instead of a Divine Doctor or something because my Light Element is a bit special¡­No one knows about this other than my family, but I will tell you to show my sincerity. My Light Element can carry a huge amount of Spiritual Energy that is very useful in healing people." "¡­" Alex closed his eyes. Chapter 954 - Agreement Alex closed his eyes, feeling troubled. On one hand, her proposal indeed interested him since he could see her sincerity as well. On the other hand, this was against his personality. This bothered him the most. If another person were in his position, they would accept this instantly, but he couldn''t. The room fell silent for a few minutes before he asked. "Since you come here with that intention, I can respect that, but what is he doing here?" "He? Ah, you must be talking about Navin. After meeting with my father, he has become my father''s disciple, so he is escorting me right now. According to his words, he is also searching for his wife, so I let him go with me." She nodded. "Do you know that he had attacked me without any reason?" "He had a reason, but he just couldn''t say it. I don''t know the reason too, but it seems all of us are at risk." Alex thought for a moment and found something that would create such a situation. "So, that''s how it is. I don''t know his ability, but I have finally realized why he attacked me." She smiled. "That''s good then." "You are not going to ask me? Your life is at risk too, you know." "You can say it to me if you want. But if you don''t want to, I won''t ask. I don''t say I am curious, but something is better to not be known. Besides, you might be telling me in the near future, fufu." She smiled. Alex let out a long sigh. "I admit defeat. For now, I will introduce myself first." She stopped him and said, "Alexander Sirius. The bone is 48 years old according to Eulja''s time. From the skin and your body''s structure, you are a Rank 9 God¡­Might reach Rank 8 God in a few months to one year this world''s time. There is indeed a change in your body, but I think the basics are still the same. "As for your element, I can see Fire Element and Space Element enhancing your body. The Fire Element is a Pure Element because it''s at a level I have never seen before. The same applies to your Space Element, but I don''t think it''s a Pure Space Element because it lacks the power like your Fire Element. Well, that''s how much I can observe with my eyes and my knowledge as a doctor." Alex widened his eyes in amazement. He never thought that his body would show that much information. "Of course, I don''t think I need to say this, but I can see that you are using a Sword in your right hand and a Spear with your left hand from your hands'' appearance alone. And seeing there is a remnant of blood and medicine, I think you are an Alchemist and an Array Master. Unfortunately, I can''t see or sense any type of metallic things in your hand, so you are not a Forging Master. That''s all I can see from you." [This girl is dangerous for various reasons.] Alex had the same opinion and let out a long sigh. "Hehe, I think I am right for the most part. That''s my intake as a doctor. If I don''t have this kind of knowledge, I don''t think I can see your true strength. I don''t know how you did it, but you have completely sealed your Divine Energy and Divine Soul, so no one would recognize you unless they try to stimulate your Divine Body. "The Space Element is weird as well and hidden pretty well. I am not sure at first, but I can see a fluctuation around your body, so I know. The hand that holds a spear is different from those who use bows, swords, or any other kind of weapon. Although it''s hard to spot, if you are a doctor with a Divine Body, your senses can pick it up. "As for the lingering scene of medicinal herbs and blood, it''s hard to pick up unless you know the intensity of someone using medicinal herbs and someone refining medicinal herbs. It comes to experience. The same applies to blood. No matter how hard you wash it, as long as there is a minuscule amount of it, it''s still possible to detect it because it has been ingrained in your hand. I can help you remove it though." Alex scratched his head, wondering what he had done wrong to see someone capable of seeing through him. No wonder Lin Xingzhi classified her as dangerous. Her skills were monstrous. "So, three years is it?" "Do you accept?" She had an expectant look and felt happy that she finally managed to convince him. "I have a few conditions and questions before that." "Sure. We can talk about it." "First, I have the right to refuse since I don''t want someone to just force her will on me if I know it will be dangerous to me or both of us." "I understand. I don''t like to impose my ideal on someone as well. I am content if you give me some chances from time to time. I would like to know you more as the reincarnation of someone I idolize." "That one too. I would like to separate myself from the past image." "Oh?! I am sorry if I make you feel uncomfortable. I will refrain myself from now on." "Before moving to the second condition, I want to know what he will do in this world." "He won''t do something and probably train for most of the time. After all, it''s true that the Sword Qi from this world is very useful. According to the sect master of the Unsurpassed Blade Sect, he can train here as long as he promises with Universe Oath to not tell or teach a single person including his child in the future." "I see." Alex thought for a moment. "I don''t mind if you tag along in a mission that is possible for such a thing, but if it''s a special mission, especially one with a supervisor, I am afraid it''s not possible. I don''t want anyone to question my identity." "I can see why. The reason is the same as you hiding from my father, right?" Alex nodded. "Alright. Just inform me when you leave." "As for the third condition, I want to ask where do you live right now?" "I am living in the First Peak. I can move my temporary house anywhere." "No. Please don''t. If you suddenly change your house, I will be troubled. You can stay there, and I promise to create a Teleportation Array in your house, so you can visit here anytime you want." "Hehe, so sweet." She smiled. "This confirmed another thing that my father told me. When you agreed to something, you would do anything to the best of your ability to satisfy both parties." Alex shrugged. "Fine. I will be content with just that. Although I have promised them to help them from time to time, I can ask them to put the message in front of my house, so it''s a kind of appointment first before getting the treatment. They won''t realize if I am gone." She smiled. "Then, take this." Alex took out a token and handed it to her. "I can feel the direction and the length if it''s not that far. I will go there later by using my Space Element and draw the array before linking it up with the one in this house. Of course, Aria¡­I mean, the one who is staying with me doesn''t know about this, so I want you to tell them it''s your ability." "Sure. I can do that much. It''s not like I have something important." "Then, the third condition will be about your identity. I want you to impersonate someone so no one is surprised by your presence. And if the peak master visits here, I want you to hide." "Sure. If I am not wrong, the peak master here is a Rank 5 God, so I think I have the ability to hide from her with my own strength." "There is another solution, but I don''t know if you will agree or not." "Tell me about it." "I can seal your strength with my Space Element just like how I seal my strength. After that, with you using a new face, we can just forge an identity about you being Aria''s or my friend." Silvia thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I don''t mind you sealing my strength. But do you have a way to suddenly unseal the strength?" "There are two ways of canceling it. The first way is to go far away from me. Secondly, I unseal it normally. If you are in your house, I won''t have enough control to maintain the seal. Meanwhile, I can keep it as long as you are close to me." "In that case, I only need to have another face when I am here or doing a mission with you, right?" "Yes. Of course, the mission is with Aria as well because I have promised her to train her." "Sure. It''s nice to go along with a wife candidate." "As I said¡ª" "Right." She rolled her eyes, not buying it, especially after seeing how intimate he was with Aria. Of course, it was normal to have such a thought when she saw her hand touching his face. If she looked at the entire situation, she wouldn''t misunderstand. "Whatever. I am too tired to explain the entire situation. You can ask her about it later." Alex let out a long sigh. "Well, do you want to make a better cover? I can make the burn mark as smooth as possible to the point you can feel the Spiritual Energy from that wound as if it''s connected to your body. Even a doctor like me has trouble seeing through that disguise." She smiled. "Of course, the same applies to your hair. I can change it in a natural way." Alex looked at her and hesitated for a second. "Is your current appearance a disguise too?" "Of course not. With my acupuncture, I can change one''s body structure. If I go even further, I can use my Light Element to create a new foundation in your body. For example, in stage one, I can change your voice, skin or hair color, or even your body. Ah, by the way, mine is natural alright? I never use it on myself even though I can give more volumes to one''s curves." "¡­" Alex fell silent and chose not to comment on this. "And at the second stage, I can manipulate your body to the point of changing your gender while turning the yang into yin. With present technology, you can change your gender, but you will still have yang energy in your body. Although it doesn''t really matter for daily activity, it''s a big influence on your cultivation. Just tell me if you feel like becoming a woman to test the pleasure of being one." She grinned slyly. "I don''t have that desire and won''t ever have one." Alex shook his head, wanting to smack this girl''s head, albeit refrained himself as he didn''t know her long enough to do something like that. "Anyway, I have no problem with your conditions. Any more conditions?" "It''s not a condition but an agreement. I will respect you and your opinion, so I hope you can do the same. If there is friction or some problems, instead of solving it alone with some sorts of excuses on behalf of love or whatever bullsh*t, I would like you to talk about it with me." "Hehe¡­Now, I am more interested in you. True enough. Family is built by two opposite genders, not one. We don''t sacrifice so someone can live, but we sacrifice ourselves because we want to live with them." Alex nodded. He adapted this principle when he saw his previous self die in that beast''s hand. When he put it in his perspective, he didn''t know whether he was able to refrain himself from committing suicide. After all, there wouldn''t be another prophecy. Chapter 955 - Bringing Silvia Home "Well, please take care of me." She bowed her head. "For now, how about you return first? Too long here will just catch someone''s attention." "Fine. There is something I need to deal with anyway, so I will be leaving for today and tomorrow. You can make the Teleportation Array the day after tomorrow." "Just activate the token, and I will know when you are ready." Alex shrugged. "I understand." She smiled. "One more thing that I need to confirm. You are Nyx in this world, and you don''t have a plan to stay for too long, right?" "Yes." He nodded. "In that case, I have a solution for that. As long as we have a body, we can transform it into you before I use my Light Element to cover it with Spiritual Energy, making it look like you have died. What do you think about it?" "That''s an interesting idea, but I can''t choose for the time being." Alex nodded, not agreed or disagreed. "Alright, then. See you later." She smiled while waving her hand. When he saw her off, he dropped to the ground while scratching his head. "I am tired of this. There was Nella not long ago and now this¡­" [A popular guy. Still, I am surprised that you don''t have anyone to supervise Nella. You must have recognized her sudden transformation, right?] "Yeah. That''s why I am not confident in leaving anyone to pay close attention to her. I feel like there is something weird with the Spear Mark on her forehead. If I send someone to supervise her and it turns out to be something that can catch them, the situation will become even more complicated." Alex let out a long sigh. [I see. You have used your Spirit Eyes for a long time, so I guess you can start differentiating this type of thing. I don''t have an objection to your decision, but I will remind you one more time about the danger.] "I know. I am not planning to stay for a long time in this world. There is a chance that I will take Silvia''s suggestion and use my death to stop her in the future. If that is still not enough, then I will have no choice but to kill her to prevent another Shelka." Alex nodded with a serious expression. [Since you have the vision for the future, then there is nothing to worry about. I will ask the N Squad to monitor that world and make sure that Nella didn''t do anything suspicious when she leaves the world. We can observe her ten to twenty years before confirming her real intention.] "Yeah. I will leave that matter to you after I leave this world. For now, there is no need. If she is indeed someone that I think she is, she won''t harm me for a short time." [I understand. Then, how about Silvia? I feel the situation is under control, right?] "Yeah, but I still feel bad for doing this. It''s just not fit with my conscience." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the stress. [I know that you are doing this for the best of everyone. I mean, there will be many Spirits dying if we indeed have a war against the Palm God. They are willing, but it''s still unnecessary death. Besides, it''s only three years of Eulja''s time. You will at least live for another two years of Eulja''s time there before you can enter the Sword Pavilion, so I guess you will only need to fix the problem in the last one year.] "I hope it''s as simple as that. She is a doctor, right? If she pokes me here and there with her power, won''t my chastity be in danger?" [Pfft. You have nothing to lose for a one-night stand.] "I have. I will lose my conscience." [Fine, fine. For now, we can only wait and see. At the very least, there won''t be any conflict with the Palm God, and you have someone to take care of you when you are there, so I feel relieved.] "Anyway, according to the agreement, I will give her a chance. Whether it will stay just as a simple agreement or not in the future, that will depend on many things. I just want to know that this is my stance. Do you have a problem with this arrangement?" Alex asked. [Nope. From my perspective, it''s indeed good to have someone that powerful in the family, more so with her potential that can be said to be the peak. If nothing goes wrong, I have no doubt she can reach God King in the future. That is something I would like to see and very beneficial to our Eulja. As for her own character, I don''t have any qualms at the moment. I said it earlier, but her personality doesn''t seem to be twisted, so I won''t need to watch my back.] "If you are fine, then it''s good. I want you to ask the others as well." [Sure. It will take a day for them to reply, but I can tell them about this. Though, I believe the others share the same opinion as me.] "Just ask them first." [Alright. I will be leaving you for now.] "Yeah. Thank you." Alex nodded and let out a long sigh before Aria came inside the house. Finding Alex on the ground, she asked. "What happened to you? Is she your wife? Or maybe your soon-to-be wife? Wait. Don''t tell me you just want to escape marriage, so you hide in this world?" "Oi, oi. Don''t let your imagination go wild." Alex stopped her. "It''s not like what you are thinking. Let me solve this problem in two days before I explain everything to you, alright?" "I understand." "You can practice alone for now. I need some time to cool my head." Alex waved his hand, telling her to go. Before leaving for training, Aria stood still for a few seconds and said. "Nyx, I am sorry. If I didn''t pressure you and crack your mask to the point it fell off, they wouldn''t know it was you." "It''s fine. With her so-called insight, I feel like I won''t escape that long either." Alex shook his head. "Just think of it as my bad day." She hesitated and chose to leave him alone. That day ended peacefully, and Alex started teaching Aria again the next day until he found the token lit up that night. "Alright. You can continue by yourself. I need to deal with another matter." Alex informed her and went straight to the house before using his Spatial Gate to enter the Space World. Within that world, Alex ran toward the direction that the token gave him. When he arrived, he created another Spatial Gate to return to the real world right inside her house''s training field. Silvia seemed to have noticed it too and proceeded to meet him. Unlike the previous time, she wore a black shirt, brown leather shorts, and a long white coat that many doctors from Earth used. Her black hair was replaced with brown color tied into a twin tail, resting on her chest. "You are rushing to this place?" She was a little surprised, thinking Alex would arrive in another thirty minutes or so. "No. I just want to finish this as soon as possible." "Oh. Well, I only need to put down this coat of mine, and we are set to go. Do you think anyone will recognize me if I have this appearance?" "No, unless you purposely lead them to your identity with that tone and style of yours." "I can adjust my pitch a little bit with some simple acupunctures." She nodded. "Anyway, do you want me to treat you first? Like the trace of medicinal herbs, blood, burn marks, and your hair?" "I think you can do that after going to my house. I can explain to Aria while you are at it." Alex shook his head. "I see. Then, come in first. I will show you the perfect room to place the Teleportation Array." She waved her hand, asking him to go inside. Alex hesitated once more before coming in. There was not much difference between this house and his, so he ignored most of the portion of the house and headed straight to a certain room. "You can use this room." "This is¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I just built this secret room today." She smiled, presenting him a secret room under her own bed. The entrance was like a free fall for a few meters before hitting the room. "I need to be extra careful while dealing with you, so yeah, I use a bit of my time to make this." Alex nodded. "Thanks. I will proceed then." She stepped back and saw Alex spreading the monster blood in the whole room before using his Spiritual Energy to control them. Symbols after symbols were made and planted on the room before slowly turning into an array. Alex didn''t forget to make the connection with the Teleportation Array he made in his room. After testing that it could be activated, he nodded. "It''s done." "You are fast. I had seen many Array Masters, but none was as fast as you." "It''s due to my mastery in alchemy that allows me to achieve this kind of control." He shrugged. "I am now curious about your alchemy. As you might already know, I am a Doctor, and obviously, I need to make my own medicine, so I have learned Alchemy. It seems it will be interesting to talk about Alchemy with you." She smiled. "Not really. I only can make two Divine Pills, so you shouldn''t waste your time. I just have too many things to master everything." Alex sighed. "Anyway, aren''t you supposed to ready yourself?" "Ah, I was mesmerized by your unique approach, so I couldn''t help it. Just wait for five minutes. I will be done." She immediately leaped to the surface and took off her coat. After confirming everything was perfect, she returned to the room. "I am ready." "By the way, what is your name?" "I am Sil¡ªAh, you must be asking my pseudo name. I will just use Mya as my name. The background will depend on you since you understand this world more than I do." "Alright then. We can discuss it with Aria as well. Before that, I need to seal your cultivation first. There is a chance you will die because of this, but if you trust me¡ª" "It''s fine. You don''t need to explain. Just seal my cultivation." She smiled. "I am ready for any kind of risks, including you." Alex never expected that she easily trusted him like this. However, her smile told him that she was serious about this. Thinking for a while, he stretched his hand and touched her head. The Space Element then entered her body and created a special realm that sucked her cultivation. Silvia let him do whatever he wanted, even though there was a possibility of Alex killing her with her current strength. When he finished sealing her, there was a period of time that Alex just stared at her, but she only put on her biggest smile as if she completely trusted him. He let out a long sigh before activating the array. "Teleport." Alex and Silvia then appeared in Alex''s room. "So, this is your room." She smiled while looking around, only to find Array and one bed in his room. "You didn''t do anything in your room?" "There is nothing I can do here." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, I will call Aria first." Alex walked outside his room, opening the door that led him to the field. "Aria, come inside. We have something to talk about." Hearing his voice, she nodded and walked toward him before noticing a female behind him. "She is¡­" Aria furrowed her eyebrows. She thought it would be Silvia, but she couldn''t feel any similarity from her, making it confusing. "I am Nyx''s girlfriend, Mya. Nice to meet you." She smiled and clung to Alex''s hand playfully. "¡­" Chapter 956 - Massage "I see. You are the woman who came and attacked him yesterday." Aria nodded her head with a calm expression. "¡­" This time, it was Silvia''s turn to be dumbfounded as she subconsciously released Alex''s hand. She never expected Aria to talk to her like that after seeing her yesterday. "Pfft." Alex looked away and laughed. The one that had been in control since yesterday was her, so it felt a bit satisfying to see her like that. "Alright. Joke aside, nice to meet you. I am Aria Cypress. May I know what the situation is?" She asked politely, knowing that the one in front of her was a God Rank Expert who was even stronger than Alex. "Come inside. I will explain the situation and clear up a few things." With Alex''s invitation, she went inside as they sat while facing each other. "For now, she is going to do many things with us, so I want to make up her identity first. Her name is Mya. Why is she with us¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "Just say she is your friend that has become a disciple of this sect not long ago." "We need to have another reason why you let her come here." Aria looked at Alex. Since Alex''s desire to stay alone was known to a few people, he needed to justify that reason. "How about I am your friend that you''ve known since many years ago? I came here one or two decades ago because I wanted to see the world, leaving you alone there. After knowing that you are here, I decided to visit you. We can throw a childhood sweetheart as a bonus. That''s a more convincing reason¡­Like you come here because you are searching for me." She smiled. Alex was speechless on how every plan was connected to him and her being a lovey-dovey couple. "Anyway, we can make her my long-lost friend who became a jerk and left me in the past just to pursue her cultivation. And now she wants to get back like this." Alex nodded as if he thought this excuse was perfect. "Oi!" Silvia pouted. "I understand. That''s the base of our story then." Aria nodded in agreement, pouring even more salt on her wound. "Why am I the one who gets bullied here." She sighed. "Normally, no one dares to make fun of me." "That''s that, this is different. Unless you do me good or respect me, I won''t respect you. If you make things difficult for me or do something ridiculous, then don''t expect me to treat you well." Alex shrugged. "Fine, fine. Take it as my mistake. I pay the price with this kind of stupid background story, alright?" She looked down, admitting defeat. This Alex really didn''t pull his punch. "Anyway, I have an agreement with her while I am here. As for when I come back? I don''t know yet. At least, I will stay until I have completed the Sword Pavilion trial." Alex nodded. "I understand. I will do my best during the time you are here." Aria then looked at Silvia. "May I know what will Senior do here?" "Enough with this senior. Just treat me like I am your friend, so call me Mya." She thought for a moment and glanced at Alex. "I should be working on your cover first." "Ah, yes. Please." She then rose while smiling, taking off his mask. A few needles appeared on her hand as she started poking the needles one by one around his face. "What are you doing?" "You have seen the burn marks, right? That''s fake." "The burn marks? Oh, I see." "Hehe¡­" Silvia interjected proudly. "I can see it through in a single glance. So, I am doing him a favor to make a perfect one for him." "By the way, you can find a medicinal herb called Paniuoma. It''s a Rank 8 medicinal herb that can nurture your eyes, considering it has never been used for a long time. And I can see that you are training a certain Eyes Technique, yes?" "Yes." "You can use the Eyes Technique during the process, and you will find it will become stronger and stronger. However, if you want the biggest effect, you can search for a Divine Herb called Sun Ganoderma. It can revive your dead eyes and nurture them as if they are reborn. Your choice." "I understand. I will try to ask my family to search for it." Alex thought for a moment and searched for the two herbs in his Inventory, but he didn''t find any. It seemed, even the garden that his previous life left him didn''t have an herb like this." "Anyway, the nurturing period will last a few months. If I happen to leave this world first before you can do it, you can search for me when you reach God Rank. I will treat you as a friend." She smiled. "Thank you." Aria smiled and bowed her head. "It''s fine. You have beautiful eyes, so it''s a shame that the world doesn''t know it." "For now, I will be training with you since I am curious what kind of training that this guy gives you to the point there are many bruises on your body. The bruises are not external, but it''s internal. In fact, I should heal you first. This guy also has it, but he had reset it when he reached God Rank and attained the Divine Body. But you? You need treatment. Let''s go to your room first. I will give you a message. I am sure you will feel relaxed, and the flow of your Spiritual Energy becomes even stronger." Aria hesitated for a second and saw Alex nodding his head. "I will be in your care." "Good. Since we don''t have anything to do, let''s finish this." She rose from her seat and helped Aria up before dragging her to her room. Meanwhile, Alex decided to clean up the mess in his room before he found a sweet voice coming from Aria''s room. It was none other than Aria''s sweet m.o.a.ns. With just listening for a second, everyone would know she felt pleasure from the massage. Alex simply ignored her sweet voice and continued his training. However, he was shocked by another thing. It was Aria''s breakthrough after a whole night of massage. "What in the world is that massage?" Alex couldn''t help but comment, wondering if it was this easy to advance to another stage. If that was the case, he wanted the same massage to reach Rank 8 God. After another few hours, Alex came out of his room since it was his usual time to get his own training. When he came out, he found Silvia doing something in the kitchen. "Oh, you are out? This is your breakfast. It''s just a Rank 8 herb that can circulate your Spiritual Energy faster." She smiled. "Hmm?!" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting to have breakfast. Cultivators don''t need to eat. This is a general rule because they can absorb the Spiritual Energy and turn it to fulfill their hunger. "You have never had breakfast?" She tilted her head. "Well, I want to apologize as well because I am not a cook. If I can cook better, I can cook medicinal herbs and monster meat into something nutritious that can supply Spiritual Energy for morning training. I have found a world in my journey that uses such a method instead of pills, so I know it''s possible. It''s amazing to see many kinds of jobs that we think are useless actually have a powerful strength if they''re used in the right way." "Indeed." Alex nodded in agreement. "Here, eat this salad first and finish the tea. I will fix your hands and any other broken "gears" in your body." She grabbed Alex''s right hand and began massaging it. Alex was startled at first because the massage didn''t hurt. He thought to fix the problems would require strength like how he used to watch. He used his left hand to eat breakfast while glancing at her from time to time, finding her very different when she treated someone. All the playfulness disappeared. He could only feel her gentleness and care of his body. Not long after, his nose picked up a weird smell, so he took another glimpse at his hand, realizing it came from there. "It only needs another two minutes before everything is expelled. I will do your other hand after that before moving to your entire body." She smiled. "Still, I am wondering what kind of training do you have this whole time?" "Why?" Alex asked. "Your body is breaking and recovering again and again. This doesn''t really have any effect if you keep cultivating, but it will wear your body out when you are old." She sighed. "I can fix this because you are not too old, but if you have passed five hundred years old, this type of thing can''t be repaired anymore. Can I observe your training, so I can give input from a doctor''s perspective?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "It''s not like I am doing something special, so I guess you can. The training is like breaking your limit again and again every single day to increase your cultivation speed and body strength." "What do you mean by that?" "I mean, if I ask you to run and you can only run five laps, I will ask you to run six laps. If you can continue, I will ask you to do another lap and so on until you collapse. I found this when I was training like a crazy cultivator and felt the effect." "That is hard and painful to train. Not many people know the side effect, but if they know, they will start thinking. Luckily, you meet me before the worst happens. By the way, who else has been training like this?" "Ehm¡­My Disciple, maid, and someone under my tutelage." "I need to fix their bodies too. There are many dead cells acc.u.mulated in your body, so I need to expel them with my massage. If you pass five hundred years old, I don''t suggest you keep this training, you hear me?" "I understand." Alex nodded with a serious expression. The agreement was only there a few days ago, and she had become this caring, so how could Alex ignore this good warning? After finishing his right hand, she moved to his left hand. "You are not tired?" Alex asked with a concerned face. The massage required Spiritual Energy, so it must be tiring to keep it up for a whole night for Aria. And she even served him breakfast and did all this. "Nope. I am good. I understand now why you are only this young but reach this step. I don''t know if I should call you a genius or reckless, but either way, you are the youngest one I have ever known to reach Rank 9 God before fifty years old." She sighed. "I have many things that push my back to advance forward, so this is the result. I have no regret." Alex shrugged. "Still, to think I am holding a man''s hand like this. When everyone tried to know about me, they would always meet my father''s iron palm. I was told that I served only to marry the Spirit God''s reincarnation. I indeed idolize him, but when I found you, truth to be told, I feel a bit empty." She felt a bit down. "Empty?" "Yes. There is nothing special when I first met you in person. Even when I negotiated everything with you, I didn''t know how I felt at that time. Since my father had raised me up like that, I chose to continue this. I used yesterday to handle all the business with this sect while thinking about this seriously. "Unfortunately, I simply had no clue about this. Only when I tried this and knew you a bit better with the conversations yesterday and talked to you like this, I feel this is not bad. It just makes me relaxed. Well, I just want you to know that." She smiled before rising from the seat and pushed Alex from behind, so he sat a bit forward, giving her space to start her massage. "I have finished with your hands, so I will start giving you a massage." Chapter 957 - Exchanging Knowledge When she started the massage, he finally realized why Aria let out such a m.o.a.n last night. The pleasant feeling indeed permeated all over his body. The dead cells in Silvia''s mouth slowly made their way out of his body as if thousands of ants were leaving his body. It was weird but pleasant because he felt that his body became light and Spiritual Energy inside his body flowed better than normal. Alex closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the feeling. He had been cultivating in the harsh way where he constantly got pain, so when he received something like this, it felt weird. "Hmm." Alex groaned before starting to circulate his Spiritual Energy around. The Spiritual Energy in the surroundings then turned Divine Energy, and his body absorbed it so naturally. She smiled and kept doing it for an hour. Although Alex didn''t advance to the next stage, his strength had increased drastically. After finishing the massage, Silvia smiled and cleaned up while waiting for him to finish. Aria came out of her room during that time and went to the field when she saw Alex cultivating. Even without him, she knew what to do in her training. And Silvia was watching him anyway, so there shouldn''t be any problem. It took him another five hours before his body finally calmed down, lessening his cultivation speed to the normal level. Silvia came to his vision as soon as he opened his eyes and asked. "How do you feel? Is there any difference?" "I feel amazing. Not only did my energy flow even more smoothly, but it also channeled even more energy. What was my condition actually?" "Because you were pushing your limit continuously, your veins clogged up. I am removing them with my massage. Of course, this technique is special because everything comes from my power such as my sensitivity, knowledge, and element. And now, you are free from that. Your body is adjusting to that new state a moment ago and allows you to increase your cultivation by a large amount in a short period of time." She smiled. "Then, won''t it be more effective if I keep doing that before I am five hundred years old? I mean, I can arrive at that state from time to time and ask you for the massage?" Alex asked. In his mind, this type of cultivation would revolutionize the cultivation system. However, when everything sounded too good to be true, it was the time he needed to question it. "If it''s that simple¡­I can''t use it on one''s body continuously because it will mess up with your foundation. If you want, I can do it once more, but I will do it when you want it in the future, even if we go separate ways." She smiled. "Thank you." Alex nodded. Despite how gentle and good she was, he still couldn''t trust her one hundred percent. There was not enough time to determine her personality, considering he just met her yesterday. "You''re welcome. That''s right. Aria has started her training. Are you going to train as well?" Alex thought for a moment while checking his body. With the leap he had a moment ago, he might be able to reach Rank 8 God within one year. That was why he decided to shift half of his schedule for training to increase the amount of his Sword Qi. This way, he should be able to reach Rank 8 God within a year, and his Sword Qi might be more than he expected. After coming to a new conclusion, he looked at Silvia and nodded. "I need to get stronger as fast as possible, so I can''t afford to waste my time." "Is that because of the calamity beast?" She asked. "Eh?!" Alex widened his eyes. "How¡ª" "My father knows that your previous life died under its hand. After gathering enough information, including the one from Navin, he realized that the beast would soon terrorize this universe. He was convinced only after he found a clue about your reincarnation. The only one that fought that beast and sealed it was you, so the one who would solve it was you as well. "Because of Navin''s special ability, which I know nothing about, my father told me to wait for you instead of searching. After all, you will need strength to face the beast. Even if I am not by your side, I will assist you in this matter as a friend. Well, these are a few reasons why I do this." Alex stared at her eyes for a moment before blinking a few times. "Well, I am thankful for your help. Rather than talking about this complicated topic, it''s better to proceed to practice first. You should know that your Rank 5 God strength is not enough, right?" "Indeed." She nodded. "You don''t mind if I observe your training, right? I would like to know and maybe give some advice to improve the method." "Sure." Alex then went to the field with Silvia following him. When Aria noticed their presence, she stopped for a moment and asked. "Have you finished your business?" "Yeah. Sorry for the wait. I will be going to train with you." Alex nodded. "Time surely flies. Only one more month before reaching one year mark." "I agree. I never thought I would be able to reach 3-Star Martial Saint in just a year, especially from 9-Star Martial Monarch." "It''s your talent. I am just helping you." Alex smiled. "You have talent." Aria smiled when she heard Alex''s praise. No talent could bloom when the person didn''t recognize it. If Alex didn''t come, she wouldn''t hear and have this kind of progress. "Thanks." She smiled while watching Alex prepare his body for training. The two then started their usual training. Silvia supervised the entire training, especially how they broke their limit and collapsed to the ground. When that time came, she tried to help the recovery process and took a few notes on their condition. Alex usually used a third to two-thirds of his day to break his limit while the rest was used to cultivate. When Silvia helped them up, Alex asked. "So, how is it?" "That is something new to me. I have never thought that such a thing exists and can be exploited every single day. No wonder you can reach your level at that age. This will revitalize the entire cultivation system. However, you need a doctor like me to make sure you don''t have any side effects from the old days. "The training itself is already pretty good, and I don''t have any complaints regarding that. Anyway, I don''t see any problem other than how torturous it is. I mean, I doubt many people can do something like that because they need to do it every single day. It''s like you are dying and reviving repeatedly every day. "In a normal person''s point of view, it is something hellish. Not many dare to think about something like this, so I guess there is a plus as well regarding this method. That''s my honest opinion about your training." She approved Alex''s method of training. "What kind of side effect will we have?" Aria found something troubling and asked. "It''s quite big. If you manage to reach God King, you might not be on par with the other God Kings. Of course, it will be different if you have a powerful technique surpassing normal God Kings. And your wounds are harder to heal as well because your natural recovery has been exhausted to build up your body. There are two others, but I guess this one can be minimized with a medicinal bath to relax your body." "It is indeed big. There is also a chance that the other God Kings will think twice before attacking this kind of geniuses, but when you corner them, they will realize your true strength and kill you. In other words, it will be the fight in the mind level." Aria nodded. She never dreamed of being a Rank 1 God, but Silvia said there was a potential to do that if she continued in this path. Even if she were weaker than any God Kings, she would still be the strongest in this world. No one would mess with her family in the future, so she thought nothing of it. However, she heard Silvia added something interesting. "The side effect can be erased by my massage. One more time, and I can''t really do it anymore unless you want to have a ruined foundation." "Then¡­" Aria thought for a moment. If she was able to become a God King, there were two scenarios that she would have regarding Silvia. Firstly, Silvia could leak the information about her not being as strong as normal God Kings so many people could attack her. The second possibility was where she asked Silvia''s help to fix the side effect. With the authority and prestige of a God King, there should be a big chance for the second possibility. What made her wonder was Alex''s plan. Although he didn''t find it comfortable, he might need to marry Silvia because of her ability. She already had this knowledge in her head, so she was the one who could create an army of God Kings. Of course, she didn''t know that it required a huge amount of resources. In this house alone, Alex already created a Gathering Array for training purposes and used a huge number of Spirit Crystals. Due to the location and his intention, Aria could absorb the abundant Spiritual Energy coming from a Rank 9 Gathering Array. If she knew that she could only reach 1-Star Martial Saint without a Gathering Array, she would realize how reliant she was with the Gathering Array. Alex, on the other hand, tried to come up with a way to mitigate the risk while waiting for Silvia to restore his strength. "By the way, I would like to ask something." Alex suddenly found a way and wanted to confirm it. "Sure." "What if we use a Divine Herb? If I am not wrong, there is a Divine Herb that can make one''s body reborn, right?" "Yeah. Immortal Tree''s root. This one is like the process you have to endure during the transformation of your mortal body to a Divine Body, so yeah, you will have a new set of your body. This was the reason why your problem wasn''t that big." She nodded. "Did you find anything strange in your Divine Tribulation?" "Nope. There was nothing." Alex shook his head. "I guess there is no penalty from doing this ridiculous training." She nodded. "Do you think there is another person that can heal this body beside you?" Alex innocently asked. She misunderstood this and looked down. "Are you not satisfied with me?" "No, no. I was just curious. If you didn''t want to answer, then alright. I was wondering whether a poison expert could do something like this, so no one would be able to sniff something from my body again like you." Alex sighed. "In that case, I don''t think so. Only doctors can understand your current situation, but not many have Light Element, much less my unique one that can carry one''s strength to heal someone. In fact, many are trying to grab me because of this. If not because of my father''s prestige, I wouldn''t know how my future would end up." Silvia sighed. "You have your own problem, I guess." Aria realized that Silvia must have undergone a harsh childhood because of her ability. Silvia smiled and replied. "Not really. I love my family, and that''s the end. Wait. Maybe it was because of my father''s obsession over someone that he rejected all those marriage offers." "¡­" Alex''s expression darkened. After fully restored, Alex and Aria proceeded to their cultivation. Silvia confirmed that they indeed practiced at a faster rate. Although the effect wasn''t that apparent, if you continued doing this for months or even years, you would realize that your cultivation speed increased due to the increase of your limit. This was really revolutionary, she thought. Silvia couldn''t help but smile as if she had a thought about this. Chapter 958 - A Problem and a Plan Silvia suddenly changed her hairstyle, turning it into a ponytail. She stretched her body as if she wanted to do something. Alex looked at her and gave a nod as confirmation. "I am going to train with both of you. It seems it will be the perfect time to increase my strength drastically. I can deal with the side effect myself, so it will be fine. Time to aim to be a God King within a hundred years, I guess." She smirked. "Please take care of me." Since Alex had no problem, Aria didn''t raise any concern as well. No matter how she looked at her, the latter already did many things for her, so there was no way she could reject it unless Alex rejected her because of suspicion. The training began that day, and the three had their share of fun, knowing how their body worked from Silvia. That way, they might be able to improve something according to her advice. Like Alex and Aria, Silvia learned how ridiculous Alex''s training was. Even she couldn''t follow it that easily. Only due to her feeling that she decided to fight for, she persisted in the training. The training was hard, but she believed she could endure the brutal training for three years. It wasn''t like she didn''t get anything either. Alex and Silvia kept exchanging ideas about the improvement of the training menu, and they somehow managed to increase the efficiency of the training by thirty percent. It was a huge leap, and they felt happy about it. Three weeks passed by, and the peak master seemed to have no mission for them. Unfortunately, the peace couldn''t continue any longer when a bird flew toward Aria with a letter on its feet. This bird was slightly bigger, so the letter was also bigger. She suddenly fell to the ground, dropping the glowing token and the letter. "Aria?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "What happened?" "Do you remember there is a chance that my brother will get attacked?" "Does he¡­" "Yeah. When my brother went back to the house, he was ambushed by a group of bandits. According to the letter, the bandit shouldn''t be around that area. No, it should be on another continent. The reason why it appeared and attacked him¡­" "The woman you saw?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, what is his condition right now?" "He is fine and has contacted my father, but he is trapped inside a Deep Prison Forest. That forest is very dangerous but has abundant resources. He has enough supply to last him for a while, but I don''t think he will last long. As soon as he is found by the monsters there, it will be the last for him. And there are still the bandits along with that woman. If they capture him, they will torture him before killing him." She gritted her teeth. Alex narrowed his eyes. He had talked about this in the past. Due to his identity, he couldn''t risk meddling in anyone''s problem. Aria knew it as well, and there was only one way to save him. It was to ask Alex. After all, the enemy this time had a God Rank Expert, so there was no way she could win against him. Meanwhile, there was another option which was the peak master, but it would mean she owed her a favor. She wouldn''t be able to leave the sect that easily with this type of promise, resulting in her abandoning the promise she had with Alex. Luckily, Aria already informed her brother about this in a roundabout way where he couldn''t get any information about Alex. Even so, with the information alone, he understood how he could be saved and immediately gave it to Aria. Aria kneeled and begged Alex while trying to get his support by throwing the bait. "I beg you to save my brother. I know your principle and the agreement between us. However, there is something you might want from the forest. "It''s a Divine Herb called Eternal Ice Flower. My brother found it when he ran away from the bandits and chose to stay in the cave where it lived. Unfortunately, he couldn''t get it because there was a Rank 9 God Beast protecting the flower. He didn''t know how long it needed to bloom, but he believed it was soon. "Rather than thinking about helping me to save my brother, how about considering that you want to get the herb and somehow end up bringing my brother along? Please, I beg you." Her hands were shaking, not knowing whether this was enough or not. Silvia also wanted to see his decision. She had learned about the agreement, but the relationship between Aria and him was still visible. Due to his principle and heart, Alex must choose one of the answers no matter how hard to choose. On one hand, there was a chance that they might encounter the bandits and fight them. When that time came, their backing would realize what happened to them. That way, he and Aria would be targeted by them, creating another problem. On the other hand, the temptation of the Eternal Ice Flower indeed moved his heart, and this one year he experienced with her wasn''t wrong. ''Ugh. What should I do? The Eternal Ice Flower will be beneficial for both Alicia and Letizia, but the risk¡­I can''t easily mobilize the N Squad in this world.'' Alex thought for a moment. [You might be overthinking this, Alex. Indeed, if we have enough information about the enemy, we will be able to cover our mess. However, you need to know that we are humans who sometimes think by our emotions. Besides, if pushes come to shoves, you can simply use the Teleportation Array to avoid fighting.] ''Do you want me to take the risk?'' [I am just offering a solution. Everything will be decided by you.] Alex clenched his fists and sighed. "I understand. Let''s save him." Aria smiled and immediately thanked him. "Thank you. Really, thank you." Alex saw this and had a mixed feeling about it. Despite their relationship, Aria was never this shaken, even when she was almost r.a.p.ed. Finding such a woman acted like this would truly shake one''s heart. When Silvia heard his answer, she closed her eyes for a second before saying, "I will join you guys. It''s not like I have anything to do here." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "My strength is your assurance. Besides, you don''t plan to stay here for a long time, right? We can always use another identity with me here and make the situation as if Aria is the only one rescuing him. Unless their backing had a way to track what they did on another continent, it would be hard to know it was you." Silvia shrugged as if this was something that could easily be resolved. "You can change my appearance?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "Yes." "Do you think I can impersonate someone?" "Oh?!" Her eyes lit up as if understanding Alex''s intention. "Interesting. As long as I know their face, I can copy it." "I will be using someone from the Grayfig Family to handle the bandits." "Hey. If you are going to do that, I can hypnotize, you know. This is usually for medical purposes, but this one is special. Using this technique, I can alter a bit of their recent memory to shift the entire situation from you and Aria to this Grayfig Family." She smiled. Alex heard the plan and hesitated. Seeing this, Silvia continued. "I am doing this just for getting a point in your heart, not for you owing me a favor. So, you can¡­No, you must treat this one as me helping my "future" husband, alright?" "¡­" Alex fell silent and sighed. "Thank you." "You''re welcome." She smiled. "So, the plan is to shift the blame, right?" "Yes. Aria will explain more about the Grayfig Family. We need to know whether the people that know about this grudge follow her or stay in this sect¡­" "What is her name?" She asked. Alex didn''t know her name, so he looked at Aria. "You go to the peak master and learn her name. This won''t be that big enough to owe a favor." "I understand." She nodded. "If you are going to do that, make sure to tell me the name. I can ask Navin to kill them mysteriously. His time ability is very useful for this purpose." Silvia nodded. "Ye-yes." Aria repeatedly thanked her before heading straight to the peak master''s mansion. Alex then turned to Silvia. "Are you sure about it?" "Of course. Besides, I have gotten the absurd training method that allows one to increase their cultivation speed. Even though it can only be perfect with my ability, I haven''t repaid you enough for the information. Though, it''s not like I will spread it." "Thank you." Alex slightly bowed his head. "Why are you bowing your head? You are the king of Eulja. A king shouldn''t bow that easily." "Acknowledge one''s mistake and thank someone for their help. This is something I must do. Even if they are just a normal family, I will still bow my head to thank or apologize." "Heh?! I don''t know whether the previous you had this character, but I do like it." She smiled. "In this bloody universe, a normal family consisting of ordinary people will be slaughtered by the strong if they antagonize them or something. There are even some who are so petty to kill without reason or just because they bump into them. That''s why I think your character is likable, and this might be the reason why people voluntarily follow you. "Did you see her expression earlier? Even if you wanted her to warm the bed tonight, she would gladly give herself to you. I saw that expression every now and then, so I know." Alex scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say about this. "Anyway, I will be preparing to handle the business inside the sect before going there. Make sure you prepare enough Teleportation Array Plates if you don''t want her to know about your Space Element. Give me the information later and leave the sect tomorrow. What do you think?" "Yes. I will be leaving most of the matters to you." "Sure. I can do practically almost anything in this sect with my special identity anyway, so I am free¡­Unlike you." Alex then waved his hand, watching her returning to his bedroom to use the Teleportation Array. However, no one knew that Alex had another reason. He planned to antagonize the Grayfig openly this time, building up their frustration from this early, so when one year later he went to the Sword Pavilion, the Grayfig Family might send their best strength. It would be the perfect time to camouflage his death and leave this world without any suspicion. Chapter 959 - Reasons Alex looked at how the two girls left him and noticed the letter on the ground. ''Still, why the heck they wrote a letter to a blind girl?'' Alex shook his head helplessly and reached out the letter, reading it. "Master Nyx. When I looked at you with my own eyes, I realized that you were not a normal person. And seeing my daughter''s progress truly made me believe that. However, I would like to request your help. I would pay anything for this, and my son gave me the information about his current situation. "According to him, he is hiding inside a cave with the Eternal Ice Flower in it. There is a Rank 9 God Beast protecting that place, so he couldn''t do anything right now. I would like to make a deal with you. Please save my son with the exchange of this flower information. In addition, I will give you anything you want because I know that is not enough. But please, save my son first." Alex fell silent, realizing that the letter was actually for him. Aria''s father knew that Aria couldn''t read the letter, so he sent the letter to someone who could read it. He knew that Alex was mysterious and there might be a chance of him saving Adrian, so he directly asked him in this letter. If not because Aria had learned the Sword Eye, she wouldn''t know about the content of this letter. "Seriously¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. "What am I meant to do? This family¡­Haiz." Alex burned the letter and sighed while waiting for Aria to come back. As soon as she returned with the name, Aria immediately reported to Alex. "Her name is Perone Grata. The Grata Family doesn''t seem to be that well-known on the other continent. From what I know, they can''t be compared to the Luzear Family. Even so, there were still a few God Rank Experts in that family, so I guess I could understand where her arrogance came from." Alex furrowed his eyebrows before nodding. "I understand. I will handle the rest. You can go back to your training first." "When are we leaving?" Aria asked with a worried expression. "Tomorrow morning. We need to handle a few things first, so not only can we save your brother, we can deal with the entire problem." "I understand." Although she felt bad about the current decision, she had no other choice. Alex already agreed to this unreasonable request of her, so she could only follow his command. Suddenly, Alex looked up, finding a bird that flew down and perched on Aria''s shoulder. She traced the bird with her Spiritual Energy and found the letter. Just like before, the family must think that Alex would be the one reading it, but she had learned the Sword Eye. However, Aria read it herself before looking at Alex. "According to my brother, the situation is pretty good. Although the Eternal Ice Flower is freezing him, he should be able to last for a week before getting frozen." Her expression told him how happy she was because of the information. "Yeah, yeah. For now, go back to your training. I will handle the rest." Alex nodded while waving his hands. "Yes." She nodded with a serious expression. Alex wanted to ask her for the letter again but hesitated. That was why he changed the question a little bit. "Is the letter directed to me?" "Ye-yes." She looked down and handed the letter to him. "I just thought that you wouldn''t need to handle it because I was afraid that you wouldn''t like the tone of my father. He was so desperate." Alex nodded in understanding and read the letter. "Adrian''s condition is normal right now, albeit the people are searching for him, so he can''t go out at the moment. Because of the Ice Energy coming from the Eternal Ice Flower, he might become a frozen statue in seven days. That''s why, please help him. I beg you. Even if you want me as your slave, I will do it." Alex twitched his eyebrows and looked at Aria. Aria didn''t dare to look at him. She knew how bad the letter was, but she presented it in a cheerful way. Little did he know the reason she acted that way was due to his strength. She believed that as long as Alex made a move, seven days wouldn''t be a challenge at all. Alex sighed and turned around. "I will be preparing myself. For this¡­You owe me one." "Y-yes." She repeatedly nodded. He returned to his room and used the Teleportation Array to go to Silvia. The latter surprisingly was waiting for him in the very room. "You have come." She smiled. "Do you have any information regarding the attackers?" "Yes. Perone Grata from Grata Family. The strength is unknown, but they shouldn''t have a Rank 5 God. No, they are far lower than that, so maybe they only have Rank 7 or Rank 8 God as their strongest fighter." Alex speculated. "I see. That will be easy then. I have contacted Navin for this, and he is checking it right now. Don''t worry. I will be dealing with everything inside the sect. I am sure the sect master can understand me." She smiled. "But there is still a rule, right? Or do you plan to kill them inside the sect?" "Of course not. I am asking him to hold on for a moment. When we have managed to kill them while leaving one or two people, so they could shift the blame, I will use the information regarding their young miss to make them leave the sect. That''s where he will kill them." She explained the plan. "I see." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I have another concern. Does she have another family member in this sect?" "I am not sure. Navin will finish the investigation by today, so we will see. Even so, they wouldn''t dare to do anything to me because I am a Rank 5 God and my father is a God King." She shrugged. "Unlike you who can''t afford to have your identity known, I am not afraid." "Thanks." "No need to say thanks. I am doing it because I want to do it and a part of the payment for the training technique. Besides, I actually want you to save her as her friend. So, all good." Alex nodded. "Are you really going with us?" "Yeah. You are not going to chase me out, right?" "No. You have the right for it." Alex shook his head. "Good. Then let''s go outside. I have gotten the information about the Grayfig Family member here, considering the one who holds the record is this peak''s peak master. Since he owes me from curing his wound, I get to know the information about him easily." She pointed at the hole on the ceiling, inviting him to her house. Alex nodded and followed her to the house. "Sit on the bed. I am going to prepare the needles and equipment to change your face and hair color. Besides, you need to change your clothes too." Alex looked at the bed and sat on it, looking at Silvia, who was taking out a few stuff from her Space Ring. "May I know something?" "Sure. You don''t need to be that formal." "When did you find that Navin? What happened at that time?" Alex asked. "Ara." She covered her mouth slyly and teased him. "Jealous?" "Not at all." Alex shook his head. "You should know that he suddenly attacked me, right? Even though he had a reason, I simply had no idea about that. And it was even worse when I was trying to save a world back then." "Really? Did he attack you at that time? What happened? I am curious now. How about if I answer you, you tell me the story?" "Sure." "Alright. I will go first then." She nodded. "A few years ago, specifically when we were going around with our spaceship, we found a masked man. My Father told me he was an extraordinary person, and I needed to watch out if we met again since that man immediately ran away with his Teleportation Array. "Wait a minute¡­You have the Space Element¡­Don''t tell me¡­" She twitched her eyebrows, never expecting to see the situation was actually like this. "Yeah. I was the masked man you saw." Alex nodded. "After that, I learned that you were the Palm God and his daughter." "From Lady Lin Xingzhi?" "Yes." "I see." She facepalmed while sighing. "Anyway, after that, we met another person again¡ªchased by a few God Rank Experts. When my father saw that the man was actually a Time Element user, he helped him. I am sure you understand why, right?" "Father-in-law?" Alex asked. "Yes. The Time God truly revolutionized the entire universe''s view about Time Element. The Time Element users, although scarce, were strong. In my father''s perspective, it was worth it to save someone having that power since he would be useful in the future, whether we talked about their power or influence. "To our surprise, the man actually had no background or whatsoever, so my father asked him to be his disciple, and he accepted. Maybe he wanted to use my father''s identity for protection¡­Either way, there was nothing wrong with that. "Not long after that meeting, he told us that the universe was on its death door unless they did something to prevent it from destruction. My father couldn''t believe that at first, but when he learned that he had met someone with the same appearance as that of a Spirit God, he instantly believed and linked everything to your death and the beast. "That was why he made the decision for me to wait for you here. Navin was there because he had two purposes. It was to search for someone I believed to be his loved one¡­Maybe his lover or something that may or may not have reincarnated and helped me recognize you. He said his eyes could differentiate someone unique such as you. "My father believed that, and here I am." She ended the explanation with a smile. Alex closed his eyes for a second, swallowing all this information. After two minutes, he nodded and opened his mouth. "Then, this time is my side of the story. You should know there is a Divine World called the Monster World near the Upper World that I used to live in, right?" "Yes. Unfortunately, neither I and my father could visit that Upper World, leaving my father frustrated." "That world actually had linked up with the Monster World in the past. My previous life had helped that world once and reduced the world to a mere Upper World from a Divine World." "What?!" She opened her mouth in surprise. "No, I should say as expected from the Spirit God. Even my father couldn''t turn a Divine World into an Upper World." "I don''t know how to do that as well." Alex shrugged. "I am a different person, so¡­" "Don''t worry. I am interested in you as well because you are peculiar." "Anyway, the two worlds linked up again, causing a huge Space Disturbance. The only way to stop this was to use the remaining power stored for a long time to create another layer of protection, closed the portal and erased any markings that could be used to trace and link the world. "And when I was about to enter the place where we could do that, he suddenly appeared and attacked me. I fought a bloody battle that time, even though I almost never got huge injuries during all the fights I had experienced in that Upper World. "Because he saw the situation turning around to my advantage, he decided to leave that world. And I needed to recover my power on the way, making me very exhausted. Well, I didn''t deny that the fight really helped me to advance my power to another level." Alex shrugged. "That''s a nice story." She nodded before placing all the equipment on the table and dragging it toward the bed. She took out her needles and said, "Alright. Time to change your appearance." Chapter 960 - Die! "Done." After treating him for two hours, Silvia finally released him and took out a mirror. He was amazed by his current appearance. Unlike his usual short golden hair, he had long blue hair. His body builds also matched the second young master of the Grayfig Family, Gasha Grayfig. "This¡­" Alex touched his face as if he was touching his real skin, so he asked. "Can you explain how this actually works?" "I altered your bone and flesh with my technique. Of course, this is not perfect. I need to supply the hormone and other things inside your body. You can only impersonate him for a week unless you want to permanently change." "I see. A week of this world''s time, right?" "Yes." "Then, it will be fine. I can finish this problem within the time limit." Alex nodded. "I will probably use the Teleportation Array Plate, considering Aria doesn''t know about my space element yet." "Or you can have me act like I am the one creating the array." She smiled. Alex looked at her for a second before shaking his head. "No. Let''s go with the array plate first. I don''t really want to open all my cards this soon." "I understand. I shall follow your decision. Anyway, I will be leaving the sect as Mya before returning to my original appearance." "Alright. You might not have any more scenes to play." Alex nodded. "I want to confirm this¡­You are going to kill everyone that chases him other than one or two people, right?" She asked with a serious expression. "Yeah." "Alright then." As soon as Silvia finished, Alex decided to return first without talking to Aria. He only stayed there to cultivate while thinking about this matter once again to make sure everything went according to the plan. After finishing their preparation, they gathered in the field. "Give me the token to know his direction." Alex stretched his hand toward Aria. Not knowing why he asked for that because they should be flying already, she still handed the token to him, only to find herself surprised by what Alex took out after that. It was the Teleportation Array. They needed at least a week just to return to the Cypress Family, so the time was quite tight. That was why Aria wasn''t satisfied with their judgment. Alex activated the Teleportation Array without paying attention to her emotion. He only told her, "You should reserve your strength. Did I train your Sword Eye too much to the point you will use that Sword Eye this easily?" "Ah?!" Aria suddenly realized what she had done in the past few weeks. After knowing that she could see the world for two hours with her full strength, she often took a peek when it wasn''t the time for training. It was normal for her to be curious and wanted to do it, but Alex asked her to suppress that desire because the training menu was perfect. With her using the Sword Eye, it would mess the menu up. Even so, just like how a person felt like buying something for themselves when they got their first payment, Aria still sneakily took a glimpse, ignoring Alex''s advice. Alex didn''t mention it for a long time until he found that Aria had gone too far. Just like how she easily read the letter and other things, he had the need to correct her even if this action looked displeasing. "Right. You should take care of yourself. In my experience as a doctor, ninety percent of my dying patients actually died because they chose to ignore my advice and decided to have something I forbid. That''s why I always make a contract with them that they won''t make me accountable if they sneakily do something bad." Silvia added, lecturing Aria. She could understand Aria''s feelings, but this was something that needed to be done. "I-I understand." She looked down, feeling guilty and sad. Silvia smiled and patted her head. "Don''t worry. You will have your chance after getting my treatment in the future. You will see the whole world without needing the Sword Eye any more, so you need to endure your desire for now." "I''m sorry." They talked like this while teleporting. Alex still needed time to activate the Teleportation Array, so they had time to talk like this while teleporting. Luckily, Alex already grasped enough information about this world, so he could use the Teleportation Array without risking someone finding them on the way. After around five Teleportation Array, Alex felt there was no need to use it anymore because they only needed around one day of flying to reach the forest. "The forest is in that direction. Let''s go." Alex commanded. The two girls nodded. Alex chose to fly for a day to come up with their role-playing. He instructed Aria with whatever she needed to do to shift the blame from her Cypress Family to the Grayfig Family. Although Silvia could alter one''s memory, it would be easier to tweak instead of altering since the person who got his memory tweaked would believe it easier than the latter method. Aria kept noting every important aspect in her mind. It took them six hours before they finished their plan. After that, they didn''t talk about anything until they reached a certain area the next day. It was a huge mountain that pierced the cloud, but Alex found something more amazing inside. Unlike other mountains in his surroundings, this one had powerful ice energy in the center of the mountain. ''Wait a minute. Is this the sign of the Eternal Ice Flower? Now that I think about it, I have never gone on an exploration for godly items, right? If only I use my Spirit Eyes continuously while going around the world, I would surely find something hidden like this, no?'' The doubt raised in his heart as he cursed himself from being a fool. He should have thought and done this since long ago, but the idea just appeared in his mind. If he ignored the past and focused only when the time he had evolved his Spirit Eyes to the highest degree, he would have been searching for treasures since the Upper World. Alex was completely baffled as to how he couldn''t think something this simple. However, he soon noticed something was wrong. Next to the powerful Divine Energy from the Eternal Ice Flower, Alex found a few dots of energy. There were a total of thirty people inside the mountain. Alex recognized two of them instantly. The first one was the monster. Due to the difference between humans and monsters, it was easy to spot one. Luckily, the monster seemed to be far away from the other group, albeit this group was a bad deal. The second dot he recognized was in that group. After knowing him and remembering the man called Adrian from the exchange inside the Cypress Family, Alex could easily find him among the crowd, but it became a dilemma instead when he found his energy slightly low. At the same time, the others seemed to be ganging up on him, so the time limit basically disappeared. "This is not good. The group has entered the cave and made contact with your brother. We need to find the cave entrance and save him. If it''s too long, I am afraid they will kill him." Alex warned them. Silvia wanted to know how he could gather such information, but it was for a later time. Meanwhile, Aria couldn''t control her emotion and ask. "Where is the entrance?" "You shut up! If you can''t calm down, I am going to send you away from here!" Alex shouted. "I am not a cold-blooded person, but I know how to act logically! Is this what I have taught you this whole time?" Aria''s body shook, and she gritted her teeth while calming herself down.Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #!_52071032529418918 for visiting. Alex and Silvia used their eyes and perception to check the flow of energy, finding the same exact spot. They both pointed in a direction not far from here. "There." Exchanging looks, they nodded at each other as if agreeing with their direction. "Let''s go!" Alex commanded and led the group, finding the entrance a few seconds later. They immediately headed inside as fast as possible. After another one minutes, they found the group they were looking for that seemed to be beating someone. There, Alex and Aria recognized one Rank 10 God while Aria opened her eyes and found Adrian in the center of the crowd with wounds covering his body. "Adrian!" Aria shouted while releasing her Purgatory Sword, so they would leave Adrian. Seeing this, the Rank 10 God beside them protected the entire group while the rest retreated a few steps back. Aria instantly appeared next to Adrian and checked his body''s condition. She subconsciously checked him with her eyes, leaking the Sword Qi that accidentally brushed their skin, especially Perona''s, and this angered her. "You!" Perona released her killing intent. ''Alex. It seems we need to change our plan.'' Silvia raised a doubt with the thought transmission as they appeared not far from Aria to protect her. Alex could understand her concern. He thought he could eliminate one at a time, so he could simply use his strength to eliminate them. However, it would be a different case if the whole team was here. ''I have a suggestion. I will handle the Rank 10 God while you kill the rest. We will leave the one on the left alive. I can infuse the memory with me being the peak master to confuse that person. Although it has its own risk, I think their backing should know to not meddle with Aria.'' Silvia offered a solution. ''And since they need to keep their image or whatsoever, they will shift the blame to the Grayfig Family.'' Alex agreed. ''I understand. Please.'' ''Sure thing.'' She smiled and covered her face with her hand. "To think there is someone who dares to touch my Sword Blossom Peak''s Favorite Disciple''s brother. This is ridiculous. I have investigated you and your Grata Family, but it seems the Grata Family doesn''t put me in their eyes, so I will use this as a warning." Her face slowly turned into that of Ilevis. Her cultivation gradually rose from 5-Star Martial Saint to Rank 5 God because Alex played along by removing the seal at the right timing. "This¡­" Only the Rank 10 God could sense the Divine Energy inside her. No one had yet to realize the fact that this woman was actually a Rank 5 God. Because of that, Perone still maintained her almighty attitude and ignored everything. She didn''t even hear Silvia''s words. "I am going to kill you!" She shouted while releasing a Sword Wave, never bothered herself to check Aria''s current cultivation stage. Her hate for Aria over something petty was already too much, so she thought she should kill the little brother on her arm first so Aria would fall into despair. "Young¡ª" The Rank 10 God couldn''t react when he realized Silvia''s Divine Energy was locked onto him. The veins were bulging on her forehead after seeing Adrian''s state. She couldn''t stand seeing Adrian''s current state. It was horrible. "Adrian¡­I am sorry for leaving you this whole time. Just take your time and relax. Your sister will deal with the problem first." She gently smiled while stroking his head. "Sister¡­" Adrian raised his finger, trying to warn her about the Sword Wave. Aria only smiled at him, telling him everything would be alright. When the Sword Wave was about to hit her, Aria turned her head toward the Sword Wave and obliterated it as if it was cut by a sword. "Wha¡ª" The woman was obviously shocked. She couldn''t see what Aria just did to destroy her attack. However, the latter gradually rose from the ground, opening her eyes completely at this moment. It sent a powerful shock wave to the surroundings as if there were numerous swords piercing their body. All the people, including the Rank 10 God, stood still. The hair on their hands was standing while their body was shaking, especially when they saw Aria opening her eyes. "All of you are going to die." Upon that world, immeasurable killing intent filled the cave. Chapter 961 - Yeti "All of you are going to die," Aria shouted out loud, directing all her killing intent toward Perona. "Why do you have to be so petty?!" "You lowly b*tch. Your Cypress Family is nothing in my eyes and you dared to ignore me? Only the strength is respected, so a lowly b*tch like you should bow down and lick my feet." She snorted. ''Don''t kill her first, so I can torture her later. For now, I will deal with the rest.'' Alex sent a thought transmission while checking her mental state. ''Thank you.'' Aria appeared to be calm, so Alex gave a go. Alex then pulled out his sword and said, "Eve, time to kill." Eve released her energy, telling Alex that she was ready. Meanwhile, the Rank 10 God was scared out of his life. He wanted to apologize right now because he had offended the Sword Blossom Peak''s peak master. Obviously, Silvia didn''t let him and blew him away, keeping him busy while Alex killed all of them. "!!!" Perona finally realized what was going on and glanced at Silvia, only to find herself being in danger. Aria already appeared right in front of her, slashing her sword downwards. Perona blocked it out of reflex, but she immediately found her strength was completely not matched to her. Only when she realized this, she checked Aria''s strength, only to find it was too late. Her 2-Star Martial Saint couldn''t be compared to Aria''s 4-Star Martial Saint. However, Aria had blown her away, looking at her with a cold gaze. "You said strength matters, so I will simply kill you with my "strength." Don''t say I am bullying you." Since Aria and Silvia had their own respective opponents, Alex only focused on the remaining twenty-six people. "I will be handling all of you guys here." Alex released his Spiritual Energy. Because of Aria''s strength, he had chosen to reveal his strength at 6-Star Martial Saint. It should be enough to handle everyone without raising any suspicion, considering the enemy only had one Rank 10 God, and the second strongest was only an 8-Star Martial Saint. "All of you are truly fools. You never realize the fact that you have been played by the Cypress Family. With your arrogance, you might never remember this, but my Grayfig Family has undergone tribulations because of your arrogance. This matter can only be solved by blood. "I will use my strength that I have hidden this whole time to show what my Grayfig Family is capable of!" Alex finally directed his killing intent to them. This killing intent marked the start of the battle. "Capture him. We should be able to turn this around as long as we capture him." The 8-Star Martial Saint shouted. "Ooh! We alone are enough." There were three 6-Star Martial Saints who felt arrogant, ignoring Alex''s speech earlier while walking toward Alex. One of them pointed his hand toward Aria. "All of you can go help Miss. I am sure young miss want to destroy that woman, so make sure you don''t break her before we finish¡ªGah!" Before he finished his vulgar remarks, Alex had sent their heads flying with a speed that they never saw. "You all are idiots and arrogant. This is why I will show you all the things you have done to my family were wrong." Alex acted to glorify the Grayfig Family, instilling the fact that he was a patriot who had a deep hatred for the Grata Family. "!!!" The others were shocked by his strength. "Handle him first." As soon as he saw ten people finally heading straight at him, Alex only smiled. They were only two 7-Star Martial Saints while the rest were less than 5-Star Martial Saints. Finding this, he became even more relaxed. Alex slashed horizontally even though they had yet to reach him. However, his weapon shone and released an extended blade of his sword, giving enough length to reach the rest. "One Inch Spear." The left one raised his sword, trying to stop that strike so the others could capture Alex. He was a 7-Star Martial Saint and believed that the reason the trio was killed was due to them underestimating Alex. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he still underestimated Alex''s strength. How could he know Alex actually had a Divine Body. When he blocked it, Alex used all his strength this time. Unlike the usual way where he needed to strike a Rank 8 Sword to destroy it, Alex chose to use a portion of his Divine Sword Qi instead to destroy the Sword. The sword continued its path, severing all ten people''s heads in one slash. This completely sent a shiver down their spines. Even Perona was in shock, resulting in her getting struck by Aria right on her stomach. "Gah?!" She spat a mouthful of blood before getting blown away, crashing into the cave wall. "How dare you?! Kill her!" Not wanting to swallow this embarrassment, Perona ordered her subordinate out loud, only to find no one coming from her. "You have nothing." Aria smiled while glancing to the side with Perona. They found that all the people who surrounded Alex had died. Some had their heads rolling on the ground, some were dying on the wall. Either way, none appeared to have the ability to save her anymore. "You shouldn''t look down on others. Because of your arrogance, you have angered two families. If not due to the original hatred coming from the Grayfig Family, my Peak Master and I wouldn''t know about this. Unfortunately, this is something that can''t be repaired. No matter how big your family''s strength is, it won''t stop me from killing you." Aria looked down on her while using her Sword Eye to send the powerful pressure like how she cracked Alex''s mask. "What do you want to do?!" Perona finally had fear inside her heart. "Don''t touch me. My grandfather will kill you! He is a Rank 8 God. You won''t dare to touch me because he will annihilate your small family!" "Is that so? Now, I am wondering if your grandfather dares to fight my peak master instead¡­" She smirked, taunting her even further. However, Alex had cleaned up the whole mess and headed toward her, leaving only one in a half-dead state that was watching him. In other words, this person could see what happened with his eyes. As long as he altered the memory a little bit, it would be the perfect chance to shift the blame to the Grayfig Family. "If I am not wrong, you want to r.a.p.e her, right?" Alex''s voice reverberated on her left ear as she looked at Alex with fear. "You¡­ Don''t you dare!" She shouted. Her sword was already far away and the other party might be faster than her since he managed to kill all her men. "My grandfather will surely kill you. Hurry up and save me. I will not tell anyone about this matter and for¡ªArgghhhh!" She screamed out of pain while Alex only playfully said, "Oops. My bad. I dropped my sword because I almost fell asleep from your threat." The Sword indeed dropped and cut Perona''s hand. She raised her hand with tears streaming out of her eyes. "This is the end of our cooperation. After this, my Grayfig Family doesn''t owe you anymore and will deal with the bastards from Grata Family myself." Alex said to Aria with a serious expression. The person behind him immediately thought the way Alex hoped for. When he said that, Silvia returned. "Since you said that, it means I won''t interfere with this matter anymore. I am only here because my favorite disciple candidate has her brother bullied. Since you are going to take her life, let''s use this as a warning to make that Grata Family know that if they don''t want me to move, don''t they dare to attack her and her family. If not, I don''t mind removing the Grata Family from this world." Alex looked at her mysteriously and clasped his hands, bowing politely to Silvia to say his thanks. However, Perona and the one man that Alex left alive could only see Gasha Grayfig, Illevis, and Aria in their eyes. They simply weren''t aware that everything was only a plot. Alex stabbed her once more, letting her scream to make it more dramatic. Alex had a mixed feeling this time. He never did this before unless he was the one who got provoked. That was why, when the guy confirmed everything was him, Alex thought it was enough. "Please¡­Spare me. I don''t want to die. Spare my life¡­I will even warm the bed for you." Perona couldn''t endure it anymore and beg for her life with tears streaming on her face due to the pain. "Looking at your personality, you must have done this to many people besides me and my family. How many have said this line to you? Did you spare them?" Alex raised his sword and killed her. "Die¡­" Alex cleaned up the blood on his sword and sheathed it again before something happened. "Roar." A monster''s roar echoed in the cave, letting its presence known to all the people inside. Alex, Aria, and Silvia looked at the darkness. ''I will handle this. You can alter that person''s memory. He is in a half-dead state, so try to make it like he is almost dead.'' ''Do you want him to think that he chose to play dead, so he could inform their master to settle the grievance?'' ''Yes. That sort of thing. The Grata Family knows that they can''t mess with Aria with the interference of the peak master. And with how he saw me killing them brutally, the family will know that they can''t have me alive because I might become a threat that will erase my family.'' Alex confirmed. ''I understand.'' Silvia nodded and headed back, finding the person that Alex mentioned. She kneeled down and grabbed his head, and her eyes started shining. "Aria! Go bring your brother outside." Alex shouted. Aria nodded, looking at her brother that fell unconscious when the battle just started. When she left, Alex smiled and disappeared to the darkness, heading straight toward that roar. It took him two minutes to explore the cave until he finally entered the end of the cave, which was a spacious room. To his surprise, he could see the room easily because it was bright enough. The light came from a giant crystal above them. However, what took his attention was the Eternal Ice Flower. This was what he was searching for. If he took this, Alicia and Letizia would improve drastically. Unfortunately, he needed to slay the monster that stood in his way first. The monster looked like an ape but had white fur. It reminded him of a certain monster. "This is yeti? No, the power behind this yeti is not normal. His Ice Element is very strong, not losing against Alicia and Letizia¡­" Alex exclaimed in surprise before a monster name that could describe this monster appeared in his mind. "It''s called Yachi. Like Sherry, it is considered as the ruler of the Ice¡­Does he stay here because he wants to transform his ice element even further?" "¡­" The monster looked at Alex with a curious glance. His instinct told him not to fight this man because he had something dangerous, but the monster''s instinct forbade him to bow down. Even so, Alex thought something that normal people would think if they had the capabilities. He looked at the Yachi with a serious expression. "You should understand my words, right? I am Alexander Sirius, a Pure Fire user. I have a contract with the ruler of fire, Celestial Fox, and I have someone whose element is Pure Ice Element. Do you want to have a contract with her? I don''t wish to kill you." Alex thought the additional monster like Sherry would surely give Letizia a big boost. There was also Alicia, but this one suited the Pure Ice Element more, so he planned to get another thing to Alicia. Unfortunately, the ape gave the same response like how a normal monster would do. Of course, it didn''t have the ability to speak human languages because it had no direct contact continuously with humans. And there was no contract either. "Roar!" Alex somehow understood the roar that filled with anger. "In that case, let''s fight. If you lose, submit to me." "Roar!" Chapter 962 - Fighting the Yeti Alex and the Yachi leaped toward each other. Alex swung his sword while the latter created an ice glove to cover his fist. "This might be the first time you witness my real power, huh?" Alex asked Eve before using his Spirit Step. The increase of the strength was enough to blow the monster away. "Yes, Master. I wish to see your full power." "Fine then. Other than using the Spirit Crown and Array, I will be fighting this ape with my full strength." Alex smiled before taking another look at the Eternal Ice Flower. It looked like a rose, but the color was blue. And it had a kind of translucent effect like that of ice. Still, it was a terrifying flower because it had a kind of domain that froze the ground around it, protecting itself from outside threats. Programming his course of action to make sure he didn''t hit the flower, he simultaneously released his Pure Fire and Space Element. A Spear appeared on his left hand, and he raised it together with his sword. "Follow my lead." "Understood." The Sword then burned strongly, followed by the spear. Behind him, a dragon and a phoenix soared to the air, releasing immeasurable pressure. Feeling all of this coming from Alex, the ape gritted its teeth and roared. The floor froze instantly, and the ape seemed to be using a technique that enhanced his own prowess. The two Divine Energy clashed with each other until it suddenly disappeared, becoming the mark where the battle started. Alex and the ape disappeared at the same time, but a shock wave was transmitted in the center of the cave. Alex and this yeti separated themselves once again while looking at their hands. Both seemed to be surprised with their opponent''s strength, escalating this problem to another level. To check how strong he was, Alex purposely used nothing but his physical strength from the beginning despite promising Eve. Well, it wasn''t like something special because Eve should have noticed his plan. This was not him breaking his promise. Instead, he just played it safe so he could use his trump card at the right moment. The ape had another thought. Not wanting to lose to Alex, it stomped its right foot to the ground, sending a powerful Ice Element that tried to freeze Alex. Alex didn''t move and covered his body with Pure Fire alone and waited until the shock wave passed him without being able to do anything. He only stared at the Yachi while saying. "Why are you even trying? I am not that easy to kill. Even if you dedicate your entire life to it, you won''t be able to defeat me." The Yachi took this offensive statement personally and smashed the ice he created earlier, sending a series of rock spikes toward Alex. Seeing this, Alex only smiled and swung his sword with the One Inch Spear, taking down all the spikes coming toward him. It ultimately stopped the spikes, but the ape seemed to be smarter than he expected it to be. Instead of charging at him, the Yachi realized he couldn''t handle Alex and tried to escape by rushing to the gate not far from Alex. Alex used his Spirit Eyes to see the ape''s movement and used his Teleportation Array to appear in the ape''s way. "You won''t escape." Alex snorted and released six attacks simultaneously. "Triple Draws." The ape managed to take a glimpse of its true strength and immediately raised both hands to guard the attacks. Alex had yet to use his Divine Sword Qi this time because he thought there should be a perfect time to use it. Besides, there was a certain risk of permanently injuring the ape. This wasn''t something he wanted to see. That was why he chose to fight the ape conservatively first. However, the ape had another plan. It immediately retreated while grabbing all the Ice Spikes that Alex cut and threw it at Alex. That kind of big spikes hid the yeti for two seconds, giving enough time to punch the ground. Another wave of spikes came when Alex was dealing with the thrown ice spikes. Alex chose a different strategy and created a Spatial Gate instead, catching the ice spikes, so he had the time to destroy the incoming wave of ice spikes. This was when the Yachi finally used its masterpiece. The punch earlier was only a distraction to use this move. "The real intention of that punch is not to send another wave of ice spike but this?" Alex muttered while watching the ape carrying a huge chunk of ice that he shattered in that punch. It had a diameter a third of what this cave had, so it was pretty big. Normally, this wouldn''t be a problem, but the ape covered it with another layer of ice to stop Alex from cutting it. Knowing that he couldn''t hold back anymore, he released his Divine Sword Qi along with Eve''s Bloodl.u.s.t. It created a brand new power, surpassed that of his usual thing. "Mythical Fire Slash." Alex released his combined Original Technique and split the ice into two. What made it more special was how he handled the aftermath. He didn''t let the ice drop to the ground and used his Spatial Gate to collect it. Only at that time he summoned it again behind him, closing the exit. "!!!" The Yachi was confused with Alex''s way of thinking and charged at him. Predicting it once more, Alex created another Spatial Gate in front of the Yachi to stop its movement. However, little did it know Alex had created another Spatial Gate to teleport himself to the Eternal Ice Flower. "Xingzhi, I will be leaving this flower to you," Alex muttered. [Sure. I am good at cultivating one like this. We can ask Firia to create a pill for it.] "Yes." Alex nodded and sent the flower into the Inventory. [I will be leaving your side for a moment.] "Don''t worry about me." Alex smiled before using the same Space Gate to return to his original position, seeing that the ape actually avoided his Spatial Gate to the side, afraid of getting sucked into it like the two chunks of ice behind him. Noticing what Alex just did, the ape was furious and charged at him. Without the flower in his mind, he could finally take this fight seriously. The ape halted its footstep when it saw Alex''s sudden change of expression. It instinctively leaped backward before opening its mouth, sending a powerful blue beam. Alex raised his hand and summoned a giant pink sphere in front of him, swallowing the beam completely. "Compress!" This was what Alex learned during his stay inside Encore. He compressed the beam into a tiny ball and teleported it behind the ape. The explosion surpassed even his expectation and blew the ape toward him. Because of this movement, the ape couldn''t stop Alex from cutting him down in this exchange. However, Alex still had the thought of taming it, so he kicked the Yachi''s stomach and blew him away instead. "Roar!" The Yachi screamed out of pain when it crashed into the wall while looking at Alex fearfully. Their strength should be equal since both were Rank 9 God. Even their strength wasn''t that different. Yet, Alex overpowered him in every aspect. The doubt rose in its heart, wondering why Alex could become so strong, albeit this thought was expressed on his face, giving Alex confidence to start negotiating after this. "That is enough. Since I have completed my original objective, I will be finishing this battle while showing you what it means to overpower someone!" Alex shouted and stepped forward. This time, his step looked very heavy as it created a small crater underneath. Suddenly, the blazing fire flared up, turning into a fox. This was the manifestation of his Pure Fire that was above a normal Pure Fire. "Fire Authority." This technique left the yeti speechless. It would never expect to see someone with a far stronger element than him. As the overlord of the Ice Element beast, he obviously understood the meaning of Ice Element, including his own strength that surpassed all Ice Element monsters. Although he never met any Pure Ice Element, he knew that their strength shouldn''t be too far from him. However, Alex just shattered that kind of thinking with his Godly Pure Fire. Just by looking at the fox, he had a strong desire to escape, albeit having no path to do that. This was not enough. The fox raised its head, looking at the ceiling before it summoned a fireball on top of its mouth. "Sun Descent." "!!!" The yeti was alarmed because it could feel the immense heat coming from the fireball. At the same time, he turned downward, finding that his ice slowly melted. Even his skin started feeling burned, albeit it had yet to reach that stage. Desperate, the ape roared and summoned its best technique that could stop Alex''s rampage. It stomped the ground and sent Ice Waves to his surroundings, trying to make the air cooler. Alex, on the other hand, simply paid no heed of this action. He chose to charge at the enemy instead. "!!!" The Yachi summoned a full body armor made of ice and struck Kai''s fire sword, repelling it once again. Alex didn''t think much about this and raised his weapons to the side as two dragons flew out of his weapons. "Swallowing Heaven." The white ape glanced to the left and right before retreating a few steps to have a distance from Alex. Unfortunately, the latter had prepared another thing for him. Due to how the fight became easier with Eve''s help, Alex had enough focus to spare to make an Array. It came out using the Spatial Gate. "Sword Prison Array." Alex smirked. The ape looked down, finding a huge array. However, it didn''t manage to leave because the two dragons that Alex sent earlier already arrived, circling around his stomach to prevent it from moving. The Array summoned numerous swords that flew toward him. Unlike a normal sword, these swords didn''t deal any damage to him. Instead, they were artificial swords that attacked their energy to stop the flow of energy, so the ape couldn''t escape. Alex used the element of shock well and didn''t let the ape think while executing this series of combination attacks. The Sun Descent also helped him weaken the ape''s ability because of its intense heat. This allowed Alex to capture the Yachi without needing his Three Purities Slash or Twin Fusion Spear. In terms of ability alone, he managed to reach the Rank 8 God level, especially with how close he had to the Rank 8 God. "How is it?" "That is perfect, Master. Although I can''t see how strong you are if you decide to kill, I have no words for your performance just now. In fact, it''s far stronger than any other cultivators I have seen." Eve confirmed his strength. "I am glad that you are not disappointed in me." Alex smiled and looked at the ape while pointing his sword at its neck. "So, what do you think? How about a contract with someone I know? She is a family of mine, and I don''t think you will be treated badly. You will have a wider view that allows you to improve more than you can here." The ape gritted its teeth, looking very displeased toward his action. It simply didn''t prove Alex''s method. This wasn''t a negotiation anymore. Instead, it looked like a threat more. The moment it rejected Alex''s proposal, there was no doubt Alex would kill him. However, the situation turned in another direction because Alex had yet to stop using the Sun Descent, melting everything around his surroundings, including the crystal on the ceiling. To everyone''s surprise, they saw many crystals fall down from the ceiling. The crystals were crystal blue. It sent out the light from inside, so it must be the thing that brightened this room since the moment it fell, more than half of the room turned dark. Both looked at the crystals and instantly recognized what it was. "!!!" Chapter 963 - Agreement "Deep Frozen Crystals?" Alex exclaimed in surprise before exchanging looks with the Yeti. The latter looked as surprised as him, so he must have no knowledge about it. "Now that I think about it, the Eternal Ice Flower doesn''t really give that much energy. Meanwhile, it needs very powerful ice energy to grow¡­It seems the energy comes from the Deep Frozen Crystals." Alex muttered. These Deep Frozen Crystals were a kind of supplement that would improve one''s strength as long as they had Ice Element. In some cases where the people had a weak Ice Element, they could even enhance the Ice Element. If Alicia and Letizia had this along with the Eternal Ice Flower that would soon be turned into pills, they might even reach his level, only one step away from the Rank 8 God. However, Alex saw the Yeti''s expression and smiled. "What do you think about my proposal earlier? Although it''s a kind of life and death contract, I won''t treat you like a slave. Instead, you are my family. Besides, you won''t be my contracted beast. You can choose to see it with your eyes first before making the decision. If you still say no, I will release you. What do you think?" Alex asked with a smile. The latter still glared at him as if he wanted to say something. "That flower is a no-no. I can only give you a portion of the Deep Frozen Crystals. Besides, you don''t really need much because there will be an endless supply of Spirit Crystals. Of course, those who don''t work, don''t eat. You must understand the principle, right?" The Yachi still hesitated, but his expression seemed to be better than the previous one. He knew that if he didn''t accept this, Alex would probably kill him. However, if he accepted, not only that there was a chance to survive, he might be able to get benefits. More importantly, Alex was far stronger than a normal Rank 9 God like him. If such a person led him, he would surely become stronger, albeit Alex wanted him to pair with another person that seemed to have a Pure Ice Element. It was indeed not as tempting as becoming Alex''s contracted beast, but considering the affinity of their elements, they might perform better than when he was with Alex. After several minutes, the Yachi finally nodded its head. Alex waited and observed the Yachi first, making sure he didn''t lie and attack him right after he released him. Fortunately, the one he dealt with was a monster or a beast, you might say. They weren''t like humans who would betray you that easily. That was why Alex had difficulty when he taught Sherry regarding this matter. It was part of their nature. Alex then retracted the array and released him from every single restriction, including the Swallowing Heaven. The Yachi looked at him and said, "Ru Ru Ru!" "You agree with me because you feel the prospect, not because you lose? Haha, sore loser." Alex smirked and teased the monster. The latter only stared at him without having a change in his expression. Alex finished his business first and nodded. "Fine then. I will treat you as my family and my comrade. I do value your ability, but trust is the most important thing for me. If you dare to put your life on the line, reach my hand." Alex stretched his hand as if asking the Yachi to shake his hand. It thought for a moment before finally shaking his hand. "Ru Ru Ru, Ru Ru." "Although I agree with your condition, I want a name from you¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. The Yeti seemed to be surprised when there was a change in Alex''s expression as if he just asked something ridiculous. It turned out he completely misunderstood him when Alex explained. "It''s not like I don''t want to give you a name. My naming sense sucks, so you will probably have a bad name." "Ru." Alex stared at his determined expression and let out a long sigh. "Since you don''t mind, I will grant you a name then. Remember, I won''t be the one you will make a contract with, alright?" "Ru." The Yeti repeatedly nodded its head, telling Alex that he had understood everything. Alex then closed his eyes for a minute before coming up with a name. "Hielo. It means Ice. What do you think?" Hielo raised both hands as if celebrating it. [Naming Sense Skill +1] "Don''t camouflage your teasing with that notification." Alex wanted to hit Lin Xingzhi''s head once when he saw this. [Pfft. Still, it''s true that your naming sense has greatly improved. If you haven''t, you might give him a name like Boro or Goro?] "¡­" Alex didn''t deny it because it was indeed a truth. Heilo tilted his head in confusion, wondering who he talked to. Noticing his gaze, Alex shook his head. "I can''t say anything to you for now unless you become a contracted beast." "Ru (I understand)." Alex nodded before glancing at the ten Deep Frozen Crystals. "For now, let''s bring those back first before discussing this later." Walking toward the crystals, Alex saw that Heilo didn''t even move a step as if complying with what Alex said earlier. "You are indeed an intelligent one. Can you talk in the human language?" Heilo shook his head and said, "Ru ru, ru ru ru (The human language is like a disgrace to me, so I never learn them). "You might probably want to learn that later." Alex shrugged. "And with how you are talking, you don''t have a human form as well, no?" "Ru ru, ru ru ru (I will try because it will be easier to learn after having a human master, however, I despise human form)." "So, you don''t want to turn into one?" Alex asked, resulting in Heilo shaking his head. "Since you are so adamant about it, then no problem. Still, can you change your form into something that is not very noticeable?" Alex asked this because Sherry could shrink to a tenth of her original size. If he could, then it probably wouldn''t matter much. This time, Heilo nodded and slowly shrank himself. He surprisingly became far smaller. The size appeared to be the same as Sherry''s small form or she always said her lazy form since it didn''t use much energy staying that way. Heilo turned from a Yeti¡­Or Yachi to a small monkey with all his fur white as if he was an albino. Alex bent down and stretched his hand. "Go to my shoulder." Heilo then climbed up his hand according to his instruction. "I do have a few questions for you." Alex recalled every single question in his mind and started asking. "Why are you here?" "Ru Ru (I don''t know. Before I knew it, I already arrived at this place)." "So, you are not someone from here?" Heilo nodded. "This is interesting. Who actually brought you here?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Ru ru, ru ru (I don''t know, but he felt familiar)." "Maybe your parents?" Heilo only shrugged his shoulder as if saying he didn''t know. "Well, that''s not the problem, I guess." Alex changed the question. "Do you know someone from this world? Maybe they know about your identity and try to capture you here?" "Ru ru. (I don''t have one because no one has yet to find this cave)." "It can be considered such too. Considering you are absorbing the Ice Energy continuously, there is no leak of energy outside, so they will have a hard time looking for such an entrance. If Adrian didn''t try to look for a gap or a place to hide, I doubted he would find this place. "The same applied to the other group. If they had no clue about Adrian being here, they wouldn''t find him and this cave. In fact, Adrian should gamble it all and bring them to you while trying to stay alive as long as possible. "The angry you will immediately attack them. And I am sure the Eternal Ice Flower will have a huge temptation for them. In that case, he will have a high chance to escape while decimating his opponents." Alex sighed, realizing that Adrian had yet to reach this level. "Ru Ru." Heilo complained to be used like that. "I am just saying. I won''t do something like that to the one I consider friend or family. However, before I know you, you are simply another monster in my eyes." Alex shrugged. Heilo could only look down because what he said was not wrong. "How do you find this place, and how long have you been here?" "Ru, ru ru ru, ru ru (The leaking energy, and two hundred years ago, due to the huge amount of energy emanating from this mountain)." "I see. There is nothing wrong with that." Alex nodded in understanding. The power that was leaking in the past must be the energy from the Deep Frozen Crystals instead of the Eternal Ice Flower. After all, one was a tool while the other one was fuel. There was no need to see which one released more energy. "I am going to stay here for at least one year before returning to my home. Do you find yourself uncomfortable with this schedule?" Heilo shook his head and raised his hands. "Fine then. If you don''t have a problem, I will stay here without thinking of a way to send you back. Meanwhile, you can even start training with me. I can make sure that you will be getting stronger at a faster rate." Alex smiled with confidence. "Anyway, use this first until I tell you to hide." Alex handed the first Deep Frozen Crystal, completing his side of the agreement. Heilo took it humbly, not like a greedy "monkey" before licking it. It seemed to be the way to absorb it in his case, but he looked like someone who had been hungry for thousands of years. "Let''s go then." Alex smiled before walking to the exit, finding Silvia standing alone outside. He found that the rest of the bodies had been cleaned up, including the one he left alive. When their eyes intertwined, Silvia instantly noticed the presence of a Rank 9 God beast beside Alex. "To think you manage to tame a Rank 9 God Beast when I thought you were going to kill it¡­Still, I believe this little boy is a Yachi, right? The ruler of Ice¡­Interesting." "I didn''t tame him. I asked for his cooperation. If he chose to stay, it wouldn''t be my fault." Alex shrugged. There was another reason he actually asked Heilo to do this was to weaken the others as well. After all, they wouldn''t find another him that easily. "Anyway, this is Silvia, a Rank 5 God. Introduce yourself, Heilo." "Ru ru." Heilo nodded and said a few words while bowing. "What a polite boy. Nice to meet you. I am Silvia." She smiled. Chapter 964 - Second Earth? "So, what''s the deal?" Alex asked. "After altering his memory, I healed him a bit so he could leave as soon as possible. Before that, I observed him from afar, and he seemed to be muttering something regarding the Grayfig Family. I don''t know anything else." "That''s good then." Alex nodded. "Let me fix your cover first while we are waiting for Aria." She smiled. Looking at her face that seemed to have returned to normal, Alex took her offer. "Sit down." She smiled before glancing at Heilo. "Do you mind waiting?" Heilo shook his head and leaped to the ground while licking the Deep Frozen Crystal. "Is that Deep Frozen Crystal?" Silvia asked while inserting a few needles. "Yeah. I found it. Do you need them?" Alex asked with a flat tone. He felt the need to pay her back, but he realized it would be rude to her, so he tried to give her something he wanted as a present instead. After all, if he said he wanted to give Alicia or any other girls a reward for doing something for him, they would be mad at him. This was the only solution he could ask without looking down on her. However, the latter only shook her head. "I don''t have any use for it. By the way, you have wives, right? If I am not wrong, they are the Nature Goddess, Night Butterfly Goddess, and Light Butterfly Goddess. Do you have more wives?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "I currently have six wives." His expression was serious, telling that this would be the best time to leave him if she found it a bit troubling to share a man. "I see. As expected from a great man. I once thought that you would only have the three Goddesses as your wives. Still, the number isn''t that big, and I don''t see you as a l.u.s.tful person according to my observation." She nodded repeatedly. "Do you have a problem with that?" Alex asked with a low voice. "If it''s a l.u.s.tful person, I obviously have. After all, the harem will be too big to the point you won''t pay attention to your wives. On the other hand, if the Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi, can accept this, why can''t I?" She shrugged. "Hmm¡­" "What? Are you going to push me away?" "Not really. I am just surprised. Instead of saying you can, you use a comparison to prove your point." "I just don''t want to have a conflict before knowing all of them, so I refrain from saying anything with confidence in myself as if I am trying to sell myself to you." She hesitated for a second before mentioning another clue she got from his mouth. "You said you currently have six wives. Does that mean you have another candidate? Or am I the only one?" "There are another two. I don''t know what will happen between us, but I have decided to confront their feelings as well. Whether it will work out or not, I will see it through." Alex nodded. "You are the third, I guess." "Who are they?" "Can I not speak about this for the time being?" Alex glanced at her. "Sure thing. I am not acquainted with them too, so it''s only fair if I meet them first before you say anything." Silvia nodded in understanding. "Still, I am ninth, huh¡­" "I don''t like numbers." Alex shook his head. "But if you have a kid, how will your kids call your other wives?" Alex thought about it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "I will think about it later. I still have something that I need to do before having a child." "I see. That''s a shame." She smiled and continued working on his face, knowing that the beast indeed pressured him to go faster than ever, not letting him have this kind of risky life. "By the way, I have a matter that I would like to consult." "No need to be that formal. Just ask me. I will see whether I can do it or not." "In that case¡­" Alex revealed the problem. "I am not sure if I can stay here within the time limit. In other words, I will be leaving this world after one more year¡­Which is short a few months from the agreement." She suddenly paused the treatment and looked at him with a gentle smile. "Can¡­I follow you?" "I can only answer that when I leave this world." Alex shook his head in disappointment. "Then, I will wait before saying anything regarding this. Do you have a plan after leaving this place?" "A few things that I can and cannot say. However, I still have no plan after that. I mean¡­I will be a Rank 8 God when I leave this world. Meanwhile, I still need to reach the Rank 7 God within five years." Alex narrowed his eyes. "You are a very serious person, aren''t you?" She smiled. "Five years, huh¡­" "Yeah. My current plan is to reach Rank 4 God within twenty-five years, reach Rank 2 God the next ten years. After that, I can''t say anything." "In that case, you will need my power again. I mean, I can still fix your body once more to give you a boost in your cultivation in the future. When the time comes, you can visit me." "Thanks." "Since you give me this precious information, I have something that can help you." She recalled the information about a particular world. "This world is a peculiar world. Unlike a normal world where we cultivate and get stronger, they are using science instead. "They have things called cars and guns to do most of the things. However, I have seen a world similar but more advanced than this to the point they are capable of constructing a spaceship without the need for cultivation power to fuel the ship. That is something fascinating. "My point is¡­That world has a weird system. It''s like having two different types of world. On the surface, they don''t have people with cultivation, but you can enter the other side of the world and find powerful cultivation. In fact, they have many God Rank Experts." Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he learned that information. The way she described it was very similar to that of Earth. However, Alex knew Earth didn''t have something like this, so he remained silent, letting her continue. "Why do I mention this planet? There is one reason. The people of the other side can''t travel to another side without paying the price. On the other hand, the people on the surface haven''t realized there is this other side. "Because of that, there is a certain barrier between them. One is longing to go to the "Surface" while the other is not aware of it. Why do you think those people want to go to the surface?" Alex thought for a moment and said, "Resources?" "Exactly. Because they don''t know much about cultivation, they have yet to exhaust the powerful medicinal herbs or any other resources. You should be able to get all the plants that they don''t care about and use them to your advantage. "However, the barrier that is separating the two realms is thin. You need to lower your strength to Martial Master if not Foundation Stage unless you want to break that barrier. We have once sent someone there, but they die under the aggression of their so-called military and guns. "It''s quite a powerful weapon. The guns seem to be equal to Rank 2 Weapons. From what I know, there is a possibility that their strongest weapons are either Rank 4 or Rank 5 Weapons. In any case, their individuals are weak, so you can proceed without a problem. I don''t think why I suggest this, right?" Alex nodded and thought. ''The world is indeed like that of Earth, but this separate dimension is very different. If it''s like she said, the other side seems to have exhausted their resources, trying their best to get the resources from the other side. ''However, there is a barrier that prevents them, so the resources are safe. The reason she told me this¡­'' He closed his eyes and opened his mouth. "Do you want to enter together with me? I think I can spend the rest of the days gathering resources." "Hehe. You know me well. It''s a win-win situation." "You want me to bring you because I can use my Space Element to seal my power but still have Divine Body. Those weapons won''t be able to hurt me, so I am the strongest in that world. This is a big advantage that only I can have because of my strength. "Even if you send your people there, you will have a hard time procuring their resources because they will be killed by their weapons. It''s not like the people you can send are strong enough to oppose their weapons. And if you send too many people, the barrier will break and all hell will let loose." "Exactly." Silvia gave a thumb up. "Your strength is necessary. I already have their information, so we can go there. We won''t take everything from them, but I am sure you don''t mind getting a few Divine Rank Herbs, right? I don''t know how many herbs they have, but yeah, we can''t really exhaust their resources just like that." "I don''t really mind as long as you can wait after leaving this world. I mean, I still need to pay respect to my teacher and in-laws unless I want to get killed." Alex complained jokingly. "Sure. I am alright with that. Should I follow you to Eulja? Maybe I can talk it out with the Nature Goddess too¡­And probably with the others. I need to introduce myself before having them accept me, no?" Alex scratched the back of his head before Lin Xingzhi replied. [Sure. You can bring her. I saw her once when I confronted the Palm God. It was a few hundred years ago, so she was still a child back then. I am curious to see her development. Besides, Anna and Anya will surely become curious, especially Anya. Their abilities have the same healing attributes after all.] Wanting to inform her that Lin Xingzhi had agreed, he chose a different way to say it because he couldn''t afford to let her know about the system for the time being. He changed his wording. "Sure. I will talk to her regarding that and let you know at a later date." "I am looking forward to it." She smiled. "One thing that I don''t understand, why do you keep smiling as if you don''t feel everything about this weird at all? I mean, I am sure you have something that disappoints you until this day, no?" "I do feel a bit uncomfortable when you say you have multiple wives. Like any other women out there, they will say they are jealous to see the man with another woman. However, this can be resolved by how the family operates and the relationship with the other wives, including how tolerant they are. After all, relationsh.i.p.s can be built over time. "For example, if the family operates like a normal family that thinks political marriage is the best thing to do to gain relationsh.i.p.s, the relationship with the wives will be bad. However, if you prioritize the family first and do not fall in love with someone because of their body or something, you will discuss this with your wives first. "This allows the wife to have a sense of importance in their hearts and yours. They will start supporting each other because they know something they can''t do, the others can, so they need to rely on each other even if it means swallowing their desire. Of course, you need to act as the family head as well to make sure everyone is getting along." Before continuing, she sensed someone coming that turned out to be Aria. She smiled. "I think I shouldn''t discuss it right now before I meet with the others." [I like how this girl thinks¡­] Alex ignored Lin Xingzhi and nodded. "Yeah. Sorry for asking you that question." "No problem." Chapter 965 - Grata Family A few weeks later. On another continent, specifically the Grata Family. "What?!" A middle-aged man released an earth-shattering roar while looking at the only survivor of Alex''s massacre. "Hi¡­" The survivor obviously feared that roar because there was no telling what would happen to him. "My daughter was killed, you say?" "Ye-yes." "Then, what is the point of your life now?" The middle-aged man shouted before taking out a weapon. "Wait. Don''t do that, Patriarch. Before killing him, shouldn''t you understand what happened first?" An elder, sitting not far from him, stopped him by his words. When the middle-aged man heard that, he clenched his fists and put down his sword. "Speak. What happened?" "There was a female that antagonized the young miss. Unfortunately, she couldn''t do anything to her since she was in the sect the whole time. To lure her outside the sect, the young miss asked us to go with her to kill that person''s little brother and family. "However, that person actually brought a reinforcement, two people to be exact. The first one was a man who seemed to be a person from the Grayfig Family that lived beside the woman''s family. According to the information, there shouldn''t be any Divine Beings in that family, so we didn''t think much about it. "But to our surprise, that man had the ability to kill all of us, except our Rank 10 God. And he did it so effortlessly. I couldn''t comprehend his strength, but he should have the ability to fight 9-Star Martial Saint with his 6-Star Martial Saint''s strength alone. "As for the young miss, that woman killed her. The only reason she dared to do that was due to the peak master. What we didn''t know was that there was a relationship between the woman and the peak master of the Sword Blossom Peak. "When she came, she immediately took down our God Rank Expert in a fit of anger and made sure that no one would interfere with her fight. "I was half-dead back then, so I thought I should let you know what happened first. That was why I chose to stay alive and returned." He explained. "What?! The Sword Blossom Peak''s peak master? Are you insane to even pick a fight against a Rank 5 God? Do you want to have this family wiped out of the map?" An elder shouted. Even the family head fell silent, wondering if he heard it right. The elder beside him asked another question. "Can you explain why that girl antagonized our young miss?" "Y-yes." He nodded repeatedly. "I am not sure myself, but when we tortured that person''s younger brother, the young miss said that she dared to ignore her and humiliated her. According to the two people staying with her in the sect, when our young miss wanted to buy a Divine Herb inside the sect, she coincidentally picked the same herb with that person. "Of course, the latter picked it first. When the young lady told her off, she immediately put it down and chose another two herbs with a total price twice what the young lady had. That was when the conflict started." When they heard his explanations, the silence turned into an uproar. The elders couldn''t contain their anger any longer. "What?!" "She wanted to anger a Rank 5 God only with that reason?" "Was she insane?" "Even though no peak master takes in a personal disciple, to antagonize someone that had her favor was still ridiculous. They didn''t even dare to pick a fight against a Rank 5 God, let alone her." "That''s right. This is your fault, patriarch. If you didn''t spoil her, she wouldn''t do something as petty as that!" "We now need to appease the anger of a Rank 5 God." "Think of a way right now because we might be destroyed tomorrow." The patriarch realized how petty these elders were. They only bullied the weak and feared the strong. Even though they often killed normal people if they angered them without thinking, they always kept their heads low when they encountered a person stronger than them. They were the epitome of hypocrisy. However, he couldn''t say anything because the moment a Rank 5 God released her anger here, there would be no more Grata Family in this world. "Enough." The elder beside the patriarch shouted, stopping all of them. He then looked at the survivor and asked. "Do you know anything else?" "Y-yes. They said that this was only a warning for hurting her brother. If we do something like this again or even worse, she will come to us." The moment they listened to those words; it was as if a ray of hope illuminated the room. "That''s good news." "We don''t need to face the anger of a Rank 5 God for now." "Yeah. Still, wasn''t there another person with her?" The survivor felt the gaze of the elders return to him and immediately nodded. "Yes. I heard his words¡­If I am not wrong, he told them that he had returned the favor. Everything after this would be the war between him and this family. He must say it because he thought everyone died. When they left, I left, recovered for two days, and headed straight here." "Ho?!" The important elder narrowed his eyes. "If I recall correctly, that boy is someone from the Grayfig Family, the family that lived alongside the Cypress Family that seemed to be the woman''s family, right?" "Yes. He told us that we would pay dearly because we underestimated them in the past. According to him, he trained hard to have his own revenge. The training result was indeed monstrous." The survivor confirmed it. They sucked cold breath before the elders started shouting at each other again. "We need to kill him before he becomes a threat." "Get the information about that person first. Does he have any elders as his backing?" "That''s right. We also need to set up a group of assassins to kill that boy when he leaves the sect." "For now, we should appease the Rank 5 God first. Since this is only a warning, we should appease their anger first." "But she did it for her "favorite" disciple¡­" "We should appease this girl instead and ask her to calm her peak master. In this case, we don''t need to go to bankruptcy since we are not facing a Rank 5 God." "I will handle all the gifts we should give her to appease her anger toward us and solve this misunderstanding. And I won''t forget to ask her to talk to her peak master." "After that, we need to kill that boy from the Grayfig Family. We can''t let him become even stronger because he will be a big threat to us. The moment he becomes a God Rank Expert, we can''t imagine what kind of destruction he will bring." "Don''t forget about his family. For now, we should destroy that family." "No, no. We should capture some as hostages while killing the rest." The elders kept discussing until they reached a conclusion. As soon as the meeting was concluded, all of them turned to the patriarch with killing intent. "Do you have anything to say, Patriarch? Before saying anything, you should have realized this is all your fault for spoiling that lowly b*tch, right?" The family head could only grit his teeth when he heard it. Perona was his daughter from a concubine he loved, but when everything became his fault, he couldn''t say anything. Even though he had the highest position in this place, it wasn''t like his strength was the strongest. He only inherited this place from his father, who went into seclusion. The patriarch hated how these guys could change completely. Normally, they would praise him, trying to get their sons to have a time with Perona, so she might fancy them. After all, everyone knew that Perona would be the key for their son to be a Patriarch. When she died while bringing a big problem like this, they outright called her b*tch. How could this not bring him anger? Unfortunately, no matter what he said today, every single person in this room would blame him and shut him up. The only thing he could do was to nod while remembering all these bastards. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth. "I don''t have anything to say." The elder beside him saw this opportunity and announced it like a hero. "We need to deal with three things. We should bring gifts for the woman from the Cypress Family to appease her anger and calm down her peak master. Secondly, we need to capture a few people from the Grayfig Family before destroying them. Last but not least, we can''t have that bastard to get stronger, so we shall send a group of assassins to wait for him leaving the sect and kill him." ¡­ Back to the present. Aria finally returned not long after Silvia finished removing all sorts of disguise from Alex''s face. Her face looked calm, so they knew she should have finished her matters. "How is it?" Alex still asked to confirm his guess. "Thanks to Mya''s help, his condition is already stable. He should wake up tomorrow." Aria nodded with a smile before turning serious and bowing her head. "Thank you for helping me." "No problem." Silvia waved her hands, treating it like not a big deal. "Since your brother is fine, I think it''s time to return to the sect. And yeah, your family should be fine for now since they will most likely focus on the Grayfig Family for now. As long as you get stronger, they will most likely give their apologies to you¡­Which means money." Alex nodded. "That is good. If they give me compensation like that, please take it as my thanks." Alex looked at her while furrowed his eyebrows. "Nope. I won''t take it. I will use it to increase your cultivation. After all, I agreed to help you because of the Eternal Ice Flower. Besides, I have gotten this little monkey and Deep Frozen Crystals. Heilo, say hi to her as well." "Ru ru." Heilo raised and waved his hand as if saying hi to Aria. Noticing the intelligence of the monkey, Aria smiled and greeted him back. "Nice to meet you." Heilo stretched his hand as if asking for a handshake. Aria was slightly surprised about this, but still shook his head. "What an intelligence monster you are." Heilo suddenly leaped to her shoulder and told Alex that he would be fine here. "Fufu¡­Does this mean he likes me more?" She joked around. "Nope. He just shows you his l.u.s.tful side." Alex shrugged without care. "You are jealous?" "Absolutely not." Alex then turned around and flew to the sky, heading straight to the sect. Aria and Silvia followed right behind him. "Let''s go back." Chapter 966 - Letizia The original plan was to use the Teleportation Array Plate to return to the sect as fast as possible, but Alex changed the plan a little bit. He decided to fly back to the sect while using his Spirit Eyes to check whether there was another hidden treasure. Unfortunately, after flying so long, he couldn''t find a single thing. He wasn''t ungrateful. Considering he had gotten Heilo and Deep Frozen Crystals, there was no anger in his heart. He simply returned to the mansion and began training while Silvia asked Navin for a report during the small mission. After knowing that her family was safe, Aria finally concentrated on her training. The days passed without any more troubles. There was a visitor during the first two weeks, which turned out to be Adrian. To his surprise, Adrian fell on his knees and thanked him politely. "Thank you for helping me even though I was like coercing you." "Get up. Everything is fine, so there is no need to dwell in it. If you want to thank the peak master, I will pass the message, so you don''t need to go there." Alex nodded. "I understand." Alex had realized one more thing during the past two weeks. Adrian and the Cypress Family actually had no confidence in sending Alex to help Adrian because of the God Rank Expert. What they wanted was to use Alex''s and Aria''s relationship with the peak master to have her help. She was the only one who could solve this issue, so they asked Alex to pass the message. Adrian''s action proved it even further, so Alex needed to hide the fact that it was Silvia instead of Illevis. After giving his thanks, Adrian politely bowed and left the house. Alex only hoped that the peak master was not aware of it since he would be suspicious. Although he could say everything was Silvia''s will, the peak master would suspect him too. There was no way Silvia would meet someone unknown. There were only two possibilities. The first was the fact that she knew about Alex''s power and helped him to gain his favor. And the second possibility was due to their prior relationship. The latter seemed to be a bit absurd, so Ilevis would most likely believe the first possibility. Aria kept apologizing when Alex explained that, but the latter only told her it was alright. He asked her to train even harder if she felt bad, and it turned out she became crazy for training after that day. Even though Alex told her to rest, she kept training. Only when she found Alex was quite angry, she finally stopped that stubborn attitude and returned to normal. Nonetheless, they managed to improve their strength remarkably. When the new month came, another visitor appeared, bringing many things, from Spirit Crystals to weapons. This person addressed Aria with praises, wanting to mend the relationship between her and the Grata Family. However, Alex and Aria knew that they only wanted to prevent Ilevis from joining this fight. If she interfered again, there was nothing but defeat. Alex then ordered Aria to know about what happened to the Grayfig Family. Joyful news came right after when they heard the Grayfig Family was destroyed. According to Aria''s father, there were two Rank 10 Gods decimating this family along with a few elites that kept anyone from leaving. Even though he found that their treasury was empty, the Cypress didn''t care anymore since their arch enemy had disappeared. Of course, this action caused a disturbance, especially on a certain someone inside the sect. Yeah, it was none other than Gasha Grayfig. He always thought that he could control the Cypress Family, but when Alex came, everything changed. Every single of his plans was a failure and even his family now had gone. Silvia immediately reported that Gasha seemed to have a far bigger hatred for the Grata Family instead of the Cypress Family. Aria was happy to the point she hugged Alex until they fell down, only to find it a bit embarrassing after that. Adrian also learned the information and realized the fact that his sister might probably be in the best hand. Without Alex, Aria wouldn''t be here with this kind of achievement. No one could refute that. However, Alex didn''t have any interest in this matter and continued his everyday business. It became a calm period again, so Alex and Aria kept increasing their strength. To his surprise, Aria managed to reach 5-Star Martial Saint after three months even though he predicted it required her another month. It seemed she had no more thought about her family since they had solved it anymore. Without that unnecessary thought, Aria kept going without a break. When the good news came, he also got another piece of news from the system with a blue notification appearing right before his eyes. [I have a few good news. The first will be about our current investigation progress. You won''t need to worry about Fire Worlds again because we have found enough for you and Sherry. This led to the second news. Sherry has managed to become the princess of that beast world.] "Really? That''s good." Alex smiled and nodded. "What is her situation over there?" [She is fine and the Beast God has fulfilled his agreement to protect her. With this, there is a chance of alliance between the Beast World and our Eulja. This way, we will be more assured in fighting a large-scale war.] "I see." Alex paused for a moment. "I never saw that world as my pawn for war, though." [I know you treat them as a world that helps Sherry, but we are in this situation right now, so it''s best to keep gathering pieces. For now, I will give the information about two Fire Worlds to Sherry, so she can complete the Fire Authority.] "Please." [As for your Fire World, I will give you the compass when you are about to leave. Is that fine?] "I don''t mind. I can keep my focus this way." [Alicia and Firia don''t have much difference in their missions. According to Firia, she managed to get a silver medal from the Alchemy Tower. Her strength is top-notch.] "Silver medal?" [It''s a special medal from a world known as Alchemist paradise. If you want to be recognized as an alchemist, you should go to that world. As for the medal, it''s a God Rank Expert medal that is only for those who have reached God Rank.] [There are three medals for that. Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Each shows the status of a God Rank Alchemist. In other words, having a Silver Medal was a kind of seeing someone who mastered most of what you should know about Alchemy, with Gold being the master of Alchemy. There were not many people that acquired that rank.] "I see. That''s good then. I have no plan in acquiring the title for the time being." [I understand that. And finally, it''s about your parents-in-law. They have been asking me, Anna, and Anya, when you are going to visit them. It seems they have something to talk about.] "I understand. I will visit them first before meeting with my teacher. Please apologize to them on my behalf." [Don''t worry. They understand your problem. Besides, they are a bit special as a couple¡­You will know more after you meet them.] "Alright then. Is there anything else?" [One more thing. After talking about Heilo to Alicia, she completely gave up because of her current situation and Letizia. Due to this, Letizia will become his master with a life and death contract. So, she won''t talk to you and Heilo first.] "How?" [She is with me right now. Maybe, it''s better to talk to you first. Heilo can wait until you return.] "I see. Sure." Alex nodded. "How are Evelyn and Rose then?" [They are both good. Evelyn is about to become a God Rank Expert, while Rose might need one more year or two¡­probably.] "Alright then. I don''t need to worry about them anymore. Just tell Evelyn to wait for me in Eulja." [Do you want them to train in that world as well?] "Absolutely, but not now. Maybe after I reach Rank 5 God, I will have a diplomatic talk with them since I should have enough strength to protect myself. And the others will think twice before trying to do something to me." [That is probably a better solution rather than sneaking inside there. After all, you need to be there for a long time. As for teaching them, I don''t know if you have time to do that.] "Yeah. That''s my concern. It''s best to let them learn from the source." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. [Okay. I have finished my part. Do you want to add something before I change with Letizia?] "One more thing. How are you, Anna, and Anya? Are you doing fine?" [I am great. Anna and Anya got spanked from time to time. And yeah, it was their mother.] "Pfft." Alex tried to hold his laughter before taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Alright then." [I will switch with her right now.] Alex didn''t say anything and waited until another notification appeared. [Master, this is Letizia.] "Ya. How are you?" [I am fine. The Ice Phoenix Tribe treats me well and I will be sticking around them for the time being. I saw that Master also wants me to learn in that world¡­] "Yeah. Do you have a problem? I mean, you focus not only on your element but also your sword, right? As long as you can get stronger, I am glad. For now, I have Deep Frozen Crystals for you. That''s right. I will leave six Deep Frozen Crystals in the Inventory, so you and Alicia can split. Three-three, you hear me?" Alex didn''t forget to say to split it evenly because he believed Letizia would look down on herself and only take one while giving the rest to Alicia. [Yes.] "Well, I want to give you more, but I should give the other four to Heilo. After all, you two will have the Ultimate Freezing Pill from this Eternal Ice Flower I have got." [Thank you, Master. I am just afraid that I am not qualified to get something like that. And you even want me to make a contract with the ruler of Ice, the Yachi.] "It''s fine. You should stop looking down on yourself. You are a Pure Ice Element user. Even though you have sworn to the Universe to become my slave, I never saw you that way, you know." [I apologize.] Alex paused for a moment and smiled. "Say¡­How about going together with me to a world to enjoy your life? Hmm¡­I have a long schedule for now, maybe after I have finished all my business?" [Can I?] "Like I said, you shouldn''t ask that question. The answer is yes or no. Take it or leave it." [Yes?] Alex scratched the back of his head and let out a long sigh. "Well, that''s good enough for now. We can talk about this when I meet you again." Lin Xingzhi could only shake her head but decided to take back that disappointment when she saw her blushing while playing with her fingers as if she didn''t know what to do. She almost laughed at that time and started teasing her. "Oya, oya. What do we have here?" Lin Xingzhi smirked. Letizia''s body shook and turned to Lin Xingzhi. "I¡­" "I smell love in the air. Hmm¡­Maybe you have the most complicated love story among us. I mean, from an opposition to a slave to a subordinate to this." "I¡­What should I do?" Letizia glanced left and right as she couldn''t stare straight at Lin Xingzhi''s eyes. "Just do whatever you want. I don''t have much problem with you here and I think I am a bit relieved. I mean there are ten rooms¡­Rather than having someone with an unknown goal, it''s better to have someone like you." "Can I?" She blushed. "I mean, I have always convinced myself that I am just a slave¡­Including that kind of slave¡­So, I have prepared myself to be pushed down by Master when he wants me¡­I think that is more suitable for me¡­" Looking at her sheepish actions, Lin Xingzhi couldn''t help but smile and hugged her. "So cute. I wonder if I should make you read my "ultimate" book?" Chapter 967 - Aria Vs Alex After ending his conversation with Letizia, Alex had a good grasp of what he needed to do in this world. If possible, he needed to reach Rank 8 God before the next mission. However, it led to another question to Lin Xingzhi. "By the way, how about the two Divine Herbs that I left in your hand?" Alex asked with a serious expression. [They are good. Maybe they will be ripe enough when you reach Rank 7 God. That way, you wouldn''t need too long to reach Rank 6 God. And you will also have another reserve in your body.] "I see. Thanks." Alex let out a long sigh. "Nyx. Can I ask something?" Aria shouted at him while training. "What is it?" "I wonder what are you going to do with the Eternal Ice Flower?" "Why? Do you want it?" Alex asked in confusion. Silvia didn''t come today, so there were only him and Aria in this field. And it turned out that Aria was more inclined not to talk when Silvia was here. Maybe, she was still uncomfortable with her or probably shy. "I mean, I have heard from my father that medicinal herbs are usually used as Pill Ingredients. However, there are some that can be taken individually. Do you know anything about it? Or should I ask about it to Mya?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and decided to explain. "It''s just general knowledge. You should know that there is a quality difference between every single medicinal herb, right?" "Yes." "Just like cultivation, it will become even more apparent for Divine Herbs. I mean, there is a big difference between a Rank 10 God and a Rank 9 God. Even if you can fight a 10-Star Martial Saint while being a 7-Star, it doesn''t mean you could challenge a Rank 9 God while being a Rank 10 God. Do you know what I mean?" "I''ve got a grasp of it." "Now, we should bring this example to the Divine Herbs. Just like a Rank 1 God or God King, the peak Divine Herbs have a very powerful efficacy. If we use this kind of herb, there will be two possibilities. First, the herb will become too strong for our body to handle. Or second, the herb will overpower the rest of the ingredients and turn them into junk. "The first one can still be used to increase one''s prestige while the second one is very pricey. Either way, all of them need a huge cost. And people started finding a way to get good efficacy but at a lower cost, thus the birth of alchemy. "They are combining multiple lower-level herbs to replicate the effect of a peak Divine Herbs. That''s why most Divine Pills stem from low-level Divine Herbs, while stronger Divine Herbs are to be consumed raw." Aria fell silent for a moment and finally nodded her head. "So, that''s the reason. Is that also related to why many Rank 8 herbs are still used as ingredients?" "Yes. Because there is a higher limit which is the God Rank, no need to hold back in using them, hoping that one of them can actually become a Divine Pill." Alex nodded. "The cost will surely be lower than normal Divine Pills." "In that case, doesn''t it mean there is a big difference between Alchemist and Forging Master or Array Master?" "Not really. You should know that your sword actually has a consciousness, right?" "Yes. You told me that a few months ago. However, most weapons have a very weak consciousness, so it doesn''t mean anything to the users." She nodded. "It will be different for those with high-level weapons. There is a chance that the sword that they build will have a strong consciousness. If a God King can control such a sword, that is good, but what if there is a Sword that is capable of killing a God King itself? The one that has broken the limit of this universe?" "Ah?!" Aria instantly understood what he meant. If such a sword were born in this world, there would be a chance that the Sword would rule this world. When that time came, they would be at its mercy. "I didn''t think it through." "That''s why it has become taboo for the most part. If one actually conducts such research, the planets around it will try to kill that person because he/she has threatened their existence." "I agree. I will probably kill him before his creation kills me." "As for Array Master, this one is similar to that of Alchemy. They simply have a limit. Rank 8 Array can only be created with Martial Saint Stage monster blood. Divine Array or Rank 9 Array can only be drawn with God Rank Expert blood. If there is one that is surpassing that, then you need blood that is higher than God King." "Do they exist?" "They exist." Alex smiled mysteriously. From what he understood, the beast should be the perfect example. Although his previous life managed to fight it toe-to-toe, he still didn''t have any confidence in killing the beast. Thus, he wanted the current him to reach the same stage as him to kill that beast. Knowing that the universe would expel him and forbid him from meeting his family, he sent the only power that could help him negating that effect even if it meant that Alex would choose to stay as a God King instead of a higher stage. That was the reason why Lin Xingzhi could actually find the Gacha System that the Dungeon God possessed. Everything had been arranged deliberately without her knowledge. Meanwhile, Alex perfectly understood this, but the memory stayed only in his mind due to the "cheat code" that the previous him gave him. As long as it was related to the source of the Gacha System, Lin Xingzhi wouldn''t be able to know it. "I see. Thank you for answering that question even though it doesn''t mean anything to me for the time being." Aria didn''t forget to thank her. "By the way, why did you ask that question?" Alex asked, feeling something odd. "You were very eager when you knew about the Eternal Ice Flower, so it piqued my curiosity. And because my father didn''t really have much knowledge about the universe or anything above Martial Saint, I couldn''t ask anyone." Alex could understand that as well. He might become as curious as her if he didn''t have the knowledge crammed inside his brain. "Still, you are a Fire Element user while Mya has a Light Element. You two are not related to the Eternal Ice Flower. Unlike the two herbs that I bought for you, I couldn''t help but think, the herbs¡­Are they for your wives? It means your wives have Ice Element, no?" "You do know that I have several wives, right?" "Well, at least I know a bit of one of your wives." She shrugged while smirking as if she managed to get another good piece of information from him. "Do you want a spanking?" Alex twitched his eyebrows before appearing in the field. "How about we have a round here? You have been dying to test your strength, right? I won''t use my Divine Energy and hold back my strength. Don''t worry. I will fight you with 1-Star Martial Saint strength. The question is¡­Do you dare?" "¡­" Aria fell silent and halted her steps. She opened her palm as a sword appeared before it. Pointing her sword toward Alex, she said, "Any bet?" "Hmm¡­What do you want?" "How about your real appearance or your real age? I want to see it." "Really? You do remember that you still owe me a favor, right?" "I don''t mind owing you a favor. How about if you win, I will owe you another favor? Besides, you are going to be my boss eventually. There is nothing to lose." "Heh?!" Alex smirked. "I don''t really mind since you won''t be able to defeat me." "That''s something we can only find after we fight." "I like that answer, but you haven''t forgotten the fact that I was the one advising you of your Sword Style, right?" "Even so, there is no telling that you actually have the strength to block it." She pointed her sword and released her lightning. "Are we going to fight?" "It''s on then." Alex nodded while closing his eyes before raising his sword to the right. Without even waiting for Alex, Aria already made a move, trying to catch him off guard. "Tch." "I was the one teaching this shamelessness to you." "Right. There is nothing fair. In a life and death battle, only the winner can say whether the fight is fair or not." She smiled and looked left and right, trying to find something that could help her defeat him. Alex watched her movement closely with his Spirit Eyes before an array plate. Aria didn''t know what he took out, so she opened her eyes. "Are you going to use that? You are cheating." "Don''t you say that only the winner can say whether the fight is fair or not?" Alex smugly used her words to defeat her argument. Aria was speechless to see the one who taught her was even more shameless than her. No, she should say it was to be expected. However, Alex threw it to the ground and activated the Array. An invisible barrier was soon erected, separating this place from the outside world. No matter how hard they fought, the people from the outside wouldn''t know they were here fighting. "This¡­" "This is just a normal barrier coupled with an illusion array. The people outside can only see an empty field, so you can go all out." "Doesn''t it the other way around? You are the one that has been holding back this whole time." Aria shook her head helplessly. "Whatever, let''s start." Alex shrugged and waved his hand a few times, taunting her. Aria smiled and coated her sword with the Sword Qi and her Lightning. With her eyes, she should be able to fight Alex, let alone him with that 1-Star Martial Saint. With the confidence overwhelming her heart, she leaped forward. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." She appeared next to Alex while drawing her sword. "Fourth Dance, Lightning Draw." Alex glanced to the right and swung his sword, trying to block this. Having predicted this move from Alex, Aria smiled and used her Sword Eye to create a barrier to stop Alex''s sword while completing her move. However, this was when Alex showed his superiority. Another two swords appeared as if it was going through the motion. One stopped Aria''s sword while the other one headed straight to her body. Not wanting to get hit, she instinctively launched herself to the side, albeit Alex already appeared in front of her and kicked her. Luckily, Aria was fast enough to raise both hands to stop that kick, albeit still rolling on the ground for a long distance. Alex would surely take advantage of this, so Aria ignored all the pain and rose from the ground while scanning the surroundings, trying to find him that turned out to be standing still. "What?!" Alex only waved his hands as if he just beat her prediction again. If Aria could handle all kinds of conversation to make her go to the top, Alex''s battle tricks were something that she couldn''t handle. After all, fighting was different than talking. If they thought too much, they would be swallowed by one that purely acted with instinct because they never needed a split second to think what they needed to do. Alex just showed her that. He didn''t have any plan, but he was still aiming to defeat her. That was enough. "Are you done?" Alex smiled before sticking out his tongue. "Should we stop the match then? Of course, I win." "No. This time I will win." She shook her head and charged at him again, trying to find a solution to his defense. "First Dance, Z Slash." "Spirit Step, First Step." Alex waved his sword vertically, striking Aria''s sword from far away. "One Inch Spear." Even when he held back, Alex''s Spirit Step was enough to create a stronger force than what Aria currently had. The latter was shocked beyond her imagination and exclaimed. "What?!" Chapter 968 - Win? "What?!" She felt as if there was a huge monster stomping her sword. She even fell on her butt before storing the sword into the Space Ring to free herself. Alex let her retreat and took out her sword again while smiling. "Is that all?" "You must use your Divine Body!" Aria couldn''t help but comment. "I am not. I still have another technique that can enhance my strength." Alex shrugged. "Besides, my sword is stronger than you." "¡­" She gritted her teeth and raised her Sword again, knowing that if she fought him in close-quarter combat, Alex would surely defeat her. Sheathing her sword, she looked left and right, trying to find an opening. ''Eve, let me do this alone.'' Alex sent a thought transmission to his Sword Spirit. ''Alright. It will be a bit boring, but I guess that''s fine.'' Eve pouted and reluctantly agreed. ''There will be a time where we need to fight strong opponents. Unfortunately, that''s not today.'' Alex tried to comfort her. ''I am not talking about that. It''s just using my power is so satisfying. You know that I have never used it once for around ten thousand years, right?'' ''Ah. I apologize.'' ''It''s fine. There will always be fights in the future.'' Alex sighed inwardly before regaining his focus on the match. He summoned his dragon. "Swallowing Heaven." Seeing that the dragon flew out of the sword, heading to the left and waiting for Alex''s next instruction, Aria saw this as a chance. Due to the dragon, Alex shouldn''t have time to react if she attacked him from behind the dragon. "Purgatory Sword." Alex glanced to the right and strengthened his dragon with the Pure Sword Qi and his elements, making it rock solid. When the Sword Wave hit it, only a shallow could be found. It wasn''t like when the Sword God used it. Even so, Alex felt this was already a good attack. "Nice one. Keep it up." "What is nice? It only leaves a graze." Aria clicked her tongue before changing her strategy. Since Alex would prolong this match, she didn''t mind going all out and a bit reckless just to put a wound on him. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." Alex found Aria on his back and waited for her to make a move while moving his dragon to his back. To his surprise, Aria ran forward while waving her sword up and down, creating a vertical zig-zag movement. This was the technique that could destroy a powerful Sword Wave, and she planned to use it to destroy his dragon. The sword struck the same wound that she left previously, trying to deepen it. Alex didn''t say anything and waited until she managed to do whatever she wanted to do before sending the dragon''s head toward her. "That is still not enough?" Aria widened her eyes. Her Sword Eye told her the danger behind the dragon as if asking her to retreat. It was futile to strike the dragon because Alex could summon another one, so she blocked the incoming dragon head with her sword, albeit blowing her away to the air. Knowing that she wasn''t capable of bringing the dragon down, she chose another strategy and leaped to the dragon''s body while slashing the air toward Alex. "Purgatory Sword." Although the dragon looked so slick, it shouldn''t be able to move its body fast enough to block it. And as she expected, the dragon turned around, so she leaped to the air, watching how Alex would block that Sword Wave. Alex only smiled and controlled the dragon''s head to chase the Sword Wave instead. "Are you kidding me?!" She saw the dragon''s head move faster than the Sword Wave and bit her attack, shattering it into pieces. "That''s illegal." "Are you done? If you don''t like it, it''s better to stop. Don''t forget. I am limiting my strength to 1-Star Martial Saint together with my strength." Alex glanced at her. "But you still have your Divine Techniques and Divine Sword Qi." "I didn''t use my Divine Sword Qi this whole time." Alex shook his head, denying her claim. "Then¡ª!!!" Words stuck in her throat as she realized something wrong with his reply. "You¡­Do you happen to have a special Sword Qi? What is that?" "Hehe¡­Do you think I will tell you? That''s right. How about if you beat me, I will teach you this technique?" Alex calmly taunted her again. "If you don''t have confidence in beating me, you are free to continue your training." "Hmph. We will see whether you can maintain that calm face of yours." She snorted and thought for a moment. ''What should I do? Even though I said all of that, I didn''t have the confidence to penetrate the dragon''s defense, let alone him. ''When his excellency Sword God taught me, he told me that both techniques were very useful to fight against opponents stronger than me¡­But why was it ineffective? But he also met with him, so is the more powerful Sword Qi that makes the difference?'' She fell into deep thought before sheathing her sword once again. Little did she know Alex was actually smiling when he saw her stance. What she was about to do was the latent ability of her Sword Eye. Instead of creating a barrier made of Sword Qi, she poured every single Sword Qi into her Sword. It was hard, but she got the hang of it after several tries. "Your enemy won''t wait this long, you know." Alex provoked her again, trying to break her concentration. "You are not my enemy. Besides, are you scared of what I am going to do?" She didn''t feel like losing in the last argument, so she asked with a provoking smile. "Ho?! You can talk big now. Why don''t you attack me then?" Alex smiled. "Fine by me." She raised her sword after channeling the Sword Qi into her Sword instead, tripling the amount she usually poured to the sword. "Take this." "Purgatory Sword." She slashed the air, sending another Sword Wave. However, Alex already felt the difference in that attack even without looking. The dragon soared to the sky and bit the Sword Wave, albeit failed to do so. The Sword Wave cut through the Dragon. Unfortunately, it was already weakened to a certain extent. Alex only raised his right foot a few inches above the ground before stomping the ground. "Spirit Step, Second Step." The pressure point formed above the Sword Wave, pushing it down as if the gravity in that area increased rapidly. As a result, the Sword Wave actually struck the ground near him instead. "It seems you have managed to learn the second ability." Alex smiled. "Thanks to you for making me realize. Fighting is really a great way to improve." She controlled the Sword Qi again, infusing it to the sword. "Since you talk big, let''s make it even harder." Alex smiled and summoned another one, albeit not a dragon. What Aria saw was a giant translucent red fox, looking at her with that sharp gaze that was ready to burn her. Not only that, it created a ball with its mouth. Aria instantly felt the impact of that ball. Scorching heat reduced her ability and made it hard to concentrate. "What is this?" "Your Sword Eye can last for half an hour before you completely get exhausted. It has been five minutes since we started, so I am going to speed it up a bit more. Under this influence, you are to defeat me." Alex smiled before his sword released another Dragon. "Oops. You won''t be able to destroy both the fireball and the wolf too, with the help of this dragon." ''Shameless.'' Aria screamed. What she saw was Alex''s Fire Authority and Sun Descent. If only she knew that Alex''s Fire Authority had another level which became his armor, she would become even more stressed. After all, the moment Alex added his Phoenix Aura into that armor, Aria wouldn''t be able to penetrate it unless she used her all in one strike. "Come on. Just give up." Alex smiled. "You bet. I am going to show you that I am not a weak girl." She snorted and channeled everything to her sword. Instead of using the Purgatory Sword, she prepared to fight Alex. Even if she couldn''t handle his power, it was still enough to avoid it and land a strike on his body. "Sixth Dance, Lightning Rabbit." She jumped forward like a rabbit while maintaining her focus on the dragon. As she expected, the dragon charged at her while using the rest of its body to protect the fox and the fireball that restricted her movement. Looking at the incoming dragon, she finally took another leap and landed on the dragon''s back. After that, she kept leaping unpredictably while slashing the dragon''s body that seemed to be easier to cut after pouring most of her Sword Qi into it. "Interesting." Alex watched how she utilized her technique just to beat his dragon first. Unfortunately, he just did something she wouldn''t expect. The fox suddenly raised its paw and waved it downwards, trying to flatten her. When she saw this, she halted her movements once and changed to another step. "Fifth Dance, Lightning Step." She used speed to run away from the paw, albeit she wasn''t fast enough. Her head touched the paw, and she spun in the air. Luckily, she still managed to escape even though she was in that sorry state. Alex became even more intrigued when he saw Aria use that force to make another move. "Third Dance, Spinning Star." It went up as if there was a bike inside a track. It completely followed the path, but the blade cut the dragon continuously, leaving it in a sorry state. Alex understood that the Sword Dance she learned from his advice was powerful. It contained six important dances which had important aspects. The Z Slash was when she needed to strike down a stronger move. The Flash Strike allowed her to make the most powerful move. The Spinning Star could be used when she was in an unstable position, while the Lightning Draw was useful to improve her overall stance. The Lightning Step emphasized speed, while the Lightning Rabbit allowed her to move unpredictably. Using all of this would surely create an opportunity like this time. The moment she reached the head, she stopped spinning and used the head as a stepping ground to launch herself toward Alex. "This is it!" Aria shouted and slashed downward. "Second Dance, Flash Strike." Alex still maintained his calm and struck her sword. "Triple Draws." Like the previous attack, Alex''s two other strikes appeared before her eyes, but Aria had prepared for this. She used Alex''s strength to be her support to spin mid-air. "Third Dance, Spinning Star." Instead of attacking both strikes at the same time, Aria chose to attack it one at a time and utilized that high-speed rotation to destroy both strikes before they reached her body. ''So daring¡­'' Alex smiled and widened his eyes when he realized it wasn''t over. The rotation had yet to die down, but he realized that her attack was different. As soon as he focused his Spirit Eyes on her sword, he realized that Aria was sheathing her sword at this kind of speed. When she drew that sword again, it would have another boost from the spin, allowing her to get a more powerful attack. "!!!" Surprised by her action, Alex changed his grip and used his other hand to help him block this attack. "Fourth Dance, Lightning Draw." Clank. The clash created a powerful shockwave before Aria fell to the ground¡ªhead first. "Kya!" She pouted because she needed to kiss the ground and felt that she didn''t have any energy left to attack him. "You lose." Alex recovered in an instant and pointed his sword toward her. "Whatever¡­I have completed my objective." Aria laughed happily while pointing her finger at Alex as if she just beat him. "Why are you laughing even though you lose to me?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Look at you, you don''t have energy left." "Even so, I have finally made you move from your position." She smiled while lowering her hand and pointing at the mark on the ground, showing him that she managed to push him back a little bit. "¡­" Chapter 969 - Propose? Or Not! Alex found it weird to hear those words, but Eve made a comment. ''Master, I do think it''s something big, you know.'' ''What do you mean?'' ''Even though you are limiting your power to 1-Star Martial Saint¡­Even if you don''t have your Divine Techniques, you still have the same ability as her, capable of rivaling people three stars above you. And there is this experience, Divine Techniques, and so on, increasing that limit even further. ''That''s why you are too strong even for her. She may have 4-Star Martial Saint strength, but it''s not enough to defeat those that have acc.u.mulated in you.'' Eve let out a long sigh. ''That''s why she is so happy just to push you back.'' ''But¡­'' The words stuck on his throat, realizing that his words should be directed to Aria instead of Eve. In that case, he chose to say it out loud, so both could hear him. "But you need to know that this was only a spar. If it were a real fight, your head would have rolled on the ground." "Of course, I know. If this were a real battle, I wouldn''t fight you anymore. I would seriously run away from you." She shook her head. "Still, I take pride in pushing you back." Alex sighed. Since fighting while trying not to kill was harder than fighting for survival, he wanted to rebuke her again, but he chose not to do that because both of them were trying to do that. "Anyway, I win." Alex sheathed his sword and walked to Aria, stretching his hand. She smiled and took his hand, standing back up. "By the way, is there any reward for accomplishing something like that?" Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "Close your eyes first. Besides, you don''t need to use your Sword Eye any more, don''t you?" Listening to Alex, she closed her eyes and waited with great interest. Before Alex took out anything, she remembered that her mother told her a story of her father proposing to her. She asked her to close her eyes, and bam, he did it. Looking closely at that scene, she smirked and teased him again. "Is this a proposal or something? You don''t happen to have a ring with you, no?" Alex smiled and raised her left hand gently before stroking her middle finger. Her heart beat rapidly when he did this as she thought, ''Eh, seriously? I meant it as a joke, but I have never thought he is going for real. Even though it''s on my middle finger instead of my ring finger, it''s still¡­'' Alex didn''t pay attention to her and put the ring on her finger. ''What should I do? He¡­He is going to¡­Wait, he will be my boss in the future, right? Does he actually want me¡­'' Her face flushed and thought of it seriously. ''Well, he is better than all men that only want my family influence or my body, so I guess it''s fine.'' She prepared herself to say "I do" or "Yes" when he later said anything. However, Alex didn''t say anything for the time being, gently raised her other hand, specifically her middle finger, and put on another finger. ''This¡­What is the meaning of this? I don''t know anything about two rings.'' She started panicking. Finally, Alex broke his silence and asked. "Are you happy now?" "I do!" "Good. You can open your eyes for one or two minutes." Alex smiled. When she opened her eyes and saw the beautiful rings, she was mesmerized before looking at him awkwardly. "Nyx¡­" Alex smiled at her as if he wanted to say something nice, albeit everything turned upside down when Alex said, "Activate." "What¡ª" Before she managed to say anything, the rings suddenly released overbearing pressure. It was like having ten 10-Star Martial Saint releasing their pressure on her, trying to suppress her power. She fell on her knees and looked up to see Alex''s face that still had the same smile. To her surprise, Alex suddenly showed her his fingers. On the left hand, he had a ring on his ring finger that seemed to be the proof of marriage. However, he had one more ring on the middle finger on his right hand. "This is a Pressure Ring that my wife made. I never mentioned this to anyone since my wife could only make that recently. The ring will give you a certain amount of pressure for a period of time¡­This will be perfect for training your body. "You said you are happy with the present, right? Seeing you are still able to tease me in the process, you must have enough energy to do one more training menu, right? I am just helping you, so no need to thank me for this. Now, do your practice." Alex smirked like a devil. Aria''s body shook as her face turned pale. "You devil bastard! Give me my sweet feelings back." Despite saying that, she still managed to get back up and started running, completely enduring the pressure. "You are not a human, you are a devil! I swear I won''t have that feeling again!" Meanwhile, Alex only muttered in a low voice. "You are confusing your own feelings. Besides, I am searching for power, not women from this world¡­*Sigh*." The day passed just like that as Aria collapsed again. ¡­ The next day, Alex and Aria met again, but Aria made a sour face in front of him. "How are your rest?" "Not great. Thanks to a certain someone." She pouted. "So, you have been harboring that kind of thought to the point you are hoping to have one moment like that?" Alex smirked, teasing her. "Such a naughty girl." "No!" She stomped the ground and looked away. She truly meant it. What she had for Alex was not love, it was simply interest, admiration, and other things. She knew that as well, so no word could escape her mouth. "Anyway, are you ready for another session of training?" She paused for a few minutes before letting out a long sigh. "Can I get an explanation about the ring first?"Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #!_52186615484833178 for visiting. "Oh, alright. My wife is an Array Master. She recently mastered a certain array that she found in an accident called Pressure Array. If a normal person could strengthen his body with gravity, it would be more effective for cultivators. After all, their body was far stronger than that of a normal person. "I have been wearing this ring myself since a few months ago, so it''s only recently. Since I am training you, my wife makes two more that can contain the pressure from five 5-Star Martial Saints. So, two rings give you ten 5-Star Martial Saint. Meanwhile, the one I have contains two Rank 7 Gods. "You must have noticed that I started becoming easier to get tired, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. I indeed felt that way¡­If I am not wrong, it started four months ago." "That''s when my wife gave me this ring. Well, it becomes easier to surpass my limit with this¡­I probably need another one or change to a more powerful ring since I have improved a lot." Alex nodded. "Don''t tell me you used this ring when you fought me?" Aria gasped, suddenly feeling pressured by that fact. "Yes. In fact, I would lose if you maintained the course for another five minutes. I mean, I used seventy percent of my Spiritual Energy yesterday." Alex smiled as if he just fooled her. "Of course, it didn''t mean the ring was holding me back. Instead, I used the pressure of the ring to give me a bit more power in my swing, albeit it cost me too much Spiritual Energy." "Then¡­Does that mean if I maintain my pace, I would have won?" She almost fell down before scratching the back of her head, knowing that it was her perfect chance to know something about Alex. "The problem was¡­You didn''t know, right? You did not know my current ability and strength, so you could only risk it. Remember this well, if you have enough knowledge, you can turn any probability to one hundred percent." Alex knew that he himself had Spirit Eyes with him to discover something like this. However, he was too special, so he taught her to be knowledgeable about her enemy, so she knew how to react to anything the opponent did. The N Squad helped him with this, but Aria had no one to rely on. This was the only thing he could teach her, even if it made him look a bit like a bastard. "Anyway, you should keep practicing with this¡ª" Alex stopped before glancing to the left, noticing that Silvia just came out of the house. As observant as her, she obviously noticed the ring on Aria''s fingers before asking with a smile. "What''s this? I just went back for a day, and now you are husband and wife, leaving me out?" "Me? His wife?" Aria rolled her eyes. "No way." "You are still feeling sour about it? You do know my principle and your own feelings, right?" Alex shrugged. Aria snorted and looked away. "Well, well, you shouldn''t speak like that too¡­You are going to be single for the rest of your life." Silvia tried to stop this but to no avail. Alex shrugged before tossing another ring to her. "Wear this. It''s a Pressure Ring. It will give you the pressure from two Rank 3 God, allowing you to train efficiently." "Oh, there is something like that? And you are giving me this precious ring?" She smiled from ear to ear, never expecting that Alex would give it to her. "My wife wanted me to give you that, considering you helped me. I contemplated for a few days before giving you this." Alex sighed. "I see. Since this is your wife we are talking about, then I will gladly accept this present. This is different from you giving the present after all." She stuck her tongue out. She channeled her Divine Energy, and the ring immediately released the pressure on her body. Stumbling, Silvia smiled before deactivating again to wear it on her finger. "This is a treasure. Training will become even more effective." Alex nodded. "Anyway, I have given it to you, so I hope you don''t misunderstand the intention¡­" When Alex said that, he found Silvia almost put it on her ring finger before she playfully canceled that plan. "Oops¡­Wrong finger." Alex twitched his eyebrows before letting out a sigh, looking at Silvia putting the ring on her middle finger instead. "I was just playing with you. I mean, since this is from your wife, I will honor her for recognizing me, so I won''t steal the march with something like this." She stuck her tongue. "Besides, I don''t want you to hate me with something this small for now." Alex didn''t deny it either. A few days ago, Alicia told him to give the rings to Aria and Silvia. Aria had helped him understand the Sword Qi, so she should have something like this as a repayment. As for Silvia, this was a direct challenge and warning from Alicia. This was a kind of telling Silvia that she had recognized her, but if she wanted to be one of them, she needed to prove her sincerity and efforts. Alex needed a few days to ponder because of this reason. He wasn''t sure about her yet, but he decided to face her without drawing a line like how he planned to treat Evelyn and Letizia in the future. "I accept," Silvia muttered in a low voice while looking at the ring as if she knew what the meaning of this ring was. "Anyway, I have given both of you the rings, so my job is done." Alex stretched his body before continuing his training. "If you are done too, you should start your training." Aria shook her head helplessly and followed him. "This man can only think about training. I feel like his wives are secondary to him." "Nope. You couldn''t be more off the mark there." Silvia denied it completely with a smile, knowing the Spirit God''s reputation. However, it wouldn''t be good for the current Aria to know that, so she stopped there. Chapter 970 - Compete to Lose? The peaceful time lasted slightly longer than they predicted. Alex also had no problem regarding that, but he knew that sooner or later, the peak master would visit them to check their progress and assigned them a mission. However, it took her another three months to come again. Alex almost reached Rank 8 God at this point. Although it was a bit late from his schedule, he was really close to it. When the peak master Ilevis came, Alex immediately put on his mask and asked Silvia to hide herself before he came to greet her with Aria. "Welcome, Peak Master. How can we help you?" Aria smiled. "How are you doing? I can feel that both of you are stronger now, and I don''t need to worry about you anymore." Ilevis checked their cultivation and nodded satisfied. "We are great. Thanks to you." "That''s good. As much as I want to keep chatting with you, let''s cut to the chase, shall we?" "Sure." Aria stretched her hand, pointing at the chair. "Please enter first. We can discuss it inside." Ilevis nodded and sat before immediately explaining the situation. "In another month, there is a huge competition that every single Inner Disciple and Core Disciple needs to participate in. This is a special competition for the seat of the sect master." Alex and Aria opened their mouths in surprise as they never saw this coming. Still, what Ilevis said next completely baffled them. "And in this competition, I want you to lose." "Eh?! Can you repeat it again, Peak Master?" Aria exclaimed in surprise. "You¡­Did you just say we need to participate but only to lose?" The peak master remained calm and nodded her head. "Yes. You didn''t hear it wrong." "Why?! There is no point then." "No. This is something important to me." She shook her head before explaining the whole situation. "I will tell you about the true reason for this competition." "Is that related to this condition?" "Yes. This competition''s real purpose is to search for the Sect Master candidate. Due to the sect master''s age, we can''t delay this any longer. That''s why the Inner Disciples and the Core Disciples will have a full brawl to see which disciple has the quality to become the sect master. "Of course, the competition is fair. Inner Disciple will only fight Inner Disciple. The same applies to the Core Disciple. No matter their cultivation, we will choose them if they have the quality and nurture them. "However, it means no sect can approach this person because he/she will maintain their neutrality until becoming the sect master. This is my own selfishness, but I wish if you don''t become a sect master and continue becoming a disciple in my peak." This might be the first time the peak master actually bowed her head. She must be feeling frustrated about this because only she could understand the talent that Aria and Alex had. Rather than having one of these two becoming the sect master, it was better to tie them to the sect with this arrangement. After all, the sect master had to act just, not thinking about their former peak. If either Alex or Aria became a sect master, their relationship would crumble. Eventually, one of them would leave the sect or, in the worst case, both of them, leaving the sect master seat open. When that time came, another turbulence would happen in this sect, resulting in a big loss of the sect. Hence, it would be better to maintain the status quo. Not only would they stay in this sect willingly, but they would also support the sect master as long as it wasn''t ridiculous. The sect master could still be taught and understood this matter, so it shouldn''t be much of a problem. Little did she know Alex and Aria already had their answer even though it came from a different reason. For Alex, becoming a sect master was a no-go. He didn''t want to be known in this world, much less becoming the leader of this sect. It would only affect his reputation. As for Aria, her reason was similar to Alex''s. She had no ability to lead the sect and had no right to do it. After all, she had sworn herself to serve Alex in the future. It wasn''t for the family, but she believed it would be the best course to grow even stronger. Alex was always an enigma in her eyes. He would always be someone who was more talented and stronger that even she had all this lifetime, she wouldn''t be able to surpass him. So, she thought chasing him would be more enjoyable than becoming a sect master who needed to act impartially. There was no way she would enjoy it. She didn''t even want to lead her family, let alone this big sect. Alex and Aria exchanged looks and nodded at each other. ''I don''t want something like this, but we still should ask for compensation, no?'' Alex added his little trick. ''Indeed. It is a request after all. And I heard a request from an elder has a big reward every time their request appears on the marketplace.'' She agreed with him as both of them looked at Ilevis. She said, "We understand. Since we are forbidden to not participate, we agree to this. It''s not like I would like to part from him." "Fair enough. I don''t like the spotlight anyway. Even if one of us aims for that seat, it will be her, albeit it seems the better course will be this. We shall enter the tournament and deliberately lose." Alex nodded. Their answer sounded very sweet on her ears as she smiled from ear to ear. "As expected, I can count on you guys." "Before that, may I know the reason why you don''t want us to be the sect leader? You said it''s your own selfishness, right?" Aria asked with a serious expression. "Yes." She nodded. "I don''t have something that I like about this sect master position. Although I personally enjoy such a person leading the sect since I know him, it''s a different case for both of you. I have no doubt that your talent is enough to become the sect master in this sect¡­ "After all, one of you has reached 6-Star Martial Saint under fifty years while the other one has the Sword God''s original skill. This is enough for the qualification. In fact, they might not hold this competition anymore and just choose either of you to become the successor. "However, if the situation turns that way, you two will part. For example, if Aria becomes the sect master and Nyx does something wrong, Aria needs to punish him according to the sect rule even if it means killing him. That''s why in this sect, the sect master is not allowed to have a family. If he/she comes from an outside family, they are to separate themselves. "If you, the sect master, can''t maintain your neutrality, all the elders will need to remove you from the picture¡­As far as I know, it''s including killing you. That''s why I don''t wish for you to entangle yourself in this type of situation. "I am sure that both of you have the same thought of me, right?" She smiled, trying to get their sympathy. Alex and Aria had their eyes intertwined, thinking the same thing. They had predicted something like this as the reason, but it still felt weird to see that the sect master needed to do something like that. For Alex, the sect master looked like a robot, not having the feeling to act like how a human should be. Of course, they might still allow him to get any women or men they want but are forbidden to have a child. However, Alex couldn''t condone such a thing as it was even crueler than having no love at all. ''Hey. Did the Sword God become the sect master in the past?'' Alex asked with a thought transmission. ''Yes. He could get all the resources to practice and had nothing to lose at that moment. If I am not wrong, the Sword God once had a family but destroyed by another family. To avenge them, he decided to become the sect master. ''It was at that time the Sword God lost his motivation to have a family or any other things, thus allowing him to pursue the sword to the highest degree. Although that rule couldn''t be applied to him when he became a God King, he didn''t break the rule at all. ''I didn''t know whether he wished for a family or not, but I believed he didn''t. Anyway, I don''t feel great about this sect master thing. Your influence has more freedom than this, right?'' She asked back after the explanation. ''Of course. I don''t like the concept as well. In fact, I believe you should fall in love with someone first before building a family. It''s true that one of my wives stemmed from a family that took advantage of my weakness, but I decided it would be the last time. And I learned how uncomfortable it was when I had strength.'' Alex let out a long sigh. ''Hmm¡­This is the first time I heard you talking about your wife, but I guess it means I have gotten closer to my boss?'' She giggled inwardly. ''Anyway, there is no reason to win and fight for the sect master position, right?'' ''Yes. You can reject it.'' Aria nodded and opened her mouth. "We understand. Thank you for the explanation and your care. However, won''t we become targeted if we become too strong to the point that the sect master can''t stop us himself?" "You don''t need to mind. We can work our way out with that." Alex felt a bit suspicious about her meaning, but he decided to stay quiet. If what he thought became a reality, he could simply kidnap her from this world. With that scenario, the sect wouldn''t do something to her family because it was beyond her control. It wasn''t like she betrayed this planet, so yeah, it was the best solution. "Can you give us information on what we will get along with the competition?" Ilevis agreed and started explaining. "The first stage of the competition is on another planet called Musha. The people there are nomadic, so you needed to work your way to have control over the situation, whether it was in their economy or politics. The economic system in that place is trading, so you can hunt animals and trade with them, your choice. As for their power level, most of them are Martial Emperor to Martial Saint, so I believe you shouldn''t fight them openly. "As for what you can get, I have a map that will lead you to a cave. In that cave, there is a mouse called Gold Digger Mouse. This mouse has the ability to smell treasure and lead you to it if you manage to tame it. However, you will need to tame it yourself because I don''t know how to do it as well. If you have one, you can bring it around and find Divine Herbs, Metals, or even treasures." Alex twitched his eyebrows when he heard about the term "Gold Digger" and commented inwardly. ''Can you give it a better name? I mean, even I can like Five Color Treasure Mouse or whatever¡­Instead, you choose the name Gold Digger? I give up. There is always a sky above the sky.'' "Anyway, that mouse is something that can''t be measured. This is what I want to give you." Ilevis smiled with confidence. This big help would surely make Alex and Aria feel grateful to her and the sect, decreasing the chance of them defecting from the sect in the future. What she didn''t know was Alex''s Spirit Eyes. That technique could replace the mouse easily, so it didn''t pique his interest. However, what he heard regarding the treasures in that world incited his heart. ''I don''t care about the mouse, but I guess Aria can use it. And if it only becomes her bind, we can simply throw it away. I only want the Divine Herbs and other things¡­So, I guess we fail, but it doesn''t mean we can''t go for a treasure hunt. A nice proposal indeed.'' Alex smiled inwardly, already having a plan for this. Aria confirmed to her again that both of them were interested in it, so she slammed the table with a serious expression. "Now, let''s discuss the details." Chapter 971 - Spaceship Inside Alex''s room, the person in question was still concentrating on his cultivation, trying to advance to the next level. It might be due to his current body condition that he could sense the breakthrough like how he used to be. This made him wonder whether the clogged body actually caused him unable to sense this anymore. Either way, he had the feeling he was already in front of a door, only waiting for him to open it to advance. Five minutes¡­ Ten minutes¡­ One hour¡­ He still couldn''t break through his current self. Meanwhile, Aria and Silvia practiced outside, not bothering him for today. When he cultivated for more than twenty hours, he finally pushed open the door and stepped forward, officially advancing to Rank 8 God. The surge of power coming into his body flooded his veins and organs, strengthening them even further. He needed to consolidate his strength first by channeling this extra energy to the place they belonged to. It took him a full day before he finished everything and opened his eyes. "Fu." Alex let out a breath of relief before checking his cultivation. "It''s Rank 8 God indeed. I can go to Encore again and open another gate. Well, I can finish my job first before going there. No big deal. Besides, can I open two gates in one go if I become a Rank 7 God first before going there? Probably I shouldn''t. Anyway, it''s going to take a long time to reach the next level, so I will be taking my time for it." Having come to a decision, he stood up and went straight to the field to check Aria and Silvia. When they noticed him, they stopped for a second and continued doing their job. "To think you have broken through to¡­Never mind. Congratulations on your Advancement." Silvia shouted from afar. "Thanks." Alex smiled. "What is your status?" "Single," Silvia playfully answered him. "I mean your cultivation status¡­" Alex facepalmed while shaking his head helplessly. "I can reach Rank 4 God within three or four years. Unlike you who have been doing this, my body still needs to adapt first, so I can''t really force it." She sighed. "I wonder if I should boost my strength with Medicinal Herbs?" "It''s up to you. You are a doctor, right? You shouldn''t have a problem boosting your strength with those resources, no?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I mean, you can solve all the problems in your body." "I know my body''s condition, but it doesn''t mean I can treat myself." "If it''s only to see what happened, I can do that. However, there is one thing that I need to warn you about. I can''t treat you." "Well, I don''t have a problem with something like this, so you don''t need to think much about it." She shrugged. "Anyway, I think Aria will advance to 5-Star Martial Saint in the competition." "That''s good. However, you¡­" Alex stopped, not knowing what to say. "Don''t worry. I don''t belong there, so you should have your fun out there." She smiled. "Just make sure you don''t bring any illness from there, alright? We don''t want to have a pandemic that even a God Rank Expert had trouble with." "I don''t know if they have something like that, but my Fire should be able to purify anything." Alex nodded. "Right? Even though you are a Pure Element, you shouldn''t underestimate something like that." She facepalmed. Alex only smiled, not continuing the conversation. Silvia had yet to realize the fact that his flame was none other than Phitrus''s Godly Pure Fire. "Anyway, both of you need to prepare yourself for the tournament. You need to go in another three days, you know." "Yeah." Alex nodded with a smile. ¡­ Three days later. Alex and Aria both put their mask on this time, not wanting to have their faces seen by the people in the sect. Of course, Alex suggested it. "Are you ready?" Alex smiled, waiting for her in front of the house. Fixing her hair a little bit, she nodded. "The peak master told us to gather in the First Peak since that''s where the spaceship is¡­Ehm¡­Can I open my eyes at that time? I am a bit curious about this." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I don''t mind. We both have masks anyway, so you can open your eyes all you want. It shouldn''t be a problem as long as you don''t open it too big, lest someone notice." "I understand. I just want to see the ship. I won''t move my head too much as well, so it doesn''t look like I can see my surroundings." She smiled, happy with the arrangement. "Let''s go then." Alex then turned to Silvia and said with a smile. "We are going." "Unfortunately, I can''t join you guys here, so I will be continuing my training alone while waiting for you. May fortune blesses you with its presence." Silvia put on her warmest smile, sending them without any sadness. "It''s only for two months." Aria waved her hand as the two flew to the sky. "We need to get the token first, right?" "Yes. The token is needed to record our progress. They have a measurement system that recognizes this other world''s currency since it''s not a Spirit Crystals. Our mission is to get as many points as possible while the elders are checking whether we are telling a lie or not. We can get our tokens in front of the spaceship, so let''s go." Alex nodded and sped up, taking only a few minutes before reaching the First Peak. "Hmm¡­Their peak isn''t really that different from us," Alex commented while observing the peak with his Spirit Eyes. "Is that so? Do you know anything about the First Peak?" "Nope. But I have found the spaceship." Alex fell silent before changing his direction. "Follow me." She followed him for another minute before landing in the nearby land where not many people gathered. They then made their way toward a stall that seemed to be registering them. Alex and Aria lined up like other disciples, only to find a familiar old man at the counter. "Welcome." The old man smirked. Alex was stunned before giving his and Aria''s token to him, acting as if he didn''t know the elder. Who else would become like this other than the old man he met back in the test, the Sword God''s teacher. "I see¡­So, that''s how you want to play." The old man nodded. Alex twitched his eyebrows, hoping that this old man didn''t do anything reckless or he might need to change his plan. Aria also understood the dilemma and stayed silent the whole time. "Here is your token. I hope you enjoy your competition." The old man smiled and handed both tokens. "There are three numbers in your token. The first is your point, the second number is your room inside the spaceship, and the last one is the clock. Make sure to check it out." "Thank you, Elder." Alex gave one to Aria before taking her elsewhere. When they found the spaceship, Aria was startled by how big it was. The spaceship alone could cover her hometown as a whole, and it would be bad if such a thing flew on top of her city because it could crush the city without a problem. Still, the gigantic chump of metal mesmerized her as if she just witnessed a flying town. Then, she realized the fact that this ship had several layers, so it was even bigger. As for the design, it didn''t look that much different than the one that Silvia used to travel. ''Still, this is a massive ship.'' Alex exclaimed in amazement before a blue screen appeared. [This is their mothership? Are they crazy? Or is it because one of the three sect masters is that special?] "Mothership? That kind of mothership?" [Of course. Divine World usually has at least two Spacesh.i.p.s. However, the one leading the sh.i.p.s is the mothership. You can say that this one requires the most resources. Not only is it massive, but it also has many features that no other sh.i.p.s have.] "To bring such a ship¡­Is this the way of them telling us that something is different in this competition?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [I am not sure, but the possibility is there. You should be careful when you are there.] ''Still, I wonder if Eulja has a spaceship too?'' Alex asked. [As I said, we have several. However, you should know that the spaceship might be able to transport so many people, but we put them at risk too. If there is no one protecting it, the moment a God Rank Expert manages to destroy the spaceship, the people inside won''t be able to stay alive.] [I mean, sure, we can build a spacesuit for them, but one wound will be all it takes to kill them as a mortal body can''t withstand the pressure in outer space. That''s why every time a spaceship is sent, their high-ranking Gods should supervise it.] [In our case, there should be one or two Rank 2 Gods inside before we can give it a go. As for you, three Rank 4 Gods are supervising it instead of your sect master, a Rank 3 God. It should be enough for most of the time.] "I see. But the spaceship still has some weapons, right?" [Some have, some don''t have. If they have, they are usually powerful. It can be a cannon or even some arrays, depending on their world. Of course, it is not that easy to manufacture everything since essentially you are losing a Rank 8 Weapon for each shot.] [For example, a cannon. You can imagine the cannon as a bow and the bullet as an arrow. However, in this case, the cannon and the arrow are both Divine Weapons. In other words, you need to get ready to lose a single Divine Weapon every time you shoot. And a spaceship is huge, so the bullet. In other words, you are shooting multiple Divine Weapons at once. Just take a look at the cost¡­ It''s better to hire a God Rank Expert to supervise them.] "Fair enough. It''s something costly. How about those sci-fi movies?" [If you are thinking about plasma or whatever it is, they will lose against the cultivation power. The property of a Divine Weapon is far stronger than that of physics. That''s why cultivators are known as those who defy Heaven, not physic.] "I see. Well, we need more resources for each ship I guess." Alex nodded before thinking of another thing. "Anyway, do you think it is profitable to make war with a huge number of soldiers? I mean, we can employ guerilla warfare by a few elites only." [It''s true that we can do that, but you should know that the enemies can use Teleportation Array, right? A normal Rank 9 Teleportation Array can transport around two thousand people at once, and if they are transporting either God Rank Experts or Martial Saints, what will you do with that? Run away? And do you think you can if they use a treasure or array to block your Space Element for a moment?] "So that''s why." Alex nodded, understanding the real meaning of the number for the first time. He had a laid-back attitude due to how scarce the Space Element masters were in the previous world, so he had yet to get used to having many Space Element masters. After learning it here, he finally grasped the real warfare and why Lin Xingzhi wanted him to be prepared for what he needed to face when he went to Eulja. The warfare between Divine Worlds would be much more complicated, so Lin Xingzhi wanted him to get all the experiences, especially the unique ones, as much as he could. When he was in deep thought, Aria tugged his sleeve and called his name. "Nyx? Do you have something in mind? We need to get on board right now." Alex was recovered from his daydream and scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Let''s go, shall we?" Alex smiled and entered the spaceship. Chapter 972 - Country Bumpkin When he was about to walk inside the spaceship, the situation turned into an uproar when people screamed on top of their lungs over a few people in the sky. "They¡­They are¡­" "They are the Favorite Disciples from each peak!" "Kyaa¡ª!" "I have been waiting for them since this morning. That''s why I haven''t entered the spaceship yet." Alex twitched his eyebrows before looking to the sky, finding sixteen people flying in the sky. Of course, one of them was Melvie. However, Alex had no intention of calling her out like the people around him. He simply tapped Aria''s shoulder and sent a thought transmission. ''This is going to be messy. We better wait for them to enter first before going inside.'' ''I understand.'' Aria nodded while looking at the sixteen disciples. ''Can I ask you something?'' ''If I can answer.'' ''Can you beat them all?'' Aria''s tone was serious as she was curious about Alex''s real strength. Instead of asking about his current power, she decided to learn with the comparison. Alex raised his vision again, scanning each of them with his Spirit Eyes before smiling. ''I don''t want to answer then.'' ''Tch.'' When he saw these people, he realized that none of them surpassed Rank 8 God. In other words, if he fought them, no one would be able to withstand his power that coincidentally was the same. Alex noticed something and thought. ''It seems Rank 7 God is the limit before becoming an elder. After all, Rank 3 God is already the sect master. The Rank 4 Gods are to assume similar positions, like Grand Elder or any special elders, to take charge of the entire sect instead of a single peak. ''Meanwhile, they have their Rank 5 Gods to be a Peak Master, nurturing the sect''s new generations. This is indeed a good system.'' Alex complimented the sect for its system, even though it was merciless. He had another thought regarding the appearance of these sixteen people as if they had a schedule like this. After all, there was no way these important people would come together, considering their rivalry. Alex thought for a moment before an old man stood in the sky. The disciples were shocked by his appearance as they pointed their fingers at the sky. "Sect Master!" "That''s the sect master!" The silence brought by his appearance turned into another uproar. The old man, whose white beard was so long that it was even longer than female hair, raised his hand while clenching it, asking the disciples to shut their mouth. Slowly but surely, they controlled themselves and focused their attention on them. "Although we are forcing you to complete, you shouldn''t think bad about this event. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you because we will also give you another reward if you get a certain amount of points. "Of course, we won''t be announcing it right now. The Core Disciples and Inner Disciples will have their own planet to compete for this event, so you won''t clash. Due to their strength, we shall drop all the core disciples first before moving to the Inner Disciple. I hope you can understand that. "There is no rule in this competition. You can treat it as a survival in the outside world like how our tradition takes place. No need to hold back and combine your wisdom and strength to show me that you are the proud Unsurpassed Blade Sect''s disciples. "Since I am here to announce this, I should tell you once again. The grand prize of this competition is the successor seat. I won''t see whether you are God Rank Experts or mere Martial Saints. Show your talent in this competition and make me think you are worthy. "That''s why we are using this ship that can accommodate one thousand core disciples and one hundred thousand Inner Disciples. There will be three hundred Elders joining you, and the one in charge of this competition are two people. "The first one is the one supervising the Inner Disciple''s competition, Elder Ravagera. As you know, Elder Ravagera was the Sword God''s teacher and our proud father figure. He would ensure all your safety and made sure that none of you was cheating. "The second person will be supervising the Core Disciple''s competition, Elder Jane. Yes, she is none other than the one who has helped me manage the sect this whole time, our vice-sect master. Since Elder Ravagera is shy, let''s just call our vice-sect master to deliver her speech." After a long speech from the sect master, an old lady appeared in the sky. All eyes were locked on her. Despite being so old, she had this aura that threatened all people in the plaza. Her stern face made people back away. However, she thought nothing of it and released her killing intent instead. "If you are enemies of my Unsurpassed Blade Sect that wants to attack the disciples during this mission, I promise to destroy you and the influence behind you. If you are my beloved sect disciples, work smart, not hard, you will then get the best result. I will be looking forward to your result¡­My child." When she called the disciples her children, everyone got a shiver. It was like when your strict father finally complimented you for the first time. The joy you got made you want to leap to the sky. The same applied to these disciples as they shouted together. "Ooh!" They kept screaming on top of their lungs for several minutes before the sect master stopped them. "Alright. We shall stop here. You will get detailed information inside the ship¡­I wish you luck. Don''t disappoint me¡­All of you, including you who have entered the ship." The sect master nodded with a smile before leaving. However, he didn''t forget to say. "On board. The ship will go in another three hours." With his command, the disciples orderly entered the spaceship, starting from the Favorite Disciples in the sky. Alex was curious about this as well since he never rode a spaceship. He had seen it multiple times, but he never traveled with it. Wanting to know the mechanism, he entered together with Aria while holding her hand to avoid them from getting separated. ''By the way, what is your room number?'' Aria asked while taking out her token, finding 2020 in her token. Alex looked into it as well and found it was 2021. "It seems we will be next to each other." "Yeah." She nodded before entering a large room. Alex and Aria widened their eyes to find a large room when they just entered the ship. This place alone could accommodate tens of thousands of people at once. It was even filled with many attractions from gambling and games. ''Alright. It looks like a casino.'' Alex thought while looking around, finding a futuristic-looking wall. He used his Spirit Eyes and looked whether he could find something amusing or not. Unfortunately, there was nothing special other than a huge source of power under the ship. It must be the power generator where they used millions of Spirit Crystal to power up the ship. "The first number of your room number is the floor. You are currently on the first floor, so you may want to check your room first." A voice suddenly echoed across the hall as Alex and Aria looked around, finding a speaker on the ceiling. ''It seems the technology has been enhanced by future technology¡­Even though it shouldn''t go well with cultivation. Well, there is always a way to incorporate them, and the speaker seems to be running like a normal electric speaker does, albeit with Spiritual Energy.'' Alex thought. "Do you want to check the room first or wander around this ship?" Aria whispered. Alex thought for a moment. "I don''t know if you are familiar with this ship or not, but I don''t think there is something that we can see. I mean, sure, there is an attraction like this, but we don''t have anything to see other than this place. If possible, it''s better to stay inside the room all the time." "Is that so?" Aria looked down but still understood what happened if she wandered around without a purpose. "Don''t worry. You can do it on our return trip. Not many people will be curious as you anymore." Alex smiled, comforting her. "Ah!" She scratched the back of her head, embarrassed since she never thought of that. "True enough. I shall suppress my desire then." Alex nodded. "Well, let''s go to the second floor¡­How are we going to get there?" He could see a few openings that could be used to get into the second floor, but he wondered if he could climb just like that. Alex looked around and found something that amazed him. That one camouflaged itself from the main room, so no one realized it yet. He then grabbed her hand and slowly walked toward that as if he went to his room. "Where are we going? Our room is on the second floor, no? That''s right. If others look at us, they will think you are dragging me so we can have s.e.x in the room, you know." Aria commented. "They don''t know us." Alex shrugged. "If you keep being conscious of what others think about you, it will soon force you to do something that you don''t want to do." "Since you said so, then I don''t really care." She shrugged. When he arrived, Alex found two buttons on the wall beside a metallic door. He pushed the button that pointed up, and the door was slowly opened. Yes, it was opened by something that couldn''t be seen. The identity of this room was none other than the elevator, albeit looking a bit more futuristic than the one he saw on Earth. However, Aria, who never saw this, gasped and pointed at the door. "It''s opened by itself? Is there a ghost or an array?" Alex ignored her for the time being and searched the room, wondering if there were a memory crystal or a camera inside that would blow his identity. Luckily, he found none of them, so he dragged her inside. Next to the door were several buttons with numbers on them. He instantly pressed the one with "2" on it and closed the door. "What is this? The door is closed again!" She dropped her jaw before feeling her body become weightier. "Nyx! What is happening?" "I am just using my own vocabulary, not this world''s. This one is known as an elevator. You basically enter and press the button, and it mechanically brings you to the floor you want. It is easier to go to the other floors using Spiritual Energy since you only need to jump, but this is a more elegant way. Of course, my reason is just to hide from the crowd." Alex shrugged. "Elevator¡­" "Yeah. Well, this kind of technology is not needed in the world due to the aforementioned reason. However, it surely increases the appearance of this ship. And¡­" Alex paused for a moment, thinking about something. "And?!" She tilted her head in confusion. However, the elevator had arrived on their floor, and he immediately went out. Aria followed him since she didn''t have knowledge about this mechanism at all, so she let the expert lead her. To his surprise, his room seemed to be not far from him. It was only a few meters away from the elevator, and what waited for him there really surprised him. Alex saw the door handle and found an array there. He facepalmed and took out the token he just got, placing it right before the array. The array then glowed before the door opened itself like the elevator. Aria couldn''t contain her shock and was about to ask again. However, Alex already went inside. She ignored the room completely and went straight to Alex while asking. "Nyx¡­You¡­How do you know all this? Have you experienced it before, and do you know all of this mechanism? You¡­Are you God?" "I am God¡­" Alex made a weird smile, looking at this shocked girl. If cultivators looked at mortals who developed technology like looking at ants, then the mortals who saw cultivators like this would call them country-bumpkins. Thinking about it, he couldn''t help but laugh. Chapter 973 - Set Off After waiting for several minutes until Aria calmed down, Alex finally asked her. "So, what do you want me to explain first? Anyway, your room is next to me, so you can go there after this explanation." "Yes." She nodded with a serious expression and thought which one she wanted to ask. "Can I ask about this ship itself? Although I already know that this ship can travel to another world, I don''t know the details." Alex looked down and smiled. "In that case, you need to know about outer space first. Do you know what are the stars that you have been watching this whole time?" "Yes?!" "They are a kind of this planet, but incandescent. It''s due to the gas that keeps flaring up. And when it settles down, you will have a planet like this. This is the most basic thing that I can explain. Anyway, those who are shining in the night sky are the stars. Your sun is also a star. "Anyway, you might have realized the fact that they have a distance from each other, right?" "Yes." She nodded. "How far are they with each other?" She thought for a moment. "Maybe like flying around this world?" "Well, if you fly from this place straight to the north until you return to this place, you will need around millions or billions of times before you reach the nearest one." "What?!" She widened her eyes before looking at him weirdly as if he just told her a lie. "I am not lying. When you become a God Rank Expert, you will realize how small you are compared to this universe. Everything that you think is so big like the sky or whatever, it will feel so small when you have reached there. In fact, you will realize it soon." Alex turned around and found a window. "You can see it from there." "Then¡­Can I stay here for the time being? I want to watch it with you, so maybe I can ask a few questions regarding this." She asked politely, wondering if Alex wanted to cultivate or waited like this. "Sure enough. Just for today." Alex nodded. "It''s nice to have a day off once in a while." "That''s great." She smiled from ear to ear before asking another question. "If they are that far apart, won''t we need thousands of years to reach there?" "Not really. Do you know the real speed of a God Rank Expert? Anyway, if a Martial Saint can surpass the speed of sound easily, close to lightning speed according to science. You can surpass light speed when you become a God Rank Expert. It''s almost ten thousand times of that speed of sound." "That fast?" "That''s why no Martial Saints can win against God Rank Experts. Even myself included." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I see. My family doesn''t have a single God Rank Expert, so I don''t know about this. No wonder God Rank Experts are feared." She stroked her chin and thought. "Of course, if you get stronger and stronger, your speed becomes faster and faster, albeit it still won''t beat the speed of Teleportation Array." Alex paused. "Considering we are using a spaceship instead of Teleportation Array, it means two things. First, this world doesn''t have a Teleportation Array formation that can travel so far away. Secondly, the place we are going to is too far to be covered by a formation." "Teleportation Array Formation?" She tilted her head in confusion. "What? Never heard of it?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, wondering if this world didn''t have one. However, it was impossible since it was a kind of necessity for a Divine World. After thinking for a minute, he assumed that the world hid it, so no spies would target such a thing. It was an important asset after all. "Anyway, we are going there, and that''s the end. I don''t know the ship''s speed, but I guess it will have the same speed as a Rank 5 God. With a giant body like this, it''s like having a Rank 5 God carrying hundreds of thousands of people. You know what I mean?" "I see. That''s indeed something awesome when you think it that way. Now, I can understand the value of this ship." "Of course. There are many dangers out there. First of all, the Mortal Body couldn''t withstand the living environment in outer space. I think a 10-Star Martial Saint can last for a few hours before dying due to exhaustion, so you can figure it out. Only a God Rank Expert has enough power to withstand the condition and stay as long as they like." "Woah?! I wonder if this can be a business?" She thought for a moment. "Nope. Not very cost-effective and the risk is too great. It''s better to create a Teleportation Array Formation." Alex shook his head, shattering her dream in a second. "Anyway, this ship will probably travel for a few days before reaching its destination. If my calculation is correct, that is." "I understand. I will just wait and see it with my own eyes. I am pretty curious about it as well." "Even so, you shouldn''t forget about your training, alright?" "Yes, sir." She shrugged. "By the way, onto my next question. What is the thing that brings us to this floor? It''s so magical." "It''s technology. I believe it has been incorporated with cultivation too, so it uses Spiritual Energy instead of electricity." Alex thought and continued. "I can''t really explain the details since I have limited knowledge about it." "Then what about the door? It''s so magical that it can open itself." Alex took out his token and pointed at the number. "Can you see our room number?" "Yes." "There is a small array inside. This is used for the identification of the array on the door''s handle. I simply put it there so the other array can understand it and open the door for us. It''s like having a key and its hole but with technology." "Technology is so magical¡­I don''t think I have seen this anywhere in the world. I wonder why they are hiding this from us¡­" Aria pouted. "I can think of several reasons. Firstly, it is hard to incorporate Spiritual Energy with technology. Some basic things can, but complicated things are hard. Just like this spaceship, this is one of the hardest that can be created, albeit only due to its strong body and function. "The second reason is the cost. Instead of wasting their resources on this, they can use the resources to strengthen themselves. After all, the ruler of this world is the strongest, not the one having too many technologies. "Thirdly, it''s so brittle. Once crushed, you will need to fix it and take a very long time. Just take a look at the house and mansion before imagining how long it will take to build this ship? And if we calculate the research time? Do you think many will do it? No. They don''t want to, especially due to the fact they are not useful. "Last but not least, pollution. Even with incorporating Spiritual Energy, I bet it still emits a huge amount of pollution. This ship alone might not have an impact, but if the whole world relies on it, the pollution will be too much for the world to handle¡­" Alex let out a long sigh and added inwardly. ''Like Earth.'' "I can understand the contradictions. Besides, it doesn''t mean anything despite using so many resources. For example, I can break the door with my sword alone. If creating that door requires more resources than a wooden door, why don''t I just use the wooden one? After all, both of them can be destroyed with a single punch. The elevator is the same. If I need to spend a thousand Spirit Crystal to replace the fact that I can leap to the second floor in a second without spending, it''s easy to choose." She repeatedly nodded, understanding Alex''s explanation. "Yeah. It''s something like that." Alex nodded. "Do you have any more questions?" "Hmm¡­Your world has a ship like this, right?" "Of course." Alex nodded. "I don''t know what I want to say anymore." Aria found herself overwhelmed by the information about the technology, so her mind went blank. "Anyway, I suggest you look at your own planet. I bet you will like it." "My own planet?" "What is the shape of your planet?" "It''s flat, no?" Aria tilted her head in confusion. She never learned maps or anything, so she didn''t know about it. "Nope. It''s round. Anyway, I won''t explain too much about it and just let you see it in a few hours. There are also some reasons why you can return to the exact same spot if you fly in the same direction continuously. Why the sea doesn''t fall to the void or whatever mysterious questions¡­It''s better to read a book first." Alex shrugged. "I don''t have time to explain it." "I understand. You are a cultivation maniac after all." She chuckled. "Heh, you can even say something like this to me now?" Alex smiled. She took off her mask and looked at Alex with her beautiful eyes. "Yes. I can do it now because you are a gentle person. Of course, as long as it''s not about training." "As a result, you are improving leaps and bounds, no?" "Yes, I am grateful for it. But I am assured that you are a gentle person out there. Even though I usually collapsed first, you always brought me to my room and stripped me." "Why does it sound like I am a s.e.x criminal¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "I just cover you with a blanket and store your clothes in the space ring. Since there is no resistance, I can do it. I wonder if you can''t protect anything you wear to be stored by the Space Ring, won''t it mean men will start attacking women to strip them n.a.k.e.d?" "Haha¡­That''s why I am calling you a gentleman." She laughed. "Anyway, let''s move on from this topic." Alex sighed. In the Upper World, he had Anna or Anya help the girls when they collapsed, but he didn''t have a single person helping him in this world, so he needed to do it. "Fine¡­" She playfully nodded before continuing the conversation. ¡­ After waiting for another three hours, Alex and Aria felt they were shaking. No, the whole ship was shaking. Alex turned his head and looked through the window, seeing that they had started floating. He pointed his finger to the outside and said to Aria. "Look outside." Following his instruction, she looked at the window and noticed that they were already above the ground. Suddenly, an announcement echoed across the room. "Please maintain your balance. If you can''t, you are a failure as a cultivator. We will have a rough start for about five minutes." Alex closed his eyes and smiled before feeling that someone pressured him, forcing his head down. Aria also felt the same and saw Alex pointed his finger outside again. When she turned around, she found that they were already above the clouds and kept going upward for two minutes. She then found a "night sky" all over the world with many shining dots far from them. "This is your chance. Look below you, and you will see what your world looks like." Alex added. "Hurry up. Before this ship accelerates." Aria heard it and didn''t bother to look back. She instantly tried to look at her planet and found a giant round ball with something white covering a portion of the blue and green on it. "The blue is water, the green is the land, and the white is the cloud. What do you think?" Alex explained with a smile. With mesmerizing eyes, she opened her mouth. "Beautiful." It took her a moment to realize that the spaceship started to move, and this breathtaking sight made her forget that she needed to maintain her balance. When the ship accelerated to a few times of the speed of light, she was thrown toward Alex. Alex already anticipated this and caught her in her embrace. She couldn''t help but look at him before closing her eyes again as how it should be and smiled. "It''s beautiful like a jewel." "Agreed." Alex nodded with a smile before scratching his head. "Albeit, this ship still can''t escape from Newton''s first law, I guess?" Chapter 974 - Worlds Information After taking off, the ship was stabilized. Aria kept looking around, finding one planet after another. She looked so happy when she found something like this. After all, she never saw anything beyond her sect and had already witnessed this, it was insane. This might be the best day of her life. What shocked her was asteroids. Due to the fact that most of them had been mined, they couldn''t find anything useful anymore. Of course, the spaceship didn''t care about these asteroids and went through them without a care. It seemed there was a Rank 9 Barrier Array that acted as the last support. And with this size alone, there should be a dozen of Rank 9 Barrier Arrays, capable of fending off hundreds if not thousands of God Rank Experts'' attacks. "Is our spaceship geared with this array formation too?" Alex asked. [Of course. We even have a variation of metals that can enhance the array formation, allowing us to deal with any kind of attacks with different types of elements, except time.] "Now that I think about it, is there an element like swallowing or devouring?" [I think you are thinking about Dark Element. The so-called devouring is nothing that fancy. You might be able to devour someone, but I haven''t seen any single Devouring Technique that could absorb the enemy''s whole skills or cultivation. That''s why it''s not very popular unlike the stories.] "Fair enough. Even this system has many limitations." Alex nodded. "It''s not like I can level up while the others only get their power back after sealing it inside the system." [Exactly. Nothing is perfect. That I can assure.]Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-information_52233412894837444 for visiting. "In that case, can the spaceship withstand the attack of a God King? You should know about my previous life, right? If he is the attacker, can our ship withstand him? And how many attacks can it be?" [1.] "One?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [Yes. For a God King specialized in fight, their power is immeasurable. For example, Phitrus. He can manipulate the Fire Element, including Spiritual Energy that contains Fire Element. In other words, when he attacks a barrier array like this and we use Fire Element Array to lessen the damage, he can simply bypass it using his power.] [The same applies to that Sword God, he cut everything, including this barrier. That Pure Sword Qi is too unique to be stopped. I am sure you have realized it yourself. As for your previous self, although your offensive power is the third strongest, your fighting style is the best.] [What we are talking about is firepower this time. Unless you bring another God King, I doubt the spaceship will last.] "I see. They are that different, huh. How about you?" Alex asked. [I am not battle-oriented, so my offensive power is so-so. Still, I believe I can destroy the ship. After all, I am known as Nature Goddess. I control Nature, including the Spiritual Energy around. If I gather the Spiritual Energy in one place, I can create an Element Disturbance. Of course, I don''t have the control over what element it will be, so it will depend only on what element has the highest concentration.] "That''s pretty sick, you know." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Just imagine creating a star inside a planet¡­" [Mini star. No, it''s like a core instead? Well, I did it once, and the surface melted, turning it into a deep five hundred deep crater. And the size¡­ Don''t ask me.] "As expected, Rank 1 God is incredible." [Of course, the effort is also¡­Ugh, I don''t want to talk about it. Anyway, with this training style of yours, I don''t think it will be that hard.] "Well, who knows?" Alex shrugged. "Anyway, that beast is stronger than that of a God King, so I need to surpass that stage." [Good luck. I doubt I can do it, so the rest is in your hand.] "Yeah. Thanks." Alex nodded. Aria kept looking at the window as she was mesmerized by the sight. It looked like she wouldn''t get bored anytime soon. Alex only closed his eyes and waited while resting his mind before he heard another notification from the speaker as soon as the ship had reached its speed. Even Aria retracted her gaze and returned to the speaker. "We will reach our destination within five days. Make sure you don''t break anything in this ship because it will endanger all people inside this ship. We have our own surveillance system with the help of the elders, so don''t break anything unless you want to die. Fighting is also forbidden. The list of the rules is on the table in your room, so make sure you understand them first. Breaking the rule means death. "You can use any facilities inside the ship and don''t cross anything that has been blocked by our elders. And don''t forget to look outside. This might be the first and last time you can look at outer space. They are beautiful. There is also information about the planet in it, so you should read it. Thank you." Alex immediately looked at the table, finding a few papers on it. He only took the planet''s information and read it. Aria also walked toward him and read it together. Aria had been learning about color, reading, writing, and other basic stuff due to her blindness. So, it was no wonder that she could read the letter that her father gave back in an emergency situation. "Let''s see." Alex took a glance at Aria''s face that came close to his and asked her to sit before holding it so both of them could read it together. "The planet''s name is Natec. It doesn''t have a human in it, but the planet knows that humans exist. "It seems they are going to test our ability to adapt to this environment and understand other races. That''s good, but I think many of them would die due to racism. Anyway, next is about the rotation. One day only has six hours¡­A tenth of our time. This is going to be absurd because we will see the change easily." "Six hours a day? There is a time difference?" Aria gasped and looked at Alex. "You¡­In your main world¡­Your time¡­was it faster or slower? What is your real age?" Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "What do you think?" This instantly frustrated her. Even though Alex''s world seemed to have more hours a day than her, she just couldn''t believe it after seeing how Alex advanced like none other. Even she had experienced it. If she kept going at it, the latter looked more convincing to her. "You are even younger than 47 years old in our world''s time?" She was shaking, slowly kneeling in front of him. "Ehm¡­How do I sign up as your wife? I mean it!" Alex smiled and put his hand on her head before tightening it. "Argh! I was kidding¡­Wait, no! I wasn''t kidding. Let me be your wife. I can warm your bed and take care of our children." She hurriedly made a promise. "This elder sister is good at everything." Alex let out a long sigh and said, "If you keep doing this, should I throw you out of this room?" She instantly turned docile and stopped moving. When Alex released her, she sat back on the chair. "Your achievement and your age are too ridiculous. You will be chased by the whole world¡­No, not only my world but also the worlds we have passed. Now I can understand why you are hiding your ability." Alex shrugged. He knew that Aria was smart enough to speculate this. "Can I ask you this one thing¡­You¡­According to my world''s time, are you below or over 20 years old?" Alex fell silent and wondered if he should tell her. He had expected that Aria would be able to calculate his training time and cultivation speed to know his true age, but she seemed to want to ask the question and be done with it instead of calculating it. After thinking for a minute, he decided to answer her. "Almost." *Hiss* She sucked a cold breath before sighing. "How many suitors have been lining up in front of your home?" "None. There is no one like that. You already understand my principle after seeing how I deal with Mya, so there is none." "Fair enough. It must be hard for you. I wonder what will happen if they know that there is someone who reaches the Sword God''s level under one hundred years old." "It will throw the world into panic. Anyway, I am planning to abandon my identity after leaving, so you won''t know about it." Alex smiled. "Then, how can I contact you in the future? I mean, I will join your influence¡­ That''s not because of your age and achievement but because of your kindness to me this whole time." "When that time comes, I will send someone to get you." Alex smiled before his gaze returned to the paper. If he continued to talk about his age, there wouldn''t be an end. "Anyway, next information. The citizens of this world will be treating you with a smile if you are their friends. Fair enough. Basic information. "There are three suns and one hundred moons. Oh wow. The sky will be filled with this. Anyway, the world itself is an Upper World, only limited to 10-Star Martial Saints. However, it seems to be higher than the normal Upper World, so a huge portion of the population are Martial Kings and above. "Due to the constant change of daylight, everything doesn''t look like our original world, so we need to adapt as well. Because of that, the majority of them have speed far faster than us, so we need to be careful. "That''s quite interesting." Alex nodded and kept reading. It was a full thirty pages of basic information about the world, taking around one hour to finish. Aria was tired after using her Sword Eyes continuously, so she decided to rest on Alex''s bed for a while since he had promised her there wouldn''t be any cultivation on the first day. ¡­ A few days later, they arrived at a certain Divine World where they dropped the God Rank Experts. Due to their body, the God Rank Experts didn''t need any kind of protection and entered the world without any difficulty other than burned by the atmosphere. However, their body was stronger than that, so they didn''t have any kind of injuries and landed safety. When Alex saw that, he wondered if that would be the scene when another planet invaded Eulja, albeit he could only shake his head because he wouldn''t let something like that happen. It would be better to fight in outer space than let his enemies burn his home. As for Aria, she already went back to her room and watched this with great interest but couldn''t ask anything since Alex forbade her to enter his room until they needed to leave as well. Another two days then passed as a certain announcement woke everyone up. "If you can find a big planet filled with lands, that is our destination. We won''t be parking the ship inside the planet, so head to the teleportation room according to the floor your room on. Find the room yourself. Those who haven''t reached the planet will be eliminated. "And as soon as you get there, don''t go anywhere for six hours, so the elders can brief you as well. Other than that, you are free to do your own thing. The time limit is one year of this planet''s time or 360 days. Let''s go!" Alex gradually opened his eyes, knowing that the time had arrived. Aria even knocked on his door as soon as the announcement ended as if she was anxious. When he opened the door and let her in, she looked very eager to go to the new planet, wanting to experience living on another planet like Alex. "Let''s go." "It''s too crowded." Alex shook his head. "We can go after most of them go." Chapter 975 - Going toward the Destination As soon as Alex and Aria arrived at the planet using the Teleportation Array inside the ship, Aria looked at him as if she wanted to ask another question. ''What?'' Alex asked with a thought transmission. ''Do you know that the world is actually rotating?'' ''Yes. That''s why you can experience night and day.'' Alex nodded. ''But don''t you think this one is a bit too fast? It''s far faster than my original world. And how can they be spinning like that even though we don''t feel anything right now?'' ''It''s complicated. One of the simplest answers is gravity, a pulling force from the world itself. Don''t you feel that your body is actually several times weightier than normal?'' ''Yes. I am not sure, but it is close to one hundred times, I think.'' She nodded. ''The people will surely try to adapt to this environment first before, so it''s better to stay close to me since we are going somewhere else.'' ''Do you find something?'' ''No. We are going to the cave first to get the mouse. After that, we can search around for treasures. As long as we have a few thousand points, it shouldn''t be too much of a problem.'' ''I understand.'' She thought for a moment. ''What are we going for the rest of the year then?'' ''Treasure hunting.'' Alex smiled. ''Anyway, we have a year here which is equal to a month or so. If we sum up the traveling time, we are leaving the world for two months. Make sure that you are not wrong with that.'' ''Don''t worry. I have considered this.'' She nodded and looked around, finding Elder Ravagera. He stood in the sky and observed the condition, finding that the disciples had begun to be impatient. "There is one more hour, but most of you have left the ship, so I should begin explaining the whole situation too." Ravagera started with this to get all their attention. When the silence came, he continued, "No one shall pick a fight against each other within this hour unless you want to face me in a life and death battle. "Because this world is only a tenth of our world, you will find yourself traveling faster than you can think. However, I believe you won''t get too far¡­Well, just make sure that you know when to come back since we will leave you on this planet if you haven''t come back when the time comes. "Anything that happens after this one-hour grace period is outside my jurisdiction. Even if you are killed by the people of this world, we won''t do anything. Hence, do your best and use your wisdom to reach the top. You may begin now!" When Alex heard that, he grabbed Aria''s hand and dragged her, following the first group that also left as soon as the competition began. ''What are you doing?'' Aria asked while stabilizing her body and flew by herself. ''We need to get away from this place as soon as possible. The farther, the better.'' ''Shouldn''t we aim at the continent that has the most resources? If I am not wrong, this continent is the strongest one.'' ''I can find a weak Divine Plant that can only sustain its life in a low-level world. If you think that every resource can be gathered only in the most powerful area, then you are wrong. I will gamble this chance.'' ''Well, I don''t have a problem since you are the leader.'' Aria nodded. ''Besides, I notice how thin the energy connecting the compass to the place that has the mouse, so it must be far away. We should go there.'' ''That''s my plan.'' Alex nodded. He had been heading straight to the mouse location no matter what he needed to find, but he actually had another plan if the original plan failed. He simply needed to choose a location and used his power to travel inside the ocean. After another three hours, the light slowly disappeared, and the darkness came. "The night has finally come," Aria exclaimed in surprise. "Do the people in this world sleep during the night?" "Probably." Alex nodded. "Still, we arrived in the afternoon, so it seems we have covered a great deal of distance for the first three hours since the night just came. I mean, we are moving toward the sun direction, so the night comes a little slower." Aria thought of that simple logic and interpreted it with the knowledge she got during the trip. And she confirmed that what he said was true. This might be her first time to be this curious to see another planet, learning more about them. "Well, there is one more thing that you can expect from visiting another planet. You will meet a unique power that has been polished by the inhabitants for thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years. That''s why I come to your planet." Aria nodded with a serious expression. "I can finally understand your motive right now. It must be so refreshing to experience a time difference. Well, as long as it''s not for too long, I don''t think I will get bored anytime soon." "Yeah. Boredom might be the enemy of a cultivator. I mean, they can live long and witness everything the universe can offer¡­Well, not really. The universe is infinite because there will be a bigger universe waiting to explore, but they are too far to be reached." Alex sighed. "Cultivators don''t really get bored. I mean, if you are talking about yourself, sure, you will reach God King Stage soon, so you don''t need to think about cultivation anymore. But for others? They are still trying to improve themselves, myself included." Aria just couldn''t understand what kind of view he had, so she only gave a general answer. Alex heard it and scratched the back of his head. It was true. When the time he reached God King Stage or even higher, he wondered whether to pursue the cultivation path or enjoy his life? He would probably choose the latter. After all, who would make another unknown enemy elsewhere when you could enjoy your life as a king here. Alex didn''t say anything more and continued traveling. Even though the planet rotation was very fast, they kept moving toward their target, not wanting to waste time. Instead of counting the days, Alex counted the hour instead, which was more reliable. After several days of flying, he finally found the first ocean they needed to cross before reaching the target. "Hmm¡­It seems the mouse is in another continent. However, I feel that we are not that far anymore." Aria looked down, wondering if it was safe to cross this sea. "What do you think?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found nothing great in their journey. In fact, he had been looking around with his Spirit Eyes from the start, looking for a great thing. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find a single thing, even a settlement. "Well, we should cross the ocean. If I am not wrong, it will take at least a month to reach the target. At most, we can only go around that place for nine months before returning here." Alex nodded. "If I don''t have an intention in coming to the Sword Pavilion, I might choose to fake my death here or just let them leave without me." "True enough. The Sword Pavilion is a big opportunity for you." She nodded. "Anyway, I will help you in any way I can since I will get my own benefit just from doing so, right mister?" Alex shrugged. "If you have too much energy, why don''t you fly first. Don''t worry. I didn''t find any powerful sea creatures inside¡­Well, probably some later. You are going to finish it off." "Geh. Just when I praise you, your personality changes into a devil instructor." She pouted before taking out her sword. "Well, it''s a free training, so I don''t really mind." They nodded at each other and flew across the ocean. After a few hours in, Aria had killed around one thousand low-level monsters before realizing something. "When I look at this sea and the creatures reside within it, a question appears in my mind." "Ask away like you always did when we traveled." Alex nodded. "I heard that the Sword God could split a world into two, but I couldn''t imagine something like that. A planet is this big, so it looks impossible." "Of course, this is an Upper World. If you search for a Low-Level Planet, you can understand that a person can destroy a planet with a single swing. Although it''s only for the best of the best, it is still an amazing achievement. "I myself can''t tell you anything yet since I haven''t done it." Alex shrugged. "So, you are aiming for it?" She smiled. "What? Is your goal not that? Do you not want to be a God King?" "That''s just a pipe dream for me." She shook her head. "It''s true that I still want to be an expert, but my original expectation is only a Peak Master in the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. When I understand you more and more, my expectation has risen to another level which is the sect master. But that''s all." "You should aim for more. Besides, you have the same chance as my wife, so I don''t think you should set your expectation too low. It might take a bit longer, but you shouldn''t give up." Alex smiled, encouraging her. "It''s easier said than done, but I guess I should follow your advice. If I can''t reach it, you need to take responsibility and marry me." "Enough with the flirting when you don''t mean it. You just see the benefit." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, it''s better to focus on our objective first. I am not planning to search around for the whole nine months, alright?" "Hoh?! You don''t want to search the whole planet?" "I don''t want to be that greedy. I will search only this continent for six months and focus on my cultivation. Maybe, I can slip a one-week vacation in the schedule, enjoying myself on the beach or something." Alex shrugged. "You should tell me! I didn''t bring my swimsuit¡­Oh, wait, mister, are you more interested in nude be¡ªGah!" She stopped talking since Alex grabbed her head again. "You are getting more and more brazen by the day. Maybe I should discipline you a little bit." Alex suddenly threw her to the front. "Ahhh! Are you going to kill me with this speed?" "You are not that weak. Your Spiritual Energy can protect you easily!" Alex shouted before speeding up to catch up. Alex decided to bully her for two weeks before they finally finished crossing the ocean. Even so, she still teased him the whole time until Alex gave up. It wasn''t like she was serious about it, so he just let her be to spice the journey up. After a total of thirty days, they finally reached their destination that seemed to be buried inside a tall mountain that pierced the sky. Alex looked at this mountain that seemed to be a few times higher than Mount Everest. "Let''s climb this mountain. Our target is up there." "Alright." Chapter 976 - Leka Alex and Aria leaped to the sky, heading straight to the top of the mountain. The mountain itself was the biggest one he had ever seen. Not a single peak in the Unsurpassed Blade Sect could hold a candle against this one. The air started getting thinner and thinner. Aria was the first to experience it and covered her body with Spiritual Energy, so she could act like nothing happened. "What? You can still¡ª" "I can. Trust me. I have never expected that the peak master gives this type of challenge for the mouse." She clicked her tongue. Her breath blew the cold air around her nose, but her complexion remained the same. Alex calculated the height and furrowed his eyebrows. "This is going to be a bit hard for you. Do you want to wait on the bottom?" "You should already know my answer, right?" "Fine." Alex nodded before using his Pure Fire to warm her up, so she could focus on getting higher. "I feel that there is another way to reach the top." "This is the fastest way, don''t consider it. We can try it when descending." She shook her head. After another few seconds, they finally reached the peak. It was a quite large peak, spanning over one kilometer in diameter. It wasn''t a volcano, so he didn''t see anything from this height. "This is a dilemma. If I use my fire to burn the snow, it will create an avalanche to the bottom, leaving a mark for others to see." Alex furrowed his eyebrows and looked around to find an entrance. Aria also started searching after stabilizing herself. What made her look exhausted earlier was the difference in temperature and air pressure that significantly dropped. She needed to adjust her body to match the environment, taking more energy than she thought. After reaching here, she poured all her energy to adapt and managed to finish it within a few breaths. She then started using her Sword Eye to check the surroundings. Alex''s Spirit Eyes were also working perfectly, searching for an energy leak. He could see a Martial Monarch beast inside the peak, so he needed to find a way to enter. If he didn''t find one for a period of time, he decided to enter with the Teleportation Array. Three minutes later, Alex shouted. "Aria, here." She turned around and flew toward him. "Alright." Alex found a block of ice that seemed to be blocking the entrance or they could say it was an exit instead. After all, if they climbed the mountain from the inside, they would use this and jump down. Nonetheless, Alex moved the block, and the snow fell inside, showing an entrance. "Let''s go." He looked at Aria with a nod as both of them jumped inside. It turned out that there was quite spacious inside. The cave didn''t have anything in particular, but one could find a fluctuation of Spiritual Energy here. "Can you feel it?" Aria asked and closed her eyes, focusing her sense on the fluctuation, trying to decipher where it came from. However, Alex already saw everything through his Spirit Eyes and pointed at a wall like how he discovered the fake wall inside the Sword Cave. "That''s where it comes from." "Why don''t you let me do it? I mean, I can experience how to find it with my own senses." She pouted. "Sorry. I just want to be faster than anyone else. Besides, I don''t think we can stay for too long." "What do you mean?" "Do you think I threw you because I didn''t like your joke?" Alex asked. "Yes?!" Alex let out a long sigh. "Did I actually have credibility in front of you? Anyway, I have a reason. It''s to avoid having the people behind us catch up. I know there is someone far behind us, heading straight to the mountain, so I believe there is someone aiming for this too¡­Not someone, maybe two people." "What?!" She furrowed her eyebrows. "I see. Are you going to exit this place the same way?" "Not really. Two weeks have given us enough time to test what kind of trial we will face if we go up normally. If the ones chasing us also have the same thought as mine and chose the easier travel, we could use the exit on the ground to escape." Alex smiled. "Don''t worry. I have calculated all this." "I am confused. You are basically doing anything while maintaining your cultivation speed. Why won''t you calm down and just focus your cultivation for a bit? I mean, it will surely allow you to reach a higher realm faster, no? Even without Sword Qi, I think you don''t have the problem in your fighting prowess." "My enemy is far stronger than me," Alex said mysteriously. "Knowing that, do you think you will still come to work for me?" "I do. This is a gamble. Rather than satisfied with only Rank 3 God, I will be aiming for God King from now on. And the only place that can let me achieve that faster than anyone is your place." She smiled. "That''s why I dare to gamble it with my life on the line." Alex looked at her face and nodded. "In that case, I will welcome you when you reach there." "Hoho, the reception from the master itself? I am honored." She smiled before halting her steps and looking at the wall in front of her. Alex didn''t wait for her and entered inside the wall as if everything was just an illusion like the one in the Sword Cave. "They do like to create something like this, eh?" "Haha¡­It indeed looks like the work of someone from the sect." Aria agreed with a chuckle. He then raised vision up and found a hanging cage that seemed to be made of Rank 8 Metal. Inside that was a small mouse. It sensed Alex and Aria and turned around, looking at them with a sad face as if he wanted to leave. Alex smiled and waved his hand, putting down the cage to the ground. "I have one question for you before releasing you outside. No, not a question. It''s a choice." "Squeak?!" The mouse tilted its head with confusion. "You can sense a treasure, right? If yes, then this is the choice. Firstly, you can leave this place and never meet us again. We will make a contract that you need to find us three treasures that we find useful and go our separate ways. "Secondly, you follow us, and we won''t treat you badly. In fact, I can help you to become a Divine Beast. Well, to be honest, I have a Divine Beast in my current house, so you will have a friend. Besides, my wife is also a Divine Beast, so you can be assured that I won''t treat you badly." Alex smiled. "Your choice. Which will you choose?" Just like Heilo, the mouse could understand his words as well. After confirming that Alex was genuine with his instinct, it looked down before stretching its hand to him. "Squeak!" Alex smiled and said, "Nice to meet you. I am looking forward to our time together." "Squeak Squeak." "What? You can eat treasure to boost your cultivation? That''s even easier. Unless it''s something that she or I need, it will go to you. How about it?" Alex nodded in agreement. "Squeak!" The mouse raised its hand before waving it cutely. Aria was already captivated with its cuteness and remained silent this whole time, hoping Alex to free the mouse as soon as possible. Suddenly, Alex got a notification and read it. [Alex. The mouse is the Spiritual Mouse. This mouse is the most sensitive mouse for treasure. I think that Ilevis didn''t know the real worth of this mouse because if she were to sell this in the market or auction, it could reach as high as one hundred billion Spirit Crystals.] "Fighting power?" [None. But if this guy can be cultivated greatly, it can even sense any Spirit Crystal Mines underground or even the sea. Basically, it''s more powerful than your Spirit Eyes. Of course, you need to cultivate it properly.] "No wonder." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "Well, I have never had that intention, but I should be able to ask the little mouse from time to time." [Alright. You can do everything you want.] If the mouse indeed could sense a Spirit Crystal Mine better than him, it was surely something amazing. After all, it was the same as having another source of income. He thought for a moment and understood that he just found a very powerful mouse. Suddenly, a thought appeared in his mind regarding the mouse. He thought, ''If there is a Spiritual Mouse like this, there should be a monster that can sense pills, treasures, or any other things, right?'' [Yes, but they are not a mouse. This mouse is only specialized in getting the Spirit Crystal. There is a Metallica Dog, Five Colored Golden Crow, and Rainbow Peac.o.c.k. They are able to sense raw metals, treasures, and pills.] "I see. Anyone have them yet?" [The Blackwade Clan has Metallica Dog. If I am not wrong, the place where I originally sent Firia to compete in Alchemy had Rainbow Peac.o.c.k. I don''t have other information for the other beasts.] "That''s enough." Alex nodded before looking at the mouse. "What is your name?" "Squeak!" "You want a name?" Alex thought for a moment before Aria suddenly appeared beside the cage and shouted. "Ragur! Your name is Ragur!" "Squeak!" The mouse complained while pointing its finger to its stomach. "Female mouse?" Alex understood her again. The mouse repeatedly nodded before looking at Alex as if Aria just wronged her with that name. Alex shook his head helplessly and smiled. "Your name shall be Leka." "Squeak!" Leka leaped out of joy. Aria felt dejected how she got rejected like that. This was the cutest thing she had ever seen, so she just couldn''t contain herself. She tried to open the cage with her sword, but Alex stopped her, especially after seeing the terrified expression from Leka. She completely misunderstood Aria. "She is not going to kill you. Anyway, move a bit from the cage." Alex smiled, assuring her before placing his hand on the cage. His Pure Fire appeared and melted the cage, letting Leka out. When it first stepped outside the cage, Aria''s hands instantly caught her, and she brushed her cheek against the mouse, showing the appreciation of its cuteness. Alex let out a sigh, wondering what she would do when she met Sherry in her small form. Leka looked at Alex and waved her hand, asking him to save her. He only took out a Divine Mace and smiled while transmitting his thoughts. ''She was able to see just a few months ago, so this is the first time to see a cute creature like you.'' The mouse seemed to understand him and tapped Aria to wake her up from her bliss. Aria furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Leka for a while. Within that time, Leka patted her forehead a few times. "Squeak!" "You are so nice!" She brushed her cheek again. Leka then turned back to Alex, finding him smiling. "By the way, why do you agree to come with me?" Alex asked. "Squeak Squeak." "You find that my Spiritual Energy is purer than her? And because I can understand you?" Alex was amazed before replying. "Well, I am a God Rank Expert, so you must find my Divine Energy¡­Even though I have sealed it completely. It seems I will meet someone that can see through the seal in the future, I should be prepared for this. "As for why I can understand you, it''s because I have experienced it. I have several phoenix friends and my wife herself is a Divine Beast. That''s why." Alex smiled before giving the mace to Leka. To his surprise, Leka carried the mace without a problem and started munching it, slowly but surely. "Squeak!" There was a star on her eyes while looking at the mace. "Delicious? You''re welcome." Alex smiled. She then continued to eat while ignoring whatever Aria did in the meantime. Chapter 977 - That World? Aria calmed down not long after that, and Leka instantly leaped to Alex''s hand. "Let''s go down, shall we?" Alex asked with a smile. "Yes." Aria nodded with her eyes closed again. "Squeak Squeak!" Leka stopped him as if she wanted to tell him something. "Squeak Squeak." "You feel something in this mountain?" She repeatedly nodded before pointing the half-eaten spear and hitting it a few times. "You want to get stronger first because the energy is enough to have a breakthrough? Sure, I will be making my way to the bottom. Don''t worry. Although my sense is not as sharp as yours, I have my own way of recognizing such a thing. Do you need a private space or something?" "Squeak." She sat on his shoulder and slowly laid down. "Alright. You can breakthrough on my shoulder. I am looking forward to your breakthrough to Martial Saint." Alex smiled before taking the half-eaten spear from him and stored it inside a Space Ring. "Go on." Leka then closed its eyes and had a relaxed posture before starting to cultivate. Of course she would advance to 1-Star Martial Saint from 10-Star Martial Monarch, she just ate half of Alex''s Divine Spear. Although the spear quality was one of the lowest, it was still a Divine Spear. Alex took another look at Leka''s condition and turned to Aria. "Let''s go descend this mountain." "But there is no other way to go there¡­" She furrowed her eyebrows while looking around, finding no hole or something. "Don''t worry. Just follow me." Alex smiled as he already found the path. He walked toward a wall without any special marking on it and took out his weapon. Behind the wall was the stream of Spiritual Energy leading to the bottom, so he knew there must be a path behind it. He cut down the wall and let it crumble, but when he realized it fell down, he caught it with his Spiritual Energy and put it inside the room. "Fu. I don''t want to have these rubbles to mess up something in the bottom." Alex shook his head before walking straight to see what he could find on the other side. Aria also followed him and looked down, finding it covered with mist. "Can you see anything?" "Nope. I feel a powerful Dark Energy under this mountain, so I am not sure whether we should go down or not. From what I see, this mist contains energy that makes us hallucinate." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He was immune to illusion due to his Spirit Eyes, but Aria wasn''t. "There is one solution there." She smiled and grabbed Alex''s hand. Her eyes were closed. "I can hold your hand and go down while closing my eyes. Besides, I am a blind girl, so it won''t be a problem. If it''s just a sound, as long as you don''t mention something, I will just believe it as an illusion." Alex never thought that she was this decisive. After considering a few aspects, he agreed to this and looked around this bottomless pit with nothing but mist. ''Should I burn it with my Pure Fire? Nah, I shouldn''t. There is a possibility that the peak master will check this place again. The ones who are chasing me might do the same, but that''s something I need to worry about later.'' He decided to just go and used his Spirit Eyes to check everything when they were going down. "Here I go." With that plan, he pulled Aria and jumped to the pit while covering Leka with his Spiritual Energy so she didn''t float. At the same time, the remaining energy went to the bottom of their feet, decreasing their falling speed. Meanwhile, Aria didn''t plan to sit still. She used her heightened senses due to her blindness to check the surroundings like Alex did with his Spirit Eyes. Unfortunately, she couldn''t find anything yet. They fell around one kilometer within a minute, and it took them half an hour before reaching the ground. "That''s all?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "You can open your eyes. There is no challenge at all." Aria shook her head. "Are you seriously saying that? You must be a freak. When I went through there, I had many things in my mind that wanted to make me crazy, you know. I don''t know what will happen to me if I open my eyes. And if we were falling too slow, I would have experienced it longer. I don''t know if I can handle that." "¡­" Alex fell silent. The fog must contain a powerful illusion inside, but he didn''t know whether this was something natural or not. He thought, ''Should I gather the fog?'' [It''s a phenomenon, I guess. There must be something powerful in this mountain to create something like that.] ''Really?'' Alex contemplated for a second and looked around the mountain, finding no suspicious energy. "What should I do now? There is nothing here, the top, and the bottom." "Should we search for an exit first?" Aria offered a solution, especially since Leka was trying to breakthrough. "Alright then." Alex nodded and looked around. They had been inside a ten-meter pit this whole time while being surrounded by different types of rock formations. Alex saw around three or four rock formations, so he felt something was different in this mountain. "Still, I could feel metals and gemstones when we fell earlier." "Most of them were Rank 7 materials. I have no need for them. Maybe I will come back for the Rank 8 materials, but that''s it, I guess?" Alex tilted his head in confusion, wondering what he could do with those materials. [You can donate it to the Gacha Inventory, so when you start the Gacha System in another world, you will have enough stock to give all of them.] "Well, the stock is already big enough. I was utterly speechless when I saw there are more than a trillion water bottles in the Inventory. In addition, there are Water Gallons and Tanks¡­" [Go for a big world composed of water and process everything there. Besides, you could make an endless supply of water by becoming a cultivator and learn the composition. I mean, if you have Water Element, you will naturally water energy around you that can be turned into water itself.] "Welp. It won''t be depleted very soon. It''s not like the world we search for will have billions of humans. Even so, it will take years to deplete all the water." Alex shrugged while looking around to find a way out. "There is something weird with this." Aria tugged Alex''s hand and pointed at the side. Alex turned around and found a marking, specifically blue lines. He walked there and furrowed his eyebrows. "This looks very familiar¡­" "Do you know this?" She asked. "Yes¡­" Alex mysteriously nodded and answered. "This is a rune." It was a similar rune to the one the undead used back in the Upper World. "Why is this here?" "What are we going to do with this?" Aria asked. Alex channeled his Spiritual Energy to fill the lines that hadn''t been used for generations. The blue light slowly brightened the entire room before he realized that the glow slowly rose. "Wait¡­This is¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes before narrowing his eyes, stopping channeling the Spiritual Energy to this rune. "What is that?" Aria asked, never expecting to see the blue light spread to the top. Luckily, Alex stopped when it reached only one hundred meters. "This is Rune. I think I have seen this myself, but if I am not wrong, this rune is for a tower¡­" He narrowed his eyes, recalling every single memory about the tower he happened to see in that Special Realm and came to a realization. "Seriously?" "Do you find¡ª" Alex stopped her and nodded with a serious expression. He pointed at the runes around and explained. "This is the rune for the tower. Don''t tell me¡­This is a tower? Or is this actually a natural mountain that has been turned into a tower? Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, this is an Upper World, not a Divine World. The elders¡­" "The elders returned to the ship after explaining a few things. It seems they can''t really come to this world and will get expelled soon." She nodded. "If that is the case¡­The only one that can make a rune is only that race¡­" Alex facepalmed and asked. "Have I once asked for their world''s name?" [I believe not.] "Haha¡­" Alex laughed uncontrollably. "This is their planet, no? There is no information regarding their races, so I believe what they are talking about the nomadic race is actually the beastmen. Considering their humbleness and their understanding of the other races, they should know about this as well. For an Upper World to know about this is amazing, so I believe the so-called currency is what the dwarves made." "Do you know this world?" Aria found something weird and asked. "Not really, but I have once met people from this place." Alex nodded. "I haven''t confirmed whether this is their planet, but I think I am going to check it." "Seriously? What will you do then? And¡­Are they your friends?" Alex thought for a moment. "Not really. I just helped them in the past under an agreement." "¡­" Aria made a complicated expression and asked. "If there is a war between the two planets, which one will you help?" "None." Alex shook his head. "I will remain neutral and let them solve the problem. Besides, if my memory is correct, they love peace. Unless they are threatened, no one would be harmed." "This is going to be bad, no?" "Yes. Even though the sect is indirectly telling the disciples to avoid unnecessary conflict and trade with them, no one can easily control the entire one hundred thousand people." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "What should we do then?" Her heart started beating rapidly, knowing that this world might turn into chaos soon. "I am not sure. There is a possibility that these people already know about us coming here and have a certain agreement with them. But I need to meet their leaders first to see whether it is indeed them." "Do you know where we should go?" "Nope. We are only at the edge of the continent, so I bet this is a pretty high-level continent as well." Alex thought for a moment. "For now, we will explore this mountain first and secure an escape route before investigating the outside world." He also had a mixed feeling about this since he knew both of them, especially the leaders of the three races. If the two were fighting against each other, he would probably stay here without doing anything. With that thought in mind, Alex then started walking around the hole to see if he could find a clue or not. Chapter 978 - Questions "This one?" Alex thought for a moment before shaking his head. "I think we have nowhere to go from this small place. The only way is to go up or teleport." "So, we go up now?" "Wait a minute. Just wait until Leka advances to Martial Saint. It will take one or two hours." Alex nodded. "Alright then. Can you tell me anything about this world''s inhabitants?" Alex looked at her for a while before shaking his head. "I will need to refuse to do that. For now, I don''t have a plan to tell you anything. I need to make sure if this is their worth first before doing anything." He started contemplating whether to use Njomo to check his surroundings or not and decided to do it after sending a thought transmission to Njomo that had been hiding inside her shadow. ''Njomo. Can you jump to my shadow and reveal yourself?'' ''Woof.'' ''Alright.'' Alex felt he was saying "yes," so he didn''t hesitate to call him out. "Njomo. Are you there?" A figure emerged from his shadow as if responding to his call. He lowered his head to Alex, greeting him politely. Aria opened her mouth in surprise. She never saw Njomo this whole time, so she was completely baffled by the entire situation. After all, this meant there was another Divine Beast that had been hiding in his shadow this whole time, and not a single of them could see it. Alex ignored her reaction and asked. "I am sorry for asking you this, but can you check our surroundings. It can be anything. I just want to know whether this world is the one I know." Njomo nodded and turned into a shadow, flying upward. Aria couldn''t see it as if Njomo just vanished from the world once again. She kept glancing at Njomo''s previous location and Alex back and forth with a dumbfounded look. "You have become too curious when you can see." Alex fell silent. "I am not mocking about your disability, but I am starting to worry. Just like a poor man who suddenly gets wealth that can only appear in their dream will use all the money without thinking about his spending at all. "If you are becoming too curious, I am worried because you will be in danger sooner or later." Alex scratched the back of his head. "I had once experienced that. When I had little power and became a bit too proud, I actually decided to do something foolish like observing a war that was clearly beyond my power. "At that time, I almost died. If not because of my wife, I wouldn''t live here. This is not for shutting you down, but this advice is for you to calm down. I know that you are excited, but that excitement will slowly go down after a period of time. "It''s fine to be curious and question everything, but yours is¡­Anyway, it''s better for you to experience it yourself and hope that you don''t make a mistake that you can''t escape from it." Alex sighed. Aria couldn''t find a single word to say to Alex. She perfectly understood his meaning and took a deep breath, reflecting upon her current self. It was true that she had been questioning many things after getting permission from Alex to use her Sword Eye to capture few important details, but her reaction was too obvious. It could be picked up by enemies. That might be the reason why Alex reprimanded her as her tutor. Knowing her mistake, she lowered her head and said, "I apologize. I will reflect on my action and thank you for reminding me." "It''s fine. People will change with time, so I don''t blame you. I just want you to remember that everything has a consequence." Alex smiled and patted her shoulders. After that, she decided to use the waiting time to think about her actions this recently and notice how different she had become the past few months. Everything started to change when she finally learned the Sword Eye. When seeing this point of view, she just noticed that the Sword Eye was actually a double-edged sword for her. There was nothing such as a perfect technique, and this one might be the weakness, specifically for someone like her. Meanwhile, Alex kept watching his surroundings, trying to find anything suspicious but to no avail. Two hours finally passed, and Spiritual Energy suddenly fluctuated, becoming the mark of Leka''s breakthrough. "Have you finished, Leka?" Alex smiled and stretched his hand for her to leap. Leka didn''t leap first. Instead, she looked at Alex and hugged his neck as if it was the way saying her thanks. Alex only smiled at her before feeling another fluctuation of energy. To his surprise, Leka actually initiated a life and death contract with the same condition as Sherry. "You¡­" Alex was surprised by the sudden action and asked. "Are you fine with this?" "Squeak." She nodded before the Spiritual Energy surrounded her and increased her cultivation even further. 2-Star Martial Saint 3-Star Martial Saint 4-Star Martial Saint The energy finally began stabilizing itself inside her body after reaching 4-Star Martial Saint. She looked at Alex and sent a thought transmission. ''Master¡­Can you hear me?'' ''Yes. You can send a thought transmission now?'' ''Because of the life and death contract, I am able to get closer to Master''s ideal form to a certain degree. In that contract, I gained a bit of understanding of your normal language, thus allowing me to talk with Master.'' She nodded before looking at Aria, who gradually opened her eyes because of this commotion. "This is Leka. She can talk with a thought transmission just now. She will surely have a talk with you later, but I need to sort my thoughts first." Alex explained the whole situation to Aria. "I understand." She nodded with a smile. It might be due to her meditation earlier. She looked calmer than before. Although it was a bit of a force, Alex believed she would become a great person in the long run. However, Alex had no time to check on her and turned to Leka first. ''Do you know anything about me?'' ''Not really. I only know that Master is a God. That''s all.'' ''I see. At first, I am planning to have you as my friend and have an equal contract¡­'' ''Don''t think about it, Master. I can feel that you are different from others. I can smell a fox, birds, and a monkey in your Spiritual Energy. In other words, you must have a contract with them. Seeing that your energy is pure, I feel like I can trust you.'' ''Is that so?'' Alex smiled before explaining to her. ''The fox is my wife. She is a Celestial Fox that governs over the fire element. As for the birds, they are my contracted beast as well as husband and wife. There is also one more which is their child, but they are not together at the time being. As for the monkey, I don''t have a contract with him yet, and he won''t be with me.'' ''Well, I don''t really understand the complicated stuff like that. Anyway, that is my basis for choosing the contract. I know that I am basically forcing this, but please take care of me, Master. I will do my best to help you too.'' ''We are helping each other, but if you are sincere, I will probably treat you as my family.'' Alex nodded. ''Hehe¡­Should we explore this first then?'' ''There is no other way though?'' ''I can certainly feel it. Maybe because you gave me that spear earlier, my senses are heightened now. I can locate it. It''s beneath us, two or three times the fall we have earlier.'' ''Really?'' ''Yes. Actually, there are a few layers of rock like this underneath us, but they are not that thick. I think Master should have no problem in breaking them and head down.'' ''Two or three times of thirty kilometers¡­No wonder I can''t see it. My Spirit Eyes are not capable of seeing through that far.'' Alex nodded. ''Wait a minute. Your element is not Earth, right? I feel like you are having a special element but also like one of my wives.'' ''I am Nature Element, but mostly about rock and other materials. If it''s about plants, I can''t feel anything.'' She explained. ''No wonder.'' Alex nodded. He perfectly understood now why this mouse was called the locater of Spirit Crystal Mine. He simply sensed the rock formation and Spiritual Energy that coated it. As for Metal? It might be an impurity in his sense. The same applied to herbs or pills. ''Before that, I want to ask you a few more things.'' ''I understand. What do you want to ask me?'' ''Why were you inside that cage?'' ''Originally, I was sacrificed here. They planned to use me to find sources of energy.'' ''And that were Spirit Crystals Mines.'' ''Yes. I found many mines in this world so they could build this big tunnel. If I were not wrong, they called this tower or natural tower. After being used, I was thrown away and locked inside that.'' She sighed. ''Really? Then do you want to have your revenge?'' She took a moment to answer him, but her answer amazed him. ''No. I don''t plan to involve Master in this because I believe this matter and Master is a separate matter. Besides, if they don''t lock me up for three thousand years, I won''t meet Master. There is something that I have been wondering, what kind of world is outside there. Is there only a single me? I would like to know.'' ''You are curious like my sword, eh?'' Alex smiled. ''Are you talking about me?'' Eve pouted, entering their conversation. ''I couldn''t see the outside world this whole time since we were stuck in this world. Well, I found interesting things in Outer Space, so I am satisfied for the time being.'' ''Haha¡­The one talking is my Sword Spirit, Eve. I will let you see her later, but for now, let''s finish our matter first.'' Alex paused. ''The second question. If you don''t have any more desire in this world, are you going to follow me in exploration? Although I am happy to let you do just that, I can''t really afford to show you to anyone else other than those I trust. ''I still need to do a few things for around one hundred years. After that, you can follow me on my travels. What do you think about it?'' ''I have been here for three thousand years. One hundred years is nothing.'' ''You answered like Eve here.'' ''I see a comrade.'' Eve confirmed with a playful tone. ''Haha¡­Anyway, my last question is¡­Are you afraid to die?'' Alex smiled. ''Nope. It was true that I was afraid in the past, but when you got abused by them and locked up for too long, that sense would become dull. For me, I just believe and enjoy whatever I can.'' ''In that case¡­'' Alex paused for a moment, asking Lin Xingzhi to do something. Suddenly, a blue notification appeared that only Alex and Leka could see this. ''This is my power. Since we have a life and death contract, you should experience this yourself as soon as possible. Just make sure you don''t tell anyone about this because this is one of my biggest secrets.'' ''I understand. Besides, you can take my life at any time if you think I have talked about it to anyone.'' She nodded. ''Well, we might get separated soon for the time being, and you will be staying in my world. I don''t think people will use and abuse you like the people here since I will be asking my wife for it. However, don''t be too proud of that as well because even if you are my contracted beast, you are the newest one there.'' ''Don''t worry. After knowing how to feel about getting abused, you will definitely see that you won''t make people feel like that.'' She nodded. ''Alright then. I am looking forward to our cooperation, Leka.'' ''Yes, Master.'' ''Now, it''s time to drill this place.'' Alex smiled and asked, ''Are you ready, Eve?'' ''Of course. Do you want to use a single slash to pierce the bottom layer?'' ''Haha!'' Chapter 980 - Protection While Atlas flew toward the main tower, the people in the castle had yet to regain their calm. Instead, another messenger appeared. This time, the messenger was not an undead like them but a beastman. He had a robust lion body and a giant sword behind his back. "Igor?!" The undead king stood with a surprised look. "Why did you come here? And without any guards and notices." "A conflict has appeared. I am afraid this will soon become a battlefield." "You should know about the agreement, right?" He asked. "Yes. Even so, this is very painful. I was with my brother on the front line. Some of them were pretty generous in this term, but some of them were not. Those people even didn''t care about race and tortured some of us. I couldn''t handle this anymore." He shook his head before finding that Atlas wasn''t here. Due to the experience on the previous planet, he had a special attachment to him, so he frowned when he realized this. He asked, "Where is Atlas?" "Our main tower can''t be turned on at the moment. I have expected this, so I would like to minimize our loss. Luckily, as they have suggested, their God Rank Experts, mostly the strongest out of them, have landed on this island, getting locked by the world''s will. "However, I do believe they still have a few to prevent their disciples from getting massacred. So, to minimize our loss, I am planning to activate our tower from all around the world. This way, they would start to fear us. If they keep doing this, we will butcher their entire group as long as one of them is bad. "We indeed don''t like fighting, but we don''t fear it. We have endured far too long." Igor, the beast king that Alex met in the past, thought for a moment before uttering his opinion. "I have seen a trustworthy person that can wash away all those bad people. He is a true leader. What if¡­" "Seeing you suggest something like that, you must have learned the true agreement, right?" "Yes." Igor nodded. The Undead King thought for a moment and sighed. "When they first came here, they wanted to destroy us or enslaved us because of our ability. Fortunately, I still managed to fool them once, making them abandon their plan. "Even so, it''s still not enough. They come up with another strategy in which we don''t have any more choice other than agreeing to their terms. At the very least, I came up with a few favorable terms for us. "First, they would like to take over this world by themselves, including our building and technology. However, we can leave this world with our spaceship, and they won''t attack us. This is agreed by their Rank 3 God, the true ruler of their planet. "That''s why we are going to fight them and kill some of them to wash the hatred of our brethren. With this agreement, I can bring every single person on this planet and migrate to another planet. I have a few uninhabited planets in mind, but everything will depend on our situation. "What I know is that we should get away from them as far as possible, and we need a Divine World for our new place. I want us to get stronger there, giving us the possibility of revenge. Although I don''t have a plan for that, there is no telling in the future. "I just want to give this world more choices, so our later generations won''t be bullied by others. I hope you can understand me." The Undead King looked down, feeling sad. "I know this agreement. That''s why I come here." "They are in your continent, right?" "Yes. There is a possibility that they are aiming at the Dwarven Territory after this and destroy our plan. That''s why I want all of us to join hands. And I also agree with your choice to have a Divine World as our next home. If we are not strong enough, we will always get bullied. Even if we can''t become a God Rank Expert, I won''t lose hope to get our later generations." He nodded. "So, what do you want to suggest earlier?" The Undead King asked with a serious expression. "I have once met a true leader, one that is caring to his subordinates and friends. I would like to ask for his protection even if it means becoming his vassal." "Are you joking with me, Igor?" The Undead King was furious. They had been bullied this whole time, and if they went under someone, their standing would become lower. Igor shook his head calmly. He didn''t fear him. Instead, he smiled and said. "I have discussed this with my brother, and he''s agreed." "Your brother?" The Undead King''s anger turned into surprise. The most prideful person in this place was his brother, the current Beast King. He wondered who could make such a prideful person lower his head. "Unfortunately, my brother said that only you could listen to his name. As much as I don''t want this, I would like everyone to vacate the hall." The Undeads in the room obviously didn''t want to, but the Undead King instantly nodded and asked them. "Please leave, gentlemen. Trust me. I won''t make a bad decision." They had been serving this king for long, so they had no choice other than to trust him. As soon as the last undead left, the Undead King asked. "Who is the person that can make your brother lower his head?" "Alexander Sirius." "Who is¡ª" The Undead King fell silent before finishing his sentence. Although many people could become one, only one person had the qualification. Even so, he had no knowledge about this person, especially after he died. "This was the only thing we lied to you about because of our promise to him. However, if we decided to become his vassal, I believed there is no need to hide it anymore." Igor clenched his fist. "He is THE Alexander Sirius." "The Spirit God?!" "Yes. We have met such a person." Igor nodded. "The Dwarven representative, Zekhram, back then had a private meeting with his assistant. It''s said to be the message from Alexander Sirius''s wife, the Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi. "Firstly, he told us about the plan to assist him in his last fight in that world, which we agreed. The second thing he told us¡­If we have no way out, come to Eulja. They will accept us." "What?!" The Undead King stomped the ground before looking down. This was the most shocking thing he could learn. Although even the person herself denied the fact that she was the ruler of Eulja, she undoubtedly was the one having the highest command there. And if Alexander Sirius, the Spirit God, actually emerged once again, this would be a perfect time to move over as his vassal. This way, their relationship would become a bit more solid than those who come after he is crowned. In terms of treatment, Eulja might not be the one giving the most freedom out there. But no one could deny their protective nature of their own subordinates. This was believed by the spirits as the Spirit God taught it himself by his action. When presented with this matter, he fell silent, feeling that everything had been going on for a while. In other words, Lin Xingzhi had managed to fool all people. The moment the people knew that the Spirit God finally came to this world again as a King, the Universe would tremble. He thought for a moment and asked once more for the confirmation. "Are you sure about this?" "I have met the person in question myself. He might be his reincarnation, but his principle is similar to his hearsay. I would like to gamble on this for a better future. One where we can get stronger and have protection. I believe in the future where we don''t need to be bullied again." Igor nodded with a serious expression. The Undead King paused for a few minutes before nodding his head. "I understand. I agree with you. Becoming his subordinate is not that bad, especially since their side is the one inviting us. If I am not wrong, they are aiming for our construction ability since they are experts in medicinal herbs. It seems they are planning big." "Hoh?!" Igor just realized it after he talked about it. No wonder that the more people thought about it, the more opinions he would get. In the end, he smiled. "Thank you." "No. I should be thanking you. This might be fate, but you being there is the best opportunity we have." The Undead King shook his head, feeling ashamed. "This is the luck that our ancestor gives us. Eulja''s current situation is not that good because most of their allies have forgotten about them. Some even left them because of the lack of absence of the Spirit God. If we can endure the passing storm, we will become one of their allies¡­A genuine one." Igor nodded. "That''s what my brother believes." "Yes, I do agree with you. For now, I can''t tell the others because there is no sure chance that they will remember their own agreement, considering their scale. That''s why we are heading there and tell them when we reach that place. This is a win-win relationship." The Undead King nodded. "What should we do then?" He asked. "There is one more thing we need to do. First, we need to inform the Dwarf and have them prepare their spaceship. The agreement will end in one year, so we only need to withstand them for that long. For now, have your beastman tribe evacuate to either my territory and the Dwarven Territory. "When the last stage comes, we will go to the Dwarf Territory for this and leave this world. Remember. Make no mistake." The Undead King warned him. "Of course. I have learned many things when living in that world." Igor nodded with a serious expression. "Good." Suddenly, they were startled by the loud noise echoing in the room. Bang. "Brother!" Atlas slammed the door and entered the room. "Atlas? What happened to you? Why did you rush into this room? Did something happen?" The Undead King asked worriedly. He feared Atlas was attacked by those people outside. However, it seemed his worry was unnecessary. The latter shook his head before realizing there was Igor in this room. "What are you doing here?" "I am discussing something with him." "Wait¡­That''s not it! I have an emergency that requires the three races to gather." Atlas gripped his brother''s shoulder. "Wait, wait. What happened?" He asked. "I have one important thing that I need you to know¡­I want you to meet a human." "What?! I don''t like to meet them, especially since they are trying to threaten us to come to an agreement with them." "No, no. The person I would like you to meet is THE Alexander Sirius. He is the reincarnation of the Spirit God!" "¡­" Chapter 981 - Condition An hour prior, Alex was searching through the entire cave, not leaving a single thing other than the two he had excluded prior. It was quite a nice grab since he had gotten more than a hundred of them. Unfortunately, he still had yet to find a Divine Rank material, so he felt a bit disappointed. Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed through the tunnel and reverberated in their ears. "What?! The barrier has been found?" There was no Sound Barrier, so he could listen to the voice clearly. He appeared right at the gate before sending a thought transmission to Aria. "Stay here. My fire element will still protect you here. Just make sure you don''t make a noise." Aria halted her step and looked at him with a serious expression before nodding. Alex then leaped upward, coming out of the special realm. Atlas obviously sensed a presence coming to him and raised his hand. Three Rune Swords appeared near him. "Who are you?" Waiting for two seconds and the presence kept coming closer, he decided to shoot the three swords toward the presence. When Alex saw three blue swords, he slashed them apart with his Triple Draws before finding the energy coming from someone above him very familiar. When he arrived, he recognized him. It was Atlas. Obviously, the latter didn''t want Alex to get close, so he sent another attack, but Alex already anticipated this attack and disappeared. Atlas was baffled for a second before he turned around but was too late. Alex''s sword was already on his neck. "Ya, it''s been a while," Alex said, trying to immediately melt the misunderstanding. "Do you remember me?" "Who are you?!" Atlas couldn''t recognize Alex, especially with how he changed his appearance and voice. "Alexander Sirius. Due to some reasons, I use something to cover up my face and voice." Alex smiled. "Alexander Sirius?! No way!" Atlas was shaken. It was just too ridiculous to hear that name coming to this world. "I am. What?! Do you want me to tell you everything regarding our agreement where I saved you from a special realm so you could return?" Alex smiled. As soon as he heard that agreement, he instantly recognized it. There wasn''t a single person knowing about this other than the respective tribe''s leader. "Then, you must know our name, right? What are the names of the three leaders you met in the past?" "Atlas, Zekhram, and Igor." Alex smiled. Atlas then took a deep breath before letting out a sigh of relief. "To think you are really Alexander Sirius. I thought you were enemies that wanted to annihilate us. But how are you here?" "I come here together with the Unsurpassed Blade Sect." "Are you going to kill us?" Atlas knew that Alex didn''t have a special attachment to them, considering their relationship was based on benefits, so he became worried when seeing Alex here. His cultivation seemed to be only 7-Star Martial Saint, but his power far surpassed that since he could defeat him this easily. "Nope. I am neutral." Alex smiled. "Besides, why do you assume I am going to kill you?" "I mean¡­" Atlas hesitated for a second and remembered what Zekhram told him and Igor in the past about Nelson''s invitation. He thought for a moment and told him their current condition, including the agreement between them and the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. After around fifteen minutes, he sent a message to Leka, saying that they could continue for a while. He then looked down and stroked his chin, falling into deep thought. "I see. The Unsurpassed Blade Sect wants this world, but you managed to fight back, leading the entire situation into an agreement. "And you can leave this world after receiving them for one year according to your custom. Then, you want to leave the planet to search for another place to live." "Yes." Atlas nodded, hiding nothing from Alex. "The timing itself is indeed the same, so I know that you are not lying. You¡ª" Alex suddenly stopped when he saw the notification from Lin Xingzhi. She started telling him about the deal she asked Nelson to pass when they were there. It seemed she wanted their power to create a more solid defense in their territory. After all, their territory itself consisted of many planets, not just Eulja. There were still many planets and stars around it that were usually used to cultivate plants and other things. After knowing her real purpose, Alex finally asked inwardly, ''So, you want me to recruit them?'' [Yes. I actually learned about this plan a few decades ago when that world wanted to expand their territory. Since I know the three races you met stayed on this planet, I decided to recruit them, but they just wished to live peacefully.] [Hence, I gave up and only offered them this suggestion. It was simply asking them to help us while we offer our protection. That''s all. Still, I never expected to see the invasion had arrived.] ''Why didn''t you tell me about this?'' [I never planned to. I mean, this could be completed without your presence, so I chose this option to advance. And with how they wanted to think about it and your personality, I thought to leave you alone for the time being. If they joined, I would tell you, but I never expected to see you coming to them. That''s why I have been silent during the whole trip, thinking whether I should tell you about the agreement or not.] ''I see. I am not blaming you, but I wish you can be more open to that. I mean, you are not alone anymore.'' [I am sorry.] Lin Xingzhi realized that she had ruled over Eulja for so long that she took everything on her own hand. She could only sigh and regret, knowing that she could do better than this. The real ruler of Eulja was Alexander Sirius, not her. She didn''t wish to rule to begin with, so he gave most of the tasks to Korzan, but it should be the time where she should stop doing this alone and work together with Alex for Eulja. ''Well, we can talk about this when I am back. And don''t blame yourself, I know that you were just doing your best.'' Alex smiled. ''Besides, you want to recruit them? Do you think it''s possible?'' [Yes. It''s possible. We will give them the peace they want. In exchange, they will help us to create a better defense ring with their own specialty.] ''Do you want me to recruit them? I think my words will give a boost to this, right? They are planning to leave this world anyway.'' Alex asked. [That¡­is up to you.] ''I will recruit them then. This will only benefit Eulja anyway, so I don''t mind.'' Alex smiled and looked at Atlas. "I have an offer." "What is it?" Atlas tilted his head in confusion before realizing he wanted to talk about the secret deal. Knowing that the one before him was Alexander Sirius, he thought he should be the one asking, not him offering the suggestion, so he kneeled on one knee and asked. "Please, can you save this planet and let us under your wing?" Alex was startled to see him this way. He was just about to ask it himself, so he couldn''t help but wonder if the situation had become this desperate. "Are you sure about this?" "Yes. Although I am not a representative, I can ask my brother to think about this. I am sure he will agree. As for the other two leaders, I will definitely convince them." Alex felt a bit weird but still maintained his silence. He thought for a moment and asked. "Can I meet your leader? I would like to talk about this with him." "Of course." "There is one more thing. I have broken this thing, so what are we going to do?" "Actually, this is our main tower that can activate all towers around the world, giving us a big opportunity to stop the humans from killing any of us. Unfortunately, the tower can''t absorb any energy since there is nothing flowing." "Oh. That must be the work of my Array. I will remove it right away. And I want to say that I have gathered a few things inside there other than Spirit Crystals. Should I place it back?" "No, no. You don''t need to. Actually, in the agreement, they didn''t tell us anything about our technology and such. Hence, my brother wanted to destroy our buildings and runes in this world by using our towers. In other words, we give them a perfectly new world without any of our house and building. "Of course, the main reason is to stop them from stealing our technology. As long as we have that agreement, they can only be mad at us, so it''s a perfect situation. "If you want everything inside, you can take everything other than a few Spirit Crystals to sustain the tower." "I see. I have no plan in getting all of it, but I have taken a few gems and metals." Alex nodded. "Yes, I don''t have a problem with that. It''s simply our payback." Atlas nodded. "That''s good." Alex nodded. "I am planning to meet your king, but I would like to excavate all the things first. Do you mind waiting?" "There is one problem. If you can, please remove the barrier¡­Maybe, not remove it, but make a few holes, so the Spiritual Energy won''t leak to the top of the mountain, giving them enough evidence to start mining this giant mine." "Fair enough. How about you making a rune for that?" "I am afraid I couldn''t." "Alright." Alex didn''t waste any time and nodded. "I will create something to let the Spiritual Energy flow so the tower can be activated. Meanwhile, can you prepare something to lock this thing up so no one realizes it?" "I understand. I shall go to the top and do the fixing. When you returned, I would simply put it there to camouflage the whole mountain. Besides, it''s not like this place will still be here since everything will be blown up." Atlas nodded. "In that case, I will leave it in your hand." Alex nodded and descended again. He took another look at the array and created a few small holes to let a portion of the Spiritual Energy flow to the runes, powering it up. Alex looked to the top before making his way back to the cave. When he saw Aria''s worried face, Alex only patted her shoulder and said, "You don''t need to worry about anything. I will ask them to protect your brother when he is here. I don''t think your brother wants to be the sect master, so I will also ask them to not give any currency to them." "Thanks." Aria smiled before remembering what Alex said. "Eulja, huh. It seems your planet is very popular." "Haha¡­I am just letting you listen to it, so you know where you need to go when leaving this world." Alex shrugged. "Yes, yes. Whatever you say." Aria smiled before looking around. "I think we have excavated most of the materials here. Do you still not want the Spirit Crystals?" "I am not sure. The people from this world still need it, so I won''t touch it for the time being." Alex shook his head. "Of course, we can ask their leader and make a bank." "Haha¡­You are very funny." Aria laughed. "Anyway, I will be searching again." "Yes, I will too. We will end this in thirty minutes and head straight to their place." Aria nodded, and the two started working again. After mining everything they could, Alex and Aria made a small platform at the gate of their entrance before Alex used monster blood to create the same barrier. This time, he kept a few holes there, so the Spiritual Energy would flow, but not to the point it would give away the mine''s location. Alex and Aria then went to Atlas. They closed the gate first and flew to the Teleportation Crystal that led the trio to the castle where Alex''s and Atlas''s fight had just begun. Chapter 982 - A King Alex stood before Igor and the Undead King, Rhoas. "May I know what the conditions are?" Rhoas asked. "It''s simple. I will give you a Divine World. Although it will take a while for you to get accustomed to it, it should have all the necessities you need. And no one will bully you. In exchange, you will strengthen our defense. I would like you to start inventing Rank 9 Runes, especially a Tower that can fend off God Rank Experts." Alex smiled, stating his first condition. "I see. Are you going to use it to protect the territory?" "Yes." Alex had been talking with Lin Xingzhi when he was on the way, so he knew the condition and Eulja''s territory. He just needed to negotiate the terms to have a win-win situation. "I can agree with that. The tower can also protect the surrounding planets. If you have enough resources to build many towers in the nearby planets, you can even create a huge Rune Formation that could fend off the enemies. For us, it''s a kind of the protection that we need." "That''s my plan. It''s like having a castle and a wall." Alex smiled before putting on the second condition. "The second condition is for all of you to follow the law of our territory." "Law?" Rhoas thought for a moment. "I agree with that. It''s your territory, so we should obey that. It''s just¡­" "Eulja has a different set of laws." Alex smiled. "But the law is still the same, right?" Rhoas, Igor, and Atlas were shocked. Alex closed his eyes and asked. "Do you know what is the true essence of law?" "Hmm?" Rhoas tilted his head and recalled his laws. "A tool to govern our subjects with punishment." "No." Alex shook his head and looked at his eyes. "Law is a wish." "A wish?" This answer was unexpected. Even Rhoas, who had been leading the Undead for so long, couldn''t comprehend or relate to him. Alex took a while before explaining the whole thing. "Yes. A wish. A way to guide both a world and its people toward the ideal state that one envisions. After having people under you, what do you hope to happen to all the people living in your territory? How do you wish them to live their lives? What direction do you wish to take them? "We don''t want people to kill, so we create a law to not kill by using the tool called punishment. Of course, some experts understand this and try their best to do it. And I, Alexander Sirius, will be the one overseeing that the rule will be followed closely. This is my way to fulfill people''s wishes and take care of their insecurity." Alex smiled. Not a single one could contain their shock. Their jaws dropped to the ground, wondering what they just saw. They didn''t know why but Alex was glowing in their eyes as if they just saw what the appearance of a true ruler was. It touched upon the essence of their hearts. Alex also felt happy when he saw this. If the king didn''t even think about this and had a flat emotion, they might be a king that didn''t care about their subjects. Seeing that all of them cared, they were considered good rulers too. Rhoas seemed to have decided this and walked toward Alex before kneeling on one knee right in front of him. This was followed by Igor and Atlas. "I, Rhoas, will represent my race and bow down to my king. I shall spare no effort to fulfill the land that my king envisions." "I, Igor, will ensure my brother will follow you, my king." Lin Xingzhi kept smiling throughout the entire process. Despite knowing that he had many flaws, Alex still thought about his subjects. This was why many followed him. Considering the spirits were not like humans that were greedy for power and wealth, it could be achieved. Loyalty was number one in Eulja, and Alex always kept his promise and moved forward. It moved everyone''s heart, and the Spirit World then united and became feared by many." Alex smiled and helped them up. "Let''s move forward together." Meanwhile, Aria just arrived a few moments ago. Although she only listened to a few things, she understood why people liked Alex. He had this unique charm that pulled people in, including her. Yeah, Alexander''s name also took part in this, but without his true nature, everything would be for naught. "Ye-yes." The three smiled and nodded before Rhoas realized another matter. They just discussed the countermeasure for the agreement with the Unsurpassed Blade Sect and got deviated a bit. So, Rhoas stepped up and presented the problem. "My King. Actually¡­" Rhoas explained the situation from his point of view. His version was more complete than Atlas''s, so he could get enough information to think about something. "What is your plan?" "Evacuating the beastman tribe to either this continent or Dwarf''s." Alex thought for a moment and asked again. "How many people do you wish to kill?" "We hope none, but there is aggression already, so we can''t really let them away, no? According to the report, there are also many that want to help us, but we need towers to scare those who are lawless. So, I can''t really say how many people will fall¡­" "I see. Make sure you don''t cross one-fifth¡­So, about twenty thousand." Alex nodded. "And I have an idea for you." "Please tell us, my king." "Have most of them go here and clean this continent, especially the mines and buildings. After that, teleport to the Dwarf''s territory and clean that up as well. As for the one in beastman''s territory, just destroy the tower and be done with it. You need to leave right away." Rhoas understood his plan and added. "They can''t attack us if we leave right away anyway, so there is no harm of them knowing this. Even if they call reinforcement or get people who are not bound by the agreement, we would have reached Your Majesty''s territory." "Yes. Since not a single person from your world could attack you, their only reinforcement would probably be from the nearby territories. But when I passed around the area, I didn''t see any sign of living, so I thought you would be fine." "I agree. The closest one here will need more than two weeks to reach us. We would have gone by that time." Rhoas nodded and praised Alex in his heart. On the other hand, Alex knew why Lin Xingzhi wanted them. If it were another planet, she would have hesitated. After all, these people genuinely wanted to protect their people and wouldn''t easily betray him, which made them perfect to be their vassal. Besides, their Eulja was already weakened due to his long absence, so he agreed with them joining Eulja. This would be a backup plan from his original plan, which used a few God Kings to protect their territories. After all, the original plan took too much resources and time, so he needed something like this first. "I shall go back to my territory then." Igor bowed to Alex. "Please excuse me, my king." "I will leave it to you." Alex nodded with a smile. Atlas also knew his mission. He then bowed to Alex since he needed to leave too. "Please let me be the messenger to let the Dwarves know about this." "Alright." Rhoas gave his approval too, so it should be fine. With the two leaving this room, Aria, who had been watching them from the corner, finally walked toward them. "She is¡­My Queen. I¡ª" Rhoas misunderstood Aria because she followed Alex, so Alex stopped him from going to that hole and corrected him. "She is Aria, the one who has been helping me while I am in that world." Aria politely clasped her hand before Leka leaped to his shoulder. Rhoas also bowed his head like a gentleman. At the very least, Aria didn''t look that different after seeing undeads. He was afraid she would be making a fuss about it, but it seemed to be just his unnecessary worries. "That''s right. If possible, can you help me find her brother? You don''t need to take him here or do something special. Just make sure you don''t kill him." "May I know his face? I can then ask my special team to search for him to ensure his safety," Rhoas asked. Alex then fell silent, realizing that he had no picture or memory crystal. Even Aria couldn''t draw his face or had his picture, so there was no way to give him what he wanted. Suddenly, Lin Xingzhi came out and acted like her time had come. [This is the time for me to shine. After this, you won''t think that you hate your own privacy get breached!] Alex was startled by the notification before recalling what the system did on his privacy. [Check the Inventory!] Alex instantly understood when he checked his Inventory. There was an image of Adrian that seemed to be freshly printed. [I love technology.] ''I agree.'' He nodded and took out the picture before handing it to Rhoas. "This is his picture." Aria was surprised to see Alex have it, but the latter only grinned and said, "My own network." Knowing that Njomo could follow anyone without knowing, she believed he could do something like this. Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi was teasing Alex about how he was angry about this privacy in the past. [Hehe. I used the fact that I could see everything about you and store it inside. After that, I used that memory and took the picture before printing it. So, what do you think about this now?] ''Yes, yes. You win. If I didn''t share any of this, we would be stuck. We can''t really get any confirmation about Aria''s brother. What do you want me to say?'' [I love you.] ''Love you too.'' Alex scratched his head, knowing that he had lost. When Rhoas had the picture, he shouted. "Guard!" Another Undead came in and kneeled in front of him. He then handed the picture. "Ask Ganthu to mobilize the special team to search for this person and ensure his safety. Make sure he doesn''t realize he is being protected." "Understood." The guard nodded and left the room. Rhoas then turned to Alex and asked. "What would my king do after this?" "I don''t know. I am planning to search for treasures. I mean, the mines should contain gems and other things too, right? I will take that since this planet will soon get occupied." "Yes, I don''t mind. It''s better than giving it to them." "Don''t worry. You should remember her, right?" Alex pointed his finger at Leka. Rhoas finally noticed and remembered. Before he said anything, Alex continued. "I am planning to take her to bring me to the deep mines. According to Atlas, you can''t really extract anything there, no? That''s why I am planning to have her as my guide to get all the treasures from those buried treasures. I won''t touch anything that you can touch." Rhoas''s expression turned serious, and he nodded. "It''s not like we can do anything about it, so yeah, it''s better to be in your hand rather than them. Besides, my King will give us a planet that has many resources, so it''s already our win. Even if my king wants everything on this planet, we will offer it to you." "It''s fine. I don''t need it. You can use that resource to make a new settlement in that world." Alex smiled. "I understand." "After that, I will probably enjoy the beach to sweep away my stress." Alex shrugged. "Of course, I will dedicate today to discuss your new planet with you." "If you want to go there, I do have a few recommendations." Rhoas then turned to Aria. "Before that, I believe we should have a room for the young lady first." "What do you think?" Alex asked. "Sure. I will be a cultivation maniac in a cave later." She nodded. "Yeah, yeah." Alex shrugged. Chapter 984 - End "Here," Aria shouted while grabbing a few metals on her hands. They had been searching for treasures for three months but never found a single Divine Rank item. This certainly disappointed Alex, but he also knew that he had hoped too much. Just like the Devil World who seemed to have barely found the Divine Herbs from a certain lower world, he assumed that it was hard to find something like that in other planets except Divine World. Coming to that conclusion, Alex started thinking about this neutrally again, not putting a high expectation on whatever world he would find. After storing the metals, he said, "I don''t think there is anything that we can extract anymore. It''s better to use this mine to cultivate. I will block this place first and make two Gathering Arrays for us to use." Aria nodded. "I will wait here." Since she already knew about his Array Mastery, he didn''t need to hide it anymore, allowing him to move more efficiently. Luckily, Aria did not doubt Alex''s element. She believed Alex only had a Fire Element, so the thought of him using a Special Realm never crossed her mind. Alex also had explained how he could get numerous Teleportation Array Plates. He just had too many Array Plates and traded them with a Space Element Array Master. After putting the array up, Alex said, "We will cultivate here for four months before heading to the Dwarf Continent." "I understand. I feel like I can reach the next stage even faster with a Rank 9 Gathering Array." Aria nodded with a smile. The one in their home was a Rank 8 Gathering Array, so she didn''t give a baseless statement. And as expected, the Rank 9 Gathering Array indeed gathered a huge concentration of energy, allowing Aria to absorb it faster. With the dense Spiritual Energy from the Spirit Crystals inside the mine, the cultivation was as if there was an endless supply of energy that she wouldn''t be able to absorb in a short amount of time. In other words, the Spiritual Energy flowed inside at the maximum rate for months. Aria showed her cultivation speed again by reaching 7-Star Martial Saint within those few months. When the time limit was up, Alex opened his eyes and looked at her. "Congratulations." "Thank you." Aria smiled. "I don''t know why but I feel like I can''t be surprised anymore. I mean, you have shown me a lot of ridiculous things that I always believe will never exist, such as me becoming a 7-Star Martial Saint within two years." "That is your effort. Believe me. It''s hard to cultivate when you reach God Rank." "You are scaring me." "Nope. I just told the truth." Alex shrugged before turning to Leka. "How are you?" ''I have reached 5-Star Martial Saint during this process, thanks to Master.'' Leka nodded. ''I think I can have a human form when I become a Divine Beast. Unlike the others, who feel having a human form is foolish, I believe becoming like Master is the best thing I can do. ''No, I should say they are just too traditional. That''s why they don''t have a powerful strength.'' Leka showed her appreciation to Alex. "I am not forcing you to become like me. If you like the form, I don''t mind." Alex smiled, assuring that there was no coercion. ''Don''t worry. This is my decision, Master.'' "That''s good then. I am looking forward to it." Alex nodded with a smile. "Anyway, we have only three months left. We should start going to the Dwarf Territory." The two nodded before they went up with Alex. They headed directly to the Dwarf Continent according to the direction that Rhoas gave. As one would expect, the entire situation went according to the original plan. Alex and Aria could see many experts from the Unsurpassed Blade Sect from time to time. Well, there were a hundred thousand people that first came to this world. With at least half of them coming here, they would easily find one as long as they kept flying in the sky. Regardless, they didn''t stop to talk to them, avoiding any form of danger. And due to Alex''s order, Aria didn''t think about her brother anymore because they would have found him and protected him in secret. One and a half months passed for this trip, and they finally arrived at the Dwarven Continent. Since their target was enjoying the coast, he and Aria followed the coast to check whether someone was there. Fortunately, they didn''t find anyone and decided to have fun on the beach. Aria took an interest in surfing after watching Alex. Alex taught her a bit, and she got pretty good at it. Maybe because she had a good balance for having a constant blackout since she was blind, she slowly became better than Alex. Of course, the latter thought nothing of it and praised her. Alex then invited her to dive into the ocean, finding everything amusing inside it. Everything was worth it when Alex saw the priceless emotion on her face. She kept saying "Beautiful" like a broken radio, but Alex could understand her. She had lost most of her time to see the beauty of the world after all. In fact, most people only thought about cultivating and enjoyed the beauty that people made. However, Alex liked nature more. Seeing different species inside the sea, a new brand forest, and different types of mountains. He even found a rainbow forest that made it look colorful. After getting restricted to have nothing back on Earth, he appreciated this even more. He sometimes thought about his sister, wondering what would be her reaction when she saw this. Unfortunately, he had no intention of coming to her. He knew that her age should already be past forty. She should already have a family, so he didn''t want to suddenly appear and jog her memory about him anymore. It was simply not worth it. Alex also hoped that she would take care of his parents. Despite having a bad memory about them, Alex had grown up and thought that bad memory was also what made him today. He had long forgiven them and wished them a long life. After enjoying the sea, he took Aria to another place, showing her different types of natures. Aria followed Alex blindly, realizing that a time like this once in a while was indeed good for her mental health. The stress from cultivation, family problems, and other things had been brushed off. She even became even more motivated to reach God Rank Expert. At one point, she said, "God King must love this freedom. He can do everything without fearing anyone in their territory unless they have another God King. And if you respect the people and nature there, you can practically move around like this and enjoy all the wonders in this world." When Alex listened to her words, it clicked with something in his mind. They started talking about their views in life. As expected, Alex had more experience than her since the latter only focused on her training. Aria noticed her shortcoming and began to change to become an even gentler person. Her personality matured up, and she could finally see what made his wives attracted to him. He indeed had this unique charm that separated him from others. He never lied to the person he trusted. Of course, it didn''t mean him telling everything. He only said half of it and let the others misunderstand the other half. Nonetheless, that honesty made one feel secure. After using their time to the fullest, it was time for them to go to the Dwarven Territories. It was a one-week trip before they found a huge base that should have the spaceship. As if noticing his presence, Rhoas appeared in front of him. "My King." Alex nodded. "How are you?" "We have reached the last stage. Most of the people already enter the spaceship while those who are in this world are close to a Teleportation Stone. They can arrive here within a day." "That''s good. There are only three days left." "Yes. According to the agreement, the training should be over, and we can leave this world." Alex then handed a compass to him. Lin Xingzhi gave it to him a few weeks ago. "This is a compass to reach the Guxing Planet. Just follow the direction, and you will find it." Alex then took out a token. It didn''t have any special meaning other than as their identity. The token had a symbol on it, which was Eulja''s flag. The symbol looked unique. There was a sword and a spear surrounded by seven color balls. This must be created as a symbol of his previous self. "If someone asks you about your identity, just show them this. They will know that you are my citizen and tell them the reason. All of it has been stored inside a database, so they can confirm it." "Thank you, My King." Rhoas took both items respectfully. "How is her brother?" Alex asked while pointing at Aria. "He has made good progress. According to my team, he has broken through to another level and gotten quite a high rank. Since all the people scattered around this world give me the update every day, I can track everything. "The current number one is a woman called Delatea, who is supposed to be an elder''s favorite disciple. She has gotten one trillion Zil which is equal to one trillion Spirit Stone or one million Spirit Crystals. As for him, it''s equal to two hundred thousand Spirit Crystals. He is among the one percent." Alex looked at Aria, who seemed to be proud of her brother and congratulated her. "Alright. Give me fifty thousand worth Spirit Crystals, so I won''t be that suspicious." "I understand." Rhoas took out a Space Ring and handed it to him. "This ring contains fifty billion Zil. It''s the currency that will soon be useless anyway." Alex nodded. "Well, your currency''s only purpose is to change valuable resources like Spirit Crystals, no?" "Yes. It is easier to trade with this. Of course, we have never experienced trading with anyone outside this world, so we are not sure about the rule there." "Generally, we use Spirit Crystals." Alex nodded. "But both have their own advantages and disadvantages, so just use what you are comfortable with." "I understand. Is there any instruction for us?" "For now, I want to confirm that they have retreated to the beastman territory, right?" "Yes. My King should return too with the Teleportation Stone we have prepared secretly while taking down all the stones and towers all over the world. You can bring the Teleportation Stone with you, so those people won''t have it. "And I believe, their casualties are about ten thousand people while we have three thousand deaths. It seems they are a bit too scared by the towers, which allows us to minimize the casualties." "Okay. I will go then." Alex nodded. "Yes. Please enter the city. I will lead you to the last Teleportation Stone." He nodded and stretched his hand, asking Alex and Aria to follow him. They then entered the city that seemed to have been scr.a.p.ed off by the dwarves. From his point of view, valuable metals had been melted and brought to the spaceship, so they didn''t need to search for resources first before making their own settlement in the new world. After finding the last Teleportation Stone, Alex handed him a few doc.u.ments that they could go through. "This is the information about the planet and its surrounding planets." "I will use this wisely." Rhoas nodded with a serious expression. "Thank you for everything, my king." He and the other leaders, including the trio he met in Musee World, bowed to him. Alex waved his hand in front of the three leaders and disappeared. He stored the Teleportation Stone and looked at Aria. "Let''s go back." "Yes." Thus, the end of their journey in this new world. Chapter 985 - Return Alex and Aria were lining up for the grading. This was the only thing they couldn''t skip since this was the first thing you were required to do right after returning to the ship. As expected, there was a group of Special Observers to check their identities in front of the Teleportation Array to the ship. After passing through them, they arrived inside a room filled with many items. Each of them seemed to have a price tag, so everyone could buy if they had enough points. Alex and Aria already got too much from this world and had no intention of buying these items. They headed straight to the counter, where they found a few elders in charge of calculating and recording the data. Alex also found Elder Ravagera that seemed to be waiting for him, but he pulled another trick and had Aria in front of him, so the one handling him was another elder. Elder Ravagera clicked his tongue but still glanced over him to find how much he got. Since Alex and Aria split up what they got evenly, both had the same amount of points. Ravagera couldn''t find anything wrong with it, except the fact that Alex still maintained his low-key. Ravagera knew that there was no choice for that. He only felt happy just to see him becoming an 8-Star Martial Saint despite coming here less than two years. Sometimes he wondered what kind of devil technique Alex had, but he swore to only start meddling with his matter only after becoming a God Rank Expert. It was too troublesome to take care of this kid before that point because he would be in a vocal position. At that time, Alex might feel uncomfortable and search for another place to settle down. That was something he couldn''t afford to see. After all, as the teacher of the Peerless Sword God, he knew that the Sword God had actually joined another sect before reaching his place. However, the elders prioritized their relatives instead of those who were talented, making the Sword God leave. Luckily, he picked him up and taught him well, and those sects couldn''t rise to the three big sects level despite not being that far off. To his surprise, the Sword God had a grudge against them, and the sect began to decline over the years until it was completely wiped out. If someone like Alex did the same, the consequence would be too big unless they could kill Alex. So, the best way was to let Ilevis handle everything for the time being until they became a God Rank Expert. Alex didn''t care though, since he would disappear soon. He only received the points and walked to his room with Aria. "Nyx. I don''t know why but you are more mysterious than I thought." Aria suddenly uttered this statement. "You are talking about this now?" Alex asked. It was already so long after the negotiation with the Rhoas, so it was weird for her to talk about it now. "Actually, I just wanted to thank you for protecting my brother, but it seemed I couldn''t suppress my curiosity." Alex shook his head. "Then, you should wait. Everything will be revealed when you become a God Rank Expert. At that time, you should get a mission to another world and fake your death." "I know. Someone will come for me, right?" "Not really. I was planning to ask Njomo to guide you toward Eulja. I am still not sure whether to call a Teleportation Array Master to bring you back. Just a little challenge from me." Alex smirked. "I don''t really mind. After all, you should test my strength as your subordinate, so you didn''t pick the wrong person." She nodded with a serious expression, even though Alex just wanted to tease her. Alex scratched the back of his head and corrected himself. "Well, sure. Your strength is indeed powerful in your peers, but I am worried because you don''t have enough experience. I can either give you the experiences you need during the trip or hand over a few tasks after you reach my place." "I am ready for everything." She nodded. "Anyway, just rest for now. We are going to leave soon and reach the Unsurpassed Blade Sect in a few days. After that, I feel like going for another trip to another world." Alex thought for a moment. "A mission?" "Yeah, but I am not sure. After all, the mission is so Mya can join too. Since I have promised to be fair, I need to find one." Alex sighed. Aria smiled. "No wonder you have multiple wives." "Hm?" Alex didn''t understand what he meant. This was only his principle, so he thought nothing of it. "Well, I can have another option which brings her after leaving this world¡­But we will see." "Now that I think about it, the time limit is near." Aria let out a long sigh, never expecting that Alex would soon need to leave this world. "A few months later, the Sword Pavilion will open, and I think you will leave that world at that time." "Yes, I think. I am still wondering how to fake my death." Alex fell into deep thought. "Your strength is enough for you to reach the apex of this world, and I have no doubt about it." "Thanks." "Anyway, I will be thinking about the current plan for this return trip." An idea seemed to appear in his mind as he continued with a question. "Is there a case where the participant died in the Sword Pavilion?" "Yes. Some can''t go back." Alex frowned and thought this could be used, or there was an appointment with the Luzear family regarding the auction. He might be able to pick up some enemies and disappear from that time. Sneaking inside the Sword Pavilion was an easy thing to do anyway. Seeing Alex had fallen into deep thought, Aria decided to silently walk away and leave the room, giving him time to think about it. After some time, they finally left the world, heading straight to the planet where their Core Disciples had their competition. Alex simply had no interest in watching them, so he just lied down on the bed to carefully consider his plan. The journey to the home started. It might be due to the Rank 4 Gods that closely watched their surroundings, there were no other beings that attacked them. What made him surprised was when he found another person a bit farther from them. That person was a Rank 7 God, but due to those inside the spaceship, that person instantly left to avoid conflict. It seemed there were still people traveling like that, Alex thought. Other than that person, he didn''t find anything interesting. Finally, five days later, the journey was over. They could already see their planet, and many people had thought about it. To his surprise, Aria didn''t bother him any more during this return trip, especially since he forgot about the promise to walk around the ship. When they almost reached the planet''s atmosphere, Aria knocked the room, and he let her in. "I am sorry." Alex suddenly apologized. "What for?" Aria furrowed her eyebrows. It was hard to find a moment where Alex uttered a sincere apology, so she wondered what was wrong with him. She then remembered the promise Alex made. "Ah. I also forgot so it''s not a big deal. Besides, your place should have one as well, right? I can just learn there." Alex smiled. "Thank you for your understanding." She only smiled while waving her hand. When they entered the atmosphere, the spaceship started becoming hot due to the friction with the atmosphere. Luckily, the spaceship was made of metal that could easily withstand something like this, so there was no fire or whatsoever even in the friction area. However, the turbulence was still there, so Alex and Aria kept bouncing up and down for several minutes. The spaceship then finally parked inside the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. "We have arrived at our sect. Although you have known about other people''s points, there is still a possibility for the person who has the highest point to be disqualified after a series of judging, so no one knows about the result yet. "However, we happily announce that all of you have worked hard. Although there were many misunderstandings in the process, you all were our proud disciples." The Vice-sect Master''s voice rang on the speaker. Unlike the first impression they had with her, this time, she looked like a gentle grandmother that praised their children. Regardless, he and Aria waited until most disciples had gone through the gate before using the gate. When they arrived, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see whether Ilevis was here or not. "Let''s go. We can sneak out of here." Alex asked after confirming the situation. Aria nodded and followed him since there were already many people who had left this place. When they arrived at their house, Alex and Aria found Ilevis standing in front of their house. Obviously, she noticed the mouse on Alex''s shoulder and nodded. "It seems this trip is bountiful." "Thanks to you." Alex acknowledged it, albeit he felt Rhoas would say something regarding the mouse even without her information. Either way, she was the assurance for him to go this far, so he considered the deal was completed. "Your points?" "We both gathered only twenty-five thousand each," Aria answered this time. "That''s good. Not too low, not too high. No one would look at your way, so it means your identity remains unknown." Ilevis''s face turned serious since she had her own goal. "Anyway, I''m done here, so I am going back. Need to meet with Melvie too." Ilevis nodded and waved her hand before vanishing into thin air. Alex and Aria opened the door and entered the house. "You can rest today since you must be tired from the trip¡­Mentally," Alex added the last piece since the trip was quite boring. "Sure. I will be ready for your devilish training tomorrow." She pumped her fist. "That''s right. You don''t mind if I visit my brother and send a memory crystal to my family, right? I want to let them know about my condition." "It''s your free day. You can do whatever you want, just don''t make an enemy like the previous time." Alex nodded. "Alright. Thanks." She waved her hand and left. Meanwhile, Alex headed to his room and sent a paper, telling Silvia that he came home. "Leka, this is your new house. It''s going to be for several months, and yeah, the time on this planet is ten times of your planet, so you might want to adjust the time in your mind first." "Yes, Master. Still, to think there is so much Spiritual Energy around here¡­" Leka looked around. "There is also my Rank 9 Gathering Array. That''s why it''s been this high." Alex shrugged. "No wonder. Then, I am going around this house first." She waved her hand. "Sure." Alex nodded before turning in another direction, finding Silvia''s presence. She came with Heilo since Alex asked her to take care of him when he was away. Chapter 986 - Actually a Betrayal? "You seem to get something big." She smiled. "Yes." Alex didn''t deny it, but Silvia didn''t continue her question. Instead, she raised her left shoulder, asking Heilo to leap off her shoulder. "Ru Ru." "Thanks. I am back." Alex smiled. "Is there a problem?" "Ru." Heilo shook her head. Alex then raised his vision, looking at Silvia, who also confirmed it. "I stayed in my mansion all the time, so no one suspected you here," added Silvia while walking to the kitchen. "Do you want a drink?" "Nah, it''s fine." Alex waved his hand. Suddenly, a mouse appeared out of nowhere, shocking Heilo and Silvia. "Ho?! A new companion?" She asked before noticing what she really was. "This mouse¡­Is a Spiritual Mouse, isn''t it?" ''According to the name, yes. But Leka is Leka.'' The mouse rebuked her cutely. ''Master helped Leka, so Leka is Master''s contracted beast.'' Silvia was amazed by Leka''s intelligence. She must have gotten the contract not long ago, but her intelligence seemed to be someone who had been living with a human for a long time. "I don''t know anything about you, so I can''t really confirm your age. How old are you again?" Silvia asked. Leka thought for a moment, calculating her age in her mind. ''Leka doesn''t know. Probably around three thousand years?'' "I see." Silvia nodded. "Nice to meet you, Leka. I am Silvia." ''Leka meets Silvia.'' Leka pointed her hand toward Silvia as if asking for a handshake. When Silvia touched her small hand, she just tapped it and stepped back. "Still, to think you have gotten many treasures in just a few months¡­" Silvia then glanced at Alex, trying to tease him. "Most of them came from trading with someone." Alex shrugged. "I wasn''t that lucky." "Fine, fine. We will leave it at that." Suddenly, they noticed that Heilo was silent this whole time, so they turned around, finding a frozen Heilo. He didn''t move or do anything. Instead, his eyes kept staring at Leka. "¡­" Alex blinked his eyes a few times as if he thought about something. He had seen Stina and Kyle, so it was easy to find something like this again. Still, he just couldn''t believe this type of thing came before his eyes. Heilo was entranced when he saw Leka. Unknowingly, he fixed his fur, especially on his head, trying to appear spectacular. He then slowly walked toward her with an attitude that had never been seen before. The shy and embarrassed expressions mixed up as he arrived in front of her. Leka didn''t know about this since she had been used by the three races this whole time. There was no love or sympathy in her heart. Only respect and loyalty appeared in her heart after meeting with Alex, so she didn''t understand what Heilo was doing. She stepped back with a weird expression and greeted him. ''Hello¡­I am Leka.'' "Ru (I-I am Heilo)." He hurriedly replied, but his introduction was very stiff. ''You are Master''s contracted beast too?'' "Ru." He shook his head. ''Uh, okay. Nice to meet you then.'' She repeatedly nodded. ''Ru Ru (Do you want to mate)?'' Even Alex was stupefied when he asked that. He never expected to hear this sentence right off the bat. He just met her today. Although he didn''t care about their species, it was still too soon to ask for that, no? Seeing his expression, Silvia asked curiously. ''What is he talking about?'' ''Like you, but more extreme.'' Alex answered. ''Me?'' She recalled the first thing she talked about with Alex and realized what they were talking about. She facepalmed, wondering if this l.u.s.tful monkey needed to be fixed. Alex shrugged and watched how this would unfold. To everyone''s surprise, Leka only tilted her head in confusion and asked. ''Mate? What is mate? Leka hasn''t gotten used to speaking like this, so I can''t understand complicated words.'' ''That¡­That¡­'' Heilo didn''t know what to do and was struggling to reply to her question. He made an "O" with his right hand and pierced it with his finger. Alex and Silvia facepalmed simultaneously, asking themselves. ''What just did I witness?'' ''Leka doesn''t understand. Anyway, Master doesn''t want to be disturbed by an unknown person, so Leka won''t bother you anymore. And it''s hard to understand someone who doesn''t speak in a normal language like this. Leka also wants to have a human form, so Leka can follow Master. Then, goodbye.'' Leka politely declined his unknown reason and leaped toward Alex''s shoulder. Her rejection was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. Heilo just got the shock of his life, knowing how painful it was to get rejected. At the same time, he realized how Alex might feel when he rejected his offer to become his Contracted Beast for the first time before handing him to his wife. Suddenly, Heilo grabbed Alex''s right foot and looked at him with a sad expression, begging him to take him in like Leka. He was dying to be together with Leka according to his instinct. It was love at first sight. Heilo also wanted his human form, forgetting about the fact that he hated it. Even so, Alex still shook his head, telling him that everything had been arranged. Heilo had no choice other than to wait, so he turned around and looked down, walking while crying. Finding him this sad, Leka sympathized with him and leaped from Alex''s shoulder to the floor. She sneaked up to him and tugged his hand a few times until Heilo looked at her. She talked to him for two minutes before accompanying him for a while. Alex and Silvia had no words to describe this scene. It was surprising as well as magnificent. Their eyes intertwined. Silvia asked with a smile. "Can you give me your seed¡­I wonder if I asked that question right off the bat, what would you think of me¡­" "I would throw you out of my house." Alex gave an immediate response. "¡­" Silvia breathed out of relief. "I was safe then." "I guess." Alex shrugged. "Well, I have a question for you. Can I enter Eulja?" "No, not yet. There is a problem if you come with me, and it''s not like we are close enough for me to bring you there." Alex shook his head. "Is that so? That''s a shame." She sighed in disappointment. "However, maybe in the future, I will at least invite you as a friend." "I wonder if I am at the level of a friend or get friendzoned?" She looked away playfully, knowing full well that Alex had gotten a good impression of her since he considered her as a friend. She still had a long time to slowly advance the relationship, so she didn''t want to force everything at the moment. From her point of view, she had indeed grown interested in him. She slowly walked past the principle that her father instilled inside her and started looking at Alex as Alexander Sirius instead of the Spirit God''s reincarnation. Alex didn''t know her thoughts, of course. Nonetheless, she seemed to be more easy-going recently, so he thought it was an improvement. As for the ending, he didn''t care. "That''s right. I want to ask you to make me a dummy doll, so I can leave this world at any moment." "Are you planning to leave already?" "Nope. My schedule remains the same, but I don''t want to waste any opportunity that can let me fake my own death. I am sure you know how mysterious I am in this world, right?" "I see. For a person like you, it''s hard to find someone who wants to kill you." She nodded. "Alright. I will be working on it. I can guarantee that it will look real." "Thank you for the help." "No problem. There is¡ª" "What?!" Before he finished, Alex shouted as if he was talking with someone. "Is there something wrong?" Silvia felt suspicious and furrowed her eyebrows. Alex stopped her with his hand first and asked inwardly. ''Are you serious?'' [Yes. I just found that Evelyn had transcended to God Rank, but when she left the world, the Palm God met her. Zark couldn''t get really close to him since we didn''t know what they were going to talk about. She followed him.] "¡­" Alex''s face turned pale as he sat down on the couch, wondering what he had done wrong. "What happened?" Silvia became even more worried. "I wonder if I should make a war against your world without thinking about the risk anymore¡­" Alex clenched his fist and glared at Silvia. "What¡­What are you talking about?" Silvia obviously couldn''t understand him. "I am talking about your father who kidnaps my protege." Alex released his killing intent. Silvia widened her eyes, couldn''t believe what he just said. "I-I don''t know anything about this." "Xingzhi¡­Use every single N squad to locate them right now. Get all the information needed, and we will deal with him accordingly. Prepare all the troops as well." Alex''s voice was cold. When he was about to confront Evelyn head-on, she was taken away by the Palm God. Subconsciously, Alex already saw her not as a mere protege, but Silvia misunderstood him. The only thing she had in mind was the characteristic that made the past Spirit God famous. Touch my people, Die! It was at that moment that Alex became a Demon God, feared by millions of God Rank Experts. If there were a war between them, her father and everyone else would certainly lose. This was something that Silvia couldn''t bear to see. ''What the heck is that old man doing?'' She cursed her father and tried to calm him down. "This must be a misunderstanding. Calm down first. I will talk to my father to clear this up." Alex, on the other hand, had a different thought. He instantly doubted that intention and released his killing intent. "I have never thought that you, father and daughter, would be this sly. By making me agree to your terms, you will have free reign over what you currently do. And now, with all this happening, you are trying to escape. Do you think I will let you go?" It wasn''t an empty threat. Alex already prepared Eulja''s Spirit Crystals to increase one of his spirits'' levels to confront her. Obviously, Alex couldn''t know whether she was talking the truth or not. As a careful person like him, the first thing he needed to do was to doubt her. After all, it was only a few months since he met her, there was no complete trust between them. In fact, he would actually consider it clever to mellow him down, so she could become his friend. After that, Alex would believe her words and escaped, taking Evelyn as his hostage. It was a brilliant idea to be honest. "I¡­I can assure you that this is just a misunderstanding. Please let me go, so I can talk to my father." She was shaking. Alex had no clue whether she was faking it or not, so he refused. "Do you think your Rank 5 God strength can let you escape? Try it then." Alex had released his sword and pointed at her. Silvia couldn''t contain her tears anymore and grabbed Alex''s sword, pointing it at her heart instead. "Then, pierce this heart. If it is needed to convince you, please take it." She had a complicated feeling. Never in her thought appeared where Alex didn''t trust her at all despite her sincere attitude this whole time. Yet, she couldn''t say anything because she had no idea what her father did and his plan. "No. You are still useful as my hostage. If the war starts, don''t expect to have a good day." Alex snorted. [The Spirit Crystals are ready. You should be able to level up someone to Rank 4 God.] Alex fell silent and looked at her. He didn''t know whether he exaggerated this reaction or not, but after experiencing the betrayal in the past that he never saw it coming, he didn''t want to get fooled anymore. Still, he seemed to think of another plan and asked Lin Xingzhi inwardly. ''Investigate everything and say you have his daughter as a hostage too. If he doesn''t care for his daughter, it means we will go to war because she obviously is the bait¡­And there is no way she will know if this is a carefully thought plan, so her clueless act is real.'' [Alright.] Chapter 987 - Emergency An hour ago, Zark met Lin Xingzhi inside her room. "My Lady, do you need me?" "Yes. I need you. Evelyn has finished her Lightning Tribulation. After transforming into the Divine Body, she will leave that world. I want you to go there right now to bring her here." "I understand. I shall bring her here as soon as possible. May I mention the system to make her believe me?" He asked. "You may. She already knows it anyway." Zark bowed his head and left the room, heading straight to Evelyn. However, the surprise came before he reached the world. There was a person heading in the same direction as him, so he instantly activated his Spatial Gate to wait inside the Space World to avoid any contact with him. ''Wait¡­ Isn''t that the Palm God?'' Zark thought while watching his movement inside the Space Realm. Luckily, he could use this Space Realm to observe people. The Palm God wouldn''t notice him as long as he wasn''t too close to him. Surprisingly, the Palm God suddenly stopped mysteriously, right in front of his target. Evelyn would come out any moment, so he had a complicated thought in this matter. ''What should I do? My mission is to get Evelyn to Eulja, but the Palm God will find me. At that time, he will know there is something special about that kid, and the most reasonable thing is Master. When that time comes, there are many possible futures that none of them can end up peacefully. ''On the other hand, if I just let him like this, Evelyn might appear in front of him. I don''t know what he is doing right now¡­But his movement is suspicious. Is he waiting for someone here or aiming for Evelyn? ''Still, I can''t really let him take Evelyn, right? Ugh, my position is not qualified to make the decision, but I can''t really call Lady Lin Xingzhi from here. If I leave now to inform the lady, Evelyn might have already gone before I come back here. ''What should I do?'' Zark had a mixed thought, wondering what he needed to do. Each decision came with its own advantage and disadvantage. Before he could come up with an answer, Evelyn appeared on top of the world as she just got expelled. She looked around, trying to find the person Lin Xingzhi sent. Unfortunately, the first person she found was an old man. Without much knowledge, she obviously blurted out the question like, "Are you the one Sister Lin Xingzhi sent?" Even Zark could imagine it. He then saw a little argument between them, and Evelyn almost drew her sword. Before everything happened, the old man released his Divine Energy, made her scared, and brought her somewhere. Zark was stunned for a second. He wanted to follow her but remembered she should be able to track Evelyn with the system. The scene where Letizia got caught flashed in his mind too. With much difficulty, Zark decided to retreat to report everything that had just happened with Lin Xingzhi. He used his Teleportation Array and arrived at Eulja, specifically Lin Xingzhi''s room as soon as possible. Bang. "There is an emergency." Zark panted a few times as he was rushing here. Lin Xingzhi was startled by his action before furrowing her eyebrows. "Do you need anything? What is the emergency?" "Lady Evelyn has been kidnapped." "What?!" Lin Xingzhi dropped her jaw and blinked a few times, never expecting to hear this. She opened the tab about Evelyn. Since he was curious, Zark also took a glance on the screen, but unlike Alex''s, there was nothing that could be seen from Evelyn. There was no memory that was recorded or anything. Instead, he only found her information. Name: Evelyn de Viona Thiveapia (Unconscious) Age: 41 Strength: Rank 10 God Mission: None Gacha Coin: 2 Coins Zark asked with a confused expression. "Is there no record like Master? We can see through their conversation to know his objective." "His? Who was it?" Hesitated for a second, Zark answered. "The Palm God." Lin Xingzhi''s eyes turned cold. Her Killing Intent began to spread around the castle as she stared at Zark. "Who?" "It was the Palm God. I thought because my lady can track everything, it''s best for me to retreat and inform you about this." Zark explained. Lin Xingzhi took a deep breath to calm her down and shook her head. "No. I can''t track anyone else other than Alex. Since you all have only gotten the information about Alex and the others from me, which have been compiled, you haven''t realized this yet, but this is the real condition. "Usually, I always asked them about their condition first because I didn''t have enough information. Alex also didn''t know this¡­But nothing is perfect. This system is also not perfect. The only time I could track her was when I asked her about her condition and location. Unfortunately, she seems to have fallen unconscious after following him for a while. And I can''t access all the things she said other than the last one, which you can see it''s¡­'' Yes,'' which is very misleading. Argh, I should keep track of her earlier..." "That means¡­" Zark''s face turned pale. "Yes. We lose her. Without having the knowledge of outer space, she won''t know where she is without asking. And I don''t know whether she has that opportunity." Her expression was serious, and her tone was grim. She completely had a headache dealing with the Palm God. "Does that mean we can''t do anything?" "We still have your information." She looked at him. "Bring me the map of the galaxy. We will try to investigate this matter." "I understand." Zark hurriedly left and brought the map. It was a huge 3D map. "This is the Musee World." Zark pointed at a certain planet and changed the direction. "The Palm God went toward this direction." Lin Xingzhi calculated the trajectory and sighed. "There are two thousand planets along the way. Although it was easy to find a Rank 1 God inside a planet, it would still take time. Tell me what you saw first." "Yes." Zark started recounting everything that happened. Since he couldn''t listen to their conversation, he only gave the information about Evelyn''s action before following him. Lin Xingzhi became even more furious, especially when she heard that the Palm God needed to strike her first to get her. In other words, this was a kidnapping. "What shall we do? If I come back to Musee World and follow the trail¡­" He looked down and sighed. "I apologize. I can''t really get the trail, but I think I can lock our search down for only a hundred or so planets." "It''s outside our territory, so we don''t have any information in that area." She pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering what she needed to do. "For now, have the N Squad in the world in this direction inform everything they find. It is around fifty worlds that have been inhabited by our spies, so we will start there." "I understand. I will try to teleport in that direction to see whether he has passed it or not to narrow down the search area." Zark nodded. Before he left, Korzan had appeared and asked out loud. "What happened? Why are you still releasing your Killing Intent?" Lin Xingzhi explained in a few sentences, startling Korzan. To her surprise, Korzan had a different point of view on this matter. Instead of worrying about Evelyn, he was more focused on Alex. He asked, "Did this mean Master got backstabbed again?" "!!!" Lin Xingzhi suddenly realized the whole situation. "To get Alex to lower his guard and get a few information about him. If I am not wrong, Alex once said about his protege, Evelyn, to that Silvia." "This¡­This is a conspiracy." Korzan also became angry and clenched his teeth. "We should kill that b*tch!" "Open our reserve. There is a possibility that Alex will need it." Lin Xingzhi pointed at Zark. "Bring me two hundred billion Spirit Crystals." "Understood. I shall prepare it right away." Zark nodded and left. "Are we going to pick up our weapon again?" Korzan asked. "For now, I will ask the N Squad to investigate all these worlds. I want everyone on the nearby planets to help. And bring Nelson as well. I will be commanding from here with this system." She nodded. "But if this matter continues, won''t Master''s identity become well-known?" Korzan asked. "Shouldn''t we ask Master''s opinion?" Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh before nodding her head. "Yeah. I almost forgot." "I don''t mean to be rude, but Evelyn is only Master''s friend. That''s all. Unlike him, I can''t justify everything with only friends. Only if the one involved is a family, I will command the entire force without even asking him," Korzan added. "Yeah, you are right." Lin Xingzhi agreed with him. "It seems because we haven''t taken up arms for a long time, people have forgotten why our Eulja was feared¡­" Korzan didn''t say anything and waited for his Master''s response. After two minutes of talking with Alex, Lin Xingzhi finally released her killing intent again. "We will leave Alex for the time being. The Spirit Crystals should be able to level up someone to Rank 4, if not Rank 3 God. It should be enough to stop that Silvia. Since they have a hostage, we will have one too¡­To think she wants to escape." "That means¡­" Korzan narrowed his eyes. "Alex''s order. Get the N Squad moving and prepare all troops." Lin Xingzhi paused for a moment. "Bring Anya to me, we will hold a meeting. And Anna is to assume my position to calm Alex down for a moment." "Who should we call for the meeting?" "Bring all Six Elemental Gods and the Five Guardians! Ready for a full-scale war¡­Because as soon as we confirm it''s not a misunderstanding, we will have thirty-seven worlds to destroy and billions to kill!" Her voice was cold. "I will talk to Alex for the time being." Korzan nodded and disappeared. He asked all his subordinates to gather all the people and prepared the spacesh.i.p.s. It was a breeze for Korzan. In only twenty minutes, every single person had gathered inside a room. Lin Xingzhi then entered the room. There was this giant throne in front of a table, but no one dared to have that seat. Even Korzan and Lin Xingzhi took the ones beside it. There were more than ten people gathered in this room and looked at Lin Xingzhi with a curious expression. "What is this emergency you are talking about?" An old man asked. This one was a bit special. Despite his aged face, he still tied his white hair into a ponytail and looked menacing. "Evel¡ªAhem, One of Alex''s soon to be wife is kidnapped by the Palm God. As soon as we confirm their intention, it will become either full-scale war or negotiation." All Six Elemental Gods and Five Guardians immediately furrowed their eyebrows. "She is not his wife yet?" The same person asked. "Yes. However, you should know about his characteristics¡­" "So, that one doesn''t change, huh." The old man repeatedly nodded. The other spirits also felt relieved because that was the only characteristic they hoped to remain the same. Even though it created numerous enemies, it also gave them security. "Still¡­We all have heard about your proposal a few years ago. Isn''t it too soon to reveal this information?" Another one asked. This time it was an old woman sitting beside the one asked earlier. "I know, but I want to say this one important piece for you all." Lin Xingzhi paused for ten seconds, making the tension go through the roof. She then opened her mouth. "Alex''s aim is not becoming a God King." "What?!" The old man stood up and the others were taken aback. They all knew despite his protective nature, Alex was a family man. If his aim weren''t becoming a God King, then he would just be a family man. "Are you sure we¡ª" Before he finished, Lin Xingzhi shouted. "I haven''t finished!" The room fell silent once again, and Lin Xingzhi continued. "His aim this time is above God King!" *Gasp!* They sucked a cold breath, and their body started shivering. The old man finally understood why Lin Xingzhi gathered all of them. "Haha! No wonder you have us here while leaving aside the Ten Champions. You want them to defend Eulja while we are out¡­I see. Even though it''s kind of too soon, I think it''s a good time for the world to make the universe tremble once again! "After a long five thousand years of slumber, we shall remind them once again that a Sleeping Beast is still a beast. And they shouldn''t annoy the sleeping beast!" The old man grinned. His eyes started glowing. "That is after the N squad gets the information. I want all of you to stand by, and I don''t think we should bring Alex for the time being. Even if we said that Evelyn was Alex''s wife, he still didn''t show himself up, so others would still have a doubt in their heart. Anyway, all of you shall remain here. "Fufu¡­This has become exciting. Eulja shall once again walk on a tribulation path. If we lose, we shall perish, but if we win, none can stand up against us. This is exciting." The old man grinned. Lin Xingzhi took another glance before turning around, heading back to her computer to check on Evelyn before Anna suddenly came inside the room. "Evelyn has woken up," Anna said hurriedly. Chapter 988 - Prelude Inside a room in an unknown place, Evelyn gradually opened her eyes. "Ngh¡­" She let out a weak groan and found an unfamiliar white ceiling that she knew nothing about. Due to this, she looked left and right, finding that the room was nothing extraordinary. It was just a one-person room without any decoration. "Where is this?" She muttered in a low voice and noticed that her space ring was taken away. She immediately opened the Inventory and took out a random sword without permission. This was necessary to make sure she had something to protect herself. Evelyn narrowed her eyes and finally called someone. ''Sister Xingzhi¡­Where am I?'' [This is Anna. I am operating the system right now because sister Xingzhi was in the war meeting. She didn''t get any record of your conversation with the one who kidnapped you, so she is preparing for war. Are you alright there? I am going to call her right now.] ''Yes. I am fine. Other than my Space Ring, I don''t think I lose anything.'' She looked around and observed the bedsheet, confirming that her chastity was still safe. [Alright. Wait for me. I am going to call her soon. You can check your surroundings to make sure of your position and current predicament.] ''I understand.'' After that, Evelyn rose from the bed and concealed her presence. She looked around the room and found nothing extraordinary. Unfortunately, the room had no window, so she couldn''t see the outside, which should give her information. Without having anything to do, she began circulating her Divine Energy to see whether there was something wrong or not. One minute passed, and the notification appeared again. [Evelyn. This is Lin Xingzhi. Are you alright, Dear?] ''I am alright, Sister. I don''t think I have any injury or whatsoever. What exactly happened?'' [That''s my question. You have a conversation with the man, right? Can you tell me what it was all about?] Evelyn recalled everything first before telling her. A few hours ago, she had just finished her circulating the Divine Energy around her body before an immeasurable force locked her, slowly expelling her from the world. "I see. This is the expelling force that Big Brother Alex mentioned. Well, it''s time for me to go anyway, and I also have said my goodbye to my family, so I have prepared to go to chase him." Evelyn muttered and enjoyed the feeling. Although she couldn''t see Rose, who finally became alone in this world, the latter must be able to see her. "At the very least, Sister Xingzhi is also taking care of her, so I don''t need to worry. It''s not like there is someone who dares to fight her with her current strength, so yeah, it''s fine." She repeatedly nodded before recalling Lin Xingzhi''s instruction. "Hmm, Sister Xingzhi told me there would be someone waiting for me outside this world. He will bring me to Eulja. After a while, I can meet Big Brother again, hehe." With that thought in mind, she finally felt a weird force surrounding her body. Even though she didn''t use her Divine Energy, she was floating and even rotated slightly. It was magical, but Evelyn immediately stabilized her posture since she would meet with Alex''s trusted person. She needed to appear dignified, no? As soon as she saw her surroundings, she was stunned by the sight of darkness with many jewels that shone brightly, albeit it was not enough to brighten it up. When she turned around, she found her own world. Suddenly, an aged voice resounded in her ears. "You are Evelyn, right?" Evelyn turned around and took out her sword instinctively. Even though she knew Alex''s subordinate would come to her, she needed to be careful. "Yes. Are¡­Are you the one Sister Lin Xingzhi sent?" When she found a gentle middle-aged man, she asked innocently. The middle-aged man smiled for a few seconds before nodding his head. "Yes, I am. I have been waiting for you." After hearing that, Evelyn finally dropped her guard and stored her sword again. "I am Evelyn." "Nice to meet you." The middle-aged man smiled. "Congratulations for achieving God Rank." "Thank you." Evelyn smiled back. "Are we going to Eulja now?" "Of course." The middle-aged man nodded and released his energy. "We are going to Eulja now. Are you ready?" "Yes," Evelyn answered with a determinate look. The middle-aged man then covered his, and her bodies with Divine Energy and the two finally flew forward. Evelyn followed her with trust before she felt something weird. ''Why would Sister Lin Xingzhi send someone like this to me? I mean, Big Brother Alex himself has a Space Element. Considering the Space Element is actually not that scarce in another world, won''t it be more effective to send someone with that power? ''Besides, Sister Lin Xingzhi would teach me everything about Outer Space and other things that I needed to know about this Universe. Shouldn''t we keep the time minimal? Or is this a test? ''Wait a minute. Sister never gave me a mission or a test without saying anything. It might change after becoming a God Rank Expert, but it shouldn''t be this drastic without any explanation. If I know how far we are from Eulja, I can see whether this is a test or not. ''What should I do? Should I sneak up and attack the man to get information about this? Although he is stronger than me, I should have enough strength to escape even in the worst situation. Should I do it? I guess the answer is obvious. If he is someone that sister Lin Xingzhi sent, it will be fine after some explanations. It''s not like I am trying to kill him.'' Having a new objective, Evelyn sneakily took out her sword, ready to have this middle-aged man as a hostage to answer her question. However, she severely underestimated the man in front of her. With just a little fluctuation of energy, he suddenly disappeared. "!!!" Evelyn''s heart skipped a beat and turned around, but she felt a sharp pain on her neck that seemed to be imbued by something powerful. It struck her nerve system, and she fell unconscious. The Palm God furrowed his eyebrows and looked around before carrying Evelyn away. ''That''s the story.'' Evelyn finished her explanation. [I see. It''s been five hours since you fell unconscious. I will have Eulja search for your location. You can try using a Teleportation Array or channel your Spiritual Energy. I will ask someone to make a token and send it through the Inventory to see your location.] ''I understand.'' Evelyn calmed down and nodded. ''Is there anything I need to know about this?'' [Yes. First of all, the one who kidnapped you was a God King, known as Palm God. He is too obsessive with Alex, so I believe his motive was something like this. His daughter is with Alex right now, but I think she is only a bait. Anyway, I will be reaching you soon.] ''Alright.'' Evelyn nodded, and without wasting even a second, she immediately took out a Teleportation Array, but to no avail. The Array Plate wouldn''t get activated, so there must be something stopping it. After that, she placed her hand on the wall and injected her Divine Energy since she sensed that the normal way couldn''t get out of the room. Unfortunately, none of her attempts were successful. It meant she was trapped here. Not long after, Lin Xingzhi sent Zark''s token that could track someone like Alex''s token. However, Zark was a Rank 3 God, so his power was far more powerful. In fact, he had helped the achieve to record the world and its direction to make the compass, so the token should be powerful enough to locate Evelyn. Evelyn immediately grabbed the token. ''I have it with me now. Can you find anything?'' [Yes. We are on our way. Hang on.] Evelyn nodded before she sensed a presence coming to the door. She remembered that her Space Ring was confiscated by them, so she instantly dropped the idea of bringing the token with her since it would be suspicious. Instead, she hid the token under the bed and stored the sword inside the Inventory. And when the door was opened, she immediately waved her hand, trying to strike whoever came since they must be the enemy. The one who came was none other than the Palm God. He easily grabbed Evelyn''s hand and released his Divine Energy. "What do you think you are doing?" "I just want to kill my enemy!" Evelyn released her killing intent. "Do you think a mere Rank 10 God like you can do anything to me?" The Palm God snorted and dragged her. "Follow me!" Evelyn felt the force behind the hand and couldn''t resist. Despite trying to free her hand, the Palm God wouldn''t budge at all. Meanwhile, Lin Xingzhi rose from her seat. The Six Elemental Gods and the Five Guardians were right behind her, reading the conversation. The old man from earlier smiled. "This has gotten interesting. What are we going to do now? Although I am a bit reluctant since my son-in-law is not on the battlefield, and I also need to rescue someone that has yet to be his wife, I am ready." "Who was rumbling about having no grandchildren yet? If there are more wives, won''t you¡­" Lin Xingzhi glanced before turning serious. "Instead of aiming for Alex, I think you lot have a better chance for our kids. Of course, I am not handing them easily. Unless they love each other, I won''t¡­No, I think you need to make an explanation to Alex." She chose to tell them this to control their desires and raise their morale. After all, half of these people actually still wanted to marry their daughter to Alex. So, giving them a bit of a hint at this moment should keep them together until Alex came back as a ruler once again. She then turned to Zark and asked. "Anyway, Zark, where is she?" Zark looked at the 3D map he left earlier and pointed at nothing. "She is here." "Empty space?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes before realizing. "No, a spaceship, huh." "Yes." Zark nodded, confirming her guess. "We can''t really fight without a plan¡­So, here is my order. For now, only me, Zark, the Six Elemental Gods, and the five Guardians will go. I believe this should be enough to handle a single spaceship. Anna will take care of Alex in the meantime, while Anya takes care of our battle plan if this leads to war. "Korzan is to stand by and be ready to lead our force at a moment''s notice. Evelyn should be able to take a Teleportation Array Plate with an opening now that she is not inside a room that is isolated inside. We are going to create an opening if he takes her as hostage. "As long as she is not dead, we can have Light Spirit God to heal her. Other than that, we will proceed with caution." Lin Xingzhi commanded. "We hear and obey." The eleven Spirits bowed to Lin Xingzhi. Anna then took a seat again while Korzan disappeared with Anya. Zark then created a Teleportation Array and engulfed everyone in the room except for Anna. Chapter 989 - True Spirit Body Inside the Palm God''s spaceship, Evelyn arrived at a small room where there were only one table and two chairs. The Palm God forced Evelyn to sit on one of the chairs while he sat on the other. Since everything had been planned by Lin Xingzhi, Evelyn decided to play her role. She glared at the Palm God and released her killing intent. "Who are you?!" "Such a funny thing to ask. Did that certain someone not tell you anything?" The Palm God smiled. "He didn''t even tell you anything about his rival." Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows. "Rival?" "Yes. You don''t know we are rivals in the past?" At this point, Evelyn only believed in Lin Xingzhi, not someone who suddenly kidnapped her. However, she kept her act consistent to prevent the Palm God from realizing everything was a fact. "Whose rival?" "Who else? It''s Alexander Sirius. I have gotten your information. You have been chasing him even though he doesn''t think of you as a woman. He keeps making a line between both of you." "Wrong?!" Evelyn slammed the table, glaring at the Palm God with anger. "I am not wrong. As I said, I have read all your information, so I know how you feel." "No, you are wrong!" Evelyn gritted her teeth. "He is not like that!" "Really? Then tell me an instance where he allows you to do something to advance your relationship." The Palm God had a confident smile. "I¡­" Evelyn looked down, couldn''t answer him. "I have a proposal for you. I can help you become his wife." The Palm God stretched his hand. If Evelyn wanted it, she would take it. Unfortunately, Evelyn didn''t take his hand but with a curious expression. This was what he wanted. He finally showed a few of his cards. "I am known as the Palm God, a God King. In this universe, there are only a few people like me. That''s why Eulja won''t be able to fight me that easily since I have a huge force behind me. "If I start pressuring them, I am sure they will agree. Considering your previous relationship, Alexander Sirius won''t be able to escape from this and finally make you his wife. My demand is simple. For you to become my child. "So, how is it? Will you still chase him, knowing that he will only disappoint you? Or acknowledge me as your father, and I will help you become his wife?" The Palm God stretched his hand again. Evelyn fell silent for a few minutes as if she thought about it seriously. She raised her hand and was about to take his hand. However, the Palm God felt powerful energy coming from the side and released his power before the spaceship shook. An explosion occurred but soon died due to the lack of Oxygen. "What just happened?" Evelyn shouted as if she was scared. The speaker above them suddenly let out a voice, warning everyone onboard. "Emergency. We found thirteen people near our ship. And¡­And¡­The one leading them is none other than the Nature Goddess, Lin Xingzhi!" The Palm God gasped before looking at Evelyn. He didn''t know whether this girl had done something or not because he had confiscated her Space Ring. And with Evelyn''s scared expression that basically told him that she didn''t know anything, he believed this was the power of Eulja. In other words, he really underestimated Eulja. He then gathered his power and asked out loud, ringing everyone''s ears in the spaceship. "Report the damage!" "The barrier managed to block the attack due to your excellency''s energy that reinforced the defense." The speaker informed him again. At first, he planned to have Evelyn become his daughter, so Eulja and Alex couldn''t do anything at all. But he never expected the negotiation to be disturbed. He grabbed Evelyn''s wrist and dragged her outside the spaceship, finding all those thirteen people. He was then followed by a hundred God Rank Experts above Rank 6 God. Not long after that, around a thousand God Rank Experts below Rank 6 God made their appearance, protecting the ship. "Lin Xingzhi¡­" The Palm God gritted his teeth. "I never thought that your obsession had become this absurd. To think you kidnapped my sister." Lin Xingzhi brushed her hair and looked down on him. The entire group was completely baffled when they witnessed the appearance of the Nature Goddess. Her beauty was one that they couldn''t describe, but her strength was something they feared. They simply looked at her in awe, wondering why she actually came here. As soon as they heard about her sister, they were baffled. The Time God only had a daughter, so there shouldn''t be any sister. In other words, this sister of hers was a different kind of sister. They then looked at the Palm God, who seemed to be grasping that girl. "Too much is something bad. Do you¡­A God King actually not understand that idiom?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "What are you implying?!" "You are too obsessed with my late husband. That might become your doom one day." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "Do you need me to spell it for you?" "You!" Of course, the Palm God knew about it, but the temptation was too big. He just wanted to win in this rivalry that was only him recognizing it. "Your Eulja is also too overbearing!" "I am sorry. We are not overbearing. We just protect every single person in Eulja''s territory, especially our own family." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "But I do agree with your claim. And we paid it dearly when my late husband died." Even though the Palm God wanted to shout about Alexander Sirius that had reincarnated, he stopped himself, knowing that every plan of his would fail if he told it right now. After all, there were still so many eyewitnesses here. It was also the reason why Lin Xingzhi kept saying her "late husband" despite knowing the current condition. He himself didn''t want to make it known because many worlds would start paying attention to this matter. The moment Alex''s name was well known, his chance would disappear completely and it would be impossible to get a second chance. Whatever he did, he could do nothing other than hiding it. Even so, the conflict didn''t end here. He shouted. "I have her here. Comply with my request, and I will let her go!" Lin Xingzhi obviously didn''t buy it. She simply snorted and released her killing intent. "As I said earlier, I do admit that Eulja was overbearing to protect our own. That''s why I am not going to repeat the same mistake. If "he" could give up people under him and chose to increase his power instead, he wouldn''t die. "That''s why I am not going to make the same mistake here. She might be important to him, but it doesn''t matter to me. To protect him, I will do whatever I need to do!" Lin Xingzhi''s speech rang on his ears, shocking his heart. She suddenly raised her hand, pointing her palm toward the Palm God. What happened next baffled everyone. They never saw something like this. The outer space that shouldn''t have anything slowly turned brighter and brighter. It turned out that a fireball was formed out of nowhere. Only the Palm God recognized this attack and shouted. "Are you insane?!" Lin Xingzhi ignored him and channeled her power even more. The Spiritual Energy flowed to the fireball, creating something even more amazing than a Divine Technique. It was an Elemental Disturbance. Lin Xingzhi just created an artificial sun in Outer Space. Although it was supplied by her Divine Energy, no one could be more shocked than ever. Her control over Spiritual Energy alone was enough to cause a disturbance that could only appear naturally. Everyone thought of the same thing when they witnessed this. ''So, this is the Nature Goddess!'' "I will show you if I mean it or not¡­" Lin Xingzhi said coldly before releasing the artificial sun. "Fallen Star." The sun flew toward the Palm God. He involuntarily released Evelyn and moved slightly from the ship, knowing that it would destroy the ship if they got hit. The people could already feel the overbearing heat from the sun and clenched their teeth. When they were about to make a move, the Palm God already made his move to protect them. A God King''s opponent would always be another God King. The Palm God raised both hands before two giant palms appeared next to the sun. "Sovereign Palm." The two palms smacked the sun until it disappeared as if he just killed a mosquito with his hands. "Fu." The Palm God finally felt a bit relaxed after it was gone. The people behind him instantly cheered for him, showing their enthusiasm. They felt safe behind the Palm God and almost forgot the fact that their leader was also a God King, the same as Lin Xingzhi. They didn''t need to fear her anymore. "You! Are you going to make war?!" "Isn''t that your plan? Since you want a war, I don''t mind giving you one¡­Even if it means risking the entire life of Eulja." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "You are insane!" The Palm God shouted. "I am not. I have said it earlier, I will show you if I am telling you the truth or not. We are protective people after all." "!!!" What made the Palm God couldn''t comprehend was the fact that Evelyn appeared behind Lin Xingzhi and the others. He then realized what just happened while glancing at Evelyn''s previous location, confirming that she wasn''t there anymore. As soon as he released her and faced Lin Xingzhi''s attack that required his full attention, Evelyn did something to teleport herself to Lin Xingzhi. Of course, there wasn''t a thought about the Inventory and thought she actually had another place to store that Teleportation Array Plate. Either way, Evelyn had escaped from him successfully. "Your offer is certainly amazing. However, I only knew you a few hours ago¡­And the fact that you kidnapped me, I just can''t believe whatever you said. Besides, his promise is better than yours." Evelyn looked away. "Nice speech. Old man, take care of her, will you?" "Haiz, you always make this old bone works hard¡­" The Palm God fell silent. His face was pale. He thought he wouldn''t get found for a while until Evelyn agreed to the terms, but it turned out Eulja managed to get to his location faster than he could ever imagine. Without even thinking about it, he knew that Lin Xingzhi would go rampage today. Everything she claimed earlier was a lie just to direct his attention, so Evelyn could escape. Thinking about this, there was a big chance that the spaceship would be destroyed. However, he still had hope. "Do you think you can fight all the God Rank Experts I bring today?! Let''s talk about this calmly. We will be able to reach a conclusion." The Palm God still hadn''t given up. This made Lin Xingzhi annoyed and released all of her Divine Energy. "It seems I haven''t made it clear. Peace was never an option." "Hoho¡­As expected from the daughter of that Time God." The old man who kept asking her question in the meeting laughed before closing his eyes for a second. When he opened it again, his white eyes became silver, and it started glowing. "Let this old man start the show." The old man smiled as he put down his glasses. A cross made of yellow light formed behind his back, and his power increased exponentially. "True Spirit Body. Four Light Authorities. First Authority, Life." The first side of the cross shone and transmitted a light ball for each of them. The group''s strength increased too, like how Anya''s power worked. The old woman that sat beside him before smiled. "I should follow suit." "Yeah." A green-haired middle-aged man with a muscular body nodded. "Haha¡­This old man can''t retire yet." A yellow-haired old man sighed. "Don''t be like that. It has been thousands of years since all of us fight together, so have a bit more motivation, will you?" Another middle-aged man laughed, trying to cheer them up. "Fufu, you all are getting along." A gentle middle-aged woman smiled. "Let''s go then?" The five of them smiled as they chanted. "True Spirit Body." Chapter 990 - Not a War, Just Gonna Beat Some Asses "True Spirit Body." They chanted at the same time. The old woman slowly became younger as if she just turned back time. And due to her element, there were many black patterns on her body to the point she looked like a devil. "Night Ripper Form." However, the Light Spirit God only danced back and forth while saying. "Oh my beautiful wife. I have finally seen you in this form again. Let''s hug!" The wife only slapped him away to the point he crashed into an asteroid. One second later, he came back and smiled. "Your hand of love has energized me again." No one could speak a word when they saw these two. After showing their prowess and acted cool, the Light Spirit God turned out to be not like what they saw. Meanwhile, the other four Elemental Gods also transformed. "Gargantuan Form." The Earth Spirit God turned into a colossal monster whose size was a fifth of the spaceship. However, the spaceship itself was like that of the one Alex saw in his current world, so that body was already colossal. The appearance itself was like that of a golem, making it a bit dull. At the same time, the Lightning Spirit God also transformed. Like Leoz, he also got a horn, but it was bull horns. "Raging Bull Form." Instead of a giant sword, he had a war hammer. It was covered with lightning, raging around his hammer like his name. The other two also finished their transformation. The Water Spirit Goddess turned into a mermaid, but her tail was a dragon head, standing tall to watch the others. "Leviathan." As for the Fire Spirit God, his body turned into fire like a devil. But he himself called it Djinn since he was a Djinn Spirit. "One Hundred Fire Djinn." The six Elemental Gods had finally transformed to their True Spirit Body and the strength they emitted was beyond their imagination. It was even enough to stop the enemy''s momentum and morale. "Hoh, so cool. We the five Guardians can''t do something like that since we are not a spirit." One of the Guardians said with a sigh. "Haha, I don''t mind, I don''t mind." While the people had their own fun, the Palm God gritted his teeth and looked around, only finding four Rank 2 God behind him. They wouldn''t be enough to stop Lin Xingzhi and the other eleven Rank 2 Gods, so he decided to shout. "We are going to retreat from here." However, before the war started, Lin Xingzhi got a thought transmission from Evelyn. ''Sister, are you sure about this?'' ''What do you mean? You are almost forced¡ª'' Evelyn shook her head and asked. ''I am asking whether it''s right to create war without telling Big Brother Alex. When you kill one of them, the war will be inevitable.'' Lin Xingzhi frowned and asked. ''Tell me your experience inside.'' Evelyn then proceeded to talk about what happened, including the deal. Lin Xingzhi suddenly had a conflict in her heart and hesitated to call for this war. As much as she wanted to eliminate this problem, Alex might be hit by this because of the misunderstanding. In other words, the plan was entirely the Palm God''s fault, not Silvia. If Alex knew about this, there would surely be a battle there, and she couldn''t imagine what he would experience. Even though Alex and Silvia were still friends, their mood was already good enough so that they could advance to something better at any moment. It was just this whole thing that ruined their relationship. For Alex, who didn''t believe her¡­He would be sad for this entire matter. If there was also war, and his reputation became well-known, it might be too much for the current Alex. She came to a hard decision and decided to stop, but not entirely. ''It seems we better go back.'' Everyone was baffled by her statement that rang in their head. They were just raring to go, but at the last moment, Lin Xingzhi stopped them. ''Oi, oi. You serious?'' ''Consider this again.'' ''We have just started¡­'' Lin Xingzhi shook her head. ''Hear me out first. I want all of us to return to Eulja. Of course, we won''t let them off just like this. You may injure many of them, but don''t kill them. This will surely prevent a war from breaking. ''I will talk to Alex myself, and I believe he will arrive at the same conclusion, so please listen to me. I will take responsibility for all this.'' All the people she brought fell silent, never expecting the battle to turn this way. ''Does this mean our power is not necessary right now?'' ''Yes. I am afraid there will be a bigger war when Alex ascends the throne. At that time, we will work harder than ever¡­'' Lin Xingzhi warned them for an upcoming war that might be bigger than they would ever face even from back when the Spirit God still ruled Eulja. They furrowed their eyebrows, and the Light Spirit God asked for a confirmation. ''We still can beat their asses, right?'' ''Just for one hour. After that, we will let them go. This should be enough.'' Lin Xingzhi nodded. ''I also need to comfort Alex after this. Sigh.'' Seeing there was too much going on, they decided to follow her order. ''Well, the good news is¡­We can unleash our real strength when the Spirit God is in charge again. It''s not that bad of an idea.'' The Fire God replied. ''Yeah.'' ''Let''s beat some asses then.'' ''Alright.'' ''We have activated our True Spirit Body anyway, it''s a waste to not use it.'' The Six Elemental Gods had come to a conclusion, and they spread out as if they wanted a war. ''You six¡­ Can''t you leave us some too?'' A middle-aged man became a minotaur that was covered with fire. His appearance looked like the Thunder Spirit God, but with Fire. ''That''s right. We, the Five Guardians, are also here, you know.'' The Five Guardians slowly stood side by side with the Six Elemental Gods while chatting nonchalantly. Behind them was Lin Xingzhi, Zark, and Evelyn, who watched how these eleven would actually attack them. The Palm God couldn''t stop this anymore and ordered out loud. "Me and three Hundred Gods will stop them here while the others escape from this place. Remember. They are the top fighters in Eulja, and there is a chance that their reinforcement is on their way. Leave now!" With the order of the Palm God, many couldn''t accept it, but they could do nothing since it was the order from their Supreme Fighter. Even though Lin Xingzhi was also a Rank 1 God, she shouldn''t be able to kill the Palm God easily. Having the trust of their Rank 1 God, the group started to retreat from the area. "Split into half. Deal with them from left and right." He commanded again as they began to move. The Light Spirit God smirked and activated his True Spirit Body again. "Third Authority, Fate." The cross lit up and pierced all twelve before the light flowed like a fish in the water. It showed the path they needed to go as if it was already fated. He smiled and said. "GO!" The Six Elemental God without him flew to the left to handle those coming from the right while the Five Guardians took care of the other side. This left their middle lane open, creating a big opportunity for Lin Xingzhi and the Palm God to clash. Seeing this, the Light Spirit God smiled and returned to Evelyn and Zark, protecting them. Lin Xingzhi appreciated his effort by nodding before turning to the Palm God. "You are smart but also a fool. You have two chances but don''t treasure any of them." "What did you say?" The Palm God gritted his teeth, thinking it was a threat from her. He didn''t think much and flew straight to her. Lin Xingzhi raised her hand and formed another Disturbance in the air which turned out to be a Wind Disturbance. Knowing that the area near her contained an abundant amount of Wind Element while the area around the spaceship contained Fire Element, Lin Xingzhi formulated her plan. She transformed the Wind Disturbance into a spear, compressing it to increase its power. She then launched the spear straight to the Palm God. Looking at this, the Palm God raised his palm and created the same two palms that he used to destroy Lin Xingzhi''s fire attack earlier. However, he still underestimated Lin Xingzhi, who had long reached this God King Stage. When the palms tried to crush the spear, the small barrier that she used to control the Wind Disturbance disappeared, creating a very powerful shock wave that flew in all directions. "!!!" The Palm God realized her real intention. The shock wave was to blow his troops away, giving her friends an easier time. "Not good!" Before it could reach them, a thousand hands coming from Palm God''s back covered the entire area, not letting a single shock wave pass. "One thousand hands!" The Palm God barely made it before all the palms returned to normal, standing by behind him. He looked at Lin Xingzhi and clicked his tongue. ''Elemental Disturbance¡­This is her unique ability that is hard to even be cut by the Sword God''s Pure Qi, let alone mine Pure Qi¡­'' Lin Xingzhi might not be as strong as the Sword God or Alex in terms of attack power, but it was enough to handle the newborn Rank 1 God such as him. With the Palm God successfully stopping her attack, she chose to not stop, especially after witnessing the one thousand hands behind his back. She stretched her hands to both sides as if forming another disturbance. The Palm God wouldn''t let her and immediately struck her with all those hands. Lin Xingzhi only smiled as the hands were stopped as if someone bit them. "!!!" The Palm God was shocked when he saw many dragons biting his hands, preventing him from advancing forward. "She can even control it?" If one asked the weirdest power, the Time God would be the number one. However, since he had passed away, his daughter took that throne. Nonetheless, their weird power actually gave them power beyond one''s imagination, so it was normal for the Palm God to be confused. What Lin Xingzhi just did was to create two disturbances that appeared to be water and lightning. She then directed a portion of the energy to create dragons that could stop the hands. It was hard and needed good control because she needed to target every single hand personally. This was Lin Xingzhi''s strength that many had never seen. Evelyn could only look at her in awe, finally realizing how awesome a God King was. Lin Xingzhi didn''t know any of this and kept attacking the Palm God. She proceeded to her next attacks and sent another wave of dragons'' heads to attack him. "We indeed have the same cultivation level, but my experience is more than you." Lin Xingzhi smiled and changed the directions to the hands, trying to destroy them. "Not good!" Boom! Chapter 991 - Anger Boom! The explosions shook the people''s hearts, wondering if their Palm God was alright. Luckily, only three hundred hands got destroyed. He could also see the Six Elemental Gods and Five Guardians owned his force since there was a huge gap between their prowess. The number was not enough to overwhelm them unfortunately. At the same time, Lin Xingzhi kept supporting them, resulting in him protecting them. He could simply ignore his subordinate, but it might be admiration or whatever, he couldn''t do that heartless. They were his followers, so he would treat them well. Even though he couldn''t do as extreme as Alex, he still did his best in this regard. Nonetheless, everything was useless. Lin Xingzhi had yet to show her trump card while his trump card already almost broke. It was indeed terrible to fight someone that had been in this path for thousands of years while you only had several hundred years. He looked at Lin Xingzhi''s cold face and took a deep breath, wondering how to take her by surprise. Suddenly, three Gods managed to slip past their defense and headed straight to Evelyn, thinking they could do something to her since she was only a Rank 10 God. However, the Light Spirit God managed to keep track of them and appeared between them and Evelyn. "You three¡­What are you going to do?" He looked at them with his cold gaze. The three tried to split up to dodge him. Seeing this, the Light Spirit God raised both hands as they were covered with yellow light. He then released the attack like a laser and pushed two of them back. This is perfectly what they planned to do. The last one would surely arrive, grabbed Evelyn, turned around the situation. Lin Xingzhi raised her left hand as if she wanted to deal with that guy, giving the Palm God a chance to come closer to her. Little did he know that she had perfect trust in everyone she brought. Instead of stopping halfway, she completely raised her hand to the top as another Disturbance occurred. It was another Lightning Disturbance. The Palm God realized she had tricked him into coming closer. Unlike the previous Lightning Disturbance, she drew all the power within the Disturbance and released it in one go, striking down. The Palm God gritted his teeth and used his hands to block the attacks. He got pushed down by this thing, but he didn''t want to back down just like that. Even though cracks started to appear in his hands, he still managed to send his attack to Lin Xingzhi in the form of ten arms. These ten hands flew toward Lin Xingzhi, who were close enough. Each of them contained his powerful strength and Pure Palm Qi. Lin Xingzhi glanced over this attack and smiled. When the palm was about to hit her, many small disturbances occurred again, stopping all ten palms precisely. She then waved her other hand, sending her Divine Energy. The ten palms then got obliterated as if they popped out like a balloon. Lin Xingzhi turned out to be sending a portion of her power to create another Small Disturbance inside the hands to make them burst. At the same time, the trust she put in her friends also succeeded. Zark came to his way and created a Spatial Gate to get the Light Spirit God''s attack and send it to the one coming for Evelyn. "I borrow this." "Oi. I still need it to push this lad back!" He complained. "Don''t worry. I have finished your matter." Zark shrugged before the man was seen to be restricted by something. A Teleportation Array appeared beneath his feet and sent him back to the spaceship. As for the person in front of him, he got pushed back by the power borrowed from the Light Spirit God. The last two finally returned to their positions because Zark and the old man managed to push them back. "Give me money for renting my attack." The Light Spirit God put his hand in front, asking for money. Zark gave him the money with a fancy Space Ring. He was content with that achievement and checked the Space Ring, finding there was only a Spirit Crystal inside. "Oi, oi. One Spirit Crystal?" "Take it or leave it." "You are stingy." "No, you are." Zark shrugged before watching the battle between Lin Xingzhi and the Palm God. Lin Xingzhi seemed to release another attack. She created another Fireball, but this time was bigger. Not letting her do as she pleased, the Palm God went back and destroyed it again. However, he couldn''t contain it anymore with the two palms and used his remaining hands instead. The hands then crumbled after those continuous attacks and Lin Xingzhi knew this was a perfect time to beat the Palm God. She created another disturbance and planned to hit him, but¡­ A loud voice suddenly rang in everyone''s head. It was a thought transmission that said, "Kubard, you bastard, what you just did to your daughter? Kneel down to me!" When Lin Xingzhi heard this, she instantly knew what happened. Only one person would have the ability to call his name like that. It was none other than the current Rank 2 God called War Goddess, Xue Nu. She had long blonde hair tied into a ponytail and wore a green military uniform that made her look like a natural born fighter. Her eyes were sharp as if they could kill someone with her gaze alone. She was Kubard''s wife and Silvia''s mother. The battle stopped, and Eulja immediately retreated to see whether she had a reinforcement or not. "Hoho¡­The scary wife comes now." The Light Spirit God grinned and jumped to his wife. "Wifey. You were like that too in the past. But the gentle you or the spirited you are always my favorite. No, everything about you is the best." The Dark Spirit God twitched her eyebrows and kicked him in the face. "Kick of love!" The Light Spirit God said before he was blown away. Lin Xingzhi and the others could only shake their head helplessly since these two were the most powerful couple in Eulja other than Alex. "Still, why?" The Dark Spirit Goddess wanted to beat that guy but shook her head to calm down before asking. "She shouldn''t come¡­" "I don''t know, but I told Evelyn to inform Anna about this¡­Probably she explained the whole situation to Alex." Lin Xingzhi answered while glancing over Evelyn. "You alright?" "Yes. Thank you for the help, Sister." Evelyn bowed her head to everyone else and also thanked them, not knowing how to repay them. "Haha¡­I am going to ask my daughters about her." The Dark Spirit Goddess chuckled before moving to Evelyn. "Hello, nice to meet you. I am Anna''s and Anya''s mother. Unfortunately, the old mannerless guy is their father. Such a shame. This is why Anya acted a bit¡­weird. It''s that guy''s fault." "How can you say that? You should say she inherits my gene, proving she is my child." The old guy appeared again with a proud face. The Dark Spirit Goddess blew him away again. Lin Xingzhi smiled and said, "Let''s go back then. The matter is over. I will have the N Squad to monitor them, but I don''t think it''s necessary because he won''t be able to do anything for the time being if I read the War Goddess right. Zark, teleport us please." Zark nodded and created a Teleportation Array for them, and the Light Spirit God rushed to them while shouting. "Wait for me." The Teleportation got activated, and the Light Spirit God just barely reached them and got teleported as well. On the other hand, the other party didn''t have time to think about their opponents. The War Goddess was well known in their territory. She had been leading their territory and expanding it like crazy. In a span of a few hundred years, from Kubard and herself, they got a total of ten Rank 2 Gods and many Divine Worlds. She was like Anya but had the power to fight. If she met Aria, she might even make her a disciple since they would fit with each other, but Alex had gotten her first. Still, the Palm God already did something beyond repair. And the wife came to do her daughter justice. Kubard suddenly remembered a certain thing that Lin Xingzhi told him earlier. He never heard anything from his daughter, but it turned out to be wrong. Due to the agreement she had with Alex, Silvia didn''t give any information about Alex during her stay, leading to this misunderstanding that forced Kubard to play it this way. What Lin Xingzhi said about him having two chances but destroyed both of them were Evelyn and his daughter. He was found out by Lin Xingzhi when he kidnapped Evelyn. Meanwhile, his daughter should have met Alexander Sirius himself. Unknowingly, his action angered the real Alexander Sirius, and the situation turned out to be this way. Although he didn''t know about the details of the situation, he knew that everything was his fault. His wife appeared before him while releasing her killing intent. Silvia obviously had gone back to her world and told her about everything. She was furious and came to this place with a Space Element Array Master to reach this place in a matter of hours. She just wanted to butcher this clueless but obsessed guy. He dropped on his knees as both of them instinctively looked at Lin Xingzhi and the others since the war had yet to end, but their group already disappeared from the battlefield. Knowing this, his wife couldn''t control her anger anymore and shout. "We are going back! Whatever job you have right now, leave it and return to the ship. I am taking full control of this ship right now and be grateful that the other party didn''t want a war. None of you died in this battle. If you know what the best is, make sure you don''t tell anyone about this and just treasure your life! All troops, move out!" The moment they realized no one died and only some got a few injuries, they quickly followed her order, feeling a bit relieved that Eulja had no intention of creating a war. Meanwhile, the War Goddess looked at her husband and threw him to the ship, where he landed perfectly at the opening for the people to go back to the ship, but that throw shook the ship and even made it tilt slightly to the side. The people outside were shaking as they feared the spaceship would get destroyed while the people inside began panicking, thinking they would die. She only looked around with a cold gaze and asked. "What? Any of you want to fight me in the Martial Court?" "No, Ma''am!" The group rushed into the spaceship before they heard another order from her. "Don''t forget to step on that bastard over there. Each of you needs to do it once. Any questions?" "NO, MA''AM!" They shouted with their Spiritual Energy so it could be heard in Outer Space. Even though Kubard was the strongest, the one that needed to be feared was actually his wife because, without her, he wouldn''t achieve something this big in his life since he only knew how to cultivate and do useless things like this. The God Rank Experts that went out only closed their eyes and stepped on Kubard while saying sorry. Xue Nu only glared at them until they finished their job before following them inside. When Kubard saw her expression, he knew that this wife wanted him to die. "Do you know what happened to your daughter?" Kubard couldn''t answer. His face remained down. "You dared to do all this but didn''t dare to answer my question?" She stomped the floor, tilting the spaceship once again. "Everything is my fault." He hurriedly replied with a low voice. Anger swelled up in her heart even more as she prepared to do a continuous combo for the last blow. Chapter 992 - Is It Over or a New Beginning? When Evelyn just told the truth, Anna instantly relayed the message from Evelyn to Alex, and it completely stunned him. Alex fell silent and looked at Silvia. For the past few hours, she kept sitting on the ground while crying. This might be the first time she felt very hurt when no one believed him, yet she couldn''t say anything to Alex because of what her father did. No matter how you looked at it, there was no way Alex would believe her. She was at a complete disadvantage. To that end, she could only wait for the next news without attempting to do anything to show Alex that she didn''t know. She didn''t know why but this felt even more painful when she recalled everything they had experienced during the past few months. At this time, she realized that Alex had a big part in her heart despite not knowing him for long. The time she spent with him was fulfilling and fun to do. She noticed that her feelings weren''t that shallow anymore. But this was why the whole thing became even more painful. At first, she and her father did this to get Alex, but when everything went well, and her feeling gradually bloomed, the fall was also harder. Alex also felt uncomfortable doing this, but he just couldn''t endure a betrayal. He had it enough with Sandra, but this thing reminded him of her. The moment the truth came out, he dropped his sword and fell to his knees. Silvia obviously couldn''t understand his action. Despite the pain, she tried to put on her best smile and asked. "What happened? Are you sick?" Alex felt even more guilty. Even though he treated her this harshly and wouldn''t believe her anymore, she still showed her concern to him. He lowered his head and said the only thing he must say at this moment. "I am sorry." "What¡­happened?" She became even more worried while grabbing his hands. "Everything is my misunderstanding. As soon as I heard someone important than me got kidnapped, I blocked everything despite not knowing whether it was the truth or not. I¡­" "It''s okay." She slowly hugged him as she couldn''t bear his guilty face. This wasn''t his fault. She and her father knew about his character, and yet, her father actually did a risky thing that destroyed their relationship. Even if it were fully restored, they wouldn''t have the same relationship anymore. If what he did wasn''t known by Alex, everything would indeed go according to his plan. After all, Lin Xingzhi and the others would need a long time to search for their location, allowing him to successfully make Evelyn his daughter. At that time, Alex had no choice than becoming his son-in-law. Unfortunately, he didn''t know the power of the Gacha System that was able to locate his position that easily and ultimately destroyed everything. She blamed everything that happened to her father. Alex decided to tell her about the truth of what happened. She never expected that her father wanted Evelyn to become his daughter. She had a mixed feeling as his daughter. On one hand, he blamed the father for doing this reckless thing. On the other hand, she wondered whether her existence was only for this and didn''t mean anything to her father since he could easily choose to adopt someone? Including this misunderstanding, her heart finally broke. The tears that she had been holding on finally fell again. Alex reflectively hugged her back. It was his turn to calm her down. After crying for five minutes, she let go of her feelings and released Alex. "I am truly sorry¡­Telling both of us to forget about it¡­ Won''t be possible, right?" Alex scratched the back of his head. "That''s why¡­Can you forgive me for this? I will do my best to¡ª" Before Alex finished, she stopped him with her hand and smiled. "I¡­I need time. Can I go to your room for a while? I promise it won''t take long." Since the situation became like this, he nodded his head. "Thank you." She weakly rose from the floor and walked staggeringly to his room. Closing the door, Alex could hear her sobbing sounds, but he couldn''t do anything. Three hours passed, but nothing happened. There was nothing wrong with the room, and Silvia was still there. Suddenly, Alex sensed the fluctuation of the energy. He immediately went to his room, finding no one in the room. He thought she went to her mansion just to get some time alone, but he saw a body on the ground. The body was like a doll, and its purpose was none other for his dead body. On the body''s right hand was a piece of paper that seemed to want to address him something. Bending down his knees, he took the paper, found the writing behind it, and read it. "I am sorry, Alex. Everything is my and my family''s fault. I never thought that the person you cared about got kidnapped by my own father. I don''t want to say something to make me look like I am not at fault, and I am sorry, I really can''t handle it anymore. "I don''t have a face to meet you anymore, so I should disappear again. I have made you a body that you can use to fake your death. Don''t remove the needle on the face and body since it is in the nurturing process. After you think it has the same face and body as you, you may remove the needles. "You may then pour a drop of your blood, a drop per day. This would nurture the body''s constitution, blood, and Spiritual Energy to look like yours. A month is enough to become a complete body. "You may treat it as my way of apologizing, but for me, I will always remember it as fulfilling my promise. "And on the other hand, you will find a crystal. If you destroy the crystal and pour the powder into a compass, you will find my position. Please use it when you reach the stage where it''s hard for you to get stronger. I will give you another session of acupuncture. "I''ve said it, right? Even if we are separated, I will always be your friend. And I know that your burden is far higher than this, so I will help you as much as I can. However, please don''t look for me other than that. "My family is well respected, and I have been in the center of attention since young¡­But after meeting you, I believe that a family is built by two sides that love each other, not because of family background, strength, or wealth. It''s by how happy you are with him, how enjoyable your time together, and how you wish to make the current happiness last longer to eternity. "Unfortunately, I feel like I can''t fulfill that, so please forget me. I am honored if you still think of me as your friend, but I don''t dare to be called more intimate than that. "I hope your happiness lasts until the end of time. I will be watching you from far away so that not even my father can''t find me. Don''t worry. I will tell my mother everything since this is my father''s fault for going overboard. I will have him apologize to Eulja and try my best to fix the situation. "People come and go¡­Unfortunately, this is the time where we need to part ways. Still, there is one thing that I want to convey to you. I love you¡­And wish you all the best. Goodbye." Alex dropped to the floor and leaned on one of the bed''s legs. He looked at the ceiling, having complex feelings. Everything looked spinning. If he could believe and didn''t put a deaf ear to her explanation, all of this wouldn''t happen. He could feel the wavy parts of the paper as if the paper just got dried. He could even imagine her crying face, and her tears fell on this paper while writing it. They might be God Rank Experts, but before that, they were only a man and a woman that had their weaknesses. This might be the first time he wished to have the ability to turn back time, fixing this mistake. Unknowingly, his feeling bloomed when he read the letter, albeit it was too late. He clenched his hands until blood started dripping to the ground. [Alex¡­] "I know, Anna. I know, but¡­" [Do you know that when you died, I wanted to kill myself? I even prepared to go to another place and destroyed many planets until someone killed me? But then I realized¡­Time will heal your wound, and the people around you will accelerate that.] [I was glad to have two sisters beside me that pulled me before I died. That''s why¡­ It''s never a goodbye until you die, so don''t give up. Even after you died and got my determination back, I didn''t give up a single time, and finally¡­Everything was rewarded.] [It''s never too late. It''s just whether you want to fight for it or not.] Alex closed his eyes and bit his lips. He was pensive, looking back at the time he spent with Silvia. The time kept flowing until two hours passed. Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, having finished sorting his thoughts. "I am sorry. I have made you worried." Alex made a small smile. "That''s right. This is not a goodbye." He grabbed a marker from his Inventory and crossed the word "Goodbye" in the letter. He then wrote three words under it, saying, "See you later." "I will let some time pass. In the meantime, I will handle all the immediate business like meeting your father and mother, meeting with Song Tao for my new spear, and other things. After that, I will search for her again, telling her this is still not over. "Let the wound recover a little, so I can see whether we can get together again or not. After all, I will just be a nuisance if I come to her right now. If there is still a chance, I will do my best to make it work again. If not¡­Then I will also wish her happiness." With newfound determination, he slowly rose from the floor, grabbed the crystal, and stored it inside his Inventory since a Space Ring could be taken, but the Inventory could not. He then placed the body double to the side and stored the letter. "I am sorry, but I will chase her." Alex apologized again, feeling a bit guilty to chase another woman in front of his wives. [We will support your decision. Besides, you still have more than two years from the end of the promise.] Alex smiled when hearing this and agreed. "Yeah. The beginning has an end, and no end has a beginning. Since this relationship is basically over, it will be the mark of a new relationship. This time, I will strive for a stronger one that can''t be shaken anymore." With this thought, he finally fixed his appearance to avoid making Aria worry and came to the training field. Chapter 993 - Going Due to that event, Alex focused on his training and slowly regained his calm. He had sworn to settle their relationship at another time, even if it meant ignoring her letter. After all, this wasn''t something that could make it over. Aria soon realized the missing Silvia and asked Alex. However, he only said that she had something to do in her home, so she returned. Not only after, Navin, who wasn''t informed by the whole situation, came to Alex. "What do you want?" Alex asked with a serious expression. If it was Navin alone, he believed he had become stronger than him, so he wasn''t scared of him. "Nothing. I have gotten the information about the young lady, so it''s time for me to return." Navin shook his head. "Do you know about the reason why I attacked you back then?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Lin Xingzhi seemed to know about the reason, but she refused to talk. And this had been in his mind this whole time, so he answered. "No." "My eyes are a bit special. They are called Time Eyes. Although their ability varies, mine can see someone''s lifespan. After calculating everything, I found your report and noticed your lifespan. I noticed that you might be the key to break the chain of lifespan that binds people in the Universe. "It''s as if the universe is going to end. So, I try to gather people that might become the keys in the future. But I can''t find people like that every so often. The reason I became the Palm God''s disciple was due to the fact that both the young lady and her father were the keys to this mystery." "So, what is my lifespan?" Alex asked. "I won''t say the details, but it''s less than a hundred years." "I see." Alex sighed. "It seems I won''t be able to solve it." "No, no. That''s not what I mean. I have said about the key, but imagine a tree. The main trunk has a few branches, and those few branches gave birth to many more branches. This is time. There are so many factors that will shape the branches of your future, but you can only take one. "For example, in the future, you will meet your demise, but because you gain something precious and change your fate, the future will change according to it. That''s why your time will be extended or decreased, depending on your action. "It will keep changing, so I can''t really say the exact details since it won''t be precise due to the reasons above. Anyway, the future can be changed. Even if I can see that your lifespan is extended to a ridiculous degree, I won''t say that nothing will happen to you. "And your enemy might also get the transformation they needed to defeat you. So, all I can say is good luck. I hope you have enough time to become strong enough to save the universe." Alex closed his eyes, absorbing the information he just gave. "I will only save my family, not the universe." "Great." Navin nonchalantly commented as if he didn''t care about his answer. Whatever his motivation, he would get involved in this and needed to see it through, so as long as he dealt with the problem, he didn''t give a damn to the motivation. "By the way, I am Alexander Sirius." Alex stretched his hand, recognizing Navin as one of the fighters that might be useful for the future battle against that beast. "Olsen, Navin Olsen." They nodded at each other, knowing they would be fighting their own battle in the future despite having the same goal. "Good luck." "You too." After the small conversation, Navin finally left the world. Alex, on the other hand, let out a long sigh. It had been a hectic few days. He found Aria kept practicing and smiled. "It''s time to practice I guess¡­Besides, I have to go to the auction in a few months. It''s better to prepare myself." They then trained together for a few months. Alex became more devilish from that point on, torturing her with even more training. Despite cursing him right on his face, Aria didn''t skip a single training, so Alex just followed her and had a spar with her every now and then to keep her motivation up. It turned out to be pretty effective since Aria cultivated even faster. Alex also got the report about what happened to the Palm God in detail. It turned out that Silvia indeed left her family, saying she wanted to live alone for a period of time. The result was the Palm God sleeping outside the house without being able to do anything, including go to an inn. The wife was so furious that it might lead to a divorce, but for her kid to have a home to return, she decided to forgive him and punished him in this way. ¡­ A few months later. In the house, Aria slowly rose from her bed and sighed. "I collapsed again. Why did I always collapse before him, and even though I tried to wake up as soon as I could, I never saw him collapsing? No, that freak was even more resilient than Mya." "Sigh. There is no end if I talk about him. I can talk a lot about him, but at the same time, I don''t know anything. And now, we need to go back to the Luzear Family to attend the auction. I am a bit worried." She furrowed her eyebrows. When the date became closer and closer, she eventually got a weird idea that she never had with Silvia. There was this repulsive feeling that they shouldn''t go to the Luzear Family as if something would happen. Unlike Silvia, Nella Luzear looked like someone who had a hidden intention in pursuing Alex. She didn''t know whether it was her instinct to protect someone who would become her boss in the future or something else, but she still kept this in mind. "Whatever the case, I should be wary against her. Nyx may look like he knows everything but my sense as a woman is far sharper than him¡­Yeah." She nodded with a serious expression before coming out of her room, finding Alex, who had been waiting for her, sitting on the couch. "It''s time to go." Alex rose from his seat and waved his hand. "Yes. I have also brought a formal "dress" for this auction. Considering the scale, I do think I need to dress up a bit." She smiled sweetly as if she was eager to show it to him. Alex didn''t know why but since Silvia''s disappearance, she became more conscious of him. He didn''t know the reason, but his closest thought was that she worried about him and saw the weak him, so she tried to cheer him up. Either way, Alex knew that the time they needed to part was near, so Alex didn''t put much thought into it. "That''s good. You must look stunning." Alex nodded. In fact, she herself was beautiful. She refused to wear fancy clothes because she had been following the agreement to not stand out unless it was necessary. Although the main agreement to become someone standing out was half-completed, Alex believed it was enough to make the focus of Ilevis on her. Alex also had adjusted his plan a little bit and focused on her instead. With that thought in mind, Alex and Aria flew toward their next target. Their destination was the Luzear Family that would hold their auction in a few weeks. ¡­ The trip took slightly less time than the previous one. It might be due to her becoming a 6-Star Martial Saint. To compensate for her strength, Alex also raised his cultivation stage, but only to 8-Star Martial Saint. As soon as they arrived in the same city, they found two soldiers in which one of them recognized them. It turned out that he was the soldier that stopped them previously. Normally, they would go to the Luzear Family and showed this letter to them, signaling their arrival, but Alex didn''t really want to have a relationship with them. And even Aria suggested having a room in an inn. Alex and Aria then headed straight to the inn, taking the closest one from the auction house. When they arrived, they saw many expensive decorations covered with gold. ''Is this because of the auction? I feel that the decoration is not supposed to be here since it''s too extravagant.'' Aria asked. ''I don''t know. Since it''s the closest, it may have some connections with the Luzear Family,'' replied Alex while searching for the receptionist. When he found the counter, he and Aria walked toward him and asked. "Is there an empty room?" "I am sorry, Sir. We have been reserved by the Luzear Family to allow only the people who will participate in the auction to stay here until the auction starts." The receptionist politely apologized and explained the situation. Normally, someone would try to mock him by not knowing his position, and Alex didn''t want to experience something like that. Hence, he instantly took out the invitation that Nella gave back then. "I am a participant too." "Oh, I apologize. May I check your invitation, Sir? This is the process that everyone needs to go through." "It''s fine." Alex nodded and handed the letter. The receptionist didn''t open the letter. Instead, he went straight to the blue seal that kept the letter closed and took out a certain device. When he saw the writing on his device, he was shocked and almost dropped the device to the ground. He sweatdropped and instantly handed back Alex''s letter. "If I did something wrong, I would like to apologize." "It''s fine, you didn''t do anything wrong. So, how is the invitation? Can I stay here?" Alex asked politely. Since the other party didn''t treat him unethically, he didn''t mind giving them respect too, no matter how weak they were. The receptionist repeatedly nodded and stretched his hand to the side. "I will personally guide you to your room." Alex and Aria exchanged looks and nodded. "Please." The two followed him to the highest floor. "There are only three VVIP Invitations that the Luzear Family handed¡­The reason for that is the floor. On this floor, there are only three rooms to serve the VVIP guests. If you need anything, please notify us. We will do everything to satisfy you." The receptionist nodded. "I will guarantee it as the head of the receptionists." "Alright." Alex nodded. "I will be relying on you if I need something." "I am honored." Alex then went to his room and instantly activated his Spirit Eyes. He found many God Rank Experts staying in this building, but the most noticeable ones would be those on the same floor. He recognized their strength since they were Rank 6 Gods. "I found my way to kill myself and blow it up to a greater scale." Alex smiled. "Hmm?" Aria turned around and furrowed her eyebrows. "What did you say?" "Nothing." Alex shrugged. "I just want to warn you that there are many God Rank Experts around us. So, take this with you." Aria felt Alex''s movement and stretched her hand. When she felt scrolls on her hands, she opened her eyes. "What is this?" "Teleportation Array Plate. Divine Rank ones. You might need to use it later." "Is that so? Well, there are many experts around this, so if you are targeted, it''s hard to imagine you fending them off." She nodded and stored the scrolls inside her Space Ring. "By the way, here is for you." Alex handed her a book and a letter. "What are these?" She asked. Alex had been acting weird since they came to this city, but she also couldn''t understand what he was thinking. "You can only open the book when you reach God Rank while you need to open the letter after we leave this city. Can you promise me?" Aria became even more suspicious but still nodded her head while storing the items inside her Space Ring. "I understand. I promise you." Chapter 994 - The Night Before the Auction It seemed his choice by not notifying the Luzear Family was right. No one actually paid him attention, including Nella herself for a few days. During the night before the event, Aria visited him to talk about the details of the auction. Alex was sitting on his bed while looking at the moon shining brightly outside his window. The view was amazing for both Alex and Aria. In Aria''s eyes, the moon shone upon Alex and illuminated the room. The wind gently brushed his hair, blowing it lightly. His expression looked gentle, but there was a solemnity behind it as if he was thinking about something important. Aria never thought that she would see this sight with her Sword Eye. Something rose in her heart, but she didn''t know anything about it. On one hand, she wished to comfort this guy that had so much burden on his shoulders. On the other hand, she had yet to be qualified to do that, whether in terms of strength or other things. ''Ah, I wonder¡­Will I regret for not seeing this sight if I don''t have the Sword Eyes that allow me to see? Despite showing his relaxed, calm, composed sides, he actually has so much to bear. And I don''t know why but he seems to be different ever since Mya left. I wonder why¡­'' Aria gulped down before gradually walking toward him. Alex turned over and looked into her eyes, smiling. "You''ve come¡­" "You expected me to come?" Aria asked. "Yes." Alex nodded, pointed at the book on the table, and said. "That''s the catalog. I haven''t read it yet, so do you want to read it together?" The answer came in the form of action. Aria brought the book to Alex and sat down beside him. Alex smiled. This might be the last time they could do something together since Alex had decided to settle this down after the auction. "Do you have something that you want to buy?" Alex asked while flipping through the pages. "I haven''t found one yet." She shook her head. "Besides, everything I need is already there, so I am not sure whether I want something. Besides, this auction is big, so I won''t have enough money to buy it." Alex fell silent and kept flipping the book until he found something good. It was called Golden Lightning Brit Root. He instantly recalled the pill called Heavenly Lightning Pill, which seemed to be good to a Lightning Element user. It was perfect for Rose, so he planned to buy one. Other than that, he had no use of them. "Do you find something?" Alex finished the whole book and asked. "No." She shook her head. "I don''t find anything that is useful to me right now." "Right now? Then do you have something in your mind?" Alex smiled. "Well, if you are aiming for this Golden Lightning Brit Root, I am going to acquire it myself. There is a chance to make two Heavenly Lightning Pills with a single root, so I will be sending one to you since I only need to give one to my disciple. You can take it as a bonus payment from me." Aria scratched the back of her head with a complicated expression. "Am I qualified to get something like that? You have been doing everything to me as far as I know. In fact, I am so useless that even without me, you can do it perfectly fine." "Nope. You don''t realize it, but you have helped me a few times." Alex smiled and stopped the conversation since he didn''t want to explain it. "I¡­Really?" "Yeah. That''s why. Don''t reject the pill later, alright?" Alex smiled. "Though I might not be the one refining it." "Thank you very much." Aria bowed her head to him. "I wonder why you are so nice to people?" "No, I am not." Alex shook his head. "No, you certainly are. You are kinder and stronger than anyone else. You know your conscience and will make a decisive decision¡­One that you won''t regret in the future. You must have gone through a lot unlike me who could only cultivate in my own courtyard in the past." She sighed. "You should be more confident. You also have gone through a lot. Just keep living in this world without being able to see alone is already enough. The mocking, oppositions, and pressure. You are strong, and because you know how it feels like to be on the side of the oppressed, you can become kinder than anyone else." Alex smiled. "There is one thing that I want to say. You have a talent that you have yet to recognize. And I think you can develop that later." "I have another talent?" She tilted her head in confusion. "Yes. That might be the reason I invited you to work for me." "What kind of quality do I have to make you do that?" She started questioning herself to what talent she actually had could impress him. Though, getting praise this high from Alex certainly made one get more hype. "Anyway, let''s go back to the topic. I only have one mission for you. Whatever you do, don''t question my decision and just do it. This will be the biggest factor in whether I can achieve my objective or not. Can you do that?" "What is your plan?" "I am sorry, but I am unable to tell you that right now." Alex shook his head. He knew if he told her about him leaving her, she would start questioning or even do something reckless like refusing his order. "I¡­Understand." Aria certainly felt a bit sad that Alex didn''t have the intention to talk about the objective with her, but she decided to trust him. Little did she know, this would be the last time they could have a peaceful talk like this. Due to him accompanying her for almost two years, she had grown too comfortable with him around. The loss would hit her deep, but without him, Aria needed to grow up once more. This was the best separation that Alex could give with his current circ.u.mstances. "If you are done, you should rest your body. Tomorrow is a big day after all." He smiled. "Alright, then." She nodded with a gentle smile and walked toward the door before halting her footstep as soon as she grabbed the handle. "Nyx¡­" Alex looked at her solemnly, but the word stuck on her throat, so she could only leave while saying, "No. Never mind. Good night." "Yes, good night." Alex nodded. After Aria closed the door, Alex laid down on his bed and looked at his ceiling while sighing. "This is really hard." [Are you okay?] "It''s fine. You began to become a worrywart after that day." Alex smiled. Lin Xingzhi kept monitoring his mental state after Silvia left. It seemed she was worried about Alex''s condition, especially when he thought it was his fault. "I have done all my parts in this world, and it''s time for me to leave. There are still four months left before the Sword Pavilion is opened, so I can check whether she is alright or not for now. After that, I will leave this world according to the schedule and start settling my matters." Alex nodded. [Still, to think you have become a Rank 8 God this easily. And your Sword Qi cultivation is even faster than you''ve expected.] "Haha¡­ That''s also surprising. But I believe it''s due to Aria releasing the Sword Qi from her Sword Eyes that allowed me to gather the energy easier. I have passed Rank 6 and almost reached Rank 7. It won''t be hard to reach Rank 7 before the Sword Pavilion and aim for Rank 8 before leaving this world." Alex nodded. [Fair enough.] "Now that I think about it, I have gotten so much in this world." Alex smiled. "The first will be Heilo and Leka. I have ordered them to leave the sect according to my plan and meet me somewhere since I will be taking them to Eulja. "After that, I met with the Sword God and learned about the possibility of my Three Purities Slash. Then I got Sword Qi, the pure one of course, and also the ticket for this Sword Pavilion. I also got the Eternal Ice Flower. "Then, I met Eve and fixed the problem of my body. I met Silvia and Aria. Still, when we reach the end. I couldn''t do anything to Silvia, but I will try to protect Aria when I leave this world." [By planning all this stuff?] "Yeah. I can''t do anything about the parting stuff, so I can only give a bit of motivation so she can reach God Rank faster. That is if she wants. And since I will be doing something reckless, I will not drag her down later¡­Well, I will do my best." Alex put a gentle smile while stroking his sword. Eve then came out and stood before him with a serious expression. "Master. You are usually energetic, but why are you so down?" "Haha¡­ It''s hard to see me like this?" Alex smiled. He certainly was someone who put too much emotion into every single thing. At first, it was when Sandra betrayed him, and he could only cry. Then, it was when he needed to seal Alicia in the Time Box. Not long after that, he learned about his teacher''s death and so on. He was a pretty emotional guy, and he didn''t mind it because this was his weakness but also his strength. This emotion gave him the determination to get even stronger. "Yes. Well, I started following you a year ago, so I never saw you like this." "Fair enough, but you will see more in the future. After all, you are not going to abandon me and search for a new master, right?" Alex smiled. "Of course. I am ready to follow you until death. This is the path I''ve chosen myself back when we met. I don''t know your burden, but I promise you to become the sword that can cut anything, including your fate. I won''t let them off if fate wants you to die." "Haha¡­I need to thank you in advance then." "Then, can I ask about your past?" "Sure. It will be a long story, so I will just keep it short. Though it will still take a few hours." "I will be with Master for thousands of years, why would I care about a few hours?" Alex nodded and began telling his story about Eve. Knowing Alex had such a past, Eve understood him more and more, understanding why he would think that way and this way. This might even boost their performances. Either way, Alex passed the night with story-telling. ¡­ The next day. Alex came out of his room and found Aria with a butler outfit that even surprised Alex. He thought she would wear a dress, but she instead wore what a man would wear. She didn''t wear a mask and kept her eyes open. She seemed to put on a wig as if she wanted to do something different. Alex couldn''t understand what she was thinking, so he asked. "Why are you wearing this?" "You wanted to hide your identity, right? If I wore this and had no blind eyes, the Luzear Family will only know me as a different person. I can pretend to be your butler or someone that your "Master" sent before he died. This way, they won''t look down on you and won''t do something they can''t afford to. Besides, that Nella seems to want only you to come. So, I came up with this." Alex widened his eyes, never expecting her to think this way. It was true that with an outfit like this, it would make her identity more oblivious. It would also protect her from anyone he tried to offend to "accidentally" kill him. "Well, that''s fine too, I guess." Alex smiled. "Thank you for the thought." Little did she know Alex''s reason and her reason were two completely different things, but both had their own benefits, so Alex didn''t mention it. "How should I call you then?" "Call me Jack." "Weird taste." "Shut up." Chapter 995 - How Daring "Aa¡­ Aaa¡­ Aa¡­" Aria''s voice kept echoing in the room as she tested the perfect voice that should come out from a man. Her voice gradually turned heavier. Although it didn''t look like a typical man, combined with her beauty that still couldn''t be hidden by the makeup, she appeared to be a beautiful man. Unless people started touching her chest or her crotch, no one should know she was a woman. "Still, I am wondering what your real intention is." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I just feel that Nella will try to approach you during this auction. And it might be something that is too big for you to handle, so I think I can help you by dressing like this." "You want people to think I am gay?" "It''s just the last resort." She shrugged. "Besides, sooner or later, you will leave this world, so what is the point in maintaining your image? No one knows about your real identity yet, so who cares?" [Pfft. This girl is crazy. No wonder she could keep her calm when she was almost r.a.p.ed in the past.] ''You shut up.'' Alex sighed inwardly before looking at Aria. "Well, your identity won''t be exposed as well, so I think it''s fine. Just make sure that it''s the last resort, alright?" "Yes." She nodded. Alex then turned around and walked straight to the door. "Let''s go then." Aria smiled and followed him. "Yes, Young Master." She immediately acted like his "secret" butler. Her expectation when Nella saw this, she would feel disgusted and maintain her distance from Alex, but she might also think the fact why Alex had no thought about herself or Nella was because of this preference him. Alex didn''t pay more attention to it and headed straight to the auction building with the hotel staff becoming his guide. He gave some tips to him since he took care of the entire process until the auction''s staff took over his job and led him to his room. Surprisingly, Alex found someone in the room. He didn''t need to guess who it was. When he entered the room, that person hurriedly stood up and greeted him. "Welcome, Mister Nyx. Please forgive me for not being able to visit you during your stay." "No need to mind me." Alex waved his hand and looked for an empty seat. "I wonder what does Miss Nella want with me?" "Every single VVIP room will have one personal bidder that can help you during the auction. I will help you during this auction, so you can rest assured." She smiled. Aria saw this and furrowed her eyebrows. It seemed her worry was true. Little did she know, Nella was more prepared than she could imagine. It started from the cup on the table. Alex could see a trace of poison on the glass and felt something was wrong. ''What is this?'' Alex tried to identify the poison but to no avail. Lin Xingzhi then took over and asked Anna and Anya about it, finding something amazing. She then informed Alex. [There is an aphrodisiac smeared inside the cup. This girl went a bit too far, no?] ''Yes. From the dosage alone, I believe it is not much, but it is enough to make one aroused. Now, I wonder whether I should make her leave.'' Alex agreed. [Not yet. With her in this room, she will be able to be your witness from doing your action. After that, they will soon realize that you have died, so they will probably give up on you after that. This will become a better proof to the Unsurpassed Blade Sect after taking the information from Aria.] ''Fair enough. Since she tries to take advantage of me, I will do the same then.'' Alex smiled inwardly. He then acted as if he didn''t know anything and walked to the glass inside the room. The room itself wasn''t really that spacious since they needed to give enough space for others. Luckily, there was an array to block off the vision from outside, so they couldn''t see him in front of the glass. At the same time, he also couldn''t see other guests from the other two rooms. Suddenly, Nella''s attention was taken by another person that came inside the room. It was Aria. She never thought Alex brought someone with him, and it wasn''t Aria. "He is Jack, my butler." Alex introduced Aria and sat on the couch. Nella tilted her head as if she felt something wrong with the guy here, but she just couldn''t see what it was. However, considering Jack, who was only his butler, she only nodded and turned around, ignoring him. For a person with such a level, she didn''t need to greet him. And it seemed Alex didn''t mind it too because he didn''t say anything. Little did she know, both Alex and Aria already sighed in their hearts. Aria knew Alex didn''t like someone who could easily look down on people. Even her, who would become her subordinate sooner or later, was treated like that of a family, let alone his butler. This was already a minus point, and Aria knew that her choice in disguising herself as a man was the right choice. Either way, she walked toward Alex and stood right next to him. "Young Master." "Yes." Alex decided to follow what Nella thought was right by waving his hand. "Stand beside me." "I understand." Seeing this, Nella then grabbed the cup and poured tea for him. "Do you like tea?" This looked like the perfect time to execute her plan. With how indifferent Alex was to his butler, she could chase him away later after getting affected by the aphrodisiac. Unfortunately, Alex instantly stopped her and said, "It''s fine. I don''t like drinking, especially in a time like this. An auction is a place where one shows wealth, but it might also become warfare the next second, so it''s better to not drink." "We, the Luzear Family, will guarantee your safety, so you don''t need to worry." Nella was surprised that Alex rejected her, but she didn''t give up and continued persuading him. Alex shook his head. "Nah, I''m good. This is my principle, so I am afraid I can''t accept your kindness." Nella started shaking inside, wondering what she should do with her main plan failing. The concentration of the aphrodisiac inside the drink was so small that even Alchemist found it hard to sense, so it should be a perfect plan to deal with Alex. But even if she knew about it, she could simply blame others to make it look like someone else''s fault. Unfortunately, the plan was already a failure, so she could only do it manually. "In that case, we can only wait. The auction will start in thirty minutes, so it won''t be too long. In the meantime, is there anything you need?" Nella smiled while gently taking out the cup and tea, wanting to bring it together to prevent Alex from knowing her plan. "No. I don''t need anything." Alex shook his head. "In that case, I will clean this up first." Nella nodded, still trying to clean up the evidence. When she was out, Aria let out a long sigh. "I thought she was going to recognize me." Alex nodded. He had checked the room and found nothing that would record them, so it was fine to let Aria act normally again for the time being. "To think she will resort to aphrodisiac. I have seen her previously, but since when did she become this daring?" "What? She used what?" "Aphrodisiac. The dosage is low, so I won''t notice. And before long, I will start getting aroused and thinking I want her. At that time, it will be done." Alex shrugged. "Seriously?" She narrowed her eyes. "You said she becomes this daring? Or she has been this daring from before, just never letting you see it." "Who knows. If it''s the former, her family might be forcing her to do this. After all, I feel like there is something wrong, and I feel she is aiming at me with a hidden intention, so there is a possibility of her family knowing it. If it''s the latter, then I might need to reconsider my approach." Alex''s expression turned serious. "What are you going to do then? We can expose her¡­" "Nah. It will become too troublesome at that point. We still need to buy a medicinal herb. Anyway, just pretend you don''t know anything. She still has her use." Alex smiled. "Understood." Aria nodded. After a few minutes, Nella returned to the room. She had changed her clothes into a more revealing one. "Please excuse me. The auction is going to start, so I need to wear the required clothes." Nella calmly explained as if she didn''t do anything wrong. Meanwhile, Aria already clicked her tongue and claimed it as a bullsh*t. Alex didn''t look like it, but he already had no trust in her. He took a glance at her and nodded before focusing back on the auction. He checked their cultivation strength and thought there was nothing wrong with it. No one would have enough strength to steal it. And those who had the power were either VIP or VVIP, so there was no point in worrying about them. The light in the auction room became dim before the main light illuminated the stage. A young man appeared while pushing a chart with an item on it. The item was a Divine Bow, but the lowest quality he had ever seen, so he had no need for it. But since he wanted to make an enemy here that would seriously kill him, he needed to check their intake in this, so he decided to participate in the next round as soon as either the other two VVIPs took part. After all, they were the only ones qualified to be his opponents. "By the way, who are they?" Alex pointed at the two rooms. "The left one is the Ruinshak Family, our competitor. Although they are our enemies, their pocket is deep, so we want to empty that first using this auction. As for the other one, that is the Envoy from the Qerty Family, but this one is more dangerous than the first one. And yeah, they are also our enemies." She nodded. Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "Do you have an item in your mind? We can give you one for free." "I will pay it myself, so you don''t need to worry." Alex waved his hand, telling his stance in this auction. "We have promised you an item from an auction, so we will keep it no matter what." She looked at Alex with a serious expression. Alex pondered the pros and cons before accepting it. "Alright. In that case, I do have an item in my mind." "May I know what it is?" "Lightning Brit Root." "What?" Nella widened her eyes, and her face turned pale. "This¡­" Chapter 996 - "Love" "Ladies and Gentlemen. I am Ryan Luzear, the first son of the Luzear Family. I am sure you all are looking forward to this auction, so I will only tell you the rules of our auction house and immediately start this auction. "We only have a few rules. First, no killing, snatching, fighting, and any other things that require physical contact and destroy a part of a whole building. Second, we will ensure the safety of every person in this building, so please give us a face. "Thirdly, everything will be resolved with money, so we encourage people to bid because you will be safe as long as you are in this building. The last rule is simple. Every time you bid on an item, you need to pay it immediately, or we will take your right of the item, classifying you as a troublemaker that only wants to disturb this auction. "That''s all. We hope that you can respect this rule, each other, and us. In that case, let''s start this auction with the first item, Zunkheon Bow. This Bow might be a low Rank 9 Weapon, but there is something special within this Bow. "The consciousness residing within the Bow is stronger than your average consciousness, making it easier to channel your energy to the Bow. The auction starts with ten million Spirit Crystal. Any bid can''t be less than one million. Start." The young man explained, and the auction officially began. "Eleven million!" "Thirteen million!" ¡­ ¡­ The auction became heated as soon as it started since the items in this auction were so good. Meanwhile, only one room didn''t get the same excitement as the one outside. "This¡­" Nella was lost. She looked left and right, trying to figure out how to solve the problem. For a second, Alex found the previous Nella, the one that tried to become cool and even though she was on her wits'' end. It was easier to handle her this way rather than when she used trickery. Alex remained calm and asked. "Is there a problem?" "Ehm. I might need to consult this matter with my parents first." She scratched the back of her head while sweating. "You just asked about the identity of the other two VVIPs, right? The right one is actually aiming for this herb." "Ho?!" This piqued Alex''s interest since Alex wanted something like this. If he could have them chase him, he could fake his death. "He is backed by one of the three sects, the Elemental Sect. Because of his lightning talent, he wants this medicinal herb to boost his cultivation, so he comes here with an Elder from the sect and an Elder from his family. One is a Rank 6 God and the other one is a Rank 7 God. I am afraid if you take this one¡­they¡­" "If you can''t participate in it, then don''t bother. I will simply buy it with my own money." Alex shrugged. "This¡­" Nella wanted to persuade him, but his serious expression indirectly told her that his opinion wouldn''t change. This clearly went above her capacity, and she decided to retreat to discuss it with her mother and father. After all, the strongest person in this family was only a Rank 5 God, it was hard to fight against the Elemental Sect. Alex, on the other hand, hoped that there was an arrogant young master that would fight him. He even chanted it inwardly. ''Come come, arrogant young master, come to me.'' [This is the first time you love to see an arrogant young master¡­] ''Because this type of person is the most useful way to get an enemy.'' Alex laughed inwardly. "I need to go out a bit." Nella hurriedly left the room, heading straight to her parents. Meanwhile, Aria was baffled by the sudden transformation in Nella''s personality. "Was she the same person?" "Yes. When everything didn''t go according to her plan, she was easy to get fl.u.s.tered." Alex nodded, confirming her doubt. Aria didn''t know what to think about Nella. The transformation was too ridiculous. "Still, what are you going to do with those people in the other VVIP room?" She asked. "Nothing. I will simply beat them with my money. It will be better if the Luzear Family can pay for it, but I don''t think they will. After all, they are merely a merchant family, so they won''t dare to pick a fight with a giant sect. The only thing their aim is to weaken the enemy''s power by "robbing" their Spirit Crystals." Alex shrugged. "Now that I think about it, there is an unspoken rule between the three sects. Unless it''s something too big, the people from the sect shouldn''t interfere with the matter in the outside world. And if they do, they should have prepared to get expelled from the sect. My brother wants to take advantage of the sect to get stronger too, so I know this." Aria nodded. "Yeah. That''s probably the reason." "Is this the reason why you gave me the Teleportation Array Plates?" Aria noticed something was wrong with his actions during the past few days and asked. "Yes. We might need to split up and leave this place using the Array Plates, so I give it to you. Besides, I am a God Rank Expert, so they won''t be able to defeat me easily." Alex smiled as he didn''t forget to assure her. "I understand. I will follow your plan." Her expression was serious and her tone was severe. This matter might concern their life and death, but seeing Alex already had a plan, she just needed to trust him, believing it would go according to the plan. He then looked at the stage as it was already the fourth item. On the stage, a vase with a strange pattern was auctioned. It was pretty mysterious, but Alex knew it only had a special array. Arrays were something he didn''t lack and his knowledge about it was already too vast for him to absorb within months, so he ignored this vase until he heard a woman''s voice coming from the room next to him. "Thirty Million." When her voice echoed in the room, the atmosphere turned silent as if they were thinking something complicated. "Thirty million once." "Thirty million twice." "Thirty-one million." Alex raised the bid. Although he knew who to aim for, there was no guarantee that the people in the right room would buy it, so he wanted to make an assurance. "Thirty-two million." The other raised it again. Alex narrowed his eyes and kept raising the bids a few times while observing the room with his Spirit Eyes, but he couldn''t sense any killing intents, so he thought he couldn''t provoke these people and decided to let them win this item. After all, he didn''t want to waste his money like this, considering the money came from Eulja. Although he planned to open the door that contained Spirit Crystal in Encore, the money he had right now was still not his. He couldn''t waste it easily. Alex''s guess was right. In the left room, the beautiful young lady only glanced over to the right and asked. "Who is in our right? Is he Young Master Quila?" "He is not, Young Lady. It''s a different person, but unfortunately, we can''t find his identity." "For an unknown person to get a VVIP invitation¡­He must be someone special. He is either someone influential or knows the Luzear Family. Can you investigate him for me?" She asked the elder behind her. "Sure. I am also curious." "Yeah. Try not to make an enemy easily since our situation is not that good after that mission. To think Nella Luzear managed to grasp the inheritance and become one of the people that the three sects want." "Rank 2 God, huh¡­" The elder sighed and nodded. "I will do my best." Just as the two were discussing him, the other room was also searching for Alex''s identity. They normally got the information pretty easily, but the Luzear Family seemed to be protecting him just by looking at how hard it was to get the information about this person. They only got his name which was Nyx, but they didn''t know his influence or background, so they didn''t know what this person wanted. While these two became curious, Alex was relaxed. He knew that this move would certainly make them pay attention to him. And seeing that he had enough buying power, it was enough to make them think that he might be able to snatch an item they wanted. This would build up the tension between them, and he planned to take advantage of that situation to anger them. With a gentle smile on his face, he leaned on his chair and waited until the chance to antagonize the other room appeared. Unfortunately, that chance didn''t come easily. He needed to wait for twenty items before they began bidding. The item was a spear that was imbued by Lightning Element. Alex then took another look at the room beside him. "Three people. One Rank 6 God, one Rank 7 God, and one Rank 10 God. The so-called young master is probably the Rank 10 God, which is very good. I love a stronger young master because they are more arrogant." His voice was low, so even Aria couldn''t hear it perfectly. "Is there something wrong?" Aria asked. "Nothing. I am just praising their strength." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, I am going to bid this."Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #%22love%22_52487156358242104 for visiting. "One hundred million!" The bid came from the VIP room below his room. After that, his target raised the bid again. "One hundred ten million!" The VIP Room seemed to have no more money, so they stopped. It was the time for Alex to show his wealth. "One hundred twenty." "What?!" The young man widened his eyes and glared at the VVIP Room beside him. "One hundred thirty!" "One hundred forty." "This friend, I am Quila Siko, the disciple of Elder Lei Tian of the Elemental Sect. I wonder if this friend can let go of such a treasure? This Quila will thank you." The young man decided to talk because the spear''s price was about to surpass its quality, so he wanted to show his identity to make Alex stop bidding. "I apologize. We compare wealth in an auction, not identity." Alex''s tone was nonchalant and clearly taunted him. The young man became even angrier. His teacher was a kind of a peak master in the Unsurpassed Blade Sect and his rank was like that of the top five. In addition, the Elemental Sect didn''t have restrictions like the Unsurpassed Blade Sect, so their teacher could easily help them kill someone. That was why only a few people would dare antagonize him. Yet, this unknown person dared to do it, how could he swallow it? Albeit, not all people were like him. The elder that was with him immediately stopped him. "Wait, Young Master. There are two possibilities regarding this situation. Firstly, it''s all a bluff. The Luzear Family might want you to spend more money than necessary by using that young man, but this is a bit unlikely. Even if we have our unspoken rule, we also ask for their respect to make it fair. "In that case, we will be stuck with the second possibility. There is a chance that this young man dares to bid the spear because he believes he has enough power to content against you, including your background. If that''s the case, he must be extraordinary, and we need to proceed with caution." Quila finally regained his calm after getting the advice from the elder. He was sent by his teacher to protect him, so his word was quite effective. However, another problem came. The elder from his family returned while shouting. "I have gotten the information. I have negotiated with an elder of this auction house and found that the one next to us is Nyx. He has a relationship with Melvie, the disciple of the Sword Blossom Peak''s peak master." When Quila heard that, he instantly snorted. "If he thinks that his relationship with her can protect him, he is wrong. There is no way that Melvie will protect him, much less the peak master. In that case¡­ "One hundred fifty million! I want it!" On the contrary, Alex was smiling from ear to ear as he commented. "Oh, how I love an arrogant young master." Chapter 997 - Its a Steal "Oh, how I love an arrogant young master," Alex exclaimed with a smile. [Usually, they are something that should be avoided since they are troublemakers, but it seems this one is a bit special.] "Yes. The problem is whether the elders around him will stop him or not¡­" Alex nodded with a smirk. Since the other party had started, he raised the bid even further. "One hundred sixty!" "What?!" The young master gritted his teeth. "Young master Quila, I am afraid we shouldn''t fight for it because it will just be a waste of money." The elder from his house advised him but to no avail. "Do you think I don''t know about it? But since he is going to offend me with just that tiny strength, it''s better to eliminate him." Quila had a sinister smile on his face. "The Luzear Family should have checked his belongings, right? It means he does have this amount of money. We will buy this spear as high as we like and eliminate that guy after this. "In other words, these are free items for us. Do you think I just recklessly fight for it? Besides, we won''t make a political battle with the Unsurpassed Blade Sect due to their tradition. All those people who have gone out of the sect won''t be protected by the sect. "Hence, we are able to kill them. And now, someone who only knows a peak master''s favorite disciple dares to anger me? I will just take this chance to win everything." The two elders looked at him with a complicated expression. On one hand, they agreed with his explanation. On the other hand, they felt something was missing in his logic. The other party should also know their identity, so if he dared to fight them, it meant whoever it was had something to assure his protection. They needed to wait and see whether they could understand the other party''s motive, so they didn''t stop their young master for the time being. Meanwhile, Alex was contemplating whether he should make an excuse or something to bait him even more, but he heard the other party shouted out loud. "One hundred seventy! Since you dare to not give me face, I won''t let you have the spear either." ''Nice.'' Alex said inwardly and immediately replied. "As always, you look down on people. You have never realized how many people you have ruined because of that arrogance. Since that is the case, I won''t hold back. One hundred eighty!" The auction room became silent. They never expected that one of the VVIPs had a grudge against Quila. When the elders heard this, their eyes intertwined and thought the same thing. "So, all this just for revenge." "He couldn''t contain his anger anymore and choose to do this?" The elders began their discussion while Quila''s smile became even bigger. He never thought that there was someone like him who was so foolish and didn''t know his standing. Quila shouted back. "Do you think you are good? No, you are foolish. A mere Martial Saint dares to challenge me." Before he wanted to release his Divine Energy, he stopped and remembered the rule of the auction house. Although he didn''t like the rule and wanted to crush Alex, his teacher had asked him not to make too much commotion, especially with the outside family. In that case, he raised the bid again. "One hundred ninety. You won''t be able to beat me, peasant." Since it had increased twenty percent of its market price, he decided to end this bid and just let him buy it." "One hundred ninety million. Going once." "Going twice." "Sold!" When they saw their young master buying a spear with that much money, they became a bit worried. "Young Master." "Don''t worry. We practically buy this spear with free money since we will get the rest from his corpse." Quila smiled. "I have my own way. I wonder what his face will be if he knows that everything he has will become mine in the end. I am looking forward to seeing his despair. Alex only enjoyed his time inside the room, unaware of Quila''s real thoughts. Either case, he would surely chase him after this, especially after the last bid. Aria started panicking when she saw Alex''s expression. "Nyx. Why are you antagonizing him? If the other party¡ª" Alex stopped her and said. "You will see why I did this later." Even though she was unwilling to back down, she ultimately stopped asking him and stepped back. "Alright." Not long after this, Nella, who seemed to understand the real situation, stormed inside with a complicated expression. "Are you insane? What are you doing?" Alex looked at her and lied with a cold gaze. "What? I can''t do that? You don''t know what I have gone through, so don''t you dare advise me with all bullsh*ts." "Wha¡ª" Nella never expected to hear Alex speak such words. In her mind, Alex was calm and composed, but the current Alex was the exact opposite. Suddenly, a thought arose in her mind, and she started misunderstanding the whole situation. She looked at him, specifically his mask.Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-a-steal_52506630276832057 for visiting. Not many had seen his face, but when she recalled his burn marks that seemed to create a deep scar in his heart, she realized the whole matter. ''Don''t tell me¡­The one that inflicted that wound was Quila? He said it''s reminding him of something important, so this must be the truth. And seeing how he reacts, he must have another thing that makes him this crazy. ''His family? Did his family get ruined by Quila? Or maybe by his Siko Family? Wait a minute. Was the reason he joined the mission to help me because the Siko Family participated in this? If I see it this way, it makes sense. ''In other words, the fight between them is assured. If I help him, there is a chance that he will die. In that case, the promise with the ancestor is annulled. However¡­If he really is someone who is worth the effort?'' Nella fell into deep thought, wondering whether she should show the stance of the Luzear Family or not. On one hand, if Alex were someone like the person in her ancestor''s mouth, the moment he rose to the top, their Luzear Family would reap the most benefits. However, this situation seemed to be leaning to the edge of failure because he couldn''t contain his anger. Nella couldn''t easily decide this and contemplated on what to do. If she left the room once again, Alex would surely suspect her, but this matter was already beyond her league. This type of matter was something that the family head should decide, not her. With a heavy heart, she left the room once again, discussing this matter with her parents. Alex only smiled while Aria shook her head, knowing that her chance was practically nonexistent. Unlike Aria, who was bold enough to separate herself from her family, Nella leaned to her family too much. Alex took a few more bids to fight Quila to make his bluff more believable. An hour later, Nella had yet to return while the auction had gone to the last item, the main item that Quila needed to increase his cultivation. "We have finally reached the end of our last item. To close it, we will present you with the best items that we have brought. This is called Lightning Brit Root. It has the powerful Lightning Element inside it that can increase one''s cultivation dramatically, even for God Rank Experts. "Unfortunately, this pill is still considered a Low Rank Divine Herb. So, the bid will start from one hundred million Spirit Crystal. Every bit can''t be lower than ten million. Start!" "One hundred ten¡­" "One hundred twenty¡­" The people from below started bidding like normal before Quila stated out loud. "Three hundred million Spirit Crystal. I wonder who dares to fight me for it?!" None of them actually dared to take it from them, but they also knew this was a blatant taunt to Alex. Their eyes were locked in Alex''s room. Alex smiled and tested the water. "Three hundred fifty." "Four hundred million!" They didn''t follow the standard anymore, but none of them dared to raise an objection. From normal people''s perspective, these two were trying to flaunt their wealth, but for the Luzear Family, they didn''t mind because if they followed the same patterns as the previous items, it would go beyond one billion Spirit Crystals. "Four hundred fifty million." Alex didn''t mind since this was the only item he wanted. He had played enough to make Quila do his bidding. If his character were like he predicted, this would be a smooth sail. Aria had yet to understand his real motive and kept questioning in her mind. When she saw Alex buying a single herb for four hundred fifty million Spirit Crystals, she had no words. For her, it was something beyond her capability, so it made her wonder how wealthy Alex truly was. But to everyone''s surprise, Quila suddenly backed down from the fight and said. "You bastard! If not because of you bidding against me, I will get this item without any problem. Do you think you are safe because we are in this auction?" Alex only closed his eyes with a smile, knowing everything was according to his plan. There was no need to explain it anymore. What Quila said was a lie. "This¡­" Aria narrowed her eyes, looking at Alex. "A medicinal herb like this can go as far as one billion Spirit Crystal. One to ten billion is the price for Mid Rank Divine Herb, while the highest herb can go as far as one hundred to two hundred billion. That''s why this is a discounted price. "His statement is a lie. It''s just a facade to get this herb without using his money. After all, he will surely come after me as soon as we leave the auction house. Just calculate the money he used to buy those few items¡­If we subtract the market price, there is only an additional two hundred million. "If he killed us, it''s the same as buying this sword with only two hundred million. Since there is friction between his family and the Luzear Family, he mustn''t want to give too much money to them either, so yeah, this is the best solution. "And there are also our belongings. He will win big, or at least, that''s what he thought. Meanwhile, it''s a bit different in our point of view. We haven''t used a single Spirit Crystal in this auction and only buy this herb for less than half the price. Isn''t that a steal?" Alex smiled. Aria gasped, never thinking it had been structured like this. "I am sure you can make a strategy like this, but you need more experience. After all, you were a sheltered young lady for a long time, and that talent couldn''t bloom properly. Take this lesson to your heart and become stronger." Alex smiled. In their perspective, they would have a big win, but whether they were the winner or not would be determined whether Alex died or not after this. Suddenly, Aria grasped something behind Alex''s real intention and remembered how he asked a body double from Silvia. "Don''t tell me. Are you planning to die?" "Not die." Alex shook his head. "I can handle the Rank 6 God since he is a Fire Element. As for the Rank 7 God, he won''t be able to kill me. I will just act as if he is able to kill me and hide." "Then¡­Are you¡­" "Nope. It''s time for me to leave. That''s why this is my last lesson for you. Don''t stop training and keep improving yourself." Alex smiled. "You¡­" Aria never expected that Alex would leave today. "You still¡­" "I will still go to the Sword Pavilion, but you won''t recognize me. After that, I will leave this world. This is the perfect chance to make everyone believe me. And this requires your effort too¡­" Aria looked down, feeling complicated. She never thought the day would come this soon, but she knew Alex wouldn''t change her mind. She walked behind him and hugged him from behind. "I understand. Leave everything to me, and I will soon come after you. Thank you for everything." Alex closed his eyes and smiled. Chapter 998 - Time To Go Just like Alex predicted, Quila informed the same thing as what Alex said. "It turns out he is not that stupid, but he still won''t be able to escape from me." Quila smirked. "This won''t make the Luzear Family stronger that easily and won''t affect us that much. As expected from the young master." The elder nodded with appreciation. He never thought that this was all just a farce from him. He was ready to stop him if he did something excessive in this auction house, but it seemed to be not necessary. Quila looked back at the elder from his family and asked. "There is one thing you need to do. The medicinal herb will be brought to him in ten minutes. I want you to use the Array Plate to restrict any usage of the Teleportation Array. We can''t afford to let him escape with something like that." "Understood. I bring it with me, so I will do it as soon as possible." "After this, regroup with us. We will follow that person, kill him, and become the biggest winner." Quila nodded. The elder bowed his head to him and disappeared. Meanwhile, the auction had officially ended. There was a deep disappointment for the host because they realized they had lost a big time. They never thought that it wouldn''t reach one billion. Who could they blame at this point? They wanted to say something about Alex, but the one who stopped bidding was Quila. At the same time, they couldn''t really touch him easily because of his backing, and it would also hurt their reputation. As for Alex, he kept his bidding war against Quila, making it look like he was trying to jack up the price. The last one looked scripted, but it didn''t seem to be like that for those who knew Alex''s ruined face. In other words, Alex had just lost against Quila, and his life was in danger. Still, the aforementioned person appeared so relaxed in his room while waiting for his medicinal herbs. After a few minutes, Nella came to him, bringing the medicinal herbs he won. "Nyx¡­I am sorry, I wanted to visit you immediately, but my mother and father didn''t allow me to." Nella put on a sad face. Even if they couldn''t stay the same, they didn''t want to lose the relationship with Alex. Either Alex and Quila would come out at the top here, so if they maintained this relationship, whether Alex died or not wouldn''t really affect them. Aria only snorted inwardly to Nella''s acts, knowing it was all facts. However, Alex treated Nella as if he didn''t know this. He looked at her with a sad expression and said softly. "I also want to apologize. I couldn''t contain my anger early on, so now I am trapped inside this predicament. But worry not, I have the Teleportation Array Plate to escape from this place. As long as I can leave, I will be able to do something next." "How¡­How about staying in this auction house for a while? With your strength, I am sure you can call up reinforcement from the Unsurpassed Blade Sect." Nella asked. Alex shook his head. "No. I have another plan. As long as I can lead them away to a certain spot, I have my own group that can defeat them." He then glanced over Aria. The latter nodded her head. "Yes. We have enough troops to deal with those three. I can act as your bait this time too." With her claims, Nella slowly gained the confidence to bet in Alex and said. "I can ask my family to send experts to help you escape." Alex smiled. "Thank you. But I can''t implicate you in my revenge." "But¡­" Alex closed her mouth with his finger. "Don''t worry. Trust me." With this last assurance, Alex managed to convince Nella. She then presented the medicinal herb to Alex. The root was blue like that of a crystal, but when one touched it, they would realize how soft it was as if they touched human skin. Still, the immeasurable Lightning Energy coming out of it made people want to stay away from this thing unless they had a Lightning Element. Alex took the token and handed a Space Ring to her. Nella checked the Spirit Crystals inside it and confirmed the number. "I have received the Spirit Crystals. The transaction is over. Congratulations." He smiled. The Spirit Crystals came from Eulja''s treasury, so he felt a bit bad to use it this way, but at least, he bought something useful, and he would also give it back later when he came to Encore again. Considering there were a few hundred billion in Encore, this less than half a million thing wouldn''t be counted as an expensive item. So, he immediately stored it in his Space Ring, so Nella could witness it. He then said, "Can you leave me alone for a moment. I need to prepare myself." "I¡­Understand." Nella nodded and left the room. Alex then turned around, looking at Nella with a gentle expression. "It''s time." "Yes. As much as I don''t want this to happen, I think I can''t really be greedy." She sighed. "I will miss you, but this is not over." "Yep. I will be looking forward to our next meeting." Alex nodded and looked down, falling into deep thought. He recalled their memories and smiled. "My real name is Alexander Sirius." "!!!" Aria opened her mouth in surprise, but it turned into a smile. "So, you remember the bet¡­Does this mean I''ve won?" Alex patted her head. "Yeah. You have talent, but you need the experience to develop that talent. That''s why I want you to keep training and show me that this win is something you deserve." Aria''s expression turned serious while clenching hands. "Yes, Sir. I won''t disappoint you." "That''s right. This is a bonus, but you are wondering my age, right? If it''s converted to this world''s time, I just turned twenty years old this year." Alex stuck out his tongue while taking out Teleportation Array Plate. "What?!" Aria widened her eyes and gasped. "Did I hear it correctly?" "I won''t repeat myself." "¡­Twenty years old God Rank Expert. Looking at your confidence, you mustn''t be a mere Rank 10 God. In other words, you are at least a Rank 9 God. And you do it within twenty years¡­Although it''s this world''s time, I don''t think there is someone like you out there." She narrowed her eyes. "There are. My wives and disciples¡­You will soon become something similar." Alex smiled. "That¡­I will do my best." Alex laughed and used his Teleportation Array Plate, but it didn''t light up. He instantly realized and used his Spirit Eyes and found the Space Element nearby that seemed to be restricted by something. "An array? Space Lock or something?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I see. So that''s how they want to play. I don''t mind though." "Is there a change of plan?" "Yes. We are going straight to the mountain in the south of the city. I will then keep them for a few minutes, and you need to leave the area where there is no restriction and escape immediately. Can you do that?" "I understand." "And one more thing. Play along with my act, alright?" "Hoho¡­Definitely." Before Alex left the room, he called Njomo first and asked. "Njomo, how is it going?" However, Njomo didn''t respond. It meant he had finished Alex''s original task. In the sect, Alex asked Njomo to enter Nella''s shadow to ensure their intake on his death without him asking for it again. With this, he had prepared everything. "Let''s go then." Alex smiled and left the room. He immediately used his fastest speed to leave the building and head straight to the mountain. It was still half an hour of flying, so he couldn''t relax during this chase. At the same time, Quila and the elder saw this and exclaimed. "It''s them. We need to chase them." They had been waiting outside their room to see Alex''s face, but it turned out he wore a mask. However, the elder felt reassured when he saw only two Martial Saints came out. In other words, they wouldn''t be a treat and could be killed easily. These two then agreed to meet up with the elder of his family before chasing Alex and Aria with their speed that was far greater than that of a Martial Saint. Alex also felt them not coming and increased his pace until they reached the mountain before they arrived. "Aria. Get ready." Alex finally sensed them after flying for half an hour and looked back because they had arrived before them. Without wasting a single second, Alex hid Aria behind him and said while furrowing his eyebrows. "You should go. I will stall them for a while and use the Teleportation Array to reach Second Brother. This will be a race of time." "Do you think you can escape? With that Martial Saint strength of yours? You are already doomed when you become my enemy with that kind of cultivation." He snorted. Alex slowly put off his mask and showed his ruined face. "I have been waiting for the whole time and can''t bear it anymore. It''s time for me to take my revenge." When they saw his ruined face, the two elders were surprised. No wonder Alex wanted to take revenge, but it was a bit weird because he should be able to recover his original appearance. Alex convinced them by touching his burn mark. "I didn''t heal this scar of mine because it will remind me of my hatred against you. That''s why¡­" He released his seal, revealing his Divine Energy and true cultivation. At this time, even Quila was shocked by sight. He never expected Alex to be stronger than him. "Rank 8 God." The Rank 6 God elder narrowed his eyes, understanding where his confidence came from. However, he also felt something was wrong because he couldn''t see it coming. There was someone that had the ability to hide their power without getting found out by many people. "No wonder you have that confidence. Unfortunately, you come at the wrong time. I have a Rank 7 God and a Rank 6 God here with me. Do you think you can beat them?" Alex smiled and released his Pure Fire. That blazing fire called something inside the Rank 6 God''s body before he felt immeasurable pressure just from feeling it, making him realize Alex''s element. "Pure Fire! Impossible!" "What?!" The two beside him gasped, never thought they would be able to see a Pure Fire. Before the elder could say another thing, the blazing fire that came out of his body had turned into a fox. It glared at the elder and increased the pressure that made even the elder couldn''t do anything. He could only fall to the ground and kneel before him. "Fire Authority." Alex just released the true power of his Fire Authority, the ability that made the Fire God, Phitrus, reached God King. In front of the Godly Pure Fire, all flames shall kneel. The amount of force put the Rank 6 elder on his knees, not being able to even raise his head. He was forced to kneel in front of him. "Elder!" Quila shouted. "This is impossible. The pressure coming from the Pure Fire is above the record!" The elder gritted his teeth, trying to rise from the ground but to no avail. "We need to kill him. If not, he will become the greatest threat!" "I don''t know who you are, but you are dead meat!" Quila pointed his finger at Alex and shouted. "Kill him!" The elder from his family released his Divine Energy. "Go!" Alex shouted, signaling Aria to escape. She didn''t waste even a second and ran away. "Young master. We need to catch him!" The elder pointed at the young man behind Alex. "I''m on it. You deal with him." Quila nodded and proceeded to chase Aria. However, Alex made the greatest bluff by smiling. "Yeah, yeah. Chase him!" When they heard Alex''s nonchalant tone, they instantly realized that the person who ran away must have hidden his strength. If Quila chased him, he would die because the two elders couldn''t help him. He stopped and turned around, glaring at Alex. "Doesn''t matter. As long as we can capture a Pure Fire Element like you, we will be able to turn around the situation." They decided to do this because the risk was too big. Even the elder could understand that concern. "It depends on whether you two can catch me or not. Trash." Alex snorted. Chapter 999 - Lousy Fight Alex''s smile made the two angry. However, they also couldn''t act recklessly because Alex had suppressed a Rank 6 God with his Rank 8 God strength alone. Although it was due to his Pure Fire, he still required Divine Energy to keep the suppression going. That was why the two glared at him, keeping their distance. Alex made the first move by taking off his ring. He turned around and threw it in Aria''s direction as powerful as possible while saying. "That''s what you want, right?" "!!!" Quila gritted his teeth and tried to come after it, but the elder suddenly called his name. "Young master." Alex''s presence was near him, and by the time he moved, he was right behind him, slashing his sword. "Tch!" Quila clicked his tongue and parried the attack with his sword, albeit he wasn''t strong enough. Alex blew him to the ground, creating a huge crater. The Rank 7 God elder also tried to attack him to make sure Alex couldn''t release another attack that would endanger Quila. Although he could handle this attack, Alex''s purpose here was to die, so he intentionally got blown away while looking at the elder with an angry look. "As expected¡­ You can only suppress Elder Ron because you have Pure Fire. Other than that, you are only a Rank 8 God while I am a Rank 7 God. This one rank difference is too big to be covered." The elder pointed his sword. Alex gritted his teeth and raised his weapon. "I will show you if my strength is qualified to fight a Rank 7 God or not¡­" Alex headed straight to the elder and attacked him from close range, trying to match his speed. The elder was slightly surprised that Alex could keep up with him, but he knew that it took his all just to stop the attacks, so Alex was still considered lower than him. By this time, Quila had recovered and threw a spear toward Alex from the ground. "Lightning God Spear!" The spear to the sky, but Alex managed to avoid it completely, albeit that seemed to be a distraction from Quila, so the elder could attack Alex in that opening. Alex narrowed his eyes and parried it, getting blown away again. "Mythical Fire Slash." He chose to use the weaker techniques than his Blade of Extinction to make him look weaker. When the elder saw this, he raised his off-hand and released a sword from his body. It was made of lightning and hit the Sword Wave right in the middle. The lightning soon showed its supremacy and penetrated the Sword Wave and flew toward him. "¡­" Alex maintained his silence and released another Sword Wave, but toward Quila instead. The elder who noticed it immediately went to Quila to help him. Unfortunately, it hit Quila first. The latter still tried to block this powerful attack but to no avail. It slowly overpowered him and pressed him even further. Before the Sword Slash won, the elder had arrived and destroyed the Sword Wave. "You Bastard!" Quila clenched his spear. "It''s literally him who says that each rank has a huge gap. It means the gap between Rank 8 God and Rank 10 God is far bigger than between him and me." Alex smiled before glancing at the elder that had been powerless until now. "Including him!" While talking with them, he already sent another Sword Wave toward the elder, who could only kneel down. "Not good!" The elder decided to bring Quila together with him to protect the elder. As soon as he reached there, he said, "Young Master. Please leave him to me. Young Master should bring the elder to leave this place to move away from the suppression." "Do you think I will let you?!" Alex smiled and moved to another position, so he could unleash another strike to target these two who were weaker. "Mythical Fire Slash." The elder started getting annoyed by him. He never expected that someone who they thought they could easily kill turned out to be someone stronger than his young master, and their gap was huge. He couldn''t allow such a person to live for another day because he would become the ultimate disaster for his family. Sticking together with Quila, he blocked another attack from Alex while maintaining his pace. However, Alex kept following them and tried attacking them from a few directions. Suddenly, the elder took out a single scroll from his Space Ring and Quila took it. "This¡­" He was surprised to see what scroll it was. Knowing that Alex would keep following them, he decided to trust the elder''s choice and used the array. A huge array appeared before them, surrounding them with a translucent barrier that made them stuck inside the sphere like a trapped bird. But the elder knew what he needed to do and immediately deactivated the Array that allowed him to restrict Alex''s Teleportation Array Plate. He didn''t think about it and showed Alex his back, fully trusting the power of the array. "Take him away. I am not sure, but that butler must have gone already. That''s why I am afraid you two can only watch from afar." The elder sighed. The Rank 6 God seemed to understand that too. As long as Alex had that Pure Fire, he would just be a burden. "In that case, we will try to bring reinforcement around us. There should be a few God Rank Experts not far from him. If we can bring them here within half an hour, we should be able to win this and kill that bastard." Quila nodded in understanding before using the Teleportation Array without hesitation. Suddenly, Alex struck the barrier like a newbie, only to find himself getting repelled by it. He didn''t care about this and kept attacking the array until it started cracking. When the elder sensed this, he turned away and faced Alex directly outside the barrier, making sure that the two could escape. Alex watched how these two fled and became sure they wouldn''t chase Aria. After all, he had bought enough time to return to the sect with the Teleportation Array and changed back to the real Aria. Meanwhile, Alex kept fighting the Rank 7 God with all his strength until Alex utilized the fox behind him. The fox slapped the elder with its paw, sending him away. Of course, in this fight, he didn''t use Eve because it would be weird if he decided to leave it behind to make the proof more believable. At the same time, the Space Ring he threw earlier was an empty Space Ring while the rest of the items were stored inside his Inventory. Even if someone found it, they wouldn''t find anything. And this fight was something he never cared about and didn''t want it to last too long because it would raise another suspicion from others, especially from the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. That was why in this fight, he had yet to get serious. A few minutes later, slowly but surely, the elder managed to force Alex to use most of his Divine Energy, weakening him. From time to time, the elder managed to take control of the whole situation and made bruises after bruises on Alex''s skin. Alex had no choice other than to move a bit further from this place as if he got pressured by him. Suddenly, he used all his strength to blow the elder away for one last time. "You bastard¡­" Alex shouted out loud. "No need to try hard. You will die here. I won''t let you live to see another day." The elder narrowed his eyes. "If you are smarter, you might be able to destroy my Siko Family in the future, but it seems to be impossible for you." "Your arrogant knows no bounds. There is no telling who will lose!" Alex clenched his teeth. "Remember this. If I can escape from this situation, I will make sure to erase the Siko Family from this world. Even if the Elemental Sect stands in my way, I won''t fear. No, I will also destroy them if they dare to stop me!" "Empty words. You will die." The elder became more impatient when he felt Alex was talking because he just wanted to buy time. He raised his sword again, ready for another round. Following his movement, Alex also raised his stance. When the two were about to clash, Alex turned around and flew away. "There is no chance for you to escape." The elder managed to grasp his idea and followed right behind him. There were many attacks coming toward him just to slow him down. However, not only he managed to destroy them all, but he also sent enough attacks to stop Alex. Having no more choice, Alex engaged him again while moving back to get closer and closer to the so-called "reinforcement." Unfortunately, that reinforcement never came and made him panic while the elder raised his strength even further because he didn''t know Alex had no reinforcement. After a few minutes, he arrived at the cliff that he thought was a perfect place to fake his death. With his rough face, he glared at the elder. "Let''s have a deal. I will leave from here and give you back the Lightning Brit Root." "Hmph! Do you think I am a fool? Lightning Brit Root is not enough to trade for your life!" The elder snorted and raised his sword. "In that case, there is nothing I should say anymore. I will kill you here and destroy your entire family." Alex released his killing intent again and charged at him. The two then began their clash again, which seemed to be ending soon because Alex''s condition looked very weak. The elder continued overpowering him and not letting him have any rest. Alex also tried his best, but the conclusion came so suddenly. The elder''s sword had its own tip covered with blood because it pierced Alex''s heart. "This is the end. You won''t be able to defeat me even with your Pure Fire. This is the true gap between God Rank Experts." The elder snorted and said coldly. Alex''s expression was that of despair, telling the elder he would die at any moment. The unwillingness in his face was soon replaced by helplessness, but he didn''t stop there. Considering he was right at the cliff, he grabbed the elder''s hand and pulled him to the cliff. The fox released its power and turned into a fireball, or it looked that way. The fireball had powerful energy inside that would endanger his life, so the elder immediately pulled back his sword and wanted to get away. Alex was already helpless and wanted to drag him down together. "Sun Descent." Unfortunately, he was already too late. The fireball exploded right before them, enveloping the two in that huge explosion that would even destroy the surrounding forest. "No!" Chapter 1000 - New Actor Boom. The explosion could be heard by everyone around the mountain, and its power was visible from afar. No one knew what kind of fight had happened there, but they were sure of one thing. It was one hell of a fight. The Rank 6 God Elder and Quila immediately went toward the explosion as soon as it disappeared, looking around to see what happened. They desperately searched for the two bodies, alive or dead. Not long after, they sensed someone''s presence and immediately took out their weapons, wondering who it was. The one they found was a black person that seemed to have been over grilled, but they managed to identify him by channeling their Divine Energy to see his strength. It was the Elder on the same side. They immediately came toward him and asked what happened. Unfortunately, the elder''s condition was too bad. He couldn''t respond to any of their inquiries. He had lost his arms, most of his Divine Energy, and a lot of blood, so it would take more than a year to recover. Quila decided to take care of the elder while the other one investigated the area. As expected from a Pure Fire Element user. His body was immune to fire, but the elder''s sword was already planted on his heart, and when he checked his condition, there was no source of life anymore. "He''s died." He muttered and decided to return to Quila. When he saw the elder able to move a bit of his finger, he asked. "Did you kill him?" The elder used his remaining energy to slightly lower his head as if he acknowledged it. Finally, they could feel relieved because the threat had disappeared. Little did they know, the real Alexander was already far away. His complexion wasn''t like before. In fact, he looked like someone who hadn''t gone through a "fierce" fight. He was completely fine, including the wound on his chest. "To think the ability that I have never used finally has its time today," Alex muttered and looked at his chest. What he did earlier was turning his heart into the fire. He could already do this since long ago, specifically when he refined his body for the first time using that Undying Fire Body. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he never had the chance to use it. Only when he decided to fake his death, he finally used it to make it look like he was stabbed and would die soon. At that time, he used his Sun Descent energy that usually became his domain and exploded it by making it unstable. It released very powerful fire energy and created that huge explosion. It would surely make them know he died because he planned to bring the elder down with him. He then replaced his body with the body double and protected it until the fire energy was subtle enough to not melt the body. After that, he teleported away. Obviously, the elder couldn''t maintain the array that locked the use of Space Element, so he could get away pretty easily. This was a perfect staged death that he could perform in this world. Alex then took out a token and headed in a certain direction. Without anyone observing him anymore, he used his Teleportation Array to make the journey faster and headed straight to the promised location. It was inside another forest that Alex deemed to be safe to meet up. This time, he still had his real face, so anyone who saw him right now would surely see the real him. When he arrived, he saw two beasts looking very harmonious. The monkey leaned on a tree and slept while the mouse slept on his lap. It looked very comfortable, so Alex didn''t plan to wake them up. However, they seemed to sense his presence and woke up immediately. Even though they were asleep, they didn''t lower their guard because someone might catch them and put them into a slave contract. For Heilo, it might be redeemable, but Leka would surely die because she already had a contract with Alex. "Master!" Leka leaped toward him while Heilo observed the hole in his clothes. "Are you alright?" "Leka." Alex smiled before nodding his head to Heilo. "Yes. I am fine. That''s just a fake wound." "Still, I never expected Master''s face to look like this." Leka interrupted Heilo again and looked at Alex with great interest. "Haha¡­" "What are we going to do after this, Master?" Eve suddenly came out, showing her appearance for the first time to Heilo and Leka. The two were surprised and looked at her with great interest. "Who are you?" "I am the sword." Eve pointed at the sword hanging on Alex''s waist. Because he had left that place, he equipped the sword again, so Eve could appear like this again. "The sword?" The two exchanged looks and nodded even though they couldn''t understand her. Eve decided to explain what she was to these two. In the meantime, Alex asked Lin Xingzhi. "Can you get me another mask?" [Sure thing. Just hide there for a while. The mask will be ready in a week, so try to get a base or something.] "I understand. I will search for a hidden place and use my Special Array to hide." Alex nodded. [Alright. Is there anything you like to know?] "Not at the time being. This news will surely reach Nella''s and her family''s ears, so I want you to monitor Njomo and keep me updated." [Sure, I will do that. Anyway, the plan is a success. Congratulations.] "This might be the first time you congratulated me when my plan succeeded¡­Why would it come when I tried to kill myself?" [That sounds wrong, but either case, I didn''t have that intention.] "I know¡­Anyway, I need to leave now. We can talk later." Alex sighed and looked at the two, who seemed to have befriended Eve. Although they couldn''t touch Eve, they were happy enough just to talk to her. Alex couldn''t contain his smile when watching this scene and decided to wait for a moment until they realized his gaze. He then said, "Let''s go. We need to search for a place to live." "Yes, Master!" ¡­ At the same time, Aria had returned to the sect. She destroyed all evidence about her makeup and made her appearance messy. Before going to the peak master, she took a while to recall everything she had with Alex. "Even though it''s almost two years¡­It feels very brief. The training was certainly not the best memory, but that''s the best thing I could get." Aria smiled. "If only he told me about this¡­I could talk to him a bit longer and showed me gratitude to him. Well, he looked like someone who disliked such a thing, so this situation seemed to be unavoidable. "Anyway, I need to make the peak master believe that Nyx¡­Alexander has died. He said that the peak master wouldn''t avenge him because she had hidden his talent to the sect, including mine. It comes with benefits, but this is the weakness of this approach." She took a few deep breaths before steeling her resolve. She then flew toward the peak, specifically the administration building in the peak where she could meet the peak master. Two people were standing before the gate and stopped Aria, but Aria looked at them with a helpless look. She was already crying. "I need to meet with the peak master." "I am afraid we can''t let you unless you have an appointment. After all, the peak master is very busy." "Just tell her, Aria Cypress has something important. She will understand." Aria gritted her teeth and slammed the ground. The two hesitated and exchanged looks. After some considerations, one of them decided to inform the peak master. Surprisingly, the peak master indeed came out of the building. When she found Aria''s messy appearance, she started feeling something was wrong. She looked around but didn''t find Alex. Not knowing what happened, she approached her, helped her up, and asked her. "What happened? Where is Nyx?" "Nyx¡­Nyx¡­" Aria sobbed even louder and stuttered. "He''s¡­ Died." "What?!" Ilevis exclaimed in surprise and helped her walk. "Let''s go inside my room first." When they arrived at Ilevis'' room, Aria was still crying as if she couldn''t let go of Alex. "What happened? Can you tell me?" "Nyx¡­ He died under the hand of the Siko Family, specifically Quila from the Elemental Sect. He wanted to buy the Lightning Brit Root for me, but we ended up angering the Siko Family. And it turned out that Nyx was not a Martial Saint. He had reached God Rank Expert since long ago. "To stop the enemies that had one Rank 10 God, one Rank 7 God, and one Rank 6 God. He unleashed his true power, which seemed to be Rank 8 God, to buy me time to escape. He¡­He¡­" Ilevis was speechless when she heard all this. "You¡­Everything is true?" "Y-yes." Aria nodded. "If you didn''t believe me, you could even check by asking the killers yourself. And he turned out to be a Pure Fire Element user. He suppressed the Rank 6 God with his power alone but couldn''t defeat the Rank 7 God." "¡­" Ilevis blinked a few times before regret filled her heart. If what Aria just said was true, then the Unsurpassed Blade Sect¡­No, the world just lost a peerless genius. Alex had reached Rank 8 God, and he hadn''t yet reached fifty years old. If he was given time at least a hundred years, there was no telling of how high his achievement would be. And he would surely reach Rank 1 God in the future. Yet, because of her recklessness and greediness, she had thrown away the opportunity to protect him from the whole world. She thought Alex was just a genius among geniuses, but it seemed to be far more than that. If she knew this, she would have reported it to the sect master and took him as the successor of the Unsurpassed Blade Sect. Unfortunately, everything couldn''t happen anymore. Not only had he died, but there was also no record about Alex in the sect. Other than the elders who knew about him, no one could ask the sect to send their force to take revenge. Yes, everything ended because she wanted to increase the standing of her peak. She felt her heart broken and her feet went limp. Dropping to the ground, her hand still reached the table, trying to get back up. Her pale face would surely not get replaced any time soon. "I still need to report this matter to the sect master no matter what." Ilevis knew that she could just hide this truth from the sect master, but ultimately, she still wanted to fulfill the duty as a peak master. She gradually rose from the floor and walked to the door staggeringly. Before leaving, she stopped, turned around, and said to Aria. "You¡­You go back first. I will handle everything after this. I will talk to you again later¡­But¡­I want to say this¡­I am sorry." Aria only looked down and kept crying, but in her heart, she felt relieved, knowing she had fulfilled the promise to Alex. At the very least, she already got many things from here, including his recognition, his name, and age. She became even more eager to reach God Rank and leave this world to chase after him. Maybe, in the future, she could return to this place as a God King and meet with her family again, showing that their daughter actually never disappointed them. And it might not take too long. After all, Martial Saint could still live for a few thousand years. Even if she had the worst talent, as long as she continued her training according to Alex''s menu, she should be able to reach that stage within a few thousand years. However, she couldn''t stop her acting for now, and this would continue for several days until everything ended. She just treated this as a rare holiday from Alex''s training. With that thought in mind, she finally rose and left this place with that sad expression, making the disciples around her have a look of sympathy. (AN: For 1000th''s milestone, the art is in the comment section. Check it out.) Chapter 1001 - Empty A few months later, inside the familiar looking house, a girl was lying down on a rocky field, looking at the blue sky. She never expected that without the person who she had been relying on, she could progress even faster. Of course, it wasn''t her cultivation but other aspects. Not knowing why, a thought of reading the letter that he sent a few months ago came across her mind. Although her hands were shaking, she raised her hand and took out the letter, reading it. "I don''t have many things to say to you, to be honest. I have taught you everything that you need to know, and the training itself is repetitive. Even without me training you, you will be able to get stronger just fine. "What I want to mention are a few important things. Firstly, you shall partake in several missions before the Sword Pavilion event comes. Trust me. This will do you good, and don''t just because you are confident in your Sword Eye, you keep using it. "I trust you that you won''t use it that much even without me beside you¡­I want you to experience many things, including how people behave. Haven''t you got played by the Grayfig Family? With your talent, you shouldn''t get played like that. You lack the experience to incorporate all your ideas into a sharp spear that can destroy your opponent. "So, yeah, you should go for a few missions. Three will be ideal. That''s my first task for you. I hope you can complete it. "The second thing is regarding the technique I gave you... It''s the technique to turn your Sword Qi into Pure Sword Qi, the basic requirement to reach God King. This was the reason why the Sword God could become a God King. "Of course, you shouldn''t feel too proud just because you are able to wield this technique. There are several reasons why not many people can reach God King. They can''t master their unique ability to a perfect degree, such as the Sword Qi turns into a Pure Sword Qi¡­This is something like a normal Fire turns into a Pure Fire. "You should know what I mean, right? You should keep striving for the goal in your mind and make your way without getting bothered by outside people. "And this is just a warning for the technique. You can learn to change your Sword Qi to a Pure Sword Qi, but you should turn them completely after you become a God Rank Expert. When it has become the Divine Sword Qi, you will know that it''s easier than to replace them and turn them into a Divine Sword Qi, so yeah, no need to waste your time to turn them now. "Third thing is advice from me. I want you to go to the Sword Pavilion once again, challenging it. I believe the important person that keeps the Pavilion going will recognize the Pure Sword Qi. You might get a bigger reward than the others, so go for it. "Last but not least, when you leave this world and want to come to my world, there will be someone coming for you. His name is Zark and other than that name, you shouldn''t go along with him. And¡­this is just a precaution, but when you meet that person, you should ask him, "Do guts exist?" "If he answers with "That''s not guts. It means Spirits. And yes, the Spirit Race does exist." Then, that''s the guy. I am sorry for this inconvenience, but I have many things going on, so I can only ask you to do this. "That''s all I want to say. I hope you stay safe and be careful out there. Visit your family once in a while, because family is the best thing you have¡­Of course, a good family that is. Good luck." Aria couldn''t help but smile when she read this. She managed to understand more and more about the outside worlds, including how dark it''s out there. It''s beyond her imagination. People betrayed her because of reward. Assassins just wanted to live and took the commission because they were forced to. She had experienced it all, but none of them managed to kill her. Due to Alex''s death, Ilevis announced Aria to be the second favorite disciple, so no one dared to attack her openly. At the very least, history won''t repeat itself. Unfortunately, it also meant that many people would start knowing her existence. When they learned she had learned the Purgatory Sword to the highest degree, they began to attack her by sending assassins and others since they couldn''t act openly due to the protection from the sect. Of course, it only applied to those from outside the sect. If a disciple of the Unsurpassed Blade Sect wanted to kill her, they could try it, but they also needed to be prepared for her retaliation. Luckily, Aria never appeared in the sect, so she didn''t antagonize anymore. And the last one had been killed. In any case, Aria had a really unexpected time for the past few months. As for the second thing, she was qualified to receive the knowledge about the Pure Sword Qi. Even the Sword God acknowledged her. He wanted to teach Letizia, Evelyn, and even Rose about this technique, but he needed to send them first to this world to gain the necessary knowledge and how the people here thought about their weapons. After that, even if they wanted him to teach them about this Pure Qi, he would do it without hesitation. The third one was a bit of a dilemma. Alex might come to her again in this opportunity since no one could see each other and it was isolated from the outside world. As long as he could figure out the Sword Pavilion, he would be able to meet her to see her progress before leaving this world. However, he had no confidence in doing it, so he only asked her to the Sword Pavilion because she could improve there. The last one might be the most important. Because of what happened to Evelyn and Silvia, he didn''t want the people he knew to suffer such a thing anymore, so he came up with an abrupt code like this. And Zark had the authority to take her by force if someone dared to stop her. Aria let out a long sigh to the sky. "The sky is clear, but I can''t just shake this excitement. There are five levels in the Sword Pavilion, or in other words, five trials. The first time I went there, I managed to pass the second level. And the second time, I passed the third level. "I wonder, what is the fourth level¡­And if it''s possible to reach the fifth level?" Aria muttered and thought of Alex. "That man must be able to reach that level¡­If not, I will be confused. Well, I have turned one percent of my Sword Qi into Pure Sword Qi for testing the technique, and I am already pretty good at it. I will halt this progress and just show the Pure Sword Qi when I go to the pavilion. Anyway, I need to prepare since I should get going tomorrow or I will be late." With an eager expression, she rose from the ground and walked to the house. But when she opened the door, she didn''t immediately go in. Instead, she turned around and looked at the empty field. She remembered how Silvia usually still trained with Alex since she would be the first one to collapse. She recalled how Heilo tried to catch Leka because her dodging ability was a top notch. All those were good memories, but none of them stayed here any longer, turning this lively mansion into a dead mansion with only her inside. Aria could only shake her head and sigh. "It feels empty now without all four of you¡­" ¡­ A few weeks later, Aria had arrived in the town that protected the Sword Pavilion. With her senses alone, she could find many powerful people all over the city. Whether they came from this city or the other three sects, they came to this place to seek more powerful knowledge from the Sword Pavilion. ''He must have come, right?'' Aria thought before sighing inwardly. Even if Alex came, she wouldn''t be able to meet him, so there was no point in searching for him. In fact, it would make the situation more suspicious if she met someone. Because of her nature, Aria came to this place alone despite the peak master wanting her to bring a few people along. She just felt uncomfortable when being surrounded by people, especially those who had hidden intentions, so she pushed them away. Walking through the city, she arrived in front of a tower that shot into the sky. It looked majestic, but what made it unique was the Sword Qi surrounding it. Even after a few thousand years, the Sword Qi that the Sword God left behind wasn''t depleted yet. However, after getting the knowledge about the Pure Sword Qi, he understood that this tower contained his Pure Sword Qi. If Alex were here, he might be able to decipher the tower better than her, but she could only suck it out and stare at it. This purple-colored tower looked extremely powerful as if it was a weapon. She walked closer and observed this powerful tower from up close. A bit further on her left was a pair of giant doors that would surely let people inside when the time had arrived. She then looked around and sighed. It was a bit hard to go around this tower because its diameter was more than one kilometer, showing how colossal it was. ''Most people actually fail on the first and second stage. When one becomes more mature, they should be able to get past the second stage, but I have never heard someone reaching the fifth stage. Even passing the third stage is considered a genius, and if a Martial Saint can beat the fourth stage, they are geniuses among geniuses. ''Well, I don''t really care about the things called talents, but I truly want to see how far I can get this time.'' She couldn''t help but smile when facing such a challenge. After a while, she had seen enough and planned to go back. When she turned around, a man passed her. He had long white hair and wore a graceful long robe. There wasn''t a single weapon on his body other than the bamboo fan on his hand. When observing the girl, the man couldn''t contain his smile that would make someone question his manner. However, there was a different meaning in his smile. It wasn''t a vulgar smile or even an excited smile. Instead, it was a gentle smile as if a teacher was proud of his student. ''You''ve gotten stronger¡­And I assure you, you will just get even stronger from now on.'' She received the thought transmission and subconsciously opened her eyes, turning around to search where it came from. No one but her knew what those words meant. It was none other than Alex''s message, the one she had been waiting for. In other words, Alex indeed came to this place. It made her anxious about what would happen to the tower if Alex beat the fifth stage, but her worry was unnecessary. A careful person like him who would stage his own death should be fine. She only needed to know that Alex was safe and sound, so she continued walking to her inn while closing her eyes again. She thought, ''So, he really comes. Time to show my progress in this Sword Pavilion then¡­Well, it''s not like we can show anything to the outside world. But yeah, I need to aim as high as possible.'' With that determination, she returned, preparing to enter the tower that would be opened two days later. Meanwhile, the white-haired young man turned around and watched her back until she disappeared with a smile. After a few more minutes, he turned around and started staring at the tower from the bottom. A word escaped from his mouth. "Interesting." Chapter 1002 - Trials The day the gate opened was greeted by euphoria from all cultivators there. This was one of the biggest opportunities in their life, so they were not going to waste it. After all, only those who were one hundred fifteen years old or younger could enter this place. If they combined with the time they needed to reach Martial Emperor, which was the basic requirement to enter this place, most of them only had around five tries before they were too old to participate. Thus, not a single person who wanted to improve themselves wasted this opportunity. Alex looked at the tower from afar with a smile. He might have noticed something they never had. The Sword Qi that surrounded the tower was a Pure Sword Qi, but more than that, it was replenished by the Sword Qi from all the people. In fact, all the strength they expended during their stay in this city and inside the tower was converted by the tower to sustain its life. Of course, it wasn''t very effective, but with enough hype, the place was bound to be popular, diminishing that weakness. The excess of Sword Qi was then given to the participants here by a certain someone in the tower. Although he didn''t know who he was, he noticed a powerful existence inside the tower. Most probably, a Rank 3 God if not Rank 2 God. It seemed to be the administrator that the Sword God told him. The problem he needed to face was how to climb this tower. The important people started coming to this place, watching everything unfolded. The crowd began getting into it, shouting how great those people were. Alex ignored them all along and kept watching the tower with his Spirit Eyes. Suddenly, many words appeared in front of the tower. They were separated into five parts. The first part was the lowest one, and it made a certain riddle for the people to understand. "You are cultivators who use weapons. Follow your own path." As much as he wanted to decipher the first code, he decided to see the others first. "Strength is not always the answer." "Trust your weapons." "What is a weapon to you?" "Only those qualified may enter." The riddles were not long and complicated, but they did hold deep meaning. Even Alex couldn''t understand them easily. When he was about to think about the riddles, the cracking sound echoed in everyone''s ears as the door gradually opened, inviting everyone to enter. "Hey, it''s open!" "We need to go now!" "This door will only be opened for another ten minutes." Many started coming toward the door, trying to get inside the tower, but Alex still had no intention of coming in. He waited and pondered the five riddles. The bottom was surely the first riddle and the first trial, so he wanted to at least understand what it meant. "You are cultivators who use weapons¡­Follow my path?" Alex narrowed his eyes. No matter how he thought, he couldn''t understand the real meaning of this riddle. At one point, he thought that he only needed to believe in his path and continuously walked inside a white room that had no end, but he felt something was wrong. The riddle still had its first half, which emphasized the weapons, but Alex couldn''t understand it. He thought everything would be solved if he brought his weapon, but he knew it wouldn''t be the case. Anyway, several minutes had passed, and the people were reduced to only a tenth of its original number. Alex found Aria still standing outside, watching the five riddles. At the very least, she wasn''t rash in making decisions, so yeah, he was pretty happy about it. "Well, I understand the latter part, so I think I should go inside as well. It''s not like I want to go together with these people who seem to have big status," Alex muttered to himself before leaping from his inn. He flew straight to the gate, passing everyone, including Aria. Aria was still in deep thought, so she didn''t notice him. Alex didn''t plan to meet her as well, so he also didn''t look at her, and the scenery changed as soon as he entered the gate. It turned out to be an enclosed space. Alex found himself in a small tunnel that could fit three people in at the same time. The height wasn''t that great as well. Alex took a deep breath, activated his Spirit Eyes and investigated the area. To his surprise, he couldn''t see any people nearby. Even though the tower was spacious, he should be able to find many people because there were millions of people coming here. But the fact that it showed no one and only Spiritual Energy that surrounded him, Alex knew that this was a special realm array or an illusion array. These two were the only ones that could mess with Alex right now. He might have immunity to illusion, but his sense would still get messed up since the target was his sense of direction. "Wait a minute¡­Is there a chance that this is not an illusion. But another realm or something? Or there is a chance that I am¡­" Alex suddenly realized something and raised his vision. He was surprised to find many people above him. He then looked down and realized another clue by finding another batch of people. When he saw the people of the town were also above him, he noticed the fact that they were underground. "I see. This tower is not only going to the sky but goes deep down inside the ground. The goal is to go up, I guess?" Alex speculated and nodded. "Alright then. What should I do?" Alex narrowed his eyes. This place was full of Sword Qi, so he thought about cultivating since it would be beneficial for his Sword Qi, but there was also a time limit preventing him from doing that. "According to the information I got from Aria, each level had a time limit of five days¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "In that case, I should search for the entrance of the second stage and cultivate. When the time limit is near, I will then go inside. Wait a minute. There is no telling that the entrance will lead to the second stage, so I should spare a day to make sure I have enough time if I am wrong." With that thought in mind, he finally took a step forward. "Follow my path." Alex was muttering the riddle over and over again while he stormed inside the maze but to no avail. His first plan in believing his path had become a failure since nothing came in even after several hours of walking. Well, he hadn''t deemed it as a failure yet because there might be a chance that something would happen in a day or so. But at this point, he found something more interesting. It was on the first half of the riddle. Why would the riddle specifically mention them as a weapon user? Normally, people didn''t put any thoughts into it because they knew weapon users were people who used weapons. As simple as that. And all people coming here would think of themselves as one. At first, it looked like a greeting to them, but if Alex thought about it even further. He felt there was a deep meaning behind the first half. "Weapons huh¡­" Alex muttered to himself and almost forgot the fact that this place was surrounded by Sword Qi. "This is not my Sword Qi¡­Yes. I have been led by this Sword Qi since the beginning. Even though I was walking while believing that my path is right, it wasn''t enough. This Qi is the one making the path, and I just unintentionally followed it. In that case¡­" Alex seemed to have solved the problem and released his own Sword Qi. Suddenly, a huge change occurred when Alex''s Sword Qi influenced the other Sword Qi around him. The brown bricks for the wall, floor, and ceiling gradually turned black. The Sword Qi also retreated from his front. Alex noticed that he was right and continued walking, believing his path was right. And as he expected, he found a giant door after several minutes. "This must lead to the second stage." Alex smiled. "I will stay here for three days before opening this door. I can''t waste this precious chance after all." When he was about to sit on the floor, words appeared on the door, telling Alex something. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and read it. "Continue. The time will be acc.u.mulated and assessed for the last reward and time for practice." "Does this mean it wants me to keep up my pace or even complete it faster?" Alex narrowed his eyes and contemplated. "I want the reward, but is it worth the effort? I mean, the training is more tempting to me. And it said I would have time for practice later?" Alex was in a dilemma. On one hand, he wanted to jump straight to the second stage because of the time for practice. On the other hand, he didn''t know the calculation process. If the reward were not worth it, he would regret it. "What should I do?" He muttered for a moment. Ultimately, he decided to continue, gambling it all. With the Sword Pavilion''s reputation that gave many people something useful, he believed the reward shouldn''t be too disappointing. He stood back on his feet and opened the door that led to somewhere. Unfortunately, he couldn''t see it at the moment because it was just covered with light. When his finger touched the door, he got sucked in and arrived in another place but still a maze. "Again?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows, but when he found different types of energy appeared both on the floor and ceiling, he realized something was wrong. "Traps?" Because he wasn''t sure about this, he took out this water bottle and threw it. The bottle rolled around the floor while smearing the floor with water. Suddenly, the floor reacted and swallowed the water as a whole before crushing the bottle. Alex looked at the ceiling that suddenly dropped down and returned after crushing the bottle. "Hmm¡­This is intriguing. Strength is not always an answer, huh." Alex contemplated for a minute before finding something interesting. A bit farther away from here was a red button which seemed to be the clue to the next stage. "I think I need to push that button, but I can''t use my strength. No, if I enter the traps, I will be crushed. That means there is a way for me to get around it." However, Alex was still a bit playful by summoning a Rank 1 Spear which could be thrown away anytime. He raised his stance like a baseball player and threw the spear as fast as possible. "Spear Throwing Art, Spin Throwing!" He used the long-forgotten Spear Throwing Art. The attack wasn''t all that powerful, but the speed should be able to bypass the crushing ceiling. The spear continued making its way toward the button, and none of the ceilings could crush it. Every time it almost hit the spear, the spear managed to get away with speed alone. Since it kept returning to its original state, Alex could see the progress of his spear. It had covered half of the distance and kept slipping past. A few seconds later, it managed to pass ninety percent of the distance, ready to hit the button after passing the last one. And as he predicted, it passed the last one. "Well¡­That was easy," Alex muttered. The trial might want to mess with him as right in front of the button appeared a transparent barrier. The spear struck the barrier instead, keeping the button from getting hit. Alex widened his eyes, not knowing what to say. He thought everything would go smoothly, but it seemed the tower wanted to make the challenge harder by using that. Well, he couldn''t really say it since he used the strength of a Divine Body that was far stronger than that of a Martial Saint. "¡­" "Never mind." Chapter 1003 - Trials Part 2 Seeing his attempt failed, Alex analyzed the reason by observing the transparent barrier. "Hmm¡­It''s like an array that will stop any physical things from entering. In that case, it means I am not required to face all these ceilings that will drop to me. And since I am sealing my power to only a Martial Saint, I won''t be able to pass the speed of the drop. "In that case, there is something more to this challenge. The problem is what kind of thing I need to send to hit that red button." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Since physical won''t work, I guess Spiritual Energy or something?" When Alex thought about this, he suddenly figured it out. He raised his hand and waved it to the front, sending a wisp of Spiritual Energy. To his surprise, the ceiling went down again, blocking the Spiritual Energy from passing it. "Hmm." Alex became confused again before a wild idea came into his mind. He never tried this as a standalone, but he had done it so many times in a fight. Since the first stage was to open the path using his Sword Qi, he thought it would be something like that. Hence, he planned to send an attack toward the button but only with his Sword Qi. "This is not strength, but speed." Alex smiled. He pulled out his sword and swung it down. Since he wouldn''t be able to send them with these two alone, he infused the Spiritual Energy into the technique. The Sword Wave flew at a slower speed than the spear, but it managed to avoid every obstacle and steadily made its way toward the red button. However, what he got was another failure. The barrier blocked it again. "Should I just use my Divine Strength to destroy that red button?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Well, there must be something going on that I can use to pass the stage. I just couldn''t find it yet." Suddenly, six other red buttons appeared. Some were on the ground, some were on the wall, or some even stuck on the ceiling. Alex found this a challenge because he realized that the last attack wasn''t exactly a failure. According to his Spirit Eyes, these six red buttons were connected to the main red button, so he came up with two ways to deal with this. The first would be speed. He would hit each button one by one in succession, and the barrier might open at that time. As for the second method, it was Control. He needed to control his strength and sent six attacks at the same time. Contemplating for a minute, he chose to do both. "Let''s try the first one. The consequence shouldn''t be that harsh, right? I mean, even the last one is not that bad." Alex thought and prepared his sword. He sent the same sword strike to hit those six red buttons in succession. He didn''t do anything special, so he had no problem using it continuously. What surprised him was the fact that the button would return to its original state when another button got hit. This strengthened his belief in the second option. "It seems I need to hit them at the same time." Alex smiled and took out another sword. He aimed all those six buttons and sent the Sword Waves flying. The ceiling wasn''t a problem anymore, so the Sword Waves managed to hit all six buttons at the same time. This made Alex happy and feel excited about what would happen when he succeeded. His expectation was betrayed because nothing happened. The six buttons were indeed successfully hit by the Sword Waves and didn''t return to normal, but there seemed to be no visible change like the appearance of the six buttons. Remembering what happened earlier, he decided to wait for ten minutes to see if there was any change like earlier, but nothing still happened. Since he couldn''t see what this stage wanted him to do, he just needed to overpower it, albeit he stopped after activating his Spirit Eyes again. The ground and ceiling might still be an obstacle, but there was no more barrier that would stop him. Because of that, Kai threw another Rank 1 Spear as hard as he got and smashed that red button. Crank. He felt something was breaking inside the wall and the wheel inside the wall seemed to be undone. Some sort of machinery inside started doing something, and a path finally revealed itself. There was nothing wrong with this path, not even energy, so Alex never thought there was a path behind the wall. Next to the main red button, he could find another door that just opened. "It seems taking this path is the way to go." Alex thought and proceeded inside the tunnel. His Spirit Eyes remained active to see the change of this maze. Nonetheless, he had beaten two challenges already, so the progress was good. When he arrived at the other side, he noticed another door, similar to the one he saw on the first floor. This was no doubt the gate to the third stage. Alex now wondered whether he would become famous because of this. And if it were broadcasted to many people, he would soon get too famous for him to hide his own ability. Leaving this planet would also make those people begin investigating him. But the time limit appeared again, signaling him to enter within five minutes. Without much choice, he opened the gate again, traveling to another dimension. What shocked him was not the place. The look was still the same, but this time, Eve had come out of her sword. "Eve? What are you doing?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "I am sorry, Master. I don''t know why but there is something calling me. And it forces me to stay in this form. It feels weird." Eve explained her action. Alex also became confused and recalled the third riddle. "Trust your weapons¡­" "Trust me?" Eve tilted her head in confusion. "Yeah. It seems to be that way. Let''s look at it from another perspective. Unlike you who have a form like this, the others only have consciousness¡­Wait. In that case¡­" Alex suddenly took out another weapon. When he channeled his energy inside, he felt something was responding to him, asking him to move to his left. Because of this response, Alex asked Eve. "Where is the thing calling for you?" "It''s this way." Eve pointed at his front, different from the one that the other one showed him, disappointing a bit because he didn''t know what to do. However, Eve added another explanation and pointed to his left. "But I believe this is also a maze, and we need to take this path. I believe this is the only one that will allow us to reach that place." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes, confirming that both of them told the truth. It seemed the energy around here was telling the real path, and since the test told him to trust his weapon, Alex instantly trusted Eve without any explanation. "Can you lead the way?" "Yes. But are you sure this is the right way?" "I believe so." Alex nodded. "I understand. Let me show you the way." Eve nodded and started walking inside the maze. Since it was a rare walk with Alex, she decided to slow down her pace and walked beside him instead of in front of him. It might be due to the favor Alex had given to her this whole time or she just got used to having stayed beside him all the time, considering she was always in his waist during the trips. Either way, she followed the track and arrived at the first hurdle. Alex narrowed his eyes and found many huge spikes in the area. However, there seemed to be a path between them, allowing them to move on. To his surprise, Eve suddenly stopped and looked at one of the spikes with a confused eye. "What''s wrong?" Alex asked. "I don''t know, but something is telling me to ask you to stab your own hand to this spike." She pointed at the middle spike out of the three spikes. Alex didn''t doubt her and immediately slammed his palm into this spike until it pierced him. Eve''s body shook as she never expected Alex would do it without hesitation. This showed how much Alex trusted her. This wasn''t the level of the riddle. After all, it was normal for humans to not trust their tools that much, especially one where they would meet pain. Yet, Alex did it. The blood started flowing to the metal, turning it red. "Master¡­It''s enough. Please raise your hand." She worriedly asked him to stop. "Is that enough?" Alex smiled. "¡­" She hesitated for a few seconds until she felt another order. Only at that time, she finally nodded her head, and Alex raised his hand. It was painful, but Alex had experienced something much more painful, so he could keep his calm to not worry Eve too much. As soon as his hand was free, the Spiritual Energy around instantly recovered him and regenerated his body as if nothing happened. The blood was still there and activated the hidden mechanism to retract all spikes in the area. Alex let Eve take a look at his hand and smiled. "See? I am fine." Eve nodded with a serious expression. She continued leading Alex through the maze until they found the second obstacle. The same as the previous obstacle. This one needed blood to be spilled. Alex had no hesitation and injured himself. However, the wound this time didn''t regenerate like last time, leaving a hole in his palm. "This¡­" Alex widened his eyes and looked around with his Spirit Eyes, trying to see whether the mechanism was still running smoothly or not. If it were not, there would be a chance for him to die in this stage. "Master¡­Are you alright?" Eve started worrying about him because she felt there was something wrong with this stage. However, Alex forced her to lead him until everything finished. The third obstacle was a single path with armor on it. It was full body armor, except for the sleeve part. In other words, his arms would be exposed. When he saw the holes on the wall, he figured out what would happen if he crossed this. Even Eve became suspicious and wanted to stop him, but Alex only asked. "What is the quest?" "It''s to cross this path and have the arrows hit you." Eve clenched her fists. Alex nodded and started walking across the path without hesitation. Once again, Alex trusted her completely. If it were a normal person, when their weapons asked them to sacrifice their lives, they would surely throw them away. However, it was very different for Alex. As soon as he decided to take in Eve, he considered her a family even though she was only a Sword Spirit. He wouldn''t betray the trust that easily. Alex walked across the path, and the arrows started flying one by one while Eve waited on the same spot. The arrows began piercing his arms, and blood started to get spilled. He must be experiencing pain that she couldn''t imagine. Unable to see him like that, she clenched her teeth and decided not to obey the order that had been echoing in her mind. She planned to use herself as a meat shield to protect Alex, but surprisingly, all arrows pierced through her as if going through a ghost. In the end, she was only a Sword Spirit. Her main body was a sword, and this was just a mere astral body, so the arrows kept hitting Alex. "Master¡­" "Is this a part of the mission?" Alex asked with a soft tone, but she clearly noticed his shaking voice. She clenched her fists and shook her head. "I just can''t see Master like this¡­But I can''t even protect you during a time like this. This must be a fraud." "You don''t need to care about that." Alex smiled. Even if he failed this one, his relationship with Eve had improved, so it wasn''t a loss. This would improve their coordination as well. Ultimately, Alex smiled at her and asked while holding her hand. "Want to cross this path together?" Even though no arrow would hit her, Alex still asked her that question. She obviously felt something new that she never had this whole time. ''So, this is what it feels to have a master that will trust you no matter what¡­I am very lucky to have such a master.'' She held his hand tightly and nodded. "Let''s go together then." Chapter 1004 - Trial Parts 3 Alex didn''t scream during the whole time he got rained by arrows. The pain was absurd that could easily pummel someone to the ground. Even so, Alex still managed to pass that path without letting a sound other than the talk with Eve. However, Eve also knew how much pain he endured because his hand kept contracting and relaxing every time an arrow hit his hands. She couldn''t help but shake her head after recalling how easy people a few thousand years ago betrayed their friends because of stupid reasons. That created the unwillingness and spread the killing intent. It was the power that she fed during the past few thousand years, so she exactly understood if Alex screamed and doubted her. There was no telling that she told the truth. There might be another safer path somewhere, and she simply didn''t want to say it. This test was meant to test the relationship between the sword and its master. The Sword Qi in this place was powering up the Sword Consciousness or the Sword Spirit to be able to communicate with their master. Most people who failed here couldn''t take it because they believed that the weapon had betrayed them. There might be some cases like that since the master themselves didn''t treat their weapon well. Either way, Alex and Eve had yet to realize the meaning behind this trial. Alex simply took all the arrows out of his arms and tried to recuperate from his wound. To his surprise, the wound couldn''t be healed. Even after taking a pill that usually regenerated and plucked the wound, nothing happened. Seeing this Eve wanted to stop the trial because she couldn''t bear it anymore, but Alex kept holding her hand and smiled with a pale face. "It''s okay. I am fine. Let''s continue according to your senses." "Master¡­" Eve clenched her teeth and nodded unwillingly. She forced herself to continue forward, where they met the same condition as the first one. "So, what should I do again?" Alex asked. But when he saw the unwillingness of Eve to tell him what he needed to do, he patted her head. "Don''t worry about me. Those arrows can''t injure me easily, no, I should say, Rose''s arrows are more painful than that. That''s why, please tell me and beat this trial." Eve walked toward the same spike with difficulty. "Oh?! Is it the same as the first one?" Alex smiled. Eve didn''t reply to him. She kept staring at him with a complicated expression. When Alex wanted to try it again, Eve screamed. "Ahhh!" He was startled, but he saw Eve raising her hand before having the spike pierced her hand, creating the same wound on him. Unlike the previous trap, she could be hurt this time, which made Alex confused. It shouldn''t be possible, and her hand should pass the spike like that of a ghost, but he could see blood coming out of her hand. "Eve! What are you doing?" Alex was worried about her instead of pondering over the mission. "I can''t¡­I can''t let Master do this thing again." Eve let out tears. She never experienced pain like this ever since she was created, so there was no pain like this recorded in her memory. All the feelings were fresh in her mind and that made it look more painful. "I am sorry, Master. Eve is selfish." Alex realized that this mission was for him, but Eve didn''t want to let him do it because she simply couldn''t bear him sacrificing himself just because he trusted her completely. No, it might be the reason why she chose this action. There might be a chance for him to endure more and more things ahead, so if he could pass like this while she shared his burden, it would be awesome. But if it couldn''t, she would feel guilty to Alex because she unintentionally ruined her master''s trials. Yet, there was no hatred or whatsoever in Alex''s eyes. Instead, it was pain. He looked like he experienced the pain she endured as well, but she knew that Alex felt it because he¡­also couldn''t bear to see her like that. "You¡­" When Eve heard another thing, she panted and slowly raised her hand, letting him see the hole in her hand. "Master¡­ It''s a success. You won''t need to endure this alone." Eve tried her best to smile, but it was too hard due to the pain. Alex subconsciously grabbed her hand, wondering what he should do to treat her. "I need to go to a Forging Master." "It''s alright, Master. Eve is also alright." Unknowingly, their two blood mixed with each other, and a gate appeared out of nowhere. The energy around healed them again completely and Eve turned back to what she was before. Word after word came into their vision. "You are partners. The master trusts his weapon and cuts down every enemy standing in his way. The sword understands her master. And thus, the bond is created and forms a symphony between both of you. The blood and pain she experienced was everything you spilled along the way." When Alex read this, he realized many things, including why he needed to shed so much blood. All the blood was stored just to grant her a moment to experience what he felt. If they understood each other, they would work together better because they knew what to do and what they couldn''t do. Alex and Eve exchanged looks and both smiled. "Let''s go then, Eve." "Yes, Master." Alex and Eve went toward the fourth gate while still holding hands. As expected, they arrived at the same maze like before. Nothing really changed, including the pattern in this maze. "Master. It''s telling me to go this way." Eve pointed to the right. Alex nodded and immediately proceeded according to Eve''s direction. If he had fully trusted before, this trust became even more unbreakable after the third test. Alex and Eve continued for a minute before they met their first obstacle. It was flying stones. There was a gap between his side and the other side, and they could only pass it by stepping on the stone. There was even an introduction to the obstacle. Go to the other side without flying. Alex and Eve had no problem in stepping on those stones, but Eve had another brilliant plant. "Master, Master. The pit is too low, and the room is a bit bigger than I expected¡­" She paused for a moment. "Even so, I think there is something I want to try. What do you think, Master?" "Something you want to try?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Yes. Please use your Swallowing Heaven, Master. I will cross this path in that form and become a bridge, so you can "go to the other side without flying." Alex widened his eyes, never expecting her to suggest something like this. "But it means you will be flying, right?" "Not really. Master can just throw me there, and it''s not flying." Eve shrugged. "¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. If it were the previous him, he might not agree with this plan because there were too many variables. But he seemed to understand her train of thoughts and agreed to her request. "What is a weapon to me, huh¡­" Alex muttered while answering it inwardly. ''We are obviously partners that will rely on each other.'' Alex touched Eve''s main body, AKA the sword, and channeled his Spiritual Energy there. The dragon appeared and was ready to be thrown. However, Alex made sure there was nothing in the way by checking it with his Spirit Eyes. After confirming there was no mysterious Spiritual Energy, he threw the dragon''s body to the other side. Eve grabbed the floor and stretched her body to make a solid bridge for Alex. "Master. I am ready." Alex nodded with a serious expression and leaped on top of the dragon before walking across the gap that would lead to the void. It was very safe and had nothing to worry about. As soon as he reached the other side, Eve turned back to her human form and let out a long sigh. "We did it!" "Yes." Alex smiled. They had a high-five. "I am glad that it works." "Of course it will work. It doesn''t break any rule." Alex shrugged before remembering something. "Though, I can simply use my Teleportation to go to this side¡­" Eve opened her mouth before covering it with her hand. She forgot about that because Alex had been sealing his Space Element while inside this world. "Haha¡­" Alex lightly flicked her forehead and said, "Let''s continue." "Geez. You should treat me better, Master. I am still far older than you, no?" She pouted. "Sorry, I can''t see you as a legal loli." "Well, I am a sword, not a loli." She shrugged, saying the obvious thing with a poker face. "¡­" The two then continued to the next obstacles. This tested their abilities to cope up with the situation together. At one time, Eve did everything alone. Alex also used the sword when he needed to fight against a creature that stood in their way. This showed Eve could become his friend, partner, sharpest weapon, shield, and so on, depending on how they solved the situation. It was a bountiful experience for Alex and Eve. The former learned how to wield a sword better by understanding the sword he wielded instead. This was a fresh approach from his perspective because he usually never cared about what sword he used back when he was still below Martial Saint. Eve, on the other hand, understood the concept of a sword, like when she needed to release her energy, how to control the dragon better and many other things. At one point, the two often joked around while doing the task as if they didn''t feel pressured at all since they watched each other back. After the fiftieth test, Alex took a deep breath. "How many more of this? It starts becoming repetitive." "Indeed. I am starting to get bored. At first, it was interesting since I never experienced a thrilling adventure like this despite this place looking like the cave I was in." She nodded. "Haha¡­ Don''t think much about it. I will lead you to see a bigger world after this, so wait for it patiently. I am sure you will be surprised by how different each world is." Alex boasted his own experiences to Eve. "Master¡­I still can''t understand why you are boasting to me." She rolled her eyes. Alex shrugged. "I only told you that you would have more surprises after this, so don''t say this is the best experience yet because there might be something even better in the future." "Indeed. But I still should say this. The trial is the one thing I won''t regret in the future. I feel like I can understand Master better. To think Master endure such a pain when we are fighting an opponent." "That is if I am injured." Alex shrugged. "Yes. That''s why I will do my best to protect you." "I am looking forward to it." Alex smiled. They both kept walking while having this kind of conversation. Despite the numerous hassle they needed to pass, they continuously marched forward. Until they passed a hundred tests, they ended up in a long corridor without any sign of another test. Alex and Eve then arrived at the end of the corridor not long after, finding another gate that led them to the last stage. However, Alex remembered the riddle for this last stage was "those who qualified may enter." In that case, he didn''t know whether he could reach the end or not. Even so, it didn''t stop his desire to try it. They both walked toward the gate before it suddenly opened. What he could see was only white light illuminating the entire room. Not long after that, a shadow gradually made its appearance. Alex barely saw his appearance. It was a she. "Welcome to the fifth floor. You have succeeded the test and qualify to enter the secret garden. No, I should say, I have been waiting for you to reach this place, Sir Alexander Sirius. Or should I call you, Sir Spirit God?" The woman smiled mysteriously. Chapter 1005 - Trials Part 4 Alex narrowed his eyes when the other party mentioned his previous title. He took two deep breaths before shaking his head. "My name is Alexander Sirius." The woman instantly understood the meaning behind his words and changed her approach. "In that case, Sir Alexander Sirius. Please come to the highest place of this tower first. I would like to explain something to you. My Master, the Peerless Sword God, has told me that you will come to this place, so please don''t worry." Alex hesitated because he didn''t know who the woman was. But when he checked her cultivation, he decided to follow her. If someone like her wanted to do something, he would have died already. After all, the woman before him was a Rank 2 God. And yes, she is still alive. Eve looked at him moving and followed him. When they crossed the gate, they arrived inside a huge field filled with medicinal herbs, books, scrolls, and a few things for paper production. "This¡­" Alex looked around with his Spirit Eyes. He found a tree to make paper and traditional machinery. When his vision turned a bit to the right, he found a bunch of scrolls and books, so he realized the machinery was to make paper. In the middle of the field, Alex saw a building made of wood. The woman smiled and explained. "I am sorry for this messy place. I have many things that I need to do in this area, starting from paper productions, copying the techniques from books, and gardening." "Is this where you control everything?" Alex asked. "Yes. The reward, challenges, and punishment are from this place. And I am the one doing it all." "It must take most of your time¡­" "Well, it was certainly true at first. But when you grew accustomed to it, you would have done it within a year or two, leaving all the other eight years to cultivate." She smiled. "¡­" Alex never thought that someone lived in this tower that was supposed to be a place to change one''s fate. "Before that, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Zera, Eighth Zeroth Sword of his majesty, the Sword God." She bowed her head to Alex as if she was in the presence of the Spirit God. "I have been in this tower since I was a Martial Monarch, so it''s already a few thousand years." "You never thought about going outside?" "Not really." She shook her head without a change of expression. "Just like your Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, there is always someone who is loyal to you. I am here to wait for the next Sword God to appear, but it seems it won''t be too long." Alex felt a mysterious glance from her as if implying Alex would do something. He remembered his promise to the Sword God and nodded. "I can only do it when the time is right. I need a hundred years at maximum to settle everything before I can fulfill that promise." "It''s fine. I don''t really mind. A hundred years feels short to me." She smiled. Alex paused for a second and asked Lin Xingzhi. ''What is she talking about? Six Elemental Gods? Five Guardians?" [The strongest warriors of Eulja. Six Elemental Gods are former rulers before the true Spirit God ascended. It''s better to meet them when you are back due to the matter of Evelyn before. As for the Five Guardians, they are the ones holding the fort of our territory.] [West, North, East, South, and Center. These five were the ones protecting the territory from any kind of threats. There is one last title, which is the Ten Commandants. They are the ones protecting Eulja when others are not there, AKA in war. Zark is one of the Ten Commandants.] ''I see. It seems I really know nothing about Eulja. Maybe I should take my time to learn when I return next.'' Alex nodded with a serious expression. [I will teach you everything and try to make a secret meeting to meet all of them.] ''Thanks.'' Alex then turned to Zera. "Still, a Martial Monarch huh." "I was given a second chance in the past from him, and he was my master. After Master''s death, the others decided to go to war and died by the swords like how they wanted to. But I received Master''s last will to wait for someone to come here that would become his successor. "Me, who was only a weak person at that time, agreed to be the administrator of this tower, learning everything I needed to maintain this tower. And yes, I was the one who accompanied my Lord in his last time, and his grave is here. That''s why you can''t find his grave in the outside world." She smiled. Alex looked at her and smiled. "He was lucky to meet you." "No, no. It was the other way around." She shook her head, facing Alex with a conviction. Alex had no plan to mock that conviction because all the people under him were similar to her. "When he met you in the Sword Stone, his will in this place appeared and told me about you. Hence¡­Would you like to listen to my story?" She smiled. Alex nodded and followed her to the house. She then took out a wooden table and chairs so the three of them could sit down to talk. When they finally had the chance to relax, she suddenly forgot what to say. "Hm¡­What should I tell you again¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "How should I know?" "Anyway, how about I tell you about my identity first? Maybe I will remember it after that." Alex nodded. "Sorry for that. Living here alone makes me a bit too forgetful since I can simply take my time to search around since nothing will lose here." She chuckled. "Anyway, my purpose here is to administer the tower until his successor comes here. "From what my Lord told me, you will be the one taking him here. Is that true?" "Yes. I promised him to teach someone as his successor. Is that meant I need to give him to you?" "No, no. You can teach him like how you usually do. When the time is right, please send him here. I will be his mentor and explain everything about the Sword God and myself." "I see." Alex nodded. "I understand. It''s simple then. I will teach him what I know and when I have nothing to teach him anymore, I will send him to you." "I appreciate it." Alex then looked around and found many things that would allow her to be sustainable in this place. "Those are¡­" "I am a Forging Master, you know. I got all the items needed from the people who died during the test. In exchange, I use a portion of my time to create papers and manage all the things for inheritance in this place. "Well, there is a reason for this too. Do you know the material of this tower? It''s one of the most durables in the universe. My Lord acquired a giant chunk of this material and turned it into this tower. And when the new Sword God is born, I will be the one creating the perfect weapon for him. "Well, it''s pretty boring despite all these jobs, so I often talked to people when I opened the gate. I only appeared to those I deemed interesting. Unfortunately, not a single of them appeared to be qualified to be the next Sword God, which was the reason why they never reached this place, or you could say, the place beyond the fifth stage." Alex closed his eyes for a bit before asking. "I wonder what all those people will think when there is actually a Rank 2 God in here all this time." "Haha¡­They will go insane." She chuckled. "However, I can''t go out no matter what. My Lord believed we would face a catastrophe in the future, so he asked me to increase my strength here until that time comes. I don''t know what that is, though." Alex shrugged. He thought it would be the ancient beast, but he doubted it because it must be his ego talking about that. "I see. But are you sure you don''t need to watch the rest?" "No need for the time being. The settings and layout are there, and we will just need to wait for the result. Besides, you have cleared this place in less than half a day. Normally, I can wrap it up after three days or something since most participants should have left this place. That''s why I have enough time to chat with you. The one that was known as someone who could go toe to toe with my master." Alex shrugged. "Haha¡­You have come to terms with it, so I won''t talk about it anymore. I only want to warn you about a certain thing. This world can''t be trusted." "You don''t need to tell me that. I have never placed any trust in this world to begin with." Alex nodded, remembering how they conquered that planet just for training. "In that case, do you want something in particular? Such as techniques or items?" She asked. "I don''t need anything, only the Sword Qi. I am trying to aim as high as possible. Depending on how long, I might be able to reach Rank 8 before leaving this world." "Oh. In that case, I can give you two months here. At the same time, I will help you in acc.u.mulating the Sword Qi from this place, so you can absorb it faster. Of course, I can only do this after this place is closed again." "That''s interesting enough for me." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Zera recalled something. "I am still wondering¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Zera''s eyes move to Eve. "Is that a Sword Spirit? I have seen the Sword Breaker, but I never know there is another one like him." "Yes. She is a Sword Spirit, and she is from this world too. What do you want?" "No need to be so hostile. I have no bad intentions." She hurriedly waved her hands. "I just want to ask whether you want me to teach her some controls as a Sword Spirit or not? After all, I knew almost every technique in this world since I had copied all of them. And my Lord also taught me about the Sword Spirit in the past, so I believe I can teach her something. This will surely make your coordination better. In fact, that''s the purpose of the trials. "For example, the first one is to know about your ability about the Sword and trust it. After all, you have walked in this path, so you need to use it constantly to open the next path. That''s the essence of the first trial. "The second stage is all about exploring your talent in sword and measuring it by seeing how good your control is. As for the third stage, it''s about the bond with your Sword, and since you have a Sword Spirit, it''s easier for you to pass the stage because you two can understand each other easier than any other people. "Normally, only the Master would do all the things, but there was a trick there. When your weapon chose to sacrifice itself just to protect you, I believe you were qualified enough to pass that stage. After all, people know about the consciousness inside a weapon, and it will have a stronger response when it''s smarter, which I tweak a little bit on the third stage. "Either way, it is a good measure to know your relationship with your Sword. Master always told me to trust my weapon because it will be the one that cuts my enemy and protects me from many attacks. "After realizing the bond between you and your weapon, the fourth stage is to deepen it by going through many challenges. Lastly, the fifth stage is the place of an endless maze. This is only to see their determination whether they can be a good warrior or not. "But you¡­I let you skip it because you are already "Qualified," so there is no hard feeling." Chapter 1006 - Trials Part 5 "I see." Alex nodded in understanding. "It''s a good meaning behind each stage." "Right?!" She smiled. "That''s right. I wonder how you maintain this tower?" Alex asked since he felt this mechanism would be useful for him if he decided to create a dungeon in a certain world. "The Spiritual Energy is coming from nearby areas by using Arrays. It is also acc.u.mulated enough energy every ten years to create a test like this, and I also don''t have any problem absorbing the Spiritual Energy around. "As for the Sword Qi, this tower is supposed to be a material for the weapon for the successor of the Peerless Sword God, so the Sword Qi, no, Pure Sword Qi is used to strengthen this material. From where? It''s from me and the people that keep coming every ten years. "The tower absorbs the Sword Qi in a level they can''t realize, so it''s working this whole time. After that, I am the one turning them into Pure Sword Qi, some are for me to absorb while the rest is for the tower''s maintenance. "And yeah, I think that''s all." She thought for a moment, not finding any other mechanisms. "Fair enough. If you take one Spirit Crystal from each person, but you let a million people come in, you will get one million Spirit Crystals. However, I believe this is far less than ten percent of what you get, right?" Alex asked with a smile. "Yes. It''s less than one percent to be exact." "No wonder you have enough Spiritual Energy to do everything." Alex nodded. "I am honored for the praise." "Still¡­You have done a lot¡­" Alex looked around. The house must be made from the woods that Zera planted in the garden. All things are also made by herself, so it can be seen how hard she works and learns how to make things. After all, as a cultivator, she wouldn''t know the details on how to make a house and all other things around. He had a lot of respect for such a person, especially regarding her loyalty. "Do you want to do something? If I am not wrong, the person you have chosen is also inside this tower, right? Do you want to see her progress?" "Yes, please." Alex nodded. "Sure. Please follow me." She asked Alex to follow her inside the house, finding many memory crystals recording all the people inside. She went to the bigger one and operated the system, showing Alex a certain girl''s progress. Before Alex even talked, Zera already made a comment with amazement. "This girl is indeed something else. I remember her because of her blind eyes. I give a technique to allow her to enhance her senses, so it''s quite useful. Congratulations for picking someone so talented." "Well, I didn''t ask her because of that." Alex shrugged. "I was impressed by her temperament. That''s all." "Right." Suddenly, she walked toward her wardrobe and grabbed a token. "This is my token. If you have something you want to get from this place, you can enter this tower again with this token." "Well, I have a few people to send here." Alex nodded. "Maybe, I can ask for your help?" "Sure. In fact, they can come straight to this place. I will be teaching them." She nodded. "This is a part of the reward and a part of my thanks to you for making a promise to find the successor." "In that case, I will be taking that." Alex finally agreed since he believed she was far stronger and had a deeper knowledge about weapons, so it would be best to leave them to her. "Actually, I have three people to send. Two sword users and one bow user." "I don''t really mind. Although I am not a bow user, I understand the basics. And it''s not like a bow is much different than a sword." She shrugged. "I believe I can teach her to learn about Bow Qi which is probably your goal to let them train here, right?" "Yes. Don''t worry. The girl is a genius, so as long as she gets the basic right, she would have tremendous power." Alex smiled as he was confident in his Bow Mastery he gave to Rose. "Hoh? Is she your wife?" "Nope. She is my disciple." "No wonder." "Then, I will leave it to you. In exchange, I will send someone your way in the future. Don''t worry. I will be honest and search for the best one I can find." "The promise from you is worth billions of Spirit Crystals. So, of course, I will believe it." "Back to the topic, this girl is smart. Taking a look at how she considers her situation and try various things. She even uses a riskier method just to make sure she could pass the challenge." She narrowed her eyes. Aria was on the third floor, facing the challenge of trust. Unlike Alex''s complete trust in Eve, Aria didn''t have that much confidence in her sword. After all, it was just a sword that she barely got less than two years ago. Although it was far slower than Alex, she managed to slowly make her way to the fourth stage, so Alex didn''t need to worry about her. ''I think I have made my decision.'' He suddenly whispered something to the system. [What is it?] ''I will grant her the power of the system.'' [You sure?] ''Yeah. But give it to her after she passes the fourth stage. I don''t really care about the fifth stage.'' [Alright.] Alex then turned to Zera. "Do you know any way to contact her or something?" "You can talk to her when she is in the fifth stage. Like earlier, I will open a gate for you to meet her." "That''s good enough. Since I will be leaving this world after this last training, I will talk to her one last time." Alex nodded. "Alright. I will arrange it for you. Do you need anything else?" "I don''t think so." Alex shook his head. "I am just going to practice in the meantime." "You can train in the field over there." She pointed at an empty field where she usually trained. "That''s the spot I usually used." "You are not going to practice or something?" "It can wait. Besides, I can focus on my task first while you are doing it, so no big deal." She shrugged. "I will inform you when she reaches the fifth stage." "I appreciate it." Alex then walked toward the field as he planned to start his training. Zera waited for him until he began before doing her work in managing this Sword Pavilion. Alex felt the concentration of Sword Qi here, so he got a bit overwhelmed first. However, he soon grew accustomed to this situation and eventually reached the maximum limit on how he could turn the Sword Qi to Pure Sword Qi. Just like Zera''s information, the concentration of Sword Qi became denser after three days. The people that got stuck from the first and second stages began to leave the tower. In fact, the majority of people were there, so he felt the increase was around fifty percent or more. A few days later, specifically a week after he first entered this tower, the people on the third floor finally left the Pavilion. As expected, people on the Fourth Stage were Martial Saints. He couldn''t find a single Martial Monarch there. And to his surprise, there were several people on the fifth stage, and Aria was one of them. "What is the reward for those in the fifth stage anyway?" Alex asked as he walked together with Zera to the portal to meet Aria. "There is nothing much. I don''t offer a single Spirit Crystal, so it''s mostly technique or training time, depending on their need. Like my teacher said, I need to have a good grasp of their ability before teaching them. If I can do this, I will understand other people better and do a good job maintaining this tower." "I agree." Alex nodded. "So, what are you planning to give to her?" "You are worried?" She smirked as if wanting to tease him. "I''m just asking." "Well, I believe a technique and two weeks of training are enough for her. The technique she shows, the one that emphasizes the speed, is good, but it lacks power. I know that my Lord gave her a technique, but there should be another one to build up the foundation for when she reaches God Rank." "I do have a plan for that, but the situation doesn''t allow me to give. Well, I have given her the technique for Pure Sword Qi, so she won''t get any trouble soon." "Do you want me to take care of her for the time being?" "Nope. She is fine as she is. I have no doubt that she will do everything just fine." "Alright. I will just give you the time to meet. Or do you want to give the reward to her as well?" "Sure." Alex nodded. Zera handed a scroll to him along with a token that would teleport her outside when the time limit came. Alex thanked her again and walked through the portal. In Aria''s perspective, it was as if a door appeared out of nowhere, making her confused. She raised her defensive stance, ready to strike if an enemy came out of that door. "Oi, oi. You are going to point that sword at me?" Suddenly, Alex''s voice echoed in her ears as she widened her eyes, never expecting to see him again. "You¡­" Alex waved his hand and made his appearance. "It''s been a while. You have grown even stronger." "Y-yes. All thanks to you. It turns out experiencing many things allows me to understand my opponents and myself better." "That I agree." "By the way, how do you just appear¡­ Don''t tell me¡­" She looked at her with a weird expression. "I am not her friend or something. I arrived at this place too soon, so I got pretty lucky to meet the administrator of this pavilion. I don''t know if I should be talking about this though." "Well, it''s not that important. But I think I will fail in this fifth stage." "You sure?" "Yes. From what I know, there is another hidden criterion to reach a place beyond the fifth stage." Alex thought for a moment and smiled. "Yes. There is indeed a hidden criterion. Well, it''s impossible for you to pass this gate simply because you are someone on my side." "I see." She looked down and thought about something. "Is this related to the Sword God?" "Yep. It''s not a big deal to talk about this, so I will just blurt it out. The requirement is to be the Sword God''s successor." Alex smiled. "No wonder. Even if I have that qualification, I don''t have a plan to do that." "Well, I appreciate the thought." Alex then handed the reward to her. "This is the reward. Your time limit to train here is two weeks. And I think this is the last time I will see you." Aria gradually opened her eyes, still seeing his disguised appearance. "Well, I don''t have anything to say, considering I am going to chase you as soon as I become a God Rank Expert, so do you need me to say anything?" "Not really. I just want to see your growth." Alex waved his hand. "How are you in the sect?" "I am good. A bit restricted, but not much. I can easily slip away." She shrugged. "By the way, how about your situation? Especially with that Nella?" "There is nothing much. According to my information, she has forgotten about me. It''s good to know since I don''t need to deal with her again." "Pfft." She chuckled. "Anyway, I will be returning to the floor for one last thing. After that, I will leave this world completely. Take care of yourself, will you?" "Yes." Alex then turned around, returning to the field while closing the gate. "Thank you very much!" Aria shouted while bowing her head until Alex disappeared. However, there seemed to be another surprise from Alex because as soon as she raised her head again, a blue screen appeared in front of her. [Hello, I am Alex''s Divine Gacha System.] Chapter 1008 - New World "Then, goodbye for now. I feel like I need to meet you again in the future." Zera nodded with a smile. "I will be looking forward to it. I wonder what you will have the next time I meet¡­I am prepared to be surprised by your achievement, such as your cultivation." "Haha¡­I am doing my best." Alex shrugged. "In that case¡­I will send you off." She smiled and took out a Teleportation Array Plate that would teleport him to outer space. He had no intention to reveal his Space Element even to her, so he could only accept her suggestion and thanked her. "See you again." She waved her hands as the Teleportation Array Plate was activated. Alex also waved his hand until he disappeared. The next second, he was surrounded by darkness. He was already in outer space. [Where are you going now? You are not going back immediately, right?] "Yes." Alex nodded with a serious expression. If he came back right now, he would need at least a year before going somewhere else, so he couldn''t afford to return yet. "I have several places in mind. The first will be where I can evolve my Fire Authority. I also need to go to Encore. And the place where I can plant the seed of this system." [In that case, I suggest you go to the new planet. They are about to have a transition, so I think this is a perfect time. I believe it''s better to go there right now, and I think you can speed it up a little bit. Those old guys are also "preparing" something.] "Fair enough. The other two won''t have any difference, while if I plant this one as soon as possible, I will have a few days'' worths of Spirit Crystals. Considering it won''t be that much in the beginning, it will surely become better in the long range." Alex nodded in agreement. "Alright. Give me the compass. I will go there." [Understood. By the way, I will send the information regarding that planet as well.] "Thanks." Lin Xingzhi first gave him the compass while she compiled all the information. Due to the lack of time, he chose to go toward the planet first and stayed on that planet for a few days to learn all the information. Only after that would he plant the seed. A few hours later, he finally found the planet. From what he could see, this planet looked amazing. It was so dark that he barely saw the light from outer space, meaning there was no light like the modern world or cultivation world. "I wonder what kind of planet is this¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and decided to go to the other side of the planet. Lin Xingzhi had yet to send the information, so he wondered whether to enter first or wait for the information. After several considerations, he decided to enter the world. It had two suns and four moons from what he could see from here, so it would be an amazing experience. Using his Teleportation Array, he arrived inside the world. Because he randomly chose the location, he looked around him, finding himself surrounded by sand. "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked around to find anyone nearby but to no avail. In that case, he decided to look at the sky and watch the amazing two suns. Remembering the four moons outside, he thought the night would be something he wanted to see. [Alex, I have gathered the information.] "Sure thing. Send me." Alex nodded. The information he had been waiting for finally arrived. He instantly took it out of his Inventory and read it. However, before he could even start, he sensed a huge creature creeping on the ground. It seemed to have sensed him as well and leaped to the sky, trying to swallow him when it fell. Alex just took a glance over its giant body and used his hand to stop the creature. It turned out the creature was a kind of worm but had a giant mouth that seemed to be capable of swallowing anything. When Alex stopped it, the latter looked surprised. It didn''t have eyes and ears, but it could understand what Alex just did. "Just go back. I don''t wish to fight you." Alex shrugged. Because he had no information regarding this world, he thought the place was filled with monsters. However, he seemed to be wrong. The worm was enraged by his arrogance and struggled from his hand. "I see. The inhabitants are not monsters¡­Since you are so annoying, let''s kill you." Alex released his killing intent, startling the worm. It realized that Alex was far scarier than it expected at first and tried to escape. However, Alex stepped on the sand and created an immeasurable pressure over the worm, crushing it. The worm soon collapsed to the ground lifelessly. "It''s only a Foundation Rank worm." Alex nodded and leaped to the top of the worm while reading the information. "Hmm¡­According to the information, this world is known as a world of Light and Darkness. Its nickname was granted because this world never had any cycles of night and day. Interesting¡­ "The rotation itself is the same as its revolution, so the planet keeps facing the sun while the other side of the planet won''t have the time to see the sun. Such an ironic place to live. "Anyway, because of the strange phenomenon, the time is too absurd and they have something to reach that time by seeing their body ability to withstand sleep. To that end, seven days are the utmost limit, so after some calculations, they know that each day has around forty-five hours per day. Thirty hours to work and fifteen hours to sleep. "This is an interesting world to be honest, but the condition is harsh. In any case, the humans on this side have severe water problems because it is hot here while the other side is too cold, so they need lamps and clothes. "Now I think about it, doesn''t this mean I can market my own water bottle? This will surely be popular here. I don''t want to take advantage of this to amaze money, but it''s enough for them to use my system to get a water bottle. Even if they are the trash among the trash, it''s like a treasure for this place¡­Which I am glad. I won''t just take advantage of them here, but I am also helping them by supplying these items. "Anyway, I don''t have information regarding this place. Lin Xingzhi even took hours to get this little information. In that case, I should start going to the city near him and investigate them. After mixing with the locals and understanding this place better, I will place the seed or you can say the seal so my Gacha System can have access to all people in this world¡­ "I will probably make a certain agreement with the World''s will that will undergo its own evolution soon. After that, I will participate in several missions to make sure that the system doesn''t have a bug or something." [That sounds like a plan. I will try to monitor the situation.] "By the way, are you a programmer?" Alex asked. [If you think I can make a program like this, then the answer is no. This is already included in the system, so it must be built by the previous owner, the Dungeon God.] "Oh." Alex nodded a few times. "Well, I will try to get information, so I might be staying in this place for a few weeks to a few months. It won''t be more than three months. I promise." [Don''t worry. It''s not like you need to rush like that. Besides, the evolution of your Fire Authority will take longer than this.] "Ahaha¡­" Alex felt a bit guilty before letting out a long sigh. "Alright. Time to find a human settlement. By the way, I don''t see the name of this world." [It''s Lida World. No need to laugh about its name. Yes, it''s from Light and Dark. And it seems the two sides are fighting against each other. The dark side wants to see the amazing life from the light side, but the latter treats them as someone that God has abandoned. However, due to its extreme environment, the dark is a bit stronger than the light side.] "Alright. Thanks." Alex nodded. "It seems there is also a third party or a borderline that is always evening where the sun almost sets." [Yes, but it''s mostly mountain range, so not many people are living there. Only some small villages around the globe.] "Ho? Anything else?" [I have printed it, but I will say it too. The world situation is like what Earth experiences after getting defeated. They have ancient civilizations that fight against each other with the power of kingdoms. But all the influences on both sides have joined hands respectively to defeat the other side, so you can somehow understand me, no? And they have a bit of magical energy, so you can treat it as a lower-rank world that only has Foundation Rank. There might be a master rank, but I am not so sure.] "Got it. I have sealed my cultivation to Master rank, so there must be someone with cultivation similar to that of a Martial Master." Alex contemplated for a minute before saying, "Time to go then." [Yes, be careful.] "Of course. Besides, I already have a clue¡­" Alex smiled and saw the dust kicked up not far from here. It was surely a group of people. Depending on their identities, Alex had a plan to either kill them or negotiate with them. He simply waited for them to approach while reading the information once again to make sure he didn''t leave any of the information. A few minutes later, he sensed a group of thirty people riding their camels to cross this desert. They seemed to be well-armed, considering each of them has weapons and shields as if they were ready to war. Although there was no armor visible, they showed their abs because not a single of them used closed clothes. It must be due to their living environment, which was the desert. The one leading the group was a young man without an expression. He only had a little bit of surprise when he saw Alex sitting on top of the worm. The others were staring with shocked expressions before glancing at the leader, wondering what they should do. To their surprise, the leader jumped off his camel and looked at Alex with a serious expression. He slightly bowed his head while placing his hand on his chest as if it was a noble greeting. "Gentleman. May I know what you are doing here?" "Is that a problem?" Alex put down the paper and looked at the leader. The leader closed his eyes for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No. However, I am required to know because we can''t really have someone as strong as you this close to our place. After all, I have an obligation to prevent any unknown threat. I hope you can forgive me for asking this and can understand me." Alex frowned. The one before him had etiquette, making him think he was someone important. Seeing he was so educated, he thought he could use him to gain information and mix in their territory. "Well, I am traveling without aim. I always stopped in every place to restock my supply." Alex answered. The leader considered a few things, especially Alex''s age. His complexion told him that Alex was not that old, probably younger than him. With age like that and the little bit of scary power he leaked this whole time, he knew that Alex was someone extraordinary. Not even him could have this power. He decided it would be best for him to reach out to Alex. "In that case, if you don''t mind, I can give you a tour in my place. It''s not far from here. Of course, this is only if you want. I can''t force you here." The leader smiled. "Sounds good." "Before that, I would like to introduce myself. I am Xivaxi, the first prince of the Rawak Kingdom. Pleased to meet you." Alex stared at him mysteriously before saying his name. "Nyx." Chapter 1009 - I Refuse "Nyx." Alex presented his fake name again while observing these people''s expressions. There wasn''t a sliver of doubt in their eyes. It might be due to their fear of his strength or was just shocked by the sight of him sitting on top of a worm, whatever the case, Alex felt it was enough for him to know that these people were not a reckless bunch. The problem would be their leader. He was wondering whether the prince in front of him was not respected by his subordinates or not, since when he talked highly before their prince, they didn''t do anything. After hearing his name, the prince closed his eyes for a bit and smiled. "Many thanks. In that case, would you like to follow me to my kingdom?" Alex narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Sure." He hopped off the worm. The prince took another glance at the worm and Alex before leading the company to the kingdom. What Alex found was a kingdom without a wall. No, it couldn''t be said as a kingdom anymore. It was a city, but he could only find some rundown houses in the outskirts. There was no castle in sight either, so he wondered if this was truly a kingdom. "I apologize for the poor appearance of my country." The prince made a sad smile. "We just lost a war, and our place was reduced to this." The prince finally told the truth. He didn''t want someone like Alex to go away easily if he told the truth earlier. However, when a time like this, Alex would surely have three possibilities. The first would be taking pity on them. The second was him leaving in rage and disappointment, and the third was ignoring this and just doing all the things he wanted. From the way Alex talked, he would take the third possibility, but that was all his prediction. And it turned out he was right. Alex didn''t know these people, so even though he could see many people were miserable, he had no intention to help. He might have the heart to help them, but he wasn''t a saint. If he helped one person, the others would start flocking. It would just be a disaster coming his way. In that case, it would be better to steel his heart once no matter how hard it was. The prince hesitated but still led him to the palace. It looked like a temple. No wonder he couldn''t see it earlier, the palace was only one story high, and its appearance wasn''t really that great. "I am embarrassed to say this, but this is my palace. How about staying for a night, Sir Nyx?" Even the prince said humbly to Alex. Alex could understand why his action was like this and the guards around him didn''t say anything about the disrespect. Alex nodded. To know more about the world, he indeed needed someone with high status. And getting treatment like this wasn''t really detrimental for him. "Please." The prince smiled and stretched his hand, leading Alex through the palace. He didn''t really meet anyone during this time, making him wonder what happened to this kingdom. He led him to a room that didn''t have much decoration inside. It looked poor that he even doubted that this place was coming from royalty. "Then, I would like to leave and meet my father first to report the whole situation. If you need anything, there is a bell on the table. If you ring it, someone will come to you." The prince bowed politely and left him. Alex fell silent and looked at the outside. "I wonder what is happening in this world¡­Is the world this poor?" Alex muttered. [Not really.] "What do you mean?" [From what I know, each influence is well known and rich. By the way, you haven''t checked the condition of the world with your Spirit Eyes and just entered this place.] "Why should I do that? My objective is to check this place, plant the seal, test it for a while with myself, and leave." [No. I think there is something weird in this place.] "Such as?" [There is a possibility that the world has started to evolve, and another world has begun its invasion.] "Ho?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Even so, the portal shouldn''t have stabilized, right? At least, it won''t be stable enough for people to cross." [That''s why I want you to check. Don''t you feel that the Spiritual Energy is increasing little by little?] "Really?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [Yes. You can''t see it?] "I am not paying attention to it. Besides, how the heck can you know?" [I can see what you see. When you activated your Spirit Eyes once after you came in, I could see the slight difference in the Spiritual Energy.] "Oi, oi. Are you serious?" [I am a Nature Goddess not for nothing. My main power is Spiritual Energy that is classified as Nature. No, it should be said I can become a God King because I can control Spiritual Energy.] "So, you are very sensitive in this area?" [Yes.] "¡­" Alex facepalmed. "And you want me to see what only an expert like you can see? I have forgotten this feeling¡­Are you going to start another argument with me again?" [I will¡­If it''s on the bed.] "¡­" Alex let out a long sigh and decided to move on from the conversation. After not being teased by her for too long, he had forgotten how frustrated it was to be teased by her. [Haha. Anyway, I''m out. That''s the only clue I can tell you in this situation. The rest will be up to you.] "Alright. Thanks for the information. I will use it well." Alex nodded and immediately activated his Spirit Eyes. As expected, he couldn''t see the difference in the Spiritual Energy. He wondered how high her sense to spot on something like that. Since he got here in the evening, the people will start sleeping, so he needs a place to wait. In the meantime, he looked around to see what people were doing in this place. They looked pale and thin, appearing to be somewhat weak than a normal person. He thought this was the norm in this place, but he soon realized it wasn''t the case. If he took another look at the center area, he found a fountain that had been covered with dust as if it wasn''t used for long. "This place lacks water?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "No, should I say this country is very poor? If what¡­" Before he finished his sentence, he could feel someone''s presence walking in the corridor near his room. He never heard this kind of footsteps during his stay in this room, so it took his attention. When he checked it with his Spirit Eyes, he found a woman''s energy coming right to his room. She seemed to be carrying something. As one would expect, the woman knocked on the door. "Sir Nyx. I am the second princess of Rawak Kingdom, Mileda. May I request your audience?" A soft woman''s voice echoed from the other side of the door. Alex narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was the king''s scam? He wanted to gather information in this place, so he decided to let her in. "Come in." As soon as she heard Alex''s voice, she gently pushed open the door, revealing her appearance. Just like the people outside, she wore revealing clothing, just enough to cover her b.r.e.a.s.t and crouch. There was a shawl that covered a bit of her body just to make her look s.e.xier. Her grey hair was different than the prince''s blue hair, but it assimilated very well with the building that made her look stunning. However, Alex''s eyes were focused on the bucket of water she brought along with the wipe. "Please excuse me¡­" The princess looked down, a bit ashamed of her appearance. Even so, she still tried to make some movements that she was taught to gain someone''s attention to a certain part of her body, albeit her movement was rather stiff. Alex didn''t care about it and asked. "So, is there anything I can do to help you, Princess?" The princess stiffened and hurriedly answered. "I-I just want to wipe your body!" This answer alone was enough for him to understand what she was trying to do. And Alex immediately rejected her. "I refuse." "I¡­I¡­" The princess tried to explain the things to him, but Alex stopped her while looking at the fountain outside. "With that precious water, you are trying to wash my body?" She was surprised to hear that from Alex. And Alex got his answer from her expression. "It seems my speculation is true. This kingdom¡­Is it really yours?" Alex looked at her and leaked a bit of his killing intent. The princess felt that Alex began doubting them. Even so, she didn''t back down. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, staring at Alex with unwillingness. "Hmm¡­That pride. It seems this kingdom is yours. But is this place really your kingdom?" Alex then changed his question. "From the prince that I met earlier, you just lost a war." "If you want to humiliate me, please do it on me. I won''t stand down if you keep mocking my country!" "Ho?! This kind of pride won''t appear in a small country. However, it will surely appear on someone who loves their country a lot, and that country is powerful¡­No, not is. It ''was'' powerful." Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, care to explain to me what happened?" "You-you." The princess clenched her fists until blood fell to the floor but soon loosened it. "No. Rather than explaining what happened, I want to know your purpose for visiting me. Depending on your explanation and action, I might leave this place or stay for a bit longer." Remembering what her brother told him about the man before her, she knew that Alex wasn''t joking. She thought for a moment and decided to tell him the truth. "I¡­I am here to serve you, so you can stay for a bit longer." "As expected." Alex let out a long sigh. "Now, I want to see what kind of kingdom actually sacrifices its princess to do this?" [It''s the Acacia Kingdom.] ''You shut up first.'' Alex twitched his eyebrows. [Haha. I will be telling this to Alicia.] ''You really want to fight, huh? Fine by me.'' [You are only coming back in another few months, so you won''t be able to catch me while I am telling her.] ''Whatever.'' Alex sighed in defeat. He was tired of arguing with her. [Just a reminder. Don''t do a one-night stand, alright?] ''I know, I know. Do I look like someone who will do something like that?'' [Nope. But you might pity her later or whatever.] ''It''s fine. I won''t do that. Even if I pity her, I will do something with power, not this.'' [Okay.] Alex was finally free from Lin Xingzhi''s teasing again and faced the princess with a serious expression. "So, what do you wish to gain from doing this? It''s not only for me to stay longer, right?" The princess nodded. "Yes. Since my brother had told you about us losing a war, it''s all about that. No, I shouldn''t say it was a war. It was a slaughter." "A slaughter?" Alex narrowed his eyes. It seemed what Lin Xingzhi said was true. Another world had invaded this place. From what he knew, the Upper World where he used to train was only a small world at the beginning. When it evolved into an Upper World, it attracted many worlds, and numerous portals were created. That was the reason why he could go to another world when he was there. "A slaughter?" Alex asked to get more information. "Yes. Our country was big and had powerful warriors, but they were slaughtered one by one by a group of monsters. The monsters were the same as the one you defeated out there." He recalled the worm and thought, ''Now that she mentioned it, the worm was indeed a Rank 9¡­Or you can say a Peak Foundation Rank. In this world, it should be hard to find a creature as strong as that.'' "So, the reason for you to make me stay longer¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. Looking at Alex''s expression, she knew Alex had figured it out. She looked down and kneeled in front of him. "Please take care of me." "I still refuse." Chapter 1010 - One Mans Trash is Another Mans Treasure "I still refuse." Alex looked at her with a serious expression. The princess''s body shook. Normally, people would look at her body, but the man in front of her was different. This type of guy could only be seen among the five percent. However, that wasn''t what she wanted at the moment. If she couldn''t get a hold of Alex, there was a chance for her kingdom to perish. Even if she needed to sacrifice herself, she would do it. "I¡­I can do everything for you." She began to become desperate. But Alex didn''t have a change of expression, telling her that no matter how she begged him, there wasn''t a chance for that. "Enough with that crap." Alex''s voice was stern, echoing inside her heart. "Instead, I have a better proposal for you. As you know, I am just a wanderer and rarely return to a big city. So, I lack information. Give me enough information, I can supply what the city needs." Alex told her his demand, but he specifically said "the city needs" instead of what she wanted. In this request, he wanted to see whether the royalty also took care of its people. If they were greedy and tried to get all the things from his hand, he would move somewhere else and search for another place to get information. However, the princess instantly nodded her head. "I understand. As long as it''s not the information that will lead to the total annihilation of my kingdom, I will provide it for you." There wasn''t a trace of doubt in her eyes. It was different from what she showed him earlier. Alex couldn''t understand this absurd change, but he decided to pay no heed about it and continued on his demand. "Good. Now, what do you need for this city?" She thought for a moment and opened her mouth. "Before going into that, I think you have the right to know what happened to this country." "Ho?" "I¡­" The princess looked away and started getting embarrassed after realizing how she acted so differently. Ultimately, she began telling Alex her story. "I am the second princess of the Rawak Kingdom. That''s not a lie. And our Rawak Kingdom was actually far from him. In fact, compared to this, we were like Heaven. There was no shortage of food, goods, and water. "Even our soldiers were well known through the land as people who had no fear. I and my brother, who you met earlier, were known as two successors. We both had fought for achievement from this country''s management and wars. "However, everything came to an end when we found a giant spiral that kept swirling in one place. No one dared to check it for a period of time until the kingdom mobilized its army to check into it, but none came back. "Instead of them, there were hundreds of worms like the one you killed coming out, decimating the city. We fought them but could only kill half of them before seventy of our forces were wiped out. "At that time, my father dragged my brother and me to flee along with twenty percent of our force. My brother¡­I mean, the second prince and the first princess fought to let us escape with the little soldiers they had. "Night after night, we kept escaping, but the worms still managed to get us. And now, we didn''t even have one percent of our power and needed to settle down in this city, the farthest place in our kingdom''s territory. Even our father¡­ No, his majesty needed to bring up the rear just for us to reach this place." Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, that''s why this place is so poor. And that''s how the proud princess is reduced to be someone like this." The princess wanted to rebuke him, but she couldn''t. Alex was simply right and spotted on. "So, what do you want from me?" Alex asked after confirming that the portal indeed had manifested. It seemed his time would be quicker than he expected. "I¡­No, we need daily necessities. But water is fine." She only told him one item because Alex was alone. There was no way he had the ability to bring so many items. At the very least, through her sacrifice, they would get one daily necessity. Alex closed his eyes for a minute. "We don''t really need much. There is a pond behind us. If we buy water from another country, it will only be two thousand Bils. After that, you¡­You can do anything to me." She thought Alex closed his eyes because he couldn''t afford to do it, so she lowered it even more. At the very least, the pond would let them and the whole city last for a month without needing to worry about water. It was the first step to rebuild their kingdom. Alex gradually opened his eyes and asked. "Why don''t you ask something from another place?" "We had. And they also had sent reinforcement. However, their armies were also wiped out, and they finally abandoned us because they couldn''t take it anymore. Some were still hiding under the sand, so we couldn''t really move out of this city easily." "Hmm¡­" Alex contemplated for a second. "Then¡­As long as you can help us with anything, I¡­I can still offer myself to you." She lowered it again. This was a normal trick of a merchant, but it also showed how desperate she was in this kind of situation. "Come back tomorrow, and we can talk about this. I don''t care who is talking to me tomorrow." Alex decided to send her off the room. Noticing this, the princess looked down. Sadly, the hope that her brother found seemed to be unable to do anything. She was only thankful because Alex wasn''t one of the l.u.s.tful people, so she didn''t need to offer herself for nothing. However, him asking her to leave also meant that there was a chance for Alex to leave this place during the night. With a person at his level, there wasn''t someone who could stop him from leaving. Either way, she had no chance of convincing him. Rather than displeasing him, she better returned to not make their current situation even worse under Alex''s wrath. After she left, Alex finally had the time to think. [So, you are going to help them?] "It''s better this way, right? They are easier to trade than other territories that have abandoned them. In this desperate situation, one man''s trash is another man''s treasure." [I see what you are doing. Information is the last thing they need, especially on the verge of being destroyed. On the other hand, water bottles, food, or clothes were treasures for them, especially since you have so many of them.] "Yes. Thanks to a certain someone from giving me this much." [That someone is your past self, you know. It''s true that I gave you in the beginning, but you couldn''t claim it anymore when the Inventory was opened fully. Everything there was yours to take, including one planet''s worth of water that could last them for thousands of years.] "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue and sighed. "In any case, they won''t easily suspect me from getting information about this world since I am a "wanderer." Unlike the other countries, they wouldn''t agree with my terms and would surely try to follow my movement." [Indeed.] "Hence, I am going to use this place as a base of operation. The investigation will probably take a few days, planting the seal won''t take too long either, and I will do the trial run for two weeks? Anyway, I will round it up to a month."Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-trash-is-another-man''s-treasure_52645764668646314 for visiting. [Understood. What are you going to do in the meantime? There is no night in this place, you know.] "Just train until everyone in this place falls asleep." Alex finally closed his eyes for a second while observing the others in this place. After a few hours, the activity started becoming lesser and lesser. "Still, I am surprised they can make a cool place like this even though they are under the sun for as long as they can remember." [True. This is an amazing sight to see. And I believe the other side is cold because it never sees the sun. And if we calculate its distance from the two suns, I think it''s the most habitable planet in that solar system.] "Fair enough. If not, they won''t live in this place. Well, I wonder what will happen during the evolution." [Many things. The energy becomes far too dense for a normal world to handle, so there will be many disturbances from Fire Disturbances to Space Disturbances. Portals will start to appear and connect the two worlds. Tsunamis, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and so on. You name it.] "I see. Natural disasters, huh. There will be typhoons for wind disturbance and so on." Alex nodded in understanding. [Yep. It''s amazing to see from our perspective, but it''s a nightmare for the people in that world. And after surviving, they need to endure the invasion from other planets.] "It feels like using this opportunity makes it look like I am fishing in muddy water." [You have given them enough benefits that can be equal to when they are living normally. Besides, they indeed need that power if they want to get stronger. At least, strong enough to survive in this cruel world. I mean, the portal will become stable over time, so before that time, the other worlds can only send people at a certain cultivation stage. As you know, you need to consolidate your cultivation after breaking through. That''s the same concept, and it will take a few years or decades, depending on the world.] "I see. No wonder." Alex nodded and rose from his seat. "I think it''s time for me to go to that pond." [Alright.] Alex sneaked out of his room and searched for the so-called pond. There was indeed a pond, but it seemed to be a bit small. "Hmm¡­Around one month of supply if they are using it wisely." Alex calculated the size of the pond. [I agree. But with people in here not having enough water, they will be a bit greedy in the first few days. So, you need to chip down a few days.] "Right. It''s the same for a poor person that becomes rich overnight. They will spend many things for the things they don''t need consciously or unconsciously." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Anyway, I think three Water Tanks are enough." [Yes. Probably need one or two more gallons if you want to fill it to the brim.] "We will see." Alex nodded and stepped on the pond. It seemed to be a man-made pond to catch rainwater or something. They even put bricks to make sure the sand wasn''t around it. At the very least, it was good storage unless the people broke in and stole this water. He waved his hands, summoning three water tanks. The tanks had a shape of a cylinder and contained around thirty thousand liters of water. Since he didn''t want to make a commotion or a sound, he used his Sound Insulation Array and opened the tanks, pouring the water into the pond. Luckily, the holes were huge enough, so it only took him two minutes to empty the tanks, and no one saw him doing this. It was almost full, and just like Lin Xingzhi said, he only needed a few more gallons to fill it. However, Alex didn''t do it because of several reasons. This water was only him showing his ability. In other words, he only wanted them to know that he had the ability to provide them what they needed. As long as they showed their sincerity, he would give them. [Today''s objective is complete then?] "Yep." Alex nodded. [I bet they will come to you soon.] "Probably. But let''s see what they have to offer tomorrow." Alex smiled and waved his hand again, retracting the Sound Insulation Array. He then disappeared from the pond, returning to his room. Chapter 1011 - You are the Messiah The next day, when the guards had begun their activities and the royalties were about to wake up, they were disturbed by those who had found a huge change in their pond. "Your Highness!" Both the prince and the princess had their room slammed open as soldiers informed them what they just witnessed. Not believing what they said, they went toward the pond and found water filled their pond. "What just happened?" They exchanged looks, but none of them couldn''t think anything. They were in complete shock from what they just saw. "Is the water safe?" The second princess, Mileda, asked all the soldiers in the area. There were already more than fifty soldiers gathering in this place, so one of them answered her. "No, Your Highness." "We can''t test it easily. There might be poison in this water. We still have a royal doctor, right? Ask him to get here." She commanded. "Y-yes." The soldiers immediately followed her order and rushed to get the doctor. Meanwhile, the prince, Xivaxi, looked down while touching his chin, falling into deep thought. Mileda gradually sensed him and turned around with a weird expression. "Brother? Do you know anything about this?" "I am not sure, but aren''t you the one negotiating with him?" Xivaxi asked with a weird expression. "What?!" Mileda was dumbfounded. Although it was true that she talked with Alex yesterday, but he was just one person. How could he bring this much water in a night and without anyone noticing? However, she remembered what Alex said earlier and repeated it in a low voice. "Come back tomorrow and we can talk about this. I don''t care who is talking to me tomorrow. Don''t tell me¡­" "Yes. I think he is the one." Xivaxi had a complicated feeling right now. On one hand, he was pretty disappointed that Mileda couldn''t catch his heart. Seeing such a powerful person would surely bring one''s greed to possess him, so it was no wonder that Xivaxi felt a bit of regret. On the other hand, he was worried about his intention. No matter what he said, water was indeed a necessity. But if Alex tried to do something that would be detrimental to the kingdom, he needed to find a way to expel him. The problem would be how? Xivaxi fell into deep thought, followed by Mileda. They exchanged looks as if they were trying to figure out something. "Should I come to him again?" Xivaxi didn''t answer immediately. "I have agreed to build this kingdom again with you no matter what we need to sacrifice. If this can solve our immediate problem, I don''t care what will happen to me." She looked at him with a serious expression. "But he said he doesn''t care who will come to him, right? Doesn''t this imply that he wants the one in charge to come?" "We both are in charge of this kingdom right now. No, I should say, there is no king in this country for the time being. And the citizens here haven''t known about our defeat." She shook her head helplessly. "If I am there alone, maybe one mistake can lead to another. But if you are there or with me, it won''t happen. Since I have enough authority, how about trusting me?" Xivaxi pinched the bridge of his nose. The matter wasn''t as simple as that, considering the other party didn''t have interest in Mileda. However, it was indeed true that the talk might be a bit easier if he talked to a beautiful woman like Mileda. After several considerations, he finally agreed to her. The doctor came before the two could act, and his voice resounded in their ears. "Do you need anything from me, your highness?" Xivaxi and Mileda turned around, staring at the doctor for a moment. Without anyone reacting, Xivaxi slowly made his way toward the pond and dipped down his hand to the water and drank it directly. "Your Highness?!" The group shouted in confusion. They never expected to see Xivaxi scoop the water. "I need to test it myself since I am the strongest here. This is my responsibility." He stopped everyone from reacting and tried to check his body. At the same time, the doctor checked his pulse to see if there was something wrong. "The water tastes normal. There is no weird smell or whatsoever. No, I should say that the water is a bit more refreshing than normal water, but I don''t think I have felt something wrong with my body. Doctor?" Xivaxi explained everything he felt right now. The soldiers began to feel relieved. But the doctor shook their hearts once again as he started shaking while saying. "This¡­This¡­is impossible." "What is happening to my brother, Doctor? We need to find an antidote immediately." Mileda panicked and looked around. To everyone''s surprise, Xivaxi raised his hand, stopping them. "Brother?" She furrowed her eyebrows. "This¡­I have gotten stronger. Although it''s not that visible right now, I feel like if I continuously consume the water, I will be able to reach Father''s level in a year." Xivaxi widened his eyes in shock. He never thought that this was not normal water but magic water. Obviously, Alex, the culprit, didn''t know any of these. He simply knew that the water came from another planet, but he didn''t know what kind of planet. Even if Lin Xingzhi was with him, she couldn''t explain it as well. Little did they know that the planet was a Divine World. Just like the Spirit Stone, the lowest form of Spirit Crystal, the water had also been radiated by an enormous amount of Spiritual Energy. It wouldn''t affect stronger people like Martial Master or above, but they were just a Foundation Rank. This kind of water could be considered magic water for them because the energy that the water contained could strengthen the basic function of their body. However, the moment he knew about this, he dumbfoundedly looked at the pond in shock. He then turned around, staring at Mileda. "This¡­Might be the thing we need to rebuild the kingdom. We can get stronger by prioritizing those who have the potential to fight among the citizens in this small city. "We can supply them with this magic water and raise another army. After getting enough strength, we will be able to take over the capital and rebuild the entire kingdom." Mileda could also understand what he implied. No need to say it anymore. Whatever they needed to do, they must get Alex. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked at the magic water once again. That amount of magic water was certainly something amazing, especially if Alex could give them without batting an eye. This made her resolve even bigger. She took a deep breath before leaving them. "Continue the investigation. I will talk with our Supreme Guest." Alex, who had sensed the commotion, didn''t know what they were talking about, but he understood their excitement. "I wonder if I have the same ears as Senior Sister Song Yu, can I hear them?" Alex muttered before sensing the same person as yesterday came again. Before she knocked, Alex already said, "Come in." Mileda''s body shook and carefully opened the door, finding Alex was looking at the town from the window. His appearance looked like someone who wished for freedom and didn''t want to be bound by anything. This made her a bit hesitant, but whatever the case, she needed to try. She politely bowed her head. "I would like to thank you for your gift, Sir Nyx. I don''t know how to thank you." Without a doubt, Alex already showed his sincerity before the negotiation even began. This made her realize how mysterious Alex''s real status was. "So, you will be negotiating with me?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. As the second princess, I have enough authority to make a deal with you." She slowly took off her top, confusing Alex again. Alex waved his hand and stopped her movement while asking. "What are you doing?" This time, it was Mileda''s turn to be shocked. There was no trace of emotion in Alex''s eyes, so she didn''t know whether he was angry or anything. "I¡­I am just negotiating with you. My instructor said that it''s best to negotiate in bed, so you will have a fresh head for negotiation. That''s why I am going to serve you first before we can start negotiating." She honestly replied. It was a bit extreme, but he couldn''t find the doubt in her eyes. [Pfft. This country never fails to amuse me. Negotiation on the bed?] ''I don''t know if I should be surprised or regretted my choice to come to this planet only to find this kind of culture.'' [How can you say that? This is the kingdom of culture.] ''This culture¡­I don''t need it.'' Alex sighed inwardly before shaking his head. "I don''t have any plan in doing that." "This¡­" She looked down, wondering if she displeased him or something. Or maybe, Alex had a unique taste or something? Normally, not many people would reject something like this. Even if they were rejected, they would become fl.u.s.tered. At the same time, this was also the first time for the princess herself to do this because they usually only used maids to entertain their guests. She tried to come up with a plan where Alex would agree. Alex scratched the back of his head and decided to explain his intention. "As you know, I am a wanderer. It''s been a few years since I returned from my journey, so I don''t have much knowledge about this country and other countries. "What I want is the information update and I will supply you with your necessities. That''s the trade I want. There is nothing more to it, so you don''t need to do it. That''s why I want to meet someone who can make this decision." "¡­" She gasped as if she had done him wrong. She couldn''t help but think Alex was a fool for throwing that much magic water, but if he could do something like that, he might have a huge amount of resources that he could trade. Since Alex didn''t plan to do this, she unwillingly fixed her clothes and nodded her head, a bit embarrassed by her earlier appearance. "I understand. I, as the second princess, can guarantee you that you can get any information as long as it''s not detrimental to this kingdom." "Good. This is better. First, tell me in detail, what do you need?" Alex asked. She thought for a moment, listing all sorts of necessities. Unlike yesterday, she came up with a more detailed explanation. "We need a substantial amount of magic water and food, but since you have provided a huge amount of magic water, we can give you information first before further negotiation." "Magic water?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He just gave normal water, but why did this woman call it magic water? "Anyway, it''s fine. The water is just a token of sincerity." Unknowingly, his doubt was misunderstood by the princess. She thought that Alex couldn''t see powerful water like this as magic water and treated it like normal water. If that were the case, Alex''s status might be far higher than she could imagine. There would be a chance that Alex could be considered one of the strongest people in this world. What made him more amazing was the fact that he had something like this in possession. For someone at this level, Alex must have a magical way to transport all the things they had, elevating his status even further. In fact, it already reached a ridiculous point. Mileda even thought of him as someone who God sent. She gradually kneeled with her head touching the ground. "Your excellency, Mileda has eyes but can''t see someone with a high status like you is in front of me. Please forgive my rudeness. I will do anything to ask for your forgiveness." Alex was even more bewildered, wondering what''s wrong with the people''s heads in this world. ''This world is crazy.'' [You are the messiah. Hahahahaha.] ''Shut up!'' Chapter 1012 - Talk "Anyway, that''s the deal. I will provide you food and water. What else do you need?" Mileda thought for a moment and shook her head. "That''s all. The only things we need now are these two." Alex narrowed his eyes to see whether this girl lied or not, but there was no shred of doubt, so he decided to seal the deal. "Alright. That''s the deal." "I understand. Since you have given the magic water, I will provide you with information first to show our sincerity in this deal. Please don''t reject it." She politely bowed her head again. "Anyway, get up first." Alex waved his hand, using his Spiritual Energy to help her up. Once again, Alex shocked her with his "magic" that could lift someone like her without even touching. Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Where can I find a map?" "We don''t have it anymore. At the very least, I can draw a simple map for you." She politely replied. Alex nodded. "Let''s get into it then." When he was about to grab a paper and a pen from his Inventory, he suddenly remembered that he needed to be prepared for anything. He found that there was no kind of Space Ring or any storage system in the princess''s body, so he thought there was a possibility she didn''t have it or the world didn''t have it. From his perspective, it was the latter. So, to avoid any suspicion, he refrained himself from using his power in front of them and waited for the reply instead. He got this thought after seeing the shocked expression on the princess''s face after he helped her up. She then looked down and bowed to him. "I will need to bring the paper first. May I leave for the time being?" Alex nodded. She quickly turned around and left the room as if she couldn''t be in that room anymore. In fact, her feet went limp as soon as she closed that door, and she dropped to the ground. Her face eventually turned pale as she recalled their conversation. With how he acted and his power, Alex''s status might be more mystical than she thought. Due to the ridiculous event she faced earlier, she murmured in a low voice. "Is he God? Or an apostle?" The misunderstanding continued and where would it lead this kingdom to, no one had the idea. Alex, on the other hand, let out a long sigh. "It seems this place is more primitive than I thought." [I agree. This place is a bit far from our place, so we don''t have much information since we haven''t checked it yet, only basic information.] "I know how hard it is to check worlds. I mean, there are millions of worlds out there, and if you try to get detailed information from that world, you will need to check their power level, minerals, and so on. Hence, I don''t blame you. I need to be more careful." [Thank you. But I do think that this world has a certain power system, which I have never seen before. I have seen the record with your Spirit Eyes¡­It seems they have enough power to cultivate, but it''s not cultivation.] "Yes. I don''t know if I should ask them, but I think I will. Just with some bullsh*ts with my identity to confuse them." [I agree. Do you find anything familiar that can be a clue for their power?] "One thing. There seems to be a certain pattern on their body." [Oh. That one? I think I have seen the same pattern as the one in the girl''s b.r.e.a.s.t that was hidden underneath the cloth with the one in the prince''s chest.] "Yes. I don''t know what the pattern means, but I think it''s something related to this country. I mean, if you check the others, they will have the same pattern, but a bit simpler." [Now that you mention it, it''s true. The one that people in this town had seemed to be a bit simpler, but the basis is practically the same.] Alex nodded. "It''s most likely either their country or something like a pattern from their so-called God? Is this place someone''s territory?" [I don''t think so. I have checked it previously and there is nothing like that. To put it simply, the planet is in the "International Water," so no one cares about what you do here.] Alex narrowed his eyes. "In that case, I will get as much information as I want today and tomorrow. I will plant the seal the day after." [Sure. Your choice. By the way, I have just gotten information from Alicia. It seems they are returning to Eulja soon.] "Alicia and Firia?" [Yes.] "That''s great. I miss all of you." Alex smiled and recalled Sherry. [Don''t worry. Sherry is fine. Do you want to send a message to her? Or you can even use the Inventory to message each other.] "No. I don''t want to disturb her. Just make sure you follow her up, so I know if she is doing fine or not." Alex smiled. [Ah? Are you embarrassed to ask her?] "¡­" Alex shrugged. "I am a bit tired of this." [Fine, fine. I won''t make this joke for today. Anyway, I am a bit curious about their power system, so you might want them to fight together with you to see their own power. This is the best way to see their power system and test the Gacha System. Don''t you agree?] "Completely." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Besides, I think I can learn something from them." [True. We can learn from anyone no matter if they are weak, idiot, or anything. As long as you are open to any kind of teaching and know how to filter what you need and don''t need, you will be fine.] Alex smiled. "Alright. Let me continue the negotiation first. For now, I will bring out some food supplies that I have. I wonder if she will call it magic food or something." [Haha. I am curious as well. I don''t understand why normal water is called magic water. Maybe there is something different in their body or something? I don''t know. You might want to check more about it.] "I am not a doctor, you know. I am not good at this. If only¡­" Alex suddenly looked down and sighed. "Never mind." [That wasn''t your fault. It was that Palm God''s fault. He surely had gotten his punishment.] Alex stayed silent for a minute before nodding his head. "There will be a time we will meet again, so I will put it aside for now." To change his gear again, he waved his hands, summoning all Foundation Rank vegetables that were not used for Alchemy Ingredients. "By the way, where was the food coming from?" [I don''t know. It surely came from one of your journeys. I mean, your past life.] "He didn''t bring you or anything?" [Not really. There was always a need for me time, so I could understand it. Even now, I never imposed it on you because it would be too annoying, right?] "I guess." Alex nodded. "Well, it''s indeed nice to experience some time alone. Usually, I have this type of time while flying to another place." Alex then waved his hand and took out a few vegetables and meat. The vegetables were just some herbs that were not used for Alchemy for various reasons while the meat was monster meat. "Now that I think about this, in this type of world, this food will surely be called a magic food, isn''t it?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [I am sorry. I don''t have anything that doesn''t have Spiritual Energy.] "Wait a minute¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and took out a water bottle and looked at it with his Spirit Eyes. "Can you see it?" [It''s just normal water?] "I mean, this water is normal, but after being radiated for too long by Spiritual Energy, it carries a portion of it as well. We, cultivators, never think about this because they are separated from our power system, but this might be related to those in this world. You know what I mean?" [Now I understand. The power contained within it is not that big, so any cultivators will see it as a useless item. How can I forget this? My blunder.] "Well, you haven''t really gotten anywhere for the past one thousand years, no?" Alex shrugged. [That''s true, but my memory is not like an old woman.] "I didn''t say it like that. I only said it might not appear in your mind because you have so many memories. I mean, it took me so long just to absorb the knowledge I got from the inheritance. In fact, I haven''t absorbed them completely. Only fifty percent of the total?" Alex shook his head. [Fair enough. I will accept this one then.] "Yep." Alex rolled his eyes. "Well, should we still give the food?" [I don''t know the effect the food will give them, but I don''t think it will be something big. Besides, they will soon face catastrophes everywhere, so I think it''s fine. It will soon be useless anyway.] Alex thought for a moment and agreed with her. "Alright then. He looked at the meat and vegetables and compared them to the water he had. It seems this food supply will last for a month." [Who knows.] "We can just wait for her. After getting the map, I will try to find any information about this world, especially regarding other influences, the gate, and the other side. I hope it won''t take too long." [It will. Trust me. You are getting it so easily by using this kind of approach, but if it''s the normal investigation, the N squad needs to check it by themselves. One Lower World like this might need one to two years. One Upper World is around decades, so you can imagine how hard it is. Of course, I am talking about detailed information.] "I know. I just want to see whether this world suits my Gacha System or not." Alex shrugged. "Besides, the World''s Will will be the one making a deal with me. By the way, how do I even contact the World''s Will?" [Two ways. The first will be showing your real power. It will approach you. The other one is to use a kind of ritual with Array. I don''t have the array plate at the moment, and no one can make it in a short time because we have no need for it this whole time.] "Heh? You forgot?" Alex wanted to tease her since Lin Xingzhi usually had prepared everything for him. This was a rare chance for him to get back, albeit just like usual, she fought back. [So, you are going to keep relying on me? What a cute boy?] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Is this the system''s auto defense?" [Nope. Just saying.] "¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. He could negotiate with others and get his own advantage, but why could he not handle her? [Fufu. Teasing you is really nice.] "Fine, fine. I lost again." Alex shrugged before noticing that Mileda had come back. He calmed himself down and looked at the door with a serious expression. "I am sorry for taking too long." She panted as if she rushed to this room. From one glance, the drawing hadn''t been made, so he knew that she must have something to do earlier. It was probably related to the prince, but in either case, he didn''t pay any heed and stretched his hand to tell her to continue. Before she could say something, she noticed that the room was filled with vegetables and meats. The energy emitted from those startled her, and she realized there wasn''t any place to walk other than a single path. "This¡­" "I am giving this to you. Just talk to me about what I want to know for a single day. I will think about what to reward you tomorrow." She widened her eyes, never expecting that Alex was this generous. Although she wanted to question where all these came from, she decided not to talk about it, lest Alex got pissed. "I understand." She walked carefully to Alex and began her explanation, including drawing a simple map. Chapter 1013 - Simple View of the World "I think that is enough." Alex finally stopped her from talking after a long ten hours. They had been discussing the information all this time, from the Rawak Kingdom, their neighbor countries, and even the dark side. He got a good grasp of what kind of world he had come to. According to Mileda, he believed the world wasn''t a cultivation world or even like sword and magic. There was another kind of materialization that he needed to learn in a fight. Of course, Mileda also benefited from this. Alex gave her food and water while they were talking, and surprisingly, she broke through to another level. Seeing how she easily advanced, he wondered whether this world had a certain level of malnutrition, but it seemed to be not the case. In their original city, they could easily buy water supply to liven up the city, and there were enough trees and such to make it look like a paradise. However, it was different in this very place. It was the farthest territory they could reach, so the condition was poor. Alex listened to her with great interest and thought he might be able to get a good grasp of governing a kingdom or something from this place. After all, he had no prior experience regarding this, and he decided to accept his identity as the former Spirit God in Eulja. It was a huge responsibility, so he thought he tried to learn it while he was in this world. However, he didn''t ask her this type of question today because he had another plan. He looked at Mileda, who slowly took a few deep breaths and wiped her sweat. It seemed he had pushed her too far. "I am sorry for this display." She realized that she sweats too much and apologized. Alex waved his hand. "It''s fine. I have pushed you too much, so it''s better to rest for a bit. And you can take this food supply with you." "Really?" She widened her eyes. Obviously, it was normal to have this happy expression, especially after you tasted the food made from it. During their discussion, Alex had asked her to eat, so she could somehow understand where Alex''s power came from. It was amazing and absurd to the point the kingdom would rise if they had someone like Alex supplying them. Before her kingdom fell, there was no news like this, so it was either hidden by the country or Alex never visited them. The latter seemed to be the answer since Alex said he just finished wandering around for years. Looking at Alex''s age, it seemed he wasn''t that young too, so there was no way he had talked with other countries. "Yep. Just take it. I am going to walk around a bit." Alex nodded. "Walk around?" She narrowed her eyes and started misunderstanding him again. She thought Alex wanted to walk around and leave this place altogether because there was no equipment in this room that came from him. In other words, he could leave at any moment. "This¡­How about I accompany you? I can be your guide around." She desperately asked. "Nah, it''s fine. I don''t plan to visit any building, so I will simply wander around aimlessly in the city." Mileda thought for a moment and sighed. Since the first attempt failed, she shouldn''t ask it again if she didn''t want to displease Alex. "I understand." Alex nodded and pointed at the food. "You can bring this away while I am strolling." Without waiting for her to reply, Alex leaped out of the window since he didn''t want to get bothered by the guards or something inside this place and disappeared. Mileda looked outside the window and was bewildered when he disappeared. He should just jump earlier, and the next second, he disappeared. She scratched the back of her head, not knowing what to do with Alex. There was no opening to exploit, and Alex seemed to have no interest in her. At the same time, there wasn''t a maid beautiful enough to be compared to her, so it was impossible to entice him. Frustrated by the thought, she could only leave the room, finding two guards that were patrolling outside. "Princess." The guards kneeled and greeted her. "Call the other guards to bring the supply inside the room. I have tested the food inside. Although it''s raw now, if you cook it normally, I think it will work as well. Tell my brother that. I need to take a bath first." She ordered. "This much?" One of the guards peeked inside the room and found the supply. There were boxes after boxes that were filled to the brim, but a certain thought appeared right after his surprise. "I wonder if we give him more space, will there be more supply?" To his surprise, Mileda, who heard it, slammed him into the wall. "What did you say?! He has no obligation to help us and take nothing for this type of food. You still want to ask for more? You should be thankful if he doesn''t leave this place because of your words." The guard became pale, never expecting Mileda to react that much. For Mileda, the information was worthless to them, and there wasn''t important information that he needed, so she couldn''t comprehend why Alex was so generous to give this much magic food and water to them. As much as she wanted to beat the guard up, she couldn''t afford to lose a single soldier at the moment, so she refrained herself and walked away while saying. "You heard my order. Do it immediately." Since there was no shortage of water supply for drinking, she thought it would be better if she washed herself to present herself better. On her way, she met her brother, who seemed to be curious as well. "Brother." "Mileda. Are you alright? You must have worked hard." The brother thought Mileda finally did it, considering she had been inside this room for ten hours. Alex must be very strong in his opinion to last that long, but Mileda shook her head. "No. That''s not hard work." "What happened?" Xivaxi then realized that it wasn''t the case. Mileda gave a brief explanation regarding what they were talking about and Alex''s intake in their matter. It made him furrow his eyebrows and ask. "Where is he now? I should go with him to be his guide." "I don''t know. You remember that he is a wanderer, right? When you first saw him, was there another person with him?" "So, you are assuming that he likes to be alone?" "I think so. That''s why we should leave him alone. At the very least, he has given us so much, it''s better to not displease him too much in our current condition." "Alright then. I will leave his matter to you. If you need anything, ask me." "I understand." Meanwhile, Alex was already on the outskirts of the city, facing the endless sand in this desert. [What do you want to do?] "Travel around the world in a few hours, including the dark side." Alex smiled and disappeared again. "Besides, my cultivation is sealed, so my speed can''t be at full speed or else, I will go to the other side in one second." He didn''t feel like teleporting since this planet wasn''t as big as an Upper World, so it would take around two hours to go around the world and reach this place again. He headed straight to the east, considering he was somewhat on the west side of the light side. He planned to visit the portal at the end before returning to this place. It didn''t take too long for him to reach a savanna, filled with grass everywhere and trees. Many beasts were there, but he didn''t find a monster like goblins or such. The beast itself didn''t look that different than that of an animal, so he wondered if they were called monsters as well. Either way, he continued his journey without paying too much detail to each biome. He passed some villages along the way, but nothing stood out, so he didn''t think much. He followed the map he got earlier to see the other kingdoms. According to the map, there were four kingdoms on this light side, including the Rawak Kingdom. Near them was a kingdom called the Baal Kingdom. Unlike the Rawak Kingdom, this one controlled this Savanna. They exported dairy products, including meats, to other kingdoms to show their dominance. As for the Rawak Kingdom itself, they had strong warriors that could be lent to any other countries, so it was a kind of trade. And not a single kingdom dared to antagonize them that much because they knew the Rawak Kingdom had the strongest army until they were extinguished overnight. Either way, Alex arrived at the city to look around, but it didn''t pique his interest. It was a simple kingdom that lived peacefully. The three kingdoms must be putting a facade when they sent their soldiers to help the Rawak Kingdom because they knew if the strongest kingdom couldn''t handle it, they wouldn''t be able to do it as well. Alex then proceeded to the next kingdom known as the Slitn Kingdom. This kingdom had a specialty. It was their fertile lands. Surrounded by many volcanoes, they didn''t need to worry about the minerals in their soil, and the lands would keep fertile for a long time. Just like the second kingdom, he had no interest other than looking around for the Rawak Kingdom''s soldiers. He wondered whether they knew that the Rawak Kingdom had fallen. And if they knew about it, would they come back to rebuild it? Unfortunately, he only found some, and they seemed to have someone they needed to protect or fight for, so it was best not to approach them, lest he garnered their attention. Moving onto the last kingdom in the Light Side, he never expected to find a place for scholars. This place made him nostalgic because it reminded him about the Acacia Kingdom. This was the most advanced nation among the four because they prioritized knowledge. Of course, it wasn''t only for science and such, but also tactics and strategies. If they asked who would lead the war? It would be the Rawak Kingdom. However, if they asked who would come up with their plan, it would be this kingdom. Academies and research centers were everywhere, making him a bit curious about the knowledge of this world. He wondered if he could enter this kingdom and gained a bit of their knowledge, especially in their power system. In the end, Alex decided to hold the idea until he planted the seal. He might bring someone from the Rawak Kingdom to be his guide, probably either Xivaxi or Mileda. With their status, it should be fine to avoid problems while in this place, and he could enter some research centers at the same time. As for the payment, he would be giving more supplies, so it wasn''t really that much. After putting so much thought, he departed from the last kingdom and headed straight to the dark territory. He had expected this phenomenon, but he was still amazed by how beautiful it was. What he saw on the border between the Dark Side and the Light Side was a sea that would see the orange sun that was about to set but never set. From Mileda''s information, the sea spanned for half of the border, so the other half was a land where the dark territory usually used to invade the light territory. At the same time, he thought this would be a perfect place to sneak inside. The scenery soon turned dark as he became closer to the dark territory and found a full black environment far away. He increased his pace, and the light had completely gone. Only the darkness of night faced this territory. Even the four moons couldn''t brighten it completely. "So this is the dark side." Alex smiled. The darkness made it hard to see for a normal person, but it didn''t affect him at all. He went ahead to check what he could find in this Dark Territory. Chapter 1014 - Dark Territory "So, this is the dark side." Alex looked at this darkness. Normal people would only have sight for one or two meters in front of them. "I wonder how people actually see in this dark place." With his curiosity, he began exploring the forest. The darkness itself made everything look eerie and the chilly wind turned this dark forest into a creepy one. Alex began venturing the forest from the sky while using his Spirit Eyes to check if he could find a monster or someone here. After going for a while, he couldn''t find any single living creature other than the trees. In fact, the trees themselves looked ominous. It had evolved to suit their environment, so it could grow even without sunlight. But their leaves were purple while the log was black, as if the trees were those in the horror animation. Alex kept going straight to check the first kingdom in the Dark Territory. It was a bit far from where he came from, but he arrived one hour later. Unlike those on the other side, this kingdom seemed to be more marvelous. The darkness made the lamps all over the towns look even more glamorous, illuminating the dark building that had been decorated in a way that it would stand out even with limited light. Alex checked the kingdom with his Spirit Eyes and noticed that their average power level was a bit higher than those in the light side, but considering there were only three influences managed to stay alive in this place, the power from both sides was equal. When he was about to sneak inside the kingdom, he found someone running away. He took another look at that person and saw a boy. His appearance looked the same as humans, but his eyes glowed in the dark like that of animals, such as cats, dogs, and others. Due to this harsh environment, humans must have evolved to adjust themselves. That was why they seemed to have eyes that could see in the dark. At the same time, the boy looked weak and exhausted, but his chest was broad and his muscles bulked every now and then. It wasn''t supposed to be visible from a boy that looked like he never trained in his life, but he guessed it must be one of the ways to get used to it. He didn''t know the power behind their eyes, so he thought the boy must have fallen so many times until his body got trained that way. Behind him were three wolves that he never saw once on this planet. At the same time, he noticed a movement a bit further away, specifically in the opposite direction of the castle. "Is there a portal here? I have never found a single monster in this place, so I think these wolves come from that." Alex thought for a moment and put on a mask along with a long robe. He descended to the ground and stomped the first wolf before kicking the other two wolves. They died almost immediately. The boy obviously couldn''t control his emotion when he found Alex just killed the wolves. However, he tried hard to remain calm while looking at Alex, knowing that he must be a reinforcement or something. "Who are you?" The boy asked. Alex glanced at him. "My name, you don''t need to know. I just want to understand the current situation. It seems there is a big movement there." The boy saw Alex pointing his finger at the castle, but for him who understood the situation, he knew that Alex must be talking about the big battle on the other side of the castle. He thought for a moment and decided to answer. "Thank you for saving me, but you won''t be able to help much." "Why?" "Why, you said?! My relatives have died right in front of my eyes one by one because of this emerging monster. If I am not ordered to save my life, do you think I can hold myself back to have my own revenge?" He looked at Alex while gritting his teeth. Before he could say anything, a few more presences came into his range. Alex turned back and narrowed his eyes, finding two more people along with seven wolves. When the two arrived and saw the boy, they were surprised and shouted. "Your highness!" The first one to come was a middle-aged man. He held a big sword with that injured body. On the other hand, the other one was a delicate young woman. She appeared to be injured as well, but she still maintained her ferocity. The two didn''t notice Alex at the moment as they immediately turned around to face the wolves. "Your highness. Please get away from here according to the plan. We will stall them." The young man turned out to be a prince. This must be his guard or something. "Your highness. As long as you are alive, we can still rebuild the kingdom. There are already evacuations everywhere, so the citizens will escape to anywhere they can just to make sure they don''t die." The middle-aged man informed him as he faced the front wolf. Swinging that big sword, he blew away the wolf that managed to block his sword with its fangs. At the same time, the female raised her wooden staff to the air as a pattern appeared behind her. It was a few times her size. The pattern itself had a crow in the middle with some additional patterns on its surrounding. However, Alex frowned because he could find something more amazing than the pattern. ''Array?'' Alex never thought he would find an Array Master in this place. And not only that but this Array Master had this weird pattern that shouldn''t be an array on itself. When he took a closer look at the pattern, he noticed the arrays that created the pattern itself. In other words, she managed to make symbols that were so small and made it look like a pattern like this. The woman released the power of its pattern when she swung her staff down. Surprisingly, the pattern let out a burst of wind, creating some small wounds on the wolf and blowing them away. The middle-aged man saw this and activated a similar pattern to that of the female. However, this time, he noticed another pattern. It was a sword. He then remembered there was a small symbol that looked like a gust of wind in the entire pattern, so he thought this must be their way of fighting. The middle-aged man slammed the wolf with that huge sword. Not wanting to die, the wolf tried to stop his sword by stopping it with its fang, but the middle-aged man was better than that. His strength managed to push the wolf back. And because it was still stuck on his sword, he slammed the wolf into the ground. The pain made the wolf wail, but the sword had yet to complete its swing, so it immediately cut the wolf''s head. The other six became angry when they saw one of them was killed by the swordsman, so they moved together to bring him down, forgetting there was another person behind him. The female raised its staff again, recalling the same pattern. But to his surprise, there was something different in this pattern. Unlike the previous gust of wind pattern, he noticed a different one that looked like a tornado and was located on the opposite of the giant symbol. "This¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes as this was the first time he saw someone using an array like this. Although he couldn''t confirm it, there was a catch in that giant pattern which made Alex believe it contained the secret he wanted. Either way, he wanted to see how it got unfolded, so he observed the female. The latter finally finished channeling her power into that symbol, and a hurricane gradually formed and grew bigger. "Wind Tornado." It tried to distract the wolf by its sucking force but only got two of them. The remaining four kept charging at the middle-aged man. The same happened to this guy. He summoned the same pattern but with another symbol. Instead of a sword, he found a shape that looked like a rock. "Grand Slam." He hit the ground to lift it up with his power, creating a tall wall that launched a wolf to the sky while scaring the others. The young man seemed to have gathered his resolve. He didn''t wish to lose, so he summoned a similar pattern but with a fire symbol instead. "Fireball!" He released a fireball and directly hit the tornado. As one would expect, the fire got absorbed into it and turned the normal fire into a fire tornado, burning the two wolves that got sucked into it alive. The two that managed to escape from this series of attacks decided to change their target by moving around the middle-aged man and the female and headed straight to the young man. "Your highness!" The middle-aged man was the first to react while the female tried to use her power again, but one of the wolves suddenly changed its direction again and struck his hand, resulting in him releasing his sword. The giant sword flew right at the female. ''Ugh!'' She gritted her teeth and avoided it. However, the pattern she built earlier crumbled. Even if she cast another one, she wouldn''t be fast enough to help the prince. It was at this time that the female found Alex. She saw him simply because of the giant sword that was flying in his way. "Oh no! Dodge it!" She shouted, not knowing what to do anymore. The middle-aged man couldn''t help them either because he was still occupied with the wolf. Without his sword, it was hard for him to fight this wolf. The young man gritted his teeth and activated his pattern, preparing himself to summon his power to stop this wolf. Although he would regret it, he needed to abandon Alex in this situation and focused on the wolf instead. On the other hand, Alex saw the giant sword flying to him without a change of expression. He took a glance at the wolf that almost passed him and hit the boy. Deciding to help, Alex grabbed the handle of the giant sword without trouble. When the female saw it, she couldn''t believe someone could catch that big sword with that kind of speed. And Alex didn''t even flinch, meaning that his strength was more than enough to catch it. But before she could say anything, Alex already swung the sword to the side, severing the wolf''s head. Since there was only one wolf remaining, he threw the big sword to the last wolf, piercing it until it created a hole in its body. The sword hit the tree, and the wolf fell down to the ground at the same time. The group was shocked. The man they thought weak was someone amazing that could defeat two wolves without a problem. Meanwhile, Alex''s eyes kept staring at the darkness to check if they were safe or not. Chapter 1015 - A New Way of Using Arrays "You¡­" The middle-aged man looked at Alex while the woman checked on the young man. The doubt in their eyes was so strong to the point a kid could even point that out. However, the prince he saved earlier immediately shouted. "Stop! He saved me from the wolves that chased me. At the same time, help us in the earlier battle!" The middle-aged man''s body shook and immediately stood still, not daring to do anything to Alex. He then faced Alex and bowed his head like a gentleman. "Thank you for saving my life." "It''s nothing. I was going to check what happened, but since you are here, it will be best if you can answer that question." Alex nodded with a serious expression. The two wanted to rebuke him again by not showing any respect to the prince, but the prince raised his hand, stopping them. He thought for a moment and began explaining. "The situation is mysterious. At first, we noticed a large blue air swirling not far from our kingdom. "Two days after that, it began summoning monsters from inside¡­Those wolves were the first ones to emerge from our place, and according to my father, the king, the weakest one is around Seven Circle Warrior or Mage. "We can''t really do anything if they are coming in a large number. To that end, there is an order of evacuation, and I am one of the first batches. I can''t tell you the details because it''s classified, but I am afraid this kingdom is already in its path to ruin." The prince gritted his teeth and shook his head in disappointment. In his eyes, he wanted to help the kingdom, but he knew he had no power to do so. He could only escape and build his strength, so he could take revenge in the future. Hearing it, Alex thought for a moment. ''It seems the world has begun. Soon, more and more gates will open. I need to speed up the process, I guess.'' [You are going to visit the World''s Will tomorrow?] ''Yes.'' Alex then turned to the kingdom direction and said, "I will be going there." Although he was curious about their way of using an array, he decided to watch the battle himself since there would be more people using this kind of power. "Wait?! How about going with us? I can let a strong man like you enter the hidden base. To fight them, I need a strong one like you." The prince tried to stop him, but Alex only shook his head. He turned around and saw the middle-aged man in his way. Because the prince wanted him, he thought about stopping Alex, but without anyone noticing, Alex already got past him, walking slowly as if he just went through him. The middle-aged man turned around to grab him, but Alex already ran until they couldn''t see him anymore. At that time, he began flying to the city wall. As one would expect, the battlefield was chaotic. To help the evacuation process, the soldiers fought outside the city, but it surely wouldn''t last long. Only those who had enough strength could fight against these wolves. The blazing fire began to spread, illuminating the darkness in this territory, but it made the dying soldiers even more visible. Alex didn''t participate in that battle. Although he could settle it by himself, it would garner too much attention. He simply sat down on the city wall and watched those people using their unique power to fight these people. "I wonder what they are doing¡­ That''s indeed an array, but it looks different than a normal array. Besides, don''t you think their speed to create an array is better than mine?" Alex muttered in doubt. [I believe so. The main clue will be the giant pattern which is obviously the body of the array. The problem is we don''t know what is inside the big pattern. If we know, solving the other problems wouldn''t be that hard, I think.] "Yes. But I can''t really ask them about it, can''t I?" Alex thought for a moment. Lin Xingzhi seemed to find the answer first before him and replied. [I have a solution. Why don''t you go to a library? I think you will get enough knowledge to comprehend this power in the library. I don''t know if the dark territory has a library, but even if they don''t have one, we can visit the ruined Rawak Kingdom.] "Fair enough. It''s not like the Rawak Kingdom will fight against those beasts inside their city¡­At the same time, I am not very sure because I absolutely know that it''s going to be in ruins. There is a chance that it will create a fire and spread." [Have you forgotten the fact that the light side doesn''t need a torch or something because everything is natural lighting?] "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and shook his head helplessly. "Great. I will check this one first." Without wasting his time, he ignored the soldiers that kept fighting with their lives and headed straight to the library. Because he didn''t know where it was, he tried to see any special buildings that were built differently than that of a house or a store. Unfortunately, he couldn''t find a single building that had books. There was one last place he had yet to check, and he quickly went there. It was none other than the castle. Due to the current situation, there weren''t any soldiers that protected the castle because they were busy fighting. Alex sneaked around the castle with his Spirit Eyes to avoid any people that were still inside. At the same time, he opened all rooms inside the castle, including the king chamber. Surprisingly, there was a passage inside the room, leading to another place. Considering it wasn''t opened, he thought it led to his personal stuff, so there was no hesitation in tearing the wall down with his finger. It created a loud noise, but since there wasn''t anyone here, he didn''t need to worry about someone coming inside. When he entered, there wasn''t anything inside other than this path. But after one minute of walking, he finally reached the end of the corridor. To his surprise, there was another room inside, filled with books and treasures. The left one had so many bookshelves, filled with books to the brim, while the other side had golds and such. "This place must be his study room and his treasury. I don''t know, but I think the king is greedy since he will always watch his treasure while studying something? In any case, I am glad to find books here." Alex shook his head and continued his investigation. He went to the table that was usually used to read and checked three books resting there. How to use the brightness of the lamp and the darkness to arouse a woman. One-hundred ultimate position in the dark. S.e.xually frustrated? This is the way. "¡­" Alex facepalmed and wondered whether this king was in his right mind. Not only could he see his treasures on the other side, but he also read something like this. "I take back what I said. This king is not only greedy but l.u.s.tful. Don''t tell me he is a fat guy who is lazy and loves to eat. What else does this king have with the seven deadly sins?" Alex didn''t care about it and immediately searched for the books on the shelves. Luckily, the books here were decent and informative. He browsed all the titles, trying to find the book that might be related to their unique power. After searching for another three minutes, he came up with a book called. Nine Circle Magician "This¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and picked it up. He opened the book and began reading it. "This book tells you anything about the nine circle magician, including how to form the ninth magic circle." Alex continued reading it but didn''t find anything useful. It was too advanced for him to know the concept of this unique power. However, Alex found that it wasn''t the only book. If there was a Nine Circle Magician, there should be an Eight Circle Magician and so on until the very bottom. He searched for it and found it. He went straight to the "First Circle Magician" to settle his curiosity. If this was a success, he might as well go home since this information alone was worth it. Want to become a powerful mage? This is the way. We call this power Holy Emblem. Normally, to summon a magic circle, you need to form everything out of thin air and release its power. But everything changed after the Great Mage Solias found another way to make magic easier. He connected all magic circles into one and found many similarities. For example, this magic circle is Fireball, while the other one is a Stone Wall. Both are different elements and types, but if you take a closer look at it, they both have the same similarity. After a series of research, these patterns are needed to extract our magic power and channel it to the magic circle. They both have the same patterns. At the same time, this is a magic circle for Freezing Ice. He found that this similarity can be taken advantage of by using the same concept of Magic Tool, which is to inscribe a magic circle to a tool. The research took a long time, but it was a success. By inscribing our body with certain patterns, we will be able to create a portion of a magic circle in an instant by relying on it. We can then create the last portion ourselves. The amazing part is the fact that we can create a magic circle ten times faster than the normal one after we have gotten the hang of it. At the same time, you can make a certain pattern that you like while inscribing the necessary symbols in a specific way. We call this a Holy Emblem. Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he was amazed by this research. This thing would surely revolutionize the Array if it were known by those Array Masters. [I agree with you. This is something amazing.] "Yes. The research indeed told us the truth. Just like how we used metals or even monsters'' parts as an ingredient to make a weapon, we can use our own body for that. This will allow us to inscribe a portion of an array on our body and use it easily. "At the same time, I also agree with the fact that there are many similar symbols from one array to another. It''s like gathering symbols and such. I mean, some symbols for Gathering Array are useful to draw our power to activate the array. "And there is an element and such. Hence, this research is valid. The problem will be whether this can be applied to a Rank 9 Array Master like me." Alex thought for a moment. "And I think this will increase my power even further because I can use an array faster than anyone. I don''t need my Space Plate anymore to hide it. "I also don''t think the "emblem" will look bad in my body. I mean, if I make a tattoo with Eulja''s flag, won''t it look nice?" Alex smiled. [Sure enough. From our observation, we should be able to inscribe it on the shoulder or something where it''s not very visible.] "That''s right. It has so many possibilities about this power, so I think I will start experiencing things." Alex nodded with a serious expression. [Do you mind if I bring this matter to Eulja? I can set up a group of Array Masters to research it.] "It''s fine. It''s not like I am the man who found this revolutionary idea. Just cite it to give this man credit. He deserves it" Alex nodded. [In that case, I will make a special group to research this idea.] "Yes, thank you. I can focus on my task this way. Just keep me informed from time to time." [Sure thing.] Alex then continued reading the book until the end, learning a lot more. He had gained much more than he could expect from this place. Not only he understood that this place could be used to plant his Gacha System, but he also found this brilliant idea that would be useful in the near future. Satisfied, he then took all the books here except p*rn books for research purposes. [By the way, bring me all those books too. I am collecting it. And don''t be ashamed because you were satisfied with it when I used all the tricks in the books, you know.] "..." Chapter 1016 - Meeting the Worlds Will After getting what he wanted, Alex decided to return to the city wall, seeing the soldiers that had been reduced twenty percent of its original size. He then looked around and found that the evacuation was almost complete. Seeing the nearly empty city, Alex became pensive. "Am I too ruthless?" Alex questioned himself. He began doubting himself as he thought that the life of the people was just something that he wouldn''t care about as long as he didn''t know personally. Of course, it was weird to save someone that might lead to an additional problem, but if he saved them right now, there shouldn''t be someone who could decipher what he did. In other words, no one actually knew it was him. It was risk-free and the help was as simple as waving his hand. What made him think this way was when he saw many humans were massacred without being able to do anything. Their unwilling expressions, screams, and despair touched Alex''s heart. He had been avoiding helping strangers because there would be a problem following them right behind. And one person or a small group couldn''t be compared to tens of thousands of humans. That was his reason to start doubting his own heart. This feeling¡­Did it come as a fellow human? Or did it come from his doubt? He wondered if the ones running away from this place were monsters while the attackers were humans, would he help them? He let out a long sigh and waved his hand. "Haiz¡­It seems I am still too soft." The Spiritual Energy formed a Teleportation Array beneath the people who were trying to run away. He sent them all a bit farther away from this place. At the very least, the wolves wouldn''t be able to reach them in a day or so. At the same time, he made another one to teleport the soldiers to the same place as where he sent the people. The fight instantly ended because there wasn''t a single human to kill anymore. Seeing this, Alex sighed again. "I will only do it at this level. I won''t kill the wolves because they also haven''t done anything wrong. Besides, this is also the payment for the information of the new technique." Instead of helping the humans fight these wolves, he chose to stop the fight by sending the human away like what they were trying to do. After that, he decided to fly away until he reached the border and found the Rawak Kingdom near it.Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-will_52717522566309997 for visiting. As he expected, there was a portal there. It was situated near the kingdom like before. He could see monsters taking over the kingdom, building their nest inside there. It wasn''t a worm anymore, but more like ogres, scorpions and other beings. "Now that I see this, I have a question. What is the process of evolution?" [I know what you want to ask. First of all, there are three steps for completing an evolution. The first step will be the increase of Spiritual Energy on the planet. This will make people get stronger faster for a period of time.] [Just like a tsunami, where the water in the shore got pulled back to the ocean, and you can see fishes on the sand, it would then come back with that tall wave. This advantage would soon get hit by the appearance of portals, leading to other worlds.] [Of course, they are Lower Worlds as well, but it doesn''t mean their power level is the same. I mean, the extent of the lower world is Martial Grandmaster to be honest. And if you remember Stina''s World, that world is a half Upper World.] [Yes. That is the benefit of getting influenced by a world that was undergoing its transformation. The portal didn''t link only both worlds, but it also sent its powerful Spiritual Energy to the other worlds, allowing them to grow as well.] [This will take time, and the aforementioned world won''t have the opportunity to pass the Upper World because it relies on the real Upper World. Due to that, there are no other world portals appearing in that world.] [Well, it''s a bit complicated to be explained in one go, but if I put it in a simple way, you get stronger, new enemies, and get stronger again.] "So, it won''t happen again? I mean, there won''t be any strange phenomenon again other than the natural disasters?" [Yes. Spiritual Energy will only get richer and richer. All the people in this place will grow stronger and stronger, following the progress of this planet.] "Now that I think about it, all Upper Worlds are quite big, no?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [Yes. As I said, disturbances will be everywhere. Just like Earth Disturbance can create a planet, this type of disturbance is enough to create rocks and other materials, making the world larger. And due to that, it will cause a huge Earthquake along with the others.] "So, this planet will become significantly larger?" [Exactly.] "I have never seen one during from Earth." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [This comes only every one million years. We can find this because we have explored more than ten thousand planets around us alone. There are so many planets out there, so you can expect to find one or two more.] "I see." Alex sighed. "What should I do with the portal? Just let it be?" [This is a natural process, so it''s better not to do anything.] "Alright then. I will take one more day to confirm this planet and call the World''s Will with my strength." Alex nodded with a serious expression. It wasn''t possible to descend without alarming the beasts, so he decided to return to his room, forgetting that he had passed the night time because he was occupied by the books earlier. He found Mileda waiting for him until she fell asleep. Since he didn''t know about the structure of this building, specifically her room, he decided to pick her up and lay her on the bed while he took his time, watching the suns. "Light and Dark Territories. I am sure that these two will soon come together because they won''t be able to withstand those who come from other worlds. From the two portals we have found, those two worlds seem to be higher in terms of cultivation level. Probably Martial Master is the norm while those who are so talented can reach Martial Grandmaster. "Of course, they can''t come to this place from the beginning, but they will. If this world can''t contain them, they will lose and probably get enslaved by them. I wonder if I should plant my Gacha System to the other planets as well?" Alex just thought something brilliant. If he could get the surrounding worlds too, he would be making more money. [I don''t think so. It''s better to only plant it on this planet. Of course, it won''t make the other worlds difficult, turning them to be a slave of the people from this world. Instead, the World''s Will will recognize all inhabitants no matter if they were not local and distributed the Gacha System. In other words, as long as they come here once, they are eligible to use it. It will only be active in this world of course.] "I see. That''s better. This will give a balance between all worlds. I don''t care whoever comes in the top since I might have retracted the Gacha System from this planet by that time." Alex smiled and closed his eyes, cultivating to pass the time. ¡­ The next day, Alex opened his eyes when he noticed Mileda had woken up. "Hmm?" She looked lost as she felt something different from last night''s sleep, considering she wasn''t on her usual bed. Looking around, she saw someone''s back and immediately raised her guard. Leaping from the bed, Mileda tried to see who it was but then realized she actually fell asleep in Alex''s room. There was only one person who would be here. "I¡­I¡­" She wanted to explain, but Alex simply waved his hand, telling her that it was fine. "From what I can see, especially the one with your so-called blue spiral or something, something big will happen. I need more information to see whether my prediction is right or not. You can prepare yourself first and meet me in one hour." Alex said with a flat tone. She then looked down after noticing his words. Fixing her sloppy clothes, Mileda quickly left the room. "I am sorry. Let me fix myself up in a bit." Alex sighed. "I wonder if I should give more supplies to her for today''s session. I mean, they will soon have more when the Gacha System starts working." [You can probably give her a warning about what will happen. Not about the world''s evolution, but the natural disasters.] "Yeah, I think I can do that and try to help them fight those monsters for a bit." Several minutes later, Mileda came back to see him. Of course, she kept apologizing to him until Alex stopped her forcefully, so they could talk. Just like the previous day, this conversation lasted for hours. Alex then stated his terms for the payment today, and Mileda felt happy about it, telling Alex that she needed to prepare along with her brother. Alex nodded and waited again until the "nighttime" before he flew to the sky. He didn''t want any people from here to witness what was about to happen, so he was slight to the north. Going around for one more time, he had confirmed there wasn''t a single settlement near him. He then released his seal, showing his Divine Energy to the world. Rumble Rumble. As if responding to his advance, the sky turned dark as thunder began rumbling in his ears. He looked up and saw that the Lightning Tribulation was showing hostility. However, Alex calmed it down by saying. "I am here to make another proposal. How about we talk?" Seeing Alex only released his power just to call him, the Lightning Tribulation then struck forth. Alex didn''t do anything regarding this because the Lightning hit the ground in front of him, not him. The energy contained in the lightning was absorbed to the ground as he sensed a huge amount of energy rushing to the surface. This could be compared to that of a Rank 3 God or even stronger. No wonder even God Rank Expert didn''t want to mess with planets. They simply had the power to decimate them, at least those, Upper World or above. That Pure Energy then formed into a human form but all white. Other than the body''s structure, he couldn''t see the eyes or anything on it. The latter then sent a thought transmission to him. ''I believe this is an easier form to talk for you? Let me cut to the chase, for what reason a Rank 8 God like you coming to this place? Depending on your answer, I might need to kill you for trespassing.'' Chapter 1007 - Just a Past Story When Alex returned, he found Zera with a smug on her face as if she witnessed something amazing that she could make fun of. "What?" Alex asked with a poker face. "Nothing." Her tone was playful. She must have thought something inappropriate. "Anyway, I am going back to cultivate. I can''t really waste my time." Alex decided to ignore her thoughts and went back to where he usually practiced. "Alright. With your pace, I believe you can reach your goal within the time limit." She nodded and left him alone. After seeing her going inside the house, he proceeded to the cultivation. There was nothing happening in the meantime. It was a peaceful two months. Even those in Eulja were having their relaxing time, waiting for Alex to return. They were eager to see him again after the information about him coming over to meet up with them rang on their ears. Obviously, Lin Xingzhi was the one spreading it. They were trying hard to prepare for something special to greet him. Alex was unaware of the fact that these two months actually gave them a headache. Nonetheless, they felt pretty good about it. ¡­ Two weeks passed, Aria gradually woke up from her cultivation, knowing that her time was up. She looked at the glowing token and rose from the floor. Before leaving, she looked at the gate that had disappeared and was never seen again, thinking about Alex. This was the man who changed her life from a dreamer to a fighter. She didn''t wish to be a powerful expert anymore. Instead, she fought for it and would attain it by herself. With another bow, she channeled her Spiritual Energy, and the token teleported her outside the tower. When she left, she found Ilevis waiting for her alone. "Peak Master?" Aria was amazed to see someone at her level standing before the gate and waiting for her this whole time. "Fu." The latter let out a sigh of relief and explained. "I thought something happened to you, considering you are the last one to leave this place." "I am the last one?" Aria tilted her head in confusion. She thought she would leave this place together with the other people since Alex said there were a few people that managed to get into the fifth stage. However, Ilevis explained. "The others have left the Pavilion since a week ago." "Eh?" Aria noticed once again. It was Alex''s doing. If not because of Alex, she must only have one week to practice inside the tower. She thought, ''He helped me again. Now, I can finally understand why the Sword God told me how lucky I am¡­'' She couldn''t help but smile. "Why are you smiling? Do you not know how worried I am?" Ilevis narrowed her eyes. Aria faced Ilevis with a calm expression while thinking, ''You worry about me? No, you are worried about my ability. Because of what happened to Nyx¡­Alex, you are afraid that I will suddenly disappear. The worry from you and Alex is far different. One has a hidden intention and the other one has sincerity.'' The thought was harsh but pretty accurate. Unfortunately, Aria couldn''t say anything to avoid her suspicion. It would be a problem if she couldn''t leave this world in the future. She simply smiled and assured her. "Don''t worry. I know how to take care of myself, Peak Master. I won''t let anything happen to me before I take care of my revenge for him." "¡­" Ilevis frowned. Aria seemed to be "obsessed" with taking her revenge, and every time she advised her, she wouldn''t listen. Little did she know the "revenge" she was talking about was just a fake, just so she could give her a little freedom for missions and her personal matters. And ultimately, she would sneak out of this world. She smiled and asked. "Should we go back?" "Y-yeah." Ilevis nodded, and the two flew away. ¡­ The remaining time passed quickly, and Alex officially had a Rank 8 Sword Qi and Spear Qi. He felt satisfied because there was only one more step to reach Divine Rank. When he opened his eyes, he found Zera sitting on her couch while sleeping. Next to her was a mountain of papers that were filled with techniques. She seemed to have done all this without rest for a month or so since she had prepared so many things. She gradually opened her eyes the moment she realized Alex''s presence and hurriedly fixed her appearance. "Ah, I am sorry. I dozed off." "No, no. I am the one who needs to apologize for waking you up. You have worked hard, so it''s better to rest." Alex advised her while glancing over the mountain of works. "Uh. I wonder why we are always so sleepy when doing all these works while we don''t need a single sleep when cultivating for years. Working is really mystical." "I need to agree with you." Alex nodded in approval. "Haha! So, what are you going to do now? Leave? There are two more days before the time limit." "I will use my time efficiently, so I will continue my training, but I will just take a breather for a while. Do you need any help in your work?" Alex asked. Since Zera had been helping him during the practice and would help him taking care of the trio later, he thought he should offer some help as well. Zera couldn''t be happier to introduce Alex to the works, but it turned out she was a sadist. If the work she had finished was big, the task that she introduced was at least ten times what she had done. Alex immediately took back his words and did a few things to help. When they were working, Zera suddenly started a random talk about her Master, the Sword God. "Do you know that my Master actually hates you?" "Yes, I do." "I wonder why¡­" Zera sighed. "I mean, you both didn''t have a conflict with each other, but Master always talked bad about you. At the same time, he kept smiling every single time. It perplexed us every time we witnessed that. "I once asked him whether he really hated you, and it turned out he didn''t say a single lie." Zera smiled and looked at Alex with a smile. "So, you are going to take revenge for that hatred?" Alex asked with a calm expression. "Nope. This was what happened to the Eight Swords. We misunderstood this relationship. In his retirement, I had a chance to ask Master again, finding that it turned out he didn''t say all the things about you. "It was true that he hated you, but there was another meaning behind it. He couldn''t comprehend your action and your strength. I mean, whenever you were in a pinch situation and your people were about to be killed, you would become a demon. "You were the scariest person in the Universe during that time. When he fought against you, he often wished that you knew how to run away. After all, you were a careful person who thought about all risks. "Yet, that power allowed you to protect your people and became feared, making no one want to mess with you. When I asked him about this, he always told me one story. I know that you don''t want to mix your current life with your past life, but I just couldn''t help but tell you this story. This was my favorite story when I was young after all. "Back then, there was a situation where Eulja only had around one hundred God Rank Experts while the enemies had a thousand God Rank Experts. The power level was similar, so this overwhelming number would surely become the downfall. "But everything happened differently than anyone could predict. Not only could you win the battle, you still had thirty people after killing eight hundred people of your enemies. In the end, the enemies escaped because they felt they would lose. "You know what happened? You led them in front like a demon god. Despite your injury, you wouldn''t think anything other than fighting to open up an escape route for all your subordinates. At that time, your subordinates became something similar to you because of your action. "They became a symbol of martyrdom. People said you had a few seconds to live when your heart was stabbed, and they exactly used that last second to kill more enemies. It was amazing and scary at the same time. "And in that battle, you became famous as someone that people shouldn''t mess with. My master was around that area, so he witnessed that battle. Of course, you couldn''t expect him to help you, right? Considering you were not friends or anything. At the same time, it was at a time like that, my Master started taking a liking to you and tried to understand your strength. "He always wondered what kind of power could emit a terrifying power like that and the answer was too ridiculous to believe. My Master then ended up believing it and asked us to know about that as well. "Unfortunately, none of us could become someone like you. What you have is simply nothing but friends. The courage to take on a whole world just for your friends, the strength to gain people''s admiration, and the trust between each other. "Those three¡­Most people only have the second one. Even when they trust their comrades, people could still find the sliver of doubt in their eyes, so they failed. As for the first one¡­It was just too ridiculous to be true. Some people tried that and died in the process. "I am telling you this because I believe you have the potential to surpass your past self and just want to show that even though my Master hated you so much, he also had the utmost respect for you." She cupped her hands and bowed deeply. "You might not be the same person, but I know deep down you are the same. You are¡­Alexander Sirius after all." Alex couldn''t let out a single word. He never expected to hear a story like this and didn''t know how to respond. People often compared himself to his past self, but he paid no heed because he would do what he deemed right. But in this story, he realized. He is he, the Spirit God is the Spirit God. This won''t change. But there was another sentence after that, they both are Alexander Sirius. Alex closed his eyes and fell into deep thought. Zera knew that he seemed to have an inner struggle, so she stopped, waiting for him until he finished. It took him one hour before he finally opened his eyes again. "Thank you for reminding me about this." "I didn''t have that intention though, but I will still claim the thanks." Alex shook his head helplessly. From what he understood, he didn''t compare himself to his previous life wasn''t due to them being a separate entity. However, it was all wrong. The only reason was that he escaped from his previous self, afraid to be compared. It was an act of cowardice. During this conflict, he learned his dignity, responsibility, and determination. He would prove that he, Alexander Sirius, was qualified to be the king of Eulja, not because it came from his past self, but he himself had influenced the people''s heart with his action. Even Zera called him Alexander Sirius was only due to him asking for it along with the influence of the past Spirit God, not because of his name. "Thanks to you, I have figured out what I need to do." Alex smiled. "This time, I will let people know the name of Alexander Sirius instead of the Spirit God. It will be hard, but it''s not impossible." "I don''t know what you want to do, but I wish you the best." [I will support you in achieving your dream.] Alex smiled. He knew that all his wives had accepted him for who he is, so he knew he had someone in his back that would support him no matter what, reassuring him. "Thank you." Alex smiled, saying his thanks not only to Zera but also Lin Xingzhi. Chapter 1017 - Worlds Will Seeing the World''s Will materialize in front of him, he couldn''t help but smile. "Why are you smiling, Human?" "Nothing. This is the first time I met a World''s Will, so I feel a bit happy." Alex shook his head calmly. "I don''t care about your matter. I just want to know what your purpose is from entering my place?" It suddenly released its Spiritual Energy, threatening him that if he didn''t want to answer, he would remove him. "I have one purpose. It''s to make a deal with you." Alex finally gave his answer. "My name is Alexander Sirius, and I have something that you may want to consider." "A deal? I have seen many inhabitants of this place, trading and dealing with each other, but there is none that tries to make a deal with me." The tone became hesitant, showing his confusion. "Yes. I have this power called the Gacha System. Your evolution process seems to be in the middle stage, right?"Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #''s-will_52737324496246336 for visiting. It nodded. "After this, many worlds will be linked to you, and the original inhabitants will suffer, don''t you think?" "Nothing is eternal. If they are wiped out, it''s because they are weak." "Is that what you really think? Or is that because you don''t have the power to strengthen them?" "Although I indeed favor my original inhabitants, I have witnessed the downfalls of many civilizations in the past. This is nothing for me." "You still haven''t answered my question." "Fine, Human. You win. I choose the latter. So, what is your proposal?" The tone from the World''s Will became a bit annoyed but helpless. "I want to plant the seal of my system in your body, allowing you to host my Gacha System. This way, you can give everyone this power, including the people that will soon come out of the portals." "Those people from another planet?" "I do sympathize with the people in this world, but it doesn''t mean it''s alright to favor them so much. Hence, to balance it and allow the people of this world to enter this soon-to-be Upper World, I want the Gacha System to be administered to the people from other planets as well. "This way, it will give more competition in this place. And with the new resources and such, I believe this will allow you to grow much faster due to how they are using their Spiritual Energy." "That is an interesting proposal, and you have explained why it will benefit me in the long run. But I don''t understand the middle process and what it''s in you?" The World''s Will still hesitated. There was no way Alex would give something without having benefit from his own "Investment." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "There is something for me as well, but everything will be directed to the Gacha System in the form of Spirit Crystal. In other words, I am using the Spiritual Energy from this world to create Spirit Crystals." "Are you stealing my energy?" "No. I am just getting a portion of it. Besides, I am here not for too long. That''s why I said I want to make a proposal." "For how long?" Alex thought for a moment. According to Lin Xingzhi, the evolution of a world usually lasted a hundred years to two hundred years. From a business perspective, he needed to see the return as well, so he got a perfect number. "Nine hundred years. And the Spiritual Energy that I take from people won''t be that much either. Hence, Nine hundred years are perfect for me. "Not only that the people in this world can gradually become a Martial Monarch or even Saint, but your Evolution won''t be that long either. I can assure you that you won''t need more than two hundred years to complete your evolution to become a full-fledged Upper World." "I still can''t believe your claim. If I don''t reach that stage within two hundred years, I want the years after the 200th year to subtract the contract." The World''s Will shook its head. "Alright. We have a deal." Alex nodded. "In that case, I want this deal to be witnessed by Heaven and Earth." The World''s Will nodded. "You first." Alex stretched his hand, asking the other party to start the oath. It didn''t have a problem with that and raised its hand. "By my parents, the Universe, the endless abyss, I promise that I will follow this deal according to the best of my ability." Seeing this, Alex also had his own oath. "With the Universe as my witness, I, Alexander Sirius, will agree to this deal and won''t do anything that will not benefit both parties." After confirming that both had their own oath, the World''s Will then asked. "So, what do I need to do?" "Stretch your hand. I will be leaving the seal." Alex asked the World''s Will to grab his hand. As soon as their hands were connected, Alex asked. "It''s your time." [Sure thing.] Lin Xingzhi immediately transported the seal from Alex''s hand to the World''s Will. [Creating the seal.] [0%...99%...100%.] [Complete.] [Transferring the seal.] When the transfer began, the World''s Will suddenly felt something weird in his body. The knowledge about the Gacha System was being poured into it, giving it another kind of power that he could control independently. "So, this is what you want to do." It also understood what Alex planned to do with this Gacha System because of this knowledge. "I understand most of it, so I will fulfill my own tasks." "Then, I am relying on you." Alex nodded with a smile. [Transfer complete.] [Initiating the Seal, Gacha System activated.] [Good Luck Gacha System can be used now.] Both of them had the same notification. Before using it, the World''s Will looked at Alex first to see his reaction. The latter only nodded his head, telling him it was alright to run it immediately. With his confirmation, he finally began activating the Gacha System. He then released a huge amount of power that spread worldwide, rewriting something in their soul. It was something like what the World''s Will where he met Alicia and Firia did to its inhabitants. However, they didn''t have a level or something. Only Gacha that they could use to get items. At that time, all people in the world had the same notification, including Alexander himself. [System Initiated.] Only those who were awake right now could actually read something after that, while those who were asleep had their message frozen until they woke up. Alex checked his own message. [You can touch this screen as long as you will it.] [Rule 1] The explanation about the rule of a Gacha then started, so Alex skipped all of it until everything disappeared, leaving only the normal interface of the system. Name: Alexander Sirius Point: 0 Ticket: 0 There were only three of these. The Point was used to draw like a normal Gacha Ticket, while the other was used like a Premium Ticket. There was another button that he could use to open the Gacha itself, showing four options to him. They were the buttons to play the Gacha. Each of them had two, which were the 1xand 10x. "I have done my part. As long as you kill anyone in this world, including the monsters that originally aren''t from me, you will get those things at a certain chance. Is that all?" The World''s Will asked. "Yes. That''s all. Everything is completed. There is one thing that I want to ask you." "What is it?" "I would like to stay in this world for a little bit longer to see if the system is working perfectly or not. Of course, I will be hiding my cultivation to make sure I don''t influence you in a bad way. What do you think?" "No more than three days. More than that, I need to expel you from here. And as long as you don''t use your power, it should be fine." "Alright. Thanks." "Then, if you have nothing else, I will return to my evolution." "Yes." Alex nodded and witnessed how the human-shaped Spiritual Energy slowly dispersed and returned to where it belongs. Even the Lightning Tribulation disappeared from the area, leaving him alone with nothing but sand. "We have finally done it." Alex stretched his hands upwards, feeling a bit tired. There was a kind of pressure when he talked to the World''s Will, especially since this was his first time. He never thought that the World''s Will was rather an intelligent being. [Of course. They have witnessed everything, so they understand human knowledge and other things. Other than their passive attitude, I believe they are even stronger than me.] "Well, the evolved World''s Will alone had reached Rank 3 God, I wonder what kind of strength that the World''s Will of a Divine World has?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. [Their power level is similar to mine, but their energy reserves are like an army of God Kings. Of course, there are several ways to make use of them, so it''s kind of hard to destroy a Divine World until it''s completely destroyed.] "Hmm. It''s quite complex. So, we can summon them to protect our planet or something?" [Not necessarily so. They won''t come out that way. As I said, all we can destroy are those on its surface. It''s impossible to destroy a Divine World like cutting it into two or something.] "So, it''s like we can cause destruction everywhere, but it''s not possible to destroy the planet itself?" [Yes. Every single living being may become extinct, but the world will persist. Though you can destroy a Divine World in another way.] "What is it?" [Just drag an Upper World and launch it to a Divine World with a certain speed. It will surely break.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Is there a person qualified to move an Upper World? Or maybe machinery that can help someone to move it?" [Only once it occurred. Even so, it got help from a natural force, which is the White Hole. It launched the world outside and destroyed a Divine World with that momentum.] "That''s impossible to think about. Either way, it''s already enough to know that we can make a deal or something. It might come in handy in the future." Alex shrugged. [Yes, yes. You are the one thinking about it, I am not.] "Haha." Alex laughed out loud while thinking an absurd thing. [It won''t be affected. But you surely will be affected.] Alex scratched the back of his head. What he thought earlier was whether the World''s Will could be enticed by desire like L.u.s.t or something, including the p.o.r.n book that Lin Xingzhi had gathered. "Anyway, we have done our job here, so I will go back right now." Alex nodded with a smile, feeling satisfied with this deal. He had three days to check the system, so he will use it wisely. He didn''t know what kind of reaction the prince and princess would have when they realized the water he gave and the water the system gave was basically the same. Luckily, three days would be the limit that they would begin suspecting him. It would be the perfect time to leave this world while giving them access to the Gacha System. Besides, his Gacha System would also get filled up. When he returned, Alex didn''t find the princess here again, so it was a peaceful night for him. Before resting for the day, Alex had two more questions for Lin Xingzhi. "Can you do something with the system in this world? I mean, like a master key that can open all doors, can you do the same?" [Yes. I can access the system, so you don''t need to worry about getting cheated. I can remove it at any time.] "And what will happen after we retract the system?" [Nothing will happen. I will probably send an advance notice for them to do whatever they need to spend those tickets. Besides, this deal is a bit unfavorable to us since we need a contract which lasts at least a few thousand years.] "Sorry, sorry. That was my first time. I will do better next time." Alex sighed. [Good luck then.] Chapter 1018 - Journey When the next morning came, it caused a commotion not only in this place but also in the entire world. The people from the Light Territory and the Dark Territory got this notification. Most of the people in this world had yet to understand the real meaning behind the system. Criminals thought they could use this system to their advantage while killing people, but those who had fought against monsters from another world knew there was something they could do to gain the points and tickets. Mileda and Xivaxi discussed this all "night" long after the guard who was patrolling noticed that they were not the only ones getting it, so they thought their prince and princess got it too. After confirming it, the silence turned into an uproar. There were many people gathering in their meeting hall to discuss their current predicament, trying to learn the concept of the system. Lin Xingzhi had given the tips and tricks along with the rule, so they should understand it sooner or later. During the meeting, Mileda suddenly remembered Alex''s promise and wondered why the timing was so perfect. With that doubt in mind, she made her way toward Alex''s room, entering it casually. She saw Alex sitting on the window, looking at the town with a serious expression. "Sir Nyx," Mileda called his name with her soft voice, so she didn''t surprise him or something. "Yes? Do you need anything from me?" Alex asked. "Or is it the time for us to get going?" Although Mileda wanted to say yes, she presented another question first. "Have you gotten the blue screen that suddenly appeared in front of you?" "I have. And it''s a peculiar system since it seems I can gain many things just by killing living beings." Alex smiled mysteriously while turning to Mileda. Thump! Her heart skipped a beat as her body started shaking. She thought the worst would happen since Alex might be the strongest in this town. "I¡­Please don''t kill the citizens. They are innocent people. If you want to kill someone, you can kill me. I know that it''s only worth one life, but¡­" She desperately tried to persuade him, thinking that killing the people would benefit him the most. Alex waved his hand. "I am not someone like that. It''s better to test it on those monsters coming from the thing you mentioned to me." "Then, what should I do?" Mileda asked. Deep inside her heart, she wanted to follow Alex to butcher those creatures, but she also knew that she was powerless against them at the moment. If she kept asking to come along, she would just trouble Alex. And if they even brought the soldiers and Xivaxi, the burden would just become bigger. "What? Do you want to follow me? Since I am curious about your Rawak Kingdom, I am planning to go there. Well, I need a guide too." Alex smiled. What he wanted from bringing her was to observe her power. She wanted to know whether she had the same power as those people in the Dark Territory. If the power were the same, observing it alone would be more than enough to gain more understanding that could be used for the research. "Definitely!" Mileda was more than happy to follow someone as strong as Alex. However, she also knew about her shortcoming and added with a sad expression. "If I can''t make it, please don''t hesitate to abandon me. Coming with you is my choice, and I have prepared to die in this journey." Alex was astonished that someone actually added this condition first before even venturing there. Normally, they couldn''t say something like this because they still hoped from the bottom of their heart that Alex would help them. However, Mileda had considered herself dead during this mission and not dying was just a blessing to her. Alex smiled and shook her head helplessly. "Fine then." Since the other party had a resolve, Alex respected it by not ensuring her safety. Although he would keep her safe, he had no plan to give such an assurance. Of course, he would protect whoever came to him in this journey, whether it was her or the prince. After all, they were important to him to learn more about their power system. "Prepare yourself. I will be waiting there in an hour." Alex pointed at the outskirts of the city. "I understand." She nodded with a serious expression before leaving the room. Alex then took out Eve, summoning her from the Inventory. Eve materialized before him while stretching her body. "Ah, I haven''t come out in a while." "Haha, sorry. I am not sure about this world, so I didn''t let you out or the World''s Will might try to expel me or something." "It''s fine, Master. Still, I really want to see what kind of view this world has." Alex nodded and told her his story in this world, including when he visited the Dark Territory. Eve listened to him in great interest. Although she was confined in a cave for a few thousand years, she still knew about the sun and moon that kept cycling without end. However, if one of them didn''t happen, she couldn''t imagine what would happen to the world. After telling the story, he ended it with a promise. "How about going all around the world again before we leave this world?" "Really? Yes!" She pumped her fist. "Don''t break your promise, okay?" Alex nodded with a smile. "Well, I have a mission first during this journey. It''s about¡­" Eve listened to what he wanted and nodded her head after the explanation. "I understand. I won''t show anything other than my sharpness. Although I am wondering whether I can cut the portal itself or not¡­" "I am sure you can." Alex smiled. "Before having you, I actually cut a portal like this. At that time, it was a portal between a Lower World like this and a Divine World." "Really?" Eve was astonished, never expecting Alex to have such an experience. "What did you feel when you slashed that portal?" "Nothing. They are just like water, but if you apply the Space Element into it, it will cause a conflict between them, destroying the portal altogether. Of course, power is also a requirement. You can''t do anything if you are weak." Alex shrugged. "I see. I want to experience it in the future." She wished with a serious expression. "There is no telling in the future. But with how I am traveling like this, I believe there is a possibility of it happening." Alex smiled, assuring that she would witness and did many things with him. "Hehe¡­If I am with someone other than Master, I feel like I will be trapped in one place for a long time before moving to another place for a period of time and returning to that place again. But Master''s advancement and personality really suit my curiosity." "I don''t know if that is praise or not, but yeah, I am curious about many things. I want to experience all things, so I know how it works." Alex smiled. "That''s a good goal, Master. I will fully support it." She smirked. "Haha. Let''s go then." Alex nodded and stretched his hand. Eve then went back to his sword and rested on his hand. He sheathed her first before leaping to the place he said earlier. It turned out that Mileda was already there, waiting for him, even though it wasn''t one hour yet. Next to her was Xivaxi, standing beside her with concern. He seemed to have a long talk with Mileda before this and unwillingly let her go. Xivaxi didn''t even hesitate to kneel in front of Alex as soon as he saw him. "Please, Sir Nyx. I can''t afford to lose another family anymore. She is the only one I have left." "Brother. You have agreed!" Mileda complained. Alex saw their good relationship and sighed. "Don''t worry. Your sister will be fine as long as she stays with me. I guarantee it." Xivaxi still hesitated. Although Alex was magical, he couldn''t fully trust him yet. He thought for a moment while looking at his sister. Seeing how she was so adamant about it, he ended up nodding his head. "I will leave my sister in your hand." Alex nodded before scanning their position with his Spirit Eyes. Mileda then bowed to him. "Please take care of me." Alex then started walking to the outside world that was filled with danger from those mysterious worms. Xivaxi saw them off with a sad look, wishing for his sister''s well-being. Even though he wanted his sister to marry Alex and believed in Alex''s strength, he had yet to see his real strength and how he beat the worm. That was why he couldn''t fully trust Alex yet. Meanwhile, Alex and Mileda kept walking forward until they couldn''t be seen anymore. "Anyway, I am going to the Rawak Kingdom." "Yes. Since you are stronger, I apologize for becoming your burden. I know that my speed is not comparable to you." "How long will it take for you to go there in full speed?" Alex asked. "Probably around three days." "In that case, let''s make it one day." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "One day?!" "Yes. I can only spend three more days before going somewhere else, so¡­" "Three more days?" She was surprised and, at the same time, felt hurt. She never thought that Alex would leave soon, and she couldn''t do anything to make him stay. Before she said another word, Alex sensed an incoming presence inside the sand. "It''s coming," Alex warned her. Mileda''s body shook, and she looked at him while pulling out her sword. She constantly checked her surroundings, trying to locate the worm. "You kill it then." Alex saw her stance and decided to let her kill the worm. As soon as he finished his words, the worm made its appearance, trying to swallow both Alex and Mileda. "Kh!" Mileda turned right and summoned her Holy Emblem, but it was too late. "I won''t make it." She could avoid this since she was behind Alex, but it seemed that dying with Alex, who she owed too much, wasn''t that bad of an idea. At the very least, she could repay him by dying together. But that insane thought immediately turned into another random thing when Alex made a simple movement to the right and kicked the worm. "Wha¡ª" She dropped her jaw. Even her father couldn''t do something like this, and yet, Alex was so strong that he could hit the worm with his foot instead of the sword. "Just hit that worm with all you got." Alex pointed at the worm and commanded Mileda to strike the worm as it was flopping on the surface like a fish. It was too hurt to move for a while, so it couldn''t return inside the sand for the time being, giving her a perfect chance to kill it. Since Alex had created this situation, she immediately calmed herself down, raised her sword, and summoned her emblem again. Different from the emblem of those people in the Dark Territory, her emblem had two swords and a sandstorm on it. Next to the pattern was a small circle containing a crescent shape moon symbol. She swung downwards, releasing a crescent Sword Wave. Bam. The Sword Wave exploded when it hit the worm, leaving a quite deep wound. Before the worm could rise again, Alex leaped on top of the worm and stomped his right foot to keep it there. "Once more!" Hearing his words, she quickly released the same strike to the exact same spot. This was the chance that Alex gave to her. It might not be able to replace revenge, but it was something similar. "Die!" She waved her sword down. "Crescent Sword." That deep wound became deeper until it cut through the worm, severing its head. The worm slowly stopped moving. "It''s dead." Alex nodded after seeing there was no more life energy inside the worm. There was a notification on her screen, telling. [Gacha Point x1 Acquired] But she ignored it with wet eyes. She kneeled down on the ground and cried. "Father¡­Mother¡­Everyone¡­I have killed this monster too!" Chapter 1019 - Leaving Even Alex couldn''t say anything when she was in this state. He simply waited for her to calm down. "Ah, I apologize for letting you see something like that." As soon as she recovered, she bowed her head to Alex. He only shrugged and asked. "Since we are done here, let''s go toward the Rawak Kingdom." "How?" She tilted her head in confusion. "This way." Alex grabbed her waist and carried her like luggage. "Just make sure you don''t talk too much or the sand will come and get you." "What do you¡ª" Before she finished, he jumped forward and began running toward the Rawak Kingdom. Because of the shock, Mileda kept screaming for a minute or so until she became used to it. The pressure was intense. Alex also controlled his speed, so Mileda didn''t get anything bad during the trip. That was why he needed one day to reach the Rawak Kingdom. Of course, Mileda kept guiding Alex by pointing in a certain direction every time they found a city or a mark. Alex''s power was still lingering in her head because she thought there wasn''t a single person as strong as Alex in the past. She couldn''t help but wonder what kind of past Alex had to become this strong and whether it was possible or not to become as strong as him. She might ask her brother about this since there might be something she didn''t know. At the very least, two people were better than one. After a whole day, Alex saw another city in his vision. The city was similar to their place, but it looked more elegant and bigger. They even had trees and a tall palace inside. "By the way, what is your purpose for coming to this city?" Mileda asked. "Nothing. I just want to read books. I will probably steal the books here." Alex shrugged. "Books? That''s a weird thing to steal¡­" She furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, that''s my intention. Books are the source of knowledge after all." "In that case, I can give you a way to the library, but can you take me to the secret library of the palace? The normal library has much more books, but the palace''s library has more secret books regarding the kingdom, so I think about retrieving it." She made a proposal to Alex. "Sure thing." Alex''s thought was pretty simple. He wasn''t that greedy anyway. As long as he got his objective, it was enough. He then turned around while narrowing his eyes. "Before that¡­" Alex''s tone was stern and serious, so she thought something bad would happen. She immediately pulled out her sword and heard the rumbling in the ground. "Haiz." Alex let out a sigh and unsheathed Eve. "I will handle this." "You?" She managed to find ten presences nearby, and Alex was thinking about killing them alone? She knew that Alex was strong, but was he this strong? When that question appeared in her mind, ten worms already emerged from the ground, trying to swallow Alex. Alex only smiled. Since there was Mileda here, he chose not to show his Martial Arts. Instead, he concentrated on his strength alone. The moment they were in his range, Alex swung his sword at a completely different level. His swing was so fast that the worms couldn''t even move an inch before they realized they were cut. Those ten worms died in an instant. Mileda could only stare at him with her jaw dropped to the ground. ''What did I just see? How fast was his swing earlier? I only saw him unsheathing his sword, and without me knowing, he already made a complete swing.'' Alex didn''t realize her expression because he still sensed thirty more presences. Since he didn''t want to waste time anymore, he stomped the ground, forcing the worms to emerge to the surface. It took him a few seconds to cut all of them, and the fight ended without the worms could ever hit him. However, what he exactly did was to confirm the system. From what Lin Xingzhi told him, the drop rate of the point was five percent. And you could change ten points for one ticket. It was a basic trade, but the most optimal one to make sure that they could sustain the entire system while taking the biggest profit. "Let''s go inside immediately," Alex then turned to Mileda and said, "I will be giving you a chance to kill some individual worms, but I will deal with the one in a group. Don''t forget to keep this a secret." Mileda was still dumbfounded and instinctively nodded her head. "Alright, then." Alex didn''t wait for her to recover and walked toward the city. This action forced Mileda to recover and follow him. "Wait for me." The two walked inside the city, finding many places that had been torn down while some were still intact. It seemed the worms only occupied a few places that could be their home. And when they found Alex and Mileda, they attacked them. Of course, Alex beat them up and handed them to Mileda for her to kill. During this time, Mileda learned how to kill the worm and somehow managed to kill one herself. Alex told her that it would become easier if she brought a group of five that could block their attacks with a giant shield while the remaining teammates focused on damaging the worm until they died. Unknowingly, Alex just gave an idea for her to build an adventurer guild. They fought and ventured in such a place as a team. But this was a story for later. Their current position was in the middle of the city, where they met a giant plaza with a fountain in the center. Mileda then found out that the library had collapsed before they came here and panicked since she couldn''t help Alex achieve his objective. "What''s wrong?" Alex saw her panicked face and asked. "That collapsed building over there¡­" She pointed at the library with a weird face. "That''s the library." "Oh?!" Alex nodded and walked toward the collapsed building without care. As long as he saw the book, he could easily store them inside his Inventory. To his surprise, he didn''t find a single book. Even the shelves had weird circular shapes around them. "This¡­Did the worms eat it?" Alex muttered in confusion. He never thought that the worms would eat books too. "I thought that the reason why there are no corpses outside is because of the worms, but it seems they have a bigger appetite than I expected them." Alex scratched the back of his head, wondering what he should do now. On his way here, he had learned many things after observing how Mileda used her Holy Emblem, but he planned to get more basic knowledge from the books. Unfortunately, it wasn''t possible anymore. Mileda also watched how there wasn''t a single book in this library and the condition of the shelves. She thought that the books would be scattered on the floor, but it seemed to be not the case here. "There are still many books in the secret library. I believe the worms haven''t found it yet since it''s not on the ground or a building like this. Maybe I can sort some of the important information about the Rawak Kingdom and pick those books only. You can take the rest." Mileda tried to pay him back for all his deeds to the kingdom. She, her brother, and all the citizens who had taken the food and water from him grew so much during the past few days, so she knew that Alex had been trading with them at a loss. And with how he wanted to wander around the world again in a few days, she thought this was the best thing she could give to Alex. Alex turned around and looked at her. "Really?" "Yes. I promise you. Please let me repay you." Mileda bowed her head. Feeling her generosity, Alex decided to give her something. "Take this." She grabbed a small thing that Alex threw. "This¡­" It turned out to be a ring. She wondered whether Alex gave this because he liked her or something. Before the misunderstanding continued, Alex explained. "That''s a Space Ring. You can put it on and channel your power into that ring before directing it to a certain item. It will store the item inside that ring. Try to store the rock beside you." Mileda was confused but still did what he asked. Suddenly, the stone disappeared, stunning her. "Where is the rock? Is it really inside this ring?" "Yes. If you channel your power again, you will get a good grasp of what inside the ring. And if you direct it to the rock again, you will be able to take it out." Alex explained. She first checked whether the rock was inside the ring, and yes, she found it inside. After that, she covered the rock with her energy and it disappeared. The next second, she found the same rock that showed up near her feet. "This¡­" Mileda was stunned. Never in her life saw something this magical. "That''s my last gift. You can store anything as long as it fits. The space inside that ring is around a fourth of this place." Alex pointed at the library. It was quite a huge library, so a fourth of it was a kind of a pond they had in the back of the building. It could fit so many things inside to the point she wondered if Alex actually used this to transport all the water and food. In that case, she wondered where Alex got this ring. Not to be greedy, she threw away the thought from her head and convinced herself. ''If it''s fate, I will get more. If it''s not, then I shouldn''t be greedy because it will be my downfall.'' Since Alex gave her this ring, she pointed at the tallest tower in the city and said, "That''s the place where we store the book. Since the tower is still intact, I believe the worms haven''t realized that place yet." "Alright. Let''s go then." She nodded and led Alex to the building. And as she said, the building was still intact. As soon as they arrived, Mileda started separating the books that were related to their kingdom. Alex also helped her to speed up the process. In the end, she got thirty percent of the books while Alex got the remaining seventy. Although he didn''t get the basic thing, he got more than he needed, so he was quite satisfied. This was a perfect example that your good deed would always be remembered and paid back. Though Alex never had such an intention and treated this as a bonus and goodwill. The books she needed were stored inside the Space Ring that Alex gave, making her realize how effective the Space Ring was. It could even be considered a national treasure at this point. Although Alex could still see worms in the ground, he didn''t do anything to them, letting the people in this world face their own problems. At the very least, Alex had planted the seed to fight back in Mileda. It would spread to the whole world from her, and before long, they would be able to fight those people from other worlds. Alex then brought her back to the city she lived in, putting her down right next to the city gate. No one was there since they wouldn''t think that Alex and Mileda would return this early. "Now, I have finished all my business in this place. It''s time for me to go." Alex smiled, looking at Mileda with a serious expression. "You have your own talent. I believe that you can rebuild your kingdom again in the future." "Thank you." She politely bowed. She learned a lot in this journey. "No problem. Just one piece of advice. The world will turn into chaos soon, so you should prepare to make the society not collapse." Alex waved his hand. Without waiting for her to reply, Alex had gone to travel around the world once with Eve. Mileda let out a long sigh when watching his back disappear to the horizon. Chapter 1020 - Fire World After traveling the world once more, Alex finally finished all his tasks in that world. Although it was such a shame that he couldn''t watch how the evolution progressed and saw all those natural disasters happening at once, the experience there wasn''t that bad. When he left the world, he then took out a compass to another world. He needed to upgrade his Fire Authority and took the inheritance from Encore. In that case, he decided to get the one that would take a longer time. Having no idea what to expect from the next planet other than surrounded by fire, he used his Teleportation Array to head there. Luckily, the journey this time wasn''t that long. In fact, it was pretty near that world, so he arrived within two hours of teleporting. Alex found a giant star that was several times bigger than a Divine World. Amazed by it, he summoned Eve to his side. "Can you take a look at that?" Alex smiled. "Yes, it''s shining so brightly, but I can''t understand its size. I believe this is around twenty times bigger than my original world." She furrowed her eyebrows. "It''s seven times bigger than my place, Eulja. There are actually many worlds and stars are bigger than this. It''s fascinating, isn''t it?" Alex smiled. "Yes. I also could see a world that doesn''t have the day and night cycle." She nodded repeatedly. "That''s our destination." Alex pointed at a red planet, the nearest planet from the sun. He could see that the atmosphere was burning while the surface was a kind of molten lava. "Are we going there?" She was a bit skeptical going to this kind of place, considering that her real body was that of a weapon. And when she was forged, the Blackwade Clan used fire. "Don''t worry. I will be protecting you with my Pure Fire. Besides, aren''t you immune to fire now?" Alex asked while furrowing his eyebrows. "A bit, but I still need to spend my power. Unlike your body that has been tampered by the Pure Fire itself, I only have your abilities, not the body or innate skills." She shook her head. "I see. So, if there is enough heat, you will be able to melt?" "Every sword can melt to be honest. In fact, Master is the bane of weapons. Unless they have something more endurable against your powerful heat, the weapon will slowly melt. Of course, the enemy can use their Spiritual Energy to prevent the sword from melting down, but it''s temporary. I thought you had noticed this¡­" Eve looked at him with a confused face. "Not really. I never saw someone''s sword melting down, so I didn''t realize it." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "Xingzhi, you know about this?" [Yes. In the past, other than fire element users, the ones who didn''t want to fight the Fire God for a long time were weapon users.] "I see." Alex nodded as if he thought something terrible. "At least, it''s good to know this early." "Uhm." Eve agreed with him. "Well, I want Master to be more careful from now on. That''s right. I forgot about this, but the twins actually asked you the same. Although they were able to withstand your heat, sometimes it was a bit bad, so they needed to endure it." "Ugh. I will be more careful in the future." Alex nodded. "That''s right. I almost forgot to pick up the twins. Since they are still in the Blackwade Clan, I will go there after this." [I will inform Song Tao about this.] "Yes. Thank you." "By the way, are we going to enter, Master?" Eve asked. "Yes. If you can''t withstand it anymore, you can go back to the Inventory. But there is one more thing that piques my interest." Alex paused for a moment. "What kind of process did you undergo during the forging?" "Hmm¡­ The fire itself came from the sun." She pointed at the sun nearby. "They seemed to have some kind of mechanism that could amplify the power of the sun to make a heat enough to rival your Godly Pure Fire." "Ho?! Interesting." Alex smiled, a bit excited. He never thought that his Godly Pure Fire would have a rival. Although it could easily be suppressed, the heat alone was insane. "Anyway, are we going to enter the planet, Master?" Alex asked her to wait a bit while taking out the information about the planet that Lin Xingzhi sent along with the compass. "I am checking the planet first. It seems this planet has monsters residing within it. They are inside the molten lava, living comfortably. Well, I can deal with them pretty quickly, but I feel bad for them since I am going to absorb a huge amount of Fire Element on their planet." Alex sighed. "How about taking them under your wing?" She asked. "Them? Well, first of all, I don''t know them. I can try to talk to them like what I did to Heilo and Leka, but this is going to be a bit troublesome." He sighed. "Besides, those two have gone to Eulja anyway, so I wonder how am I going to convince them?" "Is there a limit or something for having people under you?" "Not a clue," Alex asked Lin Xingzhi again. [There is. Just like how they have undergone a transformation under your Pure Fire, there is a limit to that. According to the record, the limit is ten. If not, the Fire God will create an army of Fire Element monsters.] "Now that I think about it, I have Sherry, Stina, Kyle, Ellen, Leka as my contracted beasts. There are only five more left, right?" "Master, I think you need to consider me one." Eve raised her hand, raising a petition. "Why?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "You can ask someone about it." Alex became even more bewildered, but Lin Xingzhi immediately informed him. [Yes. What she said was true. She had a kind of transformation after bathing in your Pure Fire. Although the effect wasn''t as big as the others, you needed to count them as one. That''s the reason why the Fire God didn''t use weapons.] "Then, will the twins be considered one or two?" Alex narrowed his eyes. He didn''t really mind about having them, but he just wanted to know the count. [One. Even though they are twins, their real body is the same.] "I see. That means I can only have three more, right?" [Are you planning to get more?] "I am not sure." Alex shook his head. "For the time being, I don''t have a desire for another one." [Just don''t forget that you can decline a life and death contract.] "Don''t worry. I know about it." Alex nodded. "In any case, I am still wondering what I should do to these monsters on the planet." [Even if you are sucking the Fire Energy, it will restore itself. If you look at the planet right now, a portion of its atmosphere has gotten absorbed by the sun, so it was a dying planet. I am not sure that the beasts will survive at that time.] "So, I can offer to give them another planet?" Alex asked. [Yes. We have a planet with that criteria. Although the fire energy is not as bountiful as this one, the Spiritual Energy from the planet is enough to compensate for that. You can ask them about it, and Zark can take them there. Well, sooner or later, they will soon become your subordinate anyway after seeing your Godly Pure Fire.] "Haha¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, since I already know what I need to do, it''s time to move on." [Sure. Be careful.] Alex nodded while Eve entered the sword again. He entered the burning atmosphere with ease and arrived in the sky of the planet. He found that there wasn''t a single thing in this world other than molten lava. To the east, he found a giant crater that was filled with molten lava as a doubt raised in his mind. "Is that a sea? I mean, it has a deep basin. The seawater should have evaporated, leaving only this type of phenomenon." Eve came out again and looked at what Alex saw. She stared at it for a while. In the meantime, Alex used his Spirit Eyes to check the situation on this planet. A monster seemed to be living in that giant crater. It was a pretty powerful monster. "A Rank 6 God monster, huh." Alex had a deep frown. It wouldn''t be easy to convince such a monster, but he thought it was better than nothing. He flew to the crater and released his Spiritual Energy as if challenging the monster that hid inside this deep basin. A thought transmission then echoed in his ears, asking. "What do you want, Human? I have never seen a human coming to this world again." "You can talk?" Alex was surprised to see a monster that could talk. He felt lucky since it was easier to have a conversation with an intelligent monster like him. "I can, and I don''t have time to waste on you. If you are trying to challenge me, then forget it. Your Rank 8 God strength is not enough. I am here just to live peacefully." Alex''s expression turned serious. "I don''t plan to make an enemy. I only wish you can hear me out for a moment because I have a proposal that you may want." "A proposal? That''s the first time a human trade with a monster." "Whatever. In an hour, I will need a huge amount of Fire Energy, which I will absorb from this planet. I need around seventy percent to eighty percent of the energy. However, I don''t plan on ruining someone''s home. That''s why I am asking you whether you want to leave this place and relocate to another planet? It''s a similar planet like this one." In the monster''s ears, Alex''s statement was a kind of looking down on him. He emerged from under the molten lava, showing its appearance. It turned out that the deep voice that kept talking to him was a monster that had a similar structure to that of a snake. The snake had a ten meters width body with a length of a few kilometers. "Do you think you can have that arrogance just because you are a human? Don''t underestimate me!" The snake glared at Alex. "I have a planet with a similar environment. With how close this place to the sun, I believe it won''t withstand another one thousand years." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Rather than waiting for it to die, how about leaving this place to get to another safe place? Besides, you won''t be fighting against the original inhabitants. "That''s one of my reasons for not immediately cultivating on this planet. I don''t wish to take it for granted even though I know in this world, the strong can get whatever he wants." "Are you saying that you are strong enough to contend with me?" The snake released the fire from its red scale, trying to intimidate Alex with his powerful Fire Element and Divine Energy. "Yes. Believe me, I do have the power to make you submit despite my current cultivation stage. At the same time, I can bring all the monsters from this planet, so no one will suffer." Alex nodded. "And after my training, it will take at least five hundred years to recover to this state, so I am afraid this place is already not suited for living." "In that case, why don''t you show me that strength of yours? I only respect the strong, not someone weaker than me. If you think you can convince me, do it now. Or I will kill you right now." The snake snarled. "Since you want it¡­" Alex closed his eyes for a second. His Pure Fire began gushing out his body, forming a giant fox behind him. "This¡­ This¡­" The snake felt its body got restrained by something powerful, and the only possibility was Alex''s Fire. "This is a Pure Fire? Do you think a Pure Fire can make me bow down?" The snake shouted while releasing all of its Divine Energy to resist it. Alex shook his head. "It''s futile. Fire Authority, Fox Avatar." Thump! Chapter 1021 - Snakes "What is this pressure?" The snake bowed down until it dropped to the ground, couldn''t even look at Alex. "You¡­Who are you?!" "Just like what you said, I have Pure Fire Element. As simple as that." Alex shook his head. "You are lying. Do you think I am a fool? I have met another Pure Fire Element in the past and even a stronger one than you are. They can''t completely suppress me!" The snake roared. "We just have a different intensity." Alex shrugged. "I already said it myself, you could go to another planet under my influence. In that place, you will be able to go farther. However, you can also go somewhere else. The first option is just me trying to pay you for this eviction. That''s all." "You¡­" The snake finally saw Alex''s arrogance. In front of someone with a Pure Fire like Alex, even he, a Rank 6 God Beast, couldn''t stand a chance. No, he was just waiting to get slaughtered. The snake gradually calmed down and tried to see it from another perspective. "Even if you are trying to evict me, you might not be able to do it with the other guy." "What do you mean?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "There is another one stronger than me. He is a Rank 5 God Beast." "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows while thinking. ''According to the note from the Fire God, my Pure Fire can suppress anyone as long as they are still within the range¡­Which is five ranks above me. It should be possible to deal with this God Beast too.'' Alex nodded. "Then, guide me to him. I will talk to him about this. If he happens to agree, I want you to follow my agreement. What do you think?" "I-I understand. If I have a similar environment like this, I don''t really mind any planets. I will even help you to inform the other beasts on this planet." Hearing the promise, Alex removed his pressure, retracting his Pure Fire to his body. "We have a deal." The snake smiled inwardly as if everything went according to his plan. "This way." The snake flew to the sky with its giant body and used his fastest speed to go to another side of the planet, heading straight to another base like the one he had. It was really amazing to see a snake this big had this kind of speed as if he saw a bullet train flying in the sky. It then released its Divine Energy as if trying to call the one inside the basin. Someone, who was in slumber, woke up from this familiar Divine Energy and emerged from the ground. "Lien, why are you calling me?" It turned out to be another snake like the one beside Alex. Instinctively, the snake flew to that snake in tears. "Brother. He is bullying me." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and felt something wrong. Before anything happened, he summoned his Fox Avatar again, ready to suppress them. However, a crystal came out of the other snake''s head, protecting the two snakes from Alex''s suppression. "I don''t feel anything wrong?" The first snake named Lien looked surprised. "Brother. What is that? No, that''s not important." The snake looked at Alex with a playful look. "Haha. Now you can''t suppress us anymore. You will see how I beat you." However, the other snake seemed to notice something from Alex, especially after seeing the Pure Fire that turned into a fox behind him. He hit the other snake''s head with his head as if a brother smacking his younger sibling''s head. "This is why Father is always mad. You are too playful and don''t want to learn anything." The snake shook his head helplessly before turning to Alex. "That fire is a Pure Fire, right? No, I should say it''s not a normal Pure Fire. With how the crystal that is protecting me appears, it means you have a Godly Pure Fire. How are you related to Grandmaster Phitrus, the Fire God." "!!!" Alex and Lien widened their eyes, never expecting that he uttered such a name from his mouth, of course, for their respective reasons. "Godly Pure Fire? Isn''t that the fire of our father''s master?" Lien commented in shock. Meanwhile, Alex became even more conscious of these two snakes. ''Their father''s master?'' He prepared a Teleportation Array in the Array Plate to escape if something happened. At the same time, he thought for the best answer. Seeing there was no answer from Alex, the snake changed his question. "Since you don''t want to answer that, I only want to know where you got that ability, Fire Authority." "¡­" Alex remained silent for a minute before opening his mouth. "From Phitrus. I met his soul and received this." "¡­" The snake narrowed his eyes. "I still can''t believe you. There is another way to prove your identity, your name and the Second Form of Fire Authority. There is no way a half-baked technique can have the second form. I have my own information, so I know whether you are lying or not." After contemplating for a while, he decided to answer his question honestly. "I can''t show any of that. First of all, I come here to achieve the second form, the Fusion Stage, Fire Embodiment. As for my name, I can''t tell you because I don''t even know your identity. There is a risk for me doing that, considering that you have parents that must be stronger than you." The snake nodded. "Since you already know about the Fusion Stage, I will reluctantly accept your answer and don''t ask about your name. However, I would like to make a deal with you." "What is it?" "That is something after you achieve the second form. You can absorb the Fire Energy in this world, and I promise not to do anything to you. In exchange, I want to see the evolution with my own eyes to see whether you are telling the truth or not." Before Alex had a chance to think about the offer, Lin Xingzhi said. [I think I have seen this red snake in the past. It was one of Phitrus''s God Beasts. As you know, Phitrus didn''t have a home since he kept traveling from one world to another. However, he was by no means a weak force to be reckoned with. The reason for that is the ten beasts following his side. I don''t know the details, but I thought they were bonded by the Life and Death Contract. Maybe you want to see if they are their children or not and hinted to check more information.] Reading the notification, Alex asked, prying for information. "Are you the children from one of the ten Fire God Beasts that followed Phitrus in the past?" "Hmm? You are not that clueless, aren''t you?" "I see. You are lying then. The Ten Beasts couldn''t survive when their master died." Alex narrowed his eyes. "You don''t even know what your flame can achieve? If you want the answer, you should achieve the second form. I will also get my answer. And to clarify your statement, Father and Mother indeed had a Life and Death Contract." "You are this mysterious, and you expect me to trust you?" "By Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Ragi, promise that I won''t harm or do anything that can potentially harm the person in front of me and prevent any kind of danger that will befall him while he is undergoing his training to achieve the second form of the Fire Authority, the Fusion Stage, Fire Embodiment." The universe seemed to acknowledge that promise which meant it was true. This stunned Alex. If he backed down from this deal, he would be further away from the truth. Since there was a guarantee that no one would be able to harm him, especially from a Rank 5 God, he thought this was a good opportunity to complete his training. After pondering for a while, Alex said. "Fine. I will do it." [You sure?] ''Yes. You can know what I am doing, right? If something happens, you can send Zark here. After all, he is currently on stand-by, no? Considering he is going to teleport all the beasts on this planet to a new one.'' Alex replied in his thoughts. [I understand.] Ragi nodded. "In that case, you can choose any place to do it." Alex looked around and picked a random place where the Fire Energy concentrated. It was in a mountain that had gradually turned into molten lava, shrinking the mountain size to a tenth of its original size. The snake furrowed his eyebrows when he easily chose a spot, but he could only wait for Alex to complete his training to get his answer. "Eve." Alex still couldn''t fully trust them, so he called Eve. Knowing what to do, Eve used the energy in her body and summoned one dragon from the Sword, circling around Alex like a snake. "What? Even my brother has assured you that nothing will happen to you, you still don''t trust him?!" Lien snarled before getting smacked again by Ragi. "What are you doing, Brother?" "You are grounded after this. I will absolutely talk to Father about this." Ragi shook his head helplessly. "Eh?!" Lien looked as if she was wronged and glared at Alex, the source of the problem. On the other hand, Alex didn''t pay attention to them anymore as he summoned his Pure Fire and spread around himself. The Pure Fire absorbed the Fire Energy. As if it was connected with each other, the Fire Energy from all over the world began moving toward his place like there was a black hole over there. This only strengthened Ragi''s understanding of Alex. He began to believe that it was the true Fire Authority. "Brother¡­" Lien furrowed her eyebrows, wanting to get an explanation. "You might not know about this, but Father told us to be respectful to the one having a Godly Pure Fire. And to check whether he indeed has this fire, we would need to check his Fire Authority. If the two forms are real, then he is indeed someone who has that fire. After all, the Godly Pure Fire is the requirement for someone to cultivate the Fire Authority." "Eh?" Lien seemed to be unwilling to recognize Alex. "That''s why you should learn more about the state of this universe and other things." He sighed. "But our fate is not decided by the past. We are the ones who should decide it ourselves." "I didn''t say something like that, no? What I want is to let Father see him. I don''t know why, but Father seems to have something to say. " Lien looked at her brother with a weird expression before sighing. "Fine. I won''t say anything about this anymore. You are going to be responsible for this." "I know. Besides, can''t you feel it?" He asked. "What?" Lien tilted her head in confusion. She didn''t feel anything from Alex anymore. "You are indeed ignorant. You need to be more aware of your surroundings, not only focusing on your cultivation stage." He sighed. "Our instinct is one of the strongest in the universe, but you can''t even find someone right outside the planet, observing him and our movements?" She fell silent and tried to sense that person, only to get surprised by what she found. There was a Rank 3 God right outside the planet. "He has been standing there for a while. It seems he is someone important." Ragi didn''t know how to educate his sister anymore. "Anyway, don''t show more hostility to him because we might be killed." Suddenly, the Fire Energy became even denser, and Alex entered his cultivation fully. The Pure Fire turned into a fox and cultivated the Fire Energy to make itself stronger. "Look, he is entering the longest part. You should start cultivating too because it will be beneficial for you. You are almost a Rank 5 God anyway, so I believe you can reach Rank 5 God during this time. Besides, I promised to protect him, but taking advantage of this situation is not in the promise and it''s not detrimental for him either, so go cultivate now." Chapter 1022 - Promise Ten months later, the fox behind Alex soared to the sky, creating a giant fireball. The heat was even more powerful than that of the sun, turning the ground around the basic into lava. Suddenly, the fireball exploded, creating a huge large fire pillar that pierced the sky. Alex''s body bathed in this powerful fire pillar. The fire seemed to be alive as they slowly marched toward Alex''s head, creating a symbol of a small fire on his forehead. The fire dimmed down after creating that symbol and Alex opened his eyes. Lien and Ragi watched this before their eyes and felt pressured. Even the crystal that had been keeping them from being suppressed slowly lost its effect in front of the symbol in Alex''s head. Alex felt the change and rose from the ground. He looked at his hand before checking his body. It took time to learn the secret behind this power, but Alex managed to activate the fire symbol on his forehead. The fox appeared again, but to his surprise, the fox had a pair of wings that looked like a phoenix''s wing. Before observing the change that the fox had, the symbol shone brighter. The fire that made the fox slowly shrank and went toward Alex''s body. This transformation looked a bit weird since Alex now had fox ears, phoenix wings, and a fox tail. He raised his hand at the chest level and summoned a fire there. Unknowingly, the fire turned into a kind of glove, telling that it was ready to be launched. To test his might, he waved his hand to the side, and a torrential fire flew out of his hand, turning into a few kilometers wide and a hundred-kilometers long wasteland. Even the magma couldn''t withstand the heat of his flame. "¡­" The two snakes were dumbfounded. They had been taken advantage of Alex''s cultivation and advanced one rank respectively. However, they never expected that Alex had this kind of power. In fact, they needed to surround themselves with Divine Energy to prevent Alex from suppressing them. ''Brother¡­This is bad, isn''t it?'' Lien gulped down and asked, but her brother didn''t say anything. He kept observing Alex''s every movement until he raised his vision. Curious about what Alex tried to see, he found a small fireball remained on this planet. It slowly descended as if it wanted to meet Alex. Alex narrowed his eyes after recognizing the fireball with his Spirit Eyes. "You are¡­The Fire God, Phitrus." "Correct." The fireball suddenly let out a sound, startling the two snakes. "I want to talk about many things, but I think there are people who can explain it better than me. So, I will keep it brief. What you just mustered was a small portion of the true Fire Authority. You need to become a God King to fully master it. Just like how you can cut a small world, I can burn it down or even melt it with this fire. In other words, it can burn everything. And one last thing you need to know is to seek the ten God Beasts that I have left behind. You will surely need their help in the future." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Why are you doing this?" "It''s sympathy. You have put a huge boulder on your shoulders that no one wants or carries. That''s why I can only help you through this as your former mentor." The fireball paused for a moment. "The rest can be explained by them." Alex turned around, staring at the two snakes. "You two must be Rain''s and Miar''s kids. You look like them. How are they and the rest?" Ragi bowed to the fireball. "I am Ragi, and the one beside me is Lien, my sister. We bow down to the Fire God. To answer the Fire God, my parents are in good condition while the rest are hiding according to the promise and increase their strength. All of them have become a Rank 2 God." "That''s good. Those children looked cute when I first met them, and now, they already have children. Whether it''s fortunate or unfortunate, there might be a time where all of your strength is needed. Please explain to him what happened and if you don''t know about it, you can bring him to your father. He will understand." "I shall obey." Ragi bowed again. "Then, it''s time for me to go and reincarnate somewhere else. Maybe this time, I will have an adventure of another universe. Haha¡­" The fireball laughed out loud and looked at Alex again as he gradually disappeared. "You have a lot of stuff, kid. And tell Lin Xingzhi, make sure she doesn''t use her Element to force you to fight for eternity. The bed surely can''t hold. Hahahahaha!" [Wha¡ª] Lin Xingzhi never expected that Phitrus would say that. Even Alex had a surprised expression. However, Phitrus already disappeared, so she couldn''t have him accountable. [I am going to kill that old man!] "He is already dead¡­" [I am going to kill his ghost!] "He might have already reincarnated." [I¡­I can trap him inside the Time Box and seal him for eternity.] "So, what''s the deal for you to go such a length? Hmm, don''t tell me are you planning for it?" [You know that God Rank Experts have a hard time having a child? Their seed is too strong and can''t do the next process?] "So, you are doing that for this? Well, we have all the time in the world, so isn''t it fine to take our time¡­" [¡­] Alex sighed. "Anyway, I have another problem to deal with." He turned around to see the two snakes with a calm expression. Suddenly, Ragi moved closer and bowed his head to Alex. He used his tail to grab Lien''s head and made her bow too. "We apologize for our rudeness, O'' Great Spirit God, Alexander Sirius." "I don''t mind." Alex thought it was a pain to correct them, so he chose to continue the conversation in that kind of setting. Besides, their parents would be the problem, so he could just fix his status with their parents. "So, what kind of thing are we going to talk about?" Alex asked. "I have learned most of the issues from my parents so that I can answer most of your questions. However, let me explain why the ten Fire God Beasts are still alive to this day." "Sure." "It''s the latent ability of the Fire Authority. You can use the flame to burn the contract that bound my parents and the other eight. After all, the link between this universe and our body is inside us. To break it, of course, you need to pay something. "That''s why the Fire God died in the first place when fighting against those people from Earth. He was already weakened before the battle after burning the contracts. Before leaving, we promised him to stay alive because he believed there would be someone in the future who could gather us again. And that our power is needed. "After that, we don''t need to worry anymore and can live freely. And that person is you. It seems that once again, this universe has started to become unstable. That''s why when you first showed your fire, I thought you are the one to fix the problem." Alex closed his eyes, hearing their explanation. He sighed. "I don''t have any assurance, but I truly do my best for that." "Yes. The promise is to help you until you have enough power. Hence, my father allowed me¡­No, us, to go anywhere we wanted. Because of our nature, we always stayed in a world like this to strengthen ourselves, and there is a possibility that the aforementioned person will appear. To that end, I can''t promise anything before mentioning your name to my father." "So, what are you planning to do now?" "I would like to return to my father. After that, I shall come back to you to let you know about the decision." Ragi nodded. "Of course, Lien can follow you for the time being. Although she is a bit unruly, her fighting prowess alone can rival me. And you can whip her ass or something if she doesn''t want to follow you." "What?! No, I don''t want to!" Lien glared at him. "Then, you go to father in my stead. I shall accompany Sir Alexander." Ragi nodded as if he had predicted that Lien would reject it. He patted her head with his tail and said, "Remember. Don''t lie about this, alright? I am not sure what will Father and Mother do if they know you lie about this. That''s how important this matter is¡­" "Wha¡ª" Lien was bewildered by his action. She contemplated the matter for a moment and nodded. "I understand." "Now go. I shall handle everything here." Ragi smiled and patted her head again. She glared at Alex, who was the cause of all this and snorted before flying away. "I apologize for her behavior. She is not a bad girl, just a bit playful." "It''s fine. Besides, isn''t it like what you want?" "Ahaha, it seems I can''t hide anything from you, Sir." "So, what is your real intention for following me?" "I simply seek strength. After listening to my parents, I know that the person I follow will bless me with strength. To protect my own useless but cute sister, I will do everything. However, I can''t go to the extent of the contract. I am sorry." "It''s fine. Universe Oath will do. How about it?" "Sure." Ragi nodded. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Ragi, promise that I will follow Alexander Sirius and won''t do anything that will be detrimental to him until the promised day arrives." Alex also made his oath. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Alexander Sirius, promise that I will help Ragi to get stronger while he follows me." Alex and Ragi exchanged looks and nodded at each other. "I will handle the promise that my sister made too and help the others to migrate to another place. But I won''t force them to move if they don''t want to." "Yes. The Fire Energy has become so thin." "Though they are not really far from here since they come around this place since your technique concentrates the energy here." Ragi smiled before releasing Divine Energy. He enhanced his voice with energy so everyone could hear. "Those of you who wish to relocate to another planet may step forward!" With that single order, many monsters gradually made their appearance even though they looked hesitant. From golems, minotaurs, and so on. There were a total of five hundred monsters that seemed to want to relocate. Zark suddenly appeared beside him as if he had seen this. "Thank you for your hard work. You have been watching me this whole time." Alex smiled. "No, no. When I was doing this, all my jobs were completed by others, so I don''t mind. It''s a good deal for me." Zark shrugged. "Ahaha, did Lin Xingzhi force you to work?" [I am not! It''s Korzan.] "Haha¡­ Must be tiring, huh." "Well, I have more than two-thirds to cultivate, so I can''t really say it''s tiring." Zark shrugged. "Besides, outer space is relaxing. You will hardly hear a sound unless the Spiritual Energy concentrates and sound can travel there." Alex nodded. "In any case, can you help me teleport all these guys to that world?" "Absolutely. Please leave it to me." Zark nodded before looking at the snake. "You don''t need to tag along." Since Zark said it himself, Ragi acknowledged and decided to stay with Alex. The goal was simple. Someone needed to protect him. "Wait a minute." Alex stopped him and asked Ragi. "Can you do something about your size?" Ragi nodded and gradually shrank himself to a small snake that was enough to circle his hand. If needed, he could even hide underneath his shirt. "Well, I have a place to go, and that''s a bit secretive, so I need to go alone." Alex smiled. "In any case, I am looking forward to working with you, Ragi." "Yes, Sir Alex." Alex then gave a "go" sign to Zark. Zark then clapped his hands, and a giant Teleportation Array appeared, reaching even the furthest monsters in sight. Only those who agreed to be relocated disappeared along with Zark. As for Alex, he created a Teleportation Array for himself and left the world. Chapter 1023 - Ellie and Eliot The next day, Alex finally arrived in front of the black hole leading to Encore. Because the planet he stayed during cultivation was in the opposite direction, he needed to cover more distance than he expected. Either way, compared to how much time he spent on his training, a day was minuscule. He looked at the black hole before Lin Xingzhi asked. [What are you doing here?] "I am going back to Encore." Alex smiled. "I didn''t tell you because I promised myself not to tell you, so yeah, I will be back." Without waiting for Lin Xingzhi to reply, he entered the black hole, feeling the pressure from the gravity that tried to crush him. Compared to last time, he didn''t feel that this gravity was unbearable. It must be due to him becoming a Rank 8 God. Unlike the previous time, he headed straight toward the other side according to his memory and got launched once again. This time, he used his flame to stabilize his position and avoid planets and asteroids. He looked back at the white hole and shook his head. "It''s truly been a long time¡­Or not. The last time I was here I had a hard time." Alex sighed and used his Teleportation Array to go to Encore. It didn''t take long until he arrived at the same planet and the same ruin. Not wanting to stay for too long, he immediately went straight to the underground, where his previous self locked the inheritance. "Just like before, two of them have been opened, leaving only two doors that I can open right now." Before choosing the door, he couldn''t help but take another look at the fifth door, the one that had been banned unless it was necessary. "I am still curious about what is inside, but I think it''s better not to open it right now. According to myself, it''s the last weapon if I fail to defeat the beast, but we will see." Alex smiled and turned back to the two doors. "Now, which one should I choose. I have been telling myself to choose the money door since it contains hundreds of billions of Spirit Crystals, but when I take another look at the other door, it has so many powerful weapons and equipment. "Not only it contains Divine Weapons, but it also stores Rank 9 Alchemist Furnace and the like. If I need them, I can use them myself or even store them inside the Inventory, so if there is a need for war, I can equip my own force with all these pieces of equipment. At the same time, I can sell them if I don''t need those items." Alex looked down, wondering what he needed to choose. After several minutes, he decided to open the money door. "It''s not like I can sell those items easily. Even the Blackwade Clan might not be able to handle this kind of transaction, so it''s better to choose the money. I mean, if I sell weapons to the Blackwade Clan, they will surely sell them to third parties. At that time, they might become my enemy, so it''s better to store the items until I am forced to take them out for any reason." When he opened the door, it was a very tiny room. It didn''t have anything besides a shelf that was filled with Space Rings. Above the shelve was a note from himself, telling. "Each Space Ring contains one billion Spirit Crystals. You may use it as you see fit. But don''t forget to leave some if the need arises to level up one of the spirits to God King." "¡­" Alex smiled. He stored all those Space Rings and the note inside the Inventory, so Lin Xingzhi could look at the note, knowing what the Space Ring was used for. It turned out to be a safety measure if Eulja was in danger. With both Eulja''s treasury and this money, Alex could level up two people to God King. However, he knew that it shouldn''t be that way because the balance would be disrupted, and many Divine Worlds that had God King leading them would be angry. There might be a coalition to fight Eulja, so he didn''t plan to use it for the time being. He then went out of the room, took another look at the last room that he could enter, and left the world, returning to the original universe. As expected, Lin Xingzhi was confused by the sudden influx of money. [What is this money? Where did you get it?] "Just consider that I haven''t finished the inheritances yet." Alex scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, I am going to visit the Blackwade Clan before heading to Eulja. Do you need anything from Song Tao?" [No. I have informed Song Tao, so if you just stand for one minute outside their planet, they will notice you and inform Song Tao about your appearance. Just don''t forget to wear a mask. I have told him that way.] "Understood." Alex nodded and snapped his finger, using his Teleportation Array again. When he reached the Blackwade Clan, he waited for a minute until someone came to look for him. It was the same person who guided Alex and Lin Xingzhi when they visited Song Tao. "Sir, please follow me." Alex stretched his hand. "Please." The two entered the world and went toward the same tower where Song Tao usually worked. His assistant immediately left them alone. Song Tao still felt a bit awkward, so his action was a bit stiff. "Please sit." Alex sat down on the couch while his eyes kept glancing at the long suitcase on his table. Noticing Alex''s glance, Song Tao opened the case and took out a silver spear. "Although it can''t be compared to your Sword, this Spear is one of the best, so I believe you won''t regret it." Song Tao smiled, presenting the spear to him. When he touched the spear''s handle, it sent Divine Energy before two streams of light flew out of the spear, forming a human figure. Their presence woke Eve up as she left the sword while saying, "You two have finally become like this." The Spirit on the left side was a seven years old female. She had long silver hair and sharp silver eyes. She wore a white shirt paired with a white miniskirt, looking very cute. On her side was a male at the same age as her. He had the same silver hair, but his was short and spiky. His eyes appeared gentler than his cool attitude that he showed to Alex. He also wore a white shirt but paired with long white pants. This guy would surely become an idol if he were back on Earth. However, their expression became happy when they heard Eve''s voice. Their gaze turned to Eve, but what they focused on was the one behind her, Alex. They leaped toward him, resulting in Eve bending down to avoid them. "Master!" Alex was startled and abruptly caught them. "You two¡­It''s been so long since I last met you two. To think you are not a consciousness anymore, but a full-fledged Sword Spirit." Alex smiled. "Hehe. It''s all thanks to Big Sister!" The male smirked before glancing at Eve. "That''s right. Come on, Big Sister. You look cool when you are in front of Master, but you keep talking about him when you are with us!" The female repeatedly nodded while stretching her hand, asking Eve to come and hug together. "Wha¡ª" Eve''s body shook as she became embarrassed. "I was happy because Master gave me the chance to travel around. I am his weapon, that''s all!" "Yes, yes. We know. But look at your expression, aren''t you jealous because he treats us like his son and daughter. Your expression is saying so." The female smirked, yelling all the secrets out. "I just admired Master. That''s all. What Father? I don''t know what that word means." Eve looked away. The two exchanged looks and smiled while Alex patted their heads. "By the way, I don''t know your name yet," Alex asked the twins. "We don''t have one yet. We are waiting for Master to bestow the name." The male shook his head while the girl confirmed his statement. Alex thought for a moment. "How about Ellie and Eliot?" "Ellie?" "Eliot?" The twins looked at each other and nodded. "Yes!" "From now on, I am Ellie." "I am Eliot." [You have grown up.] ''You mean my naming sense?'' Alex twitched his eyebrows. Alex sighed before turning to Song Tao. "I am sorry for making you wait." "It''s fine, it''s fine. I have long wanted to see what kind of kids the past Spirit God would have, but that dream was never realized. This one was a feast for my eyes." Song Tao smiled. "Most people treat their weapons as tools, but you treat them like your children. Haha. "Since you are their master, you can touch them, but those who are not won''t be able to. I just wish to see your future children from Madam Lin Xingzhi and the others. I mean, kids are the best way to soothe our hearts. Just need to have the right education to make them not opposing each other because of some stupid positions." "Agreed." Alex smiled. "Well, that won''t be happening in a short time since I have something to do." "To that end, my Blackwade Clan will do our best to support you. After all, we can''t do business if all people in this universe die." "Haha." Alex laughed. Song Tao then turned to the twins. "I am glad that you two now can reunite. Congratulations." "Thank you, Uncle. For reforging us, creating us, and caring for us during all the process!" Ellie bowed, followed by Eliot. "By the way, is it really okay for me not to pay you anything?" Alex asked. "It''s fine. Seeing the birth of the weapon Spirits is enough for me. Although I don''t have the plan to create another one since it takes a lot of resources, I might be creating one in the future. Maybe that weapon can be the heirloom, so if you don''t mind, I would like to ask your permission first." "Well, Eve must have shown you, so you can do whatever you want. Just make sure that it''s not possible to be tracked by other Forging Masters so easily." "I am sure there are many weapon spirits out there, but at the very least, I haven''t seen one around us. That''s why I am not planning to do it for the time being. In fact, I might raise a ban for this, but if there is something important regarding this matter, I will consult with you first. Will that be fine?" "Yes. Thank you for your concern. By the way, how is the guy I mentioned back then?" Alex asked. "We have taken care of him. From his talent and tenacity, I believe he can easily reach Rank 5 God, which means another elite to our clan. As you know, we have so many branches that it''s hard to take care of them, so we can''t really discover them easily. Of course, we have another plan for that, but it won''t be implemented for at least one thousand years. Don''t worry, I have no plan to get this clan ruined with my own hand." "That''s good then. This means I have fulfilled my promise. Then, it''s time for me to leave." Alex nodded. "In that case, I will see you off." Song Tao nodded and stretched his hand. Eve and the twins returned to their weapons, and Alex decided to store them inside the Inventory first before letting them out in Eulja later. After entering outer space again, Alex then cupped his hand, thanking Song Tao again. "Then." Song Tao cupped his hand too, watching how he disappeared. It took only a few hours before reaching Eulja. He looked at the nostalgic world that would become his house from now on. "At the very least, I have done all my jobs. I can deal with all the problems in this world now." Alex smiled as he entered the world. He didn''t forget to say the most important words. "I''m back." Chapter 1024 - Letizia The moment he entered the world, Lin Xingzhi had been waiting for him. "You have finally returned." She gently smiled. "I''ve come to get you." "Thank you." Alex nodded with a smile before noticing another presence coming from his left. He turned around and found four people standing side by side. The first two were his wives, Alicia and Firia. "You two have come back?" Alex widened his eyes. "Yes. We have returned since a month ago. Besides, someone also wants to see you." Alicia nodded and glanced at the two behind her. Alex cupped his hands and bowed his head. "I am sorry for not visiting you this whole time, Master." "Haha! I have only taught you a few things, so it''s normal for you to not call me Master, but I will shamelessly claim that position though." Maxwell laughed out loud before getting elbowed by the female beside him. "Wifey, I am not a masochist. Rather than an elbow, I prefer a kiss." "Kiss is special. You will only get it back home." She stuck out her tongue before looking at Alex with a smile. "So, this is Alexander Sirius." "Madam, it''s my honor to meet you." Alex smiled at this beautiful silver-haired woman. "Thank you for taking care of my wife this whole time. I will always remember it." "You don''t need to mind. Firia and I have many similarities, so I enjoyed teaching her. This might be the first time we meet, so I think I will introduce myself. I am Merry Evans. To think that when I was a Rank 9 God, the Nature Goddess asked me to teach your wife, I was dumbfounded, you know. "I mean, my strength is still so low, but I can get stronger alongside her. Even though it looks like I am shameless enough to get stronger together with her disciple, the process was truly enjoyable." "Who dares to say that, Madam? I shall knock them with some senses if someone says it." Alex smiled. Merry seemed to have undergone a level-up. From Rank 9 God, she had become Rank 5 God at this pace while Firia almost reached Rank 8 God. "Anyway, I have been following your story and benefited from your practice, so I won''t say much. All in all, it''s really a pleasure to meet you. Besides, it''s truly nice to see someone from the same lower world. We have so many things to discuss." She smiled and bowed her head. "Oh, one more. If this guy is too shameless for you, I can smack his head a few times." "What?! You want to smack my head? What if I become an idiot? Will you care for me for the rest of your life?" "I do," Merry answered without hesitation. Seeing how she replied without getting embarrassed, Maxwell scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say anymore. He thought for a moment and said playfully. "How about one smack on the head in exchange for one spank? You hit me once and I hit you once. It''s give and take, rig¡ªGah!" "One elbow strike is not in agreement, right?" Merry smiled after hitting him again on the stomach. "Wife, you are ruthless, but I will consider it your way of flirting with me." They chuckled, watching their interactions. "Anyway, I do have one important thing that I want to talk about." Maxwell''s expression turned serious. "You should know about Pill Tower, right?" "The one you visited not long ago?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "Yes. I believe you should go to that place to gain recognition. It''s fine to do it as a mysterious person or Alexander Sirius. There are many benefits that you can rip, so that''s my suggestion. If I am not wrong, it''s the same as Array World. Alicia and Firia have their own recognition, so I think it won''t be a problem. Besides, there are often competitions there if they get a rare herb. "If you join the Alchemist Competition, you can immediately win since no one can refine their pill together with your Godly Pure Fire, but to not make a scene, it''s better to participate as a couple. There are competitions for that, so don''t worry. "As for Array Master, I am not sure myself. After all, they are focused on research like how to easily produce an array or something similar. You can climb your rank to Elder Rank to gain their support. That''s all, I guess." Maxwell explained. "Alicia can explain the rest about this place." "I understand. Thank you for your concern, Master. I will try to see if I can do that right now or not." Alex bowed his head. "It''s fine. We are going back right now." He smiled and looked at his wife. "Wifey, do you want to say something?" "Nope. I have said all of it earlier. And why are you so rushed to go home?" She glanced at him with narrowed eyes. "Hehe¡­It''s been a decade, Wifey. Can we?" "¡­" "I suppose we can. We will go back then." She smiled. Alex didn''t know what to say and decided to wave his hand. "See you later. Do come to my planet if you are bored! I almost forgot¡­You haven''t met my kid yet!" Maxwell waved his hand while activating the Teleportation Array. "If you are trying to do that, you need to beat the Five Guardians and Six Elemental Gods first!" Lin Xingzhi playful stuck out her tongue. "Don''t tease me. I am shamelessly using my privilege as his master!" As soon as he said that, the Teleportation Array took them away. Alex shook his head helplessly. "Who are in the castle right now?" "Anna and Anya are waiting for you there. Even Letizia and Evelyn are there together with Leka and Heilo. Unfortunately, Sherry is still in that world while Stina and Kyle are challenging themselves in another place. From what I can see, their daughter, Ellen, is trying to pass the throne to someone else because she wishes to gather again with Stina and Kyle as family. I will be supporting her, so don''t worry about her." Lin Xingzhi explained. "I see. Has Letizia formed a contract yet with Heilo?" "Not yet. She is waiting for you first." Alex let out a long sigh. "That girl¡­" "Fufu, I have my fill teasing her." Alicia smirked. "¡­" Alex glanced at her and looked in another direction. "Anyway, let''s go back first. I will deal with the others later." "Sure thing." Lin Xingzhi nodded. Alex then snapped his finger, teleporting all of them to the castle. When he arrived in the garden where they used to play, he heard someone voice, humming in happiness. Alex followed the sound and saw a white-haired female. She wore a white shirt and a black skirt. She seemed to be trying to dress like a maid but with a bit more fashion when Alex saw that black robe hung from her waist, looking like an apron but a black one. He instantly recognized that figure and called her name. "Letizia." Letizia''s body shook. Her training stopped for a second as she stiffly turned around, finding Alex and the others. "Master!" She covered her mouth and hid her sword. "I''m back." Alex smiled. "By the way, I caught her red-handed when she asked a maid where to get their uniform." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "I don''t want to see her dress like that, so in the end, I asked someone to design this. It''s inspired by a maid uniform, but with just a different color and style to make it better." Letizia panicked as she kept blinking at Lin Xingzhi, pleading her not to tell Alex anymore regarding that matter. "I don''t know why, but after mellowing a bit, she is this shy. Maybe this is her true self?" Letizia looked down while playing with her fingers. She decided to explain. "I was never comfortable to meet someone actually. The reason I choose to be bold is to prevent anyone from looking down on my sect. But since I have no more burden about that, I have returned to my past self¡­ I apologize. If Master wants me to change back, I will do it." Alex shook his head helplessly and patted her head. "It''s fine. Do what you want. No one is forcing you into this place." "I also want to report!" Anna''s voice suddenly echoed in the garden. Alex and the others turned around, finding Anna and Anya heading toward them. Anna leaped toward Letizia and hugged her from behind. "Look at her! She is this adorable, but Sister Xingzhi wanted to taint her with her collections. We need to burn down those collections!" "What?!" Lin Xingzhi and Anya shouted at the same time. They glared at Anna. "They are the cultures that we have found all this time. There are three thousand years worth of collections there!" "¡­" Alex blinked his eyes a few times, not knowing what to say about this matter. Anna facepalmed and slowly pushed Letizia to the side. "Let''s go. We need to avoid these two perverts!" "Even though you are a pervert too, Anna? You are a closet pervert who doesn''t dare to show it even in front of your husband but goes wild every time you do it." Anya narrowed his eyes. "And whose fault it was?" Anna glanced at Lin Xingzhi. "Alright, alright." Alex tried to stop them. "No need to argue. Just be true to yourself, I don''t really mind." Anna released Letizia. "By the way, what will you do with her?" "Well, I have my plan. For now, let''s enjoy ourselves today, alright?" Alex smiled. "Right! Let''s set a party here!" Alicia decided to support it to change the topic. "Yes. I will call Rose and Evelyn here." Firia nodded in agreement. "I will call Korzan and the others there." Anna also left. "Then, I will go to Leka and the others." Anya volunteered. "We will grab some wine for us." Lin Xingzhi smirked and left. In the garden only left Alex and Letizia. Her heart beat rapidly as she looked around and said, "I will grab some chairs and other things." "Letizia¡­" Alex didn''t want to miss the chance that the others gave and called her name. "Ehm, Master." Alex smiled and walked closer. "Sorry for neglecting you this whole time¡­Wait, I should apologize for drawing a line, I guess." "Master was not wrong." She shook her head. "I have almost destroyed all the things you built up that day. But you never mentioned it again and kept helping me. It''s me who should be apologizing for all the troubles I brought." Alex patted her head. "Well, rather than talking about this, how about we change the topic?" "Ye-yes." "How about we go on a trip after this? I mean, I have gone to many places with Lin Xingzhi and the others but never went to a single place with you. Well, Evelyn might come." Alex scratched the back of his head. "I understand. Besides, I don''t know what I should do, so Evelyn is the best choice." She shyly nodded. Alex then gently raised her chin with his right hand as his head slowly got closer to her. Letizia didn''t reject him and closed her eyes. The sudden kiss was mixed with a sense of relief in Letizia''s heart. She always thought that she wasn''t worthy of being with Alex because she was nothing but a burden to him. Unlike Alicia and Firia now, she had nothing to show him at the moment. After all, the two were like her in the past, unable to help him. But Firia now could teach Alex about Alchemy while Alicia could handle Array better than Alex. On the other hand, she had nothing but her Pure Ice, whose Sacrificial Element had been taken away. Even her strength wasn''t that much, nor she had a specialty like the two. When Alex released her lips, she asked with an intoxicated tone. "Master, is it really okay for me to be with you?" "I don''t want someone because of their strength. And I know that I want you because you are Letizia." Alex smiled as he kissed her again. Chapter 1025 - Peace "Wha¡ªMaster is here!" Rose came out of the castle, finding Alex with Letizia in the garden. Before she could even move, Evelyn already appeared and pushed her to the side. "Big Brother Alex is here?" "What are you doing?!" Rose narrowed her eyes. Evelyn glared back and smirked. Without even wasting their breath against each other, both leaped to the sky, falling straight on Alex. "Master!" "Big Brother!" "You two¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows and grabbed both of their heads, throwing them back to the sky. "Go back! Since when do you two become this unruly?" "We are just missing Master so much." Rose pouted. "It''s been a few years already." "Un." Evelyn nodded. Suddenly, both noticed Letizia''s flushed expression and instantly understood what just happened. Rose disappeared, going around and hugging Letizia from behind. Her hands slid on her body, grabbing more sensitive parts. "As expected, it seems Sister Letizia has begun her romance. Wait a minute, I shouldn''t call you Sister anymore. I need to call you Master''s wife or Mistress." "Wha¡ª" Letizia''s body shook with the sudden attack from Rose. "Y-you can still call me Sister. It''s been going for a while, and I have gotten used to it. Besides, Master just graced me with his favor, it was¡­" "Yes, yes. This is what I like about Sister Letizia. She is so cute and shy." Rose smirked, planning to tease her more. Meanwhile, Evelyn jumped again to Alex, hugging him tightly. "Uh¡­I miss you, Big Brother Alex." "Sorry, sorry. I won''t be going anywhere for the time being, and I am sorry for neglecting you this time. I hope you can forgive me." "Uhm." She nodded. "So, what did Big Brother do to Sister Letizia? I want one too! That will be enough for now." Alex smacked her head. "Ouch! Did she get this?" She pouted. "It seems I need to learn S&M from Big Sister." Alex shook his head helplessly. "So, you are learning that too?" "Ah. Just a little and stop because I can''t understand why Big Sister Xingzhi said that those books are cultures." She tilted her head in confusion. Alex let out a long sigh before whispering. "Maybe next time. Where there is no one around." "¡­" Evelyn''s face blushed when she heard Alex''s voice right beside her ears and subconsciously released him. Alex smiled, looking at these two. Evelyn really changed. Back then, she was just a shy little girl, but she became bold now. Her short hair had turned into a long wavy hair tied into a ponytail. She wore a black T-shirt and short pants that made it easier to move. She seemed to have used it since she left the Upper World and fell in love with this. Although she didn''t have a sword hanging on her waist, she looked like a wild and energetic swordswoman. On the other hand, Rose simply had a one-piece blue dress that reached her knees. Unlike Evelyn, she didn''t move around that much in a battle, so it was fine to wear something like this. In fact, her movement was elegant according to Lin Xingzhi, making that blue dress perfectly match her blue hair every time they swayed together. Still, Rose learned that her name was just like a beautiful flower in Alex''s hometown. After learning it from Lin Xingzhi, she wore a hairpin with the same rose as her name, but a blue one because she liked that color more. Looking at these two, Alex couldn''t help but remember their last meeting. "You two have truly grown up." Rose and Evelyn exchanged looks and made a big smile. "Master, I have confidence in hitting you now." Rose pumped her fist. "Really? I am looking forward to it." Alex smiled. "So, if you can''t hit me, what will the punishment be?" "Eh?" Rose retreated a step, looking at Alex with a dumbfounded expression. "Master wants to hit me?" "In a battle? Sure. In a normal daily life like this? If it''s not necessary, I won''t." Alex shrugged. "So, you will still hit me." Rose pouted. "That''s the price for talking big." Alex smiled and patted her head. "I will prepare your punishment first." "Why are you talking like you have already won? Isn''t this also talking big?" She complained. "Haha¡­ You should learn how to be shameless. They win much more than your average person." Alex laughed. "Anyway, I will be waiting for your challenge. I won''t pull my punch though." "That''s right. You shouldn''t talk big, Rose. How about I spank your butt on behalf of Big Brother?" She smiled. "I heard that it would become bigger if you continuously do that. Knowing you, you won''t hold back every slap, so no!" "Bigger is better for various reasons. I just can''t grow mine¡­" She sighed while looking at Rose''s butt and chest that were slightly bigger than her. "Ugh. I always thought of you as a younger sister, but it seems I was wrong." "As expected, I am glad that I didn''t participate in that lesson. I didn''t become overly conscious about this small thing." She nodded with a serious expression. "¡­" Alex shook his head helplessly. "How about you three fight me together? I want to see your progress. Well, mine too." "That''s good!" Rose and Evelyn nodded their head at the same time. "How is it?" Alex turned to Letizia. "I don''t think this can be considered as a breach of Universe Oath. In fact, I really want to cancel the contract." "Please no." She shook her head. "This is like a bond between you and me. And it''s also considered my commitment. I will be by your side." "Well, thanks. Maybe you should search for another goal." Alex smiled. "I don''t mind your current self, but I don''t want you to act like a doll or a maid because you are not any of those. You are a family. If a family doesn''t have a goal, they will lose their chance to progress. Of course, it doesn''t mean to be now, but I would like you to have a goal¡­Not for me, but yourself." Letizia thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I will try to do it." She realized that Alicia and Firia could work that hard because they had a goal in their heart. They might want to be a peerless expert that could be remembered as Alicia Sirius and Firia Sirius instead of Alex''s wives. Ultimately, it might be for Alex, but they had a clear goal to achieve without involving him in the process. Sherry found that as well and decided to become the princess of the Beast World, becoming an expert by herself. Letizia smiled after thinking all this. "Thank you, Master." "How about calling me Alex?" "I think I will pass. I have grown accustomed to this. Besides, it''s like something special for me." "Is that so? I won''t say much then." Rose and Evelyn pouted when the two entered their own world again. Rose raised her hand. "I have a dream too! I heard that there wasn''t a single Bow God that reached God King Stage, so I want to be the first one." "That''s a good dream. I will be rooting for you." Alex smiled while patting her head. "Well, my first dream was rejected¡­" She looked down. "Really? What kind of dream? I mean, you can dream everything you want." "I want to have a family too like Master, but my other half needs to be stronger than Master." Evelyn blinked her eyes a few times. "Ehm, you do know what Big Brother''s current goal is, right?" "¡­" She tilted her head in confusion. "No one told you about that?" Evelyn became speechless. She whispered something to her. Rose was taken aback by it. "No wonder it was easily rejected." "Well, you can dream anything you want. Even if you can''t find it in this place, you can look around in another universe. At the very least, we don''t know the extent of this universe, so there must be someone that suits you perfectly. But all in all, make sure you two love each other and know that you won''t betray each other in any condition." Alex smiled. "Un!" She nodded. "I wonder if I should be like Master¡­" Rose glanced at Evelyn and Letizia back and forth. "Eh?" Alex shook his head helplessly. "I will support what you want to do. Just make sure you don''t regret it." "I understand." "Anyway, my dream is to beat you at least once," Rose interjected while pouting. They were ignoring her again. "Hoho, that''s a challenge, I guess." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Lin Xingzhi''s voice resounded in everyone''s ears as she appeared behind Rose and circled her hand around her neck. "Since you want to beat him, I can offer you a course on how to beat him. Of course, since you didn''t say in what way, I can teach you the sure way." "Oi, oi. What are you teaching to a kid?" Alex waved his hand, planning to chop her head to stop her. However, Lin Xingzhi''s hand grabbed his waist with her max speed and pulled him to her before she kissed him. "Ho?" Anya also appeared beside them, observing the kiss. After twenty seconds, Lin Xingzhi finally released him, and Anya commented. "Hoho, twenty seconds, fifty hits. Even though God Rank Expert can fly so fast, this one can''t be too fast if you want to make it enjoyable. Besides, Alex seemed to be able to fight back thirty-six times which meant she won." Anna appeared behind Anya and smacked her head. "What the heck are you saying¡­" Evelyn blinked her eyes a few times before nodding in understanding. "I see. There seem to be more options to defeat Big Brother Alex." "Haha¡­ I really like this girl." Firia smirked and walked beside Lin Xingzhi. "Want to be this girl mentor?" Lin Xingzhi turned to her with a sly smile. "That''s a tempting offer." Firia played along before Alicia appeared right beside them as if looking at two idiotic perverts. *Stare* "You both¡­May I know what you two are planning to do?" Alicia asked coldly. "Right, tell her. It''s hard to have another one that can set them straight. To think there is another one beside Anya who becomes like this." Anna supported her as she was tired of setting Anya and Lin Xingzhi straight when they joked around. "Haha¡­" Alex only brushed this matter off with a laugh. He just appreciated the sight before him. He was glad that everyone could get along with each other just fine since normally, multiple wives would invite problems if they didn''t get along. At the very least, they seemed to understand that and avoided any conflict. Hearing her laugh, they couldn''t really say anything. Even Lin Xingzhi released Evelyn while looking away. "Anyway, we should start preparing the equipment." Alex smiled. "Right! Let''s have a barbecue!" Lin Xingzhi raised her hands. "Bring all the meat! Don''t forget to have dragon meat. They are delicious if you have a perfect herb to pair them with! And I won''t forgive any ingredients below Rank 8!" "I have prepared everything." Korzan walked to the garden while shaking his head helplessly. Besides him were two women. They both bowed their heads to Alex. "My King. If you don''t mind, I have brought my two wives with me¡­Of course, I have asked them not to spread the rumor about you around." "Hoho, Korzan brought his two wives. You were dead in the past, so you never saw him married." Lin Xingzhi nodded while observing the two. The first one had a half-human body, while the bottom was a snake tail. The second woman had a blue wing behind her back while her hands were a bit sharper than that of a human. "My name is Tresta, I am from the Lamia Tribe. I am honored to meet you, Your Majesty." "I am Milfel, a Wind Harpy Spirit. It''s my honor to meet you, Your Majesty." "I don''t mind. The more the merrier! Nice to meet you two." Alex then asked. "That''s right. Where''s Zark?" "There." Korzan pointed at Zark, who was preparing the grills. "I mean, if you want to have a party, it''s useless if you don''t set up this." Zark looked at them with a serious expression before pointing his finger at the camera that had been set up. "How about taking a picture first while I am setting up the grills?" ''Ah, yes. The serious and reliable guy.'' Chapter 1026: Peace Part 2 The party was enjoyable. Everyone had their own share of fun. ; A few hours later, they wrapped things up and called the beasts that had been waiting for them. ; Surprisingly, Leka came together with Heilo. She specifically sat down on his head while asking him to move faster, so she could meet her Master. ; "Ya, it''s been a while, Leka." ; "Master!" Leka called his name, showing how happy she was to see him again. ; "Fufu. It''s been a while, you two." Alex smiled before turning to Heilo. "I think you know why I called you, right?" ; Heilo nodded with a serious expression. "After enjoying my life here, I believe it''s better to accept it." ; "Right? I have been telling you so since the beginning. Master is good." Leka patted his head. ; The group laughed. ; "That''s right. Before that, I want to introduce you to three of them. I don''t know if I can show them since there are Korzan''s wives, but I guess I can now." Alex smiled. Since Korzan and Zark had also left the garden, there were only him, his disciple, and wives. ; He took out his sword and spear before calling them. "Eve, Ellie, Eliot." ; The three weapon spirits came out. ; "Hello. I am Eve, Master''s Sword Spirit." ; "I am Ellie, while the one beside me is Eliot, my twin brother. I inherit the Phoenix Blood while my brother inherits the Dragon Blood. A pleasure to meet you all." Ellie bowed her head while grabbing Eliot''s hand to have him bow too. ; "Nice to meet you. I am Lin Xingzhi." ; "Yes, we know. Although we haven''t met all of you, we have been sensing your presence this whole time." Ellie smiled before turning to the other girls. "Alicia, Firia, Anna, Anya, Letizia, Evelyn, and Rose." ; "Ho ho." Lin Xingzhi nodded. ; "That''s good then." ; "Well, since you all have met each other, let''s begin the process for Letizia''s first contract." Alex nodded and turned to Letizia. ; The latter nodded before looking at Heilo with a serious expression. ; Heilo came closer to her and concentrated. ; Suddenly, Letizia felt a weird feeling entering her mind, asking her permission. ; "I accept." She had been brief about what would happen, so she immediately accepted the request. ; Suddenly, she felt something hot was on her back. ; "Uhm." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Is this the tattoo?" ; "Yes. I wonder what the tattoo is?" Alex pinched his chin while looking at Letizia. ; "Ehm¡­I don''t dare to show my back¡­" She feared that it would make it uglier, so she tried to reject him, but Lin Xingzhi already grabbed her hands, restraining her. ; "Alright. Close his eyes." Lin Xingzhi shouted to Leka, who immediately covered Heilo''s eyes with her hands. At the same time, Ragi, who followed them, got covered by Anna''s Dark Curtain. ; Rose smiled brightly with her fingers dancing back and forth. "Hehe¡­ I know how Sister Letizia works since I have been doing this for a while¡­" ; With just a split second, her hands slipped in her clothes as she stripped her. ; "Waawaawa¡ª" Letizia panicked while Lin Xingzhi turned her around, so her back faced Alex. ; They found a full monkey tattoo behind her back. ; "As expected from the first one. It''s a full-body tattoo." Anna observed the tattoo. ; "Yeah." Feeling bad, Alex also unbuttoned his shirt and showed his back to Letizia. "Here. This is mine." ; Letizia fixed her clothes while glancing at Alex''s back. The first one, Sherry, indeed had a full-body tattoo on his back. ; It was truly a cute fox. However, she also found there were three wings behind the fox with a tail underneath it. ; "The three wings represent Stina, Kyle, and Ellen, while the tail is Leka," Alex explained. ; "How about making another contract with a phoenix? Won''t the fox have two pairs of wings? It looks more beautiful." Lin Xingzhi commented on the whole picture. ; "Oi, oi. You are saying that fully knowing I only have five contracts left?" Alex sighed. ; "Of course. Well, there is no telling what will happen in the future. Besides, you are planning to create an array with Eulja''s logo on your back, right?" ; "Is that the one you mention about the Holy Emblem?" Alicia''s interest got piqued by their talk. "The concept is fresh, so I believe this will be hit in the Array Master''s holy land. Well, it''s better to be popularized first before creating a record there. After all, we can''t afford to have someone steal this technique." ; "You are going to help the research?" Alex asked. ; "Probably. Do you want to join too?" ; "I will pass. I have too many things to do, but I think I will ask you to teach me more about Arrays. It''s not like I am leaving again for the next few years." Alex smiled and looked at Firia. "Of course, I will be asking for you to teach me Alchemy." ; "That''s right. We both found something interesting. It''s the combination between Array and Alchemy. Have you ever thought about using an Array to do Alchemy?" Alicia asked with an excited expression. ; "Ho? I have seen it somewhere in fictional stories, but I have never seen one myself." Alex shook his head. ; "We are just trying it out for now. Although I am required to know Alchemy and Firia also need the knowledge about Array, we don''t need to build one ourselves. In other words, we can support each other." Alicia explained. ; "That''s interesting." ; "Right? I can control the Fire and Ingredient distribution with Alicia''s Array. Of course, Alicia also needs to know how to handle the process and medicinal ingredients'' characteristics to make it work. All in all, the success rate, the speed, and other things are high if we master this technique." Firia nodded in agreement. ; "And if you, the owner of the Godly Pure Fire and also the master of Array Master with a special Space Element, I believe you will be the strongest in this area." Alicia supported Firia''s statement. ; "Well, I will be asking you to teach me that, but I think we won''t do it for one year or so." Alex agreed with their plans. ; "Yes, let us try it first." The two gave a thumb up to him as they were eager to try it. ; "By the way, Master is asking for a fight. How about you two joining us? Maybe he will reward us something if we can beat him¡­" Rose suddenly interrupted them with an invitation. ; "That is interesting. I am in." Alicia decided to participate. ; "Hmm, I think I will join as well. I am curious about my power too." Firia nodded. ; "With this, we have two Rank 9 Gods and three Rank 10 Gods. There is finally a chance to defeat a Rank 8 God." Rose smirked, planning to beat her master with this. ; Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly while asking. "Rose. You don''t know about his recent development. First of all, Eve, Ellie and Eliot are part of his strength. And his strength is equal to Rank 7 God when he is a Rank 8 God, let alone with his strength reaching the peak Rank 8 God." ; "What?!" Rose''s face turned pale. "Ah, our chance just disappeared. How about you joining us?" ; "Haha. Well, if there is a reward, I will participate. However, Alex will surely punish me so that I won''t participate." Lin Xingzhi rejected her. ; But it didn''t stop Rose from recruiting the last two. "How about you two? We can fight him this time." ; "We were previously a Rank 2 God, but I think we can participate in this considering we are only a Rank 9 God this time?" Anya thought and looked at Anna, who replied with a nod. "Good. We will join. It''s not like Alex''s experience will put him at a disadvantage when fighting us." ; "Good. Four Rank 9 Gods and three Rank 10 Gods. With this, we might be able to beat him." Rose smiled as if everything went according to the plan. ; "Look at you¡­You are scheming to beat your own Master." Alex shook his head helplessly. "Of course, the punishment for you will be far more than the others. Remember that." ; "What?!" Rose retreated while asking. "Can I take back my words about fighting in a group?" ; "Nope. You will surely "ENJOY" the punishment." Alex made a sinister smile, scaring Rose. ; The others started laughing. ; "That''s right." Alex then turned to Ragi. "How are you? Are you doing fine with this new environment?" ; "Well, it''s not a perfect environment to grow, but I will be fine if I am only focusing on my cultivation. However, I would like to request Sir to give a bit of your flame. I mean¡­Just hitting me with your flame a bit. I can use it to temper my physique. Although it''s not the best way to cultivate, it will surely help me in the long run. Of course, I will do whatever Sir needs, so I don''t look like leeching of Sir Alex." Ragi politely asked. ; Alex became curious and summoned his fire. He gently spread the fire around Ragi''s body and let it burn Ragi''s body. ; "How about this?" Alex asked. ; Ragi closed his eyes and nodded. "Thank you very much. This will surely become a perfect way to temper my body. According to my father, the previous Fire God used this way to enhance my parents'' bodies, so yeah, it''s really effective." ; "Just ask me if you want more since I have no plan of going anywhere for the time being." Alex nodded. ; "I understand." Ragi bowed his head to Alex, showing his thanks again. ; "By the way, you are going to meet my parents after this, you know," Anna added. ; "How about after the fight?" Alex asked. ; "Sure. The fight won''t be that long anyway." Alicia nodded while looking at Firia. ; "Yes. Well, I won''t be suppressed by your Pure Fire, but I doubt I will be useful in the battle." She shrugged before patting Rose''s shoulder. "That''s why prepare yourself for the punishment." ; "Wait. What?! Why are you giving up just like that?" Rose started seeing how dim the future fight would be. ; "Haha. That''s why I said you shouldn''t talk big, especially in front of your Master." Alex laughed while gently hitting Rose''s head. ; "Ugh. I am already bullied even before the fight starts¡­This is just a master abusing his disciple." Rose pouted. ; "Oh, you also need to meet with the Five Guardians and Six Elemental Gods. I have promised them. As for the Ten Commandants, they are not here at the moment, so I will just notify them about your presence," Lin Xingzhi reminded him about his schedule. ; "Alright. I will leave it to you. Now that I think about it, my schedule here is pretty tight, isn''t it?" Alex scratched the back of his head. ; "Agree." ; "Anyway, I have a planet near this place that suits to be your fighting arena. All the resources on the planet have been excavated while no one is living there at the moment. We usually used it to hold a competition or something, so it''s perfect. How about going there tomorrow?" Lin Xingzhi asked. ; "Sure." Alex nodded. ; "I will ask for the compass. For now, you should rest after doing all those things outside. Well, we also need to give way for the newbies." Lin Xingzhi smiled while winking at Anna and the others. ; "I don''t mind." ; "Same." ; "Before that, Letizia, Rose, Evelyn, I will be sending you three to the planet I was in not long ago to learn Weapon Qi. It will surely benefit you, and I have the perfect mentor for you. Of course, you can stay in this world for another month before training there. After that, should we go somewhere?" Alex smiled. ; Evelyn''s and Letizia''s eyes brightened. It was the invitation for the honeymoon, showing that he already accepted them. ; The two became even more eager to complete the training. Their eyes intertwined as they nodded at each other, sharing the same mind. ; "Of course, Rose won''t be part of it. This will be included in the punishment when you lose against me in the fight tomorrow." Alex didn''t forget to tease Rose again. ; "No way." She could only sulk after all this while the garden filled with laughter. ; Chapter 1027: Ruler The next morning came, Alex gradually opened his eyes, feeling the weight on both hands. He looked left and right, finding Evelyn''s and Letizia''s faces beside him. He closed his eyes again and thought how he had put the burden on them because of drawing a line. When all got loose, he understood how hurt they were during the process. Last night was filled with so many things¡ªTears, happiness, relief, and, more importantly, love. At the very least, he didn''t regret what happened yesterday. He gently slipped away, making sure that these two didn''t wake up before getting dressed. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Lin Xingzhi waiting for him right in front of the room. "Is there something wrong?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Nothing. I just want to inform you that the plant is ready to use since you are going to have a spar with them." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "Is that so? Thank you." Alex smiled and asked. "Where are Korzan and Zark? I want to say something to them." "They are in the usual room. I will lead you to them." She stretched her hand, asking him to walk. Alex nodded and followed her right next to her. "Unfortunately, we couldn''t celebrate with Sherry, Stina, and Kyle. Such a shame." "Indeed, but Sherry is also fighting right now in her own way. All you can do is to understand her and believe in her." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Yes. I am glad that I met her back then, and I am thankful that you found me when I was at my lowest point." "Why are you saying this as if you have come a long way? This is just a beginning. Your lifespan alone is so long, so don''t talk like you are already an old man." She shook her head, teasing him to change the topic. Realizing her intention, Alex smiled and patted her head. "Right. We have so many things to do in the future. Please stay by my side." Lin Xingzhi hugged his hand with a smile. "Hehe. You don''t need to say it." The two walked a bit more until they arrived at the administration room where Korzan usually worked. They also found Zark, who seemed to be standing by for any emergency. When the two noticed Alex''s presence, they both stood up, greeting him. "My King." Alex waved his hand as if telling them to be at ease. "I want to talk a little thing with you¡­Well, it''s not a little thing, but a more serious one. Do you have time?" "Of course, my king." Korzan nodded while Zark guided him to his seat. "So, what is this serious topic you want to address, Your Majesty?" Korzan asked politely. Alex pointed at Korzan and said, "That actually." Korzan and Zark were confused for a second before realizing the meaning behind his word. Alex made a helpless smile while looking down. "I have actually thought about this. I wonder why all of you are treating me as the Spirit God even though I am not him. I am his reincarnation and a human on top of that." "Your Majesty. You might have a little misunderstanding about us. We didn''t follow the Spirit God because of his strength. We adored his character and personality. We didn''t acknowledge him as the Spirit God because he deserved it. People acknowledged it because of what he had done to us and believed he deserved the recognition. "I do agree that Your Majesty hasn''t done anything yet to Eulja, but your existence alone brings relief to the people. That''s right. Everything is related to the Spirit God, but what we, your closest retainers, believe is not in the Spirit God. But at the person called Alexander Sirius." Korzan smiled, recalling the past scene. Alex closed his eyes while frowning. "That''s cheating. There is no way I can replicate what the Spirit God did in the past." "Of course. We believe that you can''t." Korzan admitted without hesitation. "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows but remained silent when he saw his serious expression. He seemed to have another thing to say, so he let him talk. "It is impossible for you to even become the Spirit God''s equal, much less surpass him. That fierce age of him already belongs in the annals of legend. No matter how large of a storm you kick up in the future, the only thing that will ever be thrown your way is "What if''s." "What if that legendary figure still existed in this generation?" "Indeed. Everything will be¡­" Alex looked at him with a helpless expression. Korzan shook his head. "Although it''s true that the Spirit God legends will forever be protected by the passage of time. However, the truth is, there exists one and only method through which you may surpass him." "Which is¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "By completely overwriting his legend." Korzan smiled with excitement. "By completing a tremendous feat that even we were not able to accomplish, history will, without a doubt, remember your name, not as the Spirit God''s reincarnation, but as Alexander Sirius." "A feat that even he wasn''t able to accomplish¡­" Alex closed his eyes and clenched his hands. "Aye. The death of the calamity beast and making Eulja the strongest world in this universe!" Korzan raised his right hand as if he wanted to fight already. Alex let out a long sigh. "It''s been five thousand years since the death of the Spirit God. To accomplish this feat would require someone who holds a frightful level of Martial Might. But most of all, it requires someone of a caliber who wouldn''t balk at the great cost of bloodshed this feat would require." "The question will be whether I can do that or not¡­" Alex looked down while smiling. "Yes." Korzan and Zark nodded and closed their eyes. "Even though I don''t have the desire to be the strongest, it''s true that you need strength to protect the people you love." Alex slowly rose from his seat. "I am a selfish person, and I have never learned anything about Eulja. That''s why if I need to choose one day whether to protect my family or my subjects, I would, of course, choose my family. "That''s the very reason I decided to accept this position even if it means that I won''t protect Eulja at the critical moments. A lot of people will surely lose their lives at this time and make people think that I am a bit too irresponsible. "However, I want to promise you one thing. After making sure my family is safe, I will return back to the battlefield to continue fighting. As long as I still have this body, I will protect everyone with everything I''ve got. As long as I can make sure that my family is safe, I will not hold back and fight till the "very last moment." "If my fellow comrades are still with me at that time, then I will still be able to stay strong within. That''s why¡­If you think that I am worthy of being Eulja''s ruler even with this selfish desire of mine, will you help me again, Zark, Korzan?" Alex stretched his hand. Korzan and Zark widened their eyes and clenched their fists. Not knowing why, their tears were swelling up. Before the tears fell, they dropped to the ground, kneeling on one knee. "We shall offer our lives and follow you until the end, Your Majesty." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and smiled. She added. "Alex¡­You know what? Your previous self is actually a very petty person. He destroyed many worlds for petty reasons. However, because of that very character, other worlds feared Eulja. "Even if he were scorned by many, the people would keep believing in him. They all knew that their king did everything for them. If not due to his pettiness, his strength alone couldn''t protect them unless he was beside them. "But everything changed because people thought that they would die if they messed with the people from Eulja. That''s why no one dared to do it. That''s the true reason why people still believed him¡­Adore him¡­And even followed him until now." Lin Xingzhi paused for a moment to deliver one most important piece of advice. "There is one strict rule that you need to follow. Be just! Punish those who are in the wrong and protect those who are wronged. That''s all." Alex nodded with a smile. "Thanks." Korzan and Zark rose from the floor. "I am not a perfect ruler, but I will be relying on you two a lot." Alex smiled. "Of course, Your Majesty." Korzan nodded with a serious expression. Zark, on the other hand, added. "Well, we still remember how you never did any work in the castle because it was too boring and left it to Korzan." "Ahaha¡­I have never learned anything about governing a world, and I don''t want to mess things up, so I will keep relying on you, Korzan." Alex scratched the back of his head. "Well, I will try to learn it in the future, but now is a bit too busy." "Of course, Your Majesty. Please leave it to me." Korzan bowed to him while hitting Zark on the back while glaring at him as if telling him, "How can you say that to His Majesty?" Lin Xingzhi and Alex only looked at these two interactions with warm expressions. "That''s right. How about the meeting with those old people?" Zark asked. "Don''t worry. I have handled it pretty well. They won''t do anything funny¡­I think." Korzan scratched the back of his head. "Well, knowing them, even with the assurance of Mistress Lin Xingzhi, they won''t stay still if he visits them." "Fair enough. Maybe we should bring someone to kidnap them first or have a war council so those guys can''t bring anyone with them or start any trick?" Zark asked. Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "It''s fine. Now that I think about it, there are already me, Anna, Anya, Alicia, Firia, Sherry, Letizia, and Evelyn. If I add Silvia to the list, doesn''t this mean there is only one slot left? I think I have the plan to make this situation a little bit interesting." "Oi, oi. Don''t sell your husband, alright?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Don''t worry. No one can win in the end." Lin Xingzhi stuck out her tongue. "Still, it''s really a strange thing. I would never have thought that the day would come where they would stand shoulder to shoulder with each other. "Though, if Alex wasn''t the type of man that he is. They would have resisted until their dying breath to show their pride again. And when I asked them about it, they all gave the same answer, which was the report that I gave them. It''s hilarious. Their answer was because Alex''s strength is on a whole other level from his previous life. "Trying to get the point and seduce him with force will just invite his and my wrath, which is why all the Guardians and Elemental Gods have decided to join forces in the hopes of racking up achievements, all so Alex will visit them more, which allow them to give more time for their daughters or granddaughters to meet Alex longer. "Hahaha¡­Even those old prideful people can be cute when they''re gathered up. Don''t you think?" Lin Xingzhi smirked, recalling why they showed up during the war council. When she asked that after the fight with the Palm God, those people, who were supposed to have no hope in finding another Alexander Sirius in the past five thousand years, actually gathered for such a reason. "So, what is that promise you are talking about?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I merely said that I wouldn''t stop anyone from approaching our sons and daughters in the future as long as they honestly do that and don''t do any tricks." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "In your world, this is something normal, but in this world or most worlds out there, arranged marriage or tricking for a marriage is a normal thing." "I won''t talk much about my sons'' and daughters'' happiness in the future, but I will keep monitoring them." Alex nodded. "As long as they are honest, I will give them my blessings even if the other half is just a normal who doesn''t know any cultivation. I can just pour some resources into him/her. All in all, I will deal with it in the future." Chapter 1028: Fight "It seems they are ready to fight." Lin Xingzhi smiled, looking at the girls'' serious expressions. Not long after their talk, the girls were already prepared for their fight. Alex smiled while asking. "So, all of you are ready?" "Of course. Rose is ready for punishment too." Anna nodded with a smile, teasing Rose again. "What? Why are all of you acting as if we have already lost." Rose pouted. "Or is this because you want me to get punished by Master?" "Both." Anna patted her head a few times. "Uh. You all are bullies. Now I am missing my life without bullying." She pouted. "Haha¡­I will let you control the fight later. How about it?" Anna smiled. "Really?" Rose became energetic again as she wanted to fight against Alex in terms of strategy as well, so this really fired her up. "Yep, yep. I don''t think everyone has a problem, right?" Anna looked at the others, and they remained silent. "That''s good then. Since Rose is the head, her punishment will be doubled, okay?" Alex smiled while snapping his finger, creating a Teleportation Array underneath. "Noooo!" Rose''s scream echoed only one second in the room as she had disappeared together with the others. Because it was an interesting fight, Lin Xingzhi and the beasts were following them to see their fight. This would be a perfect match to judge Alex''s strength too. Not long after, they arrived at the world where they usually used to fight. The world itself was pretty much ruined after so many battles it endured. There was nothing else living here other than craters. "We don''t do anything to the other side of this world because it''s filled with forest. If we want to conduct a tournament here, those Martial Saints or below need air, so we purposely only fight around this area." Lin Xingzhi explained. "Hmm¡­ It''s good that you don''t destroy everything. After all, it can be used not only by God Rank Experts. In fact, it will just be the same as a giant asteroid if the atmosphere wasn''t here anymore." Alex nodded while looking around, knowing there was nothing that could be used to his advantage. "In that case, take your positions. I, Lin Xingzhi, will be the judge of this match." Lin Xingzhi smiled while raising her hand. The other beasts were watching them on the sideline. Ragi protected Heilo and Leka since their strength was a bit low. Alex went to the opposite of the girls, summoning the trio. "They are our targets today. I will be instructing you on the specific command, so be ready." "Yes, Master. We just need to make sure that no one is injured, right?" Eve asked. "Hmm, Anya is here, so I think a little injury is fine." Alex nodded and made a sinister smile when looking at Rose. It sent a shiver down her spine as she looked at Alex with a pale expression. She sent the order through thought transmission, so Alex didn''t know what they were doing. However, Alex already grasped a bit of Rose''s strategy. The one who would fight Alex in the front was Letizia, Anna, and Evelyn. Rose, Alicia and Firia will be supporting them while Anya takes care of their injury and power up. Letizia and Evelyn were beside Anna, pointing their sword toward Alex. Anna, on the other hand, had her scythe passively. It wasn''t her usual style, so Alex remained cautious. Behind them, Firia and Alicia released their elements respectively, preparing to go against Alex''s Pure Fire while Rose would surely try to strike him if he made an opening. Alex then released his Pure Fire, trying to suppress Firia''s fire but to no avail. Considering her Sacrificial Fire was a kind of his Pure Fire''s son, it was no wonder he couldn''t suppress her. "There is one more thing. I am not holding back, alright?" Alex smiled as his Pure Fire turned into a fox behind him. "Then, since the two sides are ready. The match will start as soon as this coin reaches the ground." Lin Xingzhi smiled. They all were flying twenty meters above the ground, so it would take a few seconds for the coin to lend, allowing them to prepare their heart. After taking another look at their faces, she finally dropped the coin. The girls gulped down since they would be receiving Alex''s full power. Alex closed his eyes for a second while activating his Spirit Eyes, checking the girls'' power once again. Ding. The sound of clicking metal echoed in their ears. The fox behind Alex immediately howled to the sky as it summoned a huge fireball. The heat was intense, melting the coin that Lin Xingzhi threw earlier in an instant while suppressing a portion of their strength. Not wanting to be outdone, Anya immediately distributed her support, increasing the girls'' overall strength like she always did. It was to the point it could neglect Alex''s suppression. "I have done my best. Since we can''t really use True Spirit Body this time, I think I will be enjoying the fight from here." Anya waved her hand with a smile. The group ignored her as Alicia and Letizia released the first move. Letizia raised her sword above her head, concentrating a huge amount of Pure Ice Element on the tip of her blade. She then swung it, sending an invisible wind of ice. "One Swing, Freeze the World." It immediately froze the ground and turned the atmosphere chilly. However, when the wind hit Alex''s fireball, it evaporated. Alicia did the follow-up. There were six ice crystals hovering behind her. With just a wave of her hand, the crystals shot out a beam filled with Ice Element. "Endless Ice." Like Letizia''s Pure Ice, her ice didn''t manage to affect the fireball slightly. Seeing this movement, Alex decided to eliminate these two from the fight first. He channeled his Spiritual Energy to both swords and spears. "Swallowing Heaven." Two dragons appeared from both weapons, making their way toward Alicia and Letizia. "¡­" Letizia''s expression turned serious as she faced the dragon head-on, striking its fang with her sword. "I will take care of this one." Since there was no way that Evelyn or Anna could take on Alex''s in the front alone, Alicia decided to take care of the dragon by herself. The six ice crystals floated to her front, forming a hexagonal. They then released a connection between each other, creating a more powerful ice element attack. As soon as the dragon entered her attack range, she shot the attack, pushing the dragon back. "Go!" Evelyn and Anna nodded as they went straight to Alex. Evelyn charged from the front and swung her sword. The tip of her sword shone as she smiled. "I am going to take you on, Big Brother." "You are not suppressed?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows before looking at Ragi. "Hehe¡­My element is fire, so I know I will be suppressed. However, I asked him to lend me his treasure to protect me from your suppression." Evelyn smirked. "If not, do you think I will be participating in this fight?" "Single Blade Execution." The tip of her sword had a concentrated Divine Energy, making it hard to block, but Alex only smiled at her while saying, "You have truly grown, eh?" He channeled not only his intent and energy but also his Divine Pure Sword Qi. "One Inch Spear." Alex swung his sword and extended it a bit so it didn''t get close to him. During this time, Anna sneaked around him and struck her scythe from behind. As if he had predicted that she would move this way, Alex blocked her attack with just his spear without any special technique. "Yep, you always did this." Alex shook his head helplessly. "Yes. There is no way I can hit you who knows my fighting style this well." Anna smiled. "You are giving up?" "No way. I just want to say that I am not alone." Anna shook her head. "Tri Xeta." "What are¡ª" Alex widened his eyes and looked at her attack again. There was a small Spatial Gate on the tip of her scythe, connecting it to another one near Alex''s neck. It pierced a bit of Alex''s skin, allowing her to send a powerful Dark Energy to suppress his ability for a few minutes. "So, who came up with this plan?" Alex smiled. "Rose, right?" "Yep." Anna smiled. Alex closed his eyes for a second as if he was praising Rose''s plan. However, he made a sudden movement by blowing Anna away as if nothing happened before thrusting his spear toward Rose. "Mythical Spear Cannon." Seeing this, Rose wasn''t scared. Alex had lost a portion of his strength, so even she should be able to deal with the strength of this level. She released her arrow that had a concentrated Lightning Energy. "Lightning Sky Arrow." The two attacks clashed for a second before Alex made a sly smile. His attack obliterated Rose''s arrow and made its way toward her. "What?!" Rose widened her eyes as she prepared to dodge, but then she realized that her movement was somewhat sluggish. "What happened? No, I can''t make it." If she took another look at the first attack that Anna launched, there was an even smaller Spatial Gate that connected the tip of the scythe''s blade to the one around Rose''s neck. In other words, Alex just acted as if the attack hit him, even though the real Tri Xeta affected Rose. Because she had yet to move as she had pulled her bow, only waiting to release it, she didn''t realize the change of her ability. This became a big miscalculation on her part, and the attack would surely hit her. Fortunately, Firia had yet to make her move. She appeared between them while pushing her palm to Alex''s Mythical Spear Cannon. Five strings of fire emerged from the tip of her fingers, circling around the cannon, wrapping it, and crushing the attack into pieces. After noticing Rose''s current condition, Anya''s light illuminated Rose''s purifying Anna''s Tri Xeta. "Master is terrible. You target me from the beginning. And to think you were acting the whole time." Rose pouted. "You are the brain, so of course, you need to take care of it first. Besides, fighting like this is how well you can trick your opponent." Alex smirked. Rose rolled her eyes. "Three Dance Strikes." Seeing that the situation was in his favor, Evelyn retreated a step back and released three streams of light, attacking him from three different directions. Alex took a glance at it and swung the sword three times. "Triple Draws." As soon as Alex used that technique, Anna made another sneak attack from behind him. However, Alex had been keeping a tab on her presence without looking at her. Three Spatial Gates appeared out of thin air, going to swallow the three attacks from Evelyn. At the same time, another one emerged right before Anna. Alex planned to send Evelyn''s attack to Anna. Rose didn''t want to lose and used her own Spatial Gates to swallow the attacks first so she could transport them to another place. For the first time, Alex finally changed his position. He jumped to the side as the three attacks almost hit him from below. Because of this movement, Evelyn and Anna had a chance to attack him. No one knew about Alex''s fox yet. The Avatar that had yet to move finally swiped its paw toward Anna, blasting her to the ground. Evelyn widened her eyes as Alex jumped toward her since he didn''t need to watch his back anymore. She spun her sword, creating an invisible pressure that would block anything that came her way. "Sword Barrier." "Pure Sword Qi." Alex smiled. This Pure Sword Qi allowed the Sword God to cut through anything, let alone this puny barrier. When he sliced the barrier, Evelyn stopped the sword with her own strength before realizing that Alex was meaner than she expected. On top of his head floated a crown with a beautiful blue gem in the middle. Yes, it was none other than his Spirit Crown. It automatically enhanced Alex''s strength with the powerful Spirit Step. Using that strength, he blew Evelyn away. Bang. Bang. Chapter 1029: Fight Part 2 Bang. Bang. The crashing sound of the two that hit the ground echoed in their ears as Alex narrowed his eyes, staring at Rose. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." Alex released a Sword Wave toward Rose. Rose felt the danger that the Sword Wave carried. It contained the same Pure Sword Qi he used earlier and a trace of Space Element. Although she didn''t understand the Pure Sword Qi, she had enough knowledge of what would happen if she tried to absorb the attack with her Spatial Gate. The Sword Wave would flawlessly cut the Spatial Gate and headed straight to her. She decided to release her arrow instead, trying to slow the speed down so that she could escape. "Lightning Truncheon." The arrow turned into a long stick filled with Lightning. It clashed with the Sword Wave but got obliterated in an instant. "What?!" Rose dropped her jaw. She underestimated the power of the Pure Sword Qi. Although Alex had explained about the Sword Qi, she never expected that Alex''s was this strong. She prepared to use her Spatial Gate to run away instead. At the same time, Evelyn and Anna appeared in front of Evelyn, swinging their weapon. "Dark Cut." "Fire Rain Sword." Their strikes halted the Sword Wave for a moment, but as one would expect, the strength of a Rank 8 God was too powerful to handle, let alone the abnormal Alex. They only bought enough time for Rose to escape before letting the Sword Wave fly past them, creating a huge and deep hole in the ground. "Seriously? Master. Do you want to kill your disciple?" Rose commented after teleporting to a safe place. "No way. I would have used my soul if you couldn''t handle it. Isn''t the purpose of this fight to see your real potential and current strength?" Alex made a sinister smile. "Of course. The process doesn''t matter." "Ah, you just want to bully me." She pouted. "In that case, I don''t need to hesitate anymore." She released an arrow to the sky before it turned into a purple light that brightened the sky. "God Arrow, Grimgar." The purple light turned into a giant arrow that shaped like that of a spear. "Ho? This is your Original Bow Technique? No, a Divine Technique¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "This one contains a huge amount of power. Excellent." "Thank you, but you will need to face it." Rose smirked as the arrow started moving. At the same time, Anna also released a massive amount of Dark Energy. She raised her off hand as a small black crystal appeared and floated on her palm. Suddenly, she spun once and hit the crystal with her scythe. It burst out a powerful stream of darkness. "Dark Gehenna." Not only these two, but the others wanted to use this chance to hit Alex once. Beside her, Evelyn slashed her sword, releasing a powerful Sword Wave. "Sword of Anguish." "Ice Chains." Seeing this, Alicia summoned many huge chains to stop the dragon that she fought this whole time. "Teleportation." Rose knew what she wanted to do and teleported the six blue crystals around her to Alex, surrounding him from all directions. Alicia smiled and activated the crystals'' true power. A blue line suddenly appeared, connecting each crystal together. "I named this technique the same as the first technique you gave to me." Alicia smiled and activated it. "Frozen World." Not wanting to be outdone in terms of Ice Element, Letizia also thrust her sword, bursting out a torrential Ice Energy. "Ice Executioner." "Although I don''t have attack technique, I still can support you guys with this." Anya smiled as the light turned into a few streams that wiggled around like a tentacle. It bound Alex''s feet to make sure he didn''t escape. Last but not least, it was Firia''s turn. Unlike the others who aimed at Alex, her aim was another thing. She created two fire whips and grabbed the two dragons. This way, the group would have no problem even after releasing this kind of attack. At the very least, she would be giving them one or two seconds before the dragons could hit any of them. "This is it, Master. Taste our attacks!" Rose shouted with a smile. "Is that so?" Alex remained calm while glancing at all these attacks. The fox behind him turned into his animal parts. This was the fusion stage of his Fire Authority. The fire then began to cover him, protecting his body. At the same time, Alex calculated the attacks and muttered. "Three are enough, I guess." "Eh?" Rose heard Alex''s mumble and felt something was wrong. His sword released a powerful amount of Pure Sword Qi, Pure Fire, and Space Element. It concentrated in one spot as he slashed his sword forward, hitting all the attacks that came toward his way simultaneously. "Three Purities Slash." The Pure Fire flared up, starting to burn down a portion of the attacks. The Space Element made them unstable, and the Pure Sword Qi cut them down. Boom. All the attacks exploded at the same time. However, all of them knew that their attacks didn''t hit Alex. In fact, Alex deflected them easily and caused even more destruction than they did. The ground was slashed in a weird way as if there was a river there. "Master¡­ Can you just give us some leeway?" Rose let out a long sigh. "I don''t, but it seems someone manages to hit me¡­" Alex smiled as there was a graze on his cheek. "Oh?!" Rose narrowed her eyes. "Whose attack hit you? Don''t tell me, it''s me?" "Don''t think about it. Yours is the most brittle." Alex denied her in an instant before turning to Anya. "You little trickster." "Hehe¡­" Anya made a sly smile. "Do you like it?" "What?!" All of them, other than Anna, looked at Anya, never expecting she was the first one to hit Alex. "That light binding him is a deadly technique," Anna explained, knowing her twin sister for too long. "It doesn''t have a destructive power on itself, but it''s perfect for assassinating, especially in a group battle like this. "The light absorbs the Divine Energy from its surroundings and turns to a few light arrows. Alex must have burned them but missed one, right?" Alex acknowledged it. "That''s true. I would have never thought that Anya actually had a power like this." "Oi, oi. Do you think who my father is? He is the Light God of this world. Although he mostly supports the people here, he has some unique techniques for attacking. I have started unlocking mine too when I reach God Stage." Anya shrugged. "I checked it first with my Spirit Eyes and found nothing about the bind, so I thought nothing would happen. Only when all your attacks were about to hit, I suddenly felt the sudden change in it and burned it with my Pure Fire." Alex let out a long sigh. "It seems the first winner will be you." "Hoho, does this mean I can request something?" "Who knows. We don''t have any agreement regarding this matter." Alex smiled. Anya smiled. "Then, I will be asking from your good heart, okay, Darling?" Anya stuck her tongue out. "Right¡­" Alex nodded before snapping his finger. "But I think your time is out now." "What do you¡ª" Anya suddenly felt terrifying energy from the surroundings as she noticed the difference between the two dragons. Alex''s Pure Fire covered the first dragon, rendering any kind of resistance useless. In other words, it escaped from Firia''s grasp and headed toward Anya. "What?!" Anya raised her staff, preparing for an attack. Meanwhile, Rose teleported Firia, Alicia, and Letizia to help her block these two dragons. It was at this moment Alex made his first move. He disappeared from his position. Sensing his movement, Anna and Evelyn went in his way while Rose prepared to release her arrow. "You three!" Alex shouted. Each group had three personnel currently if they excluded Anya, but none of them was called by Alex. Instead, the three in his mouth were his Weapon Spirits, Eve, Ellie, and Elliot. Eve suddenly turned around, planning to attack Rose from behind while Ellie and Elliot charged at the other group, trying to stop them. "!!!" Evelyn looked back and went to the dragon''s way, protecting Rose''s back. Alex used this chance to attack Anna and Rose. Anna waved her scythe, trying to stop him, but Alex got the advantage. "Spirit Step, Second Step." Immeasurable pressure befall upon her, restricting her movement for a split second. Anna still completed her swing as if she wasn''t affected by it, but it turned out Alex tricked her once more. Instead of clashing with his sword, Alex used his Spatial Gate to send his attack to hit her from the side, but she still managed to block it with her scythe handle. However, Rose was different. The moment Alex blew Anna away, Rose would be left open. "Rose¡­I am coming!" Alex made a sinister smile. "Hiii!" Rose instinctively feared Alex as she knew that this was already over. There was no way Alex would miss this chance to defeat her. Even Evelyn might get taken out in this sudden maneuver since she had yet to turn around. Rose released her arrow straight to Alex''s chest. Although the aim was accurate, Alex already predicted it and blocked it with his sword. To prevent her from getting hit, Rose created many Space Plates, but Alex''s Pure Sword Qi cut all of them down so easily. At the same time, Alex spun his spear and waved it three times. "Triple Draws." The spear''s handle hit Rose''s butt three times, blowing her to the ground. "!!!" Rose felt a sharp pain on her butt as she just realized what Alex did to her. He simply played her again. "Why are you hitting my butt?" Rose shouted as she flew to the ground¡ªhead first with her butt sticking out of the ground. Alex then made his way toward Evelyn that had yet to turn around. As soon as she looked back, she saw Alex approaching her. The distance was already too close for her to block him. She decided to form a barrier in front of her to stop Alex for a split second, but Alex used his Pure Sword Qi to destroy the barrier before it was fully constructed. At the same time, his hand continued making its way toward her head while he stopped her sword with his spear. Although it was in the opposite direction, the spear''s range allowed him to do so. He smiled and flicked her forehead. "You''re out. Okay?" Evelyn blinked once when he flicked her, smiled from ear to ear, and nodded. "Uhn. I''ve lost, Big Brother." Seeing the different treatment between her and Evelyn, she shouted while covering her butt with both hands, feeling the pain. "You STUPID master!" Chapter 1030: Fight Part 3 "You STUPID master!" Alex laughed and said, "By the way, you are not out yet, Rose. I didn''t hit you in a vital area like Evelyn, so get back here!" "What did you say?! I am not out yet? I would have already died in that situation!" She complained in anger. "Haha¡­ What did you say? I didn''t have the intention to kill you earlier, just playing a little bit. In that case, you can continue." Alex smiled. "There is no give up option by the way." "This is not training anymore. You are just bullying me. No, you are sexually harassing me." "So, are you going back or not?" Alex only smiled when he heard her screaming. He released a certain pressure that Rose perfectly knew how terrifying it was. If she rejected him, he might force her to do something she didn''t want. "Fine, fine. All you want is me there, right? I will continue!" "Besides, this is not sexual harassment. I am simply teasing my cute disciple." Alex smiled. "It''s been a while, so I can''t help it." "Master¡­" Rose paused for a second, admiring Alex before correcting him. "By the way, teasing is fine, but why do you need to be physical? I am not a masochist." "But you endured all the training that was far more painful¡­" Alex stated the fact. "Does it mean I am a masochist?" She asked. "You don''t like pain, right? Then, no. Still, I really like teasing you since your reaction is priceless." Alex smiled. "Ugh. Don''t hit me anymore. If you want to punish me, do it." She pouted. "I am not scared anymore. The fact that you can keep bullying me while stating this kind of statement is far scarier than your punishment." "Fine, fine. I will be serious. One more hit, you are out, okay?" Alex shook his head helplessly. "That''s more like it." Rose repeatedly nodded as she flew to the sky. After taming the two dragons, they regrouped to fight Alex with another strategy. Anna was in his left while Letizia was in his right. Alicia and Firia wanted to challenge him head-on while Rose decided to fly further away from Alex, so she would have enough time to escape from Alex with her Space Element. "Interesting." Alex looked left and right while having his dragons surrounding him to block any attack with their bodies. "So, who should I take out after Evelyn?" Alex looked around and smiled. Alicia and Firia took this as him about to make another move. Alicia''s six crystals revolved around, circling Firia''s hand. Firia''s hand released her fire as she punched the air. A burst of her fire, followed by Alicia''s ices, flew toward Alex. "Ice and Fire harmony?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Normally, it''s not possible for you to combine them. Maybe I have underestimated your bond?" "We had practically done many things together when we started our training, so yeah¡­" Alicia shrugged. Alex smiled when he watched this. Their combination alone might be at the same level as Anna and Anya. "Wonderful technique, but¡­" Alex''s expression turned serious as he cut the torrential attack. The Pure Sword Qi was just that powerful and he had yet to use his Pure Fire. Anna and Evelyn charged at him. Alex sent his dragons to stop both of them while Rose took this chance to aim at his back. However, Rose adjusted her position in the last second before releasing her arrow, resulting in her arrow hitting the left dragon instead. "!!!" Alex was amazed by that decision. With her arrow knocking down his dragon, Anna had the chance to get closer to him. If only this were all, Alex would have stopped her by now. Anya, who had been silent until now, finally made her appearance. "Light God''s Ray." She clapped her hand and turned it upside down before opening them to create a small gap. A small light ball appeared between as it burst out a powerful light, engulfing Alex as a whole. "Did I get him?" Anya questioned herself while focusing her senses in her surroundings to check whether Alex escaped before he was hit. To her surprise, Alex was still inside that ray. Seeing this as an opportunity, Alicia raised her hand, creating two arrays on top of Alex. "Firia!" "Sure." Firia nodded as she appeared on top of the two arrays. "Burn¡­" She summoned a huge flame pillar, hitting right at the array. "Scatter!" Alicia activated the first array, turning that huge giant pillar into twenty streams of fire. When they hit the second array, Alicia activated it again. "Turn." The array acted like a prism. It bent the original direction of the fire and directed it to Alex. "This is a good combination technique." Alex''s voice echoed from within the attack. Suddenly, a fire lit up, burning the white light that Anya released. At the same time, Alex flew toward the array, trying to break it with his spear. Alicia didn''t let him do it and made the third array. "Black Tortoise Array." It was a barrier type array. Alex shouldn''t be able to block it so easily or that was what she believed. Alex didn''t hesitate and hit the barrier with her spear. And as she expected, the barrier held on. Anna used this chance to sneak behind him and hit him from behind. Clang. It was stopped again by Alex''s sword, but because of the pressure of the arrays put on him, Alex''s block felt weaker than usual. Her scythe almost hit him, making her think this was the chance she needed. The Dark Energy converged and flowed to the scythe, ready to go inside Alex at any moment. Suddenly, Alex''s Pure Fire also made its appearance, flowing to Anna''s scythe to burn all the Darkness Energy. Both of them knew that Anna''s Tri Xeta was once again failed. This opportunity allowed Alex to focus on the arrays. He smiled and channeled his energy into the spear. "Twin Fusion Spear." The Space Energy permeated the spear''s tip, but it also connected to the space one meter in front of the spear. Alex''s Pure Fire went through that gap and burst out from behind. He bypassed the barrier with this technique and destroyed the two arrays. The barrier array lost its purpose after not being able to protect the two arrays, so Alicia didn''t put more energy into it, letting it disappear. Rose sent another arrow toward Alex. Alex simply dodged it to the side before slashing them into four pieces. "Triple Draws!" He deflected all four of them toward all girls except Rose and Letizia. "!!!" The four needed to dodge the splinters first before helping Letizia, but the battle might have settled by that time. Letizia clenched her sword tightly. The dragon didn''t let her escape, so she knew this was it. Although she had resigned her fate, she still let out one more burst of Divine Energy. Her Pure Ice Element made its appearance, freezing the dragon in an instant. "I am sorry, Master. But this is it¡­" Letizia swung her sword, destroying the dragon that had turned into an ice sculpture and hit Alex. "Divine Frozen Wind." "Ho." Alex was amazed when he saw the technique with his Spirit Eyes. His fire flared up and clashed with that overbearing ice element. The moment the two swords clashed, the two elements followed. Letizia''s strike sent out a chilling wind that froze what was behind Alex while Alex''s fire flowed past her ice, melting everything behind her. "This is impressive. I believe the real purpose of this technique is not to kill by slashing the enemy into two, right?" Alex smiled. "Yes. This technique is my original Divine Sword Technique. I used the power of Pure Ice Element to send that energy to the body of the enemy by the chilling wind earlier. It would usually freeze a bit of their inside, leading to an internal injury. In the worst case, they didn''t block it at all and froze to death." Letizia nodded while closing her eyes. "Thank you for the explanation. If I don''t have this fire, I might be in trouble unless I deal with it seriously." Alex smiled before kissing her forehead. "You''re out, okay?" "Yes, Master." Letizia nodded. With that exchange alone, she knew that there was no way to defeat Alex. If he didn''t hold back, there was no way her Ice Element could pass his defense. The only result would be the heat of the flame began melting their surroundings, not only the one behind her. "You will get even stronger in the future. I believe in you." Alex smiled before turning around. Letizia closed her eyes with a smile and flew to Lin Xingzhi and Evelyn. Meanwhile, he only needed to take care of five more and he had been fighting them leisurely. Even Rose couldn''t see the gap between his defense. Even Rose couldn''t find a way to hit Alex. She sighed while muttering, "A fire that can burn everything, Weapons that can cut everything, and the Space Element that will become his biggest insurance. With only five of us, the situation is not favorable for us, but it''s not like we can surrender¡­" She took another deep breath and informed the others. Alicia and Firia nodded and released a net of their own, trying to stop Alex''s movement for a split second. Alex slashed their net easily, but it was enough for the other three. Rose released her arrow to the sky, turning into the giant arrow. "God Arrow, Grimgar." Alex immediately struck that arrow and destroyed it before charging toward Alicia and Firia. Anna didn''t let him by swinging her scythe. "¡­" Alex noticed that Evelyn''s instruction turned out to be like this. Alicia and Firia believed that Anna could stop him for a second, allowing them to release their technique. "Star Fire." "Eternal Ice." He found himself getting pinched by two balls, fire and ice, while Rose took care of his back. Boom. The moment the two attacks crushed him, they instantly got destroyed. Alex''s two dragons had disappeared and were summoned again. They covered Alex''s body with their bodies, preventing any attack from hitting it. However, the two attacks still managed to injure his dragons a bit. "This is also the end of you, Anna." Alex smiled. His dragons didn''t only protect him, but they also isolated Alex and Anna from the outside world. If Alex made his move here, Anna would surely have no way to counterattack. Knowing her situation, Anna sighed. "As expected, it''s really hard to match your strength. Before we are beside you, protecting you because we have a higher cultivation level, but it seems we can''t do that anymore." "This is my duty, not as a ruler, but as a husband." Alex smiled. "I am not going to be protected all the time, okay? I will seriously aim for God King. I have a concept ready for this, so look forward to it." "Hoho. I am waiting for you." Alex nodded. "For now, I will stand down. Good work, Alex." Anna waved her hand and retracted her scythe as she disappeared, rejoining the defeated group. The two dragons then went toward Alicia and Firia, restraining their strength while Alex patted their heads. Because there was no one who could stop the two dragons, Alex could easily defeat them. Alicia and Firia didn''t have an opinion since it was clear they were not his match. "How much energy did you use during the whole fight?" Alicia asked. "Thirty to forty percent. I am not sure." "We did a good job, I guess¡­" Firia looked at Alicia and nodded. "Yes. I believe so. If I don''t have this strength, I might be in trouble." "Hehe¡­We won''t be your burden anymore." "Thank you, you two." Alex smiled, feeling blessed that he married these two. After they left the battlefield, Alex then turned to Rose with a serious expression. Since she was the only one left, she went in front of Anya, trying to protect her even with her body. Suddenly, Anya hit Rose''s head with her staff and said, "Alright. You are out." "Eh, what?!" Rose widened her eyes and looked at Anya with a confused expression. "I hit you, so you are out. In other words, you lose." Anya smiled from ear to ear. Chapter 1031: Lesson "Eh?" Rose couldn''t understand what Anya was saying. "Why am I out with you hitting my head?" "You haven''t realized it yet?" Anya smiled. "This is all part of the plan, you know." "Plan? There is nothing like that in¡ª" Rose suddenly fell silent before turning to Alex with a shocked expression. "Master''s Plan?" Her answer came in the form of a smile, and it was when she realized that Alex had been scheming this whole fight. "You just realized that I had bought Anya off from your side." Alex made a smug smile. "Master. You are cheating." "This is what I want to teach you. The process is not important. If you lose, you write the history." Alex patted her head. "After all, you would have died if this is a real fight, and with our current place, no one knows how you die. I can tell all Eulja what happens to you." "Then¡­" She glanced at Anya. "Alex approached me yesterday to give this lesson to you. He wanted to teach you how important the trust of your comrade is. For example, you didn''t know that I was a double-agent until you lost. Why? It''s simple. You didn''t check us before the fight." Anya explained. "Then¡­" She looked down, pouting. "Yes. The reason why I could hit him was actually a part of his plan. If you saw me hitting him, you would believe that we were on the same side. After that, you would fall deeper into the hole. You remember what you did earlier, right? You kept protecting me even though I was the enemy all along. "Of course, you could catch Alex''s movement since he never really hit me with anything. Even the dragons were blocked by the others. Hence, you need to know your own allies first before knowing your enemies. Only if you trust them can you start a war without worry." "Then, all this is only for a farce?" Rose asked before turning to the other girls. "Nope. We didn''t know anything about this." Alicia clarified while raising her hands. "Well, Alex planned to ask them, but he went to me only. After understanding his plan, I agreed to it. This is the best time for you to learn that betrayal is the worst thing that can happen in a war. You can hate betrayal or fear it, but never forget about it and fear to jump into it." Anya continued. "This is the lesson." "Yeah. That''s right." Alex smiled. "Well, I can ask Anna another thing, give Alicia another task, or command the others to separate all of you. Of course, I am not telling you to distrust Eulja, you just need to take better care of it. Okay?" Rose nodded. "You have a talent in leadership. There were a few times that I thought you would hit me, and if I didn''t have my current ability, I would have died a few times. I believe that you can get stronger after this. Remember this lesson and go on. Your Master will keep guiding you." Alex smiled. "Master¡­" Rose looked at Alex with a warm expression before narrowing her eyes-dead serious. "Is this the truth? Or should I not trust your words?" "¡­" Alex was taken aback before laughing. "Pfft." The others also began laughing since Rose was just joking. "That''s right. Since this is also another lesson, that means there won''t be a punishment, no?" Rose''s tone was nonchalant, trying to make Alex say "Yes" so that she could escape from the punishment. "Of course¡­" Alex said, making Rose happy, but he still continued. "Not. This is this, that is that. Your punishment will still be carried on. You can''t escape from that." "What?!" Rose stepped back. "But you said this is a lesson." "Then, we can treat it as your lesson fee." "But you are my master." "Punishment or lesson fee. You can only choose one." Alex narrowed his eyes. Rose looked down while pouting. "As expected, you are indeed a bully." "Haha¡­ Let''s go back first." Alex laughed while snapping his finger. They gathered inside his array and teleported to Eulja. "Alright. You guys can go first. Anna, Anya, Xingzhi, stay with me after this," Alex said while waving his hand. They nodded and walked away to do their own thing. "I am thinking of talking to your parents first," Alex looked at Anna and Anya and said, "What do you think?" They exchanged looks and nodded. Anna answered, "I don''t think we have a problem. Besides, our parents are waiting for you, especially our father. He seems to have something important to tell you, but I don''t know what it is." "I see." Alex nodded. "Tell the others too that I will be visiting them shortly." Alex turned to Lin Xingzhi. "Don''t worry. I will give them a simple message and inform you of the best place to meet them." She nodded. "Alright. I will go to meet them first." Alex turned to Anna. "Do you think I need a present or something? I don''t know what to give them." "You don''t need to worry about that." Anna shook her head. "They don''t need anything." "That''s right. Mother often threw the gifts away and will tell you that the best present is yourself. So, let''s just visit the house." Anya supported Anna''s statement. Lin Xingzhi nodded. "It''s true. Give my regards to Aunt and Uncle. I will be doing my job now." "Yes." "What about their name?" Alex asked. He realized that he hadn''t asked about their names yet. It would be offensive if he didn''t know their names yet after marrying their daughters. "Ah! They will introduce themselves. That''s what they told me." Anna answered. "After all, they want you to be true of yourself. If you know them first, it feels like you are the Sprit God instead of Alexander Sirius." "¡­" Alex fell silent and nodded. "I understand. I will go there as it is." "Then, I will guide you to the house. Of course, with your Teleportation Array. The direction is this way." She pointed slightly to the north. "Use a quarter of the distance," Anya added. Alex nodded and snapped his finger, creating the Teleportation Array. "See you later." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand. "See you later." They then disappeared. ¡­ A few minutes later. They arrived at a small simple house. It had a unique shape. "A mushroom?" Alex muttered while staring at the house. It was a mushroom-shaped house. He could see a small chimney on the very top and windows on the side. The house itself wasn''t that big, but it had this warm feeling. Considering that it was only a house for two most of the time since Anna and Anya usually slept in the castle, it was a perfect house for a couple to live their retirement life. "This is our home." Anna smiled while stretching her hand, showing Alex the house. "It''s a good house." Alex nodded, genuinely thought what he said earlier. "Thanks. How about coming in?" Anna then reached the door''s handle, asking him to come in. When she pushed open the door, there was an old lady carrying a pan. "Mother! We''re home!" Anya leaped toward the old lady, tackling her to the ground. Meanwhile, Anna grabbed the flying pan, including the food in it. "Oi, Anya. It''s dangerous!" "My¡­" She smiled and stroked Anya''s hair instead before glancing at Anna with a warm expression. "Don''t worry. Anya means good." "This is why Anya acted like this. You always spoiled her, Mother." Anna let out a long sigh. "I wish you can be more strict." "Fufu. How can I? I will treat you the same." "This is why you should have one strict person in the house or it will be ruined," Anna complained. "Just take a look at Father. He is annoying." "Right. You are always helping with the house." Her mother smiled and stretched her hand to Anna''s head before pulling her to her embrace. "Come here, Dear." "Un. Mother." She nodded and hugged her despite the complaints. Anya put on a big smile, seeing her act this mild in front of their mother. No matter how old you are, in front of a mother, you will always be a child. "That''s right. We have brought someone with us." Anya pointed her finger to the man outside the house waiting for them. "My." She slightly widened her eyes and said. "Welcome to this humble home, Sir Spirit God, no, you prefer to be called Alexander, right?" "Yes, please, Madam." Alex nodded with a warm smile. "Come here, Dear. You don''t bring anything, right? If you bring anything, I will throw it out." "Anna and Anya told me earlier¡­" Alex didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Normally, he would bring something, but there was nothing that this couple couldn''t have, so he decided to follow Anna''s instructions. "That''s good. There is no best present other than yourself. Why do even parents-in-law want dowry when the best dowry itself is their son-in-law?" She patted Alex''s head. "Let''s go in. I just cooked something. We can talk inside." Alex gently nodded and followed the old lady. "That''s right. I heard that no one told you about us yet, so I am just going to introduce myself. I am Vina. You can call me Mother like these two kids." "I will do so, Mother," Alex called her right away, not rejecting it. After all, he had married Anna and Anya for a long time. Although there was no party or whatsoever, he had done it, so it was right to call her Mother. "Good. Do you like tea? Or do you want wine?" "I will drink whatever you give me, Mother." Alex smiled. "Then, I will bring out my best tea then." She brought Alex to the living room. There was only one round table in the middle of the room. The floor was soft and perfect for laying down like that of tatami, but it seemed to be of higher quality. "Please sit. I will call my husband here and prepare the tea." "Yes." Vina then took the pan from Anna and headed to the kitchen. Anna and Anya then sat beside him before an aged voice resounded in the room as an old man walked in. "Oh, it seems my son-in-law has finally shown himself. I thought you are going to make me wait a few more decades." He tied his long hair to tidy his appearance up a bit while coming in with a cup of hot tea. Alex bowed his head politely. "I believe this is the first time we meet, Light God." "Well, it''s true that this is the first time we met." He nodded and waved his hand. "Don''t need to be this formal with me. I am Rilt, these two''s father. You can call me father too." "Then, I will do so, Father." Alex didn''t hesitate and called him father. "I apologize for not meeting you even though Anna and Anya have¡­" "No need to apologize. I understand your position and difficulty. We don''t need to look at the past. After all, you visit me today. Let''s talk about the future instead." Rilt smiled. Alex couldn''t help but smile when looking at this warm father. "Yes. I won''t mention it." "I heard that you wouldn''t have a child before finishing that matter, right? Although it''s a shame, I do agree with that. We are concentrating our resources on you, well, the Former Spirit God is, so I believe you can claim the throne as soon as possible. That''s why I agree with this matter. Just make sure they don''t wait that long, okay?" "I will do my best." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "That''s good. I can''t wait to carry my little grandchildren on my arm, but I will trust you in this matter." He nodded before his expression turned serious. "For now, I have one thing to ask you. This is a very important matter, so I want you to be honest with me." Alex gulped down when he saw his serious expression. He also looked at him with a severe expression while wondering what he wanted to ask. "Please." Even Anna and Anya furrowed their eyebrows. They thought this was a serious matter. He closed his eyes for a second before opening them again, making the atmosphere tenser. "Do you prefer boobs or ass?" Chapter 1032: Visiting Parents-in-law Bang. As soon as he asked that question, his head went straight into the wall the next second. Vina, who was in the kitchen earlier, had returned and slapped the guy straight to the wall. She politely asked Alex, "Your Majesty. May I hit him?" "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows while answering inwardly, ''You have hit him though¡­'' Not waiting for Alex to answer, she complained to Rilt with a sigh. "Dear¡­What are you saying to him?" Anna and Anya looked away, knowing this would happen and said to Alex. "Don''t mind about my father. He is a fool." "What?! This is very important. I need to see his preference first to check whether he is genuine or not. I can also see his type." Rilt shouted with his butt sticking out of the wall. "Dear? Can you shut up a little bit?" "My wife, can''t you be gentler to me? Why are you spoiling the kid but not me?" Rilt paused before continuing with his usual useless talk. "By the way, I am stuck here. Why does this feel so wrong? You should be the one stuck here, so I can¡­hehe¡­" "This is the reason. Besides, I have been gentle this whole time, right? If not, I have dealt with you since the beginning. If you continue talking, I will let you choose¡­What kind of pain do you want to endure? Curse? Poison? Physical Torture? Or Mental Torture?" Vina, nonetheless, was a Dark Goddess. She obviously could do what Anna could, considering Anna''s abilities were inherited from her. "Wife¡­I can''t choose. As long as it''s not mental torture, I can endure it. After all, my skill can''t heal a mental wound." Rilt answered honestly. "You are not going to ask forgiveness first?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "This is why you are still a kid. What she did earlier was a slap of love. Besides, she will spoil me after bullying me¡­ That''s a kind of reward too¡­" "¡­" Alex closed his eyes, not knowing how to reply to this guy''s statement. Even Anna and Anya facepalmed and looked away. "And wife, I asked him this question because you love knitting. If we know his preference, won''t you be able to make clothes for Anna and Anya that can help them?" Rilt stated his reason for asking a stupid question. "Dear¡­ I am sorry." Vina, surprisingly, apologized to him with a warm smile. "Eh? What?" Alex was bewildered as he couldn''t understand what was wrong with this family. "Then how about¡ª" "It''s still no." "I haven''t finished yet," Rilt complained while trying to free himself from the wall without destroying more of it. "You will probably ask his favorite color and other things for obvious reasons. Clothes need different colors with different styles." "Fine, fine. You win." He sighed. When he freed himself, he came back to the table with a serious expression. "Still, I need to know. Which one do you prefer?" "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows, and he was even more surprised by the fact that Vina didn''t stop him anymore. Anna and Anya fell silent, not helping him out of this situation. Alex wondered what would be the correct and the best answer. He actually never thought about this, and he thought of them equally. After contemplating for one minute, he found the perfect answer that wouldn''t cause a stir. "Thighs." Rilt widened his eyes. They then turned sharp as if he noticed what Alex meant. "As expected of the king, I am impressed." Rather than choosing one, he would choose the third option. This showed how innovative Alex was and how he wanted to solve the problem in his own way. That was why he admitted that Alex was the king. "I don''t know what you are talking about¡­" Alex closed his eyes, ignoring the prying eyes. Even so, Rilt didn''t let him off the hook as he said to his wife. "You heard him. He loves thighs. We need to make something short like a short skirt or short pants. Maybe some accessories for feet¡­" "Don''t worry. I have the design ready in my mind." She chuckled. Alex sweatdropped. There was no way he could escape this topic unscathed. "Father, Mother. It''s enough. You should be more serious." Anna decided to stop them since Alex had answered that foolish question. "That''s important though?" "But it''s not a question that parents-in-law should ask¡­" "No, no. That depends on who the parents-in-law are. When I become a father, I have three rules. First rule! I am not afraid of becoming the whole world''s enemy. Second, I can do the worst thing for my daughters. Third, I will do my best for your happiness without forcing my ideal. That''s why I need to ask this question." Rilt answered with a serious expression. Alex scratched the back of his head. "I admire Father''s rule." "Right? I remember that I almost killed you back then because of the second rule." "¡­" Alex fell silent again. Vina let out a sigh and rose from the ground. "Anyway, the food is almost done. Let''s eat first. Anna, Anya, help me take out the plates." "Yes!" The two rose and followed Vina to the kitchen, leaving Alex and Rilt in the room. Rilt stared at the three until he couldn''t see them anymore. His gentle smile remained as he looked at them like a treasure. "What can I say? They are my treasures." Alex nodded. "I can understand." "Anyway, I have something serious to talk about. Follow me to the backyard." He pointed at the door behind him. "I understand." Alex rose from the floor and followed Rilt. "So, I will greet you again formally. It''s nice to see you take the position, Your Majesty." While opening the door, Rilt bowed his head to him and let him go out first. "I don''t know if I will be a good ruler, but I will try my best. I will start learning about Eulja as a whole too after this. I hope you can help me." Alex nodded and left the room, finding a huge garden behind the house. The garden alone was even wider than any field he had practiced before. He walked to the garden with curiosity. "If it''s within my territory, then I can help you, but if you want to learn it as a whole, it''s better to study under Korzan. He is a madman in terms of office work." "Then, may I know¡ª" Suddenly, Alex was grabbed from behind. It turned out to be Rilt. He restrained his hands and feet, not allowing him to move an inch. He then touched Alex''s forehead as the Spirit Crown appeared mysteriously. "Eh?" Alex widened his eyes as he couldn''t comprehend what just happened. He never used the Spirit Crown. Yet, it appeared before him. "What is that touch?" Rilt didn''t answer him. Instead, he threw him away before waving his hand, releasing three light balls that flew toward Alex. Alex summoned Eve and cut them down easily, but he could only find a disappointment in Rilt''s face. "Spirit Crown has the ability to blossom your technique by strengthening it to its ultimate limits. This is a trump card for the one and only Spirit God. No, I should say this is the one thing that allows the Spirit God to reach his standing. "Unfortunately, you haven''t used it to its fullest potential yet." Rilt closed his eyes for a second as he disappeared again. Alex used his Spirit Eyes and found him already moved behind him. He turned around, but Rilt had already grasped his wrist and waved Alex''s hand, so his sword hit the ground. Boom. The next second, he realized that the ground burst out powerful energy, destroying half the backyard in an instant. Alex dropped his jaw as he knew that it was just a light push. He never intended to hit it like this. Yet, the hit completely obliterated the backyard. It wasn''t supposed to happen. "What did¡ª" "If I place the power of the Spirit Crown to the tip of your sword, I can destroy the entire backyard with just a light push without using any power other than the Spirit Crown''s enhancement." "This is the real power of the Spirit Crown? How do¡ª" "How do I know?" Rilt smiled as he released Alex and opened his eyes. It shocked Alex once again as he could see a shining star in his eyes that had overbearing energy. "It''s because the Spirit Crown is a technique derived from my God Eyes." Alex couldn''t contain his surprise anymore as he asked, "That means¡­The previous me copied it from you?" "Not necessarily so. I will tell you about the story later, but what I want to discuss is the training for your Spirit Crown. Are you prepared?" "Yes!" Since the hidden opportunity had arrived, there was no way he would miss this chance. "Let me teach you how to channel the power hidden inside the Spirit Crown. If you can do it, you can even enhance your hand to the limit. I am not saying it can increase your brute strength, but it will surely give you the energy to break something that you can''t break before." "So that''s why you were disappointed when I used my sword?" "Yes. I want to see how much you have discovered the power of the Spirit Crown, but it seems you haven''t used it yet." He sighed. "I am sorry. There are various reasons¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. "I don''t mind. Do you want me to show you how to do it first?" "Please." Alex bowed his head. Rilt cracked his hand and grabbed Alex''s hand. He then began moving Alex''s hands as if trying to do a weird dance. "Hehe¡­This is the trick. Can you see that the Blue Jewel on your Spirit Crown began shining? It''s storing the energy." He made a smug smile, ignoring the fact that this weird dance was super embarrassing. "Yes. I can see that. But how do you use it?" "Your body will tell you how to use that¡­" "There is no way I will believe such an explanation, right?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Of course not. After all, that is a lie, hahaha!" "I don''t know whether you are serious or not at this point." Alex let out a long sigh. "First of all, your Spirit Crown needs to be charged first before you can use it. Before going into detail, I will explain the four abilities that your Spirit Crown can do. First will be the continuous usage of Spirit Eyes and Spirit Step. The second usage is Sharing, while the third one is Blossom. What I want to teach you is the fourth one, Enhancement." "Enhancement¡­" Alex muttered the ability name. "Yes. It''s a kind of Anya''s sharing ability where you can get a bit of power-up. Your Enhancement can power up to twenty percent of its original power by using the energy stored in the Spirit Crown. Of course, it involves energy, or how can you have that kind of power? The earlier swing is using my energy." "I see. In that case, how do I release that energy?" "It''s through training. That''s what I will teach you¡­ The problem will be¡­Are you ready for training?" He made an excited smile. Alex''s expression turned serious as he nodded his head. Creak. Suddenly, Anna came out of the house, trying to call them to eat together. "Father, Alex. The food is ready. Let''s¡ª" However, the next second, both Anna and Alex noticed that Rilt had pointed his palm toward Anna. "The training starts now." He smirked and released that light ball. "Eh?" Anna widened her eyes as the light ball hit her. Boom. The smoke covered the garden as the wind began blowing them away. It turned out that Alex had appeared before her with his hand on the front as if he just stopped the light ball with his hand. And the blue jewel on his Spirit Crown was shining. "As I said, your body will tell you how." Rilt smirked. Chapter 1033: Spirit Crown "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes while falling into deep thought. ''What just happened? The energy I naturally released earlier was the same energy as the one I released before due to Rilt''s power. And the Spirit Crown channeled that energy according to my will. Was it so I could take the attack in her place? No¡­ It was so I could catch it.'' "That''s right. It''s your mind that programs it and your body will naturally follows. The fastest way to make you experience it is to force you to protect someone because that''s the most important thing in your mind. Now that you''ve¡ª" Before he finished, he sensed a moving presence along with the wind pressure that came to his way. Alex appeared before him with his sword and spear, placing his sword on Rilt''s neck. He said coldly, "I''m sorry¡­I know that you did it for my sake. But¡­Don''t you dare point an attack at Anna again." On the contrary, Rilt only smiled. "Sorry. I promise to never do that again. But please understand that all of this was for the sake of my dear daughter." He raised his hand, giving a thumb up. It was not for Alex but the one behind him. "What¡­" Alex turned around and saw Anna with an apologetic face, looking away with a guilty expression. "What do you mean¡­" "Sorry, Alex." "¡­" Alex blinked his eyes a few times, not knowing what to say. ¡­ A few minutes later, they arrived back inside the house. Rilt and Anna sat down on the ground with one smack on Anna''s head. On the other hand, Rilt was dying with all those wounds in his body as blood flowed to color the floor. Next to them was Vina, who was glaring at them from above, asking, "I see, you set up this act to shoot at her while secretly using a light bullet which is supposed to turn into smoke instead of harming her at the same time." Rilt raised his hand and said, "Wifey, Let me explain." "Request denied." She calmly rejected it while narrowing her eyes, staring at Anna. "How dare you endanger our beloved daughter like that? And I feel sorry for Alex, who got manipulated like that¡­" Anna''s face turned pale as she hugged Alex. "I''m really sorry. It''s all my fault." "I''m not mad. It''s okay." Alex let out a long sigh. "It''s just that I thought you were going to be injured by your own father on top of that. I thought you had a happy family, but¡­Ugh, I''m just a bit shocked. I mean I am happy that you did it for me, but I am also mad that you endangered yourself¡­" "You two need to repent." Vina nodded. "But Rilt¡­ You are going to sleep outside for a month." "No, no!" Rilt kneeled in front of her, begging her to take back that sentence. "That''s essentially a death sentence." "Your Majesty, mind holding him back first?" Vina smiled. Alex immediately restricted Rilt''s body since he had lost his strength from getting reprimanded by Vina. Meanwhile, Vina looked at Anna and let out a long sigh. "As for you, Anna. Why don''t we take a stroll together while I rebuke you?" "Yes." Anna looked down, following Vina outside. "Wait, my wife. I can''t live without the warmth of your body." Rilt tried to escape, but Alex used his Spirit Step to restrain him. When Vina and Anna were outside, she looked at the sky while walking slowly. "I am sure you already know this yourself. The Spirit King had always done something crazy when the people dear to him were injured¡­There was a time where he became so messed up. And if by chance you end up triggering it, are you prepared to face him like that anymore?" "¡­" Anna closed her eyes, remembering the scene where only Alex went insane. At that time, only Lin Xingzhi could calm him down. "I know that the enemy is getting closer and the time is almost up. That''s why you did such a thing, but I just want to know whether you have the resolve to face the consequence." Anna clenched her fists. "I am prepared to face all that challenge. Back then, the world was set ablaze, and even Sister Lin Xingzhi could barely contain him. However, I believe that it won''t happen again. Unlike the previous time, I have accompanied Alex all the way. The time I spent with him told me that everything would be fine. Alexander Sirius is stronger than ever. I want to believe it." "¡­" She let out a long sigh. "If you are ready to lose everything, I won''t say anything then. Eulja has gotten into many turbulent times. That event even almost destroyed us. But well¡­I also believe that His Majesty is stronger than ever. And if he can control Spirit Crown sooner, it will reduce the possibility of that event happening again¡­" "Yes. That''s why¡­" Anna closed her eyes. Bang. Suddenly, someone slammed the door as Rilt came out of the house, tied. If one took a look at him, they would notice two dragons that acted like a rope, tying him to prevent him from escaping. It was Alex''s Swallowing Heaven. Behind him was Alex, a bit tired, after keeping this old man from rampaging. Alex then looked at Anna. "I still believe that your safety is worth more than time. I don''t mind if I need to use another one hundred years if I can see you safe and sound. Can you promise that this will be the last?" Anna smiled. "Yes. This will be the last." Alex then hugged her without saying anything. He wanted to know that there was nothing more important for him other than them. Anna also felt guilty about this, but to skip a long process, she had no choice. "I''m sorry, Alex." While they were hugging each other, Vina glanced at Rilt on the ground while giving an "O" sign that everything went well. Rilt winked and thought the same. "Mission Accomplished." Meanwhile, Anya, who was left alone in the house, looked at the messy room and spotted the blood on the floor. She facepalmed while sighing. "I need to clean this up, I guess?" ¡­ After a few minutes, the group returned to the room. Anya had finished cleaning it and the food on the table was already arranged. Since it was done, they began their feast. The tense atmosphere earlier had been replaced by a happy atmosphere. They ate while joking with each other. Alex could also learn what kind of environment where Anna and Anya grew up in. His family was like his family when he was a kid, especially when his sister''s talent had yet to be discovered. It was a simple meal, but it looked like a party. There wasn''t sadness and coldness in the dining room. There were only smiles and laughter. After the meal, Rilt continued. "There is a difference between your Spirit Crown and my God Eyes. In fact, it''s a superior ability to my God Eyes even though it was born from my God Eyes. It might be due to that boy''s element, which was no element. "My God Eyes could enhance one''s ability, but it was more effective to Light Element users. However, due to the lack of elements that the former Spirit God had, he could enhance anyone he liked, thus giving birth to the Third Ability, Blossom. "It allows you to upgrade someone''s strength because of the lack of elements. In fact, all the Elemental Gods and Guardians had been enhanced by your Third Ability in the past. No, even Lin Xingzhi had received it too. If not, how could she create an Elemental Disturbance? Her strength is not at that level without your ''Blossom.'' "As for the fourth skill, Enhancement. It can only give your body the strength from the Spirit Crown. If you want to channel it to your own attack, you need the second skill." Alex suddenly felt something wrong with his explanation and asked. "What is the relationship between elementless and the Spirit Crown?" "You should know that there is not a single Spirit King has ever been born after you disappeared, right? Actually, there is a simple way to determine whether a Spirit King has been born or not. It''s the Spirit Crown. If you want to wield the Spirit Crown, you need to be born without an element, which is impossible under the normal circumstance." "True enough. I know that the Spirit will always belong to one''s element after they were born." Alex nodded in agreement. "Exactly. That''s why no one can lead Eulja after the disappearance of the Spirit God." "I see. But how can I wield it now?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I mean, I am a Pure Fire Element user from the start." "I am not too sure. But considering we are talking about the Spirit God, I am sure he has done something amazing with that time span. I meant he even knew that he was going to die and spread his plan everywhere." "I can somehow imagine my past me doing that¡­" Alex repeatedly nodded before falling into deep thought. "That''s right. There is one thing that the Spirit God told me about your Spirit Crown. Don''t use your "Blossom" on your Original Divine Skill just yet. One person is qualified for one Blossom in his entire life. That''s why it''s so important, so I believe he has something for you." "I understand. I owed my past self so much. And knowing him, he would be thinking of using it to kill the beast." "Well, I don''t know what he thought, so I only passed this message to you." Rilt shrugged. "Within one year, I will be teaching you about the Blossom. This Spirit Crown can be considered above the Peak Divine Tier Technique, so I don''t know if you can make it or not, but I wish you luck. "Even though you can''t channel it to your Sword Attack, you should be able to power up your sword like what I showed you earlier." "I understand. How about the other techniques?" "Blossom is an easy but tedious thing. I will teach you only when you have become the real king that has been acknowledged by the entire Eulja. As for your Sharing, the second technique, I will teach you after reaching Rank 6 God. I believe it won''t be that long for you to reach Rank 7 God, right?" "Yes. I will advance to Rank 7 God first before leaving this world." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "As for the Rank 6 God, I believe I can reach it within five to ten years." "That''s good then." He nodded. "That''s the current plan anyway, so do you have any desire in training?" "I don''t think so. There is only one more thing that I want you to observe?" "What is it?" "I have this method of training that is breaking my body but allows me to get stronger faster at the same time. I want you to observe my body to see the side effects and other things." "I am not a doctor. Although I can heal you, I have no confidence in dealing with this problem. For example, we have this vase. If I destroy it, I can just stick each piece together and make it like a new one. However, what you are experiencing is caused by the weakening of the vase itself. In other words, you are becoming more brittle. There is no way I can heal that." "I see." Alex looked down and fell into deep thought. "As expected, I really need to see the doctor. Well, I will be seeing her anyway." "Hmm¡­Who is she? Your Wife?" "Not really. You know the Palm God, right?" "Ah, now I see. She is indeed one of the most talented doctors out there, but what is she to you? Your wife?" "There is a misunderstanding between us, and I am planning to solve it as soon as possible. Well, I kind of like her." Alex answered honestly. "I don''t care if you are going to have one thousand wives, just don''t neglect my daughters. Or I will destroy your castle¡­Wait, my wife will be the one." "There is no way I will leave them." Alex put on a genuine smile. "Is that so? I guess I don''t need to worry then." Chapter 1034: Elemental Gods "Yes. That''s why I would like to start the training the day after tomorrow." Alex apologized to him first. Rilt fell silent for a second and understood the situation. "I see. Alright then. Do your job first." "Yes. I will do so." Alex nodded with a smile. He spent the rest of the day in the mushroom house, learning about the family. He pretty much enjoyed what they did in the house. The next day, Alex came out of the house and returned to the castle, meeting Lin Xingzhi in her room. "I have informed them." Lin Xingzhi smiled as she glanced over Alex while checking the system once again. "Is that so? How is the schedule?" "They have agreed to meet you somewhere, but it seems they want to meet you separately. Luckily, I can convince them to at least be together with their own peers. In other words, you will meet the Six Elemental Gods except for Rilt and Vina and the Five Guardians." "I understand. At least, I can finish this matter in one day." Alex nodded. "Yeah." She nodded. "Zark has been waiting for us, so let us depart." Alex followed her to meet Zark, and he immediately used his Teleportation Array to arrive in front of a small wooden hut. "This is the place?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. If we are meeting them somewhere else, they will surely destroy the building." She let out a long sigh, feeling frustrated just by thinking about it. Alex observed her expression and shrugged. "Not that I mind though." Before entering the hut, he checked his surroundings, finding nothing other than grass. However, the hut was a scary place. He found six people inside the hut. Four of them were Rank 2 Gods, while the other two were Rank 3 Gods. The moment he entered the hut, all the people inside already kneeled on one knee, lowering their heads to greet their king. "We greet Your Majesty," they said in unison. Alex looked at the closest person from the door. It was a middle-aged man with a muscular body like that of Korzan. He had strange red hair that even redder than his flame. At the same time, this boundless strength of his felt really hot. Next to him was a young woman in her late thirties. Although she looked like a human, her ears looked like a fin. Coupled with her blue hair, he pretty much guessed who she was. Behind her were two people. The younger one was a female with long green hair. She appeared to be the youngest here but still had Rank 3 God strength. There was no other visible clue that he could grasp to see what kind of person she was. As for the older one, he had the same muscular body as that of the first one, but his hair was brown instead of red. The same as the one beside him, Alex couldn''t understand what kind of being he was. He then moved to the last two. The younger one was a male with a powerful lightning element inside him. There was also a familiar ferocity coming from his body, so Alex somehow grasped what kind of spirit he was. As for the last one, she appeared to be the same age as the first one. Although he couldn''t see her eyes, he had a feeling that this person was knowledgeable. "I am Alexander Sirius. Although I have decided to fulfill my responsibility, I am still not your king in a sense, you know." The first middle-aged man smiled and raised his head. "Your Majesty. With your promise to sit on that throne again, we feel relief. We won''t ask for more." "May I know your name?" "Before that, I know that this is presumptuous, but I would like to ask what kind of spirit we are in Your Majesty''s eyes," The middle-aged man asked politely. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Lin Xingzhi first. After she nodded, Alex then answered him honestly. "I can''t really see yours, but I do see that you are familiar with magma. When I see your sharp eyes, maybe something like a dragon or something? No, probably a salamander?" "You are correct." The middle-aged man lowered his head again. "My name is Agnis, a Salamander Spirit. I reside within the deep volcano not far away from here, and I use magma instead of fire. This humble self greets Your Majesty." Alex nodded with a smile before glancing at the young woman beside him. "From the appearance alone, there is no doubt that you are the Water God. Well, according to my knowledge, you are like a mermaid¡­But if I go more extreme, I would guess a siren?" "Yes, you are correct, Your Majesty. My name is Helena, Siren Spirit. My ability is related to water. It''s even more powerful in outer space since it will naturally disperse itself, turning into hundreds of thousands of bullets in an instant. This humble self greets Your Majesty." She smiled. Alex then turned to the two behind them. "I am not very sure with you two, so I can''t really guess. There is no telling what kind of spirit you are. I can only see that the female can use plants while the older one has a very solid Earth Element." "That can''t be helped." The man raised his head with a smile. "I am Canaan, a Golem Spirit. And she is my daughter, Raisa, a Dryad Spirit. We greet Your Majesty." Alex ignored the fact that he brought his daughter and looked at the last pair. "The same as earlier, I can''t take your appearance as a clue so that I will be guessing. The young man has a ferocity that I am familiar with. He is like a tiger. As for the older one, I can feel that you have a wing behind your back. Why do you conceal it?" The older one nodded. "I am Zerah, a thunderbird. Beside me is my son as well as my successor that will soon govern over the Lightning Spirit. His name is Saul. We greet Your Majesty." "Thank you for introducing yourself. I don''t know if I am worthy of being your king, but I will keep striving to be a better person than I was yesterday. I hope that you can help me during this period." Alex smiled. "Of course, Your Majesty. Your will is our wish." "And if it''s possible, can you speak more casually with me? It''s kind of tiring to act like this all the time," Alex said, feeling that all these people actually restrained themselves this whole time. In fact, he could sense the displeasure when they talked formally like this. "And you may rise." "That''s good then. We will take up that offer." Agnis smiled and rose from the ground, followed by everyone. "Before we talk about an important topic, may I speak something first, Your Majesty?" "Go on." Alex stretched his hand, letting him do what he wanted. Agnis then looked at the Golem Spirit, Canaan. "Still, why the heck are you bringing your daughter here? You should know that your daughter is not matched with his majesty, right?" "What is your problem?" Canaan gritted his teeth before looking at Zerah, the thunderbird. "Look at her, doesn''t she bring her own son?" "I am bringing it here because I will soon retire¡­ Probably within a few hundred years, so it''s the best chance for him to understand more about this matter. And I don''t have a hidden intention like yours." She snorted. "What did you say? Do you want to fight?" Canaan narrowed his eyes. "This is why you are a barbarian. In your brain, you only think about the fight. This is why you bring your daughter here. It''s better to go home and have your own tree to satisfy your urge." Her expression darkened as she said all those words. The next second, they are already in front of each other, clashing their hands. Zerah was holding Canaan''s fist and released her lightning while Canaan only used his brute force. Lin Xingzhi waved her hand and released her Divine Energy as those two instinctively retreated, feeling that their hands would be cut if they didn''t do it. They looked at Lin Xingzhi, whose expression was already dark even though she was smiling. "If you two can''t cut it out, should I send both of you back right now?" "Sorry." The two immediately lowered their head but still glared at each other as if telling each other, "It was your fault." "Alright. That''s enough. I am here to talk with you guys." Alex smiled. "And when I am here, I don''t know what topic I should talk about." "Actually, we have a few things to say, Your Majesty. As much as we want to follow your order, it''s better to not call us unless you have become the Spirit King officially," The Water God, Helena, said. "I understand that. For now, I plan to lay low." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, we feel relief. Without Anna, Leoz, and Jeanne, we only have twenty Rank 2 Gods in this world, so it''s hard for us to defend ourselves for the time being." She sighed. Before answering her, Alex asked Lin Xingzhi with a thought transmission. "Do they know about the system?" "A little. Mostly, they are aware of it but don''t know much of its function." Alex nodded and turned around. "Although I don''t have a plan to use this plan, just know that I have an assurance in an emergency situation. For example, I can make two Rank 1 Gods in an instant, but it requires all the resources in Eulja''s treasury. "Besides, it will also attract our enemies. They will surely join hands to attack us, so if possible, I want to avoid this situation until I am strong enough or there is no way out." Alex explained his card in hand. All of them were amazed and confused at the same time. They were curious about his plan, but as long as he had this assurance, it was enough, they thought. "Besides, I still don''t know which rank they were previously¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and glanced at Lin Xingzhi. "They" in his mouth were on other than the spirits that followed him through the system. Since he had reached this point, she thought it wasn''t a problem to tell the truth. "Leoz, Anna, Jeanne are Rank 2 Gods. Anya, Nelson, and Greg are Rank 3 Gods. The rest are Rank 4 Gods, but they are close to Rank 3 Gods to be honest. Well, they were your closest retainer, so that''s why they were chosen." "How many Rank 3 Gods do we have?" Alex asked. "Hmm¡­We have around two hundred Rank 3 Gods. The Ten Guardians itself consists of four Rank 2 Gods and six Rank 3 Gods. If you ask where the other Rank 2 Gods are, they are enjoying their lives in their own territory. You will probably not meet them unless Eulja is on high alert." "I see. It''s better if this world is always in peace." Alex nodded with a smile before turning back to Helena. "What else?" "We would like to know when are you planning to become the true ruler?" Helena brought the second question. "If possible, I plan to drag it as long as possible. But in an emergency, I will immediately do it if it''s necessary." Alex paused for a moment. "I don''t know if this is an answer, but the ideal time for me is Rank 5 God. With my current strength, it will probably be enough to protect myself." "I see. That''s a relief." Helena nodded. "In that case, on to my next question." Helena paused for a moment while fixing her hair. She looked at Alex seductively while asking with a mellow tone. "I wonder if Your Majesty happens to have an interest in someone like me?" "What?" Alex widened his eyes while the others were shocked. "That''s not fair!" The other three Elemental Gods shouted in unison. Chapter 1035: Five Guardians "What the heck are you saying, Helena, you bastard! I abide by that rule, and you are trying to steal the march!" Agnis snapped as his hand slowly turned into bright red magma. "Such a display. You are turning to your true form right now?" She covered her mouth with her hand while chuckling, looking down on Agnis. "That''s right. You shouldn''t even mention that." Canaan commented, trying to support Agnis. "Can you shut up? You are bringing your daughter here, and you are trying to get justice from me? How about watering your little girl so that she can grow up a bit?" Helena lowered her vision a bit, focusing on Raise''s pathetic chest. "Look. That part hasn''t grown yet. Are you thinking about having her like a tree trunk? So hard." As the thunderbird, Zerah, wanted to say something, Helena already continued. "You should also shut up, grandma. You are already shameless enough to bring your son. Do you think I don''t know your true reason? Don''t underestimate me. You just want to deal with it in a different way, like having him as His Majesty''s brother or even son-in-law. I know it all." In one fight, Helena shut all of them up. "This is their usual behavior." Lin Xingzhi pointed at them while hugging Alex from behind. She whispered, "These guys only behave when we are at war. But in normal life like this? They always argue with each other. Pathetic, isn''t it?" "What pathetic? Are you trying to flaunt your status in front of us?" Helena narrowed her eyes. "Of course. Isn''t it enough to shut you up, Helena?" "You! Don''t you think you have won Lin Xingzhi!" "But what can you do to me? First of all, you are not strong enough to challenge me. Second, you are a bit older than me. Third, can you even seduce him? Our technique is not at the same level. So, what can you do?" Lin Xingzhi made a sly smile while poking Alex''s cheek to flirt before her eyes. Helena clenched her fists, knowing that she really had no way to fight against Lin Xingzhi. "Well, there is no point in continuing the discussion any longer, no?" Alex asked with a weird smile. "This is the most important thing, Your Majesty. We first need to have you given birth to a child first. If you disappeared again like last time, we would have someone to swear our loyalty to." Helena shook her head. "I have decided that I won''t do anything until I have defeated the beast." "That won''t do! It''s such a huge risk. We can''t allow you to do that." Zerah also commented, helping Helena to convince Alex. However, Agnis suddenly slammed his fist to the ground, silencing them, before shouting. "Can''t you even think about it differently? This is his mettle and also his promise to win against that beast. If you can''t even see this, you have failed as an Elemental God." Helena and Zerah fell silent and looked down. "I know your concern, but I have no intention to give up. That''s why please help me in the process." Alex put on a gentle smile. The smile that knew his weakness too well. Seeing that smile was already enough for the four Elemental Gods to kneel once again. "We shall help you until you reach the top once again. Long Live Eulja. Long Live Spirit King." "Anyway, I am planning to strengthen myself in this world for a few years. Maybe I will visit you guys again during that time and talk about training or something. I hope that you won''t turn me down." "Of course not." Agnis smiled. He was fired up. Helena, Canaan and Zerah had taken advantage of this meeting, so he was the only one who really followed what Lin Xingzhi said that time. However, it would be a different case if Alex wanted to visit them in their home. It was the true battlefield. Before these people argued again, Alex decided to end the meeting and visited the Five Guardians. He signaled Lin Xingzhi and Zark to get ready. But Agnis once again stopped him. "Your Majesty¡­" Alex turned back and glanced at Agnis. "What is it?" This time, there was no hidden meaning in his expression. All of it was true and genuine. He put on a smile while cupping his hand. "I, Agnis, Salamander Spirit, pledge my allegiance to Alexander Sirius, the Spirit King." The others also followed his example. "I, Helena, Siren Spirit, pledge my allegiance to Alexander Sirius, the Spirit King." "I, Canaan, Salamander Spirit, pledge my allegiance to Alexander Sirius, the Spirit King." "I, Zerah, Salamander Spirit, pledge my allegiance to Alexander Sirius, the Spirit King." "We hope that His Majesty returns triumph." The return in their mouth was none other than the fight against that beast. Alex smiled and nodded. "Wish me luck." Zark then activated his Teleportation Array. Before these three disappeared, four of them said in unison. "Love Live Eulja, Long Live Spirit King." Alex blinked his eyes as his surroundings changed from a small hut into a giant field filled with green grass. The sun and breeze completed it if he wanted a picnic. Alex looked around with his Spirit Eyes and found five Rank 2 Gods a bit further away from his location. As if they sensed his appearance, these five suddenly appeared and kneeled in front of him. "Your Majesty." Alex looked at the group and found that they were lining up in a unique way. The very front was an old man with long hair. Behind him, the four others were kneeling side by side as if they were his subordinates. Still, no matter how he saw it, he couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows when he found someone wasn''t actually in his real body. Lin Xingzhi immediately introduced them first. "The old man in the front is the Central Guardian¡­ No, I should explain our defense system first. We actually have two circles of defense before arriving in Eulja, Outer and Inner Circle. "The Outer Circle is protected by the Ten Commandants while the Guardians protect the Inner Circle. However, there is only one Guardian that resides in Eulja. He is this old man, the Central Guardian. Unlike his appearance, he is a madman. His name is William. He is a human that followed you in the past. "With his expertise which is his Bow, he obliterated his enemies. Anyway, he might be a good teacher for Rose after having her Bow Qi." "Please don''t scare His Majesty¡­ I am just an almost retired old man." William raised his head while putting on a gentle smile. "I am honored to meet you, Your Majesty." "My pleasure to meet you." Alex nodded. "Behind him are the other four guardians. I will introduce them one by one starting from the right, the north guardian. As you can see¡­He is a dog." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows when he heard Lin Xingzhi''s explanation. The dog also couldn''t help but raise his head. "Please make a better explanation about me like the old man." Alex looked at this two-headed dog and noticed his serpent tail. "As you can see, he is an Orthrus. His name is Kane, and his dream is¡ª" "To be Your Majesty''s pet. Ah, I am sure it will feel good to be a pet and have my stomach get rubbed by Your Majesty." Kane continued Lin Xingzhi''s explanation. "Mhmm¡­Okay?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Yep, this is why I didn''t make a better explanation. Well¡­Aside from his behavior and dream, he is powerful. He can use an astral body to mimic the human, but I guess he doesn''t need it for this meeting." "I have shrunk myself though." Kane looked away while correcting her. "Whatever." Lin Xingzhi shrugged before turning to the one beside him. "She is also another human, but don''t confuse her appearance. She is the most dangerous one here." "What do you mean I am the most dangerous?" She pouted. Alex looked at this young woman that looked slightly younger than Helena. "Ehm, nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you, Your Majesty. Please don''t listen to her. I am just a poor woman." "What poor woman? You are a poison user that even Rilt has a problem in dealing with you." Lin Xingzhi snorted. "Your Majesty. If you need an aphrodisiac, my place will always have the stock¡­" "Don''t even think about it. My technique has already surpassed your aphrodisiac. Besides, I will let you know this. His fire is the same as Phitrus." "What?" She was taken aback as if she just got the shock of her life. "Hehe. That''s why that thing won''t work against him since he will purify it easily." "But I can still wear perfume, right? Hehe, I can still¡­Oops, I shouldn''t talk about it here." She playfully covered her eyes. "I am tired. Just introduce yourself." Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh. "Then, I will do so." She politely lowered her head. "I am Carissa, a poison expert. I would love to brew a poison that can even protect itself from the Purifying Power of the Godly Pure Fire. Ah, by the way, my goal is becoming your maid, you know. I mean¡­ Doesn''t it make sexier when you have s*x with your maid instead of a wife¡­ It''s wild." "Too bad for you. We already have one." Lin Xingzhi snorted. "What? I will try to search for another position then." "He won''t accept you." She shrugged. "Anyway, she is the East Guardian. Alright, let''s move on." The fourth guardian appeared to be non-human. In fact, he was so small compared to the others, and he even had two pairs of translucent wings. "I am Silver Arifur, a Fairy, Your Majesty. I don''t have any ambition other than living peacefully, but if necessary, I shall wield my magic to come to your aid." He smiled. Alex looked at this small man that happened to have the same hair color as him. "Nice to meet you. Are you the South Guardian or the West Guardian?" "I am protecting the south, Your Majesty. Of course, I have my colony there as well while sending some to train here." "I see." Alex nodded. "It''s my pleasure to meet you. I hope we can get along." "Your words honored me." Lin Xingzhi nodded and moved to the last guardian. "He is in his astral body because his real body is so big. After all, he is a titan. What is your height again?" "Only one hundred meters¡­" The last man whose brown hair fluttered by the wind answered with a gentle expression. "It''s a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty. I am Exegesis. The Earth God has the same height as me though, if we consider his real body." "Indeed. He is also a big man, but his heart is small." Lin Xingzhi agreed before rebuking him. "His brain is also small¡­" Carissa chuckled. "Oi, oi. Don''t talk bad about people." Exegesis tried to be a middle-man. "Well, Titan race is actually a peaceful race that takes care of their own world well. I hope you don''t mind if I come here with my astral body since my real body will gather too much attention. There is a possibility that someone will follow me to see this meeting." Alex nodded. "I don''t mind." "Well, we have discussed this earlier with the Elemental Gods¡­" Lin Xingzhi explained what they discussed earlier. After a few minutes, she ended it with a question. "Do you want to add something?" "This old man is waiting for his majesty wife to study bow under me." William smiled. "Well, she is a genius. Make sure you don''t get disheartened when you meet her." Alex smirked while adding inwardly, ''With the Bow Mastery Card though.'' "I don''t have anything to add other than please rub my belly in the future, Your Majesty¡­" "Yes, yes. I only want you, Your Majesty. I don''t mind if it''s a one-night stand." Carissa chuckled. "That''s the last thing you will get¡­" Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "That''s the reason why he will never accept you. You always do bad things¡­" "But isn''t it sexier?" She pouted. Before the two fought again, Silver said, "I hope that Your Majesty will not disappear again." "You should say Long Live His Majesty, Silver." Exegesis corrected him. Alex couldn''t help but smile when looking at their genuine expressions. "I am counting on you guys." "Yes, Your Majesty." The five guardians said in unison. Chapter 1036: Before the Training After meeting the Guardians, he returned to the castle first. "They are pretty nice and fun to get along with," Alex explained his thoughts about the Elemental Gods and Guardians. "No, no. They are just troublesome people that you need to deal with." She shook her head helplessly. "Haha¡­" Alex laughed. "Anyway, now that you have met them, what are you going to do?" "I will probably start my training. Before that, I will bring Letizia, Rose, and Evelyn to the Sword Pavilion first." "Sure. Letizia is in the Ice Phoenix Tribe while Rose and Evelyn were training in the garden." She nodded. "I will grab Rose and Evelyn first." Alex nodded and decided to part way with Lin Xingzhi. "Alright. I will do my own job then." Lin Xingzhi turned around while waving her hand as they walked in a different direction. Alex went to the garden, finding Rose and Evelyn training together. As soon as they noticed Alex''s presence, they knew that it was time to go for their second stage training. "Master. Are we leaving now?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "After we grab Letizia from the Ice Phoenix Tribe though." "I understand." Rose nodded before asking. "I wonder¡­Can we get a reward if we are able to use a Weapon Qi first?" "Don''t think about it. You have gotten the strength of the Bow Mastery. It will be your advantage of course." Alex shook his head while patting her head. "But if you managed to reach Rank 9 Weapon Qi first, I will give you a reward." "Really?" Rose smirked. Alex shrugged. "Of course, I am setting a time limit. Let''s see¡­ If you can do it within ten years, I will give you a reward." "By the way, did Master have the Rank 9 Weapon Qi?" "Nope. Still Rank 8. I should be able to reach it during my training in this world." "I see. In that case, won''t ten years be too hard?" "Not really. Calculating the progress I have since the first time I cultivated Sword Qi and Spear Qi, I used around five years." "I see. In that case, it''s possible then." She nodded. "Besides, I am sending you to a place with a bountiful weapon qi so that it will give you a huge advantage over me. In fact, shouldn''t I shorten the time limit like five years?" "Good, Master. May this disciple wash your back? Ten years are enough. Don''t shorten it more." "But you will slack later¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I won''t. You can ask Sister Evelyn whether she has seen me slacking or not." She pouted. Evelyn chuckled and said, "I have." "Eh?" Rose blinked her eyes a few times. "See?" Even Alex knew that Evelyn only joked around, but he couldn''t help but use it to tease Rose. This girl was always serious, so it was better to relax a bit. After a wave of laughter, Alex teleported them to the Ice Phoenix Tribe. It was a tall mountain that could rival that of the highest mountain he saw in the previous world. The Ice Phoenix Tribe built their settlement on top of this mountain, so Alex spared no effort in climbing the mountain. As if they sensed him, Alicia and an elderly woman appeared right before he reached the top. The elderly woman was astonished to see Alex''s face. "Ya, I am going to take Letizia somewhere for training. Is she occupied at the moment?" Alex asked Alicia before turning to the elderly woman. "And this is¡­" "Letizia is cultivating, and I can wake her up right now." Alicia nodded before introducing the elder. "This is the elder of the Ice Phoenix Tribe. You can say that she has served under three Ice Phoenix Queens. Me, Vera, and the one before her." "I see. Thank you for taking care of her, Elder." Alex politely bowed, showing his respect. "Please¡­don''t." The elder bowed and said, "This elder is not worth your bow, Your Majesty. I just did my job as the elder of the Ice Phoenix Tribe." "May I have the pleasure to know Elder''s name?" "This humble self is Sien. I am honored to see you again, Your Majesty." "Nice to meet you." Alex nodded with a smile. "May I have the permission to enter the tribe?" "Please, Your Majesty. Even Vera is missing you." "Haha. She is not missing me, she is missing Fabio." Alex laughed. "That¡­I can''t deny. But she indeed wants to see you." The elder made a gentle smile before stretching her hand, asking Alex to follow her. Alex nodded and flew to the top with Rose and Evelyn. However, he immediately hid inside his Space World while walking near the elder. Knowing the reason why he did that, the elder didn''t mention anything. In fact, she helped him camouflaging the Space Element, so no one noticed. He then arrived in a huge tent. It turned out that this was Vera''s tent. She was cultivating in the corner of the room. When Alex came in, she gradually opened her eyes and smiled. "Master, welcome." "Vera. It''s been a while. How are you?" "I am good and steadily increasing my cultivation. Thanks to the medicinal herbs you bestowed upon us, I should be able to reach Rank 5 God within twenty years. I will be able to fight alongside you again." "That''s encouraging. However, have you met Fabio yet?" "Not yet. He is undergoing another training. I am not sure, but he said he wanted to ask the Elemental God to train himself." She shook her head. "Is that so?" Alex nodded. "To be honest, I haven''t visited anyone. I plan to visit them again, but a bit later." "I see. All of them are planning to regain their previous cultivation so that we will meet again soon. Sadly, Divine Energy is not the same as Spiritual Energy. If not, we can just kill more monsters and regain our cultivation back." She sighed. "Take your time. You all have helped me so much. This time, I will be the one helping you." Alex smiled. Suddenly, the tent was opened, and Letizia came in. "Master, are you waiting for me?" Letizia asked. "Yeah, I want to start with your training." Alex nodded. Even though Alex already told her not to call her Master again, she couldn''t because she had gotten used to it. Besides, it made her a bit special, so Alex ended up letting her call him what she wanted. "I understand. I can go right now." Letizia nodded. "In that case, I will be bringing her, Elder." Alex looked at Sien with a smile. "No, no. You don''t need any permission, Your Majesty." She hurriedly waved her hand. "And can you keep my visit a secret first?" "I understand your current situation, Your Majesty, so you don''t need to worry." "In that case, I will be leaving first. Let''s meet again in the future." Alex smiled as he used his Teleportation Array to leave Eulja. It took them a few hours to reach the place he used to train. He wanted to see Aria, but he decided to leave her alone for the time being. She would visit Eulja soon, so there was no point visiting her now other than checking her well-being. He and the three girls arrived in the Sword Pavilion. Taking out the token she gave back then, Alex channeled his Divine Energy in front of the Pavilion. Suddenly, he heard a sound from the token, saying, "Come inside with your Space Element. Opening the gate will be too eye-catching." Alex snapped his finger without hesitation and brought the three girls. As soon as he entered, the tower sent its Teleportation Array and brought them to the top floor. "This¡­" Rose looked around. "This is amazing. It''s the most realistic one I have seen." "Yeah, yeah. The one living here is a Rank 2 God, so you three should be more respectful, okay?" Alex patted Rose''s head before looking in the house''s direction. "Ya, I have been waiting for you, Alexander Sirius." Suddenly, a woman''s voice resounded in everyone''s ears. Alex turned around, looking at her with a smile. "Yes. These three are the ones I told you." "I see." The woman appeared before the three as she observed them from top to bottom. The first one was Evelyn. "Hmm, this girl has a good foundation. She might be able to go far in her journey with her sword." "Thank you." Evelyn glanced left and right, not knowing what to say with this person. "Don''t worry. I am just trying to see your foundation to check whether you are ready for training or not. You have a good foundation¡­ Hmm, Alexander must have trained you well." "Yes. Big Brother has taught me well." Evelyn nodded. "Big Brother? If I am not wrong, she is also your wife, right? Don''t tell me you are¡­" She looked at Alex with a weird expression. "I mean, it''s normal to have your sister as a wife, but it''s just still weird after you have knowledge from another world, especially about the drawbacks of having kids with your own sister¡­" "No, no. I am not Big Brother''s real sister. He had taken care of me this whole time when I was young, so I called him Big Brother." She hurriedly corrected her. "Yeah, yeah. I know. I was just teasing you. Though, even if you are, you are not related by blood, right? Isn''t it more interesting?" Alex twitched his eyebrows and asked, "Where do you get that information?" "Books, of course." "I am sure there is something wrong with the books you read¡­" "My Lord was the one who gave me." "I see. It seems the Sword God also had that kind of collection." Alex nodded in understanding. "I don''t know what you are talking about." She decided to change the topic, so she took a look at Letizia. "Hmm¡­Foundation is solid but not at the same level as the first one. It''s going to be troublesome, but I don''t think it will be a problem. She must haven''t studied under you for a long time." "Yeah. She is the last one that I started to teach." "I see. I will be fixing some issues with her first before teaching how to accumulate the Sword Qi." "I will leave it to you. She has a Pure Ice Element, so she is also reliant on it." "Don''t worry. She is in good hands." She nodded before moving to Rose. When she glanced at her, she almost stumbled on the ground as she blinked her eyes a few times. "This¡­This girl¡­" "This is the one I told you." "I see. She is a monster like you." She nodded her head. "It seems I don''t need to worry about the next Sword God. You will surely bring me the best successor." "Well, I will do my best." Alex nodded. "They are Evelyn, Letizia, and Rose. Rose is my disciple." "Nice to meet you. I am Zera." She smiled. The three also introduced themselves to her once more. "Alright. Since you three have met her, I think it''s time for me to leave." "Yes, sure. The sooner we start, the better their progress later." Zera gave a thumb up. "Okay. I will leave them to you. You three, I will bring you back in three to four years Eulja time." The three nodded simultaneously, assuring Alex they would be fine. Alex then turned around and used his Teleportation Array to return to Eulja, specifically the mushroom house where his training would begin. Surprisingly, Rilt seemed to be waiting for him outside the house. "Yo, you have finally returned. How are those guys?" Alex thought for a moment before answering him with a smile. "They are pretty energetic." "I see. Sounds like them. Just need to make sure that we are not that friendly with each other, okay?" "Yeah, yeah." Alex shrugged. "You are ready for training, right?" "Yes." Alex smiled. "Come in first and rest for tonight. We will start training tomorrow. By the way, the room is soundproof, okay?" "¡­" "The room is soundproof." "You don''t need to repeat it!" Alex twitched his eyebrows. Chapter 1037: Story A few months later, there were two people in the garden. They were Alex and Rilt. Alex punched Rilt on the face but was blocked by Rilt''s palm. However, the energy his fist carried burst out as if it continued the flow of the momentum. It blasted a huge area behind Rilt, obviously devastating any living beings behind. Luckily, there were only grasses and trees, or it would have become a bit more serious. "How was that one?" Alex asked. "That is not enough. The flow is smooth, but there is still a restriction in the direction. The way you use it is also a bit rough. You need to let it flow like water." Rilt explained. They had been training to use this technique, but as expected, it was tough. Even Alex, who usually finished his training within a few months, couldn''t complete this training. There was one big thing Alex understood during this training. He noticed why the Spirit God could become one of the God King. It was due to this Spirit Crown. The past him must have done something to allow him, an element user, to wield this technique. After all, the requirement of this technique was to have no element. And Rilt told him not to teach this technique to anyone else because there was a possibility of them using it. The universe was vast and not everyone actually had an element in their body. They were born according to their world''s power system. Rilt knew that there were many planets where they didn''t have an element and had fulfilled the requirement of this technique. If there were two people using this technique, Alex''s position would shake. Even the Spirits didn''t know who to trust anymore. Alex promised him that he would be the only one to know this technique. As for his daughters and sons in the future, he would think it at that time. After getting satisfied with Alex''s response, he continued teaching him all he knew about the Spirit Crown. The training was harsh, but Alex''s training was worst, so Alex completed the daily training every single day. Their relationship kept growing like that of a father and a son. Alex told him the story about his journey until he reached this place. And Rilt explained how he met the previous him and watched how he grew up. Although Alex didn''t have the intention to become his previous self, he needed to know what he had done and his past tale. He learned his past self had fought far harder than he had. Unlike him, the past him didn''t have the system to support him and got mocked because he had no element. Yet, he could keep growing and become kinder than anyone else. He even made Rilt believe that when you were at the lowest point, you would know how it felt to be hurt. The way the people looked at you would be different, and you would know who were your enemies and friends. When you knew all of that, you would become stronger and kinder than anyone else. After the training, Rilt thought and asked, "How about we rest now? We will continue tomorrow." "Sure." Alex nodded and laid down on the floor without minding his manner. "Oi, you shouldn''t sleep on the floor." "But cultivator won''t get a normal cold¡­" Alex nonchalantly said. "It''s your manner!" Rilt smacked his forehead. "I know, I know." Alex waved his hand and kept lying down. Rilt shook his head helplessly as if watching his son. "Are you going to become those arrogant people? I think it''s possible if you keep behaving like this." Alex froze before falling into deep thought. He remembered what happened in the past and couldn''t help but ask. "I wonder why they are arrogant¡­ No, I think I understand it, but I just can''t explain it." Rilt glanced at his serene expression and decided to take a breather as well while lying down like him, watching the blue sky. "Let me give you a bit of my wisdom, Young Man. I will tell you a story about a kid. This kid was born into a wealthy and powerful family. However, it also came with a price. As long as he remembered, his father never paid attention to him because he needed to manage the entire family while his mother had gone forever after giving birth to him. "The kid only had one caretaker while the other servants were settling his room and other things. In other words, this kid only had himself as the support. "Although he learned common sense and some knowledge from his tutors, none of them could understand him and kept acting all humble in front of him. They didn''t dare to rebuke him or anything, making the kid think he had so much power. "It affected his state of mind, and he grew according to what he thought for himself. He learned about his successor from his tutor, or you can say his kid. Since no one dared to oppose him, he went to a brothel and did it with the women there. "Drunk in pleasure, the kid kept coming and eventually fell into the temptation of lust. When he saw a beautiful woman in the street, he grabbed her and did all the deeds. However, this kid didn''t get any retribution, and no one dared to oppose him because of his family background. He slowly became cold and uncaring because he could do anything, especially with his father didn''t meet him and only took care of his problems. "When it continued for years, decades, or even centuries, they slowly became beyond redemption. Their ego had grown so much until he couldn''t be saved anymore. "Suddenly, someone came to his life and beat him to the ground. What do you think the kid will do?" Rilt asked. Alex thought for a moment and said, "Revenge. I mean, he already has everything. No one SHOULD dare to oppose him. No matter what race you are, I believe that we consciously or subconsciously feared the unknown. Even I fear it. That''s why the kid will surely remove this unknown variable." "Correct. He wanted to maintain the status quo and attacked the one who destroyed that status quo. Unfortunately, he failed and kept failing every time he did it." "He would continue until he died." Alex closed his eyes with a complicated expression. "I see. That''s how an arrogant young master was born. There might be some variables in the story, but if the main variables are there¡­" "I am not talking that the arrogant young master is bad. What I want to say is that his father is the real culprit." Alex suddenly stretched his hand as if trying to reach the sky. Suddenly, he thought something and let out a long sigh. "I see. So that''s why¡­" "Hmm?" "The reason why the past me didn''t take up the ruler position and let Korzan deal with the rest." Alex made a sad smile. "It''s not that he had no capability as a ruler. It was to his kids. He didn''t want to be someone who always thought about Eulja and such. "No, it was because he thought his family first that he decided to arrange it this way. The most fragile family is the one at the top. He wanted to have a family that can be decisive but also kinder than anyone. Unfortunately, before that happened, the predicament came." Rilt clenched his teeth. "Yes. I am not saying that this thinking is true either. Let me tell you the second story. This kid was born with the same condition as the kid. However, before his experience accumulated, he experienced a setback, turning the respect he always received into hate. "That kid knew whether they were genuine or not. He then looked at the world from a different point of view, understanding what an effort was. "In this situation, the kid had two possible options. The first was he hated the world, the people, and even his family to the bone for not showing respect to him or whatsoever. He loathed them with every single cell in his body. "When he became someone in power, he massacred all of them. All emotions felt cold and he closed his heart because he believed that the people around him only wanted his power. He thought only for himself, and nothing else mattered. "However, the second possibility¡­The kid understood what it meant to have someone dear to him. He met someone that would stand behind him and kept supporting him no matter what happened. During that time, he learned what it meant to trust the people you loved. "Thus, the kid became stronger and kinder than anyone else. He knew what it felt to be in the bottom and at the top. And I am glad that you are the latter." Alex couldn''t help but smile. "That''s something I owed to my Teacher. He might be someone so passive that he even let others bully me, but he knew that every setback I experienced would change me in one way or another. "He kept watching me all this time and only moved when life mattered. He believed in me and saw something in me that I didn''t know before. When I realized all of that, I wished I could say thank you to him for being my teacher as well as my parent." Alex''s eyes were watery, recalling the memory of his teacher. He remembered that every time he had trouble. There was always one question he asked. "Are you alright?" That was the best question in his mind until today. Rilt smiled and closed his eyes. "He must be a great figure. Not everyone strong is great, and not everyone weak is powerless. The strongest person can even create waste, while the weakest person might be able to create the strongest figure. "Your capability and goal are not set in stone. That''s why if you think what you are doing is right, never give up." Alex smiled. "Yes. Thank you, Father." "There is also another meaning behind my story¡ª" "I know. It''s the way how to manage your family. Although I can''t create the concept, I think I have grasped something with your story. My way of managing my family might not be the same as my past self, but I believe that what I will create is the best for my family and me. Of course, we can''t leave the wives out of the picture." Rilt smiled and said, "After all, Family is¡­" "¡­A meeting between a man and a woman. Two becomes one and acts like one." Alex smiled while continuing his sentence. "That''s good then. I will be watching you. If you have a problem, just come to me. I will do my best to help." Rilt smiled. "Thanks, Father." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Anna and Vina came into their vision, looking down on them from above. However, the two blurted something out of reflex. "White." "Black." Anna and Vina stepped on their face as Vina complained. "What the heck are you teaching to my son-in-law? As expected, you are the virus of the family. And why are you two lying on the floor? Where is your manner?" "My wife, I am teaching my son-in-law to be a cultured man," Rilt answered with a smile. "Besides, look at Anna, why is she stepping on my son-in-law''s face like you?" But it only invited Vina''s rage as she poured more strength until Rilt''s head buried in the ground. "I am teaching her to make sure that he won''t take advantage of my cute daughter. Seriously¡­We can''t have a second Anya¡­" Anna glanced at her, sighed, and decided to retract her foot. She slowly bent down and put Alex''s head on her lap. She said with a smile. "This is better." Alex couldn''t help but smile back. "Wife¡­How about you act like Anna for once?" Rilt was jealous of that different treatment and asked. However, Vina only poured more strength while saying, "That is when you have become a proper spirit." Chapter 1038: Alchemy In the middle of the garden, Alex was sitting down while closing his eyes. Normally, he would be cultivating, but there was something different in his current state. Above his head was a shining Spirit Crown. He had been training for a year by now. Not far from him, Rilt was observing his state and widened his eyes. He sneakily went around him and released his killing intent. As soon as he sensed that killing intent, Alex instinctively woke up, rose from the ground, and slashed his sword. Rilt smiled and used his golden staff to block that slash, but the residual power passed his body, going straight to the garden behind him. It decimated the ground and created a one kilometer long fan-shaped crater. "Excellent." Rilt smirked. The strength Alex released earlier was similar to what he first demonstrated. "The rest will depend on yourself. My job has finished." Alex nodded and bowed his head. "Thank you for guiding me all this time, Father." "Haha, I don''t mind. Besides, this is a fulfilling one year for me." Rilt laughed while patting his shoulder. "What are you going to do now? I am sure that you are not planning to leave this place this soon, right?" "Yes. According to my schedule, Firia will teach me about Alchemy. I need to learn it as well¡­For now, I want to concentrate on it first and cultivate later. After that, it''s time for Array. And because there is that new way of using an array, I am intrigued whether it''s possible for me to use it or not." Alex nodded with a smile. "I see. Although the girls will be missing you, I think it''s fine to let you go. You have lived here for a whole year after all. I can''t be too greedy." Alex smiled. "I will be saying goodbye with them first." "Sure." He nodded. "I won''t be seeing you off." Alex waved his hand while walking inside the house. Meanwhile, Rilt fell flat on his back and stared at the blue sky. He raised his hands and flipped them a few times. "That guy is indeed an enigma. To think he really can finish the training in a year. And that kind of control¡­If he fused that strength to his own techniques or elements, he would be very dangerous. Haha¡­This time, there won''t be anyone to stop the rise of Alexander Sirius. A few minutes later, Alex was already in front of their house with Anna and Anya standing in front of him. "It will be a while, but I need to get going." Alex put on a gentle smile. "Don''t worry. Even though we plan to finish our training first, if we want to flirt together with the girls, we can do it in the future." Anya smiled while assuring him. Anna pinched the bridge of her neck and commented, "Is that the only thing in your brain?" "What else? There is only Alex, Flirt, Family, and Training. These four." Anya tilted her head in confusion. "The rest are secondary." "¡­" Anna shook her head helplessly. "Whatever." "Anyway, I will be going." Alex smiled and kissed Anna and Anya. "Yes. Give our regards to Firia." "Haha, you can visit her yourself." Alex shrugged and snapped his finger, creating his Teleportation Array. He blinked his eyes and returned to the castle. It seemed Firia was waiting for him in the castle, or that was what Lin Xingzhi told him. Surprisingly, Firia was already in the garden, looking at him, who just arrived. "Am I late?" Alex scratched the back of his head. "Nope. I just couldn''t wait anymore and arrived here first." Firia shrugged. "So, do you have a place to train?" "I don''t have one. By the way, how is the arrangement?" "Alicia and I will have six to nine months each and spend the last few months together. In other words, you are going to train for two years. The last few months are to teach you how to fuse Alchemy and Array together." "I see. Sounds good to me. It''s been a while since I last studied Alchemy, so my skill might be a bit rusty." "With your Godly Pure Fire, you won''t need to worry. It is the king of Fire, which is also perfect for Alchemy. Not only it has the purifying attribute, but it also can speed up the process with that intensity. Besides, no other Alchemists can distract your flame if you are refining a pill." "Fair enough. My Teacher wanted me to participate in a pill competition¡­" Alex suddenly thought the worst. "Ah, yes. You will surely obliterate them. Let me guess, he is suggesting you for a pair competition?" She narrowed her eyes. "Yes." "As expected. He might want you to be an assurance or such while I will be doing most of the job. Not that I mind though, but we will see in the future. Besides, my Sacrificial Fire has also gotten strengthened because of your Godly Pure Fire, so it''s close to a Pure Fire level." "That is interesting." Alex smiled. "If I use my Pure Fire in that competition, no one can refine the pill. This will make many people unhappy. However, if I become an assurance and only make a move if needed, we are kind of forced by the situation to do that. It will have the opposite effect." "Yes. He is surely an evil person." She nodded. "Even my master told me how evil he is." "Really?" "Yes. He loves tricks, so that makes him evil since all his tricks are really nasty." Alex nodded with a smile. "Anyway, I will be learning from you now. Do you have a place to learn?" "I am not sure. I heard that you have a Simulation Room, right?" "Yes. I usually trained there to avoid losing precious materials." "My schedule is three months for knowledge, three months for learning ingredients, and three months for making pills. That''s why I have prepared one thousand books for you to read¡­" Firia made a gentle smile while playing around with the Space Ring on her finger. "Can I just absorb the knowledge in my inheritance?" "Oh, there is that as well. Alright. You can, but you still need to browse the books to check whether it''s the same or not. Just some checks, and you will be fine." "I understand. I will study again with books¡­" Alex let out a long sigh. "I don''t know why but books don''t excite me like scrolls or other things¡­" "Do you have that kind of fetish?" Firia looked at him with a weird expression. "No, no. I was just saying that cultivators still didn''t escape the hate for books. I wonder if cultivating could cure sleepiness when reading a book¡­" Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. Firia shrugged. "Anyway, how about sorting the knowledge about Alchemy in the garden? Or do you prefer doing it in your room?" "I will do it here. There are too many temptations doing it inside." Alex shrugged. "Not that I will do it though, but just in case." Firia smiled while looking away. "Anyway, I will protect you here. You may start." "Yeah, yeah." Alex nodded and sat on the ground before closing his eyes. He had absorbed all the knowledge but never tried to see the information or even sort them, so it would take a while to really learn the knowledge. At the very least, it would be faster than reading a book. Just like how they predicted, Alex took only one and a half months to learn much information about Alchemy. "Have you finished?" Firia noticed the change in Alex''s expression, so she thought Alex had finished. "Yes." Alex nodded while opening his eyes. "My brain hurts to process all those, but they are really great." "What have you learned?" "Many pill recipes, ingredients characteristic, and how to handle the temperature. I haven''t tested them yet though." "Ho? Then do you have something that you like to refine at the end of our training?" She asked. "I have one. White Ash Pill." "Oh, you asked me that, but the medicinal herb wasn''t ripe yet." "Don''t worry. It''s almost finished. Although the Void Flower will take a little longer, the White Ash Tree is almost ripe. This training will last for two years, right? I think it should be ripe by that time." Lin Xingzhi suddenly appeared behind them. She was in her room earlier, and when she saw Alex was thinking about the two medicinal herbs, she decided to answer it personally. "Really?" Alex widened his eyes. "Yep. I have worked hard." She gave a thumb up to him. "I see. We can do that then. Maybe we can learn about how to make a pill using an array. And as the grand test, we will refine that pill." Firia offered a solution. "Sounds good to me." Alex nodded. "How is the situation around?" "Nothing big happened. You can focus on your training first. After this training, you are going to cultivate until you reach Rank 7 God, right?" "Yeah. After that, I will probably leave to another place¡­Maybe in search of another world for the Gacha System. Now that I mention it, I haven''t checked the progress yet." Alex opened his system. [Gacha Point: 3000] [Gacha Coin: 10] "Hmm¡­Ten people have gotten UR Reward while there are a total of three thousand times they got Rare and Super Rare¡­Isn''t this a bit too low?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "They just managed to barely fight the invaders. Give them more time." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "Is that so? Well, I don''t mind. Just want to make sure¡­How many coins for one Gacha?" "One thousand." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Seriously?" "Yes. The number will start skyrocketing, so you won''t feel shocked in the later phase of the system state. In fact, you will feel inclined to use it anymore. After all, if you give all people the Sword Mastery, it will become chaotic." "Fair enough. Why do people claim someone is good? Because there is someone worse than them. Why do people claim someone is diligent? Because there is someone lazier than them. No matter how harsh the truth is, it''s still the truth." Alex sighed. "I will be giving to my family only. Maybe one or two outside the family depending on our relationship." "Yes. That''s the best course for now. But I think it''s fine to enchant a weapon with an elemental orb. We can sell it more expensive than the market price." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Yeah." Alex agreed. "I will look at the system again after finishing this two-year training. For now, I want to focus first." "Alright. I will leave then. Good luck." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand with a smile and disappeared. Alex then looked at Firia. "So, what are we going to learn today?" "Since you have all that knowledge, we will be checking the knowledge with my books. After that, I will show you how to spot a medicinal herb and ascertain whether it''s really the herb or not since there are many counterfeit ones out there. The last stage will be learning in your Simulation Room to refine pills. I am going to torture you there¡­" Firia smirked. "Haha. That''s good. I need extensive knowledge about materials to create the exact copy in the Simulation Room, so this kind of schedule will benefit me." "In that case¡­" Firia waved her hands, summoning all the books she read during her training with her master. There were only one hundred books, but each of them had more than ten thousand pages, making Alex wonder if he could finish them in one and a half months. "Don''t worry. You won''t need to read the details. Besides, your cultivation allows you to easily memorize them, so you will finish before you know it. Trust me." Alex twitched his eyebrows and shook his head helplessly. "Well, my devilish training might be better than this." Alex resigned his fate and began reading the first book. Chapter 1039: Alchemy Training Six months later, Alex had finished all the preparations for practical training, refining a pill. In the garden, Alex and Firia were staring at each other. Around their feet were several medicinal ingredients, surrounded by an array. "Are you ready?" Alex asked with a smile. "Yes. We are refining a pill now." Firia nodded. Alex then snapped his finger, activating the array. Alex and Firia closed their eyes for a second and felt that the change in their surroundings. The garden remained the same, but they noticed that it had a certain degree of Spiritual Energy. At the same time, there was no one living in this place other than them. "We are going to refine Orthodox Recovery Pill. It can instantly close the wound and regrow a limb that of a mortal. For a God Rank Expert, this pill is still effective since the Divine Energy will slowly recover the mortal limb and turn it into a Divine Limb." Firia explained while waving her hand, lifting the medicinal ingredients to the air. "I will give you the demonstration first." Alex nodded and retreated a few steps back, observing every single movement with his Spirit Eyes. Firia snapped her finger as the Sacrificial Fire lit up. It gradually enveloped the ingredients to warm them up before she raised her flame temperature drastically. The Divine Energy from the medicinal herbs fluctuated as the sign of them fighting back against Firia''s flame. However, Firia quickly increased her fire ferocity before turning the fire into a star-shaped fire. The ingredients split into those five sides with a Divine Monster Core in the middle. "This is the Star Refining Method that I have taught you. This is perfect for eleven ingredients pills in which one of the ingredients is a Divine Monster Core. We will group the ingredients into their own characteristic and refine a pair of medicinal ingredients in one go. "Well, you can say that this is the fastest method to refine eleven ingredients. If Alicia is here, I can turn this technique to another level. If I am not wrong, the name of that Array is Star Fire Array. It will separate each pair of ingredients even further and refine them one by one. This will allow you to refine them to the finest while having the speed of the original Star Refining Method." "I see. I have understood the Star Refining Method, but I haven''t tried it myself." Alex nodded in understanding. He had been learning many things from Firia, including a Refining Technique like this. He realized that Alchemy wasn''t just a matter of flame. It was true that his Godly Pure Fire could increase one''s success rate by a huge margin, but he could still increase his speed, purity, and other things with this kind of technique. That was why Alchemy became interesting again for him. He also couldn''t wait for Alicia to teach him about Array that fit perfectly with Alchemy. After refining them for fifteen minutes, Firia separated three pairs of ingredients that seemed to have finished first. She continued with the last two pairs refinement for another thirty minutes. As soon as she finished, she tossed the refined ingredients back to the star before revolving the energy from the Divine Monster Core. The green core released some kind of gas that flowed to each ingredient. Alex could see it with his Spirit Eyes. After enveloping the ingredients with that gas, Firia opened the furnace and brought them inside the furnace. "Explode," Firia muttered as the star-shaped fire burst out, releasing a huge amount of heat energy. The furnace let out some of them while trapping some to do the last process. "The ingredients are done. Normally, we need to expel the impurities inside the ingredients, but your Pure Fire is really too godly. I have never troubled myself with the purifying process anymore. You must be like that too." Firia shrugged. "Ahaha¡­ Isn''t that good? Although I agree that we still need to learn it, it''s better to not waste our time. I mean, it usually takes a third of the refining process, no?" "True. It''s a long process because we can''t force them too much or it will ruin the ingredients as a whole. Using this fire, the impurities have basically been purified as time goes on. In fact, I had felt that the impurities had gone when I was refining them with the Star Refining Method." Firia nodded. "Yes. I can see that." Alex confirmed it with his Spirit Eyes. He indeed saw the impurities had gone by the time she was in the middle process of the refining. "By the way, I wonder if we can let Sherry give her Sacrificial Element to Evelyn? I mean, Stina, Kyle, and Ellen don''t need this because they are directly related to you. And among your wives, only Evelyn has a Fire Element other than me. And if we take a look at the Contracted Beasts like Leka¡­I don''t think she needs a Sacrificial Element, right?" Firia asked. "That''s a good idea, but everything will be in Sherry''s hand. I will just give her a message, but the decision is her. Is that fine?" Alex smiled. "Of course. You are a husband, not a dictator." Firia smiled before feeling that all ingredients had turned liquid. "Anyway, it''s time for the next step." Alex observed it with his Spirit Eyes and saw how the fire turned into a vortex, slowly merging the ingredients and turning them into a pill. Firia began to focus when she entered this process because she couldn''t afford a single fluctuation of energy that would disturb the balance of all ingredients. The process itself was not hard to succeed, but to do it perfectly required patience and concentration. Alex knew that and didn''t open his mouth. He watched how each pair of ingredients fused together first before the five pairs turned into one. "Once again. Explode." Firia shouted, forcing the vortex to explode. This vortex was made from the residual fire from the first explosion, so it still contained enough energy to create a powerful explosion. However, Firia already sealed the lid with her Divine Energy while the body of a Rank 9 Furnace was strong enough to contain that explosion. "It''s finished." Firia smirked and waved her hand, opening the lid. The pill flew out of the pill but soon got suppressed by Firia''s Spiritual Energy. "Shouldn''t you erase the consciousness?" Alex asked. "I have tried in the process, but it seems your Simulation World is not perfect. Well, this place is already a godly technique, so¡­" Firia scratched her cheek with an embarrassed expression. "Sorry. I will try to perfect it when I have time." Alex apologized and looked at the pill. "I wonder if we will face a Lightning Tribulation when making a pill." "There are a few records about that. If I am not wrong, there are three types of pills that will trigger a Tribulation. Firstly is an evolved pill that shouldn''t be in that rank. For example, because the alchemists or the ingredients are too good, the pill leaps a rank. I mean, not a small rank, but a big rank. "For example, a supposed Rank 4 Pill turns into a Rank 5 Pill. It shouldn''t exist, so it''s a kind of a process where the pill goes through a Lightning Tribulation to reach that next rank. Of course, the refiner will be the one challenging the Lightning Tribulation before the pill uses the energy to officially break through a rank. "The second type is the pill that is refined in such an environment. I mean, I have heard there is a world that sends a Lightning Tribulation for a pill to a certain level. This world purifies the pill even further with its lightning, but there is no way I want to refine the pill in that world, considering it''s already pure enough. "The third type is an enigma pill. It''s a type of pill that will disturb the norm of the world. Suppose you are refining a Rank 2 Pill in my original world, Agar World. In that case, it will send a Lightning Tribulation because a pill of this level can''t exist in this type of Lower World since it will disrupt the balance between Energy. "That''s also the reason why a God Rank Expert like us shouldn''t enter the world. Do you understand what I mean?" Firia asked. "Yes." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "This has become more interesting than I thought it would be. At first, I believed that the pill only needed flame and a certain degree of control. However, people really used their own technique and other things to improve the refinement process." "That''s right. It''s fascinating, isn''t it?" Firia smiled from ear to ear. "I was blown away when my Master taught me about Alchemy. Even Uncle Maxwell helped out during that time. After flying to a few worlds during the last mission with my master, I have seen many more types of Alchemy. "However, I choose only those that will benefit me. I don''t want to master them all because it might ruin my foundation in Alchemy Techniques." "Understandable." "How about you try it now? After one week, we will go to another technique. Let''s test every technique and see which one suits you, alright?" "Yes. Please guide me." Alex smiled and summoned the ingredients again. He followed Firia''s movement starting from the star-shaped fire to merging the ingredients. Although Alex messed up a bit due to the fact this was his first time, Firia was satisfied with the result, especially since he was even better than her first time. The couple continued working their way with all techniques in possessions to check Alex''s affinity. However, it turned out that Firia still underestimated Alex''s potential and Godly Pure Fire. Out of twelve techniques, he mastered eleven of them, despite Firia could only do nine of them. Alex also used this chance to talk about Alchemy and wondered whether they could add something to the technique. On the contrary to their expectation, the techniques were considered perfect. They were the culmination of efforts from all great people in the past. It had been improved again and again until it was in this state. According to Firia, the last time they got improved was ten thousand years ago. With that kind of time span, she believed that the technique was already in a perfect state. Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to keep going, Firia knew that it was time to switch. Alicia already returned from the Ice Phoenix Tribe, waiting for her turn in the garden. "Alicia. How are you?" Firia smiled and hugged her. "I am good. So, let me guess. He is a monster?" Alicia smirked while glancing at Alex with a teasing glance. Alex didn''t notice her for the time being. Instead, he looked down as if something was in his mind. And Alicia''s focus was on Firia, so the latter answered her instead of Alex. "That''s right. As expected of our husband, he always surpassed us." "Well, it can''t be helped. Your Element comes from him while I am not good with Alchemy. Let me see if I am good enough to teach him about Array. I have a surprise for him with the new array." Alicia grinned. "So, you have an Array that will surprise him?" "Not an array, but a technique. Well, he was the one who brought it from another world. So, he might be better than me in this." Alicia explained before showing her right forearm. "Look at this." "This¡­" Firia saw a tattoo in Alicia''s hand. The tattoo had a round-shaped gem with six wings. "This is Eulja''s symbol, isn''t it?" "Yes. Truly a simple symbol. One jewel that presents the life of the Spirit King with six wings which are the Six Elemental Gods. But I think this symbol is good." Alicia smiled. "True enough. We will meet here again in nine months. How about that?" "Sure." Alicia nodded. "I will bring him to our Research Centre. You can come if you need anything." "Will do." Meanwhile, Alex seemed to have found something not related to their talk. He looked at his fire and fell into deep thought. "This¡­" Chapter 1040: Holy Emblem "Alex. Are you thinking of something?" Alicia noticed Alex''s weird state and asked him. Firia also turned around and came closer. "Ah." Alex blinked his eyes a few times and waved his hand. "It''s fine. I was just in thought earlier. No need to mind me. I will wait until you two finish." "We have finished and found you were in thought." Alex nodded. "In that case, let''s go." Alicia and Firia felt a bit weird when Alex brushed the matter off but didn''t pry into it. "Alright, then." Firia hugged him and kissed him. "Good luck." "Thanks." Alex smiled and looked at Alicia. "Let''s go. Where are we going?" "Follow me." Alicia turned around and flew to the sky. Alex followed her while waving her hand to Firia. The journey didn''t take too long, only five minutes. They landed in front of a small building in the middle of a forest. "What is this place?" Alex asked while observing the building with his Spirit Eyes, finding many energy signs underground. "Where Eulja conducts its research." Alicia smiled and used a token to teleport them inside. "We have several places like this depending on their use. This one is for arrays and the most discussed topic is your Array Technique¡­" "Array Technique?" Alex tilted his head before finding Eulja''s symbol on her forearm. "That¡­" Normal people wouldn''t realize, but Alex could see the small arrays that had been compressed into one logo. "Holy Emblem?" "Yep." Alicia nodded with a smile. "We have conducted the research about it and successfully recreated it to fit our own body. This will be the universal form." "So fast?" Alex widened his eyes. He thought that the research would take a bit longer, considering they needed to configure the technique and changed the structure to fit a God Rank Expert. "It''s not that different to be honest. We just calculated which array did we need to have for the basis of Rank 9 Arrays. Mostly, they are related to our element, Divine Energy, Gathering Symbols, and such. After laying the groundwork, we proceed to create a layer of them. "As you know, a Rank 9 Array consists of more than a million symbols. We needed to compress those symbols to this small¡­Of course, it''s impossible. We ended up solving the problem by creating layers." Alicia explained. "Layers?" "Yes. If we want to paint a house with white paint, it will be there for the rest of eternity, right? And when we want to paint it with another color¡­" "It will just create another layer of color. I see. So, that''s the trick to compress symbols to a small Eulja Logo." Alex nodded in understanding. "Yes. However, the time and process took longer than expected, so it was hard to produce such a thing. Besides, a Rank 9 Array is harder to compress than we thought. Do you remember how they used their Holy Emblem?" Alex thought for a moment. "I know. They summoned the symbol and connected it with a few more symbols to complete the array." "Exactly, but it''s possible because they didn''t need a lot of additional symbols. Take a look¡­" Alicia suddenly summoned Eulja Symbol. However, instead of an additional circle, it grew in all directions as if the symbol was tree roots. Those were symbols as well. "This¡­" Alex widened his eyes. "Those symbols are the remaining symbols. There are still around one hundred thousand symbols that you need to create. But considering you have compressed around one million or so symbols, I don''t think this is a problem." Alicia shrugged. "True enough. One hundred thousand symbols will probably require one second." Alex nodded. "Having that logo alone has fastened the process by around ninety percent." "Of course, there is one weakness for this technique." Alicia smiled. "Because of so many layers that are compressed, we have an array limit." "What do you mean?" "First, many arrays are not suitable for this technique because they require too many symbols. Most of the arrays we have tested are ranging from one to five million symbols. Above that is already too high." Alicia sighed. "Fair enough. But the process is almost complete with that logo alone." Alex nodded. "The second will be the number of arrays you can use in one tattoo." "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "We have compressed too many symbols in one small image. More than this will cause a complex reaction. To counter it, we have selected only a few and know that the current progress allows us to only have five arrays in one logo. You can have two tattoos, but I think more than that will not be beneficial to your body for various reasons." "Then, can we replace the logo with another one?" Alex asked. "I mean, they are connected with each other, right? I am sure that we can replace a certain layer if we want to use a certain array." "Yes. First of all, we are using a Divine Beast''s blood to create symbols like this before getting another layer for the color. This layer of color is so expensive because it is the material to keep the array working. The blood will soon be washed away or lose its effectiveness at one point, right?" Alex nodded. "I understand. Even so, this is already amazing." "Amazing is an understatement. A Rank 9 Array Master normally requires thirty seconds for one Rank 9 Array. And this Holy Emblem allows us to create one array in one to three seconds. Can you even imagine the effect? It will revolutionize the entire job." Alicia sighed. "Well, there is that. Just make sure that the personnel who are working here are loyal, so there is no information leakage. After that, we can proceed with all things related to this." Alex smiled. "Yes. For now, let''s enter." Alicia stretched her hand, guiding Alex inside the building. "I will bring you to someone, so you can get tattooed¡­That is if you want." "I already have a plan to use this, so there is no way I will back down." Alex shrugged and followed her. "But I can''t really show myself to people for the time being." "I have a route for that. The escape route of this building that allows us to move toward the most important person in this place." She smiled and began walking. Alex trusted her and followed her for several minutes. She was right. There was a hidden door that led downwards. Alex and Alicia quickly reached the ending with their pace, finding a giant metal door at the end of the corridor. Alicia pushed open the door and found someone inside. She had a similar body figure as Jeanne, but her expression was cold unlike Jeanne''s energetic one. She had blonde hair tied into twin tails. "Ah, there she is." Alicia smiled and waved her hand. "I have brought someone with me this time." The female, who was reading the report in her hand, stopped and took a glance at Alicia while saying nonchalantly. "Please come in, Alicia. What do you need for me to sneak in like that?" Alicia pouted. "You are so cold. Even though you have been my mentor in the array, you are not even happy to see me." "I taught you because it was an order." "Really?" Alicia looked away before opening the door fully, revealing Alex''s appearance. "You were never true to yourself, so I will just do this¡­" "What are you doing?" The female furrowed her eyebrows and found the person behind her. She widened her eyes and blinked a few times. She glanced at the large picture frame behind her and looked back at Alex repeatedly. "Yo-yo-yo-your Majesty!" The female quickly leaped to greet Alex but got tripped by the table and fell to the ground. "Gya¡ª!" Alicia smiled. "This is my mentor. Despite her appearance and action, her skill is a real deal." "Hmm?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "A dwarf?" "Y-y-y-y-yes, Your Majesty." The female hurriedly restored her posture and kneeled on one knee. "I am Lilda, a dwarf." "It''s a pleasure to meet you, Lilda." Alex smiled and nodded. "It''s my honor to meet Your Majesty." "Thank you for taking care of my wife." "Eh?!" Lilda widened her eyes and looked at Alicia with a shocked expression. "You didn''t know?" Alicia tilted her head in confusion. "I didn''t get any information other than your name and element. You¡­You turns out¡­" Lilda gasped. "I am Alex''s wife. I thought you already knew about it." Alicia shook her head. "As I said, I was tasked to teach you arrays. That''s all. I haven''t gone out for a few decades already¡­" Lilda sighed. Alex shook his head helplessly and helped her up. Lilda was shaking when Alex touched her hand and froze. "I am here for a reason¡­" Alex smiled and looked at Alicia. "About the tattoo." "She can help you." Alicia pointed at Lilda. "Is that so?" Alex nodded. "Please help me, Lilda." "Y-y-y-yes." Lilda stiffly replied while trying to process what just happened. "What should I do?" Alex asked. "Hmm¡­Can you wait a bit?" Lilda couldn''t think of anything because of the shock. "She admires you even from your previous life. She is considered the most expert in Eulja regarding the array. One of the Rank 2 Gods in this world, Lilda." Alicia decided to introduce her. "I have heard why she admired you¡­" "Wha¡ª" Lilda looked away, embarrassed. "You were her savior." Alicia wanted to take revenge by sharing Lilda''s past. "Normally, Dwarves are good at Forging. There was only one person who didn''t have that trait. It was her. Expelled from her race, she met you and learned that forging was just a general verb. "Anything could be related to forging. Having the heart of a forger, she decided to study many things under your guidance and found something that she could master. It was the arrays or you could say forging an array instead of a weapon. "In order to teach me, Sister Xingzhi told her about your reincarnation. And she became a die-hard fan once again after you gave the Holy Emblem." "¡­" Alex fell silent for a few seconds. "Your Majesty had changed my life, so I couldn''t thank you enough¡­" Lilda opened her mouth while looking away. "Is that so?" "Y-yes." She had calmed down and began to stop stuttering. "That''s good then. My past life didn''t make a wrong choice." Alex paused. "I would like to ask you again, can you draw me a tattoo?" "Yes." She repeatedly nodded. "However, it''s rude to ask, but may I know Your Majesty''s knowledge about the Holy Emblem and Array in general?" "I have reached Rank 9 Array Master, but I don''t have much knowledge in general. There is so much information in the brain, but I haven''t absorbed it yet. Maybe I can absorb it first for one or two months. I am sure I will be better¡­" Alex answered honestly. "What do you think?" "That will be good. Before choosing what kind of layer set to create the tattoo, it''s better for Your Majesty to know what you want first." Alex thought for a moment. "Teleportation is a must. I don''t have the need for a Gathering Array and Simulation Room since I won''t make them unless in a safe place. Other than that, I think I want to have one Barrier Type Array, one Illusion Array, one Attack Array, one Bind Array, and one Elemental Array. That''s all." "It''s good for Your Majesty to know about what you need, but there is a problem. We have a vast amount of Array Variety, so Your Majesty can take a look at it first to know about the specific array you want to embed." "That''s a good idea. I will sort the knowledge first and have Alicia or you teach me about arrays for a few months. After six months, we will draw the tattoo, and I can get used to it while training my Array Activation so that I can use it in a fight." Alex explained his plan. "That sounds like a plan." Alicia agreed. "We can spare another six months for the joint training between Firia and me." "Yes." Alex nodded and asked Lilda. "How about it?" "I will help as much as I can, Your Majesty." She repeatedly nodded, making her look cute. Chapter 1041: Get a Tattoo From that day on, Alex began sorting all the knowledge about Alchemy. To be honest, he felt he had covered a great deal of knowledge in just one year. First of all, he had knowledge about Alchemy, Array, and Forging. And in another inheritance, he got the information about Element Arts and Martial Arts. Unfortunately, he never had time to learn all of them. Even though he was sure that most of the information would just go to the dump, he still learned a lot. Alex promised himself to learn about Forging, Element Arts, and Martial Arts even if it took a few months to finish it. This would surely give him an advantage in the long run. As soon as Alex completed his training, Alicia and Lilda quickly tested his understanding of array. They were shocked because Alex understood most of the questions and answered them pretty well. Lilda even gave an acknowledgment as proof to be one of the masters in arrays. As long as he could use the arrays perfectly, Lilda believed that Alex wouldn''t lose to a normal master. In fact, he might become at Alicia''s level in an instant. They taught Alex the practical way to use an array and a few methods to create the symbols. There was also a way to draw an array in the ground, tree and other things. They covered all those environments in order to allow Alex to leave his array anywhere. Alex was very eager to learn all this knowledge, especially after understanding the wonder of Alchemy from Firia. Arrays also held that kind of potential. After that, he went to another topic which was the Array Plate. He even got a chance to draw some Array Plates to the fullest ability. However, Alex became more absurd at this point. He showed Lilda his Simulation Room. She couldn''t be more surprised because this was her first time to see an illusion world as complete as Alex''s Simulation Room. Lilda didn''t forget to remind Alex not to show it to anyone else because that technique was far too monstrous than he could think. Alex said, "He understands." Although a bit unwilling, Lilda agreed with him and let him use the array whenever he liked. It took a while, but Lilda also decided to draw the tattoo despite having yet to reach the time limit. Alex told her the five Arrays he wanted. The first and most important was his Teleportation Array. However, the second one was a Barrier called Star Barrier Array. This barrier used the power of the star, but when Alex took another look at it, he realized that his Pure Fire could replace the power of the sun, allowing him to release more power for this barrier. The second Array was Sun Moon Reflection. The array he had been using this whole time to create a Special realm. As for the third array, Alex chose a Bind Array called Ten Thousands Sword Formation Array. As the name implied, it summoned thousands of swords that could seal one''s movement. Alex even tested it himself, and it was pretty effective when someone got trapped in the array. But he also realized that with enough strength, you could break free easily. Even his Pure Fire burned all the swords before they could even touch him. That was why Alex believed that the charm of this technique was when the enemy had no way to escape anymore. Since his main fighting style revolved around his Sword and Spear, he used this one for support instead. Besides, his Sword Qi would be of help in this area. After taking a while to come up with the last array, the fifth array, which was supposed to be an elemental array, was the Hellfire Array. This array allowed him to create an undying fire with his Pure Fire. Of course, it remained blazing as long as the array was still there. If it were taken out, the flame would naturally disappear. After listening to what he wanted, Lilda offered a few solutions, but Alex seemed to have something in his mind when picking all those arrays. Understanding the reason behind them, Lilda gave her approval and continued to draw the tattoo. The information was enough after all. They arrived inside a white room with a chair in the middle along with weird equipment in all places. He looked around and asked, "Are you living here?" "Of course not. I apologize if it''s too messy¡­I don''t have time to put the trash away." "Why don''t you ask someone to do it for you?" "It''s fine. I can do it later and it won''t affect me." She waved her hand before shaking her head helplessly. She stored all the trash with her Space Ring, but the liquid remained. Kai decided to use his Pure Fire to evaporate them and made the place clean. "Thank you, Your Majesty." She hurriedly thanked Alex when she saw her room became clean again. "It''s fine." Alex nodded before looking at the chair in the middle. From the structure alone, the chair looked like the chair that the dentist used. He asked, "So, I should sit there?" "Yes. But I would like to know where you are going to place the tattoo.." "Hmm. I haven''t thought about that." Alex glanced at Alicia. "I am not sure. You can do it anywhere, but since you already have one on your back, I think it''s better to do it elsewhere. Maybe your chest or something¡­" Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. After a while, he decided. "I will go with the forearm, near the shoulder like Alicia." "I understand. I shall draw it there. Do you prefer your left one or the right one?" "Left." She nodded. "Please sit on the chair." Alex followed her instruction and sat down, but the chair soon changed its posture from sitting to lying down. "Please turn around and lie on your belly. Also, it''s better to take off your shirt, so it allows me to do it faster with more precision." "How long do you take before?" Alex asked while unbuttoning his shirt. He took it off and handed the shirt to Alicia. "It was two days. The symbols were very small, and I needed to carve three million symbols during the process. It was hard." "I see." Alex nodded and laid down. Instead of the usual way to draw like using a brush or something, Lilda brought a thin needle¡­A very thin one that even Alex had a hard time seeing. "That''s so thin¡­" Alex couldn''t help but comment. "I have this one with me." She brought glasses that seemed to have the effect of an amplifying glass. "Since I don''t need to make a different tattoo''s image, I don''t need to redesign it to fit the image." "I will leave everything in your care." Alex nodded. "Yes." She then brought a bottle of Divine Monster Blood and opened the lid. The blood gradually floated to the air as it slowly filled up the needle in her hand. "It won''t hurt, but please don''t move since it''s easy to mess up." "I will go outside then." Alicia thought it was better to leave these two alone since Lilda could concentrate more, and Alex didn''t need to see her as it might distract him. "You sure?" Lilda asked. "Yes." Alicia put on a gentle smile and left the room. Meanwhile, Alex nodded his head. "You may start." Lilda took a few deep breaths and began drawing the symbols. Just like Lilda said, he didn''t feel pain. In fact, he didn''t feel anything as if nothing touched him. He glanced at Lilda''s serious face and decided to close his eyes to avoid distracting her. ¡­ One day later, Alex felt power surging into him. The gears that were created finally began working. He felt the connection between him and the array. With only channeling his energy and creating a few more symbols, he could use an array in an instant. This would be the biggest advantage an Array Master could hope for. "Your Majesty. I have finished." Lilda smiled and stepped back, looking at the tattoo. Alex gradually opened his eyes and bowed his head to Lilda. "Thank you. How can I repay you?" "Please don''t think about it, Your Majesty. I am the one who can''t repay you." She shook her head. "No, no. Those who work deserve to be rewarded." "Is that so?" Lilda looked down, falling into deep thought. "I don''t know what I actually want. I am just happy to see that Your Majesty is fine." Alex smiled. "Thank you. You can think of it in the meantime and tell me when you know what you want." "I understand." Lilda nodded. "For now, I think Your Majesty should try it first." "Yeah." Alex agreed and rose. He took a few steps back and channeled his Divine Energy to the tattoo. The information about what kind of layers he wanted to use flashed in his mind. He only needed to direct the Divine Energy to use them. However, he couldn''t use all of them since they would clash with each other. Alex chose the first one, the Teleportation Array. His Holy Emblem appeared behind his back as he tried to draw the remaining symbols. However, he also found a few problems during the test. First of all, he was required to know which symbols he lacked and where to put them. The Holy Emblem also needed to be adjusted to his position depending on their usage. The Teleportation Array was usually beneath his feet, so he tried summoning the Holy Emblem again and drew the symbols¡­Albeit failed once again. "This is hard." "Yes. Alicia¡­I mean, Her Highness Alicia also needed a few months to get used to it." "You are her mentor, right? It''s fine to call her like how you usually did unless the person said otherwise." Alex smiled. "I understand." "I see¡­A few months. And I need to know what symbols you have drawn¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "In that case, this is the book of the symbols I have drawn. You will find everything other than the Ten Thousand Sword Formation Array since I will be drawing it right now." She handed a book that Alicia used to read to help her get used to this. "Do you have a plan to get yourself tattooed?" Alex asked while receiving the book. "Not at the moment. No one has enough skill to make this tattoo, so¡­" She sighed. "No wonder. But you have a desire, right?" Alex asked. "Of course I have. This technique will revolutionize the entire job itself." "In that case, try to find someone and teach him/her to do this. I will give you enough resources to do that." Alex smiled. "Is that so?" Lilda''s expression brightened. "Our budget has increased?" "Hmm?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. [They usually drew Array Plates and self-sustained with the money they got from selling the Array Plates. Of course, we have given them a portion of our income, but I think it''s not enough.] ''Then how about adding the money I got from Encore? I will probably get more if I go to the Dungeon God''s place.'' [Just don''t give it too much. They will go crazy. Ten billion Spirit Crystals should be fine.] Alex nodded and looked at her. "How about ten billion?" "Are you God?" Lilda quickly hugged him and brushed her cheek against him. "Yes. You are God that was sent here to save this place." "Oi, oi." Alex twitched his eyebrows and just let her do what she wanted since she was so happy. "Don''t be crazy with the money, okay? Besides, this is reward money for the tattoo." "I will use it wisely, Your Majesty. I will surely improve the Holy Emblem with this much money." "Well, there is an option to sell the service for this, but it''s only the plan for the future." Lilda blinked a few times when she heard the idea. "This is the biggest method to get money¡­Well, this is for an emergency, so I will only think about it in the future. For now, keep improving the Holy Emblem and train some people you trust. Okay?" Alex smiled. "Understood." "Time to go to Alicia then." Chapter 1042: White Ash Pill As one would expect, Alex underwent the training to unleash the full ability of his Holy Emblem. It only took one month for Alex to get used to the Holy Emblem. Alicia then changed her plan and asked Alex for sparrings so that they could use it normally when fighting against their opponent. Of course, the fight was only filled with Arrays. After that training, Alicia brought him back to Firia and did the last stage of their training, which was the joint practice of Alchemy and Array. They trained inside the Simulation Room. Alicia and Firia agreed to give him a demonstration first, and Alex sat down in front of them, who were getting prepared for the refining. Firia then summoned her flame again before tossing all the ingredients into the fire. As soon as they were warm enough, Firia quickly turned the flame into a carp with all the ingredients in its belly. "I am ready. The Dragon Breathing Refining Technique is ready." Firia nodded, telling Alicia to proceed to the next step. "Sure." Alicia snapped her finger as an array slowly appeared in the air. "Dragon Gate Refining Array." Alex narrowed his eyes and found that the array had twelve slots with one center that should be filled with the Divine Monster Core. As he expected, the carp turned into a full-fledged dragon and circled on top of the array. Its head was stretching toward the center as the Divine Monster Core flew to its brain as the dragon rested its head on the center. As for the other ingredients, they went inside each slot. Alicia quickly activated the array and sealed every single ingredient inside the slot. "I am done. You can proceed to the next step." Alicia nodded with a smile. Firia acknowledged it and changed the temperature of the dragon according to what they needed. It was more precise than the one Firia showed him during the training. For the first time in his life, he could see the harmony between the three big jobs. It turned out they were connected with each other. The Array Master used the array while the Forging Master built the Alchemy Furnace. They helped Alchemist to refine a pill. Of course, if the Array Master was on the focus, the Forging Master could build the structure for the array while the Alchemy created the harmony from all ingredients needed. This concept applied to the Forging Master as well. It turned out that despite them being separated, they could form a symbiosis. Alex was impressed by the sight before him and continued watching them in silence. After a while, Firia signaled Alicia to get ready. "The refining is done. No need to expel the impurities. We will proceed to create the pill," said Firia while awakening the dragon. "Understood." Alicia nodded and infused her Divine Energy to the array."I can open the seal at your notice." "Good. I will be done in 5¡­4¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­GO!" Firia shouted. Alicia nodded and removed all the barriers that sealed them so the ingredients were connected again with each other. Previously, all ingredients were only connected to the Divine Monster Core to harmonize the effect, but this time, they created a synergy with the other ingredients. Firia''s fire flared up, gradually turning the ingredients into droplets of liquid. The dragon then turned into a vortex with the Divine Monster Core as the center. The ingredients were absorbed into the array. When she saw that it began to fuse, Firia quickly tossed the merged liquid into the furnace and sealed the lid. Alicia lowered the array and helped the refining process. It took them ten minutes before the pill popped out. Firia caught it and showed it to Alex. "This is the White Ash Pill. Pure Quality of course." Alex checked it with his Spirit Eyes and nodded his head. "Well, we should have enough ingredients to make five pills. It will be for me, you, Evelyn, and Sherry. The last one¡­I am still not sure." Firia furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, this is only the first harvest. We can harvest the ingredients again in the future, so we can save that one until you meet someone worthy of that pill. We have Stina, Kyle, and Ellen as the candidate. If you want to add Ragi to the selection, I don''t really mind. However, I still can''t trust him one hundred percent." "I know what you mean¡­" Alex nodded. "Besides, I can give it to Fabio to increase his strength. Although killing is not possible to level him up, we can use Medicinal Ingredients and Pills to speed things up." "Fair enough." Firia nodded. "The choice is yours." "I will probably follow your idea and keep it for the time being. Maybe we can give the others later." Firia shrugged and let him choose. "Still, I believe you can reach Rank 7 God with the help of this pill. How about taking another one?" She smirked. "You should know that I can''t eat it for the second time¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "It''s only for ten years though. You can eat it later." Firia pouted. "Well, I will think about it ten years later." Alex shrugged before summoning the ingredients. "Actually, I would like to consult something." "What is it?" Alex smiled and summoned his Fox Avatar. The fox glared at the two menacingly before lowering its head. "This is the Fire Authority. I wonder if I can use it when refining. I mean, the earlier array makes me think something like this¡­ If I turn the dragon into a fox, won''t it be possible for me to use the universe''s strongest fire technique to refine a pill?" Alex smirked. "In a concept, it looks like we only need to change it, but there are more complex things you need to consider." Alicia shook her head and reprimanded him. "Is that a no?" Alex sighed. "I didn''t say it is impossible. Maybe you can give it to Lilda and have her change something in the array. With her expertise, it should be possible." Alicia offered a solution. "And you just gave her ten billion Spirit Crystals, so I believed she would be pretty eager to help you." "Now that you mention it, my personal wealth was a few hundred billion. I wonder how much Eulja''s annual income¡­" "Hmm?" Alicia furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing the answer. The same applied to Firia as she looked away. Lin Xingzhi was the one who answered him. [Don''t ask those two. They always escaped when learning about this. Our gross income is about one hundred billion annually. Considering we need to give some for our developments, our net income is around one billion annually. Unless we have a new policy or something, we usually save it in our treasury.] "I see. One hundred billion to one billion¡­One percent, huh." Alex fell into deep thought. "Well, we have a huge amount of soldiers along with the Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, and Ten Commandants. If we calculate the needs of the Military to keep improving¡­ It should cost around fifty billion annually¡­Just a wild guess. "Then there is Lilda. If we calculate all research and the cost for maintaining the castle, I guess it''s a reasonable number." Alex nodded. [Yep. You can use the income to cultivate. In fact, it''s for all of us, including Alicia and Firia. It''s not like we can use one billion in a year, right? Probably half of that and it gives us quite good progress.] "Yep. I agree with you." Alex nodded. "For now, I will be giving the concept to Lilda. Maybe visit her again to show my Fire Authority." Firia nodded. "In the meantime, we will be teaching you how to combine Array with Alchemy. You will be able to refine one by yourself since you are adept with both." "Yes. Don''t let me catch you slacking." Alicia repeatedly nodded. "Okay, two madams. What are we going to do?" Alex smiled helplessly. "We are¡­" Alex began his training again. ¡­ A few months later, Alex stood in front of Alicia and Firia. This wasn''t a Simulation Room anymore, but the real world. He summoned his Godly Pure Fire and tossed all the ingredients inside his flame. Since he would be the one doing all the refining process, he quickly summoned the Dragon Gate Array above his head while warming all the ingredients and turning his flame into a carp. The moment the carp hit the array, it turned into a dragon. Alex repeated what Firia and Alicia did when demonstrating their skill in front of him. Alicia and Firia observed his every movement to make sure nothing went wrong. Even though Alex had managed to increase his success chance to one hundred percent, they still needed to prepare for the worst. Fortunately, the refining was done without any mishap. "Done¡­" Alex let out a breath of relief, looking at the greyish white pill in his hand. "This is the White Ash Pill. It''s a Perfect Quality one." "That''s good." Firia nodded. "Since it''s done this way, how about we split the remaining four sets of ingredients for both of us? Alicia and I will refine two while you refine the other two." "I am up for it. It will finish faster anyway." Alex nodded. With that agreement, they began refining all the ingredients. It took them a few hours, but the result was satisfactory. All pills produced were Perfect Quality Pills. "We have finished our jobs. What are you planning after this?" Firia asked while handing the pills to him. Alex received them and answered. "I am going to leave again after reaching Rank 7 God, but I don''t know where I should go¡­" [I have one place for you. It''s a quite unique world where you will die if you speak.] "What?" Alex widened his eyes. "You will die when you speak?" [That world is filled with monsters sensitive to sound. When they speak, they will get noticed and killed. So, they don''t speak.] "Then, they can''t speak?" [No, no. It happened recently after a meteoroid struck that world. I will send you the information after this.] "So, what do you expect me to learn from that world?" Alex asked. [Not learn, but grab one thing.] "Oh?" Alex''s eyes brightened because he got one thing in his mind. "Undying Fire Body?" [Yes. From what I know, they have a queen there that is attracted to Undying Blaze Root. Unfortunately, I don''t know their exact location, so you might want to ask the locals there.] "I understand. Anyone want to go together?" Alex smiled. Alicia and Firia exchanged looks and shook their heads. "We will pass. Have something to do." [I also can''t do it this time.] "Anna and Anya?" [I asked them just now. They will pass as well.] "Hmm¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Letizia, Sherry, Rose, and Evelyn are not here. In that case¡­ Should I go alone?" [How about Silvia? It''s been three years and a few months¡­But if you eat the pill first, it will be four years. I think it''s better to solve it now, since the longer you wait, the harder it is for you to go to her.] "Fair enough." Alex looked at the sky and nodded. "I will visit her now. After this world, I will go to another world with her¡­The one that I have promised to bring her." [Yes. I will leave it to you.] "Then, can you give Sherry the pill? And pass a message to her to take care of herself. I am waiting for our reunion." [Will do.] Alex then nodded and gave Firia the pill. "Now?" Alicia saw that and smiled. "Do it in your room, alright? I will do my job now." Alex and Firia agreed. Alicia then flew to the Ice Phoenix Tribe while Alex and Firia went to Firia''s Room to cultivate together. Meanwhile, in the Beast World, Sherry smiled when she received the message. She fixed her fancy purple dress and walked to the window, looking at the world from her room. "It''s been a while, Master. I also miss you. However, wait for me¡­I have reached Rank 8 God now. I will go back to you once I reach Rank 5 God. I love you¡­" Sherry smiled while looking at the pill in her hand. Chapter 1043: Dungeon A few months later, Alex and Firia were still in the garden, refining the energy from the White Ash Pill. Considering Alex had a superior Pure Fire, his aura was the first to increase. Rank 7 God. Alex cultivated the rest of the energy and gradually opened his eyes. "Hmm¡­" Alex let out a small groan, looking at Firia in front of him. He smiled and thought, ''You almost reach Rank 8 God¡­Probably in one or two months since the energy is still there. It seems I can''t really send my goodbye to you.'' [Congratulations on your cultivation.] ''Thanks. How are Anna and the others?'' Alex asked. [They have made good progress. Although only Sherry has reached Rank 8 God, the others are not really far from it. Maybe one or two years are enough.] ''I see. That''s good.'' Alex nodded. ''I will visit them to say goodbye since I will probably leave for a few months or so?'' [I think it will be a few years. Refining the Undying Blaze Root will take a lot of time, so¡­] ''Fair enough.'' Alex nodded. ''Still, I don''t know what to say to Silvia.'' [That''s the only thing you can do. My only advice is to say everything honestly. Just like you said, what happens later is decided by fate.] ''I understand. I will just do that.'' Alex rose from the bed silently to avoid waking Firia up and left the room. Because they were separated from each other, it took him a few hours to greet the Five Guardians, the Elemental Gods, and his wives separately. Even so, he felt that it was worth it¡­Even though they somehow forced a kind of "torture" for him to go through. Yes, the Elemental Gods and Guardians had yet to give up on him. Alex could only shake his head helplessly. After that, Alex wasted no time going to the castle to meet Lin Xingzhi. In her room, Lin Xingzhi was still occupied with the system. "You want to open the Gacha first?" She smiled. Alex suddenly remembered that he planned to open it after his training was over. He scratched the back of his head and sighed. "Sure." [Gacha Point: 33028] [Gacha Coin: 437] "Hmm¡­Four years and only four hundred?" Alex frowned. "I don''t know if their luck is low or something, but this is just too horrible¡­" "Haha¡­ I can''t argue with that, but I have set the chance accordingly, so it must be the former." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "So, I can''t use the Gacha, no?" "Not really. You can exchange the Gacha Points to Gacha Coin for a hundred to one exchange ration." "I see. One hundred Gacha Points is equal to one Gacha Coin. In other words, a hundred Rare and Super Rare items are equal to one Ultimate Rare item. Not the best conversion, but I think it''s good enough." Alex nodded in understanding. "I will exchange all of them then." "Sure thing." Lin Xingzhi acknowledged the order and exchanged it. "It feels weird to see that the system power you have is actually in front of you, but I can''t do anything to it." "Haha. The host can order me, but you can''t interfere with the system. Everything has a cause and effect, so yeah, just don''t think about it." Lin Xingzhi chuckled. "By the way, I have finished the exchange." Alex took another look at his system. [Gacha Point: 28] [Gacha Coin: 767] "Hmm¡­It has yet to reach one thousand. Ugh, I can''t open anything. I need another world to get this kind of thing." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I can''t help it. I will only help you with the process, but I believe there is a need for a different approach." Lin Xingzhi offered a suggestion. "What do you mean?" Alex tilted his head. "First of all, you can use the world you are going to give them the strength to fight. The one that gets terrorized by unknown monsters¡­" "Hmm¡­I don''t really like changing the world too much, especially if they don''t have a power system." Alex shook his head. He didn''t like to interfere in the world of mortals. At the very least, he needed a world with a power system like the one he placed his system. "It does have." Lin Xingzhi nodded her head. "Well, it''s not as strong as Agar World¡­The world where Alicia and Firia were born, but it is definitely there. If I need an example, it''s like the Earth''s history. I mean¡­The one that says about Kung Fu and inner energy? Something like that. It''s weak, but it''s there." Alex was still hesitant. If it were Earth, he might do it, especially since there were so many games or action stories out there. But this one¡­He wasn''t sure. "I want to mention this, but the monsters that terrorize them are numbered millions." Lin Xingzhi added one more thing to convince Alex. "Oh, wow?" Alex blinked his eyes a few times. "And if there is a queen, they will most likely give birth for more monsters¡­You know what I mean?" Alex let out a long sigh. "I understand. You manage to convince me." "Of course, I didn''t say this just out of spite. I have prepared something for you." She smirked. "It''s the dungeons." "Dungeons? As in the one from the Dungeon God?" Alex widened his eyes. "Exactly. After deciphering his concept, I have understood how he manages his dungeon." She smirked. "And after conducting several investigations, I have ascertained the possibility of dungeons in this world." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Can you explain it to me in detail?" Lin Xingzhi nodded with a smile. "First of all, you need a portal to another world. From what I can see, this world is attracted to one of the upper worlds near it." "So, it''s like the one where I placed my system?" "Yes. Just reverse. So, this one is like the Agar World." "I see. What to do?" "First of all, you need to construct a dungeon which can easily be done with our technicians. In fact, I have asked a few people to create some since two years ago. And you need to find the portal to the other world there and unseal it. Of course, to prevent the other world from going to their world, you will need to link it to the dungeons while turning the portal into a one-way portal." "I somehow understand¡­" Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "After directing the portal to each dungeon, I will plant Rank 9 Teleportation Arrays¡­Maybe an Array Formation since the distance is too big. If I need to calculate, maybe tens of millions of symbols for one dungeon." "Yes. After that, you need to establish the concept. We can use the Dungeon God''s concept, which is to use all the things that the dead monsters can offer to teleport another monster from another world, supply the energy for the dungeon, and reap the benefit from the excess energy to get Spirit Crystals. This is another way for monetization." Lin Xingzhi explained. "I see. That''s a good concept. This way, I might not get Gacha Point and Coins, but I will get Spirit Crystals, boosting the revenue even further." "Exactly. Of course, it''s better to set multiple dungeons to maximize this effect. Besides, you need to make another array on the other side to kidnap those monsters and so much blood to create all of those things. Well, we will run the dungeons at a loss for a decade or two before starting to get the profit. If we calculate the time you will fight the beast, it''s better to make this one as soon as possible." Alex agreed. "I understand. I will make dungeons there after getting the Undying Blaze Root. Well, if we don''t give the Gacha, the income will be reduced, but we don''t need to supply them needlessly. It''s not like our supply is infinite even if we buy things from merchant clans like Blackwade Clan." "Yes. That''s why the Dungeon God chose to be a Dungeon God instead of any other Gods. This one is the most profitable in the long run and can function automatically." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a smile. "Alright. I will create several dungeons depending on the geography. Other than the dungeons, I should leave a teleportation array for them to take advantage of like the Dungeon God." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "I will draw the concept and create the to do list. As for the details and addition, I will let you choose what you want. Is that okay?" "Sounds good to me." "Then, this matter is settled." Alex nodded. "Alright. I''m done." Lin Xingzhi raised her hands. "Now go." "Am I getting kicked out of the house?" Alex made a weird smile. Lin Xingzhi chuckled and shrugged. Alex kissed and hugged her before saying. "I am going then." "Un." She nodded with a big smile. Alex then turned around and disappeared. ¡­ Meanwhile, on another planet, a plain-looking grey-haired woman bent down on the ground, looking at the kid before her. The kid was crying as his foot was grazed because he fell earlier. "Don''t cry. Let me treat your wound." The woman put on a gentle smile and began treating his wound. "Wha¡ªIt''s healed. It''s like the wound never existed before. It''s magic!" The boy looked at her with a star in his eyes. "Big Sister, you are so good." "Thank you. You shouldn''t cry, okay? You are a man after all." She smiled while patting his head. "But why does Big Sister look so sad?" The boy tilted his head in confusion. Unknowingly, the boy seemed to be able to understand her emotion behind that gentle smile. "Fufu, Big sister is not. Silly boy." The woman flicked his forehead and helped him up. "Let''s go back then?" "I am not a boy, I am already seven years old now. And I don''t want to go back. I don''t have a family and all the people in the village keep bullying me. Big Sister is the Forest Witch, right? The villagers called you like that. Can I follow you? I want to learn how to treat someone so their pain will be healed and they don''t need to endure their pain anymore." "Is that so? Hmm¡­Your eyes seem a bit special, but I can see that your heart is good. I won''t easily accept a student, but I will consider it if I see your determination. First, how about you go back to your village and come to my place in the morning? If you can find my house, then I will consider taking you in. However, you should promise that you will use it for good. How about it?" The boy''s expression brightened. "Really? I will do it immediately." "Good. Then, I will be waiting for you." She smiled and patted the boy''s head before walking away. "See you tomorrow, Big Sister." The boy waved his hand with a smile on his face. When she reached a small hut in the middle of the forest, she entered her room with a complicated expression. The boy''s words just hit her hard. The boy''s eyes were indeed special. She subconsciously walked toward her bedroom, finding a picture frame on the table. She reached it and held it gently. Tears began to swell up on her eyes before flowing down. It was a picture of her with a golden-haired man. "I wonder why¡­I have been here to forget the emotion and memory with you¡­But I just couldn''t do it. Even though I haven''t fallen too deep, the pain is this unbearable. Now that I think about it, how much pain did they need to suffer when you disappeared for five thousand years¡­Am I really qualified to be by your side?" She stuttered. Her legs went limp. Dropping on her knees, she hugged the picture while crying. "No. The fact that I am like this¡­It''s because I have fallen too deep." She felt conflicted about whether to leave this world to fix the misunderstanding with Alex shamelessly or stay in this world and teach the boy here. At the very least, the boy could keep her busy enough to make sure she doesn''t think about him again. Chapter 1044: Solving the Misunderstanding As soon as Alex left the world, he broke the crystal that Silvia gave in their parting. He made sure to dust from the crystal inside his Divine Energy. Suddenly, the dust had the urge to move to his right. "It''s this way?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and summoned the Holy Emblem while creating the rest of the symbols for his Teleportation Array. It shortened the time he needed to create the Array, so his journey felt a lot faster. Still, Alex kept using his Teleportation Array for one day already and the dust kept pointing in the same direction. He believed in what Silvia gave and kept following the direction it pointed at until two days later, he finally arrived at the farthest world he had ever come. He never used his Teleportation Array for this long to barely reach the place. Other than Encore, who was significantly farther due to the existence of the Black Hole, this was his farthest trip. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and found out that the world before him was also a Divine World, but the energy wasn''t as powerful as Eulja. "Maybe this world is like the Devil World¡­Yes, I believe it is. Rank 5 God is the limit, I guess?" Alex tilted his head and smiled. "She indeed has thought it through. Although she said she wants to live peacefully for a while, she has chosen the world carefully. In this world, no one can threaten her, and escaping is very possible if the need arises. Anyway, it''s reassuring that she is doing just fine this whole time." Alex used his Teleportation Array again to sneak inside the world after making sure that there wasn''t any influence or whatsoever where he landed. He appeared inside a forest and needed to shift his balance a bit because of the slope. "Hmm¡­Where should I go now?" Alex muttered while looking at the dust, trying to see where to go. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind. "Mister. Who are you?" Alex turned around and found a small boy walking with a basket filled with medicinal herbs. The boy had short black hair and quite rugged clothes after moving around the hill to grab the herbs. "I am¡­" Alex fell silent and smiled. "I am searching for someone¡­" The moment he said it, he felt the dust move as if pointing toward the top of the hill. He didn''t know whether it was really on top of the hill or somewhere else in the sky, he decided to answer him honestly. "I am searching for someone. Apparently, she is there." He pointed at the top of the hill. Whether he was right or not, he didn''t tell a lie. "Hmm?" The boy tilted his head. "Are you searching for my teacher?" "Teacher?" Alex widened his eyes. Seeing Alex''s surprised expression, the boy began to doubt Alex. However, he soon realized that he became her disciple only recently, so the people his teacher knew must have no idea. "I¡­" The boy looked down. "What is it?" Alex smiled before asking. "I am not sure whether the one I am searching for is your teacher or not, but looking at your basket, the possibility is quite high. She is a doctor after all." "A doctor?" The boy gasped and blinked his eyes a few times. Alex couldn''t understand his surprised expression. "You are the second person who calls her a doctor, Mister. Of course, the first one is me. It seems that you truly know my teacher. I should guide you to her." The boy volunteered himself to lead Alex to the top of the hill. "Really? Thank you." Alex gently smiled. "What is your name? And how do you know I am your teacher''s friend?" "My name is Axis. Normally, people call my teacher with Shaman. They are the ones who can heal injuries. However, my teacher calls herself a doctor instead of a shaman. It was at that time I realized that my teacher is different." The boy answered him honestly. "I see." Alex nodded with a smile. He patted the boy''s head and gave him advice. "Just one thing you need to remember. Sometimes, it''s better to hide the fact you have a teacher. What if I were your teacher''s enemy? I would have kidnapped you and threatened your teacher, you know." "Ah?!" The boy suddenly realized and looked at Alex fearfully. "Haha¡­This is just a piece of advice." Alex smiled. "I am sure you can save your teacher in the future if you are a bit careful." "I understand. Thank you for your teaching, Sen¡ª" "What kind of poison are you trying to insert into my student''s brain?" Before Axis finished, a woman''s voice resounded in both their ears. They instinctively raised their vision, finding Silvia above. When Alex and Silvia looked at each other, they fell silent for a while. There were so many things they wanted to say, but none of them came out of their mouth. Noticing the strange atmosphere, the boy saw his teacher''s emotion and gasped. He quickly ran to his teacher before turning around, pointing his finger toward Alex. "You are the bastard that keeps making my teacher sad this whole time." Alex widened his eyes, shocked. Meanwhile, Silvia quickly used her Divine Energy to grab the boy and pull him to the top. She looked at Alex and said, "How about coming in?" Alex nodded and walked to the top. "Teacher, let me go!" Axis struggled to free himself, but he couldn''t do anything. "You go bring the medicinal herbs to the storage and prepare some of them," Silvia ordered. "But Teacher¡­" Axis wanted to say something, but Silvia only put on a gentle face and said, "Please." He gritted his teeth and followed her instruction. Meanwhile, Alex entered the house and looked at her with a weird face. He didn''t know what to say and how he should face her at this point. "Ehm¡­You look a bit thinner." "Just a bit." She shrugged. "How are you these days?" "I am good. Trained so hard in Eulja. How about you?" "I just focused on my medical ability." She smiled. "And I will probably leave this world soon since my cultivation is on the bottleneck." "I see. In that case, do you want to travel with me?" Alex asked. "I have wronged you that day, so I want¡ª" She quickly covered his mouth and shook her head. "That''s my fault. If only I stopped my father, things would go better¡­" "It was my fault. I tried to hide it for my own purpose." "I agreed to it and understood the reason you did it, so it was my fault." "No, no. It was my fault. If I¡ª" She covered his mouth again. "Let''s stop this?" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright." "If we want to blame, let''s blame my father. My mother has punished him dearly. It''s like torture instead." She chuckled. Alex put on a gentle smile. Their eyes intertwined and Silvia came closer. She was a bit hesitant, but Alex didn''t push her away and let her hug him. "I have thought it through this time. Can I get the second chance?" "But I am training my student¡­" "We can bring him with us. You can teach him just fine. Besides, I haven''t fulfilled our promise. There are still one and a half years¡­" "Hehe, you are still thinking about it?" She chuckled while burying her face in his chest. "Of course. I will fulfill the promise I made no matter how long it will take." "Sounds like you." She smiled. "If you don''t mind me with you again, I agree." "That''s good." Alex smiled. "I have promised you to visit a certain world, right? Let''s go there." "Un. Are you here just to visit me?" "Well, I also plan to visit another world." "Is it urgent?" "Not really." "Then, we can go to your destination first. I can also teach my student while we are at it." "Alright." Alex nodded. "Axis¡­" "Yeah. That boy is a bit special, you see¡­" She paused for a moment. "His eyes are different from anyone else, including your Spirit Eyes." "Oh?" "Your Spirit Eyes allows you to look at energy while his eyes transmit people''s emotions." "Emotions?" Alex fell into deep thought. "Yes. Anxiety, sadness, happiness, determination, killing intent, or even fear¡­" She smiled. "I agree to accept him as my student because of his eyes as well as his determination. He will surely become a good doctor with those eyes. Knowing what your patients feel will allow you to understand them and change your treatment accordingly." "Sounds like powerful eyes." Alex nodded in agreement. "I don''t really mind about him. When do you think you will leave?" "I can follow your schedule." "I see. Maybe in one or two days?" "I don''t have many things to pack up, so I don''t mind." "Then, let''s ask him." "Sure." The two then walked toward Axis, who became vigilant when he saw Alex. "You¡­" "Axis." Silvia shook her head. "It''s all misunderstanding. We have sorted it out." Axis could see Silvia''s emotion and notice the change. He finally looked down and bowed to Alex. "I am sorry." Alex patted his head. "You did nothing wrong. It was fair for you to do something like that and I believed that you are an honest kid with how you want to protect your teacher. My name is Alexander Sirius; you can call me Alex. Nice to meet you, Axis." Axis raised his head, seeing through Alex''s emotion. Everything he said from earlier was genuine, so he felt a bit guilty for suspecting him. "Yes. It''s my pleasure to meet you." Silvia smiled. "This boy was too sad. Because of his unique eyes, he was tortured in his village. He is also an orphan, so I took him in." "I see." Alex nodded and bent down. "We are going to travel to another world, do you want to follow us?" "Travel to another world?" He tilted his head and looked at his teacher that was going to leave him like his parents. Before he misunderstood, Silvia hurriedly explained. "You see¡­I am not from this world. I have come from another world. In the journey of medicine, you need to go to another world to gain their knowledge. Maybe you can treat anything here, but there will be a time you will face another challenge that no one has seen before. "However, there is a high chance that this kind of sickness has happened in another world and it turns out to be a normal disease there. That''s why I always hone myself in another world to gain more and more knowledge about this. "At first, I wanted to teach you everything to know here, but I believe bringing you to another world will give you the experience needed to be a doctor. You will see different people and different treatments. That''s why I want to ask you, would you like to follow your teacher?" Axis looked down, contemplating the question. He glanced at Alex and asked. "Mister¡­Are you Teacher''s husband?" Alex and Silvia widened their eyes. However, the former shook his head. "I am not. But it may or may not change in the future. At that time, you will have the answer." Axis nodded. "I see. I will follow both of you then. It''s not like I have someone in this world other than Teacher." Alex patted his head. "Then, it''s settled. Pack up your belongings. This journey will be fantastic." "Yes." Axis quickly left the room to store his belongings. "We will leave tomorrow or the day after. No need to rush!" Alex shouted. Silvia chuckled when she saw him act like that. "He is earnest." "I agree. There are so many things that I need to teach this kid. Despite having been bullied for a long time, his kindness only grows stronger and stronger. I am not against it, but I just feel that someone will take advantage of it sooner or later." "Well, I do have a plan for that which revolves around his eyes, but he is afraid that he sees too much that he will scare the others¡­ I mean, he will feel your fear, anxiety, or even your love, right?" Silvia explained. "I understand. I will help you regarding this area." Chapter 1045: Anatomy Alex spent the rest of the day in that small hut, watching how Silvia was living this whole time. It turned out that she remained in this hut for most of the time, only leaving when she felt like it. And one time, she got lucky and met Axis, who hurt himself. Unlike Silvia, Axis had two jobs. The first was to study all the books Silvia gave before finding medicinal herbs in the forest. It would allow him to have more knowledge while having enough experience to discover the medicinal herbs they might accidentally pass by. During the night, he spent his time cultivating because he needed to have enough strength, so no one bullied him. It was a pretty balanced training menu to be honest. After getting Alex''s permission, Silvia decided to begin the hellish training by training his body to surpass his current limit. The sooner he started, the stronger he would become. His current strength was still in the Foundation Rank, considering Silvia only took him in just a week ago. Finally, the next day, they were ready to leave this place. Alex snapped his finger and the Holy Emblem appeared behind him. Since Alex wanted to restart their relationship, he decided to trust her a bit more by letting her see the Holy Emblem. Silvia was astonished by this technique because she could understand how valuable it was if he decided to sell the idea. Meanwhile, Axis was more surprised by the sight of Outer Space instead of his Holy Emblem. This was the first time he went to Outer Space, so Silvia explained everything to him while Alex kept teleporting them. It made him dizzy, but he somehow understood what Silvia taught him. After one day of continuous teleporting, he had grown accustomed to it and even began to take note of Silvia''s lesson. They only arrived at a certain planet two days later. The planet was like that of Earth, but he found a lot of light around the area. He thought they would probably stay there to get more information about the planet. Alex sealed Silvia''s cultivation and quickly entered the planet with both of them before hiding his cultivation. "We have arrived, Mister?" Axis asked while looking at his surroundings. They arrived at the dark side or the night side, so it was kind of hard to see. They were in a grassy plain in the middle of a forest. Before Alex answered him, he sensed something moving from the left and quickly used his Sound Insulation Array to block off the sound while swinging his sword. Suddenly, a bat like creature fell down, split into two. He burned the blood, so no one got blood in their body. "Wha¡ª" Axis couldn''t help but stutter and let out the voice again. Luckily, the Sound Insulation Array was already erected, so no one could find them for the time being. When they took another look at the bat, the body looked like a baby. "They look like a baby but with bat wings¡­" Silvia looked down while narrowing her eyes. "This is the first time I have seen this monster." "Baby with wings? Baby Vampire?" Alex couldn''t help but comment. Silvia looked away before taking out her scalpel. "I am going to take a look at it first. You don''t mind, right?" Alex stretched his hand, telling her to go ahead. "Your strength is only a Foundation Rank now, so be careful even if you have a Divine Body." "I know." Silvia nodded and started moving her scalpel. She skinned the creature in just two seconds. "Axis. Come here." "Yes, Teacher." Axis quickly bent down and looked at the creature. His hands were shaking to see the grotesque creature, but this would be his path in the future, so he couldn''t look away from this no matter how hard it is. The only way for him to get rid of that fear was to get used to this sight. "The Sound Insulation Array is there, so you don''t need to worry," Alex added. "Thanks. Do you mind getting rid of the blood for me?" Alex waved his hand and used his fire to evaporate the blood. "You are not going to examine the blood?" "It will take too long. I will just look at their anatomy." She shook her head. "Although it has been split into two, the cut is clean, so I can still understand all the parts here. This small canteen must have so much blood¡­No, most of the blood that it squirted when it got cut must come from here. "The eyes are blind, the fangs are strong like that of a wolf, but with smaller size. This certainly doesn''t look like bat''s teeth¡­" She furrowed her eyebrows. "The ears are far stronger than humans. Assuming that it moves with its ears, we will find a small ball just behind the mouth. Exactly¡­" She found what she wanted to see. "They really move according to the sound. From what I can see, they see the things in front of them from the reflection of a sound wave. For example, even if you don''t make a sound, they will still recognize you like a bat. "However, they are not aware whether you are a living creature or not. That''s why if you don''t make a sound, you should be fine even if you keep moving. But I am afraid that this creature moves in a group, so if you move around in front of a horde, they will still attack you." "I see. In other words, we just need to kill them, right?" Alex concluded in a very simple way. "You are the only one thinking like that." Silvia rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I think I can understand their weakness if I have around five dead bodies and five living beings." "Do you want me to catch them?" Alex asked. "Hmm, wait a minute¡­" Silvia paused and found something weird. "There is a kind of blast inside their body. I mean, it is not supposed to be here with their anatomy. Do they have something that explodes in their body?" "Hmm?" Alex used his Spirit Eyes to check the bat and opened his mouth. "I believe it''s Spiritual Energy." "So, this bat can cultivate?" Silvia closed her eyes while pinching the bridge of her nose. "In that case, there is a possibility many of these creatures have evolved." "Evolved?" "Yeah. There might be a bigger version of this guy. Just like an ant, you know¡­" "I see. According to my information, the queen is using the thing I am looking for." "The thing you are looking for? Does this mean you have their information?" "Not really. What I searched was Undying Blaze Root. When the scout saw this creature, they realized that they usually went toward a warmer area. Other than the bigger one, there must be a leader somewhere like a queen. In that case, the most powerful fire energy on this planet is not a volcano or something, but the Undying Blaze Root." Alex shook his head, explaining the entire thing. "Hmm? In that case, it will be hard to know the location of your Undying Blaze Root." "Actually, not. We can ask for information to see which one that gets hit the most. We can assume that the queen is well protected, so we will go there." "Now I understand." Silvia nodded and looked at Axis. "How is it? Do you understand?" "I don''t." Axis shook his head. "I mean, I can see many organs like a possible heart or something, but the mispositioning or all the things Teacher talked about¡­I don''t understand a single thing." "That''s good enough for now. At the very least, you can identify some of the organs." Silvia nodded with a smile. "Continue your work hard." "Yes, Teacher." Axis repeatedly nodded, happy with the compliment. "There should be a place to stay there¡­" Alex pointed at their right. "We can go there and search for a place to get information. I am not planning to kill all of them, so I will only erect a dungeon here and be done with it as soon as I get the thing I want." "A dungeon?" "My Space Element comes from the Dungeon God." Alex shrugged. "¡­" Silvia twitched her eyebrows. "Should I call you Alex or Freak?" "The former of course." Axis chuckled when he watched them. His teacher finally let go of her sadness. She only had happiness during the past few days, which made him glad. "Why are you giggling?" Silvia glanced at him. "Let''s go. We are going to run this time." "Nothing." Axis made a big smile before following them. Alex continued erecting his Sound Insulation Room to make sure they didn''t get into trouble along the way. Since they planned to go to a place, he had no desire to bring a horde or something by making noises. Surprisingly, he found a carriage that seemed to be used recently. There was no monster around the carriage, but Alex could find one energy inside the carriage. "Someone is in the carriage. We should go." Alex pointed his finger. "It looks like a male child." Silvia nodded and opened the carriage, finding a sleeping boy. He was shivering due to the cold, but he stayed silent while struggling to sleep. When he felt the cold wind brush his skin, he realized that the door was opened. He covered his mouth with his hand to avoid making any sound while glaring at the door. Silvia smiled and asked, "Hello. What is your name?" The boy became even more fearful. His tears began streaming down as if he thought he would die. "Teacher. He is scared because you are talking." Axis tried to perceive his emotion and warned Silvia. Silvia patted Axis''s head and said, "Don''t worry. You can talk for a while. Nothing will come to us. Look at me¡­" The boy then realized. Usually, it would only take the monsters a few seconds to get to the source of the noises, but it seemed she was right. Despite being hesitant, he slowly opened his mouth. "Who¡­Are you?" "I am Silvia. I am traveling with my student and my boyfriend. What is your name? Can you tell me what happened?" She put on a gentle smile, trying to calm the boy down. Axis witnessed the change of emotion, never expecting it could change this fast. Meanwhile, the boy answered Silvia, stuttered. "I¡­am Karl. I came from the town and escaped alone. The monsters killed everyone in the city. Everything is burned down." Alex quickly knew that the light he saw earlier turned out to be the fire that burned a whole town. No wonder it was so bright. "Then, that town must have been surrounded by those creatures," Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yes. The warm temperature huh¡­" Silvia looked down, falling into deep thought. "Do you know anything about the creatures, kid?" Alex asked. "I only know that there is a mountain pass on this road. There should be the place I go because it is the opposite way of the star that changes everything." "Star? Oh, a meteorite. In that case, we know where to go next." Alex glanced at Silvia. "How about taking this child with us?" Silvia asked. "It will be dangerous. Well, I don''t mind taking him to his destination, but that''s it." "In that case, let''s do that. How about it, Kid?" Silvia glanced at the boy. The boy was about to answer, but the sound of his grumbling stomach echoed in everyone''s ears. "Ah, how long have you stayed in this place?" "I¡­" He looked down, embarrassed. "I have been walking for two days¡­" "Hmm, this is unique. Your lips don''t look like you are dehydrated." She narrowed her eyes. "Anyway, let''s eat first. I have talked too long¡­I should let you eat first." Alex nodded and magically took out food and drink while asking the boy to come out of the carriage. The boy''s eyes brightened. "Go on and eat. It will be a long way for you." Alex smiled. At the same time, Axis looked at the boy with a sad expression. Despite not having his parents or getting bullied, he was never hungry because he could find his own food. After watching the boy at the same age as him, he realized that strength is not less important than skills. Chapter 1046: A Serious Problem "Wah?!" The boy couldn''t contain his fear as he was carried by Alex like luggage. He never saw someone who could do something like this, only those in the legend. "Mister. Are you the people from the legend?" "Hmm?!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "What legend?" "The legend. In the past, there are many powerful warriors that have surpassed the power of humans. They can break a boulder, run very fast like you, or even do more amazing things." The boy explained. "You can consider me as one." Alex shrugged. He didn''t want to argue with the kid, and having some sort of identity, especially a mysterious one, would give him an easier life to ask something. "Really? Can I become someone like you?" The boy''s eyes brightened. "I want to kill those monsters who killed my parents and everyone in the city." "There is a chance. But even I got my power because I dared to fight in a life and death battle, so if you want this power, you will keep facing problems which can determine whether you live tomorrow or not." "I only have Grandfather, who I am about to visit, so I don''t really mind." The boy looked at him with determination. "And what if your Grandfather mind?" Alex posed a hard question. The boy fell silent and looked down, imagining what he would do if his grandfather said no. "As long as you can''t answer it, you are still not qualified to search for your own power." Alex smiled. "It doesn''t mean you need to answer me right now. There is never too late. As long as you start, anything can happen. That''s why you need to think about it carefully." "Uhn." The boy repeatedly nodded. "Alright. That''s the mountain. We will begin climbing the mountain. I want you to promise me something. Can you do that?" "My parents told me that I need to repay someone for their benevolence. Since Mister has saved me, I will do anything you want." "Good. I only want you to promise me something. Don''t tell anyone that you met me." "But why? I am sure that everyone will be happy if they know someone like Mister." "It''s not about feeling. I am more worried about you. If you tell anyone about me, they might believe you and kill you for the information. Or they might ignore you or even bully you because you are weird. That''s why this meeting is our little secret. Okay?" Alex put on a gentle smile. The boy''s heart moved. No matter how harsh he said from the moment he saved her or his nonchalant attitude toward him, it turned out that Alex was a good person. He judged him wrong. Even his excitement earlier still carried a trace of fear. Yet, the moment he realized this, that fear had disappeared. "I understand. I won''t speak anything about Mister." The boy repeatedly nodded. "Good. We will arrive in a few seconds. Hang on." Alex said and finally reached the top, finding a small house, perfectly fine. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found someone inside. "There is someone in your house. It seems that your grandfather is still alive. But remember, you can''t say anything after this because it will attract the monsters. Okay?" The boy politely bowed, thanking Alex for bringing him here. Alex then sent a thought transmission to the person in the house to come out while gently pushing the boy''s back to walk toward the house. The boy gulped down. He was still scared, but he chose to continue. Before arriving at the house, he looked back to see Alex and the others, but they were nowhere to be seen. Alex was watching him from the sky, looking at a gentle old man slowly opening the door and hugging the boy. "Teacher. The elder is happy." Even Axis confirmed that there wouldn''t be something wrong. Alex and Silvia exchanged looks and smiled at each other. "Alright. Time to go to the source of the problem." Alex turned around and flew toward the meteorite. Silvia brought Axis, following Alex from behind. They crossed over the burning town with so many monsters flying around the place. "Teacher¡­" Axis saw many monsters munching over corpses all around the town and felt sick just by seeing it. "This is the reality. We will be in constant danger, so you shouldn''t let your guard down." Silvia warned him. Alex suddenly stopped above the town and waved his hand. As if obeying him, the flame rose and turned into a tornado, engulfing the town as a whole. The monsters, the corpses, and even the buildings were reduced to ashes. Of course, Alex found no one alive anymore since he didn''t want to murder someone who was still struggling to survive. However, since there was no one in the town, he could do it without worry. "Rest in peace¡­" Alex muttered before continuing his journey. Axis had another kind of respect for him. Despite not showing the attitude, Axis could see that Alex genuinely did it because he wanted them to rest in peace. Alex, of course, didn''t care about it. He simply continued flying in one direction while searching for any clue. They could easily find one or two humans on the way, but all of them were already a corpse, so there was no point in stopping. After three hours of flying, they finally saw a large crater with a quite big stone in the middle, perfectly cracked in the middle. "Hmm?" Silvia found something weird in the meteorite and landed next to it. "This is¡­" Axis recalled what he had learned and asked, "Is this an egg, Teacher?" "Yes. There is a sign of life force in this stone." She nodded and bent down, getting the earth to smell it. "This weird smell is related to the one before us¡­It seems that this is not a meteorite, but an egg." "Seriously?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I mean, the only thing that can survive Outer Space¡­" Silvia''s expression darkened. "It seems the parent is a God Rank monster." "Yes." Alex nodded. "Although there is none here, we still need to be careful and grab anything we can find. Maybe this monster is more unique than we thought. "I agree." Silvia nodded. "I will study this egg a bit with Axis here." "I will bring you a few samples." Alex handed a Sound Insulation Array Plate to her and disappeared, flying somewhere else. Alex arrived at a forest not far from there. Without the Sound Insulation Array, the monsters should be able to hear him. "Ha!" Alex shouted for a second, turning the silent forest into an uproar. Monsters began to fly to the air, finding Alex in the air. After having learned the Spirit Crown in Eulja, he decided to test it in a real fight. Although this was not a genuine fight, he still could power the Spirit Crown. The blue jeweled crown appeared above his head as the jewel shone brightly. He took out Eve and waved his hand without using energy. In other words, this attack only contained the energy supplied by the Spirit Crown. That energy spread over the area like splashing water with a sword. The powerful shock wave decimated or even crushed the monsters in an instant. "Not bad¡­" Alex smiled. "Master. That energy is really delicious." "You got used to it two years ago, and you still said it?" Alex shook his head helplessly. "But the energy is truly delicious. I am being filled to the brim." "Haha¡­Anyway, let''s begin the hunt. There are so many around here, so I will catch fifty of them alive. The rest shall be annihilated." "Understood." Alex began killing the monsters with his Spirit Crown. It was truly a powerful technique despite he only mastered two of the four techniques. He could even fuse the energy with Divine Energy, Intent, or even Sword Qi. It took him three hours just to kill all of them, creating a mountain in a forest. The mountain contained more than a million monsters. Despite that, he felt there were still so many monsters like this out there. "Master. We are stopping?" "Yes. There is something I feel weird about¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "What is it?" "With how big the egg is¡­This number doesn''t match up. In other words, they are producing at an alarming rate." "Ah?! Do you mean they are killing the people here to give births to millions?" "Yes. They are their source of food. However, I don''t know what they are aiming for¡­" Alex turned around. "Can you go back first?" "Sure thing." Eve returned to the Inventory while Alex returned to Silvia and explained the entire situation. "So you are saying they are trying to create chaos?" "That is one thing, but I believe the real aim is to create an army." Silvia widened his eyes. "An army? I am sorry, but I don''t have an idea what kind of planet can host a creature like this¡­ I have never met them before." "Is that so?" Alex called someone to help. ''Xingzhi.'' [I have asked Nelson and the N Squad. They have no data about this.] "This is troubling. To drop an egg this big, they will be a God Rank Expert first. However, I find something more disturbing." [Hmm?] "This planet is connected to an Upper World, right? And that Upper World is also connected to many Lower Worlds?" [This is an emergency, isn''t it?] "Yes. Arrange an investigation regarding this matter. The Spiritual Energy Silvia pointed earlier might be related to it. For example, they could get stronger after eating the people. A low level one like them is not a problem, but even an Upper World will have trouble with them. First, they will get stronger by killing those who are weak before eliminating those strong people. When that happens, it will be too late." [I understand. I will make this a top priority. This will surely create a problem for the other Divine Worlds.] Alex nodded and looked at Silvia, explaining his thought. When she heard it, she had the same reaction as Lin Xingzhi. "I will send a message to my father¡­No, I mean, my mother." "Please." Alex nodded. "I don''t want to fight thousands of God Rank monsters like this, you know." "I have the same opinion." Silvia nodded. "I have fifty samples here. You should research them." Alex presented her with fifty monsters trapped in his Spiritual Energy. "Thanks. I will try to find anything about them. Besides, I can see that there is a trace of a powerful being, stronger than me, on this egg. In other words, the parent must be at least a Rank 4 God monster." "This will surely become troublesome." Alex nodded. "Yep. For now, I have calculated the direction they are going. However, I am not sure whether they are there or not." "It''s not like we have any clue?" Alex shrugged. "By the way, are you planning to carry them like this?" "Is there a problem?" Silvia tilted her head in confusion while carrying the samples with her energy. Alex facepalmed and took out a box. This was the Time Box, the one that sealed Alicia. "Is that the legendary Time Box? The one that can store living beings and freeze its time?" Silvia drew a gasp and took a step back. Alex shrugged and stored the sample inside the box. "It can''t store anything beyond God Rank Expert though. And it''s not mine." [It''s yours. You have gotten it from the Gacha.] ''But you purposely arranged it that way.'' Alex sighed inwardly. ''Anyway, this matter is more important. I will borrow this Time Box, alright?'' [Just use it.] Alex nodded and threw the Time Box inside the Inventory. "Tell me if you want to start researching. For now, we should be focusing on our objective." "I understand." Silvia nodded with a serious expression before pointing to the west. "This way." "Before that¡­" Alex touched the egg and stored it inside the Space Ring. This time, he handed the egg to her. "Take this as well." Silvia received it before turning to Axis. "Sorry for being too focused on this matter, Axis." "I am fine, Teacher. I have learned a lot as well just by watching you." "Alright. Let''s go then?" The three nodded and flew to the sky. Chapter 1047: Dungeons "Stop," Alex said as he saw so many life energy signs in front of them. As expected, they had evolved into something troublesome. Other than a normal bat type monster, there were a few bigger ones. As for the queen, he had yet to see it. "What are we going to do?" Silvia asked. "You said you need samples, right? I will catch them. This may lead us to something big." Silvia thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand." "Besides, I can see a powerful Spiritual Energy in there. That''s my objective, I guess." Alex narrowed his eyes and calculated the route to take the Undying Blaze Root. He also needed to catch a couple of the bigger ones and, most importantly, the queen. "You two can retreat first." Alex waved his hand and flew forward. Not far from him was that of a tornado, but if one took a closer look, they would find so many small monsters circling around. "Should I burn them all? From the look of it, there are at least one hundred thousand monsters there¡­" Alex thought for a moment and penetrated it with his Spirit Crown without creating a sound. Boom. The explosion surprised and made them quite disarray, allowing Alex to sneak inside. He found out that the ground was already dug up, leaving only a tree, one weird monster, and ten bigger bats. ''Let me see, the tree is the Undying Blaze Tree, but the tree itself is not that good of an item, so I will only take the root. And that weird one, I think that''s the queen. Time to hunt, I guess?'' Alex thought before the queen suddenly roared. A series of shrieks followed suit before they turned toward Alex as if knowing his existence. "Seriously?" Alex twitched his eyebrows while using his Pure Fire to cover his body. The monsters that tried to get closer would find themselves burned by the Godly Pure Fire. At the same time, Alex flew down to the ground, trying to grab the queen. The ten bigger monsters didn''t like it and quickly protected the queen, but Alex had no time to spare. He quickly used his Spiritual Energy to suppress them before capturing them with the Time Box. He looked at the queen. Unlike the baby body, the queen had an insect body. No, it was the original bat body. Even the bigger ones had a baby body, only a bit older. Thus, he came to a ridiculous conclusion. "The queen is the original one? There is a possibility that the only monster coming out of the egg was the queen, but this meant there would be many queens on this planet already. It seemed my choice to give this planet power was right. They can develop themselves and fight back. If they win, they will live like where Alicia and Firia were born. It''s pretty good. Unfortunately, I can''t interfere more than this or else, it will be detrimental for them in the long run as a planet." Alex muttered while storing the queen in the Time Box. Suddenly, the bats around him let out another series of shrieks before it flew away. "As expected, there must be another queen elsewhere. Calculating the egg size and the queen''s size, there should be at least ten queens. By getting food, which happened to be a human, they gained an army of millions if not tens of millions. This is the fastest but inhuman way to grow." Alex''s expression darkened. [We are on it. Please trust us.] "I understand." Alex nodded. He then looked at the three and waved his hand, lifting the entire tree, including the root, into the air. Without hesitation, Alex stored it inside his Inventory first because he shouldn''t be here for a long time." After seeing how the monsters had left, Silvia and Axis came to him. "Mister, are they gone?" "Yeah. There should be another queen elsewhere¡­" Alex began explaining about the hypothesis he found. Silvia later confirmed that there was a possibility about it. "Anyway, I have done my job. The rest will depend on the strength of the people in this world. For now, I will create dungeons first." Alex shrugged. "By the way, where are you going to refine your body? If I am not wrong, your body cultivation technique is Undying Fire Body, right?" "Yes. It''s only a body refining, I will probably refine it here before going to the world I promised you." Alex smiled. "Right? That world is good and has advanced technology. Axis should know about this kind of word because they had so much knowledge." "I understand, Teacher. I will do everything according to your order." Axis bowed his head. "I will do it here since the place is empty now. However, I will need to search for the portal all over the planet to plant my dungeon. You don''t mind, right?" Alex smiled. "Of course. I don''t have a problem." Alex then tossed the Time Box to her. "This is to fill your boredom. You should be able to find many things about them." Silvia widened her eyes, never expecting Alex to hand her the Time Box instead of the sample. This showed the difference of trust Alex put on after the misunderstanding or they got back. "Thank you." Alex waved his hand and flew outside the world, using his Spirit Eyes to check where he could find the hidden portal. It should have an enormous amount of energy, so he thought he could easily find it if he took a look at it from Outer Space. And it turned out he was right. After two hours of searching, Alex saw Space Energy. It was a bit small, so he failed to spot it a few times, but in the end, he could find the fluctuation of the Space Energy and quickly went there. He arrived in a plain without any living beings. However, he could find so many skeletons around. "This area has been devastated by those creatures. I don''t know if that is a bad omen or something, but that creature is dangerous. If it happens in Eulja and can''t be controlled, it will surely turn the world upside down. Regardless, I should continue my job." Alex shook his head and used his Spirit Eyes, finding the portal a bit farther from his location. It hid inside a forest, covering itself with so many trees to camouflage it. "I wonder if they have gone to this world or not?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "If the humans have done it, they can survive for a little bit longer and get stronger there. However, if the monsters have gone through this portal, it will be a disaster." Alex thought for a moment and took out many bottles filled with blood. He leveled up the entire area as if he tried to dig it down. Although the energy was not enough, his physical ability alone could do the job. "This is the first time I hold something this big¡­" Alex couldn''t help comment when looking at the giant boulder on his hand. In fact, he should call it a small island instead of a boulder because its length alone was five hundred meters. Alex paid no heed and began using his Spiritual Energy to help him draw the symbols. At the same time, he made sure to branch out a few things in other directions, so he could spread the Space Energy from this portal to another place. This would allow him to build several dungeons connected with another world. It took him ten hours just to draw the arrays and did more than he expected in terraforming, making sure that no one would notice this secret. After that, he created a four hundred meters hole inside the first platform and planted the man-made dungeon inside. The dungeon wasn''t like the Dungeon God''s. It only had fifty levels upward and ten levels underground. "Let''s see¡­" Alex took out the note Lin Xingzhi gave him about the tower. "This dungeon has fifty levels and ten floors underground. The ten floors are used to connect the entire tower with Spiritual Energy and the other world, allowing them to automatically bring another world''s monster to this dungeon. "This was the smallest dungeon that the Dungeon God had ever created. Well, his reason was to practice this dungeon because he never had the confidence in building this up. He tested it with this small dungeon for a few years. "Do you want to change it to a bigger dungeon?" If yes, send me a message. "If you don''t, you can proceed now." Seeing that the dungeon was pretty safe, he quickly entered the secret underground layer with his Teleportation Magic and started drawing arrays to set everything up. He already knew what arrays he needed to make, so his job was pretty easy. After drawing for about ten million symbols, he gradually understood how the Dungeon God created the dungeon. It was a pain to create these many symbols, especially doing it alone. Activating most of the array, he ran another check to see nothing went wrong. He then went toward the Portal and went to another world. As he would expect, the portal in this world was in a hidden location or the people from this world would have invaded them. He didn''t want to disturb the people in this world too much nor had the intention to confirm whether the monsters had gone to this world. He simply created millions of symbols underground like his Arrays on the other side before coming back. Unlike the first dungeon, it didn''t take too long for him to finish the array. It was only after all those he activated all the arrays. The dungeon then began to get surrounded by energy. "I need to wait a bit." Alex narrowed his eyes, watching the dungeon to see how the monsters got transported to this world. After an hour or so, he found the first monster, followed by more and more monsters. This meant the dungeon had successfully created. After that, he went to another place, specifically on the other side of the planet. In this world, he planned to build six dungeons: West, North, East, South, Top, and Bottom. Since he had understood how to build it, the next five dungeons took faster than the first one. However, he ended up using two whole days just to finish the entire construction. Luckily, the world population had been reduced, so no one found him building this dungeon, making his work simple. The moment he completed his task, he stepped on a plain with nothing but rock. "It''s time to call it again." Alex smiled and released his seal, showing his Divine Power. Suddenly, a Lightning Tribulation was formed on top of his head. The World''s Will manifested itself by using this Lightning and asked him, "How are you here, Human?" ''Here it is¡­'' Alex smiled. Chapter 1048: Body Refining ''Here it is.'' Alex had been waiting for him. Unlike the first world where he planted his system, this one only had a Rank 8 God''s power just like a normal Lower World. In fact, it was already powerful enough because it had gotten the influence from the real Upper World. Facing Alex, whose strength was higher, the World''s Will needed to be respectful. "I am here not to destroy your world or something. I simply want to offer you a proposal where the inhabitants of this world can survive. I am sure that you have been watching over them, right?" "Yes. However, I couldn''t help them because I was just a world. I didn''t have the jurisdiction to help them because life comes and goes every single day." "That''s when you have no invaders. With invaders, which are that monster, I am sure that the situation has become too complicated. To that end, my proposal is to plant my power in you to allow the others to get stronger to fight back. How about it?" "That is an interesting proposal. Although I would like to believe you, I couldn''t find the reason¡­" "We can use Universe Oath for this agreement. And the terms won''t be forever. I have done this with another planet, which is an Upper World. What do you think?" Alex asked with a serious expression. The World''s Will was pretty convinced with the Universe Oath, but when it heard he had a deal with an Upper World, the hesitation disappeared. "I understand. I shall agree to your proposal." Just like the first Universe Oath, those two agreed to not do something detrimental to each other. Alex finally could plant his System Seal in the World''s Will and painted this world with his Gacha System. "May I ask something, God Alex?" Alex nodded. "When will you leave this world? I don''t mean to be rude, but to maintain the environment, I can''t allow you to stay in this world." "I understand that." Alex quickly sealed his power again as if he was just a mortal. "I will be staying in this world for a few months because of a few things. I also want to conduct research about the invaders, so I hope you can give me permission to do all that. Of course, I promise not to disrupt the balance and stay in this sealed state since I will only be refining my body, which doesn''t require my energy. Is this explanation satisfactory?" "Why would you cultivate in this place? It is not beneficial for you?" "I am planning to visit another world because I have a business there. Of course, different from the agreement with you. Unfortunately, that world is a bit more complicated, so I can''t really use my power there. You can say it''s more sensitive than you." "I see. I shall allow you then. However, If I may, I want to set a time limit." "A year?" Alex asked. "I don''t need more than that. In fact, I should have finished in a few months, but I don''t know the exact date." "I understand. Let''s set it to a year. And thank you¡­For giving all my children the power to fight back." Alex nodded with a smile. "It''s my pleasure. I get benefits from this agreement as well, so yeah." The World''s Will nodded its head, turned around, and dispersed. "Fu. I have finally finished the agreement with the second world. And it''s a different type of agreement. It''s like selling a house." [Agreed. The first was a kind of renting a house while this one was buying a house.] "Yes. When the time limit ends, the two parties can discuss whether to prolong the contract or not. This is the one changing everything." Alex nodded and looked at the sky. "I should go back." [Sure. Good luck with your body refining.] Alex smiled and used his Teleportation Array to head back to Silvia. As expected, Silvia and Axis still remained at the same spot as they were too focused on their job. "How is it?" Alex asked while walking toward them. "I have found a few clues, but I am still not sure." Silvia only glanced at Alex and returned to the corpse. "I see. We have at most a year here, so I will spend the remaining time refining my body. What about you?" "Teaching Axis and researching this monster. This is really a mysterious monster¡­The type that I have never seen." She let out a long sigh. "This might be an artificial monster, but I need more time to discern it. Don''t worry. I will search for another one if I am out of sample." "Alright." Alex nodded and handed her a token. "This is my token. I will visit you when I am done." "Sure." She received the token and slipped it inside her clothes. Alex never thought that Silvia would be this focused on her job to the point he got ignored. Well, to be honest, he preferred someone like that because they were independent women. Alicia and Firia had grown up like her, so he left with a smile. He just found a random cave not long after and sealed the entrance. After drawing the Star Barrier Array, Gathering Array, and Special Realm, he went to the deepest part of the cave while checking his surroundings to ensure that he was the only one in this place. He took out the Undying Blaze Tree and cut the root while throwing the tree. He looked at this brown-colored root that appeared to be a normal root. Only experts or Spirit Eyes could discern the powerful Fire Energy inside it. Alex took a deep breath and swallowed the root without hesitation. His Pure Fire began revolving, burning the root until it was reduced to ashes. After that, the Fire Energy contained inside the root burst out, flowing directly to his heart. The heat stimulated his Godly Pure Fire and burned himself. "Kh!" Alex widened his eyes and let out a small groan. He never felt hot this whole time due to his Pure Fire. However, Alex could feel the heat for the first time. No, he could finally learn what the others felt when fighting against his Godly Pure Fire. The unbearable heat that would melt them was more painful than he expected. Even Alex couldn''t contain it and started shouting out loud. His body all went limp as Alex dropped to the ground. He couldn''t really sense his body. The only thing in his mind was the pain. This might be the most ridiculous refinement he had gone through. As the name suggested, the sixth refinement of the Undying Fire Body was Flesh. It wanted to turn Alex''s flesh into a Pure Fire itself. Of course, it was just a metaphor. The real benefit of this sixth refinement came in the form of self-healing. In other words, Alex''s regeneration would become far more powerful. This way, Alex''s wound would close sooner or later even without him doing anything. In fact, his opponent needed to kill him in an instant because Alex would just recover during the fight. This was the most dangerous stage but the most beneficial one. As for his strength, Alex didn''t pay attention to it anymore. The gap between each rank in God Rank was too big, so he doubted he could have enough brute force to surpass his own rank. Even Lin Xingzhi supported that idea. Only a few people could reach that kind of strength, and all of them had one thing in common. They all focused on cultivating their body instead of Spiritual Energy. Alex had no intention to change his path, so he ultimately ignored everything about his strength. As long as it was enough to handle the opponent of the same level, he had no complaint. Still, the torture he needed to face during this refinement was far more difficult than the previous five combined. It even took him nine months just to stop screaming. However, Alex noticed one thing during this refinement. His energy could recover faster. In an instant, this refinement turned into the best Body Refining of all time. After approximately eleven months, the flame surrounding his body gradually died down as Alex opened his eyes. "Ugh. How long have I been tortured?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. [Screaming? Nine months. As for the total, it''s about eleven months and two weeks.] "I feel like I have become a step closer to a masochist." [Haha. We will love you even after that.] "Don''t say it. I don''t want to have that kind of preference." [Yes, yes. Don''t ask to be our pet in the future, alright?] "Oi!" Alex wanted to fight it out but realized that he took too long. "Anyway, let''s stop. I need to go back." [Sure.] Alex quickly followed the direction of his token and found Axis walking outside a small hut. "Hmm?" "Mister!" Axis was surprised to see him again. "You have been out for too long." "Haha¡­Sorry. It took longer than I expected." Alex scratched the back of his head. "How is your Teacher?" "Teacher has found several things. She tried to find some more, but there was no progress in the last two months." "I see. How about you?" Alex smiled. "Now that I look at you, you can become a Martial Master, right?" "Yes. I am suppressing my cultivation right now to wait for Mister." "Well, you will be expelled from this world if you break through right now. And since I am back, you can now undergo your tribulation. We are going to another world again." Alex smiled. "Teacher said it a while ago." Axis nodded. "How about your study?" "Teacher made me read books the whole time ever since the operation became more complicated." "Haha¡­You have a long way to go, so it''s better to read more books." Alex patted his head. "Well, I don''t have a problem since Teacher promised to involve me every time something happened. This way, I can get experience while learning under her." "Good. Follow your teacher, alright?" Alex smiled. "Un." He nodded. "I will visit your teacher first. If she gives a "go" sign, you may undergo your tribulation." Alex then walked toward the small hut, finding Silvia in her operation room. "You are back?" Silvia stopped what she was doing and turned to him. "Yes. It seems you have found many things." Alex smiled. "I have, but there are still many things that confuse me." Silvia sighed. "Take your time. For now, let''s go out first and talk about it while watching Axis undergoing his tribulation." Silvia agreed. "It''s already past the time anyway." Alex and Silvia came out. The moment he saw a thumb up from Alex, a smile appeared on his face as he bowed to both of them. "Don''t be too excited. Be careful." Alex nonchalantly shouted. Axis nodded and began cultivating to trigger the tribulation. Meanwhile, Alex asked, "So, what have you found?" "First of all, the bat seems to be an artificial being." "An artificial being?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Like robots?" "No, no. The gene has been modified. When I looked at the queens, including the one I captured myself, they both had the same characteristics. Most of their genes were bats, but I noticed that some of them were not genuine. You could say that the gene was planted by something¡­Not planted, but forced to evolve into such a thing." "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, is it really a bat or not?" "Fifty-fifty. Fifty percent is a bat; the rest is bat but not genuine." "It''s a bit complicated, but I understand what you mean. And were they created or born?" "Born. If I want to find more clues, I need to find their mother, a Rank 3 God. I have calculated it and arrived at that conclusion." Alex pinched the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes. "Ah, this is going to be troublesome." "Yes. But this is not the most important thing. The thing is¡­ The bats will evolve according to what they fed. If they ate a human, the bat would have a human baby''s body. If they ate a pig, they would have a piglet''s body." "!!!" Chapter 1049: Earth V2 "Doesn''t this mean they can simply create an army of anything?" Alex asked. "Yes. If they consume a God Rank Expert, I am afraid that this guy will be very powerful." Silvia nodded with a serious expression. "Considering we haven''t heard any news about them, there are only two possibilities." "They are either powerful enough to keep this a secret or just start doing this recently." Alex understood her meaning. He thought for a moment. "I think it''s the latter. If they are that powerful to keep their tracks a secret, it doesn''t reflect how the weaker ones behave. With how they are consuming those people mercilessly, it''s easier to get caught." "You have a point. I guess this is only happening recently because not many people know about it yet." She nodded. "What are you going to do then?" "I will arrange an investigation team to this world and the upper world connected to it." "I will also inform my mother about this to help you. Maybe we can have an information exchange." "We will see." Alex nodded. Because of the previous misunderstanding, Eulja had yet to recover the relationship with the Palm God, so he knew where her hesitation came from. "Anyway, it''s time to leave this place." She pointed at the front, signaling him that her student just finished the tribulation. "We will wait until he finishes consolidating his cultivation." Alex nodded. "I wonder what kind of change these bats will bring to the world. I hope it won''t be too big." "Haha, it''s nice to see the universe peaceful. But because of the conflict, the people begin to increase their strength desperately. Such an ironic concept¡­" Silvia closed her eyes. "Indeed." Alex waited for one more hour until Axis was in front of them. "I have become a Martial Master." "Good." Alex patted his head while smiling. Suddenly, he felt Alex''s energy inside him as his Martial Master''s strength left his body. "I am sorry, but the world we are about to visit can only accept Foundation Rank." Axis looked at his teacher and found that her cultivation was also Foundation Rank. He nodded and didn''t comment on what he did. Meanwhile, Alex released his God Rank strength and brought them to another world according to Silvia''s instruction. They arrived at a very familiar blue planet. Alex couldn''t help but have a nostalgic feeling in his heart. "Alex?" Silvia tilted her head in confusion. "It feels nostalgic to see a planet like this." Alex smiled. "This is the closest one I can find that is similar to my hometown." Silvia''s interest was piqued when she heard Alex''s hometown. Although she knew that Alex didn''t come from Eulja or Agar World, she didn''t know anything about Alex''s hometown. "Never mind. It''s something in the past. I don''t have a desire to return there at the moment. Besides, with how old I am¡­My parents should have passed away or too old to do anything. In other words, I will probably only have my sister as a family. Either way, it''s not really a pleasant memory." Alex shook his head. Axis could see that Alex was missing his hometown and family, but he told the truth about it being not a pleasant memory. It seemed that even if there were bad blood, the family would always be family for this guy. "So, let''s come in?" Alex shrugged and summoned his Array. After Silvia and Axis nodded their head, Alex brought them inside the planet. "Where is this?" Silvia looked around after arriving here. Not a single person could be found here, so they didn''t need to worry about anyone finding their existence. When he saw the cool looking environment and the tall building outside the area, he simply understood what kind of clothes they needed to wear. It was the same as him. Alex wore a simple white shirt with black pants. It was nothing special, but he could be blended in. However, Silvia''s clothes, although universal, couldn''t really fit in with this type of environment. "Silvia, do you have another type of clothes with you?" Alex asked. "Clothes are a must when traveling, so I have a special storage ring just for that. It can help me if I want to blend in." Silvia nodded. "How about Axis?" "Now that I think about it, I haven''t bought anything for Axis. Maybe I should go somewhere to buy clothes¡­" Silvia looked at Axis. His clothes were decent, but it certainly looked like a country bumpkin. Alex thought for a moment and opened his Inventory. After searching for five minutes, he finally found it. "Take this." Alex waved his hand as a pair of clothes appeared on his hand. He handed the clothes to Axis. "It is a bit bigger, but it should be fine for a while. That''s my clothes when I was young. After this, we can go to a shopping center to buy the clothes." "How about money?" Silvia asked. "Let''s trade something first. Maybe gold or something. It''s not like they are important to us, no?" "I don''t have gold." "I have. Don''t worry." Alex waved his hand. He had many gold coins from the Agar world as a memory of the life he had with Alicia''s and Firia''s families along with his teacher. Even if he couldn''t prove the gold identity, it should be enough for him to get enough money for clothing. After that, they could start planning to do whatever they wanted. "In that case, I will bring Axis to change." Alex nodded and pointed at the public restroom. "You can change there. They have a symbol in front of them, differentiating woman and man. Woman restroom is the one with a skirt." Silvia''s vision followed Alex''s movement and found the restroom. "Alright. I can do that. Axis, can you do that alone?" "It''s just like the restroom we have back on the hut, right? The one we never used before?" Axis asked innocently. "Yes. However, you need to close the door first before changing." "Exactly. That''s the norm here." Alex nodded in agreement. "Or should I accompany you?" "I think I will be fine. Even if I can''t do it, I will go back here and ask for Mister''s help." Axis politely declined, wanting to be independent. "Is that so?" Alex smiled and let him go. Axis widened his eyes and quickly went to the restroom. "Before I change, I want to ask one thing. Do you have a plan for this world?" Alex shook his head. "I don''t know. Probably travels around the world? It''s not like I am going to steal someone''s possession." "True enough. Our main priority is the resources that no one possesses." "It''s hard though, so we will end up stealing." Alex shrugged. "I mean, this place should have a country and everything inside it is the country''s possession despite them having no desire to take it." "Oh? Someone''s trash is another man''s treasure. Since they don''t want it, why can''t we get them? Even those who follow the teaching of "Good" will grab it if the timing is perfect." "That''s why we will end up taking it." Alex shrugged. "In that case, I don''t have anything to say." Silvia nodded. "And do you have an idea for how long we are going to stay in this world?" "Let me see¡­ I have trained for more than three years, so it''s time to fulfill another promise. However, I still have you, so we can stay here for one year or so." "I have another idea. How about I follow you?" Silvia asked. "Ahem, my promise is to get my disciple and wives back before going to our honeymoon." "Then, am I a bother? I don''t really mind being the third party, since this way I can learn more about them." Silvia shook her head. Alex paused for a second and let out a long sigh. "You are strong." "No, I am weak, but I know that if I stay weak, I can''t achieve anything." "Fine, fine. You win. You can follow me. In that case, we will stay here for a month or so. It should be enough to discover many resources." Alex shrugged. "The problem is¡­I wonder whether this world has a Divine Item or not. I don''t mind getting a Divine Herb as well." "Didn''t you see it from Outer Space?" "No. I could see the portal because it caused huge disruption while a Divine Herb will become weaker when staying here until they die, so I need to get closer to them to find the Divine Energy." "That''s a shame. In that case, you can fly all over the world. I am going to bring Axis to find the knowledge of this world, especially the medicinal equipment and treatment. That''s my real aim." "I can help you, but we will see. We first need money since I can''t trade too much gold here unless we find a bad guy to smuggle them." Alex furrowed his eyebrows, contemplating their plan. "We can discuss it again after getting Axis''s clothes. I should be getting changed soon." Silvia waved her hand and headed straight to the restroom. "Wait for me, okay?" Alex waved his hand while nodding. "Wait a minute¡­" Alex suddenly remembered something. He looked around. There were trees every now and then, planted on a small slot on the ground. The ground he stepped on was built with bricks. If he took another look at his surroundings, everything was perfect to call this a park. On his left, he found a quite big tree, perfect for leaning on it to feel the breeze, but that also convinced him about his current predicament. "Ugh¡­ Don''t tell me." Alex facepalmed. "I need to scan this area and leave as quickly as poss¡ª" "Wait, Young Man." An aged voice resounded in his ears. ''Ah, I was too late.'' Alex sighed and turned around, finding three people. The first one was an old man in his retirement, wearing a clean white martial uniform. There was a certain trace of energy in this old man''s body aside from his own. He even used a staff to support him. Next to him was a green-haired woman wearing the same uniform, following everywhere he walked. She appeared to be young, not even in her twenties, so Alex concluded that this girl was his granddaughter. Last but not least was a middle-aged man next to them. He had a muscular body, signifying his own strength. ''Ah yes, I really was too late.'' Alex sighed in defeat. "May I know your name?" The old man politely asked. However, Alex had no intention to get close to them, so it was better to leave right away. After all, they might be wealthy that could satisfy his current plan, but everything would become annoying after that. He could already see trouble coming from the arrogant face that the woman showed on her face. "Redna," Alex said before walking to the restroom. And as he predicted, the woman quickly berated him when he paid no attention. "Hey, you. How dare you ignore my grandpa?" "¡­" Chapter 1050: Regret "¡­" Alex was speechless. Even Axis, a seven years old kid, was more sensible than her. Alex looked at the old man and asked with a calm expression. "Let me ask you. If random people came to you, would you stop and ask them what they needed?" "¡­" The old man closed his eyes and sighed. "What?! How dare you?" The woman was raring to beat Alex. "Just like you, there will be a time where you are on the bottom. If you can''t even do it, don''t expect people to do the same. Or what? Is it due to your influence or whatsoever are you qualified to do it? That''s something insignificant in my eyes." Alex shrugged. "It seems I have disturbed you. I would like to apologize for that action." "And it''s better to not spoil her too much. Learn some humility because it might become the biggest downfall one can have." Alex shook his head in disappointment and turned around, planning to move. "You Bastard!" The woman gritted her teeth. When she was about to attack Alex, Alex added. "If you choose to act, don''t regret it later. I am not someone who will give you a face or treat you better just because of gender difference." "Wait, An. Stop." The grandfather stopped his granddaughter. "Wha¡ªGrandpa? Why? This guy just disrespected you. If he knows who you are, he will lick your shoes." "¡­" Suddenly, a kid with oversized clothes walked toward Alex and asked, "Mister¡­What are you doing? Are you going to lick his shoes?" "You are taking the matter too seriously." Alex patted his head while smiling. "But isn''t this a serious matter? The other party is ganging up on you. They are just like the bullies in my village?" "Heh! Country bumpkin. I see now why you have no manner." The woman kept spouting a bunch of nonsense. Alex let out a long sigh and looked at the old man. "If you don''t shut up your granddaughter soon, I am afraid that you will regret it deeply. And I don''t understand what do you mean by country bumpkin¡­At the very least, what I know is this kid more sensible than your granddaughter." Axis tilted his head. "Mister. The old man seems to have no intention to stop her. That woman is harboring hatred while the guy seems to want to release his killing intent. I don''t know why the old man doesn''t stop her despite having only three months to live?" "You shouldn''t say something about someone''s lifespan unless they want to know, it''s rude. Apologize to them." "It''s rude?" Axis became even more confused. "I am just stating the fact. The wound inside his stomach is going to deteriorate even further and his health will collapse soon. Besides, I am not rude. The one who is really rude is her." "Don''t be a smartass. Apologize first." Alex smiled and patted his head. Axis hesitated and bowed to the old man. "I am sorry. I was rude." Meanwhile, the old man was in complete shock. He just couldn''t believe that a kid actually diagnosed his health with just a glance. "What did you say? How dare you curse my grandfather?! I will be teaching a kid like you a manner." The woman finally jumped forward as she couldn''t endure the humiliation anymore. When Axis saw the incoming slap, he simply moved to the side before taking out a few needles, stabbing a few spots on her hand. The next moment, the woman lost the feeling of her arm as she couldn''t move her arm anymore. "Ah! I can''t move my arms." Alex only took a glance at it and asked. "Your Teacher taught you that technique in the past year?" "Yes. She taught me how to diagnose with pulse and appearance along with some basic acupuncture techniques." Axis nodded. "That''s good. Let''s go now." Alex nodded and took his hand. However, it didn''t stop there. The middle-aged man shouted. "What did you do to our Young Miss? Return her to the normal state or Xi Family won''t let you off." Alex facepalmed and ignored him. "Mister. I think I have a dream now." "What is it?" "I want to create a technique to cure idiocy." "That''s a good dream. I don''t know about the direct approach, but there are several ways of doing it like wiping one''s memory and something like that. So, I guess you want the direct approach?" "Yes. I will be focusing on the brain." He nodded with a smile. These two kept ignoring whatever they spouted until the old man opened his mouth. "I am sorry, Young Man. This old man is in the wrong. I didn''t teach my granddaughter well, but she is still young. How about treating her back and using this experience to teach her? I think this will be enough." "And what? After that you are going to ask us to treat you?" Alex snorted. "After I told you all that, why did you not stop her? And as I said, I am not someone who will give someone''s face, so regret your whole life. Kill me? You are welcomed, but don''t just beg for your lives in the future." "I have it enough!" The middle-aged man was the one charging at him. Alex shook his head in disappointment, especially after sensing his killing intent. "I am wondering what you are showing to me is your killing intent?" Alex turned around and released his killing intent. "This is the real killing intent." The middle-aged man froze when he sensed his killing intent. ''What is this? Why can a young man like him generate this killing intent? How many people has he killed? One hundred? One thousand? No!'' He thought as if he was drunk into the madness. His feet went limp as he began to gasp for breath. He fell to the ground as foam came out of his mouth. Alex finally retracted his killing intent with a calm expression, making the grandfather and his granddaughter confused. "Young Man¡­What did you do?!" The old man tried to stop him again. "It''s better to stop, old man. My patience has its limit." Alex narrowed his eyes. The old man didn''t know why but words stuck in his lung. Even when he tried to stop him with his body, it refused to move. Alex finally found Silvia who had finished changing. When the two saw her, they couldn''t believe how pretty Silvia was. Even the grandfather couldn''t compare his granddaughter with such a person. "What are you doing?" Silvia tilted her head in confusion when looking at the trio who obviously had their own problems. The moment she found the needles she gave Axis on the woman''s hand, she understood what was going on. "I see. You don''t need to explain." "You are not going to treat them, right?" "It''s true that I am a doctor. However, just like the patients can choose which doctor they will visit, I can choose which person I want to treat." Silvia shrugged. "Besides, I know that you are not an aggressive person, so they must have done something bad." "Thanks for the trust." Alex smiled. Silvia then patted Axis''s head. "You are so good now you can use it, albeit one of the most important needles hit slightly out of the spot. It should be recoverable. Want me to teach her a lesson? After all, my student is not easy to bully." Axis tugged her hand and shook his head. "Please, don''t. This just means that I don''t have enough skill to do this basic thing. Besides, our main job is to save people, not bully people." "Right?" Silvia smiled. "You are so sensible. If it were me, they all wouldn''t be able to talk or move anymore. They wouldn''t be able to spread another chain of hate that way since no one can tell the tale despite seeing anything. "Anyway, I don''t think I need to do anything. The reason for that old man taking a walk in the morning is because this is the only thing that can lessen his pain. I bet he has begun coughing up blood every night." Alex flicked her forehead. "Alright. That''s enough. We need to find clothes for Axis." "Fine." The three then headed straight to the city. ¡­ Meanwhile, the old man dropped on his butt as he began coughing. His face turned pale, and he began to regret what he did. He simply wanted to test Alex''s strength by letting his granddaughter strike him, but it seemed that it was his biggest blunder that he committed right on his deathbed. He looked at his granddaughter, who was still glaring at their back as if she wanted to kill them. "Granddaughter. It''s better to stop. You are simply going to die if you try to do anything." He finally stopped her. At the very least, his granddaughter could still recover from what happened no matter how long it took. And they could check in a big hospital, so he decided to not offend Alex. That guy was a mystery. He reduced his bodyguard into something like that with a single glare. His granddaughter would have died if that man really made his move. "But¡­" "Enough. I said it''s enough. I am the one who is at fault. At least, you have the chance to recover." He sighed. She only lowered her head while thinking about how to kill Alex. ¡­ On the contrary, Silvia posed a question to him. "Why did you teleport us here? I mean, there should be many places you can teleport us, right?" "I don''t know¡­Maybe because this world resembles my hometown so much that I miss this kind of feeling?" Alex let out a long sigh. "To think it influences my course of action. I made a blunder." Axis saw the sadness in Alex while Silvia comforted him. "It''s fine. Even if they know about our appearance, it doesn''t make any difference other than you wearing your mask. If they are facing Lin Xingzhi or any other people from Eulja, I bet they have destroyed the entire area." Alex shrugged. "I am not here for creating chaos." "Fair enough. It''s a shame that I can''t ask for money from them by treating that old man since it is the basic necessities for us." "Well, it''s not like we need money to travel." Alex looked at the sky. "Have you traveled in the sky without involving Spiritual Energy?" Silvia narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No." "The reason I want to get money is to show you that. I want you to enjoy this world while searching for treasures." Alex put on a gentle smile. "Well, there should be many opportunities in the near future. We can take one of them." Silvia agreed. "So, where are we going?" "Before that, I want to know the technique you use to talk with someone," Alex asked. "No, no. I should be the one asking that. You should know that we have a common tongue, right?" "Yes." "We have been communicating with the common tongue. However, I often heard you are talking in another language. After a few investigations, I couldn''t find any trace you are using that array." "That array?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Yes. The array that can allow you to understand someone''s language. The concept is a bit complicated, but it''s pretty useful for traveling. But you¡­You don''t have anything like that as if you know about their language." "Ah¡­" Alex remembered when someone told him how useful the ability he got from the Lower World was. It allowed him to speak and understand any language. "Look at this earring." She pointed at her green-colored earring. If he took another look at it, he found an array instilled inside it. "This is the array to understand one language. Basically, it translates everything to your brain and uses the word you speak into another world''s language. Don''t ask me the details, I don''t understand." She shrugged. "Axis also has one." "No wonder." Alex smiled. He never thought about asking this type of question, but now that it was clear, he felt better. The trio then went to the city for Axis''s clothes. Chapter 1051: Lake Inside a Mountain "Fufu, you look good." Silvia chuckled when she saw Axis with new clothes. They had been trying several clothes already to see which one suit him the most. However, Axis seemed to have no interest in clothes, so Silvia and Alex decided on his clothes. As for where the money came from? It was obviously from the gold coin Alex had. Although he couldn''t show the identification proof, he still got enough money to cover up their expenses for a month. And the Gold Coins were nothing in his eyes, so it wasn''t a loss. After getting the clothes, Silvia asked, "Do you think we should go separate ways? I am planning to check the medicine in this world while you are searching for treasures, right?" Alex nodded. "I don''t really mind, but I feel bad because¡ª" Silvia covered his mouth gently and shook her head. "It''s fine. You don''t need to think about me. Having you as a boyfriend is enough for now, so I don''t wish for more because we need to make a stronger bond that can''t easily get destroyed by a simple misunderstanding. That''s why¡­" "I understand. Let''s go with it. However, there should be a time where we spend together in this world. It''s not like you are planning to use every second to study, right?" Alex smiled. "Fine. We will have a vacation somewhere." Alex then asked the staff near them. ''Excuse me, how many days in this month again?" "It''s thirty-two days." "What date is today?" Alex asked embarrassedly. The staff thought that Alex must haven''t gone out too often because of work or something to the point he couldn''t remember the date. She took a look at his beautiful wife and a small kid before shaking her head in disappointment. "6th." "I see, thank you." Alex scratched his head helplessly. The staff looked away. She just couldn''t believe that someone as handsome as Alex would be this careless with his wife and kid. Alex smiled and returned to Silvia. "How about we do whatever we want until next month. I will find you again on 1st next month." "Sure." Silvia agreed. Alex then waited until they settled everything and left the mall. "Hmm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You felt them?" "Yes. I thought they were normal customers, but it seemed they were not." "Indeed." Alex thought for a moment. "Let me handle this." "I understand." "How about we go to the nearest mountain? I think it''s a good place for our holiday. I will survey the area first today after checking in the hotel." Alex smiled. "That''s a great idea. Let''s go then." Silvia agreed without hesitation. They then walked the street. When Alex saw a hotel, he pulled Silvia and went in. "Can I help you?" The receptionist politely greeted them. Luckily, there seemed to be only one receptionist currently. Usually, there should be one or two more, but they seemed to have a break or go to the restroom. Either way, everything worked excellently. "Is there any empty room for three?" Alex asked. "Yes." "I will have that one then for one night." Alex smiled. "I understand. I would like to ask you to leave your ID Card first and proceed with the payment." Silvia knew that they didn''t have an ID Card, so she quickly used her needles to control her for a few seconds to deal with all the necessities. Of course, he gave the money. He only used her ID Card to register him. After getting the key, Alex led them to the elevator and opened the room. "Alright. I need to get going. With the security here, I doubt that they will try to come for you. Just stay here for a few hours and everything should have been resolved." Alex assured her. "Yes. Don''t need to worry about us." Alex smiled and left the room. He secretly went to the top floor to see where the nearest mountain was. After that, he baited all the undercover people by walking with a clueless expression toward the nearest mountain. One of the undercover people called someone on his phone. "Young Miss, we have found him." "Good." The Young Miss in his mouth was none other than the green-haired woman earlier. Next to him was a young man with the same uniform as her. "Young Master Li, I need your help to teach this guy a lesson. He shamed me and even forced me into this state. I will marry you if you can bring him to me so I can kill him myself. How about it?" "Hahaha! I will show you why people call me a genius." The young man laughed as he rose from the couch. The woman he had troubled with was in trouble, so this would be the best chance to show her his good side. Suddenly, her grandfather came into the room and watched everything happen earlier. He gnashed his teeth and shouted. "An! What the heck are you doing?" "Grandpa. He did all this to me and you didn''t want to take revenge? Am I really your granddaughter?" The grandfather gritted his teeth. "You don''t know anything. Ah, it seems to be the end of my Xi Family." "Grandpa! You¡ª" The woman shouted. "I will let you see that he is just acting big. Young Master Li is the best of the younger generation. You always want me to be his wife, right? Now I have given him a chance, you are trying to stop me?!" The grandfather gritted his teeth and left in anger. However, deep down, he was filled with regret as he muttered in sorrow. "Ah, I have really spoiled my granddaughter too much to the point she is beyond redemption. That person is not something you have ever seen before¡­I need to do something." While the grandfather tried to do everything he could, Alex was walking toward the nearest mountain nonchalantly as if he never knew that there were many people tailing him. Alex climbed the mountain that only needed fifteen minutes to climb and found a giant lake inside the mountain''s mouth. "Hmm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "This is interesting." Although it was faint, he could sense Divine Energy permeating the lake. When he activated his Spirit Eyes, he saw something with Divine Energy. "Hmm?" Alex tilted his head before finding someone on the edge of the crater. He was bald and wore an orange and red uniform. On his forehead were a few dots. His appearance was like that of a senior monk that seemed to have served the monastery for decades. "Amithaba. Nice to meet you, visitor." The old monk bowed his head politely and asked. "Are you on vacation?" "Not really?" Alex shook his head. "I see¡­ I don''t know why but I have a bad feeling that will happen to you. I don''t mean to curse you, but every time I go here, I can somehow see someone''s karma. Your karma is neither good nor bad, but at the same time, they are bountiful. You must have done many things in your life." Alex waved his hand, telling him it wasn''t a big deal. "So, may I know why Elder thinks this way?" "I am not too sure myself, but I believe in one legend. According to the legend, there is a green dragon living in the lake, but no one can find him, so it''s never been proven." Alex thought for a moment and recalled what he saw with his Spirit Eyes. The Divine Energy was weak, but he could see it had a shape. And it was quite long too, so Alex believed that it came from the dragon. He thought, ''Why can a Divine Rank Beast stay in this world?'' [I am afraid that this beast has a pact with the World''s Will. And with how weak you the dragon is, he must have no strength to leave this world.] ''Well, I can just ask the dragon for that.'' Alex stared at the monk mysteriously before asking a weird question. "What if I tell you the dragon does exist in this lake?" The monk''s expression turned serious. As much as he didn''t want to trust this young man''s word, he didn''t know why but his words carried so much persuasive power. Along with his serious expressions, he simply couldn''t brush his words away easily. "Amithaba. That is indeed a dream come true." "You are really a good person despite having that power in your body." Alex smiled. "Please continue being so." "You know?" The monk was surprised and observed Alex more. "Yes. No need to observe me." Alex shook his head before turning around. "It seems there are people who want to accompany me¡­ Old monk, I don''t mean to be rude, but I have two things to say. First of all, I would like to ask you to not interfere with this matter even if you want to stop what I am doing. Second, I will grant your wish after everything is over." "Amithaba. May I know how many people you have killed?" The old man shivered when he sensed a little bit of Alex killing intent that leaked out of his eyes. "It''s better you don''t know. I have been trying to do good to match the bad things I have done." Alex shook his head and walked forward. In front of him were thirty people in black suits. All of them had good body build. However, Alex also saw someone walking behind them. He wore a white uniform as he glared at Alex. He couldn''t contain his excitement to see how he beat Alex and got married to the woman he loved. "Hear me, puny human. Feel honored that you shall be my sacrifice to get the Xi An''s heart. You¡ª" "Alright, you don''t need to tell me more. I already understand what happened." Alex cut his sentence and sighed. "I have warned them to not do anything, but it seems Axis''s wish needs to become true as soon as possible." Before the so-called Young master Li could say something, he released his killing intent, enveloping all of them, including the old monk. However, he didn''t do like what he did to the old man''s bodyguard. He gave them a breather while saying. "You are being used¡­You know." "I haven''t tried to not offend someone, but it doesn''t mean that they can think lowly of me. Yet, they used you to catch me¡­This is laughable. After feeling my killing intent, if you still desire to defeat me, feel free to do so. As for those people with the suits, I know that you are paid for this. If you want to leave, it''s better to do now because I guarantee that today will be the day you die." Alex calmly looked at those people. The Young Master gritted his teeth. There was no way he would have given up after getting so close to his goal. He shouted. "I am the son of Grandmaster Li. I will show you the strength of Martial Arts." Alex ignored him and looked at the bodyguards. "This is your last warning." "I am sorry, Young Master Li. I can''t do this! I don''t know how many people he has killed, but it is no less than a thousand." A few bodyguards ran as fast as they could. "What?!" The Young Master gritted his teeth and ordered. "Kill him!" All the bodyguards charged at him while sweat covered their bodies. "I see¡­" Alex sighed. "That''s your choice. I hope that you don''t need to endanger your life for money in your next lives." Alex gently waved his hand, but his Sword Qi and Sword Intent swept the area, cutting all the bodyguard heads in an instant. The old monk opened his eyes wide as he couldn''t understand what Alex just did. The same applied to the young man. He never saw something like that even from his father despite him saying he had shown everything to him. Before focusing on the young man, Alex turned his head to the lake and said, "Hey, buddy. I know that you have sensed my killing intent too. How about you come out?" As if answering his request, a figure emerged from the water as it floated in the air. The old monk dropped on his butt as he recalled what Alex said earlier. I will grant your wish¡­ Chapter 1052: Divine Punishment The young man was too shocked when he saw a dragon. His body refused to move even though he wanted to leave immediately. This was the first time he saw a dragon, but he was sure that a creature like this was far stronger than him. The dragon that emerged from the lake had white skin on the inside, while the scales were mostly green. However, Alex could see the huge disturbance in his Divine Energy and asked. "You are injured?" "I have never thought that I can meet another God Rank Expert in this world. I don''t know why you can hide your power, but I have certainly sensed your Divine Intent. May I know your title?" The dragon politely asked. "How about you answer my question first and I will answer your question? The old rule." Alex narrowed his eyes. The dragon thought for a moment and nodded. Even though he could feel that Alex''s strength was below him, he still had no strength to defeat Alex, so it was better to solve this whole situation peacefully. However, to the two people besides them, this was the one that almost took their lives with just how shocking this matter had become. God Rank Expert? Divine Intent? God does really exist and he has descended? And what about the dragon? It was also considered Divine Being. The young man looked at Alex with fear as he thought, ''Did I just offend a God? This is not the matter of mortals anymore¡­ That bitch! If I can leave this place alive, I will kill that b*tch.'' "Yes, I was and am still injured. Back then, I fell into this world after roaming to many worlds. However, I knew that my existence would bring so much evolution to the world, so I made a pact to let me stay in this world. Unfortunately, this world didn''t have enough energy to let me recover, so I thought I would stay here until the end of my life. In other words, it is my retirement place." Alex nodded in understanding and answered his question. "I have no definite title, but the closest one to me is Gacha God." "I see. It''s a pleasure to meet you, I am known as Green Divine Dragon." "May I know about your pact?" The dragon nodded. "You should know that there is a chance that a Divine Herb can appear even in a world like this, right?" "Yes." "I planned to use it to recover, but it seemed to not possible. After waiting for five hundred years, I haven''t gotten anything that can heal my injury. As for the reason why I can stay in this world¡­If a Divine Herb can be here without interfering with the world, why can''t I?" Alex thought for a moment. "I see. Unlike the Spiritual Energy, we can stay here as long as we don''t have too much Divine Energy." "Exactly." The dragon nodded. "This is not a question, but a request. May I ask you to bring me out of this world, so I can recover in another world?" "What can you offer?" Alex asked. "I am not very sure. I don''t search for treasures or anything, so I don''t know what I can give you." The dragon shook his head. "If you want something, I can help fulfill your desire." Alex used his Spirit Eyes and asked, "How about having a contract with me?" "A contract? You should know that it''s not an easy decision, right? For us, a contract is a sacred thing that can''t be decided easily as it will bind two parties together." "Of course. I know that your strength is Rank 3 God. However¡­What about this¡­" Alex''s Pure Fire soared to the air as it turned into a fox. That power quickly suppressed the dragon''s fire element. Alex looked at this hundred meters long dragon and asked. "This is not an ordinary one." "I am afraid it''s still not possible. It''s truly a blessing to have a master who has a Pure Fire, but that is not enough." Alex smiled. The fox shrunk and turned into animal parts on his body as Alex used the Elemental Suppression to another level. "!!!" The dragon widened his eyes. "What is this power? I can''t even move my body? Even facing a Pure Fire, I can still move my body, but in front of¡ª" Before he completed his sentence, he remembered what Alex said earlier. "You¡­You¡­" Alex smiled. "You seem to have recognized this flame. I would like to ask you again, what do you think about a contract?" The dragon narrowed his eyes. "I don''t really mind if you don''t want to. Just promise me to never tell or give a hint about my existence. Besides, my wife is the Celestial Fox and her fire has reached the same level as mine. I can''t promise you that you will reach that level, but you will surely become far stronger in the future." Alex smiled. The dragon closed his eyes. "May I know why you want me?" "There is no particular reason. You are strong, so I want you." "I see. The same reason, I guess." The dragon thought for a moment. "I can offer you a life and death contract, but I would like to state two conditions." "Sure." "First. I don''t want to be only a sacrificial creature." "At that time, you are already like my family. I better fight until I die than sacrificing my family." "Then, I would also like some freedom. I have a wish, so I don''t like being bound every single second." "You have your own freedom. Even the other contracted beasts have their own desires and I have no intention to stop them, but I would like you to lend your strength when it''s necessary." "In that case, it''s settled." The dragon bowed his head as the two seemed to connect their energy, forming the contract. On Alex''s back, a pair of dragon horns appeared on top of Sherry''s fox symbol, but no one saw it yet. At the same time, the dragon felt his body was connected to Alex''s Pure Fire and enjoyed the baptism inside his body. "It seems like you need to have a deep sleep." Alex observed the dragon''s body with his Spirit Eyes. "If you want, you can turn smaller and hide inside my pocket or my Pure Fire. I am sure that most of your physical injuries will be healed by that time. You can then take your time to heal your inner injuries." The dragon nodded before turning to the monk. He stretched his hand to the monk and gently tapped his forehead with the tip of his claw. The forehead suddenly glowed and turned into a dot. "You have been here for ten years, hoping to see me. This is a reward for your perseverance. I know that you have your own religion, so I don''t need you to respect me or anything. This is a bit of my energy that will protect you until you die. If you really want to pay me back, you may live your life according to your teaching. That''s all." The dragon''s gentle voice touched the monk''s heart. "This¡­" The old monk gasped. "I understand. To think that at this age, I would have actually met a celestial being. I wish to meet the God I believe in, but it seems I don''t have the chance in this life. However, I would still follow your word because even if I can''t meet my own God, other people might see him in the future. I will offer the last bit of energy that I have to go out of the monastery and spread the love." The dragon nodded and turned to the young man next to Alex. "Master¡­Do you want me to kill him?" "It''s fine." Alex shook his head. "He still has his use. You should recover first." "I understand." The dragon shrank and entered his body. He hid inside Alex''s Pure Fire like what Sherry and the others did in the past. When everything finished, Alex turned to the monk. "Will you judge me for what I have done earlier?" "Amithaba. Mortal laws are not qualified to judge a being such as you. This puny monk would like to apologize if I have offended you in any way." The monk shook his head. "Besides, rather than dying here, it''s better to spread love and happiness to the world. Thank you for teaching me this, I would have lived my life to the fullest." Alex touched his forehead and used his Pure Fire to burn anything that wasn''t supposed to be there. "With this, you shouldn''t fall sick anymore. Treasure your life, Old monk." "Amithaba." The monk politely bowed to him. Alex then turned around, walking toward the young man. "I didn''t know your holiness''s status. Please forgive this insignificant human. I¡ª" "Enough. I have given you the choices, but you don''t treasure it." Alex shook his head. "Show me the way to the so-called Xi Family." "Ye-yes." The young man repeatedly nodded while thinking that a Divine Judgment would soon fall. Alex didn''t forget about the corpses. He snapped his finger as his Pure Fire burned the bodies and evaporated the corpses. The monk and the young man were shocked when Alex only burned all the things related to the humans he killed. No grass or any other things were harmed by the flame. The bloodied ground had returned to its former state as if nothing happened. They truly believed that Alex was indeed a God. "Show me the way." Alex then narrowed his eyes, pressuring the young man. "Yes, yes." The young man quickly guided Alex down the mountain. Since Alex didn''t say anything, he didn''t dare to get the car that brought him to the foot of the mountain. He simply rushed to the Xi Family, hoping to not be acquainted with them anymore. It took them an hour to reach the Xi Family, but both still had a calm face as if the journey was nothing tiring. However, if one took a closer look, the young man had a stressful expression. "Xi An, you b*tch. Come here now!" The young man shouted in front of their garden. The moment all the people in the house heard that, they came out of the house. It turned out that only two people were left in this house. Even Alex''s Spirit Eyes told him so. "Haha! You are back. I will torture you first and have you fixed this arm of mine. After that, I will make you feel dying is better than living." Xi An laughed uncontrollably. However, the old man seemed to have found something between the young man and Alex. He mysteriously asked, "Killing is against the law¡­" "Shut up, you old man." The young man snarled. "Mortal laws are not applicable. You have invited the wrath of God, you should¡ªAh!" Alex''s Pure Fire burned him into nothingness. Even his ashes had been burned. "You said too much. I didn''t promise you can live too." "!!!" Xi An widened her eyes when she saw the young man died. Meanwhile, the old man sighed. "I had expected some things after the first meeting, but it seemed I underestimated the whole situation. Luckily, I have forced all people in the house and out here. This lowly one would like to ask your holiness to limit this matter to this lowly life because everything happened due to me." "You are always too late to act." Alex shook his head and snapped his finger. His Pure Fire burned the house down in two seconds until nothing left. No one could even see how the flame devoured the house, but the old man perfectly understood what kind of being he had offended. "Yes. Even so, there is no grandfather who would like to die after watching his granddaughter die. So¡­This lowly life will offend your holiness once again even if it means I need to go to hell." The old man smiled and took a step forward, trying to protect his granddaughter. Alex snapped his finger again and burned him in an instant, not letting him feel pain when he died. "Ah¡­ Thank you for your last goodwill. This lowly one regrets everything he has done¡­" The old man sighed and finally disappeared to nothingness. "You-you-you-you¡ª" Xi An looked at Alex with fear. She had many thoughts in her mind, but Alex didn''t even let her think and kill her. "I have no time to deal with you." This would lead to many stories because the old man''s left a will for all his sons and daughters, saying that everything was his fault and not to seek anything from it, especially revenge. The media would keep showing it to the masses for a long time, but everything would result in the same conclusion¡­ At that time, Alex had no time to see what kind of thing the media told the people, but it surely went all over the world. He didn''t realize that he actually left a legend that might never disappear for thousands of years. The legend about Divine Punishment. Chapter 1053: News "We now want to talk about what happened to the conglomerate Xi Family that has suddenly disappeared from the trace of this world. We invite a host from the military," said a host to the man beside him with a serious expression. "Thank you for inviting me here, I am honored to talk about this." "First, do you have a thought about this matter?" "Of course, not only the police but the military also helps the investigation. Unfortunately, we couldn''t find any clues this whole time and the reason why the house can disappear in a single day. From the eye witness, they pass the mansion in the morning, and it''s still there, but when they return in the afternoon, everything has gone." "People believe it as a Divine Punishment. Do you believe it as well?" "Of course not. I admit that this is rather magical, but I don''t want to say it''s a Divine Punishment. We already have a group of scientists to find any clue to prove it, so we need more time for the investigation because this is the first time an accident like this happens in the world." "There is also something I have heard before. In the past four weeks, there was an increase in magical things happening lately. The first one would be regarding the Xi Family, which seems to be the start. According to the Xi family''s remaining members, they don''t want to disclose it because of family reasons. Does the army happen to know something about this secret?" "We have tried asking them a few times, but unfortunately, there is nothing that can lead us to the culprit." "If this is a Divine Intervention, wouldn''t it be rude to call such a being a culprit? Besides, there are many people that have started praying and believing that God has descended upon us to correct many things." "There is no proof about that. We can talk about other religions. They at least have the most basic proof, which is their "bible," so we couldn''t say it''s such." The host remembered something. "I believe we have a few living proofs. For example, the X Country''s Princess said she saw someone riding a dragon to travel the sea and help her when they are stuck in a storm and a few others that have spread all over the internet." "As I said before, there is no proof. If you want to talk about it, please give us the proof. If we just believe in people''s statements, it will become a complete mess." "But the reason they couldn''t give any proof was the fact that their phones or cameras got destroyed automatically the moment they tried to take a picture of him. Doesn''t this mean that God will only show himself to those he has chosen?" As the debate between the reporter and the military guy continued, the one who created this whole mess, Alex, was leaning on his beach couch while enjoying the cool breeze and the clapping sound of the breaking wave. He wore only a trunk and sunglasses, sitting comfortably under an umbrella. Next to him, Silvia was laughing when looking at the news with her tablet that she bought from the money she got from helping people. She wore a white bikini that complemented her grey hair. "This is really hilarious. I mean, you can be considered a God and they are not wrong for that, but the military guy is so adamant about it having no proof." Alex looked away, embarrassed. "I met too many people while searching for treasures. It''s true that I can find many legends and treasures all over the world, but it has become too much." "So, did the princess want to marry you or something? Hmm, marrying a God¡­" Silvia smirked, planning to tease him about it. "No. That girl was weird." "What weird? There is literally an article about how she adores and worships you." "No, no. Do you know what she said to me for the first time?" "What?" "Give me your seed." "Pfft." Silvia laughed out loud. "Enough. Lin Xingzhi had laughed too much to the point she made a story about it and bothered me for three full days." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "That''s a nightmare." "True. For you, it''s a nightmare. For the people in this world, it''s like a dream comes true." Silvia laughed. "So, what happened to Axis?" Alex glanced at her with a serious expression. "Nothing happened." Silvia tilted her head in confusion. "Why? Do you find something weird in his body?" "No, no. Why is he not playing around?" Alex pointed his finger at Axis, who was sitting on the side, reading a book. "Why do I need to play around? It''s better to study, so I can get closer to my goal quicker." "You should know how to relax too, Kid. The stress will slowly pile up, so it''s best to enjoy every vacation like this from time to time." Alex shrugged. "I feel more comfortable reading a book than playing." Axis shook his head. "Look. What happened to this kid? Did he use the wrong medicine?" Alex glared at Silvia. "Pfft." Silvia laughed. "I didn''t do anything. When I was teaching him, he got too absorbed into something and became like this the next day." Alex shook his head helplessly. "How about we play? I have a game for you." "I am sorry, Mister, but I should focus on training and study first." "Then, you can consider this a training. How about it?" Alex smirked. "I can show it to you." Axis tilted his head in confusion. "Do you know how to defeat the strong when you are weak?" Axis thought for a moment. "A strong Martial Art, Poison, Curse, and Assassins." "Ahaha¡­ That''s certainly right, but you might not have it when you fight the strong. Hence, I am going to teach you the fifth way. It''s control." "Control?" "Yep. For example, I have a fire element. If I control it to burn my opponent''s attacks, I can at least weaken it to a certain level where I can destroy the attack before it reaches me. Or I can concentrate my power at one point to break through something." Axis finally understood and nodded. "Control, huh." "Yes. Today''s training will be in the form of playing." Alex waved his hand as he used his Spiritual Energy to lift the sand, shaping them into a sandcastle. "This is control. I want you to make a sandcastle with your Spiritual Energy, not your hands. Can you do it?" Axis thought for a moment and nodded. "I will try." "Now, go!" Alex smiled as he managed to influence this kid. Suddenly, a golem made of sand punched his castle as Silvia''s voice resounded in their ears. "What did you teach my student?" Alex blinked his eyes a few times when he saw his castle got obliterated by that punch. Luckily, he had sunglasses, so no sand came to his eyes from the collision. "I am just teaching him how to get stronger. Besides, if he can control his Spiritual Energy, he can perform all your skills better, no?" Alex snorted as he had seen how Silvia treated someone. Everything was related to the control of her energy, so it was indeed good training where you could also play with it. "It''s true, but¡­" "But what?!" Alex summoned the same golem as her and punched her golem''s stomach, destroying it. "You¡­" Silvia clenched her teeth as the sand beneath Alex''s golem rose to the air, slicing his golem. "Do you want to fight?" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Hmph. You will lose." Silvia harrumphed. The two began their fight while Axis could only shake his head and began making his own castle, which was significantly smaller than them. He realized that despite having the same amount of energy, their control was far better than him, so he decided to follow Alex''s instructions. Just like that, the three spent the remaining days on a deserted island, far from the civilizations. Even with the world being in an uproar, everything should begin to settle down after leaving this world. There might be more stories to tell, but nothing concrete would happen again. Before leaving this world, Alex got a message from Lin Xingzhi. [I have actually gotten something for you.] "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [It''s related to the bats you found.] "What happened? What kind of bat were they?" [We still can''t understand them, but we have made sure that they are artificially created. After we have gotten more information, I think we can deduct what it is¡­ For now, everything is only a hypothesis.] "At least you have a guess, right?" [Yes. Do you remember why almost all God Kings died at the hand of the people from Earth?" "No. You never told me about it other than their power came from the so-called secret weapon." [Exactly. What I want to say is that.] "They are related to the beast?" Alex narrowed his eyes. [I am afraid yes. I have a few samples that my father froze in a certain place, so I want you to bring them for me.] "Your Father?" Alex widened his eyes. [As you know, my father told me all his possessions in his inheritance place, but he told me to only bring something I need from there and only come there if I want another thing. And my father is one of the people who see the future prediction, you know.] "!!!" Alex gasped. "Your father knows something?" [I am not sure, but there is a possibility.] "So, you want me to get it for you?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "If this is an inheritance palace, wouldn''t it make you the best person to go there?" [Yes, but I believe there might be benefits if you go to that place. Of course, I will be accompanying you.] "If you are coming, then I don''t really mind. When do you need it?" Alex asked. [Now?] "Will it take too long? If yes, then I will grab Letizia and the others first." [You can bring them with us. In fact, I am going to their place right now. Meet me around that planet.] "Alright." Alex nodded. [See you later then.] Alex then thought for a moment and looked at Axis and Silvia. "I wonder if you don''t mind another trip?" "I don''t mind." Silvia shrugged. "I don''t have anything to do anyway." "As long as it doesn''t mess with my study schedule." Axis nodded in agreement. "Your disciple has become a nerd¡­" Alex glanced. "But he will be a handsome man in a few years. And this type of guy is popular among the women, you know," said Silvia nonchalantly as if she didn''t mind his development. "Okay, let''s go to meet my disciple and wives first before finding Lin Xingzhi." "What? Are we going to meet her?" Silvia drew a gasp. "Yes, why?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "You don''t want to meet her?" "Of course, I would love to meet her, but I wonder if it''s alright¡­" Silvia looked down. "It''s fine. She has been talking about you a lot." Alex shrugged and snapped his finger. After checking their expression one more time, he activated the Teleportation Array. It didn''t take too long until they reached the Sword Pavilion. After thanking for taking care of the three, Alex brought them outside the planet, where he found Lin Xingzhi with Zark waiting for them to arrive. Silvia still hesitated to meet this brown-haired beauty. Before she was Alex''s wife, she was also a God King. With Silvia''s current status, she thought she should talk politely. However, before anyone could react, Lin Xingzhi already grabbed Silvia''s boobs, examining them. "Hmm¡­I thought you used your skill to increase the volume, but I was wrong." "Wha¡ª" Silvia shivered, not understanding what was happening. "Say, is there a medicinal technique that can enhance one''s sensitivity like they were on the drug but without it? It''s not for us, but for him." Lin Xingzhi smirked, planning to bully Alex with it. "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows when he heard it as he pondered whether letting the two met was a correct choice or the worst possible decision. Chapter 1054: Time God "Say, what do you think about the combination of this and this." Lin Xingzhi was still talking with Silvia while showing her two books. The first book was none other than Lin Xingzhi''s p*rn book, while the other one was a medical book. Silvia narrowed her eyes, thinking about it seriously. "Master. What are they doing?" Rose tilted her head in confusion. "No need to pay attention to them. My smart teacher becomes an idiot when she is talking about this topic." The one who answered was Axis. Rose already saw him, but she didn''t know about him. "Ehm, may I know who this is, Master?" "Silvia''s student, Axis. He is good and well mannered, but you can say that he loves studying more than any of you." Alex shrugged. "My name is Axis." He politely bowed his head to Rose and the others. "Nice to meet you, I am Rose Skewes. I am Master Alex''s disciple." "I am Letizia La Scola¡­Or maybe Letizia La Sirius. Nice to meet you." "Evelyn." Alex nodded as he kept using his Teleportation Array while talking. Surprisingly, it took him a day before he reached the place. "This is it." Lin Xingzhi smiled, staring at the emptiness. "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes. There was indeed nothing if they saw it with normal eyes, but Alex''s Spirit Eyes could see a huge amount of energy in this place. "Time Energy?" "Exactly. This is my father''s house. The space has been suspended with time, so only those who have the key can enter." Lin Xingzhi explained. "Indeed. The energy doesn''t move or anything, so I guess it''s really like a suspended place. No, should I say it''s a kind of the Time Box?" Alex touched his chin, falling into deep thought. Lin Xingzhi smiled and took out a staff. It looked like an ordinary golden staff, but when Alex saw the green jade on the staff''s head, he believed that this staff was the key. "This is the key, Time God''s Staff." Lin Xingzhi smiled. She raised the staff and used the flow of Natural Energy to carry the Time Energy inside the staff, hitting the Time Barrier. Suddenly, cracks began to appear before revealing an entrance. "Let''s go." Lin Xingzhi nodded and entered the place. Alex and the others followed her without hesitation and arrived in another place. "This is¡­This looks like our garden," Rose exclaimed in surprise. "This is just a Special Realm that has been reinforced by the time element, so one will get stopped when entering. Unless someone brings him back by using Divine Energy that doesn''t have a form, they won''t be alive." Lin Xingzhi smiled. She stretched her hand, asking them to follow her. They then began crossing the garden for half an hour before Lin Xingzhi smiled and said, "Father. Why did you never say that you still leave your soul in this place?" The others didn''t understand what she was talking about, but a blue light ball appeared in front of them, floating above their heads. "This is the last bit of my soul. I do feel bad about leaving you alone in Eulja, but I believe you are happy now, Daughter." The light ball turned into a translucent old man. Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes as she couldn''t help but let out tears. She slowly walked toward him and used her Nature Energy to hug something that couldn''t be hugged. The old man smiled and closed his eyes. "You have really worked hard." If she wasn''t an expert, she shouldn''t be able to touch him, but the fact that his control over nature was so high allows her to hug this dear person. "I miss you, Father." "Yes, I miss you too, but preserving my soul here is really hard. Despite seeing you coming a few times, I couldn''t meet you due to my circumstances." "I know, Father. The fact that you appear before me because you want to talk with someone, right?" Lin Xingzhi smiled and released him. "Yes." The old man smiled and turned to Alex. "How about coming here?" Alex''s body shook, but he still stepped forward, wondering what he needed to talk about. The Time God was a kind of his father-in-law, so he needed to greet him first. "Greeting, Fat¡ª" "I don''t support a harem!" The Time God shouted, startling everyone. "I am sorry, Father-in-law." Alex lowered his head while cupping his hands. "No, I know." The Time God sighed. "How about coming with me first? I want to talk about something in private." Alex glanced at the others and nodded as if telling them to wait here. Seeing that he agreed, he pulled Alex to another dimension. "It''s true that I don''t support harem until now." He looked up, reminiscing the memory of the past. "Due to her weak body, Lin Xingzhi''s mother died after giving birth to her. I loved her so much that I wouldn''t even look at another woman. However, a woman you can call a wife is the universe''s strongest creature¡­" Alex closed his eyes and received his words. "In her last breath after giving birth to Lin Xingzhi, she asked me to marry another woman just so Lin Xingzhi could have a mother." The Time God wiped the tears on his eyes. He truly loved his wife. "In the end, I couldn''t find another woman. I feel like I don''t want to be half-assed about it. "To raise her like a normal girl, I chose to abandon my position back then and became a loose cultivator, known as Time God. In fact, right after she was born, I used my power to create a space that could stop the time for one month. In that one month, I learned everything like cooking, taking care of a kid, and other things. "It was hard, but everything felt worth it when your daughter called you for the first time. She called me, "Father." She was and is still my most precious treasure until one day she got taken by a jerk who thought nothing of her when she cared for him." Alex''s body shook, knowing who it was. "I am¡ª" "You don''t need to say sorry. Knowing him, you have never known your past life, right? In that case, you don''t need to ask for forgiveness. However, I do want to say one thing. Never abandon my daughter. She had gone through so much, especially after you died. "She is a daughter that I can be proud of. That''s why you shouldn''t lose again. This is an ord¡­No, a request from your father-in-law. I don''t care how many wives you will have in the future. As long as you are there, she will keep smiling. Please¡­" The Time God even took Alex''s hand and lowered his head. Alex couldn''t help but let out tears as well, seeing the love of the Time God. He took a deep breath and said, "I believe that the family is built by a man and a woman, or you can say a pair. So, I, too, believe that you are the strongest. I promise you that even in the face of destruction, I will keep them alive¡­ I promise you that I won''t sacrifice myself so the others can live. Instead, I will sacrifice myself so we can live together." "That''s selfish, but that''s the only thing I want to hear." The Time God made a gentle smile. "I leave Xingzhi to you, Alex." "Yes, Father-in-law. I will make her happy until the end of time." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Great. As your father, I will give you something to help you in the future." He smiled and pointed to the ground. "This is my gift." "A space?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "This is not a normal space. Have you checked it with your Spirit Eyes?" Alex widened his eyes while activating his Spirit Eyes. "This is like the room that I used to train in Encore." "Oh, you are there already?" "Yes. Your Previous Life didn''t know about this dimension since I kept it a secret. No matter what you did, your parents would always prepare for more." The Time God smiled and patted Alex''s head. "Still, I am glad that you have learned about the Spirit Crown." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and asked, "How did you know?" "You should have met that Rilt, right?" "Yes." "Do you know anything about his God Eyes?" "He only told me about the fact that my Spirit Crown came from his God Eyes." "Actually, that name was an artificial name to hide the real name. Along with your Spirit Crown, they are only used to hide the real name. His is not God Eyes. Instead, he called it Star Eyes back then. As the name implies, it used the power of the star. Everything started as a star from the beginning, even planets. "Even though the star eventually became cold and turned into a planet, the essence was still there. The Star Eyes allows Rilt to use the Star Essence, which you could say the planet core, to increase his strength. "And that essence is related to Nature Element. That''s how you can touch me." The Time God smiled. "Does that mean my Spirit Crown''s real name is¡­" "Yes, it''s called Star Crown. However, to boost the morale of the Spirits, you named it Spirit Crown. You will find that fighting someone near a star or sun, or planet would give you more power than you can receive in Outer Space." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and closed his eyes. "I see. So, that''s how the Spirit Crown increases my strength." "Yes." Time God nodded. "As long as you understand that, then it''s okay. There is another present that I want to give you, but unfortunately, I don''t have it with me." "No, no. It''s fine. This dimension alone is enough for me." Alex politely declined, but the Time God patted his shoulders. "What I want to give you is another type of Spirit." "Another type of spirit?" Alex was confused. "Like the Spirits in Eulja?" "Similar to that, but they are more like a beast. I would like you to create a contract with them." "A contract? Is this to increase my strength? Now that I think about it, can''t Father just go to the past and kill the beast?" The Time God stopped him again. "I will explain everything." He waved his hand and summoned a stream of light. He glowed two parts. "These two dots are the past and the future. Now, I am already in the future. Using the technique to allow you to travel to the past is harder than you think, considering it''s taboo in this universe. However, even if I can, the time doesn''t work that way." He then pointed at the past. "If I travel to the past to change it, this past will become my present. While the future where I come from becomes the past. Do you know what I mean?" "A little bit." Alex narrowed his eyes. "In other words, all of you won''t exist right now." He then waved his hand. From the past emerged another stream of light. "This branch will be the new future. What about me? I will be gone, erased by the time paradox. That''s why even if you can go to the past, you shouldn''t meet another person because it will greatly affect the flow of time. And each timeline usually has branches, not like this one stream. It''s like this." He waved his hands and created the branches. Alex opened his mouth in surprise. The one branch became a hundred, and that one hundred gave birth to another one hundred and so on. "Without knowing it, we have passed so many possibilities until this one now. That''s why the only thing I can do is to prepare you to meet the beast. In other words, preparing the present to face the future. Understand?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "I do know that this is a bit complicated, but this is the only thing I can do as Time God." "Thank you, Father. I will certainly not disappoint you." "Good. Even if I can predict your future, I won''t tell you because you might choose another future because of that variable, turning the future into a different one than what I envisioned. So, I won''t tell you anything." "No, this is enough." Alex smiled. Chapter 1055: Life and Death Goddess "By the way, Father. Can I postpone using this room first?" Alex asked. "Why?" The Time God was a bit perplexed. "When I use the room you gave in Encore, I mainly used it to adjust my strength from normal techniques to Divine Techniques and I don''t still see any reason to use it other than increasing my strength." "I see. However, you should know that this dimension is more advanced than the one I built there. Ten years here is one day outside instead of one year." "I understand. There might be something in the future that requires me to use this room, so I would be relying on this dimension." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "As expected, you are the same careful person. Anyway, I won''t tell you when you can use this room. If you want it, just ask my beloved daughter for the key and come here." The Time God nodded. "I understand. That''s right. I wonder if Father knows anything about the beast?" "I don''t know and I won''t say something about it too other than be careful." Alex closed his eyes, a bit disappointed. "Just believe what you are doing. Results will follow." "Yes, I will do my best." "I have one piece of advice for you." He smiled. "What is it?" "It''s this¡­" The Time God suddenly punched him on the cheek, blowing him away. "This is my advice." Alex was surprised and stabilized his position. He stared at the Time God with a perplexed face. "What are you doing?" "It''s lucky that I can touch you because of your Spirit Crown. As I said earlier, I don''t like harem, but it seems that you have so many girls already. In that case, my advice is obvious. You should hit yourself once with all of your strength because your wife will feel it far worse than it every time you get another one. "However, it''s still within my expectation. Just make sure that they lose that painful feeling in their heart when they see you get another woman. Because if it comes to this point, you are basically screwed. That''s where everything doesn''t matter anymore and your family is already beyond redemption." Alex''s heart felt heavy as he stared at the Time God for one minute before lowering his head. "In that case, let''s return to the others. They must be waiting for you." The Time God sighed and waved his hand, teleporting them back to where they came from. "Father!" Lin Xingzhi leaped toward him and hugged him. "Haha, you are still my baby." The Time God laughed while hugging her back. "You have grown up just like your mother. She always made me smile no matter how hard I was hit by reality. Keep doing what you like. Your Father will seriously go this time." "Yes. Thank you for everything, Father. I love you." Lin Xingzhi smiled while crying. "Actually, I am wondering what you are going to do¡­" "I don''t have any plan currently since I am yet to reach Rank 6 God. After that, I will begin my training again to control the Spirit Crown. As for when I am Rank 5 God, I will fully master the Spirit Crown and go to the Dungeon God''s place." Alex explained. "After that?" "I am not sure." Alex shook his head. "Hmm, I don''t know about your situation, so I can''t really say anything. I only want to say something about the inheritances you have gotten." "The inheritances? The golden lightning?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I don''t know, but I am telling you that in the past, the Spirit God once got all those knowledge after getting stranded in time. I mean, Time Disturbance. Although he got help from me, he learned something about his own ancestors." "Ancestors?" Alex widened his eyes. "Although I said ancestors, their real identity remained the same¡­ They were Alexander Sirius." "What?!" Alex drew a gasp as he blinked his eyes a few times. "Don''t tell me¡­" "Yes. They were your past lives. From what I know, he saw around fifty of past reincarnations and absorbed their knowledge. This was the reason why he appeared to have so much knowledge in that small brain." "Then¡­" Alex clenched his teeth. "I was like 52nd reincarnation?" "No. I don''t know how long the cycle of reincarnation is, but it''s proof that you live in the past. However, you must have realized that some of your knowledge is very outdated, not usable anymore in the present. Hence, I want to let you know that you should confront the knowledge by yourself. You might find something amazing. Of course, I can''t guarantee it." "Alright. I will do my best." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "And since you don''t have a plan right now, I will give you one more mission. This is not an immediate mission, so you can go anywhere you like. Remember when I talked about another form of spirit?" The Time God asked Alex. Alex nodded. "The spirit that I want you to get is Life and Death Spirit." "What?!" This time, Lin Xingzhi was the one who got surprised. "Father, you¡­" "Like I said, I won''t say anything about the future, but it doesn''t mean I will stay my mouth shut if I can help you increase the chance to fight the beast." "What is Life and Death Spirit?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Life and Death Spirit is a pair of spirits that helped one of the God King, Life and Death God in the past. He could understand the meaning of life and death, including reviving someone. There are many complex contracts for that and I am not sure myself, but it''s certainly a powerful spirit. "The Life Spirit is similar to my Nature Element, but it can help one evolve to a stronger being. Of course, the spirit can only do it once every one thousand years, but that powerful spirit is indeed terrifying. Just imagine giving birth to Rank 2 God every one thousand years. "As for the Death Spirit, it''s the epitome of chaos. It''s disturbing, but it can resurrect the deaths for the time being. Or you can say, prevent their deaths for a period of time. I am not sure how long it is, but I think you will have at least a few minutes. Of course, this can only be used every one thousand years. "I don''t have a clear grasp about the Life and Death God, so I couldn''t explain it to you that much." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. Alex nodded. "That''s enough. Thank you." "I will fill you in." The Time God smiled. "First of all, It''s not Life and Death God, but Goddess. According to her, she has the control over the soul and energy. Obviously, the Death Spirit takes the soul to increase her power while the Life Spirit grants her energy to do anything beyond her means." "Why do you want me to make a contract with those two Spirits?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "The Life Spirit can grant you enough power for your Spirit Crown or even make it stronger. The Death Spirit can control your soul. Don''t you have a perfect Original Martial Art for that?" The Time God smiled. "No!" Alex narrowed his eyes. "You don''t mean to¡­" "Yes. That alone is powerful, but that attack is nowhere near the strength you need to fight that beast. I want you to make a contract with the spirits to get the technique to slay the beast. However, I don''t know about their requirement, so I can''t really tell you when is the perfect time to meet them. As for the position, she gave where she passed away after reading about her own death." "Reading her own death? Did she know about it?" "Yes. She knew about you and such. Her death couldn''t be avoided, so instead of struggling, she decided to seal herself and made everyone think she had died." "What did you say?" Alex clenched his fists. "She hasn''t died?" "Yes. With my help, I created the second Time Box in the form of a coffin. That coffin allowed her to preserve her life until the right moment. You should meet her as soon as possible. I think she can help you increase your strength." The Time God smiled. "Wait a minute, Father. You don''t want to make her¡­" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "What are you thinking? You should know about my principle, right? There is no way I will let her become his wife. Besides, her condition is not suited to be his wife." The Time God shrugged. "You will believe me when you see her appearance. She is the most mysterious person in this universe, and only some God Kings have seen her real appearance. Besides, with her way of talking, I can''t see her being his wife." "In that case, it''s fine. I don''t like to see him being with someone that I barely know." Lin Xingzhi pouted. "No, no. I am just surprised that you allow him to have these many wives." "I have limited the number to ten. I won''t accept it after that number or he needs to be prepared for eviction." She shrugged. "What?! Ten?" The Time God widened his eyes and grabbed Alex''s collar. He was fuming in anger when he heard about the real number. He thought it was only five or six, but it turned out he had underestimated him. "You, boy. Tell me again how many people have become your wives?" "Ehm¡­" Alex was embarrassed, not knowing what to say to his father-in-law. "He has eight currently." Lin Xingzhi was the first to answer before pointing at Silvia. "She is the ninth." The Time God clenched even tighter and glared at him while saying, "You bastard¡­Congratulations¡­" "Father¡­" Alex knew that he was furious. There was no shred of happiness in that congratulatory. "I don''t have the knowledge of having a bastard like you as my son-in-law." The Time God turned around and stomped the ground. "Father. No need to worry. Just imagine how many grandchildren you can carry. Besides, the number is perfect after calculating it for one thousand years." "Grandchildren, you say¡­" The Time God turned back as he imagined that scene happened. His face mellowed a bit and snorted. "Hmph. I will forgive you this time for allowing me to imagine it in this last meeting." Alex was speechless, not knowing what to say. "Anyway, please leave everything to me." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Fine, fine. In that case, I will give you two things for you." He waved his hand as the first item appeared above his hand. It was a compass. "I don''t think I need to explain what this compass is, right?" The Time God stared menacingly at Alex. Alex repeatedly nodded. "Don''t worry. I will go to her as quickly as possible." "This is the second one." Chapter 1056: Goodbye "This is the second one." What the Time God gave to Alex was a sand clock. "Is that your Sand of Time, Father?" She tilted her head. "I mean, it''s a good item, but isn''t it¡­" "This is only for a precaution. By using this Sand of Time, you can prevent anyone from using Time Element as long as their strength is lower than a certain degree. It''s not about whether he is a Rank 2 God or a Rank 3 God. Instead, all that matters are his Time Element. It''s like facing a Pure Fire, you know what I mean?" Alex repeatedly nodded. "Yes. I have met someone using Time Element and he is¡­" Alex turned around, staring at Silvia. "Yes. He is my father''s disciple." "That''s right. I haven''t asked all of your names. Now that I have finished settling my business with this jerk, let''s talk about all of you. How about introducing yourself first?" The Time God put a warm smile and asked. "Who is first?" Everyone looked around, wondering who should be first. They came to the conclusion that Rose, Alex''s disciple, would go first because she was the only one with a different status than them. "Me? Fine." Rose pouted and bowed to the Time God. "I am Rose Skewes. I am Alexander Sirius''s disciple." "I see. She seems to have this weird strength around her Time Element, but I won''t look into it since that power is beneficial for her." The Time God nodded and continued observing her. "I will be a petty person if I don''t give her a present, so here is for you." Rose stretched both hands as a bow appeared, slowly descending onto her hands. "This is Shattering Heaven Bow. It can be considered one of the strongest bows in the universe. Anyway, I won''t talk too much about the legend, but this bow managed to injure me in the past even though I was a God King and he was a Rank 2 God. No matter what, this bow is far better than whatever he could give." The Time God didn''t forget to leave an insult to Alex. Alex could only scratch the back of his head, wondering what kind of grudge this old man had against him. "This¡­" Rose hesitated to take it since she felt this was too much. She raised her vision, staring at the Time God. "It''s fine. You should take it. When the time comes, make sure you shoot one arrow on your Master''s ass for me. I will take it as a payback." "Yes." Rose nodded happily before remembering something. "That''s right. You are Master''s Father-in-law, so should I call you, Grandpa? Can I, Grandpa?" Not knowing why, but her voice rang sweetly in his ears. "Ah, so this is what it feels to have a granddaughter. I see, I see. It''s far more amazing than I thought." "Oi, don''t take the matter of my chastity off like that¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows, wanting to smack Rose''s head, but he couldn''t due to the Time God. "Good, good. Take care of your master, alright? If he dared to make his wives cry, beat him up for me." "Yes, I will strictly follow Grandpa''s rule." She quickly nodded. In some way, these two had the same goal, so no wonder they could be on the same page this easily. Yeah, the goal was beating Alex. He then turned to the one beside Rose, who seemed to have the same height as her. Evelyn crossed her legs, slightly rose her skirt, and bowed politely. The royal blood in her was still dominant, it seemed. "My name is Evelyn De Viona, but I guess my name should have changed into Evelyn De Sirius." "Hmph. What is the use of it? I never agree for my beloved Xingzhi to change her surname even if it''s a part of the custom. She is mine. Forever mine." The Time God snorted, looking very petty. "¡­" Alex could only sigh when watching this old man. "Whatever. I don''t really care about the name." "Hear that?!" The Time God made a smug smile and said, "Either way, you seem to be royalty somewhere, but I won''t talk much about it because the most important thing is the present." "Yes. Even so, I still couldn''t help but smile when thinking about my current name." Evelyn smiled genuinely, startling the Time God. The latter narrowed his eyes while glaring at Alex. "You boy. How dare you kidnap this well-mannered lady? Never mind. You are shameless. No need to explain it to me." "Actually, I am the one that is pursuing Big Brother Alex. It''s one-sided admiration at first." She played with her hair as her face turned red. When Time God saw her like this, he snorted. "Hmph. I have just witnessed a crime right now. I should erase you from this universe, you jerk." "Oi. What do you mean crime? I don''t know anything." Alex really wanted to fight it out with this old man. "The reason you trained her must be to cultivate her to be your wife." He harrumphed. "I was and am not a lolicon." "What is a lolicon?" "It''s about a guy loving a kid, Father." Lin Xingzhi finally opened her mouth. "¡­" The Time God became even more furious. "Really?" "I am starting to believe that you hate me, Father." Alex sighed. "You don''t need to start it because I hate you with every cell in my body. You dare to take my daughter away from me is the biggest crime you can ever commit." "¡­" Alex fell silent for a few seconds. "I am not guilty." "Yes, you are." The Time God turned to another person again. "Anyway, it''s a waste of time to talk with you. I better know the others first." The next one was Letizia. "I am Letizia La Scola. Master has given me everything I have right now." "Master¡­You bastard. This is it, I am going to beat you up." "Wha¡ª" Letizia panicked and came between them, while asking the Time God to stop. "I was foolish at that time and voluntarily became his slave. Master has always wanted to break the contract, but I have been refusing him this whole time. So, I am in the wrong." "l¡­" The Time God was still pissed off and shouted at Alex. "You bastard. Are you going to hide behind a woman?" "I am not." Alex sighed. "You are so petty." "So what?" The Time God crossed his arms while looking away. "So, who is the last girl? She is not your wife yet, right?" "My name is Silvia Resta. Well, I am a Doctor. Other than that, I don''t think I have something to be proud of." "You are still young, but you have this kind of strength. If that is not something to be proud of, then what is it?" "I am nothing compared to him." Silvia shook her head. "Hmph. He is forcefully aging his body. Although it''s just practice, he will wear out before he knows it." "Yes. I have treated him before. I think he can continue for a while until the second treatment, which happens to be the last." Silvia nodded. "So, you marry her because of her skill?" "Why are you nitpicking every little thing, Father? Besides, do I look like someone who will take advantage of my status just to get a woman?" "Your past life? No. Your current life? I don''t know." "¡­" Alex sighed. "I don''t. I guarantee you." "Fine." "By the way, where are Anna and Anya?" "They are trying hard in Eulja. Due to the power of the Dungeon God, they have the chance to reach God King. Though, Anna is the closest one because she has the concept ready. There are several more candidates, but in terms of potential alone, I think Leoz has the biggest probability. We will see." Lin Xingzhi explained. "No wonder. Give my regards to them. They are good kids." "Yes." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "That''s right. There are three more, but they can''t come here. They are Alicia, Firia, and Sherry. Alicia was a human before becoming a Phoenix Queen. She is adept in Array and Ice Element. "Firia has Alex''s Sacrificial Element and her refining skill has grown so much in the past decades. I believe she can soon become one of the strongest alchemists in the younger generation. Last but not least, Sherry. She is a Celestial Fox. Alex''s Pure Fire allows her to evolve her fire to the same level as the former Fire God, Phitrus." "Hmm. I see. Three talented daughters-in-law." The Time God nodded, satisfied. "That''s right. About the Time Element guy, what was his name again?" "I haven''t told you. His name is Navin. My father is known as the Palm God." Silvia explained. "Palm God is currently a God King, but compared to the previous generation of God Kings, his strength is still lacking," Lin Xingzhi added. "I see. I only want to add this. Don''t trust all the God Kings." He smiled. "I understand. I shall keep that in mind." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a serious expression. "Good. This will be the last time we met¡­" His expression mellowed. "I hope that we won''t meet again. I don''t want to think of a possibility of meeting any of you in the afterlife. You hear me?" Alex clenched his fists and nodded. "I will do my best to keep them safe." "Good. Remember our promise." "Yes, Father." "I am sorry, but I don''t know what you three wants, so you can grab it in the storage yourself. The same rule." The Time God smiled and looked at Lin Xingzhi as if telling him to supervise the entire vault. "I know. We won''t break it no matter what." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "In that case, I don''t need to worry anymore. Don''t forget to send my regards to all his wives that are not here." The Time God raised both hands as his body began to disappear. "Father." Lin Xingzhi shouted and hugged him again. She wanted to feel him until the last second because she missed him so much. "Hehe. Good daughter. Keep smiling, alright? Your mother''s most beautiful moment was when she smiled." The Time God hugged her back. "I am leaving." "Don''t worry. Everything will be fine, Father." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes until she lost the feeling in her hand as the Time God had completely disappeared. Alex appeared behind her and hugged her, not wanting to leave her alone. "I am here." Lin Xingzhi smiled and looked upward. "Yes. This is a new beginning." "Yes. Let''s go." "Yeah, but you are the only one who needs to go. We won''t meet the Life and Death Goddess since the one she is waiting for is you." "Are you sure?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Yep." She smiled and turned around, kissing him on the lips. "Just don''t forget to bring us home." "Of course." Chapter 1057: Second Meeting Alex apologized to Silvia and the others since he planned to visit the Life and Death Goddess first because this took priority. He promised them to go to a place where they could enjoy their life together for a year. The girls were understanding. They let him go without complaining since they also had something to do. Of course, Lin Xingzhi didn''t forget to bring them into the Vault to pick a treasure for them. Alex told her that he didn''t need anything and waited until they all finished before bringing them back to Eulja. This was Silvia''s first time coming, so she was pretty impressed by the world. Unlike her world, where the government or her mother did all the work, Alex and Lin Xingzhi didn''t really have that much work. Instead, they appointed the six Elemental Gods to handle most of the jobs in their own territory while allowing all the influences here to keep their territory in check. This was a dangerous system, but Eulja could self-sustain this way for a long time due to their loyalty. That was lacking in her own world because some Rank 2 Gods were trying to steal her father''s position as long as there was an opportunity. Of course, her mother, Goddess of War, had suppressed them all this time and cleaned them up, but they were so slick, so it was impossible to eliminate all of them. Nonetheless, as long as her father was still in charge, no one would make a move unless they planned to bring a Rank 1 God from another place. When Alex left, they returned to the castle to check their course of action. Meanwhile, Alex was using his Teleportation Array to send him to the Life and Death Goddess, wondering if she was inside a planet or not. Surprisingly, he ended up arriving in a world that was surprisingly an Upper World instead of a Divine World. Contrary to his expectation, Alex suddenly felt a wave of a powerful energy inside the planet. He activated his Spirit Eyes and saw a powerful Dark Energy that looked otherworldly. No, such energy shouldn''t exist in this Upper World because he could clearly see that it was a Divine Energy. Alex looked at the compass, pointing straight at the energy source. "Did she wake up?" Alex narrowed his eyes and used his Teleportation Array to check. ¡­ A few minutes ago, in that Upper World, a woman was flying away with a blue bird from the enemies who were currently chasing them. "Let''s go, Lan." The young woman said to the bird, who gradually fell down to the ground because he couldn''t fly anymore due to her injury. "Ga Wu!" "What do you mean you can''t?" She clenched her teeth in anguish. The pain in her body already made her numb, but her heart felt painful because she remembered the most important promise. It was the promise she made in the past to meet her benefactor again. She suddenly stopped and said, "Lan¡­It''s alright. You have done well. I will stop them for you. I am sure that if it''s you, you can escape from them. Remember our promise, alright?" "Ga Wu!" The bird shook his head as if telling her that he would rather die together with her instead of escaping alone. "You silly bird." The woman stroked his fur as they landed on the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she fell on her knees as if she had no energy left. She then raised her vision to check who had arrived. Luckily, she seemed to have a few seconds to catch her breath. Next to her, a shadow emerged from the ground, turning into a two-meter human figure. However, this one didn''t have any clothes as the body was formed from a shadow. The figure had six eyes, all blue, and looked at the teen while saying. "Just surrender your body to me. I can kill all of them." The black spirit narrowed his eyes. "No, you are just going to take over me. I won''t do that." "There is nothing wrong with it. Our Master is waiting for you to resurrect her, so I can''t let you die here." "Then, you should help me, not take over me." She snarled before she drew more power from the spirit. Her appearance began to change as her skin was covered by black matter, turning half of her body into black as if she got possessed. Her white and black eyes were inverted. She saw something coming from the above and waved her hand, creating a shield that took that attack. An explosion occurred as she got blown away by the residual explosion. "Kh¡­" She gritted her teeth and glared at two people, one female and one male. "You¡­You killed my disciple!" The man was enraged as he was the one releasing the attack earlier. However, the man seemed to be focusing on the blue bird itself instead of the female. "I am going to take your life to know the consequences of what will happen if you offend me." "You have taken the only person I love. I am going to make you experience the same." The female snorted. When looking at these two, she protected the bird and shouted. "He wanted my partner to become his pet? Do you think I will give him the consent? If he didn''t try to take my partner, he wouldn''t have died!" "So what?! It''s that blue bird''s honor to be his pet." The female shouted. Suddenly, another group appeared from the side and said, "Young Lady, let''s return back to Hwakgun Clan. We can settle this problem with them. Our Young Master really loves you." "Heh. Since all of you are selfish, why can''t I be selfish too? Will that bastard love someone he hates to the bone? No, right? And now you are forcing me to marry him? Hypocrite. If you dare, then take this life." The blue bird looked at the woman with a sad expression, hoping something to happen. However, no one came to the rescue. She had no friends in this world, so this might be the end of them. "Shut up. You talked too much." The first man shouted and jumped toward her, throwing a powerful punch. She gritted her teeth and struck his fist with her sword, albeit he was too strong. He blew her away, but the latter used it to launch herself far away while bringing the bird with her. "Chase her!" shouted the man as soon as he lost eye contact with the woman. Meanwhile, she almost died at this point. Her back was leaning on the blue bird''s body as her consciousness became fuzzy. "I think this as far as we go, Lan. I am sorry that you end up dying with me¡­" "Ga Wu." The bird shook his head helplessly, saying that everything was his fault. "Rather than having them taint me, let''s commit suicide¡­" "Ga Wu." She smiled after getting the confirmation from her partner and raised her sword, planning to stab her heart along with the bird. Suddenly, a red light appeared from the sky, slowly descending upon her. It was so bright that no one could see what produced such a light, but the blue bird could see him perfectly. It was Alex. "Ga Wu!" The familiar voice rang in his ears as Alex recognized the blue luan. "You are the blue bird from back then¡­I will give you a bit of my Pure Fire to help you recover after this. Wait, alright?" "Ga Wu." "That voice¡­" The woman suddenly stopped as if she regained a bit of her body control. "This is¡­" The black spirit was baffled because he never thought that the woman could gain back her body. "Master¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and gently called her name. "Mithra. It''s been a while." "Yes, Master." Mithra''s eyebrows closed, but tears streamed out of it. At the last moment of her life, she could meet the only person she wanted to meet again. "You are injured¡­" Alex looked down, observing her condition and finding out that her body was covered with wounds. In fact, she almost died at this point. "I am glad that in this last moment, I can finally see you again, Master." She smiled brightly as if she didn''t feel the pain. "Who injured you? No, that is not important." Alex waved his hand and a pill appeared on his hand. This was the Orthodox Recovery Pill. "Take this." "Ma-master?" Mithra was baffled and felt that she wasn''t worthy of getting such an item. "It''s okay. Just take it. You will be like what you are before¡­" Alex nodded with a smile before seeing the black spirit with his Spirit Eyes. "You are¡­Death Spirit?" "Who are you? Why do you know me?" He narrowed his eyes. "I am the person your Master wants to meet." "My Master? Don''t tell me¡­You¡­You are the Spirit God!" He finally recognized Alex. "You will explain the situation to me later. For now, give the control of her body back and she should be as good as new after eating the Orthodox Recovery Pill." The black spirit hesitated for a second before ultimately nodding his head. "I understand." Mithra suddenly regained her body. Although the recovery stopped, Alex waved his hand, forcing the pill inside her mouth. She subconsciously swallowed the pill and her body soon got covered with golden light. Alex then turned around, finding so many people coming toward them. However, there were a few recognizable ones. On his left were two women and two men. The strongest would be a young woman with her eyes covered with a bandana and a middle-aged man with a huge muscular body. "Who are you? That sl*t dare to kill my disciple. If you are going to stand in my way, I am going to kill you too." At the same time, there was another group of four coming from the other side. The leader seemed to be the young man with a long sword. He looked at Alex with a calm expression and said. "As long as she can return to be the Hwakgun Clan Young Master''s wife with the Luan as the dowry, I can quickly heal her." Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "Looking at your killing intent, I am sure that both of you have injured her. Since both of you have said your own demand, then I will also say my piece." He stomped the ground with his Spirit Step and created a fifty kilometers wide crater before releasing his Spiritual Energy limited to Martial Saint due to the world''s limit. He released his killing intent and looked at both of them. "I have only one demand. Kill yourself now or you will face my wrath!" Chapter 1058: Just Kill "What is happening?" This question kept echoing in everyone''s ears as they were trying to figure it out themselves. In just a blink of an eye, there was a crater as big as a city appearing out of nowhere. And the center of the crater was Alex. When they realized it, they quickly took a look at Alex, albeit Mithra grabbed their attention as all her wounds disappeared, leaving only the traces of blood on the body. Her complexions had returned to normal as she looked all over her body and raised her head. "Master, this¡­" "I have healed you. So, now tell me what happened? Who injured you?" He asked. "Someone tried to force me to become his wife. I didn''t want it and escaped from them. Unfortunately, on the way, someone stopped me because they wanted Lan, who ultimately got killed by Lan." "So, the ones on our left are people coming for revenge while the other group is just a dog of a big family?" Alex snorted. "A dog, you say? You bas¡ª" One of them couldn''t endure when Alex looked down on them, forgetting the fact that Alex made a crater just now. Before he finished his words, his head already flew away without having the chance to move. No, no one in this place could react because the next thing they realized, Alex already waved his hand. In other words, Alex just killed someone far away with that simple movement. They never heard this concept before. "We need to run!" The representative quickly announced to the other two to escape, but Alex already appeared before them as two dragons appeared from his weapons, grabbing the two. As for Alex, he grasped the leader''s head and dragged him back to Mithra. "So, these three are the dogs. What did they do to you? NO, never mind. You don''t need to answer me." Alex snorted and used his dragon to bite the two''s feet. "Argh!" Screams echoed in everyone''s ears as the other group began to panic. At the same time, the leader of the first group looked at the two that he considered his brother and sister with hatred. "You bastard!" He struggled to free himself, so he could cut down Alex, but Alex waved his hand again, cutting all his limbs. Because of his anger, Alex made this person see how his own people died. When seeing Alex''s cruelty, the middle-aged man shouted. "Retreat! We need to escape!" Alex obviously didn''t let them escape. He grabbed their two most important people, the middle-aged man and the blindfolded woman. "If you are leaving, then these two will die." Alex''s tone was cold as if he could kill them easily. Most of them halted their steps as they turned around, but Alex had already thrown the two toward Mithra before restricting their movement with his dragons. Alex looked down on them from the air and said, "I don''t need idiots. Perish." With a snap of his finger, the soldiers that followed those two were burned, leaving only the other two of their original group of four. Alex did the same as the first group, making all the important people see how their dearest people died. "You bastard! Are you human?" The blindfolded woman shouted in anger. Her tears were streaming out of her blindfold. "No, I am not. Besides, you all are not too." Alex snorted with a cold gaze. "Master! I am here! Help me!" The middle-aged man shouted out loud as if hoping for someone to come. Suddenly, a blue light appeared from the sky, flying toward Alex. Boom. It looked like the light struck Alex, so an old man appeared, flying in the sky. He narrowed his eyes while saying, "You bastard. What do you think you are doing to my disciple?" "I don''t have time to play with you, Old Man." Alex raised his sword and slashed downwards, creating a sword strike that cut the ground until it was too dark to see. Of course, the old man didn''t escape even if he was in the sky. The old man was split into two as he couldn''t even see Alex''s attack. "Since you all love to abuse the weak, then I will abuse you too." Alex snorted and looked at the rest of the people. "I have restrained myself this whole time to not kill, but you have really crossed your line by targeting her." "You¡ª" They could only curse at him because of the dragons. Alex killed them one by one and made them insane during their last moment, especially the leaders who were the last. "No!" They were struggling to free themselves to kill Alex but to no avail. "How do you like it? You have driven a little girl into the corner, so I let you taste your own medicine." "You, my Sword Deity Kingdom won''t let you off!" The middle-aged man shouted. "That is if they dare to attack me." Alex snorted. "As for the so-called Hwakgun Clan, I will definitely erase them from this world." Mithra looked at Alex with a weird expression but didn''t stop him. She just wanted to continue her journey to meet Alex, but there were many people coveting her or her partner. After getting bothered with their screams, he finally killed those people without listening to what they said. "You don''t want me to kill them?" Alex turned to Mithra. Mithra shook her head. "I¡­ I just never thought that I would meet my Master again." "To think you have come to an Upper World, even I am surprised." He sighed before bending his knees, placing his hand on the Blue Luan. He channeled his Fire Energy to help the recovery process. "Rest well." The Blue Luan finally closed his eyes to recover. Alex then turned to Mithra. "Lead me to the so-called Hwakgun Clan. I am going to destroy them." "Master¡­I don''t think it''s right for you to do so. I mean¡ª" Alex shook his head. "If I am not here, you would have died. That''s the last thing I want to hear and see. If they are coming for you, it''s better to settle the grievances to let them know that other people could abuse their power and influence to handle them like an ant. So, where are they? Give me the direction." After contemplating for a while, Mithra pointed at the east. Alex nodded and used his Teleportation Array while asking. "So, how about telling me your story?" Mithra looked down and nodded. She began telling her story after Alex left. Because of a few reasons, she seemed to be referred to the Lower World, especially since Alex took a liking to her. With her name becoming famous as the friend of the Legendary Blue Luan, many people tried to know her, resulting in her getting bothered by it. Even the hero tried to approach her. According to her, the desire to meet him again rose not long after he went to another world. Although the portal didn''t appear anymore, she found another portal that could let her go to another world. With this intention, she tried to rise in this world by herself, but there were many lecherous people that wanted her by using "justice" as their weapons. Because of that, she fled to get into the plain not far from here. It was supposed to be a plain that no one dared to enter, but she got ambushed earlier than she expected, resulting in her in this current state. "I see. You have many enemies already¡­But because I only know about the Hwakgun Family and they seem to be the worst, I will set the Hwakgun Clan as the limit. I won''t kill anyone else in this world." Alex promised her. Mithra thanked him, but Alex told her not to do that because it was him being a busybody. He found a huge tower that seemed to be his destination. He landed right in front of the giant tower. The moment the guards saw Mithra''s face, they quickly informed the people from the family. As one would expect, the first one to come out was the young master who seemed to have misunderstood why Alex brought Mithra here. "I know that you will be coming back to me!" He shouted while leaping into the air, trying to hug her during his fall. However, Alex waved his hand down, cutting both of his hands. Mithra avoided him and looked at the young master whose hands were already severed. "Argh!" He screamed in pain. No one ever did something like this to him, and this was the first time he experienced this type of pain. Suddenly, an old man came out of the tower and found his son in that state. He glared at Alex and released his power. "You bastard!" Before he could attack, someone came over from the opposite direction with a few elites. "What do you want to do?" Alex narrowed his eyes when he saw these people. "Scram. I won''t repeat myself. Today, the Hwakgun Clan will disappear from this world." "What did you say?!" The old man gnashed his teeth. His soldiers came out one by one and prepared to attack as well. Alex snapped his finger and burned all those soldiers with his Pure Fire. "As I said, you all are going to die." "Don''t you dare to look down on my Hwakgun Clan!" The old man leaped toward Alex. "I heard it from her as well. It seems that your Hwakgun Clan is number one because of your tone. Unfortunately, you all are trash." Alex shook his head and enveloped the tower with his Pure Fire, reducing it along with the people inside the tower to ashes. The screams resounded in the town, but the people around the tower were perplexed by the disappearance of the tower. "What?!" Noticing what happened earlier, the old man looked behind him, only to find nothing. Alex ignored him and looked at the people that came from an opposite direction. "What? You still don''t want to scram?" They didn''t speak or anything. They simply cupped their hands and returned to their place, scared that Alex would kill them. Alex then grabbed the old man''s neck while releasing his killing intent. "Who do you think you are? Do you think you are great? No. You just bully the weak and fear the strong. That''s how you look strong in the eyes of others." "You¡­You¡­" The old man couldn''t process what just happened, but Alex decided to end this in the most boring way. He couldn''t afford to waste his time torturing a turtle like him. He better met the Life and Death Goddess before returning to his place to meet his wife. "Master¡­" Alex shrugged and said, "This is what I will do to my enemy. That''s all. For now¡­Death Spirit, come out!" The black spirit made his appearance and bowed to him. "Spirit God." "Enough with the formality. I want to meet the Life and Death Goddess right now. Lead me." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Certainly." Chapter 1059: "Weapons" Without further ado, the Death Spirit pointed out the direction toward his master. Due to him being bonded to Mithra, Alex brought her too. "So, what are you doing?" Alex asked the Death Spirit, suspicious of his action. If everything went according to the Time God, the Death Spirit should be waiting by the side of his master, so he might want to do something. "It''s nothing. According to my master, someone would come five thousand years from the day she "died" but no one came after waiting for so long. We ended up agreeing to go outside to search for the person himself. I met this girl a few months ago and made a contract to find you in exchange for my strength, but it seemed the contract has ended." Alex narrowed his eyes and nodded. Although the story was convincing, he didn''t plan to fully trust someone he didn''t know. He chose to wait until he got the story from the Goddess herself. They arrived within ten minutes due to Alex''s Teleportation Array and found a small tree in the middle of nowhere. The tree itself was nothing special to normal people, but for Alex, it was a treasure. "This tree¡­It holds a powerful Life Energy." Alex narrowed his eyes. "It''s like Nature Energy, but a bit different." The Dark Spirit asked, "Please remove the tree. My master is underground. The only way to enter is the tree." Alex narrowed his eyes and waved his hand, using his Spiritual Energy to pull out the tree. "This¡­" Mithra drew a gasp when she found a small hole leading deep underground. "Let''s go." Alex grabbed her waist and jumped inside before hearing the Dark Spirit saying, "Please bring the tree too." Alex didn''t think much and brought it with him inside his Space Ring. Of course, he didn''t forget to close the hole, so no one learned anything about this place and experienced the free fall for a minute before using his Spiritual Energy to decrease the falling speed until he gently landed on the ground. Surprisingly, the cave was dark, but they could already see the light coming at the end of the corridor, barely reaching their place without them doing anything. "That''s where my master is." Alex nodded and activated his Spirit Eyes again, finding another energy, which seemed to be the Life Spirit. "Follow me." Alex patted Mithra''s head while the Blue Loan followed them right behind without making a sound. As soon as he entered the room at the end of the corridor, the space around them expanded as if they just came to another world. Inside the room was a bright white background without any edge. A spirit that looked like the Death Spirit, which only had color differences, bowed to him. Unlike his black skin, this Spirit was full white other than its golden eyes. "I have been waiting for your excellency, Spirit God." Alex nodded. "Before that, I think we have one thing to do, no?" "Yes." The Life Spirit''s feminine voice resounded in his ears as she explained. "My master has been expecting for Your Majesty to come here. To avoid any implication, my master chose to fake her own death. The way to "wake" her up is to use the tree from the surface." "You mean this?" Alex waved his hand, taking out the tree full of Life Energy. "Yes." The Life Spirit nodded before turning to the coffin next to her. She slowly opened the lid, revealing the real appearance of the Life and Death Goddess. "Seriously?" Alex quickly remembered what the Time God had told him. The reason for him saying that he wouldn''t find her attractive because her body looked like Eve. She appeared to be only twelve or thirteen years old, wearing gothic style clothing. "Is there a problem, Your Majesty?" "No, no." Alex waved his hand. "If you don''t mind, I would like to start the process right now." "Please." The Life Spirit then used her power and lifted the tree above the Goddess. "My master faked her death with the help of Al while my power is required to dispel the fake death state and resurrect her." The Life Spirit looked at Alex with a pleading gaze as if asking him not to do anything to her master. "Don''t worry. The Time God sent me here, so I won''t do anything." Alex shook his head, assuring them. The Life Spirit nodded and extracted the Life Energy from the tree and used her hand to channel it to the Goddess''s body. The energy flowed from her hand to the stomach before spreading all over her body. Alex decided to close his eyes because he knew that this process would be long. It turned out that he was true. It took them three days until the Life Spirit said, "My master should be waking up soon." Alex nodded and waited with a serious expression. "Mhm." A small groan was heard from the coffin before the Death Spirit, Al, called her. "Master!" "Al¡­" She gradually furrowed her eyebrows, looking very annoyed. "You are so loud." "Master¡­I am glad." He looked down. If he had the capability of crying, tears would have already streamed down his eyes. "You are always a cry baby." She smiled but still had yet to open her eyes. She then sensed Alex''s presence and stretched her hand. The Life Spirit took her hand, helping her up. "Thank you, El." "It''s nothing, Master." "Umu." The Goddess smiled and raised her head without opening her eyes. "It''s my pleasure to meet you, Spirit God¡­No, Alexander Sirius." "¡­" Alex was surprised because he had prepared himself to get called by that title. "I can sense that there is only a trace of your previous life''s energy in you, not fully controlling your body. In that case, you must be the reincarnation without having the memory or soul. That''s why I call you Alexander Sirius. If you prefer to be called Spirit God, I don''t mind though." "No. Alexander Sirius is fine." Alex shook his head. "In that case, nice to meet you, Alexander Sirius." She thought for a moment and asked, "So, what has Julian or my two eyes said to you?" "Eyes? Julian?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. [It''s my father''s name. I forgot that he hadn''t introduced himself. Ugh.] ''Ah. We were rushing back then, so I didn''t think much of it.'' Alex sighed inwardly. Meanwhile, the Goddess smiled and asked, "So, they didn''t tell you anything?" "Yes?" Alex was still confused about the eyes, so his tone was quite hesitant. "Al, El. Do you mind?" The Goddess called the two spirits'' names. "Please, Master." Both answered at the same time before turning into a light ball that flew toward her eyes. The Dark Ball or Al entered her left eye while the Life Spirit came inside the right eye. She gradually opened her eyes, revealing a white and black eye. "They are my eyes, you see." "Ah¡­" Alex lowered his head. "Sorry." "You don''t need to apologize since no one actually has a record about this. In other words, only you and the two behind you know this." She smiled before asking Mithra and Lan. "So, can you keep this a secret?" Mithra and Lan repeatedly nodded their heads. Alex''s friend would be someone trustworthy, so they didn''t dare to tell it to anyone because Alex would be angry. "Thank you." She smiled and touched both of her eyebrows before closing her eyes again, summoning the two spirits back. "That''s how it is¡­I hope you don''t mind talking to this blind girl." "No, please don''t say such a thing." Alex shook his head politely. If it were a blind girl, he already met her a long time ago. Now that he thought about it, he wondered about Aria''s progress. "Thanks. So, I think I will be explaining from the start. This is going to be a long talk." She turned to Al. "Can you bring out everything to make ourselves comfortable?" "With Master''s permission." "You have my permission." Al nodded and took a Space Ring inside the coffin, summoning all the stuff like couches, carpet, drinks, and other things. She also came out of the coffin and sat on the couch without care. She didn''t feel any movement from Alex and asked, "Is there something wrong? Is this not comfortable enough? Or do you prefer a bed? But are you sure you want an old woman like me?" "No thanks." Alex shook his head. "I was shocked, but I guess it''s fine." She smiled and nodded. "So, first of all, I was the one telling you that you were going to die. I mean, your past life." "Eh?" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting to hear that at the very first sentence. The Goddess remained calm before remembering something. "Ah, I haven''t introduced myself. Sorry, sorry. Let''s restart the conversation. My name is Alaya, known as Life and Death Goddess. I personally didn''t like to interfere in any matter, but I happened to meet you and abruptly told you about your death. "You could say that you reeked of death. Of course, it wasn''t as accurate as Time Eyes or Fortune Teller, but you could say that it was pretty accurate. And it''s not like someone who reeked of that couldn''t escape his fate, so it doesn''t really matter if I tell you something like that. "However, the Spirit God took this matter seriously as if he had known something too. After a long talk with the Spirit God, he chose to go on a journey. He called it the Reincarnation Journey. "I didn''t know much about his journey, but I still followed a bit of his news because I felt something was wrong with him and the universe. I learned that he met the Time God, Dungeon God, Fire God. But then I lost contact with him because he went somewhere far away for five years. "No one knew anything about that journey, even the three Gods. Not long after he came back, the smell of death became even more apparent, and somehow I also had that smell. "Two years after that, the beast came and started to wreak havoc. It was something stoppable with all the God Kings around, but it was when the real terror began. No one other than me was alive to tell the tale, but a certain planet turned out to be the beast''s weapon." Alaya hesitated to tell him because it was a nightmare. Alex frowned and asked. "What is the weapon?" "Monsters." "Monsters?" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting this answer. "What do you mean?" "They were literally monsters. Although their strength was a bit lower than ours, they had numbers. If I were not wrong, seven God Kings, including me, fought against ten monsters of the same level. And there were millions of monsters storming our way. The three people that didn''t participate at that time were you, Sword God, and Fire God. "You had something in your mind, so you didn''t participate. Sword God didn''t want to deal with it and retired to his own planet. As for the Fire God, he challenged the beast himself and had himself killed by it. "The fight lasted almost a week. The Time God told me that I needed to leave that place because I had another role. When I thought of that, the smell of death gradually disappeared from me and that was when I knew what to do. I chose this planet and faked my own death. "As for the Time God and the others, they chose to sacrifice themselves, so they could destroy all the God King monsters in their ranks while destroying their millions God Rank Experts. The people on our side then used their power to expel the planet from this universe after wiping out any records about this war." She let out a sigh after a long explanation. "I have never thought that the weapon turns out to be monsters. What kind of monsters were they? I mean, how could they even reach God King until it was too late?" Alex asked with a serious expression. This might be the most important information to challenge the beast while preventing any "weapons" from being created again. She hesitated for a minute before opening her mouth. "They are¡­" Chapter 1060: Alaya "They are snakes, dragons, phoenixes, bears, bats, and angels." "Wait a minute¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes, feeling something was wrong. "I feel like these are¡­" "It seems that you have some kind of information about the beast?" "Not really. It was just the last time I met my previous self, I learned the beast''s true body. "The beast had a snake head, dragon body, phoenix talon, bear paws, a pair of bat wings and angel wings." "I see." Alaya furrowed her eyebrows and nodded in understanding. "Before you continue, I want to show you something. I know that this might not be related, but I just want to ask your opinion." "What is it?" Alaya tilted her head. Al and El became her eyes again. At the same time, Alex was contacting Silvia through the system to send some samples in the Time Box. After getting the sample, he took out the Time Box. "Oh?! It''s the Time Box." Alaya was amazed by the appearance of Time Box. She never thought that she would see it again. Alex nodded and summoned two bat like monsters from the box while asking. "So, what do you think about this?" "This is¡­" Alaya widened her eyes as she drew a gasp. "This is one of the weapons, the Bat." "!!!" Both Alex and Lin Xingzhi, who were watching behind the screen, were shocked. They never expected that the mysterious bat turned out to be one of the most powerful weapons." "How sure are you?" Alex asked politely. Knowing his doubt, Alaya began to explain. "The bat will consume every living being and turn them into their kin. However, this so-called kin is not their children or anything. Instead, they are treated as a food source. "After sending a few of them in a world, the bats will reproduce at a rate that no one has ever seen before. And when the harvest time is over, they will go back to their mother. You can say that they are planning to create God Rank Bats into this. Do you know which one had the biggest population in the past? It was this guy." Alaya sighed. Alex sweatdropped when he listened to her. Some of the points had been proven, making her explanation more believable. "Back then, we fought against six to seven million even though we only have a total of two million God Rank Experts. Seventy percent of their numbers are filled with bats." "What?" Alex''s face turned serious. "I don''t know much about their strengthening, but if I am not wrong, they can become a God Rank Expert in fifty years. It seems that they are starting to reproduce again." Alaya closed her eyes, feeling troubled. "This¡­" Alex thought for a moment. "Xingzhi." "I will add more personnel for our investigation team. I will inform the Blackwade Clan and Silvia too. If we can erase them, we should have an easier time in the future." "Yes." Alex nodded before noticing something. He turned back to Alaya. "How many God Kings for each monster?" "One for the dragon, phoenix, angel, and snake. Two for the bears, and the rest were bats." "Fu." Alex took a deep breath. "If we can eliminate them first, we will be able to lower their strength by about fifty percent." "Indeed." Alaya nodded. "I am assuming there are some Rank 2 or Rank 3 God, but I don''t think they have become a God King yet. The beast''s revival is near too." "Do you think we can seal the beast again? If we can, I don''t think I need to rush." Alex narrowed his eyes. "No." Alaya shook her head. "I don''t know about the seal, but I know that yours should use something big." "Well, the previous me almost died back then and used the last bit of power to do it." "See? The requirement of the seal must be your life. If I am not wrong, there is a Space and Time Seal that uses one''s life." Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. "What do you plan to do then?" Alex asked. "Before that, let me explain the other monsters first. The Dragon and Phoenix are basically the same as the ones you can find all around the universe. The snake is annoying because they usually pair up with the bears to create a fusion monster with no blindspot. As for the angels¡­They can heal people, so our main target should be them. As for the bats, yes, they fill up the numbers." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "We can prepare our strategy according to their characteristics. But how it will turn out¡­I don''t have any assurances." "What about our situation?" "I have no assurance." Alex shook his head in disappointment. "Fair enough. You can take your time, but make sure you follow the time limit. The reason we suffered in the past was due to our underestimating the beasts." "I understand." Alex thought for a moment. He didn''t know whether the Palm God would help him or not, but he should be able to have Lin Xingzhi as their God King. If he used all the Spirit Crystals in his possession, he could create two more God Kings. They were probably Anna and Leoz. After that, there was the Blackwade Clan. With their current situation, it seemed that Alex was required to make an alliance with other Divine Worlds. After all, Eulja would become weaker if he brought them to strike the other monsters before the war started. "In that case, let''s talk about how I ended up here. First of all, I used my Death Spirit to fake my own death, allowing me to reach this place. As for them, they were my eyes, would the world consider them as existences in this world?" Alaya shrugged. After a while, Alaya continued. "As for what I want to do with you, it''s obviously the contract with me." "With you?" Alex tilted his head. "Yes. It seemed that Julian actually told you about the contract with my spirits. However, the real contract is with me." She shook her head. "I am not a human, you see. Anyway, no need to know about my race, I only ask you to form a contract with me." "What kind of contract are you talking about?" Alex asked in confusion. "Life and Death Contract." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes. "You¡­" "I know what you are thinking. Although I am like this right now, I can recover my God King strength in a decade. By making a contract with me, I can channel my power into your body, creating a third eye. This third eye will have the power of Life and Death. Of course, you would need my permission to use it, but you can say I become your supporter." "Can I know the pros and cons first? I don''t want to make a Life and Death Contract without fully knowing what I have gotten into." "Sure. Let me tell you about the terms first. We have four terms in this contract. First, if either of us dies, the other will die as well. This means I won''t betray you and vice versa. Second, I will grant you my Life and Death power in exchange for your protection. Third, I will follow your command as long as it is within my means and you can''t force me to do it. Last but not least, this contract is an equal contract. There is no master or servant." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. The terms were quite dangerous, especially the first one. However, if she could regain her strength within a decade, she would become a powerful friend to have. There wouldn''t be any betrayal as well, so he thought this was a good point. The third point gave him an advantage because he could order her to do something. This would prove to be useful for Eulja. And since he planned to be the strongest in this universe in the future, he could afford to protect her just fine. "There are a few benefits you can get from gaining my power. First, you will have a third eye that you can hide at any time. The Life Power will strengthen your cultivation while the Death Power will boost your Soul Power. "And since we will be a partner if you take the contract, you should know the reason for the second term. I just want to retire you know. Having the Spirit God to protect me in my retirement sounds like the best retirement ever. It''s not like I am planning anything big, but this type of assurance is something that I need." She smirked. Alex thought for a moment. "I want to add something for the third term. I know that I can''t force you to do it, but you should agree if we need to discuss it and reach the best conclusion." "I don''t mind." She nodded with a serious expression. "Have you contracted someone else?" Alex asked. "Nope. I seldom met people, so yeah, I was alone most of the time. I didn''t have my own hometown, so I wandered around aimlessly while enjoying my life. In other words, you are my first and probably last." [That sounds wrong, but whatever.] Alex twitched his eyebrows when listening to Lin Xingzhi''s response. He shook his head helplessly before saying, "Alright. I can agree with your terms. Besides, your existence might be able to help me convincing other God Kings to participate in this battle." "Fair enough. There is little to no information spread because of the oath back then, so convincing the people of this era will be hard." She nodded with a serious expression. "Exactly." Alex nodded. "Alright. We have a deal then?" "Yes." "In that case, let''s proceed with the ceremony." "What ceremony? We just need to take an oath, right?" Alex tilted his head. "Yes. Just follow your instinct because you will know what you need to say after saying my piece." She smiled. "I understand. Please start." "Let''s sit down on the floor first." She stretched her hand before turning to Mithra and Lan. "Can you two please stand back? We need to clear up some space." The two, who had been silent until now, nodded their heads and retreated a few meters from them. They never expected that Alex was this type of bigshot and had a very dangerous mission. Despite that, he was still so kind to other people. There was never a regret in their heart to find Alex, but when they heard this, they were entirely in awe, wanting to be someone like him. They watched how the process progressed without letting out a single sound. At the same time, Alaya stood before him because of their difference in height. She closed her eyes and started chanting. "I, Alaya Na Varavas, accept my lifelong friend, Alexander Sirius. I will help him in any way possible and act according to the contract we have agreed upon. I will accompany him until I die or he dies because this life has turned into our lives. Almighty Hades and Grand Gaia, please heed my prayer, for I, the Manifestation of the Great Codex of Samsara, Alaya Na Varavas, plead with my life." Information began entering Alex''s head before he opened his mouth. "I, Alexander Sirius, will become Alaya Na Varavas''s lifelong friend and won''t ever leave or abandon her. Almighty Hades and Grand Gaia, I, Alexander Sirius, shall etch my name in the Great Codex." Alex stretched his hand toward her before she cut a bit of his index finger and used the blood to dye her lips. She walked closer to Alex, gently grabbed his head, and kissed Alex''s forehead for five seconds before releasing him. "That is the power of Life and Death, your Third Eye¡­" Alex felt the power inside the eye, slowly opening his third eye. The third eye had the pattern of yin and yang and released a powerful aura from it, one would make people warm and feel assured, but at the same time, gave a chill colder than Pure Ice. They met Life and Death at the same time. "¡­Samsara Eye." She smiled and looked at Alex''s face, satisfied. Chapter 1061: Returning "Ugh." Alex felt excruciating pain as soon as it finished. He had the urge to scratch it but refrained before Alaya said something. Meanwhile, he began checking what kind of power that the male gave him and observing whether it would be detrimental to him or not. "You must have felt a great discomfort right now. It''s due to Life and Death Power. For now, we should go to a Divine World, so you can refine its power." Alaya explained. "Well, I can also begin recovering my power in the meantime. Foundation Rank to Martial Saint won''t be a problem, but God Rank will take at least eight years before I can become a God King again." "Let''s go to Eulja." Alex thought for a moment and turned to Mithra and Lan. "What are you two going to do?" Mithra and Lan exchanged looks. They wanted to meet Alex again, but when the wish had been fulfilled, they realized that they were just like an ant in front of him. In other words, they would keep becoming his burden during this time. "If you don''t have the place to go, come to Eulja with me," Alex said after noticing their hesitant face. Mithra thought for a moment and asked Lan. "Are you going to¡­" "Ga Wu," Lan told her that he would follow her decision. She took a deep breath as her expression turned serious. "I have realized that my wish is too naive, and the way I handle things is too soft. Even though I am happy for Master''s graciousness, I would like to go on my journey. If I were to fall during this journey, I want to apologize in advance because I can''t repay you. Still, I hope that I can see Master soon." Alex narrowed his eyes and asked again. "Are you serious?" "Yes." Mithra nodded with determination. She didn''t want to take advantage of what Alex could give. It would be easy for a person like him to grab someone like her and increase her strength, but Alex might have brought a few other people besides her. The people around him might think that they were leeching off him. She wanted to take this journey head-on, so no one could tell her that she relied on him to succeed and there wouldn''t be an attack on his reputation¡­Or at least, the one that was related to her. "Thank you, Master." Alex thought for a moment and handed a token. "Take this with you." "What is this?" Mithra tilted her head in confusion. "I have put an array inside there along with the needed Spiritual Energy. It will be able to save your life once." "This¡­Thank you." "And take this with you too." Alex handed yet another token. "If you have reached the Martial Monarch, destroy this token. You will know what it means when you break it. That''s why you should stay alive until then, alright?" Mithra smiled and repeatedly nodded. "Yes. I will. I still desire to meet you." Alex nodded and patted her head. "Although you have gotten in a complicated situation, I think no one will approach you for the time being. Take advantage of it and check the whole world. You need to grow faster." Mithra nodded with a serious expression. Alex then went to Lan and said, "Although my Pure Fire allowed you to heal yourself, the residual power should be enough to increase your power. Become her partner and protect her, okay? With her also protecting you, you two will become a family." Lan flapped his wing as if telling him, "Leave it to me." "Good." Alex nodded with a smile. Meanwhile, Alaya was impressed by Alex''s fortitude. He must be enduring the pain this whole time, yet he could still smile and act so natural. Even she didn''t have the confidence to keep it up. It might be the first time Alaya acknowledged that Alex was also a monster like the previous Spirit God. "Alright then. I will be looking forward to our next meeting." Alex smiled and waved his hand, summoning the Teleportation Array. "I am sure that I don''t need to send you back to the surface, right? Besides, this cave is filled with powerful energy, so I am sure that it will boost your cultivation for a period of time. Try to take advantage of it." "Yes (Ga Wu)." Alex then disappeared with Alaya, heading straight to Eulja. Luckily, it wasn''t that far from Eulja. He only needed to endure for a few hours before arriving right in the castle''s garden. "Huft." He let out a sigh as sweats covered his body. "I will let you do the rest¡­" Alex said. Alaya turned around after sensing her presence and sweatdropped. "I guess this is our first meeting, little princess." "Indeed. I often heard about you from my father but never met you personally." "Ahaha. Your father looked for me because he thought I would be able to do something for your mother. Unfortunately, reviving the dead is taboo and comes with so many defects. I ended up not agreeing to his request. Do you hate me, Princess?" Alaya smiled. "Nope. I would be lying if I say I don''t wish to see my mother, but I won''t hate you for something as simple as that. My father worked twice, if not thrice as hard to fill the role of a father and a mother at the same time. For that, I have nothing to say other than thank you." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "However, you need to remember this. Don''t think that because you are protected by a contract, your life is guaranteed. If you harm Alex, I will surely kill you myself." "Ahaha. I have no desire to harm him. Of course, I know that you wouldn''t buy it. That''s why I want to say one thing." Alaya smiled. "You shouldn''t put any trust in me, so you can keep observing me." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "So, what are you planning to do now?" "I will be helping him with the training, so I need to be beside him until he wakes up." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment before waving her hand, lifting both of them up. "I will show you to a room that you can use for practice." "Much appreciated." Alaya nodded with a smile as Lin Xingzhi carried them inside the castle. She looked around the castle while asking, "The current Spirit God is more amazing than the past¡­" "Who knows." She shrugged. "I have never compared them because they are all the same." "Fair enough." "But just don''t mistake him as a Spirit God. Please call him Alex instead of that title because we have our own circumstances." "Sure thing." Alaya nodded. "I just want to ask you one last thing." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "Alright. You can ask me anything." "Are you planning to¡­" Lin Xingzhi hesitated and shook her head. "Never mind." As if she understood what she was going to ask, Alaya replied to the unfinished question. "I am not planning to do that. Besides, because of the previous battle and the side effect of faking my death, I only have one thousand years to live. I just want to enjoy my life peacefully like this without tying a knot with anyone. "Do you know why I am known as the Life and Death Goddess?" Alaya smiled. "It''s because I have witnessed so many of it. I know how happy when a life was born and I know how painful it is to see someone we hold dear be separated forever. That''s why I am not planning to do anything. "I hope that you can treat me as someone who is in her retirement. Of course, if we don''t count the time I''ve spent during my own death, our current age is pretty similar, you know. So, call me Alaya, Princess." She smiled. "Are you implying that I am old?" She narrowed her eyes. "No, no. I know that I should have more lifespan, but this is the only thing I can do. Maybe I should pick up a disciple or something, but I will wait until we defeat the beast." "You haven''t answered my answer." "Princess¡­ We both are women. Age is sensitive, so let''s stop talking about it." "No, no. This is an important topic." Lin Xingzhi shook her head while narrowing her eyes. "Whether you are old or not, it''s your choice. You can tell the world you are old even though your lifespan allows you to live for at least another ten thousand years. That''s why it''s better to drop this topic." Alaya facepalmed in disappointment. "Anyway, you can call me Lin Xingzhi or just Xingzhi." "Yes, Xingzhi. You are indeed that old man''s son." Alaya laughed, recalling how the old man acted in front of him. "Anyway, I will be watching over this planet until I die. That''s something I can promise. You don''t need to give me a special identity or something." "I shall do that." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "So, how long do you think he will be in this state?" "I am not sure because this is the first time I did it. I think he will finish the process in less than a year, depending on his talent." "Alright then. I hope that it won''t take too long." "It won''t. Trust me." She said with a serious expression. Lin Xingzhi was bewildered for a second before shaking her head. "I didn''t mean the refining process. I was talking about the importance of the bat investigation." "Ah!" Alaya scratched the back of her head. "I want you to tell me everything I need to know, especially regarding the Great War. I don''t like to see the unknown party." "I agree. I also need to get more information about them from you, so I can talk about how terrifying they are currently. From what I know, they seem to have a limited lifespan, so that''s the reason why most of this only started occurring recently. I hope that you are ready to fight them." "Of course, we are ready. We will do our investigation first. After Alex wakes up, we can talk about it in detail and start planning the countermeasure. How about it?" "Sure." She nodded with a serious expression. "I will gain my power as quickly as possible." They arrived at the room in the middle of the corridor. It was a Guest Room with the same feature as the main bedroom since Alex would also use it together with Alaya. "This is the room. You can rest assured that no one will bother you until you are done. If you need something, there is an array next to the door. Just activate it and the maid will come to you." "I understand." Alaya smiled. "Then, I will leave you alone.'' She closed the door, leaving Alex and Alaya in the room. Alaya put down Alex on the bed before she sat in a lotus pose, faced him, and started cultivating as well. Chapter 1062: Three News After cultivating for a year, Alex had yet to wake up. Lin Xingzhi was wondering the reason he had yet to come out. Even Alaya had no sign of coming out for the last few months. Meanwhile, inside the room, Alaya''s palms intertwined with Alex''s palms as she was circulating her Life and Death Power. The power coming from her eyes came all out, channeling their power to Alex''s massive energy pit that never returned. At the same time, the influx of Death Energy quickly put the burden on his soul. Luckily, Alex''s soul was far stronger than normal due to him being an alchemist. On the contrary, Life Energy refined all of his Divine Energy, purifying it even further. Due to these two actions, he endured constant pain. Alaya couldn''t understand what kind of experience he had to endure this level of pain for a few months. Suddenly, the constant flow of energy was disrupted, flowing back to her as if Alex''s tank was already filled and now they were circulating to each other. It was the sign of finish, so she began chanting the specific mantra to break the flow, so each of them could keep whatever they got. "Shakive Aratooe Saman." Bang. Alex broke through to Rank 6 God in an instant. The fluctuation of energy shook the entire room before a rich Life and Death Energy gushed out of Alex''s body as if it was trying to get accustomed to their new host. "This¡­I have never thought that you are a real freak." Alaya was covered in sweat as she gradually closed her eyes. The Life and Death Spirits also came out, exhausted. "No, I should say that no wonder the Spirit Crown is listed as one of the strongest techniques and whoever can use it will rule Eulja." Alex gradually opened his eyes, noticing that his Spirit Crown was still hovering above his head. However, he saw the difference in his Spirit Crown. Next to the blue jewel, there were white and black gems accompanying it. "What has happened?" Alex asked in confusion. Although he understood the flow of energy, he didn''t know what happened outside. "You are very dangerous. If I know that your Spirit Crown is this greedy, I won''t make a contract with you." Alaya panted as she gradually laid down on the bed, sulking. "Ehm? I am sorry?" Alex tilted his head and asked it one more time. "So, can you explain it to me?" "After cultivating my power for six months, the Spirit Crown began sucking up my power. If I were not by your side, you would have gone to qi deviation, you know. What the heck with that Spirit Crown anyway? I have never expected that there is such a greedy technique that can evolve on its own. It''s powerful but, at the same time, may become a double-edged weapon for you." "Hmm?" Alex looked down, falling into deep thought. He then realized what she meant. "I see. I am sorry. Are you alright?" "Yes. I am just exhausted. Luckily, I have managed to reach Martial Monarch during the time. If not, I wouldn''t be able to complete the process. Besides, it seems to be a blessing for you because you have reached Rank 6 God Stage." Alaya sighed. "I wonder who is the monster¡­ You become a Rank 6 God this young?" "Ahaha." Alex scratched the back of his head. "At the very least, the foundation is not damaged." "Yeah. Just be careful of using your Spirit Crown." "I believe it''s related to the elementless that created the foundation of the Spirit Crown." "You mean the Spirit God''s power? Well, that guy was a maniac, so I could somehow understand if it were him." Alex closed his eyes and thought. ''The Spirit God seemed to get his element by absorbing other elements. Because he was a Spirit Race, he could only get six elements. However, it was different when I was in charge. Humans were known for their adaptability, so it wasn''t weird to see me getting more elements like this.'' "Well, this also opens a path for me." Alaya let out a long sigh while looking at Alex''s third eye. "What is it?" "Your Third Eye¡­Samsara Eye can become my place to stay if I agree to become your full-fledged spirit. In other words, I will turn myself from the manifestation of the Great Codex to your Samsara Spirit. You can say it''s like Al and El." "What?" Alex widened his eyes in shock. Before he continued talking, she stopped him with a wave of her hand. "Listen to me first. I only have one thousand years as my lifespan. However, if I were to become your spirit, I can live as long as you are still alive. This will allow me to extend my life, but I don''t know if I have the thought to do so. "Second, I want to maintain our status quo for the time being because it feels a bit weird to be controlled. At least, for me. Third. I want you to keep getting stronger because I know that the beast is far stronger than you right now." "I understand." Alex nodded. "I will honor your opinion." "Thanks." Alaya smiled and continued. "Alright. Let''s talk about the problem with your Spirit Crown." Alex agreed and said, "First of all, I seem to gain a bit of your power. For example, I can use the Death Energy to perceive my own death just like you smelling the scent of death." "That''s a good ability." "Of course, it''s related to this third eye." "Yeah. It must be." "Second, it is related to Life Energy. I don''t know why but Life Energy is similar to Nature Energy, allowing me to use my Spirit Crown faster." "Relatable." She nodded before falling into deep thought. "If I am not wrong, it can heal your soul, right?" "I am not sure, but I do feel that the energy rejuvenates my soul. I won''t need to worry about it anymore." "Yeah." She nodded and asked. "Your Spirit Crown has evolved too, right?" "Indeed, but I don''t feel the difference at the moment, so I can''t really say something regarding this ability." He shook his head in disappointment. "It''s alright. It happens sometimes." Alaya shrugged. "So, any other change?" "I broke through to Rank 6 God." "I can see that. I mean, the technique or something." "I don''t know. I seem to be able to control your Life and Death Energy, but that''s all." "The energy alone is enough for you. It seems I was greedy." "How did you come to that conclusion? Wasn''t it supposed to be the other way around?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. Alaya shrugged. "I am just curious what kind of monster I will be able to produce. It seems that I still need to search for a disciple. Anyway, I am glad that you are stronger right now." "Thanks." Alex smiled. "I think you should rest first." "Yeah. I need to recover and continue my cultivation. Regaining my strength is really not easy." She let out a long sigh. "Do you need anything?" "No. It''s better to recover naturally, so I will just sit down like this for a decade and I will be back as the Life and Death Goddess." She shook her head gently. "Is that so? I will leave first then. If you need anything, just call me." Alex smiled, knowing that he needed to meet with the others. "Yeah." Alex then rose from the bed and left the room, heading straight to Lin Xingzhi''s room. "You are done?" Alex nodded. "I will probably begin another training even though I haven''t done anything during this time." "It''s fine. You are going to train with Rilt, right?" "Yes." "Before that, I want to mention a few important things." "Bad news or good news?" "Both. The first news is related to Sherry. There is someone currently eyeing her Pure Fire along with herself." "Ho?" Alex''s eyes turned cold as he subconsciously released killing intent. "This guy wants trouble it seems." "Yeah. The problem is that his father is a God King, known as Array God. According to our information, he is the current leading Array Master among the others." "Is that a problem?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "No." Her expression turned grim before a sinister smile appeared on her face. "Even if his father is a God King, dare to covet someone''s wife and her possession is enough to guarantee a death warrant from us." "I am sorry that I can only rely on you this time." Alex looked at her. "It''s fine. However, Sherry asked me not to mobilize the army first. She wants to solve this by herself." "So, she wants us to remain silent for the time being?" "Yeah. As long as it''s still possible, she wants to do it first. Of course, I have contacted the Beast God himself and learned that he supports Sherry''s idea. If war is inevitable, he will be contacting us, requesting our reinforcement. At that time, we can move alongside them to crush them. This won''t make the entire community of Array Master happy, but who cares about their opinion?" "I understand. Just like how she supported me this whole time, I want to support her decision. Just make sure that everything is monitored." "Yeah. Don''t worry about it. A portion of N Squad has been monitoring them." Lin Xingzhi looked at the ceiling with a sigh. "Sherry has finally soared to the sky. She usually waits for your order, but this time, she makes the plan herself and executes it." Alex nodded in agreement. This showed that Sherry slowly became independent. "Alright then. I will write a letter later. So, what is the second news?" "The second news is related to your coronation. We have agreed that you will take the post as soon as you reach Rank 5 God. To that end, Rilt asked me to extend the training period because he would teach you the rest two techniques in succession." "I don''t mind. It will take two years, but I guess it''s good for my improvement." "Exactly. That''s why as soon as you become a Rank 5 God, you will take the mantle of the Spirit God." "I understand. I have prepared myself. I just don''t know whether the spirits will accept me as their new king." "They will. They are simpler than you thought. As long as you wield that Spirit Crown, it''s going to be alright." "That''s the problem." Alex scratched the back of his head before showing his new Spirit Crown. "Holy sh¡ª" She widened her eyes when she saw two white and black jewels besides the blue one. "I don''t know about their power right now." "That will become a bit of a problem. How about searching for its real power first. We might need to reschedule it." "Yeah. Depending on its ability, I don''t know if I can take the mantle or not. Either way, I need to discover it before doing it." "Exactly. Anyway, other than your coronation, I need to prepare for the chain reaction of your coronation. I am afraid that we will start getting targeted. After that, we can see which God Kings are neutral. We can get them into the alliances to fight the beast." "Well, it''s not like we can ask their help for fighting against the bats or something because they will think I trap them." "Yeah. If possible, we can meet someone who knows Alaya, so she can mediate the conversation." "Fair enough." "What are you planning to do during Rank 6 God?" "I am not sure. For me, I would like to reach Rank 5 God as soon as possible, but I know that I should finish the Undying Fire Body first. I only need the last herb. After that, I will go to Encore. The rest of the time, I will spend training while practicing with the girls. I have promised them after all." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "I will search for a good place where you can do both." "Thanks." Alex nodded. "I will go to Father then." "Sure." After her confirmation, Alex then left the room, heading straight to Rilt. Chapter 1063: Evolution "So, that''s the problem. Do you think you can do anything about it, Father?" asked Alex while sitting in the courtyard and faced the garden. Rilt sat next to him while sipping his tea and nodded with a complicated expression. "I see. First of all, there are several problems. The people might think that the Spirit Crown is counterfeit and you are just a stand figure that Eulja needs. That''s why they will think that we, the Six Elemental Gods, push you into this position. "Secondly, we need to check whether your Spirit Crown has a side effect or not. Even I don''t entirely understand your Spirit Crown. Still, I believe we can work on it for two years." "Yes. That''s my plan." Alex nodded in agreement. "If the ability is better than the original Spirit Crown, that can be good and bad at the same time. After all, if the upgraded ability doesn''t resemble that of the Spirit Crown, they will realize that it''s not the Spirit Crown." "There is nothing I can do." Alex sighed. "I thought that it would be the best time to meet Alaya and formed a contract considering¡­" "That Julian¡­Haiz. No one knew what he saw because he always kept it alone." Rilt sighed while pointing at the garden. "Anyway, stand there first. Let''s proceed to your two other abilities first, Sharing and Enhancement. I will explain in detail first." Alex nodded as both of them stood up, walked to the garden, and faced each other. "Sharing is the ability to channel or share your power to anything. This won''t be limited to other people, but it''s also for your Martial Techniques. For example, if you use the Blossom to your Martial Art, only Sharing allows you to do something like that. I don''t know why it''s so complicated, but with the Spirit Crown being so strong, there must be several limitations that I don''t know." Alex nodded. "I know. I have tried channeling my power to my Martial Arts, but all of them failed miserably." "Exactly. I will be teaching you how to do it." He smiled. "Summon your Spirit Crown." Alex closed his eyes for a second as the evolved Spirit Crown appeared above his head. "¡­Such a fearsome Life and Death Energy. Let me see your third eye." Alex slightly nodded his head as suddenly a kind of vertical eye socket appeared on his forehead before slowly revealing Alex''s Samsara Eye. "You have no problem in hiding it, right?" "Yes." "I see. If that is the case, come over here and close that eye again." Alex followed his instruction and walked closer to Rilt. Rilt stretched his hand, asking him to hold his hand. Alex didn''t think much of it and reached Rilt''s hand. "Nature Energy will constantly flow. Only those who have the necessary elements can control it. The exception is the Spirit Crown. It absorbs the Nature Energy from the surroundings, turning it into its energy. The flowing process is similar but different from the Blossom, where it only requires you to release it all. "You need to understand the nature in your surroundings because it will surely clash with the Nature Energy in the Spirit Crown. That''s why you will need to harmonize with nature in your surroundings, especially your weapons. "Hence, I am going to make you understand the harmony in Nature and use it to synchronize your Spirit Crown with the surroundings." "I understand. What should I do?" "Before that, I will explain the other one, Enhancement. This is a very powerful ability that can improve your Original Technique. It''s like tracing the origin of the flow, including your past. I have heard something about Sword Mastery from Lin Xingzhi, and yeah, it''s something similar to that. "It allows you to gain a deep understanding in an instant and turns it into perfection. There are advantages and disadvantages compared to the Sword Mastery. First, this Enhancement is not restricted to one type of improvement. For example, if you use a sword, you can upgrade a bow technique or even an elemental technique. "At the same time, the more complex the technique, the longer it will take to comprehend it. There is a time limit for you to understand it. This time limit is a bit different from the normal one because if you are comprehending more than the time limit, you will get a certain side-effect which, trust me, you don''t want to have." "How long?" asked Alex without hesitation. "It depends on your limit. As soon as you feel fatigued, it would be best if you stopped. In the past, the Spirit God almost lost himself and went berserk because he passed the time limit." "I see. That''s not something I want to see." Alex agreed and thought for a moment. "In that case, which one are you planning to teach me first? I mean, we are cramming all the training in one go, right?" "Yes. I think I will teach you the Enhancement first. This way, you can channel your power easier because you have gotten used to this one." Alex nodded. "What should I do then?" "I don''t want to accidentally have you upgraded your own technique since it''s only one in a lifetime. That''s why I go to the other places to ask the spirits there whether they are willing to be guinea pigs. Of course, it''s voluntary. Besides, to be training with you and have their skill upgraded by you is an honor and a bonus, so they readily accepted it." "I understand. Before that, I would like to ask them again whether it''s okay to do that." "Sure." Rilt nodded with a smile before leaping outside the house. "Wait here. I will be bringing a spirit here." Alex nodded and waited for him. Rilt took fifteen minutes before he returned with a tree. Yes, a tree. The tree trunk was one meter wide, so it was quite a big one. At the same time, the height reached five meters with so many branches stemmed out of it. "This is a Tree Spirit." Rilt put down the tree on the ground. Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw that the tree had enough Spiritual Energy to rival that of a Martial Emperor. "I don''t know its name and other things." Rilt then patted the tree and said, "Try to use your skills here. Just show everything." The tree released a Spiritual Energy as if responding to Rilt. The tree then shook its body before the green leaves fell to the ground. Suddenly, the leaves rose to the air and turned into a small doll without any other features such as eyes or anything. Even so, it looked amazing to see it before his own eyes. After that, the tree extended its roots and pierced all the leaves, showing its accuracy. "That''s all?" Rilt asked after noticing that the tree didn''t do anything more after the second trick. The tree released its energy again. "Alright." Rilt nodded and turned to Alex. "It''s your turn." "What do I need to do?" Alex asked. "Place both your hands on the trunk. Use your right hand to transfer the Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown and absorb it back with your left hand. The energy will gradually circulate between you and the tree, allowing you to understand the tree deeper, especially the skills. The Spirit Crown will show you the rest." Alex nodded and stretched his hands, touching the trunk. He closed his eyes and summoned his Spirit Crown. Nature Energy began gathering inside the blue jewel of his Spirit Crown. At this point, there was no problem in Rilt''s eyes. However, only after this process that strange thing began to happen. Instead of channeling the Blue Jewel into the tree, the Blue Jewel sent its power to the White Jewel. Alex furrowed his eyebrows despite not knowing what happened. There was no discomfort for the time being, even though it was a weird feeling. He unknowingly sent the energy from the White Jewel into the tree. "This¡­" Rilt widened his eyes in shock as he never expected to see its uses right away. All Nature Energy gathered by the Blue Jewel was turned into Life Energy by the White Jewel before Alex sent it to the tree. When the tree absorbed the Life Energy, the trunk felt an influx of energy as it showed its bliss by turning the green leaves into golden. This was even more surprising because the tree shouldn''t be able to do that. Alex''s left hand then began absorbing the Life Energy. It flowed peacefully through his left hand and returned to the Spirit Crown. And once again, it went through the Black Jewel first before sending the energy back to the Blue Jewel. This was when the second occurrence started. The Blue Jewel turned into the black for a while. A vision came into Alex''s mind. It was a vague image. He was in the forest, surrounded by trees. When looking around, he felt the weight under his chest. The moment he looked down, he saw his own chest like that of a woman. Before he could react, the image disappeared and turned into another thing. This time, it was a few words. "Reila. Awaken." Alex muttered subconsciously as he only followed what the Spirit Crown wanted to do. As if responding to his words, the tree began to glow, shining until everything turned into yellow light. Rilt narrowed his eyes and observed everything that happened. What made him baffled was when the tree started shrinking. He couldn''t comment anything because this was the first time he saw this from the Spirit Crown, not the natural process. After all, if it were the natural process, he had experienced it too in the past. This wasn''t like Alex''s usual Enhancement because this process had another name. Evolution. The tree began to form a shape like that of a human with a height only slightly lower than Alex himself. The green leaves turned into hairs. However, due to their current position, it turned out that the place Alex touched this whole time was her chest that he saw earlier in the vision. Alex felt the softness and noticed something different. There was no more energy to circulate, so he thought the process had ended. When he opened his eyes, he saw where his hands touched and quickly widened his eyes. He tried to act not coolly and slowly take a step back as if telling them that it wasn''t supposed to happen. Still, the shocking sight he saw utterly made him dumbfounded. After all, the huge tree earlier turned into a beautiful naked green-haired young girl. Alex looked at Rilt, who still couldn''t speak. "Father. What is happening?" "This¡­This is Evolution. A process where every spirit needs to take and it turns out that this girl can evolve from the lowest form into the highest form in one go." Rilt looked at him with a scared expression. "Is that good?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. He never understood the way spirits worked, so he couldn''t understand Rilt''s words. "Of course it''s good. No, I should say it''s a miracle instead." Rilt drew a gasp and took a step back. "Is that so?" Alex smiled. Meanwhile, the tree looked at her hands and body, feeling it to see if it were real or not. When she realized that everything really happened to her, tears that should have never come out in the tree form damp her cheek. She fell on her knees and kneeled in front of him, showing her thanks. There was no doubt that her life would change after this and Alex was the one bringing that change. Yes, the almighty Spirit King that they considered as the father of all spirits did it personally for her. Although it was Rilt that convinced her to do it in which she agreed, there was no way that the Spirits would be oblivious to what kind of honor she had received just now. Rilt, on the other hand, focused on Alex instead before remembering a certain but unnecessary thing as he slapped Alex''s hand and shouted. "You lucky bastard! Are you cheating in front of me?" "Whaaaatttt?!" Chapter 1064: Explanation "What the heck are you doing?" Alex snarled. "I never knew the tree was a girl. Besides, it was your instruction." "You brat. You dare to talk back like this?" Rilt narrowed his eyes before shouting. "Anna, Anya! Come here. Your husband is cheating on you!" "You¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows and planned to beat him up. However, Anna''s voice resounded in the field as the person came to the garden. "What are you doing? Both of you." "Look! He is cheating on you in front of me." Rilt pointed his finger at the tree. "Dryad Spirit?" Anna tilted her head in confusion. "Besides, it must be you who is jealous of him. So, what has happened here? Why would a naked dryad come to our home?" "It''s a tree before this." "Oh? Evolution? Strange." "Before that, do you think you can take care of them?" "Yeah." Anna nodded with a calm expression. "Wait, wait. He grabbed her boobs earlier. Do you really forgive him just like that?" "So, what do you want me to do, Father? Besides, if it''s evolution, I can understand it. And why are you like a girl? Yours were not the one grabbed, right? And the fact that you are doing this, it must mean that you are jealous. I will tell mom after this." Anna shook her head in disappointment before pulling the tree earlier into her embrace, asking her to come in. "Let''s go in first. We can talk after this." The tree didn''t know anything and quickly rose from the ground, following Anna. "No! Why are you siding with him, Anna?" "It''s obvious. Mom is going to get angry with you, so I don''t want to be on your side and get punished together." "No." Rilt dropped on his knees with his distorted face as if he fell into despair. "Alright, jokes aside. Can you explain it to me, Father?" "Via punishing me is a joke, you say?" "In the end, you are going to flirt again, no?" Alex nodded his head without hesitation. Rilt had no word to fight back. After a minute, he finally stood back with a serious expression. "First of all, do you know anything about the Spirit Rank?" "Nope." "Then, I will explain about it first. There are two types of spirit, the active one like a beast or something and the passive one, such as rock, tree, and so on." "I see." "After that, there are Spirit Ranks. There are five ranks: Normal Spirit, Superior Spirit, Beastly Spirit, Demi-human Spirit, Humanoid Spirit. Normal Spirit is like the tree earlier. Usually, when one evolves, they will become a Superior Spirit. The tree can move by moving its root. "After that, it will become a beastly spirit. In this stage, the tree can camouflage itself by turning into a beast or something, so people will think it''s a beast instead of a tree even if the tree is actually there. "The fourth rank is the Demi-human Spirit. Basically, it''s like Anna said, Dryad Spirit. The Dryad is a personification of the tree. However, a normal Dryad would still need a tree to live, unlike the one earlier. She has attained the fifth rank, Humanoid Spirit. "There won''t be any traces of the tree anymore. This is the ultimate form under the True Spirit Form. Not all Humanoid Spirits can attain the True Spirit Body after all." "So, in the normal way, she should become a Superior Spirit first?" "Yes. That''s why¡­Don''t you now know how ridiculous your current power is?'' "I see." Alex fell into deep thought. "Anyway, I think this is going to work out for you." "What do you mean?" "I am talking about your coronation. If we show this power, the spirits will become even crazier. We can simply say that you have succeeded the Spirit God and will be someone who is even stronger than him in the future. The proof is your current Spirit Crown." "Oh?" Alex thought for a moment. "I see, but this power can be achieved by Alaya, no?" "Not necessarily so. I have understood a bit of the transformation, and from my perspective, it''s a permanent change." "I see. In that case, it will be fine." Alex nodded. "So, you want me to show this in the coronation?" "Yeah. We can simply ask one person there to show that power. Just randomly, so they think the chosen one is lucky. After that, we can think of a way to sustain the people''s opinion." "Fair enough. I will be leaving the detail to you, so how about we discuss my current power?" "You mean the Enhancement?" "Yes." "Now that you mention it, I heard that you were muttering two words. What was it again¡­" "Reila. Awaken." "Hmm¡­" Rilt narrowed his eyes. "I am not very sure myself. I think it''s better to test it a few times. As for the training itself, I feel like that the White and Black Jewel makes it easier for you." "Is that so? I got a vision before saying those two words. It was about a woman called Reila." "This makes more sense." Rilt nodded his head as if he thought something. "What do you mean? Can you explain it to me?" "This is just my hypothesis. If I am not wrong, the Life Energy from the White Jewel allowed you to make someone evolve or, you may say, awaken. Their latent talent would bloom just like earlier. And it was circulating in her body before some returned to you through the Black Jewel. "That Black Jewel gave you a vision about her. I don''t know what kind of vision it was, but it gave you something to use for this whole Enhancement thingy." Alex nodded in agreement. "That''s the only explanation, I think." "For now. We should ask the girl again." "Anna, can you bring her here? We need to talk." Hearing his voice, Anna took the Dryad Spirit and stared at the two. "So, anyone can explain it to me?" "It''s his new Spirit Crown. I believe that he can evolve¡­No, awaken the latent potential of a Spirit, allowing her to become a Humanoid Spirit." "Really?" Anna narrowed her eyes and stared at Alex. Alex only shook his head in disappointment. "I am not sure myself." Rilt then looked at the spirit wearing Anna''s clothes. "Can you speak?" "I¡­Can¡­" The tree nodded. Having never spoken, she couldn''t speak fluently yet, but it was already an improvement since they could question her. "So, do you have a name?" "Reila¡­" The Dryad lowered her head. "That''s your name?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows before he looked at Rilt and nodded. "It seems that the vision is true. I don''t know what it is, but it''s related to you." "I¡­want to thank¡­Your Majesty, for giving me¡­this chance¡­I don''t know how I can repay you¡­" "You don''t need to." Alex smiled. "I want to ask you a few questions. Can you answer them?" "I will do¡­my best." Alex nodded and continued. "The first question will be your ability." Reila thought for a moment and raised her hands. Suddenly, her hand turned into tree branches before it extended for a quite long range. It could even create a shape according to her will. "Is that all?" "Actually, I can do this to all my body." "Oh?" Alex opened his mouth in amazement. "She is indeed a Humanoid Spirit now." Rilt nodded before thinking about something. "I wonder if this is related to her talent or your ability. I mean, why it stops at the last stage. How about the abnormal one, the True Spirit Body?" Reila looked down as if trying to do something. However, she failed and shook her head in disappointment. "I am sorry. I can''t do it." "It''s fine." Alex waved his hand and looked at Rilt. Noticing his gaze, Rilt asked again. "How about your body right now? Do you have any discomfort?" "Other than not getting used to it, I have no qualm with the new body." "Good then." Rilt nodded. "It seems there are many things to be considered. Do you think it''s possible for you to help her again?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and summoned his Spirit Crown again. Unfortunately, the energy didn''t want to circulate, so he had no choice other than to retract it. "It seems I can''t use it for a period of time." "We need to find what kind of technique this one is as soon as possible. We will do it every day because I want to see the progress. Meanwhile, we can start practicing the "Sharing" technique." "I understand. I will leave it to you." Alex agreed without hesitation. "As for your technique, we will leave it at that for now." Rilt nodded and looked at Reila. "I am sorry, but you need to stay here for a while. I need to monitor your condition to avoid any side effects." Reila kneeled as if she had been granted the highest honor. "You don''t need to kneel." With a single wave of his hand, Rilt raised her up and said, "You are not a Normal Spirit anymore, but a Humanoid Spirit. Keep improving because I want to know whether you are the same as the others or not." "I will do my best." "I think that¡­" Alex walked toward Anna, holding both hands. He tried to circulate the energy and succeeded. However, Alex didn''t dare to complete the process because he didn''t know if this change had a side effect or not. "I think I can help Anna right now, but that''s it. Just by trying it, the technique has drained so much energy." "It''s because Anna''s potential has almost reached its limit," RIlt commented while thinking. "Or it''s because she is already close to the limit. I mean, relatively speaking, in some cases, it''s easier to fill from zero percent to ninety percent. The last ten percent is the hardest because you need to do everything possible to just add one more percent." "That''s a good example." "Maybe we can do it more, but please don''t disclose this information just yet. We want to proceed as safely as possible." "Yeah." "In that case, let''s have Reila test her power first. I want to see the difference." Alex patted her shoulder. Reila panicked because the king not only granted this power, but he also wanted to see her change. She was scared that Alex would be disappointed when he saw his performance. However, she decided to do it. Seeing that she had no more role, Anna returned to the house, leaving the three in the garden." Alex and Rilt were discussing all the possibilities coming from the new Spirit Crown and decided to test everything they came up with during their training. Suddenly, Alex came up with a brilliant idea. "What do you think about this? I will hold a competition every year with the reward allowing them to receive this training. Besides, we should call it Awakening instead of Evolution. I feel like this one is better." "That''s a good idea, but you need to make sure that you want to keep doing it every single year." "Well, the more reason I should return to Eulja, right?" "Fair enough. If you need to return every year, you won''t have the time to flirt with women out there." Rilt chuckled. Alex rolled his eyes and ignored his remark. "Anyway, this will be a fierce competition. As long as we are the ones overseeing it, I think no one will try to achieve it through a dirty way." "If you want to remain neutral, your daughters and sons will need to go through that process, you know." "I can do it more than once a year. Besides, if I need to, I can simply tell them I just love them so much that I sacrifice a bit of my power in exchange for their awakening. This is the sacrifice of a father." "Yes, except it''s a lie." Rilt shrugged. "All in all, I don''t think it''s a bad idea. We can hold that competition. And we can slowly adjust the rule and such." "Yeah. And if possible, I don''t want to do it this soon. Maybe, a decade after my coronation. We have a few years to discuss this, so let''s proceed with the training." "Indeed." Chapter 1065: Plan A few months later, in the same garden, Alex was sitting in a lotus pose, cultivating. Instead of Spiritual Energy, the one attracted to him was a different type of energy. It was the energy he decided to cultivate to explore his current potential. Yes, it was none other than Life and Death Energy. After getting known about his Spirit Crown further, he realized the potential of this power inside his Third Eye. He and Rilt began researching this power. It took them six months to know what exactly the Spirit Crown actually could do. The Spirit Crown turned out to be more amazing than he could think. It could awaken someone''s latent potential. Just like Reila, he had called a few more spirits, ranging from the Normal Spirits to Demihuman Spirits. Many of them turned into Humanoid Spirit Class while some could only reach Demi-human Spirit Class. Alex realized that the Spirit Crown actually improved the potential too. In other words, spirits like Reila actually only had the potential to reach Beastly Spirit Class or Demi-human Spirit Class if she was lucky. Alex took it one step further. This ability became the most sought in this world if they didn''t keep it a secret. Unfortunately, even though he tried hard, it was impossible for Alex to make someone attain their True Spirit Body in an instant. However, the potential was there. Rilt entered the garden with a young woman. She had black eyes and long straight black hair. Her gaze was deep, making one wonder what was in the head of this young girl. After arriving in front of Alex, she fell on one knee and lowered her head. Alex gradually opened his eyes and raised his vision, staring at Rilt. "Is there something you need?" "I still don''t believe that your Spirit Crown can''t make someone achieve their True Spirit Body. All we have done in the past few months are helping the low rank spirits, so if I bring a Humanoid Spirit, you might be able to do it." Alex thought for a moment and looked at the woman. "What''s your name?" "My name is Lia, Your Majesty. I am a Dark Spirit." Alex tilted his head, hearing the familiar name. He turned to Rilt and asked, "The same as Mother-in-law?" Rilt nodded. "After my wife, there were only four more Dark Spirits able to manifest into a Humanoid Spirit. She is the newest one. I have discussed this with my wife, and she has agreed to it." Alex nodded back and looked at Lia. "I want you to ask this question first without thinking about my status and other people. I want you to be as selfish as possible, thinking only about yourself. Are you sure you want to do this? Knowing that there might be a chance where you die during this process?" Lia lowered her head even more and answered without hesitation. "I have prepared to lay down my life." Alex let out a long sigh. "For now, you should be at ease. I want you to sit down in front of me and stretch both of your hands toward me." Lia was hesitant at first because it was no doubt that the one in front of her was the Spirit King. However, Rilt whispered something to her, and she stiffly followed Alex''s instruction. "Just relax." Alex smiled and stretched his own hands. Their palms intertwined, and a Spirit Crown appeared above Alex''s head, stunning her. It was indeed the Spirit Crown, except for the fact there were two more gems next to the blue jewel. "Close your eyes and feel the energy. Don''t fight it." Alex closed his eyes and focused on the Spirit Crown. The energy began to circulate in their body as Alex got another vision. This time, he was above the water. Just like any other spirits, he was inside Lia''s body, staring at this blurry world. He lowered his vision and found the reflection of his body. Lia now had two different parts. The first was her eyes. Her white eyes turned black while the black eyes became yellow. Inside the yellow eyes was another black layer. The second one was her hands and feet. It was shrouded by darkness, turning her finger into claws and her feet into talons. "Lia, you may awaken. Show yourself to the world." Alex smiled as he repeated what the Spirit Crown showed him. Lia didn''t understand this word, but when the influx of energy entered her body, she instinctively opened her mouth. "True Spirit Body, Dark Demonic Divine Body." The Lia in his front gradually changed into what he saw earlier. Unlike before, this Lia released a huge amount of Divine Energy, considering she was a Rank 7 God. Rilt, who was observing the entire process, took a step back with a dumbfounded expression. He kept saying one thing like that of a broken radio. "I knew it. I knew it. I knew¡­" Alex and Lia opened their eyes at the same time, and their gazes intertwined. Lia shuddered because she never expected that it was real. This was the only thing she had ever desired, considering that none of the Dark Spirits after Via, Rilt''s wife, could attain the True Spirit Body. On the contrary, Alex focused on her change and checked her body with his Spirit Eyes. Luckily, there was no Life and Death Energy remained. Nodding his head, Alex said with a smile. "Congratulations for getting your True Spirit Body." Lia opened her mouth but no words came out. She was utterly speechless because she never expected to get this kind of blessing from the Spirit King himself. She stiffly kneeled again with her forehead touching the ground. Her body was shaking as she thought she was rude. Alex only patted her head out of habit and said, "Instead of thanking me, use that power to protect this world, alright?" She nodded her head, even if it meant rubbing her forehead with the ground. "Good." Alex smiled and helped her up this time before looking at Rilt. "It seems your hypothesis is right." "Ye-yeah. Even I am shocked by it." Rilt shook his head helplessly. "Unfortunately, I feel that the energy needed is more than usual. I feel like I won''t be able to do it again after a period of time." "I see. That''s natural. If a Humanoid Spirit Class is a perfect class, the True Spirit Body is the ultimate form. Out of a thousand Humanoid Spirit, which is already rare by itself, only one can get their True Spirit Body. You can say that she has really become one of the hundred million." Rilt nodded. "Go back to Via and tell your achievement. She must be happy for you. I need to talk to him." Lia repeatedly nodded. Before leaving, she turned to Alex again and bowed. Alex only waved his hand and looked at Rilt, who gently looked at Lia. "Old man, your face is disgusting. Are you going to be a predator?" "What did you say? Lia was one of the five Dark Spirits out there. You can say that she is my wife''s kin, so I consider them as my family. That''s why I am very conflicted to bring her to you." He sighed. "Fair enough. The danger is there after all." "No, no. You are the real danger. If she suddenly falls in love with you and becomes my daughters'' love rival, I don''t know what I should do." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows, taking back all his concerns earlier. "Anyway, it seems that the Spirit Crown is far better than I expected. So, I have two ideas to establish your reign while doing something positive to the Spirit World. First, you can hold the tournament every year and reward them with this awakening." "After thinking for a while, I feel like it will take too much time. I can spend more time with my wives outside the world since this world will slowly turn into a cage for me after several hundred years if not a thousand." "That''s why I am proposing another idea. From what I understand, your limit is five awakenings¡­" Before he continued, he corrected him. "Three, if I need to do what I did earlier." "Alright. Three or five awakenings, depending on how you see it. Maybe we can tell the world that you will hold a tournament every ten years. And the tournament will be in many types, so we can advance those who are not adept at fighting while adding hidden criteria. "For example, the first tournament has two competitions, fighting competition and support competition. Each competition will give two people to be awakened or one person for the True Spirit Body. The last one will be the spirit you personally choose after observing their character, effort, and talent. This way, you will be able to get more time with your family while keeping the spirits happy." Alex looked down with his right hand on his chin. "That''s a good idea. I don''t really mind watching them around that time since we can arrange a unique match. It''s a kind of enjoyment for me too. Well, we can announce it at my coronation. Since this is the first one, we should prioritize the powerful ones first, so they don''t get dissatisfied with this idea, especially those who have attained Humanoid Spirit Class. After all, they must be more prideful than any other Spirits, no?" "Indeed." Rilt nodded in agreement. "If you decide to hold a competition for the awakening process, we can give those spirits a chance, making it look like you are not favoriting the Humanoid Spirits." "Yes. Eulja will become even stronger in the future while I can still have my freedom. That might be the best solution for us." Alex paused. "We can adjust the rule later on." [I will pass it to Korzan later. He should be able to handle it. Besides, you can use the original Spirit Crown''s skill to develop one''s Martial Technique, so not only Eulja but those who are under Eulja''s reign have the chance to get your good grace. This will make them even more royal.] "Yeah. It has so much potential. I will leave the planning to Korzan." [Sure. I will pass it on to him. He will be overjoyed when he hears it.] "Thanks." "Who is going to take charge of the competition?" Rilt saw Alex''s different expression, so Lin Xingzhi must be contacting him through the system. "Korzan." "That workaholic lad, huh. Well, I don''t really mind since he is so reliable." He nodded. "I think I have mastered all the Spirit Crown''s abilities. I plan to start cultivating in another world to increase my strength while enjoying my life. After all, I am going to go straight to the Rank 5 God because I feel like the situation won''t be as peaceful as this anymore." Alex''s expression turned serious. Rilt nodded in agreement. "There are six beasts (weapons) that I need to search and destroy before the beast could break the seal. I also need to go to Encore again. Besides, Sherry''s situation is not safe anymore. The sooner I become Rank 5 God, the faster I can officially become the Spirit King. "It''s true that there will be many enemies in the future, but we have Blackwade Clan and Silvia''s family to assist for the time being. I also haven''t talked with the ten God Beasts that the former Fire God left behind. That''s why if I am going to do this, it''s better to do it as soon as possible. That''s my plan." "Self-Ability, Sharing, Blossom, and Enhancement, which have become "Awakening" now. You have mastered all these four abilities. I think you are already qualified to become a Rank 5 God since your real ability is already beyond Rank 6 God. I agree with your current plan. At the very least, we have Lin Xingzhi to hold the fort if a God King wants to fight us since she is considered to be one of the five big God Kings right now." Rilt turned around and walked a few steps away from him before releasing an immeasurable pressure. He looked at him with a serious expression. "This is our last training. You and I! We are going to fight." Chapter 1066: Alex Vs Rilt "That''s new. You are not planning to hold back, no?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I have nothing to teach you because you have mastered all the skills from the Spirit Crown. Although I admit that the new Spirit Crown makes it easier, I really want to see what you have learned this whole time." Rilt shrugged. "You haven''t answered my question." "I won''t hold back, but I also won''t attack you seriously. Is this fine for the answer?" Rilt made a sly smile. "¡­" Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. I want to see whether I can injure a Rank 2 God too. But you mostly support others like Anya, no?" "Yeah, but it doesn''t mean I can''t attack." He nodded. "In that case, I don''t need to hold back, no?" "I am the one who needs to say that." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, I will be placing the Special Realm first to avoid anyone from noticing." "Sure." He nodded. Alex then went around, drawing the array. It was just an Illusion Array, Barrier Array, Sound Insulation Array and Gathering Array, so he finished it quickly. "Yeah. I think we can fight without any interruption." Rilt nodded and released his Divine Energy as yellow light began shrouding him. "Let''s start. Shall we?" Alex waved his hand, grabbing the two weapons at the wall where he put his weapons. They were there because the three Weapon Spirits wanted to go around, but the moment they felt Alex''s power, they quickly returned to the weapons. "Master?" Eve tried to assess their situation and found that Alex was going to fight Rilt. "I need your power. We won''t hold back." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I understand." Eve agreed and summoned a dragon as the start. The twins followed her action and summoned the dragon. At the same time, they both released an aura. Eve''s aura was clad black and red, circling around the sword, while Elle and Elliot released blue and gold aura. Alex inhaled the air that soon turned warmer as he released his Pure Fire. "You are ready?" "Anytime." Rilt smiled. Alex''s aura disappeared the instant he spoke as the real person already moved to another place. Rilt glanced over to the right, seeing Alex''s swinging his sword downwards. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave traveled through the ground, heading straight to Rilt. This powerful Sword Wave was usually feared by the opponent of the same level, but Rilt simply pointed his finger. His index finger started shining before releasing a stream of light that struck the Sword Wave perfectly in the middle. "Ray of Anguish." Surprisingly, the light pierced the Sword Wave and ended up destroying it. Alex narrowed his eyes and thrust his spear, hitting the small stream of light. "Twin Fusion Spear." The space in front of the spear, making the light unable to touch the spear itself. At the same, Alex''s Pure Fire seeped inside the Space World and appeared around the light, burning it down. The light soon disappeared, impressing Rilt. "That''s a good technique. You use the Fire ability to weaken my attack while protecting yourself with the Distorted Space. However, I am not an attack type spirit, so that kind of technique won''t be effective." "It''s not like I am going to face a Rank 2 God, okay?" Alex sighed. "If I play every card right, we should have enough people to handle it until I am strong enough. It''s not like I am the one who likes to take risks." "Fair enough." Rilt nodded in understanding. Roar. The two dragons that Alex left earlier finally appeared and tried to swallow Rilt from two directions. Surprisingly, Rilt took a step back, making them change their direction. At that time, he grabbed both dragons and twisted them into a knot to stop their movements. "Hmm¡­" Rilt looked at his hands that were burned by the dragons'' skins. They both used Alex''s Pure Fire to inflict more damage despite knowing that their charge was bound to fail. After getting stuck, the dragons returned to Alex''s side by undoing and summoning them again. As expected, it was the deed of the Weapon Spirits, not Alex. "You have a good collection of power indeed." Rilt smiled. "They are my partners, not collections." "Yes, yes. You people always consider them like that." Rilt shrugged and summoned his golden staff. He hit the ground a few times as it summoned a few small marbles, flying all over the place. Alex used his Spirit Eyes and knew that they were dangerous. He looked left and right to see if he could destroy them in one go. "Fire Authority." Alex summoned the usual fox behind him. The fox opened its mouth as a round-shaped fire appeared above them, making the place instantly hot. Rilt waved his hand and summoned a few streams of light. Unlike the first attack, some of them were curving in order to match the movement of the one in the middle. With the trajectory, they should destroy his fox in this exchange. The fox suddenly shrank and turned into Alex''s body part. As for the fire above, it was completely fine since the fox was only for show. Rilt knew that he needed to destroy Alex''s Sun Descent since it lowered his power. Still, considering he was a Rank 2 God while Alex was only a Rank 6 God, he decided to let him do it to make it fair. Seeing that he didn''t have any intention to actively stop him, Alex summoned his Spirit Crown along with his Pure Fire. Alex then leaped forward and hit Rilt''s staff. The Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown turned his swing to another level, annihilating everything behind Rilt. Because he didn''t use his God Eyes, he couldn''t neutralize Alex''s energy, resulting in Alex obliterating the terrain. "Oi, oi. You should know by now how many times I need to fix this mess¡­" Rilt sighed while glancing at the destroyed garden. "It''s not like you are the one doing it." Alex shrugged and kept attacking while searching for Rilt''s weakness. "Hmph! A bad guy needs to be punished." Rilt snorted and spun his body, using his staff to hit Alex''s ass as if considering it as a spanking. However, different from a regular spanking, this one blew Alex away to the wall until his body stuck there. Alex quickly recovered his previous stance and slashed his sword from afar. It was supposed to unleash a Sword Wave, but surprisingly, he didn''t release it. However, Rilt still took a step back because he felt the Space Energy around his neck. Alex''s Sword came out of that portal and almost struck him. "You are aiming at my neck? You brat." Rilt twitched his eyebrows, planning to teach this guy a lesson. "You are strong, Father. I need something like this to stop you." Alex smirked. "And I won''t be holding back from now on." "Try it." He harrumphed while creating a circle with his finger. It left a yellow trail in the air. Alex felt something wrong in that circle and quickly slashed it with the help of his Spatial Gate. Surprisingly, the circle was elastic enough to bend before slipping through the gate and arriving at Alex''s hand. It quickly snapped and circled around his hand. "What is this?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and tried to cut it with his Pure Sword Qi that was supposed to be able to cut everything. Yet, the circle would snap into two and go around his arm just to make sure that nothing could harm him. Even when Alex used his Pure Fire, the circle tried its best to survive. The moment Alex burned himself with his Pure Fire, the circle became so heavy that it even forced Alex to bend down due to the sudden change of weight. Rilt used this chance to close their distance and hit him in the face, blowing him away. "Your Space Element holds so much potential. You should start mastering it soon." Rilt commented. "The Dungeon God managed to become one of the God King because of his Supreme Control over Space Element. No one would be able to catch him or even injure him because he kept distorting the Space around him like nobody''s business." "I am trying. Unfortunately, I don''t have enough time or a mentor to do that." Alex sighed. "Why don''t you ask Zark?" "I did. He said he couldn''t do it because of the uniqueness of this Space Element. That''s why I don''t know what I need to do with this Space Element. I thought that I could begin its real training after Rank 5 if not Rank 4 God, but I am not sure anymore." Alex was disappointed in himself. "Well, you used too much time for other training, so I didn''t want to blame you." "Yes." Alex nodded with a deep voice before he disappeared. "!!!" Rilt felt Alex''s presence and quickly spun his staff to stop Alex''s attack. It turned out that when Rilt hit him, Alex planted the Space Mark to allow him to return to his side as quickly as possible. "Three Purities Slash." Alex swung both Sword and Spear at the same time, striking his golden staff. Surprisingly, Rilt didn''t lose in terms of strength. Instead, he slowly overpowered him after regaining his ground. Bam. Alex once again crashed into the wall. "That''s the closest one. I think you have the power to do it." Rilt smiled. "How about this¡­If you hit me once, I lose." "Sure. I will make sure that you admit it." Alex smirked and became pretty pumped with the current situation. He looked left and right to check where he could use his power and found an amusing place. Noticing Alex''s bad intention, Rilt secretly activated his God Eyes. Alex used his Space Bind to chain his feet with the invisible chain before throwing him into the air. Before letting him do whatever he wanted, Rilt already appeared above him while swinging his staff. "You are this aggressive now?" Alex exclaimed in surprise. "This is not aggressive but necessary action. Do you think your opponent will allow you to do everything?" He snorted and knocked him away again to the wall. Alex was supposed to grit his teeth and try to find a way to make a counterattack, but this was exactly his plan of counterattack. The moment he hit it again, Alex had put another array to appear next to him. "This is what I am waiting for." Alex smirked and swung his sword. "You are done, Father." Rilt snorted and said coldly. "We will see." Suddenly, Alex released all of his power, no matter if it was forbidden or not. His body was nowhere to be found because Alex was right behind Rilt due to the seal he planted earlier when Rilt hit him. "This is my win." Alex''s Sword now contained his Intent, Elements, Divine Energy, Weapon Spirits, Spirit Crown''s Nature Energy, Life and Death Energy, and Pure Divine Sword Qi. He unleashed the full power of his Divine Sword Technique to the maximum and struck Rilt. "Seven Purities Slash." Chapter 1067: Wifes Anger is Scary "Seven Purities Slash." With moving alone, the sword created a rippling effect that would make the world unstable, especially the barrier Alex built earlier. ''Not good.'' Rilt thought as he quickly activated his strongest strength. "True Spirit Body. Eternal Light Body." His eyes changed into silver color, glowing with the help of his God Eyes. A cross made of light appeared behind his body as one of them shone. "Four Light Authorities. Fourth Authority, Grace." The sword''s energy wavered the moment it felt Rilt''s powerful light before the person in question took the hit himself. He used his God Eyes to suppress the Spirit Crown''s Nature Energy while using his own light to suppress the Divine Energy and Life and Death Energy. Unfortunately, the Pure Divine Sword Qi slashed the energy coming to suppress it as if showing its sovereignty. At the same time, Alex''s Space Element sent all the energy inside the Space World while his Pure Fire burned it. That left was his Absolute Blade Intent and Weapon Spirits. Crack. Suddenly, Alex''s Special Realm cracked before anything could happen as a shadow rushed inside. "You two bastards. What the heck are you doing?" Vina appeared above them with so many black patterns in her body. She was already using her True Spirit Body even though this was only a spar between an old man and his son-in-law. It showed that they had gone way overboard with this spar since the real "ruler" of the house had made her appearance. "Eternal Darkness." She waved both hands sideways as each released a powerful Dark Energy, shrouding the entire field with darkness. Surprisingly, the darkness swallowed everything. Even his Pure Fire, Space Element, and Pure Divine Sword Qi could only uselessly struggle without being able to withstand the oppression. Alex quickly understood that this was the real power of a Rank 2 God. This was far different than what Rilt showed this whole time. The Absolute Blade Intent was the first to be swallowed before his Weapon Spirits stopped struggling and returned to the sword. The technique that almost made hell let loose was stopped by Vina in her Night Ripper Form, suppressing all the remaining energy to nothingness as if they never existed to begin with. The darkness disappeared as the light from the sun illuminated them again. Vina landed on the ground and looked down without saying anything. Rilt gulped down and took a step back. Suddenly, killing intent permeated the air as she raised her vision, looking at these two fools in front of her. She forced a smile while saying, "You two. Kneel in front of me right now." Rilt instinctively followed her order and kneeled, knowing that she was pissed off. Alex was slightly late as Vina ended up turning to him and said, "You piece of sh*t. Kneel in front of me, now!" Her voice carried a lot of weight as Alex also followed what Rilt did as if his body moved by itself. "So, anyone wants to explain what happened here?" Vina asked after seeing these two in front of her. Her gaze was cold and her voice carried killing intent, freezing both of the two up. Even Alex, who was supposed to be immune to the ice element, couldn''t help but feel a chill down his spine. "It''s his doing." Rilt quickly betrayed Alex and pushed everything to him. "I can see that you were sparring, so who invited who?" Alex pointed his finger at Rilt. "What is the condition of the spar?" Alex looked down and thought for a moment. Rilt was staring at him, threatening him to not say it or else he would fight it out. Alex paid no heed and decided to tell her. "He suggested fighting without holding back." Vina narrowed her eyes and looked at Rilt. "Any last words?" "Ehm? Wife, don''t you think that I need to defend myself first?" "Alright. Die." Vina stomped his head, using that power to bury him one kilometer deep underground. Her rage couldn''t be stopped by burying Rilt alive as she stared at Alex. "You brat. You might be the Spirit King, but you should know that the king of this house is not you, but me. You know it, right?" Alex shuddered when he heard it. People said that parents'' anger was one of the scariest things in the world, and Alex believed it just now. "Yes." "Your technique earlier won''t be able to hurt him, but it will surely leave marks. With this kind of situation, there might be a chance that someone finds your identity before the time comes. "If I didn''t suppress it, the entire garden would be destroyed while a huge crater with this place as the center would be created. Not only that, your Sword Qi would make a deep slash underground, which might potentially create a chain reaction underground. "Your Special Realm wouldn''t be able to take it. No, I dare to say that your barrier would end up in pieces in an instant. I don''t want to think about what will happen after that. "I heard that you are someone using your brain first before acting, but where was your brain earlier?" Vina looked down at him, releasing an immeasurable pressure that made Alex gasping for air. "I am sorry. I didn''t think it through. I just believed that father-in-law could take it, considering I am only a Rank 6 God while he is a Rank 2 God." "As I said, taking it and suppressing it is different. This is like asking someone to capture a powerful person alive and asking them to kill that person. The latter is easier. I am sure that you know about this already." "I was greedy." Alex lowered his head as if he was ready to get any punishment. "I am sorry." She let out a long sigh while looking upward, wondering what she should do. "Since this is your first offense, I will let you off as long as you help me in the kitchen for a week." "I understand." Alex repeatedly nodded, not daring enough to reject it. "Alright. Since this matter has finished, I won''t pursue this anymore." She inhaled a deep breath and changed back to her gentle appearance and tone. "So, are your training done yet?" "Yes. I am done. I will be waiting for Lin Xingzhi to give me a perfect world to train until I am a Rank 5 God. That way, I can speed things up." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, let''s go back." She nodded. Before leaving, she didn''t forget to shout to the hole. "Don''t you dare to climb back up for a month or I am going to hate you." "Noooo!" Rilt''s voice echoed as one could feel his despair. With how much he loved Vina, this was one of the hardest punishments he would ever think of. However, he was lucky that she only punished him for a month. If it was a year or even longer, no one knew what would happen to him. Alex and Vina returned to the house with Anna and Anya staring at him with a weird expression. "So you are alive." Anya let out a sigh of relief. "What do you mean, Anya? Are you saying that I am an evil being that will kill my own son-in-law?" Vina smiled while narrowing her eyes. Her gaze was cold, giving a chill for even Alex, who shouldn''t be the target. "No, no. Mom is the best." She quickly changed everything and began praising Vina. Yeah, Vina was still pissed by how Alex and Rilt fought. This was the first time she stopped it, but it also showed what level that fight was. Anna looked at him and asked. "Are you injured?" "No. The fight didn''t last too long anyway. It was only a few rounds." "Yeah, a few rounds, and it ended up with you using that kind of power." Vina snorted. Alex scratched the back of his head. "I mainly used my Sword, Spear, and Fire abilities. I haven''t even gone to Space Element and Array that much, so the battle might change after that point." "You are planning to fight that idiot again?" "No, no. Mother, I apologize for doing such a reckless thing." Alex let out a long sigh. "I will just give you one piece of advice. After feeling your Life and Death Energy, I noticed something. I am not sure whether I am right or not, but that Life and Death Energy is only related to your Third Eye and Spirit Crown. In other words, you should not be too reliant on it unless you plan to reveal either of the two." "I understand, Mother. I have no current plan to use that powerful strike unless it''s necessary. As for the Third Eye, it would be my trump card for the time being since I have realized that it''s a powerful eye that I have never seen before. "The Death Energy allowed me to perceive someone''s intention and felt it all over my body. I would notice where they intended to attack me and so on as if reading their mind. As for Life Energy, it gives me the strength to use Spirit Crown over and over again. These two effects will increase my strength again." Alex nodded. "Just don''t be reckless like this one. I couldn''t afford to have you ruining my backyard to the point it can''t be fixed anymore. This is my retirement house after all, but I think I will wait until Anna succeeds me." "How about I use my Spirit Crown to open another Dark Spirit''s True Spirit Body, Mother? Like the one I did to Reila." "I am grateful for your thought alone. People might think that this is the best chance to get their True Spirit Body, but I want the one who takes over my position to gain their True Spirit Body with their own effort. In other words, even if you use it on them, do it only after they have won the competition." Vina shook her head. "I understand. I won''t say a thing about this matter anymore then." Alex nodded in understanding. He knew that Vina didn''t want to spoil the Dark Spirits just because she knew Alex, but Alex seemed to have misunderstood the entire situation. Seeing his expression, Vina explained. "That''s only one of the concerns, but I have one more thing to say. The fact that you are doing it for all your subjects, including the ones outside Eulja, you need to be fair. "I won''t say anything about your blood-related daughters or sons, but it''s better for us to not take advantage of it just because Anna and Anya are your wives. The people won''t take it that kindly because you are just spoiling us. After that, the situation will grow into a complete mess. "At first, I thought that you might want to have your own daughters and sons to achieve it by themselves, but we don''t know about the future, so I won''t say anything about this. Just do what you feel is right. After all, you are a father before a king. Remember this, okay?" She smiled. Alex nodded with a smile. "I understand. Thank you for teaching this, Mother." "Good." Vina then walked to the kitchen. "Now, let''s have you in the kitchen. Help me prepare lunch, will you?" Alex quickly rose from the floor and followed her to the kitchen with a smile. "Yes." After eating their lunch, Alex got a message from Lin Xingzhi. [Alex. I have the perfect world for you to practice.] "Good." Alex nodded. [It''s related to Ragi, so it''s better to visit him since he will be the one leading you.] "I understand. I will return after the punishment." Alex agreed. Although Vina wouldn''t be angry if he asked her, he wanted to be responsible and reflected upon his action, so he decided to complete his punishment first. [Alright. I will be waiting. I will also tell Rose, Evelyn, Letizia, and Silvia about it.] "Thanks." Alex nodded and continued helping Vina for the whole week. Chapter 1068: Master and Disciple After finishing his punishment, Alex went to the castle, finding Lin Xingzhi and Ragi first. They set up a meeting in a room, where Ragi began his explanation. "First of all, I have gotten the information from my father, saying that there is a promised place where you, my father, and the others will meet. Unlike a normal Divine World, this world is ruled by monsters instead. Of course, they are not like your typical monsters. "Despite having a frozen surface, the planet''s core could be considered as one of the highest ones, so I think this will be a perfect place for you to train." "Can I know what kind of place that is?" Alex asked with a serious expression. "The world is filled with volcanoes that kept erupting every now and then, creating a layer of smoke in the air, making the surface temperature drop significantly. That''s the reason why this world is freezing outside but warm inside." "I see." Alex nodded in understanding. He learned this knowledge back on Earth and people called this phenomenon Ice Age. Earth had undergone this process in the past, so he could understand this world perfectly. "Any survivor?" "No. There are no humans or whatsoever. Only monsters. The ten beasts are waiting for you on the planet because the ashes of that planet are suitable for their cultivation. With them being so familiar with the Godly Pure Fire, they believe that you can reach Rank 5 God quickly. "Of course, I know that you wish to have a vacation with your wives. After several considerations, I think this place can be it, especially if you think it''s covered by snow instead of volcanic ashes. Besides, it will be a new experience for your excellency." "Fair enough. If it''s not suitable, I can simply ask them to go somewhere else." Alex nodded. "I have asked them, and they all agreed to it." Lin Xingzhi finally opened her mouth. "Really?" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting them to agree that easily. "Rose said that she could practice targeting the ashes. They are perfect to practice her control while enjoying the world. Evelyn has Fire Element, so this will be a beneficial trip for her. The same applies to Letizia. The world is freezing, so as long as she gets a nice cover, her cultivation will increase faster. As for Silvia¡­Volcanic ashes are a kind of medicine. As for Axis, her student, I have asked her, but he decides to stay here for the time being and ask permission to enter the library. For now, he can only read anything about normal knowledge, not considering our famous Martial Arts and the likes." Alex nodded. "Since they all have agreed, I won''t reject it. Let''s go then." "I know you said that." Lin Xingzhi smiled and waved her hands. It turned out that they were already waiting outside this whole time. "Yes. We are going for a vacation." Rose raised both hands while jumping with that smiling face. "I am going to dip down in the so-called hot spring." "Right. The concentration of volcanic ashes determines its quality, so with this kind of world, I feel like I can get Rank 9 Volcanic Ashes. It won''t be at the level of White Ash Tree, but it is not that far." Silvia smirked as she planned to harvest the ashes in a huge amount. "I am just going there to open the umbrella for Master¡­" Letizia looked down. "What? I know what you are planning." Evelyn pouted while narrowing her eyes. "You must want to use that time to flirt with him. I mean, the umbrella won''t be able to cover one more person, so you will have him for yourself." Letizia blushed and looked away while saying embarrassedly. "I am just doing my job as a maid." Evelyn''s fingers wiggled around as she raised both hands vulgarly as if she stared at Letizia''s chest. "How about telling the truth?" Letizia covered her chest and took one step back. "I''ve told the truth." "But you don''t say your real intention." Evelyn leaped toward her before her movement was halted as Alex grabbed her collar. "Alright. That''s enough." "Fine." Evelyn pouted. "Anyway, since you all don''t have problems, I don''t have any problem. Let''s go then." Alex nodded with a smile. "I think I will be going too." Lin Xingzhi suddenly raised her hand. Everyone looked at her with a surprised face, but only Alex understood her real concern. "I understand." Since the others didn''t understand her motive, she explained. "You can''t expect me to trust them that easily, right? I know that Phitrus was your mentor. I would have no problem in trusting Phitrus, but I don''t have the same opinion to his God Beasts no matter what you say." Ragi acknowledged her concern and said, "I will be worried if my sister in your situation, so I don''t have any problem." "When are we leaving?" Rose asked. "That''s a good question. Any of you have something that you need to finish before leaving?" None of them nodded their heads, so Alex continued. "We will go tomorrow then." "Then, I will be spending this day with my student." Silvia was the first to leave as she hurriedly walked to the library. Ragi also took off somewhere after saying, "I will say my goodbye to Leka and Heilo." Ragi seemed to have gotten along with them, so Alex didn''t really mind about this and let him do so. "I am going to bully her." Evelyn smirked and pointed her finger at Letizia as both of them began their game of tag. "Master. Can I spend time with you?" Rose asked politely since she didn''t know whether Alex had the time or not. "Sure." Alex smiled and patted her head before turning to Lin Xingzhi. "I will be asking Anna or Anya to take over my job. And I think it''s better for you to open the Gacha first. I have adjusted the entire system too." Alex suddenly remembered and opened his gacha. [Gacha Point: 75097] [Gacha Coin: 905] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 3,225,797] "Oh. There is a new option." "Yes. Due to the last world where you only planted your dungeon, I believe that I need to create one parameter to allow you to know how much you have made. Of course, the number is too low at the moment, considering that you only have one main world and one secondary world. "The main world is focused on the Spirit Crystal while the secondary world is the one focused on the point and coin." "I understand." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Is there a limit to how many dungeons I can make?" "I am not sure, but I think one hundred worlds is the limit. You can get a few billion Spirit Crystals every year if you fill eighty percent of them with the main world." "I will pay attention to it." "Alright. Have fun with your Gacha. You only have one chance. Make sure to treasure it." She smiled before she disappeared, heading to Anna and Anya. Alex turned to Rose and found that she was staring at Alex''s stat. "Master. Can I open one? Pretty please?" She begged him with eyes wide open and pouted, trying to act as cute as possible. "It seems that you have gotten the sickness." "I just want to open more Gacha, considering that I only have two types of Gacha. After knowing that you have several types previously, I just want to test it myself." "No, no. I am talking about your addiction to open Gacha when you don''t get a good item." Alex patted her head while laughing. Rose looked away embarrassedly as she couldn''t refute him. "Fine, fine. You can open it. Treasure this chance because even I haven''t opened this one yet." Alex smiled. "Master is the best." Rose leaped and hugged him for a moment before she turned around, still clinging on him, and saw that the Coin wasn''t enough. "Are you saying that because you know you can''t open it yet, Master? Bad Master." "You naughty child. Look how fast you change." Alex shook his head helplessly while saying, "Exchange every point to coins." [Processing.] [Gacha Point: 97] [Gacha Coin: 1655] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 3,225,797] "There, you can open it now." Alex sighed. "Hehe, Master is the best. Rose lied just now." She playfully stuck her tongue out and pressed the button. [Processing.] Suddenly, a box appeared on the screen. It had a golden cover with many white dots on it. Above its head was tied into a ribbon like that of a present. The lid raised forty-five degrees as between the lid and the box appeared another screen like his slot machine. However, Alex could recognize them. They were all the exclusive items from the Gacha System: Weapons Mastery Cards, Elemental Orbs, and many other random things.] Surprisingly, the spin ended after it hit the Sword Mastery. "Is this a legendary newbie luck again?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "What newbie? This is my luck." She pouted. However, her eyes told him otherwise as her eyes glazed. "Why would I get this lucky even though I wasn''t lucky this whole time." "There¡­There¡­" Alex stroked her hair gently as he smiled at the reward. [Sword Mastery Card Acquired.] "Now, I am wondering whether to give this to Evelyn or Letizia because they both need it." Alex fell into deep thought. "I think you should give it to Sister Evelyn. She uses it more than Sister Letizia. After all, the latter has Pure Ice Element." "True enough. I will give it to her later." Alex nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Rose." "Uhm." Rose was still clinging to him as she buried her face on his chest. "Master¡­When was the last time we had a time alone? Now, I don''t even get time alone with Master¡­Even training is fine." "Do you not like the others?" "No, no. I like¡­ I love them. However, sometimes, I feel like I want to have alone time with you. Even a day is fine." Alex closed his eyes and smiled. "You know what, there was a little game I love to play back when I was a child. Do you want to try it?" "Is this for a child?" "Not really. Even adults enjoyed it if they wanted to relax." Alex smiled. "Then, I want to try." Rose made a big smile as she released him. "Let''s go to the garden then. We have a big tree over there, so it''s perfect." Alex smiled as he led her to the garden where they found a ten meters tall tree. Alex tied a wooden plank into the branches with ropes. Yeah, he made a swing. "This is it." Alex presented the swing. "Sit here." Rose followed his instruction. As soon as she sat down, Alex gently pushed her back as she began swinging back and forth. Feeling the small breeze and peaceful time, she couldn''t help but smile. "This is indeed enjoyable." Chapter 1069: Phitrus After preparing everything they could, the group gathered in the garden with Ragi bringing the compass. "This is the place, Your Excellency." Alex nodded with a smile. "Thank you." He took at everyone''s face again before using his Teleportation Array to leave the world. The place wasn''t really that far, so Alex and co arrived at that planet within a few hours. This was the first time he saw nothing other than grey ashes in the sky. According to Ragi, the world''s volcanoes kept erupting to the point of making the entire planet dark. However, once in a while, the God Beasts cleared the sky up to let enough light inside. And that time was now. Something big was flying from the right side of the planet, circling around the planet while burning the entire ashes cloud. The Beast was none other than the same snake as Ragi. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found that the snake was Rank 2 God, so it must be either his father or mother. As soon as the snake noticed their presence, it took a quick look before starting to approach him. Ragi instantly leaped toward the snake and returned to his original experience. "Ragi!" "Mother." The two snakes flew close to each other before they faced each other with their head touching each other, creating a heart. "I am glad that you are alright. Besides, you have become a Rank 4 God." "I am at the peak of Rank 4 God. I should be able to become a Rank 3 God within a decade." "Really?" She looked surprised before turning to Alex and the others. Lowering her head, she said, "Thank you for taking care of my son, Your Excellency. My name is Myra, Fire God Phitrus''s God Beast." Alex waved his hand. "It''s fine." "May I know what your excellency''s purpose for coming to this planet is? Is it really for our Lord''s promise?" "Yes." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "I understand. I shall lead you to the others." She nodded. "Please follow me." "Please." The snake turned around and flew to the planet. As soon as she came inside, she entered one of the volcanoes before coming out with another snake with her. "This is my husband. I believe, Your Excellency needs to talk with my husband first while I am calling the others and doing my job." Alex acknowledged it with a smile. "Thank you." He seemed to have just woken up from his sleep, looking at Alex while trying to come up with an excuse or whatsoever to start their conversation. "I am honored to meet you, Your Excellency. My name is Rhadon. I am Fire God''s Phitrus Chief Beast." "So, you are like a leader or something?" "Yes." He nodded. "Then, I want to talk regarding the promise. Well, this is my secondary purpose of coming here, but I think it''s important to talk about it first." "I have read my son''s letter. You are planning to train here, right?" "Yes." "In that case, I think it''s better to talk in private so we can resolve it quickly." He looked at the others. Lin Xingzhi nodded while sending a thought transmission. ''I will be with them, making sure they are fine while you are settling things.'' ''Thanks.'' Lin Xingzhi then grabbed the others and dragged them fifty meters away from them. Instead of worrying about Alex, Rose focused on the planet itself. She looked at the sky as ashes kept raining as long as the thick ash cloud remained in the sky. A portion of them had been cleared by Myra, but it still covered eighty percent of the planet, so the planet was dark as if it was a night. She began looking at the horizon and found that her vision was limited not only due to the ashes but the lighting. After that, she lowered her vision and found that the ground was grey. Out of curiosity, she descended to the ground and sank until the surface reached her knee. "This is quite deep. And to think that the entire world has this thick volcanic ashes." "Indeed. But I think I can compress them again and create concentrated volcanic ashes. From my perspective, this ashes barely reach Divine Item rank. If I compress a huge amount of them, I will be able to get five concentrated powders. Of course, I will need to make it after getting all the resources in the entire world." She chuckled. "I am afraid that is possible. We have no one who can do it." "Fair enough. That''s why I will be settled as long as I can make one." She smirked. "Still, to think that it''s this cold on the surface. It''s very different from Eulja." Evelyn raised her hand, letting the ashes fall onto her hands. Lin Xingzhi began explaining to them. "First of all, the reason why this planet is cold is due to the lack of sunlight coming into the planet. You might not know this, but sunlight carries a huge amount of heat, keeping the planet warm. However, due to the ash cloud blocking the entire planet, it''s bound to be like this. "This will happen to a planet that is so far from its sun, so the heat from the sun will disperse first before reaching the planet." "That''s the reason why the one from earlier burning the ash cloud, right?" Rose asked. "That''s one of the reasons. Anyway, I need to find the water spring as soon as possible." "Do you think you can? I mean, I have heard that it''s hard to find something like that." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi rolled her eyes. "What Goddess do you think I am? I can feel the energy. As long as we come to the sprint close enough, I can inform you about it. In that case, bow to me and carry me, so I can focus on the investigation. All of them rolled their eyes as if they didn''t believe it. However, only one person actually walked forward and bent her body while saying, "I can carry you." Even Lin Xingzhi was surprised by her action and quickly hugged her from behind. "You are really cute and honest. I was joking earlier, so don''t take it too seriously, Letizia." "Really?" She tilted her head. "Concentrating is the hardest thing to do in a weird place, so I thought¡­" Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Come here. Let me spoil you." "Ahaha¡­" Letizia chuckled as Lin Xingzhi continued. Meanwhile, Alex and Rhadon stared at each other for a while until Alex activated his Sound Insulation Array. "I am sure that this is the best solution for us, right?" "Agree. I don''t expect you to trust me completely, but before that, I want to show you something." He took out a memory crystal from the Space Ring and handed it to Alex. Alex waved his hand and took the crystal with the help of Spiritual Energy. He channeled his Energy and a figure came out of the crystal. It was none other than Phitrus. "I am here. If you see this recording, it means I have already died," said Phitrust with a serious expression. Suddenly, his face turned red as he burst out. "Ahaha¡­I thought that would be a perfect opening, but I guess it has been used too much." Alex sighed. He''d heard from Lin Xingzhi that Phitrus was even more carefree than him and she seemed to be telling the truth. "Anyway, I am leaving this message to you for a few things. First, I want you to know that I am leaving the process to burn your own Universe Oath or Life and Death Contract with your Godly Pure Fire in them. You can say that each God Beast has a piece of information, so make sure to meet them all, okay? "After that, I want to mention the reason why I left all my God Beasts behind. I am worried about your future. I am not talking about your current state, not the beast. I am sure that you are finding this recording when you are lower than a Rank 5 God, so there might be something big going on after that stage. "Hence, I asked them to protect you until you have killed that beast. After that, they can live however they want. That''s the promise I have with them. I believe that all my partners will honor that promise because they are like my family. "As for my technique, I believe that you have mastered my Fire Authority since that''s the only reason why this family of mine decides to meet you. "It''s your choice whether to trust them or not. You can even make a Universe Oath. However, if any of them need a roof, please shelter them when everything is over. Of course, you can treat it like your citizen and deliver the punishment if they become a bad guy. "Last but not least, beware of the Phoenixes. I was not sure, but when I fought their God King, my Godly Pure Fire was not effective. From what I understand, the Phoenix had a different type of power from the one I know. They were absorbing the power of the sun, the only fire that I couldn''t suppress since it''s from a Fire Disturbance. "They were like an immortal. And the place where I fought them was filled with stars bigger than your typical Divine World, so I can''t really destroy it. Hence, I want you to pay close attention to the suns." Alex closed his eyes with a grim expression. Every secret began to unravel before him. Not long ago, he got a clue about the bats. He wondered whether he could hunt all of them within the time limit to weaken the beast¡­ "Can you explain about the phoenixes to me?" Alex looked at Rhadon. He nodded. "I shall explain everything to Your Excellency." "Thanks." Suddenly, Phitrus turned around as if he knew someone was behind him. "Since I left this message to Rhadon. He must be here. Yo, Rhadon. How are you? Never mind, with Myra by your side, you are going to be fine. So, how many kids do you have right now? If you tell me now, then I order you as your former Master to get a kid right now!" When Rhadon heard the message, he couldn''t help but lower his head while smiling. His way of talking was very nostalgic to him, especially with Phitrus being their Godfather. "Anyway, I don''t have much time now, so I will be stating a couple of things. Make sure that monkey does not go around creating a problem or I will spank him again. "And when everything is over, don''t forget to live freely and marry someone you love. Make sure to have a kid, alright? After all, they are like my grandsons and granddaughters. Unfortunately, I can''t see or talk to them¡­ "That''s why you better take care of them in my stead. Just like how I cared for all of you in the past. Protect the big family, okay?" Rhadon clenched his teeth as tears began to form in his big eyes. He bowed to him and said, stuttered. "Yes¡­ My¡­ King. I shall¡­ Protect¡­ Everything you have built." "Good for you, isn''t it?" Alex nodded with a smile. "Yes. He was the best master and father for all of us. I have been taking care of the kid to make sure they are like him, but unfortunately, Ragi is the only one that is sensible." He remembered Ragi''s sister and chuckled. "Things take time. But you should also have the resolve to discipline your daughter, not to spoil her too much." "Indeed. I have been discussing it with Myra, but I guess I will start soon." "In that case, the business is done." Alex smiled and snapped his finger as the Sound Insulation Array disappeared. He saw Lin Xingzhi raising her head as if waiting for someone to appear. As soon as Alex followed her line of sight, nine shadows appeared in the sky as they stared at one person. Surprisingly, all of them lowered their heads in unison and said. "Greeting, Your Excellency, the Spirit God." Chapter 1070: Law "Greeting, Your Excellency, the Spirit God." Alex looked at the nine shadows. The first shadow he found was none other than Myra. She had called every single God Beast in this world, asking them to come and meet Alex. To her left was that of a monkey. His body wasn''t huge like the others. No, in fact, he was the smallest one among the rest. The fur on his face was burning as he seemed to have an antenna above his head that acted like a torch. To her right was a beast, the same size as the snake. However, it had a pair of wings and a more solid scale. Yeah, it was a dragon. There seemed to be two dragons and both of them had the same red scale as if they were twins. The first one was a minotaur that was covered in lava. Even his hammer was melting as the molten lava flowed continuously. Surprisingly, he saw two phoenixes that were different from each other. The first one had a similar appearance to Kyle and Stina, but the other one had a blue color instead of red. The last two were a lizard that had a body structure similar to the salamander he found on earth, except this one was releasing fire from its back and a red Luan. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I have discussed the matter with him." "In that case, Your Excellency should know what we will give you, right?" The dragon asked. "Yes. It''s the technique to burn the contract." The beasts nodded simultaneously as they pointed their hands or heads toward the sky. Before releasing it, Rhadon looked at his son, Ragi. "Ragi. Can you return the crystal?" "!!!" Ragi suddenly realized and quickly handed the crystal to his father. Rhadon threw that crystal as the others also summoned their crystals, turning it into one. Alex widened his eyes, never expecting that the crystal turned out to be the technique. "Our Lord condensed his own flame to seal this technique because the backlash is too much. For example, you will end up getting weakened for at least a decade. In that state, our Master still fought bravely and fell in the battle." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "At the very least, I don''t have a plan to use it for the time being." "In that case, by my name, Rhadon, the Chief Beast of Fire God Phitrus''s ten God Beasts, I order the technique to show itself," Rhadon shouted to the sky as all crystals broke in succession, revealing ten pieces of paper that were stored inside. "My Master split the technique into ten because he knew how big the trouble you would receive if you used it. That''s why please use it with caution." Rhadon smiled. Alex just grabbed the papers and took a look, finding the page number to make it easier to follow. "Thank you." Rhadon smiled and nodded. "Since we are done here, can I ask something?" The monkey raised his hand, staring at Alex before turning to Lin Xingzhi. "I want to test my strength against a God King. May Nature Goddess bless me with such an opportunity?" Lin Xingzhi smiled. "I don''t mind, but I am here just accompanying my husband. That''s all." "I¡ª" Clap. Rhadon suddenly appeared next to the monkey and blew him to Outer Space with his tail. The next second, the monkey appeared again while shouting angrily. "What the heck are you doing? Dan?" "Our Lord said that I needed to make sure that you don''t create trouble for us. He told it in his last Memory Crystal. If you keep doing it, I am going to tie you up, so you won''t participate in anything." "Since that was my lord''s order, I would help." The dragon looked at the monkey, trying to suppress him with his killing intent. "¡­" The monkey twitched his eyebrows and shouted. "You all¡­" Surprisingly, the monkey suddenly kneeled in the air while saying, "I am sorry. I won''t do it again." Alex didn''t know what to say anymore. Myra descended and explained. "We will follow the command of our lord because it was his last will. Besides, had we failed to kill that beast, we wouldn''t be able to live past that day unless we escaped to another universe." "That''s right. Please let us help you in your ascension." The dragon nodded. "If I am not wrong, Your Excellency plans to train here, right?" asked the salamander. "Yes." "There is a place where you can access the core of this planet itself. As you might already know, this planet has been abandoned since long ago, so even the World''s Will had died during this time. In other words, you can train without any worry." "Is that so? But how about you guys?" "With this short period, we doubt that any of us can reach God King level as we haven''t even understood the concept that will turn us into God King yet. May I ask whether Your Excellency has found it?" "Not yet. I am wondering what this concept you all are talking about is¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head. "It''s Law." Lin Xingzhi was the one answering this question. "Law?" Alex turned around and furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes. Law." She nodded. "This has a similar concept to kingdom''s law, but on a larger scale." "Law, huh." Alex narrowed his eyes. Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Treating this universe as your kingdom and the people in it as your citizens, what kind of universe do you wish to see?" Alex closed his eyes as he realized that he had no idea about it. "Every single God King has their own natural set of laws. Take me as an example. I have Nature Law. I can''t really tell you about the concept because it will shake the law itself, but I can explain its ability. For example, I have an ability that controls Nature to the extreme level capable of triggering the Elemental Disturbance itself. "Or I can even change the Nature Element to increase the pace of the Natural Flow. That''s why when you become a God King, you have truly become a "King" under your own law. "We can talk about Phitrus here. No doubt that his Law is Fire Law. She created the Fire Authority and Godly Pure Fire from that Law, allowing him to govern the Fire Element in this universe. "The same applies to the Sword God or even my father, the Time God. They were the king of Sword and Time and had been recognized by this universe to gain such a position. "I don''t mean to be rude, but if all of you keep following Phitrus'' way, you would be stuck in this realm forever." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. The ten God Beasts quickly lowered their heads, thanking Lin Xingzhi for the lecture. Meanwhile, Alex was frowning, having a difficult thought to swallow. For example, he could be anything such as Spirit God, Fire God, Sword God, Spear God, or even Space God. However, Alex felt that none of them reflected who he really is. They were just merely his past that gave him this power. It wasn''t the meaning of his existence. ''Now that I think about it¡­What is my power? I have all the power that the universe will envy, but I feel that they are just merely the power that I have.'' Not knowing why, his Gacha System appeared in his head. Alex began to doubt himself when he saw the Gacha System. Although he did many things similar to that of the Dungeon God, his path in using the Gacha System was different from him. Even if there were ten people with the same power, they would have ten different conclusions. Instead of searching for his true self, he just needed to forget the identity that no one would ever have. Alex suddenly fell to the ground, sitting in a lotus pose. ''Seriously?'' Even Lin Xingzhi couldn''t believe what she had just seen. Although she believed in Alex''s talent and strength, she never thought that he would reach this point. Alex was far monstrous than his past self, even without the power given to him. Suddenly, Alex opened his mouth, uttering one question. "Xingzhi. Do you know my past life''s Law?" "Although he used his status as the Spirit King to make him known as the Spirit God, his real title that only my father, me, Uncle Phitrus, Anna, and Anya knew was God of Nothingness. Yes. His real title should be God of Nothingness. "Without the elements, everything is nothing, nothing is everything. You can only give everything to nothingness and need nothing to fill the everything. That''s what he always mumbled when he was alive. "Now that you mention it, I think that''s the reason why you could handle the Spirit Crown. The technique that can become nothing and everything to give someone a blessing¡­ I believe that he used that nothing and everything to turn the Spirit Crown into another form of technique¡­ "Which also allowed you to absorb that Life and Death Energy and even yourself to wield it despite not passing the requirement." Lin Xingzhi drew a gasp as she realized everything about his power. Alex smiled and nodded. "Thank you." Just like she said, God of Nothingness really suited the past him. Without his element, he controlled other elements. And even donate his power through the Spirit Crown. Everything could only be achieved by the Law of Nothingness. Alex suddenly realized the meaning of his existence as he couldn''t help but mutter to himself. "Thank you, Alex¡­ I know what I need to do." The ten God Beasts retreated with a shock on their faces. Even Lin Xingzhi tried to protect the others. "Big Sister, will Big Brother Alex be fine?" Evelyn frowned. "He will be fine. Although he has surpassed my expectations, there is no one who can grasp their own Law in an instant. Even if he is done here, he won''t suddenly understand that law as a whole. It''s only a part of it. Even so, he already has the qualification to become a God King. If people know this, they will start planning to kill Alex." Lin Xingzhi explained while sweating. She had a mixed feeling between anxiety and anticipation. On one hand, the potential of alliance scared her because they might need to face three or more God Kings. On the other hand, she really wished Alex to master this law as soon as possible. However, she realized that no one had ever finished their law before reaching the peak Rank 2 God. She only hoped that Alex would be close to it already when he reached the peak Rank 2 God. That was her thought before a sudden transformation occurred. Chapter 1071: Relax Suddenly, five Spatial Gates appeared, with each of them connected to Alex''s body with a string of Pure Fire as if the Spatial Gate was a vacuum cleaner and his Pure Fire was the pipe connecting it to his body. At the same time, his Pure Sword Qi and Pure Spear Qi created a barrier to make sure that no impurities were coming to his body with that kind of sucking speed just like a sieve. Unfortunately, no one had the Spirit Eyes, so they couldn''t see the sucking rate, but it still impressed everyone here. Had they used the Spirit Eyes, they would see another different type of energy, which turned out to be his set of Law. Everyone suddenly looked at Lin Xingzhi. They were not familiar with this phenomenon, so it was better for her to decide what they should do next. Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and waved her hand. "It''s enlightenment. Rather than changing the place for him to cultivate, let''s leave him in this place for the time being. "In that case, I will be protecting him." Rhadon looked at Lin Xingzhi with a sincere expression. Knowing that there was still no complete trust in him, Rhadon added an oath. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Rhadon, promise that I will protect Alexander Sirius with my life until he finishes cultivating. I promise that not a single strand of his hair will be harmed as long as I am still alive." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows. The other God Beasts heard that and quickly made the same oath. "With Heaven and Earth¡­" This gave Lin Xingzhi another layer of assurance, and she ended up nodding her head. "I understand. I will leave his protection to you." "Thank you very much." Rhadon lowered his head. "In the meantime, I will bring the others to another place, so we can start cultivating." "Does that mean I can fight you?" The monkey raised his hand again, but Lin Xingzhi already nodded her head before anyone could reply. "Yes, you can. Just remember that I am not someone who can hold back." "Yahoo!" The monkey leaped to the sky. "I will also train Letizia and Evelyn during this time." She smiled and turned to Silvia. "You are good with your finger and aim, right? Help me teach Rose." "Sure thing." Last but not least, Lin Xingzhi uttered one question. "And where is my hot spring?" "¡­" The God Beasts widened their eyes before looking at each other. Myra then replied. "I shall be your guide then. There is one not far from here and it''s a place with rich Spiritual Energy. I believe we can use that place as a temporary base until his Excellency finishes." "Yeah, sure." Lin Xingzhi ultimately agreed with the deal. The God Beasts began to disperse since the discussion would continue only after Alex finished his cultivation. Myra then led them to a mountain north of their location. It was not a big volcano or whatsoever, but Lin Xingzhi could sense the overwhelming Spiritual Energy from beneath the volcano. "Hmm? A Vein?" "I believe so, but no one has ever investigated it because it''s better to use it as a training spot instead of ruining with a carefree investigation," Myra explained. "Although we haven''t built anything, there is a water source on top of the mountain. I believe you can use it as your hot spring. I heard that it''s good for your skin and health¡­" "Ahahaha! Exactly. In fact, I can extract all these Volcanic Ashes into a beauty product. The ashes have been influenced by the Divine World, turning them into a Divine Rank Material. If we add the effect of the hot spring, which has rich minerals and Spiritual Energy, I really can make something amazing." She smirked. "Oh?!" Lin Xingzhi''s eyes flashed. "As expected of a doctor, you can even make something like that." "Well, most of the Divine Rank Experts don''t need it, but just think about it, you may extend your youthful appearance until one thousand years before your lifespan where your body slowly ages. This beauty product will allow you to maintain it until your death." She smirked. "Of course, I need to study it and now I am going to make one!" "Make me one as well." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "I can help you in the process. My Nature Energy will surely help you in the process." "That''s a good idea. We can proceed immediately." Silvia nodded in agreement. "Wait a minute. We should build the hot spring first." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "This place is cold, so it will be nice to dip inside the hot spring." "How about we split the chores?" Silvia offered a solution while pointing at the monkey. "I will be collecting the materials for the medicine. You can finish beating him up while Rose, Letizia, and Evelyn can build the hot spring?" "That''s a good idea." The monkey twitched his eyebrows before asking with a weird expression. "Excuse me. Why are you talking as if I will get beaten up?" "That''s because you will." Lin Xingzhi suddenly appeared in front of the monkey, punching his stomach and launching him to outer space. She waved her hand to the others before chasing the monkey. "I will leave the rest to you all¡­" Just like that, Lin Xingzhi planned to fight the monkey in outer space, far from their location. Myra thought for a moment and decided to leave. "In that case, I will accompany my husband, so someone can guide him to this place as soon as he finishes." "Rose is going to dig the hole, okay? Make a big one." Silvia waved her hand and escaped as well. "Why do you leave with me with a specific task and escape? What''s about the others?" Rose pouted, complaining because everyone was bullying her the whole time. "Then, I will be putting the rock around for the bath." Evelyn turned to Letizia and said, "You don''t mind making a building, right? I mean, just the roof to make sure that the ashes don''t fall to the pool." Letizia nodded and turned to Rose. "If you don''t want to, I can do all the work." "¡­" Looking at Letizia''s serious face, Rose scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. Her complaining was just a joke most of the time, but it seemed to make Letizia worry. She could only decline politely. "I will do my job. Sister can focus on your own job." "Pfft." Evelyn chuckled and flew to the sky. "Let''s find the water source first. It shouldn''t be that far." The two nodded and followed her to the top of the mountain to see the flowing water source. ¡­ A few days later. There was a change. The five Spatial Gates suddenly disappeared along with the other power that protected him. Although Alex didn''t break through to Rank 5 God, they could see a significant improvement in his body. Alex gradually opened his eyes before Rhadon''s voice echoed in his ears. "Congratulations, Your Excellency." Alex turned to Rhadon and nodded. "Thank you. How long have I been in this state?" "According to Eulja''s time, it''s around a week, but it''s barely four days here." "I see." Alex looked down and asked. "How are the others?" "They are having fun in that direction." Rhadon raised his head, looking at the north. "Before going to them, I think it''s better to finish our discussion first, right?" "Yeah." Rhadon nodded. "Actually, we only have two other things to discuss. The first will be the Universe Oath with our own agreement. The extent of our participation and how we will deal with the problem you will face in the near future." "I understand. Let''s gather them here." Rhadon nodded. "I shall call them then." "Yeah. Thanks." Alex smiled. Rhadon then flew away. The first one he visited was none other than the monkey who was serving tea for Lin Xingzhi, who lazily sat on a couch while watching Rose''s training. "Thank you." Lin Xingzhi smiled and sipped the tea. Indeed, Lin Xingzhi seemed to have tamed the monkey after beating him a hundred times. When Rhadon saw this, he could only shake his head and said, "We need to go to settle the business. It won''t take too long." "He has finished?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "Yeah. I can see a tremendous improvement in a short period, so I should say, congratulations." "It''s him, but yeah, he has really found his law. I may be curious about his law, but I am not going to ask him. It''s a complicated matter for a God King after all." She smiled mysteriously. She was the only one who knew what she could do and what she couldn''t, so Rhadon followed her instruction and did not put any thought into Alex''s law despite being curious. "He will come here after the discussion, right?" "Yes." Rhadon nodded. "Alright then." She smiled. "I will be waiting here with the others." "Can I go to Master?" Rose asked. Lin Xingzhi didn''t answer. Instead, she glanced at Rhadon for the answer. "Sure. The secret discussion is already over, so you can even participate if you want." Rhadon smiled. "In that case, I will go to Master." Rose nodded before asking the others. "Anyone want to come with me?" Letizia and Evelyn exchanged looks and shook their heads. "We are good. We will be waiting here." "I can''t leave right now. Too busy." Silvia shouted from afar as her focus remained on the medicine that was almost completed. "Then, I will go alone." Rose waved her hand and flew away. A minute later, she saw Alex sitting on the ground. "Rose?" Alex sensed her presence and raised his vision. "I thought that at least one of us needed to visit you, so here I am." "Thank you." Alex smiled and waved her hand as if telling her to come closer. Rose landed next to him and got her head patted by Alex. "By the way, Master, what is your cultivation now?" "I am still a Rank 6 God. I may have gotten the concept, but I can''t utilize it yet since my understanding is still far too swallow." "Really? Is it complicated?" "Yeah. It''s really complicated. In fact, I think I only understand five percent of it. I hope that I can master it by the time I reach Rank 2 God." Alex looked down and fell into deep thought. "By the way, we have built a hot spring and a house for us to live in this world. You should try the hot spring¡­" Rose smirked. "Now that you mention it, your skin looks a bit glossy." Alex nodded before using his Spirit Eyes. "Oh? It seems that it helps with your energy circulation." "I am not very sure, but that''s also what Sister Silvia said after poking herself with several needles." "Right?" Alex smiled and continued talking to Rose until Rhadon returned with all the God Beasts. He raised his vision and said, "Let''s continue our discussion then." Chapter 1072: War of the Past "Let''s continue our discussion then." Alex smiled. Rhadon was the first to open his mouth, recounting everything they discussed previously. "I know. I will go to that place soon after visiting my wives." Alex nodded as he was curious about this place that had direct access to the planet''s core. "In that case, let''s continue to the other two topics. First of all, we want to decide how much we are going to be involved with Your Excellency. Of course, we are eager to help you, but it doesn''t mean that we don''t treasure our lives. I ask for Your Excellency''s understanding." "Don''t worry. I have no plan in having you sacrifice yourself." Alex waved his hand. "Every decision I make will always come after a series of thoughts." "I understand. In that case, we don''t need to worry about it anymore." Rhadon nodded. "For the time being, let''s agree that we have the right to refuse and only help you if we deem it not too dangerous. Will that be fine?" "Yes. At least, make sure that you know about my plan as well, so you can consider whether the mission will be worth the effort or not." "It shall be that way." Rhadon nodded with a serious expression. "And we would like to limit our participation to once or twice every decade because we would like to hide our existences and power. I am sure that the world will go crazy if they know that the former Fire God''s God Beasts are still alive." "Of course. I am in the same situation, so I perfectly understand your feelings. I don''t think there will be a huge movement for the time being, so you don''t need to worry. And I would like to ask about the way to contact you. Do I just need to come to this place?" "Unfortunately, yes. Maybe, you can build a Teleportation Formation that allows you to reach this place in an instant." "In that case, I will send Zark here to build it. Is that fine?" Alex asked. "Yes. Just build it near one of our training spots, so you don''t need to send a person here, only a letter, and we will immediately know it." "Good." Alex nodded in agreement. He was satisfied with this term. "There is another thing I want to ask. Does any of you know about the phoenixes and the other "weapons" the beast had?" "Let me explain that because I was with my king back then." The monkey raised his hand. "Because of my character, I followed my king to fight the phoenix and watched him from afar. "In one word, I can confidently say that the phoenix was the same as Godly Pure Fire. It used the power of a star, making it immortal. Of course, the flame didn''t affect my king, so the fight turned into a full brawl. "Unfortunately, my king had been weakened after relieving our contract, so he was at a disadvantage. After fighting for so long, my king decided to end the battle by sacrificing his life. "Using the last bit of his life, he changed the Godly Pure Fire to another form, allowing him to surpass the phoenix''s flame for a moment and burned it before it could recover. "At the same time, my king used a portion of his power to force the sun to explode, allowing him to kill the other phoenixes in the area." Alex suddenly felt something was wrong. "But from another source, I happen to know that there were three God Kings that didn''t participate in the last battle. They were Sword God, Fire God, and myself." "My Lord never intended to participate in the fight. Only when he knew that you were going to fight the beast that he participated and killed the phoenixes to prevent it from reaching you. The phoenix was the most stubborn one after all." Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds, knowing that Alaya didn''t lie to him. Instead, she already escaped from the battlefield when the phoenix killed the God King in their side. "Is there any weakness that I can exploit?" "I am not sure, but I think it''s better to allow someone with different power to fight the phoenix. The Sword God or even the Time God might be able to handle the phoenix better. It just¡­ My king thought that he could suppress the phoenix, so he went alone. The others also believed in him, albeit it cost him his life." "I see. I will let someone handle the phoenix then." Since Alex also had a Pure Fire, he thought he should let the others handle it. "Still, if we have the chance, we would like to fight alongside this group, so we can avenge our master. We know that this is not the best strategy, but this is our utmost request. We can''t afford to have our master die in the past without being able to make them suffer." "I understand. I am planning to kill the Six Weapons first before dealing with the beast, but seeing how secretive they are, I am afraid that I can only eliminate a few. For now, I am pursuing the Bat and the Phoenix. How about all of you help me search for them?" Alex asked. The God Beasts looked eager to do it but still turned to Rhadon, waiting for his decision. "I understand. Myra and I will stay in this world to take care of the communication with my king and maintain this world. The rest of you can help with the investigation. However, it''s better to coordinate with Eulja instead of doing it alone." The others nodded in agreement and lowered their heads to Alex. "We will be in your care." "I will have another team to help you in this, so I can make sure that you all not expose yourself this soon." Alex agreed and gave them a hand to fulfill their wish. "We are grateful," Rhadon replied. "Of course, we will rush back if Your Excellency needs our help." "Yeah." "How about the other weapons?" "I only have knowledge about four of them. Since you already know about the Bat and Phoenix, I will explain everything I know about the Angel and Dragon. The Angel looks like a human with wings. That''s simple. "However, I know that they could boost each other up. Although they didn''t have that much combative power, you can say that they were still too strong. The most relatable example will be Lin Xingzhi combined with your Light Elemental God. What was his name again? Rilt?" "Yeah." Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "That sounds troublesome. Do you know anything about their habitat or something?" "Unfortunately, no. We only know the phoenix''s habitat since we have been researching their power. They are living in the stars, so we should look around that area. Of course, they are scattered all around the universe, so we have no confidence in killing every single of them until the right time." "That''s fine. I just want to reduce their number as much as possible, allowing us to have an easier time to fight them." Rhadon nodded. "Then, I will move to the second one, the dragon. Just like the others, they are different from the dragon we know in this universe. The dragon usually has multiple heads, allowing them to wield more than one element. Other than that, we only know that this Dragon Power is actually the one that allows the Almighty Beast to use more than one element like the Spirit God." "I see." Alex looked down. Couldn''t contain her curiosity, Rose raised her hand and asked, "May I know who fought who?" "!!!" Alex almost forgot to ask this. He patted Rose''s head and thanked her. "Good question, Rose." "Ehehe." Rhadon recalled the fight first and opened his mouth. "Time God and Dungeon God fought together. With the power of Space and Time, they killed the Dragon and three Bats. I heard that Life and Death Goddess were supposed to be the one dealing with the dragon, but we heard she fell in battle, forcing the two God Kings to deal with four of them. Bow God fought against the phoenix and fell in battle, resulting in our lord to step forward." "So, when he came, only a few God Kings remained?" "Yes." "Now that makes more sense." Alex nodded in agreement. "War Goddess teamed up with the Array God and fought against the two Bears and the snake. From what we heard, the snake could fuse together with the bear, but we couldn''t prove it, so this was just hearsay." "I see." "The Ice God fought against the last Bat and the Angel. Due to the fact that they outnumbered us, most of our God Kings decided to sacrifice their lives to destroy them. Luckily, they seemed not to have the same condition as us. We can expect there is no suicide attack or something." "That''s good news." Alex let out a long sigh. "This is going to be troublesome." "Yes. However, if we can deal with the Bats, our situation will improve significantly." "Agreed. For now, we should spend more effort in the investigation." "Yes. Besides, we should be looking out for humans too." "Why?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "The two bears were former humans on Earth." "What?!" Alex drew a gasp. "Were they promised power or something?" "From the look of it, yes." Rhadon nodded. "This makes the problem even more complicated." Alex let out a long sigh, feeling the headache just to create a plan against them. "For now, I only have Blackwade Clan as the support. Probably, another God King is known as the Palm God, who happened to be Silvia''s Father. Other than that, I don''t know whether we can gather more." Alex thought that if he stretched it as far as he could, he could create three God Kings from his retainer. Of course, it required him to extort Blackwade Clan for that. After considering a few things, he believed that he could convince Song Jiao to lend it to him. This meant they had four or five God Kings in their rank alone, excluding him who needed to deal with the beast. In that case, he really needed at least five more to be safe. "Haiz. I will be able to see this matter more thoroughly after ascending the throne." Alex shook his head, brushing the thought away. "Anyway, I want you to focus on the task first." "I understand." Rhadon nodded. "Alright. I think that''s all." "Then for the Universe Oath¡­" Rhadon paused, wondering if Alex had thought of it. "The agreement will be this. You shall assist me until we win against the beast. Failure is not acceptable anymore because we can''t afford history to repeat itself. After that, you all are free and I will also help you if necessary in the future. "You can reject the task I have given to you after putting serious thought into my plan and other things. How''s that?" "I think it''s fine. We will only do the task every five years, but I guess it is included in the second term." Rhadon nodded and roared to the sky. "By Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Rhadon, shall honor this agreement in the name of my lord, Fire God Phitrus. If I were to break this oath, my name shall be erased from history as one of his God Beasts." Listening to his oath, the other God Beasts followed it word to word. After that, Alex raised his hand and swore. "By Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Alexander Sirius, shall honor this agreement. If I were to break this oath, I will be punished for all eternity." They looked at each other and nodded, ending their discussion. "In that case, I will be enjoying my time here first before training." Alex smiled and waved his hand. He grabbed Rose''s waist as he brought her to the sky. "See you later." Before he left, Rhadon handed a compass. "Your Excellency, this is the compass to that place. When you are ready, just follow this compass and you will reach it without our assistance." Alex grabbed the compass and nodded. "Thanks." Chapter 1073: Nice Alex reached his destination. It was a small hut that barely fit five people, but the hot spring was particularly huge. "Say¡­ Doesn''t the bath bigger than the house?" "Ahaha." Rose could only look away and laugh, hoping that Alex didn''t pursue the matter. "What? Do you have a reason to hide it?" Alex narrowed his eyes, glancing at Rose. "Big Sister told us that the size matters. She wants to take a bath together, saying that it''s a skinship." "Well, whatever." Alex shrugged. "Let''s go to the house first." "Sure thing." She accompanied her master with a smile. As soon as he entered the house, Lin Xingzhi walked to the front, greeting him. "You are back. You must have felt something different." "I am not sure. Although I have gained many things, I feel like I can''t connect the dots among them. You can say that the puzzles are in pieces, but I haven''t seen the real picture yet." Alex let out a long sigh. "No wonder." She shook her head helplessly. "In fact, you are already far ahead than any of your competitors. Anyway, I won''t say much about your law because people may understand your law better, weakening your power." "Then, why did you¡­" "No one has Nature Element other than me. Even if they know it, they won''t share it with others, so it''s fine. However, I still don''t know your law and with you having Pure Fire or Space Element, they might be able to copy it." "I see." Alex nodded with a smile. "By the way, what are you planning to do now?" "Nothing. I will be relaxing for two days before starting my training. I will try to return here from time to time to enjoy our time." "Alright then. No need to worry about us because I will be taking care of them. Well, each of them has a clear view of what they need to do so that only requires me to supervise their training. That simple." Lin Xingzhi assured him. "That''s right. I am confident that I can reach Rank 4 God during this training session. No, it should only require me one month since I am already very close." Silvia walked out of her room and said. "I am waiting for you to reach Rank 5. Even though I still can''t believe that you can catch up to me this soon, I should say as expected of Alexander Sirius." "That''s good. I will be surpassing you soon." "I will do my best to not let you do it that soon." She shrugged. "By the way, where are Evelyn and Letizia?" "Evelyn is using the Fire Energy from the volcano to increase her power while Letizia is on top of this mountain where the temperature is at its coldest. Do you want me to call them?" "Nah. It''s fine." Alex shook his head. He thought for a moment and asked. "I want you to arrange another investigation party with the beasts to locate all six "weapons". Can you do that?" "I think it''s fine. I will just send a message to Anna or Anya, so they will pass it to Korzan." "Thanks. Have the Blackwade Clan filled the hole from the second investigation team." "Roger. Rather than talking about this, how about you go take a bath? It''s nice, you know." "Fine. I will discuss this matter later. Is that fine?" Alex asked. "Sure." Lin Xingzhi nodded while pointing at the door leading to the bath. Alex then turned around and walked to the bath. He took off his clothes and found the traditional style of hot spring. The floor was made of giant stones. The wooden roof prevented the ashes from coming down, contaminating the hot spring. Taking out a gallon of water, he washed himself first and walked toward the spring. After taking another look at the water with his Spirit Eyes, he entered the bath. Despite resistance to a cold, he really felt that the warm bath pierced through his skin, spreading the warmth all over his body. "It''s been a long time since I last took a shower." Alex sighed, leaned on the rock, and looked at the sky. He couldn''t help but feel nostalgic. He raised his hand and smiled. "If I were on Earth, I would already have a grandchild with my current age and enjoying my retirement life. However, I don''t know if I could lead a good life after everything happened in that world." Alex closed his eyes. "This is truly nice." Pak. Suddenly, someone opened the door before Lin Xingzhi''s voice echoed in his ears. "I will be joining you, okay?" Lin Xingzhi chuckled. Alex raised his head again until he could see Lin Xingzhi behind him, finding a heavenly view that no one had the honor to see except for him. However, it escalated so fast when he saw Silvia and Rose entering with Lin Xingzhi. "Girls? What are you doing?" asked Alex with a flat tone as if he never got bothered by their appearance despite them being naked. "Learning from big sister. It''s a family''s skinship. Besides, I am Master''s disciple. Isn''t it a disciple''s job to wash her master''s back?" "I mean, you are already at that age already, so I think you should save it for your future man." "I won''t have it anytime soon. And a disciple is like a daughter, so everything is fine. Or does Master have bad thoughts about my body?" "Nope. I am just wondering whether I have taught you common sense or not." "Don''t worry. I have learned common sense from Big Sister." Rose made a big smile while giving a thumb up. However, her eyes were glancing at Lin Xingzhi, whom she called big sister earlier. "I see. You have learned the poison from a poison master?" "Oho. I took that personally, you know." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "It seems I need to teach you who is better between us¡­ On the bed." "There are still Silvia and Rose. Be more mindful, will you?" "It''s just a sex education for Rose while I know that you are going to bed Silvia soon. No need to lie to me. Everything is a part of nature, including Lust. I can feel it." "No, no. There must be something strange with your nature¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Anyway, little kid shouldn''t look, okay?" "Master¡­You do realize that our age difference is less than twenty years, right?" Rose pouted. "But you said that a disciple is a kind of my own daughter, so you are a kid." Alex shrugged. "Whatever, I am going in." Rose washed her body while pouting. She soon entered the bath and enjoyed the feeling without caring. "You have messed her mind." Alex pointed at Rose while complaining to Lin Xingzhi. "I am just teaching her culture. Nothing''s wrong with that." Lin Xingzhi shrugged and entered the bath too. "You should teach her common sense and knowledge, not that kind of culture. Ah, never mind. I am too tired to talk about this." Alex sighed. "You will always twist my own words." Lin Xingzhi smirked as if she had won. At the same time, Silvia scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. She never thought that Alex didn''t deny what Lin Xingzhi said earlier. Although she had yet to become an official wife like the others, she was already close to it. At the very least, everything had gotten paid. "They said that the first time will be hurt. I am wondering whether I should treat myself, so I won''t feel it and¡ª" "It''s fine. Just be true to yourself." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand while saying nonchalantly. "He will prefer that way. You can start coming to my class after a few times." Alex wanted to smack her head right in this instant, but he let out a long sigh to calm his heart. "Anyway, take a bath or whatever." "Fufu. By the way, I have notified Letizia and Evelyn. They might come here soon." "I thought I told you to not call them¡­" "I didn''t call them. I notified them," said Lin Xingzhi righteously as if she did nothing wrong. "I am wondering whether the family will be corrupted sooner or later." "Someone needs to be shameless in the family or we won''t gain any profit. That''s why I will be taking that role. You can simply put me back where I should belong after I reap the benefit for our family." Lin Xingzhi chuckled, not feeling ashamed of revealing her desire to him. "Yeah, yeah." Alex sighed. Silvia smiled when listening to their conversation. It was unique and dirty, but somehow it felt warm, just like watching her father flirting with her mother. It was a family. She walked to the spring and entered the water next to Rose. Of course, she was a bit more conservative and covered her body with a towel. When Lin Xingzhi saw that, she quickly commanded Rose. "Rose. This is your training. Strip her!" "Yes, Big Sister!" Rose saluted before turning to Silvia while playing her hand vulgarly. At the same time, Evelyn and Letizia came in. "Ah. She is right. They are here." Evelyn quickly ran and leaped, planning to take a dive. However, she soon got frozen as Letizia frowned. "Wash yourself first. You just trained earlier, so it stinks." Suddenly, Evelyn cut the ice with her Sword Qi before pouting. "Fine." "Yeah. At least, there are two normal people who are sane in our family." "Is that a challenge?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes as if she took that personally and wanted to corrupt the entire family. "Nope. Anyway, I will be enjoying the bath." Alex just leaned on the rock and closed his eyes, ignoring all those around him. Despite the warm atmosphere, another place didn''t share the same sentiment. Sherry just finished her cultivation and opened her eyes, noticing that someone was rushing to her room. Bang. A female kneeled after slamming the door and shouted. "Young Lady. There is an emergency. Please go to the throne room right now." Chapter 1074: Sherrys Situation "Hmm¡­" Sherry furrowed her eyebrows and turned around before saying with a cold tone. "I understand. I will go there." She took another look at the sky, finding a giant shadow above the cloud. In that instant, she understood the real reason why she was called. Sherry thought for a moment before starting to walk toward the throne room. "Princess Sherry has arrived." The gate was opened as the guards shouted. All the people, from ministers to the other princes and princesses, stood in the hall, watching her walk on the red carpet. Sherry raised her vision and saw a lion sitting on the throne. Despite being a lion, his body structure looked like that of a human. He even walked on two feet. There was no noise during her walk until she gracefully bowed to him while cupping her hand. "May I know what is the reason for you to call me, Your Majesty?" "Presumptuous." Suddenly, a young man with a pair of black wings behind him shouted while pointing his finger at her. "You are lucky to be adopted to the Royal Family. Now, kneel in front of your father." Sherry had a cold expression as she raised her head, turning to that young man. "He didn''t adopt me. I only agreed to be one of the princesses. That''s all. Don''t twist the fact." "You b*tch!" The young man released his killing intent before another man appeared from behind him, patting his shoulder a few times. "That''s enough. That''s a fact and Father has acknowledged it too. Besides, Father has never differentiated any of us here, so why would you pick up on the newest family member?" "You!" He turned around and glared at the blue-haired young man whose cultivation was higher than him. He gritted his teeth and shouted back. "Don''t you have the pride as a royal family?!" "I have. You don''t need to worry about it. Now, I want to question you whether you can act in a manner befitting the royal family?" "Fufu. What a phrase to say, Brother Flood." A woman appeared with cat ears and two tails behind her. "Though, I agree with that sentiment. I think you are the only one who sees a family like this, little crow?" "What?! You b*tch. A mere two-tailed cat dared to object me, a three-legged crow?" Sherry opened her mouth without hesitation. "And a mere three-legged crow dared to look down on me, a Celestial Fox? It seems I need to teach you how to respect someone¡­" "You should be honored that Young Master fancy you! With the help of the current God King, Array God, the Royal Family would become even more powerful." Sherry gritted her teeth and released her Godly Pure Fire, suppressing anyone who had a fire element in this room. "Say that again! I have helped this kingdom by increasing the economy by two forth and even opening at least thirty channels for businesses. I have brought pride for this kingdom and you deem me as a tool?" However, no one knew other than Sherry herself that her anger was directed at both the young man and herself. She hated the young man, of course. But Sherry never thought that all her plans had been rendered useless. She had underestimated the power of a God King. No, she simply didn''t know how powerful they were and no one could describe their power in detail, even the Rank 2 God in front of her, the Beast God. "Enough!" The Beast God shouted after he couldn''t endure this situation, albeit the moment he opened his mouth, the giant gate of the throne room was slammed open as two people entered the room. "What is enough? This is not enough. To think I would have to visit this place personally." One of the two people said. It was the older one who happened to be a middle-aged man. But everyone in this room could feel the pressure coming out of his smile. All the people inside the room started gasping for air. "To think the proud Array God loves to bully the youngsters!" The Beast God released his Divine Energy, shrouding the room with golden particles. "Do you want to challenge me, Beast God?" The middle-aged man smirked. "And do you think you can protect everyone in this room?" Suddenly, the pressure increased again. Without anyone noticing, there was an array at the ceiling that amplified the pressure several times. No one, except three people, could move their body in this room. The first two would be the Beast God and the so-called Array God. The last person was another young man that came with the Array God. He had long purple hair and deep red eyes. He walked toward Sherry while drooling. "Hehe. Father¡­I can do everything I want, right? How about we show them what is despair?" Without any doubt, anyone in this room knew that this young man planned to shame Sherry in front of them. The Beast God quickly disappeared from his seat as a shout echoed. "Don''t you dare to touch her!" "Can you afford to look away with me in front of you?" The Array God smiled with his hand stretching to the Beast God''s neck. The latter caught that hand and the two clashed, albeit the result came too soon. The Beast God was blown away and crashed on his throne. Meanwhile, the young man kept walking and arrived in front of Sherry. With that vulgar smile, he gradually stretched his hand. Sherry gritted her teeth and recalled how this could happen. ¡­ It happened a few years ago when she was just a mere Rank 10 God. On a faraway planet, she and her group were trying to get an inheritance from a Rank 3 God. However, on the way, they encountered another group and, yes, that group was led by this so-called young master. The moment he saw Sherry, he quickly shouted. "Hey, woman. You are mine!" "Huh?" Sherry furrowed her eyebrows and felt displeased. Next to her, another Rank 10 God Princess, known as Cat Princess, told her the identity of that young man. "He is the third son of the Array God, Sun. He has many bad reputations, especially those around women, and he can do it because of his overbearing father, who keeps destroying one place or another if they dare to disobey." Sherry''s expression darkened as she saw how the young man kept walking toward her. "So?" "Ahaha, you are always overbearing. We have been taught in the family to look out for each other, so of course, we will support your decision. Even if there is a mistake, Father is going to be the one solving it, so your choice." As the princess explained everything, the young man already arrived in front of Sherry, looking down on her as if she was already his. "You should be honored that I fancy you. You are Sherry, right? I heard that you have a Pure Fire and no one has the Sacrificial Element yet. I will make that power mine and allow you to be my concubine." As much as she hated it, Sherry lowered herself and acted politely. After all, her current identity was one of the princesses from the Beast Kingdom, not one of the queens of Eulja. "Young Master is interested in me makes me feel honored. However, this woman already has a husband. I don''t have a plan to betray my husband." "Hmph! No one can be a better husband than me. Even if I do anything to you, do your husband believe that he can do anything? He will just simply offer you to me!" He harrumphed and stretched his hand toward her chest. "¡­" Sherry closed her eyes for a second and sighed. "It seems that my husband is right. Piece of sh*t is not redeemable." The young man paused for a second as if he couldn''t believe what he just heard. The next second, veins bulge out of his forehead while releasing his pressure. "Did you just insult me?" The cat princess only shook her head helplessly. Knowing Sherry''s personality, she already knew that this wasn''t going to end peacefully. At the same time, Sherry also released her Pure Fire after sensing the Fire Element inside his body. With the keen sense of fire that every Celestial Fox had, Sherry could know who had Fire Element and who didn''t have it. The moment she released her Pure Fire, the young man felt the suppression and knew that Sherry was going to fight him. "I am going to teach you why I am feared!" The young man said as a crystal appeared from his space ring, protecting him from the Pure Fire. However, Sherry simply gazed coldly as she grabbed his head. "What?!" The young man still couldn''t understand how she grabbed his head¡­No, how he couldn''t even react. He should feel no suppression with the crystal containing Array that could fight against the Suppression of a Pure Fire, but he soon realized that he couldn''t move even an inch. His eyes were wide open as he stared at her helplessly. "Y-you!" "I already said I have a husband. Do you think trash like you is worthy?" Sherry snorted while releasing her killing intent. "What did you say again? You were going to teach me why you were feared? You are just like those people who bully the weak and fear the strong. Unfortunately for you, I am not those weak people!" The cat princess was shocked by Sherry''s action. If this continued, Sherry would kill the young man and war would be inevitable. Fortunately, Sherry remained calm and smart enough to predict what kind of future along with how she needed to play. She simply threw the young man and let him crash onto the tree. "Scram. I will let you save your face by not throwing you into a trash can. If you make another move, I won''t hesitate to kill you!" Sherry released the might of her killing intent, showing how serious she was. "!!!" The young man never knew that Sherry had this deep killing intent. This showed that Sherry had killed more than a hundred thousand people. "Y-you! I will make you regret your decision today." The young man gritted his teeth, swallowed his pride, and ran away in fear. All his overbearing acts couldn''t be seen anymore. Just like she said, she was just one of those people who bullied the weak and feared the strong. Watching the young man leaving, the cat princess sighed and said, "If you kill him, you can buy more time as long as no one knows it. And if you don''t, I am afraid that the Array God will visit us personally." "I know. That''s why I didn''t kill him. My husband is an Array Master too, so I know that if I kill that guy, the Array God would know it instantly through one array. Hence, I made him one of my last resorts if all the plans in my head are not effective." "Haiz. I won''t help you explain the situation to Father, alright?" "It''s fine. I will try to resolve it myself. If everything is not possible, I still have one thing that one hundred percent can turn around the situation. Though I wish I didn''t need to use it." "So, what is your plan?" When she heard that question, Sherry only stuck her tongue out. ¡­ Recalling that past, Sherry finally smiled as her Godly Pure Fire gushed out of her body, suppressing the young man to the point he couldn''t even move his finger. "As I said, I know that you still have a use." "!!!" This shocked everyone in the room because no one would ever expect that a Rank 8 God, Sherry, could move under this pressure when even a Rank 3 God had difficulty in moving even their finger, hence, no one was helping the Beast God. They simply couldn''t. The Array God and Beast God turned around, seeing her with a complete shock. Sherry, on the other hand, grabbed the young man''s head and surrounded them with Pure Fire. She turned to the Array God and smirked. "If you don''t want your son to die, I suggest you leave this place and promise to never have any thought of getting me or harming this place." Chapter 1075: Sherrys Situation Part 2 "If you don''t want your son to die, I suggest you leave this place and promise to never have any thought of getting me or harming this place." When the cat princess saw what she did and recalled what happened a few years ago, she realized that this was still within Sherry''s expectation. However, there was one thing that Sherry or anyone in this Beast Kingdom knew. It was the personality of the Array God. He looked down as if he was shaken before shouting desperately. "No, don''t kill him!" In an instant, Sherry believed that she had gotten the advantage in this conversation. "I only have two demands. First, throw away the thought of getting something from me. Second, never go to me again. Or I will kill your son!" She snorted. "Dad! Save me!" Young Master Sun looked at his father desperately. If he had the ability to move, he would have raised his hand and struggled. The trauma he had when he faced her for the first time flashed in his mind, turning his personality upside down. "Okay, okay. Young Lady, you should put him down first!" "Enough! I need your Universe Oath in one minute. If not, I will torture him before your eyes!" The Array God looked down as his expression darkened. He opened his mouth after considering everything in his head. "I understand. By Heaven and Earth as the witness, I, Sun Gong, promise¡­" Sherry smiled inwardly as the others realized that no one could defeat Sherry among the princes and princesses in this term. However, something unexpected happened. The cruelty of the Array God knew no bound to the point he thought nothing of her threat. He continued the oath, but with a different context. "Promise that I will destroy the Beast Kingdom, enslave Sherry, and take her Pure Fire. That''s right. You said one minute, right? I will torture you and your kingdom first in one year before destroying it! I will show you despair!" The Array God smirked evilly. Even Young Master Sun dropped his jaw as if he couldn''t believe what he said, let alone Sherry, the Beast God, or any other people in this room. "How about this?!" Array God simply pointed his hand toward Sherry before a stream of light shot out of his finger like a laser. It pierced the young man''s stomach before hitting Sherry. Sherry was blown away and rolled on the ground, but she still held the young master, knowing that this was her only bargaining chip, even though she knew it wasn''t effective. She once again underestimated the cruelty of people. Array God quickly waved his hand and pulled his own son out of Sherry''s grasp before the Beast God shouted in anger as he charged toward the Array God. "You Bastard!" "Hmph!" The Array God blasted him again. Suddenly, just like how they never saw his cruelty, Sherry also held another trump card. Before the light hit her, a shadow emerged and stopped the attack. A Dark Divine Energy enveloped the room, and its strength was capable of rivaling that of Beast God''s. Shadow came out of the ground next to her feet before a pair of black wings appeared on Sherry''s back. "Wha¡ª" The Array God didn''t see it coming and planned to attack her again. Even though he couldn''t kill her due to that oath, he could see what she was hiding. Suddenly, the shadow around his feet flew to the ceiling and hit the array that helped the Array God suppressed the entire room. Without that array, everyone in this room could move their body again. Just like how the Beast God had taught them the whole time about the family, they quickly appeared in front of Sherry¡­ Everyone, except the young man who tried to sell Sherry off to their enemy. "Ahaha¡­" The Beast God couldn''t help but chuckle when everything happened before his eyes. It was amusing and scary at the same time. "Array God, that oath of yours might be your biggest regret. What do you want to kill me first or destroy this kingdom? Sorry, If you kill me or any other people here, the Beast Kingdom will be destroyed. In other words, you will be punished by the Universe Oath. "At the same time, you couldn''t destroy any building here because everything could be considered my Beast Kingdom. Luckily, this is what I am. It seems that becoming a good man will really pay off in your life or next life." The Beast God smirked. Array God realized his mistake. If he didn''t try to make them feel despair, he wouldn''t be trapped in this situation. However, his biggest miscalculation was the fact there was something or someone hiding behind Sherry. The Array God swallowed his pride and clenched his teeth as he turned around. "Mark my words. I will fulfill that oath. Before that, you will know what it means to be suffering under the suppression of my Divine World." The Beast God smirked and harrumphed. "We will see. One year is enough." "Hmph!" The Array God left the room in anger. The atmosphere in the room gradually returned to normal as the black wings on Sherry''s back disappeared along with the shadow. The Beast God let out a long sigh, not because he was useless in front of Sherry, but due to one of his sons. The only one that didn''t move to protect their own family no matter what the consequences. He was indeed disappointed, but he felt deeply hurt by that action. Shaking his head a few times, the Beast God turned to Sherry with a serious expression and asked. "Shery¡­May I know¡ª" Sherry simply shook her head. "I have decided to remain here for a year because I can see that all of you¡­Except for one, dared to protect me without thinking of the consequences. For that, I sincerely thank you, but in the future, I won''t stay here." She ended up looking at the boy who didn''t move and kept mocking her. "One bad sure, couldn''t represent all the good. However, the bad usually was more visible. That''s my decision. If Beast God feels displeased, I won''t say anything." "¡­" The Beast God let out a long sigh. The reason why Sherry agreed to come with him was due to his and his family''s reputation. They were watching out for each other and became famous with that principle. Sherry believed that she could become a part of it and the Beast God also wished Sherry could genuinely become one of them. Yet, it was impossible now. "I can promise you that one year in the future, there won''t be any more threat coming from the Array God. That''s all. If you would excuse me¡­" Sherry cupped her hands and bowed politely to the Beast God and the other princes and princesses, leaving the hall while ignoring whatever they tried to say. She simply returned to her room. On the contrary to her fierce appearance, as soon as she returned to her room, Sherry dropped on her butt and looked at the ceiling. She didn''t know why but tears began streaming down. She threw herself to the bed while hitting it. "Why¡­ Why¡­ am I so useless? I have tried everything and in the end, I will need to rely on him! Why! I am sick of being protected, I also want to be someone who can protect him!" She felt frustrated because at the last minute, she really needed to rely on Alex. Suddenly, a crow came out of her shadow and flapped its wing while sending a thought transmission. "Milady." "Crow! I-I¡­" She cried. The crow landed on the bed and looked at her. "This is also my blunder, Young Lady. I don''t know that the Array God would have that kind of personality. Besides, you have done everything you can. Even at one point, I think you''re gonna succeed." "I don''t need the process. In the end, if it can''t succeed, it''s useless!" Sherry shook her head. She looked at the crow. "You even needed to come out." "I am the only bodyguard of the former Spirit God. It''s my duty to protect you because you are in the most dangerous position. And as a Rank 2 God, I can confidently vouch that you and your skills are befitted to be a queen. Please don''t beat yourself like that." "What Queen? I am just a useless one who can''t do anything alone." "Milady, you are the first to reach Rank 8 Gods among your peers. You have understood the system of a kingdom, allowing even the Beast Kingdom to have more connections through you. If you are in Eulja, I believe that number will be multiplied. "The way you behaved this whole time showed the pride of Eulja. And you wouldn''t back down and plan everything accordingly to solve your own situation. To be honest, I would like to pledge my allegiance to you had I never pledged my allegiance to my king. That''s why, please cheer up, Milady. As long as you can feel the frustration despite achieving many things, you can keep getting stronger and stronger. I believe that you will reach your goal in the future." "Ugh¡­" Sherry kept crying in front of the crow. When she left Eulja, Lin Xingzhi sent the crow to protect her. She never knew it first until the crow presented himself in front of her. From that time, he had been teaching various things as if he was her teacher. That was why she became even more disappointed in herself. "There is one more thing. I am sure that Milady doesn''t know this, but it seems my king has planned his coronation in one or two years. I don''t know about his current condition, but this war might be the perfect time for his majesty." "What do you mean?" "My King is feared throughout the universe, but after leaving his position empty, many planets have been looking down on us, especially with how we are so passive. We only have one order from Korzan. It''s to keep expanding and saving our strength. That''s why after getting reduced to forty percent of our original power, not only have we restored to our former glory, but we have even tripled its glory. "Still, there is one thing lacking for our Eulja. It''s dominance. We need to show the consequences of provoking the Great Eulja like how the Spirit God did in the past. With Young Lady''s effort, although unintentional, I believe that we can reinstate the glory which comes in a perfect time of my king''s coronation. Hopefully, my king can reach Rank 5 God and finish his coronation as soon as possible." "Are you saying that Alex will go to war?" "Yes. For you, this might be a war to help you, but for my king, it''s the war to assert dominance. With this, Eulja will become more united. That''s why Young Lady might want to reach Rank 7 God as soon as possible because the time, where Eulja faces war one after another, will soon come." Sherry gritted her teeth and asked. "What should I do?" "I think Milady has the answer already. After all, you have grown to this level without my help." Sherry clenched her fists and looked up. "I will create even more connections, starting from this Beast Kingdom to the lower level one, so when the time comes, we have enough people to go to war in the name of Alex. I am not too good with business, but I can improve the financial system a little bit. In the future, Alex wouldn''t need to worry about money for war. After all, I have been eating money this whole time, I should know how to earn what I eat." The crow nodded, feeling happy that Sherry had found a new determination. "Thank you, Crow." "It''s a given. I am currently Milady''s bodyguard and I never regret it." Sherry smiled and took a few deep breaths. "To achieve that, I might need your help. Will you help me?" "Of course." Amidst her tears, a smile blossomed on her face, brightening the atmosphere in the room. "Alright. I won''t fail again this time." The crow nodded with a smile. "May fortune be with you." Chapter 1076: Done with Training Nine months later, Divine Energy fluctuated from underground as if an eruption happened underground. Right on the surface was a mountain filled with magma. However, there was a tunnel leading deep underground. This was where Alex entered deep inside, trying to reach the planet''s core as fast as possible. This tunnel was far longer than the one he met in the mission with Aria, where he found the tallest mountain. The temperature became higher the deeper he got. According to the ten God Beasts, he could strengthen his power even more. This was the process that the former Fire God had undergone during his ascension, allowing him to reach the peak. It consisted of four steps. The first step was him absorbing normal Spiritual Energy and the second step was getting a huge amount of Fire Energy from a burning planet. He had endured these two for normal cultivation and Fire Authority. In fact, this was one of the reasons why Phitrus left behind his Fire Authority. Not only could he pass on his technique, but he could lead him to the right path. He asked the beasts to occupy this planet because he wanted to protect the place where Alex could reach the third step. After all, the third step was him absorbing the Fire Energy from the Planet Core itself. As long as he could get used to it, he should be able to reach the fourth step, where he absorbed the Fire Energy from the star itself. Yes. This was what Phitrus learned after fighting the Phoenix. Instead of believing the phoenixes were different from them, he wanted to discover their difference and incorporated them into their system. Unfortunately, only Alex understood this after taking a bath inside the molten lava. Even the God Beasts didn''t understand because they never entered this place. After a long nine months of training, Alex understood the reason and broke through, officially becoming a Rank 5 God. This change really allowed him to reach this stage this early. At the same time, it opened another opportunity for him in the future where he could absorb the fire energy from the star. He called it Star Essence. At that time, his Pure Fire might evolve again to a Fire that surpassed Phitrus''s Pure Fire, the one that could kill the phoenixes. Alex gradually opened his eyes. Everything was red for him, considering he was inside molten lava. He looked around with his Spirit Eyes and found the tunnel. Since he had finished his cultivation, it was time to go back. Surprisingly, the moment he came out, all the Ten God Beasts had been waiting for him outside the mountain. "Congratulations, Your Excellency, for reaching Rank 5 God under one hundred years old." Alex smiled and nodded. "Thank you." Alex turned around and looked at Rhadon. "Are the others safe?" "Yes." Rhadon nodded. "Lady Letizia has long reached Rank 9 God, heading straight to Rank 8. The same applies to Lady Evelyn and Rose. However, Lady Rose''s Sword Technique has been improving by leaps and bounds, which have created another wave of happiness. Lady Rose is also improving her aim and control with my wife helping her." "Thank you for your hard work." Alex smiled before noticing that the layer of ashes was kind of lower than the previous height. Noticing what he was thinking, Rhadon explained. "Lady Silvia has successfully extracted thirty percent of this world''s ashes, creating two Ash Essence. The excessive ingredients are refined into her own nourishment, allowing her to greatly improve her cultivation. Unfortunately, she hasn''t reached Rank 3 God yet." Alex nodded and asked. "After this, what are you going to do?" "We will just follow the agreement before. My wife and I will remain in this world while the rest will form an investigation squad." "Still, I have absorbed this planet''s essence. I believe that the Spiritual Energy coming out of the core has been reduced." "We know, but both of us have never thought about reaching God King, so it''s enough for us just to maintain our strength for the great war. We have done everything we can during the past few thousand years. A few decades won''t change our strength by much." Rhadon shook his head in disappointment. "Is that so? I will respect your decision." Alex nodded while closing his eyes. "In that case, I will return to their side, alright?" "We understand." Before leaving, Alex gave another message to Rhadon¡­Only Rhadon since he sent it through the thought transmission. "If you are stuck and have nothing to improve, you, who have been enhanced by Fire God''s Pure Fire, should begin absorbing the fire from the World''s Core. You can say it''s the World''s essence. That will make your fire closer to the phoenixes that killed your Master." Listening to his words, Rhadon''s body shook as he quickly lowered his head, showing his gratitude. The others were confused for a second and realized that it must be related to Alex. However, Alex already disappeared. He had arrived in front of the small hut where he found Lin Xingzhi and Rose. "Ah, Master!" Rose waved her hand with a smile. "You''re back." Lin Xingzhi smiled. Alex nodded to her while patting Rose''s head as soon as he landed. "Anything new?" Lin Xingzhi hesitated for a few seconds before sighing. She said, "Your coronation will be held in three months." "I see. I will be ready by that time." Alex nodded with confidence. "What is your plan?" Alex thought for a moment. "Because of various reasons, I haven''t gotten a chance to open the weapon gate in Encore, so I will go there right after this. And I think I will consolidate my power first after absorbing too much World''s Essence. It''s quite unstable." "I see." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "After that, I will go to the Dungeon God''s inheritance. Since I thought I needed to be a Rank 5 God first before entering the trial, I have been refraining myself this whole time. Unfortunately, I can''t go now because I don''t know how long it will take for me to clear the inheritance. Hence, I am planning to prioritize the coronation first before going there." "Yep. You can do that." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked. "Are you ready to challenge the whole universe?" "Of course. I have been ready the moment I decided to become the Spirit King." Alex smiled. "That''s good. After all, this road is a path of sacrifice. Millions of people will die during this war, but I wish we can stand at the top." "Yeah." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "By the way, how about our allies?" "We only have the Blackwade Clan at this time. Probably with Silvia''s family. Other than that, there are no certainties that they will ally with us again. After all, the pact is only between them and the former Spirit God." "Either way, we can have three or four God Kings in an emergency, so we have enough assurance to move forward no matter how hard it is." "Agree." Lin Xingzhi smiled before her expression turned serious. "Still, out of the thirty-two God Kings, we have found that half of them are too far from us to even fight us. From that number, there are five people who seem to have a grudge against the Spirit God. I don''t know what they will do, but I am sure that at one point, they will gather together sooner or later." "I see. In that case, we will eliminate them as soon as possible. However, this will also create chaos in the universe and people will start getting threatened by our existence. To that end, before eliminating them, I will negotiate with a few neutral God Kings to prepare themselves against the beasts instead of being scared of me." "I will help you in convincing them. Although the record is quite fuzzy, I believe we can persuade up to three people. Your existence is already out anyway, so it''s fine to meet them." She thought for a moment. "I will be searching for the right candidate for the alliance against the beast." "Thanks." Alex nodded. "Also, I want you to trust no one. There are chances that they are traitors because humans or any species can turn into one of the "weapons" so I don''t want to take the risk." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand. "By the way, can you wait here first while I go to Encore? It''s not like it will take a couple of months just to consolidate my foundation. So, I can spend at least one month for all of you in exchange for the one year we have spent here." Lin Xingzhi smiled and nodded. "Alright." Alex then nodded. "In that case, I shall not waste any more time." With just a wave of his hand, Alex disappeared, heading straight to Encore. Just like the previous time, he traveled inside the Black Hole to arrive at the universe where Earth belonged. Although with his current strength, he only needed a few days to reach Earth as long as he knew their location, he had no interest in going back to that place. He used his Teleportation Array to send him to Encore, reaching the same room where three out of the five gates had been opened. "To think I would have completed it this soon." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He opened the gate without hesitation. His vision was filled with shelves. Each shelf had at least ten weapons and the room was so big that it could even have one million weapons inside. "This¡­is a serious weaponry." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Considering that my past self destroyed so many worlds and killed trillions of lives, I think it''s normal to have this weaponry. The weaker ones have gone to the treasury for Gacha." Alex looked around. "Yep. Unlike the Garden and Spirit Crystal vault, this one is sorted perfectly because there are only either Rank 8 Weapons or Divine Weapons. From the looks of it, there are at least ten thousand Divine Weapons." "I will take them all and use it to strengthen Eulja so as to prepare for the unending wars." Alex waved his hand and stored everything inside the Inventory. Since he had no need for another weapon, he didn''t bother glancing over the list and quickly made his way out of the room. Suddenly, his attention got distracted by the last gate. "A gate that shouldn''t be opened unless I know that I can''t defeat the beast, huh." Alex narrowed his eyes. It would be a lie if he said he wasn''t interested in this gate, but he would still honor the promise he made with his past self. "Hopefully, there is no need to open this gate just like you said, me¡­" Alex smiled and turned around, leaving the temple. After that, he used the Teleportation Array to send him back. When he returned, Letizia and Evelyn had returned to the hut, waiting for him. Meanwhile, Silvia stopped her research since she didn''t want to be left behind for this. Alex smiled and said, "I''m back. Let''s enjoy the remaining time we have on this planet." "Okay!" Chapter 1077: Reactions After finishing their trip, Alex and the others had returned to Eulja, preparing for the big day. As one would expect, despite having prepared for everything, the news of the new Spirit God''s appearance quickly became a hot topic. It shook the universe like a powerful supernova. Some were scared, some were pumped to take action, and some remained neutral. From the forest in a world called Lamoine, a shock wave blasted every single tree in the middle region, revealing two guys inside. The first one was a muscular man with long black hair. If one took another close look, the epicenter of the great shock wave earlier was him. He took a deep breath before laughing. "Is that true? The Spirit God will emerge again after a long five thousand years?" Next to him, an old man nodded while sighing after seeing the destruction. "Yes. We have confirmed that his ascension is going to take place three days from now. Unfortunately, they have raised their protection, so we only have that information currently. As for the details such as his strength and the others, we have none. May I know what you plan to do, Your Majesty? This old man needs to prepare everything, lest you are going to destroy this world too¡­" The man laughed and shook his head. "I am not planning to do anything. I don''t have a grudge against him, so there is no way I am going to pick a fight with Eulja without any reasons. First of all, we need to investigate him to see whether he is a new "Spirit God" or the reincarnation of the Spirit God himself." "What will you do if it''s the former? And what will you not do if it''s the latter?" "You really know me well, huh." The man laughed and answered. "If it''s the former, I will stop this feeling in my heart. If it''s the latter, I will head there to try my own power. After all, the Spirit God was known as one of the God Kings who had the strongest offensive power. It''s exciting to see whether my Destruction Power can hold a candle against him or not." "¡­" The old man sighed. "Just make sure that we won''t get the wrath of the Spirit God. After all, it will be bad news. After all, I can''t stop you, my king, God of Destruction." "Heh." The man laughed while clasping his hand. "The world will soon become turmoil and I love it because there will be so much destruction." "¡­" The old man could only sigh. Meanwhile, on another planet called Tren Ash World, a woman sat near the lake while playing her zither. The melody was smooth and steady. Even the Spiritual Energy around brimmed with joy as they concentrated in this place as if they were planning to dance in this area. Suddenly, she opened her mouth with a low voice. "It''s rare to see you coming here." Behind her, a shadow appeared and turned into a small woman, shorter than a dwarf. Her red hair was tied into a ponytail as she shook her head, looking at the blue-haired woman in front of her. "I think you need to hear this." "Just tell me. I am in a good part." She calmly played while trying to listen to her. "He has appeared once again." "He?" The tiny person hesitated for a few seconds before revealing the identity. "Spirit God." Teng. The woman missed a note and played a high-pitched note, turning the joyous atmosphere into a catastrophe. An explosion occurred from inside the lake and turned the peaceful and beautiful lake into a barren crater. The water fell like rain as the woman looked back and asked again with disbelief. "Who?" "Spirit God." "I mean, is he the real Spirit God? Is he the Spirit God we know in the past or just someone receiving his inheritance?" "We are not sure right now. There are only rumors about his ascension that will take place in three days. That''s all." The woman took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes. "What will you do? Are you planning to come, oh, Song Goddess?" "Nope." She shook her head. "Lin Xingzhi will probably block all access and tighten their defense. Unless you are preparing for war, the ascension will go undisturbed. Besides, I was just a weak woman who escaped in the past because I was afraid that when the Spirit God died, I would be miserable and fall alongside him. "This time, I won''t make the same mistake." "As a God King yourself, I don''t think you don''t need to come back anymore." "That''s why I asked whether he is the Spirit God that I know or not. If he is not the same, I won''t come back anymore. Of course, I don''t plan to fight Eulja, so I will just watch everything happen from the sideline. However, if the former king has graced his presence upon us again, I will come back even if it causes a rejection from Lin Xingzhi." "This one can''t understand your reasoning." "It''s because you don''t know the true terror of the Spirit God." She shook her head helplessly. "Only a few knew why the Spirit God was feared in the past. Hence, if the situation required me to choose between enemy, neutral party, and ally, I will choose the last one. It will cost us greatly, but the return is so big that you won''t believe it. Do you trust me?" The small girl frowned and thought for a moment before saying. "With every cell in my body." "Good. Start investigating this matter. I want the result as soon as possible, especially his current power. With how secretive they are, I can''t calculate his true power." She sighed. "Anyway, things will turn chaotic pretty soon. I am planning to get involved." "I understand." The small girl nodded and disappeared. The woman looked at the sky and started playing the zither again. The soothing melody echoed in the lake as she began to sing. "Sure I''d be happy if the best part of today." "Was that I didn''t lose my mind when I witnessed a miracle happen." As the first two rows were sung, the world already started undergoing its transformation. The rain that fell and wet the ground slowly got absorbed back inside the barren crater, slowly turning into a pond and growing bigger over time. Meanwhile, she continued singing. "I guess the little things add up along the way. "I should''ve known a miracle will happen amidst this chaotic world. "My subconscious said your name three times today. "Like the little love song I sang that day, carrying all hope. "Spring comes after winter. "Life comes after death. "New hope shines brightly upon this new world." Suddenly, she stopped and closed her eyes. The lake that was just a barren crater a moment ago had been restored as if nothing happened in this place. "I shall sing this as the celebration upon your arrival, hoping you remain the same." She smiled and rose from her seat, walking back to her own palace. ¡­ At the same time, the same information was passed onto the Array God, who was busy preparing for the upcoming war. "Milord." A human appeared, rushing into the room he stayed with a pale expression. She panted a few times and failed to deliver the message in the first three seconds. The Array God became pissed as he released the pressure of a God King while saying coldly. "What? You dare to disturb me? If you are not going to talk, I will kill you right now." "Something big happened." The woman tried to tell the most important thing to save her life. "There is a rumor saying that the Spirit God has appeared once again, holding his ascension in three days." "What?!" He released even more pressure and narrowed his eyes. "We haven''t confirmed anything because Eulja has closed their gate, preventing any spy from coming in. The rumor began from a Divine World near their border, so we might be able to confirm its validity." "Quickly search for any information about him!" The Array God shouted and waved his hand without hesitation. His eyes turned sharp as his expression became grim. He thought for a moment and laughed. "Hahahaha! This is truly a blessing for me. "I have gotten the inheritance from the former Array God and seized all of his power. I will use this chance to shine even brighter by killing the Spirit God. I will show the universe that I, Array God Sun Gong, will dominate the entire universe. No one will dare to raise their head in front of me!" "Milord is wise." "After absorbing the Beast Kingdom, I will have enough people under my command to create a full fight against Eulja. As long as the Spirit God is not a God King yet, which has a high probability that it''s true, I can kill the Nature Goddess with my own hand." The Array God laughed evilly. "I only planned to absorb Eulja to seize their military power to conquer this universe, but since the Spirit God will appear again. I will use his blood to be the start of my conquest!" He thought for a moment before thinking something good. "That''s right. The Spirit God was known to be protective of his own subjects, right? "Instead of killing him, I will screw his wives, enslave his citizens, and torture his retainers right before his eyes. I wonder what face he will make at that time." The Array God laughed uncontrollably. "Have our troops ready tomorrow. We will attack the Beast Kingdom in three days since all people''s attention is on him right now. Fufu. To think that his ascension will be used against himself, I am truly a genius." The assistant looked at him for a few seconds while having a deep thought. He never thought that the lord she served in the past had changed so much after getting the inheritance of the Array God, turning the gentle him into a maniac. In the past, the Array God would help even children without any cultivation, but the way he now, he would kill them while making the parents fall into despair. She could only sigh inwardly and cupped her hands politely. "I shall follow the order." She quickly left the room. While walking in the corridor, she met a young man walking alone with a panicked face. "¡­" He halted his step when he saw her, asking. "Have you met my father?" "Yes, Young Prince." She quickly kneeled on one knee. "Probably for the same reason why Prince Gongming comes here." "I see. Do you know what we should do with this information?" "I am afraid we need more information before reaching a conclusion." "Indeed. Though this information can freeze every single God King in this universe, to Eulja, this is also a double-edged sword where failure shall mean catastrophic repercussions that will shake the very foundation of their world." "Your Highness is entirely correct. The Spirit God must haven''t matured yet, or they will use war to make his presence known instead of this coronation. Many God Kings will ally themselves with each other to destroy Eulja along with the Spirit God." The woman nodded. "Should it be required, I can send you all my retainers, including myself. Though I doubt I will prove as motivational as the Spirit God, do not hesitate to call upon me." "I understand. But I shall endeavor to prevent that from being necessary, Your Highness." The woman shook her head with a smile. "With my father''s objective¡­ We truly stand at a turning point." "I am aware." "Rei. The fate of this world, Raika, is in your hands." "Yes, Sir." She bowed while thinking. ''We must endure it. Prince Gongming is a Rank 4 God. In another one thousand years, he will surely become the greatest person on this planet and his era will be bathed in peaceful light where the citizens don''t need to spill unnecessary blood.'' Chapter 1078: Coronation Back in Eulja, Alex was sitting in front of a mirror as someone helped him with his attire. Lin Xingzhi kept staring at him to see if there was something wrong or not. She looked at the white and gold uniform with three stripes on his shoulder before her eyes focused on the white pants. The clothes were perfect for him. "So, are you ready?" "Yes." Alex nodded. Suddenly, Korzan entered the room and looked at the two with a serious expression. "We have something going on." "What? The universe already knows it?" "Yes." Korzan nodded. "As expected. Either way, no one can see his coronation since you have tightened the security. And I believe Alex will get famous soon, so we don''t need to do anything against those people." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Since you have predicted it, I won''t bother with it anymore. I will just prepare for everything that comes next." Korzan nodded. "By the way, how is the situation around the castle?" "There are around one thousand people coming into the castle. They are important people from all over the world, from big influences to small influences." "The Memory Crystal?" "We can broadcast it to the whole Eulja, so they will witness his ascension and the "miracle" he will perform." "Please don''t say it''s a miracle¡­" Alex scratched his back helplessly. "Haha¡­ I want to call it Awakening, but it''s not like you can perform it easily, so I am just going to call it a miracle." Korzan shrugged while laughing. After putting some thoughts, Lin Xingzhi asked. "Who has attended?" "From the top, there are Six Elemental Gods and Five Guardians. Because we are tightening the security, the ten commandants are to assume their position, so they can only watch it through the memory crystals. "After that, many clans and tribes such as Ice Phoenix Tribe, Lightning Tiger Tribe, and others, have arrived." "How about the Teleportation Array?" "We have prepared it and can be used at any time." "As for outside the castle?" "There are roughly a million Spirits outside the castle." "That''s fine then. With us releasing the news a month ago, it''s already good to prevent the information from leaking that long." He nodded with a smile. "We are ready, Alex." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. He rose from his seat and looked at the door. "Let''s go then." ¡­ A few minutes later. Inside the throne room, a single throne that had been vacant for five thousand years would soon be sat by the Spirit King. The golden throne that would match his golden hair and the Spirit Crown well was bathed in a light coming from the windows all over the room. Almost a thousand people sat on the floor as if preparing to kneel when the procession began. Bang. Suddenly, the door was pushed open. Five people entered the room. The one leading the others was none other than the legendary human that everyone had known for a long time, the Central Guardian, William. Behind him was the other four guardians, walking side by side. The pressure they unintentionally released stunned almost everyone in the room. They wore formal suits that represented their own rank. "It''s the Five Guardians." "To think we would have witnessed this scene where all the guardians walked side by side." "Sir William''s emanating this pressure that makes you can''t think in front of him." "No, no. The other Guardians also had their own specialty that wouldn''t lose against the Central Guardian." Suddenly, an old man appeared next to the throne with a scroll in his hand. He looked at the Guardians that had halted their footsteps not far from the throne. "Five Guardians!" The moment they heard it, all five quickly bent their knee and lowered their heart while saying in unison. "Long Live His Majesty, the Spirit King!" "Six Elemental Gods!" Once again, the old man called them as six figures walked on the red carpet before slightly giving space on the center of the carpet. Agnis, Helena, Canaan, Zerah, Rilt, and Vina walked side by side with a smile on their faces as if they had prepared for this the entire time. The moment they passed the Five Guardians, getting slightly closer to the throne, they kneeled while lowering their heads. "Long Live His Majesty, the Spirit King!" Not long after, soothing music began to play. If what they thought was right, the next would be his wives. Eight figures lined up and walked in a straight line, not blocked since the Five Guardians and Six Elemental Gods had created a gap enough for them to walk past them. Surprisingly, Rose was in the front. As Alex''s disciple, she had the honor to guide the wives next to the throne. Each of them then spread next to the throne, four to the left and four to the right. "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Lin Xingzhi as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Nature Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Anna as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Dark Butterfly Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Anya as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Light Butterfly Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Alicia Van Rizertia as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Ice Phoenix Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Firia Merona as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Flame Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Evelyn De Thiveapia as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Sword Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Letizia La Scola as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Ice Goddess as her title." "With the blessing of the Ancient Spirits, I declare Sherry as one of the Spirit King''s wives and bestow Fox Goddess as her title." Unfortunately, Sherry couldn''t attend this procession and allowed Rose to take her role for this procession only. At the same time, Silvia couldn''t participate as well after several considerations. All eight women bent both their knees and lowered their heads. "Long Live His Majesty, the Spirit King." When everyone had presented themselves, the gong began to ring and the bell echoed in the room. All the people in this room quickly lowered their heads. Even those who were outside the castle quickly prostrated. At this time, all those who watched the coronation would look down. Even the ten commandants who were far away still kneeled like the Five Guardians and the Six Elemental Gods. Clack. Clack. Clack. Alex''s footsteps echoed in the hall that now fell silent. Although they were curious about his appearance, none of them dared to lift their heads. He slowly walked on the red carpet, passing the Five Guardians, Six Elemental Gods, and even his wives before turning around, facing everyone. Instead of sitting, he opened his mouth and said, "You may lift your head." His voice was calm. It even made everyone feel that the atmosphere inside the hall had changed. However, it was different for those who had met the Spirit God in the past. With only his voice, they could declare the Spirit God is still alive. After that order, all the heads raised, looking at their present king. *Gasp¡ª!* People couldn''t help but suck cold breath as Alex''s appearance was similar to that of the previous Spirit King. Although they had heard the rumor about him being the Spirit God''s reincarnation, they just couldn''t believe it until today. The Ice Phoenix Tribe''s elder closed her eyes with a smile while thinking. ''He might not have the previous king''s intimidating aura, but this strange sensation as if I''m being enveloped in something¡­ The king has the aura to make people his ally. It almost looks as if the Spirit King is wreathed in light.'' It was like a miracle, but everyone in this room thought the same thing. ''So, this is the Spirit King.'' The old man next to the throne walked toward him as Alex turned around, facing the old man. The old man kneeled and raised both his hands, praying. "I, Kon, pray for all the spirits in this world. May the Ancient Spirits grant our king its authority." Suddenly, a blue sword appeared above the old man. It had a complicated pattern on the blade and handle, but Alex knew what to do. He summoned his Spirit Crown without hesitation, which turned everyone''s heart upside down. How could they not? The fact that the Spirit Crown now had two more Jewels besides the original one made one doubt if it were the true Spirit Crown or not. But everything changed when Alex stretched his hand with a calm smile while transferring the energy from his Spirit Crown to that sword. The sword itself had no prowess or whatsoever, but the previous Alex created this sword as a symbol to govern the Spirit World, showing that the only requirement to become a Spirit King was the Spirit Crown. When the sword was connected to the Spirit Crown, it spun its body before descending onto Alex''s hand. In that instant, everyone knew that the Spirit Crown was genuine. He lightly set the sword to the ground and looked forward. The old man once again roared. "This long awaited day has come. Both Ancestral Spirits and all of Eulja''s Citizens must be ecstatic with joy. Here and now, from this moment on, I declare, Alexander Sirius is the Spirit King." The silence turned into excitement before an uproar that shook the entire room came out. "Uoh!" But it didn''t stop there. Even the entire castle shook as the millions of people outside cheered. Something like this could be experienced all over the world. All Guardians and Elemental Gods were shedding tears of joy as they looked at each other, feeling that the wait was worth it. The old man gradually returned to his original position. The situation became peaceful as many started chatting and cheering with each other, talking about their experience in this coronation. However, the process had yet to be finished. The old man shouted for one last time. "We shall end this ceremony with the speech from the Spirit God, Alexander Sirius." Alex smiled and took a deep breath, looking at the people in this room along with the Memory Crystals that broadcasted this ceremony from the start. The spirits began to settle down as they wanted to listen to what Alex had to say. "I¡­" Alex paused for a second, inciting the curiosity of every spirit. "¡­Might not be the same Spirit God you have ever known." This quickly created confusion among the spirits, but before they could say anything, Alex continued. "However, on this occasion, let me promise you one thing. No matter who you are, what your status is, your background, or even your name, I swear that I will protect you with everything I''ve got. "This is not an order, not a request, not a wish. This might be the last question that I can ask for one last time, not as a king who governs upon you, but as your equal who stands alongside you." ''What?'' Was the only word in everyone''s thought. This was the first time they heard a king, let alone a Spirit King, asking them a question from the same point of view in a coronation. It just showed how serious this question would be. Alex paused for a second and asked, "With everything I have, would you accompany me through strive and carnage, so we may, in the future, stand on top of the universe again¡­My retainers, my citizens, my friends¡­ "¡­My Family." "!!!" The word ''Family'' gave a goosebump to everyone all over the world. Alex considered them a retainer who will fight together, a citizen who will be protected, his friend who will stand alongside him, and, more importantly, his family. It touched everyone''s heart as the silence turned into another uproar, bigger than the previous cheer of his coronation. "Uoh!" Chapter 1079: We Choose to Fight "Uoh!" "We follow Your Majesty!" "Long Live Eulja." "Long Live Spirit King!" The cheers kept coming every second, turning the entire Eulja turmoil. No one had ever forgotten what Alexander Sirius had done in the past, and the same person, although a reincarnated one, just showed that he had the same personality. And in fact, he was better. Alex raised his hand while clenching his fists, asking them to stop cheering for a second as he had something to say. The Spirits began to stop chattering and looked at him, wondering what he had hidden this whole time for this coronation. "I am thankful and honored to be with you. That''s why I have one announcement to make." Alex smiled and raised his hand. "If you feel that you are lacking something and want to improve yourself, raise your hand." In the room, everyone was stunned after hearing that question. Unlike the previous speech, they couldn''t understand Alex''s real intention by asking this question. Suddenly, a Spirit raised his hand. The Spirit was a leopard that seemed to be a Beastly Class Spirit. Next to him was a Humanoid Spirit. He noticed that the one beside him had raised his hand before quickly helping him lower his hand before everyone other than Alex noticed. The Humanoid Spirit seemed to be of the same tribe. Before he did anything, Alex already waved his hand, asking him to stop by using his Spiritual Energy. The Humanoid Spirit''s body shook and looked at Alex with fear as if they had done something wrong. He quickly prostrated in front of Alex and begged. "Your Majesty. My brother is ignorant. Please forgive. I can receive any punishment in exchange for his life." Alex walked toward him as everyone in the room began to turn around, focusing on this Leopard Spirit. When Alex arrived in front of him, he shook his head. Bending his knees, he patted the Humanoid Leopard Spirit. "I asked for it. There was nothing wrong with that. What is your name?" "Elgar from the Leopard Spirit Tribe," He hurriedly answered him. Alex nodded and turned to the leopard beside him, asking. "What is your name?" The leopard suddenly spoke to him, feeling bad about his brother. It was just a pure instinct that he raised his hand because of everything he had seen before coming here. "Edgar. Your Majesty, please don''t¡ª" Alex stopped him before he apologized like his brother. "You did nothing wrong. I asked who felt that way and you raised your hand. Edgar¡­ May I know why you feel you are lacking?" The leopard hesitated for a few seconds before he answered him. "I was supposed to be the next Patriarch for the Leopard Spirit Tribe due to me being able to reach Uncommon Spirit Class and know how to speak. "However, everything has changed when I realize that I can''t break this barrier called talent. I am stuck at Beastly Spirit Class and barely reach Rank 9 God. To that, my brother has become the Patriarch." Alex closed his eyes and asked. "Do you regret it and want to become the Patriarch?" The leopard shook his head. "No. Even at the lowest point, my brother''s never left me. I have nothing but love as a family. That''s why I feel useless that I can''t do anything for my brother. Because of my existence, his position is unstable¡­Just because of this useless brother, he has lost his smile due to a lot of stress." Surprisingly, the leopard let out tears. Even his brother, whose head touched the floor while prostrating, cried. Just like the leopard, his brother shared the same sentiment. Despite their father scrutinizing him because he couldn''t catch up in the early progress, he was born alone, having no one to rely on. But his talented brother kept coming and taking care of him. Their father continuously scolded him for doing such behavior, yet, the latter said that a family should be together, no matter what they needed to face. That pure familial love continued even after all things had turned upside down. "Is that so?" Alex made a genuine and warm smile, knowing what he had gone through. "Even in that situation, you don''t give up and reach Rank 9 God. I believe that is also a charm on its own. That''s why¡­" Alex put his hands on the leopard as his Spirit Crown appeared above his head. "Don''t fight it, alright?" Alex''s soothing voice calmed the leopard down as he closed his eyes, accepting anything that Alex bestowed on him. Meanwhile, Alex got a vision. It was under the moonlight that two leopard cubs were walking together with a smile on their face. They cuddled with each other to fight the cold wind. The two leopards started to change into a human with beast parts on their body before each of them turned into a complete humanoid form. In the end, he found many monsters coming toward them, but they stood each other and raised their fists. They exchanged looks with a smile and said. "Brother. Whatever happens, I will watch your back and you will watch mine. I am glad to have a brother like you." The two then charged at the monsters without fear nor regret. Everything was filled with smiles, even when they died after fighting so many monsters. Alex closed his eyes and smiled as he opened his mouth. "Awaken. Zeiss." The leopard soon got enveloped in blinding light as it slowly turned into a human shape. When people witnessed this, they dropped their jaw to the ground and had no words in their minds. They were completely speechless. The leopard who was supposed to be a Beastly Spirit turned not into the Demi-human Class but to the Humanoid Class Spirit. In other words, he just skipped rank like nobody''s business. Even Edgar looked at everyone before noticing the change in his body. He tried to reach his head and found no tail and ears, knowing that he had become the most respected form. Alex smiled, retracted his Spirit Crown, and covered Edgar''s naked body with a mantle while saying, "You and your brother may use Zeiss as your family name. Just like what you wish, you now have the power to support your brother. Keeps supporting him like how he supports me. Can you do that?" At this point, Edgar couldn''t control his tears anymore. He banged the ground with his head. "I offer my life to Your Majesty and Eulja. Long Live Your Majesty, the Spirit King. Long Live Spirit World, the great Eulja." His brother next to him noticed that transformation and was still in deep shock. Alex waved his hand and rose from the floor before returning to his seat. He raised his hand as the signal to the old man. The old man walked to the stage and announced like a minister. "I am happy to announce that His Majesty, the Spirit King, has once again surpassed the boundary of our knowledge. He has advanced the Spirit Crown to the very pinnacle of what we know as Divine Technique. "Other than improving one''s technique like the Spirit Crown in the past, which also has been significantly improved, His Majesty can bestow a power to allow any Spirit Class below the Humanoid Spirit Class to instantly reach the Humanoid Spirit Class. "On the other hand, those who are considered Humanoid Spirit Class will gain their True Spirit Body in that very instant. This is a blessing for Eulja, every spirit in Eulja, and all of our citizens. "Hence, I proudly declare that there will be a tournament every ten years for a few people to receive this blessing. To ensure fairness to every single person, there will be five cycles of the tournament: Fighting Tournament, Specialty Tournament for Array Masters and such, Another Fighting Tournament for every citizen other than the spirit, Lower Class Tournament, and Special Class Tournament. "We will hold these five tournaments in a cycle, allowing us to reach every nook and corner of our great territories as well as ensuring fairness to all races!" Everyone was deeply in shock. The Lower Spirit Class, who had no humanoid form, thought that they had the chance to change their life completely as long as they showed they were worthy. Those who already had humanoid form believed they needed the True Spirit Body to gain more power. Those outside Eulja who were watching this thought they had the chance to upgrade their Original Skill. The Spirit Crown had been famous for its otherworldly enhancement after all. This sent a vibration not only in Eulja but also the planets in their territory. "Long Live Your Majesty, the Spirit King." The first one to shout was Edgar. He had experienced it first hand, making him believe that was possible. That shout woke up all the people watching the procession and roared in unison. "Long Live Your Majesty, the Spirit King." Even though only a few out of millions could attain such a thing, they still had the chance. Just like Edgar¡­No, Edgar was the most important point. If Alex didn''t show his power first, no one would believe him. They would just doubt whether the Spirit Crown was just an imitation or not. However, seeing that effect with their own eyes, not only they believed it was the real Spirit Crown, they believed that once Alex achieved God King Stage, he would surpass the previous Spirit God. Unfortunately, that joyous atmosphere didn''t last long. Bang. Someone slammed open the door as the noise silenced the entire excitement. A black-haired spirit intruded the coronation and kneeled in front of him. "Pardon me!! Apologies for intruding but¡­ but¡­" Everyone quickly looked at the man in confusion. They had more or less the same thought. ''What was that man doing in the middle of the ceremony?'' "We''ve received an urgent report! An army of a hundred thousand, consisting of God Rank Experts and Martial Saints, belonging to what we believe is the Array God''s army has just moved toward the Beast Kingdom, where Her Highness Sherry is, and plan to destroy the whole kingdom, including enslaving Her Highness Sherry." "!!!" Everyone knew that Rose here was just a replacement because the real one was in the Beast Kingdom. Alex opened his mouth in surprise because he had no information regarding this matter. Obviously, he didn''t know, Lin Xingzhi and Korzan hid the information because they shared the same idea as Sherry. They wanted to see the pure reaction coming from Alex and the spirits to know whether the two were aligned. "What did you say?!" Alex''s expression darkened. The Spirits could see Alex wasn''t lying or staging this kind of emergency. Their heart had mixed feelings right now, not knowing what to say until Edgar once again broke the silence. "Your Majesty. This lowly Spirit might only be able to help you by a small amount, but I am ready to offer my life to rescue Her Highness, Queen Sherry." That shout broke the laughter of the man known as the Fire Elemental God, Agnis. "Hahaha! This is hilarious. To think there is someone foolish enough to harm someone from Eulja. In the past, we killed trillions to warn trillions of trillions of lives. Yet, after five thousand years, it seems they have forgotten that the tiger is just sleeping, not dead. "Your Majesty, in this joyous occasion, we shall pulverize them to show what it means to step on the tiger''s neck!" Agnis suddenly kneeled on one knee and cupped his hands. "I, Agnis, will follow Your Majesty to the battle." The other Elemental Gods and Five Guardians saw his action and quickly dropped to the ground while cupping their hands. "We will follow Your Majesty to the battle." This action invited a series of reactions from all people watching, but most of them instantly dropped on their knees, following what the Elemental Gods and Guardians did. Even the ten Commandants instinctively fell on their knees even though they were not here. Agnis smiled when he sensed this as he raised his head. That silence broke with a sincere voice that touched everyone''s heart. "We, Eulja, choose to fight." Chapter 1080: We Fight "We, Eulja, choose to fight." Lin Xingzhi and Korzan closed their eyes, knowing that this was for the best. Agnis had a stroke of brilliance when he announced all that stuff, but this would surely displease Alex any other time. After all, it was just like him pressuring the king to take action by manipulating the people''s influence. If it were in another influence, the king, which was Alex, would surely be angry. However, their minds thought the same thing. In fact, Agnis dared to do something like this because he purely wanted to fight and save Sherry after all the things Alex could possibly do for Eulja. Alex looked at his people with a solemn face while thinking of any other options. Unfortunately, peace was never an option. He remembered when Lin Xingzhi summoned the Five Guardians and Six Elemental Gods to fight the Palm God. He looked at the side, finding his wives'' faces who seemed to take this matter seriously. When Alex saw Lin Xingzhi, in that instant, he realized that Lin Xingzhi already knew all of this. He just never thought that Lin Xingzhi would hide it from him. Either way, he would ask her explanation after this. What he needed right now was to fix the current issue. He opened his mouth and talked in a pacifying tone. "For the past few thousand years, we have done nothing other than saving and building up our strength. In the meantime, people have forgotten our capability. "This is also the perfect time for the slumbering tiger to wake up. I don''t know why this happened just when I announced my new Spirit Crown, but I would like to ask all of you here and those who are watching behind the screen. "Everyone¡­Would you lend me your strength and show the fang of the sleeping tiger that has been forgotten for a long five thousand years?" Alex smiled while uttering that question. Although it was so coincidental to have this event happening in this ceremony, all the spirits were more focused on the battle itself. Having been hiding and suppressed for so long, they could finally show their blades once again. And this wasn''t just a normal blade or rusty blade. Instead, this blade had been sharpened for a long five thousand years. All spirits were eager to test that blade to gain their former glory before surpassing it with their new king. Agnis led the crowd and smiled. "Your Majesty. It''s an honor!" Alex looked at the ceiling for a few seconds, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Surprisingly, this time, the sword in his hand floated as if telling him to wield the sword and go to the battle. Even the spirits saw the recognition, believing that the Ancient Spirits gave them a blessing for this upcoming war. Noticing that, Alex smiled and looked at them. Suddenly, he cupped his hand with a smile. Everyone was dumbstruck for a few seconds before they cupped their hands and lowered their heads once again. Lin Xingzhi sent a thought transmission to him. ''You should give out the roles such as the leader and strategists. Anyway, those who are prepared shall go to Ein Continental Rift, where our ships are stored. Besides, not everyone could join this fight.'' ''You are going to explain everything to me later,'' Alex said with an annoyed tone. ''Sure thing.'' Lin Xingzhi sighed inwardly. Alex then raised his hand and opened his mouth. "I will be leading this battle myself and appoint Anya as my strategist. All Elemental Gods and Guardians are to meet me in the war council. And those who are eager to fight, I will allow all the Teleportation Arrays to send those who are eager to participate. How many can participate will be determined by the council. "And the last thing! I declare that this ceremony is finished!" Alex then turned around as if preparing to leave. "Move out!" "Uoh!" All over the world was filled with cheers as many of them prepared to go to the battle. This was the new king''s first campaign, so the hype was far higher than a normal war. Alex left the room first, followed by his wives. Either way, Lin Xingzhi would be facing him after this. They gathered in the same room where Lin Xingzhi held the war council last time. Only fourteen people could enter this room. They were Alex, Lin Xingzhi, the Guardians and Elemental Gods, as well as Anya. Alex took the center seat while the rest sat side by side, looking at the map that had been projected by an array on the table. Obviously, Lin Xingzhi explained everything, starting from Sherry''s encounter with that Young Master to how she got oppressed by the Array God. Of course, the information came from the past Spirit God''s only bodyguard that was with Sherry at the moment. After knowing that Sherry made the plan herself, he finally let Lin Xingzhi go since it was Sherry''s wish to finish it herself. Anya then took her position and looked through the information they got. After contemplating for a while, Anya looked at Alex first. "Before we are discussing the strategy itself, I want to hear your decision. Will you allow your wives to participate in this battle?" "If they want, I won''t stop them. However, if I can be selfish, I don''t want them to the very front, making them targeted." Alex nodded. "In that case, it will be easy. The ten commandants will remain in their positions, protecting Eulja and our territories. Since we haven''t gained all the citizens in our territories due to several reasons, we will only move with the spirits, allowing us to take the lead over the others. "Hence, this is my plan." Anya took a deep breath before looking at the map. "Alex, Lin Xingzhi, and all Elemental Gods are to take the first step, opening this whole war. The Five Guardians are to assume the protecting duty of our mothership. Currently, we have our mothership with fifty thousand people capacity and bring five General Class Ships having ten thousand Spirits each. This will be our only force. "With Alex and the others gaining their attention, we will strike them from behind, confusing the enemy. Using that diversion, I want Lin Xingzhi to take on the Array God by herself and kill him. The other Rank 2 Gods will either fight to protect Alex from any higher Gods that will target Alex or prevent them from helping the Array God. I am sure that you have this ability, right, Sister?" Lin Xingzhi smirked and said, "Despite getting the inheritance of the former Array God, he has yet to attain the previous power of the Array God. In most cases, his power will be like the Palm God, so you can rest assured. I will kill him as soon as possible. I don''t like wasting too much time." "Exactly. In the past, we needed to preserve our strength, so the fight lasted for a few days, but since we will take the enemy by surprise, we should be able to minimize the loss while doing it this way." Anya nodded in agreement. "Excuse me¡­" Suddenly, someone''s intruded into the meeting with an unsure face. "Lilda?" Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes since it was the head of their Array Research, the Rank 2 God, Lilda. The dwarf nodded and asked. "Actually, I am wondering if you would allow me to enter this battle too¡­" "Why? You have never put any interest in war before." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. To be honest, having another Rank 2 God at this moment would be reassuring, but Lin Xingzhi still gave her a condition. "At least, tell me the reason." Lilda thought for a moment and opened her mouth. "If I said the ceremony didn''t influence me, I would be lying. However, that''s not all. The enemy is the Array God this time. As an Array Master myself, I would like to see his power to understand the arrays better. At the same time, I can be His Majesty''s guard. I am sure that this will be the perfect role for me." Lin Xingzhi frowned and glanced over Anya. "To be honest, yes. Although you didn''t go to war, your power is ridiculously high. Without the Array God, you should be able to handle Alex''s safety, but I need to confirm it with Alex first." Anya agreed but left the decision to Alex. "Sure." Alex nodded without hesitation. "Thank you, Your Majesty. And also, congratulations for becoming our king." Alex waved his hand as if telling her it wasn''t important. At the same time, he asked Anya to start again. "Since that is the case, the Elemental Gods and Guardians shall pave the way for our spaceship to destroy their ships. In any case, the Martial Saints can only fight inside the spaceship. There are a few ways to destroy them. "First, we will get close to them before using our Teleportation Array to teleport our spirits there. Or we will use our weapons and arrays to blast their ships. Either way, we can move according to how they intercept us. To put it simply, the Martial Saints can either support us by charging the weapons or raid them since outer space battle is not their thing yet. This is why most people want to fight inside a Divine World instead of outer space." "What is the number of our force?" Alex asked. "We have roughly five hundred thousand God Rank Experts in Eulja alone. However, the spirits who can''t fight are half of them. Within that half, we can only bring twenty to thirty percent of them because we need to leave the rest to protect Eulja and its stability. "One hundred thousand will go according to the earlier arrangement while the rest one hundred thousand will be brought by another ship. Although it can''t attack or anything, it can carry so many people inside. "Since I am the one in charge of strategy, my current plan is to bring fifty thousand God Rank Experts and one hundred fifty thousand Martial Saints." Alex looked down and fell into deep thought. Anya then asked the others. "Any objections?" The Guardians and Elemental Gods shook their heads as Rilt added. "It''s been a while seeing my daughter in control. Huft, such a good old day." "¡­" The rest only rolled their eyes, ignoring Rilt, who seemed to never be serious in this room. Suddenly, Alex let out a long sigh as if he was disappointed with the plan. "Alex? Do you think I need to improve the strategy?" Anya frowned. "Yeah." Alex scratched the back of his head, feeling pretty guilty. "I am sorry to say this, but I can''t agree with this plan. I want you to redo it." "What?!" They were in utter shock. Not many people would object to Anya''s strategy in the past, so they couldn''t understand Alex''s thoughts for asking her to redo it. "We are fighting alongside the Beast Kingdom, right?" Alex asked. "Yes. My plan is to destroy the Array God''s army with our overwhelming number before moving to their territory to make an example of the universe." Anya nodded. "They are innocent, but we can''t really give mercy too because many of them willingly follow him." "And according to the information you have hidden from me¡­" Alex glanced at Lin Xingzhi. "He wanted to enslave Sherry and have her fallen into despair, right?" Lin Xingzhi looked away, feeling embarrassed because she was also guilty of this plan. "Sherry proposed that idea. I just followed it." "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. In any case, I don''t like him." Alex released his killing intent, showing his grudge against the Array God. "You said that it''s better to fight inside a Divine World, right?" "Absolutely." Anya nodded as she couldn''t understand what she was thinking. "Hence, I want him to fall into despair too. I will show him the taste of his own poison." Alex smiled and continued. "And this is my plan¡­" When they heard his plan, they sucked a cold breath and felt chills all over their bodies. Chapter 1081: Spirit God On the battlefield, Sherry, Beast God, and all the people in Beast Kingdom''s territory had prepared for fighting to the death. Beast God came out of the spaceship and looked at Array God, who appeared to do the same on the other side of the battlefield. "I will say this once more. It''s better for you to turn away right now," said the Beast God while releasing his killing intent. "You think you can still talk big? I have brought ten Rank 2 Gods here while you only have three including yourself." The Array God snorted. "I will give you a chance. Offer your Full Loyalty to me and I shall spare your lives! You all are still useful for me and my ambition!" "Do you think it''s still possible?" The Beast God shook his head. "Since you choose to die, I will help you." The Array God released all of his Divine Energy and killing intent while asking. "What did you say? I will die? No! I will kill the people of your Beast Kingdom and make you see what kind of cruelty I can do!" "Cruelty, huh¡­" The Beast God released his power as well and raised his stance. "I guess I need to prove that everything I said wasn''t a lie." "Father! It''s better to stop wasting your time and eliminate them right now." Suddenly, Young Master Sun appeared beside his father, looking at the Beast God and Sherry behind him. "Hmph! Since you are the one starting this, I will let you start the battle. I will give you two Rank 2 Gods to capture that woman. If you can''t do that, don''t think you can see tomorrow," said the Array God while waving his hand. Two people then appeared as they cupped their hands to the young master. The reason he lent two important people was due to the mysterious power that helped Sherry back then. After contemplating for a long time, he realized that the power came from a Rank 2 God. "Then, let''s start it with a bang. We will summon that bastard!" Young Master Sun raised his hand before pointing at the big cannon above him. Considering the size of the mothership, the cannon alone had one kilometer long barrel with a one hundred meter radius hole. The arrays that had been inscribed onto the cannon glowed, illuminating the dark outer space. It shone so beautifully, but all of them knew how dangerous that weapon could be. "I am just using ten percent of this cannon power, so you won''t die. However, if you escape, this cannon will hit your ship. Let''s see what you will choose." Young Master Sun laughed evilly. "Not on my watch." The Beast God shouted as he planned to intercept it, but the Array God appeared before him, hitting him back. At the same time, all the God Rank Experts from his Beast Kingdom appeared and tried to block that cannon for Sherry. Unfortunately, the Array God''s side also sent a massive number of God Rank Experts, suppressing them in one against two battle. "She is not alone." A female voice echoed as the cat princess made her appearance along with the other princes and princesses. "Even if no God Rank Expert can handle this, we will help her." "No, don''t!" The Beast God wailed as more God Rank Experts appeared to intercept all the princes and princesses. The battle had just begun while the cannon kept pumping up more energy as the Young Master''s shouted. "Fire." The shot was released, shooting a stream of light that had enough size to destroy the ship. Sherry gritted her teeth and summoned her avatar. "Fire Authority, First Stage¡­" The same as Alex, her avatar was a fox¡­No, her true body. That fox shrank in an instant enveloping her body with fox ears and tail. Even the Crow inside her shadow prepared to help her destroy that attack, but a shadow appeared in his vision as a man''s voice echoed in outer space. "Oi, oi. Who do you think you just shot?" Sherry dropped her jaw before smiling. "You have finally arrived." "I am sorry, let me handle this." The man smiled as Divine Intent, Divine Energy, and Elements gushed out of his sword. He jumped forward. "This blow won''t kill her, but it will seriously injure her. It can even be considered a Rank 7 God''s attack. Though¡­" "Three Purities Slash." In an instant he swung his blade, the laser was split into two; one went down and one went above the ship behind him. "What?!" Young Master Sun widened his eyes as he narrowed his eyes, finding someone''s shadow when the light disappeared. That person simply raised his sword and smirked as if everything was under control. "You piece of sh*t¡­ Do you think you are worthy of taking my wife from me?" "Wife, you say? So, you are the bas¡ª" Before finishing his words, a shadow appeared from Sherry and released a few streams of shadow, trying to kill the young master. The crow made its appearance once again before turning into a human figure. He looked like a middle-aged man with long spiky black hair tied into a ponytail. On his nose was a horizontal cut wound that made him look even more badass. Still, the most noticeable feature in his face was a weird pattern covering both eyes as if it acted as a mask. "My King is not for you to soil." Luckily, the two Rank 2 Gods had stopped that attack before reaching their young master while focusing their attention on the middle-aged man. "You have finally made your appearance. Name yourself! No, never mind. Whoever you are, you shall be cut down." One of them looked down on the middle-aged man. On the other hand, Alex turned around and looked at Sherry while smiling ." It''s been a while. How are you?" "He¡­He is Sherry''s husband?" The cat princess widened her eyes. Compared to Young Master Sun, Alex indeed was more handsome. His strength seemed to be far higher than him too. However, his help alone was useless in this war. Even the other princes and princesses thought the same thing. Ignoring their reactions, the middle-aged man walked to Alex before dropping on one knee and cupping his hands. "Your Majesty. Congratulations." "What? Your Majesty?" This statement quickly made the others doubt his identity. For someone to be called their king from a Rank 2 God, that person should be someone important. Yet none of them actually knew the young man''s identity. "So, you are the "Crow" who has protected me in the past and Sherry?" Alex smiled. "Yes, my name is Sullivan." Alex nodded. "As much as I want to talk with you and Sherry, I think we need to end this battle first." "I understand." Sullivan acknowledged his words. "Hmph, you brat! Do you think you can change the tide of this battle? No! Your existence''s only purpose is to make me fulfill my own promise. I will make sure to torture you in front of that b* tch''s eyes." The Array God shouted. "Really?" Suddenly, a woman''s voice echoed as a giant lightning cloud gradually formed above the Array God''s head. A Lightning Dragon emerged from the cloud and struck the Array God, blowing him far away. "Do you think you are qualified?" Six shadows made their appearance as they flew toward the two Rank 2 Gods. Sullivan also did the same as if following their movement. However, ten more shadows appeared on the battlefield. Two of them came from the Beast Kingdom, while the other eight came from the remaining Rank 2 Gods that the Array God brought. At the same time, the Beast God changed his target and helped the Rank 2 Gods instead. In other words, the Beast Kingdom took on three Rank 2 Gods while the four guardians and Lilda took on the remaining five who just came out, allowing the Central Guardian, William, to head straight toward the Rank 2 Gods that protected Young Master Sun. Seeing this, Sullivan also appeared from another side, ready to swing his katana. Both of them exchanged looks while smiling. "It''s been a while." "Indeed." William nodded as he struck his blade together with Sullivan. "Paragon Slash." "Untraceable Blade." "!!!" The two Rank 2 Gods widened their eyes in shock as they quickly took out their weapons to block them, albeit Array God''s mothership shook and tilted to the left just from the impact alone. Bam. "Y-you!" The Array God had returned. He was in complete shock the moment she saw the woman''s face. No God King would be clueless to their own peers. "You are Lin Xingzhi! Why are you here?! You should be in Eulja." *Gasp¡ª!* Almost all people gasped when they heard the name of the Nature Goddess. She was one of the oldest God Kings, so not many hadn''t heard her name. The princes and princesses from the Beast Kingdom looked at Alex, who brought six Rank 2 Gods and a God King. A crown gradually appeared on top of Alex''s head, shocking every single Rank 2 Gods other than those from Eulja. "That¡­ That¡­" "The Crown that the former Spirit God had!" "Spirit Crown!" "Don''t tell me that guy is¡­" Alex ignored all the reactions and raised his hands while commanding with a cold voice. "With my authority as the Spirit King, heed my command. Kill them." Array God laughed out loud and shouted. "To think that you are the Spirit God. That''s good then! I will use your life to gain the whole control of Eulja." "Do you think you can¡­" Alex remained cold. "If you only have these people, you won''t be my opponents!" The Array God snorted and took out a token. "Call the reinforcement." "¡­" The token didn''t lit up and no sound came out. "Oi!" The Array God''s heart skipped a beat and shouted again. "It''s useless." Alex snorted. "They need to deal with their own problem first before they can even come here. It seems that you don''t understand¡­ The moment you dare to come here, it''s the time for you to die." The Array God looked at Alex as he realized what was happening. ¡­ Meanwhile, on another place far from the battlefield, thirty spaceships appeared from big to small. The biggest ship headed straight to the Divine World not far from them and descended to their atmosphere. Two people then came out and jumped off the ship, landing on the ground with a smile. They were none other than Rilt and Vina. "There are three Rank 2 Gods on this planet," said Rilt while feeling their presence coming their way. "As long as you can hold one of them while supporting me, I will kill the first two and eliminate the last one." She snorted and turned her head to the side, finding three people coming. "Who are you?!" One of them shouted. "You know that this is the territory Array God, right?" "Since you like questions¡­" Rilt smirked evilly. "You know that your Array God has offended the Spirit God, right?" Before they could process what he just said, Vina harrumphed and released dark energy. "Don''t talk too much." "Fine." Rilt shrugged. The two finally transformed in unison. "True Spirit Body." A cross appeared behind him as he set his staff on the ground. "Four Light Authorities." "Night Ripper Form." Vina snorted and looked at the enemies. "No need to talk too much. We are here to massacre them." "Right¡­" He shrugged. ¡­ At the same time, this happened in every single Divine World that the Array God had. North of the main Divine World, Agnis landed with five thousand God Rank Experts and ten thousand Martial Saints. "Our mission is to eliminate all the people in Array God''s territories. Let''s go!" "Ooh!" "True Spirit Body." In another Divine World, Zerah landed and met another Rank 2 God that stayed behind. She simply raised her hand. "Spread out and eliminate all people here. Don''t think they are innocent because they might turn against us in the future." "Who are you?!" The Rank 2 God furrowed his eyebrows, not knowing why Zerah landed in this world. However, her goal was clear. He took out his sword. "It seems that after waiting for five thousand years, not many know me anymore. But don''t you worry, you will know who I am pretty soon." Zerah smiled as she released a powerful Lightning Energy. "True Spirit Body." The same applied to Canaan. He met one of the Rank 2 God that the Array God left behind to protect his territory. However, Canaan himself didn''t like to talk with strangers despite being pretty friendly toward his allies, especially Alex. He simply ignored his presence and chanted. "True Spirit Body." Luckily, Helena landed on the water while creating a tsunami as she might be the one with the flashiest entrance. "Seriously¡­To think that our current king is even crazier than the previous one to even send us to eliminate any future threats while he is risking himself. "Though, it means that we can handle them separately, allowing us to have an easier time to eliminate them. As long as we are fast enough, we should be able to finish this within hours and send reinforcement to our king while some clean up this entire area." Helena smiled and nodded. "I can''t hold back my power anymore then." "True Spirit Body." Chapter 1082: Great Battle Part 1 "What did he say?!" "He is the Spirit God?" "I have heard about the ceremony, but he¡­" Shocked, the people fell silent as they never thought that Sherry''s husband was the Spirit God. No wonder she could act aloof and set an agreement with the Beast God himself. Although Alex''s cultivation was still a Rank 5 God, the influence of his existence alone could send chills down their spines. "What Spirit God, he is just trash! All God Rank Experts, kill him!" Young Master Sun shouted as if he was sour because Alex just trampled his identity and pride. The first to come out was fifty hundred Rank 3 Gods, followed by other God Rank Experts. Beast God realized it and ordered. "All God Rank Experts from my Beast Kingdom. Protect his excellency, the Spirit King!" Since this was their home, they had more numbers than the Array God since they didn''t need to split up into two for attacking and defending like the Array God. "I think all of you should come out first." Alex smiled as nine figures appeared behind him. All of them were Rank 8 Gods with the exception of Anna. Yes, they were all the spirits that helped him so much. Unfortunately, they had a harder time when ascending to God Rank. Even though their pace was faster than Alex''s wives, Alex''s speed was just that fast. At the same time, Silvia and the other wives also came out together with a Teleportation Array. "Leave the injured to me." Silvia pumped her fists while summoning the needles. "I will protect them. As long as there is no more than one Rank 3 God, I will be able to ensure their safety." Alex nodded with a smile. "I will handle everything else. I don''t know if I can match up against a Rank 3 God, but I should be fine killing a Rank 4 God." "Yup. There you go, I will be watching your battle." Silvia nodded. Alex then took out his spear and regained his focus. He looked around this chaotic battle and planned to kill that Young Master. "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes while observing the enemies with his Spirit Eyes. Surprisingly, he found something that could completely change the direction of the battle but waited for the perfect time to create the biggest impact that would devastate the enemies. He simply watched how the others fought for the time being. In the meantime, Lin Xingzhi raised her hand and summoned the Lightning Disturbance again as a lightning dragon struck forth. "You may be one of the strongest God King, but your ability is not focused on a battle like this. I will show the universe that I am worthy of becoming a God King like those in the past." Sun Gong clapped his hand as a huge array appeared behind him. His creation time was similar to that of Alex, so Lin Xingzhi shouldn''t be able to stop him while casting. "Indeed. Compared to the Sword God, my offensive power is still below him. However, against you? I have enough to spare." Lin Xingzhi smiled and spread both hands, creating two more Disturbances. There were currently a Lightning Disturbance from above, an Earth Disturbance from the left and a Space Disturbance from below. Sun Gong activated his array as a small light ball emerged from the array. It flew at high speed before two arrays appeared. The first array absorbed the ball before shooting out a few streams of light. The second array controlled all those lights so the Array God could choose a specific target to obliterate. Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows while looking at her surroundings. The lights prevented her from escaping. At the same time, it held enough strength to injure her. Yet, Lin Xingzhi still could smile in this situation. She simply raised her hand and created another disturbance. Surprisingly, the Disturbance was a Space Disturbance. Due to the distorting effect from it, the light bent again, moving away from her. "!!!" The Array God finally closed his eyes as he became serious. He raised his vision, seeing that the lightning dragon almost hit him and pushed his palm above as another huge array appeared, releasing a white sword, penetrating the dragon. At the same time, the Earth Disturbance formed a meteorite that would strike him and his ship if he didn''t take it. Having no choice, Sun Gong clicked his tongue and created another Barrier Array to stop the meteorite. It was at this time Lin Xingzhi played her card, the Space Disturbance that deflected Sun Gong''s attacks suddenly turned into a portal, connected to the other Space Disturbance, teleporting the attack back to its owner. "Wha¡ª" Sun Gong widened his eyes and put another Barrier Array to the other side. In other words, he was controlling three arrays at the same time. Unfortunately, Lin Xingzhi was a bit better because three or four wasn''t her limit. She created another one. Below the Array God, a small-scale sun appeared and burst out an intense heat. It released a few pillars of fire toward Sun Gong. Surprisingly, Sun Gong really had the ability to back up his claim. He moved his finger, making a small triangle with his index and middle fingers. "Three Great Formation Array, Sun, Moon, Star." Three arrays appeared next to him as the first three disappeared. The lightning dragon, the meteorite, and Sun Gong''s own attack hit him at the same time. But what Lin Xingzhi found was the crumbling meteorite. The lightning dragon also magically disappeared as if it couldn''t penetrate something that stopped him. The same applied to Sun Gong''s previous attack. As if hitting something, the laser like attacks dispersed and disappeared after losing all of their energy. "Hmm¡­Not bad." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes as Sun Gong emerged from the attacks unscathed. The three arrays also had disappeared, so she couldn''t understand what was going on. "It''s my turn." The Array God raised his hands, summoning three arrays at once. A spear emerged from the first one, lightning sparked from the second one, and flame burst out of the third one. "Take it if you¡ª" Before he finished, one of the arrays broke as Lin Xingzhi utilized her sixth Disturbance, an Ice Disturbance. "What did you say? Is there any enemy who will wait to get attacked?" Lin Xingzhi snorted with a cold gaze. At first, she wanted to aim at his body but realized that the Array God would notice it. Hence, she changed her target at the last second, allowing her to reduce the attack into two. "Hmph!" The Array God remained unfazed and sent only the spear and lightning. Lin Xingzhi waved her hand as the Space Disturbance blocked the attacks once again. At the same time, she summoned a few more Disturbances to start a counterattack. ¡­ While Lin Xingzhi handled the Array God, William and Sullivan were fighting two Rank 2 Gods together. They seemed to have fought together a lot in the past from the way they moved and talked. Sullivan waved his sword and released a Sword Wave toward the blue-haired God in front of him. When the latter was about to dodge, he sensed that William''s opponent was behind him. In other words, if he dodged, the attack would surely hit him. Little did he know that the one behind him also faced the same thing. William had cornered his opponent while matching Sullivan''s attack. When their enemies had the same thoughts, they jumped forward and struck the Sword Wave without hesitation. Boom. The shock waves produced by these two clashes shook the entire battlefield. If not because they had a fight going on, they would surely watch the battle between two Rank 2 Gods. It was just too exciting to pass. Sullivan winked his eyes as if sending a message to William. Understanding what he intended to do, William sheathed his blade once before swinging it as fast as possible. Sullivan also did the same thing. "Limitless Curved Blade." They used the same technique as their opponents thought there would be another Sword Wave coming. However, what they said was more complex than that. Sullivan''s attack curved to the right side, going around his enemy just to reach William''s enemy. William also did the same thing as his attack flew toward Sullivan''s enemy. When the two realized it, they were too late to dodge and slashed that attack without their stance. The unbalanced body got pushed back as both backs hit each other. This was the opportunity Sullivan and William created. They followed the course of their own attacks with their sword sheathed. Just like earlier, they planned to do the same ultra-fast swing. "Sword Lariat!" "!!!" The two Rank 2 Gods tried to block those two attacks but ended up losing their right hand simultaneously. "Kh¡­" The left Rank 2 God glared at Sullivan and his right hand. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. "It seems I have underestimated you. I won''t do it anymore this time." Suddenly, his right hand grew but made of stones. At the same time, three pairs of stone hands appeared from his back, each holding a sword. "Eight Arms Asura." "Oi, oi. Sullivan. Look at your opponents, you cut one arm and it regrows along with another three pairs." William jokingly teased Sullivan in this battle. "Then, I just need to cut more. Since he has shown me something interesting, I should reciprocate his feelings, no?" Sullivan smirked as he was enveloped by Black Energy. A pair of crow wings emerged from his back while the black patterns on his face spread out until his face was completely black as if wearing a mask. "True Spirit Body, Untainted Crow Form." He smiled and slashed his sword, releasing not a Sword Wave but his own black feathers. "!!!" His enemy decided to slash all of them with all his hands but ended up getting blown away, not expecting the powerful force behind each feather. "Haiz. To think you are using your True Spirit Body. Mine is not too flashy though¡­" William smiled as another sword appeared on his waist. "I am still here!" The other one shouted because Sullivan and William paid too much attention to the one beside him. He swallowed the Divine Pill to regrow his hand. Although it didn''t have too much strength, the effect could be minimized for a period of time with his Divine Energy. Holding two swords, he glared at William. "I will cut you down." "Hmph! Look at your own opponent." Sullivan only snorted while looking at the new sword on his waist. He knew this whole time that William had been holding back this whole time. The reason why William became the Central Guardian, which was known as the leader of the Guardians, was due to this style. William did the same thing as his opponent, pulling out his second sword. The moment he held that sword, his aura changed from a cheerful guy into someone filled with killing intent. Sullivan smiled and remembered that William managed to lay a blow on the previous Spirit God due to this style. Although it was indescribable, his opponent could see an aura coming from both blades. William smirked with confidence as he said, "I will show you my Two Flash Sword Style then. Hope you won''t die too fast, you f*cking piece of sh*t!" Chapter 1083: Great Battle Part 2 William''s opponent raised his blade on top of his head and waited for William to make the first move while saying. "Then, I would like to see whether your blade can reach me." William smiled and looked around before waving both swords vertically. "This won''t take too long." His opponent was confused by his action because that swing didn''t generate anything. Yet, William kept doing a few swings before sending something indescribable to his opponent. "!!!" It struck deep inside his heart¡­The feeling of death. In an instant, his opponent realized that William had been making his attack. "I need to stop his swinging!" He quickly jumped toward William and swung both swords to stop whatever William was doing. However, he soon felt something on his hand as if it was hit by an invisible force, pushing it back a little bit to mess up his movement. William then disappeared as two strikes had been delivered, albeit the enemy seemed to be one of the strongest Rank 2 Gods among Array God''s retainers. Even so, William still managed to leave a graze on his enemy''s arm. Although it was shallow, it already showed their disparity. "This is good! To think I would have the chance to meet someone like you!" He laughed and looked at William who kept swinging his blade, turning the force to an even deadlier one. Suddenly, his attack pattern changed as he began charging at William without care. His swords released powerful winds that could rip someone apart. "After fighting you, I have realized that you don''t rely on your element. No, should I say that you have completely abandoned your own element?" "I don''t need an element. I reach my current power with my swords alone. You may believe that my own swords are my elements. That''s all there to it." "Haha. You are amusing." He smirked. "I am Regen, Sun Gong''s strongest retainers. I shall applaud you to take my arm at the beginning and create this many wounds on my body. However, I am the strongest when I am fighting alone! Hence, be proud when you die in my hand." "¡­" William furrowed his eyebrows and took him head-on. "Spirit God''s Central Guardian, William." His opponent continuously threw strikes after strikes, but William blocked every single of them. In fact, he even injured him every now and then until his opponent was covered with blood, and yet, the latter couldn''t care less of his body. Despite the numerous wounds, he followed wherever William went until one point. Clang. The clash that made William surprised occurred. "Ah! This is it. I have disturbed your rhythm. Now it''s time for me to attack you!" He smirked and slashed once more. "Twin Berserker Dance." "!!!" William was taken aback before he spat blood as two big wounds appeared on his chest. "Tch! Too shallow." His opponent clicked his tongue and turned around, only to find William had gotten his rhythm back. "What?" ''It''s time.'' William thought. For the first time, he took the initiative to get closer to his opponent. "Did you let me cut you, so you can grasp your rhythm back? You are very strong, aren''t you?" The latter raised his blades and slashed both of them diagonally despite knowing that his attack would surely hit the spaceship. It just showed how powerful William is. He needed to use everything without thinking about someone''s safety if he wanted to defeat William, especially after sensing that William had built up his own attack, planning to release it at any moment. "Unsurpassed Blade Wind." The powerful wind gushed out of his swords and even pushed the spaceship a little. No matter what anyone said, he was still a Rank 2 God. Even though William was stronger, he still had enough strength to claim his current cultivation. "I might be slashing my own ship, but I need to do it to defeat you." His eyes flashed a dangerous glint as the wind became even stronger. "Even if you are my enemy, it''s an honor to fight a swordsman like you." "I see. So, you are also a warrior. In that case, let''s this clash end it all." William smiled as he almost reached his opponent. "So be it!" He smiled and swung his swords with all his might. "Unsurpassed God Blade." Seeing the swords, William also released his strike and passed his opponent. Not many people saw it, but in that instant, two massive green Sword Waves were about to hit the spaceship, but both were destroyed by William''s swords alone without having any extraordinary appearance. However, only his opponent faced the real nightmare of William''s true sword. With his back facing William''s back, he sheathed his swords and smiled. "What is the name of your blade?" "Two Flash Sword Style Ultimate Form. Formless Third Blade." "Swinging a hundred times to create a magnificent combo that even forced the law of this universe to create one Absolute Blade. Sacrificing your own body to forcefully gain back your rhythm. The third blade of a two-sword style¡­I have lost." William smiled as the blade finally showed its might. The Rank 2 God''s body was split into half as the cut area spread, cutting the mothership''s wing cleanly. William also sheathed his swords and took a deep breath, still feeling numb after that last attack. Even though he was an enemy, he considered him a warrior. "Such a strong warrior. I am glad to have the chance to fight him." ¡­ As the fight ended, Sullivan sighed. "It seems that your friend has died." "Hmph! You should worry about yourself first. All this time, you keep defending, and with him being exhausted from that last battle, I will kill you before he can recover." Sullivan''s opponent snorted as he used all eight arms to strike Sullivan. However, such a thing was easily blocked by not his sword but his wings. He simply covered his body with his wings that seemed to be impenetrable before slashing his sword. His opponent was also better than a normal Rank 2 God. His real hand was far faster than his stone hands, allowing him to intercept that true strike. Still, if one were to take a closer look, they would notice that Sullivan''s feathers kept being chipped by his opponent. They all were scattering in the space. After a certain point, they started to be noticeable, making people think that Sullivan would lose. The conclusion came in a sudden, when Sullivan''s opponent hit him again, due to the lack of feathers, it was the first time Sullivan bleed. The blood coming out of his wings floated into space, making his opponent more confident. ''It''s time." He smirked as all eight swords began to glow. "Die!" "Eight Arms Asura. Divine Cut." Sullivan looked at those blades and smiled. He recalled what happened six thousand years ago. ¡­ Six thousand years ago. It was his meeting with Alex in the castle. Because it was a private one, only two of them were inside a small room. "Sullivan," Alex called. "Do you need me, Your Majesty?" "Why do you keep holding back your power?" Alex asked while looking at him. "I don''t understand what you mean, Your Majesty." He shook his head in confusion. "How about you return to your original form?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I don''t like the small one, the real one." Sullivan pondered for a second before turning into a three meters high crow. However, unlike the form that Sherry had seen, his wings had a difference. It wasn''t just a simple one pair. Instead, Sullivan actually had three pairs of wings. "Due to these wings, people called me an oddball or a monster. I am afraid that it will affect Your Majesty''s image¡­" Sullivan shook his head. "You kept saying that despite knowing I don''t mind, right?" "Even so, I would feel bad after doing it. I know I am in the wrong. Even if Your Majesty wants to exile me, this one will accept." Alex sighed and looked at the ceiling before realizing something. "That''s right. I have upgraded the ability of my Elemental Gods, Guardians, and Commandants, but I haven''t done anything to you." "That¡­ That¡­ I think it''s a waste to use it on me, Your Majesty. I will keep hiding the other two pairs¡­" "No, I think I can do something about it." Alex smiled. "But I want you to promise me something." Sullivan hesitated, so Alex decided to continue without waiting for his reply. "I will give you the chance to hide it. However, there will be a time that your power alone is not enough to handle your opponent. At that time, I want you to show me everything. Even if people claim you are a monster, I will become even more monstrous to make you look like a normal Spirit. I will walk every step you take, so¡­" He placed his hands on Sullivan''s shoulders before using his Spirit Crown. Sullivan suddenly turned into his human form. "Sullivan. True Spirit Body!" "True Spirit Body, Untainted Crow Form." Suddenly, Sullivan transformed into his True Spirit Body only to feel something weird. The power he gained wasn''t comparable to his usual True Spirit Body. Alex waved his hand and controlled the Spiritual Energy to create a mirror, allowing him to see his own transformation. At that time, Sullivan let out tears as he saw only one pair of wings on his back. "This was the first time. Instead of enhancing your skill, I used it on your True Spirit Body instead, separating your True Spirit Body into two parts." Alex paused for a moment and asked. "How about you use it?" "How?" Sullivan tilted his head in confusion. "I am sure that you know it. Ask your body, not me." Alex shook his head with a calm expression, waiting for him to achieve the second form. Sullivan closed his eyes and checked his body before an image flashed in his mind. He subconsciously opened his mouth. "True Spirit Body, Intexia Crow Form." Two other pairs of his wings suddenly appeared as if it just grew. His power raised exponentially, even surpassing his previous power. Even Sullivan was shocked when he saw this. Checking his body, he exclaimed in surprise. "This¡­My current power is like one hundred twenty percent of my original form." "There is one more thing." Alex smiled and stretched his hand, grasping his wing. Sullivan couldn''t understand what he did, but when he saw blood coming out of his palm, he quickly undid his transformation. "Your Majesty." "I am fine." Alex smiled and retracted his hand, looking at the wound that soon got closed. "Your Wing has become your additional blade." "Your Majesty." Sullivan quickly kneeled as he never thought that Alex would have done something like this for someone like him. He had betrayed Alex''s trust by holding back and yet, not only Alex gave him another chance, but he also granted him something far more important. "Sullivan. I am relying on you. I know for sure that even the Lightning Goddess, Zerah, can''t compete against you in terms of speed." Sullivan kept kneeling and couldn''t help but cry. ¡­ After recalling that scene, Sullivan took a deep breath and opened his mouth. "True Spirit Body, second form. Intexia Crow Form." Sullivan finally released all his six wings. Those wings instantly cut all the stone arms as Sullivan slashed his blade from below, hitting the real two hands. "!!!" His enemy widened his eyes and leaped backward to gain another distance because he smelled something different from Sullivan. However, Sullivan already disappeared in that instant. "Where¡ª" His enemy opened his mouth before realizing that he had been cut and soon split into half. Sullivan turned out to be behind him with Dark Energy coming out of his body. "I am sorry for this whole time, Your Majesty. To think that I couldn''t see you anymore after giving you that promise. However, I won''t run away anymore." "Traceless Blade. Intex." He sheathed his sword and let out a long sigh before his eyes intertwined with William''s, who gradually approached him. Chapter 1084: Great Battle Part 3 "Oi, oi, oi! What''s that?" William quickly approached him without a care of his own wound. "Since when did you have six wings?" "Always has been." Sullivan let out a long sigh. "In the past, my trauma prevented me from using this. To think that a few years after promising his majesty that I will unleash everything I have when necessary was the last promise I had before he fought the beast¡­My heart couldn''t take it anymore. "I chose not to run away anymore, making sure that the current him wouldn''t die because of me holding back. After all, I know that losing someone is far worse than getting scrutinized by those around you¡­" Sullivan closed his eyes, letting out tears. "Haiz. I never thought that His Majesty forced us to stay home back then, saying that he wouldn''t do anything, only turned out that he left alone to fight that beast¡­" William scratched the back of his head. "Anyway, I believed that His Majesty had predicted everything, so we could only trust his choice and make sure that the current him can achieve everything he has left behind." "Yes." Sullivan nodded with a solemn face before asking. "How about your wounds?" "It''s nothing. Every time I fought, I would gain this type of injury, so it''s fine. My strength is still at the top¡­Just a bit exhausted. Probably, I can only help someone once more before my Spiritual Energy is zero. You should know that my Formless Blade required a ridiculous amount of Spiritual Energy, right?" "Yeah. Though because you managed to wound him in the past using that technique, he decided to use his Spirit Crown to make it even stronger." Sullivan nodded. "Anyway, let''s go back to his side first and ask about his opinion." "Sure thing." William acknowledged and returned to Alex''s side. "Your Majesty. We have successfully killed our enemies." Both cupped their hands and bowed politely. "How is your body?" Alex asked. "I will be fine to help someone, but I will retire after that. As expected, taking their strongest Rank 2 God is not easy." "How about you kill one more so I can stand here to protect his majesty? You probably should help that little Lilda because she is His Majesty''s escort, no?" "Fair enough." William nodded before looking at Alex, confirming the request. However, Alex simply waved his hand, pointing at the East Guardian, the poison master, Carissa. "You will help her." "Carissa, huh. Well, she herself is not good at a fight, but I think she can hold on for a little longer." William narrowed his eyes. "Are you questioning our king''s decision, William?" Sullivan released his killing intent. "No, that''s not what I mean. I just want to have His Majesty protected." "No. It''s fine this way. While you are heading to Carissa, I will help the one fighting the Beast God. Both of their opponents have a fire element¡­" Alex smiled. "Why don''t we use something to suppress them?" "Your Majesty. Are you planning to use the power of Fire God?" Alex nodded. "But won''t it be too soon? The whole universe is watching you right now. If you carelessly use that power, they will think they need more people to come." "That''s the reason. With more people, their relationship will become even more unstable, resulting in us getting more time to prepare. After that, we can use deception like rumors or such to slow them down even further." Alex smirked. "I hope that I can reach Rank 4 if not Rank 3 before handling them." "I see. So that''s how Your Majesty wants to play out." William nodded. "In that case, Your Majesty wants to use your Space Element as a Trump Card?" "Yes. Though I haven''t practiced my Space Element to his level, since I am planning to take on his inheritance, I will learn it there." Alex nodded with a serious expression. He had calculated everything from the beginning. "No wonder." William smiled. "I understand. I shall help Carissa." "Good." Alex then turned to Sullivan. "Do you think you can kill the Beast God''s opponent in one strike?" "If there is an opening, it will be easy." Sullivan nodded. "That''s right. What was the skill you used earlier? You were so fast and cut your enemy just like that." William remembered what he wanted to ask previously. "It''s my true form. I am a six-winged crow. The reason that the Previous Spirit God accepted me as his sole bodyguard was due to my speed. In terms of combat alone, I can probably take on Korzan head-on. However, my strength is in my speed. I can confidently claim that no one is faster than me." He smiled. "Is that so? Though I really believe that I won''t be your match from that speed alone. I can barely follow your movement. Maybe if I have the chance to see your speed a few times, I can defeat you." William thought for a moment. "Who will let someone escape when you have the chance to kill him?" Sullivan snorted. "Hmph." William snorted. "Anyway, let''s go." Alex shook his head helplessly. "Let''s settle this fight as soon as possible." "Understood." Both cupped their hands as they disappeared from the battlefield. ¡­ Meanwhile, Carissa waved her hand and sent a crescent-shaped wave, hitting her opponent''s attack directly. "Tch." Her opponent raised her spear again. Blood had begun coming out of her mouth due to Carissa''s poison. At the same time, Carissa''s condition wasn''t that good. "You won''t be able to kill me. Your poison is not potent enough." She raised her spear and prepared for another charge. "I know. Poison experts are never considered someone strong. After all, Divine Energy can hold it off for a long time. When I am dead, you will probably find a way to stop the poison until you have a way to purify it." Carissa smiled. "In fact, I may be the weakest among the guardians. Even so, I still have enough power to buy time until my friends kill all of you. When that time comes, you will have become weak enough that even a Rank 3 God can easily kill you." "Then I only need to kill you as quickly as possible." She raised her hand and charged at her. Carissa raised her hand and summoned a giant translucent green-colored palm to stop that charge. However, her opponent released a powerful fire element that burned all those poisons and pierced through that palm. "This is it¡­" She thrust her spear. Carissa clenched her teeth and launched herself to the left, albeit the spear was quick enough to pierce her shoulder. "Gah!" Carissa screamed out of pain. Her opponent smirked and planned to kill her right now. However, Carissa grasped the spear and controlled her blood to move around, melting the spear. "What? Ten thousand poison blood?" Her opponent recognized her blood that could even melt a Divine Spear, but she was too late. One drop of Carissa''s blood had touched her left hand, turning her white skin into black and spreading at high speed. The woman released her spear and cut her own hand without hesitation. "Kh¡­" Carissa smiled even with blood coming out of her mouth. "Why are you running? I am still here." "You are insane. Are you planning to kill yourself just to bring me down with you?" "This is how the weak me has survived until now." Carissa waved her hand, taunting her to come. Her opponent took another spear out even though she didn''t have her left hand anymore. She planned to be more cautious against Carissa, albeit little did she know she was too late. "Ah, ah. I have told you to come and kill me, but you waste your precious chance." Carissa smiled. "What did¡ª" Before she finished, an immeasurable pressure hit her. She quickly revolved her Divine Energy but to no avail. She could fight the pressure but couldn''t resolve it. When she turned around, Alex appeared in her vision before the former became upside down. William let out a long breath and turned to Carissa. "Are you alright, little girl?" "Not quite. I used a lot of blood during this fight." She shook her head before looking at Alex. Without bothering the old man, Carissa regrouped with Alex. William couldn''t help but shake his head helplessly after seeing how she just ignored him. "Little girl. I just saved you, you know¡­" "Without His Majesty, you couldn''t do it in that instant." Carissa stuck out her tongue before jumping toward Alex, planning to hug him. "Your Majesty¡­" Alex stretched his hand and stopped her by grabbing her forehead. "What?" "Ah, I am injured, you know." She spun her body and gracefully fell on Alex''s embrace. In addition, Carissa even used her full power just to take advantage of this situation. There was no way Alex could react with his current strength. Taking out a bottle from her space ring, she handed it to Alex with her shaking hand. "Your Majesty. Can you please feed me the medicine? I don''t mind if you don''t want to do it mouth to mouth, but can you? Pretty please." Alex twitched his eyebrows, noticing something wrong with the medicine. "Alright. But shouldn''t you explain what this medicine is?" "It''s obviously aphrodisiac. If I take that, I will be like a cat in the heat. That way, His Majesty won''t have another option other than relieving me through intercourse. After all, my poison blood will just evaporate if you try it with your Pure Fire." Carissa smiled playfully. "I see. I heard something useful." Alex smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder. Carissa misunderstood his intention and felt gleeful, expecting him to start groping her chest. However, that pleasure never came. Only the pain was coming. "Argh!" She struggled before leaping off his embrace. "Uuh¡­Your Majesty turns out to be an S." "Little girl, you should be more serious." William sighed when he looked at Carissa. Alex just slipped a bit of his Pure Fire to her wound, giving her a bit of pain. "I am serious!" Carissa pouted. "Well, thanks for the help." "You''re welcome." William nodded. Carissa also took another ointment before giving it to William. "Take this. It should be enough to close your wound. It''s the poison that will stimulate your defense system to create more cells to regenerate your body." "Thanks." William grabbed the ointment and smeared it on his wound. Carissa also did the same before cupping her hand to Alex. "Thank you for your help, Your Majesty." Alex nodded. "Is your body alright? I think you should go back with William since we have successfully defeated four Rank 2 Gods." "I think I have another good plan, Your Majesty." William raised his hand. "Since this one didn''t take any energy, I can wreak havoc in their rank, destroying a few spaceships. This way, they will get distracted and the overall situation will turn our way." "No. It''s fine. Besides, I have a job for you." Alex turned around and saw all his wives fighting. "Can both of you protect them?" "We understand." They bowed to him. Suddenly, Sullivan brought Lilda with him. "That''s five, Your Majesty." "Oh, Sullivan! What the heck is that form?" Carissa''s eyes brightened. "You look amazing." "This doesn''t suit me at all." Sullivan shook his head. "Anyway, I alone will be enough to change the situation, so you two can protect the ladies for the time being. Your Majesty¡­Will you¡ª" "Nope. I am not planning to stop here." Alex didn''t let him finish and stated. "I am going to kill that guy." Sullivan sighed as if he had expected Alex would say that. "I shall escort you to that place." "Sure." Alex agreed since it would be faster that way. A few seconds later. Alex and Lilda appeared before the spaceship, looking at Young Master Sun. It was obvious who was superior, considering the latter was only a Rank 9 God while Alex was a Rank 5 God. "You are not going to die easily." Alex only said as he planned to hand him to Jeanne after this. Chapter 1085: Great Battle Part 4 "You¡ª" Young Master Sun clenched his teeth and knew that there was no way he could fight Alex. He was convinced that he could get Sherry, but to think one person, only a Rank 5 God, could overturn the entire situation. He quickly shouted. "Help me!" "Young Master!" Three Rank 3 Gods appeared next to him, planning to strike Alex. They just barely escaped from their pursuer and tried to come to the Young Master after seeing William and Sullivan killed their opponents. "I am sorry, but my king wants to bully that man a little bit, you know. So, I will be entertaining you for a while¡­That is if you don''t die in the process." Lilda smiled and clapped her hand, summoning Eulja''s logo on her back. Meanwhile, Alex passed her side and said, "I am leaving them to you." "No one shall touch you." Lilda nodded with a serious expression. After hearing that, Alex jumped toward their Young Master with his weapons. "Hii!" Young Master Sun wanted to escape immediately, but a shadow appeared from the ship, heading straight between him and Alex. "!!!" Alex instinctively slashed his sword toward that shadow before getting repelled. "Your Majesty!" Lilda shouted and became concerned about Alex''s well-being. Alex looked at the young man that suddenly came out. It was none other than the other prince that didn''t have the same ideal as his father, Sun Gongming. "I am sorry, but no matter how foolish my little brother is, I should be stepping in this situation." Sun Gongming calmly looked at Alex before asking. "If I may ask, is there a possibility where we can settle this peacefully, Your Majesty, the Spirit King?" "I can see that you are different from them. However, it''s already too late." Alex shook his head. "In that case, I can only offend you." Sun Gongming raised his hands, summoning an array behind him. "If you can, that is¡­ I have been wanting to test my strength against a Rank 4 God anyway." Alex raised both hands, released his Absolute Blade Intent, Pure Weapon Qi, and his Godly Pure Fire, and summoned his two dragons. "Lightning Dragon Array!" As one would expect from the son of an Array God. His array activation was only less than five seconds when people on his peer were supposed to make it in ten seconds to be considered a genius. A lightning dragon similar to the one that Lin Xingzhi summoned emerged from the array, flying toward him. Alex''s two dragons, which had a smaller size, flew toward it, trying to burn that lightning dragon. Surprisingly, the Lightning Dragon could move its hands and grabbed both dragons, crushing their heads as if nothing. Alex''s weapon spirits obviously didn''t take it that friendly. Before the dragon disappeared, it released a burst of Fire Energy, burning the dragon''s hand until it disappeared. To complete his attack before Alex''s Pure Fire burned the dragon as a whole, Sun Gongming forced the dragon to ram through him. Surprisingly, Alex didn''t even dodge and let the dragon swallow him, yet, Sun Gongming frowned instead of smiling. His Lightning Dragon was ripped apart by a fox that emerged from Alex''s back. "Fire Authority, First Stage. Fire Avatar." "¡­" Sun Gongming took a deep breath. In that instant, he understood the reason why the Spirit God was feared. Normally, it was hard for God Rank Expert to fight someone above their level, yet, the one before him could completely destroy his attack without even moving. No wonder that Lin Xingzhi said that he couldn''t be compared to those who possessed overwhelming prowess in the past. It turned out that if someone like Alex actually became a God King, he would possess so much offensive power. Knowing that he couldn''t hold back anymore, Sun Gongming summoned another Array. This time, it called a knife from it. The knife held a considerable amount of killing intent. Coupled with his lightning element, the knife flew like lightning. Alex narrowed his eyes and disappeared. The next second, he was already in front of the knife, thrusting his spear. "Twin Fusion Spear." The Space Element bent the knife''s edge before the Pure Fire emerged from behind, obliterating the knife. Alex''s momentum was still forward, heading straight toward Sun Gongming with his sword. "!!!" Sun Gongming leaped backward to avoid that strike, but Alex didn''t let him go away. With his speed faster than him, Sun Gongming knew that Alex would catch up soon. Instead of running away, he summoned another Array. As an Array Master himself, Alex noticed the symbols signifying the Barrier Array. It seemed that he needed to cut a barrier array first before cutting him down. To his surprise, Sun Gongming clenched his hand and threw a fist. ''What? Why did he try to punch me? Does he want me to cut his ha¡ª'' When he was about to finish thinking, he noticed that the barrier array formed a small barrier to cover his fist instead of a square that would block him. ''Did he just make a boxing glove out of a barrier array? Seriously?'' Without having any choice, Alex slashed his sword early, resulting in him clashing with that glove instead. "Three Purities Slash." To everyone''s surprise, Sun Gongming managed to blow Alex away. The latter tried hard to stabilize his position, but no one noticed it until Sun Gongming raised his hand. The barrier was completely cut deep enough until the sword cut his fingers. It was painful, but the thought of his world getting annihilated just like that was more painful than him. He didn''t even let out a single groan when he saw no finger remained in his right hand. What no one knew was the fact that Alex cut it with his Pure Sword Qi, the thing that was said to be capable of cutting anything. And with the Space Element and Fire Element enveloping it, it was, in fact, weird to see that it didn''t cut Sun Gongming''s hand. It also showed the disparity between Sun Gongming and his brother. No wonder that people adored him as the next ruler after the Array God. "No wonder the record said that the Sword God and the Spirit God could actually cut a planet into half. Seeing that you managed to cut my concentrated barrier like this, I believe that you would be able to cut a planet in the future." Sun Gongming exclaimed in amazement. Alex narrowed his eyes and summoned his Fox instead of replying to him. After all, he could see that he had been trapped. There were four arrays lying behind him this whole time and Sun Gongming planned to use it after blowing him away. "And you even notice the trap I have set up¡­" Sun Gongming raised his hand, activating the array. "But it''s too late." The four arrays shone as lightning started sparking in all directions. Boom. Despite knowing that Alex took the direct hit, no one from Eulja actually said anything. Even Sun Gongming knew that something like that wasn''t enough to kill someone at Alex''s caliber. Suddenly, a fire appeared, burning the residual lightning before Alex''s figure came into everyone''s vision. The Fox was gone, but fox ears and tail became a part of Alex. "¡­" Alex took a deep breath and knew that the person in front of him was not your average Rank 4 God. He possessed both intelligence and power, unlike the one he tried to protect. He realized why Sun Gongming wanted to settle this peacefully. He had been fighting to change his world. "It seems that you are a fighter yourself. The one that wants to change something." "As expected from a king such as yourself. Unfortunately, it''s something not possible, right?" "Unfortunately, no. I will use your world as an example to save¡­to warn more and more people. Besides, there is no guarantee that you will stay like this when you attain that power." Sun Gongming suddenly fell silent as if he recalled something. Little did Alex know that his father, the Array God, was actually a warm and responsible father. However, everything changed so suddenly, and no one knew the cause. "Still, it can''t be changed. I am not fast enough to stop everything from happening. In that case, I would rather die while trying than escaping." Sun Gongming let out a long sigh before looking at his brother. "You should go. If you can escape, our family line will still survive." Surprisingly, his brother didn''t get emotional as if he planned to escape the whole time, albeit everything was too late. "No. That''s impossible." Alex shook his head before pointing his finger toward the enemy rank. "Look. It''s my win." They narrowed their eyes to see what he was pointing at. Suddenly, a light shone behind the enemy lines. "Four Light Authorities. First Authority, Life." The light stunned everyone on the battlefield as they took a split second to see what happened, albeit that split second turned into a few seconds when they saw the change of their two spaceships behind. The first one melted into molten iron before a giant pillar rose, destroying the entire ship. On the second ship, there was this black energy that was swallowing her the entire ship until nothing was left. They were none other than Agnis in his Magma Salamander Form, Rilt with his Light Authorities, and Vina in her Night Ripper Form. Agnis cupped his hand and roared. "Your Majesty. We have eliminated the remaining Rank 2 Gods in their territories. The other Guardians are cleaning up while we are coming for you as a reinforcement. May I know our order?" When he asked the last question, Agnis released his killing intent. The order was already set in stone. Yet, he chose to scare the enemies once again by asking Alex the question. Alex raised his hand, signaling Lilda to make a move. Lilda smiled and clapped her hands as Eulja''s symbol appeared behind her back. However, there was something different between her and Alex''s. Next to Eulja Logo, she summoned two Array Circles instead of one. In the past, Alex had enhanced her ability too, just like the others. And she managed to wield two Arrays at once due to Alex. The left array summoned a giant spear, the one that the Array God used earlier, while the right one had numerous strings coming from it. "Dual Array Control. Asura Spear Array and One Thousand Hell String Array." Both of them flew toward the spaceship in front of Alex. The spear pierced it and was big enough to shatter the wing of the spaceship while the strings crushed it, ending up with an explosion. Alex raised his hand at the fire and helped the outer space to make the fire disappear. What they could see was Alex''s indifferent face as he opened his mouth. "I think the order is obvious¡­ Leave no one alive." Agnis and Vina smirked as they cupped their hands. "Order received." Chapter 1086: Great Battle Part 5 "!!!" Sun Gongming raised his eyebrows and activated his array, preventing Alex from moving. If he could restrain Alex here, any attacks would cease for the time being as he could escape from this situation. However, he also knew that going back wasn''t possible anymore. With all their Rank 2 Gods dead, there was no way they could return. After all, they would just get pincered from two directions. In the end, they might need to wander around and take territory by force to escape from their chase. But¡­ That would depend on whether he could capture Alex or not. Despite being a Rank 5 God, Alex could go against him, a Rank 4 God. "Lightning Spiral Array." "¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrow, watching this torrential Lightning Energy. Unlike the previous ones, this Array didn''t carry a powerful energy, so he must be planning something, or that was what he thought. Because the spiral wasn''t that big, he summoned his dragon and had it swallow the torrential energy. The Lightning Element was quickly reduced to nothing due to the Pure Fire. As he expected, Sun Gongming finally launched the real attack. He looked up and saw four arrays appearing at the same time. The first two were formed by himself while the other two were carried by the lightning earlier. ''To think that he can use an attack to carry another Array. I wonder if I can release my Sword Wave and activate the array later. It''s worth learning to be honest, albeit I already have the Holy Emblem to the point I don''t need this. Besides, my Activation Speed is eight seconds, three seconds above him. Alicia probably can fight him in terms of speed.'' Alex pondered before raising his sword. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." This Sword Wave was faster than any of his strikes, so he thought he could destroy this with his Sword Wave. Surprisingly, the Array was one step ahead, releasing a powerful light from the very top one, reinforced by the lower ones. Even the Blade of Extinction was halted for a second despite being covered in Pure Weapon Qi. Looking at Sun Gongming, who seemed to plan to do another thing while he was occupied with this attack, Alex raised his spear and thrust it. "One-Inch Spear." "!!!" Sun Gongming launched himself to the side to avoid that attack, never expecting that Alex still had something like that in his repertoire. The Array broke, so he couldn''t interrupt Alex when he tried to destroy the arrays above his head. At the same time, Alex waved his hand. He hadn''t used this technique for a long time, but it was perfect this time. "Fire Phoenix Art, First Stage. Phoenix Summon." The Phoenix flew around and struck the original array, which let out that source of light. He couldn''t move due to the suppression of that array, so it was better to solve it from the source. The moment it exploded, Alex managed to free himself, but Sun Gongming had anticipated this. It turned out that the earlier Array was just a fake. He had been creating a stronger array behind his back. "After going through the record, I know that the Spirit King will have Spirit Eyes. Your eyes are capable of seeing the energy from everything, so if I concentrate my energy inside my chest and start using my power to create an array, I should be able to fool your eyes for a few seconds." He smiled, looking at Alex while summoning an array. "Don''t die, Spirit King. I need you to be alive to end this war." Sun Gongming released all of his power to this array and shot a powerful lightning cannon. "You talk too much." Alex snorted as if he had expected everything. Alex had the same thought as him, which was to end this fight. Instead of releasing three of his powers, he added his Pure Weapon Qi and Weapon Spirit in the mix, allowing him to gain enough strength to cut everything. "Five Purities Slash." Alex slashed his sword, cutting through the attack until it sliced Sun Gongming''s neck. "Ah¡­" Surprisingly, there was no trace of regret in Sun Gongming''s eyes. He simply recalled the things happening back when he was a kid. One thousand years ago. Sun Gongming was only seven years old at that time. He had been fixated on Arrays even when he was a kid. He simply read all kinds of books all day in his garden. It was a beautiful garden with small rocks. Next to him was a pond with so many golden fishes, but he paid no attention to it. Suddenly, someone opened the door and walked inside the room, approaching the son who was too focused on his book. "It seems that my son is so focused that he forgets his father¡­" The Array God, Sun Gong, bent his knees while patting his head. "Ah, Father!" A smile appeared on Sun Gongming''s face. "Welcome back." "Yep, I''m back. How are you today?" "I am confused on a few parts while reading this book." "Haha!" Sun Gong laughed and lifted his child before putting him down on his lap. He hugged him from behind while holding the book with one hand while asking. "So, what makes you confused?" "This¡­" The two started discussing things. It was a peaceful time. A few decades passed and Sun Gong had started fighting Sun Gongming with Array, training him under intensive care. However, the smile never disappeared from Sun Gongming''s face. Even with his mother giving birth to his third brother, the cheerful atmosphere never disappeared. His father started to change a hundred years ago when he reached God King level. His expression became cold, and he never visited him again. To that end, Sun Gongming visited his father while being careful. He cupped his head and bowed to his father. "Father. Can I ask you about this array?" Surprisingly, what he got was just a cold gaze. "You can ask someone else. I don''t have time." "¡­" Sun Gongming furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what kind of thing could change his father. When he left the room in disappointment, he suddenly heard his father''s voice inside. "Argh! I am going to destroy Eulja! They are trash! I am going to make sure that they won''t ruin my plan!" *Thump¡ª!* The moment he heard it, his heart dropped. He thought, ''Why would Father say that? He never has any conflict with Eulja. No, they even haven''t met each other. Is there something between them or is it related to the change of my father?'' Since then, Sun Gongming decided to start his own investigation with all his efforts, trying to find the reason for his father''s change. He ended up not finding anything related to Eulja. Instead, there was another entity that was influencing his father and made him suffer. His father even started talking weirdly from time to time, which he listened to a few times. It turned out that it had something to do with the Array God inheritance he got from the former Array God. Unfortunately, his investigation ended here as his father found it and forced him to stop. During the night, he fell silent, watching the moon in this tranquil atmosphere. "Mother. What should I do? Sun Jia has started going weird. Second Brother also has died during a mission. Now, I am left alone here and can''t stop Father. Mother, what should I do?" During the long night, he came up with an idea. It wouldn''t be an easy and short path, but he decided to pursue it. Stretching his hand to the sky, he smiled. "I am going to become a Rank 1 God too and stop Father from all this. I know that he must be suffering something that I don''t know, so when I have enough strength, I will force him to tell me everything. After that, my Father and I can protect this family and world." Unfortunately, he could never achieve that dream. His eyes became fuzzy as he didn''t have the feeling of his body anymore. Well, his head was already separated from it, so of course, he couldn''t feel it. Without knowing why, he ended up using the last bit of his Divine Energy to hand him a Space Ring and closed his eyes while saying. "Thank you." His mind became blank before he saw something so bright. "Is this Heaven?" His fuzziness prevented him from thinking straight. Everything he did was according to his instinct. There was a woman in front of him, smiling. That smile just melted his heart as if telling him, ''Everything is going to be alright.'' "Ah¡­Mother¡­ I am¡­ Sorry. I¡­ Can''t¡­Keep¡­The¡­Family¡­i¡ª" He started hallucinating and heard a voice in his head. ''It''s fine, Son. Let''s go back and wait for your father and brother.'' "Ah¡­" He instinctively took the lady''s hand and smiled, not wanting to think anymore. He simply followed her while saying, ''Yes.'' ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex looked at Sun Gongming''s last moment. He didn''t understand what he saw during his last moment, but he couldn''t help but empathize with him. There was a genuine smile, tears, and relief reflected on his face at the same time. He was someone who just wanted the best for his planet and family. Alex grabbed the Space Ring and checked it with his Spirit Eyes. After confirming that there was no trap inside, he checked inside the Space Ring, only to find so many research papers. He didn''t understand it until he took out one to check the content before fighting again. It just took him one glance to understand what was going on since everything had been summarized by the title. After storing it back and keeping the Space Ring, he snapped his finger. Sun Gongming''s body was burned to ashes as Alex started to chase his prey. However, he still didn''t forget to say one thing to the deceased Sun Gongming. "Thanks." Chapter 1087: Great Battle Ends "You b*tch! I am going to kill you!" shouted the Array God, Sun Gong. His face was red and his heart wasn''t calm anymore. Lin Xingzhi might haven''t inflicted serious damage to his body, but he had wasted too much energy just to deal with her attack. If they fought for another few minutes, Lin Xingzhi might start getting the advantage. Thinking for a moment, Sun Gong narrowed his eyes as though he made a decision in his heart. Raising his hand before waving his two fingers, Sun Gong created another three Arrays next to him. Lin Xingzhi raised an Ice Disturbance, freezing all three arrays, but the Array God simply used it as a cover, so the Ice Disturbance didn''t freeze the arrays behind it. In other words, the ones she froze earlier were just fake. Three spears emerged from the Arrays, flying toward Lin Xingzhi. Lin Xingzhi waved her hands, controlling the Spiritual Energy diagonal to her. Due to the fact that she controlled two facing each other, she clapped her hands. Both Fire Disturbances burst a powerful flame pillar that somehow connected to each other, turning it into a giant net that would catch the three spears. "¡­" Lin Xingzhi''s expression remained calm as she would keep him here until he was exhausted. Besides, his army had begun to fall apart with Alex on the move. "You are going to die no matter what, so just accept it." "You are the one going to die!" He shouted. Suddenly, the spears that got caught by the net disappeared, revealing Sun Gong''s appearance. Because the net was to catch the giant spear, it had enough space for Sun Gong to go through as soon as his spears disappeared. "!!!" Lin Xingzhi thought that Sun Gong was not someone who was adept in close combat, but when she looked at him clenching his hands on one side, preparing to hit her, she knew she was wrong. For the last resort, she created a few layers of barriers to prevent him from coming, but Sun Gong disappeared as if he had predicted it. Lin Xingzhi turned her head to the right before channeling all her Divine Energy into her hands, preparing to stop his hands and blowing him away. "Die!" "!!!" Before the clash, Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes, seeing something too shocking for her. The Array God had been hiding his right hand behind him with his pose must be to conceal this. His right hand was not a human anymore. It was a green snake instead. "You¡ª" Unfortunately, it was too late for Lin Xingzhi. They had clashed, where the snake (Sun Gong''s right hand) already circled her hand and bit her wrist before he himself got blown away. "!!!" Lin Xingzhi surprisingly spat out blood as she couldn''t comprehend the situation. "Hahaha! This is the most potent poison in this world. Even your Poison Master won''t have poison at this level. You will die in a few minutes." Sun Gong laughed. "That is only because you are a God King. Hahahahaha!" Sun Gong''s face was filled with joy as if he had done something great. However, Lin Xingzhi realized what was going on when he specifically mentioned the strongest venom in the world. According to Carissa, she had met all kinds of venom she could find around the area, so nothing would be able to beat her poison. Yet, Sun Gong claimed it was the strongest. If it were too, then there would be someone who could produce that venom. "You¡­ You have forsaken this side and chosen to destroy this universe¡­" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. Her tone was filled with anger. "This is mercy. You won''t be able to fight them." Sun Gong snorted. "Even your beloved Spirit God couldn''t handle them, let alone your shrimp. He can''t even fight for one round." Lin Xingzhi clenched her teeth and spat another mouthful of blood. When she raised her hand, it had already changed color into black, coating her entire forearm. ''I need to see Alex.'' Lin Xingzhi thought before light enveloped her, turning her hand back to normal. "!!!" Both were surprised when they saw someone appear behind Lin Xingzhi. "My queen¡­ Because you still need to fight, I will try hard neutralizing the poison. I can only treat you after you are done." It turned out the one who saved her was Rilt, but his condition seemed to be a bit bad as he spat out blood. "Seriously. What is this poison? It''s trying to eat your energy, bone, and blood. It''s like I am fighting a God King myself." "Are you alright, Rilt?" Lin Xingzhi asked while regaining her focus. Her eyes kept staring at Sun Gong, not wanting him to make another move, especially against Rilt. "Yes. However, I can only do this for five minutes. Maybe you can ask His Majesty to cure you with his fire, but I think you should choose the former." "You Bastard!" Sun Gong charged again, but this time, he headed straight to Rilt instead of Lin Xingzhi. The plan was to beat him up first, allowing the poison to consume Lin Xingzhi, but the latter went in the way, blowing him away with her palm that had returned to normal for a few minutes. "Five minutes are enough. Although I am not planning to use it too early, the situation is indeed not good. I should end this fight as soon as possible." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a stern tone. "I will be going all out." Rilt nodded and stepped back. "I have enough. I will kill you first then." Sun Gong roared as he charged again with three giant spears beside him. "Rilt, I am going to use too much energy after this. Help me, alright?" "I will try." Rilt nodded while looking around. "Huft. I have been lecturing Alex about this, but it seems I can''t even follow it." Lin Xingzhi sighed and clapped her hands. Two Disturbances appeared left and right. The left was a Lightning Disturbance, while the right was a Fire Disturbance. Lin Xingzhi stretched her hand as there was a bridge between these two, connecting two different disturbances. This wasn''t like how she created the net earlier because these two had a different element. The fire would try to burn the lightning while the latter wanted to strike the former. Yet, Lin Xingzhi controlled them to make them in harmony. "!!!" Sun Gong noticed the danger of this technique and sent his spears to destroy it, but the lightning protected them while carrying the fire to increase its power. "No, I will reach her first!" Sun Gong thought as he tried to end her life with that snake hand of his. Unfortunately, this was Lin Xingzhi''s trick. The moment he got closer, she disappeared, allowing him to get the feel of her two disturbances. When those two fully connected, it created a boundary that looked like a sphere, trapping Sun Gong inside. The two Disturbances then got berserk after she lost control of them. However, it was still apparent that Lin Xingzhi had challenged the impossible. To put it simply, Lin Xingzhi had created two natural phenomena and tried to fuse them. The power was far beyond her expectation as it created a giant explosion that shook the entire battlefield. "NOOOOOOoooo¡ª" The Array God''s voice echoed but soon disappeared. Rilt had caught her and took her away while sighing. "What did you do? That was scary and dangerous at the same time. Are you trying to kill yourself?" Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I am exhausted after using a large portion of my energy because this is the first for me. I think I want to use this opportunity to take another step forward. "Despite knowing my talent, my father never said that I couldn''t achieve what the Sword God could do because we had two different types of energy. His was an offensive type while I had a support type. "I think my father already knew about this and waited for me. No, I might realize this because I have been too comfortable with Alex now. I don''t want to lose him anymore, so I choose to step forward, pursuing the greatest strength. "I won''t let the others destroy my family and create this technique. I feel like seeing the beast hand in Sun Gong made me realize that my opponent is far stronger than me, giving me enough courage to do it." Lin Xingzhi smiled as the images of all Alex''s wives flashed in her mind. "Just like them, I have something that I want to pursue again." "Is that so?" Rilt narrowed his eyes and sighed. "Just don''t make me worry, alright? Your father asked me to take care of you before he died." "Ahaha, I can''t promise, but I will keep thinking about my safety." Lin Xingzhi chuckled. "Good enough. For now, I will treat the poison and call Alex here." Rilt sighed and put her back next to the spaceship. When Alex saw the explosion, he noticed Lin Xingzhi''s condition and came back to her side. Her face looked pale as she barely had enough energy to stand. "What happened to you?" Alex''s heart skipped a beat. His heartbeat increased rapidly and his hands started shaking. "I am fine." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "I just used something I am not used to. After this, I think it will be fine." "¡­" Alex then bent his knees, holding her hand where she got bitten. "You or me?" "You are faster. You do it," answered Rilt without hesitation. "Her Spiritual Energy is just exhausted. A bit of rest, she will be fine." "I understand. I think the situation has been under control. Only two Rank 2 Gods on their side, so the battle will be concluded very soon." Alex assured him while channeling his Pure Fire inside her hand, burning all the venom. "Who caused this?" "I think you should know this. When I fought that Sun Gong, his hand suddenly turned into a green snake. With this kind of toxicity, the toxin must come from one of the "weapons", the snake." Lin Xingzhi''s tone was severe and her face turned grim, knowing that this might be another clue to the beast''s weapons. The problem would be locating them. Alex smiled, assuring her. "Don''t worry. I think I can handle this." "Really?" "Yes. Not everyone in his family was crazy. His son gave me his research about his father''s change. To put it simply, his father seemed to be possessed." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Don''t tell me, it''s the snake?" "I think so. I will read his research later." Alex then turned to Rilt. "Do you think they will destroy the Array God''s house? I think there will be a clue there." "I don''t think so." Rilt shook his head. "They like to fight and kill, but not destroy." "Alright. But just in case, warn them to not touch his house. We will do a full-scale investigation there. This is the first time we have found this many clues." Alex narrowed his eyes, wondering if he should ask Silvia''s father to participate in killing the snake or not. Either way, he needed to check the information first. "For now, you should rest here. I will settle this battle within two hours." Alex smiled before turning to Lilda who followed him. "Can you protect her instead of me?" "But¡­" Lilda frowned. Her priority was his safety, so she wasn''t sure about this. "I will go with Sullivan instead." Alex smiled, assuring her that he had considered it. Even though she was reluctant, she still nodded her head. Alex then took out his weapons again and disappeared. He and Sullivan roamed around the battlefield, cutting people down one by one. His Pure Fire was very effective in this situation, allowing him to kill the enemies one by one. With Sullivan next to him, all Rank 3 Gods died in just one or two minutes. After a long work, the enemies had shrunk to only a few thousand and Alex delivered the killing blow a few minutes later. This became the mark of their victory. Chapter 1088: Searching After the war ended, Alex was standing in front of the Beast God. Behind him, Lin Xingzhi, Sullivan, and the others, including his wives, stood next to each other, showing their status. Of course, Sherry was among one of them. Alex cupped his hand politely and said, "I would like to thank the Beast God for taking care of my wife." "No, no. It''s my job." The Beast God hurriedly replied. It felt awkward since it was their first meeting. Glancing at Sherry, he knew what to do. "Since everything is our fault to begin with, I will hand over the right of Array God''s territories to you." *Gasp¡ª* The princes and princesses dropped their jaws, never expecting Alex to hand the right just like that. To be honest, if Eulja moved from the start with their full force, the Array God would be extinguished even without their help. Besides, only the Beast God could kill his opponent while the other Rank 2 Gods were killed by Eulja. Hence, it was kind of inappropriate to get everything. However, it had a different meaning to Alex. He wanted to use this chance to show the worth of Sherry in his eyes. She was priceless. Even all the territories containing tens of billions of Spirit Crystals were not worth it than a single life. "However, we have another enemy besides the Array God. It''s a past enemy, so I would like to search for a clue in the Array God''s temple for a while. Just lend me that building for a few weeks. You can even start stationing your people in that world." Alex smiled. "Please don''t request something like that. We have been the ones receiving the favor. It''s just something minor, if you even want the entire planet, I would have given it to you." The Beast God scratched his head, feeling embarrassed. At the same time, arresting his disappointing son in his room during the whole war seemed to be the right choice because he wouldn''t ruin this talk. "In that case, I and the others will clean up the process and start the investigation as soon as possible." "Ye-yes." Even though Alex was only a Rank 5 God, he felt like Alex had been the one in charge of this conversation from the beginning. It might be due to the people behind him, but Alex''s aura alone really made many words stuck in his throat. "Then I won''t impose you any longer." Alex cupped his hand before snapping his finger, creating a Teleportation Array below them. "¡­" When they disappeared, they didn''t know why but their mind felt refreshed in that instant. Still, the Beast God let out a long sigh. Despite winning so much, this might be the last time he talked with the Spirit God. After all, he had delivered something worth more than one person, albeit it was only in ordinary people''s eyes. For those who knew about the Spirit God''s true personality, they were worthless compared to one of his wives or family members. "All of you. Let''s clean up the battlefield and return." The Beast God''s voice was tired, melting his sons and daughters'' hearts. "Yes, Father." They cupped their hands and answered in unison. Meanwhile, the Cat Princess could only look at the horizon, thinking about Sherry and Alex. Sherry had been under her care this whole time, so there was still a lingering attachment to her, albeit she believed it was not possible to meet her anymore unless the opportunity arrived. ¡­ As soon as they arrived, Alex was greeted by Zerah. She had a pair of thunder wings behind her. "Your Majesty." "How is the situation?" Alex smiled and nodded. "All Rank 2 Gods have gone. We are starting to clean up all the planets around this place, making sure there was no chain of revenge from this place. If we continue at this rate, we should be able to finish within five days." Alex thought for a moment and turned around. "Anyone want to fight?" Surprisingly, all his spirits and wives, except Lin Xingzhi, raised their hands. The Five Guardians, except for William and Carissa, decided to accompany them. "How about you, Lilda?" "If I may be selfish, I would like to take a look at Array God''s home to check about his array books." Lilda cupped her hand politely, requesting to be allowed to follow Alex. "Alright." Alex nodded in agreement before turning to Sullivan. "What about you?" "I am not sure about this, Your Majesty. I started to like Queen Sherry after accompanying her. If she goes out, I will do my best to protect her. Of course, if Your Majesty has a different plan, I will comply." "No, it''s fine. I have learned from Lin Xingzhi that you have been teaching her many things. I would like you to continue doing so. For now, I don''t need a bodyguard or something since I want to progress as quickly as possible." "I understand. I shall protect her with my life on the line." Sullivan bowed politely. Alex''s vision then returned to Zerah. "Call a few people from N Squad to investigate the building. The rest can continue handling the enemies." "Yes, Sir." Zerah politely cupped her hand. The next second, all those who planned to go disappeared, following Zerah since she knew about the whole situation. "William, Carissa, you don''t mind helping the investigation, right? Or you want to recover your power first?" "This old bone is strong. Although my energy hasn''t been restored, my physical body is good enough. I am planning to rejoin the battle after two or three days," answered William with confidence. "Ah, I am planning to sed¡ªAhem, accompany Your Majesty." "It''s too late to correct it, Carissa. Seduce him?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. Carissa only looked away and replied. "I mean, I can find poison in this place. According to His Majesty, the monster is the snake, so there might be poison somewhere. I can locate it." "Sure. Please help me." Alex nodded with a smile. "Yes. Leave it to me." "Anyway, let''s go." Alex waved his hand and flew toward the Array God''s home. It turned out that his home looked like a city. It was so big to the point that his castle looked tiny. In the center of the city, Alex spotted a giant mansion, filling twenty percent of this city. Next to the mansion stood a tall tower. It looked like a black pagoda, but if one took another look, they would find it was protected by an array to bar everyone from entering. Unfortunately, his force had destroyed the array, so only half of the array remained. "I have heard that Sun Gong has a collection of Array Books in a tower¡­ I think that''s the tower." Lilda''s eyes brightened as she exclaimed in amazement. "You can go there. Just be careful." "Yes, Sir." Lilda made a big smile and sped up, heading straight toward the tower. As soon as Lilda entered the building, his head turned to the mansion as they landed right at the center of the mansion. "I think we can separate from here." "I will go to the west then." William quickly chose a direction because he didn''t want to get in Lin Xingzhi''s way. "Then, I will be the opposite of you. I will go to the east." Carissa walked toward their right playfully like it was normal, but Lin Xingzhi just noticed her real intention. "As expected of a Poison Master, her brain is also a poison." Lin Xingzhi pouted and chose to go to the south since Alex would enter from the very front. Usually, she would go to the east so she would get the shortest distance to Alex, but Carissa had beaten her. Alex shook his head helplessly and entered the building in front of him. The building itself was close to a Japanese Wooden Castle. Most of the interior was made of strong wood but gave a relaxed feeling. The roof was blue and windows appeared every few meters. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to check whether there was hidden energy or not but to no avail. "Time to go then." Alex sighed while carrying his sword on his waist. "Accompany me, Eve." "Hehe, I have been waiting for you to say that, Master." Eve suddenly came out of the sword, floating next to him. "This is the first time I enter such an amazing building other than your castle. And I feel this place has dense energy." "It''s due to the array below us." Alex pointed his finger to the ground." There is a formation of a few Rank 9 Gathering Arrays underground, extracting a Spirit Mine. To not waste the resource, there is supposed to be a barrier in this city, preventing the Spiritual Energy from escaping, but it must have been destroyed during the battle." "No wonder. Anyway, I will be helping you search every single room together." Eve smiled. "Thank you." Alex nodded as they entered the building. The first thing they saw was a corridor, leading to three ways: left, right, and forward. He thought he would meet either William or Carissa, so he decided to go forward. The corridor had nothing exciting to him since it only had red carpet, windows, and paintings. Alex kept walking until he arrived in a large room with two doors next to him and one big open room. "¡­" Alex waved his hand, using his energy to open the two doors. The right one seemed to lead him to a library since he saw many books there while the left one was a kitchen. In other words, his current direction had been decided. He entered the room in his front, leading to a working area. There were so many papers lying around as if they were sorting something before Eulja''s invasion. At the end of the working area were two giant doors that piqued Alex''s curiosity. "Master¡­ That one is very suspicious." Eve narrowed her eyes, having the same thought. "Yeah. Let''s go." Alex nodded in agreement, walking toward the door. As soon as he opened it, he arrived inside a room bigger than the office that could hold more than a hundred people. He could only find a couple of bookshelves, a pair of tables and chairs with many piles of documents on top of it, and a resting area filled with a couch and bed. Alex took out the Space Ring that Sun Gongming gave and summoned all the research papers inside it. "Can you help me search for anything important in this room? I am going to read these papers first to gain a clue of what I want to specifically find." Alex smiled and sat on the chair. "I thought you were going to do it with me." Eve pouted. "Ahaha. I will after reading all these. It will only take three hours¡­" "Fine." Eve sighed and began to move around the room while Alex started reading the documents. Chapter 1089: Current Progress A few days later, Alex still read everything that might be related to the Array God and his transformation. However, he still couldn''t find the exact clue as to where he met the snake. Lin Xingzhi walked toward the room where Alex spent all his time reading to report what she found along with the others'' conditions. "Alex¡­" Lin Xingzhi twitched her eyebrows. Alex was sitting in his usual position. Eve also roamed around the area to sort everything that had been sent here. Yet, there was one thing different from the usual situation. There was another woman hugging him from the back while staring at what he read. "Sherry. I have never thought that you are here." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "I just came here. I haven''t met him for a long time, isn''t this fine?" Sherry pouted, not wanting Lin Xingzhi to get mad. "It''s fine, but what about your job?" "I have done it all. For now, I am resting because I have used up all my energy." "Just inform me first next time, I thought that someone wanted to take advantage of this situation." Lin Xingzhi sighed. "Are you talking about me?" Carissa suddenly entered the room while bringing a pile of documents. "Yeah. Want me to throw you out right now?" Carissa shrugged and looked down. "I am bringing these documents. You sure?" "I am sure." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a serious face. "You are just bullying me." Carissa pouted. When she was about to complain to Alex, Lin Xingzhi already arrived in front of her and grabbed a portion of her luggage, revealing a blue powder scattered on top of the paper. "Then, can you explain this to me?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "Ah." Carissa''s heart skipped a beat before taking a step back. Her eyes looked away and she appeared to want to escape. "This is not an aphrodisiac; it''s just a relaxant. His Majesty has been working for the past few days, so I want him to rest for a while." Before Lin Xingzhi replied, Alex already asked another question. "And your real intention?" "When you are asleep, I can start kissing you and doing another thing. Of course, I won''t do anything excessive since I will die after that." Carissa stuck her tongue playfully before running away. "Bye." The papers dropped to the ground as Alex used his Spiritual Energy to organize the papers and put it on the desk. Yeah, this was how their day passed by. Alex only shook his head helplessly before asking Lin Xingzhi. "How is the situation?" "We are eighty percent done. I believe everything will end by tomorrow. After that, we will become famous¡­Or you." "Fair enough. I have no doubt that the Spirits can stop talking about it. And there is the Beast Kingdom. The other Divine Worlds would surely learn about this soon." Alex sighed. "I have tried to suppress it for a while, but I don''t think we can hold on for a week." "I understand. How about the specific conditions?" "If you are talking about the others, Anna and Anya were fighting together with Rilt and Vina. William seems to be accompanying Letizia and Evelyn because of their sword skill. Silvia keeps healing the injured while Alicia and Firia went with Sullivan. Sherry was also with him, but she is here now. As for Rose, she is with Helena right now because she wants to shoot underwater." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "The others are fine, right?" "Yes. We are suppressing them the whole time and we make sure everything is done painlessly. This is a war that will create a chain of hatred if we don''t kill them¡­ It''s unfortunate for them, but we can''t be too weak-willed." "I understand and perfectly know about it. Don''t worry. I am ready to shoulder that burden." Alex waved his hand, telling her he was fine. "For now, let''s continue until everything is over¡­" "Alex?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head when she saw the change of expression on Alex''s face. "Where did the Array God get the inheritance from the former Array God?" Alex asked with a grim expression. "Why? Did you just find something?" Lin Xingzhi asked while walking toward him, wanting to read what he just read. "In this journal, Sun Gongming said that his father started to change right after getting the inheritance." "Sun Gongming? The Prince?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head in confusion. "Do you trust his words?" Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds, recalling what happened when he killed him. "His expressions when I killed him was not anguish nor hatred. He was relieved. Unlike his own brother, he seemed to have a hope to make something better. He gave me this space ring containing his research about his father''s changing behavior. After reading it for a while, I realize that it''s indeed true." "I am not sure myself because the place is very secretive, knowing the Array God. However, the Array God and War Goddess died at that time, so I believed they set up their inheritance at the last moment there. Unfortunately, I don''t have the information of its specific location." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. "Do you have any general idea?" "Yes. Though we need to search a quite big area, including all the words inside it. There are approximately three thousand worlds that need to be checked, so it will take a while." "It''s fine. Take your time. There is still time for us. At the very least, this one is the closest one we''ve ever gotten to those so-called weapons." Alex sighed. "I understand. With this, we have confirmed the bat, snake, and phoenix''s existences." She nodded. "I will handle everything at this point and may join the investigation myself." "Really?" Alex looked at her with a worried expression. "Don''t worry. It''s not going to be like last time." Lin Xingzhi assured him to not make the same move like last time when she exhausted most of her Spiritual Energy. "Still¡­How many people do you think will try to attack us while we are investigating the real cause? It''s not like they will believe it and wait for me to grow, right?" "Who knows. All we can do is to prepare. Luckily, we can have three God Kings from Eulja alone. Coupled with the Palm God, we should be able to hold out for a while." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. Alex nodded before opening it again, finding an Array appeared in the room. "Master, Master!" Rose suddenly rushed to him with a curious expression. "Was there really a God King known as Bow God?" "¡­" Alex nodded. "Yes." "What?!" Rose dropped her jaw before dropping to her knees. She looked sad and betrayed. "Why didn''t you tell me? I thought I could become the first Bow God." "You will be the first Bow Goddess, not the first Bow God. Besides, I just learned it only recently." Alex shrugged. "Really?" Rose pouted while doubting him again. "Yeah. Do you remember when we visited the ten God Beasts? They told me about the ten God Kings. That''s when I learned everything." Alex sighed, explaining the situation honestly. "Then, why sister Xingzhi didn''t tell me?" Rose turned to Lin Xingzhi. "That''s because I planned to have you go there in the future. My prediction was when you reached Rank 5 God, but now that you know it, I think you should go earlier." Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh. "Before that, did Helena tell you about this?" "Yes. She said there was someone in the past that could shoot down everything, known as the Bow God." She facepalmed. "I should have told her to not say anything first." "Why?" Rose seemed to take this matter seriously because she didn''t wish to get fooled again. "Do you know why Alex hasn''t gone to the Dungeon God''s inheritance yet?" "Isn''t it because Master has too many things going on, so he doesn''t have time?" "Nope. I have gotten the information that it''s a very difficult place, so he needs to have Rank 5 God Strength first. Meanwhile, the Bow God is easier which probably requires you to be a Rank 8 if not Rank 7 God. However, unlike Alex''s overbearing strength that could fight someone above his level, I am worried about your safety, so I thought you should go when you reached Rank 5 God." "Is that so¡­" Rose looked down with a sad expression. However, the feeling was different. If last time she was angry due to Lin Xingzhi hiding it from her, now she was sad due to her not believing in Lin Xingzhi. She had done so much in her life to the point she didn''t know how she could repay her. Yet, to think she doubted her. Rose felt guilty. Lin Xingzhi bent down and patted Rose''s head. "I love you, Rose. Just like Alex, I also want to support you to the best I can. Please believe me, okay?" "I am sorry." Rose lowered her head. "It''s fine. A smile will be more suited to a cute disciple like you, so don''t be sad. I am not mad." She put on a gentle smile. "The place has been discovered by so many people, but no one can inherit that place yet. Hence, I will wait until you are ready before sending you there. Okay?" "Un. I promise to not escape just for a petty reason." Rose repeatedly nodded. "So, you are planning to escape just to challenge it if you know about this inheritance? It seems that I need to take back my word and punish you a little bit." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. Rose''s body shook as she stepped back. "No way! I am just going to train a little bit. Anyway, I still have a lot of energy. I should continue fighting with Helena right now! See you later." Rose hurriedly escaped from Lin Xingzhi''s grasp like Carissa. Alex shook his head helplessly. "That''s my disciple. What should I do about it?" "Haha. Anyway, let''s go back to the topic. We will continue investigating this place for another three days before retreating from this world and handing all the right to the Beast God." "Yes." Alex acknowledged the plan. "You are going to leave this world immediately and head straight to the Dungeon God''s inheritance. Unlike the other inheritances, the Dungeon God is the most unique because only those who possess the same Space Element will be able to enter his palace. Hence, even when they know about that place, they can''t enter it. "By the way, I have the information that Aria will be coming soon. She is a 10-Star Martial Saint right now, only need one or two years to break through to Rank 10 God." "Alright. Just send someone to that place and bring her to Eulja. I will let you arrange everything for her." "Are you going to accept her?" "What?" Alex tilted his head. "I don''t have any intention in receiving her as a wife or a disciple. Instead, how about asking Anya to teach her? I am sure she will be delighted." "Well, her ability will grow leaps and bounds for sure since Anya is our best strategist. But I think she will become a pervert like her¡­" "And whose fault do you think Anya became like that?" Alex narrowed his eyes, staring at Lin Xingzhi. "Ahahaha! I wonder who¡­" Lin Xingzhi looked away. "Anyway, let''s go back to work." Alex sighed and looked at the ceiling. "To be honest, I have high hope for her. Unlike the others, she has the talent to simulate everything in her head. Although when she was with me, she became too dependent and I ended up sealing that potential, I believe she managed to overcome it and grew after that. "Hopefully, she could become another strategist for Eulja. Although Eulja has many talented people like Anya, we need a Pure Strategist¡­The one that can predict the future. This will solidify our foundation." "Do you think she can reach that stage?" Alex shook his head. "I have no confidence, but I want to try." "Well, I will arrange it." She nodded. Chapter 1090: Reactions A few days later, as Alex expected, the universe was in turmoil. In the previous place where a woman playing her zither stood the same woman with a smile on her face. Her expression was happy, but she also released killing intent. "¡­" She tied her long red hair into a ponytail before glancing at someone behind him. "You seem to have heard it." It was the same small woman. She could only shake her head helplessly and asked. "Can you stop releasing your killing intent?" "Ah, sorry. It''s not like me at all." She retracted her killing intent while looking at the lake. "To think that right after his coronation, he would wipe out the Array God and all people in his territory, it''s something that I would have never thought." "This will seriously put him in a dangerous position, you know. There is a possibility that many people will band together to kill him, preventing the seed of nightmare from spreading." "I know. They are just afraid that the Spirit God will rule over them since they still lack many things compared to the previous God Kings." She narrowed her eyes. "What is my reputation in others'' eyes anyway?" "You?" The woman tilted her head in confusion, not knowing why the Song Goddess asked such a question. "Related to the Spirit God?" "No. Not one knows about your identity being a follower of a Spirit God other than me." She shook her head, assuring her. "Besides, you are more leaned to the neutral side, so I doubt many people will be looking at you with this going on." "That''s good then. I can use this situation to my advantage." She smiled and released her killing intent again. "What are you planning? You are not saying that you will immediately announce your allegiance to the Spirit God, right?" "Of course not. I have a more interesting role to play." "Don''t tell me¡­" She gasped before her expression turned pale. "Lin Xingzhi won''t let you off, you know. You must know her personality!" "Yes, I know. I will handle Lin Xingzhi myself. As for the Spirit King, I will just say that this is my apology for running away at that time." She shook her head helplessly. "Well, just see how it plays out. I am sure it''s going to be amusing. And you are underestimating Lin Xingzhi so much." "What do you mean?" "I will only tell you about the reasons behind my confidence and action. I won''t tell you my plan." The Song Goddess smiled and opened her mouth. She gasped when listening to her words, never thinking of all those facts she was talking about. If everything were true, then it would turn the universe upside down. ¡­ Meanwhile, in a world called Lamoine, the God of Destruction laughed when reading the report. His laugh alone created a shock wave to destroy all the places near him. "Hahaha! This is truly hilarious." "This is not a laughing matter." His assistant let out a long sigh. After knowing him for so long, he could already predict what his friend, the God of Destruction, would do with this report. "I mean, how can you not laugh? The Array God is dead. The Spirit God''s current power is a Rank 5 God. Although it''s enough to handle Rank 2 Gods, or at least, qualify to escape from them. Many God Kings won''t let him go away just like that. "During this time, they will be under so many assaults. The universe will become fun soon and my body is trembling in joy." The God Of Destruction smirked as if he wanted to enter this chaotic mess. "¡­" His assistant became even more hesitant and wondered whether to inform him about a certain matter or not. After contemplating for a few seconds, he decided to do it. "I have a letter coming from the Holy God, asking for you to join his side to stop the Spirit God''s madness." "Huh? Why should I?" The God of Destruction tilted his head as if he thought this proposal was funny. "Eh?" Even his assistant never expected this answer. "I mean, don''t you want to fight the Spirit God?" "Of course. However, you should know that the Spirit God is someone who doesn''t do any mercy. In the worst case, I will bring all my subjects to death with me. Don''t tell me you consider me as a muscle brain?" "You are not?" "¡­" The God of Destruction wanted to punch him but refrained himself. "Anyway, if I am going to choose the side, I will surely come to the Spirit God''s side. Just think about this. First, I can fight so many God Kings at once, trying to see who among us is the strongest. Second, the current Spirit God is not worth devouring, so I will use this favor to make him promise to fight me when he reaches God King Stage. "Third, when I die, I doubt that this planet will be destroyed by either side. If the Spirit God won this battle, he would have taken care of my citizens here. If he lost, the enemies wouldn''t show that grudge because many would see them the same as the Spirit God and more God Kings would be involved in this matter. "Fourth, I doubt that Eulja is the only backup he has. As you might know, I aspired to become the God of Destruction because I adored the Spirit God. Everyone kept saying that wherever he goes, destruction will follow. However, don''t you think it''s weird that as soon as the Spirit God died, Eulja became too passive? "I am assuming that they are not declining. Instead, they are becoming more and more formidable. Rather than fighting an opponent with unknown strength, I choose to fight the other Gods since we have more information about them. "Fifth, their preparation must be so deep if they dare to announce the Spirit God''s coronation this early. If it were me, I would have announced it when he became a God King instead since the Spirit God seemed to be less than one hundred years old. This is why it''s even more terrifying if you look at this point. "Sixth, those who are afraid of him are just a target to be devoured. If you were panicking only because of his appearance, they are bound to make mistakes from time to time, especially with their information gathering. "Not only do they have so little time due to the Spirit God''s growth speed, but there is no trust among each other. That''s why I believe that Eulja will win this fight. Of course, this is just a prediction¡­Around sixty percent, I guess? "After all, the one who invited us earlier was the Holy God, right? His reputation was like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. He was known for his benevolence. I am sure that his invitation is only pure concern about this situation, but I can''t be sure for those who join him. "That''s why there must be more people than we can expect joining his side. Still, If I were to gamble my future, I would place it on the hand of the Spirit God." He smirked while raising his hand. Meanwhile, his assistant dropped his jaw as he couldn''t talk at all. He stared at his friend in disbelief, blinking his eyes a few times as if everything was impossible. "What? Every time I made a move, I had done the calculation in my head. I just never told anyone about it. However, due to how big the scale of this war is, I need you to trust my judgment and follow me. I trust my back to you, so don''t get swayed by their empty promises, alright?" The God of Destruction smiled and patted his friend''s shoulder. "I''ve always thought that you are nothing but a fool¡­It seems I have wronged you. Do you want a banana or something to increase your stamina?" "And why do you even mention a banana¡­" He frowned and shook his head. "Anyway, just tell them that I am sick." "A God King can''t be sick." "Then poisoned." "Well, it''s good then. You are foolish enough to get poisoned, so I will tell them that exact line." "Is foolish necessary?" The God of Destruction really wanted to punch him, but the latter already escaped while saying. "See you later." "Oi!" He facepalmed and dropped to the ground, looking at the blue sky. "Still, the hardest part will be convincing them. I can use the Universe Oath, but how should I make them believe me before that? I need to create an opportunity to talk as well and make sure that no one can find me when I meet him. I wonder if I should just remain neutral¡­Nah. There must be a reason why the Spirit God would have reincarnated at this timeline. "The Nature Goddess has been searching for his reincarnation for thousands of years. With Eulja''s power, they should have been able to find him in just one thousand years at maximum. Yet, he has never appeared. I am sure that there is something going on. I need to know what is the purpose of his reincarnation. Haiz, I smell destruction. I''m really going to be enjoying my time with this new Spirit God." The man smirked. It turned out that the man who kept saying about fighting and fighting was a genius. He wasn''t rash and could see the whole picture despite the little clue he had. What would happen when he met Alex? ¡­ In another word called Holy Land, an old man walked toward a long table where ten people sat next to each other, standing and cupping their hands toward the old man. "Greetings, Supreme Pontiff, O'' Holy God." "Good morning. I believe that I have sent you the letter of what we are going to discuss here¡­" The old man sighed and walked into his own chair before sitting down with a tired expression. "Are we going to clash with the Spirit God?" A woman stood up and asked politely. Her blonde hair was tied into a ponytail. She wore a blue shirt and a knee-length skirt. However, there was a sword hanging on her waist, making one rethink their decision whether to get close to her or not. "Saintess¡­" The old man let out a long sigh. "After learning about the Spirit God''s coronation, I didn''t have any plan to attack him. But¡­Everything changed when he killed billions of lives right after his coronation. If you told me that the Spirit God wouldn''t do anything more than that, I wouldn''t believe your words. "Hence, I am going to stop right here and right now before more lives disappear. I don''t wish for our people to stop living in peace. With the current opinion, they will surely live and sleep in fear, thinking the Spirit God would attack them so suddenly. "As much as I hate to do it, I am required to ask other God Kings to participate in this alliance in order to stop the Spirit God. For me, I have no plan to kill him. As long as he makes a Universe Oath to stop killing people, I will protect him from the others and declare that the war has ended." The Saintess thought for a moment and asked. "Have you ever considered talking to him?" "I have. In fact, I am planning to visit him in the near future. The invitation that I sent will be held in two years. I am sure that even with the Spirit God''s growth speed, it''s still impossible for him to reach Rank 4 God. Hopefully, the talk can be ended peacefully¡­" He sighed. "Holy God, I am sure that you are too soft in this matter." Suddenly, a young man stood up. His body was covered with body armor, leaving only his face and spiky blonde hair. "You may be right. But please understand that I only want peace, nothing else. Besides, the Spirit God is the ruler of Eulja, one of the strongest planets out there. With their scale, as long as the Spirit God changes his way, I am sure that many people will have a smile on their faces. That''s my sincere wish. I wonder if you can follow me in this?" The Holy God made a genuine smile. "¡­" The Young Man closed his eyes for a few seconds before bowing his head as if telling his answer. The Holy God only smiled. Chapter 1091: Black Hole? A few days later, Alex stood not far from the planet, watching how his spaceships started retreating in order. Lin Xinzhi was the only one next to him, overseeing the entire process. "How can they return? I mean, it will be a long journey¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Don''t worry. We have our own way." Lin Xingzhi smiled before pointing at the farthest ship. "Watch that one." Alex turned around and saw the ship''s arrays begin to glow, creating a giant formation. Taking another look at the symbols, Alex realized that they were Teleportation Formation that seemed to be made by a thousand Teleportation Arrays. "This is¡­" Alex furrowed his eyebrows when the ship suddenly disappeared, crossing the space like nothing. "Yep. It''s a jump. Just like your Teleportation Array, the ship can jump like that as long as you know how far your destination is and the location." She smiled. "Unfortunately, we can only do it once in a while, considering the amount of Spirit Crystals that are used to do one teleport. Even though half of the Spiritual Energy comes from the Martial Saints and God Rank Experts inside the ship, it''s still an enormous amount." "I can understand. Not only do we need to teleport tens of thousands of people, but we also need to send that giant ship together. With that kind of distance, I can understand how much money you burn every single teleportation." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Do you want to go back with the ship?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "Because everyone is here, no one is controlling the system right now. You said that the system knows the location of the inheritance, right?" Alex glanced at her. His tone was calm and his expression was flat as though he had prepared to go for at least a year. "Not the location. Just the direction. But I am sure you can reach that place in an instant." She smiled. "Alright. Let''s go back then." Alex snapped his finger. "We will go back with this¡­ Is that alright with you?" "It will only take three hours." Lin Xingzhi stretched her hands before nodding her head. "Let''s go." Alex activated the Teleportation Array as the two disappeared. ¡­ Three hours later, Alex and Lin Xingzhi arrived in front of the castle. Korzan had been standing in front of the gate for a while, waiting for Alex to appear. "Your Majesty." Korzan fell on his knees, lowering his head. "Thank you for taking care of Eulja while I was away." Alex nodded. "Your words are wasted on me. Still, congratulations, Your Majesty, for achieving your first victory. Everyone has gotten the news and celebrated." "Unfortunately, I can''t celebrate together with you." Alex shook his head. "I need to go somewhere before I can relax." "I understand." Korzan raised from the ground and stretched his hand to the opened gate. "Please come in, Your Majesty." "Do you have any information about the other Divine Worlds?" Alex asked with a serious expression. God Kings would be his priority in this case, because he didn''t want them to sneak attack Eulja. "Yes, I have. From our spies, we have concluded that the Holy God has been gathering other God Kings to stop you." "What?" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows. "Isn''t the Holy God¡­" "Yeah. This shocked me as well. However, we can safely assume that the Holy God simply wants to stop His Majesty from killing. Although his goal is good, it depends on who he talks to. Hence, I have been directing a few of our spies there." Alex thought for a moment and asked. "How many God Kings will participate?" "We are not sure at the moment." "Get the number as quickly as possible. For the time being, the Life and Death Goddess is trying her best to regain her power, so I won''t consider her a combatant. Hence, we only have two at the moment and two or three more if needed. However, I don''t wish to show my trump card this soon." Korzan lowered his head. "I will do my best." Alex nodded before signaling Lin Xingzhi to go to her room, so she could direct the system again. After getting separated from Korzan, Lin Xingzhi and Alex arrived in her room within three minutes. She pushed open the door and activated the system. Alex simply couldn''t understand what she was doing other than the bigger screen that showed his current vision. "So, that''s the stalker screen¡­" "Ahaha." Lin Xingzhi looked away, feeling embarrassed to get found out like this. Although Alex had known about this for a long time, he never saw it himself. It really made her a bit embarrassed. "Anyway, here we go." Lin Xingzhi pressed another key before a blue screen appeared in front of him. It showed a small arrow that was pointing slightly to the north. "Hmm. I think it''s fine. I can start following it right now." "You want to say goodbye to the others first?" "I have said it back on another planet. I will go as soon as possible, so I can return faster." Alex smiled while shaking his head. "I understand. Do you want to pass a message to them before going?" Alex fell silent and nodded. "Tell Anna and Anya to increase their cultivation speed. I am afraid that there will be too many challenges we are going to face in the near future. Rose is to do the same thing and quickly receive the Bow God''s inheritance. "Can you tell Sherry about the plan of her Sacrificial Pure Fire? If she doesn''t wish to do so, then forget it. As for Evelyn and Letizia, I think it''s best to let them practice under William for the time being. As for Silvia, I am sorry, I will pay it all after I return from this trip." "Sure." Lin Xingzhi noted it down. "I will pass it to them as soon as I have met them." "Good. Thanks." Alex nodded before snapping his finger. The Teleportation Array appeared beneath his feet. When he was about to get teleported, Alex opened his mouth for one last time. "And Xingzhi¡­" "Hmm?" Lin Xingzhi turned to him again after storing the note in her Space Ring. "I love you." Alex waved his hand while smiling before he disappeared. Lin Xingzhi only smiled and shook her head helplessly. Meanwhile, Alex had started teleporting according to the direction that the system gave him. Alex was surprised when he realized that three days had passed, but he had yet to arrive at his location. But it all changed when Alex found a black hole standing in front of him. "¡­" Alex looked left and right while commenting. "That one is quite big, twice as big as the black hole that I used to go to Encore. I need to go around it." Alex shook his head in disappointment before he noticed the movement of the arrow on his screen. "What?!" He simply couldn''t believe it. The arrow was pointing at the black hole. After doing several more teleportations, the arrow kept pointing at it even though he had teleported in another direction. In other words, he really needed to go through the black hole. "Am I going to another universe? But I don''t think the Array God will send its inheritor to another universe, so what is this?" Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. "I guess I should enter before someone spots me." Alex then entered the black hole''s range as he quickly felt the pulling force that tried to attract him to the black hole. After taking another deep breath, he entered the black hole and arrived in the same black environment with nothing that could be seen. He activated his Spirit Eyes and so many colors began to appear in his vision. "¡­" Alex looked around while checking his body. Like the previous black hole, the gravitational force was trying to crush his body, but now that he reached Rank 5 God, his body was far stronger. He didn''t feel restricted anymore. "Hmm. I can stay here for one hour this time, so I guess I should just follow the direction? Well, the gravitational force here is pulling me toward the same direction as my destination, so I guess I shouldn''t fight the force. Instead, I should boost my speed by going the same direction, allowing me to reach my destination faster." Alex decided with a smile. With him flying toward the same direction, Alex''s speed began to surpass what his body could handle. However, Alex remained calm as though he didn''t experience any pain. His Pure Fire gushed out of his body and became one layer of protection for his body. After reaching his limit, he began to slow down and focused on the arrow. He really wanted to see what universe he needed to go just to get the Dungeon God''s inheritance." The wonder kept lingering in his heart until the arrow suddenly moved. "!!!" Alex prepared to change his direction, only to find that there was no tunnel around here. Everything was empty as if this was only a one way trip. "Eh? What should I do?" Alex fell into deep thought while watching that direction. He could see boundless energy inside the black hole despite not being part of it, yet, this energy was outside the border. Out of curiosity, he once threw a Divine Weapon outside the black hole, only to find it snapped into two. A Divine Weapon shouldn''t have a problem with withstanding the pressure of the black hole. So, with the weapon ending up like that, the force would be far stronger than what his body could handle. He started to panic when he was about to pass that mysterious place, as a ridiculous thought appeared in his mind. "Ehm, seriously?" "This is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever thought." Alex sweatdropped as he contemplated whether he wanted to do this or not. The moment he passed it, he stretched his hand and tried to summon a Spatial Gate. What he thought earlier was the possibility of him using his special Space Element. From what he understood, any elements would be unstable. Even his Pure Fire would get suppression in this giant tunnel and yet, he wondered whether his Spatial Gate could operate in this tunnel. What happened next shocked him. The Spatial Gate, although unstable, was able to form completely. He should be able to cross this Spatial Gate if he wanted. "Should I go? I don''t know if this works, but I don''t think there is another answer other than this. After all, Xingzhi said that no one has ever found the Dungeon God''s palace. If this were the palace, no wonder that only the wielder of the system could enter it." After contemplating for a few seconds as their position aligned in a perfect line, Alex created another portal that led to his portal in the mysterious energy chunk outside the border. "What?!" Alex widened his eyes. What he found shouldn''t be possible. He could see green scenery filled with tall grass. There were many flowers in different colors. His instinct told him one word. "Jump!" Alex followed his instinct without hesitation and crossed the portal. Due to the gravitational force from the black hole, many flowers entered the tunnel before almost everything inside it got pulled. Luckily, Alex quickly closed the portal, leaving only a one-kilometer wide barren land. Outside the barren land still had grasses and flowers, so the result was quite satisfying as it didn''t destroy this place completely. "No wonder no one can find it. The only Space Element that can create a Spatial Gate in a black hole is this Special Space Element. Even my Pure Fire is suppressed by the black hole, so Pure Space Element shouldn''t be able to find its way here too." Alex let out a long sigh. He looked around the place as his expression turned serious. Outside this flower field, he found a forest in his right, a desert in his front, a rocky mountain in his left, and a barren land behind him. He couldn''t help but mutter, "Interesting." Chapter 1092: Pyramid Array It turned out that this place was surrounded by arrays. Even below his feet was filled by at least ten arrays underground, yet, he wondered whether this place would become his burial place or not since the only person who should be able to enter this place was only him. "System?" Alex called Lin Xingzhi but to no avail. Just like when he was in Encore, there was no response from her. "It seems I am here alone. What will I meet during this time¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and tried to look for the arrays specifically to discern them, but it picked up the energy from the black hole as the center array, right underneath his feet, glowed. The Spiritual Energy spread to the surrounding, turning all the arrays in the area on. "Seriously?" Alex gulped down before the ground was shaking. "What is this?" Alex narrowed his eyes and tried to fly, but he realized that he couldn''t properly utilize his energy. In other words, this place still contained the rule of the black hole other than its pulling force. "Ugh, almost all my abilities are sealed. I can only use my weapons and Space Element." Alex muttered while trying to summon his Pure Fire. Unfortunately, that Pure Fire soon disappeared due to natural suppression. The ground shook even harder before cracks started to appear on the ground. When Alex was about to leap backward, the ground fell before a tower emerged from the ground. It magically rose from underground to the ground level, bringing him upward. Not knowing what this tower could do to him, Alex leaped off the tower before finding four more towers all around him. "What should I do now?" Alex looked around, watching how each tower finished its transformation. The tower in front of him looked like a pyramid with black rock instead of sandstone like the one he saw on Earth. Although he wanted to see the inside with his Spirit Eyes, the situation required him to observe the others as well. The one on the north was a giant cube. It seemed to be made of mirrors, tight enough to prevent anyone from peeking at what was stored inside. The west building had a sphere shape, making it even weird. Alex simply couldn''t predict what all these buildings had for him. Aside from that, the materials seemed to be made of Divine Rank Stones, strong enough to not be cut with his attack that easily. Although Alex had confidence in cutting it with his Three Purities Slash, most of his power was sealed, so it wasn''t possible at the moment. Alex then turned around and looked at the fourth building behind him. It was a cone-shaped building. Even the coloring looked like a traffic cone that usually blocked traffic. Last but not least, the last building was a cylinder. It was a normal tower that he had seen every now and then. In fact, Alex used this shape when planting his own dungeon. Alex thought for a moment and sensed someone''s presence in this place. His head turned to the right while drawing his sword. "Who?" Surprisingly, he saw a middle-aged man. His body looked similar to him but aged. Yet, when Alex saw that this man was made of energy instead of a proper body, he knew that this was just like a summon. "Nice to meet you." The middle-aged man said. His tone was flat like that of a robot and there was no change of expression on his face. "Who are you?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "My name is AI." "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows. "Do you mean Artificial Intelligence?" "Master said so in the past, but AI couldn''t understand the word." "So, do you want to say something to me?" Alex asked again. "Master, The Dungeon God, ordered me to inform you everything you need to know about this place. First. There are five towers in this place you need to conquer before getting anything this place has to offer. "The five tests are different from each other. The first test will be Array Mastery. The second test is the Space Element Mastery. The Third Test is a Trap Mastery, followed by the fourth test, Fighting Mastery. The last test is the Space Element Art Mastery. You can only leave this place after you have opened the last vault." "So, I am stuck here?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "I haven''t told anyone that I will be here for a long time. And with the world beginning to change, this will put me in a difficult situation." "No, you won''t be stuck here for a long time. It will depend on your speed to conquer at least one tower. In each tower, you will gain a special key to partially open the last vault. You are granted time to leave and continue your progress when you return to this place," AI answered. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and smiled. "This is going to be exciting then. My Array Mastery is quite good to be honest, so I think I can clear the first tower soon. I don''t know if I will regret it, but I will only go out to tell Lin Xingzhi that I will be away for one or two years to challenge the second tower. Yeah, let''s do that." Alex nodded a few times. Not wanting to waste his time, he said, "Lead me to the first test." AI nodded and looked at the tower. "This is where you will challenge the first test." Alex looked at the pyramid as the gate in front of him opened, leading him inside. "Please enter to start the test." Alex entered the pyramid without hesitation while looking around with his Spirit Eyes. Although it was dark, he could see a small chunk of energy where he needed to stand. Alex stepped on the small circle without hesitation before the door closed and the pyramid lit up. "Hmm?" It turned out that the pyramid was empty. There was only one floor and four diagonal sides, making him wonder what he needed to do. Suddenly, a small podium appeared in front of him, where he found a few papers that seemed to ask him to read them. "Let me see¡­" Alex took the paper and read it. "This place is called the Pyramid Array. It has a mechanism to change its landscape every few seconds and you are required to successfully create an array on the platform that emerges every change one hundred times in a row to exit. "This podium has ten arrays that will be used for this test. Each time, the podium will show one name and you are required to create it in a few seconds. You are free to understand the arrays first before touching the button to start your test. "You are free to use any method that you think is possible as long as you can clear the test. There is nothing such as too small and too big. You are to follow the size of all platforms coming out of this pyramid. "If you have no basic knowledge, you can read a few papers after this note, which contain the summary of what you need to know." Alex narrowed his eyes and read it anyway because he wondered how the Dungeon God saw the Array. Although he might not be as good as the Array God, the Dungeon God was still a top-notch Array Master. It turned out that most of the lesson was similar to what Alicia taught him. He felt satisfied that he didn''t need a long time to understand something. After that, he took another look at the podium, showing ten names. There were two for each Barrier Type Array, Illusion Type Array, Binding Type Array, and Attack Type Array. Other than those eight, he found Gathering Array and Teleportation Array on the list. Luckily, he had learned five arrays and had no problem creating these arrays. The study for each array would take him only a week. His vision returned to the paper as he began studying all five arrays that he hadn''t learned yet. ¡­ One and a half months later, Alex finally stretched his hand as he summoned each array in succession. He had mastered all of those arrays to the point he could create them in five seconds. With confidence feeling his heart, he placed the paper next to the podium and looked at the red button on top of it. "It''s time to start. I have wasted too much time here." Alex took a deep breath and pressed the button. Another paper suddenly appeared, floating above the podium. "Your test will begin in one minute. You can''t leave this circle no matter what." "Well, I have no problem in creating an array from far away. Although it will take much longer, with this distance, even the farthest wall won''t add one second from my personal best." Alex smiled and nodded. Alex waited for a minute before the tower began to shake. He opened his eyes with a serious expression, looking at the entire structure with his Spirit Eyes to see which one was going to move. Zerg. Zerg. Zerg. Alex raised his vision and saw a small slab emerging from the wall. The size was three meters on each side. Although it was tight, it shouldn''t be a problem to create an array. Alex lifted his hand and drew the array after seeing the podium showing one name. "Sun Moon Reflection Array." It took him five seconds to build one array, which seemed to be accepted by the tower as the podium projected a number for him. 1 As soon as the slab returned to its original position, another one came out. Alex flawlessly drew another array and got accepted. "This is going to be easy." Alex smirked and planned to finish this test in this instant. 3¡­ 4¡­ 10¡­ Alex''s streak wasn''t broken yet and he kept drawing one after another like nobody''s business. This showed his proficiency in arrays despite not using it as his main priority. 11¡­ 12¡­ 15¡­ 20¡­ He still had no sign of exhaustion despite creating so many arrays in succession. Instead, he became even more fired up. "Alright. Eighty arrays to go!" 21¡­ 25¡­ 30¡­ When he succeeded the thirtieth round, Alex saw the next one coming out. "After the first ten, I noticed that the slab was getting smaller. When I finished the twentieth slab, the pattern started to change. First of all, the size was not going to be a square slab anymore. Instead, there were triangles, rounds, and so on coming out of the walls. This was a bit tricky, but I could still finish it without a problem. Now, what will this round give me?" Anticipation filled his heart as he looked at a triangle slab coming out. Alex raised his hand and drew like how he used to be. However, he faced another twist that this tower had prepared. When he reached eighty percent completion of the array, the slab suddenly returned to its original position. The count on the podium was also reset to zero. "What? It was only four seconds!" Alex exclaimed in surprise. "Does this mean the test wants me to increase my drawing speed? But this is going to be repetitive training¡­" Alex remembered something written on the paper and looked into it again. "To increase your speed, you can only find your own style that allows you to build something so fast. If you keep practicing, you will one day reach the one-second mark." Alex scratched the back of his head. "Is this trial going to force me to create an array in one second? But from the way it was worded, it''s going to be either two or three seconds. "And the only way to reach it is by continuous training, making the array creation process itself a part of my body that I can use with just a thought of mind. Even the Array God wasn''t this fast. If I were to compare them, the Array God could create multiple arrays at once with the same speed, but this one asked me to draw an array as quickly as possible like a quick draw. So, this is the Dungeon God''s style of array¡­" "I take back what I said. It seems this test will take a while." Alex laughed weirdly as he wondered whether he could do it or not. Chapter 1093: Completing the First Hurdle A few months later. Zerg. Zerg. A small platform appeared on the left wall. It had a crescent shape, making it somewhat a weird shape to draw an array. Yet, symbols after symbols appeared on the surface. Not only did it cover the entire front, but it also painted the sides with symbols to fit the entire array into that tiny platform. "95!" Alex panted and looked around to see which one would appear again. His expression was darkened as he endured the severe exhaustion. For several months, Alex had been training his drawing speed and tweaking his Array Mastery. He never thought that the Array Mastery would take too long for him to master. But this also boosted his strength to a high degree. Alex''s drawing speed had reached two seconds due to him training inside this place according to the note that the Dungeon God gave. It turned out that the note was similar to the one that Alicia taught him, but they were not entirely the same. The Dungeon God had tweaked the study and learned his own way to improve his speed and accuracy. Despite him being capable of making one array at a time, the Dungeon God would surely not lose in terms of arrays. However, it wasn''t like there was any record about the battle between the Dungeon God and the Array God, so no one could decide whose teaching was correct or wrong. Nevertheless, if Alex were to choose one, he would undoubtedly pick the Dungeon God. His current style, which relied on Eulja''s symbol that had been incorporated with arrays focused on speed instead of multiple arrays, was indeed like a godsend for Dungeon God''s way. Combined with the Dungeon God''s way and practice, he might even be able to reach the one-second barrier. This would elevate the status of Dungeon God''s teaching even further, but Alex knew that this wasn''t something that people should know. At the very least, until he had enough power to control its distribution, which required him to be a God King. Due to the serious usage of Divine Energy in using the array, Alex decided to speed up his training with the help of his Simulation Room where he could practice continuously, making it very effective. Finally, this was the day Alex gained enough confidence to complete the entire mission. He raised his hand to the right side and drew another array with his Divine Energy. "96." The 97th platform was a circle with a hole in the center like a donut. At the same time, the side was too small, forcing Alex to use the inner circle to draw the rest of his array. "Kh." Alex clenched his teeth as sweat dripped from his forehead. "97." "Three more." Alex''s breath started getting rough, but his concentration remained the same. Although he had been enduring so much pain in his journey, this was the first time he became too tired just for creating an array. It was a weird way from his perspective since he usually got tired because of his inhumane training. Arrays shouldn''t be something he would need to break a sweat, but it seemed he was wrong this whole time. He started to respect the world of arrays and improved by leaps and bounds. "98!" shouted Alex after finishing the next one before lowering his vision. He saw a small triangle platform, but with many holes on its body, making it a bit tricky. "I have gotten used to this shape already!" Alex clicked his tongue, forced his way for this round and successfully created another array. "Huft! Huft! 99! Last one!" Alex''s hand was shaking and his feet went limp. No wonder that this place required him to reach Rank 5 God first before challenging this trial. He wouldn''t have enough Divine Energy to last him this long. Even when he reached this stage, it was just barely. The moment his focus disappeared even for a split second, he would need to do everything once again. "I am not going to fail!" Alex looked left and right before the entire pyramid itself turned upside down. He was flipped over as the podium told him to create another array in the entire pyramid itself. "Seriously?" Alex clapped his hand once as one hundred thousand symbols appeared in a split second, spreading like crazy, covering the entire pyramid with symbols. Suddenly, the array glowed, revealing a secret for this pyramid. It was the array that protected the gate. "The gate can now be opened. Please break it open!" The moment he read those words, he instinctively summoned Eulja Holy Emblem behind his back. He waved his hand once and the same spear the Array God summoned emerged from his palm, blasting the door. Still, what made one wonder would be his activation speed. Due to the Holy Emblem covering the majority of symbols needed to create an array, Alex only needed to summon the remaining five hundred thousand symbols. Compared to the original requirement, which was three million symbols, five hundred thousand was something that he could do in less than a second. In other words, he only needed a single wave of his hand close to his real moving speed to complete the array. Bam! The spear struck the door and shattered it into pieces. Alex instinctively jumped to the door and came out of the pyramid. Surprisingly, the pyramid never turned upside down. In other words, everything had been an illusion this whole time. "Seriously¡­" Alex realized that he was too exhausted to even realize it and dropped to the ground. Leaning on the pyramid, he looked forward, finding AI walking toward him. "Congratulations for finishing the first test, Array Mastery." Alex''s consciousness was fuzzy, but it didn''t mean he would pass out. His eyelids felt heavy and there was a bag under his eyes. With his hoarse voice, Alex answered. "Yeah. I have finished." Before getting an answer from AI, Alex took out a water bottle from his Inventory and drank it in one go. Feeling the unquenching thirst, he drank ten more bottles. This might be the first time that normal water tasted so amazing. "I believe an energy drink is tastier in this state." Alex took a deep breath as he regained his focus. He raised his vision and asked. "So, where is the key? I am planning to inform someone about this training. To think I would have almost used half a year just to challenge one tower. This will take a few years¡­" "The key is inside the pyramid." AI pointed straight inside the pyramid. There was no need to see. After the torture he endured inside the pyramid, Alex already knew everything about the pyramid, including its platform location. What AI pointed at right now was none other than the podium. Alex calmed his heart down for a minute before rising from the ground to check what was inside. The podium turned out projecting something other than the number or word. It was a golden key with a white gem on the key''s handle. "By the way, can I teach someone about the technique I learn here?" Alex asked. "You are free to do so. Master said that this technique could only be mastered by people who took everything to the extreme. Unless you had Unique Space Element, Pure Space Element, or enhanced your normal Space Element to an extreme degree, it was impossible to learn the Quick Draw Style Array Painting." "I see. The stronger one''s Space Element is, the more powerful the connection between the element and the array. This will boost the activation speed and force. No wonder why this Array Technique requires me to use my Unique Space Element." Alex nodded in understanding. If it were Alicia, I have no doubt that she could reach the two-second barrier in the future with the Holy Emblem, but I am not sure if she can surpass that. Even so, it''s already enough to scare people." Alex let out a long sigh. "I guess I won''t tell anyone for the time being." Taking out the key, Alex hurriedly escaped from the pyramid. It was like when he killed so much that he started refraining himself from thinking about tomatoes for a while. He simply had fed up with the pyramid. "Anyway, where is the hidden vault? I will take a quick breather before returning here. I can recover my Spiritual Energy first before starting the second test, right?" "For the first question, you need to push the podium as the entrance to the vault lies underneath. You will see a part of the vault which allows you to return outside. As for the second question, you have the right to choose when to start the test." "That''s good." Alex nodded and sighed because he ended up entering the pyramid again. He hurriedly pushed the podium, revealing stairs that led to the underground. "Now that I think about it, wasn''t the tower buried underneath before? Because of their appearance, I couldn''t see what lies beneath them, but this direction¡­Isn''t it leading me to the bottom of the north tower?" Alex shrugged. "Whatever." Alex walked without hesitation while barely using his Spirit Eyes to ensure his safety. The passage was narrow but well lit by the glowing stones powered by Spiritual Energy. Alex had no trouble in seeing the path and arrived at his destination after five minutes. He found a metal door that seemed to be made of a Divine Metal reinforced by so many arrays. Since this was a test that was useful to him, he decided to follow the test without thinking about cheating. After all, with the Pure Fire or Pure Sword Qi, he should have no problem in forcing his way inside. Alex didn''t want to do it that way and raised the hand holding the key. He saw a small keyhole at the center of the metal gate and inserted the key without hesitation. Without even the need to turn the key, something clicked behind the door. It then continued as if there was a mechanism that supported the entire vault. Before he could explore it, a Teleportation Array appeared right under his feet. "Ah, yes. I should go back first." Alex blinked and he returned inside the black hole. He could clearly see the tunnel and the secret place, so Alex had no hesitation in turning his head around, fighting the black hole''s flow. It was harder than when he returned from Eulja, but Alex managed to escape from the black hole after an hour or so, returning to the original universe. He made a distance with the black hole first, so he could contact Lin Xingzhi quietly. As soon as he felt no more pulling force, Alex opened his mouth. "I''m back. Xingzhi?" [Yep. I am here. Congratulations on receiving the inheritance though I don''t know what you get.] "Ah, no. I just passed one out of five stages. I am going back right away after informing you about my current situation." Chapter 1094: God of Destruction [Eh? Seriously?] "Yeah. I can''t waste too much time since it''s going to take years to complete all the tests." Alex nodded with a serious expression. [In that case, I shall inform you about this first. We have gotten a letter from the Holy God that they want to discuss something with us. This will determine whether they are going to fight us or not.] "When?" [The letter came not long after you left and stated two years. Of course, we can delay it if you need.] "Unfortunately, I don''t know how long I need to finish the second test. If possible, can you delay it as long as you can?" [I see. I will try to do that. Even so, it will only last for another half year. I don''t think they will wait for you more than that.] "I understand. I will complete the second test as soon as possible." Alex nodded before thinking. "I wonder if we should share a bit about the beast with others? I mean, there is a little information about it, right? Even my master has little to no knowledge about the beast." [Fair enough. The record about that incident has been extinguished in order to prevent anyone from digging up the information and turning the universe into chaos anymore. To be honest, I don''t like killing the Holy God.] "Why?" [Although he is opposing us right now, to be honest, he is just trying to help more and more people when expanding his influence. You can say that he is bringing good karma to himself. However, I will still kill him if necessary.] "So, that''s the reason. With people like him, I think he will be able to help us in the future. Well, we can see where he stands during the meeting." [Yes. I will be preparing the discussion. Besides, if we can rope him, we will be able to stop the alliance.] "Since the Holy God is the head." Alex nodded in agreement. [One more thing. I also have a letter from the God of Destruction. It seems he wants to meet you. What do you think? Are you planning to meet him?] "Now?" [Yeah. The sooner the better.] "So, I need to return¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. [I can''t help with your return trip, but I can ask someone to change the direction of our Teleportation Formation, allowing you to reach that place in an instant. Calculating the distance, you will probably need only one more day to arrive.] Alex thought for a moment and asked. "What is his purpose?" [He didn''t state anything other than meeting you.] Alex narrowed his eyes and asked. "When and where?" [Because Eulja will be too suspicious unlike the Holy God with his clear intention, the meeting place is on a planet called Rila. It''s a Divine World far from anyone''s eyes. In my perspective, it''s fine to hold the meeting here.] Alex thought for a moment. "For now, I can use the Teleportation Array in less than a second, so I think we can escape if necessary. That''s the result of the inheritance anyway." [That''s even better. Though, I will gather the Elemental Gods to accompany us. We don''t know what they plan to do anyway.] "I understand. I will return right now." Alex sighed. It turned out that his plan failed, but it seemed to be important. [I will send the messenger to the God of Destruction about the time.] "Sure." Alex nodded. "And tell me everything you know about the God of Destruction." [No need. To put it in one word, he is Leoz.] "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows and sighed. "My luck is bad." ¡­ A few days later. Alex returned to Eulja and entered the castle without wasting a single second. Lin Xingzhi had been waiting for him right behind the gate. "The Elemental Gods have been waiting for us. We can move out anytime." "I don''t wish to waste time because it''s the essence in my current situation." Alex nodded. "Ask them to meet me outside the castle and we will go immediately." "No need to ask us. We are here, Your Majesty," replied Agnis while bowing his head and placing his hand on his chest, greeting him like that of a gentleman. "That''s right. I have heard that this God of Destruction has power close to that of the previous era, so I am curious to see him in person." The Earth God, Canaan, smiled. "Indeed. Though I don''t wish to fight if not necessary." Vina shrugged. "Enough. Time to go." Alex shook his head. The six Elemental Gods bowed their heads in unison. "We are ready." Lin Xingzhi gave a confirmation. Alex then waved his hand as they suddenly disappeared from the castle with just a blink of an eye. "Wha¡ª" All Elemental Gods were surprised to see this speed because it was far faster than what he had been doing. Even Lin Xingzhi dropped her jaw when she witnessed this speed for the first time, making her a bit dizzy. "Don''t throw up, okay?" Alex smirked evilly before waving his hand again. The speed was far faster than they would have ever expected. To think that Alex managed to skip three days of the Teleportation journey into less than a day, it was scary in everyone''s opinion. "Alright! We''ve arrived," said Alex with a calm expression as if the speed of the changing scenery didn''t affect him at all. It usually made one want to puke, like what the Elemental Gods were currently experiencing. Even Lin Xingzhi''s expression wasn''t that good. If she didn''t experience watching his point of view during the return trip, she would be in the same condition as the Elemental Gods. "Ugh¡­" Agnis was sweating all over his body as he dropped on his knees. Helena was floating on her tummy as if she just fell unconscious. Canaan dropped on his knees while Zerah tried to crush Canaan''s shoulders as she endured the "motion sickness". Rilt and Vina were hugging each other as Vina kept saying. "Don''t you dare to throw up on me. I am going to kill you." "I''m trying, Wife. It''s true that His Majesty has become a bit too powerful despite being a Rank 5 God, but this is just terrifying. I bet if he can trap someone and have them experience this, they will be too weak to even kill him." Rilt let out a long sigh. "They still can stop me during the first few hours, so it''s not possible. But I think we can add it in Jeanne''s torture." Alex shook his head. "Anyway, we''ve arrived. Let''s go inside." The Elemental Gods nodded their heads after taking several deep breaths, following Alex right behind him. Lin Xingzhi walked beside him and entered the Divine World. As one would expect, someone already appeared to greet them. He was the God of Destruction''s assistant. "We have been waiting for you." "Eh? I thought we arrived before you¡­ Since the schedule was supposed to be two days later¡­" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "My master was just that impatient to meet the important person, so we ended up coming as soon as we received your reply." "I see." Alex nodded. "Please." "Understood. Please follow me." The assistant turned around and entered the world, leading Alex to the meeting place. He saw that person who had a muscular body and emitted the same aura as Leoz. He was none other than the God of Destruction. Behind him stood five Rank 2 Gods, staring at the Elemental Gods instead of Alex. "¡­" The moment their eyes intertwined, there seemed to be something going on already. However, neither Alex nor the God of Destruction made any move. Alex landed on the ground without any trouble and said with a calm expression. "I hope that you don''t mind bringing my people, right?" "I can understand after learning about your current cultivation stage. Still, to think that you would cause that huge shock right after your coronation despite being a Rank 5 God, I am impressed." The God of Destruction shook his head in understanding. "The situation forced me to do so." Alex suddenly narrowed his eyes as his expression turned grim. "Just like now." The Gods behind the opposite party flinched as if they thought Alex would do something. "You are really interesting." The God of Destruction smirked when he saw how Alex''s presence alone could influence his retainers. It was truly a surprise, considering his weak cultivation stage. "Before that¡­Let me introduce myself first." "I am the God of Destruction, Raiju. Nice to meet you." Surprisingly, the God of Destruction emanated an invisible aura as if he planned to suppress Alex. Even the Elemental Gods behind Alex had grown restless, not taking this challenge lightly. However, Alex already cupped his hand and replied. "Spirit God, Alexander." To challenge this invisible aura, Alex chose to release his boundless killing intent instead. It struck the aura as if fighting it in a full brawl match before both of them disappeared at the same time. The God of Destruction couldn''t help but smirk excitedly. "You are really amusing." "Whether you want to test me or have another plan, I suggest you not to do the same thing, God of Destruction." Alex narrowed his eyes, glaring at this muscular guy. "I know, I know. I was wrong for testing you, but it was necessary because I wanted to determine whether you are worthy or not to become my partner." "!!!" Lin Xingzhi and the Elemental Gods widened their eyes, never expecting that Raiju planned for an alliance instead of fighting him. "Ho? I am listening." "As soon as I heard about your situation with the Holy God, I knew that it was the time to make an alliance with you." "For what reason?" "There are four major reasons. First, I can fight more God Kings because your side is lacking. I don''t like suppressing someone with numbers and prefer fighting one on one instead. Hence, I believe I can achieve this by becoming your ally. "Second, I want to fight you myself. You may be a Rank 5 God now, but your reputation is already like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. So, I wish to see you becoming a God King and fight you myself to see the disparity between us. "Third, the Spirit God actually died so strangely along with the other past God Kings. When I found the documents, I couldn''t help but contemplate the reasons for that. There were two possibilities of their disappearance: enemies or wars. I doubt the latter because the Spirit God was very renowned in the past, so not many dared to create that big war. Hence, I wondered what kind of enemy could defeat the God Kings in the past. "Fourth. I think this is the most obvious. If you heard about the Spirit God, you obviously wanted to make him an ally, no? I have been doing a background check and realized that Eulja might be declining as soon as the Spirit God died, but the way they are now¡­Even I am scared of the possibility of war between us. Hence, I would like to become your ally instead of an enemy. If it were not possible, I would like to become a neutral party instead. Thus the reason for this meeting." Alex closed his eyes, pondering all the reasons the God of Destruction said. It was quite logical in his opinion, but he didn''t know whether there was a hidden intention behind those reasons. Seeing Alex''s disturbed face, Raiju added one more thing. "I can do a Universe Oath to prevent "anything" that can be prevented." Lin Xingzhi and the Elemental Gods stared at Alex, wondering what he would choose. "This is a discussion, so I won''t conclude everything before talking with you." Alex smiled. "I want you to swear that you won''t mention, hint, or do anything that will lead someone to arrive at the conclusion of what we are talking about here. Of course, we will be doing it too to ensure fairness. Lastly, after this conversation, whether we can''t arrive at the same conclusion, we will promise to stay neutral to each other in the worst scenario. This will apply for one hundred years. So¡­What will you choose?" The God of Destruction smiled as his eyes brightened. "I¡­" Chapter 1095: Agreement "How is it? Are you satisfied?" asked Raiju after swearing a universe oath. All the Rank 2 Gods behind him seemed to have no doubt of his decision and followed his decision by swearing the same oath. Alex nodded and raised his hand, doing the same thing. The Elemental Gods and Lin Xingzhi also did the same, so no one would be able to say something regarding this meeting or even answer with the silent treatment. "Still, to think you proposed something like this." Raiju closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Interesting. No matter what kind of conversation we will have, we are going to be neutral with each other. This means that you are in a desperate position where you need allies more than anything. "However, the Holy God doesn''t have that level of threat right now, so it must be related to the past. And with how you want it to last for a hundred years, this calamity will surely happen within one hundred years. This is interesting." Raiju nodded in understanding. Alex narrowed his eyes. At first, he thought that Raiju was similar to Leoz, but it seemed his analyzing ability far surpassed his expectations. "Either way, you will know it sooner or later. Someone who loves to fight fair and square won''t betray me in this situation. Hence, I have decided to pull this off." Alex shook his head. "Alright. Alliance is important, but I want you to listen to my side story first. How about it?" "I don''t have a problem." Alex then turned to Lin Xingzhi and nodded. Lin Xingzhi stepped forward and opened her mouth. "I am sure that most of you have never heard about it, but I believe you know that the time where almost all God Kings died is called Period of Darkness. This happened five thousand years ago¡­" Lin Xingzhi began telling them what happened to the former God Kings, the beast, and the so-called "weapons" that killed all those God Kings. They couldn''t help but suck a cold breath when hearing the story. Although the story was hard to believe, they listened to Lin Xingzhi''s story to the very end. After an hour of explanation, Lin Xingzhi finally finished her story and stepped back, allowing Alex and Raiju to continue their conversation. "So you''re saying that the beast is going to resurrect soon? Do you have proof?" "We have a few proofs." Lin Xingzhi decided to answer his question. "First of all, do you know about the Time Element? Especially Time Eyes¡­ Known as Eyes of Death?" Raiju furrowed his eyebrows before shaking his head in disappointment. "I don''t have any knowledge about such a thing." "Actually, I have¡­" Raiju''s assistant suddenly spoke and raised his hand. "Those eyes are known to be the eyes that could see through someone''s lifespan. Is that true, Nature Goddess?" "Ho? Lifespan?" Raiju widened his eyes in amazement. "Yes. The eyes are calculating the future on their own, transforming the future into a number that symbolizes one''s lifespan. However, by no means that these eyes can take a glimpse of the future. It''s only calculation." Lin Xingzhi acknowledged. "I met such an individual in the past. Although he couldn''t predict the accurate number, the range seemed to be between thirty years to seventy years in the future." "So, that''s the reason why you want one hundred years¡­" Raiju closed his eyes and fell into deep thought. "The second proof is this." Alex took out the humanoid bat sample he acquired from the planet he visited in the past. "!!!" The Gods in their side suddenly took a step back as even the God of Destruction instinctively stood up, looking at this mysterious creature. It looked like a bat, but its body was close to that of a human. "This¡­" "This is one of the weapons, the bat. They are reproducing at a very fast rate. I''ve visited a planet once. From their mouth, I learned that it only takes them a week to produce a hundred million populations. I am sure that I don''t need to give you the reason what will happen if such a creature comes into your place, right?" "No wonder. This bat is so scary. If that''s the case, how about solving this bat before fighting the big boss?" Raiju asked. "This only started happening recently." "So there is no information yet." Raiju looked down with his hand supporting his chin. "I can help with the investigation if you don''t mind. Judging from the time limit and such, I believe that this bat should have at least one God King. If there is only one, I would like to ask you to leave it to me because I want to know what kind of strength that can kill those heroes of the past." "Even so, it''s still too dangerous. Lin Xingzhi will accompany you to prevent it from escaping and help you if necessary. I am sure you have no qualms, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Looking at the death tolls suffered in the past, I can understand your decision, so I won''t reject it. Besides, I would like to confirm the truth about this bat. If this is truly true, I can start believing this story completely." Raiju nodded with a serious expression. "Other than that, I believe we have found the snake clue as well. My men are investigating the area. I am sure we can get a result with this one in a few years." "That''s reassuring. This can even become more believable if the living proof is there." Raiju agreed. "That''s all you need to know about this cooperation. What do you think?" "I can promise you that I will be standing on your side if everything is true. Hence, I am going to see whether your story is true or not by fighting those "weapons" myself. I am sure you don''t mind, right?" "That''s what I am planning to do to convince the others too." Alex nodded. "I know that this story is unbelievable, considering how ridiculous it is. However, I want once again to say that this is true." "I can understand. But I won''t believe something completely until I see it myself. Thus the extent of our cooperation regarding this matter. If Spirit God can agree with these terms, we can talk to the other topic." "Sure. I don''t mind. We can make the Universe Oath together with the second topic." "Alright." Raiju thought for a moment and asked. "May I know how confident you are in dealing against them?" "You should be aware of the Holy God''s reputation, right?" "Yes¡­" Raiju suddenly realized something and opened his mouth in surprise. "Are you planning to convince the Holy God to join you?" Alex nodded. "Hence, I would like to request your cooperation in locating the "snake" to convince him. I will do my best to extend the meeting to two years from now." "I don''t mind giving you a portion of my force to investigate, but we can''t blindly search, right?" "Don''t worry. I have an idea where he is, but I don''t know the exact location. If you agree, I can explain how I organize this search¡­" Alex smiled. "¡­" Raiju seemed to understand that this one was different from the previous agreement. To listen to this plan, he would need to swear an additional oath despite having the oath that prevents information leaks. After contemplating for a moment, he declared. "By Heaven and Earth as the witness, I, Raiju, promise Alexander Sirius to participate in this investigation mission with the right to refuse when I can''t see eye to eye after a few talks." Alex nodded in agreement. The second part was just to ensure his own safety, so Alex didn''t take advantage of him. "In that case, I will lay down all my cards now. To search for the snakes, I have the help from three influences: Blackwade Clan, Palm God, and Former Fire God''s God Beasts." "!!!" Raiju''s heart skipped a beat when he heard Alex had the wealthiest clan in the universe and another God King backed his back. Still, he never expected that the ten God Beasts would be helping him. Even though the record about the war was removed, they still had enough record about all those Gods, so this news truly shocked him. "With you, I believe this investigation can finish within two years. What do you think?" "I shall spare no effort." Raiju agreed without hesitation. "Since you are participating, I can rest assured and trust that the investigation will be completed soon." Alex nodded. "Back to the topic, after the Holy God leaves the alliance, we can surely fight them." "No¡­ It''s not that easy. There are ten God Kings that the Holy God invites this time, including me. Knowing his reputation, they will seriously consider his words before deciding. You should know that in the past, there are only ten God Kings, so this one is the biggest alliance I''ve ever heard." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes as he had severely underestimated this Holy God. He thought that this person could probably get five people into this so-called alliance, but he was wrong. "Still, I am sure that not all of them are eager to fight me. Some must come for the Holy God''s face." "Agreed. I am sure that our cooperation can lead to a stalemate. But¡­ What if you fail to convince the Spirit God?" Raiju narrowed his eyes. There was a strong doubt in his eyes. Alex could sense the anger from behind as they couldn''t take someone questioning their king''s plan. Alex only waved his hand and smiled. "In that case, I don''t mind you leaving me behind. I am sure that even if you fight together with me at that time, the Holy God will still spare you. To that end, I don''t mind you leaving our alliance." "I don''t know if you are that confident or something, but I am sure that Eulja will start declining when that time comes¡­ You know." Raiju smirked. Alex shook his head. "That depends on the situation. I can''t guarantee you anything, but I can promise you that you won''t regret trying this." "¡­" Raiju couldn''t help but laugh while thinking, ''This kid''s eyes¡­ They are the eyes of a predator. This Spirit God doesn''t plan to buy time or lose. Instead, he is planning to devour them. His eyes are looking toward the future, not this war. I see, so this is the current Spirit God. He is truly a monster.'' After contemplating for a while, Raiju stomped the ground and grinned. "Alright. I''m in." "I think I have noted everything down." Raiju''s assistant suddenly stepped forward and presented a paper to both rulers. Each of them let the others take the look of the agreement and nodded their heads. "With Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Alexander Sirius, will follow this agreement." The others also began to swear their oaths before a Lightning Disturbance appeared above the planet, striking the paper. Every word in the paper was shown once again in the form of a Spiritual Golden Word formed by the Lightning Tribulation as though the universe immortalized the agreement. Lin Xingzhi already told Alex about this method to simplify the agreement, so Alex quickly stood up and cupped his hand. "As much as I want to say, let''s have a drink after the war is over, shall we?" "Certainly." Raiju stood up and cupped his hands. "Then¡­" Alex turned around as he and his group left the world. ¡­ Meanwhile, Raiju''s assistant asked this question as the others also listened to what he had to say. "Master! I have been staying quiet this whole time due to your order, but let me share my doubt. Why did you accept?" "You don''t see his eyes?" Raiju shook his head in disappointment. "He is not looking at this war as the battle to fight for Eulja. Instead, he is looking at this war to get a subordinate for the actual battle." "What?!" The six Rank 2 Gods dropped their jaws. "This just reinforces his own proof about the beast. Besides, if everything he said were true, our universe would be in danger. Hence, isn''t it good for us to be the "good" guy and protect the universe? It will increase our prestige and strength without making the Spirit God an enemy?" Raiju paused for a second and looked at the sky. "Still, as expected¡­ The Spirit God is indeed¡­ "¡­ a monster." Chapter 1096: Space Element Not long after, Alex and the others had returned to Eulja. As expected, they still couldn''t handle the effect of the Teleportation Array that was so fast beyond belief. As soon as they reached their destination, all of them dropped on their knees while sweating. "Your Majesty. Let''s use Teleportation Formation instead of Teleportation Array. This will certainly save us a lot of time." Agnis, who usually appeared strong, begged Alex as he didn''t want to experience it again. The scenery changed so fast it made them sick. If they were to close their eyes, it was hard to maintain their balance, forcing them to get shaken even more. Either way, the end result was the same, motion sickness. "But using a Teleportation Array requires resources, so it''s better using my Teleportation Array. I have mastered this technique to create a Teleportation Array in less than a second." Alex smirked evilly as if planning to bully them again. "Rilt. Use your power to heal us." Helena looked at Rilt while sweating. "This is not a sickness. It''s just your perception that gets jumbled due to the Teleportation Array. To recover from it, you need to adjust your mind since my power can''t heal you." Rilt shook his head in disappointment. "Besides, I would have done it already if I can!" Alex chuckled and asked Lin Xingzhi. "That''s right. Where is the Formation? I need to return as soon as possible." "I will lead you¡­" Lin Xingzhi weakly walked forward before ultimately hugging him from behind. "Carry me." Alex gave her a ride on his back as they entered the castle. However, the Elemental Gods could actually see Lin Xingzhi''s right hand on her back, pointing that middle finger toward them. "¡­" Vina twitched her eyebrows. "Did she just¡­" "It must be due to Agnis appearing that strong! You have been trying to force His Majesty to do something!" Rilt snorted. "No way! It was Helena. She shouldn''t seduce His Majesty to the point she offends those two!" Agnis rebuked him while looking at Helena. "What? Me? How about Canaan? Didn''t he bring his daughter previously? He must be the reason." Helena pushed the blame to Canaan while looking away. "No, no. The reason must be Zerah. What the heck with her retiring? You shouldn''t retire that easily and force His Majesty to see your successor!" Canaan didn''t want to end up guilty, so he blamed Zerah. "You are wrong. It must be Rilt! He should become a bit more proper father-in-law!" Zerah glared at Rilt. However, when everyone pushed the blame to the other, Rilt had no choice other than to look at the one beside him, Vina, albeit everything wouldn''t go according to his way. Vina only smiled at him, but that smile carried far heavier pressure than what Alex could give. "Ah¡­ Ah¡­" Rilt looked left and right before kneeling. "Ye, yes, Wife. It''s my fault." The Elemental Gods laughed in unison. ¡­ Alex, on the other hand, had arrived in front of the Teleportation Formation. "I have asked someone to alter the formation. You should go now." Lin Xingzhi stretched her hand, asking Alex to step inside the formation. "Alright. I will be missing you and the others, but I will try to go back as soon as possible." Alex smiled and activated the formation. "See you later." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand while smiling. "Yep. See you later." Alex blinked his eyes and quickly saw a different scenery. Activating his system, he followed the direction once again, going toward the inheritance place. As soon as he discovered the black hole, he entered without hesitation and did everything he needed to enter the special place. AI seemed to be waiting for him in front of the pyramid and quickly greeted him with a flat tone. "Greetings, Challenger. According to the record, you are planning to challenge the second test, correct?" "Yes." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Where should I go?" "The second test is the Space Element Mastery that will be held there." AI pointed his finger toward the cylindrical building as the door opened just like that. Alex couldn''t be more surprised after the first tower, so he quickly entered without thinking anything. As long as he had made sure that the tower was safe, he only needed to finish the challenge. "Let''s go then." Surprisingly, the inside of this tower seemed to be made of reflective Space Stone. It was just like a normal Space Stone that could be mined to create a Space Ring, but it had been polished enough to reflect his shadow like that of a mirror. "Hmm¡­" Alex looked at his surroundings before finding a piece of paper on the ground. Recalling the first tower, he waved his hand to grab the paper by using his Divine Energy. "Let me see. What should I do to pass this test?" Alex muttered and started reading. "What is Real? What is Fake? Between the actual world and Space World, which one is real? Why does the fake become real and the real become fake? It turns out¡­The real is fake and the fake is real. It can become anything without limitation. "However, there is a boundary which separates them, forcing us to stay in this place. This Space Element Art is to lessen the barrier between the two boundaries, allowing a person to connect with both places at the same time." Alex narrowed his eyes and muttered. "Hmm? I can''t understand the meaning behind real and fake, but I can see that what this paper wants to teach me is to control my Space Element, so I can govern both worlds without much effort. That''s basically the instruction, right?" Alex began to read the rest of the information as the door was closed, trapping him inside. "To pass the test, you are required to spread all the Space Energy in the room evenly. At the same time, you need to be in the real world, control the Space Element in the Space World to spread the Space Element in the real world and vice versa, and you are not a part of this, so make sure not to contaminate the room. Only after accomplishing these two, you shall be able to leave this tower." "Oh¡­ I don''t know whether this challenge is going to be hard or not, but I will do my best. Well, to be honest, I haven''t looked into my Space Element to the very detail, so I guess I will need to study it right now." Alex smiled and sat down on the ground to read the rest of the information. While reading, Alex felt that the wall began to release the Space Element. Considering it was made of Space Stone, the power was quite extraordinary. "What''s this?" Alex widened his eyes when he checked the tower''s condition with his Spirit Eyes. It turned out that the Space Element didn''t act like gas. Instead, it filled the room like liquid. "The level is around one meter from the ground. So, I should spread this amount of Space Element all over the room and it needs to be distributed evenly? This is going to be hard, I guess?" Before he started, the wall reflected something extraordinary. When Alex looked at the stone, he saw a number from one to one hundred. "Seriously? The current level of this Space Element is number two, so this building is fifty meters. So, I need to spread everything to all those levels evenly? It''s good to know it." Alex''s expression turned serious as he stretched his hand, controlling the Space Element like how he usually did. Surprisingly, Alex realized something was wrong the moment he leveled up Space Energy. It either hit him or reflected by the Space Stone, destroying the pattern of the Space Energy. It disrupted the energy and mixed it with the others. "Ugh. This is not going to be easy." Alex twitched his eyebrows. "One mishap will turn the entire thing into failure? Despite the Space Energy acting like liquid, when I moved it, it had the characteristic of the gas. The Space Energy flowed in a torrential flow that made it even harder to spread evenly. "It seems I need to move it carefully. The paper also explains how to convert the torrential flow to laminar flow, so I should use this chance to learn it first." Alex thought for a moment and read the technique again. "Alright. Let''s train." Alex smiled and started reading the paper again, planning to accumulate as much understanding as possible. "Wait a minute. So, the Dungeon God got his name only due to the fact that he used the system? Of course, he took advantage of the system by creating an army of talented people using the System, but he himself was strong. Everything was apparent when I read this note that should have been left behind by the Array God. "Both his Array Mastery and Space Element Mastery won''t lose to that of Array God or Space God if there was one. What the Dungeon God wants me in this test is to control my Space Element perfectly. The challenge will be simple like this and gradually become harder and harder like the first test. "If my prediction is correct, I believe that since the tower is made of Space Stone, it will release Space Energy from a specific location or I need to fill that certain location to make everything even. To be honest, my Space Element is now the worst, compared to my Array and Alchemy, so I guess this will take a few years? I hope that it won''t take more than two years¡­ No, I will finish this within two years." Not wanting to waste any more time, Alex began following the instruction again as he challenged himself to finish this test. Chapter 1097: Holy God Two years later, the Holy God indeed visited the Eulja. He was accompanied by ten people, which seemed to be his strongest retainers. After getting the information from the Ten Commandant about them entering their territory, Lin Xingzhi and the Elemental Gods came out of Eulja to meet them. "Nature Goddess." The Holy God narrowed his eyes when he saw Lin Xingzhi and the others before lowering his head a bit as a polite greeting. "It''s my honor to see the Son of Time God." Lin Xingzhi shook his head. "We both are God Kings. There is no need for this." "¡­" The Rank 2 Gods behind the Holy God felt a bit offended. Not only Lin Xingzhi had postponed this meeting for half a year, but she also had the audacity to act rude to their God King. At the same time, they had eleven people while Lin Xingzhi only brought the Elemental Gods. She should have brought the Five Guardians as well if she wished to talk big. However, the Holy God only put on his warmest smile as if this was not a big thing. Instead, he asked politely. "I believe Nature Goddess has understood the reason why we come here, right?" "Yes. You are here just to bully us, no?" Lin Xingzhi smiled as if it wasn''t a big deal. "I''m not trying to bully you. I just want to ask you to abandon the way of killing. If it were another God King, I would have stayed silent. Unfortunately, the Spirit God''s reputation is like thunder reverberating in one''s ears. This old man doesn''t dare to sleep at night with the current condition." "You should have known what it means to provoke Eulja. The Array God wanted to enslave the Spirit God''s wife, what will people see if we don''t do anything?" Lin Xingzhi snorted. "And you are killing billions of innocent people." The Holy God frowned. "No. We are saving trillions of people." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "By killing billions?" "By killing billions! We have warned everyone not to provoke our Eulja unless they want a massacre." "There are many ways to warn them! Why must you do this?" "And what? What will we get? Have you learned the history?" Lin Xingzhi snorted. "Our Eulja once spared a person and it cost us almost everything. If the Spirit God were not there, Eulja would have perished. Yet, you have the audacity to tell us something like that?" "I need to meet your Spirit God. I believe I can convince him. This is still not too late." The Holy God shook his head. "He is not here. It''s useless." "Father! I mean, his holiness! They have been looking down on us this whole time! I can''t accept this." The Saintess suddenly shouted and glared at Lin Xingzhi. "It''s not your turn to speak." Lin Xingzhi looked at the Saintess with killing intent. "!!!" The Saintess took a step back before trying to pull her sword, only to find her father''s hand stopping her from drawing that sword. Instead of anger, he still showed compassion to everyone. "I apologize for my daughter''s carelessness. She is like me but always changes when it concerns me." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and retracted her killing intent. "Well, we can kill you here if you were to start a war." The Saintess gritted her teeth, but her father''s hand made her heart calm down. The Holy God continued. "You indeed have the ability to kill us here, but you must be prepared for the impact it will bring you." "They are going to come sooner or later. What''s wrong with lowering their strength first? No matter their anger, a single God King can basically overturn the entire situation." She smiled. The Holy God fell silent and sighed. "I truly don''t wish to create this war. But with you killing the Array God along with all his citizens, I can''t simply ignore it any longer. I only have one demand. Spirit God must promise that he won''t kill innocent people anymore and it has to be Universe Oath." "That''s impossible. We are not merciful to our enemies whether they are innocent or not. As long as there is a chain of hatred, we won''t be able to live in peace." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "Unfortunately, as much as I want to kill you here, I can''t afford to due to command of the Spirit God." "Ho?" The Holy God furrowed his eyebrows before looking at the shadow beside Lin Xingzhi. Sullivan rushed to the scene, alarming everyone there. "Sullivan?" "I apologize for the interruption, but I bring the important news for this meeting." "Alex?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "Exactly so. His Majesty has finished his business. He is heading straight to Eulja right now." "!!!" Lin Xingzhi and the Holy God widened their eyes before staring at each other. "That''s how it is." Lin Xingzhi raised her hand nonchalantly and asked. "So, your choice?" "We shall wait." The Holy God nodded his head without hesitation. "I hope that you don''t mind us staying in Eulja." "Ho? You want to enter the tiger den?" The Holy God shook his head helplessly. "Our lives here are insignificant. If we die, it''s fate. If we live, we will keep doing our best to bring happiness to this universe." "Unfortunately, that happiness won''t last long." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "It''s because of¡ª" The Holy God suddenly stopped as though he noticed something. Even the Rank 2 Gods behind him was confused. "Fath¡ªI mean, Your Holiness?" The Saintess called her father while furrowing her eyebrows. "Hmm. Even our presences together couldn''t trouble you, but there seems to be something that can threaten you." The Holy God narrowed his eyes. Lin Xingzhi took out a Space Ring and threw it to him. "He will come back soon. During your stay, you can check your document. What we want is a negotiation. After knowing it, I wonder what your choice is¡­ That''s right. This is the will of the Spirit God." "¡­" The Holy God caught the Space Ring and checked what was inside. After knowing it was just a bunch of documents, he nodded his head. "At least, we don''t need to fight to solve something. I believe we can reach an agreement." The Holy God looked confident as if he believed he could change Alex during the conversation. "Then, follow us." Lin Xingzhi then turned around and said before she disappeared. The Holy God nodded and followed Lin Xingzhi to Eulja. As soon as they reached the planet, Lin Xingzhi asked Sullivan to let them stay in the guest room. However, Sullivan stopped for a while when showing the Holy God''s room. "Do you have something you would like to say?" The Holy God furrowed his eyebrows. "You are required to learn that information by yourself and forbidden to talk about it with anybody else. This is the highest classified information that we have. I am here to ensure you are doing that," said Sullivan with a calm expression. "Ho? Is this a coercion?" The Holy God leaked a bit of his Divine Energy. Sullivan kept his calm and shook his head. "No. After reading all documents, you will understand why you are required to keep it a secret." The Holy God contemplated for a moment before retracting his Divine Energy. "I understand. It seems that this information will be related to your own concern. Maybe something that can threaten Eulja¡­ Such information is hard to come by, so I guess I should promise you. However, this promise is only effective until I finish my talk with the Spirit God." "That''s fine." Sullivan nodded in agreement. Lin Xingzhi had expected this, so he simply let the Holy God do what he wanted. "By Heaven and Earth as my witness, I, Christoper, won''t say a single thing to anybody until I meet the Spirit God. Is this alright?" Christoper asked with a smile. Sullivan then politely bowed his head before leaving the room. He couldn''t hold back his curiosity and quickly take out the information. It turned out that he had underestimated the information that Eulja had. He kept gasping from knowing one thing after another from the documents. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex had been using his Teleportation Array to reach home as quickly as possible. Due to the two tests he completed, his strength increased by leaps and bounds. During the second test, Alex found something very particular. It turned out that he could use the Space Element to increase the sucking force of one''s body, allowing him to cultivate even faster. At the very least, it meant that Alex''s cultivation wouldn''t be stuck while completing the test. In fact, Alex had almost reached the next stage, Rank 4 God. He only needed one more year to reach it or that was what he thought. Still, the biggest advantage he had during this training was his Space Element control. Coupled with the Array Mastery, Alex might be able to challenge a Rank 3 God by himself. It might be hard considering their difference in strength, but it was doable. After a long three days of Teleportation, Eulja came into his vision as he entered the planet without hesitation. Lin Xingzhi had been waiting for him right before the castle''s gate. "Alex. You have returned." Lin Xingzhi smiled and noticed the change in Alex. "It seems that you are far stronger than my imagination." Alex smiled back and nodded. "Yeah. It''s really hard. And there are still three more tests that I need to complete. To think it will take this long." "No, no. I should say that the inheritance should be this long unless you know it''s restricted only for you." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "If I were not wrong, the Array God completed his inheritance after five years. And he received that inheritance when he was already a God King. You should know how hard it is, right?" Alex acknowledged it before changing the topic. "How is the situation? Just give me a brief explanation." "I will tell you everything before meeting the Holy God." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment. "Aria has come to Eulja. Other than Evelyn and Letizia, they all have reached Rank 7 Gods. The Void Flower is ready to be harvested and we have gotten the information about their whereabouts." "How is the cooperation with the others?" "The Palm God is ready to move at any moment''s notice. God of Destruction has been itching to fight and stationed his force around the area, making sure that no one can leave. The rest will depend on you. If you can invite the Holy God, not only can we gain ground against that side of an alliance, but we can also get a helper in the fight against the beast. I mean, it''s not like the alliance that hates us will stop just because the Holy God." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Yeah. Even if the Holy God leaves, they will only take advantage of the opportunity and keep the alliance. Just need to have someone to take over the alliance." Alex nodded in agreement before falling into deep thought. "Where is the meeting?" "I have notified them. Instead of the throne room, I believe it''s better to discuss this in the meeting room instead." "Either way, I just want to talk to him. It doesn''t matter where." "I understand." "I will inform them first. You should shower first and change your clothes. You stink." Lin Xingzhi smirked. Alex scratched the back of his head. "I have been sweating this whole time, so I can''t help it. Alright. You entertain them first while I prepare myself." "Sure." Lin Xingzhi agreed as they went separate ways. Alex then walked to his room to take a short shower session and wore new clothes. He then walked straight to the meeting room, only to find someone stopping him from entering the room. "As much as we want to let it pass, I do think that the Spirit God should explain his situation to us, right?" The Saintess calmly smiled, feeling frustrated because his father kept refusing to talk to any of them. In fact, he had been locking himself in the room for the past few days. Alex''s expression darkened. "You''re annoying." Chapter 1098: Deal After changing his clothes, Alex quickly made his way toward the meeting room, not wanting to let them waste any more time. He had made them wait for a long time, so it was better not to displease them anymore as a basic courtesy. However, Alex found someone standing in front of the meeting room. She had blonde hair neatly tied into a ponytail. She wore a tight white shirt and white skirt with a golden stripe on the bottom. Despite trying her best to keep calm, she still felt frustrated just to see this Spirit God. She placed her hand on her chest and bowed to Alex. "It''s my pleasure to meet you, Spirit God. My name is Michelle. I am the Saintess." Alex nodded his head to greet her back. "Alexander. Nice to meet you." She looked at Alex''s nonchalant attitude and clenched her teeth. Despite being on the side of the oppressed, the Spirit God dared to force them to wait for half a year. And there was no apology or whatsoever. In addition, her father locked himself as soon as he reached Eulja. Every time they requested a meeting, her father didn''t want to meet them, even though he never acted that way in the past. This made her uneasy as if Eulja had poisoned her father, so she thought Alex was required to give her an explanation of this situation. "As much as I hate to say this, but I believe you have the responsibility to explain everything to us, Spirit God." "Is that what your Holy God said?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "¡­" The Saintess fell silent. It was easy to lie, but she seemed to have no intention of lying. Either way, that response was enough for Alex to continue walking toward the door. "Just enter the room. I don''t like to repeat myself, especially to someone who couldn''t represent their leader''s words." Alex narrowed his eyes and grabbed the door''s handle before the Saintess grasped his shoulder. "What is the meaning of this action?" Alex glanced at the Saintess with a cold expression. The Saintess clenched her teeth. Her hand was shaking, but she ultimately released his shoulder. "I apologize for my action." ''Annoying.'' Alex thought and pushed the door. Including them, there were twenty people inside this room. The Holy God was surprised to see his daughter outside and furrowed her eyebrows. "Hm? What are you doing, Michelle?" "¡­" Michelle could only bow her head. The Holy God let out a long sigh before saying, "My deepest apology to Spirit God. It seems that my daughter has offended you¡­But I hope it won''t affect what will be discussed in this room." Alex shrugged. "Not a big deal. At least, she didn''t inflict any harm." Christoper nodded before waving his hand. "Michelle, come here." The Saintess acknowledged his order and returned to his side as Christoper shook his head tiredly. "I think we should cut to the chase." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I assume that you have understood my real purpose, right, Holy God?" The Rank 2 Gods behind Christoper frowned, feeling a bit weird to see a Rank 5 God address a God King so casually. But since the other party was the Spirit God, they couldn''t utter their dissatisfaction. At the very least, they had finally seen the figure who dared to make them wait this long. "Yes." Christoper looked down, feeling troubled with that report. "You want to create an alliance between you and me¡­ Is that correct?" "What?!" His followers dropped their jaws. They had two thoughts right at this instant. First, the Spirit God was foolish. They were enemies right now, yet, the other party wanted an alliance? Did he expect Christoper to stop the alliance and help them? The second thought was even more extreme. Did Alex plan to force them to agree to this alliance? That would be the most ridiculous thought at this point. They knew the fact that their lives would be in danger if they entered Eulja. However, Christoper had convinced them to follow him without fear because the consequences of killing them here were too big for Eulja to handle. Christoper''s reputation was more troublesome than The God of Destruction. Due to his good deeds, many would hate Eulja if they couldn''t even ensure someone''s safety during a negotiation. Ultimately, Eulja would be scrutinized as no one would trust them anymore as their ally. This was when the documents showed their true prowess. Christoper seemed to have changed his thoughts after reading the whole document. "If what you have shown me is the truth, I will become your ally." Christoper shook all his entourages with this ridiculous remark. "Father!" The Saintess was the first to shout before the others began questioning his decision. Christoper facepalmed as he let out a long sigh. "I understand why I couldn''t say anything. This is truly too important. Even my people will be endangered at this point." "!!!" His people obviously had no idea about this and looked at Christopher as if he got possessed by something. The Saintess clenched her teeth and slammed the table. "What have you done to my father?!" "You''re annoying." Alex sighed and ignored her as he asked another question to the Holy God. "In what condition will you become our ally?" The Holy God contemplated for one minute. "I do have several requests. First, I would like to ask you to abandon the idea of killing everyone, especially innocent people." "That''s impossible. I kill to protect, no one can change my mind." Alex shook his head with a firm tone. Listening to his words, Christoper knew that it was impossible to convince Alex despite his previous confidence. He simply focused on another topic instead, albeit there was still a spice of convincing Alex in his words. "But if you don''t kill them, you can ask them to help you." "No. I do need help, but I don''t want to spare anyone who tries to harm me. You have your own ideal, but don''t force your own ideal on me, Holy God." Alex paused for a moment before asking a disturbing question. "If I kill your daughter right now, will you still ask me to abandon that thought and forgive me like that? What if I torture or rape her to make sure she dies the most gruesome death? And you watch everything with your own two eyes¡­" "¡­" Christoper sighed. "I give up. It''s really not possible to convince you." "Anyway, the alliance will last for one hundred years. The terms and conditions are there." "I know. Before that, can you answer two questions?" "What is it?" "Do you have confidence in beating the alliance? Even if I leave the alliance that I once built, some will remain and attack you." "That depends whether you are going to fight alongside me or not. If you are, the chance is one hundred percent. Without you, I can still do it, but it will make the situation more complicated. At that time, I will need to kill more people." Christoper sweatdropped. Alex was serious about this. With his reputation and heart, either case would result in his loss. "You really put me in a hard situation. I don''t mind helping you fight your true enemy, but I don''t share the same opinion about dealing with the former alliance that I made. It just means that I''m helping you to massacre billions or even trillions of lives. If I don''t help you, it means that I allow you to kill more. That''s basically the same." Alex shrugged. "That''s the situation. To be honest, this is your fault for creating an alliance." "I only created the alliance because of your aggressive behavior. Had you not killed the Array God, I wouldn''t do something like this." "His fate was sealed as soon as he planned to enslave my wife." "¡­" The Holy God pinched the bridge of his nose, wondering what he should do to get out of this situation. "Still, to think that Your Majesty, the Spirit God, has been fighting the force that created the Period of Darkness¡­" "!!!" That hint was enough for his retainers to understand what he had been hiding during their stay. The Saintess narrowed her eyes and asked. "Father¡­ What do you mean by Period of Darkness? Isn''t it already passed?" "Even I couldn''t believe it at first, but the situation has forced me to believe it. However, I do still need a few proofs to join your alliance." "What is it?" "I have a pair of special eyes since birth that allows me to see whether someone is telling the truth or not. From what I have seen so far, you haven''t told a single lie. That''s why I can believe what you say currently. "However, the information you gave me said Lin Xingzhi met someone that could measure someone''s lifespan¡­ Is that correct?" "Yes." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I would like to meet that person. Do you think it''s possible?" Alex pondered for a moment and looked at Sullivan. "Can you call Silvia here?" "I understand." Sullivan nodded and left the room. Meanwhile, the Holy God gave another condition. "And I would like to participate in this conquest of yours. Since you said that this so-called weapon is currently hiding on a certain planet and you are about to attack them, I am sure I can participate, right? I agree to this because I know that I will be fighting beasts." "Yes. They have ruined almost everything in the past. I am sure you won''t show any compassion to them, right?" "If what you said in the documents was true, I would have no hesitation to help you kill the weapon. Of course, I would like to follow you first to see the proof. As soon as I deem it as the truth, I shall put my life on the line to kill it." Christoper nodded. "Alright. You may go with me. I can ensure your life for the time being. I can show you my plan later¡­What do you think?" "I have no qualm." Christoper thought for a moment. "Still, even though I haven''t seen a single lie coming out of your mouth, I know that you are still hiding something. You can''t expect me to fully trust you yet, right?" "I understand." "In that case, how about I have someone follow you just for this battle? Besides, with my daughter beside you, you will be safe." "What?!" The Saintess widened her eyes, never expecting such a word to come out of his mouth. However, Alex rejected it without hesitation. "No. That''s a final decision." "May I know the reason?" "She is annoying. If you were to ask someone, it would be better to choose¡­" Alex looked at the people behind him before his eyes stuck on a bald man. "Him!" All of them turned around, seeing a bald man with a white robe. He had a stick behind his back and had a gentle expression. "I don''t mean to be rude, but¡­ He looks like a muscle brain, so I''m sure he won''t talk too much or annoy me like your daughter. Besides, he seems to have enough capability to report everything from word to word without lying. If I take a look at your people, they all seem to be capable of lying in their report. That''s what I don''t want to see." Christoper thought for a moment and nodded. "I understand your reasoning. It seems he is really the best one." The Saintess couldn''t understand why her father entrusted him with this task because of his stupidity. In fact, Alex''s assessment was accurate. "So, you don''t mind having someone from my side following you?" "If that''s the only condition." Alex nodded in agreement. The bald man felt embarrassed as he spoke. "Ehm, should I feel honored or insulted? Well, I am known as Mad Priest, Besta. If His Holiness ordered me to, I would love to take this opportunity." The Holy God agreed to this proposal. "Besta will follow you during this battle. For now, I shall agree to the short term alliance and will make another promise after seeing the result. What do you think?" "We have a deal." After that, Sullivan opened the door as Silvia entered the room. Chapter 1099: Alexs Growth Not long after, Sullivan brought Silvia inside. Silvia first cupped her hand to the Holy God before looking at Alex. "Do you need something from me?" "I am wondering whether it''s possible to meet Navin," Alex asked. "Navin? That''s quite an unusual request." Silvia thought for a moment and nodded. "I think you can. I will contact my father about this, albeit he must be participating in this battle. So, if you want to meet him, either go right now or wait." Alex turned to Christopher. "The attack will be three days later. Because of their force, we don''t need to bring too many soldiers because the snakes are elites. In other words, there will be only one hundred thousand God Rank Experts during this encirclement." "But won''t this be a bit weird for me to not bring my own army?" The Holy God furrowed his eyebrows. "Not at all." Alex waved his hand nonchalantly. "I have two reasons. First, you are still not a part of the real alliance, so you don''t need to bring them. Second, if you feel guilty about it, don''t hesitate to move more during the next battle. What do you think?" The Holy God looked down and muttered a few words. "Besides, our contract is still a temporary one. I can''t afford to risk the entire situation." Alex shook his head in disappointment. "I understand. In that case, our Holy Kingdom will be the one taking the vanguard in the next battle." The Holy God finally accepted Alex''s proposal." Alex then turned to Lin Xingzhi. "Tell our allies to prepare too." "Sure." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Then, I guess, all that left is the oath." Alex''s vision returned to Christopher. "Of course." Christoper and the others swore their Universe Oath according to the agreement. It was done the same way as to how it did with the God of Destruction. Alex and his retainers also followed the contract. After each reached an agreement, Alex and Christopher shook hands. "Still, to think that I am the one convinced here. My intention of coming here is to ask you to abandon your idea of killing someone, so I can go to your side, preventing this war. But to think you are the winner¡­" Christopher let out a long sigh. "But there is no regret here. For the safety and the good of this universe, I shall risk my life to fight this enemy." Alex nodded. "I only have one thing to say. You can''t change my way." "I can understand that. However, it doesn''t mean that I will stand by when seeing you killing the innocent. Besides, I don''t have a plan to kill another God King. Only force them to retreat." The Holy God shook his head. "That''s fine by me. I don''t really care. But if there is a chance, I will kill them." "¡­" Despite having concluded the meeting, it seemed that the situation was far from over. Alex and Christopher fell silent for a minute before releasing each other''s hands. "In that case, please stay here for another two days. We shall arrive within a day by using the Teleportation Formation." "I am grateful for your hospitality." Sullivan then brought them back to their rooms while Alex bowed to Silvia. "Thank you." "You don''t need to. It''s my obligation." Alex then turned to Lin Xingzhi. "How is the situation?" "I have notified them that we are going to launch the attack as soon as possible. We should discuss it with them later. For now, I will just tell you our condition. We have fifty thousand God Rank Experts in our rank while the Palm God and the God of destruction give the same number. "Blackwade Clan wanted to participate, but they are hidden for the time being. I mean¡­ Blackwade Clan is a merchant clan, not a fighting influence like us. Hence, it''s better for them to support from behind instead of going to the front line. I believe we have enough to face them. "Last but not least, the ten God Beasts will participate in this battle. So, we have four God Kings and fifty Rank 2 Gods. I believe this is enough to destroy them." Lin Xingzhi finished her explanation with a nod. The Elemental Gods also shared the same thought. "How about our opponents?" "We have no exact number, but we can safely assume that there won''t be more than five hundred thousand snakes there. And there is only one God King to take care of, so I don''t think this is going to fail." "I see. We are going to beat their quantity by quality. God of Destruction is planning to challenge the snake, right?" "Yes." "Instead of you, I want the Palm God to help him instead. This is a perfect opportunity for them to get accustomed to our enemies." Alex narrowed his eyes. "I agree with you." She smiled. "I will accompany you then." "Thanks." "By the way, Your Majesty, we would like to know your strength. I believe that this mission is going to be dangerous, so¡­" Agnis narrowed his eyes. He seemed to hold the grudge about the previous Teleportation Session, so he tried to test Alex. "Oi!" Canaan smacked his head while having a troubled expression. Alex, on the other hand, turned around and summoned the Holy Emblem. "That''s right. I am planning to bring my wives to the battlefield, so they can get used to this. Because of our overwhelming force, I want all Elemental Gods and Guardians to protect them¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "We don''t mind, but we also need to have someone protect Your Majesty." Helena nodded in agreement. "In that case, I will have Lin Xingzhi with me. Is that enough?" Alex glanced at Lin Xingzhi. "I am more than enough." Lin Xingzhi smiled while shrugging. "As for my strength¡­" Alex paused for a second before waving his hand, creating the same spear that the Array God used. "Divine Spear Array." "!!!" The Elemental Gods widened their eyes in shock when he saw Alex releasing that array in an instant. However, Agnis didn''t share the same sentiment as he tried to protect his body by raising both of his hands to guard this attack. Just like Agnis having a grudge, Alex also wanted to tease this guy who had been acting like this the whole time. Once again, Alex broke their expectation when he suddenly clenched his hand as if trying to grasp something. What even more surprising was the fact that Agnis had his hands blown away from the inside. "Wha¡ª" Agnis widened his eyes and took the spear with his body. It blew him away and let him crash to the wall. *Cough Cough* The pain started spreading all over his body despite not having a physical injury. The spear pressed his chest a bit too far, but luckily, he was a Rank 2 God, so an attack at this level wouldn''t really kill him. "Do you have any complaints, Agnis?" Alex narrowed his eyes and asked in a cold voice. "N-no." Agnis coughed a few more times before kneeling on one knee and cupping his hand. "I apologize for my rude remark, Your Majesty." The Elemental Gods just couldn''t believe what happened. To think that Agnis would be in his mercy, it looked badass. Of course, if it were a normal fight, Alex wouldn''t stand a chance against him, but it was so different when Alex was in control like this. "Your Majesty. That style¡­ Is it the Dungeon God?" Helena furrowed her eyebrows. "Yes." Helena looked down, falling into deep thought before saying, "I heard the Array God''s style was emphasizing in maximizing the number of arrays that could be built at once. The Array God managed to create ten Divine Rank Array at once within five seconds. "However, the Array God has a different approach. Because he can''t have both, the Dungeon God pursued two characteristics: Accuracy and Speed. From what I know, the Array God could summon five Arrays in succession at the same time as the Array God made his ten. "Of course, there is a difference between them, but no matter what, these two are very important to the Array Community. Most of the Array Masters are pursuing the Array God''s path because no one knows how the Dungeon God could increase his speed to that extreme. "They also couldn''t replicate his deed because the Array God and Dungeon God''s path couldn''t be fused unless a monster appeared. Just like Your Majesty fusing your Sword Intent and Spear Intent together¡­Only you managed to do that. Your Majesty. Are you¡ª" Before she finished her question, Alex stopped her before shaking his head. "No." "I see." Helena sighed. "With my Intent, Weapon Qi, Elements, Divine Energy, Elements, I can''t afford to add something that requires me a huge amount of Energy or I will be doomed," Alex explained. "Hence, I am going to leave as it is." Helena nodded and stopped talking. Alex thought for a moment and looked at Lin Xingzhi. "Sullivan will protect Sherry. Agnis will go with Evelyn while Helena needs to accompany Letizia. Canaan will stay beside Firia while Zerah shall be with Alicia. Rilt and Vina will accompany Anna and Anya since they are your daughters. "As for Rose, I will leave her to William. Silvia¡­ Hmm, the Palm God has his own battle. The War Goddess might be accompanying her, but I will ask Carissa to help her. I mean, her ability is useful in this battle. As long as she has Carissa, a poison expert, with her, I am sure she can help many people. I will talk with the War Goddess about her protection, but if she were to leave, I will ask the West Guardian, Exegesis." "We hear and obey." The Elemental Gods cupped their hands politely, receiving the order. "Alright. Since I have two days to spare, I should relax for a while." Alex stretched his hands. "You all should prepare everything you need. There is a possibility of someone coming if we don''t finish them fast." As he said the last message, Alex turned around and left the room with Lin Xingzhi. Meanwhile, the other Elemental Gods looked at Agnis as Rilt asked. "Why did you let the spear hit your chest, Agnis?" "¡­" Agnis had trouble explaining it, but he still opened his mouth. "I was not sure myself. There was a kind of force that exploded right in front of my chest, blowing my hands away. Later I noticed that the spear already hit my chest. If it were another Rank 5 God who didn''t know His Majesty''s ability, I believe they would have died." "I see." Helena closed her eyes. "It seems that His Majesty is becoming more and more monstrous. I heard from Lin Xingzhi that one last place is vacant¡­ Maybe I should sneak into his bed¡­" "You wait, old hag! I am not going to let you seduce him!" Rilt stopped her as they began fighting each other again. Chapter 1100: Strategy Meeting A few days later, all parties had gathered in front of a world called Taimane Planet. Alex, accompanied by the six Elemental Gods and Five Guardians, arrived in a small room created by Special Realm and Illusion Array. In front of him was the Palm God that had been glaring at him this whole time. He was accompanied by his wife and eight others to join this meeting. Still, both of them seemed to have the same level of jurisdiction, considering that the wife was the one managing their territory while the Palm God became their figurehead. On his right was the muscular man, God of Destruction. Just like the previous meeting, he was accompanied by his closest six retainers. Although he could bring them more here, he thought he should place them to watch over the world, so no one could escape instead. After all, the one who was most eager to fight was him. In the opposite direction, the Holy God sat with a relaxed smile as behind him stood his ten retainers. He was surprised by Alex''s ability to bring so many people here, but since they already had an alliance, he wanted to see what kind of ability these people had. Alex then looked at Anya and said, "You can start, Anya." Anya nodded and placed a device in the rectangular table, projecting the world they would soon attack. "Although we haven''t gotten the confirmation yet, the enemy numbers are three hundred God Rank Experts. They do have millions of Martial Saints or below, but in this world, I don''t think they matter too much, so you are free to kill when you meet them. "Because we have no prior cooperation, we are going to separate ways. However, because the Holy God doesn''t have his army here, all of you will start from these three places for safety issues. Choose one of them. We will get the last spot. As for the Holy God, you are free to do whatever you want during this battle. You can even join the battle against their God King, so it''s your choice." Anya smiled. The God of Destruction thought for a moment and asked. "Where is their God King?" "There." Anya pointed her finger toward a certain place. Raiju didn''t hesitate and chose the closest location from that place since he planned to attack the snake at once. "I will choose this area then." After acknowledging his choice, Alex turned to the Palm God. "Which one do you pick?" "This is not important." The Palm God shook his head with a frustrated face before shouting. "What is important to me is when are you going to marry my daughter! I am¡ªGah!" Bam. Before he spouted more nonsensical words, his wife grasped his head and slammed it on the ground, preventing him from speaking. She then stepped on his head to make sure that he wouldn''t recover until the meeting ended. "Don''t you know you are troubling him? Have you reflected upon your previous mistake? I know that you are an idiotic father, but you should know that your choice will just make your daughter sad. "Besides, this is not a place to talk about it and the timing is very wrong. In this situation, no matter the situation, there are only three possibilities that will happen in the near future. First, our daughter will be branded as a b*tch that is just trying to be his mistress to gain his support. "Second, the Spirit God''s reputation will take a hit because he randomly picked someone he doesn''t know that much. Third, it will be a political marriage. You should know that this is impossible to happen." War Goddess let out a long sigh while looking at Alex. "I apologize for his behavior." "¡­" Alex facepalmed before sighing. "Now I am worried about the fact that he and the God of Destruction will face the God King." War Goddess only smiled. "It''s normal for you to worry after seeing two idiots are going to pair up." "Oi, oi. Did you just say I''m an idiot?" The God of Destruction narrowed his eyes. However, right as he was about to release his aura, his assistant laughed and said, "Certainly. It''s something concerning. Well, the opponent is only one, so I guess they can hold the enemy back for a while." "What?" Raiju clenched his teeth and glared at his assistant. "It seems I need to beat you first before going there." "This is why I call you an idiot." His assistant shrugged. "Enough." Alex slammed the table with a serious expression. "I don''t want to drag this any longer. If you are still fighting, it''s better to leave this to Lin Xingzhi." "¡­" The Palm God and God of Destruction fell silent and sighed. Raiju raised his hands as a sign of giving up. "Fine. I will cooperate with this gorilla." "What gor¡ª" The Palm God''s head came out of the hole and shouted, albeit it stopped just like before. Bam. The War Goddess increased the power in her foot and stomped him back. "He said yes." "¡­" The others twitched their eyebrows as one same thought appeared in their heads. What kind of relationship they had actually? Either way, the issue was solved faster this way, so Alex had no complaint. Instead, he looked at the Holy God. "What are you planning to do?" "I shall follow the God of Destruction and Palm God because I''m curious about this snake." "I understand. I shall be focusing on cleaning up the entire world." Alex nodded. "I shall help the Spirit God from the other side of this world." The War Goddess smiled and cupped her hands. "My Assistant will be the one leading my force," stated Raiju while raising his hand with a nonchalant attitude. "Despite his personality, he is good enough to command my army. In fact, he won''t lose against an established strategist like yours." Alex noticed that Raiju compared his assistant to Anya, so he must have confidence in his ability, so Alex nodded. "Well, I don''t bring an army, so I will ask my daughter, the Saintess, to bring the group to go around the world to eliminate as many Rank 2 Gods as possible. Of course, my Mad Priest will be accompanying you, Spirit God." The Holy God spoke with a smile. Alex nodded. "We have agreed upon it, so I won''t say anything. Instead, I will use a time limit to make this situation even more interesting. Calculating their number and our strength, let''s set the time limit to sixty hours. After that, the Holy God will meet Palm God''s disciple, Navin." The War Goddess nodded. "Now I''m fired up. The time is short, but it''s doable. We will be the one getting the biggest achievement then. As for the permission, sure." "What?! Don''t think about it. I will." Raiju twitched his eyebrows and snorted. "Hoho. This is not about achievement. It''s about whether we can eliminate the enemy or not. After all, this battle will surely shake all the nearby worlds. The alliance will also hear about this and I will lose my control over it, so all of you will be targeted after this." The Holy God warned them what would happen after this battle. "Hmph! They can come if they have enough strength to fight against me." Raiju snorted as he was the most prideful one among them. "There are too many God Kings compared to the past, but none of them actually surpass the past God King''s power, so this is a perfect time to eliminate those who are weaker." "Though I don''t wish to see something like that." The Holy God shook his head helplessly. "Anyway, the meeting has ended. If you don''t have any questions, then go back. We will begin our attack in an hour." Alex rose from his seat and looked at their faces. The three shook their heads and also rose from their seats. At the same time, the Palm God could finally pull out his head and clean up. "Ugh. You are ruthless, Wife." "Did you say something?" The War Goddess narrowed her eyes. "I said I love you." "Good." The War Goddess then cupped her hands before leaving. "We will leave first then." The others soon followed her actions and left the meeting place. Alex then regrouped with his force. Because he had promised the Holy God, the bald priest followed Alex to Eulja''s camp. Because he wasn''t with the Holy God anymore, he felt fear for the very first time. It was the aura that the Guardians and Elemental Gods released to pressure him as if warning him not to make an idiotic move. Alex turned around and said, "Since you are with me, I need you to follow my command. Is that alright?" "Ye-yes." The Mad Priest repeatedly nodded before calming his heart down. Although he was a simpleton, he still had a heart that could know his current position. When he sorted his feelings, ten Rank 2 Gods arrived before him. They were huge and menacing. "Your Majesty." They lowered their heads in unison. "The legendary ten God Beasts¡­" The Mad Priest sweatdropped as he saw them bowing to Alex. Eulja already had more Rank 2 Gods than them, yet, they still had ten God Beasts under them? He felt it was good that they didn''t pick a fight with him earlier. Alex ignored his reaction and waited for an hour while talking with his people. After an hour, Alex floated above them and shouted. "Descend!" Hearing his order, the Spirits began to enter the world, followed by the other influences. The moment he arrived, he found two Rank 2 Gods and Four Rank 3 Gods. Behind them stood tall a hundred thousand snakes, planning to beat them. "Beware of their poison!" Alex shouted before looking at the reinforcement from the Holy God. "I''m sure you don''t have a problem killing one of the Rank 2 Gods, right?" "Of course. I shall beat the snake." The Mad Priest placed his hand on his chest and said with confidence. "Xingzhi. Take care of the other one before helping him." "Roger." Lin Xingzhi acknowledged the order. Since the Elemental Gods, Carissa and William had their hands full at the moment, he called the rest of the Guardians. "You each take one while I will fight the last one." "You are planning to fight them, Your Majesty?" The giant frowned, feeling it was pretty reckless. "Nope. Just buying time." Alex shrugged. He didn''t plan to show all his skills at the moment because the Mad Priest would surely tell the Holy God about it. Hence, he only wanted to see whether he was capable of fighting a Rank 3 God in a stalemate or not. "I understand. I shall help you as soon as I finish my task." The giant, Exegesis, nodded. "The others can start eliminating the threats before our eyes!" Alex then raised his hands and turned around, looking at the God Rank Experts behind him. "Five thousand years ago, they brought chaos upon this universe. And now, it''s time to clean this plague forever! All Spirits! Move out!" "Uoh!" The Spirits roared and released their Divine Energy. ¡­ Meanwhile, the Palm God and the God of Destruction looked at each other in front of a giant green snake. It had a length of three hundred meters and twenty meters wide. This might be bigger than the Phitrus''s God Beast. Raiju smirked and cracked his finger while releasing a powerful Divine Energy. "This is going to be interesting." Surprisingly, his Divine Energy carried enough power to destroy the nearby ground. This was the power of destruction. "Hmph!" The Palm God snorted and released a thousand hands from his back. "Don''t hold me back." "You are the one getting in my way." The Destruction God harrumphed as they both leaped at the same time. "All of you are foolish. Rejoice! You are going to die under the hand of the son of the Supreme Being!" The snake roared as a green aura gushed out of its body. Chapter 1101: Fight Between God Kings On the other side of the world, where the God of Destruction and Palm God faced the God King together, Christopher furrowed his eyebrows as soon as he saw the powerful mist of poison. "This might be a bit troublesome. I have the confidence in purifying the poison with my Light Element, but I don''t know for how long I can maintain it." Holy God muttered in a low voice while watching them from afar. Meanwhile, Raiju opened his mouth as he observed the snake that released a powerful poisonous aura. Even the ground started melting when it was in contact with the aura alone. "Oi, Hans. What do you think about cooperating with me? I don''t know why but this is going to be a difficult fight." Raiju asked while glancing over the Palm God. "Are you scared? He is alone." "I am not scared, but I just think that it''s better for us to cooperate. If you don''t want to, it''s fine. I am going to make the first move." Raiju shrugged as he leaped toward the snake. The snake opened its mouth and spat out a poison toward him. It also contained the poisonous aura inside that would melt even a God King''s physical body. Of course, without their power. The moment Raiju saw that green mucus coming out of its mouth, he raised his vision as a mixture of blue, white, purple, and black color gushed out of his hand like that of a flame. It carried his destruction power. Raiju stretched his hand to the front as it tried to repel the poison, but the poison started decaying as soon as it had contact with the Destruction Power. "¡­" Raiju furrowed his eyebrows because he noticed that the poison was more powerful than he initially thought. Even his Destruction Power melted due to the poison aura. "This is going to be a difficult fight. Now I can see why the previous generation of God Kings had trouble against them." As Raiju contemplated on how he could penetrate the snake''s barrier, Hans, the Palm God, appeared above his head, storming with two giant hands toward the snake as if they were trying to choke the snake. "Sha!" The snake roared before releasing an even more Poisonous Aura. The aura expanded and gradually formed a whirlpool on its surface as the snake was trying to swallow them. "Your Poison won''t be able to fight against my Pure Palm Qi," Hans shouted while doing his best to hit the snake, albeit he realized that the snake could stop his movement with its aura alone. Suddenly, Raiju''s voice echoed on the battlefield, warning Hans of what would happen. "Leave that area right now. It''s coming for you." It turned out that the whirlpool was used to create a powerful vortex that was capable of taking the Palm God''s hand without any issue. It even melted the Palm God''s giant hands as he had no choice other than to retreat. The snake looked at them before laughing. "You all are foolish. I don''t know why you enter my place, but this is going to be your burial place instead of mine." "¡­" Obviously, Hans and Raiju took that sentence too personally, considering both of them were a muscle idiot. "Take this." Raiju created a ball before splitting it into sixteen. The moment he released it, the surrounding began to decay, including the poisonous aura. However, the snake simply released a powerful Divine Energy from its body, turning it into another snake that swallowed all the balls. It was then the battle between destruction and poison clashed. "¡­" Raiju narrowed his eyes and glanced at Hans. "So, do you accept my invitation?" Hans''s expression turned grim as he started considering it right now. "Alright. Let''s go." "I will handle the poisonous aura while you kill the snake." Raiju nodded with a smile. Although he could defeat the snake by himself, he knew that it would cost him too much. So, it was considered a bad decision if he looked at it in the long run. After getting into an agreement, Raiju leaped toward the snake before releasing all his power. The energy turned into a giant shadow behind him, trying to suppress the snake. "We are going to kill you, Bastard Snake." Raiju waved his right hand as the giant shadow behind him followed his movement. The Snake Poison Aura began to disperse as the Palm God finally made his move. "One Thousand Arm Style, Ten Kindness." Ten out of one thousand coming from his back made their way toward the snake and squeezed the snake. However, Hans soon realized that his hands began to disappear as the green energy from the snake''s body melted it. "¡­" Hans furrowed his eyebrows before throwing another hand, trying to scratch the snake instead. Unlike the previous one, the snake wasn''t covered by the hand, so he could see what the snake did to free itself from his grasp. Surprisingly, the snake only excreted liquid poison that melted his hand. If he took another look at the melted ground, he would find a few holes that seemed to be caused by the snake''s poison. "You are not the same as the previous God Kings. I will kill all you here." The snake shouted and controlled the Poison Aura. It turned the mist like aura into a tornado that could spread easier. "You can try," said Raiju while wondering how to extinguish this tornado. When the poisonous aura almost reached them, the sky shone, illuminating the entire area with warm light. The poisonous aura began to shrink as the Holy God appeared, holding his wooden cane. "I am sorry, both of you. I believe I should participate in this battle to end this faster." Although their pride wanted to push this old man away, both of them didn''t say anything because they knew that this was the best option. "To think we need to do something like this. This is too hilarious." Hans might accept it, but it didn''t mean he wouldn''t say anything about it. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction shared the same sentiment. "In the past, I heard our side actually fought one to three of them by themselves while in the current situation, the situation is reversed. This is so f*cking irritated me." "So, what do you want? Stop fighting?" The Holy God narrowed his eyes. "No. I''m going to blast that sh*t out of here." Raiju released his killing intent and summoned the shadow that carried his power of destruction. "Have you become too proud just because you can purify my poison?" The snake shouted before turning its poison into a giant tsunami that was going to sweep them away. The Holy God tapped the ground with his cane twice the ground turned into light itself. That shining light began consuming the tsunami of poison bit by bit. Not wanting to lose against the Holy God, Raiju leaped toward the tsunami before it was completely destroyed and smashed it himself. The power of destruction flew like a shock wave, flattening everything in the way. The snake snorted and slapped that shock wave with poison covered tail, but this was only a trick. Behind that shock wave, Raiju had channeled his power into his fist and punched the air. He even added a little spin to his punch, creating a torrential effect to the power of destruction. "Fist of Destruction." The snake widened its eyes and leaped to the sky to avoid that attack. "Don''t run, you motherf*cker!" Raiju shouted and prepared another fist. However, the Holy God already completed his move. The sky was ripped open before a flash of light struck forth. "Holy Heaven Smite." Noticing that the power in that strength wasn''t low, the snake tried to escape. However, the Palm God was already in front of him. "One Hundred Palms." This time, the Palm God utilized a hundred palms simultaneously, making sure that the Holy God''s attack would hit the snake. "Kh!" The snake clenched its teeth and excreted the poison again, only to find that none of the palms melted. "What?! How could it not¡ª" Before he finished, the light already struck his head and blew him to the ground. Little did he know that the Palm God had his own hands covered with blood. He smiled and muttered. "One Hundred Palms, True Palm of Blood." He sacrificed his own blood to create an unbreakable palm. People might think that it was a foolish decision, but this was the only way to end this fight as soon as possible, considering that the snake began to move. "Since everyone has created this perfect opportunity, I shall use it to kill this snake!" The God of Destruction smirked and leaped toward the snake. His fist was covered with the power of destruction as he struck the snake''s head. "True Fist of Destruction." "!!!" Boom. A loud crashing sound echoed in everyone''s ears as the ground began to crack. Each crack stretched over a few kilometers long in all directions, resulting in a massive crater with just one fist. Yet, the snake was far better than he thought. "Argh!" The one who screamed was the God of Destruction, not the snake. His hand was hurt because the snake used its poison to counter his fist. "Come back, God of Destruction!" The Holy God shouted as he raised both hands. A giant sword was formed in the sky and fell right above the snake. "Holy Executioner." "Scram!" The snake opened its mouth and bit the sword before snapping it with its teeth. However, the Holy God''s true purpose was to buy time for God of Destruction to return. His Destruction Power had suppressed the poison, but the Holy God still healed him. After confirming that there was no big injury, the Palm God raised his right hand. "One Thousand Hand, Second Form. Asura Hand." Five hundred hands on the right side suddenly fused together, creating a red muscular hand that was far different from his translucent golden hands. He smashed the blood-covered snake with that hand. "Judgment." Another poisonous tornado emerged from the ground, hitting the red hand. It seemed to be decaying, but the Palm God didn''t want to lose to the other two. They both had used their strongest strength, so it was only right for him to do the same. "Haaa!" The Palm God shouted, enduring the excruciating pain coming from the poison as he pushed the twister with that giant hand. His right sleeve was shredded and wounds after wounds started to appear, but the Palm God''s strength hadn''t weakened yet as he disregarded the risk and flattened the tornado along with the snake. The residual force spread around the crater. The cracks were falling apart, revealing a giant hole leading to the underground. "Did we kill it?" The Palm God panted while asking with a serious expression. "I''m not sure. For now, I will use this time to heal your hands." The Holy God shook his head while covering the Palm God''s hands with white light. At the same time, the God of Destruction decided to check the snake before he raised his hand to create a wall of black flame. It turned out that the snake was still alive. Despite being covered with wounds, the snake still tried to attack them. "That''s a good combination attack. However, I have memorized the attacks. There won''t be next time!" said the snake before leaping back to gain his distance to reset the fight. The trio took a deep breath and wondered for how long they needed to fight this snake until they could kill it. It deserved its reputation well. Unknown to them, someone appeared on the battlefield. He had long green spiky hair and seemed to be about making his appearance. When he saw all the three Gods fighting against the snake alone, he suddenly leaped out of his hidden spot. "!!!" The Holy God turned around as a shadow coming toward him at a fast speed. He quickly raised his barrier to block the attack only to find it was broken and the shadow''s hand punched him right on the face, blowing him to the ground. Boom. "Holy God!" Raiju and Hans widened their eyes. Chapter 1102: Fight Between God Kings Part 2 "Holy God!" Both of them screamed, looking at the Holy God who got thrown to the ground. When they turned around, they found a green-haired guy. Obviously, as a God King, it was normal for them to recognize each other. "You¡­ You are Wind God!" The God of Destruction exclaimed in surprise. "Why did you attack¡ª" When he was about to ask that question, Alex''s reminder flashed in his mind. Back then, Alex said to be careful against any other people outside the alliance. After getting some information regarding the beast from Eulja, he instantly understood the situation. "You¡­ You have betrayed us." "Oi, oi. Since when I was with you?" The Wind God made a mocking smile while shrugging. "I wasn''t your ally, no?" "You''ve betrayed this universe!" Raiju shouted while clenching his fists. "You are ignorant! You don''t know what power means!" The Wind God rebuked him before he sensed something from the sky. The cloud was ripped open as a dense white light fell right above his head. The Wind God snorted and waved his hand, creating a tornado that dispersed this light until nothing remained. Christopher panted a few times as he glared at the Wind God while wiping the blood on his lips. "To think that one of the people of the alliances that I created contains a traitor. This old man admits shame. "You two, may I request that you leave that guy to me? You two can continue fighting the snake like before." The Holy God sighed and leaped toward the Wind God. Raiju and Hans exchanged looks as they nodded their heads. "We understand. Be careful, he might be stronger than you think. If something happens, it''s better to call Lin Xingzhi to this place." "We will see what happens later." The Holy God nodded and clapped his hand as five rings of light appeared. The Wind God frowned and created another torrential wind to destroy the rings, but they all simultaneously flew toward him. "Wind Deity." The Wind God waved his hand before the wind formed a falcon and struck the ring with its beak. Unfortunately, everything was futile. There wasn''t even a scratch in the ring, let alone a crack. "Wisdom, Kindness, Humility, Friendly, Compassionate. Five Good Rings. Bind." The Holy God took a deep breath. "I will lock him here for thirty minutes. You two should finish it as soon as possible." Raiju and Hans nodded at each other as they leaped toward the snake side by side, forgetting about the rivalry they had a moment ago. The situation was too dire for them to think about it. The Palm God raised his left hand and fused all five hundred hands in the left side, turning into a blue hand instead of a red one. "Devil Hand." The snake soared to the sky, clashing against the left hand. However, the God of Destruction already predicted it and flew toward the snake''s side with his fist carrying the power of destruction. As if it had prepared for another attack, the snake controlled its own poisonous aura and created another snake to clash against him. Albeit, Raiju predicted that the snake would predict his movement. "I know that you are going to do this." Raiju smirked as he halted his movement before releasing that powerful fist. "Heaven Destroyer." The power of destruction flew off his hand, going toward the snake and spreading. "!!!" The snake gritted its teeth and surrounded its body with poison energy. Boom. The snake was blown away to the side before the Palm God made one step further and fused all one thousand hands into a pair of blue and red hands. He arrived behind the snake while swiping both hands as if clapping his hands. "Asura and Devil Union Hands." "No!" The snake roared while using its poison power to weaken the attack, so its skin could handle it, but the power was far from enough. The snake was squashed. "You are going to die." The Palm God snorted and prepared another attack. During that chance, the snake shouted. "Wind God! What are you waiting for? Do you think it''s a shame to show your true appearance? This appearance is granted by the most powerful being in this universe!" "Shut up!" The Wind God berated him out loud while thinking about what he needed to do. Although it was true that his strength increased that much by using this new power, it also came with a price¡­ Appearance. Before the Wind God could say anything, the snake continued. "You need to do it right now. Without you here, we are going to die! Do you even understand?" "Don''t say anything!" The Palm God tried to attack the snake once more, but the latter had flown away. "You won''t escape!" The Palm God tried to chase him but to no avail. His speed was lowered a bit after summoning those two arms that took too much energy. "You won''t be able to reach him." Raiju saw the movement and hurriedly flew toward the snake to prevent him. "Enough!" Suddenly, the Wind God roared before his hands started turning into a bear. His body, his head, his feet, everything. The brown fur spread all over his body as he waved his hands, striking the rings that got destroyed in a couple of hits. "What?" The Holy God widened his eyes as he saw how his most powerful binding spell got destroyed by raw power. "Impossible." "Hahaha! I have expected you to come this whole time. Since you are here and have transformed, there is no need to hold back." The snake shouted out loud while flying to the bear to escape from this entire situation. When Raiju came into his way, he was blown away by the bear from behind, letting the snake reach the bear. "To think that you are the bear¡­ You¡­ Are you actually someone from this world?!" Raiju gritted his teeth, wanting to kill them. "This universe is just too pathetic for me." The Wind God snorted. "After destroying this universe, I shall go to a higher place where I can treat people like you like that of an ant." The Wind God''s bear body was only five meters tall, so the snake adjusted its size and circled around its belly. Instead of an ancient monster which was a combination between a turtle and a snake, this one was a bear and a snake. As much as they wanted to laugh at them, the situation didn''t allow them. Instead, the Palm God used his hand to grab the Holy God and pull him back from the front line. It turned out that the bear was trying to the Holy God as soon as it fused with the snake. With just one swipe, there were humongous claw marks on the ground. At the same time, the claw marks carried a residual poison and melted the ground even further. "This¡­ His wind is carrying the poison. We need to stop him right now." The Holy God gritted his teeth. "Hahaha! You won''t be able to stop me this time." The Wind God laughed while releasing another attack that scattered them. "I''m invincible." "Kh¡­" The Holy God gritted his teeth, thinking of a solution. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction glanced while sending a thought transmission to him. "Palm God¡­ I have an idea, but it will cost you a bit. What do you think?" After thinking for three seconds, Hans ultimately nodded his head. "Alright." The Palm God, on the other hand, raised his cane while releasing his full power. Since the two guys were going all out, he decided to put everything in this attack. "I call Heaven to send its judgment." The sky brightened. If one took another look at the clouds, they would find ten sources of light behind them, staring right at this combination beast. "Heaven Falls!" Christopher shouted on top of his lung as the light shone even brighter and struck forth. The light suddenly fused to each other and turned into one golden light, illuminating the monster. "Pure Poison Claw." The beast snorted and sent an attack to stop the light, albeit it was futile. What the Holy God sent was something far more powerful than what he had ever used this whole time. "Wha¡ª" The bear and the snake dropped their jaws when they saw their attack disappeared after hitting the light. The light then fell upon him and forced him to scream. "Aahhhh!" "What is this light? It''s burning my body?" The monster asked out loud before clenching his teeth. "I won''t be held back by this!" As he shouted, he released a powerful black wind, trying to break free from the light. Because of the wind, the poison began to consume the light until it disappeared. The bear panted a few times while saying, "Huft. You''re good." There was still a trace of pride in his eyes because the Holy God who maintained such an attack actually had an internal injury. He dropped on his knees and glared at the two beasts. What surprised them was his smile. Despite him losing against them, the Holy God still had the nerve to smile. The two beasts quickly looked left and right, finding the God of Destruction and Palm God had yet to move, so they only thought that the Holy God was insane. However, that pride was soon crushed by the appearance of five rings¡­The same rings that locked the bear up. "!!!" "Wisdom, Kindness, Humility, Friendly, Compassionate. Five Good Rings. Bind." "Do you think you can hold us back with these rings?" Both of them shouted at the same time while using the same power to break the rings. And once again, the moment it broke, another thing followed. This time, the Palm God was already right before them. The thousand hands behind him had fused into two hands, the red right hand and the blue left hand. Both hands quickly swiped them as if it was trying to crush a mosquito. "Die!" "NO!" The bear refused to lose and used both hands and wind element to stop those hands. The Snake helped him by using the poison to weaken the two palms. It was at this moment that the Palm God finally revealed his trump card: The only plan he agreed with the God of Destruction. Suddenly, the wind and poison started to decay as if something was forcing them to self-destruct. Once they took a closer look, the bear gasped as he found that the two palms carried the power of destruction. "What? How can you use the power of destruction?" Meanwhile, the God of Destruction smiled while panting on the ground. "I have borrowed it of course. To think there is a time where I decide to borrow my power from someone and let him be the winner¡­ This so-called "weapon" is scary. I will let you win today, Palm God." "Hmph!" The Palm God snorted while clenching his teeth, using every ounce of his strength to close the gap between two arms, crushing these two to death. "No!" The bear tried its best to stop that palm, but the conclusion came in a sudden. Both of his arms broke and bent in a weird way. "Asura and Devil True Palm of Destruction!" The Palm God bit his lips until it bled as he finally slapped and crushed them inside his palm. "NOOO!" The power of destruction then went out of control and caused destruction everywhere until only a few peaks remained while the others were crushed underneath. Both palms disappeared. "We won." The Holy God exclaimed with a smile after not seeing any beasts. The Palm God fell from the sky and was caught by the Holy God, letting him down beside Raiju. "Haiz. We really lacked too many things compared to the previous generation of God Kings." Raiju laid down on the ground, looking at the sky. "Ha, I wish to get even stronger. I wonder if I can do something useful in less than a hundred years." "That''s something you should say after you recover." The Holy God shook his head helplessly and began treating their wounds. Chapter 1103: Next Course During this time, Lin Xingzhi had killed more than one thousand God Rank Experts after killing a Rank 2 God effortlessly. While keeping an eye on Alex''s movement, Lin Xingzhi continued at her own pace until someone came to her. He had long purple hair and an aloof expression. He kneeled in front of her and spoke. "Milady, the situation over there is over. It turned out that there is a traitor among the alliance and he had the power of the bear. "Just like the information, the bear and the snake were always attracted to each other. This time, the bear was a former guy from this universe, so we can safely assume there are another one or two bears hidden right now. "At the same time, the current God King didn''t have enough strength to rival them, so we really needed additional help during the war." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows and sighed. "Well, at least, we have killed the snake and one bear. And we have confirmed that some people in this universe have become a double agent like what happened in the past. "This way, we could start preparing for the next phase and destroy them completely this time." Lin Xingzhi''s expression turned serious as she looked at Alex. Alex had been fighting the Rank 3 God for half an hour already, but the result was far from satisfying. Nonetheless, Alex was a Rank 5 God. The result was more than enough because not only he endured all the attacks from the Rank 3 God for half an hour, he managed to injure him a couple of times. Of course, Alex''s condition wasn''t that good either. He had used everything in his possession other than his new Space Element Mastery. The biggest contribution to this battle was none other than his Pure Fire. Due to its purifying ability, he managed to render the poison useless, allowing him to keep attacking like there''s no tomorrow. At the same time, the super-fast summoning arrays couldn''t be disregarded just like that. It helped Alex corner the snake from time to time. Unfortunately, only two out of one hundred arrays he made could injure the snake. The other wounds he inflicted on the snake were from either his Pure Fire or his Seven Purities Slash. Since the situation became even more complex, Lin Xingzhi decided to stop Alex''s fight by killing the snake herself. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes when he saw Lin Xingzhi creating a Lightning Disturbance to smite this snake until it was reduced to ashes. Dissatisfaction filled his face because he never expected Lin Xingzhi to end it this soon. "Why? I can still fight, you know." "I know. But there is something more pressing." "If it''s related to this war, it''s not pressing, no?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "I know, but you should know about this first." Lin Xingzhi briefed him on how the fight on the other side went on. Alex fell silent when he heard that the bear appeared. Unfortunately, they couldn''t find anything from the bear because there was no other choice than to kill him. "Maybe I should ask you to help them." Alex scratched the back of his head and sighed. "It''s fine. We can search for the next clue." "Yeah." Alex nodded. "If there were indeed a bear hidden among the people in the alliance, they would surely come to us by reinforcing the alliance. I will ask the Holy God to hide this fact first." "What are you planning?" She narrowed her eyes. "The Wind God was the person in the alliance. Those who knew about this would only be the bears themselves since I would be locking the information right after this." Alex smirked evilly. "In other words, we will suspect everyone that mentions the death of the Wind God. "At the same time, they will also use his death to be the reason for our war. And I don''t think I need to explain the real identity of those who incited them, right?" *Gasp¡ª!* Lin Xingzhi took a step back as she shook her head helplessly. "They are the bears. In other words, anyone who mentioned it should be eliminated first. The problem would be how to know their identities." "I will send the Holy God back and have him pretend that there is no alliance between us. After that, the bear will surely know that he is acting as a double agent for me, resulting in them trying to force him to leave the alliance. "The Holy God then plays dumb until he gets enough information for us before officially leaving the alliance. This is enough, no?" Alex smiled after getting this brilliant plan. "Yes." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a smile. "In any case, the Holy God won''t be touched because they are afraid of his reputation. The moment the Holy God dies, many worlds will be angry. That''s how big his reputation is. Hence, the bears don''t want to destroy their ultimate plan, allowing us to reserve our strength too." "I see. I can understand your plan. I will talk to Anya for the details¡­" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked playfully. "Shall we go to the other God Kings then?" Alex looked at the battlefield situation before agreeing. "Since the situation has become one side, let''s depart immediately. Agnis shall lead the army." The N Squad that informed Lin Xingzhi bowed to Alex before disappearing, bringing his message to Agnis and any other Rank 2 Gods on their side. Meanwhile, Alex and Lin Xingzhi went toward the three God Kings without Alex''s Teleportation Array. After all, they might know that Alex was an Array Master, but no one knew he was a Space Element Master. Hence, it was better for him to hide this power for a little longer. When he arrived, the three God Kings let out a breath of relief. "How are you three?" Alex smiled. "Horrible. I need to let this guy win everything." Raiju snorted while pointing his finger at Hans. "Hmph. I''m powerful. That''s why I became the winner. The loser should just shut up." Hans shrugged. "Hoho. You two¡­ Are you going to dismiss my contribution?" "You are a good guy, right? Just give me your achievement." Raiju harrumphed while glaring at Hans. "You two should donate first to the church. With your power, I''m sure that many people will have a smile on their face when you donate the Spirit Crystals." "I take it back. This old man is not a good person. He is just a scammer." "I''m not. I''ve never embezzled people''s money. I have even expelled many people who are corrupted by greed, lust, or whatever. What do you want me to do next?" The Holy God looked at them with a weird face. "Anyway, I know that you three have a good relationship, but I want you three to listen to me first." Alex sighed and stopped them from talking or else they would keep arguing for another hour. The three surprisingly became silent in an instant as they looked at Alex''s face with a serious expression. Alex smiled and nodded before turning to the Holy God. "What do you think about this battle?" "I know that there is a hidden danger to our universe and I shall fight to stop it for the good of this universe. Hence, I will gladly fight alongside the Spirit God to save this universe." The Holy God nodded. "I don''t want to save this universe. I''m just taking revenge for my past and protecting my subjects. That''s all." Alex shrugged. "Pfft." Raiju and Hans laughed at the Holy God. He was completely bamboozled by Alex because Alex never thought about the greater good. If Alex were to choose whether he saved the universe or helped his world, he would, without a doubt, choose the latter. Alexander Sirius would surely leave the battlefield just to return to Eulja even if it means abandoning them. Christopher tried hard to remain calm as he said, "Anyway, whatever the reason, your action will save this universe, so I won''t say anything. For now, I should do my part¡­ "By Heaven and Earth as the witness, I, Christopher, promise Alexander Sirius that I will fight alongside him and never betray him until the beast that threatens this universe is dead. I shall have my own retainers to swear the same oath as me." After hearing the oath, Alex nodded with a smile. "That''s good enough. For now, I want to tell you about my plan." The three nodded and began listening to Alex''s plan. They couldn''t help but gasp at how Alex perceived the entire situation. What the God of Destruction saw in the past wasn''t wrong. Alex really planned to swallow the alliance as a whole instead of fighting them until he became a God King. "You are really a devil." The God of Destruction said while smiling. "But I like it." "What do you think, Holy God?" Alex asked. "I am not sure if I can lie since I have vowed to never lie for the rest of my life. However, I can still choose to not say anything." The Holy God nodded. "That''s why¡­ Leave everything to me. I will see who is suspicious and who is not. I will make those traitors face their sins." "Alright." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I will leave this task to you. At the very least, I don''t need to worry about your life." "Ahaha¡­ I hope that you can worry about it. This old man is going to retire already if not because of your appearance. If only my daughter can step to God King Stage, I would have handed the position to her." The Holy God sighed. "Hmph. My daughter is better than yours. Right, son-in-law?" Hans snorted at Holy God''s remark before playfully staring at Alex. "¡­" Alex shrugged and stayed silent. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction didn''t know what to say. Feeling a bit left of, he realized that he should get a daughter right now, so he could compare her to them, albeit he never thought of it until now, so his thinking was rather extreme. "Anyway, I would ask the Palm God and the God of Destruction for your cooperation to investigate the other weapons. I have given you the information about the phoenix and the bat, right?" The two nodded while narrowing their eyes. Hans said, "Leave it to me¡­ I¡­ No, my wife will take care of it." "Incompetent." Raiju snorted. "What did you say?" Hans snarled. "This is how the capable guy enjoys his life. Not only will he get a beautiful and caring wife, but he will get a capable wife of leading an army. I can just enjoy every moment while relaxing." "My point still stands." Raiju shrugged and looked away. "Are you picking a fight with me?" Alex finally turned around and said, "Since we have finished our discussion, it''s time for me to return to my army. Bye." "Oi!" Chapter 1104: Path After reaching an agreement, Alex and Lin Xingzhi returned to their army but stopped fighting. Alex decided to stay in the rear while looking at the sky under a tree. "What are you thinking, Boss?" Suddenly, a female voice resounded in his ears as a familiar feeling rose in his heart. He definitely heard this voice, but he didn''t remember there was someone who actually called him boss. Curious about the identity of this female, he turned around and found a blind young girl walking with a smile. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes before shaking his head helplessly. "It turns out to be Aria." "Ehehe, I have come to Eulja since a year ago, you know." Aria chuckled before bending her knees, sitting next to him. "I have overused my Sword Eyes a bit, so I''m back here to recover. Well, I have wanted to greet you since the beginning, but I know that my reputation is not enough to meet you, so I guess this is the only opportunity I have. To think that you are the Spirit God, I am speechless." "¡­" Alex sighed. "That''s what my past life''s deed. I''m going to make my own reputation after this and will absolutely shadow my past life." "I love your ambition." "So, how are you doing with your current position? You are Anya''s assistant, right?" "Yes." Aria nodded with a weird smile. "Well, I''ve learned a lot, including the weird thing¡­" "Weird thing?" Alex''s stuttered as he felt something wrong with that "weird thing". "Ehm. I think you don''t need to know." Aria shook her head with a smile. "I see. Perverted things then." Alex nodded in understanding. "You know your wife well." Aria chuckled. "She kept teaching me all the ways to seduce your boss or whatever that is. Well, my boss is currently her, so should I seduce her? By the way, you are the big boss." Alex let out a long sigh. "Just ignore her." "I understand. I will tell her that you have given me permission to ignore her." Aria repeatedly nodded with a smile. "But I do say that Miss Anya has unique thinking. Although her style is not the same as you, I can see that she is really a master in terms of controlling things from the shadow." "Yeah. Just make sure you don''t eat an aphrodisiac from her." Alex smiled. "Do you¡ª" Aria realized something and coughed once before correcting her words. "I guess that can happen." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, I''m sure you have already known that our situation is not in the best position, right?" "Yes, I know. However, I don''t have the intention to run away. You know¡­I have been thinking this until now. Back when you saved me from that rapist, I thought to myself¡­ If he truly raped me, even if I could kill him in the end, would I stay the same? Would I be able to love others or even my own family? "When you were gone, I realized that every experience would shape me and change my character one way or another. Hence, I knew that it was impossible to stay the same after being raped. In fact, I might have become a vengeful person whose only purpose was to destroy my enemies. "That''s why¡­ I have wanted to say this to you." Aria lowered her head and bent her body until her forehead touched the ground. "Thank you for granting this path for me. This is the best thing I would ever have in my entire life." Alex looked at her and made a gentle smile. He stretched his hand and patted her head. "Thank you. That means a lot to me." "I will do my best to become another strategist of Eulja." "Yeah, do your best. This is the perfect time for you to learn because Eulja has been passive for the past five thousand years. Make sure you learn everything." Alex nodded. Not knowing why, Alex understood that he needed to act first before thinking about the future since it didn''t really matter at this point. After regaining his calm, he suddenly asked Lin Xingzhi about the Void Flower. "Eh? Are you sure?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head. "Yeah. It will probably take half a year for me, but this half a year will smoothen my journey. I mean, I need a huge amount of Spiritual Energy to complete just a single test, so if I refine the Void Flower right now, I can train twice as much." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Oh¡­" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and agreed with his plan. "I understand. I haven''t harvested the flower. It''s in my room, you see. Do you want to go back or finish this war first?" "I will wait for now. It''s not like this war is going for too long." Alex shrugged. "That''s good. I will also go to the battlefield right now to speed up the process. Do you want to go with me?" "Sure." Alex nodded with a smile as he rose to the sky before disappearing and sending a thought transmission to Aria. "I''m going." Lin Xingzhi followed right behind him as they began to storm all battlefields they ever found. Lin Xingzhi''s might didn''t need to be questioned again as she completely annihilated the enemies without mercy. Even the people cheered for her and him whenever they went to a new battlefield. Due to their constant effort, they managed to beat their own prediction. Alex first thought that the subjugation required three whole days, but they managed to accomplish it within two full days, so it was enough for them to cheer for their win. After that, Alex had a joint banquet with the other three God Kings while their subjects had their own separate party. They seemed to have a trust issue. After all, the God Kings could easily get along with each other because of their number. However, with more than a hundred thousand people here, it was easy to get information, thus the ban for their interaction. After that whole party, Alex returned to the camp and found so many people crying while hugging their lovers, their friends, or their rivals. Alex knew that this was investable, so he halted his footsteps right before his tent and bowed to those who had fallen along the way. Lin Xingzhi also cupped her hands and politely lowered her head, sending the spirits with respect. At the very least, the spirits could send their acquaintances with a smile. After bowing enough, Alex turned around and entered the tent with Lin Xingzhi. "Give me the status report," Alex asked. "We have 10,671 deaths, 5,781 heavily injured, and 20,218 light injured. Other than the deaths, I think we can safely assume that they are safe and sound." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "We will give them pills to treat their injuries. Luckily, Eulja has never gone to war this whole time, so our stock has increased so much that we can spend as much as we need. Five thousand years of waiting has started showing its effect." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "I''m glad." Alex nodded with a solemn expression. "Treat the deaths with care too." "Don''t worry. This is not an individual fight but a war. We will obviously take care of everything." Lin Xingzhi assured him with a calm face. "That''s right. How about the whole situation? How many people on the other sides died?" "In total, we have around forty thousand casualties. As expected, the snake poison is too powerful for us. In the past, there are millions of God Rank Experts who died daily, so I know that this is the best result we can hope for." Lin Xingzhi recalled that nightmare where wars happened from one place to another, causing millions of deaths every day. Their side had a lower chance to protect the universe, but they didn''t give up and throw their lives just to protect it. Even the past Alex was grateful for their sacrifices. Alex looked at her expression before nodding with closed eyes. "Anyway, do you have any other report?" "Ehm¡­" Lin Xingzhi contemplated for five minutes, checking everything that needed to be confirmed before saying, "No. We have dealt with everything, including those annoying God Kings." "I guess everything is over." Alex smiled. "Yeah. We can go home now." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a relieved expression. "With this, we don''t need one of the dangers because I can be sure that this is the only snake left." "I agree with you. I am not entirely sure, but I have a theory. According to my observation, they can only influence one person for the rest of their lives. I don''t know, this is only a speculation." Alex thought for a moment. "In any case, everything will be revealed when the Holy God returns." "Indeed. You also need to return to that inheritance palace, no? Just remember that you only have three years before the first tournament starts. In that case, you need to attend that tournament for future generations." "That''s right. I haven''t thought about it." Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening his mouth. "This is going to be a fighting competition. Every spirit can participate, but I guess it''s only for the humanoid one. "I don''t need something complicated. Just use battle royale to chip down their number and fight one on one after that. As long as they don''t kill or cripple someone, I won''t say anything. However, I would like to add one more rule. "Everyone who participates in the second stage of the competition will need to seal their cultivation to match their opponent''s cultivation. Also, no True Spirit Body, okay?" Alex smiled. "Hmm?" Lin Xingzhi frowned and tilted her head in confusion. This was a new rule that she never saw before. Even in all competitions, Alex had experienced, there was no record of this ridiculous rule. This rule was meant to restrict talented people. Before Lin Xingzhi comprehended the real meaning behind Alex''s rule, he had stood up and smiled. "Let''s go home, shall we?" Chapter 1105: Discord As soon as he returned to the Spirit World, Alex entered the bedroom with Lin Xingzhi. They used the door in the room to go to Lin Xingzhi''s personal room, finding that her room was divided into two sides. The first side contained a bed, dress table, and wardrobe while the rest consisted of the plants she cultivated, including his Void Flower. "You planted all this in your room?" "Yep. You should have noticed that my room is smaller, no?" Lin Xingzhil tilted her head. "Yeah. You only go to either the computer or your bed." "Hahaha! You are right. That''s why I separate my room into two while building a moving wall." Lin Xingzhi pointed at the railing in the ceiling and floor where she usually closed it during the unimportant time. "Besides, I can work just fine in a small room since I only have eyes for the system or any other form of work that Korzan gave me." Alex nodded and saw that the plants on the other side of her room were rare Divine Plants. "These plants¡­" "Ah! As expected of an alchemist, I''m sure you have noticed it. Yes, the plants here are my most treasured plant." Lin Xingzhi looked at her plants as if they brought her joy. She couldn''t contain her smile this whole time. She turned around with a big smile. "Of course. The most important one is your Void Flower. It''s my most precious treasure." "¡­" Alex froze and realized his wrongdoing. For the others, he had been giving them anything, whether it was as normal as clothes or as important as cultivation. Yet, Lin Xingzhi hadn''t gotten anything other than the wedding ring. This struck him hard as he quickly thought of something. There was always a thought in his mind, telling him that Lin Xingzhi already had it all, so he never thought of giving something to her. However, it was wrong. Even if she had the whole universe in her hand, it was different when her loved one actually gave her a present. ''I''m a failure¡­'' Alex sighed inwardly before getting a jade necklace. The chains were golden like his Spirit Crown, while the jade had a sun symbol on it. Although this was just an ornament, he believed this was the most sincere thing he could ever give. "Hm?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head in confusion, not understanding Alex''s gesture. "Ehm¡­" Alex looked down for a few seconds before opening his mouth. "I know that you don''t need anything¡­ And what you have given to me couldn''t be compared to this, but I wish you can accept this." "!!!" Lin Xingzhi was surprised to see the necklace on his hand. It took her a whole minute to realize what he meant by giving her a necklace made of Rank 7 Materials. It wasn''t for use but appearance. This was the only thing he thought would suit her. Something that couldn''t be measured by value but far surpassed the value itself. Lin Xingzhi smiled and lifted her hair before turning around. "Can you help me put it on?" Alex nodded with a gentle expression as he put the necklace on her neck. At the same time, Lin Xingzhi slightly leaned to the back and kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Husband." There was a feeling of happiness and relief in his heart¡­ One which couldn''t be described. He was glad he realized this. Lin Xingzhi took a few steps forward while showing him the necklace. "How does it look, Husband?" "It''s perfect." "Hehe¡­" Lin Xingzhi made a big grin before she leaped toward him and hugged Alex for two minutes. Unfortunately, this happiness needed to stop. Lin Xingzhi reluctantly released him and said, "Alright. This should end now. Let me harvest the void flower first." He wanted to say something, but the words stuck on his throat as he stretched his hand forward as if wanting to stop her. However, Lin Xingzhi just turned around with a gentle smile. "Let''s finish everything first, Husband. It''s only a few decades¡­I can wait that long. After that, I will ask you to spoil me every day, okay?" Alex closed his eyes, knowing that he was no match against her. "Yeah. I promise." Lin Xingzhi then walked toward the Void Flower and carefully harvested it before presenting it to Alex with two hands. "This is your Void Flower." Alex looked at this black flower which looked like a rose, but black. There was also a slight gimmick that could be seen from this flower. Along with the Space Element that it naturally released to the air, Alex made sure that it was really a Void Flower. "Thank you." "With this flower, your Divine Energy reserve will become twice as big as the current one. However, if you use it, you need to recover twice as long as other people. You can''t get all the benefits, okay? There is always a downside accompanying it. Either way, the downside is too small compared to the benefit." Alex nodded as he took the Void Flower. "Now, let''s go to your room. I will protect you while you refine this flower. After that, you can return to the Dungeon God''s inheritance palace." "Yeah. I''m sorry that I can''t be with all of you during this period." "Don''t mind. In fact, I''m planning to send you to three worlds after you complete the inheritance." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "Two for the systems and one for the last body refinement." "I understand. Let''s follow that schedule." Alex nodded. "By that time, I might be able to get near Rank 3 God stage." "Sure." Lin Xingzhi pushed open the door, leading Alex to his room as she sat on the chair, watching him from the side. Alex, on the other hand, looked at the Void Flower before using his Divine Energy to separate the stem from its body as Alex began pulling the petals one by one and swallowed them in one go. As if reacting to the Divine Energy, the Void Flower instantly released all the Space Energy stored inside its petals. "!!!" Alex felt the influx of energy and used his own Space Element to trap all the energy within his body. In other words, he turned his own body like a Special Realm that could trap anything inside. At the same time, the Pure Fire began refining the petals one by one, quenching all the Space Energy from the petals, making Alex feel a bit pressured as he needed to maintain his Space Element continuously. Other than the constant pressure, Alex had no trouble in refining all the energy. He even got used to this state within a week. Feeling that Alex would be fine, Lin Xingzhi often came out to deal with her own tasks, including maintaining the system. ¡­ Meanwhile, in another place, the situation wasn''t as peaceful as in Eulja. Inside a room, ten God Kings were present. Each of them gave a powerful pressure to their surroundings while glaring at each other. For this alliance, they chose a round table, showing that everyone was equal, including the one creating this alliance. "I would like to ask one question to the Holy God. Where have you gone this whole time?" Suddenly, a brown-haired man asked while narrowing his eyes. "Where? I thought you all had heard it from me before? My first objective was to pressure the Spirit God to prevent him from committing the mass murder once again. If my first objective failed, I would choose the war option." The Holy God smiled. "What? Did you suspect me, o Metal God?" "¡­" The Metal God clenched his fists before rebuking him. "Is that so? Then, I would like your explanation about you joining hands with the Spirit God. You couldn''t blame me if I spied on you, right? After all, you literally wanted to talk with the enemy." "Ho?" The Holy God narrowed his eyes as both of them increased their pressure while staring at each other. "Are you suspecting me?" "It''s not suspecting anymore. It''s a fact." The Metal God shook his head. "What is the meaning of this, Holy God? You''ve created this alliance by using your reputation at stake, yet, you chose to side with the enemy?" Suddenly, another God King roared. He had a muscular body and tattoo all over his body. Ding. Suddenly, a high-pitched but calming sound echoed in the room as the Song Goddess stopped them with her zither. "Well, well. You three. How about calming down a little? I''m sure that the Holy God has his reason, right? Of course, I demand a full explanation from him. Will that be okay, Holy God?" Christopher narrowed his eyes and contemplated for a few seconds before opening his mouth. "Do you happen to know what actually had happened during the Dark Period?" "¡­" The group fell silent as he managed to pique their interest. "I created a temporary alliance with them because there was a threat from that era. And now¡­ They are gone." The Holy God explained. He didn''t tell a lie in this because he really made a temporary alliance with Alex. The promise he swore after that was a separate thing. At the same time, he emphasized the word "Temporary" to make them think that there wasn''t anything like that between the Spirit God and him. The Holy God then added, "Of course. I don''t have a plan to fight him anymore because I can see that he is also fighting to protect us. Hence, as long as the threat hasn''t been removed yet, I have no plan in fighting him even if this means I let him get stronger." "¡­" All the God Kings were shocked as they stared at him in complete disbelief. Even the Song Goddess didn''t expect that Alex''s reincarnation was for something like this. She looked down and fell into deep thought. "If you are not planning to attack him, then I would like to ask you to step out of the alliance." The Metal God narrowed his eyes. "You are not planning to snitch on us, right?" "Hmph! Fine by me. You all can''t even look at the bigger picture here." He snorted. "You are the one who can''t see the bigger picture. The Spirit God is only a mere Rank 5 God right now. This is the right time to destroy him. Besides¡­ What''s the threat of the Dark Period? The previous generation of God Kings couldn''t handle it because they didn''t have enough strength. But look at us now? We have thirty-two God Kings across the universe. We have grown stronger." "Y-you!" The Holy God slammed the table. The frustrated expression was clearly present. "You are too arrogant!" The Holy God gritted his teeth. "Then, why don''t you let him grow and have him fight for us? When he is at the top, isn''t it easy to rally more God Kings into the plan and eliminate him? You are insane." The room fell silent before the Metal God said, "Then, can you guarantee that the Spirit God tries to deal with the threats from the Dark Era? Why would the chance appear right after you came? You didn''t think it was suspicious?" "Y-you! Do you think I''m easily fooled by his words?" The Holy God rose from his seat and turned around. "Fine by me. If you want to continue the alliance, I won''t care. As I said, until the threat is removed, I won''t hurt the Spirit God." Bang. They didn''t say anything as they watched how the Holy God left the room. Of course, no one was fool enough to attack him. Not only would it look bad for them, but it also reinforced the Holy God''s claim. After thinking for a while, someone suddenly rose from his seat as if he had made the decision. "I believe the Holy God is right. I choose his reputation over this alliance that basically has no trust between each other. I''m sorry, but I will be leaving and remain neutral. What I have against the Spirit God is fear, not hatred." "¡­" When they saw another God actually left, two more stood up and followed him, leaving the room. In other words, there were only six God Kings remaining in this room. Chapter 1106: Retreat to Attack With three God Kings following the Holy God to leave the alliance, only six God Kings remained in this room, including the Song Goddess, the Metal God, and the God King that rebuked the Holy God before. They stared at each other. The room atmosphere turned worse as cracks began to appear in the room as they released a bit more pressure. The Metal God narrowed his eyes and asked, "And I presume, all of you are planning to strike the Spirit God, right?" "Of course. The Spirit God is too arrogant. He will kill us without mercy with the slightest grievance. Back when I was a kid, my planet almost became his target, so I''m not going to spare him. This is the only chance to kill him, preventing him from causing another terror to this universe." The Metal God turned to the God King that rebuked the Holy God and asked. "I see. Then you are with me, right, Earth God?" "Yes. He ended up destroying the other planet next to me and you might haven''t felt it, but if you were there, you would have realized what kind of nightmare he put on us." The Earth God nodded with a grim expression. "Revenge, huh¡­" The Song Goddess closed her eyes. Her voice was calm and there was no expression that could translate her emotion right now. Yet, everyone somehow sympathized with her with that tone alone. "When I was a kid, my planet was destroyed and I was the lone survivor¡­" *Gasp!* The people widened their eyes and understood why the Song Goddess took part in this matter. To be a lone survivor, it must be hard for her. The Spirit God was known to be ruthless to his enemies even if they were innocent. They usually killed all people inside that world like what he did to the Array God. It required talent and tremendous luck to become the lone survivor, especially with the Spirit God on your tail. Not only would she need to hide for a long time, but she also needed to get into the place that outsmarted everyone on that planet. At that time, she must have suffered so much, but she turned that hatred to determination and became a God King. The other God Kings also told them the reason why they wanted to kill the Spirit God. ¡­ After a long conversation, they reached an agreement. "In that case, we will attack the Spirit God three years later. I want all of you to get everything ready and start pressuring Eulja from all sides. We can learn from his allies this way since they will surely not abandon him just like that." The Metal God smirked. "You misunderstand something, Metal God." The Song Goddess narrowed her eyes. She explained with a serious expression. "You are indeed the one that instigated this alliance to be shaped like this, but by no means are you our leader. What right do you have to lead us? Nothing. Despite having this alliance, we all are equal." The Metal God frowned before sighing and raising both hands. "It wasn''t my intention to offend you with my speech. This is just how I speak, I hope you can understand that. At the same time, I apologize if I offended you in any way, Song Goddess." Song Goddess paused for a few seconds, creating tension between them. Knowing she needed to stop, she harrumphed and looked away. "In that case, I hope all of you can start pressuring Eulja for three years to lower their morale before we attack him. That''s all." The Metal God smiled and cupped his hands politely. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex''s condition was far from what they could imagine. He simply had stabilized his position in this refining as the petals slowly formed a certain special place that could act as his second "heart" that allowed him to store the same amount of energy his heart currently had. But to utilize this energy, he needed to direct it to his own heart first. Alex tried to go around it by transferring the same amount of energy from this special place inside his body to his heart as soon as he used a single technique. This way, he would be able to keep fighting on the battlefield. Still, Alex took a long six months just to complete this process. Inside his body now had a kind of black heart that acted as his energy supply. Since he had spent a long time in this room, he quickly went out of his room and visited Lin Xingzhi to know about their current situation. "Alex? You''re done?" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes, trying to check his current power. "Yeah. It took me a while, but I have the confidence to kill a Rank 3 God with my current strength. Although we will fight for a long time and the energy that I can utilize is still within my current cultivation, I can last long enough until they are exhausted." "That''s good." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "To think that you have reached this step this soon. I''m happy." "Hahaha. I need to thank everyone here. The Dungeon God and the Fire God have given me the opportunity¡­ My past self and Fathers-in-law have sacrificed themselves. I can''t thank them enough." Alex shook his head in defeat. "They are the ones who are amazing." "Right? By the way, if you are here, I think you want to know about our situation, no?" "Yeah." Alex nodded as his expression turned serious. "The situation is not too bad to be honest. First of all, we have confirmed all six enemies that we need to face¡­ They are Metal God, Earth God, Song Goddess, Goddess of Destiny, God of Wrath, and Battle God. These six." "Hmm." Alex narrowed his eyes and looked down. "How can our situation be not bad? Well, if you add two or three more God Kings from our side by the use of the system, you can say it''s not bad. But if you don''t add it up, then it will be four versus six. Do you think you can handle them?" "You might not know this, but we have a past ally inside their union. Although I don''t understand why she is doing this, I think she has a different meaning." "Who?" "Song Goddess. From what I know, she was once a musician in our castle. One day, you asked her to leave and never told us anything about it. The matter had been long forgotten too. Well, I did forget it. If not because Korzan reminded me about her, I would have panicked as well." Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh. "Korzan, eh. Such a reliable guy." "Indeed. There was a saying. If you forgot, asked Korzan to help you. He noted every single thing, including the smallest things like when did you take a bath or what did you do at a particular time." "Ehm¡­ Are you sure he is not a stalker?" Alex suddenly had a change of opinion and joked about it. "Ahaha. I can understand your concern, but if it''s not because of his meticulous efforts, the situation will become far more serious." "Fair enough. How about the other things? Like our allies¡­" "You don''t need to worry about them. The Holy God may not help us during this period, but he has agreed to come when the time for the battle comes. The God of Destruction is trying to lift the pressure from us, but he is more directed to the investigation since it''s better to look at the future. "The Palm God is the most protective. He is trying to lift up the pressure while claiming that his daughter is your wife. Of course, the War Goddess has been sending me apologies about his behavior that can''t be changed. "As for the situation on our side, the enemies have been blocking our trading route, resulting in us losing our current revenue. But no need to worry. We can use our reserve first while getting our compensation after destroying their worlds. "The disciples also can''t go to another planet because they will be ambushed. Luckily, the ten Commandants and Five Guardians are protecting our rear while the Six Elemental Gods are preparing the competition to distract people''s attention. "This will allow us to keep our morale for the time being." Lin Xingzhi explained their situation with a calm expression. Alex agreed to her initial impression. The situation wasn''t really that bad if you assumed that the God Kings were even. However, if the Song Goddess were actually an enemy, it would become dire pretty soon and Alex might need to forcefully level up Anna and Leoz to become a God King. After contemplating for a moment, Alex opened his mouth. "Keep the situation in order for now. It''s not like we haven''t experienced this in the past. I assume the people also understand it and stay strong in this dangerous situation. "As for the trade, it''s fine to compensate them by using our cash reserve. We will get it back after conquering their worlds. Unfortunately, I can''t tell what their strategy is to handle us, so I will leave it to Anya for the details. "For now, make sure to preserve our current condition. We will stay silent for a while." Alex explained while contemplating their chance of success without using his trump card. "I understand. I will tell Anya about it." It seemed Alex had no confidence in keeping it a secret anymore. "Hmm¡­ I believe I don''t need to hide my Space Element anymore. I have the confidence to reach Rank 4 God during this training. Rank 3 God won''t be a problem for me anymore, but it doesn''t mean I can fight a Rank 2 God. I can escape from them though." "Yep. I think that''s fine. Unless a God King is coming for you, your situation won''t be that bad. But I think it''s better for me to accompany every trip you will have in the future, such as getting the last refinement material for your Undying Fire Body or any others." "I know. I will be relying on you at that time. For now, I need to go to the inheritance palace alone." "I will handle the other process. I am sure that with your Teleportation Array, you won''t be spotted, but you need to be careful, alright? Just leave the investigation to the N Squad." Lin Xingzhi warned him to not act like Nelson and tried to figure out something alone. Alex smiled. "Don''t worry. I won''t be rash. Besides, I will make them regret picking a fight with me." "I will be looking forward to it." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "Alright then." Alex snapped his finger as he summoned his Teleportation Array. After giving his goodbye to her, Alex disappeared from the room. Chapter 1107: Test? Reincarnator? Alex had returned to the inheritance palace, where he planned to challenge the third test. As expected, AI had been waiting for him. "I''m going to take the third test." AI nodded and began to explain. "The third test is about Trap." "Where do the third test¡ª" Alex turned around and seemed to have realized something. "Is it on the cone-shaped building?" "Yes." AI nodded without an expression and led Alex to the tower. As soon as he reached the cone-shaped building, the door opened by itself, presenting him with nothing but a blank dark space. However, Alex noticed there was something underneath the floor as this time, AI was the one giving him the paper. "This is the instruction for the third test." Alex grabbed the paper and read it. ''You are required to kill the enemies inside with only Spatial Gate technique. This means you can only solve the problem with your Space Element and Spatial Gate technique. Good luck.'' "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and sighed as he entered the room without hesitation. He wasn''t sure before, but the array underneath this place turned out to be an illusion array. When he saw that the door closed, he focused his attention on the array. Although he didn''t know what kind of illusion this test was going to be, he activated the illusion array and allowed himself to be trapped inside it. The illusion array began to create the world. As one would expect from a Divine Rank Illusion Array, even the feeling was real. He slowly enjoyed the breeze that gently brushed his skin before opening his eyes. He was in the middle of the prairie without anyone close to him. The sky was blue, there was only one sun, and no moon was visible. It looked like a normal world for him. Suddenly, an influx of information came into his head, telling him the current identity and mission. "What the heck¡­" Alex couldn''t help but shout when he read the information. "I was a peerless expert in the past and was betrayed by my only friend. I was reincarnated into the body of a useless young master from the Qin Family, named Qin Hua. "My mission is to become the first expert in Yang City with my fiancee is about to cancel the engagement. Ugh. Why does it look like I''m inside this ridiculous story? Don''t tell me¡­ The Dungeon God had this kind of preference?" Alex made a weird expression. "Still, if the time limit is only six months, I don''t know if I am going to succeed. Whatever. Six months are good. I don''t need to suffer for a long time if I can finish this test as soon as possible." Alex shrugged and rose from the ground as he looked toward the west. "Yang City is in that direction. To be honest, now that I have become a God Rank Expert, I have a different point of view from those protagonists in the story. Anyway, I will need to go to the Qin Family first, so I can get a good grasp of this test before concentrating my attention on cultivation." "Still, to think that the Dungeon God loves this kind of story. I''m shocked." Alex shook his head in disappointment and saw a big stone wall standing tall in the middle of this prairie. "I can only use the control of my Space Element and Spatial Gate, so I need to rely on trickery. I guess that''s good enough to see if I can come up with something amazing. It may even benefit me in the long run." Alex walked normally in the bustling city, ignoring what the others thought of him. His expression was flat and nothing piqued his interest, so he walked straight to the Qin Family and saw two people greet him. In his heart, he wanted to scream already. ''Yeah. The setting is perfect too. A bullied mother and a loyal maid that looked like a little sister.'' "Darling!" The mother leaped and hugged him tightly. "Young Master." The maid, on the other hand, politely bowed to him. Although he had no attachment, he thought he needed to play along in this part. "Yeah, I''m home, Mother." "Good, good. Let''s go back and eat." The mother smiled and dragged him inside their house, heading straight to a small pavilion where they lived. However, when he was about to enter, he sensed a few people coming. Halting his step, Alex turned around, finding a young beautiful pink-haired woman, a middle-aged man, and a few others. "Qin Hua. Bring out the engagement agreement. I want to cancel our engagement right now!" The young woman shouted with her arrogant look. "¡­" Alex stopped for a second. His mother instinctively stepped forward and shouted in frustration. "What have we done to you? This is the agreement between my husband and your grandfather!" "Hmph! Trash like him is not qualified to be by my side." The young woman snorted. The middle-aged man laughed. "The Young City Lord, who is said to be the peerless genius of the city, has taken an interest in our Young Lady. You are just a useless person. You have no right to stay with the young lady. I give you one warning, hand over the agreement right now or you will suffer." Alex tried to recall the mission again and realized that he only needed to worry about two cultivation stages. The first one was his current cultivation stage, Qi Gathering Stage. The second stage was the Foundation Establishment Stage. The others were the same such as ten small realms in between. Alex then turned around and asked, "Mother. Where is the engagement agreement?" "Hua, you¡­" The mother was dumbfounded while the young woman made a smug smile. "Why? Being a parent must be hard, right? Instead of deciding your child''s future before they even live, I think it''s just reckless thinking. If I were to become a parent, I would have let my child do whatever he wants. If he has a talent in music and doesn''t want to cultivate, I will support him as long as it can earn him a living." Alex shrugged. "Y-you!" His mother froze as she simply didn''t know what to do. Ultimately, she returned to the pavilion and grabbed a scroll before handing it to him. The moment Alex had it, he tossed it to the young woman as if throwing garbage. "Here you go." "Hmph! Look at you. You shameless threw this. Don''t you have any pride?" Alex made a weird face this time. "It''s wrong to not give it. It''s wrong to give it. I don''t understand you people." Right now, he felt that the people he met in the past were more reasonable than her. When he embarked on his journey to many worlds, he realized that instead of protecting pride, they thought about who got the last laugh more. That was why he didn''t hesitate to order a retreat and waited until the right time to destroy the alliance. "Anyway, you have it, right? Have a nice day then." Alex turned around and had a plan in his mind of how to increase his power quickly. "Hmph! I don''t like your attitude. Taishan! Beat him for me." She shouted righteously. "¡­" Alex let out a long sigh before he let out a bit of killing intent. It was normal for a cultivator to have a killing intent, whether it came from killing humans or beasts. Although Alex couldn''t use his Sword or Spear Technique, or even his Pure Fire, he could still use his killing intent as it was a part of reincarnation. In fact, he wondered where the killing intent those reincarnators had when they lived. After all, killing intent was more related to the soul instead of the body. The moment Alex leaked a bit of his killing intent, the middle-aged man froze as sweat began covering his whole body. His hands were shaking as he looked at his own hands, finding it was fine. In that instant, he felt that his hands were slashed by something. "Just be grateful that my master didn''t kill you." Alex snorted while looking at the middle-aged man and lying about his master. He just wanted them to think he had a backer since it would smoothen everything for him. After all, this was better than exposing his strength too early and made those people send even more people to kill him. Suddenly, Alex released another bit of his killing intent and forced the middle-aged to kneel. He turned to the left and cupped his hand. "Master. They are irrelevant. Please wait for me¡­ In another six months, I will leave this small town." "Wha¡ªWhat just happened? Taishan!" The young miss was bewildered. Luckily, the middle-aged man recognized and quickly kneeled in the direction Alex faced and said, "Immortal Master. I apologize for our behavior. We will quickly leave this place so as to not bother Young Master Qin. Young Miss Qian Yu, what are you doing? Hurry up and give back the agreement!" "What did you say? Taishan? Have you gone insane?" While they were still arguing, Alex lifted his finger and controlled a bit of his Space Element to knock the agreement off Qian Yu''s hands and let it fall into the Spatial Gate. When the middle-aged man saw it, his face became pale. This meant that Alex''s hidden master didn''t like Qian Yu''s behavior. At the same time, Alex smiled and cupped his hand again. "Master. I have decided to follow you. This agreement¡­ It''s better not in my hand." The moment those words were uttered, another pair of Spatial Gates appeared as Alex threw it inside, so it would fall right on Qian Yu''s hand. Alex thought of this trick when he was in the Heavenly Sword Sect. By creating an "imaginary" master, he could protect himself with his own power. He wondered if they knew Alex had been tricking them since the beginning, what kind of face they would make. Either way, Alex looked at them and shook his head in disappointment. "Since the matter has been resolved, I think it''s better for you two to leave. My Master doesn''t like killing, but when he kills, a million die¡­ Please leave so we don''t need to see a bloodbath. "I might be foolish in the past, but now I know that my life is not just about the worldly affair. I simply want to amend my wrongdoings. Please don''t hinder me from doing so." Alex had been humble this whole time, but it, in fact, was more intimidating. Alex was acting like a peerless master that didn''t have any more attachment to a mortal world. Because he previously was arrogant and looked like a fool, this transformation made the master even more realistic. After all, only an immortal could actually transform a fool like him into someone with a good bearing. "Y-yes." The middle-aged man grabbed Qian Yu and ran away without hesitation. The killing intent he felt earlier indeed looked like it was coming from someone who had killed millions. He needed to report this to the family head and tried to amend the relationship. After all, the reason they wanted to break the engagement was due to a new backer. But it turned out that something they wanted to break had something even more amazing behind him. Every act was perfect and the killing intent forced any misaligned gears to fit. Alex suddenly got a thought. ''Wait a minute. Maybe I can use this in the future. Instead of a master, I can use Fire God''s God Beasts to help me terrorize the enemies¡­ Oh wait, I have an even better idea. Maybe I should be thankful that the Dungeon God gave me this opportunity to see my own trick from a different perspective and reapplied it in the future. Still, everything is going according to the plan.'' He then turned around, smiling at the two dumbfounded ladies and said, "Since everything has been resolved, let''s go inside. I will explain this matter to you two after we eat." His mother didn''t know how to react and just let him drag her inside. Chapter 1108: Fooled Meanwhile, in Qian Yu''s family, she had been kneeling for over an hour, facing ridicule from the elders. Alex did a great job pulling that believable act in front of Taishan. After explaining everything to the family head, they began to discuss it in a serious manner since Taishan was the trusted man of the family head to watch over Qian Yu. Yet to think the waste Qin Hua (Alex) gained another backer. They didn''t even know what to do since the latter literally handed over the document. It was close to impossible to mend their relationship again. Taishan wasn''t someone who told a lie, so they just couldn''t comprehend where this man actually came from and why he would choose a waste called Qin Hua. "Patriarch, what should we do? If we offend Qin Hua right now, our family might be doomed because we don''t know who is behind him. At the same time, if we end the relationship with the city lord, we couldn''t be sure if we could gain that Qin Hua back. If only Qian Yu didn''t act rashly¡­" The elders began flaming Qian Yu despite them supporting her to get closer to the city lord''s son. As much as she wanted to scream "hypocrite", she couldn''t because it would just make the situation worse. After contemplating this matter, the family head finally opened his mouth. "For now, we will try to act nicely with that Qin Hua while trying to figure out his master. If he truly has a powerful master, there would be a visible change that could be observed in a short period. We can act depending on what we find." The elders fell silent and seemed to agree to his plan. ¡­ Meanwhile, Alex had another plan for this. His cultivation was the lowest, 1-Star Qi Gathering Stage. He then cupped his hand to his mother and said, "Mother. I would like to apologize for making you worry this whole time. I don''t know if this is too big of a request, but I wonder if Mother wants to leave the family with me. "I mean, this family tramples us by allowing people from other families to bully us inside our own home. I respect my ancestors, but I have a question. Did the ancestor have a family back then when he built our Qin Family?" Alex asked from the very fundamental aspect. When they heard that question, his mother drew a gasp while the little maid tilted her head in confusion. The answer was obvious. The ancestor built the family because he had enough strength and prestige. Hence, the ancestors didn''t have a family previously. "You¡­ You want¡­" Alex smiled and nodded. "Yes. I would like to become the so-called ancestor. Even without this family, I will create my own family, becoming the so-called ancestor. I don''t have the strength right now, but I promise to train hard. "I once heard that in a distant place, even the ancestors of this family were not qualified to be a guard. I want to aim high¡­ Even if I can''t, we should be able to get stronger than the people here. At that time, I will build my own family, unrelated to the people in this house. I will do my best to not make the same ruthless family like this and take care of each family member." Alex smiled and explained, so the mother actually agreed to him. After all, he had no doubt that his mother would reject his idea since it was her husband''s family. But when she heard that ambition, something inside her began to change, understanding where Alex came from. The bullying they had suffered this whole time gave her new insight and closed her eyes for a few seconds. "You said you were going to leave after six months, right?" "Yes." Alex nodded while adding, ''Well, I will be out of this world after six months, so I can get a bit reckless in my plan. Besides, I need to become stronger without leaving this area, so my method is limited.'' "Can I think about it for the last six months and give you the answer?" "But Mother needs to promise me that you answer my question logically without someone influencing your heart. Will that be alright?" Alex smiled. "I understand. It seems that my little darling has grown up." The mother smiled. "Alright then. Although I will be here for another six months, I shouldn''t waste my time. I shall cultivate right now." "Right? You have a powerful master right now. You shouldn''t disappoint him." "Yes." Alex nodded before looking at the little maid. "Follow me." The little maid didn''t know anything and followed him. The moment she saw his action, she thought that Alex wanted to relieve himself with his own maid, but he had changed, so she tried to trust him more. Alex, on the other hand, had no interest in doing that. He simply wanted the little maid to get stronger to trick more and more people since the rumor would start after Qian Yu''s family knows about this matter. "I''m going to teach you how to get stronger. I will also become stronger alongside you, but my path is far from dangerous. I want to ask you to take care of my mother when I''m away. Can you do that, Ke''er?" Alex asked with a smile. The little maid was confused because the change was just too much but ultimately nodded her head because of Alex''s noble reason. "I understand, Young Master. I shall obey your order." Alex smiled and taught her a cultivation technique inside his mind. It should be able to improve her cultivation rapidly. When the little maid began to cultivate, Alex turned around and fell into deep thought. ''Hmm, I think each test has a meaning. The first stage wanted to increase my speed of controlling Array and Element. After all, I noticed that I became more dexterous after completing the test. ''The second test, the Space Element Mastery Test, was to teach me about control. To do everything, I needed a perfect degree of control. With the first two tests, I would be able to become stronger. ''Unfortunately, it''s not enough to become an expert. To become an expert, you should know when to use your power, so this test is to see my wisdom. I need to keep practicing my wisdom to finish this challenge. That''s why I haven''t killed anyone so far. ''The fourth stage must want to teach me about fighting style. With me knowing when to use a certain technique at a certain timing because of the third test, I will be able to make a good judgment in the battle, allowing me to not make any mistakes. ''Last but not least, the Space Element Arts. It''s obvious¡­ Since I know when and how to use my power, I better learn something that can help me in a real fight.'' Alex thought as if he understood the real challenge. "Alright then. I need to leave right now." Alex stepped outside the pavilion and walked toward the market in his memory. He noticed people''s presence following him but pretended he never sensed them. At the very least, he still had a little money to buy a mask and a coat. Without hesitation, Alex went straight to the Array Master Guild, making them confused. After arguing whether they needed to follow him in the closed space like it or not, they finally entered the guild and acted like normal people. Unfortunately, Alex had been taken away by an elder from the pavilion. His expression was warm even though the elders here were very arrogant. Another question appeared in their head, wondering what they were going to talk about. Unfortunately, they couldn''t follow him and overhear their conversation. But the answer came in another form as both of them came out of the room. The elder politely handed him a Space Ring with a warm smile. "There are a thousand Spirit Stones inside this ring along with the Rank 2 Gathering Array that Young Master requests." He then took a token from his space ring and handed it to him. "This is the token of our pavilion. If you have trouble, please contact our place as we will do our best to help you. There is no need for the grand person to make his appearance himself." "!!!" They shuddered, thinking what the family head said earlier. If there were indeed someone powerful behind him, Alex would soon change. The normal change might be easier to be classified as him getting an inheritance of someone and could be seized easily. However, everything changed its meaning when Alex showed his killing intent and Space Element that made the entire situation look magical. Little did they know Alex was smiling this whole time as he was satisfied with his acting. On the contrary, the two who tailed him exchanged looks. "What are we going to do? This is big news. Only our family knows the masked man is Qin Hua. Even the elder is so good to him without knowing his background¡­ No, maybe his master actually gave him something good. "There is a possibility of him staying in this city, so we can''t be reckless. And¡ª" Before he finished his words, a pair of Spatial Gates appeared right beneath their feet and swallowed them as a whole, leading to a dark alley next to the guild. A sign was hung on the wall. "Don''t test my patience. If you don''t leave my disciple alone, I will punish you seriously next time." The two''s bodies shook as they hugged each other, feeling scared. "What''s this? Did we provoke someone we couldn''t provoke? Ugh, what should we do? We need to inform our patriarch and let him decide. From what I see, he is really like that." The two argued for a while, but they decided to leave as soon as possible, giving the news that Alex had done something weird. To extract information from the elder, only the patriarch could do it. And once again, Alex had stirred Qian Yu''s family, making the person in question even more miserable. When Alex arrived at home, he suddenly contemplated. ''I don''t know why, but I think my conscience has changed. In the past, I thought that torturing the enemies is the best way to get back at them, but right now, I feel like when they act arrogant and regret it, one smile is all needed to make their life miserable. "Right, I heard a saying back on Earth. When you are at your lowest point, people around you will ridicule you. When you reach the top, the best revenge to them is a simple smile without saying a single word. I think I understand what that means." Alex chuckled before entering the house. He saw that his maid was still in the middle of cultivation while his mother pondered the question that Alex asked earlier, staring at the wall with empty eyes. Alex ignored it and went into his room, planning to use the Gathering Array to increase his cultivation as quickly as possible. "I don''t fear trouble, but I don''t like it either. That''s why I have a mask and a coat. However, my mission remains the same. I need to reach Rank 10 Foundation Establishment Stage. I will increase my cultivation with Gathering Array first before relying on pills. I don''t think it will be too much of a problem since I can train even crazier than what I did in the past, allowing me to cultivate even faster. "I think that woman''s family is in chaos right now, so I only need to deliver the finishing blow for them to regret it. I don''t know how crazy the people in this world are, so I will play a trick on them if they indeed are crazier. "Well, I couldn''t use any other techniques other than my Space Element and Spatial Gate, but it didn''t mean I couldn''t rely on my killing intent and knowledge. My knowledge is perfect for getting money, while the killing intent was perfect for a bluff. In any case, I will finish this mission as soon as possible." Alex shook his head and sat on top of the Gathering Array. Chapter 1109: Safest Route Soon four days passed and Alex heard a commotion outside his house. Due to the Rank 2 Gathering Array, he managed to reach 3-Star Qi Gathering Stage within four days. This should be enough to show the change to Qian Yu''s family, so they wouldn''t bother him anymore. This wouldn''t be possible in a normal way, so they should believe that there was an immortal master that backed Alex up in the shadow. After hearing the commotion, Alex came out of the pavilion, finding that his maid had increased one level, reaching 5-Star Qi Gathering Stage. Meanwhile, there were three people in front of his pavilion. Two of them were Qian Yu and Tiashan, while the other seemed to be a member of the Qin Family. His cultivation was merely a 5-Star Qi Gathering Stage like Qin Ke''er, so he didn''t even put him in his eyes. "Qin Hua! How dare you to let Young Lady Qian Yu wait for you!" The man shouted, trying to act cool by fighting the injustice. However, Qian Yu and Tiashan saw through Alex and his maid''s cultivation. It was obvious that compared to yesterday, one of them had increased one level and the other one reached 3-Star Qi Gathering Stage. From this alone, they concluded that someone powerful was indeed behind Alex. After all, not a single person could increase his cultivation by two stars in just one night even with pills. Tiashan could only sigh inwardly, wondering what he should do to fix this broken relationship. On the other hand, Qian Yu walked forward before taking out the document, politely handing it to him. It was humiliating for her, but what could she do in this situation? "Young Master Qin¡­ This is the engagement document. Qian Yu doesn''t dare to hold it and ask Young Master Qin to keep it." "Wha¡ª" The young man beside her gasped and took one step back, not believing what happened. "Young Lady. This Qin¡­ This Lan Hua is just a commoner. I don''t deserve the young lady. As such, I don''t dare to hold this marriage document." Alex stated with a calm expression. "!!!" This created another wave of confusion for all people in the area. For his mother, it was as if recognizing her family name, which meant that Qin Hua or Lan Hua had decided to separate himself from the Qin Family. For Qian Yu and Taishan, this could also become an opportunity to mend the relationship and have him marry into the family. At that time, their family would rise. On the contrary, someone from the same family member as him laughed and ridiculed him. "Lan Hua? Haha, to think you recognize your own talent and decide to go this way. I will report this to the family head and elders to erase your name from the family register." When she heard that, his mother could only close her eyes as if she had decided. "I''m sorry, Hua." "There is nothing to worry, Mother. Hua will prove that the Qin Family is not worthy of being even your pet in the future." Alex smiled and scared Qian Yu and Tianshang again since the other guy already departed to inform the elders. "This¡­Young Master Qi¡­ Young Master Lan. How about coming to my Qian Family? Qian Yu would like to apologize for her wrongdoing to Young Master Lan." Qian Yu was quick-witted and took advantage of the situation after a tug from Tianshan. Unfortunately, Alex politely rejected her, saying that he had accommodation ready. It wasn''t like they were going to stay here forever. Of course, to ensure that nothing went wrong. This was Alex''s plan to force the City Lord, the Qian Family, the Qin Family to remain silent. The Qin Family thought that Qin Hua leaving meant they didn''t need to worry about him anymore since he was useless. The Qian Family could only regret that they couldn''t mend the relationship and realized that they couldn''t touch him no matter the case. If they let their pride take over their rationality, they would be done by Alex''s mysterious master, so their patriarch decided to stop meddling with Alex because no matter what they did, his master would find out. Rather than getting their family destroyed, the patriarch chose to survive by continuing the relationship between the Qian Family and the City Lord. As for the City Lord, they heard from the Qin Family that Alex was too embarrassed to get back his certificate and became the focus of ridicule in this city. However, only the Qian Family understood that Alex was the biggest winner. He became the target of ridicule and did nothing was due to him not caring about the worldly affair anymore. Of course, Alex did the same. He was inside the Illusion Array this whole time, so he didn''t have a desire to kill the enemies, knowing that they were just fake people. Instead of going to search for trouble, he became himself and avoided all of them by simply hiding inside his room all the time. He only went out to exchange for Spirit Stones or something. Thus, Alex completed his task within six months. Although he cheated his way a bit with his special way of cultivating that defied Heaven even though he was supposed to venture to the mountain and kill those people, the Illusion Array seemed to recognize it as completed. Alex gradually opened his eyes and looked around the empty room. "I''m back! Ha, that was tiring and boring. Well, I chose the safest route in that place, so I guess there were not many actions. "Still, I learned a few things inside there which might become useful in the near future." Alex smirked before he searched for the vault key. However, Alex stored it instead of using it since he planned to go to another tower. He opened the door and came out of the room, meeting AI again. "Congratulations for conquering the third test." "I''m going straight to the fourth test." "Confirming¡­ You are going to challenge the fighting test?" "Yes. I have no time to delay." Alex nodded. Considering he spent six months refining the flower and another six months in the peaceful world, he still had two whole years to spend, so if he could do this one within a year, there was a chance he could finish this inheritance before he even needed to go back. "Please proceed to the next building," said AI while walking toward the giant cube. "In the fourth stage, there will be a doll that shows you how to control your Space Element in offensive and defensive ways. "There are only four basic moves: Forming, Transforming, Solidifying, Covering. You will understand it after you go in." Alex listened to him with curiosity as he entered a white cube with enough lighting. Just like what AI said, there was a doll inside that seemed to be similar to AI himself and acted as his guide today. When the door was closed, the puppet emitted Divine Energy as it looked around, finding Alex. After looking upside down a few times, the puppet spoke. "Only Space Element is allowed here. Any other kinds of power will be considered as breaking the rule and disqualified." Alex narrowed his eyes and expected an explanation, but the puppet suddenly leaped toward him and threw a fist. "¡­" Alex widened his eyes and felt the fluctuation of Space Energy. He leaped back to avoid the charge before raising his vision. The fluctuation of Space Energy made it look like there was a big hammer above his head that suddenly struck his head and pinned him to the ground. "Forming is the basic skill to form an object within the Space World. This can only be achieved by mastering the control of Space Element." The puppet said after cracking the ground with that attack along with Alex himself. "Kh." Alex never thought that he would be hit by a puppet, yet, he couldn''t say anything since the puppet had the same strength as him. If this were a real fight, he wouldn''t have trouble killing it, but other than bursting the space energy in a certain place, Alex didn''t have any other skill to put into use. Hence, he felt happy even though he was beaten by a puppet, knowing that there would be an improvement. He widened his eyes to make sure there wasn''t a single thing he missed. After rising from the ground, the puppet showed him the second move by concentrating the Space Energy above his hand and launched it like a tornado. However, what Alex saw was nothing but a black hole. That tornado sucked the surrounding energy and created a chaotic atmosphere, so Alex jumped to the side as fast as he could, avoiding the powerful energy. Without giving any chance, the puppet waved its hand as a claw formed out of nowhere. It had a pink translucent color and extraordinary energy that seemed to be similar to that of the earlier attack. He felt there was going to be something big happening if this attack hit him, so Alex dodged it again, albeit barely. As if predicting Alex''s movement, the puppet suddenly appeared next to Alex, trying to punch him in the chest. Alex raised both hands to protect his body but soon noticed something different from any punches he had ever faced. "What? It doesn''t hit me?" He widened his eyes when he felt the impact despite the puppet''s hand not touching him. He then realized that this was the last move, covering. The puppet controlled Space Energy to enveloped its body so the fist wouldn''t touch Alex despite the power being transmitted. "This is the last move, Covering. You can use it to attack your opponent or defend your body. You are required to learn all these four basic moves and defeat me with four basic techniques to complete this test." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and smiled. "Huft. Was there a need to attack me like this, though?" Chapter 1110: Fight the Puppet Five months later, Alex had finished his gruesome training. To speed up the process, he created a Simulation Room Array inside the test building as he went back and forth between reality and this array to practice. The latter allowed him to continuously supply his Spiritual Energy while the former let him test whether what he practiced was right or not. Meanwhile, the puppet didn''t move a single time during his training, waiting for him to challenge the puppet. Alex also didn''t want to bother it either, so he continued his practice while ignoring this puppet. Finally, after a long five months of training, Alex was currently standing in front of the puppet, raising his fighting stance. The puppet also did the same and prepared for Alex''s attack. "The test will start when you attack me once." Alex contemplated for a moment to check whether he was prepared enough or not. After getting his resolve, Alex leaped toward the puppet while waving his hand from the side. A torrential wave of Space Energy enveloped his hand as it flew toward the puppet. Boom. An explosion occurred as the dust kicked up, hiding the puppet. It should be able to blow away the puppet if he hit him, but it seemed to have no effect against that puppet. When the smoke dispersed, he could see that the puppet erected a barrier with the Space Element. It was a pink translucent barrier that was only visible for a Space Element user. After this attack, the puppet finally made its move by punching Alex''s face. Since Alex had mastered all the four techniques, he solidified the Space Energy in front of him to create the same barrier as the one the puppet used earlier, albeit it had no effect. The puppet''s fist turned out to be covered with concentrated Space Energy, bending the Space Shield he created earlier and punched him. That punch managed to blow him away, despite not touching him like how the puppet showed it for the first time. Alex was blown away and rolled a few times on the ground before he used his hand to stop the momentum and rise from the floor. The puppet didn''t allow him to have time to recover, so it leaped forward and created a dragon above his head, flying faster than him and hitting Alex. But Alex resisted that attack by creating a giant translucent palm. It grasped the dragon''s neck and snapped it until the dragon disappeared. He then returned the same attack to him. Alex''s dragon flew toward the puppet from the front instead of above and tried to swallow the puppet. As if it was out of spite, the puppet used the same giant palm to grab the dragon. Suddenly, Alex made another move that seemed to be a special thing that he had never done before. No, he never thought of it until he learned it on the third test. He realized that when two people with the same cultivation level fight, the possibility of one of them winning were low unless someone used a trick or two to overturn the situation. Hence, the third test opened the door of another possibility for Alex. Another palm appeared as it tried to stop that palm from the puppet. However, the latter managed to react and created another hand to stop Alex, resulting in two hands clashing each other while the other hand grasped the dragon''s neck. It was at this moment, Alex showed his growth in the third test as another dragon emerged from the dragon body, flying toward the puppet. The latter had no choice other than to create another barrier to stop the smaller dragon''s advance but to no avail. The dragon was too powerful and shattered the barrier with its sharp teeth, resulting in the puppet releasing the first dragon to slap the smaller one. It turned out that Alex just faked a fake. The real attack was the first dragon all along. And without any defense, the dragon tried to swallow the puppet before it abandoned the palm and created a series of barriers to block the dragon''s advance. Alex secretly sneaked up on it and waited until the dragon destroyed the barriers before he emerged from the shadow and ripped the puppet''s arm. "Huft." Alex took a deep breath and muttered, "One arm. I''m thankful for the third test since I can understand the flow of battle better. It seems I really need to rely on tricks this time since obviously, the puppet is stronger than me in terms of controlling the element." After getting enough time to think, Alex turned around as the puppet decided to attack him again. "¡­" Alex looked left and right to see whether he could take advantage of something but ended up fighting the puppet in hand to hand combat. The fight became a brawl in an instant as Alex gradually got the upper hand due to his insane amount of fighting experience. Unfortunately, he didn''t want to rely too much on this since the main purpose of this test was Space Element. Even though their hands were covered in Space Element, Alex thought it wasn''t enough. He summoned a dragon again, heading straight to the puppet. The same as the previous move, the puppet used the giant palm to grasp the dragon. Alex took that chance to slip past the barrier and threw a punch to which the puppet dodged it. Suddenly, the puppet''s hand was flying to the air as if it were cut by something. Alex smiled and raised his hand. It turned out that Alex solidified the Space Element into a scythe and extended his fist to the side, allowing him to cut the puppet''s hand. This was Alex''s second trick. Obviously, the puppet wasn''t that easy to deal with, so he prepared a few more tricks in advance on how to destroy the puppet. "!!!" When he was about to move, he was shocked when he saw the puppet solidified the space element and turned it into the same hands that Alex destroyed. It put those hands and raised its fighting stance again. "Seriously?" Alex muttered. The Space Element the puppet had was a little bit stronger, so Alex wasn''t confident in destroying that hand unless he hit the puppet''s body instead. The puppet charged at him before Alex thought of something, but this was the trick. Alex summoned a sword and a spear made of Space Element and swung them at the same time. "Sorry, but I don''t have a choice." Alex sighed and decided to break that rule. He knew that it wasn''t satisfying, but his main ability relied on this, so as long as he didn''t Sword Intent and the likes, he should be fine. The puppet grabbed both weapons simultaneously. Alex smirked as he played another trick. He let go of the sword and clenched his fist as another torrential wave of Space Element formed above the puppet. It hit the puppet''s head and pinned him on the ground. Feeling it wasn''t enough, Alex stomped the puppet''s head and created a crater. As if it felt disrespect from Alex, it grabbed Alex''s foot and threw him to the wall. Bang. Alex hurriedly came out of the wall and raised his fighting stance. The puppet went crazy as it suddenly stomped the ground, turning the whole floor into a crater. "Oi, oi. Is this really a puppet?" Alex''s curiosity grew. He wondered what kind of fight he would have against a puppet master. He also never met a necromancer, making him think whether they could create an army by themselves. If they could, he might ask them to join and create an additional army to fight against that beast, but it was for later. He needed to destroy this puppet first before he had the time to worry about another thing. The puppet leaped toward Alex and punched him. Alex blocked the punch with his sword before counterattacking with his spear. The puppet stopped it too and planned to summon a dragon above its head. Alex went one step ahead and kicked the puppet''s foot. This shouldn''t be enough to destroy it, but it turned out that Alex''s created a blade on his foot, slicing through the puppet''s barrier and cutting its foot. Losing its balance, the puppet tripped to the side, giving a big opportunity to exploit. Alex sent another kick without hesitation to knock it to the ground before he used the same strength as the puppet to stomp his head, resulting in him destroying that puppet. "Huft." Alex let out a sigh of relief. "To think fighting is this taxing. Although it''s nice to see that trick can play a big part in a fight, it''s really taxing mentally since I need to come up with something new every time. Maybe I can do it once in a while to turn around the situation, but that''s it. "Nonetheless, I''m glad to face all the tests here." Alex smiled and saw the door was opened. AI suddenly entered the building and handed Alex the key. "This is the fourth key. You just need one more to open the greatest vault in the world." "¡­" Alex didn''t know why the Dungeon God was so confident, but considering this was a vault inside a black hole, he could somehow understand the arrogance. "It''s indeed a one of a kind vault." "Anyway, I have used less than one year to pass the two stages. It''s significant, but I have prepared enough for it since the mind test is my specialty while controlling the Space Element has been taught in the second test. This one is just a slightly advanced one. "Adding the six months I''ve spent refining the Void Flower, I think I still have one and half years in this place before the competition starts." Alex thought for a moment and decided. "I''m going to leave first." He was scared that something happened to Eulja, so he wanted to check it by calling Lin Xingzhi. Alex used the key he just got and left the black hole. "Xingzhi." [Yes? You''re done?] "Yep. I have finished four tests. I''m going to the last one, so I want to check the condition first, considering we are in a bad situation." [Don''t worry. Eulja is still safe for the time being. Although they have been suppressing us, we can hold on and continue with our original plan. In fact, I''m planning to use the competition to trigger them.] "Hmm. That''s a good time. We can tell our allies too, so they are prepared to move at that time." [Exactly.] "Alright. How about the investigation?" [Still no lead.] "I see." Alex contemplated for a moment. "At least, we have confirmed the existence of the snake which has gone extinct, the bear, and the bat. There is a rumor about the phoenix from the God Beasts, but we don''t know where they are." [Yes. I''m working on what we can find first, so our main priority is the bear and the bat.] "Sure. I don''t want to bite more than I can chew, so we should focus on one rather than wasting our time with five." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "That''s right. How about the competition?" [There are already tens of thousands of participants. Korzan is trying to see how they can chip down this number to a thousand before fighting one on one.] "Ah, you can handle that yourself." [Though he doesn''t understand why you want them to limit their strength to match their opponent.] "Pfft. Really? He doesn''t understand? How about you?" [Somehow. It''s related to talent.] "Nah, I''m just searching for someone like me." Alex shrugged. [Now I understand.] "Right." Alex laughed. "Tell him the reason and he will understand why I''m doing this." [Yep, will do. Are you going back now?] "Yes. I shouldn''t waste more time since I can go back faster the sooner I start." [Good luck. I will be waiting for you.] "Alright." Alex then turned around and leaped toward the black hole. "See you later." Chapter 1111: Space Element Arts As soon as he returned to the inheritance palace, he looked for AI and asked, "Can you open the last building? I need to finish this as soon as possible." "Yes." AI nodded and waved his hand toward the last building, the sphere building. Alex took a peek and saw a few big translucent crystals sealing a certain book. He thought. ''I wonder which book I need to choose. The suitable one, of course.'' "Please enter the building." Alex turned around and entered the building. He found five books inside and read their titles one by one. "Inverted Dimension, Space Compression, Space Distortion, Black Hole, and Subjective Reality." "Damn. They sound powerful¡­ Every single of them. I think I have learned Space Compression back then, but I have never had the time to properly use it. Maybe this one is different and it will be suitable for me?" Alex muttered as he looked at them with a curious face. Suddenly, the tower''s door was closed, leaving Alex alone with the five books. He was contemplating which book he would choose for this test. "Let me see. I don''t know what the usage of this Inverted Dimension is, but I guess it''s something like a space that turns everything upside down. "Space Compression¡­ The one I learned compressed air and such to create a blast that releases a powerful shock wave. However, my Pure Fire is far more powerful than it, so I have never used it. I wonder if this one is the same¡­ "As for the Space Distortion, I am not very sure. The effect must be distorting space, but I can''t imagine the end product. On the contrary, Black Hole must be implying the real black hole¡­ Just a smaller one. "Last but not least, Subjective Reality. This is something that I can''t understand." Alex tilted his head in confusion, wondering which one he needed to choose. However, his thought was shattered by a paper that was left behind by the Dungeon God. It was the instruction for the last test, so he picked up gently, knowing that it must be saying he needed to choose one of them. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Alex froze when he read it. "For the one who managed to complete the first four tests, I applaud you for coming here. Just like before, you wouldn''t be able to escape from this place unless you have mastered everything. This is a kind of reward from myself, so be sure to take the books, alright? "My instruction for this test is simple. Because I don''t like hearing ''You need to choose one of these treasures in every single inheritance I had met in the past, I decided to not follow their thing. Instead, just take it all! Hahahahahaha! "This is the real instruction. You need to master all these five books inside this tower and the door will only open when you have cleared it. At the same time, you can enter the Greatest Vault of all time, my fault. Now, go! Take them all. Hahahahaha!" "¡­" Alex''s eyebrows twitched as he wanted to throw this paper to the floor. "Seriously? I mean, this is surely a fortune since I can learn all of these at once, but I also need to worry about the timing. Luckily, the previous tests didn''t take too long, but one and a half years for all five techniques, huh." Alex facepalmed and shook his head helplessly. "I wonder if this is luck or misfortune. Anyhow, I need to finish this as soon as possible." Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and found that the crystals were made of Space Energy, so he quickly covered his hand with it and entered the first crystal. Surprisingly, it slipped in that solid crystal as if his hand was swimming inside a liquid. He grabbed the book and pulled it out. "The first is Inverted Dimension," Alex muttered and opened this red-colored book. "Inverted Dimension is a special dimension that reverses every single law in the world. The Gravity will pull you to the side or even to the top, so your sense of direction will become weird after this. "Everything will be according to your will, allowing you to even set an amount of energy in this space. For example, if you are an Alchemist, you can filter what elements you want in this certain space or something like that. "It''s a technique that is useful for combat and miscellaneous things, so use it only when you need it." Alex contemplated for a while before looking at the other four books. "That''s right. I can choose which one do I want to master first, right? I need to read all of them first and determine which one of them is easier." With that thought in mind, Alex walked to the second crystal and took the book. "Now, this is the Space Compression book." Alex smiled and started reading. It turned out the Space Compression Technique in his hand was far superior to the one he practiced. The Space Compression allowed him to seal someone''s attack and compressed it. "Hmm, I can store up to ten beads that contain powerful attacks. This can become a small bomb for me. Unfortunately, I can''t give it to the others since if I want it to explode, I need to resolve the technique." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Still, if I store my own Pure Fire, Lin Xingzhi''s attack, and the others'' strength, this will become an ultimate trump card." Alex smirked before slipping the second book to his other hand that carried the first book. He then walked toward the third book and grabbed it without difficulty. "The third book is Space Distortion Technique. "This technique has a similar effect to the covering. It allows me to distort someone''s attack to a certain degree. If someone is stronger than me, this technique will give me a big opportunity against them. Of course, its strength is far stronger than covering. "Instead of creating a barrier, I should use this technique to deflect my opponent''s attack." Alex then turned around and reached the fourth book. "Next is Black Hole. The name alone has told me everything. "It''s basically creating an artificial black hole. Like Lin Xingzhi who managed to create all elements disturbances, I can create a torrential wave of Space Element to create a powerful shucking force. I will then become invincible. That is if I don''t meet someone stronger." Alex sighed. "Four books are interesting for me, so I will check the last book first. The one that piques my interest the most, Subjective Reality." The moment he took the book, he decided to sit down and read what this technique was all about. "Subjective Reality is the world''s entirety. It''s impossible to distinguish between a dream and reality. It''s a technique that allows the user to manipulate the boundary between fantasy and reality. And this is the ultimate technique I have ever created¡­" Alex read the first few sentences out loud and gasped. "This¡­ This is the original technique that the Dungeon God created? "If I am not wrong, the Dungeon God is just a pseudo title. His real title is Space God." Alex was sweating because this might be at the same level as Phitrus''s Fire Authority. "Anyway, the user can control the boundary between fantasy and reality¡­ What is and what isn''t, turning one into other and blurring the border between them. "With enough compression, you can create an attack that is close to the perfect one. If one needs to be wary of one thing, it''s the only flaw of this technique. No matter what kind of level you''ve achieved, an illusion is just an illusion. It won''t ever interfere with reality. "But if you are serious in learning this, you need to increase your repertoire, forcing your opponent to think which one is actually your real attack. This technique also carries the traces of pain and sense of touch, so the enemies will find it hard to distinguish which one is the reality. "Hmm. I can probably see this through with my Spirit Eyes, but my eyes are the only ones that can see through Spiritual Energy in everything. Anyhow, I think I have chosen the order of these five books. "First, I am going to learn the Space Distortion since I have understood the basics before moving to the Black Hole for the same reason. The third will be Space Compression since it''s the only one that is not related to a dimension type technique. "Then, I will choose the Inverted Dimension since it''s easier than the Subjective Reality. And with this, I''m set." Alex nodded with a serious expression as he began reading the first book. It wasn''t that thick, so Alex finished it within three hours. Unfortunately, when he created a Simulation Room, it seemed to cause a certain reaction inside the tower, preventing it from activating. Hence, Alex decided to rely on his Spiritual Energy and Void Flower instead. As the name implied, the Space Distortion deflected something that passed through it. During the first week of training, Alex was able to achieve the smaller success where he could erect the barrier, albeit it was still unstable. It took him another two weeks to create a solid one before testing it himself. He summoned the distortion barrier and hit it with his own Pure Fire. Unfortunately, the challenge was a failure because Alex''s Pure Fire ended up burning it as if reacting to it. Alex could only sigh since he controlled the Pure Fire to do no harm earlier, but this accident told him that everything wouldn''t go according to his way. Still, that experiment actually gave him good data about his Pure Sword Qi. Because the Pure Sword Qi and Pure Spear Qi had a similar characteristic to that of Godly Pure Fire, he managed to break that Space Barrier with his weapons. For now, the only thing that had no power to break it was his array. Sadly, his array''s main purpose was to control the battlefield due to how fast he could create an array. When the Spear from the array hit the Distorted Space, it passed through the barrier without a problem but ended up going in another direction instead of him. Although it looked like something he shouldn''t use in a battle, it was a good technique for one on one battle since he wouldn''t accidentally injure someone from his side. Ultimately, it took a total of one and a half months to master this technique. The same applied to the second technique, Black Hole. Alex already had the foundation, which was the spiral wave of Space Element. According to the book, he needed to learn a bit about the gravity and torque of that technique before he could master this technique. Nonetheless, it was already good enough for him as Alex spent a total of three months learning the first two techniques. The Black Hole was quite special than what he had found this whole time. Because of the smaller size, the sucking force was stronger, so it would be absorbed faster. Yet, Alex was a bit sad since he could literally slash his own Black Hole or even burn it. No matter how you beautified the technique, it was just a technique. The Black Hole couldn''t be compared to that of the natural one that could suck planets. Either way, Alex was satisfied with the two techniques as it would improve his fighting style a lot. In fact, he might be able to kill a Rank 3 God after learning everything in this place. And yes, it was with his Rank 5 God cultivation stage. Now that he almost reached Rank 4, Alex should be able to do more like challenging a peak Rank 3 God. Unfortunately, Rank 2 God was still too strong for him, let alone the God King that was said to have a gap with the level before it far surpassed what people had experienced so far during the previous stages. After mastering the two techniques, Alex finally started learning about the third one, Space Compression. Chapter 1112: Return Space Compression''s hardest part was where he needed to harmonize all the things inside the sphere he created to compress the attack. There were different types of energy that would be absorbed along with the main attack, so Alex needed to find a way to harmonize them. Luckily, that unique Space Element of his already sped up the process while the rest was handled by his Sword Qi and Spear Qi that cut any resistance while being suppressed with his Pure Fire. It took him a long two months just to master it, which was still within his calculation. With this, he should still have one year and one month to master the two things. He thought this would finish in a jiffy, but then the difficulty ricocheted the moment he practiced a dimension type Space Element Art. Unlike the others that had so many alternatives, he needed to cram so much information into his knowledge because the Inverted Dimension required him to achieve a certain degree of knowledge about what was going on within the barrier. When the first time he used it, bookshelves appeared, telling Alex to understand it inside this tower. Alex began to read the books without hesitation since he planned to go back as soon as possible. And the number of books alone would use one month to cover the entire thing. And he still needs to comprehend the knowledge. In the end, Alex needed two months just to finish reading it and began creating the dimension. The first time he succeeded¡­ by chance, was one month from that day. The dimension was formed above his head, so when he touched that dimension, he got sucked and turned upside down, watching the ground from another perspective. It was a weird but fulfilling time, but he knew that he couldn''t test it for too long and proceeded with the mastering process. The mastering process took another month until Alex could create a dimension solid enough to withstand a couple of attacks from the outside world and prevented someone from going outside that dimension. It was a load of work, but Alex paid no heed and kept continuing his practice. Finally, he arrived at the last technique, Subjective Reality. This was the hardest technique of all since this was the original technique of the Dungeon God. Still, the one thing that kept him smiling was the fact that he managed to break through to Rank 4 God in this inheritance place. He had no doubt that his wives would be at least Rank 8 after this and the majority must have reached Rank 7, but Alex felt they were still lacking. He needed to prepare something soon, so his wives could reach Rank 5 God as soon as possible. At least, they needed to reach it before he became a Rank 2 God. After contemplating for a moment, Alex decided to give another mission to them, so they could become stronger. As for the missions¡­ Alex would be relying on Lin Xingzhi''s resourcefulness to give them a good mission. After getting enough time to think about this matter, Alex continued his training. Finally, several months passed, he managed to master this last technique before showing it off inside the building, so it could record his movement to see whether he passed the trial or not. Ding. A high-pitched sound rang on his ears as he found a small key appear from the ground. He took it and smiled. "Finally, I have them all." AI entered the building immediately and gave him one last message. "This will be my last message. To open the vault, you need to use all the keys in their respective buildings. And the pyramid will become the entrance to enter the greatest vault, so do your best to reach there. Last but not least, congratulations on completing my master''s tests." Remembering what he had gone through, Alex couldn''t help but smile as if his torture was over. AI, on the other hand, lost its purpose and fell to the ground as no Spiritual Energy supplied him anymore. Alex bent his knees and tilted his head in confusion. He was contemplating whether he needed to bury a puppet or not. But since AI had been a great help for showing him the way, he decided to create a small tomb for him since he didn''t find his body attractive¡­ in a different meaning. Alex then used all the keys he received before going toward the first tower he challenged, the pyramid. To his surprise, the pyramid underwent a transformation as it revealed another form. The arrays that had been concealed inside this pyramid appeared as it dispersed all the arrays in this room. Alex then found a small Teleportation Array in the middle of the building and activated it without hesitation. "¡­" Alex blinked his eyes and arrived at a strange room. The room was covered with gold, but it was still useless since gold was just a mortal commodity. What he focused on was a shelf filled with Space Rings. "Those are the Space Rings that contain the Spirit Crystals. With that many Space Crystals, I think I have officially become the richest man in the universe?" Alex made a weird smile. He wasn''t proud of this achievement since it was useless to him. At the same time, he didn''t find any weapons or whatsoever, so he thought his wealth was already gone because of the previous system, leaving only the Spirit Crystals that could be harvested from the dungeons. "Well, I won''t complain since his wealth has at least two-thirds of my previous life''s riches plus Eulja''s treasury. Anyway, I need to go back¡­" ¡­ A few months passed after that and Eulja was struck by happiness. There was so much joy everywhere. In the castle, Lin Xingzhi walked in a small corridor. Her face was calm and uninterested, but her eyes contained a little frustration. Suddenly, Korzan appeared in front of her and bowed his head. "Milady, we have a situation here." "If it''s about Alex, you won''t get an answer from me." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. Korzan scratched the back of his head and was confused about how they should proceed with the situation. "Although we have no complaint from the Elemental Gods, many were still asking when His Majesty would come. And we need to hold the semifinal soon." Korzan let out a long sigh, wondering what he should do in this situation. Everything would be resolved as long as Alex returned home, yet, it was something they could only hope for. Even Lin Xingzhi had no idea where Alex went other than a Black Hole. After a series of investigations, they didn''t find Alex everywhere, so they ended up returning with a sour face. Of course, Lin Xingzhi knew that Alex was safe and sound because of the system. But as one would expect from the former master of the Gacha System, he could stop showing Alex''s system as long as he was inside the dungeon. "Who are the participants again?" Lin Xingzhi asked. "The first one is Zerah''s successor, the Winged Lion Spirit, Saul. He would be fighting against Thousand Silk Spider Spirit, Maiah. On the other side, Canaan''s daughter, Dryad Spirit, Raisa. Her opponent is Undead Spirit, Giza. As for the fifth spot, I think we have chosen him¡­" "Hmm¡­" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "It''s surprising that the Maiah, who is only a Rank 5 God can actually beat Agnis'' successor, a Rank 3 God. But it doesn''t matter since Alex has set the rule. In any case, I''m more interested in the second round. Giza is also a Rank 3 God, so I wonder if he can defeat Raisa. "Anyway, since we have chosen Agnis'' successor as the fifth position, I think we only need to see the last three fights. Even though they have gotten the right, they still want to show off. Pfft, such a cute character." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "Ye-yeah." Korzan nodded. "Does this mean we are going to show ourselves without His Majesty?" "Do we have another option?" Korzan shook his head helplessly. "I will prepare myself¡ª" Before he finished his words, someone''s voice echoed in the corridor. "So, you don''t want me to attend?" "!!!" The two were shocked as they turned around, finding Alex walking the corridor with a calm smile. "Alex (Your Majesty)!" Both of them shouted at the same time. When Lin Xingzhi was about to hug him, she stopped and looked at him with a disgusted face. "You stink." "Ahaha¡­ I am sorry. It''s truly a gruesome last month." Alex chuckled. "Anyway, there are only three matches left, right? I will show myself to them to see the new blood that will take over the position sooner or later." "Yeah, but you need to take a shower first. And I will be informing the others first." "Alright, alright." Alex waved his hand nonchalantly before looking at Korzan. "You''re alright, Korzan?" Korzan was still stunned after finding Alex had become a Rank 4 God. "Your Majesty¡­ Did you have a breakthrough?" "Yep. It''s quite hectic, but I think I can defeat a Rank 3 God right now." Alex smiled. "That¡­" Korzan didn''t know why Alex revealed this, but he felt it was related to the war that would happen soon. "And can you contact our allies? The enemies are moving toward our place right now. I passed them for an instant earlier. There is a possibility that something will happen either after the tournament or in the middle of the tournament. So, I''m planning to not waste any time for the tournament." "Do you mean you want the final to happen right after the semifinal ends?" "Yes." Alex nodded. "I understand." "And the tournament is currently held on another planet, right?" "Yes." Korzan nodded. "In that case, I will need to meet Anya first." "Sure. I will arrange it for you." Alex then waved his hand and turned around. "Alright. I''m going to take a shower first." After taking a shower, Alex met Lin Xingzhi, who accompanied him to the war council where Anya stayed the whole time, coming up with a strategy to fight their current enemies. Surprisingly, he found Aria with her. "Hmm?" Alex noticed Aria''s change as her clothes were slightly revealing compared to her usual clothes. "Aria?" "Ah, Y-your Majesty." Aria hurriedly greeted him. "You don''t need to be that formal. No one is here other than four of us." Alex shrugged. "Alex, you don''t mind me bringing her here, right? She is a prodigy in welfare. Although she lacks experience, she can think out of the box. Maybe¡­ She was imitating your style after knowing you for years. And without you by her side, that ability started to grow to a fearful degree." "Is that so?" Alex smiled and nodded. "You''ve worked hard, Aria." "Yes, I mean, No." "Which is it¡­" Alex chuckled before asking, "So, do you know the situation?" "Yes. We are planning to move two hundred thousand to that planet to bait them. As soon as they reach there, I will send the signal for our allies to appear." Alex nodded. "I guess we can only have a full brawl against them." "By the way, what do you think of her clothes? I chose them." Anya laughed. "Haha, I''m going to have her seduce the boss, oops, I mean the big boss." Alex shrugged. "If she is not comfortable, you shouldn''t force her." "She is fine, right?" Anya turned her head to Aria. "Y-yes." Alex let out a long sigh before looking at the map. "Still, the situation is worse than I thought. We only have four God Kings and they have six. I probably need to add Anna and Leoz to the fight later¡­" "Uhm¡­ Can I say something?" Aria raised her hand. She was hesitating to tell this since she wasn''t a full-fledged strategist. "Sure. Tell me everything you want. Two people are better than one." Alex shrugged. She then pointed at the map to a certain planet. "I think we should put more thought in this place." Alex narrowed his eyes before coming to a realization. "I see, defensive battle." He couldn''t contain his smile and patted her head like usual. "Hahaha, you are great! This will do for now." Chapter 1113: Saul Vs Maiah After getting the plan ready, Alex and the others went toward the teleportation formation as the competition would resume pretty soon. On another planet, outside Eulja''s territory, there was a huge stadium with a size of one kilometer in all directions, allowing God Rank Expert to utilize their entire strength. There were so many people coming, not only the spirits but also the citizens from the entire Eulja territory. They wished to see the current Spirit God themselves, so they acquired the ticket no matter how expensive it was. When Alex arrived at that planet, he realized he was inside a small room. "This is the room behind your seat. We just need to come out of this room and you will find the stadium." She smiled. Alex nodded and sighed. "Still, to think that Anya rejected me¡­" "Haha. She needs to be there to finalize your plan and Aria is helping her. What we need to talk about is why Anya is trying to make that girl seduce you." She narrowed her eyes. Alex shrugged. "It''s Anya. Any other reason?" "¡­" Lin Xingzhi sighed since she couldn''t help but agree. "I guess we can make Anya one of the wonders of the universe." "Haha. Despite her playing around the whole time, she keeps thinking about many things. Even I can''t understand what''s going on in her mind." Alex smiled before looking at the door. "Anyway, let''s go." "Yes." Lin Xingzhi then opened the door for him as the two walked out of the room. "His Majesty, the Spirit God, is entering the stadium!" Suddenly, someone shouted, informing the others to stay silent for a second. Surprisingly, the stadium that was filled with screams and cheers turned silent to the point that he could even hear the breeze sound in his ears. Everyone was lowering their heads if they couldn''t kneel because of their positions that were stuck between chairs or kneeling when they had enough space. Alex looked at the entire stadium with a smile before waving his hand, sending his order. "You may rise." All the people in the stadium raised their heads, finally looking at their king for the first time. Surprisingly, Alex had become a Rank 4 God despite them knowing that he only reached Rank 5 God in the coronation ceremony. This kind of speed was worthy of the Spirit God''s name. "It''s my joy to see all of you here. However, the star of this tournament is not me but the participants. I am here just to express my gratitude for all of you and I hope the tournament can finish without any trouble." Alex smiled and turned around, walking to his seat and sitting down. They fell silent for a while before giving a round of applause for Alex before the host shouted. "We shall start the first match. I invite the two participants to come to the arena." A blonde-haired young man entered the arena first as he raised his hand with confidence. He was none other than the Winged Lion Spirit, Saul. He seemed to be wearing a gauntlet to channel his immense lightning power. On another side, a long purple-haired woman entered the stage with a calm expression. The audience seemed to have a bit of a problem with this girl since she was only a Rank 5 God. She could only step on this stage because of Alex''s rule. However, no one voiced their opposition since even someone like Agnis kept his silence when this girl defeated his successor. "So, they are Saul and Maiah." Alex narrowed his eyes and observed them with his Spirit Eyes. "Your Majesty." Both of them first kneeled to Alex to greet him before Alex let them continue. The two stared at each other before Maiah opened her mouth. "I''m Maiah, Thousand Silk Spider." "Winged Lion Spirit, Saul." He nodded with a flat expression while limiting his power to Rank 5 God to match Maiah. Both of them turned to the one overseeing this match, William. "Good. Since both of you have prepared, go all out so as to not shame yourself in front of His Majesty. Don''t worry. The barrier is strong enough to withstand your power." William nodded with a serious expression before raising his hand and shouting. "Start." The two leaped toward each other as their fists clashed. As one would expect, Maiah lost this one exchange and had her blown away. Not wanting to lose, she stretched her hand to the front, releasing white strings from the tip of her fingers. Saul avoided it by tilting his head to the left before going toward her. Every time they clashed, Maiah would leave strings, attaching them to all sides of the arena. Alex, who was watching her action from above, could see her plan. It turned out she was planning to fill the entire arena with strings, turning it into her nest. "She did it yesterday and defeated Agnis''s successor. It was a good technique for a closed space, but if it were in a prairie, she wouldn''t be able to beat him." Lin Xingzhi explained after noticing the change in Alex''s expression. "Is that so?" Alex muttered as he thought he had so many ways to destroy this place. However, Saul seemed to be waiting for his opponent to finish her move. "Why didn''t he attack her?" "I am not sure, but I think there is some back dealing." Lin Xingzhi frowned before finding something. "Ah, I think I know the reason." Alex turned around, expecting her to inform him. She playfully smiled and sent a thought transmission about what was going on. ¡­ Meanwhile, in the arena, Saul was still trying to catch Maiah without attacking her as if he had some kind of plan. Yet, it never came. Saul kept chasing her until the arena partially turned white. "I have given you enough time to do this. Now, I need to be serious and defeat you," said Saul with a flat tone. "No. You better watch out because this is my turf now." She smiled as the pseudo silk she released earlier hardened and turned into a fool fledge string. With how complex it was in the arena, it could be said that she had made this place her nest. However, Saul was better than this. He remained calm even when facing such adversity. He clenched his fist as lightning began to cover it. The moment he punched to the front, the lightning burst out and created a torrential spark from his position all the way to the arena''s wall, only to be stopped by the barrier. Obviously, the silk was shredded, and a third of the silk in the arena disappeared because of the attack earlier. It just showed how each silk actually linked to another side. "What did you say earlier? Your Turf?" Saul narrowed his eyes. After destroying a third of it, he leaped toward her with the same fists. But Maiah dodged it by going behind her threat before she pulled them a bit. When Saul was about to charge at her, she released the string and turned that into a white line that flew out of the string, flying straight to Saul. "Sharp Silk Blade." Saul punched the attack without hesitation, shattering it into pieces. But Maiah didn''t stop there as she began waving those strings a few times while moving to do it with the other strings. As she said earlier, this was her turf. Facing countless sharp energy, Saul began to move around while shattering each attack with his lightning. At the same time, he needed to watch out for her strings since he knew how Agnis''s successor lost against her. A few minutes passed and Saul finally found a way to counterattack. When she was about to use that string again, Saul smirked and stomped the ground with all his strength, turning the entire arena into a crater. This way, they would be fighting underneath the strings. Unfortunately, he was too late. Maiah simply smiled and raised both hands before Saul''s movement stopped abruptly as he realized that his body was about to be sliced by strings. "!!!" Saul looked down and found that his entire body was already covered with strings. "This¡­" Without hesitation, Saul released all his lightning to rip the strings in his body apart, but as soon as he did that, Maiah had arrived in front of him, pointing her hand at Saul''s neck. "That''s it! Maiah wins!" "Uoh!" The cheers erupted after William ended the match. On the contrary, Saul just realized what happened. "Color, huh." Maiah smiled and nodded. Instead of using transparent silk, Maiah used something that matched the color of the arena, camouflaging it with the entire "nest" that even made this silk harder to find. "You are strong¡­" Saul said with a calm expression even though he just lost. "As much as I wanted to say that you win because I''m restricting my strength and this arena is perfect for you to manifest your power completely. This is still my loss." "Thank you." Maiah politely bowed her head. "And¡­" Saul hesitated for a second before asking. "Do you want to be my bride? No, would you marry me?" "Eh?" Maiah was bewildered as she tilted her head in confusion. She still hadn''t shown any expression other than her confusion as it was just too much to take. "Clan tradition. The first woman who beat me is required to be my wife," said Saul with a serious expression. "I don''t want to force you, but this is a tradition. If you think this is too much, can you just stay by my side to know me until I succeed the Earth God position? That way, I can break the tradition and you are free again. "Someone forced me to lose in this tournament to get a wife, but I didn''t like that woman. As for you¡­ You are better." Saul looked at someone who would probably win and meet him in the final with a disgusted face. Yes, it was none other than Raisa. "You two¡­" William let out a long sigh. "Maiah¡­ The tradition is real. You can answer him after leaving this arena. We need to move on to the second round." "Eh, ah, uh, yes!" Maiah never expected to get a confession like this and quickly escaped from the arena with an embarrassed face. On the other hand, Alex was also baffled by this situation as he turned to Lin Xingzhi. "What''s this all about?" "His tribe is strict about that tradition. But I think he handles it well. Anyway, you don''t need to think about it since it''s their business unless you plan to get that spider woman as your wife." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "No, not at all." Alex shook his head as a thought appeared in his mind while he recalled the uniqueness of all spirits he summoned with the system. ''As expected, all spirits are weird.'' Chapter 1114: Absurd Ending? After restoring the arena, the second battle was about to begin. Raisa entered the arena. She had long green hair and a white dress coupled with a green vest to color the pure dress. She waved her hand with a smile, erupting another wave of cheer. Meanwhile, on the opposite side, a guy with long white hair tied into a ponytail stood in the arena. Unlike Raisa, this one didn''t have any cheers as it was just a plain entrance. "Dryad Spirit Raisa. I wish we could fight fairly." She smiled. Giza nodded in agreement. "Undead Spirit Giza. Likewise." William looked at the two and shook his head after recalling what happened earlier. He just hoped there was no one pulling such a trick in front of Alex again. They were lucky that Alex didn''t seem to mind it, considering his lighthearted character. "Start!" William announced out loud as he leaped to the side of the arena. Giza raised the wand in his hand before knocking the ground twice. His shadow expanded before tens of skeletons emerged from that darkness, holding swords, spears, or any kind of weapons. "This is my Divine Army." Giza rose his hand as the skeletons began to charge forward. All the skeletons seemed to be Rank 5 God. It was amazing, but compared to Giza''s Rank 3 God cultivation, it was nothing. Even so, Giza still had a number advantage, and he planned to utilize it to the fullest. Alex, on the other hand, asked Lin Xingzhi. "By the way, is there a limit to creating this army?" "Yes. The higher the number, the harder the control. At the same time, you need to polish the army yourself, so you need so many resources to cultivate them like this." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "I wonder if there is an Undead God, Necromancer God, or even Puppet God out there." "Not at the moment. But I have met a Rank 2 God with similar abilities. He can only control two hundred Rank 5 Gods. I don''t know why but it seems Rank 5 God is the limit." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Of course, he has another skeleton for the trump card. It''s said to be made of his own skeleton, allowing the user to create a skeleton at the same level as him. Unfortunately, it can only be done once. Puppet is similar." "I see." Alex nodded. "Well, maybe there will be something different from a God King, but I guess I can''t see it right now." "Yeah." Suddenly, cheers erupted as Raisa did something extraordinary. Roots began to emerge from the ground, striking all the skeletons that charged at her as if swallowing them. But some skeletons seemed to survive the ordeal and cut all the roots that almost killed them. They then leaped to the top of the roots while looking at Raisa. "Go!" Even though the skeletons only remained seven, this was the ideal number since Giza had perfect control of them. Raisa raised her hand and summoned more roots, but everything ended up missing. Seeing this, Raisa smiled and clapped her hand as flowers began to appear on the roots, turning them into branches instead. "Flowery Garden." The skeletons that didn''t notice it stepped on the flowers as the bone started decaying. "What?!" Giza widened his eyes in surprise before realizing what happened. "That flower¡­ Is that Bone Decaying Flower?" "Correct." She smiled. "It''s just an imitation since I can''t really summon the real one or I would have become the richest person in the universe." "¡­" Giza clicked his tongue as he placed his hand on the ground, covering the entire stage with his shadow. Suddenly, more skeletons appeared between the branches and started cutting them. Giza then made the skeletons climb the branches and leap toward Raisa. Raisa snapped her fingers as smaller branches appeared and grasped the skeletons'' feet, slamming them into the ground. "You won''t be able to win against me. It''s futile. I need to win this tournament no matter what," said Raisa with a cold look. "Then, try it." Giza smiled as he thought he managed to outsmart her. The skeletons he summoned earlier were just baits and the real attack was right behind her. The roots were cut as a giant skeleton appeared before her, swinging the sword. "!!!" Raisa widened her eyes and leaped toward it instead. If one took another look at her appearance, there was a white lotus growing on her eyes with no apparent reason. However, they soon arrived at a conclusion the moment they saw the next scene. Raisa kicked the skeleton on the skull, cracking it open before blowing it away to the wall. "I''m sorry. What did you say again?" Raisa asked as she landed on top of the root. "¡­" Giza fell silent before staring at the white lotus in her eyes. He sighed and raised his hand. "I admit defeat." "¡­" The audience didn''t expect something like this, but they then remembered the meaning of lotus in her eyes. She was a Dryad Spirit and could control all kinds of plants. Usually, she controlled the ones she summoned, but when she was serious, Raisa would summon one by using her body as the catalyst. It was due to this technique that she was feared among the next generations. With his best skeleton destroyed in one strike, Giza knew it was time to quit since his ability didn''t really work on her. "I know when to quit. Haiz. I wish we were fighting in a barren ground or desert." Giza sighed before cupping his hands to Alex and leaving the arena. "¡­" William facepalmed and wondered whether this was really a semifinal or not. One took it as a chance to propose, while the other just surrendered not long after the fight began. He wondered whether Alex was fuming in anger or not. "Raisa wins!" Nonetheless, he needed to announce the result before leaving everything to Alex to process. "This is kind of disappointing." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. "Yesterday, they fought to the fullest." "I don''t really mind. It''s saving my time." Alex shrugged as he stood up, saying. "Congratulations for winning. Although I wish to let you rest first, our time is rather short, so I have a proposal. Since both of the winners haven''t used their ability to the fullest, how about we continue to the final without waiting for another day?" This was an absurd request even from Alex, but there seemed to be something big going on, so they didn''t know how to answer this question. William called the other winner, Maiah, to the stage before conveying Alex''s question. "I will follow Your Majesty''s wish." Maiah cupped her hands politely before glancing at Raisa. "As your command." Alex nodded. "I truly apologize for this change of schedule, but I think you will know the reason soon. Anyway, let''s start the final battle." William asked someone to clean up the arena before allowing the two to stand before each other. "Raisa." She bowed to her politely. "Thousand Silk Spider Spirit, Maiah." William didn''t know what to do anymore and just shouted. "Start!" Maiah began to start creating her nest, but Raisa seemed to have a different opinion. She simply stomped the ground to create the same crater as Saul made, rendering the web useless. She didn''t stop there. Raisa waved her hand and summoned the roots again, ripping all the strings¡­ Or it was supposed to happen. Surprisingly, the strings were strong enough to hold the roots. Some even cut the root itself. "So, you are hiding this ability¡­" Raisa narrowed her eyes. "This is my Metal Strings. If I use it carefully, it can snap a Divine Weapon into two." Maiah let out a sigh of relief. She then waved that string to cut even more roots before spreading her strings between the roots as if she planned to do something. Raisa, on the other hand, kept summoning the root to fill the entire arena with it. Seeing that she couldn''t catch Maiah, Raisa summoned the same white lotus on her right eye before leaping forward. Maiah''s lips curved as she thought she managed to bait Raisa. Raisa pulled her fist and threw a punch toward Maiah. "Steel Silk." Maiah raised her hand and summoned another string that formed a square, blocking that punch. However, the force behind that punch seemed to be stronger than she imagined, even though Raisa had limited her strength to Rank 5 God. This might be the reason why Giza had no hesitation in giving up. "Kh!" She gritted her teeth and crashed into the root. Raisa then leaped toward Maiah, preparing for a punch. However, the result was the same as Saul''s. The hidden strings stopped her from moving. "This is it!" Maiah thought as she leaped toward Raisa, stretching her hand to the front. Suddenly, Raisa smirked as if everything went according to her plan. Maiah widened her eyes as if expecting another ambush. Her focus remained on the ground where her roots would come out. "Alex?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head in confusion when Alex suddenly stood up and took out his sword. William seemed to have noticed it as well and prepared to take someone out of this battle. Bang. Two smaller roots appeared and planned to strike her, but Maiaha had predicted it and deployed another string to crush both ro¡ªBam¡ª a loud explosion occurred right before Maiah could finish her technique. Everyone widened their eyes as they all could see who just released the Sword Waves that caused an explosion earlier. Even Maiah and Raisa looked up and saw Alex standing on top of the wall while holding his sword. "Match ends. Raisa wins," Alex announced it himself, confusing everyone because everything ended so suddenly. It might be due to them rushing the battles, but the last three battles somehow became dull and ended in disappointment. Chapter 1115: Explanation "What''s happening?" "His Majesty personally stopped the match?" "But why would Raisa win? Isn''t Maiah in the advantageous position?" The audience was baffled by the entire situation and started questioning the result. They thought Alex must be favoring the Elemental Gods'' successors over a plebian like them. Even Maiah couldn''t accept this. When she was about to complain, William waved his hand, blowing the dust that was kicked by the explosion before shouting. "A moment please! I''m sure that you all are confused as to why His Majesty did this. I''m going to explain it to you right now." Listening to William''s voice, the stadium fell silent once again. "Wait a minute. What is that small thorn on the roots that His Majesty cut earlier?" Suddenly, someone noticed and shouted in shock. All the people suddenly turned their attention to it and found the same white torn. Maiah turned around and widened her eyes as she sucked a cold breath. William sighed and announced. "That''s right. I was planning to cut it, but His Majesty deemed it dangerous and stopped the fight immediately." "I see." "So that''s how it is." "I''m sorry, Your Majesty. I shouldn''t doubt your decision." "We won''t doubt your decision anymore, Your Majesty!" "We regret it." The audience began to apologize to Alex as they understood that Alex was impartial the whole time. Listening to their apologies, Alex waved his hand as if it was easily forgiven. Instead of getting angry at such a petty thing, Alex thanked Raisa. "You''re truly the number one. Did you plan it all?" Raisa cupped her hands politely and said, "Although I don''t know what is troubling Your Majesty, your schedule must be tight because of something big. The least I can do is to speed up the competition." Maiah suddenly remembered what happened earlier. Although Saul was forced to lose the match, he should be able to buy a bit more time in the fight. Yet, he didn''t even struggle and let her win. She then remembered a certain rumor, saying that Eulja would soon go to war. Her expression darkened as her feet felt limp. Dropping on all four, she asked herself inwardly. ''Did¡­ Did everyone actually realize this and speed up the entire thing?'' Giza seemed to have realized it as well, so he admitted defeat without a fuss as soon as he knew there was no chance. As for Raisa, she was even more monstrous. To bait her, Raisa allowed her to lock her up in her strings. This was the fastest but riskiest way to end a match, yet, Raisa didn''t have a change of expression when doing this. This showed just how much Alex''s words mattered. No, this was the real thought of the people who were truly loyal to Eulja and Alex. They pushed aside their pride to do something better for Eulja. Even if she claimed the championship after defeating Raisa, she had no right to accept the reward. After all, if she, a Humanoid Spirit, couldn''t even do something like this, could she call herself the true patriot? ''The two spikes would''ve severely injured me if His Majesty didn''t stop the battle¡­ Raisa might have realized this and wanted to punish me for it¡­'' She clenched her teeth and couldn''t help but cry. "I lose." William facepalmed and sighed before announcing the result. "The competition ends here. First place is Raisa, followed by Maiah in the second place. Giza and Saul are tied in third place while Rok is in fifth place. To shorten the time, I would like to request all the winners to be present in the arena." Alex then jumped off the wall while waving his hand, burning all the roots in an instant. It was like the root didn''t have any resistance as it turned into nothingness within five seconds, leaving only a crater that Raisa made earlier. "Thank you, William." Alex nodded with a smile. "Your Majesty." William cupped his hands and bowed politely. "I''m going to end this as soon as possible, though, someone seems to be unsatisfied with the result." Alex turned around and found a red-haired young man with fierce eyes. Although he didn''t show it, Alex could see the rampaging in his body as if he was angry with the result. William widened his eyes when he saw Rok''s expression. "Ugh, let me take care of him first." "No need." Alex shook his head. After confirming that Saul and Giza had entered the arena and went toward Raisa and Maiah, Alex walked to Agnis''s successor with a calm expression. "Do you feel unsatisfied with the current result?" "¡­" Rok fell silent and kneeled. "No. I don''t dare." "Do you think the special rule that I''d placed in this competition restricted your chance to win?" Alex asked again. "¡­" This time, Rok didn''t answer him since he felt it was obvious. He was a Rank 3 God, while the other party was only a Rank 5 God. If Alex didn''t ask him to restrict his cultivation, he wouldn''t have lost against her. "Do you want to know the reason I added this rule in the first place?" Alex smiled before explaining, not only to him but to all people that gathered here. "Cultivating talent is indeed something that is emphasized a lot. "But I don''t want to focus on that aspect alone. I want to add your Eyes, Judgment and Fighting Prowess to the mix. You need your eyes to assess the entire situation before doing something and everything can result in a positive or negative impact on Eulja in the future. This is where I can see your Judgment." Alex glanced at Maiah as if telling her to not forget about this and continued. "I need someone with a high Fighting Prowess. Realistically speaking, even with my Rank 4 God cultivation, I can defeat you in your full power. How about it? I will let you fight me one-on-one. As long as you hit me once, I will declare that you are the winner of this competition. I promise I won''t use my Pure Fire to suppress you." "!!!" All the people, including William, were shocked by his statement. Even Rok stared at Alex in disbelief. William sweatdropped, knowing that Alex wanted to beat this guy to show his dominance as well as breaking Rok''s pride. In the heart, he had been chanting, ''Don''t accept it. Just lay low. Don''t accept it. Just lay low.'' Unfortunately, just like Agnis in the past, Rok was hot-headed. He politely cupped his hands to Alex and said, "Then, I would like to give it a go. I apologize in advance if I accidentally hurt Your Majesty." ''Ah. This guy is dead.'' William let out a long sigh. Meanwhile, Alex only took his sword and waved his hand, asking him to make the first move. "I apologize for offending you." Rok raised his hands as they turned into claws covered in fire. He then leaped toward Alex. Alex, on the other hand, grabbed the sword''s handle and swung it without any special technique. It might be surprising for a few people, but most people would consider this normal since Rok won in the battle of strength, blowing Alex''s sword away. When he was about to hit Alex, he heard Alex''s voice from behind. "Alright. That''s my win." Alex smiled. Rok was bewildered for a second before his answer came the moment Alex''s figure disappeared. It turned out that Alex was already behind him, pointing his sword at the back of his head. "Wha¡ª" Rok widened his eyes as he halted his movement, knowing that the match was settled. The figure in front of him then disappeared, telling him that what he had been chasing this whole time was a lie. Meanwhile, it certainly had a different meaning for people like William. What they saw was different from Rok. The entire process was only Alex going around Rok and pointing his sword. Everything was just Rok doing something weird by himself. William gasped as if he barely felt the fluctuation of the Divine Energy. If it were him, he would''ve been more careful, but this technique was plain nasty. "Illusion? No, no. This technique far surpasses a normal Illusion Technique." "What? You want to complain about this result too?" Alex smiled. "As I said, I want to test all of you about your assessment of your current predicament and situation before doing something according to your judgment. In other words¡­ The moment you decide to fight me, you''ve already lost. "What? Do you think everything can be forgiven just because you are Agnis''s successor? One misstep can cause a huge war between planets. I don''t mind making enemies, but there is a limit like your own limit as to how many enemies we can have at a time. You FOOL, do you want to destroy this planet like how you destroyed yourself?" Alex''s killing intent suddenly enveloped the entire arena, telling everyone that even Agnis''s successor wouldn''t be spared if all they could do was make trouble. Most people couldn''t help but recall what happened when the Spirit God died. They faced so many wars and deaths to the point they declined for one thousand years. It was the worst period to be alive, so they could somehow understand why Alex said all this. Rok, on the other hand, gasped as he finally saw things clearer after getting another defeat. No matter what excuse you had in your heart, it wouldn''t change the fact that you lost. This was what Alex wanted to teach him. Rok dropped to the ground and prostrated with his whole body shaking. "I am unqualified to be one of the winners. Even if Your Majesty wants me dead, I won''t have any complaints and take my own life personally." Alex suddenly bent his knees and raised his body before hugging him. "Still, even if you are a fool, you are still my subject. Just like how you support me, I will protect you to the best of my ability. Even so, no one knows whether they will see the Spirit God in their eyes in a special situation. I want to teach you to not take the risk because if any of you are injured, I will be sad." Alex''s voice was sincere and soothing, touching every single person in the stadium. They saw three figures in Alex: A Ruler, A Friend, and¡­ A Father. Not knowing why, half of the people couldn''t help but shed tears. Even William closed his eyes as he recalled the matter of the past. Alex, on the other hand, summoned his Spirit Crown and used it on him. Suddenly the arena''s floor cracked as they could see red lines between cracks. A surge of heat burst out of the crack and fire began to leap around the cracks. He then rose and used his Pure Fire to suppress this Fire Element and the arena returned to normal. "Still, I can''t let you go unpunished. Although you have won and gotten the chance to have your ability improved, I will punish you by enhancing a random ability of yours. Do you have an objection?" "I don''t¡­ No, that''s not it. I shall prove that Your Majesty''s choice is not wrong by turning this random ability to be the best ability out there." Rok smiled and cupped his hands politely. Alex nodded with a smile as the problem had been resolved in the best way possible. Chapter 1116: Reward Meanwhile, in the outer area of Eulja territory, the six God Kings met each other before the war. "It seems you have gathered all here." The Metal God entered the room with a serious expression. "What do you think about the prospect of this battle?" The Goddess of Destiny suddenly raised her hand. "I don''t think this war is something good. I have calculated the destiny once again. Although I can''t see what kind of future it holds, I can see that it will give us a ten percent chance of winning." "!!!" The God Kings in the room widened their eyes in shock, not expecting to hear such a thing. "Goddess of Destiny. Are you going to trick us? Do you think the four God Kings on his side have the ability to fight six of us?" "I don''t know." She shook her head. "I don''t see the future¡­ I only see your fate. And someone in this room is fated to die. Unfortunately, I don''t know who it is." *Gasp* The God Kings became panicked as they looked at each other. "Hmm¡­" Song Goddess narrowed her eyes and said, "I think Spirit God has a backup that he has hidden for a long time just for this battle. Possibly, the backup is a God King¡­ or even worse, two God Kings." "¡­" The room fell silent as the atmosphere turned heavy. "You know, Eulja once had allies, right? Maybe they called them back after Spirit God ascended the throne?" Song Goddess explained her train of thought. "Hmm. That''s possible. Spirit God is strong and his influence runs deep. Even in the past, despite being targeted by so many Divine Worlds, they persist." "How about it, Goddess Destiny?" "Hmm¡­ I can feel an existence¡­ I don''t know, but this existence will bring a huge change in the battlefield." "!!!" The group was convinced that this existence would be the one they needed to deal with. "So, should we go back?" Metal God shook his head and slammed the table. "If we are going back, it''s almost impossible to raise the army to this level and our alliance won''t be solid anymore. Besides, do you think the Spirit God will spare you after everything you''ve done?" "¡­" Everyone in the room closed their eyes, knowing that once they took a sword, only one side could live. Besides, there was only one person that was going to die in this battle, so they thought it would be fine to challenge them. At the same time, Song Goddess was smiling inwardly as if she was scheming something and said, "Then it means we have been in this path of no return." "¡­" Though they didn''t say it, they had the same thing in their mind. Whatever they did on the battlefield, they should make sure they didn''t become the one person that died in this place. "Anyway, we already have a grand plan ready. If we start losing on the battlefield, we can just use our trump card. Knowing the Spirit God, he must be panicking." Metal God smirked and asked Goddess of Destiny. "How is the preparation?" "Everything is ready. There are fifteen Rank 2 Gods that would be helping us in that battle." The Goddess of Destiny nodded. "Although I can''t calculate their destiny since they are not here, logically thinking, this plan is very good. Even I will be scared when it actually hits me." The Metal God smirked. "Then, it''s time for us to march. If I''m not wrong, today is the day of the semifinal in that small competition he created. After the semifinal, there is a final. Unfortunately, he can''t witness the final because today is his final day." All the God Kings nodded at each other as they rose from their seats. "Now, let''s go back to our position and lead the troops onward." The Metal God smirked as he released his killing intent. Song Goddess and the others agreed and left the room after him. ¡­ While those six people had an intense conversation, the atmosphere in the tournament was so different. After upgrading Rok''s ability, he walked toward Saul and Giza, asking. "You two. Have you gotten your True Spirit Body yet?" "I have, Your Majesty," answered Saul with a calm expression. "I haven''t." Giza shook his head in disappointment. "I see." Alex nodded and thought for a moment. "What is the technique you want to upgrade?" "I am a Winged Lion Spirit, Your Majesty. And I have one special skill that I have sealed this whole time, called Lightning Sealing Roar. As the name implies, the roar will transmit my lightning ability to either injure or paralyze someone. I believe I should choose this." "Alright." Alex nodded before turning to Giza. "How about you?" "I would like to upgrade my other half¡­ The only skeleton that can be as powerful as I am." "Sure." Alex then placed his hand on Saul''s shoulders before upgrading the technique he wanted. After a few minutes, Saul was suddenly covered with lightning as he took a few steps back. "Try it yourself." Saul nodded and opened his mouth, absorbing all the lightning around his body. Roar. The lightning came out of his mouth before turning into a lion, charging straight to the wall. Feeling the danger from the lion, William appeared in front of the wall and cut the tiger with his sword effortlessly. However, there was a residual of lightning in his sword and William waved his sword to get rid of it, only to find that it was a great mistake. The residual lightning sparked as it flew from his sword to its trajectory before exploding when it hit the barrier. Crack. "What?" "Did we hear it, right?" "I heard something just cracked. What''s that?" "Look! It can even crack the barrier." Everyone was bewildered by the effect of Alex''s enhancement. Even Saul showed his expression for the first time and stared at what his lightning could do in disbelief. He kneeled on one knee and clasped his hands. "Thank you for your graciousness, Your Majesty." Alex only patted his shoulders a few times before walking to Giza. "You''re next." "¡­" Giza closed his eyes and let Alex do whatever he wanted. Suddenly, a giant skeleton emerged from Giza''s shadow as if it fused to his body. This was the first time they saw the master could be inside one of the skeletons. "¡­" Alex was speechless when he witnessed this while thinking, ''I feel like I have seen this somewhere on Earth. Hmm, it''s been a few decades, so I can''t remember that much detail¡­'' Giza, on the other hand, still closed his eyes while his skeleton summoned a giant scythe that made it look like a death reaper. "Death Penalty." A massive black wave flew out of his scythe and ran through the ground before climbing the barrier. When it was all over, there was a giant mark in the barrier, showing that it was one step away from breaking. Alex chuckled as he muttered. "Well, yes. That looks like a death penalty." "Thank you, Your Majesty." Giza realized that the upgrade not only allowed him to fuse with his own skeleton but it also granted him this powerful technique. Alex nodded and moved to the second place winner with a calm expression and asked. "Have you gained your True Spirit Body yet? And which ability do you want me to enhance?" "I am afraid that I am not qualified to receive such a favor from Your Majesty." Maiah lowered her head. "I couldn''t even notice something important¡­" "This is what you call the difference of experience." Alex smiled and patted her shoulders. "If you want to punish yourself, instead of bringing unnecessary harm to your body like this, you should go to another planet to gain more experience. Consider this reward as my blessing that will protect you in your journey. But since you want to punish yourself, I will grant you the same punishment as Rok." Alex smiled and activated his Spirit Crown. This was different from what he granted to the other three. Alex entered his consciousness, finding a reflection of Maiah with eight sharp spider legs behind her body. That''s right. This was an awakening instead of an enhancement. "Wake up, True Spirit Body, Eight Asura Spider Form." Maiah gritted her teeth before her clothes were ripped. Eight spider legs came out of her back. They had silver color and looked so sharp to the point they would be mistaken as blades instead. "Try swinging them." Alex smiled. Maiah tried to control the legs and waved them gently, but suddenly, eight cuts were made, slashing the entire arena into pieces. "¡­" No one could imagine that a slight movement could create these cuts. And more importantly, she was only a Rank 5 God at the moment. Not knowing why, she felt like Alex just opened the door for her¡­ The door that led to so many possibilities. She dropped on her knees and clasped her hands. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I shall offer this life for you." Alex didn''t answer her as he made his way toward Raisa instead. "Congratulations on winning this tournament." She shook her head. "This is just the beginning, Your Majesty." "Is that so?" Alex smiled and nodded. "Do you have any specific skill you want to improve?" "I am not sure. The root ability? It''s the one that I usually use." Alex nodded and placed his hand on her shoulders, using his power. Just like the others, she instinctively used it. But it couldn''t be said as a root anymore as it fully grew into a giant tree. Everyone was curious about its ability, only to get surprised when all the leaves fell simultaneously. They thought that the enhancement was a failure but soon took back their conclusion. The moment the leaves hit the barrier, a giant root appeared and either slammed or strangled the barrier until it completely broke. In other words, among the winners this time, Raisa was truly the strongest. Alex burned the roots again to clean it up and smiled. "You can even use your Divine Energy to control their movement. It''s a great ability." "Thank you, Your Majesty." Raisa politely bowed to him. With this, the competition ended with a spectacular show from each winner since the abilities they showed earlier were truly splendid. Alex then announced. "I will be holding this competition every ten years unless said otherwise and I will ensure that every type of person can become the winner. So, do your best and show me that you are worthy." "Uoh!" The audience was hysteric as they thought they had the chance to win something this big. However, their excitement disappeared the moment Alex released his killing intent, staring at six figures in the sky. They were none other than the Six Elemental Gods. And their appearance here was the signal that the war had started. Chapter 1117: Calculated Alex''s expression turned serious as he flew to the sky along with William and Lin Xingzhi. "So, they''ve come?" "Yes, Your Majesty. They will arrive in another five minutes." Agnis nodded before looking at his son and closing his eyes. Alex then turned around and announced. "The competition has ended. This place will soon become a battlefield. All unnecessary people are to return to their respective homes." The entire stadium fell silent as they never expected that the reason Alex sped up the process was due to this war. They thought the rumor was not true or even if it were true, it could still be delayed. Unfortunately, the reality was different. When they heard about it, the first to react was Agnis, Zerah, and Canaan''s successors as they flew to the sky and cupped their hands. "We are ready to fight, Your Majesty." Giza and Maiah followed right after. The stadium then turned into an uproar as they had become crazy upon this incident. "Your Majesty. Most of us are God Rank Experts here. Please let us fight alongside you." "I have prepared to throw my life away." "Just like you will protect us, we will support you from behind." "Let us fight, Your Majesty." "They also won''t spare us if the battle is lost. Please, let us protect our home too, Your Majesty." "No! We choose to fight!" The support was crazy as they became fanatic and shouted in succession. "Kill our enemies!" "Destroy the alliance!" "Eulja reigns Supreme." "Long Live His Majesty, the Spirit God." Alex scratched the back of his head and looked at the Elemental Gods, who couldn''t contain their smile. "William. The rest is up to you." William nodded and shouted. "Here I announce! Those of you who want and qualify to fight in outer space may go outside the stadium. I will be in charge." "Uoh!" As they became crazier, Alex said to the Elemental Gods. "Let''s go." They cupped their hands as they disappeared, heading straight to the battlefield. In outer space, so many spaceships along with God Rank Experts were standing by, preparing to intercept the enemies. The Five Guardians, except William, greeted him. Unfortunately, on this battlefield, he couldn''t afford to let his wives participate as it was too dangerous for their current level. Instead, he had another plan for them. With his appearance, all the soldiers from Eulja kneeled to greet their king. "I''m sure that all of you have known our situation. Our situation is not that good on the surface," said Alex with a sad tone. However, almost everyone could hear the one most important thing in his mouth. "On the surface?" That addition alone changed the entire mood of the soldiers as they believed that Alex had prepared something to fight them. Before Alex could finish his words, he turned around, sensing the incoming enemies. Their numbers were five times bigger than his, even though the number on their side was already huge compared to a normal Divine World. Alex narrowed his eyes and shouted while releasing his killing intent. "Follow me! I, Alexander Sirius, promise you VICTORY!" "Uoh!" All God Rank Experts outside the spaceship roared while releasing their Divine Energy. It was so loud that someone''s eardrums would burst. Alex, on the other hand, leaped to the front along with Lin Xingzhi, Elemental Gods, and Guardians. "Victory? You don''t have a chance of victory today, Spirit God." Metal God roared as he came out while being accompanied by the five God Kings. "With all of us here, do you think you have the chance to live?" "Of course, I have." Alex raised his hand as Lin Xingzhi crushed three crystals in her hand. Suddenly, on their right, countless Teleportation Arrays appeared as spaceship after spaceship emerged from within. There were three famous people that actually came out first. Palm God was accompanied by his wife, Holy God with his daughter, the Saintess, and God of Destruction with his most trusted assistant. "That''s enough, Metal God. I have been following you this whole time and realized that you are a traitor. Shame on you." Holy God shouted with anger. God of Destiny, Song Goddess and the others took out their weapons as they prepared to fight. Metal God snorted. "What traitor? Do you have any proof? You are the traitor, Holy God. To think you would have sided with evil. Do you want to terrorize the entire universe? Shame on you!" "You!" Holy God raised his staff and prepared to fight. "Do you think you four can beat six of us? No! It''s impossible." Suddenly, a soothing woman''s voice echoed in their ears. "No, not four of them¡­" That sound was very close to them, so they turned around, looking at the Song Goddess. However, the next second, they were blown away as a high-pitched sound shook the battlefield. The Sound Wave that was transmitted by Divine Energy hit all five God Kings, injuring some of them. Song Goddess had situated her force at the furthest location from the entire army, so they immediately shifted their position, slightly leaning to Alex''s army. She then disappeared from her position before making her appearance on Alex''s side. "It''s not four versus six. It''s five versus five." "What?!" The Metal God dropped his jaw and shouted. "Song Goddess. What is the meaning of your action?" Song Goddess ignored him and kneeled in front of Alex. "Your Majesty." Hearing her acknowledging the supremacy of the Spirit God alone was enough for an answer. In other words, Song Goddess actually betrayed the alliance. "Song Goddess! Didn''t you say that you were a lone survivor of¡ª" Before he could finish, she shook her head and said, "Yes. I''m the lone survivor. However, Spirit God wasn''t the conqueror. He was the savior that exterminated the invader of my homeland. He took care of me and raised me, so how could I, Song Goddess, betray him?" "You¡­ You¡­" All the God Kings in the alliance suddenly remembered how the Song Goddess acted this whole time. Firstly, she never finished her sentence, making them assume that Alex was evil to her. However, she never once said Alex was such a being. Secondly, every time the Goddess of Destiny tried to see through their fates, she kept directing the topic away to make sure that the Goddess of Destiny didn''t calculate something that would lead to her betrayal. Thirdly, Song Goddess positioned herself in the furthest position because she knew this was a perfect time to pull something like this. Even Lin Xingzhi recognized her as she widened her eyes. "Eh? I have seen your picture, but you¡­ Are you Rinrin?" "Big Sister. It''s little Rinrin." The Song Goddess made a big smile as she cried. "I''m sorry that I haven''t done anything this whole time. His Majesty asked me to¡­" "You¡­ Don''t tell me you are the one person that will overturn the situation!" Goddess of Destiny remembered her prediction and gasped. Metal God couldn''t accept this and shout. "Song Goddess! Do you think you can easily join their side? You should know how many people you have killed! Do you think the Spirit God will forgive you?" "You are truly a fool. As expected from the so-called simpleton weapon¡­ No, should I say the bear is the foolest "weapon" out of five others?" Song Goddess smirked. "It''s true that I have burned houses, "killed" people, and plundered their belongings. "However, it''s all to deceive you. The burned houses are proof that I have done my job. Killing people? No, I have hidden them somewhere. I never once killed the subject that His Majesty loves so much. Plundering? No, I''m just taking care of their wealth for a while until the situation has been resolved." "¡­" Those from the Alliances wanted to beat her to death but were unable to do so. Out of desperation, the Metal God took out a crystal and shattered it. "Since you want to do this, I will make you regret it!" "!!!" The Song Goddess panicked and looked at Alex. "Your Majesty. This is bad. That crystal is the signal for a third of their forces to strike Eulja!" Alex smiled and shook his head. "Everything is fine. I have it all covered." "!!!" Song Goddess suddenly realized something and took another look at Alex''s force. "Wait a minute. This is a battle that will decide everything and this number¡­ This is not even half what Eulja can have. Where are the ten Commandants? Did¡­ Did you predict this would happen?" "!!!" ¡­ Meanwhile, outside the planet called Xuaria, a planet that was the furthest from Eulja and served as the gate, countless spaceships appeared, preparing to destroy the planet. However, one person came out of the planet. She had long light-blue hair and a bow on her hand. "So, all of you have chosen death¡­ Coming here will be your greatest mistake." She shouted with a prideful look. Suddenly, fifteen Rank 2 Gods appeared on top of the spaceships as one of them stepped forward. "A mere Rank 7 God dares to say something like this? It seems that Eulja thinks they have ruled this universe." "No need to pay attention to her. We will destroy Eulja right now and have the Spirit God feel despair! A mere Rank 8 God can''t stop us!" Another one walked forward and snorted. "She is not alone." A young man''s voice echoed in everyone''s ears as eleven figures appeared out of nowhere. Six of them were Rank 2 Gods, four were Rank 3 Gods, and the last one was a Rank 7 God. The Rank 7 God that accompanied them was none other than Letizia. "Rose, I have brought them." "The ten commandants, huh¡­" The enemy side still looked down on them, knowing that these ten people wouldn''t be able to change their situation. "Even with the ten Commandants, you won''t be able to stop fifteen Rank 2 Gods." "Like the Young Man said, she is not alone." Another voice echoed as a series of Teleportation Arrays appeared on the battlefield, teleporting many spaceships. This was none other than the other half of what Eulja had. Silvia and Evelyn appeared on the battlefield bringing these many soldiers that were at least the same number as their alliances. "We''ve come. We all have¡­" Evelyn smiled and pointed at the side as another teleportation array appeared. Four figures appeared. The first two were Anna and Anya as they brought one person each. They were Lilda and Korzan. At the same time, Anna and Anya shattered the crystal in their hand. Another reinforcement came. The left side released an intense heat that influenced the entire battlefield as the leader accompanied by Alicia and Firia said, "Haha. My disciple doesn''t want to involve me in this conflict, but how can I not participate? I, Maxwell, request to fight alongside Eulja." "In that case, I would like to ask for permission as well." Another man laughed from the opposite direction as he laughed. Just like Maxwell, the one who called them was none other than Sherry with Sullivan protecting her as her bodyguard. Yes, this was Alex''s plan. After getting an idea from Aria, he asked his wives to call in reinforcements to protect Eulja territory. Right now, there were Korzan stepped forward and said, "Each of you can search for your own opponent. I will handle the remaining five. Anyone else is to destroy their entire fleet." All people widened their eyes as they couldn''t comprehend Korzan''s command. "Ehm, are you sure it''s alright to leave him alone?" Sherry asked Sullivan. As Alex''s bodyguard, he should know more than anyone else here. However, Sullivan only shook his head and let out a long sigh. "It''s better to leave him alone. I don''t know much about Korzan''s power, but even before I joined him, Korzan had been following Alex. And as long as abilities are concerned, according to the Elemental Gods, even if they attack Korzan together, they won''t be able to defeat him." "!!!" Sherry widened her eyes and dropped her jaw before hearing, "After all, Korzan is the closest one to become a God King." Meanwhile, Korzan took off his glasses that he usually used for work before magma enveloped half of his body. "You brats, it seems I need to show you the reason why His Majesty, the Previous Spirit God, forbade me to participate in a war this whole time." Chapter 1118: Spirit Gods Power Meanwhile, in Eulja, specifically in Alex''s castle, a woman who was in the middle of cultivation suddenly opened her eyes. She was a Rank 2 God too but didn''t participate in the battle. Looking at the window, she sighed. "I smell death¡­" She stared with empty eyes for a few more minutes before deciding something. ¡­ As for the actual battlefield, it was chaotic, especially with how their sneak attack was read by Alex. "My Lord, We have been stopped by Eulja and two more influences. If I''m not wrong, they are from the Beast Kingdom and One Thousand Fire Palace." The moment they heard that report, all five God Kings were tongue-tied. The Goddess of Destiny frowned as she wondered why she didn''t think there would be a traitor in their rank. Unfortunately, performing divination to see everyone''s fate again would take a long time and there was no way that their group could win against these people. "Kh!" The Metal God gritted his teeth. While they were grumbling about their predicament, Alex raised his hand and shouted. "I will leave the Earth God to you, God of Destruction. Palm God will handle Battle God. As for God of Wrath, you handle him, Holy God." "Hmph. I don''t like to be ordered, but I guess this is a better match-up." Raiju snorted and released his destruction power, channeling some of it toward the Earth God. "Since my son-in-law said so, I shall do my part as a father-in-law." Palm God nodded with a calm expression before getting kicked on his butt by his wife. "Just shut up. It''s not confirmed yet. Every time you talk about it, I want to throw up, let alone him! Just shut your mouth and fight him already." "Wife, how about you support me for once? You are literally embarrassing me in front of everyone." Palm God scratched the back of his head. "If you have become a proper God King, I will stop. But I guess I won''t live to see it." "Eh! Who dares to kill you? Battle God? I will kill him right now." Palm God released his killing intent and summoned the one thousand hands behind his back. "Wait for me here." The War Goddess only shook her head helplessly. "This is why I won''t be able to see it again, you dummy." Holy God, on the other hand, facepalmed and took a peek at his opponent the Wrath God. "I shall also do my duty. I hope I can be forgiven." The three God Kings marched toward their respective opponent, bringing their respective army in tow. After confirming their movement, Alex turned to Lin Xingzhi and Song Goddess, whose name was Rinrin. "Song Goddess, you will be handling the Goddess of Destiny. Xingzhi, you handle the other one." "Please call me, Rinrin, Your Majesty." "You do know that''s impossible, right?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Ahaha¡­" Rinrin made a weird smile before clenching her zither. "Then, I will handle my opponent first." While she flew toward the Goddess of Destiny, Lin Xingzhi sent him a thought transmission, asking, ''Although I personally know Rinrin, I don''t know if I can trust her just yet.'' Alex nodded in agreement. ''Don''t worry. At least, she won''t betray us in this battle. I will set up a meeting with her later with Silvia''s student, Axis, present. You should know about his special ability, right?'' ''Ah, I see. We will see whether she tells the truth or not.'' ''Yep. After this battle ends, I hope you can tell me about the connection between her and me.'' ''Well, I have told you that the Song Goddess was once a part of Eulja, but I couldn''t remember who she was. Since I have confirmed her identity, I will tell you about it later.'' She agreed with his request before opening her mouth. "Anyway, I need to beat that Bear." "Yes. Be careful." Alex smiled. Lin Xingzhi then headed toward the Metal God with a grim expression. "It''s enough, you idiotic bear. I don''t want to hear any more sh*t coming out of your mouth," said Lin Xingzhi with a harsh tone. She couldn''t contain herself anymore since the opponent was not a normal human. But a creature under someone who actively attacked and killed Alex in the past. There was no way she could control herself. She raised both hands as the first Element Disturbance appeared. At the same time, the Metal God cladded his entire body with his Metal Power, turning himself into silver metal. He narrowed his eyes and laughed. "I don''t know what you are talking about, but do you think you have the chance against me, Nature Goddess?" "Then, I will show you." Lin Xingzhi snorted. Before he received her attack, he turned around and shouted. "Kill Alexander Sirius. As long as we get him, we will be able to win this battle." Fifty Rank 2 Gods came out and charged toward Alex. The Holy God, Destruction God, and Palm God sent all their Rank 2 Gods other than the one leading their armies such as the Saintess and War Goddess. Unfortunately, there were only twenty-seven people out of thirty people that came. Song Goddess also sent ten Rank 2 Gods, but it meant Alex needed to take on the remaining thirteen. "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. He knew that there was a low chance he could kill all of them here, since, unlike the Array God, this massive army had multiple destinations to escape, so he knew there would be another war coming after finishing this one. Hence, he hid Alaya and ten God Beasts for the next war since Alaya would have regained her cultivation while the ten God Beasts would have made sure of their identities and sniff them to their nest. Still, aside from the Five Guardians and Six Elemental Gods, he still needed to face another two Rank 2 Gods. ''It seems I have made a mistake. I should send the God Beasts to the other battlefield while bringing Sullivan here." Alex thought for a moment and sighed. "William. Buy me time. I will try to kill one Rank 2 God." "Your Majesty¡­" William widened his eyes in disbelief. Even the others also looked at him worriedly. Although they knew that Alex could fight someone more powerful than him, they only believed it was a Rank 3 God, not a Rank 2 God. "Trust me. Since it''s going to be out sooner or later, I will use it all here." Alex nodded while activating his Spirit Crown. "Then take this." Rilt had transformed to his True Spirit Body and increased Alex''s strength like any others. "This will make me less worried." "Haha, thanks." Alex smiled. "Uoh! What''s this? I can''t accept something like this. To think His Majesty himself is going to face this danger." Agnis seemed to be lamenting over the fact that Alex wanted to fight a Rank 2 God. "Are all of you not ashamed of yourself? I''m going all out from the beginning. True Spirit Body." Seeing his reaction, they sighed and activated their True Spirit Body. The Guardians also prepared for the battle as they leaped toward the remaining Rank 2 Gods. "Spirit God is in danger!" shouted someone from their rank as they saw a Rank 2 God slipped past their line and headed straight to Alex. Alex looked at the blue-haired middle-aged man that came to him. According to what he had seen inside his body, he had a wind element. They might have learned about his Godly Pure Fire, so he couldn''t complain about this. Instead, he focused on his skill. Although this was only for one time thing, he might be able to gain an advantage for this battle. He smiled and summoned both his sword and spear. "Die!" The blue-haired Rank 2 God shouted while slashing his blade. Alex narrowed his eyes and used the power from the Spirit Crown, Spirit Step, and the additional strength from Rilt to meet this blade. "What?!" He alone was surprised because he knew he could push Alex back, but the effect wasn''t like what he imagined. While clashing like this, Alex released all his Divine Energy and got blown away. He spun his body and leaped toward his enemy once again. However, this time, Alex looked so weak as he managed to send his sword flying before stopping his spear and grasping his neck. But then he realized someone''s presence behind him and saw another Alex appear out of nowhere. "!!!" He instantly noticed why the people hadn''t shouted yet with their leader captured in his hand. It turned out that everything was a lie and what he had seen the whole time was a lie. Unfortunately for him, Alex was already so close, slashing his sword and spear at the same time. The enemy snapped fake Alex''s neck to confirm his observation and forced himself to swing his sword toward Alex to stop that attack. Clang. "Tch." Alex clicked his tongue when he saw that his enemy managed to stop him, albeit barely. Even so, he seemed to suffer internal injury because of that force movement. This was Subjective Reality. An illusion technique that was subjective and could change what they saw depending on the user. It looked like a normal illusion technique, but if one took another look, there was one major difference. Instead of altering someone''s vision, this one changed their perception and could affect the real world. The latter was impossible in the realm Illusion Array, but this was the original technique of the Dungeon God; there was no way it could be compared to a normal technique. Alex didn''t want to waste this chance and activated his Fire Authority, covering his body with animal parts. At the same time, he channeled his power to his weapons. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." Two Sword Waves flew out of his sword, blowing the Rank 2 God away as he still struggled to destroy this attack that contained Alex''s Pure Weapon Qi, Absolute Blade Intent, and his two elements. "Kh! I won''t lose." He shouted as the wind covered his sword. "Unlimited Burst." The sword released a powerful wind that tried to chip away the strength of the Sword Wave before destroying it. But Alex had arrived in front of him and thrust his spear. "No, you won''t!" He gritted his teeth and raised his sword to stop the spear. "Severe Shot." The sword contained powerful Wind Energy that seemed to be pushing anything that touched it away, but Alex truly released all his power. "Twin Fusion Spear." The spear struck the sword before bending the wind, sword, and reality itself. Unlike his previous control over Space Element, this one had been reinforced by Solidified and Covering Technique, so this thrust was even stronger. "What? My sword is ben¡ªGah!" The Rank 2 God gasped as he couldn''t believe what he saw before an excruciating pain appeared on his back as Alex''s fire element hit him like how this technique should be. Alex didn''t stop there and slashed his sword downward, planning to take an arm. He used Weapon Qi, Soul, Intent, Element, and Divine Energy in this technique and released the mighty slash. "Five Purities Slash." His opponent held that bending sword with two hands to blow that spear away and blocked Alex''s sword. Yet, Alex took this one step further. He regained control over his spear and slashed it downward, using the same thing as his sword. "Five Purities Slash." "Not good!" The slash took his opponent''s right arm as he released him for a bit to adjust his state, passing his body. He then turned around, only to be greeted by a scream. "Argh!" His opponent widened his eyes in pain, staring at Alex in disbelief. "Huft." Alex took a deep breath after taking that arm. Meanwhile, all the God Rank Experts out there were shocked by Alex''s performance, especially those who saw him in the competition. They knew Alex wanted someone who had strong martial prowess, not just their cultivation. And this made them even understand why he desired such a person. After all, he was the perfect example of such a person. With his Rank 4 God strength, he could cut a Rank 2 God''s arm without a helper. Every God King and his followers thought of the same thing. "So this is the Spirit God¡­ Abnormal." Chapter 1119: Great War Part 1 "Kh." The Rank 2 God, whose arm was taken by Alex just now, clenched his teeth. His killing intent soared as he never thought that a Rank 4 God could do something like this. Alex''s strength was strong, but by no means was it stronger than him, even with Spirit Crown, Spirit Step, and Rilt''s enhancement. Yet, he couldn''t understand why his every blow was ridiculously powerful. After taking another look, he realized something in his power and shouted. "You¡­ You have a Space Element?!" "¡­" Alex didn''t answer him, though, he wanted to say, "Did you seriously realize it just now?" Unfortunately, it shouldn''t be something disclosed to make him more wary of him. The Rank 2 God became more irritated by Alex''s attitude as if he ignored him due to his power and status. "I''m going to kill you." Alex''s expression turned grim. He knew that the reason he took his arm was due to the element of surprise. The other party didn''t know about his Space Element, so he could be fooled. Now that he knew, he would be more conscious about the fluctuation of energy. It meant any kind of trickery was hard to pull off. Hence, Alex created another plan and took a deep breath. "Die! Xietian Slash." Alex narrowed his eyes, looking at this sword wave that seemed to carry a powerful wind element. Instead of destroying it with his own sword wave, Alex decided to take one step further. "Space Compression." Alex raised his hand and channeled all his Divine Energy to form a translucent pink-colored sphere, swallowing his attack. Still, he felt that his arm would burst the moment he tried to stop the rampaging Wind Element. "Kh." "What''s that?" The Rank 2 God obviously had little knowledge about Space Element. He only found out that Alex seemed to be using a Space Element and didn''t know what kind of technique a Space Element user could use. And Alex didn''t miss this. He tried to suppress the full power of a Rank 2 God and compressed it. Unfortunately, he could only reach the level of a palm-sized ball even though a marble was the smallest as well as the most powerful size. This just showed the difference in their raw power. "¡­" The Rank 2 God narrowed his eyes before he charged toward Alex, preparing to blow that ball away. Alex also waved his sword and sent a Sword Wave. "One Sword Kill. Blade of Extinction." Seeing this Sword Wave, the Rank 2 God raised his sword as well and struck the sword wave. However, Alex''s real purpose was just to buy time as he took the compressed ball with his Spatial Gate. This would be his trump card. ''Unfortunately, I can''t really use it all the time because it requires too much Divine Energy, but one or two should be enough to settle this fight.'' Alex thought while looking for his chance. The moment the Rank 2 God broke his sword wave, he thrust his palm, summoning a sharp torrential wind that seemed to be able to cut anything on its way. Alex bent his knees to get a good boost when he leaped, but he needed to take care of this before that. "Space Distortion." A few space barriers emerged out of thin air. Its purpose was not to stop it, but it directed the wind in another direction. When the wind almost disappeared, Alex opened his Spatial Gate and threw the ball toward his enemy. "!!!" The Rank 2 God noticed a presence coming from behind and turned around. "Sh*t!" The compressed ball exploded as the wind burst out. While the fight continued, the Guardians and Elemental Gods nodded their heads, knowing that Alex would probably be fine in this battle. William, who managed to occupy two Rank 2 Gods by himself, suddenly smiled as he was fired up. "Hahaha, this is our Spirit God. You plebeians won''t be able to kill him!" Agnis nodded and shouted. "All Elemental Gods and Guardians are to use their full power and eliminate your enemies as soon as possible. We need to help our king." "Roger." The one who felt relieved was not just him but also Lin Xingzhi. "What are you grinning, Lin Xingzhi?!" The Metal God snorted as he raised his giant broadsword. "Nothing. I am just thinking how you all will be useless the moment he reaches God King. Even the one you call Supreme won''t be able to handle him anymore." Lin Xingzhi smiled and raised her hand, summoning a Lightning Disturbance to hit him. The Metal God snorted and waved his sword upward before it extended until the sword reached the Disturbance and cut it. "Like I said, I don''t know who you are talking about." "Yeah, yeah. Just say whatever you want. It seems that you don''t know my Nature Element that well. I can sniff the parasite inside you." She bluffed to see the Metal God reaction. Although his face didn''t show anything, there was a slight fluctuation in his energy. And it was all she needed to know to confirm his identity. "I never thought you would keep lying like this, Lin Xingzhi. Since you keep accusing me, I will beat you first and torture you, so everyone can know the truth." The Metal God changed the form of his weapon again into a giant hammer, swinging it toward Lin Xingzhi. "Right. I will do the same. I will give you to Eulja''s best torturer." She smiled and waved her hand, summoning a Space Disturbance above her head, deflecting the hammer. However, the Metal God was one step ahead. By gaining a mysterious power in his body, he could force this hammer to change its direction the moment he slipped past the Space Disturbance. "!!!" Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes and took a deep breath. Nature Energy gushed out of her hand and started spinning. Knowing that it wasn''t easy to escape it, she decided to confront it head-on. With the torrential Nature Energy in her hand, she thrust her palm toward the hammer. Her power stopped the hammer for two seconds, giving her enough time to decide her next action. By leaping from there, she managed to escape unscathed. Still, her right hand felt numb because of that collision. Not letting the Metal God know, Lin Xingzhi summoned a Fire Disturbance and Ice Disturbance at the same time. "It''s been a while since I last used this technique, but I think I have relied on my Disturbances enough." Lin Xingzhi muttered to herself before releasing all her Nature Energy. It was so concentrated to the point that energy that shouldn''t be visible for naked eyes could be seen. A sphere seemed to be covering Lin Xingzhi, but the most noticeable thing of that sphere was none other than the golden mixed with green color aura around it. Lin Xingzhi waved both hands and gently pushed it as the sphere gradually turned into a dragon, flying straight toward the Metal God. "Nature Dragon." "¡­" He, on the other hand, wanted to escape, but the earlier Disturbances prevented him from moving to another place, so the Metal God clasped his hand as his blade turned into a ball with three spikes that stretched toward three directions. The first two headed to the Disturbances and destroyed them while the other one struck the dragon. "Kh." The Metal God gritted his teeth and turned the ball into a shield as soon as he destroyed two Disturbances. The Dragon indeed hit him, but his body was covered by this shield that seemed to be capable enough to absorb almost everything. Feeling that it was not enough, Lin Xingzhi raised her hand and formed a tornado of Nature Energy that would disrupt everything in its surroundings. Even the Metal God''s weapon bent the moment it had contact. Not wanting to let Lin Xingzhi gain an advantage, he channeled more power to his weapon and slashed the tornado. Surprisingly, there was no resistance at all, but he was shocked to see his sword had a wavy shape. He poured more Metal Power and restored his weapon to its original form before staring at Lin Xingzhi, trying to find her mistakes. "It''s useless. I have been training to kill you." "Then try it." Metal God released his killing intent before his body turned into metal itself instead of covered in it. Lin Xingzhi summoned three Disturbances this time. Earth Disturbance below him, Space Disturbance in front of her and Lightning Disturbance on top of him. She was planning to make the Earth and Lightning Disturbances collide so as to create a huge explosion while protecting herself with the Space Disturbance, but the Metal God seemed to be better than her expectation. It might be from something inside him, but his feet suddenly turned into a blade as he extended it long enough to reach the Earth Disturbance. At the same time, he used his giant hammer to hit the Lightning Disturbance and blew it away toward Lin Xingzhi. "!!!" Lin Xingzhi didn''t expect that the Metal God could slash her Earth Disturbance since she literally created an asteroid with it. And it was done with just a simple movement of his foot. Besides, the fact that the Elemental Disturbance could be blown away was new to her as well. Luckily, it hit her Space Disturbance and ended up exploding, or the situation would get worse. ''Seriously? What''s that power that can move my Disturbance? Disturbances are created by the overflowing energy of a certain element, so unless he had something that could move the element itself, this kind of thing shouldn''t be possible. ''Is this the effect of the bear?'' "You have no way to defeat me. To think I''d worried for nothing, this is a disgrace. Let''s see¡­ I wonder what kind of face the Spirit God will have when I ruined you, eh, Nature Goddess? Prepare to face something far worse than dying." "Yeah, yeah. Keep talking since I have done my preparation. Big mouth." Lin Xingzhi took a deep breath as she summoned Fire and Lightning Disturbances at the same time. She clapped her hand to control both Disturbances to let their energy flow toward each other. The harmonization effect truly took a toll on her body, but this was the most powerful skill she created in order to fight the Beast. The moment they had a connection, Lin Xingzhi pulled them closer and had them merged together in just a split second, turning them into a complete new Elemental Disturbance. It could be said that this was a Fire-Lightning Elemental Disturbance and its power was close to triple instead of double of its original power. "Take this, D*mn Bear!" Lin Xingzhi summoned a huge fire dragon covered in lightning, shooting it toward the Metal God. "Fire and Lightning Peak Harmonization. Anxienta." "!!!" Chapter 1120: Great War Part 2 Meanwhile, on the other battlefield, the Palm God was trading blows with the Battle God. Every time he punched the Battle God, he would get one thrust from him. It kept clashing to see which one of them fell first. However, the Palm God didn''t want to save his advantageous skill, which was his one thousand hands, so he kept using it, forcing the Battle God in the constant run while trading blows. "You are really a muscle brain Palm God. Now that you are here, away from the others, no one will be able to save you." The Battle God smirked as he raised his halberd. "¡­" The Palm God remained silent and looked around, knowing that they were far away from the others. At least, they would need five minutes to even reach this place. "This is where you are going to be buried." He smirked and raised his halberd before projecting the same halberd above him. It then grew bigger and bigger before a red-colored man appeared behind the halberd, holding it perfectly. "Battle God Avatar." The Palm God quickly sent his hands toward the Avatar, but surprisingly, it stomped the halberd and created a shock wave that blew his hands away. "Do you think it''s that easy to fight my Avatar?" The Battle God snorted as he waved his halberd downward. Suddenly, the Divine Energy moved and gathered above Hans'' head, blowing him down. "!!!" Hans narrowed his eyes as he resisted this pressure before finding that the Battle God was charging at him. "One thousand hands." Hans controlled his hands to grab the Battle God Avatar, stopping it for a few seconds before his real right palm struck the Battle''s God Halbert. "Ha!" The halberd that held the concentrated power from the Battle God was surprisingly repelled by the power of that palm as the Battle God widened his eyes in surprise. "I guess it''s not that easy to fight a muscle-brain since the only thing you know is fighting¡­" "Hmph." The Palm God also leaped toward the Avatar and hit it with his real palm, blowing it away. "I''m not done yet." The Battle God smirked and began to clash like earlier, trading blow after blow like nobody business. Obviously, since they moved a lot, they had passed many planets and asteroids. Surprisingly, the Battle God actually struck asteroids by using his Avatar like a baseball player. The Palm God, on the contrary, caught those asteroids and tossed them toward the Battle God. If Alex were here, he would be wondering whether this was a life and death fight or a baseball match. And he wouldn''t forget to ask himself what would happen if he combined sports and cultivation. Still, unlike the rushed fight against the Bear and Snake, Hans took his sweet time to lower his enemy''s stamina, knowing that his power would be needed if he managed to take down this monster. Unfortunately, after not getting any chance within three minutes, the Palm God changed his strategy. It would be fine to save just a few shots as long as he could help the battlefield, so the Palm God halted his movement and took a deep breath. "Hmph. I have allowed you to show off your power. Now it''s time for me to show how short-sighted you are." The Palm God clasped his hand as he merged all one thousand hands into a giant red hand on the right and one blue hand on the left. "!!!" Even the Battle God was shocked by its appearance because those two hands were truly capable of destroying his Avatar. "Now, let''s fight." The Palm God released his killing intent as his fighting spirit rose. ¡­ Meanwhile, the God of Destruction, Raiju, faced the same situation. He couldn''t gain any advantage. "Don''t run away, God of Destruction," said the Earth God, whose green hair fluttered because of the Divine Energy''s fluctuation. He waved his hand and controlled the energy nearby to form an asteroid before throwing it toward the God of Destruction. "Hmph! Do you know why I lead you here?" Raiju smirked as he smiled, glancing at all the things behind him. This place was filled with spaceships, so Raiju wanted to take this chance to obliterate them. He raised his stance and took a deep breath. The moment the asteroid arrived in front of him, he struck the rock with his Power of Destruction. However, there was a difference from the usual fists. This one carried all his power and momentum, but it didn''t affect the asteroid''s movement. Raiju shattered the asteroid and let them pass him, raining the spaceships with asteroids. "Y-you!" The Earth God then realized what he planned to do and gritted his teeth. Boom. Boom. Boom. A series of explosions echoed on the battlefield as they never expected that the Earth God would destroy them like this. On the contrary, Raiju was smiling as if he felt something good. He looked at his fists and couldn''t contain his excitement. After experiencing the battle against the bear and the snake, he knew that he was lacking. Hence, he once again trained to seek absolute power. Yes, that fight incited his fighting spirit that had been extinguished for a thousand years. It all started from meeting Alex, and he knew that his journey had yet to end. And the answer he got in this training was Control. Instead of using his Power of Destruction in a brutal way which required all his power and made him look like a barbarian, he decided to increase his control in the Power of Destruction, using it in an elegant way. What he used earlier completely killed his momentum while carrying the power behind it, allowing him to shatter that huge asteroid without affecting it. That''s why he felt a bit excited when he knew that he once again arrived at the starting point. He raised his hand and took a deep breath, saying. "So, what do you have next? Throw it to me." The Earth God gritted his teeth and raised his hands. His hand and eyes started glowing as he controlled all the rocks nearby. "Realm Rock Sovereignty." The God of Destruction looked around him before those rocks went toward him, locking him up inside a giant rock that was put together from smaller pieces. Suddenly, purple and black light came out through the gap between rocks as before a huge crack appeared, shattering those rocks into pieces as he came out of that trap. "Is that all? I feel like I can win this easily." "You are going to die today." The Earth God snarled with an annoyed expression. ¡­ At the same time in another place where Holy God and God of Wrath fought seemed to be filled with nothing. There was no asteroid or whatsoever and they couldn''t find a single person in this place. "God of Wrath, I know the reason why you join the alliance, but I think that is irrelevant to what will come next. If you stop right now, I will ask the Spirit God to not hold a grudge against you on the premise that you will help him to fight the threat of this universe." "Shut up, Holy God. Do you think I don''t know what you want? You think I will believe you right now, especially after you abandoned the alliance despite being the one who created it?" "Look at you, you are always angry." The Holy God sighed. "You should become calmer and calmer as time goes by. "You are just too old. How about you retire already? Let me destroy your cultivation and you can retire after that." "Youngster, don''t bring the age into this conversation." "If you think that my words are offensive, you are just contradicting your own words." "I don''t think it''s offensive. I am just trying to advise you as a proper adult." The Holy God shook his head. "You goody two shoes old man." "Hoho, you lost child. Let me teach you kindness." He smiled as he raised his hand. A huge light spear appeared above his head and flew straight to the God of Wrath. "This is why I don''t like you." God of Wrath snorted as he summoned a balloon like creature from his hand and swallowed the entire spear. "I wonder if my little Wrath swallows you, will you succumb to it?" "Let''s not talk about something uncertain. Instead, we should talk about facts. There is only one fact that I want to convey to you." The Holy God smiled. "I will purify that Wrath of yours." "Hmph. Try it if you can." The God of Wrath snorted and charged toward him, carrying the power of Wrath. Just like those two who couldn''t see eye to eye, the Song Goddess also had trouble with the Goddess of Destiny. The reason for that was Song Goddess''s betrayal, which wasn''t a betrayal since she was never part of them. "Song Goddess. I won''t forgive you." Goddess of Destiny furrowed her eyebrows. "I am sorry, but I don''t need your forgiveness." The Song Goddess shook her head before pulling a string. "Second String. Explode." Dung. A deep-pitched sound was heard before exploding, sending a powerful sound wave toward the Goddess of Destiny. There was also an asteroid between them, but it ended up getting cut by that sound wave. The Goddess of Destiny only closed her eyes as the sound wave suddenly changed direction. It flew upward before returning to its original owner. "I''m sorry, but the fate of your sound wave is to return to you and hit you." The Song Goddess used the same move to neutralize that attack and smiled. "As expected, your ability is really annoying." "I might not be able to alter a God King''s fate, but I can still change the fate of your attack." The Goddess of Destiny snorted. "That''s literally telling me that you have a limit. Why don''t you just alter your own fate to be His Majesty''s slave? That way, I can forgive you." "You are looking for death." "Yes." The Song Goddess shrugged. "It seems you don''t know that this universe is on the verge of destruction. You can''t see the universe''s fate?" "That fate is only changed because the Spirit God has returned." "You are truly silly." She shook her head in disappointment. "Don''t you think it''s weird to see His Majesty''s reincarnate at this point of time? If only you actually bother to research his reason, I am sure you will be on this side." "Hmph. I don''t believe you. You have been lying to us the whole time and you expect me to believe you now? Fat chance." "In that case, we can only fight it out. But I still want you to research what happens if you can stay alive after this war." The Song Goddess smiled as she played her zither and started singing. "The glimmer of the orange sky blinded my eyes. " "Seeing you under the rain froze my heart¡­" Suddenly, an orange flame and blue water droplets appeared above her as both of them struck forth. Chapter 1121: Great War Part 3 While those people fought, Alex couldn''t get any more advantage even though he had cut his hand. "It seems this fight won''t go anywhere." He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. "You may have surprised me for the first time, but I think I have understood your power. Unfortunately, someone as abnormal as you still can''t fight against a Rank 2 God. Just give up!" Alex snorted and raised his hand. "Is that so? I''m abnormal? Is that an understatement?" With just one second, a Rank 9 Array appeared as a white spear emerged from the array. "Divine Spear Array." "What?! That''s an array? Even the Array Plate needs to take a bit longer!" shouted the Rank 2 God. Knowing he couldn''t dodge it, he slashed his sword, releasing a green sword wave. "Divine True Strike." Alex had no intention to waste time, so he raised his hand and created another array. "Ten Thousand Sword Formation Array." Just like the name implied, ten thousand swords appeared in their surroundings as they flew toward the Rank 2 God in succession. "Twister Sword." He channeled his Wind Power and spun his body, creating a tornado that blew all the swords. Alex didn''t stop there and appeared next to that twister, slashing his sword downward. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Rank 2 God felt it behind the tornado and stepped back, avoiding the sword strike. He then broke the tornado and flew toward Alex. Clang. A clashing sound echoed as the Rank 2 God blew Alex away. "Haha. That was surprising, but knowing it''s you, I know that you must have your trump card ready. Unfortunately, it''s too bad that it can''t be considered a trump card. "Just give up, Spirit God. This is a pointless fight. You won''t be able to beat me." He looked down on Alex. "That''s right. How about you give me your wives? I can play with them first while waiting for the others to finish their fight. I''m generous, you know." "!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and waved his hand, summoning another array. "Hmph!" The Rank 2 God snorted and waved his sword. "Divine True Strike." The Sword Wave flew toward the array that suddenly shot out a white-colored spear. However, Alex already appeared behind the Rank 2 God and slashed his sword. "Five Purities Slash." "Divine Punishment." He snorted and clashed with Alex before leaping back. "As expected¡­ Only that technique can fight against my power." Alex narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath before calculating what he needed to do. "Really? Only this technique, huh. Since you think this is the only technique I have, it seems I won''t have the problem of killing you here." "Haha, what did you say, Spirit God? You may have powerful Weapon Qi and Intent, but it''s useless due to our cultivation difference. Even your Pure Fire can''t burn my wind in an instant. Although I admit that your Space Element is troublesome, your Array Mastery is nothing special." When he heard that insult, Alex didn''t answer. Instead, he raised both hands and summoned his Holy Emblem. He waved his hand as the same white spear flew out of his hand, heading straight to the Rank 2 God. "!!!" The Rank 2 God was surprised to see that an Array appeared out of nowhere and released its attack in an instant. And that shock became even worse when Alex appeared next to that guy and waved his hand again. "Then, how about the second one?" "Kh! What''s that? How can you summon that spear in an instant? No, how can you even create an array even faster? Isn''t one second your limit?" Having no left hand to stop this attack, the Rank 2 God decided to deflect the spear before striking the second one. "That''s your assumption. And that assumption is the one that helps me beat you." Alex smiled as he prepared to slash his sword. "!!!" The Rank 2 God widened his eyes and prepared to take him on, but his balance suddenly went off as his surroundings turned upside down. "No. It''s not my surroundings. It''s me." To his surprise, Alex also turned upside down, but he already made his swing. "Sh*t!" shouted the Rank 2 God as he tried to block Alex''s attack with half of his power because of this sudden change. "Divine Punishment." Little did he know, this wasn''t Alex''s Five Purities Slash anymore. Other than the usual input, he added the Life and Death Energy and Weapon Spirits into the power, turning it into the same attack that almost injured Rilt had Vina not come into rescue. And the Rank 2 God realized it the moment he clashed sword with Alex. "This¡­ This is not the same technique." He gasped and gritted his teeth, not wanting to die because of a Rank 4 God. "No!" "It''s futile. Keep underestimating me, will you? Because that''s the best way to lower your opponent''s guard. And you¡­ You f*cker shouldn''t mention anything about my wives." Alex released his killing intent and completed his swing. "Seven Purities Slash." "NO!" The sword was blown away as Alex''s sword cut through his hand and slid his neck, sending his head flying. The blood coagulated quickly the moment it touched the empty space, while the residual power behind that strike split the space open. Seeing that opportunity, Alex poured more Space Energy into it and created a larger Spatial Gate to absorb that attack, so no one would be injured or notice that attack, albeit those who were Rank 2 God or higher in the area noticed that power. The power that could kill a Rank 2 God despite being a Rank 4 God in a head-on clash. Even William widened his eyes in shock as his warrior spirit once again appeared as if a tiger finally woke up from a long slumber. "Hahahahaha!" William laughed out loud. "You all are dead! There won''t be anyone who can stop us now!" The Elemental Gods and other Guardians agreed. Even those who came from another influence felt that power, especially Lin Xingzhi. "Anxienta." "Ha!" The Metal God shouted while trying to cut this one. Yet, that power shook his heart and even Lin Xingzhi''s as they glanced at it once. It was like a warning shot against the beast that once killed him that Alex would truly cut him down. But this power also came with great risk. It was apparent on the Metal''s God expression. Alex''s power had given the Metal God enough resolve as he released all of his power. "Ha!" Boom. People thought that a God King would fall during this fight, but they realized they were wrong the moment the smoke disappeared. There was no Metal God anymore, only a brown-colored bear holding a weapon. "Wow. You''ve finally shown your true appearance." Lin Xingzhi laughed. "Still, should I praise you for learning to wield a weapon?" When he revealed his true appearance, the entire battlefield was in shock, never knowing that the Metal God was a bear. Unfortunately, there were no other people who actually witnessed such a thing since everyone went away from the battlefield. Even the closest one, the God of Destruction, couldn''t see it due to the mess. Still, the confused atmosphere was transferred to their position because many people stopped after noticing the Metal God''s true appearance. "As expected¡­" God of Destruction narrowed his eyes before looking at the Earth God that seemed to maintain his poker face. "You are not surprised? You do know that bears are one of the culprits that create the dark era, right? Wait, Ah, I see. You are one of them." "I don''t know what you are talking about. The only thing I know is the fact that the Spirit God won''t forgive me after this war. Hence, since you claim I have gotten to the wrong side, I shall see it through." The Earth God snorted. "Really? Well, as much as I want to convince you, all of you are traitors until proven otherwise. So, I will kill you." Raiju took a deep breath and released his power. Still, no matter what, Lin Xingzhi was the one in the most dangerous situation. With her strongest technique gone, she was in a dilemma, wondering how to destroy this guy. From what she knew, this must be the original bear, considering their power was stronger than the current generation of God King. "It seems that we really need to increase our strength or we won''t be able to handle this type of guy." She muttered while looking around, finding an opportunity. "Haha. Unfortunately for you, there is no other God Kings that can witness my true appearance here." The Metal God laughed. "Hmph. Due to how big the effect of a battle between God Kings could cause, the others have gone away, but it also means that I don''t need to worry about any other potential threats since you''re the only one I need to beat." Lin Xingzhi smiled and summoned the Fire and Lightning Disturbances. The Metal God also noticed the unrest from his soldiers, so he shouted. "What are you doing? Do you think you will be spared? With me becoming like this, they will surely suspect you. And to avoid any unrest, you all are going to die." His soldiers gritted their teeth, knowing that the result was the same. Their morale returned once more and they started fighting their foes again. Even Lin Xingzhi couldn''t rebuke it even if it were a lie. After all, there were too many witnesses that needed to be silenced. Killing them would probably be the best solution, so she roared to the spirits from Eulja. "You all have seen our enemies. This enemy has been haunting us for five thousand years and their leader has once slain the previous Spirit God. Those of you who don''t fear death, charge and kill them. It''s time for revenge." "Uoh!" "Anxienta." Lin Xingzhi activated the same technique again, releasing the might of two Disturbances. The Bear saw this and raised his weapon, slashing it. Although he still had difficulty slashing this, it wasn''t as horrible as the previous time. "¡­" Lin Xingzhi gritted her teeth, wondering how to handle this situation. However, someone''s voice echoed on the battlefield. "Five years since the alliance was made¡­ No, it''s been five thousand years, isn''t it? This past hatred has yet to be solved." Lin Xingzhi recognized this voice and turned around, finding a 13 years old girl wearing gothic style clothing. She even tied her hair into twin tails. "Who are you?" shouted the Metal God and greeted his teeth. He didn''t know why but he felt dread for the first time the moment this girl appeared. However, the girl still closed her eyes and smiled. "You don''t need to know who I am since everything will be over for you." "Talking big. No one in this universe has the power to fight me in this form." "Really? Then, I guess I should teach the youngsters here what it means to be a God King." She smiled. "Well, I can''t really say it since I once escaped from the battlefield." "You, a God King?" The bear narrowed his eyes, finding something unreasonable. Even Lin Xingzhi could sense her energy and understood her current condition. "You''re simply a Rank 2 God who forcefully increases your cultivation to God King. Do you think you have what it takes to fight against a real God King?" "You consider yourself a true God King? This makes me laugh. But I guess you have a point." She smiled and slowly opened her eyes, showing the white and black pupils. It emanated a powerful Life and Death Energy as a coffin that used to seal her appear above her head. "Life and Death Coffin." "Xingzhi girl, although it''s important to help the others, I want you to witness this battle. Alright?" "I-I understand." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a serious expression. "In that case, let''s fight, shall we?" The Life and Death Goddess smiled as she fully opened her eyes. "Life and Death Coffin, activate." Chapter 1122: Great War Part 4 "Life and Death Coffin, activate." The Life and Death Coffin suddenly emitted a black aura before a bright white light shone above it. The white light turned into a watch while the black aura transformed into its arrows, showing a certain time. It then projected a number. 10,000 "Ho, it seems your lifespan is around ten thousand years. I guess we should decrease it for a bit." She smirked as she released her killing intent. "You are Life and Death Goddess. Impossible. You should be dead by now." The bear widened his eyes as he couldn''t comprehend the entire situation. "I have died one time and I don''t think I won''t feel the second time on the battlefield. Hence, I need to eliminate you first here." She smirked. "Hmph!" The bear was unconvinced of her strength and charged at her. "Then, I will kill you here right now." Suddenly, the same black aura gushed out of her right hand and turned it into a claw. The same applied to her other hand as it was enveloped by a white aura. "Die!" The bear slashed his sword down. The sword was supposed to be huge and the momentum was powerful enough. Even Lin Xingzhi needed to avoid this attack. But this might also be the reason why Alaya asked Lin Xingzhi to watch this fight instead of helping the others. She wanted to show her something. The moment the blade reached her, it was stopped abruptly by a small hand covered in a white aura. Alaya raised her vision with an uninterested face before she shattered that sword so easily. "Hmph." "What?!" Lin Xingzhi and the Metal God widened their eyes in surprise as they couldn''t comprehend how Alaya destroyed that attack. Strength wise, there was no way that Alaya was stronger than the Metal God, but the thing she showed earlier¡­ Before they could react, Alaya leaped toward the Metal God and plunged her hand toward him. The Metal God threw a punch, confident that he could take her attack. Seeing this, Alaya also clenched her fist and clashed with the Metal God. The black aura erupted as it flowed toward the Metal God''s body. Excruciating pain started to spread all over his arm as he purposely got launched to avoid that attack. He noticed that black aura still lingered around his hand, so he reinforced it with his Metal Energy. "What is that?" The Metal God furrowed his eyebrows before noticing something important. "Wait, what?" 9500 The count on the clock of Alaya''s Life and Death Coffin decreased to 9,500. "That''s a good amount of life force. It''s truly something good." Alaya smiled. "!!!" "What did you do?" The bear snarled and turned his blade into two claws. He waved his hands and extended both claws at the same time. With this, Alaya shouldn''t be able to take it pm like his sword since there were eight of them coming from two sides. But the bear seemed to still underestimate Alaya''s power. Alaya waved her hands and released a crescent-shaped white and black aura toward the claws. "Life and Death Misery." Surprisingly, it broke the claws so easily. The bear was taken aback and panicked for a second. Alaya narrowed her eyes before looking at the count that had yet to decrease. "It seems I need to get serious," Alaya muttered as a shadow appeared behind her. The shadow turned out to be a skeleton, holding a giant sword as if it wanted to kill someone. Alaya released another wave of Life and Death Energy into her weapons which were the claws. Suddenly, Alaya''s white claw turned into another form. "That¡­" Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes as she felt an immense Life Energy inside it. "The claw turns into a knife, but I feel that one is even more dangerous than its previous form¡­" "What that small knife can do? A weapon should be like this." The Metal God snorted and extended his sword again, swinging it to cut Alaya. Alaya simply had no interest in that sword and struck that sword with her small knife, shattering it like nothing. "What weapon? Did you say this sword is your weapon? But how could it be so weak?" Alaya yawned before the Metal God spat blood as if something was taken from inside his body. The counter then once again decreased by five hundred. "What did you do?" "Nothing. I simply swung my weapon. To think your weapon was so brittle. I''m shocked." Alaya shrugged. The Metal God gritted his teeth and raised his sword, turning it into a spear. The moment he thrust it, the spear extended toward Alaya''s head. She should be able to avoid this attack easily, but Alaya decided to take it head-on, showing the supremacy between them. When her knife hit the spear''s blade, it sliced through the spear as if it was butter. Alaya didn''t stop there and flew forward, cutting that long spear into two. Even the Metal God needed to change his plan and chopped the spear before turning the rest into a sword. "Ha!" The Metal God struck Alaya, only to find her shatter his sword again. These two began their clash as Alaya kept destroying his sword. And every time the knife hit his sword, one hundred years'' worth of lifespan disappeared. The Metal God coughed blood but still struggled to break Alaya''s sword. Alaya took this chance to fake her swing and aimed for his heart with her black hand instead. "Kh!" The Metal God clenched his teeth and dodged to the side. Unfortunately for him, Alaya managed to grab his shoulder as a replacement and took another five hundred years from him. After the count reached five thousand years or half of the original number, the Metal God noticed the sudden decrease of his power. Although it wasn''t that big of a deal, he knew that as time passed by. To avoid getting into that situation, the Metal God seemed to have gathered his resolve to die trying. Sensing that determination, Alaya jumped back to gain distance while staring at the bear with a serious expression. "Well, since I''m known as Life and Death Goddess, I think I should have another weapon that befits someone like me. At least, it should look like the image of people." Alaya said nonchalantly as if it was that easy to abandon one''s weapon. However, Alaya never had a weapon of her own, so she never cared about the shape of her weapon. She covered the knife with the white aura and turned it into a larger form. The blade curved and the handle extended. Yes, this was a scythe. "Ahaha. This is good. As expected of me." She nodded with a smile. "How dare you look down on me this whole time." The bear gritted his teeth and released all of his power at once. "Despite gaining the power of metal, you have no real knowledge about using it." She shook her head in disappointment. "I am a God King. I comprehend the Metal Law." "No, you do not. The thing that allows you to become a God King is the parasite in your body, which is your real body. In other words, you are not a true God King by this universe''s measurement. But let me praise you since you have done your best to learn something from this universe to strengthen yourself. "You are indeed more powerful than your previous self. Though, I doubt that you are the same thing like those in the past. Probably, you are just another imitation that bastard beast''s created to mess with this world. "Fortunately, we can find you this soon, not allowing all of you to plant all your roots in this universe and destroy it. I won''t allow it." Alaya smirked. "The battle five thousand years ago was bound to fail no matter how you saw it. But this time¡­ We could see the chance." "Haha, chance? Your chance is merely one percent." "Is that so?" Alaya smiled and disappeared, heading straight toward the Metal God. "Divine Extension." The sword expanded both in length and wide, trying to pierce Alaya. Alaya avoided it by leaping to the left, but the Metal God spun his sword and waved it to the side. Unfortunately, Alaya predicted it and struck the blade''s body with her scythe from above, shattering it. "Damn, damn, damn." The Metal God gritted his teeth as every time he swung his blade, not only would it break, but his lifespan got sucked. Alaya kept flying forward despite the hurdle she faced on the way. Blood began to come out of her mouth and nose as she truly reached her limit. "You have reached your limit. As long as I can withstand this attack, I can defeat you. I will torture you first before killing you." The Metal God saw this as a chance as he turned his blade into a sword and a shield. As soon as Alaya appeared right above him, he raised both to block her attack. "As I said earlier, if you are a proper Metal God, you will be able to block this attack. However, you are too ignorant." She sighed as she swung her scythe down. "Life and Death Cycle. Unending Samsara." "!!!" The scythe surprisingly went through the sword and shield as if it didn''t even matter. At the same time, it cut the Metal God from his head to feet, splitting him into two. Yet, his body was still intact. "This¡­ This is not a weapon to cut the physical body¡­ It''s for the soul!" The realization, however, came too late. If this were Fire God or Space God who learned one Element Law, they would be able to materialize that element to withstand this cut, but with the current level of the Metal God, it was impossible to prevent this cut that aimed for its soul. "Impossible." The Metal God gritted his teeth before spitting a mouthful of blood as he saw that his count reached zero. "It''s time for you to die." Alaya smiled and waved her hand. "Life and Death Coffin. Judgment Time." The coffin suddenly opened its lid, showing endless darkness inside. The White Aura then turned into a chain and tied the Metal God before pulling it into the coffin. The Metal God struggled but to no avail. He couldn''t even manifest his power anymore. "No, no! I don''t want to die! This is not the place I can afford to die." Alaya only closed her eyes as the Metal God entered the coffin. His shrill gradually turned into silence as if something was chipping his life away. "Hmph." Alaya harrumphed as she looked at the Life and Death Coffin. The voice was already gone, meaning that the bear had died. "Show some respect to your elder, idiotic boy." "¡­" Lin Xingzhi sweatdropped as she thought. ''I''m sorry.'' Chapter 1123: Great War Part 5 The news of a mysterious God King killed the Metal God shook both allies and enemies. However, that wasn''t the only issue they needed to handle. The fact that the Metal God was a bear, even though he was supposed to be a human, shocked the entire alliance. "What?!" The Goddess of Destiny shouted as he didn''t expect to hear such a thing. After all, this meant that what Song Goddess had been telling her the whole time was true. But she also realized that this unknown God King was actually Alex''s trump card and the one that was fated to overturn the battlefield. Although she didn''t want to admit it, she indeed had made the wrong decision. After thinking for a while, she shouted. "Retreat. Have all our troops retreat." "Do you think I will let you?" The Song Goddess smiled. "Hmph. Do you think you can stop me?" Goddess of Destiny snorted. Even Song Goddess knew that she couldn''t contain her here unless someone came, so she raised her hand. "No, but I can weaken your force. Chase them down!" "Uoh!" All the God Kings from the alliance immediately retreated, knowing that the battle had become six God Kings versus four, so it was impossible for them to win. Of course, no one let them go, chasing them down to the best of their ability. If they could cripple the alliance here, there was a chance of them going separate ways, at the same time, buying Alex time to power up. The moment Alex became God King, no one would be able to threaten him anymore. Alex, who witnessed all this, closed his eyes as he felt tired. Fighting a Rank 2 God was harder than he thought. Although he managed to kill him today, there was no telling whether he could defeat another Rank 2 God or not in the future since his Space Element and Array Mastery had been brought to the open. Meanwhile, in Lin Xingzhi''s side, she decided to stop and took care of Alaya, who suddenly spat a mouthful of blood. Her face was pale and her voice was coarse. Alex visited her too since she was the one that allowed them to gain this victory. "Thank you, Alaya." Alaya shook her head helplessly before holding his hand. "You don''t need to worry about it. Besides, there is something I want to say." "Please tell me." "With many people knowing my identity now, it will truly shake the entire alliance, especially those who are affiliated with that bastard beast. Hence, I don''t think the alliance will be disbanded just like that." "Yes. I am aware. I will be putting a countermeasure for it. At least for now, unless they reveal the bat, they won''t have enough men to put up a fight against us." "Fair enough." She nodded. "And now that I have used my Life Incursion to temporarily gain back my peak power, I need a long time to recover. Luckily, the Life Source that my coffin has stolen is quite big, so I think I will be stuck in the Rank 2 God stage for a while¡­ Probably, it will take me ten years to gain back my power even though I only need another four years before." "Don''t worry. Take your time. I will do my best to not involve you in this battle." Alex smiled, assuring her. "Since you have said so, I can rest assured. However, I want to warn you that I can still see the shadow of death on you. Most probably, there is something big happening to the alliance right after this." "Well, we can''t really spy on them." Alex sighed. "N Squad is not enough to look at their conversation." "Yeah. Just be prepared because anything can happen in the near future." "Yes. I will be careful." Alex nodded with a serious expression before contemplating what he needed to do. Meanwhile, Alaya turned to Lin Xingzhi and asked with a smile. "Do you understand the clue I showed you earlier?" "I don''t know if I have grasped it fully, but I think I understand the gist of it. To put it simply, I shouldn''t fear my power. No, I should, in fact, have harmony with them. They are my power after all." "Exactly. This is the real power of God King. To become a God King, you need to comprehend your Law. However, the current generation of God King only thought of them as a tool instead of a part of their body. "Just like a sword that can make you bleed, they are afraid to use it to the full power and seal their full power. You are one of the examples. We can take a look at the God of Destruction too, since he is the closest one to us. Tell him this. "He is the Destruction itself. But¡­ Someone, who can kill, must know how to not kill. At the same time, if he wants to kill, no one can stop him. This is the best advice I can give him. "As for the Palm God, Holy God, and Song Goddess, I don''t think they are aware of it yet, so it''s your discretion whether you want to tell them or not." Alaya finished her explanation with a choice for Lin Xingzhi. "I understand. Well, our enemies are too big this time, so I want to strengthen them as much as possible before the grand battle, so I will tell them your advice." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "It''s up to you." She shrugged. "Yep." "In that case, let''s go back." "Haha, I will tell them first to retreat. Meanwhile, Alex and I will handle the aftermath." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "Alright." Alaya nodded and went toward the Elemental Gods since they knew her. After giving the care of Alaya to them, Alex and Lin Xingzhi regrouped with the other God Kings with a serious expression. "Who was the mysterious God King?" Raiju asked as he never expected that someone stronger than Lin Xingzhi actually appeared on the battlefield. "It''s one of the previous generation''s God King. She is the Life and Death Goddess." "!!!" The four God Kings opened their eyes wide as Song Goddess told them what she heard from the Goddess of Destiny. "I see. So, that''s how it is¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked at the Holy God. "I suspect that there is more than one "weapon" in the alliance. I doubt that they can get away with this." "Yeah. Hence, we can assume that they won''t attack us at least in a few years." Alex nodded. "That''s why I want us to get stronger than ever." Lin Xingzhi then stepped forward and said. "This is the secret of having the same power as the previous generation God Kings." "!!!" They widened their eyes as Raiju asked. "Are you seriously going to give us such a secret?" "We don''t have that leeway." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "Anyway, the real secret is the law." "I mean, yes. We need Law to become a God King¡­" Raiju tilted his head in confusion. "I haven''t finished. What I want to say is¡­ Instead of wielding that Law like a weapon, you should make it a part of your body. For example, you, God of Destruction. You are the Destruction itself. But¡­ Someone, who can kill, must know how to not kill. At the same time, if he wants to kill, no one can stop him." "What did you say?!" The God of Destruction dropped his jaw as if he couldn''t believe what he heard. He suddenly closed his eyes for a minute before lowering his head. "Thank you so much." "That''s the Life and Death Goddess''s advice for you. The others are still too far from this step." "What did you say?" This time the Palm God who couldn''t accept it, more accurately, he couldn''t allow himself to be below the God of Destruction. "You can talk it out among yourself. Alex and I will retreat right now." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. Alex then cupped his hands politely and thanked them. "I really couldn''t show how grateful I am. Without all of you, I doubt Eulja can take such a hit." He lied on this one since he indeed had a trump card that no one could believe. With all his wealth, he could create three more God Kings. Unfortunately, only Anna and Leoz seemed to be the closest to this step. "Unfortunately, we can''t afford to be drunk in victory because who knows what will happen when we lower our guard." Alex let out a long sigh. "It''s fine. We understand it." Alex and Lin Xingzhi nodded at the same time before returning. Before they returned, Song Goddess caught up with them. "Big Sister." "Ah, Rinrin." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "It''s nice to see you here helping us." "Ahaha. I couldn''t throw away everything that he had given in the past." Song Goddess scratched the back of her head. "That''s right. Let me introduce you. He is the current Spirit God, Alexander Sirius. Although he is his reincarnation, he is by no means the same person, so you shouldn''t mistake him for another person, okay?" "Yes." Song Goddess nodded with a big smile. "I am Rin. I don''t have a family name. Because of that, people often call me Rinrin since it gives a nice ring to their ears. Please call me Rinrin too. And please marry me and give me your seed." "Oi." Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes. Rinrin stuck her tongue out. "That''s a joke." "You asked me about the relationship between the past you and her, right? I will explain it now." Lin Xingzhi took a deep breath and continued. "You once saved her after her home planet got razed to the ground. She was the lone survivor of that catastrophe. "Since it was like fate, you decided to take care of her and trained her. Back when the war started, if I wasn''t wrong, she barely reached Rank 10 God, right?" "Yes. I just finished my Divine Tribulation." She nodded before recalling something that made her smile. "I still remember back when I followed him. The Spirit God was kind to his family. His small house ended up becoming an orphanage for people like us. Of course, all of them were stronger than me." "Well, you are the only one who has become a God King though." "Hehe, I managed to beat that Carissa." She smirked. "Right. You love to prank each other, saying it''s due to your rivalry. And now, you have become a God King while Carissa succeeded the previous Guardian that died because of the war." "I''m sorry that I couldn''t help you during that war." Rinrin lowered her head. "It''s fine. That''s the war of the past. I have forgotten the small details. Anyway, what do you think of coming to Eulja for a small party for this victory? I am sure that everyone is thrilled to see you." She smiled. "Really? I can do that?" "Yeah. I think good music is nice to accompany the party." She nodded. "That''s great. I will surely come. Let me settle everything with my army first before visiting Eulja." Song Goddess looked eager to come. However, there was a hidden agenda for this invitation and this was what Alex and Lin Xingzhi had agreed earlier. They knew that the Song Goddess was still suspicious, so they needed to check her thoroughly. In fact, Rinrin must have known that and agreed to this invitation to redeem herself. "Anyway, I will be looking forward to meeting you in Eulja. Although I don''t know you personally, it''s really a pleasure to meet someone that I knew in the past." "Yes, Your Majesty." Rinrin made a big smile. "I will definitely come." "See you later then." Alex smiled back and nodded his head before leaving, heading to his army and returning to Eulja triumph. It obviously brought endless joy to Eulja because this was their first big fight that involved all the people in Eulja''s territory, unlike the first expedition against the Array God, which only involved the spirits. The battlefield then soon felt empty when Alex and his armies disappeared from the battlefield. Chapter 1124: End of the Great War Meanwhile, on the other battlefield, something beyond everyone''s imagination happened. Although his body was full of injury, Korzan ripped the fifth Rank 2 God apart before starting to pant. He truly exhausted his all to defeat five Rank 2 God on his own. Even his enemies couldn''t help but fear him as a monster. Sherry made a weird smile and asked Sullivan beside her. "Korzan is this strong?" "Yeah. I said it earlier. Korzan is Alex''s first retainer. He has been following Alex''s shadow this whole time, allowing him to absorb Alex''s knowledge as much as he could. That''s the reason why he is the closest one to God King." He sighed. "I see." Sherry shuddered. "I think we''ve almost wiped them out." "Yes." Sullivan nodded. "I think His Majesty has ordered a retreat too." "In that case, let''s settle this fight and return." "Agreed. I have rested long enough, so I think I should join the battle again." "Take care." After another two hours, they officially wiped every single enemy that came toward them. In this battle, Korzan managed to kill five Rank 2 Gods by himself. Meanwhile, Sullivan killed three, albeit other than his first opponents, the other two were eliminated with the help of their respective opponents, so it wasn''t as hard as Korzan. At the same time, Maxwell and the Beast God realized that even without Lin Xingzhi holding the fort, Eulja had no need to worry. Korzan was the real person who protected Eulja in secret and had been keeping a low profile this whole time. Korzan was known as a gentle and loyal guy, but they never expected that he became so violent that no one could withstand his anger. They died miserably as their body melted into molten lava. After wiping out their enemies, Korzan raised his hand and shouted. "This battle is over. It''s our Eulja''s Victory." "Uoh!" The excitement couldn''t be contained anymore. However, Korzan knew that this was the time to part as he continued. "All troops. We are going to return triumph." Another cheer erupted as they began retreating while taking care of all the trash they killed in outer space. Still, even though the battle didn''t last that long, Eulja suffered quite a lot of damage. Yes, they might have wiped out around forty percent of the enemy''s power, especially those on the main battlefield, but five percent of their soldiers had died. This might look like not a big number, but considering Eulja''s scale, it was more than twice the other''s force. In addition, the other allies also suffered a loss on their side. Unfortunately, they couldn''t really seize Metal God''s property right now because this situation might be a trap for them to lure Alex deep into their territory before killing him. Alex had predicted it since there was a possibility of the second "weapon" hiding among them. As one would expect, there was a huge party in Eulja. Even the ten Commandants were invited to join and this became the first time for Alex to meet them. He greeted and offered his thanks to them one by one while trying to know each of them. Still, no matter what he had to say, this war really took a toll on his body and mind. He was a bit tired after experiencing a big battle as he impressed everyone with the fact that he killed a Rank 2 God by himself. As for his mind, he couldn''t stop thinking about the preparation of the next war because he truly had moved all twenty Rank 2 Gods in Eulja: Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, Six out of the ten commandants, Lilda, Sullivan, and finally Korzan. This meant that other than his trump card, he truly had nothing to counter a more powerful enemy. This turned into a headache for him until Lin Xingzhi told him to drop the matter until the party finished. Alex agreed and ultimately hugged Aria. She was the reason why they could win this war. She truly had a different perspective in terms of war just like how he preferred. Predicting the enemy''s plan was really big for the current Eulja and meant a lot to Alex since there was no need for the unnecessary death. Aria was frozen after that because that was the first time she got that hug, especially considering Alex was a demon when he trained her. That warm hug was truly different from what she had gotten so far, making her unsure of what to do. In the middle of the party, Alex stepped out a bit with a mellow expression. Anya found and approached him before asking. "Do you have something in mind again?" Alex let out a long sigh and eventually nodded his head. "I wonder if I should level Anna up to Rank 2 God to bolster our rank. The cost of becoming God King is too tremendous. According to her present cultivation, I think I only need half of the resources to level her up to Rank 2 God." "Hmm. That''s a nice question." Anya contemplated and said, "Anna, Leoz, and Jeanne¡­ These three are former Rank 2 Gods. It''s true that we can increase our strength, but I think it''s better to hold that thought for a little longer." "Is that so?" Alex smiled. "I will listen to you then. Maybe I''m overthinking this." "Yeah. You should rest first." Right before he could rest, the Song Goddess came to the party, making all of them bewildered. Obviously, many people actually recognized her because they remembered the people Alex had picked up in the past. "Your Majesty." Rinrin lowered her head and greeted him. "You''ve come." Alex smiled. "Well, for now, enjoy the party." "Yes." Before she could continue, Carissa barged in as she pushed her off while saying, "You. Don''t you dare to seduce him." "I am not doing it. Are you trying to frame me because I am better than you now?" "Kh! Even if you are stronger than me, I am more useful." She fought back. "Really? How about telling me about it? I will give you a chance to redeem yourself even though I am stronger than you and almost rendering everything you have useless." "I can warm his bed." "I can too. Besides, you haven''t even done it yet." "I can make him feel good. In addition, there is an aphrodisiac." "I can do it too with my music. I can even show it to you right now." "I have¡­" The two began to argue like in the past. Even Korzan laughed, recalling the matter a few thousand years ago. It was when the two were young. Carissa often brought medicine herbs since she had an interest since young, showing Alex that she could become a medicine expert. Meanwhile, Rinrin showed her talent in music and tried to make Alex comfortable by hearing her music. In the end, they blamed each other after knowing that Alex liked both of them. They tried to lower the other''s image in front of Alex by using pranks. It continued even until they became old enough. After stopping the argument, Alex brought her to everyone, introducing her. At the same time, Silvia was there with her student. Axis had a secret mission from Alex and didn''t hesitate to help him since he got everything he needed in Eulja. Doing something so simple couldn''t show how much he was grateful to him. Luckily, it seemed they could trust the Song Goddess. Still, the moment Alex finished introducing her, Carissa quickly teased her again as the two began to pick. The Elemental Gods and Five Guardians cheered for both of them. No matter their age, these two seemed to have no chance in becoming an adult when they met each other. They ended it with a performance from Rinrin, which turned out to be amazing. Her music could affect the real world itself. No wonder she was known as Song Goddess. Alex also enjoyed this party and finally returned to his bed, trying to rest. Seeing that Alex was tired mentally, Lin Xingzhi called every single one of his wives. Even Silvia was called and somehow ended up doing it together with the others. Although Alex told her that she was already a part of it and asked her to wait until the war finished to announce their marriage, it was still a huge relief for Silvia since this meant recognition. Alex already told her that if he married her right now, it would be labeled as political marriage to create a relationship between him and Palm God in this dangerous time. It would give her a terrible reputation, so Alex requested to hold their marriage after the war even though he didn''t care much about other opinions. And even if Silvia didn''t mind, they still needed to think about their children''s feelings. If people branded them to be the kids from a political marriage mother, they would surely feel hurt. After agreeing with the arrangement, their relationship became like this. Either way, Silvia was pretty satisfied. She might be embarrassed earlier, but that didn''t matter anymore. Anna also felt happy to find someone "Normal" among Alex''s wives. After all, Anya, Lin Xingzhi, Sherry, and Firia had become a pervert. Letizia was conservative. Evelyn was wild¡­ The exact opposite of Letizia. Hence, Anna finally created an alliance for the "normal" with Alicia and Silvia to fight the perverts. The next day, Alex felt refreshed even though last night was a mess. The others seemed to have woken up and continued what they were supposed to do instead of flirting with him. Although flirting was nice, they wanted to become independent and did their best for him and Eulja, so they didn''t want to slack. Alex also understood them and often visited them randomly, calling it bonding. After recovering, he put on his clothes and walked to Lin Xingzhi''s room. Lin Xingzhi stopped operating the system when she saw Alex. "Do you need anything?" "Yes. I want the report about yesterday''s battle or should I go to Korzan?" "You will probably need to ask Korzan. Though, he still needs to recover a bit. Maybe you should ask him in three days." "Okay. I think I can rest a bit for three days." "Good." "Now, I want to talk about my next course." Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked. "What do you want to do?" Since Lin Xingzhi was usually the one who offered him a mission, he needed to think a bit before saying, "I have a few objectives. First, I want to refine the last piece of my Undying Fire Body. Second, I want to turn two more worlds into a mining zone to get more Spirit Crystals. Of course, I''m talking about the system dungeon here. Third, I have promised my Master to go to a competition. Fourth, I want to reach Rank 3 God. Fifth, I want to cultivate in front of a star¡­ If possible, the brightest sun you can find. Make sure that I won''t do any harm to any living beings if I absorb the star." Hearing these objectives, Lin Xingzhi couldn''t help but say. "That''s quite a lot, huh." Chapter 1125: Wishes Inside a certain planet, four people stood, facing each other. "Do you think the Spirit God will forgive everything you have done, especially with the fact that you have prepared to kill every single person in Eulja''s territory?" The Earth God gritted his teeth. No one said anything because the answer was obvious. Eulja currently stood right on their front gate, preparing to attack them at any moment''s notice. They looked at each other and shook their heads, knowing that they had no chance to handle the Spirit God alone. "So, do you have a plan, Earth God?" God of Wrath narrowed his eyes. "That''s why I have a proposal. Since the only way to escape this situation is to become a villain, why don''t¡ª" Bang. Before the Earth God finished telling his plan, the God of Wrath suddenly slammed the table, becoming angrier. He was already angry because the Holy God betrayed him. However, the moment he realized that he had been on the wrong side this whole time, he was mad at himself. Whatever the reason, there was no chance that he would agree to something like this. Recalling what the Holy God said back then, he glared at the Earth God. "No! You''re crazy. Even if I need to die, I won''t betray this universe! Even if I am the Spirit God''s enemy, there are still standards!" The Earth God stared at him in silence before the Battle God opened his mouth. "God of Wrath. Sit down." "What did you say?" The God of Wrath released his killing intent toward the Battle God. "I''m quitting. It''s better to be killed by the Spirit God rather than betraying this universe." Suddenly, two more people entered the place. The first one was a male in his forties. He had purple hair and a muscular body. But the most noticeable thing would be his dragon horns and tail. Meanwhile, the second person was a red-haired female. Like the first guy, she had one feature that stood out. It was the pair of wings on her back. "Yo! Bear. To think you would have come to beg us for participating in this¡­" The guy smirked as he released his aura, telling the others that they were God Kings. "You¡­" The God of Wrath recognized them and realized what had been going on. "Dragon God, Phoenix Goddess, don''t tell me you two are¡­" "No wonder. This guy has the knowledge about it." The Phoenix Goddess nodded with a calm expression as she looked at the Earth Guy. "Bear, what are you doing here?" "Second brother has died." The Earth God closed his eyes and answered with a hoarse tone. "The Snake has also died." "I see. The Spirit God, huh." "Yeah. It turns out the Life and Death Goddess hasn''t died." "What?!" The Dragon God widened his eyes in shock. Although he himself wasn''t the previous "Dragon" that fought against her, he inherited that memory through the parasite. He gritted his teeth and released his killing intent. "Good, good. To think I would be able to settle this." "She won''t be able to fight for at least ten years. We are here to wait for our Master, so don''t mistake your priority, Dragon." "Fine, fine." He snorted and looked away. "Phoenix, I want you to bring your pet here to help me kill the Spirit God." "Haha. You two have pets, right? I don''t need any." The Dragon laughed as he looked at the Battle God. It was obvious that the Battle God was Earth God''s pet. This was what Silvia told Alex about them being able to influence only one person. It turned out that there were two bears this whole time, the Earth God and Metal God. "How about that birdie?" The Earth God asked. "He needs a longer time. The same applies to the Bats." Phoenix Goddess shook her head. "Besides, the Spirit God has gotten a clue about the Bats appearance, so I am assuming there is a chance that they will appear to hit the bats." "Because of their numbers, the Bats are the most dangerous in a battle. It''s normal for the Spirit God to focus on them." He thought for a moment. "Alright. With this, we have seven people to launch an all-out attack against the Spirit God." "Why do you include me? I already said I wouldn''t participate." "You brat. If we said that you are, then you are going to do it." The Dragon God glared at him as he released his pressure. However, the God of Wrath gritted his teeth and released all his energy. "Try it." The Dragon God suddenly disappeared as he struck the God of Wrath with his fist, blowing him away from the room. The Phoenix Goddess looked at them and shook her head before joining the battle. "If he doesn''t want to, he needs to die. See you later." "¡­" The Goddess of Destiny closed her eyes. Seeing this, the Earth God and Battle God stared at her. He asked. "What are you going to do now, Goddess of Destiny? Join us! You won''t need to die if we win." Little did he know the actual reason she closed her eyes was to calculate her own fate. She let out a long sigh and said, "The chance of me escaping this ordeal¡­ Is zero. Huft. If I knew the situation would escalate like this, I would have accepted Song Goddess''s invitation. Besides, my last chance to escape has gone¡­" The last chance in her mouth was obviously the God of Wrath, who was being pursued by two God Kings. The two God Kings snorted as if it was their victory. "But¡­" The Goddess of Destiny paused for ten seconds before her eyes shone the moment she opened her eyes. "Just like the God of Wrath, I do believe that death is better than betraying this universe." "!!!" The Earth God and Battle God realized that she planned to do something and stood up, jumping toward her. However, the Goddess of Destiny was one step ahead as she utilized all the energy in her body. "Fate¡­ Alter." "NOO!" The room was enveloped by light and no one knew what happened after that. ¡­ In Eulja, the situation wasn''t as tense as the alliance. After hearing Alex''s request, Lin Xingzhi started explaining. "Let''s talk about it one by one. First is the last herb for your Undying Fire Body. Whether it''s fortunate or unfortunate, that herb is in the hand of Pill World." "Pill World." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. That''s why I haven''t been able to tell you." "You don''t want me to go there while hoping to find another herb like that, right?" Alex sighed. "Exactly. However, since you already want it, I can only tell you." "How to acquire it? Don''t tell me it''s war¡­" "Nope. That''s why I don''t know whether this is fortunate or unfortunate. The pill tower has two types of competition, individual and duo, each happening once in ten years with five years of interval. Firia was once a runner-up in the solo fifteen years ago right before she returned to Eulja." "Hmm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, the one coming right now is¡­" "Yeah. The duo competition. At first, I let Alicia participate that time and become the runner up, but this time, we are going to take the victory." She smirked. "You don''t mind if I am known there?" "Yep. There is no God King in that world. The strongest is only a Rank 2 God. Hence, it''s fine for you to appear there as long as you bring Sullivan with you. Besides, you can handle a Rank 2 God by yourself, right? Although the news will spread sooner or later, I don''t think it''s easy to spread this kind of news to many planets. There are time gaps." He thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes. I think that''s a good idea. Then how is the competition related to the herb?" "There is one reward that allows the participant to enter their treasury to get one herb from them. Hence, whoever won the first place, he/she was forbidden to enter the second time. That''s why Firia could still participate in the competition." "So that''s how it is." Alex nodded. "I think it''s fine. Firia''s skill is good enough to become the runner-up, so I believe in her. I will become her supporter this time." "Okay. You should tell her after this." "Sure." "Then, let''s move to the second topic. I have multiple worlds. You can choose two among them and plant your dungeons there." "Good. That''s easy. Just tell me the information about them earlier." "Will do. Besides, I believe those worlds can''t hold a candle against your power, so I think it''s fine to finish it quickly." "That''s my plan." "Since the third has been discussed, let''s check the fourth one. Rank 3 God, huh¡­ Do you have any concrete plan about this?" "I am not sure myself. First of all, I want to become a Rank 3 God because I can reach Rank 2 God with Silvia''s help. Although it''s not necessarily able to let me jump one level, I am sure it will bring so many benefits to me. Then, I will use the room that your father created to learn about my Law the moment I''m good enough to become a God King." "I see. That''s a good idea to reach God King. But the problem will be how to reach Rank 3 God first." "Yes. That''s why I''m wondering if you have any good things to share?" "I don''t have one but if I had to say, it would be related to the fifth wish." Lin Xingzhi explained. "Ah, the brightest star, huh¡­" "Yes. Just like how you absorbed the planet''s essence, I think you will be able to increase your cultivation by a large amount with cultivating the Sun or Star Essence." "I doubt I can reach Rank 3 God, but I think it''s good enough." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Do you have a star like that?" "I am not sure about this, but I think the brightest sun that won''t affect any living beings if it dies¡­" Lin Xingzhi recalled the name for a while before opening her mouth. "There is a star called Moyak Star. In that area, there was a planet that used to host millions of people. "Unfortunately, they all died because of that sun. I think it was due to another Fire Disturbance occurring in that area and created a smaller star. And the bigger one absorbed the smaller one, burning the planets nearby. I think this one is good enough for you." "Alright. Let''s go with that. First, I will be participating in the tournament before going to create some dungeons. Only after that will I go to this star. What do you think?" Alex asked her opinion about his current plan. "Yep. I think that''s good enough." Lin Xingzhi agreed even though there were some flaws since Alex had the ability to deal with it by himself. "It means you will be leaving three to four days from now." "I need the report first or my heart can''t rest easy after all." Alex chuckled as this was his job as a king. He needed to know more about his planet. "Anyway, I will be leaving now to say hello to others. Do you need anything? I can bring it to you." "Nope. Just do whatever you think is right. I will be here." Alex nodded and smiled. He left the room and went around Eulja to greet his citizens, soldiers, retainers, and wives. Of course, Sullivan accompanied him to make sure nothing went wrong. It was his first time doing this as he gained an understanding of the heaviness of the name of Spirit God. The expectation of the citizens, the admiration from the soldiers, the loyalty of the retainers, and the love of his wives¡­ He needed to shoulder everything without abandoning the others. ¡­ Three days later. It was the day where Alex was supposed to go to Korzan to read the status report, but he turned out to be unable to do so because something ridiculous just happened. Both Lin Xingzhi and Alex dropped their jaws when that happened as they simply couldn''t react. The God of Wrath, who he thought to be an enemy, came to Eulja and prostrated in front of Alex. Chapter 1126: God of Destruction Three days later, Alex was about to go toward Korzan''s office to grab the report about the war report. "Your Majesty." Korzan couldn''t greet him on his knees, so he only stood up and bowed politely. "I have prepared the report." "Thank you. How is your condition?" "Almost all my internal injuries have been healed. I think I can fight like a few days ago in a week or so." He nodded with a smile, showing Alex he was alright. "That''s good to hear." Korzan then picked up a document he had prepared and checked to see if he missed something. When he was about to hand the document to Alex, someone slammed the door and rushed inside. "Emergency. There is an intruder in front of the castle." "Who is it?" Korzan furrowed his eyebrows, never expecting to hear such a thing while Alex was still here. "That¡­ I believe Sir needs to see it yourself. Queen Lin Xingzhi also requires your presence and His Maj¡ª" Before he finished, he saw Alex''s figure and prostrated. "Good work." Alex snapped his finger without hesitation, teleporting both of them to the outside, finding a man in his late twenties, kneeling on the ground. His purple hair looked messy as if a portion of it was burned. At the same time, he had lost his right arm. There was so much blood on the ground that came not only from that ripped hand but also from the wounds all over his body. "Xingzhi?" Alex shouted and came to her before recognizing the person on the ground. "You¡­ You are the God of Wrath." Hearing that voice, the God of Wrath suddenly lowered his head and hit the ground until he made a small crater. "Spirit God, no, Master, please¡­ I don''t care if I need to become your slave¡­ Please help me. I-I¡­" Alex was bewildered by this plea, considering he wanted to kill this guy. He looked at Lin Xingzhi, who happened to be clueless as well. "His power is too weak. There are signs of fighting, so I guess something must have happened." Alex thought for a moment before sensing someone on their left. "Alex¡­ No, Spirit God¡­ Please listen to his story first." "Alaya?" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting Alaya to come out. "I felt it three days ago that someone altered my fate. Although I could resist it, I decided to see it through first. And that fate pointed at this guy." Alaya explained with a serious expression. Seeing that Alaya also came to the picture, he sighed and opened his mouth. "Alright. I am listening." "Th-thank you." The God of Wrath greeted his teeth. His eyes couldn''t contain his tears. Before he started, he decided to follow the resolve he had gathered earlier. "I, Marcus Xavar, swear my unending loyalty to my master, Alexander Sirius. May the world and the universe be my witness." "!!!" All the people around drew a gasp as if they couldn''t believe what they just heard. This showed two things to Alex. The God of Wrath wanted to tell him that everything he said here would be the truth because what he swore earlier was the Universe Oath for Full Loyalty. In other words, he was like Zark. At the same time, it also gave Alex an understanding of the size of the problem he was about to hear. "Even if you do this, there is no possibility of me agreeing to your request, you know." Alex narrowed his eyes and released his killing intent. This Full Loyalty Oath was truly rushed, so there was no way Alex could just say, "Okay, you are one of us now." "I understand. I don''t care what you want to do with me next, but this Slave begs Master to listen to my story first." Alex sighed and nodded. "Alright. I''m listening." "It happened three days ago after returning from the battle against you. At that time, everything had been revealed. It turned out that the Earth God is a bear, hiding under the shadow of its brother, the Metal God. "According to them, they can turn someone into their pet. The Battle God is the Earth God''s pet. However, it seems they have something deeper because they haven''t launched everything. I''m assuming they have a greater plan for this." "!!!" Alex was shocked before he narrowed his eyes. "They are trying to grasp our strength? In that case, we need to speed up our progress. The next battle must be the biggest one we will ever face." "Indeed." Lin Xingzhi nodded and looked at Alaya. "I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do. My wounds can''t be healed by any Medicinal Herbs or doctor. And my cultivation won''t be restored even if I consume pills." Alaya shook her head helplessly. "In that case, this is going to be hard." Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh and turned to Alex. "What do you think?" Alex stared at the God of Wrath and said, "Continue." "Yes. The Earth God wanted to expand and used that power to strengthen us, but I, Marcus, assure you that I would rather die than betray this universe. At the same time, when I was about to leave the room, I saw Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess come into the room. "They turned out to be the Phoenix and Dragon. Although I didn''t understand the whole concept, the Phoenix Goddess also had a pet. And they told us that the Birdie and Bats were not ready yet." Alex closed his eyes and explained the missing piece, so Marcus could explain it a bit better. "The beast that caused that era had six weapons coming from his body. It was in the form of a parasite that could turn someone into "weapons". "There were six weapons: Dragon, Phoenix, Angel, Bats, Bear, and Snake. They were the ones who killed the previous generation of God Kings." Hearing his explanation, Marcus nodded and continued. "From the way they talked, it seemed there was one Snake, two Bears, one Angel, multiple Bats, one Phoenix, and one Dragon. However, only the Dragon seemed to have no pet." "Nine, huh¡­" Alex contemplated. "We have killed one Bear and the Snake. The other Bear is the Earth God with his pet, the Battle God. Phoenix Goddess and Dragon God are our targets, but with you being here, they will know that we have known their identities. "Unfortunately, even if we revealed such a thing, no one would believe us, much less coming from me. After all, they will realize that this is just information manipulation to weaken their strength. In that case, the only way to destroy them is a direct confrontation. "However, they have seven God Kings if I don''t count on the Bats. This is already enough to suppress us." Alex narrowed his eyes. "So, it''s not possible to attack them right now." Suddenly, Marcus opened his mouth. "Goddess of Destiny¡­ Felt regret that she had chosen the wrong side and sacrificed her life to alter a few people''s fate by using her own life force, including mine. That helped me escape. "But¡­ But¡­" Marcus gritted his teeth and struck the ground with his hand, clenching his fists until it bled. However, he seemed to be suffering more pain than what the ground could offer. In his eyes, there were sadness, regret, and anger. "They killed every single person in my and Goddess of Destiny''s territories. "No one is spared. That''s why¡­ Please¡­ I don''t care if I need to be your slave¡­ I don''t care about my future. Please let me have my revenge against them." Marcus prostrated. Alex narrowed his eyes and fell silent. Lin Xingzhi and the others were waiting for his answer. Alaya seemed to have no more patience as she remembered what she felt and walked toward him. She sent a thought transmission with a serious expression. "You serious?" Alex asked with a surprised expression. "Yes." Alex contemplated for a moment before opening his system. "Alex?" Seeing the system, Lin Xingzhi obviously could see it. She wondered what kind of magic words Alaya told him to show this effect. Alex ignored her and talked to the system. "Calculate the amount of Spirit Crystals to level up Leoz to Rank 2 God." "Wait, wait, wait. Let me go back first." Lin Xingzhi tried to stop him before going inside the castle. It took her seconds before she operated the system again. [330,580,345,190 Spirit Crystals.] ''Three hundred billion, huh. How about Rank 1 God?'' [793,465,187,123 Spirit Crystals.] "Doubled¡­" Alex scratched the back of his head and sighed. Since he stored all the Spirit Crystals from Encore and the Dungeon God, he had around 1.3 Trillion Spirit Crystals which seemed to be not enough to level up two people to God Kings. Although he could still ask for money from Eulja''s treasury and Blackwade Clan, he didn''t want to get those two involved first. Hence, he agreed to Alaya''s suggestion. "Increase Leoz''s cultivation to Rank 2 God." [Confirming your request.] "Yes. Increase it." [Processing.] [Complete.] Alex then took out Leoz''s card and summoned him here. "Master?" Leoz tilted his head in confusion. However, everyone could feel that he was a Rank 2 God. Alex didn''t answer Leoz and looked at Alaya. "I agree." "Thank you." Alaya lowered her head before walking to the God of Wrath. "You brat. I will only ask you this once. Do you want to have your revenge?" "Yes," Marcus answered without hesitation. "I have gotten permission from him. You are going to follow me. I''m going to turn you to a proper God King that can rival the past God Kings since you have become his slave." Alaya nodded. "I don''t care about my pride anymore as it was crushed a few days ago. As long as I can get my revenge, I will do anything." Marcus thanked Alex and Alaya. "Good. I also want you to follow me, Leoz. I''m sure you know me, right?" Alaya smiled. Leoz nodded. "Life and Death Goddess." "Because there will be too much burden for him to handle, I will be training you to reach God King. It seems that you are close to that level already. What do you think?" She smiled. Leoz hesitated and turned to Alex. Alex only nodded his head as this was the reason he leveled him up and called him here. "I understand. I will do my best." "Good." Lin Xingzhi had returned and looked at Alex, asking. "Are you sure about this?" "Yes. I will take responsibility for it." Alex nodded and turned to Alaya. "I agree to this because it''s you." Alaya smiled. "Thank you." "I think we have settled the problem here." Alex sighed and added one more thing to Marcus. "I will be watching you, alright?" "Yes, Master." Marcus nodded with a serious expression. However, his eyes were filled with anger toward those people who had razed his entire territory to the ground. They were even worse than Alex because they planned to destroy this entire universe while Alex only killed those who offended him. Alex then signaled Alaya to end the conversation. Alaya nodded and turned around. "Alright. Let''s go boys. I will be personally teaching you." "What did she say to you, Alex?" Lin Xingzhi furrowed her eyebrows. "She promised me to train the God of Wrath until he reached the same level as the previous generation''s God Kings to help us in the next battle. He seemed to be in the same condition as God of Destruction. That''s why. "As for Leoz, he had a similarity to the God of Wrath, so training with him might boost his potential. This way, I don''t need to spend three hundred billion Spirit Crystals to level him up to God King." Alex smiled. Lin Xingzhi sighed and nodded in agreement. "Fine. Since you have agreed to it, I won''t say anything more." Alex then turned around and patted Korzan''s shoulder. "Let''s go back. We need to see the report." "Yeah." Korzan nodded. "That''s right. Please tell Firia and Sullivan that we are going tomorrow." "Sure thing." After settling the problem, the trio finally returned to the castle with a relieved expression. Chapter 1127: Pill World The next day, Alex, Firia, William, and Sullivan stood in front of the castle with Lin Xingzhi on the opposite side. "Well, Sullivan will be hiding in Firia''s shadow while William becomes our "surface" protector, right?" Alex smiled and turned to them. "Yep." Lin Xingzhi nodded. "I think with both of them, you will have enough force to retreat even in the dire situation." "I believe so. I just don''t want to kill someone right now, but I feel like it''s impossible." Alex sighed, wondering how many arrogant young masters would appear before him later. After all, Firia was famous on that planet. "Hmm, I am not sure myself. I think Firia status has been confirmed and spread around, so people won''t think that we destroy them without any basis or because you are purposely hiding your identity." Lin Xingzhi shook her head helplessly. "But there are always fools out there, so it''s up to you. If they don''t like it, just kill them." "Yep, that''s what I''m planning to do." Alex nodded. "The competition will start in a month. You can go there and search for medicinal herbs or whatever while trying to work in your coordination." "Noted. We can reach there in one day, but since Firia is here, I will slow down a bit, so two days." "And those two made a bet, you know. I overheard them." William and Sullivan froze as they never expected that someone would find out. "Bet?" Alex narrowed his eyes, staring at Alex. "Yes, we were betting how long it would take for a fool to offend you in that world. My bet was two days while Sullivan chose three days." William answered with a weird expression. "¡­" Alex twitched his eyebrows and asked, "What is the stake?" "Personal wine." Firia searched the Inventory and took out a good wine and smiled. "I bet this wine that Alex will meet a fool on the first day." "Oi." Alex''s eyebrows twitched before gently chopping her head. "Ehehe¡­" "It seems I was wrong to even go easy on you guys¡­" Alex shook his head helplessly and said with a cold tone. "We''re going at full speed." Firia was clueless about this while Sullivan and William had been told by the Elemental Gods about it, so their faces became pale. Alex snapped his finger and said, "Off we go." "Be careful out there." Lin Xingzhi smiled and waved her hand. Alex nodded and activated the Teleportation Array, going straight to the Pill World. As one would expect, the trio was shaken due to this teleportation speed. They never thought that the full speed was this crazy, making them want to throw up. Seeing Firia having cold sweat, his heart couldn''t take it anymore and stopped for a while before slowing down his speed. They arrived at the planet one and a half days later as they entered the world without hesitation. Landing in a forest, Alex asked Firia. "Where are we right now?" "This is Great Rua Forest. There is nothing to be seen here other than the scenery since this world doesn''t have monsters anymore." Alex nodded. "I have heard the information. It''s a world filled with only alchemists. They can trade herbs, refine pills, and so on." "Yeah. Hence, if we want to go somewhere, I think it''s best to go toward the east. That''s where the tournament will be held." Firia pointed her forefinger to the front. Alex nodded. "Should we fly then? It will only take less than a minute to go around the world anyway." Sullivan then walked toward Firia as he expanded her shadow. "Then, I will be hiding inside." "I will be counting on you, Sullivan." Firia gave permission to him before looking at Alex. "Yes." "Alright, let''s go." They nodded at each other before disappearing from the place. ¡­ In the city Firia mentioned, there were so many people walking around as if everywhere was a store. There were even some that opened a stall or spread it on the ground for people to choose. However, it was hard to cheat someone in this place, considering almost every single person in this place was an Alchemist. Alex, Firia, and William had finally arrived in this place, staring at the grand gate that seemed to welcome anyone. From the sky, this city was massive since it stretched to the horizon, becoming the biggest city for trading, especially everything related to Alchemy. "Let''s enter. Do you have a place you recommend to stay?" Alex asked. "There are two options. If you want to live somewhere cheap, I can recommend one place. If you want to live with ten million Spirit Crystal a day, I also have a place." Alex thought for a moment, thinking, ''With one trillion Spirit Crystals in my Inventory, I don''t think it will be a burden to spend three hundred million. That place must be good and protect privacy well, so I guess we should take it.'' "Good. Let''s go to the expensive one." Alex nodded. "We will only stay here for a month anyway." "Sure." Firia nodded and said, "Follow me." Alex and William agreed and followed her from behind. Meanwhile, Firia kept talking about the city and its perms. Alex took a note while looking at them with his Spirit Eyes. Suddenly, a huge tower piercing the sky came into his vision. "That''s the pill tower." She smiled. "Basically, you can trade high-quality stuff there since the elders in that tower will need to check your stuff first before selling them. There are a few floors for auctions as well that are running daily. "And that''s where we are going to compete." She pointed at the tower, feeling nostalgic. "I have been training there, so I know quite a bit. That''s also where the inn is." "I see." Alex nodded. "Let''s go to the tower then." "By the way, are you going to take advancement rank? If I am not wrong, you have never bothered about it again, right? Isn''t it fine for formality and identity since I believe you can just show the badge to everyone, telling them you are an Alchemist and getting the benefits?" asked Firia while recalling all the benefits that she got for becoming an Alchemist. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I don''t have a problem, but I wonder if I should show my array as well." "I don''t think so. The point of the test is Alchemy. Even if you show it, you won''t get any special benefit." "Is that so?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "The system is complicated." "Yeah. Anyway, I have my badge here." She took out a golden nine-pointed star badge. "This means that I can make a High Rank 9 Pill which is the strongest here." "I see. Let''s go then. I won''t have a problem making that. I will probably make a White Ash Pill again since there is one more set of ingredients." "Ah, right. Sister Xingzhi harvested them not long ago." She nodded. "This is a hot commodity since all of them have Fire Element. We can trade it for something good." "Exactly. It''s not like I can use it for the second time, so it''s a waste to see the ingredients lying around." "Sure. Let''s go to the inn first before we do anything else." Firia waved her hand to end the conversation as they headed straight to the tower. When they arrived at the tower''s entrance, Alex finally saw how big this tower was. The size of one floor alone was as big as his castle. And it seemed to have a hundred floors. "The first floor is for reception and inquiry. After that, it''s the auction halls. There are around a hundred auction halls here and they all run daily. That''s how busy this town is. As for the next ten floors, they are where they sell anything from pills to medicinal herbs verified by the elders, so no one can cheat. "Another fifty floors are used to host Alchemy Competition, Refining Rooms, Testing Rooms. All the remaining floors other than the very top floors are used for the lodging. The room I said earlier is right below the top floor, which is used for the office to maintain this planet." Alex nodded. "I don''t mind since I can see a huge amount of Spiritual Energy inside the tower." "Yep. It seems they are using half the profit they get to support the entire tower with this amount of Spiritual Energy. I''m sure it''s enough to even be used as cultivation resources, right?" "Yes." "Anyway, let''s go inside." She smiled and clung to her hand like a couple, entering the tower. The place was as busy as the street. Everything inside the tower could only be described as extravagant. He simply had no words. Even the receptionists who handled everyone were peerless beauties. "By the way, you can even hire a woman here to take care of everything you need here." "I am not going to hire someone, you know." Alex glanced at her, who had no change in expression. "Of course, I know. I just wanted to tell you." Firia shrugged. "I can satisfy you better than them. I guarantee it." "Haha." Alex chuckled before Firia gently led him to the receptionists that handled the lodging rooms. They were separated by floors and every floor seemed to have someone standing by. It might be due to the price, there was no one standing on the line like the other floors. Alex suddenly halted his step and looked around with a serious expression. "Alex¡­ What are you doing?" "I am just searching for potential trouble. This place is the easiest one to show off your wealth, you know. And you are more beautiful than them, so I''m just afraid that someone is trying to get you." "Well, isn''t it good? I will win the bet." "And I need to kill people here, you know. If the situation is not handled properly, I will be forced to raise the entire army to slaughter more innocent people." Alex sighed. "Fine, fine." Firia pouted and gently led him to the receptionist, asking, "Is there any empty room?" The female offered the greatest smile she had, knowing that these two seemed to be wealthy. Unfortunately, she felt a bit inferior to Firia. Observing Alex''s features in a split second, she bowed to them, showing her cleavage to Alex while answering politely. "We have many rooms ready." Firia nodded and took out a Space Ring, handing it to the receptionist. "Thirty days. I believe it should be enough, right?" Alex tilted his head and asked. "You pay?" "From your pocket of course." She stuck her tongue out. Alex shrugged since the "pocket" she was talking about was his Inventory. It was the greatest pocket of all time. The receptionist''s eyebrows twitched. She never expected someone to be this wealthy. Spending three hundred million Spirit Crystals just for lodging was huge even for people from big influences. Hence, Alex''s identity must be a bigger one. There was a possibility that Alex was a scion of someone who ruled over an entire planet. At least, his father should be a Rank 2 God or something. Such a man in front of her, who didn''t want to try their luck? She thought about seducing him if he was alone, but it seemed to be not possible with Firia. "I understand. Do you need anything else? We have many servi¡ª" Before she finished, Firia cut her off and said, "We don''t need anything." "¡­" The receptionist wished for Firia to go off, but Alex already nodded her head, telling her that he didn''t need such a service. She could only feel bitter while serving them politely. After all, even if she couldn''t do anything to Alex, offending him would be the last thing she wanted to do. "This is the token to enter your room. Let me guide you to the room." She smiled and stretched her hand to the door behind her. When she opened it, they found one hundred doors that had been numbered. They arrived in front of door number 96 as the receptionist opened it with her token. "This is a personal elevator that can only be activated with your token. There is also a transmission to notify us if you need anything in your room." Firia then led him to the elevator while William remained silent, following them quietly. She waved her hand, closed the door and said, "I have visited this place a few times, so you don''t need to guide us there." Chapter 1128: Acquaintance After arriving in their room, Sullivan came out and looked around to check if there was something that could potentially leak any information about them. Meanwhile, Alex looked around, greeted by the living room filled with both couches and tables, and walked through them, heading straight to the living room. "There are five rooms inside. It''s quite big." "That''s why I am suggesting this place." Firia smiled and rested on the couch. Alex, on the other hand, walked toward the window and looked outside, getting a view of the town. He then turned around and looked at the elevator that brought them here. "To think there is a personal elevator, I am impressed." "Hahaha. It''s amazing, right? Even I don''t know how it works since normal construction logic doesn''t apply to this structure." Firia laughed. Alex shrugged. "We did teleport once." "I see." She nodded with a serious expression before leaning on the couch, relaxing her body. "Still, you don''t need anything, William?" "Not really." He shook his head. "Really? How about I order a beauty to come here? One for Sullivan as well." Firia smirked, teasing them. "Please don''t say such a joke, Milady. Or His Majesty will be the one getting into trouble." William scratched the back of his head while chuckling together with Sullivan, knowing they would probably send the women to Alex either way. Firia shrugged. "And what are you going to do next? We will probably go back and forth between this room and the refining place. Of course, there is a need to get an identity for Alex." "When do you want to do it?" Alex asked, thinking that it was probably better not to waste any time. "It''s up to you. I''m ready whenever you''re ready." "Then, how about now? I want to check the refining room too." "Sure. We can go after Sullivan finishes his job. After all, there is no way these two will let us go unprotected." Firia sighed. "I''m thankful though." "Haha." Alex laughed and waited for Sullivan. The moment he finished, he returned to Firia''s shadow as William followed them again to the testing area. They soon reached that floor. It turned out that the place was also crowded. "The Pill Tower is issuing a universal badge for Alchemist that can be used for identification in every single world that knows about this Pill World. That''s why they want this badge. Though, there is supposed to be little to no people that will sign up since it''s the highest level." Alex nodded in understanding. "Sure thing." They entered the testing hall and found many counters with many alchemists trying to get into this place. To avoid any problem, Firia took out her badge and put it on her clothes as she led the way. The people who noticed her quickly made way for her. "Look. That''s the highest grade of Alchemist. Who is she?" "Don''t you know? She is Firia Merona." "Eulja''s Genius Alchemist?" "That''s right." "Then who is the young man beside her? She seems to be walking behind him." "I don''t know. Maybe a high-ranking person from Eulja?" Although Alex''s identity had been spread all over the universe, unless they came from a big influence with enough information to even tell everything to the cannon fodders, there was no way they would recognize Alex even without his disguise. However, unlike Alex, William was still known to a few. "Is that Eulja''s Center Guardian, William?" "Why is he here? Is he protecting the young man?" "No, no. It must be that Firia Merona. We need to search for more information about that young man." "That''s right." All of them looked hesitant because someone Firia followed would surely be a person of high status. There was no way they dared to offend this kind of person. The two walked without a care of their surroundings, heading straight to the counter that seemed to be handling the process of Nine Pointed Star Badge. Firia suddenly walked faster and caught up with Alex the moment she found a middle-aged man who was watching the counter. "Ah, you are Mister Endo. How are you?" "Oh? You are Little Firia. It''s been a while since you are here. How come you are here? There is no way you are going to visit me, right?" "Of course not." Firia shamelessly admitted it before turning to Alex. "This is Mister Endo. The one who processed my Alchemist Rank. He is a fair guy, so there''s no way someone will create trouble for you." Alex nodded and looked at Endo with a smile. "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you. May I know your name? Since Little Firia, who is the same rank as us, actually brought you here, you must be someone important, right?" "You truly don''t know him, Mister Endo?" Firia tilted her head in confusion. "When was the last time you followed news about the universe?" "I am not sure. Ten years, I think? I was too occupied with my refining skill, so I didn''t have time. This is literally the second day since I came out." "No wonder." She shook her head helplessly before saying, "Anyway, this is Alexander Sirius, my husband." "Alexander Sirius? Why do I feel like I have heard that name somewhere?" Endo closed his eyes for a second before scanning his appearance for real. Suddenly, an image flashed in his mind. It was a very old image, but everything matched perfectly with the current one. His golden hair and eyes, the aura of a fighter¡­ Everything. "The Spirit God?" Endo instinctively stood up, cupped his hand, and bowed politely. "That was rude of me. It''s not my intention to be rude to you, Your Excellency, the Spirit God." Alex waved his hand as if telling him it wasn''t a big deal. "It''s fine. I don''t like formality anyway. As long as I don''t get into trouble, let''s just chill." "Ahaha, I understand. Still, it''s my honor to see you." "Likewise." Luckily, Alex managed to see it coming and used his Sound Insulation Array to prevent his shout from informing people and made things worse. Although he didn''t bother to hide his identity, it didn''t mean he wanted to become the center of attention, so treatment like this was necessary. "I see. So you are the wife of the Spirit God." Endo looked at Firia helplessly. "No wonder." "Hehe." Firia stopped from giving him information about how they met or something along the lines. "May I know for what reason you come here? I will try to help you solve it." "He is going to take the test." She smiled. "What? Test? Okay, I will arrange the test. By the way, what is his level? I will ask the person in charge to arrange it immediately." "You are the person in charge, you know." Firia chuckled, hinting at Alex''s Alchemy Skill. "What did you say?" Endo dropped his jaw and looked at Alex with a dumbfounded expression. His face became pale as he never thought that the Spirit God actually became an Alchemist. This became even more ridiculous when he remembered that the Spirit God was never an Alchemist to begin with. "Yes. I am going to do it. For the test, I''m prepared to make White Ash Pill." Alex smiled, confirming what she said. "White Ash Pill¡­ The only pill in high demand for alchemists, but always short in supply." Endo gasped. "I understand. I will arrange it immediately. Please follow me." Endo nodded politely before turning around, asking someone to take over his place. He then guided Alex to another room where there was a huge Alchemy Pot there with a few chairs. Firia smiled and explained. "This place is the testing room. You will be judged by five people, including the one in charge. The requirement is to make a High Rank 9 Pill. You need a pill that can be split into three in one refining. As long as you can make two of them in high quality, you are good to go." "I see." Alex nodded with a smile. "Wait a minute, Little Firia¡­ If I am not wrong, you have a Sacrificial Fire from a Pure Element, right? That¡­" Endo realized something and looked at Alex as he took a few step backs, looking at a monster. There was no doubt the source of her fire came from him. In other words, the Spirit God had a Pure Fire. "Hehe. Cool, right?" She smirked. "And with you coming here and taking this test, are you going to participate in the tournament?" Endo asked with a pale face. "Yes." "I see. This will be a clash between two Pure Fire." "Geh. That guy comes here again?" "Although his talent is a bit behind yours, he is good too. That''s why he has become the winning candidate for this battle. In the last competition, you were a runner up and he was third, right?" "Yes. He just barely reached third because of an inhumane act." She shrugged. "Well, it''s an official Alchemy Technique, so we can''t really judge it. Two elders from here are using that technique too, so it''s inevitable." Endo shook his head helplessly. "But since you are joining this battle, it''s going to be the most hyped competition in the last one hundred years." "Ah, he is not going to refine the pill. I am." Firia waved her hand while correcting his words. "Eh?" Endo was once again stunned, wondering if he heard it right. After all, she indirectly implied that Alex was also well-versed in array. He was one of the rarest types of people in Alchemy World. The one who was good at Alchemy and Array at the same time, allowing him to use both of them to make a better pill and array. And from the way he looked and his energy, he seemed to be around Firia''s age. If he thought that the Spirit God would use Sword and Spear at the same time, he truly had overturned the common sense of people. After all, the one before him was a Rank 4 God, far stronger than Firia, who was rumored to be one of the greatest geniuses of all time. Firia understood what was in his head as she raised her forefinger and put it in front of her mouth. "Shh. Don''t tell anyone about his identity, alright? Let those who know him recognize him but just keep everything a secret for the time being. We don''t want trouble, you see." "I-I understand." He repeatedly nodded his head while sweating. "I will call the other elders. You can prepare the ingredients first. After that, please leave the room or watch from the side." "I already know the procedure, so you don''t need to worry about us." Firia waved her hand with a smile. Endo ultimately nodded and left the room in a hurry. Meanwhile, Firia started explaining what he should do in this test before going to the side to watch the elders'' reactions. Chapter 1129: Rank 9 Alchemist A moment later, five elders, including Endo, who seemed to have the same amount of skill as Firia in Alchemy, sat in front of him. Endo thought for a moment, remembering what Firia said earlier. After thinking the right words, he stood up and cupped his hand. "This is the test for High Rank 9 Alchemist. According to you, you are going to make the White Ash Pill, correct?" Alex nodded. "Yes." "Uoh?" The other elders also knew about the benefit the pill could offer, so they became curious about it. They thought it was just an arrogant young man that didn''t know his place, but with Firia guaranteeing his identity and skill as well as the pill he had chosen, it was better to not say anything for the time being. They just hoped that Alex didn''t waste the rare ingredients of the White Ash Pill because they were too precious for a Fire Elemental User like them. No one would ever reject the opportunity to increase their cultivation stage by one after all. In fact, this also became the reason why Firia suggested this pill to him. She didn''t like the elders to be looking down on him just like how they used to when she took the test here. "You may begin as soon as you are ready." Endo stretched his hand, allowing Alex to start. Alex nodded politely before releasing his fire. Suddenly, they felt the natural suppression from the Pure Fire, albeit they soon noticed the difference. They fell down on their knees as the flame inside their body revolved crazily. "Pure Fire. And this is stronger than Rio''s Pure Fire." One of the elders drew a gasp and looked at Alex with fear in his eyes. No wonder Firia would bring him here. Alex ignored them because he had yet to use his Fire Authority. If he were to use it now, the entire tower might need to kneel like how the former Fire God was feared by all Fire Elemental Users. They simply couldn''t handle him the moment he released his Godly Pure Fire. And this was also why the alliance sent all their Fire Element Users toward Eulja instead of on the main battlefield. They were simply useless and became the hole that could be taken advantage of by Alex. At the same time, it also made the Metal God''s decision easier. Instead of letting them stay away from the battlefield, it was better to send them to another place. Unfortunately for him, Aria seemed to be reading that move and told Alex about it. That was why he sent all his wives to bring the reinforcement. Enough with the war, Alex''s focus returned to the Alchemy Furnace before him. He took out all the ingredients at once before tossing them into the furnace. Of course, there was no way that a single set of ingredients could make three pills at once. He needed to refine three pills at the same time, treating it as one. That was what Firia told him. He then warmed the ingredients up before starting to refine them. After considering several things, he chose not to use his array during this process and only relied on his Pure Fire. Even so, the quality of the pill shouldn''t be affected. Only his refining speed should be slower. He separated all the ingredients from each other while treating the same ingredients at the same place. Slowly but surely, the same ingredients were mixed up with each other, turning into one set of ingredients that had three times of efficacy. This was the first step to turn a recipe for one pill into three pills at once. Obviously, this required a high degree of skill. Although Alex''s refining technique wasn''t the best, he should have slightly less skill than Firia. The refining process took around two hours before he felt that the ingredients were ready for the next step. Because there were no impurities needed to extract, Alex quickly skipped to the next part. He started harmonizing the energy, which ultimately had been suppressed by Alex''s Pure Fire this whole time, so it became easier to control them. He mixed them up before burning them until they were ready to be fused. It took another ten minutes before Alex decreased the temperature and closed the lid. His Pure Fire turned into a spiral as it began mixing all the ingredients inside. Alex smiled and waited a bit more until they started to fuse and burst the flame to melt the pill once more. At that time, the pill became even easier to split. Alex split the pills without a problem and decreased the temperature even further for the pill to solidify. With a wave of his hand, the lid was opened. The sweet pill aroma permeated the room as they truly believed that Alex managed to succeed. However, their shocks didn''t end there as he summoned three Perfect Purity White Ash Pills out of the furnace at the same time. "What? He managed to do three and all of them are perfect purity?" Endo dropped his jaw to the ground. "Because of the lack of ingredients, it''s hard to even practice this type of pill, let alone creating one. "And those who were capable of doing so needed thousands of years'' worth of experience after doing so many trials and errors. Yet, he could do such a thing this young?" Alex only smiled as he truly had undergone so many practices for this pill inside a Simulation Room. If they knew there was an array as powerful as that, they would surely ask for it no matter the price. Unfortunately, the requirement for that array was his Unique Space Element, so they couldn''t use it even if they had the array in their hand. "I didn''t cheat. I believed you all had been observing me this whole time," stated Alex before asking, "So, what''s the verdict?" Endo looked at the others'' expressions, knowing that the verdict was clear. He just couldn''t believe that Firia''s husband was more ridiculous than he could''ve ever imagined. ''Ah, I really want to gather all the information about the Spirit God right now. I will surely do it after this test.'' Endo let out a long sigh and opened his mouth. "You pass. You are now officially a High Rank 9 Alchemist." "Haha, Young Man, I''m wondering whether you can sell me one of those pills? I can pay you three billion Spirit Crystals." "Wait. Three billion Spirit Crystals for a White Ash Pill is too low. This pill is a dream pill for an Alchemist. I can pay you four billion Spirit Crystals." Another elder cut in and offered a higher one. Alex shook his head and sighed. "I will be auctioning two of them. I still need the other one." "This¡­" The elders simply had no words to say. If he truly auctioned it, depending on the promotion, the price might rise up to ten Billion Spirit Crystals each. It was like a godsend pill that could increase one''s cultivation by one realm after all. Suddenly, Firia''s voice echoed in his mind, asking, ''Why? We don''t need it, right?'' ''Just in case. We can go around this tower or even this world to check if we find something amusing.'' ''So, you are planning to get such a thing by using this? I am sure that nothing is close enough to that, but I guess you can do it for a while.'' ''Yes. If I don''t find something good, I will put it in the auction on the last day.'' Firia agreed with his arrangement and turned to the five elders. "Elder, I believe you have the badge ready, right?" "Yes. But we need his blood to make it personally his." Endo nodded and looked at Alex with a scared expression. Asking the Spirit God for his blood, wasn''t that the same as challenging the death itself? However, Alex had no intention of arguing with someone here, so he agreed without hesitation. "Alright. Where?" Endo took out a badge and presented it to Alex. "Here." Alex nodded and cut his skin with his nail, letting the blood drop to the badge. It soon glowed as if the badge was enveloped by white light. But that soon disappeared because of the lack of energy. "As long as you have this badge, no one should bother you, considering you are one of the highest rank Alchemists. Besides, there is one feature that you can apply to show that this badge is real. "Every single badge is accompanied by a certain array inside it. The only way to activate that array was to inject the same blood that had been registered inside. That was why you could simply prove that you were the real owner with just another drop of blood. "This effect would become permanent even if you''re dead to prevent anyone from acting like one of us. I''m sure that with how young you are, there are many people who can''t believe your identity, so this function can easily solve everything as long as they know about Pill World. "Of course, almost all of them knew that we tried to be as fair as possible, increasing our credibility even more. Hence, this badge will become the shield that protects you in any kind of situation." Endo presented the badge to him. Alex carefully took the badge with a nod. "Thank you. I appreciate it." Endo nodded and stepped back. Meanwhile, Firia walked closer to him while giggling. "You have finally finished the assessment. It''s not that hard, right?" "Haha, I shouldn''t answer that question." Alex shook his head helplessly before thinking, "Where should we go next? Should we put the pills in the auction hall first?" "Yeah. I think we can hire them to promote this pill. Although it requires money, it''s so little to the point you don''t care about it if you end up selling one. And it''s not like you need to create a banner. We only need a single announcement inside the tower and the rumor will start spreading all over the world. All the wealthy people will surely participate." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Sure. Let''s do it your way." Firia then continued with a thought transmission. ''Though, thank you for shocking them. I enjoyed their reactions. They were literally speechless.'' ''Haha. It''s fine. You don''t need to joke about them anymore even though I know you have a grudge. Maybe, it was them looking down on you, but it was all in the past¡­'' ''I understand since you put it that way.'' Firia nodded with a pout. "Anyway, let''s go outside. We will go to the auction house right now." "Sure." Alex agreed and signaled William to follow them. Before leaving the room, he clasped his hand to the five elders. "Thank you for your time. I really need to go, five elders." "Y-yes." Chapter 1130: Negotiation Alex then went toward the floor for the auction hall, albeit he simply followed Firia this whole time since she knew everything about this tower. Surprisingly, they didn''t enter any auction halls. Instead, they went to another room where they registered the things they wanted to auction. The room was spacious since many Alchemists wanted to sell their things in an auction. However, depending on their advertisement, their pills would go unnoticed. There was also luck involved since a big seller might put something good in the auction where the entire list of that particular auction would be benefited as well. And this might happen because of Alex. As for those who weren''t lucky enough, if they gave up selling the items inside the Auction Hall, they simply went to another floor to exchange their things with other people. In other words, direct selling. Most of the people who were spreading their items on the street were such people. Alex looked at the irony and sighed. "What''s a good time to auction it?" "I believe it''s around three days to a week before the competition starts. Not only will it prevent anyone who participates in the competition from using it because there''s not enough time to refine the pill''s efficacy, but the people, who want to watch the competition, have come as well. "As you know, there are many influential people coming to this competition, simply seeking for a talented Alchemist they could groom. This competition was indeed good for such a thing. "After that, if possible, they want to make a good connection with the top ten or top three since they mostly come from a major influence or have a good skill," Firia explained with a poker face, remembering how she was swarmed by people back then. "Well, I''m not interested in doing that, so I guess we will put it on the third and second day before the competition. I am sure that the first one will bring so much hype, raising the second pill''s price." Alex smiled. "I am not good at this. Maybe you should ask Sherry about this. After all, she seems to have a talent in Business. Even Korzan praised her nonstop about her ability in this area. Maybe Eulja will become a business empire like the Blackwade Clan." She shrugged. "Ahaha. It''s fine. I am not trying to get that much. Twenty billion Spirit Crystals are enough for me." Alex smiled and stretched his hand. "Let''s go." Firia nodded and led the way to the counter. "Excuse me." Firia ran to a counter that had no people lining up. "Yes. How may I help you?" The receptionist politely asked and saw Firia''s badge. In that instant, she knew that something good would be auctioned soon. "I want to put pills in the auction. Can I set a date?" "Of course." She nodded with a smile. "We have so many rooms, so Senior can choose any date you like." "Alright. Then, I will choose the third day and second day before the competition. Is that alright?" "Definitely. May I know what you would like to put in the auction?" "Well, it''s not mine." Firia shook her head while glancing at Alex. The receptionist first thought that Alex was Firia''s disciple, so she thought this must be a doting master. However, the moment she noticed the golden nine-pointed star badge on his chest that Firia asked him to put on, that thought completely vanished. No doubt that these two were a couple. Just imagining a love between two Highest Rank Alchemists alone made her shudder. Her eyes then loitered to William, finding his strong cultivation, which was even stronger than Alex. She was convinced that William was their bodyguard. She lowered her head as if asking Alex once again but in a more polite way. Alex took out a White Ash Pill, which soon got recognized by the receptionist. "This is White Ash Pill?!" Alex didn''t use the Sound Insulation Array this time because he wanted the others to hear it. They would soon spread this rumor, so that meant more free marketing. "What?" "Did she say White Ash Pill?" "Someone is going to auction the White Ash Pill?" "What quality?" "When is the auction?" The people became even more curious as Alex before William released a bit of his power, stopping them from bothering Alex. Meanwhile, Alex asked, "So, can you put it in an auction?" "Ehm¡­ Please enter our VIP room first to discuss this. White Ash Pill is truly beyond my jurisdiction. I need to call an elder for this." She politely stretched her hand to guide Alex to another room, so no one could bother them. The room seemed to be surrounded by an Array that prevented any interference from outside, so it was a pretty safe room to discuss something. Alex and Firia took a seat while William stood behind them while the receptionist called an elder to process this situation. "So, what should we do after this? Taking a stroll in the tower and outside stalls? If we don''t find something good, we will just use the remaining time to train inside the Refining Room?" Alex asked. "Yeah. Don''t forget to sell the remaining White Ash Pill. I mean, we don''t need it for the time being. And in ten years, Sister Lin Xingzhi could harvest the tree again. With our success rate, we won''t waste any materials, allowing us to gain a good source of income." "Indeed." Alex nodded and looked up. "Though I am curious about the competition. Will you tell me about it?" When she was about to answer his question, an old man opened the door, entering the room with a serious expression. He was also a Highest Rank Alchemist, so they were equal. "Nice to meet you. My name is Ethan. I will be handling your White Ash Pill." "There are two." Alex smiled and put out the second White Ash Pill, showing it to him. "That¡­ That appearance¡­ It''s a Perfect Purity White Ash Pill!" Ethan drew a gasp and looked at Alex. For such a young Alchemist, he had the ability to refine two Perfect Purity White Ash Pills? However, when she recognized Firia next to Alex, he somehow understood how it could happen. Firia''s talent was already recognized by so many people as one of the youngest respected Alchemists. That Sacrificial Fire of her had truly brought such an impact to the entire Pill World. If these two were a couple, he could imagine how these two made such pills. He then cupped his hand and asked, "Then may I know what you want to request? Such as the date, the treatment, and other things." "I don''t have many demands. I just want the pills to be sold on the second and third days before the competition. After that, I would like to pay the advertisement service," answered Firia, acting as Alex''s secretary. "I understand. The date can be arranged. However, what kind of advertisement service? We provide¡ª" Before he finished, Firia cut in with a smile. "The highest one. I want the tower to broadcast it to the people inside this tower." The elder thought for a moment before explaining. "Are you sure? This requires one billion Spirit Crystals per shout-out. After all, using this advertisement means we are putting our credibility on the line. There is also a chance that we''re annoying our customers." Alex could understand such a price. With so many influences coming to this place, if an elder abuses their right as an elder of this tower, many will complain. The Pill Tower surely can''t hold against so many influences, so they need to be careful. "Well, we have past experiences you see. To take revenge, he spent all his money just to insult a person. The elder who allowed such a thing to happen had also been banned. That''s why unless it''s something important, we rarely use it. Of course, I can guarantee you that your White Ash Pills are qualified to do that." The elder assured him with a smile. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Sure. Just tell them we are holding an auction for White Ash Pills along with the date. I won''t be observing the auction, so if everything''s solved, can the money be delivered to my room?" "Of course. We will ensure its safety as well." "That''s good." Alex nodded before taking out a Space Ring. Suddenly, the elder declined it by saying, "Ah, you don''t need to. Since we have taken custody of your White Ash Pills, we can subtract the cost of the advertisement from the pills revenue. At the same time, you''re not allowed to withdraw the pills." "It''s a long time, you know." Alex narrowed his eyes. "Of course. There is a contract specifically for it and it''s been recognized by many. So, if something happens, we will compensate for it. If we don''t do something like that, you certainly have the right to make a fuss about it outside, breaking our reputation. Of course, offending Eulja is the last thing we want to do." The elder smiled while glancing at Firia. Alex thought for a moment and turned his head, asking Firia''s opinion. After he got a nod from her, he handed the pills to him. The elder then took out the two contracts, one for him and one for the Pill Tower. He read it once and agreed to the terms. They used a drop of their blood to sign the contract since this was the best choice other than the Universal Oath. "Then, I will be leaving these two pills on you." Alex smiled and stretched his hand. "The pleasure is mine." He shook Alex''s hand. Of course, Alex didn''t forget to check the entire thing with his Spirit Eyes. If someone dared to cheat him of his White Ash Pills, he didn''t mind bringing Eulja Army here. At the same time, they would be terrorized by the Godly Pure Fire. The Pill Tower surely couldn''t operate with such a suppression. He then rose from the seat and left the room. "William?" Alex asked after putting a Sound Insulation Array. "I have gotten everything, Your Majesty." William gave a thumb up as he recorded everything with the Memory Crystal. "Alright. Hopefully, they are not fools." Alex shrugged and smiled. "Let''s go outside then." The two agreed as Firia eagerly led him outside the tower. Although it was to search for something useful to Alex or his wives, Firia considered it as a date with him. Unfortunately, Alex couldn''t find something that piqued his interest and returned to the Auction Floor to sell the third pill. Firia also agreed to that choice since all his wives, who had Fire Element, had benefited from the White Ash Pill. Since the world was about to turn dark, they returned to the room and took a rest. Chapter 1131: A Weird Fool A month later, Alex and Firia came out of the room. They had been training this whole time in that refining room and returned to their original room only to rest. "It''s finally time." Alex smirked. "Indeed. Let''s go. We need to line up to sign up for the competition." Firia smiled and pulled him to the elevator door. "Eh? You haven''t signed us up?" Alex widened his eyes in surprise. "Ah, now that I think about it, I haven''t filled you with anything. I will tell you about it on the way. Let''s go." Alex nodded and followed her as quickly as possible. William also followed them without fail while looking around, checking the Spiritual Energy around the area. They went down to the ninetieth floor and saw so many people lining up. However, Firia dragged him to another place. "We''re supposed to¡ª" Alex opened his mouth, only to be stopped by Firia. "Nope. That''s for normal people. Since we have the most expensive room, we have our own line. You can say it''s a benefit as well." She smirked. "Did I not say it? For a normal person, the benefit isn''t really worth the price. But for people like us, it''s good since we can stay until the last minute." "I see." Alex nodded and remembered two days ago when someone brought the money to their room. From the three pills, they surprisingly got a whopping forty billion Spirit Crystals, so three hundred million were just a mere pocket change. "Haha, I thought you were a spendthrift." Alex joked, teasing Firia. Firia only pouted and shrugged. "I am not. I won''t suggest you something so foolish unless I really don''t know about it. Since I have understood most features of this tower, I suggest it for you." "Haha, sorry sorry." Alex smiled and followed her, passing all the people who lined up. Suddenly, they entered another hall where they could see the end of the first line. Meanwhile, he could see a few other counters that seemed to have little to no people. That must be for the wealthy people. Firia brought him to a counter that had no one other than the staff in it. "I would like to register. There are still a few hours left, right?" "Yes. I need your name and Alchemy Ranking." The staff nodded and politely handed a paper for her to fill. Firia nodded and wrote her name as the Alchemist and Alex''s name as the supporter. Their influence was the same and there were no other details needed other than her rank. After presenting the badge, the staff nodded her head and took out an orb. "For the requirement, we need to confirm your age since this competition is only for those under one thousand years old." Both Alex and Firia placed their hands on the orb, showing their real age according to their bone. The staff seemed to know nothing about them and proceeded to the next step. "I have confirmed everything. This is the token for participation. Congratulations, you are one of the seeded pairs in this tournament." She presented a blue token before registering their name. "Thank you." Alex took the token and threw it into the Inventory. However, the moment they turned around, a red-haired young man walked toward them. Next to him was a Rank 5 God young woman and Rank 3 God middle-aged man. "Well, well, to think I can meet the genius Firia Merona. It''s an honor to meet you, Milady." The red-haired young man kneeled in front of her and was about to kiss her hand. However, Firia slapped that hand away and frowned. It was like a custom back in the Acacia Kingdom in a noble gathering, but when she had entered Eulja and became Alex''s wife, she felt nothing but disgust when someone tried to take advantage like this. "Please respect yourself. If not, you should prepare for the consequences." She released a bit of her killing intent. The middle-aged man behind him walked forward only to be stopped by a sword. He turned around and saw William, a Rank 2 God, stopped him with a smug smile. "You should stop. I don''t like to spill blood here." Alex frowned and asked, "Who is he?" "Someone who uses Pure Fire. His name is Roy Lindao." "So, he doesn''t know your status." Alex narrowed his eyes when he activated his Spirit Eyes. He found that his cultivation was only a Rank 4 God like him, but he found someone''s energy inside him. The fire was as intense as his Godly Pure Fire, but from a different type, making him wonder where he got such a fire. However, he didn''t want to make a move just yet. He needed to investigate this person before everything else. ''Xingzhi. Can you investigate his background? I don''t know why but this type of energy feels like it can counter my Pure Fire.'' [On it. Do you think he has a connection with the Phoenix?] ''I can''t answer that question. I will try to rile him up a bit while you prepare our army to set off.'' [I understand. I will prepare for it.] ''Sure.'' Meanwhile, Firia only shrugged, which showed the answer. As expected, Alex turned around and saw him fuming when Firia talked to him. He pointed his forefinger at him and shouted. "Who are you?! What is your relationship with her?" "Ah, I know I have grasped everything about him." Alex facepalmed, put his hand on Firia''s shoulder and pulled her closer. "Let''s not waste our time here. I am tired of conflict." "Sure." Firia shrugged and followed him. "You!" "What you? I just want to warn you that everything you do will affect your world''s survival. You should know what it means to touch someone from Eulja." Alex narrowed his eyes and released the full amount of his killing intent, alarming every single person on that floor. "You don''t even do proper research and talk big. Huft." Alex then looked at Firia. "I feel like your status has been spread around, right? Although not many are present, it''s enough to be spread around." "Yes. Unfortunately, Pure Fire seems to be too big of a deal." Firia nodded and let out a long sigh. "Well, maybe you should destroy another few planets so everyone, even the most clueless person, will know you." "Who cares. I have too many things going on. Don''t have time to handle a simple thing like that." Alex shrugged and shouted. "William, we''re going." Hearing that order, William looked at the middle-aged man for a while before sheathing his sword. He then followed them without saying anything. When he saw that the young man tried to reach Alex''s shoulder in anger, William grabbed that same hand and pointed his sword at the young man. Of course, as his bodyguard, the middle-aged man couldn''t handle it anymore and pointed his own sword toward William. William ignored it and asked, "What are you trying to do? I won''t let you disrespect him anymore." "You bastard! I will remember your face. I will destroy you in this competition." Alex ignored him and continued walking to another place, not wanting to deal with this type of person. "Say, is there a rule for not killing other participants?" Alex sighed. "The tower has that rule." "Haiz. Whatever. This is the first time we''ve met trouble, so I guess no one wins the bet, right?" Alex chuckled. "You still remember it¡­" Firia rolled her eyes. "Of course. Anyway, tell me about the rules of this competition." "There is nothing to be said to be honest. Because of the hype of this competition, many are participating. Hence, those people will try to reduce the number in one go. I don''t know about their method though." Alex contemplated for a second before asking, "What were the trials back when you participated in this competition?" "Refining. They made us do simple refining to eliminate half of the people. Then another refining to eliminate almost all of us, leaving only around ten of us. Then, we need to showcase our strength, refining the best thing we can do within one hour. After that, it''s the real refining without a time limit." "I see. You have confidence in all of them, right? I mean, I am worse than Alicia, you know." "You are worse than her? That''s the most ridiculous joke I''ve heard today." She chuckled. "Your Array Mastery was already far too impressive. Even Alicia acknowledged that the moment she saw your quick draw. Anyway, I think you don''t need to show your skill for the moment and, if possible, help me by using a bit of your Pure Fire. I don''t think it will suppress them since my fire is the main. I just need the "Pure" attribute from your fire to refine the pills. It will increase our speed and quality." "That''s not breaking a rule?" "Yep. Don''t worry about it." Firia nodded with a smile. "So, where should we go now?" Alex asked. "The floor below us. It''s where the competition will be held. I wonder what will happen when they recognize you are the Spirit God. I mean, some of them should recognize you, right?" "Yeah. We don''t need multiple days to complete the competition, right? In that case, I don''t need to hide my identity." "Just prepare for the outburst." "Haha. For what? Are they going to scrutinize me like I don''t have the right to participate? I''m still a Rank 4 God, not a God King. What? My Godly Pure Fire? I don''t even participate as the alchemist. If they still try to provoke me, they are simply too foolish. Do you think I don''t dare to kill them in this place? Oops, not this place. Space World is another place after all." Alex made an evil smile. "Haha. No one will complain about it, but your reputation will become even worse." "I don''t care. If they know me as a petty man, they won''t bother you since they know I will kill them with just the slightest grievance." Alex shrugged. "This is my obligation and the burden I need to shoulder." "Thank you." Firia smiled. "I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart." "No need. I do it because I want to." Alex smiled. "Well, we should go to the venue instead of talking about this." "Sure. This way." She led him to the venue. It was a grand venue capable of holding more than two thousand people. There was even a big arena in the middle of the venus where the people competed with each other. Because this was one of the biggest competitions the pill tower had, the venue was packed up, so Firia showed him the room where the participants waited for him. As one would expect, there were already around fifty people inside and a few hundred outside. He estimated that there would be five hundred people competing at once, so he wondered how it would turn out. Chapter 1132: Competition "Woah. It''s the Spirit God." "It''s the Spirit God!" "Spirit God is actually participating in this competition?" "Who is that woman next to him? Is she his wife?" "She is Firia Merona, the genius Alchemist from Eulja. She has a reputation as a good Alchemist even among the Highest Rank Alchemists." As one would expect, the silence turned into an uproar the moment Alex and Firia entered the stage. However, it didn''t come only with surprise. There were many who questioned his participation since his reputation was well-known. Most people actually got scared because Alex might kill them if they dared to defeat him in this competition. Some even wondered whether to accept their defeat this time and let the Spirit God do whatever he wanted this year and participate in another competition. To calm their anxiety, Alex enhanced his voice with Spiritual Energy before saying with a calm expression. "Rest assured. If I lose, I will admit defeat. There is no need to be scared because I won''t hold a grudge or whatever. I can guarantee it with my status as the Spirit God." They began whispering with each other as they suddenly thought another thing after Alex''s assurance. "Hey, doesn''t this mean the Spirit God has no intention to harm us?" "Maybe he has another agenda?" "That''s right. Maybe if we win against him, he will scout us?" "There is a possibility. If we can show our talent, he may play some importance on us." "We will be able to get many benefits if we enter Eulja." "That''s right. I wonder what it takes to be scouted by him." There was a talk about him using this chance to get the talented alchemists. After all, Alex was still in the middle of a war and he won the first battle. The momentum was him and with his prestige, there was a huge chance to win. This would be the perfect time to join Eulja since Alex would also guarantee their lives according to the rumors about him. After thinking for a while, somehow, most of the participants became even more fired up to win this battle. They tried to strike the chance no matter how slim it was. Alex, on the other hand, never thought of that at all. However, he agreed that this might be a good place to see a talented young Alchemist. Meanwhile, Firia prepared their furnace, ignoring all those people''s reactions. They could speculate everything they wanted, but they needed to beat them first to even be considered. And it was almost impossible since Alex and Firia were the most anticipated winner this time. There was only one person that could challenge her. It was none other than the idiotic guy, Rio Lindao. His power might have gotten to his head, but it by no means lessened his worth as Alchemist. Alex thought for a moment and asked. "What do you think about every single round?" "Ehm, are you sure? Although I hate to admit it, I''m not confident of achieving it. After all, every single Alchemist has their own strength." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "I''m serious. I will try to help you." "I understand." Little did she know that Alex''s true reason for wanting to finish first was to test the idiot Roy Lindao. He wanted to see his reaction and triggered him to make sure his choice. After thinking for a moment, Alex came up with something good. There were ten elders observing this competition. One of them stood up and asked Alex politely. "I would like to confirm that Your Excellency, the Spirit God, won''t take anyone accountable if they somehow defeat you. Is that correct?" "Yes. I have no hesitation in killing people, but I won''t kill someone as long as they don''t offend me. Beating me is not considered one¡­ At least for me. This is my principle, so you can rest assured. I will also compete fairly." Alex smiled. His statement was all they needed to hear. Meanwhile, Alex placed the Memory Crystal inside his clothes, where it was visible to look anywhere. He needed to do this because he had a suspicion against Roy. "!!!" Suddenly, he widened his eyes and saw Roy remained calm even though he should''ve known about his identity. He felt something bad about this but decided to remain calm for the time being. He thought, ''I need to know about him first because this is an important thing to do. The moment I know if he is related to one of them, I will kill him and every single of the people in that world while trying to acquire information about those weapons.'' "Since we have gotten confirmation from Your Excellency, then I, Xivana, announce the start of the dual competition. The first stage of this competition will eliminate most of the people here, so be prepared. As you may already know, our flame intensity can roughly determine what kind of pill we can make. "Now the question is what determines flame intensity for Alchemy? After long research, we have found that there are five important aspects that need to be considered for Alchemy. They are control, power, type, purity, and temperature. "Hence, we''ve built a special crystal that can calculate every single of them and turn them into a number. For example, if you can make your flame enveloped the crystal in an even proportion, your control over the flame is perfect. "Type and Power are obviously related. For example, Pure Fire is the strongest type of fire which also gives the strongest power for Alchemy. Of course, its purity is top-notch too. Hence, Pure Fire is considered not only as a terrifying power but also the best flame in Alchemy. "Last but not least, temperature. Even a Pure Fire has its own stage such as a normal Pure Fire and the awakened type. There was even a person who could evolve it even further, suppressing every single person who had Fire Element. Their temperature might vary, and the higher the temperature you can infuse, the better condition you get when refining the pill. "This crystal can feel all of that and range it between one to one hundred points. It means if you have the perfect quality to become an Alchemist, you will get five hundred points. Since this is a duo competition, you may get help from your teammate in any form of assistance." As he explained, a lady brought the crystal to the middle of the arena. The translucent pink-colored crystal immediately became the focus of the entire arena as they wondered what kind of crystal the Pill Tower produced. Still, many people were baffled when they thought that this palm-sized crystal was actually the one that would determine the fate of the participants. Meanwhile, after listening to those words, Alex felt like he knew what to do. He sent a thought transmission to Firia. ''Do you have confidence in getting the five hundred?'' ''Ehm, I''m not sure. Although I have confidence in getting a high score, I don''t know if I can get the top one.'' ''I will channel my power a bit to you. After my Pure Fire evolved to Godly Pure Fire, your fire wouldn''t lose against a Pure Fire. And I will try using my Space Element to improve your control.'' He smiled, assuring her that she would get the perfect score. ''I understand. I will be relying on you.'' She smiled. ''Although I feel that my control is great, I can''t say that it''s perfect.'' ''It''s fine. I''m not confident in my own control at first. I needed to see hell first to understand how important control is.'' Alex smiled and patted her shoulder. "Then, who would like to try first?" The elder asked. "By the way, anyone with less than 350 points is to be eliminated. This may be strict, but it''s natural to think this way. If you don''t like it, come again in ten years." The majority of people here gulped down, having no confidence in themselves. They looked at each other, wondering if they should go first. Obviously, among so many participants, there were a few reckless and brave ones. This time, a pair of men stepped forward. The first man had a nine-pointed star too, but the color of its badge symbolized that he was only a Low Rank 9 Alchemist. Meanwhile, the other guy seemed to have the power of Rank 9 Array Master too, so he should be able to help him during this ordeal. "You are to hit the ball with your fire from fifty meters. Of course, we will keep monitoring the influx of energy here, so no one can go away from cheating." The elder announced while frowning. After getting the clarification from the elder, the two men walked back, distancing themselves according to the elder''s instruction. The Alchemist then released his Fire while the Array Master started creating the array in front of him. When the array was ready, the Alchemist released his fire, hitting the array. Surprisingly, the array absorbed the fire before creating a stronger fire. It reached the crystal and enveloped it. Suddenly, a number popped out from the crystal as if the crystal projected it. 376 "Oh?! We have gotten someone qualified in the first try." "It seems to be not that hard. We should try it first before getting scared." "Indeed. Let''s go." More and more people gained confidence after seeing this. The elder arranged the order for the people as one by one started to show their strength. Unfortunately, not a single of them managed to pass. Many people started getting angry because of this and tried to protest, but the elders had their own stand. They didn''t accept any of their pleas and expelled them from the competition. Since so many people finished their assessment, more and more pairs took the test. 250 "Ugh. No! How can it be?!" The Alchemist shouted his unwillingness before the guard escorted him out of the arena. Suddenly, Roy came to the stage with a confident smile. He even pushed his assistance, who turned out to be the same woman he brought when he met Alex. His Pure Fire gushed out of his body, revealing its might. People would feel the burden in their hearts because of the natural suppression. The flame burst and turned into a bigger one. He then concentrated everything into his fist and punched forward as the Pure Fire created a vortex, hitting the crystal. Surprisingly, what came out from the crystal showed his true value. 470 "Ooh!" "This is the highest score we''ve gotten so far. As expected from a Pure Fire user. His type, power, and temperature should be top-notch. As for the Purity, I feel like the flame still absorbs a bit of the natural element from the surrounding and the control over it is not perfect. That must be the reason he can''t reach 500 points." The elder showed his amazement, explaining it to the audience so everyone could understand. Suddenly, Roy raised his hand, pointing it toward Alex and Firia. "You''re next." Chapter 1133: First Round "You''re next." Those words stunned the entire hall because they never expected that someone actually dared to challenge the Spirit God. Like the Spirit God said, if they competed earnestly without offending him, they would get away even if they somehow won the competition. Yet, Roy was brave enough to challenge the Spirit God. Fear struck their hearts when they saw the cold expression on Alex''s face, wondering what would happen here. They just hoped that Alex wouldn''t drag them into this hatred. On the contrary, Alex''s cold expression came from Roy, not because of his challenge, but the power inside him. No one would have the will to challenge him, especially without proper armies, so he thought this must be related to the power inside his body. He then looked at his surroundings, finding four Rank 2 Gods watching the competition. The first one would be William. There were two elders with the same cultivation. However, he had no knowledge about the fourth one, so he wondered if he came with Roy. ''I still don''t have enough proof, but I can safely assume that this guy is an enemy. I can even kill him without staining my reputation because of my words earlier. However, I will try to force him to use that power to confirm my assumption.'' Alex thought and sent a thought transmission to William. ''Get ready to move at any moment''s notice. I have a suspicion that there will be a Rank 2 God that will attack me in this competition.'' ''I understand. I shall position myself, so I can react to anything that comes your way.'' William nodded and changed his position. He then turned to Firia and nodded his head, signaling that they would go last. "You are just a fool." Alex shrugged and shook his head in disappointment. "Do you think you have the right to order me around?" "Hmph. Just said if you have no confidence in beating me. To think the Spirit God doesn''t have the courage to take up the challenge. It''s pathetic." The people in the hall were seriously screaming in their hearts. ''Just shut the f*ck up, you idiot. We don''t want to die because of you.'' It was a pretty cheap challenge that a fool could only think of and there was no way Alex would buy it. Alex simply smiled and said, "You don''t even understand what I mean. I won''t bother myself with you." "Haha. You are just scared." Roy kept taunting him until an elder stood up and shouted. "If you continue this harassment, we''re going to expel your qualification and disqualify you immediately. This is a competition, not a place for you to say anything. Please keep it professional." When he saw that even the elder helped Alex, he snorted and returned to his own position. Alex simply waited for all the people to get the test, resulting in sixty percent of them failing. Of course, not a single person actually reached Roy''s high score, so he got even more contempt, waiting for Alex to go on the stage. Finally, after the long wait, Alex entered the stage. He was the last person to reach here, so he soon became the focus of attention, not only as the last pair, but also the most important one. Alex then brought Firia to the stage with a calm expression under everyone''s stare. After Firia was ready, he placed his hand on his back and channeled his element inside her body. The energy gradually flowed to her hand as she released the flame stronger than her Sacrificial Fire. However, its shell was still a Sacrificial Flower, so it didn''t suppress anyone. He pointed his palm toward the ball and released her flame like any others. However, this time, Alex had improved her type, purity, power, and temperature with his Godly Pure Fire. To add the control, he channeled his Space Element around the crystal, shaping it like a crystal. The moment the fire entered, it looked like there was something covering it to match the crystal''s shape. It completely baffled everyone, but they soon realized that Alex was the one controlling the fire or whatever that helped the fire to form something like that. "This¡­" "This is a Space Element?" "Spirit God has a Space Element?" "You just knew it? I have known about it since the big war between Eulja and the alliance, you know." "Really? How come I don''t have the news?" "Who knows?" "Wait? Doesn''t this mean the Spirit God also has the Pure Fire since he channeled his element to Firia Merona''s body?" "That''s right. It means that her Sacrificial Fire actually came from the Spirit God." "Doesn''t this mean the Spirit God has both Pure Fire and Space Elements at the same time? Not only that, I''ve heard that the Spirit God once came out with a nine-pointed star golden badge. Considering his Pure Fire, it''s no wonder." "But you forget something, the Spirit God is acting as her supporter in this competition. In other words, he also has an affinity in Array Mastery." "Pure Fire and Space Element, Alchemist, and Array Master¡­ The Spirit God is insane." "How come you don''t know about it yet? It''s been revealed already after the war." "Maybe it''s due to your place closer to the battlefield. We don''t have that information yet." "Really?" The people discussed Alex''s power, astonished by his immense power. This was the first time they could observe Alex''s power from this close without dying, so everything was worth it even if Alex won this tournament. The entire hall turned into an uproar. Even the elders couldn''t help but talk with each other, wondering what they should do after this. However, it turned out that the main thing in this event had yet to come. The crystal projected a number that signified Alex and Firia''s power. 500. Although it reached the highest point recorded, the fire didn''t stop there. Because Alex enclosed the space, the fire''s temperature increased significantly to the point it had enough heat to melt the crystal. The number slowly disappeared from the people''s eyes, shocking everyone in the hall once again. They simply couldn''t believe that Alex and Firia just burned the crystal. If Alex and Firia''s position reversed, they believed that Alex would get more points even without Firia''s help. Yet, that man actually gave up that glory and let his wife become the main instead, showing to the world how much he loved Firia. He didn''t mind even if he was just a supporting character. As long as people recognized his wife, it was enough. Those who realized it couldn''t help but fall silent, watching Alex with admiration. No wonder that Firia would follow him as his wife. If they could get such a caring husband, they would offer themselves without hesitation. Meanwhile, someone was actually gritting his teeth after getting flustered by that power. With how he talked this whole time, he simply had become a joke of this tournament. Even people began wondering whether Alex would kill him because of his disrespect earlier. Roy, who couldn''t accept this, shouted while raising his hand. "You got maximum points just because you hit it together. I was alone when I took this test. I haven''t lost yet." Alex only shook his head in disappointment. He looked at the ceiling and sighed. "You''re truly a fool. You haven''t realized anything yet¡­ No matter if you were a human, a dragon, an elf, you would need other people. Even without the others, I won''t be able to become the way I''m now. "You should respect other people first if you want the others to respect you. Unfortunately, you can''t even understand it and you''re older than me. Such a shame." Alex''s voice struck deep inside their hearts as they could somehow understand what he was saying. "Bullsh*t! Other people are just my weakness. I don''t need them!" He shouted in denial. "The moment you were born, you needed a mother to give birth to you. After that, you needed other people to take care of you until you started taking care of yourself. Then, without other people, you wouldn''t have a home for you to live and cultivate. "I can give more examples if you want, but I won''t waste anyone''s time. I just want to say that the people you think are just an ant that you can crush with your finger actually helps you in one way or another. Whether you realize it or not, it completely depends on you." They began understanding why the Spirit God was loved by those under him. As a ruler, he respected no matter how low you were without demeaning the people above. Even them couldn''t help but have their heart touched by Alex''s words. They fell silent for a while to think about it. Since the Spirit God, the most terrifying but respected God King in the past, had this kind of insight, why would they be embarrassed to start it themselves from now on? Alex smiled and looked at Roy with a mocking smile. "That''s all I want to say. You''re truly foolish. A bad but silent person is actually better than you." "Bullsh*t! They are not even worth the shit on my boots. And you think they are worthy of my respect." Alex shrugged. "That''s your view. I don''t have the intention to force my ideal into yourself, so deal with it yourself." As he uttered those words, he looked at the elder and clasped his hand, slightly lowering his head. "I apologize to the elders. I have melted your crystal. I will properly pay it back with Spirit Crystal." The elders looked at each other before one of them stepped forward and shook his head. "Please don''t lower your head, Spirit God. You don''t need to worry about the crystal because we can simply make another one. Instead, I would like to give my thanks for your deep insight. This old man has realized the true essence of bonds." "I understand. Then, since we all have finished, why don''t we continue to the next round?" Alex smiled with confidence. After thinking for a while, the elder announced. "The first round is Alexander Sirius''s victory." "Uoh!" All people cheered as they knew he deserved it. Alex smiled and nodded, returning to Firia''s side. The elder then announced. "For the next stage, what we are going to test is speed. In other words, you''re required to create a Rank 9 Pill as quickly as possible. There are only ten spots for the last round. Because all of you come from different worlds, we can only ask you to provide the ingredients yourself and refine them as quickly as possible. "Of course, any technique is allowed, so you don''t need to worry about it." The elder finished explaining about the next stage and returned to his position. Alex and Firia exchanged looks, albeit they realized both of them had a different plan. "Rank 9 Rejuvenation Pill?" Alex asked. "It''s the easiest pill so far." "No. I''m going to make a Mid Rank 9 Pill, Divine Bone Pill." "Why?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. She then sent a thought transmission to him, explaining what she planned to do. He was surprised to hear that it was related to what he had shown earlier. After contemplating the process, he finally agreed to Firia''s suggestion and trusted his judgment. "I''m not going to lose again! After talking that big in front of everyone, I''m going to beat you and humiliate you." Roy pointed his finger while gritting his teeth. Alex only frowned as he thought that Roy would be using the hidden fire. He also prepared for everything to happen because he couldn''t afford someone to make a sneak attack. ''How should I rile this person up again? Well, Lin Xingzhi will be aiming at his home, so the moment that flame is out, I will know about the situation. I wonder if he has a parasite in his body¡­" Alex frowned his eyebrows. The elder, on the other hand, ignored that remark and announced. "Second Round starts!" Chapter 1134: Second Round "Second round starts." The moment the elder announced it, Firia hurriedly took out the Alchemist Furnace and threw the ingredients inside. Alex, on the other hand, started drawing an array for her. Firia warmed the ingredients up before lifting them to the sky and releasing her fire to the air, hitting the array that Alex created earlier. The array was none other than the Dragon Gate Refining Array, the array that Alex had used when refining the White Ash Pill back in Eulja. Firia''s fire turned from a carp to a full-fledged dragon that soared to the sky while refining the ingredients with its fire energy. Alex saw this as a chance and isolated each ingredient with his Space Element like how he increased the temperature earlier. There was one important step for Divine Bone Pill. It was to melt every single ingredient. To do it as quickly as possible, Alex''s enclosed space could be utilized, so they could almost skip the entire process and fuse it within thirty minutes. In this step, Alex had nothing to do other than maintaining the array, so he turned around to see other participants. As expected, there was only one person who took his attention. It was none other than the guy who had been taunting him. ''Hmm. After this amount of insults he threw at me, I feel like this is not as simple as seen. He must have some confidence in dealing with me or someone is actually ordering him to do something like that. Unfortunately, I can''t see the latter for the time being,'' thought Alex while observing what Roy was doing. It seemed he was normally refining like any other participants here, but it all changed when the woman came into the picture. Before using her as an array master, Roy suddenly choked the woman before ripping the woman''s clothes, revealing its skin. Surprisingly, underneath her clothes were many wounds that had yet to be healed. The female couldn''t even say anything because Roy already cut the woman''s belly with his nails, letting her bleed. He then waved his hand, controlling the Spiritual Energy to lift the blood and fuse it with his ingredients. The blood became the catalyst to speed up the process of refining. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes. Although he didn''t know this woman, he indeed felt sympathy for the woman who was subjected to that kind of treatment. However, he had no intention of helping her and becoming the hero of justice. ''Firia. What is that woman called?'' Alex asked, knowing that this woman was probably treated as an object instead of a person. ''Pill Slave. There are women and men in this universe that have a special physique that can enhance one''s pill quality, including the refining speed. That woman is something like that.'' Firia answered with a thought transmission. ''There are also men?'' ''Yes. He probably used that woman to relieve him as well while torturing her with this kind of treatment. He only maintains that woman''s life, so she can keep producing the special blood, albeit, for them, it''s the torture they need to endure for the rest of their lives, considering they must have been subjected to not be able to commit suicide.'' ''Hmm¡­'' Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head. ''If I say I won''t do anything, will you be disappointed?'' ''No. I know you and your character. For us, she is nothing but a stranger. However, I still believe that ending the woman''s life will make her feel better. It''s a kind of relief for them. There are strong-willed ones, so you probably want to ask them first. You are going to make a move to that guy, right?'' ''Yes. This is still a suspicion, but I feel like this one is a real deal. So, there might be a battle here. I will try to help you, but you should ready your Teleportation Array Plate if I can''t help you.'' Alex nodded. ''I understand. Anyway, these people are popular even among elders in this tower. Many don''t condone such an act, but in their original worlds, it''s something normal. Losing the right to use them is the same as losing their fire to refine pills. I''m sure you understand why they allow it, right?'' ''Yep.'' Alex nodded. ''Well, I may be called evil by other people, but by no means am I a monster. I still have standards.'' ''Haha. I expected that line.'' Firia chuckled before looking above her. ''It''s going to be ready.'' ''No. Hurry up.'' Alex suddenly moved toward her and channeled his power inside her body again when he saw that Roy actually used more blood than he was supposed to, reaching the fusion stage at the same time as Firia. However, the woman fell to the ground with a pale face. Her eyes were hollow and her consciousness was fuzzy. Without any feeling, Roy kicked her, so she didn''t stay together with him while refining the pill. Alex closed his eyes and wished the woman luck in her next life before focusing on his pill. ''This time, I don''t feel like losing.'' ''Understood.'' Firia turned serious as she clapped her hand and channeled all her energy to refine the pill. Meanwhile, Roy tried to taunt Alex again by saying, "Hahaha! I''m going to win this time. Shame to you, Spirit God." Alex ignored him and raised his hand before releasing his fire to help Firia. "I''m going to help you directly." Firia nodded. Alex''s Pure Fire gushed out of his body as every single person in this hall who had Fire Element in their body, including all participants, felt the suppression of Alex''s flame. "Pure Fire?!" The elders dropped to the ground, kneeling in front of him. All participants failed to make their pills because of the suppression that took their flame away. Meanwhile, only one person could withstand this pressure. Yes, it was Roy. Alex''s expression turned cold as he said, "I''m sorry, everyone. I don''t feel like losing today, so I''m going to be serious for a bit." The fire enhanced Firia''s flame even further as both Original Element and Sacrificial Element intertwined, creating a new synergy between them. Seeing this, Roy suddenly panicked because he felt that Alex''s Pure Fire could actually suppress his own Pure Fire. If not because of the mysterious fire in his body, he would be down on the floor like all others. "Kh!" Roy gritted his teeth and decided to use the fire as well. Unfortunately for him, he was too late because that shock earlier gave all the time Firia and Alex needed to complete their pill. Firia grabbed that pill and showed it to the people as Alex sealed his Pure Fire again. "This is a Divine Bone Pill. We win the second round." Firia announced, looking down on Roy. Alex, on the other hand, cupped his hand politely to other people and the elders. "Once again, I would like to apologize for my rudeness. I did it because of a certain someone. And don''t you think it''s weird that you still feel the suppression even though I have put away my fire?" Alex pushed all the blame to Roy and directed their attention to Roy''s fire. "!!!" Roy gritted his teeth as he never thought Alex pulled this kind of move. All the people looked at Roy with anger in their eyes. The audience felt sad when the woman that Roy brought was treated like that. Although some elders used the same method, they didn''t treat the women that badly, making a foul taste in their mouths. At the same time, they hated Roy because of his continuous insults. In fact, if Alex killed Roy here, they would think nothing of it other than he deserved it. After all, had they changed position with Alex, they would have killed him before the competition. Even the fact that Alex forced them to fail was ignored and directed to Roy instead. After all, he would have done the same if he didn''t win this round. In other words, Alex just did everything to protect himself. Little did they know that their judgment was already polluted by Alex''s calm actions this whole time. This was one of the traps he had set up the moment he wanted to expose Roy. Of course, he started becoming a schemer after getting the training from the Dungeon God''s inheritance place. Unfortunately, before anyone could say anything, Roy had already formed his pill, which also meant that he completed the task. "I still complete my task. What do you want to say? I still qualify for the next round." Roy ignored their rage and continued being shameless. Despite the hate he had this whole time, the elder, who announced everything until now, had no right to take Roy''s right to advance to another stage. "Because there are only two people competing for this spot, this third stage will also become the last test. The requirement will be refining the best pill you can. The time limit is a day." When the elder announced it, the participants felt disappointed. If possible, they truly wanted to beat Roy right now because he was actually the one ruining everything. Alex, on the other hand, smiled and turned around, looking at Firia. "What do you want to make? I will help you with my Pure Fire. Of course, I''m just your supporter today. You''re still going to be the one refining the pill." Firia smiled and gently nodded her head while saying, "I will be making High Rank 9 Pill, 100 Medicinal Pill." "Oh?" Alex nodded. Just like the name implied, the pill would require one hundred purifying medicinal herbs, which could detoxify any kind of poison. If it were to be refined by a Pure Fire, the detoxifying effect would be amplified. If this were a normal 100 Medicinal Pill, the price would be equal to three White Ash Pill. After all, this pill could cure every single poison. Much less the one that was created by Pure Fire. And when they recalled how Alex''s suppression was actually stronger than Roy''s Pure Fire, they realized that this would be a treasure. Although Roy''s mysterious fire could rival such a thing, they knew it was a different type of fire, so they thought the purity couldn''t be compared to that of a Pure Fire. Hence, if Roy refined the same pill, which could be the hardest pill to ever make, he would lose without a doubt. In other words, this round was Alex''s victory. "Do you think you can beat me just like that? I will also make 100 Medicinal Pill. Your Pure Fire won''t be able to beat my Phoenix Sun Fire. Unlike a normal Phoenix Fire, this fire has been refined by the Sun Essence. This is the greatest fire that you could ever meet because this fire comes from another universe! This is the purest form of fire because it comes from the Fire Disturbance!" Roy became desperate the moment he understood the situation. Unfortunately for him, this was the exact thing Alex wanted him to do. ''I''ve got him.'' Chapter 1135: "Third Round" "Right? Phoenix Sun Fire¡­" Alex smirked before laughing out loud. "This is truly hilarious. The fire inside you is just a temporary fire that will die soon the moment you release it. Now, I have enough reasons to destroy your entire planet¡­ To think that you would have sold yourself away to another universe. "I don''t know whether you are aware of it or not, but the thing inside your body¡­ was the one that created the dark era five thousand years ago." Alex snorted and continued. "You don''t have any proof. Otherwise, the people here already know about it. You''re just lying because you can''t oppress me with that flame of yours," shouted Roy while waving his hand, telling him he was wrong. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you said. Everything will be over and I can prove my claim as soon as I destroy your planet. Besides, it''s not like it''s that hard to even get the proof of the connection between you and the one who put the fire in you¡­ Or should I say the Phoenix Goddess?" Alex smirked before turning to William. "William, call Lin Xingzhi for me and inform the situation. Have her attack this guy''s world immediately. There is a possibility of a God King hiding in his place, so be careful." William nodded with a serious expression before he began moving. Roy panicked and shouted. "Hillman, kill him!" The middle-aged man that came with him earlier suddenly disappeared, heading straight toward Alex. "!!!" William narrowed his eyes and jumped toward him to protect Alex, but a mysterious Rank 2 God appeared and stopped William. "Hahaha! Even if you are a Rank 4 God, you won''t be able to defeat a Rank 3 God. Die, Spirit God!" Roy laughed. Suddenly, Firia''s shadow expanded as multiple streams of shadow emerged, heading straight toward Hillman, stopping his movement. Hillman turned out to be better than he expected as he released the same fire as Roy and burned the shadow. Sullivan was forced to make his appearance. Clang. A clashing sound echoed in everyone''s ears as Hillman couldn''t even reach Alex. Sullivan, who appeared out of nowhere, truly shocked the entire audience, but he simply ignored them and said, "It''s not the time for His Majesty to make his move yet." Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and saw through every single person in this area. In fact, he had seen them while refining to see the precaution, but he realized that the situation was worse than he imagined. ''Lin Xingzhi. You should go right now. Ask our allies to secretly move too because we might have the chance to pull the connection between the God King that is hiding in that planet to the Phoenix Queen. After that, we will pull them together with the Dragon God and the others.'' [Understood. We will be flying in ten minutes.] ''Alright.'' Alex nodded before shouting. "Sullivan, take care of the one behind me. I will handle that Rank 3 God." Sullivan widened his eyes and leaped toward Alex, preventing another Rank 2 God from hitting Firia. It turned out that one of the elders actually supported Roy. "No need to hold back. We want to deal with this as soon as possible." Alex snorted. "Understood." William and Sullivan nodded at the same time. The former pulled both blades and aimed them toward the guy in his way. Meanwhile, Sullivan activated his True Spirit Body and handled the elder. "After you promised to not cause accidents in this place, this is your action, Spirit God? Shame on you!" The elder shouted, trying to push the blame to him. "Just shut up, Old Man. I know that you can use the same flame. Judging by the intensity, the one in that old guy''s body is stronger while you three have the same level. I can''t wait for what I will find on your planet." Alex smirked. Roy clenched his fists and ordered. "Hillman! What are you waiting for? Kill him!" As soon as he heard that order, Hillman leaped toward Alex while swinging his axe. It had been covered with fire too, so this attack would surely deal serious damage to Alex. However, the latter simply took out his sword and infused his Elements, Divine Energy, Intent, Qi, and Soul. "Five Purities Slash." Alex''s sword and the guy''s fire axe clashed against each other for a while before he felt the difference in power behind Alex''s Martial Art and got blown away. Boom. He crashed to the wall. Alex used this time to announce. "Those who are unrelated shouldn''t make any move. This matter is why the alliance wants to kill me. They are trying to revive their king, who was the real cause of that dark era. While the alliances, including the Earth God and Battle God, are their subordinates. And they were the ones responsible for killing the Dungeon God and the others. "Even my past life died under their king''s hand. That''s why I will fix this right now before they can do anything. I know that it''s hard to believe in me, but I simply want you to stay where you are. I will explain it to you later." Alex smiled, trying to rally the people here to spread the rumors about the beast along with its armies. This way, the rumors would spread and the enemies wouldn''t try to do something big for the time being, giving him a bit more time. As for the proof, he would just summon Jeanne here and show everyone the real truth after torturing. That was an easy thing to do unless they planned to commit suicide. Because of the talk where he had to settle down the participants and audience, he allowed Hillman to recover and charge at him with a serious expression. At the same time, he found Roy was about to escape. "You''re not getting anywhere!" Alex shouted and grasped his hand, sending his Space Element toward Roy and hitting him from above as if he got slapped by an invisible hand. Bang. A huge rectangular crater appeared and pinned Roy from the ground. Obviously, as he was only a Rank 6 God, he couldn''t even properly attack him. And everyone in this place should have begun to speculate something fishy in Roy''s reaction. In fact, Roy''s planet should only have one Rank 2 God. Yet, there was a mysterious expert hiding their radar and didn''t come to protect him from the start. This showed that Roy actually had a hidden intention in participating in this competition and built up his career in the Pill Tower. Alex saw Hillman coming and stopped his charge with his sword before summoning his Spirit Crown. He then shouted to the other Rank 2 God elder and said, "I think you should start protecting the people here and preventing them from going outside. I don''t want any misunderstanding left in the air. I can take care of this matter myself and you don''t need to worry about me breaking the rule of Pill Tower. I won''t." Although he had been suspicious about Roy''s identity, he had no choice other than to follow Alex''s instructions because he didn''t know whose side to choose as the right and wrong were not clear yet. "Firia, take care of yourself." Alex smiled and took out his spear. "Understood." She nodded and took out an Array Plate. It was the Teleportation Array Plate Alex made her promise earlier. Alex then released both of his elements, covering the spear''s tip with his Space Element before he thrust it toward Hillman. "Ha!" Hillman struck Alex''s spear with all of his power before he realized what was happening. "It''s not touching?" It was true. This time, Hillman''s axe didn''t even touch Alex''s spear because he solidified Space Element around his spear. At the same time, Alex channeled all his Pure Fire to his sword and struck him from above. Clang. Hillman managed to stop that slash with his axe''s handle, albeit surprisingly, an entire arena turned into a crater just because of that attack. It turned out that Alex actually hit him with the Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown. "Kh!" Hillman felt that hit earlier before he released all of his power. Although he didn''t care about this place, it was better if no more people intervened because there was a chance of them being another accomplice. Hence, Alex used his Space Element to reinforce the entire floor while activating his Sound Insulation Array. Seeing this chance, Hillman attacked him from below. Alex narrowed his eyes and smiled. Activating both Dragon Aura and Phoenix Aura, he added the power with his Fire Authority second stage. He then leaped back and thrust his spear toward him, to which he stopped it with his axe. Unfortunately, he realized it too late when a torrential fire hit his back. "Gah!" Alex smiled as his Twin Fusion Spear always succeeded for a sneak attack. After that one attack, a door of opportunity smiled at him. Alex raised his sword and channeled all his power into it. "Five Purities Slash." The slash once again hit his axe, preventing it from killing him. However, Alex had gained the advantage and pinned him to the ground. Not wanting to leave any more chance for Hillman, Alex summoned two dragons from both weapons, charging at him from two sides. As he was trying to stop them, Alex used his power to press him to the ground. The man himself seemed to have no control over his fire or a Martial Art that could complement it. Hence, Alex thought that this battle seemed to be going better than he imagined it would. The two dragons broke past the barrier he made with Divine Energy and swallowed both arms. "Ah!" Hillman screamed in pain as he lost the strength to grip his weapon. And Alex used this opportunity to stab him in the stomach. Remembering the ban of killing in this Pill Tower, Alex stopped before he sliced Hillman''s body. "Alex? Why did you stop?" Firia stared at him in amazement, thinking that he wanted to get information from him. But little did she know Alex only wanted to follow the rule. However, he didn''t state he would spare his life. Not wanting to get into trouble, Alex summoned a Spatial Gate toward the Space World and threw Hillman''s body that seemed to have grown weaker after all the injuries. He smiled and thrust his spear, piercing his head without mercy. "You''re dead." "Look! I didn''t kill in this Pill Tower. Instead, I killed him in the Space World, so I didn''t break any rule." Alex innocently proved his words before turning around. The people inside were stunned by his reasoning, but they couldn''t refute it either. Alex, on the contrary, shouted to both William and Sullivan. "You two, you hear me? We don''t kill people here? Bring those two to me and we can kill them in the Space World." William and Sullivan laughed at Alex''s approach and nodded at the same time. "Leave it to us, Your Majesty." Meanwhile, Roy, who was pinned to the ground this whole time, panicked as he never thought that Alex would be able to beat a Rank 3 God. That might also be the reason why Alex called him a fool who couldn''t even see who was before him. He was too ignorant to know about Alex''s deed of killing a Rank 2 God. Not bothered by the thoughts, he walked toward Roy with a poker face before lifting him up with Divine Energy to prevent him from escaping. After that, a card appeared in his hand as he summoned Jeanne out of the card. "Your Majesty." Jeanne lowered her head and greeted him politely. "Jeanne¡­ I''m leaving him to you. Make him confess everything, including the connection and their plans." Alex ordered. Jeanne smiled and turned around, reaching Roy''s head and grabbing his hair. She pulled him out of the ground and lifted him a bit, moving to another place that could be seen from all sides of the arena. She then started taking out her torture device from the Inventory and began torturing Roy. ¡­ The details are omitted. Chapter 1136: Information A few minutes later, Roy dropped to the ground, begging Alex to stop because he would be telling everything. The torture was unimaginable for most people even though Alex had blurred almost everything with his Space Element, only letting them see that Roy kept screaming painfully. His and Jeanne''s shadows remained to be seen, but it just made the torture looked more ruthless as they were trying to imagine what Jeanne actually did to him. Meanwhile, Alex had killed the other two Rank 2 Gods inside the Space World with the help of Sullivan and William. This situation had turned completely in his favor as Alex forced Roy to make a Universe Oath that he would tell the truth. After getting that promise, Alex gave the first question. "Do you know the connection between the Phoenix Goddess and the dark era when you receive her power?" "Yes, I know. The Great Supreme Being will descend to this universe once again and decimate all the population here, turning this universe into hell." The people gasped from the first statement alone as they were about to throw up, asking them why they couldn''t believe Alex earlier. They would have helped him even if it cost them their lives. However, Alex waved his hand and asked them to shut up because he still questioned him. "What is inside your home planet? And who is hiding in it?" "The one which originally received her power was my father. He became a God King twenty years ago." Once again, the people who witnessed this shivered. "Is your father there, right now? Are there any traps installed there or all of this is just a piece of the big plan to trap me?" "No¡­ No one knows about it yet. There is no trap or whatsoever. After knowing that I would face Firia Merona in the competition, the Phoenix Goddess asked me to lie to her and killed her in some way or another. That''s why there was a need for two Rank 2 God because she would''ve gone with at least one Rank 2 God." Alex''s expression turned cold as his killing intent from his eyes. He tried hard to control himself and continued asking, "How many people are influenced by the Phoenix Goddess in this place?" "It''s only Elder Mua that died earlier." Alex contemplated for a moment and asked, "What is their general plan to deal with me?" "I don''t know. I haven''t gotten any important information as my father is the one dealing with her the whole time." "Is there anything I can find from your father or will he die if he tells me information?" "No. He won''t die." He shook his head. Before asking another question, Alex asked, ''Who is managing the system?'' [Me, Anya.] ''Anyone with Xingzhi right now?'' [Yes. Because we haven''t gotten the full story yet, I have asked Anna to come with her.] ''Tell her to bring another God King to extract the information from the God King to know more about the Phoenix Goddess, Dragon God, and other accomplices. What I want right now is the information about the Bat to be honest because they have a huge number.'' [I understand. I will relay your message to Anna, so she can tell Lin Xingzhi everything. Of course, we don''t have much hope for getting any information, but we will need to wait before getting any result. Of course, I''m planning to search for any clues in their home since they will surely leave some.] ''Sure. With you and Aria there, I don''t need to worry about the battle plan even if I''m not on the field.'' [Good. And what are you going to do with the others?] Alex thought for a moment and sighed. ''As much as I don''t want to say it, we need to kill them. There must be Phoenix''s spies there and I don''t have time to see each citizen to prove my point.'' [I understand. We have gathered our resolve before going to war, so you don''t need to worry about our determination.] ''Alright. I will leave everything to you.'' Alex nodded before returning his focus to Roy. "What do you know about us, specifically Eulja and me?" "I don''t know much other than your abilities and the fact that you are on the list of people we need to kill. On the very top at that." "So you have been pretending this whole time¡­" "Yes." Roy admitted it because of the oath. "Though the Phoenix Queen and I didn''t expect you to be here. We thought it would be Alicia, so we would kill them both because it would surely devastate you. At that time, you would be bound to make a radical move. That''s where we will catch you is what I''m assuming." Alex remembered the past life''s character, so this kind of action would be very possible. But he didn''t know whether his current self would do the same or not. ''Well, seeing that this remark alone has made me want to kill him and his world, I think I will do the same. They have been learning about me and trying to take advantage of this information¡­'' Alex thought, discovering that the "weapons" might be harder for him to handle. Alex began asking him a few more questions related to every single thing he could think of, including Anya''s suggestions. The people in the hall, including the elders, were furious. They never expected that they had been long in the dark and once this appeared, they would never know what killed them. This was Alex''s deliberate plan to spread the rumor about the beast and wanted them to arrange the army. Unfortunately, it also meant that there would be potential spies hiding under them. Hence, even if they tried coming to him, he would just ignore them and go with his current allies as they were the only people he could trust right now. But this also left a huge impact on the "weapons" because they needed to find a safer means to hide their position until the real Supreme Beast came out of the seal. The benefit outweighs the loss either way, so he chose this method rather than getting the information alone. This would also make the universe investigate the remaining targets while using them as sacrifices to know whether the location was known because it was a trap or not. Alex then ended it with one question that he asked with a cold tone. "Do you want to live?" "Yes, yes. I want to live. Please don''t kill me." Roy started begging for his life and kneeled in front of him. "I was wrong. I would tell you anything I know." Alex simply ignored his pleas as he asked another question. "Have you told me everything you know about the Phoenix Goddess and your relationship with them?" Not having the ability to dodge this bullet because of the Universe Oath, Roy said, "Yes." It was a definite answer that simply told Alex that he had no more worth in him. Alex also understood this situation and looked at Jeanne. "Torture him again." "Understood." After finishing his questioning, Alex then walked toward the woman Roy abused earlier, finding her not dead yet. He tried to wake her up and found the trace of the slave mark in her body. Using the Pure Fire to burn that mark, Alex basically freed her from that bind. It also became a gentle alarm to her body as she gradually opened her eyes. Even though she was too weak to even do anything, she seemed to have recognized what happened and knew that Alex saved her. Alex looked at her with a poker face and said, "You don''t have to become a slave anymore. You''re a Rank 5 God, so I believe you can restart your life again. However, the choice is yours and I won''t do anything to influence you to make a certain decision." The woman opened her mouth but couldn''t utter a single word as if her body forgot how to speak. She must haven''t spoken anything for a long time in that state of abuse. There was also a chance that her entire life was a nightmare filled with traumas at this point. Instead of saying anything, she offered the best smile to Alex while tears were coming out of her eyes. But Alex could see that the girl actually had made her decision in her mind and asked with a gentle face. "Are you sure about this?" The woman weakly nodded her head and couldn''t stop her tears. It might be because the time of her becoming a Pill Slave had been too long, she even considered herself a Pill Slave at this moment. Yet, she thought that she hoped she would become Alex''s Pill Slave instead of Roy''s. The sympathy that Alex presented truly broke her nightmare and that gentle face of his restored her faith in humanity. What she saw was the worst, but there was actually the best before her. She slightly lowered her head and raised her thin hand. Although it was shaking, her hand slowly made its way toward her stomach. For one last time, she cut her own stomach open and let the blood flow out of her body. In addition, she even used the remaining of her Divine Energy to force everything out. Her entire body immediately lost its color, but the woman managed to form a huge ball of her blood which was a precious resource. In her last seconds, she looked at Alex as if telling him to accept it as her thanks for saving her from this oblivion. But it also meant that she had given up her own life as she couldn''t take it anymore. Alex was shaken but still used his Divine Energy to maintain the blood form without doing anything as he witnessed her last seconds. With almost all her blood dried, her body finally collapsed. Yet, she used the last bit of energy to say something that she never said for more than a thousand years. "Tha¡­nk¡­ yo¡­u¡­" Alex instinctively stopped her body from hitting the ground while looking at the abuses she had suffered this whole time. Most of them must have been healed and left no scars but imagining that this kind of treatment needed to be endured for a very long time, he didn''t know whether he could even think about living for the second time. Alex let out a long sigh and released his Godly Pure Fire to burn her body and store her ashes inside a pot. Despite having various thoughts, no words came out of his mouth as he only closed his eyes as he couldn''t imagine what kind of life she actually endured this entire time and he never thought that even after enduring such a thing, she didn''t forget to give her thanks to Alex. She showed that even in the darkest place, a light would still be there no matter how dim it was. Chapter 1137: Winning in Everything After witnessing her death, Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds before turning to Roy and the others with a calm expression. He cupped his hands and said, "I know that this is a bit unfair to claim my win, so I''m going to demonstrate the pill process. I think it will take only six hours, so if you''re still interested, you should watch it. If I succeed, I will put it in the Auction Hall right away, where they will sell it tomorrow. That''s all." Firia understood his intention and Jeanne also finished torturing him until she feared pain more than his life, so she ended up killing him inside Alex''s Space World. Meanwhile, Firia already warmed the ingredients as if nothing happened before Alex released his Pure Fire to refine it together with her while summoning his Array. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared again. Although Firia and Alex could only refine ten herbs at the time, the purity of each herb had been guaranteed by Alex''s Pure Fire which could be considered the purest in the world. In the end, Firia managed to refine everything and fuse them into a light-green pill. This was a 100 Medicinal Pill. It also had Perfect Purity and the fact that Alex''s Fire refined it made this pill even more precious. Even the elder claimed that this pill was a real pill that could detoxify any kind of poison no matter how weird it was. The crowd cheered for both Alex''s win and the truth Alex presented to everyone. It was an emotional rollercoaster for everyone, but they felt they knew what to do. Even though they hated each other, they couldn''t ignore the fact that this universe was in danger. As much as they wanted to kill each other, if the universe were gone, it would end up with nothing. Hence, they thought about putting their hatred down for a bit and searched for the enemies. In fact, they could even turn it into a rivalry to show that they were superior to them in case they found a trail. Alex cared nothing of it and cupped his hand to the elders. "I have won." The elders were bewildered and looked at each other, nodding their heads at the same time. Even without the show Alex put on or killing Roy, his main competition, there was no doubt that Alex and Firia deserved this victory based on their skill alone. The other Rank 2 God elder finally stepped forward and announced. "This Pill Competition is Alexander Sirius and Firia Merona''s Victory! The prize is ten billion Spirit Crystals and ten Rank 9 Medicinal Herbs. At the same time, he is allowed to go to the Medicine Vault to grab one herb that he wants." "Uoh!" Alex smiled and nodded. Ten billion Spirit Crystals was a big number, but his pocket was far deeper than anyone could imagine. As for ten Rank 9 Medicinal Herbs, it couldn''t cover his loss. Luckily, Alex could get every single thing in Roy''s Space Ring, so his loss was pretty much covered, considering Roy also wanted to refine the 100 Medicinal Pill. Although it was a shame that no one won second and third places, they felt nothing but awe because there was no way they could compete against Alex and Roy even if they tried it. They just thought that today was their unlucky day and participated in the next one. Alex, on the other hand, smiled and signaled Firia to follow the elder for the prize. They waved their hands to the audience as they exited the hall, going toward the top floor where the herbs were stored. Because of Alex''s status, the elder acted politely, shocking everyone. But that action also gave away Alex''s identity, which he didn''t care about. He simply grabbed the last herb he needed for Undying Fire Body. After that, he turned the pill in the Auction Hall before returning to the room. Alex dropped to the couch while letting out a moan, "I''m tired." "Haha." Firia chuckled and sat on the couch before putting Alex''s head on her lap. "You''ve worked hard. Though I feel that you''re tired because of that woman." Alex closed his eyes and sighed. "I don''t understand anymore." "Well, let''s change the topic. What do you want to do right now? Are you going to refine your body?" "I''m not sure. Let me collect my thoughts for a bit." Alex contemplated and muttered all that he found today. "First, we have proved that the Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess are the traitors of the universe, so I''m sure that their lives will be miserable from this point on. The Phoenix Goddess''s pet is also under constant onslaught from Lin Xingzhi, so I guess we can weaken them further. "But I''m sure that this universe will become chaotic from this point on. I''m planning to take advantage of that chaos to push myself to the God King Stage. At the same time, Leoz might have become a God King and God of Wrath will have the same power as Life and Death Goddess. "In other words, we have two Superior God Kings and one Inferior God King in our rank aside from Lin Xingzhi. I can still level up Anna in the process, allowing her to become another God King. If needed, Jeanne is qualified, I guess? I don''t know since she is the only other former Rank 2 God Spirit. "If you include me, in total, Eulja has six to seven God Kings alone. I''m sure that this strength is unprecedented since even in the past, there was not even a planet with more than three God Kings. Even Eulja only has three God Kings: the past me, the Fire God and Time God. "Meanwhile, on the other side, they have two or three Bats and one Angel. If we think that each of them has a pet, it will be an additional four God Kings. Adding Phoenix Goddess, Dragon God, Earth God, and Battle God, they only have a total of twelve God Kings. "Unfortunately for us, we know that we don''t have enough fighting strength yet because the Holy God, the God of Destruction, and the Palm God hadn''t reached that stage yet. My prediction¡­ It will take three of them to handle two God Kings from their side. "That''s why the potential of God of Wrath and God of Destruction is priceless in this place¡­ That''s why I agree with Alaya''s request to take in God of Wrath as her disciple." He ended his explanation with a long sigh. Firia tilted her head in confusion. "I can somehow grasp seventy percent of them, but I don''t think I can help you in any way." "No. You have helped me enough." Alex shook his head with a smile. On the contrary, Sullivan and William looked at each other, finally knowing why Alex seemed to be rushing this whole time. "Anya, you heard me, right?" [Yes. Anna has been telling me that she is ready to become a God King right now so she can consolidate her power for a longer time. But the decision is up to you.] "Do you know how to operate the system? [Ehm, let''s wait for Sister Xingzhi to come back.] "Alright. I will level up Anna after she and Lin Xingzhi come back." Alex nodded and lazily turned around to Jeanne. "That''s it, Jeanne. I''m wondering if you have the interest to become a God King too?" "Well, I have understood a bit of the concept after getting the lecture from Queen Lin Xingzhi. I have asked other Rank 2 Gods about their visions and somehow build a little bit of my understanding of Law. But¡­ I''m not very confident to grasp that strength." Jeanne shook her head in disappointment. "Besides, Your Majesty will lose seventy to eighty percent of your Spirit Crystals the moment you increase Queen Anna''s level." "I will be using Eulja''s money. Besides, in this current purge of another Divine World, we should have no problem getting one hundred billion Spirit Crystals. It means Eulja only needs to waste half their money for this. If we don''t have enough money, I can even take a loan from the Blackwade Clan. "I''m sure that the guarantee of protection from Eulja or even yourself alone for a period of time will be enough for Blackwade Clan to lend us the money. Though with the way Song Tao acts, he will send all the Spirit Crystals to me. Such a good guy¡­ Even I don''t have the heart to take advantage of that kindness." Alex chuckled. Jeanne looked down and closed her eyes. She then dropped to her knees. "If that''s the will of Your Majesty, I, Jeanne, shall follow it. In the future, I will earn enough money to pay you back." "No need to think about it. Do you think it''s hard for me to earn money?" Alex smiled. "That''s right. I still have the revenue from the system¡­ I will open it when we''re back." Jeanne then lowered her head until it touched the floor. "Jeanne wants¡­ No, please allow Jeanne to become a God King." "Granted." Alex smiled. "For now, you''re to return to Eulja to prepare yourself and talk to Anya. As soon as Lin Xingzhi returns, I will start the process immediately." "Understood, My King." Anya knew what to do and asked Anya to summon Jeanne to her side, so they could discuss their advancement to God King. "Huft. To think that the Dungeon God is even scarier than the past me¡­" Alex closed his eyes. "I see. So that''s how it is." Firia seemed to understand something. "Yes. If the time allowed him, the Dungeon God could actually create an army of God Kings. He could use the Dungeon to see the potential of every person in the world who challenged it. Then, he could determine whether to use his resources to level them up. "With enough loyalty, he could turn them into the retainers that allowed them to restart their cultivation, but with a chance of becoming a God King. It would take a long time, but it was a good method. Unfortunately, he didn''t have enough time to do this." Alex nodded. "Well, I can utilize it right now because of Lin Xingzhi''s unconscious action to send the spirits to help me back then." "Haha¡­" "Anyway, I will send all of you back after getting the money. Then, I will search for a world or two to make a dungeon before refining my Undying Fire Body to the utmost limit. After that, I''m planning to absorb the Sun Essence and become a Rank 3 God." Firia thought for a moment and let out a long sigh. "It seems I can''t help you with my strength. Even when you reach God King, I will probably reach Rank 6 if not Rank 5 God. It''s hardly enough to help you. And if we think about it, all your wives other than Anna, Silvia and Sister Xingzhi will be useless in this battle." Alex never thought about that aspect because there was something he always believed in. He gently put his hand on her face and said with a smile. "I have never thought of you that way. You''re a Highest Ranking Alchemist. Your pill will be useful in so many battles, helping the people needed. "Alicia''s Array Plates can also help lives. Sherry''s Pure Fire and Letizia''s Pure Ice will help us greatly in suppressing our enemies. Anya''s support is as good as our Light Elemental God, while Rose''s arrow can snipe every single enemy to reduce their number. Of course, Rose is not my wife. "Evelyn right now also has Sacrificial Fire from Sherry, so she will also become a great support on the battlefield." Alex smiled. "Look! Wife¡­ You all can help me, so please don''t say you''re useless or something? I have never thought of you that way and never married you because of that intention." Firia closed her eyes, trying hard to stop the tears from falling. "Thank you. Really thank you." "What thank you? We all are family. A family will help each other without expecting thanks." Alex made a big smile. Chapter 1138: A Secret to Become a God King? Alex acquired a whopping forty-five billion Spirit Crystals from a single pill. It turned out that the person who bought the pill was an old man that had tried to do everything possible to heal his grandson because of a certain poison that made his grandson disabled. Because of that, he used every single good thing in his body to raise that much money the moment he knew about the pill and Alex''s Pure Fire. After knowing that, he knew why he could get so much money. Although he had seen many people who tried to destroy him, he also saw many people who were sincere to their closest ones. After that, Alex returned to his room and decided to change his direction. Instead of returning to Eulja, he decided to process everything on the planet Lin Xingzhi attacked now and ended up getting more information from the father after she captured him alive with the help of God of Destruction. Alex found Lin Xingzhi and Anna waiting for him. "How about it?" "With the help of someone, we have managed to know a few things. We may have no information about their location, but we know that the Angel is hiding among the 32 God Kings in this universe and two of the Bats have done so as well. Unfortunately, we don''t have much information about their pets." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. "Well, we can subtract four of them since we have identified them. And with the God Kings around us and those who have died¡­ We can narrow it down by half." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "Ah, by the way, you''ve confronted that Roy, right?" "Yes, why?" "According to his father, who is the real pet, he has granted that power to him, not the Phoenix Queen. And all the people that have this power come from him alone. That''s the privilege of being a pet. Hence, we can''t really locate the Phoenix Nest¡­ Only a couple of clues we may be able to use to find their place. I will send it to N Squad after this." Alex nodded. "I understand. You can do whatever you need to do." "Alright. We will be finished here in a week or so and proceed to Anna and Jeanne''s advancement. What do you think?" "Sure." Alex agreed and turned to Anna. "Are you ready, Anna?" "Of course. I don''t have the confidence in using the power of God King to the fullest potential, but as long as Jeanne and I can hold back one of the God King from their side, I think it''s good enough, right?" Alex nodded. "That will help our situation." "Then, are you going to stay here for a week?" "No. I will go to the two worlds you''d recommended and build my dungeon. Of course, I will return with all of you together to Eulja to refine my Undying Fire Body and witness the birth of two God Kings." Alex nodded with a smile. "Sure thing. It''s not like you need to research those two worlds again anyway, considering the information is already enough." Lin Xingzhi agreed and let him go. "Well, that''s because you have compiled the information so precisely after the first two experiences." Alex smiled. "I only need to bring the dungeon over and talk with the World''s Will." "Yep. Do you want me to find anything from this place?" "Not really. I will leave everything to you." Alex nodded and took a few steps back, saying goodbye to everyone before using his Teleportation Array to go to another world. The first world was an Upper World filled with cultivation. The dungeons served as a place to train yourself as Alex intended. Obviously, he made sure that the dungeons were made of Rank 9 Materials so no one would be able to take it and considered the fact that this world wasn''t in the jurisdiction of a Divine World. In other words, no clue would be linked up to him or at least they would need a very long time to discover it. By that time, Alex didn''t even need to hide it anymore. Alex completed the agreement, scouting, and building in just three days. The second one was also the same, but people called cultivation magic despite having the same root. Either way, Alex didn''t talk to any people in that place and mysteriously turned the world upside down by the appearance of the dungeons. Although the system was not active in those two worlds, he would still get a huge number of Spirit Crystals due to the Spiritual Energy released from the dying beasts. All in all, the process was smooth and Alex returned to Lin Xingzhi and the others not long after. After exploring every nook and corner, Alex finally ordered a retreat for his forces before saying his thanks to the God of Destruction for assisting them. And just like that, Alex had concluded this journey with so many resources. After all, if he needed to add up the resources of the Divine World and any worlds around it along with the money he got from selling pills, he almost reached two hundred billion Spirit Crystals. He only needed around another three hundred to four hundred billion Spirit Crystals from Eulja''s treasury before leveling up two God Kings. As soon as they returned, Anna and Jeanne were sitting down side by side. Because they were curious, the Elemental Gods, Guardians, and Commandants came to the castle for a moment to witness the birth of God Kings. Because she feared that Anna would face a life and death ordeal, Jeanne offered to level up first to make sure that this was smooth sailing. Alex obviously rebuked her and argued with her for a few minutes before Jeanne started begging him because she couldn''t escape the guilt that she "wasted" almost eight hundred Billion Spirit Crystals just to become a God King. Alex ended up discussing this with the others and ultimately accepted her demand. "Xingzhi." [Okay.] [Processing.] [Complete.] [Jeanne (Thunder) Level: 90 (Rank 1 God) Exp: 0/-> Suddenly, Jeanne''s body released blue lightning as it spread around without her consent. Even Lin Xingzhi ended up coming here to make sure everything was alright. She even claimed that what they were seeing was the universe forcing her to take up a chunk of Law because her existence couldn''t be recognized had she not understood the Law. They were surprised when Jeanne''s skin was torn because of the lightning and Alex wanted to stop this inevitable process, but the lightning surprisingly absorbed her blood as if demanding her. Although her face became pale, they could see that her power was getting stronger at a fast rate. The blue lightning slowly turned into red lightning as if it was made of blood, yet, Alex could see with his Spirit Eyes that this lightning was far stronger than the previous blue lightning. Despite the pain and suffering she needed to endure, Jeanne didn''t even scream. It might be because she was a strong person to begin with, but Alex could see that color started coming back to her skin, showing that everything was going to be alright. Suddenly, she opened her mouth and chanted. "True Spirit Body, Ethereal Lightning Body." Normally, the lightning in her body would burst out and release a powerful might, but his Spirit Eyes told him that her True Spirit Body actually allowed her to absorb the red lightning around her body. Her blonde hair gradually turned red like the blood lightning as she gradually opened her eyes. Instead of her beautiful blue pupil, it was completely dyed red. The moment that eyes tensed up, the lightning burst out and attacked all the surroundings. Alex and the others quickly reinforced the place with their Divine Energy to prevent her from destroying it, but they soon overjoyed when they saw Jeanne come out successfully. In the almost destroyed ground, Jeanne stood there with her petite body. Her eyes completely gave a different aura as if she was bloodthirsty or something. She even released her killing intent. The others wondered whether she had lost her mind and took out their weapons. But the answer soon came in the form of action. Jeanne raised her hand and concentrated lightning from her hand before a massive Lightning Disturbance appeared right above the sky. When the others were about to stop her, Alex shouted. "Stop! Not a single of you will touch her and open the barriers." The people were completely astounded by his request but fulfilled it either way. They once got another shock when the lightning disturbance sent forth red lightning down to their position, but they soon realized that the red lightning struck her instead of anyone else as if it was a baptism. It was also at that moment, all lightning disappeared, turning the chaotic situation into tranquil in just a split second. Jeanne used her full speed and boosted it with lightning power to jump at Alex and hug him. "Master!" "Eh? What?!" "I have succeeded. My Lightning Law understanding has been increased by hundreds of times when I''m in my True Spirit Body. In other words, this may be called the side effect or whatever, but I think I have understood it. "If I let go of my True Spirit Body, I would become a pseudo God King, meaning that I''m strong enough to not let any single of Rank 2 God to beat me, but I won''t be a challenge against a God King. "Only if I use my True Spirit Body can I actually fight them. In other words, I may be able to become a God King for one day but can''t do it again for the rest of the week." Tears eventually formed on her tears as she couldn''t help but cry like a child. "I''m glad¡­ I''m glad that I didn''t disappoint Master." The people there made a weird smile as they looked at each other, not knowing what to say. It could be said that the experiment succeeded, but the side effect was severe. In fact, even if they could become a God King, she might have stood no chance against Leoz, who reached God King stage in a formal way. Alex cared nothing of the side effect and only felt glad that she was alright. He patted her head and hugged her back. "That''s good." Alex consoled her until she regained her bearing before they discussed what she found during the ordeal. "Sit down, I think we need to know what you get to know and experience. "I understand." Jeanne nodded and recalled. "When my cultivation reached God King, there was a huge amount of information to take on. I couldn''t even scream because of the pain, but I tried to hold onto it and understood the information. I couldn''t explain what kind of information that was¡­" "Well, Law is something that can''t be described but can be understood." Lin Xingzhi added. "You can actually explain it to other people, but when they face the Law itself, they know that the explanation is the vaguest thing they could ever know about Law. I''m sure that all the people here have experienced it even if it''s just a little." All the people, including Alex, nodded their heads in agreement. "After that, it''s like a choice of myself to be what I want to be according to my deepest personality. After experiencing all the things in my life, I have realized that my blood is the most important thing to me. Using my blood as a catalyst, I manage to connect with the Law. Last but not least, I use the most amazing True Spirit Body to be the house for that kind of power. All in all, I think I can be called Lightning Goddess¡­ After this?" "Hahaha! That means Zerah will lose her title." Agnis laughed before getting an elbow from her. "I am Lightning Elemental Goddess, not Lightning Goddess." The group laughed and congratulated Jeanne for becoming a God King. And Jeanne dropped another bomb. "Although I''m like this right now, I feel like I can gradually comprehend the Law stored in my True Spirit Body, so the side effect can be lessened over time and I can officially become a God King. In other words, even if they don''t have the chance to become a God King, this system is actually helping us to understand what it means and teach us how to become a God King." Everyone dropped their jaws to the ground as Agnis couldn''t help but comment. "Do we still have enough time for me to reset my cultivation and try to become a God King?" Chapter 1139: Improvement After laughing at Agnis''s comment, they then turned to Anna, who had been waiting for her turn this whole time. Seeing Jeanne succeed alone already lifted a huge burden on her shoulder. Anna nodded at Alex with a serious expression as she asked, "Please. I''m ready." "Xingzhi." Alex then gave a signal to Lin Xingzhi to do the same thing to Anna. [Okay.] [Processing.] [Complete.] [Anna (Dark) Level: 90 (Rank 1 God) Exp: 0/-> Just like Jeanne, Anna''s body emitted black energy as it spread around without her consent. This was the Darkness Law or so they believed since they couldn''t understand what kind of Law Anna actually chose. The dark energy enveloped her skin before spreading to all her body as if the darkness itself swallowed her. Anna also didn''t let out a single voice inside the dark energy, so she must have her hand full with the Law. After Alex confirmed that she was alright, the rest felt relieved and watched attentively to see any difference. Of course, they had prepared to make another barrier and ready their weapon for an incoming attack, but that was all. They simply watched how Anna got "tortured" inside her dark cocoon as the influx of Dark Law stormed in. Alex gulped down as he became even more impatient in Anna''s turn. But considering Anna was his wife, it was normal and the others understood it as well. Suddenly, the dark energy burst out as Anna''s just changed her appearance inside, befitting her own position right now. Her long black hair was tied to a ponytail with a purple butterfly pin. There was also another one on the front, clipping her bang and let it rest on top of her right eyebrow. Her purple eyes now had a pointed sharp black dot, symbolizing her power. She wore a one-piece black dress that was gently wrapped with a black shawl on her waist. The dress reached a little above her knee. "True Spirit Body, Dark Butterfly Spirit." A pair of wings appeared again. Although it didn''t have any change in its appearance, Alex could see the ridiculous amount of Dark Energy inside her wings. However, her scythe now turned completely black on its handle, coupled with butterfly patterns that made it recognizable since it had the same color as her hairpin. The blade had two colors: black on the outside, green on the inside, complementing each other when running side by side. Unlike Jeanne, there was no baptism from the sky. Instead, all the Dark Energy wrapped her and formed a ball to host her body inside as if she started her last evolution. They looked at each other before feeling something was coming. Anna stretched her wings and flapped them, sending all the Dark Energy to all directions. Alex and the others used their barriers to stop this rampaging energy without hesitation. "Ah, my daughter. My daughter has become the grim reaper. Look at this grandfather¡­ I don''t mind if it''s my granddaughter that takes this old man. My daughter is the prettiest." Rilt became a total idiot and cheered like Anna was an idol or something. Even Vina needed to stop his mouth from opening so as to not bother them before Alex sent him away with his Teleportation Array. Anna''s cultivation solidified as she gradually finished the last step. Boom. Another surge of Dark Energy appeared and struck the barrier, rampaging inside the barrier. Alex simply watched her progress with his Spirit Eyes and would stop as soon as a mistake happened. Just when they thought this would be over, they were wrong. Anna released another powerful energy wave and shook the barrier. Even the others felt that power and furrowed their eyebrows. Alex muttered while observing Anna''s change. "Is this happening because of the difference in understanding their power?" "I''m afraid so." Vina nodded with a serious expression. "Well, I don''t understand it myself even though I''m learning Darkness Law. And since my daughter has done it before me, I don''t think I will continue mastering it as my understanding and hers will clash." "That''s a wise decision, but are you sure, Vina?" Lin Xingzhi agreed to her but still asked for confirmation. "She is my child and my treasure. If she can live well and surpass me like this, do I need anything more? No. She and Anya will always be my pride and joy." Vina shook her head. There wasn''t a single trace of regret or envy in her eyes. "Is that so? Then we will let you be the first to congratulate her." "Ahaha. Thanks." Vina nodded. Slowly but surely, the energy in her body subsided before it began consolidating in her body. She took a bit less time than Jeanne, but a few hours had passed. The moment she opened her eyes, Anna smiled and nodded. "I have succeeded." This time, Vina was the one who jumped toward her and hugged her tightly. Without the need for words, Anna understood what her mother wanted to convey. She couldn''t help but smile and hugged her back. "Thank you, Mom." "I love you, my kid." After a long hug, Anna then rose from the ground and told Alex. "I don''t think I need to explain much. It''s basically the same as Jeanne from my observation. Other than me taking up the position as Goddess of Darkness, I don''t think there''s any other thing I need to add." Alex nodded with a smile. "Then I am glad. Lin Xingzhi, Anna, Jeanne, Alaya, Leoz, and God of Wrath¡­ We will have six God Kings in the near future." "You should add yourself too." Anna shrugged as there was no way that Alex wouldn''t enter the list. Alex didn''t answer her as he only stuck his tongue out before turning around. "Anyway, since we have finished here, we should wrap it soon. Anna and Jeanne can consolidate their power for now. The rest of you are to return to your position because I feel we will have another war soon." "Understood." They agreed without hesitation, fully knowing that their enemies couldn''t wait any longer. After saying that, Alex returned to the castle to rest. Even though he knew that he would have ten God Kings on his side, it was still not enough. Basically, Anna and Jeanne might need to pair up to kill a single God King from their side since their strength couldn''t be compared to that of a God King from the past generation. The same applied to Leoz, Song Goddess, Holy God, and Palm God. If they were to team up together, they could only fight two God Kings. Hence, Alex needed to subtract three from the current count. This became a headache for him because he didn''t know what to say about them. He chose to rest in his room and contemplated his next move. Unfortunately, they couldn''t really attack the Phoenix Goddess, Dragon God, Earth God, or Battle God because there would be a chance they would get ambushed by Angel and Bats when he did it. And there were still their "pets" that made the entire situation even more stressful. Alex gave up and focused on strengthening himself first. He took out the last ingredient he needed to refine the Undying Fire Body, the Fire Divine Crystal. It could be said that this only happened once every one thousand times where a Fire Disturbance collided with a Space Disturbance, resulting in it getting sealed inside the space element. And that space element turned into a crystal. Alex could even say this crystal is the compressed form of Fire Disturbance. If not because of his Pure Fire, Alex wouldn''t survive if he swallowed this. Alex took out a pink crystal with a small fireball inside as if it were a sun. He gulped down, gathered his resolve, and swallowed the crystal. The moment the Space Element dissolved in his mouth, the blazing heat burst out. Alex''s Pure Fire immediately revolved to prevent the explosion, but his body was heating up. But Alex didn''t want to go down without a fight, so his Fire Authority helped him suppress the Fire Disturbance and let the Pure Fire refine its energy. At the same time, Alex realized that he didn''t have any Fire Technique that could help him resolve something like this. He had his Fire Phoenix Art, Sun Descent, and Fire Authority, but none of them were actually useful in the last few battles. His Fire Phoenix Art could be considered a Divine Technique, but it was one of the lowest Divine Technique because it purely relied on his overbearing Pure Fire. Hence, he needed to get something that would be able to help his Fire to do something more useful. At the same time, Sun Descent lost its purpose when he had gotten the Fire Authority Second Stage, allowing him to suppress anyone with Fire Element. The others would also feel a certain amount of pressure. That was why he believed he only had a single Fire Technique. While refining his body, Alex thought about getting two or three Fire Techniques that could boost his overall ability. His master might be able to teach him one or two techniques, but he also had a variety of techniques inside his head, so he wasn''t sure whether to ask him or not. Since the refining process was automatically done by his Pure Fire, Alex decided to search through his mind while enduring the pain. He searched for techniques that he could use and turned out to have found two Techniques. The first technique was called Divine Petal. The technique called a single lotus made of fire and hit someone or an attack before deploying all of its petals to strike the target. It was a highly offensive technique that could improve his overall abilities. The second technique was known as Star God Divine Control. It basically allowed him to control a Fire Disturbance. Whether he wanted to pour that power into his attack or even his sword, it was up to him. These two techniques would undoubtedly become useful for him in the near future, so he began to look into the information to learn it. Although he didn''t want to admit it, because he had gotten used to such excruciating pain, he could even do something like this even in the midst of pain. He didn''t know whether to be thankful about it or not, so he distracted himself with the information while refining his body. The refining process took a year and Alex''s cultivation seemed to have improved again. When he finished his training, Alex gradually opened his eyes with a serious expression and looked at his hand. He purposely cut his palm with his nails until it bled, but a second later, the wound already disappeared. "So, this is the true Undying Fire Body. External Injuries are not that much of a deal. Even if I lost a limb, I could regrow it by using this Body Refining Technique. Even Internal Injuries would get healed naturally far faster than anyone else. "No wonder why this Undying Fire Body is so good. If I take another look at my cultivation, it seems I will be able to reach Rank 3 God when refining Sun Essence later." Alex smiled and rose from the bed. He visited Lin Xingzhi about his success and told her that he would need more time because he had two more techniques to learn. In total, he might be away for three years, for the very least, so he left everything to her and asked her to contact him if an emergency happened. Lin Xingzhi agreed and asked him to say goodbye to the others first before leaving. And there was a chance that the next tournament needed to be canceled because the situation had grown too hot. Alex nodded, talked with everyone, and left Eulja. Meanwhile, in the Palm God''s planet, he and his wife sat on the floor, looking at Navin with a serious expression. "Are you sure you want to do this, Navin?" Palm God asked. "Yes, Master. I feel like this is the only way. Please let me do it." Navin lowered his head. Palm God couldn''t understand his request, but since he truly meant it, he could only agree. "I understand. If you need anything, you can contact my wife or me. We will try to help you." "Thank you, Master." Chapter 1140: Sun God Fire Alex arrived at a certain star that Lin Xingzhi''d informed him about. He looked from top to bottom, seeing no difference other than the amount of Fire Energy, its brightness and the size. "Well, what can I expect? It''s not like I should wish for a blue star or something, right?" Alex shook his head helplessly as his Pure Fire instinctively came out to check the star. "Hmm? Is it a challenge? No, it''s like my Godly Pure Fire has taken an interest in this sun. What? Don''t tell me he actually wants to get married?" Alex''s face became pale before shrugging with a joking face. "Alright. Jokes aside, my power seems to be attracted to this star, so I guess it''s fine to take advantage of this sun." Alex contemplated for a moment and flew forward, entering the sun. As one would expect from a hot plasma, he had no trouble entering the sun as if he swam in viscous water. The feeling was new, but he didn''t mind it and used his Spirit Eyes to see the core where the Sun Essence gathered. After diving for another two minutes, he came to a halt. His speed wasn''t that great anyway so as to not miss anything. "That place where it''s brighter than anywhere else." Alex narrowed his eyes and quickly came toward that place. He felt an intense heat that was hard to take even for his Godly Pure Fire. "I see. So this is the Sun Fire¡­ The reason for the "Phoenix" to be able to fight Fire God equally was due to this essence. They simply had a fire of the same level. However, Alex might be the first one that advanced the fire even further by combining both of them at once, but it all came down to his talent. Whether he could evolve his Pure Fire even further or not would depend on his effort in this. He then sat in a lotus float while floating around the area as he began to attract the Sun Essence with his Pure Fire, slowly absorbing it into his body. The Sun Essence itself was a kind of crystallization from this sun and could only be born after billions of years just to create a small droplet. Yet, this star had a big one and was so bright. Alex had no doubt that this star could last another billion if not trillions of years. Unfortunately, it needed to come to an end because Alex truly needed its power. Alex absorbed it without hesitation. The process took a very long time and every time the Sun Essence entered, his Pure Fire started entangling itself to the Sun Essence, trying to make it as its friend before swallowing it as a whole. At that time, Alex realized that it also refined a Divine Energy for him to absorb. In other words, Alex could increase his cultivation while absorbing the Sun Essence. This was what he needed to reach Rank 3 God this soon. Alex became even more fired up to cultivate as his path had been set. After six months, Alex finally noticed the difference. He had absorbed a fourth of the Sun Essence, which could be visible by his Spirit Eyes, but more importantly, his Pure Fire had started to have a change. His chaotic and prideful Pure Fire mellowed a bit as if it had matured up like that of a human. At the same time, the color slightly changed as there were slivers of golden flame among the Pure Fire. Alex savored the feeling and continued, expecting something good from this transformation. Another six months had passed and the progress remained the same this whole time. His Fire now had two colors, Gold and Red. The two seemed to be fighting for supremacy, but Alex simply used his Authority to stop both of them since the Red would gradually turn into Gold. Finally, after a long twenty months, Alex had officially broken through to Rank 3 God and became the youngest in history. In fact, he had become the "first" since he reached Rank 8 God, considering Rank 9 and Rank 10 Gods were occupied by Alicia. He almost finished absorbing the Sun Essence too and noticed the difference between his previous Godly Pure Fire and this new incomplete fire. Although Godly Pure Fire was already the purest form of fire and the Sun Essence couldn''t add on the purity anymore, the Sun Essence became even more focused on his power instead. Alex''s red fire had almost turned into Golden Fire and Alex seemed to be thinking of a new name he needed to give for this new type of fire that surpassed Fire God''s Godly Pure Fire. While thinking about the new name, Alex also checked the situation about the Sun Essence and the star itself. As one would expect, the temperature had decreased exponentially with ninety percent of its energy absorbed. At the same time, the size had shrunk by half. All nearby planets had grown cold because of this change. That was why Alex asked Lin Xingzhi to find him a star that had no "living" planets or he would murder them indirectly. After another few months, it was time for Alex to complete the evolution. The sun had disappeared completely before another one appeared when the residual of his Red Fire gushed out of its body, feeling that it wasn''t their home anymore. Alex waved his hand and it disappeared in an instant, leaving Alex''s figure in the empty void. "Huft." Alex''s expression turned serious as he raised his hand. Golden fire emerged from his hand before he released everything from his body. The dark outer space was brightened by a shining golden star. "I see. So this is my new fire¡­" Alex turned around and noticed an asteroid not far from him. Although it was not far, it was impossible for a normal person to grab it since they needed to travel like from the Earth to Mars. The asteroid was quite big, around the size of the moon. But he simply raised his hand and waved it, releasing his new fire. Boom. Surprisingly, it created an explosion just by touching the asteroid and reduced it to nothing. "This is seriously even more overpowered than my Godly Pure Fire." Alex looked down for a few seconds and smiled. "Alright. I have decided on the name. From today on, this fire will be called Sun God Fire. I don''t know if the Phoenix Goddess can be suppressed by this fire, but I have the confidence to suppress that Roy." [Congratulations Alex. You''ve officially surpassed the former Fire God, Phitrus.] "Thank you." Alex couldn''t contain his smile as he felt proud about it. [Well, you need to think of a way to surpass the Dungeon God and the Spirit God this time.] "Can you not beat me down after raising me up?" Alex''s eyebrows twitched as he let out a long sigh. [Haha. Isn''t that what we have been doing this whole time?] "We? No, it''s you. Anyway, I will go to a planet and practice two techniques before coming home. We don''t have any major movement, right?" [Nope. Everything is under control. We can wait for you to come back first.] "Do we have a target to hit?" [I''m not sure myself because there''s simply no news about the "weapons". It''s not like we can carelessly attack them.] "Agree." Alex contemplated for a moment and said, "Anyway, I think I know what to do. Instead of aiming for the God Kings, how about we weaken their armies? We can create chaos among their soldiers and hunt them. I have no guarantee that this tactic will make them crazy, but they will feel pressured." [I will pass it to Anya and Aria. I hope they can come up with something good.] "Yes. I need to focus on my training." [Okay. Good luck.] "Yes, thank you." Alex nodded and changed his focus to the two Divine Techniques. Because there was no requirement to train these two techniques, especially about places, Alex just chose a planet among the ones nearby. It was cold since the sun was nowhere to be seen and darkness filled the entire planet. Yet, Alex didn''t care and recalled all the information about the two techniques. "I will learn the Star God Divine Control first since I want to test my control over this new fire first before learning about the Divine Petals." After coming to a decision, Alex released his Sun God Fire and started practicing. ¡­ Meanwhile, as Alex trained his Divine Fire Arts, Eulja, specifically Lin Xingzhi, had gotten a very big surprise. When she was doing her work, three people came into the room with a smile. The first one was a young man in his early twenties. He had short red hair and red eyes. Despite his stern face, his eyes were filled with nostalgic feelings as she looked at Lin Xingzhi with a smile. The same applied to the woman next to him. She was in her early thirties, gently looking at Lin Xingzhi like a mother. She patted the second female''s head. Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes and looked at the last one. She was another youth that seemed to be a bit younger than the male. Yet, her expression was a bit maturer than the last time they met. More importantly, their cultivations were quite high. The male and the older female both had Rank 5 God Cultivation while the younger one was a Rank 9 God. This truly shocked Lin Xingzhi to the core as the older ones actually parted ways with them to gain strength. And it turned out that this separation became their biggest turning point. Not only had they reached this kind of power level, but they also brought joyous news. "I''m sorry that we have taken too much time in this journey, Mistress Lin Xingzhi." The male spoke with an embarrassed tone. "Yes. We''re very sorry. However, we have something that will bring joy to Master and everyone else." The older female confirmed his statement. "We can talk about the news later since Alex is also not here right now. Still¡­" Lin Xingzhi looked at the younger female and smiled. "To think you would have become a Rank 9 God too." "This is all thanks to Master. After fixing everything in my territory, I have come to the Upper World. Then my mother and father brought me to many places as we grew stronger together." The younger female nodded with a smile. "Indeed. The only reason our family can reunite is Master. We can''t thank him enough." "Yes. You were the first, Husband. He allowed us to meet again, and after some twists, everything became like this. I''m so happy." Lin Xingzhi closed her eyes and smiled upon the memory about them together. "Anyway, I should say this first¡­ I''m glad to see all three of you again, Kyle, Stina, Ellen." Chapter 1141: Reunion "It''s been a while, Kyle, Stina, Ellen." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Yes." Kyle nodded with a smile. "Where is Master?" "Alex is still in his practice. He probably needs another year to come back." "I see, but I think this one is pretty urgent." Kyle''s expression turned serious. "Do you know where we went during our trip?" "Hmm? I didn''t keep tabs on you, so I don''t know. Though, I have updated your information from time to time according to your report." "We had gone to a certain star where we saw so many phoenixes hiding on the surface of the star, cultivating by hopping from one star to another. We properly checked and tried to follow them as it became one of the reasons why we could get this strong so soon." Lin Xingzhi stood up in shock and asked again, "What did you say?" "As I said, we have found where the phoenixes are hiding. I have heard about Master''s story on our trip, so I can somehow understand what he wants. That''s why I believe that this information will bring happiness to both you and Master." Lin Xingzhi facepalmed and remembered Alex''s message. "Since it''s not possible to handle their God Kings, he wants to strike the army to reduce their overall strength. At the same time, it''s perfect to see them away from the Phoenix Goddess who controls a few Divine Worlds. "And with Alex spreading the rumors about her being a traitor, he managed to suppress them a little bit. In other words, this would be the perfect time to strike them." Lin Xingzhi contemplated for a few seconds before returning to manage the system, relaying the message to Alex. On a certain planet, Alex opened his mouth in surprise when he read it. "You sure?" [Yes. To avoid being found out, I suggest that we only mobilize Eulja.] Alex took a deep breath and decided. "Alright. Let me return to Eulja first. What''s their number?" [Fifty thousand God Rank Experts.] "Prepare ten thousand God Rank Experts. Call the Guardians and Elemental Gods along with Anna and Jeanne. Also, don''t forget about Anya and Aria. We are setting up a war council to wipe the phoenixes out of the picture." [Understood.] As soon as he finished the conversation, he looked up and smiled. "Kyle, huh. It''s been a while." A Teleportation Array appeared beneath his feet and sent him away from the planet. It took another day for him to arrive, but this became a precious time for him to think about his course of action. As soon as he returned to Eulja, Lin Xingzhi had been waiting for him in front of the Garden. They went straight to the war council, where the meeting would happen. As expected, everyone had been waiting for them. Even Anya had set up everything and prepared to tell the plan. Alex took the front seat and looked at all of them with a serious expression. "We can''t afford to waste a single moment because they may pick it up or something. Hence, I''m going to attack them before they can run away." "How?" Aria tilted her head in confusion as she couldn''t see a way to kill all the phoenixes without being found out. She knew that a few thousand would likely survive this attack. Alex smiled and answered her. "Quality beats quantity." "Still, even if we bring the Commandants, it''s still not sure we can kill all of the phoenixes." Aria shook her head, rejecting his claim. "Who says I will bring the commandants? I literally ask for help from those who have been angry at the phoenixes since ancient times. He has hidden their hatred for too long, so I''m thinking about unleashing it." Alex made an evil smile as he could already foresee that those guys would actually use more than a hundred percent when the battle started. Anya then realized and took a step back. "Are you serious?" "It''s time for them to show themselves to the universe." Alex smiled. "Comprising ten Rank 2 Gods, they are the strongest ally for Eulja at the moment. Ten God Beasts!" The entire room fell silent as they never thought that Alex was far crazier than Anya. Aria couldn''t help but comment. "This means we have twenty-one Rank 2 Gods and three God Kings along with ten thousand God Rank Experts. If this doesn''t work, we better surrender since the battle ahead will be too dangerous." Alex nodded in agreement and added. "Also, I think my fire can suppress them. In fact, I can suppress Roy, so I think we can lower their number in a second. All of you can deal with the rest of them." They looked at each other and nodded their heads in succession, agreeing with Alex''s plan. "Also, ask Kyle, Stina, Ellen, Firia and Sherry. I have something for them." Alex nodded and then left. The others could only shrug their shoulders, leaving everything to Lin Xingzhi. After that, Lin Xingzhi took over the meeting and told them a few things about the details. Aria and Anya planned everything according to Alex''s instruction and worked it up as they decided to attack them in three days. Alex waited for the five of them in the garden as he gradually opened his eyes when the three arrived. Surprisingly, Silvia came along with Sherry because she seemed to have a matter of importance. "What are you doing here?" Alex asked in confusion. "Do you need something from me?" "Yes. I need you to lie down a bit." Silvia nodded with a serious expression. "Lie down? Ehm, if you want to do it in the open, I don''t mind, but there are others here. It''s not appropriate." Alex shook his head, rejecting her request. "Did your brain get burned or something?" Silvia shook her head helplessly before taking out her needles. "I mean this." "Ah?!" Alex remembered his plan after reaching Rank 3 God. It was to have Silvia''s massage once again to increase his power. "You forgot about it?" "Almost." Alex scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed. "Well, we can do it a bit later since I need to use my power right now." "Is that so? Fine¡­" Silvia agreed and left. "I will be waiting for you in your room." "Yeah sure. I will go there as soon as I finish and¡­ thank you for taking care of me." Silvia only waved her hand as the only reason she came here was due to the bitterness in her heart. She never expected that Alex truly caught up in Rank 3 God. There was no guarantee that Alex would reach Rank 2 God before her or not, but they truly reached the endpoint already. The battle between him and the beast would probably be his last battle because from that point on, no one would dare to offend Eulja, especially with seven God Kings on one planet. Though she still believed that she could become another God King for both Eulja and her father. Either way, she didn''t hold a grudge or something and truly felt happy that Alex had become a Rank 3 God this soon. Sherry and the others finally arrived in front of Alex with a confused expression, not knowing why Alex gathered them here. But since only his contracted beasts and wives were here, they could somehow understand his purpose, especially with his other contracted beast, Leka, not included in the conversation. "I think you all have guessed the purpose of this meeting. Yes. I have evolved my Pure Fire to another level after absorbing Planet Essence and Sun Essence. I think Sherry''s Pure Fire can evolve into this too, but for now, I want to test whether you have a different feeling about it again. After all, this is outside my territory. I just want to be safe." Alex explained. Firia and the others agreed without hesitation. "What do you want us to do?" "First of all, I want to ask whether your fire has gotten stronger or not." "I have." Firia nodded, feeling the sudden power increase in her Sacrificial Element. It was the most direct connection than anything else, so she obviously was the first to receive the benefit. "No change in purity or something, but the power is terrifying. I think I won''t have trouble fighting Sherry''s Pure Fire." "Do you want to test it, Firia?" Sherry smirked before getting a smack from Alex. "Gah. I was joking. Well, I do feel a slight change, but I haven''t explored it yet. By the way, what is the name of your new fire?" "Sun God Fire." "Godly Pure Fire and Sun Essence¡­ Sun God Fire huh. Your naming sense sucks as always." "I scored myself a passing score this time. At least, it''s not that bad compared to the other names. And I should have named you Pochi or something." "I''m going to fight you over this." She pouted before adding two works that completely changed the entire meaning. "On bed." Firia pinched her cheeks and shook her head helplessly. "Alright. Enough you horny fox." "But you are more perverted than me." "What did you say?" Firia narrowed her eyes. "It''s my skill that is better than yours. What do you mean by more perverted? What about you? Don''t you think I don''t know that you and sister Xingzhi have collaborated with each other? Raising the money to buy all kind of s*x toys this universe can offer." Her face became pale as she looked away. "I don''t know what you''re talking about." "Hmph. You are already a corrupted official. You may have created channels for our business to grow, but you use a bit of it to collect all the toys. Where do you hide it?" "I didn''t embezzle money. I earned it." She pouted. The two continued to argue for a few more seconds until Alex stopped them. "Alright, alright. Let''s stop here. What I want to know is the effect of this Sun God Fire. Do you mind if I burn you a bit?" Alex asked. "I mean, channeling my power into your body." "We don''t mind of course." Sherry nodded with a serious expression and looked at the others who had the same opinion. "Thanks." Alex smiled before finally looking at Kyle and his family. "Still, it''s nice to see you again, Kyle." Seeing Alex open his arms wide, Kyle hugged him like brothers and smiled. "It''s truly been a while, Master. To think I would be able to do something like this. Meeting you was really the greatest moment of my life. I''d also reunited with my family. We''re working for the second child, but I think we will postpone it after this war is over." "That''s good. Be happy with your family. That''s my sincerest wish." "Thank you, Master." After releasing Kyle, Alex then opened his arms again to Stina as the two hugged too. "I miss you, Master." "Yeah, me too. You have left for decades. I thought you forgot about me." "Haha. How can we forget the most impactful man in our lives?" Stina chuckled and released him. "Besides, Ellen is with us right now. I feel blessed." "Ahaha. You make me embarrassed." Alex then looked at Ellen, who also gave him a hug. "How are you, Ellen? How is the kingdom?" "I have passed it to the next generation and chased after my parents. Still, I wish I can contribute to something for Master. Not only have you done so much to my family, but you also have saved my life in the past." "Haha, you don''t need to worry about it." Alex smiled. "I''m glad that you''ve gained your freedom back now." "Thank you, Master. I will work hard from today on." "Yes. I will be looking forward to your achievement in the future. Just don''t feel pressured because of it, okay?" "Yes." Ellen smiled and took a few step backs. Alex''s expression turned serious as he called out his golden flame as if the "warm" atmosphere earlier truly turned warm¡­ literally. "Alright. Who is first?" Alex asked with an excited smile. Chapter 1142: Annihilation "Ehm¡­" Ellen let out a cute moan as her body was enveloped by Alex''s golden fire. It was an amazing experience for her. The flame itself didn''t release any heat, yet she felt revitalized and filled with strength. The Golden Fire surprisingly refined a bit of her fire a bit and turned them into something crazier than anyone could think. Even Sherry seemed to have a plan to acquire this Sun God Fire and asked Lin Xingzhi about the planet where she could absorb its essence for the starter. Lin Xingzhi was more than happy to find one, knowing that this power would become even greater when she reached Rank 5 God. With Alex and her on the battlefield, they didn''t need to care about Fire Element Users on the battlefield because they simply had no chance to fight. Still, because of their huge gap and the fact that she became his contracted beast later than anyone here, Ellen had the best improvement in this opportunity, increasing her cultivation exponentially. Alex felt happy for her and finished the treatment with an announcement. "Anyway, you all will be essential in the next battle. I am sorry to force you to participate even though you three just returned." "Don''t worry, Master. We all are ready." Kyle smiled. "I have missed so many battles, so I shouldn''t slack anymore or people will call me a leech. Let me¡­ No, let us fight alongside you. We will protect Ellen by ourselves, so Master doesn''t need to worry." Alex nodded with a smile. "Alright. I will leave it to you, Kyle." "Yes." "In that case, I will need to return first to get my treatment." Alex waved his hand and went back to his room. As one would expect, Silvia had prepared all her equipment and was ready to massage Alex while giving some acupunctures. "Are you sure about this, Alex?" Silvia asked for one more time, confirming his intention. "Yes." "Even if it means that you can''t push yourself too hard again because it will damage your foundation?" "Yes. I have considered it as well. This is the best time to get this treatment since I will go straight to the Rank 2 God after settling everything. After that, I will start learning about Law like how the other Rank 2 Gods do. I already have the concept ready and I think it won''t take me hundreds of years to get them. "Rank 2 God is a special rank because the previous power system doesn''t apply. Although it''s true that you can get stronger by increasing your cultivation, it''s impossible for you to break through to Rank 1 God or God King without learning the Law. "And while learning about Law, cultivation will tag along, so I will get stronger in every way." Alex nodded with a serious expression. Silvia narrowed her eyes and sighed. "There is also another universe, you know." "I am a family guy. As long as I have a fulfilled life, I don''t mind stopping in one place to settle down." Alex shook his head with a genuine smile, knowing that he didn''t have the intention to step forward to the next step even if he knew there were many people far stronger than him. If he continuously pursued this way, there wouldn''t be an end to it. He would rather live peacefully with his family than becoming the strongest person. Seeing the determination in his eyes, Silvia finally agreed to treat him. She stretched her hand to the bed. "Then, take off your clothes and lay down on the bed." Alex followed her instruction, lying down on his stomach. Silvia then started her "magical" treatment just like how she did it the first time. It might be because the gap between each Rank in God Rank was bigger than a single gap from Foundation Rank to a God Rank, this time massage truly released a bigger influx of Divine Energy, allowing Alex to reach his goal faster. Even Silvia felt his strong energy that had been accompanied by the Void Flower that basically created another reserve of Divine Energy in his body. All of them came out simultaneously. If a Foundation Rank Expert stayed in this room for one hour, he would have become a Martial Lord within five minutes. Of course, there was no way that their bodies could handle that pressure, but it just showed how much energy he released, specifically how dense the Divine Energy in the room was for the moment. Eventually, he went into a deep state of cultivation, trying to get all the benefits this treatment could offer. It took him a whole day just to finish it before he opened his eyes again, feeling refreshed. "You''ve finally finished." Alex turned around, finding Silvia sitting next to him. "You don''t need to wait for me here, you know." "I am a doctor. I can''t afford to let my patient go unnoticed in the middle of treatment." She shook her head in a serious expression before turning into a smile. Silvia came closer to him and whispered with a seductive tone. "I can do a sensual massage too, you know." "Ho?!" Alex and Silvia ended up coming out of the room the next day. ¡­ Another day passed and it was the time for Alex to bring his army to eradicate the phoenixes. Because of the scale of the operation, Alex only used one spaceship, his mothership. Out of curiosity, Alex also decided to board on the spaceship. From the interior alone, there wasn''t much of a difference than the one he saw in the Dwarf Spaceship. It was made for battle after all. Lin Xingzhi accompanied him to the main control room. There he could see several people waiting for him. All of them were God Rank Experts but on the low side. Yet, they each had a table for them alone, controlling everything in the spaceship. There was a guy who controlled the living necessities on the spaceship, there was a girl preparing all types of arrays that the ship would use and many others. All of these guys had the responsibility to remain in the ship even if they needed to die because they simply could do almost anything even if the ship was half destroyed and all people''s safety was riding on their shoulders. In the middle of the room, there was one empty seat where the king would sit down. Normally, it was for Lin Xingzhi if they went somewhere, but now that the new king had ascended, only one person had the right to sit on that seat. Alex looked at Lin Xingzhi pointing her finger toward the seat as if telling him to sit there. Alex agreed and followed her advice with Lin Xingzhi standing next to him. "Your Majesty. Do you want to say something to everyone first?" A Spirit asked him politely. Since they were about to leave Eulja, Alex should probably say something to the people. An array appeared right in front of him. It was none other than a Sound Transmission array. This way, everyone on this ship would be able to hear his voice. Thinking for a moment, Alex finally opened his mouth. "This is Alexander Sirius. I only have one thing to say. We only have ten thousand people while the enemies are fifty thousand phoenixes. They clearly outnumbered us. "However, fret not. I promise you that our victory is nothing but assured. On our sides, we have the five Guardians and six Elemental Gods as well as three God Kings. Hereby I announce, Lin Xingzhi will take the north position, Anna and Jeanne shall come from the west and east of the star while I will be closing in from the south. "With this, we shall eliminate all the phoenixes without any mercy. Let''s destroy their plan, shall we?" Alex smirked and paused for a second before shouting. "Move out!" "Teleportation Formation has been activated. Calculating the distance. 3812 Teleportation Arrays shall be used together." "Activating the Teleportation Arrays." Another guy shouted as the arrays on the ship''s body began to glow as they prepared to jump directly to the sun where the phoenix hid. "Using the Teleportation Formation. Teleport." Alex felt as if a Space Disturbance appeared right in front of him but disappeared again. Although he had used the Teleportation Formation once, he never experienced moving something this big, so it was a nice experience for him. He also activated his Spirit Eyes and saw the fact that the spaceship actually didn''t teleport just like that. Instead, they created a Space Disturbance and took advantage of its ability to create a tunnel toward the place they were supposed to go. After connecting both places, the ship then slipped past the Space Tunnel and arrived at its destination. Alex could see a giant star that could be compared to that of the brightest star he used to create the Sun God Fire. At the same time, many presences came into his vision. "Yes. I have confirmed this sun is the place we want to go to. There are tens of thousands of phoenixes there." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "How is the situation?" "There''s nothing abnormal. We have no visual of other people around the area. There should be no ambush other than ten presences next to us." Nodding his head, his next command was, "Everyone will come out of the spaceship and prepare for annihilation." "Uoh!" The people cheered as their blood was boiling. They couldn''t wait to see how they would dominate the phoenixes that once wreaked havoc in this universe. They would be the first person to destroy them like no one could do in the past. Just like how Alex instructed, they all went toward their designated positions. Of course, this was the thing that the war council talked about after Alex left the room. They had split everyone evenly. In the north, Lin Xingzhi was accompanied by Agnis, Zerah, Canaan, and Helena. Next to her were Rilt, Vina, William and Carissa right behind Anna. In the opposite direction, Jeanne was accompanied by the rest of the guardians and Sullivan. Still, the fanciest guy in this place truly put even more pressure on all of them. He wasn''t accompanied by any of Eulja''s powerhouses, only the soldiers. However, ten powerful presences appeared on the battlefield and stopped right behind Alex. The leader of those presences was none other than a red snake. "Your Majesty, the Spirit King. We are grateful for this opportunity to release all of our hatred that couldn''t be fulfilled in the past. It''s time for us to take revenge for our master." Yes. They were none other than ten God Beasts. In other words, behind Alex were ten giant beasts that had been terrorizing this universe under Phitrus''s name. Alex didn''t reply to them. Instead, he activated his Fire Authority and released his Sun God Fire. The moment they felt it, the phoenixes quickly came out of the sun, looking at all of them. They never expected to be found out. "Time to eradicate them. All forces¡­" Alex commanded as his Sun God Fire revolved and completely let its presence known. "¡­Attack!" "Uoh!" Chapter 1143: Suggestions Taken aback by this surprise attack, the phoenixes began crying, signaling them to fight back. Alex only smiled as he used his Pure Fire to the utmost limit to see whether he could suppress them or not. The moment the Golden Fire showed its might, the Fire Spirits or even the Fire God''s God Beasts started feeling the pressure and ended up lowering their heads. And Alex didn''t even mean to suppress them. This showed how much Alex''s Sun God Fire could affect Fire Element users. As one would expect, the Phoenixes also experienced the same thing. They suddenly felt their fire get taken away from them as if they couldn''t do anything in front of the absolute monarch. Still, it seemed that because their strength was equal to Godly Pure Fire, those above Rank 4 Gods managed to resist Alex''s suppression. Alex channeled a bit more of his power to stop suppressing his ally and pressuring his enemies. "Ten God Beasts are to deal with the Rank 4 Gods or above. The rest will eliminate all those phoenixes who can''t do a single thing anymore." "Uoh." In an instant, they already knew that this battle would be over in an instant. There were ten Rank 2 Gods among them, but they were simply overpowered by Lin Xingzhi and the others. After knowing their fate, the phoenixes tried to escape either to the top or below them, but Alex and Lin Xingzhi intercepted them in two opposite directions. There was no mercy at all. Even though his suppression couldn''t go too far, he still managed to kill around fifteen thousand phoenixes under the suppression, minimizing their casualty. The battle lasted for two hours before all phoenixes died floating in outer space like a normal bird. "Haha, the battle was pretty anti-climatic." Lin Xingzhi laughed as she visited Alex after everything was over. "It''s good to feel this anti-climatic. I don''t want to waste our resources and to see dying spirits tore my heart." Alex shook his head with a serious expression. "How is our force?" "A few hundred have fallen¡­ Well, I think it''s around three to four hundred. If there is no suppression, we might have lost more than two thousand spirits since the Phoenix Sun Fire is so powerful." "In any case, this will be a huge blow for the Phoenix Goddess. After all, she must have prepared this to add her personal army to get twenty Rank 2 Gods. This is extremely dangerous since the other weapon must have created it as well." "Ah?!" Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes, never expecting this. "Fair enough. If we think it like that, there will be double the number from that war five thousand years ago. This is going to be a little rough since we have killed the snake but haven''t found its army." "Yes. There is a possibility of them coming out later, so I want to make our number equal first." "So that''s why you want us to attack the phoenixes here?" "Exactly. Unfortunately, it seems they are going to hide the Bats until the last moment, so we don''t have any hope. For now, search for the dragons and angels. We need to kill them as soon as possible." "I understand. But we don''t have their information about them at the moment¡­ Only them." Alex smirked. "What are you saying? Don''t we have good bait?" "Hmm? What do you mean?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head, not understanding his intention, before she looked at the phoenix corpses floating in outer space. "Now I see." "Yep. Carry all the Rank 2 Gods and destroy the rest." Alex nodded with a smile and changed the topic. "Since I''m with you guys, I will continue my practice in Eulja since this universe will undergo a huge tribulation soon." "I understand." Alex thought for a moment. "Now, I am wondering what I should do right now¡­ I mean, I have done everything I can until this point. I don''t have any more goals until I reach Rank 2 God." "Hmm¡­" She thought for a moment and shook her head helplessly. "I also don''t know what to do at this point. You may need another two to three years just to reach Rank 2 God if not more, because you have gathered all the herbs. The only way to make another breakthrough will be another Divine Medicinal Herb that is equivalent to White Ash Pill." Alex thought for a moment and sensed ten presences coming to him. "Spirit God." "Oh." Alex smiled and turned around, looking at the ten God Beasts before him. "I''m glad that everything is settled without any problem." "Yes. Thank you for fulfilling our wish, Spirit God." "It''s fine. I hope that you all can help me in our next fights again." "Don''t worry. We won''t rest until that beast dies, Spirit God." Alex nodded with a smile. "I understand. No one should know about all of you yet, so I think you need to hide for the time being until the time we fight together again." "Yes. We will quickly disappear from the battlefield. If you need anything, please contact us again." "Thank you." Alex waved his hand with a smile, looking at their backs as they left the battlefield. He then turned to Lin Xingzhi, "Anyway, do you have any suggestions for my training?" Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment. "Since you can only start cultivating your Law¡­ not related to an enlightenment when you have reached Rank 2 God, then I only have two suggestions for you." "Hmm? I''m listening." "Let''s take a look at your repertoire. Fire, Space, Sword, Spear, Array, and Alchemy. Among those, you have perfected your Space, Array, and Alchemy. And now you are aiming for your Fire Element Arts, right?" "Yes." "Then how about making a move for your Sword and Spear?" "What do you mean by not perfect? Oh, wait. I think I know." Alex came to a realization and looked down, thinking about it. "The Sword and Spear Qi are not fused yet. I have been using them this whole time and forcefully fuse them with my intent. However, I should complete it like my intent." "Exactly. Because you have been busy with other things, I''m sure you forget that your sword and spear are your very first foundation." "I know. I think I will return to the Sword God''s Pavilion to meet her again to talk about this and make sure that nothing goes wrong. After all, other than me, she has the most in-depth knowledge about weapons." "Sure. You can do whatever you want." "What is the second suggestion?" Alex asked. "You can just go treasure hunting, eating all kinds of medicinal herbs you have found or turned them into pills to increase your strength." Lin Xingzhi smiled. "Leka!" Alex widened his eyes, remembering the small cute mouse he met during his training. "Yes. You have never taken her out since the last time. Well, she has understood your situation this whole time, but I think you should go somewhere with her along with those three weapon spirits. They all love adventures, right?" "I see. I will do it then until I reach Rank 2 God." Alex nodded. "I will try to reach Rank 2 God within two to three years. I believe that''s a perfect time to start another war against them." "Yep." Alex nodded with a serious expression and waved his hand. "Let''s return then." ¡­ Three days later, something big happened, especially among the alliance. They gathered once again and talked about it. Sitting on the main seat was none other than the Phoenix Goddess, who was in the middle of this entire problem. Next to her was a Dragon God, Earth God, and Battle God. "Spirit God! You Bastard!" The Phoenix Goddess slammed the table. Her face was twisted. If Alex were here, he would have been messed up by the Phoenix Goddess in all kinds of torture. "Phoenix Goddess, you need to calm down. I understand that you have lost your army, but we need to calm down." The Dragon God calmed him down. "Do you think I can calm down? He has massacred the entire population of mine." The Phoenix Goddess roared as her fire emerged from her body, pressuring every single of them. However, this also showed her anger toward Alex and the others also knew it. "Tch." The Earth God thought for a moment and said, "With this, we have lost more than we predicted. And the Supreme King still needs a long time to come out of that seal. Won''t this mean we''re screwed up?" "Do you think our Supreme King hasn''t predicted something like this? He has. He has given the arrangement for the Angel to fix this situation. What we need to worry about is how to stop the Spirit God." The Dragon God shook his head helplessly." "We need to kill him!" The Phoenix Goddess kept spouting about it because of her anger. However, the Earth God ignored her and replied to the Dragon God. "In that case, we can focus on the Spirit God. How about luring him inside a place? Although the Bats and the Angel aren''t ready yet, we still have the advantage against the Spirit God and his alliances." "Indeed. Still, it also means we are risking our lives since our position will be exposed. I''m sure that the Spirit God will take that chance to attack us." "I know, but you need to know if we want to stop them, the only way is to hit the Spirit God. Dealing with allies first may lead us to another ambush since they''re the obvious targets." "But this may be the real intention from the Spirit God¡­ What if when we plan to do this, the Spirit God is laughing?" "¡­" They couldn''t come to an understanding because Alex''s manipulative mind had yet to be deciphered by them. They simply couldn''t comprehend why Alex was able to make all of these unpredictable moves. "If that''s the case, how about we take it one step further? We will order our army to go toward a certain planet where we set up an ambush. The Spirit God will surely show up at that point, so it''s the time for one of us to go toward his planet and destroy them while the rest of us keep him there. "Of course, we just need to buy time until everything is over. Other than our soldiers from our human form who will die, I don''t think we will lose that much. What do you think?" They looked at each other and agreed with this plan. "That way, we can smear the Spirit God''s reputation too. We need a careful plan for this and the preparation may take years." The Phoenix Goddess slammed the table and said, "I will do it. As long as I can see the Spirit God fall into despair, I will do everything." "How about we make him go to another planet first as a build-up?" All of them suddenly came into a realization as they began planning about their trap, trying to force Alex into despair. They prepared to do anything to make sure that this plan was foolproof. Chapter 1144: Before Traveling After that simple annihilation war, Alex started practicing his two Fire Divine Technique, Star God Divine Control and Divine Petals. It was truly a marvelous experience for him. Unfortunately, he didn''t have a sparring partner this whole time, only using his Subjective Reality to create a doll that could match his ability. At the very least, he managed to understand the two techniques quicker than he expected. Instead of one and a half years to two years, he somehow learned both of them within one year. A small mouse suddenly appeared from the ground as it tugged Alex''s feet, looking at him with her giant eyes. "Master." "Oh, Leka." Alex smiled and bent down, stretching his hand to the ground. Leka walked onto Alex''s palm and sat there. "How are you doing? I''m sorry that I haven''t done anything for you." "It''s fine, Master. Leka understands. Besides, everyone is so strong, so Leka is busy with cultivation." Leka shook her head, showing her strength that somehow ended up reaching Rank 10 God. "Woah, to think you will be able to come this far so soon." Alex smiled. "Hehe, Leka needs to be thankful for Master''s blessing. Without everyone here, Leka would have died back then." She shook her head. "No, it would be even worse since Leka would be enslaved by those people." "Ahaha, good for you." Alex thought for a moment and asked, "Do you have a thought of having a human form?" "Nope. I can create an astral body to project my human form, but it won''t be the real human form. If it can make it easier for the Master to talk to Leka, then I will use it right now." "Nah, it''s fine." Alex shook his head, remembering that the ten God Beasts also didn''t wish to become human even if they had the ability to do so. He then summoned his spear and sword at the same time. Eve, Elle, and Elliot appeared simultaneously as they cupped their hands. "Master." "It''s been a while, you three. Well, we have been staying in contact, but you haven''t shown me this form for a few years already." Alex scratched the back of his head, feeling embarrassed. "We don''t mind, Master. You are not someone who will take back one''s promise, so we can wait for you." Eve shook her head. "Besides, I am trying to understand your power." "My power?" Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Your Law." "What?" Alex dropped his jaw in shock as he never expected that a sword spirit could understand Law. "Do you know anything about it?" "I''m not sure. Although you may put it unconsciously, the Law is leaking from your body. They are transferred through your Sword Intent or any other form of energy. Of course, it''s too little to the point it''s hard for you to see it with your Spirit Eyes. However, we, weapon spirits, can feel that slight change." Eve explained with a calm expression. Suddenly, Elliot commented with an innocent face. "You can feel that?" Alex and Eve froze as they looked at Elliot dumbfoundedly, wondering if he seriously asked that question. They then turned to Elle for confirmation, which she ultimately shook her head. "Then, is Eve different from the others?" "I think? I am not sure myself." "Well, whatever. We can find the answer along the way." "Yes. By the way, may I know what Master''s Law is?" Eve asked. "I think if I know the word, I can understand it better." "Is that important right now? I mean, I haven''t reached Rank 2 God yet." "Hmm¡­" Eve started to doubt it since she didn''t want to do something that might be harmful to her master. He was the best master she could hope for, so she didn''t want to ruin it because of her curiosity. "I understand. I won''t ask again." "How about I tell you when I reach Rank 2 God? Only you of course." Alex smiled. "Albeit it''s bizarre, you know. You will feel that it has a connection but also doesn''t have." "Master, you are making me curious." Eve rolled her eyes while pouting. "Haha.." Alex chuckled and asked, "Alright. I am planning to leave this world to search for treasures. This means I will go to multiple worlds. Who is with me?" They all raised their hands since this was the first time they got Alex for themselves while traveling to multiple worlds. "That''s good. I am going to settle something first before we go, okay?" Alex smiled. "Yes, take all the time you need." Alex then opened his system. It had been years since the last time he opened a Gacha, so he expected a bit of a huge haul. [Gacha Point: 534102] [Gacha Coin: 655] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 823,745,997] "Haha, it''s been a while since I have seen the system, so I''m going all out. Turn every single Gacha Point to Gacha Coin." Alex smirked as his spirit was fired up. This was the last gacha he might ever have before traveling to other worlds. He expected the Gacha Points because Alex mainly created Dungeons to harvest the Spirit Crystals. Now that he thought about it, it almost reached one billion within a short amount of time. And all of them were simply coming from four planets where he was supposed to be able to create ten. If he finished all of the construction, he would still gain money even when he was asleep. Still, the most exciting parts would surely be the Gacha Coins because he could get any rare items from the system. This would be impactful for the current him. [Processing] [Gacha Point: 2] [Gacha Coin: 5996] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 823,745,997] "Ugh. Why are you doing this? It''s literally four coins away from six Gachas." Alex let out a long sigh, feeling disappointed. "Either way, five are enough for now. We can open more in the future. Open them!" [Processing] [Bow Mastery Card Acquired.] [Fire Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Unknown Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Unknown Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Ice Elemental Orb Acquired.] "Hmm¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and asked, "Only one Mastery Card and four Elemental Orbs?" [That''s not my responsibility.] "¡­" Alex shook his head in disappointment before taking out a Fire Elemental Orb. He had a brilliant idea to test, so the moment it was out, he quickly brought it to Eve. "Do you know this orb, Eve?" Eve bent down and observed the Orb carefully. She felt immense fire energy inside the Orb that might enhance the one in her body. "What''s this Master? I feel like I can get a bit stronger if I absorb this guy." "This is a Fire Elemental Orb. Basically, it will give you a Fire Element like when that fire crystal is embedded in your body." Alex pointed at the red jewel on her body. "I thought that if I add another one, you will be able to get stronger." "Yeah. I don''t think you are wrong, Master. I indeed can get stronger with this thing." She nodded with confidence before turning to Elliot and Elle. "I think the orb suits them better." Elle and Elliot never thought that Eve would pass it to them instead. Eve was their role model and sister figure in their hearts, yet, she just became their idol after that sentence. The twins exchanged looks and rejected it without putting flowery words. "No, we don''t need the Orb. If Master doesn''t use it on Sister Eve, we will be mad." "That''s right. Sister Eve deserves more than this." The two tried to "get" justice for Eve despite knowing how spoiled they and Eve were. Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "How about it, Eve? Those two said they would be mad at me if you don''t use it." Eve pouted and looked away. "You''re playing dirty, Master." Eve had a soft spot for the twins since she was the one raising them. It was like the relationship between mother and children. "In that case, you will use this Elemental Orb. As for the two Unknown ones, I can''t really give them to anyone other than for testing, so I will just give them to Xingzhi. Last but not least, there is this Ice Elemental Orb. Alicia and Letizia can use this Orb, but Alicia fights mainly by her element while Letizia pursues the same path as me. I think it''s better for Letizia to take it." After making the decision, Alex threw all the three orbs into his Inventory along with his order so Lin Xingzhi could deliver the Ice Elemental Orb to Letizia through the system. Alex then grabbed the Fire Elemental Orb and came closer to Eve''s real body as he approached her with that powerful Orb. Just like how it had been going, the Orb disappeared and entered Eve''s body without hesitation. It gradually fused with her as she felt that she leveled up one more time. "Thank you, Master." Eve smiled. "No, you deserve it." After settling everything, Alex then asked. "Alright. Do you have a place you wish to go? Like a world without land or something. We are treasure hunting, so I don''t care about the places. After all, Divine Herbs can grow in all worlds. Of course, we will go to Divine Worlds from time to time since only there will we find a Divine Herb that could be eaten directly after harvesting it." "I want to see a world where swords are useless." Eve was the first to raise her hand. Because becoming a weapon to kill was her only purpose since birth, Eve wanted to know what would happen when she wasn''t wanted anymore. Obviously, she didn''t wish for Alex to abandon her since that wasn''t going to happen, but she wanted to know what kind of thing she would see when other people abandoned their swords. Alex thought for a moment and nodded with a serious expression. "I see. A world of magic. Maybe we need to find a planet filled with magicians or magus? I think that''s the general idea for that world. I''m sure they are somewhere, but we will see if Eulja has something recorded. Though, I will refrain myself from entering others'' territories, okay?" "Yes. That''s fine. Even if I don''t find it, I will be content with traveling alone as long as I''m with Master." "Then, I want to see a place where people can''t cultivate but still master their skills with weapons." Elliot raised his hand. "Hmm¡­ That''s a vague one, but we will see whether we can find it. I don''t have any concrete idea about that world, but I''m sure there is a planet that will fit your description." Alex nodded in agreement. "As for me¡­" Elle thought for a moment and was a bit hesitant to tell him. After some urgings from him, she finally told him with an embarrassed expression. "I want to find a world where a weapon can turn into a human. Though I believe such a world doesn''t exist." Alex thought for a moment. "Although I can''t understand such a concept, I think they exist. It''s just¡­ we don''t have any information about them yet. We will eventually find it." "I understand, Master. That''s why it''s only a dream." "Haha, we will fulfill it at one point. Don''t worry about it." "Yes." Lastly, Leka answered Alex''s question with excitement. "I''m going to every single world because this is a TREASURE HUNTING time. My time to shine has arrived." "You sound excited, eh?" "Of course. I''m going to show Master that I can find almost anything." She boldly claimed. "I will be waiting for it." Alex also accepted her answer and said to Lin Xingzhi behind the system. "I''m going right now. Say goodbye to others for me." [Sure thing.] The three Weapon Spirits then returned to their weapons before Alex stored them inside the Inventory. Meanwhile, Leka hopped on his shoulder as Alex snapped his finger, summoning a Teleportation Array that sent him away for this treasure hunting. Also¡­ Leka would be experiencing the train wreck Teleportation for the first time. Chapter 1145: Unexpected Encounter On a certain planet, a single man and a mouse walked through the dense forest. The man had a cultivation of a Martial Emperor while the mouse was also the same. The trees were tall, absorbing more than half of the sunlight he was supposed to receive, making it a bit darker. "Master, Master. I feel like they are nearby," said the mouse. Her heart was full of excitement because they just found another treasure. "Alright." Alex nodded as he sensed people''s presence in the direction Leka pointed at, so he was a bit unsure whether to go there or not. Still, Elle and Elliot were resting on his back since he needed to take them out to experience something like this. Meanwhile, Eve was still in the scabbard, trying to see what kind of things they would find. Two hundred meters from them, two people, a man and a woman, were surrounded by a group of ten wearing a tight black uniform. "Just surrender yourself. It''s impossible for you to escape from us." The green-haired man narrowed his eyes and shouted. "I won''t give up. We will just get tortured if we return. We better die than go back to that hell." He seemed to have similar clothing to the opposite group, but he had a long robe, hiding all his body. The woman also had the exact clothes. The man raised his hand, revealing his wand that had been hiding inside his clothes and shouted. "I''m going to fight with all of you here." "Since that is the case, don''t blame us." The group leader shouted as the others started going into their position, ready to beat these two to drag them back. Meanwhile, Alex was still contemplating when he needed to make his presence known. He didn''t know whether it was the young man''s luck or not, but he and his girl were standing right underneath the treasure Alex wanted to pick. Waiting an hour would be a hassle, so Alex ultimately chose to come out of this place. He saw that the young man raised his staff as a torrential wind appeared out of nowhere. "Master, Master. What is that? It''s cool." Leka''s voice brought their concentration as both parties were confused by Alex''s appearance. They both took a step back to take a look at Alex, thinking that this guy was their enemy''s reinforcement. "Sword Enigma." "Wind Burst." A cross wave burst and a torrential wind flew toward Alex from two opposite directions. "All of them are idiots¡­" Leka spoke, stunning all of them. However, she didn''t let any of them even make a move as Leka leaped toward the attack and slapped the two attacks, deflecting them to the side without trouble. "!!!" They widened their eyes as they never saw a mouse that was capable of doing something like that. "Master, should I kill them?" "Yeah." Alex nodded. "Even if they say it''s a misunderstanding, I also misunderstand their words since I believe they are lying." "Leka understands." Leka released her Spiritual Energy and flew straight to the leader of the huge group. The opposite party gritted his teeth as he couldn''t comprehend the guy who had such a powerful move. He struck Leka with his sword, but Leka simply waved her claw and cut both the guy and his sword into two. This was just the difference between a mortal body and a Divine Body. Leka was too strong. "What?!" All of them, including the duo, dropped their jaws to the ground, never expecting to see a mouse of this caliber. The young woman suddenly kneeled and shouted. "Young Sir. Everything is a misunderstanding. They have been pursuing us, so¡­" Alex ignored her words and said to Leka instead. "Look, Leka. There is already one of them saying such a thing. That''s why you don''t need to care about them." Leka smirked and nodded. "Leka understands. Leka will kill them all." As Leka agreed, Leka started killing the others in black suits first while the man and woman knew that it was impossible for them to talk it out. Suddenly, a small circle appeared right above the woman''s head before the blue ring turned into a blue jewel on top of her head, releasing a powerful power that even Alex could feel. Alex simply looked at that jewel and lowered his head as he couldn''t care less. He only wanted to see the treasure underneath the ground. Still, what made him shocked was the fact that nothing was underneath them. When he checked it again with his Spirit Eyes, only at that time, he found that the blue jewel was actually the treasure that Leka found. "Leka¡­ Is that the treasure?" Alex asked. Leka turned around and halted her movement before widening her eyes. "Yes. I thought I felt it¡­" Leka was in the middle of confusion because she believed that it was underneath the ground. "How?" Alex shrugged. "Don''t ask me." "Who are you? Why do you want this thing?" Alex shrugged. "I''m a nobody. But since the treasure is someone''s possession, I will just leave this place." "You¡­ You¡­" The woman narrowed her eyes and shouted. "I can give this treasure to you as long as you fight for me for one year." "No can do. Just live in that dream, lady." Alex shrugged and said, "Leka, let''s go back. We need to go to another place." "Yes, Master. Are we not going to kill them? They attacked you earlier¡­" "Well, fair enough." Alex nodded with a smile as he suddenly appeared in front of the young man with a serious expression. He flicked the young man''s head, blowing him away. The young man''s body hit the trees a few times and snapped them with his body. He ended up crashing to the ground with heavy injury. But it was better than the other group who were dying. The young lady gasped and blinked a few times. She never saw someone as strong as Alex. If she could ask him to fight for her even for a short period of time, she would be able to fix every problem. She desperately lowered the condition and said, "One month¡­ Just one month¡­ No, one week. Please follow me for just one week. I will give you anything you want." Alex shook his head helplessly as he appeared right in front of the lady with his forefinger in her forehead. The energy from his body flowed to his finger and burst it out, knocking the lady away as well as the other things behind her. "Listen here¡­ The more desperate you are, the easier for someone to get annoyed because of your attitude." The energy blast left a huge half-circular trail on the ground, spanning for one hundred meters. The woman was also blown fifty meters away from the original position, but she was in better shape than the guy. "Haiz. Anyway, this one is a no go. Let''s check another place." Alex smiled. Leka nodded. "I understand. There is another treasure in this world, not far from here. But I feel like they are in the middle of the city. You may want to exchange it for another treasure since Master doesn''t like to repay it with service." "A city?" Alex narrowed his eyes, not wanting to deal with people. He looked at the woman and sighed. "Nah. We will leave this planet right now." "Are you sure, Master?" "Yes. There is not much to be seen from this planet. Let''s just go to the next one since it fits Eve''s wish." "I understand." Leka nodded while Eve sent a bit of her energy to Alex as her response. Alex then released the seal for his power and went toward another planet. It was a Divine World where Alex didn''t even need to seal his power, so he entered it without hesitation. "According to the information, this place has a Rank 2 God among them. Well, I won''t have a problem with them, so let''s enter the world." Alex landed inside another forest that would mask his presence here. Because he didn''t want to get spotted in a Divine World like this, he decided to put on a mask. "Do you feel something, Leka?" "Yes. I have¡­ Although thin, I think it''s in this direction." Leka pointed at their right. "Alright. Let''s go." Alex agreed without hesitation and flew toward that direction, only to find a city. "A city, huh? We will check it and if it''s someone else''s possession, I''m going to trade it since Eve wants to see what kind of place this world is. It is not that bad to enjoy this world for a week or two." "I understand. I can help you pinpoint its location." "Yep. I will be leav¡ª" Before he finished, he sensed someone''s presence right on his left. That person was powerful as he appeared so suddenly next to him. It was a female. She had blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a tight plain shirt and purple colored mini skirt. However, the one thing that sticks out the most would be her hat. The hat was none other than a big magician hat that a magician would actually use. The other party turned around and smiled. "Ah, you are a Rank 3 God on this planet. You must be someone important. Who is your name? I have heard there is a treasure for me in this place¡­ Wait a minute¡­" Suddenly, she blinked her eyes a few times as if she felt something was wrong. "This fluctuation¡­ A mask, golden hair. Wait! You¡­" As if she could see through his mask, the female gasped and took out her golden staff. At the same time, Alex also took out his sword and spear because he recognized this person. It was true that he never met her, but her face was instilled in his face by Lin Xingzhi. She was one of the God Kings in this universe, Magic Goddess. [Alex!] "I know!" Alex gritted his teeth and swung his sword. The Magic Goddess struck his sword with her own staff. There was only one reason why they would attack each other the moment their eyes met. Magic Goddess originally participated in the alliance that the Holy God created and left the alliance as soon as he quitted. Due to her surprise to see the Spirit God right before her eyes, she instinctively tried to hit him because the other party might do the same. "Why would the Spirit God visit this planet?" She shouted. Their weapons clashed with each other as the sheer amount of strength alone created a powerful shockwave. The ground turned into a crater in an instant as the cloud above them was split into two. The ground then vibrated while the trees were blown away, but Alex didn''t forget to shout back. "Likewise. Why would the Magic Goddess visit this planet?" Chapter 1146: Magic Goddess [I am going there immediately. No! Call Anna and Jeanne immediately.] Lin Xingzhi panicked because she knew that this clash would be inevitable. Even she couldn''t predict if a God King would show up in this world. "Are you trying to destroy the people in this world too?!" "Too? What the heck? I''m here just for a treasure." Alex thought that the best way to buy time was to keep her thinking instead of fighting. He might have the power to kill a Rank 2 God, but it didn''t mean that he was strong enough to fight a God King. Hence, his obvious course of action was just blurted his intention out so as to convince the Magic Goddess. "A treasure? What kind of treasure do you want?" "I don''t know, that''s why I''m going to this city." "You are just trying to scout this city before destroying it, right?!" "The image of me in your head is your own fault. I have no intention to do such a thing. Do you think this city or this planet is my enemy?!" Alex shouted back before five magic circles, different from Arrays, appeared out of nowhere. "I will capture you first to see your real intention!" The Magic Goddess slightly waved down her wand. "Five Great Stars Magic." Alex clicked his tongue and raised his hand, creating a small barrier with his Space Element. The moment something emerged from the Magic Circles, they were deflected to another direction, missing him completely. "Space Element?" Boom. All of them hit the ground simultaneously as the dust kicked up, giving Alex time. "Since you left the alliance, why do you still attack me? If you think I don''t dare to fight you, you are wrong!" Alex used that chance and took out Anna and Jeanne''s cards as he summoned both of them. "!!!" The Magic Goddess seemed to sense something and quickly raised her wand to create another magic circle in front of her. Anna emerged from the smoke with her scythe. "Uncovered Darkness." Black energy started covering her scythe as she struck the Magic Circle. The Darkness Energy began to spread on the Magic Circle before breaking it. "God King? No!" Before she could even analyze Anna, she swung her staff to the right where Jeanne appeared, swinging both of her short swords. "Queen Anna." Jeanne smiled as she had bought enough time for Anna. Anna nodded her head with a serious expression as darkness began to cover her body. "True Spirit Body, Dark Butterfly Spirit." The energy dispersed at once as her dress began to change along with the appearance of her wings. She headed straight to the Magic Goddess, only to find that multiple Magic Circles appeared above her. At the same time, Jeanne took a step back as she changed as well, revealing her new lightning called Blood Lightning. "True Spirit Body, Ethereal Lightning Form." "Two God Kings? The first one is his wife, but who is the second one?!" The Magic Goddess was completely stupefied by this situation. She thought that she would be able to capture Alex but to think he actually traveled with two God Kings. It was beyond her imagination, especially with the appearance of Alaya on the last battlefield as well as Lin Xingzhi. There was a chance that Eulja hosted more than four God Kings at once, becoming the strongest Divine World in history. Knowing that defeat was inevitable, the Magic Goddess became mellowed a bit and asked, "Ehm? Can we talk right now?" "What did you say earlier? Didn''t you want to capture me so we can talk?" Alex narrowed his eyes, releasing his killing intent. The Magic Goddess gulped down as she made a weird smile while fending off Anna and Jeanne''s attacks. "I''m sorry. I didn''t know your intention earlier. But considering you traveled with two God Kings, you shouldn''t come to destroy this planet." "Anna, capture her for me." Alex snorted and ignored her pleas before turning to Jeanne. "I will let you handle her a bit, Jeanne." "Ah! That''s great news to my ears, Master. I have never tortured a God King, so I''m curious what kind of thing I will face when I torture a God King." Jeanne made a sinister laugh, showing how excited she was. The Magic Goddess''s face became pale as she hurriedly explained. "Spirit God. Please, let''s talk about it. I can give you treasures if you want. Let''s talk a bit, shall we? If I can''t do anything for you, we can fight it out again. You are just bullying a magical girl like me!" "¡­" Alex was shocked by her last sentence, never expecting someone would call herself a magical girl, let alone a God King, known as Magic Goddess. However, he wasn''t convinced yet since he attacked him out of nowhere. "Come on!" The Magic Goddess knew that sooner or later, Jeanne and Anna would start getting the advantage. At the same time, Alex would surely prevent her from escaping through Teleportation Array Plates. The only way she could escape from this situation was through negotiation. Hence, she changed the terms and shouted. "If you kill me right now, your reputation will be destroyed again. I know that you are using all those people to fight your so-called enemies. Don''t you think it''s best to resolve this peacefully?" "So you can kill me, but I can''t kill you?" Alex harrumphed as his killing intent soared. "No, no. I can compensate you, alright? I have heard the information from the Holy God after leaving the alliance. How about I help you fight your enemies and give you some treasures? I can promise you with Universe Oath to do something like this since it won''t be that long anymore, right?" "Ho?!" Alex narrowed his eyes and said with a cold tone. "And do you think it''s enough?" "You are extorting me at this point. That''s right. I have another piece of information for you. Someone met me long ago, offering me power. I have seen his true appearance with my Magic Eyes like how I saw through yours. I will tell you anything I know about that guy if you agree. If you keep doing this, I better commit suicide and blame everything on you!" The Magic Goddess shouted. Alex contemplated for a moment as the term wasn''t that bad. However, the Magic Goddess misunderstood that gesture as him feeling it wasn''t enough. She suddenly added another thing. "That''s right. How about a one-night stand? I can do it with you as a bonus." "Alright, Jeanne, Anna." Alex suddenly called both of their names as the Magic Goddess thought that this negotiation was successful. Unfortunately for her, that was the only thing Alex hated, so he said, "Kill her." "Wait, what?! Did I say something wrong?" She panicked and uttered a question. "I am the one and only Magical Girl, you know!" "You should know about your opponent first before the negotiation." "Then what do you want? You can add one thing that you want." The Magic Goddess became more and more frustrated since she had begun to lose her ground. Alex also knew that the Magic Goddess was about to explode and if she truly used all her power in this world, there was a chance that his location would be exposed and his hidden plan for this war was disrupted. Hence, he called the two again. "Anna, Jeanne, stop." Anna and Jeanne followed his order and stopped right in front of her, ready to swing their blade at any moment. The Magic Goddess let out a sigh of relief as she thought she managed to convince him. "First of all, I want to ask one question." "Yes, yes. Just ask me anything other than the agreement." She hurriedly nodded. "Why did you join the alliance back then?" "Magical Girl is supposed to beat the bad guy, right? I''m there to do something like that because of the Holy God''s invitation. If not, I would have stayed at home." She answered him with an innocent face as if she truly believed that way. "So, I am the bad guy¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Was¡­ was¡­" She quickly corrected his statement while sweating. "You''re narrow-minded. Now I''m wondering whether I should agree to your condition or just kill you right now." Alex shook his head helplessly. "What do you mean narrow-minded? Although that was the main reason, I had calculated the pros and cons before coming to that decision." "Whatever¡­" Alex shrugged. "As long as you can do something, you''re not useless." "The Universe Oath will prevent you from telling any lies and become my subordinate until I kill my enemy. If you agree to it, I will give you an explanation about why I''m so desperate to fight this enemy though I''m sure you have already gotten the gist of it from the rumor. That''s my request. The time will probably be less than fifty years as of now, so I''m sure it''s not that long." The Magic Goddess contemplated the terms and set a few conditions as well. "First¡­ I will fight alongside you as your subordinate, but I won''t do anything other than that. If something possesses too much risk for me, I have the right to escape. "Second, after everything is fulfilled, you can''t kill the people of my territory or me. Lastly, I want to know the potential of success in this war." Alex nodded in agreement. "Fine. It''s not like I will use you other than in the war. However, just so you know that if you escape from the war, there is a chance that this Universe will be destroyed. Even if it''s not, you will be condemned by my allies and will live as a deserter. "As for the second term, I wouldn''t care about anything after that point. As long as you don''t offend me, I will not touch you or your people. That''s the additional condition for your second condition. The last one¡­ I will share a bit of the plan with you, but not everything because I can''t see you as an ally like the Holy God and the others yet." "I understand." The Magic Goddess nodded with a serious expression. She knew that this was the best solution other than her dying in his hand along with the potential of destruction. "Before that¡­ Do you know what happened to the alliance after that?" She thought for a moment and shook her head. "I don''t have much information. I don''t see the Goddess of Destiny and God of Wrath in their territory, so I am assuming something big was going on. There was a possibility of them getting into something they couldn''t escape. In other words, they were suspicious." "Since you are smart enough to understand that, let''s finalize the agreement." Alex raised his hand and swore. "I, Alexander Sirius, swear in front of Heaven and Earth that I will abuse the Magic Goddess like a slave, won''t touch her or her people unless they offend me first, and will tell a bit of my plan without lying." Seeing that Alex initiated the Universe Oath, she raised her hand and followed suit. "I, Rubia Viest, swear in front of Heaven and Earth that I will follow Alexander Sirius like a subordinate in this war to protect this universe. At the same time, I won''t attack him or bring him any harm directly or indirectly during this war. "I will also share all the information I have with him truthfully and give him some treasures to compensate for my previous action. This promise will only be valid in the time of war to protect the universe." Alex nodded and said, "Alright. Since that''s the case, you better give me the information first." "I think we should change places first." The Magic Goddess smiled and looked at the area, knowing that the experts from the city would come here soon. "Ah, we can discuss this in the city. I know a place there since I am a regular here." Alex agreed to her promise and waved his hand, telling Anna and Jeanne to return to Eulja. He just wanted to show her that there were two God Kings that would come for her life if she did anything funny. Rubia intentionally ignored it and led him to the city. Chapter 1147: Negotiation After considering their talks, Rubia decided to guide Alex to a restaurant where they could talk privately about this matter. Rubia ordered some food while Alex set up a Sound Insulation Array. "So, we need to talk." Rubia nodded with a serious expression as she continued, "We will finalize the agreement for the war as well as how I can help you, right?" "Yes. You can''t say anything about my appearance as well." "I understand. So, what is your demand?" "I don''t have many demands. I want your full support in finding the enemies. You said you have information about them, so tell me." She contemplated for a moment, structuring the information she had. "First of all, the guy who approached me back then was known as God of Virtue. I don''t know about him that much other than his element, which is Light Element. "He tried to persuade me for years until I expelled him from my world. At that time, he said to me that I''m not going to regret this choice because I will be standing on top of this universe. I didn''t and don''t have that ambition, so yeah¡­ That wraps the whole thing." Alex narrowed his eyes. "He sounds suspicious." "Then, can I ask for an explanation from you?" "To put it simply, there was a beast that terrorized this universe. The previous generation of God Kings fought against this beast which turned out to have an army back then. The ones that led those armies were called "weapons" made of humans from Planet Earth. "In the end, other than the Sword God and Life and Death Goddess, everyone died, including the past me." "How did you die? Did you lose?" Rubia drew a gasp and covered her mouth. If the scariest and probably the strongest God King, the Spirit God, died, how could they even stand up against the beast along with its armies? "You could say I lost, but at the same time, my past life used his life to seal the beast to protect this universe." "And now that you have reincarnated, it''s time to fight back?" "Yes." "Do you have confidence?" "My past life has been helping me through my journey, so I can try to surpass him within a short time. As long as I can reach God King, I think I can fight against that beast again without losing." Alex sighed before recalling what his previous life said regarding the stage above God King. There was a chance that the beast was actually at that stage this whole time and the universe turned blind eyes to it. Hence, he might need to increase his strength even further to kill it, albeit that was just the last trump card he would only use if necessary. "I see." She contemplated for a second and asked, "What are the weapons?" "The beast itself was six different life forms: Bear, Snake, Bats, Angel, Phoenix, and Dragon. Its weapons are those people." "!!!" Rubia drew a gasp as she remembered the report about Alex''s wars. "If I''m not wrong, the Array God had a snake arm before dying in the hand of the Nature Goddess¡­ The Metal God died after turning into a bear¡­ And an unknown Alchemist died because of a Phoenix Fire that was supposed to be out of this universe. Don''t tell me¡­" "Yes." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "You are not my enemy, right?" Rubia blinked her eyes a few times and knew that Alex tried to test her. With the Universe Oath earlier, she was unable to lie to him, so she said with a grim expression, telling him that she was serious about this answer. "No! If the universe is threatened by something outside our universe, I have an obligation to protect this place where my home lies." "Alright then." Alex took a deep breath and continued. "Anyway, each weapon can appoint a pet to receive their power in order to help them in this battle. Hence, I believe the battle is going to be fiercer than five thousand years ago." "I see. This is bad, no?" "Yeah, but I have made many preparations. I won''t tell you everything, but I believe we can fight them." Alex assured her before saying, "Anyway, if you can fully support our side, our chance to fight them will increase." While discussing this information, Alex had been using his Spirit Eyes the whole time to see the fluctuation of his energy. Fortunately, he didn''t see any form of parasite hiding inside her body, so she might not be a double-agent. "I understand your point, but it doesn''t mean I can let go of your past, right? Your reputation alone scares so many people in this universe, making me a bit doubtful of your action. What if when everything is over, you are going to kill us? None of us can stop you anymore." She narrowed her eyes. "I know that, but at that point, I''m starting to question people''s intelligence. If they know that I''m scary, why would they even offend me?" Alex shook his head with a calm expression, blaming all the stupid people. Even Rubia didn''t expect him to answer with another question. She blinked her eyes a few times before shaking her head helplessly. "What should I say to you, Spirit God? Should I just offer myself to you so you will protect me and my people?" "Ehm, no." Alex rejected that idea with a poker face as if it was something that didn''t need consideration. "Oh, come on. I''m a beauty, blonde hair, and can use magic. I''m the perfect magical girl. If it''s in my world, people will adore or worship me." "That''s your people. I''m not." Alex shrugged. "Besides, if you continue talking about this, someone may claim your neck, you know." Remembering Anna and Jeanne that could appear out of nowhere, she quickly covered her mouth to avoid spouting any more jokes. The Spirit God seemed to not be fond of it. Little did she know that Alex loved joking around, but it wasn''t about this kind of topic. "Anyway, let''s eat." Alex glanced to the right and deactivated his Sound Insulation Array, allowing the server to enter to bring their food. After all were presented on the table, the Magic Goddess couldn''t help but comment. "It''s hard to imagine that the Spirit God will eat in a place like this." "There''s food in front of me and it will be thrown away if I don''t eat it. Why should I waste food? You tell me." Alex shrugged. This belief actually derived from when he was a high-schooler. He didn''t have money for food and many things, so he knew that he shouldn''t waste food. He ignored whatever she said next and started grabbing all the food, eating them one by one. Even the Magic Goddess was surprised to see Alex eating like this. Cultivators like them didn''t have the need to eat for the rest of their lives, but some chose to eat as a form of enjoyment. Some even compared them to wine or tea, saying, "If they drink tea or wine without complaining, why should we not eat food?" Either way, Rubia ended up eating a small portion while the rest went straight to Alex''s stomach. After a while, she couldn''t end up asking, "How is it? Is it delicious?" "Well, I''ve tasted worse." Alex shrugged. "Anyway, let''s move to the second topic." Rubia tilted her head in confusion. "What is it?" Alex stretched his hand and asked, "The treasures." "You''re still looking for that." Rubia rolled her eyes, never expecting that Alex would demand it directly after eating. "Can''t you treat women a bit better?" "I treat them as my equal and I''m equally ruthless to both men and women." Alex waved his hand while saying, "Treasures." "¡­" She shook her head and asked, "What kind of treasure do you want?" "Leka," Alex called Leka''s name again as she finally came out of his pocket since she didn''t want to disturb Alex during the conversation. "Yes, Master." "What a cute mouse." Rubia''s face got closer when she saw Leka and observed her. "Wait. This mouse¡­ This mouse is the Gold Digger Mouse?" "Leka may be known as Gold Digger Mouse, but Master calls Leka with Five Colored Mouse, symbolizing treasures. Leka likes the latter better!" She confronted her before looking away while puffing her cheek. Yes, no matter how many times he heard it, he truly wanted to kill the one who named this mouse as Gold Digger Mouse. He facepalmed and shook his head helplessly while gently stroking Leka''s head. "That''s how it is, just call her Leka instead of her species." "I understand." Rubia nodded. Leka contemplated for a moment and said, "We need a treasure for cultivation. And in this city, Leka found a treasure¡­ Although Leka doesn''t know its type, it''s near this place." "Well, the treasure is in this restaurant. I know that you''re aiming for this treasure, so I''m just saying that this treasure won''t suit you. It''s more suitable for me. Instead of going for this treasure, how about we go to my world to get another one? I have something that can increase your cultivation¡­ Not you¡­" Rubia turned around and looked at Alex with a smile. "Yours." Alex shrugged. "I don''t mind. It''s not like you can harm me." "Haha. That''s true." She made an awkward smile before saying, "Anyway, let me receive the treasure first, okay? I will leave you for an hour or so in this room and we can go to my world, so I can give you another treasure to compensate for my first impulse earlier." Alex nodded as Rubia finally left the room. Since he had nothing to do, he sighed. "Anyway, it seems that we have gained another ally¡­" [Indeed. Anyway, since we know about the identity that we suspect as an Angel, do you want to fight him right now?] "Nah. We don''t have proof. If we attack him right now, it will be great, but we don''t have much information about him. The moment we are surrounded, it''s over." Alex shook his head. [Then, I should investigate him.] "It will just alarm him. I am planning to attack that guy, but it''s going to be a bit later. Because I know that a big war will come soon, I''m planning for a sneak attack. Anyway, just follow my lead in the future. I have a plan." [Well, you''re the boss. Even when I turn my brain upside down, I still can''t beat Anya or you.] Alex smiled. "Anyway, make sure that everyone is in great shape." [Understood.] Alex decided to wait for Rubia while chatting with Eve, Elliot, Elle, and Leka. They agreed to return to this place and experience this world since it was Eve''s wish. Alex could even use this place to reach Rank 2 God while Leka brought Eve and the twins around the world. After a long wait, Rubia finally returned to the room. "I''m sorry for making you wait. Shall we go?" Chapter 1148: Unknown Elemental Orbs Since Alex''s Space Element had been known, he offered to use his Teleportation Array to travel through outer space to save time to which she agreed. Of course, Alex didn''t use his full speed to avoid the Magic Goddess from knowing his style was close to that of the Dungeon God''s. Her planet wasn''t that far from their current planet, so they managed to reach there in a few hours. It was no wonder that Rubia chose to go alone without any Teleportation Array since it only took her three days of constant flying. It was just a small price to pay. When they arrived on her planet, she invited them in to see her world. To his surprise, this world looked modern enough. "Hmm¡­ This world looks like it has the same level as Earth''s technology," Alex muttered while scanning the place. There were many skyscrapers, but they looked the same as those on Earth. The Blackwade Clan had more advanced appearances to be honest. He also saw cars and such, albeit it had been adjusted to Spiritual Energy instead of gasoline. It didn''t do any harm to the world, so the purity of this world could keep at this level. "Look! We all have this kind of building and transportations. You know, if we look out the window while we are working and see so many things at once from up there, you will feel refreshed again¡­ That kind of thing? And do you know this transportation called cars? They can let you travel even if you don''t have power." Rubia explained things with an excited smile. She seemed to be very proud of her world, which had this advanced technology. However, Alex shook his head and said, "Teleportation Array is better." "That''s where you''re wrong. People love to possess something and if they can have it for their method to visit another place far away from them, they will do it because they will have more time with family than the Teleportation Array. This was proven as soon as I started my business to create all those. Of course, the idea came from another world." Alex shrugged. "So? You can still domesticate the monsters as a travel method." "It seems that you refuse to believe in anything I say, eh?" Rubia felt something wrong and knew that Alex wouldn''t agree to anything. "So you are not that dense?" Rubia rolled her eyes and sighed. "Anyway, I will lead you to my home." She waved her hand and flew to the west, heading straight to a certain skyscraper. "This is my house. I am living there. Of course, the bottom floors are used for my office." She smiled. "How about it?" Alex looked at this white skyscraper without anything that stood out. "I don''t understand what you''re excited about." Alex facepalmed and shook his head. "Though I know that your treasury is right below this building." "!!!" Rubia drew a gasp and looked at his eyes. "Your Spirit Eyes¡­ Ah, I almost forgot that your Spirit Eyes were the dream of every single Magical Girl. You could see the flow of energy so easily." Alex shrugged. "So, let''s enter and not waste our time here." "Tch. You''re a boring guy." She clicked her tongue. "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes. She forced a smile and stretched her hand. "Nothing. Let''s go inside." Alex followed her and went inside her apartment from the top. She then showed her pool or any other facility that her house had before entering the elevator to go down. Because of Alex''s pressure, Rubia decided not to waste time anymore, especially in front of many people to avoid making him angry. As soon as they arrived on the first floor, Rubia led him through the corridor on their left before going around in a maze. After that, they found a giant metal door where two Rank 5 Gods watched the door. "Magical Girl Rubia. Please accept our bow." The two suddenly acted as if they were on drugs and waved their hands like crazy. Normally, she would smile and wave back, but Alex''s glare became more intense when he saw something like that. His voice echoed in her ears, saying, "You must love to be called that, eh? Magical Girl?" Gulped down, she ignored him and channeled her power into the door. "Esta." A magic circle made its appearance before it spun a few times, acting like a key. After everything was done, the door was opened. Rubia asked Alex to enter with her. She didn''t forget to close it again to prevent anyone from entering. It turned out that they needed to go through a few more floors underground before arriving at the most important room. "Please wait here," Rubia asked politely, wishing Alex didn''t enter the treasury to know what was inside. Alex respected her that much and gave her privacy. It took her an hour before she finally came out with a single round crystal in her hand. "What''s this?" Alex widened his eyes and looked at it with his Spirit Eyes, finding that the orb turned out to be the crystallization of Divine Energy instead. "This is a Divine Orb. After doing some research, we have found a way to crystalize Divine Energy, allowing us to absorb that energy back to our body to increase our cultivation speed by at least half. Of course, this can only be done once in your entire life or it will damage the foundation of your body." "Hmm?" Alex narrowed his eyes, feeling a bit suspicious. However, he couldn''t see anything wrong with the orb, so he thought he could trust her a bit. "This orb is the crystallization of my Divine Energy. It took me a hundred years to even make one, so I hope this is enough to apologize for my rudeness earlier." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting that she would give something that big. He began to contemplate whether to give her something in exchange since this was quite a big gift. Although he didn''t need to exchange it with something at the same level because of the favor, he thought that the thought was important. [How about giving her the Unknown Elemental Orb? I think she can analyze that thing from the system. It will be a big win for her and we can also get the benefit by getting an explanation from her. After that, we can set up a business trade between the two planets. I think that''s a good idea.] Alex thought for a moment and said inwardly, "Asked Sherry and Korzan." [One minute.] While waiting for their answer, Alex tried to buy time. "Such an expensive gift¡­ I feel like I can''t accept this one for an apology." "This is the only thing I have to help you with your cultivation. I am afraid that none of my treasures will pique your interest, so rather than giving so many things at once, it''s better to help you for the final battle. I''m trying to fulfill my role as your ally, you see." Rubia made a weird smile. Alex contemplated for a few seconds until Lin Xingzhi gave an answer. [Both said yes.] Alright, he hurriedly said, "How about this¡­ I have something I want you to take a look at." "What is it?" Alex took out an Unknown Elemental Orb and showed it to her. "This." Suddenly, both her eyes brightened as she stared at the orb intensely, feeling the mysterious power in it. The orb itself contained Fire, Water, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Space, Dark, and Light elements, yet, it didn''t give a feeling of that power. It was as if this orb was the crystallization of those elements. "This¡­ Orb¡­ Can you sell it to me? I will buy it with everything you want. Wait! Why don''t I offer myself? You will get a beautiful wife as well as the mystery of this orb unless you already know it." Stars appeared in her eyes as she shook Alex''s body. Her face was close to his already, so Alex couldn''t help but grab her face and push it away. "You''re too close." Alex sighed and took out another one. This time, he took out the Ice Elemental Orb since Letizia hadn''t used it yet. "Wait, this one contains a powerful Ice Element? It''s different from the first one. It doesn''t have any element other than Ice Element. No, it''s probably the crystallization of an Ice Disturbance. Can I research about this?" "How about we have a deal? I will let you study this under the premise that you will also share the information with Eulja. I can provide more of these crystals in the near future. I believe before long we can have a trade agreement." "I''m on it." Rubia''s eyes had no trace of doubt that something like that would happen. Suddenly, she dropped to the ground as if she realized something and sobbed. "To have your former enemy feed you something this good and even make such a deal is frustrating." "Can you stop overreacting already? I''m already sick of it." Alex let out a long sigh. "If you don''t want to, then I will just ask Eulja to research it. It may take a longer time, but I believe they can do the same." "No, no! Please let me research it." Rubia grabbed his hands with excitement. "Anyway, the deal will be simple. You''re going to provide me information about your research and you have the right to mass-produce it in the future. Anything more will be determined in our business agreement in the future." Rubia contemplated for a moment and nodded her head since she didn''t lose much in this deal, considering that the potential of that orb might be higher than the orb she had. "I, Rubia¡­" She initiated the Universe Oath to which Alex followed right after, sealing the deal. Rubia then grabbed the floating orb and handed it to Alex. "This is the orb." Alex nodded and gave the Unknown Elemental Orb to her. "I can only give this one to you because the other one is for my wife. Well, I will give you another one¡­" Alex took out a few more Unknown Elemental Orbs that he had gotten in his journey. Rubia''s eyes couldn''t stop shining as she looked at all these treasures. "You''re satisfied, right?" "Yep, yep. I''m satisfied. I should have befriended you this whole time instead of getting caught up with the alliance thing. I would have started researching these precious treasures already. Ugh, is this the legendary scene where your enemy actually has anything you like? I mean, you know¡­ Your enemy seems to have everything while your ally only has one or two." Alex shrugged and ignored her idiotic comment. "Alright. Since we''re done here, I need to go for another adventure." Rubia waved her hand while smiling. "Have a nice trip." She couldn''t hide that smirk because the Unknown Elemental Orbs actually related to the source of her power. That was why she was excited. Not only could she unravel this mysterious orb and potentially mass-produce it, but she could also use it to increase her strength. Alex, who didn''t have an idea about it, simply used his Teleportation Array to go back to the previous world. Chapter 1149: Magic After finishing his business with the Magic Goddess, Alex returned to the previous world and specifically searched for a fight, so Eve could fulfill her desire. To their surprise, they ended up finding the same couple they met not long ago, having another group of pursuers in their tails. "Master. They''re so unlucky." Leka couldn''t help but comment. Alex laughed before shrugging his shoulders. "It''s probably because I knocked them unconscious." "Ah, I see. That''s their fault." "Indeed. Let''s watch them. Since I have gotten what I need, there''s no need to rush anymore." Alex sat down in the air from afar, watching their every single movement without anyone noticing him. Leka was sitting on his lap as if watching a movie. Eve, Elle, and Elliot also came out of the weapons as they observed this battle to see the difference between cultivators and magicians. Alex, on the other hand, activated his Spirit Eyes to see what kind of fight they would show to him. The man looked at the seven assassins while frowning. They seemed to be releasing a type of dark aura that screamed they were the bad guy. Alex could see killing intent, blood, and other things as if this guy was a mass murderer. Still, if Alex truly released his everything, none of them would be able to beat him in those areas. The guy shouted. "Do you think we are afraid of you? We have killed the previous pursuers and since you''re courting death, I will grant you right here right now." The guy bluffed, taking advantage of the fact that Alex killed the black-clothed men to shake their emotions. And it turned out he pretty much succeeded on it as the seven guys flinched. However, the leader shouted while pointing his blade at the guy. "Don''t fret. Even if he killed them, he wouldn''t have enough energy to spare. We will kill here right now." With that single shout, the group regained their spirit and raised their swords. "Yes, but you''re too late." The guy tapped the ground two times before a huge magic circle appeared on the ground, enveloping everyone. The next second, they realized ten lights shone in the air as if they tried to purify them. "Not good! This is a trap." The guys shouted while escaping the magic circle, but the guy was one step faster. The ten lights suddenly fell and hit the ground, exploding white light and engulfing the enemies. "What is that, Master? I feel enormous energy from it." Leka asked, pointing at the ten lights. "They are not a Divine Rank Expert yet, so it''s just a simple Spiritual Energy. Though I believe this world calls it Magic Power instead. Anyway, cultivators are mostly using our own energy to influence the energy in their surroundings, but the majority portion of every single move comes from our body. "From what I have seen from that attack, the person attracted the energy around it to create something bigger, allowing him to create that move without using much of his energy. To be honest, that''s the reason why I feel like he can keep sending more and more attacks until the energy in the area starts to weaken. "The Magic Goddess also has done the same thing, so I can assure you that''s pretty accurate." Alex nodded with a serious expression as he continued to watch. After creating that big magic, the female hurriedly helped him with a few magic circles that seemed to be boosting his power. The guy then used that power to create another magic circle before the group could recover. "Anesta." To their surprise, the ground began to shake before it emerged from the ground, creating a small hill with him in the center. Once again, Leka was pretty shocked while saying, "Master, Master. That guy uses two elements. How? Does he have two elements?" "I don''t think so. That guy element is water to be honest. However, I feel like he is saying something that influences the movement of magic power, allowing him to control the Earth Energy in the air." Alex shook his head while observing this battle clearly since it would be perfect information if the Magic Goddess ever thought about rebelling. "Qima." Boulders began to come out of the ground as they launched themselves to the sky like a cannonball, hitting the assassins. Bam. Bam. Bam. Three boulders hit and killed the pursuers while the others were cut by the assassins. They finally recovered from the earlier shock and quickly climbed the hill to kill the guy, but he twisted his hand and a ring of water appeared around his body. As if it was a portal under the sea, a strong current quickly burst out of that circle, trying to swallow them. Since it was impossible to attack the guy from the ground, the assassins leaped to the sky and stayed afloat. They created a rectangular to surround him. The guy only raised his vision and said, "Only four of you remain here. Do you think you can fight me?" "Don''t think too highly of yourself." The assassins snorted before taking out a tube containing blue liquid. They drank the whole thing in one gulp as their eyes turned bloodshot and emanated the stronger aura from before. Their bodies also became bigger and buffed as if they were bloated like that of a balloon. Yet, the guy only shook his head and said, "Idiot. I know about that medicine already and have been waiting for you to use it." Not waiting for them to react, the female finally summoned four magic circles beneath the assassins'' feet. Chains emerged and pinned them to the ground. Even with that huge body, the assassins couldn''t do a single thing as if the chains were made of Rank 9 Materials. The guy then tapped the ground with his staff and eight spikes came out of the ground, piercing their heads and hearts simultaneously, killing them. "..." Leka widened her eyes and pointed her finger. "There''s something like that?" "Yep. That''s called the pro gamer move." Alex nodded with a cold face before continuing. "Anyway, you need to do everything to kill your opponents because the other party might not honor the so-called chivalry when they fight you. Remember that, Leka." Leka nodded with a serious expression. "I understand, Master. To put it simply, if I fight someone and another person stops the fight by talking to my enemy, I will use that time to sneak attack and kill him, right?" "You''re ruthless." "Why?!" "But I like it since you''re right." Alex smiled. "¡­" Leka swayed left and right while humming as if she got praised by Alex. "Well, if they don''t have enough experience and trust that person, you can do something like that. Unfortunately, they will team up against you if you fail to kill your enemy in a single strike." "I understand. I will do anything to kill my enemy at that time." Leka repeatedly nodded her little head, taking Alex''s lectures seriously. Eve only facepalmed and shook her head helplessly, looking at her master, who was teaching "bad" things to Leka. "Anyway, I have gotten a good understanding of their power system. They are using a kind of chant that allows them to control their surroundings. It''s quite a unique concept, but the power won''t be at the same level as someone who masters one element. Of course, there is always an exception like the Magic Goddess." Alex then rose from the air and disappeared with them, reaching a safe area that no one should come in. He said, "Leka can bring the three to go around the world while I''m going to break through to Rank 2 God. I don''t think there''s much of a problem since Elle, Elliot, and Eve can use their power even without me wielding them. I will just give you a token to inform me when you''re in trouble or you can escape to my position." "I understand." Leka repeatedly nodded. "I will be protecting everyone." "Yeah, yeah." Alex nodded and took them to another place. He dug a cave within a steep cliff before sending them off. "This is the time." A token appeared on Alex''s hand as he handed it to Leka. "This token can tell me your location as well as an alarm to me if you break it. I will quickly go to you. And you can even access the system and call someone like Jeanne or Anna to help you if you get into trouble." "I know, Master. Leka is not a reckless type. I don''t want to get caught again like in the past." Alex smiled and turned to the others. "I hope that you four can get along. I will try to cultivate it as fast as possible." Eve lowered her head and said, "May fortune be with you, Master." "Thank you. Make sure you enjoy this world to the fullest, Eve." "Yes." Eve made a big smile. The twins waved their hands to him as Alex gradually closed the cave entrance so he could start practicing. Alex then took out the crystallization of Rubia''s Divine Energy and started absorbing the energy. To his surprise, he could smell a bit of sweet perfume coming from the orb, making Alex wonder why such a smell would be stuck for so long. And there was also one hour gap before the Magic Goddess brought this crystal from the vault, so he thought there must be something important hidden there. Unfortunately, he didn''t have time to observe it more and proceeded with cultivation, sucking all the energy inside the crystal. ¡­ One year had passed since then and Leka had gone to every nook and corner, feeling that there wasn''t anything to do other than waiting for Alex. After getting into an agreement with Eve and the twins, Leka brought them back to the cave Alex practiced. On the way, Leka and the trio laughed over the fact that they almost got captured a few times because of various reasons, starting from Leka''s species to a living weapon. Either way, they had become a legend in this world that truly made people wonder why there was such a thing. As soon as they arrived, Alex turned out to be still in the middle of his cultivation. Leka and the others decided to wait for him, praying for him to finish as soon as possible. Leka also decided to confirm Alex''s condition with Lin Xingzhi. After another three months, the Divine Energy in the area erupted as it was the sign of Alex breaking through to Rank 2 God. Not long after, the entrance gradually opened as Alex came out of the cave. When they thought they would get a warm welcome from Alex, Alex''s face was completely serious as he gazed at them coldly. "Let''s go back. Something big will happen soon." Chapter 1150: Alexs Plan A minute earlier, Alex, who just woke up from his cultivation, got a notification from Lin Xingzhi. [Alex. A war is going to happen soon. You need to come back as soon as possible.] "!!!" Alex widened his eyes before frowning. "A war, huh. This time they will shamelessly make a move?" After contemplating for a few seconds, he rose from the ground and opened the cave, saying. "Let''s return. Something big is going to happen soon. I apologize that I can''t fulfill my promise to go around the universe for a bit more, but we will do it after this." Eve made a big smile and said, "It''s fine, Master. If it''s anybody else, we won''t be able to say this, but unlike them, you don''t make an empty promise. We understand." Alex scratched the back of his head and nodded. "Let''s go back then." However, Alex thought of another thing before he returned. Instead of going to Eulja, he went straight to the Magic Goddess''s world to visit her. As expected, the moment he entered her house, the Magic Goddess managed to pick up his presence and showed up. "What is this? Are you asking for the research right now? I''m in a good part, you know. I will fulfill my promise after this." Rubia shook her head with a serious expression. Unfortunately for her, Alex didn''t come for that. He simply took a folded paper and handed it together with a token. "This token will give you an induction when I break the other half. At that time, I want you to open this paper and follow what''s written inside. Can you promise me? This is very important." "Hmm?! A war?" She narrowed her eyes. Alex didn''t answer her. Instead, he just left her without saying anything. After a "long" journey, he had finally arrived at Eulja, where Lin Xingzhi asked him to enter the war council immediately. Alex followed her instruction without hesitation and found the Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, Strategists, Korzan, and even Alaya as well as God of Wrath. Since Anna and Jeanne had become God Kings too, they also participated in this council. "I assume we are attacked?" Alex narrowed his eyes. The room atmosphere turned heavy as they released their killing intentions after getting to know their current situation from Anya earlier. "As expected¡­" Alex closed his eyes for a moment. Anya came to him and said, "We''re not the one, but the God of Destruction." "!!!" Alex opened his eyes in surprise and thought for a moment. "Well, that doesn''t change my plan." "Anya, give me the status report." Anya nodded and started her explanation. "According to our information, there are two God Kings that will attack the God of Destruction: The Dragon God and the Phoenix Goddess. I''m assuming they attack us because of the grudge, but I feel like they have another meaning. Then, Aria said¡­" Before she finished, Alex pointed at the ground while saying, "Eulja is their target or any other people in our alliances." "Exactly so." "By directing us to help the God of Destruction, they will have the chance to attack us or our allies." Alex let out a long sigh. "Anyway, Lin Xingzhi and I will go to help the God of Destruction. What do you think, Alaya?" Alaya''s expression turned serious since Alex must want her opinion because she once stated that the God of Destruction was the closest to have the power of the previous generation of God Kings. After thinking for a while, she said, "I don''t have any assurance, but I think he can buy enough time. The same applies to Lin Xingzhi. From what I have seen, you haven''t reached it yet, right?" Lin Xingzhi looked down, feeling ashamed. "Yes." "Buying time is enough. They are also planning to buy time, so I have an order ready." Alex made an evil smile. "You have it ready?" Anya dropped her jaw to the ground. "This move is above my expectation, but it''s still within my imagination. Why do you think I choose to kill their people first before killing the head?" "Don''t tell me, you have been planning to make them think that you''re planning something big for them, so they need to attack you once to create confusion?" Anya slammed the table as she recognized his intention after such a clue. Even the others were shocked. "You see, I still hate them for the fact they are trying to destroy Eulja when I and the others fight on another battlefield¡­" Alex smirked. Everyone drew a gasp as they looked at Alex''s sinister expression and remembered the war a few years ago where ten God Kings fought. Alex nodded and announced. "I''m creating three teams. Lin Xingzhi, I, and Korzan will go to assist our ally, the God of Destruction. I need ten thousand God Rank Experts to follow us." "Eh?! Me as well?" Korzan pointed at himself in confusion. This was the first time Alex asked him to go to the battlefield outside Eulja territories, so it was no wonder he was stunned. Alex ignored him and continued his order. "The second team will be protecting Eulja, helping the Ten Commandants. They are Anna, Jeanne, and Marcus. You are in charge of Six Elemental Guards and Five Guardians, making sure that our area is well-protected. If they hit another ally, you are to go there to help them according to your discretion. "The third team will be Alaya and Ten God Beasts. Someone contact them for me please¡­ Anyway, you are to assess the situation. First, I want you to confirm whether the Angel or the Bats are ready or not. If they are coming at us, you are to call our allies to help the second team." Alaya nodded with a serious expression before smiling. "I see. If the purpose of this fight is only to create confusion to buy them some time since the two are most likely not ready for war yet. Hence, after confirming it, we can ambush either battlefield and eliminate them." Alex made a big smile as if he was excited about this war. ¡­ Meanwhile, his allies also received a report from Eulja about their current situation. Inside the Holy Palace, the Holy God held a meeting with his retainers while looking at the letter that Eulja''s messenger brought. The Holy God could only shake his head helplessly, stunning all of his retainers. "Your Holiness¡­" The Saintess furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "What are we going to do? The God of Destruction is¡­" The Holy God waved his hand, stopping her from talking. He finished reading the message and sighed. "Ugh. I feel like being toyed with by the Spirit God." "What do you mean? We have agreed to be his ally in this battle, but it doesn''t mean he can look down on us." The Saintess slammed the table. "My beloved daughter¡­ You should calm down a bit. Do you know what people think about you? Berserker Saintess¡­ That''s the first time I have heard something like that." The Holy God let out a long sigh. "Anyway, the Spirit God can''t cease to impress me. Since you like to battle so much, how about you lead the army to do something, Daughter?" "Where?" The Saintess asked, ignoring her father''s previous remark about her being a brute. The Holy God smiled and said, "To¡­" The same situation occurred in the same lake where the Song Goddess played her zither. Her assistant visited her and conveyed Alex''s message. "Your Majesty, I have brought the message from the Spirit God." "Please tell me." She smiled and continued playing her zither. However, her eyes already started emanating killing intent, feeling pretty excited to fight under the Spirit God again. "Actually, he is asking you to gather our armies and move to the north a little bit." "Alright. I will leave the army arrangement to you. What''s next?" "You''re to stand by for an unknown period of time." Teng. The note of her music suddenly changed as a string snapped. The Song Goddess turned around and widened her eyes. "Stand by? What?" Just like the Song Goddess, the Palm God also received the message that he couldn''t comprehend. He sat face to face with his wife, who was making a stern expression as if telling him that the moment he opened his mouth, he''s dead. A few minutes passed and the Palm God finally couldn''t wait any longer. He slammed the table and shouted. "Wife! What do you mean we are to not make a single move at all?! I can''t comprehend this. Tell me the¡ª" Just like their usual conversation, the War Goddess grabbed his hand, slammed his head to the ground, and buried it. "As I said, we are going to stay here without doing anything. Can''t you understand?" "Mhmemehmehm." The Palm God seemed to say something, and surprisingly enough, the War Goddess completely understood it. She sighed and decided to explain. "I can tell you the reason, but you''re going to promise me that you will stay in the bedroom for three days." "Of course, I will do everything for you." "I don''t trust you. You always choose to escape. Now I demand a Universe Oath." The Palm God gulped down as he truly planned for that. He now needed to face a challenge whether to go alone to create a mess or follow his wife''s words. After contemplating for a few minutes, he decided to swear to the Universe. The War Goddess narrowed her eyes and nodded. "Alright. Listen to me. I''m going to say it once since I''m too busy right now." "Yes, yes." "It''s simple. We''re here to confuse the enemy." "What? We can do something like that without even doing anything?" "Yes. Just like how they want to confuse us, the Spirit God has another plan to turn that around. I have read his message and understood what kind of thing will happen on the battlefield. Still¡­ The Spirit God¡­ He is truly scary." The War Goddess sighed, wondering whether it was alright to let Silvia with him. The only thought that lessened her worry was the fact that the Spirit God was overprotective to his family, so at least she would be safe and sound. "Right! This is the son-in-law I have chosen. Sometimes my genius is¡­ it''s almost frightening." "You just like gambling. I don''t call it genius." She shook her head helplessly, not knowing how to beat some senses to this guy''s head anymore. "Fine, fine. Through that gambling addiction of mine, I could find a beautiful and caring wife who is also capable and independent. Through another gamble, I have the best daughter and son-in-law under Heaven. Through another¡ª" Before he finished, the War Goddess cut in again. "And you lose this one gamble because you annoy me¡­" Bang. She slammed his head again to the ground with her foot. And as expected, the Palm God didn''t know when to give up as he raised his hand and said, "Wife¡­ I prefer black." The War Goddess''s eyebrows twitched as she knew what he was talking about, considering she was wearing a skirt. She put more power into it and buried the whole body in the ground. He¡­ never learns. Chapter 1151: War Superiority Right on the gate of God of Destruction''s territory, fifty spaceships were facing each other with the God of Destruction on the helm while Phoenix Goddess and Dragon God on the other side. They looked at each other without any change of expression even though the war was about to start. They knew that the moment they started, the Spirit God would appear, so they didn''t know when to start. Since they had been staring for hours, Alex finally made his appearance. "God of Destruction, I have come!" Alex was followed by Lin Xingzhi and Korzan appeared on top of the mothership with a smile as if he didn''t feel any pressure from this war. However, for the God of Destruction, who didn''t have any information about Alex, he got pretty worried, considering that they needed to handle these two people. But he was still impressed by how Alex had become a Rank 2 God. "Haha, Phoenix Goddess! I hope that you like my gift back then." Alex laughed. The Phoenix Goddess gritted her teeth and couldn''t contain her anger anymore. She waved her hand and shot out a fire. Normally, Lin Xingzhi was required to make a move here, but Alex simply revealed his Sun God Fire and waved his hand as her attack disappeared. "!!!" Even the Phoenix Goddess dropped her jaw, realizing that Alex''s fire could suppress her fire. "You! You have absorbed the Sun Essence too." Alex smirked and took out his weapons, pointing his sword at her. "I don''t mind fighting you." Before the Phoenix Goddess did another thing, the Dragon God stretched his hand and said, "Phoenix Goddess¡­ Remember our purpose here." Seeing him speak out, the Phoenix Goddess decided to stop and looked away. "I will be handling this side and creating a distance between us, so his Pure Fire doesn''t affect you and your kin. For now, you should try to kill that God of Destruction without suffering an injury. If you can''t, just buy enough time for our force to handle the rest." She then turned around, looking at a Rank 2 God near them. "What is the situation?" "They are on schedule. The Holy God seems to understand the situation and sends the Saintess to help the Spirit God''s army, while the Song Goddess sends out her troop only to remain in that place because they fear the incoming attack. As for the Palm God¡­ He hasn''t made a single move." The two nodded as Alex smiled. "You two surely have planned so many things." "Hahaha, do you think you are the only smart guy, Spirit God?" The Dragon God laughed. "I''m not, but I only know that you two are not smarter than me." Alex shrugged. "What did you say?!" The Dragon God took a deep breath while shouting. "You can keep that smug smile of yours as long as you want. Do you think Life and Death Goddess can handle two of us, Spirit God? You will know the true meaning of despair." "Despair, huh. It''s been a long time since I have tested despair. I have forgotten its taste and I don''t think anyone can remind me of that." Alex snorted. "Hmph! Your allies can''t even move because they fear an ambush. You''re truly foolish, Spirit God. And do you think they dare to arrive here by using their Teleportation? At that time, you all will be buried alive here." Alex shook his head and laughed. "Yeah, yeah. I don''t mind. How about you use one now? I''m afraid that we will have a party with lizard and bird meat. I''m sure they taste amazing." "Wha¡ª" Before the Dragon God rebuked him, another Rank 2 God appeared as he reported everything. "There''s an emergency, my king." He paused for a moment. "Our second army is stopped by three God Kings." "What?! All three of them shouldn''t move, right?" "No. They are the God of Wrath and Spirit God''s two wives." Hearing that sentence, Alex couldn''t help but shout, trying to enjoy his superiority. "Oi, oi! Did you mistake one of them as my wife?" Ignoring Alex''s remark, he continued. "They are the Dark Butterfly Goddess and Number one Eulja''s torturer." "What?! They are God Kings now? No! It shouldn''t be possible. Even the Earth God won''t be able to win against two God Kings!" The Dragon God suddenly realized the whole picture and asked, "Where is the Life and Death Goddess?" "She¡­ She¡­" The warrior gritted his teeth and ultimately informed him. "She is in our territory, trying to annihilate us with the help of the former Fire God''s Ten God Beasts as well as the Blackwade Clan!." "What?!" The Dragon God shouted on top of his lungs. "Spirit God!" ¡­ In the meantime, the Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, and Ten Commandants appeared on the edge of Eulja''s territory, watching how many spaceships appeared out of nowhere. On top of their ships, Battle God and Earth God looked at them and laughed. "Eulja, oh, Eulja. As we expected, that technique took a toll on the Life and Death Goddess. She won''t be able to fight us right now," the Earth God said while releasing his killing intent. "It seems that my wish in eliminating the Spirit God will be fulfilled soon." "Do you think so?" The God of Wrath finally made his appearance with a serious expression. "God of Wrath!" The Earth God clicked his tongue as if expecting this. "I know that you haven''t died and joined Eulja. Unfortunately for you, your strength has yet to be enough to fight us." "I know that. And who says that I''m going to fight you? I am just a sidekick in this battle." Marcus shook his head while laughing. He looked at the Battle God and released all his Wrath toward him. "Battle God¡­ To think that a betrayer can still laugh like this." "You don''t know what it means to have power. You are just a foolish man, God of Wrath." "Really? I only know that my master is far scarier than you all think." Marcus laughed out loud, not feeling ashamed to admit that he was a slave. The two Gods were shocked when Marcus admitted his identity as a slave before realizing who his master was. "Don''t tell me¡­ Is your master the Spirit God? Have you lost your mind, God of Wrath?!" "I don''t know what you are talking about¡­ I only know that my anger to you is immeasurable. In addition, the fact that you have killed the Goddess of Destiny¡­ I wonder if you can withstand the full brunt of my anger." Marcus released all of his power. It had traced everything, including killing intent. Even normal people felt fear as if they were looking at the Wrath itself. No, Marcus might have gradually turned to Wrath itself by embracing it side by side. Unlike the way he used Wrath as his tool to kill people, he now fused with it and became a part of its body. Marcus'' power wouldn''t be the same as before. Suddenly, Earth God''s laughter resounded as he also released his killing intent. "It doesn''t solve the problem, God of Wrath. You still need to stop me." "Yeah, and we are planning to do that." A female''s voice silenced everyone in the area as two God Kings made their presence known. The Earth God opened his mouth in surprise as he saw Anna and Jeanne in their True Spirit Body. ¡­ Just like how the enemies tried to ambush Eulja to kill them all, in front of the Dragon God''s territory, Alaya along with the Ten God Beasts appeared. Behind them were multiple spaceships ready for war. Alaya turned to the Ten God Beasts and smiled. "I would have never thought that I would meet all ten of you again." "We are more shocked than you, Life and Death Goddess. As the peer of our master, we would never think that you are still alive to this day," The red snake said while looking at the planets. "Well, we don''t have the time to chat since our job requires speed and time. You will go with me to their main world while the rest bring destruction to all the planets with Eulja''s spirits. Is that okay?" Alaya smiled. "Will there be a God King?" "No. According to him, we should have an easy time. Only need to deal with one or two Rank 2 Gods." "I see. In that case, let''s go then." The snake nodded before feeling another presence coming to the battlefield. It turned out to be twenty spaceships. Each of them had a big mark on their ship. "That mark¡­" The snake furrowed his eyebrows and found a giant sun mark on the ship with two hammers on top of it as if it tried to refine the sun. "Blackwade Clan." Song Tao appeared along with seven other Rank 2 Gods of his Blackwade Clan. "It''s my pleasure to see the legendary Ten God Beasts as well as the Life and Death Goddess. From the request of my benefactor, I, Song Tao, have brought my Blackwade Clan to assist." Alaya smirked and asked, "You know about what happened, right?" "Although I couldn''t say anything due to the past oath, I know everything and have come to your aid. Please let us fight together with you." "We have no time to fight." Alaya then raised her hand and shouted. "All force! March forward! Leave none alive!" "Uoh!" They began to march toward the Dragon God''s territory. ¡­ Meanwhile, the same happened to the Phoenix''s Goddess territory. Rubia stood in front of her spaceship, staring at the entire territory. Behind her was the Rank 2 Gods who followed her during this war. One of them asked, "Ehm, should we really do it? I mean, won''t it be a problem if people classify as someone associated with the Spirit God?" "It''s a fact and I have no intention to hide it. From what I have seen so far, Eulja has at least four God Kings not including the Spirit God himself. The moment he ascends that throne, no one will have the opportunity again. I would rather make him my ally instead of enemies," she shrugged before continuing with a sad expression. "There is also one thing that you need to know. My father is actually a survivor of that war. "Everyone who has seen that era forces a Universe Oath to bind them to not speak anything about the Dark Era. However, I have a good grasp of what kind of war it was and the reason we lost back then was because the God Kings didn''t unite. "That was why I agreed to him so quickly the moment he mentioned the dark era. And the Holy God had hinted at it too as well." Rubia then pointed her staff to the front. "I know that many are innocent, but the fact that one spy can disrupt the entire balance, I have no choice but to eliminate them right now. Who is with me?" Another one stepped forward and asked with a serious expression. "Since everyone has been forbidden to say it, why could you know it? Depending on my lady''s answer, I will choose to return or follow you until this life is gone." Rubia smiled and took out a single book. "The Universe Oath is forbidden to speak of, but that oath doesn''t affect the death. And after I confirmed everything from the Spirit God himself, I know that what my father had poured into this book is true." "!!!" All Rank 2 Gods dropped their jaws, knowing that it was her father''s diary. If it were like this, they had no doubt that Rubia possessed the information about them. The one who asked earlier quickly kneeled on the ground and cupped his hand. "I shall lay my life down and follow you even if I need to sacrifice myself." Rubia smiled and nodded. "Let''s go then. From tomorrow onward, there''s not a single planet in the Phoenix Goddess''s territory that would stay alive." All of them kneeled and cupped their hands. "We received the order." Chapter 1152: Checkmate "Spirit God!" The Dragon God''s voice resounded on the battlefield to the point along with his anger and frustration. Yet, it didn''t stop there. The messenger continued to inform them of the second bad news. "And the Magic Goddess is doing the same thing as the Life and Death Goddess along with all the Spirit God''s allies, attacking the Phoenix Goddess''s territory." "!!!" This time, the Phoenix Goddess flared up as she couldn''t contain her anger anymore. First, Alex had killed all her phoenixes and sent her the chopping parts of the Rank 2 God Phoenixes. And now the Spirit God wanted to annihilate every single of her people. Although she didn''t care about them, she still needed them to forcefully turn them into a phoenix, becoming her asset. Yet, everything would surely end because of this situation. "You bastard! I''m going to kill you!" Alex laughed and shouted, "Kill me?! Why don''t you come here? I''m here, waiting for someone to kill me." However, the Dragon God noticed another important thing as his anger turned into a shock before his face turned pale. "!!!" Dragon God gasped and pointed his finger at Alex. "You¡­ You¡­ Did you plan all this?" Alex smirked and said, "You all have been checkmated." What the Dragon God just realized was the fact that they were already hopeless. If they retreated here, Alex and the others would surely go toward the Earth God and Battle God, ending their lives. And if they retreated accordingly, not only would they experience a heavy loss, but they couldn''t return to their own territories as well because it would mean they would be surrounded from all sides, especially with Alaya and Rubia joining the fray. Alex wouldn''t leave this chance and called the other three God Kings and killed them simultaneously. The only way was to have reinforcement, albeit it meant that the Bats and Angel would need to help them. However, it was impossible because they had gone too deep. Alex and the others would intercept their messages first before reaching the two "weapons" and the soldiers would also fall into despair. At the same time, if they fell here, it would mean that Alex only needed to destroy the Angel and Bats before killing their king. Unlike in the past, where Alex needed to fight him alone, this time, they had more than ten God Kings to handle him. Even if their strength had yet to reach the previous generations, as long as Alex reached God King, they would surely kill their king. This was the real trap Alex made the moment he asked Alaya and Rubia to fight against them. And this was why the other three God Kings decided to not make any move. All of them were traps for Alex to invite them this deep. And with such confidence, they didn''t set up a transmission or a code that could be sent to inform the other side to retreat. Their current situation was truly hopeless. However, the Dragon God also noticed one single move that could save them from this. "We need to go to the Bats and Angel''s territories," the Dragon God whispered to the Phoenix Goddess but also noticed that Alex must have predicted this move. In other words, the moment they returned there, it would be their graves. After all, Alex only needed to pinpoint those two areas and started suppressing them before eventually killing them. The Dragon God gritted his teeth and looked at Alex. "For how long have you been planning this?" Alex only smiled as he remembered the trial of the Dungeon God. He realized how to utilize the mind game to win the war. At the same time, Aria''s art of war also became his inspiration. The Dragon God thought for a moment and shouted. "I need one thousand God Rank Experts to escape from this encirclement and inform the Earth God and Battle God to return to Planet D. We are going to retreat to Planet Z. I don''t care how many lives you need to sacrifice, make sure the two know about our intention." "Ye-yes." Alex also waved his hand as he spread all his army, making sure that there wasn''t a single person slipping past them. The spaceships also had been using Arrays to create a temporary Special Realm, not allowing any teleportation to the outside. "You bastard! Do you think you have won this war? No! Our Supreme King is the greatest!" The Dragon God snorted and raised his hands. "We are breaking through this encirclement." Alex also ordered his army along with the God of Destruction. "God of Destruction! We need to keep them here as long as possible. Even if you can''t kill those two, we need to hold them here and cripple their armies. With this, we will have an easier time in the future." Listening to their conversations this whole time made him understand that he shouldn''t make Alex his enemy. He shouted. "Do you hear it guys? Leave no one alive!" "Uoh!" The Dragon God gritted his teeth and said, "Phoenix Goddess¡­ You will handle the God of Destruction with all of his Rank 2 Gods." Noticing the severeness of this matter, the Phoenix Goddess suppressed her anger for a moment and nodded. "I understand. I will do it." The Dragon God then turned around and summoned all the Rank 2 Gods under his influence. Considering this was just a distraction, there were some holding down the fort, but he truly regretted not bringing them here since they would soon die under Alaya''s hand. Eight Rank 2 Gods appeared and followed him, moving toward Alex to buy time, so Alex didn''t suppress a single Fire Element User in the Phoenix Goddess''s side. "Unfortunately, you are still too confident, Spirit God. You should at least bring your Elemental Gods if you want to stop us here." The Dragon God''s hands slowly turned to that of a dragon before his entire body became a dragon itself. He revealed his true form that turned out to be a blue dragon. His appearance looked like that of a western dragon and a huge wing that spanned over one hundred meters. A roar shook the battlefield, showing his anger toward Alex. "I''m going to kill you, Spirit God." The Phoenix Goddess seemed to have the same intention and didn''t bother to hide it anymore. She turned into a Phoenix. The God of Destruction only smiled when he looked at her true form. He pointed to the left, saying, "All fire element users are to go to help the Spirit God. You''re useless in front of that fire." Without hesitation, they followed his instruction and went toward Alex. Seeing that everyone had left, the God of Destruction raised his hand as a purple aura coming out of his body. "This is the time I show the result of my practice¡­ I hope that you can give me an insight, Phoenix Goddess." He smiled as his whole body was surrounded by the Power of Destruction. Just like the God of Wrath, he also began to understand his power even more and fused with it. "I''m the destruction itself. No matter where I go, the destruction shall follow." He raised his middle finger and smirked. "Come, you parasite phoenix!" Cry. The Phoenix Goddess let out a loud cry as she flew toward him. Seeing the other side had begun, Alex also noticed their movement where they tried to break through the encirclement. He looked at the blue dragon and said to Lin Xingzhi. "Can you handle the blue dragon for me?" "Sure thing. I''m in the middle of training, so I don''t have the confidence to kill him, but I should have enough power to last for days and he won''t escape." Alex nodded and smiled as he began to fly forward along with Korzan, looking at the eight Rank 2 Gods. "No matter how powerful you are, you two won''t be able to beat eight Rank 2 Gods. It''s over." The Dragon God still tried to look down on Alex, so his soldiers were inspired and stayed strong since there was no guarantee they would lose yet. Alex chuckled and took out his weapons while saying, "What a bold claim, right, Korzan?" "I shall follow Your Majesty''s order." Korzan pulled his long sleeves as he started releasing his Divine Energy. "Can you handle four of them for me? I will handle the remaining four." A smile suddenly appeared on Korzan''s face as he took off his glasses. His body began to burn and turn into magma. "If they can''t defeat the Elemental Gods, they won''t be enough to stop me." Alex smiled and released all his energy too. "So reassuring¡­ Let''s see who can kill them first, shall we?" ¡­ Just like that battlefield, on the other side, Alex also left a system, especially through his system. Anya relayed the message to Anna. [Anna¡­ Alex wants you to encircle them and eliminate every single one of them. And there will be a messenger there. You need to kill them too. This way, those two will not know the other battlefield''s situation. The moment we have gotten a hold of them, they will end up retreating to another place which is most likely where all the bears stay.] [We will then attack there and eliminate every single Bear in that world. After this battle, Alex wants all the Dragons, Phoenixes, Bears to be eliminated. In other words, we will only need to face Bats, Angel, and the remaining Snakes along with their God Kings in the next war. Their strength will be exponentially reduced.] Anna narrowed her eyes and nodded before looking to the sides, finding the Saintess had arrived with the reinforcement. "You all are late!" Anna snorted. The Saintess''s eyebrows twitched, thinking that Anna had no manner, considering they were here to help them. However, another Rank 2 God under the Holy God patted her shoulder and shook his head. "If you take a closer look, Eulja has two more God Kings. And there is God of Wrath among them. Eulja''s strength is not to be underestimated. Only now can I see why His Holiness said that the Spirit God is scary." The Saintess widened her eyes and took another look, realizing what she almost did. "This is why His Holiness asked me to go with you. Someone needs to calm you down. For now, forget about that pride of yours." Anna didn''t know about their conversation, but she already had the plan ready from Anya. Anna shouted, "The reinforcement from the Holy God is to hit from the left side." Without waiting for their answer, Anna returned to her position and informed every single Rank 2 Gods on their side. "Elemental Gods! All of you are to attack them from this side. They can go up and down, so we will intercept them accordingly." Agnis acknowledged it out loud. "Understood." Anna then sent another order. "Ten Commandants, you all go to our left sides. We will need you to make sure not a single of them can escape." "Understood." All of them shouted simultaneously. "Marcus! Position yourself to protect the Ten Commandants from Battle God''s power." Listening to the order, Marcus showed his answer with his action by going around the Battle God to situate himself between them. "Lastly, all five Guardians will surround them from behind. Your order is the same." "Understood." William nodded and signaled Sullivan to help them as well. While they were moving, Anna actually disappeared from the battlefield. Suddenly, Carissa was stunned when she saw Anna appearing in front of her. She then heard a thought transmission. ''Carissa, can you spread the poison behind us? There will be messengers coming from the other battlefield. I want you to watch out for them. This is the most important mission from Alex." Carissa gulped down and took a deep breath. Her expression turned serious as she nodded. ''I understand. I will make sure none of them pass¡­ I guarantee it with my life.'' Anna patted her shoulder before returning to the battlefield, preparing to help Jeanne again on the battlefield. Raising her hands, she shouted. "His Majesty''s decree! None of them shall escape from this place alive!" "Uoh!" Chapter 1153: Surpassing His Past Self? Alex looked at four Rank 2 God dragons with a serious expression. His Sun God Fire had been released along with his killing intent and Divine Energy. Even though Alex only reached Rank 2 God not long ago, his strength alone was capable of killing every single Rank 2 God in his way. The first dragon had blue skin reflecting the ice element it possessed. Meanwhile, the other two had a wind element and the last one had a lightning element. Alex clenched his sword and spear tightly, wondering who would make the first move. Suddenly, the Lightning Dragon disappeared, using her lightning element to increase her speed to reach Alex''s position. In an instant, her right foot was already right in front of Alex''s head, covering his eyes so the other three could approach him as well. Unfortunately for her, Alex already saw through her leg with his Spirit Eyes, keeping track of every single movement. At the same time, she had yet to understand the true terror Alex possessed. As if feeling something pressing her from above, she quickly stopped that kick and spun her body before raising both hands to stop whatever was coming from above. The invisible thing from above was none other than Alex''s Space Element that blew the woman downwards. The three spread around, trying to attack him from three different directions. The two Wind Dragons came for him from the left and right side while the Ice Dragon came from above. Alex took a glance at them before spinning his body as the Wind Dragons released torrential wind that would hit him. He simply directed them to the side but realized that the Ice Dragon finally made his move. Even the Lightning Dragon had recovered and planned to attack him from below. He expected this kind of attack and formed a plate to deflect a Laser like attack containing the Ice Element. The moment it touched the plate, the ice element attack was directed to its comrade, the Lightning Dragon, and ended up hitting her instead. Roar. The Lightning Dragon screamed in pain while the Ice Dragon panicked. Using this type of confusion, Alex raised his finger as a huge translucent pink-colored sphere appeared, trapping all the four dragons and Alex inside. "Let''s make this more interesting." Alex smirked and activated his technique. "Inverted Dimension." Suddenly, everything turned upside down. Although it only affected the one inside and there wasn''t a change in their position, it started making them sick when they saw everyone other than them was completely inverted. Everything was inverted in this dimension. Since he had gotten used to this technique, Alex could immediately react and went straight to the Ice Dragon. His sword was filled with so many powers as he jumped upward. "!!!" The Ice Dragon opened his mouth as a huge ice barrier separated him and Alex, allowing him to get precious time to recover from this weird place, but Alex seemed to be one step ahead. A string of blue light appeared and he soon realized it was a blade instead of a light when Alex tweaked it a bit. That blue light then came down and cut the huge chunk of ice, creating a way for him. "One Inch Spear." Alex smirked and went straight to the dragon, swinging his blade. Roar. The Ice Dragon roared and raised both hands, controlling the two pieces of ice that had been cut and fusing them again to stomp Alex that was in the middle of the gap. Bang. Before it could even be closed, Alex''s solidified Space Element stopped them as Alex freely closed their distance. Not wanting to die, the Ice Dragon quickly blocked Alex''s sword with his claw. Alex only smiled and revealed the true might of his strike. "Five Purities Slash." His sword clashed with his claws, but the winner soon appeared when Alex''s sword cut through the claws. His sword went straight to the dragon''s neck and sliced it without a single restriction. "No way!" The three dragons gasped. No one could expect Alex to have the power to kill a Rank 2 God this easily. The two Wind Dragons let out their breaths that turned into a sharp tornado, cutting everything on its way. Alex snorted and used his Spatial Gate to teleport to one of them. "Watch out!" The Lightning Dragon shouted as she appeared next to Alex to attack him while stopping his attack on the Wind Dragon. Alex decided to halt his movement and raised his sword to block this kick. Unfortunately for him, his sword wasn''t sharp enough to cut the Lightning Dragon''s skin since there was no Five Purities Slash. And the Wind Dragon that almost got attacked quickly recovered and punched Alex from below, sending him flying above. The other Wind Dragon had prepared for this and went straight to him to punch him from his left. Not wanting to get another hit, Alex used his Space Element to create an invisible wall behind him and stepped on it. He then channeled his Space Element to his right foot and spun his body, sending a straight kick to the Wind Dragon''s fist. The Wind Dragon obviously had his pride on his fist, so he tried to overpower Alex like the Lightning Dragon, only to find that was the stupidest mistake he could ever make in this battle. Bam. A huge shock wave shook the battlefield as Alex stopped the Wind Dragon''s fist. On top of that, the Wind Dragon looked very shocked. No one other than the Wind Dragon could actually see it since it was hard to notice but very painful for him. "What?! His foot¡­ doesn''t even touch me? Yet my hand is bending." Alex just enveloped his fist with concentrated Space Element like how he fought the puppet in the Dungeon God''s place and bent the Wind Dragon''s fist as if all the bones and skins were forcefully dislocated in a weird way. Using the momentum gained from the power behind that fist, Alex went away from him while slashing his sword upward. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." A Sword Wave flew toward the dragon and was about to kill him. Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the Wind Dragon managed to move slightly to the side, so the Sword Wave only cut his entire right arm that had become useless anyway. The Lightning Dragon seemed to have no intention to give up by appearing behind Alex to stop Alex''s madness. Alex raised his spear and sword on top of his head, but the dragon seemed to have no care for her well-being and continued pushing Alex until she managed to blow him away. It was at this time Alex used the momentum and went through a Spatial Gate. "!!!" The Lightning Dragon widened her eyes and turned around, but it was too late. "You have finally made a mistake." Alex smiled and slashed her body, only to find it was not deep enough to penetrate her heart. Roar. Still, the painful roar echoed because no one would be able to endure that pain. She gritted her teeth and chased after him, who had disappeared again through his Spatial Gate. As if she felt the fluctuation of the enemy, the Lightning Dragon went quickly toward the injured dragon to help him from Alex, who suddenly appeared above him. "Hmph! You won''t be able to hit him." The Lightning Dragon even used her own life to protect her teammate. Unfortunately, Alex couldn''t afford to waste so much time and used a smaller Spatial Gate to send his sword through the Space World to the injured Wind Dragon. Alex smiled and extended the blade once again. "One Inch Spear." The Dragon, who was occupied by the pain, was sliced into two in that single moment. However, Alex also couldn''t stop the fact that he was a bit vulnerable and got kicked by the Lightning Dragon. Alex was blown away and spat blood. The Dragons obviously didn''t want it to end just like that. Both of them released their breath at the same time, hitting Alex. Boom. Alex quickly slashed the smoke produced by the explosion, revealing his appearance. As expected, that one attack injured him as there were grazes on his body along with a trace of blood on his mouth and clothes. "¡­" Alex shook his head and took a deep breath. The remaining two Dragons shouldn''t be that hard, so he promised himself not to get any more injuries. The Lightning Dragon and the Wind Dragon exchanged looks as if they got their plan ready and went in two different directions. The Lightning Dragon covered her body with lightning before another pair of wings made of lightning appeared on her back. "Lightning Wings." "Gale Storm." The Wind Dragon, on the other hand, created a huge tornado, heading straight to Alex. The Lightning Dragon flapped its wings before four lightning balls sparked around her wings and shot lightning bolts. Surprisingly, the lightning fused together with the wind, creating an even stronger attack. Alex clicked his tongue and raised his hand, letting his spear float on the space. "Black Hole." A black-colored ball suddenly appeared before Alex threw it right at the tornado. The ball started expanding and absorbing everything nearby. Luckily, Alex already grabbed his spear back, so it didn''t get absorbed. The black hole clashed with the tornado and ended up swallowing it. Alex then raised his other hand as a huge fireball appeared on top of their head. But when one took a closer look at it, they would realize that this ball was none other than a Fire Disturbance. "Star God Divine Control." The Fire Disturbance shrank in an instant as all the Fire Energy enveloped both his sword and spear, making them even stronger. In addition, Alex''s Sun God Fire was also fused in that element. The Wind Dragon felt danger when he looked at the weapons and flinched. Meanwhile, the Lightning Dragon gritted her teeth and faced him. "Haha, you have finally dropped your guard." Alex smirked and used his Spatial Gate to send him to the Wind Dragon and slashed his sword. "!!!" The Wind Dragon channeled all his wind power to his fist and punched straight to the front. A torrential wind blew out of his fist, trying to swipe Alex''s power in that attack. Alex actually didn''t have a problem because the better way to defeat an attack like this relied on his spear technique instead of his sword technique. He changed his grip a little and thrust his sword instead. "Twin Fusion Spear." The Space Element deflected the wind, so Alex didn''t get blown away, while his Sun God Fire and Fire Disturbance Power slipped past the Space World and hit the Wind Dragon''s back, creating a hole in its body. Since Alex didn''t get a notification from his system, he hurriedly beheaded the Wind Dragon and received the kill message. The system was indeed a good way to know whether he had killed his enemy or not. "How dare you!" The Lightning Dragon went toward him and tried to attack him again like last time, but Alex had seen this move once. The moment the Lightning Dragon struck him, Alex disappeared like a ghost before his presence was felt behind her. His sword contained everything in the Seven Purities Slash, but there was one more in it. It was the power of the Fire Disturbance. "You are the first to experience this attack." Alex smiled as he slashed his sword with all his might. "Eight Purities Slash." The Lightning Dragon gritted her teeth and spun its body, covering all the lightning on her fist and threw a punch to stop it. Once again, Alex shocked the entire battlefield like he did when he released the full power of the Seven Purities Slash for the first time. "!!!" The Lightning Dragon widened her eyes and roared, albeit it was futile. If the Seven Purities Slash was at the same level as the previous Alex''s strongest slash that could cut a small planet, this Eight Purities Slash had clearly surpassed it. This was the gamble that the previous Alex won when he decided to have his reincarnation fight against the beast instead of him. The slash was so powerful that it stunned almost every single person on the battlefield. The Dragon God widened his eyes and gasped, stuttering. "He¡­ Did he... He might be able to cut down our Supreme King¡­" Chapter 1154: God Kings Fights The Dragon God gritted his teeth as he realized how much he had underestimated the current generation of the Spirit God. Although Alex had won several times, they thought Alex wouldn''t be able to surpass the Spirit God, but with the power he showed earlier, there was no doubt Alex had the potential to surpass the Spirit God. When he reached God King Stage, Alex might be able to cut a planet into two already with that Eight Purities Slash. The Dragon God let out a roar that was recognized by every single Dragon in the area. Even if he wanted to kill Alex today, he knew he wouldn''t succeed because of Lin Xingzhi. At the same time, he couldn''t afford to die because everything would be over. Hence the only way to solve this problem was to order all the Dragons to break through even if they needed to sacrifice their lives. The Dragons acknowledged the order and their movements began to become more ferocious. Lin Xingzhi narrowed her eyes and looked at Alex who seemed to be in trouble. Every time he used the Spatial Gate, he would be blocked by a dragon even if it meant they needed to die. Alex thought that by giving the God of Destruction some time alone with the Phoenix Goddess, he would gain enough experience to get stronger, but he regretted that decision. He should have killed the Phoenix Goddess first by teleporting to their side since he couldn''t do it right now. And if he tried to suppress her, she would certainly fight back since it wasn''t like Alex''s superiority was that high for her to handle. If the Phoenix joined their strength together, his suppression could be blocked and Korzan would end up in a bad state. After considering all things, Alex decided to take care of the dragons first. No matter what, they should have completed the basic requirement to win this war. Lin Xingzhi smiled and raised her hands. Two Disturbances appeared. Instead of a combination between Lightning Disturbance and Fire Disturbance, Lin Xingzhi already understood more of her power and created Space Disturbance and Fire Disturbance instead. "Fire." Lin Xingzhi turned the Fire Disturbance into a fire dragon that went through the Space Disturbance and enhanced its attribute. The dragon went straight toward the Dragon God with the ability to bend space. The Dragon God gritted his teeth and released another freezing breath, turning the dragon into ice, only to find it melt soon after. However, the fire dragon also disappeared. The mist created from the clash became the perfect smokescreen for Lin Xingzhi, but the Dragon God read her move and released another breath. However, three Disturbances appeared at once. The Space Disturbance in front of her deflected the breath to the side, giving a good opportunity to strike. The Lightning Disturbance and Fire Disturbance then fused. Surprisingly, they began to gather around her hand, allowing her to wield them for a few seconds. This was the technique that Lin Xingzhi had been practicing in order to reach her father''s level in the past. "Are you insane?" The Dragon God could see the power behind this attack, but it also meant that Lin Xingzhi prepared for a certain risk to perform it. Ignoring his words, Lin Xingzhi smirked and pushed both palms to the Dragon God''s chest. The lightning burst and spread all over the Dragon''s skin while the fire flared up on the Dragon''s back. "Great Fire Shock!" Roar. The Dragon God screamed in pain before slapping Lin Xingzhi, blowing her away. "¡­" Lin Xingzhi took a deep breath as blood came out of her mouth and nose. What she did earlier was powerful, but also left her helpless since she hadn''t mastered it. Yet, she couldn''t help but smile, knowing that the potential she had been waiting for presented itself before her. This was the only time she could do it because the Dragon God focused on escaping instead of fighting to the death, so she knew she would survive. "This is the end, Dragon God." Lin Xingzhi smirked. "You''re going to lose this way." The Dragon God roared again before replying to Lin Xingzhi. "You can take pride in this messy win, but we are going to have the last laugh." "We will see." ¡­ Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, purple fire and red fire clashed. The red fire exploded and engulfed the purple fire, but the latter fought back and started the decaying process of its enemy. The God of Destruction smirked as he raised both hands, creating two wisps of Power of Destruction that he launched after the explosion. "Twin Decay. Enla." The Phoenix Goddess simply flapped her wing and went straight to the two wisps. The latter exploded and tried to decay her body, but her regeneration managed to keep up with it, so it was like nothing had changed. "¡­" The God of Destruction took a deep breath. "As expected, you''re strong. To think I have been proud this whole time¡­ I''m not fit to be a God King." "Just go die." The Phoenix Goddess let out a loud cry. The God of Destruction shook his head with a smile on his face. Even though his body was full of bruises because of the fight, he still had enough energy to play for a few more hours. "If you want me to die, how about you accompany me here for another few hours? Unfortunately, you don''t dare to do it because you are the one going to die." The Phoenix Goddess opened her mouth and spat out a giant fireball toward him. "Burn Everything." "Tch. Do you think your spit is good enough to kill me?" he chuckled and struck it again with his fist until nothing remained. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction found the movement of the phoenixes where they started going to one area. They seemed to be helping the Dragons to break through the weakest link before Alex killed all the dragons around him. Unfortunately, he couldn''t do anything and none of his followers had enough energy to help Alex. In other words, as long as Alex was trapped there, there was no way to push it even more. The only way to help him would be Korzan taking his place, so Alex''s power could overturn the battlefield. "Hmph! Let''s continue." The God of Destruction made a little grin as he jumped forward. As the two continued, there were two more fierce fights on the other battlefield. "Blood Lightning Incursion." Jeanne thrust her sword toward the Earth God, but was stopped by the Earth God''s giant bear hand that had been covered with rock. It completely neutralized Jeanne''s lightning even though some sparks still cracked the rock. The Earth God pushed her back while assessing the battlefield. "This is not going to work." He realized Eulja''s true objective was to kill their army. In addition, there was no information from the other side, so he couldn''t decide anything at the moment. Although he could buy more time, he was afraid that the Spirit God would call the other God Kings to help them and the situation would become even more hopeless. After all, this operation was to be a swift one. Knowing that they had wasted too much time in this battle, the Earth God raised his hand. "All troops. Pummel all the people in the Saintess''s side and retreat!" "Do you think we will allow you?" Jeanne appeared and struck him again with her lightning sword, but stopped by his arms again. It was truly a frustrating opponent, considering that his bear paw alone was already so powerful. With the addition of the stone covering his hand, Jeanne couldn''t see the path to victory. Suddenly, Anna appeared next to the Earth God while swinging her scythe. "Darkness Sanctum." A black-colored building appeared on her back. Its size was only three times her body, but it lent Anna enough power to crack Earth God''s stone hand, forcing him to retreat a few meters. "¡­" The Earth God narrowed his eyes. The most troubling enemy would surely be Anna. He then took a look at the Battle God that seemed to start getting overwhelmed by the God of Wrath despite having turned into a bear. The situation truly didn''t favor them. No, the reason why everything started falling apart was the fact they didn''t have information about Anna and Jeanne. If they knew the Spirit God had two more God Kings hidden, they would have attacked the Holy God or Song Goddess instead to kill at least one of them. The Earth God clicked his tongue and fully turned into a bear. He roared, "All troops are to escape from this place and return to our meeting place." "¡­" Anna fell silent as she looked into his form. He knew that everything had gone according to Alex''s plan. She sent a signal to the others and started killing all the enemies since they were running away. The Saintess became the shield to prevent the enemies from escaping even though they would soon break through her ranks. In the end, the war turned into a chase from three God Kings, killing almost all of the enemy troops. Chapter 1155: Just the Beginning "Oi, oi! Why are you running?" Lin Xingzhi''s shouts echoed in everyone''s ears, especially in the Dragon God''s. After breaking through Alex''s formation, the Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess had begun retreating their army together with them. Meanwhile, Alex gradually became weaker and tried his best to handle the dragons that came to stop him. Knowing he had lost too much power to the point he couldn''t suppress the Phoenix Goddess anymore, he gave up on that idea and ordered Lin Xingzhi to pursue those two God Kings first to eliminate every single soldier on their side. The Dragon God gritted his teeth when he looked behind, finding Lin Xingzhi and her soldiers killing the dragons one by one. At this rate, he and the Phoenix Goddess might have the power to escape from them, but they wouldn''t have anything more. "Lin Xingzhi, you b*tch!" The Dragon God roared but didn''t stop in his tracks. The Phoenix Goddess suddenly sent a thought transmission, asking, ''What are we going to do?'' ''We will go to Angel''s territory. No matter what everyone says, he is the only one holding our Supreme King''s secret. Although this means that only five of us remain with only Bats, Angel, and Snake''s armies surviving, this battle is still salvageable.'' ''How about Bear?'' ''I''m not sure. There is no telling whether our message reaches him or not, considering the Spirit God wouldn''t let it happen. Just believe in them to not make any foolish choices.'' ''Alright. We will pay them back once our Supreme King has woken up.'' Since the two began creating distance due to their speed, Lin Xingzhi finally stopped chasing and killed the rest of their soldiers instead. Like how it went with the phoenixes, many corpses of Dragons and Phoenixes were scattered in outer space. Alex and Lin Xingzhi regrouped. Their eyes intertwined for a while before they looked at each other''s bodies, worrying about their injuries. "Are you alright?" Alex asked. "Yeah. I''m fine. I have gotten enough information as well to become a more powerful God King." "Then I''m glad." Alex smiled and panted. "Are you sure you are alright? You have been fighting a thousand dragons as well as four Rank 2 Gods. Let''s take a breather, okay?" Alex shook his head. "Ask the Song Goddess, Holy God, and Palm God to advance according to our second army, destroying all the bears alongside Anna and the others. After that, they are to march toward the Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess'' territories and put an end to all this." "I understand." Lin Xingzhi nodded with a sigh. "You should rest first." "I will after handling a few more things." Alex agreed with a serious expression before asking Korzan, who was a bit far away from him. "Korzan! Are you alright?" "Yes, Your Majesty." "¡­" Before he could reply, the God of Destruction appeared in front of him with a serious expression. "Spirit God." "God of Destruction." Alex nodded. "How was your fight?" "It was great and gave me insight." "That''s good." "Anyway, I would like to thank you for coming to my rescue." "The others would''ve come if I didn''t ask them to remain in their world." "Ahaha, it''s all within your calculation." He chuckled and knew Alex''s plan had crippled the enemy. Unless they had another reinforcement from the Bats and Angel, there was no way they could fight them. "Still, I''m not sure whether they will stop just like this or not." Alex narrowed his eyes, contemplating this matter. "What do you mean?" "The seal should last for another few decades. They should also know about this, but they still feel confident even though the moment I reach God King means game over for them." "Don''t tell me¡­ You''re suspecting them to¡­" The God of Destruction widened his eyes and drew a gasp. If Alex''s predictions were correct, it would mean all the efforts they put into this war would become vain. "Yes. I''m assuming they have a way to accelerate the seal''s time limit and unseal that beast before the time limit." He nodded with a tired expression. "I chose to eliminate their soldiers instead of the God Kings for this. I know that killing the Dragon God or anyone else with the concentrated power will give us a huge advantage¡­ "Unfortunately, there are still Bats and Angel. I couldn''t afford to just send all our forces to fight them because of the probability of them appearing on the battlefield. That''s why I''m spreading all our troops while having the Holy God, Palm God, and Song Goddess to remain in their territories as our backup plan." "I see." Raiju understood Alex''s plan and had no qualms about it despite not ripping the huge benefit. After all, it would mean that he gambled everything in one instance. The moment the reinforcement appeared, they would be the ones suffering. Hence, Alex chose the safest but got the most of it. "So, what are you planning to do next?" Alex fell silent before smiling. "There is only one option, right? Get stronger of course." Raiju shook his head helplessly and turned around. "Well, I will also do that. If you need anything from me, just inform me first. I will try to help you to the best of my ability." Lin Xingzhi returned to his side after settling everything with the soldiers. "Are you going to return to Eulja?" "I''m planning to go to the Sword God''s Pavilion after this to fuse my Sword Qi and Spear Qi together before returning to Eulja to try forming my law. I have a mentor such as you and Alaya, so I think this will be an important step before breaking through to God King in the sealed space." "My Father''s?" "Yes. I''m planning to train there where I can take advantage of the time flow difference. Ten years inside are one year outside." "But can you condense your law this fast?" Lin Xingzhi frowned, knowing how hard it was to become a God King. "I''m not sure, but the enlightenment from before gave me something important to this process. I may be able to do it. No guarantee though." "Hmm¡­" She thought for a moment. "I will continue pressuring them. Is that alright?" "Yes. Just make sure you are present there. Assuming they have the same number as five thousand years ago, that means they have seven God Kings excluding the Supreme Beast. For now, we have killed the Phoenix''s pet, so we may find six more God Kings. "Meanwhile, we have four God Kings in the alliance, Alaya, God of Wrath, and three more God Kings on our side. If we add the Magic Goddess in the calculation, it means we have ten God Kings on our side. It''s still not enough." Lin Xingzhi pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Indeed. When we take another look at the condition, it''s still not enough to fight them. Luckily, we have killed all the Dragons, Phoenixes, and Bears. We may be able to exhaust them before killing them with our overwhelming numbers." "I''m not sure." Alex shook his head. "Well, I need to get stronger as soon as possible." "There is also Leoz. I hope he can become a God King soon." "Yeah. He will become a strong one." Alex agreed and continued, "For now, have our N Squads keep track of the enemy''s movement. The Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess would surely come to their allies. The same applies to the Earth God and Battle God. We will be able to get their location this time and start pressuring them." "Should we attack them as soon as we know their exact location?" "You mean to pressure them? No need. The moment they retaliate, it will become a big problem for us. As long as they don''t go anywhere, it''s fine for me." "How about inciting the universe? We can kill them by using more people." "No. The only reason I gave the information back in the Pill World was to pressure them to make this kind of move. After accomplishing it, I''m afraid there may be some spies in the mix, making the battlefield more complicated than before. I don''t want a potential threat coming on my back, so let''s wait without doing anything. Let me become a God King first." "I understand." Lin Xingzhi nodded. Suddenly, the God of Destruction appeared again and asked, "Oi, do you want to celebrate this victory with lizard and chicken meat?" Alex''s eyebrows twitched as he took a closer look at the dragon''s body. According to the Spirit Eyes, the parasite had died the moment the host died. However, Alex still had no intention to eat the meat. "Instead of eating them, I have another solution. How about we harass them by using their own people?" He smirked as if his head was filled with evil ideas. "Ho? Let me hear this brilliant idea of yours." "We should cut all these dragons and phoenixes into pieces and throw them to their planets. Don''t people like shooting stars?" "I have never thought you are this evil, Spirit God. I''m impressed and admired you at the same time. Alright. Let my people do it." Raiju had a big smirk, feeling excited just by imagining it in his head. Alex''s strategy was simple. The Phoenixes and Dragons'' bodies were strong and big, so even if they cut them into pieces, they wouldn''t easily disappear even if they needed to cross the atmosphere. If the soldiers threw them from outer space to their planet, they would surely have meteor rain for days. It would be a good spectacle to behold. And if they threw them fast enough, it would create an impact in their world. Not only would it infuriate the people inside, but they also would be able to kill them and cause mass destruction as well. "Sure. I will leave everything to you. Just make sure to not destroy them so much since we can''t afford to have them retaliate for the time being. You only need to harass them enough to lower their morale. We can wait other than that." "Alright. I''m fired up." Raiju smiled and raised both hands before leaving again. "See you later, Spirit God. You should rest your body too." Alex waved his hand and took out a pill to recover from his injury. He also gathered a bit of Divine Energy, so he could reach the Sword God Pavilion from this place. Before they returned, Alex gathered all the people again. He looked at their faces. Some were filled with sadness, some contained joy, and some spread anticipation and adoration. The first thing he did was not opening his mouth but lowering his head. "Your Majesty?!" The Spirits were stunned by Alex''s action. They thought they would hear the shout of joy for their win, but this bow¡­ They didn''t know whether they had the right to accept it or not. However, Alex continued before the silence turned into an uproar. "Before anything else, I would like to show my deepest gratitude for all of you who participated in this war, especially those who had fallen. I couldn''t show how grateful I''m to have all of you here as your Leader despite not being a Spirit. Let us take a moment to remember the warriors who once fought together with us." The Spirits couldn''t contain their tears as some of them dropped to their knees. After two minutes, Alex finally raised his head and said, "Even so, we need to keep walking forward because this war has yet to end. Stronger enemies will appear before us, and even I can''t fight them without you all. I hope that you still fight together with me." The Spirits fell silent for a second before cheering. Their shouts were in the form of praises, admirations, and so on. "Long Live His Majesty." "We will follow you until the end." "Let''s destroy the bastards that come to ruin this Universe." Alex simply smiled and raised his hand again, asking them to be silent. "Before that, we all deserve to rest. All troops, we shall return while holding our heads high!" "Uoh!" Chapter 1156: Answer After watching them go back, Alex turned around and used his Teleportation Array to send him to the Sword God Pavilion. It took him another day to reach there. As he expected, the pavilion remained the same as ever. While using his Spatial Gate to transfer him inside, Alex activated the token to tell her that he had returned here. He didn''t even bother with all the visible changes in surroundings and quickly reached the top floor with his Spatial Gate, finding Zera waiting for him right in front of the house. "You have truly surprised me, Spirit God. Not only have you reached Rank 2 God this fast, but you also want to come back to this place. For what reason do you return to this place?" She narrowed her eyes, observing Alex''s expression. Alex shook his head and explained. "I have come to gain a bit more insight from you. Also, I wish to use this place to fuse my Sword Qi and Spear Qi. Will that be alright with you?" Zera contemplated for a moment. Before agreeing to his request, Zera asked, "Has the war started?" "The big war is coming soon. I''m afraid I have less than a decade to become a strong God King." "Do you need my help?" "In a fight? No. The battle will become too horrible sooner or later and I still need to fulfill the promise I have with you and the Sword God. Besides, with more than twenty God Kings involved in this war, do you believe you have the strength to change the course of this war? I don''t mean to look down on you, but this is the fact." Zera closed her eyes and sighed. "Well, I have no words to say. Even the strongest people on this planet were only a mere Rank 3 God. I understand. I shall believe in you, Spirit God. Doing my best to assist you in this training is also considered a contribution." Alex remained silent, but a smile appeared on his face. "I have a question for you to be honest." "What is it?" "What do you think about my sword intent?" "Your Sword Intent has a different quality than the norm. For example, I can say that it''s the sharpest, but it''s not at the same time. Why? Due to your Spear Intent in the mix, your Sword Intent can be seen as the sharpest. Yet, when it also means that it''s not a true Sword Intent, so I can''t say your Sword Intent is the sharpest." "The combination is the sharpest." Alex nodded in agreement. "Yeah. The same applies to your Spear Intent. Normally, spears are used for one main purpose. Stab your opponent. However, everything changes because of your Sword Intent, it has the power of slashing your enemy. The explanation is similar to the one earlier, but what I want to take note of is your extraordinary perception that can fuse them. "Like Ice and Fire, these two normally can''t be fused. No, even cultivating both of them at the same time alone is already torturous enough to the point it can potentially ruin one''s future. Yet, the Spirit God managed to do it in the past¡­ Why? "Even I don''t know the answer. I once asked my master, the Sword God, and he told me one thing. Humans are like a bowl. Insert the Sword Intent in the form of liquid and you are full. If you pour the liquid, it means you are abandoning your Sword. "However, the Spirit God was different. Instead of pouring it half to fill it again with the spear, the Spirit God turned himself into a vessel that could absorb everything. Six Elements and Two Intents, he was a monster capable of absorbing them at the same time, giving him immeasurable power that could rival those who mastered one thing to its peak. "Everything was the result of his weakness. He turned his weakness to the strongest strength he could ever hope for. That Elementless body of his had grown into a bottomless pit that could swallow everything. In other words, that body was not a vessel anymore but was like that of a black hole." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and looked down, falling into deep thought. "I see. Unfortunately, my body is not Elementless anymore." "Well, the Spirit God has that elementless body to hold all that power. But in my perspective, your power is far stronger than the Spirit God from the very foundation. I don''t know why you can wield a Pure Fire and a Space Element alongside your two Intents. Your two elements alone are powerful enough to rival Spirit God''s six or seven elements." "What do you think the reason is?" Alex asked with a hesitant tone. Even though he knew Zera didn''t have the answer, he just felt the need to ask. "Well, that''s the answer you need to seek. Why can your body host two Elements, two Intents, and so on? What do you think the reason is?" Alex closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. It wasn''t easy to get this answer. Since he started searching for the answer to fuse both his weapon qi, Zera smiled and turned around, leaving him alone. Alex, on the contrary, began to recount his journey from the beginning, wondering if this was actually the Spirit God''s power or the power he acquired in his journey. When he first knew he had the ability to become stronger, the first thing he found was his system. There was nothing wrong with the system other than its mysterious items, such as the Elemental Orbs or Mastery Cards. But what rubbed him the wrong way was the next big thing that happened to him. After receiving the acknowledgment of his Pure Fire, his body evolved, allowing him to host two elements. In addition, both elements were very powerful on their own. This type of power had an ego, like when the Pure Fire showed its dominance over other types of fire. Yet, he never experienced such a clash in his body. At first, he thought the answer was due to his Space Element started weak, so it just gave in to the Pure Fire, but it would still appear sooner or later. That was why Alex couldn''t comprehend why he never experienced such a problem. "Wait a minute¡­ Black Hole?" Alex was stupefied as he seemed to find something absurd in his story. Although it was just a technique, he had no knowledge about the Black Hole being a Divine Technique. At least, there was no memory about it in his head despite having so much knowledge in the inheritance. The strings began to connect with each other, turning this type of mystery to another level. "Don''t tell me¡­ Don''t tell me¡­ Ahahahaha¡­" Alex facepalmed as he started feeling headache, wondering why he couldn''t notice this earlier. He realized why there were Dungeon God, Fire God, Time God, and Spirit God who stretched their hands on his current self. Everything was an arrangement. Yeah, it was an arrangement from the Spirit God. To help him connect everything and turn his body into something that could withstand all this power, the Spirit God requested the Dungeon God''s system before he died and somehow sent it to Lin Xingzhi, knowing she would use it to power up his reincarnation. The Dungeon God had instilled the Black Hole and Subjective Reality in the system automatically to shape his body to contain all the power that would come in the near future. After receiving the system, his body began to adjust itself until it became perfect when he gained the Space Element from the system. That was why Lin Xingzhi said his body seemed to have mutated because of the Space Element inside the system in the past. Everything started to connect. All the stories in his life were all for this. Knowing that the Unique Space Element and Alex''s Sword and Spear Skill were not enough to kill the Supreme Beast, the Spirit God asked the Fire God to bestow his Godly Pure Fire since his reincarnation would have the Pure Fire. The Spirit God then tweaked a bit of the Upper World where Alex would grow up, so he ended up going to Stina''s World where he met Phitrus''s soul, learning everything from him. The Time God maintained everything to make sure what he had set up for his reincarnation wouldn''t mess everything up while giving two precious rooms that had the Power of Time. Although there was no guarantee that he would reach everything, there was still Lin Xingzhi, who would do her best to give him everything he needed. As long as he provided a bit of information, Lin Xingzhi would surely inform him and have him go for it. "Oh, Spirit God, my past self. You were this awesome, and you''re expecting me to beat you?" Alex facepalmed and shook his head. Although Sherry, Alicia, Firia, or even Kyle were not part of his plan, it ended up turning nicely. Yes, he achieved all this and how he could fuse his Sword Qi and Spear Qi was his Space Element. This was the answer. When he found the answer, Alex couldn''t help but laugh. Yes, all he did was laugh. His face contained the trace of longing and hope, conveying his hidden desire. Tears of joy couldn''t help but come out after laughing so hard. He dropped to the ground and looked at the tower ceiling, which had become a sky due to the array. "Seriously, Alex, my past self¡­ There are so many things I want to talk about with you, but one thing that I really want to say right now¡­. I wish I lived in the same era as you, even though you''re my past self. I''m sure we will be a good buddy." Chapter 1157: Pure Absolute Blade Qi After getting his answer, he started channeling his Space Element to the outside while releasing both his Sword Qi and Spear Qi at the same time. He took a deep breath and used the Subjective Reality not to fool anyone else but the Sword Qi and Spear Qi. For the Sword Qi, the Spear Qi before it turned into another Sword Qi, making it feel like it was looking itself in the mirror. The same applied to the Spear Qi, so both of them thought they only needed to fuse together since they were the same. When the two touched each other, a clash occurred because of the two different attributes. However, Alex managed to completely fool them. If the Sword QI were a human, he would have been confused to see himself in the mirror. He would then try to reach the Sword Qi and shake his body, finding that the other half did the same thing. In the end, the Sword Qi didn''t punch or do anything other than trying to fuse to the other guy. This concept also helped him mellow down the Spear Qi, advancing the Sword Qi''s advance as they slowly fused together. The Space Element and Absolute Blade Intent began to act like that of a cupid, trying to mend the "relationship" of these two. The Absolute Blade Intent specifically used its sharp intent to permeate the entire process with the fusion of the two, making them know what it felt like to fuse. Meanwhile, the Space Element acted as a needle that stitched those two, preventing them from falling apart. Alex also used the Space Element to help him absorb the fused Qi. When Zera came out of her house again and found Alex had started creating this new powerful energy, she couldn''t help but shake her head. "It seems the universe will be in his palm for the next tens of thousands of years. Well, it''s not like he is an evil person¡­ He is only an overprotective one. "It will depend on the people to take this matter. If they don''t like it because their pride is smeared when the Spirit God doesn''t even do anything, it''s their fault for being stupid. Just like Master said, Spirit God is a sleeping tiger, don''t expect to say that it''s a misunderstanding when you have been warned to not step on the tiger''s tail." Zera facepalmed and sighed. "Well, another Sword God will be born within one thousand years or so. After fulfilling my promise to Master, I will just travel to many worlds since I haven''t been able to. Spirit God¡­ May fortune be with you." Alex, on the contrary, still maintained his focus on his Qi. Every time a clash occurred, Alex quickly sent his Divine Energy to suppress it before harmonizing them with his Absolute Blade Intent. The process could be said to be slow, but considering this was something that only the previous Spirit God ever achieved, this process could be seen as fast. Alex also faced another problem. It was the amount of Divine Energy that started depleting. Sensing the fluctuation of the Spiritual Energy in the area, Zera came out of her house and felt that Alex took too much Divine Energy that he had converted from the Spiritual Energy for the past few years. Since it would be bad if he found it lacking, Zera sat on the ground and poured all Spirit Crystals she had and began converting the Spiritual Energy contained in them to Divine Energy to help Alex. This process continued for weeks. ¡­ Meanwhile, on the Bear''s Territory, the Earth God truly didn''t know what to do anymore. Next to him was the Battle God, furrowing his eyebrows in this hopeless situation. Their world had been surrounded by six God Kings, three from Eulja and the other three were the Holy God, Palm God, and Song Goddess. "What are we going to do, Master?" the Battle God asked while gritting his teeth. "We are going to escape. We don''t have any information from the Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess. I don''t even know whether they have died or not. Hence, it''s better we go to our safest rendezvous point." "Where is that?" "Bats." The Earth God''s expression turned serious. "!!!" The Battle God never expected him to go there. Yet, when they saw the whole situation, he thought it was normal. "Are we going to break through from this place?" "Yes. We will use all the people here to pave the way for us." Earth God''s expression was cold and ruthless. There wasn''t a single thought in his mind believing that using all of his people was bad. "¡­" The Battle God contemplated for a moment and nodded. "Alright. Let''s go then." Having no other way out, he chose to believe in the Earth God''s Choice. Well, he couldn''t disobey his master, so there was no point in arguing with him. And since they were going to the Bats, they would have so many soldiers to spend since the Bats kept reproducing like crazy. After reaching an agreement, the two nodded at each other as the Earth God began to move all the people in this world to attack Eulja in one direction, trying to escape with their strength. Even if they were injured in this battle, they would only need some rest. It might take a few years, but they couldn''t afford to die just yet. ¡­ They were not the only ones facing such a troublesome situation. The Dragon God and the Phoenix Goddess finally arrived at the Angel territory. Obviously, what they got was a cold gaze from the Angel since they couldn''t even hold the fort. The Angel, who was known to be the God of Virtue, narrowed his eyes and looked at them. His silver hair fluttered due to the little amount of aura he naturally released due to this anger. "You all are useless." The Angel snorted and said, "You couldn''t even handle the Spirit God¡­" The Dragon God felt his pride had been stepped upon and shouted. "Do you think you can do something about this? Let me tell you one thing. Do you think you are in charge of everything?" "I''m not, but I''m also not foolish enough to fail this miserably." "You should say that after meeting the Spirit God in person. His technique¡­ It''s even stronger than the past him. I''m afraid our King will face trouble handling him." The Angel frowned and walked forward with a cold expression. "You must be coming here because you have failed and all of your people have gotten butchered by the Spirit God." The Dragon God and Phoenix Goddess remained silent, but it already gave enough explanation to the Angel. The latter simply closed his eyes, pondering how to solve this matter. After a while, he only sighed for a long time. "It seems we can''t afford to save everything and let our King stay in that state for too long. The Spirit God will become unstoppable before we know it." "You¡­ Why do you sound so confident you can break the seal? That seal is the combination between Space and Time along with all the life force of the Spirit God. It''s impossible to break." The Phoenix Goddess tried to get information from her own colleague. "This is why our King didn''t give you any information, Phoenix. You, Snake, and Bears were too foolish to even know this. The whole plan will be ruined, so he only leaves this plan for me, Dragon, and Bats. Unfortunately, even the Dragon is useless to face the Spirit God." The Angel shook his head helplessly. "What did you say?!" "I literally conveyed our King''s intention." The Angel snorted and shrugged his shoulders. "This is why the Dragon God keeps an eye on you while the Bats and I are hiding. The Bear seems to be smarter than the previous one, so I let him deal with the other bear along with all this farce until he calls you." "Enough, Angel. If you''re only planning to mock her, I will rip that mouth of yours. I''m not sympathizing with her or something¡­ I just want to know the real plan to see what we can do even in this situation." The Dragon God stopped him with a serious expression. "My King''s words will come true. Alexander Sirius will seriously win this war if he is not present in the future. And look at us now¡­ Hence, my King left me for one last job. I will fulfill this job with my pet. You two are to call the Bats to migrate here because we can''t afford to be surrounded since the Spirit God must have followed you from behind, knowing about our location. "We need the Bats to handle the overall situation, so yeah, I''m sure that the Bats will move to a planet around us. How about the Earth God and Battle God? Are they still alive?" The Phoenix Goddess and the Dragon God exchanged looks with a dumbfounded expression. The Dragon God could only shake his head and explain. "We''re not sure. Because of the encirclement, I''m afraid that they are in the worst-case scenario. If I were them, I would go to the Bats to get a bigger reinforcement. That way, the Spirit God won''t dare to touch them just yet while maintaining the status quo with us." The Angel thought for a moment and nodded. "Alright. You go to the Bats and tell them to come here to prepare for the last war. I need a few more years to release our King''s seal. If we can hold this long, the victory will be ours." The Dragon God agreed without hesitation. Since they had this kind of loss, they truly had no more dignity in front of the Angel. Rather than waiting for their deaths, they should get going already. "I understand. We will depart right now." The Dragon God turned around and brought the Phoenix Goddess to leave the planet with the help of the Angel''s Teleportation Formation that sent them so far away. Meanwhile, Alex, in the Sword God Pavilion, gradually opened his eyes after finishing his training. It had been nine months since he got his answer. The Sword Qi and the Spear Qi had fused completely, turning it into a stronger form. "I will name this like my Absolute Blade Divine Intent¡­ From now on, this powerful qi is called Pure Absolute Blade Qi." A smile appeared on his face as he managed to complete the reason he came here. The Blade Qi was sharp like that of a sword but precise like his spear''s intent. Coating his right hand with this new Qi, Alex raised it to see the appearance with his Spirit Eyes. There wasn''t any different color among them, meaning that the Spear Qi fused perfectly with the Sword Qi. Suddenly, a female voice resounded behind him, saying, "Don''t release that energy in this tower please¡­ It won''t hold. That Qi of yours is stronger than my imagination. Pure Absolute Blade Qi is it¡­ Not a good name, but not a bad name either." Alex nodded with a smile. "I know. I''m truly grateful to be allowed here. You even gave me the biggest clue to my current problem." "Ahaha, I didn''t do anything. Even without me saying what my Lord said in the past, you would have done it too, albeit in a different way." "Well, I''m going to prepare you the best disciple to be the next Sword God after this war is over. I will make sure to spend one year fully going around this world and checking their talent as well as personality." Alex promised her again. "Spirit God''s promise is worth a planet." "Haha." Alex laughed and looked at the ceiling. "I think it''s time for me to go back to Eulja." "I understand. Have a safe trip." Alex waved his hand and tossed a Space Ring to Zera before using his Spatial Gate to escape from this place. "There are ten Billion Spirit Crystals there. Thank you for using your own Spirit Crystals and time to supply more Divine Energy for me. Take care of yourself, okay? I will be back soon." Chapter 1158: Law "It seems you have succeeded in fusing the two¡­" said Lin Xingzhi while crossing her arms. She looked happy to know that Alex was one step away from the God King Stage. "Yeah. All I need right now is to form my Law. I am planning to stay here for three years to understand my Law before beginning to stir it up to reach God King Stage in your father''s sealed space." Alex nodded with a serious expression. "That''s good." Lin Xingzhi smiled and hugged him. "Welcome back." "Yeah. I''m back. Let me greet the others first before continuing my practice." She nodded and released him before helping him call the others. The day passed just like that, meeting each other to rest a bit of his tiredness. The next day, Alex proceeded to form his own law with caution. He wanted to grasp the Law by using the knowledge he''d got from the previous enlightenment. It was a precious incident that became one of the rarest ones, especially since the enlightenment itself was regarding the number one power in the Universe, the Law. ''What is Law? Does it have a form? What is the relation between Law and its User? Will they become a tool like that of a sword? Will they become a partner and fight together with their master? Will they turn into a form that only the user can see?'' Alex kept thinking about these questions along with many others regarding Law in his practice. Even Lin Xingzhi didn''t dare to advise him that much since her knowledge wasn''t on par with Alaya. At the same time, she knew that the Law could only be grasped by the person itself. Hence, she would rather keep her silent instead of dictating or teaching the Law to Alex. There was a thought of calling Alaya to get advice, but she decided to put that thought away for now. After one year of perceiving the Law, Alex suddenly came out of his room, meeting Lin Xingzhi, who seemed to be worried about his well-being. "Alex!" "Ah, hi." Alex''s face looked pale. "This is the first time I''m using my brain for a whole year without resting. To think Law is this hard¡­ Well, if a muscle brain like the Palm God can do it, I should be able to do it too¡­" "How is your progress?" Lin Xingzhi asked carefully as if telling him not to say too much. "I just want to know your condition. If two people have the same knowledge about Law, their understanding will clash. The winner will become a God King while the loser will be reduced to Rank 2 God¡­" Alex nodded in understanding before making a tired smile. "I know. Don''t worry. For now, I think I make a little progress? But in this case, I''m afraid we will be too late. I can only reach God King Stage in one hundred years. That''s something I can''t afford. Do you know any advice?" "I am not too sure. My knowledge isn''t that deep regarding Law even though I''m one of the strongest God Kings¡­ You can see the condition of the current God Kings, right?" Lin Xingzhi looked down as she was disappointed in herself. "No need to beat yourself for something like this." Alex smiled before remembering a certain person. "That''s right. Alaya is in Eulja, right? Can you call her for me along with the other God Kings? I just want to see what kind of view you have for your Law. It''s not about your Law itself of course. I think that''s fine to be told to others, right?" Lin Xingzhi pondered for a moment before agreeing to his request. "I understand. The topic itself is not forbidden, but we will see whether Alaya gives us a warning or not. You should walk around first to refresh your mind. I will call you when I have gathered them." "Alright. Thanks." Lin Xingzhi then went outside, visiting all the God Kings in Eulja. A few minutes later. While Alex went around, Anna, Jeanne, and some others had arrived in the garden, wondering about Alex''s improvement. Since some of them were God Kings, they wanted to see what kind of Law he had. After all, they had grown more accustomed to the Law to the point they could somehow feel the Law around them. For example, Korzan seemed to understand the Law of Magma. Although it wasn''t strong enough to allow him to break through to the God King Stage, it was the most amazing one among the Spirits¡­ As one would expect from the strongest Rank 2 God in Eulja. "Queen Anna, what do you think Master''s Law is? Now that I have gotten good enough, I''m curious to see the different types of Law," said Jeanne while furrowing her eyebrows, feeling pretty eager to meet Alex. "I am not sure." Anna shook her head and looked at Jeanne. "I can feel that your Law is a kind of the one attracting the Element Energy around you, right?" "Yes. Because my understanding has increased, I have formed a small Law inside my body. Its only purpose is to attract the nearby Lightning Element to my body to increase my strength continuously." Jeanne admitted. "Well, we are more or less the same type. I''m the one that attracts elements as well, specifically my Dark Element and its energy." Anna contemplated for a moment. "That''s right. I''m wondering what type of Law you have, God of Wrath? It''s not a problem to share this, right?" Seeing Alaya nod her head, Marcus decided to explain it to them. "I''m the Wrath itself or you can say it''s the personification of anger. It does affect the surroundings, turning their emotion or cause a chaotic reaction because of this anger, but the effect will be amplified if it''s to my own body. Well, I am currently working on how to balance both of them. If I can do that, I am sure I can handle a single God King from their side alone." Alaya nodded in agreement, feeling proud that she managed to train this God King. She then glanced at Leoz and asked, "So, when are you going to do it, Leoz?" "Ahaha, I''m trying." Leoz scratched the back of his head. "I promise to become a God King soon." "Yeah, yeah. I''m going to believe you." Alaya shrugged before explaining. "Actually, there are two different things you need to consider to become a God King. The first thing will be your Law. What kind of Law do you wish to achieve? This is a simple solution to some God Kings. "For example, you two¡­ Since your element is fixed and you have been relying on it for a long time, your opinion will be leaning to that particular element to your Law. However, there are different types like me and this Marcus here. "Marcus himself is related to his character. Because he is angry all the time¡­ Even though he doesn''t show it, the thought itself influences him for a long time and eventually turns him into one itself. "Meanwhile, my Life and Death Law is a combination of my experience, existence, and understanding. My Element is Light and Dark, but I didn''t become a Light and Dark Goddess¡­ Why? The elements are suppressed by those three. "Understanding the meaning of Life and Death turns into a belief of mine. My existence has also slowly turned into one that is between Life and Death, so you can say I''m half alive at this point. That''s why I can fake my own death for thousands of years. Last but not least, my experience¡­ Have you experienced dying and reincarnating a few times? I have. My understanding about Life and Death turns everything into my power and gradually wields that power myself." Alaya explained with a sad smile. The others could feel the hardship she had gone through in her younger days. Changing the topic, she continued her explanation. "The second thing is about the type of law. There are limitless types of Law¡­ What do you think Law is?" The others narrowed their eyes and looked down. This was a question they never asked themselves, so they ended up shaking their heads in disappointment. "Law is a wish. What is your wish when you wield that Law? Your wish will affect your surroundings, whether it''s the people around you, the environment, or even the Universe itself. Look at yourself, you have been manipulating the energy around you¡­ I don''t know if the Spirit has a similar vision, but you all are focused on Manipulation¡­ Element Manipulation. "Your Law is to govern the Element around you. Well, you are still greenhorns, so I''m going to take another man as an example¡­ Hmm, who should I choose¡­" Alaya thought for a moment and remembered a certain person. "That''s right. Let''s say it''s Phitrus. His Godly Pure Fire has allowed him to make Fire Element Users kneel, but his Law has the ability to govern the flame. "In other words, he can force the people who have Fire Elements in their bodies to explode¡­ Many had suffered from that and no one dared to fight him anymore. His wish to influence the flame has controlled all the Fire Energy to do something like this. This is the closest type to you three. "We can see Lin Xingzhi. It''s a different type of Manipulation. Instead of people, she aims at the Universe itself, allowing her to control the Element Energy as a part of Nature. Of course, each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, so I''m not saying Lin Xingzhi is inferior to Phitrus, but her level of control is lacking currently. "As for me¡­ My wish is to govern the Samsara. I don''t know if you have heard about it, but those who have been put in my Life and Death Coffin will be in a trial where their future will be judged. They can be reincarnated, punished in "Hell", or simply erased from this Universe. This is my type. That Life and Death Coffin is my own personification that has a tangible form, unlike Marcus. That''s how it is, I hope you understand a bit more about Law." "Thank you for your lesson." This should be showing gratitude for such an important lesson, but the one who said it wasn''t among them. Even Alaya widened her eyes as she turned around, finding the real figure who said it, accompanied by Lin Xingzhi. "Well, I''m planning to exchange some information about Law, but this is truly great." Alex made a big smile as he couldn''t help but hug Alaya, raising her to the sky since her figure was even smaller than Jeanne. "What are you doing, Spirit God? Release me right now. Five thousand years ago, everyone who treated me like a child would be dead the next day!" Alaya struggled to break free, but Alex held her tightly, expressing his gratitude. "Alright, alright. I know you''re happy, but can you release me? Pretty please." "Hahaha¡­ After listening to you, I was like¡­ so that''s how it is¡­ Law is like air. It''s there but can''t be seen. It keeps us alive but can only be sensed. It affects our daily life in a way we don''t even know about. In other words, I have been thinking it wrong this whole time. The essence of my Law is how everything it''s related to others. "Unlike Xingzhi''s Nature Law, where it can take a form in the real world such as the Spiritual Energy or even the elements. Unlike God of Wrath''s personification of a character¡­ My Law is not that." Alex put her down, smirked and turned around. "I''m leaving right now." "What?!" Lin Xingzhi and the others were baffled by his sudden burst and decision, but they knew everything would be alright. Lin Xingzhi believed that Alex had received another enlightenment. The only thing they needed to do was to believe in him. Alaya only shook her head and said while trying to calm down. "It seems he has found the perfect Law for him. I mean, the Law itself has been found long ago. This time, it''s the type." "Yeah." "I wonder what his Law is¡­" Chapter 1159: Bad Situation In a white-colored space without anything in it, Alex sat down on the floor with his eyes closed. This was the special space his father-in-law had prepared for him and he planned to use the best of it to reach God King. After listening to Alaya, he gained another form of understanding about his own Law. Unlike those he had seen so far, his ability itself was too powerful to the point they could be considered a trademark of himself. If he received the Space Law, he would be able to gain in-depth knowledge about Space Element and control them like the previous Space God known as Dungeon God. If he were to master his Fire Element, he would become another Phitrus. The same applied to his Sword and Spear. But unlike the Spirit God, he didn''t have all six elements or could be considered seven elements. Instead, he only had two powerful elements like this. In other words, if he were to take one identity, he needed to let it go to the others. That wasn''t what he wanted because his past self had predicted that he would lose without all this power. Even he had witnessed what kind of monstrous strength did the beast possess in his inherited memory. However, getting a connection between all his power was easier said than done. Even though he had already chosen his Law, he couldn''t comprehend more of it because he found one major problem. There was no connection between his Law to his power as well as the world. This Law might be the one that made the biggest impact in his life. And he believed he possessed it this entire time. It was just¡­ He truly needed to do it to the extreme. At the same time, he had been taking care of his karma this whole time, not to make it turn that bad. Unfortunately, the journey didn''t sail smoothly. After knowing his Law, he doubted himself whether this could become his trademark. This Law was related to his biggest secret, the System. Then he realized this was the best Law he could get because he realized there was no way that someone actually stopped his reincarnation for a while. He figured out that he had been reincarnating this whole time, but only him five thousand years later would finally carry on the hope that the Spirit God left it to this Universe. He received the Law and tried to figure it out, only to find him stuck in the hole without any help on how to figure things out. It turned out he had been thinking fundamentally wrong this whole time. He had been focusing on how to have an impact on his life and questioned it. Instead of doing something useless, he better changed the topic to the type of Law. His wish? Alex thought of it for a long time. Although he was a selfish person, he still thought about unrelated people in his life and how his actions would influence them. Other than people, he needed to consider the impact on the environment, the world, and the Universe. But more importantly, he needed to relate all those to his abilities. The solution suddenly struck his heart when Alaya explained this matter. He had a wish to protect his loved one by using his power. He had another wish that he didn''t need to kill indiscriminately. He also wished that his power didn''t influence the Universe too much because this one was unprecedented. Still, his biggest wish was to have a quiet life in Eulja without needing to take arms again. To do that, he combined all his power into one and also dispersed their purposes at the same time. He bound his Space Element to his Law in order to protect this Universe from getting influenced by this overwhelming power. His Law and Space Element would become the bridge to connect both his power and this Universe. Just like Lin Xingzhi''s ability to manipulate the energy to create Elemental Disturbances, he could use his Space Element to do the same thing regarding his Law. With this power, he managed to fulfill one of his wishes. Whether it was intentional or unintentional, this power influenced his ability to create an Array as well. It would be another power up for him. Then, the Law approached his Sun God Fire. This had become the personality of his that came to light like God of Wrath. This power would influence him and his surroundings to create an almighty power that would be able to protect his loved one or even unrelated people. His Sun God Fire and Law turned into another bridge between him and people. The God of Wrath could channel that anger of his to influence people''s emotions. This could be called Blessing for normal people. The same applied to his Sun God Fire. That power would connect him and allow him to channel his own Law to other people. This was the relationship he thought about. This way, he didn''t use his hand just to spill more blood but also increased the people around him related or unrelated. At the same time, this power could influence his Alchemy as well in a good way. The Sun God Fire might become the best fire in the universe, especially for the Alchemist. Last but not least, his Sword and Spear became his weapons to fulfill his first wish to protect his loved one and slew his enemies. When he processed this in his training, it became something even more amazing than his imagination. In the middle of the training, he couldn''t help but smile, waking up for a few seconds. "The Foundation has been established. I''m going to start the next process in consolidating the Law and increasing my power and understanding. "My cultivation seems to be increasing exponentially as well¡­ Maybe this is the reason why no one can reach God King Stage¡­ In order to increase their cultivation, they need to comprehend Law as the Universe will give you benefit in the form of cultivation. "Anyway, I need to finish this as soon as possible because I''m sure the enemies won''t stay silent for too long." Alex continued studying this Law as his cultivation began increasing as if the Universe acknowledged this Law of his. Unfortunately, they were in a time of war. There was no way they could predict what could happen in the near future. In Eulja, Korzan visited Lin Xingzhi with a grim expression while holding a paper. "Korzan? Something big happens?" "Yes. As you know, we have stationed our army between two worlds, preparing to strike them at any moment possible. However, our troops noticed a sudden huge movement." "And that is?" Lin Xingzhi stood up, preparing to leave. "The Bats and the Bear are moving toward Angel''s territories. We''re assuming that they are going to regroup together. We have been stationing Anna and Jeanne there to watch out for their movements. There are also many other God Kings, including the newest ally, Magic Goddess, and they all said the same thing. They seem to be preparing for a huge war. What are we going to do now?" "I''m going to head to the battlefield as well. How about Leoz?" "He is still a Rank 2 God." "Anyway, tell him to head to the battlefield as soon as he reaches God King Stage together with Alaya and Marcus. Anya and Aria will keep making our battle plans according to the situation. Other than that, I want Rose to replace my position here to keep track of Alex''s situation. Tell all our allies to move to the battlefield as well with all their force because once we are caught off guard, we will lose this battle." "Understood." Lin Xingzhi then stood up. "Call Zark¡­ We are going there right now. All Elemental Gods and Five Guardians to head to the battlefield right now." "Yes." Korzan suddenly looked down, wondering what he should tell her about this. "Is there something wrong?" Lin Xingzhi asked. Korzan clenched his teeth and sighed. "I''m afraid. We won''t be able to win against them." "Why?" Lin Xingzhi obviously didn''t understand this statement since everything looked amazing. But at the same time, she realized they didn''t have Alex in this war. "Don''t tell me¡­" "According to our scouts, there are ten God Kings coming out of the planet. In other words, there are two Bears and eight Bats." "What?!" Lin Xingzhi gasped and widened her eyes. "They have ten God Kings from there?" "There is a possibility of the Dragon having a pet too, so we should expect the worst." "How about their armies?" "Luckily, their numbers are a third of our numbers. As long as we can pressure them with our number, we will be able to buy some time since they won''t be able to destroy us that easily. However, in the end, our only choice may be retreating¡­" "No. We can''t afford to do that because it means they are going to have an aggressive invasion, creating chaos everywhere. Even Eulja might disappear the next day." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I will be there to handle the situation until Alex returns." Korzan grasped his hand. "May fortune be with you¡­ I shall go there after finishing all the tasks needed to be done here." ¡­ Finally, a few months later, Alex gradually opened his eyes with a grim expression. His strength had finally reached the God King Stage. "I have become a God King." Alex smiled and raised his hand, feeling amazing. He never thought that he would feel connected to the Universe through the Law like this. "No wonder only a small portion of people can reach this stage¡­" [Ah, Master. I''m glad that you have woken up right now. This is Rose.] "Rose?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Where is Xingzhi?" [She is on the battlefield. Just an hour ago, the war finally started. Our side is overwhelmed. Despite having so many people, we only have ten God Kings. Meanwhile, our enemies have fifteen God Kings."] "Ten?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows. "Someone is missing?" [Miss Alaya can''t use the technique again, so she can''t participate in this fight. In other words, God of Wrath, Sister Xingzhi, God of Destruction, and Magic Goddess need to take care of two God Kings by themselves with the help of numerous soldiers. Because the combined armies are far too big compared to the enemy, we have thirty Rank 2 Gods holding back the Rank 1 God. Right now, they are fine, but they are pretty injured at this point. At this rate, someone will die in another hour. We need Master there.] "Alright. I''m going to go there right now. This place is not that far from the battlefield¡­ With my current power, I can reach that place within fifteen minutes. Tell everyone not to give up and maintain their status." Alex nodded. [I''m glad. What do you think about this war, Master?] "We will win." Alex smiled and said, "Anyway, I have one thing to do before going there." Without waiting for an answer, he quickly opened his system. [Gacha Point: 236743] [Gacha Coin: 996] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 2,431,978,124] "That''s great. I can still open Gacha Coin three times¡­ Lucky." [This is not the time for that!] Chapter 1160: Lucky [This is not the time for that!] "No, no. It''s because we are in this situation that I need to open those three. Do you know how to do it? If not, quickly ask Lin Xingzhi about it and tell her I''m on my way," said Alex while creating a Teleportation Array to go out of this space. Since this was her master''s request, Rose ended up asking Lin Xingzhi. After several minutes, Alex finally got an answer. [Do you wish to exchange all the Gacha Points to Gacha Coin?] "Yes," answered Alex without hesitation. [Gacha Point: 43] [Gacha Coin: 3363] [Spirit Crystal Harvested: 2,431,978,124] "Use all three coins to open the Gacha." [Confirming.] "Yes." [Processing.] [Fire Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Space Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Space Elemental Orb Acquired.] [Wait, what?! How can Master acquire all these three?] "Haha, I''m pretty lucky, no?" Alex laughed while taking out his sword and spear. He used the Space Elemental Orb to strengthen his sword while the other two on his spear. This way, both of them had become perfect for him to wield. Still, Rose couldn''t comprehend this type of luck. No matter his luck of the day, there was a time that someone lucky was too lucky unless¡­ [Master... Don''t tell me¡­ You have been studying your Law to reach God King Stage and your Law is¡­] Alex laughed again and asked with a smile. "It suits me perfectly, right?" ¡­ Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the moment Lin Xingzhi received the message that Alex was coming while knowing he had successfully reached God King Stage, she felt blissful and gained hope again. Despite facing Dragon God and his pet at the same time that came out of nowhere, she managed to hold on. Her body was filled with injuries, but it was still manageable because it hadn''t decreased her performance yet. However, it was different for the other guys and the armies. Their morale had become pretty low because the God Kings kept slaughtering their armies one by one, slowly decreasing the gap between their force. When all hopes were about to lose, Lin Xingzhi shouted. "I know this is too much to ask, but I need everyone to still hold the hope! The Spirit God has officially become a God King and is on the way. Unfortunately, he still needs one hour to arrive. As long as we can hold on until then, we will be able to overturn this war." All the God Kings and soldiers who heard it widened their eyes. Even the enemies couldn''t help but panic because they knew how atrocious the Spirit God was to the opponent of the same levels. The Dragon God noticed it as well as he shouted. "One hour?! I can wipe all of you out within one hour. I wonder what kind of face he will make when he finds all your corpses? Hahahaha!" The shout truly fought against their morale, but Lin Xingzhi had no choice other than to lie. The moment they knew about Alex''s real time arrival, they would release all their strength and do all kinds of reckless things to kill them. That wasn''t something she wanted to see. Hence, she deliberately increased the length four times, saying it in an hour even though Alex would arrive fifteen minutes later. All this to buy a bit more time since the other parties would surely like to see some despair. "No! I will make all of you fall into despair first before killing you. Hahahahaha!" The Dragon continuously laughed to lower their morale. However, all people from Eulja took Lin Xingzhi''s words seriously, fully knowing Alex''s personality. "Kill them!" "No need to care about what happens to us!" "Our King will arrive no matter the result. It''s our time to show our might!" "All Eulja''s Soldiers, Attack!" What they didn''t know was the mentality of Alex''s soldiers. They had been shaped so much during the past few thousand years, especially when the past Spirit God was still alive. All of them knew Alex couldn''t bear to see his people dying. Even when they were surrounded by so many Divine Worlds, Alex would become even more ferocious. No matter how tattered his body was, he kept challenging the enemies, holding on to the little willpower he had left to drive off the enemies. That was why the people from Eulja knew Alex would become a demon the moment he entered this battlefield. For such a person, they didn''t mind sacrificing their lives, knowing their families in Eulja would be protected by him. "Lay down your life. We are going to fight alongside our King!" "That''s right. Our King has returned. It''s a shame if we show our back to our enemies." "Kill them! It''s time for Eulja''s fang to be shown again to this Universe!" "With our Spirit God reaching God King Stage, everyone shall bow before us!" "Kill!" Eulja''s morale turned into madness instead. And it was all only due to his name. Seeing this sudden eruption, even the other God King''s armies started getting their morale back since Eulja that had multiple God Kings didn''t give up yet. "Let''s go!" "Follow Eulja." "Fight back!" "We also want to kill these bastards!" All armies began to push back as they became fearless. Lin Xingzhi smirked and said, "It''s useless, Dragon God. You don''t know anything about our morale. You can''t be compared to him." "Hmph! Morale? I don''t care. After thirty minutes, you will realize you are in a perilous situation. At that time, you all will start falling into despair." "Think what you want¡­ My Eulja is better than your imagination." She smirked and summoned two more Elemental Disturbances. She had gotten enough morale to last them fifteen minutes. Even if the Dragon God and the other God Kings tried to push them back while releasing all of their strength, they wouldn''t be able to extinguish them because all of the soldiers were prepared to die. On another side of the battlefield, the God of Destruction faced off against the Phoenix Goddess as well as Battle God. The Phoenix Goddess wanted to fight him because of their previous fight. "It''s time to settle this, Phoenix Goddess." He smirked and released all his power. "Do you think you can?" She snorted and said, "It''s impossible to wait for your Spirit God. He is too late. At the same time, even if you try to escape from here, all of your force will suffer. Now you will understand how I and the others felt when you chased us." "Hahaha! Say whatever you want. I can still hold you two back for another three hours." He then jumped forward with the Power of Destruction covering his fist. He sent a punch while saying, "No need to talk anymore. I am not the kind of person who likes to buy time this way." "Hmph! Arrogant bastard." The Phoenix Goddess flapped her wings and flew toward him. The clash between fire and destruction started again with an additional power of Fighting Intent from the Battle God. Boom. ¡­ Ten minutes later, after a loud explosion, the God of Destruction made a distance again while taking a few deep breaths, assessing their situation. Although the armies had been holding well, their number had gotten reduced a bit more than he expected and it would turn worse sooner or later. He needed to think of another way to overturn the situation, albeit the one and only solution appeared right on top of the Phoenix Goddess. Yes, Alex''s figure appeared right behind the Phoenix Goddess, sending chills down her spine. She gulped down and turned around, trying to do something even though she knew her death was coming. Alex, on the other hand, raised his sword, trying to cut her while saying, "Oh, I''m lucky to be teleported right at this position." "Spirit God!" Phoenix Goddess screamed because of the surprise as well as the hatred. She also tried to use her power to block Alex''s attack, but Alex quickly activated his Sun God Fire to suppress her flame. "Sh*t! Curse you." Trying to turn back to human form to avoid him, Alex kicked the Phoenix Goddess on the stomach, blowing her away to the nearby Lower World. He then followed her before she could escape with eight different powers covering his Sword. "!!!" The Phoenix Goddess widened her eyes but couldn''t block this because her strength was suppressed. Escaping was also not an option because Alex already arrived with his Space Element, slashing his sword down. "Eight Purities Slash!" The fire flared up, creating a massive explosion that alarmed the entire battlefield. At the same time, the Space Element began to bend the planet, bending it to the inside. His Absolute Blade Intent, Divine Energy, Soul, and Blade Qi went through the planet. The Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown enhanced the overall slash, while the Life and Death Energy sent a death threat to the Phoenix Goddess. Instead of the Fire Disturbance, he channeled his Law in this slash, resulting in him using Eight Purities Slash. However, all this was enough because he just split the Phoenix Goddess into two, but that wasn''t all. His slash created a series of reactions and sent enough energy to create a loud explosion. People were wondering what kind of explosion it was, but they soon dropped their jaws as soon as the planet behind the Phoenix Goddess was split into two. The God of Destruction twitched his eyebrows since he was her opponent but also shook his head helplessly. "This is his strength after reaching God King? How do I even compete with this monster? I should forget about having a spar with him." Lin Xingzhi couldn''t help but smile while muttering. "The reaper has come to take all your lives." "Seriously? This kind of strength¡­ Haiz¡­ That Palm God has truly struck gold. I wonder if I should reeducate my daughter to seduce him as well¡­" The Holy God let out a long sigh. "Marrying a devil. Haiz, I need to stand on my belief." The Song Goddess made a big grin as she couldn''t help but shed tears. "This is it¡­ The strongest God King, His Majesty, Spirit God." Magic Goddess, who was new to this, scratched the back of her head while muttering, "I am so lucky to get on his good side to the point it''s a business deal¡­ I should focus on this more." Last but not least, Alaya, who couldn''t participate in this war yet and tried to stop the last God King with Korzan and the other Rank 2 Gods, chuckled. "What an entrance¡­" Not just them, it turned out there was another person that wanted to celebrate his entrance. It was none other than his own disciple, Rose. After realizing how otherworldly Alex''s luck was, she instantly understood Alex''s Law along with his proper title. Although it would be hidden under his formal title, Spirit God, she still knew that her master was the best. Like how he broke the system with his ridiculous Law earlier to get all the things he needed, Alex used that luck to arrive right in front of the easiest opponent for him even though he only teleported randomly. [Hahaha. All those guys are going to be dead soon. We have the ultimate God of Fortune here!] Chapter 1161: Spirit God Vs Dragon God The entire battlefield was stunned when they saw a planet just got cut cleanly into half. They then found a huge fox made of fire coming from a single individual. The moment the people from Eulja saw his figure, they couldn''t help but cheer. "Uoh!" All God Kings on the battlefield shivered, especially the one strategizing for the enemy, the Angel. He never thought that the Spirit God would appear with this timing. As for those who came from other God King territories, they simply couldn''t believe what they just saw earlier. They didn''t even know whether their God King could cut a planet in one strike, but they knew the ancient God Kings could do something like that. Of course, it only measured up to those with the highest power like the Sword God or the Spirit God. And the same Spirit God just showed them the information was true. Although it required a huge amount of Divine Energy, Alex never thought of it as unimportant. There was one main reason. The current armies didn''t have enough morale even though Lin Xingzhi and the others had raised it a bit. He let them witness that this war was in their bag. After all, he just killed the Phoenix in one slash. All of them couldn''t help but cheer together with those from Eulja. "We are going to win this." "With the Spirit God here, we have nothing to fear." "Let''s push them back." To respond to their excitement, Alex smiled and shouted out loud, amplified by his Divine Energy so everyone could hear. "My people and my allies, are you ready? We shall turn around the situation and kill all of them! Drive all those invaders and traitors to hell!" "Uoh!" "Kill them." Many shouts echoed as those who were injured thought they could still move to push them back one more time. Those who were still full of energy felt the need to release everything they had at this moment. Alex smiled and pointed at the Battle God. "Ask someone to replace you, God of Destruction. Help the Magic Goddess instead." "Sure thing!" He smirked and cracked his hand. "But I''m not going to follow your order since I have something better to do." The God of Destruction suddenly disappeared. The Battle God was taken aback because he was too focused on the Spirit God and instinctively raised both hands to the left side to block something coming. It turned out Raiju''s fist hit him, blowing him away toward the Magic Goddess as Raiju followed him. "!!!" The Magic Goddess was surprised to see another one coming, but then she heard the God of Destruction saying, "Haha, Magic Goddess, how about we collaborate? This will be two versus three. I''m sure we can do it¡­" The Magic Goddess smiled before narrowing her eyes. "Sure thing." Alex shook his head helplessly and let him do whatever he wanted since it wouldn''t affect them so much. He then went toward Lin Xingzhi, who had been suppressed by the Dragon God and his pet. "Do the same thing as the God of Destruction. I will handle the Dragon God. You go help Marcus." Alex commanded as the situation would slightly turn better at this point. Lin Xingzhi nodded and created Space and Light Disturbances, combining them together. The moment she released it, the light turned into a powerful laser that was capable of bending space. The Dragon God opened his mouth to shoot it down together with his pet. When the blue freezing breath flew toward the laser, Alex appeared between them. A giant golden lotus appeared on top of his head as it suddenly leaned forward before releasing all the petals, hitting the breath at many points. "Divine Petals." Boom. Boom. Boom. A series of explosions occurred when the petals made contact with the freezing breath. The Sun God Fire instantly overwhelmed the Ice Element and evaporated it. "Your Ice Element can be considered as a Pure Ice Element, eh¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "It''s strong. I admit it." The Dragon God gritted his teeth and roared. Alex smirked and raised his hand, "Whatever you''re going to do, you will die today." "Don''t be too proud, Spirit God. The only reason why you could kill the Phoenix Goddess was due to the elemental advantage. You won''t have such a thing against me." "And despite possessing such a power, you ended up dying in the past." Alex smirked. "Despite overwhelming them, you died under the hand of my father-in-law and the Dungeon God. And I shall kill you here to make sure you won''t appear again in this Universe." Roar. The Dragon God was angry when Alex poked the past and summoned six giant ice spikes. "You''re nowhere near their strength." Alex saw those six spikes and knew that his people would be targeted the moment he looked away. He narrowed his eyes and jumped forward. "You won''t be able to save them, Spirit God." The Dragon God launched all those ices would turn into thousands of pieces to strike his people. "Luminous Ice." Alex kept moving forward to strike him and when he was about to slip past the six spikes, his identity would be questioned whether he wanted to prioritize his people first or the Dragon God. Unfortunately for him, the Dragon God had read him well. For Alex, his people were more important than his enemy. But there was one thing that the Dragon God couldn''t predict. The current Alex had now begun his journey to surpass the past Spirit God. He swung his sword and spear three times at the same time. "Triple Draws." This attack wouldn''t be able to hit those spikes and even if he used his Sword Wave, he would only cut them. The original spikes could still split and hit his people. To protect them, Alex had no other way. He needed to burn those spikes. However, this time, he had another plan. "One Inch Spear." His blades were extended with flame covering them. All six ice spikes were cut into half before the flame spread and burned them completely. "What?!" The Dragon God dropped his jaw and wondered why the flame could actually melt his ice so quickly. "I''m pretty lucky to have the fire element around that area slightly denser than other areas." Alex smirked and arrived right in front of the Dragon God. He thrust his spear toward his chest. The Dragon God wouldn''t let him do something like that easily, so he swiped both arms to squeeze Alex dead. The Ice Energy covered his hands to avoid Alex from burning them. Alex looked left and right before solidifying the Space Element to both sides, creating a pair of plates that would stop the claws. Bam. "Hgh!" The Dragon God looked down, feeling something hard preventing him from moving. Alex, on the contrary, had enough time to thrust the Dragon God''s chest. As expected from a God King, he managed to form a powerful ice barrier that acted as a breastplate to stop Alex''s attack. Still, Alex''s spear carried the power of Space Element while his Fire Element slipped past through the Space World and was about to hit him from behind. As if feeling something was coming, the Dragon God flapped his wing, which accidentally knocked the fire from his back, stopping it from hurting him. Alex narrowed his eyes and started pushing the spear, bending the breastplate to the inside. "Kh!" The Dragon God gritted his teeth, but his misery had yet to end. His luck had been manipulated again, and as he said, this place''s Fire Energy was denser than around them. After the fire strike from behind got blocked, the Fire Energy erupted, causing a chain of explosions around them. Boom. Boom. Boom. "Uah!" The Dragon God screamed in pain as some explosions were near his body and directly hit him. "What?! How?" Alex only smiled, not feeling to respond to him. He only thought, ''Hahaha, The one who said Luck is part of your strength is a genius.'' Since he didn''t know what was going on, the Dragon God decided to force Alex to distance himself by summoning five star-shaped blue lights around his body. They then flew toward his army. Seeing this, Alex clicked his tongue and teleported himself between them. He stared at the five lights and raised his right hand. Suddenly, he lifted his forefinger before the five lights flew back toward the Dragon God. "Subjective Reality." Alex smiled. By using his Subjective Reality, he managed to fool the Dragon God and the five lights to think that going backward meant going forward, so it turned back to the Dragon God. "!!!" The Dragon God gritted his teeth and exploded those five lights, sending a powerful freezing power to the surroundings. If it were to hit Alex''s army, they would be frozen on the spot. Even Alex narrowed his eyes and raised both hands, swinging them diagonally simultaneously. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave went together, creating a cross Sword Wave. The Dragon God''s cheek puffed. Unlike the earlier breath, this one seemed to be something different. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and furrowed his eyebrows. When the Dragon God opened his mouth, a small flying blue ball flew at a fast speed, hitting the Sword Wave. The light ball burst out, freezing the cross Sword Wave before it broke apart. "¡­" Alex could see and understand what just happened as he said, "Freezing the entire thing, including the connection between me and my Sword Wave¡­" "It''s not the end yet, Spirit God. If you think you can kill me that easily like the Phoenix Goddess, you''re wrong." The Dragon God smirked and flapped his wing, creating a shock wave that shook the entire battlefield. "Interesting." Alex took a deep breath, knowing that he needed to end this as soon as possible. If he didn''t kill the Dragon God today, he wouldn''t be able to turn around the battlefield. Although he wanted to cut him with his Eight Purities Slash, there was a slim chance it would hit, so he was trying to create an opportunity to strike this whole time. Unfortunately, the Dragon God seemed to have understood that as well and blocked all moves that could potentially endanger his life. Suddenly, a Fire Disturbance appeared behind him. The energy flowed out of the disturbance and slowly covered his sword and spear. "¡­" The Dragon God gulped down, knowing that Alex would start getting serious. "Rose, tell everyone I will be a bit late. At least, with the current situation, they won''t be killed within one hour." [Understood.] After giving the instruction to Rose, Dragon Aura and Phoenix Aura rose from his body to raise his physical ability. ''It seems his Law is related to freezing since it can freeze my Law. As expected¡­ To destroy the freezing power, I need to rely on my Sun God Fire in this battle.'' Alex took a deep breath and raised his hand, summoning a fire lotus. "Divine Petals." Chapter 1162: Worst Case Scenario "Divine Petals." Just like his Divine Petals, the Dragon God quickly summoned the same five star-shaped lights and shot them toward him. Unfortunately, Alex had ten petals while he had five. Boom. Boom. A series of explosions occurred when both sides clashed, but five of them slipped past through the explosions and started absorbing the nearby Flame Energy. Like the Dragon God''s, Alex also kept utilizing his Law in this way, making the situation favorable to him. Sooner or later, the Dragon God would lose its advantage and die. The Dragon God clicked his tongue when he saw those five petals and quickly closed his wing to cover the entire body. Boom. The petals hit him at the same time and burned the Dragon God, albeit only his wings got damaged. The wings had many holes on them because of the explosions and Alex''s Sun God Fire. "¡­" The Dragon God narrowed his eyes and wondered how to win against the Spirit God. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, there was nothing he could do to turn the situation around. Seeing this expression, Alex became even more confident in winning against them. He thought for a moment and turned his head to check the others. ''Alas¡­ I seem to have arrived too late. They can''t gain any advantage in fighting those guys despite the sudden turnaround. If it continues like this, we will be on the losing side sooner or later. Should I retreat? To fight them on equal ground, I need to kill the Dragon God here. After that, I can retreat to recover the injuries before eliminating them for good.'' Alex thought, assessing the overall situation. He then turned back to the Dragon God with a serious expression. The Fire from the Disturbance covering his weapons had grown restless, so he planned to start clashing with the Dragon God. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." Alex sent a Sword Wave toward the Dragon God. "It''s useless." The Dragon God only laughed before shooting another blue light and destroyed the Sword Wave. Because of the Fire Disturbance embedded into the Sword Wave, the smoke from evaporated ice became slightly bigger and thicker, preventing the Dragon God from finding him. However, his Divine Energy and sharp Dragon''s senses were enough for him to locate Alex, only to be surprised right after. Alex emerged from the smoke, flying straight to him. Not wanting to be killed, the Dragon God quickly sent his fist to push him back, only to be played by Alex once again. "Inverted Dimension." A pink sphere that trapped both of them inside appeared, inverting all the rules the universe had to offer. With the sudden off balance, the Dragon God was in a bad position. Fortunately for him, he once heard it when Alex used this technique against a Rank 2 God from the Earth God. He quickly closed his wings to cover his entire body while covering them with ice. Bang. Alex''s strike didn''t manage to cut through, so he pushed him away as the Inverted Dimension disappeared and everything returned to normal. Obviously, Alex didn''t want to waste this chance, so he enveloped his sword with Divine Energy, Soul, Blade Qi, Intent and Elements. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." Alex sent another Sword Wave to the Dragon God, planning to kill him. However, the Dragon God managed to lean his body to the left while covering his wing with ice. Still, Alex''s firepower was far greater than his ice as the Sword Wave cut his wing. Roar. The Dragon God screamed in pain while glaring at Alex. He needed to buy time so the others could defeat Alex''s subordinates and allies, so the Dragon God decided to use everything since Alex had planned to fully release his power. Roar. The Dragon God flew forward and sent a fist toward Alex. The latter released the Life and Death and Nature Energy. He then struck the Dragon God''s fist as his energy and Dragon God''s energy clashed, creating a shock wave around them. "I won''t let you do whatever you want, Spirit God." The Dragon God roared. "No. You''re going to die today." Alex snorted before thrusting his spear to the left, where his tail tried to strike him. Bam. Alex and the Dragon God continued to clash for another ten minutes. As expected, the Dragon God was covered in blood as Alex had cut both of his wings. There were numerous wounds, small and big, deep and shallow, all over his body. It was like the Dragon God was on his last leg. When he was about to kill the Dragon God, he halted his movement and widened his eyes. [Master. Sister Xingzhi wanted you to look at the Angel Planet. It''s doing something weird!] The moment he got the notification from Rose, Alex quickly turned around before the Dragon God noticed it and tried to block his vision. Alex''s Spirit Eyes allowed him to see through him and saw the energy. The planet was emanating powerful energy, containing all kinds of elements, from Fire Element to Space Element. There was even Time Element in the mix. He understood a bit of the Time Element due to the special space the Time God built for him, so there was no doubt that this powerful energy would be able to disrupt Space and Time. He then suddenly realized something. The memory of his Previous Life fighting the beast resurfaced in his mind. "!!!" Alex shivered just by the thought alone, but when he looked at his surroundings. Either the planets and other things, most of them looked the same. Only the Angel Planet seemed to be entering the orbit of this cluster of planets. "You bastard!" Alex couldn''t help but curse when he realized they were fooled by the entire situation. The Dragon God noticed Alex''s complexion and believed Alex had noticed it. He tried to distract Alex again by spitting a blue light ball that would freeze him. However, Alex lifted his finger and used his Subjective Reality to turn it back to the Dragon God. Expecting something like this, the Dragon God quickly made it explode. Alex, on the contrary, used this chance to slightly teleport himself a bit to the left as he looked at the planet. It was a kind of Magic Goddess''s Magic Circles, but it seemed to be combined with arrays. What he saw was five magic circles circling around the planet, taking all the planet''s energy as well as all the living beings inside there. After absorbing all those, the Angel finally launched the magic circles. Just by seeing it, Alex clenched his teeth. "We''ve been had." Not wanting to waste any more time, he knew he needed to stop that ritual. He quickly flew forward with eight powerful powers inside Alex revolved and went to his sword. "Hahaha, it''s futile, Spirit God. We have been preparing everything for a long time. It''s time for us to rip the reward." The Dragon God laughed before stretching his hand, freezing the entire area to prevent Alex from going anywhere. The Dragon God then covered all his skin with Ice, trying to stop Alex even if it meant using his life. "Come. I won''t let you stop my king''s revival. Still, I need to applaud you for forcing us to use our trump card. We need to sacrifice billions of lives and planets to make it work. "Hahahahaha! The people of this universe are idiots. No matter if they are humans or any other race, all of them want power. Now that we have given them power, they are going to die to offer them back. Hahahahaha!" The Dragon God laughed. Alex clenched his teeth and raised his hand, swinging his sword. He knew it was impossible to go around because the Dragon God seemed to have frozen the Space Element around them as well. As expected from a God King''s Law¡­ Still, Alex was in a bind because he could only rely on this sword and wouldn''t be able to use the second one. This immense power couldn''t be easily used in succession, so the moment his sword struck the Dragon God''s Ice, it would be his last resort to destroy the ritual. Having no choice, Alex finally struck the Dragon God. "Eight Purities Slash." The Space Energy bent the Ice while his Flame burst and evaporated the Ice. The other power then made it through the Dragon God''s body as the residual power formed a shock wave and flew toward the planet. His enemies obviously wouldn''t let him do something like this. Three shadows appeared and deflected the shock wave with difficulty. They were the Battle God, God of Virtue and his pet. "This is the power of the Spirit God?" The Battle God''s whole body was numb just by stopping that attack. He gritted his teeth and complained. "This is far above the God King Level." "Don''t fret. This power is still within the God King Level. We witnessed this five thousand years ago, but all you need to know is that our King is more powerful than him." The God of Virtue or the Angel snorted. "If not¡­ The Spirit God wouldn''t have sacrificed his life to seal our King in this Time and Space Seal." Alex frowned and started getting agitated because he knew what happened since he failed to do this task. When he looked at the others, they had been pretty exhausted to the point those three could escape and block his attack. "This is the worst case possible." Suddenly, the Outer Space cracked. A pair of red eyes glowed in the darkness was revealed when a piece of that crack fell down, releasing their killing intent. A sound echoed on the battlefield. "Hahaha, Seventy years¡­ No, Five thousand years¡­ It''s been a very long time, huh, Spirit God." Chapter 1163: Reinforcement "Hahaha, Seventy years¡­ No, Five thousand years¡­ It''s been a very long time, huh, Spirit God." The eerie voice containing a vast amount of killing intent echoed in the battlefield, sending chills down everyone''s spine. Everyone''s gaze was fixated on the crack that appeared out of this outer space''s nothingness. The commotions stopped for a few seconds as they looked at the beast that had been sealed this whole time. "It is as I predicted. You would have destroyed me in this timeline. Fortunately, I have prepared another plan. By extracting the elements from billions of lives, I would be able to create this surge of energy that could destroy the weakened space and time seal. Hahaha." As his voice resounded the vast battlefield, a bear paw suddenly emerged from the crack, ripping the entire thing open, showing the beast''s real appearance. *Gasp!* Everyone widened their eyes. The beast they tried to fight was truly the combination of six beasts. The head was that of a snake and the body was that of a dragon. Behind that giant body, two pairs of wings were visible. They were none other than bat wings and angel wings. His hands were bear paws, but the feet were that of a phoenix talon. Each beast would surely have one element and for this beast, who managed to fuse with all of them, he had all six elements. In addition, due to the fight he had with the Spirit God in the past, he was able to acquire the skill to utilize them at the same time. Alex summoned back his Fire Fox from the Fire Authority to let his presence known before shouting. "Shut up, Monster. Do you think you can challenge me with that condition of yours? You don''t even have your full power yet." That shout was meant to tell his allies that this wasn''t the worst-case scenario yet, so they shouldn''t give up. The beast, on the contrary, laughed and said, "That''s certainly true. But you are also not the past Spirit God who had accumulated thousands of years'' worth of experiences. You are still a newborn chick." "Then taste it for yourself." Alex raised his hand and swung his sword. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave flew toward the beast. This was the same Sword Wave that killed the Dragon, so all God Kings felt dread just to stop it, but because their king was threatened, they would have no choice other than to block it. When they were about to move, the Supreme Beast chuckled. "Haha, come then. I will let you see the difference between us." The Supreme Beast raised his paw before rainbow-colored energy coated his paw like that of a gauntlet. He then stretched his hand forward and grasped the Sword Wave. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction¡­ I have indeed remembered this power." The beast smirked. "Back when I fought the past Spirit God, this same technique almost killed me. Well, I should praise you for being able to recreate seventy percent of its power despite not being the original. Unfortunately¡­" As he said it, he clenched his fist, crushing the Sword Wave without a problem. "It''s still too weak." "¡­" Everyone was stunned to see their exchange. Even the God of Destruction found himself shaking in fear when he saw this beast. That rainbow-colored energy was simply too strong. Although he vaguely felt it, there was a trace of six Laws in that power. In other words, the beast didn''t only combine the body parts and elements, but also their ability to grasp the Law. It was no wonder why such a beast would be called the strongest. "How about you try to test this power of mine, Spirit God?" The beast raised both hands while opening his mouth. The rainbow-colored energy gathered again, emanating an even stronger aura than Alex''s technique. "Gehenna Ray." The energy was released forward, flying toward the Spirit God in a torrential flow. Alex gathered all his power on his blade and raised his sword. Right before the attack hit him, Alex slashed his sword down. "Eight Purities Slash." The space element once again began to shake while Alex''s Sun God Fire started burning the energy. The remaining energy then started to cut that Gehenna Ray while creating a huge amount of pressure and shock wave that traveled together with the slash. After splitting the attack into half, the flame burned the residual energy to prevent it from injuring the people behind him, while the shock wave he created flew to the beast. Even the Supreme Beast couldn''t contain his surprise as he punched the shock wave to neutralize it. He laughed and said, "Hahaha, to think you would give me this kind of surprise. You have finally become a worthy opponent. Our battle will be legendary." "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and raised his hands. His voice resounded in every single person on his side. "The situation may be bad, but it''s not the end. What will happen to our families, worlds, and this universe if we fall in this battle?" Not only those from Eulja but also the people from other Divine Worlds had their hearts wrenched by those words. They looked at the Spirit God''s back¡­ The broad back that towered the fate of the universe. They looked at the weapons in their hands and clenched them tightly. They regained their motivation and determination to fight. Alex decided to use this time to regroup with the other God Kings while observing their conditions. As expected, if the situation continued like this, they would certainly lose. "How are you all doing?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Not that good." Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "Indeed." Anna and Jeanne agreed while Leoz shook his head. "I can hold on for another hour." "As much as I hate to say this, but the enemies are stronger than us." The Palm God sighed. "Yeah, to think the traitors who were formerly our peers become this much stronger." The God of Destruction took a deep breath, assessing the situation. "I''m just repaying my debt. You don''t know how much effect the thing you gave me has on my magic foundation." The Magic Goddess smirked, still feeling excited. "I don''t feel like losing." "Still, the enemies are not that easy." The Song Goddess shook her head helplessly. "Unfortunately, I can''t help you in this matter. If I have more time, I should be able to reach my former stage¡­" Alaya felt helpless. She came to this timeline to help them win this war but ended up becoming a burden due to high expectations. "Don''t worry, Master. I will continue fighting until my last breath." Marcus, the God of Wrath, assured Alex. "The problem is time and people. If only we can reset this fight, I''m sure we can win this time even with that beast¡­" Lin Xingzhi frowned. "Should we retreat, Alex?" "No. The consequence will be fatal. I''m sure you know the reproduction of the bats, right? If they feast on billions of lives, I''m afraid it will become even worse." Alex shook his head. Knowing what they were thinking, the beast laughed out loud, saying, "Spirit God, it''s impossible to win this battle. Even if you can stop me, your allies will die one by one." "You talk too much." Alex snorted. "No, no! Just take a look at yourself¡­ Your Divine Energy is almost empty because of the continuous usage of your technique. Even with my current power, I will¡ª" The Supreme Beast stopped his mouth and turned around as if feeling something from his right. Suddenly, loud cheers resounded on the battlefield. All their gazes turned to the right, where they found many spaceships emerging along with thousands of God Rank Experts. Still, the ones that stood out the most were three people. Two of them were God Kings that surprisingly to be the ones that quitted the alliance after the Holy God exited the room. Yes, they were the other two who left beside the Magic Goddess, God of Greed and God of Strength. Yet, the one that took Alex''s gaze was none other than a certain boy who was only a mere Rank 7 God. That boy was like any other boy who couldn''t contribute much in this battle, but he might become the MVP today. "Is that Navin?" The Palm God dropped his jaw while clutching his head in distress. The boy smiled and clasped his hand politely. "Master! I, Navin, have returned with reinforcement." Alex then remembered Navin''s purpose when he confronted him, telling him about the lifespan and the so-called key that would be able to change the fate of this universe. And that same person truly came to this battlefield to change it. Even though the two God Kings wouldn''t bring that much of a difference, for Alex, it was everything he needed to turn the situation around. The Supreme Beast also understood the meaning of this reinforcement in the heart of his enemies and shouted to lower their morale again. "Hahaha! Do you think this puny reinforcement of yours can let you win this battle? Are you mentally retarded Spirit God?" That laugh was to insult the Spirit God, but the beast didn''t stop there. He gathered the energy again and shot it toward Alex. To raise their morale again, Alex needed to do one more step. He raised both weapons while saying, "Eve, Elle, Elliot¡­ Will you trust me with your lives?" "Master. That''s a stupid question." Eve smiled. "Yes. I have never been this happy until I met Master." Elle confirmed with a nod. "That''s right, Master. Our lives are yours. Use it as you see fit." Elliot smirked and released his power. Alex couldn''t help but smile, feeling blessed. A dull but bending pink-colored energy and golden-colored energy came out of his body simultaneously before they gathered inside the Spirit Crown. The blue jewel shone brightly as Alex''s golden eyes now had a small pink circle in the middle. His sword also changed its color. The handle turned black and half the blade turned to gold while the other half became pink. The same applied to the spear, but instead of black, the handle was full of white, signifying the Life Energy from the Spirit Crown unlike the sword that carried the power of Death. "Sword and Spear Possession." Alex''s earth-shattering aura shook the battlefield as if telling them that he was stronger than the beast. At the same time, his power was suddenly restored to the point the excessive power gushed out of his body, sending powerful pressure on the surroundings. Only some people knew about this because the reserve that the Void Flower had created finally opened its reserve for the first time. To show his supremacy, Alex slashed his sword downwards, using the same technique that the beast looked down upon. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave surprisingly cut through the Gehenna Ray all the way to the beast that the latter couldn''t help but use his Gehenna Gauntlet to stop it again. "!!!" The beast widened his eyes and checked Alex''s body. "You!" Everyone was stunned when they found Alex still had this much energy left even though he had used the Eight Purities Slash that needed a huge amount of energy twice. But at the same time, it meant the fight was far from over. Like their current condition, as long as Alex killed that beast, they would eventually win this battle. "It''s not over." "We need to continue fighting for our universe." "Don''t let those traitors and enemies trample upon you." "Fight!" "We will fight!" "Uoh!" All the people shouted at the top of their lungs. If this wasn''t outer space, the ground might have started vibrating. Seeing this kind of morale, Alex shouted. "Those who believe in me, follow me and prepare to lay down your lives!" "Uoh!" The cheers erupted even bigger while they raised their weapons. Alex finally advanced toward the beast. "Let''s go!" "Uoh!" Every single person followed Alex from behind, forgetting about the pain from their wounds and tiredness from using so much energy. "Kill!" Chapter 1164: Retreat "Move!" Alex advanced without waiting for the enemies to react. "Kh!" The Supreme Beast clenched his teeth and raised his voice. "Attack them. I will handle the Spirit God." The Supreme Beast actually knew that Alex already had enough power to kill him, considering he could use his Eight Purities Slash again, but there was no way he would admit it. "My King, you should recover first!" The Angel shouted, knowing that the beast couldn''t handle Alex''s full power in his current condition. "Let us protect you for the time being." Like how desperate the Spirit God and the others were, their side also didn''t want to lose this war, especially after having so many sacrifices. The Angel called a name, "Michael. Go use your life to recover our King. I will take full responsibility after this." The Michael in his mouth was none other than his own pet. Despite being reluctant to die, Michael nodded his head and stopped fighting, returning to the Supreme Beast''s side. Meanwhile, a bat''s pet appeared, trying to stop Alex with his life."My King, let me block him for you. If you can recover to your peak, we will win." The Supreme Beast nodded his head and went back. "No, you won''t!" Alex used his Teleportation Array to go past the bat, but the latter managed to react fast enough to stop him again. "My King! Let me supply that energy to you." The Angel''s Pet suddenly appeared and released a huge amount of Life Energy that had been converted from the Light Element. "What is he doing?" Alex narrowed his eyes while clashing with the bat''s pet that turned out to be a serpent. "You won''t pass me!" The bat''s pet smirked, trying to buy time for the Supreme Beast. "Move, traitor!" Alex gritted his teeth and found that the Angel used his body to turn all his Light Element to Life Energy as his entire self would change as well. At the same time, the Supreme Beast appreciated that and opened his mouth, trying to absorb that power to recover his energy. ''This is bad,'' Alex thought, knowing that if the Supreme Beast would recover to his peak, even if he couldn''t defeat Alex, he could hold Alex back long enough until his subordinates killed the God Kings on his side. Yet, it seemed they had forgotten someone who had a natural affinity with Life and Death Energy. "Life and Death Coffin, Activate." A huge coffin appeared above Alaya''s head. The huge amount of Life Energy from the Angel was like delicious food presented in front of her. When it was about to flow to the beast, the energy suddenly turned around, flowing toward the Life and Death Coffin instead. "!!!" The beast widened his eyes and looked at Alaya. "You are the Life and Death Goddess." "Hmph!" Alaya snorted and kept absorbing the energy. "I''m sick of being useless in this battle." Not wanting to waste that huge amount of energy and knowing that it was impossible to stop that kind of flow to her coffin, the beast decided to devour all the energy he could in a few seconds before a scream echoed in his ears. Alex just killed a God King, specifically one of the Bats'' pets, he went straight to the beast, forcing him to stop devouring the energy. "Spirit God!" The beast roared and marched forward to handle him. Unfortunately, the beast could only devour half of the energy from the Angel, so his energy was only half of Alex''s, while Alaya got at least half of the portion. Alex snorted and slashed his sword. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave flew toward the beast. The other God Kings seemed to want to stop it, but Alex''s side pushed harder than before, so they couldn''t really stop it. The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth and spat a purple ball, corroding the Sword Wave to weaken it before he deflected the attack with his Gehenna Gauntlet. "It''s useless." Alex snorted and flew straight toward him. Right before he arrived, Alex waved his weapons three times. "Triple Draws." "One Inch Spear." Six extended blades went straight toward him, trying to trap him. The Supreme Beast created round-shaped rainbow-colored energy, protecting him from these six slashes before releasing another wave of the same energy toward Alex. "Gehenna Ray." Alex lifted his finger and used his Subjective Reality to turn it around, but as he expected earlier, that also became the reason why he didn''t utilize it until now. Only half of the Gehenna Ray was able to be controlled and turned back. Meanwhile, Alex raised his other hand to face the other half. A powerful torrential Space Energy gathered on top of his palm as he tossed it to the front. "Black Hole." The Black Hole absorbed all that energy before exploding because it went beyond its limit, transmitting the shock wave from the collision between Space Energy to that rainbow-colored energy. "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes, knowing that it wouldn''t be that easy to defeat the Supreme Beast. Although the beast''s six Laws were not perfect, it managed to neutralize his Law, making it hard this whole time. To increase his power once again, Alex summoned a giant Fire Disturbance before he absorbed all that energy and channeled his Sword and Spear. "Star God Divine Control." "Divine Petals." A huge lotus appeared above his head before all the petals fell, flying toward the beast. Looking at these ten petals, the beast tried to figure out what he should do. Because of Alex''s Sun God Fire, he couldn''t really summon his Phoenix Fire, leaving only five elements left. Luckily, Alex''s Sun God Fire only removed his Phoenix Fire instead of his entire body. His combined body seemed to reduce that effect too. He then summoned Light and Dark Elements together from his Angel and Bat bodies. The two energies fused together to make ten small white and black balls. "Yin Yang Bomb." Those ten clashed with Alex''s petals, but Alex managed to camouflage himself among the petals as he slashed his sword, sending a Sword Wave that cut through both the petal and the ball. "!!!" The beast widened his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows before creating two rainbow gauntlets and tried to stop Alex''s attack. "Ha!" That clash was witnessed by all people on the battlefield, including his subordinates. "My King!" Because of that attack, Alex used that chance to use another Space Element to teleport him right before the Supreme Beast. "Die!" The nearest bat realized Alex''s sword was covered in energy that far surpassed his Eight Purities Slash. If his normal Eight Purities Slash contained either his Law or his Fire Disturbance, this slash contained both of them at the same time. Of course, this could only be used once because it sucked almost fifty percent of his Divine Energy at an instant if he didn''t want to have it explode in his hand. "My King!" One of the Bat''s pets actually appeared between Alex and the beast and used his own body to shield this attack to prevent it from killing the Supreme Beast. Unfortunately for him, this strength was far more tremendous than anyone could think of. The Supreme Beast already covered his whole body with rainbow-colored energy while creating another sphere as a layer of protection from this attack. "Move!" Alex roared and slashed his sword as hard as possible. "Nine Purities Slash." All strength erupted for a second before the outer space began to crack like when the Supreme Beast first made its appearance. This power was even transmitted to those behind the Supreme Beast as it continued forward until it cut an Upper World, leaving a giant Sword Mark on its surface to the point it almost reached the planet''s core. The pet managed to stop that attack for a little, but some still went to slash the Supreme Beast as a huge sword mark appeared on its body. Yet, the most shocking thing was the one who spat a mouthful of blood first was not the beast. Instead, it was Alex. "Gah." Alex widened his eyes and looked down, finding that the bear''s paw pierced through the pet''s stomach and stabbed him. If not due to his instant reaction to drop his spear and catch that paw, there might be a hole in his stomach already. Still, the power that Alex used earlier was far greater than the beast could take as he fell back as blood started coming out. The beast''s blood was not regular blood as his blood turned out to be purple. "I won''t go down that easily, Spirit God." He smirked. "Why don''t you use your life again to seal me for another five thousand years?" Alex gritted his teeth and leaped back while covering his stomach with his hand. [Master.] Alex quickly stopped the blood flow with his Divine Energy before looking at the beast whose condition was a bit worse than him. There was no doubt that this injury had settled this war. While holding his stomach, Alex thought, ''What should I do? If I continue fighting, there will be a chance that I need to sacrifice my life to kill him. But if I don''t, I''m afraid that the beast will come back even stronger. ''No. Maybe the beast will arrive at the stage above God King¡­ I don''t know that stage yet because if the beast truly reaches the next stage, he will kill me and the others while leaving his subordinates to destroy this universe. Hence, I can''t afford to¡­ Unless¡­'' Alex suddenly remembered his encounter with the previous Spirit God in Encore. He promised that he wouldn''t die again to prevent tears from coming out of his wives'' eyes. And to prevent the worst-case scenario, he said to him that there was another trump and last trump card he had prepared if anything couldn''t work. Still, he couldn''t afford to stop just like this. If he retreated this easily, the army would lose their morale because the Spirit God actually feared death. They would be reluctant to follow him after today and the next battle would be hard to rally a war cry. He took a deep breath and changed his strategy. Instead of fighting the beast in close range, he planned to do something else. Hence, Alex laughed out loud and shouted, "You are pathetic, oi, Beast." The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth and glared at Alex, releasing his killing intent. Of course, he didn''t know Alex planned not to die, so he wondered what Alex would do. "Five thousand years ago, I was not your match. Now?! You are in this pathetic state. Come! I will play along with you to the very end. Even if I need to die, I will make sure that you and all your "pets" die today." Alex smirked and released his killing intent, showing how serious he was. The Supreme Beast also did not plan to die today, but the situation truly wasn''t in his favor, considering that Alex was stronger than his past self, especially due to the Void Flower. In the past, if Alex had Void Flower, he had a chance to win against him and turn around the situation without allowing those old folks to die. Yet, there were also a few miscalculations on his part. The first would be Alex''s strength, which consisted of Fire God, Dungeon God, and Spirit God''s power, turning him to be the strongest human in this Universe. The second would be Alaya''s power. If she were not here, he would gain enough energy to kill Alex. Last but not least, the reinforcement. Even though it was a small reinforcement, it was all it took for the Spirit God turned the situation around. "My King!" The Angel gritted his teeth, feeling remorseful because his pet faced an unnecessary death. "It seems we need to go with the worst-scenario plan, My King." "Yes." The beast narrowed his eyes and shook his head in disappointment. As much as he wanted to deny this situation, he couldn''t. He said, "We''re retreating." Chapter 1165: Last Plan "We''re retreating." The Supreme Beast needed to take this action. Although he hated to say it, his current strength wouldn''t be enough to stop the Spirit God''s Nine Purities Slash. There was a possibility that the Spirit God couldn''t use it more than once because it took so much Divine Energy, but he also didn''t want to risk it. There was always next time as long as you didn''t die. And he had no preparation like the Spirit God when he died. Hence, retreating was the most logical action to take in this situation. As if they knew about his order, the monsters began escaping from the battlefield in systematic order like this had been planned before. Even Alex, who saw the whole thing, couldn''t help but furrow his eyebrows. He halted his steps and watched how they left one by one until all the God Kings decided to regroup with him. "What should we do, Alex?" Lin Xingzhi asked. There was a trace of bloodlust in her eyes, telling him that she wanted to kill them, but she was unsure whether to do it or not. Anna, Jeanne, and Leoz had the same intention, asking for Alex''s order. Before making his decision, Alex turned to Alaya and asked, "How is your condition?" "With the energy I''ve stolen, I believe I can reach my top condition in one year instead of four years." Alaya nodded. "I''m sorry that I''ve been useless this entire war." "No need to think about it." Alex waved his hand and contemplated. Suddenly, the two God Kings that became their reinforcement came toward them, clasping their hands. "Spirit God." "Thank you for coming here. I never thought that two more God Kings would be joining us in this battle." Alex nodded while checking their bodies to see whether they had a parasite inside them or not since he didn''t want a traitor mixed in their ranks. "No, no. Although I admit that I hate you because of your actions, when I realize you''re doing something to save the universe, I know that I need to protect my home. And because of Navin, who risked his life to convince me¡­ Yeah, I came here." "I''m the same." Alex looked at these two, who turned out to be the God of Shadow and Water God. "Even so, I need to thank you for coming here. As you can see, those beasts have been planning to destroy this universe since five thousand years ago. I believe this is the best time to eliminate them." "Hahahahahaha!" The Palm God laughed and bragged. "How is it? My Navin can help you, right? Muahahaha." "Annoying." The God of Destruction shook his head. "How about you step down from your title, Palm God? Your newest disciple is even more useful than you." "What did you say?" The Palm God got triggered and glared at Raiju. "Alright, you two, stop! This old man can''t afford to hear more loud noises after that battle." The Holy God sighed and went between the two. Song Goddess, on the other hand, asked Alex. "So, what are we going to do now? Should we pursue them?" "Have someone trace their location, but I don''t think we need to pursue them. It will be bad for us when they decide to turn around and hit us. We''ve lost too much in this war, so don''t let anyone who can be saved die." Alex shook his head. "I understand." The Song Goddess nodded. "Still, we can''t afford to let them free because the Bats will surely destroy many more worlds. As much as I don''t care about the lives in those worlds, I don''t like the idea that our enemies will be multiplied. We will corner and pressure them but don''t get too close, so we can retreat all the time. I''m afraid that beast is planning for the worst." Alex frowned. "The worst?" Alaya suddenly noticed something and remembered the scene of the past. After some contemplating, she said while drawing a gasp. "The stage above God King." "!!!" All God Kings widened their eyes and looked at Alaya with a shocked expression. They never even considered something like that. Alex acknowledged and continued, "I don''t know, but my past life gave me a certain memory. It was the fight between him and the beast. In that fight, the beast was said to be close to reaching the next stage." "But wouldn''t it be not wise? I mean, if he advances to the next stage, he will be expelled from this universe." "You will have some time. I don''t know the exact time, but I think there are a few hours to a day. In that time span, the beast will kill all of us before his servants destroy the rest. I''m sure that''s enough, right?" Alex let out a long sigh. "¡­" "Should we hide then?" The Magic Goddess, Rubia, asked with a serious expression. If the other party wanted to kill them, as long as they hid for a period of time, they shouldn''t need to worry about it and kill the rest." Alex shook his head. "The beast comes from another universe and a bigger one on top of that. I''m afraid the beast has some connections there, so if he escapes this universe and brings reinforcements, all of us will be defeated at that time. The best choice here is to kill him to avoid future problems." Although they agreed with Rubia''s suggestions, Alex''s reasoning seemed to be more valid. It was like someone from the Upper World went to a Lower World. If he returned to the Upper World and brought a thousand people there, the Lower World would be destroyed. "Still, it doesn''t change the fact that we need to fight against someone above God King." "I know." Alex''s expression turned grim as he said, "Leave the Beast to me. I will make sure to kill him." "Spirit God, this is not a joke. Even with your strength, it''s impossible to win against someone that powerful. And with how you fought him on equal ground earlier¡­" Raiju gritted his teeth and didn''t continue. Alex looked down with a small smile. "I still have one trump card. I don''t know if it will bring us any good, but I need to try." "¡­" The God Kings exchanged looks, knowing that they had no idea how to fight the beast other than to trust Alex. After a long pause, they nodded their heads in succession. Alex smiled. "Anyway, our plan is to corner them in one place while maintaining our distance. I''m sure they are going to come back as soon as possible." "I understand. Should we have a rotation then?" Lin Xingzhi asked, looking at the other God Kings. "Hmm¡­ It''s hard to fight them if we have a rotation. Instead, why don''t we announce that all the people here are going to strike anyone who harms them during this period?" Alex answered. "We need to leave our place unguarded for a period of time after all." "The people thought for a moment and exchanged gazes, knowing that this would be probably the best idea. If they only had half of them on the battlefield and clashed with the enemies, they would be wiped out." "Still, the most important question¡­ Are you aiming to reach the stage above God King, Spirit God?" Alaya frowned. "I am not sure. I have just become a God King, so I don''t think I can reach the next stage. At least, I need a few more years. Meanwhile, the beast might have surpassed it, so I need to go to the trump card first before saying anything. This is the trump card that the past Spirit God left me." "¡­" They didn''t know whether this move was right or wrong, but because they didn''t have any alternatives, they decided to raise their hands, agreeing to Alex''s idea. "Alright. Let''s all recover first. I''m sure one month is enough, right? After that, you all are going to buy as much time as possible." Alex nodded. "Well, that''s much is not a problem, I guess." The God of Destruction shrugged. The others nodded before the Magic Goddess raised her hand, asking with a hesitant tone. "Can I have a bit of your time later?" Alex tilted his head in confusion but still nodded. "Sure." "Anyone want to ask a question?" "I have one. What are you going to do after this war, Spirit God?" The Holy God frowned to check Alex''s intention. Alex waved his hand with a calm face. He simply said his genuine feeling. "To be honest, I don''t care about what''s happening to this universe as long as no one provokes me. Suppose there are any members of my Eulja that take advantage of that. In that case, I will deliver the punishment even if they are my own family. That''s all to it. Besides, advancing to another universe¡­ maybe a bit more interesting at that point." "¡­" The Holy God was speechless when listening to his answer. Although Alex had that kind of intention, he wanted to spend time with his family first for at least a thousand years since he was a family guy. "I understand." The Holy God looked down and sighed. "I don''t think we have a question here." Lin Xingzhi waved her hand. "I will take care of the rest and contact you as soon as possible. Because we have a short time, I think you should go as soon as possible." Alex looked at the others who seemed to agree with Lin Xingzhi''s opinion and turned around, calling Rubia to the side. The Magic Goddess followed him with a serious expression. "What would you like to talk about?" Rubia was a bit hesitant but still asked, "Ehm, this is a bit serious, but do you have a desire to invade another world?" "I can''t say expanding is not an option. As we continuously exploit the resources, it''s going to dry at some point. At that time, we have no other choice than to search for a new planet." "No. That''s not what I''m asking¡­" She shook her head. "It''s about my territory. After some careful consideration, I have a feeling that it''s better to be your vassal." "Huh?" Alex made an annoyed face, looking at Rubia, who seemed to have lost her mind. "Those orbs of yours have truly helped me beyond your understanding to the point I can reach Nature Goddess''s level within a short time. Hence, I''m thinking about becoming your vassal. Of course, I have carefully considered it. "First of all, I have many benefits such as your protection, resources, and a chance¡­ A chance to broaden my horizon. I also don''t need to see my people suffer since there won''t be any conflict with your people on a small or grand scale. "And I''m sure you''ve heard something like this¡­ If you can''t fight the evil, join the evil and turn them into a good person by sedu¡ªAhem, staying by his side." "¡­" Alex wanted to snap and beat this woman right away, but he ended up sighing. "It''s something that needs to be discussed later after this war¡­ But I will consider it for now." "The seduction part?" "The vassal part. I wonder if I should call you a magical girl or a horny girl¡­" Alex shook his head in disappointment. "But usually, magical girls are defeated with tentacles and such." Rubia tilted her head in confusion. "¡­" Alex facepalmed. "Anyway, if you don''t have anything serious to say, I''m leaving right now." Rubia only stuck her tongue out before clasping her hand politely, saying with a smile. "May fortune be with you." When Alex was about to leave, he stopped, turned around, and said, "Lady, I''m the fortune itself." Before leaving with his Teleportation Array. "Hmm¡­ Luck, eh?" Rubia closed her eyes as if pondering over something. "I wonder if I can say I am trying to attain luck itself?" She chuckled alone and shrugged her shoulders before returning to her post. Chapter 1166: Next Stage? Meanwhile, on another planet where the Supreme Beast and his servants decided to rest, the Supreme Beast stood upon them while looking at the kneeling servants before him. "To think I would have gotten defeated for the first time¡­" The Supreme Beast narrowed his eyes. "My King!" "You were not defeated." His servants obviously tried to deny it because it was so humiliating to be defeated. At the same time, the Supreme Beast acknowledged it once again as he recalled all Alex''s actions. "The reason we can escape like this is due to the Spirit God''s character. "In fact, the current situation didn''t state any winner. Both of us might cause mutual destruction during this battle while most God Kings ended up dying. However, this will be the last chance to kill us, so the Spirit God decided to prepare for everything even if it means giving us a way to escape. "You might haven''t realized this, but he has killed four of you during this battle while injuring me. That''s right. Everything looked so smooth while the rest of his people were his burden. "He believes this result is enough for him. After all, it means he has enough people to kill all of us right now, even when I return. Normally, it''s enough for him to keep chasing us, but mutual destruction is not something he wants to see, so I''m sure he is planning to restore everything first before coming for my neck. "Obviously, we''re going to lose him right now while camouflaging ourselves to make sure no one knows my exact position. This will buy us a few years as long as we''re careful because they won''t have enough courage to attack us without any information, fearing an ambush. "Hence, I am confident that the Spirit God actually wants to win this without having anyone dying. That''s admirable for him. Although there are a few flaws in his arguments and strategy, he is a man I respect even though we''re enemies. "Unfortunately for him, I won''t let him just get away with everything. By using his softness to his family to our advantage, I''m going to succeed in reaching the next stage. While I''m breaking through, I want all of you to disperse to hide my body. I have enough confidence that with all of you here, they won''t be able to find us. "Anyway, because he knows how hard it is to find us, I''m sure that he is going to advance to the next stage too. With this, no one needs to die and the Spirit God will be the biggest winner. That''s why¡­ Angel, are you ready?" The Supreme Beast turned to Angel with a serious expression. "I''m ready for everything, My King." The Angel nodded. "I''m sorry for doing this to you, but we''re at the turning point. If I''m found out first, we will lose. At the same time, I''m sure that the Spirit God will choose to advance to another level first because he will be able to find me. I don''t know how much he understands the next level, but I will assume the worst. "To put it simply, if I can''t reach the next level before him without dying, I will lose¡­ Probably. I don''t know how strong his Nine Purities Slash will be after reaching another level, so yeah¡­" The Supreme Beast let out a long sigh. Most of his speculations, especially why Alex decided to let him go, were mostly true. He simply didn''t wish to have his wives and people die. There were Lin Xingzhi, Anna, Jeanne, Leoz, Marcus, and even Alaya on the battlefield. It might be foolish, but it defined him. If not, Alex would have decided to kill the Dragon God, Phoenix Goddess, Battle God, and Earth God during the previous war without caring about his casualty. The Angel nodded and clasped his hand. "Everything is for you, my King." He then tapped his golden staff on the ground as Life Energy began to gush out of his body. He completely turned into something like his own pet when he wanted to let the beast consume the energy to recover his power. However, unlike the previous time, the Angel seemed to have turned the power into another type of energy. Even if Alex were here, he wouldn''t be able to comprehend this type of energy because he had never seen it before. There was no trace of elements like Spiritual Energy or Divine Energy, making it look pure. Yet, the pressure emanating from this energy was far greater than the Spiritual Energy. Even all his servants felt the natural suppression this energy gave. "What is this energy?" The Earth God muttered before keeping that question to himself, knowing that he shouldn''t bother his master. Suddenly, the energy created a chain reaction where the planet began to rumble. It turned out that the planet itself released another type of energy that gradually fused with the Angel''s energy. There was only one thought in their minds after feeling this energy. ''Strong.'' This type of strong energy might be able to surpass the Spirit God easily. And they realized that they had the chance to gain this energy as well. After following their king on this journey, they might be able to get stronger by reaching the next level. This was also the reason why the people of this universe actually abandoned their own universe. The power temptation was far too strong. "Kh!" The Angel gritted his teeth, enduring the pain that was transmitted by the mutation of his power. He combined the two forms of energy forcefully, so this was like a backlash. The others also knew that there would be a time they could do something like this without the help of the Angel, so they observed the entire process attentively, making sure they didn''t miss anything for various reasons. The Angel kept fusing the two bit by bit. The pain might not be lower than Alex''s body refining, but for their purpose, the Angel needed to withstand this power for a bit more. After fifteen minutes long, the Angel fell to his knees, but his eyes were filled with determination, looking at the beast with a serious expression. He just finished the process, fusing the two forms of energy inside his body and said, "My King, I''m ready. Please." "Yes." The Supreme Beast nodded and swallowed him as a whole like how a large snake was able to eat a human. All of the energy remained inside the beast''s body as he began refining them bit by bit. At the same time, the Supreme Beast became sleepy like how other monsters actually underwent their transformation. "I will be leaving my body to all of you. Take care of it and you shall be rewarded." The Supreme Beast commanded them with a strict tone. Actually, there was another reason why they obeyed him. The fact that the parasite was inside them, the beast could take their lives as simple as flipping one''s hand. "Yes. We understand, My King." All of them shouted as they watched how the Supreme Beast slowly fell to the ground, sleeping. Because of this incident, there were already one Dragon, one Phoenix, two Angels, and two Bats destroyed in the alliance''s hand. If one took another look at it, the progress was good because they only had two Bears, one Dragon, and six Bats. And half of them were Pets. That was why Alex decided to stop pursuing them, so no one sacrificed themselves. ¡­ In another place. While the beast tried to break through to the next level, Alex also made his way toward the Black Hole where he could reach the Abandoned Universe because he needed to go to Encore once again, visiting the last door. He looked at the altar where he was supposed to receive an inheritance, but it soon changed to something he couldn''t recognize. As if feeling Alex''s strength as a Rank 1 God, the ground started shaking once. Rumble. Rumble. "What is happening?" Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to see his entire surroundings, finding that the last room seemed to be shining brightly. For something this bright, the amount of energy released to the outside was far tremendous than he thought. In fact, this was the first time he had witnessed concentrated energy this big. "!!!" He soon realized something in that door as it gradually climbed to the top, leaving all the other doors behind. "Seriously? There''s something moving the door to the top? I don''t see any kind of mechanism, though." Faint suspicious energy emanated from the door, and as this mysterious energy spread out, the ground started to shake even more uncontrollably and collapse. The collapsed ground was where the door would break through to reach the surface. The entire planet suddenly trembled. Alex couldn''t comprehend what this was anymore. "Kh. I seriously don''t know what''s going on¡­" Still, the door kept moving until it finally reached the surface, revealing its appearance. There was silence in the world as Alex couldn''t even comment when he saw the appearance of the gate. Although he didn''t find any changes on its surface, he realized that the gate turned out to be just a simple gate. There was nothing behind the gate and it wasn''t like a Space Element covered this gate. Yet, Alex could feel a tremendous amount of energy leaking through the gate. "This gate¡­ Is it connected to something? But I don''t see Space Element." Alex furrowed his eyebrows. Suddenly, the gate was opened from the inside, showing something that Alex never expected. "This¡­" Alex dropped his jaw to the ground as he instinctively entered the gate and the latter gradually closed itself, leaving one clicking sound at the end. Clack. Chapter 1167: Stronger Alex arrived in another place as if he just got teleported inside. There was nothing inside other than a chair in the middle of white space. However, what shocked him the most was none other than the translucent figure who sat on that chair. It was none other than himself. "The Spirit God¡­" Alex muttered in shock. He stood still and activated his Spirit Eyes, finding that the one before him was the soul of the Spirit God. "Spirit God, huh¡­ Are you calling me or calling yourself?" The Past Alex smirked and rose from the chair, snapping his hand to make the chair disappear. "We''ve met again." "You¡­" Alex facepalmed and shook his head with a long sigh. "Did you plan all this?" "Not really. I only prepared everything with the thought of it getting abandoned because you never used them." He shrugged. Alex narrowed his eyes and asked, "Still, no matter what you say, I truly couldn''t understand your thought process." "It''s the same for me. I can''t predict what you''re thinking, but I have enough knowledge to prepare something that you may need in the future. This is one of them." The Spirit God smiled. "I just want to ask first¡­ this future¡­ Is it the worst?" Alex asked with a serious expression. This type of scenario truly frustrated him because he couldn''t kill them without relying on everything that his past life had to offer. "I don''t know your current condition. How about telling me? Although I won''t give you any advice regarding the timeline to ensure that it''s not going somewhere unknown, I can answer your question without a problem." Hearing that, Alex began to tell him how it was going from when he reached the God King Stage until he hunted the Supreme Beast. "Hmm¡­ I can say it''s among the worst." The Spirit God acknowledged it and said, "The biggest miscalculation was the fact that the angel used billions of lives to destroy the Space and Time Seal." Alex looked down and contemplated, "I wonder will it be different if I sacrifice my life to kill the Supreme Beast? Although I will end up dying, the war will end without any God Kings dying on our side." "That''s¡­" The Spirit God closed his eyes with a pained expression. "Well, it''s already in the past, so I think it''s fine to tell you this much. If you die fighting against the Supreme Beast and his servants, Lin Xingzhi will end up following you. After the excruciating pain she suffered in the past when I died, she couldn''t handle it anymore and commit suicide. "Although your current wives will be searching for your body, Anna and Anya would begin losing their will to live because they have been suffering for thousands of years. In the worst case, they will follow Xingzhi. "Then, your wives will start doubting themselves and things will get even worse. I think I should stop at this." The Spirit God let out a long sigh. "You made the right choice. It''s not the best choice for the universe, but it''s the best for Eulja. I''m sure we have the same opinion about this, right?" A gentle smile appeared on Alex''s face as he nodded. "Yeah. We don''t care about the universe as long as our family can live." The Spirit God nodded in agreement. "Even if in the end, the result will be one of the worst, I will still choose that road without hesitation." "Yeah." Alex then asked, "Do you think it''s possible for me to defeat that beast?" The Spirit God shrugged, refusing to answer this question. Instead, he explained another thing to him. "In another universe, after Martial Saint, we will become a False Immortal, True Immortal, and so on until we reach God Stages such as False God and True God Stages. "This information will be useful for you in the future, but the reason why I''m not giving you this information despite having the knowledge is due to how irrelevant it is." "You have this kind of knowledge?" Alex widened his eyes in amazement. "Yeah. I received it the moment I saw the future." The Spirit God had a sad expression as if thinking about something. "Back then, the moment I used a certain technique to receive the memory of my previous reincarnations, I learned that I wasn''t born from this universe alone. "There were so many universes out there. And even a slave could kill you just by flicking your head gently. However, I chose not to venture too deep about this knowledge and sealed it. I was a family man¡­ Living with my family in a peaceful era was enough for me." "Unfortunately, the beast came¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. "Yeah. That guy¡­" The Spirit God couldn''t contain his smile when remembering the beast. Even Alex was baffled by such a reaction. He never expected that the Spirit God could actually smile at the beast that ruined everything. "That guy was just a kid who didn''t get the attention he deserved. He threw a tantrum, so others would recognize him. I could feel that he wanted attention from me and anybody else in this universe. At the same time, he wanted someone to stop him and kill him because he couldn''t bear this kind of action himself. "I realized it after clashing blows with him. I can''t say he was not a bad guy, but I know he is lonely." The Spirit God shook his head in disappointment. "Anyway, it doesn''t really matter." "Indeed. You mentioned earlier about the False Immortal Stage and so on¡­" Alex asked, "What''s all that?" "Hmm, I should give you an explanation about your inheritance first. I''m sure you notice that you have gained all the knowledge this universe can offer, right? I mean, not all, but most of them since they are ancient knowledge." Alex admitted that he understood most of the things after observing them a few times. "I have separated the entire inheritance and entrusted it to someone else. You can say the current knowledge you possess is only up to five percent of the entire thing." The Spirit God smirked. "Anyway, I don''t care if you want to go to another universe or not, but you should remember that you have wives here. I don''t wish to see them suffer." Alex smiled and explained, "I am a family guy too. I don''t have a plan to visit another universe if I don''t have to. There is a possibility in the future, but I will stay in this universe for at least one thousand years." The Spirit God nodded in agreement. "Well, living that long without cultivating is indeed very long. I have no complaints as long as you discuss it with your wives." "Yeah." "Back to the topic, I have entrusted this knowledge to someone¡­ And that someone is none other than Eulja''s Will. Yeah¡­ Eulja''s consciousness." "Wha¡ª" Alex widened his eyes, never expecting this kind of move. "She was my teacher and my parent figure. She took care of me when I was abandoned by my family. At that time, I never knew her identity until Father-in-law¡­ I mean, Xingzhi''s Father came. "That was not important though. What I wanted you to know was the fact that the knowledge is in her possession." "This is the first time I heard someone grew up with the world as his mother¡­" Alex shook his head helplessly. "Hahaha." He brushed it off with a laugh before continuing. "Alright, we need to talk about the False Immortal Stage first. This is your current stage." "Looking at this, I feel like I have just begun my cultivation journey." Alex couldn''t help but chuckle. "I can''t deny that." The Spirit God shrugged. "Anyway, let''s think that you''re a False Immortal finding a way to reach True Immortal. Once again¡­ This is not information you shouldn''t spread to the universe, okay?" "Don''t worry. I know." Alex waved his hand, telling him he understood the severeness of this matter. "What do you think the difference between the ''False'' Immortal and ''True'' Immortal is?" Alex thought for a moment and tilted his head in confusion before saying, "True Divine Energy?" "Hahahaha! If I didn''t have the knowledge, I would''ve said it too." The Spirit God laughed out loud. "Well, I will give you a hint. What did you get during your journey in God Rank Expert?" Alex narrowed his eyes and said, "Law?" "Yes. But that''s only one of the answers. There is another one¡­" Alex thought for a while before realizing something. "Wait¡­ It''s Divine Energy!" The Spirit God smirked and gave a thumb up. "Good. Those two are the answers." "Don''t tell me¡­" Alex quickly realized how these two were related. "I think you have realized it already, so I will give you one short answer." The Spirit God nodded. "Yes. It''s to combine the Law and the Divine Energy. The universe itself has given you the opportunity to reach the next stage, but because there''s no knowledge about it yet, no one has yet to ascend to a higher level. "By using your body, you will convert the Spiritual Energy from this universe to Divine Energy. Then, the same Divine Energy will be converted once again by using the Law to create another type of energy that will symbolize your existence. As much as I want to call it True Divine Energy, I can''t because its name is Immortal Law Energy. Anyway, both suck, so yeah¡­ Let''s move on. "Anyway, if you want to reach the True Immortal Stage, you''re to convert all Divine Energy by using your Law. Only at that time will you be recognized as a True Immortal. Ah, don''t forget¡­ We will face another Lightning Tribulation, albeit it''s going to be a Disturbance instead." "I see. So, that''s how it is¡­ And that''s the reason why you send this Gacha System, right? The Space Element is the most beneficial for me because it will fulfill all my wishes. Most important of all, I can seal my own power, so the universe won''t recognize me as a True Immortal and expel me. I can spend the time with my family here then." The Spirit God gave another thumb up. "Exactly. You understand it well." "Still, where can I get rich Spiritual Energy? I''m afraid if I advance in the original universe, I will be recognized immediately. I mean, when I reached Martial Master, the world would try to expel me right away¡­ Only a one day grace period. The same applied to when I reached the God Rank Stage¡­ Wait a minute¡­" Alex once again was shocked and looked at the Spirit God with his mouth wide open. "Yeah. This place is called an Abandoned Universe for a reason. It doesn''t have any limit because the rules are not applicable here. Sure, you can find Spiritual Energy and Disturbances, but you won''t face something like a limit or whatever because the universe doesn''t have its will that maintains everything. Only natural phenomena will continue in this universe. Hence, you won''t have any problem when you reach the True Immortal Stage and seal your energy first, so no one knows about it, including the beast." Chapter 1168: Spirit God and Alexander Sirius "In that case, I won''t have a problem in advancing to the next level in this place." Alex smiled because he could already see what would happen next. However, a concern also appeared in his eyes. Finding a trace of fear in Alex''s eyes, the Spirit God lowered his head. He knew his concern and what kind of method the beast did to speed up the process. After all, he had prepared for this too. "Actually, I have a method to make you advance as soon as possible. But this is going to be painful for you. I believe you will face this type of pain for a few years." "As much as I hate to say it, the Undying Fire Body has turned me into someone who can withstand this type of pain." Alex scratched the back of his head, feeling pretty embarrassed. "Well, I don''t know about your pain tolerance, but since you''re confident, we can start right away." He nodded. "To put it simply, I will be converting the Divine Energy here to Immortal Energy by using my Law of Nothingness. Since it doesn''t have anything from elements to consciousness, the energy itself will attract the Immortal Energy that I have created in the past five thousand years. "At that time, you will feel the sudden influx in your body, converting your Divine Energy into Immortal Energy. This way, you will be able to reach your goal fifty percent faster than doing it alone." Alex contemplated for a moment and nodded. "I understand the gist of it. We can do it right now." "I like your spirit. Now, let''s sit down and do the process immediately. I will give you the instructions on how to create Immortal Energy first before I start supplying you." Alex nodded and sat down on the floor, closing his eyes to feel the energy. "First, try to release your Law and Divine Energy at the same time, trying to clash it with each other." Alex nodded and did exactly what he was told before his eyebrows twitched as if he felt something unpleasant. The two indeed fought each other, but his Space and Fire Elements seemed to want to join the fight. "I''m sure you can feel something moving in your body¡­ Just let it out. It''s your natural instinct to stop the reaction." Alex acknowledged it again and let out the two elements. Surprisingly, the reaction suddenly got halved when his Sun God Fire suppressed them as if telling them to get along with each other. Then his Space Element tried to harmonize their relationship as if snitching them both with threads. Slowly but surely, the Law and Divine Energy began to fuse, creating something new to his body. Alex felt this was the answer and continued without the Spirit God telling him to. Seeing this improvement, the Spirit God nodded with a smile before sitting in front of him with a calm expression. He then released both his Law and Divine Energy. Obviously, the Spirit God''s energy was far weaker than Alex''s, but his energy had another function. Because of his Law, the Law of Nothingness, all the energy converted by him had no element as he explained earlier. In other words, it was just neutral Immortal Energy. At the same time, the Spirit God also helped him convert the Divine Energy into Immortal Energy through his Law of Nothingness. He then forcefully stuffed that kind of power inside Alex''s body which caused a huge reaction from Alex''s body. After all, because of his elements as well as Law, the energy that Alex produced had the marking of both Law and his Elements. Yet, the one that entered his body had none of them. The two energy clashed as Alex''s original energy tried to devour the elementless energy, seeping a bit of Flame Energy with the help of Space Energy and Luck. This way, the energy that the Spirit God sent to him would turn into his own energy. Although this looked like not helping him since it just added the amount of energy inside his body, the Law of Nothingness had another special effect. It was to attract the original energy to merge. In other words, not only his Flame, Space, and Luck, but his Divine Energy also came inside the energy. This was how the Spirit God helped him. With this kind of speed, he should be able to finish everything in three years. That was the Spirit God''s prediction while Alex felt they needed a bit longer. And Alex also worried about his family out there because he didn''t wish to see the beast kill them while he was here. However, worrying was useless, so Alex decided to focus on his current objective instead to avoid wasting time. This was the only way for him to go back as soon as possible. The entire process continued. Since Alex had entirely focused on the current training, the Spirit God smiled and began to use all his power to help Alex. The pain began to spread all over his body, but Alex maintained his calm as if this was just a normal one for him. In fact, this felt like ants crawling on his body and stung him. He simply didn''t feel anything. Since Alex didn''t let out a single groan, the Spirit God decided to increase his output. As one would expect, the pain also increased, numbing all his senses and body. However, Alex had yet to let out a single groan as if he could easily endure this level of pain. If it were anyone else, they would have started screaming, but Alex turned out to be stronger than this. The Spirit God couldn''t help but remember a former best friend and shook his head helplessly. His best friend also seemed to have a weird level of pain tolerance, so he believed that the Undying Fire Body was truly far worse than he imagined. While recalling his past memories, the Spirit God kept producing the Immortal Energy to help Alex. But this was also dangerous to his body because his body would surely disappear in just a month at this rate. Fortunately for him, he had predicted this course and used the Immortal Energy he had produced for five thousand years that was stored inside this space. In fact, the energy he transferred consisted of ninety-five percent of the Immortal Energy in this place while the rest came from his own. His own Immortal Energy only had one purpose. It was to bring all the Immortal Energy in the surroundings like a magnet, so Alex could absorb at the rate no one had ever seen before. This rate was far even more terrifying than the Supreme Beast even with the help of the Angel. Just like the Supreme Beast, the Spirit God had been planning for this after all. Still, no matter how prepared he was, his body was that of a soul. In just six months, his body had begun to disappear. Seeing Alex had yet to let out a single sound, he decided to keep doing it until the last minute. He only stopped after his remaining energy was enough for him to stay for a few hours without doing anything that would waste his energy. It also included the fact that he couldn''t help Alex anymore. When he finished, the Spirit God decided to step back, looking at Alex. ''To be honest, I don''t wish for you to go to another universe even if you want to do it a thousand years later. I have a feeling that you will do just fine, albeit that''s the one worrying me. ''There will be more and more women flocking around you, turning this entire situation a mess. Just like how you meet so many wives other than Anna, Anya, and Lin Xingzhi in your journey, I just don''t wish to see more because they are going to be sad. ''Still, I won''t stop you for it because you are my reincarnation. It''s not my place to order you something. Hence, I will believe in you to make the best choice in your life and hope the best for your wives. Ah, of course, you will surely have kids in the future. Don''t make them feel lonely and force them to do something they won''t want to do. ''It''s possible in your current state because you have the absolute power in that Universe. Also, don''t lose sight of your important ones or you will regret it.'' He couldn''t help but make a gentle smile, only to find tears coming out of his eyes. ''Cherish them, take care of them, don''t make them sad, and¡­ Love them¡­ forever. I''m sure you can do it because you''re my reincarnation¡­'' The Spirit God kept thinking about all his advice but didn''t say it out loud. However, as expected from a former life and its reincarnation, Alex seemed to feel something. Although the person himself didn''t feel it, tears also fell down his eyes. The Spirit God shook his head helplessly and rose from the ground. ''I shouldn''t disturb him any further.'' ¡­ Three years later. After exhausting all the Immortal Energy inside the space, the entire place itself crumbled, turning it into a simple giant white floor. In the middle of a white platform, Alex''s body was floating, surrounded by another form of energy that didn''t allow him to land on the ground. In fact, his energy was visible for all people to see¡­ If there was any in this Universe. If the color of the Spiritual Energy was sparkling gold, this energy had a pure Silver Color. It was close to grey to be honest. Although the appearance became a bit duller than the Spiritual Energy or Divine Energy, the power hidden inside this energy was far more amazing than them. The energy couldn''t be produced anywhere in this world. Suddenly, a shock wave gushed out of his body and obliterated the entire field, creating a huge crater on where he sat. Alex''s eyes gradually opened as he slightly squinted his eyes for a while to adjust to the light outside. "It''s been three years, huh¡­ I wonder if the beast has actually finished¡­" "He has not, but soon." The Spirit God''s voice resounded in his ears as he abruptly turned around, finding the translucent Spirit God became even more transparent. "You¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes before lowering his head. "Thank you." "Don''t mind it. My soul shouldn''t exist to be honest. If not because we''re here, the Universe might have sent its Disturbance to kill both of us. After all, I am you and you are me. We are the same and shouldn''t exist in one timeline, let alone talking to each other like this." The Spirit God smiled and waved his hand. "¡­" Alex nodded in agreement. He had learned a few things from him and he was so grateful that his past life was someone like him. "Still¡­ There is something I would like to say to you¡­ I really wish we were born in the same timeline. I feel like we will be good buddies." "Hahahaha! We''re the same, so obviously. But, yeah, I want to see it as well. I feel like we can do anything if we were born as twins. Either way, I shouldn''t take too much of your time because your Tribulation is coming. You should leave this planet as soon as possible." Alex fell silent. He truly wanted to talk more with his past self, but he had been feeling it as soon as the shock wave occurred. It was the sign of excessive Immortal Energy. In other words, Alex had converted all his Divine Energy into Immortal Energy and a little amount of that energy could actually cause such destruction. At the same time, there was a faint feeling that something big was coming toward him. With the reminder from the Spirit God, he knew it was his Tribulation. Having no other choices, he leaped to outer space to face it. And just like the Divine Tribulation, the first Disturbance to appear to challenge his power was none other than the Fire Disturbance. "Time to step on the True Immortal Level." Chapter 1169: Arrangement Like Alex''s progress, the other side had also progressed so much. Because of the continuous fights, they had become the center of the attention of this universe. Many wanted to fight together with the Spirit God because of the information that had been spreading like mad fire. They never thought that such a beast was attempting to reach the stage that nobody ever achieved before, making him the strongest in this universe for a day. It was enough for him to slaughter the God Kings in this place. And with the Spirit God and the others falling, the number of the current God Kings was not enough to handle his servants. Hence, the people began to feel scared because their turn would soon come and ask Lin Xingzhi to allow them to join the fight. Unfortunately for them, Lin Xingzhi rejected all of them because she didn''t know whether they were traitors or not. If there were traitors among them, backstabbing once was enough to turn the situation around. That was why Alex wanted her to reject everyone to avoid any backstabbing. If they came to the battlefield, they could treat them as an enemy. At the very least, it wouldn''t be that bad to treat them as enemy reinforcement since traitors will surely kill one of them first before making their appearance. If they were enemy reinforcement, Alex would surely command the entire group to react accordingly. That kind of adjustment wouldn''t hurt them for a period of time. Within that time, the fight between Alex and the beast would''ve ended. After a long pursuit, Lin Xingzhi gathered the God Kings in their group. "How is the situation?" She asked Anna. "Everything is good. It seems we''re pretty lucky. Not only do we manage to lower their number even more to the point we outnumber them by ten times, but we have prepared everything to fight all out with them. For now, we have a gist of their location, but we''re not one hundred percent sure." Anna nodded with a serious expression. Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and nodded. "That''s pretty good. Maybe Alex''s Law is playing with fate¡­Haha." No one actually objected to it since they thought the same. Suddenly, Alaya raised her hand and asked, "What do you think if we fight all out right now?" "I am not sure." Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "There is a possibility that the beast will come out and wipe all of us out. Without Alex, I don''t dare to go there. After all, there''s a chance that the beast will forcefully end his cultivation and hit us. "In the future, even if Alex returned here, the beast was nowhere to be seen." Lin Xingzhi sighed, feeling that the situation was simple yet too complicated. The Palm God tilted his head in confusion and asked, "In fact, we can actually fight them right now as long as the Spirit God is here. What is he doing? If the beast were cornered continuously, we would''ve ended the battle already." The Magic Goddess shook her head helplessly, not knowing how this guy had a daughter that managed to become the Spirit God''s wife. She decided to explain it to him, "If we attack them right now¡­ We may win the war, but at what cost? I believe only one or two of us manage to live after that war." "Is that so?" "Just think about their strength. You alone won''t be enough to kill them completely. If they decided to attack you without thinking about their lives, it would be mutual destruction." The Magic Goddess sighed. "The Spirit God must want war without casualty because we''re his allies. "And I, God of Destruction, God of Wrath, Nature Goddess, Life and Death Goddess have been preparing for this, right?" Lin Xingzhi nodded, acknowledging her statement. "You must have felt the difference between the master and servant. For now, there are five masters, one bear and four bats. Five of us will deal with them while the rest of you fight the servants. "Although I don''t want to look down on your strength, this is the best lineup. Let''s see our whole situation first. Their masters are Earth God, Evil God, Vampire Goddess, Blood God, and Demon God. I will handle the Earth God. Who is going to take the others?" "I am wondering whether I should pick Evil God or Demon God. After all, a Magical Girl needs to defeat the bad guy. And according to the story, these two are fit to be my enemy." Rubia playfully answered her question first so no one would take her enemy. "I will handle the Blood God. Blood is the source of life, so my power is at an advantage here." Alaya shrugged, ignoring the Magic Goddess. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction thought otherwise, asking Rubia, "Why don''t you fight that Vampire Goddess?" "What? You can''t fight against a woman, God of Destruction? How cute." Rubia stuck her tongue out. Raiju crossed his arms as veins bulged on his forehead. He clicked his tongue and said, "I will handle the Vampire Goddess then." "That''s good." They then turned to the God of Wrath since he would be fighting against the Evil God. Evil and Wrath might be a bit related, but the God of Wrath surprised them by his action. Instead of accepting his role, the God of Wrath, Marcus, lowered his head to Lin Xingzhi, begging, "Mistress, may I request to fight the Earth God in your stead?" Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes as the others looked at him with amazement. Lin Xingzhi thought for a moment and asked, "Why?" "Although I didn''t have any feelings for the Goddess of Destiny, she had sacrificed her life for me to escape that encirclement and ended up dying in the hands of the Earth God and Battle God. I am not a man if I can''t settle this grudge and gratitude." Marcus looked at Lin Xingzhi with a serious expression. Seeing this reaction, Lin Xingzhi paused for a moment and kept staring at his eyes to see his resolve. In the end, Lin Xingzhi sighed and said, "If the fight were to start before his return, you would deal with him. Otherwise, you shall ask this matter Alex. I will follow his decision." The God of Wrath clasped his hands politely. "Thank you very much." "That''s the arrangement. Now, we shall split the remaining to all of you. The enemies have Dragon''s Pet, Water God. He is a Naga Race that can control water. I need two people." Lin Xingzhi continued with the arrangement. Since this was the first one she mentioned, to smooth the process up, Anna and Jeanne raised their hands at the same time. "Jeanne and I will handle this enemy. Jeanne has an elemental advantage, so I believe we can win. Well, I will be too ashamed if we can''t." Anna scratched the back of her head. Meanwhile, Jeanne repeatedly nodded her head to show her support for Anna''s statement. "That''s the first pair. Then, there''s the Bear''s Pet, the Battle God. Two people." They stayed silent for a minute before the Palm God raised his hand. "I think I will fight him. In the past war, I have met him once, so I will settle the fight. As much as I want to deny it, the Battle God is stronger than me because of that power. It''s because of that power, okay?!" "¡­" The people fell silent as they thought the same thing, ''He said it twice.'' They facepalmed, knowing how the Palm God hated to lose. After contemplating for another minute, the Holy God raised his hand. "I''m among the first allies you have, so I will be helping the Palm God. I have fought together with him once against a Bear and a Snake, so I think it''s a good idea." The Palm God narrowed his eyes. Surprisingly, he didn''t say anything useless as if he was against the idea, telling people that he alone was enough. Instead, the words that came out of his mouth were, "I will be counting on you, Holy God." "Likewise." The Holy God smiled. "And since Alex has killed two Bat Pet''s, there are only two more, a Lycan and a Panther. There are only four of you left." Lin Xingzhi looked at the remaining four with a serious expression. The Song Goddess suddenly put her elbow on Leoz''s shoulder while saying, "I have grown up watching this guy, so I will be fighting together with him. As for the fight, I don''t care much. The other two can decide first." They then turned to the reinforcement that Navin brought, the God of Greed and God of Strength. The two exchanged looks and nodded. "I understand. We will fight together." The God of Greed nodded and asked, "Which one do you like?" The God of Strength thought for a moment and said, "Lycan. Let''s go kill that wolf. I don''t know his title since he''s not recognized by the universe." His partner nodded his head, confirming their target. "Then we will take the Phanter¡­" The Song Goddess smiled and gave a thumb up. "That''s all for the arrangement for the God Kings. Now, let''s move on to the second matter. It will be the positioning for the Rank 2 Gods who will handle all our armies. For now, we have many Rank 2 Gods. My Eulja has Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, and two more. In addition, we will also bring the former Fire God, Phitrus''s God Beasts, which means another ten Rank 2 Gods. If we add the help from the Blackwade Clan and others, we can add another five Rank 2 Gods at maximum." Lin Xingzhi explained. "Wow, Eulja alone sent twenty-eight Rank 2 Gods without their Commandants?" The Holy God widened his eyes. "Well, I will give the command to my daughter, the Saintess, to lead the other nine Rank 2 Gods to help." "I have eight that will help me." The God of Destruction nodded. "I have seven." The Magic Goddess clapped her hand apologetically. "I have equipped them with my power though, so they are worth more. The Song Goddess scratched the back of her head, wondering if these people were flexing or not. "I only have six with me, so don''t expect much from me." "¡­" The God of Greed and God of Strength exchanged looks and said, "Our combined forces only have ten Rank 2 Gods. Because of our far location, we can''t contribute much and leave our place unguarded after all." "In other words, we have a total of sixty-nine Rank 2 Gods then." Lin Xingzhi nodded with satisfaction. She patted Marcus''s shoulder since the person had a sad expression. Knowing that all his people had been slaughtered by those beasts, he must feel frustrated. So, Lin Xingzhi said, "We will have all these people to kill those beasts without mercy as well as protecting our battlefield. "Those who appear on the battlefield will be considered as enemies even if they''re not. I''m sure we have sent enough threats about it, right?" The God Kings nodded with serious expressions, agreeing to what she said. Only Rubia stuck her tongue out while correcting her, "I don''t see any threats. It''s just a friendly warning. We don''t want collateral damage." The God Kings shrugged their shoulders, ignoring her useless comments again. Rubia pouted and complained, "Why is no one taking me seriously?" "Are you seriously asking that question?" The Palm God looked at her with an annoyed face. "Of course! I have been serious this whole time." "Such a weird complex." The Palm God shook his head helplessly before he got blown away by a small explosion on his stomach. The Magic Goddess shouted, "Are you trying to pick a fight against a Magical Girl, the helper of justice? Fine by me! Let''s fight!" Lin Xingzhi and the others only ignored both of them and continued discussing the battle plan. Unbeknownst to them, the battle between Alexander and the Supreme Beast still continued to this day, trying to reach the next stage as soon as possible. Surprisingly and unknowingly, the one who won this battle was none other than Alex, who met his tribulation first. Chapter 1170: One Hell of a Tribulation Meanwhile, Alex had finished his training and stood in outer space, ready to face the Tribulation for the next realm. Alex activated his Spirit Eyes and Spirit Crown at the same time while maintaining his Dragon Aura and Phoenix Aura. This was something unprecedented before. Even his past self didn''t know anything about what would come to him. As he closed his eyes, he could feel something start moving. His skin suddenly felt heat brushing his body as the temperature continued rising up. Alex opened his eyes again and looked to the right, finding a Fire Disturbance that gradually became a star trying to hit him. "¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and raised his hand. Despite the terrible heat, this fire didn''t make him feel hot at all. His Sun God Fire had been protecting him this whole time while Alex was collecting his focus. When the Fire Disturbance was about to shoot, he channeled all his energy into his hand and infused that energy into the Fire Disturbance, controlling the star itself. "Star God Divine Control." Alex quickly took out his Sword and Spear, covering them with this Fire Disturbance. Instead of facing the first Disturbance head-on, Alex just used it to his own advantage. The newborn Fire Disturbance had no choice other than to submit to Alex''s control and the first stage should be over. As one would expect, the moment the first one finished, Alex found the next Disturbance. It was none other than Water Disturbance. Surprisingly, this Water Disturbance dispersed to millions of droplets scattered in the surroundings. But there was one thing that could be distinguished from this Disturbance. It was the fact that all droplets had a cone shape, facing Alex. If Alex were to remain not moving, his body would surely be pierced by this power, albeit he knew it better than anyone else. Raising both hands, he summoned two dragons that enveloped him from all directions, including the top and bottom. "Swallowing Heaven." Alex smiled. The Weapon Spirits planned to use the dragons'' bodies to administer the heat from Alex''s Sun God Fire, evaporating those droplets before it hit Alex. However, Alex might have underestimated his power the moment he turned his energy into Immortal Energy. The heat released by his Sun God Fire became even stronger and started evaporating the droplets before he intended. "Seriously?" Alex widened his eyes when he saw the effect. He couldn''t help but smile, saying, "I''m lucky to have this Fire. And with my Law, I can somehow turn all the Fire Energy in the area to create a chain of heating stoves because the fire energy "happens" to be there." Feeling threatened by Alex''s power, the Universe sent its second tribulation, piercing the dragons'' bodies. As expected, even if he had an elemental advantage, fighting water was easier said than done. The dragons managed to evaporate all those droplets, but he soon realized that the dragons gradually shrunk at a visible rate. He checked the situation again with the Spirit Eyes and found that the energy should last until the end unless something big happened. But to his surprise, he felt the temperature decreased uncontrollably to the point it tried to freeze his own Sun God Fire. Looking left and right, Alex couldn''t find the cause, wondering if the Universe controlled the energy around him. However, the cause came into his vision not long after he raised his vision. A giant chunk of ice appeared above his head and already made its way toward him. "Kh! Seriously?" Alex clenched his teeth and channeled his power into his sword, swinging it upward. Rumbling sounds began to echo as cracks appeared on the ice''s surface. The next second, the ice had been split in half. But his challenge had yet to end. Due to the decrease in temperature, his Dragons had a bad time. Alex channeled his energy and created a giant ball of fire. Yes, it was none other than his Fire Disturbance that was called by the Star God Divine Control. The moment it appeared, the ice and water began to evaporate. "To think I would need to face two Disturbances at the same time¡­" Alex shook his head in surprise before asking himself, "Why? I never heard anything about two Disturbances or Tribulation at the same time. Did I just surpass the human''s boundary? No, no. It''s not logical to think this way. "Instead, I should focus on the Disturbances first." He furrowed his eyebrows, feeling something weird about the two Disturbances. And it was at that time he realized what was going on. The second wave of his tribulation was to summon those droplets and attack him without a care. When all of them were released, without waiting for Alex to eliminate all of them, the third tribulation appeared. It meant the second tribulation had actually finished when it shot the droplets. This was why he needed to face two Tribulations at the same time. "To think it''s like this¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes and added his Space Element to reinforce his two Dragons to prevent the water droplets from breaking through the defense. Unfortunately for him, he needed to face the third wave. It turned out that the ice chunk he cut earlier had yet to end. Instead of disappearing, the ice turned around and went back together as if they fused together. Alex looked at his own Fire Disturbance and swung his hand, controlling the Fire Disturbance to hit the strength. "Star God Divine Control." When the Fire Disturbance was about to clash with the Ice meteorite, Alex found that the ice and his Fire Disturbance got twisted once as if something appeared between them. "Seriously? No wonder it''s hard for people to pass this stage." Alex gasped as he realized the fourth wave of his Tribulation had come to kill him. Just like the water droplets that had yet to end, the fourth already started not long after the third wave ''finished'', pressuring Alex for an action. Within a split second, he understood what was going on. ''If I keep this up, I will be facing all the rest of Tribulation at the same time. In other words, I need to finish each of them as soon as possible¡­ This is insane.'' Without waiting for Alex to finish his thought, the Space Tribulation suddenly twisted both the Fire Disturbance and Ice Meteoroid, making the Fire Disturbance fly past the meteoroid while the latter went straight toward him, covered by the Space Element. He could already feel and see the bending power in that meteoroid. "They can even fuse?" Alex''s eyebrows twitched as he looked at the meteoroid with an annoyed expression. Unfortunately, he couldn''t waste more time and proceeded to deal with this type of attack. He raised his hand and summoned a Black Hole on his palm while controlling his Fire Disturbance to turn around and hit the Ice from behind. "Black Hole." Alex threw the Black Hole toward the ice meteoroid. When it clashed with the Space Element that covered the whole ice, the Black Hole caused a huge shock wave that shook the entire area. However, Alex had enough control and luck to absorb all the Space Element to end the fourth wave of his Tribulation. Meanwhile, his Fire Disturbance was going to engulf this huge ice before it hit him. But to assure that nothing would happen next, Alex lifted his finger a bit and channeled his Space Element. "Subjective Reality." This technique influenced all the water droplets, making them turn around to hit the ice that tried to kill him. As one would expect, the water didn''t do much to the ice before the latter froze them. The ice turned into a sea urchin right after, but that was enough for Alex because what he wanted to do was to confirm whether his attack would be able to destroy it or not. Unfortunately for him, the next wave had appeared again. This time, it turned out to be an Earth Disturbance. And yeah, what could you expect from an Earth Disturbance other than a meteor. However, unlike the Ice, this one was significantly bigger to the point Alex began to doubt whether he could pass this because what was thrown at him was the size of a Lower World. "Oi, oi. Are you joking with me? There is a limit to this, no?" Alex clenched his teeth and looked back at the third tribulation, the ice. The Fire Disturbance and the Ice had made a contact in which the Fire Disturbance began to swallow the ice, evaporating it into nothing. At least, he had enough time for the Earth Disturbance because he planned to handle the Ice First. Before it hit him, Alex raised his hand and summoned four arrays in succession. "Star Barrier." Alex used this time to fully stop the Ice with four barriers. Crack. Crack. Cracking noises filled his ears as the Ice Disturbance began to destroy it one by one. As much as he hated to say it, this kind of tribulation was far stronger than Lin Xingzhi''s techniques. After all, even Lin Xingzhi couldn''t create large enough Disturbance to even form a Lower World. Bam. The Ice Disturbance finally stopped at the third barrier, numbing Alex''s hand because he poured too much strength and effort to stop it. The Fire Disturbance then swallowed the Ice as he could see inside the Fire Disturbance, the Ice Element began to disappear and shrunk at speed visible with naked eyes. However, this turned out to be his worst option. When he was about to face the next tribulation and cut that Lower World like how he did it with his Eight Purities Slash or above, he found that it wasn''t impossible anymore. Even with his current strength that seemed to be possible to cut with Seven Purities Slash, Alex knew that his attack would fail if he only threw an Eight Purities Slash. After all, what he saw was the fact that this Lower World had been covered by lightning. And he couldn''t just split it and say it''s over since the Ice Tribulation had told him that it would get back together and hunt him down no matter what happened. Unless he destroyed this Lower World to pieces or nothing, he would continue facing it. Yet, the time he needed to think about his action became another weapon that would eventually slice his throat. The next tribulation already appeared. It was none other than the Wind Tribulation, releasing a huge tornado that increased the power and speed of the Lower World that had been covered by lightning. He believed this attack was far more amazing than the beast''s Gehenna Ray since he couldn''t imagine if a planet suddenly hunted him down with several elements around it. "Oi, oi! Is this truly a Tribulation? It''s not the universe''s will trying to kill me? Wait, that''s the same!" Alex clenched his teeth and released everything. Chapter 1171: Immortal Stage Alex couldn''t help but shake his head. Just after he defeated the annoying Ice Tribulation, he needed to face something like this. It wasn''t the combination of two Tribulations anymore. Instead, there were three and each of them were stronger than the ice. Alex gritted his teeth and knew that he needed to use a few techniques at once to destroy this. He thought, ''There is around one minute before the next Tribulation begins since the wind tribulation just came. So, I have precisely one chance.'' "Eve, Elle, Eliot, control the dragons to swallow all the things left by a destruction later," Alex commanded the trio while using the Swallow Heaven to summon two dragons. At the same time, his sword had been covered by all of his nine powers. He raised his sword and slashed downwards. The Space Element began to oscillate back and forth, forging a path for the sword strike to hit the Lower World. Meanwhile, his flame clashed with the lightning, trying to burn it as a whole. The same applied to his Space Element that tried to distort the wind. The rest of his power went straight to the Lower World as a huge shock wave due to their collision shook the surroundings, forcing a few planets to go off their orbits. Alex paid no heed to them and focused on the Lower World instead, finding it was split into two and passing him from two sides. Without waiting for the Lower World to get together again, Alex summoned a huge fire lotus above his head. "Go!" Alex waved his hand and all the petals flew away, striking the Lower World from all directions. "Divine Petals." The Petals exploded and each of them caused a huge chunk of rocks to shatter into smaller pieces. The Weapon Spirits quickly controlled the dragons and swallowed all that came to their way like Alex''s order. Not satisfied with the current performance, a huge array appeared beneath the shattered Lower World. "Ten Thousand Sword Formation Array!" Alex summoned many swords and coated them with his Blade Qi. Normally, these swords were used to bind someone, but Alex used them for another purpose by coating them with the Sharp Blade Qi. All ten thousand Swords flew toward the Lower World and shattered it into pieces. This was when a Fire Disturbance appeared, trying to melt all those rubbles away while the rest were swallowed by the dragons. "Star God Divine Control." Alex used that Fire Disturbance and began swallowing the Lower World as a whole, only to find the Wind Disturbance had yet to end. The extraordinary heat turned the weak wind into a fire tornado, heading straight toward him. Alex furrowed his eyebrows and planned to use his Space Element to disperse them, but he was shocked when he couldn''t even move his body. "Huh?" Green-colored energy started coming into his vision as Alex realized he was trapped by the next disturbance. And to think the next one was the most unique Tribulation he would ever face. After all, the eighth wave of Tribulation was none other than Time Disturbance. The Disturbance suspended time for a split second before Alex covered his body with Fire and Space Element. The Space Element turned into a kind of protective suit that bent all the Time Energy around him, allowing Alex to move at the same speed. Meanwhile, his Fire burned all the Time Energy around him to end this eighth wave of Tribulation. Still, as expected from the weirdest element in the Universe, the time element, it was harder to burn it altogether. After all, the Time Element tried to suspend the Fire from burning it, forcing Alex to take a bit more time to destroy it. And with him trapped inside a kind of sphere that was filled with Time Energy, he couldn''t go outside. He had tried to make a Spatial Gate to the other side, but the Space World was also getting suspended in time, so he didn''t want to risk it. Unfortunately for him, the ninth tribulation had come when he just finished burning half of them. His enemy this time was none other than Light Element. He had fought Licht a few times, so he thought he had grasped the Light Element, but it simply went beyond his imagination. The light element turned into a star-shaped white light that shone upon this dark outer space. It became bigger and bigger as it flew toward Alex before surprisingly turning around, positioning itself on top of Alex''s head. Because of the Time Element, he couldn''t escape from this predicament and needed to deal with it with the best of his power, so he could face the last Elemental Disturbance properly. The white light then released a circular light toward him as if it was trying to purify him. Alex obviously understood what this light wanted to do to him. "This is going to be bad." Alex narrowed his eyes and knew that the Time Element also suspended this kind of light, meaning that the Light Element would be concentrated right above him. The moment he finished burning all the Time Element, the light would fall on him in full power. He hurriedly released all his power to burn the Time Energy above his head, yet, it didn''t end very well. Below his spot, he could see a huge black hole forming. Unlike the normal black hole, this one didn''t have a sucking force. Instead, it seemed to be storing all the energy in its surroundings, planning to release it soon. "I need to handle both of them at the same time?" Alex narrowed his eyes and shook his head, planning to destroy the Light Element first. Instead of waiting for the Time Element to disappear, Alex thrust his spear filled with his elements. "Twin Fusion Spear." The two elements worked with each other as the Fire emerged on the other side of the time sphere, allowing him to weaken the Light Energy from above. Unfortunately for him, the black sphere also released the same type of attack toward him, gathering right behind the Time Barrier. If both of them attacked him at the same time, he had no doubt that he would fail. Hence, Alex took this one step further. Without wasting his time, Alex released another strike toward the Light Element. Although he could only do it twice after converting all his Divine Energy into Immortal Energy, he needed to do it to succeed in this Tribulation. "Nine Purities Slash." The slash cut through the time barrier and split the attack into two, where his Fire began burning them down, so there wasn''t a possible come back. Still, Alex was also amazed by the fact that the tenth or the last strike of the tribulation actually didn''t have that big of a difference with the previous one, though it still endangered his life. After destroying the ninth wave, Alex proceeded to burn down all the Time Energy as he planned to face this Black Energy head-on. "It''s time to settle this." Alex smirked and called a Fire Disturbance inside the Time Barrier to melt it even faster. As expected from the Sun God Fire that was fueled by Immortal Energy, all its performance had gone through the roof this whole time. Even his Nine Purities Slash couldn''t be compared to the previous one anymore. After all, that was the sole reason that Alex could slash three Disturbances at the same time. When the Time Element was about to disappear a few minutes later, Alex waved his hand and summoned the Fire Lotus. The petals flew toward the Dark Energy that was concentrated on the back while Alex faced against the suspended Dark Energy. Since he couldn''t use his Nine Purities Slash anymore, he planned to do another thing. He didn''t know whether he could do it or not, but Alex raised his finger and controlled the Space Element. "Subjective Reality." A third of the Dark Energy suddenly jumped as if they had their own will. Surprisingly, it dove down and hit the rest of the attack, causing a chain of explosions. The moment the Time Element disappeared, Alex''s Divine Petals quickly flew away while Alex slashed his sword and spear three times. "Triple Draws." "One Inch Spear." The extended blade slashed the attack that remained only a third due to the explosions earlier and slashed it with ease. "I should have done it this whole time¡­" Alex shook his head helplessly, knowing it was impossible. After all, the reason he had enough time to control them was the time barrier that suspended that attack and accumulated that much energy. If he were to fight against the Supreme Beast, only on a few occasions will he have enough time to do that. Still, no matter what he thought, the Tribulation should be over since he didn''t meet any more Disturbances. In fact, at the base of the Dark Energy, a huge amount of Immortal Energy burst out as if it tried to congratulate Alex for reaching the True Immortal Stage. Alex remembered his previous life''s advice about this step. Just like when he reached Divine Rank, the world would bless him by sending its baptism to change Alex''s body and energy to Divine Body and Divine Energy. And this universe also rewarded him with this huge amount of Immortal Energy that gradually moved toward his body as if he was a magnet. "This¡­" Alex narrowed his eyes. With the help of his Law, he began absorbing all the energy around him and found that the energy was similar to the Spirit God''s Immortal Energy, making him a bit uncomfortable during the process. "As long as I succeed in this step, I will be able to reach the Immortal Stage. Haiz, if I were to go for another journey, I would lose my motivation because the only reason I became a Divine Rank Expert was to find Alicia and Firia as well as Lin Xingzhi. "But one accident after another, I ended up getting involved in this big scale inevitable war even though I didn''t wish for one. Well, this war also gave me the motivation to reach this level in a short time. As for reaching more than this¡­ That''s the question in the future. I want to live to the fullest first before doing something out of the ordinary." Alex smiled and focused on his baptism. This baptism was the first step to reach a higher level, but for Alex, this was the weapon that could defeat the beast. Each skin started evaporating into nothing before getting replaced by another layer. His blood also revolved like crazy, dying and regenerating at a fast speed. His body went back and forth from pale to normal. If his wives were here, they would wonder whether this guy had died or not. Even so, Alex cared nothing about it because he was sure he could succeed in this baptism. After his body, the most important one that needed to be replaced was none other than his heart. The heart went into smoke as he died for a few seconds before a new heart made of fire appeared on his body, becoming a perfect house for Immortal Energy. This looked like benefits, but Alex knew that the moment he exhausted his Immortal Energy, he had no choice other than to recover it in this Universe to avoid getting picked up by the Universe and expelled. The Spirit God also had warned him about this. The only reason he accepted to become like this was due to the lack of knowledge about this. After defeating the Supreme Beast, he was sure that no one would dare to pick a fight with him anymore since Alex had stepped beyond the God King Stage. Only fools would do something like that, but his physique alone might be enough to handle them because this was the true body. After a long three months, Alex''s body had been reformed. His Immortal Energy had stabilized and his breathing had gotten its rhythm back. His eyebrows twitched for a split second before Alex opened his eyes. There was another weird sense coming from those eyes that could send a shiver down one''s spine. This was the effect of Alex''s Immortal Energy. And this also meant that Alex had finished his preparation for the last war. Chapter 1172: Return When Alex finally woke up from his slumber, he quickly got back on his feet and returned to the planet called Encore first to say goodbye to the Spirit God since he reached this level due to his assistance. Meanwhile, the Spirit God, who was looking at the sky that had been turning black and blue, couldn''t help but smile when he saw the last one, knowing Alex had succeeded. ''You''re the best chance we''ve got. Unfortunately, the fight against that beast may need more effort than you thought¡­ I''m afraid your power has yet to be able to kill that beast completely.'' The Spirit God clenched his teeth and sighed, ''I am sorry for burdening you with this.'' Alex landed gently on the ground and smiled at him, "I have finished. I think I have reached the True Immortal Level, but since the universe doesn''t know about it, I will say I have reached God Emperor Level. What do you think?" "Yes. I think it''s good." The Spirit God nodded in agreement. "That''s right. Do you wish to say something to Lin Xingzhi and the others? I will pass your message." "I know your good intentions, but I don''t wish to create another chapter that will just add to their sadness. They have gotten over me, so I just wish for their happiness." Alex didn''t agree to it. Instead, he corrected him by saying, "What do you mean? You have said it a few times. I am you. You are me. We are the same. They love me means they love you too. The chapter is not finished yet because we are Alexander Sirius." The Spirit God smiled and closed his eyes. "Thank you, My Reincarnation. Unfortunately, I can''t say anything in the current situation. Though, I do have two things that I want to tell you." Alex turned serious as he asked, "And they are?" "The first is your future. If you happen to win against that beast, you shouldn''t forget about the fact that the family needs proper teaching and warmth. Even if they''re not going to be destroyed in your generation, we can''t say anything about a few generations after you. That''s why I want you to make clear with your children to teach them properly as a family. "And have them teach their own sons and daughters to do just that." The Spirit God sighed. Alex nodded with a grim expression, knowing what to do. "Yeah. I am not planning to have the family ruined." "Good." The Spirit God nodded with satisfaction as he rose from the floor, walking to Alex. He got closer and hugged him like a best buddy before whispering, "Then, the second thing I want to tell you is¡­" While the two Alexs had their conversation, Lin Xingzhi and the others still couldn''t chase the Supreme Beast because he would disappear at the last minute. Although this process was infuriating and tedious, they managed to buy more time than needed. Lin Xingzhi furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what she should do since Alex hadn''t come out this whole time. The army started doubting him too, but she couldn''t disclose the fact that Alex went to break through to another level because it meant Alex would leave them after this battle. There was still his Space Element that could seal his cultivation, but he didn''t know how effective it was, so she didn''t want to make an empty promise. Only Alex''s appearance would be able to revitalize them. She sat on a chair while asking lazily, "Rose. Any information about Alex?" [It''s still blank. I don''t know what''s going on.] "It just means Alex is not in this universe. Anyway, I want you to monitor him until he returns." [I understand. I will inform you as soon as I receive information from him.] Unknown to her, Rose had been lying this whole time because Alex requested her not to say anything, wanting to surprise them. The God Kings, as expected, still gathered together, discussing their battle plans. Lin Xingzhi tiredly looked at them before joining their gathering. "So, do you guys have anything you want to say about this war?" "Not really." Alaya shook her head. "I only want to tell you that we may not be able to help the others because we will be too tired to fight anymore after dealing with them or any other reasons." Most of them nodded their heads, showing their agreement to her statement. The God of Destruction asked, "That''s right. Do you have news from the Spirit God? If he were here, we could just break through them without caring about their ambushes anymore. Unfortunately, we''re in a bind here because we can''t afford to lose that much." Lin Xingzhi shook her head in disappointment. "I don''t know. I haven''t received any news. Even I don''t know his location, so don''t ask me¡­" "How about a bet? Let''s predict when he will return." Jeanne smirked, trying to wipe off her boredom. Right before they started the bet, Alex laughed after making his appearance out of nowhere. "Alright. I''m betting on myself coming right now!" Lin Xingzhi and the others were surprised, never expecting Alex would appear at this timing. "I''m pretty lucky to finish it first before the beast. But it is also thanks to all of you here." Alex grinned and went toward them. Lin Xingzhi accompanied by all the God Kings quickly flew toward him, looking at him with observant eyes, only to find that Alex''s cultivation seemed to be the same. However, they also realized that Alex had this type of aura that they had never seen before, making them feel threatened. Alex only smiled and said, "How are you all doing? I haven''t heard any reports, so does anyone want to explain it to me?" Lin Xingzhi let out a long sigh and said, "Our situation is not good but not that bad as well. First of all, we can have all Rank 2 Gods destroy all their armies while stopping any God Kings that dared to come here." Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah. I think that''s good enough." "Well, I have thought of something that will allow me to defeat my opponent." Lin Xingzhi added a side note with a cunning look. The God of Destruction and God of Wrath also nodded in agreement as if they had prepared something beyond his imagination. The Magic Goddess giggled as if she had a ridiculous plan, but Alex ignored it as well. He only observed the others and asked, "Do you think you can win?" "If we die in this kind of situation, we will be too ashamed." Was their reply to him. Alex nodded before the Palm God stopped him, asking, "Spirit God¡­ Are you¡­" He hesitated even though this was the question all of them wanted to ask. Understanding their worry, Alex only answered him with another question. "Do you want to test it, Palm God?" The Palm God shook his head due to the feeling he sensed from Alex. "Let''s go then." Alex nodded. "I''m sure you''ve located his direction, so we will be picking up our pace right now. I don''t feel like dying today." All God Kings nodded their heads with a serious expression as they returned to their own armies, shouting. "All troops! Move out!" Alex then returned to Eulja''s armies, where all the soldiers greeted him with euphoria. They hated to admit it, but Alex''s presence indeed brought insane morale to his as well as the other God Kings'' armies. Suddenly, a group of bats tried to intercept them. They numbered a thousand. Due to their positions, the God of Destruction tried to intercept those bats before his assistants told him to go ahead and let them handle this type of situation. "¡­" The God of Destruction ultimately agreed to their decision even though he didn''t want to let them do it alone. In the end, Alex sent a bit of his army along with his Guardians to help them. As expected, Alex understood this type of tactic. "Guerilla warfare huh. With their numbers, I believe this is a good tactic since we can''t act carelessly and venture too deep into their territories because we may be ambushed. But now that I''m here, we don''t need to wait anymore." Lin Xingzhi nodded and continued marching forward. Many monsters began to come out from Divine Worlds, coming to hit Alex, only to be stopped by the joint armies. Still, Alex activated his Spirit Eyes to check whether there was a God King hiding nearby. Fortunately for them, he didn''t sense a single of them, believing they were on the Supreme Beast''s side. "We will arrive within five minutes." Alex turned to Lin Xingzhi and nodded before walking toward her with a serious expression. Lin Xingzhi tilted her head in confusion, feeling Alex wanted to discuss something, but no words had yet to come out of his mouth. Instead of telling her the truth, Alex only hugged her tightly without caring about his appearance and closed his eyes. Lin Xingzhi was stunned, but she somehow understood that this hug felt different than any others. Alex seemed to be telling her something that she couldn''t comprehend, only to find tears coming out of her left eye. "Eh? Why am I crying?" Lin Xingzhi tried to wipe the tears while looking at Alex with bewilderment. "Just want you to know, I love you." Alex smiled. "I love you too, but are you setting up a red flag?" Lin Xingzhi tried to joke around to hide her tears. "You are not going to leave me and the others, right?" "I don''t have a plan to do that." Alex shook his head and released her. "Trust me, okay?" Lin Xingzhi nodded before sensing something big in front of them. She turned around and furrowed her eyebrows. Alex scratched the back of his head and muttered, "I wonder if this is due to the red flag?" "What can I say? I have done my best, my past self." Alex sighed when watching the huge amount of Immortal Qi fluttering in the air. Unlike him, the beast didn''t receive the baptism or tribulation since he was like Sherry, only sleeping to get it done. And when the Immortal Energy burst out of that planet, it quickly disappeared as if the beast swallowed them all like how he ate the Angels. "I guess my luck is not that great¡­ Or maybe it''s because that beast has transcended luck? Well, I have been lucky enough that this place is not that far from the white hole where I returned to this universe, so I shouldn''t feel sad. And this is going to be the last battle." Alex smiled and signaled to Lin Xingzhi. "They are in front of us. I''m sure you are ready to face them with your all might, right?! Let''s settle this for three years¡­ No! Five thousand years grudge with them! Eulja! Move!" Chapter 1173: First Confrontation In the void, ten beasts stood side by side as if receiving a guest to their house. The Supreme Beast smirked and shouted, "Hahahaha! Spirit God! Why is your cultivation still a God King? Do you think you can win against me with that puny strength of yours?" "My strength, huh. You''re so good. To think you can understand my strength in one glance¡­ Even I couldn''t help but feel impressed. I mean, even my Spirit Eyes have no confidence to do the same." Alex shook his head helplessly. The Supreme Beast suddenly felt something was wrong, but he couldn''t find it. He knew Alex was different from three years ago, but that was all. Alex didn''t release his energy, so he had no idea what kind of transformation Alex had undergone. All the God Kings then gathered around Alex, trying to intimidate them. After all, the enemies only had two Bears, six Bats, one Dragon, and one Supreme Beast, while they had fourteen God Kings, including Alex. There was no way they would lose to them again, especially with their number. "It seems another Angel has fallen, eh?" Alex snorted, looking down on the Supreme Beast like how the latter did earlier. The Supreme Beast clenched his teeth since the Angel needed to die to let him advance to the next level. He incorporated his Law, the World''s Energy, and his own body to create Immortal Energy forcefully. The Supreme Beast shouted in anger. "And after today, I will fill this outer space with blood and open a free shop for everyone to paint their spaceship red." "Oh, you mean your blood?" Alex harrumphed. "I''m sorry, but my blood is not red." The Supreme Beast shrugged, indirectly telling him that his blood was going to be used to paint a spaceship. "That is only possible if you can kill me today, which I doubt you can." Alex shrugged. Between these insults, the first to make a move was the Earth God. Alex had been missing all these years, so he believed Alex must have done something big like their King, so he wanted to test Alex to see his power. "You''re going to do it?" The Supreme Beast narrowed his eyes and asked the Earth God. "Please let me do it, My King. I would like to see the gap between us." The Earth God lowered his head. "Just once." The Supreme Beast nodded his head since he was quite curious too. The Spirit God was not someone who would make a useless effort. There must be something he was missing and using the Earth God to check it out might be good. After getting the acknowledgment, the Earth God stepped forward and clapped his hand. "Calling." The Earth Element Disturbance suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grew bigger and bigger until it began to solidify, creating a huge meteoroid half the size of a Lower World. He wanted to see whether Alex still needed to use his Eight Purities Slash to cut down this thing anymore. It should be enough to gauge his current prowess. "Go!" The huge meteoroid flew toward Alex as the latter only smiled without the intention of moving. The God Kings that stood by his side took a step back as they wondered how Alex was planning to fight. However, it might be due to him being Alex''s servant or actually his anger, the God of Wrath, Marcus, jumped toward the meteoroid. A reddish-purple flame appeared on his hand as he punched that huge meteoroid. The flame then splashed like that of water and engulfed the entire big rock like a slime. Surprisingly, that big rock began to melt like it was inside magma before disappearing from their vision. "!!!" The Earth God widened his eyes and looked at the person behind his attack. "God of Wrath!" Marcus snorted and acted as if nothing happened. He released his killing intent and wrath as he shouted, "I haven''t forgotten it yet, Earth God. You all have massacred all the people in my territory and the Goddess of Destiny along with her people. This anger¡­ can even melt everything in this universe. I will be the one to kill you in this battle." "¡­" The Earth God clenched his fists. He never found the God of Wrath as his opponent, but that strike earlier showed that he indeed reached the previous generation God Kings'' level. The current him started wondering whether he had the strength to face him or not. Since it was impolite not to return something they gave, Lin Xingzhi also took one step forward as she raised both hands, calling Fire and Lightning Disturbance at the same time. She fused them together and created a stronger one. "Lightning Fire Dragon Union." The combined Disturbance formed a dragon and flew straight toward the Supreme Beast. Just like Alex''s nonchalant expression, the Supreme Beast knew that someone would appear to block it. And it turned out, the Blood God jumped forward like the God of Wrath. Red-colored blood appeared out of nowhere as it also formed into a dragon, flying toward Lin Xingzhi''s Dragon. However, this red dragon was obviously weaker than Lin Xingzhi''s attack, so the Blood God called another color blood which turned out to be green blood. It reinforced the Dark Red Dragon, forming into armor. The two dragons then clashed, causing a huge explosion that shook the entire battlefield. The Blood God snorted and said, "You won''t be able to hit my King as long as I''m here." Lin Xingzhi only shrugged her shoulders and said, "Is that so? We will see it later." To their surprise, the moment Lin Xingzhi said those words, the Supreme Beast was the one who stepped forward. "Move! You are not strong enough to test him. I will test him myself." He summoned all six elements simultaneously and fused them together before shooting that rainbow-colored energy toward Alex. "Gehenna Ray!" The Supreme Beast wanted to see if Alex still used the same technique to handle this kind of attack since, without a doubt, the power of this technique had improved a lot when he used the Immortal Energy instead of Divine Energy to fuse all the elements. This time, the Magic Goddess, Alaya, and God of Destruction went forward, trying to block this attack to show that they had the upper hand. As long as Alex hadn''t made a move, they could show that they were stronger, raising their morale. Five magic circles appeared out of nowhere as five star-shaped white lights emerged from the magic circles. The Magic Goddess waved her staff. "Five Great Stars Magic." Raiju also used his fist and struck the attack with the Power of Destruction, trying to make the power decay. "Fist of Destruction." "Life and Death Coffin. Absorb." The same applied to Alaya as she called the coffin and absorbed the power of six elements only to find that her coffin rejected this energy and spat it out again. She didn''t know that the one that her coffin couldn''t swallow was Immortal Energy. The Supreme Beast only snorted, looking at their useless efforts. The five star-shaped lights were engulfed by the Gehenna Ray, whereas Raiju got pushed back, forcing Alaya to rescue him after finding that they couldn''t stop that attack. This was a shame for Alex because they couldn''t show their worth. Knowing their intention, Alex simply called his sword and gently lifted it up when the attack was about to hit him, deflecting above his head. "¡­" The Supreme Beast widened his eyes and knew the only energy that countered his own Immortal Energy was another Immortal Energy. Hence, Alex had also stepped on this stage. It might be due to his weird Space Element that he managed to stay undercover, making him realize that Alex planned to stay in this Universe for a long time. However, what made him smile was the other meaning. If he wanted to stay in this Universe, he needed to kill him first because he was the biggest hurdle to do that. Before the Supreme Beast said anything, Alex simply summoned his Fire Lotus above his head and threw all those ten petals toward him. Since the other side tried to block it, the three among them also tried to do it to show they were stronger, lowering the enemy''s morale. This time, the ones who showed up were the Evil God, Vampire Goddess and Demon God. The Evil God released grey-colored energy, turning them into a huge scythe, impaling the Divine Petals. "Death Scythe." Meanwhile, the Vampire Goddess summoned a hundred bats and connected each of them with red-colored thread made of blood, planning to receive the attack from head-on like the God of Destruction and catch all these petals. "Blood Net." "Divine-Demonic Blast." Last but not least, the Demon God created a huge burst of purple-colored energy to weaken all these petals first because they felt the same energy as their King''s from these petals. Unfortunately for them, Alex seemed to have understood another thing in his power during the training. Because his Immortal Energy actually carried both elements, unlike the previous Divine Energy that needed to be fused first, his Divine Petals also had a Space Element covering the Fire Element. When the Demon God''s attack swallowed them, the Space Element bent the attack, deflecting it to another direction while continuing their way without a problem. Meanwhile, the scythe that was going to impale the petals finally flew down, only to be stopped by three petals. They first bent the scythe blade before exploding to shatter the scythe into pieces. The same applied to the Vampire Goddess''s Blood Net when two petals exploded and reduced the bats to nothing. There were only five petals left for the Supreme Beast to handle. Since Alex also handled his attack, the Supreme Beast stopped the others from stopping this attack and stepped forward. The rainbow-colored energy gathered on his paw, turning into his gauntlet. "Gehenna Gauntlet." Yet, something was different from his previous Gehenna Gauntlet. It expanded into a giant gauntlet as the Supreme Beast caught all those petals and let them explode inside his hand. Smoke gushed out of his hand, making one think the Supreme Beast was injured. Unfortunately for them, the Supreme Beast laughed and said, "It''s hot, eh?! Why don''t you use this fire to light a candle?" "!!!" The people behind Alex got triggered. To think the beast still looked down on Alex, who seemed to have the same power as him, by saying that his flame was so weak to the point it could only light up a candle. It was so humiliating. However, Alex maintained his calm and returned that insult with a smirk. "Sure¡­ if it''s for your funeral. But I don''t think you will die with a burial ground, so I will graciously give you the best cremation with this weak fire of mine. Be grateful." Chapter 1174: Past The two sides released their energy, showing both of them were not weak. After understanding a bit of Alex''s strength, the Earth God came to the Supreme Beast''s side and said, "My King, it''s not good. They may be using their number to exhaust you first. I hope that My King doesn''t make a move first. Let us." The Supreme Beast narrowed his eyes and raised his voice. "Spirit God! What do you think about leaving this place? We can fight in another place like what we did in the past!" "Alex¡­" Lin Xingzhi looked at him with a concerned face, waiting for his answer. She was just afraid that Alex would leave them again like in the past. But fighting here also meant he would see his people dying because that strategy might be good but not fit for Alex. ''War is a fight of sacrifice huh.'' Alex let out a long sigh and looked at Lin Xingzhi, handing her a wooden token. "I have sealed my energy in this place. If it''s cracking, it means I''m in trouble. If it''s not, please trust me." "Sacrifice may be the best answer, but it''s out of my character." Alex smiled and looked at the beast with a calm expression before disappearing from the battlefield. The beast could see his movement and also left the battlefield, following him to another place. This was the reason the Supreme Beast hadn''t panicked yet. The Spirit God had a character. It might be foolish but honorable. That was why the Supreme Beast actually respected Alex, not all the other God Kings from the past or the present, despite being his enemy. In another area, Alex halted his movement, feeling that he had gained enough distance from the others. He scanned the area, finding a few Divine Worlds, Upper Worlds, and even some Lower Worlds. This place seemed to be filled with many "shields" that he could use to block the Supreme Beast''s attack. Meanwhile, the Supreme Beast had arrived right behind him without releasing his power. He simply stared at Alex''s back with a smirk. "Oh, Spirit God! To think you would still be like this after getting defeated by me. I''m impressed." "That was in the past. The present¡­ Do you think you can win?" As Alex asked that question, the seal he placed in his body disappeared, releasing a dense Immortal Energy from his body and showing him his real cultivation stage. He repeated the question. "Do you think you can win?" The beast shivered as he took a step back, looking at Alex with excitement. "Hahahaha! Good, good, good! As expected, you have reached the True Immortal Stage too, Spirit God!" "Is there a need to be the strongest?" Alex''s eyes became melancholy. "Some people will always jump into an opportunity to get stronger and they will continue doing it until they die. For me, this strength is just a burden. I don''t wish to have this strength, but it''s also necessary to wield it to protect what''s mine." "Becoming a philosopher already?" The Supreme Beast released his killing intent and Immortal Energy. "No. I''m just questioning your existence. I don''t need to wield this power if you''re not here." Alex shook his head and released his killing intent too. Their auras alone clashed, creating a shock wave to the surrounding planets. "A lonely boy who is unwanted¡­ How cute." "!!!" The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth as if Alex just poked something in his past. He roared and spat out a purple-colored poison ball of his mouth. Alex smiled and raised his hand. A pink sphere appeared between them as it caught the poison ball and wrapped it gently. "Space Compression." The ball suddenly shrank because it just compressed nothing. Just like his Divine Petals, which should be a Fire Element Technique but could have a Space Element. This Space Element Technique could also gain his Fire Element, burning the poison as soon as it wrapped the poison ball. Watching this, the Supreme Beast was stunned and looked at Alex, feeling that he was stronger than he expected. "What? You''re getting triggered already." Alex snorted. "Don''t talk like you know me!" The Supreme Beast roared, sending his killing intent to Alex. The latter only brushed it off while saying, "And you talk like you know me. Hypocrite. Well, I guess that''s how you, a beast, operate. Despite being a proud dragon, you didn''t get the attention you deserved and came to this place to attain it. Pathetic." "Shut up!" The Supreme Beast created a large ice meteoroid and launched it toward Alex. "¡­" Alex simply shrugged his shoulders and gently waved his sword with the Nature Energy from his Spirit Crown. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave cut through the Ice easily and made its way toward the Supreme Beast. Rainbow-colored energy gathered on his hand as the Supreme Beast caught it with his paw and shattered the Sword Wave. "Gehenna Gauntlet." "I don''t care about your complex, but there''s a limit to what you can do. Since you''re planning to destroy this universe, I shall cut you down here and now." "You don''t know anything!" The Supreme Beast raised his voice. "You don''t know the feeling of oppression. Despite becoming one of the most important people, your effort won''t be recognized. You don''t know anything! "When you did something amazing, people would always compare yourself to your elder, saying it''s not enough. Whatever you did is just to be compared and forgotten." Alex shook his head and smiled, "I know. I know that feeling. Being compared to a genius family member and continuously getting outshined. I know that feeling very well." Alex remembered his past when people only thought of his genius sister. He tried to do anything to assist his sister, yet, his effort only made the people around him scorn and throw him into the trash. People could easily recall the number one¡­ Who is the first person to go into space? They could easily answer it. Yet, when the question changed into "Who is the second person to go into space?" Alex doubted only a small number of people could answer it. Back then, his only determination to continue living was Sandra. The naive him thought Sandra must have recognized his effort, becoming one of the small group of people that knew such an answer. Unfortunately for him, the choice was wrong. Although he only admitted it now, Maria turned out to be the one recognizing his effort, especially when she tried to talk it out when Sandra and John demeaned him. If he were together with Maria instead of Sandra, he wondered what kind of future he would have. Nevertheless, it was just the past. All the things that had happened as well as the choices in the past had given him far more important things. Lin Xingzhi, Anna, Anya¡­ If he wanted to name all of them, he would be happy to do it. They were, after all, his most precious treasures. That was why he understood the beast''s feeling. Just like the Spirit God said, the beast was just a lonely child. Unlike him, the beast didn''t have anyone who would support him and turned into something like this¡ªchopping his dragon body just to become a mutant of six species. He must have experienced something worse to the point he was called a monster, not in the sense of a genius, but a true monster. His family surely looked at him with disgust and other things. Alex''s serious expression as if he knew it all just pissed the Supreme Beast off. He thought, ''Khh¡­ What are those eyes? What is that look? Are you pitying me?'' The Supreme Beast released all his energy and roared, "I don''t need your pity. I will kill you and everyone here! No one shall stop me again!" Before Alex could say anything, he gathered the rainbow-colored energy and released it from his hand. "Gehenna Ray." If it were the past him, he would''ve freaked out. But he had grown much stronger from that time. He raised his hand and summoned a Fire Lotus. The Petals flew and clashed with the Gehenna Ray, causing a huge explosion. As one would expect, the Fire Lotus suddenly disappeared as the Gehenna Ray continued on its path. "Haiz, it''s truly not enough." Alex shook his head in disappointment. "At least, it has weakened the attack so much." Alex let out a long sigh and received the weakened Gehenna Ray with his swords and launched it above instead, letting it explode when it reached an asteroid. "Anyway, I don''t care much about your past. I just want to kill you here." Alex snorted and turned serious. The Supreme Beast chuckled and released all his rainbow-colored energy, covering his body like armor. This was indeed something Alex had never faced. "I think we''ve warmed up enough, right? Let''s get serious then." He gathered all the energy into his mouth as he released it like a breath. "Gehenna Ray." "!!!" Alex widened his eyes and felt something was different from the previous Gehenna Ray. It was far stronger and concentrated. He decided to take one step away from this and let the Gehenna Ray pass him, hitting the Upper World behind him. Boom. A tremendous shock wave launched the Upper World and created a deep hole inside. In fact, Alex could see the world''s core along with so much molten lava that began to freeze because of the temperature in outer space and the destroyed atmosphere that couldn''t withstand the temperature. The Supreme Beast just half destroyed the Upper World, which was several times bigger than a Lower World. He indeed far surpassed the him who was a mere God King. "¡­" Alex took a deep breath and stared at the beast. Seeing this gaze, the beast only laughed and said, "Oh, Spirit God! I wonder what you can do when you''re in this position¡­ I truly would like to see your power after becoming a True Immortal." Alex sighed as his aura soared through the roof with his spear and sword gathered all Immortal Energy Alex could offer before they released it in one go. "Sword and Spear Possession." Golden and blue colored energy fused together with his Immortal Energy as Alex raised his hand. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave carried a trace of Fire and Space Elements as well as all his power like Blade Qi and Intent. Since Alex avoided his strike, he moved to the right to dodge it as well, letting it hit the Lower World behind him. It was different from him, but he soon heard two loud rumbling sounds in his ears, making him turn around and finding Alex just cut two Lower Worlds that lined up on his back. "What did you say again?" Alex snorted with a cold gaze. Chapter 1175: Pairs Meanwhile, on the actual battlefield, the God Rank Experts had begun their fight. Obviously, Alex''s side had an overwhelming advantage with their number. Watching their side getting slaughtered one by one, the Earth God furrowed his eyebrows, saying, "I''m going first." As he said those words, the Earth God disappeared, arriving above the battlefield. He clapped his hand and stretched it forward, creating multiple asteroids. "Meteor Falls." The Earth God launched all those rocks to obliterate the enemies with an overwhelming number since this was the best option for them. According to the plan, the God of Wrath appeared between the battlefield and the asteroids with his purple-colored flame that seemed to be the personification of his wrath. He spread the flame and turned them into a roof for the people below them, catching all those rocks and melting them down with that anger of his. "I''m your opponent, Earth God." The God of Wrath narrowed his eyes and jumped toward him, sending a punch toward his face. The Earth God raised both hands as he turned into a black-colored bear with both paws covered in stones. Bam. The loud noise resounded on the battlefield as the God of Wrath hit the rock that acted as a gauntlet, but he gritted his teeth, remembering how his people, the Goddess of Destiny and her people were massacred by him. He channeled all that anger into the power behind his fist and blew him away. He also followed the Earth God while saying, "Your opponent is me." Not feeling right when the Earth God was at a disadvantage, the Blood God prepared to help him, but as soon as he jumped upward, Alaya appeared out of nowhere. "Life and Death Coffin." A huge coffin appeared above her before her eyes shone white and black. On her right hand and right foot, black-colored energy covered them while releasing a huge amount of Death Energy as if telling people that once it touched them, it would invite them to hell. On the contrary, her left hand and left foot filled with Life Energy that could turn the Life Energy that her other hand absorbed into power. "Activate." The coffin then began to emit a black aura before a bright white light shone above it. The white light turned into a watch while the black aura transformed into its arrow, showing a certain time. Just like the fight against the Bear, it showed a certain number. 14,000 "Fourteen thousand huh." Alaya narrowed his eyes. "I guess, I need to get serious with this fight. Well, I have regained my full strength, so it''s fine." "Life and Death Goddess!" The Blood God gritted his teeth as he found that Alaya''s white claw grasped his wrist and twisted it. "Not good." Just like the Earth God, Alaya threw this guy to another place, so they could fight alone. She believed this was the best strategy since they couldn''t afford to have the people die on the battlefield because of an attack they dodged. "Just like him, I will be your opponent. I hope that you don''t disappoint me, Blood God." She said it like that, but she already made the first move, especially when they looked at the projected number. 13,900 "Tch. Both of them left. We need to¡ª" When the Vampire Goddess was about to finish her words, five magic circles appeared above them. "Five Great Stars Magic." Five star-shaped lights emerged from the magic circles and flew toward all the God Kings. "Tch. Annoying." The Vampire Goddess clicked her tongue and summoned five giant bats that flew toward the lights and swallowed them, absorbing their energy. Unfortunately for her, these lights seemed to be different as they shone even brighter when they reached the bats'' stomachs, exploding them and brightening the dark outer space. The Vampire Goddess raised her hands because it was too bright for her eyes. But this also meant her vision became limited. It was when the God of Destruction took advantage of that blinding light to reach the Vampire Goddess, ready to throw his fist. "!!!" The Vampire Goddess widened her eyes. "Not good." She used both hands to stop that fist, but the momentum and Raiju''s power pushed her hand back until it touched her cheek. It didn''t stop there. The punch continued until he broke her jaw, misconfiguring her face and blowing her away as if there was no gender in his eyes and action. "Don''t punch a girl''s face, God of Destruction¡­" The Magic Goddess, Rubia, made a weird smile when he saw that crude man''s action. "I wonder if that''s the correct thing¡­ I mean, the blinding light." "It''s good enough. Anyway, we need to get going too." Lin Xingzhi shrugged and disappeared from the battlefield. As if feeling her presence, the Evil God turned around and narrowed his eyes. "It seems Nature Goddess is my enemy. Well, I have fought against her father, so I will handle her." He seemed to go for a peaceful approach while summoning his bat wings. After making sure everything was alright, he left the battlefield, following Lin Xingzhi. He could also make sure that none of them would bother the Supreme Beast. This left the Demon God to be the last one among the original beasts and stared at the Magic Goddess, who seemed to be his opponent in this fight. Suddenly, he found a small crystal appeared above them and exploded, bursting Ice Element. The Demon God raised his hand and protected them with his black-colored energy before a golden staff appeared, creating a heart symbol on top of the staff''s head and hitting the Demon God. "Justice Blow." The Magic Goddess used her own staff to hit the Demon God like a baseball before following him. As one would expect from someone who liked the attention, the Magic Goddess didn''t forget to wink to others while saying, "I''m going to defeat the bad guy." They all became annoyed as their faces were twisted. They really wanted to say, "Just go, Old Hag!" but chose to be a bit mature and ignored her like how the Spirit God always did. Because the original beasts had gone, there were only the Water God, the Wolf, the Panther and the Battle God to hold the fort. Anna then went into action by raising her hand, commanding the people that Eulja brought. "All God Beasts are to kill the rest while making sure they truly died. Check their parasites too!" The Ten God Beasts nodded their heads together and said, "Please leave it to us." "Six Elemental Gods are to protect the entire battlefield to avoid anyone from interfering. Treat all the people that enter this battlefield for whatever reason as our enemies. Tell the other God Kings so they can make an adjustment to the plan if there''s any." "Sure, thing. Ah, my lovely daughter has grown up¡­" Rilt wiped the tears on his eyes. "¡­" Anna paused for a moment, calming her heart down from the embarrassment. She then continued, "After the Five Guardians return to the battlefield, have them help the Six Elemental Gods. As for Song Tao and the others, please kill all those guys with the God Beasts." After giving the rest their commands, Anna looked at the remaining beasts, saying, "Let''s kill them." "That''s what I''ve been waiting for." Jeanne smirked and released dark red lightning from her body before turning into one herself. "True Spirit Body. Blood Ethereal Lightning Form." Agnis pouted and made a fuss. "I also want something like that. Come on, I want to be a God King too." Jeanne stuck her tongue out and went straight toward the Dragon Pet''s, the Water God. She crossed her short swords and released a powerful Lightning Shock Wave. "I''m coming for your life!" The Water God furrowed his eyebrows and used his water to form a barrier that surprisingly wouldn''t transmit the lightning. "Hmm¡­ I see. In that case, I will let her do it then." Jeanne smirked and looked behind him. "!!!" The Water God widened his eyes and felt a sharp tool coming for his neck. "Surely, I know that you can''t wait anymore, Jeanne." Anna let out a long sigh, only to find her scythe missed the target. She didn''t stop there and released her Butterfly Wing with many black patterns covering her body. "True Spirit Body. Dark Butterfly Spirit." "Espa." Torrential black energy suddenly released powerful energy that knocked him far below the battlefield. Jeanne and Anna then chased the Water God they blew away. "They are going to separate u¡ª" The Battle God wanted to warn the rest, but the Palm God already appeared in front of him, sending his palm that seemed to be covered with white light. The Battle God widened his eyes and blocked it like when they previously fought, only to be surprised by the power contained in that one palm. Just like the others, the Palm God blew him far away while summoning one thousand hands on his back. He didn''t forget to furrow his eyebrows and say, "I don''t need your help, Holy God." "Hoho, this old man wants to win." The Holy God chuckled as he was the culprit why the Palm God had that white light covering his palm that gave him a boost in his power. "Haiz, you all can''t wait for me even though I''m also confident with my strength." The God of Strength sighed before his shirt burst out, revealing his perfect muscles. However, there were many patterns on his body, like a tattoo, but they emitted a powerful aura. It seemed to be inactive for now, but the God of Strength was powerful enough to be the strongest in terms of strength in this Universe. He came toward the Panther and clashed with its paw. The Panther obviously lost that fight and got blown away. Seeing the God of Strength had actually sent him away, the God of Greed could only shake his head helplessly while following them. "Seriously, why are there so many muscle brains in this Universe¡­ Well, not that I''m complaining since they are mostly cheap when I hire them. Anyway, time to kill them and gain more money." Since all of them had a battlefield, this center battlefield became the last one. As expected, Leoz felt a bit unsatisfied but decided not to show it on his face. Instead, he released all the lightning as well as his horns. "True Spirit Body, Thunder Berserker Form." Leoz looked at the Lycan and pointed his finger. "You''re fine. Stay there and let me kill you painlessly." The Song Goddess''s zither suddenly resounded on the battlefield as it sent a shock wave that was sharp enough to cut an asteroid. The Lycan furrowed his eyebrows and snapped it with his claw as his attention split into Song Goddess and Leoz. "Please don''t forget about me, Big Brother Leoz. You''ve been taking care of me since when we''re in the orphanage¡­" She smiled. "Rinrin¡­ Your childhood name sucks." Leoz snorted and charged toward the enemy. The Song Goddess pouted. "Master gave it, so I loved it!" Chapter 1176: Berserk The Song Goddess followed Leoz facing the Lycan. Leoz''s body was covered with yellow lightning. However, his giant blade seemed to be releasing something different than lightning. When he raised his hand, the answer quickly came. Rumble. Rumble. Loud noises resounded on the battlefield as if they just heard a clap of thunder. This was probably one of the reasons why he called himself a Thunder Berserker God instead of Lightning Berserker. No, it might be related to his Spirit Classification, who named him Thunder Berserker Spirit. The Song Goddess smiled and gently pulled one string of her zither, neutralizing the loud sound. "Big Brother Leoz, don''t be too noisy." Leoz narrowed his eyes and looked at her coldly. However, Rinrin seemed to not care about that gaze because Leoz was in his True Spirit Body. She knew well how indifferent Leoz could be in his serious mode. Even his muscle-brain element disappeared in his head when he was in this situation. That was the reason Leoz wouldn''t keep saying "challenging someone" as soon as he used his True Spirit Body. Rinrin smiled and said, "I will be supporting Big Brother Leoz from behind. I couldn''t do it in the past, but I truly wanted to thank Big Brother and Master for protecting me¡­" Leoz took a deep breath and channeled his Lightning Element into his sword. He said, "That''s my responsibility. After knowing the hardship one could endure alone, you would grow up just fine¡­ Like the way you are now. Let this body protect you for one last time since I''ve finally gained the strength to protect you again after you surpassed me and reached God King Stage first." After saying those words, Leoz disappeared, bringing his sword with him. The Lycan had a good sense, so he simply looked to the right, finding Leoz swinging his sword horizontally. He simply raised his hand and caught the sword with his palm, showing that his skin was so hard to the point he couldn''t pierce. "I have consumed millions of werewolves. Do you think your sword is harder than my skin?" The werewolf snorted and glanced at Leoz with a cold gaze. He then threw Leoz from him before the Song Goddess made her appearance on the other side. With her zither on the waist, she plucked one string and released a powerful shock wave to one single direction like that of a whip. The werewolf had his cheeks bloated before he let out a loud howl, creating the same shock wave as her since both were fundamentally the same, it was sound. The two shock waves clashed and created a small explosion transparent shock wave that flew in all directions other than the one they came in. Leoz used this chance to gather his Lightning Element on his sword before he slashed down. "Lightning Spirit Slash." A huge crescent-shaped yellow-colored lightning flew forward from the werewolf''s blind spot. However, the latter seemed to be able to sense it from a mile away and took one big step to the right without looking. This move was meant to show how he looked down on Leoz, making him angry to the point he couldn''t put his rationality in this fight. The Lycan thought it would be the best chance to win. But Leoz simply smirked since there was a certain person who could almost do anything. Suddenly, the Lycan picked up someone''s voice, singing, "I have been blessed by the ever-changing path, opening up my dark, gloomy way. For once, I have grown stronger and controlled my own fate." As one would expect from the Song Goddess, the first was symbolizing the Lightning Spirit Slash that could still be controlled by the Universe. In other words, the song earlier forced the Universe to take control and turn it according to the second verse. The Lycan widened his eyes when the Lightning Spirit Slash turned around and flew toward him with an even stronger power. "What?!" The Lycan gritted his teeth and covered his hand with black-colored energy. He struck the Lightning Spirit Slash with that black claw and spread all the energy all over the Sword Wave as it began to disappear naturally. "¡­" The Lycan quickly jumped forward as soon as he broke the Sword Wave, still finding his other arm missing. It turned out Leoz cut it while the Song Goddess maintained the Lightning Spirit Slash. That was why the Lycan tried to escape as soon as possible. However, as one would expect from a Lycan, the arm had started regenerating at speed visible with naked eyes. "Do you think you can win against me? I will show you the real reason why I''m qualified to be a God King." The Lycan howled before a blue light shone upon him as if it was trying to illuminate him. Yet his strength rose exponentially. But what made the Song Goddess shocked was Leoz''s reaction. It might be due to that howl earlier, but he seemed to be not in his right mind with his hand clutching his head as if he was in pain. He then charged toward the Lycan with all his power and slashed the regenerated hand. The Lycan only snorted and disappeared before Leoz instinctively raised his hand to block something coming from above. The Lycan appeared above him, sending a kick toward Leoz''s head but stopped by the hand. Yet, Leoz got blown away from the residual power in that kick before he finally stopped while clutching his head. "Moon God Empowerment." The Lycan snorted and looked at Leoz. "This power has the ability to increase my overall ability, but that''s not all. Coupled with my howl, it can launch a Mind Attack. It works pretty well for someone like you who is fighting something in your own head. This is your weakness. Accept your death." Despite being told so, there was no movement from Leoz. His eyes even half opened, feeling something weird on his head. This power seemed to be drastically drained of his rationality, turning him into a berserker that couldn''t determine foes and friends. Rinrin tried to play a soothing tune to calm Leoz down, but the Lycan appeared next to her, sending a punch toward her face. She instinctively raised that zither and blocked the fist with it, only to find it broken. "What?!" Rinrin widened her eyes, never expecting the Lycan to have this kind of ability. And when she saw black-colored energy covering his claws, she instantly recognized what kind of energy it was. "Corrosive Energy¡­" The Song Goddess narrowed her eyes and made a distance between them. Unfortunately for her, she needed to jump again without caring for her life when she understood the Lycan''s real aim. She quickly went toward Leoz to stop him from using this chance to kill him. The Song Goddess knew that Leoz must be experiencing the backlash of his True Spirit Body. If he became a real berserker who killed both foes and friends, there would be many uncertainties, so she tried to prevent him from becoming a berserker by stopping the attack. "Big Brother Leoz." Rinrin appeared in front of Leoz while using the Sound Wave produced from a clap to stop the fist, but the Lycan''s fist was stronger than she expected. The fist broke through her Sound Wave and hit her stomach until she spat a mouthful of blood before launching her a few kilometers away. Obviously, she didn''t forget to bring Leoz away from him while checking his condition. "Big Brother Leoz. Are you alright?" Rinrin asked and checked his condition before the Lycan came again. Surprisingly, Leoz had literally stopped doing anything as if the system in his body just got rebooted entirely. He then placed his hand on her shoulder, smiling. "I see. To think I haven''t realized it this whole time and let this little sister of mine suffer¡­ What a bad big brother I am¡­" "Big Brother?" Rinrin tilted her head in confusion, feeling something was wrong with him. Leoz looked like he wasn''t in his usual state. "Despite becoming a Berserker God, I have been avoiding the power of Berserker. I have always thought that this power will make me insane after a period of time, so I need to suppress that power. Thanks to you, I have realized I was wrong this whole time." Leoz smirked and released another aura, but this one seemed to be far more powerful than before. "Thanks to you, I know I need to be crazy all the time to utilize my Berserk Law properly." "Big Brother?" Rinrin''s face turned pale. There was a trace of fear apparent in her eyes. Coming from the same orphanage and calling him big brother, Rinrin obviously knew Leoz''s past. He had been hiding the fact that he was like a beast before he met Alex. No, in fact, it wasn''t like that anymore¡­ He was literally a beast, having no other interactions. Because his power often went out of control, the others feared him, avoiding him from any of their conversations. Only Alex and the people from the same orphanage would accept him no matter how harsh it was. Of course, it was due to Alex that such a thing was possible. And Leoz said he wanted to do something he had hated for the past few thousand years? She just couldn''t comprehend his actions. Albeit, what Leoz said completely changed her point of view. "Don''t worry about me. I was originally a beast. No, I should say my past identity as a beast actually defined my power perfectly. So this time, I will just return to my former self and surpass it." Leoz grinned evilly and released all his power, turning his lightning into black. Like Jeanne''s red lightning, this black-colored lightning carried the power of his law. And Leoz deemed this color fitted his personality. "Once again¡­ True Spirit Body. Lightning Berserker Form." Boom. Chapter 1177: First Blood Leoz finally became a full-fledged God King after rushing his path due to the pressure that the beast left him. He came to terms with his own Law and decided to utilize it like how Alaya wanted him. "Time for round two." Leoz smirked. Despite saying it was a Berserker Law, Leoz''s expression remained calm, not showing even a remnant of it. Yet, the Lycan could see that Leoz became even more dangerous than he expected to the point he might lose against him. No, it might be due to his Berserker Law that he understood what kind of phenomenon if someone went berserk. And this just showed how much he had control over it. Rinrin, the Song Goddess, arrived at the same answer as the Lycan. A high-pitched disturbing sound echoed on the battlefield as Rinrin actually changed her instrument to a guitar. And it was not a normal guitar. It was an electric guitar. "Hahaha! Since Big Brother Leoz wants to play it that way, I will support you. Let''s go crazy, baby!" Rinrin''s personality flipped the moment she changed instruments. However, she could do something like this due to her Law. The one she mastered was not a Song Law. Instead, it was Sound Law. This type of Law allowed her to control what kind of sound she wanted to produce. And she even bothered to practice all kinds of musical instruments she met. Leoz shook his head helplessly before charging toward the Lycan. "Lightning Spirit Slash." The Lycan gritted his teeth and threw a punch. The clash produced a shock wave too, but more importantly, the Lycan''s corrosive power and Leoz''s Berserk Lightning managed to clash on equal ground, trying to cancel one another. Due to Leoz''s strength finally reaching the Lycan''s real strength, Rinrin had enough time to understand the situation better and move accordingly. The Lycan suddenly turned his head, finding Rinrin next to him. "Sound Blast." Teng. The high-pitched sound sent a powerful Shock Wave that blew away the Lycan and grazed all over his body before the latter managed to get away, letting the residual attack hit an asteroid and blowing it up. "Kh!" The Lycan leaped a bit far before howling to neutralize the Song Goddess''s Sound Attack. Unlike the previous one, this shock wave felt so sharp. He even felt it was strong enough to cut him. "You¡­ Your power changes every time you use another instrument." The Lycan decided to assume this because if he observed the third or the fourth one, he would''ve gotten too many injuries. It was better to gamble it this way and prepare accordingly. The Song Goddess only snorted and said, "Are you sure? I''m going to play another verse then." A series of noises echoed in his ears. Although it still had the character of the previous sound, the shock wave that this tune summoned was a kind of a barrage attack. The Lycan narrowed his eyes and released all his corrosive power that began to shake when the shock wave passed it. Luckily, it didn''t go through his corrosive layer or it would be bad. Leoz looked at her and sighed, "Such a weird power. But I guess it suits you¡­" "Thank you." Rinrin smiled sweetly like a little girl who just received praise from her big brother. However, behind that smile was her scheming mind. She sent a thought transmission to Leoz. ''Big Brother. Protect me for fifteen minutes. I have a plan.'' White processing the message, the Lycan used this chance to attack them. He let out another howl to neutralize the Song Goddess''s Sound Wave before she sent more and charged toward her. It was better to eliminate someone who had mysterious power first after all. Unfortunately for him, Leoz appeared next to him with his sword swinging right at his neck. The Lycan gritted his teeth and stopped that Sword with both hands, planning to leap toward the Song Goddess by using Leoz''s giant sword as a stepping. However, he instinctively covered his cheek with his Corrosive Power before finding his jaw broken. Leoz finally came into his vision as he found Leoz''s fist punching his cheek and blowing him away. After getting the Corrosive Power in his fist, Leoz remained calm and looked at the black energy. He used his Lightning Element to neutralize it, but the skin had been eroded, revealing his flesh and blood. Due to the power behind this attack, he took another glance at Rinrin''s stomach, where she got struck by the same power. Surprisingly, there was a hole in her stomach this whole time. Although it wasn''t through her back, it still penetrated a few millimeters. In other words, Rinrin had been fighting with that kind of condition. He couldn''t help but feel embarrassed, thinking, ''She has gotten so much stronger. The kid who always needed protection the whole time had truly become a warrior¡­ Though, she still couldn''t fix her bad habit by letting her emotions take control of her when playing instruments¡­'' Leoz shook his head and charged toward the Lycan. "Erosion Force!" The Lycan created torrential energy that flew toward Leoz, planning to stop him. However, Leoz simply raised his hand as five black balls appeared in front of him, creating a bridge between each other by using the black lightning. They then charged powerful lightning energy in the middle as Leoz shot it to blast all this energy. "Thunder God Cannon." The two energies clashed with each other before the Lycan used it as a cover to close his distance to Leoz. Even if he wanted to stop the Song Goddess, Leoz had prepared to sacrifice his life, so he needed to finish this first. Another high-pitched sound formed another shock wave. The Lycan once again used his howl to neutralize it and covered his claws with the Black Energy. "Erosion Claw." Three crescent-shaped energies flew toward him. Leoz knew that the moment he destroyed this energy, the residual power would splash on his body, but the Lycan seemed to underestimate the real berserker. Leoz simply slashed the sword with his power and charged forward without hesitation. There were a few burned marks on his arms and chest, but Leoz simply laughed and waved his blade, launching the Lycan even further. He followed him and continued fighting since Rinrin said she had a plan. Surprisingly, the Song Goddess kept changing her instruments. From electric guitar to a bass that formed a blunt shock wave, a saxophone that created a shock wave without a form, or even the flutes that could summon the shock waves from all directions by changing its tune. After fifteen minutes, Leoz''s body was covered with injuries while Rinrin kept using her current instrument, a flute, to summon more and more Sound Waves toward the Lycan, who seemed to be exhausted after expending its energy this whole time since he needed to fight two God Kings of the same level. Rinrin played her flute and plugged three holes, changing the tune. Three Shock Waves appeared in different locations simultaneously. "Get lost!" The Lycan roared again before his voice turned weird. There was a shriek in that howl as if he just lost his voice. "Wha¡ª" Rinrin smiled when she found this. "Right? You''re relying on your own voice to fight against my sound. Unfortunately for you, my real title is Sound Goddess, but since it doesn''t sound romantic in your ears, I have become a Song Goddess. Well, I love songs, so it''s fine. But thanks to it, you haven''t realized the fact that I''m trying to influence your own sound to the limit and mess up with your vocal cords. "Now that you don''t have the power to protect yourself from my power, it''s time to step up my performance." Rinrin smirked and changed her instrument again. This time, she was playing with drums. Two sticks appeared on both hands as she smashed the drums with all her power, creating a tremendous shock wave. "!!!" The Lycan widened his eyes, never expecting he would be cornered like this. He looked at the shock wave and used all his Corrosive Power to form a wall, but the Corrosive Power got blown away because it didn''t have a solid form. And the Shock Wave seemed to be targeting only the liquid form and avoided any solid objects because everything was concentrated in one place. Yes, the noises were focused on the Lycan as if he got struck by an invisible enemy from the front. Not wanting to give the Lycan a chance, Rinrin hit it a few more times, creating a melody. As if becoming its complimentary tune, the few hits turned into a few shock waves that appeared on the Lycan''s right, top, bottom, and behind, leaving only his left open. The Lycan had no other choice than to raise his hands to guard all these shock waves until he found a way to escape, but the moment he found his left was empty, Leoz already appeared on his way. "I don''t want to waste more time on you!" Leoz ultimately got the chance from the Song Goddess''s help despite wanting to protect her. He slashed his sword downwards, channeling all the lightning he had into his sword. "O'' Ancient Thunder God, What is it that lies within your eyes? O Bright Thunder that splits the Heaven, rumbling tremors that shake the Earth, what pulse beats within your ears? Dwell inside me o'' God of Lightning as I am Thunder Berserker, Spirit Vessel." A giant Lightning Tribulation emerged from out of nowhere, lending all of its power into this one strike. All the yellow lightning was converted into black lightning in an instant, hovering around his sword. "No!" The Lycan raised both hands, trying to stop that attack with his Corrosive Power, but Leoz''s black lightning was more powerful than his expectation. "Lightning God Slash!" He let out all the power into that single attack, broke through the Lycan''s power, and slashed the Lycan into two. Chapter 1178: Arguing As soon as Leoz killed that guy, he took a deep breath and checked his condition. "That was harsh." "Yeah." Rinrin nodded and came to him before pointing at the remaining corpse. Leoz nodded and used his Black Lightning to destroy the body into nothingness. "Huft. How are you?" Leoz lowered his head and looked at her stomach with a concerned expression before taking a pill from the Inventory. "Take this first." "No, no. You''re the one who needs to use it." Rinrin shook her head and rejected it since Leoz''s body was covered with injuries. Leoz didn''t bother with her reply, opened her mouth, and forced her to swallow the pill. The wound on her stomach started getting snitched. "What are you doing?" Rinrin became mad because Leoz prioritized her again. "I don''t need it," Leoz said with a serious expression before making a playful expression and sticking his tongue out. For the first time, Leoz made a joke and took out another pill that gradually healed his wounds. "I have another one." "¡­" Rinrin''s body shook as if she just never expected to hear a joke coming from his mouth. She even placed her hand on his forehead to check his temperature. "You''re not sick? Then, maybe it''s a side effect from your power? Do you need help or medication?" "I''m not sick." Leoz clicked his tongue as his expression was distorted. "I mean, you''ve never told anyone a joke." "So, I couldn''t do it? Fine." Rinrin stuck her tongue out and hugged him like a sister, saying playfully, "Don''t say that. I like to see Big Brother is opening up a bit instead of becoming your dumb self." "Oi." Leoz sighed and asked, "How is your body condition?" "I am fine, but due to the injury earlier and how much I''ve exhausted my own Energy¡­ I don''t think I can fight more than this." Rinrin shook her head. "How about you?" Leoz admitted that his body was refusing to move. "I haven''t mastered my Berserker Law yet, so I don''t think I should fight more since I will just be a burden. I can only hope that Master will win against that beast." "Indeed." Rinrin nodded. "I don''t wish for it to end up the same." As the two looked at the horizon, hoping for Alex to win, another battle took place not far from them. It was the fight between the God of Greed and the God of Strength facing the Panther. The God of Strength looked at the Panther with a serious expression before incorporating his Law into his body, increasing his strength even further. His muscles bulged slightly as he raised both hands, ready to throw a punch. "Unfortunately for you, we both will destroy you." The God of Strength said while looking at the humanoid panther before him. "Huh? Are you dumb? Maybe you should use that strength of yours inside your head to make your brain bigger." The Panther snorted. "Dude¡­ You just got owned." The God of Greed laughed out loud. Even the God of Strength glared at the God of Greed. "Oi, we''re allies only for this battle, okay? I will be crushing you after this because of your earlier statement." "I just stated a fact." The God of Greed shrugged before a loud bang echoed. The Panther tilted his head to the right to avoid something fast coming to him before finding something just grazed his cheek. In other words, he just barely survived that attack. When he was about to respond, a loud explosion noise resounded on the battlefield. He turned around and widened his eyes to see a huge explosion behind him. That something seemed to hit an asteroid and did that much damage. As he turned around again, he saw a white-colored fifty centimeters long rifle held in one hand. Yes, the one who used the gun was none other than the God of Greed. "Come on, Dude. Can you please die? I don''t want to waste too much money even though I''ve prepared for it." The God of Greed shook his head in disappointment as if the Panther just screwed him over because he didn''t die from the bullet earlier. "How about you try doing it for real?" The God of Strength rolled his eyes. "Look, I don''t even understand why you''re so obsessed with money and how this event will give you more money. We can''t bring the corpse back since the agreement is to destroy it here." "That''s why you''re foolish. Just by killing this guy, I will get enough reputation to support my business, meaning more business opportunities. More businesses mean more money. More money means I can expand my business and become another potential business¡­ Means more money. That''s the cycle. Eventually, I will surpass the limit and become even wealthier than that Blackwade Clan." "But that clan is backed by the Spirit God¡­ Are you sure you can do it?" The God of Strength tilted his head in confusion. If the Spirit God was angry, the God of Greed simply couldn''t do anything. After all, Alex managed to deflect an attack that three powerful God Kings were not able to block so easily. And knowing that precise information made the God of Greed silent before correcting his words. "I will be the second richest person in this universe." "Are you not including the Spirit God?" The God of Strength became even more confused. "I heard this rumor when we fought together, but it seemed the Spirit God used almost two trillion Spirit Crystals to create three God Kings. And I also heard Eulja only supported a third a few hundred billion. The rest came from his pocket." "¡­" The God of Greed turned pale and corrected himself again. "I will become the second of the second richest person in this universe." "It''s basically the third¡­" The God of Strength shook his head helplessly, facepalmed. "You just didn''t want to lose, ain''t you?" "¡­" The God of Greed didn''t answer. "Whatever! I want to be rich." "You''re greedy." "That''s what my title implies¡­" "No, no. You''re beyond greedy." "Well, everyone is greedy. I mean, even I am greedy for money and women." "Hold up. It''s already arrived at the lust boundary." "Huh? You don''t understand. I am greedy for praise too." "Look. It''s Pride now. Dude, you''re beyond greedy." "What do you mean? Greed is good because it can reach everyone." The God of Greed shrugged, feeling he wasn''t in the wrong. The God of Strength facepalmed as he abandoned this guy already. He was indeed greedy for all other deadly sins too. Because of these two conversations, the Panther became irritated and sneaked behind them, appearing right behind the God of Greed while slashing him with his claws to shred him into pieces. However, the God of Strength had sensed him and intercepted the Panther''s blow with his own fist. He gripped the fist tighter to avoid him from running away while the God of Greed turned around and shot the Panther right on his head. As one would expect from a God King, the Panther avoided it again while listening to another explosion sound behind his back. "Come on, can you die already? Each bullet is ten million Spirit Crystals you know." The God of Greed sighed. "You''re saying that?" The God of Strength made a bewildered face. "You two need to f*ck the shut up! This is a battle!" The Panther roared in anger and tried to punch the God of Strength in the face. The God of Strength simply raised his other hand to stop that attack before grabbing the Panther''s shoulders before lowering him down. He then raised his knee, kicking him right on the face. "You are the one who needs to shut up. We''re discussing something important here. This guy''s greed knows no bounds, so I need to give him a bit of a lesson." "What did you say?" The God of Greed shot the Panther again only to find him dodging the bullet again. "You know nothing. Money can even buy lives, not just slaves. Even an illness or poison can kill you if you don''t have enough money to treat it is a good doctor, let alone the best. If I have all the money this universe can offer, then I don''t need to worry about it anymore. Oh, if you want, I can give you a special discount and allow you to invest your money in me. I can bring the best of it." "Just shut up, you greedy profiter." The God of Strength shouted and chased the Panther. "I mean, Greed is my title. Do you want me to act like a playboy or a kid to show that I''m not God of Greed?" "Shut up! You''re messing with my own form." The God of Strength snorted and sent a fist toward the Panther, completely blowing it up on the Panther because he couldn''t win against the God of Greed in an argument. The Panther became even angrier when these two didn''t seem to look at him as an opponent. They just couldn''t keep spouting nonsense. "This is a battlefield, not your room to argue!" Hearing the Panther''s shout and seeing a fist coming his way, the God of Strength decided to receive the punch while sending him one to test whose strength was stronger. "You goddamn right!" Both of them managed to deliver one strike to each other. The Panther managed to dislocate the God of Strength''s Jaw while the latter broke a few ribs. The God of Greed sighed and appeared in front of them, shooting the Panther from point-blank range. "Unfortunately, I can''t have you as bonus money for this battle. Goodbye, money bag." Unlike the God of Greed''s nonchalant attitude, the Panther panicked and ducked down before trying to kick the God of Strength''s lower part. The latter had no other choice and let go of the Panther''s hand, allowing him to create another distance to compose himself. "What the heck? Why did you release him? I was about to change my weapon¡­" The God of Greed snarled, feeling unsatisfied with the God of Strength''s choice. "You could receive many attacks on your body earlier¡­ Just be a man already." "Dude, I was going to stop being a man if that hit landed¡­" The God of Strength looked helpless. These two just never got along well, especially since they were neighboring God Kings. The only reason why the two actually participated in the Alliance that the Holy God created and quitted at the same time was due to their rivalry and all arguments like this. The God of Strength wanted to justify his own Law by showing how strong he was, while the God of Greed wanted to show how cool he was and poached the people from the neighboring God King. "I''m sick of you!" "I''m too! Just give me your strength and money already, I won''t bother you anymore!" The two continued to fight. Of course, they didn''t lower their guard down this whole time like how the two could react to whatever move the Panther made earlier. Chapter 1179: Anti-Climatic Win As the two continued to fight, the Panther was simply in a bind, wondering how these two could actually work together so well when trying to kill him but had these petty arguments while in a fight. "I''m going to show you that I''m better than you." The God of Strength snorted and flew to a nearby asteroid before kicking it like a soccer ball despite how big it was. "!!!" The Panther widened his eyes and decided to move toward the God of Greed, so even if he were hit by this asteroid, the God of Strength would''ve hit the God of Greed too. However, the latter just showed him something different, especially when his body was surrounded by an energy that surely wasn''t his. It was then the Panther knew whose energy it was, only to get punched on his face, blowing him away. At the same time, the God of Greed stopped the asteroid with one hand and threw it toward the Panther, spinning. "You take this. It''s a special fastball with good spin." "Why are you treating this as a sport, dumbass?" The God of Strength narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by dumbass? I''m the smartass here, you''re the dumbass." "So, you''re admitting that you act like an as*hole here?" The God of Strength just got the point before saying, "Anyway, you borrowed that strength from me earlier." "¡­" The God of Greed became angrier and changed his weapon into a sniper rifle. "This is my Greed Law. Since you''re so useless, I will just end this myself." The sniper rifle released a bullet that seemed to be more powerful than the bullet earlier, flying toward the Panther at fast speed. The Panther tried to dodge this one and somehow managed to succeed, but he found that the explosion was one hundred times bigger, obliterating the asteroid in one strike. "Tch. I just wasted a bullet. Oi! This bullet is a fully concentrated Spirit Crystals containing one Billion Spirit Crystals. Your life alone won''t be enough to pay for this bullet." The God of Greed complained again. Meanwhile, the Panther felt like a sh*t, wondering, ''What the heck with these two people? They kept talking and arguing in this entire battle, yet, how can they be this strong? They even cooperated with each other a few times. ''Is this Universe that good?'' The Panther gritted his teeth, not wanting to believe that God Kings were this strong. They had the power of Parasite and he had devoured all those strong genes that his mother gave him as nutrition and turned him into a powerful Panther. He didn''t like to see anyone getting stronger than him, especially since it was the God of Strength and the God of Greed. He released another power that had been hiding inside him as his body began to be covered with a black aura. "I''ve had enough." The Panther finally turned into a real one that walked on its four feet. Unfortunately for him, the two still couldn''t take it seriously as the God of Strength kept treating him like it wasn''t a big deal. "Look. Due to your continuous rumbling, he changes into a full-fledged panther. Don''t you feel sorry for him?" "He''s an enemy. And you''re the one louder." The God of Greed shrugged. The God of Strength sighed and gathered his power in one fist before punching the nothing while spinning that hand to create a torrential force out of nothing. "Spinning Power Fist." The Panther saw this and started going zig zag to avoid getting hit by that torrential energy. Seeing that the Panther was about to reach him, the God of Strength raised his hand again, preparing for another punch, but found someone appeared right behind him and used his body as a cover. He then rested his sniper rifle on his shoulder and shot the Panther. Boom. Surprisingly, a loud explosion shook the battlefield as the Panther got blown away. Yet, if one took another look at the situation, the blast wasn''t that powerful compared to what the God of Greed had shown him. Only him and the God of Strength actually understood what happened. The God of Greed truly had the audacity to use the gap below his crotch to hide a pistol to hit that Panther. The God of Strength gritted his teeth and roared. "Are you freaking serious? Do you want to turn me into waste?" "Yes. Why do you even ask?" The God of Greed admitted without hesitation. "I''m going to die if I become a waste! I''m going to kill you first!" "What? You die? That''s bad then. I need to get all of your money first before you die. And if you don''t have a foolish son or daughter, I can''t extort or play with them to get their money. I need to reconsider my plan." The God of Greed sighed his head in disappointment as if he truly thought about it. The God of Strength was completely stunned by his remark before noticing that the Panther seemed to be far more frustrated than they thought he would, especially since the Panther actually chose to escape to another battlefield instead of fighting them. The God of Greed obviously used his Teleportation Array Plate and chased him. "Don''t you run! You''re my money bag." The God of Greed shouted and summoned two pistols, starting to shoot him uncontrollably. As one would expect, the cost of the bullet went down, so he wasn''t as remorseful as before, even though he still thought it was a shame. The God of Strength also chased him from behind since his partner kept the Panther''s movement in check. He then raised his hand and sent another punch that created torrential energy. "Ha!" The Panther gritted his teeth and swung his paw, sending crescent-shaped energy that cut through the torrential energy. He then charged straight toward the God of Strength since he needed to kill this guy first before even getting a chance to reach the God of Greed because, for whatever reason, this guy seemed to be protecting him. "Die!" The Panther released all of his energy into his paw to hit him. Even the God of Strength found this attack too powerful for him to handle physically, so he also gathered all the energy in his hand before finding a metal glove floating on top of his head. It was none other than the assistance coming from the God of Greed to him, so his hand slid into the glove and clashed with that paw. "Purgatory Swipe." "Absolute Strength." The two collided and created a powerful shockwave. It didn''t stop there. Even the God of Greed decided to stay silent when he saw the God of Strength break his own wrist after stopping that attack. The Panther had the same condition. He simply couldn''t use that paw again. The God of Strength didn''t care about this and grabbed the useless paw, locking it on his useless arm. Without the ability to escape, the God of Strength punched the Panther with his other hand. The Panther also found himself in a bind and tried to escape by punching the God of Strength, only to find that his strength wasn''t enough to compete with the God of Strength. He was simply a beast and didn''t care about his injury while punching him continuously without a stop. The Panther spat a mouthful of blood and injured him as well, but their situation began to get worse when the God of Greed, who had been waiting for an opportunity, released his shot. "!!!" The Panther and the God of Strength widened his eyes as the bullet hit the Panther''s head and blew them up altogether. Boom. No one would expect the God of Greed to actually use this opportunity to attack both of them. One would think he did it to kill them, but the God of Strength''s voice soon resounded within the smoke, complaining, "Seriously. What the heck are you trying to do?" "Killing the Panther!" The God of Greed shrugged as if he didn''t do anything wrong. "I even lent you that glove that was capable of blocking one fire attack such as my powerful bullet." The latter clicked his tongue and realized it was the case. He waved his hand to the side to blow the smoke away from him, revealing the Panther''s condition. What hit them earlier was the explosion of the most expensive bullet the God of Greed had. "Now you need to pay me back. The cost of the glove is twenty Billion Spirit Crystals. The bullet I used was ten billion. I won''t ask for the others." "You''re more shameless than I thought¡­" The God of Strength shook his head helplessly and looked at the Panther. Half of his body just got obliterated due to the explosion as the person himself glared at the God of Strength, telling him something. Obviously, he understood the words without even saying them. The Panther truly wanted to ask him how he could fight this strong without being serious, especially in the argument part. If he fought the Panther seriously, he would''ve killed him the same since the Panther was among the weakest bunch. The God of Strength snorted and said, "I''m serious in fighting you. It''s just that guy who can''t shut up. My hand is messed up and the other hand is numb. There are external and internal injuries all over my body because of your attack. I think he is the same." The God of Greed crossed his hands and harrumphed. "I''m lamenting over the fact that my wealth has decreased so fast. I''ve lost fifteen billion Spirit Crystals in one fight. I better make more money after this war. Well, I''ve been stealing your power to weaken you, so that''s why this muscle brain can defeat you. What the heck with the claim of the Strongest Person alive? Your strength can''t even kill this guy." "¡­" The God of Strength snapped again as the two started arguing over little things again. Chapter 1180: Palm God and Holy God Just like how the other two fights went on and finished, there were still a few fights that occurred on other battlefields. The one that was closest to the God of Greed and God of Strength was none other than the fight between the Palm God, the Holy God, and the Battle God. The three stared at each other for a few minutes because they tried to see through them, especially their cause of fighting like this. The Holy God shook his head in disappointment. "To think you would fight us like this¡­ It turns out, I''m the biggest enemy of this universe." The Palm God narrowed his eyes and glanced to the side, wondering what he had to say. He simply couldn''t understand since the Holy God was a kind guy that could make people happy. Although his charisma wasn''t like that of Alex, he was still in a high position even in the God Kings'' eyes. He managed to recover many planets and relieved them from the oppression and such, bringing a smile to their faces. Yet, such a person actually claimed he was the biggest enemy of the universe, he couldn''t comprehend his words. There was a potential of betrayal since it also carried that meaning, but the Holy God explained it first before any misunderstanding. "I enabled you to create this commotion by inviting you into the alliances. If I didn''t bring you there, the Goddess of Destiny didn''t need to die and your alliance would be destroyed by the Spirit God before anything could happen. "But it turned out, I mixed the Magic Goddess, Goddess of Destiny, God of Destruction, God of Greed, and God of Strength into this. I couldn''t even say anything to the God of Wrath because he suffered the most. "That''s why this is my last mission. I shall use my remaining lifespan to help other people in need to take accountability for my biggest mistake." The Holy God sighed. The Palm God contemplated for a moment and thought he wasn''t that bad of a guy, but when he saw it from that perspective, the Holy God seemed to be the cause of all this. "Oi, old man. I don''t care about your situation. All I want to know is whether you''re going to fight or not." The Palm God snorted and summoned all one thousand hands from his back. He went straight toward the Battle God to start the fight. "Battle God Avatar." Seeing this, the Battle God raised his hand and summoned his own Avatar, wielding the same halberd. This one truly showed how weak he was when fighting him, but this time, the Palm God, Hans, understood what it meant to be stronger. "One Thousand Arm Style, Ten kindness." Hans sent ten big hands toward the Battle God Avatar. "Battle God Halberd." The Battle God Avatar waved his halberd and knocked the ten palms away with a giant halberd like the one that the Battle God wielded. He then raised his hand to chop all those hands off his back. Suddenly, a huge circular light illuminated both the Battle God and his Avatar from above. The Battle God clicked his tongue and raised the halberd to stop the white light that blew him downward. The Palm God didn''t wait for him and sent a hundred palms this time. "One Hundred Palms Series, True Palm of Blood." All one hundred palms turned red as if they were covered with blood, but there was this bloodshot coming from each palm as if they were alive, looking at the Battle God with a pair of eyes. The Battle God obviously didn''t take it well and released all his strength. On the bottom of the Battle God Halber''s blade and the handle, there was a huge red flag with a lotus symbol on it coming into view. "Battle God Banner. Activate." This banner released killing intent, bloodlust, Divine Energy and a new form of pressure that no one had ever seen before. The Battle God used those types of energy to suppress the Palm God and the Holy God. But surprisingly, all the bloodlust emitted by the one hundred palms disappeared without a trace, turning those palms into a regular one with only strength and speed. With the palms weakened, the Battle God destroyed all of them and cut them together. "¡­" The Palm God narrowed his eyes and quickly recovered his arms. Although it took one minute to fix, there was the Holy God, so he believed he should have no problem recovering them. The Palm God drew a deep breath and changed his strategy. However, the Battle God wouldn''t let him. He activated his Banner again and started suppressing both the Holy God and the Palm God. Although they had no problem moving, they clearly felt it was harder for them to use their techniques. "Kh¡­" The Palm God gritted his teeth and flew to the right as the Battle God planned to attack the Holy God first to avoid any of his interference. "You''re not going anywhere." The Battle God narrowed his eyes and clicked his tongue, swinging his giant halbert toward the Holy God. The Palm God quickly sent all the remaining arms to stop the halbert before he got a fist struck on his stomach. "Kh, Holy God!" The Palm God shouted. "I know. I''ve been working on it." The Holy God nodded and summoned five colored lights. They were blue, white, light blue, light green, and pink, surrounding the Battle God Avatar. They grew even further and the Holy God finally started activating them. "Wisdom, Kindness, Humility, Friendly, Compassionate. Five Good Rings. Bind!" Each light flew toward the Battle God Avatar and stopped as if they got frozen. However, the Battle God realized he couldn''t move his avatar for the time being. The Palm God took this chance to complain. "Seriously¡­ Why are we even getting paired together?" "No need to ask it, we all know that our strength is a bit worse than the Battle God and the others. If only you fought him, I had no guarantee that you would come back alive. Hence, the Nature Goddess wanted us to form a pair to fight against them and won this war without dying. "Well, I haven''t seen my daughter in a wedding dress, so I guess I can''t die." The Palm God snorted and looked at the Battle God with a serious expression. The Holy God nodded and raised his staff as a Light Tribulation appeared, sending its entire might toward the Battle God Avatar. "Heaven Fall." The Holy God used that energy to obliterate the Battle God Avatar, but the Battle God seemed to be stronger than expected. The energy was completely blocked by his spear as it destroyed the light source to stop the continuous attack. Because of the distraction, the Palm God felt no restriction from the Battle God Banner anymore and used all his power to charge toward the Battle God. "Ha! One hundred palms series. True Palm of Blood." Seeing the incoming a hundred hands, the Holy God smirked and raised his staff. He channeled all his power and created a light ball covering all those palms. Suddenly, the Palm God felt an increase in his strength, but he still felt frustrated to not have the strength to settle this problem himself. Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t complain too because he certainly knew the reason. If it were like this, he alone wouldn''t be able to defeat the Battle God, let alone kill him. The only way for him to kill the Battle God was to accept the alliance with the Holy God. To show that he understood this kind of problem, the Palm God channeled even more energy into those hands to increase the strength even further and fused the Light Energy from the Holy God with his own Energy, wiping out all that red colors from his hand. Instead, his hands were now filled with warmth and light as if he was a buddha. "One Hundred Palms Series. True Palm of Virtue." Just like when the God of Destruction channeled all his power into the hand as it became a palm of destruction, this Light Element turned his hands into something stronger and adopted a certain name. The Battle God widened his eyes and gritted his teeth, striking all those hands with his giant halbert, but it was then his halbert started to crack. "!!!" All their attention quickly went to the halbert. The Battle God thought this was a bad sign since he would lose if this continued, considering the Holy God could keep channeling the power to all other nine hundred hands. And that was precisely the thought of the Holy God. He raised his staff and used all his Light Element to cover the palms only so his strength would become more formidable. The Palm God didn''t say anything this whole time after he came to terms with the situation. He only gnashed his teeth and pointed his finger. "I admit that I don''t have enough strength to kill you, but it doesn''t mean both of us will lose. I will use this chance to prove myself that I''m not useless." The Battle God tilted his head and wondered how big of a fool the Palm God could be. No one in this world actually told him useless other than Alex and his wife, the War Goddess. After all, Palm God indeed had the qualification to wield this strength. That was why he couldn''t stand the Palm God. If he were more willing to understand techniques and other things besides the Cultivation Technique, he would''ve become a great person without relying on his wife. Meanwhile, the Palm God didn''t think of it at all. He simply knew the fact they managed to crack the halbert meant he had a fair share to win. "Let''s go, Holy God!" When they thought they were able to win, there was one thing that both the Palm God and the Holy God forgot. The Battle God''s body gradually became bigger. Black-colored fur started covering all his skins, ripping off his shirt and pants. His ears slowly turned into that of a bear before his face and all his limbs. Yes. No matter what anyone said, the Battle God was still a Bear, a pet that the real Bear, the Earth God, had. So, it was normal for him to have the ability to release it as well. Surprisingly, the Avatar that resembled him also changed from a red-colored translucent avatar into a black-colored Bear Avatar. It completely blew one''s mind, especially of how different the two forms were. The Palm God and the Holy God narrowed their eyes, exchanging looks. They knew this battle was going to get a lot worse from this point on. The Battle God still carried his banner and halbert, which had been restored to its full power, in his hand while shouting as loud as possible. "Palm God, Holy God, you two are going to die here. I am going to show my strength and my loyalty and reach the stage that no one has ever stepped before. I will become the one beyond the God King!" Chapter 1181: Somethings Wrong? The Palm God narrowed his eyes and the Holy God contemplated their next move. Suddenly, the Palm God released all his power and infused it into all his palms as those one thousand arms divided into two and fused together, creating two arms for the Palm God to use. "Now, now. Don''t say that when it''s not clear who will win." The Palm God snorted with a smirk. "Time to use my Asura and Devil Hands." Before the two clashed, the two hands got covered with white light, protecting the entire hands. The Palm God frowned and turned around, looking at the Holy God. He gritted his teeth and decided not to say something. No matter how much he hated not to say it, the Palm God knew it better that they needed to do everything they needed to win. He also agreed that he would have died if he fought the Battle God alone. To avoid making his daughter and wife cry, he swallowed his pride and said, "Thank you. I will be counting on you." Even the Holy God couldn''t help but drop his jaw to the ground. After working together with the Palm God for a few years, he perfectly understood that the Palm God wouldn''t say something like that. In fact, he hated the fact that he needed to work together with someone else other than the one related to Alex. It was simply jealousy and his pride. Other than those two, the Palm God was actually a decent guy, only a bit lacking in a certain aspect such as his bra¡ªAhem, planning. The Holy God took a deep breath and nodded. "I will be doing my best to help you. My offensive power is not strong enough to deal with him, so you''re the only hope. That''s why you''re going to kill that Battle God." As an old man who experienced many things, the Holy God didn''t care about his achievement in this battle. He simply wanted to repent for the mistake he made when creating the alliance. He would probably need to tell everyone about the truth too, so those who were loyal to him would stand out while those who took advantage of him would be kicked out. The Holy God then raised his hand and waved it to the side, making another simple spell. "Light of Virtue." The Holy God spent a bit of his lifespan using this technique and made it stronger. "This¡­" Even the Palm God could feel that this technique was not ordinary. His face turned serious as he knew the Holy God planned to gamble it all in this fight. Since he needed to fight together with him, the Palm God also released all his power. Instead of the arms on his back, this time, his real two hands were covered in blue and red color. The Asura and Devil Hands infused their original energy into his real hands, so he could still fight if the Battle God cut those two hands on his back with the halbert. He then charged toward the Battle God and used his Asura and Devil hands to grab the Battle God Avatar''s shoulders. "This bear can walk on two feet continuously as if it''s a soldier, using a halberd. It seems I need to make it known that it won''t make you look like a person even if you imitate it. The moment you betrayed us, you were no longer a person of this universe. You are just a monster of another universe." The Palm God snorted and swiped his right hand. The Battle God didn''t care much about the Palm God''s opinion and had his Battle God Avatar swiped its paw too as the two clashed. The Holy God remained silent and looked at the shock wave these two produced. He took a deep breath and raised his hand to the left before creating a powerful star-shaped light that produced a beam that blew an asteroid toward the Battle God. "!!!" The Battle God clenched his teeth and knew how he was at a disadvantage the moment he realized he couldn''t push the Palm God away. He truly underestimated the power of those hands as well as the enhancement from the Holy God. He raised his other hand and stabbed the asteroid with his halbert. He then swung it toward the Palm God. Unfortunately for him, the Palm God actually believed that the Battle God wouldn''t have a problem in dealing with a single asteroid. Hence, he created another plan instinctively. The moment he saw the asteroid coming, the Palm God created another energy string like how he created the hands that seemed to be so long that it could reach anything. He even attached it to the Holy God. It was so small that one would have a hard time seeing it, but the Palm God sensed it with the touch. He pulled the string as well as the Palm God himself from the asteroid''s path before launching himself again toward the Battle God with another hand. The Battle God used the halbert''s handle to stop that attack, but the Palm God had changed his strategy. The moment he stopped the Battle God Avatar, he went straight to the Battle God himself and punched him right on the face. Surprisingly, the Battle God didn''t get blown away and stayed on his ground. "Do you think you can win against me? You know nothing about me. How many times have I fought a war? And how many times have I won? Losing is not in my dictionary." The Palm God smiled and said, "Of course it''s not in your dictionary. It''s because my hand will write it for you." The Palm God kept punching him while the Battle God seemed not to care and fought back. Those two kept fighting with their fists even though the Battle God had a halbert on his other hand. It was at this time the Battle God finally showed his trump card. A cape appeared on his back as he released another wave of energy, suppressing the Palm God. "Path to Victory!" "You don''t know anything, Palm God. I need to do everything to win this war. If I were to fight against them, I would''ve lost and my people would''ve gotten slaughtered. I need to win!" The Battle God gritted his teeth and raised the halbert for the first time. The Palm God looked at it and went around the Battle God, only to find another halbert coming from another direction. Then more and more started appearing. Without a doubt, these halberts were real, but he simply wondered whether he had the ability to control them or something. After all, the Battle God wouldn''t show something useless just to save his life. Although he seemed to have a reason to fight, it wasn''t his business to be honest. "Transcendent Weaponry." "¡­" The Palm God narrowed his eyes and leaped back, gaining a bit of distance to assess his situation. Seeing that his partner was planning to do something big, the Palm God decided to buy time for him. He charged toward the Battle God and engaged in close quarter combat. As expected from the Palm God, he had enough skill to keep him at bay for a period of time like how he fought against a Bat''s Pet in the previous war. He simply had enough energy to go for a few hours, yet, there was something bothering him as if he knew everything wouldn''t go the way they predicted. Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t check it and continued fighting until one moment, the Holy God shouted and released most of his energy. "Using my lifespan as an exchange, I ask for The Holiness to grant me a blessing. Holy Ray." There was a string of life energy forcefully coming into the Palm God''s body. Even the Palm God widened his eyes in shock when he received this strength. It was a kind of a new life coming into him to the point he would have twice, if not thrice the strength of his peak self. To think the Holy God would use something like this to fight him, he wondered what the reason was. "Holy God, you¡­" The Palm God widened his eyes and shouted. However, the Holy God shook his head and said, "You should finish it properly first. I will tell you my reason later." The Palm God gritted his teeth while the Holy God used the same technique as earlier to bind the Battle God. "Wisdom, Kindness, Humility, Friendly, Compassionate. Five Good Rings, Bind." The Battle God, who was exhausted, used the time they talked with each other to recover himself, but he never expected the Holy God would be using his lifespan to power up the Palm God. He looked at the five lights that restrained his body, knowing he still had the chance against the Palm God as long as he blocked the first attack. The Palm God did exactly that and restrained the Battle God with his Asura and Devil hands. "Asura and Devil, Holy Union." The Holy God used all his power and the Light Element that the Holy God lent to him, slapping the Battle God flat. The Battle God seemed to be fighting against it, preventing the two palms from squeezing him to death. Unfortunately for him, the Holy God exhausted all the remaining energy he had and formed a white ball between the two palms. For the Battle God, it was right before his eyes as if it wanted to blow his head up. Yet, when it grew bigger and bigger, he realized the white ball was going to extinguish him. He gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue. "Oh, sh*t." Boom. A huge explosion occurred as it swallowed the Battle God, the arms, the Palm God and the Holy God. Chapter 1182: Promise? The huge explosion swallowed everything, but as the light dimmed down, two figures still managed to stand inside the explosion. They were the Holy God and the Palm God. The Holy God erected a protective barrier that could withstand his own Light Element Explosion, so it was great. He dropped on his butt and floated around lazily while saying, "Huft. I don''t think I will live that long anymore." "I''m still perplexed by your actions. Sacrificing your lifespan to send the energy to me?" The Palm God narrowed his eyes, wondering if he had any intention. He told him there was a reason earlier, but he couldn''t find one in his memory. The Holy God scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, it''s not that I don''t trust the Spirit God, but I think you can still help him in one strike or another by using all your remaining power. Or you can help someone in distress. Actually, I have someone that fits that criteria." "Really?" "Yeah. She seems to be planning to die in this battle. I don''t know if it''s due to the lack of power or not, but I have clearly found a face that looks like someone who has prepared to die. My long experience is still worth it, you know. Hence, I want you to help her by reserving your power." The Holy God smiled. "Helping someone?" The Palm God narrowed his eyes and asked, "You believe someone will die in this battle?" "How about we take a look at the previous war? Although none of us died, we were severely injured. Hence, I know that someone needs help." "Well, I don''t mind helping someone, but it depends on who I will be helping. If it''s about the Spirit God, I don''t think I can help much." "I don''t think you can either." "Oi." The Holy God laughed and said, "Still, having one of us die is a bad result since everything has been planned perfectly and arranged, so no one needs to die. That''s why I want you to help her." "Then, who is she?" "She is¡­" ¡­ Meanwhile, on another battlefield, Anna and Jeanne stood before a huge light blue dragon. Unlike the Dragon God, he didn''t have Ice Element. Instead, his element was Water Element, making him qualify to be a Water God, and he was known as one for the longest time. However, there was one catch. The Dragon God seemed to be hiding him as a secret weapon in a battle because he didn''t claim anything about his existence, making it an empty promise. That was the reason Lin Xingzhi and the others were taken aback because of their number. Anna and Jeanne needed to fight this new guy without having any information. Considering the others who took on the bats were practically the same, Anna and Jeanne didn''t complain about dealing with him. Anna simply snorted, "To think there is another shameless traitor." "Indeed. I wonder, how will you scream next when I start torturing you?" Jeanne smirked and released her killing intent. "I haven''t tried torturing our enemies with my current power, so I''m curious." "No need to say anything. You two are going to die. Unlike you, I have been a God King since one thousand years ago. With this power, handling both of you won''t be a problem." The Water Dragon snorted and looked down on them. Jeanne cracked her hands and neck, feeling offended. "It seems someone needs to beat some sense to this guy." "Well, I will be helping you. You can go wild, Jeanne." Anna shrugged while looking at the Water Dragon. Suddenly, four huge water balls appeared, circling around him. To test his strength, Jeanna raised her hand and sent a lightning strike. The lightning was dark red and formed a small sharp like a sword, flying straight to the dragon''s head. However, one of the water balls went between them and received the lightning completely and didn''t even explode. "This is our difference. Your lightning won''t be able to win against me because my Water is a Pure Water Element. It has enough resistance to render your lightning useless." The dragon laughed uncontrollably while Jeanne''s expression turned dark. Jeanne narrowed her eyes and released all her lightning. At the same time, Anna also summoned numerous butterflies, spreading them like an army. "Now it''s time to go¡­" Anna smirked and let them fly toward the dragon. The Water Dragon obviously thought nothing of these butterflies and summoned water droplets around him. He also marched them toward the butterflies and ended up shooting every single of them. "This is a child''s play." The Water God snorted and released his power to show them their disparity. Eight water balls gradually changed shape into that of another dragon. But unlike himself, these dragons were like an eastern dragon that had a long body instead of a big one. "Hydra!" All eight dragons flew toward Jeanne and Anna, so they needed to handle four each. Jeanne charged toward them first to check their power and used her sword to cut through this dragon. Jeanne smirked when she reached a dragon''s body and plunged her sword to destroy it, but surprisingly, the lightning got dispersed by the water while her sword entered the water dragon body. After all, even if they were a dragon, they were made of water, so the properties were still there. Missing her point, she stumbled and planned to gain a distance, but the Water God had appeared right before her face and tried to swallow her. To avoid that kind of possibility, Jeanne quickly swung her sword and used it as momentum to get away. "Hahahahaha! Why are you running, Spirit? You''re weak against me." The Water God laughed out loud while Jeanne sent him another bolt of lightning. Unfortunately for her, the latter only prevented it with another dragon that dispersed all the lightning to their surroundings. "It seems you are underestimating me a little bit." Anna''s voice suddenly resounded in their ears as both of them turned around, finding Anna preparing to swing her scythe. They were shocked because Anna had positioned herself in a perfect way to slash all these dragons. The Dark Energy covered her scythe and revolved like crazy. Anna swung her scythe to the fullest, creating a thin crescent-shaped dark energy that flew toward her left, front, and right. "Intangible Darkness Cut." The Dark Wave cut all the dragons in one go as well as forced the Water God to form a barrier of water to stop that attack before dodging it. "..." The Water God widened his eyes because he never thought that someone could be this strong, especially a newborn God King. That attack earlier had the power to cut him, so his expression turned serious, knowing he couldn''t play around anymore. Instead of making her next move, Anna shouted in anger. "Jeanne! What is your promise to Alex? Have you forgotten those words you said right after becoming a God King?" "!!!" Jeanne widened her eyes, never expecting Anna to say something like this. She gritted her teeth and released all her lightning to the surroundings, creating a huge ball of lightning with her in the center. "I haven''t forgotten it. I''m going to be useful to Master, so I can repay this debt." "Good." Anna smirked and challenged her. "Now it''s time for you to show it. We will kill this bastard for Alex." However, it was hard to change someone like that, let alone in the middle of a battle. Hence, Jeanne took a step back and hid behind Anna, saying, "I need time to recharge. I will be able to fight him with all my strength after that." Understanding that Jeanne seemed to be going to replace something in her element, Anna released all her energy and summoned a giant butterfly behind her. "Now, now. Let''s play with me for a while, okay?" Anna grinned before all her eyes turned black, including the white area. "Marionette Doll, Self Sacrifice Version." She hypnotized herself to increase her overall prowess. The Water God narrowed his eyes, feeling something was wrong. He then summoned another eight dragons to cover him while observing the entire situation. Anna looked very ferocious to him at the moment, so he didn''t dare to step forward lightly. "..." The Water God also found Jeanne trying to replace her lightning with something else. Seeing how confident she was, the Water God knew that if she succeeded, the battle would be two versus one again since he got an elemental advantage earlier. He gathered all his resolve and shouted, "Fine. Since you''ve prepared to die, I will play along with you." The Water God didn''t need to fight for a long time to assess their strength, so this time, he turned all the water in his body into medicinal water. Of course, it had all the basic functions of normal water, but it gave him a power boost as if he strengthened himself with drugs. He wouldn''t feel pain or anything, so it was perfect for confronting Anna. Anna grinned and charged forward. To respond to Anna''s action, he also went forward. Anna swung her scythe that carried a huge amount of Dark Energy while the Dragon sent forth his claw that was covered with water as if it was a glove. The two clashed as Anna''s Dark Element flew all over the water''s surface. The Water God successfully negated the Dark Element to avoid it touching her, so only the claw and scythe collided earnestly. As one would expect from a dragon, the Water God pushed Anna back with his strength alone. Even Anna could feel the strength and knew it was impossible to compete with him. Jeanne would be much more suited to fight him to be honest, if she had a good element. And her job was to buy enough time, so Jeanne could buy time for her to unleash another big move to cut him down. That was their plan. Hence, Anna charged forward again without caring about her body and clashed with the Water Dragon for a few minutes. During this time, they caused destruction everywhere, and shock waves kept shaking the area. Anna paid no heed and continued fighting him without thinking of her own safety. One by one, her body began to be covered with blood because the Water God was stronger in this area. Seeing this, Jeanne gritted her teeth and focused on the creation, so she could help Anna as soon as possible. Even though Anna was considered her friend, her status was still Alex''s wife, so her safety was her priority. And the way to save her was to kill the dragon with the new power she tried to create. This Lightning was a bit different from her other Blood Lightning because she specifically changed the attribute. Of course, Anna wasn''t the only one receiving the attacks. She managed to create wound after wound on the dragon''s body, but her condition was much worse compared to him. Besides, the Water God had changed his tactic and used everything he got to end the fight as soon as possible unlike the previous war where they got a number advantage. A few minutes passed, and Jeanne''s voice resounded in their ears. "Ethereal Bloody Lightning." Jeanne released another lightning bolt and turned it into a dragon like the Water Dragon. "It''s useless!" The Water Dragon also used a dragon from his Element, clashing with Jeanne''s dragon. However, a smirk appeared on Jeanne''s face as she snapped her finger and the dragon suddenly turned into a thread. Instead of clashing head-on, the lightning dragon circled the dragon and tightened like a rope, squeezing the dragon with its mighty power. "You won''t let my lightning travel through your water, right?" Jeanne smirked and continued, "Then, it also means I can force my lightning to travel on the water''s surface." Not only the blood lightning tied the dragon, but it kept making its way toward the Water God. "!!!" As one would expect, the Water God didn''t expect Jeanne to pull this card and started sweating. The bolt of lightning exploded right before his face. Boom. Chapter 1183: Savage Boom. The Water God was in shock because he never expected to see lightning that couldn''t be dispersed. Even Anna was slightly surprised because she thought it wouldn''t be this effective. But this also meant the Water God had no more elemental advantage against her. Jeanne smirked and shouted, "Hahahaha! Do you like it? Let me tell you this, I will torture you in this battle." "Don''t talk like you know about it, kid!" The Water God shouted out loud. "..." Jeanne twitched her eyebrows and charged toward him while replying. "Listen here you little sh*t. I''m older than you!" The Water God knew that she planned to clash with him like Anna, so he sent his claw again covered with water. To counter this attack, Jeanne coated her swords with her lightning and struck the claw. The thunder reverberated in one''s ears as, surprisingly, their claw and sword didn''t touch each other. Like how water couldn''t coexist with oil, Jeanne''s lightning wouldn''t be able to get dispersed again by the water to the point it felt like a hard wall bumping against them. Jeanne didn''t care about it and stopped that claw for a second as Anna knew what to do. Anna emerged from behind as her scythe turned bigger and spun her body to gain enough momentum. If she lost in the strength department, she thought she just needed to add more momentum and weight to her attack and she would win. The Water Dragon clicked his tongue and used all the eight dragons to restrain the scythe but to no avail. The scythe couldn''t be stopped and went straight toward his hand that was stopped by Jeanne. He quickly pulled out and threw himself to the side to avoid getting hurt by that scythe. Yet, this became his biggest blunder in this battle because Jeanne''s speed was still faster than him due to her element. She appeared right before the dragon''s eye and thrust her sword before using that lightning to attach it to that big eye before pulling them out with an evil grin. "Come out!" "Uah!" The Water God screamed in pain. If there were spectators, they would think it was normal. After all, Jeanne just gouged his left eye out of the socket. Jeanne didn''t mind this much grotesque sight and gained a bit of distance from him again. "You!" The Water God gritted his teeth and wanted to kill Jeanne in this battle no matter the cost. Yet, Jeanne used another trick on her sleeve. The reply he received from Jeanne came in the form of action. Jeanne sliced the eye into pieces while saying with a cute smile. "Uncle. Do you want to eat your own eye? I sliced it into bite-size pieces." "..." Anna closed her eyes, knowing that Jeanne was indeed like this. She remembered when Jeanne entered the brothel in the Upper World where they grew up and killed all the women and men inside there. And it ended up with her cutting all the pen*ses and shoving them to the women''s mouths. Even though she looked like a kid, she needed to be blurred out if this was an action movie. No, it might be because she appeared to be a kid that this looked even more awful. Jeanne herself didn''t care. Although she didn''t know how many people knew about it, she felt like she was in the zone when she started doing cruel things in a fight. She felt good when she saw the anger in the Water God''s eyes¡­ Oops, eye. "Come! I will be playing with you. I will fulfill my role as the greatest torturer from Eulja." She smirked and released all her lightning again before shooting it. "Ethereal Bloody Lightning." Seeing that lightning, the Water God surprisingly flew to the side to avoid it, not wanting to deal with another surprise. "You''re leaving? Is it because of my food or¡­" She cut the eyes again as if she wanted to create small pieces that usually used to get simmered in cooking. "Here. I cut it a bit smaller. I know you can''t swallow big pieces despite your big mouth." "You b*tch!" The Water God couldn''t take it anymore and charged forward. Jeanne liked it and flew toward him without any care. As one would expect, their clash became like that of water and oil again as they couldn''t touch each other but still clashed with their strength. Anna disappeared again from the battlefield, building her time to make another big move. The Water God tried to search for her and spread all the eight dragons he had to search for Anna. But this was what Jeanne wanted because the moment they reached a certain distance, Jeanne started chanting. "Lightning Spirit Worship o'' Spirit God. Use my body as the catalyst, so you may strike my enemy with your blessing. Ethereal Lightning Dragon!" Jeanne summoned a dragon bigger than the last one and acted like a snake that tried to tie the Water God. Due to this, the Water God planned to return to his human form to avoid it, but Jeanne saw this as another opportunity. The Lightning Dragon exploded and channeled all the lightning toward the surroundings, including the Water God. He had no choice other than to protect himself by using his water. This also meant he had no escape route, so Jeanne went straight to his arm and struck it. The Water God obviously coated his arm with water and forced him to get blown away. This was when Anna appeared from behind and swung her scythe downward. "!!!" Sensing Anna''s sudden appearance, he quickly flew to the side, but due to the body movement, the tail, one wing, and one hand were aligned. This was what Anna had been waiting for and released the same attack as she used to cut all the eight dragons earlier. "Intangible Darkness Cut." The Dark Wave surprisingly cut through the water along with all those three dragon parts. Jeanne grabbed all of them immediately and gained another distance. Out of her ''goodwill'', she showed him the loot and said, "Hey, I heard a Dragon is tasty. I have a wing, a hand, and a tail¡­ Hmm, you''re not a chicken, so I can''t say I have a chicken wing, a hand, and a chicken tail. The first one is yummy, while the second and third are good for making soup or broth. "But since you''re a dragon, I wonder if you''re tasty¡­" Jeanne shook her head in disappointment before grabbing the hand. She released her lightning and ripped all the dragon scales. "You''re like a fish. We need to remove all the scales first in the preparation." Jeanne''s continuous insult truly brought anger from the Water God. Even Anna could only stay silent since Jeanne was so savage the moment she got everything in control. At least, the time she bought by fighting him paid off, so she just let her do whatever she wanted. The Water God, on the other hand, wondered what he could do after losing four parts. If he continued fighting, he would die. Yet, he simply couldn''t leave the battlefield due to two reasons. First, he wanted to beat this Jeanne because of everything she did. Second, the Supreme Beast would be in danger. Suddenly, he thought of a plan and flew away as if escaping from the battlefield. Unfortunately for him, Jeanne appeared right before him with a smirk. "Hello! Don''t leave yet since I need to skin you first before killing you. Well, there were many incidents where people got burned alive. How about we change the term a bit like cooking a lizard alive?" The Water God snorted and released all the water dragons he had. "You have been had. Since you like to torture someone so much, I will make you suffer." Jeanne raised both hands to challenge all these dragons, but surprisingly, they turned around and headed to Anna instead. "Anna!" Jeanne screamed, panicking. She tried to go toward her to stop the dragons because Anna just unleashed that powerful attack twice. With the continuous fight to buy her time, Anna should have exhausted most of her energy, so she didn''t think Anna could fight all these dragons. However, the Water God went between her and smashed her to the bottom while making Anna suffer. He turned around and forced all the dragons to strike Anna. Jeanne gritted her teeth before realizing something when she saw Anna''s eyes. It was as if she had a plan beyond her imagination and told her she needed to shut up. Jeanne fell silent and went around the battlefield. "Die!" The Water God thought he had won, but he suddenly felt a snap in his body as if something just hit his organs. At the same time, his vision became blurry. It was at this time, an evil grin appeared on Anna''s face as she cut the dragons one by one without any special skill. The dragons'' movements were dull, so she could do something like that easily. She then said, "I see, it finally takes effect in your body. I may have a weaker ability in terms of close combat, but my strength is none other than my curse and dark energy. Do you think I sacrificed my own body to let you wound me this easily? No, it''s to cut you down. "Hehe, this is the upgraded version of my Tri Xeta that can lower one''s ability and thought processing." Anna raised her scythe and looked at the Water God, specifically someone above him. "I call it, Undying Curses. You won''t be able to remove the curse forcefully until the time limit, albeit your time limit seems to be longer than your life." The Water God looked up and saw Jeanne coming down with a big smirk. She spun her body and cut the Water God''s back, crushing all his scales before sending everything flying. "Hahahaha! We''re going to be rich if we can sell these God King Stage Scales. At least, I can repay Master''s money back for a little bit since these are good quality scales." Jeanne laughed and didn''t spare a single scale from his body. In other words, the Water God just got skinned by Jeanne when he was alive as if watching someone trimmed a sheep''s fur. The Water God screamed as he tried to shake Jeanne away only to find Anna appearing right before him. With his current state, his reaction speed decreased so much because Anna used her curse so many times and left them dormant for quite a while. The moment they emerged, nothing would be able to move unless they forcefully removed it. Unfortunately, only something like Alex''s Sun God Fire could remove it. Hence, Anna had the biggest opportunity and channeled all her power to the scythe and swung it. "Intangible Darkness Cut." The Dark Wave expanded and cut the dragon''s head. Chapter 1184: Wrath One Slash, Anna killed the Water God. Despite being arrogant, the Water God didn''t seem to be that strong. He might just want to put them down, so they thought he was strong. However, Anna and Jeanne knew they were weaker than him and couldn''t win against him if they were alone, hence, they had no problem coordinating with each other just to kill him. Anna straightened her back after killing the dragon and took a deep breath to calm her heart down. She felt tired. Her "Intangible Darkness Cut" took so much Divine Energy every time she used it, so she felt she had no power left to fight against them. "Jeanne, how are you?" Anna asked, checking Jeanne''s condition. She believed Jeanne was in a worse state than her since she changed her attribute at the last moment. Jeanne spat a mouthful of blood and dropped to her knees, feeling weak all over her body. She had been holding back this whole time to make a strong appearance. Now that there was no threat, she felt everything left her body. She looked at Anna and shook her head. "I think I will be fine. There are some internal injuries, but nothing will destroy my cultivation or anything. So, you don''t need to worry. How about you?" Anna smiled and answered, "I''m fine too. Other than several external injuries and exhausted Divine Energy, I have nothing else." "That''s good. Let me collect our loot first." Jeanne chuckled and grabbed all of them while asking, "Do you think you can fight another one?" "No, I don''t think I can." Anna shook her head. "I will end my battle here and probably join the army to supervise everything. Besides, you should come with me, so Silvia can check your body." "Our doctor eh." Jeanne thought for a moment and sighed, "Yeah. I probably need to come with you. Although there''s no recognition yet, I should start being polite to her since Master is going to marry her." "Haha, you just need to act like normal." Anna chuckled before teasing her. "By the way, how about becoming one yourself? Pfft, the tenth spot is still open." Jeanne smiled and shook her head. "I don''t think I am qualified." "Well, there are several people fighting for that spot. Hmm, let me check, there are Aria, Rinrin, Carissa, and Rubia. I wonder who he will choose¡­" "Master won''t choose anyone in my opinion. It''s just a hassle." Jeanne shrugged before looking at the north, "I wonder if Master is alright." "Well, you need to worry about others instead." As Anna said, there were five other big battles occurring in this area. Unlike their fight, these five were one versus one, so it was impossible to get a number advantage. That was why Lin Xingzhi only sent the strongest ones among them. And the first one was none other than the God of Wrath, Marcus, and Earth God. Marcus''s Wrath had been soaring this whole time as he glared at the Earth God, who had transformed into a giant black bear like the Battle God. "Hahaha, to think we would have to meet again, God of Wrath." The Earth God laughed uncontrollably, but Marcus could feel the mocking intention behind that laugh. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "You''re going to pay for what you have done today. I''m not the same anymore." "Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately for you, I don''t think you''re qualified to fight me. That''s right, do you know how the Goddess of Destiny died? When I was about to torture her, she somehow managed to explode her body. To think she would choose the easy way out¡­" The Earth God laughed. "I never thought she still had that much energy after using everything to let you escape." Marcus gritted his teeth and released his killing intent. "You scum." The Earth God laughed and summoned a giant asteroid above him, launching it like a bullet toward Marcus. "This is how I killed your people! They loved meteor showers, right? I gave it to them! Hahaha, they hated the thing they loved right before their lives ended. It''s hilarious." "I don''t know if you know about it or not, but since you''ve angered me, I will let you taste what it means." The God of Wrath became even stronger due to the soaring anger. The Earth God seemed to know about it as well and purposely provoked him for whatever reason. Hence, Marcus released all his power and controlled it to cover his fist. Seeing the purple black colored flame on his fist, Marcus jumped forward and struck the giant asteroid with his power, swallowing it and melting it like the previous one when they were still together with Alex and the others. Surprisingly, the meteor this time was slightly different. The moment it shrunk a little bit, spikes emerged from the asteroid like a sea urchin and came out of the God of Wrath''s power, thus popping out the balloon like power. "!!!" Marcus widened his eyes in shock and got hit by the giant asteroid until it crashed to a Lower World, creating a giant crater that was easily visible from outer space. Boom. The shock wave of the collision was too big to the point the planet went sideways, leaving its orbit. "Hahaha! That''s it. You may get stronger when you''re full of wrath, but your biggest weakness is the fact that you''re becoming more foolish the angrier you are. I would rather fight someone stronger than a cunning one." The Earth God laughed. However, the asteroid soon melted as Marcus''s flame appeared and swallowed both the asteroid and the Lower World. Of course, he didn''t have enough strength to destroy the Lower World. He jumped out of the crater to outer space again and glared at the Earth God. Marcus, surprisingly, became calm as if the rock earlier hit his head so hard that he began to act weird. He took a deep breath and released a different type of wrath. This time, it wasn''t like vicious anger, but anger that came from a deep calm sea that would swallow everything when there was a chance. The Earth God felt something was wrong and released the same stone to test the sudden change. This was when Marcus showed his different strengths. He punched forward and released the black purple flame from a distance, enveloping the entire rock. Surprisingly, when the fire hit the rock and was supposed to melt it, it didn''t go that way this time. Instead, the temperature became even colder as the rock started freezing and the residual energy was pushed back. "!!!" The Earth God narrowed his eyes and covered his paw with a giant rock, striking the asteroid with his hand. Bam. The asteroid cracked and shattered into pieces. As soon as he saw the opportunity, Marcus released his strength even more and swallowed the Earth God. "Ah!" The Earth God gritted his teeth and blocked it with his hands, but he was already inside it until he summoned a giant rock shield and deflected the flow. "I''m a fool? Maybe, but I believe you are dumber than me." Marcus snorted. The Earth God narrowed his eyes and roared as loud as possible. An Earth Elemental Disturbance appeared above him before the Earth God entered it and changed the shape from a huge ball into a giant golem. "¡­" Marcus narrowed his eyes and felt something different from this one. Surprisingly, the Earth God disappeared from the battlefield as Marcus turned left, finding that giant body next to him. ''It''s that fast with its giant body?'' Marcus was taken aback and punched the giant hand that came to him. "Divine Wrath Fist." To his surprise, the golem changed shape again and formed a spike on top of the fist. Not wanting to get pierced, Marcus dodged to the side and ended up getting hit by the flat surface, getting flown away. He stopped and spat a mouthful of blood. "Hahahaha! Now, now. Let''s go at it again! Just like you, I will be destroying all your allies before helping my own King." The Earth God looked down on Marcus, still feeling that Marcus was far weaker than him. "Is that so?" Suddenly, Marcus took out one of the memory crystals he had and activated it. What made the Earth God surprised was the fact that the crystal showed the condition of his teammate. And when he saw what Sherry had actually done, for the first time, the Earth God showed an expression of anger. He clenched his teeth and glared at the Earth God. "What are you showing me?" Marcus shrugged and acted nonchalantly. "Before the war starts, I''ve asked the others to bring a memory crystal so everyone can understand each other''s situation. Unfortunately, I don''t think you have the chance to win this." The Earth God roared and charged toward him. "It will be different if I kill you first and head toward them." Marcus smirked and said, "Oh, you still have a sense of camaraderie? How cute." The Earth God obviously had something like that. After all, they stemmed from one root, which was the best. Even a normal person would get angry if someone actually took their arm, let alone when they cripple them. Although the Earth God was the Supreme Beast''s two hands, he could still feel anger swelling in his heart when the body and anything else got injured. And this was what Marcus wanted. The moment he saw the Earth God''s uncontrolled anger, he raised his hand and gripped it tightly. "Wrath Control, Divine Anger." Suddenly, a black and purple light appeared next to the Earth God. Yes, this was none other than the personification of the Earth God''s wrath. Marcus enhanced that power and turned it into an explosive ball, forcing it to explode. "!!!" The Earth God was taken aback and flinched to the side, but it was too late. He realized that Marcus simply wanted to anger him. Unfortunately, this realization came far too late. Boom. Marcus smirked and said, "I''m Wrath itself. Whenever there is wrath, I will be present." What he did earlier was controlling someone''s wrath. This was the result of his training. In the past, he only managed to influence someone''s emotion and used his own wrath to attack. But after Alaya''s training, he understood that he could channel his power and become the Wrath itself. Normally, the Earth God wouldn''t feel anger toward him just because he got shown something like that. Yet, without him knowing, Marcus had been using his power to influence his anger, so his emotion was more sensitive to his provocation. This was the true art of emotional manipulation that he learned from Alaya. He watched the Earth God spat a mouthful of blood and got blown away to the side while screaming in pain. "How is the taste of your own wrath?" Marcus smirked. Chapter 1185: Marcus and Goddess of Destiny The explosion cracked the stone body to the point some stones floated around him. "¡­" The Earth God gritted his teeth and checked his body to regenerate it. Marcus simply made a smug smile and said, "How about getting angry again? You''re not fun." He just manipulated and created a personification of the Earth God''s anger to hit him from the back, so obviously, he tried to provoke him again. Understanding the reason behind it, the Earth God tried to calm his heart down bit by bit, but Marcus wouldn''t let him do that. In the previous two attacks, Marcus actually infused so much of his Law that would mess up Earth God''s emotion, especially the anger. At the same time, he appeared right in front of him and punched with his cold anger. Boom. The punch knocked the Earth God away while freezing the part where it crumbled and froze it to prevent the Earth God from recovering it. "You!" The Earth God obviously wanted to flare up, but Marcus would surely use it against him again, hence, he tried his best to remain calm and abandoned any kind of funny idea. "Well, I will need to end you quickly and help the others, so I will be serious right now." Marcus suddenly summoned two flames on his hand. The first one was the Fire of Anger that could melt everything, while the other was his Cold Anger. He just wanted to show the Earth God that he didn''t fight him seriously this whole time, meaning that his power was too low for him to consider going all out. Surprisingly, the Earth God only laughed at him. "Since you think you''re the only one, I will tell you that you won''t be able to catch up with me." The stone golem that acted as his body turned black as if it was covered by his fur. However, Marcus knew that this black color made the entire body stronger. Although he didn''t know how much stronger he had become, the God of Wrath flew straight to him with both flames to test his new ability. He spun his body and created a twister of Blazing and Freezing Flames. The Earth God moved its giant body and clapped both hands, squeezing the twister like it was nothing before destroying it. However, the Earth God found his hands were ripped apart. He abandoned that portion of hands by cutting it off because of the Icy Anger influence and replaced it with another one. "Hahaha, this is great. It seems you can fight me on equal ground despite being a loser a few years ago. Unfortunately, you''re still too young." The Earth God laughed and charged toward him. Feeling that he wasn''t beneath the Earth God, Marcus decided to play with him in close combat. He punched, kicked, and released his techniques over and over again, but the Earth God seemed to have enough strength to push him back every time. Of course, he also didn''t have any injury or whatsoever because their strength was at the same level. But Marcus started panting because he used a great deal of stamina. As for his Divine Energy, he should be able to fight for a few minutes if he didn''t care about the usage. And that was the reason why he engaged the Earth God in the first place. He simply wanted to know where the Earth God hid under that huge body. After a few tries, he found that the Earth God hid inside the stomach. Marcus released both flames again and looked at him. "This is the end. I will defeat you in this next move." When the Earth God heard this, he laughed uncontrollably as if finding it impossible. He then flew toward him and sent a fist to destroy him. "Take this then, Earth Shattering Fist." The God of Wrath showed something unprecedented. He fused both flames into one and charged forward. His plan was to destroy the fist and go straight toward the Earth God. The two fists collided and created a huge shock wave that shook the universe. If this fist hit a Lower World, they might have created enough damage to almost destroy it. Yet, Marcus widened his eyes in shock when the two clashed, finding that the stone that was supposed to melt started regenerating. Even though it should be stopped by his Icy Anger, the arm regenerated at speed visible with naked eyes. "What?!" Marcus gritted. Little did he know, his Icy Anger indeed froze the rock''s surface, but it would be different if it were not the surface. The Earth God actually regenerated the inside rock, which hadn''t been influenced by the Icy Anger. At the same time, it pushed all those that had been affected outside and let it melt. While Marcus''s power got weaker and weaker, the Earth God remained the same. The conclusion came suddenly as the Earth God''s fist pushed the God of Wrath before slamming his entire body with that giant fist. "!!!" Marcus, however, found something wrong. He felt more wounds on his body than he expected since it was a fist and realized that there were many small spikes on the rock surface, impaling his body. "Die!" That one fist could conclude the battle might not be an understatement. Marcus had also used his entire strength and realized it wasn''t enough. With around thirty holes in his body from hands, feet, and stomach and two on the cheeks, Marcus was at the death door. Yet, something seemed to be pulling him out of the death door. It was a strange feeling, but a certain scene flashed in his eyes. It was a few years ago when he and the Goddess of Destiny fought against the Dragon God, Phoenix Goddess, Earth God, and Battle God. With her injured body, the Goddess of Destiny looked at him and said, "I think they''re going to kill us here." "Hahahaha! No need to say it. Your fate is to die. We will take good care of your people." The Earth God laughed. The Goddess of Destiny suddenly grabbed Marcus''s hand and pulled him into her embrace. "Wha¡ª"Marcus never expected her to do something like this, but before he could say anything, the next thing he realized, his lips had already been sealed by her lips. Something seemed to enter his body, but he didn''t know what it was. But when he saw her eyes, the stars on her eyes that seemed to be able to see through fate were shining. "Haiz, I should have been more proactive until this day." She smiled and continued, "I should have pursued the love of my life. Unfortunately, it''s time to say goodbye even though this is the first time I have decided to make a move. I have been scared when seeing through my fate with you, and I regret doing so. But¡­" She pushed his chest away with all her strength, launching him so far away. There was one thing that would always be stuck in his mind. It was her last smile, tears, and words. "Goodbye. Oh, fate. If there''s another life, please give me the courage to do anything." Her body started glowing before she chanted. "Fate¡­ Alter." "Wha¡ª"Marcus was in shock and had no time to think, but he then realized after passing a few worlds, he felt a suction force from behind him. When he turned around, he found a giant black hole that would lead him to another universe. If he went there and hid for a moment, the enemies wouldn''t find her, but at that moment, tears filled his cheek, feeling something that caused his Wrath revolving crazily, but it felt his body was in euphoria, only to find it crumbled right after. Without stopping, he got absorbed into a black hole and disappeared. Remembering this scene, the God of Wrath released all his power before a certain white line came into his vision. He was confused for a second, but soon realized the white line was the thing the Goddess of Destiny hid. The anger swelling in his mind numbed his senses and stopped the blood flow. He gritted his teeth and saw the loop from the left before going to the right and making a big loop to the left. It was pretty complex, but for a second, he understood this was something that needed to be done. ''You¡­'' There was then another string that stretched straight to him before going around his own path. This was the Earth God''s path for a few seconds. He couldn''t help but tear up because of the overwhelming emotion. ''You fool, why did you keep doing this? You made it hard for me to forget you when you''re not here¡­'' When the Earth God flew straight toward him, Marcus leaped to the left, following the hidden path that only he could see. It was his fate to move to the left. It was his destiny to follow this path. As if the destiny was scripted, the two followed the exact same path and clashed with each other. However, Marcus knew it was also his fate to break from that destiny. As he was about to reach the last string of destiny, Marcus leaped above the Earth God, knowing where the Earth God would move for a split second in the future. He then channeled all his power to his two fists. The right fist contained his blazing anger that would melt everything, while the left one was covered by his cold anger that would freeze everything it touched. "Dual Anger. Blazing Ice Anger." Marcus gathered them together and hit the golem where the Earth God controlled the golem. "Huh?!" The Earth God obviously couldn''t react to this because of his current position. In fact, this might be the biggest gap in his defense for the whole time because Marcus knew where he was going and countered it to disrupt that balance. Marcus appeared right in front of the golem''s stomach as well as where he hid. "No!" Sweats fell from his forehead and raised his two hands, not the golem hands, to protect his body. Unfortunately for him, this was Marcus''s full power like how Alex summoned Nine Purities Slash when he was still a God King. He could only do it once because it took more than half of his reserve. "This is the end." Marcus plunged his fists forward and hit the golem''s stomach. The stone cracked and shattered into pieces, revealing the Earth God right behind the Golem''s Wall. The Earth God used all his power to block this attack, but his stone melted and froze at the same time, revealing his real bear''s paw. Due to the melting and freezing power, the bear paw turned weaker as Marcus broke his palms and ripped it off the arms. His fists continued toward the Bear''s chest as the power exploded when it hit the chest. Boom. The golem started crumbling as if the Earth God had been defeated. As for the two that clashed with each other. Marcus ended up creating a hole on the Earth God''s chest, but the Earth God did the most terrifying move of all. Right before the fists touched his chest, the Earth God abandoned all kinds of defense, knowing he wouldn''t be able to win against Marcus. Instead of defending, he channeled all his power to his foot and raised it upward. Marcus raised his defense, but it was too late as it already damaged him too far. What the Earth God did was kick him on the balls. "Congratulations, you won''t have any children from this point on." The Earth God made a smug smile before summoning a spike behind them to kill both of them together. Marcus gritted his teeth, enduring the pain. Despite his mouth starting to foam, he endured it and used the hole in the Earth God''s chest to shred him into two before using the Blazing Anger to melt him into nothing. "Die!" The Earth God clicked his tongue and knew it was impossible to kill him and closed his eyes, accepting his fate as he was ripped apart. Chapter 1186: Magic Goddess Huft. Huft. The God of Wrath panted continuously as he quickly took a pill to close his injury. He specifically used the same pill that could regrow a limb, recovering all parts of his body. "Did you think I would pass out after receiving that attack?" Marcus snorted even though he had a really bad experience with it. He wiped the foam on his mouth and dropped to his knees. His heart felt empty as he couldn''t help but stare blankly, saying, "Next life huh¡­ In the end, you entered my life again¡­ Since reincarnation does exist, this time, I will be the one actively pursuing you¡­" He shook his head and tried to recover his energy as soon as possible. ¡­ Meanwhile, the Magic Goddess stood tall while looking at her opponent, the Demon God. She raised her staff and smiled, "Before we fight, I want to ask you something." The Demon God snorted. "There''s nothing to be talked about. You''re simply an idiotic old hag that I need to kill." "¡­" Rubia wanted to charge at him, but she acted as if she wasn''t bothered and asked either way. "Do you have the skill to create tentacles?" "Ha?" The Demon God looked at Rubia with a weird expression. Even though he planned to ignore her, her ridiculous thoughts were just too much to be ignored. "Tch." Rubia clicked her tongue while complaining. "You should have a tentacle skill or something. I will be trapped in the first half and turn the situation around in the latter half. You disappoint me. To think you don''t even have tentacle magic which is so related to a knight or a magical girl like me." "What the¡ª" The Demon God wanted to rebuke her, but he suddenly sensed Divine Energy fluctuation around him before finding four magic circles in four directions. "Four Magic Formation. Wave Blast." Each magic circle surprisingly let a different element out. They were fire, wind, water, and lightning. The lightning wreaked havoc while linking the other three together. The water became the bridge to connect them while the fire covered the connection. Last but not least, the wind fused together with the fire, creating a more powerful connection. The circle stopped the Demon God from moving and started to shrink, planning to squeeze him until he snapped into two. The Demon God frowned and looked at the Magic Goddess. Despite her foolish act, she seemed to be pretty intelligent and cunning since she thought about buying time by using the cheap talks. However, this kind of technique wasn''t a challenge for him. The pair of horns on his forehead started glowing and released a grey-colored fire. The fire released numerous translucent souls from humans to animals as they flew toward the circle to stop it. "Ghost Summoning." "!!!" Rubia''s eyes brightened when he saw ghosts and shouted, "Ah! Ghosts! Now you are more like a villain. I will forgive you for not having the tentacle technique." Feeling pretty annoyed by her useless talk, the Demon God broke the circle with his ghosts before raising his right hand covered with the Ghost Fire. He then punched forward, releasing a burst of Ghost Fire. Rubia waved her staff down before another magic circle appeared. This time, there was a star inside the magic circle and each pointed tip was covered with elements. The elements were the same as the magic she used earlier with earth as an additional element. "Five Elements Shield." When the fire hit the shield, it quickly dispersed in all directions as the shield managed to protect her from the fire. However, she sensed something coming from her right and raised her staff instinctively, finding the Demon God emerging from behind the grey fire. In his hand was a big black sword with pointed blades like that of a gear covering the blade''s edge. It was similar to a teeth sword. The grey fire also coated the sword. "Ghost Slash." "!!!" Rubia blinked her eyes once before her right eye glowed in red color. "Blazing Fire." A fire appeared right before the sword and exploded, blasting all the Ghost Fire off the sword as she received the sword with her staff. Clank. Two metal clashed, but nothing extraordinary happened because Rubia managed to succeed in the last attack. She then waved her other hand two times before a pair of magic circles appeared on top of the Demon God''s head. "Lightning Union." Both magic circles summoned lightning and struck forth. Seeing the incoming lightning, the Demon God leaped back to avoid and gain distance from the Magic Goddess. However, the latter waved her staff to the front. The transparent gem that became the staff''s eye glowed red and released a torrential fire wave. "Burst." The Demon God snorted and punched forward, creating the same Ghost Fire burst like earlier. As one would expect, Rubia''s fire got owned in an instant before the residual attack came to her. Instead of a magic shield, she summoned a water ball on top of the fire and splashed it. "Water Magic, Aila Water." There was something different with this water since the Ghost Fire disappeared without a trace. The reason she used "Five Elements Shield" earlier was to judge what element could counter his Ghost Fire. Then, she realized if she mixed a little bit of her Lightning Element into her Water Magic, she would be able to force it to evaporate. And that was what she did earlier. "¡­" The Demon God also didn''t expect for him to be countered this fast. Before the water disappeared, he appeared right above it and placed his hand on it. "Heavenly Absorbing Demon Art." Suddenly, a mouth appeared on his left hand and swallowed all the water. Although she was surprised, Rubia quickly channeled all her magic power into her next attack that appeared right behind the Demon God. A giant tornado appeared out of nowhere before Rubia summoned a fire element to turn it into a fire tornado. "Ha!" The Demon God furrowed his eyebrows and struck the tornado with his sword. "Ghost Slash." The slash split the tornado into two before the Demon God summoned a thousand ghosts. "Thousand Ghosts Summoning." The ghosts seemed to be lining up as if they were an army. It looked so organized. Rubia frowned and saw the ghosts moving and circling around her. There were also some above and below her. "Ah?! Pervert." Rubia still had the time to act like a child and tried to protect her panties from being seen by the ghosts below her. However, her action just infuriated the Demon God even more, making him think, ''If you don''t want it to be seen, why the heck you''re wearing such an outfit in an important battle like this?'' There were so many complaints in his head, but everything ended up with her acting like an annoying girl in the end. But once again, Rubia used that time to cast her spell. Lightning spark began appearing around her and between the ghosts. Before the Demon God could order the ghosts to kill her, the lightning burst out and electrocuted every single ghost, obliterating them into nothing. "Lightning Spark." Rubia stuck her tongue out while making a peace sign. "You failed. Try again." The Demon God thought he had enough and summoned another ghost army, but he forced them to cover his sword this time. He flew toward the Magic Goddess as quickly as possible. "Five Elements Shield." The shield appeared again. To block him completely, Rubia expanded the magic shield. Unfortunately for her, the Demon God waved his sword seven times. The first five slashes sent forth a Sword Wave, hitting the five tips that contained the element in succession. Meanwhile, the last two flew straight toward Rubia. Rubia''s expression turned serious as she realized the power behind this attack. The moment the five-pointed tips disappeared, the magic shield vanished, allowing the two sword waves to fly straight toward her. Rubia summoned five star-shaped lights behind her and shot them toward the Sword Waves. "Five Great Stars Magic." The first two collided with the Sword Wave and exploded together. She saved the other three to hit the Demon God who was still coming to her position. The Demon God surprisingly snorted upon the sight of the three star-shaped lights and waved his sword slightly just so the lights hit the body of his sword. Boom. A series of explosions resounded in their ears, but the Demon God soon emerged from the smoke. In his hand, the sword''s Ghost Energy had been depleted. He looked at the sword and clicked his tongue, "It''s only two hundred more ghosts¡­" The Demon God still decided to keep marching forward since the distance between him and the Magic Goddess was so close. "!!!" Rubia never expected that two of her magic were still not enough to stop his advance. She quickly raised her staff with both hands horizontally because the Demon God planned to attack her from above. "How about you take this?" The Demon God smirked and swung with all his strength. "Asura Ghost Blade." Rubia gritted her teeth and blocked the slash with only her Divine Weapon. Unfortunately for her, there was a slight force coming from her staff. ''What?'' Rubia was surprised when she saw her staff and the power behind that strike. ''The sword bends my staff?'' Before she could think of another useless thing, the Demon God pushed her back and launched her diagonally. She crashed into a nearby planet diagonally below her and created a bigger crater than the Earth God made. "Gah" Rubia spat a mouthful of blood. Luckily, she managed to protect her organs, and no bones broke upon contact. She endured the excruciating pain on her back as she sighed, "They''re truly something else¡­" She stored the staff and took out another one that looked the same as her current staff. "A magical girl needs the staff to perform, so I''ve made a few copies of my staff. They''re pretty handy eh." The Demon God narrowed his eyes and realized that Rubia was fine. Due to the setback of his Asura Ghost Blade, he couldn''t summon his ghosts, so he wouldn''t be able to do a strike that strong again for a period of time. Hence, he relied on his flame this time. Instead of summoning ghosts, his flame flared up and absorbed the remaining ghosts around him. A black-colored light appeared within the flame before the flame shone even more. "Primal Chaos Ghost Law." The ghosts inside his fire started rampaging and became a wraith or vengeful spirit instead. It even let out a loud eerie sound. Rubia felt a chill down to her spine, but her face remained calm as if it didn''t affect her at all. The Demon God actually infused this rampaging blackish grey-colored fire into his sword. Compared to the first fire sword, this one was obviously stronger. However, Rubia knew the sword''s power was half or even lower than the previous ghost sword. She stood on top of the ground and stared at him from the planet. "This is what I''ve gotten from the Spirit God. I will let you be the first to see it." Rubia smirked and raised her staff. Suddenly, a fire appeared in front of her before it turned into a ball-shaped fire and expanded. It should be finished if it were a normal technique, but Rubia took it one step further. "Enchanted Fire Bomb." The huge fireball suddenly shrank into a palm-sized red ball. She grabbed the ball and let it float on her right. She then went to the side and grabbed the wand with both hands. She took one step forward and swung like a baseball player. "Home Run!" The staff acted like a bat and launched the ball at high speed toward the Demon God. Even the Demon God never saw this kind of speed as he widened his eyes, raising his sword to block it, but it was slightly a bit too late. It only touched the edge of the sword as the ball exploded, engulfing the Demon God inside a ball of fire. Boom. Chapter 1187: Resolves Boom. The explosion created a fan-shaped area leaning to one side because half of it was blocked by the sword. And the flame in the sword was blasted away by that powerful explosion. "Kh¡­" The Demon God gritted his teeth as when the smoke was cleared, Rubia could see the effect of her attack. "Hahaha, do you like it?" Rubia laughed. This was what Alex''s Unknown Elemental Orb gave to her. Due to her curiosity of how a Fire Disturbance could be compressed to the point it started materializing into solid form, she managed to replicate such a thing. Of course, her strength was far too low to even condense a Fire Disturbance and settled with a smaller one. The effect was as she saw earlier. "This is indeed good. I feel like I can become even stronger if I understand this concept more. Unfortunately, I can only replicate the power to this extent due to the time limit. But I think it''s enough to fight you. As expected, Magical Girls are the strongest." Rubia chuckled and looked at the Demon God whose half body had a burn mark due to the earlier attack. Before the Demon God could do anything, she waved her staff and summoned a few more elements. They were all her five elements, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. She smirked and turned them into marbles as if Energy could gain a solid form. Those five balls circled around her as she pointed her staff toward the Demon God. "Now, let''s fight again. I am not afraid of you. Justice will always win." "What justice? There is no right or wrong in this world. If you don''t know it''s a lie, then it''s the truth. If you don''t know we''re bad, we''re the same as you guys, good people." The Demon God snorted before releasing his power even more to restart everything. The Demon God covered his sword with fire and charged forward. "Hah!" Before reaching Rubia, he purposely punched forward, releasing the same fire tornado to distract her. Rubia''s response was simply throwing the first crystal. She thought, ''I can only use this once because I haven''t mastered this technique yet. Hence, I need to find a way to defeat him by using all five crystals for now¡­'' The crystal then exploded as water splashed and covered the entire flame. The Demon God narrowed his eyes and looked left and right to see if he needed to find another way to reach her, but he didn''t feel any more presence. Hence, he cut the residual water with his sword, blowing them away to the side with the shock wave the swing made. Unfortunately for him, Rubia used the water to cover her action. She grabbed the Earth Crystal and threw it toward him. When the water just split into two, the Demon God found a green crystal on his way. "!!!" He was surprised because the small crystal turned into an asteroid right after. Wanting to march forward, the Demon God slashed the rock to the best of his ability. Clink. There was a bit of restriction when the two clashed, but cracks began to appear before the middle of the rock crumbled. The Demon God smiled and decided to continue because he felt he could handle this. And since Rubia thought he would keep going to charge at the crystals head-on, he decided to dodge next time. Unfortunately for him, everything was within Rubia''s calculation. She smirked and grabbed the Lightning and Fire concentrated magic bombs. The Demon God flinched as he thought this would attack him again, so he wanted to gain enough distance to dodge it. And it seemed he had called it right because he saw Rubia throwing both of them at him. Yet, she seemed to trick him because the two crystals didn''t explode and continued on their path. At the same time, she grabbed the last crystal she had and threw it the last. Surprisingly, this one exploded and created a torrential wind stream that carried the two crystals forward. "What?!" The Demon God widened his eyes and gritted his teeth before raising his sword. Because of the shock, he didn''t have enough time to use a big move, so he ended up with a normal Ghost Fire Sword. Before he struck the combined fire and lightning energy, he raised his hand and absorbed a portion of them. "Heavenly Absorbing Demon Art." Unfortunately for him, this was concentrated energy that made it hard to absorb. The rate was too slow to keep up, so the Demon God made a decision to take it head-on. He slashed the sword, which was covered in Ghost Fire, downwards to knock it down instead of destroying it. The Magic Goddess showed another trick and turned the wind energy that carried both energies upward to redirect their target, making it impossible for the Demon God to dodge or deflect it. "Sh*t!" The Demon God gritted his teeth and completed his sword. The Sword and Energy clashed. The asteroids around them got blown away while the planets went off their orbit. However, it was easy to see the losing side. "I win." Rubia smirked when the Demon God started getting pushed back by her attack before it blew him away until he crashed to a planet. Boom. "This is it." Rubia widened her eyes and raised her staff, not planning to stop. Three Magic Circles appeared in succession. She summoned her five elements before each of them released all their energy toward the first Magic Circles. The First Magic Circles absorbed all their energy before amplifying them to a certain extent before hitting the second Magic Circle. The second magic circle compressed their power into five small crystals like her usual Magic Bomb. Yet, there was still the third Magic Circle. The moment five crystals touched it, their crystals melted and burst out all the energy inside as she used the third magic circle to gain enough control to force all the energy struck forth. "Five Element Union. Cosmic Blast." A powerful beam carrying all five energies flew straight toward the Demon God who was stuck on the planet. He panicked and released all the power he had, including the one thousand ghosts, coating his sword. He slashed downwards, planning to strike it down. "Asure Ghost Blade." The powerful beam finally made contact with the Asura Blade and created a powerful shock wave that pushed the planet away. However, beneath the Demon God, the ground turned into a massive crater that made one have a hard time seeing the surface again. The hole became even bigger and deeper. "Ha!" Rubia kept maintaining this output. Despite having more than half of her energy, the output was too intense for her body to handle. Blood came out the pores, her eyes, and even her mouth. She spat a mouthful of blood but maintained this for a little longer. There was a chance that the Demon God managed to withstand this, so she wanted to use all her remaining power to make sure he died in this one particular chance. "Die!" Rubia spat another mouthful of blood as her energy destabilized for a split second. That was the kind of hardship she needed to endure. Her vision gradually became blurry and her eyes lost their light. Rubia simply lost all of her energy to use this attack and she didn''t mind even if she ended up falling unconscious to the lack of energy or something later. And it might be her luck or determination, but she heard a loud rumbling sound that she thought was the end of it. If there were someone in this place witnessing her power, they would be shocked because the loud noise she heard earlier was nothing but the destroyed planet. Yes. That powerful beam created a hole in a Lower World, making one able to see the things behind the planet straight through it. For the first time in her life and probably her biggest achievement, she managed to pierce through a Lower World even though it used all her energy to the point she almost fell unconscious. "I''m tired¡­ I can''t really fight more." Rubia gritted her teeth and fell on her knees, wanting to fall asleep just like this. However, she soon felt a weak presence as a shadow blurred her vision even more. The shadow kept panting as a portion of his blood smeared her clothes. "I¡­ I¡­ I¡­ am still not done." If she could raise her head, she would see the current state of the Demon God. His entire right arm and foot had disappeared as a fifth of his body were nowhere to be seen, including his right ears. However, he was lucky enough to survive. The split second the energy wave destabilized, he used this opportunity to get away as soon as possible. Yet, that person could still stand, holding his sword. "Demon¡­ has¡­ more¡­ powerful¡­ body." "Ha¡­ha¡­" Rubia chuckled with a tired expression. All she could see was the shadow of the Demon God as she didn''t have any more energy to even move her finger. "It seems I''ve lost¡­" Regret was shown on her face, knowing that she had no other chance to win against him other than this one last resort. This was also the reason why she actually came to talk with Alex alone and asked him to take care of her and her vassals. Despite her playful actions, she always thought about the worst case scenario. And compared to people like the God of Destruction or the God of Wrath, she was clearly the worst. Needing to fight against one of the Bats, she knew there was a high chance of her not being able to win. Hence, she wanted Alex to take care of her people even if she died. Although she hadn''t accepted the confirmation, this sacrifice would surely give his assurance. Even in the face of death, she kept thinking about her worlds and people like a madman. "Huft¡­ It''s hard to keep up being a magical girl." She weakly muttered as she activated something next to her with the little energy remaining. "What are you doi¡ª" Before he finished, the Demon God glanced over to her waist before another five compressed balls appeared. "!!!" They were none other than her compressed Spiritual Energy infused by each individual element she commanded. It turned out she knew her weakness well and still wanted to fulfill her job no matter the cost. Either way, she would end up dying, so dragging her opponent down like this might be a fitting end for her. "You¡ª" Rubia smirked and raised her head, staring at the ''empty'' face before her because her eyes couldn''t focus anymore, making it hard to see someone, especially when she was surrounded by darkness. She smiled and said weakly, "Let''s die together." Boom. Chapter 1188: Destruction Right after Rubia said those words, the Palm God appeared right behind the Demon God. He grabbed all the crystals from her body and threw them as far as possible while leaving a hundred arms protecting her body. He didn''t end there. With the Demon God''s condition, even the Palm God could quickly finish him off. The Palm God channeled all the power that the Holy God left behind and slapped the Demon God from behind like a mosquito. "Hand of Virtue." The Palm God let out a sigh of relief when he managed to pull this off because he never expected what the Holy God said was the truth. He quickly put a pill on her mouth to recover from her injury before making sure the Demon God died. Still, the Demon God died without even being able to react or say something. It was a sad death. Considering he was in the death door, his death might be normal, albeit the Palm God really didn''t have any excitement when killing another God King. He simply said, "It seems the old man was right. You were prepared to die this whole time." "¡­" Rubia narrowed her eyes and used the little strength she recovered due to the pill and looked at the Palm God with a pale face. She stuttered, "Why¡­ are¡­ you¡­ here?" "Saving your ass, old hag." The Palm God shrugged. "The old man found your face as someone who was ready to die, so he thought you would pull something like this." "I was winning¡­ But my power was not enough¡­" Rubia shook her head in regret. She didn''t have a powerful finishing move that could destroy the Demon God''s whole body other than the crystals and that last attack. She had created one set of crystals before going to the battle that could blow both of them up together in the worst-case scenario. And the second set of crystals could only be used once because she didn''t have enough power to create another one, forcing her to use that one last attack with all her might since it was her best chance. She sighed and said, "I''ll stop." The Palm God looked at her for a few seconds before carrying her to the old man. They were too weak to join the war and one Rank 2 God would probably be enough to kill them in the current situation, so he planned to stop for a while to guard them. With more than half of the enemies dead, only four enemies remained. They were the Blood God, Vampire Goddess and Evil God. This time, it was a battle between the God of Destruction and the only remaining female God King on the opposite side, the Vampire Goddess. Raiju seemed to have something new to his power. Even the Vampire Goddess could feel it. When he flew toward their new battlefield, everything Raiju passed, such as asteroids, cracked and almost shattered. Raiju looked at this blonde-haired vampire girl. Her long hair was tied into twin tails and her eyes were dark red. She wore a one-piece dress with a black and dark red pattern. "Let me test you first." The Vampire Goddess smirked and summoned ten bats, launching them toward Raiju. It was a simple test to see his reaction speed and action. Seeing this kind of movement, Raiju surprisingly destroyed all the bats even though they wouldn''t touch him. "¡­" Even the Vampire Goddess was quite shocked and smiled, knowing that Raiju would destroy everything she threw at him. Hence, she began formulating a certain plan in her mind and raised her hands. She summoned more and more bats as if she planned to do something. Raiju narrowed his eyes and released the power of destruction. Suddenly, near one hundred bats lined up in front of him, staring at him for a few seconds before opening their mouth. A dark red light appeared in each of their mouths before they shot a kind of beam toward him. "!!!" Raiju hurriedly punched forward while releasing the Power of Destruction to the air. When it clashed with the beams, the beams decayed in an instant before the bats disappeared due to the lack of energy as well as being influenced by the Power of Destruction. But the Vampire Goddess didn''t stop here. She raised both hands and waved them to the sides while spinning her body as if she was dancing. It was then Raiju realized many things were moving at once. He turned around and found thirty asteroids of various sizes flew straight at him. If he were to take another look from a different perspective, he would find many bats pushing the asteroids from behind. "Now lock up!" The Vampire Goddess smirked and snapped her finger. Bam. Bam. Bam. Raiju was locked up by the asteroids without a way out. Even if he made a new one, the Vampire Goddess would launch another attack. However, Raiju had his own pride and plan. Instead of rationally coming up with a way, he used his Power of Destruction to shatter all the rocks nearby, including the bats behind them. After that, he flew straight toward the Vampire Goddess with a fist covered with a silverish black colored aura. "So, you want to try it out." She smirked and raised her hands, summoning more bats. The bats then spread around before a dark red string attached to it, forming a net. "Blood Net." This was the technique she used to block Alex''s attack. Although it failed, the net itself carried another energy that should be able to deal with the God of Destruction. Even Raiju was aware of this energy. Sadly for the Vampire Goddess, Raiju simply struck the Blood Net like a fool. "Fist of Destruction!" "You seriously try attacking my net? That blood is extraordinary." The Vampire Goddess shook her head in disappointment. Raiju felt his skin was burned despite being covered with his Power of Destruction. The Blood Net turned out to remove his skin and tried to suck his blood. Not only did it strengthen the Blood Net, but the God of Destruction would also get weaker as time went on. If people watched this fight, they would think Raiju would back down and choose another option. But it just meant they didn''t know Raiju enough. Raiju was a man that thought he could destroy everything. If the net really couldn''t be destroyed, he simply needed to destroy the one who cast it. He took one more step forward and pushed all the bats and the Blood Net with him as he made his way toward the Vampire Goddess. "What?!" The Vampire Goddess dropped her jaw, never expecting the God of Destruction would push it toward her. Unfortunately, the thought was too ridiculous to be believed and Raiju had arrived right in front of her, considering the net wasn''t that far from her. He continued his punch and struck the Vampire Goddess''s face. "If it''s not good, then I will just smash the one who summons it!" "Ha!" Raiju blew her away with that powerful fist. The Vampire Goddess managed to stop before she hit anything, but her face was disfigured by that one attack as she complained, "Oi, have you never heard not to hit a woman''s face?" "I''ve¡­ Countless time." Raiju answered calmly. "Then you¡ª" Before he finished, Raiju stopped her by shouting, "But who cares? Do you think I will care about something that insignificant? If you think I will stop because you''re a woman, then you''re wrong. I will destroy everything even if my opponent is a he, a she, or it! Whether you''re living beings or weapons, I will destroy everything. My fist knows no gender." The Vampire Goddess released her killing intent as her face slowly restored to its prime. She then raised her hand and snapped her fingers. "Since you want it that way, I will give it to you." "Blood Control. Spikes." Raiju widened his eyes as sharp pain entered his brain. He raised his right hand that was used to hit the Blood Net, finding many huge spikes that came out of nowhere. "That net¡­" Raiju gritted his teeth and used his Power of Destruction to destroy the residual energy from the Blood Net to prevent the power circulated inside his body through blood. "Hoh! A clever guy despite being known as a muscle brain." The Vampire Goddess smirked and summoned more bats. "Then, I will play along with you a bit more." "Fine by me." Raiju snorted and charged at her. Because of Raiju''s new power, the Vampire Goddess kept sending bats to him in all different formations to test his ability. Meanwhile, Raiju also charged at her without considering his injury carefully. As long as he didn''t get spiked on his body, he should be fine. After five minutes, the Vampire Goddess felt there was a need to weaken Raiju first before killing him. She summoned a hundred bats and spread them around her body. She then released her Blood Power and let the Bats carry it toward Raiju. The Blood Power then spread around like a mist before the bats also released the same blood to permeate the entire battlefield. She stayed inside the Blood Mist while leisurely saying, "Hahaha, what can you do now, God of Destruction? "This is my Blood Mist. The moment you enter this place, you will feel like your blood will drain up. This is a special mist that can extract your energy. If it were another person, they would have waited for me since the battle would be decided by the strongest person among the two sides. "In other words, if you wait here, we will win the moment my lord kills your Spirit God. At the same time, you can''t afford to leave this battlefield because you know I might hinder the Spirit God on the battlefield since unlike you, I am not afraid of dying so my lord can win. "I can hide inside this place to keep you in this place. Most people will probably wait for me here, but I''m sure you don''t like it, right?" The Vampire Goddess smirked, revealing her sharp canine. She completely read the God of Destruction. With his character, he obviously didn''t want to let it end like this, but charging ahead was not a good idea. He thought for a moment and took a deep breath, wondering what he needed to do. Unfortunately, the Vampire Goddess didn''t give him time to think. "Bats Formation." The Vampire Goddess summoned thousands of bats like how Anna usually summoned her butterfly. Even Raiju was impressed by the sheer number and looked left and right, finding a way to kill them all. Unfortunately for him, there was no other way to destroy them other than eradicating the bats one by one. "Hmm¡­" Raiju narrowed his eyes and contemplated for a moment. Not wanting to give him time to get the solution, the Vampire Goddess waved her hand, ordering all the bats to march forward. As long as a few of them lived and managed to bite him, she would gain so much advantage. "Come, God of Destruction." The Vampire Goddess made an excited smile. Raiju took one step back to gain enough distance but was misunderstood by the Goddess. Him retreating was a sign of showing his weakness from him, so she raised her hand, telling all the bats to charge at him. "Go!" The Bats surrounded him and began to swarm him until he couldn''t be seen anymore, trying to suck his blood. However, grey-colored energy suddenly leaked from the bat formations before all the bats vanished into trace as if they just decayed, reduced to the very atom. "What?!" The Vampire Goddess gasped and looked at Raiju. There was a trace of fear and uncertainty in her eyes, feeling something even more dangerous emanating from him. That energy was also the one killing all the bats. That was why she knew something had changed. Coming out of the bats formation, the God of Destruction fixed his hair and clicked his tongue. There was silence throughout the entire battlefield. He released all of his power and glared at the Vampire Goddess, saying with a cold tone. "Destruction Embodiment." Chapter 1189: Ridiculous Way to Fight "Destruction Embodiment." The Vampire Goddess dropped her jaw, not believing what just happened. She quickly summoned the bats again and controlled them in all directions. Raiju narrowed his eyes and saw the bats moving two big asteroids from both sides. If he were hit by these two, he might end up with some broken bones. Yet, when he saw these two, Raiju didn''t have the intention of avoiding them. Instead, he appeared to be disappointed as if this wasn''t a challenge. At the same time, he didn''t even use his fist to stop them. "Is this all you got?" Raiju shook his head helplessly and raised both hands, pointing his forefingers at the asteroids. When it was about to hit him, they would hit his fingers first. However, it was also at that time, the Power of Destruction appeared and shocked the universe. "Omni Destruction." Suddenly, the right asteroid was split into two, going sideways. The split might not look clean like it was cut by a sword, but it was still impossible for someone to destroy that huge asteroid with a finger alone. At the same time, the left asteroid was also destroyed into two, going above and below to avoid any collision. The four parts finally passed him with Raiju at the very center of the asteroids. He simply maintained his calm and waited until they disappeared from his eyes. "!!!" The Vampire Goddess widened her eyes in shock. "You¡­ You¡­" Raiju smirked. "My Destruction Embodiment allows me to become the destruction itself. And the more I destroy something, the stronger I become. And after understanding this power, I have realized something different. "I''ve been too focused on my destruction force that forces something to shatter into pieces. However, Destruction comes in many forms. I can control my Power of Destruction to form a single line to concentrate my target like what I did earlier." "!!!" The Vampire Goddess drew a gasp as she noticed something wrong in his statement. "Wait a minute, did you say you can get stronger when you destroy something? Then, doesn''t it mean¡ª" Before she finished, Raiju smirked and continued, "That''s right. I need to thank you for summoning so many bats and sending me asteroids. You''ve given me the opportunity to be this strong. As a thank you, I will destroy your body to the very atom." "No!" The Vampire Goddess shouted, unwilling to accept that she was used by the God of Destruction, the one who was known as a muscle brain. Raiju ignored her and said, "This kind of power will probably not bring me enough benefit if I fight against another person. But because you''re my opponent, I feel like I can do anything I want right now." He then raised his hands, channeling his Power of Destruction toward her. If it were before, Raiju would probably spread it to all directions to wipe all the Blood Mist. However, the current him only released a horizontal wave of Destruction, swiping through the Blood Mist. "No!" The Vampire Goddess gritted her teeth and dodged the wave, but her Blood Mist was indeed cut into two. Seeing that the other party was scared of his power, Raiju then created a vertical wave of Destruction that cut the Blood Mist that hid her into two before it spread like a virus, decaying all the Blood Mist. This cleared all the barriers that protected her body, so Raiju flew straight at her while covering his fist with the Power of Destruction. "Fist of Destruction." "No, I won''t let you!" The Vampire Goddess controlled the Blood Particles that she spread to make the mist. In other words, she controlled the mist itself to go up to cover her. He couldn''t afford to have the vampire Goddess get a good time in her new home, so he channeled even more Power of Destruction and injected them into the Blood Mist before it began decaying. Not wanting to get caught by that power, the Vampire Goddess reluctantly let the Blood Mist go. Raiju finally charged toward her. "Now, let''s fight, shall we?" When she saw Raiju''s improvement, she gritted her teeth before her eyes started glowing, releasing another kind of power that was more dangerous than the bat. Raiju struck forth with his fist while the Vampire Goddess seemed to be planning to stop the attack with her bare hand, despite knowing that her hand would vanish without a trace due to Raiju''s power. Yet, the next thing he realized, Raiju found himself getting blown away. "What?!" The Vampire Goddess snorted, revealing her glowing red eyes. "Do you think summoning bats and using the bats'' blood are my specialty? No, my real power is related to telekinesis." She then waved her hands a few times. Raiju then realized so many asteroids were coming toward him, planning to lock him again. Because every destruction he caused would give him strength, Raiju destroyed them gratefully. Suddenly, a big asteroid flew straight to him while the rest only moved due to the momentum. This meant the Vampire Goddess actually focused on this rock. Feeling he was invincible in this condition, he jumped forward and struck the asteroid. The Vampire Goddess evilly smiled and used her telekinesis again to restrain his movement, stopping his motion until the asteroid hit him. Still, as expected from the Power of Destruction, it evaporated the rock at a speed visible with naked eyes. The Vampire Goddess increased the speed of the asteroid, so the stone hit him first before he could destroy it. "Kh!" Raiju gritted his teeth and felt the weight of the stone and quickly destroyed the stone in the middle right before he hit another asteroid. However, since there was nothing left in the middle, the top and bottom then joined together and squeezed him like a burger. "No!" Raiju released all his energy and decayed at an even faster rate. After noticing that the stones wouldn''t hold him back anymore, the Vampire Goddess leaped and searched for a new target. "This restriction should just go away!" Raiju roared and used his Power of Destruction to decay the mysterious power that bound him. The Vampire Goddess quickly reinforced her telekinesis to stop his movement, but the latter managed to destroy it right before she controlled him. "What?!" "Hahaha, as expected, I can destroy it right after you summon them." Raiju laughed after rendering his opponent''s power useless. "Since you want to die this much, then how about you take this?" The Vampire Goddess released the blood power she planted on him when sending those bats earlier. "!!!" Raiju felt something stirred up inside his body before spikes came out of his body, creating many holes. "Kh!" He managed to protect his vitals, but the blood kept bleeding through the holes in his body. He quickly stopped the blood flow around there to prevent them from coming out. It wouldn''t be a good idea to die because of blood loss anyway. The Vampire Goddess took advantage of this opportunity she created and charged at him. When she arrived before him, she clapped her hand and forced the Spiritual Energy to squeeze him to death. "Gah!" Raiju spat a mouthful of blood and the wounds bled again. He gritted his teeth and used his Power of Destruction to decay the Spiritual Energy around him. Just like the Blood Mist earlier, he spread his Power of Destruction all over the place before grabbing her hand. "I''ve got you!" The Vampire Goddess widened her eyes and used her power again. Suddenly, she felt a jolt in her mind as if she had failed to control the Spiritual Energy. She then looked around and gasped, "You¡­ Your Power can even decay the purest form of energy?!" Her answer came in the form of a grin. With her hand grasped by Raiju, there was no way she could escape. Raiju didn''t want to do something meaningless, so he quickly obliterated the Vampire Goddess''s head until everything splattered and vanished without a trace. Surprisingly, the Vampire Goddess still regenerated even though her head wasn''t there. She even grabbed back Raiju''s hand and released her Blood Power and created more spikes on his hand, moving toward the elbow and ultimately reaching the body. He didn''t want it to happen again, so Raiju quickly pierced her stomach and spread the Power of Destruction throughout her body from the center to progress evenly. As one would expect, the Vampire Goddess still managed to regenerate at fast speed, trying to outdo his speed while summoning the spikes on his arm. Their battle went in a ridiculous direction because everything came to their endurance and speed. Raiju kept pouring his power, creating a hole in her stomach and expanding continuously. Meanwhile, the Vampire Goddess managed to reach his elbow. "Ha!" Raiju poured all the power he could while trying to slow down her progress. "You''re going to die!" The Vampire Goddess didn''t want to lose and glare at him. "No, you''re going to die!" The Vampire Goddess didn''t like it and shouted back. When she reached his shoulder, she felt happy because she could stab his heart soon. However, her power suddenly decreased uncontrollably before she realized her body was almost gone. "Wha¡ª" "No, you''re dead." Raiju snorted and destroyed her with his power until she was reduced to the very atom. "No! I won''t die!" The Vampire Goddess screamed painfully as she vanished without a trace. Raiju ignored her scream, even though she said something controversial, and thought of another thing. "Well, I have gotten stronger. After learning about the past generation of the God Kings, I think I can officially claim I have reached their level¡­" He paused for a minute before shaking his head. "I don''t know yet. I need Alaya to confirm this power. Though, I have a fifty percent probability of destroying a Lower World. Should I test my power? Hmm¡­" After contemplating for a few seconds, Raiju decided to throw away that thought and believed today was not the time to do something like this. Since he had half of Divine Energy left in his body, he had another thought. "I should help the others instead. I wonder if they have finished their fight or not¡­ Considering we''re obligated to finish the battle as soon as possible to avoid anything that will disrupt Spirit God''s fight, we all go out right away. If not, I can even prolong this fight for more than twenty hours¡­" Raiju sighed. "I should probably help other God Kings that are focusing on the Bats instead of their pets since each of them needs to face two God Kings from our side. "If possible, I would like to see Spirit God''s strength and the disparity between him and me. I should''ve accepted the sparring with him, but I guess it can be done after this war." Raiju smiled and took a pill to recover his physical injuries first. "Anyway, time to recover. I should be able to rejoin the fight in ten minutes." Chapter 1190: Outsmart the Outsmarting This time, the battle was between the Blood God and the Life and Death Goddess. Alaya''s small body couldn''t be compared to the Blood God''s big body filled with muscles. This looked like a two meters strong man fighting against a middle school kid. It was bullying at this point. However, Alaya simply said, "You look so big compared to my body. How about you give me some muscle and fat so I can get a bit taller and bigger? I mean, you''re known as the Blood God, right? I''m sure you can do something like that." "!!!" The Blood God just felt annoyed by her remarks and said, "You''re just a deserter from the past. Do you think you have the right to even ask that question?" "Yes, of course, I have no intention of denying it. Even with the other Gods convincing me to leave, it was still my decision." Alaya shrugged. "Well, who cares about it now? After this war, I can return to Eulja and enjoy my retirement life. Unlike you who have nowhere to go other than hell. Wait, no¡­ Since you''re going to die in my hand, there''s no way you can reincarnate. After all, I will cut everything, including your soul to prevent you from experiencing the next life, including Heaven, Hell, and Reincarnation." She stuck her tongue out and didn''t feel bothered with her past decision. "You''re just going to run away again like what you did in the past." The Blood God shook his head in disappointment as if he believed one hundred percent of what he said. Alaya simply shrugged, not offended by this statement. Instead, he threw back another insult. "Well, this small body of mine can show you about it. I am worried because I don''t know if you can handle it or not. After all, a big boy is trying to be a big boy just because of his size. Not mature at all." The Blood God finally released his Blood Energy and Divine Energy, pressuring Alaya''s small body. Since the other party had become serious, she raised her vision and rechecked the count on her Life and Death Coffin. 13,900 Her eyes then started glowing again, black and white according to Life and Death Energy. The Death Energy in her right hand gradually formed a scythe while the Life Energy turned into a knife. She then pointed her knife toward him, saying, "Now, let me use this small one to chop your body. It''s not going to cut you in half, so it can give you a bit more pain than my scythe." The Blood God couldn''t handle it anymore and cut both palms with the nails until blood came out of the palms. It then formed a pair of dark-red swords as he pointed one of them toward Alaya. "You''re dead." "Yep, I will die¡­ In another four thousand years, of course. Can''t help but die from old age, you see." Alaya shrugged, insulting him again. "Gr!" The Blood God gnashed his teeth and leaped forward. "Blood Slash." "Life Cut." Alaya snorted and struck his blood sword with her knife. The Blood and Life Energy clashed, trying to invade each other, only to find both of them failed miserably. The Blood God then raised his other sword and struck her from the side. Alaya simply used the scythe''s handle to stop it before lowering his giant scythe to cut his body down. Even the Blood God didn''t expect Alaya to exert this amount of power to the point she became stronger than him. ''Was she always this strong?'' The Blood God furrowed his eyebrows before taking one step back to avoid all his predicaments before slashing the blood horizontally. Alaya simply recreated the knife into a shield and blocked the attack with a simple block before slashing her scythe toward the Blood God. "!!!" The Blood God managed to react and blocked the scythe, but Alaya used the force from the Blood God''s attack to launch her to the right so she could rotate the scythe, allowing her to reach his arm. "!!!" The Blood God felt it was like a bee''s sting, but there shouldn''t be something that would endanger his life or so he thought. The counter on the Life and Death Coffin decreased by a hundred, making it look like his life got sucked into the coffin. Of course, he didn''t feel anything, making him feel weird to see that number to the point he thought it was just a scam to scare him. However, Alaya was the past generation God King, so she wouldn''t do something meaningless. Hence, he believed there was something behind that number. The Earth God also told him about this Life and Death Coffin that seemed to be able to kill them easily as long as the count reached zero. He decided to believe it as well and tried his best to avoid any touch with her power. Unfortunately for him, Alaya already knew his thoughts and swung her scythe. "Life and Death Cycle. Unending Samsara." The Blood God felt danger from that attack and quickly dodged to the side as it touched only a bit of his toes, but the effect was apparent. Because of the sudden decrease in lifespan, he felt his soul get drained by something invisible. He raised his vision and drew a gasp. 12,800 "One little mess up is costing me one thousand years of my life?" The Blood God narrowed his eyes and raised his hand, dispersing the blood sword into Blood Droplets. "Blood Shaman." The droplets suddenly changed shape into a needle before the Blood God launched them toward Alaya. Alaya narrowed her eyes and used Life Energy to form a giant shield to block all those attacks. However, the Blood God actually used that opportunity to go around her and turned the second sword into a dragon. "Blood Dragon." "Oi, oi! How can you turn that much blood into a dragon this big?" Alaya narrowed her eyes and shook her head in confusion. "Anyway, time to cut this dragon down then." She raised her scythe again, planning to do the same attack. A trace of confidence appeared in the Blood God''s eyes as it clearly showed her that no matter what she did, she wouldn''t be able to pierce it. Unfortunately for him, Alaya chose to do something even more incomprehensible. She threw away that scythe toward the dragon''s neck before it exploded, destroying all the Blood Energy with her Death Energy. "What?!" The Blood God widened his eyes and looked at the dragon. He tried to recover it, but Alaya''s Death Energy prevented him from healing the dragon. She then appeared right before him and swung her knife at him. The Blood God managed to avoid it, but Alaya''s intention wasn''t him from the start, so she spun her body while waving her hand toward the dragon. "Life and Death Misery." The Death Energy that had returned to its original form, the claw, released crescent-shaped Death Energy waves and split the dragon into slices. The blood burst out as if something exploded inside, releasing so much blood toward her. Since the enemy was Blood God, she quickly protected herself from the blood to avoid being taken advantage of later on if it smeared her body. A translucent white layer appeared, preventing it from reaching her. But this seemed to be the Blood God''s scheme as the blood suddenly turned into small spears, stabbing her barrier until it was broken. Then, the Blood God sent one powerful swipe to her stomach. "Gah!" Alaya widened her eyes and spat a mouthful of blood when the hand landed on her stomach as if the blood was just forced to leave her body through her mouth. She then leaped back to her original position to assess the situation. "Haha, I thought you were better than this, Life and Death Goddess." The Blood God snorted. However, he once again found that his lifespan got shortened by a large margin. It took another two thousand years from him, reducing his lifespan to a mere ten thousand eight hundred years. "Do you think so?" Alaya smirked and lowered her vision. "!!!" The Blood God realized and raised the hand that attacked her, finding the Black Energy started corrupting his hand. He gritted his teeth and made his own hand explode, splashing all the blood inside it. "Hoh! You''re quite concerned about that energy, eh?" Alaya smirked and teased him about it before throwing the white knife. Before it reached him, the Blood God turned the splattered blood into a human replica wielding a spear. Everything was made of blood and he even used it to stop that knife, preventing anything from touching him. After all, Alaya had shown that everything around her would surely become a weapon that took away his lifespan. He thought for a moment and summoned another one with the same blood before ordering them to move forward to kill Alaya. "Hoh?! A weird technique." Alaya smiled, feeling confident she wouldn''t lose even with the two blood soldiers helping him. She summoned another set of weapons and struck the first blood soldier with her scythe so as to not go too close. When she was about to form a shield to block the second one, Blood God''s voice echoed in her ears. "Do you think you managed to outsmart me earlier?" "!!!" Alaya suddenly spat another mouthful of blood before noticing that the Blood God actually knew that he got injured by Alaya''s power and let his blood smear her clothes. When the second one was about to strike, the blood turned into another small spear and pierced her abdomen. "The residual blood?!" Alaya panicked for a moment and looked at him. "You¡­ You have been acting this whole time?" "Correct." The Blood God smirked. "That''s why I''m disappointed¡­ It turns out the Life and Death Goddess is only this much. It seems I have surpassed your past achievement. This time, I will kill more than one God King to help my king! Die for my sake!" When the second blood warrior was about to strike her, she suddenly raised her hand as if planning to grab the spear. But Alaya''s hand went faster than usual and plunged the second blood warrior. Without him knowing, the first blood warrior seemed to disappear also as if someone destroyed them to the very atom. But the Blood God realized soon that Alaya was the one actually absorbing the Blood Energy into her body. Her wound closed in an instant as her complexion turned normal as if nothing happened. "Ah, by the way, do you not know that Blood is the source of life no matter how you see it? Thank you for the supply." Alaya smiled, genuinely thanking him. "Do you know that we both can act so well?" Chapter 1191: Alaya "!!!" It turned out they were trying to trick each other by using several layers of attacks but ended up getting fired back right after. The Blood God narrowed his eyes and decided to observe Alaya''s expression first to see if she had more tricks on her sleeve. "Come, come. Let''s fight again, I wonder who will come at the top. In the past, I couldn''t do it, so I''m curious whether you''re worthy of being my opponent." Alaya smiled, perfectly fine. The Blood God felt chill down his spine because he just lost his connection to her blood. Meanwhile, Alaya also felt the movement of her blood. The Blood God really tried to stir up the blood inside her body, but the Life Energy supported the blood while the Death Energy destroyed the energy that wanted to control them. Hence, Alaya was perfectly fine against this enemy. "To be honest, fighting you is my decision. I''ve seen your ability in the past. Although it''s only a bit of your power, I''ve understood the most important thing against you. The Time God actually used his power to stop the time of his and the Dungeon''s Blood to prevent you from controlling it. Then, the Evil God and Demon God will try to attack them. "As for the Vampire Goddess¡­ That brat, who couldn''t even become a God King in the past? Should I even care about her? No, I should say, you seem to be underestimating the God of Destruction that much. His potential is far beyond your imagination¡­ No, should I say that his full potential is at the same level as the Sword God?" Alaya smiled. "Impossible!" The Blood God denied it, but he then asked himself a question. ''Eh? Why did she say something like this during our fight? Is she implying that the Vampire Goddess will be defeated within a few minutes and the God of Destruction will help her? ''No, it''s impossible. Vampire Goddess is a strong God King. I''ve personally seen her power. It''s impossible to defeat her easily. Besides, even if she is defeated, there''s no telling that the God of Destruction will come here. ''And¡­ If he helps the other battlefields, the situation will become even worse for us. In this case, I should finish my fight as soon as possible.'' After deciding what to do, the Blood God released all his power at once. The Blood began to permeate his surroundings. His eyes turned red and released the bloodlust. "Blood Enhancement." Suddenly, the Blood God disappeared with speed faster than before. "Stimulating your blood to gain an additional strength and speed, huh?" Alaya said cooly while knowing the Blood God was already behind her, punching her right on the back of her head. He blew her away until she crashed to a planet and went straight to her to add another strike. However, he noticed that his lifespan was reduced again. He gritted his teeth and looked at the Life and Death Coffin. The information about that coffin was still fresh in his mind. The coffin itself was known to be unbreakable because it was the materialization of Alaya''s existence. The only way to destroy that coffin was to kill Alaya, so he decided to ignore it this whole time. No, the Metal God or any other fighters that attacked her in the past also did the same because of the exact reason. He gritted his teeth and flew to the planet. The next second, the planet cracked because he just created massive destruction, turning the ground into a massive crater that could be easily seen from outer space. Alaya was still there, getting pounded continuously without fighting back. The Blood God kept hitting her without any care since he was winning¡­ Or so he thought. Once again, Alaya surpassed his imagination because her body was splattered like it was destroyed. Yet, the Blood God felt uncomfortable before leaping back to outer space. He didn''t know why but he was close to death at that moment. "What just happened?" Alaya, whose body only remained the lower half, suddenly recovered in an instant as if she rewind time. Looking at her topless body, she quickly made another shirt before looking at the Blood God and appearing right in front of him. "That hurts you know¡­" She scratched the back of her head as if nothing happened. "You¡­ You¡­ What are you?!" The Blood God shivered, finding that Alaya''s energy didn''t even decrease after doing such damage. "You really don''t know anything, aren''t you?" She shook her head and said, "I''m not a human. I''m known as Blood Shaman who doesn''t have my own body." If Alex were here, he would think of her statement about her Law. She said she had experienced dying and reincarnating a few times. And Life and Death was a combination of her experience, existence, and understanding. He would realize what it meant when he fought her. But the Blood God was simply clueless about it. She graciously explained while buying time, "I''m an artificial life. As long as I have enough energy, I can keep reincarnating my body. Although the body needs to die first, I''m practically immortal. "That''s why I was known as the most mysterious God King since a few thousand years ago, I didn''t use this body. I''m the oldest among God Kings, experiencing and watching Life and Death pass by every time to the point I gained that kind of insight. "My offensive power might not be that great since I could only rely on my Life and Death Coffin, but only a few people could actually kill me. Only a being like Sword God, Fire God, and the current Spirit God could kill me. And the reason why I have so many praises to the God of Destruction is due to his power. Yes, his power has the ability to kill me as well. That''s why I''m placing my bet on him. "Unfortunately for you, you don''t have the ability to kill me. The furthest you can do is to seal me with your power like how the Dungeon God and Time God tried to do it when they fought me. Well, unfortunately, you''ve your time. No, should I say you''re wasting too much time on me?" Alaya smiled mysteriously. Suddenly, another person came onto the battlefield. Alaya glanced at that person while the Blood God turned around, finding a muscular man who appeared right next to him. "Wha¡ª" The Blood God couldn''t even react because he never expected there was another man who appeared in their fight. And the one who showed up was none other than the one who fought the Vampire Goddess, the God of Destruction, Raiju. "Thank you for your advice, Life and Death Goddess. Let me repay that advice by helping you in this fight." As he said it, Raiju already sent a fist right at the Blood God''s face. "Fist of Destruction." The Blood God gritted his teeth and used his blood to smear it on Raiju''s hand, but as one would expect from someone who handled the Vampire Goddess who used a similar technique, Raiju quickly removed the bloodstain without hesitation. "What?!" The Blood God widened his eyes even though his face got disfigured. Meanwhile, Alaya raised her vision, finding that her Life and Death Coffin''s count had been reduced drastically. "You!" The Blood God tried to create another blood soldier to stop him while shouting, "You''ve killed the Vampire Goddess?" Raiju simply snorted and waved his hand, destroying the blood soldier with his Destruction. "She was too easy for me. I didn''t even need a long time to kill her." "Oh!" Alaya smiled and said, "I''m glad that my advice can make you this powerful. Congratulations." "Thanks!" Raiju nodded and charged at the Blood God, planning to kill him. Alaya also made her move by summoning a giant sphere formed by her Life Energy. "Life Cage." The Blood God narrowed his eyes and tried to attack the cage, but Raiju already arrived in front of him, sending another punch. "Fist of Destruction." "Blood Plant." The blood on his face bloomed like a flower and tried to stop that punch. He seemed to have successfully stopped him because Raiju actually stopped on his track, not finishing his fist. Yet, the power of destruction flew out of his hand and burst out to the front. Boom. The Blood God was launched before the entire body disappeared because of the Decaying Power. It reduced his lifespan tremendously, but Alaya realized the Blood God had yet to die. The next time he appeared, he already went around Raiju and planned to kill him from behind. "Hahaha! You''re good, God of Destruction, but it''s time for you to die." The Blood God laughed in frustration. He just wanted to believe everything Alaya told him earlier was a lie by killing the God of Destruction. Unfortunately for him, when he was about to kill Raiju, Alaya''s voice resounded in his head. "Nope. You''re going to die." "Life and Death Cycle. Unending Samsara." "Wait, you''re going to hit the God of Destruction too." The Blood God shouted when he saw Alaya swinging her scythe. However, before the two could react, Alaya already completed her swing right at their necks. Even Raiju was dumbstruck by her action, wondering if Alaya actually wanted him to die. But all his assumptions were broken when he realized his head still remained. He turned around to see the Blood God, who happened to be in the same condition, but he unintentionally glanced at the Life and Death Coffin. The number went right to "0" in an instant before the Life and Death Coffin opened its lid, releasing a huge amount of Death Energy. "Alright. It''s time to put you into the coffin." Alaya smirked. "Just so you know, my Death Scythe is used to harm the soul that has been marked by the Life and Death Coffin, so it won''t harm my allies even if I slash them a few times. And this technique¡­ is the technique to reincarnate me into another lifeform¡­ It''s a perfect name, isn''t it? Unending Samsara¡­ Well, I''m tired of doing it again and want to die in this life properly. "That''s why I made an agreement with the Spirit God to have my own retirement life for one or two thousand years before asking him to kill me with his power. I have no more purpose in this life since I can''t even reach the next level despite living for so long¡­ Sigh, my talent is the worst among the God King, isn''t it?" "Oi, oi. Don''t talk about such a scary thing and replace it with your philosophical thinking. I thought I was going to die." Raiju started sweating. To think Alaya would be a sadist that made one''s heart beat crazily, he was speechless. However, he couldn''t even joke around with her as the Blood God suddenly screamed in agony. "Argh! What is this? Wait, something is pulling me." The Blood God gritted his teeth and flew away from the coffin, but he couldn''t muster any power from his body as if no Divine Energy remained in his body. Ultimately, he got dragged inside the coffin while shouting, "Old haaaaaagggg¡­" and the lid was closed again as the situation turned tranquil. "You sure about that joke earlier?" "Haha, young man, it''s a joke, okay? It''s a popular joke in the past, you know." Alaya shrugged while chuckling. "I never knew that the past was actually joking about your life like this. It seems you all were crazier than me. And by the way, which era was the past you are talking about?" Raiju squinted his eyes, looking at Alaya with a prying look since she said she was the oldest God King. "If we were not crazy, we wouldn''t pursue the strength to the extreme and become that strong. And I won''t tell you about it since even I feel a bit offended when people mention my age, you know. Bad boy." Raiju smiled and closed his eyes for a second before opening it again while saying with a playful tone, "Old hag." "I didn''t need your help in this fight, you brat!" Chapter 1192: Father and Daughter Among the retainers, only one person remained. It was none other than the Evil God. Lin Xingzhi looked at him with a frown. The Evil God obviously knew who Lin Xingzhi was. He laughed and shouted, "Haha. To think I can kill both father and daughter, it seems I''m pretty lucky eh?" Lin Xingzhi remained calm and retorted. "No, It just means the daughter can avenge the grievance of her father. That''s all." "Avenge your father? That is impossible. You''re not as strong as your father nor the Dungeon God." "Yeah, but you also don''t come together with the others to gang up on two people. Alone¡­ You''re just a pathetic bat that can''t even become a true God King." Lin Xingzhi shook her head and sighed, "Now, I need to handle you first before ending this deep grievance." "You talk big!" The Evil God shouted and glared at Lin Xingzhi, saying, "You''re evil. Haha, even the Spirit God is evil. Every person borns evil because if evil doesn''t exist, you don''t know what is good. That''s why my existence is evitable." Lin Xingzhi simply raised her hand and summoned a Lightning Disturbance above his head before a bolt of lightning struck forth, hitting him right on his head. However, the latter managed to lower his position and used his hand to take the lightning on before dispersing it. "You!" The Evil God gritted his teeth. "You''re evil and I''m Nature. No matter if you''re inevitable or not, your Evil Law still comes from this Universe. That''s why I''m wondering whether your Evil Law can withstand Nature?" Lin Xingzhi snorted and said, "And you talked too much. It seems my father shut your mouth by stopping the time of your mouth when he fought you." "!!!" The Evil God gritted his teeth and charged at him, covering his fist with a grey-colored aura. Lin Xingzhi summoned the Space Disturbance in front of her and blocked the Evil God''s fist. Boom. A huge explosion resounded on the entire battlefield before the barrier began to crack because it couldn''t contain the power of evil. "This is the difference between you and me." The Evil God smirked and blasted through the obstacles, making his way toward Lin Xingzhi. Lin Xingzhi flew backward while waving both hands, summoning two Element Disturbance at the same time. On her right was a Lightning Disturbance, sparking some lightning that would hit him if he were to go too close. On her left was a Wind Disturbance that somehow approached the Lightning Disturbance to absorb the Lightning Element, turning into a spherical barrier covered with lightning. The Evil God narrowed his eyes and planned to go around it, but after all the things he said earlier, he decided to confront it head-on. He raised his fist again and struck the wind barrier, trying to destroy it like the Space Element Disturbance. However, the wind caused another reaction, blowing all the Evil Energy in his hand as the Lightning sparked, trying to pierce his hand. The Evil God furrowed his eyebrows and took one step backward to avoid retaliation from the barrier and Lin Xingzhi. He looked at his fist and noticed his skin was missing due to the lightning as blood flowed out quickly. He gritted his teeth and glared at Lin Xingzhi. The moment their eyes intertwined, Lin Xingzhi made a playful smile, mocking him, "Come on, I''m waiting to see your power. Unfortunately, it seems I''m not the one unqualified to fight you. It''s the other way around." The Evil God gritted his teeth. The fact that they couldn''t practice for another fifty years because of Alex''s super growth indeed hurt them a bit because they should be able to reach the same height as their former self. But if they indeed went that route, their king would''ve died since the Spirit God had stepped beyond the God King Realm. Still, he couldn''t really complain he didn''t have anything since it was no one''s fault. He simply gritted his teeth and raised his hand, planning to do another thing. Even Lin Xingzhi didn''t know about this. She simply waved her hands and summoned two more Element Disturbances. The first was a Water Disturbance while the other one was a Dark Disturbance. She combined both of them together, creating poisonous water that also contained a curse. She controlled them and swallowed the Evil God or that was the plan. The Evil God seemed to have understood what was going on and gritted his teeth. Seeing the current attack, he raised both hands and waved it down, creating a barrier formed by his grey-colored energy. He could see how the poisonous water destroyed his barrier, especially the curse. Luckily, he managed to get away on time, not wanting to touch it at all. However, Lin Xingzhi already predicted it and turned the entire thing into a trap. She summoned four more Element Disturbance from four directions. They were Fire, Lightning, Wind, and Light Element Disturbances. The Fire and Wind joined together as they created a horrible fire tornado that was big enough to cover half of the Lower World. Meanwhile, the Lightning and Light Element formed a sparking white beam. Lin Xingzhi, sadly, couldn''t control them at the same time. She used the Fire Storm to stop his movement and didn''t control it at all, letting it run wild. When the Evil God decided to escape from his current predicament, Lin Xingzhi aimed right at him and released that sparkling white beam toward him. "Light and Lightning Union. Sparking Beam Blast." The Evil God gritted his teeth and released another barrier that tried to stop the attack for one or two seconds. "Evil Shield." At the same time, the Evil God raised his hands before grey-colored energy appeared next to Lin Xingzhi. Due to her controlling the union, she needed to get a bit closer to them, so she ended up getting near the Evil God''s last position. It turned out the Evil God left his energy only to be used at a time like this. The grey-colored energy glowed and formed a ball. It then released so many spikes that were about to pierce her body. "Not good!" She tried to summon her Divine Energy to block the attacks, but grey-colored energy suddenly came out of her body without her realizing it. "This¡­ This energy!" Lin Xingzhi suddenly lost her control over her own energy before her body got stabbed by multiple spikes. "Gah!" Blood flowed down the spikes. She endured the pain and quickly stepped back, trying to assess her situation. She glared at the Evil God and realized what he had done. The Evil God only laughed and said, "Everyone''s born evil. That''s why those so-called good people exist. They manage to suppress this "evil" in their heart. However, I can see the evil in your heart and utilize it. "The reason your father could defeat me was due to him stopping the time of that "evil" in his body. If not, I could win." The Evil God snorted. "And you¡­ You''re not even close to your father. There''s no way you can win against me." "Haha¡­" Lin Xingzhi suddenly chuckled when she heard those words. A certain scene flashed in her mind. It was the last meeting with her father inside that special treasury that was locked in time. A few years ago. After talking with Alex about the benefits, her father returned to her side and handed her something. It was a Space Ring. "Inside this ring is the suit that I''ve specifically made for my wife in the past. It carries my Time Power and I think it will suit you perfectly." Lin Xingzhi was confused because it was a kind of memento to her and her father. Her father had even mentioned it when she grew up in the past. It was one of the most important things he wanted to have when he died. Yet, he gave it to her. At first, she thought it was just him wanting her to keep it, so the memory went on. But when she considered the reason why he didn''t give it to her directly and put it inside the Space Ring, she realized her father felt hurt by giving this to her. There was always a boundary even though they were father and daughter. Lin Xingzhi had it too, especially when it came down to Alex. They both respected each other and gave them space. That was why giving her these clothes must be hard for him. There might be a special meaning to it. She only accepted it without saying anything to him to avoid reminding him about the past or the sadness. "Thank you, Father." Lin Xingzhi made a gentle smile. The Time God only closed his eyes before hugging her, saying, "Please take care of it." "Yes. I love you, Father." "I love you too, daughter. All I wish is for you not to be like me or your mother. We wish you could have a blissful life with an end of the journey is nothing but old age." The Time God held her tightly, expressing his love to her. He remembered his wife died because of an illness and weak body after giving birth to Lin Xingzhi. Despite experiencing the pain, he never looked at any other woman and tried to become the best father she could ever get. Unfortunately, he couldn''t watch her grow up because he ended up dying after killing four God Kings together with the Dungeon God. That was why his only wish was for Lin Xingzhi to pass away due to old age. This also meant that Lin Xingzhi had filled her life with all the memories and lived to the fullest. This was just the unconditional love from a father to his daughter. While she remembered that scene, the Evil God decided to kill her right now due to her confusion. He flew toward Lin Xingzhi. Before he arrived, Lin Xingzhi took out a Space Ring, floating in the emptiness. She grabbed it and channeled the Divine Energy into it and took out a one-piece dress. Just like how someone could take out something from the space ring above their hand, in front of them, or even on top of their head, Lin Xingzhi basically took it out and put it on at the same time, overlapping her current dress. No matter how weird the appearance was, Lin Xingzhi was happy. She could feel her father''s Time Element inside the dress and remembered the dress''s purpose. The dress itself had only one effect. He only wanted the dress to protect his wife from anything. That was why when his wife got injured, the dress would release the Time Element to freeze the body, preventing the blood from coming out. This also meant she wouldn''t feel anything about the wound, allowing her to keep fighting. Lin Xingzhi smiled and muttered, "Thanks, Father." She then summoned Lightning and Fire Disturbances at the same time and combined them into one. The Evil God raised his hand and tried to manipulate the "evil" inside her body to make her lose control over the two Disturbances, but it was at that time he realized, he couldn''t control it anymore as if it wasn''t there. "What? I can''t control it?!" Instead of releasing the combined Element Disturbances, Lin Xingzhi actually controlled it and coated her hands with this power. The combined Lightning and Fire became the gloves that would blast everything for her. And due to the size, Lin Xingzhi even compressed the two Element Disturbances, meaning the power behind these gloves was beyond one''s imagination. "Lightning and Fire Union." Lin Xingzhi smirked and took one step forward, using that movement to gain more power from her lower half as she struck the Evil God with both palms. Boom. The shock quickly shook the universe before a huge fire burst out behind his back, covered with lightning. "Great Blazing Shock." "Gah!" Blood spurted out of his mouth as his consciousness went blank for a second. Chapter 1193: Destroy a Lower World Boom. The Evil God was launched and crashed to a Lower World, creating a huge crater on the planet. Lin Xingzhi simply looked with a small smile. "Nice." The Evil God quickly leaped forward, facing her with a serious expression. "That suit¡­ It''s interfering with my power. You¡­ No, that suits¡­ holds the power of time. Artifact?" Lin Xingzhi shrugged. "It''s impossible to affect me again." "Kh!" The Evil God gritted his teeth. He didn''t know that the Time God was actually a Forging Master or else, how could he create so many things? He created the Space and Time Seal that the Spirit God used to seal the beast five thousand years ago. Then, there was the Time Box that Alex used to save Alicia. All the things he created had the power of time, including this dress. He must have seen the prediction, coming to the conclusion that this suit can help Lin Xingzhi win the war. She smiled and thanked her father secretly while staring at the Evil God, asking with a playful tone to infuriate him. "Now, what can you do to me?" The Evil God flinched and remembered what she used earlier. The technique was indeed something he had never seen before. Instead of releasing the power of the combined Element Disturbances, she covered her own body with that power to increase her power drastically. That power was far more dangerous than he thought because he got a serious internal injury from that attack alone, making him think twice before making his next move. Yes, this was Lin Xingzhi''s answer to Alaya''s advice a few years ago. She shouldn''t fear her power and, in fact, lived in harmony with them. She didn''t treat them like a tool that could hurt her body like grabbing a blade. Instead, she thought of them as a part of her body. This was the essence of what she taught. Like how Alaya showed her that the Power of Life and Death could actually protect her and be embraced to the point it covered her whole hands, Lin Xingzhi imitated it to make her power could be used that way too. He thought for a moment and knew that the suit was the Time God''s artifact that could stop the time on her body, preventing the blood from coming out. At the same time, it sealed his way to control Lin Xingzhi''s power. Just like a few thousand years ago, he didn''t manage to overcome the difference between their power. As much as he didn''t want to admit it, Lin Xingzhi was indeed stronger than him with that new technique and suit. All the bluff and strong words wouldn''t affect her anymore. Even so, he couldn''t retreat in this battle. He released all the grey-colored energy in his body and glared at her. "Since that is not working, I will be doing things in my own way." His eyes glowed before he winked once, sending a powerful shock wave toward Lin Xingzhi. The latter summoned Wind and Lightning Disturbances, combined them, and covered her hands with that power. She then thrust her palm forward, releasing the Wind Tornado that neutralized the shock wave. The lightning then sparked and released its almighty power by becoming the front guy that charged straight at the Evil God. The wind kept supplying energy and power behind the lightning as they arrived in front of the Evil God. "!!!" "Evil Aura! Battle Form." The Evil God waved his hand to the front and bent his knees. All the grey-colored energy then fused with each other, getting compressed into a small dragon head. He controlled that power and made it swallow the lightning and wind at the same time. It took one big bite and the power disappeared. The Dragon looked satisfied as it burped, intentionally mocking Lin Xingzhi. Since that wasn''t worked out, Lin Xingzhi summoned another two Disturbances, Earth and Light. The Earth Element turned her hands giant while the light coated her palm. This looked like the Palm God with the help of the Holy God. With both arms, she flew straight toward the Evil God and swiped both hands, trying to squeeze him to death. The Evil God clicked his tongue and decided to tell Lin Xingzhi that killing him would mean she might die too in the process. Those words were said by his action when he went straight toward Lin Xingzhi, fully knowing that he would get hit too. When he arrived in front of Lin Xingzhi, he punched her cheek, trying to blast that head away, but Lin Xingzhi simply remained calm and used that momentum to gain more distance with the Evil God. As soon as she reached the necessary length to use her giant arms, she quickly clapped, hitting the Evil God from both sides as if he was a mosquito. "Earth and Light Union, Purification." "Gah!" The Evil God formed a gauntlet with his Evil Aura to stop the two hands and Lin Xingzhi ended up carrying him due to the momentum. When she saw a planet nearby, she spun her body and threw the Evil God to the planet. Bam. The Evil God gritted his teeth and tried to stand up, but he soon saw Lin Xingzhi with a giant stone arm covered with fire punch him. "Oh sh*t!" The Evil God cursed as he raised both hands trying to stop this attack again. Lin Xingzhi snorted and used all her might to hit the Evil God. "Fire and Earth Union, Blazing Rock." Boom. The fire caused an additional explosion, but the fist was more terrifying than anyone could think. Lin Xingzhi shattered the ground below them as rubbles flew out of the world, becoming space debris. "Tch." Lin Xingzhi clicked her tongue and realized the world''s state. "I can only destroy two-thirds of the Lower World. Pathetic." The Evil God wanted to spurt blood when he accidentally heard her muttering. He simply couldn''t accept it because he was the one getting crushed underneath it. He tried to lift this hand up but to no avail, wondering how much power she used in this attack. However, since his vision was blocked, he couldn''t see the huge fire tornado behind these big arms. Although Lin Xingzhi couldn''t control two more than two elements to wield them with her hands, she could still summon a pair and blast it to either her opponent or herself. This time, she used the Wind and Fire Disturbance to create a tornado that allowed her to boost that power. That was why she managed to destroy two-thirds of a Lower Planet. Even so, Lin Xingzhi kept complaining because she wasn''t someone with extraordinary strength like the God of Strength or God of Destruction, so she was just feeling unsatisfied with this current result. She gritted her teeth and leaped to the air, summoning another two disturbances, the Light and Dark Disturbances. "Light and Dark Union, Ying Yang Judgment." The Light and Dark Disturbances released both powers and had them rotated together as if they became one. Boom. "Gah!" The Evil God spat a mouthful of blood, getting the full energy from the explosion. The Evil God just couldn''t understand how Lin Xingzhi became this powerful and turned the situation around with just one suit. No, she might have prepared for this for a long time, especially the fact that she could wield the element disturbances with her own hands. That was why she became this powerful. Although power-wise, she might not be the greatest, she had a combination of many elements that improved her overall strength. This was the biggest reason she managed to own the Evil God like he was just an ant. If one were to ask the God of Destruction or Alaya about this power, they believed Lin Xingzhi might have grown strong enough to defeat both of them in one on one fight. "I''m not going to die here!" The Evil God roared and released his power again. He used the almost destroyed world and absorbed its energy before turning them into Evil Energy. Just like how he treated Lin Xingzhi, he actually extracted the Evil Power of the World itself. Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes and summoned Lightning and Fire Disturbances, combining them together. This was the most powerful combination she could use, so she flew forward to face this energy head-on. The Evil God formed a giant hand to knock Lin Xingzhi out of this planet and regained his ground in this fight. However, Lin Xingzhi struck the giant hand with both palms with the power of Lightning and Fire. "Fire and Lightning Union. Great Blazing Shock." Boom. A shock wave shook the entire planet. There were no more clouds in the sky behind Lin Xingzhi due to the Evil God''s power. Her suit and dress got shredded a bit, but she kept her focus and used all her strength to push forward. At the same time, two Wind Disturbances appeared behind her and pushed her body and her hands, increasing the power output. "Just die!" Lin Xingzhi shouted before she could feel something snap inside the arm as it bent in another direction, allowing her to push forward. "Impossible!" The Evil God gritted his teeth, recalling what happened in his last fight a few thousand years ago. He regretted the fact that he still couldn''t win even though he was fighting his daughter instead of the Time God. "Blood never lies, huh." Lin Xingzhi already reached him and struck his body. "Ha!" The fire exploded and swallowed his body while the lightning shredded and burned his body until nothing remained. However, another huge shock wave shook the Universe as the almost destroyed world snapped into two. Boom. Lin Xingzhi managed to destroy a Lower World, but she wasn''t satisfied. She only let out a long sigh while saying, "I couldn''t destroy a Lower World in a single strike, huh. I still have a long way to go¡­" After killing the Evil God, she suddenly turned around and found Raiju and Alaya coming to her place with a serious expression. "How are you two?" "We''re fine. We''ve just finished checking all the other battlefields." "How are they?" Lin Xingzhi widened her eyes, feeling a bit surprised that these two were this fast. "Well, all of them can''t fight anymore. I do think the Palm God can, but he stays there to protect the other God Kings because of their injuries." Alaya answered. "Is that so?" Lin Xingzhi looked down, contemplating for a moment. "By the way, we both are fine. We can still fight another round. That''s why we''re visiting you, planning to ask you to go to Alex to watch his battle. If it''s possible, I would like to help as well." Alaya smiled. "I''m curious about the power beyond God King, so I''m tagging along." Raiju shrugged as this was his first intention. Lin Xingzhi couldn''t come to a decision, making them confused. Alaya asked, "Is there something wrong with us visiting him and potentially helping him even from afar like shooting a certain technique toward the beast? I think that''s fine, right?" Lin Xingzhi shook her head. "I mean, that''s the best option, but when I think about it, I just can''t decide. I''m sure you know what kind of power both of them have in their first clash, right? And it''s not their full power. We may be able to see them from afar to avoid any direct contact and release a certain attack to help him. But I don''t know their real capabilities, so I can''t judge." Raiju closed his eyes and sighed, "Well, I understand your point, but I will tell the Spirit God that I''m ready to die if I''m in his way. No, I will personally kill myself before that happens. This fight is something that we can''t lose, so to calm down my curiosity, I''m planning to lay my life down." Alaya glanced at him and started thinking about the possibility. She sighed, "We can try to erase our trace for a few seconds just to see one or two exchanges to see whether it''s a fight that we can help or not." Lin Xingzhi contemplated for a moment and asked about the system. Chapter 1194: Sun God Fire Disturbance The last fight was the peak fight between Alex and the Supreme Beast. Alex simply raised his hand and asked, "What did you say again?" The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth after seeing Alex destroying two Lower Worlds in one attack. And it wasn''t even his strongest attack. "You''re the best, Spirit God." The Supreme Beast suddenly laughed. There was still confidence in his eyes as he had yet to think this battle was his loss. After all, the Supreme Beast hadn''t released all of his power yet. "I''m not." Alex shrugged and raised his Dragon and Phoenix Aura. His Spirit Crown was revolving crazily. "Hahaha!" The Supreme Beast laughed again before charging toward him. The rainbow-colored energy appeared in his hands as a gauntlet. Alex struck the gauntlet with all his might, but it was harder than his own Divine Weapon. He clicked his tongue and leaped back again, wondering what kind of option he had in this fight. He then summoned a giant fox behind him and tried to swallow the beast. "Fire Authority." "This technique is indeed annoying. To think there is a fire that can suppress my Phoenix Fire, I''m impressed." The Supreme Beast laughed and released all of his energy other than his Fire Energy to create an explosion inside the wolf''s body. Boom. The shock wave traveled far away and the wolf got itself a disfigured head. Instead of disappearing, Alex decided to pour a bit more power to recover it before the wolf shrunk until it became part of his body. Even the Supreme Beast felt the suppression for his Fire was insane. However, the Supreme Beast knew that the stronger Alex became, the more satisfying the fight would be. That was why he kept laughing every time Alex showed something new. "This is good. How about this?!" The Supreme Beast appeared next to him while flapping his wings, creating waves after waves of rainbow-colored energy that seemed to be powerful enough to either blow him away or cut him down. Alex narrowed his eyes and used his Teleportation Array to appear behind the beast. "Triple Draws." "One Inch Spear." The Beast noticed Alex''s presence and flapped his wings once again before covering his back with all four wings. "!!!" Alex widened his eyes because the bat wings and angel wings stopped two strikes each while his hands stopped the last two. After that, Alex saw an incoming tail and slightly raised his elbow to block that attack. Still, the blow was powerful enough to launch him to the right until he crashed into an asteroid. Unlike other God Kings, their power was beyond imagination to the point the asteroid went at a far faster speed compared to any other God Kings just because of the collision alone. Alex used the asteroid as a stepping stone and launched himself back, blasting the asteroid even further. He then raised his hand and summoned five Arrays in succession. "Five Executioner." Five swords emerged from each array, totaling a full twenty five swords for Alex to use. He then waved his hand, so they started going toward the Supreme Beast to stop his movement. The Supreme Beast, on the other hand, felt annoyed when Alex relied on this cheap trick. Even so, he still kept using all of his ability to fight against these swords as he knocked all of them away one minute later. Right after he destroyed the last sword, Alex appeared on his side this time since the Supreme Beast''s back was well protected by the wings. "Triple Draws." He used Triple Draws on both weapons, turning the two slashes into six. Yet, the Supreme Beast managed to keep up with him. He used one hand and two right wings to block the first three. Before the other three struck him, he raised his foot which was larger than where Alex wanted to hit him and raised it, so it would come into their ways. As he expected, the remaining three slashes hit the knee, leaving three small marks on the beast''s knee. The Beast then used his tail to counterattack, blowing him away, so Alex didn''t get the advantage. However, Alex still raised his hand and summoned a Fire Lotus above his head. "Divine Petals." "Go!" Alex sent all those petals toward the Supreme Beast as all ten petals hit him simultaneously. Boom. The huge explosion blew Alex again, but all the smoke and fire soon disappeared when the Supreme Beast flapped his wing, sending a powerful find that erased all things related to the explosion. He roared as loud as possible. "That won''t work!" "Haha, I know." When the Supreme Beast heard Alex''s chuckle, he realized something was wrong and raised his vision, only to be shocked by what Alex planned to do next. "Star God Divine Control." Alex summoned a Fire Disturbance before releasing his Sun God Fire toward the Fire Disturbances, trying to force them to live in harmony. "Sun God Fire." Because of the difference between normal Fire and Sun God Fire as well as the fact Alex used Immortal Energy to fuel up his Sun God Fire, the Fire Disturbance just let his Sun God Fire entered its body, turning the Fire Disturbance into a Sun God Fire Disturbance. "Ha!" Alex gritted his teeth and used all his focus to change the shape of the disturbance into that of a lotus. Yes, it was none other than the lotus of his Divine Petals. "This is the main course, Beast." "Divine Petals." The petals fell off the lotus and flew toward the Supreme Beast. The latter even cursed at him while gritting his teeth. "Sh*t! This is bad!" Boom. Once again, the Divine Petals, an even stronger one, hit the Supreme Beast''s body from point-blank range. Alex thought this kind of power should be enough to injure the Supreme Beast, but¡­ No, he was wrong. The Supreme Beast once again flapped his wings and blew everything away from him. Instead of an injured beast, the beast showed up just fine with rainbow-colored energy covering his whole body. In other words, the Supreme Beast just used his Gehenna Gauntlet but to his body. "Seriously?!" Alex''s eyebrows twitched before shaking his head. "No. I should say as expected of a beast of this caliber." "Hahaha! I''ve finally succeeded in turning the rainbow-colored energy into a suit that would protect me. Again and again¡­ I need to thank you, Spirit God. In the past, you let me understand more about this power and taught me how to fuse all my energy. Now, you''ve given me the opportunity to improve my own technique even further. As thanks, I''m going to let you become the first one to experience my power." Suddenly, the beast disappeared as Alex widened his eyes, looking at his right. The beast had arrived next to him with speed far faster than he experienced the whole time. He hit Alex and blew him to another asteroid. Bam. Alex gritted his teeth and thought nothing of the pain since he had felt worse. When he was about to fight him again, Alex suddenly turned his head to the right. The two finally made their appearances on this battlefield after a long time. Alex and the Supreme Beast obviously recognized them despite them trying to hide their presence. "What is this? Are they going to interfere with our fight?" The Supreme Beast frowned and turned his head. "Nope. Their appearance is just the mark of our victory. All your people have been killed by us, meaning you are only alone in this universe. Even if you managed to kill me, you wouldn''t be able to do anything to this universe anymore." Alex chuckled and continued, "It''s your loss, Beast." "It''s my loss?" The Supreme Beast laughed and roared, "Do you really think you can win against me, Spirit God? You''re absolutely wrong. After killing you, I''m going to kill all of them, removing every single God King in this universe. After that, I will send my slaves to this place in the near future to take over the universe. I''m going to have all of you suffer." "And that''s why I can''t let you leave this universe. Thankfully, your pride is stupid enough to keep you in this place and now it''s impossible for you to leave unless you kill me." Alex smiled. "Then, I want to know how the heck are you planning to kill me while protecting THEM?!" The Supreme Beast released another rainbow-colored energy toward Alaya and Raiju. "Gehenna Ray." Lin Xingzhi didn''t follow them because Alex told her not to participate because he couldn''t afford to save her life in a battle like this. Although the past trauma she suffered after Alex died resurfaced, she still believed in Alex and chose to stay away from the battlefield. She could ask Rose about it anyway. Meanwhile, Alaya and Raiju decided to come and ask Alex not to mind their lives if they happened to die because of it. Alex agreed with one additional condition. Once he took a blow for them, they needed to leave immediately because they still hadn''t used all their power yet. After agreeing to his condition, Alaya and Raiju came here and saw their fight, only to find themselves strangled between life and death right after they arrived. "Protect them, Spirit God!" The Supreme Beast laughed. Alex suddenly appeared in front of those two with a serious expression. He raised his sword and released a Sword Wave from one swing. "One Sword Kill. Blade of Extinction." The Sword Wave flew for a split second until it arrived and clashed with the Gehenna Ray, splitting the powerful Gehenna Ray into two again. Just like his Sword Wave, the Gehenna Ray carried the same amount of energy as his power, so the clash didn''t end in a jiffy. Instead, the Gehenna Ray hit the two Lower Worlds behind them. Alaya and Raiju dropped their jaws dumbfoundedly, staring at the big hole in both of the Lower Worlds in shock. The Gehenna Ray had clashed with Alex''s power and split into two, yet, it still managed to destroy two Lower Worlds? This question remained unanswered in their mind because it was just beyond belief even for them. Alaya and Raiju realized that they were just ants in this fight and understood why Alex didn''t want to involve them in this fight. In fact, the reason he wanted Lin Xingzhi not to get close to this place was to protect her from this kind of battle. Meanwhile, Raiju and Alaya were not his family. He recognized them as allies and still protected them in time like this, but without guarantee. Alaya took a deep breath, understanding what Alex implied by this one action. And it was enough for her to abandon this fight. She simply said, "We''re not going to run away, okay?!" Without wasting more time, she grabbed Raiju and quickly left the battlefield. "Not run away? Hahahaha, and they''re running away right now!" The Supreme Beast laughed. Alex simply released his killing intent again and pointed his sword at the Supreme Beast, saying with a cold tone. "They''re not running away from this war¡­ And this also means they trust me that I can defeat you. So, just die already. You won''t be missed." Chapter 1195: Chaos Law and Energy Just like Alex said, the reason she said earlier was their trust that Alex would kill the Supreme Beast. They would wait together with all the other God Kings, praying so Alex would win. The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth, never expecting Alex to create a disturbance of his already overwhelming Fire. Still, he should be able to fight him with this new power, so he thought no more. With a smile on his face, Alex summoned another Fire Disturbance and integrated it with his Sun God Fire. "Fire Authority!" Alex controlled the Sun God Fire Disturbance and turned it into a fox before shrinking into a tail and a pair of ears. "You''re too proud, Spirit God." The Supreme Beast snorted while feeling heavier pressure than what he felt this whole time due to Alex''s Pure Fire. It turned out the Sun God Fire Disturbance improved the suppression as well. "I''m not too proud. I just want to show you that I will win." Alex shook his head. "After taking another look at that energy, I believe your rainbow-colored energy will lose against mine." "Star God Divine Control." He once again covered his sword and spear with Sun God Fire Disturbance to improve their firepower. Alex waved his sword as a Sword Wave flew forth. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth and grabbed the Sword Wave with both hands, trying to shred it. But the moment the energy disappeared, Alex, who was using it to cover his trail, appeared and thrust his spear. "Twin Fusion Spear!" The Supreme Beast widened his eyes and took the spear head-on before flapping his wings to stop something behind his back. "Gah!" Although the spear didn''t manage to pierce the protective armor, the Supreme Beast still felt the impact on his chest. At the same time, his angel wings were on fire before he used the Water Element to extinguish the fire. "Sword Prison Array!" Alex didn''t stop there and summoned another Array. A thousand swords emerged from the array, trying to seal the beast''s movement. But the Supreme Beast simply didn''t do anything because the swords couldn''t even penetrate the Gehenna Gauntlet that had been conjured all over his body. Alex clicked his tongue before another Gehenna Ray came to him. He snapped his fingers and controlled the Space Element to turn two-third of the Gehenna Ray toward the Supreme Beast. "Subjective Reality." Even the Supreme Beast was surprised because Alex still gained enough control to do something like this. He slammed the Gehenna Ray, deflecting it to another planet below him. Meanwhile, Alex waved his hand, creating a Black Hole and launching it toward the Gehenna Ray. The latter was already weak enough, so it got absorbed once it hit the Black Hole, turning the situation tranquil. "¡­" The Supreme Beast frowned. Alex perfectly countered him in every single way, so he needed something new to break past his defense. Sadly, he needed to buy enough time for him to think first. After contemplating his next move, the Supreme Beast charged forward. Alex gladly invited him in and released his Space Energy when he reached his range. Everything turned upside down as he quickly tried to adapt to this environment while fighting Alex. Obviously, the latter didn''t let him do so without harassing him. "Triple Draws." "One Inch Spear." The blade managed to cut the wings that tried to cover him as he continued for a few more seconds before realizing the Supreme Beast had adapted to the new environment. "Tch. Why are you adapting so fast?" "Foolish question. I have six bodies!" When he was about to reply to him, a blue screen appeared in front of him. [Master. Big Sister Xingzhi said everyone is together, waiting for you to end the battle.] "Yeah, sure. Thank you." Alex smiled and took a deep breath to regain his focus. At the same time, he also planned to end this as quickly as possible. They continued to clash with this new power to test the utmost limit of this power. After all, neither Alex nor the Supreme Beast understood the extent of their power after becoming a True Immortal. That was why they decided to take it a bit easy to understand his enemy and their power. The result of this continuous clash was devastating. No, devastating might be an understatement. In their clash, they crushed all the asteroids in their surroundings until nothing remained. Alex cut more than ten Lower Worlds while half-destroyed a few Upper Worlds. Not wanting to lose, the Supreme Beast also destroyed the same amount of planets, showing that he wasn''t behind him. They eventually moved to a Divine World where their clash destroyed the surface and gradually chipped the surface until a giant Divine World was reduced to a tenth of its original size. Alex gained a deep understanding of how his Sun God Fire Disturbance worked and how much it improved his overall prowess. He thought this was already his luck because this power was indeed far more amazing than he thought. The same applied to the Supreme Beast. He noticed something in his rainbow-colored energy after coating his body. He also began thinking about his next move and progress with this energy. Suddenly, the Supreme Beast blew Alex away to get enough distance as his movement came to a halt. "Since you''ve shown me everything, then it''s time for me to show you my most powerful power that I''ve realized in our fight." The Supreme Beast laughed before re-releasing the rainbow-colored energy. However, this energy suddenly returned to its normal state, where they were only six different elements that the Supreme Beast possessed. "I''ve realized this energy fusion is not the ideal one. Unfortunately for me, I only realized it recently when I reached the True Immortal Stage. I always thought that this was good enough for me because it let me kill you." The Supreme Beast smirked and shouted, "No! This is not enough!" Alex clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes. The moment a chance appeared, he would take it and kill the beast. The only reason he didn''t charge at him right now was to see if this talk was just to trap him. Suddenly, the six elements spun around, creating a small circle. With his Spirit Eyes, he could see something more amazing than the average person. The world of energy that his Spirit Eyes saw showed him the Law within the energy. If the Supreme Beast only used Law to cover his energy to break his own Law, this time, the Supreme Beast actually included them in his energy to the point he planned to fuse them together with the elements. "Not good!" Alex realized that the Supreme Beast would just get even stronger from now on, so he quickly channeled everything into his sword. All the nine different energies in his body. He then charged toward the Supreme Beast to stop him. "I won''t let you succeed." "Unfortunately, you''re too careful. You always assess whether I''m lying or not to see if I have a hidden intention or not, giving me precious time to complete everything." The Supreme Beast smirked and raised his hands, fusing the elements and laws together. The rainbow-colored energy suddenly changed into another form of energy. This energy was a combination between purple, black, dark blue, dark pink, and grey. He could even feel the earth-shattering aura within the energy. "Hahahaha!" The Supreme Beast laughed before swallowing the energy with his mouth and swallowing it down. "Because I''ve six different bodies and six different elements. My body has adapted to the limit, allowing me to understand six different Laws! "However, everything was messed up until now. The Laws couldn''t be combined with the elements where it was supposed to happen, forcing me to take the incomplete True Immortal Body route. "I can fix this in the future, but I need to win against you first. That''s why I took the risk to fuse everything into one¡­ One energy and one Law. I realized the thing that my elements, my body, and my Laws needed was not harmony. "You might force your Law and Energy to go in harmony, but I utterly believe that even rivals are something that can make you stronger. The answer is not always friends and good, but also bad. That''s why I am taking this different approach that no one can replicate. "My energy is not combined energy anymore. Instead, all the energy causes a chain of reactions from one another, turning the entire energy chaotic. The same applies to the Laws. The Laws that had their own supremacy in their own terms needed to obey this one Law which¡­ above them. "Hereby, I inform you of this one thing. You are going to die with this new energy which I called Chaos Energy along with my Chaos Law! Hahaha, Spirit God! I wonder if your luck can still function under my Chaos Law!" The Supreme Beast laughed. Alex gritted his teeth and released the most powerful strike he had. "Nine Purities Slash." The Supreme Beast didn''t need to dodge it again because he had enough confidence he would be able to kill Alex with this new power. He accumulated the new energy inside his mouth before releasing a breath. "Chaos Breath." The shock wave shook the universe and blew all the Lower Worlds and Upper Worlds away, making them leave the orbits. Everything was clear for them to fight, but this clash still continued. The Chaos Law clashed directly with Alex''s Law, trying to reign each other. The Law of Luck tried to escape all things with all the luck available to come out on top, but the Chaos Law turned the universe so chaotic that the luck became confused about where it was supposed to go when the entire field was filled with chaos. Even so, there came another luck as the elements helped the Law to fight against the Chaos Law, so they ultimately fought on equal ground. Meanwhile, the nine forms of energy from Alex started getting interrupted by this Chaos Energy. Alex''s Sun God Fire tried to burn the Chaos Energy to prevent it from disrupting their harmony. The Space Element also helped the Fire and transferred it somewhere else. Life and Death Energy surprisingly went separate ways as if they became two forms of energy. His Immortal Energy disintegrated. The Pure Blade Qi tried to cut all the Chaos Energy but ended up affecting the Absolute Blade Intent. With the peak of the clash, an explosion occurred. But Alex could only grit his teeth while the Supreme Beast had a grin on his face. Both of them already knew who the winner was. The Chaos Breath broke Alex''s Nine Purities Slash and flew straight at him. Although the Nine Purities Slash managed to deplete almost the entire energy, it still showed that the Beast was stronger. "Is this still useless?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows and muttered, "Is this the only way?" When he was about to think about such a useless thing, Eve''s voice resounded in his ears. "Master, there''s still a way." Chapter 1196: Altered Reality Array "Master, there''s still a way." When Eve''s voice resounded in his head, he quickly furrowed his eyebrows and raised his sword to buy time. "Hmph. I can still see some flaws in your technique." The Supreme Beast couldn''t accept it and tried to rebuke all his claims. Meanwhile, Eve continued talking to him. "Master is underestimating a Weapon Spirit. We still have a part of our consciousness in every attack you made, including the earlier one. And I''ve noticed there is something weird in that Law of his. However, that''s why we are here. "For example, Master will surely not be affected by the Chaos Law. Taking that as an example, the same applies to us. That''s why when Master attacks next time, I am going to use all my consciousness to use the Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown to mend the broken Life and Death Energy. "Your Law and Fire Disturbance still hold on for the whole time, so we can focus on the other things. It''s between your Qi and Intent. Elle!" When she heard her name called, Elle replied with an agreement. "I will make sure the Qi and Intent will keep their harmony. Elliot. You need to keep supplying the Immortal Energy to the Elements to fight against the Chaos Energy." "I understand. Leave it to me." Elliot agreed without hesitation. In this instant, the reason why a Weapon Spirit was powerful but scarce. Their intelligence level was the best among any consciousness dwelled inside a weapon. It was a kind of having another hand in a battle. And he had three of them together." Alex couldn''t help but smile, feeling that there was still a chance in this fight. "My Soul will maintain everything and keep things organized. I believe with the full power of my Nine Purities Slash, we can at least get a draw in the next clash." Alex nodded as his face became serious. "There is one more thing, Master." "What is it?" Alex narrowed his eyes. "I have seen you surpassing many things in your life, especially the Fire Element. Not only have you surpassed the Godly Pure Fire with your Sun God Fire, but you can also make a Disturbance out of it. However, have you forgotten the fact you have another element?" "!!!" Alex instantly felt the heaviness of that question as he shuddered at the fact he never tried his best despite receiving the Space Element from the Dungeon God. In fact, he might think the power was already enough for him. However, the Dungeon God, who left this power to him, must dislike how he treats the Space Element. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath. "I believe there is something that you can use to surpass the Dungeon God!" Eve added excitedly. Alex also arrived at the same conclusion as he smiled and said, "It seems we have the same thought. I will see what I can. Thank you, Eve. Thank you, Elle, Elliot. Your help means everything in this battle." "Master. With pleasure!" Eve, Elle, and Elliot replied at the same time. Alex took a deep breath and released all his energy, pointing his blade toward the Supreme Beast. "I don''t feel like losing today." "We will see whether you can say it again later, Spirit God." The Supreme Beast roared and charged toward him. Alex smirked and saw an incoming fist that was covered by Chaos Energy. "Chaos Gauntlet!" Alex took one deep breath to gather all his strength to one arm and thrust his spear as fast as possible to gain enough momentum to back up his strength. "Twin Fusion Spear." Bam. Another shock wave shook the battlefield before the Supreme Beast noticed something different in Alex''s weapon. Alex Fire and Space Element hit him from two different directions, trying to hit his hand. ''Hmm?!'' The Supreme Beast frowned and leaped back to assess what he felt. ''My Chaos Energy and Law didn''t manage to destroy that attack? What happened? I managed to do it earlier¡­ Did he realize something from that first attack? If he indeed adjusted everything to cope with my energy on the first try, then I needed to end this fight as soon as possible because he might find something to counter my energy sooner or later." Alex, on the other hand, felt satisfied when he saw everything unfolded like how he intended to. He checked it once again, "Eve, Elle, Elliot." "We''re fine, Master. There is no abnormality. But we need to kill him as soon as possible." Eve answered. "Got it." Alex nodded and flew toward the Supreme Beast with all his nine forms of energy. "Nine Purities Slash!" Alex once again tried to unleash his most powerful strike. Just like planned, the trio Weapon Spirits tried to do everything in their power to stop Chaos Energy from wreaking havoc on the integrity of Alex''s attack. The Supreme Beast accumulated all the energy again and created concentrated energy to show Alex that he was superior. The breath turned into a concentrated black ball that flew at a fast speed toward the Nine Purities Slash. "Chaos Bomb." Even Alex widened his eyes because he didn''t expect this development. He gritted his teeth and struck the black ball with all his might. Just as expected, the Chaos Law tried to turn everything into disarray, but this time, Alex somehow managed to cope with it. Eve, Elle, and Elliot tried their best to keep everything in harmony, but the Black Ball power was far stronger than he expected to the point he didn''t think his Nine Purities Slash would be able to win against it even with full power. "Hahahaha! This is my real power. Bow before me, Spirit God!" The Supreme Beast laughed and said, "If only you come under me, I would give you the beast power from my original body, allowing you to become even stronger. You will be unstoppable." Alex snorted and kept using the same power to cut it down, but he couldn''t see the end of this black ball''s power. "No! I still have the chance to kill you! I won''t be joining the guy who is trying to harm my family." "With your power?! That''s enough! Die!" The Supreme Beast roared. As if responding to the roar, the Black Ball suddenly disintegrated and created a huge explosion, swallowing Alex as a whole. Suddenly, Alex emerged from within the smoke, flying toward a Divine World and crashing at that speed until he turned a tenth of the Divine World into a crater just from his momentum alone. "Gah!" Alex spat a mouthful of blood. However, he still tried his best to stand up and looked at the Supreme Beast. Jumping to outer space again, he glared at the Supreme Beast while pointing his blade. Compared to his last complexion, this one was worse. Blood flowed out of his eyes, mouth and nose while his body was covered with wounds. "Hahaha! This is the difference between us." The Supreme Beast laughed. "It''s indeed the difference between us. I am not satisfied and celebrated when one of my attacks hits my enemy because it''s the beginning of losing. That''s why we''re different and it''s the right choice to not affiliate myself with you." Alex snorted and calmed his heart down. "You! Keep talking big even though you know you are at a disadvantage. Fine, then try this again!" "Chaos Breath!" The Supreme Beast didn''t like the fact that Alex started talking big in his condition and released another breath since he couldn''t immediately use the Chaos Bomb again to pay the price of a technique of that level. That attack just simply took a toll on his body too. Seeing this, Alex smirked and raised his finger. An array appeared out of nowhere to the point the Supreme Beast couldn''t even comprehend Alex''s action. "Do you think an Array can stop my attack, Spirit God? You''re foolish enough to think that way!" "Then, we will see." Alex smiled and completed the array. The Chaos Breath suddenly struck the array. However, the Chaos Breath, surprisingly, disintegrated and turned into six different elements with their own Law. "What?!" The Supreme Beast dropped his jaw and stared at his Chaos Breath''s disappearance. "What did you do?! There is no way you can stop my Chaos Breath just like that." Alex simply waved his sword to create enough power to direct the remaining elements in another direction. The array he used earlier was neither a barrier array nor an offensive array. Instead, he used the most useless array in a fight of this level, the Illusion Array. And it wasn''t an ordinary Illusion Array. It was the array that had been like his companion since the start of his journey, the Simulation Room Array. However, the Simulation Room Array was just a mere Illusion that altered the world inside the array¡­ That was if Alex didn''t pull another string that completely broke the array''s concept. What Eve and Alex thought earlier was the participation of his Space Element, especially two techniques, Subjective Reality and Inverted Dimension. Using the Inverted Dimension, he could turn the entire thing upside down. Alex took that concept to another level and replaced something inside that certain dimension. And the Subjective Reality made it possible. In other words, Alex managed to create a dimension in his Illusion into Reality by combining the three concepts. And in the Simulation Room''s Reality, the concept of Immortal Energy never existed. In other words, the only energy that allowed the Supreme Beast to fuse the Elements and Laws disappeared, so everything returned to its normal form. Alex smirked and said with a mocking tone. "Do you like my new array, Beast? I called it Altered Reality Array." Of course, the concept had yet to be finalized because of the lack of time, making him unable to erase the attack entirely and so on. That was why he couldn''t claim that this array was a Rank 10 Array. However, he could proudly claim that he managed to surpass the Dungeon God by creating his own "Reality" in this Reality. "You!" The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth and roared. "Do you think you have won? I know that it takes so much of your mental energy just by using that technique! Do you think it''s easy to create a Reality?" Alex smiled and didn''t answer him. It was like he said. He couldn''t use this type of power continuously, let alone when he had yet to perfect it. Even so, he should be able to do it one or two more times. The Supreme Beast quickly flew toward Alex while covering his whole body with Chaos Energy. "Why don''t you erase this energy from me again?" The Supreme Beast laughed and sent a fist toward him. Alex didn''t say anything and smiled, releasing the second wave of his Immortal Energy. "Void Flower. Release!" All the Immortal Energy stored inside the Void Flower flowed out as Alex''s complexion returned to normal. He struck the fist and pushed him back before saying, "Let''s start the next round, shall we?" Chapter 1197: EX Purities Slash The Supreme Beast never expected that Alex could decipher his Chaos Breath in an instant. However, seeing the extent of the damage, he didn''t believe that Alex could take on his powerful concentrated Chaos Bomb, so he quickly made it his trump card. Alex then tried it once again, slashing his sword downwards, releasing a Sword Wave. "One Sword Kill, Blade of Extinction." The Supreme Beast snorted at him and tried to grab the Sword Wave with his hands, trying to rip it apart to show that no matter what trick he had, he wouldn''t be able to fight against his Chaos Energy. Unfortunately for him, he couldn''t be more wrong in this. "This is my power!" The Supreme Beast shouted and grabbed the Sword Wave. However, it became his doom because the moment he touched the Sword Wave, an array that Alex had prepared appeared. It was none other than his Altered Reality Array. By also using his Law, Alex gathered all the Immortal Energy and Fire Element to the very limit. "If I can remove the information about Immortal Energy, I can add it as well, replicating it to a certain extent. And I''m pretty lucky that everything is set up beautifully." Alex smirked. "!!!" The Supreme Beast realized he had fallen into his trap. He looked at the Sword Wave that suddenly shone brightly and¡­ Boom. The Supreme Beast needed to cover his entire body with Chaos Energy, but he was still too late because several parts of his body had turned black due to the scorching fire. The Supreme Beast blew all the smoke away and attacked the Spirit God to prevent any more ranged attack. Alex wasn''t afraid of him and clashed with him for another few minutes, destroying everything in their way. It was a fierce fight that no one could replicate even if there were ten God Kings in this place. He kept the Supreme Beast occupied while searching for an opportunity. When that chance appeared, Alex summoned a Sun God Fire Disturbance before using his Altered Reality Array, Subjective Reality, and Space Compression at the same time. The combined power quickly trapped the Disturbance inside a sphere, where it got compressed to a head-size sphere. The sphere suddenly released the flame energy and formed a lotus. This was none other than his Divine Petals, but Alex didn''t want to stop it there. He didn''t set those petals free. Instead, he kept them inside the lotus and launched the lotus toward the Supreme Beast. This lotus became even more dangerous because it was the same as a suicide bomber, holding all the bombs he had around his stomach and coming to one person instead of grabbing each bomb and throwing it to his targets. The Supreme Beast simply couldn''t believe that someone managed to compress a Disturbance as he had never seen it before. "Chaos Body Armor!" The Supreme Beast gritted his teeth and covered his body with Chaos Energy to protect his life. His wings obviously covered the front to take the full brunt. Alex cared no more and struck the Supreme Beast with this power. "Divine Petals (Compressed Version)." Boom. "Guah!" A huge explosion like none other brightened the universe as if a supernova occurred. But what made it please the ears was the fact that this explosion was followed by the Supreme Beast''s scream. Even though it was hard to hear his voice because of the explosion, Alex was pretty happy with it because he thought the Supreme Beast would be heavily injured by this attack. Of course, he was exhausted as well because it took a lot of mental energy. When the explosion dimmed down a bit, the Supreme Beast waved his hand and blew away all the smoke, leaving only him standing in the middle of the explosion. His body was scorched black while his wings had disappeared due to the explosion. "You Bastard! It''s impossible to kill me with such an attack!" The Supreme Beast roared and gathered the energy in his mouth. "Chaos Breath." Alex let go of his spear because he felt that his head was in pain. It truly took a whole level of mental power. Even so, he still used it once more to create another opportunity, wanting to end it before he fell unconscious. "Altered Reality." The Array turned the Chaos Breath back to multiple colored breaths before Alex finally found a path to victory. He then remembered one scene in his mind¡­ The scene where the Spirit God talked to him one last time after reaching the True Immortal Stage flashed in his mind. At that time, the Spirit God came to him with a smile. "You''re good right now and have officially surpassed me in terms of cultivation. Congratulations." "You have set up everything for me¡­ I don''t dare to take the full achievement." Alex shook his head. "Haha, you should." The Spirit God chuckled before changing the topic with a question. "Anyway, do you think you''re able to kill¡­ No, I should ask a different question¡­ The Spirit God looked down, falling into deep thought. Even Alex became curious about his thought, but since he said about killing, he must want to mention whether he could kill the beast or not. When he was about to answer his question, the Spirit God cut in and asked, "Do you think your most powerful attack has reached the peak power?" "What do you mean?" Alex narrowed his eyes, recalling his Nine Purities Slash. At that time, he thought he should be able to kill that beast with the Nine Purities Slash based on what had happened in their previous fight. Then, a memory where the Spirit God died due to the beast improving himself in the middle of the fight flashed in his mind. If the beast indeed evolved with the power he had in their previous fight, Alex had no problem killing the beast. But the outcome changed drastically when he entered another variable. If the Supreme Beast actually evolved once again, he would lose and leave everyone behind this time because he didn''t set up any inheritance and such. He started pondering Spirit God''s question seriously before arriving at the same conclusion as his prediction. The answer was no. Seeing the look on Alex''s face, the Spirit God smiled and said, "There is something you can do to improve it even further." "Hmm?!" Alex narrowed his eyes and asked, "How? I mean, I have put all kinds of energy into this attack. It''s not like any outside will improve the power output any further." "Your Purities Slash is indeed stronger than any of my attacks. However, there is something you haven''t put there." Alex narrowed his eyes as he couldn''t see what kind of thing he hadn''t put in there. The Spirit God only gave him one hint. "You must have seen how I died, right?" Alex nodded and started recalling that scene. The Spirit God actually died after using the Space and Time Seal to trap the beast, but the Spirit God itself should have done it from the start. After all, they could trap the beast and become even stronger when the beast made its second appearance. Yet, there was one thing that the Spirit God sacrificed in order to power up the seal to be strong enough to hold the beast, which became the sole reason why they didn''t use the seal as quickly as possible. What the Spirit God sacrificed was none other than his life. Alex''s face became twisted as he wondered if the Spirit God wanted him to sacrifice his life again, contradicting all the talks they had earlier. It was at this time, he remembered the Spirit God had set everything to fight the beast. And there was one key that had yet to be utilized. This key was none other than Alaya. It was true that Alaya gave him the power of Life and Death, but it came from Alaya herself, not the Spirit God''s intention. That was why there must be a reason why Alaya actually stayed alive until now. In a few seconds, Alex dropped his jaw and stared at the Spirit God. "Don''t tell me¡­" The Spirit God only patted his shoulders a few times with a smile as he closed his eyes. He said, "There are two reasons why I dare to give this option to you. First, becoming a True Immortal means you will live longer than any other normal God Kings, or you can say False Immortals. "Second, this is maybe the only trump card that is strong enough to kill the beast. Of course, I hope such a thing is not needed, but I am not sure myself. The one who can answer that question is you and I won''t say anything about your decision. I will leave everything on your shoulders¡­ Alexander Sirius, I believe in you and me." Alex gritted his teeth and returned with a serious expression. When he remembered this discussion in his head, Alex looked at the Supreme Beast, who was completely stopped by his Altered Reality Array. This was the only chance. The Supreme Beast had almost exhausted all his strength and lowered his guard for once due to desperation. ''There is one thing I''ve forgotten from Alaya''s power. It''s the Life and Death Coffin. The Coffin will always present one''s lifespan, meaning that the Life and Death must have carried that power where it was calculated by the Life and Death Coffin to project the exact number. ''And it also means I can use my Life and Death Energy to transfer my own lifespan to my own technique.'' Alex''s eyes glowed as the Life and Death Jewels in his Spirit Crown glowed. Just like how the Spirit God hinted, Alex sent his lifespan into his own sword, gambling everything in this one strike. The Supreme Beast got the feeling of the strength behind that energy as he remembered what happened to him last time. "You¡­ Don''t tell me you want to¡­" Alex already made his way toward the Supreme Beast carrying all the ten forms of energy: Elements, Immortal Energy, Absolute Blade Intents, Pure Blade Qi, Soul, Life and Death Energy, Nature Energy from the Spirit Crown, his Sun God Fire Disturbance, Law, and more importantly, half of his lifespan. He sacrificed half of his life to summon powerful energy that defied Heaven as the Universe calculated the power he had in that half lifespan and reinforced that attack. "This is the end, Beast." Alex snorted and slashed his sword with all his might. The Supreme Beast also had gathered the remaining energy and turned them into a concentrated energy bomb. He shot the Energy Bomb toward him so he could have time to escape. "Chaos Bomb." However, Alex didn''t buy it and struck the Energy Bomb with his power, pushing it back until he reached the Supreme Beast. Before he could escape, Alex released the remaining energy and completed his swing. "EX Purities Slash." Chapter 1198: Victory "EX Purities Slash." "No!" The Supreme Beast widened his eyes because all he could see was Alex''s splitting the concentrated energy bomb in an instant as he struck his body with all the energy on his sword. "This is the end¡­ The grudge of five thousand years ends here." Alex shouted and cut the body into two as the residual energy traveled past the Supreme Beast. That power was so strong that everything was cut into two, including an Upper World that stood in its way before stopping due to a Divine World. Even so, it managed to cut a third of a Divine World. In other words, Alex just set another record in this world as he was the first person who managed to cut one Upper World and a third Divine World right after that. If they compared the size alone, Alex would have cut two Upper Worlds or a hundred Lower Worlds in that one strike. It just showed how powerful the residual power was. Meanwhile, the Supreme Beast still couldn''t believe that he was the one losing. He glared at Alex, unwilling to die. However, Alex only gazed at him coldly before using his fire to burn him. "You''re strong¡­ Orthus." Alex called his name for the first time instead of using "Beast" like how he used it during the entire fight. It was at this time, the Supreme Beast gradually closed his eyes. There was a trace of remorse, unwillingness, and many things, but the Supreme Beast still left one piece of advice to him. "There are many universes out there and there is a chance they will come here." Alex shook his head. "Let them come. I am the one who is going to repel them. But this time¡­ I won''t remember their name." The Supreme Beast smiled. At the very least, there was one person who would still remember his name after he died. "This was a good fight. I don''t regr¡ª" Before he finished, the Supreme Beast''s body had vanished after being burned by Alex''s Sun God Fire. Seeing everything had finished, all the adrenaline that kept him going this whole time finally disappeared as he lost his grip and wanted to pass out. But Eve quickly used the energy from the sword to move to Alex''s back, supporting him. "Thanks, Eve. Elle and Elliot too. Without your help, I won''t be able to beat the beast." Alex smiled. "It''s our pleasure, Master." The three Weapon Spirits replied at the same time. [Master! Don''t die.] Rose suddenly gave him a message as if he was too exhausted to the point he would die. "Why do you want your Master to die?" Alex sighed with a smile. [No, no. You need to give a bit of your inheritance to me first.] "You little girl, it seems you want a spanking? No, I will think of a better way to punish you¡­ From Jeanne of course." [Ehm, Master. Someone just hacked the system and said everything.] "You''re not getting away. I will do it after I return. Prepare yourself." [No!] "No use to run away. You won''t be able to escape from me. I can also mobilize the N Squad." Alex chuckled since Rose''s joke calmed his heart down. [This¡­ I have told Big Sister about your victory¡­ Can you just forgive me for this?] "I will consider it." [No, no. Don''t play word with your disciple here. Don''t say you will consider it¡­ You need to answer with yes or no.] Alex only laughed it off before sensing their presence. He turned around and found Lin Xingzhi and all the God Kings came to him. Most of them had recovered from all the physical injuries, but they still looked worse. They carefully entered the battlefield and saw how terrible it was. They could somehow imagine what kind of battle this place needed to endure. So many worlds were destroyed. But the most important thing was the Upper World that was cut cleanly in one slash. All the God Kings immediately concluded that the only one who could create such a mark was none other than Alex. That was why they were even more shocked by Alex''s strength. Alex, on the other hand, sealed his strength to avoid the Universe Detection and looked at them with a serious expression. He suddenly laughed evilly and shouted, "You all have finally come! This body is indeed very powerful. To think there is a human in this universe that can cultivate a body to this extent within one hundred years¡­ I''m impressed." Lin Xingzhi and the others were stunned and raised their weapons, thinking the Beast managed to get Alex''s body. However, Alex couldn''t hold his laughter anymore. "Hahaha. I always wanted to do that¡­ Forgive me." Lin Xingzhi and Anna suddenly appeared when Rose clarified that Alex was fine since nothing was hidden from the system. They both just hugged him tightly in tears, feeling relieved and angry at the same time. "You!" "That joke is not funny." "Ahaha, it''s better than Rose''s inheritance joke." Alex laughed. Lin Xingzhi stopped and checked his internal energy to see if he was alright or not. Anna, on the other hand, signaled the Holy God to check his body since he had healing power. "Are you alright?" Lin Xingzhi asked and had him swallow a healing pill that would recover all physical injuries. "I''m fine¡­ Just a bit exhausted. There are some internal injuries, but nothing will last forever. I will be fine after some rest." Alex nodded, assuring that he was fine. "Still, we should ask Silvia about your condition just to be sure." Lin Xingzhi sighed. "Yeah." Alex smiled. His heart felt tranquil since he knew all the God Kings managed to survive this ordeal. "Ah, by the way, Marcus seems to want to search for the Goddess of Destiny after falling in love with her in this battle. And he is only going to do it a thousand years from now on." Lin Xingzhi added with a playful tone. Marcus, the God of Wrath, shuddered and looked at Lin Xingzhi dumbfoundedly, never expecting her to open the matter up with Alex. Alex smiled and nodded. "You should go right away, Marcus. You can find her first before anything else since it''s the most important thing. Whether you want to bring her with you or not, it will be up to you. But no matter what, I believe it''s good to find her first. That''s my only advice since I''m also a reincarnated person." "This¡­" Marcus looked down, feeling embarrassed. He suddenly bowed to Alex and clasped his hand politely. "Thank you, Master." Alex then looked at the others and asked, "How are all of you?" The first one who answered his question was Rubia. She quickly tried to get closer to him while saying, "Ahem, since we''ve won the battle, it''s time for you to fulfill your side of the agreement." "Agreement?" Lin Xingzhi tilted her head. "My place is going to be his vassal state and I''m going to be his tenth wife." The Magic Goddess smirked, puffing her chest as if she was proud of this claim. "Except the second one¡­ I''ve never heard of it until now." Alex corrected her. "Wait, wait! The second one is more important!" Rubia protested, but Alex only gave her a shrug. "Then, let''s cancel it immediately since I''ve never agreed to it. What I said back then was, "I will consider it after the war," so I''m not obligated to accept you." "Wait, wait! I''m going to correct myself here. The second one is not important!" Rubia tried to explain to Alex. "I will just become a maid in your place." "And your real intention?" Alex rolled his eyes. "Everything can start by using a naked apron! Magical Maid with a naked apron¡­ A perfect combination." Rubia nodded repeatedly. "Okay, goodbye. See you in another few thousand years!" Alex sent her somewhere with his Teleportation Array. "Wai¡ª" And she was gone. The others laughed. The next one who answered him was Alaya. "I''m good with my retirement. Just going to live my life to the fullest on your planet." "That''s fine by me. It''s not like you''re going to cause a problem anyway." Alex agreed without hesitation. Jeanne sighed while looking at the aftermath. "Haiz¡­ If only I can torture one God King, I would be settled for the rest of my life¡­" "By the way, I want to ask you to punish Rose for me. Of course, my style, not your style." Alex smirked. "Really?" Jeanne''s eyes brightened. [NO!] There was a huge rejection from Rose, but both of them ignored it. Leoz only nodded his head since his life was Alex''s, so he didn''t need to say anything. Meanwhile, Alex used this chance to tease the God of Destruction. "I haven''t managed to fulfill our agreement. How about we have a spar now?" "Are you planning to bully me?" Raiju''s expression was twisted as he wanted to beat Alex, but knew it was impossible. He only sighed, "Anyway, I just want to thank you for letting me know there is a sky beyond the sky. I think I have found my new destination¡­ I want to reach the next level with my own power and go to another universe." "Well, I may do that in the future, so we may be able to meet again." Alex nodded. "But I''m just going to live with my family for as long as I want for the time being¡­" "Then, then, I can be another family member!" Rinrin, the Song Goddess, suddenly interjected, pointing her finger at herself. "You have seen me naked so many times and we have even taken a bath together." "That''s when you were in the orphanage. And I wasn''t the same Spirit God." Alex shrugged. "Wait, why are you all talking about his wives? It''s obviously going to be my daughter¡­ I''m demanding a marriage!" The Palm God pouted. "Yeah, yeah. I''m planning to do that. Although it won''t be as big as you expect¡­" Alex shrugged and added, "By the way, it will depend on Silvia whether to invite you or not." "What?!" The Palm God widened his eyes in shock as if he didn''t expect him to not invite him to the wedding. Alex rolled his eyes and looked at the Holy God. "I''m just going to go around this universe¡­ The alliance happened because of me, so I would like to repent my sin by helping many people. Please don''t stop me¡­ I''ve decided¡­" The Holy God sighed with a small smile on his face. "I''m not going to say anything. I will respect your decision. If you need help, just tell me." Alex nodded. "Yeah." The Holy God nodded. The God of Strength looked at Alex and asked, "How do you become this strong?" "The secret?" Alex smirked, "Well, I will see whether I can disclose the way to reach this stage or not. I will inform you about it as thanks for your help." "Well, I will be satisfied to know since I don''t feel like I want to go to another universe to start all over again." The God of Strength sighed in defeat. Meanwhile, the God of Greed looked at Alex and took out so many papers. "By the way, I have business proposals here. There are so many¡ª" Alex chuckled since he had heard about the God of Greed, who was a business maniac. He only said, "You can visit Eulja to talk with my Eulja''s business manager. But I''m not planning to actively spread my influence, so you don''t need to worry about me invading people. I can reach this stage because I have a constant challenge and I don''t plan to rule this universe since the so-called challenges will disappear and the universe will only start declining from that point on." "Still¡­ This war has finally ended¡­" He then looked up and closed his eyes, wanting to settle everything in his mind. After five minutes, he smiled and opened his mouth. "Let''s go home." Chapter 1199: Ten Years (END) Time flew quietly by. Ten years passed in the blink of an eye. During those ten years, there were many movements in the Universe. Marcus had started searching for the Goddess of Destiny''s reincarnation. Alex had offered some help to him, but Marcus didn''t want to rely on him in his love affair, in which he respected his decision. In the end, he created a small influence under Alex''s jurisdiction and helped him to find her. Just like how hard Lin Xingzhi and the others searched for Alex, Marcus was still wandering around the Universe. As a caring boss, Alex already told Marcus to do whatever he wanted and didn''t need to come back, but Marcus kept returning every five years to let him know his condition. He was still a responsible guy despite his mission. Meanwhile, the God of Destruction had begun his training, trying to find a way to reach the next level. Alex had yet to offer him the tips to reach the next level, so he was stuck in God King Stage for a while. The same person also asked Alex not to give him any hints unless he asked for it because he wanted to try to do it without his help. Besides, the fact that Alex had already shown what kind of power he wielded in the fight already told him a little about it. For Raiju, discovering something new in cultivation was a romance, so Alex stopped mentioning it. The God of Strength seemed to create a relationship with Raiju since they planned to reach the next stage together. They wanted to decipher it together, so the God of Strength often visited him and practiced together. The Holy God also stepped down and let his daughter run the management. Of course, he still offered the protection to make sure everything was alright, but he himself often went out to explore the Universe, trying to help those who were in need. The Palm God had been asking for marriage. And it had come into fruition a year after the war. But he ended up coming to the wedding with his hands, feet, and mouth tied up by none other than his wife to avoid causing any problem. After missing for five thousand years, Leoz decided to reopen the orphanage that Alex created in the past and wanted to be someone who could bring good influence to people like how Alex saved him and turned him into a proper spirit. Jeanne often visited the orphanage to help, which Alaya agreed upon. Yes, the head of the orphanage was none other than Alaya. At first, she just wanted to try it, but after a year or two, she fell in love with the job and took care of the kids. ¡­ Eulja''s Castle. Alex was sleeping after feeling exhausted before two kids, one male and one female, fell on top of him. "Gah!" Alex quickly opened his eyes and looked at the black-haired boy with a pair of black butterfly wings behind him. Behind him was another black-haired human girl. She pouted and said, "I woke Dad up!" "No, no. It''s me this time. I won!" The boy made a smug smile. The girl shouted at Alex. "Dad! Who is the winner?" Alex only chuckled and gently got up, patting their heads. "Both of you hit me at the same time¡­So, neither of you wins." The girl looked away, pouting. "Tch. Ten wins, ten loses, and thirty draws I guess." "You''re lucky today." The boy smirked. "I love both of you, Lucas, Isabel." Alex smiled. Yes, Lucas was his and Anna''s kid while Isabel was Evelyn''s. Because of their same hair color, both of them always competed with each other. At the same time, the two would always get defensive if the others mocked either of them since they respected each other as rivals. Alex then carried them on his shoulders and walked to the garden. "Let''s go meet everyone then!" The two just held on as they arrived at the garden in an instant since Alex used his Teleportation Array. Suddenly, two kids also tried to hug him as soon as they felt his presence. "You''re open!" Sherry was blessed with twins who seemed to be very competitive with Alex for some reason. They always tried to attack him every time they had a chance, saying they wanted to surpass their father. Obviously, the two on his shoulders jumped and pinned them down on the ground. "Gotcha! We''re Dad''s bodyguards!" "Mu!" The white-haired boy pouted and looked at his little sister. "We''ve lost again. We need to come up with another strategy!" "Remember this, Lucas, Isabel, we will win next time!" The pink-haired little sister announced. "It''s still ten loses and nine wins. We still need to catch up!" Lucas looked away. "Haha, don''t get too violent, okay?" Alex patted the twins. "Still, good morning, Samuel, Sofia." "Good morning, Papa!" The twins offered their best smile and replied to him. Suddenly, Sherry appeared before them while staring at the twins. "You two¡­ You should greet him first instead of attacking him!" "What?! Mama is here! We need reinforcement!" The twins suddenly formed an alliance with Lucas and Isabel to take down Sherry. Seeing this, Sherry did the usual thing as she faced them while saying with a smile. "Come, come. Let me see if you have improved or not!" After turning around, he found Rose teaching a gold-haired young boy how to use a bow. He was not her son, but Alex and Alicia''s. Still, it didn''t stop her from teaching him bow technique since the latter adored her bow style since she could help so many people while staying on the back. "Rose, Mark, you''re practicing this early?" Alex called them from afar to which the latter only looked at him for a moment to tell they were good and continued practicing. "Morning? It''s almost noon, Alex." Alicia answered as she approached Alex with Firia and Letizia. Both Firia and Letizia carried a child they had with Alex¡­ Just say¡­ Alex had worked hard during the past few years since he didn''t want to play favorites and made the others jealous for not having one with him. Alex also asked Letizia to stop calling him Master and started calling him husband for their kids, to which she agreed. These two were the last, but all in all, they felt blessed. Alex smiled and kissed them before giving a peck on the two children''s foreheads. "Don''t listen to your moms, okay? Daddy wakes up this late because moms are working Daddy to the bone. Still, I love you, Camie, Holly. Hope you grow well." The three only rolled their eyes. Suddenly, Alex disappeared when he noticed someone coming into the garden. It was none other than Lin Xingzhi. She wore a one-piece dress while stroking her bloated belly gently. "You all seem to have fun." "Wifey, why don''t I help yo¡ª" Alex tried to carry her, but Lin Xingzhi stopped him and shook her head helplessly. "You sure are a worrywart. I am fine, you know. I can''t be too lazy or this son of mine will catch that bad habit." "Actually, what I''m worried about is not that lazy habit." Sweats appeared on his forehead. What he worried about was Lin Xingzhi teaching his sons and daughters about all the things she knew about lives and turning them into perverts. "Don''t worry. I know the difference between adults and kids¡­ I won''t teach them something they don''t need¡­" Lin Xingzhi gently flicked his forehead while smiling. "Right, I have thought of a name for h¡ª" Before he finished, Lin Xingzhi stopped him and shook her head. "No, no. We''ve discussed this. Your naming sense sucks. You even wanted to name the children Moho, Bika, Waka, or something. We can''t let you do that to the kids!" "¡­" "Haha, we can attest to it." Rinrin, the Song Goddess, chuckled before looking at the one beside her, Jeanne. "Right, Jeanne?" Jeanne scratched the back of her head, wondering what she should say. "That''s right! You shouldn''t give a name to a kid because you do more harm than good¡­" Alaya landed in the garden with Rubia and Carissa. "Wha¡ªGrandma Alaya!" A blonde-haired boy suddenly leaped toward Alaya and hugged her. "Welcome!" "Haha, Kiddo. You''re here as always. How are you, kiddo?" Surprisingly, behind him were the three Weapon Spirits, Elle, Elliot, and Eve, looking at him while shaking their heads. This kid was Alex and Anya''s kid. He had something special in him that could attract weapons, including Weapon Spirits. But considering that all Alex''s kids had their own strength and Alex even polished them even more, the kid didn''t feel like he was special and got along with everybody else. "You''re coming to Alaya first instead of your dad? I''m going to get jealous, you know." Alex pouted. "Hahaha, I love Dad too!" The boy quickly hugged Alex. "Good morning, Dad." "Yep, morning, Luis." Alex smiled and stroked his hair. "It seems everyone gets along well." Anya''s voice entered his ears as he slightly raised his vision, finding Anya entering the garden with Aria. "Isn''t that nice?" Alex smiled. "But we surely have a few people who don''t get along¡­" Anya glanced over to the side, finding Rubia, Rinrin, Aria, and Carissa looking at each other intensely. All four of them seemed to be trying to fight for the tenth wife position, but because Alex''s guard was so high, they decided to get along with the kids first to see who the kids would call Mother first. Alex just ignored their fights as long as they didn''t bring any harm to the family in both education and memory. As for who would become¡­ Leka suddenly hopped on Alex''s head and shouted, "Hehe, Leka has come! Since everyone is fighting, Leka will be good and sacrifice herself to marry Master." "!!!" Those four were stunned and looked at Leka dumbfoundedly. Alex didn''t answer Leka''s statement. Instead, he just stroked her cheek gently and said, "Good morning, Leka. How are you doing?" "I''m fine, Master. I have been preparing for another trip to a unique place. Maybe we can arrange a family trip there!" "Ho?! Tell me in the details later, okay?" Alex smiled. "Yes!" Alex nodded and looked at who was coming next. There were three people walking to the garden, while the first two already leaped toward the garden, specifically Lucas and the three kids. The first one was an eight years old girl with silver hair. She looked at Lucas and the other kids to check their condition. "Oh, they''ve only exhausted their energy¡­ I shouldn''t care about these four troublemakers." "Haha, you shouldn''t do that. You need to take care of your family." The one who said these words was Silvia''s student, Axis. "That''s right, Big Brother Axis. I have a question about this particular topic." "Sure, let me answer it for you." Axis nodded with a smile. Silvia''s voice then resounded in the garden. "Alright, Axis, Aya. Treat those kids first before discussing another problem." Aya pouted and lazily said, "Alright." She then looked at Lucas and the others while sighing, "You four never give up¡­" Meanwhile, Axis scratched the back of his head and looked at Sherry politely. "Madam Sherry, can you spare them a bit? Maybe just lock them up with your Energy." "Fine, fine. I will just lock them up next time." "Thank you." Alex simply smiled, watching their interactions. Seeing that all of them had gathered, Rose brought Mark to gather with all of them. This was something he would never have imagined one hundred years ago. He never thought that his journey would lead to him having nine wives and kids, but when he arrived at this step, he had nothing but gratitude and happiness. He wished for this harmony to last forever. Suddenly, Lin Xingzhi had an idea. "That''s right, Alex. How about we introduce sports to the kids? Cultivation Sports! I feel like this is going to be popular!" "Haha, we will see." Alex chuckled before looking at the blue sky with a smile on his face. A breeze gently brushed his skin before a certain feeling appeared in his heart. Alex, who had no idea about this feeling, turned around, looking at the sky¡­ No, something beyond the sky. He was silent for a few seconds before his lips curved again. "Interesting." THE END. ***** From the author: (PS: I added this note AFTER the chapter is published so it doesn''t cost you extra coins) Phew, this long ride is over. But fret not, I have something for you which I''m currently writing. GOD OF TRICKSTERS. Alright, alright. Jokes aside, I don''t know what my emotion is right now, but it surely will keep me awake tonight. Start from 2019 on September 19 to today, 2021, June 24. Almost two years... we''ve finally reached this milestone. 2.4 million words in total, with an average of 120,000 words per month, I don''t regret finishing this journey. I have learned a lot... I mean, A LOT, if you see how awful the storyline was in the start. Kudos to you guys who manage to get past it, haha. I will keep working hard and improve my writing. There are two reasons I am ending it here. First, the ending is perfect for either the sequel about Alex''s sister which always needs revisions since Alex''s journey keeps changing and he finally has the time to take care of other things or the continuation to see how Alex fights against those above him in another universe with other God Kings (Probably). Still, I can''t write the book just yet since I don''t like stopping midway, so please bear with the time I need to make the outline for the next story. I would like to thank everyone, no matter who came to see once, was continuous, had come to like the book or scolded me several times, Thank you for your attention and support. I would especially like to thank all the patrons who make me believe that I can still continue each day. I, unfortunately, can''t show you how grateful I am in this piece of text. *bow* Don''t remove this book from your library first because I will inform you if there is a sequel or season 2. XD If you haven''t written any review for this book, I would love to hear what you think about this story. I''d really appreciate it if you could take a little time and share your thoughts in a review. Let me and potential readers know the good, the bad, and whatever you think I should improve for my next writing. Thank you for the part of my journey. May you all be well. God Bless you. See you in the next book.